Continuing sharpening the swords after I print them I try not to dwell on my recent thoughts, successful actions grant relevant experience, and you can do a lot with bodies but.... Hours of pushing away unpleasant thoughts away later I take a lunch break and another shower. Coming back sipping more coffee and sharpening more short swords. When evening calls I get a knock on my door. To my shock it's Judy, she's come to a lot more and is freaking out about it, I give her coffee(huge mistake) and tell her everything while still sharpening swords. She keeps me up till 4 AM.
Waking up tangled with Ashley. I close my eyes and feel her and what's around me, both for her rest and mine. My body might be rested but my mind hasn't stopped for months. When we get up I have to tell her about Judy and there's no telling where that will go, will Judy want to move in with me, or have me move in with her? Actually which apartment is bigger? Mine has much larger rooms but Judy's has more rooms....Judy's has a tub, well if given a choice I'm picking Judy's purely for the tub. Hmm Judy is insanely nice and supportive in the background of the game but is she one of those lesbians who reflexively hates men? Would she panick at me simply showering? Had a lesbian roommate like that once...this is pointless I'm jumping the gun on a single what if. Sure a what if that makes sense in her scenario but still, focus on the present.
After a few minutes I extract myself and gently tuck in Ashley then brush my teeth, start coffee and working on breakfast. Feeling almost guilty about a woman in an apartment in my....'dreams'? It's more than that but still and even if we aren't dating we are exclusive, no matter how strange our relationship may be I have to tell Ashley. After a cup of coffee I drink slowly enough to start to let breakfast chill I bring Ashley breakfast in bed.
"Morning babe" I say gently rousing her. I'm rewarded with a grumble and her nearly knocking over the plate to grab my coffee. Chuckling a give her a moment and hold her plate, gently petting her and waiting for her to become coherent.
"What is it now?" She grumbles.
My smile vanishes, was I that obvious? "I need to tell you about last night...Judy woke up."
Her eyes lock on mine and she takes a couple minutes to respond, likely trying to remember who Judy is in the game.
"What did you do?"
I flinch internally "I was grinding doing coffee stuff and she came beating on my door, she's fully awake, aware now and scared. I gave her coffee, kept working and talked to her, we stayed up till four and fell asleep, now, you're caught up."
"Did you fuck her?"
"What the fuck?!?"
"Well?!?"
"No? Babe...she's a lesbian."
"Than why are you nervous."
"Because I sorta accidentally spent the night with a girl?"
"You've done that before and felt nothing was wrong. So what did you do?"
"We talked, a lot, that's it, I mean we drank lotsa coffee and she cried a bit, I think I held her a little but...?". I stammer and ramble, I did nothing wrong right? Why am I nervous?
I watch Ashley watching me she's getting angrier and something else, it's like she's trying not to explode while looking for...what does she think I did?
"Babe?". I ask clueless as to what I might've done wrong, but nervous, guilty, scared of...what? Why?
Ashley keeps watching me, anger there but better and better contained, less explosive. "That's all?". She asks, still watching for, what is she after? Judy is a lesbian
"Yes? I doubt I could quote our conversation as it covered...well everything on both our sides"
"You trusted her with your system"
Something about how she said that felt damning. "Yes? She's a techie who knows the world better than me and possibly a figment of my imagination right? So what's the harm?"
"Hmm" she replies and turns away not touching her breakfast.
I stand nervously still clueless what I could've done wrong. "Hey... you're gonna have to spell it out for me, if I did something wrong I'm honestly clueless what it was."
Ashley looks me dead in the eye like an idiot. "You know exactly what you did!"
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"How can you not know what you did!"
"I don't...know?". I reply trying to find an answer
She growls haruphs and sighs multiple times before finally looking at me again and replying. "You brought another girl in on OUR secret without telling me first. You now have another life that can be almost entirely dedicated to this slut! You spent the night with another woman talking to her for hours, which you still haven't done with me! Get it yet or do I need to go on?"
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"Shit...that's really not my fault, but damn... I'm sorry...shit. Wait, we actually need to talk about something else I think I figured out how to beat Lionheart!"
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"Shit, I really hoped you'd ask something to ease into it"
"Ease into something besides cheating."
"I didn't...you can check and see if I cheat, use the system, cumming in you and making you cum grant XP should do the same with her. Anyways, the group skills or meta skills in cyberpunk are the key, we can get them anywhere just gotta get 10 connected skills but I've been struggling with the last couple....it's skinning and butchering, humans."
Ashley gives me a dumbfounded look.
"Skinning and butchering are decent skin but besides roaches there's no life in night city, so yeah, humans are it"
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"Fuck, ok, sorry lemme check the fucking app. If that's what you were thinking no wonder you fumbled so badly, you still fucked up and you better make it up to me, today, but damn, are you sure."
"Yeah, well the pattern holds, I'll try one tonight"
"If it works, how long will it take you?"
"I can skin and crudely butcher a rabbit in 30 minutes, I'll max the skill for melee attack speed, put points into strength and agility, hopefully that'll speed me up enough, I'll read about anatomy too, I don't know what else I can do."
After going through my skills in the app she settles abit more.
"If you can do this in time, will you be ok?"
"They aren't real."
"If it didn't seem real to you I wouldn't have gotten upset about your side slut, will you be ok?"
"They, aren't, real."
"We'll find a therapist, that's non negotiable. If your putting yourself through hell intentionally, you'll need support."
"I hate shrinks."
"Will you hate yourself after literally butchering nearly a thousand people?"
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"That's what I thought."
"Nobody will believe me and even if they did what then? I'm gonna butcher human corpses in a videogame dream so I can get hurt less in another videogame where I'll practice killing goblins? How insane does that sound? Or should I start with my roommate is scared I'm cheating on her with a lesbian who isn't even real?!?"
"That's not fair!"
"NONE OF THIS IS FAIR! NOT ONE GODDAMN BIT OF THIS IS FAIR OR SANE AND YOU WANT A FAILURE TO TELL ME IM INSANE, WELL NO FUCKING SHIT!"
We both freeze stunned at my outburst. After a moment not sure what else to say I went and took another shower...what was that? No matter what I think, I can't find an answer, she wasn't fair or reasonable but what is...why did I snap? After 20 minutes it's clear she isn't coming after me so I dry off and get dressed. I go to say goodbye or...something, but she's already out.
After sprinting to the farm busying myself is easy, damnit, I'm supposed to make stuff up to her tonight...grand gesture...right...
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"She's right I should've gotten romance skills early on"