LupineVolt
Now with 200% more Puns
- Location
- Michigan
Turns since spending time with Minotaur: -24
Dragon Harem Quest - Or: Saying You Were Gay Wasn't The Conversation-Ender You Hoped For
- Thread starter ZerbanDaGreat
- Start date
- Original
- Location
- Ohio
so after these 8 listes and the bull-guy possiblity, there is at least one mystery man left?
Madou Sutegobana
Autocorrupt has been disabled.
- Location
- Twin Realms Mandala
So, I've noticed many of the husbando squad have uniforms. And Eldingar is in charge of the entertainment for an upcoming event...
Salty
Shadow Cabal Assumptor Supreme
- Location
- Sun, Moon, Talia
- Pronouns
- I/Me
Look, we'll get to Zerban's husbulldo when we get to him.
LupineVolt
Now with 200% more Puns
- Location
- Michigan
I know, I'm just placing my bet. Mark my words. 24 updates from now, we take the Bull by the Horns.
wait no that part might be later.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
[X] Gather everyone together for a 'cooking class', starring Issachar. Everyone seemed pretty much on-board with the idea when it came up, and maybe fostering their relationships with each other will make the whole 'harem' even out a bit. Of course you may end up sixth-wheeling it.
- Location
- Ohio
If it was earlier in the story, it would be Eldingar grabbed by the horns if they where not so spikey.
Last edited:
Nidhoggr
Suletta Permetta
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Heh
[X] Abzu. You can give them a heads-up that Datu's showing up with the lamp in a few days, for what it's worth. But honestly you just want to spend more time with them, their ability to be excited about things is quasi-infectious.
- Location
- Ohio
This will be fun.
[X] Belial. It's been a while since... The Event, and you're starting to wonder how he's felt since. You're starting to wonder how you've felt since, too.
Romv
A Memory of TREES
[X] Gather everyone together for a 'cooking class', starring Issachar. Everyone seemed pretty much on-board with the idea when it came up, and maybe fostering their relationships with each other will make the whole 'harem' even out a bit. Of course you may end up sixth-wheeling it.
I want them all.
I want them all.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Belial Keeps Slicing To The Heart Of Things Unexpectedly, The Incubus Is A Menace And Must Be Stopped
ZerbanDaGreat
Daemon Noble of D E M O G R A P H I C S
- Pronouns
- They/them
Probably Belial. There's plenty of options and even those who would likely be less of an... ordeal to talk to at this stage but it should be Belial and the weight of that 'should' settles across your shoulders like a very passive-aggressive hug, murmuring the demon's name while pointedly grinding a heel into your wing joint. You grumble for it to shut up for once and rise, shaking off a few loose coins and wiping your place clean with your tail as you descend from the pile - you'll need to shape a new divot sized for your true form when you come back anyway.
Leaving Jun-ho to doze you descend into the bowels of your newly-renovated spire, a certain level of dread rising in your stomach with every step you take down the stairs cut into the raw stone. You reach the bottom and everything seems... pretty much fine? A bit industrial for your tastes but you suppose you can always ask them to come back and spruce it up a bit, maybe do some surfacing work, but they made sure to leave a generous amount of head-clearance for residents of all sizes and horn-shapes.
You stop dead once you hit an intersection and rapidly drum your talons against your scaly chin because you're now lost in your own home.
There's a brief, frenzied period of wandering the halls checking behind every newly-added door, finding a great many brand new guest bedrooms with basic furnishing and a couple bigger rooms you don't actually stay long enough to look at in any greater detail, before you burst into Belial's room unexpectedly and find yourself frozen in the doorway as the incubus on the bed notices your arrival.
For just one irrational moment you almost fear he's doing something indecent like... you don't know, 'entertaining a client' or posing as he lies in wait for you in brand new lingerie he picked up somewhere or something, but no. Belial's just lying there on top of the covers, legs crossed at the ankle and talons laced behind his head, with his tail lazily curled on the sheets beside him, looking pensively up at the ceiling. You notice the bandage on his chest is gone, just a few parallel raised lines remaining on his chest as proof he was ever hurt.
"Hm? What's up?" he asks, craning his neck. "You look all flustered."
"Nope no not at all," you reply instantly. "Incidentally would you like to take a look around the spire with me? I'd like a second opinion on what further work I should get the contractors to do."
He snorts gently, a smile spreading across his face. Is this what someone being happy to see you is like? Belial sits up with a flex of the solid core beneath the softness of his stomach, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. He winces in discomfort, slightly yet noticeably, and seems eager to take his weight off the bed.
"Is something the matter?" you ask.
He waves his hand dismissively. "Oh, it's nothing. I told you I'm pretty overly sensitive, yeah? Even some fabrics can really start to irritate if I touch them the wrong way." He holds up one tar-armoured hand, flexing the glistening talons. "This stuff is demonic essence, basically what our food turns into once we've absorbed it and what fuels our magic. Using it as armour is pretty much the first trick you pick up, not just for self-defence but so you can get around and get stuff done. Much as being carried everywhere in a palanquin instead probably appeals to most."
"Makram's pretty much got that covered," you remark.
"Yep. Lucky little bastard." Belial rests his hands on his hips. "Shall we? We can still talk while we take a look around."
"Oh, yes of course of course."
It's mostly just retracing your steps. You'd say it's different because you weren't paying much attention the first time, but honestly you aren't the second time either. You take every opportunity to look at Belial instead, walking side-by-side with you in the spaciously wide subterranean corridors of freshly-shaped stone. There's something oddly appealing to the way the click of his heel-talons echoes within the space, the staccato 'pop' of his rear and sway of his hips with every step. And you must admit, given more time to think it over even his slightly overhanging belly is pretty cute. It doesn't diminish the strength underneath it he worked so hard to cultivate, if anything it was an appealing layer of softness that made it so much nicer when he held you and-
Shit he's looking at you and you've just been staring silently at him for most of the 'tour' this is horrendous. Belial smiles, baring a sliver of ivory fang as he mock-punches you in the arm.
"Bit silly to be all self-conscious about looking at me at this stage, Eldingar," he says.
"Well... yes but... well..." you protest. "... mneh."
You open the door to the next room as a brilliant cover, and it seems to work. The pair of you head in to have a look around. Looks like the main - or at least 'a' - dining room, complete with attached kitchen area accessible from either here or the hallway. Belial does a circuit of the room while you stand by the door, ghosting his hand along the backs of each chair as he passes.
"It's a bit weird to consider actually living somewhere for the forseeable future," he says conversationally, casually curling his claws around the top of the last chair in the circuit. "Having my own bed especially. It's not really, well, standard procedure."
"What is?" you ask, like you haven't exhaustively read up on the function and habits of incubi in your youth. From the look he shoots you out of the corner of his eye you're pretty sure he's thinking the same thing, but he takes it as the attempt at conversation you intended it to be.
"Staying the night to cuddle is a pretty rare indulgence on its own," he says. "The nature of the job is it's primarily a 'one and done' sorta thing. If you were sent then the contract is up once you've successfully seduced the guy away from whatever-it-is, and if you were summoned that's usually a per-night basis. You absorb as much as you can while you're in the real world so you've got a windfall between jobs."
"You've never had any longer relationships?" you ask.
He chuckles. "Define 'longer'. We're working on very different timescales here."
"Uhh... longest then?"
He shifts through a few expressions in rapid succession. Lips twisting this way and that, like he can't be sure whether to chuckle or smirk wryly or frown or... what. He averts his eyes, drumming his talons on the chair-back once.
"What I'm curious about is what your end-goal is here," he says finally, lifting his gaze to meet yours.
You blink. "Eh?"
"It's not an unreasonable question," he says. "Out of every guy you knew and were attracted to, you chose to lose your virginity to me. Now I'm hardly upset and I'm glad I was able to make that good for you, but the fact remains that I'm still here and there's even more guys on the way to join the little boyfriend boarding-house we've got coalescing here. So; what is it you want out of this?"
"I- well-"
This is going terrible and you regret every life-choice you've ever made. Is it hot in here? It feels extremely hot in here. You wish you had a collar to loosen. Good gods you need some air, where's the nearest escape route. You know it's a sign of weakness that you break eye contact with him but you can't help it, your gaze is darting all over the place like you'll find the right answer etched into the stone by a surprisingly forward-thinking contractor.
"I-it's in a dragon's nature to uh- t-to hoard precious things-" you try.
"Shh. Shh sh-sh." Belial steps forward, taking one of your hands and sandwiching it between his comfortingly. "Shhhh. That's dumb."
You start at the bare-faced cheek of his response. "N- nuh-uh," you retort sagely.
"Eldingar I need to head this off nice and early," he says patiently. "You are not going to come out of all this with a harem. I'm sure it sounds very appealing in your head but let me be frank, as someone who's dipped his toe in some harems in his time, they don't work out. Not in any long-term way. A relationship is about giving as much as you're given in turn, and I'm sorry, you don't have enough to give to provide for - what is it now, seven people?"
"(S'about seven once Lyrros n' Datu get here yeah)" you reply in a strained voice.
"Seven people," he repeats. "You can't be enough of a boyfriend to seven people all at once, nobody can. And I can tell you already, I'm the only one who'd willing to 'wait his turn' 'cause I'm used to it. Jun-ho's probably a close second but even he'll have his limits."
"Yeah." It's pretty weak as far as responses go but it's all you've got right now. Oh you certainly feel the urge to try and refute Belial, turn things back on him and ask how dare he make assumptions about how a dragon goes about things, etc etc etc, but with the pit growing in your stomach you find you just aren't in the mood. Besides, after how he handled taking your virginity even you have to baulk at the idea of dismissing his expert opinion. You just... what did you 'just' want? At one point it was to get all these strange men out of your fucking house to get some peace and quiet but that ship seems to have sailed, whether by choice or inaction. Whatever's left in the harbour to replace it is formless and colourless and gnawing and weird.
"Heh... funny thing is, Datu did ask if we were doing a 'poly thing' when Jun-ho and I met 'im," you say with a bitter chuckle.
"Is that so ridiculous?" Belial asks.
"Y-" you start, shooting him a wide-eyed and quizzical look. "N-nnnooo?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?"
"Y-yes?" You can practically feel thousands of question marks bursting free of your scalp like electrical sparks. "I'm confused I- didn't we just get done talking about how harems never work?"
Belial lifts his hand and raps you on the scaly brow with his knuckle. It doesn't hurt but it gets the message across. " 'Harem' and 'polyamorous' are two very different things. This is why communicating clearly is important."
"I don't understand the difference!" you protest. Belial shushes you again by sandwiching your snout between his palms, holding your jaws shut so he can talk.
"A harem is for the benefit of one person," he explains. "Everyone else is a hanger-on, either competing for that one person's affections or just waiting their turn. That's not a relationship, that's a particularly sexy small business. A polyamorous relationship would be... basically a relationship web where everyone gets a line connecting them to everyone else. Jun-ho could have a relationship with Abzu who also has a relationship with you who also has a relationship with me and so on. Filling in the gaps so everyone's getting the attention and affection they need from someone."
"That sounds very complicated," you say, slightly muffled by his palms still holding your snout.
"Yep," he replies. "Trust and communication are what makes relationships sink or swim and boy does that pretty much go exponentially the more people you add. So I'm going to ask you something, and more than anything else I need you to be completely honest with me. Okay?"
You nod.
"Okay." He lets go of your snout and takes a few slow steps back. "Out of everyone potentially involved in this, who do you trust the least?"
[ ] Makram
[ ] Jun-ho
[ ] Belial
[ ] Issachar
[ ] Abzu
[ ] Lyrros
[ ] Datu
[ ] Yourself
Leaving Jun-ho to doze you descend into the bowels of your newly-renovated spire, a certain level of dread rising in your stomach with every step you take down the stairs cut into the raw stone. You reach the bottom and everything seems... pretty much fine? A bit industrial for your tastes but you suppose you can always ask them to come back and spruce it up a bit, maybe do some surfacing work, but they made sure to leave a generous amount of head-clearance for residents of all sizes and horn-shapes.
You stop dead once you hit an intersection and rapidly drum your talons against your scaly chin because you're now lost in your own home.
There's a brief, frenzied period of wandering the halls checking behind every newly-added door, finding a great many brand new guest bedrooms with basic furnishing and a couple bigger rooms you don't actually stay long enough to look at in any greater detail, before you burst into Belial's room unexpectedly and find yourself frozen in the doorway as the incubus on the bed notices your arrival.
For just one irrational moment you almost fear he's doing something indecent like... you don't know, 'entertaining a client' or posing as he lies in wait for you in brand new lingerie he picked up somewhere or something, but no. Belial's just lying there on top of the covers, legs crossed at the ankle and talons laced behind his head, with his tail lazily curled on the sheets beside him, looking pensively up at the ceiling. You notice the bandage on his chest is gone, just a few parallel raised lines remaining on his chest as proof he was ever hurt.
"Hm? What's up?" he asks, craning his neck. "You look all flustered."
"Nope no not at all," you reply instantly. "Incidentally would you like to take a look around the spire with me? I'd like a second opinion on what further work I should get the contractors to do."
He snorts gently, a smile spreading across his face. Is this what someone being happy to see you is like? Belial sits up with a flex of the solid core beneath the softness of his stomach, swinging his legs over the edge of the bed. He winces in discomfort, slightly yet noticeably, and seems eager to take his weight off the bed.
"Is something the matter?" you ask.
He waves his hand dismissively. "Oh, it's nothing. I told you I'm pretty overly sensitive, yeah? Even some fabrics can really start to irritate if I touch them the wrong way." He holds up one tar-armoured hand, flexing the glistening talons. "This stuff is demonic essence, basically what our food turns into once we've absorbed it and what fuels our magic. Using it as armour is pretty much the first trick you pick up, not just for self-defence but so you can get around and get stuff done. Much as being carried everywhere in a palanquin instead probably appeals to most."
"Makram's pretty much got that covered," you remark.
"Yep. Lucky little bastard." Belial rests his hands on his hips. "Shall we? We can still talk while we take a look around."
"Oh, yes of course of course."
It's mostly just retracing your steps. You'd say it's different because you weren't paying much attention the first time, but honestly you aren't the second time either. You take every opportunity to look at Belial instead, walking side-by-side with you in the spaciously wide subterranean corridors of freshly-shaped stone. There's something oddly appealing to the way the click of his heel-talons echoes within the space, the staccato 'pop' of his rear and sway of his hips with every step. And you must admit, given more time to think it over even his slightly overhanging belly is pretty cute. It doesn't diminish the strength underneath it he worked so hard to cultivate, if anything it was an appealing layer of softness that made it so much nicer when he held you and-
Shit he's looking at you and you've just been staring silently at him for most of the 'tour' this is horrendous. Belial smiles, baring a sliver of ivory fang as he mock-punches you in the arm.
"Bit silly to be all self-conscious about looking at me at this stage, Eldingar," he says.
"Well... yes but... well..." you protest. "... mneh."
You open the door to the next room as a brilliant cover, and it seems to work. The pair of you head in to have a look around. Looks like the main - or at least 'a' - dining room, complete with attached kitchen area accessible from either here or the hallway. Belial does a circuit of the room while you stand by the door, ghosting his hand along the backs of each chair as he passes.
"It's a bit weird to consider actually living somewhere for the forseeable future," he says conversationally, casually curling his claws around the top of the last chair in the circuit. "Having my own bed especially. It's not really, well, standard procedure."
"What is?" you ask, like you haven't exhaustively read up on the function and habits of incubi in your youth. From the look he shoots you out of the corner of his eye you're pretty sure he's thinking the same thing, but he takes it as the attempt at conversation you intended it to be.
"Staying the night to cuddle is a pretty rare indulgence on its own," he says. "The nature of the job is it's primarily a 'one and done' sorta thing. If you were sent then the contract is up once you've successfully seduced the guy away from whatever-it-is, and if you were summoned that's usually a per-night basis. You absorb as much as you can while you're in the real world so you've got a windfall between jobs."
"You've never had any longer relationships?" you ask.
He chuckles. "Define 'longer'. We're working on very different timescales here."
"Uhh... longest then?"
He shifts through a few expressions in rapid succession. Lips twisting this way and that, like he can't be sure whether to chuckle or smirk wryly or frown or... what. He averts his eyes, drumming his talons on the chair-back once.
"What I'm curious about is what your end-goal is here," he says finally, lifting his gaze to meet yours.
You blink. "Eh?"
"It's not an unreasonable question," he says. "Out of every guy you knew and were attracted to, you chose to lose your virginity to me. Now I'm hardly upset and I'm glad I was able to make that good for you, but the fact remains that I'm still here and there's even more guys on the way to join the little boyfriend boarding-house we've got coalescing here. So; what is it you want out of this?"
"I- well-"
This is going terrible and you regret every life-choice you've ever made. Is it hot in here? It feels extremely hot in here. You wish you had a collar to loosen. Good gods you need some air, where's the nearest escape route. You know it's a sign of weakness that you break eye contact with him but you can't help it, your gaze is darting all over the place like you'll find the right answer etched into the stone by a surprisingly forward-thinking contractor.
"I-it's in a dragon's nature to uh- t-to hoard precious things-" you try.
"Shh. Shh sh-sh." Belial steps forward, taking one of your hands and sandwiching it between his comfortingly. "Shhhh. That's dumb."
You start at the bare-faced cheek of his response. "N- nuh-uh," you retort sagely.
"Eldingar I need to head this off nice and early," he says patiently. "You are not going to come out of all this with a harem. I'm sure it sounds very appealing in your head but let me be frank, as someone who's dipped his toe in some harems in his time, they don't work out. Not in any long-term way. A relationship is about giving as much as you're given in turn, and I'm sorry, you don't have enough to give to provide for - what is it now, seven people?"
"(S'about seven once Lyrros n' Datu get here yeah)" you reply in a strained voice.
"Seven people," he repeats. "You can't be enough of a boyfriend to seven people all at once, nobody can. And I can tell you already, I'm the only one who'd willing to 'wait his turn' 'cause I'm used to it. Jun-ho's probably a close second but even he'll have his limits."
"Yeah." It's pretty weak as far as responses go but it's all you've got right now. Oh you certainly feel the urge to try and refute Belial, turn things back on him and ask how dare he make assumptions about how a dragon goes about things, etc etc etc, but with the pit growing in your stomach you find you just aren't in the mood. Besides, after how he handled taking your virginity even you have to baulk at the idea of dismissing his expert opinion. You just... what did you 'just' want? At one point it was to get all these strange men out of your fucking house to get some peace and quiet but that ship seems to have sailed, whether by choice or inaction. Whatever's left in the harbour to replace it is formless and colourless and gnawing and weird.
"Heh... funny thing is, Datu did ask if we were doing a 'poly thing' when Jun-ho and I met 'im," you say with a bitter chuckle.
"Is that so ridiculous?" Belial asks.
"Y-" you start, shooting him a wide-eyed and quizzical look. "N-nnnooo?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?"
"Y-yes?" You can practically feel thousands of question marks bursting free of your scalp like electrical sparks. "I'm confused I- didn't we just get done talking about how harems never work?"
Belial lifts his hand and raps you on the scaly brow with his knuckle. It doesn't hurt but it gets the message across. " 'Harem' and 'polyamorous' are two very different things. This is why communicating clearly is important."
"I don't understand the difference!" you protest. Belial shushes you again by sandwiching your snout between his palms, holding your jaws shut so he can talk.
"A harem is for the benefit of one person," he explains. "Everyone else is a hanger-on, either competing for that one person's affections or just waiting their turn. That's not a relationship, that's a particularly sexy small business. A polyamorous relationship would be... basically a relationship web where everyone gets a line connecting them to everyone else. Jun-ho could have a relationship with Abzu who also has a relationship with you who also has a relationship with me and so on. Filling in the gaps so everyone's getting the attention and affection they need from someone."
"That sounds very complicated," you say, slightly muffled by his palms still holding your snout.
"Yep," he replies. "Trust and communication are what makes relationships sink or swim and boy does that pretty much go exponentially the more people you add. So I'm going to ask you something, and more than anything else I need you to be completely honest with me. Okay?"
You nod.
"Okay." He lets go of your snout and takes a few slow steps back. "Out of everyone potentially involved in this, who do you trust the least?"
[ ] Makram
[ ] Jun-ho
[ ] Belial
[ ] Issachar
[ ] Abzu
[ ] Lyrros
[ ] Datu
[ ] Yourself
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Yourself
[X] Yourself
It's the obvious answer. We understand Makram, Issachar, Jun-ho... we know what drives them. We can trust that they won't move against us and ours, we can arrange things to keep it that way. But Eldingar can't really do that for himself.
Doing impulsive, dumb shit is a thing. Remember blasting our hoard, remember smashing everything and taking some dark satisfaction in it? And that whole thing with the yes men chapter, with Eldingar yelling about how he hires other people to do things that he can't. And even that wasn't working out until very recently.
It's the obvious answer. We understand Makram, Issachar, Jun-ho... we know what drives them. We can trust that they won't move against us and ours, we can arrange things to keep it that way. But Eldingar can't really do that for himself.
Doing impulsive, dumb shit is a thing. Remember blasting our hoard, remember smashing everything and taking some dark satisfaction in it? And that whole thing with the yes men chapter, with Eldingar yelling about how he hires other people to do things that he can't. And even that wasn't working out until very recently.
LupineVolt
Now with 200% more Puns
- Location
- Michigan
[X] Abzu
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Imrix
Periodically Malevolent QM
Ahh, the perils of renovations.
We can only hope.
yessss get dat hiney you blue dumbass.
I was all set to start musing about how much of this might be heavy hinting from the QM that the golden ending might not be what we think and how much might be Belial's personal blinders, when...
That happened, and it's pretty solid. As ever, Belial knows what he's about, and I'm glad this was brought up so clearly. The chapter title is half-right; Belial really does slice to the heart of things, and this is why he is a treasure and must be kept.
As for votes...
Makram is kind of a dick to Eldingar, but we the players have figured him out fairly well, I think. Eldingar hasn't, buuut he also hasn't found much reason to distrust him, either. Jun-ho, Abzu and Datu all wear their hearts on their sleeves to varying degrees. Issachar is very weird to Eldingar, but even the big blue dumbass kinda thinks he's a harmless sort of weird at the moment. Belial is the closest thing we have right now to a relationship counselor, there's active trust there. Lyrros we've barely met and don't know much about, but that's more because he's got a whole Sexy Mystery thing going on. Everybody who was there actively tried to defend our hoard and put things right when Takara turned up. I wouldn't say we actively trust all of them, but there's little reason to distrust them either - they all have secrets, sure, but as yet they don't seem to be anything that should really worry Eldingar.
But Eldingar himself? Eldingar's been ground down to the point that he sabotages himself. He's struggling to find his footing, and he's stumbling like everybody does in doing that. He clearly has little faith in his own judgement - if he has any big, proven talents so far, it's in being a good judge of character so he can pick people to do the things he doesn't trust himself to handle. He... Well, you know what they say, the first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one.
[X] Yourself
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Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
Going "Yourself" is too obvious and too correct for my tastes.
[X] Makram
Now then, irrational grudges concerning the guy who tried to charm my husbando, that's more my style.
(why yes, Belial's mention that we might not get all the husbandos have made me go all in on my desires. Though I doubt you'll notice much difference)
[X] Makram
Now then, irrational grudges concerning the guy who tried to charm my husbando, that's more my style.
See? This notes that Jun-ho is second only to an Incubus! And a close second at that! And let's remind ourselve, incubi are biologically designed to be number 1.
(why yes, Belial's mention that we might not get all the husbandos have made me go all in on my desires. Though I doubt you'll notice much difference)
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
1 Makram
2 Lyrros
3 Issachar
[x] Issachar
2 Lyrros
3 Issachar
[x] Issachar
[X] Yourself
