Chapter 19 – By the end of the session

No blowjob at the start this time around – or at any other point. Much to John’s dismay, but he had said he would earn the next. In the service of doing so in the future, he soaked up all the EXP and kept training Possession.

“We’re cutting things here,” Rave announced suddenly, after blasting another ghost into oblivion.

John checked his watch, mildly confused. It was barely past 5 PM. They could get another two hours in at least before he needed to head back. “Okay? Any reasons?”

“Ja, two of them.” The Asian bombshell raised the index finger of her left hand. “A, I wanna take a shower.” The other index finger got raised up as well. “Two, my dad is coming for today and only today. Not gonna miss him.”

‘So, that was what the call was about?’ John asked himself and nodded to Rave. “Okay, I will do some solo stuff then.”

“You ain’t gonna do squat.” Rave said, grabbing him by the hand. “Or, well, don’t know whatcha gonna do later but for now you’re coming with me.” 

“Where are we going then?” John barely had time to use Escape I.D. as he asked. He wasn’t entirely catching up to what was happening again. Rave always moved too fast for him and he wanted so desperately to change that.

“My house!”

The announcement had John blush, for a reason he couldn’t quite place. After they left the Illusion Barrier, he buried himself in his windows to be distracted from his own nervousness. She was really moving way too fast for him. Yet, all he wanted was to keep running along and see where this was going. It beat school, porn, and even videogames by a mile.

‘So close to a level,’ he thought and checked his other recent gains. Observe was level 4 now, enabling him to see a relationship description in addition to the number. That eliminated his need to guess why someone liked or disliked him.

Possession was up to level 5, which had been an exciting one.

It now allowed him to use the Skill on medium sized objects. What was medium sized was a bit arbitrary, but it was also common sensical enough that John could instinctively know in most cases. He had achieved this Skill level by increasing the uptime of the Skill through using the Ectoplasms. Consuming them had been as easy as sticking a finger in. The gooey liquid had been absorbed through the skin.

Both Create and Escape I.D. had levelled up, but that had only decreased the cost by 1. Nothing too exciting.

He looked up from his windows when Rave let go of his hand. The lack of warmth was disappointing, but also expected. It had only been two days and relations didn’t deepen that quickly. That’s what he told himself on one side. On the other they had already exchanged more intimacy than John had ever enjoyed before. It was honestly a bit confusing. He knew little about Rave and she was still lighting up his life. His problem was that he wasn’t sure if she was that way with everyone.

Thankfully, he had a way to make things less uncertain.

Jane ‘Rave’ Hollmey, Lvl 16

Fun Loving Rave Girl

Age 19, Daughter of an Abyss Auction Employee. Has an Innate Ability of light magic. She’s a member of Collide. Her love for techno, skimpy outfits and her flashy fighting style earned her the name ‘Rave’.

Relationship: 56

Rave thinks of you as the Gamer and likes checking out your unique powers. She is not quite sure about your personality, since you seem to be a shy nerd. She likes your occasional displays of calm confidence. In general, is just fooling around with you because you’re the only one available and she’s young and bored. Never hurt anyone to be spontaneous. Probably.

Emotions: Nervous, Horny, Anticipating

There he had it. She primarily saw him as a novel Innate Ability with legs. It hurt his pride a bit, but at least he had an in with her. If he could show her that he was more than a shy dork, maybe this could become more? Her relationship score was at 56 now, so that was pretty promising. Now he just needed to get that shy dorkness actually beaten.

He could invest in Charisma. He had been about to last night. Then his hand had wandered up to Wisdom. Then to Agility. The decision paralysis had made him put it off all day and he still wasn’t entirely sure.

“Almost there,” Rave said and pointed at their destination.

Rave was such a bright personality that he had expected her to live in some kind of sparkling mansion or colourful arthouse. He found the total opposite of that.

It was a corner building. Four stories tall, painted entirely grey, with inoffensively white window frames, a milky white glass door, and no decorations whatsoever. The entire building radiated boredom in a way that John felt he should have noticed before. He was in this part of town sometimes and something this inoffensive should have caught his attention at least once. He vaguely noted that no one around ever seemed to look at the building, not even the pair that waited next to them at the streetlight.

They walked across and entered the house. The hallway was as dull as the outside. It could have been copy pasted into just about any apartment building in the entirety of the US of A. Once Rave turned the key into the apartment, however, that impression did a 180.

It was like stepping out of a business complex and into the dream of a drug fuelled artist. The walls were sprinkled with hundreds of colours for the initial stretch. The corridor bordered on an 18th century European library, a room with a Hot Toys collection, an indoor pool, and several closed doors that John was scared to peek behind. Only the kitchen looked normal.

Somehow, this was exactly what he had expected. “Welcome to my home, the Villa de Weirdo,” Rave declared, as spread out her arms. “My dad is a collector of things,” she offered the barest explanation.

“I… guess?” John commented, awestruck as he made a huge turn around a very big, very beautiful and very delicate looking Chinese vase. “So, your dad owns the entire floor or…?”

“He owns the whole building, but he gave me the first floor when I turned 18. Much as he is gone, all of this might as well be mine.” She opened a door and peeked inside. “Haven’t done anything with most of it. Way too much space… I did throw his stupid wargame figurines into the basement though.”

As someone who had always wanted the money and time to get into wargaming, he felt a bit offended by that statement. He was too overwhelmed by the environment to comment on it though. Even if it was a mixed bag of rooms, there was a strange cosy beauty to all of it. “And you choose to hang out in that dusty old arcade instead…?”

“Ja, now, ya go to the video game room, ya nerd. I’ll take that shower.”

Rave immediately vanished into the maze of the rooms, leaving John to, once again, scratch the back of his head awkwardly. It only dawned on him after a few seconds that he forgot to ask, “W-where is the video game room?” No answer, Rave was already gone, and he was just a mumbling, lost Gamer, standing around. “Well, guess I just got to find it? Wonder if he collected any old gems…”