Once again, I looked down at the game box I was holding in my hands. The new hotness: the latest product from famed game makers Virtual Worlds, pioneers in VR tech. I’d just barely managed to snag a copy on game launch, there were very few available – they’d decided to limit the first production run to just twenty-five hundred units, bundled with the new generation of the Brainplug Machine, the helmet that allowed you to immerse yourself directly into the fantasy world they’d created. Supposedly, they’d done this because of server and bandwidth limitations: they were only able to guarantee enough for that many players simultaneously, so that’s how many they’d made.

The box I was looking at proclaimed, in big, bold letters, Realms of Wonder. The title of the game, obviously – it was a fantasy RPG. And below that, the tag-line: Discover Yourself in a Whole New World.

I smiled, a sad smile. I was sure they had absolutely no idea how on the nose that slogan would prove to be.

The game was supposed to be cutting-edge and innovative: instead of you making a character, it would read directly from your brainwaves what your ideal body was, and reproduce it faithfully in the virtual world. According to the developers, this would allow everyone to live out their perfect fantasy, without having to worry about the minutiae that usually came with such a game – just plug it in, start it up, and off you go. Of course, they’d also planned some way to alter your character, but that only came further down the line, at about level ten according to the beta testers who’d helped iron out any bugs: before that, you had to stick with whatever the system assigned you. With however you saw yourself in your mind’s eye.

And therein was the problem.

Jack was my oldest and best friend. We’d been together since kindergarten, we’d grown up side by side, even though he lived clear across the city. He’d always been there for me, he’d always protected me from being bullied – he really liked sports, he had been a starting player for our high school’s soccer team, and the same was true now that we were in college. No one messes with sportspeople, and he’d made it clear that if anyone tried to start something with me, there would be hell to pay.

I was grateful to him. He’d always supported me in whatever I did, in all my nerdy endeavours; and he’d always found time, somehow, to play video games with me, despite being really busy with his extracurricular activities. He was the only one of our peers who truly respected me.

He also had no idea I was a girl.

I’d figured it out when I was ten, and I’d become certain of it when puberty hit, because of all the research I’d done on the internet. “Transgender.” That was the technical term for people who were assigned a gender at birth, but did not identify with that gender.

The whole world knew me as Edward, and everyone saw a boy when they looked at me. No one knew I was really a girl named Ellen, my oldest friend least of all.

Many times I’d thought about coming out to someone. About coming out to him. I was about eighty percent… No, make it ninety. Ninety percent sure he would accept me. I mean, he’d always had a kind word to say about LGBT people, he never discriminated. He was a really good ally. If I knew one person who wouldn’t give me shit about being trans, that was Jack.

But on the other hand… I was scared. We’d settled into a comfortable routine, we were best buds, best bros, two peas in a pod. Me coming out to him would change everything, would mean he would look at me differently. I mean, finding out your best friend is a girl is sure to change something, right? Even if you still loved and respected her…

Yes. I was scared. I was scared of losing what I had.

I’d sworn to myself I would never come out.

But then, something else had come out: the game. Realms of Wonder.

Jack had been the first to spot the ad. He’d religiously followed every new announcement, every new progress video that was posted online, and he’d been waiting for months – no, years – for this game to be released. Without me noticing, he’d apparently become a more enthusiastic gamer than I was, and he’d been so insistent in playing the game with me, his best friend, that I couldn’t just say no. We lined up together in front of the store on release day, waited for hours, and managed to buy two copies, one for him, and one for me.

According to the previews, to what little beta testers could reveal without breaking the NDA, everything the developers had said about the game was true: it was a really immersive experience, and it thrust yourself in your ideal body.

I had absolutely no doubt I would be a girl in-game.

Well, I already was a girl. But… You get it. I would be physically a girl. I would have hips, breasts, a cute face… A girl’s body. There would be no escaping it.

Which would mean I would have to come out to Jack.

I picked up my phone. Read the last text Jack had sent me. I’m so excited for tonight! I can’t wait! See you in game, Ed!

I looked at the clock. It was the appointed hour, the time we’d agreed on. We’d linked our game accounts online so we would materialise in the same starting area – there were apparently a dozen, scattered all over the game world, but you could make sure you started in the same one as your friends, even though you couldn’t choose which one specifically.

I sighed. There was no escaping it.

Slowly, with trembling hands, I slipped on my helmet, laid down in bed, and flicked the switch on the game box.

The gloom of my room disintegrated before me; suddenly everything was light. I blinked to clear my vision, and saw that I was standing in a wide town square: it was round, about a hundred metres across, with a fountain in the centre. Some people were milling around – a few players, but most were NPCs, recognisable by the marker hanging above their heads.

The developers weren’t kidding; this was incredibly lifelike. The graphics and sound were perfect, even the shadows moved appropriately, and the fountain’s water flowed as it would have in real life. If it hadn’t been for the small visual clues that helped players distinguish important objects, I would’ve readily believed I’d been dropped in the middle of a medieval town.

But I didn’t have time to stare at everything; I had more pressing concerns.

Slowly, I moved my hands up and over my body; I felt my legs, my waist, my chest. I groped around my face.

Yep. Female.

I walked over to the fountain and looked at my reflection in the water; it was a bit distorted, but I could see I was still my real age – maybe a couple years younger, but not more: I had shoulder-length hair which framed my feminine face nicely. There was no way you could mistake me for a boy.

I sighed again. Well, this was it. Time to face the music, to talk to Jack and explain everything.

Speaking of Jack… Where was he? He was late. This was entirely unlike him, if anything he’d always been early. Maybe he’d had some trouble with his connection, or with his Brainplug Machine? It was a new technology after all, even if it had been thoroughly tested there might be some kinks and issues to work out. Maybe…

I was shaken out of my thoughts by a scream.

“What the FUCK?”

I looked around, and pin-pointed the source of the shout. A girl, about my age if I’d had to guess: she was a player, not an NPC – she lacked the marker above her head – and she was frantically running her hands up and down her body. And she seemed really shocked, judging by the startled expression she had on her face.

And I suddenly realised why that was.

Oh, this poor girl.

I’d read things about people like her. She was likely an “egg” – which is slang for a trans person who hadn’t realised they’re trans just yet. Sometimes, they can go on for years not realising it, until something happens which… cracks their egg.

Something like being thrust in a female body by an unthinking, unemotional computer system, which scanned your brain to give you the “perfect body.” Or what you, deep down, considered to be the ideal body anyway.

I’d expected it, since I’d figured out I was trans years before, but she clearly hadn’t. I could see she was panicking, starting to hyperventilate. Everyone was keeping their distance: the NPCs weren’t paying her any mind, of course, but the few players who were around were giving her the side-eye, not moving to intervene.

Deciding I had to do something, I strode over to her.

“Hey. Hey,” I said, touching her arm. “Come on, calm down.”

“B-b-but…” she stammered out. “W-w-what the hell! I’m a girl?!”

I nodded, and smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way. “Yes, you are. I know this is shocking, I’ve been through this before.” I cocked my head to the side. “Well, not exactly this, but close enough.”

“Wh-wh-wh-wh-why? Why am I a girl?” she all but shouted.

“I have a theory, but you have to calm down first.” I placed my hands on her shoulders. “Look at me. Take deep breaths, in and out, in and out.”

She gave me a doubting stare, but still, she followed my lead. She started breathing deeply, in and out. Slowly she seemed to calm down, to stop trembling, though it took a good few minutes of breathing exercises. Finally, on my cue, she inhaled, held the air in, and slowly let it out.

“How are you doing?” I asked with a smile.

“Better,” she replied; her voice was just barely a whisper.

“Good,” I said.

“But I don’t understand,” she continued. “Why is this happening? I just logged in, I was supposed to meet with my friend Ed, and I’m like… Like this.”

I blinked. Wait, what?

I looked at her face carefully. I was sure I had never seen her before in my life, but there was something about her… Something in her eyes.

“Jack?” I whispered.

She’d been looking around the square, taking in the scenery, but turned to look at me.

“How do you know my name?”