Funatic
patreon
The Gamer Chapter 1089 – Beautiful home and bureaucracy
🕑 Added 2021-10-14 16:14:59 +0000 UTC“We’re out the barrier for thirty minutes and we’re already back at work,” Momo said, as they walked through the hallways of the Fusion Administration.
“People in high government positions don’t get holidays – especially if an important event is planned for that holiday,” John responded. “We do get to play golf all year round though.”
“That sport is as boring as watching paint dry.”
“The sport itself is rather dull, yeah.” John pointed at a door not too far ahead of them. “It’s useful to get to know people though. You spend so much time walking over the landscape that you can test them. Plus, you would be surprised how many selfish rulebreakers you can find by feigning you look the other way.”
“Hmm, okay… I’m still not learning it.”
“We’ll see how you think about that in a month’s time, when all the invitations come in.” The Gamer stopped in front of his office and opened the door. “So, this is where I work. Also where the whole blowjob schedule takes place.”
Momo stepped inside and had a quick look around. She spotted the foldable bed in the single closet of the room immediately. “Of course,” was her only comment in that regard. The inside of the desk she seemed to avoid on principle. They both knew she would end up there soon enough. “At least you take sorting seriously.”
“I need to be able to find things in case anybody wants to tell me it wasn’t their job to get it done,” the Gamer said, half-jokingly. “Anyway, you’ll spend more time here later.”
“Oh, will I?” Momo crossed her arms.
“Yes,” the Gamer asserted with a soft smile, that disarmed any kind of verbal resistance she might have put up. Putting both hands on her shoulders, he turned her around and directed her back out the door. “Let’s get to your office.”
It was just one door over, far from a long walk. “Is this a strategic placement so I get horny when I hear you fucking while I work?” the sassy support asked.
“I made the walls too soundproof for that,” John denied the allegation outright and closed the door behind them. “Honestly, I wouldn’t mind joining the offices, but you will need your own storage space.”
As far as the layout was concerned, the chancellor’s office copied the president’s one in most aspects. A large desk was at the opposite end of the room, in front of the large window. The remaining three walls were all covered in wooden shelves. The floor was solid, smooth stone. What was missing were the numerous little and large adjustments to optimize the comfort of coitus in the environment and the secretary desk Beatrice often occupied.
The room was pretty barren. While Aclysia had left behind all of the documents and the computer, she had cleaned out any personal touches to the room. Consequently, it was an extremely ‘officey’ office. Momo didn’t seem to mind and scanned the folders on the shelves. “Anything there I haven’t read the past few days?”
“Provided that you have read everything…” John caught the patronising glance she gave him at that, as if there was any other possibility, “…then no.”
“That’s one thing I don’t have to inspect then.” Momo plopped her maid uniform clad butt down on the office chair and pressed the button. The soft buzzing of electronics announced the booting up of the computer. John circled around the desk to help her where she needed it. About thirty minutes of only minor advice and direction pointing later, Momo was about as worked in as she reasonably could be.
“Don’t forget, we have a meeting with the cabinet in an hour,” the Gamer said on the way out.
“Oh great, people,” Momo sarcastically remarked, while her fingers danced over the keyboard. “I love dealing with those. I’ll have notes ready.”
“Fantastic.” John smiled and returned to his own office. Despite her initial complaints, he knew that Momo was eager to get back to something productive. The girl was a workaholic. If she didn’t have something precise to achieve, she’d search until she did. During the entire tour of the Administration, starting at the offices of the basic bureaucrats and ending just now, her fingers had been twitching in anticipation.
The Gamer was also eager to get back to work, although his reason had little to do with a universal love for occupation itself. Until after the meeting, he was on his own in the office, which made it the perfect time to experiment with the new Interface Skill he had gotten.
As soon as the computer was running, he placed his fingers on the keyboard and cast the spell. It was a new but also familiar sensation when a spark of magic leapt from his fingers and proceeded to integrate itself in the electronics of the keyboard. ‘Let’s see how Scarlett’s powers work,’ he thought and tried opening the administration software with his mind.
Only to find that it wasn’t quite that simple.
John’s mental ‘avatar’ within the network of electronic devices was currently inside the keyboard. The only thing he could do from there was to send out letters, numbers and codes. Doing even that last one required more effort than he would have thought. Essentially, his Interface was a single finger worth of a precision tool, able to press one key before it had to travel over to the next socket. To press two, he had to split that avatar, which was a lot harder than he thought and definitely harder than to do it with his hands.
‘There has to be a simpler way to do this,’ John thought and sent his avatar through the wire and into the actual computer. Certainly, so the theory, if he could just stimulate the hardware directly, that would be faster.
The theory might have been sound, but being inside the motherboard was like standing in the middle of a New York intersection during the busiest hour of the day. There was such an absurd amount of information flowing around him that he didn’t know where he could, much less should, even start to interact with it.
‘Alright, let’s stick to input devices for now,’ he thought and searched around until he found the USB ports. Taking the route up to his mouse, he took control of his cursor. It moved around the same speed his hand would have, which wasn’t impressive whatsoever. ‘At least it’s useful enough to warrant using,’ he told himself. ‘Things should get better after I gather some levels in the Skill.’
Now that he understood, in part, how technomancy worked, his respect for Scarlett’s work massively increased. The speed and the precision with which she created code and interacted across hundreds of kilometres were a lot more impressive now that he knew how little a beginner could do.
Keeping Interface up, he let himself sink into the Mind of Work. His motivation to work suddenly rivalled the motivation of a thirteen-year-old to do one more quest in his MMO of choice. One more file, one more phone call, one more turn, it was all the same to him while he was in this state of mind. He worked steadily and efficiently. Suddenly, the hour was over and he had to tear himself away from the screen.
When he stepped away from his desk, he felt his Interface connection dissolve. It felt like he was a sugar cube in hot water. One step, one stir, and he was gone. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling and John resolved to cut the connection manually next time. As easily as that could be done, there was no reason to subject himself to the sensation again.
Knocking on Momo’s door, he was quickly greeted by the sassy maid opening it for him. There was a binder under her arm. Black and white, it harmonized well with her maid uniform and general aesthetic.
“You’re beautiful,” John greeted her and pre-emptively waved off. “Yes, yes, I saw you an hour ago. Take the compliment.”
“…Sure, Master,” Momo resigned herself to being flattered and stepped up to him. “Can I have something more than words though?” she asked, a nervous undertone in her voice.
John gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “You’ll do fine.”
“You sure?”
“Come on, it’s you,” the Gamer placed a hand on her cheek and looked at her with the vast and earnest appreciation he had for her, “you will figure this out.”
Taking a deep breath, Momo nodded and then they moved back to his office, to take the teleporter to the Palace and from there to the Fusion Capitol. Most cabinet meetings happened there, for several reasons. To begin with, it was the most convenient location for most of the attendants. While John did most of his work from the Fusion Administration, the offices of most ministers were actually in the Dome of Power, the building at the centre of the Capitol where the House of Exceptionals held its sessions.
Along with their offices, the offices of many of the additional attendants were also around the Capitol. Those contained, but were not limited to: civil servants, invited legislative members, party leaders, advisors, representatives, and the occasional journalist. Since John and the last chancellor could teleport over, it wasn’t reasonable to request they come to them, across the water. Not that John was even in the habit of attending every single cabinet session. This was his chancellor’s domain.
Counting all of the major and minor ministries, there were around two dozen ministers present. They sat around a long, elliptical table, dominating the centre of the room. Along the walls were a massive number of chairs, in which the aforementioned additional attendants were seated. Usually, these cabinet meetings weren’t visited well enough to warrant more than a single row of chairs, but today was special. A new chancellor was being introduced, after all.
He and Momo sat down on a pair of chairs at one end of the table. They were also closest to the door they had entered through, but with the total of ten entrances for the room, that signified fairly little. With them sitting down, there was only a single seat left empty, located directly to John’s left.
“Shouldn’t they be respectfully greeting you or something?” Momo whispered towards John, who looked through the papers that had been placed in front of him. It was the order of today’s topics, put together by Momo herself. Other cabinet members were doing the same, while they chattered about this and that at a moderate volume.
“Fusion is young but not that young,” John answered just as quietly. “The only time someone speaks here out of official capacity is because they’re bored or because they want something. Nobody likes cabinet meetings, so we keep the formalities to a minimum so they’re over quickly.”
The final minister to enter the room did so twenty seconds before the meeting was scheduled to start. Beatrice stepped in with her usual passiveness, calmly closed the door, and walked to the chair to John’s left. She sat down and the room got quiet. It had become tradition that her arrival signified the start of events.
Typically, this was when Aclysia had stood up and addressed the people with a quick rundown of recent news and the most urgent matters on the schedule. Today, it was the Gamer who got up. “Ministers, advisors, and other attendants,” he raised his voice, to be heard across the large room, “I thank you for being here for our final meeting of the year. To start with, I want to thank all of you for your service. Some of you have worked in my government from the beginning, others are recent additions. Regardless, your work is important for the prosperity of the Federation.”
He took a deliberate pause and sipped on some readily provided water. “I won’t bore you with the details of our successes or bother you with our failures, that will be for the New Year’s speech. Instead, let’s jump straight into the first order of business: the appointment of my new chancellor.” He gestured at Momo, who shily raised her hand and waved.
John had to bite the inside of his cheek not to laugh. The contrast between her public and private confidence was stark. Under the table, the sassy maid kicked the side of his lower leg. It wasn’t strong enough to make him sway in any noticeable way.
Once he was sure his voice wouldn’t reflect his amusement, he continued, “As you are aware, Aclysia stepped down recently. Luckily, I found, or was blessed with the return of, a suitable replacement already. Everyone, this is Momo Firefly.” Using her full name felt weird, but she had chosen it for herself and he respected that. “She will take over the rest of the procedures.” There was a small amount of clapping while Momo got up and John sat down.
“Thank you, ministers,” she spoke woodenly and cleared her throat. “Excuse me,” she said and looked around. That was a big mistake. John could practically feel the discomfort radiating from her, growing with each passing second of silence. She was only too aware that everyone was staring and waiting.
John put a hand on her butt, for once only because it was the part of her closest to him. Uncertain, she looked at him. Silently, he formed the words, ‘You got this’. He could have said it more definitively, mentally or verbally, but deemed this amount of encouragement enough.
And it was. Momo took another deep breath and exhaled slowly, casting out her doubts. She had trained for this. Not only with the big Charisma boost he had given her, but through actual addresses directed at the harem as well. It was a poor substitute for public speaking lessons, to speak to a crowd made up of those you love. Regardless, she knew she could speak well. All she needed was to lean on that knowledge and ignore the rest.
“I am certain you’re all rather sick of seeing John’s Artificial Spirits occupy the high government positions,” she joked, getting a few chuckles out of the room. “I assure all of you that I bring the necessary elan and competence to fulfil the demands of my office. For now, I will concentrate on continuing where my predecessor left off. Only once I’m more experienced will I start rocking the boat, so to speak. Without further ado, let’s check on the current points of order.”
Everyone repositioned their chairs as they turned away from Momo and to the sheets of paper on the table. John could feel the remaining tenseness fall off the fairy maid the moment the eyes were off her. Reading down the list, she was clearly more comfortable.
“The current news cycle leaves us without urgent matters, although we are still dealing with the aftermath of the Death Zone. How are the interior affairs handling things?”
“No change from the usual. The people appear to be widely happy with the handling of the situation. Resettling of the people in the evacuated areas has mostly concluded. As for the demons we took in, they seem to be doing well in their assigned occupations. We moved one of them around, but otherwise have received no complaints.”
“Good. Foreign office, any changes to the responses of other nations?”
“The section of foreign guilds that doubt our claims that the president has routed out a Lorylim infestation that large has consolidated into a small network. Majorly, we enjoy foreign support in the way we reported the events. The Order of the Golden Rose continues to bother us every six hours, however, and I would like to formally complain about that.”
Momo looked at John. “Anything you have to say about that?” she asked, a hint of her bite coming through.
With a hand still on her ass, now a squeezing rather than reassuring presence, and a smile on his face, he shrugged. “The problem will be dealt with next year. If you feel bothered, you can put the calls through to Beatrice.”
“With all due respect,” the foreign minister said, “that is more likely to create more issues than solve them.”
John sighed and made his thoughts very clear. “The Order as an organization is rigid in its mission, but they are militarists over diplomats – they will not be gravely offended if our communications consist of back-and-forth jokes and demands.” The minister did not seem entirely convinced. “If you don’t trust me, will you at least trust my track record?”
“I do trust you, Mister President,” the minister was quick to assure.
“Assertion: then put them through to me,” Beatrice chimed in. “The problem will be dealt with.”
Resigned, the minister said, “Alright…”
“Since you’re already talking, John, as head of the armed forces, how are things going in the clean-up?”
“Slow, steady, nothing of value to report in either this or the Gestalt affair,” the Gamer said. It was the truth, but even if something had happened, he wouldn’t have shared it with the cabinet unless they had to know. Once the cabinet knew it, there was a timer on how long until things reached the public.
“Unless anybody has remarks on this, I would deem this point of order concluded.” Momo looked around the room and, since nobody spoke up, turned her page. Everyone else followed suit and the fairy maid continued, “Then we move onto the simple points of next week.”
What followed was about two hours of basic governance. Reports of projects that were getting started or moved from the jurisdiction of one ministry to another, requests for additional funds, questions of certain new laws and how they impacted future plans, requests for additional funds, obfuscation of federal efforts by local government, requests for additional funds, the commissioning of reports/independent investigations into certain matters, and requests for additional funds.
Luckily, Beatrice was in the seat of the finance minister and she had absolutely no qualms about slapping anything down that looked even remotely like wasteful spending.
“Now, for the final and biggest point of order,” Momo said and the room got quiet again, “the upcoming New Year’s festivities and the consequent addition of the Lake Alliance to the Fusion Federation.”
A topic to which the ministers only had to nod to.
){kind=link}