Part 1: The Premise, The Alchemist's Illusions

Chapter 5: Sleepover

Wyn’s bedroom was nearly as large as Linza’s whole apartment. In the center was a beautifully carved four-poster bed with a velvet canopy.  The walls were hung with pictorial tapestries that depicted farmers, kings and queens, a baker’s shop and — Wyn’s addition — a woman in the nude.

Linza and Wyn sat next to each other on Wyn’s bed. They were both wearing nightgowns, Linza’s borrowed from Wyn’s closet. Linza had stopped by for dinner and soon realized that there would be no way that Wyn was going to let her leave that night.

The papers were all strewn out in front of them, Wyn poring over them. Wyn herself had studied evocation. She could make her hands burn with fire, could summon sparkling lights, could create ice out of thin air. She could also be drafted during a time of war, which was the major downside of becoming an evoker. When pressed on how she felt about military service, Wyn would just giggle and say ‘I’d like to see them try and catch me’. To Linza, it was a refreshing departure from her mother’s dutiful worship of the royal navy.

Evocation was also an attractive School to casters who were more emotional than studious, more physical than academic, and so it had been a good fit for Wyn.

Linza had hardly ever seen her read a book (unless it was romance, of course) and she had certainly never seen Wyn study anything so intently as she studied the terms of employment strewn across the bed.

Wyn set down the final page, having finished her third reading. “So little of this is about sex!”

“She said something like, ‘sex is one constellation among galaxies’.”

Wyn’s eyes snapped up. “Oh. My. Gods.” She pulled her hair and threw herself back on the bed, sending a few of the sheets fluttering. “She sounds so freaking dreamy!”

“She was! She was like… like a professor almost.”

“A hot professor,” Wyn said.

“Yep.”

“Ugh. I heard she doesn’t see clients—”

“—esteemed guests—”

“—yeah yeah, whatever. I heard she doesn’t see guests anymore because she’s so busy training the staff. You have to try and get with her! I need details!”

“I’m going to be at the very bottom of the pecking order, there’s no way. Not for ages.”

“Ugh, but wouldn’t that make it, like… a little bit forbidden? Like hot professors at JSMI. Like, you’re not supposed to, but… doesn’t that make it more exciting?”

Linza snorted. “For you, maybe. It just makes me feel bad!”

“Really? Just imagine it… all this line of other staff before you, but she’s just as captivated by you as you are by her… you’re not supposed to, you know you’ll have to wait ages, but you flirt anyway… and flirt, and flirt… You try to woo her, but she declines… just as she’s about to crack, you dutifully agree to follow the rules, and then she’s trying to woo you…”

Wyn’s eyes lost focus, her nipples perked under the thin silk of her nightgown, and she ran her legs against each other luxuriantly. Her hair had come to rest across the pillow. She heaved a sigh, her breasts bouncing under the silk. “Do you want to fool around or should I go take a bath?”

Linza bounced up and straddled Wyn, only the thin silk of Wyn’s nightgown between her vulva and Wyn’s skin. “I would really like to fool around.”

“Fuck yes.” Wyn reached up and pulled Linza down on top of her, their lips meeting.

Linza particularly liked the comparison of sex as a constellation amongst galaxies. Hers and Wyn’s constellations shared this star. They had learned after some trial and error that they made better friends than lovers.

Neither was made jealous by the other’s flings. Each supported the other in whatever they might pursue. Mostly they met for tea and chatted.

And every so often when the stars aligned and they both happened to be feeling it on the same night, they fooled around.

Linza rocked her hips against Wyn. The silk was smooth against her labia, the other woman’s mound providing pressure. Wyn’s lips were soft and welcoming, her touch was fervent and greedy.

Their kiss ended as Linza rested her cheek on Wyn’s breasts, grinding even more fervently. Her moisture was soaking through the thin silk between them.

“F-fuck, you’re wet.” Wyn arched her back into Linza. “You poor thing, did the madame leave you all hot and bothered?”

“Yes!”

“Hmmm let me see!” Wyn pushed up onto her elbows.

Linza reluctantly tipped herself off of the other woman, falling back to the bed next to her. The skirt of her nightgown remained at her waist, leaving nothing between her vulva and Wyn’s appraising eyes.

Wyn ran her fingers up the insides of Linza’s thighs and Linza shivered.

“My my, you are quite the mess,” Wyn chided.

She descended on Linza with her tongue and Linza screamed with delight.

It was overwhelming. It felt so good. Though, Linza wavered a bit in one of the uncertainties that meant that she and Wyn weren’t the best of lovers. Linza was the sort of woman that needed to sink deep into the fantasies of her own mind in order to climax.

Wyn preferred a more urgent and present sort of love-making and she grew quickly bored without variety or banter.

If Linza obliged with banter, she could extend the length of Wyn’s attentions, but she would delay her own climax. Some times, that was alright with her.

Other times, like this time, when she was fit to burst after days of building anticipation, she craved that release.

But then, she realized something. It brought her out of her arousal just a bit, but it was worth it. She propped herself up on her elbows. “Wyn?”

“Mhm?” Wyn looked up at her, face still buried in her vulva.

“I-I was thinking—”

Wyn started to roll her eyes. Wyn was always teasing Linza for thinking too much, especially during sex.

“—I could summon a phantasm?”

Wyn’s eyes widened and she perked up. “Can you summon an octopus mermaid to fuck me right now?”

Linza was surprised and impressed by how instantly Wyn knew what she wanted. It was one of Linza’s favorite things about the brazen woman.

Linza nodded. “Can do!”

Wyn’s breathing quickened. “Both holes, wrap my legs and hips, hard. Fuck me into your pussy.”

At Wyn’s lustful command, Linza almost forgot how to think, let alone recite the spell. Maybe Wyn had more of an imagination than Linza had given her credit for. She was all too happy to oblige.

Linza began the spell. It required all three components. 

Verbal, a spoken incantation.

Somatic, a measured and precise movement of the hand.

Material, the focus crystal that hung on a golden chain around her neck.

The crystal vibrated as she spoke the arcane verse and sculpted the nascent magic into shape.

As was ever true of artists and illusionists, they became deeply acquainted with their inner and unconscious imaginations in a way that few others ever did.

The resulting octopus mermaid looked much like Wyn herself, golden skin melting into ochre tentacles. Brown hair spilled in waves over her shoulders. Her face was aglow with mischief, her smirk decorated with cute little fangs.

To Linza, the image was translucent. To Wyn, who welcomed it, it would be totally opaque. To anyone else, it would be invisible. 

Wyn glanced over her shoulder and her face sparked with delight for one brief moment.

Then her expression melted into ecstasy as the tentacles wrapped firmly around her and into her.

Wyn moaned in a way that Linza had not heard before, and in a way that set Linza’s own arousal blazing again.

“I c-can feel it!” Wyn gasped. “Gods, I can feel it! It’s inside of me, fuck, Linza, it feels so good!”

Linza did not give the spell its next instruction explicitly. Rather, it responded to the fantasy that it had been summoned from, the unconscious thoughts from which it was drawing its power and form. Her’s and Wyn’s imaginations, together.

A limit of the illusion was that it worked directly on the mind and could not have a direct physical effect. But, expectations were powerful. As the illusory sensation thrust into Wyn, she moved instinctively with it, pressing into Linza’s vulva with the same rhythm.

The pleasure and heat built nearly immediately.

Linza’s breath heaved, her own breasts bouncing on her chest.

The mermaid’s face was glowing with abject pleasure, as if each of her tentacles was as erotically sensitive as a cock. She rubbed her own nipples with the ridged underside of one of her tentacles. 

As soon as the mermaid’s breath started deepening into deep gasps, Linza knew what was next.

“Fuuuck,” the mermaid said, in a voice that was smoky and sweet and a bit like the madame’s. “I’m c… I’m c… I’m cumming!”

Thick white foam that smelled like the ocean sprayed from the tips of each of her tentacles, including those that continued to vigorously fuck Wyn.

Wyn’s scream of climax joined the mermaid’s, and Linza’s was close behind.

It was the kind of orgasm that hit her like a rogue wave. Her conscious mind was swept underwater by, utterly overwhelmed for a moment before bobbing back to the surface. She rode out the waves of pleasure, recording every detail into memory.

Wyn’s screams of pleasure vibrated through her sex. The mermaid kept fucking her with a squelching sound and the smell of the ocean. The mermaid’s fluids were everywhere, soaking both of them.

Gradually, the waves turned to ripples and then the ripples to stillness.

Wyn now floated on the afterglow, cheek on Linza’s thigh and arms around her hips as if Linza were a life preserver.

The mermaid gently disentangled herself from Wyn, who gasped at the renewed pleasure of the receding tentacles. The mermaid just giggled and then turned and dived off the side of the bed. 

The sound of a splash was the last of the illusion as Linza released the spell.

Linza melted completely and became one with the silky cushions and smooth sheets of Wyn’s bed. Everything felt so soft, so cozy, so nice.

Wyn heaved her head up from Linza’s thigh. “Fuck, Linz… that was… holy shit. Your imagination is hot. Charge me next time.”

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Part 1: The Premise, The Alchemist's Illusions

Chapter 4: The Interview

The madame was nothing like Linza had expected.

Linza knew a few things, going into that interview. She knew that the madame ran the estate and that she was one of the top five richest merchants in all the kingdom. 

She also had known that the madame was half-orc, but knowing and experiencing were quite different things.

They met on a private veranda that overlooked the ocean. Vines crawled up into the lattice over them, ripe grapes hanging from their branches.

The sun was warm and the ocean breeze brought a slight chill and the smell of seaweed.

The madame was a full head taller than Linza. Her skin was the cool, pale green of lichen. Her lips were full and her lower canines protruded from them. A navy silk dress clung to her every plump curve. Her black hair showed a blue sheen in the sunlight and was braided up at the crown of her head in an elaborate knot, soft strands falling down to frame her face.

As she moved to stand and shake Linza’s hand, firm muscles rippled under the softness of her skin.

Linza could not place her age. She knew that the woman must have been in her sixties, but she seemed full of youth and wisdom all at once.

A single word filled Linza’s mind as she regarded the madame. 

Radiant.

Like the afternoon sun above them, the madame emitted a calm, silent, powerful energy.

She took Linza’s hand and lead her down to a little wooden table on the veranda. Linza hand looked as a child’s in the madame’s.

She was sure she should be saying something, but she didn’t know what to say.

They sat, and the madame searched her face with warm, brown eyes. “You have a bit of the sight, don’t you?” Her voice was warm and husky, like the crackling of a fireplace.

“W-which sight?” There were several purported types of special sight in magical study, and Linza did not want to over-promise.

“Might you tell me whatever you were just thinking? And then I might tell you.”

Linza was deeply wary of magical charms.  The School of Enchantment operated under strict rules, but there were indiscretions. Every student was trained to recognize the signs.

There were none of those signs. The way her heart seemed to float on the madame’s fingertips had nothing to do with the kind of magic that Linza had learned in school.

She was compelled, by no force other than the madame’s glowing halo of kindness, to confess. “I was thinking you were as the sun. Radiant.”

The madame smiled more deeply and her eyes crinkled into sparks of joy. “I daresay you do have the sight, and the tongue of a poet to boot!”

Linza blushed. Yet again, curiosity overcame uncertainty. “What sight are you referring to?”

“I’d say it’s ‘mundane’, but only to contrast the formal magics, and not because it isn’t special. I’ve called it that for a while now. As best as I can describe it — though now I’m eager to see if you might have better words for it — it is that singular feeling when you see somebody else, and you feel that they see you right back.”

“Yes! I know exactly what you mean. My best friend and I are that way. And a couple of professors I’ve known.”

The madame nodded, looking at once giddy and elegant. “You will find that the house is home to lots of ‘seers’. It’s particularly helpful in our line of work.”

“I can imagine!”

“I am quite sure that you can,” the madame said. “To be clear, I’m playing on words a bit. I am both sure that you immediately, implicitly understood how that sight helps our work. I am also sure that you have the kind of imagination that will be a good fit for the role that you applied for.”

“Oh!” Linza was glad that she had explained. “Th-Thank you! I’m honored to be considered!”

“I must confess,” the madame continued, “That I had you here under a bit of a ruse. This is not an interview.”

Linza’s heart dropped. Had the compliment just been a way to let her down easy?

“This is a job offer,” the madame continued.

“Oh! I—” Linza was about to eagerly accept.

The madame held up a finger for her to wait, and Linza’s words dissolved.

“You cannot accept until you have heard all the terms,” the madame said. “Rule number two, ‘nothing taken’. The true purpose of this lunch is for me to explain it all to you. Rule number one, ‘everything given’.”

“Are there any other rules?”

The madame’s grin widened. “Yes, excellent question! I can tell already that we’ll have a great talk. There is only one other rule. Rule number three, ‘have fun’.”

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Part 1: The Premise, The Alchemist's Illusions

Chapter 3: The Inquiry

Linza had first learned about the estate from her best friend, Wyn. 

When Wyn was flirting with a boy, as she often did, she liked to introduce herself as ‘Wyn, short for Olewynn, sounds like all-the-way-in, please’. She liked to make them blush.

Wyn was brazen in every sense. Bold, loud, shameless. Skin golden brown like brass. Jubilant laugh like a herald’s trumpet.

They had graduated together. Wyn’s father was a professor of invocation and so she had received a scholarship and did not share Linza’s financial woes. In fact, quite the opposite. She lived in a fashionable part of town in her own sizeable apartment, which she had inherited from her great aunt. Wyn had done little to refurnish the place and had just added her own colorful accents, so the home was a charming mix of traditional and avant garde — a fair representation of Wyn herself.

Though Wyn was well off, that was not to say she wasn’t generous. When Linza’s purse was getting light, she could always count on Wyn for a hearty meal. 

She shared the discoveries of her elbow-rubbing with Wyn over afternoon tea. The tea was an exotic spiced variety that Linza hadn’t heard of before, and it went particularly well with Wyn’s latest batch of shortbread. Wyn was an average cook but a brilliant baker, and Linza would have had plenty of reason to drop by for tea even if she hadn’t had an update for Wyn.

“I think you need a night job,” Wyn said around a mouthful of shortbread.

“A what?”

“A night job. You have a day job, so you need a night job, too.”

Linza quirked an eyebrow. Wyn had been guaranteed a job at her cousin’s foundry basically since the moment she enrolled in the School of Evocation. She wasn’t sure Wyn was in the best position to casually advise that Linza get a second job. “Like what?”

“Like tending bar or minding children.”

“Oh!” Linza chuckled. “For some reason, I thought you were going to say I should be a sex worker or something.”

Wyn’s hands slammed down on the table and spit crumbs of shortbread. “Wait, yes! That is a great idea!”

“It is? No it isn’t. What?” Linza had been audience and accomplice to some of Wyn’s bolder ideas over the years, but this definitely was towards the top. Sex work was legal and quite respectable in the kingdom. That was largely thanks to Queen Lillia the First, who had actually been a sex worker before she’d married King Albert the Third. Albert was a bit bumbling and the greatest gift he’d ever given to the people was generally putting Queen Lillia in charge of things. She had been enterprising and professional and had brought a variety of positive reforms to the kingdom.

Even so, Linza’s mother had trained into her the idea that she had to maintain modesty if she was going to be taken seriously in a traditional field like alchemy. The Navy was still especially stodgy, but so far her mother’s advice had seemed valid.

Furthermore, Linza just didn’t feel like she had the charisma for it. ‘Provocative’ and ‘sexy’ were not on the list of adjectives she’d use to describe herself.

Wyn shook her head and put up a hand for Linza to wait, then finished swallowing her shortbread and washed it down with tea. “Hm. Don’t take this the wrong way—”

That always preceded Wyn saying something inappropriate.

“—but I think you’d really be great at that estate down by the beach.”

“The big one?”

“Yeah!”

Wyn looked gleefully enthused.

Linza felt deeply suspicious. She narrowed her eyes a bit. “Why?”

“Well, remember that smut you sent me?”

Linza blushed. “I didn’t send it to you, you stole it from my binder after I told you not to read it!”

“Yeah yeah, whatever. Well, it was great.”

Linza crossed her arms. “Yeah, but they wouldn’t want me to write smut, they’d want me to… y’know.” She felt so childish, trailing off like that. Not being able to say ‘the word’. But this was exactly her point! She wasn’t cut out for that kind of work.

Wyn shook her head again. “No, there’s all sorts of… what did they call them, ‘experiences’? There was one that they said used phangasmal… phangasm… um…”

“‘Phantasmal force’?” It was the name of an illusion spell that had particularly strong effects on the subject. Traditionally, it was a combat spell. The modus operandi was that you summoned an illusion of great danger, like flames or a dangerous beast, and the target was so convinced of the reality that they could truly be hurt.

“Yes, exactly!” Wyn said.

“That’s not usually a nice spell…”

“Well, this one was very nice…” Wyn’s eyes unfocused.

“Wait, you went?!” Linza was not scandalized so much as surprised that Wyn hadn’t told her. Well, okay, she was a little bit scandalized.

“Of course I did!” Wyn grinned widely. “It was amazing.”

Linza had been to the estate a couple of times to buy pastries or listen to the music and watch the sun set over the ocean. Harburich was a harbor city, and the estate was built along a particularly beautiful stretch of beach.

One of the outings that she’d thought was just lunch with a friend had awkwardly turned out to be a date, and she’d had to let him down as easily as she could right then and there. She was pretty sure he’d immediately gone in for one of the ‘experiences’. She hadn’t been back after that.

Linza’s academic curiosity overrode her trained modesty. “Okay, so, how exactly did it work?”

Wyn giggled, obviously pleased that she’d managed to get Linza to bite her hook. “Okay so, you go into this room, and there’s a mat and all these candles and it just… Mm! Smells amazing. And then there’s a little screen in one of the walls, and the caster is on the other side.”

Linza tilted her head. “Like a confessional?”

“Exactly like a confessional! Except the room isn’t that small. So then, you tell them what you like and what you’re looking for. They ask some questions back. And then they start!”

“Start what?”

“Start the spell!”

“I’m still not following.”

Wyn giggled again. “Linza, you are being distinctly unimaginative right now.”

“Take pity on me, please. Can you just spell it out?”

Spell it out?” Wyn’s eyes glittered.

Linza groaned and put her face in her hands.

Wyn laughed. “Alright, alright. So, they make an illusion. And that illusion can do things. Like be a friendly octopus mermaid. And just…” She sighed happily. “…fuck you in every hole.”

Linza’s first reaction was academic. This did indeed seem to be within the capabilities of the spell, especially if the target were willing. And, in fact, if the target knew that the spell was happening, they could end its effects at any time, simply by rejecting the illusion. By that same token, it seemed plausible for the target to choose to accept the effects and guarantee that the spell was successful.

Linza’s second reaction was visceral. Her heart fluttered. She felt even warmer. Arousal bloomed at just the idea of what Wyn had described.

“You know that spell, don’t you?” Wyn’s eager question pulled Linza out of her introspection.

Linza unfolded her arms and leaned back in to the table, fidgeting with the handle of her teacup. “I, uh, yeah.” One of the primary benefits of going to a formal school like JSMI is that it afforded students the opportunity to learn a great many spells. The natural limits on a student’s diversity of spells came down to the time required for practice and the expense of scratch paper, special ink, and replacement spellcasting focuses. Linza had learned nearly the whole library of both transmutation and illusion spells, and she need only spend some time refreshing her memory and the spell would be top-of-mind again.

Wyn looked at her expectantly.

Linza cleared her throat. “I’ll, uh, think about it.”

Wyn winked. “I can tell you’re thinking about it right now.”

“Wyn…”

“Maybe thinking about tentacles…” Wyn poked her fingers out at Linza as if to tickle her, “In all… sorts… of places…”

Linza ducked a poke to her head and jerked herself back from the table to dodge a poke at her hips. “Wyn!” She tried to sound cross but she just giggled like a school girl.

Wyn’s laughed her trumpet-like laugh and relented, slapping her knee. “Alright, alright,” she finally gasped, wiping tears from the corners of her eyes. “I’ll stop tormenting you.”

Linza took a sip of her tea and a moment to recollect her dignity. “So… how much do you think something like that pays?”

Wyn’s eyes brightened. “So you will do it!”

“I will inquire! I’m not doing anything yet!”

Wyn waggled her eyebrows, but did manage to report to Linza what she had spent for her quarter of an hour in the little confessional-like room.

Really?” Linza asked. It was about as much as somebody would pay for a fancy dinner. How many of those in a night could one person turn? Well, actually, there was quite a firm limit on how many spells one could cast in a day. Linza figured she could manage three or four.

Her analytical brain ran the numbers, amassing piles of coins.

Her body ran with arousal, her blood growing hotter.

Her heart raced in circles, unsure of quite how she felt.

But, what she’d told Wyn was true.

She would inquire.

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Part 1: The Premise, The Alchemist's Illusions

Chapter 2: The Alchemist

Linza had attended the most prestigious university on the continent, The Jorunnr Schools of Magical Inquiry. It was abbreviated JSMI and pronounced affectionately as ‘yizmy’ and derisively as ‘jizz me’.

The school was centuries old, a stalwart fortress of hand-carved stone, a city-within-a-city nestled in the heart of Harburich, the kingdom’s capital. The university’s moat and walls had once protected the invaluable libraries inside from a decades-long siege even when Harburich’s walls had fallen. Now, they protected little but the egos of the school’s snootier members.

All throughout her stay there, those ancient libraries had enchanted Linza. Not literally, of course — the School of Enchantment was actually two buildings over from the library. 

She herself had majored in the School of Transmutation. It was one of the more technical degrees available and required close study of not only of magic but also mathematics and the science of matter.

Linza was as talented as she was studious. Though she blushed whenever someone said it, even she had to admit, she was a bit of a prodigy.

Given that she completed her work more quickly than most of the other students, she could have taken the extra time to rise from third in her class to first.

Instead, she opted to take a minor in a different school entirely — Illusion.

Where alchemists learned classical mathematics, illusionists learned the fine arts.

The halls of the School of Illusion were nothing like the School of Transmutation. Instead of laboratories, there were studios. Students carried charcoals and paints, not text books and abacuses. The whole School was colorful, lively and bright. Music filled the hallway and dazzling lights filled the air. There were art shows and theatre productions and weekly storytelling feasts.

And when the School wasn’t throwing parties, the students were, so that the School’s dorms remained boisterous late into the night.

Linza was always happy, then, that she hadn’t majored in the School of Illusion. After sunset, the School of Transmutation was so quiet that you could hear quills scratching away as students labored away at their homework. She preferred it that way, so that she could sleep well and meet the next day renewed.

Those four years passed with agonizing slowness and yet all too quickly. The heavy velvet robe that was the traditional attire for graduation felt about as heavy on her shoulders as the weight of the expectations now upon her. And the conical hat with gold trim just made her feel silly. 

The dean had presented her diploma with a bow, and she had picked up the rolled parchment sheaf with a mix of apprehension and wonder. It was finally time for her to set out into the world and make a name for herself.

In the following months, Linza learned that all of the promises of swift and gainful employment that had been lavished upon her by JSMI’s admissions staff four years prior had been — as she was all to familiar with from her minor — mere illusions. 

The loans that she had taken out to pay for the degree were, however, far too real.

JSMI had been correct that alchemists were in great demand, but only alchemists ‘with at least two years of experience in a professional setting’. Laboratory after laboratory assured Linza that she should think of them again in a couple of years as they handed her a rejection letter.

She made her way further and further down her list of potential employers, increasingly convinced that JSMI had been a bit of a scam. Of course, all the rich children landed prestigious jobs right away, regardless of their actual competence. 

Linza had few connections in the capital city other than the friends she’d made at JSMI. Her father was a sewer and her mother was a scribe in the royal navy. She’d enjoyed a modest and warm upbringing. Though she’d hoped to buoy the family with her new career, she started to fear that her debts would sink them all.

Linza persisted and eventually found a laboratory that was willing to hire recent graduates. She would technically be doing alchemy, yes, but of the most menial possible variety.

Her homework at the university had seemed droll and repetitive. Compared to her new job, even that homework now seemed exciting.

She scrubbed cauldrons. Re-checked derivations. Sorted salts. Pre-measured reagents to precise weights. Calibrated scales. Polished crystals.

It paid just enough to cover her room, her food, and the minimum payment on her loan.

Though her new boss assured here that there were ample career opportunities, Linza was not so sure. Several other people in her department had worked there for five years or more and had not yet been promoted. When the laboratory had thrown a party at the local tavern, Linza had sipped diluted wine while the senior alchemists got thoroughly sloshed. She’d sidled her way into their conversation and probed for clues about their salaries.

They barely made more than she did. After twenty years!

Linza resolved that she would wait out her two years scrubbing cauldrons until she could transfer to another laboratory where the prospects were better. 

But if she was going to last those two years, she needed to find something else to do with her mind so that it did not melt of boredom and dribble out of her ears.

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Part 1: The Premise, The Alchemist's Illusions

Chapter 1: The Estate

The pleasure house sprawled along the shoreline with all the languid elegance of a nude reclining on the beach.

By this point, it was more of an estate than a house. There were no less than a dozen buildings and the streets between were part of the experience, too.

The estate was a temple dedicated to the senses.

Genius chefs prepared the most incredible food — elevated classics as well as new inventions. Hints as to their next dish snuck out from between the kitchen doors. The earthy smell of fresh bread, the tantalizing perfume of roasting herbs and meat.

There was always a stream of music flowing through the air, harps and lutes and whole ensembles. During celebrations, the melodies were jubilant, but otherwise they trailed soft and lingering like a fingertip over a lover’s shoulder and down to their waist.

The sights were equally dazzling. There were the natural beauties, the broad expense of the ocean, the spectacle of the sun making her blazing red bed upon it, the prettiest faces in the kingdom, the curves of muscle and flesh. There were also the crafted beauties, whole dresses of traditional beadwork, brave fashions in silk, wall-side murals and stalls hawking made-to-order paintings.

Just standing in the middle of the estate was so delightful, it was hard to imagine that yet more pleasures awaited. And, indeed, there were plenty of patrons that left totally sated after having gained nothing more than a new silk robe and a little box of pastries tied with red string.

However, foods and clothes and wares were not the only thing for sale in the estate. There were also ample opportunities to indulge in what the madame called experiences.

Many were explicitly sexual. Many were not.

The madame was a firm believer that pleasure was an experience which engaged both the senses and the heart, that the emotional and aesthetic and erotic were as inseparably intertwined as young lovers, and that there was little to be gained from trying to draw a firm line of what was sex and what was not.

Was laying back on a cushioned bed in the afternoon sunshine with gentle hands feeding you ripe strawberries sexual? It depended on the person. To some, it would be deeply arousing. To others, serene. To others, comforting and even maternal. The estate never made assumptions.

There were three rules governing all experiences at the pleasure house.

1. Everything given. 

2. Nothing taken.

3. Have fun.

‘Everything given’ meant that whatever was given — consent, payment, control — had to be given enthusiastically and without reservation.

‘Nothing taken’ meant that coercion and force were firmly forbidden. It also meant ‘nothing taken for granted’ which was a way of reinforcing that clear and consistent communication was expected.

‘Have fun’ meant just that.

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Shorts

The Art of a Bad Day


It’s natural to take out your frustrations on your partner. 

Jasmine and May had made an art of it. 

And it was exactly what Jasmine needed as she trudged the last few steps up to their apartment, back aching from carrying her work bag the long walk home from the train station, a walk that should have been a ride except her phone had died and she hadn’t been able to call the ride share.

Her phone had died because the thirty minute client call at the end of her day had become a two hour call, of talking in circles with the client because they insisted they’d already asked for a feature despite signing off on a scope of work that didn’t include it.

As she turned the key in the lock, she was feeling more riled up than exhausted. She’d learned to not shy away from that fire, lately. 

May was there to greet her. She wore nothing but an apron and a thong, and her plump thighs and arms jiggled as she waved Jasmine in. She was of Chinese descent, black hair and monolid eyes, though Jasmine actually spoke more Mandarin than May did, after a multi-year project with a Chinese client.

Jasmine was a few inches taller, Black, with her natural hair cut to a long ‘fro. May always said it looked angelic. Right now, Jasmine felt devilish.

Jasmine slumped her bag against the wall as May stepped over to give her a hug.

“How was work?” May asked.

“I need to hit something,” Jasmine said with a wry smile.

May sidled in a little closer, kissed Jasmine’s cheek, then looked up at her. “I volunteer as tribute.”

Jasmine reached around and smacked May’s ass. 

May gasped and whimpered, clinging closer to Jasmine’s chest.

Jasmine’s hand stung, but it was worth it. She dug her fingers into May’s shoulder and turned her around, steering her over to the bedroom. 

May happily complied.

It was not so long ago that Jasmine had felt guilty to even use a sharp tone of voice with May. Even if May asked for her to, what if it was still too mean? What if it made Jasmine an ‘angry black woman’ after all?

But then, Jasmine had learned how to ask different questions. What if she was afraid of how much she loved it? What if it made her powerful? What if it made her happy, the first and foremost thing that black women were not allowed to be?

So, Jasmine had embraced it, much to May’s delight. 

By this point, they had worked out the kinks. 

So very many kinks. (Bondage, name-calling, impact play and more…)

Jasmine shoved May onto the bed, though May was already swooning. Jasmine flicked open the nightstand drawer and grabbed the paddle that was ready and waiting, cracking it against May’s ass without warning.

May gasped and jumped and then moaned into the pillow. “What did I dooo?”

It was part of the game. Jasmine smacked her other ass cheek with the paddle, and didn’t answer. She loved the way May’s plump ass and thighs jiggled with each strike.

May asked again, “What did I do?”

Jasmine answered with as hard a strike as she could manage.

May gasped, the cheeks of her face tinging pink, her eyes fluttering with pleasure, her open mouth falling against the bedspread.

An expansive, powerful feeling welled in Jasmine. She had needed to keep herself reined in, polite with the clients and now she did not. 

Instead of tamping down this energy, she had held it, kept it ready and waiting for this moment.

Jasmine swung another hard strike at May’s other ass cheek, the sharp snap echoing in the small room.

She learned that while she did not necessarily enjoy inflicting pain in and of itself, she loved to inflict sensation. To make herself felt. To flood May’s body with the hot, heavy feelings that May craved, to send her spiraling down, down into sub space, to turn the other woman into a quivering pet and then to take very, very good care of her.

“W-what did I do…”

“Hush. I’m using you.”

May yelped and quivered. She loved it when Jasmine said things like that. Jasmine followed with another series of spanks, savoring May’s squeaks and gasps. 

When both the cheeks of May’s face and ass were rosy red, Jasmine set the paddle aside and traced her fingertips down May’s spine.

May gasped and shivered.

Jasmine cupped her hands over the warm skin of May’s ass and kneeled behind her, trailing soft, tender kisses along her cheeks.

May sighed and melted into the bed, totally surrendered to Jasmine’s touch.

Jasmine curled her fingers to claws and raked them lightly down May’s thighs. May shivered and moaned.

Jasmine moved smoothly from impulse to action in this headspace, polite inhibitions set aside, and May loved it that way.

Jasmine grabbed May’s ass, pulling her cheeks apart to get a better look at May’s vulva. The inner labia were already puffy. Jasmine gently dipped her finger between them, pulling out a deeper moan from May along with the wetness on her fingertips.

Jasmine grinned and swirled her now-slick fingertips over May’s clit.

May moaned open-mouthed into the bedspread.

Jasmine tsked. “C’mon, you know better than to drool on the bed. Don’t make a mess.”

May squeaked and struggled to collect herself. “I c-can’t help it!”

Jasmine reached her hand around the front of May’s hip on one side and pulled. “C’mon, roll over.”

May obliged. Her eyes were glazed with pleasure, her expression dazed.

Jasmine stepped over to the closet and grabbed the waterproof blanket, throwing it over the other side of the bed. She patted the middle and May eagerly shuffled over.

Before May even had a chance to settle, Jasmine was on top of her, her fingers inside of May and curled up to her g-spot. 

May cried out with pleasure.

Jasmine smirked. “Oh, do you like that?”

“Y-yes… fuck, you feel so good…”

“Oh yeah? How about now?” Jasmine started fucking May with her hand and May’s face became the most perfect picture of desperate bliss. She was incapable of answering Jasmine’s question, just as Jasmine had hoped.

May was clever as they come, except for moments like these when she sunk into sub space, and that made it all the more fun to remind her, “You look like such a useless whore.”

All May could do to respond was gush pre-orgasmic bliss over Jasmine’s hand.

“F-fuck, I’m close…”

Jasmine worked May right to the edge, then abruptly stopped stroking.

May gasped and shook, looking up at Jasmine with those big brown eyes, full of desperation and indignation.

“Please!”

“No. Not yet.”

“W-why?”

“Dunno, just don’t feel like it yet.” And that was the truth. Jasmine loved this part. She loved saying ‘no’ for no reason at all, just because she felt like it, just because she wanted to tease and torment May. 

At work, clients expected ‘yes’. Any ‘no’ had to be exactly justified, carefully delivered. 

Not here. The more arbitrary, the more whimsical the ‘no’, the more May loved it.

Because May loved to unravel like this, to be totally vulnerable and utterly safe, to feel all of these delightfully tortuous sensations and know that she would be so much more than alright.

Before May could protest any more, Jasmine resumed finger-fucking her and May’s protests melted to moans.

May squirted again, quickly approaching orgasm.

Jasmine edged her a second time. May sputtered, lifting her hips to grind up into Jasmine’s hand.

Lucky for May, Jasmine was getting similarly eager for the climax.

That warm, expansive feeling surged out of Jasmine’s chest and sent her whole body tingling, alive with the consciousness of what she was doing to May, of how it made herself feel, every nerve alight with electric power.

This, to Jasmine, was what it meant to be a sadist.

As May approached the edge again, her moans became louder.

Jasmine smirked. “Remember, we got that noise complaint. Be sure to cum quietly…”

May’s eyes widened, briefly brought back from the edge. She looked desperately worried. “Y-you know I can’t when you make me squirt!”

“I believe in you.”

“N-no, Jazz, I c-can’t, you have to—”

Jasmine cut her off by fucking her harder. “Nah, I know you can be quiet if you want. If you scream, it must be because you want the whole block to know what a slut you are.”

The words pushed May even harder towards the edge, deepening her predicament.

May now gripped the blanket, trying desperately to keep control of herself. Her eyes rolled back and re-focused, she gushed over Jasmine’s hand again.

“Ohhhh fuck…”

Jasmine grinned, her own heart beating fast and her own arousal surging. Inflicting this most intense of pleasures on May was her favorite of all.

Every muscle in May’s body was tense, like a wound spring, her inner walls squeezing around Jasmine’s fingers, her hips bucking. 

May’s breath turned to rapid panting, her chest heaving. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!”

She screamed — indeed loud enough for the neighbors to hear — and squirted hard. Jasmine fucked her through the surge of the climax and then the long tail of after-shocks.

Tension drained out of May with each pulse, until she was left soft and exhausted on the bed.

Jasmine grinned and licked off her fingers, taking a moment to strip off her clothes and toss them into a pile by the nightstand before returning to the bed and curling around May, her cheek on May’s forehead. 

May moaned softly and tried to stir, too tired and dizzy from sub space to form actual words, but Jasmine knew it was something about reciprocating.

Jasmine was aroused, certainly, but she was also sated. She’d gotten the release that she was after.

The powerful heat had gone soft and warm, and all she wanted to do was caress the beautiful, brave little woman.

“Shhh. You can make it up to me tomorrow.”

May nuzzled into Jasmine’s cheek and Jasmine kissed her forehead and together they drifted off into bliss. 


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Musings

Pansexuality, omnisexuality, and bisexuality, Oh my!

Pansexuality – A sexual orientation characterized by the potential for aesthetic attraction, romantic love and/or sexual desire for people, regardless of their gender identity or biological sex. (From Wordnik)

I’ve identified as pansexual for some years now, and for this pride month I wanted to settle some open questions that had been niggling in my brain. This involved digging in to some of the longstanding discussions about pansexuality, omnisexuality, and bisexuality and I wanted to share both what I’ve learned and my personal experience.

Bisexuality and pansexuality

So there’s the sort of armchair argument that bisexuality is the attraction to “two genders”, and by contrast pansexuality is the attraction “regardless of gender” or “to all genders” (more on that distinction below). This then leads to the claim that to identify as “bisexual” means that someone isn’t attracted to non-binary and genderqueer people.

However, as the Wikipedia article for pansexuality explains, the “bi” in “bisexual” actually derives from the idea of experiencing both homosexual and heterosexual attraction, not from “two genders”. Strictly speaking, heterosexuality then would include, for example, a woman being attracted to a non-binary person. But, I don’t think that’s how most people interpret “heterosexuality” these days.

So, both the academic and the armchair arguments are interesting here. The arena for the discussion is much broader than academia, so I find the academic argument to fall a bit flat.

There’s then also some academic debate about whether it might be appropriate to consider “bisexuality” as an umbrella that includes pansexuality, or “pansexuality” as an umbrella that includes bisexuality, or neither.

Ultimately, the terms we use need to communicate important things to each other “in the world”, because that is where the conversations that matter the most are happening. And out in the world, the number “two” adjacent to the idea “gender” can be uncomfortable to people who are underserved by the pervasive gender binary, even if the etymology is valid.

And yet, “bisexual” is the more recognized and popular term, it is the B in LGTBQ+. I see more value in asserting the more expansive definition of bisexual as being attracted to more than one gender than in insisting on the more narrow interpretation.

One thing is certain: there will never be a tidy answer, because sexuality is not tidy, nor should it be.

Ultimately, my opinion on this is that pansexuality and bisexuality are overlapping and interconnected identities, and though I think “pansexuality” communicates the most helpfully about my identity in most contexts (and I like the flag better, not gonna lie), I identify with the B in LGTBQ+.

All genders, or regardless of gender?

So while the hypothetical differences between bisexuality and pansexuality are around how many genders one is attracted to, the hypothetical differences between pansexuality and omnisexuality are around in what way one feels attraction to all genders.

Definitions like the WebMD page for omnisexuality propose the distinction that pansexuality as akin to being “gender-blind”, whereas omnisexuality is “attraction to all genders, with gender as a factor in the attraction”.

However, that doesn’t sit right with me. Being attracted “without regard to gender” or “without noticing/regarding gender” seems implausible. Much of attraction is unconscious, so it’s impossible to be sure that your attractions “disregard” all data related to gender.

The distinction between being attracted to all genders equally vs experiencing a preference makes more sunse, but even then, both “pan-” and “omni-” are roots that mean “all” (from ancient Greek and Latin, respectively) so this undermines the attempt at distinction. What’s gained from enforcing “omnisexual” as a separate term vs recognizing “with preference” and “without preference” as two valid ways to be pansexual?

The LGTBA wiki at wikia.org provides a thoughtful definition of omnisexual, highlighting that “omnisexual” is often used interchangeably with pansexual. Some people use the term to emphasize that they have a preference for a certain gender(s), while other people don’t. My impression is that the terms evolved in parallel with slightly different emphases, and not because of any real need to differentiate them from each other.

“Pansexual” seems to have won out as the more popular term. Reddit’s sub-forums (or subreddits) are an interesting, public way to see how many people are gravitating towards different ideas. As of this writing, r/omnisexual has 4.8k members and r/pansexual has 119k members. (For context, r/bisexual has 387k members, r/lgbt has 753k members and r/actuallesbians has 336k members, not to be confused with the fetish subreddit r/lesbians at 832k members.)

Ultimately, as long as your goal is to find other people who understand and share an aspect of your sexuality, describing yourself as “pansexual with a preference for some gender(s)” or “bisexual and attracted to all genders” is more productive than choosing the more obscure term, “omnisexual”.

What pansexuality means to me

Okay, so other than that I find the flag (way) cuter for pansexuality, why do I identify as pan instead of bi?

“Pansexual” has a social connotation of a little more weirdness, a little more of the “beyond the human” than “bisexual” and that is of interest to me.

For example, I see a lot of fondness for pansexuality in the furry community, and I relate. The “allness” of pansexuality evokes the idea of attraction to more fantastical and allegorical beings, to anthropomorphic animals and spirits, to (sapient) mythical creatures and gods.

Especially as I approach more and more of life with deep, erotic grace, the “allness” of pansexuality is very important to me.

So, while I also identify as bisexual, leading with my pansexuality is a way of embracing and taking pride in the weird, wonderful “allness” of my sexuality.

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Musings

Is it demisexuality or responsive desire?

In late high school, I identified as demisexual. This was really valuable to me at the time, for two key reasons. One, it assured me that there was nothing wrong with me. Two, it helped me be less judgy of my peers who were so much more compelled by sex than I was.

I hadn’t really thought about it recently, until I read Kate Sloan’s “So… I’m Demisexual!” and that brought me back to the question. Do I still think “demisexual” describes me?

I have now come to realize that I’m not actually demisexual (and I never was). I’m somebody who experiences primarily responsive sexual desire, and whose sexual “parking brake” was stuck on for many years thanks to evangelical christian purity culture. More on that part in a minute.

First, I want to share what I’ve learned about sexual attraction and desire, how this relates to demisexuality, and what it means for anyone exploring their sexual orientation.

What is demisexuality?

Demisexuality is a sexual orientation in which someone feels sexual attraction only to people with whom they have an emotional bond. Most demisexuals feel sexual attraction rarely compared to the general population, and some have little to no interest in sexual activity. (Source: Demisexuality Resource Center via Web Archive.)

Related to demisexuality is the asexual spectrum, which includes demisexuality, asexuality, and other related identities. The term allosexual refers to people who do not identify as being on the asexual spectrum.

What is sexual attraction?

So the definition relies on the idea of sexual attraction, but what exactly is that? Sexual attraction is physical attraction evoking a desire for sexual interaction with someone in particular (vs. general libido), but I find the boundary of “wanting sex in general” and “wanting sex with that particular person” to be pretty squishy.

In fact, sexual attraction and desire are multi-faceted in many ways. As Emily Nagoski brilliantly lays out in her book Come as You Are, sexual desire in general comprises both spontaneous and responsive desire, and sexual attraction and sexual inhibition are separate and each important.

Spontaneous desire and responsive desire

Both spontaneous desire and responsive desire are types of sexual attraction. Oftentimes, when people are trying to understand whether they experience “sexual attraction” to someone, they are thinking only of “spontaneous desire”. However, “responsive desire” is another type of sexual attraction that should be considered.

Spontaneous desire is the kind that’s commonly portrayed. The epitome of sexual attraction based on spontaneous desire is seeing someone across the room and getting an “I want to have sex with them right now” kinda feeling.

Responsive desire arises only in situations that are already sexual. Perhaps you’re not feeling in the mood until you watch a sexy scene in a movie, or after some cuddling, or agree that your partner should masturbate without you and then realize, “oh hey, I want sex now”. You may only feel specific, sexual attraction to someone after you are already in a (consensual) erotic context with them.

The gas and breaks of sexual response

The amount of net sexual attraction we feel is the net of whatever is sexually exciting us and what is sexually inhibiting us.

The sexual excitation system (SES) is the “gas” of the sexual response system. It says, “Sexy stuff is happening! Let’s GO!”

The sexual inhibition system (SIS) is the “brakes” of the sexual response system. It says, “Hey, now is NOT a good time to be horny, mkay?! STOP!”

You may be feeling neutral when neither system is activating, and you may feel neutral (or unsettled) when both systems are activating. The gas and the break can individually be sensitive or insensitive, which gives four archetypes of sexual response: sensitive gas and sensitive brakes, insensitive gas and sensitive brakes, sensitive gas and insensitive brakes, insensitive gas and insensitive brakes.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, so for a little bit more I highly recommend the Oh Joy Sex Toy overview of Come as You Are and for the whole shebang, read the book!

What does this have to do with demisexuality?

Demisexuality is not the same as choosing to only have sex with people you know well. Sexual attraction and sexual behavior are independent. For demisexual people, strong emotional connection is a prerequisite for sexual attraction.

For some, deep emotional connection is one of the few things that hits their gas. For others, they may find that the parking brake is just stuck on unless they have a deep emotional connection, at which point the parking brake is released and all sorts of things can hit the gas. Etcetera.

One of the things that I’ve seen Kate Sloan and other demisexual people mention is that they don’t get aroused by random strangers, while a lot of allosexual people do.

However, to make matters complicated, if an allosexual person experiences primarily responsive desire, they will also have the experience of not being aroused by random strangers!

Another common example is that demisexual people don’t like porn. However, an allosexual person may also not like porn because the acting or style or ethical issues with how porn is produced hit their brakes.

This distinction matters, because if you’re looking to enjoy some sexual arousal, the way to go about it may be very different for a demisexual person vs. an allosexual person with primarily responsive desire. A demisexual person is unlikely to be aroused by any kind of porn. An allosexual person worried about porn ethics might find themselves easily turned on by artsy, ethical porn like Erika Lust’s or by pleasure-centric amateur porn like at Make Love Not Porn. (Yes, I’m speaking from personal experience. 😉)

A bit of my story

I definitely had the flickers and glimmers of blossoming sexuality at developmentally appropriate times, though I didn’t quite know how to name them.

This was because I was very bought in to evangelical christianity at the time and purity culture was in full force. Crushes were “normal and acceptable”, but sexual attraction was “dangerous”. So, I didn’t feel comfortable to classify how I felt as “sexual attraction” even though, in retrospect, it clearly was.

One thing that made it easier for me to put everything under the “crushes” category is that what I felt wasn’t quite as strong as what my peers seemed to be feeling. Since I was going out of my way to avoid sexually relevant situations, there was nothing to trigger my responsive desire. At the time, I concluded “I just don’t get sexually aroused” when what was actually happening was “I’m not in any situations that evoke my responsive desire”.

Furthermore, despite thinking that I wanted to be in a relationship, I unconsciously didn’t actually want to be, because it was easier to avoid the issue than to risk the judgement of purity culture. And so despite the fact that I was paying quite a lot of attention to the boys around me, I never believed myself to be attracted enough to them, or if I was, there was always some other “insurmountable” obstacle to dating. (This realization came to me courtesy of Existential Kink by Caroyln Elliott.)

And on top of that, purity culture had taught me that my own body was the enemy, so anything explicitly sexual hit the brakes for me. I demurely closed my eyes during the sex scenes in movies. It was easier than feeling the bizarre discomfort of flooring the gas and the brake at the same time.

So in late highschool and early college, I would have identified as demisexual. If nothing else, it helped me feel less judgy of my peers, whose behavior was at times incomprehensible to me.

However, demisexuality was not what I was experiencing.

In retrospect, I can see the many flashes of sexual desire and interest for people I didn’t know very well at all. And then I would judge those feelings and react negatively towards them, suppressing them more deeply.

By college, I’d had these little sparks with other women, and I figured “everybody’s a little bit bi, right?”. (Nope, just my pansexual ass trying to navigate the heteronormative patriarchy.)

And that suppression had a very, very high cost including but not limited to vaginismus and anorgasmia when I finally did become sexually active.

Ultimately, I do have a lot in common with demisexual people. I don’t feel sexual attraction towards random people on the street. I’m picky about my porn. I frequently experience and deeply appreciate aesthetic and sensual attraction as separate from sexual attraction. Though emotional connection isn’t necessary for me to be excited, I am excited by it and it’s a core aspect of my erotica.

If you’re looking for more resources to help you understand demisexuality and the asexuality spectrum, the Am I demi? Links and Resources Master Post over on r/Demisexuality is very helpful.

In conclusion: demisexual is a great way to be, it just isn’t me!


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Review

Review: Corruption of Champions II (CoC2)

Corruption of Champions II (CoC2) and its related game Trials in Tainted Space (TiTS) boast not only some of the best names in smut history, but also an immense amount of very erotic content.

I’ll overview the game and gameplay, discuss the kinks and fetishes in the game, and leave you with some of my key thoughts on CoC2.

This will be a fairly detailed review because if you’re here, you’re probably looking for more info before you try out the game.

If you’re ready to dive in already, just head over to the PLAY page on Fenoxo’s blog and get started!

Price and availability

CoC, CoC2 and TiTS are entirely free to play here. If you enjoy them, consider supporting the creators on the CoC2 SubscribeStar / Patreon or the TiTS SubscribeStar / Patreon!

I cannot stress enough that between these three games there is SO. MUCH. CONTENT.

Overview and basic premise

From the game’s intro: “CoC2 contains many weird and exotic fetishes, including but not limited to: sexually invasive tentacles, overly-amorous monstergirls, furry futa femdom, uncontrollable breeding urges, and horny demon sex-wizards.”

CoC2, its predecessor CoC, and TiTS are all text-based role-playing games (RPGs). My experience is with CoC and CoC2, and I’ll focus on CoC2, but trying out TiTS is on my to-do list!

The premise for both CoC games goes a little like this:

  • via sex magic, you find yourself in a world that is not your own
  • you soon learn that as you explore this world, you will be beset with (sexy) surprise encounters!
  • these surprise encounters lead to (sexy) combat
  • (sexy) combat results in (sexy) victory or (sexy) defeat, usually with the victor “having their way with” the loser

There are other non-combat sexy encounters with your party members and other NPCs along the way as well.

The game includes many classic RPG elements like damage rolls, equipment, random drops, quest items, etc.

I generally recommend starting with CoC2 since the UI is a little easier to wrap your head around, it’s being actively expanded, and there’s character art! Once you get started, I recommend checking out the original CoC game too, since it has different characters and scenarios and variety is the spice of life.

Gameplay

In CoC2, you can expect to be building your image of the world mostly through imagination. CoC2 has a very basic map and some very fun art for key characters, but the emphasis is very much on what you read.

You don’t need to be an RPG whiz or even have played an RPG before to figure out your way around CoC (pun intended). While the game does reward some savvy, you can generally get away with just hitting the “auto” button over and over again to get through combat. There’s an “easy mode” that lets you bypass most of the RPG mechanics and explore at-will.

That being said, the UI is a bit clunky and takes some getting used to. That’s no shade — if I had to recommend whether the dev team focus on “polish the UI” or “write more sex” I’ll pick “write more sex” every time.

You’ll almost certainly run into encounters that you lose, but defeat is part of the fun here. There are scenes you only see by losing to certain characters (hence the ‘fantasize’ combat option that hastens your defeat).

Major plot events can result in a “game over”, but you’ll always be able to start again from your latest save.

CoC2 will run on your browser (can confirm that this works generally as expected on mobile Safari, though you’ll want an iPad screen or larger) or if you’re clever with such things, you can download the game file and even side-load onto an Android or jailbroken iOS device (all things I personally haven’t tried).

You can play classic RPG classes focused on physical or magical combat, but you can also play as a seductive class where your main path to victory is by overwhelming the enemy with lust so that they can no longer fight.

As fun as the idea of the seductive classes is (and you get some great little blurbs in combat about how hard your foe is trying to not start uncontrollably masturbating) as I player I haven’t quite been able to “figure it out”. I’ve found combat feels much easier as a physical combat class. Smack ’em a whole bunch and hope you win.

Character Customization

CoC2 gives you very basic character customization options at the beginning. You select your genitals, your character’s race (catfolk is an option!), your player class, and some key descriptors about your other anatomy, like how curvy you are. By default, gender is automatically calculated from your character’s current genitals, but it can be overridden to either “male” or “female” in the settings menu once you’re out of the tutorial.

Under-the-hood, CoC2 scenes are encoded with “parsers” that check the relevant information about your character and customize the scene. So, a scene might include a line like “you shake your [parser] ass at them” and depending on what it “knows” about your ass, it will fill in an appropriate word like “juicy” or “tight”.

Anatomy can get quite wild in CoC because along the way, you’ll collect random items that when eaten/used will cause your body parts to morph. Fox ears, slime hair, lizard tail, dog dick, fur, scales, multiple penises — all of these things and more can become part of your character and will be mentioned in scenes.

Generally, reversing these changes is difficult, so it’s one reason to consider saving often and back-tracking if you don’t like an effect! 😉

Body image

After character customization, it’s worth taking a moment to talk about body image in CoC. Generally, proportions in CoC are absolutely ridiculous, which is part of the charm.

It’s important to note that in how different proportions are talked about, CoC generally follows stereotypes. Big dicks and big boobs are described positively, small dicks and small boobs often as “pathetic” or “inadequate”. Great for someone with a humiliation fetish, maybe a little discouraging for someone with realistic anatomy.

In one of my CoC II save files, I’ve been on the hunt for something to make my fox girl’s dick a little larger so that scenes will stop describing it as “pathetic” and so she’ll stop apologizing to other characters. I like my little fox dick, dammit!

Nonconsensual and dubious consent (non-con and dub-con)

Since non-con and dub-con can be divisive fetishes, I wanted to give a matter-of-fact overview of what’s in the game in case you’re trying to figure out if it might be your cup of tea or not.

The majority of the sex in the game results from combat encounters and is non-con / dub-con. The game itself does rarely use the word “rape” to describe scenarios.

As the player character, you can choose to leave somebody alone that you’ve defeated, but if your character is defeated, this will usually result in a dub-con scenario.

Most of the non-con/dub-con portrays both participants as ultimately enjoying themselves. References to pain are usually of the “hurts so good” variety.

When it comes to gender identity, this game is “equal opportunity” non-con/dub-con. Feminine/female characters are often doing the dominating here. Except for the main villains in the series, the dominance can go both ways — you can go back and find that encounter you kept losing, win it, and get your victory scene with the same character.

There are a few encounters that are more hardcore noncon. One of the benefits of a text-based game is that if you find yourself in a scene that’s not your cup of tea, you can skip through it quickly with no penalty.

Kinks and fetishes

As aforementioned, it’s way easier to write a list of what kinks and fetishes aren’t in CoC than which ones are.

CoC2 comprises the work of quite a few authors, each with their own preferences and styles. So, the kink and fetishes represented are fairly diverse.

You’ll find: giant dicks, animal dicks, furries, morphing, excessive cum, cum inflation, non-con/dub-con, moderate violence, aphrodisiacs, tentacles, ovipositors, blow jobs, PIV (penis in vagina), anal, seduction, impregnation, egg laying, and so on.

There is zero: bestiality, depiction of minors/childlike characters, scat, vore, gore.

Though the combat encounters are a core mechanic of the game, CoC2 has a ton of party and NPC encounters (Minotaur boyfriend! Pink catgirlfriend!) that are very sweet and loving and cute (and hot!) so the overall tone of the game remains fun, warm, and silly.

Not the most trans or non-binary identity friendly

Every person has different preferences (including trans and nonbinary people!) so I’m going to keep this as matter-of-fact as I can. This list is simply FYIs to help folks who want to know what to expect:

  • Trans-masc identities are not very represented in this game (I haven’t come across any in my play)
  • Pronouns default to auto-calculating from your genitals and can be overwritten, but only to male/female
  • Women with penises are portrayed very much in the futanari fetish (some also have vulva/vagina, others don’t) in that they tend to have giant balls, giant dicks, excessive cum, etc

Key thoughts

The game depicts happily horny women, low-consequence and pleasurable sex, shameless sexuality, a wide range of fetishes, some really lovely/loving male characters, and so many different kinds of sex/sexy encounters.

Will you come across things that aren’t your cup of tea? Almost certainly. Are they easy to skim/skip through in that case? Yep. Will you find out you liked things you didn’t know you liked? Almost certainly.

Even just the act of deciding what you do/don’t like can be so enriching. Impregnation? Not for me, I think contraceptives are sexy as hell. Excessive cum? Sign me up!

One of the great things about written erotica is that as the reader, you have so much influence over your experience. Prefer a little vs. a lot of cum inflation? Just imagine it differently than written. Think the content is hot but don’t love dub-con? You can add an inter-dimensional safe-word exit-button to your head canon.

If you’re interested in exploring your sexuality in an imaginative, fun, silly, over-the-top, fantastical way, then I highly recommend CoC2!


Still hungry? You can find more reviews of steamy and erotic media here, or if you’re interested in reading some of my original erotic romance, head over to The Cookie Jar!

Is there something you think I should review? Reach out on Twitter or Patreon!

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Shorts

Faster Than Light


Mason Jones was over the moon. Literally! Over the moon! Further away from Earth than the moon!

He’d been on the waiting list for space travel for years. And being on that list owned your life whether you were selected or not. You had to eat perfectly, exercise perfectly, regular blood tests, twice yearly check-ups, it was a whole thing. Only those in tip-top shape were allowed to even stay on the list.

As Mason watched the earth become smaller and smaller behind them, he marveled that it had only turned around twice since he’d been notified that he’d been selected for the mission. And not just any mission. The mission of the century. The maiden voyage for faster than light travel.

It had all been a blur since then. Something about him meeting a certain physical qualification based on his most recent test results. Something else about his predecessor dropping out. Their loss!

And now, he was here, in space!

Soon the ship was millions of miles away from Earth, in empty space, and it was time to start preparing for faster than light travel. And to meet the rest of the crew. In all the rush, they’d hardly been introduced. There were six of them altogether; the pilot, the co-pilot, the navigator, the mechanic, the researcher, and then Mason.

“So, uh… I don’t think they quite told me in all the rush, but what’s my role here?” From what they’d listed, they seemed to have it covered.

The rest of the crew shifted uncomfortably, except for the researcher. She was a black woman, late twenties, round eyes, button nose, and like everyone else on the crew, in impeccable physical condition.

The pilot, a Scandinavian man with blond hair and nearly clear skin, blushed. “They didn’t tell you?!”

Mason tried not to let his growing concern show.

“Guess they didn’t want the same thing to happen as with Dutch,” said the mechanic, a thick woman with brown hair and blue eyes.

“You’d better tell him,” said the pilot, looking at the researcher.

“I don’t see why it’s such a big deal,” the researcher said. “FTL is theoretically possible with a careful warp of the space-time continuum. Recent research has indicated that human consciousness is more multi-dimensional than initially expected. Desire is inherent to the existence of life and thought to be species agnostic, so the theory goes that with sufficient desire, an FTL jump to another compatible concentration of desire is possible. This will cause the space-time fabrics to collapse, allowing instantaneous transport over light years.”

The pilot shook is head and put his hand to his forehead. “Tch, in English, Kendra?”

Kendra tilted her head. “That was an extremely simple explanation.”

The mechanic sighed. “What the good doctor here is trying to say is that FTL apparently runs on sexual torture.”

“Say what now?” Mason said.

“This is why your predecessor dropped out last minute,” the pilot explained.

Mason tented his fingertips in front of his chin. He caught eyes with the researcher. “I just have one question. Is it going to hurt?”

“Only if you want it to,” she replied.

A shiver tingled down Mason’s spine and his growing confusion was replaced with a growing boner. He was beginning to understand which ‘physical qualifications’ may have resulted in his invitation.

“Well, I will do whatever I must to make FTL possible. I didn’t measure my alcohol consumption down to the milliliter for the past five years to let a little bit of sexual torture stop me from making space history. Let’s get to it. For science.”

And for the predicament bondage and sexual torture fetish that he was now sure the government had scraped from his browsing history. 


The researcher had horrible bedside manner and that made the whole thing that much more thrilling.

Mason was taken to the center of the ship to a rig that comprised a body-shaped armature and a lot of bindings. He was sure that the space administration had spent millions of dollars engineering what was already available on the market as bondage furniture. 

The researcher had already explained to him everything that was going to happen, and he felt quite excited. He could also sense the eyes of the rest of the crew, grateful but curious, and perhaps slightly judgmental of his enthusiasm. And, shameless pervert that he was, that turned him on even more.

His flight suit could not hide his erection as the researcher finished preparing the machine. 

The researcher noticed. “It’s not that time, yet.”

“Yes, but a good service member is always prepared.”

“Hm.” She didn’t laugh, but she did seem amused. 

Finally, it was time to strip and strap in. Mason’s heart pumped hot blood throughout his whole body, but especially to his member. He shed his flight suit and underclothes and then the researcher secured him to the frame. 

She prepped a needle and an IV canister, and Mason looked away as she pierced his vein. This would be a mix of fluids, to ensure that he did not become too dehydrated, and a powerful aphrodisiac.

Even before the bag was empty, the drug started to hit Mason. It was an overwhelming surge of arousal and he strained reflexively against the bonds. He felt so hot, and so hard. And this wasn’t even the full effect.

Fuck, he needed to fuck something! His hips pressed against the bindings.

He focused on taking deep breaths to calm himself while the researcher finished her administration. He’d be able to go crazy with lust in just one more moment.

Once the IV canister was empty and the needle removed, she stepped around the front and swung another piece of the armature into place. It supported a cylinder aligned with Mason’s cock, and it looked quite similar to a masturbation sleeve he’d owned once.

As with the armature, he was sure that the space administration had spent millions — billions even — creating something that had been available to kinky consumers for decades.

But such thoughts vaporized from his mind the moment the cylinder slid over his over-sensitive cock. It was soft, textured and lubricated inside.

He moaned shamelessly at the sudden rush of pleasure.

The researcher moved back to the outside of the room. A series of concentric rings around Mason started spinning, though his part remained still. The researcher had explained something about the rings magnifying the effect and grasping the space time fabric, whatever that meant.

All he could think about was his body pounding his heat, quivering in an attempt to fuck the cylinder but held tight by his bindings.

Then the rings whirred to life and so did the cylinder. It squeezed around him, something near his frenulum vibrated, and he was totally overwhelmed with pleasure.

With the effects of the aphrodisiac, it was not long before he was moaning and panting on the edge.

But he knew, with profound and painful pleasure, that he was going to be on that edge for a very, very long time. This, the researcher had also explained. The space time fabric had to be given enough time to ripple.

He would orgasm when the ship made the FTL jump, and not a moment before. The armature was monitoring all his vitals, controlling the vibrations and the pressure in the cylinder, and it completely controlled his ability to climax.

The edge, the denial, the desperation aroused him even further and deepened his predicament.

After a few minutes at the torturous edge, Mason clawed his way back to thinking actual thoughts to give himself a bit of a respite. He found the researcher, watching him, and grinned wryly. “So, uh, who’d you test this out on before?”

“An adequate sample size.”

“Ohhh, so you’ve had quite a few blokes through your frame.”

“You’ll have a bullet through your head as soon as we’re back to earth if you make inappropriate remarks to me.”

“Right! S-sorry, just… not quite thinking… straight…”

“Please do surrender yourself to insatiable desire.”

Mason shivered violently. “T-minus… ngh… two or three edges and we’ll be there…”

“Would some visual stimulus assist your descent into sex-crazed madness?” Her tone was deadpan. But Mason would have sworn she was fucking with him on purpose… or maybe it was just him projecting.

“I, uh, daresay it might.” What kind of hilarious science porn might she have?

But then the researcher moved into the center of Mason’s field of view and unzipped her flight suit.

Mason gulped, arousal flaring hotter.

She grinned at him, letting him simmer in that anticipation. Okay, she was *definitely* also getting off on this.

Then, she reached down and grabbed the hem of her undershirt, starting to pull it up.

Mason quivered, every nerve alight with desire.

“For science,” she said, and pulled the shirt the rest of the way over her breasts.

Mason’s heart pounded, his breathing came in rapid gasps, the heat of the edge tickled at his base, the rings around him whirred with energy, but there was no release. No relief.

“Don’t you want to fuck me?” she teased.

Mason’s dick screamed ‘yes!’ but a quiet and steady part of him said, “O-only if you want me to…”

“What if I want you to be here, trapped, quivering on the edge until your brain melts into insanity?”

Mason’s hips thrust involuntarily against the bindings, every hair on his body stood on end, the rings whirred louder. His balls tensed, but he didn’t come.

“What if I don’t want FTL to work,” she said, slipping a hand down into her panties, “And I haven’t turned off the safety, and so I will do this to you over and over again until you’re physically incapable of arousal, and we’ll have to turn around and head back to earth?”

“Fuck!” The rings were whirring so fast that they became a blur, a transparent curtain between Mason and the researcher.

And then something shifted. Mason moaned with a deep pleasure. He felt his sense of self expand, he was aware of something outside the ship, something very very far away, and yet also right in the center of him.

Something was coming together. Something very, very important was coming together.

“I f-feel something…” he said.

“Give into it,” the researcher said, eagerly. “Let it call to you.”

“It’s calling… oh fuck, it’s calling… oh god…”

The researcher grinned, eyes wild with anticipation. “God can’t help us where we’re going!”

The pleasure of the edge was expanding through his body, but slowly, very slowly. As if it was carrying something with it. Like a piece of the space time continuum and the ship of six space goers trying to bust through it.

“I’m so close… it’s so close… oh fuck it feels good… I need it…”

“Yes!”

“I want it…”

“Yes!”

And this his breathing became deeper, faster. His body quivered. His cock throbbed with pleasure, his whole being buzzing with heat and anticipation. “I’m… I’m coming… oh fuck… I’m coming… I’m coming!”

The researcher slammed her fist on the intercom button. “We’re going!”

“Fuck, yes!”

As the ship broke into the impossible space between space, Mason released his first thick spurt of cum into the cylinder. Wave after wave of pleasure rippled through him, squeezing more cum out of him, as the ship passed through fields of strange energy and hurtled through space.

Then, finally, Mason relaxed and the ship came to a stop.

In a completely different system, on the other side of the galaxy.

They’d done it!

But Mason was too exhausted to celebrate. 

The researcher came over and hooked up another IV canister for him, this time without aphrodisiac. “You did great,” she said. “Do you think you can do it again?”

As he let sleep overtake him, he murmured, “To infinity and beyond…”


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