Becoming Monsters 2: Ch. 41

Browsing over the numbers, she paused at the bottom of the listed section marked Collection. There was something there: it looked broken, flickering for a moment before disappearing.

What the...? Honoka blinked, pulling her Status up again and again, but the glitch didn't reappear. Did I imagine it?

Honoka was no expert. Yet she knew at least the basics of how a Status worked. It represented the numerical values making up a person, it was how people reacted and understood their Race and Class. In Honoka's case, it was how she utilized her Class, taking desires and placing them upon the wives she collected. So a glitch at the bottom of her Collection was a big deal because it meant she might have collected someone or something else. Or it could be nothing, proof Honoka was tired and worried about Diane.

On impulse - maybe a little scared of losing her mind - Honoka decided to focus on her Class Feature, getting the menu choices:

The bottom remained unreadable, though another letter had appeared. Regardless, Honoka wasn't desperate enough to choose something she couldn't read. Gleipnir's Binding had the opposite problem, she couldn't pick something so clearly made to enslave her wives. Which left Vǫlur's and Útangarðr.

AiU is new, Honoka thought, thinking hard about what she knew of Norse mythology. Útangarðr is the opposing force to innangarðr, or the philosophies roughly meaning "without the enclosure" and "within the enclosure." Law and Chaos, útangarðr is the side of chaos, but in ancient Norse thinking this wasn't a bad thing, seen as a form of letting loose from the structures of woman to embrace nature. Hmmmm.

Honoka still picked Vǫlur's, thinking it might give her access to magic, then dumped her four Attribute points into Intelligence. Just as Wisdom increased how quickly she regenerated MP, Intelligence increased how much MP she pooled and MP is what powered allocation powers. Closing everything down, Honoka returned to thinking towards her feathered paramour, only at a faster rate as her mind sped up from the new Intelligence.

Miaka and Honoka didn't say anything throughout the Shiny district, maybe wary of the normal prejudice permeating the section of Harvardtown dominated by human men. Once they crossed over into the Lair, though, they relaxed amid the Racial families living down here in a place where people didn't have to worry about being something else and the only thing universal was acceptance.

Honoka wanted to talk to Miaka about what happened at the hospital, but she had no idea how. Unwilling to let things stand unaddressed, she blurted out the first thing she could think of. "How was your trip?"

"Tiring," Miaka replied, glancing absently around, then guiding the pair towards a smoothie shop. "My extended family collectively own and operate a chain of konbinis throughout the southern prefectures and into parts of the Philippines. It sounds like a giant business empire, but the reality is a bunch of individual families running small mini marts are all poor together, each zealous about small time retail. Every time I visit, it turns into my mother and father suggesting they can get me my own store at a great location in Osaka and they know a hardworking local boy. And then every other conversation is some kind of passive aggressive jab at my life choices."

"Hmm," Honoka replied noncommittally, waving Miaka to order for her. "And now that you're married?"

"Unfortunately, not much different." Miaka picked two HoneyDewies, paying and handing off one cup to Honoka as they continued home. "You are my third marriage, my parents think you will soon be my third ex."

Silence returned, a tension between them as Honoka rehearsed over and over in her head some way to find to the real conversation. "Miaka..."

"I know I have a problem," Miaka replied quickly, cutting in with a beaked clack.

"Not a problem, I don't think." Honoka wasn't sure what to say, back pedaling.

"It started with my second husband, the abuser." The kikiyaon paused, finishing her smoothie in one long draw. "It wasn't like it was one day he was a caring person and the next he turned into a wife beating scumbag. We were both in the circuit and a sparring match would eventually turn into other kinds of matches. I wasn't helpless, but he outweighed me: in a brawl, an extra hundred pounds matters. At first, he was caring, mindful to make sure I wouldn't suffer an injury. Then he started to get off on it. It was so subtle, I didn't realize what was happening. Unconsciously I was trying to find ways to regain control, I think. I got it in my head that if I couldn't win a fight, I'd control by adding the thrill of public sexual matches. Then the Change happened."

Honoka stayed silent, finishing her drink absently. In a cynical part of her head, she wondered if she was a broken woman magnet or if all women were actually this broken to begin with. They reached the compound, but they paused in front of the temporary plywood gate leading inside, this conversation important for both of them.

"I don't think my husband hated me at first, but it wasn't a few months before I found him making more and more excuses to not spar or spend time with me. I grew desperate, finding myself waylaying him in public more and more. My final act to try and save my marriage was a child, which is when he let me know how much of a Racist douche he actually was. Everything became clear, all the little things suddenly obvious. I broke his arm and walked out."

Miaka looked away while she talked, her face hidden. Honoka moved close and gently pulled her around. The normally strong and sure woman wept, unable to meet Honoka's eye, turning away again when Honoka tried.

"Do you hate me?" Miaka asked, sobbing strongly as she wiped eyes with a winged forearm.

"No, I love you," Honoka replied, reaching for a hug. "I'm suicidal and have an addiction to grow myself and others through magical numbers. Diane has an actual psychosis from being chained in a basement for years. Banda felt useless for so long and lost in the large crowd of her family that now she has a chance to contribute, she's overworking herself to death. Quinn hates failure so much she might actually self-destruct if she ever does something wrong and Padmava's husband died less than a year ago. You saw what Dolly went through." Honoka turned Miaka's head again and this time their eyes did meet. "Eve, for all her Racial masochism, might be the most well-adjusted one among us."

Miaka chuffed a laugh, blinking her tears away and hugging Honoka back with a smile. "So you aren't mad?"

"Didn't say that," Honoka replied, keeping the hug going. "Would have definitely preferred you told me all this before today. And..." Honoka grimaced, though Miaka couldn't see it, "I may be willing to indulge this side of you, but some compromise will happen along with ways to mitigate the damage. And something else."

"What do you have in mind?" Miaka asked, the smile clear in her voice.

Honoka explained her idea with a leer.

Shrugging, Miaka was game. "I'll get some rope."

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

Harvardtown existed within the third Floor of the Harvard Dungeon. A wide open cavern hundreds of feet underground, twenty thousand city inhabitants often forgot they were anywhere other than a hot and sweltering rainforest, so convincing was the dungeon's magic. The city itself spread out over miles, but only a third of the entire floor was domesticated. The other two thirds were still a dungeon, a typical forest growing in a cavern lit with ambient and unending light.

Other than a few training expeditions for newbie delvers, the jungle outside of Harvardtown remained empty except for the low-leveled monsters dwelling there. Which is why those monsters perked up when the faintest sounds of music sounded in the wet air.

♫ ...around... ♫

Used to being prey, the weak monsters went into instant alert, trying to locate the new threat.

♫ ...what you seeeee... ♫

Whatever this was disrupting the forest, it was loud and coming in fast. Some of the more skittish of the monsters were already scrambling for the safety of their dens.

♫ ...believe I'm everywhere... ♫

Now the forest heard flapping, causing the few monsters brave enough to peer up and find where their doom would come. What they saw caused even brainless monsters to pause and wonder.

♫ Is the answer to a Neverending Stooooryyyy ♫

Miaka, naked - boosted with all the attributes to spare between Banda and Padmava - turned the five foot five inches (165 cm) tall owl woman into a human luckdragon. Now over ten feet tall (305 cm) with a wingspan to match, arms like cannons keeping the large avian girl aloft and speeding through the jungle, mist parting in her wake. Over the speakers strapped to her back, two voices cried out in pure joy.

"YEEEEAAAAHHH!!" Honoka and Miaka roared, Miaka diving to scatter monsters that hadn't fled away fast enough. Honoka - taking the opportunity to wear Banda's boobs for the afternoon - had her cock deep inside Miaka and hung free except for various ropes strapping them together, her arms tightly holding onto Miaka's thighs and breast boulders resting on Miaka's tail feathers.

Death never came to those monsters of the third floor, though many were surprised to be rained upon by a white deluge that plopped onto the ground behind the flying red terror, like the most sexual of crop dustings. Some monsters with the capability to think past their animalistic selves dreaded the return of such a terrible creature.