The Gamer Chapter 1585 – Birthday John Finale – Before the Lewdities (Patreon)

“We don’t see each other a lot these days, hm?” John asked.

His conversation partner did not respond. She was much too focused on the bit of raw meat pinched between his fingers. Her neck contracted as much as the bones under her feathery fur and warm muscles allowed. Then, her white-black beak snapped forwards.

The Gamer let her have it, dropping the meat and pulling his hand back in the small instant before she would bite him. The Magryph caught the bit of flesh in the tip of her beak, tilted her head back, and swallowed it whole.

Velka looked expectantly at John. Red eyes darted between him and the bowl filled with meat chunks next to him. Testing his limits, she tilted her head and slowly approached the bowl. She pulled back immediately when he moved his hand in the way. She knew better than to try that by now.

The Magryph certainly was a beautiful animal. The black fur of her panther-like body shimmered with soft blue undertones. Folded wings gave her torso additional girth. Her white-black plumage covered the additional limbs with waxed beauty. The base of her cat tail was similarly decorated with flight feathers. Front limbs, like thicker bird feet, scratched impatiently at the ground.

The head, a seamless fusion between the beak and eyes of a corvid and the ears of a large cat, stretched forwards again. Velka warbled something demanding. She was a smart animal. Not human smart, but smarter than a parrot certainly. Sometimes her vocalizations had a similar rhythm to words and even sentences, but her voice box was just not capable of forming such. John preferred it that way. If the Magryph could have talked, that would have made her a different beast entirely.

John put his hand between her fluffy ears and scratched the back of her neck. A half-protesting warble was replaced swiftly by a pleased purr. Both were the kind of sounds he preferred from her. The bird-cat was the harem’s pet. With points and investment, he could have certainly changed that, but he did not want to. It was nice to have something in his life that was, for all her attitude, his pet and nothing else.

The Gamer threw another bit of meat at her. Groggy from the scritches, Velka missed it, then immediately picked it off the ground. An accusatory warble made John feel like that had somehow been his fault. “Moody little creature,” John thought out loud and focused on tossing her bits of meat instead.

He remembered when she had been small enough to fit between his palms. A kitten with sharp talons, requiring him to half shove the food down her throat. Nowadays, she was about 1,70 metres from beak to base of the tail and he had, at one point, seen her gobble down an entire rabbit like a seagull with a squirrel.

She was less cute, but she was no less adorable. She was also no less dastardly.

Velka decided that meat was less interesting than one of the buttons of his shirt. The copper that kept his Gaia-given top closed was pulled at. Protesting with deep meows, she kept on tugging despite John pushing her away. He increased the force carefully until she relented. Then, he offered her the rest of the meat.

Truthfully speaking, Velka was Eliana’s pet first, Nia’s second, Nightingale’s third, the rest of the harem’s fourth, and his fifth. Out of all of the inhabitants of the Palace, he spent the least amount of time with the Magryph, less even than Stirwin, who was in a habit of cuddling up with her and getting annoyed by Copernicus when the two light spirits felt like obeying their animal sides.

Days went by without John catching more than a discarded feather by the Magryph. Whenever he became aware of that, it left him with an odd sense of nostalgia – as if he was missing out on something. ‘I wonder if that’s the feeling a parent gets when their children leave the house for good,’ he thought to himself. ‘I’ll find out one day.’

The last bit of meat was devoured. Velka consequently tapped away and laid down in the padded bit of her personal space. She put her head on the ground and gave John big, red eyes. After a sigh, he followed her and gave her squishing scratches.

Velka soon closed her eyes, just purring as he treated her. Even if they rarely saw each other, she did always offer him a place where he could keep his hands and mind busy. Even if she was half-wild these days, she would always be his pet.

After a few minutes, John decided he had had enough of just giving her what she wanted. He laid down, resting his head in the warm fur of her belly. Velka turned her flexible body, poking him with the tip of her beak in the shoulder. “Mreeeow?” A questioning sound, followed by softly complaining warbles.

“I can relax here too, you greedy bird,” John told her and gave her head a gentle shove. Velka warbled again, but put her head back down and closed her eyes again. They just were there, together. John stared at the ceiling, his mind circling around confusing emotions.

The human condition puzzled him at times like this. He should have been at the pinnacle of joy. It was his birthday, he was among the most powerful men in the world, he rested his head on a mythical creature like she was a large dog, waiting for his expansive harem to finish preparations for an orgy he was sure to remember.

All of that did make him happy, or at least amused him. Still, there was a quiet in his mind that was impossible to get rid of. It wasn’t anything too negative, nothing like the burnout he had experienced. It was akin to the intrusive contemplation in the shower. It was more interesting than bothersome.

John felt a bit like he was hovering above himself. Of course he knew what that was actually like, but this was still the closest way he could describe this moment. He rubbed his forehead, just to move his hand, then scratched the bit of Velka right above his head. The Magryph’s rhythmic breathing shifted the fur. The world itself split open next to him.

A green-haired, tanned woman entered his field of view. Her skin was the olive colour of a Mediterranean, her long hair impossibly curly, like hurricanes made strands, and her eyes of the same vibrant green. Seven black lines crossed a black ring in each of her eyes. “You’re in a mood,” Gaia said.

“You could put it like that,” John agreed and sat up. “Been a while since you appeared in front of me.”

Gaia took a step back and plopped down into the air, as if there was an armchair there waiting for her. “If one is the supreme deity of reality, everything is an armchair,” she answered to his thoughts. “And you just haven’t needed me around for a while.”

“Do I today?” John asked, his voice equal parts teasing and curious. The relationship he had with the eye-rolling deity was complicated. He knew her to be flawed, but he also suspected that she chose to be flawed. Neither of them knew whether all of this was just her dream. If she ever decided that she wanted to know, all of reality would change because of it.

“Maybe.” Gaia shrugged and folded her legs.

John was just a man and her smooth legs were on full display, so he could not help but stare. Thick thighs, wide hips, both on a small body. Coincidentally, the supreme deity had a similar body type to Eliana. Either that, or short and bottom heavy was a prerequisite to becoming a human goddess. Then again, compared to the goddess with the perfect ass, Eliana was more balanced overall.

Prismatic lines crept over the black dress that clung to Gaia’s curves like a glove. Four strands of fabric fluttered gently in ethereal winds. The strand at the front kept John from getting even more insight. Not that he would have seen something entirely new. Gaia’s current form and the one that he had gotten… close with were quite similar.

“I’m not here to fuck you,” Gaia told him.

“Expected, but disappointing,” John confessed. “Was that a one-time thing?”

“We’ll see if I ever get whimsical enough to give you that boon again.” Gaia turned her head to the door of the small house. Here she was, ruler of reality, hovering in a pet’s house without a care in the world. “You’re beyond the point where I can just carelessly have fun with you. Someone catches a whiff of me around you and everything tilts.”

“I suppose non-involvement includes limiting even indirect involvement.” John understood. Of course he understood. On a much smaller scale, as a ruler even him picking a restaurant to eat at could have consequences for the culinary scene of the entire city. What consequences would it have when Gaia showed her interest, of any kind, in the ruler of a great power? John had quite a few eyeballs on him already because of the items he wore and the way his powers functioned.

The supreme deity let out a long sigh. “If people were just a little less stupid, that would be great. But nooooo, I am stuck with you perverted morons.”

“You don’t do yourself a favour, looking like this,” John spoke freely. No point in hiding any thoughts from her anyhow.

Gaia slowly, smugly, changed which of her legs was on top. “I can look however I want.”

“Yeah, sure, but you also have to take the consequences of looking however you want. Unless you eradicate free will, then you can indeed look however you want.” He shot her a wry smile. “Maybe getting leered at is what you want?”

“Hmph. Always with the attitude.”

John chuckled to himself. Absent-mindedly, he scratched the back of Velka’s ears. The Magryph had no interest in the green-haired goddess float-sitting in her home. “You hurt Nia,” he said.

“Huh?” Gaia tilted her head, confused because of the same choice John made when it came to the privacy of his elementals.

“During her fight with Arkan. The ‘Blue Queen’ kept her in place. That’s also you, isn’t it?”

“In a sense, I suppose.” Gaia shrugged again. “A vindictive and less wilful part of me. She keeps bargaining with the love both sides of the realms have for her.”

“The Nirvana… is it like a dimension between dimensions?” John wondered. “Connective tissue between the realms and all those different versions of me – of everyone?”

“You and your questions. Can you ever have fun ones? What is it with you and always wondering about the fabric of reality, instead of just researching a cure for cancer like normal megalomaniacs.”

John waved off. “I have Delicia for that.”

“The Nirvana is nothing like that,” Gaia answered his question. “What lies between the realms is Outside of what you have encountered. Be thankful for that. This version of the world is warded from the strangest things… perhaps by my own ignorance on whether or not they could even undo it or not.”

John caught the gist of what she was saying and decided not to drill further. There were enough horrors in the reality he dealt with for him to also worry about what horrors existed conceptually outside it. “Well, I hope all these other versions of me are having a fun time at least.”

“About the same as you are. Some more, some less,” Gaia told him. “I’d regard you among the luckier ones.”

“I don’t doubt that. Out of interest, is there a version of me that had a very similar start but did not get together with Jane?”

“Of course there is. That’s how infinitely splitting timelines work… Did I give you all of those Mental Stats for nothing?” Gaia tilted in her non-chair. “Did you fall on your head while sitting? Bump your head on an air molecule? Your brain might just be loose enough for that to send everything tumbling.”

“…You’re lucky you’re endearing, otherwise I’d be tempted to commit the ultimate heresy. Brat breaking the supreme ruler of reality sounds like an appropriate challenge.”

Gaia laughed. It was a weird and welcome sound, almost too plain to be associated with her. “One day, I just might let you pretend you managed to do that for an afternoon. Stranger things have happened.”

John stretched where he sat. “So, there really is no reason why you’re here today?”

“No greater one than wanting to wish you a happy birthday,” Gaia said, then directed her gaze outside again. “You really shouldn’t expect to see much of me in the future. I…” She stopped, her tone drifting and uncertain. “You should know that-“

A lapse.

“You really shouldn’t expect to see much of me in the future,” Gaia said, finishing her sentence with certainty.

John inhaled sharply, a dizzy sensation and the taste of discarded possibilities in his mouth. “Why did you do that?”

“What?”

“Leave me with a bit of whatever you just undid?”

Gaia hesitated in her answer. “Perhaps my power is not as infallible as you think it is… or perhaps I wanted to leave you with a bit of a reminder that I have that power.”

“That’s not going to bode well for my paranoia.”

“You already know that free will exists because I choose not to act.” Gaia’s response was plain. Her green eyes reflected a wish to tease and the knowledge that he would not react to teasing on this topic. He hated the idea that he was a puppet on strings and he hated the idea that he was given the hate for that by outside forces even more.

Wisdom, at least, prevailed and let him push these unpleasant thoughts to the side. It did not matter whether that was true or not because either it wasn’t, in which case nothing was lost, or it was, in which case nothing could ever be gained. “I understand why Romulus wants you undone,” he confessed.

“Who doesn’t?” The words were jaded and sarcastic. “A whole lot of people, actually. The Order, for one. Humans really come down to two different types in this regard. Those that find solace in a clear structure and those that feel choked by it.”

“I don’t think there’s a clear dividing line between those two types.”

“It’s a… urgh, you’re so dense. I’m pointing at the moon and you are staring at my finger.”

“Why would you point me at Luna.”

“She has the answer to all of your problems! That’s why!”

“Really?”

“Yeah, just cuck Romulus and you can take over everything!”

That response was so sudden, so weird, and so intensely delivered that John could only laugh. For one moment, he was frozen by shock, then saliva sputtered from his lips. Velka meowed, as his loud delight echoed off the walls. Female tones joined in. The pure ridiculousness of it all liberated them from all that made them special. For a delightful stretch of time, they were just acquaintances, enjoying the moment, and nothing else.

Then, John blinked and she was gone. “You know, if it’s just for moments like this, you can talk to me more often,” he said, to the supreme deity that may or may not have been listening. Then, a window popped up in front of him. It was one of the chat messages, nothing from Gaia herself.

Rave: we’re ready for you, tiger <3 :D B==D