You and Judy were high school friends, despite the fact that you looked like complete opposites. While Judy was the more artistic expressive type, you were more of a somewhat schlubby yet nerdy girl. You spent most of your time studying, reading, playing music, volunteering, all the stuff that would get you into a good college. Despite that, somehow you and Judy just clicked as pals. It didn't hurt that you had some common taste in music, books, and of course, video games. So, when Judy called you over saying she'd found a new system to try, you naturally told your parents you were going over to study.
"Where the heck did you get that?" you ask as you plop down on Judy's bed, ignoring the detritus from her closet strewn all over her room. "Aren't VR stuff still kinda expensive?"
"I dunno, maybe it fell of a truck somewhere," Judy smirks. "Then maybe my brother picked it up, knowing him. Although why he would hide it in my closet I don't know."
"I do," you stick out your tongue as you indicate the state of her room with your eyes, hinting at how long it had been since she cleaned out her closet. "Are you sure you should open it? What if he finds out you took it?"
"Meh, his problem," Judy shrugs. "He shouldn't have left it in my room if he didn't want it opened."
You raise an eyebrow helplessly as Judy hooks up all the wires and the headsets. You never really got to know Judy's older brother, but from what you've heard, he's a character. While you normally steer clear of drama, you figure Judy would take the heat for this anyway, so it was her decision whether or not to go for it.
"It says to be in a relaxed position when you put the set on," Judy reads the manual and states. "You want the bed or the beanbag?"
"Beanbag, I guess," you decide as you get up and resettle yourself in the large beanbag chair. Judy lays down on her bed, looking for all purposes like the subject of a wake. Finally, you both put on the headsets, and hit the power buttons on your sets.
An extremely quick yet bright flash of light occurs, and before you can make sense of what is happening, you find yourself in a large white room with a see-through window in front of you that says "[PLEASE SELECT RACE]" with a list of different fantasy creatures below. You look left, right, up and down, examining the space and what appears to be your body in the space. Rather than looking like your appearance in the real world, from what you can see your body is just a gray humanoid figure, almost like a colorless Gumby. You poke your genderless torso and are surprised at the sensation of touch.
"Jude?" you call out, and while the voice still sounds like yours, there is no response. You guess this is just a loading area for the game, but it's still a bit disconcerting how realistic it feels. As far as you knew, VR, while able to fool the senses to a certain extent, still fell short of reality.
You shake your head, then figure you have to go through the selections before you enter the real game, and you would probably be reunited with Judy when it happened. You start giving serious thought to what race to pick, and kind of wish you had discussed it with Judy beforehand. Still, you figured Judy would pick something that had an affinity for magic, given her hobbies, so you start to think about abilities that would complement hers. In the end you start leaning towards...