Collide Gamer

Nariko and Regan Hollmey stuck to their usual looks. Rave’s mother had never been one to wear dresses, so they were both in suits and both undermined their serious styles with elements of nonsense. For Regan, this came in the form of a broad, baby blue tie covered in rubber duckies. For Nariko, the out of place, bright green boots would have been easier to ignore, had they not squeaked with every step she took.

It was only by contrast that Rave’s matrilinear grandparents seemed off. They were both stronger than the average Abyssal but not so strong to have been notable. Consequently, they appeared almost as old as they were. Visually, John would have put them around 80. The reality was closer to 110.

Her grandfather, Hanbei Hollmey, was the one that had married into the family. Unlike the two consequent generations, the man chosen by Grandma Hollmey was of pure Japanese stock. He was short, by John’s standard from birth and further shrunk by age, standing at barely 1,60 metres tall. He had a fading head of grey hair and a face whose wrinkles proved years of intense expressions, glares, frowns and smiles alike.

Kiyo Hollmey stood just a bit shorter than her husband. Age was affecting her worse. When she walked, she had to rely on Nariko’s arm. Her eyes reflected a bit of confusion. She was not demented, but she was no longer of completely sound mind either. Such was the nature of aging… John was happy that he was unlikely to ever have to deal with that aspect of time.

Both of them wore traditional Japanese clothing. Kimono and yukata, both of them in rather neutral, grey and light red colours. John would not have thought anything of it if he had encountered them out in the world – well, except for the fact that Kiyo had astoundingly messy hair. Even their levels, this late in their life, were diminished to an almost mundane state.

They were guided to a simple table in the room. It was, for once, NOT one of the many red-velvet and dark-oak chambers in the base floor of the Palace. Those were currently abuzz with activity from all manners of politicians, from retainers to heads of state. Having a family meeting there would have been improper.

The chamber they were now in was usually reserved for the niche case of haremettes having acquaintances over that they knew well enough to invite into the Palace but weren’t on such good terms that they would be invited to private apartments. They did not see a lot of usage, but it was nice to have.

The room was lighter. The wallpapers were white, the carpet a light shade of blue, and the furniture was either fashioned from materials that natively had friendlier colours or painted such. It was an altogether more casual setting.

John sat straight in his chair, opposite of where the grandparents had settled down. They both mustered him with deep interest. “So this is the young man that hasn’t visited us the last two years,” Kiyo said first. “Isn’t he?”

“Quite so, dear,” Hanbei agreed.

They both had voices that were exactly what John expected. For some reason, he had expected outrageous grandparents. Rave describing them as normal had done nothing to dissuade him from that idea. Yet, here they were.

“I would apologize, but I wouldn’t properly mean it,” John confessed. The words immediately had Hanbei’s eyebrows pull together. ‘Values propriety over sincerity, noted,’ the Gamer analysed. “I acknowledge that it would have been proper to do. I simply have been busy with other duties.”

“Hm.” The short grunt was all the elderly man had as his response.

“I understand,” Kiyo drawled, her voice slow with age. “Not much reason to come to our corner of the world. Better late than never, that we meet, since you’ll be marrying the next clan leader.”

“That has not been decided,” Nariko stated.

“Oh, Nariko, don’t be so sour!” Kiyo lamented. “She’s an empress. Do we have any other empresses in our family?”

“Her prestige will serve us without us putting the affairs of the clan in her hands.”

“Yeah, sure, just use me, whatever,” Rave said, coolly. Seated by his side, his almost wife had her arms crossed and glared at her mother.

‘I really have to hand it to Nariko, she knows exactly how to piss off her daughter,’ the Gamer thought, in awe at the scene. ‘She has it down to a science.’

“Even an empress does not inherit a clan if she cannot meet the obligations,” Hanbei opined.

“Thank you, father.”

‘I suppose that’s where that attitude comes from,’ the Gamer thought. “Though it tarnishes my reputation that I haven’t met you yet, I should say that I do not consider your corner of the world unimportant. In fact, I have designs to do my part to liberate my wife’s ancestral homeland.”

“Is that so?” Hanbei asked. “That will be good… I do not blame the Koreans for their reactions to what we did, but the blood has been repaid in full.”

“And that may entitle Jane to a position of honour, but clan leadership? I do not think so,” Nariko continued.

“Can we PLEASE…!” Rave stopped herself for a moment to keep her voice down. “Not talk about politics for, like, one morning? I just wanted to introduce ya to my former boyfriend turned future husband. If I hear one more word about clan this or Japan that, I’ll kick someone out of my house.”

That had the rest of the Hollmey family straighten up. John did not know how much Rave’s relationship with her grandparents had changed in the last two years, on account of not knowing what their base relationship was. Unlike her mother, Rave never had anything bad to say about her grandparents, even describing them positively a lot.

Regan cleared his throat. “In that case, I do have to ask if you’ve been hugging John a lot today?”

“Uuuuuhhhh…” The question had Rave confused for a few seconds, then she nodded. “Yeah, he gets hugs and kisses every time I see him, basically. Why?”

“Because you should embrace your mistakes.”

Rave snorted, then laughed properly. She had been raised by the puns, moulded by the puns, she had not known anything besides dad jokes before she was a woman. “That’s terrible, dad!”

“And I have already been spoiled on the cake you’re bringing in! My daughter is such a cutie pie.”

That one got John as well, though that was in part because his mind was going to another variant of that joke that referred to Rave’s posterior. He did not say it out loud. “Thanks for lightening the mood.”

“Someone has to.” Regan let a hand glide over his slicked back hair. He looked just a bit unkempt, which kept him in style with the messy mane of his wife. The typical Hollmey family special. Categorically it was a curse, but John would call it a blessing.

“Actually, I am reminded of something,” the Gamer said. “Where does the hair curse come from? Do you know?”

“That’s been lost to time,” Kiyo said.

“Which is just the worst!” Hanbei cried out. The sudden shift in tone caught John off-guard. Even his body language changed. No longer was he stiffly sat in the armchair, instead he reclined and opened his stance. “I’ve been wondering the same thing for ages. One of wife’s great mysteries.”

That pun made everyone chuckle, even Nariko.

John dared to voice his surprise. “I thought you were the stern, disciplined type.”

“A man can have more than one face, boy.” The grandfather wagged his finger in an exaggerated motion. It put enough joking into the gesture that John didn’t mind the demeaning title. “Have you heard of Yamamoto Isoroku?”

“I have read a bit about history in my time,” the Gamer said.

“Who?” Rave asked, to the displeasure of her grandfather.

“Did ya never listen to my lectures, you lousy cat?”

“Was too busy eating your food.”

“Oh, that’s just typical!” Hanbei threw his arms into the air. Something snapped in his old spine. “I regret that immediately,” he groaned and put them back down. His wife gave a chuckle between concerned and amused.

“He was the commander-in-chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy Combined Fleet,” John explained, which only put more question marks on Rave’s face. “He orchestrated the Pearl Harbour attack.”

“Oooooooh… okay… so what about him?”

“He was a whoring, gambling hedonist when he was out of uniform, but an impeccable military man when he was on duty,” Hanbei reported. “One is allowed many flaws, even an entire different persona, as long as one does their duty. My duty was to grill your almost husband a bit.”

“By all means, let the grilling continue,” the Gamer remarked. “I understand that you are apt at grilling?”

“My husband was a chef for the last emperor of the Final Sun!” Kiyo reported proudly.

“For a week,” Hanbei was swift to correct.

John wanted to dig into that topic. The Final Sun had been the controlling guild of Japan during the 2nd World War and his information on it was scarce. To call the extermination by the Dangun Clan thorough would have been to call the salting of Carthage a regular siege. All he knew was that they had aligned with the precursor of the Purest Front in using the mundane conflict as a means to extend the reach of the Abyssal operations under similar ideological grounds.

Though he had his obvious and thorough distaste for the ideas of fascism, John was nonetheless interested in the perspective of a man that had lived at the time. There was always more to the story than the justification that came from the top. If nothing else, he was interested in the truth.

Alas, his almost wife had asked for no political conversations, so he kept that for another time.

“If you want to cook for another emperor, my kitchen is open,” John offered in a joking tone.

“I might just take you up on that,” Hanbei declared, to the Gamer’s renewed surprise. “I hear your maid is the best cook in the world.”

“They better say that,” John boasted. “Because it is true.”

“Before you men get too busy talking about work,” Kiyo drawled. “Do tell me how you two met? We only heard Jane’s side of the story and she is always a bit… scattered.”

“Quite so,” Nariko agreed.

“Be nice, Nari.”

“Mother, if I do not discipline her then-“

“Nothing will happen, she’s over twenty years old and is about to marry an emperor,” Kiyo remarked, strictness flowing in her voice. “Be nice to her.”

John cleared his throat to prevent an awkward silence from settling in. “Well, to give you the cliff notes version: I awakened as a Latebloomer, some punks tried to abduct me, Jane was part of the ‘rescue crew’, then we started hanging out afterwards. One thing led to another and we became an item after a bit of bonding through combat and almost dying together.”

“Back when we had to be afraid of falling trees and Tier 1 ghost monsters,” Rave joked.

“I think it was Tier 3…”

“Sure, brainiac.”

“Feels like a lot of skipped details,” Kiyo remarked.

‘There are a lot of skipped details.’ John was not comfortable with retelling just how sexual their relationship had been from the start. Just one of those topics he had a mental block to, when it came to discussing them with family. “Well, let me turn this around,” he said, aiming to redirect the conversation. “How did you two meet?”

“A simple work arrangement,” Hanbei said.

Kiyo raised a hand to her wrinkly lips and laughed. “He was a chef from a peasant family and the Hollmey clan was partially disgraced at the time. Foreigners were in ill-repute and our name has always put us in an interesting intersection. I was a cleaning lady in a noble’s household. We met on the estate. By the will of the noble, we were eventually betrothed. It was partially arranged, yes, but not without risky kisses under moonlit skies.”

“Awww, ya never told me that story,” Rave remarked.

“It was not much,” Hanbei muttered, bashfully.

“What about you two?” John asked Nariko and Regan. He knew how their relationship had ‘ended’ (though paused would have been more accurate).

“A simple work arrangement,” Nariko stated.

Now it was Reagan’s time to snort. “The number of shifts I had to change so we could keep running into each other by the watercooler – it was far from simple.” He looked to John. “We worked together in a bureaucratic building at the time. 90 souls in one building and so many drones to keep running. Everyone knew Nariko would make it far.”

“I… did pick Regan out of my suitors because he was the one who was sincere about me… not just my work,” Nariko confessed, in a rare moment of sincerity from the woman. “I liked that. Though having two children was a distraction.”

“Ya had something sweet there and then you had to end it with that,” Rave groaned.

Nariko had the decency of looking ashamed at that fully justified callout.

“Where is Liz anyhow?” John wondered.

“Around,” Rave answered. “I can call her up if ya want.”

John considered it, then shook his head. Though he did think he should have met Rave’s grandparents sooner, he did not aim to become closely tied with his rather large extended family. Between all of the siblings, parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts that all of his haremettes had, he really only saw Magnus regularly and that relationship had started before he and Lee had gotten together.

If John was entirely honest, it wasn’t that he couldn’t keep up with all of that family, it was that he didn’t want to. It would be exhausting, distract him from other matters and generally put him into contact with people that would be fairly mediocre. Theirs were worlds he wanted to intersect with at the edges, not be fully connected to.

“We’ll see each other if we see each other,” he said.

The family talks continued cordially and casually.