Touches and Tangles

Andromeda

When Andromeda exits her stand-by mode, she has 4 of her 6 starting spells scribed and all of them prepared for the day: Absorb Elements, Detect Magic, Identify, and Shield. She plans on at least practicing with her combat cantrip a little at some point, but she’d rather not waste her limited spell slots on combat magic right now. Maybe I will have someone hit me with some magic so I can practice the defensive spells?

Andromeda definitely plans to burn through her SP doing something, then go get a second level. She stares at the mirror to see the effects. Thin blue lines glow under her skin plates, subtly following the leylines in her body. It tends to accumulate in her hands. She risks stroking Tegan’s tail. The vicious vixen doesn’t stir from her sleep. Andromeda feels it. I feel something! It’s low resolution, but it’s something!

After two days of utter numbness in her hands, any level of sensation is exciting. She gets up and takes a quick shower. The feel of her wet hair. The feel of her latex skin. The brushing of her nipples feels electric. She again needs to will herself not to masturbate. There will be time for that later.

Again, she exits and dries herself, once again able to feel the softness of the towel. Tegan is up by the time Andromeda is out. “Do you want to talk about last night, Tegan?”

The girl is staring. Andromeda looks down. She did not bother to wrap herself up in a towel. Looking up, Tegan is still staring.

“Tegan?”

The fox-girl finally gets a hold of herself, “Put some clothes on, you big-tittied cow!”

Andromeda heads over to her wardrobe and does exactly that, starting with the bra she had stored in her inventory. She ignores Tegan’s growling as she slips it on, then covers it with another blue Leylines T-shirt. The panties and jeans slip on soon after. “Would you like some company for breakfast?”

Tegan rolls out of bed in a huff and grabs some clothes. She heads to the bathroom to change.

“You know you’ll get XP if you do that in front of me?”

Tegan slams the bathroom door behind her. That answers that.

Mona

For the first time ever, Mona wakes up to bare boobies in her back and she squirms with excitement. Last night was amazing! Eeeeeeeeh!

“Stop squirming.” a groggy Gaia groans.

The ripping sound behind her scares Mona. “Ahhh, you okay there, Gaia?”

“Head’s... stuck? Why is my head stuck?”

Mona rolls over in Gaia’s grip. The terrorist now has big, chunky horns growing out of her forehead, long floppy ears, and a long vaguely cow tail? One of the horns seems to have torn a large gash into the mattress.

“Let go of me Gaia, so I can try to help?”

Gaia pouts, her head shaking (and slightly increasing the size of the hole in the bed), “But you are so cuddly.” Still, the criminal relents. Mona crawls her way out of bed. She spends a solid 15 minutes untangling Gaia from a mattress spring. At least Mona gets to watch Gaia’s itty bitty titties jiggle as she works.

Gaia gets up, looking like she appreciates Mona’s naked body. Mona suddenly feels embarrassed. Gaia teases, “Mistress, you don’t like it when I look?”

Mona gestures towards her plump body. “You are actually into... this?”

Gaia’s honesty starts off a little hurtful, but it picks up soon thereafter, “I’d prefer it if you looked like Teach, but yeah. I’m into you. Another problem with porn; it sets bad expectations. Trust me, you are downright cute compared to the average girl at the post-college lesbian bars, once all the girls ‘experimenting’ are married off to some guy. Solid seven by that standard.”

I’m... cute? Really? Gaia means it? A seven? I’m a seven?

“So, Mistress, are you going to join me in the shower or just stand there?”

Mona stumbles her way into the shower. It is much more pleasant to shower with someone here than back in the school gym locker room. Plenty of space. Plenty of water pressure. Nicer shampoos. A girl interested in watching Mona get wet. A girl interested in getting wet for her. Mona was working up the nerve to try fooling around, only for the water to suddenly cut off.

“Can’t waste water, Mistress.”

Note to self: Figure out how to get infinite water.

Clothes are laid out for both Mona and Gaia on the ruined bed. Ophelia sounds like she is arranging breakfast. The women get dressed. Mona in a comfy T-shirt, a zip up hoodie, and some jeans. Gaia in her date outfit. She looks very put together. Breakfast is weird, but a different weird than the egg whites. Some kind of cold oatmeal?

“They’re called overnight oats,” Ophelia explains, “It’s a way of getting you your morning protein without offending your guest.”

“Mine’s made with almond milk, right?” Gaia asks, already grabbing a spoonful. Ophelia nods and the (temporary) ox-girl happily munches down.

“What are the little black specks?” Mona asks, poking at the goo.

“Chia seeds,” Gaia answers with her mouthful.

Think I’d rather have the eggs. Mona grabs a spoonful regardless. She doesn’t regret it. Sooooooo gooooood! Mona dances as she gets another spoonful. “What’s all in this?”

Ophelia points to Mona’s phone instead of answering out loud. Mona reads the message: “Yours is made with oats, chia seeds, hu-cow milk, hu-cow yogurt, some extra whey protein to supplement, assorted berries, and some macadamia nuts. We’ll count your extra veggies last night for this morning.”

Mona texts back: “Thank you! :D” Then she asks aloud, “Can I have this more often?”

Ophelia nods, “Sure. You’ll have to get used to breakfast salad to go with it.”

Mona makes a face at the idea of breakfast salad. Who wants breakfast salad? Or salad at any time? Gaia, already halfway through her overnights oats, again speaks with her mouth full, “Can I have some breakfast salad too?”

Oh, yeah. Gaia is a hippie. Did I just get my first girlfriend? My parents are going to be so disappointed that my girlfriend is a hippie. At least she’s cute.

Tessa

Reverie is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, spending time with Tyalangan, her elven wives, and her elven children in the dreamlike reverie state is nice. On the other hand, so long as Kevin spends the night as himself, there is not a lot to do with the extra waking hours. Tessa can’t exactly level or train when Daphne and the relevant trainers are still asleep. She wiles away the hours this morning reading more game rules, but she will (eventually) finish reading the book. What to do after that?

Tessa watches Tegan stomp her way to the canteen as soon as it would open. Shrugging, Tessa pads her way out of the library to follow her. “Would you like me to join you for breakfast?”

Tegan freezes, body tense, fox ears and tail erect. She makes a startled noise, then answers, “Are you going to flash your big cow tits at me?”

Tessa sighs, “I’ll try my best not to.”

The two sit down to a lovely breakfast, prepared by her sister-in-law. Tegan’s is pure athlete fuel: plain egg whites, scrambled with some spinach, and a pear. Tessa gets pancakes and some sausage. The syrup is apparently from maple trees grown on the premises. Tessa tries to engage her former student in conversation, but the fox-girl just glowers at her. What is it going to take?

Kevin ambles in about the time Tegan finishes. The fox-girl shoulder checks the much larger bull as she leaves. Kevin mutters, “Psycho,” under his breath. The hu-cow puts in an order with Skye, then flops down where Tegan was sitting. He asks, “So, what’s the plan today?”

“I don’t know, honestly. Some sort of training during the day, I presume Andromeda will want some sex lesson tonight? You have plans?”

“Winter offered to teach me how to do my last weekly bounty, but I’m not sure. Our maid is... very forward. I think the offer is legitimate, but I’m afraid of the consequences. I don’t want to lead the maid along. What do you think?”

Tessa thinks a moment, then answer, “Better to learn from someone with experience than a book. Which is what I would be doing if you have me teach you. I can try to research it, if you need it.”

“Well, I plan to level up to Level 3 in stages, leveling once right after breakfast, then leveling again right after the meeting. I was hoping that you could be convinced to join me for some sword training. The Host hits so hard and you are supposed to get a free sword proficiency at your Level 3.”

Tessa looks at Kevin, confused. Skye drops off his breakfast in the meantime. It’s a lot of food.

Kevin gives her a moment, then replies to the unanswered question, “I checked out the subclasses everyone could have gotten when Andromeda had me research the game mechanics.”

Oh. I probably should have done that when we leveled yesterday.

Tessa watches the boy eat with something between fascination and disgust. It is a lot of food. Then the two head to Daphne’s storefront to see that Gaia is already there. She appears to have rolled water buffalo today. She’s in the middle of leveling up herself.

“What do you mean I can understand animals? I picked a spell so I could talk with them! Did I waste a spell pick?”

The mermaid smiles, “The Speak with Animals spell does let you communicate much more accurately. But now, you can understand what they want. It’s like your baseline now is that you can read any animal as well as you could a trusted pet!”

“Oooooh, that’s alright then,” the terrorist notes, her horns making her head nodding look a tad more dangerous. She turns around to see Tessa and Kevin. She greets with a wave, “Hi, Teach! Hi, Kevin! How are you two today! I just got so many cool things!”

She proceeds to describe it. Gaia doubled her HP, quadrupled her SP, gained access to 2nd level spells, and got a spirit totem effect that lets her boost a variety of different things for creatures in the range of its aura. “And, I can make animals! Or be an animal for a while! Well, I mean, all animal instead of... this. You get it?”

Tessa does and nods. It’s good to see Gaia excited by something positive. To create instead of just destroy. Kevin has already gone up to handle the first half of his leveling. He gets spells, an extra damage ability called smite, and a fighting technique to protect someone near him with a shield.

While Kevin switches to Caoimhe, Tessa greets Daphne. “Morning.”

“Morning! What can I do for you?”

“Level 3, please.”

Tessa feels the rush of years of practice wearing armor and wielding scimitars. She knows she can make 2 selections for skill expertises, but she only currently has one skill; she doesn’t know if it is worth getting expertise on perception, so she waits. She also gets more health, more SP, some special sword techniques to use in lieu of bardic inspiration, and a couple of new spells (Heroism and Hold Person).

Caoimhe steps up to complete her leveling. Channel divinity gives her a way to repel undead or provide a burst of healing to the group. She gets a couple of new spells: Command to issue a magical command and Healing Word as another healing spell. Caoimhe schedules her male form another longsword lesson while she is here. Tessa schedules herself a lesson in Performance, as that seems like the bardic thing to do. Gaia shrugs and says, “Sorry, Daphne, but I’m out of money.”

Kevin: -20 BP (Training Session)

Tessa: -20 BP (Training Session)

The three head down to the throne room; the meeting should be starting soon.

Craig

My back feels like shit. I really need to not sleep on that love seat again.

Everyone has gathered in the throne room. The chubby Asian chick is sitting on her throne, gabbing with the black chick. The other four are taking places along the runner. The fag is in girl mode. Would it have been so fucking hard to turn into that so we’d both fit in the bed? The look of absolute disdain the fag is giving him gives him some pause.

“Sorry, ladies and Craig,” the blue bitch begins as soon as she materializes, “But I have a busy day ahead of me, so this meeting will be a bit short. Congratulations, Gaia, on the excellent date. You got nearly 50 XP from it, which is an absolutely silly amount of points for a first week date, except for the whole experience point leveling sink you all have to deal with. In addition, 4 out of the 6 of you have already essentially qualified for the first Major Quest, even if some of you haven’t spent the XP yet. Let’s check out that leaderboard.”

Tyalangan generates the illusion to display the leaderboard:

Mistress Mona currently has 80 BP! Good job!

• Gaia Level 3 37 XP +2 BP
• Tessa Level 3 0 XP +95 BP
• Kevin Level 2 8 XP +30 BP
• Andromeda Level 1 28 XP +125 BP
• Tegan Level 1 3 XP +20 BP
• Craig -4 XP -20 BP

Craig snarls at just how far behind he is. That dumb bitch just screwed me with her whining, didn’t she? All she had to do was fucking cum!

“Tonight is Tegan’s date night. Shall she be a Gaia or a Craig? Or, perhaps something in between? Tune in tonight to find out!”

And, with that, the bitch disappears. Now, how do I get myself out of this hole?

The Show-Runner

Just a brief narrative interruption for a couple of show-notes. One, we have a three-part side thing to respond to XarHD’s latest batch of fan-mail messages replies of a more personal nature. The ones that will have an effect on this branch will be published in the main line. The fan-mail reply chapters will loop back to the next main-line chapter, if you want to follow along (and there is some background information in there that might be of interest, even if you haven’t followed along the pen pal relationships between my first season and XarHD’s).

Two, we have a collab coming up in a couple of chapters, so be prepared for linking chapters weaving between this branch and the other.