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Chatting with Angels

By Sasha Zarya Nexus

With editing from Holly Logan

Chapter Three -  Izzy and the Geek

Izzy instead of the Geek

Monty logged into the transsexual chat within the human sexuality area on AOL to leave his geeky side behind and be pretty instead.  While Monty would ordinarily log in using the female pseudonym Gail Landers, this time Monty logged in as Izzy.  'Gail' had originally logged in as 'Monti' but when her alter ego began using the nickname Monty she invented a whole new name.  She still thought of her inner female self as 'Monti'.  .

Using a female persona online was one of Monti's favorite releases from the constraints that she felt.  While online logged in under a female identity, Monti allowed herself the luxury of thinking of herself in female terms.  These were the days before web cams or voice chats.  Profiles weren't even around much.  One could hide online within any identity that they wished.  That is until things grew beyond the online experience to phone calls or face to face visits.

As Izzy aka Gail, she could let down her hair and be herself.  It was one of two ways that she allowed herself to lower her walls and let the person she really was shine.  The other was when "Monti" was by herself and she was naked.  After tucking in the bits that didn't belong, she could actually see a girl staring back at her in the mirror.  While her AA breasts were not anything ostentatious, they were undeniably real and with the distribution of body fat, they looked like they belonged.  She had taken mega doses of female hormones at age 21 for a year.  She was extremely lucky that she had not fallen into one of the complications that usually befell those who mega dosed on female hormones without a physician's supervision.  Monty was a late bloomer so Monty's male puberty was interrupted and things finished off in a feminine manner.   With the way things ended, She had not gone all the way through a female puberty and she needed more hormone therapy to fully look like an adult woman.  Most times when she would have to appear as male to pass as 'Monty', She had to use foundation garments that minimized her figure so that 'Monty' appeared normal.  'Monti' didn't have the outlet of dressing as her own gender but expressed her femininity in her body and thru her mind.  If she were able to figure out a way where it would be alright for her to express her gender that would be heaven. 

Izzy> Hi Linda! You are beautiful!

Monti smiled as she considered that Linda means beautiful in Spanish.

Linda> Hi Gail! Why are you logged in as Izzy?

Izzy>I am the mascot of the Atlanta Olympics.  As a t-girl in Atlanta, I thought I would try it on for size.

Izzy aka Gail aka Monti wondered if there were any other people logged on here close enough to Atlanta to be caught up in the Olympic enthusiasm. She hoped that she would attract their attention using that name with which to chat .

Izzy>Whatisit, my full name, is very androgynous so I thought it was a cute nickname for a southern belle such as I am.

Linda>But Izzy! Everyone has been making fun of you! They are calling you a big blue sperm!

Izzy> They are only jealous of someone as talented as I am! :: giggle:: Izzy can be animated to do and be any number of things depending on the Olympic context

Linda> I love you Izzy! I think you are cute!

Izzy> Thank you Linda! I guess this is one case where I am taking pride in my home town to extremes.

Linda> Gail you are always finding a way to get me to laugh and that gets me thru the tough times.

Izzy>I'm always glad to help a sister in need.

Monti glanced at the clock on her computer.  She thought that her plan to attract more attention didn't work as well as she had  hoped but she was glad that Linda was amused.  She didn't want to be late for meeting her friends even if it had to be as Monty.

Izzy>Look at the time... I'm meeting a bunch of my friends downtown at the Olympic Experience.  What are you gonna do? Go out and have the guys drooling over you ?

Linda> Then I'll let you go if I have to... and I will find some way to keep amused  :: giggle::
Take care Gail  See ya girl!

Izzy> Bye Linda! Save some guys for the rest of us!

Linda> ::giggle:: I'll try!  bye bye

Izzy> Off I boldly go! Time for my away mission! ::Poof::

For a while Monti had let down her barriers and was herself on the computer. But Monty was needed downtown, and she  wondered how they would really feel if they knew what was inside of her.  So he gathered his things after shutting down his computer.  He stopped by his sister in law, Sabrina, to tell her that he was going to be out for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  Monty left the apartment and entered his car to drive to the Marta Station to meet up with his friends for the 'Away Mission'

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Izzy meets the Geek

Kathryn welcomed the distraction that having the 1996 Atlanta Olympics about to start brought to her soul.  While she would not be attending in person many of the Olympic sports, she wanted to be a part of the history that was being made there instead of merely watching it on television.  However the tickets to the Olympic Experience in Centennial Olympic Park were reasonable.  She and her fellow Starfleet members would meet downtown for an 'away mission'  She had phoned around and reminded her crew about the event.  She would have a good showing from the USS MacLeod! She had her second in command  Leon, Bernie of course, Gail, Thelma (a new member) and her two grandchildren  and Monty.  From what Kelly, the Republic Captain had told her they would have Kelly's second in command Jeff and Jeff's mother Martha, Mike who was Kelly's significant other and a woman who had just joined, Dawn.  It's funny now that she thought of it that she automatically thought of Monty as one of hers.  Technically Monty's primary membership was in the USS Republic and Monty was only an associate member of the MacLeod.  She didn't have a prophesy to back it up but she felt like it wouldn't be long before that flip-flopped.  It seemed like the Republic always had the numbers on paper but the MacLeod had the people who really wanted to be active and do things.  All together the two ships were one big family.  They worked together on most important things and had brought the International Conference to Atlanta and pulled it of wonderfully last year.  She was glad that they were not going to do anything that big for a while.  She looked forward to meeting Dawn.  Kelly had described her as super intelligent and very much her own woman, just like Kathy.

The MacLeod members arrived about a half hour before the entire group was due to be there.  Kathy held an informal meeting to take care of the Starfleet requirements. She finished leaving enough time for restroom breaks before the Republic was due to arrive.  The MacLeod had already bought their tickets and were in relaxed conversations with each other.  After the Republic bought their tickets, everyone entered the  Olympic exposition.  Soon after everyone entered, they broke up into 2 groups but not by ships, it was by gender... mostly.  In Kathy's group was Bernie, Gail, Thelma and her grand children, Dawn, Martha, and Monty. The other group that Kelly was leading, was all guys.   .It was really well done, with the combination of Olympic history and hands on participation in things related to Olympic sports.  There were eating places which served food associated with several Olympic nations.  It became time to stop and eat and Kathy and Bernie volunteered to go get food from the German booth for both them and Monty, Dawn and Gail.  Martha, who wasn't feeling that adventurous asked Thelma to get something for her from the American booth where they were serving hamburgers and hotdogs.  The expression on Monty's face was clearly a little girl's pout when he wasn't invited to go along to get the food.  Any other time Kathy would have been glad for Monty's help but she wanted to get Bernie alone so they could discuss some things that she couldn't have Monty hear.

When Kathy and Bernie were out of earshot of the group they had left behind Kathy began to speak to Bernie.

"Bernie, Isn't Monty just like one of the girls?  Of course his mannerism are masculine and he looks masculine but emotionally and intellectually Monty is a girl!"

"Kathy you are so right and it was staring us in the face all the time.  Just now when we left Monty behind, His face was in a cute little girl pout.  The only thing missing was the foot stamp."

"I don't know how we missed it except Monty has a mostly good facade that's tough to crack."

"When he's among friends and enjoying himself he lets down a little more."

"While this is making it easier for me to believe the prophesy, for me personally, its much tougher."

"You want him to be a man because that is what you need him to be!"

The two women arrived at the booth and suspend their conversation till they can be waited on and they are able to walk out of earshot.

"Exactly, this is one case when I'm not going to slip up and do something to speed the prophesy along."

"You've got the opposite problem.  You've got to stop yourself from doing things that would delay it happening."

"That's going to be really tempting to do something that would drive Monty further into that facade that he's erected to be able to function as a man."

"But you won't do anything to delay it because you love him too much to do anything potentially harmful to him."

"I'll just have to live in the moment. and enjoy the time that I have Monty as a man with me, and be just as zealous in helping Monti find her way when she makes her choice."

"Girl you are a saint! I don't know anyone who loves someone as much as you love Monty."

"Hopefully I'll find a way to channel that love into a deep friendship with Monti when the time comes."

"I guess you'll have to get some help from above on that account or else God would have to find someone else to have those chats with angels"

"I hope that this is the toughest assignment that I ever get."

"I don't see how any other situation could top this one but I am certainly not volunteering to find out myself."

"Bernie, You'll just have to do what you always do.  Be my friend and keep me sane... well as sane as I every was anyway"

Kathryn and Bernie break down and giggle letting the tensions release.

"SHHH ! we are close to the girls! ...Opps!" and they both broke out in giggles again which they could not shake off.

In fact it was after they managed to get the business of the orders out of the way before they calmed themselves enough to compose themselves.  By that time, however, the rest of the group were way too interested in their food to quiz them about why they had been laughing. 

Finally Kathy stopped laughing and said." I am so hungry.  I like German food.  German food is my friend!"

Bernie stopped laughing long enough to ask, "Kathy, are you sure about that?"

Kathy replied , "Of course!" and those were the last words since Kathy and Bernie joined the other girls around the table who were enjoying their food.

Monty had the misfortune to be pulled away from the group as the dinner conversation began to get interesting.

Kelly had been asked to collect Monty because they wanted to take a picture of 'The Men of the USS Republic'  Kathy had to cover a knowing grin. She supposed to herself that it wouldn't be long before Monty wouldn't be considered a member of either the USS Republic or considered a man"  Monty left with Kelly after finding out which direction the girls would be heading and he hoped to catch up with them after the picture was taken. Monty had won a brief reprieve from the picture since Izzy had spotted Monty and resolved to make him the object of her attentions.  All Kelly could do was watch on in dismay because he could never have the heart to interfere with the loveable mascot. Izzy and Monty finished clowning around and Monty caught up to Kelly.  They finally arrived and took the picture.   Monty was able to catch up with the girls after his picture and he looked so relieved to be back among them.

Finally it came time for the attraction to close.  It would have been really convenient if they could all beam back to where they belonged.  However in this reality they all had to go their separate ways and getting home the way that they came.  Soon though they would all be gathered back together because Dragon*Con was going to be Labor Day Weekend  and everyone would be helping out at the Starfleet fan club table.   Somewhere between Atlanta and Ellenwood, Kathy was thanking God that she had had one more day with Monty and for the grace and serenity that she had received every day since she had received the prophesy.

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The Geek instead of Izzy

Monty was excited to see all of his friends again at Dragon*Con.  Last year had been a break thru year for him since he had actually acted on the brochure that he had picked up at the Starfleet table instead of just saving the info to consider later and had joined the club.  They were all busy running the Starfleet International Conference so he hadn't met them but he had met enough Starfleet members that were so friendly that he had joined Starfleet.  Now as a member in good standing of the USS Republic, he was one of the ones to take a turn at the fan club table handing out the brochures. 

Monty's spirits lifted as he saw in the distance the Starfleet table with Kathryn and Bernadette  sitting at it.  Kathryn and Bernadette waved to Monty and smiled as they saw him. 

"There's Miss Monti now!" whispered Bernadette to Kathryn, "Are there any signs yet that Monti is ready to be one of the girls?"

"Not yet, Bernie"  whispered Kathryn to Bernadette, "The waiting is so frustrating but that is all that I can do for now.  She's almost here now,  Shhhhh!"

Monty noticed that the whispering between the two girls stopped as he approached. 

"Hi Kathy, Hi Bernie What are you so secretive about? It got awfully quiet when I came in earshot." Monty greeted.

"Nothing you would be interest in, Monty.  Just girl talk" replied Kathy

"When are you two gonna let me in on the fun?" Monty playfully asked.

"You know what Uhura said in "Star Trek: The Search for Spock"? questioned Bernie

She continued imitating Uhura's mysterious voice in the movie, "Be careful what you wish for"  She paused dramatically "You may get it!"

All three of them broke up laughing.  Monty joined them behind the counter and started greeting passers by.  If anyone stopped, one of them would make sure they picked up a brochure.  As each person came to the counter Kathy and Bernie tried to remember how many times they had been there before in previous conventions.  For the frequent visitors, Kathy gave them her best spiel about the virtues of joining her ship the USS Macleod.  She hoped that when they finally joined they would give her ship a chance as well as the more well known USS Republic.  After a while Kelly and Mike came up to take over duty on the table.  Bernie and Kathy were going up to their hotel room and they shoed Monty away from the table as well so he could enjoy the convention.  Monty was excited about everything that the convention had to offer.  He'd only found Starfleet by doing new things at the convention last year so he looked at his program to see what might interest him that he'd never tried before.  He spotted a listing for LARP and directions to the lowest level of the hotel where the sign up was located.

Monty waved goodbye and walked to the elevator to go down to the lowest level of the Hotel.  Upon emerging, Monty found a large banner proclaiming this the Live Action Role Play Center.  Clustered in one part of the room were a number of tables like the fan tables upstairs.  However these tables were selling characters for live action role play games.  He found one LARP that was relatively inexpensive and it promised a scenario called "Demo GOD" where it appeared that computers would be prominent.  Monty liked computers so he thought he would be good at that one Monty had never done anything like that which was akin to improv acting but he got in line with all of the others to pay his money and get a character.  When he got up to the desk he was told that he could either play a mundane conventioneer if he didn't have much time to play or play a plot character.  Monty opted for a plot character and found that he was a computer programmer. You were supposed to try to costume to fit the character that you were playing but Monty already looked like a computer geek so he could play as he was already dressed. 

Monty went into a room called Malice's Restaurant where you could chat in character but was a free from fire zone so it was a safe place to be.  Monty found that the LARP named Dark Confrontation had a number of rules but was relatively simple.  Any items that were needed for play were represented by cards which had all the info on how to use them.  Decisions were made by coin tosses and he had been warned that having a lot of coins was necessary and he fortunately had plenty of change.  When you wanted to do something to an item or another player you said Freeze Confrontation.  The confrontation would play out involving everyone within a certain range until everyone had exhausted the actions that the could or wished to do.  Then normal role play would resume.  You were only in play when you displayed your identifying card so when you wanted to go out of character you removed it.  You only could go out of character when you were out of sight of anyone else in the game which is what Monty did after a while and joined back up with some of the other Starfleet members to attend a session featuring Harlan Ellison. 

After the session was over, Monty returned to playing Dark Confrontation.  He was beginning to be comfortable so he started playing out side the Free fire zone trying to chat with some of the other players to try to find out what was up with the computer that seemed to be malfunctioning.  He had some computer skills as native talents but he needed to determine what he needed to do when he tried to hack into the mainframe so he would either get some useful information or do something useful. 

A big ominous looking guy engaged him in conversation and when he became isolated from the rest of the players in the area he heard the other player call "Freeze Confrontation"

Monty didn't know what to think.  His character wasn't equipped to do much besides hack.  The other player ended up being a vampire who forced him to give up all his items and cash.  Monty's character had been bunny mugged.  Monty went about upset for a while thinking that his part in the game was over.  However after a couple of false starts when his frustration overcame his sense of fair play, he discovered that all was not lost.  He could still be in character and discover information regarding the plot even though he couldn't use his hacking skills because he didn't have a terminal key.  Later on he met up with a couple of players, who were mundanely Fred and Jim, who realized that bunny mugging was short sighted because without the new players then the game would dry up and there wouldn't be a game to play.  As time went on less and less of my fellow hackers were around in game anymore.  There was a new threat in that the computer AI was controlling a number of cyber zombies who were causing havoc.   Monty was really getting into the game because Monty wanted to play into the night.  So Monty called home and booked a hotel room so he would have a place to sleep when he gave out playing.

It lucked out that Monty had joined himself with Fred and Jim as the game wound down toward the end game.  Together they worked on the puzzle as they used their skills to acquire a new terminal key for Monty.  They thought that they had a great advantage to solve the problem of the AI since all of the hackers in game had disappeared .  Monty was the only one left.  Monty had really gotten into the role playing and was playing his role well. 

Not only had Monty the last terminal key who could use it but he was selected as one of the 5 who were to have a chance of speaking to the AI in a large assembly that all of the players in game attended.  The AI claimed that we were imperfect and had to be destroyed.  Each of us had our chance to plead our cases that we not be destroyed. All of the rest of the five had their take on it.  One thought that she would be cute and ask the AI to calculate Pi to the last decimal like in Star Trek but that failed.  Another thought he could catch the AI in a logic loop and that didn't work either.  Finally the AI called DEMO God called on me.

DEMO God spoke with a deep voice " Come before me, Monty, last of the hackers.  How will you answer for your imperfections?"

Monty replied," Oh DEMO God, I don't come before you with a trick nor do I desire to commune with you as those did who became your cyber zombies."

DEMO God spoke," Then what do you offer to me in order to avert my anger?"

Monty replied, " I offer you my love and devotion freely given.  Love is the most powerful force in the universe and I offer it to prove our worthiness to survive."

DEMO God spoke." Monty that's all that I ever wanted. " We could see the count down to destruction clock abort and that the destructive force was nullified.     The crisis was over, and we had averted the disaster.  With the major plot out of the way all that remained was just to role-play and settle any thing else left undone.  For Monty things had finally slowed down and he decided that he really liked playing the LARP once he had gotten used to it.  He also observed that a lot of the characters could be either gender and he filed that away for future reference.  

The next morning after the climax for the LARP, Monty got back together with his Starfleet friends.  He helped them pack up everything from the table in preparation for the end of the convention.  Once Monty had said his goodbyes to the Starfleet Crew, he again descended to the LARP floor.  They had a big post mortem on the game and everyone told the originators how much they enjoyed playing and the things that they liked about the scenario that the creators had come up with for them to play. 

At the end of the round table, Jon from Handmade Games who put on the convention game told everyone about a weekend game that they were going to put on at A. H. Stephens State park in the fall.  They told about all the good food that would be available and the ability to completely immerse oneself in the game without any distractions for a whole weekend.  As much Monty loved LARPing, even at his limited responsibilities he felt guilty spending so much time away from the Starfleet group.  If he were to go to the Dark Weekend as it was called then he could LARP then instead of at the convention.  It would be cheaper too since the whole weekend food and all was $75 dollars if he signed up now which was less than the hotel room that he ended up renting by himself just to play the LARP into the night. 

So Monty signed up and paid his money to have a character at Dark Weekend in the fall where he would be playing a goblin named Dauskan.  He asked about the other players who had reserved goblin characters and found out that 3 men  were returning to Midgaard to reprise their goblin roles from the last game.  He would be low person in the group since the abilities earned during the last game would trump his starting character.  But then he read that the Goblins were a matriarchy.  Inwardly, Monti smiled mischievously as her imagination soared.