The Gamer Chapter 1368 – Cables and Questions (Patreon)

“Ah, the entertainment of manual labour,” Scarlett hummed happily, pushing a cable between the wooden frame and insulation. She was careful in this. The glass fibre insulation was packed with great care and the redhead was as keen on leaving that as undisturbed as anyone else around. Whether it was her, John, or even Claire, none of them were interested on getting covered in the dust particles from those things. They itched for days.

Nia was the only one of the four around that had no such concern. Even if a packet of the insulation somehow did drop out of the walls, they would not stick to her. That was not a reason as to why she was among those that currently helped out. Just a happy happenstance on her part.

“You can be happy?” Nia asked.

Scarlett turned her head. The ponytail that she had bound her hair into tossed over her shoulder. “The fuck is that supposed to mean?” She yanked the cable, all the way until the spot where John had marked he wanted the socket to go. “Give me the cable stripper.”

As requested, Nia handed the tool over. Scarlett was done with removing the rubber around the tips by the time the pariah had sorted out her answer. “You are always annoyed by doing physical work.”

“Yes, physical work,” Scarlett responded. “Lifting things or punching people that owe me money-“

“You promised me you’d stop doing that,” the Gamer warned her. “May I remind you that loansharking is illegal?”

“Which is why I haven’t done it in two years, you prick,” Scarlett shot back immediately, much to John’s pleased hum. He knew that she was still lending money through one of the various banks she had control of. As long as she only confiscated what had been placed as security, there were no issues. “To the point, I don’t like heavy work. This, however…” she carefully pushed the stripped cables where they belonged in the back end of the power socket, “…is simple craftsmanship and that is somewhat enjoyable to do with hands sometimes.”

“Perhaps you should have invited Hailey to this exercise, Master?” Claire suggested. “This seems to be the kind of work she’d enjoy as well.”

“Can’t have the country gal do all the work for me. Which she would,” John responded, his voice reflecting his current happiness. The work was easy enough that he could do it while talking, yet demanding enough that he had to keep his mind on it. “Plus, she’s doing meditation training with Jane… Alright, this one is done, come over here.”

Claire followed John with the flashlight she was holding. Nia was doing the same for Scarlett. It was a cloudy day, with slight bits of rain even, so the daylight was not quite enough to reach into every corner of the house. What windows currently existed were covered by tarp so none of the water got into the house or the insulation.

Installing the power sockets was quite a lot of work. This had less to do with the size of the house, although it was a contributing factor, than the sheer amount of sockets the Gamer wanted in his home. He was a modern rich person, used to a variety of electric appliances, and if he didn’t have at least one gaming room, his brain would probably liquefy and drip out of his ears.

Planning wise, they were done already. John had scribbled the number and position of sockets onto the floor in black marker. The concrete would be hidden under whatever flooring he went with anyway.

“Bats or ferrets?” Nia asked suddenly.

“Bats,” Claire responded immediately. “I am not biased whatsoever. Not in the slightest.”

“Bats,” Scarlett agreed.

“Really?” John questioned. “You struck me as more of a ferret perso- It’s because they’re cable chewers, isn’t it?”

“Horribly annoying,” Scarlett answered his question. “In this binary, bats win by default.”

“Hmmm,” the Gamer was the last to make a choice. What Nia would pick was already obvious. Personally, John found ferrets adorable, while bats ranged from ew to awww. If he went with the cutest of the bats, however, the flying foxes, he could make the choice that would make the vampire maid very happy. “I’ll pick the bats as well.”

“Both,” Nia gave her predictable answer.

“You must choose sometime,” Claire commented. “You must commit when presenting a dichotomy. You must abandon one.”

“Never.”

John put the finishing touches on the socket and then left it ‘hovering’ on the sturdy electric cables. For the moment, all lines were cold. John would do a final check before fetching the drywall. Then, he would disconnect all the sockets from the cables, drag the cables through the holes in the drywall that he had already cut, put the cables back into the sockets, and finally push the sockets into the holes in the wall. If all went correctly, springs would keep the necessary pressure for the sockets to remain secure in the wall.

“Next room,” he announced and got up. Scarlett was swift on his track. Quick as he worked, she simply had more experience in this field than him. While they put their tools down at their next target, he asked. “Who’s turn is it?”

“Mine,” Scarlett responded immediately. “Just not sure what to ask you uneducated simpletons.”

“I’m learning,” Claire pouted with fake outrage. “How dare you insult me, even if I am truly and thoroughly uneducated?”

“Can you stop being so cute?” Scarlett asked her fellow red-eye.

“I’m cute? You must be mistaking me for someone else,” Claire waved off, “I’m just barely acceptable looking.”

“Claire, you’re at the very least an 8, arguably you’re a 9, to me you’re a 10 – do not make the rest of womankind mad by underselling yourself,” John told his vampire maid. “You are incredibly cute.”

Humming, the fourth maid considered the statement for a moment. “I want to disagree, but disagreeing with Master is a terrible idea. What to do, what to do… Ah, I’ll just accept the compliment.” Claire smiled charismatically. That woman was so naturally charismatic, it was almost frightening. “I don’t know any better anyway.”

“You’re easily one of the cutest girls in the harem,” Scarlett responded. “I’m on the bottom of that list.”

“No,” Nia denied and wrapped her arms around the redhead. Head pats were given and even Scarlett’s grumpy exterior melted away under the expert caress of the serial scratcher. “You are cute. All of you are cute.”

“Can you be any less decisive?” Scarlett asked, incapable of mustering the level of scorn that would have given that question any bite. Instead, she was pulled even tighter into the hug. Nia rubbed her chin against that of the redhead. Despite her rolling eyes, she leaned into the touch. The two slender women were wrapped all up in each other.

Cuddles were deeply necessary emotional support, so John did not mind Scarlett ‘slacking off’. Plus, it let him get ahead. “So, what’s your question?”

Scarlett was too distracted leaning into the hands slowly brushing up and down her back to answer immediately. “Top 3 cutest members of the harem – Claire, you first.”

“Aclysia, Beatrice, Momo,” Claire responded immediately. To raised eyebrows, she did a skirt-lifting curtsy. “Maids are the best, what can I say? Maids are the best, such is a fact. Maids are the best and I love our outfit.”

“Honorary mention for Delicia?” Scarlett asked.

“She’s a bit too bratty for my liking,” Claire responded honestly. Just because all of the haremettes got along very well didn’t mean they had no issues with each other. Hell, John himself, whose love for each of his girls was beyond doubt, could name at least one trait of each of his women that ticked him off. Like Rave’s inability to explain anything or Siena’s arrogance, particularly during combat. Then there was Nia’s habit to just disappear mid conversation. That she popped back up when she was needed did not outdo initial frustration when she was just gone suddenly.

When he noticed that eyes were on him, the Gamer let out a time-winning hum. It was against his principles to rank the members of his harem. “Scarlett, Nia, and Claire,” he said with confidence. “The cutest haremettes are the ones before me, at all times.”

“Fucking cop-out,” Scarlett grumbled, even though she clearly was pleased with what she heard. There was an intrinsic understanding, in each haremette, that forcing John to make choices like this in earnest could only lead to destabilization. If the harem dissolved, most of them would not be the ones he stuck with.

Fear was a bad motivator for staying together and John sure hoped that it wasn’t a primary one for any of them. It was underlying in any relationship though. Even the greatest marriage had underlying a threat of ‘if I leave him/her, my life will be ruined’. It was healthy to a degree, much like it was healthy to look at a dam and fear what could happen if it wasn’t maintained properly. A respect of the future and the disasters it could bring was always advisable.

Even more advisable was smiling at the scene of a blonde and redhead fully facing each other so they could add little kisses to their hug. Scarlett ran her hands through the golden field on top of Nia’s head. A pleasant smile spread gradually across the blank’s lips. “Everyone,” Nia gave her response to the question.

Everyone else let out a collective groan. They had been playing this question game for over an hour and the pariah hadn’t given a straightforward answer to any question regarding cute things.

“Sylph, Eliana, Delicia,” Scarlett gave her list.

“You like them small, huh?” the Gamer pointed out. That was the single most connecting characteristic between those three, besides being loud perhaps.

“Small women are adorable. It’s why I seduced Eliana the first time I met you.”

“Which unnerves me to this day,” the Gamer told her. “My Eliana isn’t the kind of slut someone I randomly meet can just persuade into eating them out in a bathroom stall.”

“I’m very persuasive,” Scarlett stated firmly.

“Master, maybe Eliana just smelled the fellow masochist on this one and knew she would be your woman soon anyway?” Claire suggested with a calm smile. “Her intuition can be sharp, if she doesn’t think about it.”

“That is the most flattering interpretation of that chain of events.” John clung onto that. Truth of the matter was that it had been the only time it had happened. Whether that was just a lapse in judgement or some kind instinctive play by his pretty little psycho, one mistake like that could be forgiven. ‘It can be forgiven because it was a woman; if she’d sucked a guy’s dick, I’d probably still be pissed,’ the Gamer thought. ‘Would still love her though.’

“Guess that makes it my turn.” Claire hummed and tapped her chin. Some kind of question related to him was coming up, John could feel it. It would have only been the latest in a chain of such. “Who are your favourite rulers throughout history and why?”

‘Well, I am happy to be proven wrong,’ John thought and contemplated the question.

“I admire Oliver Cromwell. He was very effective,” Nia responded. “Principled. He could have been king and chose the republic.”

“Washington, similar reasons. I have a soft spot for people that remind everyone that a society without meritocracy and fairness is doomed to collapse.” John turned away from his work to check on Claire’s reaction. What he needed to know was if those names even meant anything to her. Washington, she seemed to recognize, while she made a physical note of Oliver Cromwell. In her short time on this Earth, she hadn’t read too much on history yet. Aclysia was likely drilling her on more common etiquette and cooking first. History lessons were a thing at the side, no doubt. The first maid liked her students broadly learned.

Scarlett peeled Nia off her and got back to work. With a thoughtful face, she considered the question, then ultimately shrugged. “Nope, no one. Head of states are always intrusive assholes, as far as I am concerned.”

“You have to have someone who you think is least bad,” the Gamer challenged. “There’s a scale between Mao and George Washington.”

“I agree, but I admire neither,” Scarlett told him. “I guess the question is who is my favourite… Pinochet, for throwing commies out of helicopters.”

“Scarlett, that’s terrible,” John said, even though he giggled at the boldness of her statement. “Come on, we are giving Claire here some good leaders to research. There must be someone you have in mind that wasn’t a dictator.”

“…King Kamehameha the First, does that work?” Scarlett asked.

“Unorthodox answer, but yes – just got to add the why part.”

Scarlett did that absent-mindedly, while stripping more cables, “Takes wisdom and savviness to accept that foreigners bring you the way to win the unification of your islands. Takes even greater wisdom to become a benevolent king afterwards. Take the advice of the advanced Europeans, but keep your home country what it is. Open up to the markets on your terms. Also, he was huge. Just an impressive fucker, all around.”

The answers given, they went back to cables. It was John’s turn to ask a question, then Nia’s again.

Ever around like that, until they were done.