Collide Gamer

Rare was the opportunity for any man, even an emperor, to stand in front of a draped-up building – large building, enormous, cathedral-sized even. The logistics of organizing that much cloth all for a little bit of mystery were entirely too much for even him to consider doing with any regularity. This once, he allowed himself the joy.

They were inside another Guild Hall – Lorelei’s. While the festival grounds were in the real Guild Hall, which had ample space and infrastructure to support it, the cathedral where they would marry had been put into the seer’s Tier 2 Guild Hall. It had only made sense for her to host that location.

Beyond the veiled building, the Guild Hall was currently plain and unused. Lorelei had not bothered further customizing it, leaving it as a copy of the Oregon mountains. That was, for the most part. Swathes of it had been cleared with the editing tool and then manually filled with stalls and other structures necessary for the planned events that only direct guests were supposed to have access to. The mostly untouched nature further elevated the deep blue drapes, though the fading daylight would soon make the cloth harmonize with the sky.

John looked at the crowd before him. It was the upper crust of the Abyss, those that he had invited out of obligation standing behind those he had invited because they were friends. It wasn’t the entire crowd, only those that had, for reasons of propriety or favour-seeking, arrived during the first day. Cameras carried the message out further to all the people of Fusion.

Three silent arrivals settled in the middle of the front row. Regan and Nariko Hollmey were dressed up in their best, a suit for him and a champagne dress with a pencil skirt for her. Liz, Rave’s sister, had chosen an almost casual outfit: a white shirt and jeans of immaculate quality.

“Thank you for being here today,” John began, looking first at Regan, then Nariko, then Liz, then the entire crowd. “I want to keep this short, it’s been a long day of talking already.” He smiled for the cameras, but he meant it. That he had another arrangement after this did not help. “Lots of people have come to this… I never thought I would have this huge a wedding.”

“He’s partially lying there,” Rave whispered into her microphone, carrying the light tones to the watcher’s present and beyond the screens. “We knew it’d be pretty big for the last year.”

“It was a rhetorical ‘never’,” John drawled back at her.

“Ya ain’t got the room to criticize me for being pedantic.”

John rolled his eyes. “Women.” The single word got a chuckle out of half the crowd that swiftly went quiet. The Gamer himself smirked at his first fiancée. It wouldn’t be much of an opening speech to their wedding without her live commentary.

“Whatever ya say, bro,” she teased him right back.

“Calling your husband-to-be ‘bro’ is a bit weird…”

“I picked it up from Lee, don’t ya blame me.”

“Everything bad in my life goes back to you.”

“Wha-… Men!” The crowd laughed again, louder this time.

John shook his head, his own grin going ear to ear. “Well, we better prepare the divorce filing for 5 minutes after the wedding.” Another wave of laughter, one that John waited out. “Alright, now that we are all nice and merry, let me make something exceptionally clear: this is our event.” Sincerity sparkled in his eyes. “We have invited much of the world to our wedding, but it is our wedding.”

“We say that so ya know ya don’t have any right to be here and I say that to make it clear that if any of ya – Vinh – kick up a fuzz, we’ll kick ya out.”

“I wasn’t planning anything!” the Chosen of the Phoenix shouted from the crowd. “I even dressed up for you! Come on, why do I have to be the bad example?!”

John checked out the Vietnamese woman. She had indeed ditched her usual, highly revealing warrior-woman look in favour of a red dress. It wasn’t ornate or anything, in fact he was pretty sure she had picked it out in the first store she had found, but it was nice enough. More impressively, she had tied her hair up into a pair of, albeit a bit messy, buns.

“I’m fucking trying, okay?” she shouted again, clutching the fabric stretching between her parted leg. Even dressed up like that, her tomboyish attitude manifested in the way she sat. The elaborate tattoos visible on her arms elevated the stark contrast between the way she presented herself in that moment and the person she actually was.

[Vinh Party AI: https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/ba39bfd082d0.png ]

‘Adorable,’ John thought.

“Yeah, sorry, ya just stand out being all red like that,” Rave apologized, to yet more amusement.

“Point having been made… we are honoured to know that we have, if not the love, at least the respect of vast swathes of the world. These are uncertain times, for all of us. We exchanged the ever-present threat of the Lorylim with the turmoil of the Awakened. An infinitely preferable problem to have, as I am sure you would agree.”

John actually wasn’t sure everyone would agree. The Lorylim were horrific, but for most of the globe they were rare. One could go their entire life without even being within the same general area as one. Upheaval everywhere? Much harder to ignore.

“In these times of trouble, I hope that this will be an event for all of us to unwind, for us to share a few moments of the common human experience, to not forget those that we have lost but to appreciate those still with us. This is an event about the life we still have and the life that we shall have.”

“He’s talking about kids,” Rave threw in.

“I think they got the implication.”

“Ya think, but I made sure.”

“Thank you, darling, very nice.”

“If ya call me ‘darling’ again, imma put my heel on your cheek.”

“You already do that every other night.”

“Ya can’t ask a cat not to toss and turn when she’s unconscious.”

“I’m pretty sure cats are fairly still sleepers.”

“I’m pretty sure ya can survive getting kicked every now and again.”

“Survive? Yes, but-…” John stopped himself suddenly remembering that he was still holding a speech. It was all too easy getting lost in the banter with his girlfriend turned fiancée. “Ehem, back to the program.”

“Just couldn’t help yourself chatting with me, hmm?” Rave teased him. “Ya must love me or something.”

“Well, the ring is for more than decoration. Now quit yapping, I need to get through the bullet points.” John cleared his throat again, trying to get back into serious mode. A finger stabbed him in the ribs. “Stop it.”

“Meowbe I will,” Rave joked and actually backed off.

‘The enemy has given us a reprieve, time to get on with the words!’ John thought, clearing his throat for the third time. “Over the coming days, you will find a variety of events hosted here. You should have found a flyer in each room that had a QR code on it that let you download an app that updates you with the events. Courtesy of how quickly we put all of this together, some events are still in flux, so you should check it at least once a day to see if something has changed.”

“There’ll be everything from food tasting to gladiatorial combat. Everyone knows that high-level Abyssals are addicted to tournament arcs.”

Amusingly, the mention of tournaments did actually have Romulus perk up. He had been in the middle of a quiet conversation with Sol when the words graced his ears. His eyes snapped to the stage for a few seconds, before he continued focusing on the talk with his beloved.

“Not a full tournament arc, I should clarify,” John said. “We didn’t prepare facilities that would allow such combat smoothly. Any fights that will happen will be quick and follow rules that work with restricted powers. A chance to test specific skills rather than pure combat power.”

“There’ll be some lewd stuff going on, to no one’s surprise. Wouldn’t be a wedding of mine without a wet t-shirt contest,” Rave purred. “So, if ya got any minors with you, keep them far away from those venues.”

“Plenty of normal activities as well, don’t worry about that, and if you just want to enjoy nature both my and Lorelei’s Guild Halls are open for you.” John moved up and down the stage, searching for any other words he wanted to say. “The wedding will be on Saturday evening. Sunday will have the final activities, though the day primarily is there for everyone to rest before they need to head back.”

“Yup and now – before he gets the opportunity to – I wanna say a few sincere words about my husband-to-be!” Rave declared.

‘I am about to die of embarrassment, aren’t I?’ the Gamer thought.

The feline Lightbearer jumped out of her chair, putting herself in front of him. “Ours is a really standard love story, you know? Girl meets boy, girl gets super interested in boy’s unique power, boy and girl hang out a lot, fight ghosts, game together, stand up against a friend crazed by the blood of a future lover, decide to form a harem together… I actually think I am starting to get the order confused.”

“We had the harem talk before… Travolta,” the name passed John’s lips with some difficulty. He was alone in that.

“Right, well, point being… we didn’t have a standard love story at all and yet… we did. I didn’t think he was attractive at all when we first met.”

“To be fair, I wasn’t,” he admitted readily.

“Not on the outside.” Rave smirked over her shoulder. “I got to know him. That made the difference. Sure, he was a dork with more gaming references in his skull than sense, but he did have that mixture of being nice and assertive that hit just right.”

“Let’s be real, you trained that assertiveness.”

“Well, yeah, a gal has to show what she likes to get it, right?” She circled around him, bumping against him like an affectionate cat. “Just basic communication skills and all that.”

“You made me the man I am today and for that I will always be thankful,” John said.

“Stahp it, this is my part of complimenting you!” She gave him a gentle shove. John stumbled a step, smacking the microphone against his thigh, and was not able to bring it back up before she continued. “He likes to give me all the credit, but I just recognized what was there. If you’re nice to guys like him, they become the best version of themselves. He’s busy. That’s my fault for letting our relationship become what it is. I love it, I love the women I have him with, and I wouldn’t exchange any of it. He’s busy, but he always makes time for me when I need it.”

“You’re the most important person in my life, Jane,” he said, completely sincerely.

“And you in mine,” she purred right back, blinking back some happy tears. “I’m not gonna cry… not in the opening speech.” She sniffed. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” he responded immediately.

“And all of you… welcome to our wedding!” Rave said to the crowd. “Hope you’ll like it a tenth as much as I like my John.”

____________________________________________________________________________

John, Rave and Aclysia stepped out of the long-range teleporter.

They wore casual clothes now. A black shirt and loose pants, a winter jacket over it all, covered him. Rave was covered in a long coat, its insides lined with subtle enchantments to warm her up even further. Aclysia wore a simple jacket and leggings.

The Gamer looked at the house that his story had started in. It was the first time he was back there since he had lost his parents. He had spent so many formative years in that house, most of them only with his mother. He swallowed the lump in his throat. To reminisce around his part of his path was not why he had returned to Springfield that night.

Keeping the teleporter stationed in this area was a sentimentality, nothing more. Since the Order had moved, there was little to this city that warranted he put one of his limited outposts here. Did it have a notably above average concentration of Abyssals? Certainly, even after the Lorylim War, but not so much above average that he ought to give it special attention.

‘Maybe I’ll move it… but not today,’ he thought.

“Ya sure ya want me to tag along?” Rave asked gently.

“He was your friend too,” John said slowly.

“Kinda, but I told ya before that a born Abyssal thinks differently about these things. He was an acquaintance to me. To you, he’s one of the first Abyssals you ever interacted with.”

John shook his head. “This wouldn’t be right without you around.”

“Affirmative,” Aclysia agreed.

They left the Illusion Barrier and went on a walk. It was late. John had wanted to drop into the bed immediately after all the social activities of the day, but he had gotten a response on a text he had sent a week ago – one that he could not ignore.

It was a thirty minute walk from the Lower Eastside to Downtown. A long, boring walk, following the main road until they were past Mitchum Park. There, they took a left, entering city blocks that were either new or, in few cases, still under construction. The shabby part of town that had been there before had been levelled, modern structures put in its place. They were far away from Ruby Road. Springfield was quiet.

They entered an alleyway between two buildings. It was just an alley with some dumpsters in it. Clean dumpsters, their lids closed, the concrete beneath them hosed down regularly enough to prevent staining. It was the nice part of town.

John, Rave and Aclysia stepped in deeper. He had felt the Illusion Barrier a hundred metres away. All they had to do was raise their hands and enter.