Opening my eyes to see nothing but darkness, I stifle a yawn. I may have slept through most of school but I’m still a bit sleepy.
Checking my clock, I see it is 6 so I sit up, open up my schoolbag and do my homework (still need to do work, wouldn’t do to fall behind in class).
The homework is just the usual repeat answers from memory and splurge textbook knowledge onto the page, so it’s nothing complicated.
After 2 hours, I finish it all off and start to get ready for school.
Getting off of my bed, I grab a towel that’s hanging from my door and head to the shower.
1 2 3. That’s all I need to clean myself.
People always say I should stay in the shower longer but it takes me like 30 seconds to wash myself with shampoo and soap. No need to stay under the scalding water any longer is there?
Well anyways I dry myself (I am squeaky clean) and return to my room to put on my school-uniform. Checking my alarm clock as I put on my pants I see it to be 8:06.
I’ve got plenty of time.
Strolling downstairs, I retrace my steps to Mickey’s room. Knocking twice, I hear a groan. Ok he’ll be up soon.
Actually going downstairs this time, I pick up a piece of toast and my lunch before saying goodbye to Martha and head to school.
Munching on my toast as I drive (I use my mouth to move the toast up so don’t worry I’m driving safely). I arrive at Missy’s place in 10 minutes.
She waves as I come to a stop and she straddles on the back. Her weapons don’t feel as effective today, I wonder why?
Perishing the thought, I drive to school taking another 10 minutes and then parking, I sprint up the stairs.
Luckily I’ve got quite good stamina in real life as well as the game so I can easily run up two flights of stairs and down a couple of corridors to arrive at my classroom at 8:29 with 5 seconds to spare.
Waltzing proudly to my desk, I get out my maths book, pillow case it and nod off as the teacher comes in.
3 periods pass in the blink of an eye and I wake up due to my alarm (good thinking me) and make my way down to the canteen (running of course).
Clara (the hall monitor if you had forgotten) yells her usual “No running in the hallways, oh never mind” and I get that great Doppler Effect as I whoosh past her.
Squeezing past multiple people I quickly make it past the hungry crowd and get to the queue only 4th in line! Some people rush for the food but most queue up perfectly happy. It’s an English thing.
Getting some Lasagna (since Thursday is lasagna day) for Missy and Mickey, I quickly thank the lunch lady and precariously carry the food back upstairs.
Djinn International is nice enough to give us food costs within the term fee so food for us feels like it’s free.
Anyways, I head upstairs and I find Missy already sitting at my table. I pass her the lasagna and with a thank you she begins to dig in. I go to Mickey’s seat (right at the back of the class) and plonk him on the head waking him up. With a groan that quickly turns into an “mmm” (he smells the lasagna). Waving the plate in his face I take it back over to my spot.
Mickey jumps out of his desk and quickly joins me and Missy; He sits on the floor with me quite happily.
As we eat (I had some sandwiches remember) I ask Mickey about how his first 2 days in game was.
“Oh it was sooo cool. Like I started in this village, didn’t ever get its name, but it was quite a nice place with bunnies and all sorts of cute animals everywhere. Of course slaughtering bunnies was all the rage and we did so en masse. I haven’t partied yet but I might soon. I mean playing by myself is quite fun but we’ve had a couple of dangerous rumors going around” He leans in as if to whisper, as if it were terrifying to speak the rumor “There is a certain being which we call Rered Rumeht. Apparently he was massacring tigers with his bare hands. Now this rumor started about 20 minutes after the game started, so that was pretty terrifying in itself. They say if you see him you’ll be killed so I’m thinking of finding a party for safety sake.”
After he told us the rumor he went on about some of the basic quests he went on and how he’s learnt mining so far.
According to him he’s level 18 right now and he’s about to head off into one of the main cities once he reaches level 20. He didn’t quite catch the name. He logged off about an hour before I did so he did a bit of checking on the forums.
So far the highest level is 25 and about 100 people have gotten that far so no point mentioning them.
According to that I am probably the lowest level player by a long-long way. Mickey said the leveling got a lot slower after level 10 so that just further emphasizes how freaking far behind I am.
Oh by the way, while we’re talking complete game nonsense and about how skills and crafting works, Missy is listening intensely.
She does actually understand it all but she can’t exactly participate since she hasn’t got anything to input.
Noticing her burning stare at wanting to be included into the conversation, I reluctantly stop my analysis with Mickey about finding skills.
“So Missy, when are you thinking of getting the game?” I pull her in to our world.
“Don’t joke around Zach, we all know that isn’t going to happen.” She replies pouting slightly. The breaths of many boys stop at Missy pouting as it doesn’t make her look like ugly, quite the opposite in fact. Her pouting is quite sexy(?).
“Well why don’t you just ask your dad?” Questions Mickey. Oh he is too innocent, too naïve.
Me and Missy share a moment of pure terror as we remind ourselves what happened the last time we tried to ask him for something
…
..
.
Oh you want to hear about it? Sure I’ll recount the horror that is her father (I mean that in a nice way...totally).
It was 4 years ago when I last entered Missy’s house (I haven’t been back for a good reason).
I remember that I had snuck in my two PSP’s (so that I can always play with a friend) and I officially introduced Missy to the world of games.
I had been to her house before that pretty much every other day to play master and servant most of the time (Yes we still played that at 12 years old. It was still fun(?) though).
But anyways, we played Monster Hunter for a few hours and when I left I made sure she kept my backup PSP.
A few weeks passed and the master and servant play reduced while the Monster hunting increased (It was a win win situation(?)).
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
I also slowly introduced her to a couple of computer games (which I snuck in of course) such as Diablo, Tera and a couple of other RPG’s. I have pretty much tried every MMORPG out there so I had a lot for her to play.
Back to the point.
After a month of gaming she became pretty much obsessed with it (It is very addictive) and on one day when I was round she was sighing half-heartedly:
“I just wish I could play all day”
“Well why don’t you?” This does explain a lot about me…
Playing all day is a completely feasible idea to me(gaming marathons are just normal days of gaming for me in summertime).
“Well I need to ask my Father…”
“What wrong with that. Look if you want I’ll ask for you” Oh, so naïve so innocent I was. May my 12 year old heart rest in peace.
“Really? Oh thank you!” I remember her giving me a hug. Now let me tell you a 12 year old Missy was still decently well endowed. My naïve mind thought I’d been given a great reward.
It was not worth the cost, even if it was Missy giving me a full body hug.
Why? Well I’ll get to that in a sec.
So I, of course full of confidence, and slightly embarrassed from the hug earlier, go to the living room where her father is sitting watching some Japanese style mafia (Yakuza is the word isn’t it, huh) show on TV murmuring “that’s not how you break a man’s nails, jeez, what kind of Yakuza are you?”.
He’s not kidding there. He knows his stuff.
I go up to him and when he sees me I tell him to allow Missy to play computer games all day.
…
..
.
That sounded like a convincing argument to me at the time.
I just shake my head at the memory.
So you can tell he just laughed and told me no…well he should have.
Instead he said “You want to play games? Sure but play one with me will you”
Naïve, so naïve I was.
I was ecstatic and said yes, asking what game we would play.
“The interrogation game”
Now I was used to Missy’s master and slave game so I just thought this is her Father’s version of playing house……Just how naïve was my 12 year old self?
SO I was summarily interrogated in his office (which had a single light on a table in the middle of the room, it even looked the part).
He just interrogated me about my habits and my thoughts about Missy and other things concerning his daughter. Now that I think about it, the interrogation wasn’t really about games that much.
I was naïve yes, but I did finally understand the situation once I was in it. He was a professional and before I knew it I was spilling the beans in a cold sweat.
You’re thinking who is this guy? I was too. Missy just dropped the bomb on me later when I saw her at school the next day saying she’s not allowed to play all day. Apparently her dad’s an Ex-Yakuza.
You know when I mentioned earlier when he was watching Yakuza on the TV and he was calling out untruths in the show. He knows his stuff because he’s got firsthand experience of it.
By the way her father is Japanese while her mother a model American (Celebrity model, not the gun-blazing yehaaing overweight stereotype).
That was the first time I finally realized just how dangerous a situation I had been in…a small break in my naivety.
So that’s the reason I haven’t gone back to that house for the past 4 years.
That and because playing master and slave in her bedroom now takes a whole different meaning in my mind (and hers too I think, I hope(?)).
My number one rule when hanging out with Missy is to draw the line clearly for myself. Because I fear that if I cross a boundary I may fall into a grave somewhere in the middle of nowhere (Her dad may off me).
That’s why I’m fine with being her bitch, because it’s as close as I can get to her without being killed (for now at least).
Returning back to the present the moment ends and we both shake our heads at Mickey’s suggestion.
We steer the conversation to what’s been going on in class (because neither Mickey nor I have an idea) and Missy takes the role giving us our homework (damn I hate homework).
Lunch finishes mid-way through the mini-lecture about third period and Mickey and I head off to our respective beds, seats I mean (but we do go to sleep anyways).
The rest of the day goes by nice and calmly with me sleeping all 3 periods (yay no math) and driving Missy home.
At the door, her father (Yotsuba is his name, completely forgot to mention that. It’s not that important but one must always know their killer’s name) is waiting for us.
Letting her off, I have a staring contest with her dad…not.
I immediately shy away and feel his burning gaze trying to bore through my helmet. It lessens slightly as Missy gives him a kiss (on the cheek you pervs) and heads off inside. He sends a last challenging gaze towards me before he follows her inside.
With a sigh, I look at the house for a few minutes. It’s an obstacle I must pass for my love to bear fruit.
Ah that’s why I felt that story was emotional. I remember the story about Frishha and Gannor is half like mine. We don’t explicitly express our love and maintain a friendly relationship.
However I want it to be more but I have no idea whether she thinks that way of me. Also there’s the fact that she isn’t going to die of a disease or anything soon as well as me not being a skirt-chaser (nope, not in this life).
Though their tale ends in both of them dying so I’d rather not link my wannabe love-life to theirs. I don’t want the same ending and I’m pretty sure Yotsuba will be more than willing to cooperate in making that ending (on my side at least) come true.
While I’m comparing similarities and differences, I return home and spot Mickey entering the house (oh he remembered his keys today).
Heading inside after him, I quickly change and head downstairs to dinner.
Layla is there and is playing the naming game with Mickey who is severely losing (he’s just fooling around).
I sit down and we munch on the hearty curry that Martha sets out in front of us. We do take our time, learning from our indigestion of yesterday and only eat at triple speed.
Feeling indigestion creep up on us we slowly walk up the stairs saying “Good Gaming” to eachother before heading for our respective rooms.
Putting on my headset, I log myself back into Insanity Online.