Josh walked out of a portal and felt a breeze on his whiskers. He thought that he must have some weird side effect of the travel. Opposite the portal was a simple floor long mirror. Dim lights showed little in the room. All Josh could make out was the portal behind him, which shut off abruptble. In front of him he could see a mirror, with only black showing back from it’s surface.

Josh walked closer to the mirror and saw an unfamilar face. It wasn’t his face that stared back from the mirror, but a cat man version.

It was that point that Josh looked at his hands and noticed they were no longer hands. He flexed the fingers and small claws popped out. He sniffed the air and could catch a number of scents just faintly. He looked up his arms and saw the various fur colors.

Had he traveled half the universe away just to be put in a society of cat people? Why did the aliens make him into a cat person.

Josh’s reflection changed from parroting his movements to moving on it’s own. It then spoke up. “Welcome to the training world! The first council of The Display wanted to welcome you to The Display. I am an ambasador to the basics of game play.”

“Um wait, game play?” Josh asked his reflection.

“Yes, that’s the best way to think of this training. We’ve noticed humanity’s affinity towards video game rewards and built the training to adapt to that standard. To start, please bring up your menu.”

Josh looked around for a menu on the ground. He then started poking in the air randomly. “Menu open, start menu, begin menu” Josh said aloud. Nothing happened.

“To start, please bring up your menu.” Josh’s reflection repeated again.

“Menu up! Open! Enlarge” Josh said into the air. No menu appeared around him.

“To start, please bring up your menu.” His reflection chanted again.

“I am trying. I don’t know how to bring up the menu.” Josh replied.

“It looks like you are having trouble with this request, is that correct?” His reflection asked.

“Yes. Yes that is correct.” Josh replied.

“Here is how to bring up the menu.” The reflection pulled on one ear and nodded. A menu appeared in the reflection.

Josh pulled on his ear and nodded. The blue semi-transparent menu appeared in front of him. The menu appeard to be floating in mid-air. As he moved his head, the menu followed. Josh pulled on his ear again and nodded. The menu disppeared, then came back up. Josh repeated the action, trying to get rid of the menu.

“How do I get rid of the menu?” Josh asked.

“Good job! It looks like you opened the menu, in order to control the menu, including closing, please think the command.”

Josh thought of closing the menu and it disapeared.

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“Congradulations! You have completed the beginner’s tutorial!” The reflection replied. Party baloons and ribbons appeared in the image as Josh’s image danced.

“You may now exit the entry room,” The reflection said, pointing to a growing light in one are of the room. It looked like a door into a strange city had just been opened.

Josh walked to the exit. Before he passed the threshold, he heard a voice from behind, “Remember to please limit your ressurections! They are expensive and will be added to your debt.”

Josh’s feet made it outside and he spun to ask a question that he should have asked a long time ago. He wanted to know how much he owed for his survival. Unfortunatly, the room he had just exited was no longer there. Instead, an alley way was pointed that direction.

Josh looked around and didn’t see anyone. He shrugged and decided to look at his stats on his display.

[JOSH STATS]

Skip step? Josh wondered. What did that mean? He didn’t know a lot of anything and that was deadly. He needed to ask someone about this new world as quickly as possible.

Josh moved his way from the dusty alley way and into what looked to be people walking on the streets.

Josh touched an older man in robes and asked him if he could bug him.

“Just a minute, after the army passes,” the older man replied.

True to his word, soldiers were walking in unison their way from down the road. It wasn’t a lot of men, perhaps 5-6, but Josh didn’t regonize the uniforms. He then slapped the side of his head in frustration. Of course he wasn’t going to know these uniforms. This was a whole new world. Humanity probably hadn’t been here for more than a few weeks. It was then that Josh began to wonder if non-humans were here.

“Shifter!” The army soldier in front yelled and pointed at him. Josh looked around, but the old man was shying away.

“Who is he talking about?” Josh hissed at the old man retreating.

“You. He’s talking about you cat man.” The old man replied.

Josh sighed and realized a horrible truth. He wasn’t sure if he was human anymore. Was there a prejudice already forming in this new world? One against non-humans? If that was the case, was he about to incur one of those expensive ressurections?

“Welcome, welcome!” The soldier said as he got closer. “We’ve been looking for a cat shifter. We didn’t think another one would come this way. Say, do you have an assigned job yet?”

Josh shook his head, trying to find a way to politly exit the conversation. He needed time to figure out what all this meant.

“Excellent! We need a new scout. You want to join? Of cource you want to join. We are one of the highest paying soldier groups around.” The man went on.

“I am sorry, I am sure you guys are wonderful, but I am new here.” Josh explained.

“We know that, we saw you come into the The Display. That’s why we came over to give you the job offer.” the solider continued.

“That’s just the thing, I don’t know anything about this world, or debt or even how to make coins. I am so far behind everything here.” Josh explained. He took several steps away from the soldier. “That’s why I need to talk to people.”

“I am a person.” The soldier explained calmly. “Join our group, I’ll get you outfitted and talk through any questions you may have. If you want to quit, you can, and we’ll let you keep the gear.”

A man from behind the solider piped up, “Sir, we don’t have that many spares.”

The soldier waved him away. “Private, we are all trying to survive here. What’s good for one is good for all.”

The solider held out a hand toward Josh, “I am staff first officer Brian. You can just call me Brian.”

Josh pushed his paw into Brian’s hand. The two of them began to shake. Fate decided that moment to revert Josh from his cat form into his human form.

Brian’s grip faltered as the paw he was holding turned into a hand. Brian then began to look towards the sky. “Can we please outfit him with pants, post haste?”

Josh blushed and put his human hands towards his nudity. A pair of too big pants were handed to him. Josh threw them on, then realized they weren’t going to stay up. He held the extra material and marched toward the end of town with the soldiers that had found him.