To be or not to be.

Suspended between empathy and arousal was clearly not the solution the women had in mind.

“Right, then... clearly this is not going to work as we had hoped for.” Kylie said, sighing.

“No. And worse, thinking about having anal sex with Alex... finally...” Kara sounded aroused and frustrated at the same time.

“I’m sorry, Kara... I...” I tried to apologize.

“No, Alex. Don’t apologize. If anything, it makes it worse.” Kara groaned.

“Can’t we try something different?” Kate asked.

“Such as?” Sophia sounded at the end of her ropes.

“Well, last night...” But thinking about last night, well... Kate blushed and couldn’t go on with her sentence.

“Kate!” Kara snapped Kate out of it.

“Sorry...” Kate mumbled. A bit insulted too.

“Please move on, Kate...” Kylie tried desperately.

“Last night...” She flushed but ploughed on: “He was very willing to go with the roleplay. He had no problem to empathize in his own role. Neither did I... but that’s beside the matter.”

“So we empty his reservoir of empathy by streaming it into a roleplay. Almost forcing him to choose between empathy for us and empathy into the role?” Kara tried to explain, with a kind of mechanical metaphor. It seemed she preferred using those.

“Would that even work? I am pretty sure they are completely different kinds of empathy.” I said, but realized I was resisting the idea purely because I didn’t want to get aroused. In which I failed. I was already thinking up a scenario with Kate... “Never mind... I...”

“Hmm...” Kylie was thinking about it. “It could actually work. You would acknowledge the artificiality. You would feel in control. You could stop at any moment. You would know we could stop at any moment. You would ask for permission to start it, like you did several times with Kate, before you... engaged.”

“But even if it would work and the two kinds of empathy are the same... How about the practicality of it? And the dangers of long-term exposure to roleplay? Even if executed at multiple times a day. Not even mentioning the different fantasies involved, because I can’t be kept in the dominant ones. It would be dangerous for me. For all of you. For the platoon. And leave Kate...”

Yes, Alex, keep them coming. Your objections...

Kate was already lost again in her daydreaming. She couldn’t answer, I could see it in her glazing eyes.

Probably thinking about last night... Where you had so much fun... No, Alex! Stop it!

Kylie continued in her stead:

“I am sure we can find other fantasy types, that will arouse you and us. We would just need to mix it up a bit. Different ones for different persons. And different ones for each one of us...”

Now it left them all quiet. Now each of my girlfriends started to have glazing eyes. Getting aroused.

“Fuck!” Sophia cursed out loudly. Her hand involuntarily had crept to her groin below, she noticed just in time, snapping them all out of it, but the sudden swift from fantasy to reality made them each grimace in their own way.

“Right! This conversation between us is not going anywhere. We have a solution, but we can’t find the proper mood to work it out. We have **** to ask for advice. Someone with a clear head. Someone smart. And able to explain it to us in simple terms.” Kylie concluded.

“Ella...” I sighed.

“Yes, Alex. Ella... She has helped us before. Oh... Don’t look so surprised, Alex. Even if you don’t see her as a full-grown woman, she is. She really is. You know it, but you can’t admit it, because of your morals.” Kara crudely said.

The mood in the room was clearly shifting to brutal honesty. It was probably a side-effect of the frustration, leaving my girlfriends in the same permanent state as I was in. And as far as I knew, they would have no problem finding a solution for it. Finding practicality on that front was not a problem at all for them.

“The notion of your strict morals hasn’t escaped Ella either. But your refusal to bend them a bit in favor of her doesn’t disturb her, not as much as it does for Ambra, she told us in very clear terms. Which is a woman too, by the way.” Sophia continued the onslaught.

I flinched at that. Very visibly.

“Stop it, Kara and Sophia! You are hurting him.” Kate exclaimed.

“Calm down, everyone. Sorry, Alex, but it seems we shouldn’t continue this conversation for the moment... We are getting a bit stressed...” Kylie tried to apologize on everyone’s behalf.

I sighed. “I’m not unaware of it. Perhaps it is best you all destressed a bit? And also leave me alone for a bit?”

“You want to leave?” Sophia asked, almost in disbelief.

“Yes. This is going nowhere, Kylie is right. And if you all destress at the same time... It might create an overload. And I promised...

(Ella)

“... I promised not to act upon it, again.”

(to Ella)

“Before I leave though...

(perhaps to Ella?)

“... I need to ask... about Ella...”

(shouldn’t you ask Ella?)

“Never mind...” I sighed heavily and left the room.