Ginger Drake found herself so excited to get to the convention. She's spent so long, and way more money than she should have on making her suit. She got out of the car, grabbing the helmet and wings out of the trunk. She'd just worn the rest of the suit in the car, since it was a bit of a pain to get on. The bathrooms were always crowded, and it just wasn't worth it to try and put them on on-site. She wiggled into the wings, then started to walk while she put on the helmet, hiding her boring brown hair. She was ready! Just needed to get a parking lot over.

  She glanced at her status as she walked through the parking lot, glaring a bit at the dumb secretary path she was currently stuck on. Stupid boring job, filling up time she could be learning about biology. Important for today, though, was activating one of her skills from the one convention-goer path she'd gotten to finish. Just a minor skill to make cosplay just a touch more comfortable.

  She followed behind the group of other furries also walking to the convention, so distracted by her menu that she didn't realize she'd just stepped out from the parking lot and was crossing the street. She heard the loud honk of a horn, and turned her head so she could actually see where it had come from in the tiny view window in her headpiece. Her eyes went wide when she saw the truck.

  Bam.

  That was not exactly the type of flying she'd wanted to do. Her world went dark as her head hit the pavement hard.

  Ginger hardly had the ability to care. Everything was so fuzzy. She read the words, understood them. But actually making sense of it? Impossible.

  There was something pulling on her that soon got her attention. It felt like it lasted a blink of time, but also an eternity.

  Ginger landed hard on her bum as she suddenly found she had a body again, and everything hit her at once. She let out a stunned little scream, and she wasn't the only one to give a startled sound. She minimized the notification screen without even reading it, and looked around. It looked like a park or something. There was someone else near her who'd also clearly taken a tumble upon landing. "Hello? Where are we?"

  "I don't- I died!" the man babbled, clearly upset.

  His words hit Ginger hard as she suddenly remembered. "Me too."

  There had been that notification when she couldn't think. When she'd been... dead. She pulled her notification screen back up. Read both the notifications she'd gotten after she died. "What's the Great Experiment? The Space Between? I don't understand..."

  Of course, the only way to understand would be to stop freaking out and to start observing what was going on around her. Ginger pushed herself up. When she saw her 'spirit body,' she nearly panicked again. She was all see-through. It was creepy. All of this was just too much. But she refused to just shut down. So she looked around again, and this time noticed that there were small buildings dotted about the park. Were those the workshops? One way to find out...

  Ginger pushed herself forward. One foot in front of the other, she could freak out when she knew more. When she came closer to one of the buildings, she saw that it had five doors on the front of it, and next to each door was something that looked rather like a vending machine. When she touched one of the doors, a notification popped up.

  Ginger thought about it for a moment, and dismissed the message. She looked around again, and yes. The next building down would be a lot closer to the center. She picked a door on the end of it, and claimed that workshop instead. She made sure to touch the vending machine just in case she needed to claim it, too.

  With that handled, she went inside. It was exactly what it claimed it was- a tiny little workshop. Ginger couldn't hold back the breakdown anymore, not now she felt safe inside her little workshop. She sat down with her back against the door, and started to cry a little. She'd died. And in such a stupid way. Because she didn't realize she'd stepped in the road. And while going to a furry convention in a full suit. How embarrassing.

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  Ginger couldn't have said how long she cried. Just that she did feel at least a little better for having gotten it out. But the time for tears was done. She needed to figure out what she was doing here. Maybe her new skills would be a good place to start. She hadn't pulled up her status yet or anything, and it would probably be pretty different now...

  Ginger stared at the none after Completed Paths for a long minute. Everything she'd achieved in her life, gone. Just like that. All of her Student paths and the bonuses they gave, gone in a flash. All her attempts towards getting a biology path, gone. Even her stupid boring secretary paths.

  But she couldn't focus on it. She didn't want to have another breakdown today, thank you. So instead, she focused on her new skills, demanding the Status Screen show her their full descriptions.

  Rebirth. Ginger could live again? Get rid of this spirit body? She triggered the Menu customization option to add the last two skills to the main section of her menu. [Menu]

  She selected rebirth right away.

  Ginger really wanted to confirm. Really really. But she shouldn't get ahead of herself. Shouldn't give up any advantage she could get. So she dismissed the prompt and went back to her status page. Focused on Weight to get more information on that.

  So skills increased weight? Ginger supposed that made sense. And maybe that was why she'd lost everything from her first life. It still stung, though. She'd worked hard in school! But it seemed like she'd have another chance. Maybe it would work out, anyways.

  Suddenly, Ginger remembered that there had been other people. She finally pushed herself up, and opened her door. Stepping out, and looking to see if there was anyone else still outside. She saw the same man that had freaked out after his own realization that he was dead. He was still on the ground in the same spot, clearly not able to gather himself. Now that she was less overwhelmed, she saw that he was a very broad man. Tall, with blond hair. Ginger made her way over to him, planning to try to help.

  "Oi! Wake up!" Ginger snapped, nudging him softly with a foot.

  "What?" the man asked, head launching up.

  "Come on! I wasn't even trying to be stealthy. That shouldn't have surprised you. Now come on! Laying about isn't going to help. Get up." Ginger snapped.

  "What's the point? I'm dead. It was all for nothing..."

  "Well, looks like it was just the first life of many. We get more chances to make something of ourselves, so you can't give up yet," she said.

  "What do you mean?" the man asked.

  "Did you just give up the second you saw that you died? Read your notifications!" she snapped, frustrated with his slowness. Not that she knew why she even cared.

  The man spent what felt like forever, but was only perhaps a few minutes looking through it all. "Rebirth... We can try again? And crafting... We can be born better than before!"

  "There you go," Ginger said. "Now come on. You can claim the workshop next to mine, if it's still open. I'm Ginger, by the way."

  The man finally pushed himself up to his feet. "I'm Kolvar. And sure, though I'm not really a crafting type person. Prefer my animals, really. Gods, my poor puppies. Jewel just had her litter, how is she supposed to manage?"

  "Oh, that's rough," Ginger said.

  Kolvar seemed to take that as a prompt to keep speaking. "It's those damned bandits! They drove monsters to my ranch, and the guard has been so busy... Gods, I hope they don't kill my flock. Though... I guess it doesn't matter anymore. I'm dead.

  Ginger led the way to her little workshop, feeling fairly awkward. "Sorry. Well, um. This one is mine. Just touch the next door. It'll give the prompt."

  Kolvar gave a deep sigh, and touched the door. "Yeah, it was available. Guess we try crafting now?"

  "We do," Ginger agreed. "I haven't read too much yet. Let's read the first bit and then discuss in case we miss anything on our own?"

  "Yeah, sure."

  With that settled, Ginger sat down in front of her door and pulled up her menu. This time outside of her workshop so if there was anyone else new, they could see her. She knew cooperation was super important. It was how humanity rose above the monster tide, after all. So she'd try to get along with anyone else who showed up, as long as they weren't a jerk.

  It was time to focus on what she was starting to get a little excited about. Crafting. While it wasn't the biology she'd wanted to work on, she had loved making her fursuit. Maybe this would be just as enjoyable.