FEViR

  "It's fine," Lex says again as he pulls his third shirt of the day over his head. It's the only one that fits his new dimensions. He hadn't thought he'd wear it for another month. He ces up the fastenings, adjusting them to account for his growth and securing his chest so it won't bounce in combat.

  And minimum five stacks of increased libido. Plus, from the information Sage found on the forums when they logged off and scrambled for data, five is the point where you start to passively gain stacks over time. But that, at least, seems to happen slowly.

  He assesses himself in the mirror.

  He looks ridiculous. He looks like a man with balloons shoved up his shirt, even with the crease of his cleavage showing how natural the rise is.

  "You shouldn't pretend to be a girl," Sage says. Again.

  "I want to," he replies. Again. "I just need to get used to them," he says. "They were always going to get this big." Honestly, he wouldn't mind them bigger, he thinks, turning side on. They feel enormous, but he's gone from nothing to… this in a day. Of course he needs an adjustment period. "Do you think they're hot?" he asks, still assessing. Once they're bigger, it'll look like they were intentional.

  When he doesn't get a reply immediately, he turns to Sage, raising an eyebrow. They press their lips into a thin line. A smile rises to his. They totally think his boobs are hot.

  He stops tugging on the hem of the shirt and drops down next to Sage. He nuzzles their cheek and reaches around to squeeze them in a one-armed hug. And if, perhaps, that happens to rub his chest against them, well, he can't help that, can he? "If you'd done this to me intentionally, I'd have agreed to it." They gre at him. He kisses them. "Your face will get stuck like that," he says with a grin.

  They open their mouth — likely to protest again — but shut it without speaking.

  "I wanna dungeon," he says, nudging them. "I want to level up." For all that has happened in the past two days, he hasn't killed a single monster. He's still level flipping one.

  They scrutinise his face. He grins. Their worry about him and his breasts brings with it a lightness, like Sage has lifted weight from his shoulders, if not his chest.

  "Unless you're up for sex?" he asks.

  They baulk. Yeah, he didn't think so. His new statuses threw ice water on their mood. When they'd stroked him off to lower his libido condition, they had seemed actively revolted at themself, despite their obvious attraction to him. Maybe, he thinks, they were revolted because they're attracted to him.

  "So, dungeon?"

  They nod. "Dungeon."

  *

  The entrance to the beginner dungeon nearest to Librum is a crack in a cliff side that seems to reach for the clouds.

  "I cleared this solo after kicking Bishop to the curb, so I'll sit back unless you need the help, we run into something with high physical defence, or there's a rare spawn. But I can't see you needing me," Sage expins.

  "Is there a theme?"

  Sage snorts. "Unoriginal starter crap," they say. "Every boilerpte RPG enemy that springs to mind: this pce has it."

  When they run into the first monsters, Lex is inclined to believe them.

  "Do you think horned rabbits' horns are like narwhals'?" he asks as his sword slices a rabbit in two.

  "What?" True to their word, Sage hangs back, not even drawing their weapon.

  "You know," he says, moving down the path, and holds a finger up from his mouth to his forehead, "like it's a tooth."

  "I did not need to know that," Sage says. "And I do not want to know how that's a tooth."

  Lex ughs, trying to keep his focus on his fighting, but unable to hold back from continuing the conversation. "Since rabbits are rodents, if it was a tooth, it would keep growing bigger and bigger."

  Lex can almost feel the grudging consideration Sage gives the topic as he takes down the next monster — a goblin. "Maybe they sharpen it, like cats do with their cws, and they keep them short that way," Sage says.

  Lex beams. He knew they were thinking about it.

  As they continue on, Lex takes down another ten horned rabbits, four goblins, four generic wolves (their actual name, according to Sage) and a lizardman (not their actual name, according to Sage.) He also runs into several slimes, but they resist physical attacks, so Sage had stepped up and shot them with either a firebolt or icicle. They had burst with a sound like a whoopee cushion.

  "What do you think about that myth?" Lex asks as they reach a rest area. There's a picnic table and a stone barbeque. He looks at it, then at Sage, hopeful.

  Sage snorts at him and sets a fire spell going under the metal grill. He presses a kiss to their cheek and whips the meat drop from a rabbit onto the top.

  Neither of them have brought up the story Northly told them, but Lex suspects they've both been thinking about it.

  "It's probably at least partly true," Sage says. "The part that you said about Vuide not letting Nateria die definitely is. But… there's no way that Vuide made your cock ring."

  "Clit piercing now," he reminds them. They gre. "Actually," he says, and brings up the item info.

  [My darling's darling cock ring]

  Effects:

  Auto-equip

  When this item enters your possession it is automatically equipped

  Increased libido II

  Decreased phallus size (time modifier, unknown modifier)

  Decreased scrotum size (time modifier, unknown modifier)

  Cursed item!

  To remove this item removal criteria must be met. Removal criteria met: 0/2

  Growth

  This item can evolve! Evolution criteria met: 2/2

  Evolution pending compatibility! Days until compatible with current transformations: 13

  Alignment: Void

  Oh, that old thing? I needed my sweetie to learn to contain himself and went a smiiiiidge overboard. But he looks sooooo cute now!! And I think he likes his tiny teeny weenie really~~

  It still needs more improvements, so I'll keep working on it!!!! Fight fight!!

  — Vuide of the void]

  "Darn. Thought we might get a preview of the piercing's info."

  "And how're your libido stacks?" Sage asks.

  "Getting up there," he admits. "Seems to go up when I gain a level, too. I'm level 4 now, so…" He shows Sage his stats screen.

  Condition(s): Increased libido (9)

  "Need help with it?" Sage asks, eyes straying to his crotch.

  Lex shakes his head. "I've got to learn how to handle it. But when it gets to ten or before a boss?"

  Sage pauses.

  "What?"

  "There's a shop before the boss."

  "Seriously?"

  Sage nods.

  Lex flushes. "We could give the shopkeeper a show?"

  Sage thinks it over. After long seconds, they shake their head, a slow grin taking over their face. "You want to learn how to handle it, don't you?"

  Lex whimpers involuntarily as his dick throbs. He's almost looking forward to it shrinking to nothing, with how eager it is to give him away when Sage has ideas. And, frick, will this shirt still fit if he comes in the dungeon? He frowns down his cleavage. He thinks he's got the room for one more lot of breast growth, but two… probably not.

  "You could take the piercings out," Sage says.

  He blinks. Huh. They're right, aren't they? The piercings were to keep his dick size up, and since they're not doing that any more because it's an 'incompatible transformation'… He hesitates, reaching for the cing of his shirt then dropping his hands, reaching for it, then dropping them.

  "You want to keep them on, don't you?" Sage says, studying Lex.

  "They're hot," he mumbles. "And they'll look better once they're bigger." He's not talking about the piercings.

  "Then keep them," Sage says.

  Lex is fairly sure they're worrying about him, but he can't help but break into a grin. Sage's gaze keeps drifting to fix on his cleavage. "You can touch, if you like," he says. They've got some time to kill before the rabbit meat is done — Sage might as well have fun with it.

  "You are the least cis cis-boy I've ever met," they say with a scowl.

  "Maybe I just like tits that much," he says, sitting up with his back straight and shoulders down so his chest looks its most prominent.

  Sage shifts to sit with their heel tucked under them.

  "Are you getting wet, looking at my tits?"

  Sage colours and gres harder. For a moment, Lex thinks he's made a mistake, but when Sage speaks, it's to grudgingly say, "Of course I am."

  Lex beams, heat rushing south at Sage's admission.

  "When I logged out yesterday," they say, slowly. "I jerked off, thinking about you." They duck their head, avoiding his gaze. "Thinking about you like this. Just didn't realise you'd get to this point today. Thought it would take at least a week."

  "S'pose I'm a slut like that."

  Sage bursts out ughing. "Orange," they say and scoot over to him, stopping before they actually touch him. "You okay being called a slut?"

  He thinks about it. "Nah, not in general," he says. "Just when it's you."

  "Oh, so you're my slut?"

  Yep. That certainly does it for him. "If you're into that?"

  "Green," they say, and kiss him, long and hard, until Lex starts considering tapping out, but Sage breaks away just before he has to. They grin. "My slutty little cis-boy who wants everyone to think he's a girl. Who got so horny the game decided to take away his dick."

  "Only wanted you to touch it anyway," he says. "Only horny for you." And — shoot — that's true, isn't it?

  Sage bites their bottom lip. "What if I said screw dungeoning and took you back to the inn to fuck you until you don't fit that shirt? Until you 'meet the requirements' of that evolution?"

  "I'm your slut," he says. "I want to come for you."

  Sage activates the return orb before he finishes the sentence. The rabbit meat burns.

  *

  Lex blinks as he looks around. "This isn't Librum."

  "No, it's not," Sage says. They smirk.

  "Why aren't we in Librum?" he asks as Sage sets off. He follows them like they have a rope tied to his balls.

  "Librum does piercings," they expin. "Arum does tattoos."

  Lex perks up. "Seriously?" he asks.

  "We can't get them today, but we should be able to get a ballpark cost." They pause to spin and press their whole body against his. They cup one of his breasts in their hand. "I want everyone to know you belong to me. That these—" they squeeze his breast "—belong to me." They grin at him, but pause, "Colour?" they ask.

  "Green," he says. "So green."

  As Sage leads him to the tattoo parlour, Lex feels his increased libido reach ten. The difference between four and five is minimal, but nine and ten is huge. He palms himself in his trousers. It's still bigger than the one his real life body has, but he can't imagine it will stay that way with it shrinking each time he comes. "Sage," he whimpers.

  They whip around. His dick strains against his touch. They're so attentive. They love you, idiot, a voice in the back of his mind says. But that can't be right, not when it's been two days. Not when he's him.

  "You're at ten?"

  He nods.

  "But you can handle that," they purr. "I know my slutty cis-boy can control his dick, can't he?"

  Lex whimpers again.

  "My slutty cis-boy can keep it in his pants so I can make sure everyone knows who he belongs to."

  "Sage…" he whines.

  They take hold of his hand. "No covering," they say as they lead him away.

  He whimpers, but obeys.

  *

  By the time they reach the store, Lex's increased libido has reached level eleven, and his chest rises and falls in heaves as he struggles to keep himself under control.

  Later, Sage will give him something to reward him for trying so hard. He isn't even touching himself any more! And he's so damn beautiful with how flushed and distracted he is, with how he keeps mumbling their name and pulling their hand towards his crotch, because they are the only one who gets to say when he comes.

  They are going to ride him so hard after this.

  "Welcome!" a bright voice calls as Sage tows Lex into the store.

  "Lex?" He whimpers. They kiss his cheek and nudge him forward. "Be a good girl and tell her what you want."

  He keens in the back of his throat. They wouldn't be surprised if he was up to twelve stacks.

  "What is it, love?" the owner of the shop asks, seemingly happy to py along with Sage's pn.

  Lex flushes. "We—" Sage squeezes his hand "— I want. Um." He squeezes his eyes shut, releases a breath, rough and uneven from between his lips. He swallows. Sage pulls him flush against them, kisses his cheek.

  "You can do it, pretty girl."

  He rubs himself on Sage, but only for a moment, only willing to give himself the smallest amount of relief without their word.

  "I want to get a tattoo," he says, his voice husky and uneven. They're going to start getting him to work on his head voice. Oh, he could get a transformation for that, but Lex seems to enjoy putting effort into pleasing Sage, and what sort of person would they be if they denied him that opportunity? "A tattoo," he repeats, "on my chest."

  "Saying?" Sage prompts as Lex struggles with his breathing.

  He takes in a breath too fast, holds it, and lets it out in rough steps. "'Return to Sage after use,'" he says.

  "Good girl," Sage says, and lets Lex press himself over them and rock his hips pathetically against their leg. He's done well so — as long as he doesn't come — they'll allow him that much relief. To the tattoo artist, they say, "We don't want to get it designed just yet. We'll need to get the money together, so just need a ballpark amount, then we'll come back when we're ready."

  "Just the text?" the tattoo artist asks.

  "Want it to look nice," Lex says. He's probably messing up their hair with all the grinding he's doing. Maybe they'll try using the aphrodisiac spell on themself ter, see what it feels like so they can better assess what Lex can handle.

  "Maybe a decoration below the text?" Sage suggests. "And is it possible to enchant it?"

  "Of course," the tattoo artist says with a smile. "Unless you want to invest significant funds and seek out a higher level artist than our enchanter, it will be of limited strength, but we have a range of spells applicable to a design of that size."

  "How about a protection spell?"

  She hesitates.

  "Too strong?" they ask.

  "I'm afraid so. Even a shove from a child would be more effective than the protection enchantment we could y."

  "What about something that would let me know where she is?"

  The tattoo artist beams. "That is something we apply all the time. It requires some energy from you to activate, and if you are significantly far apart it will lose precision. But, if those limitations are acceptable, we could y the enchantment as soon as the tattoo is completed."

  "Great," Sage says.

  "And you," Lex reminds them, mumbling the words into their neck.

  They smooth his hair down. "I haven't forgotten," they tell him. "And I'd like something to match. On my forearm — the same as the decoration on hers."

  "And would you want the same enchantment? It would be difficult to pce a useful location spell in a tattoo of that size, the cost would be significant and it would take another two sessions after the tattoo is completed.

  "No, something different, I think." Lex nods against them. Sage shushes him. They should wrap this up and take him for a well deserved fuck. "What about a simple message? So she could make it change colour or shape based on her thoughts."

  The artist pauses. "We might be able to do colour." She leans back, scooting her chair so she can stick her head into the back room. "Sepher?" she calls. "Some customers asking about enchantments." She waits. "I know you're not asleep — I'd hear the snoring if you were!" She clucks her tongue, then turns back to Lex and Sage, a forced smile on her face. "Would you mind terribly passing me one of those?" she says, gesturing to a basket filled with pin, grey, fist sized rocks.

  Sage picks one up. It appears to be… a rock. They check its status.

  [Item acquired!

  Rock

  Css: blunt projectileStrength: 1Durability: 3

  Alignment: Void

  Simple. Efficient. Cssic. Rock.]

  It sure is a rock.

  They hand it to the tattoo artist.

  She bounces it in her hand once, rolls her shoulder, then hurls it into the back room.

  "Fuck!" cries a harsh voice from the back. "What the shit was that for?"

  "We have customers, dear," she says, turning back to Lex and Sage as if she didn't just unch a weapon at her… employee? Partner? Child? Sage can only guess as an elf covered in tattoos drags herself from the back.

  "So what do you…" she trails off as she finally looks at Sage and Lex. "Wow," she says. "Cute."

  Sage puts on a smile. "We've heard that before," they say, pulling Lex a little closer and angling him so the new staff member can't see his boner.

  "No, not— Well, yeah that, too, but." She pauses, unsure how to put what she's thinking.

  "Sepher sees magic," the tattoo artist expins.

  Sepher gres. "That is super reductive," she says in a huff. "It's not just magic. It's like… energy. And patterns. And you two," she gestures at Lex and Sage, "it's like you're part of one system." She tilts her head. "But not quite." She holds a finger up, then lowers it to point at Lex, then Sage, then Lex again. "It's coming from you?"

  Lex whines. Sage decides he's done enough for now, and shushes him, pulling him close. He's so hot when he's desperate. Though, they're not feeling entirely unflustered themself. Maybe increased libido is contagious. "She's got some conditions."

  A shudder runs through Lex, then Sepher whistles. "No kidding!" She scoots around the desk to stand directly in front of them, peering at Lex. "'Bound by the void'. Wow."

  Sage pulls Lex a step back. Sepher's hands fly to her mouth. One of them has a sun on it, the other a moon. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to overstep. It's just a habit! Like, since I can see the magic—" the tattoo artist snorts and Sepher shoots her a gre "—already, appraisal is just like 'oh that's what that was!' and wow! What a 'that' it was!"

  "If you can't help with the enchantme—"

  Sepher starts speaking over them. "We can help! We can totally help! We'd love to help! Do you want a discount? I can give you a discount! Or we can—"

  "Hey—" the tattoo artist begins.

  Sepher speaks over her, too. "Liv, she has a direct blessing from Vuide."

  The tattoo artist — Liv — pauses. "And that's… good?"

  At least Sage isn't the only one pying catch up here.

  Sepher lets out a frustrated grunt that sounds exactly like a video Sage watched of an elephant sneezing. "Livery! Nateria's priestesses? They have Nateria's blessing, but it's a, like, general blessing. I could walk up, pay their stupid rates, and get one today. She—" Sepher fils wildly to indicate Lex, "—was picked out by Vuide herself!"

  This st statement seems to change things for Liv, and her eyes go wide. "Like—"

  Sepher nods fervently enough that Sage is concerned about her head coming loose. "Exactly!"

  "If you would be willing," Liv says, eyes like saucers fixed to Lex, even as he whimpers against Sage, "we would be most honoured to grant you our services at the cost of the ink."

  "And what would you get out of that?" Sage asks. Somehow, paying for the ink but not their work seems more suspicious than getting the whole thing for free. The ink will cost a few coppers at most.

  "Our ink on your skin," Liv and Sepher say as one.

  Sage's skin crawls. They don't miss the irony. "I see," they say, and force a smile. "I think we need to leave for now, but, thank you. For the offer. We will consider it." They need to talk to Lex about it when he's not twelve stacks deep in libido hell. They hesitate. Fuck it. They can always leave Arum behind and never return if they decide these two are worth avoiding. So they ask, "Are you followers of Vuide?"

  Sepher smiles. "Everyone is, in the end."

  Liv smiles too, but hers is a sad affair, and Sage can feel the fractures in her heart as she says, "She loves us."

  "I see," Sage says.

  "Sage," Lex says into their skin. "I need—"

  "We'll come back," they promise Liv and Sepher. They can give these women and their broken hearts that much. "Soon."

  They don't bother to step outside before they drop another return stone. Back to Librum.

  *

  Lex hadn't followed much of what happened at the tattoo parlour. Not after Sage had let him forego speaking in favour of humping their leg like a dog. And he's still out of his mind with arousal. The scenery changes and all Lex can focus on is that Sage is moving away.

  He keens, clutching to them, moving his feet only so his body can stay against theirs. They coax him like that again and again. Each absence is worse than the one before. He starts mumbling pleas when they draw away. Begging them. Promising them anything. Everything. If they would just touch him—let him touch himself!—he could focus on them, make better offers, ones they would accept.

  Seconds pass like days. His migration with Sage is gcial.

  Eventually—after an age—Sage stops. They pce a kiss on the corner of his mouth, even as another plea falls out of it. They say, "Lex, we're here," and squeeze his hand.

  This time, when he begs, Sage responds. They pull at the strings that ce up his shirt and the fastenings of his trousers. As they release his dick from the clothing, he gasps, the air startlingly cold against his sensitive skin.

  "Still pretty big," they say. Their fingers close around him and usher him further into what he now realises is their room at the inn. He doesn't remember climbing the stairs.

  His breasts ache, his dick throbs, and he wants.

  "Please, Sage," he says, though he can't be sure he formed their name properly. "I need you."

  His skin lights up with lightning as Sage runs the edge of their thumbnail up the underside of his dick. The path they leave is excruciating, but he moans, so far gone that it's just hot and good. At this point, he would come if Sage bit it.

  "Lex," they say, soft, sweet, and not what Lex needs right now. "Lex, are you listening?"

  He shakes his head, then nods as the words reach the part of his brain not focused on every nerve ending waiting for Sage to touch him.

  "Good boy." They couple the words with blessed contact, gripping him fully for the first time.

  Then, they drag all their nails up, snagging on his foreskin. He yelps. His hips jerk away from them. The next moment he forces himself back into their hand. He needs this. He needs them. And they know what they're doing, would never hurt him in a way that didn't ultimately leave him feeling good.

  They kiss him. Their teeth nip at his lip as they squeeze his dick — too hard for it to really be pleasant — but then their tongue is in his mouth, and all he can do is moan his breath into theirs as they suck on his tongue.

  He whimpers, "Please," more animal sound than a word.

  They break away from his mouth, a string of spit keeping the two of them connected for a moment, before Sage speaks and it breaks. "I think you can get me off first," they say, caressing his cheek, then sliding their hand down his chest to perform the gesture on one of his breasts next.

  "Sage, please," he begs and tries to kiss them again, but their fingers that aren't wrapped around his dick tweak his nipple. He yelps, flinching into their touch, but forces himself to wait. They clearly want something from him, and their fingers are still ready to pinch.

  "Make me come, properly," they purr, and push him to his knees.

  FEViR