Dreaming All The Time

Hiya- I haven't been around in a while, but I was once a regular. I wrote up THE KNIGHTS OF THE SILVER QUILL and THE KNIGHTS OF SPELLFORGE KEEP campaigns here and they did very well. This was back in... 2001-ish. In the end, I wrote over 250,000 words for those stories. Now I'm writing a book and wanted to reconnect with that feeling of reader feedback. It always kept me motivated to keep going. I dunno if posting a story that isn't based on a campaign is even allowed, but I didn't see any rules against it. Here goes.


On Murray Hamlish's eighty-second birthday, he was busy fighting the Nazis when his family came to visit.

He'd been chasing down a bookseller in possession of the golden scarab that would enable him to find the hidden treasure room in the Pyramid of Khufu. Naturally the Nazis were seeking the book as well, and had surrounded the bookseller in the corner of a café in Paris. The diners had left as soon as the SS had entered. Things were about to get ugly and Murray knew the man didn't have long, but he also knew he couldn't just stride in and take out two SS officers and six uniformed soldiers without a little something to even the odds. He looked around.

"I don't know where the scarab is," the elderly bookseller said, backing against the wall and tumbling a chair over. "and even if I did, I'd never tell the likes of you."

Sturmbannführer Vogel smiled, for he knew the flavors of fear. This man's fear tasted of lie. "Herr Allard... you are lying to me. That is fine. That is understandable. Just know that I know you are lying, and that we both know you cannot escape this place. The conclusion becomes inevitable."

Allard's frightened eyes skittered over to the owner of the café, who looked at Vogel in turn and backed away through the kitchen door. A lock snicked quietly into place.

Vogel smiled again. "You see?" He took out a dark clump of fabric from his hip pocket. "This is a bag. We can put it over your head, bind your hands, take you to a room we know of and... ask you again. Or you can answer us now. Where is the scarab?"

A growl from the street outside rose to a high buzz and Murray crashed through the café window riding a motorcycle. He jumped free and the bike slammed into three of the soldiers, sprawling them against the south wall.

Murray rose to his feet clutching his pistol. "Let him go, Vogel."

The soldiers that had been struck by the bike struggled to stand. Those standing took out their sidearms and leveled them at the adventurer. Vogel sneered. "I don't know how you planned to win this one, Strongheart. It's one against eight."

"Five," Murray corrected, and shot the motorcycle's gas tank. It went up in a great orange bloom, enveloping the three Nazis standing over it in flame.

Everyone opened fire at once. Murray tipped over a wrought-iron table and used it as cover. He took out two more soldiers before one dove over the table and tackled him. The gun spun away and the two rolled to their feet. Murray positioned himself shrewdly, using the Nazi as a shield against the incoming bullets while dealing a thumping right cross to the officer's jaw. Fire crawled up the wallpaper, and everything was smoke and flickering red.

"Hi Dad!" A family was suddenly standing by the east wall. A middle aged man and a pinch-faced woman smiled with their hands on the shoulders of a young girl. The man was waving.

Surprised, Murray didn't react in time to avoid a punch. He was toppled over backward and came up rubbing his jaw. "Ahh! What? Dammit!"

Murray's daughter-in-law, Debra, cleared her throat and said "Dad, Lily's here too. We've come to say happy birthday! So let's maybe watch it with the language and violence, yes?"

A sullen-eyed, dark-haired eight year-old girl flashed a quick wave and said "Happy birthday Grandpa."

Murray grunted and smashed his fist into the Nazi infantryman's nose before jumping over the bar. Gunfire lit up the room as a pair of machine gunners barged in the door with mauzers. Murray hurled a bottle of spirits at the gunners. The bullets shattered the glass and the spray of alcohol was set ablaze by the muzzle flare. The gunners screamed as they lurched about on fire.

Murray's son yelled "Dad. ...Dad! This is highly inappropriate, could you maybe stop the fighting somehow?"

Murray rolled his eyes. "Oh, for Pete's sake. Pause!" The action in the room froze. Bullets, exploding glasswork, Nazis and fire all locked still in place. Murray stood from behind the bar, brushing himself off and grumbling. "What's all this now?"

"We're here to visit you, Dad," Debra said. "It's your birthday! Didn't you know?"

Murray thought for a second and shrugged. He looked maybe thirty-five, wearing brown khakis and a gray cotton shirt that was ripped open to the waist under a leather bomber jacket. His hair hung in loose curls on his forehead. "I guess I didn't."

His son Paul looked about with distaste. Lily was staring wide-eyed at the paused imagery of the flaming Nazis. "Mind if we go somewhere else to talk, Dad?" He was in his early forties, but didn't look as youthful as his father. His cheeks were full and though you couldn't call him paunchy, there was a fatherly doughiness filling out his sensible earth-toned sweater.

Murray waved a hand and muttered. "Setting: home." The café flickered and vanished, revealing a comfortable room furnished in walnut browns and burgundy furniture. He stood there, staring at his family.

Debra took a seat on the couch. "Not to be demanding, Dad, but you still look like a... an adventurer. Could we see you? We came to see you, we haven't seen you at all in four years!"

Murray grimaced. "Appearance: self." The barrel-chested fighter pilot with the roguish smirk fuzzed away, changing to a small man in his eighties with a bent back and a sour expression. He sat down into a chair. "Well what're we doing."

"Happy birthday Dad," Paul said. "It's so good to see you!"

Murray rubbed his arms. "It's good to see you too."

Lily wandered to a wall and began studying a vase atop a pedestal. "Is this virgil reality?"

"Virtual. Yes honey." Debra looked at her daughter and her mouth tightened. "Don't touch."

"Full Immersion Virtual Reality," Murray corrected. "Do you like it?" The child shrugged.

A silence, and Paul spoke. "So how are things?"

"Okay. I just beat Fire-Pirates Of The Outer Rim the other day. That was a good'un. Now I'm doing Riches Untold II: The Golden Scarab again. I've done it twice before, but I like it."

Debra and Paul exchanged a quiet look. A ceramic crash from behind the couch, and Lily stood there guiltily, clenching her fists at her chest. The vase lay shattered at her feet. Debra hissed "Lilian Ann!"

"I just wanted to touch it," Lily mumbled.

Murray rolled his eyes. "It's fine. Undo." The vase appeared whole upon the podium again. Lily stared at it in amazement.

"Well that's something," Debra said, glaring at her daughter. "Now... I mean it. Don't touch this one."

Murray shook his head. "'It's the same vase. And it's fine, really."

Debra nodded. "Well then. Lily, do you have something for Grandpa?" Lily took out a flat parcel wrapped in garish yellow and pink paper. She held it out and approached her grandfather. He took it and she sat down beside her mother, looking like someone who's just performed a duty at a wake. Murray eyed the package suspiciously. "We had it scanned before we came in," Debra said, smiling.

Murray opened his present. "Ugh, my hands are all old-looking," he muttered. He held up a slim slab of plastic. "A gift card to The Pasta Palace."

"That's right!" Debra said. "Any time you want to go, we'll take you there, all four of us."

"Out in the world."

"The real world, that's right," she said. "Fresh air and sunlight! What could be better than that?" Her hands and knees were pressed together very tightly as she grinned.

"I'm sorry," Murray sniffed as he handed the card back to his son. "I've got all the fresh air and sunlight I need."

Paul deflated. "Come on, dad. You know that's not real."

"It's real enough. You're sitting right here with me, does this not feel real?"

Debra, who had thought of the gift card as well as the line about fresh air and sunlight, was beginning to see her plan come apart. "Dad. This is important to us. Lily's eight now, and she barely knows you! You've been in here for so long. You're losing your connection with the real world."

"I don't need the real world anymore," Murray said with a dismissive wave. He brightened. "Tell you what though, we don't need Pasta Palace. Come with me, we'll find a great italian place. Best food of your life. Anything you want."

Lily's eyes widened. "Anything?"

"Anything. What's your favorite?"

The girl scrunched her eyes and thought. She decided with a nod. "Lobster."

"Lobster it is, then! We'll go to Cape Cod. Best lobster ever. Do you like clam chowder?"

"Yeah, I love it. With oyster crackers."

"Well you can have as much as you want!"

Lily turned to her mother. "Can we, Mommy?"

Debra sighed. "You know that's not food, Lily. Your body isn't being fed when you eat here."

Murray threw an arm up. "Sure it is! Mine is!"

"Your actual body is in some technological coffin, somewhere below ground, being fed protein gruel through a tube. Our own are on cots in a darkened visiting room."

"It doesn't matter!"

"Doesn't matter, do you hear this, Paul?"

Paul held up his hands. "All right, all right. Come on. Dad, I'm sure the food's great, but this would be a real dinner, out with real family. Doesn't that sound good after all this time?"

"I want to eat lobster," Lily protested meekly.

"No honey," Debra said. "It's like the vase. It's not real."

"'Real,'" Murray snorted.

With that, Debra stood. "It's clear Grandpa doesn't want to go to dinner with us. Happy birthday, dad."

"You're afraid she'll like it!" Murray snapped.

Paul and Lily stood uncomfortably. "I'm sorry dad," Paul muttered. "Let us know if you change your mind. Anytime."

"Yeah, yeah."

After Murray's family left, he scowled for a full twenty seconds at the wall. With a shake of his head he stood again. "Nonsense. Appearance: Remington Strongheart. Setting: last played." He melted back into the form of the adventurous pulp hero and the walls flashed to the Parisian café. He cracked his knuckles as he glared at the still-paused forms of the Nazis. "All right you kraut bastards," he growled. "Let's see what you've got. Play!"

Two and a half years later, Murray was sitting at a poker table in Monaco. The stakes were high and climbing. A sinister man with a diamond for a glass eye was stroking the fur of the pet hyena beside his chair. A crowd had formed around the table and watched as each of the two players piled more and more chips on the stacks. The dealer tugged on his shirt collar nervously. There was a hush over the entire room as everyone waited to see what would happen next.

"Give it up, Mr. Fox," the sinister man said. "You are out of chips. You have nothing more to wager." He grinned.

Murray smiled. His face was that of handsome, clean-shaven secret agent Wesley Fox. His flint-gray hair was swept back flat against his head. His tuxedo was spotless and freshly pressed. He smiled when he spoke. "Nonsense, General Malevolienté. I always keep a little... insurance." He opened his jacket and slowly reached inside. The crowd gasped and Malevolienté's men reached inside their own jackets. Murray withdrew his closed fist. His arm hovered over the table and his fist opened. A small airwire flash drive dropped to the velvet.

Malevolienté's eye sparkled. "Is that..."

"The launch codes," Murray said, lighting a cigarette with Fox's signature devil-may-care flourish. "Are you in?"

The general frowned and nodded. He reached into his pocket and withdrew a tiny vial of light green fluid, placing it among his chips. "The antivirus."

"Everything's in order, then," Murray smiled. "Dealer? The river card, if you please."

The dealer's hand moved toward the last card. No one breathed.

"Hi, Grandpa!"

Startled, everyone looked to the wall, where Paul and Lily stood. Lily waved. General Malevolienté turned his eyes from Lily to Wesley Fox. "...'Grandpa'?"

Murray slapped his forehead. "What the... pause!" Everything froze. "Paul, you can't keep doing this to me!"

Paul and Lily walked forward. "Doing what to you, dad? We don't visit you very often, you know. We haven't seen you in years! And hi, by the way."

Murray flapped his hand at his son. "All right, all right all right. I'm sorry. That was... that was just a big moment in this particular story, you know? Okay. What is it, my birthday again?"

"It's Christmas, Grandpa."

"Oh. Well, merry Christmas. Appearance: Self." His familiar elderly form melted into view. He stood and looked around. "Hey, where's Debra?"

Paul shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Debra left us back in March, dad. I sent you an email about it."

"Oh. I'm sorry... I really don't keep in touch with the outside world anymore. She just left, huh? That's rotten."

"We didn't have as much family to visit today and Lily's been asking to visit you for a while, so we thought we'd stop in."

Murray blinked at his granddaughter. "What, you miss me or something?"

Lily smiled shyly. "I wanted to try the lobster."

Murray clapped. "The lobster, that's right! Are you two hungry?" Lily nodded happily, and Paul shrugged. "Let's go then, I know just the place. One moment." He cleared his throat. "Setting: Log cabin, Cape Cod, Christmas day."

The room around them shimmered and reformed into a comfortable, warmly lit log cabin dining room. A twelve foot-tall tree was standing in the corner, hung evenly with lights, and a small radio somewhere was playing familiar carols. A fire burned in the hearth and through the windows, snowflakes skirled slowly into the bay by bluish twilight.

"Wowww," Lily said. "This is sooo cool."

Murray smiled. "It's got everything, right? Okay, let's get some food. Menu: traditional north Atlantic seafood." The table glimmered and filled with dish after dish. Lobster of every size and configuration, crab legs, seasoned fish and chips, bowls of varying sorts of chowder, fried clams, oysters, haddock, steamers, scallops, everything looking like a photo in a magazine and positively glistened with butter and herbs. The smell rose to Lily's nostrils and she inhaled with a pleasure that was almost drunken.

"Oh my god, it smells so good!"

Paul frowned. "Lily, don't say 'oh my god.' It does smell good though."

They sat. "Grab what you like and dig in!" Murray said. "Lily, you be sure to try some of this. It's called Lazy Man's Lobster. It's lobster that's already been shelled and simmered in some kinda... saucy stuff." He tapped the edge of a silver tray that was full to the brim with lobster meat, swimming in a rich sherry-butter broth.

She reached out and speared a claw with her fork, studied her catch for a moment, and popped it in her mouth. Her eyes went wide. "That is the best thing I ever put in my face." She slid the silver tray over to herself and began gobbling the stuff.

Murray laughed and looked to Paul. "What are you having, Paulie?"

"Fish and chips," Paul said. "None of this food is real, so I might as well ignore my cholesterol just this once, right?"

"That's the spirit! I'm going to have... ...what the hell, a little of everything." Murray began stabbing about the table and hoarding an increasing number of morsels on his plate.

The radio softly crooned its holiday classics. Lily stuffed another succulent chunk of Maine lobster in her mouth while admiring the gathering snowflakes on the windowsill. The window reflected the lights of the tree twinkling against the deepening navy of the sky. She asked "is it like this every day, in here?"

"Well no," Murray winked. "Sometimes I feel like Mexican."

Lily laughed. "Kids at school say you can fly here. Is that true? Jimmy Ralton said he did it with his grandma."

"Sure can! The entire world is our playpen. I've had lunch on a cloud. I've gone to the deepest parts of the sea and discovered new creatures. One time, I picked up a mountain. We can do anything here. Would you like to go flying, when we're done with dinner?"

Her eyes went wide with glee and her head turned to her father. "Can we, Daddy?"

Paul asked "You're sure it's safe, right Dad?"

"Of course it's safe, your body isn't even here, as you guys were so fond of reminding me last time. What could happen?"

Paul pushed his fish around on his plate. "I don't know, just... asking. I guess it's fine sweetheart."

Lily punched her arms up in the air. "Yeahhh! Best Christmas ever!"

Murray grinned. "Hey, save room for dessert."

"What's for dessert? ...Anything?"

"NOW you're getting the hang of it."

She thought, scrunching her eyebrows as hard as she could, eyes caroming around the ceiling. "I want... ice cream cake."

Paul said "No dessert until you've had some vegetables, Lil. Eat." The girl's lip quivered in an accomplished pout.

Murray waved his fork at his son. "Leave her be, Paul, she doesn't need vegetables. Those are just there to make the plates look good."

"Don't undermine my authority, Dad. She needs to eat some vegetables."

"She doesn't need to eat some vegetables! You said it yourself, the food isn't real!"

"Well, maybe I made a mistake then. Kids need rules, and vegetables before dessert is one of the rules."

"Dammit Paulie, getting away from rules is what this place is for."

Paul dropped his fork on the plate and stood up suddenly. "Getting away from reality and what matters is what this place is for, and I'm beginning to see that now. Lily, it's time to go. We've got Uncle Brad and Aunt Tina to see and then it's home for bed."

Quietly, Lily said "We're not gonna fly?"

"No honey, we're not going to fly. It's not real. Come on." To Lily's credit, she didn't throw a fit. Her face crumpled and she started sobbing quietly, but she stood and walked to her father, who picked her up.

Paul began to request an exit from the program, and stopped himself. "I'm sorry this didn't work out. Merry Christmas, dad."

"Yeah yeah, merry Christmas." Murray's son and granddaughter melted from view. He tapped the table with his fingers for a minute. He didn't feel like going back to the Monaco casino. The mood had soured.

He stood and walked out onto the beach. The air was cold, but of course the cold didn't harm him. He stood and felt the thick snowflakes land on his skin and listened to the sound of the breaking waves for a time before raising his arms and flying up into the clouds.

Three years later, Murray was lounging in a comfortable chair modeled after one he'd owned in the real world. He'd grown skilled at replicating familiar things from his past. They gave him comfort when he wasn't adventuring, which was more and more often these days. The chair was a hideous pattern of orange flowers on a white field. The fabric was frayed in all the right places. He was scribbling at a crossword in a newspaper braced against his leg.

The house had been his as well. It wasn't the house he'd owned as the head of his own family, it was the house he'd grown up in. This he hadn't replicated himself. He'd paid a $75 charge to have the house built for him by an automated service that obtained old blueprints from the county clerk. The yard work, carpets and paint he'd had to do himself, but that hadn't taken him more than an hour.

The real bitch of it was the little things. Even though the house was built to the exact specs of the blueprints, the angles didn't always feel right. The molding wasn't the exact pattern either, though Murray was damned if he could remember what that pattern looked like. The sunlight didn't come in the same way even though the house was positioned to face southwest. The trees and surrounding foliage played some large part in that, but there was nothing for it. He'd lined the property with tall pines, just like he remembered, and had plopped a huge elm in the backyard. As a child he probably could have recalled most details of that elm, as he'd crawled over it and swung from its boughs through many a sunny afternoon. Now he could only remember that it was immense, had a burl at its base and a long horizontal branch pointing off to the east. Everything else was auto-generated. The refrigerator wasn't the brand and model his father had brought home new from Sears in 1983, but there was only so much time you could spend staring at models of old refrigerators before you started to question your path in life. You could get a more perfect version of any structure, but it cost $13 per square foot to scan a space and Murray didn't think it'd be worth it. Besides, another family lived there now and most homeowners demanded a fee to have their home scanned.

In the end he'd gotten over the little things and the house felt like his. If he went back to the real house now, he often thought, it'd be the one that felt wrong.

A knock at the door. He jumped. No one knocked on doors here, ever. He got up and looked.

Lily was standing at the screen door. She was notably older, now, and had her hair was shortened and curled. Her once-gangly arms and legs had found their grace, and she was probably about as tall as she was likely to get. She wore a gray hoodie and black pants.

Lily saw Murray and grinned. "Hi Grandpa."

"Lily!" Murray dropped the newspaper and opened the door. She began to wave and grunted in surprise when her grandfather embraced her. "It's been forever, how old are you now?"

"Fourteen."

"Geez how you've grown. Look like you're towering over the treetops. What are you doing here?"

She laughed politely. "I thought I'd visit, is that okay?"

"Of course it's okay, are you kidding?"

"Oh, good." She shuffled her feet. "Dad's got a new job and after school he doesn't get home for a while. I thought I'd stop by."

"Great! I haven't had a visitor since... well, since you guys. Come in!" Lily stepped inside and looked around. Murray ran a hand over his pate. "Don't mind the mess, I always keep it like this."

She laughed. "Geez, Grandpa, I was sure you'd be living in a mansion or something. This house looks like any other house."

"I did live in a mansion, for a time. You'd be surprised how uncomfortable they can be. All that open space. I gave up on it pretty quickly."

She wrinkled her nose and thought. "Yeah, I get that. So how've you been? Playing anything cool?"

Murray flapped a hand. "I haven't played anything in a while. There's a new Grim Lords of Frostmyre module coming out next week, but... ehh."

"Honestly, I was a bit disappointed to not phase in with you in the midst of some intense action again. Way to let me down, Grandpa."

He chuckled. "Yeah, right? I dunno. I guess all the possibilities got old. Now I just sit around."

"Sit around and watch TV, huh?"

"Nah, not even that. TV costs money."

Lily raised her eyebrows in mild surprise. "It does? I thought everything was free in here."

"Well, it's like this- anything that's not copyrighted is free for the taking. We could have a steak dinner on a yacht on the seas of another planet right now, but if you wanna watch TV, you've gotta pay real world money. You've gotta buy a cable package here, same as outside. Hell, I can go see a new movie, but I have to pay as much to see it as you do. It all comes out of my monthly billing."

"That's too bad."

"It's okay. There are a lot of good books in the public domain."

Lily stood suddenly. "Oh, wow, look at that!" She approached the framed photo above the hearth. It was an enormous print of Lily as she tasted the lobster, and her father and grandfather smiling in her direction. "Ooooh," Lily said. "That food was so awesome. How did you get a photo of that day? There wasn't a camera, was there?"

"Nah, you can take photos or video from any angle of anything that's occurred. That's kids' stuff. I just wanted a keepsake. Say, how is your dad, anyway?"

"He's okay. Same as ever. He doesn't change much."

"Don't I know it." He shifted his weight in that way that tends to signify a change a topic. "So how long do you have to hang around, today?"

She shrugged shyly, hoping to feign that it hadn't occurred to her that she might be invited to stay for a while. "Hours. Two, at least. Why?"

"Are you ready?"

Lily bit her lip. She was bouncing up and down on her heels, and hiding her excitement would have done her no good. "I think so. How does this work?"

They stood outside on Murray's lawn. Here, the comfortably-sized mansion's trimmed grass sloped gently over acres down to an autumn wood sparkling with oranges and reds. The sun was shining and the air was brisk and it all felt as real as anything.

Murray said "Oh, uh... yeah, I think I have to... hold on." He began speaking to the air and cycling through menus that appeared, glowing and vast in the sky.

Menu >

Options >

Users >

Guest physics: basic flight

Guest commands: enabled

After fussing through the menu for a moment more, he seemed satisfied and closed the interface. "I think that'll do it. I've never had to do that for anyone else, and I've had the same options enabled for myself since I got here. All right, give it a shot."

Lily hopped in place. "Nothing."

"It's similar to flexing a muscle." Murray explained. "You've just got to find how to do it and it becomes second nature. Like a baby learning how to grab something. I can't tell you what I think, but if I think the right thing..." he gently lifted from the ground.Lily nodded and thought. Her expression shifted as she tensed different mental and emotional muscles until, quite suddenly, she was in the air. "THERE it is," she gasp-laughed.

"You've got it!" Murray yelled. "Now just do that same thing... up."

They both slowly lifted upward. Lily squealed in delighted alarm as the lawn and trees began to fall away beneath her. Her arms and legs wobbled and she fought the urge to panic. A giggling fit overtook her.

Murray nodded. "Now do that laterally, and off we go." He leaned forward and glided away. Lily licked her lips and put her hands out before her. Shakily she began to move after Murray. The air puffed her hair away from her face and the trees began flowing beneath them.

"Ohhhh man," she choked. They were passing over a town now, and a man raking leaves looked up from his lawn and waved. Lily waved back and laughed. "This is incredible!"

"You think this is good," Grandpa smirked back at her, "are you ready for some real fun?" He picked up speed. Lily cackled and matched his speed, and then they doubled that. Murray caught up shortly, laughing at her side. The wind screamed and whipped through her hair. "We're doing about two hundred and twenty now, Lilyboo!"

"I love it! Faster!" They went faster. They scorched through the air, their jet wash whipping leaves off of nearby trees and kicking up dust clouds. The countryside zoomed away behind them now. Grandpa pointed up to a bank of clouds ahead. They traced an arc up and plunged in and out of the clouds, leaving vapor-threads in their wakes.

"Why don't you do this all the time?" she asked.

"I used to," he said. "I used to fly everywhere. I dunno. At first it was a real thrill, but in recent years I guess the novelty wore off."

"You seem to be having fun now."

"Yeah." He grinned. "Yeahhh, this is fun. It's different when you're not alone." He paused in mid-air. "Say, how brave are you?"

"Pretty brave. I went on the Cyclone Berserker three times when I was only eleven."

"All right, tough guy. Follow me." He darted straight up, and she followed. They climbed to roughly twelve thousand feet and stopped.

Lily looked around with wide eyes. Houses were specks from up here. The clouds beneath cast shadows on the ground, looking like puffs of foam floating atop a shallow pool of algae. In the distance was an ocean, stretching off far and blue.

Murray said "Okay. Now try this. Turn off your flyin', then turn it back on."

Lily did and shrieked as she dropped seven feet. They both burst out laughing. "That's great," she gasped. "Let's just fall."

"Let's do it! See you on the splat side." Grandpa tumbled downward. Lily held out her arms, squealed, and dropped. They fell and fell through roaring wind, feeling no control and loving it. The world rushed up at them, growing and growing and growing, and then Grandpa and Lily curved away and flew low over the trees.

"This is great!" Lily screamed. "I want to do this forever!"

"That's the idea," Murray replied. "Think you'll want to come live in a home like this when you get to be my age?"

"That's too far away! Can't I just live here now?"

"Oh! Check this out. Follow me." Murray took a snap right-hand turn and Lily was quick to follow. The forest flashed beach-white for a moment, then everything was blue as they passed over the ocean. Murray gestured to her to come with him as he lowered to the water. He touched the surface of the water with his hands and two enormous rooster tails of sea spray rose up in his wake. Lily did the same and a pod of dolphins began swimming with them, jumping from the water and doing their best to keep up with the soaring intruders.

Murray slowed. "Okay, this is deep enough. Ready?"

Lily blinked her eyes wide open. "Deep enough?"

He took her hand. "Do you trust me?"

She grinned. "I trust you, Grandpa!"

They turned downward and dove into the ocean. The blue faded to black as they rocketed straight down, picking up speed. Now and then a passing fish flashed up at them from the deep and was gone.

Murray looked and saw his granddaughter's cheeks and eyes bulging in the dimming light. "You don't need to hold your breath like you're doin', and you can talk. I have some of the default water settings turned off. Sorry, I should have said," he laughed. Lily gulped for breath and whacked him in the arm.

"It's spooky down here," Lily said. "What are we doing?"

"Just wait."

A light began to bloom beneath them, a green-pink gloaming swelling in the black. As they grew closer, the cloud of light began to break up into tiny glowing specks. They descended into a dense cloud of phosphorescent jellyfish that must have been three miles in diameter and, shortly, settled on the floor of the sea.

"Wow," Lily said as the jellyfish passed around her like slowly moving pink-purple chinese lanterns.

"They're migrating," Grandpa said. "Sometimes I like to come down and find a nice biomass of 'em and just think. Sometimes I bring a book and read by jellyfish-light."

"This is amazing. It's so creepy, but in, like, a fun way. Is this... what's it called... Mary Anna's trench?"

"Mariana," Murray said, "And no. We can go there, though, if you want. It's far further down, and it gets pretty scary."

Lily was silent, thinking of photos of lantern fish she'd seen in a textbook.

"There's a citadel down there," he said, "In one of my adventure modules. An ancient stronghold dedicated to a dread sea-god. Filled to the brim with monsters and treasure. We could raid it, you and me."

"What, like... as wizards and stuff?"

"Wizards, sorcerers, swordsmen, dwarves, elves, yeah! Whatever you want."

"Could I be a barbarian?"

"Why not? How long do you have before you're due home?" He called forth the time, and it floated amidst the jellyfish.

Lily bit her lip. "I should be home in an hour and forty minutes. Is that enough time?"

"Not really, but we can save our game and you can come back tomorrow."

Her face broke into a wide, beaming smile. "I can?? That'd be the best! Oh man! One thing though. How about we play for an hour... then we go for milkshakes."

"That sounds perfect."

Lily held up a finger. "One thing, though."

"What's that?"

"Did you say 'see you on the splat side'?"

Murray blinked and realized that he had. The nonsense of it struck them both, and they collapsed in laughter on the sea floor. "We were falling, it seemed to make sense at the time!" Grandpa giggled, holding the heels of his hands to his eyes. His cheeks were bright red. "Splat side."

Lily, who'd just been calming down, went into another gale of hysterics and rolled around in the silt.

It took a long time, but they collected themselves and flew off toward the Mariana Trench.

A fireball burst off of Ar'N'Aeth's thick outer shell, scarcely singing the lumbering crab monster.

"Aim between the armor plates!" Lily screamed as she hacked at one of its ten immense seven-jointed arms.

Murray screamed back "I'm trying!"

The final room of the dungeon was a vast cavern into which they'd walked on a high cliff overlooking black water. The cliff's surface was littered with gems and other offerings the monks had made to the sea god. It had risen slowly from the sea beneath the cliff and swayed before them, building-sized and snapping the claws at the ends of ten long, segmented arms. It was plated in blue-black armor that looked to be a foot thick in places, and in others the shell fit together in layered folds, where the white meat of the creature beneath couldn't even be seen. The best bet looked to be the pale gap beneath its mass of trembling eye-stalks, but it was perhaps a six inch diamond of flesh between plates. A small target at this distance.

Murray released a lighting bolt at the beast and though it glanced off the thick armor and struck the ceiling, Ar'N'Aeth seemed to recoil somewhat from the white-blue curls of electricity. "Did you see that?"

"I did, hit the weak spot!"

"It's too small, I can't!"

A claw lunged at Lily and she jumped onto it, landing in a run and scampering out over the slick crab limb, balancing over a fifty foot drop into dark seawater.

"Lily, no!" Murray yelled. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you a target!" She reached the body, climbing the exoskeleton's spikes as stairs. She reached the center and the forest of eye-stalks turned backward to watch her with unblinking onyx eyes. Each of the ten arms had begun to curl back from the cliff and come toward her with slowly opening claws. With a grunt Lily hewed through the copse of waving stalks, scattering the eyes to fall into the ocean below. Bending over the creature's head she found the gap in the armor and plunged her great sword into it.

She released the sword and leapt from Ar'N'Aeth as the claws snapped behind her, missing by inches. "Now!!" she screamed.

Murray raised both hands and fired a thick lightning bolt into the hilt of Lily's iron greatsword. Lily's jump carried her over the crackling beam and she rolled to a crouch on the cliff. The crab god screamed from countless mouths as the electricity jolted through the sword and into its body. Steam rose from its reddening husk as it cooked where it stood. It began to sink back into the water, and the water boiled around it as it went. A cloud of steam hung in the air over the churning pool. The bubbles didn't stop for some time.

"Great idea, Lilyboo," Murray said. "Sorry about your sword."

"Who cares, right?" Lily picked up a handful of shimmering rubies. "I'll buy another sword."

"We did it!" Murray raised his fists in triumph.

"We did it!!" Lily rushed over and picked Grandpa up in a bear hug, then spun around. His pointed hat toppled off his head. "Ar'N'Aeth is dead!"

They added the coins and gems to their inventory. Murray looked about. "I guess that's it, we're done here. Hungry?"

"Starving."

They celebrated with a gourmet dinner in Italy. Lily gestured wildly with a piece of bread while she regaled a polite yet bored waiter with the story of their adventure. "So one skeleton's got grandpa and the other's in front of me, right? I yell 'unhand my Grandpa, you dorks!" and swing my sword and hit the skeleton in front of me with the flat of my blade. His skull flew off and cracked right into the skull of the other one."

Murray nodded. "She took out two with one shot. It's one of the best moves I've ever seen, Niccolo. It was like skull tee ball." Lily giggled at this.

"Very good, sir," Niccolo said. "Can I get you anything else?"

After the waiter had left the table, Lily said "He's no fun. We hadn't even gotten to the room with all the spikes, yet."

"You know," Murray said, "That was the best adventure I've ever had. All this time and I never thought that playing one of those with someone else could be so much fun."

"It was the best!" Lily replied around a mouthful of risotto. "Why don't people just live like this? I mean regular people, not just fossils like you."

"Brat. It's because it's 'not realll,'" Murray groaned mockingly. "Just ask your parents. Do they know you come here, by the way?"

"Nah. I barely ever talk to Mom, and Dad doesn't need to know. He just thinks I sit around and watch TV till he gets home. Like that's better."

"Anyway, there's a huge movement against living in Full Immersion VR like this," Murray went on. "I'm sure you've heard about it, read the articles. Your mom gave me the business when you visited a few years back. A young person living like this, and I've heard a few do, is considered to be wasting their life. And I guess old folks like myself are... what... just waiting to die anyway?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "People want to think the worst of everything that's perfect."

"Couldn't have said it better myself, Lilyboo."

They ate and ate. As they began to slow down, Lily asked "Hey, can I have some wine?"

"Ehh, I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not? It's not real, right?"

"Yeah, but it'd affect you the same way. I don't think there'd be any harm in it, but imagine how your father would react if he knew Grandpa was giving you alcohol in virtual reality."

"Good point, I guess." She shrugged.

"Your father's always been very serious. When he was eleven I tried to give him a sip of beer. He looks at me and says 'but Daddy, that's against the law.' That's Paul for you."

"Why are you two so different?"

Murray sighed. "I don't know. He definitely takes more after his mother, but not even she was as serious as he is. Mister good citizen. I always tried to be his pal, but he didn't want a pal."

"Yeah, he's definitely a stick in the mud." Lily's smile faded when she looked to Grandpa and saw him staring down past his plate. "Um. Anyway, this is really good. I had no idea italian food could be like this. What other countries have great food? We should do all of them."

"The biggest surprise is China," Grandpa mumbled. "That stuff is nasty."

"Oh yeah? How so?"

"Don't ask. Trust me, stick with americanized chinese, kiddo, do yourself a favor."

More food arrived. Murray forked up a bit of spaghettini. "Look, it's got bits of crab in it. To the defeat of Ar'N'Aeth!"

"Yeah!" She stabbed a piece and they tapped their forks together. "To the downfall of the dread sea-god! To the best adventure ever, and to us!"

"So where do we go tomorrow?"

"Welllll," Lily grinned. "I was wondering. Do you have any space games?"

"I thought you'd never ask."

Hey Doc, I almost hate to break the narrative flow of your consecutive posts, but you did say (in your first post) you wanted reader feedback, so here goes: I'm enjoying this story immensely! It's great to see you back on the boards, and this particular story has an intriguing concept. I really like the characters of "Lilyboo" and her grandfather, and hopefully he'll be around for awhile yet (he should be at least 87-and-a-half by now).

I wouldn't worry at all about this not being based on an RPG session; as you noted, there's nothing in the rules prohibiting it (and you're not the only one to have done so).

Keep on writing and I'll keep on reading! And welcome back!

Johnathan

Oh man, haha, I actually thought to myself "I wonder if Richards is still around." Glad to know you still are! Ahhh, you're the first person to pop in, and I have this mess spread across multiple sites. It's weird how I need feedback to breathe in a writing environment. Most of the writing advice I see is "ignore the readers, write for you." No! I mean, I'm writing what I want, but without people hanging on for updates, I'm not nearly as motivated.

Now that you've commented, I've got that necessary drive to write the next bit. ...Not chapter 6, that's written, but beyond that. Yayy!

Chapter 7
The Star Fiends Of Xyrechnia​

The next day at 3:32, Lily stood facing a vast window that looked out on the Teardrop Nebula. Ships of every size and shape slowly crisscrossed her field of view. "That is sooo cool."

Murray nudged her. "Don't stare too long, you'll mark us for tourists. Remember we're undercover here."

"Right." Lily turned from the window and surveyed the room. "Who are we looking for again?"

"We don't know. We just know someone's going to attempt to steal the crown of Erlon the conqueror."

"Ohhh yeah."

Grandpa was dressed in a tailored Dagolean jacket, customary for high society events. His demihelmet was an iridescent gunmetal, and it accented his sine-lapels nicely. His blaster rested in its holster on his hip. This also wasn't uncommon for events such as tonight's.

Lily wore high-waisted cavalry pants that tucked into polished black boots. She wore a shirt with baggy sleeves that ended in tight gloves, and a black cape with orange lining hung from chrome epaulettes. Strapped around her right thigh was a circular metal tube. A handgrip passed through its center. She patted the circle again to make sure it was still there. "I can't wait to use this thing."

Murray smirked as his eyes scanned the crowd. "Relax, you'll get your chance."

Lily leaned back against the window and looked around. The crowd of socialites chattered politely and breathed sips of alcoholic vapor from elegant glass flutes. No one seemed to be all that interested in the priceless artifacts that surrounded them.

The crown of Erlon was seated on a plinth at the center of the room. It was surrounded by a nano-mesh cage and, Murray and Lily knew, an alarm would trigger and the doors would shut and lock if the nano-mesh was trifled with in any way. Even without the security measures, it was surrounded by two hundred party attendees. Despite all this, the intelligence on the theft was reliable: the Yorbal Enclave meant to steal the crown, and they meant to do it tonight.

"I’m eager to see how they're going to try pulling this off," Murray muttered.

"Grandpa? Why can't we just tell the security guys about the plot? Why are we undercover?"

"General Zoyarr explained this. Weren't you listening?" Lily looked away guiltily. Murray sighed and went on. "This is Phexxusk territory, and the Phexxusk aren't under Coalition rule. The crown is wanted by Coalition heads of state, but the Phexxusk won't give it to them, so they waited until a theft was going to take place. Now we're going to back-door the Yorbals' theft, snag the crown and the Phexxusk won't know the Coalition was behind it."

Lily's eyes went wide. "Wait, we're stealing it? I thought we were just guarding it!"

Murray smiled at passing party guests that looked their way. Under his breath he said "Watch your volume, you'll get us in trouble."

"Sorry. So... we're stealing the crown."

"Yep. Just as soon as it's stolen, we rob the thief and make our escape."

"Why does the Coalition want some weird old crown?"

"Well it is priceless, Lilyboo."

"But they run seven sectors, they don't need the money. Was Erlon the Conqueror even from one of their sectors?"

Murray shrugged. "I didn't ask. Part of being a space mercenary is taking what work you can, when you can. Sometimes that work's a little dirty."

Lily sulked. "I'd rather play a good guy."

"Oh, we're still the good guys. You'll see. I've played a lot of antiheroes. This'll pan out just..." his eyes widened and he nudged Lily.

The crown was lowering into the plinth.

"It's happening! We have to get to the deck below, right now!" The two took off running, drawing some concerned glares from partygoers.

"Stupid, stupid," Murray cursed as they ran for the stairs. "I didn't even think of stealing it from another floor." They made it down the stairs and bolted left, into the hangar. Here, a cavernous space was filled with parked spacecraft.

Lily pointed up. "There!" Standing on a ship was a green-skinned and portly alien. Its bionic arm was retracting down from a hole in the hangar ceiling, and its hand clutched the crown. The alien noticed Murray and Lily and drew its pistol, firing in a run as it made its way to the cockpit of the ship.

Lily took cover from the pulsed shockwaves and Murray drew his blaster. "I know that guy," he said. "That's UrWanz. Black market arms dealer. Why would the Yorbal hire him to steal the crown?" He fired a volley of shots at UrWanz. A glancing blow on the ship sent up a spray of sparks. The alien hissed as the crown fell from its grasp and rolled along the hangar's tarmac.

Alarms sounded throughout the hangar and blue lights began spinning in their glass shells that dotted the tarmac and walls. Murray took cover behind a support beam. "Crap, we don't have a lot of time. Grab the crown!"

Lily darted forward while Murray fired on UrWanz, who was clambering into the cockpit of his ship. She was almost to the crown when she noticed a pattern flashing along the walls. She looked up and saw a web of lines shoot across the wall in time with the spinning tarmac lights. The crown had landed near one of the lights, and its beam was shining through its immense sapphire.

She lunged for the crown and UrWanz's bionic arm snatched it off the ground just before she reached it. He grinned at her as the cockpit glass shut, and the ship blasted out of the hangar and into open space.

Murray yelled "He's getting away! Quick, get to the-"

"Freeze!" The Phexxusk guards entered the hangar, clunking in their gray body armor. "Drop your weapons!"

"We don't have time for this," Murray called back.

"There's nowhere to go, hand over the crown!"

"All right," Murray said. "Here it is." He unclipped something from his belt and tossed it into their midst, where it exploded. A number of guards flew through the air and blaster fire surrounded Murray as he ran for their trusty class-9 starship, The Firespree. "I've got to warm up the ship," he huffed to Lily. "Keep them busy!"

Lily held up the circular metal tube that had been strapped to her leg. "Can I use this now?"

"Yes, now would be the time. Go!"

Lily grinned with delight and flicked the button on the handgrip. All around the circle's edge, yellow plasma waved like liquid on a level plane.

"Look out, she's got a gamma whip!"

The guards fired on Lily as she walked towards them. She knew perfectly how to use this weapon, just like Grandpa had said she would. The blob of planar light waved and ebbed with movement. She spun it around and the flat surface of the light deflected the blaster beams in a swirl of embers. As she closed with the men, she jolted her arm in a practiced motion and clicked the hold button just as the plasma reached its apex, freezing it in place and forming a scimitar. Lily flipped and whirled, cutting the guards down and blocking their blasts in perfect rhythm.

"Damn," Murray said as the engines hummed to life. "That looks choreographed. Kid's got talent."

"Aieee!" The last guard flipped away in a burst of sparks as Lily spun to one knee.

"Grandpa!" she yelled. "Can I use this thing as my weapon in all our adventures?"

"We'll talk about it. Let's get moving!"

More Phexxusk guards started filing into the room as Lily took off running for the Firespree, which was turning toward the Hangar door. Blaster fire struck the tarmac around her as she sprinted. The ship's deck ramp lowered and Lily jumped onto it, rolling into the cabin. The guards' shots pinged off their hull as the ramp closed and the ship shot out into space.

Murray said "They won't be far behind, but at least we know where UrWanz is going. I got a trace on his radiation signature."

"Did you see that, back there?" Lily asked. "When the light was shining through the jewel on the crown? A pattern showed through, up on the wall. I think it was a starmap."

"A map? To what?"

"I didn't get a good look at it, but now we know why the Coalition wants it."

The ready light came on stellar warp drive, and Murray said "Punch it." Lily pulled the lever and space bent around them. The Firespree made the leap, following UrWanz to God knows where.

They played for a while more and then decided to go for waffles.