Origin ARS 4 (8 page)

He blinked once, slowly, then looked up at the ceiling. “Dammit, I’m always going to be outnumbered, huh?”

Ero and Rhea shared a laugh at his expense. The plan had worked beautifully, and now the prey had been cornered. Now it was only a matter of time before they wore down the flighty beast and claimed their long awaited prize.

Chapter 7: Family Meeting

It was a strange, yet beautiful, feeling for Rhea. The moment that she had longed for had come to pass at last. Even now, while the man she adored slumbered she could not help but smile and bask in the glorious afterglow of giving herself to the one she loved.

She sighed gently, content, to gaze upon his face. A soft snore from nearby reminded her that a certain fairy BFF had needed a nap afterward as well. “Oh Ero...” said Rhea with a laugh. The fairy girl had returned to her normal fun-sized nature. She currently slept naked atop a pillow between them.

Rhea ran her index finger along Scott’s chin then kissed his nose. She kissed his chin, and then his neck. Her body was flush from their recent union, and the gleam of sweat that glistened along her gentle curvature was a steadfast reminder that love-making was quite an experience.

However, as much as the beautiful high elf had enjoyed spending that sweet moment with her love, she had to get back to work. It was truly torture to part from Scott, and even little Ero with her big mildly perverse ideas. Yet, she must do so.

Rhea snuggled her naked body against the man she loved then sighed sweetly. Slowly, she closed her eyes then logged off. It was time to deal with one of the things she hated most about her current life.

Origin blinked slowly then took the tiara from her head. A gentle smile crossed her lips briefly, but then she had to set even that aside. The gamer goddess had to get ready for a family business meeting.

After a quick shower, and a short bit of time spent dressing for success, she headed off to her rendezvous with her family. Origin’s business suit was both tasteful and professional, everything that was supposed to be buttoned was buttoned. While her black skirt hugged her lush figure it also reached down to her knees.

Her attire was a stark contrast to what her mother considered appropriate for a business meeting. Origin could tell her mother apart from anyone in a crowd, from a mile away. Era had also dressed in a business suit, but her version was reminiscent of something one might see in a high-class pornographic film. Era was fond of sayings such as ‘Cleavage is power’ and ‘Can I get you anything, sir?’

“Hi, mom.” said Origin lightly.

Era smiled at her sweetly then her smiled froze in place. She blinked once, and then her head tilted lightly to the side. She scented the air like a hungry wolf. Slowly, her left eyebrow rose up.

Origin leaned back under the scrutinizing gaze of her mother and winced. There was no way that she could know, but somehow she suspected that she did.

The goddess of fertility gazed upon her daughter for a moment. Suddenly, a bright and lewd smile crossed her lips. “Oho, sorry to tear you away my dear.”

Origin groaned loudly. “Mother...”

Era laughed at her daughter’s embarrassment then pulled her close for a matronly hug. “Who would have thought that my sweet little Origin would finally become a woman overnight?”

The blue-haired goddess winced then started to blush. “It’s not really something I want to talk about.”

“Nonsense, honey. I can finally have all sorts of proper conversations with my sweet girl. Say, did you...” began Era. She rattled off a list of perverse sexual actions that literally made Origin’s hair fly up and stand on end.

“No, no! We did nothing of the sort.” cried Origin. Who would do that with two milk jugs and a chicken, anyway? That thing with the salad tongs and the pickle just sounded weird!

“Ah, pity. Did you at least...” began Era. She rattled off another lengthy list of deviant actions that were only slightly less freaktastic than the previous one.

“Uh... No, not really. Do, do we actually need to discuss this?” asked the girl in an embarrassed tone.

“Discuss what?” asked Mid as she entered the room. She wore a sensible business suit, with simple and elegant heels. However, she also wore her customary big floppy hat.

“Your little sister finally rode the wild stallion.” said Era.

“Really! Good for her!” exclaimed Mid.

Mid turned to Origin and said, “Did you guys...” before she rattled off a list of disturbing sexual actions that made Origin want to crawl under the table and hide.

“What was that about a leather whip and a car battery?” asked Silence as he walked into the room. He wore what one might refer to as business casual attire. He was not the suit and tie type of person, but he cleaned up nicely if he had to wear big boy clothes.

“Little sister got laid last night.” said Mid excitedly.

“Whoa, and she’s already hooking up the car batteries and the mouse-traps? Goodness, little girls grow up fast nowadays.” he said in a sarcastic but cheerful manner.

Origin actually forgot herself for a moment and prayed for death. A little blue window appeared before her that held Silence’s image and a message.

[Voice Message]

We’re sorry; Silence is unavailable for personal death requests at this time. Please pray for death between the hours of 8 A.M. and 5 P.M. Monday through Friday. If your desire for death is too great, please forward your request to the local Reaper Union for your city ward.

Thank you for dying with us, and have a lovely day!

[--]

Silence blinked. “Did you just pray for death, sis?”

“Just a little.” admitted Origin.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to tease you that much.” said Mid with a smile.

“What are we teasing little sister about, now?” asked a new voice.

“Theta!” called Origin.

“Hey.” said Theta before walking over to the rest of the family. Unlike the rest of them, the rarely seen elder sister of the family wore jeans, a simple T-shirt, and a leather jacket.

“As casual as ever I see, dear.” said Era with a gentle smile.

“Yep, like I would dress up for those idiots on the board.” said Theta before moving to stand in front of Origin.

The heir-apparent to the gaming empire looked up to her older sister and smiled. Theta was a true beauty in her own right, and the coolest person who Origin knew.

“So, you finally coaxed the bunny rabbit into letting you nibble his carrot, huh baby sister?” Theta reached out and stroked Origin’s hair gently.

Origin’s face turned bright red and she made a cute noise. Would they ever let her live it down? They had all done it before, why tease her so much. “Even you, Theta.”

Theta kissed her sister on the cheek then whispered, “Especially me, because I’m happy for you.”

Origin looked at her cool older sister and a slight shimmer came to her eyes. “Thank you.”

“Speaking of getting some, when are you gonna let Gambol ride the wild waterslide?” Mid asked Theta.

Theta snorted then turned to look at Mid. “Whenever he can convince me that he deserves it.”

That brought a smile to everyone’s face. It was the closest thing to an admission that she liked the goofy ninja that she had said in months. She was not really interested in dating and romance. Theta had her own interests to attend to at the moment.

“Shara’s not here?” asked Theta in concern. She had hoped to see her other little sister, too. “She alright?”

“Yeah, you’ve been busy with the new continent so you don’t know.” said Origin.

“Know what?” asked Theta.

Silence spoke up. “She let some fat guy touch her tits and his heart exploded.”

Theta blinked. That was certainly an unexpected response. “I’ve been out of the loop for a while I see.”

Origin laughed. “Yeah, she’s stuck on a community service project as punishment.”

Theta laughed lightly. “That could only happen to Shara. I swear that girl gets into the strangest situations.”

Everyone shared a laugh at that. It was certainly true. Shara did spend a lot of time getting into and out of weird situations.

“So, since we’re all here, let’s get the meeting started.” said Era authoritatively.

“Is dad coming?” asked Mid.

“No, your father is dealing with those idiots on the board privately before starting his next court session.” said Era.

Origin grunted. The board had become worse of late. They had no legal right to do anything, yet, but they had started to complain more frequently of late. Her father was a powerful and intimidating god, and one of the best weapons that they had against those money hungry morons.

“Anyway, forget them for the moment. We should discuss useful business.” said Era.

The matriarch of the family looked around to see if everyone was ready. After a few nods of agreement she began. “First off, we need to discuss the new continent.”

She looked to Theta then made a hand-waving gesture. “Care to enlighten us?”

Theta nodded. “Sure, it’s going well. The topography is almost complete and we can begin the alpha-phase of creature generation sometime next year.”

“Ah, sounds like you are ahead of schedule then?” asked Mid.

“Yeah, but only by a few months. It takes forever to generate matter and bind it properly in zero-space due to working by myself.” said Theta.

It was an old complaint. Normally an entire team worked on the physical world-building, but the board was even more assholish of late than usual. The family had to work on their expansion pack project on their own to prevent them from trying to screw around with the design aesthetic. While there was a team that worked on organic life models and other things, the actual continent was built solely by Theta’s power.

“Good, the sooner that is done, the sooner we can shut the mouths of those stuffed suits.” said Silence.

“Always a good thing.” said Era.

Everyone nodded once more, and then the matriarch gazed upon the youngest daughter present. “How goes the back-up plan?”

Origin smiled. “I haven’t always made the right choice with dealing with him, mostly due to keeping things from him at times, but he is making great progress.”

“In the sack, or in physical development?” asked Mid.

“Both.” said Origin. She refused to be teased anymore.

“Good, so are you pregnant yet?” asked Era curiously.

“What? No! We have only been together once...” said Origin.

“Take your time, dear child. We only have three or four years here, but in ARS that translates to well over a decade. There’s no need to rush.” said Era, with a smile.

“Thank you...” said Origin, with a relieved sigh.

“Yeah, can your avatar even become pregnant?” asked Silence.

Origin winced. “Well, yes, but...”

Era took in the nervous look in her daughter’s eyes then a bright smile crossed her lips. “You’re not serious, are you?”

“Huh?” asked Origin.

“You are, aren’t you? You don’t just want to get pregnant in ARS...” said Era.

Origin’s face turned bright red as the rest of her family scrutinized her curiously. Why must they be like this? Was their boredom really so great?

“That’s... So, great!” cried out Mid. She hopped out of her seat then ran over to give her sister a hug.

“I’m going to have a little brother or sister?” asked Silence thoughtfully.

“Niece or nephew.” corrected Mid, before she hugged Origin again then kissed her cheek.

“Right, that’s how it works.... Wait, how will it work? He’s human... Mortals are awesome, but kind of fragile.” said Silence.

Origin shook her head. “Father once told me that there was a way for a man to become like us, though the result was someone far more powerful than normal.”

“He would know. His great grandfather was originally human.” said Era.

“Whoa! We’re related to a human?” asked Theta curiously.

“Ascended human, yes. It happens on exceptionally rare occasion. Entire multiverses tend to spawn when it happens. It’s one of the reasons why you kids are so powerful compared to many of the other gods your age.” replied Era.

“Well, yeah, that would do it.” admitted Theta. Having a bit of human in them would have definitely supercharged the family line.

“I had hoped that Scott could join us here, but... I still don’t know how to make it happen. I know that he could at least ascend to planetary status and we could be together like that. He could even survive a trip here for limited periods of time.” said Origin.

“Sadly, that is the problem. If you could remain on sweet terms with him, and he ascended, the board could just suck it. They couldn’t do a damned thing against something like that.” said Era.

“Just suck it?” asked Mid incredulously. Since when did her mother speak in such a fashion?

“Hmm, is that not how those sexy young people say it?” asked Era.

“You make it sound like he would become something like a super god.” said Silence.

“If he truly ascended he would be to us, what a planetary god would be to a garden slug.” said Era.

Silence let out a low, slow, whistle. “Good thing he’s into little sister here.”

“Well, if he wasn’t, we would not even discuss it.” said Era.

The gathered family members chatted freely about ascension of humanity for a moment, and then Era made a suggestion. It seemed like a good suggestion on the surface, but Origin had reservations.

“We don’t even know where grandfather is, he doesn’t live in the city.” said Origin.

“I’ll ask your father dear. He could at least ask his father, if he does not know personally.” said Era.

“Ah, makes sense...” said Origin. Though, she was nervous about including her father in a discussion that involved Scott.

The meeting dissolved into different topics after that. Most of it revolved around discussion concerning new monsters and how the continent update would be differentiated in each of the servers. They all worked differently to some extent, and would require proper conversion.

**

Morning came with its customary rudeness, always at the crack of dawn. Why the sun never chose to sleep in late was a mystery to some people. Scott on the other hand, could not wait for morning to come. They were finally going to finish a few things.

The entire mermaid situation had been somewhat simplistic to resolve so far, really. He had expected things to lead to some sort of epic ordeal with boss monsters and things of that nature. As it turned out, it was just a series of interesting life events, just another day in a fantasy world.

Scott glanced down at his chest and saw Ero lying there spread-eagle. He glanced to his left and smiled. Rhea had cuddled next to him, her chin in the crook of his neck.

Life did not get much better than this. It had been a hard thing to accept someone into his life, especially someone as impossibly sweet as Rhea. Then there was Ero. She was an adorable and loving girl who constantly did things that made Scott want to hug the ever loving crap out of her. Thank you fairy much.

Scott leaned in and gently kissed Rhea on the lips, and then nuzzled her nose with his. Her eyes fluttered opened gently and she looked at him.

“Morning, Rhea.” said Scott softly.

Rhea smiled at him in a dreamy-eyed manner then kissed him softly on the lips as well. “Morning, Scott.”

“Did you have a good meeting with the fam?” he asked her, before slipping his hand down to gently stroke Ero’s lower back with his index finger.

Rhea chuckled sweetly then nodded. “Yeah, fun as always. They picked on me a little, though.”

“Oh? What about?” asked Scott.

She smiled. “Mostly about you and I finally doing more than just blush and giggle like a couple of teenagers.”

“Yeah we did.” He leaned in. Rhea closed her eyes gently while he kissed her softly on the side of the nose. Her cheeks became flush and she brought her hand up to clasp his cheek tenderly.

Scott smiled at her for a moment, but then his eyes widened in surprise when she said something he had not expected.

“What, seriously?”

“Yeah, is it OK?”

“Well, yes, but are you sure it’s a good idea? I mean... Meeting your family...”

“They’ll love you. Though, we should probably finish our current mission and then do some level grinding first. It will take a little time for them to assemble as their avatars are scattered across ARS.” said Rhea.

“Sounds good, we have to prepare things for the transfer and for Corpse Rat.” said Scott.

“Yeah, those guys need a serious butt-kicking. Most of the rest of the family wants in on it, so we should be able to take them down with a little effort.” said Rhea.

“Great. We can’t end them permanently, but we can make them pay for the crap that they pulled.” said Scott. Sadly, permanent death was not a thing for players in this world. The best they could do was kill them enough times to irritate the hell out of them, and to wreck their guild’s monopoly over Askrida.

Rhea yawned softly then sat up. The movement provided Scott with an incredible view of many of the reasons why he was such a lucky man. Her delightful curvature intrigued her man-toy greatly, but the soft smile and the way the light danced in her eyes were far more interesting to the man.

Scott reached up and placed his hand against her cheek. His thumb gently caressed her cheekbone while he reveled in the vision of loveliness before him. It was hard to believe that behind that extraordinarily well-crafted exterior was the heart and soul of a girl so innocent that she had spent decades pining for a guy like him. It was even more difficult to believe that it had happened solely because he had been nice to her and protected her one time.

That sort of dedication, if nothing else that alone proved her inhuman nature. He could not think of anyone that he had ever met who could remain infatuated with anyone that long with no hope of ever meeting again.

“What are you thinking, Scott?” asked Rhea softly, before she reached down and gently placed her hand against his cheek as well.

A slight smile crossed his lips then slowly blossomed into one that was far more robust, and cheerful. “I don’t know how much time I have left. Things could go very wrong for me, in the future, but I am so glad that I met you.”

Rhea’s eyes shimmered softly as she fought back the tears that threatened to fall. “I’m glad that I met you too, but don’t talk like something will happen to you.”

Scott nodded. “No matter what happens, I’ll always come back to you.”

“That’s... That’s much better.” said Rhea in a half-sobbed whisper. They had discussed the dangers in the classic server at length. There were few things that could cause a permanent death state for a player or someone like Scott, but they did exist and he would have to deal with them at times if he truly wished to protect ARS. There was a very real chance that she could lose him forever, that he would be destroyed so completely that even she could not bring him back.

“Rhea... there are problems with me that I still don’t really understand how to deal with, but with you and Ero beside me, I can do anything.” said Scott.

She leaned down and kissed him softly on the lips then whispered. “We’ll always be with you, Scott. You’ll always be with us, don’t you dare forget that.”

It was Scott’s turn to become a little misty-eyed. “Have I mentioned that you’re sort of cute when you’re bossy?”

Rhea smiled at him softly. “I’m the boss. Accept it with your body and soul.”

“Listen to this girl...” said Scott with a laugh.

Rhea laughed along with him for a moment then said, “So, how will you show the boss that you’re serious about the job?”

Scott slid his hand from her cheek down to her shoulder. He looked her in the eyes with a soft, but naughty expression, while he slipped his fingers further down to her back. Slowly, the tips of his fingers traced the gentle curvature of her ribs then continued down to stop at her hips.