Hug Your Destiny [NSFW] - Explicit / Kink (Trans Protag)

[The_Letter_K]

Cuddling with Blackberry was all well and good, but I was aching for something a little more… satisfying. Especially after my night with Samael, where I hadn't been comfortable really 'going for it', I was feeling a little pent up. Having some time to myself with Charlotte's wraps had been exciting, but it didn't really compare to sharing that feeling with someone else.

Having Blackberry leaning down over me was a really nice feeling, too. She was intimidatingly large, even if her soft, round features took the edge off of it. Having someone that big looking down at me sent a thrill of instinctive danger through me, something I was able to enjoy here, safe in her arms.

If her eyes were anything to go by, she was thinking along the same lines as me, though. Normally a clear, honest, forest green, she was so aroused that they'd dilated to be nearly entirely black. Her long braid was hanging down over her shoulder, her black hair resting on my chest, and I felt a sudden, mad urge to take it in, and re-braid her hair for her. It looked like it had been a while since it'd been put up. That couldn't be healthy.

Her breath smelled like the powder we'd been living on since I'd turned, and her lips tasted like it too, sort of grainy and unpleasantly earthy like she'd been snacking on chalk. It was gross, but she was great so I dealt with it. The smell was very quickly being drowned out by her arousal anyway. She had to be cared for twice, after all, and her horso's pussy was significantly larger. In an enclosed space, like this tent, it was entirely impossible to ignore what I was doing to her.

"How are you doing, sweetheart?" I asked. "It's been too long since we had some time alone, you know?"

I knew that she was spending 'quality time' with at least Amy and Faust. In fact, there seemed to be a really complicated web of sexual adventures all throughout our little group, but that didn't change the fact that she and I hadn't had the chance lately.

"Mhmm…" She murmured. "Love you lots."

She shifted her torso, and we were pressed close enough that her enormous breasts brushed against mine, and I let out an involuntary moan.

"H-hey," I said, arousal growing by the moment, "C-can I ask you something weird?"

"You're not weird, Lyle, s-so you can ask me anything~!" She said. Her usual pep sounded just a little bit throatier, more growly.

"W-well… I'm part Shoggoth, you know?" She nodded. I was having trouble controlling my breathing. "So, I, uh… I eat dirt, sometimes, and…"

A sharp intake of breath, louder than my own ragged, irregular gasps by an order of magnitude.

"And," Blackberry said, her tone sly, "and I'm a dirty, dirty girl, aren't I, Lyle?"

"Lord yes," I said. "You're so, so dirty, Blackberry. Please, let me, let me… I want to-!"

"Hmmmm…" She said, making a big show of thinking about it, "I dunno, Lyle…I like being your dirty girl. Every time I think about you, about Sally, Amy, even Momma… I just get even dirtier. Can you really clean me up?"

I whined, in lieu of an answer.

"I'm so dirty, Lyle, so dirty I changed into something else. I don't think you can clean me that deep down. But… You can try as hard as you like if you really want to~"

A sound like an ocean boiling suddenly roared in my ears as I expanded out, out, out!

"I want to, I really, really want you!"

Her eyes widened as I swept her up like a wave, pouring over her with a torrent of kisses I couldn't contain.

I felt her go completely limp under the sheer weight of the sensations, and I made a concerted effort not to go in on her as hard as I actually wanted to go. Rather than moving each piece of myself independently across her, I moved in waves and pulses, let myself become something she could anticipate.

Slowly, she gathered herself again, and I pulled myself free of her torso so I could focus on cleaning her horso more thoroughly, as well as give her a chance to talk.

All she did was moan, though.

Feeling pretty smug, I raced across her, unknotting fur and gently dissolving tiny thorns and seeds that had gotten stuck in her coat. She seemed at a loss as to what to do with herself, and I watched as her hands crept towards her hips, slowly, likely on instinct.

I slithered up her back, and her hands fell limp as she let out another low, dazed moan. I pulled most of my standard body out of that little stream, and suddenly I was wrapping my arms around her from behind, my hips vanishing into the murky depths of our mingling bodies.

I held her tightly, leaning in as close as I could and rubbing my neck into hers.

"Please, my fated one, allow me to sate your desires," I whispered, kissing her cheek.

I pulled the front of her apron-like dress aside, and felt down her torso, trailing fingers lightly across her body. Always slightly lower on her body than I'd expect, she was already soaking wet. I pulled the excess juices into me, luxuriating in the taste coupled with the idea that she was cleaner from my efforts.

She leaned back into me, hard, and I almost lost cohesion. Instead, she started to rub her back and shoulders against my chest, her head lolling back. I ducked under her sharp, somewhat stubby horns. Even short Bicorn horns are still pretty long, especially right next to her head like this.

They slid gently across my scalp as my forehead came closer and closer to contact with her head. She was arching her back and neck back pretty hard now. Her head was twitching in tiny, happy nods as she burbled little noises of delight from deep inside her chest.

I honed in on her braid, as she slid further into delirium. I was gonna clean that thing so good and then there wouldn't be a hair out of place!

I hissed a satisfied little breath out as I brought my hands up to her braid. My hands were also still teasing Blackberry's pussy, too, but I tried not to focus too hard on how I was doing what I was doing.

I just wanted to do it, so I did.

Then her horns caught against mine.

Somebody…

Somebody was screaming absolutely shameless things.

It… probably wasn't Blackberry.

"Hohhh, ohhh! Fuck! Fuck! What the shit is this?!"

I couldn't look around for who it was though, my focus was entirely on the friction between Blackberry's horns and mine. The length of her two straight, pointed horns, trapped underneath the crown-like halo of my own conjoined horns, each tiny movement was a litany of sensation beyond any description I could muster. I yanked on her braid as we both went wild under the assault on our senses. The smooth enamel of our horns occasionally scraping across something more textured, whether her ribbed lengths, or the bumps and valleys of my own crown-like horns.

I could feel the vibrations in my skull, my lips, my nose, my eyes…

My brain.

That I didn't really have any of those things anymore was irrelevant under the sheer, stupefying numbness of everything else in comparison to this singular feeling.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuugggghhhhhhh."

I swung around her, reveling in the friction between us as I twisted myself around. When I finished we were chest to chest, and I was hanging off her forehead by our horns, hers like two fingers holding me by my handle, like I was nothing more than a fancy bag.

She lifted me effortlessly, rubbing her forehead into my hair and her horns against mine. I kissed at her neck as best I could, but I felt drunk and unbalanced.

Master?

M-mistress?

I… I can't… uh…

I don't know what to do.

"Lyle, Lyle, please… I wanna… I want you to make me…"

"m-m-make you?"

"Feel gooood"

An overwhelming urge to oblige her, to obey the woman I loved, the one who held me so completely, it swept across me and swept me up before I knew what had happened.

I made her feel good.​

 

[The_Letter_K]

By the time Blackberry and I were ready to head back out again, the Cyclops had gone. Not terribly surprising, I doubted she'd been eager to stick around, but I couldn't decide if I was disappointed by that or not. She'd technically apologized to Blackberry while I'd been pinning her against the wall, but I really wanted to get something more sincere out of her. Blackberry deserved better than an apology given under duress.

It was out of my hands for now, though.

Blackberry slipped right into Amy's room, no doubt off to tell her best friend what she'd just been up to. Blackberry was, well… if there'd been a mean-spirited bone in her body, I'd have said she was a gossip. As it was, she was just really chatty, and maybe a bit of an over-sharer? I guess stuff like 'I just got fucked in every hole at once by my blob-husband' is actually more of a mainstream topic here, so maybe it wasn't over-sharing and I just needed to adjust a bit more?

Either way, she could hardly wait to gush, and so off she went.

That left me in the living room with an odd grouping. Well, not that odd, I guess, since Faust, Beeps, and Charlotte had all been out here when I left, and Akubra wasn't here, so it wasn't nearly as odd as it could be by default, but Samael was here too, and I hadn't seen Charlotte willingly in the same space as her since they'd arrived here.

Even though they were seated across from each other, rather than next to each other, it was still a big deal, in my opinion. Beeps and Faust were between them on each side, making a rough square in our circular seating arrangements, and they were all looking at several thin, long papers rolled out onto the table.

Charlotte was doing most of the talking, surprisingly, and Faust was staring at her whenever she wasn't looking, naked, barely restrained desire on her flushed face, though she disciplined herself whenever Charlotte glanced her way.

"That wouldn't work. It's a spear, not a sword. You're thinking in terms of slashes and cuts when you need to be thinking pokes and jabs. The energy flow is entirely different in this case. If we arranged things that way, all you'd have, runically speaking, is a long-handled axe with a really tiny blade. You can use a full spear for blunt strikes, like a staff, but a short spear is much less effective that way."

Faust replied to Charlotte after a moment, "So instead of trying to spread the effect across the entire swing or strike, we should be looking for something that triggers all at once? Perhaps on impact?"

"Exactly. A spear is a spacing weapon, best suited for area-denial, so I see where you're coming from, but its spacing is a function of reach, rather than arcing strikes. That said, a short spear doesn't really have that reach, but having a shield is paramount when fighting Mamono. Taking too many demonic hits to your armor is a great way to wind up inside a freshly formed Living Armor, and that never ends well. The extra disposable layer is indispensable, and a short spear provides the best ability to strike while still behind it."

Charlotte glared at the documents, and Faust shuddered silently. I arched an eyebrow at her, but she only had eyes for Charlotte at the moment.

"Hey ladies," I said, "what's all this?"

Charlotte hardly glanced up at me, but Faust caught my raised eyebrow and met it with a small scowl. Hehehe.

"Enchantment." Beeps said, and she stood up, turning to face me.

"Blackberry?" She asked.

"She went into Amy's room. She's probably only just started gushing, if you wanted to hear it."

Beeps nodded once, walking towards me. She opened herself up wide, arms splayed, offering a hug. Her face was the same composed disinterest as always, but I knew her too well to fall for that. I brought her in for a solid embrace, and took the chance to polish her up a little where we made contact.

She let out a small, surprised breath, and I made a note that it'd been too long since I'd cleaned her clockwork, and that it would probably be much easier now. Something to think about.

"How are you doing, Beeps? Any troubles?"

She shook her head, firmly, short pink hair swaying. "Contented."

"Okay. Lemme know if you need something."

She nodded, and I let her go, moving past her into the circle of chairs and couches.

I heard her use the door behind me, and I sat down in an empty space, making myself a little chair. I nodded to Samael, who was also mostly focused on Charlotte.

I frowned. I guess I was a little too used to being the center of our group, but it didn't feel great to have Faust so focused on someone else, and no one around to compensate. Maybe I should have asked Beeps to stay back with me?

"So what's the thinking, here?" I asked, gesturing to the papers vaguely.

Samael glanced up. "Enchantment layouts. It's pretty technical, you sure you're up for it?"

"Nope!" I said, cheerfully. "But it can't hurt to try, right? I used to listen to Sally babble about thaumic resonance delineations, concave versus convex glyphic distortion effects, and multiplanar chromatic stacking with um… diesul and widdershins? I never really got it, but sometimes just explaining helped her out, so…"

Faust beamed at me. "Laying out spell circles, yes! I am impressed you remember the terminology, at the least." She looked at Charlotte and Samael. "If I may, I'd like to attempt to explain what I've gleaned so far?"

Charlotte just grunted, and that was enough for Faust, apparently.

"My understanding is thus;" she began, "modern anti-mamono armaments are designed to take advantage of the limitations of the Succubize defensive spell, since it is all but instinctive in even magically weak Mamono. Only those entirely absent magical talent cannot cast it, and they are often defended other ways. Even yourself, as an Alp, would likely do it reflexively more often than not, although it works better when done with intent."

I nodded. "I sort of know about that, it's what makes Mamono so hard to fight with magic, right? They turn incoming magical attacks into pleasure spells and then just enjoy them?"

"Precisely. It can be thought of as a corruption effect applied to incoming magic. Magical attacks are free-floating thaumic energy directed by will that has been shaped and then left the body, and as such it no longer has the resistance that a soul provides it with its agency. It merely is what it is, and cannot meaningfully resist being turned to more orgasmic ends. The same principle is actually used in more traditional counter-spells in powerful magical duels, and those with finesse can turn an opponent's attack into their own once redirected, saving significant energy."

I nodded politely.

"However, there are limitations. A pillar of earth beneath the feet of a Succubus might spear her in a very different way than you intend, but the pillar remains, and Succubize no longer affects it after its summoning is complete and the magic is spent. A force spell may caress the target instead of brutalizing them, but they will still be moved roughly the same distance as if hit by the intended effect. Put another way, Succubize is much less effective against indirect effects."

"Okay, so how does that change things?"

"There are other implications for magical combat, such as the focus on using binding spells, area-of-effect spells to manipulate the battlefield indirectly, and other such workarounds, however, in practical terms, for this discussion, it means runic weaponry, which is essentially a spell which has already been cast into an object, is widely used. Much less adaptable than conventional spellwork, but it requires far less investment on the part of the user, and is less open to corruption from Succubize. Weapons can still be corrupted, but it takes time, often much more than any ten battles."

"So… if Charlotte's spear shoots fire, it's still effective, when a fire spell isn't?"

"Exactly. Once the fire has become physical, rather than magical, Succubize no longer functions, it is a solely magical defense, and you cannot easily corrupt spellwork that has already been cast. A runic weapon is merely activated."

"Like… if you were building a house, somebody could slip extra bits in while you were sleeping, and make it into a… library or something, but if you brought a house with you, it's already what you wanted, and you just need to set it down?"

She nodded excitedly. "However, there is compromise even here. Beepatrice, after all, is technically a runic artefact. Living Armors and Cursed Swords can quickly arise, should you get too complicated with what you're creating. Simple effects leave less room for… creative interpretations to take hold."

"It's a huge headache," Charlotte interjected. "The effect has to be strong enough to overcome supernatural toughness, but records show that the first Chochin Obake and Gargoyle were likely born of an over-enchanted lantern and statue, respectively. We think Living Dolls too, but there's no proof. So many ideas get rejected because they wind up being too complicated to actually pull off, or too weak within the limits of what we can safely do. I had this idea for a hand-portable ballista made from a crossbow that… Ugh, never mind."

Faust grinned, and continued. "It's confirmation of an effect I noticed myself, that certain varieties of Mamono appear to be freak accidents at first, but that now one can create, say… a Karakasa Obake by merely over or under-valuing one's umbrella, and be slurped up into her embrace before you recognize the danger. Reckless enchanting risks not only creating a novel monster, but creating a pathway for more of the same type to spontaneously manifest from everyday objects. With enough carelessness, it would be possible to make it too dangerous to attempt to actually arm your army. One can imagine the difficulty if every field tent, for example, held the potential to come to life when one of your soldiers had an unfortunate dream."

She sighed. "It is a fascinatingly nuanced dance that requires the craftsman to be supremely knowledgeable, ruthlessly cunning, and devastatingly efficient." She glanced at Charlotte again, blushing once more. "Even knowing the aim is to destroy those such as I, I cannot but be impressed by the feats of magical engineering."

Her hips wiggled a little as I was watching. I had a suspicion of just how 'impressed' she was. My nose was pretty good these days.

"Would you say that was an accurate summation?" Faust asked. It could have been a question for either Samael or Charlotte, but it was clear who she wanted to hear from.

Charlotte nodded, absently, but from the look on Faust's face, you'd think she'd just sung her praises.

"Oooookay, so what are we going with, then?" I asked. "Fire probably wouldn't do much to me or Beeps, for example. You need to be able to handle anything the journey between here and home can throw at you, right?"

Charlotte gave me an odd look.

"Yeees…" she said, slowly, "What… what do you think would do the trick?"

"Um…" I said, "If you threw enough dirt and muck at me, I might get too distracted to do much else but clean it. That doesn't seem likely to work on many other people, though. Even Beeps would probably power through. She's a lot more single-minded than me."

"Electricity is a good one, but there are at least a few Thunderbirds in the area, and that would only draw them in." Samael said.

"Hmm… You said binding magic, right Faust?" I asked.

She nodded, thoughtful.

"What about water?" I asked Charlotte. "There can't be many aquatic Mamono hanging around outside the lakes and oceans, right? They could shrug it off, but they're not here, so…"

Charlotte grinned. It was almost feral. "I agree. I've been thinking about ice. Even you couldn't do much frozen inside an iceberg, Lyle."

I shivered. Sometimes I forgot she was thinking about fighting us too.

I was happier when I didn't remember that, because shortly afterwards I always remembered her manhandling a Dragon.

"Yeah…" I said, "Well, I need to find Akubra, so I'll leave you girls to it."

They refocused quickly.

"With a little work," Charlotte said, "We can probably work enough force into the shield to shatter-"

Wow was I glad I wasn't really much of a fighter.

 

[The_Letter_K]

AN: Hey folks, this section starts the lead up to what's likely to be a controversial chapter. In this setting, monster girls get their food from human dudes, and while that's obviously never going to be the focus of this fanfic, it's very important to me to engage honestly with the source material at least once before subverting it. The specific chapter with the actual act will be tagged with a warning, so it's not going to surprise anyone, although it's a lot more businesslike than romantic anyway. For me and for the characters, the emotional resonance of this problem is an important part of the journey, part of what spurs Lyle forward on her eventual path, part of taking charge of her life and the way she wants to live it.

However, if at any point it gets to be too much for you, send me a message, and I will personally let you know when this section is over. I completely understand.




It didn't take long to find Akubra once I started looking for her in earnest. We'd planned this date only yesterday, so it wasn't like she'd've forgotten. It wasn't long at all before we were on our way. We made quick time, apparently Akubra was a powerwalker.

It became apparent very quickly that walking through town with Akubra was a strange experience.

To be fair, anything with Akubra was a strange experience, but this went beyond the weird hums and odd clicking sounds she made to herself, seemingly completely oblivious to everything else, beyond her propensity to sometimes be slightly elsewhere after you blinked, beyond her airy, disconnected tone and vacant, distant gaze, that when combined made her seem as though she was paying attention to something far more interesting yet completely invisible, and even beyond the room in my house she'd somehow produced unbeknownst to everyone else.

Well, maybe it did.

Maybe I was just getting used to her instead.

I shuddered a little at the very idea of her ever seeming normal.

Tonight's strangeness was centered on the reactions of others, though, nothing to do with my own opinions. The closer we got to wherever we were going, the more pronounced and common the reactions were. Flashes of recognition far beyond what a simple milliner should have been getting, and distinctly different from the people who only recognized her as a Mad Hatter, a Wonderlander, and therefore worth crossing the street to avoid getting entangled with.

As if that would have somehow stopped her, if she'd had business with them.

Akubra smiled, and I shuddered a little more. I didn't yet have the courage to ask her if she could hear me thinking, but it sure seemed she could, at times. It was intimidating, moreso in the low light. Her smile looked somehow slightly more threatening under the stars, in the lights of the street as the shadows jumped across her face.

Unfortunately for me, I was in love with Faust. A little friendly intimidation only really got me in the mood, so to speak.

Well, 'unfortunately' was probably unfair. I liked Akubra pretty well, about as well as I could like someone so inscrutable and mysterious, and she'd done more for me in a few short weeks than most I knew in my lifetime. The only thing that was absolutely transparent about her was that she cared deeply about me and all the others in our house, and that was really all I needed to know about her. The rest was a mystery, sure, but I used to do mysteries for a living, so I wasn't exactly a stranger to the sensation.

Plus, she knew how to use her body, and possibly more importantly, how to use mine.

I shuddered a third time, at the mere memory, but this was a very different sort of shudder, and my knees felt a little weak.

I leaned into her a little, and while she didn't look like she'd noticed, her hand found a rather comfortable spot right on my butt cheek, pulling me a little closer still, and I resisted the urge to squeak.

"So…" I said, "You said we were… getting something to eat, right?"

"Mmm," she hummed.

I had to admit, I was enormously nervous. It wasn't strictly speaking something I wanted to do. Much like someone who'd somehow managed to fall asleep in a cave next to a bear, though, and was now very awake and too frightened to move, avoiding it would only bring my fears to life, eventually. If I did this on my terms, I could set those terms, and have a chance at a much better time. Waiting until I was starving beyond reason was a recipe to come back to myself in a tangled pile of flesh, slime, and regret, having to simultaneously introduce myself to and apologize to someone I'd already… uh… 'gotten to know' pretty intimately.

A girl's gotta eat.

I took a deep breath, and continued.

"What is the plan, exactly?" Expecting to get a straight answer out of her was a little foolish, but I could maybe tease something out if I gave her everything I already knew. "You said it was a restaurant you were familiar with, right? I don't really know what that… um… what it means in this context, I guess."

I shivered a fourth time. And a fifth, then a sixth. …Wait, no, that wasn't me… Was, was the ground moving?

"A restaurant like this is where one might satisfy one's hunger, Lyle. I hope that this late into your relationships you understand what that means?"

I grimaced, and the ground continued to indulge in its newfound desire to shake. It felt almost like a heartbeat. I saw items on the nearby stalls, liquids especially, thumping to the same rhythm. Couples on the street moved in sync with it, some bobbing their heads. Almost like it was…

Where were we going?

As we approached the very edge of town, a building started to come into view. It wasn't obvious from a distance, given the dark of the night and all the lights and sights between us and it, but honing in on it now, it had to be at least three stories. Three stories, that is, not counting the enormous, black top hat atop the building. The brim had beneath it the distinctive rippling texture of Akubra's own more unusual, rugged-looking hat. Whether it actually was an enormous mushroom or not, I'd only ever seen one other building like that, and Akubra'd owned it.

The vaguely rounded building was covered in luminescent paint of every color, each overlapping each other like someone had painted a single word onto it over and over at differing angles and in unique styles until each and every inch had been covered over. The lights around the base of the building flashed in time with the beat, as did the large sign over the entrance, the name emblazoned made of opulent lights, washing over the enormous line formed outside the door with a rainbow of colors. The lights spelled out the same word as the paint displayed.

Nightcap's.

As we approached, the beat became clearer and clearer, the phantom sensation something that ran through my body like a physical force, yet now that we were closer, still so clearly a sound. I didn't know sound was something you could feel like this. The heartbeat of the music pounded loud and fast, and its sway over those this close to the building was tangible. Conversation was had in time to it, everyone's steps aligned with it, every motion a slave to the frantic pace of bodies deeply bound up in passion and feeling.

Still pressed closely to her body, I felt Akubra's heartbeat as it slowly started to sync with it, her breathing in rhythm. Mine was as well, I realized. The music was inside us all. I'd never felt anything like it.

I realized I hadn't said anything in some time, just overwhelmed by what I was seeing, hearing, feeling. Experiencing. There was really only one word that described the sheer, bizarre, delightful novelty of it.

Wonder.

"Wow." I said. It was all there was to say.

Akubra chuckled, but that was the only response I got.

We were quite close now, and I could see the people at the front of the line were arguing with what must have been an employee. She was an enormous Manticore, her body a parody of the human form, muscled beyond what I could believe, far beyond Fran, Charlotte, or Samael. If she'd been human, she might have had trouble moving. As a Mamono, though, she had a feline grace, and more, as a Manticore, a sort of inborn menace. The fur on her arms and legs was jet black, and her claws wickedly sharp. Her wild, chin length hair was metallic silver, and blew in the breeze like fire.

Judging by her expression, and her flat, grey eyes, whatever the couple was saying to her, she wasn't buying it.

"I don't care who you think you are," she said to the succubus and her boy toy, "You ain't on the list, so you pay up or you get lost."

Her voice carried much like Fran's did, and I couldn't hear what it was the succubus whined in response over the sheer presence of the beat, but the Manticore's tail came up, threateningly, and the woman changed her tone really quick.

It looked like she was about to decide she had other places she'd like to cuddle her 'friend' as we approached the door. The line was down around the corner and out of sight, but I was following Akubra, not the crowd, and she didn't seem bothered, so I swallowed my nervousness.

The mountain of a woman didn't so much as glance at Akubra as she waltzed right past her, and when it became apparent I was reluctant to pass, the Manticore moved out of my way.

I heard the Succubus' indignant squawk, then a familiar 'snkt' noise. I turned around just in time to watch her fall boneless into the arms of her friend, who looked very apologetic as he dragged her away, one of the Manticore's venomous spines buried in her left breast. She was already starting to masturbate as she was pulled away, not that that was exactly unusual on the streets of Morningwood, I guess.

I turned back to Akubra, who was waiting patiently for me, not apparently interested in any of this. I shook my head and followed her up the red carpet to the entrance, conscious of the stares I was getting from behind, from those in the line.

I forgot them as soon as Akubra opened the door.

 

[The_Letter_K]

To call it an assault on the senses would be an understatement. I was pretty sure that Nightcap's had declared all-out war on my eyes, my ears, my nose, my skin, and even my sense of balance.

I was pretty sure it was going to win in its opening move.

Something had been done to make sure that air rushed out when the door opened, rather than rushing in, and I was instantly aware of the smells swirling within as the wind swept past me. Alcohol. Sweat. Smoke. Prisoner Fruit. Spices.

Sex.

As I reeled under sensory assault, Akubra gently ushered me inside. Flashing lights and darkness had me blinking to adjust, so I processed the sounds next.

The beat was omnipresent, and omnipotent, but there was more to the music than that, strange sounds, things I'd never heard but which I doubted came from any instrument I knew. Among the many I had no frame of reference for, one sounded vaguely like a war trumpet, but with a rhythm and depth I'd never imagined. I thought I heard a violin, or something like it, but it was filled with a zeal and aggression I'd thought the instrument incapable of. Wasn't it for melancholy and repose? Something for stuffy nobles?

Even the force of the music, booming through my body, couldn't hide the roar of the crowd, though. Cheering, singing, exultant screaming, random slivers of conversation, all that and more pressed at my ears.

My eyes finally adjusted, and it didn't help. I still had no idea what I was seeing. The bars were obvious, at least, and I understood the concept of the dance floor, but I'd never seen one filled with such energy. It was lower down than the rest of the floor, only by a single stair, but it moved like a boiling pot. The music was fast and alive, and the dancing matched pace. It might have been mistaken for flailing, if you just gazed out over the crowd, but the rhythm and grace were evident the moment you focused on any one dancer. It all felt chaotic, yet coordinated, and bright lights flashed on and off in time with the beat, filling the dance floor with a brief, clear, still image of revelry, with only the shadowy undulations of the crowd like one creature visible in the absence.

The interior was large enough I couldn't see everything in the dim light, but there were multiple stages visible from where I was standing, a large, central stage, not currently lit, that was closest to the dance floor, and more throughout the room. One appeared to be where the music was playing from, another was barred off and featured an active brawl between two women, a Minotaur and a Jinko, each in ostentatious outfits, and each trying to reduce the other to nakedness, a third held a Dark Mage, preforming showy magical cantrips with lights and fire, and a fourth appeared to be someone painting. She was holding the brush in her… uh… well she wasn't using her hands.

A red form rose up in front of us from the floor, which I'd mistaken at first for carpeting, but which in truth appeared to be one contiguous Red Slime, perhaps a Queen Slime, as she seemed to also be the servers at the booths along the wall.

My first instinct was to apologize for stepping on her, but I stopped and considered that she probably liked it.

I wonder…

No, I should focus.

But… socks are kind of like a hug for your feet, right?

No no no.

"Ms. Nightcap." The woman said, "A pleasure as always. Shall I escort you to your offices?"

She gestured into the gloom, presumably to some door or corridor I couldn't make out from here.

"Mrs." Akubra said. The implication that she shared her name with the building and was being offered guidance to the offices was not lost on me. The reactions of those on the street, and the non-reaction of the bouncer were starting to make a terrible amount of sense.

The Red Slime's eyebrows rose. She was much more amorphous and gloppy than me, but her facial features were still pretty clear.

"Ma'am, you got married? Congratulations! I thought you looked better- Er, I mean…"

Akubra didn't seem to notice anything amiss. She gestured to me.

"This is my husband."

The Slime looked around behind me to see if she was somehow missing someone. I waved at her, sheepishly. She carefully controlled her expression.

"Your husband is… a woman, Ma'am. An… unorthodox choice."

Akubra smiled.

The Slime just let out a long-suffering sigh. From her perspective, this probably made zero sense. Just more Akubra being Akubra. In this case though, Akubra had a good reason for what she was saying, and she appeared to be, for whatever reason, omitting details for her own amusement.

A cold chill ran down my back as I considered the possibility she always had good reason, that she always made sense. I carefully didn't chase that thought. Even if it were true, no one would believe me and how would I ever explain?

Akubra's hand found mine and she pulled me a little closer to herself.

"Well, Ma'am, congratulations in any case." The slime said. She was polite, yet obviously dying to ask me what was going on. I considered saving her from her confusion, but Akubra's hand tightened on mine, just slightly, and I changed my mind. Let her have her fun. As long as I understood her, I suppose it didn't matter.

Again, she pulled me a little closer to herself.

The Slime turned, leading us off in the direction she'd gestured.

"We would like a table," Akubra said.

The woman tripped, splashing herself into the floor.

After a moment, she slid back up out of the false carpeting, her eyes narrowed at Akubra.

"Of course you would, Ma'am. Why not!? All the years you've owned the premiere restaurant in Morningwood, you've never once taken a table! Now that you're married, why wouldn't you stop by to grab a bite!? I don't know why I expected differently!"

This poor woman. She sounded like she was having to reassess her entire life in a single moment.

Her shoulders slumped as Akubra completely failed to react. "…The executive booth is free, as always." She turned back around, this time walking another way. "Follow me, please."

She led Akubra and I around the dance floor, and into the back corner near the large stage. A small room had been carved out of the larger one, and she opened the door, ushering us in.

The uproar in the room became considerably quieter as she did so, and I got the sense that those who could see what was going on were staring at us, but I didn't dare look back.

As we entered and she closed the door, the sounds were muffled considerably, and while I could see out through windows along the wall, almost like the walls weren't there from this side, the harshness of the flashing lights was greatly reduced as well. The smells hadn't penetrated either, and I sighed in relief as the oppressive atmosphere lessened considerably.

I could see the people outside, trying to see what was going on, but from the outside it wasn't possible to tell there were windows at all, so nobody met my eye, exactly.

"After Jack is done with his routine, have him come in," Akubra said. "We will have snacks and drinks in the meanwhile, I trust?"

There was a small bar in the room, and a door that looked like it led further into the building, rather than out into the public area. Rather than use it, the woman just nodded, and fell backwards into herself like a diver, leaving nary a ripple in the floor.

"So…" I said. "Does this make me Lyle Nightcap then?"

Akubra laughed, and it was an intensely joyful sound, in contrast to her airy, distant tone.

I suppose this wasn't so bad so far.

 

[The_Letter_K]

CW: Alcohol




I'd never been much of a drinker; I was sort of a wuss in that regard. I could handle a beer or two, but I never liked the taste, and the stronger stuff that came to town on the backs of traders and merchants was really only any good when mixed with something else, in my opinion. I think the last time I'd had a drink had been at the AA meeting with Nicole, honestly, and that had only been a few mouthfuls of wine.

Some of that was down to the fact that I ate dirt and stuff these days, as embarrassing as it was to acknowledge, and that I didn't really have a pressing need to drink anything at all. Despite being a slime, I didn't seem to like… dry out, or anything, which had been something I'd worried about as I laid in bed shortly after my change. One of the many silly little worries that had peeped in around the deep, life-shattering ones. I'd been a mess there for a minute, and I appreciated the support everyone had offered to get me through it.

I didn't like thinking about those days too much, though.

Anyway, I think between my lack of need, and my time spent with Amy getting all the milk my heart desired, I was all good on the drink front, in general. I could actually even drink myself if I ever got the urge, which was a really weird sensation, but filled the tummy I instinctively seemed to keep hollowed out, so the bizarre sensation of being both liquid and container was worth keeping the cravings at bay a bit.

All that said, I wasn't immune to temptation, and Mamono goods had a startling tendency to outpace human wares by an order of magnitude. It might be down to the city I was in, practically everything produced in Morningwood was made by an artisan devoted to their craft and explicitly pursuing their passions, but…

Well, actually, that probably amounted to a huge part of the difference all by itself. Dark Energy certainly played a role, but like with all things, it wasn't clear where the line was. Even back when I'd first had sex with Beeps, my first real experience with the stuff, I wasn't sure how much was corruptive magics seeping into me, and how much was that I'd been pinned down by a hyper-competent sex-machine personally devoted to making sure I enjoyed myself as much as possible. That it had been my first everything, from my first kiss to my first time probably played a role, so did our very personal connection. I'd always loved her, and that love crossing into new boundaries could only have enhanced things.

The smell of her steam was admittedly entrancing, but I'd smelled fresh-cooked food when I was starving that had been just as distracting, if not moreso, and there'd been no magic involved there at all.

That's not to say that the Dark Energy hadn't had an effect, I'd spent many multiple hours in her embrace, which was an impossible feat of endurance, but… it wasn't clear what was and wasn't its influence. Five percent? Ninety-five? Neither seemed truthful, if I was being honest.

Where was I?

Oh right, the alcohol. Akubra's staff were a dizzying wave of bodies that brought out and took back alcoholic drinks seemingly at random, and a great many of them were extremely fruity, but much harder drinks. Colors, shapes of the glass, ingredients, the variety was staggering, I at least sampled them all, in an attempt to be polite, but the only ones that stayed on the table were the ones I specifically fought for, and only as long as I was paying attention to the cup. After a certain point, each drink they brought was markedly better than the last, and cups I thought were worth protecting at the start were abandoned for new favorites I had to be feisty about prioritizing, lest they disappear. A current favorite was salt-rimmed and sour caramel flavored whiskey. It had a fish swimming inside, and the glass refracted rainbows through the liquid such that it was impossible to tell the actual color.

A waitress went for it, and I had to growl at her to get her to back off. Another disappeared while I did so.

They were relentless, and it was the same with the snacks. Prisoner fruit didn't even feature, at least not on its own, though it was a prominent ingredient in several of the tastier confections and assortments. I had to grow extra eyes and arms just to keep up, and if anything, that only renewed their vigor, the speed increasing as pairs of my arms protected candied nuts and jellied breads, and I watched in dismay as a particularly spicy dip with some crisp wafers was whisked away before I could so much as whimper.

Akubra's end of the table was much more slowly and deliberately curated, and when I stopped to consider that it was likely because they'd been slaking her thirsts and cravings for much longer and could provide for her more efficiently, I shook myself out of the thought to discover an entirely new spread with my current favorites nowhere to be seen.

I was starting to feel really loose, though. I think it had taken longer to do me in because of how much more of me there was elsewhere, but we were starting to reach a pleasant haze.

I let out a giggle as they set down a drink that matched the shade of my body exactly.

"Look, 'Kubra, s' me!" I grinned at her, pointing to the cup. She smiled her beautiful, light little smile, and took the cup from the table before I could, licking her lips suggestively. She brought it to her mouth, tongue circling the rim, lapping up the drink slowly, and sipping at it.

"I wanna taaaaaste," I said, jealously. "I'm prolly really yummy!"

I skootched around the corner booth, trying to get closer to her, steadying myself on the table as I did. She finished the drink before I could get there, and I pouted at her.

"Heeeeeeey." I crossed some of my arms, as others helped me sample the tables new wares.

Her cheeks bulged, and I could hear her tongue swishing around, tasting the drink. I got a really devilish idea, and threw myself at her. She smelled strongly of alcohol, just like me, and I kissed her desperately. It was an incredibly strong boysenberry drink, sweeter than candy, and it played nicely with Akubra's own more umami flavor. Like she'd frosted herself with an expensive jam.

I drank what I could as she did the same.

"Love you, you know?" I said, nuzzling her cheek. "You're like… really great."

She giggled, and I started giggling too.

"Hmmmmmmm…" she said "I think…"

I stared at her, enraptured. What would she say?

"You're great too!" She said happily.

Wow.

I had really gotten lucky, huh?

Speaking of which…

"Heeeeeyyyy~" I said. I kissed her nose.

She pressed herself into me, immediately, and I cuddled up to her. She pushed me down into the plush booth seating, running her fingers across my body, dreamily.

"Love you, Lyle," she said.

"No, you," I said.

We laughed, and I felt her body shaking mine. I shook my hips in response, and she met me with the same. I took her hat, and put it on my head. She let out a little gasp, a tiny growl, and kissed me on the mouth with a fire I couldn't believe. I licked at the inside of her hat on my head with mouths and tongues made just for that purpose, and she moaned in response, each little touch of my tongues sending shivers through her body.

I wrapped as many of my arms around her as would fit, stroking her every way I could think of through the haze.

It felt clumsy.

It felt good.

Suddenly, she was taking bites out of me, pulling me deeper and deeper inside her, drinking and breathing and consuming me in a way that felt so very very right. Of course she wanted more. Hadn't I shown her this before?

But it meant more for her to do it herself, to feel her raw need for the sensation.

A flit of memory brushed against my mind, when I first donned my clothes, it felt so long ago now, and I pulsed inside her, and she screamed, rapturously, clawed at me ferally, tried to fill herself with my body, but I just pulled more and more from the away-place.

Then I pressed in from the bottom, between her lower cheeks, and lower lips both.

And I pressed hard.

She came immediately, writhing and shaking under my vicious thrusts, that only continued and intensified as I drove deeper and deeper.

I pulsed again.

She came again, and this time I did too.

All it did was drive my fluids deeper into her.

I realized my cum wasn't made of me.

I was made of cum.

The delirious thought wrapped itself around my mind and refused to let go, and suddenly I was orgasming from everywhere at once. It was orders of magnitude more intense. Every inch of me simultaneously both cum and cumming; pulling more and more of myself from the away place to make it all possible.

I filled the room before I could come down from it, and I consumed every treat and beverage at once, and filed them away, learning everything I'd need to know about them to make them myself.

Make myself them.

I pressed at the walls of the tiny room, still cumming, still cumming everywhere, and suddenly there was nowhere for the pressure to go but further into Akubra. I pulsed and she came once more.

She desperately fought to hold me close and fuck me, but where was I when I was everywhere?

The mouths I'd made to kiss and tease her were so numerous that in a way they were contiguous. Hundreds of tongues, or tentacles, the difference semantic, wrote confessions of love and joy across her skin and still she clawed for me, searching, not able to think clearly through the pleasure and the pressure to understand that her arms could not contain what already contained her.

I felt the alcohol leaving me as I came, felt me come back to myself, and slowly, tortuously, I receded back to the away-place, leaving the least of me to hold her close the way she needed.

Tiny gasps and moans escaped her as I left her body and cuddled close, and put her hat back on her head, with loving, tender care.

But my tongues were still in there.

I did not want to leave her entirely ever again.

I would not.

We slowly caught our breath, my separate self gently cleaning and brushing her hair from its place inside her hat, restoring her composure in looks, if not in deed.

"Wow." I said.

She looked at me, adoringly.

That tiny smile graced her lips.

"And yet," she said, "feeding is even better."

I clung to her closely.

That couldn't be possible.

Right?

 

[The_Letter_K]

AN: Those of you who enjoy my stuff should check out @Queen Fiona's excellent It's No Game, a story about a cute lady who gets hypnosis powers from the future to maybe save the world with, and decides the best way to prepare for the inevitable is to show everyone how great it is to be enjoying all the kissing and the cuddling. (And other stuff too!) Go give it a try!




Akubra and I spent a few minutes just basking in each other's company, cuddling, watching the dancers and listening to the music. I was listening to her heartbeat, too, but I didn't really have one, so I supposed she wasn't listening to mine.

"Hey, Akubra?" I asked, idly.

"Mmmm?"

"How much of you is mushroom, anyway?" It was a legitimate question. I'd been inside her and I somehow wasn't sure, like my memories of it were fuzzy, incomplete, or self-conflicting.

"Hmmm…" she said, nuzzling into me more.

"I can feel your heartbeat, and I know you have those cute little caps poking up through the skin, here and there…" I mused, "Do you have mushroom bones, maybe?"

Come to think of it, Mad Hatters were supposed to be connected to their hats like the cap of a mushroom, it supposedly grew into their brains, but they could also take them off? Akubra sure could, and I knew for a fact she had hair under there, and a solid scalp. I was massaging it from inside her hat, after all.

"What does it mean, Lyle, to be mushroom?"

"Uh…" I wasn't sure how to answer that.

"Fungi generally aren't considered plant or animal; did you know?"

"I didn't, no."

"Humans aren't generally considered to be plant or animal either. They see themselves as separate from both, and monsters are seen as animals when they're considered at all. Perhaps we're the same, then, human and mushroom? I've never been anything but myself, I can't say where any one piece of me begins or ends."

I guess I didn't really know where my bones were either, when I had them, anyway. I couldn't have given anyone who asked a breakdown of where and what things were. Still, it was a disappointing answer.

"Maybe we should get Faust to check?" I asked, lightly. "At the very least I bet you're just as pretty inside as out."

I could probably make eyes in there, but wasn't sure I could see in the dark.

She let out a non-committal hum, leaning her head against my shoulder again.

We were silent a few moments more, and then a change overtook the crowd outside the window, as the lights dimmed even further. The beat of the music became frantic, and cheers rose up.

"Ladies and- well, let's be honest, ladies!" A laugh rippled through the crowd as the voice accompanying some of the night's music rang out clear across the din, "We have a treat lined up for you tonight!"

The crowd roared in response.

The voice continued, "Now, normally, you'd all be in the running for a Nightcap with our next act, as I'm sure you're all aware~." Some cheers and 'woo-woos' rang out. "And normally I'd be angling to win it myself, but rumor has it the club's owner, Ms. Nightcap herself, is here tonight with a very close and personal friend of hers, you might have seen them come in? And hey, can we get a little appreciation for the woman who brings us this amazing lineup night after night?"

The crowd all but vibrated the building with their cheers.

"Seems to me," the voice said, "there's really only one way to properly thank her. You see, rumor has it Ms. Nightcap and her special friend are hungry. Rumor is it might even be the first proper feeding for both of them! I think it's only right they have a turn with the cream of the crop, after sharing him around every night, what do you say!?"

The response wasn't as enthusiastic as she'd hoped, I think. There were a lot of disappointed sounding voices mixed into to the cheers.

"Don't be like that," The voice said, chidingly, "You're here for something that might be once in a lifetime! One of our lifetimes. He puts on a show for you girls every night, but tonight, for one night only, you get to watch the best of the best try to impress his boss!"

The crowd sounded intrigued by that idea, hungry. She was turning them around.

"Tell you what ladies, have a round on us, for the trouble, and don't forget, memories of a night like this are going to be primo fodder for any Mindflayer willing to buy. Make sure you get a good seat, and try to enjoy yourselves! After all, he's not the only dancer here, and you can still have yourself a nice meal tonight!"

The crowd joined in with her as she shouted; "All! Night! Long!"

Slime servers sprouted up all around the room, handing out drinks to everyone who could reach their trays. I thought that the drinks must have come through the ground, somehow, and I realized there was no reason to assume the Red Slime we were standing on was only a thin layer, she might be a foot or more thick, and indeed, why wouldn't she be, cleaning up the fluids from a place like this every night?

"And now, without further ado," the voice said, "everyone please give it up for-!"

The lights dropped completely, and the music cut out. The crowd was silent, and I found myself tensing in anticipation with them.

"Jack!"

The large center stage was awash with light, flashing, sparkling, dazzling, as firecrackers fizzled and popped, and the drums built up louder and louder.

"FLAAAAAAAASHERRRRR!"

The lights cut out, all except one. Right in the center of the long walkway, it was like a dot of light, so concentrated that it had clear edges as it shown.

The building did shake this time, I was sure, maybe the sheer presence of the crowd shaking the Red Slime beneath us all beyond her ability to stabilize.

Then I thought I saw something drop from the ceiling, and suddenly there, amidst the light in a three-point pose, was a man.

That was a bit of an understatement, though, like saying the sun was a light, or the ocean a cup. Not… technically wrong, maybe, but a gross simplification which failed to grasp the truth.

He had skin like the sticky, salty candy you can get from sugar just before it burns, and blackish-brown hair on his head, thickly curled, almost messily so. His eyes were a blue so light it seemed nearly luminescent, and his smile was easy, and guileless.

He shone with a… not a light, but a sort of vibrance, a kind of hyper-realness that set him apart from everything even though no one thing about him seemed particularly unusual. That's not to say he was an average man, he could have posed for any kind of sculpture and have improved it just by being the model, he was that kind of flawless. It was just, he was sharper, more defined, clearly visible from across even this distance like a true-life portrait on an impressionist background. If I had to guess, my senses were instinctually prioritizing him, highlighting him. Targeting, even.

His body was… was taut with power, pressing out from inside him at every inch, only barely contained. It was a little weird to see what must have been an incredibly powerful Incubus shining in the same sort of way that Mamono did. Generally, a man was paired with one or more women who sipped at him with little touches all day long, and so while I might have seen a stronger guy amidst the Queen's Consorts, for example, I'd never seen someone so… so obviously brimming with life to the point of bursting. I'd never noticed.

Not like this.

In a completely mad way, I almost felt like I knew him already, like just by having seen him I'd learned things it might have taken me weeks or years to suss out. I looked at him and saw someone who was kind, patient, and soft-spoken, someone who'd been an athlete for years, and could get over-competitive in that context. I saw a confidence, the charisma of a natural snake-oiler, with none of the callousness or self-interest they had, but still too charming for his own good. Too trusting, I thought. Maybe a bit naïve. He had absolutely no head for numbers or letters, but he was still smart in his own way. A bit high maintenance, over-concerned with his looks. Not that that wasn't working out for him, I guess.

All this and more besides hit me like a wave in a single instant, and suddenly I felt so foolish for it, for making up some kind of imaginary story about Jack in my head.

But it still felt real.

I came back to myself, the cheers and cries of the crowd cutting through my musings and pulling me back in.

But I didn't look away.

Because he'd started to move.

 

[The_Letter_K]

I'd never seen any woman move like that, let alone any man. The closest thing I could have compared it to was the channels of rain that raced down a window amidst a thunderstorm, as the lightning struck and brought rainbows of light shooting through the droplets like a prism. Like those streams, he was all but liquid, maybe morseo than myself, and he flitted to and fro almost faster than the eye could follow, always following the path of least resistance, very nearly magical in its effortlessness. Like those lights, he caught the eye in ways that constantly surprised and fascinated, revealing worlds of contours for the barest moment before whisking them away again.

It was a moment before I even noticed the music, so entranced was I. The crash of cymbals, or thunder, the clatter of drums, or falling rain, the howling of wind, or the strings of the violin, he was somehow in rhythm with it all, and the way the music echoed through me as he moved in time with it made it feel almost as though he were touching me himself.

In spite of myself, I think I liked it.

His outfit was unlike anything I'd ever seen, it shone and shimmered, all colors and lights, reminding me more of Faust's gathered magics than of any fabric or textile. Accents like tassels and straps, or maybe feathers and smoke, trailed from him as he moved, some separating and fading away as they floated down behind him, marking where he'd been, claiming the space for a few moments beyond what nature had intended. It made me wonder whether he was wearing anything at all, or if it was all illusion, set to be peeled away at a moment's notice.

I felt myself gulp as I realized I'd likely find out first-hand.

The tempo of the dance only increased, and, at some nigh-imperceptible inflection point, he was no longer like water, but like an unquenchable fire. The lights of his outfit flared, and from behind him spread out something alike a great fan, colors and patterns I'd never seen now leashed to him, increasing his apparent size by an order of magnitude, and leashed to the movements of his hips.

He'd shifted from flowing, elegant movement to snappy, flickering motion, quick steps and hands snapping out, then darting back, and as the smoke of the room moved around him, I could have sworn I saw myself in the shapelessness of it, his hands under my chin, stroking my arm, his hips coming dangerously close to mine, each motion dispersing the gathered air and illusion just before we could touch, but also beckoning in a new one so tantalizingly close, and it was always his next focus. The burning passion of his body in motion melding with the smoke to the point it wasn't clear where the line between even was, undoubtedly a dance of heat and flames no different from any campfire I'd ever seen.

Much like those campfires had always been, it was so, so easy to stare, to lose myself in the endless motion of it.

I wanted to.

With all the other lights in the room gone dim, he really did seem to be like the flame of a lonely campfire as he burned so brightly under that sole spot of light, with the edges of his outfit flitting outside its confines like stray embers, slowly fading.

The music swelled and changed again, and his dancing followed suit, this time much more thoughtful and breezy. Breezy really was the right word for it, because he seemed to be almost pushed by the physical force of the music now, like a flag in a breeze, and his outfit shining and vibrant, began to shed more and more of those magical particles as he moved, the great fan of his tail losing feathers, fading away.

He stepped off the stage, into open air, and the 'floor' rose to meet him, providing only the barest hints of support, the translucent red of the slime almost invisible in the dimness, and he moved above the crowd with such speed that by the time any one woman had realized he was in reach, he'd already moved past her, but you could see his path in their swoons and sways, caught by his lingering scent in the air if nothing else.

He slid and skated across the room, just out of reach of the grasps of the revelers below, and the swells and burst of music blasted away more and more of the layers of light clothing his body. The whims of the woodwinds seemed to blow him back to the stage with a well-timed jump, and a forceful sound, and he caught onto the pole with his hands, held at a right angle to it by sheer the musculature of his body as he swayed there in the air like a flag, the music stripping him more and more of the magical clothing, small pieces disappearing with each instrumental flourish.

He began to twirl around the pole, a human tornado, his body never quite leaving it but never clinging to it either, at least not in a way I'd have expected. He spun freely around the stage like a weather vane, a flurry of light and sound accompanying his body until suddenly!

It was gone.

The last of the light had been blown from his body and now the room was dark, the music now silent, the crowd tense and alert.

My body, tense and alert.

A light flickered on, and the beat was back, for just a moment, and I could see that he lay there on the floor of the stage, unmoving, only the barest hint of cloth to preserve his modesty, as darkness and silence fell again.

A second flicker, a second crash of cymbals and thump of the beat, and now I could see he was standing, looking at me, at the wall between us.

A third, he had one foot off the stage, once more supported by the Red Slime.

A fourth, and faster now. He was getting closer. It was like being stalked by an oncoming avalanche. I knew at any moment he would fall upon me, the feeble distance between us was an illusion wrought by time. In my heart he was already here.

A fifth, he was outside the window.

A sixth, he'd disappeared!

A seventh, before I could panic, and he was here, my only hint to what had happened being the slime dripping off his feet. He'd come in through the floor!

The flashes and sounds came much faster now and he strutted towards me amidst strobes of light and noise with a smile so sweet that for a moment I almost forgot where we were, what this was.

I was transfixed.

He fell into a bow before me as the music ended, and the crowd roared and stomped and clapped, although they could not see the last of his act. At this point they must know it by heart.

If I'd had my wits about me, I might have clapped along. As it was, the smell of him was overwhelming, and when he looked up and spoke, I only barely managed a response.

"Jack Flasher," He said. He looked over to Akubra and nodded. "Ma'am."

"L-lyle," I said, belatedly.

He turned back to me, and a smile so honest graced his face.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

 

[The_Letter_K]

The moment lingered past what I think he had expected, and it was a little awkward. At some point during the dance, I'd left my seat at the table to get a better view through the window, and that left him kneeling there, occasionally glancing at Akubra, who was watching us both with her classically casual interest, and me completely incapable of processing.

Well, at the very least, I felt awkward.

"H-How are you d-doing?" I squeaked out.

Some kind of understanding seemed to bloom in his eyes, and the bravado, the showmanship, the sheer presence of him slid right off like he'd shrugged out of a heavy coat.

"Are… you okay?" he asked, and it was striking how much smaller and warmer he suddenly seemed with only three words. He went from conqueror to cuddler in the span of a second.

I nodded, slowly.

"I.. uh… I'm an Alp." I said. It seemed relevant.

And well… I had to say something.

"Oh." He blinked. "All of… uh" he gestured at the stage out past the glass, "all of that... might have been coming on a little strongly then?"

"A bit." I squeaked.

His expression fell, his shoulders sagging slightly.

"It… it wasn't bad!" I scrambled to say, and he looked up. "It was even pretty good, actually!"

A light seemed to enter his eyes, and a smile crept back onto his face.

"I can't tell if that's the best review I ever remember getting... or the worst." He said, and I could hear the mirth in his voice, "Here at Nightcap's, we usually aim for a little bit more than 'pretty good, actually'."

I could feel myself blushing, and I took a moment to consider how much better I'd become at putting my foot in my mouth now that they were both made of the same goo.

"S-sorry."

His smile only grew. "It's alright, really. It's kind of… novel. I don't think I've ever performed for an Alp before. At least, not one so fresh." He lost the slight slump to his shoulders as he stood. "It's a cool challenge!"

"Yeah?"

He nodded. "Like, I'm a dancer, right? An artist, I guess. I know how to draw the eye of a Mamono exactly where I want it. But… you don't really want your eyes there, do you? Or… maybe, you're embarrassed that you want it?"

I squeaked, and I heard Akubra chuckle from her seat at the table.

"Don't worry," he said, "I'm here for you. I'm not going to do anything you aren't comfortable with."

"You're not… you know, disappointed?" I asked, only barely meeting his eyes.

"Disappointed? With the chance to perform for Ms. Nightcap herself?" He shook his head. "It's an honor to be here. Besides, my pride as a server couldn't withstand providing service you aren't completely satisfied with. And, well, my wives would have my head."

He gestured for me to sit, and he moved over to the table himself.

"You're married?" I asked, incredulous. "Your wives let you… uh…?"

"Whore myself out?" He chuckled. "They're super into it. I'm married to a Nurarihyon and a Cancer."

Cancers were the crab-like tauric monsters. I'd seen a few of them scuttling around. I felt a weird sort of kinship with them now, we shared an interest in uh… cleaning. They washed their husbands obsessively to get every other girl's mana off of them before they'd deign to dine, and their husbands very often didn't have the stamina to last under their… thorough attentions, letting loose more than once before the cleaning was done, which only prolonged things.

When I looked at it in that light, I saw the appeal, I guess.

"I know the Cancers, but…" I trailed off.

"Nurarihyons are kinda uncommon here, yeah." He said. "To hear her tell it, they're a real terror on the mist continent, though. Their magics turn their husbands into… well. Into me, basically. The kind of guy who has hundreds of Mamono clambering for the chance to get a bite and who needs every single one just to feel relief. I turned it into a job, but a lot of the other guys I've heard about basically can't leave bed, or they wind up getting ferried around town in a crowd of horny hangers-on as they're passed around."

I couldn't help it, I raised an eyebrow at that.

He blushed. It was cute. "I really like to cum. I kinda need to."

I snorted. "I get you. I got turned by a Lich, an Automaton, a Bicorn, a Hostaur, a Shoggoth, and Akubra here. Before I... flipped over... I was a mess."

His light blue eyes danced. They were so deep, like they led somewhere far away, like the sky giving way to the infinities of space.

"That's quite the list. You'll have to tell me how that went sometime."

Akubra shifted in her seat, and I started, suddenly aware of how my unease had been just draining away as I talked to him.

I narrowed my eyes. "You're pretty good."

He beamed at me and it struck me like a physical force.

"I'm glad you think so."

"I... I'm, uh, I'm glad you're glad I think so, I think?" I babbled, still reeling.

Akubra put her hand on mine, grounding me.

What a life I lived that she was a person I could trust to do that.

"Jack," she said.

"Ma'am?"

"I am hungry for more than cheerful conversation, I fear."

His eyes widened. "Uh, right."

He stood back up, leaving the table. Akubra stood too, following him out, having to scoot along the curved booth until there was room to get up.

Those two were more familiar with what was going on than me, and so I stood too.

As I stood, I saw Akubra start to fall over backwards, bonelessly. I rushed to catch her, frantically, but her head hit the ground before I could stop it.

And went straight through the floor.

The rest of her body followed, and I could feel the piece of myself that was a piece of her now as it was swept away by the Red Slime I kept forgetting I was putting my feet all over.

Jack just shook his head, and then tapped his foot three times, suddenly seeming to sink and vanishing quickly in a similar way.

"Uh." I said. "Hello?"

Nothing.

"...Guys?"

I tapped my foot three times, hesitantly.

I was surrounded by an army of Red Slime bodies. They all leapt at me, and I got a good look at their faces before they subsumed me.

I recognized the expression of someone who thought they were very very funny, and the sense of panic faded as I too was pulled under.

 

[The_Letter_K]

The sensation of being pulled under was incredibly strange. I'm not sure there could have been any experience more effective at really showing me how free-flowing that my body had become than being surrounded by essentially the same amorphous stuff. As the Red Slime Queen pushed and pressed at me, pulling me through an ocean of herself, I felt myself distort almost instinctively as her opposite. Like oil and water, unable to truly intermingle, we toyed with each other by asserting our space. It was startlingly intimate. I hadn't really realized the depth of my control and… sense of self-awareness? However, with another person able to interact with me on the same level, I was beginning to understand just what it meant to be a slime, for every piece of myself to be both entirely myself and entirely interchangeable, any minor difference in appearance really down to mere aesthetic.

Maybe I'd avoided really grasping it as a coping mechanism. I'd been able to do slime-like things as I needed, but it wasn't… it hadn't been casual, or when it had it was when I was especially swept up in the energies of revelry now bound into my soul. I'd struggled to form a tub and water, and now I almost couldn't understand how. Rather, I could, but I was in awe of the depths of my fundamental mistake. I hadn't needed to turn into… into anything.

I already was everything.

I didn't need to focus on the individual processes for turning my hair into a towel, for example. The two were both the same. They were me. The process wasn't actually mechanically any different from how I walked or talked. I didn't have muscles to move, I was already transforming myself without thinking about it. I didn't have fingers, I was fingers. I didn't have teeth, have eyes, I was teeth! I was eyes! I didn't have a brain!

I was a brain.

Uh, I probably shouldn't tell Faust my brain is bigger than hers. I'm not sure how she'd take that.

I finally breached her surface after an uncertain amount of time. I'd been lost in the sensation of movement, and hadn't been focused enough to keep track, too disorienting. Luminal spaces, I think Faust had said. It meant like… the inside of a wagon, or a waiting area in a noble's estate. Places that weren't places so much as before-places or after-places. It had been something like that, anyway.

Once a single tendril was free, I spiraled up and out of it, pulling myself into the place where, presumably, I'd find Akubra and Jack. Rebuilding myself was a much more fluid affair, and it was remarkable how grasping a simple idea completely changed the process. Actually, it called to mind the day I'd seen Beeps carving those statues, the way detail rose from my surfaces, almost floating to the top, uncertainty of form flaking away.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I came to be in the room, but, well, even though I expected the unexpected I was still surprised, which was Akubra all the way down to the core, apparently.

The room was just… grey and beige. The furniture was all hard right angles and felt almost unfriendly in its presentation. It was hard for me to argue it wasn't a good match for the environment, but that was more a criticism than any sort of praise.

In one corner, a metal desk with beige fabric accents and a small, uncomfortable looking chair on wheels were nearly hidden underneath a pile of papers stacked primly but imposingly.

The floor was all red, perhaps unavoidably, but whereas in the rest of the building it provided a vibrancy and almost a sense of regality, here it was more akin to… well, when paired with the frankly brutal and alien presentation of the room, it looked like nothing so much as the blood of those trampled underfoot by the bureaucracy the room seemed to represent.

Maybe that was unfair of me, but on the other hand, the only time I'd seen a room like this before was in the local church back in town. There the papers were filled with the names of the dead, and of the slain, so the locals could look out for resurrections or potential infected family members.

Weirdly, I almost appreciated the reminder of where I'd come from. Even with my… discomfort with what I was about to do, on the balance I'd rather be standing here than there every time.

Akubra was behind what I could only assume was her desk, shuffling papers randomly. Anyone else, I might suspect there was some method to it, but with Akubra, it seemed safer to bet on simple madness, especially in a place that felt almost… painfully sane. Or maybe all the pages were blank, or filled with nonsense? Was the desk actually trying to escape, held down only by the weight of administrative duties?

…I was looking for the trick, I realized.

Of course… if it had been me, it might have been funnier to simply devote myself to the aesthetic of banality completely, just the once, to transcend and become truly and utterly unpredictable.

I met Akurba's gaze, and she smiled at me, warmly. Jack, meanwhile, had settled onto a small bench, out of the way at the side of the room. His posture was relaxed, his arms running along the top of the bench, his legs spread wide. Either he'd been down here before or he was just unflappable. I noted he'd left room for one of us on each side of him, and decided it just wasn't possible for me to parse the nuances of that kind of confidence.

"Okay," I said. "So… what now?"

"Well," He said, "That depends on what you want."

I frowned. "Want," I said, "Want doesn't really enter into it, I don't think."

That brought a frown to his face.

"What do you mean?"

"Well," I shifted a little, fidgeting with my hands, "Even if I don't really want to do this, exactly, what I want even less is to put it off until I can't hold myself together any more, and I just go wild in the street to get fed."

He nodded, slowly, still frowning. "And when you say you don't really want to do 'this', what do you mean?"

"Uh…"

"Well, like," he leaned forward, moving his arms to steeple them together just in front of his face. "There's a lot of different ways to get fed, you know? We don't have to lay down and do it like newlyweds."

Huh.

"I… I guess that's true?" I asked-more-than-said, "But… won't I just get sucked in and go all the way anyway?"

"Hmmm… Maybe?" he said. "But, like, I'm good with things like orgasm denial, bondage, domination, that kind of thing. If you want to set things up so you can't go that far, there's a lot of options. A little trickier, being that you're a slime, but at Nightcaps we're happy to accommodate."

He paused.

"Actually," he said, "If you two wanted, I could feed Akubra first, and then you could-"

My blood ran cold.

"SHE'S MINE."

I could see him from a hundred angles, but the only sign he'd heard me was the slight raising of his brow.

"That's fine," he said, calmly, "we're here to do this how you like."

R-right.

Wow, he was awfully close all the sudden, when did I get over here? I decided I'd best move so I could see the both of them again, for conversation's sake, and I pulled myself back into me over by where I'd been standing before.

"S-sorry."

He nodded, slowly. "I'd do the same for the women I love."

I took a deep breath.

"She does need to eat, though," he continued.

Dammit.

"I know." I said, sighing. "They all do."

I'd really been hoping Faust would be able to pull together some simple trick to help us all cheat the system, and maybe she still would in the end, but it plainly wouldn't come in time to let me dodge the issue. I needed to eat, and I couldn't ignore that my wives were feeling that same gnawing hunger. As hard as it was to work up the nerve to do this myself, how did I address what came next? Could I watch as Amy and Blackberry screamed for someone else, even if I was screaming too? What about Faust? Beeps? I couldn't eat and leave them starving, or eating that Golem crap.

But… it felt fundamentally wrong to even imagine them with someone else. Was that selfish? Maybe it was. Actually, I was sure it was. It would agonize me to know they were with someone else, but it was unconscionable to me to starve them to spare me that.

That didn't change that sick, wrong, writhing feeling inside me at the idea.

I… I don't know what to do.

"Lyle?" Akubra asked, "Would you mind signing this?"

Hmm?

"Signing what?" I asked.

"Mmm." She said, "Paperwork. It says you're my husband and that you can come and go as you please."

"Do… I really need something like that?" I asked.

"Sadly, my assistant insists, and she is the bedrock on which this club is built, so I indulge her from time to time. She apparently finds it a refreshing change from me walking all over her."

Ah.

"Sure, I guess."

I moved over to the desk, and signed the short statement of confusing words. I had some experience with Faust, and from what I could read, there wasn't anything wild in it. Just a paragraph or two.

"It seems pretty simple."

Akubra nodded and said, "If you like, you can think of it as a contract."

Huh.

A…

A contract?

My head whipped around, and I stared at Jack. I could feel a sort of fire in my heart. I suddenly knew exactly what I had to do, and it made me so fucking horny.

"Saaaay. Jack?"

He looked a little unnerved. "Yes?"

I smiled from more mouths than I cared to count.

"How'd you like to make a deal?"

 

[The_Letter_K]

Warning: Contains artful descriptions of het sneaking into my lily garden.​

I shivered as the paper burned into being. It felt so much more right to do it with intention. Maybe even moreso because I knew I was using it to cheat something that seemed insurmountable only a minute ago. That same feeling that had assaulted me when I realized my terms had bound Charlotte tightly but left me free to act, but this time, I'd earned it. I could enjoy it without shame.

I wondered what Magenta would think?

Would she be proud that I'd bound a man to terms, or disappointed I'd bound myself even moreso? I still wasn't quite sure what was going on with her. She seemed to have some kind of disdain for Incubi which didn't make sense for a natural born Mamono, and I couldn't help but wonder why, where it came from?

Jack had been reticent at first, but after a quick explanation, he was happy to help. Most Demons bound their husbands to them with a long-term Contract, but I didn't see any reason you couldn't arbitrate each encounter, if you wanted to get granular.

Seems the magic agreed with me.

It had only taken me a moment to set boundaries I could live with. I didn't know much about how Slimes had used to be, before the reign of Lilith, but Faust had told me some, and some I got from my own reading on the types of Mamono I'd had to worry about as a single Sheriff. Before everything went lady-shaped, they'd just kind of been shapeless blobs that kinda rolled around eating things by engulfing them.

If I… un-lady-shaped a part of myself, I could do the same thing to Jack, and without near as much intimacy as any sort of lady-shaped sexy times.

In theory, anyway.

He'd offered to… excite himself, and just have me catch what he managed to produce, but I couldn't dodge this forever. I wanted to take an active role, to take just a little control of how this went.

To prove to myself that I could, I guess.

And so, here we were, sitting on the bench, with an empty space between us. I could have made myself a seat for the two of us, but… Weirdly, I didn't want to? I wasn't meant to be his furniture; he didn't get to use me that way. It felt right, keeping that from him, although I wasn't sure he even knew I was.

"Okay," I said. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah." He replied. "You're sure I'll be able to breathe once you go in?"

I nodded. "It's actually pretty easy, once you work out how."

I just sort of made my body like those fizzy drinks some of the cafes here served. Except in reverse, I guess, pulling the tiny bubbles into the liquid, rather than the opposite. It struck me that I could use this to make myself even bigger, if I ever needed to, but I wasn't sure if I ever would. I'd gotten pretty big already.

I closed my eyes, and my arm shot over at him. I heard him take a breath, maybe in surprise, maybe because he wasn't sure he trusted me to breathe for him. My fingers and hand lost their shape as my arm grew longer, splashing against him. I fought against the urge to form eyes and mouths on the shapeless mass, I wanted less sensation, not more. I felt that comforting wall in my mind, helping me fend the instincts off. They crashed against it, unable to pass through, and I leaned against it myself, safely on the other side. The contract held. I wouldn't break the terms with anything less than deliberate action. The foreboding sensation of that idea was overwhelming, and I had no worries I'd get sucked in and forget that I'd wanted it this way.

I covered him completely with surprising speed. I seemed to grow faster the more of me there was. It made a weird sort of sense, I wasn't pushing 'out', I was pushing 'here', and the more of me that was already 'here', the more room I had to push through from over 'there'.

I felt his body tense inside my grasp. It was hard to map the feeling to anything else. I'd done this before, with Akurba, but I'd been water then, and this was more… fleshy, I guess? I'd also been completely into it with Akubra, and here I was holding myself back, both by force of will and by powers most vile. Or something like that.

If I had to liken it to something, it would be holding a small rodent. Not that that's how I thought of him but, like… The first time I'd grabbed a squirrel, still alive, I was struck by how not-fluffy it was. I could feel all the muscle and bone squirming around under the skin in a way that was incredibly disconcerting. I guess somewhere inside I'd expected it to feel more like a doll, or stuffed toy. Instead, it had been tense and flailing, fighting for survival as I tried to free it from our snare, and the memory of it as a thing of flesh and blood, so much smaller than myself, alien but still alive, it never really left me.

Holding him was kind of like that.

That makes it sound bad, and it wasn't, it's just… I guess I'd expected something else? He felt almost toy-sized, since my 'hand' was so big, and since I couldn't see him, my eyes were still closed, it was messing with my perception, I think.

He relaxed as I started to massage him in little circles, all around his body, and I slipped inside him from above and below once he went limp. The skin-crawling feeling of holding something fighting for its life fell away, and I felt him start to respond, much like Akubra had.

I was… clinically familiar with the process? I'd gotten aroused before, in a man-shaped kinda way. It already felt so alien to me, I'd adapted to my lady-shapedness really quickly, but I did know the process intimately.

I hadn't realized I looked so goofy, though. Or maybe… it was as though I could tell Jack wasn't… he wasn't mine, I guess. It was sort of like a condescending feeling, fond, but very unequal. The difference between a proper husband, and a random Incubus, maybe?

Hmm.

Maybe like… like the feeling you got when your neighbor brought you a cooked meal as a gift, but it wasn't a meal you particularly liked? They didn't know you well enough to cook you something you'd love, so you ate it with a sort of resigned gratefulness but without the joy of a meal prepared by someone who knew and loved you deeply? That sentiment seemed to fit.

I suppose now I understood why Mamono hunted their husband so desperately. It was patently obvious to me that a real emotional investment here was missing on my end, and on his.

It probably didn't help that I'd done everything I could to put some distance between myself and the actual act in and of itself. If I'd let myself go a little wild tonight, and actually had sex properly, I might have gotten a lot more out of it.

Baby steps.

I wasn't really able to perceive him outside of touch and taste, with my eyes closed, and with him all wrapped up inside my… uh… glob-hand? The flavors were both exactly what I expected, and not at all. For the expected, there was lots of meaty, greasy, saltiness, from the touch of his skin. There were subtle differences in the taste of everyone's skin, maybe from the soaps and such that they used, maybe from where they spent their time, whether outdoors in the forest, or indoors in a lab, or wherever, or maybe just down to like, the individual.

I guess I'd have to eat a lot of people to find out.

That's a weird thought, let's not do that instead.

As for the unexpected flavors, he also felt-tasted very… sweet? Creamy? I couldn't pin the taste to any one thing on him, so I was assuming this was 'male spirit energy'. It was getting more powerful the more aroused he got, so it seemed like a safe bet. It felt super decadent. Was that… chocolate? And peanut butter?

Are… are men just… like… really fancy desserts?

If it's always like this, it might be a little easier to deal with than I was afraid of.

The final sensation that washed over me took me back to when I'd first seen Jack, when I thought for a moment I knew him completely. I guess it hadn't been my imagination. That same sense of him, the sense that he was someone who was kind, confident, patient, soft-spoken and deeply charismatic; an over-competitive athlete; too charming and trusting for his own good, and a bit naïve. Somewhat vain, high-maintenance, and not exactly the scholarly sort.

All of it, all at once, so very insistently and loudly. Almost like a memory of him, but not tied to any experience. I knew that this was Jack Flasher, a sensation very and completely unique to him, nuanced and honest. He was a good man, but not the right fit for me and mine. That was the sense I got.

Was this how Mamono could fall in love so completely and instantly? When you first met your husband, could you really just tell? They yelled things like that a lot when they attacked, from what I'd heard, but was it really real? Or maybe it was the Shoggoth in me, the eldritch maid meant to know the desires of the one she'd keep forever?

It was hard to say. I wasn't sure how I'd even articulate the feeling to someone else to compare with them. I bet Sally would know, though. I'd have a lot of questions for her after tonight.

Jack was starting to buck his hips on a sort of instinct, and he was finally completely hard. It hadn't taken particularly long, but I'd been thinking, and when I stopped to do that these days things seemed to slow down. His penis was bigger than mine had ever been, which surprisingly didn't bother me. He was an incredibly powerful Incubus; it was only natural he sort of physically reflected that. Much more interesting was that his dick was, well… kinda inhuman? It wasn't wildly out of place, but he had a lot of bumps and ribbed ridges along the shaft, I was pretty sure that wasn't normal, though it's not like I'd done a survey of the genitals of folks in town when I'd been Sherriff so I guess I couldn't say for certain.

I was more certain, though, that humans didn't pulse like that. His heart was beating inhumanly fast, and that was translating through his cock in a way that made it sort of aggressively buzz with motion. I wasn't sure if it was some kind of specialized organ, an arrangement of veins, or what, but it was difficult to deny that it was really really nice, even considering how I'd not shaped myself for pleasure, the piece of myself holding him being just a blob of slime.

I wondered if this was something that happened to all Incubi?

Well, I tried to wonder, the taste and sensations were really distracting, even having held myself as far apart from it as I could. I was actually a lttile surprised, when I'd still been changing I'd started to cum pretty soon after sex started and didn't really stop so much as slow and speed up. I hadn't seen anything like that y-

I felt myself slam mentally against the contract when, as if he knew I was waiting, he finally began to cum. Instincts I wasn't even sure I knew how to listen to started screaming in my brain, but thanks to the rigidity of the terms, I held fast.

I'd definitely be fucking him wildly by now if we hadn't contracted, because holy shit.

It was like eating lighting made of sugar and sunshine, like drinking magma of chocolate and adrenaline, and like touching the wind as it whipped by in a hurricane carrying the scents of home and decadence, all at once.

Was this…

Was this real?

Could this be real?

Was anything real?

If it was, it was more real than anything ever had been, like living life louder, larger, and so so much less alone.

I could feel us connect.

I felt another person in a way I'd never felt anyone but myself.

I hadn't realized how unprovable the world beyond my own brain so obviously had been, but now I just as clearly knew that Jack was reality.

Right now, just right now, we were real together.

I was adrift in the sensations of him and this just as plainly as he was adrift in my grasp. I was holding him, but I felt like I was the immovable one.

I almost couldn't understand what my body was doing, I'd reached a place so far beyond it that it felt like a tiny speck, and here we were, he and I.

I marveled in it for what felt like years but could only have been minutes, by the terms we set.

I was simultaneous both glad and utterly furious when I remembered we'd settled on just one go.

On the one hand, I couldn't be tempted with another round.

On the other, I couldn't give in to that temptation, and I knew that in this moment that I'd not hesitate to do it.

When I finally came back down, when all these new senses stopped demanding my attention, and I let go of Jack, I found Akubra there in my arms, waiting for me.

"I told you, Lyle." She said, "Feeding is even better."

I nodded, helplessly. No one could deny it with a straight face.

Oh lord, what would I say when Charlotte asked?

Oh shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

Did I just mess up? Was I too far gone for her to hear me now? She'd know, wouldn't she, if she asked? That I'd happily do it again?

And she would ask, too.

Shit.

"Lyle," Akubra said, "Lyle, focus on me."

I did, finally opening my eyes.

"Lyle, I'm hungry." She said. "And you're so full."

She was right. I was full. I was still eating. I had so much. I could spare some, surely? Share with one of the women of my dreams?

I could hear Jack panting in the corner but I only had eyes for my wife as I fell upon her to fill her up too.