Bitter Introductions

“Can’t even let me enjoy the fucking afterglow, huh?” Fairy continued to grumble in this manner all while she entrapped Cidi’s petite body in the gentlest of chains. The minion had already cleaned up and gotten dressed following her time with John, though the rare bit of evidence would occasionally dribble down her thighs even now. Meanwhile, in the corner of the massive chamber of the immovable, her chains looped through the cracks and the occasional embellishment or beam of the ceiling to suspend the girl named Cidi in the air. Ten feet above John’s head, a tunnel remained open to shine the false sun’s light on the entire scene; the chains glittered as they shivered.

John had not specified how to tie the girl, only that it had to serve his purpose: to revive and question her, to keep her flame-wielding hands behind her and totally immobile, and to not hurt her. John wasn’t even sure how much of a threat the girl now was--he didn’t see how she had cast her magic--but he couldn’t be too careful. Fairy had obeyed that command to the letter: Cidi now hung at John’s crotch level, her own crotch and ass angled for easy access, while her legs were folded up by her sides while her arms were bound behind her.

John glared at Fairy upon seeing her completed work. “What kind of interrogation do you think I’m going to do?”

“Better with honey than vinegar, Master,” Fairy chided.

John looked her body over once more. Without the wig and with her monstrous mouth slightly agap, her inhumanity was put into perspective. That didn’t prevent her human nipples, on human tits, from catching John’s eyes as they wandered her tight, hairless body.

“Alright, don’t do anything hasty or attack her in any way if she freaks out.”

“If?”

Come to think of it, we could have more guests… and I’d like to know they’re actually coming first. Contemplating his options, John decided this was as good a time as any to try and give a particularly cowardly summon another chance to help him. He focused on the space near Hurk’s **** body and began the summoning.

You summoned Ju Sakuda!

The green cheongsam worn by his undead concubine was lost in the dark, but he could still make out her silhouette by the thin wash of light from above. She glanced over at him in obvious surprise and worry; despite appearing fully human, her eyes flashed in the dark like those of a cat. <W-Why have I been summoned?> She didn’t dare speak aloud; a glance at Cidi’s compromising position worried her enough to step back until she nearly stumbled over the **** body of Hurk.

“Ju, I need you to warn me if any life is approaching or nearby… you can sense these two as being alive, right?”

“I… I will try.”

Ju casts Detect Yang.
Ju senses 394,910 living creatures somewhere within one mile.
Ju senses 7 living creatures within one hundred yards.

Counting Fairy, that should only be four. Who are the other three-?

The concubine’s demeanor shifted to something… predatory. “A trio of shivering, starving souls hiding underneath the leg of this building,” Ju whispered in a monotone voice. Her eyes glowed red as she stared at the ground, or through the ground once John realized where her nature guided her. “They are all asleep… and ****.” The hungry look fell away, and Ju snapped to John as if surprised by her own report.

“That’ll… do. Just keep me posted if anyone else comes within that hundred-yard range.”

Ju only nodded and stood over Hurk’s giant, unmoving body. Feeling secured, John went ahead and healed Cidi. Her eyes fluttered open, revealing one more bit of what parted the human and the Dorani: her left eye was nearly human with a pupil that was too oval to pass, much less given the pale purple and golden iris that surrounded it. But her right eye, with an iris of pure gold, bore an X-shaped iris that pulsed, widened, and narrowed as she caught sight of John.

“You’re safe and I won’t hurt you if you do as I say,” John started.

Her long mouth closed tight enough to almost hide its nature; the human equivalent of her lips, meanwhile, flapped independently as she spoke with a strange, warbling accent. “You’re not a Lawman...” Her eyes squinted. “You’re... who are... wait, why am I naked?!”

Fairy snorted. “If he had a nickel for every time-”

“Because,” John quickly growled, “I took it upon your defeat to make sure you were unarmed.”

“Then why am I tied up in such a compromising- Miles, if that’s you, I’m going to burn you alive, you freakish bitch! Hurk! HURK-!”

John’s hand shot forward to cover the girl’s mouth. It proved too inviting a target for her rage, however, and so her whole mouth opened again to bite upon his fingers with razor-like teeth. Her entire lower jaw somehow independently turned at rapid, slight angles, turning her mouth into a grinder.

-13HP

<The three weak ones woke up and ran away…>

John jerked his hand, but it wasn’t coming loose. “Hurk’s going to be **** for at least awhile longer,” John calmly explained, “and if you don’t let go of my hand, I’ll just teleport it out and let you bite yourself, you... creepy little... fuck it!” John jumped as advised, appearing an inch to the left with his hand freed. John glanced up as a new status appeared over Cidi’s head.

Status Effect: Mildly Aroused (1 heart)

John glanced down at the naked girl who, despite her info, did her best to appear simply furious. “So,” John tried, “you know Miles?”

Cidi moved her head about, unsure of how her prey got loose despite him teleporting right in front of her. “Some trick of…? Wait, so what’s your game? You think you can buy favors turning us in? You’re wrong! Where’s my bag? You better return it unless you want to die! Do you know who I am? If you’re thinking of getting the Lawmen involved, don’t think for a second they won’t kill an imitator like you-!”

“I ‘have business with a bok-tar chewer,’” John carefully quoted, “do you know him?”

Cidi’s string of threats melted along with her angry expression into a state of stupefaction. Three beats passed before she finally stammered, “You... how do you know... about him?”

“Miles told me to tell that to anyone who came in here... though I figured that meant I wouldn’t be attacked as the first greeting.”

“Miles did... who are you?” Cidi’s expression had fallen to plain suspicion. “You’re from the high disks, aren’t you? Did you **** that information out of Miles?”

“I’m a human from Earth.”

“Hah! Fine, don’t tell me. I’ve got nothing to say to you anyways, and you’ve bitten off way more than you can chew. Listen: maybe if you let me go right now, you’ll even be allowed to live. That’s very generous of me to offer, you know.”

“I also didn’t **** anybody.”

“What?”

“I didn’t **** Miles… I saved her. I don’t **** people.” A flash of the Order dungeon- “I don’t think I ever could.”

Cidi gyrated in the web of chains with a quiet, frank stare.

“... and this isn’t **** either.”

“It’s an enhanced interrogation technique!” Fairy perkily chimed, earning a panicked glance from Cidi.

“Quiet.”

<Hah, if you want enhanced-> Juniluny began.

Quiet!

“If you’re going to hurt me, then just be done with it,” Cidi spat, “but just know you’ll pay for every bit of it.”

“I said qu- wait, not you, and no! I’m not going to do any of those things- look, I just need to find food and water, and to figure out what the Hell is going on in this ‘Vantage’ Kingdom long enough to find the nearest port towards home...” ... or find out that I ought to take the shortcut of becoming its King. The ambition as a “solution” continued to grow in John’s mind. “Help me the way Miles made it sound like you could, and I’ll gladly give you back your sack of whatever this junk is.” To prove his good word, John flourished his hand and summoned, from thin air, the giant, bulging sack of metal rods and bars.

A brief twinkle in Cidi’s eye quickly converted to naked contempt. “S-So you admit you stole that from me!”

“After you shot fire at me, sure. But I’m happy to give it back in exchange for help.” A beat. “... Besides, I’m getting the sense that you probably stole these anyways.”

Cidi snorted at that. “So you’ll let me go and give me back the treasure and not call the Lawmen or kill me… if I just give you food and find some way to get water?”

John stared down at the shivering form. “Some way…? You do have water here, right?”

“On the Plate? I mean, I know a guy…”

<Three lives are approaching rapidly… and they are strong.> Ju’s report came with her quietly approaching John enough to enter Cidi’s line of sight.

“Another one…?! And she’s looking… at… at…!” Cidi shuffled in the grip of the chains as she became more aware of just how many witnesses there were to her undressed state... and the slightest, almost fart-like noise escaped her tiny snatch as it spat a thin, quick stream of cerulean fluid right into John’s crotch. Dorani anatomy continued to confound John: while her feminine spray was the color of blueberry juice, her entire head began to blush furiously—as a human might—once she realized how her body had betrayed her. “L...” Her mouth and eyes shut in horror as her humiliation multiplied... and her pussy violently spat another shot of her feminine spray on John’s armor, this time arcing onto his chest.

“How disgusting,” Ju sighed with something like disappointment.

Fairy came by and, with no orders not to touch her own master, happily scooped up a finger’s worth of the spray. Cidi shook her head, “No, what’re you-?!”

Fairy happily lapped up the juice while staring Cidi dead in the eye. The trembling prisoner’s heart sank as Fairy finished her meal with an audible pop before muttering derisively, “… She tastes disgusting, too.”

Status Effects: ****, Very Aroused (5 hearts)

Cidi passed out in the grips of chains and pleasure as her crotch continued to spit at its offenders. John could only step back to avoid the spray as he tried to figure what had set the poor girl off. “So… was her kink just humiliation or…?”

“Oh yeah,” Fairy sighed, “I could play her like a fiddle if you want her to cooperate… also, I was kidding: her cum is weirdly tasty!”

“Master…”

John shifted from glaring at Fairy to Ju. “What is it?”

“… They’re here.”

[MM = https://youtu.be/UbQgXeY_zi4]

John followed the music to its source… and the source slammed down on the ground between him and his hostage. Miles was still all but naked, still with a prismatic inferno upon her head as she looked over the **** girl’s body… and, with a celebratory “Ho-ho-ho!” Miles undid her panties. From behind her, John was greeted first by her snatch and second by the half-hard cock that swung loose. Miles didn’t even pay John any mind; her hands leapt to explore the **** body before her. “Well, what Hurk is **** to see can’t possibly-”

Cidi regained consciousness!

“What- get off- M-Miles?! Get your filthy hands off ofooooohhh…” Cidi’s words trailed off as Miles squatted before the blue-stained slit and hastily joined her mouth to it. Miles didn’t let go until she dismounted her mouth with a wet pop and a conspicuous blue mustache. She turned to wink at John with a dirty grin before returning to service Cidi.

“Such energetic youths,” sighed an unfamiliar voice. John didn’t have time to try and process whether to help Cidi or leave Miles be; he turned to regard the second thud of a landing but cursed aloud as the second visitor’s form became apparent by the light: a humanoid only in the loosest sense, its four clawed hands were, like most of its body, covered in yellow-green scales. The chest and gut, or what qualified as such, were a mottled brown, and a flexing lizard tail trailed behind the creature as it slowly rose from its four-footed landing to stand upright on the bottom set of hands. Most disturbing was its head: like a whirlwind upon the shoulders, the flesh there was in the shape of an upside-down cone of similarly scaled flesh that constantly shifted and pulsed as if hosting some dozens of rotating, twitching bones underneath. John caught a brief glimpse of a toothy maw at the bottom of the cone; as soon as he wondered about its eyes, he found them… and then again, and again as some dozen eyes of golden sclera and prehistoric pupils greeted him from various parts of the creature’s body.

Kitok the Noisy
<The Bitter Nines>
Level 13 Spy
HP: 395/395
Status Effects: None
Qualities: None
A Jita who lost her ability to speak after watching her parents killed for minor offenses on the Plate, Kitok was fostered by the Bitter Nines into an effective, if shy, rogue and agent of subterfuge. She is also occasionally a prostitute, though few would hire a Jita for rations.

A swooping noise announced the third guest and brought John’s attention skyward. A kite of shimmering bok was his first impression of the old, winged goblin that swooped overhead, but soon John realized the creature for what it was. As he landed upon Hurk’s **** body, John took in the small details he had missed before: these flying goblins were every bit as gnarled and ugly as Kazex and the swamp goblins John had slain so many days ago, but with some distinctions: their hands came in long, wiry digits; leathery wings stretched from their underarms either side of their entire torso and some of their hips; and the slightest layer of orange fur covered the creature everywhere except in patches upon the face.

“Radioactive sugar glider” was what came to mind for John, but this particular specimen also had a few novel features John knew he hadn’t seen in the earlier examples: the webs of his gliding wings were now mostly patchwork bok of various refinements and shades of aquamarine. Wispy white hairs danced upon his chin, chipped black shorts with suspenders provided his only decency, and a large, golden bracelet covered in runes helped further differentiate this old one from those John had seen before. Underneath the peach fuzz of his skin glowed, in flashes, some manner of runic tattoos that glimmered blue, green, and white. Most striking perhaps were the pearl-like orbs affixed to the black goggles over the creature's eyes.

The minute visitor opened his mouth to reveal mostly gums before greeting, “Hello, John the Newman... and if I've been relayed the truth most curious: welcome to Vantage.”

Golgon the Fool
<The Bitter Nines>
Level 35 Runemaster
HP: 790/790
MP: 3,813/3,913
Stats: Str 12, Agi 18, End 16, Int 78, Wis 81, Cha 40, Lib 11
Status Effects: Enhanced Flight, Enhanced Sight, True Seeing
Qualities: None
An old timer and wanted criminal, Golgon is an Ootuk whose worn wings had been clipped several times and are now patchworked with bits of bok that make his flight shimmer. He was a sage and alchemist, once vaunted on the Third Plate until his illegal experiments with Violet narcotics got him banished. He has since come to regret and fight against the spread of addictive forms of his creation and now seeks to overthrow the Peak. He denounces the myth of humans and dreams of a Plate without a Peak.

"I'm... here to see-" John began.

"Yes, yes, I've surmised as such... especially in how you've spared my people." Golgon laid his braced hand on the massive soldier he stood upon. The bracelet shimmered blue; a nova of the dust flew from the body.

Golgon casts Runer: Healing Touch and heals Hurk for 1,031HP.

A low snarl filled the chamber... and Miles, with her chin dripping blue, suddenly looked up from her mewling meal.