Chapter XXIV

Riley didn't return home, nor did Mia. After a few days our landlord arrived with a couple of people to empty the apartment. I watched from my security camera and guessed they were university folks.

It made me genuinely hope the girls got the best help available. The past few days I pretended to do research for the riddle, but mainly tried to make a recollection of my part in the events. I was pretty sure I didn't do anything wrong, but there was a big chance I would get a visit from scientists or law enforcers anyway.

Meanwhile I still got bombarded with fan mail and media enquiries after my newfound fame as a musician and Mew hunter in the OASIS. I wasn't just a one day meme. The song Idiota kept getting bigger.

I'm sure the video of the Mew hunt was the original reason it went viral, but what artist didn't use a marketing stunt to make a break?

Either way, with 6 million views, there was a decent sum coming my way from the views alone. Not enough to never have to work again, but I could afford a nicer place for sure.

I was packing a bag with some clothes and my VR gear. I wasn't moving already, I had no idea when and how any money would reach me. But my father's birthday was coming up and Finn and I decided to celebrate with him.

Later that day I sat on the ferry heading for Vancouver Island. Dad had a simple house in a quiet town. A good place to stay low for a while.

I heard my song twice during the trip. Two teenage girls were goofing around, overdoing the angry shouting part. Someone else was subtly headbanging to it with his volume up high enough that others could listen along.

No one recognized me as Morphynn. I didn't expect anyone to, but there wasn't even the slightest suspicion in the minds of fellow passengers that I could be a star. Clearly my avatar looked less like me than I liked to believe.

The view from the ferry soothed me. I enjoyed the sun and gentle wind. The Strait of Georgia recovered from the climate disasters and pollution that plagued it the last decades. Now and then people reported that the orca's returned, symbolizing nature's resilience.

On my smart device I was texting with Finn and a whole bunch of other people that contacted me after Idiota came out. It was a tad opportunistic for old school mates, ex-girlfriends and other marginal figures from my past to contact me now. But also perfectly human and I might as well enjoy it.

I was even in contact with some actual celebrities that reached out, some already offering to collaborate with me. Again, that sounded opportunistic. But it's also understandable and if these past months taught me anything, it is to take opportunities in whatever form they come.

Someone else I messaged was ShikaraStalker. She invited me to hang out, and I figured I had more to gain than lose when I would meet with the competitor ahead of me in the contest.

She proposed a game of Wipeout. The second entry of that series was one of the highest rated games of 1996. A racing game with futuristic hover cars. As far as I knew it didn't tie into the Mew hunt, but it still could be fun.

Shaken up by the bumpy bus ride, I finally arrived at my dad's when the evening dropped. Finn and Olivia weren't there yet.

He was busy with an experimental stew and poured us a glass of wine. He never seemed really happy about anything in life, but for the past few years it appeared he at least made peace with it all.

For a long time dad dealt with demons that were gnawing at him about unfulfilled potential, missed opportunities and other millennial diseases. They were raised with narcissistically high expectations and after thirty they all struggled with the fact they wouldn't meet them.

"My son, the rockstar," dad grinned. "I set up a desk and comfy chair in the guest room, connection speed is pretty good."

"Thanks, but where will Finn and Olivia sleep?"

"The tiny house."

It was an egg shaped trailer our father lived in for a couple of years. He loved the self-sustaining mobile home, but no one else did.

"Finn will like that," I said. "By the way, dad, can I borrow one of your rides?"

"Of course, drawing too much heat with the Thunderbird?"

I nodded. My father never agreed so quickly to lending out his stuff, he still didn't trust us with it. But it seemed I was in the good for the first time in my life.

Dad had to focus on the blubber boiling on his furnace and I would install my OASIS gear in the guest room. The chair did look comfy and my father put two monitors on the desk, some other hardware and a coffee machine.

The guest room never looked this good. There was an air purifier, audio speakers and a punching bag. And then I noticed the new acoustic panels on the wall. He really went out of his way to create a comfortable lair.

When I returned to the kitchen, my brother and his girlfriend had just arrived and were doing their best to act pleasantly surprised with their lodgings.

None of them knew about the craziness I had witnessed with the girls-next-door. Dinner was dedicated to a special announcement Finn wanted to make. Olivia was pregnant. I was happy for them, although they already made a bigger deal out of it than it really was.

Olivia went to bed early. To recover from the long way there, with the baby and all. Finn and I wanted to wait until midnight, the moment dad would turn sixty. As if he suddenly would turn into a shivering and wrinkled elderly.

We talked about the third riddle. We mentioned a wide array of obscure movies and television shows that had weddings in them. The holy matrimony was popular back then. America demanded puritan conclusions to love stories.

Our old man was listening and seemed to get increasingly annoyed with each suggestion.

"You're looking at it wrong," he argued.

This was what he did best. As a former publicist and political commentator, he could accurately point out mistakes in people's thought processes. Presenting an alternative usually proved harder, hence his failed political career.

"We didn't see those movies before they were released on VHS the next year or on tv much later," he said. "And no kid kept track of celebrities marrying. The nineties were about other stuff. Lego pirates, cartoons, comics."

"Like superhero comics?"

"Of course, they were huge far before Hollywood milked them dry. When Superman died, that was on the news. The real news."

"1993," Finn said. He instantly looked up everything we discussed on his smart device.

"The story developed when a planned story was postponed to coincide with a corresponding storyline in the television show Lois & Clark," Finn read out loud. "The delayed story, in which Kent and Lane got married, eventually got published in 1996."

Dad started laughing, pretending he knew all along.

"Oh, yes, that too," he smirked. "The romance that started well before World War II finally got sealed with a ring. Now, if that's not a Wedding of the Century, I don't know what is."