Firm: Opal’s Story

“Hey Amber?”

She responds with “Yes Mom?” so I continue my thought “You know sweetie, we aren’t doing anything now, would you like some milk?” She nods but then shakes her head “Yes I do but..” she sits up and looks me in the eyes, hers are really pretty right now. Then she finishes “I need to talk to you about something first.” I see her determination and say “Go ahead then sweetie.” so she breathes in deeply and says “I like you Mom.” to which I nod, of course she likes me, otherwise she wouldn’t be so nice and helpful to me all the time. She then says “No, not that kind of like Mom, remember when Sapphire, Ruby and I gave you the talk about relationships before they went off on their quests today?” I nod since I do remember that, so I think about it hard.

They said that when two people like each other romantically they get into a relationship. Ruby liked Tasha romantically, but she loved me as a mother. That’s why she didn’t want to do sexual things with me when I offered. “So you like me romantically then Amber?” I decide to clarify. She nods and smiles “Yup I love you a lot, romantically. My heart beats faster when I see you doing things for me and when I can tell you love me too. I find myself wanting to spend more time with you and even kill things next to you. I want to hold your hand, hug you and kiss you. You are the most important person to me. I want to support you and grow with you.” It’s a lot to think about, but I feel happier for some reason. I think about the time I’ve spent with her lately. She makes me feel safe, strange. I also feel myself wanting to stick around her, normally I think I would have left on Sue’s quest.

I feel like I don’t understand enough about this relationship thing, but I think I like Amber romantically too, so I tell her. “I think I like you romantically too, but I didn’t really understand that relationship stuff you three told me.” I feel embarrassed again, still glad I don’t have blood for blushing. Amber hugs me and says “Okay, I’ll answer any questions you have then before we decide what to do.” I nod since that sounds like a good idea, I’m worried I’ll end up hurting Amber like Tasha did to Ruby if I’m too dumb. “So what would be different from how we are now if we got in a relationship?” I ask her and she says “We would spend more time together, since people in a relationship should prioritize each other over people not in the relationship. We would go on quests together, and even do...some sexual stuff” she says but then adds “I’m new to this too, so we’d have to make a lot of it up as we go.” I think again and ask “So it would just be the two of us in the relationship?”

She gets a thinking face herself and says “I think, emotionally yes, we wouldn’t add anyone else to our relationship.” she starts “But I don’t think we should be uhh, sexually exclusive like Ruby wanted to be with Tasha, if that’s okay with you of course Mom.” she fumbles at the end a little worried. I think about it and don’t see any problems with doing sexual stuff with other people. I’ve never been really focused on sex anyways, I have grown to enjoy having more babies though. I ask her “So you want to do sexual stuff with other people?” to which she smiles and says “Not anyone yet, but I do like males and females, and have no problems with you doing stuff with other people as long as we don’t hide it from each other.” I agree that hiding it would feel bad, like when Tasha wanted me to hide it from Ruby.

I think I understand what she wants and what I want enough now, like she said earlier, we can figure stuff out as we go. I start to get excited, but then remember something that I feel gross inside about. Would Amber be willing to help me with it? It’s about a line that’s been on my Status Menu today, and I don’t like it. It reads

Married: Arhu (Deceased)

I decide to tell her first, I like being honest with her. “I want to be in a relationship with you Amber, but I feel dirty and gross. In my Status menu it says I’m married to the orc boss and that he’s dead. I don’t know how to get rid of it, but it feels like I should tell you before you decide to be in a relationship with me.” I look at her nervously but she just lets out a happy laugh that somehow makes me less nervous “You don’t have to worry about having his name there if you just marry me instead right?” I look at her and think… would that work? I touch my neck where he said he could always use the mark to find me, and I don’t like it. Even if he’s dead I still worry that he might not stay that way and find me. Even without that though, I find myself smiling at the idea of it saying Amber’s name in my status instead. I look at her in my lap and she has a huge smile. She pulls something out of her bra and puts it in front of my face. It’s a ring and she asks “Will you marry me Opal?” I take the ring and grin back at her saying “I will, will you marry me Amber?” She gets up and then sits on my lap facing me “I will” she answers, slipping the other ring on her delicate fingers, and I copy her by putting the one she offered me on.

Ding!

You are already married to Arhu (Deceased)

You cannot be System married to more than one individual

Annul your marriage with Arhu (Deceased) and join yourself with Amber Instead? Y/N

I focus on Yes as strongly as I can. After a few seconds I hear the chime and see

Ding!

Congratulations!!!

You have just gotten System married, may your marriage be blessed by both Father and Mother!!!

I quickly check the line in my status which now says Married: Amber. Then Amber kisses me right on the lips and I can feel her excitement and love, so I try to give her more of mine as well. I can feel something flowing between us, is it love? Warmth? Probably. We separate and stare at each other for a few minutes, she has a cute smile the whole time and finally says “I love you Opal.” I notice she doesn’t call me Mom like usual, but it feels more intimate, so I like it and respond “I love you too Amber.” she then says “Oh yeah, I have a new menu now, I think it’s the same Landowner menu that you normally see.”

I tell her “Yeah, it probably is, I remember the ugly orc making me say I’d share my land with him or something.” I guess that’s just a part of being married. She then touches my neck and says, “It’s still there, but I have a pink arrow like the quest tracker in the corner of my vision, and it’s pointed towards you.” I check my own vision and sure enough I have one pointed at her. So I say “That must mean it works for whoever I’m married to and not him specifically… I’m so glad.” I then feel tears falling down my face and Amber pulls me into a hug, my face against her shoulder. I rub my eyes on her uniform and then pull back “They are happy tears see?” I say pointing to my happy face.

“Good, I can’t have my new wife being sad on our wedding day.” she laughs happily again, her voice is so pretty. I feel like I’m lighter, sure I’m still heavy, but I’m light on the inside. “Oh right, about the milk thing, can we do that later, I want to show off and tell my sisters about us when they get back from Sue’s quest.” She asks me, and I think it’s a great idea so I tell her, “I’ll stay here and keep an eye on the babies, you go sit with me on the gate.” she giggles and then stands up off my lap saying “I just realized, we need 3 rings.” and I nod, that makes sense, but since my health is shared between my two bodies we can just use any ring on my other body. So I tell her that and sigh. We are going to have to wait till I’m not grounded anymore before we can start trying to get a ring from the dungeon.

Amber is now sitting beside me and we are holding hands and swinging our legs over the side of the gate. We’ve been trying to think of a plan in case someone runs into another (Rare) boss room, or even worse the same one. We decide it’s just best not to have anyone do the 10^th level until everyone in a party is tier 3 in their primary class. We think that should be enough if our parties are well balanced. So someone who can take damage, someone who can deal damage, and someone who can heal at least. She says that with so many new sisters growing up, there should at least be a few more that take Healer for their first or second class. The elves born while we were still imprisoned more often then not picked Fighter or Thief. The Shaman would instruct them to pick those since it made less troublesome breeding slaves. So Amber hopes the new kids will have more variety in their starting class, since they won’t be pressured into anything. I hope she’s right and they can pick what they want most.

We sit there for a few hours, just relaxing and enjoying each others company when we finally see people returning from the quest. When they get closer I see someone I recognize walking next to Ruby so I jump off the gate and run up to them. They get on their hands and knees and everyone looks shocked as I then sit on him and say “Chair! My baby, mommy missed you.”

He croaks out happily. Probably. It’s so hard to tell with my frogmen babies.

“Mother, I had not even hoped to see you here with this beautiful white elf. I had tried to get her to sit on me, but she cannot understand my speech.” I motion to Ruby and she says “You can understand it? Did you say it’s your baby?” I nod and say to my daughters “This is Chair, your brother.” I then scoot over and pat his back “Come on Ruby, he’s really comfortable.” she gives me a weird look but sits down anyways and gasps in surprise “He is really comfortable, tell him I’m sorry I can’t understand what he’s saying.” I nod and say “He can understand you so it’s fine, he’s a very good boy. Hey Chair, what are you doing here?” he then responds “I received a quest to clear a nearby Goblin den that was growing out of control. I met my new sisters there and we slaughtered them side by side.” that makes sense, does that mean my lake isn’t too far away from here?

Ruby suddenly says “He’s very strong and helped us kill the goblins without any deaths, it would have been close if he wasn’t there.” she then says to him “Since you can understand me I would like to thank you on behalf of everyone, and it is nice to finally have a kind brother.” he then croaks something so I relay it to Ruby “He says there’s no need for thanks, but if you think him strong enough, he would like to request a mating session with you.” She looks confused at first and then blushes, betrayed by her own blood as it makes her cheeks glow red. She stammers a response “Thank you for the offer, but.. I am not interested in men.” he croaks his understanding and says his offer stands for any of his other new sisters as well. I translate for them but no one seems interested right now, so I ask where everyone else is.

Ruby tells me “We found some women in the goblin den, so Sapphire is making sure they are healed and cleaned up. Sue and the rest are helping them walk here so they are a little slow getting back. I see Piggy rush past me and then start nuzzling my wife, now she’s going to have to wash the smell off before I can hug her again. Unfortunate.