A few days after I got the enchanting dye, Me, Ash, and Sophia were all standing around in the living room. I had told them that I had something that I needed them for, and that they should expect to be busy for a few hours, so don’t make plans. I was stuck, trying to find the least awkward way to tell them what they needed to do. We ended up standing in silence for a few minutes as I struggled to find the words.
“Just spit it out Leo, what do you need?” Sophia asked.
I took a deep breath, and thought to myself, Fuck it, full send. “I have enough fabric to make another set of clothes, so Sophia, I need to take your measurements to make you your own hoodie and sweatpants. Where it’s going to get extremely awkward though, is that I have to take Ash’s measurements as well, which…yeah, means that I’ll basically need to see everything. To make it even more awkward, I’ll need to inspect your ass, so…”
The heat in the room noticeably increased, as the flames throughout Sophia’s body burned brighter, and hotter. The heat coming off of her was rippling the air in the subspace, causing a visible distortion in the space around her, and causing Ash to yelp and jump away from her, off to the side.
“Darling,” Sophia began in a perfectly lovely voice that caused the muscles in my lower abdomen to tighten, creating a sensation akin to a falling pit feeling in my stomach, “I will need you to fully explain why you need to see another woman naked for this.” Her words were soft and clear, and caused my throat to constrict, and my pulse to increase, the two sensations combining to cause the illusion that my heart had jumped upwards, and gotten stuck in my throat. “I will also need you to fully explain why you need to ‘inspect her ass’. After all, my ass is the only one of any concern to yours.” As Sophia spoke, her volume gradually increased, and the temperature rose along with it, causing my eyes to tremble in their sockets, creating the false impression that the world was tumbling around beneath my feet. “After all, I love you, and I trust you, and I know that you’re not just taking advantage of that love and trust to ogle another girl right in front of me right? Because that would be rather stupid of you.”
I managed to choke out my pitiful defense, “Yes, that would be rather stupid of me, which means it’s a good thing that this is actually something I need to do. After all, the spacesuits will need to be custom made for everyone, so you will be assisting me in taking Ash’s measurements, so that you know how to take Veronica’s and Sean’s as well. And as for why I need to inspect her ass,” I pointed to my own to assist in making my point, “I have never lived with a tail, so I have no clue how it works. I need to know where to make the hole for it in the regular clothes I intend to make for her, so that it’s comfortable. And I also need to know how it can be folded next to her body. Can I wrap it around her waist? Can it tuck between her legs? Or will I need to add extra room in her pant leg to stuff it down into? Her tail can’t be exposed to outer space after all, or else it will get damaged or maybe even die and need to be amputated. So yes, I will need to take all of the measurements and figure out how to accommodate her extra appendage that I have no clue what to do with.”
Silence descended upon the subspace, as Sophia weighed my words carefully, my continued wellbeing, my very fate itself, resting in the palm of her hand. Whether she accepted the words of a faithful husband as truth, or disparaged the pitiful excuses of a lecherous man, it all rested on her shoulders. As the seconds passed, Ash interrupted the tense silence, filled with the weight of sins I had yet to even commit.
“Wait, I’m getting a spacesuit?”
I tilted my head in confusion, responding, “Well, yeah? How else are you going to survive on the moon?”
She then asked, “Wait, I’m going to the moon?” Silence fell throughout the subspace as we looked at each other in mutual confusion.
“Did you not want to?” I finally asked.
She shook her head, “I mean, it would be super cool to go to the moon, but I mean, I guess I didn’t realize I was part of the plan.”
“But…why wouldn’t you be? If Duke’s coming to the moon with me, then obviously you’re invited too? I mean if you don’t want to come then that’s fine, but I was originally intending on bringing you. I thought you might like to see the view of the Earth from the Moon. On my old world…it put a lot of things into perspective for people. It kinda forces you to realize…we’re not actually all that important. That this whole planet, in the eyes of the universe, is really just a blip, a speck of dust on a cosmic scale. And that humans in general? We were just a small part of that insignificant speck of dust. A blip on a blip. It also set a new standard for what was even considered possible, you know? After all, if we can put footprints on the moon, then what can’t we do? I thought you might want to be a part of that. Was I wrong?”
Inexplicably, Ash had a bright smile, walked over, and hugged me. “Well yeah, you’re wrong that that’s something I necessarily thought about, but you’re not wrong that I wanna go. This is super important to you right? Of course I wanna be there. I don’t really get that ‘perspective’ stuff you’re talking about, but at the very least, I’ll be there to support you.”
I let out a chuckle, “Preesh, Ash. Big Preesh.”
Sophia cleared her throat loudly, making me realize…I had just talked about seeing another girl naked in front of her, and specifically mentioned a desire to inspect her ass, then had a heartwarming moment of support and appreciation with the aforementioned girl in front of Sophia. I am truly, and irrevocably, fucked.
Or…not? Why was Sophia smiling? Was that a good smile? Or was that a ‘I’m gonna enjoy murdering this idiot’ smile? God Dammit woman say words!!!
“Fine, I won’t be mad at you for taking measurements, however:” She squinted her eyes at me, walking over to poke me hard in the chest, “I’ll be watching your hands, mister. Any funny business…any roaming around…and I’ll know. You got that? Also, you’re gonna do both of the things tonight as penance, understand?” I did not understand. We had…kind of a lot of things. I turned my attention to Ash, remembering to modify my language so that she didn’t have to understand all of the gory details.
“Which two? The ones that came to mind are Flash, Shock, Smooth, Dine, and Rage.”
“Dine and Rage, but I will accept any of the other ones accompanying them.”
“Yes Ma’am, depending on how early we finish measurements, may as well go with all of the above.”
“You guys do remember that Sophia tells me everything you do right? Your little ‘code’ is completely useless.” Fuck. I did not in fact remember. Dammit Soph, why do you have to share so much about our private activities. If I had eyes I’d be scowling at her right now. I decided to ignore the awkwardness.
“Sophia, strip. I’ll start with you so that you can see what all needs to be measured, as well as how to take them.”
“Yes Sir.”
As I measured every inch, every curve of her body, I kept up a running commentary of exactly where I was starting each measurement, where exactly I was ending each measurement, and announcing them aloud so that Ash could write them down. After about half an hour, I had her grow to her true 8 foot height, then took all of the measurements a second time. After another half hour of measuring and dictating how I was measuring, I had Ash read aloud what she’d written down so that I could transcribe it into English and Arabic Numerals. I couldn’t really read Ash’s writing after all.
Now, comes the awkward part. “Alright Ash. This is gonna be weird as hell, but…get undressed okay? Sophia will be the one doing the actual measuring, but I’ll have to be here to make sure she’s doing it right. Okay?”
Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.
Ash’s face was akin to a tomato. In fact, the sheer saturation of the crimson blush within her cheeks served to shadow even the most vibrant of fruits. Pure shame and embarrassment flooded through her, but she stripped regardless. I filled my mind with pure thoughts of measuring and tailoring, not allowing myself to pay attention to her figure. Perhaps it was cruel to make the first time a man saw her naked so clinical and emotionless, but for us, that was better than the alternative. Besides, I think that we’re close enough to make the argument that this doesn’t actually count, and is more like a family member accidentally seeing you naked.
Because this was Sophia’s first time taking measurements, she was even slower than I was. It took her a full hour to get the lengths, as she kept starting or stopping in the wrong spots. The only plus side to her taking so long, was that eventually, Ash seemed to get used to the situation we’d found ourselves in, and was feeling okay enough to start speaking again and joking around. She was still very obviously embarrassed, but…in an okay way. A degree of embarrassment where we would be able to joke around about it in a few weeks.
Finally, Sophia finished up with all of the measurements, and I had almost all of the information I needed. Now it was time for the worst part. I walked up to Ash, kneeling down beside her, putting…well…EVERYTHING directly in front of my face. I spoke with the absolute least amount of emotion I could muster, trying to get into the mindset that I was something like a doctor, performing a physical. “I’m about to touch your tail now, okay?”
Her face was back to its previous degree of pigmentation, and she’d re-lost the ability to actually speak words. Instead, she just nodded that it was okay, and I placed my hand on the base of her tail. While I had pet and scratched her ears several times, I had never once touched her tail. Due to its location, petting her tail seemed a lot more…intimate than our relationship entailed. It was surprisingly soft and fluffy. I knew that her tail was from her Wolfkin mother, but some part of me was still surprised that it was so much more similar to a dog’s tail than a cat’s. This, however, did pose some serious structural issues when it came to the spacesuit.
“Okay, I’m going to test your range of movement Ash. This is going to be awkward, but I need you to push through it and tell me if it gets painful. I don’t want to accidentally hurt you because you’re too embarrassed to speak, okay?” She nodded, but that kind of went against the whole point I was trying to make. “Ash, I need you to actually talk to me.”
“Okay.” She whispered. Shit. She was so embarrassed that tears started forming in her eyes. Soph, help out Ash. I sent through the soulbond. Sophia came forwards and stood on Ash’s right, as I was kneeling on her left. She then wrapped her arms around Ash’s shoulders and started whispering things I couldn’t hear to her. As Sophia supported her, I grabbed Ash’s tail with both hands and gently started moving it. First was to the sides, to see if maybe I could wrap her tail around her waist, but once the tail was lined up with her side on either side, Ash informed me that it was starting to hurt. The next thing I tried was standing her tail straight up her spine, but halfway up she yelped, so I let go. Silent tears were streaming down her face. “I only have one more test okay? This is going to be uncomfortable Ash, I’m sorry. I considered asking a seamstress in town, but I would have to leave you alone with humans. This is the best way I could think of. I…I’m just…I am sorry.”
Silence fell for a few seconds, as Ash seemed to process my words. The next thing I knew..
Thump.
Ow? Why did she flick me in the forehead? What did I do? Wait, why was she laughing now? “No polite speech with friends right? Isn’t that your big rule?”
“Well sure, because I personally don’t like it. But this is really hard for you right? I figured, I dunno, since I’m putting you through so much shit I may as well play by your rules for today. I don’t want you hating me after all this is said and done, you know?”
Out of nowhere, I felt her hand on top of my head. Due to the fact that my blindfold’s field of vision stretched directly outwards, I very rarely allowed people to be above me, as there was a sizable blind spot in my 360 degree view of my surroundings, directly above my head. This meant that when Ash started stroking my hair, I had no way to see it coming, and purely by reflex, my hand shot up to grab her arm. After a second, I realized she wasn’t attacking me though, so I pressed her hand back down on top of my head, signaling that it was okay to continue, and lowered my hand.
It may have been almost a decade since I’d last seen my parents, but apparently, there was still a significant part of me that was scared of being anywhere I might consider ‘home’. A part of me that was constantly worried that the people around me might one day change their minds about me, and try to hurt me. That the only family I’ve ever known is the only kind I’ll ever have in the future. I mean, isn’t that what normally happens? We marry people who subconsciously remind us of our parents? Hell, I did end up with a demon after all. Sophia and Ash have never shown me anything but kindness and support, but still…I was waiting. Waiting for the day they revealed their true colors. Waiting for the day that they’d throw me to the curb, grab me by the throat and pin me against a wall, grab me by the ear, or the hair, and drag me all around the house.
A minute passed as Ash continued stroking my hair. Eventually, she said words I wanted to believe more than anything, but just…couldn’t. “I’ll never hate you Leo. And it’s okay, you don’t have to change yourself for me. Just finish up already so I can put my damn clothes on okay?” I chuckled in response and agreed.
“Just to warn you, this will be by far the most uncomfortable test. I’m going to try to tuck your tail in between your legs and up your stomach. You may feel some…sensation, down there, between the pressure and the fur.” Blushing, she replied, “Yeah yeah, just do it already, I’m fine.”
Fortunately, it worked. I was able to curl her tail down through her legs and up her front. Unfortunately, I ended up having to brush against everything downstairs and everything upstairs in the process. I had Sophia hold her tail steady while I redid all of the measurements for the spacesuit, operating under the assumption that this is how we’d tuck her tail to prevent its exposure to outer space. I also had collected enough information about her tail to be able to make her a comfortable pair of pants for everyday wear. Soon she would know the glory, the majesty, of sweatpants and hoodies.
Just a couple minutes later, Ash was fully dressed again. I figured she would appreciate some space away from me for a bit so that she could get over the sheer awkwardness of the past hour and a half of being naked in front of her guy friend and having said guy friend measure every inch of her and move around her various…parts. And so I ran away like a scared little bitch off to my doghouse, or in this case, my shed, and started working on Sophia’s comfy outfit. I cut out all of the pieces for the front torso, back torso, hood, pocket, left leg, right leg, crotch, and rear. Because this was my second time making a similar outfit, the time it took was significantly less than when I made my own outfit. Instead of spending hours painstakingly agonizing over the exact measurements of each individual piece, I confidently measured everything, double checked, then cut, completing the entire process in just an hour.
The next part, the actual sewing, would take the longest, probably a good half of a day or so, so that part I would leave for tomorrow. I had made a deal with Sophia as ‘repayment’ for the sins committed this day after all, and didn’t want to end up spending so much time on my project that I got in the way of her fun. As I organized all of the pieces of fabric, setting them up so that it would be easy to start tomorrow, I took a look around my shed at the other projects I had lined up.
The past couple of days, I carved out the radar enchantment that I’d planned into a random stick I happened to have lying around, and used the dye to color it green. Assuming it worked, I would be placing this particular enchantment in my blindfold after all, so I had to make sure it actually worked before sewing it in. So far I’ve been facing two problems with this particular enchantment. Firstly, for some reason my enchantment sends out radio waves for a duration of an extremely small fraction of a second, which means that whenever it bounces back, it will be extremely easy to miss, as it will be one extremely short flash of light shrouded inside of the normal radio frequency light that the moon is constantly reflecting from the sun. I tried connecting it to my Hz enchantment to make a pulse last for a full second, that way I’d actually be able to reliably notice when it returned, but unfortunately all that did was turn it into a loop that sent out a burst of radio frequency light once every second, but each pulse still lasted the same extremely small fraction of a second.
The second problem I’ve been facing is that in order to see when it returns, I have to set my blindfold to receive radio waves. This means that when the pulse from my radar goes off, the effect is similar to having a flashlight pointed right at your eye. It takes a while for the effects to go away, allowing me to see in that direction once more, which could potentially cause me to miss the moment that the light returns after bouncing off of the moon. On the plus side, I at least was made aware of this weakness of my eye enchantment before it could take me by surprise in a combat situation, but my current priority was figuring out how to get around it for just this project. I would need to either:
A, craft an automatic radar receiver, something that would tell me how long the trip took. Pros: It would be super easy and convenient to use, Cons: I dunno how to make it.
B, start the project with my eye enchantment disengaged, then start the pulse, and as quickly as I could re engage my vision. Pros: Super easy and convenient to implement, Cons: Activating enchantments have a small delay to them, and every time I start my vision enchantment in particular, I experienced some mild disorientation, as my blindfold’s placement was never quite the same from day to day, or even moment to moment. Now, it was always roughly in the same spot, as it was always situated in a place that covered my scars, but the precise location could vary by half an inch up or down, and the angle at which I saw could shift by a few degrees. My head is not a perfect cylinder after all. This disorientation could very well cause me to miss the return of the radio wave.
C, put my blindfold in my normal seeing range and set one of the knives from Project Horizon to be my Radio Frequency vision. Pros: This would create a degree of separation from the flash, making it so that emitting the pulse only interferes with a small window of my vision, Cons: this would create a degree of separation from the return, making it so that the already easily missed flash of light would only exist in a small window of my vision.
As you can see, each of the potential solutions that I could come up with had their various downsides. However, I was not discouraged. For the first time since finding out Sophia’s dream, I finally had a starting place for actually getting her to the moon.
I also carved out my target enchantment onto another stick, but…it had zero effect. Not to say that it wasn’t doing anything, but stupid me, I failed to take into consideration two very vital pieces of a targeting system. The first piece is that I needed to be able to see my target. This meant that the target enchantment would only be able to work when connected to my eye enchantment. The second piece is that I needed something to actually aim. Without any sort of long distance attacking enchantment connected to the targeting system, I would have no way to test if it actually works. This means that before I can test the targeting system, I first have to come up with a long distance attack enchantment.
When I tried engraving a bullet into a stick, it ended up as a cylinder with a curved top and a horizontal line under the curve. If you draw this out yourself, you may find that a rough carving of a bullet happens to bear a striking similarity with a particular organ on the male body. And if you happen to have carved that as an enchantment, then you may find that the results are…explosive, just not in the way that you originally intended. I also tried engraving an arrow, forgetting that I have already made arrow enchantments before, and feeling rather stupid when all that happened was that the stick moved in whatever direction the arrow happened to be pointing.
However, today was not the day to continue trying to figure out these various problems, nor was it the day to finally start testing whether simply engraving a bigger battery will in fact allow me to store more mana. I had made a promise to Sophia after all, and I intend to keep it.