Chapter 2: Hello, My Name Is Megan

His vision cleared, but he had no eyes to see through. He had a sense of his own awareness, but no sense of body. It was freeing, a step in the right direction, and it would have made Jorah smile, if he’d had a mouth to smile with.

“Many players find it easiest to use their own mental image of themselves as a base avatar. This avatar can then be adjusted with minor alterations that will prevent your character from looking too much like yourself. Would you like to use this option?”

Jorah didn’t have a voice to speak with. But again, he didn’t need to speak.

“You have selected a more radical option and opted to have a female avatar. Think of the avatar you would like to have. Imagine what you look like.”

There was something about that last sentence that seemed a bit strange. Empowering. He liked how it simply told him to think how he looked, not how he would like to look.

It wasn’t hard; Jorah always knew what his other self looked like. She was on the short side, just five foot three, and was somewhere between androgynous and curvy in body type. She was in good shape, even had a six-pack – something Jorah had never, in all his years, been able to achieve.

But she wasn’t a sexual fantasy. She was what he looked like, what he wanted to look like. She had sharp features, but thin lips where his were thick. Her nose was small, her face easily described as cute. She had breasts, but they weren’t overly large. Big enough to be noticeable, but small enough not to be problematic when she was bloated.

Jorah had been thinking about her for a very long time.

Her hair was black as pitch, her eyes like blue lightning. Her earlobes dangled a little bit, her lips curved just enough to look like she was a little bit angry. She had a short torso, strong thighs, and feet that were a bit on the small side but nowhere near dainty.

It was a cyberpunk world, so he shortened her hair, clearing off a patch in the back where she would have a data jack, shaving one whole side of it. A feminine look, but short and spikey. Like a pixie with a battleax.

“I am about to ask you for your name and your pronouns. This will be the name that is displayed to all other players. You can change your name and pronouns at any time by purchasing a name change token, which will automatically update all information about your character to reflect these changes. Please remember that while you are free to name yourself whatever you like, we are not responsible for the reactions that characters and people within the game may have should you choose something that warrants negative reactions.”

In other words, don’t call yourself something stupid, because people will make fun of you. Not a problem.

“What is your name, and what are your pronouns?”

“My name is Megan Proxy, she/her.”

As she said the words, she inhabited her body. She looked down at her hands, at her torso, at her feet. She looked down at her body and she saw herself for the first time, the way she felt like she was meant to look. This was her.

She almost cried.

“Megan Proxy, you have two decisions to make before the game begins. The first decision is to choose a side: Corporate or Revolutionary. This will determine your starting location, beginning equipment, and initial quest. This determines only your beginning; once you start playing, you can choose where your loyalties end up.”

She knew she wanted to end up on the punk side of cyberpunk. What was the point of being corporate, part of the hypercapitalist madness that made up that side of things? Did she need that kind of stress, that kind of danger? But it might be fun to start there, to let her cushy corpo life collapse around her and see what comes next.

Besides, she always played revolutionaries. Maybe it was time to see how the other half lived, if only so she could hate them all the more. She opted for corporate.

“The second decision is to choose your starting department. This will determine your starting contacts, skills, and talents. Choose from one of the following departments: Research and Development, Mergers and Acquisitions, Marketing, Personnel, Legal, Manufacturing, Management, Data Security, or Law Enforcement.”

Tough call. She knew right away she didn’t want to be a cop or one of the Mergers and Acquisitions; they were little more than corporate soldiers. There would be plenty of fighting in the game no matter how she played it, but that didn’t mean she wanted to go all combat all the time. That would be boring.

Management was tempting. Farther to fall from, certainly. More incentive to stay, too. Being high up on the corporate ladder would mean living in the lap of luxury. Hypercapitalist hellscapes weren’t hellish for the people on top. But could she live with herself, knowing what her luxury cost other people?

Data Security and Legal departments were way too similar to her real life. Manufacturing might mean tinkering and engineering, which could be fun. But then, so would R&D. And Research and Development meant the highest of the high tech.

“Excellent choice,” the voice said. “I will begin loading you into the simulation now. The first thing you experience will be your character sheet. Good luck.”

***

And there it was.

-Megan Proxy, Level 1 researcher. Experience 0/100. HP: 100/100. Stamina 50/50. Technology Points (TP): 50/50. Cybernetics: 0/0. Abilities: Strength 1, Agility 1, Toughness 1, Willpower 1, Wits 1, Intelligence 1, Charisma 1, Luck 1. Skills: Research 1/5. Find relevant information in any source. Jury-rig 1/20. Interact with technology to cause various effects. Talents: Quick memory 1/10. Recall obscure information you have taken time to commit to memory. Collected 1/25. Keep calm and avoid distraction.

-Equipment: researcher uniform (Physical armor 2. Technological armor 4). Stun gun (1-25 damage per hit, based on setting. Stun damage). Digital coins: 1000. Hard currency: 0. Storage pack. Medical nanos (heal 50 HP. 3 doses).

Not much. But it was a start.