John was lying on his back. The ceiling refused to stop moving. Circling, moving left to right, swinging just as the still surface under him, the Gamer felt as if he was lying on a ship that was being moved by steady waves. Soft as it was, the steadiness still gave him vertigo. He would have sat up, but he had laid down in the first place to escape the swaying of his upper body. The music, worthy of an elevator, seemed to mock his state of unstable rigidness with its calm tones.

His view was that of the underside of the table and his friends’ legs. Without even trying to explain himself, the Gamer had chosen the floor as his place to rest his back on, rather than join Ted where the couches were. Since that view was pretty boring, he closed his eyes. Now the inside of his eyelids refused to stop spinning. Concentrating on his breathing, he listened to Magnus and Maximillian talk.

“And another one goes down,” Magnus remarked. John didn’t have the energy to reply.

“I mean, he did go through… by Romulus, did he drink three bottles by himself?” There was the sound of glass and Maximillian listing stuff, “A bottle of wine and two bottles of whiskey, yeah. Gamer’s Body plus high Endurance, I guess.”

“That’s how these things go,” the Fateweaver agreed. “How are you holding up?”

“Probably going to slow down a bit and see if he has some kind of beer in the fridge. I don’t think I need to even ask about you.”

“I know how to keep tipsy,” Magnus responded. “You lot just overindulge. I have plans tomo-“ There was a short stop, the sound of some fidgeting and then the older man continued, “Today.”

“I mean, so do I, but I can do it with a hangover. Or I will get someone to heal me of it.”

“What are you doing later today then?”

“I’ve been giving dance lessons on Sundays recently. Started as a favour to a producer, but I found out that it’s a pretty good way to get to know women.”

“Isn’t it a bit immoral to date students?”

“If they’re adults that are, on average, older than me? No, I don’t think so,” Maximillian retorted and finally went to the fridge to check its contents. They continued to talk while he rummaged around. “I am giving lessons in ballroom dancing. If they don’t come with a partner, I regard that as an invitation.”

“Fair enough,” Magnus conceded the point.

There was a soft ‘thud’ when the fridge was closed and Maximillian returned to his seat. Then came the hissing sound of a beer can getting opened. “What’re you doing then? More research?”

“I’ll go into the Training Hall,” he responded. “I’m a member of Collide now. I can train there until I hit level 50.” This was a relatively recent development that came thanks to the increase with the maximum number of Core Members. It was a good idea since Magnus, despite having his potential capped at 35, could level up to 50 in there as if that wasn’t the case. Although the levels gained inside there were more likely to come down as an increase of physical Stats or other combat-supporting results, it was still something the Fateweaver could work on. His willingness to chase whatever he could to overcome his natural shortcomings was something that John deeply admired in Magnus.

“You think John has something we can play while he is dead?” Maximillian wondered. “And don’t say poker. I’m not playing that with you ever again. Turn one Royal Straight Flush is just a sign from Gaia to not even try.”

“I don’t think Gaia cares enough to involve herself in that situation,” Magnus pointed out.

“Of course she doesn’t. If there is a deity that could do something that mundane without anyone noticing, it’d be her though.”

“True enough. Chess, maybe?” the Fateweaver suggested a game. “I don’t feel like going through all of the closets though.”

John opened his eyes and raised a hand. “That one,” he croaked, pointing at a drawer close to the floor. “There should be board games in there.”

“Oh, hey, you’re alive,” Maximillian remarked.

“No,” John responded and closed his eyes again. Magnus stood up, opened two drawers, apparently the Gamer hadn’t pointed accurately enough, and returned to his chair once he had found what he was searching for.

“Good, if you continue to be dead, I won’t have to play against you,” Maximillian joked, while they set-up the pieces.

“I thought you can read the overthinker?” Magnus remarked.

“I can, but I can’t think five steps ahead, like this guy.” There was a soft impact of a shoe against John’s leg. He groaned in protest and opened his eyes again. Now he was suddenly aware of how badly he craved water.

To the clicking of the pieces on the wooden chessboard, John rolled onto his side and slowly fought his way to his feet. Halfway up, his field of view split into two. Combined with the general disorientation he was currently experiencing, it was a wonder he didn’t fall back down immediately. His body took an instinctive step, which was a horrible mistake, but he managed to suppress the second one and just stabilize by extending his arms to either side.

“Are you training for the Olympic Games?” Maximillian asked in a joking tone, halfway out of his chair. Once it became clear John didn’t need the help, he sat back down. Quietly, Magnus did the same.

“No… just lost control over one of my eyes,” the Gamer answered and tried to sync the contact lenses up again. Although the Vision of Calamity was a pair enchanted to make this task easier, he just didn’t manage to. Maybe one of the lenses had slightly shifted position under his closed lid or maybe he was just too drunk. Either way, he couldn’t be bothered to fix it at the moment. “Fuck it,” he said and opened his character screen. Unequipping the lenses, he pulled a normal pair of shades out and Possessed them instead. For a moment, his field of view was on crotch level.

“You know, you make it very easy to forget you are blind,” Maximillian remarked, looking into John’s milky, brown eyes, unveiled for once.

“Good, took me over a month to learn it again,” John responded. He knew that that was pretty short as far as rehabs were concerned, but it had still been quite the effort. Putting the shades on his face, he walked over to the fridge to get himself a glass of non-carbonated water. Maximillian and Magnus continued to play chess and he went back to sitting in his chair like a civilized person.

All things considered, he was feeling better now. It was as if lying down, even for how short it had been, had given him a second wind. Feeling pretty content and good enough to hold off on the liquor for a little while, John continued to drink his water, sip by small sip. A huge gulp felt like too much of a task at the moment.

“…Stop,” Magnus suddenly turned in his direction, “can you please drink like a normal person? That sound is disgusting.”

“This sound?” John asked and took an extra audible sip. In the corner of his eye, he saw Maximillian looking at his beer bottle with dismay, likely saddened that he couldn’t join in annoying the Fateweaver.

“Yes.”

“Ah, well then,” John sighed and concentrated on drinking normally. He was childish enough to tease someone over something that mundane, but not enough to draw out the joke when dislike was so strongly stated. Perhaps in a few hours, if the conversation went there, he would bring it up again. Until then, he would behave and find banter and teases elsewhere.

The door to the room suddenly opened and Ted walked in with relative precision. “I’m back,” he announced, closing the door with only a slight overuse of force. “Sorry about that… where is the beer? How long was I out?”

“I love that that’s the order you ask things in,” John giggled. Whether Ted remembered his earlier misstep or not, the Gamer wasn’t interested in asking. That was one of those social situations that didn’t need chasing, especially not between friends that knew the necessary details. “Fridge and… I want to say three hours?”

“I think you should drink water first,” Magnus recommended.

“I can drink water when I eat breakfast,” Ted responded and grabbed a handful of pretzel sticks to sustain him on his way to the fridge.

“We saw your wife in underwear,” Maximillian tossed into the conversation.

“I doubt that,” Ted said and came back with a bottle. Getting handed the opener by Maximillian, he soon got access to the beverage within.

“Pink hair, lighter than Jane’s, a bit taller and Caucasian?” the gravity king gave a very basic description of Chemilia. Like Ted, Maximillian had never really met her before, but since she often appeared next to John in broadcasts, he would have seen her a few times. “That not her?”

“…It is,” Ted unwillingly responded and raised an eyebrow. Slowly, he met Maximillian’s bottle with his own in a quick clink. When they had both drunk, the gravity king showed the general the video of Eliza singing. Ted didn’t outright laugh, he just smiled and the two clinked glasses again after it had run its course, in a more friendly way this time.

“Hope we can still be friends now that I saw that,” Maximillian joked.

“John saw my wife naked. Would be difficult to work for him if I held such a belief.”

“Wait, what? Did you walk in on her showering or something?” the royal wanted to know. “Accidentally went into the wrong area of the hot springs while she was in there?”

“Do I look like a cheap anime protagonist to you?” John wanted to know.

“Well, you are definitely cheap,” Maximillian said and waved his now empty beer bottle.

“You like that beer!”

“And it is cheap.”

“You drank my one-thousand-dollar whiskey!”

“Come on, buddy. We are both billionaires. What’s a thousand dollars?”

John let out a series of frustrated sounds and then just went on with the topic. “No, we just… first time we met, Jane convinced us all to get super drunk and somehow that expanded into an orgy.”

“You must have been really drunk to let that happen all the way back then. I know how touchy you were about other men being in the room while you have sex, much less naked ones.” Maximillian stood up and got another beer. “I guess it was less an actual orgy and more you fucking next to each other?”

“Basically, yeah. It was still hella awkward, looking back at it,” John responded.

“Weird and good times,” Ted mumbled and downed his beer immediately. “Can you bring me one as well? You’re already on your feet.”

Magnus shook his head. “You will be back on the couch in an hour.”

“I’m willing to risk it,” Ted insisted, and moments later he and Maximillian were right back to drinking beer. John was still on his water and Magnus went to pour himself the whiskey that was to follow his own glass of rehydration.

“Checkmate,” Maximillian suddenly said. The Fateweaver looked away from his refilled whiskey and onto the chessboard with furrowed eyebrows. Inspecting the board thoroughly, Magnus had to concede defeat. “Since I have won, I now get to dictate what we do next,” he announced.

“That was never anything anyone said,” John told him.

“By royal decree, I disagree,” Maximillian stated, picking the king of the board and wiggling it in front of John’s face. Looking for help, the Gamer glanced over to the other two men. They seemed more interested in where this was going than in stopping it in its tracks. The thing was that John already knew where the king would order them to go. Realizing that he already knew, he also wondered why he was against it. “I suggest, in a kingly fashion, that we shall pack booze into John’s inventory to last us the trip and walk to the Little Whirl! I’ve had enough of being surrounded by sausages.”

“…Actually, not the worst idea ever,” John now threw his support behind this. “Striptease and blowjob sounds like exactly what I would want right about now.”

“Almost six hours,” Magnus said.

“Almost six hours what?” Maximillian asked.

John knew what this was about. “We managed to not give into our urge to fuck for six hours,” he explained.

“Is there booze in the Little Whirl?” Ted asked. “Because booze and strippers sound like a great combination.”

“Magnus, my long-haired subject,” Maximillian pointed at the Fateweaver with the head of the king he had taken from him, “will you follow or do you wish to veto this move? You seem so reluctant towards perversion this night.”

“I just noted that you’re horrible in keeping your cravings in check. I never said I didn’t want to go to a strip club,” Magnus responded with a smile.