LIT RPG 8 (Patreon)

Awkward. Things between Jack and Brett got awkward. Every time they ran into each other in the quad, they each flashed back that moment: staring into each other’s eyes, drawing together, coming so, so near to a hungry kiss. To put it gently, two young men who considered themselves righteous bros now had concerns they might be a little less rigidly defined in terms of their gender identities. This was very concerning. In fact, after a first year orientation session on the subject of gender fluidity, they had both cruelly mocked the idea that someone could be born in the wrong body. “You know what I think?” Brett had said. “I think they just want attention.”

“Right,” Jack said. “They always have to be different.”

Brett now had serious concerns about his sexual identity. One the hand, he’d wanted to kiss what appeared to be a very beautiful woman. Check straight.

On the other hand, he knew that inside that woman was a guy, and not just any guy but a good friend. Check– confused?

The third thing was, he’d been the one who’d wanted them to play female characters. And, yeah, he tried to play it off as a whim, but he’d been obsessed with the idea for a long time. And, he’d, let’s say, toyed with the notion before, maybe even like a girl toying with her ponytail. Playing offline, solo games where he’d been sure everything was private, he’d played chicks. He had. The thing was, in those games it had never mattered much, other than his character looked cute. There had never been any interaction.  He’d told himself he had the timeless motives of all guys– he’d rather look at a hot girl’s ass while playing than a guy’s.

Then, fully realized VR had come along. You inhabited the body of the character. You felt what they felt.  What would it feel like to be a woman? In a MMORG? To speak with a woman’s voice? The intensity of his curiosity scared him. Now, sitting in class, ignoring the professor as she ground through another tedious lecture, he remembered–  it had been at breakfast– Jen had shacked up with a skinny,  hippie type looking guy, and he was making them omelets– of course, he had to cook. He had a ponytail and a bunch of bracelets, and Brett had wanted to punch him.

Brett had grunted good morning and started making a protein shake.

“You were an animal,” the guy said. “I never knew you had that in you.”

Jen giggled. “I never knew you could be such a little slut.”

They both laughed. “It was pretty weird. I just got into it. Did you like Elle?”

“I liked her tits,” Jen said. “It was kinda fun banging a sorority girl.” Jen was– well, Brett had never been sure how to characterize her. She seemed to morph to different looks every day– art girl, punk girl, goth girl, confused girl who put on parts of three different styles and dyed her hair purple girl. But, whatever the look, she was anti-Greek to the point of being psychotic.

Brett was pretty sure what they were talking about, and he felt himself getting turned on just hearing her talk about his tits.

“And I will never look at a Ken doll the same way,” the guy said.

“Hey,” Brett said, unable to stop himself. “What happened?”

“We had a close encounter,” Jen said. “Of the kinky kind.”

“We swapped genders in VR,” the guy said, super enthused, as he plated and delivered the omelts. The whole room smelled of chives and onions, and Brett’s mouth watered. “I was the girl. She was the guy. It was– intense.”

“Mmmm,” Jen agreed around a mouthful of omelet.

“And you guys…”

“Oh, we fucked,” the guy said. “Hard.”

“Are you fucking serious?”

“I am fucking serious.”  While he ate, Jen jumped in.

“It’s so real. You can’t even believe it. You feel everything. I had the biggest boner. It was like, so weird to have that– sticking out!”

“But, how do you know that it feels real? You’ve never had one to compare in real life?” Brett asked. “This is the thing I’ve always wondered about any VR experience that comes from outside the person’s realm of experience.”

“You ask a very good question,” the guy said. “And the thing is, we don’t know. We can’t be sure. But there is a lot of evidence to suggest the experience is absolutely, authentically parallel to the real thing. It’s all– you have to try it. You’ll see. Or, maybe feel would be a better word.”

“So, you guys really fucked?”

They looked at each other, eyes full of mischief. “Yup.”

“Dude,” the guy said, waving his fork, a piece of egg dangling from the tines, “you will learn so much from having a vagina. I can’t recommend it enough.”

“I don’t think so,” Brett said. “That’s a little extreme. I mean, you do you and everything, but I’m a regular bro, you know?”

“You’re the one missing out.” The guy said.

“I’m pretty much okay with that,” Brett said, trying to keep his interest hidden.

“I gave her the grand tour of the pussy,” Jen said. “And showed her what to do with a clit.”

“Just wait till next time we do it here,” the guy said. “I’m going to light you up!”

“You better, bitch.”

“I will, slut.”

They both started laughing, and when they started feeding each other, Brett sensed it was time to leave.

That conversation had lit the match. Over the next few weeks, it started to become a trend around campus. More and more people were gender swapping in this new VR world. Everyone agreed it was totally realistic. The rumor spread that the college would soon offer a gender swapping class, intended to use the new software to teach students to understand gender bias, and also to walk a mile.

The urgent need grew for Brett, but the more the need grw, the more he’d fought it.  It– scared him, the thought. It scared him that he just might like it a little too much. He’d started to wonder, as a baby step, if he and Jack could play some kind of action game as girls.

Now, back in the present, they had done just that. And, it had been interesting. Jack had felt all kinds of off balance and lack, since he’d given himself such dramatic curves. For Brett, it had mostly been a matter of getting used to being not tall. In real life he was a solid 5’ 8”-- not short, but not tall. His avatar was not just taller, but bigger, and it felt odd to see the world from a less lofty height and to carry less bad assery in terms of his physical prowess. He felt the difference between the firm, smallish breasts he’d had and his now flat chest, just in terms of less jiggling, and he did not miss wearing a bra at all, but in fact it didn’t seem all that different to him, just maybe a little more convenient to be a guy.

Heather and Jen had decided to throw a quad party, with Jack and Brett, as usual, just going along with it. A lot of people had shown up, and it was hard to even move around the cramped space. Brett wasn’t really feeling it, but he couldn’t go to sleep with all this noise, so he just hung out at the fringes of the party. It was when he went to get another beer from the pony keg that she came up behind him and said, “Hey, guy.”

Brett turned. “Oh, hey,” he said, looking down at the face of a gorgeous Asian girl, with the most amazing green eyes. “Um, Charly, right? From that study group?”

“You remember!” She said, obviously pleased, hooking her hair behind her ear.

“I never forget a pretty face,” Brett said, instantly kicking himself for the corny old line. But she smiled, and seemed to appreciate it. He did remember that pretty face, but also because her parents had named her Charly. It wasn’t short for Charlene or anything else. Her name was Charly. “I hated it when I was little,” she’d told him back then. “But now I think it’s cool.” Brett had found that– fascinating.

Now, back at that party and reunited, they chitted. They chatted. There was some touching, and then some kissing. Brett asked Charly to come to his room.

She came eagerly.

Brett woke spooning Charly, who snored, but in a kind of cute way, like a kitten might snore. His arm was draped across her waist, his face buried in her rose-scented hair. Careful not to wake her, he untangled himself, and eased himself off the bed. She rolled over, hair falling across his eyes, and stretched.

“Shit,” he said.”Sorry.”

“I was awake,” she said. “Coffee?”

“I’ll put some on.”

Brett paused, then took a plunge, going over and giving her a kiss, though it seemed almost like too much after just a hookup. Jack accepted the kiss like they were a couple, but they both pulled away, disgusted. Morning breath. “Let’s try that again after some mouthwash,” Charly said.

Brett laughed. He liked a girl with a sense of humor.  Pulling on his thermals and a t-shirt, he headed out to the kitchenette, and stopped dead. Jack was there, and sitting next to him was a tall, athletic girl, her hair pulled back in a ponytail, pretty but not gorgeous. You could almost call her handsome.  She was him. Brett. Or, rather, his avatar.

They were eating cereal, not really talking.  Seeing Brett standing there, Jack grunted. “Hey.”

“Yeah, hey.”

“Hey,” the girl grunted.

“I’m just gonna get some coffee going.”

“Make a whole pot, bro?”

“Yeah.”

He grabbed the pot and started filling it with water.

“This is Danny,” Jack said, pointing his milk dripping spoon toward the she-Brett. “She is a star on our basketball team.”

“A star?”

“I am,” she said in a confident, but not arrogant tone. “Power forward. All Conference.”

Power forward. “Impressive,” Brett said, looking but trying to seem like he wasn’t looking. The likeness was incredible. She could have been his sister- or, he had to keep reminding himself– his avatar’s sister. The whole thing freaked him out. What did it mean? Did Jack want to fuck him? Did he even realize? How could he not realize? Brett poured the water into the coffee machine, dumped the grounds and the soggy old filter. It kind of offended him that Jack would go and find a look-a-like. It seemed almost like a betrayal.

And then Charly came out of the bedroom, wearing just a t-shirt that hugged her large, firm breasts. She had her hands buried in her long hair, mussing it. “Coffee, me, bro” she said. “Coffee me, stat.”

Oh, shit, Brett realized. I just fucked Jack.