Who are you?

I floated in a subjective black void. My mind floated? Avatar?

It was not exactly what I had been expecting when I plugged in.

Not that I really knew what to expect in the first place. Maybe an action prologue? Something expository at least.

Whatever. Indistinct void stuff it was.

Well, that and my body.

“My” body.

It felt about the same as normal. The sizes were all correct, but it felt vague. Actually, it looked vague, too. My body was covered in an indistinct blur. It honestly wasn’t too far off from how I’d imagine an energy being to look on a scifi show, only with the glow turned down from a 10 to maybe a 3. Apart from that, I also felt slightly off. Not in any way large enough to put my finger on, but it nagged at me that something was there.

I had no idea how long I’d been...floating? Floating here, either. With no biological feedback and no external feedback, it was truly impossible to tell. 

I was idly wondering about which movies to connect that thought to when something finally happened.

> Time Synchronization Complete.

> . . .

> [Continue?]

Well then. That at least explained the subjective eternity. I sincerely hoped that it didn’t take that long every time. Like, it could be just a one-off process, right? Maybe it just took longer the first time?

I reached out and pressed the button.

It felt a bit silly, really. There must have been a better way than this to represent...well, this! I’d have to ask Laura later whether that was standard.

The box faded away, before a new one appeared to take its place. This box was much taller, with the word Legacies on top, followed by a search bar (button) and a list of races long enough to go off the bottom of the page.

Like, *wow*, were there a lot.

I selected the search bar and a red light appeared. I squinted at it for a moment before realizing what it was trying to indicate.

"Err...Elf?"

The list was shortened to include only "legacies" with Elf in the name.

Moon Elf. Silk Elf. Wild Elf.

There were 9 different types of Elves in all, and Elves made up a pretty small fraction of the available options.

Again, there was a freaking lot of Legacies.

Each Elf, and indeed each Legacy, had a few symbols beside it that I didn’t recognize. Presumably the benefits of choosing that legacy. There didn’t seem to be a strong indicator of what each one ment though, so I was left pretty clueless about them. The majority of legacies also had an animal listed beside the name in parentheses.

A pet maybe?

"Well let's try one I guess?"

I chose Silk Elf (Spider) from the list.

And then things changed.

A section of void-stuff turned white, with a small section of tiled floor. On that floor, surrounded by white light, stood a figure. The Elf. She had a big butt, because of course she did, and pale skin with black patterns on top. Sort of like tribal tattoos, but with fine, long lines that formed a web-like pattern. In addition to regular humanoid limbs, she also had 4 more. Chitinous spider legs came out of the mall of her back, near her hips. They seemed to mostly stick out without doing anything, but they moved enough to suggest a degree of control. The lower pair were folded up with toe-like points just touching the waist, while the upper-pair stuck out a bit more and reached near her shoulders.

Moving up the character, she had 4 sets of eyes; one main pair where you’d normally expect eyes to be, with 3 more pairs on her forehead and temples that complicated the first. Of course, she also had pointy, Elf-like Ears and a hint of fangs were visible beneath her grin. The elf’s look was completed with a dark silk robe patterned to compliment her patterning, an obvious hole in the back to allow her spider legs to come out and move around.

Okay. Spider. Got it.

I dismissed the character demo and started looking through the list with a bit more purpose. I didn’t want a normal character. This was an opportunity after all, so why not play around and take something more out there? I could always change it later if he ended up not liking it.

Kobold? Not a dog person. 

Sea Dwarf? No fucking thank you to that walrus mustache. 

Bastet? Cats were nice but that mane was not. 

Hoppit?

The demo character once again appeared, only this time the character was short. Like, pre-teen short. With large, furry feet, a fluffy tail and long, furry ears.

It was easily the most adorable character I had yet seen. Rabbit Halfling didn’t quite speak to me, but smol and cute? Locked in! Even guys could be cute with that sort of body, right?

Mouse Elf? It's so cute! But maybe a little too small...

Forest Goblin? Love the Squirrel tail but the idea of hoarding nuts is annoying.

Trash Goblin? Yet another Demo loaded of similar size to the Hoppit. This character had more slender feet which seemed to naturally rest on only the toes. They had a bushy tail with black and white stripes, with fingers that looked painted black. Their face had a black, button nose with more black around the eyes, making a domino mask. The face was completed by full, grey hair and darker, cat-like ears.

They wore large shorts that came down to the knee, with a simple shirt covered up by work vest, gloves and belt.

 The image of a small raccoon person, with a built in robber's mask, mischievous fingers and a button nose with a striped tail? 

Raccoon Person was perfect!

I selected the race and began customizing the model. A little shorter here. A little more floof there. Maybe a bit more fur around the collar?

Try as I might, I could quite get the guy looking quite right. Sure, he was cute in a mischievous sort of way, but he was just a little too...something that left me unsatisfied.

Maybe...it should be okay. Right?

I slowly lifted their hand and pressed the button marked "gender".

The slider slid from "Masc" slowly towards the other end. More and more. Until it rested near the other end, where it read "Femme".

The Raccoon girl was just over 120cm (that’s 4 feet) tall. She had proportionally large hips, which slimmed to the sort of waist that was attached to large hips and modest breasts. Her skin was caucasian with a hint of mediterranian colour and she had thick, silver-gray hair that almost reached down to her tail. I swapped out the shirt, vest and shorts for overalls over a light blue blouse. I decided to keep the gloves and belt as accessories, belt tied across my chest instead of around my waist, gloves dangling from the end of it. Of course, no shoes were in sight.

This...this was okay, right?

I hesitated, finger hovering over the option to test out the body before committing to it. I wanted to test it, but worried I’d chicken out if I did. 

I stayed like that for entirely too long. Fucking indecision.

“Oh, screw it.”

I closed his eyes and pressed the button.