Chapter 35

Finally I begged off any more autographs and said I would be in the entryway for an hour the next morning if anybody wanted to talk to me. Lisa took the awards, and with Holly and Mandy again holding on to me we all went upstairs to our room.

As always after a presentation, I was exhausted. Dad ordered us a larger buffet to be sent up, and a few minutes later Brad and Steve joined us. I thanked him again, and told him how I wanted to start writing some adventures for his system.

“That’s great, I actually wanted to talk to you about that Pete. Brad and I have already come to an agreement on your Kaos adventures. I want to publish it as a set for GURPS, as well as any others you do in the future.”

“Well, let me just say I would be honored, but you need to talk to my dad and Dee about that. They handle the business side of things, I just sign whatever they tell me to sign.” He laughed, then looked at me again.

“You’re serious, aren’t you? They handle it all?”

“Yep. When I first started, it was my dad since I was only 16. Now it is primarily Dee as she knows the industry. She makes the real decisions and just tells dad what to do. It is really hard for me to negotiate things from half a world away, and it works out because I trust both of them completely. But she knows I fully agree, and she will be fair.”

We shook hands, and he sat back and smiled at Steve. “Oh, and in a few months check out my ‘Meandering Thoughts’ column. I mention GURPS by name in it, suggesting games that are based on the spy genre, but without spies. Have you ever heard of Tintin?”

“By Herge? Of course, I read them all the time as a kid.”

“OK, imagine a similar setting. A journalist can be a lot like a spy, so why not use that as a setting? Hmm, covering many eras. Turn of the century Yellow Journalism, Red Scare stuff from the 1950s, Gossip sheets like the National Enquirer. Conspiracy magazines, scandal sheets, investigative reporters, maybe even war correspondents. I think there is a lot there.”

He was looking at me thoughtfully as Dee said “Pete, that is so much more than you wrote out in the article.”

“Well, it just came to me. Tintin was the inspiration, I was watching an old carton with Georgie here when the idea came to me. I wrote it up for an article, but I just had a lot more ideas for the concept.”

Steve looked at all of us. “Brad, Dee, is he always like this?”

Everybody laughed, and Brad nodded. “Oh yes, he is always like this. Ideas just seem to spring into his head. Honest truth, I still remember when I first met these two.” Brad then pointed to Holly and me. “It was at this little convention in the San Fernando Valley. I had come here on business, and just decided to hit it even though it was tiny, maybe 300 people. And in the open game room I hear laughter.”

By now Dad was getting the food and we all started getting plates. “Well, I hear this laughter, and I went to see what was going on. This kid, he and Holly were both 16 then, was running an amazing adventure. You know how it goes, the seven dwarves, the ditsy ‘Valley Girl Elf’ that could not tell a wand of wonders from a wand of fireball, all of it. And notice, most call them ‘dungeons’, he calls them ‘adventures’. Because the entire thing was set outside, not a dungeon to be seen anywhere.”

I took a bite, fascinated to hear it from his point of view. “It was fresh, and very different. I was interested right away, and figured I might use it as a basis for another adventure. Then a month and a half later he sends me two more parts. You’ve seen it. When I saw that Kaos was under a geas and was being forced to work against them, and that the Captain was the real villain I knew this would be a hit. He did the first closed playtest a few months later, then that public one I know you have seen. And it was a runaway success.” Dad handed us all champagne, and we took sips. “And almost everything he has written has been gold. More because it is highly original than anything else.”

“Brad, I have another idea. Steve, you may not want to publish it yourself, but would you have a problem if another company published a series of GURPS adventures?”

“Well, I don’t know. I tend to like keeping everything in-house, to be honest. Why would I change from that?”

“Have you heard of XX-XY Games?”

Dad choked as he was trying to swallow, and everybody else started laughing. “OK, I’ve heard the rumors that the real people behind that are well-known game writers. Are you Mike Hark?”

I grinned. “Nope, I’m Jenny Talia. Mike Hawk is our partner, he expanded the sex rules. Oh, and Dee here, she is Connie Lingus. Mandy is Mona Lott, and Mandy’s sister is my old girlfriend, she was Holly Wood.”

Steve was staring at all of us, and Dee and Mandy were both blushing. “Oh, and if you have seen Dildo of Seduction, one of the characters included was named ‘Areola’. That is because the first character I saw Holly here play was named Ariel. She has never made an adventure, but she is always in there somewhere, even if only in spirit.”

He laughed, and said he was surprised he did not pick up on my style. “I mean, now that I look at it, there is your kind of twisted, almost British humor in it. But like most others, I just assumed Jenny was a girl.”

“That was the idea. If written by a guy, it might creep some girls out, the yuck factor. But if they think it’s another girl, it is more like naughty fun. And to not pollute our more serious works, we use pen names. And as you have noticed, they are all puns. Dirty naughty puns, but not disgusting puns. Mike Hawk was one thing, Mike Hunt is a bit too crude I think. I myself would probably protest officially if somebody wanted to say use Dick Long, Master Bates, or Martha Fokker. While say Annie Position, Ivana Tinkle, or Stella Virgin would be seen as being all in good fun.” Everybody was laughing now, saying some of the names over and over again. “Come on girls, am I wrong there?”

Dee hugged me. “No, actually you are very right there. I know if I read an author was ‘Martha Fokker’, it would likely cause me to not buy it. But Jenny Talia, Stella Virgin, Ivana Tinkle, I see them as silly and fun.” And the other girls all agreed.

“So you may not want such a thing under your banner, but consider letting us do it, either officially or unofficially. I largely stay out of the business side of XX-XY also, but I think Brad would be easy to work with there.”

“And let me guess, that name was your idea also?”

I nodded. “XX-XY, after chromosomes. Female than Male. So that hopefully women realize that it is inclusive for all, and they come first. Mostly, I was afraid it might get called something like ‘Hot Whore Games’, ‘Orgy Roleplay’, or something like that. I wanted the names to be lighthearted, I do the silly ones. And realize this, my two were ‘Dildo of Seduction’, a rather silly name if you think about it. Then I did ‘A Big Change’, another silly one where the players all change sex. However, the dirtiest by far is the ‘Temple of Lussuria’, which is where the characters have to prostitute themselves to raise money for a temple to the Goddess of Lust. That is the one that was the most dirty by far, and it was actually written by a girl!”

At this time Georgie was starting to fuss, so with hugs from everybody dad took him to their room to put him to bed.

They all agreed with my take on the various adventures published by XX-XY, and Lisa said it shocked her the first time she played Lassuria. “Now I like the one Dee did, it is like a dirty romance novel really. But the Holly Wood one, that was like, eww! It was fun, but knowing what I know now, I could never play the Holly Wood one ever again.”

I saw both Brad and Steve raise their eyes, and I closed mine and sighed. “Lisa, can you say ‘Oops’?”

She suddenly blushed bright red, and said “Oops.”

“OK, Steve, you know this is all confidential, right? As in I might sue your ass if it becomes publicly known?”

“No worry with him Pete, Steve and I have been friends for years.”

“Exactly, anything said here will stay here without your permission to say otherwise,” Steve added.

“OK, fine. Mandy’s sister was my fiancee, Linda. She is ‘Holly Wood’, the creator of the dungeon where characters prostitute themselves. Well, she goes by that name professionally in another way now, too. You see, she is now a porn actress, and ‘Holly Wood’ is the name she uses on-screen. I do not think anybody will ever connect the two. And to be honest, I think now she was just too stupid to think up her own stage name so grabbed the first thing she could think of.”

I sighed. “That among other reasons is why we are not together anymore, Brad. And do not expect her to write any more adventures. I think she is done with that, to be honest.”

“Oh, that is true Pete. She was probably done regardless. I never told you this, but Lassuria is the worst selling adventure we sell. In fact, the combined three part with Dildo, Change, and Lassuria sells for over twice as much, and sells far more copies than her one does alone. When the current run is sold, we don’t plan on selling it solo again. Let’s just say that we got more flack from that one than we did for ‘Adventures in Erotica’ and all others combined. And a lot of refunds, we had more than a few sent back saying it was in poor taste. I will admit, if it was not for you I likely never would have published it.”

“Yeah, I was not thinking then, I admit. Tell you what, send Linda a letter, and offer to buy her out of her rights. If we own it lock, stock, and barrel, I can give it an extensive rewrite, and see if I can turn it into something more fun and less offensive.”

“Hmm, her last quarterly royalty check was for $250. I will offer her $5,000 for all rights and see if she bites. That is going to be just over five years royalties, and after that is all profit to us.”

“OK, fine. I will work on changing it. Hmm, make it a fetish house. Instead of fucking for money, they have to satisfy weird fetishes. I will call them ‘workers’, since they are men and women. Not require actual sex, but say it is an option for the DM. Hmm, the worker has to dance for them in tight red or black leather, serve the customers meals in really sexy lingerie, or maybe rub their bodies with bare feet. Hell, even have two of them wrestle in mud or squeezed grape peelings like in I Love Lucy. Less sex, more about just kinky fun.”

“I love it! What about her name?”

“Simple, we include a forward stating that Holly was working on revising it to deal with customer backlash, but died of a chronic hemorrhoid condition. So her childhood friend Jenny took over the editing based on notes she left behind when she passed on. That way we can just publish it as another Jenny adventure, and credit Holly in a memorial on the rights page. That should also prevent her from ever trying to send in another one.”

“OK, it’s done! I will get the lawyers working on it next week. Mandy, can I expect some more of Mona’s work for it?”

“Of course, Brad. Once Pete here sends it to me I will have my usual group run through it for inspiration. But yeah, this one does sound a lot better.”

Both Holly and Lisa agreed, as did Dee. It was just after 8, and soon everybody was getting ready to leave. I shook Steve’s hand again, and then he, Brad and Dee left. Lisa turned to face me, and wrapped her arms around me, pulling my face against hers and giving me a long kiss. She opened her lips and I did the same, but neither one of us slid our tongues into each other’s mouths. It was unquestionably a more passionate kiss than we had ever shared before, and she felt amazing pressed against my body.

“Thank you Pete, this has been a perfect weekend. I need to head back, but trust me when I say I am looking forward to when you get back in a few years.” She then hugged Holly, and they kissed each other’s cheeks. What surprised me though was after she hugged Mandy, she pulled her head back for a moment. Then pressed herself tightly against her and kissed her in the same way she had kissed me.

Then she blushed as she waved goodbye, and headed out the door. The three of us looked at each other, then moved and shared a big hug. We each kissed each other’s cheeks, then we all went to get changed for bed. I got into my briefs and a shirt, they came back only in their girlfriend shirts and panties. Then they pushed me on the couch. Mandy curling against one side as Holly poured us each some more champagne then curling against my other side. I reached over and pulled her hand onto my knee, and squeezed it, linking my fingers with hers.

“OK Mandy, care to tell me what that was about?” I asked. And she actually blushed!

“Well, last night we started talking after we went to bed. We had left the door open, and, well, we kinda heard you in there. Nothing specific, other than that one time the door banged really loudly. But it was enough that it was obvious that you two were making love. Holly, you are particularly obvious when you are very excited. Not like sis was, but your voice carried into the other room. And you kept swearing, we would hear you calling him a bastard, then moan like he was killing you. And because we only heard your voice, we figured out what Pete was doing.” I know Holly blushed, and I might have as well.

“Well, Lisa started asking as we listened how Pete was in bed, and, well, I know I was turned on, and she was wiggling like she had ants in her pants. I started telling what Pete had been like when he made love to me, and, ah, I realized she was touching herself. I had gotten horny so started to do the same thing. She was trying to hide it, but remember my nose, I could tell what she was doing.”

Mandy took a sip of her champagne, and Holly reached over and rested her hand on ours. “Well, I was being less subtle, and eventually she asked what I was doing. I just said I was doing the same thing she was, there was no reason to hide it. She tried to tell me she was not a lesbian, but I just told her I was not also. ‘Lisa, we both masturbate, that is not lesbian. We are just masturbating in the same bed. I can go in the bathroom if you want. But I’m not going to touch you, only myself.’ And I pulled off my panties. A few minutes later she did also.”

“Wow!” I said, and Holly nodded.

“By that time, we could tell Holly was close, you really moan loud, sis. Then after you came, neither of us was hiding what we were doing. Our panties were both off, and after you came I started telling her about the night and morning. And yes, we both knew when you came, it was so obvious. Well, we were both getting close, and her arm was doing this movement from her hip to her shoulder and back down, it was distracting. It was like she could not keep it still. So I reached out and grabbed it, and our fingers just intertwined. By then I was telling her about this morning, how Pete was just doing me hard and fast, and Lisa came. And right after I came also.”

It was obvious her nipples were hard, and she was a bit flushed. “Lisa said we should not have done that, and I said we did nothing. She masturbated, I masturbated, we only held hands. I told her there was nothing lesbian in masturbating, we all did it. I even told her what Linda had done before, how sometimes when you guys double-dated she would hold your hand Holly as one of you came. I said you were one of the straightest girls I knew, it was just friends sharing, it was not lesbian sex.”