The sudden shift in body mass was disorientating. It's hard describe. Imagine being in an elevator that drops three floors before the brakes kick in, while having your arms and legs tugged into your torso, while everything in your head is scooped out. Sort of like that, but less painful and about a thousand times weirder.
Before I could even look at what the AI had done to me, my character sheet popped up.
| Name: | <Unknown> | Skills ... |
| Class: | Forester | Class: Throwing Knife (Lvl. 1), Dodge (Lvl. 1) |
| Race: | Wood Sprite | |
| Attributes ... | Species: Stealth (Lvl. 1), Lightsmith (Lvl. 1) | |
| Vigor: | 5 | |
| Intellect: | 8 | Special: <Locked> |
| Harmony: | 14* | |
| Finesse: | 13* | |
| Stamina: | 6 | Spells: Starlight |
| Presence: | 10 | |
| Height/Weight: | 3'2"/ 28lbs | Current Modifiers ... |
| Life Force: | 15* | Species: Finesse +4, Harmony +4, |
| Mystic Energy: | 25* | Mystic Energy +15, Life Force -5 |
| Life Balance: | 8 | |
| Level: | 0 | |
| Experience: | -1 |
I was tiny. I only came up to the others' waists, and my arms and legs looked twig thin. All I wore was a light green dress that was more of a camisole considering how thin and revealing it was. The skirt was shaped like leaves or flower petals and reminded me of Tinkerbell's costume in the old Peter Pan movie (except its shortness made it a lot sluttier). Two breast bubs pushed out the fabric below the neckline. And under the too short hem, there was no more Little-Aaron. If there had been, it would have been on full display as no underwear had been provided. My skin was a rich copper tone. And my hair ... it took a minute to pull a strand from the knots it was tied in. (Were they pigtails? They better not be pigtails.) My hair was a dark green. Not like a punk dye, but the deep green of the forest canopy around us.
"Wood sprite?" my voice squeaked. "And a girl? Why the hell did you make me a girl?"
Katie answered me.
|
*** Congratulations! *** You are not a girl but an adult wood sprite. Forester is the only class that met your criteria, and the forester class is only available to wood sprites. And Congratulations! Wood sprites have only one gender. You are now intersex. Isn't that exciting! |
"No. It fucking isn't."
I pressed my thighs together and didn't feel anything dangling down there. I desperately wanted to ask how things worked with the single-sexed species I now was, but I wasn't about to do it with everyone around.
"Aww, you're adorable," Josh said. "And your just the right height too." Then, he dragged my face into his groin.
I pulled away spitting and gagging, trying to erase the memory of having only a coarse piece of cloth between my face and his filthy junk.
Mack smacked him in the chest, and he nearly fell over. "Not cool, Josh. Really not cool."
"Whatever. Looks like I got a harem going. It just too bad, she's the only cute one, and my cock would probably split her like firewood. Aaron looks like homeless-Bambi, and I wouldn't fuck her with Aaron's dick, if he still had one. And you might be doable if it was dark out, and I took you from behind. Seriously, why couldn't this lame AI make you all busty babes."
His assessment was extremely insulting not to mention inaccurate. Tanner had a bit of a woodland biker-girl look going, and was more on the scrawny side than the voluptuous, but she was by no means ugly. And Mack was actually pretty hot. Her body was lanky but buff, with toned muscles everywhere you looked. Although to Josh's point, her chest seemed to be more pecs than breasts. We probably shared the same cup size although we wouldn't be exchanging bras any time soon. Even if they sold bras in Feronia, where was I going to find a size 16A. Good thing they were small and firm enough not to bounce around.
Mack slapped Josh. And this time, he fell over with a red welt on his cheek. When she reached for her sword, Tanner stopped her.
"Come on!" Mack said. "Just let me send him to the timeout of the spawning room like the bratty child he is."
"We don't actually know how respawning works anymore. Also, we're too low level to casually dump a party member. If we're going to survive, we need everyone." Then, to Josh, he said, "It's time to get your character on."
"Fine. Katie, make me a thief."
"No!" Tanner shouted at the sky as though the AI was an all powerful god. "Belay that request!" Then, to Josh said, "Aaron has thief abilities rolled into his class and species. We need you to become a healer."
"This fucking sucks. I don't want to be a lame-ass healer. I'm picking a thief."
Tanner said, "Just wait a second. Let me think about something." Then, she (because it didn't feel right to think of Tanner as a he anymore) put her hand to her chin and tilted her head in a classic thinking pose. She was probably reading something about the rules. or character creation and not simply pondering the mysteries of the universe.
Mack said to me, "Do you have a locked special skill too?"
"Yeah. We must have to reach a certain level or do something specific to unlock it." God, my voice was strange. If some part of me was supposed to be male, you'd never know it from the way I talked. "I'm wondering about our names. Why does it still show as 'unknown.'"
"Oh, that's an easy one. I figured it out right away. Since we didn't bring anything in from the character creation, I bet we have to do a name changing ceremony at a temple or wherever this game system lets you assign new names."
"Yeah, that makes sense," I said.
Tanner finally came back to us from his foray in the archives, and said to Josh, "Come on. Be a pal. Being a healer isn't so bad. You'll probably be assigned a cleric for some bad-ass god, and you'll get some wicked curses as your offensive spells. It'll be fun."
Josh's eyes seemed to unfocused for a moment and the annoyance that tightened his facial muscles drained away. "Fine," he said. "I'll be a healer but I want to stay human. I'm not a closet furry like you, Tanner." Then, he added loudly, "And a man. Human and a man!"
"How did that just happen?" Mack whispered to Tanner.
He whispered back, "I have a skill called Convince with a spell attached to it. I know it's not very ethical to Jedi-mind-trick your friend, but we needed to speed things along."
The AI loaded the character, and Josh changed in front of us.
It was not for the better.
This isn't super important but intersexed is a s*x not a gender. examples - Male, Female, Intersexed = sexes, and Cisgender, Transgender, and non-binary = Genders. Otherwise though this is a great start and i'm interested where this goes.
Thank you! I'm happy you're enjoyimg it!
I intended to imply that wood sprite's have both male and female genitals (this gets explained more in the next chapter. I thought this was the correct term for it, although maybe there's a better one (I'm completely open to being corrected on this). Also, realizing I probablr should have just written "intersex" and left off the "-ed."
@DemonRose I absolutely am enjoying it, and it is an extremely common mistake people make, i'm just more aware of the term as a transgender female. Heck I even see people in the LGBTQIA+ community mess that up sometimes ^.^ Which is why I will usually point it out, but also acknowledge that it isn't a super big deal, most of the time people know what you mean regardless.
@DemonRose Hermaphrodite is the correct term. At least in the scientific field.
@mlaser Not anymore, inters*x is the correct term now. Hermaphrodite is like transvestite and has been retired basically.
@mlaser @Shinyrainbowumbreon That was understanding too.