Alice, On Marmalade Island:

Alice woke up as the morning light began to brighten the room. She surreptitiously sat up and admired Drayden's body as he slept on.

So, I have finally done Drayden!

Wow!

She remembered her outbreak of jealousy last night and cringed.

Why must I be so bloody upset? Drayden is perfectly correct; Bronsen and Cassy are doing precisely the same as the two of us.

And even if I turn my emotional control to the max, it apparently doesn't affect jealousy.

What an utter pain.

And we will soon be meeting up with them.

Hmmm.

Her imagination produced some interesting images of her being alone in private with Bronsen again.

This sparked her jealousy as she imagined the corresponding scene with Cassy and Drayden being alone again.

"Oh fucking hell, this is the pits!"

She now noticed that Drayden was awake and calmly watching her.

"Ah, well..."

Drayden sat up right before her and also started getting another erection. With a big smile, he patted her back with his tail.

"There, there, I'm sure you'll get used to our situation."

"There is no need to get condescending! Weirdo, you're probably imagining Bronsen banging Cassy, right?"

"Why, how on Earth did you guess? But I'm also imagining me banging you."

Alice rolled her eyes.

"Is this going to work out?"

"I'm sure it is; just pretend there's no problem. And, also, let me twist my tail around yours..."

After a while.

They got up, wiped themselves down with some passably clean towels they had found, and got dressed. For lack of anything else to do, they sat down next to each other at the desk they had been using for their daily meals.

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Yeah, pretend nothing is wrong.

Alice looked around the room, eyeing the messy collection of papers stacked on the bookcase, the random boxes of junk on the floor, and the bloodstains on the floor...

"He, Drayden. We still haven't cleaned up the blood from my little murder episode, have we?"

"Oops, we haven't. And if we're going to have visitors in a few days, we had better set to and properly clean up this whole pigstyle of a house. We can turn it into a proper holiday chalet, ready to entertain our two guests!"

At this point, they heard footsteps outside. Their morning meal was being delivered.

Reggie came in the door. But he didn't have his usual calm demeanour. He looked agitated, unsure of his actions.

"Hi, Reggie. Say, what's up?" said Alice.

"Err, hello. I don't know what is happening, but it's weird. My orders don't seem to be working or something. It's almost as if I don't have to obey my orders."

He put down the trays on their desk. He continued speaking, half to himself and half to his audience.

"I couldn't work out if I should do anything, but eventually, I decided I might as well deliver your meals. Mainly because you talk to me nicely, and I have nothing else to do."

"Aah! At last! It's called Order Lock expiry. If a Grey doesn't have any interaction with a Red or higher slave, then after a week, their compulsion to obey orders disappears. The slave collar must be re-activated for it to work as usual." said Drayden.

"Oh. I didn't know that. So, what do us slaves do now?"

"Now that is a good question. First, we will go to the community hall and tell everyone about it," said Drayden.

"We also need to try to get everyone to keep carrying out their duties so that they can keep on eating and living here," said Alice.

"Hey, I know! We can also increase the food rations! And, if your crocigator hunters can do so, we can increase the number of crocigators caught, and everyone can have wonder crocigator stew!" said Drayden.

Alice had a few private thoughts.

If we have to suffer crocigator stew twice a day, then make them suffer, too!

Wait, they have to eat grey goop every day.

So, I guess they might consider it as a vast improvement.

Oh, how I want to get back to Manifestoria and proper meals.

Alice and Drayden:

The remaining days until Cassy and Bronsen's arrival passed. Alice and Drayden kept on having the good luck of no excitement to mention. They cleaned their accommodation and did their best to socialise with the Greys. Like Cassy and Bronsen, they realised that the typical Grey with an inactive collar slave didn't know how to spend their free time. Fortunately, enough of them were willing to do the bare minimum to maintain the hunt for crocigators, maintain the food supply, and clean up afterwards. Apart from that, the Greys drifted around aimlessly, the two meals daily being the only structure to their lives.

As for Alice and Drayden?

"Err, Drayden?" said Alice.

"Yes?"

"Isn't three times a day enough?"

"Hmm, not really. I mean, what else do we have to do?"

"Well, sure, let's lock the door and have some more."

A big grin from Drayden.

And on another occasion.

"Say, Drayden?" said Alice.

"Yes?"

"Slaves and sexuality, it's rape all the way down, isn't it?"

"Of course, how can it be anything else?"

"Then, how come we don't see any signs of it amongst this group now that those shitty Blues are gone?"

"Don't know. Let's ask Reggie."

"Oh, that? I've been here for almost a couple of decades, I think. And the Blues that lead us are continually changing. And they are all different in their ideas of how they lead us. These latest Blues forbade any sex between us Greys. I think they wanted it all to themselves. So, I suppose, even with the collars no longer compelling us, the effects of the prohibition must still be lingering."

"Well, what do you know, those Blues did one small thing right. I still don't forgive them, but," said Alice.