The Gamer Chapter 1440 – Proposal 3 – The Fidgeting (Patreon)

“There you are, honey!” Brenda greeted her son with a deep hug. It was a short-lived one. Like his haremettes, John’s objectively voluptuous mother wore very little and was consequently sticky. Her midriff was completely exposed, revealing a slight bit of pudge that the middle-aged woman had acquired over the years. Besides that, she was in tip-top shape. “Oh, I am so excited to… see you again!”

‘To see my little boy propose,’ was probably what she had wanted to say. John had requested, urgently, that his parents not mention it with a single syllable until it had happened. Citing Rave’s extremely good ears as for the why had left them a tad confused. They didn’t know that listening through walls was something the Abyssals could very much do. Still, they listened, and he hoped they would keep to it too.

Rave knew that something was up. To keep her guessing what exactly was happening was all he needed.

“It was overdue,” John responded and gestured at the door. His mother took a step, then waited for John to shake his father’s hand. “Hey Dad.”

“Hey Son,” Benjamin Newman responded and gave his son a second once-over. “You really did grow up, didn’t you?”

John had an answer on his lips, then he realized that his father was looking up at him. The Gamer had never realized before just how much taller he had become than the man that had put him into the world. For his part, Benjamin did not seem surprised at all.

The middle-aged engineer wore a white shirt that fit his average frame reasonably well. Benjamin was a lanky man of average height and looks. He had brown hair. He had brown eyes. He wore brown shorts and brown leather shoes that had been worn in properly, without looking any worse for it. He had the appropriate amount of wrinkles for his age. Everything about him conveyed the message of an average and reliable man. Someone to be depended on to be on time, but not someone to be invited to an outing to hunt alligators.

Benjamin pat John on the shoulder. It was the truly fatherly kind that came from the side and lingered a moment, before the hand retreated. “I’m proud of you, Son,” he said.

“Thanks, Dad,” the Gamer responded. Then he chuckled and shook his head. “Come inside, before we all die of heatstroke.”

The suggestion was heeded readily and his parents waltzed inside. A breath of relief left both of them when they stepped into the air-conditioned foyer. “I haven’t been here since I moved to DC,” Benjamin said and looked around. “Company headquarters moving really made for one hell of a party.”

“Today will be tame by comparison,” John admitted. “There’s changing rooms – we used the women’s one, so I recommend you use the men’s.”

“Oh, any reason we can’t use the same one, honey?” Brenda asked with a teasing smile. Warmth immediately crept up John’s face. “Twenty-one women, and you still get embarrassed so easily when you talk about sex with your parents.”

“As I should!” John insisted, only to pinch the bridge of his nose. His parents knew how to coax the child out of him that he thought he had long since left behind. “It… might smell a bit sweaty in there,” he put it evadingly. “It’s also cramped because of all of our stuff.”

“Well, I would like not to stink while we eat,” Benjamin said and tugged a bit at his shirt. Rather notable circles of sweat had formed under his armpits. “It truly is scorching today. I’ll try to say hello to everyone. I haven’t met… Delicia and Hailey yet – Do I have that right, Bren?”

“You got everyone, sugar,” Brenda responded to her husband, already pulling her shirt over her head. John just shook his head and noted that there were boobs in the world that actually were not distracting to him.

‘At least the anti-incestuous part of my brain is still working,’ he noted again. A valuable bit of intel. John would populate the world with some of the most gorgeous women the world had ever seen. There was no alternative, not with the stock of beautiful mothers he was siring them with. Having a part of his sex-addled brain that still knew that family was off-limits was reassuring.

He guided his parents outside. They exchanged some comments between them about how nice this place was. John vaguely recalled the couple of days that he was alone at home. As an irreverent adolescent, he just thought it had been nice to have the house to himself. The significance of his mom returning and his dad staying in DC had been lost to him at the time. Would he ever have to be apart from one of his haremettes for a year or years so their child or children was looked after?

The question went through his mind, while he sat back down on the outdoor couch and watched his parents interact with his harem. As per usual, there were just too many interactions to really keep track of it all. His parents did make an effort to get to know all of his girls, but that was an unreasonable ask. They met too infrequently and there were too many of them. Didn’t help that John kept finding more of them.

Benjamin and Brenda first talked to the two they didn’t know yet. Delicia and Hailey, those two were almost entirely new to them. Nightingale, Claire and Lorelei, they had met between John’s return from the Iron Domain and his vacation.

It basically went as expected. Benjamin and Hailey hit it off pretty nicely. John’s father was socially awkward, one could say. The Gamer needed to have gotten it from somewhere. When it came to engineering, he was passionate, however, and the same could be said about Hailey. Even though what the enigma engineer could put together his father couldn’t even fathom, he did have a lot of experience to offer. Even if all the young needed from the older craftsman were pointers, Benjamin had plenty of pointers to give.

Delicia and Benjamin were a duo that fairly quickly went to an impasse. Forceful and brash as the shortstack typically was in her speech, she overwhelmed John’s dad and left him stunned. Luckily, his wife was a lot better at socializing. Now, the Gamer had expected his mom to pick up the proverbial slack, but he hadn’t expected her to get along with Delicia that well. As the two went back and forth, it felt like he saw that mild teasing side of her get coaxed out completely.

It was odd watching his mother go blow for blow with the smuggest brat in his harem. Odd and welcome. As long as she enjoyed herself, he was happy.

John eventually moved back inside, knowing that the second pair would come soon. By pure intuition, he moved to the door just as the Hollmeys’ car pulled up on the integrated parking spots. It was a black limo with bright blue highlights and a bumper sticker that depicted a drunkard on a motorcycle. A very odd combination of factors.

The owners did their best to match, stepping out and already wearing their swimwear. John tried to suppress the revelation that Rave had indeed inherited her ass, like the rest of her good looks, from her mother’s side. Nariko wore a one-piece swimsuit that seemed more appropriate for a Japanese school. Her husband’s swimming trunks seemed to be sewn together from two different halves. The left was a bright, multi-coloured bubble pattern, the right an image of a hammerhead shark.

Regan stepped up to John, a colourful bag slung over his shoulders, in black leather shoes. Nariko wore high heels. Nothing about their outfits made sense. “Howdy, John,” the local manager of the Abyss Auction greeted him. “Sure is dusky today…” he stopped for a moment to raise his sunglasses, “…now it’s very bright!” Nariko let out the faintest chuckle.

‘Well, they married for some reason,’ John thought and scratched the side of his head. Far was it from him to dislike Regan’s dad jokes… in general. Some were glorious, some were undercooked.

“I would say you raised the bar with this venue – but I don’t think you built it,” Regan threw out another zinger. This time, he did get a chuckle out of John.

“Regan, control yourself!” The chastisement lacked the usual bite. Nariko’s lips kept trembling. To give herself some space to regain control, she checked on her hair. The wild, deep blue mane was contained in her typical ponytail. “Let’s see that daughter of ours.”

“Did you bring Liz?” John asked, although the answer was obvious.

“We couldn’t arrange for her to come along. She’s doing work for the big guy,” Nariko responded and gave John a knowing glance.

‘Dramar,’ he realized swiftly. ‘If the big dragon wants to train himself some capable supporters with inroads to me, he’s doing it right.’ “Well, that’s saddening but the most important people are here… and I really didn’t want to postpone this.”

“As ya shouldn’t!” Rave shouted from the entrance. “Meeting Bren is awesome!”

“Can you at least act like you want to see my dad too?” John shouted back. “Also your dad? And mom?”

“Mhmmaybe, I can do that.” Rave’s voice went from shout to normal speech, as she walked up. “Hi Daddy,” she greeted her father with a hug, “and hello to you, Mother.” She extended her hand as an offer.

Nariko took it without a single change in expression. “You look good, Jane.”

“…Ya… likewise,” she responded.

‘Alright, good so far,’ John thought. “How about we move this indoors before we all melt?”

“Melt? It’s barely above appropriate,” Nariko shook her head. “Men, I swear, you worship the cold.”

“Ain’t limited to the guys,” Rave said and stretched.

“If you two want to go praise the sun, I still recommend we do it in the backyard.” The reference was lost on her parents, but his girlfriend giggled and that was every bit the reward he could ask for. Just a few little, almost unnoticeable sounds of glee, accompanied by a smile and a soft punch to the shoulder.

After the Hollmeys had gotten a quick dip in the pool, they all moved to the catering. The food provided was of the handheld and generally cold variety. There was a roast here and a bit of scrambled egg there. Otherwise, they were looking at bread, cheese, fruits, and other such items that provided sustenance without adding to the body temperature. Last thing anyone wanted was to be even hotter. At best, the people didn’t mind the extra warmth because they were either crazy or made out of fire.

The two pairs of parents were more chatty with each other than last time around. Brenda did not have a good opinion of Nariko and Nariko rarely had a good opinion of anyone. Regan and Benjamin got along nicely enough, although even there was a bit of tension. Oddly enough, the Abyssals were the more conservative pair.

‘I suppose the apple truly does not fall far from the tree,’ John thought and bit into the apple slice that was dangled in front of his nose. ‘Wonder if they’re talking that much because they’re getting closer to becoming family.’

The day progressed without any incident. There was laughter, there was banter, there was a horde of attractive women circling around his parents. The attempt to get to know them better gradually decreased. The day went on and on. Starting so early and aiming for dusk certainly had been ambitious.

They opened the bar after dinner. It was a neat, clean, and upbeat place. Rustic wooden furniture combined with modern equipment into a harmonious display of the old and the new. On John’s behest, Aclysia and Beatrice kept the alcohol levels of the drinks low. When Rave complained, John told her he didn’t want her to forget the evening. Meeting his parents was an occasion after all.

Miraculously, Nariko and Rave never had anything beyond minor spats. John could practically see the criticism boiling behind the woman’s blue eyes. A belligerent respect formed in the Gamer’s mind. It took a lot for a mother to have a daughter this accomplished and still have a laundry list of negative comments about her conduct. Not that she didn’t have any point, Nariko was too smart to be completely wrong about what she said. Still, John would have enjoyed it if his future mother-in-law stopped being… well, a bitch.

For the time being, he would be happy that she didn’t ruin the evening.

As the hours passed by and the sun gradually lowered towards the horizon, conversations became gradually stilted. Where once his parents had been the centre of attention, John soon was assigned that position. Through eager glances and excited wiggles, they let on that something was about to happen. John couldn’t chide them for it. As the evening progressed towards night and the summer sun tinged orange, his own insides were moving in turmoil.

Soon there was near universal fidgeting. ‘Make some space for me,’ John requested and Momo immediately sprang into action.

A bit too literal action, as the bookworm tackled Rave from the side. Crying out, the Lightbearer slammed down in the pool. Most of the harem joined in a chain reaction of water splashing and women laughing. In the confusion, John slipped into the building.

Unobserved, he reached into his inventory and pulled out the little birch box. He held it with both hands, took a deep breath, and readied himself for the moment. ‘This is it,’ he thought and gulped. The nervousness demanded to be let back to the surface. His heartbeat accelerated. He let the breath out and with it exorcised the doubt. He straightened his back, pulled his shoulders back, and opened his eyes. ‘This is for the woman that gave me confidence.’

Outside, the noises of the sudden water wrestling ebbed away. John moved the box so it was hidden behind his curled fingers. He opened the door and was nearly blinded by beauty. By fate, Rave stood perfectly aligned with the doorframe.

Covered in water drops, sparkling in the twilight of the fading day, Rave shone. Her wild, bright pink mane partly stuck to her smooth, tanned skin, partly rose and curled in all the untameable ways he was used to. Lines down her left arm invoked terrible memories of a time he nearly lost her – swiftly changing into all the happy memories that would have made that loss so terrible.

How long had he known her now? How much had they been through in these two long, short years? It was difficult to even consider the days before he met her his own memories. There had been a long night before her light had stepped into his life.

All the things he recalled were things he wanted to say to her. He wanted her to hear what he thought. Her blue eyes met his and she smiled brightly, just because she saw him. A moment later, her smile dropped and confusion took its place. What face was he making right now? John didn’t know, he could hardly concentrate enough on himself to get his feet to move. One last time, he approached Rave as his girlfriend.

It would all change – yet nothing would.