Evereena:

Evereena was becoming increasingly fascinated with the Misfits, particularly the girls. She had never seen anyone like them before, nor even imagined anyone could be like them. Of course, she realised that this was because she had lived all of her life as a slave in a severely restricted environment. The only other person she interacted with as a human was her mother.

Their master was just their master. He would tell them what to do, whether it was to sweep the floor, get some food, or lie down and be raped. And everybody else was just ciphers. Sometimes, they were higher-ranking slaves and would give her orders. Mostly, they were grey-collared slaves and did what they were asked to do like she was.

And then, their master got involved in some fight, and they all ended up a long way from home, with the master dead. Evereena had spent five or six days sitting beside her mother, with her mother's arm around her, unable to do anything. Not even able to go to the toilet. The only good thing was watching their master slowly and painfully die.

So she had waited to die. And along came Bronsen and Alice and saved them. And, soon after, Drayden and Cassy. Oh, and also Aragon.

She was confused about the whole Aragon thing - his vows to them, his looking after them, and the fact that her mother seemed to have some connection with him.

Right now, it was after the midday meal, and the Misfits and Aragon were cleaning up while everyone else sat around and didn't do much at all.

Evereena was watching Aragon, busy drying a plate before handing it to Cassy to stack away.

I don't get it. Aragon isn't a master. He doesn't boss us around. And he has made some vows to look after us. But he also seems to - want to have sex with Mum. But only if she consents?

What weird nonsense is that?

And Alice and Cassy - they say they like having sex with their partners - something about being in love with them.

I suppose it must be because I'm a slave. I don't know how ordinary people, people who have not spent their lives as slaves, approach this whole sex thing.

She felt the familiar disgust and revulsion as she recalled the times her master had called her to his bed.

It must be totally different for Alice and Cassy.

How I envy them.

Just then, she was startled out of her reverie by Cassy. In fact, Cassy's face was right in front of her.

"Hello, anyone home?"

"Huh?"

"Sorry, but it looked like you were zoning out there. The Misfits are going off to do a job. Do you want to tag along and watch us?"

Do I want to tag along? She is asking me if I want to do something.

I, err, what do I do now?

She looked at her mother, who looked just as blank as she felt. Then she looked at Aragon. He smiled back at her.

"You can make a choice, you know. Would you like to watch Cassy and the others?"

I can watch Cassy and Alice as they work with Bronsen and Drayden?

Maybe I can learn something.

"Err, yes... please?"

Saying 'please' was also something strange. As a slave, she had never had the experience of asking for someone's favour. She would merely have been ordered to do something or get something from someone else.

Accordingly, she was still getting used to the whole concept of politeness.

"Great!" said Cassy, as she hoisted Evereena right up into the air out of her chair, then placed her gently back down on the floor, leaving Evereena standing and feeling slightly dizzy.

What was that?

She dimly recalled her mother picking her up like that when she was much younger.

That was when she felt the first stirring of affection for anyone else apart from her mother.

Cassy is wonderful.

The Treasurer:

First stop, casually saunter to the treasurer's office and find out what the job was.

The treasurer looked at the five people who suddenly invaded his waiting room.

He had a medium-strength fireball hovering in the air over his head, purely to add extra light to his desk. After all, he spent most of his time perusing pages full of little black marks. He boosted the fireball's power to light up the whole office.

Job for the Misfits? What job? Oh, that's right.

He got up and plucked a sheet of paper from one of the pigeonholes behind him. He skimmed through it.

The job was pretty simple. The road from Manifestoria going to Crysteth cut across a steep slope at a point some kilometres out. Embedded in the slope uphill from the road were many rocks. They had a habit of slowly working their way down every time it rained and ending up on the road. This created a real nuisance for traffic, so the idea was to move the rocks before they became a nuisance and place them on the other side of the road.

Yep. Just the job for them. It requires brute strength and stamina but zero discipline and not much intelligence.

Once they grow up a bit, they might be pretty formidable. It's just not yet.

He sent them on their way, dimmed the fireball to be only bright enough to light up his ledger books, and returned to his serious work.

Evereena:

"It's ten kilometres out of town; how about I carry you?" said Cassy to Evereena.

"Ah, yes?"

So, with ridiculous ease, Cassy hoisted Evereena up and onto her shoulders. Then, all the Misfits started running along the road.

"Don't worry! I'll run perfectly flat without any jolting whatsoever!" said Cassy.

"Yay for System-san enhanced strength!" said Alice.

Evereena was amazed. There was very little jolting.

She is so strong! And so fast!

As promised, the road skirted the bottom slope of a hill, with rocks scattered everywhere. Including on the road.

Drayden surveyed the location.

"You know, if all we do is to clear the road and the immediate slope, the problem will merely re-occur. There are still plenty of rocks up the slope to be slowly washed down. What say, after clearing, we dig a trench a couple of metres above the road, move some of those really big rocks down, and securely nest them in the trench? They will act as a fence to catch any further rocks."

"Sounds good to me," said Bronsen.

"But, wouldn't the space behind the big rocks eventually get filled with smaller rocks?" said Alice.

"Ahh, don't worry about it. That's years down the track. Not our responsibility!" said Cassy.

"Yeah, it can never be our responsibility," said Alice.

Evereena wondered at the momentary gloomy feeling she got from all four Misfits. But it soon passed.

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Cassy planted her at a safe distance upslope and to one side, under a small tree. Then, they got stuck into the job.

"Hey, Drayden, catch this little baby!" said Alice as she casually tossed a fifty-kilogram rock down the slope.

He made a show of almost dropping it, fumbling it, then finally tossing it over the road and further down the slope.

"Clumsy!" said Bronsen as he lobbed an even bigger rock in his general direction.

"I got it!" shouted Cassy, plucking it out of mid-air.

Since the rock was about twice her weight, its sudden weight spun her around, and she tripped over her own feet and went sprawling onto the road, just in time to provide a nice cushion for another large rock that Alice had launched. Cassy ended up lying on the road, with her arms and legs visible and her head hidden by the rock.

"Oh, that looks quite dramatic," said Drayden.

Evereena gasped and screamed out, "Cassy!". She jumped up and scrambled and slithered down the slope and ran up to where Cassy was. Just in time to see Cassy move her arms to get a hold of the rock and lift it right up, then shove it over her head and down the slope.

"Ta-da! I'm as good as new!"

"Show off," said Drayden.

At this point, Cassy saw Evereena's expression.

"Hey, sweetie, there's no need to worry. We're the Misfits. A little thing like a massive rock landing on our heads isn't going to worry us."

It isn't?

Cassy got up, lifted Evereena and gave her a bear hug. So Evereena wrapped her arms around and snuggled her head next to Cassy's.

"Sorry, sorry, I thought you were hurt," said Evereena.

Alice patted her back. "Don't worry about it."

"You're all so wonderful; I want to be with you forever."

"Ah... About that," said Cassy.

Why have they become so serious?

Cassy sat down, still hugging Evereena. The others knelt or squatted down around them.

"You know that we are heroes, as designated by System-san - ah - I mean The Voice of the World?"

"Yes?"

"And you know that such heroes always have a job to do?"

"No? I don't know much at all."

Evereena looked sorrowful at that.

"That's fine. Us Misfits don't know much either. But, anyway, the job the heroes have to do, it's usually dangerous. Or hard to do. Or both."

"Yes?"

"And we can fail; there's no guarantee we will win."

I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"Of course, we might win!"

Cassy stopped for a moment, then continued.

"But, you see, whether or not we win or lose, we will never end up dying of old age in this world."

"What? What?"

"Sorry about that, but us Misfits won't last very long here one way or another."

"But you've just come here! You can't go! You've got lots of things to do yet!"

"I know. But remember, we have already done something important; we have saved you and your mother. And hopefully, we will fix the slaver menace. So, you will always have that for the rest of your life. You will always have those memories and, hopefully, many more memories of us. We'll be in your heart forever. So there's no need to be too sorry."

Evereena was so unhappy there were tears in her eyes.

So Cassy wiped some away with her fingers and continued.

"I know, it's shitty. But I'll tell you something. Us Misfits have some rules that Sys - I mean The Voice - upholds. And rule number two is: 'It's all bullshit!' Just before we died back in our home world, that is what we all shouted. So, come on, Evereena, shout it out!"

"Ah, yes?"

"No, no! Shout out 'It's all bullshit!'".

In a small voice, Evereena managed a weak sounding 'It's all bullshit?'"

Some of the other teenagers laughed gently at this.

"No, there's no question mark. It's an emphatic statement. Like this."

"It's all bullshit!" said all four Misfits.

"So let's practice this!" said Cassy.

After about ten minutes, Evereena produced a reasonable version, which Cassy judged as adequate. For a start.

"So, how about you go back to your tree, and we keep working?"

"OK. Wait, what is rule number one?"

"Well, that's, err, let's leave that for another time, shall we?" said Cassy.

They look a bit embarrassed. Maybe it's something to do with their sex obsession? Probably best that I don't know.

The afternoon wore on. When they had cleared enough rocks, they materialised their shovels and dug a respectable ditch in a very short time.

"I'm still impressed at how strong we are," said Drayden.

They moved some larger rocks down and planted them in the ditch. After finishing, they stepped back and admired their work.

"Yep, I think we have earned our meals for the day," said Alice.

Alice:

It was now nighttime, and the Misfits were in their club room.

"Right, I'll just lock the door..." said Alice.

She sat down in her usual place.

Bronsen had a big grin on his face.

"Isn't this the first time here that we have locked the door?" he said.

"Yes - but we used to lock the door all the time back on Earth. Hmm, wasn't it only three times in all?" said Alice.

"Yeah, I was hoping to get a lot more usage out of that club room," said Bronsen.

"But still, back then, we had a reason to lock the door, you know," said Drayden.

"Well, can't we still have the same reason now?" said Alice.

"But, that number one rule - 'No group sex!' - sort of means that we can't get, shall I say, excited." said Drayden, "Or at least, not until we are in our separate bedrooms."

Alice wiggled around on the sofa and, out of sheer force of habit, tried to pull down her skirt to cover her knees before realising that this didn't work when one was wearing slacks.

"I think that Alice might have some specific ideas in her head," said Cassy, a big smirk on her face.

"Yeah, remember, one can still do exciting things without getting all excited," said Bronsen.

"Ooooh, you mean, do something sexy without the boys disgracing themselves by getting obvious erections?" said Cassy.

"What's so disgraceful about getting an erection?" said Drayden.

Cassy flicked out her tail, wrapped it around Drayden's foot, and jerked back. Drayden slid out of his seat and landed on the floor, half kneeling over Alice's knees.

"Oh, a pussy cat wants to be patted!" said Alice, a big grin on her face.

She patted and stroked his head and managed to get him purring.

"What about me?" said Bronsen.

After ten minutes of mutual petting and purring, they took a short break.

"If I were back on Earth, I'd take out a petition to immediately install the purring reflex in all humans. It would make one hell of a difference!" said Cassy.

Agreement all the way round.

There was a companionable silence before Bronsen reached across with his tail and tapped Alice's knee.

"Come on, that purr-fest wasn't why you locked the door, was it?"

Alice wiggled around, once again, on her half of the sofa.

"Well, now, you know how incapable we are of any 'excitement' whatsoever when we are together?"

"Yes?" said Cassy, a big grin on her face.

"And how we are ever so hot for the 'wrong' partner?"

"Hmm?" said Drayden.

"So, I think our meetings are the perfect time to indulge in our attractions without it ever getting out of hand..."

Bronsen was giggling like mad by now.

"Come on, tell them!" he said.

"So, why not... Try some social nudity?"

It was a shame her skin was so dark. Nobody could see how much she was blushing.

Cassy burst out laughing.

"Wow, you have gotten over your possessiveness, haven't you? Of course, it's perfectly understandable."

"Yeah, I'll say. Whether or not we end the slaver menace, we still end up dead. So let's make the most of our time while we can!" said Drayden.

"But remember! Outside of this room, nothing ever happens! OK? Err, that is, nothing ever happens between the wrong couples." said Alice.

Everybody agreed with that. Then they sat there and looked at each other.

"So, how do we do this?" said Bronsen.

"Well, we take off our clothes?" said Drayden.

Two raised eyebrows from Cassy. "You volunteering to be first?"

"Well, now, I suppose that could be a little embarrassing..." he said.

"OK, how about we do it in stages? We all take off our shirts first. Then trousers. And then the rest." said Bronsen.

Alice was the last to finally remove her panties. So they were now all naked, standing in a circle, looking at each other. Bronsen was the first to speak.

"Yep, thought so; Cassy's pubic hair is roughly the same colour as her head hair."

"Say, do you think that the [Hairstyle] system attribute extends to public hair?" said Drayden.

Nervous laughter from the others.

"Who knows, but I am leaving my pubic hair curly," said Alice.

No one else could think of anything to say, so they all admired the opposite sex's bodies. Eventually, Cassy and Alice got tired of this and looked at each other.

"Well, really, once you see one, another one is more or less the same, isn't it?" said Cassy.

"Yes. Although the boys still seem very engrossed in the view, aren't they?" said Alice.

Both boys nodded without looking away.

"Oh, my, how things have changed. Back on Earth, they were just about ready to react with extreme enthusiasm when we merely talked about sex, but now they are supremely unaroused even though they can perve as much as they like at our naked bodies," said Cassy.

"I know, it's so sad, they must have gotten bored with us already," said Alice.

"You know that is all bullshit," said Bronsen.

"Of course! Rule number two," said Drayden.

After a little bit more, Cassy made a suggestion.

"I would be happy to hug anyone who wants to..."

"Oooooh, can we have a girl-on-girl hug?" said Bronsen.

"Of course... but only if we have a boy-on-boy hug first," said Alice.

"Oh," said Drayden.

"In that case, how about we have boy x girl hugs? For the time being," said Bronsen.

"Shame," said Cassy.

So they exchanged boy x girl hugs. They then dressed, unlocked and opened the door. Of course, they couldn't resist - there was another round of (fully clothed) hugs before they retired to their rooms.

Alice:

After an hour or so, Alice and Bronsen finally separated.

"Yes, that's the way to go!" said Bronsen.

"Oh, I bet you were frantically fantasising about Cassy?" said Alice.

"Of course. But then, you were thinking about Drayden..." said Bronsen.

Alice didn't bother answering that question; instead, she snuggled up to him, closed her eyes, and gave a good imitation of someone sleeping.

There's no need to think about the slaver situation. Just think about Drayden instead. And Bronsen, of course.

Evereena:

Evereena had been returning from the toilet block when, just before disappearing into her bedroom, she had seen the Misfits come out.

What is it with all of that crazy hugging? They really are sex mad.

She hopped into her bed. As she did, her mother turned over in her own bed and briefly looked at her before settling down again.

"Say, Mum?"

"Yes?"

"Are all teenagers as obsessed with sex as the Misfits are?"

"I don't know. I missed out on everything to do with a normal teenage life."

She sounded sad as she said this.

"Oh, right. Well, anyway, I'm not going to have anything to do with men and sex!" said Evereena.

"That's all right. I mean, we have our free will now. If you don't want to consent to such stuff, don't."

It still seems so strange to be able to make up our own minds.

"And I'm so glad that Aragon has made that vow; you don't have to worry about him trying to get you to do things."

No way Mum would disagree about that!

"Well, umm, actually, I don't know. I mean, Aragon is, err, a nice man. And, err, possibly a little handsome, too."

Evereena was shocked to her core.

You mean, you might decide to consent to have sex with him?

Why?

What sort of power does Aragon have over her that would make her want to do such things?

She decided to leave it at that for the time being.

Adults are just weird. Older teenagers also.