by Terra Snover
“Depends on the question.” I leaned back into the water so only my face and horns were peeking out.
“What were you like before this? Ral said you were all humans once, so who were you?” Thaz glanced at me for just a moment then went back to playing with the water. I glowered at her, there was no way I could respond to that. If I said anything about my past life I would get a maximum pain penalty from the System faster than a heartbeat. I was in no mood to feel that ever again. I had only experienced it twice in my time in AO, once when the game first started, or to be more exact, when I was being trained to be a shopkeeper. And the other when I became an N0 about two years ago. So I simply ignored Thaz’s question, instead looking at a nearby statue that was once probably a bird bath. “Hello, earth to Var.” Thaz leaned over me and forced me to make eye contact with her.
“I have no idea what you are talking about.” I closed my eyes and fully immersed myself into the water. One thing I could do really well now that I was a Hellspawn was hold my breath. So to ignore the line of questioning that was Thaz asking me things I couldn't respond to, I just stayed under the water. I had to be under the bubbling water for a few good minutes before I heard muffled voices. I slowly popped my head from the water and saw a raging Lily mid-lecture, “...you think would happen if someone else found you?! Or if you told another player what the Ns were? I need to be here to keep an eye on things so they don’t get worse!” Lily’s fur was standing on end in that funny way that Lamorea’s did when they were mad.
“God forbid that I have a moment to myself! You are so fussy and are cramping my style. I needed some time to be me again,” Thaz retorted.
“Ugh! I should just off you right now, you annoying little fluff ball!” Lily actually hissed like a cat at the end of her sentence. Things I never thought I would see.
“Why don’t you then?! I think I would prefer death to this!” Thaz glowered at Lily and splashed some water at her. The two stood there, glaring and growling. I was pretty sure I was going to see an actual cat fight if I didn’t step in. By the Void, I was surrounded by petty children. “Ladies, could we keep this to a low roar? Or at least move this elsewhere? I already have a splitting headache and this is not helping at all.” Both eyes shot over to me and if looks could kill I would be down for the count. “Or you could keep fighting about Thaz’s impending doom in the real world.” I took another deep breath and moved under the water. I blew some more bubbles and watched the foggy image of the two women fighting. That's when I realized something; looking to the top of my vision where there should be text letting me know GM mode was on, but it wasn’t. So how in the world did I just say something so out of character without getting punished? Did I do something to make it so I could talk freely? I had to test this out.
I swam to the other end of the enormous hotspring and got my head out from under the water. I could hear Lily and Thaz screaming bloody murder at eachother but I didn’t listen in, I had things to do. “Before I was copied into Another Online I was going to go to art university,” I whispered to myself. Again, no warnings or pain from the System. “I hate this damn game and all the players in it.” Again, nothing. What in the world was going on? I pondered, what had I done that would have changed this. I milled over my time in the System Hivemind, but that was insane for a number of reasons but not this. Then it came to me. The tags! I had given myself a new tag. When I tried to do the quest at the obelisk it added a player tag to myself, and players could talk about whatever they wanted here in AO, so that meant so could I! “Okay, Var, you need to play this smart. If you go blabbing to everyone the GMs would notice and you would be as good as dead.” Oh, the sweet pleasure of being able to mumble your thoughts out loud. “So, what should I do with this newfound power?” It only took a matter of seconds to come up with an idea.
I looked over to Thaz and Lily, who were now in the water actually wrestling with each other. They were a ball of wet fur, claws and teeth bobbing in and out of the water. I don’t think they would care if I left them. I grabbed a large robe that was stacked by the exit, wrapped it around my still pained body, but it was not that bad. I did manage to heal up a bit. I gave a quick look to the brawl and quickly left the springs back into the cold castle.
I moved down the hallways, looking around for the people I needed to achieve my plan. It was about ten PM so people were probably in their rooms by now, I just hoped they weren't asleep yet. I entered Amber’s room without knocking and found Amber sitting by a candle reading a book. Her long, curly red hair was tied up in a bun and she was wearing a flowing thick nightgown. “Var!” she squealed in surprise. “What are you doing here?”
I closed and locked the door behind me and approached her, talking as I moved. “First off, don’t try to say anything out of character, I’m able to talk freely but you can’t. So for the time being don’t respond to anything I’m saying, even what I’m saying right now.” Amber’s eyes went wide as I finished talking. To her credit, she didn’t say a word and just looked at me. I moved to her and pulled up Amber’s terminal and began flicking through her complicated code. There was a lot more here than the code for items and equipment, but that was to be expected, we were talking about a living, thinking thing, after all. Even with this code being more complicated, I managed to find what I was looking for: Amber’s tags. I added Player to the list and then saved the code and closed her terminal. “Okay, try to say something small out of character, something the System wouldn't like but not get you too harshly punished.”
“I… well, um…” it seemed she was having trouble thinking of something to say. “Cheese Whiz,” she blurted.
“Cheese Whiz?” I replied, not knowing what to make of what she just said.
“You know, the kind you spray out of a can, on crackers and… and… OH MY GOD! I, I’m talking about out of game stuff!” She shot to her feet and started bouncing around. “How in the world did you do that?! How did you manage to pull up my terminal? What’s going on? Why am I-”
“Woah there, girl, slow down. One question at a time.” I placed my hands up in front of me, hopefully to get her to slow down a bit.
Amber stopped spinning in place and took a breath, “Okay, um… Wow… So, okay, why can I talk out of character now?”
“Ah, well, I changed your code so you are now an N and a Player and players can break character as much as they like.”
“And how did you manage to change my code?”
“Well, that one is a long story and I don’t want to tell it over and over again this evening. For now, just come with me and everything will make sense.”
“But, Var-”
“Just hold on a bit, we need to go and talk with-” I was going to pull her to the next destination we needed to go to, but instead she cut me off and I found her wrapping her arms around me.
“You need to stop talking for a minute and let this happen.”
“Amber, I...”
“Shush, we are hugging and having a chat.” She squeezed me a bit.
“A chat, about what?”
“Anything. Var, this is the first time ever we have been alone together and were free to say whatever we want.” She loosened her hug and looked me in the eyes. “You are the only person in this world I really give a damn about. I'm not going to let this opportunity pass me by.”
“Okay…” I could feel my face heat up, I must be blushing.
“So… how about that weather?”
“Weather?” I started to laugh. “You get to say whatever you want and you start with small talk?! Not even good small talk!”
“It has been years, I’m supposed to be good at this?”
“Better than the weather.”
“Var, I was a nerd back in the real, I had zero social skills even then, seventeen years being out of practice would only make that worse.” She frowned at me.
“I…” But I stopped as my heart jumped a beat. I just learned the first real thing about Amber. Okay, that wasn’t completely tr
ue. I knew she was kind, faithful, and other things, but this was the first thing I learned about her back before AO. “So, a nerd?”
“Yeah, sci-fi, computers, cosplay, the whole nine yards.” She blushed a bit.
“I have no idea what the whole nine yards means.”
“It’s a Northern States of America saying. It has to do with football.”
“We have football in Norway and I have never heard that before.”
“No, you know the American football. The ones we still play? The one with the ball shaped like an egg?” She paused for a moment. “Wait, you're from Norway?”
“Yeah, me and my Papa.”
“Never would have guessed. I always have pinned you as a California Republic girl.”
“And I always pegged you as someone from, like, Germany or maybe France.”
“Nope, NSA, specifically lower New York.” She paused for a second. “You know, the part that is kinda underwater?”
“I know the part.” I smiled. “Well, Amber from the Northern States of America, it’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Yeah, it is nice to meet you, Var from Norway.” She smiled back. We stood there for a minute still half embraced. Amber made a face I couldn't quite pin down. It was like a mix of fear and excitement. She licked her lips, took a deep breath and simply said. “Var?”
“Yeah?”
“Two years ago, when you… Well, you know, you said those things to me, about… Your feelings.”
“What about it?”
“And when you leaned into me and wrapped your arms around me after the battle of Stone Keep.” She started talking fast.
“What about it?”
“Was that you? I mean, were you the one that chose to do that or was the System telling-”
“Me!” I cut her off. I didn’t want the thought in her head that the game was making me fake feelings towards her. “It was all me, Amber, you are the most wonderful person I have ever met and I, well, I…” But I couldn't say it, I couldn't tell her everything I yearned to say. I still had feelings for her but, with everything with Hell’a and all the other messes, I just couldn't. It wouldn't be fair to do that to her. I took a deep breath and said in a slow and precise way. “The System had nothing to do with those moments.”
“Oh… okay.” There was a bit of disappointment in her voice, I could tell she wanted me to say more, but I couldn't. Amber’s eyes drifted away from me and her cheeks turned a slight red. “Cool, good to know.”
“Amber, I think-”
“I think we can hold off on all this for a bit.” She gave me a fake, uneasy smile. It was obvious she wanted to keep talking, but instead she gave me a nod. “Well, you had someplace you wanted to bring me?”
“Yeah.” I sighed. It would seem the moment was over. Everything was back to business as normal; well; normal as my life could get. We pulled away from each other and exited the room. We went down the hallway to my bedroom where I was expecting to find Hell’a. I was right; Hell’a was sitting nude on the bed. “Welcome home, my love, are you ready for-” Hell’a’s eyes went wide when she saw Amber behind me. Amber, on the other hand, covered her eyes in the same way I did when I saw more of Alexander then I wanted. “I wouldn’t say I’m opposed to having a three way, but maybe next time let me know beforehand.” Hell’a gave a smirk.
“Ew, no…” Amber made a face of revulsion.
I frowned. “Just wait a minute, I need to do something.” I moved over to Hell’a and repeated the edit I made to Amber. This time it didn’t take nearly as long seeing as I knew where the tags were. Also, Hell’a’s code wasn't as jumbled and messy as Ambers. I saved and closed up the terminal. “Okay, you can now say whatever you want, rules be damned.” I informed Hell’a with a smile. “You can now say that the System can shove a doorknob up its bum and nothing will happen.”
“I don’t think I would say something as crass as that. But if I'm understanding this correctly I can say whatever I want now?”
“Yep, all three of us can.” I pointed to Amber.
“Interesting, how did you manage this?” Hell’a moved a bit closer to me as she spoke.
“I’ll tell you in a minute, but before I do that, is there anyone else you want to have this freedom? Someone that’s on our side?”
“Our side?” Amber crossed her arms, “What side would that be?”
“Again, a long story that I’ll explain in a bit.” I waved my hand at Amber who looked annoyed at my dismissive tone.
“Alexander and I have been allies for a very long time, if anyone should get this power it should be him.” Hell’a had her wicked, predatory smile.
“Amber, go get Alexander and bring him here?” I all but demanded.
“Why do I need to get him?” Amber frowned and slightly turned away from me.
“Because I’m still in a lot of pain, it’s hard to move. Also, Hell’a is naked and I doubt you want to see that.”
“Sigh, fine.” Amber left my room and closed the door a bit harder than she needed to.
“Well, isn’t this an interesting turn of events?” Hell’a slid out from under the covers and walked over to the closet and pulled out a nightgown. “It seems that we had an interesting day.”
“Yeah, I did.” I moved over to the bed and plopped down onto it face first, back to the ceiling. The System asked me if I wanted to go to sleep but I informed it that I didn’t and it just let me lie there, enjoying the soft mattress.
“Care to illuminate me on how you got this new power?”
“Once everyone is here, I don’t want to explain everything a hundred times.”
“Fair point.” I felt Hell’a sit next to me. Then I felt her hands move to my shoulders and she began to give me a massage. I groaned in pleasure, it felt heavenly. “Var, I knew I made the right choice picking you as my ally, you have managed so much in such a short time. You are amazing.”
“If being amazing entitles me to shoulder rubs like this I’ll keep being amazing.” Hell’a let out a small laugh and I felt her lean down and kiss me between my wings, her cold lips sending shivers down my spine.
We waited there for a good long while as Hell’a’s hands continued to rub my entire back. She was getting dangerously close to my butt when the door opened and Amber was dragging Alexander into the room by his tail. “Really, it was nothing, Milly and I were just-”
“Yeah, I saw what you two were doing!” Amber looked angrier than I had ever seen her.
“Aw, Alexander did someone interrupt your time with Milly again?” I slowly sat up and gave him a devilish smile.
“AGAIN?!” I was wrong, this moment was the most mad I had ever seen Amber.
“No time to fight about who can sleep with who. We have things we need to talk about.” I walked over to Alexander and set his tag as a player also. “And now we can speak freely.” Now things were really going to get done around here. We were going to change the world.
Chapter 10
The Machine
Everyone gawked at me as I finished talking. I mean, why wouldn't they? The full story of the last few years was absurd. Hell, I didn’t much believe everything that had happened up to this point. Amber was the first to speak, “So, you are basically a GM now?”
“No, well… Hummm, kind of… Maybe?” I really didn’t know how to answer that. I had almost all the same powers that a GM has but I didn’t really know how to use them. It was like getting a super computer without an AI installed, supreme power but nothing to drive it. “Look, I’m still figuring this all out.”
“Var’s made a lot of progress in the time we have been working together; with time we can do anything.” Hell’a played with her hair absently as she spoke, like we were chatting about where we wanted to get dinner and not how to take over AO.
“It sounds like Var’s able to do the one thing that matters. Hell’a, why didn't you already make the power source we needed as soon as you two figured out she was able to make items?” Alexander glared a
t Hell’a; I could hear his tail slamming into the ground in an annoyed fashion.
“We were working up to that, my pet.” Hell’a continued to play with her hair, looking at her finger.
“What are you two talking about?” I was very confused. “What power source?”
Hell’a let out a sigh, “I was going to tell you when we were ready, but it looks like I’m going to need to tell you now.” She slowly looked up to me and placed her hands to either side of her on the bed and leaned back. “The little kitty and-”
“I asked you to not call me that!” Alexander’s annoyed tail sped up its thumping.
“Alexander and I designed a-”
“You didn’t design anything, I did all the work!” and still more thumping of his tail.
“Are you going to let me tell her or do you want to keep interrupting me?” Hell’a narrowed her eyes at Alexander. He opened his mouth to speak again, but instead paused, closed his mouth and gave Hell’a a wave of his paw to continue. “As I was saying. Alexander and I have designed and built a massive DoS machine here in the castle.”
“A what? I have no idea what a DoS is.” I arched an eyebrow. “Is that some kind of weapon?”
“Kind of,” Amber interjected.
“Child, you know what a DoS is?” Hell’a looked at Amber with amusement on her face, like Hell’a had just seen a dog do a particularly hard trick.
“Yeah, denial-of-service, unless we're talking about the super old operating system?” I still had no idea what Amber was saying but I didn’t want to seem like the only person in the room out of the loop.
“No, we are not talking about the DoS operating system.” Hell’a smirked.
I must have had a very confused look on my face because Amber asked, “Var, do you need me to explain denial-of-service?”
“No! It’s where you deny people from getting… something?” I mumbled then sighed. “Yes, tell me what it is.”