Becoming Monsters is the creation and property of Ai Loves, setting used with permission.
I would also like to emphasize that every chart and graph you see talked about in the story actually exists somewhere in my notes. I had to make them myself. Was it necessary? Probably not. Did I do it anyway? Yup. We don't believe in doing things halfway in this universe, and it's not even the most calculating I've done for a story chapter. That title goes to In The Mirror chapter 12. At least for now.
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Chapter 18: No Rest For the Weary
Todd found himself hunched over his desk shortly after getting back to the dorms, a pad of graph paper before him and pencil in hand. The sun had already set, but if Sunday wasn't going to be available then his homework had to be a major priority. There were several graphs and charts drawn, comparing all kinds of information with one another in a desperate attempt to find some kind of solid thing to point to.
The thing is? No matter how much he tried to apply reporting formats, no matter how many things he put on an X or Y axis, it seemed like everything correlated and nothing conclusively proved to be what he was looking for. Level versus progress gained each encounter? Sure, but that wasn't news to anyone with two brain cells to rub together. Given that this was, in fact, a college campus, most people could be assumed to possess that minimum qualification. Calculated mana curve versus actual? It looked like he was averaging about a half-percent difference between what he expected to recover and what he actually got, but it didn't seem consistent and what was causing it wasn't clear. There was a very secure trend of giving a buff to a new person being worth twice as much progress as one who he'd buffed before. Again, not exactly outlandish, but at least it wasn't nothing.
He checked his Status screen again. It was a good thing there wasn't any class tomorrow. Given his distinct lack of discipline keeping his dick in his pants today, he'd need to wait for nearly midnight to be able to cast Investiture at full strength. Getting back onto that particular track was probably going to be important.
He rubbed his eyes. The numbers and lines on the paper were swimming around. It all seemed so close, but just out of reach. The ladies were laughing about something in the common room. Todd heard Ghata say something about the Ace of Hearts, he figured they must be playing some kind of game to blow off steam. He, of course, wasn't available for the next couple of hours for their normal way to do it. So they were playing cards. From May's distinctively sexy laugh, either she won something or else something entertaining just happened.
Todd reached for some water. He wasn't really thirsty, per se, but if Jem was warning him to make sure his Sunday was clear it was likely to be a major wringer. Trying to slam water the day of wasn't going to work, and if it involved what he thought it was going to then he wasn't going to have many opportunities to use the bathroom either. Best to start hydrating early.
He stretched, back popping. All of the consolidated data relationships looked like they trended in generally the same way at the same time. Maybe he could use that somehow? Actually, that made sense. It wasn't a secret how these things could interrelate, but if they were all doing the same thing then that made things easy to summarize together.
There was a tap at his door, dispelling his focus. Blinking, he realized another hour and a half had passed. Todd opened his mouth to say something, but whatever he was about to try to say emerged as an enormous yawn instead.
"And here I thought roaring was my job," Ghata said from the other side of his door. "Can I come in?"
"Sure, you know you're always welcome."
She came in. Much to Todd's shock, Ghata did not enter in her Human form. Tall, powerful, red-orange with black stripes and hands which attached backwards. Gambhira Subedi was a Rakshasi, and came in looking like it. "Todd, you need to rest. It's late."
"I need a lot of things, Ghata. There's just so much to do..."
"Yep, and if you work yourself until you pass out you won't be working, either. Then, when you wake up, you'll have to redo all the work since you won't be able to trust it. So now you're going to listen to me. Strip and lay down on the bed facedown."
Around the time his shirt hit the ground and he was unbuckling his belt, Todd wondered why he was listening so quickly. He had not quite managed to answer the question before he found himself facedown on his bed, but when Ghata laid her hands on his back and began a slow and deliberate massage he found he no longer cared.
In her true form, Ghata was a foot taller than Todd, twice his weight, and three times his strength. He could feel this incredible potential force ever-so-carefully press into the muscles along his spine and realized that he had been rather stiff. The pain and stress he'd been holding on to were gently encouraged to vacate the area by those kneading palms and knuckles, radiating spikes of pleasure and relief into his body.
As she worked her way around his back and arms and legs, he found himself panting with pleasure. When she asked him to roll over, he struggled to move enough to do so. Now face up, her hands had access to his chest and hips and thighs. By the time he felt her lips descend on his dick, Todd was already so hard and so close to the edge that it took him an embarrassingly short amount of time before he was cumming down her throat. Barely enough to be able to queue up his mana regeneration.
And it didn't stop there. Ghata kept up the gentle pressure until Todd was lost in a haze of relief and relaxation. He thought he heard her whisper something into his ear, but before his befuddled brain could quite parse what it was the feel of the massage changed. The large and powerful hands were replaced in the space between heartbeats by much smaller and more delicate ones. The massage was still heavenly, but as these pushed into his back again the words he could now hear did not come from who he was expecting.
"Geez, Todd, you really need to take care of yourself better than this." It was May, trying her best to continue the work the Rakshasi had begun. "I'm scared I'm going to break you trying to get some of these knots out!"
"May? When did you come into my bedroom? I didn't hear the door."
"First off, you were so blissed out you wouldn't have heard the school's marching band invading." As she eased off, he noticed his surroundings for the first time. The bed was different, the walls no longer his. May grinned. "Second off, I didn't come into your room. You came to me, in dreams."
"Point of order: last I checked it's still my head, which is still in my room."
"Other point of order: you're here aren't you?" May was dressed in well-worn jeans and a tee shirt, and though she wasn't trying to show off it was easy to admire how they hugged her curves as she moved. "We can stay here or go to the classroom next door if you want. Just try to take it easy, okay? You're supposed to be resting."
Todd slowly and luxuriously got up from the bed then started making his way to the other room. "I thought I was asleep while we're doing this? Aren't I resting one way or the other?"
"Well, yes, but actually no. You ever wake up from a nightmare where something was chasing you? Racing heart and sweating?"
"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense, I'd still exhaust myself and have to deal with making it through the day anyway." The door to the classroom opened easily, the board populated by half a dozen graphs he had made in his notebook.
