"Ahem," a voice came from my immediate left, and when I turned, I saw a petite girl in a floral patterned dress. Her hair was silver, her eyes as darkest night. While the rest of her was not visible to my eyes, I could tell she would break many a heart when she grew. "This one will be helping you from now on," she began, "That one will not." It tried to voice its own opinion, but was silenced with a wave of the girl's arm. "You are angered."

Her simple statement caused the robed individual to bow its hooded head once, then retreated from sight. "This one is amused," she stared into my eyes, and I could see the age behind her own was not reflected in the body she took on before me. The vast knowledge she possess must have been extraordinary, and I would have done most anything to own a fraction of a fraction of it. "You, a mortal human, have made us laugh," her eyes sparkled with mirth for a brief heartbeat, before calming herself with another cough.

"For now, human, you must choose which body you desire." A snap of her, what I assumed was her, fingers caused the multitude of avatars near us to rapidly spin around us.

"If you had an older body, perhaps I would desire yours." Sometimes I swear the filter between my brain and mouth refused to work, and this was one of those times.

"Oh?" I couldn't see her expression, but I could tell an eyebrow was raised. "This one admires your boldness, human. Perhaps, if this one did, this one would let you." She giggled as I became flushed with embarrassment once more. "Choose, human, which body do you truly desire... to inhabit upon our world."

I sighed in response, and slapped my cheeks a few times to stop myself from thinking, or even SAYING, anything else to embarrass myself once more. "Hmm," I tapped a forefinger to my lips as I contemplated what to choose.

"Ten souls say he chooses a human race like the others." I can hear the whisperings of others, as they bet unknown souls about what I would choose.

'Why would I choose a human?' I thought with a sneer. Humans are fragile creatures, and are far too common in any game available. If I wanted to play as a human, while still being one, I'd have chosen a different game. No, I refused the fragile races of Human, Dwarf, Elf, and their variants. Instead, I glided my body towards those considered as "Monsters". One in particular was the Undead Race. This decision made a few voices grumble and become upset, but were quick to point out that I had not chosen anything.

A thought appeared in my head, to which I turned towards the age-defying girl and asked, "Can an Undead race use holy magicks?"

"All races can use each tier of magick, but this one has never seen an Undead race use it. This one has only seen it twist and become dark. Do you wish to be a contradiction upon our world?"

"Ah, well you see," unconsciously, my fingers began to fiddle with one another as I explained my thoughts, "In every game I've always been a support or healer class. The idea of holding one's life in your hands is quite invigorating. As a healer, you get to choose who lives or dies, while a supporter is just there to be the Jack-of-All-Trades. They can deal damage, help the healer, and protect the group from damage. Hell, in one particular game, my class was an Enchanter, but instead of just enchanting metals and items, I was able to enchant flesh for a time. I was even able to transform my characters' body into various items, flora, fauna, other races, and even various elementals. It was truly enjoyable especially when, after reaching a significantly high level, I was able to transform others into what I could become."

The girl's eyes became as wide as saucers, and I could even see I had an audience before me. "Is that even possible?" One asked, which another followed with, "Imagine if others in our world could do this."

One of them called out to me, asking what game it was I played. To which I replied with, "EQ." This set them off, and many had a variety of contraptions appearing in the air, each showing only numbers and unknown words to my eyes.

"Found it!" One of them yelled, and was instantly crowded as the other entities swarmed the voice. "What is this?" Came several utterances, which was replied with, "I don't know..."

"Is this even possible to implement?"

"Do we even dare?"

"How does one carry eight backpacks?"

"The human has made me curious."

"Oh... So that's how you carry them..."

"Can we play it?"

"Do we even dare?"

"Is 'Do we even dare' all you can say?"

"No..., but..."

"If you say 'Do we even dare' one more time, I swear upon the stars I will strangle you dead!"

"What a strange bunch," I muttered to myself, as I resumed selecting a body. I did pick one out, but was unsure as to what my class would be. The race chosen was, in fact, an Undead, but more, it is a Skeleton. "Am I allowed to customize it. If so, how much is possible?"

The little-girl-who-was-not-a-little-girl peeked out from the group to stare in my direction, "This one's interest has been piqued, human. You may customize it as you see fit. Just no dragons." I shrugged at the dragons bit. Hell, I didn't really want to be a dragon, as too much firepower for a newbie is a bit much, even from my own standards.

The skeleton in front of me was of human origin, and I had a choice between a male or female model. Going by my own standards, I chose male. Looking upon the skeleton, I chose to forgo the human model, and instead choose something stronger. There was one race that I did enjoy in my EQ days, and that was the Ogre. It had enough of a bone structure to not fracture after striking metal the first time, and I craved it. However, I was surprised when the skeleton of an adult ogre appeared before me.

It was way too tall. An adult male ogre, in this world, stood at a height of eight metres, whereas the female stood at a surprising four metres. I would stand out almost immediately, especially if I was in an open field. Luckily, I was able to shrink the ogre down to a Half-Ogre, Half-Other Species. It seemed to me, ogres of this world procreated with just about everything. It reminded me of a few novels about the libido of a goblin, and how they can procreate with any species.

I sighed right then and there, whilst browsing through the selections. Blinking a few times, I believed I had found something interesting about this cross species. Various characteristics can be applied to the skeleton model. For example, if the subspecies had Bear in it, then the ogre would have its claws and vitality. Whereas if it was half elf, human, or even a dwarf, then it would have three random skills, more intelligence, but would become hated even by other ogres, and its bone structure would be more frail.

My skeletal body was not allowed to have any characteristics of a dragon, even though it was available, but that didn't mean I wasn't allowed to be a half Dragonman, Lizardman, or any other reptilian. I did choose a reptilian race, by the way, but my choice was the Basilisk. I would gain an extra pair of appendages, and a chance at a few skills from either species. One aspect from the ogre that was guaranteed, was a larger bone structure. While the basilisk's traits would also strengthen the bones, there was a chance it would be coated in poison. It wasn't much of a chance, a mere 8%, so I didn't have a high hope for this to occur. There was one other trait that seemed a guarantee, and that was a tail. How long the tail was dependant on the extra appendages I gained.

The extra appendages, however, were a 50/50 tossup between an extra pair of legs or extra arms. My hope was the arms, because I was none too keen on being a centaur-like creature. There were a couple of models showing me what the body will look like with four arms and two legs, as well as two arms and four legs. To be honest, the four-armed model reminded me of Goro, while the other looked too much like a centaur for my tastes, as it looked like a cross between a centaur and a lizardman. I've no problem with them being around, I simply do not like them. Besides, they taste funny; not quite horse, nor human, and always leaving a funny aftertaste.

I sighed and rubbed my temples at the models before me. No matter what I do, I could not bring it down below six metres tall. It already sticks out enough, but whatever. I've coped with worse. "It's ugly." I turned around to see the goddess from before. However, before I could bow, or even kneel, to one such as her, she stopped me with a smile.

"My lady, the ogre race of your world may be ugly, and pairing it with a basilisk has indeed made it worse, but there is still beauty in it." She blinked a few times, then implored me to continue. "I am reminded of a tale within a book I read many years ago. It said that a race of ogres within that world was once the fairest of the fair. So much so that the elves, which were believed to be the fairest, grew jealous over the ogre race. Even going so far as to concoct a curse to turn them from fair folk whose melodies and arts were one of a kind, into brutish thugs liken unto your own world. They destroyed everything that made the beautiful, once the curse was cast, and this angered their creator god. So much so that the elves lost most of their longevity, and were cursed with low birth rates.

"When I look upon this ogre's race, I can't help, but think of that tale, though they may not be the same. Yes, the ogre race of your world is ugly to look upon. Yes, having it be half basilisk only made it worse, but my lady, true beauty is in the eye of the beholder. If an artist is not fair in looks, but his artwork is beyond beautiful, is he not beautiful himself? Or a poet, whose body is stricken with pock marks, must move around with a crutch and cane, and smells worse than death is considered beautiful when he speaks of his gods and king with eloquence, respect, and kindness.

"If one is beautiful of body, but poisoned in the mind, then that one is not beautiful. Not in my eyes, at least. My lady, beauty is not in what one sees. No, true beauty is in what one does."

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AN: http://www.gucomics.com/20000915 The link is a joke on how characters from EQ can carry eight backpacks. It's an old joke, but still funny.

As always folks, let me know your thoughts in the comments if you like it, don't, or have a question about what's going on.