Chương 625: Day Six Hundred And Twenty-Three

Dear Diary, Y'know, I definitely felt weirded out by the whole 'oh, look, I'm a Love Goddess and people want my personal love juice in, on, and or around them'. But honestly I think it might not be entirely a bad thing. Also, no, I am not saying that because I'm being all horn dog about it. Seriously, I have three different flavors of tasty awesome gracing my Bedroom on the regular, and all of them are perfectly okay with me taking anybody who catches my eye out for a test drive.

I mean, I'm cool with them doing so too. More than cool; not only do I get dopamine dosed dolls to dally with for zero effort on my part, that shit is awesome hot. Seriously, my adult son who enjoys taunting me about preferences I didn't quite realize I had puts mirrors all around the room so I can catch multiple views of my partners and somehow somebody else doing the work for the happy making is supposed to make me upset when they are clearly getting their bells rung?

I mean, yeah, if somehow one of them got some kind of serious addiction to a different flavor of private touching, to the degree that they said they didn't want me any more, I'd probably feel some kinda way. Thing is, if they were happier, I'd be happy for them. Even... wow. Even Saffron. Okay, I'd be happy for her, but holy shit I'm not sure I could survive that. But to see her happy, happier than she is with me, I'd step aside. I guess maybe I am growing up.

But here's the thing, I have no reason to expect they'd ever do that. Thinking about it, when I Just Happened to Marie, she and Saffron didn't start some kind of competitive drama or anything like it. We talked it out, they decided that I'm enough for them to share, and then almost immediately showed me that I'm perfectly okay with watching the two of them, too. Then when Siobhan entered the picture, three became four, and we rolled on.

I really don't know if four will ever become five, but if that happens, it happens. I kind of doubt it, more because we're kind of in a state of dynamic stability than any sort of 'we don't want to add anyone' reasons. Seriously, Lily is hot as fuck, Rabbit is an entirely different kind of cute than Saffron or Siobhan, Panther literally worships me, and Silk, Lachlan, and Carruthers are three different flavors of perfect cuts of prime beef.

Okay, I need to go lie down for a little bit, because that time those three gorgeous hunks of man flesh visited with intent to conjugate our verbs, I took a glimpse through Marie's eyes and it was even hotter than where I watched from what was, in my opinion, the best seat in the house. Both of those images are seared into my brain in that 'oh, yeah, I need some release right the fuck now' sense.

Although, now that I think about it, that really does make me feel better about the whole 'how will Saffron react to me doing Atlantis one Worshipper at a time' thing. Because lets face it, the other two really do take their lead from her, and if I can predict her response to 'oh, you're too little to pull a four horse hitch', I'm pretty sure I'm on point with her responses to other stuff.

At any rate, I think that big infusion of Dragon Power not only boosted Her Dark Fatassness' growth across a solid chunk of the North Atlantean Tectonic Plate, it also seemed to have supercharged my own Divine nature. Wow, some tiny part of me, the me from back in the day that is, would probably give me A Look and mutter something about eighth grade syndrome if she heard that. Which is kind of hilarious, since I'm just describing factual information as I perceive it.

Like, I'm Mimic, or her Avatar, whichever, and I'm also a Demigoddess in my own right, and both of those things have gotten just... more... since I ate that Dragon. Mimic got bigger, 'consuming' more of M-Space, and I'm... Look, I've always had a strong troll streak to my nature, and playing around at Lancaster House on Friday was absolute Trickster Gremlin Chaos, and I loved it.

My Nefarious Gremlin Plan regarding Marie is more of the same, and not only am I doing it more and harder, I'm absolutely in the zone on all of it too. That's entirely before I look at the whole Passion and Ecstasy portions of my Portfolio, which, let's face it, I literally Reveled in those for thirty six hours straight and the entirety of negative side effects from that were a little bit of lightheadedness and some vague mild guilt over leaving some of the folks waiting in line hanging.

Which is the ostensible reason I'm gonna, at least for the Spring, be spending as many of my Temple's Revel Days as I can manage at my Temples. Not just the one in Phileo. I mean, I'm gonna start there, don't get me wrong, but I'm also gonna pay visits to the other ones. If they're gonna Worship me and give me that cocaine caffeine enema on the regular, the least I can do is give back. So that's one part of why I think it might be a good thing.

Yeah, ostensibly everybody's lining up to get Touched By A Demigoddess, but just maybe I can actually touch base with them while I'm scrubbing their brains clean of anything but the kind of happy brain chemicals that make a body stop caring that they're naked, unconscious, and drooling in public. That kind of alludes to the third reason, one that I'm not so copacetic about the cause, but absolutely down for the visitation because of it.

I've spent more and more of my time doing what I think of as 'Goddessing', or other stuff where I'm not really in touch with the boots on the ground. Hell, I'm even starting to hear really fervent prayers from people devout enough and close enough who are thinking hard enough about what they want me to know. Yeah, Vickerson is a prime example, but I think part of that is because she's way more coherent than most people. Like, even her panicked thoughts are in words, not just random emotions.

Because somehow during the very last bit of the New Years Revel, I knew exactly what the person joining me up on the altar wanted. Man. Woman. Not quite the traditional image of either. Fuzzier. Less fuzzy. Bigger, smaller, taller, shorter, nothing ever that pushed me to the point of feeling 'not me', but... like the same character drawn by different artists. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Speaking of artists, Raven definitely has a piece of Art in progress in her room. Honestly, it might be done. Can't wait to see the subject's face when it's unveiled. So after we got home last night Marie collapsed down to one of her. Once she got the food on the tables, she sat down in my lap and tried to feed me. At which point I made it very clear that she was the one getting stuffed tonight. With food, since she's made her opinion clear on building up that Maenad madness energy for our Wedding Night.

Which was now less than a week away. I was really glad I'd come up with Operation: Maximum Gremlin, because otherwise I'd be just spinning in circles going insane worrying about every little detail. Funny part, I'm not even being all that gremlin about it. Just feeling all gremlin when I'm tryna sneak something past Marie. If I actually get away with it, I'm gonna be impressed with myself. I'm also gonna rub it in Marie's everything if I do.

Not in some kind of mean way, but just to make it oh so very clear to her that she and she alone inspired me to new heights of sneaky Trickster Goddess goodness. Which I will then also rub in her everything, but only after the Wedding, because I am so much looking forward to that. The three of us ganged up on Marie to scrub her down in the shower before our Bath. Saffron even managed to get some really nice scented soaps that left her smelling... not 'less Marie'. But maybe less Maenad, if that makes sense?

Less death and violence, more maternal wifey. Because that's... that's just Marie. Funny, if Saffron is my other half? Marie is so definitely our Wife. Like, yes, I am married to Saffron. I am her Wife and she is my Wife, but lets face it, Marie's littlest claw is Wifier than both of us put together. Makes me wonder if Siobhan really wants a ring collection on her finger, because right at the moment at least, she seems to absolutely adore being a Concubine.

So after the scrub down, we all pulled her into the Bath, Saffron and Siobhan cuddling up on either side of her, me sliding under her for her to settle back on like a bony, muscly floating pool recliner. When she realized that none of the adults were playing with them, Maze drifted away from the rest of the kids and floated over to join me in supporting her mama. Then Menace noticed and darted over to curl up on Marie's chest at her very littlest. After that the rest proceeded to glom in wherever they fit.

We slept in the Bath last night. Wasn't even about my scars and aches. Which, just to be clear, still ached, even if that ache diminished to near nothing in the heat of the Bath or in the midst of really focused Worship. Made me wonder if I'll ever have a need to do something like the three of us did the night before the Liberation of Calverton again. Or maybe if the three of them would be down to do that not for any particular reason, but just because.

As I sat there wondering that, Saffron thought, if nothing else has come up before then, that sounds like a wonderful idea for your birthday, love. Before I could think up a coherent reply, all five of my ladies chorused, let it be so. When we had the kids in bed, Saffron rolled us all to the Bedroom. Marie looked a little mulish, but Saffron raised a hand and cut her off.

"Lie down on the bed. Face down. Now, please. Fiancée." That last word seemed to sandblast Marie's mulishness away. Saffron shot me a mental image of a book, and while I scrambled to pull Acupuncture for Dummies off the headboard shelf, she pulled out the kit.

"You really need this, Kitten?" She smiled.

"Oh, probably not. But you will. So will Siobhan."

"Oh, I... had best obey my Mistress, hadn't I?"

"You are absolutely correct, Darling. Now, Marie?"

"Yes?"

"Relax, and let us continue to prepare you for Friday." Marie tensed just the tiniest bit, then relaxed.

"Your Wedding day." Tenser, then more relaxed.

"The day we make you our Wife." She kinda melted into the Bed at that point.

"Well, she'll be my Mistress then," chimed in Siobhan. Saffron shot her a perfect 'Really, Darling?' look, but I nudged my tiny tyrant when I felt Marie not just puddle, but blep and start purring. We left her pinned like that most of the night. Siobhan and Saffron each draped themselves over unpinned portions of her and napped while I cuddled and hummed songs to her. Way earlier than I think either Saffron or Siobhan wanted to be up, I nudged them awake.

"Sadly, ladies, it's time for our lovely fiancée to get to work." They sighed and started un-pinning our Maenad while I held her head in my lap and sang nonsense songs to her. When they'd almost finished, I remembered and said, "Marie?"

"Mmm?"

"Make sure you let Headmaster Miles and everybody else know you'll be off duty for at least four weeks."

"Mmm?" That one came out a little less relaxed. I skritched her head, bringing her purr back up to speed, and said, "someone named Marie specifically requested I remove her ability to walk as I fill her with Kittens on our Wedding Night. You can't very well be doing everything you normally do while you're being pampered and incapable of self-locomotion." So fun making Murder Mittens blush. Especially with something that wasn't really, in the strictest sense, necessary.

Because Operation: Maximum Gremlin reached stage two today. I followed Marie around, and by mid-day I'd confirmed that she had a kind of schedule and rhythm to her day. Which meant I absolutely took advantage of that to speak with every Maenad, Smith, Orderly, and Faculty member at the Academy, not to mention a select list of other folks I needed to talk with without Marie knowing. Not just to let them know of Marie's upcoming honeymoon, but also to get them started on the preparations.

We only had four more days to make Marie's Wedding as perfect as possible, and I was absolutely gonna cheat and get everyone in the world involved in helping me do it.