The call had ended shortly thereafter, with John and Momo going on a final tangent about the size of her gifted budget. To his detriment, the Gamer managed to barter her into a higher sum. All of the tens of millions had to be derived from his personal account, as was proper, but the Gamer was pretty well off these days, so that didn’t matter. Turned out that, if he didn’t use money to motivate political action on a personal level (a friendly way to say bribery), his coffers stayed pretty full.

Sure, there was the spending related to new resources, but Scarlett had fiddled with the economy in such a way that no meaningful shortages appeared. Where she could, she had the raw goods imported and sold herself, where she couldn’t, she pressured up and down the supply chain to spur the companies not directly under her thumb into action. Having a genius that could give orders as quickly as her magic could convert thoughts into signals heading his economy was a boon beyond what most of his girls could supply in terms of raw value.

Elite fighters weren’t cheap or easy to come by, so all of his girls that fell into that category were still immensely valuable, but Scarlett was an extremely rare case of a non-combat ability taken to the same level of skill and power. As it currently stood, it wouldn’t be an understatement to say that she was more important to Fusion’s well-being than he was. As strong and charismatic as he was, a figurehead could be replaced.

“Right, so keep yourself useful and those hands working,” Scarlett sighed, while the Gamer’s hands rolled over her naked back. Lying on the kind of lounger used for massages, she was getting exactly one of those. “Before I remember that I really fucking like power and knife you before you level up into an unstoppable ultra-superhuman.”

“I think we both know that, even if you suddenly started hating me and found an opportunity, you wouldn’t take it,” John said and kneaded her shoulders. It was a dry affair, in the sense that he wasn’t using oil. They had no idea where the oil cloth was and Aclysia would have been majorly annoyed if they spilled anything on the floor or, worse, the furniture. As much as the Gamer’s apartment was designed to be easily cleaned of fluids, there was no reason to worsen things through thoughtless action. “You value your life too much.”

“Having a vengeful Eliza on my ass does sound rather dangerous,” Scarlett admitted. “Spank me.”

“As you wish,” John laughed and gave her ass a nice slap. The sharp moan and jiggle were magnificent. The sharp sound alerted the second reason in the room why they avoided using oil today.

Jumping onto the back of the couch to give herself a vantage point, Velka looked for the source of the new noises. Silently, she stared at the naked couple in the middle of the room. Her orange-red eyes blinked a couple of times, as her head moved in the typical, bird-like suddenness to get multiple angles.

They had taken her out of the usual room to give her a change of scenery. As much as her room was designed to the needs a cat-bird-chimera-thingy could have, it wasn’t too large and John had a bit of time this early afternoon, so he decided to spend that with Velka and Scarlett, who also happened to be available for some cuddles.

John still wasn’t sure how to behave around the young Magryph when it came to sex. He didn’t want to have any while she was in the room, that much was clear. Not because he feared it would have any adverse effects on the animal, as smart as she may have been for an animal, she was still an animal largely driven by instincts, but because it was just awkward. He had heard the stories of dog owners getting interrupted in the middle of action by pets that thought they were being threatened by their lovers, amongst other things, and he didn’t want to risk that.

When it came to nudity in the (definitely more than four) walls of his home, though, he didn’t have anywhere close to the same hesitation. That was just the natural state around here and Velka might as well get used to it. John was certain he wouldn’t extend the same logic to whenever he had actual kids, but that was a problem for then.

Further than nudity was the question of flirting. Verbal flirting was no problem, but it skirted the line when things got more physical, as they tended to do. John was still exploring where he was in terms of comfort on that topic.

Velka meowed. For the last two days, she had favoured cattish sounds over her caws and warbles. Apparently, that was perfectly natural. As they grew up, Magryphs went through several stages of testing what their voices could do. Possessing both the syrinx of a bird and the larynx of a mammal opened a lot of options. Sometimes those tests included a screaming phase. John desperately hoped Velka would skip that. If she wanted to, the tiny thing could produce some really unpleasant sounds and it would only become worse as her lung volume increased.

“Come here,” Scarlett said, sitting up and drumming on the corner of the lounger, as one would do to bait a cat. With a tilt of her head, the small beast looked at her target, the distance between herself and it, and then got on all fours. Wings pressed closely to her body, tail and tail feathers raised, she cowered down, wiggled her butt a little bit, and then leapt.

Gracefully, she landed exactly where Scarlett wanted her. “Good Velka,” John complimented his pet. He reached into his inventory and retrieved a box of minced meat. Because things in his inventory didn’t spoil, this was his current way of keeping treats for her around. He took out a bit, rolled it into a ball between his fingertips, and proceeded to feed it to the Magryph.

While Velka would have much preferred more than that, she was quickly growing on the treats. She had become remarkably docile since the Tamer Class had been unlocked. Whether this was related to the Class itself, the fact that they had the Beast Binding between them or that he had engrained a proper respect for him was anyone’s guess. John, like usual in such situations, guessed that it was a mixture of all of the above.

Remarkably docile only meant that she was more obedient when it came to obeying requests, though. When something annoyed Velka, she let it be known, with caw and claws. John was getting better at reading her mood as well and, if nothing else helped, he just called Eliza. Velka had come to associate the blood mage with safety and comfort.

Scarlett picked up the chimera and raised her like she was Simba in the Lion King. “You are worth SO much money.” The Technomancer grinned and tossed Velka in the air. The Magryph meowed happily, as she felt like she was flying for a moment, only to be caught again. “A female that’s going to be highly fertile thanks to John’s Perks.” A second toss caused a second sound of jubilation. “A natural ability to find valuable things.” A third toss and now Velka purred like a happy kitten. “Not to mention that you are adorable.”

Scarlett pulled Velka to her chest in the usual fashion and scratched the soft belly. Something she got repaid for with friendly scratches and tiny nibbles. A bit awkward, as Velka decided the nearby boob was more interesting to use her beak on. Scarlett didn’t really mind and the Magryph didn’t know the difference.

“Fluffy, warm, behaves like a very smart cat, what’s not to love?” Scarlett hummed. “When you grow up, I’ll have lots of work for you, you adorable value detector.” The title was a reference to Velka’s (or Magryphs’ in general) ability to find whatever was of the highest rarity in her surroundings. There was a limiting factor in that they would always go for shiny and, preferably, durable things, though. For example, a Magryph would almost always prefer a marble made from glass over a artistically decorated bathrobe. Sure, the bathrobe may have been more valuable overall, but the marble glittered in the sun, so that was all the reason she needed.

More important than their ability to draw distinctions between different items and their values was their ability to just find things with supernatural precision. John had yet to see that work in person, but he had heard that Magryphs had a sixth sense for detecting treasures. When she started roaming outside and had somewhere bigger to put her personal hoard, the Gamer intended to create a testing ground for her to search around in, just so he could get a better idea of things.

“I took you for more of a dog person,” John picked up the conversation.

“What I like are smart underlings that work for me without needing to check back with me every two hours, that aren’t needy, that don’t need to be trained too much and that are equally loyal and clever,” Scarlett listed and moved her hand up until she was scratching Velka under the chin. “So, I am neither a dog nor a cat person. I like competence. Now, off with you, I want more of that massage.”

Scarlett dropped Velka to the floor from an appropriate height and laid back down. As much as John wanted to, he couldn’t immediately get back to rubbing her smooth skin. While Scarlett was done with Velka for the moment, the purring Magryph was not done getting cuddled and decided that John’s leg was the best path towards more pats.

Something the pantsless Gamer very much objected to. The pain of her claws digging into his skin was tolerable, courtesy of his abilities, but far from pleasant. Especially since her scaling brought her en-route to his dick. “No, bad Velka!” he reprimanded and picked her off his leg by grabbing her by her scruff. “No climbing people’s legs!” With those words, he put her on the couch. While he was already moving, he also washed the fat residue from the minced meat off his hands.

Letting out a disappointed meow when he turned around without further scratches or head pats, Velka lowered her head and accepted her fate. Instead, she took to exploring the world under the couch.

John knew she wouldn’t find anything interesting there, not even dust, so he left her to it and finally got back to Scarlett’s back. His hands started on her butt. Not an area that needed relaxation, but he had to treat himself as well as her.

Sighing in relaxation, Scarlett stretched and closed her eyes. “If I fall asleep, just let me,” she mumbled. “Maybe carry me to the bed though.”

“…Did you not sleep after you left yesterday?”

“I had to coordinate a deal with the HTC and then it was already the next workday, so I threw a caffeine pill into my whiskey and decided that was good enough.”

“Scarlett, you need to sleep six hours a day, not four hours every two.”

“I think that’s a mythos.”

“And I don’t get how you can look this good with that little sleep,” the Gamer said and bowed down to inspect her face. When she wasn’t scowling or mockingly raising her eyebrows, her androgynous features were strictly adorable. “Are you physically incapable of developing bags under your eyes.”

“Maybe. Or maybe I’m a superhuman.”

“You’re not as superhuman as me and you would have to pay me to stay up that long.”

“I -aaaahhhhh- am paying me,” she said, for once that wasn’t a moan but a very long yawn. John’s hands travelled up her sides and stopped at the muscles under her shoulder blades. “You thought about my idea regarding Velka?”

“You mean your plan to use her for governmental advertisement pictures?” John asked.

“For propaganda, yes,” Scarlett put it in more direct terms. “Ya should just get a photoshoot done with her and all the other girls, might as well include yourself. Send all of them to your press office and distribute the mediocre ones to the media and keep the great and goofy ones for government use to make motivational posters or some shit like that.” The television screen flickered for a moment. “Ignore that.”

“You shouldn’t browse the internet with your mind when you’re this tired,” John told her. “What if you accidentally post something somewhere with your business account?”

“Just checking some stupid stuff. I’m not engaging in communications with anyone,” Scarlett explained and yawned again. “Ah-nyway, use Aclysia, Beatrice and yourself as Fusion’s public faces, use the elementals for festival posters, Stirwin specifically can pose with Velka for some adorable side stuff, I’m sure Copernicus can fit in there as well, and so on. Do you know how much your soldiers love Metra?”

“I can imagine that a mostly naked woman that appears on your side to waltz through any and all enemy barricades with apparent ease is rather popular,” the Gamer said. “Although I’m not going to put her in command of a unit again, all her battle tactics are straightforward as all hell.”

“Smart call to ma-“ Scarlett stopped, the muscles in her back tensed under John’s hands. He pulled them back when she started to sit up, her eyes now open and concentrated on something outside of his senses.

“What’s the matter?” John asked, immediately alarmed. Not many things could have the bloodsoaked technocrat move in such a hurry. Light danced through her red eyes in lines that resembled computer circuitry. He wanted to ask if they were being attacked, but those speculations would have only distracted her.

“Nothing bad,” she quickly put him at ease, taking a few more seconds to verify whatever she had found. “Look at the TV, I am pulling up a file.”

John turned his head and the screen flickered to life, this time properly, across the living room. On the high definition display, a single image was displayed.

The image had pretty terrible lighting. Whatever camera had taken it had not been prepared for the blazing brightness of the sun in that area. Prominently featured were white, tall buildings at the left-hand side and a white beach to the right. Both were practically glowing thanks to the reflection of the rays. Between both was a strip of green, covered in small trees, grass and a little bit of hedge here and there. All three segments stretched far into the background, vanishing behind the horizon before actually ending.

While the lighting was poor, the framing was grandiose. In the middle of the photo were two figures. A cat sitting in the shade of a tree with all the natural grace a cat possessed and a human girl kneeling in the sun, reaching out to pet the animal.

Her dress reflected no light, yet was so purely white that it seemed more like someone had simply deleted the rough shape of her body, but only around her medium sized breasts and the front of her midriff. While all depth was missing from the skirt, its outline flowed with unnatural smoothness.

The dress was held by nothing, no string around her neck or zipper at the back. In fact, the back was entirely free to see, all the way down to the lower end of her spine. Similar were her feet, sticking out of the skirt. They were naked and unblemished, as if she had never taken a single step on dirt or pavement.

Where the trees in the background all stood still, the woman’s blonde hair appeared to have been captured by a strong breeze. Part of her hair, it had to be specified. Where the top and sides of her hair rested in a backwards combed fashion, like a glorious golden field of wheat stuck with bent straws, the hair at the back behaved much differently. It was bound together directly behind her head and much, much longer. The ponytail would have easily touched the ground, were it not flying forwards in a long curve around her shoulder, the tip pointing towards the beach.

The blue eyes in the fair maiden’s attractive face seemed to be the only point of any emotion she could produce. Perhaps, this was just because John knew exactly what she would have thought in such a situation. Despite all her unnatural appearance, the girl’s eyes asked for nothing more than to touch the cat and scratch its ears.