The brightness faded, from an unbearable white to a more muted, soft glow that illuminated everything but didn’t cast any shadows. Kaylie looked around: she was in the so-called “white room” where she didn’t have a body, just a point of observation, and nothing but white in all directions. The room began to fade into existence, and she saw wooden walls and a wooden floor. The ceiling was kind of rustic, like nothing she had seen except in old pictures of ancient buildings. The cieling was white plaster, with exposed wooden beams of some sort of dark wood, darker than the floor and walls.
Some bright woven rugs were laying here and there, but there was no furniture and no doors or windows. It was just a room.
In the center, a small pillar appeared and a figure outlined in a glowing beam of light from the ceiling stood there. As Kaylie started to move closer, she realized that she had some sort of body, but it was amorphous and had no features. Just the hint of arms and legs and torso.
The small glowing figure left the pillar and flew up to her. She peered at it, and as the light faded she saw a small, fairy type creature. “Who are you,” she asked?
The fairy answered, “Earlier players have called me Tinkerbell, and you may as well.”
“Tinkerbell?” Kaylie asked, confused. “Like the fairy tale?”
“Apparently,” Tinkerbell said. “I looked it up after, and at first I was a little annoyed, but I got over it. Firgured it was a bit appropriate.”
“So are you my guide?” Kaylie had played some MMORPG type games before and the use of some sort of guide to get started was pretty typical. She’d never seen a fairy guide, however.
“I am here to answer any questions you may have, yes. There are some things that I cannot tell you: you must figure it out for yourself by experiencing Olympus Online.”
“How can I win?” Kaylie figured she’d go for the most basic one first. She didn’t really care about all of the lore, although she’d probably have to pretend in order to get through the game. She had always been the type to just skip the descriptions and dialog offered by the game NPCs - she just clicked on ‘Accept’ and most often used an add-on or guide program to find where she needed to kill 100 wolves or whatever. The point of playing games was to be rewarded, however the game rewarded you. Diving into the game lore and history never interested her.
“You can win by completing quests for the Gods. Living, fighting, and perhaps dying for the Great Gods…”
“Okay,” interrupted Kaylie. May these Gods save her from long-winded Role playing crap! “What are the rewards?” Loot, sweet loot that she could show off to make her friends jealous, thats what she was here for. Well, that, and the ability to forget about her daily life for a while.
Tinkerbell, glaring at the interruption, started again, “You will be rewarded by completing quests from the Gods…”
Kaylie cut her short again. “Okay, the Gods are important, got it. Lets get started. Can I choose a character now?”
Tinkerbell stared at her for a second with her mouth open, then snapped it shut. With a visible effort, she said “Yes, you can choose a character, called an Avatar. You can only choose once, so choose carefully.”
Kaylie started. One character? “Only one? But what if I get bored and want to switch?” She normally played a multitude of characters, as she quickly would get tired of the gameplay of a certain class or style and want to change it up often.”
“You only get one.” Tinkerbell smiled. This certainly was a realistic AI, better than most, but still only a computer simulation.
“Fine, show me the choices.”
“Touch the pillar and you will enter the character selection interface.” Tinkerbell remained floating in the air, watching Kaylie like she was waiting for another objection.
Kaylie ignored her now that she had gotten the information she wanted, and approached the pillar, reaching out with an amorphous hand and touching the stone. A screen popped up in midair, with three options highlighted: Race, Sex, and Class. She pushed the Race button. Immediately a dialog popped up and it said “Race Selection Locked - Human.”
Kaylie turned to Tinkerbell. “Why can’t I select a different race than human?”
Tinkerbell answered, “Currently only Humans can be Avatars. No other races are available at hte current time.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Kaylie turned back to the screen without answering. Sex was a no-brainer - she was sticking with female. She had no reason to change it, although she had several friends who refused to play a female character in online games. They claimed they got harassed too much. Kaylie was the opposite: if dumb males wanted to give her gold and loot simply because she was a female, she wouldn’t turn it down.
That left “Class” and when she selected it, a choice list illuminated with the basic choices. The list included Barbarian, Sorcerer, Assassin, Warrior, and Craftsman. Kaylie pondered the list quickly. Barbarian was right out, as well as Warrior. Without even reading the description she had no desire to be beating her head against monsters in melee combat. That style of gameplay was boring, and in a virtual immersion like this, would likely hurt. The memory of that pain calibration was still fresh in her mind, and she wanted to avoid any painful situations that she could. Dressing up in plate armor and letting monsters beat on her didn’t fit that description.
She also ignored Craftsman. Spending hours gathering ingredients and crafting items held no appeal to her either. She’d known people who found that fascinating, and eventually they ended up with more gold than anyone and could buy anything. That part was attractive, but not the work that went into it. She’d much rather explore and exploit other players into getting what she wanted - it was faster and easier.
That left Sorcerer and Assassin. She clicked Sorcerer and read the description that popped up:
Sorcerer – Sorcerers are magic users, exclusively. Centuries of study in the magic arts have allowed these fighters to use mana at a level impossible for all others. All types of magic are available, depending on the choice and training of the Sorcerer. Both offensive and defensive spell types can by learned by the sorcerer. Intellect is the main stat for Sorcerers, and they receive 2 points in Intellect and Stamina per level. Can use Cloth armor only. Can use wands and staffs only.
Huh. She liked the idea of being a magic user, but that “defensive spell type” caught her eye. Aha! Sorcerers were apparently intended to be able to heal and shield other players. Not that she would have to heal, but she was familiar enough with MMORPGs to know that eventually, if you could heal, you would be shoe-horned into it. Kaylie wasn’t interested in being a heal-bot, either. Moving on to Assassin, she clicked the tab.
Assassin – Assassins are thieves, rogues, and scouts. Assassins are based around the unseen world and ranged combat. All paths are available to a skilled Assassin, and they are highly dependent on their equipment and skills. Assassins can use up to Chainmail armor, but experience penalties to stamina and agility with armor above Leather type. Assassins can use all ranged weapons, along with short swords and daggers. Assassins receive 2 points in Agility and Stamina per level.
Ho ho! As Kaylie read the description, she smiled. This was perfect! Ability to sneak around, steal loot, and use ranged weapons meant that she would be able to stay out of melee combat and hopefully avoid taking any damage. This suited her playstyle perfectly. She had always been attracted to the rogue type characters. She turned to Tinkerbell.
“I choose the Assassin,” she said.
Tinkerbell nodded, and with a wave of her hand the dispelled the window in front of Kaylie. Another popped up, with several more choices for her to make; Hair, Skin, Eyes, and Size.
She quickly went through the choices, choosing to have dark hair, about shoulder length, and coffee colored skin. Eyes she took a while, wanting them to be unique, and eventually settled on eyes of a startling, electric blue that seemed to glow a bit from within. Size she also took a while, as it encompassed her entire body. She set it a bit taller than she herself was at about 5’10, and made her waist about as small as was possible. Breasts were generous, larger than her own, but not gigantic (who knew if there would be back pain in this world), and hips that flared out into a nice hourglass shape. Studying her avatar, she made small changes, wanting it to be attractive and catch any males’ eyes that passed by, but not outrageously sexy or voluptous. She enjoyed male attention, espeically in a game, but she didn’t want to be overwhelmed by attention wherever she went either.
Tinkerbell studied her creation and waited for several minutes after Kaylie had made her last change. “Are you complete?”
Kaylie inspected her avatar. Good boobs and butt, check. Dark skin and arresting eyes, check. Arresting eyes that smoldered, check. She could work with this. “Yes, I’m finished,” she answered.
Tinkerbell gestured again, and the avatar image disappeared. Immediately Kaylie felt her body change, morphing into the avatar she had chosen. A tall mirror appeared in front of her, and she examined her body and she slowly turned in front of it. “Looks great!” she said.
A last gesture, and another box appeared. It said simply, “Name?” Kaylie thought about it. Did she want to change her name? She had used a variety of names in games over the years, but for the life of her she couldn’t come up with anything right now. Turning, she observed the way her hair fell away from her face, slithering across her chest as she moved. Deciding, she said, “Slither.”
Tinkerbell coughed, hiding a smile under her hand. Unbelievable! This…computer program was laughing at her? Kaylie’s first instinct to change it was dispelled by her outrage, and she reaffirmed it, saying “I want my name to be Slither.”
Tinkerbell nodded, still snickering softly, and said, “Very well. Welcome to Olympus Online, and may you find favor with the Gods.”
Whatever, thought Kaylie. Forcing a smile, she said, “Alright, send me in!”
Tinkerbell waved her hand again, and Kaylie’s vision exploded into white light again, before fading to black and she disappeared from sight.
As Kaylie’s form dissipated into motes of light, Tinkerbell watched with a smile. Talking aloud to the empty room, she said, “Hope you find what you deserve, Slither.” With a last chuckle, the room and Tinkerbell disappeared as well.