Interlude: 2076 II
"That day is burned into my mind." David admitted as we played a first person shooter on a screen that took up one of the walls of the family gaming room, "People on forums still debate whether or not it was all a hoax."
"You can ask Saito's ass if it felt like a hoax." I chuckled darkly as complaints flooded the chat box decrying my aimbot hax ruining the match.
An alert popped into my view while we beat ass on a team of middle schoolers who claimed that they would gang bang our moms. Not the System Alert kind of alert, the incoming call kind of alert. Incoming call from Saburo Arasaka.
"Gotta take this, mijo. Good luck without me." I laughed as I stood to leave.
"Ah man!" David shouted as he took up my controller to get a few kills on these kids before hiding my avatar as best he could.
I stepped out and went into the nearby bathroom, locking the door behind me.
"Saburo-dono!" I greeted with enough good cheer to make Johnny Silverhand puke.
A middle aged man in incredible shape and conditioning appeared on my screen, black hair swept back and a scar running over a milky white eye. The eye worked perfectly of course, but the old battle wound earned as a pilot in WWII was a source of vanity for the man. As such the 'injury' was a cosmetic choice only.
"Juan-san." greeted the Emperor in a strong voice for a man who turned 157 this year, "There are two matters of business for us to discuss." The man got right to the point, something that I was glad we'd established over the years, "I approve your proposal to take back the orbitals from the high riders."
"That's what you get!" I shouted and pumped my fist, causing the man on the other end to frown, "When you threaten to bombard my spaceship factory… sorry about interrupting, Saburo-dono."
"I too am excited to take space back for ourselves." Saburo nodded in acceptance of the faux pas, "You will have all the resources you requested at your disposal, with a personal representative providing oversight, which brings me to the next topic of discussion."
Saburo cleared his throat and took a more assertive posture in the little frame that showed his person on this call, "Your sample has shown excellent compatibility with Hanako's. All markers for health, athleticism, and intelligence trend very promising. Have your people schedule your journey to Tokyo with my people. That is all."
Saburo hung up leaving me to chuckle at the guy's antics. Hey Juan, here's billions of eddies, come fuck my daughter so I can have a grandchild I'm not disappointed in. And people think he's some kind of villain. Gilipollas. Sabu-bro is the best.
David saw the grin on my face as I came back into the room and took up my controller to bring great justice down upon these middle schoolers who'd gotten ahead on points while I was gone.
"Soooo… What made you so happy?" David asked as we ran a few maneuvers on the kids for maximum team play destroyance.
"Just got the green light on the money to build my space force." I informed him.
"Very nice. Very nice. What exactly do you need a space force for?" he questioned then growled when he ate shit from a grenade and had to respawn.
"Fucking Highriders don't want me dominating the space game. Threatened orbital bombardment if I keep building spaceships. So now I'm going to do it extra sneaky underground and then when I've got it all ready I'll shoot up my ships into space and fight them for control of the orbitals." I explained and he had a face that spoke his mind perfectly.
'Bruh'
"And Saburo Arasaka wants to fly me out to Tokyo to fuck his daughter." I added and his composure snapped.
"God fucking dammit!" he shouted and put down his controller.
Because I raised him better than to throw shit.
"They could do artificial insemination, but Sabu-bro is traditional. They'll probably be playing some Marvin Gaye, some Barry White, maybe some Boyz II Men." I laughed as my stepson got more and more pissed off, "Probably not though, not in Japan. Probably play that music where the girl singing sounds like a goat with its balls trapped in a vice. And it'll all be missionary, lots of eye contact. Remember this, mijo, remember this: never conceive your children in doggy style. Babies should be conceived in loving positions. You know? chakras aligned and all that."
"Fuck!" David shouted then stormed off.
Because I'm the best stepdad ever I finished the match, playing with both controllers like a baller and teaching those foul mouth middle schoolers what they get when they step to Big Juan. Defeat, served up with a side of smack talk they don't understand cause the education system in the 2070's is terrible if you aren't going to an expensive private school.
Logging off, I followed my nose across the penthouse to find Wadsworth achieving perfection in the kitchen despite Rudy and Diego firing nerf guns at each other, the robot catching anything that threatened the food he prepared without missing a beat.
My oldest boy, Rudy, would turn seven in December, and his younger brother just turned five. Together they reigned over the parks and playgrounds with terror as the two of them were supernaturally strong and tough. The younger especially. He got the benefit of his daddy being PERFECT rather than just SPECIAL.
"Where did David run off to?" Gloria asked from the couch looking especially matronly with the third of our young swelling her belly.
"Eh… he's off to go make some friends." I shrugged, "I guess he got tired of always hanging out with his stepdad."
"He went out to make friends? In this city?" Gloria looked frustrated but resigned, "My boy is hanging out with the wrong crowd."
Meanwhile on a train…
'Did that chick just try to chipjack me?'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'll have to try hard with the relationship between Sabu-bro and Juan. It's two hypercompetent egomaniacs who each want something from the other over many years. I'll try to figure out a good push and pull without making it somekind of stupid forced drama.
You can support me and my family at
ko - fi . com / jmanm