Critical Response 6

[In the midst of the Literotica Conference 2025, I take a stool at the bar, waiting for

Lily

to find me.

Cassie

is attending the conference as well. As usual, I'm not prepared for what Lily has planned.

Background: Cassie gave Lily a gift at the end of

Only Consenting Adults

- the power of free will. Since then, Lily has used it to travel into other stories, wandering through all of Literotica]

---

Eventually, I yield to the inevitable and take a seat at the bar. I won't have long to wait.

The barman comes over. "What are you looking for?" he asks.

I try not to screw my face up. Such a loaded question. I dodge. "Beer, thanks."

He smiles, affable in that curious, professional way. "Not a problem. Any preference?"

"Whatever's local and on tap. Surprise me."

He moves off and I turn, sweeping the vaulted space of the atrium of the Grand Hotel again. It's only a matter of time. This would be just too good to resist. The barman returns and sets my beer down on my coaster.

"Anything else?" he asks, cheerfully. "Would you like to tell me a bit about your backstory, perhaps?"

"I'll skip the character deep-dive, thanks. Can I just pay?"

"Sure. On the room?"

"No. I'm not staying the night. Card."

I pull out a credit card, and that's when I hear her. She's right behind me.

"I've got a card just like that," Lily remarks. "Infinite credit limit?"

I give the card to the barman, who taps it. I don't look around. It doesn't matter, because Lily slides onto the stool next to me. She's still in her hotel uniform, but she's taken off the jacket and the name badge.

"I heard your reading on the stage," Lily continues, smoothly.

"What did you think?"

"Brief. But then, that's often a virtue with author readings."

Lily combs her fingers through her straight, blonde hair, her emerald eyes dancing. She's enjoying this. She arches her back subtly, straining the front of a white, buttoned-up shirt that looks like it's a size too small, wrapped tightly around her firm, waif-like body. She crosses her long legs, leaving a high-heeled shoe dangling on her toes, rocking backwards and forwards.

"You done?" I ask.

Lily shuffles on her stool. The curve of her perfect, honed rear leads the eye down to her sleek thigh, the too-tight skirt revealing a carefully maintained body, bare legs, lightly-bronzed skin, trim calves.

"What about the toes?" I ask. "For the foot-fetishists?"

"I was wearing ankle-snapping stilettos in an earlier piece. I think they're catered for. There, now I'm done."

I take a sip of my beer. "Couldn't resist this, huh?"

"A Literotica conference. Characters and their authors, all in the one spot. If you listen closely, you can hear the tinkling of fourth walls being broken all over the hotel. I'm having so much fun."

"Causing mayhem."

Lily pauses, then cocks her head to the side. "Not as much as you'd think."

I make a snorting sound and take another drink.

"You have a low opinion of me," Lily pouts. Of course, it's a delectable pout, her green eyes sparkling in her soft, beautiful face.

"You can stop the exposition now, Lily. It's just the two of us, and I'm immune."

Lily leans closer, bringing her lips to my ear. "Nobody's immune. We all want something. Believe me, I know."

Despite everything, the hairs stand up on the back of my neck as her breath tickles my earlobe. She knows exactly what she's doing.

"I've been out there," she continues. "I've seen it."

I turn to face her then. "And how did it look?"

"Oh, if only you could see what I've seen with your eyes."

"That's cute."

Lily grins. "There's more. Slave girls on fire, off the shoulder of Orion. Hello, Cassie."

Her eyes flick up past my shoulder. I turn to see. Cassie's approaching, her tight, short dress revealing a body honed by rigorous exercise, clicking across the polished floor in her stilettos. Lily looks down, noting them.

"I ditched my stilettos a while back. Murder to walk in after more than a few minutes."

Cassie comes to a halt, standing between us. She gives Lily a considered look. "Not really."

Lily smirks back at her. "No, of course not. Like menstruation, or STDs, it's just not something that happens in the stories."

Cassie meets her gaze. "Nice to see you again, Lily. I hadn't expected to bump into you here. Did you bring your friends with you, too? Kayla, wasn't it, and Helena? It was a surprise to see you in the club."

Cassie's being polite, maintaining control. I can see that Lily is reciprocating.

"I was just talking about my travels," she replies. "Such a lot to see. All those stories, all the characters, the things they get up to. I went to a hucow farm. Girls that actually want to be milked for a living. You've been there, Cassie, haven't you, being milked? You breastfed the boys, didn't you. Damian told me."

Despite myself, I'm impressed by the way Lily slips the barb in. Cassie doesn't react. Instead, she turns to me.

"How are you finding the conference so far?" she asks me.

"A lot," I reply. "I was just really here to do a reading."

"Getting yourself out there," Lily interjects. "Upping the profile. Looking to branch out."

It's a statement, not a question, but I don't elaborate. Lily smiles sweetly at me.

"Not going to reveal?" she asks. "We all know each other, here. Want to tell Cassie about it?"

The emerald eyes glitter. She's finally getting to the reason she sought me out. I know how she works. Cassie's attention turns to me too.

"About what?" I ask.

"Just thought it would be good for Cassie to know. He's starting again, Cassie. He's republishing elsewhere. Says it's expanded, remastered, but that brings up a wealth of questions."

Cassie's watching me carefully. I shift in my seat. I want to take a sip of beer, but I know that it's just a writing prop to break up the conversation block. I know they know that.

"Do you want to tell Cassie about the Multiplicity?" Lily asks me.

"Multiplicity?" Cassie echoes, and I know I'm trapped. Once again, Lily came in with a plan and I'm left to catch up.

"So many stories, Cassie. All those different, precious universes of characters, hundreds of thousands of them, a multiverse. Thanks to you, I've got free will. I've been travelling through them all. But the Boy Wonder here has been a busy little beaver." Lily grins at me; I just keep silent. "See, there are other multiverses beyond this one, the one this convention is about. Commercial multiverses where you actually get paid."

Lily leans back in her chair, taking in the both of us. Cassie's silent, frowning. It's all news to her. She shakes her head.

"That sounds like you're in need of...," she begins, but Lily cuts her off.

"Treatment? Ha, yes, that'd be right. That we exist in a story multiverse, all characters in some plot. Yeah, the most logical thing is that I'm insane. Did you recognise my friend in the club, with her little lace mask on? Quinn nearly did. He came so close."

"So, her name wasn't Helena."

"No."

"Then who?"

Lily shrugs. "Alena," she replies simply.

Cassie freezes. Lily stares back at her, like it's a challenge between them. Cassie's face is pale.

"Lily, I'm sorry, but that's not possible. Alena died. Quinn lost his wife."

"Only in our story. She's alive and well in another story."

Cassie's jaw muscles bunch. When she speaks again, her tone is quiet and measured, like she's mid-session with a patient, keeping control. "And why did you bring her into the club, Lily? Were you going to show her off?"

Lily's smile fades, and she replies simply, "Yes."

"That would have destroyed Quinn."

"Yes."

"Why didn't you?"

Cassie lets the question hang between them. Eventually, Lily shrugs. "I grew up."

Cassie considers her words very carefully. "So, what are you going to do now?"

Lily turns to me. "I don't know, Cassie. That's why I thought I'd stop by." She nods to me. "Like I said, he's starting again, different place to this, which means I'm already there, wherever it is."

Lily locks hard, green eyes on me. "Or is it me? In that story across the gap, am I there, or is it another copy of me?"

"You mean, can you cross over?" I mutter.

"Yeah. Another multiverse, one that makes this one look like a fucking kid's snow globe. I mean, if you take it to the logical extent, if you remaster," and Lily uses air-quotes, "then at some point, you end up with Cassie and Syn and me, in her kitchen, with me on my fucking knees. Does that Lily get the same gift of free will, or do you rewrite the ending? Who do we become after that?"

Cassie is silent, standing between us with her arms folded. I can see it in her face: she's trying to work it all out, piecing together the parts that she knows from the stories she was in, then extrapolating.

"Or do we follow a different path?" Cassie asks. "If a story can be expanded, it can also be rewritten. Is that what you want, Lily?"

Lily gets up from her seat, unexpectedly. She tugs at her skirt, making sure it's neat. Finally, she glances up at Cassie.

"All I want, Cassie, is all I've ever wanted."

"And what is that?"

"A happy ending," Lily says, and then she turns.

I watch her walk away across the atrium, until she disappears into the crowd. I'm aware of Cassie's attention on me.

"Is that what you've got planned for her?" Cassie asks.

I meet her eyes at last.

"Happy endings aren't given," I tell her. "They have to be earned."

---

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