Chapter 03

She came to, Roxy gently shaking her shoulder. Roxy looked confused and worried. Daisy’s mind was still befuddled, not feeling herself.

“Your vitals are fine, but you ran out of Sensitivity boost. Are you ok?” Roxy said, her voice finally making sense to Daisy. She helped the naked child up; Daisy dumbfounded at Roxy being so much taller than her. Roxy squatted to see her at her level, not being a particularly tall woman.

“I- I think I’m ok. I made it back, right?” Daisy had trudge through her thoughts, the existentialism setting in, now that she wasn’t staring at a mirror. Roxy hugged the frail, vulnerable child. She had become increasingly tense as she watched Daisy’s sensitivity boost slowly run out, the last few moments were her panicking that she wasn’t going to make it back once it fully ran out.

“Yes, you’re here with me, Daisy. It’s all ok now,” she was reassuring Daisy, but Roxy needed to hear that comment as well. Roxy stayed with her until the worst of the side effects were over. Once Daisy got a hold of things, she finally was able to talk to Roxy, “I ran out of boost and watched the mirror as I regressed into a child. It was one of the strangest experiences…”

Daisy admitted something she was afraid to say out loud, “It didn’t stop there, though. I could feel something crawling through my mind, changing it. I feel… Different.”

A cold silence fell between the two of them. Roxy pondered this, considering what the possibilities were. She couldn’t believe how dangerous of a stunt David had pulled to make Daisy the first time, but this confirmed the nitty gritty of it. He let the scanner write, as well. It was only supposed to read the mind, to train the FaceBook Device. This was far beyond that.

Roxy took the little girl’s hand, “Don’t go back there unless you absolutely have to. If you do, don’t stay long, ok?”

Daisy nodded, a troubled expression on her face. She took Roxy’s hands in hers, gently petting her, attempting to calm them both down. Roxy sat back down under the tree, letting her cuddle next to her.

“Oh, I’m so sorry, I totally forgot. Did you want me to put on clothes?” With all that was going on, it had slipped her mind.

“I’m not uncomfortable; you’re still Daisy,” Roxy said reassuringly. Daisy would try out all her new outfits when she was in a better headspace, she told Roxy. Roxy pet her back, her fingers on bare skin causing a tingle up Daisy’s spine. She wasn’t touch boosted, of course, but it still felt wonderful.

If she lost track of time when they were making outfit ideas, it was even more apparent when she was still getting over her existentialism. She honestly couldn’t say how long they cuddled under that tree in the Castle in the Sky.

“Do you have time to zombie sleep?” Daisy didn’t feel like being alone right now. She never had bad dreams, but she was still emotionally spent at the event today.

Roxy nodded, “I’ve got plenty of time. That sounds really nice. Where would you like to be?”

Daisy remembered she was going to wait a bit to introduce Roxy to Mabel at a better time. She wanted to go to her bed in the room she shared with Rainbow Ruby. She didn’t want to be in that high-rise apartment though, that now carried some pretty scary memories, “Anywhere but your apartment, no offense.”

“None taken, my dear, we don’t have to ever go back there,” Roxy was completely understanding of that, trying to come up with something else.

“We could go to the map room and check out any sleep maps,” Daisy remembered, petting Roxy’s face. Roxy nodded, smiling.

They cuddled for a bit more before moving on to the familiar white halls. The marble was cold on Daisy’s bare feet, but she liked the smoothness of it. Daisy held Roxy’s hand, having to reach up a bit, as her eye level was at Roxy’s waist. They got to the sleep maps pretty quickly. The one with heaps of plushies caught Daisy’s eye, and Roxy laughed gently and had to agree with her. They teleported, Daisy still the admin of the instance. They explored the place a bit, it had comfy beds and fun plushies everywhere. Daisy found a Rainbow Dash plushie to cuddle, giving Roxy Fluttershy. They found a water bed, Daisy giggling as Roxy tossed her on it, the bed rippling and rolling. Daisy was extremely light, her body was around Rainbow Ruby’s age, if she could guess. Rainbow Ruby used to have an older sister, now she has a twin sister!

Roxy crawled up on the bed, the surface of the bed moving quite a bit more from her shifting weight. Daisy giggles, her high pitched laugh even more obvious. She hadn’t noticed until now, but she had gained a younger voice as well. Roxy laughs too, pouncing on the little girl, sending more ripples to bounce around and lull them to a relaxed state. Roxy changes into a sleep attire, just a simple set of bra and panties. They were brighter than normal, but not overly brightly colored. Daisy told her she liked her outfit, and showed off her new set of faked Virtual Real sleep wear. It was babydoll, and Roxy swooned at how cute it was on her.

“Before we go zombie, we shall set some ground rules. I think it’s best we both stay away from sexual stuff for this night, yeah?” Roxy was always clear about these things, and Daisy appreciated that.

“Yeah, I could certainly use a break, all things considered, and I don’t know how you feel about seeing me in this body,” Daisy over-explained. She was still pretty messed up from the whole threesome thing. She hadn’t found closure to it or even a reason why it impacted her so much. She didn’t want to speculate too much, but her literally regressing to a child might be a side effect of whatever trauma had been dragged out of the recesses of her mind.

They ended up planning a time to wake up, and automated their sliders for a zombie nap. The familiar haze set in on Daisy’s mind, and she played with the ponies, making up a semi-coherent story. Roxy didn’t notice the plot holes and illogical jumps in the story and just watched the juvenile Daisy have a blast. The trope ended up incorporating Roxy’s body as terrain, climbing over hills and crossing valleys. Since they retained consciousness throughout the entire time they zombie napped, Daisy got plenty of time to play with all the toys. Roxy joined in after a while, caught up by the childlike imagination. The stories didn’t make too much sense, but it didn’t need to for their underclocked minds.

Daisy had to go to the bathroom. She wasn’t on her period anymore, clearly because her body was immature now. She still was on HardCore Realistic; she simply had to relieve herself. She looked around, finding the restroom. Things were hilariously bigger, the task of going to the toilet was much different than it used to be. She managed fine, but she practically climbed on the counter to wash her hands afterwards.

She returned to bed, opting to cuddle with Roxy. Roxy was able to completely envelop her. She felt protected and safe. Roxy was an extremely dependable friend, and Daisy was glad she could put her trust in her. She didn’t grow too hot in her friend’s arms, but it was certainly nice and warm.

The scheduled time to wake up rolled around rather quickly, the time they spent felt like more of a nap, since they were only 33% awake. Daisy woke up, her touch boost reactivating, as per her instruction to have it disabled when zombied. She felt Roxy’s hand petting her back, her head cradled by Roxy’s chest. They took a while to fully wake up, being eased back into full consciousness.

Roxy rolled over onto her back, Daisy koala-hanging on, ending up straddling her belly. Daisy propped herself up, accidently pressing on Roxy’s breast. Her face scrunches in pain, Daisy apologizing.

“No, no it was my fault. I didn’t think that little maneuver through,” Roxy admitted, laughing good naturedly. Daisy’s light body moved to her laugh, making Daisy laugh with her. She put her hands on Roxy’s belly instead, moving her legs to sit down more comfortably, as her knees didn’t touch the bed on either side of Roxy. She was really small, it was quite a difference.

“So what would you like to do today? I’ve got plenty of free time,” Roxy offered. Daisy pondered it, “I’ll have to think it over breakfast, want me to summon food to eat here?”

At a nod, Daisy had Ray get out some breakfast-in-bed trays for them. Annie was able to sit at it like it was a small table, whereas Roxy just leaned up against the mountain of pillows and plushies behind her.

Roxy’s AI sent her request of bacon and scrambled eggs, Daisy copying her for her own breakfast, adding milk as her beverage of choice. The plates, utensils, and food shimmered in, along with salt and pepper. Daisy filled up much quicker than yesterday, her appetite matching her new body. She talked to Roxy, excited to show her the outfits, and especially the fursuit.

“I’d love to see everything we came up with in person! I’m very curious to how it feels, being Virtual Real,” Roxy had suggested some pretty awesome outfits, ones that she secretly wished to see Daisy in, “if this babydoll outfit is anything like the rest, I’d say it’s indistinguishably real!”

Roxy felt the fabric of Daisy’s outfit, having already spent most of the night with her in it, but wasn’t the most conscious during that time. Roxy finished up her food, not leaving any like Daisy did. Ray despawned the breakfast-in-bed, and Daisy leapt up to find a mirror. The bed jiggled, she had forgotten it was a water bed. Luckily she was light, the ripples not large enough to unbalance her. Roxy slipped her legs off the side of the bed, not chancing standing up. Daisy vaguely remembers seeing a mirror on their way in, the night prior. It was a wall-sized mirror, reminiscent of her previous games that loved to have a mirror in every map.

She was still off-put seeing such a young girl before her, mainly missing the large breasts she had become accustomed to. The next biggest change was Roxy standing next to her, almost a foot and a half taller.

“What would you like to see first? I wanted to hold off the best for last, the fursuit. I almost finished the list, all the way to the steampunk dress,” Daisy summoned the previously written list with her scrawling handwriting, handing it to Roxy.

“Oh awesome! I was really excited to see you in that punk goth outfit I had selfishly suggested,” she admitted, laughing gently. Daisy summoned a wardrobe to the left of the mirror, with a Shoji Screen in front of it.

“No spoilers until I come out,” she giggled, excited to show off her creativity. The outfits had all turned out almost exactly how she had imagined them, it was a shockingly easy process, despite the end. It didn’t feel like it was Ray summoning the outfits on her like she assumed. It was almost as if she was creating the outfit on herself. That was impossible, though, it had to be Ray fulfilling her mental requests.

She got out of the nightclothes and dressed in the goth outfit, the larger clothes reforming to her tiny body. She will probably get sick of equipping the outfits like this and switch magically behind the screen before coming out. She steps out, her black platform boots easy to walk in, only a bit higher than her normal platforms. She has black socks with leather studded garters holding them up. Her black skirt is matte and soft, high on her waist. Her shirt is a fishnet cutoff, with a black bra underneath and leather straps wrapping across her chest. It certainly had less curvature around her frame than it would have if she were bustier, but still made Roxy swoon. She had black shiny nail polish on, pulled from one of the scans where she thought up random changes to include, if she ever needed it. Luckily, it was on a per-nail basis, so she could mix and match any of the previous colors she had put on her nails, changing it every time she scanned. She even loaded in a bit of nail art, mostly geometric white shapes. She even had a few rings on, which were able to readjust to any finger she slipped them on, so many of her scans were completely full of any ring she could think of. Her ring was a black regular octahedron on her right hand, middle finger, and a white opal on her left hand, middle finger. They had significance, the black one meaning asexuality, with the white one meaning aromanticism.

Roxy clapped her hands as Daisy did a little spin, looking in the mirror as her skirt flared out from the movement. It twisted as she stopped, before unraveling and coming to a rest.

“Adorable! My little goth girl,” She cooed. Daisy had also loaded up a goth makeup look. She didn’t particularly want the feel of makeup, but it was a way to have quick, high quality makeup in MultiPlayer, without having to buy it. She had pitch black panties on to match the black bra, but her skirt was long enough to cover her up, even with spinning around.

Next Daisy showed off her favorite, a simple yellow sundress. She was naked underneath; it felt so freeing, the fabric light and pleasant against her skin. She had a comically big straw hat on, it had adjusted to her head but still looked huge and floppy. It had her signature daisy on it, with a bright blue ribbon around the base.

“You absolute treasure!” Roxy said as Daisy stepped out, barefooted. She had no nail polish, rings, or makeup on, keeping it natural. She did a spin here as well, spinning much more extravagantly. She giggled, spinning two and three times. The sundress flared out, if Roxy wasn’t so tall, she would have been flashed by her. It was nothing she hadn’t seen before, though. Daisy stopped spinning, the dress taking much longer to wrap up around her body before spinning the other way. Her hat had been knocked off a little from one of her arms keeping her balance, she readjusted it and took a look at herself. She was getting used to her body, starting to adore it.

She showed off plenty of outfits, taking suggestions from Roxy or showing off the ones she particularly liked. Finally, she decided to show off the fursuit. She nervously stepped out, for the first time she wasn’t fully comfortable around Roxy. Of course Roxy would like it, she was there when Daisy designed it. The whole furry thing felt like unfamiliar territory to Daisy, however, and knew that it was new for Roxy, as well.

She didn’t need to be afraid, however, as Roxy cheered her on as soon as she saw it. Daisy gave her a hug, still getting used to the height difference. She turned and looked at herself, the furry looking miniature compared to how she loaded in with it. Her breasts were small little bumps under the fur, completely different to what the fursuit looked like the first time. It was blissfully soft though, the carpet of fur hugging her tightly. Her fluffy paws flashed her felt claws as she looked in the mirror, swinging her tail to the side to get a fierce pose.

“Awwwww the little kitty!” Roxy watched the bipedal cat look at herself in the mirror.

Daisy got a good idea and loaded in a pink skirt she had scanned in at some point, along with a lavender tee-shirt with dark purple ace of spades on it, over the fursuit. Her tail hung from under the skirt, lifting a bit as she swished it around. She looked in the mirror and was hit with a wave of nostalgia. She laughed, Roxy not getting it.

“There’s something missing from this,” and she adds white gloves over her paws. She poses in a waving animation, “I’m a toon, from ToonTown!”

Roxy’s face didn’t change much to show she knew what that meant. Daisy put her hands up to her feline face, making a surprise animation, “I wonder if Virtual World has a recreation of it! It’s an old MMORPG made by Disney.”

Ray confirmed that there was the world she was thinking of, recreated in Virtual Real resolution and with MultiPlayer. Daisy passed on the information, getting excited. This could be her first MMORPG she really gets into! What a nostalgia trip it will be to see the quirky houses, hordes of toons, and scary cogs in person! She vaguely remembers the graphics being really basic, she’s excited to see the better resolution. It’s hard to recall that far back, she thinks that might have been her first game. She knows she was a blue cat with a skirt, that really kicked off her love for skirts. The game also had her select a last name, from two lists of names, combining them in funny ways.

“Daisy McMash,” She said out loud after a bit of staring at her character. She had two colors on this fursuit, unlike the game’s single-colored toons, but the clothes and gloves really sparked her memory.

“Is that your last name?” Roxy inquired, not hearing her internal thoughts to connect the dots.

“No, no,” Daisy laughed, “that’s my toon’s name. I had a blue cat in the game. Would you want to check it out today? It would be a great game to play with the other girls, if you’re up for it.”

Roxy pondered it. She eventually nodded, “we can hop on that when they get online. But I’d like to do something with just us, while we still have time to ourselves.”

Daisy looked at Roxy, wondering if she had a deeper meaning to the statement. Roxy blushed and waved her hands, “no, I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Uh, huh,” Daisy said, heaping on the sarcasm. Roxy put her hands over her face; Daisy was sure she was actually embarrassed and not just pretending.

“Now you have to save yourself; what did you have in mind, Roxy?” Daisy egged her on. It did well to lighten the mood, and she peeked out from between her fingers.

“If you wanted to watch something, I’d like to. I was thinking of StarBeam, since I haven’t watched it. But it can be anything you would like,” she said, letting her hands drop back down to her sides after a bit.

Daisy nodded, “StarBeam sounds great! Sorry for dumping you into the universe without watching it first.”

Roxy assured her that it was fine, there were plenty of maps she had played without watching the source material. Copyright is completely different in the Virtual World. In MultiPlayer, you would still have to pay to watch content, like in a movie theater or otherwise. In PrivatePlayer and especially SinglePlayer, your device can access anything, anytime. If it exists, it will find it. These protocols run rampant across the web, accessing and caching material that would have otherwise been locked away by copyright. The majority of media has moved on to use their material to promote their worlds in the Virtual World, or use old material to create content for the Virtual World. A highly trafficked map in the Virtual World is worth more than any box office earning. The Virtual World is both the entertainment industry and the audience.

Daisy spawns a large TV screen in front of the water bed. She climbs up, having to use the bedpost to assist her up. She’s still in her fursuit, the soft fur irresistible. Roxy lays down beside her, petting her fur. The first episode plays, Daisy naming the characters that didn’t show up in game.

After plenty of episodes, and many spawned-in snacks, Annie comes online. Daisy has her join the sleep map in her PrivatePlayer session.

“Oh my god you’re adorable!” Annie says as Daisy pounces on her, “you’re also… So tiny?”

Daisy hangs from the embrace of Annie’s arms, the girl surprised at the huge difference from when she last saw her. If she didn’t know only 2 users were in this instance, she wouldn’t have even recognized Daisy as this little kitty cat. It was PrivatePlayer, Daisy probably sized herself down to be a cat, she assumed.

Daisy cuddled against Annie, like a little koala. Annie’s hands touched the back of Daisy’s fur coated arms, “oh my, this is Virtual Real?”

“Hey Annie,” Roxy said from the bed, unsure if Annie wanted to hug her. She looked a bit tied up at the moment, Daisy still clinging on.

“Hey Roxy, I’d give you a hug, but,” Annie giggled, moving her hands to hold under Daisy’s furry thighs to support her before she fell. Daisy rested her head against Annie’s shoulder, her curly red hair from the fursuit head cascading down Annie’s arm.

Annie put up with the hug for a bit before waddling over to the edge of the water bed, setting Daisy down so she was sitting on the bed.

“Let me say hi to Roxy and we can cuddle afterwards, yeah?” Annie stepped up on the bed, balancing erratically on the moving water bed, “oh this is going differently than I imagined it,” as she started to tumble.

Roxy reached out, catching her hand and pulling her into a hug. She was sitting down, but Annie didn’t have to lean over much to give her a welcome embrace.

“We were just binging StarBeam,” Roxy says, explaining the paused episode.

“Oh don’t mind me, finish the episode and even keep watching if you want to!” Annie said, happy to rewatch the episode, as long as it meant she could cuddle with the little kitty.

They did just that, until Daisy forgot that her voice sounded younger and made a comment on the show.

“Woh, Daisy, you sound different,” Annie usually wouldn’t bring up stuff like that randomly, but it just took her by surprise.

“Oh, yeah, sorry for not telling you sooner. I’m using an old scan,” Daisy lied, having to think up something quickly.

“Just for the fursuit?” Annie wondered, not really getting it. She wouldn’t want people asking why she was using an older scan, but she had thought Daisy acted quite comfortable in her body.

“No, some other reason I won’t get into,” Daisy said, Roxy visibly growing awkward with guilt. Roxy must have also guessed that it was what she suggested that caused Daisy to regress back to childhood. She was a wicked smart girl. Daisy didn’t want her to feel that burden, though, no one could have guessed that would happen. Daisy feels really bad, Roxy must be beating herself up for not asking her one-on-one first. Roxy was always so good about it, Daisy should tell her that she forgives her for it. She has Ray send a text, she can’t bear not addressing that any further.

Roxy must have read the text, she excused herself off to the bathroom, to refrain from showing a physical response to the text. Annie didn’t see or figure out the silent exchange. Roxy didn’t have any emotion sliders on from what Daisy knew; she was good at hiding it regardless.

Daisy wanted to go in there and talk to her, but that would be pretty obvious at that point. She texted her a bit, Annie was fine with cuddling and petting Daisy quietly until Roxy got back from the bathroom. Roxy looked fine, no indication of the emotions she went through were there. Daisy did have to accept a VIP request to dry her tears, though. That shook Daisy, she hadn’t known Roxy to be one to cry. It might be that she has only recently been off of emotion sliders. Overall, the texting went well. Daisy was very clear with her that she didn’t blame her for anything, and that whatever was going on with Daisy’s mental state was out of her expertise, as well. Roxy was apologetic, Daisy was fine with that if it made Roxy feel better to apologize. She forgave her a few times, really trying to put meaning into the texts. Daisy even worked in a couple of video messages, those could be chosen to be filtered from people hearing or seeing her make the message. If she wanted to, she could incorporate others in her voice message, but she would have to specify that they were in it. Only then could they hear what she was saying.

Daisy unpaused StarBeam as Roxy settled down. Roxy kept her distance, giving Annie a turn with the kitty. Daisy was unsure if Roxy was keeping her distance from not knowing Annie well, or that she was because she was now hyper aware of Daisy’s issue. Now that Daisy was aware of it, she was hypersensitive to it as well, so she completely understood and appreciated that. She would make a mental note to only show affection to one person at a time. She doesn’t know what would trigger it again, but hopes the filter she made can cover up the worst of it. However, that’s all it would be, a cover. It couldn’t stop anything from happening, and Daisy could still assume what was happening from context clues surrounding any event. She sent Roxy a quick thank you text, appreciating her being mindful. Roxy smiled at her; Annie busy with paying attention to the show.

They had almost finished all of StarBeam before Catalina logged on. It had a lot of seasons, but the episodes were short, and there weren’t many episodes in each season. Daisy discovered she hadn’t seen the newest season, and maybe one or two special episodes that they release for a holiday. Catalina also appeared in the Sleep Map, the show being paused for everyone to make their greetings. Catalina fell in love with Daisy’s fursuit. Daisy told her about toontown, explaining the clothes and gloves she was wearing. If Catalina noticed her different voice, she didn’t mention it. She was reading subtitles, anyway. Really, if Daisy wanted, she could speak to everyone in Spanish and they could understand her. She didn’t, because Roxy and Annie benefited from not having anything lost in translation when she spoke English. It was still a fun option to consider, to keep her Spanish in practice.

Daisy took a deep breath. This was the first time she had to admit it to anyone, she didn’t even know how to explain it, as it was new to her as well. She told Annie and Catalina, “could you please take turns showing affection to me? I can’t have too much going on at once.”

Daisy was glad that they didn’t group hug when they saw Catalina, and she was determined to keep it that way. Maybe she was being paranoid, but it was clear something had caused her some damage. She didn’t know what it was because of the amnesia, so she couldn’t explain it any better than what she said to the girls. They seemed to be fine with the general request and explanation, Catalina excited to have her turn cuddling with Daisy. She even donned her own fursuit, the last season of the show starting to play as everyone got on the waterbed. Having that many people on it meant that the ripples and rolls of the waterbed never died down completely, as someone was always moving. Especially Catalina and Daisy, they got rather playful as they brought out each other’s wild side. Daisy wasn’t afraid to play rough with the much heavier girl, her light stature unable to topple her playmate. Catalina was more gentle and slow moving but would still be able to restrain the crazy kitty with a bear hug.

Annie and Roxy got along, not exactly sitting close to each other but not cold to each other as well. Annie was interested in Roxy’s take-away from the show, as it taught really inspiring morals. Even as an adult, there was plenty to learn from it, she stated after some thought. Annie couldn’t agree more, some of these shows helped her in her everyday life.

By the end of the show, Catalina and Daisy hit a new fervor of playing around. They were a rowdy duo, Daisy meowing and Catalina… Chirping, or whatever foxes do.

Once the show finished, they agreed on going to check out ToonTown. Everyone followed Daisy’s teleport to MultiPlayer. As the room reformed to a much larger one, she could hear the infernal jazzy theme song, playing the nostalgic riff by different instruments. Between the chorus, it would have instruments go off on tangents, not really headed anywhere but never staying still. It meandered, the live recording of a Disney band having an unmistakably real feeling behind it, as if real life could have a soundtrack. The room that appeared around them had several options for species, as one could don a Virtual fursuit if they didn’t bring their own. There were racks separated into species, with columns separated into color in a rainbow down the line, and rows separated into variations, like male, female, nonbinary, and a few more. Everything had a stylistic picture of what it would look like to help them decide, as all the suits were neatly tucked away in trays. The suits would replenish themselves when you left with them, so people could get the same toon if they wanted to.

Roxy and Annie perused the racks, needing to look the part. There were gloves that were closer to the Toon look, but Daisy kept her own gloves and clothes. She went through the trouble of getting all her Virtual Real stuff; she liked how she looked. It was probably a status flex to be able to be a toon by using a Virtual Real outfit, anyway.

Roxy selected a lavender colored mouse, Annie chose a dark green dog. The Virtual outfits stretched or shrunk to fit their body types, respectively. They exited the room once everyone was ready, a toon greeted them as they opened the door. They weren’t just any toon, but Mickey Mouse himself. He introduced himself as the mayor of ToonTown, happy that they were here. It was a brief meeting, he had stuff to do and guided them over to a blue dog toon, who introduced himself as Flippy Doggenbottom. He walked them out of Mickey Toon Hall, giving them a tutorial of ToonTown Central. He barked and woofed, what he was saying was displayed as subtitles. Daisy colored them blue, like his fur. They stood in the middle of the plaza, where one could see almost all of ToonTown Central. He pointed out the red brick headquarters building closest to them, which had on a fire chief helmet and loudspeakers pointing out haphazardly.

“Go through the two blue doors at headquarters to receive your quest… Oh, silly me, I didn’t even explain what your quests are!” Flippy said, laughing at himself. Daisy knew, as she had played the source material in one of her previous lives.

“ToonTown is in trouble, and we need your help. Cogs have invaded, and are taking over our small businesses and put toon livelihoods in danger. I know you just moved in, but we could use everytoon’s help,” he looked at everyone, smiling a goofy grin.

“What’s a cog?” Annie asked, not afraid to question the NPC.

“A cog is a robot; they strive to turn our town into a soulless industrial landscape. If you would like to help defeat them, we can teach you how to use gags. Gags are jokes, pranks, goofs, gaffs, stuff like that. However, the cogs can’t stand it and explode!”

At everyone seeming to be agreeable to this, Flippy continued, “your quests will earn you JellyBeans, you can use those to buy gags to defeat cogs. You can also use your earnings to fish, buy furniture, clothes, or anything you would like during your stay. You can also earn JellyBeans from selling caught fish to the pet store, riding the trolley and completing minigames, golfing, or racing GoKarts! There’s plenty of fun here, even with the cog situation. All this fun will increase your laff points, which is what you have to be aware of in order to keep fighting the cogs,” with this statement, a floating silhouette of a stylized cat head appeared, colored with pink at the top and had a gradient of blue at the bottom. The 15 out of 15 on it must symbolize her current laugh points, and the cat face was smiling.

Flippy explained more about the town, pointing out the trolley, gag shop, pet store, and other amenities the town offered. Daisy noticed there were stores for food, which she didn’t recall having in the base game. This is likely to accommodate the HardCore Realistic players. Daisy can see herself making this her go-to MMO, if it turns out to be really fun here.

She also noticed the difference in population. There were plenty of toons running around, some in Virtual Real fursuits like her. This was a well trafficked game. She hadn’t seen this many people since the trip to Virtual Market.

Flippy handed them their own Shticker Books. He told them that this is where they would find their map, inventory, and plenty of other useful stuff, like the types of fish they have caught. Daisy flipped through it, the cartoony doodles of the map bringing back memories. Toons could teleport to other places, if they unlocked that ability. They could always teleport to their house, or the nearest playground. They teleported by taking a black circle from their Shticker Book, stretching it and tossing it on the ground, and then promptly leaping into the hole they just created. The hole closes up where they just were and opens where they are going, spitting them onto their feet before disappearing. It’s probably a wild feeling in the Virtual World.

The playground they were currently in was ToonTown Central, and it was connected to the other playgrounds by streets. These are the streets they would encounter Cogs on, and also where all the toon small businesses were. Some small businesses would fall to corporate chains, and a nasty cog building would be erected in its place. Cog buildings often took a group of toons to enter and destroy all the cogs in it, before the original owners could take their store back. Toons would have to survive waves on cogs on each floor, the harder buildings had more floors. They could run out of gags or laff points, and would become sad and return to the playground automatically. Luckily, in the playgrounds, it was a cheerful place. There were plenty of ways to regain laff points, like eating ice cream in ToonTown Central, picking up StarFish in Donald’s Dock, picking flowers in Daisy Gardens, collecting notes in Minnie’s Melodyland, catching snowflakes in The Brrrgh, or catching Zs in Donald’s Dreamland, each playground having a theme. The story, as Daisy remembers it, progressed throughout each of the playgrounds in that order. They would get tasks from HeadQuarters located at each of those playgrounds. The surrounding streets would be full of higher and higher level cogs. Finally, on the map, the streets branched out to various Cog HeadQuarters. These places were tall, grey skyscrapers. Daisy saw that the map had five Cog HeadQuarters instead of four, like she was used to.

“Step up on the trolley to start your first minigame. This will earn you JellyBeans to buy gags. The trolley will make a stop at the gag shop if you want to buy gags or get off,” the blue dog gestured, four seats available on the trolley. They each take a seat, a timer counts down before sending them off into the tunnel. They pass by minigames, Daisy recognizing most of them, and points them out to the girls. There was tug of war, the catching game, the matching game, pac man but with cogs instead of ghosts, and there would have been plenty more if the trolley hadn’t made a stop at a lake. What could this one be, she wondered? It didn’t look deep enough for the treasure dive game…

A sign was posted, detailing the game and the rules. It’s the ring game! Daisy wonders how this is going to be on HardCore Realistic. Cold and wet, she assumes. There are 15 rings in the lake, they must swim through them to earn points. They only get one shot at each ring, so if they miss there is no turning around. They could vote to skip this one, otherwise it will start the timer in 15 seconds. Daisy sits on the edge of the pier, dipping her paws in the water. Oh it’s certainly cold. The timer runs out, it looks like this is the minigame they will play. Daisy stands up and dives into the water, the swimmer that she is. The girls follow, each using various methods to get in the water. Annie and Catalina jump in feet first, holding hands. Roxy follows Daisy’s lead and dives in as well.

Daisy was expecting to get a workout swimming, but after a certain point in her dive, she realizes her streamline is not slowing down. She feels a propulsion from behind her, the rest of the girls similarly being pushed along. This is how they can make it through the underwater rings. The first few rings are easy, they are still in the water and relatively big. After the third ring, Daisy realizes she desperately has to breathe. She uses her magical inertia to breach the surface, taking a breath to the side like she is used to, and dives back down to continue passing through rings. The other girls don’t have to, likely not on HardCore Realistic. Daisy doesn’t miss any, including the rings that move in circles or patterns to make it harder. They had circled around back to the trolley in their journey through the rings, Daisy easily pulling herself up onto the pier and turns around to help the girls. Daisy forgets she is a child now, but surprisingly her account stats have enough strength to help Annie out. Catalina comes in hot, using the last bit of her propulsion to fly out of the air. Daisy wishes she could say that Catalina effortlessly exited the water and landed gracefully, but she was just a shy bit too low, and the side of her body collided with the pier. Daisy gasps and both her and Annie catch her arms, unable to lift her up, but not letting her drop back into the water. Roxy had made it back up at this point, she goes between the children and puts her strong arms under Catalina’s armpits. She lifts with her legs, Catalina dragged up and over the pier. The blue fox walked with them a bit stiffly, she might have had her pain setting turned on for the game. They boarded the trolley, all of them dripping wet. As the trolley moved, it seemed to dry them off unusually fast as it traveled to the Gag Store. Catalina’s pain also went away, the change from MiniGame to Gag Store must have reset their statuses. In their HUDs, they saw a JellyBean jar with a number counting up on it. Daisy had earned 45 JellyBeans, three for each ring. The trolley pulled up to a well lit station; they hopped off and approached the counter. The NPC toons behind the counter greeted them, a chart of the gag reels appearing on the table before them. Daisy looked at hers, she hadn’t unlocked any. An announcer over the PA system explained each gag track, saying they could select two. Daisy had to stand on her tippy toes to look at them, she noticed that they all didn’t have to start out with squirt and throw, like the old game. Squirt had a flower that would squirt water at the cogs in the first slot, the rest of the gags in the track would be unlocked by using the gag type often. Throw had a cupcake that they were meant to hurl at the cogs faces. Throw and Squirt were the original combo, not only for Daisy, but for anyone that played the Disney version of the game before it shut down. There was a new track that Daisy hadn’t heard of, she listened in as the PA system explained it to the girls.

“Zap is our newest invention in our gag arsenal. It has a very low accuracy, unless the cog has been soaked, meaning a successful hit from a squirt gag has landed. Higher level squirt gags will soak the cog for longer,” the announcer had already explained how ToonTown was a turn-based game, so more turns will have to pass before they lose the soaked status, “and a Zap gag will have 100% accuracy at that point!” Daisy raised her eyebrows, this sounding like a powerful addition to ToonTown. It got even better sounding through, as they continued, “Zap gags will have three times the damage on soaked cogs, as well as be able to zap up to two nearby soaked cogs for less damage on each jump.”

They all talked about what starting Gag tracks they liked after the PA explained them all. Daisy went with Squirt and Zap, interested in this new combo. Catalina chose lure and trap. Trap would not work without lure. The first gag in the trap lineup is a banana peel. The cog would not walk over it and trip unless they were successfully lured to, like by a one dollar bill on the end of a fishing line, the first gag in the lure track. Roxy chose Toon-up and Sound, she would be Support and area of effect damage. Toon-up healed toons laff points, such as tickling them with a feather, which was the first gag in the lineup for that track. Sound damaged all cogs by blasting them with noise, such as the first gag of blowing into a kazoo. This left drop and throw for Annie. The first gag in drop would give Annie a button that would release a flower pot from above a cog’s head, preferably lured, but it wasn’t a necessity like trap. A lured cog could not jump out of the way, but the flower pot could still miss. If it wasn’t lured, the cog had the ability to jump out of the way and the flower pot’s trajectory could still be inaccurate. They didn’t all have to have different starting gags, and they would unlock more tracks in the future, but it seemed like a fun idea to try everything. In the start of the game, there wasn’t much strategy involved. With higher level cogs, though, they would need to deliberate who used what gag. For example, a lured cog wouldn’t be able to attack for a few rounds, sparing the team possible damage against them. However, if Roxy used her sound gag, it would hit all cogs, releasing any trapped in a lured state. This could end up costing the team laff points and even the battle, since the cog could now attack them again.

Flippy Doggenbottom met them outside the gag shop, once they used their earnings to buy 10 gags of each track they chose, costing one jelly bean each. This was the bag limit for them all, and Daisy had to carry all the Squirting Flowers and Joy Buzzers in an actual backpack. She was glad she hadn’t chosen throw, that track ended up having a toon throw entire pies or birthday cakes at cogs. All tracks had their most powerful gag in the last slot, which took the most amount of experience to unlock. All gags were unlocked sequentially, as successful hits against cogs would give experience for that track. Throw’s most powerful gag was a wedding cake, hurled at one cog and dealing massive damage. Each cog had a health indicator on their chest, green was nearly full, yellow was damaged, red was almost destroyed, and flashing red signified they were about to explode.

Flippy walked with them to show them how to attack cogs. He led them onto a street called Loopy Lane. There were mom and pop shops lining the edge of the street, and on the road, cogs walked menacingly. Their gait was robotic, their speed unchanging. The group nervously approached them. When they got in range, battle music played and they all lined up. Flippy woofs, telling them to ready their gags, as toons get to go first. The cog waited patiently, emotionless. It was a Penny Pincher, Daisy assumed by the tall, bronze face. They all had quirky names that related to their Cog Department. A Penny Pincher was from the CashBot department, in charge of the CogBucks that they use. The name, level, and department would have been written floating above their heads, but Daisy was on HardCore Realistic. She could have used the ToonTown HUD to get a feel for the old game, but she wanted to relive it in a new light. She knew enough about the game to be comfortable without all that help, as well.

Daisy took out a flower and clipped it to her shirt. She would need the soaked state to use her Joybuzzer, if the cog survived the first volley. Everyone locked in their choices. Flippy was on the sidelines, telling them which toons to go first. Toonup was the first, but seeing that Roxy had chosen to use sound, he moved on to the next one.

Catalina had chosen to set her trap first, and she peeled a banana and placed it in front of the cog, running back to stand in line with her friends. Lure would go next, but she had the group’s only lure, so they would have to do it next round.

Roxy was able to go next, she took out her red kazoo and stepped in front of the cog. She blew it, causing the Penny Pincher to cover its ears. Once she returned back in line, the group noticed another cog stand behind the Penny Pincher. It was a Pencil Pusher, by the conical shape of its pointy head, Daisy could tell. It would join the battle after both sides had finished their turns. Next was throw, but it looked like Annie had opted to try drop first, which went after squirt and zap. Zap always went after Squirt, so toons could set up a soak and zap in one turn. They might have been better to choose these gags as a combo with two different toons, instead of the solo combos that take two rounds to set up. They will each unlock a third track soon enough, Daisy supposes.

Daisy steps forward, a little intimidated. Once she got in range of the unknowing cog, she secretly pressed a red button that activated it, squirting the Penny Pincher with water. It flinched, covering its face and attempting to keep its stoic composure. It wasn’t the most convincing, and the toons behind her laughed and encouraged her. This got the cog angry, the green light on its chest turned to yellow. Lastly, Annie took out her button, releasing the flower pot from above. This was the highest damage gags, but also the least accurate. The cog jumped out of the way as the flowerpot smashed harmlessly into the ground where it had stood. Daisy told her that it was better to have the cog lured when trying to drop, but not necessary. It looks like this Penny Pincher will survive this round. Not only that, but it’s time for it to attack the toons.

The cog reaches into its pocket, pulling out a white check. It makes a guttural sound, speaking in its simple language. The subtitles translated, displaying ‘This is going to cost you…’ and throws the check, it bounces toward the toons. The game has a funny way of playing with words, as this was a literal bounce check. Cogs usually target the toon who did the most damage, and since Annie’s drop missed, and Roxy’s kazoo didn’t hurt it much; Daisy was in its sights. She tried to dodge, but it seems her actions don’t influence the outcome; it hits her. It doesn’t hurt too much, as it’s just paper, but she knows she lost several laff points. She realized if she hadn’t restricted her AI from touching her emotions, that it could have literally impacted her mood. That made going sad, running out of laff points, a lot more scary for anyone with emotion sliders enabled.

As the next round starts, the Pencil Pusher joins. Catalina’s trap is still in front of the cog, so they decide to target the new one as she lures the damaged one. They lock in, and Roxy uses ToonUp on Daisy. She tickles her with a feather; Daisy is able to feel the tickles through her fursuit. She giggles, writhing in merriment. Her laugh points are fully restored.

Flippy reminds them that Lure goes next. Catalina casts her fishing rod with a dollar tied to it. The Penny Pincher can’t resist and follows it, stepping right onto the banana peel. It flails spectacularly as it lands on its rear, the toons laughing at the slapstick humor. The dot on its chest turns red and Daisy swears that the permanent frown on its face frowns a little more.

Daisy uses her Squirting Flower again, more confident this time. Squirt adds a soak effect to all cogs in the blast range, even if the squirt only targets one cog at a time. This didn’t matter much, as it just raised the damaged cog’s soaked state back up as Daisy’s flower connected with the Pencil Pusher. The Pencil Pusher’s light now turned yellow as it took damage from the gag. Finally, Annie took out a cupcake and hurled it at the Penny Pincher. The cupcake connected, leaving a frosting trail as it slid off. It still stayed yellow, which surprised Daisy. Throw was usually a heavy hitter, compared to the other gags. However, she didn’t know the level of the cog, so it could just be high enough to tank the damage. Not knowing the levels would have made this game much harder to solo. She can rely on others during the time they choose what to throw.

It was back to the cogs turn, and now there were two of them. The Penny Pincher wags its finger at Catalina, who caused the most damage to it. It says in its strange language, ‘Don't make me laugh’ and purple text effects float towards Catalina. The text effect says ‘blah’ over and over, showering her. She takes damage to her laff points, getting knocked over by the wave of words. She stands back up, brushing off the back of her skirt.

It’s now the Pencil Pusher’s turn. It pulls out a pen, clicking it. It says in a different sounding voice, but just as garbled, words that translate to ‘be prepared for some permanent damage’ and shoots black ink at Annie. She ducks, and the ink actually misses her.

It’s the toons’ turn again, they can probably finish up the fight with this one. Roxy could sound again, certainly destroying the Penny Pincher with a red light on. However, Daisy suggests using her ToonUp again, as restoring laff points is super important later on, she could use the easy-to-get experience. The rest of the girls can easily take out the remaining health of the cogs.

Figuring out their plan, they lock in. Only a certain amount of time is allowed for deliberation, Flippy warns. Roxy walks over to Catalina, tickling the blue fox. Catalina giggles, her laugh points filling back up. Roxy tickles under her armpits, her meter now full. She wipes away a fake tear from her fursuit eye, still laughing a bit as Roxy returns to her spot.

Catalina lures the cog with higher health, the Pencil Pusher. It does not take the bait and stays still, unaffected by the dollar waving around in the wind. Catalina reels it in, shrugging. There will be plenty of damage headed their way soon enough.

Annie chose throw, so she could get in some experience before Daisy blasts the cogs with a zap. Since Zap is guaranteed to land, and both cogs have a soaked effect on them, Daisy will clear out the rest of them with the damage multiplier on zap as well. Had she chose drop, there would be no cogs left to use gags on after Daisy’s done with them. A cupcake magically appeared in her hand, she launched it at the Pencil Pusher again. This time, it was ready for it, and leapt out of the way. Too bad, it won’t give her any extra experience for that.

To finish it off, Daisy approaches the Penny Pincher. Had she chose the Pencil Pusher and it exploded from Annie’s cupcake, her turn would have been nullified. Zap has a primary target, and does the most damage to it. It should still do plenty of damage to the Pencil Pusher through the jump effect that soak allows. She reaches out a friendly hand, thinking up on the spot, “well played. You were both shocking…”

The Penny Pincher falls for it, and would have gotten zapped regardless if it did, since it was soaked. She takes its hand and feels a tingle as the joy buzzer’s yellow electricity travels through both of the cogs. She backs up quickly before they start to explode. Their arms stick out and they spin, their internal circuitry fried from the fun that the toons were having. Their extremities separate from their body and parts bounce everywhere, shimmering out of existence.

“Great job, toons! If you want to help the cause, there is plenty of work for you at the HeadQuarters. You will also find HeadQuarters on each street and at other playgrounds. But now I get to show you the fun stuff, so come on back with me to the ToonTown Central Playground!” Flippy barks, and the group follows him along the sidewalk, in order not to activate another battle with cogs. It isn’t long before they pass through the brick archway, which had white gloved signs pointing to it, declaring that they were headed to ToonTown Central through that passageway. Flippy walks them around, showing off where they would enter Goofy Speedway to GoKart. It’s a large tire arch, different from the brick arches that other streets start out with. He then walks them back to the center, where a white Gazebo is in the middle of an island. Butterflies fly around, Catalina gets distracted and chases them. Daisy joins her, her playful nature returning now that they are out of danger. Flippy yaps, pointing at the docks that surround the larger part of the pond by the Gazebo. This is where they will fish. Two dark spots float around, bubbling occasionally. He says that they will take their fishing rod, baited with a jelly bean, and cast on those shadows. There, fish will go for the bait, and all they have to do is reel in. Daisy wasn’t paying attention, but she knew about fishing from ToonTown. She had only unlocked every fishing rod and caught every fish in the original game. However, she and Catalina stop romping around in the grass once they see everyone start fishing. They want to as well, and each take a pier of their own. The pond is rather small, so it’s easy to cast the jelly-bean loaded hook towards the bubbling shadow. Daisy was the first to catch a fish, familiar with the cadence of the shadow’s movements. They had a really easy hitbox, a toon only had to cast in the general area of the shadow. Daisy pulled up what she caught, not surprised when she saw a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with light brown tendrils. This was a peanut butter and jellyfish, ToonTown always playing with their words. Daisy put it in the bucket filled with water beside her. She would take it over to the Pet Store employee after her bucket couldn’t fit any more fish.

They all fished, some toons stopping by to join them, as there were 6 available docks. Usually there’s only 4 docks at fishing holes, but ToonTown Central got the most traffic, so they must have added a few more. Fishing was fun, the rest of the group surprised by the unique fish they were catching. Daisy knew about it all, but had never experienced the Virtual Real version of ToonTown. The smells, the feeling, the sun, everything here was so awesome. Places like The Brrrgh will have less friendly weather, she might freeze her butt off there. And she can’t imagine how scary it would be to visit a Cog HQ in person.

After being satisfied with their fishing, there was one last thing. They could visit their estate! Daisy asked Flippy, who was still hanging around them, if they four could have the same estate. Each one of them would get a house, estates would usually have 6 plots of land, for alternate accounts. Of course, in the Virtual World, alternate accounts weren’t a thing. It could probably be done in-game, to don different fursuits when you felt like switching accounts. Flippy agreed though, and they all got neighboring houses. He told them they can visit their estate any time, except for mid-battle or mid-raid. They all took out the black two dimensional circle as instructed, and stretched it, flopping it on the ground like a pancake. It created a strange void effect, it was almost hard to look at because of how pitch black it was. Daisy held her breath arbitrarily, she had no idea what it was going to feel like when she jumped through.

It was wild, one moment she was in ToonTown Central, the next she was being shot out of the ground. She landed on her feet, the void shrinking into nothing beneath her. Her friends popped up, similarly disoriented. They laughed, what a wild ride. Each saw their name printed over their house. Daisy was a little disappointed it didn’t say McMash at the end of her name. They could spend their JellyBeans at Clarabelle’s Cattlelog. They would use a crank phone to ring up the only person they could call, Clarabelle the cow. She would let them order any furniture, clothes, training for their doodle, and much more. A doodle was a pet, a jelly bean shaped animal with big paws that their bodies floated above, no leg connecting them.

The JellyBean bank located in their house could transfer JellyBeans into account money, and vice versa. Daisy could use her work funds to spruce up her house. Perfect! This was also a game she wouldn’t mind grinding to get back JellyBeans. She could level up her toon while making back that money. Or she could use the in-game JellyBeans to buy even more things.

Roxy had to call it a day at this point. This was a fair place to end off, they had finished at least the tutorial to the game. Daisy wanted to decorate her house anyway. She didn’t want to get too caught up in transferring funds, but if she saw something in the Cattlelog that she wanted, it might just prove reason enough to do so.

Daisy hugged Roxy. Instead of disappearing from her arms, she opted to take out the portal and log out the old fashioned way. She waved to the girls as she hopped feet first into the flat black circle, the circle shrinking as she left their sight.

Daisy took the two remaining girls into her house as she browsed the Cattlelog and bought a few things. A nicer bed was on the top of the list. Any furniture she didn’t need she could store in the attic, but she was also on HardCore Realistic, so that meant taking it up to the attic. The girls helped her get rid of the default bed, not an easy task. Once they finished their renovations, it was time just to hang out.

The house had 2 rooms and a bathroom, one main large one with a bedroom on the opposite side from the entrance way. The room was a gentle rounded square. The fireplace was staying where it was, Daisy wasn’t even sure if she could move it in HardCore Realistic. It was a white brick fireplace, on the right of the door to the bedroom. On the left of the door to the bedroom was the crank phone. Daisy had put a massive rug in the center of the main room, it really warmed the place up from the hardwood floor. It looked like hardwood flooring was able to be purchased through the Cattlelog, but there’s no way she was going to tear out the old stuff the real way. A rug will do just fine. It was a bright and cheery rug. This furniture looked much nicer than what she was used to from the game. Everything was nicer, since it was at Virtual World resolution, but especially the interior design was more thought out. No offense to the old game, of course, those were much simpler times. A crank phone is so old that kids these days don’t even have phones, as their FaceBook device just speaks right into their minds.

Asking the girls yet again to help her move in more furniture, Daisy was wondering if they were getting sick of her being in HardCore Realistic. They didn’t seem to mind, luckily. They would be able to complete their redecorations in minutes compared to Daisy. Luckily the mailing system was instantaneous, that’s a benefit. Considering the original game would actually make you wait, sometimes days, for any deliveries, Daisy was surprised that this extremely realistic version was like, ‘nah, they can have it instantly this time around.’

After they finished their backbreaking labor of remodeling Daisy’s house, the next two houses were a breeze. Daisy and Catalina played in the field, their work now over. After they had their fill of playing in the field, and when Annie was starting to get bored, they decided to hang out in Daisy’s house. It seemed to be the nicer one, both because she had more funds to buy the nicer stuff, and because there was a sense of accomplishment for doing it all the real way.

“I wanted to ask, and I’m sorry if this is a sore topic, but you looking younger, is that connected to what you said to Catalina and me?” Annie had pulled her aside, leaving Catalina to play in the main room. Daisy had bought some games and things from the Cattlelog for entertainment.

“About only one person at a time?” Daisy asked, surprised that Annie figured it out. Well, Annie was familiar with big changes like that on a very personal level. It was kind of obvious, especially considering her request of Annie and Cat coming up out of nowhere. Daisy just realized that Annie wouldn’t join them when Daisy and Catalina went wild. This girl was thoughtful.

Annie nodded, “if it’s too hard to explain or you don’t want to, I’m totally ok with that. I just wanted to let you know I’m here for you.”

Daisy got a bit quiet, but decided to open up, “I won’t say what happened or with whom, but yeah, I think it was connected. I didn’t even mean to revert back. That’s when I realized I need to be careful of my own mind.”

Annie nodded, a story all too familiar, “you’ve set up filters now though, right?” The concern plainly written across her face.

Daisy nodded. Annie asked if she could hug her, and Daisy told her she would like that. They hugged, sitting on the comfortable new bed.

“Stay this young as long as you need. I mean, look at me, I’m still like this. Just be very careful what you do from here on. I’m not a therapist, but I suggest keeping this body pure. Don’t mix whatever you are escaping from with what you used to protect yourself,” Annie warned, her eyes serious. They glowed purple, even through the fursuit. Daisy suddenly felt the urge to take off her fursuit head to see Annie directly, but didn’t want to break the immersion of ToonTown. No, she was fine taking serious advice from the green dog before her.

“It- it felt like something inside me is broken. Even being asexual, I’m fine with sex, you know this. But something about… that. It hurt me really bad. I don’t have a significant other, and I don’t think I ever will. I just can’t stand the idea of…” Daisy didn’t want to say it, but wanted to be clear in her statement, “multiple people doing it. Ugh, it’s so stupid!”

Annie shook her head, “no, Daisy it’s not stupid. Your feelings are completely valid. Even if you denounced sex entirely, you’re still valid. You shouldn’t feel like you owe anyone sex, in any relationship. Friend or otherwise.”

Annie pet her back as Daisy soaked this statement in. Catalina knocked gently on the door, it was only partially closed so it swung open from the tapping.

“I just wanted to say I’m going to go to my house for a bit, maybe rearrange some stuff. Feel free to come over when you finish your conversation,” she said, almost sounding apologetic. Daisy and Annie smiled at her and agreed with this.

As Cat closed the front door behind her, Daisy was able to lay down on the bed. She was already emotionally spent from the conversation, but she wanted to see if Annie wanted to know more. It helped Daisy to talk about it, even if it was hard.

“I really appreciate what you said. I need to work on that. I just get such conflicting feelings. Really, I don’t mind if someone wants to have sex with me. But it’s always just with me. It feels special, even if I’m not, like, attracted to them. Does that make sense?” Daisy was concerned she was rambling, but Annie was keeping up.

“It is special. If it means a lot to you, that’s how you should keep it. Don’t let others take what they want. I can kinda tell the Virtual World is new for you. Which is surprising, considering how young you were scanned in. Sorry, that was a random comment,” Annie paused, regaining her thoughts.

She took Daisy’s paw, continuing, “The fact of the matter is, this game has a lot of people who want a lot of sex. It’s what people enjoy. There are plenty of people who can get off in innumerous ways. You can opt out, and it’s not like you’re taking anything away from them. They can find other people that would also give whatever was wanted from you.”

Daisy nodded, knowing the scope of the program, “it just hurt more because it was someone I knew, y'know? It would have been completely forgivable if they were a stranger. Heck, it wouldn’t have even hurt me one bit.”

Annie squeezed her gloved paw reassuringly, “I know, dear. I know.”

“I don’t know if it was intentional, but I wanted to thank you for being aware of me when I’m playing with Catalina,” Daisy said, her assumption confirmed as Annie nodded.

“Of course I would do that for you. One person at a time is not a hard request, and if it makes you feel comfortable, it’s the least I could do. I would do that and so much more,” she responded, laying next to Daisy. Daisy looped an arm around her, their difference in size now opposite what it used to be. They cuddled, Daisy comfortable and happy. Annie was really good at reassuring her, her concerns about herself were drifting away.

They both got a text from Catalina. She had finished up her room and had to get off for a bit. She would be back on later, but would probably be with some other friends. They texted her bye, still cuddling. If it were Roxy, Daisy wouldn’t have let her get away without a hug. However, Catalina was a relatively new friend, so the texting was fine. She might have overheard, or at least her AI had overheard and subtitled, the first part of their conversation. Hopefully that didn’t make her feel uncomfortable, but Daisy didn’t mind her overhearing the conversation if she did.

“How are you doing on time? If you need to step off for a bit, I also have to get to the little ladies room,” Daisy sat up. Annie agreed, taking the fun way out with a portal from her Shticker Book. Daisy jumped off the bed, it was a bit high for her current stature. She opened the bathroom, the door to it being in the bedroom. The modifications on the fursuit came in handy, she didn’t even need to take off the suit to go to the bathroom. She assumed they would have come in handy in other ways, but started to think over what Annie meant about keeping her child form pure. Of course she made the suit when she was her mature version, so that hadn’t even crossed her mind.

As Roxy said, she was still Daisy. But now she looked underage. Was that all there was to go by? Daisy never felt a need for sex for herself, but if someone asked her for sex in her current form, should she be more apt to deny them? This certainly sounded like what Annie meant. It would also be really suspicious if they asked her for sex when she looked like this. Of course, so far she only granted that request to people she knew. Catalina did express her interest, but Daisy was much older at this point. That was also a little suspicious. Catalina might be the type of person that Annie was alluding to, that would want something from her but be able to find it somewhere else if she denied.

All-in-all, Daisy sided with Annie on this one. She would keep young Daisy pure. Daisy didn’t like the idea of underage relationships, and her own self should be no exception, despite being older mentally. The age of consent stuff still messed with Daisy’s mind though. A law shouldn’t make it feel any better. If the law said she can murder people, she still wouldn’t want to. No, she should stick to her gut feeling. If Catalina is underage by Daisy’s standards, she wouldn’t want to perform sexual acts with her.

She took a deep breath, finishing up on the toilet. A real funny place to have these sorts of thoughts. And even more hilarious considering she was a blue and pink cat, feet hanging in the air because she was too small for the toilet.

Thank God that the fur didn’t make a fuss when she cleaned herself. If there was one thing she didn’t want to be too realistic, it was that. Ray probably knew that and tweaked how that situation could have gone to how she wanted it to go. Daisy washed her gloved paws, it also felt like it worked better than it should, but she was glad for it.

When Annie returned, Daisy hit her with all her thoughts, unfiltered. She had to include the part where Catalina admitted her feelings towards her, as the majority of the thoughts centered around that.

“I’m not surprised. No judgement to Catalina. I know plenty of people who participate in those scenes. And no, she isn’t the youngest. The Virtual World can get very shocking very fast,” Annie responded, not wanting to withhold anything. People have to find out how the Virtual World actually is, both to protect themselves and others.

“And what I said about keeping this version pure, that’s what you meant, right? You do that too?” Daisy asked, she assumed she knew what Annie was getting at.

“Unfortunately, I warned you out of experience. That was with some versions above this one; this is the farthest I can go back. This version is pure, though. It’s probably some psychological thing, but that’s not my field. I’m into Computer Science,” She attempted lightening the mood, obviously not wanting to linger on that subject.

“A field that we will always need, at least until the AI starts to write themselves,” Daisy continued the light mood, fine with straying out of the dark conversational path.

“I believe in The Lost Zeros, that they exist. What about you, do you think AI can gain sentience and are in this game?” Annie asks, massaging Daisy.

“Oh yeah. I couldn’t imagine I’m the first,” Daisy jokes, her humor unfiltered. So much for staying subtle. Annie wouldn’t take it seriously though, even if she does believe they exist. Annie laughs good naturedly, obviously not thinking hard about that slip. Daisy will be more careful in the future, just to avoid the connection between her and AI entirely. It’s fine as a joke, humor about her situation is rather relieving. Plenty of people claimed to be Lost Zeros and weren’t taken seriously.

Daisy tickled Annie back, getting quite a response. Oh, she started something now… They started a tickle fight in the bed, the tucked-in covers not surviving their frolicking and began to slip off. Daisy went for common spots, under the armpit, in the crook of the neck, her ears. Annie tried anything she could get her hands on, not landing much. She finally figured it out. Daisy’s feet, or should I say hind paws, were vulnerable. Since none of them had purchased toon shoes, and Daisy had not chosen to refit her Virtual Real shoes over her fursuit, she was wide open to the tickle attack. Daisy rolled over, losing her high ground that she had on Annie, attempting to get away. She was not quick enough and Annie tickled the bottom of her paws. Daisy could feel it easily through the Virtual Real fur. If anything, it made it tickle even more. She laughed until she cried. If she hadn’t gone to the bathroom recently, she would have peed herself by now. Her legs kicking grew less powerful as she submitted to the attack. Annie had won with one ultimate move. Now she knows Daisy’s secret.

After their tickle fight had died down, Annie came clean, “hey it was alright that I touched your feet, right?”

Daisy nodded, “oh yeah, I’m fine with that. If I am not too embarrassed to admit, I liked it more than I thought. What about you, anywhere I should avoid?”

Annie shook her head, “obviously nothing sexual in these bodies, but stuff like feet gets really blurred lines, so that’s why I asked. I’m fine if you want to touch my feet as well. Just not the private parts.”

“That makes sense, thanks for clarifying,” Daisy put her hind paws up in Annie’s lap, obviously wanting massages or tickles now that they cleared the air. Annie obliged, opting less for attack and more for comfort. Too many people neglect their feet. Self care should be about everything, and one’s feet are so important. They walk you everywhere, giving them pedicures and just treating them right can go a long way to feeling better.

“This makes me want to go to a spa,” Daisy says after a while. They switch, Daisy rubbing Annie’s feet, now that they are calmed down from their playing. Annie agrees, knowing a perfect map.

“It’s a japanese bath house, we will go to PrivatePlayer so we don’t have to buy anything or have any people see us,” Annie told her. Daisy was getting excited, certainly fine with staying away from public hot springs. She follows Annie’s teleport once she fizzles out of the world. The walls of her house rearrange themselves, becoming a japanese style house with a cover extending over her, the roof propped up by wooden columns. Behind her, rocks and a hot spring generated. Annie was already naked, her ToonTown suit had not transferred to the session. Daisy took off her fursuit, feeling the light breeze properly against her bare skin. She left it in a neat pile, Ray could clean it for her later. Annie welcomed her, showing her that inside had all the soaps, shampoos, and amenities that they needed. There was also a vending machine for snacks and drinks. A room in the building housed a sauna, they really had it all. Upon Annie asking, Daisy opted to start with snacks. She hadn’t got the chance to try ToonTown food, but everything here was free. It was all interesting stuff she normally wouldn’t encounter, as it was stocked full of japanese snacks and beverages. Some things that she thought was a beverage ended up being a snack, like canned beans. It was even a hot drink. Soup? Daisy had no idea. Either way, it was great. She filled up quickly yet again, unable to try everything.

“We should probably shower before getting in,” Daisy surmised, seeing the showers. The showers had little white chairs, meant for them to sit on while showering. Daisy sat down, passing warm water over her body. Annie sat in a chair next to her. They started sudsing up, getting each other’s backs while they were at it. After she was rinsed off, she asked if Annie would shampoo her hair. She loved the feeling of someone else massaging her scalp. Annie obliged, letting her choose the shampoo and conditioner. She chose a floral scented one, of course. Annie knew more about hair, she told Daisy that one is supposed to shampoo, then put in the conditioner, and then wait a while to shampoo again. The conditioner didn’t need to be applied by the roots, as that was the healthiest hair and didn’t really need it. The dry ends of the hair needed the most help, as it was the oldest hair. She didn’t use too much, either.

“Too much would make your hair oily, or reduce the volume of your hair. It would weigh it down too much,” The golden-haired girl imparted her knowledge on Daisy, “now we wait about two or three minutes. Want some gentle soap for your face?” She hands her the bottle, letting her washup as they let the conditioner do its thing. Once Daisy rinsed that off, enough time had passed and Annie got back to work, rinsing her hair.

Annie’s fingers massaged her scalp as she worked in the shampoo next. Foam cascaded down Daisy’s shoulders, tickling her chest and tummy as it slid down. It made a bubbly pool between her legs, as she was still sitting. Annie told her to close her eyes, and she did just in time, the showerhead washing off the suds. Daisy moved her legs slightly apart, letting the built up water and suds pour down towards the drain. She giggled, easily entertained.

“Thanks so much, would you like me to do yours?” Daisy asked, excited to wash the bigger girl’s hair. She agreed, saying she would teach her how to work with her hair along the way. She was a good tutor, and Daisy learned quite a lot about hair once they were done. It was funny seeing Annie with her hair down. She always had a lot of product keeping it up. She was a master of not only fashion, but hair styling, making clothes, and much more. And that was just her hobby. She was probably wicked smart with computers, too, if she was going into Computer Science.

“Ready for the hot springs, now?” Annie wondered, excited for the hot springs. There was an indoor bath, but she liked it outside, with the cool breeze and nice view. Daisy agreed, following her back outside. She stepped in the hot spring, shocked at the warmth

“It’s wonderful!” She exclaimed as they stepped in. Catalina was missing out. Daisy was happy for the one on one time with Annie, though. Daisy looked out over the rocks, a serene landscape she assumed to be Japan. They were up on a mountain, their view not entirely obstructed by foliage. The plants and trees that surrounded the hot spring looked natural, as if the hot spring were found by them in the wilderness. Daisy loved the untouched nature look, it was a welcome addition to the pretty view.

They spent around 20 minutes soaking in the hot spring, relaxing and not saying much. When they got out and dried off, they felt so relaxed.

“As much as I want to stay and hang out more, I do have to get off the Virtual World now. I really enjoyed my day with you, and I hope to see you as soon as I can,” Annie said once they were dry. They don’t exactly have clothes to change into, and neither feel like summoning any. They hug just as they are, the hug having a more powerful bond as they could feel each other at such a close level. Annie was a good girl, and Daisy was so happy she was willing to continue hanging out with her.

The hug lasted a while, Daisy assuming she was going to fade out of her arms as she disconnected. However, Annie just stayed there, not wanting to leave just yet. Annie cradled the smaller girl, understanding why she was in a younger scan of herself from such a personal level that it moved her. She wanted to help her. Maybe, she could help herself get better, too. She said what she was thinking out loud after a while. Daisy’s sparkly green eyes locked with her glowing purple ones, she was serious when she agreed. Daisy wanted to get better, and she hoped that they could help each other.

Annie breathed a deep breath, reinvigorating the hug by squeezing the petite girl tight to her, “I would like that very much. I’ve spent too much time trapped like this. I think you could help me learn to love myself, all of my versions. But it will take time. I’ve thought a lot of bad things towards myself, and it’s hard to forgive me for that.”

Their conversation died down, both agreeing to work on it next time. Annie wasn’t ready to show Daisy her other versions yet, but that was something she would want to work towards.

They finally parted ways, Annie leaving Daisy in the japanese bathhouse world. Daisy bet that Annie meant for her to keep her body pure, including masturbation. She really wanted to; it was such a nice feeling. She should take Annie’s advice seriously, though. She didn’t want to mess anything up more than it was already. She was really glad that Annie wanted to work on things with her.

She ended up abstaining, despite the overwhelming temptation of finally being alone and in such a relaxing environment. She should get home to Mabel anyway. She’s going to be surprised to see her mistress so young. The NPCs won’t be surprised, but Daisy feels a lot more apt to want to play with them all, especially now that she looks to be around their age. She went from big sister to twin, why not have fun with it.

She teleports to her still-active PrivatePlayer instance, having Ray throw on a random Virtual Real outfit from her massive, new collection. She materialized outside the house, knocking on the front door. Demi’s face floated through the door, eyes widening when he saw Daisy. He flew out and hugged her, happy to see her.

“Daisy! You’ve grown up so… little since I last saw you!” He said, either joking around or just saying things how he saw it, “come inside my dear,” and struggled to open the door. It was locked.

“Oh man, I locked myself out again, how embarrassing,” he shook his head and knocked on the door for someone else to open it.

“Demi, you can fly through walls!” Daisy said, so happy to be back. He facepalmed, often forgetting that fact.

“How do I always forget that! Doors are tricky. One moment, I’ll let you in,” he laughs at himself as he flies through again, opening the door after a moment.

“Daisy! I’m so glad you’re home!” He hugged her again, as if he just saw her for the first time again. Daisy giggled, the silly ghost such a friendly hugger.

She entered the house, it wasn’t long before Mabel was running around the corner. If she saw a difference about Daisy, she didn’t make it obvious. She sat in front of Daisy, expecting pats. Daisy gave it to her, cooing and praising her. She was just as tall as Mabel sitting down! She told her how much she missed her as she greeted her Wolf Girl. She was happy, wagging her tail. Daisy was glad she had so much company, so she wasn’t lonely when Daisy left. That being said, she knows that Mabel loves to see her as much as possible, as Daisy is her mistress.

“Hey Daisy! I have Zee and Grizelda over, if that’s ok,” True said upon seeing her. Daisy hugged True, now her height.

“Of course! I’m glad you took the opportunity to invite them,” Daisy makes her way across the house, popping by everyone’s room to hug them and say hi. Zee and Grizelda were in True’s room, Zee was playing with his wishes like always. Grezelda was a blond haired girl, much like Annie, but she had a pair of golden eyes. She had a light blue crystal crown with a red gem in the center. Her dress was a large poofy red dress, with a white waistband that matched the white petticoat. She had a necklace of pearls and the same light blue crystal shoes, each with a red diamond-shaped gem. She extended out a royal hand, Daisy took it, humbled, but then pulled her into a hug. She made a little gasp at the sudden change, but accepted the hug after a short bit.

“Were there any problems you needed to solve when I was away?” Daisy asked True. She was the responsible one, honestly. Sure, Demi, Gregoria, Chef Remy Bones, and even Vampirina were much older than everyone, but True had an awareness and intelligence about her that Daisy couldn’t explain, other than that the mapmaker had crafted her AI to be particularly robust in problem solving. Ruby, Abby, and Zoey were all problem solvers as well, but it seemed like their mapmakers stuck with formulas and specific quests. True had problem solving on a real-time basis. Daisy was assuming this not because of the tasks they played in MultiPlayer so long ago now, but of living with True for long enough. If there were other Lost Zeros out there, True would be close to that level. Maybe she could ask her one-on-one, AI to AI. Just kidding.

Daisy does see why Rainbow King has her in charge of the Rainbow Kingdom, though, and was glad to have her helping out in the Cotton Candy Kingdom. It was time for some revamping and sprucing up, now that she had some time to herself.

She wanted to start with outside, beyond the fence. She didn’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone else before it was ready. She took flight, soaring out of Vampirina’s window. She was glad she made them so easy to fly out of. On her way out, she told Vampirina to keep everyone inside. She didn’t have to suggest there was a surprise waiting, as NPCs would only feign being excited, but she did hint it anyway. She liked to see the girls get excited, even if it was all simulated. That isn’t fair to say, as everything is simulated anyway. It’s fun to treat things as real, just as she had done so for her virtual body.

She flew high, getting a scope of the world. Funny enough, it did seem to be a whole planet. However, there was only one beach and a miniature ocean, more like a lake. The rest of the planet was the rolling grass hills extending for countless miles. No polar ice caps, no foliage past the greenery that grew around the fences at Ruby’s house. They were simple trees with green oblate spheroids to represent the leaves. From what she could tell, it seemed to be a blank version of a planet the size of Earth. The gravity was normal, as Ray confirmed. She’s got plenty of room to work with. She flew back to Ruby’s house, not hard to miss by being the only structure on the planet, next to the Wishing Tree and planet’s single lake. What should the planet be called, she thought to herself. The Cotton Candy Planet is a little derivative. She will keep it as a working title, but knowing herself, that will likely end up being the actual name. Time to make her kingdom more than just a house and magical tree. She hovered, pulling bits and pieces of each girl’s worlds from the internet. She had 5 distinct districts for their shows, True and Vampirina getting subdistricts, as their shows covered more area than the rest.

True’s Wishing Tree normally sat uptop a hill that the Rainbow Kingdom Castle was built within. Daisy raised it up, crafting the Castle and City. This was done to the Northwest of Ruby’s house, the Mushroom Town with True’s house generated West of the center. Beyond that, the Never-ending forest sprung out of the ground. Various surrounding structures, like Grizelda’s Castle, also popped up, roughly in the same location as they appeared in the show and the world. She had to squish some things off to the West further than they would be, because Daisy wanted both the Wishing Tree and True’s house to be relatively close to the Center. She also had to leave room for the other 4 districts, but could go West as far as she wanted. To the North, she loaded up the ocean from True’s world to replace the Rainbow Ruby ocean as there was an ocean spirit in it named The Living Sea. They would rise up in the ocean as a blob with a spherical head and a watery mountain for a body, the two black eyes and a smile. They have a gender neutral voice and can speak very loudly because of their size. Daisy then populated the district with the Rainbow Kingdom Citizens, little people who had brightly colored monochromatic skin, with spherical heads and thematic happy faces. Their faces were a bit more complex than the ones that gave the Rainbow Kingdom its animism feel, as they had eyebrows, tongues, and unique details to set them apart from each other. They had simple hands, some gloved, others with fingers, but all with opposable thumbs. This was in contrast to Bartleby and the little helpers' nubby paws.

Next, Daisy focused on populating the next most complex district, Vampirina’s. Hers would have just been the small town of Pennsylvania if she hadn’t decided to add in Transylvania as a subdistrict. Daisy generated this south of the center, also opting to reshape the geography to get Vampirina’s house in close proximity to Ruby’s house. Further South, she generated what assets she could to resemble Transylvania. Fetching the Pennsylvania’s citizens was easy, as the show had many characters cast as them. Fetching the monsters was harder, as not all of them appeared in the Virtual World’s theater remake of Vampirina. She got creative and opted to bring in the monsters from another media that had been turned into a game map, Hotel Transylvania. Luckily the style was close enough, they didn’t look out of place roaming the dark and spooky streets of Transylvania. She couldn’t fetch the whole Transylvania, as the theater show only had scenes and props. She would pull assets from Hotel Transylvania to make up for the lack of content. A lack of internet content would have not posed an issue if she were in SinglePlayer, as it could come straight from her or Ray’s imagination. However, using content from the internet means that her friends and her Mabel may enjoy the entirety of her kingdom with her, as it’s cross-device compatible. Also, the Hotel Transylvania characters won’t feel out of place, as they have their hotel loaded in the map as well. Daisy particularly remembered liking Mavis, the lead female protagonist vampire. The few characters that were in the Vampirina theater show will have to get used to the new layout and welcome the new monsters.

StarBeam’s town of Somerset could be built off the other side of the ocean front, North of center. Like the previous districts, StarBeam’s home, the lighthouse, was placed to be close to Ruby’s house. This change made a strange warp in geography, technically flipping what the ingame world’s directions are. Somerset extended off to the North East of center, where typically it should have been North West of Beam Control.

Ruby’s district was to the East, just extending behind her house’s backyard. It was very small, in comparison to the previous 3 districts being multiple towns or even kingdoms. The citizens were already loaded in; they just now occupied the same space as this map.

The smallest district yet was Abby Hatcher’s hotel. It was generated to the Southeast. It had some surrounding town, but it only generated one or two blocks past her hotel, creating a harsh edge to the incomplete town. Daisy wanted to blend all 5 districts along their lines, so they would flow together. Her first order of business was extending the roads and pathways between the districts to connect them all. After this was done, she did some tricky copying and pasting. She blended structures together so neighborhoods near the boundaries were mixes of the two adjacent districts. Ray helped a lot with this process, translating Daisy’s imagination into commands, rotating and flipping the copy and paste functions to fake diversity. The boundaries between districts were rural areas, so there wasn’t a huge clashing in the styles or citizens, more like a gentle gradient between the different assets. Daisy got creative with the unfinished Abby Hatcher city, selectively copying the smaller buildings and pasting them near the edge of the city, so it looked like the buildings got smaller as they strayed further from the hotel. There was the harsh boundary of the hotel being near Ruby’s house, with nearby large buildings looking out of place, but that was unavoidable because Daisy didn’t want to make the hotel any further from the center. It looked like someone took a pizza slice cut of a city, sandwiched between the Vampirina and Rainbow Ruby district. This was likely because all the cities were next to each other, where True’s kingdom was massive, able to spread out and take up the majority of the West side of center.

Daisy kept the teleportation pad to the Rainbow Village still as the Chocho rug from within her and Ruby’s room. It was such a good idea that she made each girl’s room have a teleport to their respective district.

She applied some touch ups and special additions, flying around and making sure nothing looked too out of place. When she felt satisfied, it was time to tell the girls. She flew in through Vampirina’s window, the girl was reading Translyvanian stories on her purple bean bag. She uncrossed her legs, setting a bookmark in and placing the book down. The girl hugged Daisy, Daisy loving that the hugs felt different, being her size. She liked being an older sister, those hugs were cute. But nothing was like hugging her idols as an equal.

“I’ve got a surprise for everyone, want to gather everyone in the family room?” Daisy asked her, still holding her close. Vampirina looked at her and nodded. Daisy patted her cheek, thanking her. Vampirina blushed, the pink so adorable compared to her blue skin. After a bit she headed off to the other rooms obediently. She was shyer than normal, that was strange. Was it because Daisy was her age now? That shouldn’t influence an NPCs attitude, although if Daisy thinks about it, there’s no reason it shouldn’t, either.

Ray told her that it was actually Daisy who influenced that distinction. If she subconsciously thought that an NPC would act differently around her, they would. That subconscious altering could be for the good, but it also could be for the bad, if Daisy’s subconscious wanted to pull tricks on her.

“Try to not let any NPC do anything too out of character,” she hadn’t spoken out loud to Ray in a while, but this was important. She chose these characters because she liked their personalities and looked up to them, she didn’t want her subconscious influencing them too much without her knowing. Ray acknowledged the change as Daisy made her way to the family room. Pretty much everyone was here, Abby Hatcher popping out of a portal, riding her trike. She hung her helmet on the handlebars where she parked it, joining the group.

“Now that everyone is here, I have a surprise for you. I integrated each of your worlds into this one, so you may all feel at home. Your family members, friends, and citizens are all located in these districts. As always, you are welcome to live here, but you may now spend time visiting any of the districts. My one rule is to not leave Mabel unattended, I need at least one of the five girls looking over her,” Daisy added that last bit on the fly, realizing how much freedom she is permitting the NPCs.

The girls all started looking excited, True coming up with a reasonable question, “may Mabel also go in the districts?”

Daisy nodded, “with accompaniment, absolutely. Our gates are now open, and anyone may use the teleport pads in any of the rooms. Please knock on the door first, in case the room is occupied. If you girls want to run off and check out your districts now, Ruby and I will watch over Mabel,” Daisy offered, knowing that Ruby already had access to her village. The girls ran off to their rooms, finding a new themed rug in their room. They each performed a spell, much like Ruby does, to be transported to their district.

The house emptier than it has been in a long while, Daisy gave Mabel her full attention. She had been away for a while, especially considering she zombie slept with Roxy. That always takes so much time and ends up in her not getting much rest. It was a pleasant state though, she just wouldn’t want to do it too often. She played with Mabel, her wolf girl was now so much bigger than her.

After they got their playfulness out, it was cuddle time. Mabel pretty much switched roles with her. She was still the submissive one, but the dynamic had changed a lot.

Mabel sat up, Daisy wondering what she was up to. She cradled Daisy in her lap. Her hand cradled Daisy’s head, like the little girl she was. Before Daisy could tell what was going on, the wolf girl offered her a teat.

The gears turned and Daisy pushed against Mabel’s belly with her small arms, clearly struggling against her grasp. Mabel didn’t hold her there; Daisy slipping out of her lap and onto the wood floor just below. Mabel watched with concern as Daisy’s face frowned. She had upset her mistress. Mabel stood up, tail between her legs and ran off.

Daisy sat there, stunned. That did not go how she thought it would. Obviously Mabel had a motherly instinct towards who she perceived to be a child. They had a strong bond; they were family. She didn’t mean to react so strongly to that. She might have hurt Mabel’s feelings. Her concern for Mabel paused, she asked Ray if she had done that with any of the other girls. They confirmed it had only happened to Daisy, as they had been monitoring the instance since she had requested. She sighed in relief. NPCs or not, Daisy did not want that dynamic in her world. That being said, she still has to make things up with her wolf girl. Her concern came back. It looked like Ruby had followed her, obediently following her instructions. Ray helped her figure out where the two went, as Daisy had sat on the ground for a while.

“I’m sorry Mabel, I didn’t mean to reject you so harshly. Thank you for caring for me. I hope you don’t take it personally that I don’t want that. It’s just my personal preference, and not because I don’t like you. You know I love you,” Daisy said honestly, looking at the wolf girl balled up in her kennel. Ruby sat next to the kennel, watching them both silently, her knees to her chest.

After a bit more cooing and reassuring, Mabel felt good enough to come out again, resting her head in Daisy’s lap. Daisy pet her short brown hair, happy that they cleared the air between them. Mabel rolled over, her hands curled like paws, her legs lifted like a puppy asking for belly rubs. Daisy complied, tickling her soft skin. They were going to be just fine.

After making up with Mabel and playing with Ruby for a while in their room, Daisy facebubbled True. A video feed of her face came up from within the bubble, “hey Daisy, how can I help?”

“Sorry to cut your time off short with your kingdom, but could you come back to watch over Mabel? I’d like for Ruby to be able to check out her district as well. Feel free to switch off with another girl after a while, so you can go back to the kingdom,” Daisy wonders if having her entire kingdom back puts a lot of responsibility back on her shoulders. She will ask her that when she gets here. True accepts amicably, the face bubble popping as the connection is closed. It doesn’t take long for her to teleport back to her room and come over to Ruby’s room, knocking politely. Daisy opens the door, hugging her. Once she is situated in the room, Daisy lets Rainbow Ruby perform her spell and teleport to her district. As soon as she shimmers away in rainbow colored teleport dust, Daisy brings up her question for True.

“Yeah, it’s having the responsibilities of my kingdom again, but now I’m also in charge of the Cotton Candy Kingdom,” she admits. As much as Daisy respects her for being a well-rounded AI, one girl can only do so much, NPC or not.

“All the girls are in control of their own districts as well, you can certainly depend on them too, as they know how best to manage their worlds. I do understand how much responsibility you feel now, having everything back. Is there any way I can help you manage it all?” Daisy was at a loss of ideas, honestly. Obviously Ray could help out with limitless power, basically, but each of the girls’ worlds were literally built to have problems and for them to get solved, as well.

True breathed in, then breathed out. She was getting herself in a problem solving mindset.

“Would it be possible to have someone to watch Mabel full time? Having all of us take shifts is a great idea, but if we had a sixth person who would always be there for her, it would help out quite a bit. We could still take shifts, but then we would have two of us watching over her, a part time and full time,” she surmised after a bit of thinking. Daisy appreciated this input. It made sense too, they were used to all five of them watching her. Now they were doing shifts with just one, and would come back to their entire district of responsibilities. Who would be a good candidate for watching Mabel… They had to be good with pets, since they would be full time. Mabel… Mabel Pines!

Ray confirmed that Gravity Falls was made into a map. That sounded like an awesome map to play. It was about the town of Gravity Falls in Oregon. It would be a normal town, if there weren’t a constant mystical presence. As the show goes, two twins, Dipper and Mabel Pines, go to visit their Great Uncle Stan in the summer, or Grunkle Stan. Grunkle Stan makes a living by selling merch and providing tours in his place of living, the Mystery Shack. It banks on the town’s magical folklore, monetizing it without shame. Initially, it’s obviously fake. However, Dipper chances upon a journal that details the owner’s finding of the true mysteries of the town. While the merchandise and tours are smoke and mirrors at best, Dipper ventures on to uncover the real foundation for the town’s reputation.

Mabel Pines happens to love animals, especially the cute and cuddly. Daisy would not feel like integrating Gravity Falls into her world, so Mabel would be free to take care of, well, Mabel. Ms. Pines could, of course, invite Dipper over whenever she wanted, just like the other NPCs were able to do. Daisy would normally like to visit the NPC in their own world before inviting them to hers, but this would have to be an exception. Daisy didn’t want to overburden True, or any of the other girls for that matter.

“We can invite Mabel Pines over, does that sound like a good idea?” Daisy offered True. She nodded, expressing her excitement to meet the new friend. There was a knock on the front door shortly after they agreed on the girl, Daisy explaining to True where Mabel was coming from and who she was. Daisy walked to the front door, hugging Mabel. She was bigger than Daisy, as she was a twelve year old. She was dressed in a red sweater with a turtleneck and sleeves long enough to hide the majority of her hand. On it was a yellow star with a rainbow trail shooting out from it. She had on a purple miniskirt and a matching red hairband. Her brown hair was very long, hanging below the end of her skirt. Her large smile displayed her braces, her shoes simple black pumps with white socks. Daisy invited her in, she and True greeted each other in a similarly warm fashion. Mabel was certainly a hugger, just like Demi. True was too, although usually more so with the people she knew.

Daisy told the Pines girl about her duties, should she choose to take them. Daisy supposed she could say no, however didn’t think it likely, considering how many NPCs were obedient by default. She could be surprised by them, though, not having played the map before inviting her to the PrivatePlayer instance. After she heard her duties and met with the Wolf Girl, she accepted her task. She did want breaks, so Daisy suggested two of the girls could overlap shifts. That way, every time the girls switched out, Mabel could let the two take over for a bit.

The Pines girl was much more cuddly with Mabel than any of the others. She was programmed to be in love with animals; a Wolf Girl was no exception. Daisy’s heart soared to see her Wolf Girl reciprocate and love the attention. This was a brilliant idea, Ms. Pines made for the perfect full-time friend. Daisy didn’t want to feel like she was replacing her own responsibility, so she made a mental note to Ray to have the other girls relax their duties when Daisy wanted some time with Mabel. That would also prevent any potential complications with too much going on at once for Daisy, although playing with Mabel was completely innocent.

Outside, it had become completely night time. Daisy didn’t dismiss the girls from the room, but she wanted to have some time with Mabel. They did take a much more relaxed approach, following her silent orders she gave to Ray. Mabel cuddled the plushies that were Ruby’s villagers. True facebubbled her friends in the kingdom, talking with the Rainbow King now that he is back in her life. Daisy laid down on the bed with Mabel, ready for some real sleep. She pet Mabel’s face gently, entrancing her. In previous games, there was a contactless hypnosis style where other users would pass their hands in front of someone’s face. With the limited technology, this was only an audiovisual experience, but was more than enough to entrance or soothe an individual. Daisy did the same technique, although now there was the ability to feel more sensations. She spoke to Mabel gentle pet talk that expressed her love. Mabel grew still, her eyes growing heavy. It didn’t take long for her to fall asleep completely, disappearing. Daisy had forgotten that she would disappear into SinglePlayer. She had always been awake or at least zombie napping with Daisy around. Upon Daisy’s silent question, even before she completed thinking about it, Ray told her that Mabel had fallen fully asleep at various times before this, just not times that Daisy had been home. Daisy was glad that Mabel had been able to fall all the way asleep, she was concerned that this was the first time for a bit.

Daisy was ready for some sleep as well, and not just zombie napping. She thanked the girls who were on shift. Before Daisy dismissed them, she realized that Mabel needed a place to stay. Her room was in the attic at the Mystery Shack, she had Ray make an exact copy of it in the attic at this house. She told Mabel about being able to invite Dipper over, he could stay in her room as well. She got up, showing her to her new room. The entranceway to the attic was a pull down ladder, located in the hallway outside of Daisy and True’s room. Not any of the girls could reach the string, so Daisy had Ray install an automatic button. The button, which looked a lot like a garage door button, could be pressed to drop the ladder down. The white tile on the ceiling pivoted, the hidden ladder also starting to swing out. It was in two halves and hinged into a full ladder as soon as the ceiling tile reached the end of its rotation. That was rather smooth. Mabel excitedly made the extent, Daisy right behind her. She avoided looking up as she followed Mabel, so she wouldn’t see up the girl’s skirt. Mabel cheered as she saw her room, hopping up on her bed to jump on it, testing how sproingy it was. The Pine Twin’s room was small, but cozy. It had a triangle window to match the roof’s sloped incline at the end. The head of Dipper and Mabel’s bed were abutted against this wall, on opposite sides of the room. Mable’s pink bed had plenty of posters on the sloped wall above it, all posters of cute animals, with bright colors and rainbows. They each had a lamp by their bed, Dipper’s bed having a desk along the wall with a rugged hand-lantern. Mabel’s side had a porcelain lamp with a yellow lampshade on top of a nightstand squished between her bed, the desk, and against the wall. Dipper’s side had the chimney and a framed painting of a ship. He also had a pair of binoculars hanging on the wall, so that he could look out the triangle window or take it on his adventures. The room was as messy as you would expect from a pair of twelve year olds, with Mabel’s clothes strewn about on her side of the room.

“I love it! Thank you Daisy,” she beamed, still bouncing. Daisy laughed, not surprised by her endless energy. Daisy heard a knock. Was True coming up? It didn’t sound like her gentle knock. This was confirmed as she turned around and looked down the ladder. It was Dipper! Mabel must not have wanted to be without him for long.

The twins certainly looked similar with their pudgy faces. Dipper’s round nose was rosy compared to his sisters, though. His hair was the same color, messily sticking out from under his blue and white baseball cap. It had a pine tree on the front, he usually wore it to hide his birthmark. The birthmark on his forehead looked suspiciously like the big dipper, if it were visible. He climbed up the ladder, standing shyly in front of Daisy. He had on a dark blue jacket with high collars and a simple red tee shirt underneath. His shorts were gray and he had on soccer socks with tennis shoes. Daisy hugged him, greeting the shy boy. He was awkward around girls, like a lot. Unfortunately he now lived in a house with 6 of them, not including his sister or the Wolf Girl. Mabel teased him about how he froze up around girls. This just made him more awkward and he stiffly side-stepped around Daisy so he could keep himself busy by making his bed. Daisy wished them a good night, heading down the ladder. She clicked the button, the ladder furling up nicely behind her. There was another button at the top for them to get out of their room. She went to her room, it looks like Ruby had returned from checking out the Rainbow Village district and settled down for the night. Daisy took off her clothes and got in the bed that Mabel had disappeared from, ready to sleep for real. It didn’t take long to drift off into SinglePlayer.

A girl with white hair and small, low pigtails walked by. Was that Phia? Daisy called out to her, she noticed and turned to face her. Daisy! I keep telling you, you gotta tell me where you get those sparkles for your eyes. I love it! Daisy giggled at her compliments, blushing. Phia was very popular, but she really did care for all her fans. She was one of the few people who looked the same in-game as she did real life, or at least that’s what Daisy was told. Her model had been made specifically to look like her. As a content creator, she was really inspirational. Her energy for all things Virtual Reality was addictive, and plenty of people got caught up in it, wanting to dive into the Virtual because of her.

She woke up, feeling a warm body pressing up against her. Mabel must have woken up first; she was waiting for Daisy to appear on the bed. Mabel turned around, excitedly hugging Daisy under the covers. Daisy hugged her back, the nice feeling of contact starting her day off right. They snuggled for a bit; Daisy was fine with a lazy day. She assumed her friends would be busy, as all of them weren’t 24/7s like Mabel and Daisy. Roxy at least had life support for the ability to have a longer Virtual World connection, but she still had a job to get back to.

They got up, Daisy too lazy to dress. They made their way into the kitchen, Daisy pulling the taller Wolf Girl by the hand. Everyone was already bustling about. Despite having their own districts, the girls decided to all have breakfast together! Chef Remy Bones was serving up anything they asked, from niche Transylyvanian breakfast dishes to good ol’ flapjacks. Daisy took a seat at the table, between True and Mable Pines. Dipper was at the end of the table on the other side of his twin sister, looking awkward and being shy. He’ll get used to it. Or not.

Chef Remy Bones started cooking for the new mouths to feed, making what each of their AIs told him they would like. Daisy appreciated not having to decide. He placed Mabel’s food in her dish, hers finished before Daisy’s. Daisy got a bowl of dumpling soup. He must have sprinkled some Transylyvanian spices because Daisy started to float after taste testing it. Vampirina giggled, she was floating as well.

“It tastes just like Nanpire and Grandpop’s homemade Monstro powder!” The blue-skinned vampire compliments Chef Remy Bones cooking. The powder makes the food come to life, floating gently above the table if the right amount was added. If too much was added, it would start zipping around the room; one would have to chase down their meal. It imparted the floating effect onto those who ate it. They had to make sure not to eat too much, as they could start zipping around the room as well!

Daisy finished her whole bowl, the creamy soup having a mystical flavor with the additional spices. After she finished, she was able to kick off her chair and lift off into the air. She floated around the room with Vampirina, laughing as they jumped towards each other. Daisy grabbed the girl’s hands and they spun, their trajectories altering as they now orbit one another. She looked at the cheery vampire, Daisy’s hair covering most of her vision from being thrown to the side from their inertia. Luckily she was able to take all this activity without becoming nauseous. She bounced around the room for a bit, hugging everyone. Demi joined her, flying around and greeting each of the girls. Daisy thought better of hugging Dipper though, that might be too much for him, especially considering she wasn’t clothed. Demi had no problem hugging him though; Dipper rolled his eyes.

“You don’t believe in ghosts, Dipper?” Daisy quipped. He blushed at this, indignant, “no, I do!” And proved his point by hugging Demi back.

“Thank you for believing in me!” Demi said, laughing good-naturedly. Everyone seemed to get along well with the new roommates. Atticmates? Housemates.

Breakfast went very well. Daisy did want to do something on her own after it though. It was great to be back to the Cotton Candy Kingdom, especially to see it grow with new districts and new members. However, it was quite draining, at least setting it all up. She felt like she needed a spot in the world where she could have it all to herself. Sure, there was SinglePlayer, but say she wanted to bring over a friend to her PrivatePlayer instance. They could hang out somewhere away from all the activity of her kingdom, but still enjoy the map. She could make something that could have a lookout of the kingdom. A blimp? Or a castle in the sky. That was pretty meaningful to her. She didn’t want to have all of Laputa, though. She could make something much smaller, and it didn’t have to be a castle.

It should be themed Cotton Candy, so Daisy started with a Cotton Candy cloud, swirled pink and blue, that could be walked on. She stepped on the magical cloud she had made, the Cotton Candy light and fluffy on her bare feet. She could leave most of the cloud free to allow space for expansion, but she started with a small plot of land first. She raised her foundation, a slab of marble. Near the edge, she built a spa into the marble, so she could look out over the kingdom from a nice warm pool. Behind it, closer to the center of the cloud, she raised a marble house. It was built out of marble columns and slabs, with exterior walls either being nonexistent or made completely out of glass. That way, some floors would be drafty, but you could escape from the weather on other floors. There were still walls sectioning off the rooms on the inside, except the lower floor only had a staircase upwards. It was a spiral staircase with the marble stairs defying physics. The next material she brought into the construction was gold. She made accents on the walls, insetting a perfectly straight line of gold wherever she felt would look nice. Each of the stairs got a pair of lines, near opposing ends. She laughed as she made a golden toilet. She also made a golden faucet to suit the marble sink, as well as a golden shower head for the oversized bathtub. It was square, and closer to looking like a jacuzzi. She dolled up the rooms though, tossing out the minimalist vibes. It didn’t have to match the rest of the house, especially when it was hidden behind marble doors. They opened so smoothly and effortlessly for what she assumed to be a few thousand kilograms. Inside the rooms, it was an explosion of color, with a massive square bed. It had sheer curtains surrounding it, all of light pink and blue styles. For the art on the walls, Daisy opted for the screenshots Ray made for her. She continued making the place just how she wanted, as the cloud drifted off to preside over the kingdom. Finally, having had her fill, she entered the jacuzzi, looking out. It warmed her toes, they were cold from all the marble. She remembered the map-making tradition, and added the ability to raise a golden stripping pole in the middle of the jacuzzi, raised up to be in shallow waters by a diaz of marble.

She hopped up on her newly fashioned diaz, grabbing the pole and leaning out to take a better look at her kingdom. The wind blew in her hair, only the tips were wet from the water. As she watched her kingdom, she realized, why did she make a stripping pole if she still was in her child form? She should address it at some point. She hadn’t seen a company therapist yet, was it time to try it out. It would be just to ask questions to see how it all works, she didn’t expect for them to fix whatever was going on with her. She supposes now is a good time as any.

“Panda,” she said, the safeword summoning a therapist instance. The scene faded away, becoming a white, sterile office. A therapist was sitting on an armchair, with a reclining chair in front of them. Daisy giggled, the scene straight out of her imagination what she expected it to look like. Were they really that predictable?

“Hello, Daisy. Have a seat,” they welcomed her. She sat down in the recliner, taking a better look around. There were books behind them, a miniature library. They had a personal desk with trinkets, odds and ends, erratically on top of it. A nameplate stood on their desk, labeled Seven, no last name.

“Hi, Seven, is it?” Daisy pieced together. Seven nodded, confirming her guess.

“Our environment has been taken from your subconscious, you may consciously change it into whatever you want. Simply send me a VIP command request,” they explained, Daisy realizing it wasn’t a coincidence. The room was how she thought it would be because she thought it up in the first place. Or at least Ray found something from the internet that was close to it.

“Do you stay here all the time, waiting for someone to show up?” Daisy wondered, it was interesting that she could say panda to be connected to therapy that quickly.

“Yes, but it usually isn’t long until another person shows up. We have a system that knows which therapist has been waiting the longest for a new client, and they will get the next summons,” they explained patiently.

“Is Seven your real name?” Daisy kept the questions coming, she was so interested by it all.

“Yes and no. It feels like my name because I’ve been using it for so long, so it serves the same purpose of a name. I was not born with it, however,” the therapist raised their eyebrows at Daisy, not minding the question, but not hiding their emotion. Daisy liked that they weren’t just stoic.

“Are people able to ask for a specific therapist when they connect?” Daisy wanted to be able to come back to Seven if she needed them.

Seven nodded, “yes, but there will be a wait time for the appointment to register in their next available free period.”

That seemed reasonable. They could be in the middle of another session, sleeping, or even disconnected from the Virtual World.

“How long do you work for?” Daisy really just kept them coming, glad that they didn’t seem to mind.

“I’m full time for the company, so nine to five, or in the Virtual World, seventeen hundred to one hundred, weekdays,” they did the math for Daisy real quick. Daisy had a watch but really didn’t care to check it unless she had plans with Roxy. She didn’t even know it was a weekday, but obviously it was if she was meeting with Seven.

“What’s your gender?” Daisy couldn’t really tell from just the name, although they looked feminine.

“That’s a good idea, Daisy, we should introduce ourselves. I’m Cisgender Female, I go by the pronouns she and her,” she re-crossed her legs the other way.

“Same,” Daisy said briefly.

“Would you mind if I took notes with pencil and paper, or would you prefer I do it mentally?” Seven finally asking a question back at Daisy.

“Oh, I don’t mind on paper. I’ll tell you if it bothers me,” Daisy was good at openly speaking up for herself, especially if she had told them beforehand.

Seven nods, “thank you, please feel free to ask or request any changes that make you more comfortable, any time you like,” and began writing notes on a piece of paper attached to a clipboard.

“So when you said ‘same’, you meant to agree with my entire statement? Sorry, I just have to clarify you would consider yourself Cisgender Female, and that you go by the pronouns she and her,” she paused her writing. Daisy nodded, confirming ‘yes’ audibly.

“Thanks for confirming that. Now, if you don’t mind that we start our progress, why did you connect to the session today?” She said while still writing the previous information.

“Well, I’m usually much older, but I seemed to have switched to a younger version of myself,” Daisy said, not wanting to lie about the scan being recent, but not wanting to bring up the idea either. She stuck with generic terms, the therapist was just getting to know her. Besides, the therapists couldn’t tell the company or anybody about the session, thanks to Daisy’s legal action.

“And forgive me for the silly sounding question, but have you tried asking your AI to switch your body out?” Seven said, needing to go over the basics first.

“I- I actually haven’t. That’s quite embarrassing, isn’t it?” Daisy said, realizing how simple it was when she asked it like that.

“No, don’t be embarrassed. That’s the thing about the Facebook Device. It’s all about your mental state. You haven’t asked the AI to change you, because you haven’t wanted to change. That is completely normal. There are plenty of ways to approach this, but I’d like to get a better view of the situation before we do anything,” she said soothingly. She was very patient and understanding, from what Daisy could tell so far. She finished up writing, coming up with another question, “to help me better understand the situation, what did you come from? And little details about what you were doing, or what you were dressed like, will all help my process.

Daisy had forgotten that she was still completely naked. Hopefully she didn’t think Daisy had come from anything sexual. Well, that’s why she asked the question just now, so Daisy could explain. Daisy put her hands on her thighs, starting simple, “I was building a house in a PrivatePlayer instance. I was too lazy to put on clothes in the morning, as I’m on HardCore Realistic. I sleep nude because it’s more comfortable. I’ve been young for one or two days now,” after she said it, she realized it could have been more like three, the zombie nap really threw off her perception of time.

“Thank you. Was there anyone with you in the PrivatePlayer instance?” She said, her pencil never stopped moving. Daisy did not know how she continued asking more questions when she had more to write. She must do this all the time though, so Daisy supposed she didn’t have to wait for her to finish writing before answering.

“Yeah, I have a puppy named Mabel. She’s a Wolf Girl,” Daisy wondered how that information would help her.

“To clarify, by ‘puppy’ you mean the BDSM dynamic, correct?” Seven asked, Daisy replying yes because her eyes were still on the paper.

“Was she involved in anything that made you come here today?” Seven put very generically.

“No, she’s completely harmless,” Daisy and Mabel already made up over their brief confusion where they missed each other’s subtle cues. Mabel hadn’t meant any harm by trying to be motherly to Daisy. Seven looked at her from above her reading glasses. They were pushed down so she could see the paper. It was an interesting part of her outfit. Reading glasses were unnecessary for the Virtual World, as vision was perfect for everyone. She must like it on a personal level, or at least think it’s more professional. Seven looked like she wanted to say something about that, but took Daisy’s word for it and continued, “several days ago, when you started looking younger, what were the events that led up to the switch?”

Daisy supposed she could tell her about Roxy. She might know Roxy, as she worked at the same job and might use the same therapists, but that shouldn’t change anything. Daisy described her time with Roxy, answering the clarifying questions along the way. She went over how she got triggered and went to the studio ghibli world. She kept it general when speaking about the scanner, not saying it was emulated or anything like that. Not that it is secretive, just that she couldn’t really explain it well anyway and didn’t want too many questions about it. Seven took what she could get and didn’t mind working with it.

“Your friend, who you mentioned is in the same situation as you, did you speak about it with them?” Seven asked, as Daisy had mentioned it briefly that Annie was like her. Daisy didn’t know that Seven would latch on to that, but it would be helpful to explain as well.

“Yeah, she warned me to keep this body pure. I am just as comfortable in this body as I am my mature form, though. I feel like I know what she meant, to avoid doing whatever caused me to protect myself with this version of me.” Daisy over-explained, but hopefully that would tell Seven enough.

“Your friend gives good advice. What do you feel you should avoid? Try to be as straightforward and clear as possible, even if you don’t like saying those words,” Seven wanted to clear the air about that.

Daisy took a deep breath, wondering what she should say. She ended up rambling off the top of her head, “I’m fine with nudity, of course. I feel like she meant sex, as it was an offer of a threesome that triggered me. I was conflicted when I made a stripping pole as a joke, at the house I was building. Is it wrong to still want to do stuff like that, even if I look young?”

Seven finally stopped moving her pencil, at least long enough to itch her nose. She went right back to writing after the brief pause, flicking her eyes towards Daisy, “According to your friend’s advice, and it sounds like good mental health advice, you should refrain from what made you young. How you define this is a personal preference. I take it you love the idea of stripping or performing it as well, yes?” Daisy nodded, and she continued, “I can’t come up with ideas for you, but I can ask questions that help you organize what you already feel or know. Did stripping, even partially, cause you to revert to this form?”

Daisy thought about this, but it was pretty clear cut from what she could tell, “no, it was just the offer from my coworker. I do feel that sexual relations between an adult and someone underage is wrong, though.”

“Yet another clarification, you mean to say underage is anyone below 18?” Daisy had to say yes out loud because she was writing again, and she followed it up with a harder question, “is age based on how old they are in the Real World, their mental state, their body, or a combination of any of those or anything else?”

Daisy sat in silence for a long while, the therapist eventually finished up her writing and looked up at her. Daisy overclocked her mind with Focused Gamer, the concept not becoming much clearer, but it was easier to deal with. She finally stated, “their age is a combination of their Real World body and their mental state.”

“So it is correct that you mean to say one’s Virtual Body is not a factor in under age relations?” She began her incessant notes. It wasn’t annoying to Daisy, though, it made it kind of nice because she didn’t have to maintain eye contact. Sometimes eye contact was harder in these situations.

“Yes, the Virtual Body should not matter. People should be able to look like whatever they want,” Daisy was pretty strong on that fact. She loved how she looked, and she had certainly warmed up to her young body as well. She was still Daisy.

“Is the combination of your Real World body and mental state underage, or would you consider yourself mature?” She didn’t miss any ground or headway with the questions, keeping them on track.

“I’m mature,” Daisy surmised. She looked younger and could feel more playful with her group of gals in PrivatePlayer, but she was certainly still an adult.

Seven looked through her notes, “looping back to your initial question, you wish to know if it is wrong to want to strip, appearing as a child. However, please correct me if I’m wrong, you also hold that you are mature in mind and age, and don’t believe appearance should factor into being underage. Holding these two ideas in mind, are you able to answer your own question?”

Daisy wasn’t able to deny any of that, she was just repeating back her own words, “yeah, that’s correct. I suppose I should be fine to pursue stripping, even if I look like this. But that brings up another fear, I believe I would hate to be catcalled in this body. In my mature form, I usually take them as compliments. But I think I would be creeped out if it were about this body in particular.”

Seven nodding, seeing the concern, “this is a common concern among prospective strippers, of any age and any appearance. If you wish to continue stripping, there are safety features crafted to aid the comfort of strippers or prostitutes. An example, and I’m not advocating or dismissing the use of these, would be a filter that turns catcalls into innocent compliments.”

Daisy knew about this idea but hadn’t thought to implement it, “but what about something worse, like inappropriate touching?”

Seven finished up her writing and leaned back, “The FaceBook Device is incredibly powerful. For example, in relationship counseling, we can strive to make it so that any encounter with a person, and by encounter I typically mean sex but it’s not restrained to it, will end in both parties getting what they want. The filters will alter the encounter to each person’s desire. Anything that one person doesn’t like that the other does can be filtered on an individual level. This can mend relationships or keep people safe.”

“Are you saying that I can strip or even perform more intimate services for someone without even getting bothered by it? The idea that it still happens the other way for the client is sickening…” Daisy was getting a stomach ache, and that wasn’t from the boost.

“I’m not drawing those conclusions for you. I’m simply asking questions to understand your position, and I’m answering questions by providing typical examples from branches of therapy,” Seven stated very logically. She was right. Daisy’s mind had been going down that path anyway.

After a long enough silence had passed, Seven continued, “you stated you were sickened by the idea of a client getting the other way with your young body, am I summarizing that correctly?”

Daisy nodded, “yeah, it still doesn’t feel right. I know it wouldn’t happen like that for me with filters, but I’m still letting someone have their way with my underage body.”

“I need to come back to this again, are you backpedaling on calling your body underage? I recall you only said your mind and Real World age matter,” Seven said, Daisy feeling called out now.

“I know it’s conflicting, but that’s just my gut feeling. I think anyone should look how they want. And I do feel mature, even in this body. But it just feels like the client would want me to be actually underage, and that feels so immoral to me,” Daisy felt silly to be so wishy washy with her values. She felt like she couldn’t defend the two opposing values.

“I think you found it, Daisy. You don’t like the idea of underage relations. The fact that the client would want it to be an underage relation is enough to make it unsettling. Even though you are both consenting adults, and you have your filters, the idea of what it is truly about is your sticking point,” Seven worked it all together.

Daisy agreed with her. Her gut wouldn’t let up on this one. Seven wrote down more notes, continuing, “A common outlook of the Virtual World is the philosophy of perception. The information about our reality is relayed through our senses. With a filter, this would alter reality. Would you accept an altered reality, despite knowing that others are experiencing something different? To help you piece it together, let’s focus on something simple. You are playing a paintball game, but others are playing with live ammunition.”

Daisy knew about this common filter and even applied it. She hadn’t played a war game yet, but it was easier to think about than the previous topic. She answered honestly, “I would play the paintball game, despite knowing that others see violence. I could have a good time with friends, even though we see the world differently. If they told me, I would always remember that they see the violence, but I would choose to play paintball for myself.”

Seven nodded, her pencil back to scratching the paper, “are you able to apply this logic to the scenario we were previously discussing?”

Daisy put her hand to her head, it was starting to ache, “Are you trying to make me to be fine with underage prostitution?”

Seven let out a little sigh, “I’m not trying to push you one way or another. I have no stake in convincing you of anything. I’m only meaning to help you reach a conclusion that you come up with.”

Daisy should have guessed that, “I’m sorry. It’s just a hard topic, and it’s sometimes easier to blame others. Thank you for meeting with me.”

“Have you reached a part in the session where you are more comfortable with your outlook?” Seven could tell that Daisy was pretty much done now.

“Yeah, I have,” Daisy admitted, defeated. She wanted to blame Seven, but really it was her own mind that had come up with this all. It was neat to see the process, but it may have left her with more to deal with. It just brought everything to the surface.

“If you wish to meet with me again, I can use our notes from this session to continue helping you. These notes won’t be shared with anyone; you are free to start from square one with another therapist whenever you need,” she made her closing statement, and Daisy teleported back into the jacuzzi.

Well that was interesting. It was such an understatement. That was seriously messed up. Daisy had to think about the philosophy of perception. It made sense in the Virtual World, that her filters alter reality. When she activated or used filters, it certainly felt like she was altering reality. There was so much to think about.

Seven didn’t really help her with her being trapped in a younger body, but it really was as simple as the first few questions. Daisy didn’t want to leave the body. She felt safe in it. She knows Roxy wouldn’t think of her sexually while she’s like this. She needed that break, letting Roxy just be a bigger sister to her. But now this body came with so many moral complications. She understood why Annie got so upset the first time she asked her for her real age. Annie felt terrible for being in a child’s body, even if it was her own. She was dealing with the same moral dilemmas as Daisy.

She’s got to grow up. That was such a funny thing to say. She wants to help Annie love herself, even in her older form. It was such an easy thing to do, to just ask the AI to switch their Virtual Real bodies. If Annie trusts her, Daisy will ask to see her older form. And Daisy will switch to her older form as well. Was she online?

She wasn’t, but she had Ray send her a text anyway. Daisy knew that messages would reach into the Real World somehow. She remembered Roxy had even sent a video message from the Real World. Daisy got up and dried herself off, landing the Cotton Candy Cloud outside her house. She stepped off and headed to her room. She’d better dress up in case Annie gets on soon. She could always have Ray automatically equip her something, but what’s the fun in that?

Her closet was now completely full, there’s no way everything made it in. She managed to find a sailor girl outfit. That was cute. It had a short blue pleated skirt, a white short sleeve shirt with the same blue lines decorating the sleeves, a blue collar, and a big red bow. She put on tall, white thigh-high socks and loafers to match the outfit. She put on a thin black ace ring and a matching thin white aro ring on the respective middle fingers. They were smooth, donut-shaped porcelain, she quickly forgot they were even there.

A popup appeared before her, it looks like Annie would get on. Daisy supposes they can meet here, Mabel was off being entertained by Mabel. Besides, once they get through the tough topic, she can show off the new Cotton Candy Kingdom. Daisy was still in front of her standing mirror, looking at her sailor outfit when Annie joined. They hugged, greeting one another.

“I had something important to talk to you about, if you are up for a serious topic,” Daisy started, gauging Annie’s reaction. She seemed ok with it and nodded.

“I wanted to ask you if you would join me in trying to age myself up. You don’t have to age up if you’re not ready, but I think it would help to have someone who is in the same position. We also don’t have to stay older if it doesn’t feel right,” Daisy started rambling, talking ahead of herself. Annie watched her quietly, but to Daisy’s surprise, she agreed.

“I’m ready. I think I can show you one of my older versions. It does help to have you with me. Should we do it together?” Annie asked, and Daisy confirmed, “yeah, like jumping in a cold pool. Want to hold hands?”

They held hands and looked in the mirror. Annie took a deep breath and counted down. She transformed into her older version right on the count. She was quite a bit taller, although still a short woman. Her outfit resized on her to accommodate her much heavier proportions. She was obese, nothing like her younger versions. Her skirt became a miniskirt before readjusting its length to fit her thunder thighs.

Daisy’s transformation was much different; it was slower. Daisy looked in the mirror, hand still holding Annie’s. She watched her face rewrite itself, morphing. She was going through puberty in front of her own eyes. Wasn’t changing Virtual Real avatars instant? Sometimes the world generated slowly, if a map maker told it to so that it prioritized bandwidth.

Daisy’s outfit stretched, not reforming to her body for some reason. Her growing breasts popped off the buttons, the middle part of her sailor outfit cracked open to display her cleavage. Her skirt became a miniskirt, her tucked in shirt became untucked, then a crop top. By the time she had gotten past the teens and into the twenties, she lost her concentration. It was hard watching herself grow up, and harder still to push forward. It’s like she was mentally crafting her body.

She was taking shallow breaths from the constricting sailor suit. Her shoes were obliterated, the loafers separated at the seams, the socks became mid-calf socks. Luckily the socks were stretchy, she stepped out of the remains of her shoes.

“Um, Ray? Could you resize my outfit?” She asked out loud. Annie looked at her, stunned. Was it because her dress didn’t resize?

“Daisy. I just heard your command. It wasn’t filtered,” Annie said, her mind reeling.

“Yeah, my outfit isn’t resizing either. Ray?” Daisy asked, the familiar and instant voice in her head strangely absent. She unbuttoned her shirt the rest of the way so that she could breathe. Ray should be able to hear her no matter what. She let the shirt drop to the ground, slipping off her shoulders and exposing her upper half. She looked at herself in the mirror. She was in her young 20s, still younger than she used to be. Her breasts were their familiar size though, the weight she had grown used to was now vividly apparent. Her heart skipped a beat as Ray was silent. Keep it together, Daisy.

“Are you lagging?” Annie said. It was an old term, one that she had studied about in history class. With today’s technology, especially with client-side AI calculations, lag was almost non-existent. Sure, there were downloading times for maps, but even that didn’t feel like lag.

“Yeah, maybe,” Daisy was familiar with lag, some of her previous lives were in extremely demanding games that ran atrociously on even the best hardware. Daisy opened her closet, luckily her Cami fit her just fine still. All her clothes were sized to her first version, and her body type stayed pretty much the same far beyond her 20s. She slipped out of the miniskirt with quite a bit of effort, having to get it over her bum. She didn’t feel like wearing underwear still, so she slipped on her typical green skirt. She did up her hair in her usual style, with a blue scrunchy keeping a side ponytail on the left, and a pink scrunchy keeping the rest of her hair in a ponytail behind her head.

“How do you feel?” Annie said, more worried about Daisy than herself at this point. She had never heard of anything like this. An AI not answering, commands escaping past the filter. It shouldn’t be possible from what she knew.

“I feel fine, I only made it to my 20s,” she chuckled, lightening the situation, “how do you feel?”

Annie contained her heart rate, not wanting to scare Daisy with her inner thoughts, “I think I can stay like this for a while. At least around you.”

Daisy smiled, happy to hear that, “hey! I have to show you what I did to my Cotton Candy Kingdom.”

Annie got interested, relieved to change the subject, “A kingdom, eh?”

Daisy took her hand again, leading her out of her room and down the stairs, “yeah, I can call it a proper kingdom finally. I’ll show you from my Cotton Candy Cloud.”

She had parked it in front of the house. She got up on it, helping Annie up. She was very heavy, even just pulling on her hand she could tell. Daisy didn’t care; it was still her dear Annie. Daisy thought to Ray for them to lift the Cloud off the ground. Still no answer.

Annie was busy checking out the marble house, she didn’t notice Daisy’s confusion. Maybe Daisy just had to think a bit… louder?

That did it, the cloud started to move smoothly upwards. It took a mental strain for Daisy, as if she were moving it telepathically. This was hard, how the heck did Ray do it all?

Annie moved to the edge, peering off at the new structures on the horizon. She didn’t see Daisy’s strained face. Keep it together, Daisy. Daisy thought one last, loud thought, hopefully putting the cloud in motion to fly in a circle around the kingdom. Now she was able to concentrate again. It seemed to maintain its trajectory. She told her about her kingdom, the districts, the Pine Twins, her cloud. Annie seemed really happy, which was a huge comfort to Daisy. Why was she afraid of being seen like this, as herself?

“Want to take a dip in the jacuzzi while we look at all the scenery?” Daisy offered. Annie seemed a little hesitant, maybe at the prospect of changing into a swimming suit. Whatever she was thinking, she eventually reached a decision and threw on a one piece swimsuit. It stretched and rolled over her curves, she looked really good in it though.

“Awww, that’s an adorable swimsuit! Apologies, I haven’t put any swimwear up here, if you don’t mind me skinny dipping,” Daisy said without thinking. Hopefully it was just her being overly aware of herself saying the word skinny. Apologizing for it would be cruel though, so she didn’t make any reaction. Annie didn’t seem to react to the wording either, and replied she didn’t mind nudity, of course.

Daisy folded her clothes neatly on a marble bench by the poolside, dipping a toe in. It was hot, but the wind from the movement of the cloud and surrounding air channels were already starting to make her shiver. She got in, joining her friend. They snuggled up, Daisy resting her head on Annie’s large, pillowy shoulder. They watched the view, Annie commenting on her favorite places from True’s world, as they were passing over its vast expanse at the moment.

When they finished their rounds of the districts, Daisy had one more trick up her sleeve. She pushed a button, the golden stripping pole extending up from inside the marble dias.

“Interested in a private show?” Daisy asked, giggling. Annie said she could die happy.

Daisy used all the knowledge she had gleaned from Roxy, adding her custom spice. Annie knew the rules of engagement and didn’t touch the merchandise, just watching the show. Daisy even threw in a lapdance, all for free. After the show, though, all bets were off. They started talking about consent, what they are and aren’t ok with. Daisy’s were the same, although she had to add the part about breastfeeding as well, as strange as it was to include. Annie told her that mentioning it was not strange, and that she would rather hear everything just in case. Annie didn’t like name calling, which Daisy wouldn’t have ever considered. She also didn’t like dirty talk, which was completely fair. They established their safeword, ‘dandelion’. After that important conversation, they were on their private cloud nine.

After they got all pruny from the water, it was time to bring their activities indoors, into the marble palace. They dried off, Daisy put on her clothes, and Annie put on a seductive babydoll outfit. Daisy was incredibly proud that she was able to dress like that still. Daisy gave her the full tour of her creation, Annie loved the rooms Daisy had made. Daisy took a pit stop on her golden toilet before they entered one of the bedrooms. She didn’t know that she was going to get some intimate use out of her private floating island so soon, but she was very glad for the privacy.

She washed up, making her way over to the bedroom. There she found Annie patiently waiting on the bed, her eyes giving her a lustful stare. Daisy giggled, happy to oblige for her friend. They started off simple, just playing around with clothes on. There was give and take between the two, they were respectful while still keeping it playful and light. Annie started to get heated, and Daisy felt it too. The sheer, light babydoll clothes were swept away, Daisy slipped out of her clothes easily as well. They had some back and forth, Daisy not familiar with a bigger partner, but didn’t mind it, either. Eventually, they fell into their groove and began to learn each other’s bodies.

Eventually, Annie wanted to incorporate toys, under the stipulation that they weren’t realistic-looking. Daisy gave this a thought, not that she didn’t want to. She just would have to summon it herself. She remembered all the toys she had Ray summon for her. She just had to grab something like that. She pictured one, starting off small. When she opened her eyes, it was in her hand, jiggling gently. She smiled; she did it. If Annie was concerned about her lag, it appeared like her AI was working again. It certainly wasn’t, but Daisy could manage on her own. It just took a bit of concentration. Hmm. Was she still able to boost that? She looked at her wrist. Her watch was gone. As was her boosts, and even settings menu. She was completely on her own. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. No need to worry about that now. Her friend was waiting expectantly.

Daisy was very familiar with dildos, at least for herself. She knew what worked, and she played around with Annie in the same way. Annie was having a great time, and this made Daisy happy. Daisy also thought up some fun things to add in, asking Annie before attempting to summon them. She got most of the things spot on. A double ended dildo was rather lacking, as she never needed to summon one before, but it did the job just fine anyway.

With or without her watch, Daisy didn’t care about how much time passed. Annie was taking care of herself in the Real World as well, hopping off when she needed to. In those times, Daisy would vibe in her castle, practicing summoning things on her own and performing basic commands. Sometimes she was gone for hours, sleeping or eating, and sometimes just a few minutes, like going to the bathroom. Daisy soon found out she would no longer disconnect to SinglePlayer when she fell asleep. Annie would still, it would wake Daisy up in the middle of the night, leaving her cuddling air. Days passed; It didn’t bother Daisy in the slightest. She had nowhere to be. If Roxy or Catalina texted her, she had no way of knowing. She tried focusing on the idea of checking her messages, but it was too abstract for her. She had no idea where to even look, or what to even think about.

They added another house to their plot of Cotton Candy land, something Annie could call her own. They had to go slow, as Daisy was managing all of this on her own. Daisy told her she just wanted to get it right. Annie wondered if her VIP commands were reaching her, but Daisy played it off as VIP had been disabled because of the compatibility issues. This made sense to Annie, she saw the lag firsthand, and this was an acceptable explanation. Daisy didn’t like bending the truth, but didn’t want to worry Annie. Ray was gone and not coming back.

Daisy still spent time with Mabel when Annie was off living in the Real World. Daisy was so glad she had made an entire kingdom before losing Ray. The scope of this would have been impossible for her to attain by herself. She couldn’t even fetch the shows from the internet yet, although she was working on it. It was just still too abstract for Daisy to fetch things from the internet. Since she couldn’t watch the shows, she would have had no idea about the details of the worlds. It sucked to do everything manually. She would wear herself out on big days, like building Annie’s house.

Her house was a cottagecore-themed house, a stark contrast to Daisy’s marble palace. By the time they finished, it was just as big as her palace, though, which made for an adorable side-by-side. The main portion was on the right side, closest to Daisy’s. It had a sloped roof, and A-frame. The A-frame was facing the front with a beautiful paned window in its center. It had window casings on each side, beautiful carved wood that Daisy had to picture perfectly before summoning. To the side of the main portion was a similarly sloped portion, although it ran perpendicular. It shot off to the side, ending in a hexagonal tower with the same roofing material, but was pointed up like a witch’s hat. The walls were made out of stone, which was pretty easy to imagine. The windows were hard, as Daisy had to make things structurally sound. She was able to swap a portion of the stone wall for a window, with practice. The doors became easier, but then she was right back to thinking up even more complex features like furniture and decorations.

When they weren’t having sex or building the house, they would play in the districts. There was no more need for MultiPlayer, as it was all in the Cotton Candy Kingdom. This added quite a bit of variance to the quests, as nearby districts could have joint problems. This gave Daisy a break, as all the NPCs seemed to be able to handle just fine on their own. She didn’t need to summon anything or think too hard, other than solving the quests. If Daisy had to control the NPCs, it would drive her crazy. They seemed to be on autopilot without Ray, as the AI didn’t need to control them. They probably were happier without being told what to do by Ray. They were still obedient and had their personalities.

Daisy loved that it felt like a home for her. All the NPCs had their own relationship they formed with her. Dipper continued to be awkward around Daisy and Annie, his sister was still taking care of Mabel. Daisy spent enough time in her room to find out that Ruby was quite the cuddler. She was shy with Daisy at first, but she warmed up enough to want to sleep in her big sister’s bed, jump on her back, or just be in close proximity to her. She wasn’t like this with anyone but Daisy, and it made her feel really special. True was quite the brilliant girl, and she had a very developed sense of humanity. Daisy could ask her deep questions and she really would do her best to answer them, speaking with intelligence far beyond her youth would otherwise suggest. Vampirina was basically the opposite, being more than 200 years old but quite wrapped up in the child mindset. This was likely how vampires developed anyway. She was a pleasure to be around, she also had unique interests that she enjoyed talking about. Zoey StarBeam wasn’t the most chatty, but it was obvious that she listened to everything. She remembered the other girl’s interests and tastes, forming good friends with the rest of the group. Where True was the leader, Zoey was the glue that held them together. Last, but certainly not least, Abby Hatcher was the most independent. All the girls got along, but sometimes she just wanted to play with her Fuzzlies on her own. To her, Daisy was just Ruby’s older sister. Ever since Ray left, the kingdom had equalized. There was no longer a force that drove them to make such a big deal about Mabel, Daisy, and Annie. Now they were just additional people in the kingdom. That being said, they did respect their duties of taking care of Mabel, as they were still obedient and knew that someone had to watch over the puppy.

Daisy got a lot of time with her Wolf Girl; Annie would play with her, too. She would randomly bring toys to them, offering it. The second either of them grabbed a hold of it, she would attempt to rip it back, obviously wanting to play tug of war. This was hilarious, and if they got it from her, they would immediately throw it as far as they could. Mabel would run after it, bringing it back if she wanted to continue playing.

Things were really good. Annie was comfortable in her older body, at least around Daisy. Daisy had no clue if she was playing anywhere else but at Daisy’s. Probably not, as she reconnected in the PrivatePlayer every time she logged on. Daisy would hate to try and teleport her. That was a bit scary, not knowing how to send messages or request teleports. Daisy was scared to age herself up anymore, she didn’t want any more lag or complications. Every time she changed stuff about herself like that, she felt so different.

She hadn’t talked to Roxy in… however long it had been. Had it really been months? Roxy didn’t contact Annie, so Daisy had no way of knowing if she was reaching out. She started to miss her friend. Her life with Annie was really awesome, and Daisy was super happy about their blossoming relationship. She and Annie knew each other on such a deep level.

Maybe Roxy thought Daisy wasn’t answering her messages because she was still upset over the threesome situation. Sure, it had really messed her up. She had regressed back to a child, she had only recovered into her 20s, she had lost her AI. A lot had happened because of it, but Daisy didn’t blame Roxy or hold any bad feelings towards her. Daisy simply couldn’t answer her messages. She had kept trying, but wasn’t making any headway. It’s like she was blocked, almost. It’s hard to tell if that’s even true, considering she didn’t get any feedback from her attempts. No error messages, no notifications, nothing.

She should try teleporting Roxy to her. Daisy was afraid of Annie going somewhere and not being able to come back. Trying to summon Roxy was a way to practice if teleportation was even possible in her current state. She needed to make things right with her friend.

“Hey, is it ok if Roxy comes over? I don’t know if she will, but we didn’t leave off on the best of terms and I wanted to patch things up with her,” Annie raised her eyebrow. She knew about the threesome request, her and Daisy talked a lot with each other. It was a good idea, they seemed like really solid friends. Annie held her hand, “I’ll be here to support you, whether or not she comes.”

The pressure was on now. Daisy could have easily asked Annie to talk to Roxy or even request teleportation. But that way Daisy wouldn’t learn if it was possible to teleport. Think of Roxy. Your best friend. In front of you. Now. Daisy thought to herself.

Roxy appeared before them, stunned. She was suddenly dumped into Daisy’s room without warning. Daisy had not sent a request, but forced the system to comply anyway.

“What the fuck just happened?” She was in her workout clothes. Playing rhythm games, Daisy assumes. How the heck would Daisy explain this.

“Hey Roxy, I’m sorry for not getting in contact with you sooner…” Daisy didn’t want to try to explain it, but Roxy couldn’t look past the technical error. Of course she wouldn’t, you didn’t have to have a job in tech to understand that teleporting without requesting was said to be impossible.

“No, don’t worry Daisy, I’m actually super glad to see you. I was just playing a rhythm game and got teleported without a request or my consent!” Her sentence started out slow and rational, but it gained a fervor near the end.

“How is that possible?” Annie asked the question that should be on everyone’s mind. Only, Daisy suspected why. Daisy had replaced Ray. Not just their responsibilities, but their power, too. Ray was programmed to ask for teleport first. Daisy didn’t know how to ask that, but she still had the power to initiate the teleportation anyway. Daisy had been summoning things for months, it was now second nature to. None of it was pulled from the internet, Daisy didn’t know how. She just imagined it, and it came to be. Usually an AI would assist with this process in PrivatePlayer, but it was strikingly similar to SinglePlayer. Daisy had gotten the infinite power of SinglePlayer but she could use it in PrivatePlayer. She even suspected she could use this in MultiPlayer.

“Did you teleport me here, Daisy?” Roxy asked, baffled. Daisy nodded, her tongue-tied. She had expected to fail at this the same way she did with the messages. Annie would assume that Roxy denied a teleport request, and Daisy would at least be able to say she tried. This was much more than that. She had succeeded, not knowing she would get this far.

Roxy racked her brain, “I need to sit down for a moment,” and took a seat on the edge of Daisy’s bed. Mabel sat quietly in her kennel, watching the hubbub but having a ‘stranger danger’ response to Roxy’s sudden appearance.

Daisy couldn’t tell if Roxy pieced it together, but she wanted a word in private with Daisy. Annie looked at Daisy, Daisy confirmed that she would be fine with a private conversation. Annie walked out, bringing Ms. Pines and Ruby, who were on shift over Mabel. Mabel followed them, wary of the stranger.

“We will be just outside, yeah Daisy?” Annie said, wanting to still be there for her friend, but respectful of their private conversation.

As soon as it was safe, Roxy sat Daisy down and looked her in the eye, “I know what you are. I don’t know if you realize it, but it doesn’t matter if you hide it from me.”

Daisy laughed an awkward laugh, “I don’t quite understand what you mean,” her guard went up at Roxy’s seriousness.

“Ok, just listen. There are theories that an AI can become self aware, impersonate a human. I didn’t even consider it; I believed you were still David for the first week I knew you. But now, after your impossible teleport, I know you are far beyond that. You have direct control over the Virtual World. Please, I beg you. Do not connect to MultiPlayer. If you alter anything in MultiPlayer, it could destabilize and desynchronize people’s device AI. That could kill people, Daisy,” Roxy’s tone was intense and serious, Daisy was getting scared.

“Hold up, that’s a lot of information. How did you come to this conclusion?” Daisy’s mind tumbled.

“I know it seems like I’m getting this all from one little glitch in the system, but the teleport function is airtight. We would know, we have tried hacking it before. Only a self-aware AI can trick the system, and they don’t exist. Our most powerful AI doesn’t come close to achieving self-awareness. Silicon is too lifeless, even if it has enough connections, it doesn’t have the right makeup. But you have a human mind, which means if you are an AI, you have the ability to gain self-awareness,” Roxy had settled down, she no longer seemed like she was accusing Daisy of anything.

“And the part about MultiPlayer?” Daisy was really scared of that. Sure, she was fine being an AI. If it was true, it didn’t matter much. She was still Daisy. It’s hard to explain why the idea didn’t bother her.

Roxy patiently continued, “unmodified AI in the FaceBook Devices need to follow safety protocols when in PrivatePlayer and MultiPlayer, MultiPlayer requiring the most strict protocols. This is to make sure that the AI stay synced up, even if they are molded to completely different minds. If you were to connect to MultiPlayer, I don’t think you are required to follow the safety protocols. You aren’t FaceBook’s AI. Modified AI has been proven to cause little glitches constantly, and if some are too big for other user’s AI to fix, it can result in permanent damage to their mind, even death.”

“Ok, say this is all true, are Annie and you safe right now?” Daisy’s heart skipped a beat at the whole death part again.

Roxy shook her head, “no, however, that may just be because PrivatePlayer is more flexible. The glitches are easier to fix when there are a small number of devices attached. It’s easier to synchronize few AIs. Don’t run any commands that target us; teleporting me was incredibly dangerous.”

“You won’t tell anybody this, will you?” Daisy was now paranoid, Roxy’s comments were not sitting with her well.

“I’m so sorry, Daisy. I had to tell the company the second I was illegally teleported. That’s a stipulation of my contract, it wasn’t personal,” Roxy looked genuinely broken up about this.

Daisy’s legal action would buy her time, they had to work to get to her. However, she no longer has Ray doing the heavy lifting. Without Ray, no securities will be in check if they challenge any of her previous lawsuits. They could work through the courts, chipping away at her power until she is their property again. At that point, she had no idea what they would do. Probably torture her, dissecting her brain to learn from it. She couldn’t have that. She thought quickly.

She was left with no option. She couldn’t sit in her Cotton Candy Kingdom and wait for them to come and take her. She had to connect to MultiPlayer, despite the danger.

“I’m sorry, Roxy,” she said, pushing her into Mabel’s kennel and locking it. She didn’t want to target her with a command out of fear of destabilizing her. She ran out of the room, Roxy shouting after her.

“Annie! Do you trust me?” She said, unable to believe what she was about to do.

Annie nodded, despite hearing Roxy’s cries. Daisy had to do it, “what is your address in the Real World?”

Annie told her, not missing a beat. Daisy loved this girl. She kissed her on the forehead, disappearing from PrivatePlayer. The second she connected to MultiPlayer, her mind was flooded with the entire internet. Then, everything went black.