Collide Gamer

“So now that we have covered the harem topics, I think we have some serious matters to cover.” Since the topic was now changing, John changed his position on the Couch from sitting among all of them to the ceremoniously important spot in the bend of the U-shape. Rave yielded the spot to him by shuffling aside. “I believe the first one we should cover is the political importance of the harem going forwards.”

“Any such power, I shall surrender until an appropriate closeness between our nations or my abdication of the position,” Lydia swiftly assured.

Lu Zhi stopped playing with Salamander’s boobs for long enough to say, “Same here, we have no interest in exercising more than an advisory role.”

“I have to fucking ask: do we have to be important? Because I sure as shit do not feel like I should be in charge of anything that’s important.” Eliana gestured at her absolutely adorable self. “This package of character defects can’t even run her own fucking body properly.”

“Well, for most of you, the political power you now wield will be authoritative rather than legislative. That is to say, I’m not going to imbue you with any specific role in government. It’s just that you have power, your own and your relationship to me, and people treat you that way – even more than they did before.”

“A monarch is not the same as a president,” Ehtra declared. “The president is an operator of a law-based society, the monarch presides over one based on honour. Legitimacy comes from acts and outcomes.”

“A very broad categorization, but that is about what I was going for,” John agreed. “Just because you will be the queens to my king, you will be expected to be able to make things happen… and you are able to make things happen. All of you are rich, all of you have powers, and most of you already have connections. Now that this household is the de jure supreme authority of the land, laws are suggestions to us. There is not even a pretense that we have to follow the protocol the legislature creates for everyone else.”

“Because we are the rulers,” Siena spoke with more glee than John was feeling about that fact.

Sure, he was happy that he could work more spontaneously, but he still didn’t feel entirely right in his skin as a king. It felt better than the pretension of republic politics in their world of intense inequality. It still wasn’t exactly right.

‘It’s probably just my paranoia at this point,’ he thought. “In the end, you are only as important as the degree of power you exercise. Still, new doors are open and I would like to hear opinions on that.”

Nightingale, swiftly and clearly, raised her voice, “I intend to utilize this new power to my fullest ability. My intent is to expand my current influence further, to create my own house within the coming structure of nobility. I request to be landed.”

A clear set of intentions.

“Are we doing nobility?” Delicia asked. “We can just do a republic with a king, you know?”

“If I may, I believe not creating royal houses from the members of his harem, as a minimum, will be a mistake.” Lorelei’s milky eyes gazed into the far-off distance. “To scry this is to state the obvious, but in the future in which we thrive, we multiply greatly. John’s Breeder Class brings with it the promise of siring powerful children. I believe it best we acknowledge this reality early.”

“Little as I care for hereditary authority, Rel is right,” Scarlett stated. “Having houses based on the members of this harem is going to spare all of us a whole lot of fucking trouble over the millennia.”

“Prevention of consanguinity is of importance. We would gladly offer the methods the Mandate of Heaven has been employing,” Lu Zhi chimed in.

John weighed up the benefits against the costs for a moment. The costs were… nothing, really. The political reality was that they all would be effectively nobility anyhow, no matter what label he put on them. The advantages from there were numerous.

First off, a reality acknowledged was a reality that could be addressed. With it being official that the harem was above the common person, the common person had clarity and, in turn, the haremettes would know that they had to treat their subjects with a certain degree of dignity. The haremettes and, this was more important, the children they would have. John trusted the women around him to know their limits. The generations that would follow would, inevitably, have wild members.

Them having houses with their own lands would also let them build support structures for whatever they were going to do. Whether that was an administrative zone or an art guild, them being not just an individual but a house would put their brilliant minds to greater use than stuffing them in some government position.

Of course, this also was the thin end of the feudalism edge, which could end with nightmarish borders.

‘Every system eventually collapses. The questions are whether it is good now and whether it is functioning in the immediate future.’ “I think this is our best way forward,” he finally decided.

Delicia sighed, but did not disagree. “It is, but I don’t like it.”

“The creation of other noble houses beyond yours is a question for another time,” John said. “I’ll discuss that with Emrik and other people of import. For all of you, this will imbue you with special privileges that you can choose to exercise or not. We will play this one by ear for a while. Each of you can shape your new position in the realm as you think is best… whether that is going to be domination of the economy…” he looked at Scarlett, “…or just starting a royal art gallery.”

“I will do no such thing!” Eliana declared.

“Tot’ly should though,” Hailey said, to the agreement of everyone but a heavily blushing, pretty little psycho.

“Shut up! Shut the fuck up, you freaks of nature!” she snapped at all of them.

“We got that covered as well as we can right now. I’ll announce that to the public soon enough.”

“Before we move on!” Rave raised her hand to gather everyone’s attention. “I think we need to cover the question of what titles we are going with?”

“Can we just go by vibes?” Lee suggested. “Because, even if I am going to do something with these new privileges, if someone calls me queen, I am going to die.”

“Yaaas, queen, sla-ay!” Sylph babbled.

“Yeah! That!”

Lydia crossed her arms. “Are you diminishing my title?”

“I’m diminishing myself. I’m pretty good at it.”

“Okay, maybe all of us can pick our titles according to what we do,” Rave conceded, “but what about the man in the room? Because I can’t be empress if he isn’t emperor.”

“More of a prestige question than anything… king makes me sound more modest.” Naturally, he tended more towards emperor because of that. It was not strong enough a tendency to make him overcome the lingering hesitation he had towards being a monarch though. “I believe this is most important for you two again;” he said towards Lu Zhi and Lydia.

“”Emperor,”” they answered simultaneously.

“Emperor it is then,” John agreed. It was a distinction without a difference here. Emperor was a title that just implied ‘bigger’ than king. Since no one could claim that Fusion was too weak or small to make that a reasonable claim, emperor was just the better title to go with for prestige reasons.

“Mhm… my Emperor… yeah, that works for me just fine.” Metra smirked broadly. “I’ll have to drag your ass to Akkad as soon as we have time. You are the rightful king of those lands.”

“Which will cause an international incident with the Greater Empire and the Great Sultanate,” John drawled.

“Sounds like we gotta get back to grinding,” Rave suggested.

“That is a topic we need to talk about as well… First, though, on the matter of Akkad… what do you plan to do with your siblings?”

John’s question took the mirth from the faces of the First of Wrath and Hatred. The former glanced at the latter. By now, they had established firmly that Ehtra was in charge of any restoration of Akkad’s culture and history, which included the other Metracanas.

They now had, stored away within the Guild Hall, nine Metracanas. The First and Second of Order, Zicu and Maskim. The First and Second of Power, Nabuzar and Salim. The Second of Light, Leryala. The Third of Darkness, Thresta. The Second and Third of Hatred, Kerelex and Xerxes. Lastly, the First of Patience, Seminaris.

Tiamat’s words that they had followed her willingly had to be taken with some doubt. That Nextloaolli’s enchantment had not activated meant that there was a degree of truth to it, but the nature of this consent was questionable. Even assuming it had been given without duress of the mind… the Metracana had emerged from all of this alive. They were as close to truly immortal creatures as there could be, evidently.

Either Fusion put in the work to redeem them or someone would have to deal with their insanity one day.

“With your permission, Master, I will dedicate myself to restoring them one at a time and to ensure they can live among us once more.” Ehtra’s voice was hardened, warding off a sorrow that John could all too well understand. They all had been hurt by the war now past.

“You have it,” John assured her.

“Thank you.”

An understanding smile was all he could offer Ehtra at a time like this. The embrace of his mind was something he could thankfully do in addition to that. It helped get his love across, even if it was still not as much as she deserved.

“One more sordid topic remains,” Nightingale said.

“Indeed, although it’s a whole lot less sordid for me than for others.” John absent-mindedly squeezed Rave’s thigh with one hand and Aclysia’s with the other. “The Re-Alignment of the Abyss. I will have a bunch of talks about this in the coming weeks with various levels of governance. What do all of you think the fallout will be? For Fusion, specifically?”

“You already have an opinion on it,” Undine observed. “There is no need to ask us.”

“Y-yeah!” Gnome agreed. “If you want to monologue, just monologue!”

“It’s not much of a monologue, I just think that, as far as this can go well, Fusion stands to benefit the most from this.” John counted on his fingers as he continued, “First, Fusion is still very young, which means a massive influx of new people won’t be in competition with entrenched power structures. Second, the cultural divide between the mundane and the Abyss is much smaller in the USA area than it is elsewhere. Third, we have a massive land area that will make it difficult for bad elements to come together and organize. Fourth, Fusion likely has the largest dormant population.” He stopped for a moment. “I hate to say it, but Izha’s final act might be what catapults Fusion to the top of the scoreboard. Manpower was always our primary limiting factor. This will change things.”

“Simultaneously, it will cause havoc in Europe,” Lydia stated. “Our power structures are old and entrenched, as you say. It had its difficulties when it was calcified among those living in the Abyss. Now that there is a flood of new and powerful arrivals, the social orders will have to bend and many will break. Romulus cannot put out this many fires – not swiftly.”

“Remus being around also complicates things, although in ways we cannot foresee,” Lorelei added. “Our suffering is nothing compared to what Lulu will have to deal with, however.”

“Yeah, my entire board just got flipped.” The imperial tomboy did not bother to keep up appearances. Her eyes were focused on the table. One of her legs was bouncing in agitation. There was a strain to her voice, an audible manifestation of the multitude of difficulties she now had to deal with. “The Cultural Revolution has severed the mundane Chinese people’s attachment to the Mandate of Heaven. They will be communists at worst and detached at best. The south is already unstable courtesy of Tibet and Vinh’s rebellion. Simultaneously, a conspiracy has pierced into the very depths of the imperial court.” She almost chewed on her thumb, but stopped herself just before she could. “The Mandate of Heaven has withstood other disasters – yet millions will no doubt perish.”

“I don’t see the rest of Asia faring much better,” John continued. “The Dangun Clan controls both North and South Korea, so that will create two very different kinds of people that enter the Abyss.”

“Japan will be another destabilizing factor. It has no guild to even try to assert control and the Dangun Clan might just triple down on the raids to keep it that way.”

“South East Asia shouldn’t be overlooked either,” Momo threw in. “They don’t have strong central leadership, but they have the opposite advantage. The mountainous terrain of the peninsula and the islands of the Philippines and Indonesia are perfect for the creation of a thousand small guilds, impossible to properly control.”

“They might just take to piracy,” Lee muttered. “Could I use my new influence as a royal haremette to try and protect New Atlantis?”

“Either that or try to get your sister out of there,” John said. “At the very least you can let her know that she can rely on us coming over if something threatens her home. I am done losing family.” Updates are released by 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⚑𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⚑𝓷𝓮𝓽

“On that note, my mom and extended family are still in Japan,” Rave reminded. “I might not like my mother, but I ain’t hanging her out to dry.”

John agreed with a nod. “Here is my plan to address the current situation. Europe can be left to itself. It likely won’t be pretty, but you do not need my help, Lydia.”

“I concur.”

“Fusion will first focus entirely on its domestic situation. We have plenty of room to make concessions to newcomers and empty land for them to live their preferred ways in. With a loose approach like that, we can tie them in with the promises of stability and economic incentives. Everything after that can be done with a slow cultural unity attitude. Although we have to restart the federal administration, once everything is up and running again, it’s basically built for the task of rapidly absorbing new people. We will still be overwhelmed by the numbers, no doubt, but we can keep matters mostly stable.

“Once Fusion does have a broad handle on things, I am going to head an expeditionary force to Japan. If the Dangun Clan raids before then, I will use their brutality as the reason. Otherwise, it’s just to ensure that the Hollmey clan compound is protected.

“Either way, we will have a beachhead. From there, Fusion will project its influence in the Mandate’s favour. We’ll see if that will be as allies or spouses.”

“Yup, sounds good,” Lu Zhi agreed. “I’ll try my best to keep things together with shoestring and glue until then.”

“To enact all of what we want, we need one more thing: power,” John announced. “Even in this changed world, all of us together will most likely remain the strongest singular fighting force on the planet. We need to maximize that advantage.”

It was time to talk about the return to grinding.