“Well, uh, there is this magma-looking dragon names Drar that I think doesn’t like Po at all. Maybe you should talk to her firs. After that, if she’s on board, there is this female dragon with one black eye named Nergil who I think, if Drar is on board, would be a good step number two.”

Frost Mother nodded, drumming her claws against her incisors. “Yes, hmm. Yes.”

Pektil thought for a moment, “There is this gay blue water serpent named Ishtiga that might be one we could get on board if we got those first two on board, but we might need more information.”

Pektil thought about his chances of hiding the thing in Po’s office. “So like, do you know how much longer the big party on the first floor that Po is at should go on for?”

Frost Mother’s eyes narrowed. “What big party orgy thing on the first floor?”

“The big, uh, the thing with all the important Mall people at it and…”

Frost Mother pursed her lips. “I must assume you have some other, powerful contacts then. I did not expect you to be so quick with the names and dispositions of powerful dragons,” her cool eyes glinted as she ran her claws along her chin. “In the future, we should not speak openly. You may already be watched. Coming here again could alert your potential enemies concerning our alliance.”

Without any sort of obvious movement or gesture, a small stone on a necklace floated over to Pektil, along with a spiral bound notebook. “Once you learn this simple spell, you can open mental communications with me, no matter where you are, as long as the area isn’t warded against scrying.” The amulet dropped into Pektil’s hand. It was a deep blue stone with white starbursts on a slim, gold chain. The spiral bound notebook didn’t have any cover, and was wrinkled as if it had been damaged by water.

He shoved both things into his pockets.

“I will attempt to begin negotiating with the dragons you’ve informed me of. Contact me when you’re ready to move forward, or when you need me to scry on the shard. The spell is easy, and you should be able to master it with a few hours of practice.”

Pekil still had some day left, although it wasn’t a ton of day. He decided holding off on contacting Jin for now. He had to decide whether he was going back to his room or else trying to sneak the scrying shard into Po’s office right now.

Tell her you played waiter at this big party for some extra money and to check out anyone who might help you go against Po. When you saw dragons, you were like, SCORE! these guys might totally hate him and they DID! Luckyyyyy. You don't actually know any of the dragons and they won't remember you either, so you don't really have any more of an IN to them beyond remembering their names.

... ask her if there was some way to lodge the crystal inside Po, if he were to vore you. Like. If you got him to eat you on purpose, and then left the crystal in there, up in his guts, would that work, and could he detect that? Because that. Is. Maybe. Something.

Unless someone else can come up with an excuse to go INTO the club that everyone will believe, I don't think now's the time to sneak the thing in. Sure, we might never get an opportunity like we have now with the potion, but there could be something similar to that we can get at some point. And again, I don't know how we'd convince Sommer we want to go IN without it sounding suspicious. She won't be able to read our mind and she'll KNOW something is weird from that. And we don't know how much longer the potion will last. And without a dragon alliance safety net, it isn't a good time to risk declaring ourselves against Po right now.

Go back home and if Ms. Priesmyer is around, maybe float what's going on to her and see if she has any advice.

Ask frost mother about the Cult of Divine Penetration. Be sure to not tell her that you did things for them until you are sure it will not spoil your relation with her.

It was too dangerous to try and bug the place. He had the scrying shard, but no idea how to get it in there or anything and like, somebody would see him go in. He’d just keep it around for now.

“So uh, if Po ate me or something, could I leave it inside his guts?”

Frost Mother turned her head first one way and then the other. “That depends on some biological features that I’m entirely uncertain of. I’ll have to find out, unless you have another avenue of information about the particulars of his anatomy.” She pursed her lips, “It’s a clever plan, though.”

“What do you know about the Cult of Divine Penetration?” Pektil asked.

Frost Mother rustled her wings in her treasure pile. “That is exactly the sort of organization that we’d want to tie to Po. They’re extremely shady, and have had altercations with the Authorities before. They’re entirely exiled from the first floor on pain of permanent banishment from the Mall. No one is entirely certain of their motives, or precisely what their altercation was. They’re foreigners, meaning that the entire group came here from some other world. They don’t recruit, and everyone who is a member is very close-mouthed. Ties to them are, shall we say, unhealthy. Politically poisonous in the extreme. A few come here now and again to purchased various magical components or assorted knickknacks. I am apolitical for the most part. Besides, they’re free to frequent any businesses they choose as long as they aren’t on the first floor.” She drummed her claws on the floor, “But I’ve never made inquiries regarding them. It would be rather unseemly to be associated with them in any kind of fashion other than a purely mercantile one.”

Pektil wanted to say something to Frost Mother about the dragons too. They chatted a little about their plans and Frost Mother showed him the spell to contact her, and explained how it worked. Pektil had never done magic before, but it didn’t look too complicated. A lot of stuff about focusing and junk like that.

Before he left, he decided to explain a little about where he heard the names. He wouldn’t want Frost Mother to have some kind of crazy idea about who he was connected to.

“Oh, I was a waiter at the big party for some extra money, and I was trying to look out for info that might help me against Po. I saw the dragons and all and I thought it was totally a good move on my part so I could find some guys who might hate him and some of them totally did! They don’t know me, like, at all. They probably wouldn’t even recognize me so like, I don’t have an in or anything!”

Frost Mother seemed rather shocked. “You know, I won’t let you bully me. You don’t have to tell me anything at all, of course, but I won’t be intimidated. I will refrain from asking how, exactly, you managed to acquire one of the most sought-after and competitive positions in the Mall, period, and inform you that Frost Mother is not a pawn. Currently, our motives are aligned, and I will continue to work with you to achieve what I see as a mutually beneficial end.” Her eyes narrowed dangerously. Rime began to form, shimmering crystals of ice, on her lips and nostrils, “But be aware that if you push me, I will most certainly push back.”

Pektil wasn’t sure whether he should try to explain, or just get the crap out of there and go talk to miss Priesmeyer.

Explain it. Tell her that it was the Divine Penetration guys you worked for, but they told you to not at all tell anyone. But if you're going to be working with Frost Mother to take down Po, she should probably know everything, especially since Frost Mother seems to be getting the wrong idea.

That the Divine Penetration job was just a "Work as a waiter, we'll give you a thing to take measurements, don't worry about our reputation it's totally legal."

You didn't really know anything about them so you took the job, but if tying them in with Po is a good idea, maybe you can work something out like that? It might put you at more risk but it's for Sommer.

Frost Mother is your only ally in this, and if there's anyone in this situation you can trust, it has to be her or no-one. You're worried about the Divine Penetration guys getting upset if it gets out that you've told anyone, but really. If there's anyone you can tell it to, it has to be Frost Mother. If she isn't safe to tell all of this to, then we never had anyone to trust, and we never had a chance to start with.

Yeah explain her everything, but prepare to run if she don't want to be associated with you anymore.

Oh, and we could probably convince someone else to put the scrying shard inside Po, like a future client or something.

However it should be someone that will not stab us in the back and tell everything to Po.

Now that I think about it, we don't know anybody that could do it.
If we want something done right, we have to do it ourself, I guess.

Uhhh I say just apologize and get out of there. Only bad things can come from explaining this one. Now you know to keep your mouth shut about it.

>>534889
>Explain the misunderstanding. Say that while you may not divulge the details you didn't get the position because of your own power or even knew it was that prestigious. You had been the pawn of another powerful party who aquired the position for you. That is all you are allowed to say. And could you please explain why being a waiter is supposed to be such a sought after job?

Revealing everything will be dangerous, we need to rely on half truths. Tell he it was a part of a job you took, but you didn't know who it was as the client was anonymous but certainly he wanted something because you were asked about minor details aftewards. Mention that the reason you may've been hired is that you're a newcomer here, fairly unknown.

Do not anger Frost Mother because she might be one of our bigger allies right now.

Apologize and tell her that you only meant to try and provide further information, not to try and anger her. Don't tell the full story though.

At first, Pektil thought about spilling the beans entirely. The Cult had said not to say anything, but on the other hand, Frost Mother seemed to be getting the wrong idea, and maybe it would be better to tell her everything. He knew it was shady going in, but he didn’t do anything illegal after all.

It seemed like tying Po to them would be a really strong card to play. Maybe Frost Mother would have an idea on how to go about it.

She was his only ally right now, after all. If he can’t trust her, then who can he trust?

Then again. She might get mad. She might not actually be his ally if he tells her. It might be a really bad idea.

“Oh, sorry. I uh, wasn’t intending to intimidate you,” Pektil said instead. “I needed you to know that I didn’t get the position because of my own power. Why’s it such a big deal anyway?”

Frost Mother narrowed her eyes, “Because it is a gathering of the most powerful and influential people in the Mall,” she said frostily.

“Well,” Pektil swallowed, “a powerful party got it for me to do something for them, and that’s all I’m allowed to say. I don’t honestly know what they wanted exactly. I’m fairly sure they hired me because I’m an unknown newcomer, but I really can’t say anything else about it.” It was mostly the truth. Even though Frost Mother couldn’t read his mind right now (he hoped,) he wasn’t exactly a social acrobat, and she might catch him out in his lies if he was too flagrant with them.

Frost Mother relaxed, tapping her teeth again, “I see.” Pektil breathed a sigh of relief.

“This whole situation is very interesting,” she said, “Give me a few days to contact the dragons. I feel that working with you will be much more exciting than I’d originally thought.”

Pektil thanked her graciously for her assistance, and then made his exit. If he wanted to try to tie Po to the Cult, he’d have to figure out a way to do it himself.

That went better than expected, onwards to getting shit done with Priesmyer now. Also I wonder if we can somehow get a capacitor for sexual energy, and try and charge it up with glorious sexual tension. Might be cool to power things with blue balls.

>>534943

WEll we can do this, browse some shops, maybe pick up sexy for meeting with the fox lady later on, given that we're actually gonna try that.

>>534943
Fully seconding this.

Think about contacting Zephyr too! Shi's basically the best and also best-friend material. Even if shi isn't a great help shi'd still be good to hang out and play NES games with.

Would Priesmyer be the best person to go to for a sexual capacitor? Or would that end up with an actual capacitor attached to our testicles and some more body horror?

Maybe we should hit up Blaze Davis instead, and bother his poor golem lady again.

>>535121
Oh yeah, we should totally do some radical kick-flips with Zephyr!

Oh my god please no, not Zephyr! Just being seen with them in public is likely to be an embarrassment.

Pektil was ready to go get some stuff done. Since he guessed he had to learn magic now, he thought maybe there could be some kind of doohickey to turn sex energy into magic. He knew just where to go, too. Blaze freaking Davis! On the way he called the number Zephyr had given him.

“Zephyr Talonthunderclaw, professional courier, how can I help you?”

“This is Pektil, from the elevator this morning,” Pektil said, somewhat taken aback by the completely professional voice that had answered.

“Oh, hey baby, how’s it goin? You just couldn’t resist Zephy’s big charm am I right?” Pektil could imagine the hip thrusts accompanying this, “No but seriously what’s up?”

“Oh, I just wanted to hang out maybe sometime,” Pektil said.

“Totally sweet! Look, I’m gonna be just like, basically hangin’ out tomorrow if you wanna drop by. Or if you wanna drop somethin else if you know what I mean,” Pektil could hear the wink, somehow, “No but seriously we can hang out and have some brews, or just fuck around or whatever. Fuck all around if you know what I mean,” a rather disturbing pause, “But no seriously we can play some NES it’s cool.” Zephyr then gave Pektil hir address. It was in a kind of area Pektil had never been to, way higher up in the Mall. “Just call me tomorrow if you’re comin over. Gotta go! Catch you later!” Pektil heard wooshing wind and static. “But not literally. Unless you want me to.” Pektil swore he could hear the lewd gesture. Then Zephyr hung up.

Pektil went back to Blaze Davis’s store (it was on the way back to his place anyway,) and saw Blaze chillin’ behind the counter. The air smelled vaguely of charred something and he noticed a mysterious scorch mark on the floor. Some kind of girl made out of red jelly was fiddling with some baubles in the corner and talking to Mercy.

Blaze looked a little worried when when Pektil walked in “Not here to return anything I hope?” he asked, adjusting his goggles.

“Nah,” Pektil said, which brightened Blaze’s mood considerably. “I’m looking for something that can turn sex into magic maybe,” Pektil said.

Blaze popped his suspender straps. “Why certainly, my good sir!” he disappeared under the counter. Pektil could hear various rustling and clanking noises and a muffled curse before Blaze popped back up and laid two girdles on the counter. They were some stretchy-looking fabric with a bunch of little hook and eye closures and some wires running through the inside of the fabric. On the back of each one was a brass canister-thing with a blue crystal cylinder between the two endcaps. One had a cylinder about as wide as Pektil’s palm, and the other one was about a foot long.

Blaze patted the girdles. “These things channel arousal into magical energy. They’re useful for people who aren’t very good at magic, but need a boost. This one,” he raised up the smaller one, “is less powerful, and this one,” he patted the larger one, “carries a whallop. You have to discharge the energy into a spell though, and overcharging it can cause it to burn out. Orgasming will also discharge ‘em.” He pushed them towards Pektil.

“The small one is five hundred coins, and the big one is fifteen hundred. If you take ‘em off when they’re charged, they’ll retain the energy, too.”

Pektil had 867 coins.

>>535167

In the long run the large one would be better. But we don't have much money for it...

So best we loan some cash for it.

If all fails we can go for the smaller option, given that we may get it on with that fox lady, the dangers of overcharging are severe though. So really, we need the large one... somehow.

I'm not sure what other spells we're going to be casting any time soon, and it's always good to leave SOME money in the bank, so if we DO buy one, buy the smaller one.

I'm not wholly sold on buying one but it's good to know they exist.

Does he actually sell spells we can learn to use, or can he recommend a place that sells easy to learn beginner stuff?

>>535167
I think you'd need to learn how to use magic at all before buying those on their own. Ask if there's anything he's got that could use that magical energy. Or maybe he knows how one could go about learning magic?

Now that I think about it, I agree with
>>535180
>>535178
If we need them, we know they exist, and that is good. But we should practice magic first beforehand.

Let's actually learn magic before we go and get and start charging the things I think. Though I think the plan with these was to just have a method of simply getting rid of pent-up arousal in Pektil though.

Buying one now seems like a risky investiture. Just thank him for his time and say you'll be back if you decide you want one. This isn't a very useful way of just getting rid of arousal because it would just overcharge and be useless eventually if we couldn't get rid of it by casting spells. It's that or be tied to a little mana meter that dictates we must have sex this often as dictated by our arousal or it will be destroyed and we'll start being aroused again, and... honestly, that's not that different from a libido. So, hold off on purchasing it until we have a useful way to funnel it off.

1 2013/08/18(Sun)20:52 No. 535568 ID: a1ab63
File 137688433138.jpg - (299.34KB , 970x600 , Pektil.jpg )

Meanwhile, another customer was pocketing the wand he had just used to burn the floor.

>>535568
oh shit somebody remembered the quest mechanics

Pektil decides he ain’t got the cash to spend on one right now, especially considering that he only owns one spell, and he doesn’t even really know it yet. He can always come back and get one if he really needs it.

“So, do you sell like, magical spells?” Pektil asked.

Blaze rubbed his big red nose. “Well, actually, a lot of my customers come here because they don’t want to bother learning spells, or else because for whatever reason they’re incapable of using magic. I have a few universally useful things, but for the most part, my items are a way around having to use magic on your own.”

Pektil just sort of looked up at him, waiting for an actual answer.

Blaze looked down at him, idly twirling his impressive handlebar moustaches.

“No. I don’t sell magical spells.”

Pektil wiped his nose.

“Well, thank you then. I’ll probably come back and get one of those later, then, once I learn some spells.”

Pektil had seen spells at that first shop he went to, where he sold his virginity, but honestly, he was getting really tired. He’d had a long day after all.

On the way out, he noticed some shady-ass motherfucker in a coat slipping something into his pocket. It was basically just like this. >>535568

Pektil didn’t really know if he should get involved or just go the fuck home, finally.

That guy looks a bit creepy, we should probably go home and practice our new spell.

Mention it quietly to Blaze, like, so the guy doesn't see, and keep yourself safe. Blaze is a friend let's win us some points by helping him catch a shoplifted (by telling him it happened and staying way out of the way of everything else)

Spooky skeleton man is going to get what he deserves, what you need is sleep and time to practice.

>>535726

A discount will be nice so maybe we should rat the guy out...

Yeah just kind of. Nudge Blaze and nod at the guy. Then move on.

Surely a store like this has security systems of its own? I don't think we should make any enemies by being an obvious snitch, at the least.

Pektil caught Blaze’s eye, and then glances at the guy, then glanced at the floor, then began walking quickly out before the guy turned toward them.

Blaze’s little face hardened for a moment. Digging under the counter, he pulled out a leather pouch, grabbed a handful of some kind of red dust, and vaulted onto the floor, tossing it at the dude and screaming, “Baron Samedi you fucker! Burning my floor and trying to make my place look disreputable with your crazy spirit magic crap! Get the fuck out of here! If people want your magic they’ll get your magic, and if they want my magic they’ll come here!”

The guy recoiled from the brick dust being tossed at him, staggering out the door with an extended middle finger, “Fook you, leetle man,” he slurred drunkenly, shoving Pektil aside as he took to the walkway, vanishing into the crowd.

“Thanks, buddy,” blaze said, making a line of red dust just inside the door of his shop. “Mercy, can you help me clean this up?”

Pektil waved and went back to his “room” in the machine area, utilizing the nearby bathroom door.

He was really tired. Really really tired. He shrugged off his clothes and crawled into bed, pulling out the notebook and looking over the spell. It said stuff about magic reserves and concentration and all kinds of stuff, but it was pretty simple. Hold the amulet and focus. Hold the amulet and focus. Think of the things it said and focus. Pektil practiced for a while but nothing happened. Maybe he was just really tired.

He put the scrying shard and amulet away and drifted off to a deep, dreamless sleep.

*****

In the morning, he showered and brushed his teeth, getting ready to work. Miss Preismeyer walked up just as he was getting dressed. She handed him a phallic sticky bun, cocking her hip to the side with a hydraulic hiss.

“Did you enjoy your day off?” she asked.

>>536027
>"Parts of it, yes. It was very exciting and I got a lot done. Thank you for the bun by the way, that's quite nice of you. I made some progress in my plan to get one of my friends away from some bad influence but I hope I didn't bite more than I can chew. Would you like to talk on the way or do you prefer silent concentration when working?"

I don't think Priesmyer is going to know very much about anything, but ask her if she's heard anything about Po or the Cult of Divine Penetration.

Don't actually let on that you have any plans regarding either of the two at all.

I doubt that will be usefull, but ask her if she knows anything about magic, like spells or where you can buy cheap magic shits.

>>536068

This. Don't really reveal way too much besides "Having a busy day." If you want to remain a spy, don't blab about it to everyone you meet.

“I did a whole lot!” Pektil said. “It was exciting!”

Pektil had eaten plenty of dick shaped buns before. They were decent. Maybe a littttle too sweet, but what can you do? “Thanks,” he said, licking the frosting off his fingers. “I’ve been trying to help out one of my friends, but I’m worried about how much trouble it might turn out to be. We can talk while we work, right?”

“You’re such a nice guy,” She said, and then “Of course we can talk,” Miss Priesmyer said, her voice smooth, rich and feminine instead of broken and staticky. Her metal hips swayed as she sauntered like a runway model into the depths of the machine area, Pektil following a few steps behind. Her metal tentacles writhed as she walked, while her right arm clicked between two fixed positions.

“I’ve learned a lot of stuff about the Mall since I started working here, but I was wondering if you know anything about a group of weird guys called the Cult of Divine Penetration, or a big Eastern Dragon named Po,” Pektil asked.

Some ragtime music drifted through the air from Miss Priesmyer’s speakers as she began maintenance on the first machine. Her voice was just as rich and smooth as it had been before the music started, “I have to say, Pektil, that I am not the best person regarding Mall politics. I have always kept to myself and focused on my work and my relationships with the other maintenance personnel remain strictly business. I can ask, if you’d like, but I am not certain that I’d receive forthcoming answers.” Her hooves clanked on the metal grating around the side of the engine, sparks flying from her welding tentacle. “They consider me cold and somewhat frightening.” Hunched over, her gray, waxy flesh cast dark shadows from the welder’s point of light, her metal limbs gleaming, her blank faceplate awash in a cascade of sparks.

Pektil tightened his nuts. The nuts on the engine. Those ones. The ones that he was supposed to tighten. “What about magic?” he asked. “Do you know anything about magic?”

Presimeyer rose, slowly and gracefully, one long, slender metal leg settling its hoof on the concrete with a pressurized hiss. Her other leg slowly joined its mate, until she stood, hooves together, like an acrobat about to begin her set. Preismyer’s naked body, gray and damp as it was, always seemed poised on the edge of action.

She turned sharply, one hoof striking the concrete, as her body transitioned to its runway saunter, her round butt swaying and flexing as she walked.

“I want to buy some magic, maybe,” Pektil said, following her.

“I actually know another engineer that works on the edge of my sector. We have a relationship of mutual respect, something perhaps close to friendship. He is even less in touch with mall society than I am, however, which is why I didn’t mention him a moment ago, but he knows magic and can tell you where he acquires it at any rate. He gets fewer social guests than I do, so he may be eager to share information with you, or even teach you some spells for free. He tries to talk to me about it, but I have no interest, and quite possibly no capacity for it. If you’d like, I can bring you by and introduce you after your shift today.”

No to having Priesmyer doing investigation for us.

Yes to having her introduce us to her friend.

Maybe a comment on how you're happy to be back to work, because, I mean, you genuinely are, aren't you? Back here, away from everyone, it feels safer and secluded, cut off from all the politics you're involved in. You don't need to say that part, but it does feel good to be back to work with Ms. Priesmyer, right?

Of course we should go see Miss Priesmyer's friend! He sounds like a stand up guy.

He might be kind of ridiculously socially awkward though. Be careful to not piss him off and get turned into a frog or something.

Sure, go ahead and meet him. But tell Miss Priesmeyer that she's probably better off not asking around on this one.

That sounds like a good idea sure! Let's go see this mage worker dood.

>>536120
Sure, talking to someone new can't help. Tell your boss not to worry about asking around, it might call too much attention to you.

>Thank her for both offers. Mention that another friend of your friend is already carefully searching for information and also that asking around for that kind of stuff can easily draw the wrong kind of attention from some powerful entities so you would prefer she not ask people about that kind of stuff, ok?
>Pektil would love to meet that quasi-friend of hers though.

“Oh, no, don’t bother asking. I was just curious if you knew anything already. From what I know, neither one is a good thing to go asking around about.” Pektil said when Miss Preismeyer asked if she should look for information about Po or the Cult of Divine Penetration.

“Ah,” she replied.

They worked the rest of the day, chatting lightly, Miss Priesmeyer’s old timey music echoing forlornly through the huge, dark space of the Machine Area. She was still who she was: gray flesh and chrome, faceless, alternatively smooth and delicate or sharp and mechanical in her movements. Pektil couldn’t say that he was completely comfortable with her. He couldn’t really say that he was even as comfortable as he had been before the surgery, but there was something comforting about the place. He felt cut off, secluded, safe from all the politics and more apparently dangers in the mall proper.

As he watched the rubber gaskets on the breathing ports stapled to her ribcage flop open and closed as she checked the fluid level of a massive engine, Pektil told her he was glad to be back to work. She patted him lightly on the head with her metal hand, the pressure sensitive plates in the fingertips clicking audibly when they touched his scalp.

After his shift, Miss Preismeyer asked if he wanted to meet her acquaintance. Without really bothering to find anything else out, Pektil agreed.

She lead him deeper into the Machine Area.

All of their engines were massive, hulking things. Huge, squat beasts that rumbled, growled and shook. They traveled further away, though, deeper and deeper into the dim recesses, and Pektil noticed a change in character of the machines. Instead of foot-thick iron shells, these devices were more exposed, more like towers than bunkers, with thick rubber-sheathed wires that buzzed with electricity disappearing like black cobwebs into the darkness above. Huge metal honeycomb-structures and strange aerials and cylinders studded the towers chaotically and the grumble and roar of the engines was replaced with the whine and droning buzz of electricity.

Walking near to one, Pektil felt his hair beginning to stand on end, and he couldn’t be entirely sure that the buzzing wasn’t inside of his skull too.

“His name is Nine Gears World Devourer,” Miss Preismeyer said. There was a loud, metallic crack as an arc of electricity cascaded between two metal prongs on a nearby engine. Pektil also noticed that the hanging lamps of his area had been replaced with large, oblong lamps spliced directly into the tangle of crisscrossing wires overhead.

“Ahh, Miss Priesmeyer,” the voice was echoey, mechanical, sharp and unpleasant. It didn’t have the crackling hiss of her old synthesized voice, but, although emotive, it sounded purely artificial, like vibrating metal in a long, hollow tube. More sharp lightning whipcracks touched something on the ground behind a massive tower of capacitors, aerials, transistors and other components as a huge shape rounded the side.

“I almost didn’t recognize your voice,” he said as his bulky shape hove into view.

He was fully twelve feet tall and almost as wide, made of gleaming bronze and covered in tattered layers of blue and white robes. He rocked slightly from side to side as he moved, but Pektil could tell that he didn’t have a pair of legs. The intricate, interlocking metal plates that covered its body extended almost to the floor. Underneath were maybe rollers, or tracks, or a whole lot of tiny, skittering limbs. Longer than he was wide, he resembled a cross between a pillbug and a train car in aspect, although the layers of robes mostly hid his body.

The front of his form was mostly exposed: Thick, curved sheets of bronze with heavy rivets as big as Pektil’s fist, a round head recessed into a metal cowl, the face looking somewhat like a gas mask, somewhat like some sort of deep sea isopod, and somewhat like the front of an old car: Wide set-glassy, black lenses, an ovoid grille, metal tubing running back into its body cavity. Huge, heavy limbs, five on each side, extended in front of its body. Each pair was roughly half the size of the one behind it, and they fanned out in front, clattering on the ground in sequence with each step. Each terminated in a three-clawed hand mostly covered by the wide, shieldlike second segment. When he stopped, he held them up in front of him, hands pointed toward the floor, the largest bracketing his head, the rest descending in a crescent to either side.

Green mist drifted from the grille, and from somewhere underneath the robes. It was only when the clattering monstrosity had come to a halt did Pektil notice the others surrounding him. Several creatures, human, anthros and otherwise, stood naked or in tattered rags. Their expressions were all slack and glassy, some stood with open mouths, looking at nothing. Some had various injuries: missing eyes or hands, and Pektil noticed that they all had scars on their heads. A couple, a male human and some kind of female raccoon furry, had segmented brass tubes running from their heads (the ear on the human and the empty eye socket on the furry,) trailing across the ground, and disappearing beneath Nine Gears World Devourer’s robes. Their limbs especially hung limply, their faces completely slack and vacant.

“And who is this small creature?” its inorganic, echoing voice carried a hint of the electrical hum that was pregnant in the air all around them. He pointed to Pektil with his right center arm.

Miss Preismeyer cocked her hip to the side, tentacles idly rubbing Pektil on the back. “This is my assistant, Pektil. He helps me in my maintenance duties, and was curious about magic.”

“Well, I am certainly an authority in that regard,” the bulky monstrosity said, gesturing with all ten arms. “You may call me Nine Gears,” he waved expansively with all of his arms, and then returned them to their at rest positions. Pektil guessed it was maybe supposed to be a bow, “What are you curious about? What do you know already?”

“I can leave you two to your conversation,” Miss Priesmeyer said, then, to Pektil as an aside, “Unless you would prefer I stay. If you are uncertain of the way back to the Mall.”

Ask Ms. Priesmyer to stay, since it's hard to find your way back. Also this guy is kind of scary. Also it is hard to find your way back.

This guy seems really chill and cool.

Tell him you just were introduced to a spell for the first time, and you want to pick up some more.

Ask him what kind of magic he's into, and let him talk a bit about what he can do.

Ask him what different kinds of magic there are, what determines if a person can use magic, and how easy it might be for Pektil to learn magic.

Ask him if some creatures are naturally magic, and if that's different from learning magic.

You should ask him if those others that are tied into him are for ease of manipulation or processing power. Also compliment him on his realm.

“Miss Priesmeyer, please stay please. I really don’t want to get lost,” Pektil said. He held on to a tendril, its cold metal surface slightly reassuring.

Pektil thought it was best to begin things properly by buttering up the guy.

“So like, this place looks cool. Also what are those guys you got for?”

Nine Gears shifted slightly. His movements had that slight list to them, but were surprisingly fluid. Pektil had the horrifying impression that he could move extremely quickly if he needed to.

“I am in charge of maintaining the vast electrical systems here,” he said, “and these are my assistants. They are also in some ways related to my magic, although I wish to know what you understand before I confuse you with jargon that’s above your head.”

“Okay,” Pektil said, “Is there a difference between learning magic and just being naturally magic?” Pektil knew that some creatures just had magic powers.

“Yes,” Nine Gears said, “Some creatures have specific innate magical abilities, some species have raw magic manipulation abilities, and some creatures are completely incapable of naturally harnessing magic. For the most part, automata, constructs, and nonliving mechanical creatures such as myself cannot harness magical energy at all. Most other creatures can learn some types of magic, and most magical creatures can learn magic of a different sort than their own innate nature. The underlying substructure of the Sex Mall allows all types and systems of innate and practiced magic to coexist, although other worlds will have their own rules for what will function and what won’t. Therefore, there are a theoretically infinite number of systems and sorts of magic. Magical creatures, though, to answer your question, have a magical essence as a part of their being, and do not have to train or study to learn magic.”

“Wait, did you just say you can’t cast magic? I thought you were a magical expert!” Pektil said.

“We’ll get to that in time,” Nine Gears said, holding up a claw.

“Okay so I am guessing I don’t have any secret magic powers,” Pektil said.

“Correct,” his hollow, mechanical voice was pretty creepy.

“So what different kinds of magic are there, and what kind can I learn? What kind of magic do you do? And can certain people only do certain types?”

“As I explained,” he began, “There are an almost-unlimited number of magical systems. However, they fall into three basic, broad groupings: External systems require the caster to produce certain materials or structures to perform them. Someone who has to draw a mandala to cast a spell, or set up a complex ritual circle is using an external system. Raw systems may require concentration, or a few magical words or gestures, or maybe just willpower and wishes. There is some bleedthrough between the two, obviously, but these are general classes of things. A way to sort them. True external systems require nothing from the caster. There is no hidden reserve of power that is depleted in the casting, and the magician can continue to produce effects for as long as he has the time and materials to do so. In true Raw systems, the caster depletes some essence when he uses the spells. Either a hidden reserve of mana, fatigue, years of life, or something similar. Many magical creatures, because of their magical nature, can perform raw magic with minimal effort. Last are Vancian systems. These systems require the caster to memorize a spell, and then, at a later time, they can recall the spell to produce an effect, although it strips the spell from their brain. In a True Vancian system, each mind can only hold a certain total quality of spells, either many small or one large, et cetera, and the spells must be re-memorized before they can be cast. All of the systems work within and among one another, although any creature will have most aptitude for whatever sort of magic is closest to its homeworld. Certain devices can also store magical energy, which can be used as a reserve for raw spellcasting or other depletion-based systems. Memorizing a Vancian spell also removes total capacity for magic in proportion to the quality of the spell, so that a magical creature that memorizes several powerful spells will find that its overall ability to perform its normal magical tricks is greatly diminished. Most people, therefore, do not mix systems broadly. Vancian magical effects are also not based on any quality of the caster generally, and the caster’s only relevant quality is the number of effects he can hold, total, allowing a much less practiced caster produce at least one effect on par with a talented magician.”

Pektil was pretty sure he understood literally none of that. He guessed he could try to learn whatever kind of spells he happened to find though, at least.

“I am a vancian caster,” Nine Gears continued, “Well, I am an extremely talented neurosurgeon, and this allows me to harness Vancian spells. My assistants have had their brains altered to one degree or another. Some have their personalities mostly intact, but are pliant and obedient,” A naked fox guy near the front raised his hand and winked at Pektil. He was really thin and kind of mangy, “Other than removing unnecessary things like capacity for boredom, fear, and pain response, of course. Some have had their brains almost entirely removed, and operate as puppets for accessing hard to reach locations,” The human and raccoon shambled forward a bit. “Most of the others are somewhere in between. But the many servants you do not see are the ones that allow me to use magic. I remove the brains from organisms in the backworks, and maintain them inside of my own body. They are interfaced with my own intelligence, and I can force Vancian spells into them, and force them to recall and cast them when I choose. I also make use of several magical batteries for harnessing minor effects when appropriate, although I do not possess a numinal source such as a ‘soul’ or ‘faith’ or ‘connection to the earth,’ or ‘love’ other trivialities that allows me to recharge them.”

Pektil’s face had grown increasingly distressed, and his little hand tightened on Miss Priesmeyer’s tendril, although she was completely still.

“Don’t worry,” Nine Gears said, “I harvest them from the Backworks. When I bring them here, they are entirely consenting. It’s all perfectly legal.”

Pektil swallowed. He was glad he had never run into this joker alone.

“So, uh, I basically want to learn some more spells. I guess. I got one but I can’t get it to work.”

Pektil explained the basics of his communication spell.

“The entire Machine Area is heavily warded,” Nine Gears said. “You have probably adequately practiced to successfully perform the spell.”

“Oh,” Pektil said.

“So,” Nine Gears crept forward, his minions shuffling alongside him, “what are you interested in learning? Perhaps I can assist you.”

Ask him if there's an intelligence requirement to learning Vancian magic, or if it's limited solely by one's innate potential. Ask him how Vancian spells are learned, or rather, prepared in one's mind.

It's unlikely we'll be able to TRICK Po into accidentally memorizing a Vancian spell so large it eats up all his magical reserves to do his normal spells and is too dangerous for him to ever want to cast and would therefore render him entirely powerless, but like. Still? At least find out if it's possible to prepare a Vancian spell by accident, in the process of asking how they're learned/memorized.

Ask him if there is any place in the mall he might recommend, through reputation or familiarity, that sells magic. We don't have much money and we're not super experienced so we wouldn't want to impose on him to study magic, really--also we probably should be super freaking careful around him--but like, having an understanding of how magic goes from someone who's got it under control like him is cool. We don't want to jump into it dumbly.

Try to leave as soon as it's a good opportunity to though. We might not want to get super involved with this guy? But just don't be rude about it.

>>536379
Note to self: stay out of the Backworks forever.

A healing spell would be nice, first off. Secondly, a ward against acid, perhaps? Can he tell what form of magic you're most capable of using, and if you have much potential for it?

Oh, look, if we're talking about spells to deal with being swallowed by Po, ask him about how teleportation magic works too, and how hard that is to do.

Have Po swallow us and leave the spying thing in him, and trick him into being stuck by a crappy massive spell. These are the pro plans. Let's do what we can to get them along.

>Without really bothering to find anything else out, Pektil agreed.
You say that as though it's come back to bite us in the past or something!

This guy may seem creepy, but he's just a big flesh computer. Are there ways of storing a vancian spell in an inanimate object?

I think we all know...you want to learn a spell to make you bigger, stronger, faster. Even if temporarily. Then maybe Po won't be as scary. Well he will but you can overcome that cause you'll be big.

Priority one: Knowledge on how to survive being eaten. If possible teachings or recommended and affordable (hidden) items for that purpose.
Priority two: Beginner spells. Simple, low energy utility spells. Creating a light, benign short-range telepathy, whatever a beginner like Pektil can learn.
Priority three: A new shop for magic items. Any items he can recommend. Information on potential problems that could arise with our current and scheduled items.

>>536407

I still that idea is not good and highly risqué.

We should invest in something that will let us spy better like a clairaudience, clairvoyance or scrying spells.

>>536668
The way I see it we should at least find out IF it is a feasible plan. Who knows, there might be an easy way to solve this. If there isn't we can still do something else.

>>536788
I know I missed a day, but don’t update the quest for me. Art can be used to draw the scene from the last update and add things into the scene, not reply directly to suggesters. Thanks for the work, but this is unfortunately being mostly ignored, especially because it contradicts what’s already been said. I’ll repurpose some of it and add in an explanation. The purpose is to help me tell the story, not tell it for me.

“So,” Pektil asked, a plan slowly forming in his brains, “What’s the limits on Vancian magic, and could you like, trick a powerful creature into learning a spell so that their power would be like, less powerful? Like a big magic guy?”

Nine Gears hummed, it was a rattling, mechanical choral sound. One finger tapped against his faceplate. “The actual text of true Vancian spells is almost alive, and seeks out a living brain to imprint itself on. The magic wants to be read and used. Continual study and practice expands a person’s potential to memorize more or more powerful spells. As you read a Vancian spell, if your mind cannot contain it, you will be in pain, discomfort. You can certainly force a spell slightly too large into your mind, although it will cause unpleasant mental effects. A spell entirely too large will cause your brain to violently explode. It happens with the brains I use for storage, from time to time. Spells just slightly too large will help expand your potential, however.”

He tapped his faceplate again. “But you do still have to read the words to memorize the spell. Of course, a sufficiently powerful magical creature would probably absorb the information instantly, at a glance. The real trick would be to find a spell they would not want to instantly cast…” he seemed to be mostly thinking to himself, tapping on his face and exhaling green mist. “You know, there is a quite powerful spell that temporarily negates all magic within a one hundred yard sphere surrounding the caster. ‘Phandall’s Spiteful Equilizer,’ if I remember correctly. Yes. Yes. This has potential.” More little clatters.

“So,” Pektil continued, thinking about how dangerous Vancian magic seemed, “Is there any way to store Vancian spells in inanimate objects?”

Nine Gears snapped out of his contemplations and laughed. “Why would I need to remove brains and store them inside of my body if I could cast Vancian spells in another way?”

Pektil stuck his finger in his nose, “huh?”

Nine Gears sighed. “No, there isn’t. Some Vancian spells are used to produce enduring magical items, but the spells themselves must be placed into a living brain to be cast. The words themselves are also extremely dangerous to attempt to transcribe, and special materials must be used. Therefore, the rituals themselves are somewhat expensive, and usually not in easy to transport form. They cannot be stored digitally, for instance. However, there are plenty of other systems that feature single-use scrolls, wands and assorted magical devices. Crystals, in particular, are useful for storing enduring effects from other casting systems. Wands are also useful. Some are tools that are required for casting systems, and some are repositories for magical energy. Most scrolls and wands must be used by someone capable of using magic in some capacity, whereas a crystal will simply produce an effect and need only be worn, or incorporated into a device.”

Pektil was thinking about his plan to store the scrying crystal inside of Po. The way he saw it, he would need some kind of acid protection, some kind of healing, and some kind of teleportation.

His second priority was to basically be able to do that stuff, so he needed some beginner spells.

And a good place to buy this stuff that wasn’t somewhere he’d gone before. He did remember the first magic shop. They had had lots of scrolls, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe asking would be a good idea.

He also realized that if he was going through with the eating thing, all of the effects he would need would have to be spells: Po probably would not eat all his clothes and items with him.

“So, I want to know a good place to get some beginner stuff, like maybe scrying or spying stuff, and also maybe some healing or acid resistance stuff.”

“If you would like to learn some Vancian magic, I would gladly give you these,” The raccoon girl dug under his robes and pulled out a black leather-backed scroll wrapped closed with ribbon. “The Charm of Untiring Nourishment. This simple spell will obviate the need for rest, sleep, air, food or water, and make you immune to adverse temperature conditions, for several hours. It is quite useless to me, but could be useful to you. You may not be able to use it immediately, which is why I will also give you Lugwiler’s Dismal Itch, one of the simplest and most primitive of spells. It causes someone to itch as if they had fleas for several minutes.” The raccoon also produces a little red book, like a day planner. She walked over and deposited them into Pektil’s hands, her own flesh slightly clammy to the touch, her hide mangy and balding in places.

“As for acquiring those other spells, a non-Vancian source may be best. Vancian magic is generall ‘all or nothing,’ and tends to be quite powerful and obvious in effect. I know there is a shop called Tally’s Uncomfortably Cramped Arcana which has a selection, although there are a few others in this general area which are known to be rather useful.” Nine Gears indicated a floor and area, and Pektil checked his Information Data Thingy. There was a big list of shops!

“I will caution you that teleportation magic tends to be very difficult, and most places are warded against it.” Pektil remembered Blaze talking about teleportation >>459164

Go ahead and make up whatever shops you want. Give either just a name, or a name and a short description, or whatever. Remember to put numbers in the NAME field! You can also suggest to go to one of the shops somebody else makes up, or go to the shop that Nine Gears recommends.

The "Icy Jizz Magicks" was run by a some pale white haired guy named Necron, looking like a glam metal band reject. The shop specialized in cold based, protection and charm spells. The selection was quite broad as Necron was a fairly talented natural mage, but most commented on his very... special methods of invoking certain magic. Yet this method seem to be perfect for most Neo Sex Mall dwellers.

>>536842
>Po probably would not eat all his clothes and items with him
Unless you fancy concealing the scrying crystal on in your person in some manner you can reverse while in a muscular bag of stomach acid, that somewhat scuppers the plan.

Maybe we're better off finding some other willing victim who's less fussed about the whole getting-back-out angle.

For now, thank him and return with Miss Priesmeyer to the marginally less creepifying areas.

Tally’s Uncomfortably Cramped Arcana sounds fine. You're small, it should be appropriate for you.

Hey, ask him about the World Devourer part of his name.

Tally’s Uncomfortably Cramped Arcana sounds perfect! Though I'm not sure how much they will charge for spells, perhaps it is good to look around two or three stores.

Perhaps you could ask the snake bouncer at The Last Whisper about spells or protection against vore and equipment to survive being eaten, or even ask about Po's preferences and "abilities" regarding that sort of thing. You could make out you're slightly interested in the idea.

2 2013/09/01(Sun)11:13 No. 538854 ID: e983a7
File 137805923436.png - (2.98KB , 16x16 , faviconnsm.png )

There's always the Impractical Curiosities Emporium, run by a somewhat confused entity in the shape of a perfect silver-grey octahedron by the name of Qx. It has taken to wearing a sign that says "STORE OWNER - NOT FOR SALE" given its similarity to some of the knick-knacks it sells, and is perennially confused as to where the shop actually is. It has a habit of just... changing where the exit leads out to, but customers are customers, even if the more recent business has been entirely around the more erotic themed curios and gewgaws in the shop.

Of course, some of the things on sale might be the kind to be completely alien in purpose and understanding, but maybe there's a cool magics or two. Probably the sorts that require ridiculously long rituals or something awkward to perform. It is the Impractical Emporium, after all.

(also I made a favicon for the thread and I am not sure if you want it applied or not)

>>537357
I think we should be very careful with the snake. Given that it is an employee of the person we want to trick, we should assume that everything we talk about with the snake will be known by Po. We can still talk to the snake but in that case any plan that involves Po not knowing our plans for survival needs to be dismissed.

I wouldn't put it past Po to say he is ok with us surviving the consumption just to claim an accident happened afterwards, should he have even a slight suspicion we were plotting against him.

I would also like to note that Po gave us a powerful magical item that he was sure would stay close to us for the forseeable future. Would it have been possible to hide a scrying spell similar to frost mother's in the spell matrices of the bead?

I vote we visit the Impractical Curiosities Emporium and Tally’s Uncomfortably Cramped Arcana.

Pektil thanked the horrible mechanical monstrosity for its time and the free spells, and asked Miss Priesmeyer if they should be going. She nodded slowly, thanking Nine Gears for its time as well, and they retreated from the super-creepy electrical area to the slightly less creepy regular area.

Pektil also considered that his plan of getting Po to eat him so he could hide the spy crystal wasn’t such a great plan seeing as how Po probably wouldn’t want to eat his clothes and items. He considered that it might be a better idea to get Po to eat some willing victim who isn't as concerned about the whole “getting back out alive” angle, then he considered Seven Gears and his servants and how everything was “completely consensual” when he got done with them…

Then he kind of shuddered and considered whether that was something he really should be considering.

But if he WAS considering it, he knew, now, how he could get a perfectly willing person with something implanted in them who didn’t care about being eaten, but maybe he shouldn’t consider that.

He realized also that talking to the snake bouncer might be a decent idea, but that anything he told her might also find its way to Po. He wasn’t sure if he could do anything useful with that or not.

He stopped considering and realizing things for the moment because the regular metallic report of Miss Priesmeyer’s hooves had stopped. They were at his little room.

Miss Preismeyer patted him on the shoulder with her mechanical hand, the cool, smooth metal clicking slightly. “Good luck with your friend,” she said, her voice smooth and feminine. “If there is anything I can do to help…” She let the sentence hang. With a sharp click, she pirouetted on one hoof before sauntering back into the further darkness of the machine area.

Pektil went out into the Dusk District, ready to shop for magical supplies. He had two places that he was going to visit for sure, but he didn’t know if he should stop by yet. He’d told Sommer that he was going to see her today after she got off work, and had also told Zephyr that he was going to stop by hir place. He wasn’t sure if he should go shopping first or go see either one of them first or what. He’d come to a stop in the middle of the walkway, and while he was trying to decide, an anthropomorphic pegasus wearing a heavy leather apron and a tool belt bumped into him. Her black and white wings fluttered as she lost her balance, falling on top of Pektil before he could scurry away.

She had nice blue eyes and her coat, mane and tail were white with black splotches. Or maybe it was black with white splotches? Pektil considered it as her wide hips pinned him to the ground, her muscular body rocking directly on top of his slowly swelling dong. Her long, messy mane covered most of her face, and her proportionally small breasts squishing together as she held her hands up to her open mouth in shock. “I am soooo sorry!” she said, flipping her hair out from in front of her eyes and pulling on his arm before she realized that she’d have to get off of him before she could help him up. She was a little more than twice Pektil’s height, and he could see firm muscles in her arms and legs bunch and contract as she stood up and lifted him effortlessly to dust him off. Her hands grazed against his dong and butt as she held him up by the overall straps and tried to straighten his things out, brushing down his thighs and chest.

“I’m so, so sorry!” she kept saying, “I should have been paying attention to where I was going!” She’d toss her head to keep the hair out of her eyes, but it would have settled back in place moments later, mostly on the left side of her face. She didn’t really let Pektil get a word in edgewise before setting him back down on the path, apologizing profusely again, and then leaping over the railing and flying off. He noticed that her butt was very round, and she had a lot of muscles in her back that moved around when her wings swooshed.

Pektil kind of stood there in a daze for a moment, then checked his pockets to make sure he hadn’t dropped anything. Quite the contrary, he found a plain leather sack that he hadn’t owned before. Opening it up, it had a variety of really valuable looking gems inside. He wondered if she’d dropped it on accident, or if this was the 2500 coins that the Cult of Divine Penetration was supposed to pay him.

He then went back to wondering whether he should go see Zephyr or Sommer first, or blow either one of them off, or go to the magic stores first.

I know it’s been forever since I’ve updated, and people probably don’t remember what’s going on at all. The Wiki http://tgchan.org/wiki/NEO_SEX_MALL is really extensive, and also tracks Pektil’s Inventory: http://tgchan.org/wiki/NEO_SEX_MALL/Inventory. >>536379 might be a good point to sort of refresh on what’s being talked about right here at this very minute! Expect regular updates from here on out, and thanks for playing!

Yeah that definitely sounds like the payment drop. Hang on to it it's yours.

How much time do you have in the day? If you think you might run out of time to hang out with Sommer and Zephyr, skip shopping and do it another time. This whole dealing-with-Po thing is clearly going to be an investment and it's not going to kill us if we put off buying spells to hang out with friends.

Go see Sommer first, because let's be honest, if we hang out with the Zeph and play NES, we'll probably get caught up playing NES all day. Sommer usually gets uncomfortable after too much interaction so she'll probably call it a day early and leave us with some time to hang out with Zeph because c'mon, with how serious all the things we're plotting are, we could use some Bubble Bobble or something to unwind and Zephyr seems really legit.

>>599737
Congrats, you have enough money to GET HUGE. However, if you're gonna make it permanent like you planned I think you should discuss it with your friends first, and consider if it would interfere with doing your maintenance job. Maybe see if you can instead get a ring of Enlarge Person or a spell that makes you bigger as long as you maintain it? Then you could be big or small when the situation demands it. Alternatively, you could get huge permanently and have a shrink ring/spell to go back to your previous size. The temporary size alteration option will need to shrink/grow your clothes too, mind you.

I don't really want to ditch either of them because well even playing NES games with Zephyr seems like it might be an okay time. Maybe. Even though Zephyr is gross. Priority is on Sommer though. I'm thinking hang with Zephyr for an hour or so (or as long as we can stand) then probably go take a shower and hang out with Sommer. Wait, will Sommer even be off work anytime soon?

I say we should shop around for prices on how much our HUGE options will cost exactly while we figure out who to hang with.

>>599738
That.

Pektil decided that Po was a long-term dealie, and he could go get spells later. The more important thing was to hang out with Sommer. He figured she’d definitely be off work by now. It’d taken him a pretty long time to talk to Seven Gears about magic and all that stuff.

He started heading for her place.


Along the way, he thought about his money and how he’d be able to get huge if he wanted. It’d been a while since he’d talked about it, but after some deep thought, he remembered when he’d asked Miss Priesmeyer what she thought. >>458613

She was probably still right, about the huge thing anyway, not the weak organic components thing. The money might be better spent on getting a new place, or buying the spells he might need to do something about Po, eventually.


He strolled up the steps and into Sommer’s building, thinking about what kind of cool stuff they’d do together in their hang-out time.

He was hurrying down the hallway toward her apartment when he almost ran directly into the floor supervisor, who seemed to literally appear out of nowhere. Although he suspected that if it looked like he almost ran into her, she was probably a few feet over to the left or something.

She was just as tall and naked and mottled yellow and black as he remembered her, her wings and tentacles spread on either side of her body. Her animal muzzle was pouty, her red eyes fixed on him.

“I’m sorry, but you aren’t allowed here,” she said in an only slightly sultry tone.

Uhm.

Okaayyy (not okay)

Let's not pretend to ourselves that we don't know why this building Po is renting an apartment for Sommer is not allowing us in but let's pretend to her.

Why aren't we allowed here?

>>599857
Why, did something happen? Is the building under quarantine or something?

You know, it occurs to me we never even tried to ask Po to back off, nor do we have any clear evidence he's doing anything wrong. We went straight from suspicion to conspiracy.

Pektil looked up at the floor manager, whose name he didn’t remember off the top of his head, honestly. On the one hand, Po was the one paying Sommer’s bill. On the other hand, maybe it was a quarantine or something.

On the third hand, Pektil hadn’t even tried to talk to Po. Pektil hadn’t tried to tell Po about how he thought about Sommer, or even really had any evidence of any kind that Po had ever done anything wrong at all. Honestly, he’d been the one to agree to his boss’s thing that really disturbed him, and when he’d talked to her about it, their relationship had been fine. Better even.

Who was to say that Sommer and Po hadn’t had the same conversation? After all, she admitted that he didn’t make her do anything she didn’t want to do anymore. Maybe he was being crazy. He was certainly being entirely unfair to Po.

“So uh,” he said, as the blink dog displacer beast demon multi-breed looked at him, her nipples just as perky as he remembered, her vag fully on display - just a little bit of lip to keep it classy - “is there a quarantine or something?”

She lowered her muzzle, grinning lopsidedly, and fluttered her eyelashes.

“Nope.” She wiggled her butt, both of her hands pressed against one of her thighs as she leaned forward. “The renter of that apartment there,” she gestured over her shoulder and Pektil realized that it would be Sommer’s apartment if it were a few feet to the left and behind where she was pointing, “specifically said that if a little green guy who looks just like you showed up, I was to eject him from the building. I told him that I knew you when he described you. So you got to scram or I’m going to have to,” here she paused and slowly licked her lips, “eject you.”

Wait "he" told you to eject me? Can I ask you who he is?

Uhm, okay.

Okay Po isn't allowing you to Sommer's apartment, fine.

Let's leave without questioning, with our dignity pretending to be intact, and think of a plan of how we can tell Sommer because I wonder if she even knows this is a thing now.

I still say go see Zephyr and hang out with hir and hey if Zephyr is a courier who works for anonymous clients a lot maybe Zeph can drop a package off at Sommer and slip out a message at her in the meanwhile on the downlow too you know? I mean it might put hir at risk of Po's wrath but like, I'm sure we can finagle it.

And after something as gross as this maybe we could use some NES games and an upbeat person to cheer up with I don't think Zeph's that bad sie seems cool ok.

>>599924
Better scram. Try calling Sommer to see if she's as upset at you as Po is. Maybe it's time to clear the air, find out how dumb you were being. IF we get enough information to decide that Po isn't hurting Sommer anymore... Maybe it's possible to smooth things over with Po by using Frost Mother's trust in you to his benefit? I mean sure the other dragons don't like him but that doesn't mean they like Frost Mother. Alternatively you could try to get out of the feud entirely and do some other favor for him as an apology.

Before you talk about any of that though you should put the purple amulet and scrying shard away somewhere. If Frost Mother is scrying on you through them you'll have no options after switching sides. Also stop walking around with thousands of coins, go put them away somewhere.

Actually wait I have a funnier idea than just walking out. Go like "okay so this isn't because you're mad I didn't keep in touch after we had sex?" Tell her about the boner ring that you got so you aren't pathetic in bed and all, too.

>>599924
Can we at least get a message to Sommer? Is there a comm system, or could the nice landlady tell her that we are here for us, thank you very much.

So, Pektil wasn’t being allowed in. Okay. There could be several reasons. The most obvious reason to Pektil was that it was Po, clearly, who was not letting him come in. But there could be another reason maybe. He decided not to specifically ask who the “he” was. He still had his dignity, after all.

“This isn’t, like, because we fucked that one time and I never called you or anything, right?”

She leaned back, slapping her thighs, her six small breasts jiggling as she laughed and laughed and laughed, one tentacle apparently stuck to the empty air a few feet away from the wall to keep her from falling over.

Several minutes later, she’d managed to catch her breath, panting and leaning toward Pektil. “I don’t know what you remember, but I distinctly remember using you for a quickie once. Not even a very good quickie. An extremely amateur quickie.”

Pektil sort of mumbled “I’m way better at sex now too by the way…”

The floor manager managed to stand back up, her wide, spade shaped tentacles wiping the tears from her eyes. “Aren’t you just adorable,” she said through a flurry of giggles, “but no seriously you’ve got to leave.”

Pektil’s cheeks were hot and his foot was definitely way more interesting than the, in his estimation, very unprofessional floor manager. “Can you at least tell the person living there that I came to see her?” he asked, pointing at Sommer’s door.

“Sure,” she said. “Have a nice day.” She leaned casually against the wall and Pektil turned around and left.

Maybe he had a bad idea about the whole situation, though. Maybe he should be trying to get proof that Po wasn’t doing anything bad. Of course, if he tried to smooth things over with Po, he’d have to ditch the scrying crystal. Other of course, he could use the crystal to see if Po WAS doing anything bad or not… Wuh. Everything was complicated.

At least he could still call Sommer. If she was home, she’d want to talk to him, he was sure. They were supposed to hang out today. She might not even know that he was blocked from her floor or anything.

He called, but no one answered. Maybe she was out? He left a message for her to call him back.

Since he had nothing better to do, really, he decided to go hang out with Zephyr. Before he went, he went back and put the scrying crystal, amulet, and most of his money away. No reason to walk around with that stuff unless he needed it.

Pektil checked his finances and discovered he had about 3400 currency in various coins/dildoes.

***

Zephyr’s place was far, far higher up in the mall than he’d ever been before. One of the little tiny bands of place he’d seen from way down far below. The area was full daylight, and very similar to the very first place he’d been, except he couldn’t even see the mall floor down below, and more mall extended upward as far as he could see.

The walkways were very wide, which was good for Pektil because he didn’t really want to go near the edge. He kept walking a little ways and the walkway expanded further, and the clear wall on the edge of it diminishing to almost nothing. Long tongues of floorway extended out over the abyss like piers. Some of them had couches and benches on them and some were totally empty. Maybe “pier” wasn’t as good a term as “landing pad,” because while he walked, Pektil saw all kinds of winged or bejetpacked or bepropellered creatures, along with creatures variously outfitted in less recognizable methods of propulsion took off or came in for a landing on the piers.

Of course, some of them just had folks fooling around on them or chatting and eating pirogues or takeout curry or whatever, but occasionally some creature would just walk up to the edge and jump off out into space.

Pektil noticed that a lot of folks here seemed capable of flight in one way or another, and a lot of the shops seemed to cater to that.

A little bit further, shops gave way to houses with no particular style or theme between them that Pektil could detect. Each had a landing pad across the walkway from the facade. He also noticed that the lights from the floor above could be turned off and on by the residents (or so he assumed) because the houses were all cast in varying shades of darkness, dusk and daylight. Because the walkway was generally so wide, most of them had individual yards or fences, leaving the normal sort of walkway length close to the piers. These were the only individual dwellings Pektil had ever seen in the mall. They must be expensive.

He figured he had the right place when he saw a square three story house that looked something like a rainbow layer cake, if each layer was sort of set really cockeyed to the one under it. Neon lights surrounded each layer in a different shade of neon than the layer itself, and the yad was grassy and scattered with various lawn furnishings.

The pier itself had massive leather couches scattered around it, and a bubbling jacuzzi that was underlit with slowly changing lights. TVs on little entertainment centers with wires and consoles and controllers and junk were sort of scattered around here and there in both the lawn and the yard, and it was night time on this sliver of balcony.


He knocked on the door, and a few moments later heard something that sounded like a large animal running across hard floor. The door was flung open inward, almost causing Pektil to pitch forward onto the shiny black tile, and Zephyr was there in all hir glory, tossing back her arms and setting hir enormous titties to jiggling, a big, stupid smile plastered on hir face. “Yo! sup sup! Welcome to the casa de Zephy aka Zephy’s love palace aka where my NES is at if you catch what I’m pitchin!” Sie winked lewdly and stepped to the side.

Pektil could see hir massive neon cock, and past that a wide white hallway with black doors. Pektil could see the hallway open into some sort of wider space, like an atrium or something at the back, and the door on the left was opened partway. Pektil could see light flickering from a TV or something past there.

“So, whacha wanna do?” Zephyr asked, bobbing up and down on hir feet, settting both her tits and dong to flopping. “We can hang out, play games, you know whatever, and if you don’t got any ideas I’m sure big Zeph can think of something if you know what I mean.” There was the hip thrust. Pektil had been expecting the hip thrust. “But no it’s cool I got the NES up and stuff.”

>>599985
Pektil came here to play, so that is what Pektil will do. Or maybe talk a bit first, like, how was hir day, is that whole building hirs, etc.

Pektil oh Pektil honey why do you think because Po won't let you see Sommer that maybe he's a good guy you need to smooth things over with? Sommer is actively scared of him and now he's controlling who she can see.

These aren't good signs.

Also start out with some NES. I think Zephyr isn't as sex-crazed as shi seems not to that degree, shi's into it for sure but she seems more talk-and-goofing-around than outright sex so I don't think this is going to get into anything really terribly awkward. Start with the NES and see where things get you and try to spend at least a little time not thinking about huge important issues so when you come back to them you'll have a clearer mind.

>>599985
We should totally hang out and play some NES and stuff but hey how about first we sort out some snacks to cook while gaming?

Decide to play games but be awkwardly enticed by prolonged exposure to the smell of hir neon dick juices and have no idea how to handle it.

“Let’s play some NES!” Pektil said, even though he didn’t know what NES was really. The way Zephyr had talked about it, it sounded like it wasn’t some sex thing. While they walked back toward the open door, Pektil figured he’d chitchat.

“So, like, is this whole place yours?” Pektil asked.

“Oh yeah for sure,” Zephyr said, keeping ahead of Pektil but looking back over hir shoulder. At least this way hir tail hung down over hir downstairs weapon. “Courier business is good if you’re good at being a courier and Zephy is on top if you know what I mean.” Zephyr did a little hip thrust and bit hir bottom lip, “also I’m good at being a courier.” Another lewd wink and a pair of finger guns. “But yeah I got a nice place a while back you know gotta have a pad to match this rockin’ bod this bod doin all the rockin if you get Zephy’s drift.” Shi made a clicky noise with her tongue and winked again.

Pektil looked in the room. It had thick burgundy carpet on the floor and a big, soft-looking sofa against one wall. A black glass-topped coffee table with various controllers, magazines and other items spread semi-randomly across the surface was between the couch and the relatively large entertainment center, dominated by a massive flatscreen TV. The far wall was a huge set of windows with thick maroon curtains pulled back on either side. The windows were tinted, looking out over Zephyr’s front lawn and sidewalk. The entertainment center had various consoles and wires snaking around the compartments under the TV, everything relatively neat and organized, but just slightly disarrayed, as if shi got a lot of use out of them.

Pektil realized he was kinda hungry though. “Hey, before we get started, should we, like, cook up some snacks or something? If you want to?” Pektil shrugged in what he assumed incorrectly was a nonchalant manner.

“Sure thing! Come on we can cook up something satisfying in big Zeph’s kitchen if you get my drift. Haha, but no we can get snacks.”

The kitchen was in an open area off the right side of the atrium at the end of the hall. The atrium itself had a wide recessed seating area to the left with various sofas and cushions, and a set of curved glass stairs going up to the next level. The kitchen itself was all chrome and white tile, with black surfaces and cabinets. Zephyr started taking out bowls and various other things as Pektil looked out the translucent wall opposite the hallway he’d come down. Sliding glass doors lead out onto a wide patio surrounding a multi-layered pool lit from underneath. The colors slowly shifted as he watched, bathing the patio furniture and exotic plants in a variety of colors underneath the artificial night sky somewhere up above.

He hurried into the kitchen after Zephyr. The draping plants gave the illusion that the patio was a little fenced off area of greenery inside some sort of wild space. The sense of a vast expanse of sky overhead bothered Pektil a little, even though he knew it was fake.

Zephyr had some mixing bowls and metal trays and various spoons and containers set around on the island in the middle of the kitchen. Pektil noticed that the bag of flour was in its own sealed container. Like, the flour is already in a bag, why does the bag need to be in something else? Everything else was the same way. Pektil could also smell the acidic odor of monster energy drink coming from Zephyr. He had no idea how to handle it. He had decided he really wasn’t a fan of monster energy drink.

“What kind of snacks you wanna cook?” Zephyr asked. “Unless that was a euphemism for good ol fashioned fuckin’ if you know what I’m sayin!” Zephyr stuck out hir tongue and thrust hir hips lewdly, hir breasts and monster dong wobbling basically everywhere, “but no seriously what kind of snacks did you want?” Zephyr said, putting on some rubber kitchen gloves.

Pektil figured he could maybe ask Zephyr about stuff in addition to suggesting something to cook.

>>600391
You know what you must do.

You must bake bake dem biscuit biscuits.

>>600391

Dewritos. Breakfast of champions.

It is indeed time to bake bake dem biscuit biscuits

Make some small talk anyway tho. Does sie have any crazy stories we have some crazy stories like the time we wanted to get big and just ended up with an oversized dong or almost consented to vore by accident (don't actually like spill the beans on important stuff like Po or Sommer or Frost Mother you're still a secret agent basically ok Pektil)

Pektil’s expression was stone cold. He put his small, fuzzy hands on the top of the kitchen island. He pulled up and stood on his tippy toes such that the very top of his head peeked over the surface opposite Zephry.

“I wanna bake bake dem biscuit biscuits,” he said.

Zephyr slammed hir begloved hands down on either side of the island, hir tits bouncing, neon nipples juddering as hir jugs wobbled. Hir face was serious as death, green tongue barely hanging out over hir lips.

“You wanna bake bake dem biscuit biscuits?” shi asked.

Pektil heaved his torso onto the island, squatting, face to face with Zephyr across the expanse of gleaming black and various kitchen materials. He leaned forward, looking hir dead in the tits as they gradually stopped wobbling.

“I wanna bake bake dem biscuit biscuits,” he said.

Zephyr leaned forward, tits smushing on the counter and obscuring hir nipples. Hir pink and yellow fur reflecting up from the shiny surface as Pektil stared hir dead in the eyes. He noticed, for the first time, that hir eyes were bright purple. He had literally never really looked at hir eyes before this. Hir huge, jiggly tits, massive, terrifying dick, and even the bright neon tongue were way too distracting for various conflicting reasons.

Hir muzzle was less than a foot away from his face. He breath smelled like sour candy. He noticed the spit on the little bit of tongue he could see was actually also neon green. It was probably sour candy flavored. He really wouldn’t be surprised if it was.

Hir eyes narrowed, long lashes mostly hiding the bright purple irises.

“You wanna bake bake dem biscuit biscuits?” shi asked, hir high-pitched voice low and dangerous.

Pektil leaned forward, his own hands slapping on the counter surface. The end of his nose smashed against her nose, pushing the skin of hir narrow muzzle up some so hir top lip was well past hir teeth. It made hir face look like if a fox was licking a window or something, only a neon pink and yellow fox with neon green gums and tongue. He could smell hir nose. He’d never smelled a nose before, really. His own top lip was similarly pushed up in an equally stupid expression.

“I wanna bake bake,” he said, leaning further foward, both expressions becoming increasingly stupid, “dem biscuit biscuits.” His eyes were narrow, voice a harsh growl although honestly pretty nasally because his muzzle was all scrunched up.

Their teeth were less than an inch apart. He could taste the sour candy from hir exhallations. Their eyes were locked, gladiators struggling in the arena of the mind. The tension was like a red hot iron somethingorother, simile-ing the fuck out of some metaphor or another.

“You get the flour,” Zephyr said, barely intelligible because hir muzzle was all scrunched, “I’ll get the buttermilk.”

******************************

It was some time later as viscous substances were being wiped off the kitchen counter. When Pektil licked his wet lips, the taste was still very much present in his fur. Zephyr was no better, a dollop of sticky material dripping from hir chin.

“Those were some damn good biscuits,” Pektil said.

“You’re telling me!” said Zephyr, too satisfied to bother making a lewd gesture.

Sie sighed contentendly. “Okay, let’s go play some NES.”

And thus, they washed up (mostly their faces and hands) adjourned to the game room.

Mostly, they shared stories and played Bubble Bobble, talking about crazy encounters they’d had and swapping sex tales. Zephyr had had at least as many misadventures as Pektil, always getting hirself into sticky situations but somehow coming out on top (sometimes literally.) Pektil didn’t talk about some of his more serious issues - no need to include Zephyr in that mess - and had a good time as the hours flew by.

After they finished Bubble Bobble, Pektil was sitting on the arm of the couch looking out the window and noticed the spotted anthro horse with wings that had bumped into him earlier. She was wearing a white tunic with a gold rope at the waist but he could tell it was definitely her. She kept flicking her hair out of her eyes as she read some kind of letter that she seemed to be semi-hiding in her hands. Pektil didn’t know if he should make some kind of move, or just play more NES with Zephyr.

>>600585
I was not ready for the sheer intensity of this update.
Eh, if she's trying to deliver something to (or reclaim something from that was actually a real accident and not a dead-drop at all) us, she'll knock. Else she might just be working nearby. Coincidentally.

>>600585
Ask Zephyr if they know her.

Clearly, offer to have sex with Zephyr.

Sleep with Zephyr's giant neon cock.
Platonically.

In fact, maybe you could get a big dakimakura case for it.

>>600673
Let's not!

Hey, if Zephyr knows anything about that big party, does she know what was behind those huge doors?

Pektil wondered if the horse girl was just working nearby or if she was looking for Pektil. Maybe she really had just dropped the bag of gems that coincidentally happened to have the same value as his payment. She was walking pretty slowly and not looking at Zephyr’s house, so he figured she was probably just randomly in that neighborhood.

Pektil tapped Zephyr on the hip. Shi was leaning over digging through the cartridges, so no other part of her was really within arm’s reach.

“Yo,” Pektil said when shi turned around, holding up a fan of several games. “Do you know that horse chick with the splotches?” He pointed right at her, so Zephyr would know which one it was.

Zephyr pursed hir lips and looked up and to the right, off into the corner of the room, Pektil didn’t see anything there, though.

“Uhhhhh, yeah. There’s somethin’ right there on the tip of my brain.” Shi raised and lowered her eyebrows, “more like on the tip of my dick am I right? But no seriously I’m pretty sure she’s a courier and she lives around here.” Zephyr’s face was ever so slightly serious. “Actually, I haven’t seen her around too much recently. She used to go through the same service I did for jobs, but then something happened or something. No clue.” Shi shrugged. “I think she came over to a party at my house one time. Or maybe I came over her at a party at my house, yeah baby, Zephy would like to glaze her donut if you know what I’m saying. Don’t remember her name, though. Camille? Something like that?” Zephyr sort of trailed off.

Pektil thought he probably did know what shi was saying, as far as the glazing went. Shi probably meant semen. Well, monster energy drink gel.

“One last thing,” Pektil said. “I guess I should probably be heading out soon, it’s getting pretty late for me since I woke up. You didn’t want to have sex with me or anything, did you?” Pektil wasn’t exactly sure he even wanted to have sex with Zephyr, but something compelled him to ask.

Zephyr stepped off of the couch and turned around, settling down on hir haunches in front of Pektil. Shi looked him square in the eyes, her boobs only bouncing slightly as shi put hir hands on his shoulders.

“Dude, I am totally cool with just hanging out with you, like I said. Zephyr doesn’t pressure people into having sex, because that is seriously not cool. We can totally be platonic buddies and that’s totally Ok. Plus,” here, shi paused, a drip of drool falling off of the end of her green tongue, “you would literally die.”

Pektil shuddered involuntarily.

For some reason, though, he could picture himself like, putting a big pillowcase over Zephyr’s giant cunt destroyer, and maybe the pillowcase could have like, a character drawn on it, and he could snuggle up with it and like, literally sleep with Zephyr’s dick in a platonic sense. It was a really cool plan, he thought, but he wasn’t sure that now was the right time to ask Zephyr if shi wanted to do it. He didn’t have the pillowcase, after all.

Instead, he asked if shi knew anything about the big party or the huge doors.

“Well,” Zephyr began, gesturing animatedly as shi barfed out exposition, “as far as anybody knows, the doors have totally always been there, and they never open. The Authorities and the folks in charge of the authorities live down there right next to it, and some people totally say that it’s to guard them or something, which is crazy if you think about it, because the doors are seriously bigger than fucking...” she gestures more wildly, unable to come up with a sufficiently crude yet accurate metaphor, “uh, fucking anything! So yeah. I was not nearly cool enough to get a gig down at the big party. Those things are like, once every few hundred days or whatever, and you got to be super awesome to even get a service gig or whatever.” Zephyr nudged Pektil with hir elbow and winked, “Plus I heard they have a huge orgy.” Shi nudged him and winked in an even more exaggerated fashion, “like, the absolutely craziest orgy ever.” Shi sighed and winked dreamily, obviously lost in hir crazy orgy fantasy.

It was getting pretty late, but Pektil didn’t really have to leave right now if he didn’t want to. He was supposed to go to those magic stores before he went to sleep, and he didn’t know if he should follow that other courier or ask her anything or what.

>>600681
Well you kind of started the process of leaving, so you could head out to the magic stores and make general passing pleasantries at the other courier on your way, if she's still milling around out there.

Yeah, don't get in, like, a deep conversation with that house lady. Just kind of nod as you pass, like a secret agent..let her make the first move.

Hey, while you're out at the magic shops there's no reason you couldn't, like, SHOP for a big pillowcase? So what do you want on it? Don't think Sommer, don't think Sommer, that would be really weird.

>>600681
>Leave
While staying with a friend is fun, you've things to do! Definitely tell hir, that you'have to do this again some time, though. Maybe once there are no pressing obligations, if shi knows what you mean. You mean pressing urgent important stuff, is what you mean.

If this person was a spy delivering us a secret package we shouldn't get involved with them anymore. You have no good reason to go talk to her. I guess no good reason to HIDE from her as you leave, either.

But yeah, call it a night and go home, but tell Zephyr you had a great time and you should hang out again sometime when things clear up for you.