Trouble With Horns

40: Chat

Funny thing about wars in Cora, was that so long as the fighting didn’t spread into the nearby cities, and stayed nice and out of sight in the hills, you could find a ton of players hanging out in the cities nearby. Some might be those who were interested in fighting in the war, while others were just there to make money selling consumables to those combatants. Yet more enterprising players and guilds were turning the city of Vallas into something that we could stand to hang out in.

Clubs like the one where I had met Dawn in were popping up all over the place, but that wasn’t the only comfort of home that was springing up. Like the Cafe that Dawn and I went and found to wait in while the other two members of our party made their way here. It was a nice little place, down a side street near the main market in the center of town, in which we had done a little shopping so far to get some comfortable clothing to use for the day.

There were flowers everywhere in the cafe, and the owner had tried to give it a few comforts of modern society, like salt and pepper shakers, cushioned booths and mage lights hanging from the ceiling for proper lighting. Seriously, what the hell was with medieval society and poorly lit establishments? I get that some places did it for the mood or whatever, but I personally hated it. I wanted to see the people I was talking to, along with the food I was eating.

“I like the name of this place, Feathered Fox. It’s nice,” I told Dawn idly, looking over to see her giving me a mysterious smile. “What?” I protested, “I just think it’s cute! Don’t judge me! Why are you staring at me like that?”

“No reason,” she said, her eyes sparkling with laughter as she reached over to give my hand a squeeze for a moment. “You’re just adorable, that’s all.”

“You don’t think this place is cute?” I asked with a mock frown. “Too cool for this place huh?”

“Way too cool,” she grinned, fluffing with her bright orange and red hair. “I mean just look at me, I’m like objectively the coolest person in this place.”

“I’m sure we can fix that,” I chuckled, giving her a sideways look through my lashes. “Warm you up a little.”

I could do that now. The whole giving them the sexy look, or something, because you know, I was a hot girl after all. I mean I guess anyone could do it if they wanted, I wasn’t going to stop them, but it wouldn’t have quite the same effect on Dawn.

That effect, as it happened, was her eyes widening just a little, her pupils dilating and a little bit of a flush rising on her cheeks. That brought an evil little laugh from my lips, my leg finding hers under the table, then brushing gently up the inside until I reached thigh.

It was hot in Vallas right now, the climate was one of those ones that got sweltering hot and just as humid, which meant that she was wearing a rather nice pair of shorts she’d just bought. I was wearing a pair too for that matter. Screw wearing armour all the time in this heat. So when my foot travelled up her leg, it was soft smooth skin all the way, and I had to pull back before I jumped over the table at her, onlookers be damned.

LipsAndShades: Heads up, we’re almost there, and our streams are on.

The message came in at just the right moment to ward off my attack across the table, and after I’d read it, I looked back up and raised an eyebrow at my girlfriend. “Ready to be famous?”

“Not really. All those eyes, I’ll feel weird,” she said honestly, a cloud coming over her previously jovial expression.

“You got this,” I smiled, trying to be reassuring. “Plus we can sneak out any time you want and make out or whatever.”

“Alright,” she said, looking dubiously at her coffee.

“How about this, we’ll have like, a code word or whatever. Just tell me that you feel a little tired or something, and I’ll make excuses for us so we can get some private recharge time,” I said, hoping it would work. “I’ll tell the others that’s how you feel too, so they know not to make a fuss when we go to hide for a bit.”

Dawn gave me a surprised little look for a moment, a small smile accompanying it, before she finally looked down almost bashfully at the table and nodded, “Yeah, that sounds nice. Thank you.”

“No problem Dawn. I love you,” I told her sincerely as I tapped out the details to Taylor and Millie.

“I love you too,” she said quietly, giving me another one of those shy little smiles that I now knew meant she was feeling a lot of love for me in that moment.

We were still sitting quietly when the other two finally arrived. They came in through the door and looked around, Dawn spotting them first and giving the both of them a wave to let them know where we were. Taylor was in fairly casual clothing now, but Millie was still wearing that ridiculous hood and cloak of hers. She must be boiling under all that fabric!

Something was funny about them though, the way Taylor was standing was fairly normal, protective of Millie. I’d seen that before, but there was a familiarity to the way she did it now that had me narrowing my eyes. However, far more noticeable was the way Millie was acting. She was staying close at Taylor’s side, and her hand kept hovering up towards Taylor’s like she wanted to hold it. Had something happened between them?

Then they made eye contact, and it was pretty abundantly clear that they had made a few steps down the romantic path. It was hard to hide that kind of affection, especially when someone was looking at the person who brought those feelings out of them.

Leaning over as casually as I could manage while the two of them made their way over, I whispered, “I was right, something’s up between them.”

“How can you tell?” Dawn asked bewilderedly.

“I just can, I don’t know. The way they’re standing and stuff,” I shrugged, unable to go into the full details because they were arriving at our table.

“Tami!” Taylor grinned happily, leaning down to give me a hug and a kiss on the forehead. “This is the first time I’ve seen you ingame right?”

“Yup,” I nodded, smiling up at her and nodding to her furled wings. “You look uh, angelic in here.”

Taylor rolled her eyes and looked up at something I couldn’t see. “This is her, everyone, my twin sister Tami… and yes, I can tell that many of you have recognised her. She is the crazy chick with the lightning.”

“Crazy? Rude!” I exclaimed jokingly, placing a hand over my heart like I’d been physically wounded.

Ignoring me, she turned to Dawn and continued, “And this is her girlfriend Aurora, who’s a pretty badass infernal spellsword.”

“Infernal spellsword,” Dawn repeated, rolling the phrase around on her tongue. “I think I like that description.”

“I just came up with it now,” Taylor winked, before Millie pulled her by the arm down into a chair.

Yup, they had definitely gotten intimate with each other to some degree or other. Millie was very comfortable touching my twin now. I couldn’t hide a smile at the way they were interacting, trying and failing to keep a little distance. They were going to be so tooth-achingly adorable together.

“Hi,” Millie mumbled shyly at me from the seat next to me. She looked like she was having an internal debate for a moment before she leaned over and gave me a quick hug.

“Hey to you too,” I grinned, reaching over to ruffle her hair a little, not-so-accidentally also knocking her hood off.

“You two should tune into our chat,” Taylor laughed, staring off into space at the chat window.

“Oh?” Dawn asked, just the barest hint of unease in her voice as she navigated through her menus.

I did the same, finding my sister’s stream and then closing the stream itself to leave just the chat open. Oh fuck, wow. They were going ballistic. Was I really that famous? I blinked in surprise for a few moments before asking, “Tay, where’s the camera right now?”

“Up there,” she told me, pointing up into the air.

I looked up at it and gave a wave, “Hey everyone, what’s up. Yes I’m Tami, yes I’m Shades’ twin sister.”

Chat exploded once more as I addressed them directly, and I watched with rising amusement as the messages trailed my the window.

FlavourEdgi: Fuck she’s hot.
LadyKN: SENPAI NOTICED US
Megatera: Normal form definitely better than lightning form
Tanitech: Hello Tami, can you tell us what your build is? I’ve looked everywhere but no one can figure out what race you are.
Pademaggy: Fuck off, her lightning form looks way cooler.
Horsera: LESBIANS!!! YES!!!
Sionexpe: Can we expect you to start streaming too tami?
Megatera: Normal form looks way better. Approachable and friendly. Lightning form is like fully scary.
Kryptoth: Tami is pretty chill, I thought she’d be more intense after all the smashing balls she does.
Horsera: L E S B I A N S. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Pademaggy: @Magatera That’s the whole point! She’s scary and way hot in lightning form. Scaroused, look it up.
Horsera: I LOVE GIRLS!!!
Ketsysys: Tami, have you done any dungeon content yet?

“Dawn, they’re having an argument about which of my forms is hotter,” I said with a laugh. “Which one do you think is hotter?”

“Both. Both is good,” she said, eyeing me up and down and licking her lips.

Horsera: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA GAY
Pademaggy: I still think Lightning form is better.

Looking through some of the other chat stuff, I shook my head and said, “Nah no dungeon stuff yet, I got too caught up in that shitstorm down in Gienia. I’m actually pretty low level still, only twenty three after the evacuation. Oh and yeah, hey there Horsera, Dawn and I are in fact very lesbians for each other.”

Chat continued on after that, with the one person called Horsera continuing to have her meltdown about us being gay. I was assuming by the way she was acting that she was a lesbian, since… well it was rather obvious.

I didn’t mention my race yet, not until I’d had a hard think about the little quest that had come with it. Did I want to start my own race? No idea.

We chatted idly for a bit, the two streamers telling us what they had been up to, which sounded pretty crazy to be honest, but then chat exploded at a certain point in the tale.

“You made out with each other on stream?” I blurted, my eyes trailing over the chat as they filled Dawn and I in on what had happened with some… rather intense detail.

“Aha.. uh, yes,” Taylor coughed, failing to hide a radiantly happy grin. “We’ll uh, fill you in once the stream is over.”

My heart went all mushy for my sister as I just watched her react. She looked so damn happy! Shit I was glad they had worked out, or were in the process of getting together. Please be in the process of getting together?

I glanced at Millie to see how she felt, and my smile doubled in size just seeing the adorable little happy blush on her face. Okay, yup, they were into each other in a big way by the looks of things. Fuck yes. I felt like that Horsera chick now, my thoughts bouncing up and down with joy for my sister and my friend. They were definitely right for each other.

“I’m really happy for the two of you,” I said softly, giving them both a look.

“Thanks,” Millie mumbled, her blush and smile both deepening.

Too cute.

“Actually, speaking of talking off stream… on to what we’re going to do next…” Taylor said, trying to redirect the conversation. “I have some idea of what we can do next, but it will mean pausing the stream for a bit. Don’t want people to get too clued in and beat us to it.”

“Okay,” Millie said, turning off her stream without any fanfare whatsoever.

Taylor gave the smaller girl an adoring look, then turned to her stream’s camera and waved, “See you all soon friends! Planning break!” Then she too turned her stream off.

“Okay, so what’s the deal?” Dawn asked eagerly, looking much more relaxed now that we didn’t have thousands of people watching us. My poor Dawn. Her social anxiety hadn’t gotten better since elementary school, when her early butch tendancies had gotten her bullied. I would protect her, I needed to protect her. Shit, I loved her so much.

“So something I didn’t mention when I told the story, but that I stupidly blurted out on stream at the time, was that our antics up there revealed a ruin and a door. Looks really old too, and I assume because it was buried, no one’s explored it yet,” Taylor said, leaning forward eagerly.

“And you want us to explore it,” Dawn mused with a growing smile of interest. “Exploring an ancient ruin for treasure and lore sounds fucking awesome, especially after all the bullshit we’ve gotten involved in. I swear I haven’t actually gotten to do normal game shit yet.”

“Yeah, as much as all the political stuff is exciting, I’d really like to just run some dungeons or whatever it is and level up,” I agreed, then wryly I said, “I want to hit some enemies that aren’t human for a change. I’m also keen to see what ancient civilisations the devs dreamed up.”

“Yes!” Taylor grinned. “I knew you two would be keen.”

Millie squirmed in her seat for a moment, looking between us all before she spoke quietly, “What about the really high level bird, and the wyvern, and the rock golems?”

She had a good point, it had sounded like every high level monster and its mother was up there duking it out around that rock. What the hell could have drawn so many creatures to it like that? There must be a greater mystery to it, one that I’m sure Dawn would squirrel out in no time.

“That’s the beauty of it!” Taylor grinned, leaning in and dropping her volume a little. “If we sneak past them, rather than fight, it makes it harder for other people to come in after and fuck with us. Unless they are crazy high level, but the chances of that happening are pretty slim.”

“This sounds suspiciously like a plan,” Dawn mused. “But we’ll need supplies first, plus a healer and another damage dealer.”

The others nodded, looking pensive for a moment, but I already had a few people in mind. Xethu the gecko girl was a healer, and she seemed capable of a fair amount of damage too. I wonder if she was still around?

I opened the friend’s window and frowned when I saw she was offline. I sent her a message anyway, and went looking for Rusti. Rusti was online, so I flicked them a message too, asking what they were up to.

“I just sent a message to Xethu and Rusti, to see what they are up to. Xethu is a healer who seemed pretty good, but she’s offline right now. Rusti is… dps and looter extraordinaire. If there’s any hidden loot, they will find it,” I told the group. “If you’re fine with them coming along that is.”

Millie nodded quickly, looking excited, “Yes, they seemed fine from when I saw them on streams and stuff. I met Xethu during the retreat and she seemed really fun!”

“If you trust them, I trust them,” Taylor told me with a shrug.

“Same here,” Dawn agreed, looking over fondly at me.

I felt my chest swell with yet another spike of affection. How in the fuck was I meant to be a functioning human when she was in my life like this? All I wanted to do was bask in her company!

“Well that settles it,” my sister grinned. “Tami finds us some party members and I guess we’ll all go shopping for supplies. I imagine we’ll need to get another tent made for Dawn and Tami too… with sound proofing.”

“Okay look,” I glared, trying to smother a laugh. “I’ll have you know I can be very quiet when I come, thank you very much.”

Dawn gave me an amused look, raising a single sarcastic eyebrow while Taylor tried to smother a laugh.

“What? I can!” I protested.

“Uh huh,” was all my girlfriend said.

I could definitely be quiet during an orgasm. Definitely, I just liked being vocal is all. I looked over to Millie in the vague hope of some backup, only to find her staring at the three of us with wide eyes and beet red cheeks.

“Well... fine, soundproofing then,” I sighed, rolling my eyes theatrically.

“The tents are nice…” Millie murmured, then surprised us all by glancing over at Taylor with an evil little grin. “Especially because Taylor’s tent only had one bed.”