---------LEGEND---------
PLAYER/USERNAME
Alexander/AlexFae
Amber/Davina
Grace/Lasair
Xia/Genevieve
-------------------------------
And so they reached the semi-finals.
And Alexander had not yet confessed his… um, terrible secret.
It was time to work on it like he promised to Mary.
For the occasion he had asked his teammates to find themselves in one of the inns of a location where the traffic of players at their level in World Level 1 was very limited, even if Xia's computer had become powerful enough to handle a greater data traffic without absurd slowdowns. The place chosen was discreet and vaguely reminiscent of a Far West saloon, except that instead of the pianist and guns there was instead a small stage where a bard - an NPC judging by the data floating above her head - entertained an extremely limited audience composed mostly of other NPCs placed there to give more life to the location.
Alexander showed the others which table to sit at and as soon as all three took their seats, he did the same... the strategy was to take a position closer to the person from whom he expected a less surprised or direct reaction than he would most likely have received from Genevieve.
In other words: Davina.
“So… why did you brought us here? Did you know that the inns in the game are just for chatting since you can't really eat or drink anything?” Genevieve began to say, without even giving him time to psychologically prepare for any negative reaction.
“Yes, I know,” Alexander muttered softly, “and in fact I brought you here to chat in preparation for our meeting in person, maybe we'll have a drink that day,” he brought his hand to his mouth, clenched it into a fist and coughed twice, “uhm, I brought you here because I have something important to tell you.”
“Do you like Genevieve?” Davina asked, pointing a finger at him.
“W-what?? No!"
“So… hm… do you want a skimpier premium dress?” Davina urged.
“Actually, no…” Alexander muttered, lowering his gaze. No system at the time allowed the players to codify the embarrassment on the faces of the avatars, but the body language was present for anyone capable of noticing it.
“C-come on Davina, let her talk…” Lasair whispered, bringing her eyes to him, “please, speak.”
“Thank you,” Alexander said gratefully, “well, before we see each other in person, I want you to know that I am actually a dude.”
A dead silence fell around the quartet table.
"A dude?" Lasair said hesitantly, her long furry ears folded behind her head.
"I knew it! I knew you were a suspicious figure!” Genevieve exclaimed, pointing a finger at him and reaching out with her other arm to 'protect' Lasair.
“Oooohhh!!” Davina was the only one who seemed excited by the revelation, “and do you like being a woman or it's just kink??”
“Um… neither?” Alexander ventured, “I mean: there are a lot of players who are males but enjoy playing female characters…”
“Eggs,” Davina muttered.
“I'm not an egg!” Said no egg ever, "is that female avatars have a greater choice of clothes and are cuter and more stylistic than those for male avatars..."
The exchange between Davina and Alexander seemed to appease Genevieve, but she didn't spare any curiosity, "aren't you a crossdresser or something?"
Alexander nodded, “I like wearing women's clothes.”
“Do… do you also wear makeup?” Lasair asked with a hint of hesitation.
“Actually, no, I find that challenging…” and then he added in a lower voice, “not to mention that I spend a good part of my time doing a job in which no kind of makeup could resist.”
“Egg! Egg!” Davina exclaimed with one hand held to the side of her mouth to make herself heard more and pointing at him with the other.
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“S-stop it!” Alexander exclaimed, “that's not funny!”
Lasair turned her gaze away, hugged herself and murmured softly, “Davina has this natural gift for breaking down barriers…”
At that point it was Genevieve's turn to raise her tone, which was funny considering that her expression never changed due to the technological limitations of her device.
“What… what happened between you and Gra… Lasair??” Genevieve thundered, grabbing Davina by the shoulders and shaking her, “I bet you stuck out those hands of yours! You really can't keep them in your pockets??”
Davina let herself be shaked back and forth swinging her head, “what do think have happened? Nothing happened!" Davina exclaimed in response, “and then… even if it was?” She gave a foxy smile, “would you be jealous of what I saw or touched?”
“Uh…” Genevieve hesitated, her facial expression didn’t change, but her body language together with the movements of her tail and canine ears gave away her uneasiness.
"I thought so," Davina said with a wink. Genevieve released her grip on Davina's shoulders and crossed her arms under her breasts, turning to the side and giving Alexander the expression that she was making an annoyed face with her real body. “Why it took you so long to tell us?”
Alexander shrugged, “I was afraid of how you would react,” he turned his eyes to Davina, then Lasair and finally Genevieve, “I mean, I know there are players who move female characters just to get close to some girl.”
“And then maybe they find out that the girl in question is actually a dude too,” said Genevieve, who seemed to be smiling from the tone of her voice.
“It wouldn't be the first time this has happened to someone, not even the last,” Alexander replied, “so… should I expect any account suspension notifications?” He asked with a small smile.
“N-no! Of course not!” Said Lasair, “you are a key part of our team! You are an irreplaceable element, regardless of whether you are male or female!”
“Who knows, maybe after winning the championship?” Genevieve proposed, mumbling to herself, it was obvious she was joking.
“Yes,” Davina declared with a serious tone and crossing her arms under her breasts, “I won't do it only on one condition!”
Alexander exchanged glances with Lasair, who sighed dejectedly as if she could read her chaotic friend's mind, "let's hear this condition..."
“When we see each other you will have to allow me to put on your makeup and dress, without any protest!”
“Deal,” he said, extending his hand to seal the deal with a good shake.
Davina shook his hand, “then we're good!”
“But now I don't know what I should call you… she or he?” Genevieve asked, placing a hand under her chin as if in thought.
Alexander withdrew his hand, "actually I don't really care, I would say that when I use my avatar it becomes more natural to call me a she, so keep calling me a she."
“So if I make you up to the point where you really look like a woman we will use the she?” Davina asked, who from the expression on her face was already fantasizing about all the ways she could play dress-up with him.
“Um…” Alexander stiffened his shoulders, “that would sound inappropriate to me.”
“But if you just said that if you pass for a woman…”
“End of discussion!” Alexander interrupted.
“You're a killjoy!” Davina pouted.
“Changing the subject,” Genevieve interjected, “AlexFae, you that knows the most about gaming jargons and terminologies among us… do you happen to know what it means when someone is able to dissociate?”
He nodded, “even if we are aware that we are moving in a virtual world in which we don't have real bodies, we still unconsciously think as if we have bodies of flesh and blood. This places limitations on reaction speed and the ability to respond quickly to attacks as well as evade them.”
The three girls remained silent, listening attentively.
“Players who manage to dissociate are also able to unconsciously reason with a body made of pixels and information, this allows them to perform acrobatics and movements that with a real human body would be very complicated or destined to cause some physical damage,” Alexander finished explaining , “probably, both Nosis and Dravaros are capable of doing this.”
“According to Nosis, I'm capable of doing it too,” Genevieve commented, “that's why I was interested, to defeat Nosis, I applied this way of thinking as you described it.”
“That's a good thing as a player!” Alexander exclaimed with a smile, “a little less as a person. Dissociation can be natural or learned, in both cases it more or less leads to feeling a sense of alienation in the real body. As if the real body were the fictitious one and vice versa.”
“And isn't there a way to learn to dissociate without feeling alienation?” Davina asked.
“It's possible,” Alexander confirmed, “but it's a fine line, a balance between real life and virtual life that most players can't maintain.”
“So… what are the best ways to practice it?” Asked Genevieve, “if we want to win the tournament we have to be at our best, if I have this potential and it can be developed in time for the next matches it's time to do it.”
The three girls remained silent, Alexander taking a moment before saying, “If I were you I wouldn't do it. As mentioned, it is a practice that puts you one step ahead of other players, but which will begin to thin that line that separates reality from the virtual world. You may reach a point where you no longer understand the difference between your two bodies, or decide to discard the 'less powerful' one in favor of the other.”
Genevieve, judging by her body language, became more thoughtful. From Alexander's perspective she was evaluating her ability to maintain balance between the two worlds, but it was more likely that she was evaluating whether it was even worth trying to do it.
Except for school grades, no good grades, no virtual world.
“I'll think about it,” Genevieve finally said evasively.
Alexander nodded a few times, “if you want my opinion, winning a trophy isn't worth losing touch with reality.”
Genevieve shrugged, “good thing I didn't want it then.”
Alexander sighed, he had learned that Genevieve was like this and he sincerely hoped that once he met her in real life she would have behaved differently, “good. Other than that… are we okay? No enmity for not being honest right away?”
“It's n-no problem for me, you’re always you,” Lasair murmured.
“Creep,” Genevieve muttered.
“Egg,” Davina said, giggling with her lips covered by her hands.
"Come on, give me a break now!” He exclaimed in exasperation.