Rings of colored light. That's what you see first, falling through an endless corridor. But you heard about this. It's a short trip, the system bypassing your nerves and making the connections it needs to establish the stream.

The day is Friday, March 1, 2044. Domain of Dreams has been online since Wednesday, but none of you had found the time to log in until today. Life gets in the way, or you wanted to wait for the weekend to minimize the effect of the expanded time on your work/school concentration. Either way, it's finally time to enter the game everyone has been looking forward to.

The time is 5:45 pm. The title screen appears in front of you, a typical fantasy affair, a sword cutting through the D in domain and Dreams, skewering the title. Behind it, a sprawling landscape. Calling up a virtual keyboard, you log in with your prepared character, written in your online application weeks ago.

A voice cuts through the air. "Now transporting to the Starting Area....checking zones....reticulating splines........sorting into parties.

"As a courtesy to new players, you have automatically been sorted into a starting Party. A reminder that Domain of Dreams is best played in groupings, as it is not balanced to solo play. Party structure isn't permanent, you may leave or join new ones as you wish."

A flash of light. And with that, the players are standing in an open clearing. Now that the game is loaded, their avatar bodies are fully formed, and the feeling of being in another world has its first chance to take hold.

Surrounded by thick forest, the path stretches into the distance past the circular grassy hill. The path is blocked by a floating window. It has a timer, saying "Now Preparing Starting Zone: 5:00" and falling. It seems the game chose to give an open period for the players to acclimate themselves, and meet their team. The six players now gathered turn and face each other, their new teammates' screen names and HP bar appearing above them.

A small, heavily armed figure holding a tall bladed weapon.

A girl in dark red leather, with two swords strapped to her back.

An amazon in chain mail, leaning on the butt of a hand spear.

A bald giant, heavily muscled and wielding a large hammer.

A man wrapped in red robes.

A pale figure, with hair so white that it seems to glow.

4 minutes and 30 seconds remain until the game begins. There is time yet to talk or check things. And then the path into a new world opens.

School's out. Friday.

Ordinarily for her, she'd be going to one of her usual places; gaming tournaments were held all the time on Friday nights, and she tended to vary where she went to keep from getting too bored from the insignificant competition.

Of course, she also varied her schedule to avoid that person.

My goodness did she ever hate that person.

Today was different, though; Domain of Dreams was out.

She knew from experience the best way to rise to the top of an MMO was to get in from the beginning; it irritated her that she couldn't start until a few days in, but she also knew she was good enough to catch up to any of the fools with utterly no lives to their names.

And so she logged in with her character, licking her lips with anticipation.

"As a courtesy to new players, you have automatically been sorted into a starting Party."

WHAT KIND OF CRAP IS THIS?!

"A reminder that Domain of Dreams is best played in groupings, as it is not balanced to solo play. Party structure isn't permanent, you may leave or join new ones as you wish."

Not balanced for Solo play?! Ridiculous!

And so she appears in her virtual form, dark red leather and a black tunic, two swords at her back, and a long ponytail tied up and falling down her back. The name "Karie" is above her head.

Well, at least I got a good class. Master. Just the sound of it is right. Yeah... I'm the Master.

As her party appears before her, she feels the virtual ponytail running down her back, flicks it, and sneers without even looking at the names of her party members.

With a thick Chicago accent, she begins.

"Name's Karie. Here's how this is gonna work: stay out of my way, you he-"

And then she catches a very familiar name over the person standing directly opposite of her.

The short one in armor, with the really big polearm.

No.

Her hair bristles and her eyes flair.

NO.

Her teeth clench and a look of absolute disgust appears on her face.

No one else in Chicago would dare use that name... how in the HECK did I get partied... with THAT PERSON?!

The man in the red robes adjusts his glasses, with the hand that's not holding his staff. The name "Clarence" appears over his head; he looks down, instead, at his virtual feet for a moment. Then he looks up, a silly grin on his face.

He takes a step forward. Then three steps back, his grin widening all the time. Then he turns to one side and starts running in a circle around the party.

"Whoohoo!"

The pale man's yellow eyes flicker open, and he looks around curiously. He holds up a hand, clad in shiny but plain golden gauntlets, and curiously turns it over. His gaze runs down his arms, over the plain off-white tunic he wears, to the worn leather vest, down to dull brown pants, and finally to dusty leather boots. He reaches a hand up to run it through his spiky, snow-white hair, then turns his head as the tattered red scarf he wears around his neck flaps just in the edges of his peripheral vision. His eyes continue to take in the world around him, the huge trees, the grass beneath his feet, the blue mountains on the distant horizon. Then, finally, he turns to regard his teammates. At that, his face splits into a wide grin, and he literally leaps in glee.

"This is so AWESOME! Isn't this amazing? I'm gonna get a better view!"

Without waiting for a response, he dashes to the nearest tree and begins scaling it, trying to see more of the fantastic world he's found himself in.

The amazon, who's name tag proclaims 'Maya', seems to wave an arm in the air for a moment before she seems to figure something out and various menus appear before her. Those that can see the menus note what looks like an equipment menu and a skills menu, then an options menu... all of which shortly seem to go blank as she checks something in the options menu. She spends a few more moments examining fiddling with the menus, then closes them all.

Only after that does she stop to take in the world around her, as well as herself and her weapon. Her body she raises an eyebrow at, but she does seem a bit satisfied as she notes her long, floing black hair. Soon though, her weapon gets the most attention as she thrusts and twirls it about experimentally.

She doesn't seem to have noticed the other party members yet.

The first thing of note happens when the white haired man runs at the trees, and bounces off an invisible field, that flashes purple, with a window saying "inaccessable, falling over.

"Absolutely incredible." agrees Clarence, stopping to help the pale man to his feet. He hasn't stopped grinning yet; if anything, his grin is wider now. "Hey, everyone, I'm Clarence, I can do fire magic. And I can walk!"

Brand, as announced, falls to the ground and lands roughly. He shakes his head, brushes his hair sheepishly, and then laughs and accepts the hand up.

"Hey, Clarence, I'm Brand. I thought I could walk too, but maybe not so much. Anyway, nice to meet you, and thanks for the lift!"

Karie is dumbfounded. Not only is she stuck with that person, it would appear that two of her other comrades are nuts.

This can't be happening. "I can walk!"? Who even says that? And what's with the newbie who can't tell what a spawn timer is...

Noting 'Maya' as keeping to herself, Karie is slightly less perturbed.

At least someone here isn't freaking out over a little VR. Maybe if I talk to her then that person won't bother me...

Walking up to Maya, she says,

"Well, you seem to know what you're doing. Karie."

She sticks out her hand as if to shake.

"WOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Clarence takes note of the short, armored figure running around behind him following in the circle. "This is just fantastic!! But!" stomp "I'm" STOMP "SO SHOOOOOOOORT!!" The armored figure skids to a stop and looks longingly up at the tip of the 6 foot plus halberd it carries, a look that plainly says "I wish we were swapped."

The figure is plain, long brown hair tied back in a tail with a long flowing red ribbon tied at the waist, tailing behind like some sort of faux tail. The being labeled as Aikidoka Kai stands up and takes a breath... in moments Kai is surrounded by menus, inventory screens, stats pages, skills... the works. "Brilliant. Simply... brilliant. I can actually feel the keyboard feeding back... I can smell the trees... it's amazing!"

A grin plays across one's face. "Let's see what it can do..." the menus fly away and suddenly the tiny armored form is flipping backwards, running forwards, spinning the giant halberd (and considering one is about 4'6" it seems to be extra giant) and running through what appear to be some martial art forms. "Not bad! This is a bit like a Jo... only it has a pointy end! Point at the enemy. I wonder how physics work in here..."

Kai ponders a moment, "Clarence... walk... HEY!" One runs over to Clarence and hugs him, "I remember you! We were in a tournament together right! First round? How are you!" A huge sincere smile is spread across one's face. Kai peers around at the others, "Anyone else..."

"Name's Karie. Here's how this is gonna work: stay out of my way, you he-"

"OH. MAI. GAAAAH!" Kai rockets over to Karie, "Karie Karie Karie! It's me! It's Kai! Remember me! We've been in a ton of tournaments together!" Kai is bouncing, but probably not even coming up to Karie's shoulders. Kai clamps onto the extended hand, "HAI!"

"Maya." The tall looking woman nods at Karie... then promptly gets distracted by Kai running over. Leaving the two be, she seems to momentarily cock her ear as if listening to something, then immediately seems to start hunting around in the small confines of the area for... something, using her spear as a prod to make sure she doesn't randomly run into a barrier.

A moment after helping Brand up, Clarence is himself knocked over by a hyperactive short person's hug. He makes a strange snorting sound, as if of someone trying not to laugh at the absurdity of it all. "Hey, I can actually feel the grass. This is incredible!"

Despite the incredibleness of feeling the grass, Clarence is quickly back on his feet. He shakes Brand's hand. "Brand. Neat. What do you do?"

Kai.

Why oh why did it have to be Kai.

Karie can't help but think that the moment Maya turns away as Kai rushes up.

This is a joke, right? I'm being punked?

Karie turns and forces a weak grin and accepts the handshake.

"Ah... yeah..."

In the back of her mind, she imagines Kai, arms bound by duct tape and wearing concrete shoes, thrown in to Lake Michigan.

It's just for the beginning area... I'll grit my teeth through this then find a group that isn't completely nuts...

Brand places his hands on his hips, and chuckles deeply. "I'm a Bright Breaker! I smash the forces of darkness with the power of light! A warrior of justice, defender of the helpless, and hero who will save the world!" Ending the speech in a dashing and valiant pose, he manages to keep a straight face for a couple of seconds before breaking out laughing. Once he finishes, he continues, "but seriously, how lucky am I to get THE most awesome class? This is going to be so cool!"

Kai beams up at Karie, "This is gonna be so awesome!"

One then hears Brand's speech and goes completely into role play mode, "Aikidoka Kai here. I'm a Stalwart Lance." Kai taps the ground with the giant halberd, "My power is that of the earth. It is a pleasure to meet all of you."