章 563: Sock-Block

"Dating sim...?" Serana questions.

"A game like this where your goal is to seduce your target... Isn't that right, Michael? You must've played this a lot before?" Saeko asks, throwing him under Truck-kun.

"I mean, yeah, but it's a game, not reality. Just for entertainment."

"A game with my name and face that you're apparently very familiar with... You said you 'liked' my character before, right?..." Serana slowly asks, quickly determining Michael's interest in helping her.

He shakes his head, "May I remind you both that I have a sexy elf girlfriend a few floors down? Not to mention Megumin who's married and divorced most of Skyrim!"

"That's that and this is this," Serana parrots Saeko's words. "To think my 'saviour' was only interested in lustful pursuits..."

"You would think he had no use for 'virtual girlfriends' wouldn't you?" Saeko adds more fuel to the fire.

"Aren't you the one negotiating with Tiff to join my 'harem'? You're just airing your frustrations at your lack of progress." Michael spitefully hits back, but the conversation just devolves into teasing over his 'lust' for Serana.

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Their character finally delivers Serana back to her home, Castle Volkihar...

"Isn't our character a vampire hunter? Why weren't we allowed to deliver Serana to the Dawnguard?" Saeko asks.

"I don't know, plot? Isran would probably kill Serana without context to the situation... Anyway, how about we focus on the family reunion instead? This is what'd happen if you actually delivered the Scroll, Serana."

The vampire stays silent as she watches the events unfold, her father's rather cold greeting and demand for the scroll, then the choice for their character, whether or not to become a vampire.

"My father would change you on your first meeting? That's..." she trails off.

"Oh yeah, turning someone is 'personal' for vampires isn't it?"

"... How did you know that?"

He smirks, "You told me."

...

"What's the correct choice then?" Saeko asks, drawing their attention back.

Michael shrugs, "It doesn't matter in the end, the result is the same... Maybe with more vampires running around afterwards." he pauses in thought, was the survival of the Volkihar clan worth going for? Not in the game but in reality. They were kind of like the vampire peace-keepers, preventing any mass infection from occurring for fear of attracting too much attention to their race.

Eh, they were thralls of Molag Bal, he'd just do what feels right when it comes up...

"Let's become a vampire then, see if we can seduce virtual Serana." Saeko smirks humorously as Serana huffs and slumps into the chair with folded arms.

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They continue to play for hours more, Maria actually coming in at one point to deliver them 'Sleepwear', which was apparently required for any game night/sleepover, so commands Tiffania.

They complete most of the questline, filling the Bloodstone Chalice, finding a Moth Priest after asking around Winterhold College which was now collapsed in their reality, funnily enough... Their character already possesses the Dragon Scroll, so they quickly moved on to their task... Finding Valerica and acquiring her Elder Scroll...

"Mother... Do we actually find her, or?" Serana trails off, not able to directly ask whether or not her mother was even alive.

"Why don't you find out yourself?" he asks, taking the controller from Saeko and dropping it in the vampire's lap.

"Uh, but-... I have no idea how to work this thing..." she sheepishly admits.

"I'll-" Michael starts but is interrupted by Saeko who sits between Serana and him, "I'll show you." she states.

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They discover the secret entrance to Volkihar Castle, access the Soul Cairne, rescue Valerica, fight the dragon and retrieve the Elder Scroll. Serana looked as if she wanted to go rescue her actual mother upon seeing the situation Valerica was actually in, but they convinced her to finish the game before going anywhere.

With the Moth Priest blind they go to the Ancestor Glade and rediscover the Forgotten Vale...

"So this is what you meant... You want us to ignore everything and go directly to the Vale." Saeko concludes and Michael nods.

"Yeah, the Elder Scrolls were only necessary in discovering the location of the place, since we already know where it is we can just bypass it all."

Not long later, Serana is baffled by the appearance of Gelebor, one of the last non-mutated Snow Elves... Even before she'd been entombed it was well known that only Falmer remained of the race.

The fact that Gelebor was still alive even after thousands of years was also a point of interest, as while Elves lived considerably longer than humans, there was still a limit... Serana herself thought that it was his devotion to Auriel that kept him youthful, seeing parallels between her family's devotion to Molag Bal.

They complete the trials and soon discover the truth of it all, that everything, even the prophecy had been manipulated by Gelebor's brother, Vyrthur, who turns out to be a vampire all along. One easy boss fight later.

"Auriel's Bow... It's kinda bad isn't it?" Saeko remarks as she looks at its stats.

"Not quite a legendary artifact with the same damage as a regular Elven bow..." Serana adds, feeling pretty distraught at the fact that all the troubles that'd pulled her family apart were at the hands of some ancient Snow Elf's scheming.

"It's just the game balancing itself... I hope, if the bow is really that weak I'm going to snap it in half and throw it into the sea." he promises.

Last but certainly not least is the final confrontation with Harkon, Serana's father... Which they defeat after like, two or three tries... For some reason Serana felt the need to do the boss fight, making completing it take longer than it otherwise would.

Harkon goes down, and Serana keeps slashing his corpse, though, the game's janky graphics didn't allow any wounds to stay on the body...

"Satisfied? Because I'm going to do much worse to your actual father." Michael remarks.

"Good, he deserves it after all he's done."