What is intimacy but odd moments between two people? Two socially awkward people who... maybe don't use words as much as others?
Aren't we ALL a bit awkward? I like to think so. Maybe I'm fooling myself.
Thanks for coming! Enjoy.
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Celine awoke at her respawn, the day reset. Another weird moment with Kaiba. If she was honest she didn't even know what it meant. They took a nap together… no big deal, right? He wasn't even human. Neither was she technically.
Maybe it was time to admit to herself that she liked Kaiba.
Something about him. Even with his cool demeanor and hard to read face. She liked it when they ran into each other. She liked catching him off guard.
And she'd liked that nap. The feeling of safety had resonated deep into her bones. She liked feeling safe. Like someone else was watching out for her.
He was. Had been. Seemed only fair she did a bit of the same. Maybe she could… No. She had her scout den to work on. Best leave the boss to the boss's affairs.
She took her time on her mine, and actually was very successful for it. She found a heavy string of iron. Which can be used for weapons. In a side tunnel she'd found silver. Very nice. While there hadn't been an inherent value in money on the server, silver could be sterilized and used for cooking or medicine or jewelry.
A few days later she emerged to explore the upper mountains. Using her dragon shape to protect her from the cold, she was able to explore the icy peaks. She found a snow cap reservoir first, and following down a cave that filled with the cool water, she found… a hot spring.
Inside the mountain, boiling hot water bubbled up from the earth, and from above the icy cold water of the snow cooled it, meeting in a rising steam that filled the cavern. There was the large hot pool, and several smaller run off pools. Tentative tests as a dragon narrowed it down to three small pools.
Using her heavy strength, she chipped at the limestone and combined them into one large pool, carefully carving out a shape of a bowl with patient hands as she soaked in the warm waters. When she was done, she was able to curl up her massive body and soak. Lazy designs were doodled into the stone around the rim, curls and twists of vines and simple flowers. The water would wash it away eventually, but it was hers to look at for a while when she visited.
And she was very sure she'd be returning. This was a nice little hidey hole in the mountains…. maybe one of them wasn't a mountain at all…
Her eyes flicked up to the cavern around her, as if the world 'VOLCANO' would be written somewhere. Even still, the water seemed safe. No smell of sulfur or methane. There were mosses and plant life thriving in the cracks and corners around the opening and at the bottom ring where what little light there was, shined in.
This would be her safe place. Her hideaway. She'd keep it a secret from everyone. Maybe she'd even make a respawn here. For now she was happy with her find and contented herself in a good day's work.
[~~~~~~~~~~~~~]
When Celine came out of the VR this time, the Canadians were lamenting they hadn't seen her hardly at all that run.
"I was busy making a cozy little space for myself in the mountains." Said Celine, feeling much better this go round.
"Which mountains? There's literally mountains everywhere." Asked Tucker as he sat up.
"Yes that would be the point." Said the woman, sitting up herself and accepting the water offered by Mia.
"Are you the silver dragon?" Asked Yugi, cocking his head at her.
"Maybe. You're the guy in purple, right? I keep waiting for you to jazz it up. Maybe try blue. Or Green? Little change never hurt anyone." Celine shifted and got to her feet.
"Coming from the chick I never see in the same skin twice." Said Joey.
"Oh… honey… You haven't even seen half of it. It's okay, green's a good color on you too. You'll get there." She said dryly as she headed for the door. She needed a nap. Odd as it sounded.
"Mia, I'd like to go, can you find a car for me?" Asked Celine as they started for the elevator.
"Of course! There should be one waiting." Chirped the assistant.
As the pair ascended Joey shot Kaiba a dirty look as the tall brunet shifted out of his chair.
"Your girlfriend's got a mouth on'er, Kaiba."
"She's not my girlfriend. I think you're just mad she's out done you multiple times now." Replied Kaiba, smoothing down the front of his turtleneck.
"I had you." Growled Joey.
"And I had an ally." Replied Kaiba smugly as he stepped out.
"Yeah, Celine's a good one to have around in a pinch, eh?" Said Ted with a grin before he pointed at Joey.
"You watch out now, bud! Don't get on her bad side!" The Canadian's laughed and started out as well, followed slowly by the rest.
[~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~]
She woke up late into the night, nearing almost 4AM. She thought about a walk around the gardens, but she didn't want to upset the security she knew patrolled around the place. Maybe a round at the gym.
Starting her music, she fell into a smooth jog and let her thoughts run. Celine knew coming out whipping her dick around would draw attention from the men. She wanted it too. She wanted them competitive, and active in VR. The better they were, the more interesting it got, and this last week was rather dull.
Granted she'd been up in the mountains most of it, but she'd done swooping trips around the island. The Chinese and Korean had clearly gone military, and often fired warning shots when she flew by. Their chimneys were going all the time, pumping black smoke at all hours.
Yugi and Joey had made a large playing field that she often saw monsters in. Their game of choice seemed to be Duel monsters. She knew Kaiba's dragon from his logo, and she knew enough about Yugi to know that the purple mage he used was his calling card. The black dragon must be Joey's.
The Canadians farmed, and from every account she knew, was in some kind of bargain with everyone. Be it trade or friendship. That didn't surprise her really, they were laid back and generous with resources.
Tucker and Carson were the odd two out, and in that they sort of settled into a team. She'd seen a shop go up out in the bogs, with Tucker's sign on the outside advertising supplies. She'd seen them boating together at one point, so they had to at least be friendly.
She supposed she could try and befriend more of them, but why? Ted and Roger were at least funny, and Yugi and Joey were competition. None of them had approached her. Vick used to tell her the best thing about her was the fact her personality made for free birth control.
Vick was also an asshole.
She was stirred from her thoughts by another joining her. Kaiba, as expected, given the time. She'd be here longer this time though, she hadn't even really started.
"You can change this, you know." He told her, motioning to the screen ahead of them. She hadn't messed with the screen much. She didn't know what to watch, she liked to zone out. She paused her music.
"What do you mean?"
"The screen. You can change it." He told her, tapping at the touch controls on the machine and causing it to shift. The screen settled on a forest path.
"Or if you know a location, you can type in the coordinates." Said the man, shifting to show the streets of Domino.
"That's neat." She said, smiling. She could run in some of her old stomping grounds.
"Do you have somewhere you would wish to go?" He asked her, and she almost hesitated.
Why not.
"Naple River, Texas. Up in the panhandle. If you bring up a map I can show you."
She watched him pull up the United States, and zoom in at the point she'd indicated.
"Right there. Top left, about halfway down… how good are the satellite shots?"
"They're mine, so…" He said smugly.
She breathed out a scoff and slowed her pace to a stop, looking at the map and taking a drink.
"Top right, follow that road. At the junction there, zoom in?"
The picture showed a rusty iron archway that said 'MCFALL RANCH'.
"Will it let you go on there with it being private property?" She asked, raising a brow at him.
"Do you still own it?"
"Yes."
"Then yes." He smirked in a way that said regardless of her answer, his equipment was capable.
"Alright, well, what's your run?"
"5 kilometers."
"That's a little over my 3 miles, but I'll go for the stretch. C'mon. I'll show you how I trained for cross country."
He chuckled and started his gait, and Celine was tempted to up hers to match, but he had legs for days, and she needed to pace herself.
"From the street sign we head down the service road that runs the fence." She motioned to a white gravel road and he turned down it with a tap of his finger on the dash. They followed it around and while they did she spoke.
"Dad didn't like the smell of the rigs, so he saved the front fields for wheat… he said he liked the smell of grain. I'll admit I kind of miss it sometimes. But it causes bad allergies. I was born there, and the spring and fall absolutely destroyed me."
"How big was this place?"
"Couple hundred acres… used to be more, but I'll be honest, if all you have is rigs, it's sort of a waste of space and shit to maintain… personal opinion."
He chuckled. "Really not for the whole 'family business' thing, are you?"
"I don't like oil." She said firmly. "I like energy, and technology, and solar, and wind, and my brother calls me a dumb liberal with stupid ideologies."
"What do you want to do?"
"I want to work on Solar. I want to take the rigs out of my half of the plot and sell them back to Vick, and use the land to build windmills and plant solar panels. Texas is on a private energy grid, which means energy companies service by contract. We could make plenty of money by selling our surplus."
"But not as much as oil." He replied.
"Bingo." Said Celine flatly.
"Vick believes when the wells run out, then we can invest in renewables. But I told him, by then it'll be too late. Global warming is real and people like us are just making it worse. Fossil fuels have got to go."
She scoffed. "Excuse me, that's just the dumb liberal talking."
"Having a consciousness about your effect on the environment isn't liberal it's humanitarian." He told her.
"Preaching to the choir to me, my guy, but welcome to Texas." She replied.
"That's the barn… and the stable. Just about a mile and a half in."
They jogged in silence for a while, and that was fine. Kaiba was one of those people that was okay to be quiet around. It wasn't rude, it was peaceful.
"Back there is actually a McFall cemetery… that mausoleum was added by Vick and I… We'll both go there when we're done. With everyone else." A tall grey granite building stretched out beside a number of stones. The front held a large 'MF' in the family's seal. Trees cupped around it and as they moved it slowly moved out of sight.
"What if you married?" He asked her as they jogged on.
"I'll still be there… Though I imagine they'd change the plaque. There's room for more, so maybe I can sweet talk hubby into joining me."
"You left room?"
They jogged a while before she nodded. "Yeah… I did. I told myself it was… okay, to think about loving another kid like that… even if it wasn't mine. What if I meet a single dad or something? I even considered adopting one if I do get tired of searching for a man… I loved being a mom… but… not right now, y'know? I'm still hurting. I just didn't want to rule it out."
He actually nodded back in agreement. "I feel the same. I would like children. Eventually. For now I am quite content being sterile."
He'd gotten a vasectomy?
No way.
Celine puffed out a laugh. "Oh, so that's what you meant by 'extensive lengths'. I feel you man, that's solid work."
They followed the road around in a wide loop along the edge of the property. Two laps would be just about 3 miles.
"I'm super curious what could have happened to have you do it though… Pay off your secretary?"
She gave him a sympathetic smile. "It's okay, with us it was the nanny."
Kaiba scoffed at her and let out a puff of amusement.
"Pure precaution. I was young, and didn't like condoms. Not my wisest decision, but it has paid off. I find it tests women's character."
"Well what's that mean?" Asked Celine.
"That means if a woman tries to trap me with a child, she's either lying to get my money or cheating on me."
"That's fair." Celine admitted. "Weed out the weak."
"Speaking of weak… I noticed those shots fired." He told her with a look her way.
"I'm just showin' the guys what 'big dick energy' really is." She said back with a breathless giggle.
"This week was boring. Everyone's all focused on themselves. We at least had a raid the first week… I think next week I'm just going full dragon and pillaging a base every few hours. Just to make it spicy."
"Wheeler keeps asking me to nerf you."
"What? No. I'm not that OP am I?" She peeked back and he offered a shrug with his hands.
"You have an arsenal, and experience being the character you want to be… they haven't figured that out yet."
"I noticed you stick close to home too, boss." She said slyly.
He didn't answer and she hummed. "Maybe… I dunno."
"What?"
"Maybe… I could like… run a DND game for the team." She laughed a bit. "We could even call it practice for VR… might help fill the downtime between sessions. That's a big party though… nine newbies? Holy fuck combat will take all night."
"Perhaps simply inviting a few of them to join you and learn how to play. There's books for this, I assume."
"Correct, a number of them. But it tells you about all the races and classes and what they do." She said.
"You could tell them to read them, if they decide to, they're obviously committed." Said Kaiba.
"Yeah but it's a lot, and they read like text books… I dunno…"
They jogged for a while in silence as she thought about it.
Suddenly it hit her and popped herself on the side of the treadmill.
"What if I taught a class? Like in VR?"
He slowed his pace and she stopped her machine.
"Elaborate." He told her.
"What if I made it like a video game? I know all the races, and the classes, and the lore. Well, most of the lore. What if I used the transmitter to help them visualize stepping into that character? I can see it in my head, and that alone tells me I could probably do it in VR, that's all it takes. If I show them how, I think they'll get it."
He studied her for a long moment.
"You'd do that? You control that server, and I think you know that. You'd be giving them advantage."
"But what fun is it, if they're all just farming? The forgotten realms were made for adventure. If I can open them up to it, it's more fun. Fun for them means data for you. Win-win-win."
His face was cool, and unreadable as he studied her.
"I could upload the information from the books to the database, and allow it to reference your thoughts to them. Anything you wouldn't know could be accessed in game."
Celine gave him a smirk. "You said you wanted good things from me."
He laughed then, and Celine felt her stomach quiver. "So I did."
The sound of the door caused them both to turn and look. It was Ted and Roger, walking in with bags over their shoulder.
"Hey guys! Whoa!" Roger blinked and cocked his head at Celine.
"Wicked scar buddy." Said Ted.
"Yeah, wicked scar. How'd you get it?" Asked Roger, before Ted tapped him hard to his shoulder.
"That's not PC buddy. We don't ask." Said Ted in a harsh whisper.
"Oh…. right." Said Ted before smiling "I always knew you were a bad-ass, Queenie. We're playing some racketball today for a stretch. Wanna play buddy?"
Celine hummed. "Sure boys, why not? Joining, boss?"
"I'll pass. Enjoy." Said Kaiba, shifting to start his treadmill back to speed.
"Alright! Let's go, eh? Let's see if there's something we can beat you at." Teased Ted as they started down the hall for one of the rooms.
"Good luck." Said Celine with a scoff.