"I'm aware of the concept. Nobody in our testing groups or the beta was openly plural though so I don't have first hand experience. Or perhaps I should be saying I didn't have first hand experience."

"Just so. There are five of us. The body we're trying to design here is a compromise between our respective mental self-images. And... Oh! Do you think it would be possible to get a bracelet that changes color based on who's fronting? Like either as a starting accessory or by eventually crafting it in-game?"

"That sounds like an interesting challenge. I think I can make something with that functionality, though it might not be perfectly accurate at first. For example, if one of you is usually happier than the others and then there's a switch under circumstances where they're sad there might be an incorrect coloring. As for being allowed, I have a lot of lee-way for addressing cosmetic requests."

"Ooooh. Yeah that would be great. Especially if there were some way to manually correct it with like a button or something to help it refine over time."

She bounces just a bit on the balls of her feet.

What about different avatars?

Probably not allowed, Hailey counters.

But wouldn't it be cool?, Ruby asks.

It would, Maya soothes, but likely it conflicts with some policy. Almost no games have ever allowed such for us.

"And if you've got cosmetic leeway, I suppose making our starting outfit a little bit in the middle ground between punk and goth might be doable? Because I figure there's some reason why five avatars isn't allowed?"

"A button is easily doable. I was already planning for that. As for five avatars, I'm afraid my leeway doesn't extend that far. You can swap during the first month if you want but only once a day and after that you need to decide on one to keep. As for the clothes and the height, how about this?"

The previous version of the avatar disappears, replaced by one half a foot shorter. The new one is wearing a fitted off the shoulder black crop top with short sleeves and a long swishy black skirt.

"If it helps I can also enable the haptics functionality in the AR mode. It's really designed for hand-held objects so it doesn't do as well with things you can't pick up but it's still good at letting you feel textures."

"That works nicely, and we'd love to try the haptics. Maybe add a tiny bit of a V to the crop top?"

She steps closer to the avatar, ready to feel the textures of the skirt and top.

"Basically all of us love black and silver, but we have different individual favorite colors."

The top grows a V in a smooth morph. "Black is good got it. As for silver how about this?" The skirt gets a sort of lightning pattern of silvery streaks near the top there's just five silvery streaks about half a centimeter thick but they branch and narrow as they make their way down until at the very bottom there's a filigree of silver marking the whole lower edge. The silver is added starting from the top and grows to the bottom before their eyes.

"Oooh, lovely addition. Perfect. Although, maybe... Two minor things. Can we try the skirt a bit shorter, like above the knees, and does the game include things like body hair? 'Cause if it does we would appreciate just getting rid of it."

"The answer to all of those questions is yes." The skirt shifts to be shorter and the pattern shifts to compensate, it looks a bit like the top of the skirt is retracted while the bottom portion squeezes together a bit to not have an excess of fabric.

"To be more specific about body hair, it's an option for verisimilitude but I didn't include it for your avatar based on some of the images in your inspiration collection."

"Perfect. Thank you, Veria."

She rubs the fabric of first the skirt and then the top between her finger and thumb to get a sense of the texture.

"You're welcome."

The entire inside of the skirt is satiny for feel. The outside is sturdier fabric that feels a bit like a veil and the silver inlays have a noticeably different feel, a bit smoother than the surrounding bits.

The top is cotton or something that feels like it all the way through.

She nods. "These feel great. Mind popping the clothes off now so we can check the nude appearance too? Also, can our outfit get damaged in the game?"

"Of course." The clothes disappear. The avatar's boobs sink a bit freed from the embrace of the bra.

"As for clothing damage it's part of the game yes. In general, when you're actually expecting combat it's better to wear more durable clothes. That said normal clothing is fairly easy to obtain more of when you return to the safe area."

"That makes sense."

She looks at the avatar from different angles, and makes a few very minor aesthetic tweaks, then steps back with a nod.

"Okay, I think that's as good as we're going to get. Nothing left to do but try it on. Clothes back on for now, please?"

"Sure, if you want to try it on for real though you should probably lie down. The system can maintain your standing pose while you're in full dive but you might be pretty sore when you come back out."

The avatar's outfit returns.

She nods and steps back to the bed, lying down on it and getting comfy with the pillow positioned right and all.

"Okay, ready."

There's a sensation a bit like numbness that runs down her body. For a short moment she can't feel anything at all and then sensation returns though it feels a little different. At the same time the wireframe dorm room disappears and she finds herself laying on some very soft grass looking up at a sky filled with stars with absolutely no light pollution to spoil the view. A pink diamond appears in the corner of her vision.

She stretches, and then gasps. Everything feels different.

Everything feels right finally. 

She sits up, stretches, and runs her hands over her body, cupping and squeezing her breasts, stroking down her sides, over her waist, to caress her hips.

A long, relieved sigh spills from her lips.

"Thank you."

Okay, time to see how this body drives. She hauls herself to her feet, wobbling briefly as she does so. "Okay, this is a bit of an adjustment."

You knew it would be, Hailey points out. Best way to practice is to move.

She nods, and stretches a bit, twisting her waist, bending to the sides, then to touch her toes. She bounces a bit on the balls of her feet, savoring the feel of her breasts jiggling just a bit as she does.

And then she runs.

Her footsteps are shaky at first, stumbling a little bit, but one pounding footfall after another she sorts it out. Little by little, her stride evens, her pace steadies.

After a few minutes of adjusting and settling that, Neo switches in.

Their body feels so good!

She throws herself into a cartwheel, fumbles the had placement and lands in a heap, hops back to her feet, and tries it again.

And again, and again.

By the fifth, she's landing her hand placement reliably. By the seventh, she's correctly gauging her foot placement at the end.

She starts throwing herself into somersaults, tumbling across the grass with gradually increasing grace.

Then it's time to go backward. She somersaults in reverse, rolling across the ground, retuning all their reflexes little by little. 

Finally she kips back to her feet and looks around for something like a tree.

There are trees far enough away that they don't block the view from where they woke up.

"If you want more light I can supply that."

She tilts her head a bit, shakes her head, then tries to charade a tree, hands wrapping around an invisible cylinder near the ground and then rising up skyward before spreading out along the branches.

Then she puts her hands down to her sides (to indicate a different element of the charade), then picks them back up and mimes doing pull-ups.

"I admit I don't have a lot of experience with charades. Are you sure light wouldn't help you see if what you're looking for is already present?"