“Access names have been locked,” the dry announcement repeated. “You will now select your Aspects. Open the Aspects Menu to proceed.”

“But I don’t want my name to be Karen,” Manuele said, face falling and voice getting quieter with every word.

Poor guy, Matt thought. Then, Aspects Menu? How do I—shit.

The menu appeared, floating a few feet in front of him. It was a large black window, taking up one-third of his field of view, a stark black hole against the white of the room. Matt reached out to touch it and his arm disappeared into the interface.

He tried to look around it, but the black window moved with him. Matt tested turning to the right. He could see Fallyn across the circle, but the window always stayed in the center of his view. The trick, he decided, was to look beside her, not at her, and then glance without moving his head. The others in his group were quiet. Fallyn’s eyes moved left-right, left-right.

Matt supposed he should also get reading. His window said ‘Aspects’ in big white letters and then ‘No class selected’ below that. There were six gems lined up along the bottom, faintly glowing in different colors: red, blue, purple, green, lighter purple, neon green. They were each a different shape too, but Matt didn’t know gem cuts, and they didn’t seem like shapes he’d seen in jewelry anyways.

“Hey guys, do you have these gem things too?” Matt asked.

“I do,” confirmed Anika.

“Yep,” called Sharkie.

“Crimson, navy, plum,…” Manuele listed.

Sharkie raised an eyebrow.

Under the ‘No class selected,’ there were six circular spots, like recessed shelves in the planar void. Five were empty. One contained a school bus yellow gem and was labeled ‘Earth 1 (0/1000).’ Two of the empty alcoves looked brighter than the rest.

Okay, so how do I get Thanos powers?

An additional tiny text box popped up in answer.

It understood that? Shit…

Matt read: ‘Choose two aspects. These will set your class. Your choices are Blood and Protection (Warrior), Shadow and Trap (Survivalist), Arcane and Spirit (Mage).’ As he read the words, the gems glowed in response. Blood and Protection, he thought, testing, and the red and blue gems glowed again. Shadow and Trap, he tried next. Sure enough, the purple and green gems glowed. Arcane and Spirit. The light purple and neon green gems flared.

I can do things with my mind! Matt grinned.

“Okay, we’re officially in a video game,” Sharkie commented loudly.

“This opens up so many design possibilities,” Anika marveled. “I work in UX. If we could do this… I mean, it changes everything.”

“Hey, how are you doing there, Manuele?” Matt checked in. The guy seemed like he was having a hard time with his girlfriend and everything.

“Reading,” was all Manuele replied.

Matt focused back on his interface. Now, what are these different classes?

As he’d hoped, another text box popped up in explanation. Matt began to read, ‘Warrior,’ and as he thought the word, the red and blue gems flared. The text box listed: ‘Heavy or medium armor, two-handed swords, two-handed axes, two-handed maces, dual-wield swords, dual-wield axes, sword and shield.’

That sounds like a warrior class, I guess. Go smash things with big weapons?

Matt moved on to ‘Survivalist.’ The red and blue gems dimmed, and the darker of the purple and green ones brightened. The text specified: ‘Medium or light armor, dual-wield daggers, dual-wield swords, bows, throwing weapons.’

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So, melee or ranged, Matt reflected. Less smashy-smashy, more stabby-shooty.

Then Matt moved on to the final class, ‘Mage,’ making the light purple and neon green gems light up. It read: ‘Light or medium armor, staffs, talismans, wands.’

Shorter description. That was fine. He knew what a mage was.

“Hey guys,” Matt started, trying to look around the interface but forgetting not to move his head. Damn thing. “What are you choosing?”

“I don’t know but this is awesome,” Sharkie said.

“I guess we have to?” Anika asked.

As if on cue, the full-volume announcement said, “Five Earth minutes remaining for Aspect selection. Failure to select will result in automatic assignment.”

“I guess we do,” Anika confirmed. “Who here plays video games?”

Kurtis and Sharkie both raised a hand.

“Do phone games count?” Manuele asked.

“I’ve played a little,” offered Matt. “Back in school.” It had been a while.

“This sounds like an MMO,” said Kurtis, “with the classes.”

“Well then I’m out,” said Sharkie. “Shooters are my jam.”

“I can try to share what I know,” Kurtis said hesitantly.

“Yes please,” Anika requested.

“So, does anyone know DnD?” He paused. “Magic?” He paused. “Um, let’s try Lord of the Rings. You know with the hobbits and the wizard and the rings… Yes?”

“Yeah, with the hairy hobbit feet,” Manuele confirmed.

“Perfect,” Kurtis said. “So, there you had a group of people with different abilities. Like, Gimli had his big axes, Legolas was more nimble and shot things with arrows. They had to work together to defeat monsters and complete the big quest. Following so far?”

“You’re saying the classes dictate abilities and affect how we’ll work in a group?” Fallyn said.

“Yes!” Kurtis pointed at Fallyn with both hands. “Exactly! I’m so glad that worked.” He smiled.

The group waited for more.

“Um, right,” said Kurtis. “So, MMOs usually have quests, these are tasks you go complete like how the hobbits had to destroy the ring. But that was a big quest. These are usually smaller. And most games have both things you can do on your own as well as things you can do with a group. And…” He was rambling.

Sharkie piped up, “And that means?”

“Well, if we assume group play, then we’ll need a tank, healer, and DPS… uh damage, and the tank is the one that keeps the monsters’ attention. You knew that already? Uh, it doesn’t say which is which.” He paused to scratch behind an orange ear. “If I had to guess, I’d look at the armor. Heavy for tanking, light for heals? But I’m just guessing.”

“Any recommendations for how to choose?” Fallyn asked.

“Well, if this were a normal MMO, instead of whatever this is…” Kurtis gestured to their surroundings. “I mean, what’s your playstyle? Do you want to be ranged or up close? And then how squishy do you want to be? Like how much armor you have to protect you. The mage will obviously be casting magic, which is pretty neat. The others may or may not use magic but seem like they’ll have some cool weapon proficiencies. Sharkie, you might like that.”

“These Aspect names sound, I don’t know…” Manuele said. “They sound, like… like, ‘Blood’ what is that? ‘Spirit’ is good, but ‘Shadow’? ‘Blood’? Even ‘Trap,’ I mean, what is that?”

“Live a little, Karen,” egged Sharkie.

“So, if I want to be magical and stay at a safe distance, that’s mage?” asked Anika.

“Correct,” said Kurtis.

“But I would be less durable than warrior?” she continued.

“Correct,” Kurtis confirmed again.

“Wait a sec,” said Matt. “If there’s group play, should we try to coordinate?”

“We can,” responded Kurtis with some hesitance.

“How many of each do we need?” Matt asked. “There are six of us, three options. We could have two people choose each.”

“In a lot of games,” Kurtis explained, “you have more DPS than healers and tanks. So, we can probably just be flexible.”

“So, one warrior and one mage and the rest survivalist,” Matt revised.

“Survivalist sounds like I’m going to survive if it’s dangerous,” Manuele said slowly. “Is there danger?”

“Kurtis did mention monsters with the hobbits thing,” said Anika.

Manuele grimaced.

Matt attempted to think through the group roles angle. He usually found himself trying to be helpful. So, would that fit tanking, maybe, or healing? But Kurtis wasn’t even sure if that’s how it worked. When Matt had tried these games with his roommates back in school, he’d been a damage-dealer. But he hadn’t played much and that was a long time ago. Plus, maybe Manuele was on to something: what was up with these aspect names?

What does Blood mean? Matt tried, but no window popped up. What does Shadow mean? Nothing. What does Blood, the Aspect, mean? He tried again. I guess that would have been too easy.

“I think we need a plan,” Matt declared. “Is it one warrior, one mage, and the rest survivalist? Who wants to do what?”

“One Earth minute remaining for Aspect selection. Failure to select will result in automatic assignment.”

Shit.

“Too late,” said Sharkie. She glowed for a moment, with pale white light.

Did she just glow?

Matt had less than thirty seconds to make a choice. Warrior, survivalist, mage, warrior, survivalist, mage. He cycled through the glowing pairs of gems.

Large semi-transparent numbers counted down in front of him: ‘10, 9, 8,…’

What are the others choosing? We need one of each.

‘4, 3,…’

This one. Matt glowed.