In the privacy of the captain's cabin, Aron's little knife-edged gesture doesn't, of course, cut any deeper- indeed, he removes it just as soon as it's noticed. How long had it been right there next to a major blood vessel, ready to slash? No way of knowing now, but the demonstration was clear enough. Aron had the experience to resist, at least to an extent and at least when against a weakened succubus, such attempts to toy with his soul while also getting a weapon in position to do serious embarrasment and injury to anyone grabbing his intangible bits. Sure enough, a few seconds after Delia points out the weapon and, from her perspective, the inadvisability of its use Aron reverses it slowly in his hand and lets it rest at his side. Just about then as well, his eyes open all the way- with one hand on his spirit, Delia can<span style="font-style: italic">feel</span>his meditation finish and more importantly feel his soul firm up practically in her grasp. It's enough of a temptation to almost get her to pull harder, but... that wouldn't be very grateful. Instead, it makes it easier for the demoness to manipulate and toy with- and as she drops her head down, the thought occurs that that might suit Aron just fine.<br/><br/>To get from where she is to Aron's shaft, Delia has to pass over the squirming dark bulge in Aron's midsection. This close, through the taut stomach she can sense his meal's soul just as well, though its residence inside the drow seems to block her light and gentle probes towards it. IAs close as her head is, she can hear every wet gurgle, every splatter of an extra fresh dollop of acid onto the sea-captain's body. Just from the sound of it, she can tell that the drow's stomach is more than used to rendering meals down into soup at high speed- just as interesting is the fact that his heartbeat doesn't vary by more than a few beats per minute even when he's feeling a live meal move inside him at the same time a succubus is playing with his soul. And yet, he is enjoying himself- Delia can taste that sharp and clearly from the sensations she gets of a willing partner's eessence in her hands to move and shape as she pleases. There's reticence in how Aron's reacting, to be sure, but there's a deeper... it isn't quite trust as much as it is an intellectual curiosity about what's happening, and a sober judgment that the risks of something other than a simple death are worth the possible benefits to the cool-blooded assassin.<br/><br/>Pushing herself down Aron's rounded body, the drow snakes his legs out and rests his heels on either side of Delia's own bulge- digging in and applying gentle pressure to the human within. He starts using his lower legs to somewhat awkwardly knead the bulge, pushing in and out and keeping the squawking mage from being able to stay in a single position for any length of time- and, not coincidentally, makes sure that fresh acids are always being lathered onto her sore and tingling skin every time he does. It's a bizarre stomach rub, but not less pleasant for that. When the mage and captain realize what their respective devourers are doing, they protest in the loudest possible terms- unable to hear each other, the sentiments are the same and tiresomely similar to that of meals both the two predators had enjoyed many times before. Best to simply shut them out of the mind, and get down to business. As Delia takes her new 'partner's' shaft between her lips, she can *feel* the heat rush up to his skin, can feel the surge of elated pleasure both at the physical sensation of her lips on his head and at the deeper sensation of her... for the sake of analogy, lips on a similarly sensitive part of his soul. The suckling, at least, happens on both with similar energy and it's an open question whether or not one or the other is a more pleasant feeling for the assassin. Still, he controls himself admirably well, and Delia even finally coaxes that reserved heart to a faster rhythm with her efforts. Punctuated by the gurgling and moaning of two meals that are slowly being softened up, Delia and Aron enjoy each other's company for a time inside the captain's cabin, leaving quite the mess inside it. Though she's tempted- sorely, SORELY tempted- to drain more than just energy from her willing new friend, Delia opts to leave everything truly important where she left it... After all, once she got her powers back, she could do so much more with the man and not have to worry about her mysterious affliction causing anything to go to waste...<br/><br/>What with one thing and another, the two wake up in the rather sweaty captain's bed as the first rays of yellow morning light come through the grimy little porthole. Aron's stomach- well, he has a potbelly, and even overnight he's visibly a little thicker throughout his body. The captain is long since gone, and the drow's body has already mostly converted him to extra fat and muscle. His stomach works quickly; Delia's, less so. She still has most of the bulge she had when she went to sleep. It's smaller, and it's visibly rounder, and it jiggles a lot more when poked, but the size hasn't shrunk like Aron's has. Indeed, when prodded, she can feel the wave go through the mage's body- as soft and falling-apart as it is- and hear, very faintly, a moan of pain. Delia's dreams had been very pleasant ones, full of the suffering and anguish of a meal- probably the mage's own thoughts bleeding into Delia's. That happened sometimes. Whatever the reason, it was *extremely* refreshing, and her chest hadn't even started to swell yet.<br/><br/>"Well," Aron says after waking up- stretching like a cat. "I see I in fact rushed my meal. Thank you for the lovely night, and even though I hope there are some things that<span style="font-style: italic">don't</span>happen again, there are a few I'd be pleased to repeat." He grins, and adds, "I suppose since we woke up without our throats cut, either the lock is very strong, or we in fact intimidated our shipmates enough that none of those sailors felt up to risking attacking us. Either way, I'm going to put a shirt on and go consign the captain's remains to a burial at sea. And then-" he shrugs. "We go on."<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>As Mona heads for the secluded corner of a deck where so recently they'd fought (and Mona almost been eaten by a lowly soldier), she puts a little more sway into her walk than is entirely necessary. Of course, she was walking for two, as the stomach hanging off of her front wobbled enough even without obvious signs of life from the man held inside. Finally turning around after getting everything off of her body, she stands with one hand cocked on her hip and grinning at Xarius with an impish dimple wrinkling her face. "Well, he did take some fire, poor thing, but it's for a good cause. I'm sure he'll be... firm enough for long enough that he'll be useful," the sorceress purrs. When Xarius pats the belly, he can feel another firm body through the thinly stretched dungeon-pale skin of his mostly-human paramour, and that body shifts only slightly. There might be a moan coming from Mona's midsection, but then again, there might not. With her free hand, Mona rubs her stomach. "No real fight left in him, though. Halfway happy with that- I'm not strong enough to fight down a really strong meal, but having someone moving around in there makes everything feel so much more..." she pauses, and grins. "Forbidden? Sexy? Both, probably the one because of the other."<br/><br/>The sorceress watches as Xarius takes his own clothes off, and Mona smiles. "Al-riiiiight. You weren't captive long," she says, "Still have muscles. Too long in a cell and all just turns to flab, and not in the fun way," she pokes her own belly. "So much the better- after all, eating someone who doesn't have any lean muscle to offer is just lacking a certain something." As she advances on Xarius, licking her lips, the redhead winks- and bursts into giggles a few steps before reaching Xarius. "Can't even pretend to," she notes. "Way too full. Need a few meals to stretch me out properly, then maybe I can believably offer to let you share some stomach time with someone." Draping hands over Xarius's shoulders, Mona draws him close, right up until her stomach bumps into the man's much flatter stomach. He starts to touch her stomach, feeling the limp soldier inside- she pulls even his trouses down, letting them fall to his ankles. "One kind of rubbing or another- I imagine we have time for quite a bit," Mona says with a lascivious grin. Keeping hold of Xarius's hips, she lowers herself to a sitting position, reclining back halfway towards lying down on a stack of grains so that her stomach just barely hangs over where she spreads her legs invitingly. "I hear there are people who can eat with that, too- might be fun to try when I'm more... elastic. Have one up there, one in my stomach, see who melts first," Mona purrs, eyes glittering.<br/><br/>All but pulling Xarius down onto her, she gently pulls his head forward until it rests atop her stomach and just shy of between her (by comparison) small breasts, rising and falling with her breath as she looks down her chest at the man. "Mmm. Seeing how you look at me, part of you wishes that you could trade places with him- well," she corrects herself, "Maybe the version of him who didn't get scorched and is going to have a bit more time before my stomach has its way with him. But just imagine yourself in his shoes," she says, leering, taking his hands and placing it on either side of her stomach. "Curled up in there, feeling the burn- and then some other man starts kneading patiently, helping me break you down, knowing that your last moments are going to be spent listening to other people enjoying themselves with you squished and increasingly squishy between them..." She trails off, running her tongue just over her lip with a predatory twinkle in her eye. "Most people would find that incredibly humiliating. But not you. Let's hope that my dinner agrees with you and not me." Letting him start to caress her stomach, Xarius can feel the soldier stirring weakly inside Mona, all to the knowing grin of the sorceress as she feels him move as well. "Most of the fight's out of him. I think all that's left..." she slides down to the deck, heedless of sprinters, and pulls Xarius atop her so that most of his weight compresses the soldier with a wet, pained gurgle, "...is for him to get a head start on his new role as padding. Don't you think?"<br/><br/>Leaning up a little painfully, Mona gives Xarius a quick kiss on the forehead, letting her tongue draw a trail down towards his nose before pulling away and taking a firm hold of his hips. There, she guides him backwards a little, so that some of his weight is on her hips and some on her belly- a more pleasant positioning for many types of rubdowns. "Now," she breathes, "Let's celebrate our freedom- whether or not it ends inside a mermaid in the next few weeks, or back in jail, we're free *now*." She can feel the male's arousal, scoots a little closer so that the shaft presses against the yielding bottom of her stomach- finding a place between limbs of the soldier, so that there was a soft and stretchy part of her skin next to that tender area- combined with the intense body heat Mona seems to be putting off, it's a pleasant enough location for Xarius's manhood on its own. Of course, after a bit of massage, she scoots backwards some more, inviting him into a certain other soft, warm place with it, smiling beckoningly to let the feline see just how much he likes the inside of her body on a 'limited basis'...<br/><br/>Come morning, the two are still curled up, slightly cool and clinging to each other for warmth, in the cargo hold unbothered by rude sailors. Much like Delia, Mona's stomach isn't much smaller than it was the prior night, though now... it's completely softened. A hand pushed in can go almost all the way to the wrist without hitting anything solid, just a homogenous mass of ooze very slowly trickling through her body and being absorbed. Xarius thinks he can almost see other curves getting fractionally larger overnight. Mona grins- and though she picks up her prison garb, she doesn't quite get dressed yet- instead, licking her lips again and eyeing Xarius she says with a little smile, "You're welcome inside me- however much you like to be- whenever you want. I suppose we should go be sure the others didn't get their throats cut by a counter-mutiny while we dozed, mmm?"<br/><br/>---<br/><br/>The crew was fully cowed by their officers being killed or processed into prisoner pudge, and even the few soldiers left of the Imperial detachment aboardship seem to have lost their taste for fighting. Nobody puts up much of a fight as the ship changes course, heading further west than northwest following poor charts and Aron's own recollection of where this Freeport should lie. While the passage takes a week or two, there's ample food for all aboard even before resorting to devouring the living- the sailors tend to carefully stay out of the escapees' way to not give them much of an excuse to feast. Not that some need an excuse...<br/><br/>Still, most of the crew is intact and intimidated into silence when one of the harpies lands out of reach on the mast of the ship, crowing, "Land! Land ho! About an eight-turn to our left! Looks like that city-" And that was the cue for a flurry of activity. Their ship would be landing soon, with all hands on deck- enough goods in the hold to sell to make enough money to make their way on, a large, anonymous port with no central authority or imperial guards, a profound tolerance of activities most would consider "immoral"... the perfect base or place to hole up for a while. Some of the escapees would remain together, and others would drift apart- but for now, all there was was the rush to get things ready to limp into port before a following breeze on a cloudless, sunny, warm and beautiful day with the ship inching across clear, blue waters.<br/><br/>((SOOOOOO. Obviously this is a little late. Mea culpa! Things kinda spiraled out of control. I *SHOULD* be mostly back now. I'm not quite DONE done, but this should get everyone to the point where they can make a short-ish post to wrap up what they did on their sea cruise and get ready to enter the first major town of the game. I am doing this instead of continuing those scenes in the name of pulling a soft reset to sprint past my absence-induced loss of momentum. I'll be doing a little more OOC stuff and post next post, but for now, be aware that you will be able to try to influence NPCs to stay or leave you, as well as getting a big hunk of XP and gold. I may even level you up now just to contribute to the 'soft restart' of the game!))