:08/11/2251:

The next day I found myself rushing through standard calisthenics. For the first time in my life, I felt like I couldn't wait to log-in to the virtual realm and leave the grim, claustrophobic confines of my cell behind. I scanned my email as the system loaded up, skimming through the welcome emails and the notifications on optional employee orientation as well as my mentoree schedule. The welcome emails where the standard marketing jazz on how DDO had fifteen billion players, a larger population than had even been living on earth some few generations ago. It was cool and all, but I knew from the streams that the Virtual World itself had grown so large that one could walk from dawn to dusk in the woods and never once run into another player. 

I deleted the employee orientation notices. I knew from the forums that nothing worthwhile would be learned there and that my actual projects and training would all be coming from my assigned mentor. I was admittedly concerned about the quality of the mentor I would get, dreading running into another Father figure, but the risk was a small price to pay for my new career. 

As an Employee Collaborator, I would be in charge of running certain encounters and scripted events on a rough schedule. Because I was also an Employee Streamer, my actual work schedule would be reduced by one-third and, in addition to my live streaming, the company would then have the right to archive and edit my vids into their weekly recaps or monthly movies as they saw fit. The contract removed pretty much all of the standard privacy restrictions and still demanded a bit of work on my part, but the trade off was that I wouldn't have to find a job anywhere else and could, literally, spend the rest of my life in this fantastical virtual wonderland. 

To be honest, the removal of the privacy restrictions and the knowledge that I could someday wind up in movies or professionally edited recaps was more than worth it to me. And more, after being derided and hated - the object of pure disgust - for so many years, the idea of my beautiful self being looked at, of being watched, sent little tingles down my spine and through my entire body. No, for me like for many star-struck girls and boys my age, the lack of privacy itself was less of a drawback and more of a perk. Enough that even though an Internship would result in a salary of literally zero credits, a risky endeavor that did nothing more than pay for the basic costs of remaining alive, the chance was a dream come true in just about every way. The company knew this as well and played it up to the degree that it had the single largest player audience in the System. It picked up on the dream of magic, on celebrity culture, and it used that to draw in, literally, billions from every corner of our worlds. 

Not that everyone was a streamer. No, for every one of me there were at least two rogues who hoarded secret builds and grinding spots, farming exotic weapons and accessories and selling them for real money on the games auction system - players guarding their secrets and using every hidden advantage to become rich on exploits and hidden mechanics. For every one of me, even, there were five casual gamers who logged into the system after work or after some patch or update, sightseeing and playing around in a novel world as their outlet after a busy day. 

Not every Employee was a streamer either. Anything that required an active, sentient hand required the assistance of a player. Because sensory feedback in the game was locked at 75 to 105% for all players, the AI was not able to actively manage difficult player encounters. The laws of Robotics prevented the AI from directly causing or plotting to cause the players physical pain or discomfort, and so, outside of scripted events and abilities, each and every mega-event or champion AI had to be directly controlled or scripted by a logged-in Employee. 

Some employee role-players even went so far as to choose the roles of popular NPCs, to run and manage the NPC behavior directly from a first person perspective for years at a time. Which meant that the random street sweeper could be an advanced AI programmed to think that the world was real, or it could be a real person, employed by the company to spend every day sweeping the street of a digital world. There was really almost no way of know which was which, and every NPC encounter came with a certain element of curiosity and wonder. 

My thoughts came to an abrupt halt as Matti awoke and my system came fully online. I knew that during rest hours, Matti was farmed out to help process daily maintenance and research functions, but even still she always sounded groggy first thing in the morning. Like she was actually waking up too from a long period of sleep. "Good morning, Magpie. Would you like some liquid stimulants this morning?" It was funny to me how much had changed in my life, how radically different everything was now going to be, and yet how the beloved AI still sounded exactly the same as she had every morning for as far back as I could remember.

"No Matti, I want to log in first thing. Please bring up DDO and transfer me." It was something I could do through my menus, but I also knew that Matti could do it considerably faster and I didn't have a moment to lose. Not the way I felt this morning. 

"As you wish, Maggie," using my old, childhood nickname, as if she was picking up on my sudden, uncharismatic nostalgia. "Transfering... now."

And with that, my world again went black.

Menus appeared in front of me, bringing up my character and immediately proceeding to the login options. As DDO characters were so intrinsically related to the player abilities, and since the game had a working gold-to-credits system, each player was only allowed to play a single character at a time. The process of creating a new character was completely locked outside real money transfers and outright deletion. 

Sensory Feedback: 105% Confirmed. 

Hyper-realism mode, activated.

Gamma Scale: 250% Confirmed

Low light vision, activated.

AI Assist: Maximum

Full assist confirmed

(Warning: AI Assist restricted by Int. Raise INT to improve)

Content filters: Off

Language filters: Off

Live Streaming: On (Locked)

Streaming Perspective: 3rd Person Cinematic Confirmed.

Content Warning:  Adult Content, 18+ Confirmed.

Sliding all settings up to maximum, as was recommended for first time players, I went ahead and confirmed my selections. I knew that hard-core combat players eventually lowered their emersion settings to minimum, immersion junkies, and skill-monkies eventually lowered their AI Assist to Medium or Low, etc. Depending on the player's playstyle the settings could be more fully adjusted during log-in, but I didn't want to min-max just yet. No, I had no idea what I was doing, and yet the idea of experiencing this new world in more-real-than-real (Trademark) emersion both excited and tempted me. And so, maximum settings were absolutely my only real choice going in.

The world loaded up, living up to the hype with room to spare. The colors felt more alive than anything I had ever seen before. The smells were more vivid. Even the dirt beneath my bare feet seemed somehow more heavy and real than should have been possible. I took a few minutes to just stand there, waiting for my senses to adjust to the hyper-real feedback, taking in the sights and smells of the lush forest around me. 

I knew this was the standard, instanced tutorial area. All I had to do was walk around a bit and I'd be approached by some NPS or another welcoming me to the world and giving me a brief introduction to the lore. But, for now, I wasn't interested in that at all. Instead, I picked up a rock and flung it as hard as I could at the nearest tree. For the first time in my life, the standard violence and content filters were fully off and, rather than receiving a warning and a behavior correction, this world allowed me to carry out the first actual violent act of my entire life.

The rock sailed through the air, spinning and tumbling end over end, until it fell pathetically a few feet short and to the right of my target. There were no skills in DDO, and the only thing limiting my ability to throw the rock at the tree was my own inexperience and my somewhat pathetic lack of strength. Which meant that, beautifully, I could teach myself to get better. To become something in this world that I could never have dreamed of being anywhere else. Not a collection of numbers and readouts, but an actual, honest to god death machine inside this realm and out. 

I picked up another rock and threw it, closing my eyes and pushing every ounce of strength and raw passion out through my fevered pitch. This time the rock flew a couple of feet, burying itself in the dirt at my feet and sending a billowing cloud of dust and dirt back to cascade across the skin of my bare legs. I then, suddenly self-conscious, glanced up at the sky to where I knew the perspective of my stream would be, and I felt suddenly aware that, literally, billions of people could be watching these first, fumbling steps of my stream. Laughing themselves onto the floors of their Axis Rooms in hysterics at my absolute inability to do something as simple as throw a rock at a tree.

I blushed and wished for a moment that I had taken up one of the Virtu-Sports teams that had tried to recruit me in Junior High. If I had learned to throw a baseball or a basketball on some digital court, I felt like I maybe wouldn't be flopping around right now like quite so much of a fish out of water. Still, the idea of the large, pudgy hand of the adolescent I was throwing a pitch, the folds of my body flapping and slapping against one another as I ran and as I swung a bit... even still the very idea of it filled my own mind with disgust and with horror. No, no, it wasn't worth it to even think about. All that was left was to use my fledging agility score to learn here, in this world, free and wearing a body that was more mine than anything I would have known before.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I remembered that, in the best streams I had watched, the ones that had been archived and watched over and over again, they didn't just have some player walking around and fiddling with things in their environment. No, they had a running commentary. Aware that they where on camera, being seen by viewers in the millions every passing second, the streamers had filled their feeds with a string of running commentary. Throwing an ax at the fourth wall so hard it was like they were trying to break out of the screens and walk into the lives of their viewers.

"Hello everyone," the musical, faerie-song notes of my voice startling me for a moment. Such a contrast with the deep. throaty tone of my earlier simulated bulk that the notes themselves almost startled me. For a second, I wanted to continue talking forever, to just lose myself in the sound of my own wonderful voice and never come back to earth. "And welcome to my stream. I hope you all noticed the Adult Content warnings! Teehee!" My laugh should have sounded sarcastic and pathetic, resonant notes pretending at beauty and cuteness, but instead, this new voice in this new world lived up to my wildest dreams and then some. I paused then, the beautiful, musical notes of my own forced laugh washing through me, and my mind struggled to process that these notes had come out of my very own lips and it was my own voice I was hearing. It was cute and beautiful and mystical, that sound, and I literally felt my eyes glaze over with the subtle hint of tears as my mind struggled to accept what I had heard.

When I shook off my own shock, my own awe, I smiled. I opened my mouth and I laughed, not the forced sounds of simulated cuteness, but a deep, throaty roar of mirth and triumph and freedom. It was a primal, bestial cry and yet... at the same time it was the single most beautiful thing that I had ever heard in my life. I couldn't stop, I didn't want to stop, as the notes kept pouring forth. As I had feared my viewers would do but moments before, I find myself falling to the ground and rolling around in the dirt, crying out my eyes as the billowing notes of my laughter sounded deep into the lonely starter woods.

Little did I know that, in the years to come, that laugh would become a sound bite added to the beginning of all my edited videos. The throaty, exhilarated notes of that laugh would introduce each and every new viewer to my videos. Starting off the tone of my life with a single, primal cry of unadulterated freedom.

After I finally got myself under control, I paused in the dirt and wiped the tears from my eyes. I really noticed then, for the first time that, due to my restrictions, I had not started the game with the customary set of armors. Rather, I was wearing nothing at all save the toggleable set of underwear available to every character.  I quickly checked my status menu and confirmed that every single equipment slot of my character was empty, leaving me absolutely naked, in game terms, of any and all adornment.

Getting up, I brushed the dirt off of my skin and from the thin, cotton fabric of the default undies. Glancing back at where I knew the cinematic camera setting would default to, I blushed, "Well, the designers didn't really leave anything to your imagination, now did they? Though I do hope you like what you see!" I exclaimed it and did a little twirl, showing off the fine, long limbs and fluttery, gossamer 'wings' of my modified avatar for my audience. It was a little embarrassing, really, especially with the hyper-real sensations making me suddenly aware of the breeze against my stomach, against my thighs. However, the right move wasn't to hide or be bashful. The right move, as a newly professional streamer, was to be positive and embrace the situation for the viewer's enjoyment. And It was my absolute, dedicated intent to be the most professional, confident online personage that my viewers had ever had the pleasure to watch.

I blushed deep then, after flaunting my new Avatar for the sake of the camera, and made a show of trying to hide my exposed skin. Playing up embarrassment suddenly, unexpectedly, as if having a thought, "Oh, and Daddy? If you someday end up watching this?"  I clenched my thighs together, forcing a slight trembling, even as my eyes never left the cinematic camera, "I do hope you'll forgive me for anything you end up seeing. This has to be so painful for you to watch!"

The camera, I knew, would barely catch the edges of my grin. Recording and broadcasting my hidden message out into the virtual world - documenting for all time the subtle, coded message I had just given my dear, sweet, Father.

I just hoped that he would someday carry it with him into hell. For all eternity. 

Squaring my shoulders, I stood up straight and waved my hand. As if I had just cast my worries off and left them behind me. I hoped I looked confident and professional, more so for the moments of supposed vulnerability I had just 'shown' to my audience. And I cleared my throat to let out a far more confident, steady tone, "But this isn't what you're here to see, now is it? Oh, no, I'm quite certain that it is not. So we had better get this show on the road now, hadn't we?"

I turned and walked through the woods in the direction I had already known to go. Despite the lack of shoes or boots, thankfully, my wild step ability somehow prevented the rocks and branches from tearing apart my feet and legs. The forest felt less like it was a tangled wild of thorns and brambles, and more like it was a cushioned moss bed, designed exclusively for my own walking comfort. It was... an amazing sensation. Moreso than anything I had even dreamed. I carefully described what I was feeling to the audience, and how I presumed it was the result of the Wild Step ability unique to my Elfin race. 

Eventually, I came across the programmed clearing, having just demonstrated basic movement and directional skills to the tutorial AI. In the middle was the Class Trainer, according the scripting, who would train me in my first, basic Class Ability. My Legendary Class, Arch-Druid abilities would be, in theory, somewhat upgraded versions of the basic Druid abilities. At least starting out this should be the case. So I had a very basic, vague idea of what I should expect, going in. That said, the world in person was quite a bit different than anything I had experience just watching the vid-screen, and I was more excited than I expected at the prospect of learning even the basic Abilities.

What would it feel like to shapeshift? To change into a Bear or a giant Wulf (a bipedal Wolfin form reminiscent of a werewolf)? I imagined the feel of fur across my skin and the pointed ends of natural claws extending and retracting from my fingertips. What would it feel like to activate a healing aura, or an aura of warmth, feeling the magic radiating out from my skin? 

These thoughts on my mind I approached the center of the clearing. My trainer wasn't sitting in a little, wizened hut, nor leaning against a rock relaxing in their camp, as I had seen in other vids. For me, in the center of the clearing there appeared a large oak tree, with no signs of human habitation or encroachment. It was a beautiful sight, really, and I took the time to listen to the birdsong as I approached and to run gentle fingers across the ancient, hardened bark of the tree. 

My mentor would be here, I knew, but I had no idea where or what form they would appear in, and I took my time in waiting simply enjoying the taste of the air and the feel of the dirt and grass beneath my feet. They were little things, perhaps for some. But I had spent my days in virtual class settings and corridors, and this little scene of nature was fantastical not only in that it resided in a world of unicorns and magic, but also in that it depicted a natural world of grass and vegetation that no longer existed on any planet in our System. 

A voice spoke to me, breaking the silence, though I couldn't place where it had come from, "Here I was expecting a wizened elder, a Druid of great fame and influence, come to study the lost art of our ancient forebearers. And what do I find?"

I glanced around, senses taking in nothing but the empty clearing and tall tree before me, branches reaching out into the sky and shading the ground below me. Yet, still, the voice came again, "I find a baby girl, hardly even out of diapers, gazing slack-jawed at my home and putting her grubby fingers on absolutely everything."

Looking around, still, I finally figured out that the voice had come from above me. I strained my neck to see who it was that was speaking, eyeing the branches carefully. "Be that as it may, you're supposed to train me. No one said anything about you having to like me." i went ahead and played up the attitude for the benefit of my viewers. I knew that there were certain requirements and restrictions present in a tutorial zone, and so mouthing off to my designated mentor seemed less like an actual risk and more of a way to play it up for my viewers. "Now come down here before the sun starts to set and the mosquitoes come out, I'd like to get things going here."

As the voice came again, my eyes were drawn to a bundle of black feathers, alighting on the tree. Beak moving and sounding the old, male voice that was addressing me. "Oh, impatient, immature, childish Druid. I have waited here for hundreds of years for the first to be worthy of my insights. Worthy of the ancient knowledge that I have guarded for ages past. And I am to relinquish the ancient, feared secrets of our order to... you?" The sound of deep, throaty laughter echoing from the bird's beak was disconcerting, to say the least. But I was no stranger to being laughed at, whether it was for things that I could control or otherwise, and though my heart trembled with his words I found no desire to back down or cower away.

"I did not come here for your ridicule, teacher,"I intoned the word as sarcastically as possible in the tones of my ringing, faerie-bell voice. "I have been sent here by the ancient ones, just as old and powerful as thee. And by the ancient pact I call you to fulfill the obligations of your station." It was a refined version of a user command, basically requiring that the AI managing the character perform its scripted function. I was playing it up, of course, for the audience. But in the end, my intent was simply to execute the scripted result and bypass any rambling cut-scenes that were programmed into this part of the tutorial. It was a well-known fact that NPCs in the game could be wordy and stubborn if you let them, and so certain key language was hard coded in, in order to speed through unnecessary dialogue sections. 

The bird, having been spotted, flew down to a branch closer to my head. "Very well, youngling. If you would not listen and heed my words, we shall cut right to the chase. In accordance with our pact, I bestow upon you the First Ability of the Arch-Druid path. Additional abilities may be unlocked from other trainers for a price, by experimentation, or by the completion of legendary quests and feats of skill."

He looked me up and down, disapproval somehow clearly shining from his avian little eyes, "I see that you lack even the simple Abilities known by the common Druid," tisking at me with his raven beak, he made a purely bird-like sound of recrimination before he continued. "So rather than giving you any rare or exceptional abilities, I think we shall need to start you off with the basics..."

Arch-Druid Ability Unlocked!

Beast Shape (Legendary)

Allows for physical transformation into bestial forms with bestial traits.

Legendary:  

Allows for transformation into exotic species and the retention of exotic abilities.

Enhanced innate bonuses in all forms.

I quickly read the status text and looked up at the bird. "Thank you, Raven. How do I use it?"

The bird coughed at me, in what I read as some odd version of laughter, "Oh no, Arch Druid." He emphasized the description of my legendary class, seemingly finding it funny. "You have chosen to skip to the end and bypass all my advice and warnings. I think you should figure that out all on your own from here on out."

I sucked in a breath as he ruffled his feathers, preparing to alight from his perch. I managed to call out to him in my desperation, "No, no. That's not how this is supposed to work. You know full well that you're supposed to describe the interface and tell me the keyword quick interface options now!"

It was all very much not according to script, but I didn't have time to make sense of why this wasn't turning out like any of the other tutorials I had watched, or what I could say to get things back on track before the bird took off. Coughing his raven-like laughter down on me as he flew away, I suddenly found myself alone in the clearing with an ability unlocked... and absolutely no idea how to actually initiate a shapechange. 

CONGRATULATIONS!

TUTORIAL COMPLETE

Loading into Main World of DDO. Please wait...

 The status screen came up even before I could shut my gaping mouth. And the last words my viewers heard as the world faded out to black was the whispered exclamation,

"Oh. Fuck me in the..."

LOADING...