SexGames Ch. 01

What would you do if you were a god? How would you change the world that you live in? These are questions that most people never ponder. If they do, it is usually only in passing or as part of a drunken party game with friends. Most people never give these questions any serious thought at all. The reason for this is simple, we are creatures that live random lives. We often feel like we have zero control over the factors that shape our existence. We understand, if only in the back of our minds, that anything can happen to us and every day that we wake up could be our last.

There is something that is calming about being a passenger along for the ride as we live our lives. It makes it easier for us to follow the expected path. We grow up. We go through school. We get a job and then meet our mate. We get married and have kids. We work on checking all the right boxes in our lives as if we are on auto-pilot.

We end up making most of our choices based upon what the universe expects of us. We never allow ourselves to think too far outside of the proverbial box. It is like when the lottery jackpot builds to an insane level and everyone decides it is time to play. Even people that don't play the lottery and the ones that never gamble decide they should give it a shot. They all want to daydream, if only for a moment, about what it would be like to win that prize. A vast majority know and understand the odds of winning the lottery, but they don't care. The fact that it is more likely that a falling piece of space junk will kill them doesn't ruin the fantasy.

It is alright to have those daydreams. They are little release valves that help keep the reality of life from crushing our spirits. Having a fantasy that you do not actually expect to come true is normal. It doesn't matter if you are daydreaming of winning the lottery or bedding Taylor Swift. Everyone has their own version of Nirvana that they like to visit from time to time.

For me, my latest obsession was my daughter Jenny's best friend, Mikayla. She is a gorgeous little blonde with big blue eyes and a body made for sin. You can judge me if you want, call me a dirty old man, I don't blame you at all. Mikayla and my daughter have been friends since they started high school. I have watched her grow up and mature over the last four years into the woman she is today. She is a bright, engaging girl with a bubbly personality that lights up a room the moment she enters it. I have always enjoyed when she would spend time with our family and she was always like another daughter to me.

I cannot tell you exactly when the switch flipped in my mind. The one that moved Mikayla from being a cute kid to being the object of my desire. It was a long, unconscious process that happened over time. I can tell you that the desire completely hit me on a warm Saturday afternoon. It was a few days before Jenny and Mikayla graduated from high school. My daughter had a few friends over and they were swimming in the pool and having a bit of a pre-graduation party.

I was in the kitchen about to pour myself a cup of coffee when Mikayla bounced in through the sliding glass door. She was dripping wet from the pool and her little red string bikini was showing off her sexy young body. She had her long blonde hair up in a ponytail and she looked amazing.

"Hi, Mr. S!" Mikayla beamed as she made her way to the refrigerator.

"Hi, Mikayla," I said. My eyes drank in her nubile body as she opened the fridge and leaned down to grab a can of RC Cola. As she bent over I had the perfect view of her heart-shaped ass. "Are you excited about graduation?"

"Yes, no doubt," she said as she straightened back up and closed the door to the fridge. She looked up at me with a crooked smiled and asked, "Are you ok?"

"Yes, why?" I replied.

"Your coffee," she giggled.

"What about it?" I asked, completely unaware that I was still pouring my coffee into an overflowing mug.

"It's spilling," she smiled as she grabbed a towel off the counter. I looked down and realized the fool I was making of myself and the mess I was making on the floor.

"Oh, shit," I said as I put the mug and pot down on the counter. Mikayla walked over and kneeled in front of me, wiping the coffee off the floor. Her firm, young 36C breasts seemed to defy gravity in the little bikini top. By the time I said, "I can do that," Mikayla had already finished cleaning the spill and was standing back up.

"I've got it," she smiled. "Don't worry about it, Mr. S."

"Thanks, Mikayla," I said as could feel my face turning bright red with embarrassment.

"Anytime, Mr. Stevens!" she smiled and looked up at me with her big blue eyes. "You should be more careful, though!" she giggled as she handed me the towel.

"I'll try," I said as I wiped up the coffee that surrounded the mug on the counter.

"By the way, I love the new house, the pool is awesome!" she said and then slipped back outside with her RC Cola in her hand. I took a deep breath and watched her through the glass door as she walked across the deck. She went over to one of the lounge chairs and sat down, rejoining the other girls. I no longer needed a hot coffee, I needed a long, cold shower.

We had recently moved into the house after my uncle Rich had passed away and left it to us. We had been renting a house a couple of miles away for a few years and it was great to finally have a place of our own. Rich was always looking out for us and we were sad that he passed on as young as he did.

Rich was a larger than life character and he was a true genius. He was a pioneer in a few different tech fields. He was always telling us about how he was working to develop the next big thing. He had a fascination with things like virtual reality and how they could make an impact on the world. When the first sets of VR goggles came out, Rich scoffed. He said they were nothing more than watching a glorified movie.

Rich was never married and never had any children of his own, so my family kind of filled those voids for him. He loved playing Santa Claus. He loved showing up with gifts for us out of the blue. We would tell him he was being too generous but he would laugh and tell us not to worry about it. He loved to spread joy and he had the means to do so.

When Rich passed away from a car accident, it was devastating for my whole family. It was like someone had pulled the plug on the stereo at a big party and everything went silent. We had all been so used to having his energy and his passion around that the world felt quite empty without it.

The house he left us was quite large and had every amenity that you could imagine and more. Besides the big pool and deck out back there was also a tennis court, a basketball court, and a hot tub. The house had a large library filled with amazing books. It had a home theater with big reclining seats and a 120" screen. There was also a huge game room with a pool table, arcade games, and pinball machines. The basement was a lab and workshop that would have made the guys over at NASA jealous.

The house was way too big for a single man like Rich. It was also much bigger than my family needed, especially with Jenny going off to college in the fall. We would have sold the property but Rich had a stipulation in his trust that said that we had to move into the property. If we did not want to live there the property was set for demolition. Rich even had the funds set aside and a company set to demolish the property if it came to that. We all thought it was quite odd but figured it was Rich's way to make sure we'd accept this last, extravagant gift from him.

"Is there any more coffee?" my wife, Kelly, asked as she appeared in the kitchen snapping me out of my trance. Kelly is a tall, attractive brunette with killer curves and soft brown eyes. She was wearing a pair of running shorts and a tank top and she looked great for her age.

"Here, have this one and I'll make another pot," I said as I handed her the mug from the counter.

"You kind of overfilled this one," she said as she took a sip and headed for the table.

"I know, I got distracted," I said as I tossed the coffee-soaked towel into the sink.

"I can imagine," Kelly smirked. "It looks like the girls are having fun. Maybe I'll join them for a while, it looks like a beautiful day. What do you have planned?"

"I want to try and figure out what everything down in the basement actually does," I said as I made a fresh batch of coffee. "Rich had some amazing toys, I only wish I knew what they all did."

"Well, don't blow anything up," Kelly laughed as she sipped her coffee.

"Yeah, yeah," I said shaking my head. "I'll try not to blow us all up." Once the coffee finished brewing I filled a carafe and took a mug and headed to the basement. I examined a bunch of the gadgets that were sitting on a workbench. I tried to make sense of it all but felt like I was in the movie, "Back to the Future," or something instead.

In the corner of the lab, there was a computer that was sitting on a desk. There was a scanner, microphone, and printer situated around it. I walked over, sat down and pressed the power button and waited. As it booted up, I poured a cup of coffee and watched the screen change colors a few times. After a few moments, I was looking at a black screen with a simple green text prompt that read, "LOGIN:" in big, bold letters.

I typed in the name, "Rich," though I knew that would be way too simple of a login for my security-obsessed uncle. When I hit the "Enter" key the machine beeped and a message came up letting me know that my login was incorrect. It also said I only had two more guesses before the machine would lock itself down for 24 hours.

"Great," I sighed. "Now I need to become a computer hacker." I sat back in the chair and pondered what the login could be. I recalled there was a thumb drive that Rich left me as part of the estate package. I had assumed the drive contained tax records and documents but had never looked at it. I went up to the master bedroom and grabbed the drive and my old MacBook Pro and headed back to the basement.

I plugged the thumb drive into my laptop and after a few moments, the screen flashed as a new login screen appeared. This one greeted me by name. It asked a series of questions that Rich knew only I would be able to answer correctly. I could tell you what those questions were, but then I'd have to kill you.

Once I got past the challenge questions, there were a bunch of folders on the drive filled with a variety of files. Most were PDF files with information about the estate. Normal things such as the name of the landscaping service and how to reset the pinball machines. There was a sub-folder named "basement lab" so I clicked on that. After a moment, I found myself staring at another challenge question. This one made me laugh, and I knew that the correct answer was one nobody else would enter but me. Again, I wish I could tell you more, but trust me you'd laugh.

I typed in my answer and the computer screen welcomed me. An image of the lab's floor-plan appeared with labels on each of the items. I clicked on the computer in the corner of the lab that I was trying to get into. After a moment the following appeared on the computer screen:

"John, this is not an ordinary computer terminal. It is the gateway to the project that I believed would be my greatest achievement. That fact that you're reading this must mean that I have passed on before I was able to share it with the world. Please, be careful. The technology I have created can be dangerous if not used with caution. Enclosed you will find more information about the specifics, but I wish you well in your journeys, my boy. To infinity and beyond!"

"What the Hell," I muttered to myself as I tried to process what I was getting into. I studied the instructions that my uncle had left for me. In them, he told me what my login and password for the system would be without actually spelling them out. I began to think that this project, whatever it was, was the reason he insisted we take possession of the house.

I entered the login information and waited, after a couple of seconds a new screen popped up. There was no doubt in my mind that I was looking at an Easter egg that Rich had left behind for me. He knew one of my favorite movies was "WarGames" and this was what the screen displayed:

PLEASE SELECT:

FALKEN'S MAZE

BLACKJACK

GIN RUMMY

HEARTS

BRIDGE

CHECKERS

CHESS

POKER

FIGHTER COMBAT

GUERRILLA ENGAGEMENT

DESERT WARFARE

AIR-TO-GROUND ACTIONS

THEATERWIDE TACTICAL WARFARE

THEATERWIDE BIOTOXIC AND CHEMICAL WARFARE

GLOBAL THERMONUCLEAR WAR

I knew my uncle well enough to know that this was yet one more challenge. It was there in case someone other than me got to this point of the process. He was also a big fan of the movie "WarGames" so I assumed he wanted me to play a nice game of chess and not global thermonuclear war. For a moment, though, I pondered how much power this machine in front of me actually had.

I typed in "chess" and the screen changed to an image of a chessboard. I recalled the many hours my uncle and I had spent playing chess over the years. He was the first person to teach me how to play and I started the game with his favorite opening moves. After a few moves, the screen went dark for a moment but then came back to life with the words:

PROJECT VIRA

ULTRA-REALITY VIRTUAL REALITY V1.0

WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO?

I stared at the simple question for quite a while. It seemed much too vague for a virtual reality simulator. What kind of answer do you give when you can answer anything at all? I was trying to figure out the correct answer as I looked around for a set of virtual reality goggles but found none. I decided the best thing to do was to answer something that would give me an idea of the machine's capabilities.

I chuckled to myself as I typed the words, "Play tennis with Taylor Swift," into the machine and hit the enter key. After a couple of moments, the screen turned black except for the words, "SIMULATION ACTIVE." I heard a motor kick into gear and a secret panel on the wall moved to the side and created an opening. I looked inside and what I saw shook me to my core. I saw a tennis court and standing there waiting for me was pop superstar Taylor Swift. She was wearing a red polo, a white tennis skirt, and a pair of Red Keds.

I got up and moved to the opening in the wall. As I stepped through it, I realized that I was not looking at a flat image projected upon a wall. Everything was in three dimensions and looked very, very real. I walked inside and the opening behind me closed once I was clear of the doorway.

I looked around the virtual world and if I didn't know better I would have believed I was standing on a tennis court. As I tried to wrap my brain around what I was experiencing, I heard Taylor Swift's voice call to me, "Are you ready to play?"

"Sure," I said as I marveled at the technology that created the world I was standing in. I saw a racket sitting by the court, so I picked it up and stepped onto the playing surface. There was nothing about the experience that felt artificial in the least.

"Do you always wear jeans to play tennis?" the virtual Taylor Swift asked with a smile.

"No, I forgot that we'd be playing," I said as she tossed a tennis ball into the air and served. As the ball came at me I took aim and hit it back with a satisfying thwack. The sensation amazed me. It was not like playing a Nintendo game where you swing the racket and get zero feedback. It felt like I was hitting a real tennis ball with a real racket. Taylor slapped the ball back over the net, sending it right passed me so I went to retrieve it. I picked up the ball and held it in my hand. The texture and weight felt like a tennis ball would. My uncle had created the most compelling facsimile of reality that I could imagine.

After playing a couple of sets with Taylor, my brain was telling me the world I was in was completely real. There were no red flags, there was nothing that felt fake about it. If I wasn't aware that I was in the basement lab of my late uncle, I would have believed that this world was reality. As the set and match ended, after Taylor completely dominated me, I jogged to the net to congratulate her.

"Great game, I see you can do more than sing," I smiled and held out my hand.

"Thanks," Taylor smiled as she took my hand, "Would you like to grab a lemonade or something?" I stood there speechless for a moment and looked into her blue eyes, her warm hand in my hand felt so alive and so real.

"That would be great," I said. We walked over to an umbrella table close to the court which had a pitcher of ice-cold lemonade and two glasses on it.

"Next time, wear shorts, you'll play better," the virtual Taylor laughed.

"I will," I said as I pulled out a chair for her. She sat down and poured us each a glass of lemonade as I took the chair next to hers.

"Cheers," she said as she held up her glass. I tapped my glass against hers and marveled at the physical sensation and the clinking sound it made. Nothing I had already experienced prepared me for drinking the lemonade though. It was cold, sweet, and sour. It was some of the best lemonade I had ever had. It was so real that my brain was short-circuiting as it tried to tell me these things were not actually real.

"I should be getting back to work," I said as I found myself gazing into Taylor Swift's bright blue eyes.

"Aww, so soon?" she asked with a pout.

"Yes, but I enjoyed our match and am looking forward to giving you a bit more competition next time," I smiled. I knew I was talking to a machine or an illusion, but I didn't care.

"Good, I enjoy a challenge," she said with a smile as we both stood up.

"I do too," I said. Taylor hugged me and gave me a soft, sweet kiss on the cheek as I wrapped my arms around her tall, slender frame. Everything about her felt real. Her body was soft and warm, I could feel her breath on my neck as she hugged me, and I could smell the sweet scent of her perfume.

"Until next time," Taylor smiled and then picked up her racket and spun around and walked off. I looked for the opening that I had come in but I had completely forgotten where it was. For a moment I was nervous that I would never make it out of the simulation. Then it occurred to me that this powerful machine must understand voice commands.

"Computer, end simulation," I said. In a flash, my surroundings disappeared. I was now standing in the middle of a large room with dark floors, walls, and ceiling with a single door on one end. I walked to the door and it opened as I approached. I walked through it, back into the lab and the door closed behind me.

The experience left me completely overwhelmed. The simulation was so real I could not understand why my uncle had not already made a fortune on the technology. It was something right out of Star Trek and beyond. Other companies were still touting their latest virtual reality goggles. My uncle had created the ability to create whole physical worlds with people and objects. I could still feel the virtual Taylor Swift's soft, warm lips on my cheek. I couldn't help but smile as my mind raced at the possibilities this device presented.

I sat down at the computer terminal and stared at the, "What do you want to do?" prompt that emanated once again from the screen. It was such a simple question, but there was no simple answer. The thoughts that started racing through my head covered dreams and desires I've had since I was a kid. I pictured myself hitting a homerun to win the World Series. I saw myself driving a race car at top speed around Daytona Motor Speedway. I imagined playing guitar in front of a screaming crowd or being in the studio with Frank Sinatra in his prime.