Chapter 26

The sex followed by the fall could have been enough to explain David’s pounding heart. But of course that was only part of the story. He had decided to out himself—to tell Fyrefang3 and incidentally Lathandré that Ariel was played by a man.

The decision still seemed right. But it was big; this would change his life. He expected the pounding heart, the knot in his gut, and the sweat. What would he have done had the game not stopped him? Would he have told them right there, after a brief conversation with Marv? Maybe? Probably not though. He’d been growing increasingly uncomfortable with hiding Ariel’s player, enough so that making a final decision right there in game didn’t seem crazy. But executing on that decision then and there? No, that would have been foolish. It was probably time to talk to Celebrex about security. And Marv would certainly have thoughts about how to handle things.

Marv was already messaging him asking what had happened. He entered the avatar chat as Ariel and invited Marv so they could talk it through in person.

Marv appeared moments later. His ubiquitous polo shirt and slacks were not rumpled, but his typical smile was missing. “You gave me a fright. I got a notification that you’ve ended a public stream and your message all at the same moment. By the time I step away from dinner, you’ve said you are outing yourself and there’s an alert about a personal data breech requiring AI intervention. By the time I try to send a ‘WTF,’ you are logged out. It took me a while to confirm that you hadn’t been force ejected and that your account wasn’t locked. I’ve been in a panic since.”

Ariel laughed. “I’m sorry about all that. The only important thing is that I want to tell Fyrefang3 and Lathandré about David. The rest is all misunderstandings or overblown.”

“I’m worried about the data breech. If someone’s pressuring you—”

“No, Atlanta.Energy put in something that triggered an alarm apparently if I so much as mentioned talking about David. My message to you was what called down the AIs on me.”

“And you’re not being pressured? And no one knows yet? We aren’t doing damage control?”

“The only pressure is the sort of things I talked to you about earlier in the week real time. I feel like David isn’t getting credit. I feel like I’m betraying Fyrefang3.”

“Do I have your permission to dig into what triggered the alarm and make sure there’s nothing else going on?”

“Go ahead.”

Marv was distracted for a few moments. He stretched, tension rolling off his shoulders, his face relaxing. “Okay. You are right. So this isn’t a cluster fuck yet. I have this feeling that this is going to be one of those times my mentors were talking about where a client doesn’t listen to your advice and things run far faster than you wish they would. But at least we’re not doing damage control.”

“I’ll listen of course. But yeah, the situation is getting harder to deal with. I want this taken care of.”

Marv jerked his upper body in response to a message. “Did you tell Fyrefang3 anything? I just got a couple of comments from him flagged for urgent attention, apologizing for whatever went wrong and asking if you’d explain what happened.”

“Oh, fuck! In all the confusion with the AIs, I just logged out. That’s horrible.”

Ariel had access to all the comments even though Marv normally handled them. She searched and found Fyrefang3’s messages. She wrote back apologizing for an emergency that took her back to the real world and let him know that she had a great time. “The situation is all very hush hush; I’m talking to my PR consultant now. I am sure you will be one of the first to know when this goes public.”

“Is that good enough?” she asked.

“That’s fine. I see you say when not if.”

“I think that is true. I keep asking myself how I’d feel if I keep hiding, and it doesn’t feel right.”

“What does it mean that you came here as Ariel not David?”

She laughed. “I’m sure psychologists would have a field day with that. I don’t entirely know. I guess ... yeah, part of it is that you were startled when David called you earlier. But it is probably more than that.”

She shrugged. “Honestly I’ll probably never know.”

She continued, “Let’s not get distracted. How are we going to do this? Should I start by telling a small number of people like Fyrefang3? Or should I out myself to the world?”

“Brainlock no! You can’t go telling a small group. What would you do? Get them to sign a non-disclosure? Imagine how much someone could make selling that, especially if they made it sound sensational!”

“Fyrefang3 wouldn’t do that.”

“What do you actually know about him? Can you really trust him?”

“A fair bit now; he went on at length about his work in the real world. But no, I guess I can’t be sure I trust that.”

“Right, I’m behind on your play. But, you can’t trust especially not if there is lots of money involved.”

He continued, “Have you talked to Hulda about this? I mean more as your confidant than anything else.”

“No, I am going to need to do that.”

“I wonder if we should meet at the Pig and bring her in: I think she will understand the in game implications. How soon are you thinking about doing this?”

“Tonight?”

“You have got to be kidding!”

“Well, how soon can you do it? I’ve got a meeting with Nama’s Child and her son day after tomorrow real time, so a few game days. After taking Fyrefang3 as a client, I know I couldn’t do anything as intense as what Nama’s Child is asking without being open about David.”

Marv tapped his fingers on the table. “So perhaps tomorrow evening. That’s crazy, but at least possible. Tonight makes no sense.”

“I think I am going to at least want to talk to Celebrex. Can we trust them before it goes public?”

“Celebrex?”

“Celebrex Security. Hulda somehow got the company to reach out to them on my behalf. They do celebrity security.”

“Uh, just a second. I’ll look into it and also why I’m just hearing about this now.”

Marv was distracted for a full minute. “Okay. You just got a note from our legal department warning that we cannot take on any liability if you talk to them and they disclose. Sorry, that’s how it is. But as your PR consultant, I think it would be reasonable for you to take on that risk. Their entire business is about protecting privacy. The damage to them would be huge if they disclose before we make it public. And while we won’t take on liability, the company would sure be pissed if they did that. They don’t want us pissed at them. Their advice will be helpful in figuring out how to go public.

“As far as why I didn’t know? It was to protect your privacy. It’s up to you. In the future if you want me to know, let me know yourself or let Hulda or whoever know they can tell me.”

“I’ll do that. So we (probably I) want to reach out to Celebrex. We want to get together with Hulda and probably Goody Brown. Although what time is it in game?”

It had been late evening, probably around ten when she logged out. “Given time compression, we either need to do it now as the patrons leave the Pig or wait for morning in a couple of hours.”

“Let me get my thoughts in order. You can reach out to Celebrex. Let’s do it tomorrow morning real time.”

Ariel hesitated. Her inclination was to do it tonight or tomorrow morning game time, not to skip an entire game day. But Marv was right: there was no need to do that. And she should respect his time and not force him to work all night. “Okay, I’ll pop into game and let the Browns know that we will talk to them in a day. And then I’ll reach out to Celebrex.”

“Are you going to continue normal stuff? Like should we process any recording we get from Fyrefang3?”

“Oh, yeah. I’m sure you will get a recording. I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

They logged out of chat. Ariel popped into game. Hulda was already in bed. Ariel didn’t ask whether she was with a client or in her room. The elder Browns were cleaning up as the last few patrons sipped at their drinks.

“Fyrefang3 was a might worried when ya disappeared,” Goody Brown said.

“Aye, about that. Might I have a private word?” Ariel wondered if she was mirroring the innkeeper’s speech because she was stressed.

“Right enough.”

“So, I logged out to go think about my decision to tell the world about David. MarvForAriel wants to meet with Hulda and me to talk about that in the morning real-world time. I’m hoping you can be there. I told Fyrefang3 that it was an emergency and that I had a great time.”

“Aye, that’s gonna be right interesting. Hulda’s like to be a might grouchy getting tossed out of bed that early. But we’ll be there for ya.

“Ya want I should reassure Fyrefang3 if I see him?”

“You can’t tell him about David yet.”

“I know that, but I can tell him that as your confidant I know what is going on an he’s got no worries on account of his time as your client.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

“Oh, an Hulda gave me your fee for her time with ya earlier.”

“She didn’t hire me last night.”

“She said she had ya up against the wall screaming your head off.”

“I think that would make me the client.”

“How Hulda tells it, the negotiation would of needed to go different for ya to be the client.”

Ariel hadn’t considered, but she supposed it would be a bit strange for a whore to go up, start ordering people around, and then charge them. Doubtless some people were very into that, but you’d want to start out with some negotiation establishing that kind of dominance. Now that she thought about it, she was impressed at the new implicit consent for whores. Yes, she had consented by understanding that Hulda wanted to do something sexual and by complying. But to correctly deduce her consent demonstrated why Phoenix Rising was at the top of the industry.

She took the money. She also looked through notifications. Last night, Seduction had advanced to Beginner 8. That was quite high; she was approaching artisan level in that skill. She’d guess that artisan level seduction would be where her skills would start to be good enough to train for spy work. Exhibition had advanced to Beginner 5. Masturbation had advanced to Beginner 6, and Smell of Sex to Beginner 8. She wondered what being an artisan at Smell of Sex would be like. Typically artisan rank meant you were a competent professional, qualified to practice the skill on your own without regular supervision. That made a lot more sense for weapon-related skills than something like Smell of Sex.