Gender Roles are Reversed in this World

Face Reality in the Morning

    October couldn’t read any of the books she found in the guest chambers. Everything was written in an unfamiliar set of characters. If October’s time at puzzles was worth anything, it looked like symbols were arranged into vertical sets--possibly words?--that trailed down the page like short vines. Now, this would be one strange dream, because October noticed that the symbols didn’t move or change like they did when she dreamed. Maybe she could put this on Pinterest or some other graphics site for some cash when she woke up.

    Books became boring when October couldn’t read them. She flipped through a few, looking for pictures, but couldn’t find any that weren’t diagrams of some kind. Where were all the good picture books at?

    Never mind, books forgotten. Unless October could suddenly find a magic wand that would let her read, there was no point. She opened several drawers in the connecting bedroom. Come on, fantasy clothes!

    She found a tidy pile of loose robes that wrapped around, and tied once on the interior and once again on the exterior. They had varying embroidery patterns, and were all in bright, colorful hues. Her favorite was one in teal that darkened into a forest green at the hem, with a pattern of stars and clouds up on the torso.

    Her other favorite was a pale, pale purple with the pattern of flowers on the hem. October had seen something similar in an art show about ancient Chinese fashion, once. But, she couldn’t name the fabric. Silk? Rayon? Whatever. What would October know about real silk? She’d never actually touched it. But, this fabric was slippery as well as soft. Score on the fantasy clothes. October tried on a robe, looking at herself in the mirror.

   Ugh. Could be better. She felt like her hairstyle might be taking away from the whole effect. She pawed at her hair, frowning into the mirror. Was long hair more fashionable in this world, or long hair? Also, that was a weird thing to worry about, considering this was a dream.

    After some time of October raiding the clothing, a knock rang on the door

    “Lady Land Soul, your familiar has been summoned,” the voice said. The door cracked open, and a blue blur streaked through the air. Sir Fancy Fins appeared to be flying through the air, darting here, there, everywhere, probably in search of some form of food. Fancy Fins briefly noticed October, and flared at the unfamiliar clothing. Then he paused for a moment before deciding to approach, and gum uselessly at her fingertips.

    Huh. Must be hungry.

    “He’s flying,” October said.

    “We thought it prudent to ease his ability to travel,” the voice, still outside, said.

    “I’m not mad. It’s pretty cool,” October replied.

    “It is a relief that we have not incurred your anger. Dinner should be finished shortly,” came the reply, and the door clicked closed once again.

    October sheepishly put the fantasy clothes back into the dresser drawers, changing back into her pajamas. They were all too long for her anyway, trailing on the ground by a few inches at least.

    Fancy Fins seemed positively delighted by his newfound ability to fly, blooping all over the place. He hid behind some pillows for a hot minute, scaring the hell out of October for a moment when she couldn’t find him. Maybe October imagined it, but Fancy Fins seemed to find the entire thing funny, trying to pull the same stunt once again and then wiggling back at her when she found him. Then, he started horking up something in the corner. What a surreal sight. Fancy Fins started making that weird 'gluck gluck' sound that cats made when they were about to throw up, wiggling up and down. Talk about a major social foul--how could she explain her fish throwing up in this fancy room? "Oh no, dude. No! Rude!" October panicked. October scrambled to her feet and then stopped. What did she think she was actually going to do here? She darted around the room, looking for a towel or something--anything!

    Then Fancy-Fins spat something hard out, sending it flying right into October's gut. The young woman made a loud 'oof' in surprise, and then felt over her gut where the thing had landed. The object was small, composed of more of that warm metal, and looked like gold. There was a blue-green gem set into the center, cut in a rounded circle. It reminded October of a tropical ocean, and seemed to shift colors in the light.

    "Dude, where have you been eating rings?" October walked over to Sir Fancy Fins, who had already forgotten the entire affair. Shrugging, October put on the ring, just to try it on. She'd have to return it to whoever her fish had scavenged it from. Then, she stopped, unmoving. There was a screen in the same blue-green color of the gemstone, superimposed over the flying betta fish. The screen translucent, and had a frosted texture. She couldn't see the details of anything behind it, but could see the general shapes of everything behind it.

It read:

 'Sir Fancy Fins

Level 1

Familiar

Unknown Line

Rank D'

    There were some other stats underneath that October didn't process. Um. Excuse me? Was this some sort of fantasy RPG nonsense now? She turned around, looking at herself in the mirror. 'October Level 1 Special Class: Land Soul' There were a bunch of other tabs available on her screen, names like 'equipment' 'skills' and other information that October knew well enough from years of watching Let's Plays on various online platforms. Curious, and anxious, she hit the 'abilities' tab. She could agree with the vast majority of it. Her strength and body scores were dump stats. And it was somewhat relieving to know her Intelligence was pretty high. She'd started worrying about that one in the later half of university. Her 'Magic' score was at Zero. Her Appearance score was middling. There was a pop-up screen she could access that showed a Bell-Curve of score distribution averages, so she could get a pretty good idea of where she stood.

    A little worrying, yes. But, also fascinating.

    October fiddled with the screens. Her Pokemon Pajamas didn't offer any bonuses. In fact, they granted a 'strange clothing' status. Looking at the basics, October hadn't earned any EXP. There was no listing for EXP in numbers, only a long, empty box where she supposed it would go when she earned some. Lawd she hoped there was no Dire Rat quest. Her skill tree was empty, aside from a few low-level skills that she'd learned from college, like paper-writing and advanced mathematics. Given how low they were on the tree, October wasn't sure how valuable they'd actually be. The further she looked on the skill tree, the more skills were blacked out or had question marks in them. She couldn't even get a good idea of what was possible at this point. Ugh. If this were a game, the whole thing would be on the internet for people to reference. October unconsciously started picking at her nails. The chances of dumping points into useless skills were higher than she liked in any of her games. Not that she had any points to use, anyway.

    What else? The Journal tab had one entry under 'Quests': 'Speak to Lady Vivi.' The sole Journal entry summarized October's dream thus far. 'You've been summoned as a Land Soul to the Lapas Empire.' Consistent, but unhelpful.

    October looked through the tabs and what information was inside until someone knocked at the door. Lady Vivi entered, followed by a handful of servants in uniform. Most carried trays of food, although another carried a notebook and pen.

    "You'll need some new clothes. I don't imagine what you now wear proper for daily activity," Lady Vivi said.

    After a short dinner, Lady Vivi had October's measurements recorded in the notebook. She spoke to the servants about the clothing style, color, and motif. October couldn't parse out some vocabulary. She supposed it must refer to specific items of clothing. Dinner was a spread of dishes, most of which were roasted meats and vegetables in savory sauces. The bread was soft and fluffy, and a tart tea was served alongside everything. This was the point where October began to worry. She experienced eating in dreams before, but the food always got stuck in her throat or it didn't taste the same. This food all had strong flavors, and she could tell right away that she was getting full--something that never happened in dreams.

    During the meal, she mentally brought up screens on the servants, and on Lady Vivi. None of them reacted, which suggested that they couldn't see the screens. All the servants were around level 2-4, and had the class 'servant.' None of them had anything notable about them. Their clothing was, as expected, a uniform. It didn't convey any bonuses. None of them had any remarkable skills or characteristics, or even abilities.

    Lady Vivi was another beast entirely. Her class was 'Battle Scholar,' and her level was 53. That put her at the beginning of the fourth standard of deviation past normal. Clearly, Lady Vivi was some sort of badass.

    There were a bunch of greyed-out areas on her screen--which probably meant that October herself didn't have the skills or abilities to know what she was looking at. Her equipment listed several 'rare' items, but didn't show any information other than that, and more greyed out information. She chewed on some jelly and fruit dessert, bitterly thinking that she wanted the skill that would let her get more information. This was also the point that October began to think that this 'dream' was going on longer than it should. But, it wasn't until the servants began taking away the dirtied plates and platters that October really started to worry.

    "So. This summoning process," October began, "How does this all work?" she asked, gesturing around her own head.

    "My understanding is that your existence is removed out of your previous world, and inserted into this one." 

    "So what about, like, my family and friends and stuff?" October asked.

    "The removal is complete, once reality adjusts. It's as if you never existed," Lady Vivi took a sip of tea from an ornate cup patterned with blue flowers.

    Alright. Weird flex, but OK. That wasn't consistent with the fact that Sir Fancy Fins came with her. Was there a flex period before everything snapped back into place? Was this the best her brain could come up with? Lady Vivi talked more about concepts like duty and honor and destiny and fate. But, October wasn't capable of paying much attention. She couldn't get over the inconsistency within her mental image of the summoning process.

    She went through about five potential hypotheses and systems she remembered from pop culture. None of them could explain it. Hours after everyone else left the room, October put on the night-gown that the servants and Lady Vivi left for her, brushed her teeth in the en-suite bathroom, and then lay down to bed in the guest bed. As if on cue, the lights in the room turned off. The trouble with this was that while October went through this thought process, there was something else stewing in the background. She wasn't great at processing many lines of thought at once, and so all the troubling evidence of this not being a dream piled up--waiting for her current thoughts to end--so they could slam her all at once.

    It all hit at once, right as October began drifting off to sleep. With a jolt, she sat up, heart hammering a mile a minute. She leaped off the bed scrambling to the mirror. This wasn't a dream. She tried to slap herself. She felt like she didn't hit hard enough. She closed her eyes and tried to wiggle around violently, the way she woke herself up from upsetting dreams. No go. October pulled at her face, bringing up the screen and sending it away in rapid cycle. In short, she had a fit. She paced around the room in a circle, grappling with the day's events. Sir Fancy Fins lazed on a pillow, expression betraying his complete disinterest in October's nonsense.

    On one hand, this was way more interesting than slinging pork cutlets all day. Her student debt just got wiped from the face of the planet. And there were no more nagging relatives and parents that made their permanent dissatisfaction and disappointment known on a regular basis. At the same time, October's chest felt like it physically hurt when she thought about the people she actually liked that she'd never see again. Secretly, she kind of hated that apartment, and Sir Fancy Fins was already with her. So her regrets weren't winning the quantity contest here.

    Someone else might have taken the realization with grace and at once formed a plan for world domination, or at least being Number One Cool Guy. But, October had a generally anxious and nervous disposition, and performed well under pressure--but only until her body completely collapsed in on itself and forced her to stay in bed for days.

    Sir Fancy Fins watched as October paced like she was trying to wear a path in the floor, around and around and around. Eventually, the joint force of the circles and her own anxiety made October dizzy, and she flopped onto the bed with a pathetic whine. Sir Fancy Fins wiggled in the pillow, making a face like he was gumming on air.

Holy s**t, October thought. Sir Fancy Fins is adjusting to this way better than I am. He can fly now, and he doesn't even care. Look at this champion! Look at this master of mental strength!

    October slapped her cheeks, telling herself to get a grip. The way she saw it, there were only a few options. Either Truck-kun had run her ass over, or she'd gotten poisoned somehow, and this was a drawn-out coma dream. Or she could take things at face value and assume she'd actually been transported to a world of magic and fantasy. Either way, she didn't actually have to do any important thinking that night. Regardless, she could just go with it. No point in wasting her time on an extended existential crisis when she did enough of that in her past. She crawled back into bed and pulled the covers up to her chin. She turned to the flying fish settled in the pillow next to her. Then she whispered,

    "Sir Fancy Fins, you are my only friend in this world. I don't know what will happen to us. But, I promise to do right by you, and at least give this as much effort as I gave college. I'm probably going to cry a bunch." 

    For now, October would sleep. She'd face reality in the morning.