The Pirate and The Wish, Part 2: True Resurrection is a Hell of a

Alexandra Stormdotter

Alex has been having a crazy day. Dragons are real and at least the one she met has a rad taste in music, at least for a world without guitars. There is a super hot sea elf princess stalked by fantasy paparazzi and connected to why she’s here, somehow. Bunny-girls are also real; the tits on that blonde one that suckered Megaballista into helping her make a video of some sort are spectacular, even if she insists that an aileron roll is a barrel roll. This monastery is devoted to some naked purple lady. And there, in a sitting area in the monastery’s main hall is her fiancé (whom she can now remember), her fiancé’s parents (who she could have remembered when she woke up here, if she thought to), and a 6-breasted tiger-girl in bikini armor.

“Uh, hi, Mr. and Mrs. Smythe. I haven’t seen you in a month. Weird running into you three here. B-T-Dubs, what the fuck happened to you, Scar? You look like a sexy cosplay of The Object from the Fenomenal Four.”

Alex blinks, then she is in one of Scarlet’s patent pending **** grip hugs. Scarlet is very, very warm; tears are literally evaporating as they are shed. Her fiancé is talking like a crackling campfire. Scarlet’s parents join in as soon as they get over the shock to run over. The hug lasts to the point where Alex almost starts to black out.

Scarlet lets go long enough to let Alex breathe and cry, “I missed you so much!”

“What are you talking about, Scar? I called you just last night. We are only supposed to be separated until the end of Winter Break, then you and me and Heidi are supposed to…”

Both Scarlet and her Dad curse synchronously, “Fuck Heidi.”

Whoa. I know those two don’t get along great without me, but Mr. Smythe saying that? Something is off. Mrs. Smythe is the more reasonable of Scarlet’s parents. She asks, “Sweetheart, what is the last thing you remember?”

“I got home to tell Dad that I proposed to my girlfriends. Everything after walking in the front door is... fuzzy.”

Scarlet’s Dad is on the verge of tears. I totally am going to tease him about that. Then Alex regrets that thought when he says, “Sweetie, that was about six years ago in a different dimension. Have a seat. A lot has happened.”

Alex sees it, at least in Scarlet. Somehow, Scarlet’s parents look exactly the same as she remembers over Thanksgiving break. Scarlet looks a little older, once Alex focuses off of the rock-girl thing. And the looks in their eyes. Alex allows herself to be led to sit, Scarlet holding her hand beside her.

They explain what they can, though a lot of it doesn’t make sense. Her **** about 6 years ago (I was murdered?!?!?). The trial. The execution. The breakup during her funeral (The bitch!). The cancer diagnosis (Poor Mrs. Smythe...). The economic impact of that (Poor Mr. Smythe...). Her fiancé becoming a stripper to pay for grad school (Oh, poor Scarlet...). The interdimensional porn game **** (Wha?!?!?!?). Her fiancé falling in love with both a human man turned sea elf woman AND a mermaid (Mermaids are real?). Her fiancé using magic to cure cancer and bring the elder Smythes here (That’s my girl!). Her fiancé becoming a creature from myth (That’s my girl?). Her fiancé winning the porn game (That’s my girl!), where she is metaphysically bound to said sea elf woman (Wha?!?!?!?), and then using the wish to bring her back to life. The roller coaster of emotions makes Alex’s head spin.

“What now? What does that mean for us? I mean, this is A LOT for me to process, Scar. I still love you with all my heart. But…”

Scarlet squeezes Alex’s hand, her grip like a hand warmer in a jacket pocket on a cold January morning. “If it was just up to me, I’d have Harper swap in for Heidi and we just keep going as we were. I still love you, Alex, and I always will. But, it isn’t just up to me. It’s up to you and Harper and Daphne, too. The joys of being in a polycule.”

Wait... Did Scarlet say the magic P-word? Scarlet said the magic P-word! “Wait, my sweet little Scar is in a full-blown polycule? I had such a bother getting you into a throuple and you are in a polycule? Who’s Harper? Who’s Daphne? Are they nice? Are they as hot as me? Who else is in it? Dish, girl!”

Scarlet looks like she feels like she made a mistake. “Ah, Alex, the polycule consists just of the girls in Harper’s harem. Three other harem members are here right now: Nyadia, who you noticed coming in; Tina, who is filming for her Insta-Thot influencer gig somewhere; and Skye, who is somewhere spending some time with her mom. Harper is going to teleport here before the festival. It’s supposed to be my night with her tonight.”

“Okay, so assuming Harper is the hot sea elf girl Megaballista showed me, I approve. Nyadia over there is also super hot. Tina a blonde bunny girl? If so, super cute, but gave me some attitude.”

“Wait, yeah, I guess Tina would not like you at first glance. She has a bit of an irrational need to be the biggest breasted woman in the room. Did Megaballista fly you to town first or…?”

Alex thrusts out her E-cups. Scarlet follows them. Still got it! “Oh, no. Internet image search. At the time, I really only noticed you and Harper, though Megaballista typed some nonsense instead of Harper, followed by ‘and sluts,’ which felt kinda mean.”

“The nonsense would be Elvish, in all likelihood.”

Squee! Fantasy languages exist here! I’m going to have so much fun! “Say something sexy to me in Elvish!”

Scarlet says something in what sounds like a language to Alex’s trained linguist ear. I have no idea what Scarlet said yet, but fuck, hawt!

“You are taking this rather well, I must say,” Mrs. Smythe notes.

“Well, my fiancé loves me so much she literally wished me back from the dead, I am totally getting to join a polycule of probably all hotties, and how many linguists in training get to study languages from another world? All in all, I am excited for this adventure. Aren’t you, Mrs. Smythe?”

Scarlet’s Dad is laughing, like Alex told a hilarious joke. “Oh, to be that young again.”

Scarlet squeezes Alex’s hand again. Alex squeezes back, wishing her fiancé would just kiss her already.

Harper

Harper is dressing up for the festival tonight, or, at least for the parts of the festival she can be dressed for. Skye promised that she would stay far enough away that in the public portion so Harper could stay respectable. Harper is worried about that, but her time on the show taught her, among other things, how to quickly dress and undress using her inventory.

Most of her companions are traveling at the moment. A couple are still here at the castle. Josie has thrown herself into getting her gym setup and has already texted good night to everyone. That leaves just Harper’s beloved mermaid, “You sure you don’t want to come with me tonight, Daph?”

“I’m sure, Beloved. I don’t like others teleporting me. Besides, Scarlet said she wanted you to herself tonight. We’ll have some fun together tomorrow night! I found some cool stuff in the docks!”

Harper leans in to take a kiss, then says, “Looking forward to that then. I guess I should be going.”

A little magic, and Harper is beside Scarlet in a box seat suite high up on the edge of the canopy of the monastery’s grove. The place is packed, standing room only below. She sees Tina posing on stage, hamming it up as her bonny bunny is wont to do. A couple of boxes down are Scarlet’s parents, Kimiko, Skye, and Nyadia.

The sea elf doesn’t finish catching her breath before an unfamiliar voice exclaims, “Wow, real magic! Eeeeh! Also, the Internet of this world does not do you justice, girl. Love your hair.”

Harper turns around, and there she is. A face that looks like a living version of the NPC zombie of Scarlet’s challenge. Curvy figure with large breasts. A little taller than Scarlet, but a little shorter than Harper. Black hair in Viking braids (with a couple of platinum blonde streaks), ash grey eyes, smokey eye make-up on point, ruby red lips, tight black T-shirt with some strategic slashes to show some midriff, tartan skirt that goes about mid-thigh, fishnet stockings, calf-high combat boots.

Once the shock wears off, Harper asks, mind spinning about the implications, “Alex, is it?”

Her laugh is a bit infectious. Scarlet speaks up, “Harper, this is my first true love, Alexandra Stormdotter. Alex, this is another one of my true loves and my Mistress, Tyalangan, Crown Princess of Nimlith Grove.”

“A pleasure to meet you, Alex.”

“Yeah, you too, Princess.”

The band starts to play and Alex hops into the seat between them. Little presumptuous, isn’t she? The Wailing Lutenists of Avernus start the opening riffs for “Lament of the Rotting Herald.” Both Alex and Scarlet light up; Scarlet is apparently a bit of a metal head and Alex was the one to introduce her to it. Harper smiles, too. This is going to be a hard conversation tonight. Let them have this moment together.

While the lead singer goes on about something before starting the second song, Harper whispers in Aquan, “<I’m happy for you, Scarlet, but we are going to need to talk about this. I’m going to check on the others. Enjoy the concert. I’ll be back.>”

Harper gets up to do exactly that, when Scarlet crackles back, “<Are you feeling okay, love?>”

“<Of course. Just thinking you two need this more than you need me here right now. And Skye is going to be so disappointed if I don’t give her some time tonight. You understand, right?>”

“<Yeah, love. Go give your wife a kiss. We’ll be here waiting for your return.>”

Harper shunts her clothes into her inventory and teleports over to the other box seats.

Tina

Tina makes it to the box seats just in time to see Harper teleport in right by her wife. Tina smiles; she’s been missing Harper these last few days, too.

“My lady love, you made it!” The people in the box seats booth could barely hear Skye over the band, but barely hearing her was enough.

Skye has wrapped her arms around Harper’s waist and nuzzles into her wife’s wedding scar. Harper, for her part, kisses the crown of Skye’s head and exclaims, “I promised I would, didn’t I?”

“Where’s my scotch?” New Dad asks, somewhere between teasing and something darker. Harper manifests a bottle from her inventory and hands it to Shaemus. New Dad chuckles, noting, “Good. You didn’t forget.”

“Pops, I only got a few bottles left. You try the mushroom wine yet? It’s a pretty okay substitute. Mrs. Smythe and Mrs. Kimura, nice to see both of you again. Tina, Nyadia, Skye, how’d the road treat you?”

Skye looks up, still not having let go from the hug, “Oh, the trip was picturesque, my lady love. The farmlands we passed to get to the Mithrilwood Gate are already recovering and the seashore beyond it was nice. And this monastery is so wonderful. Thank you for letting us come. We are going to come here more often right?”

“Don’t let the Drow District temple high priestess hear you say that, Skye. She’d think you didn’t want to go see her, talking like that.” The smirk on Harper’s face as she teases Skye is pretty telling. Skye still sputters a bit and then gets another kiss, this time on the forehead.

Tina makes her presence known with that, “Hey, cuties, was I great on stage or what!”

Harper beckons Tina to join the Skye hug, which Tina is happy to accept. “You looked good up there, my bonny bunny.” Tina gets a kiss and an ear scritch, which are both appreciated. “Nyadia, did you want to join the group hug or are you good over there?”

The lazzorkat saunters over and presses her breasts into Harper’s bare back. “I feel safe here, Harper. I would not mind making the journey here every once in a while.”

“It’s not too far out of the way. I’m sure we’ll be back. And we do have the temple in the Drow District, once we get it rebuilt.”

New Mom looks irritated, “Are all of you a part of this weird sex cult? It’s bad enough that Shaemus joined in.”

Tina can feel Nyadia’s rumbling growl through Harper. Tina feels compelled to speak up before she loses her New Mom, “Hey, Mrs. Smythe, the weird sex cult isn’t that bad. I mean, The Lady gave me witchy powers, gave Nyadia paladin powers, made Skye a champion, and saved Harper’s life in the game. Least we can do is play nice.”

“Plus saving both of you from the Reaper Division,” Harper adds, “ask Mattie about what those guys do to magic recipients when we get you to the castle.” Skye’s mom shudders at the mention of the mean army guys. I agree.

Skye looks a little darker purple, so the hug finally breaks apart.

“Harper, a word,” New Dad asks, heading out the box seats. Harper follows. Tina hops into a seat and grabs some snacks. Time to enjoy the concert! Whoo!

Shaemus

Once Harper is far enough down the hall, she re-equips her clothes from her inventory. She leans against the wall, sword hand on the pommel of her blade. Shaemus leans against the other wall of the hall and tries his best intimidating glare. Harper is utterly immune to it.

He tries a distraction to start the conversation, “Is it weird that the monastery is throwing this world’s equivalent to a heavy metal concert as a worship activity?”

Harper snorts, “Weirder than blowjobs and strippers? Eilistraee is a goddess of the arts. And she likes the lute. That’s not what either of us want to talk about, Pops. You wanna start this or do you want me to?”

Shaemus tries to loom over Harper. She doesn’t flinch. “Look, what are your intentions now? If you hurt either of my girls, we are going to have a problem. A big problem.”

She looks hurt, a tear welling up, but not shed. “Pops, you think that poorly of me? I’m happy that Scarlet was able to reverse whatever tragedy took Alex from all of you. The lot of us will work it out. I have no intention to interfere with their relationship more than what the game results demand, even if that means I’m relegated to a third wheel.”

Oh. Poor girl’s worried that Scarlet loves Alex more than her and just too stubborn to admit it. “Hey, Harper, my daughter loves you, okay?”

“I know.”

“And she isn’t going to abandon you just ‘cause Alex is back.”

“I know.”

“So, what’s the deal, Harper?”

“Pops, I am in charge of ten other souls; they all die without me. It’s a heavy thing, that. And it is still so new to me. We survived the game; now, we need to figure out how to live together after the fact and I don’t know what I doing.”

“You don’t do it alone. You’re a team, all of you. You need them to help. So, let them.”

Harper rolls her eyes, but looks grateful. Sometimes, they just need to be reminded of what they already know. “Thanks, Pops. Time to work it out.”

Scarlet

Alex is having a good time and it’s great to have her back, but I’m worried about Harper. She still hasn’t shown back up and WLA just finished their second encore.

“Hey, Scar, what now? Naked purple goddess gonna pop up and say ‘Hi’?”

Alex laughs as she points to the floating silvery words as they manifest. Scarlet translates, “‘I mean, I could, but Harper made dinner for you two. If you’re really good, I might give you a goodnight head pat.’ No head pats, Eilistraee. Not after last time.”

“What happened last time?”

“She made Tina forget English until she figured out she was speaking Elvish.” Alex, thinking that was a joke, just laughs.

The two of them enter the guest room the monastery has provided for the evening. Inside, it smells amazing. Harper made pizza. A real pizza. Scarlet picks up a slice. The undercarriage is perfect. The cheese, divine; Harper figured out how to cut past the extra sweetness of hu-cow cheese. The sauce is something like pesto, but Harper still has that tomato intolerance. A solid 10 out of 12. Alex drools and rubs her hands as she finds a seat. Harper made a salad too and is serving herself a good portion of it, with a steak of some sort.

“<You okay, Harper?>” Scarlet crackles in Ignan.

“Okay, that has to be a strange language, Scar. Wanna clue a girl in?”

“Ignan, the Primordial dialect of fire elementals. I know the water elemental dialect. Sit, eat. We need to talk.”

Dinner is good, if a little tense. Harper is a bundle of nerves; she looks like she’s trying her best to hold it together. Scarlet wants to give her a massage, but is holding back. Alex cuts through the tension once the meal is mostly done, “Soooo, how are we wanting to play this?”

Harper tries to smile and somewhat succeeds. “Two ways I see this working. While we all agreed to be open only within the harem, I think no one will be offended if you are made exceptions to the rule, given everything. I find you work in the castle and the two of you can be together. But, it would only be the two of you. Scarlet can continue on with the rest of the harem as she is right now. You two can work out whatever ‘open relationship’ rules you need for Alex.”

“Bullshit! I’m not going to be a second-class girlfriend or anything like that.” Alex growls. Scarlet feels the anger. Frankly, she’s feeling it too. I get that Harper is trying to compromise with the rules we’ve already all agreed to, but still...

“The other option needs careful consideration. I would ask that you try the first way first, at least long enough for the others to get to know you. Once you commit to the second way, there is no turning back.”

She can’t be seriously...

Harper sees the look in Scarlet’s eyes, the flames crackling on her cheeks. She interprets it correctly. Alex asks, “And what is this second way?”

“One of my companions, Josie, has a transformation called Pack Tactics. It allows her to bring new people into the harem. If you qualify for it, and you truly want to join, we can talk with everyone to bring you in. It will require submitting to being changed and permanently binding your soul to mine. You’ll be under the same constraints as Scarlet. You’d be fully part of the family, though. Take the time you need to think about it, okay?”

“So, you’d let me in the polycule? I wouldn’t just be Scar’s side piece?”

Harper nods and looks at Scarlet. Scarlet adds, “You would never be just my side piece, Alex. We are going to get married as soon as you are ready. But, as much as I want to be with you, I don’t want you hopping into the whole harem thing without a lot of thought.”

“Seriously, gals, you’re acting like this is a fate worse than **** here. How bad can this ‘being in a harem thing’ actually be?”

Harper looks to Scarlet and asks a question in Elvish, “<Do you two need to watch the season? I can go shack up with the others tonight, swap some places around on the schedule.>”

Scarlet translates, much to Harper’s visible chagrin. “Harper asked me if we need to watch the season together. Since she doesn’t want to relive it right now, she’d need to reschedule our private time to accommodate us. I think we need to reschedule regardless. I don’t want to have sex in front of Alex like that. And, I’d want her to watch before she commits.”

Alex looks confused. Harper nods her head, “You two enjoy the rest of the evening. I’m going to talk to the others about who wants your evening block, love.”

She moves to the door. Scarlet dashes up to give her a hug. “Love,” Scarlet whispers, “Are you truly okay with this, with me and Alex still being fiancés?”

Harper leans over her shoulder to give Scarlet a kiss goodnight, a tender, gentle thing. “Yeah. I love you and want you to be happy. I want all of you happy. I get that the little bit of me you can get isn’t enough. Treat your prize right, love. Goodnight.”