“Did she just steal your date, buddy?” John asked.

“Did she just leave you for my date, buddy?” Maximillian questioned at the exact same moment.

Both of them remained stunned for two seconds longer, then they started laughing. The whole situation was just ridiculous. The one who had wanted the double date had just destroyed the entire premise.

“Think she planned that?” the gravity mage wanted to know.

“Jane? No, no, she didn’t. She didn’t even know Irielz by more than my and Momo’s mentions,” John firmly denied the idea. “She just thought that she was hot and rolled with it. You know how my girlfriend can be. Too charming for my good.” He looked around the place. “Think there’s a bench or something?”

Maximillian stopped in the step he had taken forward. “What would you need a bench for?”

“To sit down while we wait?” The Gamer made a puzzled expression, then realized what Maximillian was getting at. “Do you seriously want us to walk - alone together - around in the pinkest place on earth? The press will eat that up.”

The gravity mage blew air out of his nose in blatant mockery. “What are they going to write?” He raised one arm and wrote the fictional headline into the air. “World’s two most renowned playboys on gay date, the shocking truth about their sexuality.”

“Exactly that, yeah.”

Unsure which of three to do first, Maximillian rolled his eyes, shook his head, and wrinkled his forehead all at the same time. “You’re oddly stuck up sometimes. You certainly didn’t get that from Brenda.” He stopped and gave John a side glance. “You won’t get mad if I just say her name, right?”

“Depends on what else you’ll say.” John crossed his arms.

“Nothing more about her,” Maximillian guaranteed. “I’m just getting at the fact that you’re not only way too worried about what the public thinks, but you’re also weird in what you guess will be relevant. Don’t think about the paparazzi.” The well-dressed ‘gentleman’ put his hands into his pockets and smiled. “Think about what a funny story this will be for your friends.”

John sighed, knowing that his friend was exactly right. “Fine,” he agreed and, jokingly, added, “but, for the record, I’m taking you out on this date.”

“Fuck off, I’m paying,” the gravity mage declared and started to march towards the entrance.

It turned out that neither of them was paying. The almost creepily enthusiastic receptionist had only been waiting for them, as Rave had validated their reservation for four people. They were waved into the dome and left to their own devices.

“What even is this place?” Maximillian asked. “Can’t imagine this appeared on your front door without you knowing about it.”

“I’m more surprised that you don’t know about this,” the Gamer said, while they walked down the gentle blue coloured walkway. There was a moderate amount of activity around them, enough that the park felt used and yet so little that they knew they wouldn’t have to wait anywhere. “It’s the pet project of a bunch of Fateweavers. Rather than throw in their lot with any of the guilds, they decided to see if they could live the carnival life.”

“But instead of a fair they are lugging an entire theme park around,” Maximillian noted. “I suppose if they have the schematics in mind, the only thing they need is a power source. Everything else can be locally conjured.”

“Pretty much.” John nodded, looking around the various attractions. For the most part, they were basic rides. Cars, trains, or boats, using rails or water to go down a pre-defined, scenic route, often involving tunnels or such things. From a pure mechanical standpoint, these were among the easiest things to engineer, all it took was a vehicle and a chosen method of acceleration. More complicated attractions, be they on electronic or magical basis, were scarce. The whole operation was still in its early stages.

“You don’t seem upset that Jane ran off,” Maximillian observed, while they walked around randomly, dodging the mascot that distributed heart-shaped balloons. They didn’t care for the balloons or to pretend they were even searching for their dates. Wherever they had gone, when they wanted to be found, they would reach out.

John shrugged. Now that the initial surprise had worn off, he was clear-minded. “It’s just a thing she does sometimes. What about you?”

“Irielz kind of joked about it in the café and I didn’t take it seriously,” the gravity mage confessed, a sliver of defeat in his voice. “It’s honestly more amusing than anything else.”

“Hmm…” John hummed and looked around. He grabbed his friend by the shoulder and pointed at a nearby attraction. “Let’s try a ride.”

Maximillian’s left eyebrow shot up. “Tunnel of Love… seriously?”

“Hey, you were the one who suggested we should even go in here,” John retorted, turning his shoulder grab into a pat. “Running around a terribly pink park isn’t much of a story, but maybe the terribly pink ride will be.”

“Fair point.” They moved towards the attraction and only stopped for one moment so John could take the thickest of their clothes and move them into his inventory. The inside of the dome was heated by some no doubt arcane means.

Most attractions functioned without an overseer. Only those where the carts moved at speeds that the average Abyssal could get seriously injured if they did something stupid had people tending to them. The Tunnel of Love fell into the former category as the vessels of choice were boats that were gently pushed down the track by a soft stream.

John and Maximillian sat down next to each other in one of the passing boats (they had no other choice, it was a two-seater), and waited patiently to sail into the artificial mountain that had been placed where a suburban house would be in the mundane world. Darkness enveloped them. The sound of rushing water bounced from the walls.

“Do you love her?” John asked suddenly. He could practically feel the weirded-out glance of his friend. “What?”

“Buddy, you just invited me to the Tunnel of Love and now you want to know how much I like my date.” The gravity mage shook his head. “Look, I’m not as sensitive about orgies with other guys present as you are, but I’m seriously not into men.”

“Sure, but can you not dodge my question?”

Maximillian let out a long sigh. Before he answered, the boat picked up speed, rushing down a short and relatively steep slope. The rushing of the water grew louder, then they hit the straight track again. Splashing water slowed their speed back down to previous levels. Behind them, the rushing water grew quieter. Before them, pink and white light illuminated the cave, basking everything in a romantic twilight. Heart-shaped arches segmented the straight path of the tunnel into various areas, each of them dedicated to the happily ever after of one of many common tales.

Common Abyssal tales, John realized quickly, as he only recognized about half of them and rarely in the exact same manner as he was used to hearing. He would have loved to ask who the eighth and ninth dwarves were, when Maleficent had turned into an incredibly sexy tomboy, or whether he saw correctly that the Big Bad Wolf was actually the werewolf form of the grandma.

The current conversation took a serious turn though.

“I don’t know,” the gravity mage said and audibly put the back of his head against the tall back of the boat. What was doubtlessly a creation to keep people in the boats behind from seeing the people in front make out also acted as an incredibly good drum. “I’ve only met her like three weeks ago. That’s a bit short to know if you love someone.”

“…Is it?” the Gamer asked.

“Yes,” Maximillian asserted firmly and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Having that conversation with you would be impossible. What’s the longest you needed to get together with any of your haremettes, huh?”

“Depends on when you start counting,” John said, scratching the back of his head. “Three months, maybe? Anyway, we’re not talking about me.” Beating the bottom of the boat with his heels, the Gamer felt a sense of familiarity at the sound of hollow plastic. “I was sure you would show up with another one of your short-term interests.”

The response came quickly, “So was I. By Romulus, I’m still not sure if I’m not.” Visibly uncomfortable, Maximillian played with the button on his left sleeve. “Do I love her? Ask me something easier, buddy, because I couldn’t tell you. I definitely like her. She’s intriguing.”

“And probably a beast in bed,” John attempted to take some of the seriousness out of the air by making a joke.

It would have succeeded in a different situation. “I don’t know,” Maximillian confessed, however, and made a short wave. “It is really weird that of all the women I date the only one that doesn’t behave like a slut is the sex demon.”

John had no real response to that. Much like his love-finding situation, his time between meeting a woman and getting her in bed was far below the average. The best he could say was, “That is rather ironic, yeah.”

They left the heart-shaped arches behind. The boat was swept on top of a lifting mechanism that dragged them back up to the previous elevation. Because of the incline, they were halfway lying in the process, looking at a ceiling that was decorated with blinking lights to simulate a night sky. “It’s difficult to know what I want,” Maximillian kept going. “I don’t mind waiting until she feels ready.”

“Does she mind you seeing other women on the side?” John asked.

“No, she’s exactly what I would expect a succubus to be in that regard. When I asked her about it, she seemed more confused that this could even be an issue than anything else.” The self-exiled king laughed drily and shook his head. “I really like being with her. She also throws what I wanted to do into disorder. Do I want to be with her or do I want to really be with her? I wouldn’t mind if my eventual wife would approve of a harem lifestyle. I was already reconsidering if I wanted to fully settle down one day.” They reached the top of the slope and could see daylight at the other end. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I think you do,” John disagreed.

“Yeah… maybe…” Maximillian turned to John and put a hand on his cheek, gentle as if he was touching a flower. They gazed into each other’s eyes. Then they started laughing. Bouncing off the cave walls, their voices filled the tunnel until they made their way out. “Haaaaa… no, I really don’t know,” the gravity mage declared, wiping the joy out of his eyes, “but I think that’s fine. I’m not in a hurry.”

“She might be though,” John said, pointing at the two girls who were standing by the railing that separated the final stretch of the ride from the walkway. Without their disguises and out of their winter clothes, the catgirl and the demoness looked even better. The cropped top of Irielz was Metra levels of tiny.

“I knew ya two lovebirds would go in there,” Rave declared with a grin.

“How did you know that?” Irielz wanted to know, while the two walked next to the boat as it sailed back into the station.

“I told you she has some kind of mind reading ability,” Maximillian told his date. The smile from the previous laughter seemed to grow even wider now that she was around. “It’s creepy.”

“Don’t ya call me creepy for understanding that my tiger wants to drive through the Tunnel of Love with ya,” Rave complained.

“It’s highly unusual,” John confessed.

“And don’t ya stab me in the back!”

“Hey, I wasn’t the one who left without a word.”

“I waved!”

“Waves are not words.”

“Semantics.”

“Not at all.”

“If it means that I’m wrong otherwise, it’s always semantics.”

John pushed air out of his nose in an amused fashion and got out of the boat. No sooner was he on his feet than Rave handed him her jacket. “I see you only came back to make sure you don’t have to carry your own stuff,” he drily analysed, while placing her giant jacket in his inventory. A moment later, he did the same for Irielz’s winter garment.

“Totes’,” Rave said. Then she pulled John to the side a little bit, so that Maximillian and the succubus couldn’t hear her whisper. “Nah, but seriously, Irielz seemed to feel kinda bad about it, so I just made up the excuse to get back.” The two of them glanced to the other half of the double date, laughing at whatever had just been said between them. They looked back to each other. “Ya think this is a serious thing?”

“I think yes but they don’t know that themselves yet,” John responded with a grin.