Chương 656: Day Six Hundred And Fifty-Four

Dear Diary, Y'know, some things here and now I've gotten used to, even come to enjoy. Communal bathing is a big one. Back in the day the idea of getting naked in front of somebody made me varying degrees of uncomfortable. Like, even dudes I intended to bone rarely saw me completely sans clothing. I hadn't been naked in front of my mom since mid single digit ages, and the thought of anybody else, even my sisters or my doctors, seeing me naked just hit me with all the nope.

Yeah, a lot of that was my awful self image, some of it was trust issues, but I think a lot of it had to do with the social norms that said 'naked bad, sex bad, bodies bad'. Here and now there's none of that. I mean, I think the Dan have some of it, culturally, but as Siobhan and Larry have shown, it's nowhere nearly as deeply ingrained as it was for religious folks back in the day. Other stuff is harder to remember, because it's nowhere near as ubiquitous. Or really, nowhere near as in my face about its ubiquity.

Season foods are definitely one of those. Like, right at the moment, meat is a round the calendar thing, but that's at least partially because we now have meat mines up in Lake Erie. From what I've figured out from the ongoing deliveries, while it's not as cold as Superior, Erie's cold enough the meat's keeping pretty well while the Jotnar work on butchering it. I mean, by now they might be done, but I've got no real knowledge one way or the other on that.

If I remember, I'll have to ask Saffron, or maybe Olga next time I'm down there. Oh. Oh, shit. Last Friday in Calverton I spent the whole time going full Hentai Tentacles on Orla, because that's exactly what she wanted but couldn't say out loud. Y'know, I'm feeling a lot less weird when I look at it that way. Because yeah, some of my followers, maybe even most of them, want their Ecstasy and Passion delivered via adult intimate activities, also known as sexual congress or, back in my neighborhood, fuckin', but...

Not all of them. Cherry. Cherry wanted to be held and rocked to sleep as I sang to him. Which, given the setting, was still pretty oddly intimate. But that's what I'm giving them. Intimacy, Passion, and Ecstasy, and a bona fide Goddess focused entirely on them for as long as it takes to deliver as much of all that as they can stand. Which is another thing I'm having to get used to, but thinking about it like that makes it way less weird.

Yeah, I'm gonna get my fuck on with a shit ton of people before everything is said and done. So far I'm at, uh, I think twenty five if I include my ladies, and that's over the course of five nights. Which, if I keep averaging five a night, I'm gonna hit triple digits before the year is out. And people, both those who barely know me and the ones I care most about, don't just tolerate it, but they love me for it.

Because there are literal Gods here and now, Deities who can choose to walk the Earth and help people, and most of them choose to ignore Mortals except when they're bored. I know that's kind of a low bar for being Worshipped, and I'm gonna keep looking for more I can do to, y'know, deserve that Worship, but right now it's what they want from me. Both in the individual 'granting their secret desires' sense and in the broader 'focusing on and caring about each and every worshipper one at a time' sense.

Makes me wish I could concentrate on more than one of me at a time the way Marie seems to be able to, but... That might spoil it? But the oh, shit was because Orla is basically a Princess. I mean, I'm not sure if Marylin is a Queen or not, and whether that would officially make Orla a Princess or a Duchess or something like that, but Heads of State and High Officials are, if they volunteer at the Temple or straight up work there as Clergy, On The List of people I'm paying close personal attention to.

Olga is a Head of State. What the fuck am I gonna do if she Volunteers at the Temple? I guess I gotta really hope she was joking about wanting to use me as a Jotnar dildo. Eh, fuck it. Not the worst or weirdest thing that I've had happen to me since I got here. Which really says something about me getting used to stuff. Yesterday I took the girls down to the stables to look in on their new pet Dragon and have Ria teach them how to properly care for their Fae Steeds.

I don't know if being treated with care and attention would mellow them, or have them form some kind of attachment to my girls, but if it doesn't it won't be for lack of trying, on my part or theirs. Also, I'm fairly certain that Menace had successfully communicated to the Nightmares that if any of her sisters came to harm through the action or inaction of said Nightmares, they would wind up going where the baby goats go.

Okay, I'm still not sure if she's eaten a goat or not, but if she came to me and said 'Mama, we need more goats, I eated them all', I wouldn't be surprised. Okay, maybe a little that she'd out herself as the world's most adorable Chupacabra, but not that she actually, y'know, ate a goat. When it comes to 'seasonal food', at the moment the Alliance is a little light on every kind of meat except Bear.

I mean, I'm pretty sure the Academy can still get it, but Headmaster Miles has decided to go with better quality and volume of cheap meats like bear and fish. Lots of eggs, too. Mostly the Maids have been showing me how to make salads, of all things. Like, there are huge amounts of spring vegetables available now. Peas, spinach, onions, rhubarb, cabbage, lettuce, even some edible mushrooms. Okay, so far we've done salads, pickled vegetables, soups and stews.

I've kinda avoided bringing most of that home, because I wasn't sure the girls would eat it, but last night I brought a couple big assed bowls of salad home along with bear in vegetable stew and lots of bread. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. My girls are troopers. They tried everything I brought home. Most of them went back for at least a little more stew, although I had to stop Menace from cherry picking all the meat bits out of the pot.

Every single one of them downed a full loaf of bread. Alex managed to nom most of two. The real surprise came with the salad. I let them take their own portions, and most of them took just a little bit, but Ria and Lindsey each nommed down like three heaping bowls of it. That reminded me of something, and I conferred with Marie for a bit while I fed her bowl after bowl of stew. She ate some salad and bread to be a good example for the girls, but let's face it; tigers aren't known for their vegetarian ways.

We all settled into the Bath, first for a soak, then to sleep. Oddest thing, Mister Slither joined us in the room, but didn't come in the Bath itself. I mean, he didn't avoid the water or anything, but he didn't settle in to sleep in it, and he mostly kept his head above water. When most of the kids had nodded off, and Saffron and Siobhan were cuddled on top of and next to me respetively, with Marie tucked under me with her arms around me, I waved him over.

"Did you want to join us?" He nodded.

"Can't breathe underwater?" He shook his big assed head back and forth.

"C'mere." I kinda marveled that he didn't even hesitate, just slithering over so I could lay my hand on his head.

"Not sure if this'll work, but..." I flexed the part of me that governed Boons, and he blinked a little before his jaw dropped open in something clearly analogous to a smile. Then he slithered his way into the Bath, wriggling his way into the arms of all our girls, eventually getting Isnomi to glomp onto his head like she used to do with Mister Kraken back when she was football sized. Today wound up another normal workday. A dozen of me at the Academy doing Maid stuff in Maid uniform.

Tried putting one on the me acting as Saffron's seat cushion while she coded, but she swapped in my jeans and tee shirt. No idea why. Of course that had me in four different outfits, since I had on The Dress to watch over the Imperator as she Imperatored, and my Academy uniform to watch over our Sister Siobhan Darling as she did her duties in the Infirmary. Okay, 'watched over' is probably the wrong word, since she had on the robes that showed off her belly and back today.

Around midday I called her over when I delivered lunch. After pulling her down into my lap so I could feed her, I murmured, "I am absolutely looking forward to this," I lay a hand on her belly.

"Bulging out through here." She blushed and giggled. When she swallowed, before I could fill her mouth again, she whispered back, "why do you think I kept it like this?" Okay, she got some Tabitha tongue down her throat along with her lunch. She seemed to like it, though.

Think she even liked it when I slipped a hand in through the missing back panel, took a firm grip of one of her butt cheeks, and pondered, "I wonder if these will get all curvy like the front, or if they'll stay all petite and perky like they are now." She almost frowned.

"Does... does it matter?" I shrugged.

"Yes and no." She head tilted, wordlessly asking for clarification, for reassurance, and I pulled her snug against me.

"So long as you still enjoy us enjoying you, so long as you can still enjoy all the activities you enjoy? My eyes and hands and tentacles and tongue are gonna be all over every inch of you, no matter whether it's tight and firm, soft and squishy, curvy or svelte, young and fresh or old and wrinkled."

"So even two hundred years from now when I look like Grandma Aetos?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Did you want to look like her?" She rolled her eyes at me.

"It's not like avoiding it is an option for Mortals." It is for you. Her eyes went wide. But... but I... what about Saffron? She'll have to decide if she wants to be a Maenad, a Demigoddess, or retire to an afterlife in like fifty years or so at most. So she'll be able to give you some pointers. No, I... You'd... I don't deserve that! Hey Marie? A moment later Marie's voice echoed through out heads. Yes? If Siobhan wanted to be a Maenad tomorrow, could she?

Before Siobhan could argue, Marie's answer shut her jaw with a snap. No. Then reopened it. Pregnant. After.

"There you go then. No more 'not deserving' talk. Okay? High Priestess, am I your Goddess?" She bowed her head.

"Yes."

"Concubine, Am I your Mistress?" A smile curved her mouth, even as her eyes stayed downturned. A mischievous smile.

"Yes."

"Then be a Good Girl and accept that we, all three of us, love you, and so long as you want to stay with us? We want you with us." At the words 'Good Girl', she'd shuddered, her eyes fluttering closed.

"What if I want to be old?"

"Eh, I guess I'll wind up getting used to granny banging until your body gives out, and you wind up stuck in my Bedroom until the end of Time."

"Tabitha?" she whispered.

"Yes, Darling?"

"Could I be stuck there for a while right now?" I lifted her chin until I could stare into her eyes.

"You want to finish your lunch there?"

"Oh, I'm quite done eating." Then she leaned over and breathed into my ear.

"But you haven't eaten yet?" Managed to get her back by the end of lunch. Also managed to get her robes on backwards accidentally on purpose. The cutaways aren't quite even. Very nice view, especially when she blushed. Not once did she even think about switching it right way around. I know, because all it would have taken was a thought, and she kept it that way until she dropped into my lap to take her home for dinner. Meanwhile in the Office, my tiniest Archmage pounced on me when I brought her lunch again.

Left me sitting in the chair watching the whole time too. Weird. Okay, not weird. Titillating. Not ready to counter pounce her quite yet. But soon. Spent the day with Marie in the kitchen, working on a few specialty items. Offered to take her off to the Bedroom, or our big round bed, or any other debauchery venue of her choice, but she wanted kitchen time. So we did kitchen things. The girls and I spent another day in the stables. We hand fed the Nightmares chunks of bear meat. We did the same for Mister Slither.

Eventually, the Dragon came up and ate some of the meat we'd replaced yesterday's meat chunks with. She still bolted when the girls went over to give her more, which disappointed them, but, as I said to them, "baby steps." So proud, so cute, when Maze and Menace went over to the terrarium. Maze just lay her hand silently on the glass, but Menace squatted down, bunted her head against the glass, and murmured, "Id oh tay, baby. We waid fow you."