The Gamer Chapter 1491 – Interviewing Matters (Patreon)

“Mister President, do you really think it’s proper to have such people attend a presser?” The shouted question interrupted John mid stride. He had been doing the whole ‘smile and wave’ routine of walking up to his podium. Now he turned to the reporter in question and sent them a glare.

The intensity behind it washed over the room, causing the people in the front rows to tilt backwards. The person who had spoken, a conservatively dressed man with deep rings under his eyes, turned pale as a sheet. Consolidated annoyance crashed down on him, until John decided to ease off.

Aclysia and Beatrice let their own auras ebb away in equal measure. The room relaxed slowly, attention dancing between the Gamer and the two women that were the cause of the question: Cindy and Worlina. Already the two slutty reporters were looking mighty pleased with life. Not exactly John’s goal in this.

“To start with, keep your questions until the event begins,” John informed the man. “More important is that, for all disagreements you have with what else they do on their program, the CPDI and SSSN still do journalism. Do you really want me to start extensively discriminating against what kind of programs make it into this newsroom?”

“You only have them in here because-”

“I fucked them a few times,” John interrupted immediately, as unashamed of that fact as he was the first time. “I won’t do it again, my women and I have made a decision on that since, but you’re welcome to investigate any undue favouritism due to this past. Last I checked, the Reclaim Virtue network pulled less numbers.” The conservatively dressed man took a deep breath, preparing whatever defence he had for his company.

John didn’t care to belabour the point any further and continued his walk to the podium. Ideologues of all sides always got his brain wrinkles twisted. As long as Cindy and Worlina obeyed the protocol of the newsroom, they were as welcome in it as anyone else. The fact that they did a ‘meet and fuck’ podcast had no bearing on their journalistic capability.

‘Once more, happy that I am truthful and untouchable.’ If John had been making a habit out of the politician’s tendency to hide his imperfections, incidents like this would have left him looking like he was guilty of something he personally condemned. Not engaging in any practices he wouldn’t admit certainly was helpful. That and his continuously absurd popularity polling. It continued to go between 85 and 95%, which was socialist dictator levels of high – except he wasn’t faking it. Just the advantage of being someone who had come in and rapidly solved actual problems. To get exceptionally popular in a country where everyone was fat and happy was actually quite difficult.

A problem for the future, when all those that had suffered under anarchy and warlords had died of old age. Then again, Romulus was also quite popular, having ascended to a cultural figure.

‘Wonder where the breaking point is between turning from a governing force to a mythological head of state that always was there,’ the Gamer contemplated, while he took his position behind the wooden podium. The typical wooden construct had been placed at the head of the room, framed by Fusion flags, by the PR team. Getting all the usual equipment loaded had been difficult. At least Abyssal wireless had advanced to the ridiculous point that he could have a top-quality livestream in the middle of the ocean.

John looked over the newsroom of about a dozen reporters. “All right, folks, sorry about that,” he told all of them. “I’d just appreciate it if you would give me some basic respect. The reason half of you have a job is that Fusion provides the necessary stability to make journalism viable. The other half of you would still be working in Europe or on much smaller scales.” He made sure to look at Cindy and Worlina as he said that, not wanting to give anyone the signal he was excluding them in any way. Sex with them had been fun and they were friends, in a sense, but he would axe them from these events if ever they fell behind on merit.

That was the understanding.

“With all of that out of the way.” He smiled at the cameras. They had been rolling since he entered the room, but that was no problem for him. Aclysia and Beatrice took two steps backwards, putting themselves further in the background. “I remind you that this is an interview with no questions barred – viewer discretion is advised and will almost certainly not be suitable for minors. Each journalist has been given a tablet, which will let them know when it is their turn to ask a question. Whether they decide to let their individual subscribers ask questions is up to them. I will allow limited follow-up questions. Let’s begin.”

The first journalist was quick to stand up, according to protocol. Likely because of his reputation, 80% of them were women in pretty tight suits. None of them reached harem attractiveness levels, though, so he just blended them out.

“I would like to begin by asking about the obvious. Mister President, last night Hailey, your latest haremette according to all we know, has been seen creating a seemingly incredible item atop the sundeck of the ship. Video of this event is widely circulating, but we have no idea of the context – could you enlighten us as to what happened there and what the Rose of Artifice is?”

“I was fundamentally uninvolved in the event, so I can only tell you what Hailey told me. After I took her to see the Atlantic Fuse yesterday, she was quite struck. Over the following night, she had a prophetic dream of some kind, or so she described, and so she and Lorelei worked together to create an object in honour of the Lady in a moment of inspiration. That is the Rose of Artifice, as named by Moira Brighton. Whether you can truly say she was divinely inspired or not is up for you to decide. As for what it is – we honestly don’t know yet. It is obviously a piece of artifice, but beyond that…” He shrugged.

“Would you personally say she was divinely inspired, Mister President?”

John gave that as much consideration as was proper, especially since he had no clear answer for it yet. “Maybe. It’s complicated. Of course we all know that Gaia is very real and very influential, even if she rarely ever asserts that influence in a direct way. A Latebloomer would potentially be such an exception.” Gesturing at his chest, he made that point unsaid. “Beyond that, the Order does worship Gaia as the Lady, and their ties to a particular aspect of Gaia are beyond reasonable doubt. In that way, she was divinely inspired. Whether there was something to it beyond what we understand of the Abyss and its gods, I am doubtful of. Hailey and Lorelei have their faith, and that’s theirs to live out. I do not follow, but I will not disparage either. The divine inspiration was real to her, is all I can say.”

The woman sat down, either happy with the response or certain she would get nothing else out of him. Everyone must have expected that he would give them a carefully crafted answer for that particular topic. Someone else stood up.

“Mister President, I first want to congratulate you on your recent engagement.”

John smiled involuntarily, as he always did when he was reminded that he was going to get married to Rave. “Thank you very much, but this isn’t the moment to butter me up.”

“My question is related, is the reason why I brought it up. The subscriber Whelkcycle is wondering whether your familiar Stirwin or Magryph Velka will be the ringbearer?”

“Well, they seem to take to the idea that it will be an animal carrying the ring – but the answer is neither, and I won’t tell you who it is. We’re still considering whether the wedding will even be public.”

The reporter sat down, the next rose. “There’ve recently been rumours about a new Shogun rising in Japan, do you have any comment on that?”

‘There are?’ John asked himself, expertly preventing any surprise from showing on his face. “I don’t have any substantive knowledge on the matter, so I will skip making a definitive statement on the matter for the time being,” he dodged the question as best he could. Trying not to lie was way easier when he didn’t have a gaping hole in his intel. ‘How did I miss that? Did I miss that? Is this someone else feeding intel to a reporter to test me? Claire, tell Scarlett-‘

‘She’s already on it,’ the vampire maid assured via telepathy.

The press event continued smoothly. “By Logus: when do you, as one of few capable of doing so, believe you can challenge the Lorylim once more?”

“I would challenge the Lorylim tomorrow if I knew where they were. As it stands, all I can do is prepare and continue to align forces against them for when they inevitably rear their ugly heads again. I have every reason to believe that threat is not dealt with yet.”

It was Worlina’s turn to speak next. The redheaded goblin climbed the seat of her chair, instead of standing in front of it like the normal-sized folk. “One of our supporters called Charfair1 asks: Yo, who gives the best head?”

“Thank God I gave that age warning at the start,” John joked, earning himself a few chuckles. “The question is pretty difficult, they all have their strengths and an active sex life means they all have gotten pretty good at it. That being said, I believe the answer has to be Nightingale, Undine, and Siena. Those three have the best combination of active behaviour and monster girl traits. The more masochistic in my harem like to be face fucked more than they give head.” He skipped over his actual true favourite, being Lydia. She may have been just human, with the notable addition of a very sensitive throat, but between being a queen and all the enthusiasm the stern woman brought to the act, she had even the three monster girls outcompeted on sheer fulfilment of fantasy.

By pure coincidence, it was Cindy’s turn next. John expected another sex question, but instead got a normal one. “Mr. Newman, do you have any inspiring words for any upcoming Latebloomers?”

“Be aware of your power,” John led with that. “You have been blessed with the opportunity to outclass the vast majority of people around you. Do not lord it over them, because even if you can move mountains or regenerate from the most terrible wounds imaginable in a flash, you are still human. Put your supreme power in the service of people that appreciate what you do for them. In that sense, you are and will be the same as everyone else: you will earn the affection of your community only through genuine effort. You will need it. For all your power, you will not overcome the wish to be useful to those that matter to you. Loneliness kills even the greatest of people. Do not put yourself on a pedestal. There is little room up there.”

“Our subscriber Jragon wonders if being a Latebloomer has impacted your view of the Abyss?”

“I feel like I answer a flavour of that question every interview.” John chuckled. “Obviously it has. I bring to the Abyss a different set of expectations on governance and proper behaviour. Some of it I still carry with me, some of it I dispensed with quite readily. I often tell people that a chief reason why I wanted to enter the Abyss was because I was going after the dream of finding a harem for myself. Pretty juvenile, but hey…” he smiled over his shoulder at his two maids, “…it worked for me.”

“Is your mundane perspective why you avoid calling yourself a king?” the man that John had originally chided asked immediately.

“My mundane upbringing is why I do not wish to be a king, yes,” John responded harshly. “I am a president.”

“What else would need to change for you to be a king, politically speaking? If you allow the follow-up question.” John had to acknowledge the guts on the man, if nothing else, to keep asking annoying things after the earlier berating. “You are already the unelected head of state, you appoint the cabinet without democratic input, and you have veto powers. This is more than many kings had throughout mundane history, is it not?”

“It’s about what most kings had during the waning days of European monarchy in the 19th century,” John pushed back. “Importantly, all of the kings who had that level of power went on to be removed entirely, either de-facto or de-jure. Modern European monarchs still have some power on paper, but exercising it would lead to their immediate removal. Therefore, I would safely say that this particular list of powers is, if anything, anti-monarchical. Only the matter of being unelected is one that weighs against being a president.

“Continuing from there, there’re a number of major differences. First off, as president I still derive my political power de-jure from the sovereign citizens. Secondly, if I were king, my position would be hereditary in some form. Thirdly, my political powers would be much extended, with my cabinet being able to create laws rather than just enforce them. That’s aside from all the aesthetic differences. That answer the question?” John managed to take the annoyance out of his tone and make that question sound calm.

The man sat down; the next interviewer stood up. “Topically, one of our subscribers by the name of Little Potato Man asks: what will the inclusion of a democracy do to the Divided Gates?”

John tilted his head in confusion. “To start with, Fusion is a republic, not a democracy – yes there are key differences. Beyond that… what would it do? The Divided Gates is a formal institution of powers that acknowledge each other as too powerful to mess with. The form of government of its members does not reflect on it in any way. The Divided Gates doesn’t even exist outside of a concept, it’s not like the UN, which has its own bureaucrats and such.”

“They also wonder why do they call it oven when you ov-in the cold food ov-out hot eat the food?”

There was laughter throughout the room. John joined in, just because he was too confused to do anything else. “Linguistics are a mysterious matter.”

The next interviewer stood up. “This is by Old Celeron: do you dislike or hate some nation inside the Divided Gates? Who? Why?”

The lights in the room flickered, the temperature dropped, and everyone shifted uncomfortably as the three people atop the stage projected their hatred through their supernatural presence. “The Purest Front, for hurting my sweet little Eliana. Next question.”

Hurriedly, the next interviewer read, “By Jragon again: What program by our First Lady are you most proud of? What role should the position have in the future?”

Talking about Rave did lift the mood immediately. “Jane’s public transportation program has been an absolute success along every level that has served every inhabitant of the Hudson Barrier and beyond. As for the position… well, I see no reason to change it? As First Lady, she will always have informal power, and given how awesome she is, she doesn’t need more.”

“What are some of the weirdest things that have accompanied your rise to fame?” Another light question, probably to keep his mood good.

“I mean this with complete sincerity,” John stared into the closest camera and waited for the light to inform him that it was the active one, “stop – sending me – offers – to fuck – your wives. I’m not going to cuck you. It’s weird. Break up, see a therapist, I don’t know what you need, but that is weird and you should be kinkshamed. Yes, this is coming from a man with over twenty partners. No, I do not feel like a hypocrite. It’s not the same, and we regard sleeping outside the harem as a mistake these days. Man up or at least stop trying to drag me into your weird fantasies.” The Gamer took a deep breath. “Sorry, needed to get that off my chest. Being sexually outspoken and renowned gets the weirdest people into my emails at times.”

After the room recovered from amusement and befuddlement, the next question came John’s way. “By Herno: you said you were going to stop Fusion’s expansion to focus on internal cohesion, how is the progress of that mission going?”

“Huh?” John blinked several times; the interview this time had more out of touch questions than he was used to. “I said that following the war with the Lake Alliance… the process has obviously concluded, as evident by Fusion tripling in size since? Following the annexation of the Order’s territories, there’s obviously been some administrative difficulties, but I already took two months shaking that out, so… yeah, that mission is done and has been for a long while?”

“What is your stance on increasing the foreign import tax to better support the country’s self-reliance and economic growth?”

“That is a manifold question. Obviously, I want Fusion to be as self-sufficient in all matters as possible. A difficulty of that is that importing foreign goods can be a necessity to build the necessary infrastructure to become independent, so in that way, an import tax can actually hamper self-sufficiency. Generally, an import tax is bad for economic growth, but that’s purely in the ‘line goes up’ way when reading economic data. Forcing things to be produced locally can work to stimulate an economy that works more efficiently over the long term due to shorter supply lines and such… By and large, I think import taxes are a good idea, not only because of these reasons, but also because subsidies exist. If subsidies are the sword of economic warfare between states, then import taxes are the shield.”

And the interview continued for a while from there.