Tiny pulls the video site into the air above the table and hits play.
They then turn back to the tab left open for the game to do a bit more research, luckily, the official site has a 'Getting Started' section, so they open that to start.
They stare at the section about the character creator, they can't help it, it's just so detailed, completely unlike the games they play on the computer that basically have a TnA slider and that's it. And yes, they play female characters in video games. The dudes can't look as cute.
Tiny tilts their head. "Hm. Those are actually decent options. If the AICC doesn't work out I might... well if I like the game I might play around with the Character Creator."
---
A text notification appears on the right hand side of Tiny's vision.
|Jen: You're clear to jump on in, Me and Saryn are at the starter town now.|
Tiny decides to respond after shortly marveling at the way texting works using AR. "Respond to Jen" A keyboard appears in front of them, so they type back.
|Tiny: Alright, logging in now.|
They flop onto their bed after turning off the Coffee Table. They fasten the harness that keeps the Headset around their neck on, having seen their sister do it a number of times.
They close their eyes with a steadying breath, and finally start the game.
"Launch New Star Online" They say, and resist laughing when their world goes dark, only to have a single menu floating in front of them.
|THIS GAME SCANS THE ENTIRETY OF YOUR MENTAL ACTIVITY IN ORDER TO PROPERLY ENSURE YOUR SAFETY|
|Accept| |Decline|
|Data from players' minds will not be used in anything other than ensuring the user's safety and to make the game a more fun experience. Explicitly, your mental data will not be sold to anyone nor will the advertising department have access to it.|
Tiny huffs in amusement and taps accept. 'Fuck it, it's not like my phone company doesn't have that data anyways.'
After a number more pages of the EULA, they feel something pull them forwards a bit, and it's like the darkness opened up, suddenly Tiny is standing in a full star scape, most of the stars glow purple, but there's one rather bright star that glows bright blue in the distance.
A worn tome appears in the space in front of Tiny. A blank page on the right and two selectable options on the left.
|Reinarynis Dreadnasir|
|Create Character +|
Tiny contemplates not following Jen's instructions briefly, but decides to just double tap the name in the end. 'Who the hell comes up with this gibberish?' They think as they tap the name the second time, not giving the preview on the right any time to load.
The same pulling sensation from before occurs, this time pulling Tiny through the star scape, towards the blue star. They close in faster and faster until the pulling stops, by then the blue star has changed to look like a large earth-like planet, said planet slowly rotates as Tiny is stuck in it's low orbit.
A woman appears next to them in a flash of light. Her voice echoes around as she talks.
"Welcome, Newcomer, to Stella Nova. You may feel a bit disoriented, and probably experienced memory loss during transport, so I shall tell you who you are, briefly."
The woman's eyes glow blue for a split second, then she smiles, said smile looks rather odd on the face of the woman. "You, Newcomer, are a Dark Dragonoid and Dark Magi-Knight. Your name is Reinarynis Dreadnasir. You may get it changed at the church. That is all I can tell you, so farewell for now, Newcomer, and welcome to the New Star."
"... Thanks I guess?" Tiny says. 'This character definitely does not sound like something I'll like.' They shiver, remembering the time they were forced into a large muscly dude's body. The woman snorts before her eyes glow blue again and adopts a more regal aura. She gestures with a hand towards the world.
Wind buffets Tiny's face so much that they are forced to close their eyes. When they open them next, they're sitting in a crowd of people with a small bubble surrounding them and semi preventing others from coming near. The bubble is the size of the stone platform they sit on.
|Warning: Walk out of Spawn Circle; You will be kicked in 10.|
|9.|
Tiny jumps at the notification and goes to stand. When they do they wind up seeing their arm and hand.
Their forearm and back of their hand has black scales on it. They walk out of the circle while marveling at it. They turn it over and the sunlight catches on the scales, revealing a purple shine in the place the light hits.
'Well they clearly put my favorite color to use...'
Basically as soon as they fully step outside the circle, the sounds of the crowd they're in becomes absolutely deafening. They wince slightly and reach up to hold their ear, they end up stopping halfway there as they feel the scales on their neck.
'Well then... Are scales supposed to feel this soft?' They continue rubbing the scales as they make their way out of the crowd, a small smile displayed on their features.
|Briss' Habitat|
|Jen: Hey, you in yet?|
Tiny thinks for a moment. Mischief flooding their brain for a split second before they shake their head and text back with a serious message.
|Tiny: Yea, I have black and purple scales. Currently trying to get out of the crowd at spawn so hold on a sec.|
|Jen: Sorry about that, by the way. Turns out we invited you right as a newbie wave happened.|
|Tiny: Meh. Not nearly as bad as that time I was forced into that giant dude's body.|
Tiny nearly gags at the memory. That was another time they played VRMMOs, and it royally sucked ass. They were forced to parade around in a giant male berserker body. Even remembering the feeling of people looking up at them makes their neck recede inwards. Though as they continue petting the scales on their neck they manage to maintain their smile.
Then something strange happens. They make a high-pitched trilling noise followed by a strange click sound.
'... What the fuck?' They ask themselves as they finally get out of the crowd.
|StarChilde: Yo, Tiny, raise your hand.|
'... Can't she wait just a fuckin' second I'm busy having an existential crisis over here!' Tiny rolls their eyes but dutifully raises their hand.
A woman with flaming wings flies by and slaps it with her own before landing, basically a high five for Tiny and a low five for the flier. Her wings disappear as she lands. The woman pauses for a second while staring at Tiny then she smiles. "Hey Tiny!"
'Ah, it's Saryn.' Tiny immediately thinks. "Hey Saryn?!" Their statement quickly changes into a question when they realize their voice is way too high and soft to be their own. The woman snorts and walks over to Tiny.
"You are adorable according to your brain." She reaches forward and pinches Tiny's cheeks.
"What do you mean? I'm ugly as hell!" Tiny says after they finally manage to get Saryn's hands off of them.
Saryn sighs and moves on before Tiny can actually process what she just said. "Anyways, accept my party invite." Saryn says, turning slightly to poke at something Tiny can't see.
Tiny jumps a bit when a bell dings in their ear and a purple screen appears in front of them.
|StarChilde has invited you to the group 'Chaos Gremlins'|
|Do you accept?|
|Yes / No|
Tiny taps the Yes button and a nameplate appears above Saryn's head.
|Saryn Phoenixea|
|Friend of Qia|
|Level ???|
---
"So what's your race in the first place? It isn't lizardman, since I've met them and your race still shows as a bunch of question marks." Saryn asks as she leads Tiny back towards the church.
“Oh, uh, Dark Dragonoid, I think the lady said.” Tiny says, lightly petting their neck scales as they shove down the internal freakout at their voice being so high and soft.
Saryn gapes slightly before grinning. “Damn, nice one. Class?”
“Dark Magi-Knight” Tiny responds, and receives another gape. “I’m going to start calling you a fish pretty soon, sis.”
Saryn makes a strange bird-like noise. “I’m a Phoenix-Kin, White Magi-Knight. It gives me so much sustain that I haven’t died once yet. And I’m a healer, we’re practically made to die when our party dies, but nope.”
Jen suddenly lands next to her. “Phew, finally found you two.” They shake their head and follow after. “So where are we in this conversation?”
“I’m telling them about my class and race, since their situation seems similar. Dark Dragonoid Dark Magi-Knight.”
Jen’s eyes widen marginally before they snort. “We’re all three just ridiculous, aren’t we? I’m a Forest Fae Druid. You can guess how well the two synergize. Drawback being an increasing want to prank everyone that wrongs me.”
|Jen Faedrys|
|Codes’ Friend|
|Level ???|
“... you’re joking, right?” Tiny asks. And all they get in return is a smirk from Jen. “Oh god. You’re already bad enough!” They squeak. The sound of their voice makes their smile widen in surprise.
The trio finally reaches the door to the church as Saryn finishes telling a story about how she tanked a blow from a raid boss called a ‘White Dragon’ by healing herself and using the passive from her race that rapidly heals her and allows her to survive a deadly blow with 1 hp. “There’s a video of it, since I live streamed it, I can send it over later if ya want. The Devs even used it in a small portion of a commercial. It helped me grow my audience and they paid me.”
“... That explains why you started actually keeping a schedule for your streams.” Tiny says as they wordlessly open the door to the Church. The din outside immediately silences as they walk inside with the only continuity being the sound of Jen and Saryn’s footsteps. But even those change from stone to tile. “Wow, you were not kidding when you said that the loading can be disorienting sometimes.” Tiny shakes their head and goes to rub at their ear, only to be met with a weird horn blocking their hand from actually touching their ear. “Okay, I am seriously getting tired of things interrupting me touching my damn ears.” They say, but continue to feel at the horn curiously.
Saryn snorts and gestures for Tiny to follow her. “Come on, ya little Lizard.”
Tiny squints, really not liking that they feel offended from that. A whispered “Dragon” escapes them before they can stop it.
Saryn laughs as Tiny’s cheeks heat up. Tiny hisses in embarrassed annoyance. The sound coming off like an angry snake. Then a loud click comes from their chest, loud and high pitched.
“Oh right, that happened earlier. What the heck is with the noises?”
“Each race has special vocal chords. I can make lots of different bird noises. Even deal sonic damage if I try to go Cockatoo levels. You can make various lizard noises. Sorry, I mean dragon noises.” Saryn cackles as Tiny’s hands move to cover their face in embarrassment.
“Alright, stop playing with the little Dragonoid.” An old man walks over, cane tapping as he approaches. “Here for a name change, Newcomer?”
Saryn jumps in surprise along with Jen. Both soon return to smirking though as they gesture Tiny forward.
Saryn takes a deep breath that goes unnoticed by Tiny.
“Yes. I think.” Tiny says as they approach the old man.
“Alright then little lady, just walk over to that mirror and the process should start.”
‘Little la-!?’ Saryn drags Tiny towards the mirror before they have time to question it.
A screen appears in front of them.
|Choose a new name:|
|No profanity allowed. Name must be 3 characters or longer.|
|Current Name: Reinarynis Dreadnasir|
Tiny briefly looks at the message, then looks past the screen.
They are smacked in the face with a wave of emotion. Causing their eyes to tear up.
Tiny, or Reinarynis, as their in-game body is named, is a tanned girl that stands at around 5’3”. And that’s not even the most noticeable thing about their body. A high pitched trilling noise escapes them as they move to get a closer look. They barely notice it.
Their irises are a glowing purple color while their sclera are fully black, adding to the glow. The pupils on the eyes are snakelike slits.
Tiny smiles widely. Their heart flutters slightly in their chest. A weight disappears from their shoulders. They continue to look.
Reinarynis wears a set of clothes including a pair of leather shoes, showing off the fact that her shins and calves are covered in black and purple scales. A thin, scale covered tail snakes around her leg as they look at it.
They? Her? Fucking wha-
She smiles as the tail wraps around her wrist. Yet another trill escapes from her chest.
Speaking of, as her eyes travel up, Tiny is tempted to reach for it, but resists touching the breasts that are presented under the clothing.
Reinarynis is a petite girl, Tiny decides. Evidence being her height and general build.
Tiny also decides that they are, in fact, a fucking idiot. Or oblivious as all hell. Because the thing is, the shirt and jacket that is the default starter wear shows off cleavage. And the lower body wear? A fucking skirt.
Tiny’s gaze finally makes it back up to the neck of Reinarynis. It’s covered in scales, completely obscuring the neck with a small amount of scales encroaching on her cheeks. Other than that they cover up to the ears, somehow her hair grows unobstructed and is somehow naturally in a ponytail, a hair tie in the form of a ribbon tied perfectly behind her head. Tiny doesn’t even know how to tie something like that.
The horns that Tiny felt earlier actually grow out only a small bit. Like a spike jutting out from her jawline. At least, that’s a small bit in comparison to the horns that grow from her hairline and sweep back to curve slightly out at the ends. Said horns are pitch black and don’t even have the purple gloss that her scales have, making them seem darker.
Tiny smiles, the trilling noise ripping loose from her chest for a third and final time as she smiles toothily. Revealing large canines and mostly spiky teeth where a normal human would have molars.
‘.... I have the perfect name.’
|Choose a new name: Reina Draconisia|
|Accept| |Decline|
Tiny hits accept. And with a sigh, they move to sit down on one of the church’s pews. Saryn and Jen both go unnoticed by her as they’re more focused on the feeling of tears running down her cheeks. They let out a low irritated scream.
There are hands on her shoulders. Tiny shudders as she starts hyperventilating.
A voice cuts through the static playing in their mind. Rhythmic taps on her shoulder dragging them back to reality.
“Tiny? Tiny, I need you to respond, can you nod or otherwise signal something?” Whose voice was that? Right right, Saryn’s. Saryn’s an excellent sister. Tiny shudders one last time as they poke her sister in the ribs.
Saryn less than willingly lets out a snort at the chosen method of communication, mostly due to her being ticklish on her ribs. “Alright, can you breathe with me?”
Breathing? Tiny isn’t sure. They still try because her sister sounds scared, she pokes the girl in the ribs again to signal that yes, she’s going to try. They remember what the therapist told her. Breathe in for 3 and out for 3. Add in holding it if able to. Tiny decides to just breathe in for three and out for three, then when their lungs feel more able to move without shuddering, she doubles the length of time she breathes in.
When her brain finally catches up and feels at least calm enough to not need the breathing exercise, Tiny shakes their head as she stands from the pew.
But it’s now that they realize, the ability to move their mouth has disappeared. Without a goddamn trace. ‘Fucking panic attacks.’ Tiny sighs in their mind. ‘Messaging.’ they sigh in relief when a window appears.
|Tiny: Hey, so panic attacks fucking suck and I have come to the conclusion that I am dumb.|
Saryn snorts as she reads the message. “Depends on what conclusion you have come to, other than that you are dumb.”
Tiny sighs yet again as they- no, She, types out another message.
|Tiny: I’m… Probably trans.|
Saryn snorts. “Then you aren’t dumb, dense as osmium, but not lacking in intelligence.”
Tiny hisses in lieu of a response, making it clear her displeasure but not trying to argue the point.
thanks for the chapter