Surprises

John made his way back towards the bus stop but changed direction slightly. After walking for a while and climbing the stairs, he stood outside of Ellie’s hotel room. Knocking a couple of times, he could hear some movement in the room. The door opened and Ellie’s eyes lit up. She threw herself at John and pushed her tongue into his mouth before he’d even had a chance to say hello.

She backed up a little and her eyes narrowed as she looked at him. “Don’t waste time, do you?”

“W-what?” he asked, confused.

“I’ve eaten enough pussy to recognise it on the tongue of someone I’m kissing, so who was the lucky girl?” She let out an impish laugh. Ellie saw his face turn guilty and laughed again. “John, I already told you. I’m fine with you fucking other girls, just make sure that I might be able to have a little fun with them too and you have to tell me about it.”

Ellie pulled John into the room and sat him on the couch. She hugged against him and looked at him expectantly. John got the idea and went on to tell Ellie about what was happening with Vanessa.

Ellie had a worried look on her face. “John, you realise that she probably didn’t see it as her having a choice right?”

John’s brow furrowed. “What do you mean? I didn’t tell her she had to, she could have said no if she didn’t want to do it. I’m not going to **** her to do anything against her will.”

“I’m not sure she would see it that way. As far as she is concerned, she is being toyed with by some god and you said you’d left her edging for a long time without release. I’m not saying she would never have done what she did, but she might not have seen herself as having much choice,” Ellie explained.

John took a moment to digest what Ellie had said. He’d planned to use Trigger Emotion on her and that couldn’t make her feel something she didn’t before, but thinking about how she might have felt trapped for what she could do wasn’t something John wanted. He took a deep breath. “Give me a minute Ellie,” he said as he took out his phone.

< J: I am surprised you chose to use the boy to get off as you seemed to be somewhat hostile towards him. I was quite looking forward to seeing your face when you refused and I removed the belt anyway, but that display was much more amusing. I shall leave the belt off for now, and I’ll allow you the weekend to relax. Maybe even longer, I haven’t decided yet. Until next time, princess - G >

“Okay, I think that is good enough. It shows that she had a choice and will have a choice in the future, while still sounding firm and in charge.” John nodded to himself. “I’m sure she’s going to message back at some point, and if it sounds like I’ve gone too far, I’ll pull back or leave her alone completely, it’s not like she was the only one I wanted to get back at…”

After staring at the message for another moment, he looked up to Ellie. “Okay, let’s just forget that for now. I have something for you. Hopefully, it will keep you occupied while I’m not around tomorrow and probably until after lunch Sunday.” He smiled.

He opened up his inventory and looked at the things he’d bought from Prim. First, he brought out the nine large quartz crystals. Smiling at Ellie, he began charging them, which took almost his entire pool of MP, before he handed them over to her. “I thought you might need these.”

“Oh, John, you didn’t have to, I still haven't even gotten through the book yet.” Ellie smiled, warming John’s heart.

“I haven’t finished,” he said with a large smile plastered across his face. He clicked on the key and brought it out. “You will probably need those for this. It’s just a little gift I thought you might like. Come follow me.”

John walked towards the door of the room and pushed the key into the hole before opening it up. Ellie’s face was full of wonder and excitement as she saw the door open into an unfamiliar room. She darted past John and bounced off the walls looking at everything, opening drawers and cupboards, sitting in all of the seats around the room before trying all the doors. She was disappointed that two doors were locked with no visible way of opening them. “John, you can’t be serious can you? This is mine? Where did you get it? What can it do? Can I open it from anywhere? Can I still get a signal in here?” she bubbled.

John scratched his head. “Uh… definitely serious; yes, it’s yours; don’t worry where I got it; it’s an alchemy workshop that you can definitely open from anywhere; and I have no clue if you can get a phone signal in here, but I’d assume not?” he tried to keep up. “I thought that you could use this place as your own space, it’s better than the tiny little chemistry set you had before.” He laughed.

“It’s perfect! You probably won’t be able to get in contact with me for a while, I’m going to have so much fun. Also, I might check out of the hotel and go buy like an air mattress and just stay here, I might not be reachable at times but it will save me cash, and I’m sure I can find some back alley door or something to open my fancy new alchemy study,” Ellie beamed.

“Oh, I forgot to tell you; the key doesn't actually need a door to open, you just move the key towards a wall and it will create one for you,” John explained.

Ellie quickly barged past him, grabbed her bags and her belongings and rushed into the room. “This is going to be so cool, I’ll be able to actually take a better look at the book Dewdrop gave me. I don’t want to kick you out, but I want to explore this amazing gift you gave me, plus I’m sure you’re already worn out from your recent activities,” she laughed before planting her lips on his again.

She closed the door back up and opened the door to her hotel room to let John out. “Oh wait, before you slam the door on my face, can I have a couple of those full night’s rest potions? I have some things to do, and I’ll probably need to pull a couple all-nighters,” he explained.

She opened the door to her study against a blank wall before grabbing her knapsack and taking out two small vials. “Sure. Also don’t forget you need to spend some time with your mom at some point,” she lectured.

“I know, I know, I’ll make sure to spend some time with her and I’ll get out of your hair now,” John said as he gave her one quick peck on the lips, then headed out of the room.

John took the quick way home; using fast travel might be a little harsh on his wallet, but it was sure as heck convenient. Brenda’s car was in the driveway, and the lights were on, so he headed in. “Hey Mom, I’m home. Just got to go put my things upstairs, then do you wanna watch a movie or something?” he called.

“Oh, I’d love to. I was going to ask you what you want for dinner but we can order pizza,” she called back.

John headed upstairs and put some things into the closet and tossed the full night’s rest potions on his bed, ready for going into the barrier after his movie with Brenda. He was about to leave when he noticed a glint coming from his dresser. Looking closer, he spotted a deep blue hexagonal gem, maybe an inch and a half across. He walked over and grabbed it when a blue piece of parchment appeared. He put down the gem before beginning to read.

John Newman

We are the Hunters of Hemet, and although we are unable to bring you into our ranks, Hemet wished to thank you in some way for all your help.

The gem you have been given has several uses, the first being that once every 12 hours you can clutch it in your palm to gain a temporary boost in mana. The other common use of this is to show that you are now seen as an ally to our hunter organisation.

The final use is specific to you, and that is that you can use it as a barrier focus, our patron is aware of your financial crisis, in his own words, “Tell the lad to use the Mana Gem on a barrier and I’ll get him the 10K he needs.”

Yours sincerely, Vandal Ironside.

John read over the letter a few times. He was more than a little confused as the only Hemet he knew was a quest giver in World of Warcraft. He wasn’t about to argue with someone wanting to help him, though, so he put the letter into his inventory and cast Observe on the gem.

Mana Gem: This gem will give you 30 extra MP and has a cooldown of 12 hours. This gem was created by the dwarven god Hemet.

This only added to John’s confusion. “A dwarf named Hemet? It can’t be a coincidence, can it? You know what, I’m not going to deal with this now, I’ll do it later when I’ve hung out with Mom,” he thought out loud.

John quickly changed into his lounge pants and an extremely soft T-shirt before heading downstairs.

As he reached the bottom step, the doorbell rang. He opened the door to see the cute delivery girl. He smiled and said hello before taking the boxes from her, and then out of view, he pulled out the money plus a nice tip for the pizzas.

Closing the door, he grabbed the boxes and headed to the kitchen to see his mother, dressed in a thin nighty which allowed him to vaguely see the outline of her lingerie. “Oh, honey, I was going to get that. How much was it? I’ll give you the money back,” Brenda insisted.

“Oh, they just gave them to us for free, must be because of all the business I’ve given them over the years,” John laughed.

Brenda rolled her eyes but could tell that she’d be fighting a losing battle if she continued. Instead, she helped John with plates and drinks as they headed to the living room. To John’s surprise, Brenda had set everything up, blankets and pillows on the floor and a movie paused ready for them to watch.

They laughed and talked while eating pizza. John apologised for not being around and promised that he’d eventually introduce Brenda to the girl he’d been seeing. Brenda told him how boring work had been and how she might be late home a few days in the week because of deadlines. Once they had eaten, Brenda snuggled up to John and they watched the rest of the movie. As John was about to leave, Brenda talked him into watching one more movie, and they had both fallen asleep in each other’s arms before the first action sequence.

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