Collide Gamer

“See, that went smoothly,” Rave purred.

Moira gave a soft smile and nodded. It was an adorably small reaction from a woman usually so expressive. That the face that had once summoned instinctive annoyance in her stomach now only put butterflies there did not strike Rave as odd. She rarely questioned these things. It messed with the flow of her life.

For no reason other than her wanting to, the techno-lover bumped shoulders with the paladin. The armour had been stripped off, letting smooth skin touch smooth skin. Immediately, Moira responded in kind. They were play-fighting within seconds, their steps swerving dangerously close to the many plinths and ornate flower pots that lined the hallways of the Palace.

Hailey needed no invitation to join their wrangling. Eliana had to be pulled inside, then partook very enthusiastically. John and Lorelei hung behind. Rave could sense their amusement the entire trip.

Just as they started to get winded, the group arrived at the apartment door. “I’ll leave you ladies to it, then,” John said.

Rave pouted as she turned to him. “Ya can stay,” she assured him. “We’ve seen so little of each other the last couple days…”

“Yeah, and that will last a bit longer,” the love of her life said apologetically. “It’s all very busy… The day after tomorrow, we should be able to run around attached to each other. Unless you still have stuff to do then?”

“I dunno.” Rave sighed. While her almost-husband was taking care of all of the political and technical sides of things, she had been moving around socializing. There were so many people that disliked each other for seemingly no other reason than to get on her nerves. For the sake of a smooth wedding and some future benefits she’d been ironing out those kinks.

Also, she had been enjoying a multitude of dates with the other women of the harem. It wasn’t as if all had been business. All business and no girl kisses would have made Rave a very scratchy cat. John had been enjoying the same. It was just that their schedules hadn’t linked up very well.

“I do have a date with you tomorrow morning though,” John reminded her.

Rave groaned. “Yeah, but that’s super official business.”

“Talking to your family is that bad?”

“It’s the w-o-r-s-t – Worst!” Rave spelled it out for him. That was one of the few things that John had never quite gotten into his erudite skull: that she really, really, really did not like her mother. “Goodnight kiss and ass grab?”

“God, I love you,” he said and lowered his head. There were a multitude of traces of scents and tastes of others on his lips. She jumped ever so slightly at the sting that accompanied the harsh descent of his palm on her skirt-covered butt. A bit of a spanking and the proof of their harem just made this so much hotter. A reluctant wet smack marked the end of their kiss. “Goodnight,” he whispered.

“Goodnight,” she whispered back. “Love ya.”

“Love you more.”

“Nuh uh.”

“Uh huh.”

“Nuh uh.”

John chuckled, gave to her will, and kissed the other women around them goodnight in a similar fashion. Each kiss filled Rave’s chest with a flickering ember of pure joy. She bit her lower lip, hips swaying gently.

‘You know it’s not normal to love seeing your husband kissing other women?’ Copernicus chimed into her mind, languid and sassy as always.

‘Thank Gaia, I’m not normal,’ Rave thought back. There was absolutely nothing she would rather see during her wedding than her man and her girlfriends being happy. This harem was everything to her, the family of her choosing, friends and lovers all rolled into one. Everything about it was exactly what she had always wanted, even if she hadn’t consciously known it.

A final wink sent her man off to march away to whatever other arrangement he had. The five of them watched him disappear around the corner, then entered the apartment.

“”Welcome home, Mistress,”” the maid cadre greeted her. The smirk on Rave’s face grew a little wider, reaching the point where it was too broad to be maintained. A smaller, still sunny smile took its place while she danced from maid to maid, putting kisses on their cheeks.

“Thank ya for the greeting,” she purred and took in the view.

The entirety of their harem was present, broken up into a few sub-groups because of the accommodations of sheer size. Some were naked, some preferred to remain clothed in this sexless week, all were just so adorable! Rave totally understood why it was so hard for her almost-husband to stop adding women to this group. How could he, when they looked so good together?

There were odd and traditional groupings that evening. The elementals stuck together, Stirwin and Copernicus included, sitting on one corner of the massive Couch, chatting and playing cards. The maids streamed back into the kitchen as one unit, either assisting with the cooking process or just chatting with the fellow members of the cadre. Lorelei, Eliana and Moira walked to occupy the other corner of the Couch. Hailey went another direction, going into the changing room that, after some recent changes, also connected them to a private gym. If Rave had to hazard a guess, Nia, Metra and Nightingale would be there. Nathalia, Lydia and Lu Zhi sat at the dinner table, a chess set between the queen and the dragoness.

That left Scarlett, Lyndell and Lee unaccounted for. Following her harem-reading intuition, Rave poked her head into the bedroom. The sight there was amusing. All three women were on their phones, but each was a little odd. Lyndell stood out immediately, having chosen not the bed but the walkable strip between the foot of the harem-sized frame and the wall for her lying place. Lee was upside down, a quarter of her body hanging over the edge of one of the elevated alcoves that were located within the ludicrously layered towers at the sides of the bed. Scarlett sat, doll-like arms crossed, on one of the integrated couches. Her phone lay next to her. Brows shifted in response to whatever she was seeing through her technomancy.

What Lee was seeing was much easier to guess.

“I’mma say… you’re watching… a recording of John using hypnosis to have Momo do the whole ‘split personality’ thing.”

“Get outta my head!” Lee rolled onto her stomach. With two snappy clacks, the casing for her Bluetooth headphones opened and closed. “Watching Momo break is always way too hot. I wish I could get that deeply hypnotized.”

“You’d still be lacking the extra fucking bodies,” Scarlett opined. The redhead kept her eyes closed and her legs crossed. Her heel was bouncing in the air. “I have no clue how you just casually watch porn without masturbating.”

“I just like looking at big dicks and pretty women, sue me,” Lee responded.

Lyndell proved that she was more than a passive floor fungus by letting out an agreeing sigh. “Big dicks and pretty women are nice.”

“More surprised ya aren’t playing a solo right now,” Rave remarked. There was a harem-wide sex ban in place, but taking care of themselves was still fine. It was their emergency valve, just like the open handjob offer was for John. “You’re-“

“-the worst offender when it comes to being a masturbation addict, I’m aware,” Lee interrupted. “I’m trying, okay? I won’t be the first one to break…”

“Ya wouldn’t be.”

“What? Who?” Lee was downright scandalized that someone would have less patience than her.

“Momo ran out with a vibe inside her and John flicked it on. No doubt she came at least once.”

“That’s different.”

“If ya say so.” Rave laughed and raised her hand, turning back to the living room. She didn’t intend to join them. As leader of the harem, it was her privilege and duty to check up on everyone. After that, she’d settle down somewhere in the room – though she doubted the groups would remain static the entire evening. They almost never did.

Rave strutted past the Couch, pulling the dress over her head as she did. Almost two dozen gazes wandered to her now mostly nude form, only socks and pink panties left on her. Ehtra peeled out of the maid crowd to take the dress before the first haremette could toss it onto the way too firm floor. John liked the wood. She would have preferred something fuzzier. She knew she couldn’t have everything her way though. That she got control over the thermostat was a blessing she did not forget.

“Thank ya,” said Rave to the passing, grey angel.

“Just cleaning up after you, empress creature,” the sour maid responded with a mild blush.

Rave squealed inside her head. ‘Tsunderes are so adorable!’ “So, how’s the board looking from your end?” she asked, once she plopped down next to Lydia at the table.

The queen gave her an unimpressed, borderline noxious stare. “I expect a better quality of joke from you, from one empress to another.”

“That’s two empresses in a row – did I miss a memo about everyone calling me that now?”

“Hey, you insisted it’ll be your title,” Lu Zhi pointed out. “Though I fully agree with the decision. A kingship that spans an entire continent just sounds weird.”

“Yeah, but it’s still weird to be called that in here.” Rave looked at the board, trying to make sense of it herself. “Oh wow, Nathy is kicking your butt!”

“…No, she isn’t?” Lydia asked with furrowed eyebrows.

The dragoness had just started to puff out her well-endowed chest when those words hit her. “I am not?” She tilted forwards, scanning the board from multiple angles like she would a prey animal. “I have more pieces.”

“The value of your pieces is inferior and your positioning poor. Certainly, you have more pawns on my side of the field, but I…” Lydia moved a rook through a gap, “…can put you in check with no hurdles.”

A low rumble escaped Nathalia’s throat. “I will win one of these!”

“At one point or another, you likely will,” Lydia remarked. “In any case, I assumed your initial question was in reference to the metaphorical board of politics and social connections that this wedding presents?”

“It kinda was.”

“Then my initial disappointment remains.”

“How’s it looking though?” Rave asked again.

Nathalia moved her king out of check, Lydia immediately countered by taking the remaining knight. While the big-titty dragon girlfriend hissed at her predicament, the queen answered, “You have successfully undone the feud between the retainers of house Habsburg and Wittelsbach, which was quite impressive.”

“Gale gave me a pointer on their shared interest in wine and goblins, was pretty easy from there,” Rave remarked.

Lydia shook her head, as if she had said something outrageous. “That you continue to not understand the might of your own charm is astounding.”

“I think if I think about it too much, I’ll lose it, so I just do stuff,” Rave responded. “I’m cute, that’s all I can do. So, any other fires to put out?”

“Not urgently… However, if you would accompany me tomorrow to a meeting with the Elector-Prince of Bavaria, it would be most welcome. He is a swayable opponent of mine.”

Nathalia made her next move. “I remember him, he was at the Nympholympics.”

“Ah, I had momentarily pushed aside that memory…” The queen stared at the board. Had the dragoness’ move been that genius? Rave gave her fellow haremette a smile and was reciprocated in kind.

Lu Zhi laughed. “Are you judging him for his perversions?”

“In a very limited sense.”

“That’s weird, you’re weird.”

“Very weird,” Rave backed up her fellow imperial tomboy. She wasn’t as imperial, but she could still claim that title! “Anyhowzels, I can do that for ya. Just gimme the details later.”

“Will do. Checkmate.” Lydia ended the game by moving her queen one square forwards.

“WHAT?!” Nathalia shouted.

Rave left them to their devices, to sashay over to the Couch next. “How’s it going with all of you?” she asked, her elbows on the backrest, between Salamander and Gnome.

“Way better now that you’re here,” the apocalypse elemental responded with a wide grin. In her heterochromic eyes glinted a greed that Rave shared. Mutually, they leaned in, kissing with tender passion while Gnome stuttered.

“I-it’s all going p-pretty okay… I think…”

“We are being kept busy,” Undine further detailed what her leader said. “The Awakened continue to require guidance and masses of it.”

“They’re just soooooooooooo stupid,” Sylph chattered. “A bunch of stupid, dumb-dumb chowderheads. Chowderheads. That’s such a funny word! That’s what they are, a funny chowderhead word! They’re big dumb stupid morons walking to the wrong places!”

“Wow, if ya call them stupid, they must be really, really stupid.” As Rave spoke, her hands sunk into Salamander’s right breast. No sapphic entanglements was one thing, but she would not be devoid of squeezing the fire melons! That would be a world too cruel. ‘I would grope the water melons too if they were any closer…’

“She overstates the issue,” Undine spoke in her sing-song tone.

Siena’s tail, coiled around the slime woman’s thigh, tightened in annoyance. The delectable squish of liquid woman between the spirals was delightful enough that Rave almost drooled. “Does she?” the shadow spirit asked. “I had to chase a multitude of their idiotic number.”

“I feel like I’m missing context,” the feline Lightbearer said.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Copernicus asked.

“Nope.”

“Are you certain?”

“Yep.”

“Because I believe you’re just being daft.”

“Mhmeowbe,” Rave admitted. “Don’t make me pet you.”

The solar jaguar cleaned his paw with long strokes of his tongue, apparently unbothered. He would absolutely get a scratching later, right after Rave was done making Salamander’s boobs jiggle!

Stirwin provided the answer she was looking for. “The new Awakened that this event has drawn to the Guild Hall hear the call of the elements. Though most intuitively wander to the correct island, some find themselves in the wrong places.”

“A-and those some are… the most… entitled a-asshats ever!” Gnome pushed out the rare curse. “Sorry about being so crass, but it had to be said.”

The elementals around the table nodded. “Wow… no wonder you’ve been so busy. Anything I can he-“

“Do not even offer,” Copernicus interrupted. “This is your wedding. This issue can await your attention until after.”

“Umu!” A blessed Gnome noise underscored her agreement. “This is no time-limited problem. We will deal with it ourselves. That’s what we do as the leading elementals of Fusion.”

Rave’s cat ears took apart every syllable, assuring her that Gnome nor the other elementals were unreasonably stressed. “Alrighty, then I’ll leave ya to it.” She gave Salamander’s chest a parting squeeze, then checked on the other occupants of the table.

“I do not understand your issue,” Moira groaned. “I know that you can speak properly. When John pushes you to your knees and demands you speak well, you always do.”

“Yeah, but that shit and this shit are different!”

“How so?”

“I don’t have a Master standing on top of me and no delicious load at the end keeping my slutty fucking tongue straight.”

Rave listened in on that conversation for a bit, before turning the other way. She poked her head into the gym, seeing that Nia, Metra, Nightingale and Hailey were all busy with various workouts. It was not necessary for any of them, but Rave knew of the meditative value of putting the body in motion.

Part of checking in on everyone was to know when not to be a bother, so she went to the kitchen next. She stopped well before the border of the open food-preparation area. For one, she did not want to get frying oil on her exposed skin. B, there was a lot of movement in the kitchen. Thirdly, stepping in there without Aclysia’s invitation was suicide.

Putting her elbows on the counter between the kitchen proper and the rest of the enormous living room, she watched the maids work. Ehtra had long since returned to their number. “Ya doing way more work than we need to eat today,” she realized.

“We’ve been preparing dishes for the banquets every day,” Aclysia explained. “We store them in our inventories overnight, if necessary.” With an expert hand, she flipped the rice in her pan one last time, then moved the load of food onto a plate Delicia had just placed there. There was art in the motion by the elaborate nature of the seasoned grace the maids had individually and as a unit.

Aclysia was immediately back to stirring another load of the rice, moved into her pan by Nahoa. Watching the demigoddess cook was extra adorable, because she needed a small stool to stand at the instruments tailored to Aclysia’s rather tall form.

Momo checked the spice rack, then stepped away with two empty containers. “Master deserves our cooking, even if he isn’t eating here,” she muttered in passing. So swiftly was she headed towards the pantry, that Rave couldn’t even make fun of her for her honest affection.

‘Not that I would have,’ the first haremette thought and just observed them all. Aclysia was instructing her maid cadre, rarely using more than three words at a time. Responses came in even shorter bursts, if they weren’t given by immediate action instead. Beatrice sliced and diced the various ingredients. Claire was baking. Delicia ebbed and flowed between all the stages of preparation, always lending a helping hand. Ehtra cleaned the utensils and handed them back out. Fianna stood aside, observing it all, not quite good enough yet to join in this tight choreography. Momo returned with the extra spices. Nahoa was Aclysia’s direct assistant in the cooking.

It was a wonderful sight of white and black.

‘He was definitely right about the French maid uniforms.’ Rave’s thoughts wandered again to her almost husband.

His absence was felt. It was certainly more regretted than appreciated. Every now and again, Rave insisted that the girls talk among themselves. Three days and counting of sleeping in separate beds was starting to make them antsy though. She – they all – yearned for his warmth. That they had each other for cuddles was keeping them sane enough. At the same time, it was no substitute.

In Rave’s world, John was and was not the most important person. He was because he was her almost husband, the guy that she had been lucky enough to meet and to learn to love with all her heart. He was not because he shared the position with all her lovely girlfriends. Yet, he was because he was the only man around and that did count for a lot of things.

The intense anticipation she had for their wedding night once more told her that she wasn’t normal.

‘But thank Gaia for that,’ she thought, once again.