After AnimeCon 2: Wholesome Drudgery

    I feel like it’s dangerous to my psyche to be at this constant low simmering of horny when there’s nothing at all happening, Kelly observed. On the one hand, the harem has me shaping up and becoming more wholesome and having a healthier mindset towards relationships. On the OTHER hand, the tool it uses to shape me is this absolutely addictive psychoactive magic cum that constantly has my mind steeped in these stupidly raunchy thoughts and has my body amped up to FUCK.

    She drummed itching-for-trouble fingers across the countertop of the checkout station as she considered her predicament.

    Several customers were browsing across the store at an impossibly sedate pace, and Kelly could do naught but watch, because there was nothing to do. An old retired lady pushed an empty green Dollarydoos shopping cart along an aisle as if it was her walker, peering through her bifocal lenses at each and every item as if searching for what was missing in her life. Two rows down, another woman was taking up decorative tealight holders one by one and carefully comparing them with a drowsy expression. She’d been doing that for what seemed like ten minutes already, which was difficult to fathom.

    They cost a single buck each, lady, Kelly wanted to call across the store to advise. If it’s such a momentous decision that you REALLY can’t decide which one you prefer, how about you just… buy them both? Listen broad, you have an Amoureux handbag tucked under your arm there. For the price of one of those purses, you could buy like NINE ENTIRE AISLES of items here. Find a hobby or something to do with your life, please.

    Instead Kelly swallowed down her advice, and tried to empty her thoughts and achieve a state of serenity. It was difficult for boredom and irritation to overcome the increasingly debauched sexual fantasies which plagued her thoughts, and in the end she found herself nibbling on her lip.

    Idle minds are the devil’s playthings indeed…

    Emily had scribbled out a hasty promise on the whiteboard this morning that led to certain anticipations, and now Kelly couldn’t stop picturing shutting up their resident kinky tomboy by instead having that cute face planted down there between her spread thighs. While normally seducing a ‘straight’ girl into going a little bi or experimenting a little was more awkward and fumbling, Kelly knew that the throughline of connective sexual magic would ensure that it turned into some absurd incredible otherworldly pleasure experience anyways.

    Her hair seems so soft and tufty, Kelly mused. I haven’t taken many opportunities to just play with it, run my hands through it. Now I can’t get the idea of clutching her head against my honeypot as she laps me up...

    As inattentive daydreams were wont to do, her imaginings morphed across various scenarios and included different participants—Stephanie featuring in them prominently, though there were now special guest appearances by new faces such as Candace the librarian, and Joy the opening shift clerk. In one, Kelly was making out with a nervous and unsure Candace as Brian stood behind the woman, lifting up her skirt and caressing unguarded buttocks. In another, their roles were reversed and Brian was at the front french-kissing Joy, while Kelly had the shy and confused MILF sandwiched in from behind.

    Mmm-mMmmhh, Joy does fill out those jeans she wears… Kelly thought as she felt her thighs twitch. While Brian has her distracted drowning into one of those mouth-melting kisses he’s so good at, my hands are going to town on that ass of hers. And then finally reaching around to undo her button, zip down her fly and tug all that stretched denim down those big buns and—

    The jingle of the Dollarydoos door interrupted her descent into depravity, causing Kelly to jerk with surprise as if she’d been caught in the act.

    It was just another pair of customers however, this time a mother with her young daughter. With conscious effort Kelly composed herself and looked around her station for something—anything—to occupy time for the rest of her shift, but there was nothing. Her receipt roll was still adequate and the next one was ready to swap in. The plastic shopping bags with the store logo were full and the shelf beneath them had more in waiting. There hadn’t been enough sales today to warrant needing new rolls of change.

    Checkout station aside, the rest of the store was in pristine shape from wandering about restocking things earlier. The days here were so slow that Kelly could remember what a customer had bought simply so that she could busy herself walking to the back afterwards to fetch a replacement item to slot into the bare spot on the shelf. Finding something productive to do was becoming difficult as days of this wore on. Though Patricia was over the moon with the apparent industrious work ethic and kept talking about a raise, it now seemed more likely that Kelly would be fired for being caught masturbating behind the counter or something.

    Really am going THAT kind of stir-crazy… Kelly stifled a groan of frustration. Am I just REALLY into ass? Stephie had that crazy trouble bubble going on, and these young moms I’m meeting lately have the crazy wide HIPS from having a kid that just drive me up the wall.

    While musing on about slowly corrupting the local MILFS, lewd thoughts about finding new and perverse ways to fluster Emily were… manageable, thinking too long or too hard about Stephanie or Brian in particular became downright dangerous. With Stephanie, her daydreams inevitably began to color with melancholy and pull her mood into a depressive spiral, because Steph being absent from her life right now was like missing a part of herself. With Brian, it was a slippery slope because if she allowed herself to fantasize about him fucking her, she wouldn’t be able to stop. At all.

    Crazy that the SAFE thoughts are feeding him MILFS or being his partner in crime as we seduce every new hot chick we come across, Kelly thought as she shifted from one foot to the other with restless energy. If I dare to think about him PLOWING ME, then that thought just GROWS AND GROWS until it fills the whole fucking sky, until this heady context of HIM PLUS ME turns into this unstoppable apocalyptic THE MOON IS FALLING sort of scenario.

    It was a rather privileged problem to have—Kelly was realizing that the sex with her boyfriend was TOO fucking good, and if she let it, him dicking her into oblivion would occupy every process of her brain. When they fucked, their interpersonal chemistry got twisted up into realms of might and magic and the results were the cataclysmic destruction of starfall meeting earth. When he pistoned into her with that delicious smacking rhythm of flesh slapping upon flesh, pure unstoppable bliss filled every—

    “I think I’m ready!”

    The indecisive shopper with the seven-thousand dollar purse interrupted Kelly before fidgeting fingers wandered towards places they shouldn’t. A glance at the items as they were placed atop her counter revealed that the woman had selected neither of the tealight holders she had been hemming and hawing over for a full ten minutes. Instead, several birthday cards with envelopes and a bottle of generic brand kitchen cleaner had been deemed worthy of this very discerning customer’s business today.

    “Are you sure?” Kelly asked as she donned her customer service mask. “You were uh, really eyeballing those candle things...”

    “Oh, I know, those are so cute!” the woman let out an aggrieved sigh. “I take another look at those every time I come by! I just haven’t managed to pull the trigger on them, just yet. I like the electric ones rather than the real ones because they’re so much safer, but you guys don’t carry those ones in the same designs! And, they’re so cute. One of these days I might just have to make an exception. I’ll probably burn my whole house down, hah! I’ve always been so paranoid about letting real candles burn anywhere unattended. My husband thinks I’m crazy, but—”

    I don’t know what’s worse, Kelly thought as she passed the barcode for the bottle and then the cards through her scanner. That these poor old bags are THIS desperate for anyone to talk to, or that I’m actually getting so fucking bored that I’m starting to indulge them. Dollarydoos in the inner city? No time for chit-chat, take your shit and quit holding up my line. Dollarydoos in Seneca? A haunting ground for listless old ladies looking for someone to divulge their life story to. And then me.

    To her dismay, this woman’s story had a rather extended epilogue, and then when Kelly bagged her items and passed her the receipt with a polite response to indicate she was still listening, there was an encore as the lady found a way to string the topic of fire safety to a relative who’d been hospitalized after messing around with a jug of gasoline at a bonfire. Today Kelly learned that melting plastic was extraordinarily dangerous when splashed all over human skin—something she could have definitely inferred on her own.

    I mean, but who knows? Kelly thought. Maybe we’ll rope in some new girl to the harem, and her magic element will be PLASTIC, and these little details will suddenly become relevant? Monique with all her plastic surgery comes to mind… but, what would her color be?

    It was uncharitable thoughts like these that kept her going as the woman wrapped up her story only to set her luxury brand purse on the counter and pull out a paper checkbook. For a three-dollars-and-tax purchase, this well-to-do customer was more than willing to take several more minutes out of her day—and by extension Kelly’s day—to search out a pen and then slowly fill in all of the necessary minutia of writing out a personal check in careful, elegant handwriting.

    I’m gonna lose it. I’m losing it… I’ve… I’ve lost it? Kelly lamented as something precious slipped away second by second and out of her grasp forever. Just as I really get my rocks off by corrupting innocent girls into sin, I too am in exchange becoming contaminated by this weird, boring… wholesome drudgery. I have been LESSENED as a person, as a CONCEPT, and have become more boring and bland simply by enduring this entire experience.

    The old Kelly of years past wouldn’t have had the patience for this, and Kelly feared what a future Kelly might be reduced to—would she someday receive Sends from a future Kelly that had grown to be entirely unfamiliar to her? One who was so bored and lonely that she gabbed on and on about being unable to decide on the correct dollar variety store junk tealight holder? Or, would she instead someday receive Sends from a future Kelly informing her that she had been fired from her cushy low-effort job because she got caught flicking her bean when she thought no one was looking? Or streaking naked through the early morning store when there were no customers in an effort to feel SOMETHING.

    That’s another thing—why am I the only one in the harem who seems to be into anything remotely to do with exhibitionism? Kelly wanted to complain. And, everyone else gets all touchy and self-conscious about it. We’re all super fucking hot, anyone who sees us should just be thankful.

    “—So, you always want to keep a fire extinguisher handy!” The woman’s tone indicated she might be almost done now. “Even if you’re just burning things outside. Never know when it might come in handy!”

    “For sure, yeah,” Kelly gave her a serious nod. “Hey, you have a nice one!”

    “Oh, you too!” The woman beamed at her. “Take care, now.”

    As the woman gathered up her bag and left, out of reflex Kelly turned to meet the next customer in line—except, there was none. The store was almost empty, with just those few other shoppers quietly exploring down the aisles at their leisure. Feeling a little like a lobster that was being boiled too slowly to notice enough to properly panic, Kelly adjusted the neckline of her uniform blouse, and then made her way to the back of the store to grab a bottle of kitchen cleaner to fit into the spot on the shelf that had just opened up.

* * *

    When her shift ended, Kelly didn’t feel tired like she would have at her previous posting but she did feel strangely numbed. She wasn’t sweaty, her nice new work outfit still seemed fresh and neat, and her body no longer had that immediate craving for a cigarette as she stepped outside. If she were to sum up her feelings, she felt flat, like flattened, like the act of going through her day as a dollar variety store clerk here in upscale Seneca was pushing her into the mold of some strange and different person.

    She crossed the sidewalk of the plaza and was just about to cut across the rest of the parking lot when a vehicle pulled up next to her.

    “Kell!” Brian called. “Hey, hop in.”

    “Brian?” Kelly jolted.

    Color and meaning seemed to surge back into Kelly’s awareness with a soundless rush, and her spirits leapt up from that vacant, hollow sense of loss to the dizzying heights of excitement, elation, and absolute interest. She hurried to pull the nearest rear door open and hop inside, thrilled that he had remembered when she got off and swung by to pick her up. It was little things like that which really got to her, little acts of kindness or thoughts towards her convenience that were an area of relationships Kelly was brand new to.

    That’s me, Kelly snarked. So caught up in the FUCK FUCK FUCKING that little things like… uh… damn, no, I really am still hung up on the fucking.

    In every sense of the idea, she wanted to jump his bones right now.

    A long, excruciating work day where her libido was at a constant simmer had her ready to grope for the release to lower his seat back so that she could start wrenching off clothing and putting her mouth all over him—it took Kelly a second to realize that Christine was also here, sitting prim and proper in the passenger’s seat. She looked… tense, and from the uneasy glance she caught Christine throwing towards Brian, Kelly forced herself to reevaluate the situation.

    “What’s wrong?” Kelly asked. “What happened?”

    “Uhh,” Brian let out a nervous laugh as he started the car forward again. “Shit. I guess I should say—how much do you know about Christine’s parents? Her dad? From the future Sends and stuff?”

    “Um,” Kelly took a moment to think about it. “Nothing?”

    “Nothing?” Brian sounded surprised. “Because, uh. They’re Masters. Her dad and then his new wife, his personal assistant or whatever.”

    Her mouth fell open in shock, but Kelly couldn’t find anything else to say. She had grown comfortable in thinking that their immediate future held no major obstacles for them, because she’d gleaned so many bits and pieces of different futures from the big daisy-chain Send back then at the convention.

    Chloe had MASTERS for parents? Kelly struggled to digest the realization. Did she know? No, stupid question, she couldn’t have known. She wasn’t in on it. But, we just NOW find out about it? I guess Brian’s dopey sense of right and wrong made him take her by that way to pay them back the money, after all?

    “So—nothing? No hints at all from the futures?” Brian asked. “Because, yeah we were totally blindsided, there. I mean we got out of it okay, mostly? But, we did have to call in a favor from Emily’s mom, and we will have to pay that back somehow.”

    “Okay, uh,” Kelly tried to stop stalling out in panic and think. “No, never got any of that kind of impression from the futures? I think—well—I guess I can see why I wouldn’t?”

    “Why’s that?” Brian asked.

    “Most of the knowledge came from, well,” Kelly paused to organize her thoughts. “From timelines that either got fucked over by Chloe, so we wouldn’t have had anything to do with meeting her folks, or timelines where we had the uh—the silent, sorta super broken Christine. I guess we never wound up interacting with her parents in those timelines, either? Which I guess checks out. I’m not sure what we would have told them about why their daughter was… extremely traumatized or mentally unsound or how we would have explained what happened.”

    “Okay,” Brian took a moment to parse that as the streets of Seneca rolled by their windows. “So, you’re saying is—our timeline is different because we didn’t let Chloe get assaulted, and then she also didn’t remain Chloe afterwards. When most of the other ones went either one way or the other. Which sets our current timeline here out as unique?”

    “I think so?” Kelly guessed. “I just. Yeah, I didn’t think we’d have that kind of blind spot pop up. We have to remember that while a lot of things will play out similarly, they aren’t exactly the same. Gonna be more and more different as time goes on, too. Just, hopefully new futures on our ‘path’ will hopefully start to appear and pick up the slack. The little heads up about Actress coming to the bonfire in disguise was from a broken Christine timeline, I think? Had to be, since in all of the vengeant Chloe ones kept me from meeting your friends at the bonfire, and a lot more changed a lot faster. Was it, uh. Hey. Were they—confrontational? With Christine’s parents? What happened? Did you guys have to like, escape?”

    “It wasn’t so bad,” Brian assured her. “I think Claire—Christine’s dad’s new wife—figured out just enough to, well. Not bend the Rules, because I don’t think they’re allowed much bend or flexibility with them, but she was able to immediately exploit a very tiny loophole, to buy us some time?”

    “Then, we called Actress,” Christine added. “She has some sort of… connections that are able to smooth things over temporarily. We hope. Just waiting to hear back on how it went, or um, or maybe we’ll have to go to her and ask?”

    “That was my next stop, Emily’s there anyways,” Brian confirmed. “So uh. If we do need to bolt, it’s just gonna be us and the clothes on our backs, whatever we have with us right now. Either off to the fair grounds early out there where the renaissance faire is held, ‘til we can figure things out, or—I don’t know. Holing up with Emily’s mom at their place, worst comes to worst.

    “Steering clear of the apartment or any known acquaintances. Until we know for sure we’re safe, I don’t think there’s anything else we can do. Maybe hide way out in the woods somewhere, and Rebecca can meet up with us with camping equipment? I’m not fucking around with Masters and magic bullshit, not if they’re wormed through government strata and have records they can pull.”

    “Alright,” Kelly said. “Yeah. Are we okay? We’re okay?”

    “We’re… okay,” Christine said. “I think we’re okay.”

    “We’re gonna be okay,” Brian decided. “So, hah. That’s been our day? How was work?”

    “I spent the whole day horny, bored, and confused?” Kelly let out a laugh. “The only part of that that’s changed, is that I’m not bored anymore. So, uh—we’re really doing this? Does Emily know? About Actress?”

    “Not yet, I don’t think,” Brian said. “Her note this morning said she was figuring out her powers, though.”

    “Hoooo boy,” Kelly said. “Okay, okay. I’ve met Actress before, just. Back then, she was acting. She was Actress. Now, it feels like we’re going to meet her when she’s uh, when she’s really ‘in her role’ as Emily’s mom. I’m weirdly more nervous about that? ‘Officially’ meeting my girlfriend’s mom. More concerned than I am about the Masters.”

    “We talked to her in person literally last night,” Brian said. “Well… sort of in person? At least?”

    “That was absolutely Actress,” Kelly countered. “And, we were definitely only ever communicating with one of her illusions? We don’t even know for sure if she was anywhere near us last night. For all we know, she projects her lightshows down to us from a lunar base on the fucking moon.”

    “I’m not worried about Emily’s mom,” Brian said. “She’s always been really cool. I’m way more worried about the Masters.”

    “I really don’t think the Masters would ever try to move in on Actress’ turf,” Kelly shrugged. “She’s uh. She’s pretty fucking scary when she wants to be.”

    “Hey, so are we,” Brian tried to sound positive. “At least, sometimes. I uh, I definitely wouldn’t say no to a Send or two from any of the futures, if you’re able to snag any real quick?”

    “I don’t think I pick up much of anything too big unless I’m… properly infused with magic,” Kelly admitted, wetting her lips. “So yeah, what say you? Are we in a huge rush, or do you have time to fuck my face and shoot huge loads down my throat?”

    “I mean…hah,” Brian considered it. “That is really tempting… but, I think not for right now? Would uh. Would us just making out some like we did last time be enough?”

    “I’m just saying,” Kelly chuckled. “It’s been like… what, three days? Since my last big infusion. I’m not like running on empty, or like to where the red is leaving my hair again? But, I’m maybe not at the top of my game. Magically, or whatever. It sounded like Christy here got the last batch? Or, she got most of it, and then Emily rabbited away with the rest? Whatever she could scoop up into a jar? Christy—how’s your mirror shield coming?”

    “Uhh,” Christine froze, looking alarmed at being put on the spot and blushing. “It… well, I. I have lots of silver? Which is… I guess to say that I don’t really know how to, um. Hold it up, like I did back when I was almost a vampire. As an anti-magic thing. Reflective thing. On the uh, on the blood magic thing, it just stayed up there on its own? It was a mirror hanging over me. On the charm path, it’s… weird? Because I more… embody the mirror? I am the mirror, now? I mean I was before with the other way too, just… it’s even more different, now? It’s hard to explain.”

    That might be the most I’ve heard her say all at once, since she became Christine? Kelly thought as she observed the girl. I’m glad she’s opening up a bit more around Brian, at least. Back before, she was clamming up SOLID around him.

    “Okay, cool?” Kelly said. “Not criticizing, or anything. I wouldn’t know jack shit about my own power stuff, if some future me hadn’t come and just laid it all out for me. And, even then I don’t think I really understand all the different timeline shit. Nor do I want to.”

    “What’s Emily’s power?” Brian asked. “Should I ask? I know she wanted to work it out first, just, well. You know. In case it’s handy to know, or relevant?”

    “Alright, I can tell you,” Kelly said, feigning a sigh. “But—you didn’t hear the secret from me, you’re gonna have to say you figured it out on your own, or through the dreamscape or something. Okay? I’m serious. She would be so pissed with me.”

    “Sure,” Brian said. “Yeah.”

    “Emily’s power,” Kelly began with a creeping sense of anticipation. “Once per day, it lets her summon a buffet tray with food from anywhere in the world. Yeah—I know. Somewhere between filling their tray with stuff from some random buffet and taking it back to their table, it’ll pop the tray out of their hands, and spirit it away to Emily. Could be pizza, could be Indian food, Chinese—it can be anything, she doesn’t control that, or get to pick.”

    “...What the fuck?” Brian blurted out, actually turning his eyes from the road to twist and look back at her for a moment. “Bullshit.”

    “Dead serious,” Kelly lied with a straight face. Ahhh, Emily. My sweet little Emily. You owe me for this.

    “That sounds…” Christine tried to hide a wince by pretending to look thoughtful. “Exactly like something Emily would make up?”

    “That sounds exactly like something Emily would make up,” Brian agreed. “In fact, I’m pretty sure way back when at some point, that was one of the superpowers she most wished she could have?”

    “I don’t know what to tell you?” Kelly stonewalled them. “It’s Emily. Did you expect her to get some sort of… normal charm power? Instead of a really fucking bizarre one?”

    “I mean… when you put it like that…” Brian let out an unsure laugh. “But, I mean—come on. You’re fucking with us, right?”

    “You tell me?” Kelly chuckled. “You’ve felt her in the dreamscape, whenever you two connect. She’s blue, her thing’s like a river, sorta. I guess… the river just carries specific things from one place to another? That kinda makes sense, right?”

    “Buffet trays?” Brian still sounded skeptical. “Why would that even—”

    “Filled buffet trays, but yeah,” Kelly clarified with a shrug. “She never gets an empty one. S’far as I know, anyways. And, there’s the once per day rule. You have to keep that in mind, too. Once a day, based on whenever she summoned last. But remember—you didn’t hear any of this from me. Emily wants to surprise you with it.”

    “So then…” Christine glanced from Kelly to Brian. “If we want to find out what Emily’s thing really is, we’re gonna have to ask Actress?”

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