Porn name

What does the future hold? The Exodus is ongoing and will be for generations. More ships are on their way. They have nowhere else to go.
—Anaïs Nineveh, The Exodus: A History, Chapter 8

Mel felt the knot in his stomach when he caught sight of the Ford Protoss parked outside the Cosmic Fill-Up. He hadn't made a point of memorizing the license plate number, but it was clearly a Quebec plate. As he filed into the shop with Jordan and Jenny, he heard familiar voices from Ha-Yoon's office. As he signed in, Mel tiptoed up to Ha-Yoon's office.

To see Molly hunched over her desk, eyes locked on the screen of his manager's smartphone.

She wore her leather jacket today, but underneath were jeans and a T-shirt featuring a lion face on a fleur-de-lis. Mel gave her a nervous smile as she looked up from the screen, just for a moment, and then went back to what she was looking at. Thankfully, there was no audio, but . . .

"Morning," Mel said. "Molly. Boss. What are you watching?"

"Well, we set up a camera to watch those bluebirds with a nest out front," Ha-Yoon said innocently. "So when she stopped in, I was going to show her that, but my finger slipped and hit a bookmark for another video that was shot here."

Mel's face hurt, the smile drawn too tight. It didn't reach his eyes. Ha-Yoon saw it and smiled.

"Anyway! Congratulations. You're now no longer officially a red shirt," she said. Reaching into a drawer from under her desk, she brought up a couple of blue shirts in their plastic wrapping and handed them to Mel. Molly chewed on her lip. The video must have finished because she set the smartphone down. The screen ended on an image of Mel's prick, the loaded condom dangling off the tip.

"This promotion comes with a one-step increase in pay, which will be featured in next week's automatic deposit, not this one, and you'll need to complete some additional training over the next eighteen weeks," Ha-Yoon said. "Aaaand, you get an official Cosmic Fill-Up backpack! You can put your shirts in there and keep it under the counter, but make sure to wear your new uniform tomorrow."

Mel nodded. Molly stared at him, those big brown eyes wide. Ha-Yoon simply looked smug and added: "Anyway, your first task today is grounds-cleaning. Get a bag and the grabber from the closet. Should give you two time to talk it out."

Molly followed Mel back outside. The sun was rising. Cars, trucks, and bicycles moved on the streets outside. He had a trash bag in one hand and a grabber in the other, to pick up cigarette butts, coffee cup lids, vape canisters, and all the other detritus of a living city.

"So, how have you been?" Mel asked. "Did you stop by just to talk, or—"

"Why did you let an alien bug woman suck your thing!?" Molly blurted out.

"Well, she asked politely. My girlfriend approved of it. And my boss was weirdly excited about the whole thing. I guess it was easier to go through with it than it would have been to say no," Mel admitted.

"You got peer-pressured into . . . into . . . fellatio?" Molly said, slightly aghast.

The knot in Mel's stomach twisted a little. He could hear the disbelief and weird fascination in her voice. The only thing that helped was that Molly didn't sound hurt.

"I didn't really think of it in those terms at the time," Mel said. "It was more like . . . when I moved into that apartment, I had no sexual experience. Being with Jordan, and then Jenny and Rachel and the rest, has pushed my understanding of what sex is, introduced me to new experiences. Not everything I'd want to do twice, but expanding my horizons a bit. At the time, it felt like I was doing what everyone wanted me to do. It made them happy, and it felt pretty good."

"Would you do it again?" Molly asked.

"If my girlfriends asked me to? Probably," Mel admitted. "I mean, it's not like things aren't mutual. They're very . . . accommodating."

They had rounded the corner, and Molly caught sight of the mural. Her eyes widened.

"Wow. I had no idea this was here," she said.

"It was just made the other day; a Rhizomat came by," Mel said, and held up the grabber to use as a pointer. "You can see Jordan, Jenny, and Rachel—"

His voice died out as he realized that the artistically rendered figures of his girlfriends were very naked.

"Why are those sluts in an alien mural on a fill-up station?" Molly said, her brow furrowed.

Which required Mel to explain a little about meeting Detective MacElroy, the interviews she had set up with other extraterrestrials, and the dreamsinging with the Rhizomat. The young Black woman stared at him as he talked and picked up trash, with mingled fascination and disbelief. As they rounded the corner, she seemed to be struggling with her calm.

". . . and it was MacElroy that introduced us to our new roommate, Béibhinn. I don't think you've met her yet, but she's a ghola. Jordan and Jenny had pretty much moved into my room, so . . ."

"Are you sexing her too!?" Molly's voice rose in pitch and volume. Mel winced instinctively.

"Uh. I wasn't, but the girlfriends discussed it and decided it was best to organize things by setting up a list of approved friends-with-benefits. So we engaged in oral sex the other night. Gholas are related to brain slugs, and they need semen, too."

Molly's shoulders fell. Her mouth was a tight line. Mel couldn't tell if she was about to yell at him or cry. Yet her next question surprised him.

"You said 'and the rest,'" Molly said. "Who else have you had sex with?"

"I've helped out a few brain slugs, and you've seen the video with Two-Clicks. Béibhinn. I felt the breasts of a Greyan named Ganymede, and Aloa, an Electrovore, did a thing where she drank some of my neural electricity and triggered the pleasure center in my brain," Mel said, counting down various things. "And, um, Amelia gave me a titjob."

Mel couldn't tell how embarrassed he was supposed to be about all this. He hadn't had a sister for long, and while he sensed this wasn't stuff you were supposed to talk about with a sibling, he had promised to be honest with her about sex stuff.

Molly's eyes narrowed.

"Who is Amelia?" she asked.

"She's a regular customer at the Cosmic Fill-Up," he said. "I met her when she was pregnant; we got to chatting. Then one day she went into labor, and there was a traffic jam. So I had to help her give birth. It turns out she's an orphan like me. She kept coming by after giving birth, and she joked about giving me a bowjob, but I didn't think she was serious. Amelia's been really lonely and needed more material for her stream, so she asked Jordan, and Jordan thought I should help her out, so we went over for dinner the other night, and I did."

Molly chewed her cheeks, and for a moment Mel was struck with an overwhelming sense of familiarity. It reminded him of his own habit to do that.

"I don't know if Jordan is your girlfriend or your pimp," Molly said. "Because it really sounds like they're exploiting you. Why do you keep going with whatever these women tell you to do? Don't you want to do anything for yourself?"

Mel rested the grabber on his shoulder.

"Molly—yes, I could have said no. Maybe there are a lot of times when I should have said no. But I need you to think about my situation," he said. "I've got less than a thousand in the bank. I don't have parents paying my way through university. I have to live with these people and—as weird as it may be to say this—I care for them, and I think they care for me. If they're exploiting me, I don't mind so much because I feel like I'm giving people what they need. Brain slugs that need cum to thrive and heal, a K'lur'k who wanted nothing more than to live out a human porn scenario, and a lonely young single mother who needs adult friends. I've never gotten a blowjob from anybody who hasn't wanted it. Never touched someone who didn't completely consent to it. While this might sound weird, so far it's been working for me and—I'm happy being used if it helps other people."

The hug was sudden, fierce, and unexpected. Molly pressed her cheek into his chest, her breasts crushed against Mel's stomach, and without knowing what else to do, he wrapped the arm with the grabber around her and hugged her back.

"I'm not trying to judge your life. I know you're trying to help other people, I just . . . I don't know how to help you," she said, and the voice was almost a sob.

"You've already helped me," he said. "I'd given up hope of ever having a family. Even if the test results show we're not—"

Molly sniffed.

"I got the results back from the cheek swab," she said. "Confirmed the results. We share one parent. You are my little brother."

Mel's heart throbbed. For a moment, he clutched her harder, and his vision grew blurry.

"Wow," he said, voice weirdly choked.

She sniffed again. Molly lifted up her shirt, exposing a soft brown belly as she wiped at her eyes. Mel's sister looked up at him and smiled.

"I kind of get why you were reluctant to talk about your sex life with me before," she said. Then she crinkled her nose. "I can't believe I've seen my brother's dick. But thanks for being honest with me."

"Always," Mel said. "We still set for dinner with your mom tomorrow night?"

Molly nodded.

"I'll pick you up here. I have to warn you, I might be a little emotional. There are some things I have to ask her." She paused. "And I'm not saying to lie to her, but maybe don't lead with the fact that you're in a polycule with a list of approved sex friends. I'm not sure how ma mère would respond to that."

"Of course," Mel said.

Jordan and Jenny were behind the counter as Mel walked back in, leaving Molly at her car. Tomie was working the swifter. Ha-Yoon sent him to inventory the beer in the cooler, and he was glad to see the sobriety chip still in her hand as she directed him to get the key from under the front counter. She was still smirking, as if her plan to get Mel into Molly's pants was proceeding smoothly, and he did not want to talk about that.

They were seated at lunch when Amelia came in, Li'l Mel still in his sash-carrier. She wore tight jeans that came up to just under her stomach, which was poking out a little beneath the hoodie, but Mel did his best not to notice. Jordan and Jenny immediately made room at the table so that Amelia could sit down. The young woman hesitated only a moment before she did.

Mel remembered how wary she had been of the brain slugs only a few short weeks ago, not wanting to even deal with them as cashiers. Now here she was sitting at a table with two of them. He smiled at that, and Jordan elbowed Mel softly in the ribs and nodded at Amelia. Mel sign-spelled out F-O-B, and the brain slug host nodded.

"Hey," Amelia said. "What's all that?"

"Sorry," Mel said. "I think Jordan wants me to tell you—the girls and I had a discussion and came to a decision. You know how the four of us are together, right?"

Amelia nodded. There was a yawn, and immediately the zipper came down and a brown nipple plugged a small, hungry mouth. Mel carefully kept his eyes on her face.

"Right. I asked for permission for the recording," the young mother said.

"And you know I've done—stuff with some other brain slug hosts, right? Oral sex. Because they need semen. Part of their biology. We agreed that we should have a list of pre-approved sex partners outside of the relationship. Always with safe sex, but people that we can interact with that we trust," Mel said. "And we'd like you to be one of them. Jordan, Jenny, and Rachel all agreed."

The young mother's jaw didn't quite drop, yet her eyes widened. Her mouth did a thing where the corners lifted and fell, as if she wasn't sure whether she was happy or upset. Eventually, she leaned over the table, careful not to crush the baby.

"Let me get this straight. You want me to—call you up when I need a stunt dick for a video, or if my mouth is lonely and I need a blowjob?" Amelia whispered.

Mel blinked. "Uh. I think it also counts if you want any of us to eat you out or something? If you want."

Amelia nodded slowly. "I don't suppose you'd be willing to help with childcare?"

Mel blinked again; he glanced at his girlfriends. Jordan and Jenny each held up a hand in a thumb's up.

"I mean, I've never babysat before, but if I'm not working or going to class, I could help out. Friends do that, right?"

"Yes. Absolutely. That is completely correct," Amelia said with a cat-like smile as she leaned back. "I would absolutely trade a blowjob for babysitting. Or let one of your girlfriends sit on my face. I am on board with this. I am excited. Panties are wet."

He could not tell at the moment if Amelia was serious, but her smile was positively giddy.

"By the way, I'm almost done editing the video. Goes up tonight," Amelia said. "I'm still trying to think up a porn name for you."

"Porn name?" Mel repeated.

"Porn isn't just about the sex on screen," Amelia said. "It's about the people having sex on screen. It's characters, narrative. That's what turns anonymous titfucking into erotic art. Storytelling."

"Okay," Mel said, not sure what else to say to that.