AIN SOPH Part 3

Episode 3

‘Tactical Adventure Online’ was a MMO, or ‘Massive Multiplayer Online’ game that connected people around the world through a fictional Universe of planets and star-systems brimming with Science Fiction adventure. The web page featured a hulking brute of a shirtless warrior with long hair and a battle axe larger than the plate-mail-bikini-clad elf that leaned on her toothpick-thin rapier in front of the warrior. Below were a star ship battling with a mech warrior. The guys at the pizzeria said a player could go anywhere and be anything. Lilly would be happy to be something. Chet had loved the game, and Lilly had briefly played as well, but had given up after only a couple weeks.

Across the top of the Tactical Adventure Online login screen was a plain white banner ad with heavy black letters. "Why do it yourself?" Lilly didn't pay any attention. She created a character named 'StarScream,' the name Chet always wanted for his death metal band. He'd written three ten-minute epics based on the works of Robert E. Howard, and designed a logo as well. The letters were nearly unreadable, modeled after his musical heros. Chet loved Amon Amarth, and when he wasn't listening to them, he liked Cephalic Carnage, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Job For A Cowboy, or a dozen other bands with equally unreadable logos that Lilly was expected to to identify from a few guitar notes. Lilly pretended she was into these bands as well, but only because Chet liked it when she wore the shirts.

She would have done anything for Chet. When he first asked about the pictures, she assumed he wanted to put them on the Internet. He assured her, offering to use her camera that she could erase herself as soon as the were done. He didn't care if he ever saw the photos again, it just got Chet hot to take them.

At first, Lilly did erase the pictures, figuring Chet planned to lure her into a false sense of security and take the pictures when Lilly wasn’t paying attention. She erased the first few sets without looking, but after a couple weeks, Lilly couldn’t resist. She looked, and then she downloaded them on the laptop. Chet didn’t know they still existed.

Episode 4