Aetuornos Beta 1-3

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1-3: Pugilist Start

An old, unusually short man stood with his arms spread apart, impatiently waiting while one piece after another of monitoring equipment was affixed to his body. He was quite unusual in appearance compared to those attending him: His eyes were a bright red that glowed faintly, reflecting the room's light outward, with tall, slitted pupils; the gray hair on his head was interrupted by a pair of long, sharp-pointed ears covered in fur of a much darker shade of gray, and a long, slim tail of the same fur twitched impatiently behind him. Everything from his heart rate and blood pressure to the motion of his eyes and ears was to be carefully watched for—none of which, he had insisted, was the least bit necessary.

While he was far from the leading expert on the matter, he was the first one to say yes when a human-led company had come to him for help in developing their dream project. The magic driving the connection between mind and "imagined" body was largely his work, and he had done it based on fairly routine principles known by most of the magical community to be extremely safe. Nonetheless, humans were nervous, and trusted their technology more than any one person's word. He would bear with it.

"There. You're all suited up, mister, ah, Carthan," the medical man said, pulling his hands away first. The cat-eared expert dropped his arms.
"Right." A young woman he'd met a few times, but couldn't remember the name of, nodded. She was the head of the team working on their "game"—an unbelievably frivolous use of what Carthan had helped to craft, but he understood and appreciated the company's ambitious plan by now. "In addition to testing for any physical feedback, you'll be helping us see how the randomization options work, how the experience is for someone less familiar with video games in general...oh, and while you're in there, just pretend to be some normal person playing the beta. We've got lots of questionnaires for them to fill out, but it's good to get the kind of opinions people say to their peers, when they don't think anyone official's watching, too. So, uh, ask what they think of the experience if you think you can get away with it sounding natural."
"Hmph. You want me to ply them for their addresses, too?" he said.
"Um, no, that's—"
"A joke," Carthan said, shaking his head. They never did get the straight-faced ones. "If there's nothing else, I'll get to work."

After some general affirmation, he walked over to the pod and carefully climbed in, lying on his back. Most of the big, sensory-depravation-chamberesque shell was completely unnecessary, but he was told the design made people feel safer—as it was impossible to accidentally roll out of it. At least the interior was comfortable. He reached over and tapped a few buttons on the panel, then lay back and closed his eyes, feeling an enchantment the likes of which he'd spent most of his adult life working with sweep over him.

A forced meditation state wasn't so necessary for him, but the ease of dropping into it was convenient. He let himself fall "down" and "out" of reality, toward the artificial one their world-builders and programmers had constructed, and then opened his eyes to look around at the transitional state.

He would never have admitted it aloud, but in addition to his pride compelling him to personally do this sort of safety testing for older players, Carthan was honestly looking forward to the experience. The idea of taking on a different role in another world was, at least, intriguing, and as all the player forms available at the moment were—or at least looked to be—young adults, he would be able to enjoy feeling youthful again for a bit as well. The designers had been very excited when he said he didn't care what form or powers he wound up with, as relatively few of the testers had that attitude and the ability to be assigned a role at random was bound to be a selling point to some of their eventual customers.

He could feel a push at his ears and tail. It was mildly uncomfortable, he thought, but it was to be expected that he wouldn't randomly be assigned an appearance too similar to his own. He reached up out of curiosity and felt at his shrinking ears until they became small and rounded, yet not furless; his tail, likewise, became much shorter but remained presnt in the end. The more curious change was something in his teeth, which he eventually realized had been several of them shortening and dulling a bit toward a less predatory shape. Finally, a squeezing sensation near the corners of Carthan's forehead portended the rapid growth of something from there. Examination by his hands found long, thick, curved keratinous horns which he would later see were dark, nearly pitch-black in shade. It would seem his new form was closely related to some sort of ruminant.

An urge to stretch came upon him, and when he did, Carthan felt his body expanding upward in response: His arms and legs lengthening and his torso growing taller. Transformations were not his area of expertise; they had consulted some actual experts on the matter to help craft that part of the experience. This was supposed to be close to the sensation of actual change, or at least the most comfortable, least painful means that existed. It was another thing he'd never had an interest in really experiencing, but was quite interesting in this consequence-free context.

Looking down, he observed a difference to his skin. Wrinkles and blemishes had largely vanished, as might be expected from a youthful, somewhat idealized appearance; however, his body hair, too, was mostly gone. Aside from that, his longer legs and arms seemed slim, and his shoulders appeared narrower than before. Suspicions regarding these anomalies mounted as Carthan found soft, light brown hair trickling across his cheeks and the back of his neck and trailing some bangs just down to the top of his eyesight. Well—this made a kind of sense. Complete randomization gave him a coin-flip's chance of remaining male...with the other option equally as likely.

"Hmmn..." He was a little interested to listen to the anticipated change of voice. Nothing yet, though he was beginning to feel a slight tingling from between his legs. This was followed by a gentle, strangely pleasant tugging which made him feel some heat in his cheeks and a raise in heart rate which his real body wouldn't actually be hit with. "Mmn, mm~mmm." There it went. His voice simply floated upward in pitch slowly, quickly taking on a feminine quality as the change of sex steadily progressed. Carthan could feel his waist squeezing narrower, his hips gently pushing outward and pulling his thighs apart as they, too, grew. "Aa~aah...aah!" Somewhat to his surprise, this feeling ramped upward in intensity the smaller things became down there, drawing a sharp, high gasp of air as it accelerated further.

"Mmh—!" Finally, manhood melted away and was swiftly replaced. "Mm~mmnnnh..." A deep, womanly alto hummed from her throat as her new equipment finally seemed to release all of that intensity into a strange, exhilarating new form of pleasure. This, well..perhaps she could get used to this. Less welcome was an awkward bleating noise she made when her mouth opened, seeming to fully identify her as some sort of sheep-person.

Looking down again, the new woman found her clothing altered. Her shorts were even shorter, denim now rather than cloth, and almost excessively tight between the legs—though that wasn't the least bit uncomfortable now. Her shirt had lost is sleeves and failed to gain height with her, exposing a slim, flat belly that seemed to have a faintly visible outline of muscle running across it. Her chest was beginning to tingle faintly under the top, likely the beginnings of some upper-body curves to match the wide, womanly hips her shorts did little to hide.

Indeed, she found herself bleating again in surprise at a sudden push from her chest, bringing a small pair of breasts into view and running suddenly-sensitive skin across the soft cloth of the tight top. "Aa~ah!" Another push made them a bit larger, and gave them more to feel, drawing a new wave of blushing and pleasant tingles down between her legs. While she had no complaint about how this felt, she wondered—was the only option really between pain and this sort of..intensity, when it came to a change of sex? Some people were certain to complain about this, if any of their testers had been brave enough to try it. And how did it feel going the other way? These thoughts were difficult to hold onto as her breasts expanded once again, even more than the last time, and drew a deep, thoroughly pleased "Oo~OOoohh..!" from her lips, her body squirming slightly in pleasure as she felt herself filling out to a full-figured, voluptuous form, seemingly stretching the top to its limit. By the end of it her breasts were large—not gigantic, but big enough to be the envy of a great many real women out there.

Carthan panted softly, looking down and taking in her form. In the process she perceived the world below coming into view: What looked to be an unusually thin-treed forest, and in particular a small, grassy clearing in the midst of it. Looking quickly around, she saw an edge of the woods nearby and made a quick mental note of the direction just before the treeline passed her view and she landed, kneeling on one knee and placing a hand on the ground to soften an impact which was already very soft to begin with.

She stood up easily, and without knowing exactly why she put her arms up. A coat fell down onto her, the sleeves neatly sliding onto her arms so the rest could sweep down around her, a thick fur trim covering her shoulders while the hem trailed down almost to her knees. She stretched, giving a satisfied sigh; this body felt not only beautiful but strong, almost unbelievably so for how little muscle mass was visibly obvious. It would have seemed odd that no weapon presented itself to her, if her mind wasn't busy filling up with some knowledge of how to use her fists and feet as lethal weapons in their own right. She grinned confidently, reaching back to run a hand through her hair and finding it long enough in the back now to reach her hips.

After a quick look around, Carthan strode confidently in the direction of the forest's edge. Surely she should be looking for civilization, after all. Any players there were would be drawn that way eventually, from her understanding of the way this game worked. At the same time, she looked around; for a false-feeling forest with too little animal life, this area at least was pleasing to look at. The scents seemed about right to her too; although perhaps her nose wasn't as strong as she was used to, it would have been easy for human designers to neglect something so vital to certain kinds' perceptions. It was strange being this tall, but not at all unpleasant; every step was like a leap or bound forward, and her energetic body seemed to have no difficulty making one of them after another.

After a short while, her body stopped walking and tensed, and for just a moment Carthan wasn't sure why. The answer came when a gigantic bear—maybe twice her own height and considerable in girth—leapt out from hiding to one side of her, charging and swinging its enormous claws her way. Her body seemed to react before her mind processed any of it, turning and backing away from the first few swipes, then dodging neatly just aside of an attempted tackle, letting the creature land and roll past her as she turned around to continue to face it.

Right...there were "monsters" here. That was why the players got deadly abilities and/or weapons. Carthan pondered whether her skill set was suited to something that big, but something told her she could do some real damage with a throw if it tried that again. Now acting rather than reacting, she swept closer to the giant bear as it stood up and side-kicked at its midsection, landing a solid hit that made it sway ever so slightly off balance. She pressed this advantage, leaning in for a hard forward punch that knocked it tumbling backwards and hopping back out of range of its flailing claws as it fell.

The bear roared, pulling itself up again and charging at her; this time she grabbed a spot on a foreleg just behind its paw and guided the momentum, arcing it up into the air and slamming it down hard onto its back on the ground. The bear was stunned briefly, and she took the moment to kick it in the side again before hopping back a few times again, anticipating the quick rise to its feet and further enraged attack.

It felt like she was doing damage, yes, but barely chipping away all the same. While hitting a giant bear with one's fists was normally inadvisible, Carthan felt as if the problem here wasn't one of practicality. This thing was just able to take a lot of hits. Well, she felt perfectly able to keep those hits coming. She maintained a loose, ready stance and stared down the bear, waiting for it to make its next move. It roared loudly, charged, and—something interrupted it. There was glinting flash just barely in her perception and the bear staggered back slightly, a gash of a cut visible across its gut. While unsure what had happened, she wasn't one to miss an opportunity, and quickly went on the offensive, leaping forward in a dive-kick to the bear's center of mass. This sent it flying backwards, slamming into a tree hard enough to audibly crack its trunk.

"Woohoo!" A loud, high voice yelled from her right as she rolled and picked herself up again. Glancing briefly that way, Carthan found a silver-haired woman with canine traits and a katana in her hand. The bear stood back up with another roar while the tree it had landed on slowly toppled to the ground behind it. "Come at me, bro!" the wolf-girl taunted, and the bear appeared to take the bait, charging headlong at her. Somewhere behind the two of them, a third person's voice chanted something Carthan didn't exactly understand, and several points of light arced their way through the air, seeming to dodge around both of them to travel straight at the bear, burying themselves hard in its body and drawing more blood from the points they hit. Then it made it to where the wolf-girl was, and she moved again too quickly to quite make out, the glint of her sword passing across the bear and leaving it with a nice big cut across the side, ending with her behind it. Carthan also took the opportunity to shove hard into it, forcing its momentum sideways so it slammed itself straight into a tree, from the front side this time.

Turning around to face her target, the sheep-girl could see the source of the other voice now, a short, petite girl with a sort of witch-styled hat and absurdly long white hair that was currently blowing upward around her slightly as a bluish glow surrounded her. She held a staff in her hands and appeared to be chanting something else now; Carthan caught sight of her just in time to see her make a throwing motion as though slinging something out from the staff's orb, which indeed seemed to catch a portion of the blue glow around her into a small, concentrated bit of light, a crescent-shaped blade which sailed straight through the air and buried itself into the stunned bear's neck before dissipating out of existence, leaving another nasty-looking wound behind.

The wolf-girl also made a follow-up attack, leaping up and stabbing her blade straight into the bear's back for a moment, pulling it out again with some slight difficulty as the bear thrashed around wildly. She backflipped away as the bear turned around and roared again, only to be interrupted by a swift kick to the gut from Carthan. The sheep-girl fillowed this up by grabbing a foreleg in both hands, just near where it connected to the bear's body, and twisting hard until she heard a cracking sound, then jumping away as its free claw went swiping at her. It only succeeded in cutting up her coat a bit in the back.

Some more points of light swarmed at the bear from the mage, one of them even managing to bury itself straight into an eye. With the broken foreleg the bear's blind thrashing was badly off-balance, and it careened onto all fours (threes?) to run wildly at whatever it could smell nearby. This happened to be the samurai at the moment, who jumped over it when it charged her and swiped her blade down across its back as it passed under her. Carthan ran to catch up with it as it swerved to turn around; she jumped and landed hard on its back before leaning forward and pummeling the back of its head a few times with her fists, then backflipped away as it began trying to shake her off.

The bear's claws skidded across the ground as it turned, roaring and struggling to pull itself back upright again. A light-blade from the mage caught it square in the front of the neck. Finally, the monster made a choked sound, shuddered, and collapsed forward onto the forest floor. The two melee fighters nearby panted softly, both still tensed for a continued fight, and everything was silent for a long moment. Soon, however, it became clear their opponent wasn't getting up.

"YeeEEes!" the wolf-girl yelled first. "That was a boss, wasn't it?" she said, looking at Carthan. "It totally felt like a boss!"

The sheep-girl scratched her head, unsure what to think of either this exuberant woman or what she was saying. It was a little strange to find herself taller than another adult for once, her own eye level about where the tips of this stranger's ears reached.

"Scylla," the spellcaster began in an admonitory tone, "we introduce ourselves before interrogating strangers."
"Oh, right! Heheh." She put a hand behind her head in an embarrassed gesture for just a second. "I'm Scylla, this is my buddy Ara."
"Aranthra," the mage corrected, walking closer to the other two.

"I..see. Well, I'm.." The sheep-girl thought on it for a moment; it would be preferable not to use her real name, especially looking like this. "..Jesse," she settled on after a second, and offered a hand toward the wolf-girl, who immediately took it to excitedly shake.

"Nice to meet you!"

"Likewise," said Ara.

"Now, on the subject of that big bear..it sure seemed to have a lot of HP," Ara said.
"Eichpii?" Jesse repeated, clearly not understanding. Both of them gave her a confused look. "Ah, is this a 'game' term? Forgive me, I'm less than familiar with this sort of game."

"Ah, well, it just stands for 'hit points'," the mage explained. "Or 'health points'. A number representing how 'still alive' something is, that goes down if they're hurt and up if they're healed, and typically you die if your HP is zero."
"Ah. That tracks," Jesse said, nodding.

"Hey! Loot!" Wagging her tail, the wolf-girl bounded over to the bear's corpse—or rather, where it should still be. Instead there were some neat piles of fur and what appeared to be fully-intact claws and teeth extracted out of the animal. "This is definitely boss-level loot, for sure!" She scooped up some of it and it vanished in her hands, though Jesse had the distinct sense that she had simply 'put it away'.

"Don't hog all that!" Ara said, hurrying over. "You know we basically kill-stole in the first place, right?"

"Erm, I was actually rather grateful for the help," Jesse said. "Is any of that actually even useful?"

"If a monster dropped it, it must be," Scylla stated. Then, to the mage: "I wasn't planning to take everything. I bet those claws could be fashioned into some sweet knuckles or gloves or something." The sheep-girl just shrugged and went over to take those, as well as a pile of fur of her own. Experiencing "putting things away" first hand, the process seemed to make a bit more sense: This was just a fictionally convenient version of a standard storage spell, without the need for an item to function as the entry to the storage space.

"Hey, how'd you get invited to the beta if you don't play video games?" Aranthra asked. "Excuse me—I mean that in the nicest way possible, just curious."
"Well—I was interested in experiencing this sort of crafted 'other world'," Jesse said. "Tell the truth, I have only had firsthand experience with modern technology for the past few years or so."

"Really?!" Scylla was excited again. "That's so cool, we've never met a 'magic' person up close before!"

"At least not that we know of, anyway," Ara corrected.

"Heheh. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that we really aren't that different. Progress simply forked at a certain point," Jesse said. "We achieved many of the same things, around the same times even. It's gratifying to see that human tech is only better at some of them."

"More on the subject of what we're doing now," the mage said, "where were you headed? We were just sorta going in a straight line, hoping to find where the forest ends."

The sheep-girl nodded, then paused a second to look around and reacquire her bearings. "I believe the edge is that way," she said, pointing. "I was headed that way myself before being ambushed."

"Sweet! Can we go together?" Scylla said. "We make a great team! Although, that bear was probably a boss guarding the forest exit or something, so we may not encounter much else on the way out."

"I don't see why not," Jesse said with a slight shrug. Something about this girl made the request difficult to refuse, not that she'd been inclined to in the first place.

"Just remember I can't walk as fast as either of you," the mage advised. "I am a squishy mage, and also tiny."

"Yees! Tiny and cute," Scylla said with a teasing grin. "I'll keep it nice and slow for ya!"

"Ah, perhaps I should lead the way," Jesse suggested. "I'm confident that I can keep a reasonable pace for everyone."
"Yeah, and you already know which way we're going too," the wolf-girl nodded in agreement. "Lead on, Jesse!" This was accompanied with a dramatic point forward..in not quite the right direction.

Shrugging slightly again, the sheep-girl set out on her previous course, two followers richer, and began trying to think of ways to ask them what they thought of the game. Well..Scylla seemed the sort to voice her every opinion anyway, given enough time, which would provoke a response from her friend easily enough. So...perhaps just sticking around them for a bit would be sufficient for now. Anyway, they were fun.