I spawned in at the entrance of a small alley in Newb Town. This time around my handy new Dive System told me that it took 5 real minutes to sync up my internal clock, and about 10 subjective ones. Not that I noticed. I spent the sync time in blanket bliss.

Anyway! I had a friend to find. I headed out and started looking for the respawn tavern, the Newbie Inn. It too was named by the player base. I think it actually had an ingame name though. Something like the lambslaughter? It was a needlessly edgy name at any rate. Newbie Inn was really much better.

It was called that because it was the default respawn point for New Players after dying. Which, you know, go figure? Players tended to find and set alternate spawn points pretty quickly, or so I’ve been told. Which is why it wasn’t as crowded as that status would imply.

The Inn was a large, cross shaped building made from a skeleton of logs and filled in with stone blocks. It was one of the larger free standing buildings in Newb Town, meaning that it wasn’t built into the base of one of the towers. It even had a large courtyard, albeit a somewhat overgrown one, which got natural light. A rarity in this area.

That courtyard also proved to be a pretty popular meeting spot for players. Woops. I didn’t actually know what Danny looked like and we didn’t exchange in game contact info. A regular old phone call wouldn’t work on our time ratio either, according to my Dive System.

Ugh. What a pain. It’s not like I was exactly blameless, but it would have been nice if one of us had thought ahead. How am I supposed to tell whether she’s the harpy, one of the Elves or the goat girl with the bumblebee sign!?

Wait a second.

I rushed over as fast as I could and absolutely destroyed that sign. 

Or at least that was the idea.

I rushed over with destruction in mind, but I couldn’t actually reach it. She was tall! Plan Bee then. Wait, no, Plan 2. Beta?

Fuck it.

“Could I please see that sign?”

She looked down at me. “Sorry, but I’m waiting for a friend. I need this so that he can find me.

I growled. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you Danny.”

“What?” Her face was painted with a look of realization, just in time for me to pull out my pistol and Light. It. Up.

At this range even this gun would hit what I was pointing at, but it...may have done some damage to Danny as well. She dropped the sign after the first shot, which was followed by 4 more, until the sign was smoldering, if not exactly bursting into flame, and I was satisfied with it’s destruction.

“Bee?”

I looked again at my friend. I thought she was a goat at first, but now I could tell she was more of a sheep girl. She had digitigrade legs like me, with a floofy tail on the back, sort of like a faun. Her outfit was sort of like a robe, only made for someone with furry legs in the summer. She had dreamy blue shorts, with a hole for the tail of course, and a sort of formal vest that showed off her tall, slim body. A good amount of hips (more than in real life if I had to guess), but not a lot of fat above the waist. Over top of the shorts and vest combo was a light cloak with reversed colouring; white with blue highlights, and a star-light pattern sewn into its interior.

She had her right arm clasped in her left, where she maybe suffered some mild electrical burns, and her face was framed by curled horns, large, flat ears and a pixie cut of curly white hair.

Actually, all of her hair and fur was white and curly. She looked very soft.

And also confused. I was doing that thing where I was stuck in my own head again, wasn’t I?

Yes. That was a rhetorical question. I was absolutely doing it.

I shook my head to help regain my senses. Deep breaths.

“It’s, ah, it’s…” I swallow. “Tessa in here, please.”

She stared at me for a few more seconds before something must have clicked. She let go of her arm, shaking it a bit more while she did. “Right...My IGN is Dimm Fall.”

She eyed me again. “Are you doing okay, Bee?”

I stared daggers at her and blew out my cheeks.

“Sorry. Tessa, right? You feeling okay?”

I nodded. “Yep, pretty much!” I thought for a sec. “Maybe a little sillier than normal, but I think that’s the fantasy kitchen sink rubbing off on me. Also: I’m a Raccoon! It would be out of character if I didn’t cause a little mischief!” I finished smugly.

She eyed the smoldering sign with a smirk, clearly in agreement, before her eyes returned to me.

“That’s good. It’s just...you’re sure you’re not having any issues with that body?”

“Why would I?” I was genuinely curious. Where was she going with this?

“Well.” She took a breath, like she did sometimes when she was trying to think of how to phrase what came next. “It doesn’t happen to everyone, but when someone plays a character in dive with a different gender expression from their own...they tend to be uncomfortable.”

Oh. Weird.

“Weird. I haven’t had any trouble with that though. What are the odds?”

“Maybe one in five?”

Pssht. “That’s all? That’s not so bad at all. Did you know that only around one person in twenty is left handed?”

“I did not,” she replied diplomatically.

“Anyway, if it’s not a problem for me then why bring it up?”

She clicked her tongue. “Just trying to explain why I was concerned...Tessa.”

I nodded, smiling. “Okay then. Thanks for looking after me I guess.” I felt a bit of a knot in my stomach from that. Odd. Maybe I was feeling whatever the hell tension I had outside? It was a lot less here then it was when I was awake, but still, I hope that wasn’t it.

“Anyway. Ready to get going?”

“Right! The game! What are we doing, anyway?”

The grin returned to her face, though it didn’t quite dismiss the concern in her eyes. “We’re going dungeon crawling!”