People Are Strange

There were patches of hazy consciousness that drifted in and out, though he had no real grasp of time passing. Blurry memories, at best. A pretty girl with red hair bright as flames kneeling over him and arguing with someone out of sight. A flash of painfully bright sunlight, followed by cool leather, quiet murmuring voices and the soft hum of tires meeting road. The jostling movement of being carried. Another pretty girl, this one with long black hair streaked with deep reds that seemed to oddly glow in his memory - he vaguely recognised this one - arguing with someone. It was strange what stood out in his memory and what didn’t; there was no recollection of what these people said around him, but he could clearly remember the feeling of a soft palm gliding along his arm and a pair of startlingly bright eyes the colour of ivory.

Slowly, John opened his eyes, blinking away the build-up of sleep gathered in the corners. He was in bed. That was a slight surprise. He remembered, quite clearly, the way his HP bar had simply stopped counting negatives and just flashed ‘Critical’ at him. His muscles began to tighten, his hands forming fists. His breaths started to shudder slightly.

Unfortunately, remembering so clearly meant that he also intimately recalled the feeling of the gaping wounds that had torn his chest cavity to shreds, oozing blood onto the harshly lit concrete floor. He could feel the way the air had burned the exposed flesh, filling his lungs alongside the blood-

John grit his teeth and **** that thought away. He didn’t need to think about that. Better to ignore it, and simply move forwards. It was what he had always done, and it hadn’t failed yet.

One thing did stand out to him about his situation though - it wasn’t his bed.

He started lifting his head off the pillow, then stopped and went very still. He slowly turned his head to face the sudden surprising resistance that had stopped him rising. The resistance in question took the entirely unexpected form of a small, slender girl draped over his side, hugging his arm and chest. When John had stilled, part-raised, she made a small discontented noise, and though her eyes were closed and she was in clean skin and clean clothes, it was definitely Velvet, and she was definitely cuddling his side, and had very clearly been doing so for a while.

John very slowly lowered himself back down onto the mattress, silently trying not to freak the fuck out at the fact that there was a cute girl cuddling with him. It only got worse the more he thought about it, as he realised that she was actually looking over him in his sleep. And that she must have gone away to get clean, and then returned and climbed into bed as an intentional action, rather than some kind of fortunate accident.

After a minute of intense inward concentration, John concluded that the matter of not exploding in dramatic fashion was one he wasn’t struggling with. With that safety secured, he looked at his surroundings, hoping to distract himself from the unexpected physical contact.

The room was dark, but there was a slow illumination creeping around the curtains and reflecting off the clean and simple white walls with a soft golden glow. There weren’t many notable details in the room, truth be told.

There was the bed they were lying on in the centre, with the headboard against one wall. A small table adorned either side of the bed and a single wardrobe and set of drawers was on the wall opposite the bed, a matching pair. A couple of windows to his right - the side that Velvet was cuddling, and oh wow, her perfume was really sweet - covered with simple cream-coloured curtains. Then, there was a door on the wall to his left.

If not for the lack of medical equipment, he might have thought he was in hospital. It also lacked that strange disconcerting feeling hospitals have which he’d never quite been able to pin down.

Aaaaand that was it.

With nothing else to pay attention to, his focus returned to the girl clinging to his side and snuggling into him. He turned his head slowly, so as not to disturb her, so that he could look at her. She was… he’d like to immediately have thought ‘beautiful’ or ‘gorgeous’ but really, while she was those things, the first word that came to mind was “cute”.

Her face was framed by lovely dark hair, mixed with shades of auburn which subtly melded in with the rest, an effect which drew one’s eyes to her face without seeming too bright and calling attention to her for standing out. Momentarily, he wondered why it was so sleek and tidy, considering the whole **** ordeal. The jury was still out on whether or not that pair he had seen before falling **** had rescued them, or simply put them in a more pleasant cell, in which case it was two kidnappings. The fact that he wasn’t… that he was still here, that supported the idea that this was a rescue. He then noticed the smell that he had assumed was her shampoo was stronger and fresh, and he remembered her clean skin, and realised that she must have showered before he woke up.

John continued his observation within the framing of her very pleasant smelling hair, tracing along the gentle curve of her jaw and up to her lips. Ever so slightly parted in her sleep, and a natural pinkish hue that appealed deeply to John, she had rosebud lips, small and rounded perfectly. John liked to consider himself very well-controlled, but damned if he didn’t get a deep urge that pulled at him to kiss those lips.

Above them was her nose, straight as an arrow, almost seeming sharp until you reached the soft rounding tip, and the two nostrils below that were rhythmically dilating as she breathed softly in her sleep. Her eyes were closed, but John knew that underneath those eyelids, adorned with natural lashes that would make Vanessa and her fake lashes turn green with envy, were her gentle eyes. He could see them in his mind, a smooth milky white colour undisturbed by a pupil or iris, yet so shockingly capable at conveying emotion, more than John had ever seen in a person.

And that led him to the other word which came to mind when he looked at her - tough. Not in a physical sense, but in a more spiritual sense. Even asleep, looking at her gave John an impression of resilience and fortitude. It was as if almost the entire world could be against her and she’d still try to stand up for her beliefs. He admired it, and envied it.

John breathed in sharply when she suddenly held him tighter and started making quiet whimpering noises. They weren’t quite fully formed words, but just enough to convey what seemed to be fear. John had absolutely no idea what to do when there was a girl sleeping in a bed with him having some kind of nightmare. Fuck, he had no idea what to do when there was a girl, nevermind her being in bed with him.

She whimpered again, and he moved the arm she was resting on and placed his palm on her head, trying to calm her somehow despite his total lack of any ideas on what to do.

With a little hum, she went quiet, but when he tried to remove his hand, her grip tightened again, so he returned it to calm her. It was… actually kind of adorable. Okay, that was an understatement. It was really adorable. And John found it somewhat flattering to know that his presence was calming her nightmares. Although, he told himself, that was probably because she thought it was someone else, rather than it being the guy she met during a **** yesterday, but still, it was nice to pretend for a little while.

It took him a minute to realise he was actually giving her a headpat, and he had to suppress the childish giggling that rose in him at the thought of how lewd it all was. The internet had ruined him.

Gently, he raised his hand and placed it on top of her head, then slowly brushed his hand down, taking special care not to catch her hair and pull it, and was immediately rewarded by another contented hum as she curled up a bit more and burrowed herself even closer into his side, a feat he hadn’t known was possible. He decided he would enjoy the moment, and keep giving her headpats while he could, but… God, this was going to be awkward when she woke up.

Actually, it’s Gaia, not God. Pretty sure we established that sometime yesterday, but you were a little occupied, so I’ll give you that.

The message appeared in front of him, and he stared at it, until eventually another one replaced it.

Are you going to actually reply, or just keep staring at it while stroking her hair like a pervert?

“Wha- hey!” he started speaking, then remembered Velvet was sleeping and whispered it as quietly as he could. It hit a little too close for comfort, if he was honest. He wasn’t actually doing anything wrong, she’d initiated the physical contact, but that wouldn’t stop the social anxiety from running rampant at even the slightest suggestion.

Sorry, sorry. Don’t worry, it’s cute and she’s enjoying it. I forgot about how nervous you get, with how you’ve been so far. I doubt she’ll be angry. Now, do I have your attention?

“If you’re sure it’ll be fine… yeah, I guess? But, I don’t want to wake her, so-” Another message appeared and cut him off.

Don’t worry about it. Just think what you’d say instead.

He gave it a dubious glance and tried to direct his next thought at it. ’Really? You can read minds?’

Of course I can. I can do most things.

‘Can-’ Another message appeared and cut off his thoughts again.

Ready for what I actually wanted to tell you, which will make a serious difference to your life from here on out?

He took a moment, his mood turning more serious, though he kept his hand moving on Velvet’s head. ’I have a bad feeling about this but…Alright.’

There are worse things I could be telling you, like how you’re not actually wearing your school uniform anymore.

John realised that was entirely true, and flushed scarlet upon realising that someone had changed his clothes for him, and now Velvet was lying next to him. The flash of a message pulled his thoughts away from the myriad of possibilities it had begun to conjure.

To break it down, what happened to you, and how you reacted to it, was a path I hadn’t anticipated you’d take. I knew you could, since you’ve got such a myriad of options there, but the way things lined up was so unlikely I didn’t expect it.

‘Okay-’ Once again his thought was cut off by another message appearing. It was getting just a little bit annoying.

And before you say it, yes, I may be Gaia, with all the impressive might that entails, but this is the first time I’ve coded someone’s magic like this, so give me a little slack or I’ll smite you.

’I really wasn’t going to say that. I literally only found out that you exist earlier. Or yesterday? Whatever. Honestly, the only reason I don’t think I’m insane and hearing voices is because Velvet mentioned you’

Oh really? So you trust her with your sanity? That’s cute. Gonna put a ring on it yet?

Despite his best efforts, a blush slowly rose and made his ears feel hot. ’You know what I meant.’

Sure I do. Now hush. As I was saying, your system did a fuck-up. You may have noticed around when you broke the chair that a few errors came up. That was you fulfilling several of the tasks I’d set out for you. The idea was that you’d be able to choose what types of skills you wanted on your own by doing the tasks, to have free choice.

’Huh. I actually really like that idea,’ John thought, and then on a sudden impulse added, ‘Thank you, Gaia.’

Nothing happened for a longer moment than before, and he could almost feel the ellipsis showing.

Yes, yes, I’m amazing, I know. Anyway! Your severe emotional reaction to Toby completed the first of a chain of tasks, which let all the ones after that retroactively complete. The problem is that you weren’t supposed to be able to retroactively complete that many tasks at once, and the chair was interfering with how your systems work. So, when it noticed this happening and exceeding the set limits, it flagged it and found a solution, which was to bypass the ‘early-game’ restrictions I’d put in place for you.

For some kind of mega deity or something, she wasn’t excellent with the explanation, but John was slowly getting it. ’So, it’s kinda like I did all the side quests first, then did the next main story mission, which activated all the rewards at once?’

That’s kind of the right idea. But then the anti-cheat turned on, so to speak. Though that’s not really a good analogy. The Gamer autonomous system exceeded the limits, and it activated emergency measures. In this case, it bypassed the mana-restriction that I put in place, so that it could have an outlet for the excess mana.

’Okay, so, basically, I got really angry and ticked one box, then the rest of them ticked, the magic system got overwhelmed and… is there an actual point to this that I should be worried about?’

Rude.

He waited a little while. Nothing happened. Then it flashed again.

Ahem. I said… RUDE.

’Alright, alright. I’m sorry?’

Hmph. In short, you accidentally completed too many tasks at once because of the chair and your own lack of attention to your powers, and the system compensated by letting you progress slightly faster. From there, you…

’Yeah, I remember. I took the offered choice.’ He looked at Velvet’s peaceful face as she clung to him. ’And I’d do it again, I think. Some things are worth the sacrifice.’

...I’m very impressed, John. Keep an eye out, I might just show how impressed I am. For now, though? I’ll leave you. You’re expecting guests.

’Guests?’ John thought confusedly.

The message disappeared after he read it, and almost immediately, he heard steps and voices...