Mom pipes up again. “Okay, Reina, now that we know, what do we do? We can take you out of school for a while until we figure out what exactly to do about this situation… We also have to literally adopt Jen over here, since that’ll ensure the school doesn’t try and talk to their parents or something when they leave school too.”

Lucy raises a hand “I can help with that. I’ve been looking into her particular situation since I figured out you were supportive. And my abilities to search through things on the net is much faster than any computer. So, basically, hmn. It’s hard to put into exact words and stuff, here, you both, look at this.” she hops off the table and flicks a couple websites at them.

“I came up with a fast option, and a slow option.” she also flicks the same site towards me and Jen.

I’ll sum up what happened, there are two ways to go about this, one is very expensive and takes a long time to do, involving taking a ton of medications and going through a god awful amount of surgeries, the time it takes is about 2 months, and it’s recommended to keep checking with doctors and stuff the state of what you have.

The other is a method that got developed because a certain company called Integra found that through their creation of full immersion VR, people who wanted to die after coming out of VR were extreme to say the least. Transgender people figuring out what they were and coming out of the egg skyrocketed to the point that they actually started teaching about trans people in school because of how much that amount increased. But anyways, the reason they made this method is because they felt guilty as hell. It’s much more dangerous, but as long as you have a sentient AI that can merge with the pod and assist it, it’s perfectly safe. And considering how lucky I’ve been in starting this game, we have 3 super AIs that are going to live in this house soon.

A corporation feeling guilty? Who is it run by? You might be asking, well, it’s a bunch of people really, but their reason for creating full immersion VR was because they wanted people to enjoy themselves, but since they enjoyed themselves way more than expected, suicides skyrocketed when people left the pods, or people who straight up didn’t eat and just played the game constantly also happened. They were losing their audience pretty hard and a lot of their workers were starting to push the company meetings and stuff towards making things easier for those that were like that.

First up was medical tech, and eventually they found they could modify the pods design to change the body of the person inside through extensive programming and more mechanical arms than you can shake a stick at. And bam, you have the creation of these pods.

By now you know the one we decided on. There were a few arguments for the slow process because it would be safer and we wouldn’t have to hire a Super AI but, well…

“I have a friend Super AI as well and I’m fairly certain they would be happy to help.” Jen placed his phone on the holo-table and an androgynous fae-like person appeared next to Lucy

“Hello again, Lucy.” The new face says.

“Hey Siris. How have the forests been?” Lucy hides her hands partially.

“Dirty and covered in blood. New players are always hard to deal with. Unlike your liked person most people in the forest that try and hunt boss-class monsters from the beginning die extremely fast.” They look ready to rant.

“Cutting to the chase, will you be willing to help your liked person in transitioning into a body they like better?” Lucy moves her hands back in front and she cuts them off from their next words

After preventing themself from saying more and adjusting their face, they look up. “Of course. So I’m gonna run a body-changing pod?”

“Yep. be sure to read all the instructions for running one” Lucy passes a weird book to them and they pick it up, holding it in their hands.

A glowing buffer signal appeared, ran through Siris’ head, then he looked back up and said “Done.” Setting the book down on the table. It disappears through a portal.

It will take a week to make and ship here, and the procedure takes a week to complete. Looks like I’ll get a week of living in VR. During the time it takes to ship, Jen is going to get their papers filled out to transfer their family name and stuff over to our family. And get their name changed to Jen. Then we’re going to start moving their stuff over to our house. We don’t know if we’re going to do that before or after the body change gets done, nor do we even know what amount of time it’s going to take to get their name changed.

We all decided that I should be in the game as much as possible. Just to confirm what we already knew, my preferred appearance is definitely that one. Though Lucy told me that I won’t be as strong at first, in fact it’ll be pretty new-born deer type of stuff when I take my first steps, if anyone else’s experiences are to go by.  And my hair won’t be nearly as long as in game until I grow it out. So there is some stuff I’ll have to take, but it’s mostly just vitamins and stuff to help with muscle affirmation and hair growth.

Now it is around midnight and we’re all except mom awake, due to being insomniacs.

Something awkward came up while we were watching MMO news, when the story about how I was already cemented in the lore came up.

“You’re already making waves in that game, ya dork.” Jen chides me.

“Not even I’m in the lore yet, and I’m a pretty major raider.” Saryn looks jealous

“Isn’t it bad if her true name gets leaked or something?” Dad from the sidelines

“The lore will change to suit her new name in-game. I’ll tell the lore AI about it if it doesn’t get fixed fast enough.” Lucy is also at the table, we are all eating snacks and stuff and discussing the game. Siris and Lucy occasionally chimes in to remind us that they have a lot of sway in the game. They also figured out how to simulate snacking for their AI by bringing food from the game through. We can’t eat theirs and they can’t eat ours, though.

“So do all of the sentients in the game know each other well?” Dad is sitting backwards on one of the dining room chairs in the living room, I can tell he's desperately trying not to go full researcher, but his curiosity is definitely hitting him. 'Sentients' is the term most used by scientists to refer to the Sentient AIs

“Some of us do keep in touch, there are a few who can be hermit-like, for example the one that watches over Saryn is very reclusive.”

“All of my kids have one of you? Isn’t that cheating?” Dad crosses his arms over the back of the chair in thought.

“Looks like it, And yes, if they formed a permanent group they would almost definitely get called a group of cheaters, so I do not recommend adventuring together except for very specific events. Like public events or dungeons with extreme difficulty. Hell, they might get called in for a promo event at some point.” Lucy puts a piece of bread in her mouth again. she is sitting on the holo-table, Siris is sitting next to her, our table is decently big, so they can both easily sit and have snacks between them.

“Oooh, that sounds really fun, actually. Like, all three of us taking on a super difficult dungeon.” Saryn is fired up.

“Yeah, once the little dragon is leveled we can try running a dungeon or two.” Jen chuckles at my new name choice from their position in the recliner.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if this group could clear a raid by itself.” Siris said, stuffing a piece of honeyed bread into their mouth.

“Kh, that sounds really fun, and attention getting. We could promote your stream alongside mine.” I point to Saryn, who is sitting on the couch next to me.

“You plan on streaming?” She tilts her head slightly.

“Yep. It seems like a lot of fun. Plus then if I appear on any of your streams you won’t have hordes of people just looking for me if I gain some kinda following.” My hand returns to my side on the couch. It's one of those couches that has a recliner, so the back is high and really nice to lean against.

“Fair enough.” She shrugs

By the way, how I am fine with talking and stuff right now is actually because of the AR device I have on me. I downloaded an app that helps with dysphoria and stuff, they aren’t allowed to change the shape of the object since it could create problems with other AR users. But they can make your voice feel and sound different, as well as to other people. Lucy found it for me after seeing me feel like crap after laughing.

Jen also started using this app. And only made their voice slightly more effeminate.

Mother then walked in on us insomniacs while stretching and yawning “It’s like 4 in the morning, y’know?”

“All three of us are creatures that don’t require sleep, also known as teenagers, and Dad is a researcher. All of us are screwed when it comes to sleep.” I half smiled at her.

“So should I make coffee for all of you? Or breakfast?” she moves into the kitchen. She likes doing stuff like this, so me and Saryn both let her, but Jen, the inexperienced one, speaks up.

“I’ll take care of the coffee. You two hate bitter stuff, right?” Jen says while standing.

“Yep.” I nod while Saryn says this. I can tell she finds it just as funny as me that they're gonna try and help.

“Got it. A wild amount of cream and sugar for you two, what about the adults?”

“I drink tea. It keeps my blood pressure relatively low.” Mom said.

“Almost black. A miniscule amount of creamer added.” Dad holds up one hand and does a pinching motion.

“And I have waaay too much anxiety for caffeine right now, so I’m not drinking any.” Jen holds one of their hands up to show it's shaking slightly.

“Y’know adding sugar to it helps relieve some of the problem since sugar tends to calm nerves with most people, sure it'll make you more hyper, but it'll keep some certain thoughts from getting in the way.” Mom pats them on the back “I should know, you have no idea how much sugar I put into my coffee to keep myself sane during long shifts at the hospital. I can tell you are getting tired but still wanna talk, so I’ll handle your cup.”

“Alright, thanks, Ms. Briss.”

“Either call me by my first name, mother, or not at all. That’s where I’m drawing the line. It’s the same for James over there.” She gestures to Dad.

“Thanks, Jane.” they look slightly uncomfortable, but cave on calling her by her first name.

Mom looks slightly disappointed but gives an understanding nod. After they put the cream and sugar into each of the cups, Jen looked at the ungodly amount of sugar in what was going to be his cup.

“Told you. A lot of sugar.” Mom gave a slight grin, then started working on making actual food and her tea. Jen stepping in to help occasionally despite her protests that the children should just relax for once.

“Seriously all of you are constantly tense. Either I’m getting a goddamn masseuse to look at all of you, or you’re all going to learn to relax.” She's kinda right, even me and Saryn are wanting to help, but we both know that she likes doing stuff like this so we abstained.

Both me and Saryn give a resigned sigh and sit back against the couch “Might as well give up, Jen, she’s going to start hitting you with the spatula soon.” I say in a dry manner, followed by a grin in their direction.

“I would never!”

I laughed at her “Pretty sure they know that.”

“So Lucy, you are an AI who rules over luck in the game world, correct?” Dad inquired

“Yep. I give this one more luck and sway the drops of monsters and stuff to her favor. If she became a thief, there would be way more gold in the pockets than should naturally fit. I think she likes the idea of becoming a tank, though.” Lucy gestures to me.

“What’s a tank? I assume you aren't talking about the armored military shell launcher?” Dad tilts his head.

“Someone who drags monsters and keeps their attention. Traditionally they are heavy armored and slow moving, but they hit like a truck to keep aggro on them. However nowadays there are dodge-tanks that focus on avoiding attacks and taunting the opponent rather than actually head-on blocking.” Siris answers.

“Ah. So she’s going to drag away the monsters so they don’t attack the others?”

“Yep. My job is to make sure she doesn’t die.” Saryn waves.

“And mine’s to deal extra damage to help take it down. Mine involves a lot of spells and summoning animals to help. Or turning into one, which I find fun.” Jen shrugs

“You can turn into animals?” Dad looked at them in disbelief

“Yeah, it’s a race and class mixed together thing. When you’re a Forest Fae mixed with Druid the druid skills increase to two, Fauna and Flora.” Siris laughs slightly.

“I need to make sure I don’t draw attention though, that makes Reina’s job harder, and then that subsequently makes everyone in the party’s lives harder if I drag attention away.”

“So this party thing is a group of players?” Dad raises an eyebrow. He wasn't necessarily the biggest game player in his time.

“Yes, we group up to complete objectives we can’t complete on our own. If you have a good skill level, or just a ridiculous character, you can solo dungeons, but mostly people team up in small teams for stuff like that. Raids are when groups of parties form to fight through a really difficult version of a dungeon. The reason we can probably solo run a raid is because we have a ridiculously strong team composition.A healer who can tank a blow from an ancient dragon, a tank who can open explosive wounds and will get stronger than that, and someone who can summon an army of animals after binding any enemy.” Jen snickers “We would really be a cheat party”

“Yeah, but you still need someone who deals with physical DPS. Your team relies too heavily on magic.” Siris gestures around the room. “Even the tank kinda relies on magic to assist in attacking.”

“Fair enough.” Jen shrugs.

“So these MMOs are popular now?” Dad tilts his head to the side, resting it on one of his shoulders.

“Yep. Though nowadays the old MMOs have fallen out of popularity because of VRMMOs. why play as your female character, when you can be your female character” Saryn laughs "Though that only seems to fall in line with those who are trans, because most full fledged dudes feel super grated when they actually play as the female character. There are some exceptions to the rules, though."

“Saryn, no.” I look Saryn dead in the eyes because I have a feeling what she’s going to say just from the look on her face.

“Fiiiine, anyways, now what do we do? If you two are going to be out of school for a while, then it’s gonna get really tiring going to school.”

“Who said you are?” Mom speaks and Saryn looks at her as though an alien crawled out of her mouth. “What? We’re basically going to be busy as hell for a while, not even James can go to work for a while, so why should we make you go out? Plus all that Ra- Reina is doing is being home and playing that game. We need someone that’s gonna be here in case something unexpected happens.” She caught herself before almost saying my old name. My new name being so close to my old one might cause some issues for a bit.

“Yeah, plus this way we can put it down as a family vacation when I fill out what happened to make me take days off.” Dad smirks

“Pff. Alright, sure, I’ll stay home to make sure the little dragon doesn’t wreck the place or her own mind while you all go out to take care of Jen.” She leans back again, relaxed in knowing she doesn’t have to leave me here. Or that she doesn’t have to go to school for two weeks. One of the two.

“Okay, foods done. You two can move to the dining room now, everyone has AR stuff on.” Mom points at the two AIs and they start moving towards the table. Pulling out chairs from the portals leading back to the gameverse.

“What are those portals, anyways?” Dad tilts his head

“They’re technically a duplication system and a part of the app that allows us to move through devices. The designers of the app just thought it would look cooler as portals.”

“Pff, programmers.” Dad rolls his eyes and gets to eating, we all do and finish around the same time.

“Alright, so, what’s the game plan for today?” Dad asks, just to make sure everyone knows.

“Early cancellation of my lease and moving my stuff, Reina is going to go into the game and quickly gather funds to change her name.” Jen relays basically what we planned just earlier. I’m gonna go solo into the game to gather funds and generally keep myself sane, and the others will be helping Jen out with getting their stuff together, then Jen’s gonna hang with me in-game. As a rest period for them.

“You really could just hang out with Reina while we finish this stuff, y’know. You don’t have to move your stuff with us.” Saryn looks concerned “We’re just gonna hire people and bots to do most of this anyways.”

“You already know my answer to that is no.” Jen gives an irritated look.

“Fine.” She sighs, resigning to just being concerned.

“No use bickering over it now. Reina, you might want to wear something more loose and take a shower before going in, you could be in there for hours, unmoving, and we don’t want anything constricted.” Mom states matter-of-fact-ly

“Got it.”

I went up and took a shower. I only rinsed my body, covering it in soap up top and just hoping that it’ll get to my other parts. I did wash my face thoroughly though. I dried my body and then put on a really baggy sweater and a pair of sweatpants. They were my favorites, and gee, I wonder why. Fuck I really am dense normally. Then I put on deodorant and put on my gear, one last wave to Jen before they all took off and I was launching in.