Modern Pantheon: Hephaestus

Stella couldn't remember the last time she was this nervous. Of course, it helped that she spend most of her life wrapped in a cocoon of indifference. That's what it took to survive high school, particularly when you're a girl and not among the "in crowd".

She was about as far from that crowd as anyone could get. Partly by choice but mostly by circumstance. The choice, she preferred people who could carry on a conversation that revolved around more than just sports and clothes. Not a one of them knew where Uganda was. Even more damning, their idea of a motherboard was when mommy dearest sat around waiting for practice to end.

If she had nothing in common with the beautiful people, she had too little to offer her peers. She'd never been all that fond of gaming, whether role playing or strategy, if it didn't involve her computer. Because of that, they never found any reason to talk to her.

You'd think that the geeks and nerds would put a bit more faith in something aside from looks!

Stella knew it was wishful thinking, though. That's why they hung all over every word that May said, despite the fact that you never knew where she'd be any given moment, emotionally speaking, or that she only shared the most cursory of interests with any of them. She was too much of a freak to be

in

but hot enough to draw every other guy who couldn't afford to worry about social standing.

Not only was Stella too tall to do anything but intimidate most guys, at five-foot ten, but she weighed nearly three times as much as the twigs on the cheerleading squad. It was surprising how such a massive woman could seemingly become invisible. Of course, it wasn't just them. She never could bring herself to attract attention to herself. It would only bring ridicule and torment.

Thankfully, high school was just about over! Only one more week remained but Stella was already eighteen and her mind was long gone from those halls. Her AP exams were over and she wasn't in line for valedictorian or anything, so it was a simple enough matter to skate by the last little bit. M.I.T. awaited in September and that's all that mattered.

Actually, it

wasn't

all that mattered, and that's what truly terrified Stella. She was about to test the single most SotA gear she'd ever even

heard

of! Even more amazing, and scary, she'd actually helped refine the code that operated it.

It wasn't that she didn't trust the equipment. It was more than state-of-the-art but the designs were sound. Hell, she'd tested most of the pieces individually already. Now, it was only time to put them all together at once for a dry run. She'd put these things through their paces so many times the thought of one more, comprehensive or not, didn't even cause her to bat an eye.

It was the other aspect that truly terrified Stella into immobility. Now, after months working almost intimately with the man, and another two years prior guaranteeing and proving her bonifides, she was actually going to meet the person responsible for the design! Sure, it was only going to be virtually, but that was the whole point, wasn't it?

If the suit worked as expected, and she'd be professionally devastated if it didn't, she would be one of the first two people to experience a fully immersive virtual reality! Facebook, pshaw! I.M.V.U.? A thing of the past! So it wasn't,

quite

,a holodeck but it was the next best thing. And she'd get to meet the man responsible.

Stella took one last look at the rig while she reached up and plucked at the helmet. She'd had to do a little welding in order to strengthen the harness he'd had shipped to her. Eventually, the design would be able to work with the user's feet on the ground. Until then, however, safety and ease of design required her to be suspended by a series of cables. The meticulous spacing of the harness ensured that she felt no more pressure than normal. If she settled back into the rig, she could even find it relaxing, like lying in a hammock.

"If you don't get on with it, you'll stall yourself right out of the problem!" Stella chided herself. In truth, she suspected that he would wait patiently for her to show. The worst that would happen would be that he'd worry himself sick that something had gone wrong and the gear didn't work. Then, he'd jump offline so he could call her cell to make sure she was all right.

Stella's heart fluttered at the thought. It wasn't just his gear that he worried about. He actually seemed to care about

her

!

It was possibly the single hardest thing that she'd ever forced herself to do but Stella managed to sink the helmet down over her head and secure it in place. Although she had a few more connections to secure, it was the symbolic beginning. She was now completely enshrouded by the device. Maybe she should even suggest those connections should occur first so that the act itself really was the initiator of the experience.

A moment later and the utter black of almost complete sensory deprivation was replaced by weightlessness in a never-ending expanse of white. A glance down showed Stella that her avatar projected as expected. She brought up a limited mirror program in order to look at her new body. A full program included enough personality to fool computer security or operators into believing it was a hacker, in other words a clone, but all she needed was the real-world analogue of a mirror.

A svelte muscled body stared back at Stella. She shook her head and her copy's blond locks floated around her. She ran her hands down the hourglass figure and watched in awe at how seductive the action appeared with the athletic physique. In the real world, she always thought she looked like she kneaded dough when she tried that.

There were more than enough similarities to the real Stella to recognize her in the altered avatar. She hadn't chosen some unattainable image from off the web. Instead, she'd used the sensors in the suit to scan her own body in. From there, she'd just made a few modifications in order to attain her ideal form. It was the Stella that she wished she had the willpower to become.

Confident in her avatar, she turned her attention to the rest of the gear. She inhaled through her nose. At first she didn't think there was any smell and worried over the defect. Then, she realized the loading space lacked anything that would initiate the sense. As a result, there was a slight tinge of ozone, the system's default setting designed to inform the user they were in a virtual world, but otherwise nothing else.

There wasn't any use trying to taste anything, for reasons similar to smell. The mouthpiece that came with the rig was probably the single most impressive bit of technology she'd ever encountered. Not only did it adjust to give the impression of taste and consistency but its presence acted as a guard to prevent users from grinding teeth or accidentally biting tongues or any of a myriad of problems the miraculous designer had anticipated.

Once more, Stella ran her hands down her body. This time, she ignored the mirror program and simply reveled in the feel. It could have easily been nothing more than ghost sensations from the real world but she knew it wasn't. After all, her muscles insisted that her arms pressed inward at her waist and flared out at her hips. Besides, it felt like flesh against the cotton skin-suit rather than fabric on fabric of her gloves.

That was something Stella had to adjust. Every user would first appear in this amorphous clothing every time they entered the new reality. She could make all the permanent adjustments she wanted to her avatar but the off-white suit that clung to her skin from chin to wrists to ankles would remain the default outfit.

When it came right down to it, she didn't exactly mind. Stella was so enamored with her new body that the clothing seemed unimportant. If anything, it accented exactly what she reveled in. Sure, she could make it so that she showed more flesh but why bother? It was all an illusion anyway. This way, she displayed just as many charms as she would in a bathing suit or lingerie. Besides, she hadn't had time to really program in many examples of clothing.

A soft knock startled Stella. A glance around showed nothing that should have caused it. Further, the suit's systems were designed to filter out everything from the outside world, otherwise the full emersion of reality wouldn't have worked nearly as well.

The knock came once more. This time, Stella began to get the sensation that something tugged on her right hip. She looked down and was astonished to see a small pouch extended from the otherwise tight suit. When she reached down and lifted the pouch slightly, she discovered the symbol of an envelope on the side and smiled. She'd never thought of how the system would alert her to a message but, thankfully, he had.

Stella touched the top of the pouch. It widened smoothly and out popped a piece of paper which floated into the air. As it neared the level of her eyes, the parchment began to unfold to reveal the contents of the message.

Is everything okay?

She couldn't help but smile. He'd discovered she was in the system but had yet to exit the boot shell. At the bottom of the note there were a handful of universally recognized buttons. She pressed the respond symbol, scrawled a quick note to assure him she'd be right out and sent it on its merry way. The note itself didn't have the infamous red "x" to eliminate it so she made a shooing motion mid-air that seemed to cause it to at least remove itself from right in front of her face.

Next, it was time to actually leave the boot shell. As with the helmet, Stella was almost too terrified to actually accomplish the goal. Where, eventually, she'd need to cross a few servers to get to a meeting in a chat zone, this time he would likely be right there waiting for her. After all, there were only two servers in the world with the coding to support this fully accomplished virtual reality.

Stella reached her arms forward, palms pointed outward, and took a deep breath. She wove each hand in opposing half circles in the air. Where her hands had traced, a glowing blue portal formed. After the initial command, it grew to fully accommodate her and remained in place waiting for her to step through. With another deep breath, she complied.

The transition from the featureless limbo into virtual world was remarkably smooth. It could have been jarring, particularly with the level of sensation the suit imported. Instead, the world seemed to rush in from every direction before it slowed, at the last moment, to slide gracefully into place under, around and above her.

The plaza in which she was dumped looked to be right out of any European village. A statue of some sword-wielding horseman stood atop a quaint fountain. All around, brick buildings sat comfortingly. A few of them looked to be cafes from the tables and chairs set up in front of them, though a lack of patrons or servers suggested they had yet to be activated.

Stella was amazed by the complexity of the illusion. She could feel the spray of mist as a slight wind picked up stray droplets of water before they could settle into the pool with a stream of plinks. Some unidentified flower bloomed in the distance and flooded the area with its scent, liberally mixed with the soothing odor of bread fresh from the oven. Her mouth watered in the hopes that she could find the source of that amazing smell and sample it.

"I hope you like it. I've gone over every little detail in the hopes that I could get it just right." Came the rumble of a voice from behind her.

"It's...amazing!" Stella gasped as she spun to face the creator of every single wonder she beheld. Not only had he programmed, crafted really, the scenery but he'd designed and built the very VR suits, they both wore, himself.

If the scenery had caused her to gasp with delight, the sight of the man, at last, froze the very breath within her chest. The first thing she noticed about him was the ripple of muscles across his chest. Unlike her, he'd tailored his outfit away from the generic bodysuit. The design he'd chosen had left large swaths of his skin exposed impressively.

Stella began to get lightheaded, surely just from lack of air, as he walked towards her. His outfit seemed like something out of classical mythology, or maybe ancient history. If she had to guess, she would have said the skirt and helmet were part of the traditional armor of Greek Hoplites. If they were, however, he'd done away with the sculpted bronze breastplate in favor of his equally sculpted muscles.

She shook her head and broke the spell. Like her, he'd undoubtedly used the program to fashion his ultimate appearance. There might be the foundation of truth beneath all of those rippling muscles, but she doubted there was much more than that. He'd created the entire world, not to mention the amazing plaza, how difficult would a new body be?

Well, Stella had a few tricks of her own. She'd known this moment would come, where she wondered what truly lay beneath the facades, and had planned accordingly. Besides, this was a command she'd felt might be necessary for administrators when the world went public. She hadn't told him what she planned, in part because she wanted to see his reaction without any chance for preparation.

Stella curled her hand into a claw and dragged it through the air between them. The scenery fluttered for a moment, while her program tried to decide whether it fell within the parameters of her demands or not, but solidified at last. Their avatars, however, shuddered and then vanished.

Stella had to resist the urge to drop her arms to cover herself. She still wore the off-white body-suit but now it showed her in all her three-hundred pound shame. She hated the folds that the suit molded itself to. Sure, her breasts were triple-Es but compared to the rest of her it still left a pear shape.

She sucked in a breath of astonishment. Like her, his outfit hadn't changed. Somehow, he'd transcended the automated design. If he'd chosen to fashion illusion on top of illusion for himself, however, it did not extend to his body. Also like her, the dispel program forced his body to morph into the form contained within the VR suit in the real world.

There was no way Stella could have noticed anything

but

his muscles first. For whatever reason, he'd actually

under

stated them in his avatar! It gave the impression that he was ashamed of that rippling mass of power and manhood. He had no reason to feel that way. It wasn't the freakish construction of a body-builder but the honest strength of someone who worked for a living. Hell, the only time she'd ever seen anyone even close was at a renaissance faire, and he was a blacksmith.

The other alterations were more understandable, even if Stella didn't think he needed to change. She suspected that he'd been in a severe accident at some point. For all the strength that his body contained, his entire right side appeared to have been badly mangled. His face looked like a lump of clay that had been badly abused. His shoulder was a hunch that would have made Quasimodo proud and his leg had a plastic sheen that suggested it was a prosthetic.

Stella wasn't one who dwelled on physical imperfections, however. At least not in other people. Of his body, all she could see were those perfect muscles. Rather uncharacteristically, she wondered what they would feel like as they pressed her against a mattress. How would it feel to run her hands across that landscape while she felt such power inside of her?

Unfortunately, Stella hadn't had enough time to perfect the program. When an administrator needed to view the person behind the mask, they wouldn't want to reveal themselves at the same time. There was no need for that. It was the accused they needed to be able to witness.

Somehow, miraculously, his eyes swept down her body and back up slowly. Everyone else needed only an instant to dismiss her as unhealthy and disgusting. Not only did he take his time, it seemed as if he wanted to savor the moment!

Finally, his eyes returned to hers. Their gazes locked and she could see the longing barely contained within his fierce expression. Unfortunately, she saw shame overtake his desire and he broke the contact. His head drifted down. Meanwhile, his body turned half away in what was certainly a long-learned instinct to mask his infirmities from his audience.

"I'm sorry." His bass voice rumbled in a whisper. "I'd hoped you would never have to see me like this. Most women seem to prefer my brother, so I went with him as my avatar."

Stella could suddenly see that the other image had not been an idealized version of himself. Sure, there had been similarities but those could just as easily be explained by familial connection as modification of a base. If that was what his brother really looked like, it was no wonder he was so self-conscious. The other man was like some kind of god! That would make him think he was some kind of monster.

Stella closed the distance between the two with speed that would have surprised many, considering her large mass. Her hand came up to cup the side of his face and turn his head towards her. It didn't work. With his strength, she could have put all of her formidable weight into the action and never have budged him. It was only when she tried again to move his head that he consented and turned to look at her.

"Don't apologize." Her husky alto voice scolded. "You think I don't understand wanting to look different?"

His eyes darted down for a moment before they met hers once more. "You're beautiful. Your body reveals that you enjoy life, enjoy sensation. I know, from our conversations online, how wonderful and creative you are."

This time, it was Stella who couldn't bear to meet his gaze. "You're just saying that because you have to."

His hand came up and his finger pulled her chin back up. His strength could have made it seem degrading but his touch was gentle. His fingers were calloused but even that did not feel rough. "No, I'm not. I know these things."

He shook his head with a derisive laugh. "Once, I was married to the most beautiful woman in existence. She's a cheating bitch who likes to toy with the hearts of men and women alike. Yet people fall all over themselves to live within her shadow.

I

always did, and still would, but not in the same way. Living with her for all those years gave me a very clear understanding of what truly was beauty."

The sentiment itself was enough to make Stella's knees weak. Her other hand came up to rest on his chest, as if she could draw some of his formidable strength directly from those amazing muscles. Instead, the confirmation of his impressive body only served to turn her own muscles into a quivering mass.

His free hand swept around behind her and managed to scoop her up before she collapsed entirely. Impressively, he lifted her weight and held her against him. Her hand remained trapped between their bodies. Their eyes were inches apart which led her to the realization that their lips were similarly close. Before she knew it, their heads drifted closer and closer together, drawn like magnets. The hand on her chin glided across her cheek and his fingers coiled within her drab blond hair.

Oh god! This wasn't what I planned. This is so much more than I'd even dreamed!

His lips met hers. Warmth began to seep outward from the contact. Her heart fluttered. Her breath caught within her breast. His tongue pushed tentatively against her mouth. Hungry lips parted and she met his nervous tongue with an avid desire of her own.

It was amazing! She had planned to test the realism of eating while in the system. She knew that it produced flavor well enough from the limited tests she'd done. This was completely different, however. She'd never had the full code before and hadn't realized she could actually feel his tongue as it explored her mouth.