The Gamer Chapter 1364 – Hot Spring Weekend 8 – The Redhead Gathering (Patreon)

The rest of the Saturday passed John by in a flash. He and Delicia went down to the lake and had a simple, happy time. Then they went back to the cabin. In a smaller group, they took another journey down to the underground hot springs. At the end of a long day full of lounging and lewding, they went to bed.

Sunday started with tame lovemaking. The bed was not sturdy enough to withstand the full enthusiasm of the harem and the distance of the hygienic facilities meant that the mess created was not as readily washed off. It reminded John just how specifically he had tailored all about his life to enabling the erotic lifestyle he had. It also reminded him to change the layout of his bedroom when he got back home. With Delicia in the mix and Hailey hopefully joining before the month was over, there was no longer a question whether the harem sized bed would be cramped. It was an inevitability.

“We should have a bedroom planning session,” John suddenly said out loud. It was way past breakfast, shared with the locals and Hailey, taken out in the open. Grilled steak for a first meal of the day was something he would miss once he was back to the indoor life. Aclysia could provide, but it wouldn’t be the same.

Most of the harem had dispersed. Rave, Eliana and Lydia were with Hailey, continuing the martial arts training. Apparently, Hailey had difficulty taking to it. Could have been due to personal difficulties with the skillset. Could have been because John’s girlfriend did indeed suck at explaining things.

Other haremettes had headed out here or there, doing this or that. John hadn’t asked much. After breakfast, he had occupied a picnic blanket and had not moved since. The trees around provided constant shade. The sky was clear today. John heard the distant activity of wildlife. Some animals, mundane and fantastical, had been introduced into one of the local Illusion Barriers over 50 years ago. It was its own little ecosystem. Isolated from the outside world, even the neighbouring barrier with the cabins.

John did not receive an answer for a while, causing him to open his eyes. Directly, he looked up at Claire. Her red hair framed her pale beauty. Green eyes, filled with joy, were dedicated so much to beholding him that she likely forgot to pay attention to what he actually did. Gentle strokes of her hand brushed through his short hair. Her thighs were soft and pillowy under his neck.

Claire assuming her human disguise had three particular reasons. One was Nathalia, who was curled up next to John, snoozing the morning away. The other was Salamander, who sat at the edge of the blanket, tossing pebbles into the lake. Last was Scarlett, who held her phone in one hand and a glass of ice cold gin and tonic in the other. Those three had one thing in common: they were redheads.

Pure coincidence had led to this configuration. Upon noticing that she was the odd one out, Claire had shifted appearances. The red was her original hair colour, so she fit in well. Everyone was distracted by their individual satisfaction, it appeared. That kind of content mood where the mind was so delayed in its responses, sometimes the fact that it was normal to respond to what other people said was forgotten.

John cleared his throat, which pulled everyone out of their lull just enough that they heard him when he repeated, “We should have a bedroom planning session.”

“Mhhhmmmm… why?” Nathalia asked, groggily, slowly stirring awake. “Spontaneous orgies fulfil me completely. Cheese.”

The last word was an order, which Claire swiftly fulfilled. A tablet covered in small snacks had a pile of diced cheeses among its numbers. With a toothpick, the vampire maid swiftly stabbed one of the yellow cubes and fed it to the demanding dragoness.

“I mean the actual bedroom. We’ll need a renovation to fit everyone.”

“Can we finally get a door that leads directly into the baths?” Scarlett asked.

“Aren’t we spoiled?” John asked with a chuckle. Currently, the bed was occupying the entire length of the wall that the bedroom shared with the harem apartment’s spa area. If they were going for a full redesign, that could be dealt with. Not like they were wanting for space. “Would you like an attached toilet as well?”

“Only if you put a corridor in between to block the light and smell out. At which point, why bother?” Scarlett presented him with a swift rebuttal.

“Fair point.” Much as John liked to pretend that girls did not poop – they did and it had all the same issues. Putting a bathroom right next to their bedroom was unwise for the light reason alone though. There were enough humans in his harem that it was quite frequent for one of them to require a trip during the night. That half the living room was currently between the bedroom and the sanitary facilities put the necessary space between the locations to prevent any indirect intrusions.

Shades of red hair distracted him. There was Salamander’s fiery orange, the colour of a flame’s inner layer, the brightest of the bunch. Nathalia came close, yet the colour of molten rock was tilted too intensely towards the red to take the end of the spectrum. Next was Scarlett, whose uniform, full redness reminded of a ripe apple if he was being flattering and blood if he was being honest. The way it cascaded down to her hips in falls of thin, dense strands was magnetic to his eyes, especially when that curtain was in movement. Last, by no means least, was Claire, whose red hair was the darkest of the bunch. If Scarlett was blood, then Claire was a pool of it. The deep crimson fit her nature as a vampire all too well. Ironic that this would be her human disguise.

Once upon a time, John would have had a favourite hair colour. He was so spoiled for choice these days, he had long dispensed with that thought. Silvery-white held a special place in his heart, for a reason he could not quite describe. Then again, taste was always difficult to convey, considering how much it varied on subjective perception. In any case, there was no favourite for him and still he understood why so many men were driven crazy by the shades of red.

It was so eye-catching, so elegant and so dangerous. The bright red reserved for ripe fruit and venomous animals decorated the gorgeous heads, framed their faces in three of the four cases around John. The buzzcut was hot in its own way, although John knew he was in the minority with that one. Be it Nathalia’s wild mane, Scarlett’s elegant, long hair, or Claire’s short and decoratively messy hair, it was all so incredible.

“Hmmm?” John hummed, realizing he had been addressed. This time around, it was him that hadn’t remembered to answer until he forgot the question. “What was that?”

“What’s your idea for a larger bedroom?” Nathalia asked. “Are we simply increasing its size?”

“I was considering getting a bit fancy with it. Take some inspiration from the kind of harem beds you see in fantasy stories sometimes.” The Gamer summoned his idea before his mind’s eye. “Imagine, if you will, a bed with a central piece that is much like our current. There’s pillows and many blankets, to be shared or used individually. However, surrounding it are elevated levels, their walls covered in cushions. Each platform is its own mattress, to be used by one or many, surrounded by noise-dampening silk. Retreats for a midnight woo or edges to set upon while voyeuristically enjoying what happens in the middle of it all.”

Nathalia purred at the thought. “A definitive improvement upon our current bed design.” She rolled up next to John. The faint smell of burning wood would have been worrisome, had John not been so familiar with it from her. Heat radiated off her hair and fuelled his every heartbeat. Intensely, he could feel the drum of love in his chest and the knot of adoration in his stomach. The latter was loosened by the return of those feelings through the nibbling on his earlobe. “Oh, I can imagine it, our haremettes watching us as we make wild love, my mate.”

“Would certainly fix the fucking awkwardness having to form a giant circle when we wait our turns,” Salamander remarked. “Could maybe install some couches and seats against those walls, so there’s an easier time giving tit jobs? Laying down sucks, especially if I want to squish my tits against Undine’s. Even I’m not that bendy.”

“Ohhh, why don’t we make it so the platforms are hollow on the inside?” Claire suggested. “Little cuddle grooves, to be intimate in. Little cuddle grooves, to enjoy the thorough darkness. Little cuddle grooves, where one may bask in the tightest hugs.”

“Fucking Gaia,” Scarlett shook her head, “we’ve ventured out of the realm of a bed, that’s an adult themepark attraction. Why don’t you install some monkey bars while you’re at it?”

“Unironically a good idea, would make for excellent places to hook bondage equipment on.” Scarlett groaned at John’s response. “Hey, you’ll enjoy it too. We could attach a hammock, even. Just for the novelty of sleeping in one… or to use it as a sex swing.”

“Do you have any idea how wildly impractical it is to use silk as an enchanted noise dampener? Regular curtain would work much better.”

“But what if I wake up in the middle of the night and I want to turn my head and see Nathalia ride your face?” John asked. “Clearly, whatever barrier is getting used has to be mostly translucent.”

Scarlett pinched the bridge of her nose. “I was having a discussion with a business associate about the immorality of shorting stocks and somehow that is the less infuriating discussion.”

That pulled John’s attention from the thought experiment for a moment. “You are willing to engage in moral discussions?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. “I thought your capitalist brain only had one value and that was green.”

“Ha-ha, I obviously have principles.” Scarlett gestured with her phone, the screen flickering in accordance with the circuitry lighting up in her eyes. “I pay people according to what they make me, I don’t exploit for short term gains, and I hate people who short stocks.” She looked at the screen again, if only to concentrate. Technomancy let her access all the phone had to offer at all times anyway. “Betting that something you’re investing in does worse is fucking poison. You lose the right to call yourself a capitalist if you pull stunts like that. Make a profit or get out of my sight.” She paused and grumbled, “Fucking parasites.”

John smirked. Even if his redheaded technomancer had a cold heart, she was a logical creature. The prime operative: expanding profit and the economy. Anything that went against that? Annoying. There were many situations where her exceptionally economical stance on everything had caused disagreements. All in all, however, one could not say that Scarlett was exploiting anyone. Only that she was unyielding in her calculations.

“I swear to everything, the only good use of the stock market is to take companies off the idiots that run them currently,” Scarlett continued to curse. “Alright, I changed my mind. Tell me more about this absurdity of a bed you’re putting together in your head.”

“Well, there’s not really a reason to stop just at side grooves, is there?” John hummed. “We could have a tunnel that leads into a chamber under the bed. Install a TV in the roof, or in the wall, and then have that be a place where you can wait out insomnia.”

“It’s getting Bluetooth,” Scarlett decided. At everyone’s raised eyebrow, she elaborated, “If we’re building an abomination of a bed, I’m giving it a way I can interact with it to connect to the internet.”

“Main bed, platforms, couches, grooves, tunnels, an underbed chamber,” Salamander listed what they had so far. “Right, and the monkey bars. Anything else we could get?”

“Maybe we can have a hot and a cold corner, so Jane can stop terrorizing everyone with her heat settings,” John thought out loud, to the redheads’ amusement. The construct that he was putting together in his head was indeed monstrous. Had it not been for magic, it would have been wildly impractical on several structural levels. Even with magic, the cleaning after their daily orgy session(s) would take a while. Further planning was required.

If anyone was going to afford such an absurdity, it would have been him. The bedroom was one of the most important places in his life. He spent about ten hours a day in there, sleeping and loving. It should be customized to the demands of his lifestyle to the maximum possible degree.

Ideas bounced around for a little bit longer. Stretches of silence between them grew. Ultimately, the quiet prevailed and they were all back to that same state they were before.

Softly, Nathalia breathed in her sleep. When she had drifted off again, who knew? It was as easy as a cat with that one. John stroked her hair and kissed her forehead. Resting on his shoulder, the volcano goddess looked so peaceful, it transformed her sultry sexiness into unquestionable cuteness. Even if her body was lusciousness incarnate and her face with her high cheekbones that of an attractive noble, nothing could deter from that truth. With strands of her orange red hair gently falling across her face, she was adorable.

Salamander grinned over her shoulder, at the two of them. The tomboyish expression reflected her genuine happiness for the two of them. Tail flopping lazily on the blanket, she curved the tip towards a pebble and flicked it into her hand. Effortlessly, she launched it dozens of metres. With a small ‘plop’ it hit the water.

Groaning, Scarlett tossed her phone into the grass and then wordlessly laid down. Self-assuredly, she used his leg as her pillow, then closed her eyes and crossed her arms. An annoyed way to try and fall asleep, if John had ever seen one.

And while all that motion and change was around him, Claire sat the exact same way she had the entire time. Her lap was his pillow, her hands played with his short hair, her smile radiated happiness that no stray sunbeam caressing her pale skin could bleach away. The vampire maid was exactly where she wanted to be.

They all were.