Drayden: The first morning on Marmalade Island

  At first sunlight the following morning, Drayden was the first to wake up.

  We need to discuss more than one thing, so I'll mentally make a list...

  But, while I'm waiting, lying here with her arms around me is nice...

  Alice eventually mumbled something, wiggled around a bit, and opened her eyes.

  "Ah, Drayden."

  "Yes, dear?"

  She opened her eyes wide and propped herself up on one elbow.

  "Well, you are my dear, right?" said Drayden.

  "And, what about Cassy?"

  "She is also my dear. Naturally."

  Alice was beginning to look like she might have some opinions about that. Not very positive opinions.

  "Now look here, my Bronsen is not going to make love to Cassy, OK?"

  "Yes, Alice. And, I take it you will not make love to Cassy's Drayden?"

  Sputtering from Alice.

  "After all, you are right here. And Cassy and Bronsen are somewhere very not right here. And you are extremely attracted to me, aren't you?" said Drayden.

  "Well, that's, that's different!"

  "Is it? System-san is eventually going to be turning our libidos on, and things are definitely going to run their natural course. And, of course, you checked our status first thing, just like I did, to see what our sexualities were set to, didn't you?"

  "If, if we make love, then you will be my man, OK!"

  "And Bronsen will be Cassy's man?"

  "NO! Bronsen is my man!"

  "Can you detect a certain amount of illogicality in your words?"

  "NO! It is perfectly logical. We will make love, and you will be mine, and Bronsen will also be mine, and Cassy can go and, and,"

  Alice gripped her hair with both hands and tried to tear a handful out. Since she didn't try too hard, her hair remained intact.

  "Oh shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit. What am I doing?"

  "My dear, at a guess, your jealousy level is just a bit higher than the average. You, with our help, of course, will have to work your way through all of that."

  "All very well you saying that, Mr Drayden. Don't you feel the jealousy also?"

  "Hmm. Let's see: if I picture my Cassy making love to Bronsen in my mind's eye..."

  "Uuh, gross!"

  "Hey, it's my mental image, not yours! And anyway, about Cassy making love to Bronsen,"

  Alice screwed up her nose to show her opinion of Drayden saying it twice.

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  "Yes, I definitely do feel some rather savage claws digging into my heart."

  "Well, I feel it digging into my stomach, but whatever," said Alice.

  "But, I remind myself that when we get through this to the other side, we will have the perfectly balanced four-way love affair that we were all frantically fantasizing about way back on Earth."

  Silence from Alice.

  "I guess it would be nice to get to that point... If I can survive the journey to that mythical other side," she said.

  "You will! System-san has decreed so! Also, I would like to point out that when I think about Bronsen making love to Cassy..."

  "Isn't that the same thing?"

  "Oh, thinking about it from the other side does make it a little different. In fact, ahh, perhaps don't tell anyone else this, at least not until we are ready; well, I think Bronsen making love to Cassy is kinda sexy in its own right."

  "You - you- get off on the image of my Bronsen having sex with your Cassy?" said Alice. She looked astounded. And shocked.

  "Yes?"

  "Oh my. Maybe we need to lock you up?"

  "Maybe. Or, maybe, if you can tone down your jealousy, then we can just enjoy fucking each other like bunnies. Err, strictly in boy-girl pairs, of course!"

  "Yeah. Sure."

  Drayden made a move onto Alice. He wrapped his arms around her and his tail around her closest leg.

  "See, you are not resisting this in the slightest, are you?"

  "I suppose, no?"

  "So, how about we just pretend that there is no problem? Just pretend that Bronsen and Cassy aren't going to be doing anything to bother us. And leave the repercussions to when we meet with them again."

  Big sigh of exasperation from Alice. "I'm sure I can try that. Also, why doesn't Emotional Control cover jealousy, anyway?"

  System-san didn't bother offering any explanation, so Drayden shrugged his shoulders.

  "Probably more bullshit."

  Drayden continued to hug Alice. After a while, Alice suggested, "How about I lie back and you lie on top of me?"

  Drayden giggled like mad, but he also carried out Alice's request.

  After sufficient time, they decided to think about the future again.

  "So, how do we find out exactly where Bronsen and Cassy are?" said Drayden.

  Ding! You already have the ability to find out how far away Bronsen and Cassy are and in what direction.

  "Bloody hell, we do!" said Alice as she checked her status, "The other two must have requested it earlier than we did."

  This is handy. So, where are Bronsen and Cassy?

  Into Drayden's mind's eye popped the information: 485km, and a direction.

  The house is orientated so that its front door points to the rim wall, so that direction is the Jaserra sea, so they are straight out along the ring, in the opposite direction to Manifestoria.

  "Hey, Alice, you have worked it out, too?"

  "Yep, so they're much further away from Manifestoria than we are?"

  "Yeah. And, if I have worked this out correctly, they would still be in the sea. So, another island?"

  "I didn't see any ships visible from the top of the hill, so it appears we won't be able to sail to them," said Alice.

  "Perhaps they have a ship?" said Drayden.

  Alice finally had the idea of thoroughly checking her status page.

  "Holy shit, they have acquired the skill 'Wooden Ship Repair'!"

  "You mean, they do have a ship?"

  "But they don't know the first thing about sailing a ship!" said Alice.

  "OK, let's tick the problem of knowing their location off our list since there's nothing more we can do about it," said Drayden.

  "What list?"

  "The list whose next item is 'How are we coping with the killings yesterday?'" said Drayden.

  "Oh, that list... I guess I'm OK? I have decided not to worry about it for now and see how it goes." said Alice.

  "Sounds good. Hmm, of course, I'm still affected, only a little bit, by, err, me having to kill Cassy. Actually, maybe I'm still a lot affected by it."

  Alice hugged him tighter.

  "Don't forget, we are still both affected by the Ashrend effects, as well," said Alice.

  "I surely haven't forgotten that. But, I think I can continue reasonably well as is. We'll have to take all this little piece at once."

  "Also, have you noticed that the locked points we all had have decreased considerably?" said Drayden.

  "Hey, so they have. System-san, what's up with that?"

  Ding! A lot of new abilities were granted to Eleanor and her companions at the beach fight. They needed them to allow them to win, so you certainly can't complain if the points came from your locked points, can you?

  "No, I don't suppose so," said Alice.

  "But, why were so many thousands of points used?" said Drayden.

  Ding! Some of the abilities are highly powered, and some are extremely rare or even unique. So they, of course, cost a lot more.

  "They must be amazing abilities; even our [Wall Digging] ability only cost 500 points," said Cassy.

  Ding! That's right, they are! As befits the Marvellous Misfits!

  "Is System-san being snarky again?" said Drayden.

  System-san didn't reply.