《Trouble With Horns》
0: Cover
0: CoverTrouble With Horns
By QuietValerie
Cover by
1: The Break Up
1: The Break Up
Announcement
Just a quick heads up. This is not a full on LITRPG but there wasn''t a way to indicate its gamelike element otherwise. Sorry if you really like numbers. This story contains Transgender and Lesbian themes. If either of those two things gets you all angry and ready toment about how wrong those things are, please turn around and read another story. I''ll just delete yourments. Also reviews will probably be reported and the site owner is a good dude who tends to remove and ban hate speech. If anyone sees any problematicments, please let me know and I''ll delete them. Also sex scenes, there will be those too.
¡°Something just isn¡¯t working!¡± Kristina told me in that frustrated tone people use when they think they¡¯re talking to an idiot.
¡°Yeah um, I kinda realised that,¡± I sighed, crossing my legs and leaning back against the aging park bench.
I watched the park we were in fill with people as those who actually had jobs got off work. You could tell the ones with jobs from the ones without pretty easily. Their clothes were a better cut, their phones were thetest model and they gave those of us without jobs the side eye. At least the weather was nice today. Being dumped by my long term girlfriend in the rain wouldn¡¯t have been ideal. Way too cliche for me.
¡°Terry!¡± Kristina eximed from next to me, evidently catching on to my loss of concentration.
I looked over at her for the first time since she¡¯d broached the subject, trying my best to hold my heart together, ¡°Yeah Krissy?¡±
¡°I¡¯m breaking up with you and you aren¡¯t even paying attention!¡± she cried, trying to keep her own tears from showing.
¡°Sorry. I get what you¡¯re trying to say babe. You¡¯re done with me. That¡¯s fine I guess,¡± I shrugged, projecting a nonchnce I most definitely did not feel inside.
She ran her hand through her long blonde hair and made that sound I had learned so well in recent months. It was somewhere between a sigh and a growl, and it put my hackles up every time. We¡¯d been together for three years now. Started out in our senior year of high school. Went to prom together, the works. She¡¯d been the only girl to really pin me down in a while, I wasn¡¯t really the long term type before that.
She stamped her foot in frustration, and red at me, ¡°I don¡¯t want to be done with you, but you make things so hard! I love you Terry!¡±
¡°I love you too babe,¡± I said, my voice cracking just the slightest touch. She saw it though.
¡°Then why are things so weird between us? Why do you never put in any effort anymore? All we do its hang out at your ce or in VR. Take me on a fucking date for fuck¡¯s sake!¡± she cried, tears rolling down her cheeks for the first time in a while.
I wanted to lean over and wipe them away, to kiss her better and help her in any way I could. I really did love her. She had been the one point of stability in my life recently as my life rocked to an earthquake that I had no source for. I couldn¡¯t tell her that though. How do you tell someone that you feel like something is wrong with your life but you have no idea what it is. How do you get someone to understand that one day, just randomly and out of the blue you felt a shearing in your mind and suddenly nothing was right?
¡°I can¡¯t tell you the answers to those questions babe. I don¡¯t know why. Although I should point out that you¡¯re doing a great job reinforcing those ancient gender roles you hate. You could try taking me on a date,¡± I exined tiredly. We¡¯d had this argument before.
¡°You¡¯re shit!¡± she sobbed standing up and taking three quick steps away before she spun back to re at me, ¡°You don¡¯t¡ you don¡¯t give me anything I need in this rtionship anymore! I need you! Why are you so distant?¡±
I stood up after her, but I didn¡¯t make any moves towards her. If she was done with me, I was done with this conversation. I didn¡¯t have answers for her, so why sit here and listen? We were over.
¡°I¡¯m gonna go home Kristina. I hope you find a guy who can give you what I can¡¯t,¡± I said, breathing evenly to keep myself together. I wasn¡¯t going to fall apart in public. I would not. I took a few steps away, trying to put distance between us, between myself and the pain.
¡°Dawn was so right about you. She told me you were bad when we first started dating! I should have listened when she warned me about you! She said there was something off!¡± Kristina screamed from behind me as I walked away.
I spun on a heel, and surprised myself with a smile as I said, ¡°Try dating Dawn then. You do seem to be close.¡±
I kept walking backwards and watched her face screw up in disgust, oh I had so hit a sore spot, ¡°Ew! Gross! That¡¯s disgusting Terry. You¡¯re¡ eurgh!¡±
Performing the messiest two fingered salute of my life I spun back around and made my escape through the perfectly manicured park. It was odd, but goading her into showing that ugly side made me feel a hell of a lot better. That had always been a subject we avoided. The LGBT+ movement had stalled like fifty years ago when America ¡°went weird¡± as I liked to call it. The boomers were long since dead, but their money was still talking, even after thest of their kind died. Kristina was one of those who listened to that shit.
We were on street level two right now, the park being suspended between two huge skyscrapers onrge blocks of concrete that thrust down into the depths of the industrial park below. At least we¡¯d gotten that right in the future. The slums weren¡¯t underneath the skyways and shit like in the old movies. Nah, we¡¯d managed to hide those in in sight beneath the shining exterior of the residential towers. Our slums were also cleaner than the old movies, so I guess that was cool too. Robots didn¡¯t get tired like human cleaners did.
It was a short trip across the park and into the magrail station. I walked past bustling wage earners, robots earnestly going about their business, and those like me who were stuck on basic ie. I rushed into the nearest car before the train left the station. I was lucky it had been there because otherwise I might have seen Kristina again as we waited. That would have been just a little awkward.
When I got home, having navigated through another park and into the residential tower I called home, I moved straight to the couch after kicking my shoes off at the door and fell into it with a sigh. What a fucking day. I mean sure it was barely past lunchtime, but being dumped by your girlfriend turned any day into a ¡°what a day¡± kind of day. Better tell Taylor I guess. My twin sister was going to love this, little gossip and drama queen that she was.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, a b of ck glossy stic, and pressed my thumb onto the screen to activate it.
Terry: Yo Taylor. Kristina broke up with me.
Taylor: Whoa wait what? Hold on, I am soing over. I¡¯m not letting you ry another story like this over fuckin text. Do not spoil until I get there alright?
Terry: Suit yourself. I¡¯m not cleaning up for you though.
Taylor: As if. Be there soon bro. Hold on.
With the conversation ended, I tossed the phone onto the coffee table and stretched. Fuck how did emotional pain lead to my back aching? Thousands of years of science under our belts and we hadn¡¯t figured a whole lot out about the human body. We¡¯d made significantly more progress figuring out how to break instead.
Taylor and I lived in the same building, so it wasn¡¯t surprising when she arrived ten minutester with chocte and some sort of noodle dish thing. Not sure how well those two foods went together, but hey she was bringing me free food so I wasn¡¯t going toin.
¡°Fuck Terry can you at least make it so those of us who actually love you can make it into the apartment?¡± she grumbled as she almost tripped on something I had left on the floor.
I leaned my head back to get a look at what she¡¯d managed to catch, and grinned as I saw my shoes. Exactly as nned.
¡°Keeping you on your toes sis, a big shot streamer like you needs her reflexes intact you know?¡± Iughed.
¡°You are a dick,¡± she grumbled, rolling her eyes, ¡°No wonder Kristina dumped you.¡±
My face fell almost immediately, and she caught my expression shift straight way, ¡°Ah fuck shit. Sorry that was the worst damn thing to say. I¡¯m your twin, we¡¯re meant to be on the same wavelength.¡±
¡°One of us is in tune with the other, and it¡¯s usually not you,¡± I said, taking a little shot at her even as I forgave her yet again for her constant foot in mouth syndrome.
¡°Ouch. Alright I deserved that,¡± she said, then handed me the chocte, ¡°Have the chocte while I get us some bowls and forks.¡±
¡°Thanks,¡± I said, eagerly epting the chocte, then asked, ¡°Not going to use the chopsticks they give you?¡±
¡°I might use them, but I definitely don¡¯t trust you with them,¡± she winked slyly, then turned and disappeared into my tiny kitchen.
She came back out with a pair of bowls, two forks and apassionate expression. She ced the bowls down, dished out the noodles and then sat next to me. We liked to sit close enough so that our shoulders and thighs touched these days, but we¡¯d been closer when we were kids. The point in our lives where I was meant to wear boy clothes and she was meant to wear girl clothes had put a few inches of space between us, and puberty had put a few more. I missed the days before then, when we were just twins up to no good.
My sister had be a tall fiery haired girl with a great figure and a winning smile. Perfect picture of a girl who was going to punch the world in the gut and make it dance for her. I had be an even taller dude with hair just as fiery, both on my chin and on my head, and a body that was the picture of masculinity. My smile was pretty good too if my track record was to be believed. Somehow though, my looks felt hollow. So what if I was a handsome guy when I still felt like shit?
¡°So what happened? You¡¯d made a few rumblings about the rtionship having issues, but I didn¡¯t think it was this bad?¡± she asked after her first mouthful.
I shrugged, eating a few mouthfuls of my food to distract myself from the sick feeling in my gut that was refusing to be ignored.
¡°She decided I wasn¡¯t being a dutiful boyfriend apparently. I wasn¡¯t meeting her expectations. I¡¯m not really sure because the whole thing was addressing problems that neither of us could put words to. You know when there¡¯s something up with a rtionship or friendship or whatever, and you both feel it but like, you¡¯ll be damned if there¡¯s actually words to describe it? It was like that,¡± I exined, waving the fork around for emphasis and sending a stray piece of noodle flying onto the carpet. I¡¯d let the little robot mice deal with that. Yeah they are definitely a real thing.
My sister watched the little piece of noodle arc through the air, but otherwise didn¡¯tment.
¡°Riiight. I mean, I understand what you¡¯re talking about, but that seems like the time to go to rtionship counseling rather than just breaking things off. Three years of rtionship is a lot to throw away,¡± she said, searching my face for my thoughts.
Putting the fork down, I stared into the bowl and tried to order my thoughts. The whole thing was a mess in my head. Kristina had been right on that one. We hadn¡¯t had all that many fights, sure, but there had been a shitload of microaggressions. Little things we¡¯d do to get back at each other for a petty slight. Things had been going downhill for a while.
¡°I mean, if we¡¯d had the money we might have,¡± I said sadly, ¡°Or rather, if I¡¯d had the money. I doubt her parents would have let her spend money on that. But I don¡¯t even think it would have helped... like, I think something had changed in who each of us were. We changed as people. I don¡¯t know.¡±
We sat in silence for a few moments, and then my facade just kind of crumbled and suddenly I was crying all over the ce. If all my friends could see me now I¡¯d be theughing stock, but this was my twin sister, and she reached out and ced her bowl on the table, then reached over and took mine out of myp. She pulled me into a hug without a word, and just carefully held me.
Being held by her always pulled me back down to Earth and calmed me, so I was able to get myself under control pretty quickly, but I was definitely not done grieving. This was just the prelude.
¡°I need a distraction. Something to do in the college off weeks,¡± I groaned.
¡°If you let me pay for a full ride you wouldn¡¯t have to do that crappy one week on, one week off bullshit,¡± she sighed.
¡°No, you worked hard for your money. I¡¯ll make my own some day, and I want it to be my money. You know how I feel about this,¡± I said, shaking my head.
¡°Alright. Sorry, just had to give it another try,¡± she said sheepishly.
More moments went by as we picked our food back up and stared out the window of my single person apartment. Most apartments were one bedroom affairs these days, at least for those of us on basic. Little factory built living spaces all jammed together inside a shell of ss and steel. It felt like society was just storing us in case we were useful. A human ¡°things¡± drawer.
¡°You know,¡± Taylor said thoughtfully, aimlessly pointing her fork out the window, ¡°You coulde y Cora with me. Get you on the stream and stuff.¡±
I opened my mouth to protest that I didn¡¯t want her streaming money again, but she shushed me, ¡°No no, I wouldn¡¯t pay you, even if I want to pay you really badly. We can just y, twin duo taking a generic fantasy world by storm. It''ll take your mind off all of this.¡±
She stared at me with big hopeful brown eyes, and I gave in with a sigh. Cora was a fantasy VRmmo that had released a few months ago. I hadn¡¯t gotten on board because I¡¯d been neck deep in another game at the time, but my sister had jumped on it. She¡¯d been a pretty famous streamer before, but this game was making waves and she was riding them to the top.
¡°Alright. Yeah okay¡ yeah, that sounds like fun actually. I¡¯ve missed hanging out with you,¡± I said truthfully, giving her a weak smile.
¡°Same here Terry, same here,¡± she smiled back, bumping our heads together like we used to do as children.
¡°So like, it¡¯s free right? One of those games that turns the stuff happening inside the game into a big TV series for everyone to watch right?¡± I asked, making myself be interested.
¡°Yup! They have a ton of like, invis bots flying around getting shots of the battles and stuff. They tried to film the dirty stuff too, but people got real mad about that, so thankfully we can all¡ nevermind. Anyway yeah, it¡¯s free. I could put together a few builds for you if you want. Min-maxing is a pretty big thing in this game,¡± she said, her cheeks colouring a bit as she mentioned the eighteen plus nature of the game.
It wasn¡¯t that it was all sex and orgies like some porn games out there, but they had restricted the game to those above eighteen years old so that yers would have apletely immersive experience. Well, up to a point. The VRws that had been passed a few decades back to prevent some pretty awful shit from happening were definitely still a thing.
¡°Yeah alright. I¡¯ll probably y some sneaky rogue character like usual. Rakish grin and a fast de, that kind of thing,¡± I said, already dreaming of the tavern brawls and card cheating.
¡°Yeah of course you¡¯d y that type of character. Is there any hope of persuading you otherwise?¡± she sighed, although I could see the grin she was trying to hide.
I reached over and messed her hair up with a hand, and she lurched away with augh, ¡°Dick! You know I take time on my hair!¡±
¡°That¡¯s why I love messing with it,¡± I winked, then added, ¡°And no¡ I¡¯m already giving in by ying the game.¡±
Sheughed again, and cleaned up thest of her food, ¡°Alright. I¡¯ll stay the night, that¡¯s not negotiable, and then tomorrow we¡¯ll get you all set up?¡±
¡°Stay the night?¡± I asked hesitantly.
¡°Yeah, I miss you Terry. Let¡¯s try and make an effort to be closer again. Like old times,¡± she said hopefully.
I bumped my head gently into hers with a smile and a warming heart, ¡°Yeah that sounds like a decent n.¡±
2: Character Creation
2: Character Creation
We spent the rest of afternoon poring over information about the game anding up with ideas and builds for my new character. Taylor was part of a raid guild that was looking to push the boundaries of the PVE content in the game, but everyone was still currently in the leveling and gearing process so I still had time to catch up. Not to mention the PvP they¡¯d gotten bogged down in. I was so proud of my sister for being such a total badass. I needed to figure out how to step out of her shadow, even if it was pretty damnfy there.
When it was finally time to let my sister into my bombsite of a bedroom, she couldn¡¯t help butugh at me. Then she saw my wardrobe, which was currently scattered across the floor, and used me of leaning too hard into the ginger lumberjack stereotype. She kind of had a point, there was a lot of suspenders and id everywhere. Lumberjacks hadn¡¯t existed for a very long time, but their fashion continued toe in and out of style. It was very much not in style right now.
The next morning we went to my VR pod, which was in it¡¯s own room, but Taylor stopped me immediately when she saw it.
¡°Oh gross! You¡¯re still using a Samtil Dive? That thing is fucking ancient!¡± she said, her voice a mix of disgust and wonder, ¡°This thing quite literally belongs in a museum dude. Oh my god you taped the nutrient tubes into the outlet?¡±
¡°They kept falling out and the pod was ejecting me when it realised I wasn¡¯t being fed,¡± I said defensively.
¡°That could kill you! What if the pod didn¡¯t realise you weren¡¯t being kept alive?¡± she asked angrily.
Shrugging sheepishly I said, ¡°Um¡ I guess I¡¯d be dead?¡±
¡°Yeah! What the fuck bro! Take care of yourself, oh my god!¡± she huffed, grabbing my face by either cheek.
¡°I can¡¯t afford anything more than this Taylor, so it¡¯s kind of a moot point,¡± I said, tapping the coffin shaped device with a foot.
¡°Nah. No. Nope. This is where I draw the line. I¡¯m buying you a new one right now,¡± she said, pulling out her phone.
¡°No! Stop! I¡¯ll save up for a better one!¡± Iined, trying to get her phone out of her hands.
She ced a single finger in the middle of my forehead and raised an eyebrow. I sighed and pulled back. She was impossible to argue with.
¡°I¡¯ll use my sponsorship with Kermant to get you a cheap high end one. That shitty thing you have right now isn¡¯t even full immersion, did you know that?¡± she asked as she tapped away on her phone, then let out an excited sound as she saw something on her screen, ¡°This one! The Kermant Epoch Ten! They just released it, and it has everything you need. Full immersion, a backup nutrient store in case you get cut off and need to finish a raid or something. Oh and muscle stimtion so you don¡¯t have to work out in your off time to maintain muscle mass. Even has Artemis Module support if you want to customise it or something.¡±
¡°You¡¯re spoiling me,¡± I said with a groan of defeat.
She pinned me with another one of those res of hers, then went back to her phone, ¡°Yup. I am. You¡¯re my brother and I love you. I¡¯m staying here until the new pod arrives and we have it set up. The distribution center isn¡¯t that far away so it should only be a few hours.¡±
We waited no more than fifty minutes before the new pod arrived. The doorbell politely dinged when the robot arrived, and a pleasant voice announced, ¡°Your delivery from Kermant Inc has arrived.¡±
Taylor rushed to the front door, kicking anything that was on the floor out of the way so the robot could wheel the pod into the room while I disconnected the old one and leaned it against a wall in the living room. I¡¯d dispose of the thingter. It was recycler fodder now. No one would want to buy it off me.
The robot walked in with the new VR pod in a big stic crate, Taylor walking behind it giving directions. Once the pod was out of the box and in ce, the robot collected the crate for reuse and left the house. My sister and I stood and stared at the shiny new pod and I felt a mixture of apprehension and excitement. I¡¯d never actually used a full immersion pod before. There was always something missing from the experience in those cheaper pods, but this one was intense.
¡°Thanks sis,¡± I said softly, pulling her into a one armed hug.
¡°Least I can do to help you deal with the break up Terry. You¡¯re important to me,¡± she said,ying her head on my shoulder.
¡°You¡¯re pretty great,¡± I grinned, then pped my hands, ¡°So I guess we get an ount ready for me?¡±
¡°Yup! Let¡¯s go to¡ where¡¯s your holo projector?¡± she said, narrowing her eyes at me with a little grin.
¡°Um, in the living room like a normal person?¡± I asked, a little offended at what she might be thinking.
¡°Good, at least you have to get out of bed to watch shit,¡± she said yfully nudging my shoulder.
We made our way into the living room, where I activated the holo projector with the voicemand. A holo projector is a kind of all in oneputer and TV setup that lets you surf the inte or watch videos from different channels. Some people liked to joke that it was one of the most important inventions of this century because so many people had and used them.
We browsed our way to the game¡¯s website and signed me up for an ount there. I instantly set my privacy settings to only being allowed into a publicly streamed video if I was in the background. I didn¡¯t want to be a main character in any of their damn tv series, only in Taylor¡¯s streams where my sister was curating the content. The rest would be done ingame for now. Once that was all done, it was time for Taylor to go home and get into her own pod.
I had the whole week to y the game, since this was my off week at uni. I¡¯d be in the pod for a long while and I was very much looking forward to it. The real world could wait.
Before she left, Taylor turned and made sure I remembered some things with a stern look, ¡°Alright remember to choose Jingan as your starting country okay? I¡¯ll be able to find you from there if you add me. My ingame name is LipsAndShades like normal. Got it?¡±
¡°Yeah! I¡¯m actually really excited now,¡± I smiled, pulling her in for a quick hug.
¡°Me too,¡± she grinned back, ¡°See you soon!¡±
Then she was out the door and it was time for me to get into the VR pod. I went back into the apartment and got into the spandex underwear most people wore when they were in VR, then went to the pod. It was made of sleek white stic where my other one was all metal and aged stic. I gingerly pressed the button to pop the lid, and it opened with a hiss and the smell of new stic to give me ess.
I awkwardly maneuvered my way into the thing and justy there for a moment to let my excitement have some space. This was going to be a whole new experience for me. Once I was ready, I pressed the button on the inside and the hatch slowly closed. The hatch itself was made of an incredibly transparent material that was an attempt by the manufacturers to help those with ustrophobia feel at ease.
The VR link crown attached itself to my head and the chip within it like I was a princess asleep in a tower. A not so princess-like mask snaked out from somewhere and gently fixed itself over my mouth and nose. The tubes that were used to feed and water my body woulde out of the mask and go down my throat once I was in VR and very thankfully not aware of it. It still gave me the creeps even now.
Once all the equipment was in ce, I was pulled into the virtual world and no longer aware of anything around my real body.
****
When I arrived in the virtual space that was what really old people would call my desktop, I found myself staring down at my body. Or rather, my body from about five months ago when I had gotten it scanned for this purpose. What surprised me was the level of realism this pod provided. Taylor had been right, this was the good shit. I felt like I was in the real world. I did a few stretches, just to see how my body dealt with strain and movement. Pretty damn well.
¡°y Cora,¡± I said aloud, and a pleasant voice replied with, ¡°Beginning Application, Cora.¡±
My vision faded slowly to ck, reced by a dark void of starlight and shimmering aurora. It was beautiful, and I had to stop for a moment and just admire it. Unfortunately, my gawking was rudely interrupted.
Big bold letters announced, Wee to the Cauldron of Realms Ascended.
Wow. No wonder everyone called it Cora. What ame name. A ck void surrounded me, dim stars blinking happily around me. Oh, a cutscene!
This is the realm known as the Cauldron, the ne of the lost. The Cauldron collects stray pieces of the many other realms when they are lost. New strangenesses into being regrly, and will keep those that take up the profession of adventurer ever busy.
Several orbs with many different colours stuttered into being around me, with one a pure grey in the middle. Little wisps of colour detached from the coloured orbs and swirled aimlessly, but always being drawn inexorably towards the grey orb in the middle, where they collided and were absorbed. I felt myself being drawn in towards the grey orb at great speed, the sphere expanding until it enveloped me, taking over as the backdrop from the starry night sky I had seen before.
You will find yourself on Tellum, a region that surrounds the twin seas of Antvo and Derev. This ce is home to many warring empires, kingdoms, republics and more. In the center, controlling movement and trade between the twin seas is the Empire of Pagutum. Their expansionist ways have kept the surrounding countries in a state of perpetual infighting and war.
A map spun itself into existence out of strings of light, showing me the world I was going to be ying in soon. It was a huge map just judging by the scale, and I realised that I would probably never see even a small fraction of it. That excited me to no end. A ce to explore? I was damn excited. I¡¯d never reach the end of the list of ces and people to meet!
The map faded again, and a prompt came up.
Would you like to begin character creation? It should be noted that you will only be given a single character that cannot be rerolled or deleted for free. Character rerolls can be purchased from the website for $5000. Do you wish to continue?
¡°Uh yeah. Let¡¯s go,¡± I said awkwardly into the air.
The scene around me shifted a little, and suddenly huge chunks of stone were phasing into existence around me, moving and shifting like a symphony of motion to create¡ a room. Within the room a series of objects began to take shape in a simr manner. Tables, chairs, a bed and more. Practice dummies and archery targets formed out of thin air until the room was equipped with everything someone would need to test their character.
I stared around myself in wonder until my attention was drawn to a floating mannequin made of a strange grey y. Hovering next to it were a series of options menus and sliders. Character creation started now I guess. I knew what I was going to be doing, so I got to work.
My character would be a human male. Shorter than me by a few inches and less tanky, but far more wiry and quick. I gave him a clean shaven face, shaggy dark hair and darker eyes. I made his face just a little sunken in the cheeks and just a smidge gaunt around the rest of his body. I was going for that typical handsome rogue look. I know, cliche, but I was a sucker for that stereotype. I was halfway through when I noticed a button a little off to the side.
Random Character.
Using this option will randomise your characterpletely. All aspects will be random unless a game admin AI steps in, as well as being within parameters to keep the absolutely strange from urring. Furthermore, those who select this option will be given a unique trait to their character that is only acquirable through this option. Several races, abilities, items and quests are within the pool of options.
Interesting. Not what I was after, but if I ever got the option or felt the need, it might be fun to choose that down the line. For now I was going to be stuck with one character, and I needed to make sure it was one that I would enjoy.
Once I had the appearance finished as much as I¡¯d ever be happy with, I hit ept on it and moved to the next stage of character creation. I had never been able to get myself excited for how my character looked in a game before and this one was no exception.
Alright, onwards to choosing stats! This was something I was way more interested in than damn appearance. Although, I had no real idea of how this game worked except for what my sister had told me. I didn¡¯t know how five points in strength actually felt.
Stats in Cora were a little different to those in more traditional games. You had two categories, Physical and Magical. The physical ones were separated into five, as were the magical. Strength and Speed were self exnatory, while Endurance had deviated from some interpretations and was not how much damage you could take but instead it was your stamina. How long you could move for. Constitution was your resistance to status effects, and Toughness was how much damage you could take. Your hit points.
The Magical side of things was a little less easy to read. Power was the magical counterpart to strength, while Urgency and Capacity were a match for Speed and Endurance. Anamnesis was the number of spells you could have slotted and ready to cast at any one time, and Intricacy was the level ofplexity you could have in those spells.
I wasn¡¯t going to be a mage, that was definitely not my thing, so I only invested enough in the magic stats to help me with my rogue aspirations.
There was a third set of stats for affinities to the elements. A high affinity for an element would increase both your damage and skill with abilities that used those elements, while also increasing your resistance to those abilities. Someone with a high affinity for Energy based spells like a fireball would take less damage from being hit with it, while also dealing more damage when they hit someone else with it.
Again, I knew what I was going to do here. As a human I had the ability to choose a single affinity instead of being roped into one or two if I had chosen one of the many races avable. I chose the Dark affinity, because rogue. For the other stats, I threw most of my points into Strength, Speed and Endurance, with a few points into Urgency, Anamnesis and Power on the magical side. I was only going to be casting a few actual spells after all.
The next task was my starting abilities. This was something my sister had raved about to me ever since the game hadunched. She loved getting right into the nuts and bolts of aplex system like this.
Abilities were pretty crazy, and where the trueplexityy. You would choose three trees out of a multitude of options, and that would be the equivalent of your ss. Those trees contained hundreds of spell modifiers and options that allowed you to construct spells and abilities and then slot them. It was overwhelming, and I was very grateful that my sister had walked me through this ahead of time or I would have been lost.
The trees I ended up choosing were the Dextrous tree, the Short des tree and the Shadows tree. These trees would allow me to go down the roguish route that I was keen on. I selected a few key abilityponents for what I was going to do and then let the game generate some initial abilities based on my choices. I¡¯d be able to customise themter.
All that was left to do once I was done was to test things out! I selected the option to assume the guise of my character, and got to work. The body felt strange at first, but everything was mostly where I figured it would be, so I ran around for a bit testing out all my choices. I was happy to note that I had kept my real body in almost as good shape as this one started out as. Nice going Terry.
Once I was satisfied with my choices, I walked back to the options menus and reached out to select Confirm Character.
Character Randomisation Confirmed!
Wait what? No! Fuck!
What I had failed to notice, was that I had walked through the holographic menus. The moment before I hit confirm, something caught my foot, causing my other arm to pass through both the randomise character option, and the resulting confirmation box. Shit! What kind of wild character was it going to saddle me with? I was so screwed.
Everything I had done was gone!
I watched in horror as my body, my stats and everything else changed to something else. My body became shorter still, my hands turned lithe and slender. Long dark hair enveloped my vision and I felt some truly strange sensations through my chest and groin.
Almost like I had struck a gong, my newly altered hand hit the confirm button and everything faded to ck with a confirmation box.
Character Confirmed.
3: Fire Haired Girl
3: Fire Haired Girl
My vision returned to the sight of a rusty de swinging right at my face. Pure survival instinct saved me from a brutal death within seconds of spawning. It wasn¡¯t just instinct however thatpleted the follow through. Before my rugged male body had made it harder and harder to do, I¡¯d been pretty damn good at gymnastics as a kid, and whatever body that randomiser had given me was supple. My desperate lunge backwards turned into a backwards roll that took me right back up onto my feet with speed, and I got a quick look at my attacker before they were swinging at me again.
My attacker was hot. That was about as much as I got before I was throwing myself wide again, and bringing myself up into a twirl that was definitely not masculine enough for my usual tastes. Who the fuck was having a go at me this early? Surely the game wouldn¡¯t spawn me in the middle of hostile NPCS?
A squealing growl from behind alerted me to a new attacker, and I spun, selecting a random ability from whatever had been randomly generated when I made that aggregious fuck up. My second attacker was really really not hot. Like holy shit this fucker was ugly. It was all hair and limbs and oh jesus it was a spider. A big one. My ability drew me forward, my hand connecting with like, altogether way too many eyes in an eruption of me and burning spider bits.
¡°Oh! You¡¯re not a spider! My bad!¡± the chick who had taken a swing at me called from behind.
¡°Yeah no shitdy!¡± I called back, ducking a sharp w from the creepy giant spider in front of me. Oh damn my voice sounded a little odd, just what kind of character had I been put in?
I hit that same ability again, experimenting to see if a kick would do the same work. It did alright, but my foot was not nearly as long as I expected, and the spider watched with what I swear was an amused smirk as my foot sailed past. Alright you little shit, so I haven¡¯t got the whole finesse thing down yet. New body, don¡¯t understand it yet, time to get intimate. Wait no ew.
I rushed the dumb spider with fists-a-ming and just shoved them into the eyes of the thing. It screamed and writhed, but my fists stayed on fire, and very soon the spider was on fire too as it struggled feebly on the ground. Yeah you unholy abomination! Burn! When it stopped twitching, I looked up and got a proper look at my strange would be attacker and now ally.
She was a pretty looking elf kind of chick, her skin was a little strange, like someone had taken your average pale skin and desaturated it. Kindof grey looking, but not all the way. She had middling length fiery coloured hair and bright orange eyes. Not glowing, but they may as well have been. She wore this weird robe setup with lots of slits in it for easier movement. Maybe they were just where swords had sliced it up. I don¡¯t know.
¡°You going to stop ying with your food there littledy or are you going toe help me with the rest of the spiders?¡± she asked, driving her sword down into the head of another spider as she raised an eyebrow at me.
Right, more spiders, time to kill. I leapt at the next one and- wait¡ littledy? Oh dear. I crashed down on top of the thing with my fists on fire again, pummeling it with both hands at once like a dropped anvil. I got an incredibly satisfying crunch sound, and looked for my next target. There it was, let¡¯s try another ability! I wonder what this one does?
It lurched me forward like I¡¯d been yanked through the air by a dozen urgent hands, and I was very much not prepared to be that close to so many iling hairy limbs.
I screamed. I¡¯m not proud of it, but I did. The scream was high and girlish in that husky sort of way that sends little zipping goosebumps up your arms. Wow okay.
My hands caught the sharp legs around the ankles before they could put ragged holes in me, and I used that to throw the thing over my shoulder. Wait what do you call spider ankles? I¡¯d google thatter.
The spider squirmed behind me, squealing an ear grating squeal as it did so. I turned and tried to kick it, but my feet slipped in spider gunk and I only seeded in straddling the thing. I could feel its gross hairs all up my bare hairless legs. I was going to have nightmares about that feeling for the rest of my life. Bringing my thighs together was almost a reflex at first, but then I realised with a smile that I could end the spider this way. There was a moment of strain as I squeezed, before it gave way with a wet pop that was as satisfying as it was disturbing.
I looked up to find the chick with the sword staring at me with a very odd expression. Was that¡ admiration and arousal? Nevermind, flirtter, kill spiders now. Or should those two things be the other way around?
I saw another spidering at her from inside her blind spot, and I leapt through the air to intercept the monster in midair. It was as I connected with the thing that I realised I had wings, and apparently horns. I found out about the horns as they gored the abdomen viciously, unzipping it and spilling the innards all over the ce. This was turning into the most disgusting experience of my life. I was totally covered in spider goo and I did not feel totally okay with that.
By the time I rolled to my feet after the midair tackle, the spider was dead and rolling across the ground. A quick nce revealed that it was now just myself and sworddy left standing in what I now saw was a clearing inside a pleasant, if webbed forest. Vibrant green leaves decked the trees and lush underbrush was scattered beneath their boughs.
It was so gut wrenchingly stereotypically MMO starter zone that if my eyes hadn¡¯t been locked on a gorgeous girl they would have rolled out of my head. Her hair was intense, it wasn¡¯t orange, or red¡ it was both, and my mind had a little hup trying to figure that one out. Fantasy girl, fantasy hair, chill brain, chill. It makes sense if you don¡¯t stare too hard.
Her face, when I turned my admiring eyes onto it, was the perfect blend of sharp angles and soft curves that was doing an amazing job of entrancing my poor erratically beating heart. The weird thing was that for a vague second I thought I knew her.
¡°What¡¯re you staring at, eh?¡± she asked, looking me up and down with a gaze that sparked electricity across my sensitive skin.
With my awareness returning a little more, I gained an awareness of just how tense and ready my body was to keep fighting. Almost felt like it was going to start moving on its own, and hastily I took a deep breath, forcing myself to rx. It was a strange feeling when I got it right. I felt my wings shrink and retract into my back until I could no longer feel them, and the horns receded into my skull in a simr manner. Where the hell they actually went was beyond me, and I wrote it off as magic again.
¡°Sorry. That was a pretty wild way to spawn in,¡± I chuckled with a wry smile, then frowned when I heard myself, ¡°Damn what is with that voice?¡±
My voice, now that I could concentrate on it properly, was very feminine, if a little husky. Damn though even if it was a chick¡¯s voice I kinda loved it. It was hot.
¡°Uh, it¡¯s a voice? I don¡¯t really know what to say,¡± the other girl said with a confused shrug, although the corners of her lips curled up a little.
I ignored her for a moment and stared down at myself. The first thing I noticed as I twisted to look at myself was oh my god hips. I was like all hips below my thin waist. Well, apart from the part where I was all thighs and ass. Holy hell if this was a random character then the randomiser was thirsty as fuck. My legs were long and hot and built to kick things until they begged for mercy, while my upper body was the sort of thing you¡¯d see in a korean phone game. Soft and limbre but with a hint of underlying strength that I was now well acquainted with.
My chest had boobs attached, albeit small and perky ones rather than giant balloons like you¡¯d expect looking at the rest of my body. That was nice at least. The part that was confusing me was thepleteck of giving a shit I was feeling for being in a girl¡¯s body. It felt really damn good to move around in, and I think I was more than slightly emotional about being able to bend the way I had as a kid.
¡°Well?¡± the sword chick asked, ¡°Are you alright? You¡¯re looking at your character like it¡¯s the first time you¡¯ve seen it.¡±
¡°Yup, I¡¯m feeling pretty good. I did identally randomise my character though, so this is actually the first time I¡¯ve seen myself,¡± I exined, looking back up into her cocky orange eyes.
We stared at each other again for a moment, something about her eyes making me feel a skipping tap dancing warmth in my stomach. It was like she was trying to impale me with them or something.
¡°So you just spawned? Right here?¡± she asked finally, cocking an eyebrow quizzically.
¡°Yeah. Sorta dropped in on you there didn¡¯t I?¡± I chuckled. Ohh I liked that chuckle. It started off low and husky, and moved up into a high gentle lilt that made me smile a little more.
Seems she liked it too, because she looked away for a moment, her cheeks gaining the tiniest little flush.
¡°Well I more... need to more-¡± she started, then frowned and began again, ¡°Well I need to do more grinding. Thanks for the assist I guess, or should it be you that is thanking me. Doesn¡¯t matter. Bye.¡±
Then she was off, rushing into the underbrush like I¡¯d just farted. This game was already shaping up to be an altogether more interesting experience than thest game I¡¯d yed, that was for sure. I was just about to smile again when I got a whiff of myself and almost dry heaved right there. Wow, maybe that''s why she rushed away so quickly. These spiders smelled terrible when you opened them up. I needed a wash.
With a sigh, I shook some of the gunk off, and peered hopefully onest time into the underbrush where the sword girl had disappeared to. Well, guess it was time to try and find like, a stream or something. There was no way I was going into civilisation looking like, and smelling like... this.
Streams flowed downhill, so I figured if I just walked downhill I¡¯d find somewhere to wash up. I was going to have to punch more spiders though, that I was sure of. The trees were covered in thick sticky webs.
I set off, discovering that my feet were bare when I almost immediately stood on a sharp rock. I almost kicked the damn thing, but then thought better of it. I did a lot of staring down as I set off again, making sure I was avoiding both the webs and any sharp things on the ground. That staring down constantly brought my unfamiliar figure into view. It was crazy honestly. I was trying to ignore it, but my mind was in a state of emotional overload.
The game had spawned me in wearing some sort of strange dress thing. It clung to my body from waist to neck, and didn¡¯t have any sleeves. Below my waist though was a different story. The sides of the skirt portion of the dress had been cut out all the way up to above my hips. There was bare skin showing all the way from my toes to my waist. Thankfully I was wearing simple linen underwear. Being exposed there too would have been a little too much for me I think.
As I walked, I couldn¡¯t honestly say I hated the looks that the random generator had given me. I was definitely attractive, or at least my body was. I didn¡¯t know what my face looked like. I did hate this dress thing though. I needed some pants and a shirt as soon as possible.
Eventually I did find a stream, but only after punching my way through a great many spiders, who at least had the courtesy toe at me one by one.
The stream was azy little thing that was damn cold when I dipped a toe in it and I stared down at it with a sigh of resignation. Cold scrubbing it was. Now I just had to¡ wash. I took the top of the dress, which almost resembled a very tight T-shirt with no sleeves, and tried to pull it down, but it wouldn¡¯t budge. It was like the damn thing was welded to me. Was this like my character¡¯s version of underwear and I couldn¡¯t take it off?
I felt across myself, trying to find a hidden sp or something, and then realised what my problem was. The back was open, in a manner of speaking, but the two sides of the open back were tied together with a crisscross pattern. Thankfully this body was as supple and flexible as I could even dare to hope, so I was able to reach the knot at the top and get it undone pretty easily. I could soooo get used to this flexibility, my word.
With the top undone, I pulled it down, exposing my breasts in the process and leaving it bunched around my hips. Where it was definitely going to stay, because there was no way I was going to get it over those things. Birthing hips were an understatement here. I pulled it back up over my head, and that seemed to do the trick. I was now standing in the middle of a forest with just bottom underwear on.
The chill of the gentle forest breeze sent goosebumps rippling over my skin and I shivered involuntarily. Feeling a tightness begin on my breasts, I looked down to see my nipples bing soft points. That was a fucking wild feeling. I stood there in that breeze and just watched my chest rise and fall with each breath. Strangely, I didn¡¯t feel any sort of arousal. I mean sure they were nice tits, but it was calming more than anything. A strange emotion settled over me, one that I couldn¡¯t put a name to. It was like calm, but different. Deeper and more potent.
I raised a hand and gently cupped one boob, then the other. It was a pretty intense moment, but I again struggled to identify why. Dropping them with a sigh, I looked down at the rest of me. Underwear time I guess? I was all too aware of what would happen if you didn¡¯t wash between your legs as a woman.
I was reminded of a particrly haunting memory, a time when I was going to go down on an old ssmate. She¡¯d been hot, but her hygiene had not been the best. I¡¯d very politely asked her to wash before I put anything near her. We¡¯d had a talk afterwards about why. Poor girl¡¯s mother was less than helpful for anything other than drinking and paying the bills. What was the girl¡¯s name again? Gemma. I should flick her a message some time and just make sure she¡¯s doing okay.
With that all in mind, I took my underwear off and looked at myself. Yup, that was a vagina. I was practically hairless down there as well, apart from the normal faint hairs one had everywhere. No giant bush of pubes. That was one less thing to worry about I guess.
When this moment has been described to me by other men who have used female characters in the past, they¡¯ve described a certain wrongness about not having a dick. There was no such feeling for me, and I was a little confused by it. Shouldn¡¯t I be feeling something? What I felt instead was more of that odd calm from before.
A gust of wind reminded me that I was now standing naked in a forest, so I quickly made my way down to a tiny pool of water in the stream and got to work rubbing all the spider gunk off my body with sand. The sand quickly turned into a bad idea, my skin was far too soft for that! So I just used my hands to clean instead. That was one hell of a strange experience all up, and my mind felt like it was a table tennis ball stuck in a barrel that was rolling down a hill at mach 3. I was thinking and feeling all sorts of strange things and I was totally not ready for them.
Once I was done with my body, I quickly rinsed my hair, which had been tied up in a ponytail since I spawned. With my hair wrangled out of the way once more, I walked back up on the bank and threw my dress and underwear into the stream. The dress in particr was filthy, so I had to dunk it a few times and scrape the gross congealing mess off with a stick. I got it looking okay eventually though, and pulled both garments back out of the water and threw them onto a rock to dry in a little patch of sun.
Iid down on the grass and basked in the sun for a while, letting the warm rays suffuse my skin after the freezing cold water. The warmth was incredible actually, and I found myself humming with happiness. While I enjoyed the sunlight however, I remembered that this character was random, and suddenly the urge to check out my character sheet overwhelmed me.
Calling up the menu I navigated to my character sheet. Let¡¯s see what the damage was. I knew I was female, but time to check what my race was.
Race: Infiltrator Darkling Mk4
The Infiltrator Darkling Mk4 was an attempt by the Ruzian Theocracy to take Darklings and give them the ability to pass as a human in order to infiltrate the xenophobic Empire of Pagutum. The Infiltrator Darklings have since renounced the Ruzian Theocracy due to their harsh treatment and have escaped into Pagutum under their natural human guises. The Infiltrator Darklings now hide in in sight amongst the people of Pagutum, although they have begun to move further west to more epting regions ofte.
The Infiltrator Darklings are able to take a human form, as well as an enhanced form that allows them to perform their old intended roles with greater ease. The Mk4 variant were designed as fast attack troops with the ability to hide among their enemy before deployment. The Mk4 variant¡¯s enhanced form gives them greater speed, strength and the ability to fly.
This ss is exclusive to the Randomise Character Function.
Wow that was a lot to take in. I was a persecuted minority on the run from another persecuted minority. If I remembered from the map though, I was a long way away from that whole shitty situation, so I figured I¡¯d be fine. The enhanced form thing was like really fucking cool though. I was totally down for that.
I flicked to the rest of my stats page, and took a look at the damage there. My stats were all over the ce, as I¡¯d feared. On the physical side I had middling Strength, High as hell Speed and Endurance, low Constitution and Toughness. On the Magical side I had pretty good Power, Urgency and Capacity, while Anamnesis and Intricacy were a littlecking. The ability trees I had gotten were.. Self Cast Magic, Contact Magic and Unarmed.
Wow that was a lot to take in. I was fast in both my casting and my movements, able to do both for a long time and not very tanky. My Trees might actually synergise pretty well together if I kept doing what I¡¯d been doing duringbat. I would be a fast ss cannon punchy girl! Damn I already knew I was going to need to prove my worth to every public raid and dungeon group I joined. Another sigh. Oh! I wonder what my affinities were? Energy and Dark. Well that makes sense? Dark for Darkling and Energy for fire and other stuff. Sooo I was a punchy ss cannon girl that was also on fire. Boom, that sounded great actually.
I smiled to myself and dismissed the menus with the wave of a hand. I might have actuallye out on top with that whole random character thing! Oh shit, I should try and contact Taylor too.
I brought up the menu with a thought and explored it all until I found the social tab. Using the virtual keyboard that popped up, I typed LipsAndShades into the friend request box and added a little message saying it was me. She must have been waiting for my request, because it got epted straight away. Moments after she epted it, I had a calle through.
Premium Call. Would you like to ept? This will open a voice and video call.
Oh shit. What do I do? Ahh fuck it. I¡¯m not an anime character, I¡¯ll just ept the damn call and exin the situation.
Call epted.
¡°Hey Terry! How¡¯s the ga-¡± Taylor started as her video window popped up in front of me.
Her Jaw dropped open and her eyes flicked down to my chest and back up again. Riiight, I¡¯d forgotten I was a naked chick right now.
4: Cheerful Woodchipper
4: Cheerful Woodchipper
¡°What the fuck Terry?! Alright, first off, please cover yourself! Second, why are you a chick? Third¡ why are you in Gienia?¡± Taylor eximed, covering her eyes.
I ced an arm over my boobs to protect my sister¡¯s delicate eyes, and had to marvel once again at the incredible softness that even my small boobs provided.
Augh escaped as I covered myself, and still chuckling I said, ¡°Okay it¡¯s safe Taylor.¡±
She slowly uncovered an eye, then when she saw I was covering my boobs she pulled her hand away from her face entirely. She looked me up and down for a moment in a confused kind of awe, then shook her head in bewilderment.
¡°You are a shit ma like literally everywhere you go. How did this happen?¡± she asked, smiling despite her usations.
My sister¡¯s character appeared to be simr in appearance to her normal self, except with a bit more muscle. I kind of admired what she¡¯d done. I had known she yed a tank, but I didn¡¯t know she¡¯d based her character off her own looks. Being a little buff suited her.
¡°Well, I had my character all set up. The one I mentioned I was going to make, but I uh¡ I identally pressed the random character button right before I pressed the confirm button,¡± I said, grinning. I loved my sister¡¯s reactions to my antics. It was one of the top ten things in my life.
She rolled her eyes and sighed theatrically, ¡°Yup, total mess. Well, that exins the resemnce to mum then. The random character thing likes to use your gic profile to help keep your character from being too oundish.¡±
¡°Wait I look like mum?¡± I asked, a little horrified. I didn¡¯t want to be walking around in a naked body simr to my mother¡¯s.
Taylorughed at my panic and shook her head, ¡°Not that much! Like a mix. I can see some dad in you as well. You look like my sister. You can check you know, there¡¯s an option to show your own camera to you in the call.¡±
I haven¡¯t hammered a UI button so hard in my life. I really wanted to know what my face looked like. I was rather intimately aware of what my body looked like, so my face was thest step. The option came up to disy my face in a smaller window next to Taylor¡¯s, and I pressed it.
The window popped up, and my breath was taken away. Wow. When Taylor said I looked like mum, she was kinda right. I did also look like Taylor¡¯s sister¡ but the main thing, the main thing was that I was drop dead fucking gorgeous. If I had to describe myself to someone, I¡¯d say I was Taylor on night mode. Where she was all bright hair and an honest beautiful face, I was dark hair and mischievous eyes. If I¡¯d seen myself in the bar and made eye contact, I¡¯d be both scared and turned on. If she smiled at me, I¡¯d start preparing to fight a boyfriend. Holy shit. It¡¯s official, the randomiser was thirsty as fuck. Damn AIs always were I swear.
I watched my shoulder length dark brown hair shift beneath my head as I moved my head around to get different angles. My eyes were just ck, unless you looked really closely and saw the pupil in the center, and myshes were like stupid long. I found myself smiling as the person in the little screen followed my movements, part of my brain recognising that she was me. I felt a surge of weird butterflies in my stomach and quickly shut the second screen off. Damn, why was this such a rush?
¡°Well holy fuck,¡± I said finally, a little out of breath.
¡°Yeah holy fuck. You better be careful around guys um¡ Terry. Even if they can¡¯t do anything terrible to you, you¡¯re still going to have them buzzing around you like insects,¡± she warned me, then added, ¡°Also, no one is going to take you seriously when you have an opinion, so get ready for that lovely new source of frustration.¡±
I frowned at that, what did she mean? Everyone knew woman should be listened to as much as anyone else. We buried that problem decades ago, or so I¡¯d thought. Guys buzzing around me like flies though? I knew that was going to be a thing the moment I saw myself in that dress.
¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked, ¡°Like about the opinion thing?¡±
¡°Come on Terry, that¡¯s like womanhood 101. Girls get treated differently. Especially pretty ones like you and I,¡± she exined, and I think she was actually a little annoyed with me on this one.
¡°I thought that like, wasn¡¯t a thing anymore? The news likes to say so at least,¡± I said, already knowing I was digging a hole for myself.
Taylor put a hand over her face for a moment, then shook her head with a defeated kind ofugh, ¡°Nope. Just because you¡¯ve always treated women and their words with respect, doesn¡¯t mean other guys do. It¡¯s still just as bad as it¡¯s ever been.¡±
I grimaced and looked down at myself for a moment. That didn¡¯t sound promising. At least it was nice to know I hadn¡¯t been part of the problem, at least when my sister was looking.
¡°Damn,¡± was all I could say to that.
¡°Yeah. So what¡¯s your character like? I hope it¡¯s not too messy, although it would be fitting,¡± she said with a cheeky grin.
¡°Pretty good actually, I¡¯m a ss cannon melee damage dealer by the looks of things. My race is amazing though! I¡¯m a Darkling Infiltrator Mk4! I have a human form and a crazy demon form with wings. I totally beat a bunch of spiders to death earlier with my fists. Oh! The magic too. So I have the Self Magic, Contact Magic and Unarmedbat trees. I¡¯m actually a bit excited to y this character,¡± I gushed, getting more and more excited as I exined what the game had given me.
¡°Nice! I¡¯m actually really d you aren¡¯t ying the character you originally wanted to y. That would have been so boring,¡± she grinned back.
I nodded in wholehearted agreement, ¡°Oh definitely. That wouldn¡¯t have been half as fun as this has already been.¡±
We grinned at each other through the call for a moment, before Taylor¡¯s face turned a bit more serious.
She seemed a bit hesitant for a moment, there, but it passed and she asked, ¡°So uh, are you feeling the Dysphoria yet?¡±
¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked, a little confused by what she was trying to get at.
¡°Well when guys usually y women characters in full immersion like you are, they start to feel ufortable in the body. Doesn¡¯t feel right to them. I know a lot of people who had to pay out of their teeth to reroll their character a few days afterunch because they decided it was too much,¡± she exined, searching my face with her eyes.
I thought for a moment, but couldn¡¯t think of a time where I was truly ufortable with the body I was in now. There had only been the weird sense of deep calm. Was that dysphoria? I highly doubted it.
¡°Nah. I haven¡¯t felt anything yet. I have felt like, really calm since I got into this body. Well, not calm exactly, you can¡¯t really be calm when you¡¯re crushing a writhing hairy giant spider between your thighs, but you know what I mean,¡± I said, smiling fondly at the feat of brutality I had inflicted on the hateful creature. I hated spiders, but more in a death to my enemies kind of way.
Taylor looked troubled and thoughtful as I exined myself, until I mentioned the spider, and then she guffawed, ¡°You did what?¡±
¡°I was fighting a bunch of spiders, and somehow I ended up straddling one. Rather than like, get off it and punch it, I just squeezed it with my thighs until it popped. That¡¯s why I¡¯m naked. Had to wash the goo off myself,¡± I said proudly.
¡°Oh jesus,¡± sheughed, ¡°Oh my god you are¡ wow. You¡¯re my b-, my twin that¡¯s for sure. Fuck you¡¯re funny.¡±
I winked at her through the call andughed along with her, ¡°Yup. Damn right I¡¯m funny.¡±
¡°Alright well, I guess it will be a while before we meet up ingame. So I should¡ Oh wait, what name did the game give you?¡± she asked, ¡°I should call you by that in the game since everyone will look at us funny if I go around calling you Terry.¡±
¡°Um, let me check,¡± I said, already bringing up my character sheet. I didn¡¯t know why I hadn¡¯t already looked.