Rosanne and I log into Skål side by side; she keeps her pre-customized body, though she’s wearing the starting equipment for a Housecarl - leather armor, a round-shield, and a dane-axe - rather than she seifuku and stockings. The game’s given her rather more dense muscle than she started with, and on her slight form it makes her look lithe and ready to spring, like a bobcat or a lynx. 

“So,” I say to Rosanne, and heft my staff. “I don’t have the funds to get you better starting equipment after buying Kate a chain shirt yesterday, but we can do some starting quests to make money and train you up -” 

“Don’t worry,” Rosanne says. “I’ve played a fuckton of VR games before, actually, it’s just this body I’m not used to. I’m sure I can handle anything I’m geared for.” 

“Skål is pretty difficult,” I warn her. “But if you’re sure, we can try some more difficult things. Maybe one starting quest to calibrate things first.” 

“Alright.” She shrugs and smiles. “Is there a bounty board or -” 

“Yeah,” I say. “I already picked up a bunch of quests from it yesterday, so we can work through them together. The easiest is probably taking down a herd of corrupted goats to the east of here.” 

“Sounds easy,” Rosanne says. “Just point me in the right direction and I’ll figure out what these buttons do on the way.”

I grin. “Alright, then. It’s your funeral. Let’s go.” 

~*~ 

It’s not a long walk to where the corrupted goats are lingering in the nearby foothills, and we hear their bleating from a good distance away. Rosanne seems sharp and cheerful; she’s been whistling almost the whole time that we’ve been moving, and has a spring in her step that makes her motions almost swaggers. 

“So,” I say. “Goats. You’re sure you’re ready for this?” 

“Yeah,” Rosanne says. “I checked on the way over and this game has the kind of combat I’m used to. Parries and dodges, as usual. I’m pretty sure I can handle some goats.” 

“You want me to help, or…?” 

“I’ll keep ‘em bunched up and you can blast ‘em,” Rosanne says. “That’s what you usually do with Viv, right?” 

I nod. “Yeah. She’s been talking to you about Skål?” 

“Yeah, on and off.” She unslings her axe and shield, and readies herself. “Alright, let’s do this.” 

“Whenever you’re ready.” 

Rosanne nods, and approaches the herd slowly, her footwork precise and deliberate. The corrupted goats turn their heads towards her and let out low warning bleats, and I start the mantra for Holy Artillery. 

“Varlog sha’drak emnos darg’vei -” 

As one, the goats turn towards me, sensing the holy energies I’m drawing down. They lower their heads and charge, and then a lot happens at once. 

Rosanne takes the horns of the first on her shield, blunting its charge and snapping its head to the side in a brutal blow - then rolls right, out of the way, and her axe flashes, precisely hamstringing a second goat. The two lead goats fall and stumble, and what was a coordinated charge turns into a messy tumble of goat over goat, the pack falling apart and the goats in the back trampling the ones in front. None of them come near me - and then Rose darts in and sinks her axehead deep into the neck of the lead goat. Purple blood spills out onto the ground, and it bleats piteously - but with a kick of Rose’s foot its head comes off completely, and it slumps down dead. 

By the time Rose has killed the lead goat, the remaining three have gotten to their feet, bruised and battered - and the chant of Holy Artillery is nearing its climax. Rose falls back, shield out in front of her to cover me, and as the goats bunch up again for another charge, tearing light flashes and the whole pack is blown to bits. 

“Told you it wouldn’t be hard,” Rose says. “One for me and three for you.” She grins viciously and hacks off the horn of a fallen goat for proof, completely ignoring the looting interface. “Good hunt?” 

I grin back, and bloodlessly collect the remainder of the horns we need using the interface. “Good hunt. Alright, I believe you can handle yourself. Let’s do something harder next.” 

“Sounds great.” Rose wipes off her axe on the goat’s fur, and slips her axe back into her belt. “Any harder bounties?” 

“Let’s turn this one in first, it might at least get you a decent helmet.”

Rose raises an eyebrow. “Why? Aren’t you wearing that silly witch hat?” 

“I’m a caster,” I say. “The hat’s enchanted to shield me. Same thing with your helmet. And yes, you can hide it so it doesn’t display while still giving you full protection.” 

“Alright,” Rose says. “Works for me.” 

~*~ 

One distinctly-unhorned helmet later, Rose and I are going through our quests again. 

“You gals did a bunch of corrupted wildlife hunting yesterday, right?” Rose looks over at me and taps her chin with her thumb. She’s hidden her helmet, but at least now I know she won’t die on me from a random head wound. Probably. 

“Yeah,” I say. “We’re trying to put together a chest of savings to start a clan with, since Kate seems interested, me and Viv are deep into Skål already, and you’re probably going to be wanting to spend a lot of time in virtuality too…” 

“You need a lot of money for that?” Rose tilts her head. 

“There’s a ten gold registration fee, which is fairly steep. But once we have a registered clan we’ll have the right to build a guildhall, and we already have most of the materials for one socked away - Viv’s been really excited at the idea of building a place for everyone to hang out in character.” 

“Yeah,” Rose says. “It always feels more real when there’s an actual world out there to interact with. I know you girls have got your private rooms and so on from what Kate’s said in the group chat, but I support you about getting a proper place… Even though that probably means you could’ve afforded proper armor for me from the beginning.” 

“Sorry,” I say. “I just really don’t want to disappoint Viv - she’s been itching to build for months, so…” 

“It’s cool, she’s your girlfriend so she comes first. Is there a minimum number of members for a guild in Skål?” Rose tilts her head to the side and taps her lip. 

“Yeah,” I say. “Five. I figure I can get Lambda or RockHawk on for five minutes to sign a paper even if they don’t want to play the game long term.” 

Rose smiles. “Well, then. Let’s go quest. There’s more stuff to kill and the more I fight the less I have to think.” 

~*~ 

Hours pass in a blur. Most of these basic quests I’ve already done several times before - there’s only so much variation in the randomizer - and with Rose by my side supporting me they fall one by one in short order. Over the hours, Rose gets more and more into her role as a housecarl, fighting with a vicious grin on her face and far more skill than she strictly should have as a newbie to this game. I guess she really does know her stuff. 

Eventually it’s lunchtime, and we hike back to the town with enough money to spend and a spring in Rose’s step - but I’ve got a worry in the back of my head. 

“Hey,” I say to Rose. “Do you want to have the pod sustain you for lunch, or log out to eat? You could probably use a rest after all this questing, and - it’ll be gentler on you if you can go back to a femme body quickly. Practice swapping, you know?” 

Rose frowns. “Ugh. Don’t remind me. Yeah, probably I should eat something, it’s just - so easy to feel like this body’s the real one and the fake one’s out there -” 

“Yeah,” I grumble. “Tell me about it. We can text over lunch, okay?” 

“Yeah,” Rose says with a nod. “I’ll let you know if I have to duck into the pod again, alright?”

“Alright.” 

We hug firmly, and then I give her a little wave goodbye. “See you in an hour,” I say. 

“See you in an hour,” she echoes. 

And we both log out of the game. 

~*~

I come to in my pod a few moments later, the needles retracted from my wrist and the canopy disengaging. Sitting up with a heavy sigh, I swing my legs down to the floor and stretch. 

While hormones and therapy have helped me a lot with feeling like the world isn’t constantly seen through fog, there’s always a feeling of distance between me and this body. It’s not as perfect for me as any of my virtual ones, and that weighs. But it’s a familiar ache, and today I have someone else to worry about. 

I pick up my phone and text Rose. 

Silverine: Hey Rose
Silverine: You doing okay?
Silverine: The first few moments are always the worst.

cyberflora: wow
cyberflora: I have no idea how I ignored this before 
cyberflora: everything feels grey and faraway 
cyberflora: this doesn’t fit right

Silverine: Yeah.
Silverine: It’ll get less bad with hormones and counseling 
Silverine: But yeah, it hurts
Silverine: Huge hugs
Silverine: I’ve been through it too
Silverine: You can do it

cyberflora: okay
cyberflora: food

Silverine: Yeah. A distraction will help.
Silverine: Good skill.

I get up and go into the kitchen, and follow my own advice. A proper lunch this time, not something thrown together… I guess I’ll make indomie, it’s an old reliable. This time I get some eggs out of the fridge and start water boiling in my kettle while I put more on the stove; hardboiled eggs on the side is the way we always do them when I’m together with Viv, though sometimes it’s too much effort to be worth the return. 

Today I want comfort food though, so the eggs are worth it. And it’ll give me something to do other than worry about cyberflora. 

While the water is boiling, I open my phone again and text Viv. She should be starting her lunch break now too. 

Silverine: Hey viv
Silverine: Logged out of Skal for lunch 
Silverine: How are you doing? 

Berrybliss: Better now that I’ve got you texting me. 
Berrybliss: How’s rose doing? 

Silverine: As good as can be expected
Silverine: She seems to be having some derealization in reality
Silverine: Or dissociation at least
Silverine: you know how it is when you’re not properly transitioned

Berrybliss: Yeah. 
Berrybliss: We gotta get her on hormones

Silverine: well
Silverine: That’s her decision
Silverine: But yeah, we do

Berrybliss: She’s US, right?
Berrybliss: Planned Parenthood should cover it 
Berrybliss: if she can get together the courage

Silverine: yeah
Silverine: I don’t know how her employer would take it 
Silverine: I don’t know what she does for work 

Berrybliss: Security I think 
Berrybliss: or was it a tech job 
Berrybliss: I’m not sure 
Berrybliss: tech would be better I think 
Berrybliss: but yeah
Berrybliss: the US is a mess

Silverine: yeah
Silverine: Let’s not get into it right now
Silverine: I have water on for eggs and all 

Berrybliss: Yeah I hear you 
Berrybliss: Can’t wait to move in though

Silverine: You and me both
Silverine: Let me check in on Rose again

I swap windows, and take a breath. This is never easy. 

Silverine: Still managing, Rose?

cyberflora: yeah
cyberflora: I feel shaky but I’m doing alright
cyberflora: as alright as I can be when my whole world’s turned upside down anyway
cyberflora: lambda’s here and is hugging me
cyberflora: I think I will manage

Silverine: good to hear
Silverine: say hi to Lambda for me

cyberflora: will do

A little reassured that Rose is getting looked after, I text Viv again. 

Silverine: So viv
Silverine: I was thinking we should start a guild in Skal
Silverine: What do you think? 

Berrybliss: Me, you, Rose, Kate - yeah, that’s four, one more and we’re good
Berrybliss: I guess that makes you the guild leader huh?

Silverine: I was kind of hoping you’d be that.

Berrybliss: C’mon, you and I both know you’re the player with the most time for the game. 
Berrybliss: Welfare doesn’t exactly fill you with lots of things to do. 
Berrybliss: You could use something to occupy you, and you’ve been itching for more responsibility in your life, haven’t you? 
Berrybliss: I know it’s anxietymaking for you to take a leadership role, but I really think it would be for the best for everyone. 
Berrybliss: I won’t force you to, but…

Silverine: No, you’re right. 
Silverine: Figure I should ask Lambda or Rockhawk to be our fifth member?

Berrybliss: Why not both of them? 
Berrybliss: I think RockHawk is still up, and it’s not like the game will take long to install for her. 
Berrybliss: Just ask in the cuties channel.

Silverine: Alright. 

I swap windows once again, and recenter myself as best I can. 

#survive-the-cuteness
Silverine: Hey girls
Silverine: I’d like to make a guild in Skal for people
Silverine: But I need five charter members
Silverine: Me, Kate, Viv, and Rose is four
Silverine: RockHawk, Lambda, Kate, I need two of the three of you to make this guild
Silverine: You don’t have to stick around after, just hop on for five minutes to make the connection
Silverine: The Skal linknode subscription is for a group of up to ten so you shouldn’t have to pay anything we haven’t already 

Lambda: Sure, I can hop on for five minutes. 

Scissor System: We can jump on too if we’re not doing anything on the Skal end that can’t be put down for ten minutes. 
Scissor System: Our job’s flexible enough to fish in VRMMOs during downtime, so we should be fine to sign a paper.

Silverine: Great to hear. 
Silverine: Meet you all in Great Brooks at the clan office, it’s got the big quill sign out front, you can’t miss it. 
Silverine: Ah, shit, lunch - Uh, give me fifteen minutes to eat first, the water’s boiling. 

Berrybliss: Dork. 
Berrybliss: Incredibly cute dork. 
Berrybliss: Yeah, we’ll see you in fifteen.
Berrybliss: Hurry though, I’ve only got twenty on my lunch break left. 

Silverine: Gotcha.

Quickly, I put the eggs in to boil, and start another pot of water on the stove so I can make the noodles simultaneously. Then I take a moment as both pots heat up to sit down and catch my breath. Things are moving fast this week and I don’t know how I’m going to do as a guild leader or how I’m going to look after poor Rose in the meantime - but I gotta stay strong and be there for everyone. It’s what a good girl would do. 

I fuss at a puzzle on my phone for a few minutes, then start the noodles and take out the eggs to crack and slice them. The work is pleasant. Distracting. And I’ve got to move fast. 

One quick meal later, I log back in to Skal - where I’m greeted by an already-gathered group of Kate, Rose, Viv, and a slight, dark-haired girl I don’t recognize wearing a witch’s uniform, who must be Lambda. She has a real name too, but it’s so unfitting for her that everyone just calls her by her username. 

“Alright,” Viv says. “Everyone over to the office, quick quick quick.” 

I nod in thanks, and shoo the group along in the right direction, Viv taking the front while I keep the stragglers following along from the back. We get to the scribe’s hall together, and assail the harried-looking clerk in the front room for our documents; then we come together to a meeting room and look over the papers together. 

CLAN INCORPORATION
Clan Name: 
Holding of Incorporation: Grand Brooks
Guildhall Site: Grand Brooks West Forest
Signature 1 [Guild Leader]: 
Signature 2 [Treasurer]: 
Signature 3 [Founding Member]:
Signature 4 [Founding Member]: 
Signature 5 [Founding Member]: 
10 Gold Incorporation Fee

I look around the table. “I’ll be guild leader, so I guess that makes Viv the treasurer. If we ever get more members I’ll probably promote some of you to officer roles. Everyone sign, and we’ll be officially a clan. We'll be... Cuties Incorporated, sure, it's not Viking but they're casual about that too.” 

I sign on the first line, and Viv signs on the second with a smile. Then we turn to the other girls.

“A clan, huh?” Kate grins. “I always wanted to be related to you girls. Sure, I’ll sign.” She reaches out, takes a quill, and signs on the third line. 

Rose laughs at that, but there’s a slight blush on her cheeks. “Yeah,” she says. “I’ll sign. I think I’ll be spending a long time here over the next few months.” 

“Here’s hoping,” I say. 

Rose takes the quill from Kate, and signs. Then she passes the pen to Lambda. 

Lambda shrugs her shoulders. “VRMMOs aren’t really my scene,” she confesses. “But sure, I can be your fifth. Especially if there’s stuff to build or forest to clear.” 

“No need to stick around,” I say. “But we’d love to see you, obviously.” 

Viv grins. “Think you’ve got more mountains to forcefem?” 

“Or ditches dug, whatever.” Lambda signs, and picks up her staff. “I have a title to uphold as the ditch witch, after all.” 

I look over at Viv. “You’re sure you’re okay being the treasurer?” 

“I mean,” Viv says, “I am the one who’s stockpiled all the stuff we’ll need. Though I do appreciate you questing for the extra cash we needed to finish off the stockpile.” 

She gets up from the table, and hands the document to me, along with a small pouch of gold coins. “Spend this all in one place,” she instructs. “Specifically, on the paperwork.” 

We all go back to the clerk, and hand over the paperwork and the money. He stamps it heavily, and hands it back to me; and I tuck it into my pouch. 

“Alright,” I say. “We’re officially incorporated. One for all…” I put my fist into the center of the group. 

Viv covers my hand with hers. “And every one of us for each other.” 

Rose puts her hand over Viv’s. “Anything to make getting to hormones easier,” she says, perhaps too frankly.

Kate puts her hand atop Rose’s. “Someone’s got to look after Rose,” she says. “And I want to see what you all build.” 

Lambda smiles and puts her hand atop the whole stack. “All for one,” she echoes. “I hope you all build something wonderful.” 

We all grab tight for a moment, then I push upwards and everyone brings their hands up and out of the circle. I catch Rose press her fist to her chest, and then Viv pulls me close and kisses me hard. 

“Proud of you,” she says. “I think you’ll do wonderfully. Now go conquer - I’ve got work!” 

I kiss her back and duck my head shyly. “Thank you,” I say. “I’ll do my best.” 

Then I turn to the group. “See you all,” I say. “Except maybe Rose. I bet you all have work.” 

Lambda tilts her head. “Nah,” she says. “I think I’ll stick around. I want to help with setting up the guild hall. That’s the next step, right?” 

“I should’ve known the building project would get you,” I say to Lambda with a smile. “Alright, you can come along. Rose?”

“It’s my day off,” she says. “And I’m in no hurry to leave.” 

I look over at Kate. “Kate?” 

“What, and miss the start of everything?” Kate raises an eyebrow. “Nah, I’m sticking around, though I might not be able to help much.” 

“Alright,” I say. “Viv?” 

“See you in a few more hours,” she says with a sad smile. “Money.” But she runs a hand through her hair and blushes. “Going to be great to see what you all build without me.” 

I look at her, then shake my head. “No,” I say. “We can wait another few hours. I want everyone to be there for the building.” 

“Alright,” Viv says with a little blush. “Well, then - “ She waves goodbye and logs out. 

“Well, then,” I say, turning to the rest of the group. “Looks like we’ve got some time to kill. Anyone to quest?” 

“My job’ll be over in a few hours,” Kate says. “Till then I can only really chat a little. Let’s just take the afternoon off and pick a guildhall site, then we can construct it when Viv’s back on.” 

“Alright,” I say, knowing a good idea when I hear one. “Everyone over to the west side of town then, I want to see if there’s any plots worth the time to clear.” 

And everyone remaining heads west, me at the lead of the pack. 

God I hope I don’t manage to screw this up.