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Freezing Shadows, Chapter 18
🕑 Added 2025-02-15 23:31:03 +0000 UTCChapter 18: Morning After
“Have fun last night?”
I mostly ignored the acid tone in Twilight’s voice, and continued with my morning workout. Nothing too strenuous, just a series of katas that helped train my skill with blades. Well, I was working hard enough to build up a sweat, which is why I’d tossed my shirt and armor to the side before beginning. I wasn’t using my weapon focus, either, instead using a pair of long-bladed knives that still felt completely natural in my hand, thanks to the personalized grip.
Glancing over at the technomancer as I finished the set, I said, “Yes, as a matter of fact. The girls were very attentive, and I like to think I rose to the occasion. At the very least, their auras said they were quite satisfied as they went to sleep.”
“Ugh, men like you are the worst.”
“Alive?”
Twilight blinked, staring at me “What?”
I turned towards her, sliding the blades in their sheaths as I did so. “You said men like me are the worst. What, men who are alive, and respond accordingly when a pretty woman wants some of his attention? Or is this even about me?”
“Who else would it be about? You come in here, like you own the place. Ok, so you’ve had some good ideas, and things work out all right. I’ll give you that. But then you go around fucking everyone you can, like it is your fucking right. Like because you have a dick, you should be able to stick it everywhere you want.”
“Uh-huh. Sure thing, Ricki,” I said, not leaving the sarcasm out of my voice as I walked towards her, calling her by her character name, instead of her callsign. “I might not know anything about you out of the game, but I do know you have been pissy with me since day one. Always had a chip on your shoulder for no damn reason.”
Ricki took a couple steps back as I approached, until she ran up against the side of Berzercer’s van. She flinched as I put on hand on the van, next to her head. “You look at me, but you don’t see me, Ricki. You see someone else. Someone who hurt you. A guy that hurt you. That much is obvious.”
She tried to look away, but I wasn’t ready to let her go just yet. “So, who was it? Who was the big bad that you’re comparing me to? Your father?” Another flinch. “Ah, that’s it, isn’t it? You had some trouble with your father. Given how you’re acting, he likes to sleep around, right? Probably has some excuse about he’s just doing his ‘civic duty’?”
I was mostly just guessing, based on what I’d seen of her so far, but that wasn’t exactly a hard leap to make. With the genders so far out of whack, and the general public starting to lean into more of a ‘men should be protected’ kind of mindset, there were some men who took things the other way, publicly saying that they were kings of their own little domains. Oh, not actual monarchies, but they went hard on the old-school patriarchy ideas, at least when it came to men making the rules. They were still fine with women doing a lot of the jobs there just weren’t enough men alive to do anymore, of course.
On the surface, that wasn’t really a problem. After all, there were plenty of women out there, and most of them didn’t feel like being second class citizens in a world where they were the majority. But there were some, whether ‘traditional values’ types, or just longing for an idea of the ‘good old days’ where they could let the big strong man make all the decisions and not need to worry about things, who were all too eager to play into those men’s fantasies.
That wasn’t new, either. Hell, when women had been campaigning to get the right to vote, there were women who actively worked against it, for all sorts of reasons. Some people truly believed things were better when they were unequal, even when they were the ones being put in the lower position.
Now, that wasn’t a problem if it was one person, letting another exercise some control over them, in an environment where everyone knew where the boundaries and consent were. Like what I had with Sonya. But too often the types who thought things were better off unequal tried to enforce that inequality on others, who weren’t consenting to it, and didn’t believe that the people in the lower position had any rights to boundaries or consent at all. That’s when things got problematic in a hurry, and I was thinking that was the environment Ricki was escaping from in this game.
Ricki’s breath caught in her throat as I looked her in the eye. “Y-you don’t know me.”
“Oh, but I know what you’re running from. Boy named Kyle, year ahead of me in school. Got in big trouble for doing all sorts of things. Had himself a harem of sex slaves. Only, they weren’t like Sonya, submitting freely. He liked to take what he wanted, and then use the videos as blackmail. A couple girls in his grade, a freshman, even a teacher. But the real kickers were the fact that his mother and sister were pregnant.”
Ricki’s eyes went hard. “And I bet he got off with a slap on the wrist.”
“Heh, no. See, the judge wanted to set an example. Make sure people knew that was not OK. He’s in jail, and will be for the next ten years. And he gets to be on the registry.”
“Bullshit. That isn’t what happens to men.”
“Go look it up, next time you log out. Kyle Summers is his name. He was tried as an adult, and, last I heard, case hadn’t been sealed or anything. They were actually using it as a cautionary tale at school, when I graduated.”
Ricki tried to get her breathing under control. “That doesn’t mean anything. You aren’t him.”
“No, I’m not. And I’m not the guy you’re comparing me to, either. Now, I’ve been understanding. Everyone has their own shit going on, after all. But I’m not going to just sit around and let you snipe at me all the time for no damn reason, understand?”
She nodded once, but I wasn’t having that. “No, you’re going to use your words, like a big girl. Tell me you understand what I’m saying.”
Her eyes were still wide, still staring at me, but I noticed the look in them had changed, slightly. “Y-yes. I understand.”
“Good girl.” She shivered slightly at the praise. Something to keep in mind for later. “Now, what about the hack?”
“I, um, I did the probing while you were ‘busy’ with the others. Couldn’t sleep with all that going on. Got my account set up, but haven’t gone in with it, yet. I was going to take the time to boost my Stealth form before going in.”
“That’s your version of casting spells, correct? Allows you to use ‘programs’ you don’t have, or improve your existing ones. Will you be able to get in undetected if you boost your Stealth?”
Twilight nodded, or started to, before she realized how close I was. Instead, she bit her lip, and said, “Y-yes. I can get it high enough that I should be able to get in undetected. But it might cause me some damage, like how your spells injure you. Go too high, and it is physical damage.”
“That’s all right,” I said. “Go big. I’ll take care of your body.” Her breath was sharp on the intake as she tensed up. “I do have healing magic, after all,” I continued, pretending I hadn’t deliberately worded things that way. “Now, be a good girl, and go ahead and ‘thread your form’, or however you technomancers put it.”
Twilight threads a Complex Form (Stealth)
Threading Test: 8d6 = 5 hits, 1 miss
Stealth improves to Rating 9.
Resist Fading (5P): 10d6 = 4 hits, 2 miss (1P damage)
“Sh-shut up. I’m not doing it just ‘cuz you told me to.” Twilight closed her eyes, and breathed in deep, focusing her mind. “Ouch!” She winced, and a trickle of blood started running out of her nose. “Th-there. Got it. A big boost, too, almost the biggest I can manage at this stage.”
Iceblade casts Heal (Force 5)
Iceblade’s Spellcasting test: 10d6 = 3 hits, 0 miss
Damage Healed: 1P
Sustain duration until permanent: 0 turns (reduced from 2)
Resist Drain (1S): 13d6: 7 hits, 1 miss (Drain resisted)
“Good girl,” I said, as I reached out to touch her chin, lifting her face up to look at me as I worked my magic. Of course, my free hand was holding the hilt of my knife, to satisfy the conditions of my Geas, but Twilight was too busy looking in my eyes as I used magic to wipe away that little wound. When the spell was done, I pulled a handkerchief from the pocket next to my blade and dabbed up the blood on her lip. “There you go. All better now.”
Twilight was looking at me like, well, like she couldn’t decide what to do next. Fortunately, I didn’t have that problem. “Now, I presume you want to go out of body for this next part. Would you like me to take you to the couch, or would you prefer one of the air mattresses? Or perhaps the van?”
“C-couch is fine,” she said, voice trembling only slightly. Still, she wasn’t prepared when I swooped her up in a princess carry, and began carrying her to the couch. Her arms reflexively went around my neck as she tried to steady herself. “S-stop it! I can walk to the couch myself!”
“I don’t doubt that you can, Twilight. But how often does a girl, in this world or the real world, get to say that she was carried like a princess by an elven nobleman? You should take advantage of this opportunity while you can.”
“You big dummy,” she muttered, trying to avoid my eyes, but not doing anything else to resist, as I laid her out gently on the couch. She took one last, deep breath, before letting go of my neck, and closing her eyes. It almost looked as though she were going to sleep, but I knew she was casting her mind into the Matrix.
(Twilight POV)
OhmygodOhmygodOhmygod! I can’t believe that just happened! It was like something right out of Heartstrings and Elven Eyes!
No. Focus. I have to focus, goddamnit!
Twilight forced herself to ‘breathe’ in this virtual space, to stop her mind from racing along. Everything happened at the speed of thought when you were in the Matrix, which was both good and bad. Good, in that she was able to easily outmaneuver anyone merely accessing the Matrix through AR or other ‘realspace’ methods, but bad because her thoughts tended to race away from her.
She ‘looked’ down at the data of Iceblade’s personal node, in his commlink. It would be so easy to just stretch out, and… no. She couldn’t do that. Not right now. She needed to focus on the goal. She needed to get inside the inner network.
She’d spent four hours last night immersed in the Matrix, probing the target, so she didn’t have to think about how He had been probing… NO! No time to think about that! It had been just after one in the morning when she’d finished, and disconnected so that she could really sleep. But she’d managed to get an admin account on the inner server, thanks to the commlink that Shadowgirl planted.
Node Security test: 9d6 = 5 Hits, 0 Miss (Threshold 9)
She felt the node’s Analyze program try and find her as she slipped in. With the digital equivalent of a cold sweat, she realized that she would have been caught if she hadn’t boosted her Stealth form. Like He had told her to do.
Ugh, he was just messing with her, playing with her like that. Well, she had been a bitch to him, so maybe she deserved it. But still! First he goes and has an orgy with the whole team, and then, she wakes up to find him doing weapon drills, SHIRTLESS! And that body! She knew it was digital, but still, those abs! And the muscles! With that long hair! No! Focus on the job!
Twilight threads a Complex Form (Browse)
Threading Test: 8d6 = 2 hits, 2 miss
Browse improves to Rating 3.
Resist Fading (2S): 10d6 = 4 hits, 1 miss (no damage)
She let go of the threading on her Stealth form. She wouldn’t need it so high, now that she was in the door. Instead, she turned her attention to one of the two complex forms she’d gotten with the Karma they’d won on their first run. The Simrig form allowed her to save her experiences to external storage, like a normie wearing a simrig, but the one she was working on now was the Browse form, so she could find the right file to work on.
Twilight’s Data Search (Browse): 6d6 = 1 hit, 1 miss (1 total hits)
Twilight’s Data Search (Browse): 6d6 = 4 hits, 1 miss (5 total hits)
Twilight’s Data Search (Browse): 6d6 = 1 hit, 0 miss (6 total hits) (Success)
It took her a bit of searching, but she found the central file for the movie they wanted. Several people were accessing it, but none of them were looking at the subfolder she was in, right now. No problem.
Twilight’s Edit (Edit): 6d6 = 2 hits, 0 miss (Success)
She didn’t bother with letting go of the Browse form. She’d need it later, and this was simple enough. File added to the folder, metadata changed to match the folder’s creation. To anyone who wasn’t intimately familiar with the individual files of this particular folder, the file looked like one simple data file that hadn’t been opened, like several others that served as reference points for the program’s effects library. The likelihood that anyone knew the ins and outs of the system that well, and would be checking the folders was practically nonexistent.
Twilight’s Data Search (Browse): 6d6 = 4 hit, 1 miss (4 total hits)
Twilight’s Data Search (Browse): 6d6 = 1 hits, 0 miss (5 total hits)
Twilight’s Data Search (Browse): 6d6 = 1 hit, 0 miss (6 total hits) (Success)
Practically nonexistent was not nonexistent, though, which is why she moved on to the next step. A few searches through the database, and she had it. Not all of Creative Horizon’s movies were suitable for children, after all. And some projects went a long way before they were canceled. Some, like this one, were completely finished, but shelved for political reasons.
Secret of the Crimson Rose was an erotic romance movie featuring an elven nobleman from Ola Serin (known as the Crimson Rose for his beauty and the red cloak he always wore), and his low-blood human serving maid who became his mistress and lover. Of course, the nobility could never know, even as she bore his child, since such things were incredibly taboo. And the poor maiden was isolated from even the other servants, who called her the girl the Master’s Pet, and nastier names.
Obviously, such a film could not be shown after the revolution in Ola Serin, and the nobility of the country being thrown out on their ear. Any movie coming out that showed the nobles in any kind of positive or romantic light would have sparked outrage from the populace! Not worth the PR nightmare, so the film was shelved as a tax write-off, even though it had been only a few months from releasing when the Crash happened.
And now she had the only copy! She quickly transferred it to the disposable commlink, and then from there, sent a copy to another disposable commlink on her person, and, from there, to her personal commlink. Once she trashed her disposable link, there would be no trace back to her!
A smile on her lips, she quietly exited the network, with no alarms sounded. She had new ‘viewing material’ to watch! Maybe a girl’s night with the team? Oh, and they needed to get paid, obviously.
Comments
Robert Gardner
TFTC . No Idea where this is going. Hint. Hint
Chris M.
💗 very nice chapter. thank you. 😍
Kai Elanzo
Ty for the chapter
