The next morning was somehow more fun than the night. Not in terms of that kinda fun, sure, but in terms of the pure, unadulterated joy kinda fun. After I came back, I could not fall asleep (which might have had something to do with the fact that the entire room smelled of sweat and cum, and was populated by the succubi who were still going strong on all of them), so I decided to rest in a different room and doom scroll instead. There wasn't much to do anyways. I did notice Nao active online too, but decided not to bother her right then. There weren't a lot of good reasons for someone like her to not be sleeping, and she probably didn't need to hear anything about it.
When everyone woke up, however, it was worth seeing their faces and reactions. It was like they had clearly just spent the greatest night of their lives, but could not quite share it with everyone else. All of them walking on eggshells every time someone even brought up the words 'night' or 'sleep'. I thought of making some sort of innuendo, but decided against it. They would probably think I was too weird and suspicious with the timing.
It was, somehow, Liam who managed to get major reactions out of everyone. We had all gathered in the same room before breakfast got ready, and everyone was talking to each other. That was when he nonchalantly mentioned how, "Damn, I had a good dream. Really good dream. Next time, I come here, I come for the dreams. What kind of mattress you got on these beds, Al?"
That caused everyone to shut up and stare at him.
"What kinda dream?" I asked to fan the flames.
"Shit, uh, you know." He nodded, "It was good. Very comfortable and stuff. Sunshine and rainbows, candy everywhere, just relaxing. It means a lot, especially when you're spending too much time working your ass off. You've had one of those dreams, right?"
"Eh, can't say I ever had the pleasure." I stressed on the last word, delivering the entire line monotonously.
One of the others guys coughed, supporting Liam, "Yeah, I get you. I also had a good dream. Just take the compliment, Alex, how about that? Your beds are the shit, and that's a fact. Don't go around trying to reach the bottom of a compliment. It is what it is."
"Oh, you too? That's weird. I've never thought these mattresses were any special. They get the job done, I guess, but its not like we're charming them with magic or something."
"They're not the only thing which get the job done." A third victim finally fell for the actual trap with a whisper, before speaking out loud, "I mean, don't throw yourself down, Al. As he said. Good dreams all around. Why are we still talking about this?"
Right when he finished whispering, one of the girls started laughing.
"What was so funny?" I asked her, "You too?"
She jumped up, sat straight and tried to act unbothered, "Huh? I me-mean, uh, yeah. Sure. Great dream. Very comfortable to sleep. I agree. Let's just change the topic."
"Mine was..." Another one of the girls chimed in on her own, face red, "good. But kinda weird. Doubtful."
"Doubtful?" Liam asked, "Talk about anxiety. Girl's got doubts even in her dreams. About what? Your chances of ever landing a guy?"
She picked up one of the towels beside her and threw it at Liam. How many friends like these did the guy have? She looked away, murmuring, "Something like that."
Color me surprised. I was sure that all the girls already swung both ways, based on how they had been talking, but I guess not. I guess I now responsible for whatever she went through. What a sweet, cute moment it would have been to watch her bisexual awakening. Her face was flushed just remembering it. To be there must have been a blessing in itself. I looked away from her before my brain started conjuring up images, and focused on the rest of the conversation.
Somehow, Liam managed to bring it back to something else. Whether it was consciously or not, I have no idea, but all of the subtle sex talk was behind us already. Now, it was all about what they had to do the rest of the day, what review they were gonna leave, and questions about what breakfast would probably be.
Eventually, everyone left by the afternoon. A few of them wanted to try spending some time in the pool and that made their stay a bit longer. When they did go, though, the staff seemed mostly pleased with what I had done. The head receptionist even said that Edward and Lucas had called earlier in the middle of the night to ask them how things were going. This one event had been a big deal to them because of the potential attention it could attract with Liam's connections.
As he left, I told him about the meeting I had with the two earlier, and he seemed more than confident that not only would he come back here without fail (it was the succubi; it had to be the succubi), but that he would also try to market it. He also promised to come up with a small idea I could brainstorm on later to get more customers. I would get that soon, too. Overall, just that one call had led to a lot of good stuff. Ed and Lucas would be on the moon with this news, sure, but I'm sure Cara would be more than pleased with all the information too. Her girls were going to be getting a lot and lot of food if things worked out.
The rest of the day was fairly average. Until the evening, that is.
Like a normal human being would do, I was resting at home after clocking out and trying to relive every second of last night. Whether it was Cara's surprising voyeuristic, sadistic, dominating tendencies, or Gel's perfect cumslut behavior and positioning. It also didn't help that I couldn't quite understand how all the powers I had been given worked, so I couldn't get my dick to go back to being flaccid once it was hard. I rubbed one out, but that didn't do it. I had to keep thinking about non-sexual stuff and completely focus on other things for it to even get an idea that it wasn't supposed to be erect anymore.
Then, right when I was about to give in and try jerking off once more, my phone got a notification. I checked it, expecting nothing more than an advertisement. But instead, it was her.
Nao.
you free? is it ok if i call? i actually ended up finishing that book, and am kinda bored right now, so we can talk about it
Excuse me? Am I free? When am I ever not? I immediately replied -
yes i am! oh boy, i can't wait to hear about this dumpster fire
And then, nothing for a while. I mentally prepared myself to talk to her without having to think about having a hard cock every five seconds, and decided to lie down on the couch. She had been fast with all the reading. It had been less than a day since she said that she would tell me how the book was, and it was already complete. As far I remembered, she hadn't even started it last night. What kind of dedication to trash stories was this? Or maybe this one had ended up being so good that she couldn't help but finish it all in one long sitting. That's probably why she had been awake late last night.
The phone rang. I picked up it up after a single ring.
"Hey!" I started.
"Oh, hi!" Her voice sounded cheery. Probably the most enthusiastic I had ever heard her. She asked, "I didn't disturb you, right? What were you up to?"
"Not at all. Wasn't doing much. Just wasting time. I got to clock in out of work early today, since Liam brought all those people and made everyone really, really happy."
"Mmm. Pays off to have rich friends, doesn't it? That's exactly why I still keep in touch with him. What if I end up in prison some day? One call and I'm out. Boom. That's really why, honestly. Dude's kinda annoying otherwise."
It felt wrong to even say anything like that about him, but it was somehow easier when I knew that both of us were being sarcastic for a fact, "I know, right? I only keep him for stuff like this. I say I'm his friend and it's like the easiest free pass to almost anything. Killed a dude? Yeah, I know Liam, so it's cool. I can do that."
She laughed. It was a cute laugh. I laughed back.
"Well, so, you say you read that dumb book?"
"Uh huh, yes I did." She sighed, "It was glorious. Just exactly what I expected and wanted from it. The world has never witnessed such greatness in storytelling before, I tell you. Forget fantasy, he was edging close to being the greatest writer of all fiction, ever. There is a whole fifteen page sequence about this one dude fighting another dude about...get this, you ready?"
"Ok. Do I guess?"
Nao clicked her tongue, "You wouldn't be able to. It's a maniac's world out there, and you can't think like him. None of us can. The main character gets into a proper swordfight with another dude at the slave market over, and I am not fucking kidding - what the cup size of one of the slaves is?"
"No fucking way." I started cry-laughing. It was not just an absurd situation, but if I was right, "Let me guess this thought. The event somehow ends up being really fucking important at the end because the dude wanted to justify writing it down in the first place."
"I mean, of course it does. The dude he fights ends up coming back and being one of the people he has to work with to infiltrate this weirdo's brothel. Even then, they keep fighting over the most random shit. I mean, it is so fucking apparent when an author just puts his fantasies into something because what the hell do you mean they're fighting over cup size?"
Mm hmm. True. Imagine not keeping your fetishes to yourself.
"Well, there's some wild people out there. Putting a slave auction and a brothel in the same story, and it's supposed to be a generic action-adventure fantasy?"
She laughed, "Trust me, Alex. It stopped being an action-adventure fantasy about eleven books ago. It's more like a 'let's see what nonsense he gets up to this time around' now. Hardly a plot connecting everything. We've had three characters die emotional deaths and then come back later because he just decided they were alright now. No reasons or fucks given."
"Shit, your job is to trash talk the guy, not make me respect him. Now I just wanna read all of that because of how bad it sounds."
"Trust me, I'd say it's worth it if you have the time and dedication. This might be the greatest piece of shit ever conceived by the human mind and written down." She paused for a second, "I mean, there's some, uh, never mind. You'll probably have fun reading it."
"There's some...what?"
"Never mind, I said. This is the kind of nonsense that gets Liam punched every time I see him. You want to end up in the same club?"
After Cara?
"I don't know. Maybe?"
She groaned, "Shut up, just...please. It just makes so much sense now. Birds of a feather, I guess."
"Yeah, you guess right. Now, what were you trying to say? Go ahead, don't be shy."
Of course I knew what she was going to say. The first book, which I had read a bit of, had some really massive and heavy sexual undertones. It would have been no surprise to me if there was actually something concrete later on in the novel. Rather, it would be a real surprise if there wasn't anything. Based on what she had just said, though, the dude had long gone past writing subtle references and dialogues, and probably just putting out full, descriptive sex scenes. And cute little Nao was too embarrassed to admit it.
"There's, uh, some sexual stuff in it." Her voice went down, "You know, like, it can get intense and stuff. The writer is just a closeted horndog."
I laughed, "Yeah, after all of that, I don't think there's anything closeted about it. I think he's just hanging it out for everyone to see, no? Bro takes the whole tag as a sign of respect and pride. Honestly, I fuck with that. At least he's not embarrassed about what he's doing. My guy's horny every day of his life and he's cool with it."
"Eww." My brain froze for a second, but then she still chuckled, so all was fine, "Men gassing up men for thinking about sex all the time. What else do you expect from this world, anyways?'
"Hey, don't call me out like that. That's not what I meant. Just...it's a part of life. Ignoring it and stepping around stuff like that is just gonna make people close themselves off. It's cool of him to put out stuff that he thinks is fine. Whatever he wants to write, right? I mean, it might be horrible, but at least it's his. And he isn't afraid of something as normal as sex."
"I get your point, sort of." Nao sounded sadder, somehow. Maybe I shouldn't have tried so hard, "No, never mind. You're right. At least the man's standing up and showing his boner to the entire world."
Wrong time to use those specific words. But I couldn't help it. I laughed. As I did, she did too, but a more mellow one. As if it was funny to her, but she'd rather not be this open about it. I decided to hold back on the rest of the things in my brain and change the conversation. I hadn't really thought too much about her when she started talking about all that. I'd just activated my brain, put it on autopilot and talked like I would with any other person. Which was fine. But if she was going to get uncomfortable, then it was my responsibility to stop and get back on track.
"Anyways. What about the rest of it? I remember that the dude had a weird hatred for elves, so he had them killed off in book two or something. What was that all about?"
She whistled, "Damn, that's some old shit. You just activated some important memories. It was absolutely insane. Hear me out..."
I don't know how long I talked to her after that. The sun set, I forgot to turn on the lights and stayed in the darkness. My battery started to run out and I just walked to the table, plugged the phone in and continued talking. After a while, the whole weirdness about the sexual stuff had vanished and been forgotten. Now, it was all about this author's weird views on fantasy and how he handled certain character archetypes and creatures in wrong ways. Nao was a stickler for everything being like it should be, when it came to fantasy, so she went on forever about that stuff.
"Don't even get me started on the dragons. Oh my god, the horrors!"
I remembered the truth once she spoke, "Oh. You know, I've always thought of that. Aren't dragons a little...different from the other fantasy creatures? Like, cool as all hell, but kinda way too overpowered."
"Hmm. I guess? But that's what makes them cool. They are supposed to be overpowered. It's how things are meant to be."
"True, true. That's why we love them." I sighed, "But, it's a question to ask. What if everything else existed but dragons didn't? Imagine a fantasy world without dragons. Cause they're a bit too unrealistic or something."
Nao laughed, "Woah, woah, woah. Let's hold off on the thought war crimes, ok? Let's not go there or else you're about to get a fucking beating and a half for even coming up with that nonsense. Burn that fucking world down. Right now."
Right.
Of course.
Poor girl.
And then, we talked for a few hours more. Until I couldn't even remember what it felt like to not have her voice in my ears for so long.