113- Avoiding Choices and Their Consequences

    The sun rose and fell. Sometimes the smells of frying eggs or bacon woke me. Sometimes the smells of a savory stew. Sometimes the cool, misty mornings had my eyes opening early. Those days mostly went the same: on work days, I delegated with morning briefings, hoped for another sighting of a godly artifact from Drat, and had them disperse. I spoke with Cinzy and Wayne about how the refugees were doing and what Jacoby’s team was up to, and if they needed anything from us.

    I found it slightly annoying how Wayne or Jacoby’s people were completely unable to help us in our main task, but Tara was often conscripted into searching for Archie, Blake’s second in command. I told myself it was good they stayed out of our way and only asked for minimal assistance. So this cloud had a silver lining after all.

    On some days I ended up in camp, doing the cooking and washing up. I’d chat with whoever my partner was on camp cleanliness duty, and if it was one of the girls, we could get up to some shenanigans. Ivy convinced me after I was done with dishes to come back to her place and give her a complete and thorough forking. I first headed to where Isabelle was on door duty to confirm that Ivy had permission. The whole way back to their place, Ivy complained about how embarrassed she was asking permission to frack, and how we were wasting time just walking, when instead we could be forking.

    As for what day it was, that no longer mattered. This wasn’t earth. The seven day week wasn’t a thing if we didn’t want. Still, Wayne’s other team job was that of chaplain, which was odd. Every so often our rhythm got interrupted by Isabelle, Trent, Tara, and surprisingly Drat wanting to attend their weekly devotional service. I wasn’t much of a believer. We had four days on, one day off. The only thing that mattered was the thing I now dubbed The Shakindria Issue.

    First, she was good at transporting divine objects. The practice was paying off. She was already increasing the time she could spend doing so. Second, she was being nicer to me, showing me the sights and explaining all about how this or that neighbor was kind or silly, this or that shop had excellent wares or wonderful drinks, and how this place looked in different weather. Although the seasons were all messed up, the town occasionally got snow, and it turned the whole place looked, in Shakindria’s estimation, much more beautiful. She’d also taken to dressing in sexier and sexier outfits. Today’s outfit included gauzy lavender material in an x pattern across her front and around the back of her neck, where it looped around a simple brassy hoop. That hoop contained a short length of semi-transparent loincloth in the front and back. It barely covered her pert bubble butt.

    And today was windy.

    Over the course of the next few days, I was made a series of Social checks that got increasingly hard. They always began with a pleasant greeting and a touch of the hands. She clasped mine in hers, and expressed how lovely it was to have me near. I couldn’t disagree; it was wonderful to be near her.

    Then she would ask if perhaps we had time for a good forking.

    We had options when it came to forking. One, she could join our minds and have a completely psychic experience. It was a vision that the two of us shared. She could set the scene, like at the base of a waterfall, or in the middle of a bustling town, and then she’d suck me off or float over so I could eat her out. Or she’d float over to me while turning upside down, so we could do a freestanding sixty-nine position.

    After that I’d spread her legs on a smooth river rock and plunge into her, or I’d pin her to the wall of a bustling market building, seemingly unnoticed by the passing crowd, and hump up into her willing body.

    We could have sex in a scene that I set, mentally. She enjoyed being drawn into the cityscape of USA where I was from, and seeing the Southern California landscape, the houses, the humans. And then I could rock her world sexually… in public, in my childhood home, in my old high school history classroom, in the video game shop where I’d worked just prior to getting this job. The possibilities for this boning of the minds was limitless.

    The second option was a good old-fashioned forking. She’d draw me in close and tell me she wanted that monster shoved up into her. She wanted my essence blasted into the depths of her. She walked around in a state of arousal all day, every day now, and that meant she really did need to cover herself. Her lady parts were always dripping and slippery by the time we met up. I could see the juices dripping down the insides of her thighs.

    From there we could find any of a dozen abandoned beds and spend the next hour going through a series of orgasms. As much as she liked having me fill her up, she wasn’t opposed to witnessing the raw animal power of my release on her chest.

    In any event, we could (and did) have sex all over the abandoned houses.

    The third option was my favorite, and it involved floating using her telekinetic powers while having sex. It wasn’t true zero gravity sex; my blood still rushed to my head if we were upside down, but there was something magical about thrusting my hips up into hers while floating five feet off the ground. Of course it was literally magical, but this was a different sort of magic.

    Shakindria wanted variety of location. We had sex in a house that was a hollowed out tree. We floated up to a house on stilts and stuffed her full of me while floating some twelve feet in the air.

    I had plans for her, like taking her on a mental ride to a night club I’d been to just once. We could have sex amongst the throbbing rhythm of the bass and the gyrating, scantily clad club goers. She’d twerk that ass back into me while I went at her from behind among glittering college girls. We could head to the beach, and have sex without ever getting sand up our butts. We’d go on the movie studio tour and have sex on the set of a sci-fi movie. We could do it in front of the Hollywood sign.

    I couldn’t get a bead on what the Social checks meant exactly. For now, the bonuses I got from Beast Talker, Stalwart and Fierce allowed me to triumph. Triumph over what, I couldn’t be sure.

    During that time, she helped secure the divine objects Drat kept finding, always quiet when it was time for us to part. I began to grow guilty at the prospect of leaving her attached to this town that didn’t appreciate her.

    I had already gone over the logistics of trying to use Trent or Alan to gather up divine objects. Neither of them had Divine Resistance at the levels I did, and even with the Prismatic Apparel, swapping it between them and Drat, neither were as good as Shakindria.

    First, Alan. His telekinetic spells were far weaker than the psychic Nakamamon’s. He wasn’t yet at the level where he gained a better version of the spell, and being in the town was difficult for him. I hadn’t wanted to use his spell for fear of pissing off my psychic Nakamamon fork buddy, but he insisted on trying.

    It was a disaster. He had the same issue that Shakindria had at first: the divine energy backfired through the mana he was using and put him on his back. He spent the remainder of the time getting daily doses of Healer’s Breath from me, and then after a week of slowly worsening, he needed elixirs made.

    After getting touched by divinity, he stopped recovering mana as quickly, grew weak, and essentially stopped functioning as the group Wizard. Sёarch* The N?vel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    After the failure with Alan, Trent was reluctant to give it a shot. He routed a lot of power through his bonded Nakamamon, Garnet. The orange-red crystal pulsed with light while we talked, and Trent frowned.

    “I’m sorry, Fletcher,” he said.

    Garnet wasn’t willing to take the chance of getting the same divinity poisoning while working the stone beneath the divine artifacts. He still had a lot of work to do to ensure the relocation camp for the Nakamamon drawn here was enough. It needed irrigation ditches dug, it needed drainage and sewage that were separate from the irrigation. No, he was needed and that need was important. No way he was going to end up on a sick bed like Alan, unable to cast spells, and no way was he risking his bond mate.

    I couldn’t fault him for that, frustrating as it might be.

    Each day I returned to the camp and reunited with Vellenia.

    Regina’s remark stuck with me. I hadn’t once considered actually breaking the bond, and I had no idea how to do so anyway. Thinking about it got me down, from the guilt of both event thinking about it in the first place, and the guilt of being forced to leave Shakindria to the town sometime in the future.

    Vellenia caught wind of my despondent mood and grew concerned. She would massage my shoulders, offer to rub my feet, offer to go find Regina or Tara or Ivy and Isabelle, or Cinzy. She would strip off my clothes and try to get me in the mood.

    For the first time, I was having trouble. Now, it wasn’t sexually. Vellenia could still get me hard, could still satisfy herself several times over, and then satisfy me. But when she cuddled me I felt the pressure I put on myself.

    Vellenia was a delight. She admired what I was doing, and was actively helping. She knew of underwater plants and herbs that were used in making remedies, and we’d been planting and tending them together as part of Verdant Rejuvenation. Some of these plants were used in remedies in Alan’s collection of books, while others weren’t. I was interested in getting to know these plants better in order to see how they could be used in healing.

    If there was one positive aspect to the week spent with Shakindria and Vellenia, and randomly entertaining Regina, Ivy, Tara, and once with an exhausted and distracted Cinzy, it was my level increasing in Pleasure Seeker.

    By the end of the work week, I’d gained three levels, bringing me to level 24.

    Level 22: +3 skill points

    Level 23: +1 Likability, +1 free attribute point

    Level 24: Gained Ability: Raw Connection

    “Ugh,” I told myself, then stared around and tried to get an idea of what was wrong with me.

    It had rained but it was a light, warm rain. The sun was now shining and throwing rainbows up practically everywhere you looked. Nakamamon had come out to drink and bathe in the precipitation, showing me strange bugs and fairies made of air or glittering points of light. Drat had found two more pieces of divinity, bringing the total to four (plus the one I’d made), and was off searching for yet another one.

    Yet I was not pleased with myself.

    It wasn’t like I was upset at the way I was progressing, but I still felt like I was doing it the wrong way. Like I was doing something bad every time I went into town to be with Shakindria.

    I spent the 3 skill points, one on Divine Resistance, one on Adaptability, and one on Pheromones. I’d still had one from the Achievement, and put it aside for Healer skills. I felt like I would need it; we were at another level with this town situation, and I’d need to be a higher level to match.

    The additional free attribute point was another bright star in my fraught mental state, and I finally put this one into Physicality. I’d basically cleared up my leg and spine problem, and was building towards an actual physique I could be proud of. I needed it the least for my classes, but everyone needed a healthy body. I felt that one more point would give me body builder muscles, or at least rock climber or runner muscles, the lean build you associate with healthy people. The knowledge came by instinct, based on the way I felt; right now I could carry weights I’d never been able to, and only after doing that was I feeling any soreness in my hips, thighs or back. I was pain free almost every day.

    As for the newest ability…

    Raw Connection

    (Special Ability, Rare, Active aura)

    Activate by spending a Likability Token. Auras affect all targets within range. Effective range is a radius your class level in feet, presently 24 feet. This effect lasts for 10 minutes, plus 10 minutes per relationship level of the highest level member within range.

    Relationship points gained through social interactions are doubled.

    Relationship points gained through sexual activity or Social checks are boosted by 50%.

    Note: this includes both positive and negative Relationship gains.

    This… was good. Like really good. The bonus from getting to Devotee with Regina promised to be great; she loved her ability to gain lots of Nakamamon buddies. She’d already befriended the Slumbershrooms and one Shrubbit that I knew of. She disappeared most mornings to go be among the creatures and attract them, then play with them, which was her right… though the DRC did need her for team-related duties occasionally.

    She had gotten an amazing deal from her Meld Ability, while I… continued to balk. I still hadn’t taken the leap and gone with the Meld Ability from Regina telling me she loved me, but abilities like that weren’t going to be garbage. This ability would send my relationships with Tara, Ivy, Isabelle, and Cinzy shooting up quickly, I hoped. And that would mean boosted power levels, and reaching Devotee level faster.

    And possibly what lay beyond with Regina also.

    “You need to just get it over with,” Regina told me that night. She was snuggled up on one side of me, with Vellenia’s spot being on the other side. She was out playing with Regina’s new gaggle of creatures, but would be in for snuggling and maybe more soon.

    “Get your ability,” Regina went on. “Go on, get it.”

    “But Beast Talker is so good,” I complained. It was helping me resist the problem with Shakindria. Though if we were being perfectly honest, the problem with Shakindria had become just a tad more problematic.

    “Do it,” Tara insisted, like she always did. “When my family knows there’s some kind of problem and you’re dallying, they sit down and find out why you’re stuck, then everybody goes ‘do it!’ Always helps me and my folks.”

    This is Christopher not doing it. Not right now at least.