Zali Veln | New San Diego

Zali Veln takes a deep, restorative breath as soon as her feet touch the vivid pink sands on the shores of New San Diego. The cool salt-breeze caresses her smooth meldar ‘skin’ and she allows the waxen filiments of her ‘hair’ to ruffle in the breeze. She looks down at the holopad in her hand. Soon, her first tideboard lesson of the day will be starting. “CraveU user,” she says to herself, trying out the unfamiliar syllables of the name on for size. Hopefully she won’t mispronounce it and embarrass herself badly. Her shoulders hunch as she remembers a particularly embarrassing moment with a Pixlen customer—it took a while to get the barbed quills out of her meldar.

Shaking off the old embarrassment, she sets up her beacon, CraveU user’s name lit up in hot pink letters above her head to direct the being to the correct instructor. Her attention is once again absorbed in reading through the being’s basic stats and experience. A beginner, always fun. Being the one to guide a person through the waves for the first time was one of the big reasons she did this. The looks on their faces when they stood the board for the first time was a truly special experience she was glad to share.

A couple minutes before the start of lesson time, Zali feels a gentle tap on her shoulder. “Oh hey,” she says, turning around with a wide smile on her smooth, waxen face. “CraveU user, right? Welcome to the coolest first day of your life!”