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“So… Jason…”

“Yo.”

“Don’t just ‘yo’ me, jerk. Are you going to explain the girl tressed up like a frickin’ Thanksgiving turkey in our basement? Keeping her here wasn’t discussed in the Plan!”

I couldn’t even blame her for the volume. Cassie had already done a remarkable job keeping her cool and not fucking up the whole ‘scary jailer’ act I’d been putting on with Rune - it was unrealistic to expect that same ambivalence after the initial ‘introduction’ was over and done with. 

“‘Training Hall’, not the basement, but I feel you,” I murmured, keeping my voice calm and understanding as I maneuvered around the loveseat and placed a hot cup of coffee on the table in front of the incensed girl. Her nose twitched at the tantalizing scent  - two sugars and a dash of chocolate syrup, just ‘cause I knew that sugar helped her mellow out - and Cass begrudgingly reached for the steaming mug.

I stopped her with one finger against the forehead, and her dark eyes flipped inwards like a dead chicken’s as she glared at the offending digit. “What? I can’t even drink my cup o’ joe now?”

“Call it coffee. You sound like a Boston office worker when you call it ‘joe’,” I responded drolly, smirking at her unrepentant attitude, “And you’re gonna burn yourself if you drink it now. Be patient and wait for it to cool.”

“Hmph, fine. Guess that’s two things I’m waiting on.” Cassie rolled her eyes, but she retracted her hands from the piping hot porcelain and placed them neatly in her lap. Already, without her even taking a sip of the coffee, I could see her frayed nerves calming down, replaced by that subtle, passive little happiness that girls like her received when being taken care of by their significant other. 

She was actively fighting down a small smile now, wiggling a little in the seat as she waited for me to talk.

The sight was absolutely fucking adorable. It truly wasn’t fair. 

With a sigh, I faded out of existence, my Conveyance sorcery transposing me from standing to reclining back beside my girlfriend, bunny slippers propped up on the coffee table and one arm slung over the back of the couch cushion. She jolted at the casual display of magic, and I acted like I didn’t notice. 

“I wasn’t plannin’ on keeping it a secret, Cass… it just didn’t register to mention it. I do most of my decision making in my head, ‘specially when a lot of important shit is happening at once. I’ve kinda been running myself ragged these past few days.” I was being truthful, even if I found myself still procrastinating on getting to the actual meat of the discussion. The past week had been pretty rough.

Cassie turned her head to watch me, her face turning pensive and thoughtful. When she spoke, it was without her usual lighthearted brattiness - one of the rare moments where the playful attitude peeled back and a modicum of seriousness made itself apparent.

“You do that a lot,” she said, smiling dryly and leaning her inconsiderable weight against my bare chest. “Thinking in your head, putting everything we’re dealing with solely on your shoulders. You can let me carry some of that stuff too. That’s… that’s my job, right? As the best super cool hacker-ninja girlfriend ever.”

My hand found its way into her hair, long digits combing through the silken strands and untangling knots made from her recent shower, and she let out a pleased murmur that sounded suspiciously like a cat’s purr. Her head pressed softly against my hand, as if asking for more scritches, and I acquiesced without complaint. 

“It’s ‘prolly part of being in a healthy relationship, yeah. Open communication and all that.” I smiled crookedly, closing my eyes to recenter my thoughts. “I don’t have the greatest track records with those, so I’m playing keep-up a lil’ bit. Forgive me.”

I couldn’t see her face, but I could hear the pout in her voice. “No apologies, mister - just tell it to me straight. What’s going on?”

When I didn’t respond immediately, my hands stilling in her hair, Cassie’s tone of voice became meeker, more nervous. “Is… is everything okay? I thought we were doing good work. Taking the fight to the Empire, like in your shittily thought-through plan that’s been working for some frickin’ reason. The PRT’s a little sanctimonious, sure, but-”

My eyes opened slowly, languidly, and I resumed the head scritches. “Sanctimonious, huh? That big word for small lady.” Fondness brightened my gaze, and I chuckled deep in my chest, the vibrations shaking the slim slip of a woman lying against my body. “Worry less, babe.”

Her fist slammed into my gut with the total combined force of a particularly soft teddy bear. “Well, I would if you’d talk to me! And don’t even start with the spelling BS, I’m smarter than you!”

“Uh-huh.”

“You and Sabah were just saying random shit that sounded intelligent! And- and I was distracted by you spanking me! That kinda stuff tends to send your brain elsewhere, Jay.”

“For sure. Here, sip some of your diabetes water - you’re not you when you’re thirsty.” I grinned, gesturing to her cooling cup of sugary coffee with a casual flick of my hand. The mug floated off of the table, smoother and more in control than my previous telekinetic attempts, and she grabbed it by the handle as it hovered towards us. 

“Whatever, you ass. Wouldn’t be thirsty if you hadn’t blindsided me with your stupid pheromone saliva mind-fuck hentai crap,” Cassie huffed, cradling the warm porcelain in her small hands. Not even a moment passed by before she peeked up at me, a small smile curling at the corner of her soft pink lips. “... But thank you.”

“Mm.”

Tap, tap, tap.

As the sound of quiet sipping and the dull thud of my finger tapping on the couch filled the living room, I went silent, turning my thoughts inwards. I was hesitating, and it was starting to piss me off - because I knew exactly why I was hesitant. I didn’t consider myself a coward or a weakling, especially not now… Heroic Aptitude made that impossible. I wasn’t the peak of what I could be, and it was unlikely that I ever reached that summit as long as I continued to fight against hardships and calamity, but I was a Hero. Brave, courageous, fearless to a fault - those traits were intrinsically a part of me now, just as they were a part of Link, the Legendary Hero of Hyrule.

But even with all that smoke blown up my ass, my Heroic soul didn’t do much to shield me from the fear of rejection and loss. I felt like I could stare Scion down right now, powerless to erase him from existence at this point in my life, and flip him the bird without flinching, but the thought of Cassie looking at me with disgust and fear instead of love and admiration and that little bit of annoyance at my cheekiness… it chilled me to my core.

I didn’t want to just kill motherfuckers for the sake of killing them. I wasn’t a fucking sadist psychopath with a murderhobo boner. I would if I had to, don’t get me wrong, but I saw it when I was fighting Rune - the fear at the mere thought of dying, the naive trust and infatuation she held for her racist, white supremacist ideology. 

The bitch was fourteen. 

You could call it hypocrisy all you want, my desire to purge her mind of its retarded, ignorant ways, but if I could save a girl from death or fates worse than by just blowing her back out… why the fuck wouldn’t I? Assholes like Kaiser, or Stormtiger, or, hell, even Purity - they murdered people for their ideology, got off on it, and they were more than old and experienced enough to be aware of just how fucked up what they were doing was. 

Maybe it would’ve been different if she was a killer. Maybe if I saw that cold intent to murder me in her eyes, I would’ve treated her the same way I treated Stormtiger and Crusader. But I hadn’t seen any of that. ‘Till the very end, as I dismantled her defenses and brutalized her body, I saw the terrified gaze of a racist teenage girl way too in over her head. 

I didn’t empathize with her. I didn’t like her. Hell, maybe I did get a little jolt of satisfaction when I broke her arms and dangled her a hundred feet over the blacktop, putting fear in her heart the same way she did to minorities for no fucking reason. But I had the power to magically change her ways, to make it so that she was truly good at heart and willing to atone for her sins, and I’d taken the ability because I knew that I was eventually going to use it.

My mind was already made up, and now I just had to make sure that the love of my life was fine with me fucking the literal nazism out of the chick I had shackled in our home.

No pressure.

Cassie’s quiet voice eased me out of my stormy, chaotic thoughts.

“Hey, Jason…” Her coffee mug was empty, even the creamy dregs at the bottom of the cup drained dry, and she stared down at it as she spoke to me. “If you really don’t wanna tell me, I… I’d understand. Well, not really, and I’d be kinda upset about it for a while and pout a lot and feel like you don’t trust me, but you seem really out of it and it’s making me worry-”

The shakiness in her voice triggered something in my chest - something primal and protective. ‘Stop being a wishy-washy pussy, Jay.’ 

“I have a new power.” I cut her off, my mind made up. “It- they have names, my powers do - when they come to me, they come at me sorta like… perks, in a video game.”

Cassie paused. Even with Hidden Intuition turned low, because I wasn’t the biggest fan of prying into my girlfriend’s emotional state 24/7, I could see the cogs turning in her head. Despite my jokes about her spelling prowess, I knew that Cassie was, by most means, smarter than me. Less quick to adapt and take things in stride, maybe, but definitely more booksmart.

“... Odd, but a lot of different powers have weird side-effects or ways that they affect the cape’s mind and body,” she murmured, leaning off of my body in order to set her coffee mug down on the table. When she straightened, Cassie’s eyes were sharp and focused solely on me, her hands bunched up in the hem of her oversized hoodie. “You’ve never told me anything like this. I’m guessing it has something to do with the girl tied up in our basement?”

“Training Hall.”

“Whatever, you friggin’ nerd! Explain.” 

 I inclined my head, holding back the small smirk that wanted to form on my face. “Guess I didn’t feel the need to share the specifics. Dick move, but I’m tryna be more open now - new year new me type shit. There’s still some stuff I don’t wanna share just yet-”

“Riiight. Like why you lied to me about your dad kicking you out all those weeks ago,” Cassie tilted her head, a dry smile on her lips. “Or why you seem to know so much about the gangs here despite being absolutely clueless when we first met. Or why I’ve searched high and low on every streaming website for ‘Lil’ Wayne’ and ‘Drake’ and couldn’t find a single artist other than some old man who plays the banjo on Earth Aleph-”

I couldn’t school my expression fast enough to avoid widening my eyes, and the flash that went through hers was evident enough that she caught it. Instead of pushing forward, however, Cass leaned back on her ass, wrapped her arms around her knees, and sent me an amused glare. “I’m not stupid, Jay.”

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. “I know you aren’t,” I said quietly, narrowing my eyes at her. “Don’t ever believe that I think anything less than the world of you, Cassie. For real. Things just aren’t the… safest to talk about right now. Trust me on that.”

Pink tinging her cheeks, Cass rolled her eyes and nudged me with her stocking-clad toe. “Okay, okay - I trust you. Now tell me about your new power.”

Right.

My left index finger instinctively went to go tapping on the back of the couch again, but Cassie’s hand reached out, without her pulling her eyes away from my face, and wrapped around mine. Her little smile softened, and I definitely did not blush. 

Absolutely not.

“Well,” I began, trying my damndest to not sound awkward, “The newest perk’s called ‘Fuck the Darkness’, and it is… aptly named.”

She tilted her head. “Like, ‘I cast Light!’ and your powers say ‘fuck the darkness’ by illuminating everything around you? Or, or, can you literally turn the shadows into some sort of huge, writhing black fleshlight and breed it?”

… What the fuck?

“W-why are you looking at me like that?!”

“The fuck is wrong with you?” I deadpanned, going to pull my hand away. Cassie’s face turned even redder, but she refused to let my hand go..

“You said that the ‘perk’ is ‘aptly named’! What else am I supposed to assume other than ‘human flashlight’ and ‘darkness fleshlight’?!”

“It-” I shook my head, a disbelieving snicker sneaking out. “Brainrot. Hentai brainrot out the ass, woman. The name’s metaphorical.”

“Big words don’t make you sound smart, jerk.” She turned her nose up, looking down at me through long black eyelashes, and whispered, “Cào nǐ mā.”

I was almost certain that she’d spat out an insult, but she also had never said anything to me in Chinese before, so I was of two separate minds. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to throw a barb back at her, or smile, happy that she was apparently comfortable enough to slip in a couple words of her native language. The insult, whatever it was, sounded adorable coming out of her mouth - higher than her usual voice, with a clear, ringing accent that sounded like bells.

I couldn’t let it distract me, however.

“‘Fuck the Darkness’,” I bullishly continued, not reacting to the muttered cào nǐ mā outside of a raised eyebrow, “Is a power, or perk, I guess… that allows me to literally fuck the, uh, darkness out of someone. Like, the evil, or the bad, or the… the racism.” The last part came out in a somewhat quieter voice, but I didn’t look away from Cassie, refusing to show weakness or hesitance during such a tumultuous moment.

“…” 

Cassie was frozen, eyes wide and mouth opened in shock. I was able to read her emotions easily, even as they slipped across her face at breakneck speeds. Shock, confusion, uncertainty - she cut my insight off prematurely by slamming both her eyes and mouth shut, withdrawing her pale hand away from mine in order to rub her temple with slow, circular motions. 

She wasn’t freaking out, though - that was good, right?

“... I’m not gonna say that I didn’t know what-”

“Wait,” she interrupted me, raising the hand not massaging her temple in a ‘halt’ gesture. “Just… hold on, Jay. Give me a minute.”

I shut my trap.

Cassie slipped off of the couch, landing gently on her feet, and immediately made a bee-line towards the staircase. Her movements were stiff, almost robotic in how awkward and stilted they were, and a familiar feeling of anxiety began to worm its way back into my heart. I leaned my head back over the couch and watched as she quickly disappeared into our master bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind her. 

‘The ball’s in her court now...’

I readjusted my sitting position on the loveseat, straightening up so that I could give her my undivided attention when she inevitably came back down to give me a piece of her mind. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Cass to come back downstairs - maybe two, three minutes at the most. 

The scent of pot, Sour Diesel if my memory serves me right - and it always did, accompanied her like a particularly toxic old friend. I raised a sharp eyebrow, staring bemusedly as Cassie ambled around the loveseat and sat on the edge of the velvety cushion, a small pink bong gripped firmly in her left hand. Ground-up weed was shoved neatly into the bowl, which still smoldered with remnants of fading embers.

Cassie slid a Zippo lighter out of her hoodie’s pocket, pressed her lips firmly against the slim mouthpiece of the bong, and flicked the spark wheel until it lit up with a light blue flame that she pressed against the bowl.

Water bubbled and popped as she inhaled deeply, filling her chest and the living room with the loud scent of pot.

I wasn’t a stranger to weed in the slightest, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of drugs myself - a byproduct of my mom being a recovered addict, and the many days of watching her fall deeper and deeper into the pit of addiction. Plus, it smelled like hot ass. I didn’t mind people doing it around me, and neither did I mind the occasional spliff, but right now… The smoke dissipated as soon as it got close to me, Azyr blowing the cloud up and away with only minor prodding from my will.

“Ah, nothing like the good stuff to mellow you out,” she hiccuped, dropping the bong on the coffee table and desperately waving the smoke out of her face. When the gray cloud finally dissipated, the hacker fixed me with an inscrutable stare, her eyes slightly watery from the long toke. “Especially after being told that your boyfriend’s living on fucking hentai logic. Frickin’ unfair, Jay!”

I blinked owlishly. “Wha-”

“No, hush. It’s my turn now!” Cassie’s eyes flashed dangerously, and though I had all the time in the world to lean back and dodge her comparatively turtle-like lunge, I allowed her the satisfaction of leaning forward and ‘brutally’ flicking my nipple with her pink fingernail. “Hiyah! That’s for keeping this a secret, dickhead. When did you get that perk?”

“A few nights ago, when we had our super romantic confession and I made you cum like fifteen times-”

“O-okay, I understand, you could’ve stopped at ‘a few nights ago’!” Now misty-eyed, flustered, and pouting, Cassie crossed her arms over her chest and glowered. “I guess a better question is; why didn’t you tell me?”

… This conversation wasn’t going in the direction I’d thought it would’ve. At all. And it was getting hard for my brain to properly keep up. I raised Hidden Intuition up ever so slightly to make up for it.

“I didn’t tell you because I thought- wait, hold on. Cass, are you not freaked out? Disturbed?” I leaned forward, my normally half-lidded gaze turning sharp with a seriousness that I didn’t often show around her. “Ignorin’ the fact that it involves fucking evil bitches, I’m basically imprinting my own morality over theirs. ‘With each thrust’. That’s, like - borderline brainwashing. Mastering, even.”

Cass clicked her teeth loudly, staring at me like I’d just said the stupidest thing ever.

“Two things. One,” she uncrossed her arms to raise her index finger in the air, the blush on her cheeks growing stronger. “We’ve already discussed our relationship, Jason. As long as you come back to me, and love me, a-and treat me like a princess, I don’t care if you fuck other women.”

Her voice shifted down into a nigh-silent whisper. “God knows I can’t handle you by myself all the time.”

“What was that?”

I definitely heard that last part.

Cassie blanched and wagged her raised finger. “Nothing! Just- keep me, and, um… our future girlfriends in the loop. That’s it. Because I trust you.” Oof, throwing shade. Not like I didn’t deserve it, though. 

“And two - the perk’s called ‘Fuck the Darkness’, right? As in, screwing the evil out of a bad person?”

She is being genuine. She is speaking from the heart. 

Although my brain was still grappling with the realization that Cass truly and earnestly had no real issue with me having casual sex with other women, I was still able to lock in and properly formulate a response to her question - one that I was fairly certain was rhetorical. 

“Yeah.” 

Such a verbose and well-structured response. I was practically a modern-day Edgar Allen Poe.

“‘Yeah’,” Cassie lowered her voice into a deepened drawl, rolling her eyes. “Babe, who gives a shit if it’s considered ‘mastering’? We’ve already murdered members of the Empire, super brutally at that. Sherrel had brain stuck in her windshield wipers! Mind-fucking the white supremacy out of one of them is a light punishment in comparison. I’m just bothered you didn’t tell me about any of it first.”

Cassie is disappointed. Cassie is disappointed because she thinks you don’t trust her love for you.

Great. And now I’m starting to feel guilty for a completely different reaso-

Cassie is embarrassed. 

Oh?

Cassie is embarrassed because she finds the thought of you purifying evil with your penis arousing and hot.

… Oh. My girl was an actual freak.

“Anyways,” she continued, hesitantly, when I didn’t immediately respond, “I won’t think of you any differently. If you, y’know… decided to, um, turn bad girls good. Via sex. Yeah. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.” Adorably awkward embarrassment practically oozed from the previously spunky girl as she leaned back into the love seat, grabbed her Hello Kitty-themed bong, and moved to reach for the Zippo lighter.

I stopped her with a pointed finger.

“Sorfäk.”

Aqshy beckoned at my purred magic word, and the bud suddenly began to smolder in the bowl. Cassie gasped, shot me a small smile of gratitude, and pressed her lips against the mouthpiece in order to get her toke in. 

I played with a loc as I watched her hit the bong, my gaze distant and wistful. It was relieving, her trust in both me and my intentions. Maybe I had been worrying for nothing, so stuck on the morality and attitudes of the previous women in my life that I’d disregarded how my Cass would feel about everything. She was unique and crazy and fucking awesome in all the right ways, and I really needed to stop underestimating her ability to stunlock me with her spontaneity and ability to adapt.

I needed to trust her and our bond more.

“I’m sorry,” I spoke up as she was breathing smoke rings up towards the ceiling.

Cassie jolted at the suddenness of my voice, letting out a series of violent coughs that sounded painful, and I narrowed my eyes. Evil Eyes reacted to my glare, channeling Hysh through my glowing golden gaze and diffusing the purifying Wind through Cassie’s body in the form of Healing Light. The hacking stopped immediately, and she gasped as she held her chest.

“Damn girl, breathe.” I murmured, leaning forward to rub her back.

“... Heck. That feels nice…” A small, dopey smile formed on her lips, and Cassie leaned up to steal a soft kiss on the underside of my jaw, leaving the smooth skin there all warm and tingly. “Thank you.”

“No problem-”

“But you don’t have to say sorry.” She poked me in the chest with a pointed fingernail to accentuate her statement, and I blinked down at her. She stared back, all stubborn earnesty and determined glare, and the sight was enough to make my heart skip a beat. I was truly fortunate. 

“... Still, let me-”

“No. It’s fine babe, I understand why you didn’t say anything. Just… share more with me from now on, ‘kay?” Cassie withdrew her finger and patted me lightly on the same pectoral she’d just poked. “You’ve gotten crazy strong crazy fast, and I’m not expecting you to tell me about every perk you get. Just the super important ones!”

“Like the ones that let me fuck goodness and chivalry into evil women.” I smirked, amused in spite of myself.

“Exactly,” she nodded twice, resolute and utterly serious. The severe demeanor cracked almost immediately, though, as her smile grew into a grin and her face suddenly lit up with renewed interest. “And speaking of topics of the ‘super important’ variety… How was the patrol with New Wave?! I was gonna ask you to get me Glory Girl’s autograph, but then I was like ‘nah, that’s super frickin’ uncool’, asking your boyfriend to do something like that. She was hella hot though, right?”

I’d almost forgotten about her former puppy crush on Glory Girl. And, it was kind of weird to be discussing how ‘hot’ a chick was with my romantic partner, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad sort of weird. I could get used to it.

“Vicky’s pretty fuckin’ smoking, I can’t lie,” I shrugged, leaning back into the loveseat and pulling Cassie with me. She let out a little yelp and a giggle, but didn’t fight the tug. “But you have a fatter ass, and that blows goldilocks outta the water any day of the week.” I cupped one such juicy ass cheeks to prove my point, and she snorted.

“Perv, and a filthy liar! … But thank you,” Cass smiled bashfully, nuzzling into my arms, and I pinched her butt in response. “Ee!”

“I like ‘em overall. Vicky’s a lil’ in your face, but she’s mature where it counts. Strong as hell, too. Laserdream was chill, and so was Lady Photon. Amy’s…” My voice lowered as I trailed off, trying to think of the best way to describe that particular bundle of familial issues and grumpy raccoon energy, and Cassie gasped.

Loudly.

“Holy shit,” she mumbled, her head pressed flush against my chest. 

“Wha? What happened?”

“Shhh.” Cassie shushed me, before loudly declaring, “Amy Dallon! Panacea, the White Cleric!” The heat of her breath tickled my skin, and I stared down at the crown of her head with pure befuddlement in my eyes.

“You good?”

“Ugh, it’s not- hold on,” She pushed herself off of my chest, twisting around in my lap so that she was sitting directly on top of my thighs. Both me and not so little me twitched at the sudden change, but before I could adjust myself and properly place my bottom-heavy little hacker in a more pleasing position, Cassie booped my nose and gestured for me to look her in the eyes. “How do you feel about Panacea?”

Cassie is curious.

I tilted my head. “She-”

“And please don’t bullshit me,” she cut me off, frowning. “Be honest. Trust in me.”

Cassie is curious because she heard your heartbeat speed up at the mention of Amy.

…

“... She has a lot of personal issues,” I began, looking Cassie dead in the eyes. “Grumpy, shit home life, depressed, overworked and overstressed. But she’s witty and funny. Has strong beliefs. A little withdrawn, but I can see your bubbliness and spontaneity bringing her out her shell.”

“You like her.” It was a statement through and through - only an idiot would mistake her words for a question. 

Cassie is curious. Cassie is intrigued. Cassie is nervous. Cassie is excited.

I raised an eyebrow, watching as a smile slowly spread across my girlfriend’s face. “... Yeah, I guess I do. She’s kinda like a red panda, or a honey badger. Feisty, but in a fuzzy, frizzy-haired way. You’d like her.”

“Mm,” Cass hummed, wiggling in my lap as she looked up towards the ceiling. “I’d frickin’ hope so.”

“You-”

“Especially if she’s going to be our first girlfriend.”

Cassie is resolute.

The abruptness of the declaration took me by surprise. I paused, jaw working up and down to formulate intelligible words, but nothing came out.

“Hehe, don’t look so surprised,” she snickered, patting my cheek softly. “We’ve already talked about this, mister! Together forever, all of us. Obviously I’ll need to meet her myself, feel everything out personally, but I’ve seen Panacea before… online. She’s hella cute.” A distant glint appeared in her eyes, and her smile turned smarmy. Dirty.

The sight was enough for me to finally find my words. “Uh-huh. And what else?”

Cassie’s cheeks darkened. “... Andshehasbigbooba.”

“And you called me a harlot before.” I deadpanned, pinching her left ass cheek again.

She nearly jumped off of my lap. “Ow! That was weeks ago! And you are a harlot, Mister Two-Timer!”

“You’re the one who hopped on the ‘she’s going to be our girlfriend’ bandwagon immediately. I don’t even know if that’s the play!”

“W-what do you mean? Why not? She’s cute, she has big boobs, and she can help me tame this frickin’ black mamba that’s already waking up! What are you even getting horny from?!”

I snorted, though my relaxed expression was starting to become strained. “Your ass is literally on my dick, Cass. Like, straddlin’ it. And I’m almost always horny - you should know this by now.”

She wiggled her thick butt against the quickly growing hardness swelling within my gray sweatpants, and her eyes glinted victoriously at the ragged burst of air that escaped my nostrils. “Heh, you’re only proving my point,” Cassie grinned, slowly reaching down beneath the swell of her ass in order to palm my bulge. Her own breathing picked up, an unconscious gasp escaping her mouth as her small hand failed to fully grip my thick shaft through the thin fabric. Her tongue peeked out to moisten her lips.

Through my own aroused haze, I gave the dazed girl a lopsided grin. “How ‘bout we discuss Amy a bit later, eh? We can plan something then.” My right hand brushed her hair back as I spoke, and Cassie whimpered as her hips began to move back and forth.

“... O-okay,” she said shakily, all bravado gone and buried. “Fuck. Frick. Thi- this isn’t over, Jay. I’m just-”

“A harlot. We been knew,” I chuckled, gripping the handful of hair in my grasp and forcing her head down towards my face. She didn’t fight back, closing her eyes and parting her lips eagerly midway through the motion.

“Mmmpfff…”

Fortunately for us, Sherrel had already left earlier in the morning to go work on the truck with Trainwreck.

We christened the couch, the kitchen counter, and the staircase railing with our passionate lovemaking.

Because Cassie ended up passing out, we didn’t end up talking more about Amy.

I was significantly less stressed afterwards, though.

________________________________________

Two Hours Later…

I left Cassie naked and unconscious in our king-sized bed, her body freshly cleaned and healed from the after-effects of our latest fuck session. I was, admittedly, fairly tired, and while it was tempting as all fuck to crawl back in bed, slip my dick back inside my girlfriend, and pass out with my arms wrapped around her waist… I also had other priorities that I needed to take care of. Almost too many to count, honestly. Since when did my new life get so fucking busy?

Hitting the Empire with the coup de grace was probably the most important ‘priority’ on my list. If I was a nerd, and I absolutely was, then I’d consider killing off Kaiser and the rest of his ilk as one of my ‘main quests’, up there with ‘Finding A Way Off Earth Bet’ and ‘Murderizing the Fuck Outta Jack Slash’. Thinking about my goals like the hero in some shitty, grim-dark roleplaying game actually made the weight of responsibility stemming from said priorities feel just a little bit lighter.

At the same time, though, I couldn’t ignore the ramifications of what I’d done this morning. Lung was a territorial and easily angered gang leader, and although I was pretty damn sure no one had managed to move fast enough to record me blowing Oni Lee the fuck up, cape deaths didn’t stay a secret in this city for very long. 

It wasn’t like I’d gone around and collected his body parts, either. After making sure Amy and the trafficked women were okay, I’d left pretty fast, not bothering to stay and give a statement to whatever PRT hero was on the way to check out the massive explosion. If they did their investigative job right, and they would if the responding hero had been Armsmaster, then Oni Lee’s death would have already been made known to those ‘in charge’.

And what the PRT knew, the gangs probably knew as well.

“One thing at a time, Jay…” I groused to myself, pulling the refrigerator door open and grabbing one of my ice cold sodas from the top rack. I bumped the door closed with my hip as I cracked the can open with the sharp, crisp hiss of carbonation. 

The first sip was absolutely heavenly, the electric taste of oranges cold and flavorful on my tongue.

The second was merely so-so, and my thoughts inevitably wandered back to my ‘quests’ as I sipped on the fizzy drink.

Lung, the Empire, the mystery of magical omniversal travel, the Slaughterhouse Nine…

“… Fuck it.” I downed the rest of the soda in one long, deep gulp. “One thing at a time.” 

084 was tasked with keeping watch on Rune; I’d slip in, ease some information out of her, and then go trawling through Downtown to see if I could-

My Soul shuddered.

Without even realizing it, I crushed the soda can in my hand, turning the aluminum to warped scrap as the Celestial Grimoire shoved an enormous mote of light into my sea of magic. It was by far the largest perk I’d ever been offered, trumping even my foundational ‘rocks’ such as Heroic Aptitude and Immutable Form, and the suddenness of its appearance and the heat it brought into my chest took me by surprise. I exhaled softly, flicking the crunched up can towards the trashcan and cautiously peeking at the proffered perk. With enough luck, it was something that I could actually use…-

“Holy. Shit.”

Reality Marble (Fate/Stay Night - 800 CP): The World around you is very much alive,and imposes its own rules upon all who dwell within it. But every person alive is a world of their own, as well. And you’ve learned how to make it so. 

You may impose this ‘inner world’, usually but not always representative of your personality and desires, upon the physical world around you, changing its laws to match those of the world within. Unlike Marble Phantasm, which is reshaping the world according to your will and its existing laws, your Reality Marble has a set ‘world’ and ‘rules’ behind it chosen when you purchase this perk. You may manifest this world and impose it on The World, keeping it manifested so long as your magical reserves could sustain it before the World re-asserts its normal rules - though a Reality Marble that is only imposed on your own body could be sustained indefinitely, as the World itself does not see it as a contradiction to its own laws.

While most Dead Apostles develop this trait naturally after some time and research, the benefit to purchasing it is worth noting. First, you suffer no degradation (physical or mental) from your chosen Reality Marble - one that requires a particular sort of insanity wouldn’t afflict you in anysort of way, nor would your personality be lost in a sea of various beings contained within it. 

Second, you may create your own or recreate a Reality Marble belonging to someone else in this world, though practice and effort would be needed to create something akin to TATARI and be able to sustain it for more than a short amount of time with what you start with. 

Third, it is based entirely on your experiences - so a ‘collection’ Reality Marble such as Unlimited BladeWorks or Ionian Hetairoi would be based on only what you have seen or experienced first-hand one way or another. Lastly, you may decide the suitably thematic incantation (if any) for the Marble yourself.

The understanding of what this perk granted me, the awareness of just what a Reality Marble was and the pure scope and breadth of its potential filled my mind. I was unfamiliar with the world of Fate; I’d never gotten pulled into the setting, and not even my perfect memory could drudge up late nights or early mornings of me idly browsing its wiki page like I’d done with countless other anime. If I purchased this, used the bulk of my consolidated charge to gain my own Inner World, I would be going into it all veritably blind outside of what the perk granted me.

The closest thing I was able to compare it to was a ‘Domain Expansion’ from Jujutsu Kaisen, and that I knew was a worthy technique. If this ‘Reality Marble’ granted roughly the same thing, the ability to pull others into a ‘domain’ that I had ultimate control and power over… then it seemed pretty fucking worth it to me.

Adrenaline flooded my veins, my skin growing warm from anticipation and excitement. A powerful, brand new magical technique, powered solely by my own magical power instead of the Winds…

“I need me some of that.”

Yoink.

And as I yanked the mote of light into my soul, securing the purchase and establishing myself as the owner of my very own Reality Marble…

Words came to me, unbidden. Powerful. Reverberating through my skull, sending chills of existential familiarity through my spine. 

Words relating to my immortal soul, to my mystical prowess, to the cosmos and stars and the infinite potential of the Celestial Grimoire.

But I didn’t repeat them aloud, because to do so meant invoking the power of the World that now existed deep within my very being.

… The kitchen wasn’t the place to do that.

“Huh,” I breathed, feeling something new yawning just beneath my skin - a tingly feeling of power that simply wasn’t there before. “Heh, guess I’m stayin’ in today.”

Kaiser could wait for his ass kicking - him, Lung, Coil, and anyone else liable to get their shit pushed in.

Right now, I wanted to practice magic.

________________________________________

Perks Accepted:

Reality Marble (Fate/Stay Night - 800 CP)

400 CP remaining.

A/N:

Sorry for the late upload - IRL has been beating my ass, and then my internet decided to take a shit so I had to write the last 2k words on my phone.

Anyways! This is the largest perk Jason has received, I think. 800 CP worth. Is it worth it? Do you all know much about Fate? I guess we'll find out! Next chapter will be some long-awaited magic experimentation and training, so that should be eye-opening.

Most of this chapter was some development between Jason and Cassie. It needed to be done, partially because Jason was still unsure but mostly to open the story up to more lewds outside of Cass and Jason. Don't worry, there won't be anymore waffling from him about rizzing up girls outside of his gf - he has been properly admonished by best girl.