White.

All round, all I see is white. Not like a white room, where you can make out a definiable boundary. No, solid white. I normally would have panicked, but I’m almost eagerly awaiting what comes next. Ready to run towards my death. I’m slightly disappointed that there were no angels or bells ringing, but also grateful their opposites weren’t present.

After what feels like hours, but is likely a few minutes, a semi-translucent screen appears:

“Congratulations! The Fantasy Haven Migration event has been successful! You may now customize your character. Note: you will experience a lack of skills and abilities while transitioning to your new location.”

What?! What does that even mean?

A display pops up, several tabs were available like race, gender, and class. Still confused, I examine the character modification screen in front of me.

“Huh, I could totally remake my appearance… nah.” Most of what is shown is already how I was previously. Scars, disfigurement, even my dimples were all present for the nude display of my body on the character mod screen. Dials to make all manner of adjustment were present, allowing someone who was completely unhappy with their appearance to change anything and everything.

If I had any inclination, I could become a woman with a classic hourglass figure. Change it so my muscles were huge. Change my height to over two meters tall (over 6.5 feet). Become an elf or dwarf or any of the twenty plus races available. Even increase all the dimensions of my… well, while I never wanted to be a porn star, I could become one if I made those particular changes.

I do change my eye color to a luminous emerald green to go with my red hair. Irish genes, my father used to say. My eyes were originally a much duller green-brown. There was also an option for night vision, which is too good to pass up if it could be chosen now, so I select it with no small amount of glee.

I glance to the stats tab, sadly noting that if I didn’t remove the damage I accrued from my time in the military, there would be negative numbers attached to the overall stat points I could gain. There were no values next to each stat, just dashes, but due to my injuries there were negative numbers in parenthesis to the right of those dashes.

The stats listed were: Strength, Endurance, Agility, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, and Luck. In my excitement, I did not check what each stood for - though I’ve played enough games I have a pretty good idea. Not sure what the crossover or modifiers will be yet, but I’m sure that’ll be simple enough to figure out. Math, bitches.

“This is so bizarre.” I talk aloud to make sure I can still hear, that I’m not dreaming. I click my tongue to an old pop tune and then change to a different one that was popular when my grandfather was a child.

“Nope, not dreaming then.” I mumble as I go back to the character mod tab. I remove my injuries but keep the scars. Surprisingly, Claire liked them and that’s ignoring the whole ‘chicks dig scars’ thing.

Nothing else in the character mod tab or stats tab stand out. I suppose that the stats will be sorted after the transition, but I’m not overly worried about it. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? I’ll die in about six months anyway.

The class tab is basically a long list of jobs from an RPG. The standard warrior, thief, healer, as well as the not so standard mechanical engineer, serial killer, or pilot. Surprisingly, there is no limit to the number of jobs you can choose from. There are some really exotic ones too and not just the dancing kind.

To keep it simple, I chose soldier. I don’t know that I’ll continue that job or simply branch out. Just noting that you can have them all makes me think there are no limitations as long as you work towards them. Whether that will be true or not will be determined as my remaining time passes.

Why didn’t I take thief? Given my shiney kleptomania, that would be the logical choice for a fantasy based “game”, right? I’ll pass, as I know more about how to catch them than to actually BE one. Besides, stealing is simple enough. Enter room, make sure no one is watching, then take what you want. You don’t need a class or title for that.

Now, I can see if people wanted to make a profession out if it they would take the class, but I’m not interested in wandering back alleys and waiting for some chump to walk in so I can take them for what they own. I’d rather travel in peace and explore new lands without having to worry about my next score or have angry people I’ve stolen from hunt me down.

“But Gram, if you do it right, they will never know it was you!” Yeah… Magical fantasy world, remember? I’m sure someone has protection or a means of tracking lost goods. Or finding the thief. No thanks, hard pass.

There is an equipment tab, which is throwing me for a loop. That’s not a standard deal when starting a game. You are typically given nothing to start or the bare basic to get by on during a tutorial or some such. Looking through the list shows a wide array of equipment you can start with, though nothing that would be a cheat item from the looks of things.

There are daggers, swords, spears, maces, clubs, and oh so much more. Splitting them are additional tabs for melee, ranged, armor, and even more. Talk about complicated. Thankfully, not all of the selection is from the dark ages. There are more current weapons to choose from, like firearms.

Not knowing what to expect, I fall back on my training. I select twin double bladed daggers, two 9mm handguns of which there is no manufacturer name, three sets of garotte wire, and a large survival knife with a serrated back. The fact I could choose all that was pretty amazing, even more amazing was that I could add more. Not knowing what to expect but wanting to travel light and still be well armed, I left the rest alone. Having a shotgun or grenade launcher would be cumbersome and I’d likely appear in a village. Being seen fully decked out for a war, I don’t think that would go over well with any locals.

The rest of my loadout consisted of body equipment. Steel toed boots that looked like they’d be sturdy and comfortable, heavy duty black cargo pants, dark green t-shirt, standard camo flak jacket with pockets and webbing, and metal plated fingerless gloves that took a while to find. A dark grey messenger pouch was added so I could carry a few things if needed.

There were dozens of other things that could have been added other than equipment. Things like earrings, bracelets, necklaces, even tattoos. I did notice that my wife’s wedding ring was listed, with mine shortly after, so I had both of those put on a short titanium necklace. That’s a memento I didn’t want to lose. I noticed my old dog tags listed, so I made sure those were on the necklace as well.

Eager to see what else awaits me in this new location and not seeing anything else that I absolutely had to have, I selected the ‘End’ tab. The Screen popped up again:

“Are you sure you wish to continue?”

I think I managed to nod my head, then the world turned off the white light.