Once he was standing, John had to admit that he was quite a bit more drunk than he had bargained for. Although the Game windows were warning him of the stages, he still wasn’t great at knowing what stage corresponded with what level of motor function loss. In this specific case, he was experiencing something that his girlfriend liked to call ‘the alcohol got stuck in my feet.’

The fresh air on his face did its part to fix that though. It had cooled down a lot since John had gotten inside. Thin fog had settled in the city, driving down the temperature through the moisture. Not to a properly cold level, it was still above twenty degrees. The flat rooftop was pretty boring. A few plastic chairs and ashtrays were around. The duo ignored both and just stood at the railing, looking down on the moving people in the nearby streets. There was a kerfuffle at the entrance of the Little Whirl, but the bouncers had it resolved with a few firm shoves.

“Can you explain that to me?” John asked, looking away from that little incident and instead pointing at the mist in the streets. “There is no wind to carry it here, so where is the extra moisture coming from?”

“Hm,” Magnus hummed to himself and fell silent for a few seconds. With a metal lighter, he warmed up the foot of the cigar. Once he seemed happy with the result, he put the cigar in his mouth and properly fired it up. Admittedly, he looked quite classy with that giant brown thing in his face. Why, that eluded John’s understanding, he just did. “Long or short answer?”

“How long is the long answer?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.

Gently, Magnus exhaled a cloud of smoke; it tumbled through the air and eventually scattered until nothing of it remained to be seen. The Fatewaver looked at the cigar, then raised it to John. “About as long as this cigar would last, were I to smoke it all the way.”

John was roughly aware that a good cigar could last two to three hours. Since this was some absurd, in-barrier grown tobacco from Iceland of all places, he was just going to assume that it was a very good cigar. As he didn’t want to spend the entire evening out here, the decision was rather easy. “Short answer then.”

“Hmph,” Magnus scoffed as if he was disappointed by that answer. “Gaia makes it appear. There is no wind, you’re right, but the borders of the barrier make a copy of whatever weather phenomenon drifts through their equivalent position in the real world.”

“Different question then, why is there no wind?” John wondered. “If she goes through the trouble of copying sunrays and water related weather phenomena, why does Gaia stop at wind?”

“There are a lot of things not included in barriers,” Magnus mumbled into his cigar, relighting it as John took a sip of his gin and tonic. “Barriers copy fully functioning plants, but no animals. There are microbes in the soil, but no insects. Certain magical creatures like orcas, huntsman spiders and platypus aside.”

‘Why does it not surprise me that two of those three examples are from Australia?’ John thought, but didn’t want to go down that road of questions as well. “Okay, but why though?” he asked again.

Once again, Magnus didn’t answer immediately, only looking at John for a moment to signal he was thinking on the best way to formulate his response. It was oddly flattering. To see that someone took the time to not just spout the first answer that came to mind but actually mulled it over. Although that put awkward stops into the conversation, it ultimately led to a higher quality of it. Something that was especially interesting because, unlike John, Magnus was not a genius of any description. He was just a hard-working guy with a lot of acquired knowledge.

“We don’t know for sure,” Magnus Magus finally responded. “It could be that Gaia just wants to reduce the number of moving parts. She cuts out those that aren’t absolutely necessary. That would make the barrier easier to maintain. What else? It… could be an observation that she made that, if those things were left in, the barrier changes too much over time. Perhaps she found it cruel, in the case of animals, to create them and immediately eliminate them once the barrier closes. There are a lot of studies on that from the Mountain of Time that you could read about it. For a sizable donation.”

“Huh.” John was left a bit baffled for a moment, while the Fateweaver pulled new smoke into his mouth. A questioning glance caused the Gamer to add, “It’s just that you talk a lot when it’s about your work.”

Magnus hesitated for a more common reason this time around, it seemed. After a few moments of introspection, he shrugged and said, “I always liked Fateweaving as a profession. It’s just a shame I’m never going to be as good as my father.” New smoke was blown into the air. “Don’t mistake my realism for whining. I worked for what I have and I’m proud to have it. But enough about me. Are you fine with being here tonight?”

“What makes you ask that?” John couldn’t help but respond with a question of his own.

“At no point this whole night did you look as happy as the moment you got a message from Rave,” Magnus simply stated and left it at that.

Scratching his head, it was John’s turn to think about things. His erudite mind had cracked the whole thing open within a second, however. “Well, two things can be true at once, right? On one hand, there is no place on earth I’d rather be than where my loves are. On the other hand, I don’t want to live my entire life never having hung around other people. While I would probably be happier in the moment if I was over there, I think I’m going to have a happier life if I do things like tonight every now and again.”

There was a light chuckle from Magnus, once the Gamer had finished his answer. “I can’t reverse your comment about me. You talk a lot in general,” he said and continued to work on his cigar. “I fought with my father before coming here, you know?”

“What, did he object to you coming to a strip club with me?” John joked. “I know your parents are pretty conservative compared to me, but…” He stopped when Magnus shook his head. “Oh, you mean ‘America’ here?” A nod. John waited for an elaboration.

“I didn’t think this should be where we put our name. I can happily say that I was wrong.” Both of them looked out beyond the red-light district and over the water. “This is a good place. I feel like I am at the heart of something that is moving in the right direction. I like it.”

John gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder. “You’re going to over-inflate my ego,” he joked and took another sip. His drink tasted like ice cubes. Magnus just grunted something, putting an end to that topic. Already having a new one in mind, John jumped right into it. “You seem to get along well with that Nina lady.”

Immediately, the Gamer earned himself a side glance that signalled Magnus’ discomfort with where this was going to go. “She’s interesting,” he conceded. “Didn’t expect someone to talk to in this place. Maximillian chose well. Made the two hours I had to spend alone with him less awkward.”

“Well, if you enjoy talking to her, maybe you should see if you can do it outside her work hours,” John suggested.

“She is a stripper,” Magnus summarized his immediate revulsion to the matter.

“She isn’t going to be forever.” John shrugged and drank his remaining ice water. “Might not be the greatest thing to tell people, but I doubt she wants to stay here forever. She is in it for the fun and the cash, probably. While on the topic of things that won’t be forever, you know as well as I do that you’re not particularly powerful. You’re going to live how much longer than the average person? 50, 70 years?” He shrugged again. “You don’t have my luxury of an eternal life to fill with mistakes. That aside, I am not suggesting you immediately start looking at marriage brochures. Just that you aren’t seeing somebody right now.”

“…A stripper though…” the Fateweaver didn’t seem convinced yet.

“Hey, one of my girls I met through her slaughtering a room full of enemies and allies and my girlfriend in a fit of insane, pain-fuelled rage,” John tried to press some humour back into the situation. “Another tried to stab me for the first few months. Another got herself infected by Lorylim. Another got herself infected willingly.” He paused and stretched a little bit. “I think you can handle a stripper.”

“…I’ll think about it, I suppose.” Magnus leaned on the railing. “My father asked you to set me up, didn’t he?”

“Well, he asked that I make you tag along whenever I go out on any sort of guy’s night,” the Gamer responded truthfully. With a snicker, he added, “I heavily doubt he had this particular recommendation in mind.”

The door to the rooftop opened carefully. Speaking of the devil, Nina poked her head out. Carefully at first, likely not wanting to interrupt any important conversation. “You were taking a while, so I thought I’d bring you your whiskey.” She approached them once she found them in silence. Magnus took the glass with a somber motion.

“Ever had a Rewling?” the Fateweaver asked, offering the cigar to Nina.

“Been years, haven’t been able to afford them since I moved out,” she answered and slowly extended her hand towards the cigar. It looked like she was uncertain whether he was playing tricks on her.

Feeling entirely unneeded (in the way, really) John announced, “Well, I’ll be back inside, you two have fun,” and headed towards the door with a wingman smile on his face. ‘Really do wonder how you will react to this news, whenever they become something noteworthy, Magoi,’ he thought, as he closed the door behind himself. ‘Better question is whether Mabirl is going to let me off without a giant lecture… well, I think she’s cool, so probably?’

Out of curiosity, John checked out the bedroom. It was an odd one. Four bed segments were equally partitioned through fluffy-carpet-covered walkways. The odd factor came from the round shape of the room. The beds were individually large enough that their almost triangular shape didn’t matter all that much. Additionally, those were beds for fucking, not for sleeping.

Feeling a more pressing urge than curiosity, John went to the bathroom. That one was just a number of toilet stalls, undivided by gender, and a shower (likely for emergencies or the odd morning after). After emptying his bladder, making very sure he shook all the drops out, he filled his glass with some tap water, quickly gulped that down, and then made his way back down to the actual main chamber.

Maximillian was having a lovely chat with Lemia, while still getting his dick sucked by Aletra. A new arrival was already busy on the stripping pole, albeit only with simple, teasing motions, rather than the actual show. She was a redheaded woman wearing a maid uniform of the ‘easily removed’ variety. At the insistence of both Magnus and Maximillian, they had requested a stripper with DD-cups, which John found overblown. Not that it was to her detriment, she looked good, they all did, otherwise they wouldn’t have landed a job here.

“Good job keeping my seat warm,” John grinned when he got back and consequently caused the earlier issued command to be fulfilled. The brunette gasped for air as the sudden pleasure got her right back to the same level of heat as she had been before he left. “Nina is busy, so you have to get me a new drink,” he told her, this time without a command. He didn’t want to make it too easy on himself.

“Yes, Master,” she swiftly responded with the exact phrase he wanted to hear.

Plopping back down in his seat, he looked over to Maximillian. “You having a good time, buddy?”

“The best.” The king toasted with his Sex on the Beach. “What about Magnus?”

“He is smoking a very good cigar, so I guess it’s just us two for the next while,” John stated in nebulous but very clear terms. “Well, us two and these three lovely ladies. Who would you be?”

“Ruby,” the actual stripper of the evening responded. “That’s not my stage name, before you ask,” she read his mind, her lips spreading into a wide smile. They were as red as her choker. “You do look much better in person than in the pornos I watched, John.”

“I never saw you before, but I am eager to end that trend,” the Gamer smoothly responded, taking the drink that Lemia basically placed in his hand. Once the brunette was back in his lap, he was all too happy to kick back. Literally, in some sense, as he felt so relaxed that he pulled his shoes into his inventory and placed his feet on the armrest of the empty chair next to his.

Relaxed, a girl in his lap and a drink in his hands, with another lady to look at and a buddy across the table, John felt like he had actually arrived in that high-society guy evening that he had imagined.

“You heard the man,” spoke up said buddy, also leaning back. “Show us all of you that you like. I am sure our friend on the roof won’t mind if you start right now.” He looked over to John. “I trust you brought those fifties?”

“I got you covered,” John assured, groping Lemia in a rough fashion that got her squealing wonderfully.