CHAPTER 31
It would be three more days before the team would get their final quest, and yet in that brief space of time they had settled into somewhat of a comfortable routine in the inner sanctum. Each morning they would all meet for a decadent breakfast with whichever products and cloned daughters happened to be there at the time. Dr. Monsa himself was never present, however, as he found the early morning hours to be his most creative and he tended to use them for work. The clone girls ensured that the breakfast banter was never boring, for they loved to discuss their father’s fascinating inventions and make inquiries of the visitors, most notably of Lily and her life on the fringes of society. They seemingly could not get enough of the fair Star Sister, and D_Light understood the attraction. He often found himself staring at Lily and listening to her with the same wide-eyed curiosity of the girls.
Once breakfast was over, the group would take a morning walk through Dr. Monsa’s magical gardens. Amanda, mostly healed from her injuries but still bearing scars and patches of new skin that had not yet seen the sun, would join them for these walks. Although they always set out together, beginning their walk with a discussion of the upcoming quest, the group inevitably ended up drifting apart. D_Light and Lily often lagged behind, engaged in a sort of playful teasing that irritated Lyra. Lyra and Djoser acted more stately in their exploration of the gardens, almost as though they were in the public eye, which was the exact opposite of the inner sanctum. Eventually, the nobles too would drift apart as Djoser would find himself in need of Amanda and a bit of privacy.
To D_Light, the hours between breakfast and dinner during those several days of waiting were golden- carefree, lovely, and with Lily. Indeed, he enjoyed them so much that he often forgot that he was in the middle of an intensely competitive and dangerous MetaGame. He didn’t think about strategies, points, or the next quest. He didn’t agonize about past mistakes or future prospects. For once, he lived only in the present, and it felt good, even healing.
D_Light and Lily spent a great deal of time taking swims in the lake and streams of the inner sanctum. At first, D_Light spent more time on the water in a borrowed boat than in the water swimming. Lily thought it tragic and taught D_Light several new strokes, including the butterfly. Cocky, thinking he had mastered this stroke, D_Light then challenged Lily to a race. To be sporting, she did the backstroke to his butterfly, but she still beat him, although not by much.
D_Light and Lily also enjoyed passing the time by teaching the nubber, the clever prototype teddy bear, a whole host of tricks, one of which was to dance. Smorgeous made an excellent stereo for this activity. The familiar was encased in an organic shell capable of conducting sound, so he was essentially one good-sized speaker. D_Light even compromised on his personal policy against stupid gimmickry and had Smorgeous download some kitschy dance software, enabling the robot to flawlessly execute thousands of different dances. Lily had never seen a cat do this sort of thing and thought it hysterical. D_Light teased Lily about her impromptu “feeder fish dance” at the groksta a few days back and suggested it would be a good idea for all of them to learn a few of Smorgeous’s moves. The nubber joined in too, although it was so clumsy that it would bump between D_Light, Lily, and Smorgeous like a ping pong ball, occasionally knocking someone off balance. At one point, they all ended up on the manicured lawn in a silly, chortling heap.
The clone daughters continued giving their lessons over those few days, particularly to Lily, who was still unashamedly favored by the girls despite the ridicule of their father. They did learn to better tolerate D_Light, however, as more often than not he now accompanied them on their little field trips.
When D_Light could not be with Lily, such as when the nobles insisted on game strategizing, he thought about her. He had Smorgeous replay memories of the fair-skinned girl, particularly the first time he had seen her under the poplar tree. He even dreamt of her at night-every night, in fact, since they had entered the inner sanctum. This baffled D_Light who, recent nightmares aside, had only dreamt of sailing for as long as he could remember. Smorgeous insisted these new dreams did not exist, so D_Light struggled to remember them on his own and then stored the reconstructed feelings and visions as best he could.
These dreams were intimate, but not exactly sexual. Despite sleeping next to Lily every night, he never attempted any sexual advances, neither in real life nor in his dreams. This was not due to any lack of desire on D_Light’s part. Lily was incredible! And she was very affectionate. Indeed, she enjoyed stroking his body, his arms, his cheeks, his hands; sometimes she even kissed him gently. The two enjoyed being together, talking and sleeping with their bodies pressed together.
Left to her own devices, D_Light doubted Lily would ever initiate sex with him or anyone else. According to camper specifications, her kind was not designed for consensual sex, and therefore no sex drive was required.
Nevertheless, someday, somehow, D_Light wanted to seduce her (assuming that was even possible), not only because he wanted her, but because the loss of her virginity would render her useless for her terrible purpose. After all, she was a single-use product. For now, however, he desired to make no demands on her aside from her company. Eventually, he thought. He then pictured the two of them on his sailboat, anchored in a private cove somewhere, the waves rocking them gently as they lay together in the cozy comfort of the V-berth. They would be safe, relaxed, and happy. Something would stir in her, something primal her designers had overlooked. It would be beautiful, perfect.
Each night, as the artificial sun began to set, the teammates would reunite at the great dining table. Dr. Monsa would eat with them and assemble a retinue of his “lambs” to join them. If it seemed too quiet at the table, the doctor would toss seemingly arbitrary questions to his guests as a sort of family game time.
On this particular eve the table was much too quiet for the doctor’s taste. “What do you think of war?” he shouted out to the entire table, startling D_Light enough to make him lose control of his fork, which ended up on Lyra’s lap. “Evil incarnate or a natural human activity?” he boomed. Dr. Monsa sucked back a trickle of wine that had dribbled out of his malformed lower lip and looked to his audience for a response.
The priest was eager to offer the first answer. “As suggested by divine law, war is undesirable for society but cannot be completely suppressed and is therefore allowed under controlled conditions.”
“Yes, Daddy, the OverSoul sells war permits. Apparently, it is condoned.” Curious_Scourge spoke out of one cheek, as her other one was stuffed with a roasted pulp grub.
“Yes, but does that make it right?” the doctor asked.
Curious_Scourge swallowed. “If two families want to go to war, who is to stop them?”
“To grow as sentient beings, we are bestowed free agency,” the priest quoted.
“Free agency?” Love_Monkey scoffed. “When families meet on the battlefield, I sincerely doubt everyone in attendance wants to be there.”
“You choose your family, and you can leave anytime,” Curious_Scourge retorted.
“Who gets to choose? Not products like us, Sister!” Love_Monkey pointed at herself. “In any case, it’s a sordid business. I’m glad our house doesn’t involve itself in that sort of thing.”
“Au contraire, I often purchase war permits to negotiate with other houses,” the doctor said casually, “but my rivals always back down, and so we never actually meet on the field.”
“I don’t blame them,” Djoser interjected with a chuckle.
“One pack of those cullers of yours would terrify a small army.”
“The cullers?” Dr. Monsa raised his jagged eyebrows.
“Oh, those are just to keep contaminant species out of my garden. I wouldn’t use them for war. I have far better armaments…or worse, from my enemy’s point of view.”
“Daddy used to make weapons,” Curious_Scourge proudly informed the dinner guests.
“Yes, very profitable, actually,” the doctor confirmed.
“The ban on modern weapons was not as restrictive with bioproducts. Naturally, you couldn’t make microbiological agents such as viruses, but larger products were allowed.” The doctor nodded toward Amanda, who was wolfishly devouring her dinner. “Of course, these weapons got out of hand as they always do. As an example, it was not long before dragons inhabited more than just fairy tales.”
