“”HAPPY BIRTHDAY!”” multiple shouts greeted the two of them when John opened the door of the saloon on the base floor. As Rave had pointed out, the upper level was for hobby and private activities while the lower floor was for parties. It was only fitting, in John’s opinion, that the floor in between struck some sort of middle ground.

It was more of a traditional drinking establishment. A simple carpet and wooden furniture combined with the mahogany bar into an Irish pub feeling. Small speakers hung in the corners, the light could switch between many colours, but the former couldn’t reach the absurd, teeth-rattling bass levels the subwoofers underground could produce and the latter were limited in scope, variety and switching speed to a make for a less distracting background experience.

The intent was to have a place where people could have beers and talk without going overboard with their partying. A staircase and two elevators connected this floor with the one below. Another two elevators were sealed off, unless one had the necessary key card. Which, as of that moment, only he and Rave had.

“Thank you, thank you!” Rave said, looking around the gathered people. The entire harem was there, save the ones of John’s girls still missing or self-exiled. Further than that, Magoi, Mabirl and Magnus Magus had taken the time out of their day to attend. Even Maximillian was there. Although definitely more John’s friend than Rave’s, the vacationing king got along with the Lightbearer well enough that John felt like inviting him. “Really kind of y’all to sh-“ the rest of her sentence got stuck in her throat when she saw three particular people peel out of the crowd.

Regan and Nariko Hollmey walked towards their daughter. Although it had been months since John had last seen either of them, they hadn’t changed much. Both were marching towards their fifties and, despite their advanced levels (especially in Nariko’s case) showed that more clearly than other Abyssals that John had run into. If he had to take a wild guess at the why, it was probably due to stress.

A man with a stubby, three-day beard of average height and normal brown hair, Regan seemed to compensate for the dark rings under his eyes with his odd clothes. Today, he was wearing a stylish, dark blue suit jacket over a bright Hawaiian shirt, complete with palm tree iconography. A bright green bow tie, more fitting on a clown than a businessman, added visual confusion to the already clashing outfit. The cargo pants didn’t help either. At least his shoes, black, polished and with dark laces, fit with the jacket.

Nariko was a bit subtler in her weirdness. Sure, the traditional Japanese kimono that she appeared in wasn’t usual for this part of the world, but at least it was one piece of normal clothing. It had the same midnight blue colour of her dishevelled hair, halfway tamed by a ponytail. Pink flower patterns decorated the robe and the English butler gloves stuck out of her wide sleeves like a grandfather clock in a porcelain shop.

A bit behind them, looking a lot more presentable in her green top and jeans, the green-haired Liz Hollmey looked at her parents and older sister with worried glances. An emotion that John shared. Although he had been the one to organize this meeting, he was not quite sure how it would go.

“See, I had something prepared for this,” Regan spoke up in the silence of his daughter, “but then your lovely companion here,” he gestured at a very happily lounging Copernicus, lying on one of the many wooden tables, “presented me with the perfect gift for you.”

A glass was raised. A regular jar for pickles, the preserved vegetables still swimming inside. It would have been perfectly normal, were it not for the confused, golden crocodile hatchling sitting inside the glass. Looking past the rim, one pickle stuck in his tiny jaw, Stirwin looked around.

“It’s a croco-dill,” Regan boasted.

Everyone groaned. John especially hard, but even everyone already in the room, who must have seen the jar in advance and been prepared for something, was affected by the absolutely terrible pun. Pinching the bridge of her nose, Nariko shook her head.

Only Rave let out a tiny, “Heh,” and snapped out of her frozen state. “That’s just so you, Dad.” She walked up and lightly punched his shoulder. “Ya cut me off your money, break contact and then ya suddenly show up again and what’s the first thing ya say? A pun.”

“…You sound a bit unhappy to see me,” Regan carefully suggested.

“Whaaaaat?” Rave crossed her arms. “Noooooo. Why would I be unhappy to see my parents, one of which spent the majority of her life NOT spending time with me, especially on my birthdays, and the other spending the majority of my life NOT telling me why she did that.” She turned around to John and waggled her finger at him menacingly. “Ya gonna answer for this later, Johnny!”

“Your polyamorous boyfriend was at least considerate enough to invite us,” Nariko stated, folding her arms into the expansive sleeves. “Something you could learn from. We’ve been waiting for you to call us.”

“Oh, it’s ‘us’ again, is it?” Rave asked. “Of course, your first action is to berate me, Mother. What’cha gonna do next, effectively disappear from my life for 12 years and then join the enemy faction during some war against Fusion?”

“It’s unbecoming of a Hollmey to hold unnecessary grudges,” Nariko declared. “I did what I knew to be best at the time. Learn, live and move on, Jane, you should have taken at least that much from my lessons.”

The happy birthday aura in the room was under serious threat, so the Gamer took some drastic measures. Before his girlfriend could answer and this family drama could worsen, he firmly grabbed Rave by the hand and dragged her towards the bar. “Sit down here for a moment, would you?” he requested. Her lips pressed together, she nevertheless played along. The Gamer then gestured towards the rest of the Hollmey family to follow suit, which they thankfully did. Liz led that charge, less invested in this emotional conflict than anyone else.

Dispersing a bit, the remainder of the crowd broke up into little groups that got their individual topics going. They all would follow the happenings with the family somewhat closely though. Drama was always tantalizing. ‘Beatrice, I swear to God, if you or Metra get involved in this, I will do unspeakable things to you,’ he mentally warned the passive maid that was hanging around a bit too close for comfort. The last thing he needed when dealing with a precarious family situation was a straight-sassing maid delivering robot talk.

Beatrice stepped three steps away from the bar, behind which John took his place and grabbed a bottle of sambuca. Without asking, he poured four shots out and placed them before the silently brooding family. Liz, to his left, got hers first. Then Regan, Nariko and finally Rave.

“Sweet,” Liz remarked gleefully, staring at the clear liquid, “illegal drinking.”

“Cheers, I guess.” Rave was willing to pull along with this easily, at least. Her mother wasn’t, but under the peer pressure of the rest of her family, she caved and all present Hollmeys exchanged a quick clinking of glasses followed by the downing of the alcohol. The ring on Nariko’s left hand showed for just a moment.

“Alright,” John took the glasses back, “Jane, I promised in the past to not try and patch up your family situation, and that isn’t what this is.” He leaned onto the counter and gave her the most serious glance he could muster. “If you get along with your parents again or not is up to you, I just wanted to break the radio silence.”

“…Does this mean I’m unnecessary around here?” Liz asked.

“No,” Rave answered, looking at her dangling feet, “you’re the only one that’s allowed to stay, guaranteed.”

“Nice.” The youngest Hollmey smirked. Evidently, she was used to the family drama and just took it with some humour.

“So,” John sighed and looked at the parents, Nariko in particular, “I did my part. I wish you would show half the enthusiasm you displayed when I contacted you.”

“Honestly surprised ya showed up, Mother,” Rave added in a mumble. “Of all the birthdays, it’s this one.”

“I… happen to have time now…” Nariko said slowly.

“And ya got back together?” Gesturing at the ring, the Lightbearer voiced the obvious question, “It’s really ‘us’ again now?”

“After the Five Day War concluded,” Regan chimed in, “things went a bit hectic. The Abyss Auction was ready to let your mother go at any given time, should the new ruler of Germany demand it. That was the ploy to retain public relations from the start.”

John remembered theorizing that at the time. Since Nariko had worked with Maximillian, should the gravity king have won, she would have secured expansive trading concessions for the Abyss Auction. A monopoly had to be well-maintained, after all. Having it appear like Nariko was acting on her own was the way they had plausible deniability in the case, which had come true, that Lydia won instead.

“A demand that has never and will never come,” John pointed out; he fashioned himself a bit of an expert on the mindset of the current ruler of Germany. He had very deep and repeated contact with her, after all.

“Yes,” Nariko agreed. “But the highest echelons remain wary. Germany is one of our most profitable markets, while also having the biggest competition in the NTC and HTC. My importance in the Abyss Auction was diminished and hasn’t been restored since. In respect to my past accomplishments, I remain on a high pay, but I had enough time then and my career prospects are frozen, for the moment, so I got into contact with Regan again.” The same put a hand on hers, and she took it gladly. “It took us a few weeks, but we decided to try the whole marriage thing again.”

“Fantastic that I hear about this now, months later,” Rave said and drummed with her fingers on the bar. “Ya know, I actually did send you a message every now and again, right? It’s not the weekly updates you demanded I give you, but it's way more than your ‘noted’ answer messages! I never got anything else back, so why would I bother inviting you to a birthday I didn’t want to celebrate in the first place?”

“It would have shown that you possess at least a modicum of adulthood.”

Rave took a very deliberate and slow breath. “Mom,” she then said, “you’re an entitled twat.”

“Jane Hollmey,” Nariko’s expression was one of deep disappointment, “you will speak to me with respe-“

“OR WHAT?!” the Lightbearer interrupted with a shout and jumped to her feet. The blue martial arts Aura flared up around her, activated by pure agitation. “You’re going to give me a curfew? Try beating me up? I’m stronger than you are and I have been doing fine without you for years! I could go the rest of my life without ever knowing what you do! If all you want to do is scold me for everything, you can fuck right off to whatever hole you crawled out off, you greedy, stuck-up, selfish harpy!”

Nariko was actually speechless at this outburst, as was the rest of the room. Rarely did Rave actually curse and fewer times did she get angry. At that moment, the wrath had turned her beautiful face into a reddened grimace. John just opened himself a beer, as Regan looked to him for help in the prolonged silence that followed.

The Gamer shrugged. As far as he was concerned, his girlfriend was absolutely in the right. Granted, he was very biased, he had heard her rant about her parents’ lack of communications for months, but he liked to think he had the objective side of things on his side as well. It was very telling that Brenda had called Rave more times in one month than Nariko and Regan had in the past year.

Unless things got violent or the discussion was getting stuck somewhere, he had no intention of intervening.

“I wanted you to have a home,” Nariko said, too shaken to make her voice sound anything else than hollow, “I thought you understood that by now.”

“I accepted your reasoning, I never said I approve of it! I don’t know that home,” Rave spat out, her arms flying around as she gestured wildly. “I’m sure it’s nice, fuck it, I would love to go there. Just… the second we at least talked again, you abandoned any real contact again! I just wanted a family!”

“I didn’t abandon you, you were doing fine,” Nariko defended herself.

“YOU GOT MARRIED AGAIN! MY JOHN GOT HIS EYES BURNED OUT!” Rave screamed from the top of her lungs. “AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN SEND ME A GAIA-DAMNED MESSAGE!” Moments passed and Rave’s Aura suddenly fizzled out as her voice broke into a quieter tone. “At least an offer to talk about things, that’s all I would have needed… I got that from Dad, I got that from Liz, just you, after all the efforts I made, because I somehow thought maybe we could at least talk to each other when it was important, just you left me alone.” John came out from behind the bar to hug his girl, now that she was getting a bit calmer again. “I didn’t think you could and you somehow still disappointed me…” She sniffled into John’s shoulders. “I fucking hate my birthdays.”

Copernicus hopped onto the bar and sat down in front of Nariko. The suncat, to the day one year under contract now, only stared silently at Nariko in that insistent, judging way only cats could.

“I…” Nariko started. “Do you… do you really mean you would rather never hear from me again?”

Of all the things that Rave had said, that had apparently struck her mother the hardest. “Yes.” Rave’s answer might as well have been a slap. Perhaps, a slap would have been more merciful. “I would rather have this lingering disappointment in my life than you.”

Nariko hid her eyes behind her hand, as she rested her arm on the bar. “I am so sorry, Jane…” she whispered. “I didn’t know that… I thought…” She never finished any justification or defence for her actions. “I am sorry,” was all she said at the end of it.

Rave grabbed John’s back intensely. “…What do I do now?” his girlfriend whispered, confused by that reaction. “I just… needed to unload all of that.”

“Depends how much you care about your family,” John answered just as quietly. “You can either throw her out or try to sit down again. There’s no guarantee Nariko will learn from any of this, so you might have the same problem as before if you do. Ultimately, you have to go with your heart.”

“I don’t like what my heart is telling me though,” Rave complained.

“There’s never a way to absolute happiness, only to better days,” John reminded her. With a sigh, Rave then removed her arms from his back and began distancing herself.

“I hate ya for putting me through today, tiger,” she said. “We are gonna have a talk about bad surprises later.”

John nodded. He deserved that much. Although he had known that something bad was going to happen, he hadn’t thought it would go this bad, but given that Rave returned to the bar and sat on the stool next to Nariko, things seemed to go back on the upswing.

‘Guess I better return to my post as well,’ John thought and walked behind the bar. As much as he didn’t want to be actively involved in the reconciliation, he was still her boyfriend and should at least be around. ‘Also, I think a few more drinks will make this go down a bit smoother… or they could have the opposite effect… better moderate things carefully.’