“Hey…” John carefully shook Scarlett. Sometime during the negotiation and its aftermath, she must have fallen asleep. Although the signing itself had been concluded quite quickly, Emrik refused to actually end the meeting until he had final verification that the prisoners of war had been let go. As a consequence, they had spent another half hour idling around. This was bad for the Gamer’s remaining plans for the evening. Another instance of him having a reason that hardly qualified as an excuse in a public setting.

Once he got so strong an entire nation couldn’t stop him, even if they put all resources together, he could pull things like that. Would go right along with the semi-serious persona he was building. Until then, it was best to play along the rules of diplomacy.

“Hey… hey, Scarlett…” he continued to quietly whisper. All of those thoughts aside, he had the present conundrum of getting her back to New York. The only reason why she was even there was because John didn’t want to leave her alone in her current state. While she was a big girl and could get back to the Hudson Barrier on her own after she had slept, there was the risk that she would wake up, alone, while still experiencing the drop. A minimal risk, but not one he wanted to take.

As such, he now had to wake her up and get her on the plane with the rest of them. Rave stood behind him, watching the endeavour. “Maybe she and I shoulda just stayed home,” she suggested. “Moving her about the place was clearly not the smartest idea.”

“Yeah,” John could only agree. He had thought that maybe the thing would fix itself on the plane ride. As this was the first time she was experiencing the drop, there was no telling how long Scarlett was going to be affected. If she had gotten over it before the negotiations began, he knew that she would have regretted not coming. He had also been in a bit of a rush, although he was smart enough that this shouldn’t be too much of a hindrance. “If I am honest, I couldn’t stand the idea of just handing her over like something I don’t want to take care of.”

Rave squat down next to him and planted a quick kiss on his cheek. “Ya don’t get to declare yourself the sole overseer of mental health around here, alright?” she stated in a jokingly threatening way. “We’re basically a family so we pull each other up. And I mean a family like your family, not like mine, ya got it?”

“Yeah,” John assured and leaned his head against hers. Then he tried to gently nudge the Technomancer awake for the third time. A bothered little sound escaped her lips as Scarlett woke up. Eyelids fluttered and opened. “How are you feeling?” John asked, once her red eyes focused him.

“Like someone shot my dog last week and I hadn’t had a proper meal since,” she answered in a hoarse voice. “Can I have some water?” By the time John looked at Aclysia, the weaponized maid had already turned towards the kitchen. With some more groans, Scarlett sat up straight. “Better, overall, though,” she continued after she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “How long was I out?”

“Just over half an hour,” Gnome reported, having kept watch the entire time.

“Things went well then?” she asked, before taking the glass of water from Aclysia with a thankful nod.

“Our terms were accepted as presented, no complications,” John told her with a smile. “There was no need to worry.”

“I guess not,” Scarlett grumbled and emptied the glass with three large gulps. Afterwards, her voice sounded much better. “Okay, I think I am over the worst of it… I hope this never, ever, happens again.” She shook her head, to hush away the remaining darkness. “Fucking Gaia almighty, if that’s what an actual depression feels like, I’d rather lose all my limbs than have that level of hopelessness and doubt all the time.”

“Sounds really bad,” John could only agree. He had been slightly depressed before, he even hesitated to use the same word to describe that slump. Ironically, the worst day of that down phase in his life had been the eighteenth birthday that he had spent only with his mom and his gaming PC. The very same day before he had gotten these powers, which, in turn, enabled him to skyrocket out of that bad mindset.

Looking back at himself from where he was now, he had been quite pathetic back then. There had been nothing but his own laziness to hold him back from improving his lot in life. Sure, Gamer powers made everything a whole lot easier, but there was basically no argument why he had to waste his life before getting them sitting around and masturbating all the time. He had always been a smart guy, so if he had just worked out a little bit and asserted himself more, rather than think that everything was useless because he was just a bullied nerd anyway, he may have been able to get somewhere. If he took it one small step at a time, at least.

Or maybe that bitch queen Vanessa would have ruined his self-esteem categorically the second he tried to get somewhere. Regardless, John had to apply some honest self-criticism. He could have been a better person back then but hadn’t strived to be. ‘Probably a Wisdom deficiency,’ he joked to himself. ‘What I had at the time must be quite easy compared to your own body failing to produce the chemicals that signal happiness though.’

“Urgh…” Scarlett groaned and stretched. “I won’t lie, I still feel like water flowing down the drain. I just want to sleep the rest of this off and then… okay, now to say something super girly, but I want to have sex without any fucking gimmicks on a soft mattress under a warm blanket.” The usually freakier redhead crossed her arms and looked around challengingly. “Just this once.”

“Sounds all fine to me.” Rave grinned and gave the Technomancer a few head pats that she took with an equally embarrassed and deadpan expression. “Anyway, we need to catch a flight back to New York, don’t we?”

“Jane, Jane, Jane,” John shook his head a few times and sighed. “We’re not flying to New York next, we’re flying to Burlington.”

“Uuuhh.” His girlfriend looked up, but not to stare at anything specific. She just moved her eyes about to signal she was thinking. “Let’s pretend for a sec that I vaguely remember a conversation and totally didn’t forget where that is and why we’re going there. T-O-T-A-L-L-Y didn’t, I swear,” she presented that last bit with big eyes and a cute pout.

Clearly, she tried not to get teased for this, but John was already flicking her forehead. “Ya dunce.” He copied her speaking habits for those two words, then explained things to her properly. “Burlington is on Lake Champlain, you know, the ‘Small Lake’. We’re going there because I want to install the long-range teleporter on Servant Island.”

“Servitude Island,” Aclysia corrected him. It was a mistake John made quite often, mostly because he had come up with Servant Island (and it flowed much better in his opinion).

“Yes,” he agreed regardless, since he had essentially gifted that plot of land to his first maid. “Added bonus, travel time is about half, because we check out at a smaller airport and all of that. If all goes well, we should be back home an hour earlier.” He would still run late for his drinking appointment, but not as much as he had feared. All thanks to the smoothness of the negotiations. He had assumed a lot more shouting from Jeremiah. In that sense, his absence was quite useful, even if John would have preferred having Metra’s missing parts back.

The Art Eater’s sudden flight from his guild at the first sign of defeat was something he couldn’t really make sense of. There were many attributes John thought Jeremiah possessed. The cowardly pragmatism that was required to leave one’s own country a day after its defeat was not one of them. As such, he would be more than interested to find out about the reason, whenever he was caught.

Which wasn’t something he was going to invest a ridiculous amount of resources into. As much as he wanted to do that, on principle alone, Fusion wasn’t in a state where that kind of expenditure could be made. Especially since Metra wasn’t crippled in any real fashion. All they could do, for the moment, was stay alert for sightings of Jeremiah. One day, he would be found, John was certain of it. Someone like Jeremiah wasn’t good at laying low for prolonged periods.

“Well, let’s go then,” Rave decided and got back up. The decision was only delayed by a quick pee break, the water having rushed through Scarlett’s system quite quickly. Afterwards, they were on their way to the Boston airport. They, once more, came to be reliant on the taxi service. Which was a bit more complicated than usual. Simply because of numbers. John, Rave, Eliza, Scarlett, Aclysia, Beatrice and Metra, that was the complete list of people on the move, the incorporeal elementals aside. They had to rent two taxis, just because that was quicker than getting one of an adequate size sent over. Even then it was squeezing thing.

As was usual at this point, John spent the entire drive making out in the backseat. In his defence, there wasn’t a lot of other stuff to do during the drive and he was squished between Scarlett and Rave. His hands practically had to rest somewhere on them and their mouths, well, they also had to be occupied in some way.

Scarlett wasn’t really into it at first. That was to say, she was clearly willing to do it, but she didn’t seem as enthusiastic about the act as usual. After about five minutes, he had worked her up a little bit though. The drop was quickly fading now. As it had lasted somewhere between four and six hours, John was happy that it was a relatively short one.

As fate would have it, though, John had no time to really satisfy the appetite he was working up. Certainly not during the taxi drive. Not when he got to the airport, as they accidentally timed it so perfectly that they were allowed to board the moment they arrived at the lobby. Not during the flight, for logistical and honour reasons. Once again, the toilet smell pushed him off. With enough horniness, that could be overcome though. Unlike Lydia, he had several girls around this time that would do it with him there as well.

Which was the crux of the issue. He had several girls with him there and he was terrible at choosing. Doing just one of them wasn’t an option and doing one of them after the other wasn’t either. As such, he had to hold back.

He was extremely tempted once they had landed. Opening a barrier and having a quick orgy was as easy as it sounded. Except for the time he wasted doing so. He was even more tempted once they had made their way over the Servitude Island and he had installed the teleporter. The mansion they had built was so close, but he still had to teleport back to New York.

Once at home, he finally caved. Most of all because his girlfriend was just as horny as he was and started making out with Eliza once they were in the living room. Before John knew it, things had devolved into a massive lesbian orgy. “Come on, tiger,” Rave tempted him with her sexiest purr, “we’re gonna suck you off and then you can have your guy evening with a clear mind, alright?”

And they did. Rave, Eliza and Salamander sucked him off right there. That wasn’t enough though. Scarlett, Sylph and Gnome took round two. Siena seduced him into a round three with her stupidly attractive voice and the sheer novelty blowjobs from her specifically still had. Round four, she kept going, just that Aclysia and Beatrice also joined the fun.

Then he managed to rip himself away and go take a final shower. A shower in which Undine was already waiting for him. Who he, predictably, proceeded to fuck against the wall. Didn’t help that she split into three of herself and scrubbed him completely clean with all their squishy features. Lots of jiggle was had in those fifteen minutes.

About forty minutes later than he actually should have, John finally managed to head out. The lesbian orgy, continuing even as he closed the door, was a very good reason to stay. Even though an orgy was something he could have practically every day and a night out with fellow men was something he had actually never really done before, the allure of the former was intense. Sex really was the most primal and one of the strongest motivators that existed.

However, he still managed to get on his way. All he needed to do was drop a message to Maximillian, asking where he was, and then make his way there. Once he could no longer hear the moans, the Gamer wasn’t even that tempted anymore. He even had a moment, standing atop the star fortress, where he experienced tranquillity.

‘Damn sexy seductive vixens,’ he complained about his harem mentally. ‘With their round butts and wonderful breasts of varying sizes. Ah, they look so good when I cover them with my cum… defiling is such a great feeling… NO! Bad John!’ He mentally slapped himself, feeling his own room pull on him like a gravity well of perversion. Distracting himself, he looked down to the island.

Although it was already dark, the city lights and the moon were more than enough for John’s eyes to scan through the darkness. Of the volcano, only a pitiful little bump remained. Zooming in with the Agility perk, he could even make out the Fairy Lantern. Even from this far away, the Midnight Forest seemed odd. It wasn’t as simple as a dark shroud lying over the area. The trees just seemed to curve oddly, some of them moving in the wind still landscape. Little lights flickered up here and there, only to hide again. More fundamentally, there was the feeling of looking at something unnatural in John’s gut. The fairies had clearly moved back in.

John’s phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out to read Maximillian’s answer.