An annoying power outage from a passing storm system kept power out for most of the next day. By the time the power was finally back on, there was work to be done and that ended up lasting me until I was ready to pass out.
I felt bad. Lily said she'd meet me that day, and I told her that I'd be there, but I wasn't able to log on for even a minute.
As much as I really wanted to just skip recording and editing for the day, getting content out there for my fanbase was the only reason I was able to play games as much as I did in the first place. So, as perfect as Lily might have been, I had to take care of my fans first.
But thinking like that didn't stop me from worrying about her until I passed out.
What if she never came back? What if she thought I was lying to her?
I hated feeling like a teenager again.
But as it would turn out, that girl was perfect through and through.
I logged back into the game the next day and looked around. There was always the chance that, maybe, she decided to wait around for me?
But I knew how unlikely that was. After all, it was just a game.
I had to remind myself of the advice I gave in that old "online dating tips" video I made. The moment that people found out I was in one long-distance relationship before, they all demanded that I make a video to help others with it.
Most of the advice was honestly kind of negative and telling people to have realistic expectations.
Somebody might find somebody who they believe is absolutely perfect and that they get along with amazingly right from the very first exchange of messages, and then never hear from that person again. Or they might seem totally different and uninterested the next time.
The people who were hoping for me to give an uplifting and inspirational video were disappointed, but I think that I helped more people with the video that I ended up.
And by help, I mean that I probably broke up a few more relationships expected.
But if I was able to save anybody from the mistakes that I made as a teenager spending all of my money on a girl across the ocean who was actually dating somebody else in real life, then it was worth it.
I spread awareness and told them the truths that they needed to hear.
But there I was, the man behind that video with millions of views, feeling like a disappointed kid because I wasn't able to find Lily.
She was nowhere around.
Why would she be? With a full game world to explore, why sit around by a dungeon while the dungeon master isn't even there?
There was always the chance that she might visit again someday, but I knew better than to get my hopes up.
Well, that was until I saw a shining light in front of me – the light of somebody logging in.
Standing right outside the entrance of my dungeon, and in front of me, was the same girl.
Lily.
She turned to look around and a wide smile spread across her lips the moment her eyes fell onto me.
She looked like an excited puppy whose owner just got home from work. She must have realized that, too, because she then adjusted her hair and tried to stop smiling so much.
Adorably enough, she even cleared her throat.
"Bonjour – a-ah… he-hello!" Lily said.
"Hey again. Sorry if you came by yesterday. My power was knocked out," I explained.
"Ooh, that was it."
"Sounds like you did come by. Sorry about that."
She shook her head and said, "It is – is alright!"
"Go and have some fun with more monsters while I was gone?" I teased.
She shook her head so seriously that her hair flapped in front of her face. I never saw somebody shake their head as seriously as she did. "None!"
The answer made me happier than I thought it would.
"Well, as long as you didn't just sit around waiting for me. I'd feel horrible if you did."
She looked away and tapped her pointer fingers together.
"You… you didn't just wait for me, did you?"
"Eh… ehehe…"
"Well, as long as you weren't like, coming to check and see if I was here every hour or anything. Then I'd feel seriously horrible."
"Ah… umm…"
"Just… just tell me how often you were checking so I know how much I have to make up to you."
"Maybe – maybe… every hour?"
"You've been logging in every hour to see if I'm here?"
Her cheeks turned a slight shade of red as she put her hood back up, holding it down over her face to hide as she looked down.
"You seriously are like a puppy," I sighed with a smile.
I wasn't able to see her eyes, but I was able to see her smile. Being compared to a puppy brought possibly the cutest smile I had ever seen onto her face, and she even "wagged" a little by rotating her hips just a bit.
If a pair of dog ears suddenly appeared on the top of her head, I would have believed they were always there.
More importantly, seeing her smile in reaction to being compared to a puppy made me want to tease her.
"Just like a puppy waiting for her owner to come back," I said.
The smile stayed and she nodded her head.
"I guess you're clingy to more than just monster dicks. Or are you only acting so clingy because of the monsters?"
She shook her head, but I didn't know if she was shaking it to the first part or the second part.
"If you're a puppy then that means I have to thoroughly train you to obey commands. You want to be a good girl who follows her owner's commands, don't you?"
More nodding.
"Then we'll start with something simple. Get on all fours."
I didn't even realize it at the time, but I was slipping into my dominant persona.
She shivered and got onto all fours.
"Good girl. Now, crawl to me."
I expected her to walk on all fours over to me, but she took the command one step farther.
Instead of using her hands as paws to walk on four "legs," she got even lower to the point where she was crawling with her forearms and elbows instead of her hands.
Normally, "crawl" means to walk on all fours, but she was doing her best to actually look like a dog crawling.
And she crawled right up to my feet, not even lifting her head to look at me. All she did was await my next command.
"Good girl, Lily. Now, shake your tail."
While staying on the ground, essentially looking like she was prostrating herself, she "wagged" her ass side to side until I gave her the order to stop.
"You're awfully obedient for a puppy. Bark."
"Wo-woof!" Lily barked.
"Who's a good girl?"
"M-me? I – I am…"
"What's wrong? I can't hear you. Who's a good girl?"
"I – I am a good girl!"
I couldn't hold myself back anymore.
I crouched down and lifted her hood up to pet her on the top of her head, running my fingers through her hair.
She was just way too cute.
And to prove that she was too cute, she tilted her head to look up at me. Her eyes were closed but she had such a peaceful, happy smile.
Seeing her look so innocent contrasted against how she looked the other day.
That just meant she was even more perfect. She was the kind of girl who could get kinky and was open to being gangbanged by monsters, but she was also the kind of girl who was just genuinely cute and friendly.
In other words, she was the type of girl who was shy in the streets and a freak in the sheets.
My absolute favorite kind of girl.
And then I realized what I was doing.
I was getting way too into it. I was the one who told her that this sort of thing had to wait so that we could get to know each other, but I was so excited to see her again and so turned on by her that I just wasn't able to resist.
I forced myself to calm down.
She probably could have made me marry her in that moment if she asked me to.
"Alright, stand up. Remember what I said about us having to talk about this sort of thing?" I asked. "We need to talk some more. Learn to trust each other, know what our limits are – that sort of stuff."
I kind of expected her to sigh or pout but, instead, all she did was smile and nod.
"It's important to me that you're as comfortable as possible, so that comes first," I explained.
She brushed her elbows and knees off even though no dirt from the virtual world was actually stuck to her.
Her inexperience with virtual reality continued showing itself.
"I don't have any furniture or anything in my dungeon yet, so let's go talk about it in town. I'm still allowed in the noob village since it's not affiliated with the Virtues or Sins."
Lily nodded along and turned around as if to begin walking there herself.
"Need the money to teleport?" I asked.
She turned around and shook her head. "It – it is more fun to walk! But… if – if you don't want to… wa-walk with me…"
"No, no. It's fine. There just aren't too many people who like walking everywhere if they can teleport instead."
"Are – are you sure?"
"I'm sure, Lily. I'd love to walk through the forest with you."
I knew what I was doing.
She knew what I was doing.
It was already clear to the both of us how the upcoming discussion was going to go, but that didn't matter. It still had to be done.
And we were going to enjoy a walk through the forest together before that.
The walk through the forest was as peaceful as any. Even if it was a virtual world, everything from the scent to the sounds of the forest were almost perfectly simulated. Crickets, birds, small streams of water running in the distance, the wind rustling the treetops, squirrels and deer hiding in the bushes – between all of that and the perfect weather for the day, it was the best walk through a forest I had ever been on.
But that was mainly because of who I was walking with.
And, because of Lily's low level, she ended up getting attacked as we walked.
By a wolf.
She sighed when she saw the beast.
Upon inquiring why she looked so disappointed, it turned out that she was attacked by a wolf right after starting. She let it defeat her and pin her down, and then… it killed her.
I had to explain to her that even if it was a virtual world, there were still prudes in charge of the organizations responsible for the developers making money with their game. That meant that, as much as everybody complained about censorship and how it was "just a game," bestiality was not allowed.
Anything that was more animal than monster was considered an "animal" by the game's logic and thus not allowed to partake in anything sexual. They still had dicks and what not, but they were purely cosmetic.
The only way for animals to have sex in the game were if they got tamed and were bred for stronger children versions of themselves. Unique colors, skills, fur patterns, boosted stats, and all sorts of things were available only from breeding tamed beasts.
But all of that breeding happened behind the scenes.
Even when it came to getting unicorn cum to create my dungeon, the unicorn wasn't really a unicorn. That was just the name given to the monster that only resembled a unicorn because of the spiraled horn sticking out of its head. There was nothing else unicorn-y about it.
It was horny but not unicorn-y.
As for Lily, she was more than a little disappointed when I explained that I couldn't even use a cash shop item to control an animal and have sex.
She really wanted me to control a wolf for her.
The other noobs we walked by as we talked couldn't help but blush and look away from hearing our conversation. While Lily went quiet around others, I had no problem talking loud and proud about the game and its many, many sexual mechanics.
And finally, we reached the starting village.
The town of Dulyr.
It was a small time bordering a grand, beautiful lake that was so popular for fishing even endgame players came back to relax and fish.
Right next to the lake was the only tavern in the town – my favorite tavern in the entire game for its overview of the lake from the deck on its second floor.
The Standing Carp.
"Have you heard the lore for this place's name?" I asked Lily.
It was my favorite piece of lore in the game.
She shook her head and looked up at me with curious eyes.
"They say that dwarves used to live here. The lake is full of carp, and the dwarves lived off of the carp. That is, until one day the carps decided that they had enough. While fishing, a dwarf reeled in a carp until it reached shallow water, but then it stopped."
"What – what happened next?" she asked after a pause.
"The carp stood up."
"Stood up?"
"It stood and revealed that it had the head of a carp and the body of a muscular man. What happened next was a bloody battle that resulted in many dead carps and dwarves alike, and the dwarves decided that living outside of mountains was too much trouble. So, they returned to the mountains, told a passing caravan of the bloody battle on their way back, and that caravan came and founded the village. Then they named this tavern The Standing Carp."
Lily covered her mouth and giggled.
"That – that is quite the history!" she said.
"Right? Also, your English is getting better."
I thought I might have said something wrong after saying that since her cheeks turned red and she turned her head away.
She then explained, "It – it is embarrassing and… and hard to – speak, when… my heart is… wh-when I'm nervous."
Yeah.
She was going to make me fall in love with her.
"I – I'm also using a page for – for translating."
She must have been using the in-game web browser to keep a translation page open.
That made her even cuter.
"Here," I said, pulling a chair out for her.
We were at my favorite spot.
On the second floor's deck, there was a table with a couple of chairs at the corner. It was away from where the other players and NPCs sat, and the view of the lake was as beautiful as it could be.
The sun shining above made it look like the lake was full of millions of glittering crystals.
A few players down below had their fishing lines cast out into the water, and it looked like one of the players was a veteran teaching a new player about fishing.
I wondered if Lily would be interested in me teaching her, though my fishing level wasn't that high.
I mainly just considered it because I enjoyed the thought of wrapping my arms around her from behind while helping her cast the line.
And then I started thinking about turning into some sort of aquatic monster to fuck her as.
Yeah, that sounded fun.
But before that, we had a discussion to have.
But before that, she opened her mouth first.
"I – umm, I… I have to say it," Lily said.
Those words instantly gave me a sense of impending doom.
I was just waiting for it at that point.
"I'm actually a forty-year-old man who wears a diaper and lives in his mother's basement, and I jack off with orange-dusted fingers to you."
It was exactly as I warned my fans about!
Except she didn't actually say that, yet, but I had a feeling she was going to!
"You—"
Every word that left her mouth gave me anxiety.
"—look exactly like – exactly like Damian – the umm, the Damian."
"Do… you mean the vlogger Damian? The one who talks about sex stuff, gives people advice, talks about porn and hentai – that Damian?" I asked.
She nodded.
"Oh. That's because I am him. I know it's not really normal to play a game using your real name and face, but there are already millions of people on the internet who know who I am, so I figured it doesn't really matter."
I thought she was blushing before, but that was nothing compared to now.
"Really?" she asked, her voice steady and quiet.
"Yeah. You have the browser open, right? I could go make a tweet right now to prove it."
She nodded just as quickly as she was shaking her head earlier.
"Alright. I'll say something like… 'fishing is the true endgame of MMOs.'"
I opened up the in-game web browser, went to my social media, and tweeted that out with a screenshot of the lake.
It took less than a minute for memes to show up in the replies and for people to start asking me about when I was going to make fishing videos.
That… wasn't a bad idea, but I doubted the majority of my fans wanted to see that.
More importantly, Lily got her proof that I am who I claimed to be.
"Can – can I… can I… hu-hug you?" she asked.
Something was off with her voice.
She sounded excited and happy, but…
"Please?" she asked, her voice quivering and eyes watering.
I got up and hugged her.
I didn't know what was wrong, but I knew that she needed a hug, and that was all that mattered.
"Tu es mon héros," she mumbled.
"Sorry, I… have no idea what that means."
"You – you are my hero."
I read that sort of thing all the time on the internet, but I never really put any weight into it. The only times it really stood out and meant something to me was whenever…
"Your – your video… about the… umm – what… what you went through, as a child – it – it… helped me. Th-thank you for – for talking about it, and – an-and, I'm sorry that you… had to go through something that… umm – that – that bad."
I stroked my fingers through the hair on the back of her head while letting one hand rest on her back.
"No problem. I hoped that it would help others who might have been through something similar, so knowing that it helped is the best thing that I could ask for," I said.
As perfect as she was, I was in no condition to think about that.
Even though it turned out that she was a fan of mine who knew of my videos.
All that mattered was that I helped somebody.
As much as I love sex and had made a career revolving around sexuality, what mattered more than anything else in my life was that.
That I helped somebody.
That, even if it was only a tiny little bit, I was able to make the world just a slightly better place.
If that meant helping others by opening up about the nightmares of my youth, so be it.
Lily's reaction and others like it made life worth living for all on their own.
"I – I feel bad. I was not through – through anything like you were, but… but it still helped me so much," she explained.
"Don't put it like that. Don't make whatever you experienced sound like it wasn't as serious as mine. Shit is shit no matter what lens it's looked under. No matter whose shit you compare your own shit to, it's still shit."
She giggled, tightening her grip around me as some of the other players on the deck got quiet to listen in on our conversation.
There was no such thing as privacy in an online game.
"A-ah… I – I am… s-sorry, you are probably tired of this happening. I am – sure that… you have to deal with… people like me all the time."
"I live in a place where the only people who recognize me are family. This is the first time I've been hugged so tightly by a fan. It's nice. That means you're not allowed to let go until I order you to, understand?" I teased, trying to lighten the mood.
She nodded and whispered, "I – I may disobey that order."