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there would be some kind of constraint that prevented him from interfering directly with the Hero.
She touched the Princess as a character. To her surprise, she got it; no one else had taken it. Good
enough. Now it was hers, unless she failed to make it back in time for the start. Then she would forfeit a
point, as if she had been killed at the outset of the game. That was no good!
She saved and exited. She checked her blood and gave herself a shot. She was okay. She reset the helmet
and re-entered the game. There were still three minutes to spare.
Oops she had selected her character, but hadn't defined it. She had to hurry!
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Appearance was no problem; she gave the Princess lovely long dark hair and the same figure she had had
as a game construct. Also a beautiful low-cut gown to display that figure. She remembered the advice of
Miss Piggy: if you've got it, flaunt it. She would have it, for this scene.
But now she had to tackle MENTAL, SITUATION, and PHYSICAL. A crystal decanter appeared on the
screen. It was filled with golden fluid. Each listed quality of the character had a crystal goblet. What did
this mean?
Then she remembered the explanation in the manual: she had to distribute the fluid to the cups, and the
more she put in any one cup, the stronger that quality would be. But by the same token, less would be left
for other qualities.
Oh, if only she had left herself more time for this! She had too little time to consider. She would just have
to slop it in halfway randomly. But that could be disastrous. She looked at the choices:
MENTAL: INTELLIGENCE, CREATIVITY, DISCIPLINE
SITUATION: CLASS, LUCK, PERSUASIVENESS
PHYSICAL: STRENGTH, REFLEXES, ENDURANCE
Well, she was a Princess, so she didn't need much in the physical side; her lovely figure would have to
serve instead. Her situation was already defined to an extent, but persuasiveness could be useful, and
luck. As for the mental qualities she wanted them all.
So she touched the picture of the decanter. It moved with her finger, as if she were carrying it. She tilted
it over the INTELLIGENCE goblet, and the fluid spilled in, filling the goblet about halfway. She moved
the decanter to CREATIVITY and poured some more. She gave less to DISCIPLINE, on the assumption
that she would be mostly locked up anyway and not need to exercise it. Then she moved to
PERSUASIVENESS, and tilted too much, almost filling it.
Only a little remained in the decanter. Her time was running out. She splattered a few drops in each of the
remaining goblets. Then, with only thirty seconds remaining on the clock, she ran for the door at the end
of the hall. She flung it open and stepped through.
She was in the lofty turret chamber she had seen before. But it was a painted scene, with a cardboard bed
and chair, and a picture of a view in the window.
Then it turned real. The game had begun, on schedule.
It should be a while before the Hero fought his way into the castle to rescue her. Meanwhile she could
enjoy her new appearance. Baal went to the mirror set in the wall and inhaled. Her full and perfect breasts
bulged from her décolletage. She angled her head. Her lustrous tresses fell across her shoulders and
caressed her awesome cleavage. She whirled, and the skirt of her gown flung out to show a bit more of
her shapely legs. Oh, rapture!
She remembered how the game-figure Princess had acted, when Baal had had the aspect of a man.
Endless protestations about sullied honor, then a direct sexual come-on. It was evident that sex was a part
of this game. It might be vicarious, but it was bound to be better than any prospect she faced in real life
with her real body. So she intended to be reasonably demure at first, but she would not protest unduly
when the Hero rescued her. She would find out just what this fine body could do in that regard.
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0111 seven SORCERER
Walter looked at the list of characters for the Princess setting. There was the Hero, of course, and the
Princess. Also a plethora of minor ones: castle guards, serving wenches, laborers, farmers, assistants to
the Hero, and frolicking nymphs. Walter wondered why any player should choose any of those minor
roles. Surely there were more points to be won in the major roles. If they were all filled, other players
might simply move on to another setting, with better roles still open.
He touched HERO. Sure enough, it was taken.
Then he spied the dragon. That was a role? That could be fun! This was evidently a fantasy setting where
magical creatures roamed.
In fact now he spied the Evil Sorcerer. Well, obviously there had to be one for a setting like this. No one
would want that role, of course.
Walter smiled. He touched it. It should be fun to be the bad guy for once.
Then he considered the character types. Could True Blue assume an evil role? He might, but his
uprightness might be a liability. Doodoo was surely the appropriate type. But Walter wasn't satisfied to be
that obvious. So he took the intermediate type, Joe Blow. He should be decent, but not perfect. He might
lose out as the evil figure for the setting, but perhaps some imagination would bring him through.
Walter considered appearance and character traits. He decided to make Joe Blow as much like himself as
he could, as he had with True Blue in the aborted Metropolis setting. Tall, brown-haired, and so on. Then
he pondered the nine other qualities. He had intended to spread the fluid evenly between them, before,
but now he wasn't sure that was wise. He wanted intelligence, creativity, and discipline, but maybe
persuasiveness would be better. So he poured the PERSUASIVENESS cup full, then distributed the rest
of the fluid more or less evenly between the others.
Then he reconsidered. He had assumed that his own intelligence and other qualities, of better or worse
nature, would translate into the game character, but it was evident that they wouldn't. Was he dooming
himself to stupidity, weakness, and lack of gumption? Could he repour some of the fluid?
He touched the PERSUASIVENESS cup, and it lifted and jiggled. Hastily he set it down again, lest he
spill some of the precious fluid. The cup was brimming, and he would probably lose some when pouring.
On the other hand, why not try it this way? He needed to know just how much control the character-set
qualities exerted. If he turned out to be a moron, he would know better next time. He might as well
experiment, since he had so much time to pass. What had gone wrong with the game's Quit option? Was
it a glitch that would clear itself in time, or was it a defect in his particular computer system? Maybe he
should wash out of this setting early, and try to quit again, and it would be okay. So his severely
unbalanced distribution of traits might be best, because it would show him just what counted, and boost
him quickly on out of the setting.
He saw the door at the end of the short hall. Only five minutes remained to the start of the setting. He
might as well enter it early, and get his bearings.
Then a flicker caught his eye. Another name had just been added no, there was no name list here, only a
number indicating the total number of players participating. It had been six, and now was seven.
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Walter paused, considering. Was the roster of the names of players "outside" available only to those
who had not yet committed to this setting? When he joined this Princess setting the anteroom had not
changed, but maybe his status had. So now he could not know the name of the new player, just that there
was one. Why was it set up that way?
This also demonstrated that this was not a common chamber. Other players did not appear here. Because
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