Mika descended from the sky much like I had. Only, she was much bigger than a fairy, retaining her original height (which was a bit short for a high-schooler, but still much taller than the mere eleven or twelve inches I was). She even looked like herself, mostly -- though, like Jenna, her figure was a bit more glamorized as an artefact of being a game character.

The big difference was her outfit. No dress, that would have been more out of character for Mika than it was for me, even. Rather, she was wearing a shiny red leotard, which looked a bit like a long-sleeved, one-piece swimsuit. And a pair of calf-high boots in the same glossy red and detailed with what seemed to be gold trim and inlay.

The bigger difference were her wings. Also predominantly red, though shading through oranges and yellows like a sunset over the ocean, Mika’s feathery wings were like that of an angel, but more majestic.

No, I wasn't envious or jealous at all about her wings. Mine were diaphanous and shimmery, vaguely iridescent with hints of glittery jewel tones, leaving a faint trail of sparkles as I flew. Mine were also small enough in proportion to my body to not be cumbersome, though I imagine that every dress or shirt I wore would have to have a very low backline to accommodate them. Mika’s wings, large and majestic as they were, seemed like they would very much be in the way. I wouldn’t want to try to walk through a doorway or down a hallway with them on my back.

Okay, maybe I was a little put off that hers were “majestic” whereas mine were “cute” and “sparkly,” but oh well, hashtag virtual world problems.

While we were “ooh”ing and “aah”ing over Mika’s appearance and before anyone could really say anything meaningful, a gigantic crystal ball thundered up and rolled to a stop near us, but not before Naomi and Jenna jumped out of the way and Mika and I flew up quite a bit higher.

Better to say crystal boulder than crystal ball. It was about three feet in diameter and more rocky and spiky in appearance than a polished smooth sphere of glass. Just a moment after it stopped, before anyone could do more than get out of its way, the crystal boulder shifted position, and, well, unfolded into a vaguely humanoid form with a pulsating blue glow where a heart would be, and two light blue glowing spheres just under the crystal surface of its head.

“Sheesh, I wasn’t going to run you over,” the crystal being said with Susie’s voice. “It’s just more convenient to roll than walk. I see we’re all here and that James is a girl, unless we’re still waiting on James and Naomi has a fairy familiar?”

Naomi shook her head, silvery-blonde ponytail -- the hairstyle, not her actual centaur tail -- swishing and bouncing as she did so. “Nope. James is the fairy. What are you, Susie?”

“I could ask that of most of you, and in fact I will, but let’s officially group up first, and then we can talk about classes and abilities. And races, at least for those of us that are kind of different.” The crystal head swiveled and the light blue glows of Susie’s eyes appeared to fix on Mika.

A flurry of friend invites and four group invites later, we were ready to find out what everyone was.

Susie, of course, took charge. “I’ll start,” she said, “And Jenna, since you’re the only one on the Path of Self, you’ll go last. So, counter-clockwise from me.”

Jenna nodded. She, unlike the rest of us, was still a human, and her class would -- for now -- be some basic version of a caster. As such, she had the least to explain.

“I hit the jackpot, it seems,” Susie said, “Legendary race and class. And since it was a cool crafting class, I stuck with it even if the body is a little weird. My race is, well, the word for it doesn’t exist in human sounds. Let me try.” Her glowing eye spots narrowed, as if she were concentrating, and a strange rumbling sound emanated from her crystalline body. Skirling around the rumbling was a series of music notes, almost like chimes or bells. Then the sound stopped, and Susie spoke again, “Ah, the best short-form translation would be Cystalsinger, but the whole thing would be like a paragraph. I’m not quite an elemental, but related.”

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“And your class?” Naomi prompted.

“That’s even cooler. It’s a class only available to Crystalsingers, which is why it’s a legendary class. It’s a … Tonesmith? Songsmith? I’m not sure how to translate it. Basically, I can make magic items and weapons by ‘singing’ at the crafting materials. Metals and stones and gems only, though, so no staffs or wands for the casters unless you want to lug a stone stick around.”

“Are gathering skills class-based, or can anyone do them?” Mika asked. “I don’t remember, and I’m pretty sure neither James nor Naomi are miners, so getting you the materials to work with might be difficult?”

“I have a basic racial skill,” Susie said. “But it is slow and inefficient. I might need to take a better gathering skill when we hit level five. Until then, anyone can gather just like anyone can swing a sword around, but having the skills and abilities makes it easier, faster, and more likely to cheat physics and get good results. It still is a game, after all. Mika?”

“I decided to gamble,” Mika said, “and I went Path of Fate, too, and this is what I got.” She spread her feathery wings, and hovered upward without even flapping her wings. “I didn’t get the jackpot you did,” she nodded at Susie and landed back gracefully on the ground. And for the record, it was quite weird seeing her in high-heeled boots.

“My race is actually more closely related to a phoenix or a harpy than an angel. Only super-rare, not legendary, but it has a good synergy with my class, and that’s an ultra-super-rare variant of a caster-type shieldwall. So I won’t be on the frontlines, but I’ll still be protecting everyone and drawing aggro with spells rather than shields and heavy armor. It’ll probably take a little bit of getting used to, so bear with me if I make mistakes.” Then her tone took on a teasing manner as she looked toward me, “Hopefully our healer will be up to the task.”

“Hopefully,” I nodded. “And, yep, as you all can probably guess, I got a good healer class. Well, let me rephrase that. I got a very, very good healer class. Not legendary, however, like Rock-and-Roll over there.” I paused for dramatic effect. “But rather, unique. I’m the High Priestess of Sirae, Goddess of Nature and the Wyld Harvest. Um, that does mean I do need to lend aid to other followers of Sirae, if I’m able, so there may be some inconveniences from time to time. And, of course, other High Priestess-y type duties here and there like needing to build and establish an actual church or temple for her eventually. But, in exchange, I’ve got very good regeneration magic and some other healer-themed spells.”

“Wait ‘til Mom and Dad find out you’re starting your own religion,” Jenna laughed. “They didn’t raise any of us to be nuns.”

“He’s not starting it, just running it. There’s a difference,” Naomi pointed out. “Anyway, what about your race, James?”

“Liall’alana, a quote-unquote True Fairy, I guess as opposed to pixies and sprites and whatever other little winged girls there may be. Fortunately, that’s not unique. Just Ultra-Super-Rare-Plus. I guess a bit between ultra-super-rare and legendary. Oh, anyway, I don’t get a wand or a staff or a holy book even as my weapon, but something quite a bit different. I’ll show you later. Your turn, Naomi. You obviously made your centauress on the Path of Identity. But what class did you get? You said you didn’t get Lancer like Susie thought you might?”

Naomi shook her head. “No. Apparently, I’m in that mix-and-match ten-percent group. My class is ‘Tactician’ -- basically, I’m a buffbot. And that’s my re-roll of a class, too. My first was ‘Courier.’ You three took all the good luck. We’re going to be an interesting group: healer, shieldwall, two supports, and a basic caster. No server firsts for us. Or maybe three supports, how did creating your caster go, Jenna?”

“Well,” my sister began, “After I chose magic instead of weapons or craft tools and chose combat magic instead of auxiliary or healing, I had to choose an element. And no one ever mentioned elements before, so I wasn’t sure what to take.”

“Probably something like Earth, Fire, Water, Wind,” Susie said. “Those are the classics, maybe with some variations like Lightning, Nature, Ice, and the others. There isn’t much information about the magic system available, just the classes people have.”

“Oh. So that’s what those symbols must have meant,” Jenna said. “I didn’t know. Maybe I should have touched one of them. I couldn’t progress until I chose an element, so I remembered about the periodic table from science class a long time ago. You know, Hydrogen, Helium, Oxygen, Carbon, Uranium, sort of things?”

We all slowly nodded, and I could see from Mika’s expression that she was thinking what we were probably all thinking: oh no, this is going to be bad, isn’t it?

“Please tell me you didn’t choose Uranium, Jenna,” I asked on behalf of the rest of us.

“What? No! Uranium is only useful if you know how to use it, but it’s dangerous otherwise. And dangerous even if you know what you’re doing. I had to do a report on it in sixth grade. I don’t want to be a mutant supervillain. No, I chose Silver.”