My guild’s reappearance in my life shook me, right down to my bones. It put me off balance, and it made me feel like everything was spinning out of control. To make matters worse, it was not a one-off event. They were farming the same boss.
I had to shift my schedule around, waking up super early so I could get a few boss attempts in before they arrived at around one in the afternoon. Unlike me, they actually killed the boss, and then it wouldn’t respawn until the next day.
After the boss was dead for the day, I trained. Not levels, mind you. For that, you had to do quests and kill things and shit. No, I leveled up my abilities. I honed the skills I had, throwing myself into the practice like I had my father riding my ass, forcing me to go through the same kata over and over.
Methodically, I levelled up each one to mastery level two, then mastery level three. It took me a week to do that, and in that time I got the boss below half health a grand total of once. Still, that was awesome progress, and I was damned happy with myself.
On Sunday I took a rest day, where I lounged around on the couch with a book from the library and a cup of hot chocolate. Living the dream.
“I’m a little in awe of you by the way, Keiko,” Elena told me from where she sat almost upside down on one of the big chairs. “Like, you seem happy that you’re dying to a giant undead fungus man multiple times a day.”
“Hey, I’m making progress while I do that!” I grinned, poking my tongue out at her.
Her answering smile was bright and friendly. Gah, I was actually really upset that I wasn’t developing feelings for her. She was an amazing friend and a great person to hang out with. Plus, sex with her was out of this world. Sadly, that was as far as my heart could go. Stupid heart.
I was turning back to my book when a call came in, marked as urgent and from my mother. The aforementioned heart leapt into my throat, and I glanced at Elena in panic. “My mom is calling! What should I do? It’s marked urgent!”
“Answer it,” she said, smiling encouragingly. “She loves you, right? It’ll be fine.”
I blew out a long breath, then nodded and plastered a calmer expression on my face and accepted the call.
My mom’s excited face filled the screen, her tousled red hair swept back by a hairband. Her brows knit into a frown when those brown eyes of hers focused on me, but it was only for a second.
“H-hello?” she asked, the gears of her mind spinning at record speed. “Is that you?”
“Hey mom,” I said, giving her a tentative smile. “I uh, got a crazy new class. It’s gender and race locked, though…”
Blinking rapidly, she stared at me for almost a full fifteen seconds before her whole face lit up in a bright, shining smile. “You’re so beautiful! Oh my goodness, my daughter! You have your fathers eyes too, and is that my nose? Gorgeous! Absolutely gorgeous! Oh, you have pointy ears! Are you some kind of elf? No, much too small to be an elf. Ah! You’re a fairy! Big eyes are always a sign of fairies.”
As she rambled, a blush grew and grew across my cheeks and down my neck. W-what was she saying? What was going on? She was gushing over me. She called me her daughter!
“M-mom?” I squeaked, eyes wide with confusion. My emotions were fast becoming a tropical cyclone of confusion. “You like this look?”
“My baby, of course I do!” she exclaimed, briefly moving out of frame as she gestured wildly. “Look at you, my sweet baby. You’re glowing! My baby is glowing!”
“I’m… what?” I choked, capacitors in my brain frying in rapid sequence. “N-no, that’s my wisp. It hides in my boobs.”
“And so comfortable with your feminine assets,” she winked, a sly grin tugging at her lips. “My my!”
“Stooooop,” I pointed, ducking my head to hide my face. “Stop making fun of me.”
“Okay, okay,” she laughed, waving her hand through the camera. “I really do think you look so gorgeous, though, my baby. You are so pretty.”
“Thanks mom,” I blushed, again. Assuming I had even stopped in the first place. God, I was grinning like a goof too. Why did I enjoy this so much?
She nodded slowly in response, as though what I’d said was a huge, momentous thing. “That brings me to a rather closely related topic, my dear. The Sentient artificial intelligences have gotten back to us about the synthetic body. They think they’ll be ready for you in a month or two, so they want you to think carefully about the template you send them.”
Glancing at Elena, I found her listening intently to the conversation. They were both looking at me really funny. “Why wouldn’t I just get a replica of my old body?” I asked hesitantly.
“My baby, just think on it, okay?” my mother said kindly. “You can choose to look however you wish. If you decide you liked your old one, then that’s fine. If you’d like to have something different, though, that’s fine too. Who knows, maybe you’ll become fond of this little fairy form you have?”
The last part was said so pointedly I felt like I should have ducked in case my eyes got poked out. “Okay, okay,” I mumbled, wishing I could shrink myself and hide under the couch cushions.
“Good girl,” Mom said happily. “I think you like this form quite a lot, if your reaction to my reaction was anything to go by. Plus, you know how much of a sucker I am for fantasy.”
“Yes mom, I know,” I grumbled, rolling my eyes. “I do, in fact, remember you gatekeeping me for reading Lord of the Rings and not liking it.”
“It is not on my head that you have terrible taste,” she sniffed, pretending to inspect her nails. Her expression devolved back into a wide smile when she looked back up at the camera. “This game of yours seems fun, too. Maybe I should play it myself?”
“No!” I squeaked, suddenly terrified. “No, don’t you dare!”
“Oh, don’t worry, my lovely little daughter,” she said, her smile turning all evil and cheeky. “I won’t force you to play with me, but I think… yes, I think I will. Also, you will come and see me when you have time, we will have some mother-daughter time.”
Resigning myself to my fate, I shrugged, “Okay, fine. I’m in Porin, by the way. So make sure you start in the—“
Whatever I was saying was interrupted when mom exclaimed, “You’re just so Cute!”
Instantly, my face was on fire again, and this time I grabbed a cushion and plastered it to my face. “Mom! Stop!”
“I can’t wait to hug you,” she sighed, staring off dreamily into space.
“If I do end up taking this body with me back into reality, I hope you know I’ll be a lesbian,” I told her pointedly.
Mom didn’t even bat an eyelid. “Oh, that’s fine. Totally understandable. Women are so much prettier than most guys.”
“Uh…” I blinked, taken aback. “What? What about dad?”
“Sometimes, fictional men are actually real,” she said.
Over on the armchair, Elena let out a snorting laugh. She covered her mouth quickly, but mom had heard her. “Who was that? Is that your girlfriend?”
“No,” I laughed, rolling my eyes. “She’s my roommate. Hot, definitely gay, but just my roommate.”
“Pity,” mom mumbled. Then, her eyes lit up and she pinned me with a look. “What’s your name?”
Flushing again, I patted the pillow absently in my lap, like it was a little animal. “It’s uh, it’s Keiko.”
“That’s a very pretty name,” she said quietly, almost reverently. “I like it. I like that you’ve incorporated some of your father’s culture into it too. He was always so proud of his heritage.”
“Yeah. I miss him,” I said softly, and made eye contact with her. We sat like that for half a minute, words flying between us in the language of facial expression. “Even if he was annoying as hell about training me to use dumb weapons.”
“Hey, you’ve been putting those skills to use in the games you play, haven’t you?” she asked pointedly.
I shrugged. “True, true.”
She was silent for a little while, until finally she clapped her hands together and beamed at me again. “Ah, but anyway. I just thought I would call you with the news. Have a good day and I will see you soon. Look after yourself, and I love you, okay?”
“Love you too, mom,” I said, smiling as she ended the call. Gah. I really loved my mom. I can’t believe she was that chill over this body I was walking around in.
“Keiko?” Elena was looking over at me with a big smile. “You keep that mother of yours, okay? Not every parent is built like she is.”
“Are you saying my mom is built different?” I laughed, throwing in a wink to let her know I was joking.
“Yes, little fairy, I am definitely saying that,” she chuckled, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. “I mean that in a nice way and a, wow, she’s super strange, kind of way.”
“This is why we aren’t dating,” I groaned, throwing the cushion at her.
“No, we’re not dating because we’re not romantically compatible,” she shot back, along with the pillow. Definitely roommate compatible though, and friendship. Life was actually kinda fun now. Who would have thunk it?
Keiko's Mom: "Yeah actually I'm bi with a preference for femmes. Didn't you know? What about your father? Well, sometimes a man is literally right out of a fantasy story. Muscles for days!"
*Keiko's brain sort circuits*
And here I thought Tami had supportive parents.
Alia's parents manage to make up for how supportive Tami's and Keiko's parents are >_<
i think she is a AI so i don't think she has parents
I think you made a bunch of fans for the mom. I do wonder why the guild suddenly decided to farm a random world boss. Curious what exactly they need.
Do you need a reason to farm world bosses? If you can consistently do it, then the loot is worth it.
@Exivac I mean, it's been implied that they do top tier content, so I'd agree with Milanda, the world boss seems a little beneath them.
supportive parents are the best
These two make a great pair, super curious about who the love interest would be though, considering your post saying you couldn't stop thinking about her.
It must be Paisley, of the characters introduced so far...? Weird choice, but we'll have to see.
@Cipiteca396 Probably but I really hope if it is it’s Paisley splitting from the old friends group and not the group kicking mr toxic and all faults are forgiven kinda nonsense
I can see maybe she leaves the group. she was her best friend after all.
After rereading, I can sort of see that maybe the guy who kicked her out faked the messages. The fact the dude who showed the messages took something that was set to go to mc, and the fact I highly doubt a best friend would kick their best friend out of a guild without a chance to talk. Just seems sus.
What would be cool, is if paisley sent a message to Keiko’s mom and that caused them to meet when her mother joins the game.
@Jessy Really doesn’t matter though does it? At best all her friends believed the worst in her and let dude destroy her reputation in the game to the point she’s black listed in other raid guilds. He’s still a part of their guild too and they’re still raiding with him, nor has anyone stood up for Keiko publicly or even whispered support. Even IF it’s all a massive scam this all came from a slur she admits she said, once after a year of friendship with no follow ups and wtf keiko. That entire friend group needs to be yeeted with the exception of maybe one or two who have social issues (cause that excuse can work for a few people, not the entire guild except problem guy.) -Just my thoughts
@Milanda The reason I think it’s a scam entirely, is that I think the messages she was showed was fake, I don’t believe a best friend would say stuff like that behind their best friends back. The guy showed those messages shortly after she said the slur. So the messages were either faked, or everyone was long annoyed at her. Though, it is very easy to not show the full context of messages.
@Jessy Ah see since they mentioned it sparking from a loot drop my personal thought is it happened in front of a full raid. Keikos shown remorse for saying it but never things like ‘that’s not how it happened’ which I feel would have come up with her roomie. Instead she’s seemed horrified that her reputation was torn apart without ‘a chance to apologize’ or ‘explain herself’ iirc. sincerely think Keiko fubar’d and used a slur but cheater dude saw his chance to get rid of her and took it.
@Milanda No, from what i could take from it, a pet they got was meant to goto mc, but this their leader kept it for himself. mc confronted him, got angry, said something stupid, (though if what i think of this guy is true, probable lead on) then shown messages of the whole group "agreeing" with his opinion. would need a flash back to see what really happened, but its the take i have. and i would love to see the whole thing come crumbling down around the dude if this is actually what happened.
@Jessy Ohhh hadn’t thought of that. Possible! Author is doing a great job of teasing out what may have happened. Can’t wait for more details :)
@Milanda still consider it more likely that keiko was being ignorant about polyamory than anything else, the story has built up decently the concept that keiko was at fault so far.
@the_softies Ohh, dont get me wrong, she did something wrong, but i just dont believe someone would agree to kick their best friend out of their group without talking it out first.
@Jessy @the_softies First and foremost I disagree on poly. Not only was the guild open about things like gender and sexuality, but emphasis on cheating can still apply to poly. I honestly thing Keiko is at fault for sparking the fire and the other guy fanned it relentlessly into an inferno. And I agree on friends not willing to kick out close friends over their first mistake on this. I feel this entire issue is centered around someone whose toxic and manipulative. That said; and as said before; the fact her friends just black listed her rather then talk to her especially privately is why I don’t want them to go through a ‘heee we were wrong sorry we ruined your life let’s be friends again, toxic guys gone now!’. Maybe the BFF or one or two others who gave into social pressure but refriending that friend group as a whole is something I personally wouldn’t do. They’ve already proven they don’t have Keikos back when something serious happens after all; why waste her time on their nonsense.
@Milanda They didnt blacklist her. After the guy kicked her out, in her rage she unfriended all of them herself. she herself didnt look for confirmation from her best friend. which is where i think she was entirely manipulated. All Keiko knows is that all her so called friends agreed that she was toxic, and they wanted her gone. when she learned that, she unfriended everyone and left. thats it.
@Jessy Oh. Oh! I missed that part. Ooo that could be a whole new twist on it can’t wait even more now. Thanks for catching that.