Wednesday, August 27th, 2042, Sumner, Portland, Oregon.
Ryan had his character all planned out. He would create a priest—one of the two starting healers, a role always in demand. Next he had narrowed it down to a Half-blood felinae; there was something appealing about a character who was both familiar and exotic. The expressive cat ears and tail would be an undeniable advantage when trying to charm his way through problems. Nobody could resist an adorable catgirl.
For the rest of her appearance, he knew exactly who he would model her after—Megan. Not just her looks, but her confidence. Strong, captivating, in control.
There was no need for him to waste hours in character creation. He knew exactly what he wanted. He scrolled through the options, picked the features that fit, and soon enough, Kaelyn Moonshadow would come to life—a sleek feline priestess ready to take on the world.
His phone alerted him when the download completed. Ryan let out a sigh of relief. “Finally.” This was just a game, but it was a chance to break free from the monotony of his everyday life. Here, he could try something new, something different.
He sat down, snapping the neural link into place at the base of his neck. His personal hub loaded—the familiar cyberpunk setting bathed in neon purple and turquoise lights. If A Realm Reforged Again impressed him, maybe he would buy and install the official theme later. Sure, that was another way companies successfully nickel-and-dimed him. But when Ryan liked a game, he did not mind throwing more money at the creators. He saw it like giving out a tip. Except in this case, he got a little something out of it.
Quickly navigating to the game’s icon, Ryan launched the application. As soon as the game logo appeared with the create character option, he immediately pressed the button with a flourish, failing to notice his unusually translucent limbs.
“Choose your creator”, the interface prompted, both through a gentle voice and floating text.
Ryan raised an eyebrow. Choose your creator? “Sounds like something lore nerds will obsess over,” he muttered. He was about to pick at random when he paused.
“If I’m going to roleplay as a catgirl, maybe I should pick something that fits her character,” he said, pausing. “If I was here just to grind like other games, I wouldn’t care, but…”
He scrolled through the list. Astralius, god of illumination? That sounded way too righteous. Luxoria, goddess of radiance? A decent fit for a healer, but not quite what he had in mind. Umber, god of secrecy? Closer. Nocturne, goddess of mysteries? “Perfect!” he smiled. The goddess herself was a tall, mysterious figure shrouded in black, her face hidden beneath a heavy hood. Everything about her radiated mystery and intrigue.
“Now we’re talking, Goddess of Mysteries, it is,” Ryan said, confirming his choice.
The image of Nocturne and the interface filled with lore that was filling his screen soon faded away, leaving him alone in darkness. Suddenly, he felt light-headed, his vision swimming as dizziness washed over him. He blinked and rubbed his eyes, surprised when his hand—slimmer and more delicate than usual—came into view. The hand mere inches away from his face was nothing like his normal one. He could see the black sleeve reaching all the way to his wrist, and he knew that his current avatar looked nothing like his normal VR self.
Looking down, he saw that his body had changed. His clothes felt different, tighter. There was a slight weight on his chest that was foreign, but oddly, it did not feel wrong. Rationally, he knew what had happened—the game had placed him in the body of Nocturne.
“Huh,” he said, but he cut himself. The voice he spoke with? It was not his—he knew it was Nocturne’s, even though he had never heard her speak before. But it sounded just like he imagined she would speak.
“I wonder if it’s going to feel that weird once it’s my character’s body,” he said, musing. He said the words aloud, studying how using her voice felt.
A small window appeared in front of him. A percentage going up at a steady pace “Body calibration in progress, please wait.”
Gradually, the disorienting sensations faded, and Ryan felt more grounded. The game’s calibration system had successfully adjusted, making it feel like this body was his own, even if it was a temporary one. “So this is their way of fixing the body mismatch issues?” he realised.
With a final flex of his fingers, he turned his attention back to the screen. “Choose your species,” it read. Once he found it, he quickly selected the Half-blood felinae option, followed by the female avatar.
The customisation interface unfolded, but he breezed through it, adjusting sliders with practiced ease.
He set the height to five foot four—Megan’s height. Skin tone matched hers, with a warm, sun-kissed hue. Facial features carefully adjusted to mirror her captivating gaze and confident smile. He added a touch of his own preference: slitted, cat-like green eyes that seemed to glow.
When he reached the body customisation, he hesitated for a moment before maxing out the bust slider. A fleeting disappointment crossed his mind when he realized the limits were far from as exaggerated as he had expected. “What kind of hot-blooded male wouldn’t immediately push that slider to the max?” he said aloud, defending his choice to no one in particular.
The avatar rotated before him—a striking catgirl priestess with long, flowing honey-blonde hair, dark at the roots and lighter toward the ends. Her ears and tail matched, twitching subtly, as if alive. The starter gear was undeniably bold: a cropped top that revealed toned abs, a micro-skirt, thigh-high leggings, and fingerless gloves. The ensemble exuded confidence and allure, and ear swaying tail and twitching ears were icing on the cake. Kaelyn Moonshadow was almost ready to enter the Realm.
But before that, Ryan, in Nocturne’s body, smiled mischievously. He had Kaelyn strike a few runway poses, using the screenshot function in rapid succession. He singled out a striking shot and attached it to a message he sent to Megan. “Hey Meg, check this out!” he typed.
A Heart emoji appeared at the bottom of his screenshot.
“Oh, hey! Who’s the cutie?” she asked. Well, that wasn’t the expected response, but it wasn’t a bad one either.
“Don’t you think she looks kinda like you?” he asked without answering her question, focusing on the more important one.
Laughing emoji. “Heh, my boss sure would love that…!”
Wait, she didn’t see the resemblance? Ryan wondered where he went wrong. He was sure he had captured everything right.
“Anyway, huh… So that’s my character I made for this new VR game.” He sent another message explaining who Kaelyn was.
A pause.
“Oh, my…! Really? Guys won’t leave you alone for a minute looking like that.”
Ryan did not feel it was necessary to point that out. It was all part of the plan, after all. He typed his reply, feeling he at least managed to one part right. He would turn heads looking like that, for sure.
“Yep! That’s the idea!”
Another pause.
“Well, if that’s your idea of fun…”
He could just feel the uneasiness and hesitation in her reply. How could he salvage things? Ah, got it!
He quickly explained the next part of his plan. “-- I am going to play a healer!”
Shocked emoji. “Dressed like that?”
Well, that was just her starter gear. Ryan had no plan to stop there. Was it not a rule of online games that higher-level armour for female characters covered less and less skin?
He sent his reply, but pivoted the subject a little away from clothes. “Yeah, of course. Going to be the most spoiled princess in the entire game. Might as well look the part.”
Thinking emoji. “Princess isn’t what comes to mind with that getup.”
Ryan knew healers were not literally princess, but the community often referred to the more difficult and picky ones that way. He did not really want to explain all this, so instead he opted to joke.
“Queen, then?”If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
“Yeah. Sure. But hey, have fun in there. You still free in two days? Evening after my shift?” she asked, dropping the subject.
“Yep, my schedule’s all clear, babe!”
He did not need to check. He had nothing important going on.
Thumbs up emoji.
But Megan did not reply any further.
The conversation had not gone the way he had planned. He thought his choices would flatter Megan. Maybe surprise her or make her laugh. But she sounded dismissive, perhaps even annoyed. Maybe she was just in the middle of something?
Ryan’s attention finally returned to the game. He clicked the button to confirm his selection.
“On Umber’s First Darksday of Harvestfall, 1442, Kaelyn Moonshadow was born. May the sixteen watch over her as she navigates the shifting shadows of secrets untold.”
“Edgy,” he said, snickering, just before everything faded to black, leaving only behind in glowing white font the following text: “We welcome you, Ryan. Now it’s time for Kaelyn to wake up.”
In the darkness, an odd sensation hit him in the stomach. Dizziness, similar to the one he had felt earlier, visited him once more. A window popped up, a progress bar about calibration inched haltingly forward. Calibrating to Kaelyn this time, Ryan thought.
She opened her eyes. She was in the middle of a bustling city with towering spires. People were walking all around her in a big open plaza. Kaelyn tentatively moved her limbs, still getting used to the way it felt to occupy a body that was not quite her own. The calibration was doing its thing, and her body felt like a second skin. Familiar, but with a tiny touch of fresh and unknown. Colours seemed brighter, sounds clearer. Emotions washed over her—joy, awe, even fear—in waves that left her breathless.
But before she could even take a first step, the familiar ringing of a direct virtualChat request interrupted her. Someone had dropped unannounced and was waiting behind the virtual front door of Ryan’s Hub. Who could it be?
With regret, Ryan willed himself out of the game. Everything around him quickly faded, letting his virtual hub fade back into view. But the moment he took a step forward, a strange tug rippled through Kaelyn’s body—her ears twitching, tail flicking. For a second, he felt… off, like he was still growing into her skin. A wave of dizziness washed over him, just like earlier, but then it passed. Must still be calibrating. But something was not right…
Ryan walked to the front door and glimpsed at her long, blonde hair cascading over her shoulders. He could feel the way her tail curled and uncurled behind her, as if it had a life of its own. Ryan looked down and saw he was not only wearing Kaelyn’s body, but her clothes too—still the cropped top and mini-skirt that his girlfriend had critiqued earlier. It clung perfectly, a little too perfectly, even.
“Wait, this… this isn’t supposed to happen, is it?” Kaelyn’s voice resonated in the empty entry hub. It sounded surprisingly different from the voice he had chosen for her. This one felt younger and softer, and certainly more uneasy.
She let out a long sigh and shrugged. Was the game glitched? “Well, not like I can do anything about it. Let’s see who’s there.”
Kaelyn’s gloved hand went and turned the doorknob, opening the door to let whoever was there inside. Lucia’s avatar, a casual, street-smart figure with short, colourful hair and a no-nonsense vibe, entered the hub without hesitation. “Hey, papá just called and—”.
His little sister stopped abruptly, looking Kaelyn over as she stood next to the open door.
“Who the hell are you?” she asked.
Ryan grinned. He figured this was a perfect opportunity to experiment in the safety of his own space. He struck a pose—hip slightly jutted out, one hand on her waist, the other flipping her hair back with a flick of her wrist. “Hey, hermanita. Your offer of fashion tips still stands?” he asked, hoping she would recognise him if he called back to their earlier chat.
“Ryan?” she said incredulously as the realisation of who she was talking to dawned upon her. “What’s going on with your avatar?”
“Not sure, I guess it’s because I’m still in the game, just AFK?” Ryan scratched the top of his head, surprised when his hand felt his cat ears react. “I just bought this new game this morning, and there’s some kind of system to help you feel comfortable in the skin of any character you create,” he said, explaining what he could puzzle out of his situation.
Lucia looked at him, mouth agape. She recovered after a few seconds.
“Wow, that’s wild! And the game basically allows you to change your VR avatar outside of it? That is awesome. Oh, can’t wait to tell all my friends! What’s the game name? Everyone’s gonna want in on that,” she said, blurting out excitedly.
Ryan wordlessly responded, swiping from the game’s floating window the share icon over Lucia’s avatar. She quickly scanned the product information and did a series of gestures, most likely forwarding it to her many circles of friends.
While she did that, Ryan took out a full-length mirror of his virtual inventory, almost willing it into existence. He adjusted the angle just right and tried a few different poses, trying to imitate the ones Kaelyn’s body had done earlier for the photo shoot.
“Oh my God, Ry. You’re really owning it, huh?”
Ryan grinned, though a flicker of uncertainty flashed in her green, cat-like eyes. He leaned into the playful tone, hoping it would hide the weird feeling creeping up the back of her mind.
“Well, you said I needed help. Just figured I’d make it interesting.” Kaelyn twirled on her heel, her tail swishing behind her with every movement, and finished with a little wink. “So, what do you think? Is Kaelyn passable or what?”
Lucia tilted her head, eyeing her brother’s avatar up and down, her expression shifting between amusement and something more thoughtful.
“Passable? Try dangerous. But for real, this is nuts. You look like… well, let’s just say you’ve got screenshot material written all over you.”
“I know, right? Been there, done that already.” Kaelyn’s expression turned into a grin as she flicked some hair with the wave of a hand. “And that’s the whole point. You know how this works—healers get all the invites. Might as well look the part. It’s like gaming 101.”
“Okay, fine. I get it. You want to be the spoiled princess of the game,” Lucia smirked, folding her arms across her chest. “But you realise what kind of attention you’re gonna get, right? I mean, looking like that?”
“Oh, please. I’m not worried about a little attention,” Kaelyn rolled her eyes, but could not help a small chuckle. She waved her hand dismissively, her feline ears twitching in what felt like a natural response. “If anything, it’ll be fun. I get to choose who I hang with. Healer’s privilege.” She struck another pose—this time more exaggeratedly, with her tail curling dramatically as she swayed her hips.
“Look, bro… Or Kaelyn, is it? I get the whole experimenting thing.” Lucia did not laugh this time. Instead, she leaned forward, her avatar’s face turning serious for a moment. “It’s fun in games. But FullDive’s different. They stopped offering customisation for a reason. We just went over this in IT history at school. You don’t just watch a character—you feel it. Trust me, it’s gonna get to you, and people visited the hospital over far less drastic changes than what you’ve got here.”
She gestured at Kaelyn, miming her hourglass figure. “You look like this in here. Normally, your brain should experience extreme gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia right now. This? It’s not at all who you are. The fact you’re able to strut around like this? It means they did something to your head, to make it think that this is who you are. That’s messing around with your prefrontal cortex. That’s where your identity is.”
“You’re overthinking it. It’s just a game.” Ryan shifted uncomfortably, but tried to shrug it off. “Besides, I’m just playing the part. What’s the worst that can happen? People hit on me? Big deal.”
Lucia sighed, shaking her head.
“It’s not just about people hitting on you. FullDive messes with your head in ways you don’t expect. You know that in the early 2020s they were already sending game developers to the emergency room in stretchers from those VR headsets? Those were just optical headsets. Right now, we’re both wired with a connector straight in our central nervous system, the two of us. You don’t think that this could be a bigger deal that fancy 3D glasses? And let’s be honest—you look like someone who’s asking for all kinds of attention. Not just the ‘can you join my party?’ type either.”
She paused, giving him a long look. “And if you think the way you’re moving and thinking feels natural right now… maybe it’s not.”
Kaelyn hesitated, trying to keep the confident mask on. Lucia’s words were hitting a little too close to home. She glanced down at her avatar, the way her chest rose and fell, the way her hips curved just a little too perfectly.
It was a bit much now that she thought about it.
“Okay, okay. So maybe it’s a little… extra. But you’re just being paranoid. I know what I’m doing.”
Lucia raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced.
“What do you know about the developers behind this game?” she asked, opening a small search window in front of her face and quickly typing things on the floating keys.
“Nothing? I don’t really care about who made it,” Ryan answered truthfully. Where was Lucia going with this?
Lucia looked up from her window after a few seconds of skimming through some search results.
“Well, that’s the thing. Apparently, you’re not alone. Nobody knows them. And it looks like the game didn’t even have a beta test or anything. Some random company released super experimental technology in a world-wide re-launch of a game, and the first thing you do is create the character that’s about as diametrically opposed to your real self as you can, and then pose and take sexy pictures of yourself?”
The conversation paused for an uncomfortable moment, but then Lucia got serious and almost scolded her brother. “Don’t come crying to me when it all gets too real. You wanted fashion tips? Here’s one: Don’t go overboard with the ‘hot catgirl’ look. You’ll regret it.”
Kaelyn crossed her arms, her tail flicking back and forth in irritation. Lucia was sounding like Megan did earlier—like she did not get it. This was supposed to be fun, a chance to do something different, to be someone better. But instead of getting praise, she was getting warnings.
“Alright, alright. Maybe I’ll tone it down a little. But come on, it’s a game! Can’t I have some fun?”
Lucia’s expression softened, and she let out a small laugh. “Yeah, Ry. Have fun. But seriously—don’t let it mess with you. I’ve seen what it does to people. FullDive’s no joke. You are Kaelyn when you’re in there. And when you start thinking like her… well, just be careful, okay?”
Kaelyn rolled her eyes again but gave a half-smile.
“Yeah, yeah. I’ll be fine. Just wait till you see me in action.”
“Oh, I can’t wait to see that, sis.” Lucia shook her head, a grin tugging at her lips. “Just don’t forget who you really are when you log out, okay?”
Kaelyn blinked at the word. Sis. A strange, fluttering warmth in her chest that she quickly dismissed. It was just Lucia being cheeky. That was all. But for a second, the word felt more like a fact than a joke. Kaelyn. Sister. He blinked again, shaking the feeling off.
“I won’t. I know exactly who I am.”
Did she? Did she really know who she was? She sure seemed confused about what name or pronoun to use when talking about herself… Ryan frowned to himself at the weird intrusive thought, but focused on his sister.
“If you feel like your sense of self is slipping… well, just be careful… Anyway. Papá called and wanted me to let you know he’s coming over. So don’t go silent mode on him again.”
“Sure, I’ll log out and clean up a bit until he gets here, then jump right back at it once he’s gone,” he said. “Promise.”
“Sounds great, and have fun with all the catfishing.” she half-joked.
“I’m not…” Ryan wanted to object, but she promptly cut him off..
“Tut!” Lucia smiled, putting a finger on Kaelyn’s lips. Ryan froze at the feeling, staring at his sister’s finger, right past his nose.
“You know what you’re doing, right, gatita?” She turned around and walked away, her avatar vanishing as soon as she crossed the threshold.