Chương 889: Day Eight Hundred And Eighty-Seven

Dear Diary, If there's one upside to the Search and Rescue work we've been doing, it's the company. Which, to be honest, I'd have even if I weren't doing Search and Rescue, but I'm looking for an up side to what is essentially one of the few things where I'm both uniquely qualified to do the work and also one of the few things that reliably kicks my ass.

Seriously, fighting kaiju killed a few of me, yeah, but by now while that's not a daily occurrence any more, it's happened often enough in the past that I never once thought about throwing in the towel during that particular part of the past month. The fact that I consider 'thing that literally killed me a few times' less traumatic than Search and Rescue says it all, I think. I suppose that's part of why this week's Revel helped so much.

Yeah, I know, I wound up kind of torn about the Revel myself, but Saffron really clarified things for me as we all gathered at the Homestead as the sun neared the horizon.

"Go on, love, they're waiting for you." I sighed, then shrugged.

"Part of me is a little surprised, but only part, and only a little. But I still feel kinda guilty."

"Whyever for?" I thought about it a second.

"Because if I'm in good enough shape to Revel, I'm in good enough shape to keep doing Search and Rescue?" She pulled me into a hug, and in moments the rest of my ladies surrounded me.

"I love that you want to continue helping, Goof, but even if you have the Endurance to keep going, you'd be working alone, with none to keep your black mood at bay, and if that in and of itself is not reason enough for you to Revel tonight, consider that your Clergy and Temple volunteers have been working tirelessly to do the same within their Cities."

"So shouldn't they be getting rest too?" That got some snorts and chuckles from the ladies. Saffron shook her head, smiling fondly.

"Many of them are so wound up from the work that they cannot easily rest, love. So they've come to your Revel so their Goddess can help them do so. Beside that, the Worship you receive will likely put you in much better shape for more tomorrow. Which may wind up finishing the parts that only we, your Clergy, and you, our Goddess, can do."

"What about helping with stuff everybody can do?" She just kept smiling.

"Everybody has been doing that already. Which means that they, like us, are nearing the end of that task, and returning to their homes to hide away for the worst of the winter." I smiled around at my ladies surrounding me.

"I'm just being a Goof about this again, huh?" Saffron drew me into a kiss, and I felt the rest of the ladies leaning into me as she did. When she finished, her eyes crinkled with a smile as she said, "only in the best of ways for the best of reasons, love." Then she looked behind and above me.

"Wife? See that this one does her Divine duty this evening?" After a dizzying moment of being swept off my feet, Marie set me on the Altar of my Temple in New Amsterdam, then stepped to my left. Dana stood to my right, and called out, "welcome, Goddess!" I dropped my Blend, smiled at them, then at the rest of my congregation.

"Sorry I've kept you waiting so long, everybody." My first Worshipper of the night, Ora Orange, kind of trudge-skipped up to the Altar shaking her head.

"Don't be sorry, Tabitha. Your father's told me how tirelessly you fought for us all." She held her hands up to me. As I Shapeshifted just a touch bigger and picked her up, she kissed me. Nothing inappropriate, despite what I'd worried about when she brought her face near mine. Just a kiss on the cheek, which I returned.

"Thank you." I smiled at her as I shifted her so I could cradle her in my arms.

"Just doing my job." She giggled.

"Gods don't have jobs."

"They do now. Hush, now." I sang her lullabies until she fell asleep, which didn't take very long. She'd been helping out, that much was pretty clear from the maybe ratty condition of her Dress and the slightly ground in dirt. Dad? What's up with that? When the work is done. Until then, seeing her just a little foxed is good for her Worshippers, and even for her. I sighed as I laid her on the Altar. I hadn't thought of that. Just goes to show that you're the best. I know.

The next person to the Altar surprised me a little. Okay, surprised me a lot, both who it was and what she was wearing. Hilde, hair bound up in a tight bun and wearing a Cadet's uniform in the blue and yellow of New Amsterdam. That caught me off guard enough that she almost landed her lips on mine before I realized and snagged her by the back of her jacket, her breath hot on my lips. I pulled her back, smiling, and whispered, "there's a reason you're one of the few dressed Worshippers of the night, isn't there?"

She got a pouty look which melted into a sly grin.

"I wanted you to see my uniform!" The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I smirked at her, still not letting her squirm any closer.

"Yeah, and I'll bet no part of your Status has the word 'Adult' on it yet, does it?" Her pout returned.

"Stop trying to force things and I'll tell you a secret and offer you a bit of advice." She stilled immediately, eyes going wide.

"Please?" I pulled her in to kiss her cheek much like I'd done with Ora, then pulled her ear up to my mouth.

"First, I'm very proud of you, but that's not a secret." I felt her grin.

"Second, and this is a secret even from her, but once you do have 'Adult' in your Status, the Imperator would definitely love for you to pay a visit to our Homestead, I think." Her grin got a little wider, and she whispered, "what about you?" I chuckled and murmured, "this Temple is a lot closer than our Homestead, isn't it?" She blushed almost as well as Siobhan and Marie.

"Was that the advice?" I snorted.

"Nah. My advice is to wait until your Status reads 'Adult' instead of 'Young Adult' and you're at least a Senior Cadet." She pouted a little, although warmth and proximity had started working.

"Why?" she yawned.

"Because then neither the Imperator nor I need to treat you like spun glass." Yeah, there were other reasons, too, most notably that especially if she got to full Hero status, that meant she'd have already had a chance to get with somebody else, rather than one of us. But I wasn't about to tell her that, both because I think she'd be upset and because I didn't want to clue her in to the Secret Graduation Requirement. She blushed a little at that, but had already turned and snuggled into me.

I stroked her and murmured about how proud Saffron, Marie, and I were of her until she slipped entirely into the embrace of sleep. Marie nodded to Dana, who lifted her and carried her off. Then my Murder Mittens stood there in her Yandere Shobitch Wedding Dress, glittering white on white, grinning from ear to ear. The moment the door closed behind Dana, she turned to face the congregation, her arms going up as she growled out an echoing, "Now, Revel!"

When she turned back to me, straddling my lap, arms going around my shoulders, before I could say or do anything, she murmured, "Hard. Fast." When the sound of her finishing echoed through the Temple, eclipsing the cheers and noises of audience participation, she kissed me just as hard and fast as I'd finished her, then stepped back away. I looked up at her and asked, "no KO for my Murder Mittens?" She chuckled, smiled, and said, "Congregation First."

"Fair point. I'd be here all night with you. Which they're all gonna watch before I head to my next Temple, just so you're aware." She grinned down, one finger toying with a rip in her dress that I didn't even remember putting there, and said, "Hope So." Then she chuckled and turned me to face my next Worshipper. I couldn't help it.

"When did you move to New Amsterdam, Cadet Brat?" She smirked at me, but her eyes sparkled with mischief.

"It's Hero Brat now. New Amsterdam had advancement opportunities!" Holding her away, because I figured that this was definitely a 'kissing would end conversation' situation, I said, "I really didn't think you'd be that into promotion?" Yeah, that sparked the whole 'fanatic' look in her eyes, but I couldn't really feel any kind of way when she said, "that means I earn greater Glory for my Goddess!" She was just so fuckin' sincere about it.

Also horny enough that the heady scent of her hit me from an arm's length away. Which is when Marie said, "Harder. Faster." Brat pouted.

"I wanted to take my time, though." At which point Marie snorted, then turned to me.

"Hardest. Fastest." That really left me a little worried, what with a certain Murder Mittens' month without hips.

"Are you...?" Marie sniffed, then shot a speechless Brat an evil Grin worthy of Saffron and said, "Hero. Champion." That took me a second.

"You're the Champion of New Amsterdam?" I swear she was almost drooling at the thought of 'hardest, fastest' as her head bobbled.

"Hardest and fastest it is then," I growled at her. Still took like half an hour, and I'm pretty sure I heard some things pop out of their sockets right at the end. I'd have been more worried if I hadn't heard the word, WORTH! echoing through her brain as she passed out. The next one up was Jane, who I almost didn't recognize. She definitely had been doing some Search and Rescue work, and hadn't had time to clean up, I guess, because her hands still had old blood worked into the wrinkles.

Of course, those wrinkles were shallower now, because she'd put on some weight. Not enough to be overweight or anything, but she'd clearly taken 'live for me' as a Commandment. I took her hand in mine and said, "want me to clean you up or leave these like they are?"

"Purify me, Goddess, then do with me as you will." So I hit her with that insta-clean trick, then slipped Glowing Midnight onto her, just to take some parts off with the kind of slow languorousness that ramped her up until she came and went in the same instant. Like, to sleep, not anything permanent. Lane came next, and while I saw something hiding in her head, it hid behind a new urge for 'harder, faster', and she came with a burst of Worship as she slipped into unconsciousness.

That kinda set a pattern for the evening. Elle took even less effort than Lane, but then by the taste of her fingers where she slipped them in my mouth, she'd been pre-gaming a little. I kissed her as her eyelids fluttered closed, a thank you on my part for being so considerate of her fellow Worshippers, but I suspected that would feature in her next visit to my Altar based on her response.

Then Alen stepped up to the Altar, bags under her eyes and sagging, but smiling and wanting the exact same thing as the previous two. I smiled as she fell asleep before I finished, but a restless kind of sleep that I knew wouldn't last, because I remembered waking up for exactly that reason back in the day. Of course, she woke up gasping the moment she finished.

Took another three cycles of that, each one longer than the one before, before she passed out, eyes rolling back in overwhelmed ecstasy, right as her climax woke her again. A tiny part of me worried a little about Consent with that, but given that I could literally see her desires, couldn't not see them with the way she projected them at me even in her sleep, I decided that for tonight I wouldn't worry about that just now.

Ivan and Joe and Ben and Jon, each of them giggled at the one before, starting with Ivan thinking she'd last longer than Alen, then Joe knowing she wouldn't, then Ben hoping she'd last to see the dawn. She barely lasted long enough for me to get my arms around her. Bang, done, asleep. So fuckin' cute. Then finally Jon, who looked shyly at the floor as she murmured, "I'm not sure there's time before dawn." I glanced at Marie, who grinned, then turned back to Jon.

"Trust your Goddess." I may have strung things out until, at that exact moment, I whispered, "Marie? Now." Her claws scooped both of us up, giving me just long enough to get one arm around her before her Garb drew her into the air, arms flung back, finishing all three of us. Dana took Jon from our arms as I bid everyone farewell, and we stepped back to the Homestead. Spent the day doing one last sweep of Search and Rescue down near Compton, while another of me taught Math to the kids living at the Temple of Love.

Not gonna grief any of the kids who stayed home, because if snow days weren't a thing here before, they are now.