Trigger warning: paranoia.

  Jade was flying off the walls with excitement. She alternated between helicopter-ing her new dick in circles, flossing back in forth with extra hip motion to cause her dick to swing harder, and spping Sabrina in the face with it. Sloan was not entertained.

  “Are we watching this movie or having a dick-parade?”

  “Oh, hush,” Alice said. “Jade, congratutions on the dick. You got a nice one, too.”

  Alice was right. For one thing, difference in skin color was always a little off-putting when Jade wore the Living Dildo. Now not only did the skin match, but the shape and seemed to match Jade’s body better. It was beautiful. It was big, too; her new dick was slightly rger than Sabrina’s was in human form, but not quite so big as the succubus form.

  “I think we’ve got something a bit more pressing to talk about, though,” Alice added.

  “What do you mean?” Sabrina asked.

  Sloan jumped in, answering, “We all just got an alert that we’re within a new aura effect. You know, Make Love, Not War?”

  “Oh yeah,” Sabrina conceded. “So much came at me all at once, I almost forgot.”

  “So what do we think?” Alice asked the group, reserving judgement.

  Standing on the bed, Jade bent to rest her hands on Sabrina’s shoulders. “Are you kidding? It fucking rules! Fucking is always better than fighting.”

  “I hate to say it, but she’s right,” Sloan agreed.

  “I agree. I think it really pys to our strengths,” Alice concurred. “It’s interesting; we’ve seen bits and pieces of this mechanic since the start.”

  “Oh yeah,” Sabrina said. “That’s what I was thinking. Like, with my old subcss, and how when I fucked Red, I looted her.”

  “Or even Sloan’s subcss,” Alice said, keeping the ball rolling. “Wrestling monsters is one way to capture monsters, but we saw with those goblins that sex is way more effective. I guess this aura just codifies the whole thing.”

  “By the way,” Sloan segued. “The rest of us should probably level-up, too.”

  That warranted no arguments, and the three level-fours then took handfuls of vulnerability jellies out of their inventories. When they were idly popping jellies, they’d steered clear of popping ones that would force them to interrupt the movie. That was, until Sabrina accidentally threw that out the window.

  There was quiet focus for a beat. Jade was the first to interrupt that, muttering, “Fuck.”

  Jade took a breath, grumbling. “I… ate my boogers until I was thirteen.”

  There were gasps and ‘eww’s as Sabrina instantly shouted, “Thirteen?!”

  “Shut up!”

  Alice was next. Keeping as straight of a face as possible, she said, “I had a furry phase from the age of fifteen, to like, twenty.” Then, not leaving enough time for anyone to comment, she changed the subject. “Oh cool, I’m level five.”

  The group gave Alice time to read. This confession seemed to cross an embarrassment-threshold where it wasn’t even funny. The less said about it, the better.

  “Nobody say anything,” Sloan demanded gravely. “I also had a furry phase, and I also used to eat boogers. Talk and I’ll kill you. Also, I’m level five.”

  Jade groaned. “What the hell? I’m still one away.” She rapidly popped jellies and gave a defted, “Ah what? No fair!”

  The group looked at Jade, expecting something good. “No, this one isn’t making me confess shit, but it gave me food allergies! I’m allergic to avocado and shellfish now!”

  Jade slumped down, devastated. Sabrina knew just the thing to make her feel better. “Hey Jade,” she said. Jade met her eyes. “You’ve got a dick.”

  Jade cracked a smile. “True. It’s even bigger than yours. You know, present form excluded.”

  Sabrina grinned. “Lucky me, since I’m the one who’ll be getting fucked by it.”

  Sloan gdly interrupted their flirtation. “My level seems focused on movement. I have a passive effect that increases my resistance to all sources of damage higher and higher the faster I’m moving. I also got a boost spell. If I’m staying still, it can unch me into a sprint, and if I’m moving, it quickly accelerates that further. I also have a new ultimate attack that basically treats my body like a meteor. I just crash into something hard, and all of my inertia explodes away from me.”

  “Interesting,” Alice commented. “It definitely seems to be further specializing your css around your skates. We’ll need to rethink your role. You’re less of a tank and more of a… well I don’t even know. It’s awesome though.”

  Pivoting, Alice continued, “My css seems to be doing something simir. It’s already specialized around my slime-suit quite a bit, but now I’ve got abilities that are making me rethink how I use it. I’ve got a close range vampiric-drain spell, where I strangle somehow with a tentacle and turn their breath into HP. I can also grow really strong weapons on my hands. The one I’m really curious about, though, is a spell that lets me make short-lived minions. They’re small, but they have different types. I’ve got one that’s a scout, and I see and hear what it does. The other one is basically a suicide bomber.”

  “Those are both pretty cool,” Jade said.

  “All of it is. Weird that the dungeon’s trying to force you out of your comfort zone, though,” Sabrina pointed out.

  “Maybe it’s a warning,” Sloan specuted. “Maybe there’re areas coming up where skulking around on the ceiling isn’t viable.”

  “Well yeah: this whole floor,” Alice said. “My fighting style is mostly good for wide open battlefields. This floor is broken up into a billion small rooms, though. I’m pretty exposed in close quarters.”

  “What’d you get?” Sabrina asked Jade.

  “I’d say it’s keeping with the theme of changing our fighting-styles. I mostly got area-of-effect stuff. I got two spells based on spraying a fine mist from my nipples. One of them provides a slow heal over time to my allies. The other one poisons enemies and causes them excruciating pain for long after the poison wears off. I also got a spell that I can pce on my shield that causes and explosion the first time it blocks an attack. I can enhance it with elements, too— either ice or acid.”

  “Not that big of a change,” Sabrina said. “Sounds like you’re still our heal-slut.”

  “Yeah but now I can’t make everyone suck my tiddies.”

  “Trust me,” Sabrina comforted, “I’ll suck your tits as much as you want.”

  “Impossible,” Jade joked. “The amount of time I want my tiddies sucked is more hours than there are in a day.”

  Sabrina grinned, getting her face closer to Jade. “Then it’s a good thing we’ve got four-days-worth of hours per day.”

  “So when are you supposed to y that egg, anyway,” Sloan interrupted.

  Annoyed, Sabrina straightened her posture. “Soon, I think. It doesn’t show the exact time, but there’s just a little sliver left on the meter. Probably like a half hour.”

  “And how long until your human form is back up-and-running?” Alice asked.

  “Oof. That one doesn’t even have a meter; I just have to kind of feel how much progress it’s making. Feels like… maybe eighteen hours? Hard to say since it’s my first time.”

  Alice nodded, considering. “So, waiting it out in here probably isn’t viable. After we rest up, are you okay with moving forward without a backup body ready?”

  Sabrina shrugged. “None of you have backup bodies, and I didn’t for most of my life. What’s the difference.”

  “Well, I might have one,” Alice said nonchantly. “But it’s really too soon to know for sure.”

  Everybody looked at Alice, bewildered. “What?” Sabrina pressed.

  “It’s complicated, and it’s probably nothing. Forget I said anything.”

  “No,” Sloan refused. “Expin.”

  Behind Sloan, a car exploded in the movie. Alice turned towards it, saying, “Oh I love this part!”

  Alice continued to dodge questions about what she meant, to everybody’s frustration. Eventually, the issue was set aside while they finished the movie. By the time it ended, Sabrina was ready to y her egg.

  Sabrina didn’t leave for privacy. It was nothing that everyone hadn’t already seen. Plus, something about her human form being dead made Sabrina both more apathetic and more perverted.

  She lied back, resting her head between Jade’s legs, while Jade ran her fingers through her hair. The gourd-shaped egg slipped out, hovering in the air. It morphed into a blinding-white fme, which expanded and took shape.

  The shape it nded on resembled the silhouette of a person doing a T-pose. Typically, this would be the point when the light would fade and reveal Sabrina’s prize. Instead, the light glitched and blurred, and then flickered into nothing.

  >ERROR: NULL

  Sabrina sat there, stunned, mouth agape. “What the fuck!”

  “What… just happened?” Alice asked.

  “Nothing! It said ‘error: null’ and then nothing fucking happened! This is bullshit! I spent more than a whole fucking day with that uncomfortable-ass egg inside of me and then I just get a fucking error?”

  “Wow… that really sucks,” Jade said.

  “Well… you are the first of your species. Maybe that means you’re still in-alpha. You’re so new that there’s bugs in your programming.”

  “Fuck that! The dungeon owes me an even more awesome prize, now! I’ve been short-changed!”

  “Don’t forget— you just got some great stuff from leveling up,” Jade consoled. “Plus, you survived dying today. I’d take that trade-off in a heartbeat.”

  Sabrina groaned in anger. “Go talk to Oneira, then. Why don’t you trade your humanity for being incomplete content and then tell me I’m overreacting. I mean, that’s what you’re saying right? I’m overreacting? I’m being a crazy bitch?”

  “Just calm… down.” Before the words were even out of her mouth, Sloan knew that they were a mistake.

  Sabrina gave a ft-faced look of displeasure. Sabrina stood and made for the door. “Whatever. Have fun with your new dick. I’m going to bed. You can sleep in a different bed.”

  As Sabrina walked to pick a different bedroom, she heard Jade’s voice say, “I’m sorry,” in her head. Sabrina removed her dick, not in the mood to talk.

  Lying in bed, Sabrina soon began to feel bad. Her anger was fading, and what was left was shame. She put her dick back on. “Jade?”

  After a moment, came a timid, “Yeah, Bean?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m being a bitch.”

  “You’re not being a bitch. I should have just let you vent.”

  “I am. Or… I was. I don’t know. There’s a lot of things going on in my head, tely. I’m not sure how to even talk about it. We’ve been keeping so busy that I’ve been able to ignore it, but it only deys the scary thoughts. When things calm down, I get antsy. Even just the anticipation that this anxiety might come on terrifies me. Anyway… I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”

  “Maybe it’s time to talk about it.”

  “It’s hard,” Sabrina said. “I’m scared of what you’ll think of me.”

  “Holding it in isn’t sustainable. Maybe it’ll be easier to talk about this way. You know, telepathically, instead of face-to-face.”

  “I don’t know… maybe.”

  “It’s worth a try. I promise I won’t judge.”

  Sabrina sighed, her breath trembling with fear. “I’m just worried that I’m not really your girlfriend. I’m not Sabrina. I might, have Sabrina’s soul, but I can only take Oneira’s word on that. Even if I do, what even is that? When I was just a soul, I had no awareness, or memories, or anything. If I was reincarnated into a different person, I would be that person. I wouldn’t even know the difference. I wouldn’t be Sabrina, but with some random person’s body and life and personality. When Oneira remade me, she didn’t just remake Sabrina and put my soul back. She made a demon —a monster— with the likeness of Sabrina. That’s what I am. I’m a monster that just happens to resemble your girlfriend. I think I have all of my —no, Sabrina’s— memories, but how can I know. How do I know Oneira didn’t edit things out, or add things in? She is a demon, after all. Plus, we put so much trust in the dungeon. Why? Because it seems to show me preferential treatment? The dungeon kills people. It killed me. The dungeon is a predator, really, and we’re just gleefully walking into its mouth, and luring more people into it. These girls we’ve invited into the league trust us, but inevitably some of them are going to die. We are responsible for that! I am responsible for that! I invited you in the first pce! Sabrina did, at least. What if I’m just a Trojan horse? What if the dungeon made a monster that thinks it’s a person as the ultimate hunting-mechanism? What if it pnted the idea of saving the world in my head to motivate me to lure its preferred prey right into it?”

  Sabrina was sobbing and shaking with anxiety, having just materialized all of her unspoken worries into words.

  “Thank you for letting me in,” came the response. “I get where you’re coming from, but here’s the thing— it doesn’t matter.”

  Choking up, even telepathically, Sabrina cried, “What?!”

  “It doesn’t matter if you’re Sabrina or not, in the nitty-gritty technical sense. You’re a thinking, feeling, being. You think, therefore you are. Perception is reality. If you look like Sabrina, feel like Sabrina, have Sabrina’s memories, and even her soul— aren’t you Sabrina? What’s even left? What else makes you you?”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Sabrina admitted, sniffling.

  “Exactly. You’ve been holding this in, for so long, but for what? You’re only hurting yourself, mentally, but inevitably the dam has to break.”

  Sabrina’s heart was racing. She was terrified, and wasn’t conscious of the reason for it. She simply knew that what was coming was too horrible to face. “Stop,” she begged. “Please! Don’t…”

  “After all, look at the way you’ve just dumped all of this out,” the response continued, sounding deeper, and more distorted, “to the voice in your head.”

  Sabrina looked down, finding the space above her slit bare. The world went dark, and the blood rushing in Sabrina’s ears was deafening. Everything fell away.

  Suddenly, she was face to face with Jade. There was an agonized wailing, and Sabrina realized it was her own. The was in the dungeon, in the safe room, in bed. Her girlfriend was with her, trying to comfort her.

  “Jade? Is it really you?”

  “Of course it’s me,” Jade answered. “Who else would it be?”

  “I— I— I—,” Sabrina started repeatedly, hyperventiting. Jade’s arms came around her, and her Jade’s chest pressed against her own. She felt warm. She felt safe. She felt real. “I… need to talk to you about something.”