Collide Gamer

Chapter 187 – A fluffy Monday 7 – Call back

“Nya!” Rave meowed and pulled her hand out of the stream of water. After eating all the snacks Aclysia had prepared, the techno-lover hadn’t been able to sit still for a long time. When she left, John had gone after her with some reluctance; there was a documentary about the upcoming elections on TV that he would have liked to watch. His girlfriend was a tad more important.

She had run to the bathroom on the upper floor and was now playing with the steady stream of tap water. “Why are you meowing in Japanese now?” John asked as Rave wiggled her index finger from left to right, through the falling water, again and again.

“If I want to meow I’ll do it!” she decidedly exclaimed.

‘I think I understand the drunk comparison now,’ John sighed, eyes closed, and awkwardly scratched the back of his head. When he opened his eyes again, Rave was giving him a wide smile and waddled over to him. “Ya still do that,” she said and kissed his neck.

“Do what?” he asked and pulled her closer.

“That neck scratching thing, really takes me back,” she explained. “You know, all the way back. When you were a weak-ass guy I had to rescue from some rando-gang.”

“To be fair, Travolta helped a lot more there than you did,” John said.

“Hey, I got the Wall Shadow out of the wall,” she complained.

He nodded, “After battling with Moira, despite us having way different problems, AND after I had to tell you what to do.”

“Whatevs, Moi-M…Moira gets on my nerves!”

“And yet you couldn’t beat her in a duel,” John teased and found himself shoved to the ground.

“That was a fluke and ya know it,” Rave laughed, “I have become way stronger since then.”

“Well, I doubt that she has just been sitting on her ass all this time,” John reminded her, “but she doesn’t have access to a convenient levelling device.”

“Implying that you’re the important difference in my life, are ya?” Rave pinned him to the ground, next to the shower, with a smile.

Her hands were like iron claws, and his playful struggle barely helped him move an inch. He laughed, “Now this is another situation that invokes some memories. All we need is a forest and you being mad at me for thinking that you only like me because of my Stats.”

“Oh, wow, yeah,” Rave’s eyes were looking in his direction, yet it felt like she was gazing at something else entirely. “Just gotta conjure how pissed I was at finding out what mom did…” Her slit pupils narrowed sharply. “Still annoys me…”

“I hope I salvaged that day,” John said and felt something in his head shift. It was a bit of a weird feeling, like 4 girls were stretching after having a group hug for too long. ‘What are those elementals doing in my head?’ John wondered, not for the first time.

“Meh, ya gave me a punching bag… but then ya had your stupid fit about how you are just a puppet of fate or something,” Rave said, only to notice the smile on John’s face dying down a moment later. “You… you don’t still believe that, do you?” she asked in a worried tone.

“Believe it? No. Think it might be an actual possibility? Yes,” John answered. Rave was ready to angrily rant at him for that, but he just continued. “Things have been awfully convenient in a lot of ways. Why do I have this power? Because I do. Why do I get a crystal that lets me create Aclysia right before I get the skill? Because Gaia wants it so. Why do I get a crystal that lets me create Momo right before I get the opportunity? Because Gaia wants it so. Why do I get to know a murdering dragoness who then helps in dire times? Because Gaia wants it so. Why do I get to survive? Because Gaia wants it so.” He sighed heavily. “But for many of these, I don’t know how true they are. Gaia supports my abilities; she doesn’t control them. Maybe I am looking too deep into awful conveniences? It’s not like my life has been all sugar and rainbows since I got these powers. Maybe Gaia isn’t as almighty as everyone thinks? Then that means I am not a puppet, just manipulated into certain directions. I at least have free will to follow those manipulations. If she is almighty, well…” He smirked, without any mirth in it. “…that makes her a giant bitch, us pawns in her game and I have no use worrying about it.”

“Yet you will, ya giant nerd,” Rave purred softly and rested her forehead on his.

“Yeah…but I am your nerd,” John said. For how long they laid there like that, staring into each other’s eyes, John didn’t know. It could have been an eternity or just a blink. It didn’t matter; they were close and whatever machinations of fate existed couldn’t have been that bad if they allowed him moments like this. “Do you miss them sometimes?” John asked after a while.

“Who?” Rave asked, but from the way her hands tensed around his wrists, he could tell that she knew whom he meant.

“Travolta and Jimmie. They could still be around if it weren’t for me,” he said, “If I hadn’t gotten involved maybe the three of you would have just lived out your days.”

“Oooor,” Rave stretched the word to its dramatic maximum, “Travolta would have still drunk that blood, and now me and Jimmie would be rotting in a ditch because the guy still went crazy. Doesn’t matter anyhow; he made his choice and it cost him… If I miss them though?” She paused, then shook her head. “Travolta wasn’t the first friend of my dad that died in my presence, he won’t be the last. Sometimes I do miss his brashness, though. Jimmie… well, I never really liked the guy, but I hope he is doing well, wherever he is meow.”

John couldn’t help but giggle. “Way to ruin a heartfelt moment, Jane,” he said between chuckles.

“Whaddya meown?” Rave asked and blinked in confusion.

“Did you seriously not notice? Say ‘now’”

“Meow,” she furrowed her eyebrows. “Meow…MEOW!” she hissed, her cat ears pulling flat to her ears, pointing backwards.

“Now you have another speaking quirk; soon nobody but me will be able to understand you,” John teased, “and then you will be all mine, forever.”

“That sounds like you’re a kidnapper.” Rave raised an eyebrow, her ears relaxing.

“Maybe I am? Maybe all of this is an elaborate scheme to get you to fall in love with me, as I slowly introduce more and more speaking quirks to your tongue until you are bound to me, and I can do with you whatever I want, Stockholm Syndrome style,” he gave her the creepiest smile he could muster.

“Well, if that is your goal, you are gravely mistaken if you think you can bind meo…me to you through some pronunciation errors,” Rave, very slowly, spelled out.

“You are just adorable when you act like you got the smarts,” John said and got a minor headbutt as his reward.

“Shaddup,” she slurred in a mocking British tone, “ya try growing up all over the globe and keeping a coherent speaking pattern, ya bloody loony.”

“See, that sounds more like you… by the way, want to see something cool?” John asked and extended his index finger, that was all he could do to point at the thing behind Rave.

She turned her head and saw the head of the shower hovering above her. For a moment there was silence. Then there was a flood of warm water over them. Rave shouted in surprise and, only after trying to push away the winding showerhead, she jumped off John, who hurried to put the shower out again, but still got a load full of water spread over him as well.

“Jerk!” Rave laughed, “what did ya do that for?...Ya know what, don’t answer, I can see it.” She looked down at herself. Her white top had become completely see-through now. There was no bra underneath. Her nipples gave the top two pink spots. “I am not mopping that up if the princess gets pissy,” Rave warned, pointing at the puddle on the floor and the spray on the wall.

“Aclysia will take care of it,” John waved it off.

“What would ya be without your maid?” his girlfriend teased.

“A lesser and very sad man. Same if I would be without you,” he grinned and let the showerhead fly back over to its holder.

He had needed three Possessions for that little trick. One for the showerhead, one for the hose and one for the valve. Looking at his girlfriend’s phenomenal tits, which were small, but all tits deserved the adjective phenomenal, was worth it though. Especially if they were on the person he loved dearest in this world. The way she shook her new ears to get rid of the water in them was pretty cute.

“Want to see something else that is cool?” John asked as Rave’s wet hair started springing back up. Those pink strands really had a mind of their own.

“Does it involve making me wet again?” Rave purred.

“Nope, although we can do that too, if you want,” John answered and winked again.

Rave thought about that for a moment. She raised her index finger to her glossy lips, pulling the lower half down a bit, then she let go. The little pillow of pink fell back into place. “Later,” she promised. “Show me what ya have in mind, I wanna know.”

“It will quite possibly hurt a lot,” John warned her.

“Meh, ya got Undine and I can take a punch,” his girlfriend shrugged.

John smirked and raised his hand to the ceiling and created an Illusion Barrier. Then Gnome suddenly materialized in front of Rave. “S-sorry,” she apologized as she punched Rave in the chest. The cat-eared Lightbearer flew through the bathroom window.

‘Sylph, feather her fall please… and mine too,’ John instructed as he jumped out of the smashed window. Not that Rave needed the help. With a cat’s grace she made a backwards somersault of her hands, to use up the kinetic energy, then landed on all fours.

“For your interest, that DID hurt… but only a bit,” she smirked while standing up.

“Hey, you agreed to it,” John said and pointed at a nearby dungeon entrance, a hole in the ground that looked like a meteor crater, with his head as he came to a less graceful landing. Even with a slower fall, he was not quite as agile as Rave was.

Which still made him way more agile than the stone elemental that crashed into the ground right next to him. Sure, she landed on both of her feet, but she also sunk several centimetres into the wet ground.

“True, true…It’s way too cold though,” Rave said and started shaking in her wet clothes.

“Then let’s get inside,” John told her, as Sylph was already flying into the opening in the ground. The rest of them quickly followed.

Rave looked around the bridge landscape of the Demon I.D. Cautiously, aware of the many harms John’s barriers typically contained, she proceeded. “So, what level is this?” she asked.

“None,” John answered, “I created the area without monsters.”

“You can do that?” Rave wondered.

 “Apparently, I took the gamble,” John answered. He had sent Sylph in advance to confirm this little detail, so far the air spirit hadn’t seen any enemies. “I had this theory for a bit. If I can create the dungeons WITH monsters inside, there is no reason I shouldn’t be able to do it without, right? Can’t do anything else though, guess I would need to level Fateweaver if I wanted more choice in the creation of these, like dungeon size or the enemy spawn rate. Maybe a more worthwhile investment than I initially thought.”

“Well, ya do what ya want to do with those bullshit powers of yours… but why make a dungeon without enemies?” Rave wondered.

“Didn’t that initial punch tip you off?” John passed her and put some distance between the two of them. Rave was standing at the entrance of the dungeon, he was about ten metres down a sloped bridge.

“We are going to fight until you get your mana spent,” John said and threw out his arms. Sylph flew by his side, Undine bubbled up from the ground and Salamander appeared in a fire on his shoulder. Gnome, in a purely mundane manner, walked up to him.

“Way to ruin the impressive get-together, sis,” Salamander cackled.

“Shut up,” Gnome told her in a decisive tone, “I can’t fly like you lot, nothing I can do about it.”

John raised an eyebrow. “Wow, I felt something going on in my head, but when did you get all confident?”

“O-oh, you know, this and that happened,” Gnome dodged the question, immediately snapping back to the usual. Eyes averted, fingertips pushing together, she was the image of adorable shyness. John bowed down to her face, but Gnome just slowly bent backwards, occasionally looking back at him, but never maintaining eye contact for more than a blink. “J-just some typical sorority stuff, y-y-y-you know? Really, nothing worthwhile, absolutely nothing,” Gnome tried to deflect his interest so badly it only made him want to know more.

He looked over to his other elementals. Undine radiated extreme tranquillity. Nothing he could learn from her, it seemed. Salamander shook her head, “If Gnome ain’t telling, I ain’t telling,” she told John. Sylph was holding her breath with puffed cheeks and had both hands crossed over her mouth. Evidently, she was having a hard time not saying it, but she was actually trying to stay quiet., Not a thing he had expected to see today.

“Seems like you are back in charge of this lot,” John congratulated his eldest elemental. “I was really wondering if that had just slipped from your grasp forever, good job.”

“T-thank y-“ Gnome bowed down to feel John’s hand on her head. John could feel the elemental under his hand heat up and heard a silent, “uwuwuwuwuwu.”

‘Ah, well, even if she becomes the leader of this pack again, some things will never change,’ John thought and looked over to Rave. “So, just you and me, no Aclysia, no Momo.”

“Just you and your elementals,” his girlfriend shouted back, “totally fair…but ya know what?” She got into an aggressive stance. “I’ll take that challenge.”

John had Gnome take the frontline while he and Undine stayed back. He wouldn’t have expected any other answer.