Collide Gamer

Chapter 173 – Running around the city.

“Well, that was… a movie,” John said, carefully.

“Yu-p,” Rave agreed, popping the p sound. A moment of silence then John sighed heavily.

“I think having powers has just ruined fantasy movies for me,” he lamented, “can’t really get into it when I see a force choke and think about how I would actually fight a Sith.”

“By throwing Salamander at them?” Rave suggested. “I mean, let’s be honest here, Siths and all that jazz aren’t really that powerful.”

“True, true,” John mused, “Not as strong as a Space Marine anyhow.”

“Am not even going to entertain that debate with ya. The fact that I even know what a Jaghatai Khan is thanks to that podcast annoys me,” Rave stated as they aimlessly walked around. There wasn’t much more to talk about regarding the Last Jedi, unless they felt like climbing through plot holes. “So, any shops you want to check out first?” his girlfriend asked.

“Mhm, I’d like to buy a laptop,” John answered, “Now that I have the money for it, that seems like a worthwhile investment.”

“I brought mine,” Rave told him. “It’s somewhere in my luggage.”

“We can’t game together on one laptop though,” he reminded her.

“True, true,” she mused.

Suddenly she stopped and grabbed his hand. “What’s the pro-?” John was silenced by Rave pressing her lips on his. John was more than a little surprised by the sudden gesture of affection, even if it was just a quick meeting of their lips.

“Heeeey,” Rave giggled, “I love you.” For a few moments she just blinked at him, all adorable and heart-melt-inducing. Then she started walking again, pulling him along by his hand until he unfroze and caught up to walking beside her.

“What was that about?” he wanted to know.

“Dunno, just wanted to do it?” Rave said and stuck out her tongue, “What, ya didn’t like it?”

On the contrary, John was ecstatic, but saying so would have been too easy. “Maybe a bit more tongue action would be nice?” he teased her just because he could.

“What? Eating me out in the open?” Rave pondered, “I mean, maybe, but it is way too cold for that… also, I’m not an exhib!”

“Riiiiight,” John said.

“What? I’m not!” the pink haired woman responded and John bit back his catalogue of points to the contrary.

They passed a clothes shop, and Rave nodded at the door. “Let’s go inside and buy mittens,” she raised their joined hands. As nice as the gesture was, in the cold winter their fingers were threatening to turn into icicles.

“Good call,” John therefore agreed. He needed to exchange some more money for that. Giving in to the annoyance of likely having to do that multiple times he just exchanged 10 grand and was done with that for the foreseeable future. “…I hate this system,” he said after storing away most of that money in his inventory.

“What now?” Rave asked while she was browsing scarves. The mittens were on the second floor and they hadn’t even stepped on the escalator that would bring them up there.

John put a sizable sum of the paper money into his front pocket. Not the best way to store cash, but he had the luxury of not caring too much about it. “Well, apparently Euros don’t get included in my money pool but instead take up inventory space. It’s just a single slot but it’s still annoying,” he explained.

“Man, Gaia really has ya on her shit-list recently, doesn’t she? Ya get nerfed, ya can’t level for almost three months, ya get annoying interface interactions.” Rave wiggled her fourth finger, trying to continue that list.

“Well, it is still more convenient than before,” John defended the green-haired deity, “but I would be surprised if this is the last patch I get. My Gaia Dependency Factor is still at 80 after all.”

“Mhm…” Rave hummed as she put a Christmas hat on. The red and white thing was of obviously bad quality. Cheap lights were glued onto the kind of fuzz that wouldn’t survive a single wash. Rave slapped away the white bobble that fell right in front of her eyes, accidentally triggering the lights with that motion. “So, how do I look?” she asked, hands on her hips.

Between the bright yellow jacket, the blue pants, the pink hair and the red hat with the dancing lights there was only one answer. “Stunning,” he said the expected thing first, “and like someone decided to randomize your colour scheme.”

“Ruuude!” Rave laughed and threw the hat back on the shelf it came from.

They were sidetracked for a little while, because Rave decided to check out hairpins. She laughed at the idea of wearing any of them, John couldn’t even fathom a world where anything orderly could co-exist with her mane anyhow. Then they almost got sidetracked again, because Rave spotted the underwear section. John would not have survived her trying things on, so he nudged her in the right direction.

‘Note to self: visit a lingerie store with girlfriend,’ he thought to himself. He just had to put that on a day he had a little more time and a little more freedom to take care of what seeing her in various states of undress always did to him.

Rave checked the display of mittens and came to a conclusion after a mere twenty seconds. “I’ll take these,” she decided and grabbed a thick, wooly pair of plain brown. “And you will be taking these,” she tossed him a pair of bright pink gloves.

“Uhm,” John wanted to voice his objections as he looked at the things. ‘Who even designed these?! Who gave the okay to sell that?!’ he screamed inside his mind as Rave gave him a grin that made it clear that she wouldn’t take a no on this.

“What?” she stated after continued hesitation, “it’s the same colour as my hair, it’s tots romantic. I even do the same for you!” she waved with the brown mittens in her hand.

John was about to comment that brown gloves were easily justifiable in society compared to bright pink ones. Then he remembered that he was talking to a hot punk with pink hair, a tongue piercing and a love for techno-music so big that her nickname was Rave, who also happened to be his harem approving girlfriend. He swallowed his complaints and decided to take the bad with the good. They went to the checkout, John paid and they were back on the streets.

“Man, my hands are warm now but boy is this less nice,” John sighed when they kept walking hand in hand.

“Ja, it’s a bit of a downer,” Rave agreed. The thick layers of warming cloth made the hand contact less satisfying. “But don’t ya dare let go!” she warned him.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he assured.

‘Stoooooooooooop!’ a sudden mental shout in his mind. He did and Rave looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Sylph wants something,” he told her.

‘Damn right I do! Turn to your right, mister money maker,’ the tempest elemental instructed. He did and immediately knew what the blabbering air spirit wanted.

In the window of a candy shop stood a gummy bear bigger than his hand. Glorious, its smooth red surface shining brightly in the golden light of the window's light string, it was sitting like a king upon his throne inside a green, decorated Christmas sweets box surrounded by other, smaller, pieces of sugary candy. John saw how this was ending, and he was afraid of it.

‘That, buy me that! I demand this as your tribute to me! To the queen of winds and storms, the reincarnation of wind itself, the balloon that quacks in the night! I demand, John, I demaaaaaaaaaand!’ The shouts were growing increasingly wanting.

There was no way he could decline and get away with it unscathed, he would never hear the end of it if he did. However, he needed to somehow play damage control, or get something out of this. Then he had the idea that would satisfy everyone involved.

‘Okay, Sylph, you’ll get that gummy bear…’

‘HURRAY!’

‘…but only if you can be silent for twenty minutes while and after eating it,’ there was a moment of silence. He felt the mental conflict in Sylph’s thoughts. Was it worth NOT talking for a whole twenty minutes and getting a gummy bear for that? A hard question for the tiny and not particularly bright elemental.

‘Uhm, ehm, uhr, ehhhh,’ Sylph started stammering as her brain failed to envision what twenty minutes of silence would even be like. ‘Gnoooooooome, what should I doooooo?!’ she decided to find her answer in someone else.

‘Huh? If you r-really want it, I guess you will have to take the deal?’ came the startled answer.

‘But, but, butt, butt-plug, but, no words…for twenty minutes? How can I survive that?’ Sylph wanted to know.

‘I don’t know but If you don’t get that gummy bear I WILL NOT SURVIVE,’ Salamander cried out. ‘For fuck's sake, take the deal before your boredom makes me take a bath in Undine and end both of our miserable existences.’

A surprising amount of interest in that idea radiated from the mending elemental.

Cornered like that, Sylph finally agreed, ‘Okay, fifteen minutes no words, I promise.’

‘Twenty minutes, no sounds,’ John corrected her, ‘complete silence.’

‘Uwuwuwuwuwu.’

‘Mimicking Gnome won’t make me renegotiate, young lady,’ he sternly thought at her.

John waited for an answer. Then there was a sudden wave of acceptance from Sylph. ‘Okay, okay, kay, k. You win, I’ll be silent for twenty minutes while eating the gummy bear,’ she agreed with a heavy sigh. He had gotten what he wanted, so he went inside the shop.

“And?” Rave asked whilst following him.

“And now we are buying Sylph a giant gummy bear so I get to beat the Elementalist challenge, the other girls get twenty minutes of relaxation and Sylph gets what she wants. This way everyone is, mostly, happy,” John explained while grabbing one of the boxes and carrying it to the cashier. He paid and, at the next corner, he created another barrier to put the thing into his inventory. He checked the time on his phone. “Wow, we have been out for five hours already?” he wondered. Between all the walking and the movie, he hadn’t paid any attention to it at all.

“Time sure flies,” Rave said, “Let’s eat something fancy and then head back.”

“Sure, as long as I get to buy a laptop on the way back,” John agreed, “any idea where to eat?”

“Let’s just stumble into the first restaurant that is open.”

That happened to be an Italian one. They went inside and looked at the menu. While they were deciding on the food, Rave ordered a beer; John took some juice. “Drinking at this hour?” John asked when the half-litre glass was placed in front of his girlfriend.

“Oh, shaddup, who’s gonna judge me, da princess?” Rave slurred and took a mouthful of the golden liquid inside the tall glass. “Okay, stuff tastes a lot stronger than what I am used to,” she said, “better take it slow.”

“Well, I am not carrying you home in case you forget yourself,” John threatened, but they both knew that he would. He ordered some spaghetti; Rave had a pizza.

“So,” she started a new topic while they were waiting, “used Observe on me yet?”

“Nope, thought I’d wait until tomorrow. If Lydia wants to test us anyhow, I thought I’d keep the suspense alive,” John told her.

“Mhm, but I am curious…what level was I again when you saved me?”

“48, which was already an insane spike from the 37 you were before that.”

“Probably still had some of Thana’s blood in my system,” Rave guessed, “should thank Herman for checking that after the fight next time I see him. Anyhow, I just went through two months of daily training so tell me what I am at now!”

“Just a moment,” John obliged her and used Observe.

“Okay, so you are now level 61,” John said, “which is pretty impressive…but you only raised your Physical Stats it seems.”

“I guess that makes sense, daddy is not the best at teaching me about my magic; he is a martial artist after all,” Rave said, took another swing of beer and added, “I would need my bitch of a mother for my magic.”

“Does she have the same magic as you?”

“Nope, but similar. Mother is another light soul, her powers are all about lightning.”

“Isn’t that an air type?” John asked, thinking about Sylph.

“Nah, there’s a difference between lightning, which is a light type power, and electricity, which is an air type power. It’s like attributes and stuff,” Rave provided an unclear explanation. John made a mental note to ask Lydia about this later.

“You lucked out inheriting that then,” he commented, just as the food finally arrived.

“Yeah, me and my sister both. Although Liz is with mother and she can stay there,” Rave said.

“Liz? Is that her name?” John asked, he knew nothing of Rave’s sister aside from the fact that she existed, and that knowledge only got to him through the video Regan had showed him when Rave was presumed dead.

“Yeah, it’s my younger sister's name,” Rave said and glared at him, “Don’t ya go and try to fix my family situation, mister good-guy.”

“I have learnt to not try and help people who don’t want it,” John tried to ease her tension with his calm tone. “At least not if I’m not sure I have the answers.”

“Good,” Rave clarified and that was that. They moved onto the food on the table and less dangerous topics.