“Alright, this thing seems to be on,” John spoke into the microphone in front of him. It was a regular desk microphone often found on events, a thin thing with good quality, connected via a bendable cable with a broad socket. He moved it around a little bit so he didn’t have to bend forwards to such an uncomfortable degree.
Down the long table, Rave, Lydia, Gno and Aclysia (sitting in that order from his position) were doing the sa. The white blanket was whispering a little as it was pulled along with all the adjustnts. In front of them, the people filled the rows of seats that had been put up, so more standing along the sides. It was a rather typical convention panel in its design.
“Everyone ready?” he asked down the table and got nurous signals. His girlfriend gave him a thumbs-up, Lydia solemnly nodded as she poured herself a glass of water, Gno fumbled around (looking as ready as she possibly could be), while Aclysia nodded a bit chanically. John turned his attention to the crowd. “Hello everyone, welco to today’s Q and A. I hope you’re all comfortable and ready to ask us a few questions. We may go on massive tangents, that’s part of the program. If you have a question, do please form a line at either side of the seats, we will take questions from each side. Only one question per person and please keep things brief.”
“Disclair,” Aclysia chid in, getting all of the technical announcents out of the way. “This event is being live stread and you will be clearly visible while asking a question. This event is not suitable for minors, adult topics can and likely will be discussed. This is not a press event. Journalists are advised to be patient until their turn at the gathering with my John tomorrow at 4:30 PM. The panel withholds the right to not take questions. This goes especially for Lydia, who refuses to comnt on anything that could, in any way, go against German interests. We thank you for your understanding.”
“Coolio, that all the announcent stuff?” Rave asked, looking around.
“Well, I think we should also introduce ourselves properly,” John responded. “People are probably aware of who I am, just taking a wild guess, but the rest of you aren’t on the screen that often or not around here. So why don’t we tell everyone who we are, what we do and why we decided to be on this panel?”
“Sure,” his girlfriend agreed, “ya go ahead, show us how it’s done, tiger.”
“Alright, so I am John Newman, the Gar,” he fluidly took the invitation. “Although so people mistakenly call the Player sotis, which annoys on so level, but it’s not wholly inaccurate, given…” He gestured towards the right and at the four other girls sharing the panel with him. “Anyway, I am the guild master of Collide and in turn the founder and president of the federation known as Fusion. I am attending this panel today so you regular people can directly speak to without being at the rcy of my spam filters or the dia.”
Looking to his right, he gave the signal to his girlfriend that it was her turn. She fluidly took it. “Cheers,” her chirpy tone echoed into the microphone. “I am Rave, real na Jane Holly, I am the girlfriend of this guy, future fiancé and I just do whatever I feel like to improve Fusion. I ca ‘cause this sounded fun. Hope your questions don’t prove wrong.” She winked and passed the montum on to the next person in line.
“Lydia Augusta the Fourth of house Hohenzollern, Empress of Germany,” the sa went directly into it. “I shall spare you the length of my other titles, with respect to the casual atmosphere. My reasoning for attending is to properly clarify things, should topics be raised I think my input is needed on.”
There were several monts of silence, before Gno realized it was her turn. “I-i-I-” She gulped so loudly the microphone picked it up. “I am Gno, uh, the first of John’s contracted elentals and kind of the leader of us? I’m here to represent us in these questions…” her voice trailed off into a mumble, “…Sally forced to… because she wanted soone there and every other candidate was… Sylph….” With a furious blush, she realized she was still talking out loud and gestured wildly. “N-n-not that t-t-that those two are bad or sothing! I am totally okay to be here! Happy to answer your questions!” The crowd seed amused at her behaviour, people giggling and mumbling. It had the predictable effect on Gno. “Uhm, uh, uwu… uwuwuwu… uwuwuwuwuwu…”
There was sothing like a collective “D’aaaawwww,” from the crowd, John and Rave included, watching the embarrassed cuddle rock shift in her seat and, bright red, look down on her lap. Unable to resist the urge, John got up and patted her on the head until she cald down. anwhile, the last mber of the panel got her introduction out of the way.
“Aclysia, Artificial Spirit created by and head servant of my master John Newman. Attending to prevent journalists from daring to jeopardize this question and answer panel,” the white-haired maid declared.
“Introductions out of the way,” John continued, once he had returned to his seat, “let’s start things right up, left side start. Do not try to take the microphone from the handler, please.”
The order was obliged; the first person stepped up. “Okay, so, hello everyone,” the person, a guy in his mid-thirties, said. Imdiately, John knew that his request for briefness would not be obliged in this case. He had seen enough Q&A panels in his ti to not be surprised by this. People just loved to say more than necessary. “I just want to say, happy birthday to you, President Newman, and thank you for all you’re doing.”
“All of it?” John couldn’t help but be joking. “Hey, don’t forget that I make you pay taxes. I wouldn’t thank for that.” That got a few chuckles, including from the (sowhat nervous) guy standing there.
Abyssals were hardened to threats to their life, but public speaking was its own beast entirely. “Uhm, yeah, anyway, I wanted to ask a number of things, but given my place in the queue, I think I should ask the most obvious thing for everyone else waiting: how old did you get today?”
“I am nineteen now,” John answered swiftly, sowhat surprised that that got the people murmuring. ‘Guess my age hasn’t been broadly known,’ he thought. ‘To be fair, I look like I could be anything between 18 and 24, what with my high Charisma and all of that.’
“I know right,” Rave laughed at the reaction of the crowd. “This guy doesn’t act like nineteen at all anymore. Sobody of that age shouldn’t have that many accomplishnts!”
“Hey, when you have to ship around incredibly small army contingents with modern mobility options, it’s not that impressive anymore,” John tried to downplay it, but only a little bit. “Imagine if Alexander the Great had been able to transport his troops by train and could have bought all necessary supplies at a local Walmart, or sothing like that. Modern warfare is a tad quicker and magic just accelerates things further.”
“Ya saying it ain’t impressive?” His girlfriend poked at his shoulder. “Ya not gonna be like ‘Yeah, you should all kiss my prideful ass’?”
“I am saying it’s realistically plausible,” he responded, sitting as tall as he could. “Not that anybody but could have done it. Well, other people could have, with the right combination of drive, power and competence.”
Lydia chid in, “It is a mixture more commonly found among talented young people. As the necessary conviction to change the world is likely to diminish with age. Influence, strength and competence are more likely to arrive with age. It’s a natural balancing of forces within human society. Quite an impressive piece of our collective psyche, if created biologically or divine aside.”
“Didn’t expect you to be pro limiting the youth,” John pointed out, as Lydia was only a few months older than himself.
“If we listened to every foolish plan inexperienced teenagers and young adults have, we would find ourselves in a never-ending spiral of enacting badly thought out ideas and solutions,” the queen justified. “That so people have to spend their entire life to change just one thing about society at large is, while frustrating to behold, better than the alternative of unrelenting, alienating change.”
“Speaking in general?” John asked, as he could imagine a few cases where imdiate, quick change was much better.
“Speaking in general,” Lydia clarified and took a sip of her water.
“…So, yeah, that’s what I ant with tangents,” the Gar joked, turning back to the crowd. “Alright, right side, next question.”
“I want this to go directly to Gno and Aclysia,” the person said, the soil elental becoming as rigid as a plank of wood upon hearing her na. “Do you serve John Newman or do you love him?”
“Love,” Aclysia clarified imdiately. “Master has always left and his other creations the space to make our own thoughts.”
‘To a degree that was actually harmful once,’ John thought, recalling the whole debacle that was Beatrice’s creation.
“Uhm… yeah… he has always treated us well and…” Gno cleared her throat. “Speaking only for myself, once I had grown enough to be capable of love, I couldn’t help but… see him that way. He is so gentle, but so vulnerable sotis… I just wanted to protect him and be there for him and… he does look pretty handso…” She pushed her index fingers together; her words were awkwardly quiet. The whole tent listened to the heartfelt stamring in absolute silence. “A-and because he was so nice and able to get angry for those he cared about and… and because I felt like he needed just as I needed him, I couldn’t help but fall in love and… uwu… yeah…”
“God, you’re way too pure for , I swear to everything,” John blurted out, causing so laughter from the crowd.
“She really is,” Rave agreed and then pointed at the left side. “Let’s keep the ball rolling, next question.”
She was pointing at a short woman, a bit on the pudgy side but not unattractive. “Alright, I am going to be the one to ask the awkward question,” she announced, already blushing a little bit. “As soone who has greatly enjoyed the two, ehem, adult videos you have starred in so far, are there plans to make more and, if yes, will they include more of your harem?”
“Who was even in those so far?” Rave asked.
“That would be you, and Aclysia,” John reminded her. “To answer the question: We have been playing with the thought of recording so private stuff. I am, certainly, planning to have future appearances on the CPDI and other networks of similar nature. So, I guess you will see more of …” He stopped for a second, as this next part felt a lot more awkward. “As for the second part of your question, whether any of my girls decide to tag along is entirely up to them.”
The reason why saying that felt less comfortable was that his girls were clearly going to be the pri reason why other guys tuned into those videos. It didn’t really bother him, as a matter of fact, he got a slight kick out of having sothing others couldn’t, but it was still odd to say out loud. Regardless of all that, he had quite the erection under the table. His girlfriend’s enthusiasm about these things was rubbing off on him.
“Well, I’m going to tag along a few more tis guaranteed,” Rave announced, earning herself so whistles from the audience. “My butt belongs exclusively to my boyfriend here though, so don’t expect anything but reverse gangbangs,” she added with a wink, before leaning over to John. He t her halfway, so the whisper couldn’t be picked up by the microphones. “Their enthusiasm is getting all tingly, tiger. Think we can supply these poor souls sothing soon?”
“To think you ever denied being an exhibitionist,” he poked fun at her, earning himself a kiss on the cheek before they went back to sitting normally. There was a strong consideration for her desire to be fulfilled. John Newman lived to please his girls, after all. “That would be that question. Next.”
“Do you actually love all of the won that you sleep with?”
“Oh, that’s a simultaneously very easy and difficult one,” John gave an initial non-answer, then clarified. “All of the girls you see around regularly, I absolutely love and adore. People like Cindy from CPDI and many mbers of the forr Small Lake Pact, I either like or barely know. Those tis are made on the mutual knowledge that it’s just fun, though. I know I am quite the pervert with an appetite, but I do my best to do right by everyone I do have sex with.”
“With a surprising amount of success,” Lydia underlined his words with her stern tone. “He has been truthful in his conduct about all of this. None of us have been goaded into a relationship with him to find ourselves one of many. That he actually succeeds in making us love him despite his broad harem goes to his credit.”
“Well,” Rave had to slightly disagree there, “I kinda found myself being asked if he could build a harem one day. If I had said no, he would have stayed with alone, though.”
“Which was a supre day of my life,” John added with a nostalgic smile. “I would have stayed with her if she had said no. I an, look at her. Plus, I was less than I am now back then. That she said yes was like a gift from heaven.”
“Ya an ‘my girlfriend is like a gift from heaven’.”
“I try not to state the obvious too much.” John grinned, standing up to cross the little distance and kiss her.
The person asking looked mostly surprised and happy by that answer. They were likely one of the more conservatively minded individuals in his federation, the Gar realized. Hearing all of this wasn’t just based on lust from five sources across two questions must have been quite nice.
Suddenly, sothing aligned. The way people sat and his own standing position in the room all made sense in a forceful way. An intense feeling of deja vu hit him. It didn’t even take him a second to guess what was going on.
He turned around before there was a scream. The knife that was ant for his open back instead found his hand. Sparks of mana flew, as Particle Skin activated and made it possible for John to grab the sharp edge of the weapon like it was nothing and yank it away. Beatrice rushed up from the background to pin the assailant to the floor.
Confused mumblings started, nobody quite sure what was happening. John looked down on the attacker, a man with dishevelled hair and a gaunt look on his face. Observe quickly placed him as a non-important drug addict, his weapon was a bog-standard kitchen knife. To the Gar, both of these were about as threatening as a mouse was to a lion.
“Hand him over to the authorities,” he told Beatrice, after he was sure he was dealing with a normal crazy person, thinking they should make their mark on history by assaulting soone important. Nothing that he had to deal with personally. ‘Interesting that that’s what the vision showed,’ John thought. The threat clearly wasn’t the man, so could it have been the way he might have overreacted if he hadn’t known about the attack?
He could have broken that guy’s neck with a self-defending swipe of his arm. Not to ntion how Aclysia could have reacted. Neither things that would have looked good on running caras. ‘Threatening’ was really too vague to make easy conclusions.
‘Security must be stretched because I ordered so many of them to stand by Marathyu,’ he analyzed, then turned to the panel, quickly explained what had happened, and then urged people to continue as if nothing had happened. Nobody had gotten hurt, so there was no reason to inconvenience themselves.
The next question was right up his alley and put the mood of the Q&A back into casual mode. “So, what is your favourite observable mont about the female physique in motion?”
“Now that’s sothing I haven’t thought about too much,” John humd. “Specifically things I can see when they move on their own… Well, the obvious answer is ‘hate to see her leave, love to watch her go’ – you know, being an ass man and all that. Close second is that mont when a girl with nice thighs sits down and does that squishy thing where they broaden out. Hard to describe, but I think you know what I an.”
Nodding, the speaker stepped away from the microphone. “Hey,” the person for the next question spoke up. “So, I have heard you’re into 40k-“ Rave groaned out loud and slumped forwards on the table in a dramatic fashion.
“Ignore her, she has an intense dislike of the franchise,” John told everyone. “She might be straight from heaven, but, unlike her butt, she isn’t perfect.”
“How about ya get yourself a hobby that’s not all about people shouting EMPRAAAAAH and talking about stupid perks and damage rolls for hours?” Rave grumbled, head lying on the table. “Dad played that stuff with literally anybody he could at any hour he could. Raw boredom.”
“Well, that’s your opinion, honey,” John stated in a playfully motherly tone.
“Don’t tease , Johnny, just get that question over with.”
John gestured towards the person, who then continued, “Right… So, since you’re into 40k, is there a chance to et you during gatherings where we play?”
“I have to admit that I haven’t played it a lot. I only got enough money to get into the hobby proper once I got into the Abyss. Which says a lot about the prices for the miniatures, I suppose… Anyway, I was more of a lore enthusiast. I would be open to attending such events once I have less stuff to deal with. Can’t really give you a definitive answ-“
He stared at the window in front of him intensely for several seconds. The words didn’t imply that anything bad had happened. There was no direct cause for concern or reason to rush over. However, he still wanted to see Eliza as quickly as he could because of this. “Sorry, I have to end it here, sothing important just ca up,” he told everyone, the crowd starting a series of disappointed and surprised mumbles. “I’ll make it up at the second panel later, I promise.”
A few questions couldn’t asure up to the importance of the pretty little psycho.
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