Alptraum doesn't remember there being a private balcony overlooking the stage - which is currently occupied by two rutting dragons, apparently. He feels a tenuous connection to what's happening down there, but it just doesn't seem all that important at the moment. Not when there's a naked goddess sitting sideways across his lap, one white arm draped across his shoulders while her free hand traces the star-shaped scar on his chest. "What did you want to see me about in private, my nephew?" Inala purrs into his ear.
That's it. He's insane. Alptraum finally realizes he has completely lost it. Just below he can make out what appears to be his shifted body with the most horrid creature imaginable. Now he's sitting in a balcony with Inala in his lap! "I wanted to see you in private?" he actually asks in a rather confused sort of tone. "What is going on?"
"What do you wish to be 'going on'?" the goddess teases. "I merely brought the part of you that wasn't being used up here. This is my realm, and I can do as I please. Wasn't there anything you wanted to ask of me, hmmm?" She lifts her hand from Alptraum's chest, and touches her fingers to the side of his cheek to gently (but irresistibly) turn his head to face her own.
Alptraum winces as his face is turned towards Inala. "So that is me down there? I've gone insane, that's the only explanation for that sort of .... behavior," he claims, then sighs. Now trying to desperately remember what he was going to ask, his ears flick around. "Ah, right, there were two things ... first is ... will any of your Sisters know that I am here? Gorphat, er, is already mad at me."
"None know of this place," Inala purrs. "Well, none who would get upset about it. I can even make you forget, I if wish. But that really isn't in either of our interests. So long as you do not tell my Sisters, you need not worry."
"That's good," Alptraum agrees, sounding slightly relieved about that, at least. "As for me forgetting ... I'm not sure I want to remember ... that." He thumbs over the balcony and down to the two dragons below. "Anyway ... I guess that means I won't be in agony once I leave here. Gorphat decided to leave me with a gift that ... well ... after any sort of carnal pleasure, I experience a whole lot of pain and itching."
"Gorphat wants you for Herself," Inala says, and then kisses Alptraum. It's like being exposed to Snow's aura, amplified a dozen times. It is mercifully brief however. "But I am the one you truly adore, am I not, Alptraum?" Inala asks. "Haven't I given you all of the things you truly desire? Not only miraculous children, but the love of my own Shrine Maiden?"
"Uuuuuh," Alptraum manages to say in the most intelligent way possible. He blinks a couple times, then asks, "What was the question? Children? Ack, I'm not going to have children, am I? Well, I mean that body down there!"
"You needn't worry about that," Inala says, but cocks her head. "Still, with only half of you here, you seem a bit.. muddled. Here," the goddess says, and shifts around until she straddling Alptraum, but still seems.. larger than life, literally, as the bat's field of vision is taken up completely by the sight of her chest. And then he's being pulled towards it! "Drink. It will do you well."
In certain circumstances this would be considered an amazing and wonderful fantasy! So why is it that it feels like a nightmare just got worse? And more to point, how do you politely refuse? The answer is .... you don't refuse a Goddess in her domain; that's just asking for trouble. So, Alptraum does what he's done with Rosalind and Phlagaea ... only this time it's creepy and .. wetter.
It is also.. comforting. Somehow, it makes him feel more real, or at least more present. Of course it is the best thing ever to grace is tongue, given the source, and he might just drink forever if Inala didn't intervene. Even as he's pulled away, and the Goddess seems the size of a mortal woman once more, he's still aware of her dizzying aura, his own throbbing need for her.. and yet, it isn't overwhelming him. He feels both buzzed and sober at the same time.
Alptraum rubs his face a few times and blinks a bit. "You were asking me if you were the one I truly adore?" he asks, feeling a little more clear-headed. "Well, after my own Mother, yes, that is true," he claims.
"Why do you adore Her more?" Inala asks, leaning in. Of course, Alptraum realizes he's inside of her then, and every little movement is like the Fountain of Life going off. "What has She done for you, out of love or duty?"
"Er, blugh, nreph," Alptraum remarks and twitches each time there's a burst of something. "Because she's my Mother. She has protected me; I wouldn't exist if it wasn't for her," he finally manages out someone intelligently. "And yes, I do believe she loves me. There have been times she showed me kindness."
"Kindness," Inala says, whispering it. "We are the Kindly Ones, but what kindness can Death really be allowed to give, save an end to suffering? You have healed the injured, denied Sunala Her due, many times. Mocked her, by creating new life. Gorphat seeks you out for the destruction you can wreak. I need you for more.. essential purposes. But have you ever truly served Death?"
"We all serve in our own way," Alptraum claims a bit vaguely. "What do you need me for? I do remember that you threw me out of your realm the first day you met me..."
"But I've welcomed you everywhere else," Inala says. She sweeps an arm across the ballroom (which involves movement, and thus another paroxysm of pleasure). "This is part of my Paradise. One of the few that remains. In Babel, I am weak now. Starved and dying. You can help change that. Have I done enough for you yet, to earn that favor? I will promise you one thing more; a desire you may not even recall."
"And what exactly is that?" Alptraum asks ... after another thirty seconds of being unable to speak coherently when she moves around on him.
"A surprise," Inala says with a smile. "In Babel, Mave will act to betray me," the goddess says, kissing Alptraum again. "All I ask of you.. is that you aid her in this. And you will gain something you now fear losing."
"Wait ... you want me to help Mave betray you? That makes ... no sense?" Alptraum says, ears splayed out in confusion. "And I fear losing a lot of things; truth be told. I am not so naive this time; I believe there is a large chance I will not survive this trip to Babel."
"Nothing is ever as it seems with the Sisters, Alptraum," Inala says. "Part of you may not come back, but it may be the part that holds you back. And you will have new choices. You will not be asked to serve Me, however. But you can choose to serve the one who suits you best. The past is not the future for you, but the future for Me may be the past."
"And you ask how I serve Death? Death is change from one life to the next," Alptraum says, "And I am sometimes the catalyst for change, being what I am. My goal, my hope, is to help our people survive. Even if we fade too. For what are we if our people are gone? We are nothing without them. We have too long asked them to serve us without helping them in return. It's time we gave back and perhaps even sacrificed for them." He shrugs slightly at that.
"Then you will help Mave," Inala purrs. "Do so, and your reward will be.. vindication, perhaps? At least, that may be part of your reward. Your Mother may see things differently. Now.. which memory do you wish to keep; your time with Me, or with the great wyrm?"
"Why not both?" Alptraum asks.
"Because mine will be so much better," Inala promises, and kisses Alptraum again until he feels like he may just explode into particles of light.
"But it may ruin me for other women, right?" Alptraum asks after sitting there, looking stupid, for a full minute after that kiss. "It's not fair, the choice is a memory of Vorgulremik, which will haunt me. Or you, which will haunt me! Why do I never get an easy choice." He then blinks as one question does come back to him! "Oh, I did have one more question ... my, ah, female body? Did you bless as you described it, fecund?"
"Mmmm, that.. depends," Inala says, licking Alptraum's nose. "I could get you with child, of course, if you wished. But no mortal Eeee would have the strength - just as no merely mortal man could have done so for Phlagaea or Rosalind."
"No, no, I don't want to be pregnant! I have a hard enough time dealing with Gorphat's itch and the cycle was ... ugh," Alptraum claims and waves his hands rapidly to dismiss the idea! "I just needed to know how, ah, safe I was in general. Not that I plan anything carnal in Babel."
"You are so cute when you panic," Inala coos. "Do you love and adore Me, Alptraum? Gorphat can only be appeased, after all. Of all the Sisters, only I can be safely surrendered to. And if you cannot love Me, will you love my mortal children?"
"Can I answer that question in Babel?" Alptraum asks nervously.
"I only ask so you can be honest with yourself," Inala says, and kisses Alptraum's cheek. "Do not put limits on your love. And I do not mind if you only love Me right now."
"I tend to love all women," Alptraum admits and grins sheepishly. "Even the ones that terrify me. Like ... you. I'm just ... very confused with everything that is going on and truthfully, unhappy to be returning to Babel. I have no good memories of that city."
"You have a duty to yourself to make some this time around," Inala says. "There is always pleasure to be found, if you seek it out - sometimes in the most unlikely places. Better to face the risks to form pleasant experiences, than carry around dread for so long."
"That is ... " Alptraum starts to say, shocked that Inala would say something wise and actually makes sense. "I will try if I do not go crazy from being female for so long by the time I get there."
"Oh, silly boy," Inala says. "Only females are truly sane in an erratic world. But.. I will make you appreciate being male too." And she does so, turning the world into a blur of white-hot energy once more.
It's extremely hard to think when she does that. Men were only given enough blood to operate his brain, or his lower half, at one time. So when Inala triggers such a rush, the poor Eeee's mind shuts off. He vaguely remembers saying something, and even thinks it might have been coherent! It's unfortunately equally likely all he did was mutter incoherently. When he can finally think again, he thinks, "I'm going to die if she keeps this up! But ... what a way to go."
There is a reason it is called 'The Little Death' - and since this is Inala, it isn't so little at all. Alptraum feels his life pouring out, not in a Fountain but a Flood. The field of light seems to narrow to a tunnel, then to a bright point ahead. Just like a spotlight, really. Nicora blinks, wavering on shaky legs as the spotlight pins her. She's an Eeee again; naked, sweat-soaked and uncomfortably sticky. The air smells of brimstone, and the only thing really keeping her up is the person next to her holding up her arm. "I declare Nicora the winner, by orgasmic dissolution," Inala calls out to the cheering crowd before the stage. Mave applauds, alone at her table now. The dragons are gone.
"Whoo, winner, yay," Nicora babbles and even raises her free hand in a weak sign of victory. It's about then she has to wonder what she's won ... and why she's so sticky ... and what that terrible smell is ... and that's about when it all comes back to here. The sticky is steel dragon ... Her face scrunches up and she makes a very undignified, "Ewwwwwwwwwwww........................." It's going to take hours with Cryptopher to cleanse her mind of this. Or ... at the very least make her feel less grossed out!