Doe Ray: A doe by any other name

A name. A name for a doe re mi fa...

He stopped. His character was a doe, a deer, a female deer...

Darn, he couldn't get that song out of his head now! Maybe he could use it somehow. Do re... How about Dora? No, that was still too human, and the pun was so obvious there had to be dozens of does called thing like Doera, Doeris and Doereen around, making everyone they met groan at the old joke. What if Doe was a title like Miss? Doe Remi?

"Remi," he said, but the doe did not repeat it. Instead, a dismebodied voice spoke to him in the strange fill-in-the-blank way only computers do. "The name," it said. "Remi," it simply played back his own voice. "Has Been Claimed."

Okay, he thought. Try again. He realized his doe avatar was just standing there looking like an idiot who didn't know her own name. Maybe a different pronounciation would do the trick?

"Raymee," he tried. Let's hope noone takes it as a request to ray me, he though. I have already been rayed with a doe ray (back in chapter 56641, in case someone lost count), which is how I ended up here in the first place...

The computer spoke again. "Character registered as. Raymee. Species. Deer. Gender. Female. Version. Two. Personal wealth. One hundred credits."

It kept saying some more technical stuff, but Jim had stopped listening after the credits. One of the techs had told him (back in chapter 91529) that they would cover his expenses for testing the character design, and he had assumed that meant both in and out of the game. But now it seemed that his character only had what sounded like a pretty limited amount to spend. He was sure he had already spent much more on the shopping round earlier...

"Stand by for iris scan." Suddenly the right part of his field of vision darkened and got replaced by a flickering light that was so close to his eye he couldn't see it properly. For lack of a better idea, he just held still until the light disappeared and normal vision returned.

"The iris scan is now your password for this character," the voice continued. "To change your password use the @pass command."

"Of the Northern clan?" Cire suggested. He made the sign for going out of character and whispered "The new one."

She nodded. "Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise." Haran took her hand and started leading her up the stairs towards the ballroom. Jim had wanted to ask Cire about the credit thing, but he had just scurried off to welcome another doe, presumably his own date.

At the door they paused as the AI herold looked them over, turned and announced to the room: "Haran of The Forest Clan. With Raymee of the Northern Clan."

The now officially named couple stepped through the door into what looked like a scene from Cinderella, and I don't mean the scullery. Several couples who had arrived earlier (presumably not taking the scenic route) were milling about the large, magnificently decorated room. Jim noticed that most of the traffic went to and from a small dais on the side near the entrance, where a pretty, young doe was standing. Everyone who passed would bow, curtsey and exchange a few words with her. Jim had kind of developed an eye for jewelry during his shopping round, so it only took a few seconds to notice that the young lady was the only one in the room wearing a diamond-studded tiara. He remembered looking at some tiaras but the shop staff had advised against it for some reason...

"That's the princess," Haran explained as he noticed where the doe was looking.

"Princess??"

He nodded. "Our hostess."

She stared at him with a trace of panic in her eyes. "You didn't tell me it's a royal ball!" she whispered.

"Didn't want to make you nervous."

"And what do you think I am now??"

"Nervous?"

"You bet your a... your little white tailtuft I am!"

"Sorry, I'm rather attached to it. Feel free to scandalize me by running away if you like."

Raymee calmed down a bit. "Do I have to talk to her?"

"At least curtsy and tell her your name. But it can wait, there are better things to do here than standing in line. You can mingle a bit first. She does expect to meet everyone before the dance starts though."

Mingle, Jim thought. He knew what it meant, but had never really done it. Not in this getup anyway - and by that he meant both the dress and the body wearing it.

The doe giggled as a thought struck her player. "I just thought of something I heard once," she explained to her confused companion. "Ginger Rogers did the same as Fred Astaire, only backwards in high heels." She made a little pause and continued: "Tonight I'm supposed to do the same as you, only backwards and on digitigrade feet!"

1. That's all he wrote.

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