Welldark B2 Ch. 06

However, there was one more article that I wanted, for reasons related but not restricted to BDSM. It was also an article that I had no personal experience with. I didn't have any direct experience with vibrators either, but I had used them on women before and there was not much to guess about how to use them. Same could not entirely be said for what I was about to ask for.

"Can I get a recommendation?" I asked the clerk.

"For the money you are going to make me?" she looked off to the small pile of articles we had gathered. "I'm joking, you can ask me whatever whenever."

"So, we would like to try anal at some point," I confessed, gesturing to Esther.

"He is insistent," she corrected my statement instantly. "I obey because my Karitas usually has good ideas."

The store lady looked at the pile. "Oh, is that what the dynamic is here? Classic," she purred, her smile spreading. "Well, if you're looking for something to... ease into it, as they say, we have... follow me," she circled around the counter and led the way to an area in the tugged away rooms of the first floor. It was the anal section, which I had seen from a distance but I would have only looked at the display with no idea what was a proper starting size. Which was entirely why I had asked. "So, we specifically have this starting box."

She pulled and presented us with the kind of packaging toys of all ages came wrapped in. A plastic window revealed a row of four progressively larger steel butt plugs. The thinnest was little more than a finger while the widest was about three-quarters of my dick at the base. In typical butt plug fashion, they had an onion-esque shape past that base, letting the sphincter mostly close behind the majority of the size. A circular attachment to the end then made certain the entire thing couldn't slip fully in.

"These are all pretty small and let you prepare yourself gradually for anal sex," she explained, with the same passion an artist would use to describe the benefits of different kinds of paint. "Lots of girls I recommended these to were happy with them as a starting kit -- and some of them just stuck with them forever because they did everything they wanted to. We do have glass and silicone versions as well, but steel is typically best for butt plugs. Silicone requires extra lube and glass is... well, its glass. Steel gets to body temperature quickly and has a nice bit of weight to it. Alternatively, there's some small dildos you could use. Usually, it is recommended you try some fingers just to test if you got any interest in the stuff. Not everyone enjoys anal."

"We have tested interest," Esther stated. It had been, as she just described, just me putting a finger in here and there. Had the lady of my love gotten an adverse reaction to that, I would not have cared to try. "How would you recommend using these?" Esther asked, after taking and inspecting the package.

"That depends on how kinky you want to be about it," the woman said with a wink. "Generally speaking, just inserting them when you're about to go to sexy times will do. The butt plugs are less about conditioning your body, your backdoor will do fine unless you are dealing with a real monster cock, and more about getting used to the sensations. You need to be relaxed. Nothing worse for anal than a clenched sphincter. You can also wear them throughout the day. As long as you stay with the small sizes, there shouldn't be any issues in your everyday life. If you get easily excited by anal, it might be recommended to only wear them at home though. Whatever you do, you just scale up as you're comfortable. You should definitely aim for the largest of these four and wear it for a bit before your first experience. Also, make sure there's plenty of lube."

"Is it... hygienic to use them with several people?" Aclysia chimed in. I hadn't talked with her about anal yet. That she was curious was pleasing, although I wondered how much of that curiosity was due to an honest interest in her backdoor and how much from a general want to be of service. "Or would you recommend a second set?"

"These are stainless steel; you can scrub them clean and disinfect them no problem. Could probably throw them into the dishwasher, if you wanted to."

I was a bit weirded out by the idea, although I wasn't exactly sure why. Okay, I knew exactly why, I didn't want something that was in someone's butt to be in the same washing utensil that cleaned what I ate with, but after two hours of treatment with steaming hot water and soap, how many traces of that would really be around?

I was too uncomfortable with the idea to run the experiment. Purely logically speaking, however, she was right that one could almost certainly throw them into the dishwasher. It was about as unorthodox, yet realistically possible, as keeping cockroaches as pets. It disagreed with my sensibilities and that was about the only reason not to do it. Typically, that was a good enough reason.

While all of that went through my head, the explanation continued. "Obviously you shouldn't just pass them back and forth," she explained, "and, on the risk of kink-shaming, I don't recommend licking them either after they were in use. Magic helps in getting rid of a bunch of nasty bugs, but you still have them until the diagnosis, so keeping it as clean as possible is recommended. Provided you clean them between uses, sharing the same set should not be an issue though."

"Noted," Esther hummed and turned the box in her hand a little while longer. Finally, she nodded. "We will take this set. The recommendation is appreciated."

"A pleasure to help," she hummed. "Anything else you may want an opinion on?"

We looked at each other and considered. Basic bondage, basic vibrators, basic anal... I tried to think of something else we could need at the present time, but came up short. There was one item Esther and I had briefly considered - that being a strap-on - but had discarded that for two reasons. Number one, there was no reason to own a strap-on until there was a second woman in my harem (it sure as figurative hell would not be used on me). That was the financial reason. Number two was that I didn't really enjoy the idea of even a fake dick in the bedroom. Having the monopoly on deep penetration was a concept I rather enjoyed and the aesthetics of girls fingering and licking each other pleased me more than them fucking each other.

We'd see how hard my stance on that remained over the months and years, as the harem expanded and my 'phallus monopoly' was challenged by rising demand. Then again, if I curated who I chased carefully, they'd be all too happy to wait until it was their turn. I very much did want my harem to be overwhelmingly filled with submissives. Maybe just a few switches so they could play with each other when I wasn't around.

In any case, for today we had everything we wanted. "No, that will be all. Much like the caterpillar first enters the chrysalis, we shall enter a state of learning with what we have right now."

The clerk lady raised an eyebrow, but did not comment. I filed her under the ever-growing category of 'unappreciative of splendid rhetoric and elaborate metaphors'. The rest of our business happened swiftly. Between three bundles of BDSM rope, a ring gag, a remote-control vibrator, and a butt plug starter set, we were 273 Darks poorer. That was about half a month's worth of meals and an expense we had saved towards with all of the bonus money we kept on getting.

Each of us (Aclysia's finances were effectively joined with ours already) received a 750 Dark allowance each month. On a regular day, about 15 Darks were expended on food. Cooking for three people was more efficient, so we spent about 40 Darks a day on food expenses. A month was 30 days, so that was about 1200 Darks out of our total allowance of 2250 Darks a month. Our side jobs earned us another 1000 Darks per month, for a total of 3250. Then there were the additional, regular household expenses, like detergent, soap, the delivery crates, entertainment subscriptions, new bras, and so on. In aggregate, our reliable monthly expenses ran about 1800 Dark. That left 1450 as disposable income.

A pretty good sum and a perfect example of why pooling resources was so much better. Had we kept separate, we would have paid more for food and each of us would have needed to consider buying certain items, like my laptop, separately. Together, we had money to spare for these larger expenses.

The beauty was that Esther, Aclysia, and I were all what could be firmly described as 'geniuses'. I didn't mean that in the way of absurdly inflated IQs, but in all the other ways that mattered. It was abnormal for people to have their Artefact awakened before attending a cosmic university, just as it was abnormal to figure out the Anomalia bond in the first lesson. Our talents in this and other fields regularly netted us the bonus pay of gracious teachers eager to reward excellence.

Which meant we had more and more money to spare. Not that we lacked ideas on what to spend it on.

"Crate or handbag?" Esther asked, while readying for check-out.

"We're going to do a lot more walking, so crate is easier," I stated my opinion.

"I agree with Karitas," Aclysia stated.

Esther hesitated for a little bit. I could see the calculation inside that pretty head of hers, considering whether it was better to spend the money for an extra crate or just spend some time slightly uncomfortable. In the end, she surrendered to our opinions and pressed the button. The cash register scanned in the screen of the Ashod, the transaction took place, and money had exchanged hands.

"I'll see you again," the clerk lady cheerily sent us off.

___________________________________________________________________________

As much as I enjoyed buying sex toys, the real highlight of this entire trip was always going to be our stint into the alchemy shop. That was, not least of all, because my reason for this sudden and clear interest in getting the laboratory going right now was as sexual in nature as buying the toys.

About a month back, my efforts to try and make an Ephrogaea Pill were discontinued. That pill, which would have had the capacity to boost my cum production considerably and make it taste sweet to boot, was simply too advanced a project and the materials too rare for the school to continue providing me with them. Since then, I had changed to a humbler project, something within my reach: aphrodisiac massage oil.

The good news was that I had already succeeded in making a batch. The bad news was that I had only done so by recipe. Since the lesson on the Gestalt Effect had taught me that I had a libido-tinted creation process (something that came as a surprise to nobody) I wanted to learn how to create the aphrodisiac massage oil by feeling. To do so would heighten the effect of my psyche on the product and, for an aphrodisiac, boost its effectiveness.

Since I had succeeded with a recipe, I was certain I could succeed in freeform too. Alchemy was one half science and one half esoteric art. What I needed was the additional opportunity to practice. Getting Esther on my side when it came to putting together a workshop in one of the empty rooms of the mansion had been easy. Self-sufficiency was something she craved, after all.

"You have the list prepared?" Esther asked, when the shop came into view.

"Of course, of course," I assured her, while squeezing her and Aclysia's butts. The restriction the lady of my purse had put on me was that I needed to have every last item I needed picked out in advance. There was no snooping around the alchemy shop for whatever I wanted. We would go in there, place the order, and let it be delivered before I was tempted to buy the type of condenser I would only need two years from now.

Which I understood, in part, but wasn't Esther being a bit too strict here? Maybe I was going to make leaps and bounds. Within three months, I could have been at the border of the Ephrogaea Pill or, even better, the Tultin Compound. That alchemical masterpiece induced in the body a transmutation that permanently altered the sweat glands to spread pheromones at will. That sounded a lot lewder than it was, since those pheromones could not force any kind of horniness. The primary benefit was that I could let subconsciously noticed fragrances reflect my mood, which made communication a lot easier, inside and outside the Anomalia. It also ensured that I would smell pleasantly at all times.

I was about to bring all of this up with Esther, when I found her hard eyes already staring in reprimand. "You know me too well, my Queen," I conceded, before a single word of discussion was exchanged.

"Karitas," Aclysia chimed in, "may I suggest you continue your attempt to rein in your spending habits? Relying on Esther as a crutch will not serve you."

"...I'm proud of you for following all of that non-verbal communication," I told her.

"I have been studying you two," Aclysia responded, a cute little smile playing around her pink lips. "I aim to please, my King and Queen to be."

"You are exceptional at it," Esther said what I wanted to, using much fewer words. I just nodded in agreement.

The shop we were heading towards was in a whole different ballpark than the two sex toy stores. One of those had been cold merchandise, the other hobby shop. This - this was a warehouse. Not an actual warehouse, just a shop with the size and feel of a warehouse, like Labyrinth in Hell or Ikea on Earth. It occupied an inner-city block and had a pretty clear name: Alchemy General.

I would have gone there regardless of Taurus' recommendations. Unless one needed custom pieces, this was the place to be. The code I had been given would doubtlessly be handy though. We entered through the main gate and found ourselves in the kind of hall someone would expect plants and building materials to be lined up in. That was, in part, because there were plants and building materials lined up there.

Alchemy came with a whole host of side tasks. Herbalism, primarily, and the gardening that was attached to that. Other crafts like animal husbandry, hunting, breeding, engineering, and a whole lot of other things could all be tangled up in the requisites for alchemy as well. It was no wonder that a general store would therefore offer what could be needed for all of that.

I glanced at Esther and again she stared at me. This time, I did not heed the silent warning. "I mean, maybe starting to raise my own-"

"No."

"Just a few..."

"No."

"You won't even let me fini-"

"No, wasteful Karitas," she interrupted me for the last time. "No. No. No. A thousand times no. You will acquire what you need for the goal you have and nothing more."

I grumbled but surrendered. Happy wife, happy life, as they said and Esther was my wife with another title. That was what an Anomalia was, for all intents and purposes. Had I married quick and young? Yes. Had I thought a lot about it? I think that was self-evident.

With my surrender, I defaulted back to the original plan. Quickly, we located an unoccupied worker. Unlike shops like this on regular worlds, this warehouse of a business was pretty scarcely visited. Its size was outsized for the actual demand for alchemical utensils, no doubt. Welldark's economy was, in large part, an illusion.

"I'd like to buy everything on this list," I told them, presenting them with what I had compiled in terms of utensils and ingredients I expected to need for my endeavour.

"Some of that isn't being sold to first years without qualification..." the man said apologetically.

"I have this right here," I said and handed over the piece of paper Taurus had given me. The man blinked a couple of times. Then he spoke up again.

"If you would follow me to one of our terminals," he requested, and led the way, both pieces of paper in hand. We stopped in front of the counter, he bowed over the computer behind it. "...alright, who is your reference?" the worker asked, while tapping about on the screen.

"Taurus, why?" I wondered.

I did not receive an answer immediately. The mention of the headmaster caused the man to look up in surprise. Once he realized that Aclysia, in all of her resemblance to Derilea, was accompanying me, the question if I was serious must have answered itself. "Access to higher security levels is granted on a code word and reference system. If it was just the code word, someone could steal it, so we have to send a confirmation request to the person who handed it out."

"Ahh, that does make sense," I nodded along. I hadn't really thought about it until now, but it would indeed be pretty disastrous for the system if it was only on a code word basis. I still would not share it with anyone else, because that would have meant that Taurus got swamped with notifications. I did not want to be the indirect cause of any annoyance on the headmaster's part. "So, I can't buy these things today?"

"You can, but they will only be delivered after he has confirmed it is real... which he just did... not that it matters, the size of your order means it has to be delivered by crate. That would be 694 Darks."

That was about what we had estimated and took a hefty bite out of our savings. Not enough to really worry us though, we would just have to cut back on other luxuries for this month. Esther made the payment. She looked like she had torn out a tooth. "I dislike such massive spending," she stated.

"As do I, lady Esther," Aclysia stated. "It will be the basis of future money retained."

'Considering the amount of massage oil I use up already with one woman, those things will probably pay off within a month,' I thought.

_______________________________________________________________________

The crates arrived on Tuesday. "Hello, Josh," I greeted the driver in charge of getting things out to us. "Sorry for the hassle."

"Eh, no biggie," the middle aged, chubby man responded and adjusted his trucker hat. He was the spitting image of a delivery driver, from the hat to the stature and the stubby beard. What was different from usual was his thoroughly friendly attitude. This was probably because, unlike delivery drivers on other worlds, this man did not have a work schedule that bordered on a torture scheme. From what I had heard, he had a pretty regular eight-hour shift and a bunch of extra hands to help him.

Being part of the crate delivery service was, apparently, a popular job with the students, particularly the male side. The reason why, I had needed about half an hour to crack, but then it had been obvious. It was, in all of Welldark, the only occupation where one reliably got to drive a car. A lot of guys enjoyed driving, particularly on otherwise empty roads, at high speeds. I wasn't one of them, but I could understand the general impulse.

"Alright, have a delivery from a sex shop and the alchemy store for you, alongside the weekly groceries," he read out, dispassionately. If he, after years of delivering things to nubile students, had been shocked about seeing sex toys on his delivery list, I would have been highly surprised. "You fine if I just leave the crates here and leave you to it? I'll come by again tomorrow anyway."

"Sure, we'll leave them outside the gate after we're done with them," I agreed.

"...Right, I also have some books for your housemates."

"Just drop them off too," I stated and Josh nodded. He climbed into the back of his delivery truck and eventually pushed a cage trolley onto the part of the truck that could be raised and lowered. Two minutes later, I pushed that very same trolley up to our front door, while Josh went and finished the rest of his run.

There were a total of five crates, all of them made from hardwood, all of them neatly stacked in a way only things designed to be stacked could be. Only the upper ones had lids, everything below was sealed by the bottoms of the crates above. A marvel of simple design. I loved everything about that simple yet most efficient use of space.