“Oh my,” Brenda said when she opened the door and laid eyes on her future daughter-in-law.

Rave’s new dress was a mixture of wonderfully elegant and criminally sexy. It was backless, shoulderless and sideless. Basically, the top part of it only covered her stomach and most of her breasts, rising all the way up to her neck where It wound around to stay in place. While this did cover her cleavage, it compensated with a wonderful bit of side-boob. Given her firm, decently shaped breasts, that was a sight he was happy to give the world. Only the sight though.

Downwards, it flowed into an asymmetrical skirt. The front of the wavy fabric only reached to her knees, while the back went all the way down to her ankles. The entire dress was made from one kind of cloth, a sky blue that harmonized with the colour of Rave’s eyes. It wasn’t just monochrome, however, silver and black embroidery intertwined in jagged waves, travelling all over the surface.

“No need to dress up for us!” John’s mother exclaimed, looking away from the pink-haired beauty to the rest of the assortment.

Aclysia, Beatrice and Eliza had similar looks to them. All three had replaced their unusual, white hair with a simple black through their individual, magical means. They were also, all three, wearing very similar, plain black chokers. The maids had taken the addition to their looks enthusiastically, while Eliza had to wear it for the illusion (and because it complimented the rest of her look). While the ‘twins’ wore summer dresses of the mini-skirt variety, Eliza had stuck to her usual combination of grey shirt and black leather pants.

Metra had decided to stick to her usual outfit. The weather had only gotten warmer since they last visited the Newman household, so she could get away with it without raising suspicion. Last in their group was Scarlett, who was following the general trend for once and actually wore a dress of her own. It was more conservative than the others around the chest area, likely because she didn’t have any cleavage or side boob worth showing off, but was especially tight around the ass to compensate. It was the same red colour as her hair and eyes, although the latter were hidden under boring brown contact lenses.

“Nonsense,” John answered with a smile, himself wearing a simple white shirt and fashionable pants. A downgrade from his usual suit but an upgrade from what he had picked out this morning. After Rave had put on the dress, it had felt wrong to bring anything less than his B game, and the gaming shirts were definitely C at best. “I don’t get to show them off to you often enough, so I will tell them to wrap themselves up nicely!”

“If you say so, son.” Benjamin joined the conversation at the door with a coffee mug in hand. It was covered in mathematical equations and the logo of the company he was working for. Likely some sort of promotion gift. He, too, had a look over the six girls that John had brought with him. “How about you come inside? It seems that you have someone new to introduce us too.”

“Kind of?” John answered and followed the invitation. They left their shoes in the entrance area and were then invited deeper in. It was fortunate that his parents were well-off and could afford a house where the living room was spacious enough to contain all of them. Otherwise, John bringing his harem would have been a pain.

Things got tangled in little talks about tiny topics, while everyone got seated at the table. His mother had already prepared most things, but a few more had to be brought in from the kitchen. Plates with freshly baked cookies, an apple pie and a marzipan cake were all placed in front of them. “Happy birthday again, John!” Brenda declared, once everything was in order, and gave him a motherly kiss on the cheek.

John actually felt embarrassed about that and turned a shade of red. ‘Why, for the love of God, can I fight dragons the size of small skyscrapers without twitching but my mother still makes me feel like a fourth grader?’ he asked himself as Rave snickered next to him, amused by his ashamed state. “Thank you, Mom, Dad,” he said, giving them both a warm smile. Embarrassment aside, he did love his parents.

“Don’t thank us yet,” Benjamin said and pulled a conveniently close drawer open to take something out. It was a small package, barely bigger than a box of tissues and wrapped in colourful paper. “We weren’t sure what to get you at first,” his father admitted, while handing the box to John. “I always opted to gift you computer parts or new games, because we have the money and you really liked those. Since you lead your own business now, daddy’s money isn’t that impressive anymore.” He stopped for a moment to laugh and look across the table. “Please, young lady, you can just start eating.”

“Oh, thank fuck,” Eliza gasped and reached out to the cookies. John hadn’t looked in her direction, but she probably had worn the expression of a constipated starving woman. The smell of the cookies in particular made it hard to blame her for it.

John carefully unmade the wrapping around his present while his father continued. “Since valuable things were out of the question, we wondered what we could give you that would be more emotionally resonant.” The Gamer skilfully removed the last glue strip and pulled the paper off without tearing or crumpling it unnecessarily. “We hope you like it.”

Inside was the kind of cardboard box that was often used to hide valuable presents. Made out of cheap materials, but good quality, it was good looking in the moment but easily discarded later. John paid little mind to it, pulled off the lid and looked inside.

What looked at him were younger versions of his parents. Much younger. Judging by the slight bump of his mother’s stomach, she was pregnant with him in the photo, which meant she would have been about his current age at the time. ‘Crazy to think that she had me when she was 19,’ he thought and couldn’t help to wonder if he would have a similar turn in life.

He was about to thank them for it, as simple as it was, a keepsake was always a nice present, when he realized he was looking at more than a simple photo. Carefully, he reached into the box and pulled it out. The photo wasn’t printed on paper, but on glass, and there was more than the one. Stacked on top of each other, the equally sized glass panels waited to be brought to light. The room was respectfully silent while he did.

There were nineteen photos in total. Each of a year in John’s life, each showing him with his parents, each in a happy moment. The first few were a bit odd. He knew the baby and small child in those were him, but there was a certain level of detachment. As the pictures progressed and the memories got more vivid, the connection intensified. It was sweet and bitter. Sweet for the happy expression of his parents. Bitter for the photos of later years. His parents couldn’t have known it, but the one for his sixteenth year in particular evoked some bad memories. He remembered that day clearly. It was when he had lost his last friend to Frank and Vanessa’s bullying.

John had faked the smile that day, to not worry his father. It was the same time Benjamin had started to work harder and be home less often. When he was, however, he always took the time to spend with his son, and the Gamer didn’t want to sour that. It was such a boring, mundane story for someone that would become a recluse.

While that bullying had now faded into the past, however, his parents’ smile in the photo was something he still saw mirrored when he put the photos back into the box and looked up. “Thank you,” he said, his voice slightly hoarse. He wasn’t about to start crying, but the memories had made him emotional. “It’s good to know where I came from… good to have something I can always remember you by.”

“Took us a really long time to sort through the photos,” Brenda admitted with a motherly smile, while taking the hand of her husband. “We have a lot of happy ones, but it’s hard to find them with all three of us.”

“Is that a silent request to get me to visit more often?” John asked, in an effort to bring light-heartedness back into the room.

“Not all that silent,” Ben grinned. “Look, we’re getting old and you’re successful. You must have a bunch of interesting things to tell!”

“You’re not even forty,” John rolled his eyes. “I should be able to, though. The situation I was talking about resolved a few days ago. I’ll try to swing by at least once every other week.” He put the box aside and waited for an answer.

“That’s great!” Brenda exclaimed. “…But maybe don’t come around that often. No need to fly here every time. I imagine that’s bad for the environment and your health.”

‘Right, global warming is a thing normal people are thinking about,’ John was reminded. Since he was (indirectly) able to create water out of mana and grow plants wherever he wanted, climate trends weren’t exactly a thing he cared about anymore. If it ever became as serious an issue as some of the more rabid proclamations prophesized, he could just hole up in an Illusion Barrier. His parents would be long dead by then, as would be any other mundane person he had ever known.

“I have to travel a lot anyway,” he said with a dismissive gesture. “The reality of being successful is that I have places to be. Might mean I have to burn a bit more fuel, but I am not that worried.”

“…Well, it’s your future, I guess.” Brenda clearly didn’t want to get into that political argument and Benjamin seemed not bothered in the first place. “Anyway, how about you introduce us already?”

John looked over to his redheaded companion, who was playing with a small fork in an effort to keep her hands busy. “I’m Scarlett,” she said quickly. “I’m the co-owner of John’s business, you could say.”

“Ah, so that makes you the woman that couldn’t attend last time around?” Benjamin asked.

“You could say that.” Scarlett placed the fork down. “Honestly, your son keeps me busy all the fucking time, so I don’t even know if I should have taken time for this. Rave insisted I come along.”

“If ya wanna be part of the harem proper, ya gotta know Bren and Ben, dem’z da rulez,” the pink haired girl stated. “I know, ‘cause I wrote them.”

“I don’t really get why,” the bloodsoaked Technomancer shook her head, “It’s not like they’re part of it.”

“Because we’re one big family and so we should know the parents,” Rave justified herself. “Don’t ya dare question my wisdom.”

“I think your wisdom extends to the question what kind of scratches cats like the most,” Scarlett retorted.

“I also know what kind of scratches you like the most, so be careful!” The Lightbearer poked the redhead’s shoulder. “If ya get the drop next time, I’ll cuddle ya until ya never want to let go.”

Scarlett grumbled something but didn’t chase the point any further. “Speaking of family,” Brenda interjected, and John already knew where this was going by the segue alone. “Where are we on the baby front?”

“No changes,” John exclaimed in an exasperated fashion. “Grandkids after I marry. I marry when I’m ready. That’s it.” He decided that this was the best point to grab the cake knife and start slicing into things. “Happy birthday to me; my wish, don’t follow the topic please.”

“He’s getting tired of it,” Eliza announced the obvious. “Fucking coward that he is.”

“Look,” John clarified quickly, the annoyance loosening his tongue. “I really, really, really want to breed you, okay? I am just more reasonable than that. Different topic. Now.”

“Alright, honey.” Brenda waved off with a smile. “You look really good in those dresses – all of you,” she talked to the gathered girls, then picked out Rave specifically. “Didn’t think you would wear one though. Last time we were here, you had a look at mine and didn’t seem all that interested.”

“John and I found this shop that stitches soundwaves into the dress,” Rave explained and gestured at the embroidery. “I can wear my favourite songs, so that was cool enough that I wanted to do it.”

Benjamin burst out laughing. “Young people have access to such odd things these days,” he explained his sudden amusement. “I was wondering what those sound waves were about.”

“We were just lucky to stumble over that shop. I’ve been trying to get her into a dress for ages,” John continued the discussion. “Wonderful as she is, my girlfriend sticks out quite a bit during high-society gatherings.”

“Her hair alone would do that,” Brenda noted, although she was only half right. In the Abyss, having pink hair wasn’t so unusual that it would cause people to turn their heads.

“My bubble butt alone would do that,” Rave remarked, making a more truthful statement.

“I imagine that your whole gathering of girls would cause a bit of attention, if you bring them everywhere,” father Newman hummed to himself. “Which I guess you do, given how open you are about things.”

“I do. People in my circles sleep around a lot… but I think I’m the only one with this size of a consolidated harem.” John shrugged with a smile. “Which I don’t particularly care about, I do things my way and they’re working out nicely.”

“John is very attentive to our needs,” Aclysia declared.

“How is Hex doing, by the way?” John asked. He had continued to get reports from her, but it would have felt odd if he didn’t hear how things were going from his parents. “Everything fine?”

“She recently got an internship at a pharmacy that works with my company,” Benjamin reported. “So, I often see her at work. Much to both of our pleasure.”

‘She adjusted her cover, I see…’ John didn’t care much about it. Hex was doing her job and his parents had been safe for months now. The security measures he had in place were tight and layered. Since things were working and everything was in order, John was satisfied.

“Why don’t you have some cake?” Brenda offered, looking at Aclysia, Beatrice and Metra.

“This figure doesn’t maintain itself, Brenda,” Metra retorted quickly, her direct manner of speaking quickly focusing attention on her. “Can’t load myself with sugar, someone has to satisfy John’s craving for different body types.”

“He seems to be into anything as long as it’s thin,” Benjamin said with a mouthful of cake. “I mean, yeah, you’re all different proportions, but nobody ever seems to be under athletic.” He nodded towards his wife. “I, for one, like a bit of pudge.”

“Don’t call me pudgy!” Brenda complained, crossing her arms under her immense breasts. “Plushy is the word you should use, darling. Has nobody ever taught you that a happy wife equals a happy life?”

“I keep my wife happy in other ways so I can poke fun at her sometimes,” Benjamin chuckled and looked to his son for support. “What do you say, John, should we pamper the women or tease them?”

“I get teased all the time, so I don’t see why I shouldn’t fire back in equal measure,” John stated clearly.

“Oy, I never tease ya!” Rave declared, then immediately began snickering. “…I can’t even say that without laughing at myself.” She leaned over to her boyfriend and whispered into his ear, loud enough for his parents to hear. “Remember that one time I had you edged for hours?”

“Why?” John groaned, playfully shoving Rave back. “Why do you keep making me uncomfortable in front of my parents?”

“Well, there is no need to be uncomfortable, honey,” Brenda declared. “Do tell us about your sex life, we don’t mind. We’re family, we can be honest with each other.”

“We’re family, I don’t want to talk about sex with you,” John threw it right back into her face.

“He’s very insecure about becoming a mama’s boy,” Rave joked.

“No, no, I am not,” John growled. “Stop. Stop this right now!”

“But it’s so fun to wind ya up, tiger!”

“And this,” Benjamin declared, “is why I get to call you pudgy, Brenda.”