Announcement
Check out my lesbian vampire romance slice of life too! here is the link! Vintage Red
TW Homophobia
It's the year 2060. October 25th, the beginning of the 22nd year of my useless life. In other words, my birthday.
“Here, son, this is for you,” my mom says as she hands over a heavy package with a smile. “It’s from your dad and me.”
I look into her eyes and fake a smile back. “Thanks, mom.”
For years my parents have gifted me things I really didn’t want: male hygiene products, shaving kits, gift cards for ‘high testosterone adventures’, the list goes on. All presents that make me cringe the moment I get them.
I doubt this year will be any different as I open the package. “Wow, thanks...” I give another oscar-worthy acting performance as I see what’s inside: a pair of 5kg dumbbells and a gym pass.
“It’s time you work on those muscles of yours, kiddo,” my dad says after hitting me on the shoulder. “You aren’t going to get the girls when looking like a faggot.”
My dad is so open minded when it comes to the LGBTQ community…
“Sure, dad, I’ll work on it.” Another present that would need to mysteriously disappear.
“Here, Lucas,” my sister says, handing me a small box. I open it up and find a bottle of deodorant inside with a small paper that reads, “I’ll bring the real present to you later ;)”
I love my sister; even though she’s five years older, she’s the only one who really gets me. She was the only one who supported me when I chose to follow an arts degree in college — against harsh protest from my parents, of course.
Such a shame she doesn’t visit often. Although, I can’t really blame her, with the parents we have. It’s a wonder she visits at all, but I have a suspicion that it’s mainly for me that she makes that sacrifice. I just wish I could talk with her more regularly in any way — with her visiting here, or otherwise — but I don’t even really message with her, given that we’re both aware our parents monitor my phone.
“Thanks, Élise.” I give her a quick hug and turn towards my parents. “It’s been a long day with uni work and all, I’m going to go upstairs to get some rest,” I lie, hoping my parents don’t see through it.
“Sure, kiddo, maybe give those weights a lift before you turn in, though!” he laughs.
My rather heavy gifts in hand, I make my way upstairs, then immediately store them under my bed, already planning how I'd get rid of them.
A few minutes later, I hear a knock on my door. “Hey, Lucas, can I come in?” I hear my sister’s whisper.
I unlock the door with a smile. “Any time, sis.”
Élise walks through the door with a medium sized package. “I hope you’re still into gaming.” She winks.
“Definitely! But with mom and dad monitoring my bank accounts it’s really hard to buy any game without them blowing up on me…” I sit down on my bed, looking down at my feet.
“That’s why you have me, right?” She places the package next to me and ruffles my hair.
“Quick, look what’s inside.” Her eyes seem to sparkle with joy.
“Okay, okay.” I open the box and I’m instantly awestruck. “Oh. My. God. You’ve got to be kidding me.” My jaw drops and I glance back up at her.
“Nope, it’s the real thing.” Her eyes are still sparkling like diamonds.
“The D3u5XMachina...” Turning back to the brilliantly designed black and white headpiece, I find I can’t look away.
“Indeed it is.” She gently takes it out of the box and places it next to me.
“Isn’t it incredibly expensive?” I ask, my eyes getting misty.
“As it seems your sister’s got a job with certain perks” — she winks — “me and the girlfriend got sent three of these a few months ago. We had to wait until today to give one to you, though... Oh, and we also got you this.” She takes out a piece of paper and runs it through a side slot on the Machina, which instantly makes a beeping noise.
“What’s that?” My misty eyes perk up with curiosity.
“This, my little sibling, is ‘Turn of Destiny XIX’, the latest Fantasy VRMMO by CircularPhoenix,” she says with glee. “It’s a game me and Nikki have been playing together as part of the alpha test — they gave us that extra copy to give away for the official launch.”
“Wow…” I walk up to my sister and embrace her. “Thank you so, so much. And Nikki too!”
Élise laughs. “No problem, bro, I’ll pass the message.” She pats my head. “Anyway, I’m taking off. Not going to stick around the folks any longer than I have to. When you get in-game, add Elise_Windwalker and NikkiHeat, okay? I’ll text you the usernames later if you forget them.”
“Yes! And thank you again, sis! Bye-bye.”
She smiles and walks down the stairs.
After my sister leaves, I immediately run for the Machina headset to take a look at the manual. From my reading, I find that the D3u5XMachina is designed to be a stand-alone, rechargeable, full-dive VR console. It has a battery life of 12 hours and recharges completely in 30 minutes, though it can’t be used while it’s charging. Apparently they designed it that way so that people can’t spend entire days in VR without a break to eat or drink. On the plus side, though, your body rests while you are in VR. The manual states that the Machina has a AAA safety rating — even safer than drinking water. Finally, I get to the section of the manual for play. To go into the VR-mode, I simply have to lie down on a flat surface and press the buttons on the side of the headset.
Putting the box on the floor, I prepare myself in my bed. “Let’s do this, I suppose…”
I’m a bit hesitant since this is my first full-dive experience; it’s a scary thought to lose control of your body. On the other hand, I’m also super excited — I’ve always used gaming as a way to escape the drags of real life, and full-dive VR will probably bring this escapism to the next level.
Finally putting the little doubts I have to the side, I press the VR button. “Let’s go on an adventure!”
“The D3u5XMachina...”
Oh hahaha welp, can't blame it for being direct I guess :p
It has a battery life of 12 hours and recharges completely in 30 minutes, though it can’t be used while it’s charging. Apparently they designed it that way so that people can’t spend entire days in VR without a break to eat or drink.
Oh that’s really smart
eating is important!
clearly ! and far better the one who make capsule, where people use day's after days under IV THAT's is a bad idea when you think more than 5 sec about it.
@Ombre37 yes!
D3u5XMachina....?? lol, great name. You win 100 Internets for that one.
Thank you very much, where do I collect muh internets?
@FieryKathy The red hearts are the internets you win from us.
“You aren’t going to get the girls when looking like a faggot.”
Eh... Dude musta missed the K-pop and boy band train. Them girly men be drowning in women.
Do you think conservative dumdums have any kind of cultural perception? xD
@FieryKathy I get it. As I live in Kansas. It's just funny to me that "manly men" tend to be surrounded by men. Where as neutral to effeminate men have more women around them.
I suspect while "manly" men can attract women, they also can also be scared off far easier. As muscles denote violence. Sure, they can protect, but can easily come off as threatening to even the protected. Like sure, there's Cpt America, but there's more like Cobra Kai's asshole instructor. I often observe those manly types are try hards acting like they're compensating for "something". Internet likes calling it "small d*ck energy".
@Daitengu I think there's indeed definitely some for of insecurity at work. That's pretty much a basis of toxic masculinity.
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XD
Oh no they crashed
There back tho
@Chara_red xD
even safer than drinking water
Well, water poisoning is a thing.
Everyone who drinks water will later die. Coincidence? I think not.
@Bornwithoutaname 100% of peoples who got cancer drank water during their lives. That means lots...
@Aesjamur 100% of the drug addicts drank water at least once... I'm scared...
curious, is Nikkiheat a subtle Castle reference?
yep :)
OMG. You just trudged up a long buried memory
@Supervivens haha
Just started reading, and the dripping sarcasm when it come tk the parents is waay too real >.> also the name of the game an consol is suuuuper funny xd
Hope you have a good time reading my story :)
yeah, but in the same time ... a little too common trope in almost all gender-bender story (the real one, not the japan-pervert "oh it's soo cool to become a girl") to have "bad" parent totaly narrow-minded or even worst hardliner-catholic anti-gay. And ... they monitor is phone and bank-accounts ??? Like, realy ! He as f*cking 22 said the story ! What bank let other monitor our money after you are legaly adult !?
Well, the DeusMachina as make my day i have to said
@Ombre37 it's a common trope because it sadly happens a lot irl :/
@FieryKathy Mmmh, at last i know if i was (gay, or a girl mind in a male body i mean) my mother (and probably my father) will not freak out. And the one i know around are also like that so ... yeah, maybe i'm lucky with the people i know ! My sisters will probably find it fun and make fun of me, yeah, but not in a bad way
@Ombre37 that means you have a good family and come from a pretty open minded place, where I come from transgender and other lgbtq rites are being erased by the government (hint part of the EU and not its Poland) and the population at large is homo/xenon/trans/<anything that's not "normal" >phobic so yeah, eve seen these types of people first hand...
@Aster1254 well, i'm french and live in the Vallee of the Loire ... not too sur it's so open minded tough, it realy depend of the city you live, and the people you have around. Honnestly the "low rung" of the society are realy "football, matcho-man, money and bling" kind of way of live. Even if i know many of people rater poor who are not like that, many fall sadly in this bad path. maybe because they want to prove something and over-acte on it ? I don't know ... this world as become too complexe and twisted to understand what's happen around !
@FieryKathy is this about entering a game or isekai'd or game world merging with her world
@Kamisamaisayurilover the story has isekai elements, yes