First Wave Completed

John woke up to the manic attempts of a woman trying to get his cock into her resisting throat. “Layla,” he groaned and put his hand on the back of her head. “Focus on the head. You’ll have plenty of time to learn how to deepthroat later.”

The agreeing hum tickled the sensitive nerves on the upper end of his shaft, making the Gamer groan. Applying the techniques from the book masterfully, Layla managed to bring him to orgasm in just two minutes.

That first load of the day was thrice as sweet as usual. One amplifying factor was that it was Layla’s first time sucking him off and she gulped down his cum like a woman starved, climaxing loudly all the while. A second amplifying factor was that he had now finished breeding the first wave of his harem. Before he had fallen asleep last night, he had checked and the seed had, expectedly, taken in all three of them.

He had taken all the Ls and ever felt better for it.

‘Well, far from actually all the Ls,’ John thought as he put his contact lenses in. Lyndell languidly rose from her own slumber, showing just the most adorable look on her face. Lydia yawned and stretched, similarly stirred awake by Layla’s insistent sucking. Lu Zhi was another haremette who fit the category, though she wasn’t present. ‘Many more Ls to take in the future.’

The safety was back on. He had made sure of that while Aclysia had switched out the cum-stained sheets. Certainly, the three of them could have slept alone in the bed that night, but robbing Layla of the experience of the whole harem sleeping together felt just wrong.

“I am in heaven,” the brunette swooned between bobs of her head.

“Heaven means sharin’, hon,” Hailey cooed. Moments later, John was being treated to two, then three tongues on his cock. Nightingale could not resist the opportunity to join in.

After the harpy tradition of sharing a load with a new woman was observed and after the morning went through the typical routine of orgy into shower into breakfast, they all convened on the Couch for their typical meeting. It was fortunate that the piece of furniture could reshape itself so seamlessly. Without that boon, it would now have been cramped.

Well, it was cramped all the same. If it hadn’t been for the magical air conditioning, the body temperature and sweating of all of these bodies likely would have turned the room into a humid hell quite quickly. It wasn’t that it was small, just that there were a lot of them.

Good thing that an expansion was set to occur in 3 days anyhow.

“Time for Perk selection,” John declared.

“Before that!” Jane interrupted. “I wanna say a few words.”

With a raised eyebrow, the Gamer motioned for his first wife to continue.

“Ehem…” Standing, the Empress of Fusion cleared her throat. “When this whole harem started, in the back of a bus rolling through Springfield, I thought it’d just be hot. Share my guy with other women for a bit, settle down with him if it doesn’t work, enjoy having a harem with him if it does. I can’t even claim to have thought that far ahead at the time, but, ya know, I used my brain between being horny.”

That got a few chuckles out of the crowd.

“There’s many girls here now that haven’t heard the stories or, at least, haven’t been there. Our Imperial Choir wasn’t always this harmonious thing. At the start, it was just about sex. Gaia, I was pissed when I first learned he had caught feelings for another woman. I made him write a list ranking us from most to least favourite. That was a total mistake, the biggest one in all of this. I made the harem about him in that moment, like this group hinges exclusively on how we rank in his eyes on any given day. It was unfair to everyone involved. To John because I put him on the spot and to all the women because I made them feel lesser. It was even unfair to the concept of this harem itself.”

Undine quietly kept her gaze lowered, sulking in shame of her past deeds. The feline LIghtbearer pulled her out of that immediately.

“With that context, what Undine did at that time was a justified reaction. Well, I ain’t claiming it was entirely healthy, but I get why ya felt that way and ya really don’t have to hang onto it.”

“It is heavy baggage.”

“Ja, but we forgave ya.” Jane winked, then continued on with her speech, “That was the low-point of the harem. After that it’s been… just a string of dreamy events. Yeah, sure, sometimes some of ya get on my nerves and sometimes I get on yours, but it’s been just… we’re together. Through councils on how to make this work and regular meetings of just us girls talking to each other, we have achieved this bisexual piece of heaven. We’re not just friends or lovers, we’re a family and that’s never been clearer than today. Eliana, Nathalia, Aclysia, Nahoa, Lee, Lorelei and Layla, can ya stand up for me?”

The seven pregnant women did, rising to their feet with smiles and blushes on their faces. Eliana was, somehow, the least bashful, proudly presenting a naked belly that showed no signs of curving yet. Nathalia, on the other hand, twirled a lock of orange hair around her finger while avoiding everyone’s gazes. Aclysia stood in dutiful glee, Nahoa posed for the gathered harem, Lee squirmed and grinned, Lorelei had her trembling hands folded before her waist, and Layla just giggled.

“It’s really, really, really rare and, I admit, weird, to be a woman to say this,” Jane continued. “But its true all the same. I am so happy for y’all and I hope you give birth to strong, gorgeous children. I hope that those half-siblings of my own future kids will see me as their mother as well… and I… can’t wait… to… Dang it!” Jane had lost the battle against her rising tears, wiping away the trails in a futile effort to make them go away. “I can’t wait to be a family with all of you! Let’s give our mothers a big round of applause!”

Still crying, Jane clapped her hands together. Everyone else followed quickly, deepening the blush on the expecting seven’s faces. The cheering continued for a while. Even Scarlett couldn’t be cynical enough to not feel jovial in that moment. Even Lyndell was not forlorn enough to suppress a smile.

It ended only when the sobbing first of the harem dropped into John’s lap. He received her with hugs and kisses. “Great speech,” he whispered to her.

“I… know…!” Jane tried her hand at humour, but the infrequent chokes robbed her of the delivery. John chuckled all the same.

“Alright then…” The Gamer stroked the back of his lady love’s hair and looked around the room. “…3 more Perks. Everyone ready?”

“Another matter, if I may,” Lorelei said. “I request that my restrictions on pleasure be lifted for the duration of my pregnancy. I want to associate this time with nothing but delight.”

With anyone outside his harem, John would have been worried this would cause an intense need to breed to develop. Lorelei both was angling for seven children already and, if anyone of his gaggle of nymphomanics could be said to, she had control over her urges. That the belt had not automatically deactivated meant that she was fine with whichever choice he made. “I will grant this,” he said, magnanimously, flipping the mental switch.

The Conductor’s Authority loosened. Lorelei pushed the metal ring that she had been wearing for several months now over the width of her hips. Courtesy of its enchantments, it hadn’t left a mark. Her skin was as unblemished as ever.

“Now onto the Perks?” John asked. No further interruption was triggered, therefore he pressed the buttons needed.

Experience of Conception was overkill. It was between Absolute Certainty and Blessing of the First Year and, just to have that peace of mind, the former seemed the much better option. There were medical solutions to basically all things these days, his infants would be fine, but if he wasn’t able to knock up Lyndell or anyone else with a unique biology, that would be a small piece of his soul dying.

Therefore, without anyone disagreeing, he picked the middle option.

As per usual, once they got into the second half of a Class, they got into the juicy stuff.

“Not a fan of Founder,” he voiced his thoughts. “That’s just… too much.”

Eliana agreed with a deep nod. “A father should be able to let go of control.”

“Right… and that’s why Father tempts me… but we should also be realistic.” John looked at the middle option. “I hate to say it, but having children is somewhat like playing the lottery. The chances that there’ll be someone, eventually, that turns out, against all our best efforts, to be… of the villainous sort…” That was the best way he could put that. “…are basically 100%.”

The idea displeased his women, the pregnant ones especially, but they saw where he was coming from. Always, the future was a mess that could not be predicted. Anything could happen. It could be that one of Nathalia’s children inherited her aggressive tendencies and John’s pride and nothing else. It could be that a future Latebloomer managed to invade their nursery, steal several children, and raise them in the way of evil. It wasn’t nice to consider things that were outside their control, but it could happen and something, eventually, would.

Founder was taking it too far. Father was taking from him a power that was useful to have. Patriarch granted him a lever. Right now, this would only affect Delicia’s extra Stats Perk, but the implication of these was that he would get something related soon. These were the tone-setters for what came after.

“I will go with Patriarch,” John made his choice. “It’ll at least give me some lever to showcase my disapproval of certain lifestyles.”

And there they were.

All of the girls were reading the windows that the Harem Comms put in front of them.

John ran his own analysis. Inheritance was thematically satisfying, Potential was the neutral choice, and Nobility allowed for control. Though the earlier argument about letting go of one’s children being part of parenthood still stood, it did not really reflect on choosing their starting position. In John’s opinion, that was.

Innately, it drew him to Inheritance. It just fit with his mind that his lineages would be affected by the mother. The Abyss was so confusing with Innate Abilities being somewhat but not really inheritable. It displeased his pattern recognition!

Potential was still good though. It was just a bit dull, in his opinion.

Nobility was a bit too far in the other direction. In a vacuum, he would have liked this one, but compared to Inheritance it just wasn’t as good.

Just looking around his harem let him know that there was a generally split opinion on this matter. Women mumbled little arguments between each other that were gradually folded into a louder and harem-enveloping discussion. To keep things orderly, Momo clapped her hands. “Oy! Listen up!” the fairy maid declared. “Let’s just split into camps real quick and have one of each talk, otherwise this will take forever. Inheritance preference goes to the left, Potential to the middle, Nobility to the right.”

The women shifted around according to the instructions given. John, meanwhile, stood up and positioned himself outside this entire sorting. He had his opinion, but he didn’t want to tilt that of the others, especially the more approval-seeking ones, by making it known immediately. He even warded against a prod by Claire to draw that intel out of him.

On the Inheritance side were: Aclysia, Nathalia, Gnome, Salamander, Undine, Sylph, Siena, Metra, Lorelei and Moira, for a total of 10 out of the 27 marked harem members.

On the Potential side were: Jane, Eliana, Lee, Delicia, Hailey, Nahoa and Lyndell. 7 out of the 27.

On the Nobility side were: Nia, Lydia, Scarlett, Beatrice, Nightingale, Claire, Ehtra, Fianna and Layla- 9 out of 27.

Momo abstained.

“Someone should-“ John began.

“Already asked her,” Scarlett interrupted him. “Lu Zhi throws her lot in with Nobility.”

“So, two factions at ten votes each,” Momo summarized the situation. “Do the Potentials feel like they can convince enough of the others or are you going to throw your lot in with another faction?”

“One sec,” Jane said, leading an internal discussion. It didn’t take long for those seven women to come to the conclusion that it was mathematically unfeasible for them to get this done. Of their number, Jane, Eliana, Lee, Delicia and Hailey then moved onto the Inheritance faction, while Nahoa and Lyndell moved to Nobility.

‘Interesting,’ John observed. He could intuit why they had made that switch. For the other five, their motivation was to maximize the freedom of the child. For those two, it was to make sure their own Innate Ability, a mark of a troubled lineage, was not passed on in too pure a form.

The votes were now 15 to 12, which was a narrow margin. “Choose your speaker and bring your points forward,” Momo directed.

For the Inheritance faction, Lydia was the one chosen to present their view. On the Nobility side, Nightingale stepped forward.

“I’ll give the floor to Gale first,” Momo stated.

“Beloved sisters,” the harpy began swiftly, “I sense your misgivings with such control over our progeny. It is the joy of parents to watch their children grow into being strong and able in their own right. Though Inheritance will guarantee them many strengths, it does not guarantee them usefulness. As parents we have a duty not just to let go. We also have a duty to prepare them to the utmost. Thus, Nobility will provide us the tools to assure this. That is our case.”

“A splendid argument,” Lydia agreed. “Yet, I am not swayed by it. Our considerations of usefulness will not always be accurate. If we are to prevent an unorthodox power from developing, we potentially deprive the world of the next magical breakthrough. Inheritance provides us with assurances that our children’s powers fall within predictable frames, but can develop uniquely therein.”

The two sides looked at each other. No one was switching camps.

John would have liked a more definitive outcome, but with what he had before him and with what he felt was right, the choice to be made was clear. “I will pick Inheritance,” he said.

“If that is how it must be,” Lyndell acquiesced.

John pressed the button before he could be made to hesitate by the pouting. “At least the window confirms that these Perks usually apply retroactively,” he said, with a clear look at Eliana. “That assuages some worries, I hope?”

The blood mage smiled motherly and said, “It really fudging does.”