Chapter XXVI
We spent our dad's birthday outside in the real world. Nature, drinks, laughter, that kind of thing. I was able to hide my lack of sleep and didn't share about my encounter yet. My mind was still fully occupied with it.
When she gave away the "super" hint, I could see that she could see that I understood the remark. Maybe Shikara didn't care because the first line was the easy part, like with the first two riddles. Or she wanted to know how quickly I was catching up to her.
I didn't visit Metropolis yet, but I was already contemplating the second line. The part about bringing a perfect gift. I wondered where Superman would be registered.
Finn and Olivia left early in the afternoon, to avoid any chance of driving at night. I promised my brother not to advance the hunt before he could join.
I was reading Superman: The Wedding Album and clicking through wiki's to learn all about the surprisingly ordinary ceremony. The church wasn't filled to the brim with dressed-up superheroes or anything. But there would be an extraordinary duo, the riddle promised.
Sitting around waiting I scrolled through the fallout of my music video. A bunch of players already taped how they conquered Westeros. There were no signs of them finding their way to Demon Gate yet. I probably had to buy the expensive CD-ROM from eBay, just to be sure.
Now that I was in contact with Shikara, there was no real reason to not contact the leader of the race as well. WinstonYin92's name shone on top of Westeros' gym plaquettes. He probably knew about me and my progress, so why not.
When I was about to write something, I got a message alert. Finn arrived home and finished unpacking the car.
"We have a wedding to crash," he typed.
We raced for the planet New Earth in the DC Comics system. Half an hour later the two of us sat properly in the church benches of a neo-Gothic temple in Metropolis.
Leadlight warped cheerful colors around the interior. We were able to identify some family members of the wedding couple, but no one stood out as extraordinary.
It was a proper wedding, very traditional. Just like America loved it. Lane and Kent kissed, which was the last frame of the comic that would pick-up the story again on their honeymoon.
The OASIS improvised a bit and showed the newlyweds and their guests leaving the church for the reception and dinner.
"Where are they going?" Finn whispered.
"Dooley's Pub," I said. "Where Superman proposed."
The dinner wasn't featured in the comic, but the rehearsal was. Thanks to an actual Time Out city guide from 2016 I was able to locate it. It was right next door from the Daily Planet.
We took a cab through the streets of Metropolis and watched various chapters from over a century of storytelling taking place all around us. The driver stopped in front of an ordinary Irish pub and we were about to enter when a bouncer stopped us.
"Hold on a moment," the man said. "Did you bring a gift?"
"It seems we're where it's at," Finn said. "Let me check my inventory for the perfect gift."
A moment later an item appeared in the hand of Finn's avatar. It was a troll skull from Tamriel.
"No, that's not a nice gift," the bouncer grumbled.
The following days were spent going back and forth to the bouncer with items that could be perfect. Everytime the doorman declined our present, we had to dig deeper in the source material.
We found out Superman's favorite food was pretzels. I found an inventory of all items he kept in his Fortress of Solitude that had a museum room, trying to build on that.
We tried bringing Lego figures of the couple, a cool pair of glasses and a record of The Passenger. Superman's favorite song, not performed by Iggy Pop, but Siouxsie And The Banshees.
"Blasphemy," I muttered, handing it over. It still got rejected.
Soon we found ourselves researching gifts from 1996 in general. That year the Nintendo 64 was released. I had one in my private recording studio and tried to hand it over to the bouncer. No result.
A week after our first visit to Dooley's Pub, I was on the hunt for a DVD player. The technology was released on the market in late 1996. It was hard to find one in the OASIS. There was little nostalgia for it.
Finn and I considered DVD players criminally underrated. The discs filled a ten year or so gap between VHS and the rise of on demand streaming platforms. Unlike the predecessor and successor DVD's had nifty bonus material like deleted scenes, alternative endings and director's commentary.
People were willing to trade all those extras back in for comfort, but Finn and I enjoyed going through our parents' abandoned DVD collection when we were teenagers.
There was a DVD player up for auction on the OASIS Market and I was confident I'd win the lot. But it would take another four hours before the auction would close. Time for some fresh air, coffee and a walk.
When I returned, there was still over two hours to go. I decided to finally message WinstonYin92.
"Hey there Winston, assuming you found the Demon Gate, enjoying the third riddle?" I wrote.
I added him to my priority contact list where another message was blinking. Shikara wrote to me, asking to hang out.
We kept in contact after the Wipeout race, dropping cryptic clues while making sure we really didn't reveal anything. I had no idea if she already found "the perfect gift" from the riddle.
I enjoyed the contact, there finally was someone else that understood my journey these last months. Someone other than Finn, Sara and dad.
Besides, Shikara was pretty charming for a woman over fifty. After my recent drama with twenty-somethings, maybe this was a nice change of pace.
"Another race?" I asked. "Daytona, Twisted Metal, Wave Racer 64, Alpine Racer… Damn, 1996 had more racing games than soccer games."
"Interested in something more forbidden?" she replied.
"Always."
"So, not quite 1996, but the year after we had this game called Carmageddon. Think GTA, but only the blood, gore and violence."
"Scandalous, all those red pixels!" I joked. "OK, meet you there."
