I couldn’t immediately answer; I had to think about it. And in the end, it was that hesitation that made my decision clear. “If you had asked me before yesterday,” I began, “the answer would have been ‘yes.’” I topped off my float with more rootbeer, spooned up some of the fizz it generated, and glanced at the maid-clad GM to my side. “I mean, keeping what I was afraid to lose, and getting to restart with a new character—one designed with the intent to be it, and one whose racial abilities support how I think I would play—that’s not a bad deal.”

I paused slightly for another sip of my float. “And yet … And yet, it is. Because now there’s other things to lose besides unique achievements. I’ve made friends, already.” To be fair, Tabitha, Abigail, and Gabrielle were probably more like proto-friends since we hadn’t played together all that much, but certain experiences—in games or in real life—do tend to tie people together more closely and quickly than they otherwise might have been. And in this game, in this virtual reality, the lines between gaming and living were somewhat blurred.

And I didn’t really make friends all that easily, at least not close friendships. Besides Michelle, and of course my twin, there really hadn’t been that many others. Noabelle, if she counts. Jacobi and Caroline at college (I wonder if either of them play), though neither were quite at the same level of closeness as my twin or even Michelle. But in fairness, a couple years at college doesn’t nearly have the length of the other relationships. Mostly, however, my friends had been people I had studied with or gamed with. But while we were friendly, I wouldn’t have called them close friends. With me being more than a bit of a homebody, I hadn’t been in the social scene in school or in college, so parties and other typical college events weren’t prominent in my school history.

Something about the ghost and twins though suggested that they could become part of that small circle. That was something that I didn’t want to give up.

Victoria placed a hand on my shoulder. “You don’t have to choose a new starting location, and you could still meet up or group up with your friends.”

I shook my head, ponytail swishing as I did so. “Yes, but … it wouldn’t be the same; the dynamic would be different. And…,” and how would it affect Tabitha and her backstory? She’d lose her “Little Sister,” and while the GMs could probably reset that for her too, so she wouldn’t have the debuff applied for me not being around, it would be bound to color her experience with the game.

As if reading my mind, Victoria said, “You should choose for yourself, not for consideration of others. ECHO is intended for players to be able to be what they want to be. Not what they think they need to be.”

Again, I shook my head. “Maybe, but if I chose selfishly, I wouldn’t be being what I want to be. And I think the game is more about discovery than it is about being, yes?”

“You may have a point,” she said.

“And, well, it’s not like I haven’t played a girl character before. My last three or four mains in other games were female—one of which was because the race I wanted was female only. Sure, there’s a huge difference between on screen and in VR, but….” I paused, not really wanting to discuss all the times I had been talked into masquerading as my sister or the two times I had participated in Crossdress Day during Spirit Week. With a slight shrug, I continued, skipping over my pre-college days. “And I took some drama courses in college. Once, I ended up playing Lady Rosaline in an adaptation of Romeo & Juliet.”

Granted, that’s because the person who was supposed to play her had been in a car wreck. Nothing fatal or even serious, just a couple broken bones, but between those and shattered nerves, she wasn’t up for playing the part and dropped the class. Her first understudy had already picked up the role of Lady Capulet and her second understudy had been put on financial suspension and wasn’t allowed to attend classes. Everyone else who could possibly have done the role already had a speaking part, so it had fallen to a very reluctant me.

“I guess,” I began and then paused slightly, looking for the right words, admitting aloud what I hadn’t even yet fully admitted to myself. “I guess it isn’t so much that I mind playing a girl character as it is that I think I should mind it. Thank you for the offer, but I think I will choose to stay with my character. Sometimes, things don’t always happen as planned, but if everything occurred exactly as planned, what’s the point of even playing? It wouldn’t be a game … it would be a, a spreadsheet.

“I mean, when I went into things, I hadn’t planned on having a spell at all, at least, not unless I chose an elf, but Mistshard has been very helpful and I’ve already chosen skills to support it, building a bit as the archery equivalent of a spellsword rather than a pure agility bow user.”

Finishing up, I shrugged. “And besides all that, I made a commitment not just to my new friends. I made a commitment to you and the company. You all have already sent out the pods to Michelle and Heather, so I need to hold up my end of the bargain, too. Plus,” I blushed a little, “like you made me admit earlier, I actually had fun today. So … I don’t mind.”

Victoria placed a hand on my shoulder. “If you ever need someone to talk to, send a message. My character’s nowhere near yours in the gameworld, but as a GM, I can visit your home instance, or you can come here. I can’t say I know exactly what you’re going through, but one of the reasons I got in early with supporting the company is because I’m able to be as Victoria, and as my character, what I cannot in the real world.”

Continuing, she said, “Times were different when I was your age, and options that exist now didn’t exist then. Now, it’s too late for me except in virtual reality. I don’t promise to have answers; sometimes there are no answers except what you discover for yourself. But I can promise to make time to listen and be a comforting shoulder if you need.”

We talked for some time longer, much like I had with Sunrise Sparkle, but with a more equal balance of who was speaking when. Moving from root beer floats to strawberry sundaes, to a giant old-fashioned banana split that we shared, and finally to an iced coffee creation that Megan herself had suggested.

During our free-ranging conversation, I learned a fair bit about Victoria’s childhood and the trials and tribulations she had gone through from a very early age, knowing that Daniel—her birth name—hadn’t wanted to be a boy or grow up to be a man. She hadn’t had a choice, though: the attitudes and culture of society at that time made my mother’s insistence on my sister’s compliance with dresses and long hair seem almost progressive in comparison.

We also talked about what I had skipped over earlier, about Spirit Weeks and the almost annual masquerading as my sister. Besides that one Easter and school photos, there had been a couple Disney Princess costumes for different Halloweens. Many, of course, my twin hadn’t been able to escape since we had been young enough that my mother had dressed her.

I hadn’t ever made a fuss about things quite the way Lex had, but I generally hadn’t been keen on my mother’s choices for costumes or formal attire, either. I had never liked ties since they had reminded me of leashes, but as a young boy I had also not been happy with being Aladdin or Prince Charming to my sister’s Jasmine or Snow White. Strangely, my mother had not seen it odd to dress up brother and sister as a fairy tale couple.

It wasn’t that I had preferred the princess gowns. I guess I had just not disliked them to the same extent as my sister had.

I guess it was more because at that age, I hadn’t liked playing dress up and pretending to be someone else. It wasn’t just the costumes, but also the little kids suits and ties had made me feel like I had needed to pretend to be a grown-up, then. I hadn’t wanted to be anyone else; I had just wanted to be me.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Well, except for the one year I had apparently thrown a massive temper tantrum because I wanted to be a bunny rabbit for Halloween and couldn’t. I don’t recall it myself, but certainly had heard it brought up several times; it was part of “family history.”

As I grew older, I learned to appreciate the value and even fun in playing a role, whether for drama, tabletop role-playing games, or—yes—even those times for Spirit Week. Role-play, of course, is an important aspect in early childhood education, so it had been part of my official studies even. Of course, as children, no one thinks of cops-and-robbers, house, or even toy trucks and EZ-Bake Ovens as roleplaying, but by putting themselves in another’s shoes (sometimes even literally), children are developing important skills such as empathy, logic, tact, and even authority.

Eventually, though, our wide-ranging conversation and dessert selections came to an end. It was a very good thing that Megan didn’t charge and an even better thing that the virtual desserts had no caloric value. “Don't’ try this in game, though,” Victoria said as she pointed to the assorted bowls and glasses. “Player satiety isn’t implemented yet, but your diet can affect your character’s appearance. Of course, most players are active enough that a day or two of over-eating won’t have long-term effects, but tummy-ache debuffs are nothing to laugh at!”

“And speaking of active, all this sitting and talking following all that standing still and holding poses probably has you ready to run and jump and play, so I shouldn’t keep you any longer …,” she winked, “... today.”

I glanced at the kitschy clock behind the counter and slightly frowned. According to it, either fifteen minutes had passed, or twelve hours and fifteen minutes. It hadn’t seemed like we were sitting and talking that long, but it was also surely much longer than a quarter of an hour. If nothing else, the sheer amount of sweets we had consumed couldn’t have been gone through that quickly.

Victoria noticed the direction of my glance and smothered a giggle. “Don’t worry, we haven’t been here as long as you think. I shouldn’t tell you this, but since you’re going to be in and out of our offices for projects and hopefully visits and chats, you’ll continue to encounter it. Time flows differently here than it does in the gameworld or the real world. It’s how we’re able to get so much work done and still have time to play our characters. Between modeling and dessert, what may have seemed like half a day was only….”

She paused and glanced upward, perhaps at part of her interface, “... about an hour of ‘real’ time. You’ve still got plenty of time left in the day!”

“H-How?” I was stunned.

Victoria shrugged. “A lot of the really high-tech stuff seems like magic to me. The way it was explained to me…. Have you ever had a dream that seemed like it covered days or months even? Or been in a boring lecture or meeting that every minute felt like an eternity? Perception of time can vary; the mind works in various ways. Since virtual reality is basically using the mind and not the body, we can exploit that variable perception of time. Up to a limit, anyways. That’s both in duration and in speed. Forcing the mind to process information too fast for too long seems potentially unhealthy.”

“So that’s why you don’t use it in the game?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Actually, we do, just a very little bit. I’m sure you noticed how time seemed to flow differently during the activation of you Hidden Nature racial. It’s also how spells like Haste and Slow, or whatever they’re actually called, work. And it’s used in some instances. We’ve also got an event planned in a month or two that will use it.”

“Then….” I prompted.

“How long were you out of the game after you finally finished the tutorial?” she asked. “How long between logging out and logging back in?”

“I … Hmm, twelve, thirteen hours. Half a day at least,” I replied. “I way overslept. Well, I had stayed up way too late, too.”

“If we ran at near what the technical team decided was the maximum safe speed, people who had stayed in wouldn’t just be hours ahead of you … they’d literally have had weeks, about a month, more play time. That would set you back quite a bit. It also would make it hard for people with different schedules to play together. Plus, we don’t think players are quite ready to eat and sleep and all that in the game, either. Well, since we haven’t implemented player satiety, we’re not ready for them to do that yet, as well.”

I thought about that a moment. If Abby and Gabby had to miss a day of playing due to a doctor’s appointment, but Tabitha and I had kept playing … it might have been hard for us to resume playing together as a group. If nothing else, the level disparity might have made things different, but hooking up with people you only met briefly a month ago…? Groups and guilds all over would have had problems with that.

“That makes sense. Then why here and now?” I still had questions.

“Well,” Victoria began, “being the head of Marketing is a full-time job, and plenty of other people on the team work quite a bit more than I do: the technical folk, for instance, or some of the stats and analysis team. Player relations would need a much larger staff to handle all they need to handle. Running the offices at higher relative speed lets us put in ten to twelve hours of work and still have plenty of time to play our characters as well.” She smiled, “Even staff who weren’t big on video games before have found themselves playing a lot more than they had expected.”

Then she shrugged, “Really, the only time we cannot use it is when the Director is involved. He doesn’t log in, so we cannot hold meetings in accelerated time if he’s involved.”

“Um, doesn’t it seem like something like that would be useful for more than just a game. Meaning no disrespect or anything, but I’m sure colleges would love it. Actually, couldn’t just about anyone use more time in the day?”

Victoria nodded. “We’re actually in ongoing discussions with the government and academia, but I really can’t talk about that in detail. I’ve probably told you more than I should, already…” She started to look a little concerned.

“Maybe I should sign an NDA for all that, then?” I suggested.

She visibly brightened. “Would you? It’s not that I don’t trust you, and it’s not that you wouldn’t have figured out some of it on your own anyway once you logged out and realized that the modeling didn’t take nearly as long as it seemed, but … well … I’m sure our lawyers would appreciate it.

* * *

One NDA, a promise to meet again in a couple days for a continuation of the modeling work, a very sisterly hug, and a brief time later, I was back in Echeirn. I had gone straight to the game world from the offices, bypassing my home instance since I still wanted to mull things over before talking with Jasmine and her role in all this.

Since we had spoken to the gate guards, T’Dhii and T’Dhum, yesterday when returning to town, completing the quest to find Abby and Gabby, I headed toward the eastern gate out of town. It’s where the guards had suggested as being more suitable when they had initially warned us that outside Echeirn to the west was possibly too dangerous. Since I was going to do a little bit of practicing—my archery definitely needed improvement!—a solo-friendly environment might be better than trying to deal with the Boartles, Rosewhips, and other monsters out the western gate.

Readying my bow, I paused before heading out to the more tame eastern lands. There was still something I needed to get done sooner, rather than later. Opening my character sheet, I brought up my list of skills: Archery, Gathering, and Spellcasting with one unselected for primary skills. Dagger, Dodge, Stealth, and Meditation for secondary skills.

Focusing on that unselected spot, I searched for the skill I wanted. It wasn’t Cartography; Gabby had that and a few other only-need-one-per-group skills as her secondary skills. It also wasn’t Dance (either of them) that Tabitha had suggested.

Instead, I chose Gymnastics (C/A). Abby’s Acrobatics skill had definitely been useful for her in the big fight even if she had it as a secondary skill that didn’t boost her attributes. That mobility would suit me as well, especially if I ever needed to try and dodge-roll out of the way of an attack again. I rubbed my shoulder, remembering how I failed that maneuver against the skeletal mage in the tutorial.

I chose Gymnastics over Acrobatics for two reasons.

First, an acrobat—to me anyway—always called to mind the trapeze and other high-flying circus stunts, and that’s kind of what Abby had done in the fight, getting up to and balancing on that Gigantic Devouring Rosewhip’s tendrils to finish freeing her friend. Gymnastics, to me, was more tumbling, jumping, and flexibility. Sure, that impression was primarily formed from watching highlights from the Olympics, or from Michelle’s cheerleading practices, but that sort of mobility would suit me better than airborne maneuvers. I wasn’t a faerie in the gameworld, after all!

The second reason I chose Gymnastics was for the attributes. Like Acrobatics and several other skills, it boosted both Charisma and Agility. I had considered something for Brilliance or Willpower, a skill to support my spellcasting, but I was an archer first and a quote-unquote mage (with only two spells so far) second. Even with Agility secondary on Gymnastics, in contrast to Acrobatics, it would support me as an archer or when I needed to fall back to using my dagger.

Agility was for the archer in me. Charisma was for the me in me. Whatever outer shell I might have in physical or virtual reality, the inner self was still the same.

~~~~~ End of Volume One ~~~~~