Divinity Rescue Corps
94- Over the Moons

I was over the moon—moons—to see my camp again, though it looked nothing like I remembered it. Trent had really gone all out, expanding the earthen igloos into squarish adobe houses made of dirt, rocks and clay. He’d created an aesthetic of sorts, with three wavy layers: darker brown beneath, reddish clay above, and then a yellow-white top layer. In places he’d placed chunks of crystal or stone that looked especially cool. These had windows and doors with wooden shutters both inside and out. Not only that, but I noted cool skylights when I entered my new place. They had somehow gotten panes of actual glass, though it was the thick and bubbly kind you would see from medieval times, since they were making the glass via Magmamander and the process wasn’t perfect. Still, a lot of natural light got in, and it kept the worst of the weather out.

I quickly relayed orders regarding Blake’s former team. They definitely weren’t his any longer, not with him being a freaking Nakamamon. While Larelle, the Guardians, and the Rangers went off in search of Cinzy, Wizards, Drat and the others, Vellenia plastered herself against my body and hugged me tight.

Trent stared at the gorgeous companion creature, and frowned down at his large gem Nakamamon, Garnet. I motioned him to continue the tour, and merely walked on until Vel detached herself from me and held my hand like she would never let me go.

Trent was beaming as I peppered him with looks of amazement and frequent compliments.

“This thing has multiple rooms?” Once I had picked my jaw up off the floor, I continued. “Working plumbing? How? When?”

“Alan and I had a lot of time on our hands,” he said. “The spells aren’t simple by any means, and it took a lot of mana for me to move that much earth and shore up the tubes with baked clay pipes. None of this is perfect, or even permanent, but water is drawn in here, temperature is regulated with these two crystals, and you have the choice of water pressure. Alan wanted to put those top down sprinklers because they’re modern. I nixed that; my mother had one of those installed and it super sucked.”

I blinked and shook my head. What was even happening? This building had a large area set aside for the laboratory, another study and sitting room with a small desk and several of the camp chairs, a bedroom, and a small bathroom.

We had been peeing in a quickly excavated ditch for the majority of our time here. Now not only was there a toilet (formed out of white ceramic care of Trent and Larelle’s Magmamander) but I had a sink with running water, and my own shower.

He showed me, amongst the clay tile floor of the laboratory, where the group of tiles could be lifted quickly for escape tunnel access.

“And these tunnels…”

“They all connect, but they only lead out. There’s a sort of doggy door that’s locked from your side. You couldn’t break into someone’s house during the night.”

 We would see about that.

“You can also lock it behind you. You press the little gem in the ceiling and it will collapse the several feet of access. Took Alan and I a couple of days to work out the details.”

“I’m flabbergasted. I can’t believe the level of detail… and style. You’ve outdone yourself.”

Trent shrugged, though he was obviously pleased with his achievements. “There’s a stairwell on the outside of the building that leads up to the roof. I thought there would be a chance we could have cookouts or just lounge around up there if the weather is good.”

I peeked around the corner and saw the stairs leading up. Unbelievable.

“I mean… don’t expect this level of workmanship everywhere we go. I’ll try to whip up this kind thing faster and faster going forward, but you’ve been gone for two weeks and we’ve had time… before you changed up the orders we weren’t really sure what to do.”

Yeaaahhhh. I felt a twinge of guilt over this, but Trent didn’t seem to hold this against me.

“That look says I’ve just said something wrong,” he said. “Uhh... no no, don’t be upset for running the show. I’m glad to be along for the ride. It’s a good team, it’s a good cause. These are good people. I like it here. And honestly, I’m getting a lot of practice with the stone magic.”

I clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Glad to hear that… because we’re about to take on a bunch more charges. Whenever you’re ready, we’re going to need a crude bunkhouse for at least seven. Probably more than that if my hunch is right.”

His eyes flew wide open. “Seven? Seven more?”

“Yep. I’ll add it to the orders menu. If Alan wants to work on it with you, great.”

Trent nodded and wandered off, already muttering specs and plans to himself.

After my ordeal and the lingering question of how to deal with Blake, I went immediately to bed. Vellenia lay with me, but didn’t ask any questions.

“It’s so nice to have you back,” she said, slithering onto me so we could be touching in every possible way, from her head resting in the crook of my neck, to her foot looped as much as it could be around my ankle.

I reassured her by touch alone, and got down to the level up rewards I’d gotten from my Achievement: Completely Upend the Natural Order of the Known World.

Pretty sure that was the name of the achievement.

At level 20 in Healer, I’d received an attribute point and a single skill point. The obvious choice had been to put it into the same place I’d ordered the team to put theirs: Divine Resistance, and though I’d wanted to branch out, it really was the best choice.

The attribute point had been harder, though my familiarity with magic was making me think that Affinity was the right call. At least for now, being able to channel magic would help in all ways. I was beginning to see mana in casting form more plainly. I was getting used to the idea of a pool of magic sitting in my chakra points, and channeling that magic up to the center of my forehead, where it manifested in every imaginable way.

Although I had other designs for myself, the expedition I was on was not about only me. I needed to consider the thousands of Nakamamon who we were turning aside from Glumpdumpkin and telling to head back to their points of origin. The people still in the town were a wild mix of maniacally, sleeplessly going about their work, stumbling around as if drunk, completely comatose, or the psychic aspects trying to live their lives like nothing was wrong.

The result was still an even spread, ranging from a Physicality of 5 to an Ingenuity of 8. I’d always been more of a generalist at heart. Of course I wished for more attribute points, but they were only coming ever 3 to 4 levels, and that was that.

Now, level 21 of Healer and level 19 of Pleasure Seeker both yielded the same result: +3 skill points. It felt like Christmas, suddenly having so many, though I knew I could very easily empty out this bank account.

I was pleased to see my shiny new Stealth skill, as well as a bump in Physical Diagnosis, from 3 to 4, without me having to spend any points. The levels could come from enough practice, and I sure had gotten plenty of practice working on the Wizards over the last two weeks.

The first point had to go into Divine Resistance. No question there. As for the others… Adaptability meant helping Chrysta with her wish for meaningful physical contact. I put one point in there. Next, I threw a point into Develop Cure for Small, Medium and Large. The hope was that this god in Glumpdumpkin wasn’t going to be a huge one. Still, cross fingers, Hard At Work would see me through this, because at level 20 in Pleasure Seeker, I’d just replenished all of my Tokens.

Finally, I wanted one more in the nine Qualities that made up my second class. I hadn’t touched several of these, and I wanted to see if any of them would help me in my journey, such as the Pleasure Seeker journey was. The nine were Load, Refractory Period, Length, Girth, Stave Off, Flexibility, Tongue, Pheromones, and Adaptability.

“Refractory period,” I breathed.

“Mmm?” Vellenia asked, half asleep. I was getting there too. Rather than answer, I stroked her cheek and she hugged tighter against me.

Refractory period was the length of time between being able to generate another load. It also shortened the time in between climax and being able to get hard again. I couldn’t imagine that…but I was also twenty years old.

Flexibility seemed like a pointless choice, as I was already pretty flexible. I couldn’t touch my toes to the back of my head or anything, but who needed to?

It was only when I read through Pheromones more closely that I understood. Now, my assumption was that Pheromones were going to be kind of… coercive. Gross. Like ‘oh Fletcher, I’m not really interested in you’ and then I’d raise my arms so the smell could waft out of my armpits, and I’d go ‘oh yeah, I think you’ll find that you’re feeling pretty attracted to me after all’ and that sounded like I was taking someone against their will. Gross. No thanks.

Because we all know what pheromones means. Ants use them to communicate to one another. Mammals use stank trails to warn off competitors or attract mates. That’s the meaning of pheromones. There is no way I could justify having them, and then have the conversation after sex that involves ‘why did I agree to this? You’re not my type, and I would never do you.’

And then I read the description. 

The Pheromones skill allows you to pass on your other Pleasure Seeker Qualities to your intimate partners. For each level of Pheromones, one available point of your Qualities is passed on to your partners while engaged in intimate acts.

“Hold the phone,” I said. “Hold the fracking phone.”

Would this… give Regina some Length and Girth? That wasn’t possible. Staying power, like Stave Off? Or would it always default to Tongue? I had a lot of questions, and the description only added them. If I initiated with Chrysta, would she gain Adaptability also? There was also the question of threesomes… I had had a number of these, and thanked my lucky stars every time, but there was more I didn’t know regarding this Pheromones situation.

I sank a point into Pheromones right away, fully intending to see whether this skill applied to a single romantic partner at a time, or would apply to both if I were, say, involved in a threesome with a couple of romantically involved female Guardians, and whether it would enhance their tongues for more exciting oral adventures.

Hypothetically speaking.

“Hmm,” Vellenia said, and snuggled in closer.

Eventually I drifted off, and when I awoke it was to a great big party happening in my command building.

I shot up in bed. “Wha—”

Everyone was now in my… house. Trent had literally made me a house. Not a tent, not a lean-to, not a hastily cobbled together and drafty shack. They had transformed the laboratory into a party. The workbenches were decorated first with ribbon and bunting, and topped with plates of nachos, cookies, cakes, bowls of punch, and… cans of beer? Not many, mind you, but enough that each of us could have at least two.

“How did you guys…”

Tara sighed heavily, and explained that, once again, we didn’t have the anti-magic medicine to stave off whatever happened as our bodies accumulated too much mana… which I now understood would cause us to become actual Nakamamon. After failing to search for my whereabouts, she agreed to head back to HQ and pick up some things, and she was much quicker about it. Also, there was no longer a danger of having her backpack—and the rest of her clothes—vanish on the return journey.

We all raised a beer to Airaconda, whose head poked in through a window, and proceeded to party. Throughout the next few hours, Airaconda received a lot of pets and head scratches. As Tweedle Dee, Garnet, McCauley Skulkins, and even Muppin joined the party, there was a lot of yipping, chittering, and belly rubbing happening.

All the Wizards were there, and Cinzy as well. While some of them got out spells for ghostly sounds, Cinzy did an amazing job harmonizing with herself and playing her oboe, which she had promised never to play, if I recalled correctly.

Still, somehow the oboe continued playing itself when she took it from her lips, and she grinned at me before beginning to do a kind of beatboxing I didn’t know was possible. She literally made the sounds of the rest of the band with her vocal cords.

And it was like laying down a track on repeat: the beat, the bass, the accompaniment from the oboe and a flue, a bit of funky guitar, and then she began singing. Somehow she managed all that at the same time.

“It’s Tokens,” Regina said from beside me.

“Huh?”

“She’s using abilities. That has to be it.”

We’d already hugged it out, but I turned to find myself in another hard embrace.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” she whispered.

“Oh yeah?”

“I’ve been spoiled for sex for the last several months,” she breathed. “Then suddenly starved for weeks. Don’t ever go and do that to me again.”

I chuckled, and she let me go. As she did, I caught sight of Cinzy giving me a questioning look. I twitched a hint of a smile at her and shrugged just the tiniest bit, as if to tell her she’d made promises. She said she wanted me no matter what, no matter who else might be involved.

The moment of distraction allowed Tara to wrap herself around me in another huge hug.

“You idiot,” she said. “No going off by yourself again. That’s an order.”

“Oh, you think you give the orders around here?”

Again I locked eyes with Cinzy, and this time her questioning look held a bit of incredulity. I mimicked the earlier hint of smile and shrug. Her eyes widened.

She had caught me with Isabelle and Ivy… and now she knew how deep the rabbit hole went.

Vellenia stood in the corner, where one of the Wizards was attempting to talk with her. She brightened as soon as I took her hand, apologized to the flirty Wizard about my bondmate being uncomfortable outside the marshes, and took her to the dance floor.

“Are you certain?” she asked.

“Am I certain of what?”

“Are you certain… you wish to spend time with me alone? Your other partners wish to mate with you. I have heard them complaining without cease about the lack of Fletcher.”

“Have you been… listening in on their conversations?” I hoped they were just complaining about how they didn’t have a dedicated Healer.

“Oh, no… they seem to disregard my presence. Tara and Regina talk about your…” she looked down at my pants, “um, I am not supposed to refer to your genitals in open conversation.”

I burst out laughing.

“It is much the same with Ivy and Isabelle,” Vellenia confessed.

“Oh boy,” I muttered. I had not wanted to get in between those two and cause relationship problems.

The music changed tone and became more of a slow dance, so I twirled my partner and briefly enjoyed how her billowing dress flared out like a gigantic flower. Then I pulled her in tight. She immediately rested her head on my chest.

“Ivy needs the deep dicking,” Vellenia whispered.

“I probably shouldn’t be hearing this at all,” I muttered, chuckling.

“Oh!” Vellenia said. “If I am being inappropriate, I can refrain from sharing their desires.”

“Just make sure you only mention it when other people can’t easily hear us.”

“As you wish,” she said.

For some reason those words really struck me. Vellenia was here to help fulfill my wishes.

This is Christopher feeling that everything is right with the world.

Christopher Fletcher

Healer - Trainee 21

Pleasure Seeker - Novice 20

attributes:

Affinity 7

Durability 6

Ingenuity 8

Likability 6

Physicality 5

Healer Skills:

Diagnosis (physical 4, spiritual 3, magical 3, mental 3)

Treatment (potions 4, salves 3, tinctures 3, elixirs 3, unguents 3)

Develop cure (swarm 4, small 5, medium 3, large 2)

Develop cure (unique) 7

Administer Cure 8

Pleasure Seeker Qualities:

Girth 1

Load 1

Stave Off 2

Length 1

Tongue 1

Adaptability 4

Pheromones 1

Other Skills:

Identify 5

Hiking 3

Cooking 1

Persuasion 1

Meditation 4

Divine Resistance 5

Stealth 1

Mana Affinity 1

All other skills unranked

Unspent skill points: 0

General Special Abilities:

Hard At Work III (Uncommon, Passive)

Wild Lore II (Uncommon, Active)

Beastmaster (Uncommon, Passive)

Stalwart II (Common, Passive)

Fierce II (Common, Passive)

Healer Special Abilities:

Healer’s Endurance II (Common, Active)

Healer’s Resistance (Uncommon, Active)

Healer’s Breath (Uncommon, Active)

Verdant Rejuvenation (Uncommon, Passive)

Pleasure Seeker Special Abilities:

Blissense II (Rare, Active)

Post Sharing Clarity (Rare, Passive)

Drive In Deeper (Uncommon, Passive)

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