. 03

"Alright, pause for a second."

Everyone turned to look at Yuna, who sounded pretty excited about something.

"This is all super fucking hot and all, and I want to see where this goes more than most. But shouldn't this be triggering something?"

"Other than increased blood flow to Emma's nethers, you mean?" replied Silus. Emma blushed.

"That too," said Yuna. "But when kinky things happen to a player's character, doesn't that mean similar stuff happens to the player?"

Ingrid looked over at Emma, who was holding her upper arms and looking nervous. Ingrid made eye contact and raised her eyebrows, as if to say, "You want to do this?" Emma looked back sheepishly, studiously avoiding her fellow players' gaze, and nodded slightly.

"You sure? It's important for you to exercise consent here, Emma. We'll do it only if you're excited about it." Emma looked uncertain for a moment longer, then a smile spread across her face as if she had just made up her mind.

"Yeah, let's do this."

"There's the Emma I know," Silus encouraged. Sebastian smiled and reached out to squeeze Emma's knee.

Ingrid nodded and looked over at Yuna. "You're up."

Yuna flashed a naughty smile then sprang up from her seat at the coffee table and walked to where a duffle bag lay against the wall. She unzipped it and withdrew a few dark bundles from within. Emma, a little uncertain, stayed where she was.

Yuna turned around and the rest of the group saw what she was carrying--four wrapped lengths of dark green rope. She fixed Emma with her mischievous look, dropped three lengths of rope on the floor, and began unraveling the fourth.

"Alright, Emma," she said with relish. "Let's get you tied up like Kit'seneth." Silus whistled. Ingrid sat down on the sofa and put her feet up on the coffee table. Emma blushed and stood up, her unzipped track jacket falling open to reveal her trim midriff and red sports bra.

Yuna waited for a second, then put a hand on her hip and gave Emma an incredulous look. "Really? I'm supposed to tie you up in a loose track jacket? That'll slide around like nobody's business."

"Fine," Emma said, shrugging out of the jacket.

"Wait a minute," Silus interjected. "I thought that what happens to our characters is what happens to us." Emma and Yuna looked over at their friend. "That would mean Emma should be tied up wearing nothing but a thong."

Yuna looked up at the ceiling as if she had nothing to do with the matter, all the while wearing a happy smile. Ingrid looked to Emma for a response.

"I agree with Silus," Sebastian said quietly. Everyone turned to look at him in surprise. "If Emma's ok with it, of course," he quickly added. "But it creates a nice connection between us and what's going on in the game. Gives you more skin in the game."

"A lot more skin in this case," Yuna said deviously.

"Emma?" Ingrid asked.

After a short pause, she made eye contact with Ingrid and sort of shrug-nodded.

"Good!" Yuna exclaimed. "Off with your clothes, captive! Let's get you naked."

Emma blushed again, squirmed a little as she hesitated, then started taking off her pants.

Silus admired Emma's slender, toned arms as she self-consciously worked the button on her skinny jeans free and pulled down the zipper. He enthusiastically embraced the term 'pansexual' to describe himself. He often received perplexed looks when explaining this to people, but Silus himself found it remarkably simple to understand. In short, he could find any show exciting, so long as it represented a wholehearted expression of authentic, vulnerable sexual energy and passion. He didn't always feel in the mood for sex himself, but when he did it didn't matter to him how the person of interest identified. It was their energy and unique beauty and sexual expression that ignited desire with Silus.

So it was with relish that Silus watched the self-conscious exhibitionist Emma strip in front of the whole party. She had to twist and rotate her hips to slide out of her pants--a movement that looked really good on her and that Silus enjoyed a great deal. Her underwear was a black thong with a white elastic waistband slung low across her hips. When she had finished peeling off her pants, Yuna immediately took them from her, folded them briskly, and stashed them in the duffle bag.

Emma stood nervously, shifting her weight from one foot to the other while holding her hands in front of her and fidgeting. She looked uncomfortable, but Silus knew she was simply feeling self-conscious and experiencing an intense rush of emotion and excitement. He could clearly see the shape of her nipples through her bra. Silus smiled, knowing that would soon be coming off, too.

Sure enough, Yuna looked pointedly at Emma's chest, made eye contact with her captive, and said, "Bra. Off." Stealing a quick, ashamed look around the room at her friends, Emma crossed her arms across her chest, gripped the side straps of her bra, and pulled it over her head in one swift motion. No sooner had she done so than Yuna snatched it from her and there she stood: slender, toned, and topless in the middle of the room.

Silus leaned back in his corner of the sofa and shamelessly admired her mid-sized, firm breasts. Her nipples were large and very erect. Down the sofa a ways, he could see Ingrid's attention likewise riveted on her friend's nearly naked body. Silus knew Ingrid to be a self-described 'kinky asexual'--more turned on by a kinky situation than genitalia. But here was a magnificent display of exhibitionism and its fraternal twin, voyeurism. Silus could easily tell Ingrid was into this.

Now bare chested, Emma stood there awkwardly, waiting for Yuna to go to work on her. Yuna, for her part, looked her rope bottom up and down, greedily drinking in every exposed nook and cranny of her body. Satisfied, she fixed her partner with a lustful gaze that seemed fit to burn holes through metal and walked over to position herself behind Emma.

Yuna put her hands on her girlfriend's slender, naked shoulders and left them there for a moment. Suddenly, she pulled Emma's body back into hers, winning a sigh of submission from her bottom. Holding her there for a moment, Yuna slid her hands slowly down Emma's arms until she reached the elbow, then drew both arms behind her back until they nearly touched. Drawing the rope between both her hands, Yuna looped the first length tightly around her upper arms, then used the excess to wrap around the loops in the narrow space between the arms. The result, when Yuna was finished, was that Emma's arms were pulled behind her back, thrusting her chest forward and putting her breasts on full display. Emma was breathing quickly with embarrassment-induced excitement and refused to make eye contact with anyone.

Yuna bound Emma's wrists together, then pulled her body against hers, hands caressing and roaming freely across Emma's vulnerable, bare skin. As everyone watched, Yuna's hands drifted up Emma's abdomen to her breasts, ending with her middle fingers doing a symmetric, swirling dance around her nipples. Emma began to writhe in response, moaning softly.

Silus discovered his mouth hanging open. Next to him, Ingrid's legs were closed tightly and her hand strayed to her crotch. From his end of the table, Sebastian stared as if mesmerized.

After a minute or two making her captive moan as her fingers played around her erect tits, Yuna looped a length of rope around Emma's waist, passed it through the bight, synched it tight, and tied it off with a cow hitch just beneath her cute, coin-slot belly button. Emma watched Yuna work on her body from her helpless vantage point, sometimes grunting or sighing when her captor synched the ropes taut. With the belly knot in place, Yuna pulled the leading end straight down, passed it between Emma's legs, and pulled up sharply.

Emma managed to gasp, sigh, and moan simultaneously, swaying on her feet slightly. In response, Yuna pulled her firmly back against her body again, one hand holding tension on the crotch rope--now firmly lodged along her pussy and ass--while the other groped one of Emma's exposed breasts. Ample moaning ensued.

Pushing her captive away to stand on her own two feet, Yuna looped the crotch rope over the wrist bonds and pulled down sharply. This pulled Emma's wrists down and in toward her butt, forcing her shoulders back further and making her abdomen go taut. A helpless moan escaped Emma's lips as Silus, Ingrid, and Sebastian enjoyed the view of her well-defined abs.

God, Yuna has the hottest girlfriend, Silus thought.

With the crotch rope tied off to Emma's wrists--just like the bullywugs had bound Kit in their campaign--Yuna went back to her duffle bag and produced a pair of panties. She Positioned herself in front of Emma and looked directly into her eyes. "Open your mouth, slut." Emma resisted for a full three seconds--practically an eternity for a submissive like Emma--then opened her mouth wide. Yuna shoved the panties in and then wrapped bright red bondage tape multiple times across her mouth and around the back of her head.

Stepping back to observe her quarry, Emma gave her the pleasure of watching her struggle and wriggle helplessly, moaning softly through her gag as she did so. Yuna drank in her naked captive for a solid minute, then stepped forward until there were barely inches separating them. Smoldering deeply into her bondage slut's eyes, Yuna gently took each of her erect nipples between her thumb and index finger.

"Mmmrnnggmm!" Emma begged softly through her gag. Yuna began to subtly, softly pinch and twist Emma's nipples side to side. The effect was immediate and electric. Emma's moans grew desperate and her hips began to dip and twist, swaying side to side as she helplessly sought relief from the relentless assault on her sensitive tits. As Yuna continued to tweak the sensual radio dials that were Emma's glorious nipples, the captive began pulling on her crotch rope, eyes closed in ecstacy.

Just like that, Yuna let go, leaving her bound slut panting and moaning in frustration and delight.

"No release for you, slave," Yuna declared, reaching around and smacking Emma's bare ass with a loud crack. Emma yelped.

Turning her captive to directly face the audience, Yuna said, "How did you enjoy the show? Are you not entertained?"

"Dear goddess, I am entertained," Silus managed.

Staring up from her slouch on the sofa, Ingrid responded, "Holy fuck. How am I supposed to DM now? I feel like I need some time to take care of myself in the bathroom after watching that."

"That was incredible," Sebastian offered in his quiet, sincere voice, tossing his long, black hair out of his eyes with a flick of his head.

Yuna grinned wickedly. "I'm glad." Turning to her girlfriend, she said, "Stay standing, slave," then dropped cross-legged into her bean bag chair. Obedient, Emma stood there--bound and gagged, thong-clad and topless, her body on excruciating display.

There was a long pause as Silus, Ingrid, and Sebastian stared at Emma's body--naked, muscled thighs; slender, toned stomach; belly button, breasts, nipples. Her bright red tape gag, bound arms, and crotch rope topped it off.

Finally, Ingrid spoke. "So," she said, letting out a held breath. "Where were we?"

* * * * *

"We have to do something," Ilya declared, with a tone of firmness rarely present in her voice.

The trio had reached the road hours ago and night had fallen. They had traveled quickly, moving as fast as possible while keeping their heads down. Apparently Sixto was better than Ilya gave him credit for, because they never lost their way or slowed their pace. But while the three of them had eluded their amphibian pursuers, Kit had yet to rejoin them.

"Kit's still in there," Ilya continued when none of her colleagues responded. "She could be in trouble." She paced back and forth along the edge of the road anxiously.

"Or she could be lost," Sixto rejoined, finally rousing himself from a warm, evening torpor. He lay on the grass along the side of the road, which sloped softly down to the marsh below. "I'm not going back into that bloody swamp. All we'll manage is to get lost, or pincushioned by bullywugs. What's the point in that?"

"What if she needs our help? She could have sprained an ankle; or maybe she's hurt." When Sixto's expression didn't even flinch, she added, "She would go back in there for you."

At this, Sixto cracked a wry grin. "We don't know that," he replied, the cynicism veritably dripping from his chin. "And even if she did, in a selfless act of heroism, who's to say it would make a difference? It wouldn't do me any good to have my friends turned into pin cushions, or wander aimlessly through the swamp in a vain effort to find me."

Ilya glanced over at Ash, hoping to gain her support and force Sixto to go along by outvoting him. But the tiefling's flat, white eyes gave nothing away. Sitting against a tall cottonwood with one knee bent and the other leg lying flat along the ground, she looked comfortable and unperturbed, as usual.

Ilya had been trying to galvanize her compatriots to action for over an hour, and she began to despair.

Maybe I'm just going to have to do this on my own, she thought to herself. But she didn't think much of her odds without her friends. She wasn't a helpless damsel by any stretch, but she didn't know much about swamps.

Sensing despair--and the reckless behavior that sometimes accompanies it--Ash finally piped up. "Ilya, it's dark." Her tone was accommodating, but matter of fact. "What are we going to accomplish in there?" Ilya stopped pacing and looked at her, but the anxious expression on her face remained unchanged. "Besides," Ash continued. "Kit's capable. She can handle herself."

Si: Haha! [looks at Emma]. Nice one, Yuna. E: Mmmrrng Rrnnggmffph. [squirms and struggles]. Sb: Yeah, about that...

Ilya remained standing, body still and tense like a deer about to break into a run.

"Look," Ash continued, trying to sound reassuring. "Kit could be on her way to us as we speak. If she hasn't found us by morning, we'll decide what to do."

Ilya looked from Ash to Sixto and back. Neither seemed at all perturbed. In fact, she got the sense they were just mollifying her.

"You all are planning to cut and run, aren't you?" If persuasion and appeals to their moral goodness were getting nowhere, maybe shame and accusations would do the trick. "You're just going to wait until tomorrow morning, then head to Tristanfell without her, aren't you? You're going to just abandon Kit to her fate! Some friends you are."

This last barb finally got to Sixto, though Ash took the tirade in silence, the relaxed expression still on her face.

"Look, I didn't sign up to stick my neck out for any of you," Sixto replied, anger rising in his voice. "I agreed to this job to get paid, and because I thought you could handle yourselves."

"She was out in that swamp because of you!" Ilya exploded. "We'd still be on the way to deliver that stupid box, safe and sound on the damn road, if you hadn't gotten greedy and run off after the damn stag!"

"Ilya," Ash chided calmly. "Everyone in the whole swamp is going to know where we are."

When Sixto didn't reply--he wouldn't even make eye contact--Ilya just stood there, trembling with rage. She didn't often get angry, let alone this angry. But when good people were hurting--and Kit was good people, Ilya was sure of that--and no one seemed to care, something inside her would snap. She needed something to do, anything. Staying here a moment longer with these two while her friend was alone and in trouble in the swamp was simply intolerable.

"Maybe Kit made it out of the swamp at another point down the road," Ash offered in a conciliatory tone. "If you want to feel useful, why don't you go check along the road and see if you can find her?"

Ilya felt she was being condescended to--an experience she hated--but at least it gave her something to do and took her away from Ash and Sixto. Especially Sixto.

Striding off into the night, Ilya could feel the proverbial steam boiling off. Anger and conflict were not in her nature, and she couldn't maintain those intense feelings for long. Those who knew her best--ok, maybe just her brother Winston--knew that these sudden storms blew through and were gone before long.

Between getting all worked up and the humid air that stayed warm all night, Ilya felt hot despite her sparse outfit.

If I'm this hot and all I'm wearing is a knee-length skirt and a bit of leather holding my boobs in place, she muttered, I can only imagine how hot the others must be.

Truth be told, Ilya could never quite understand people's obsession with clothes. They were hopelessly overrated, as far as she could tell--unless the weather required them, of course. But she had lived her whole life in the Sunshine Coast and its interior low country where it almost never got cold. If anything, Ilya often wished she could get away with wearing less, but people already gave her disapproving looks as it was.

Away from the group and concealed in the anonymity of night, however, she pulled the drawstrings of her bralette and sighed in relief as the pressure on her breasts eased.

I could take off my skirt and leave it by the side of the road, a voice inside her mused.

You're crazy! another replied. Someone could see you!

Oh yeah? Like who? We're in the middle of nowhere. We'll pick it up on our way back to camp.

Ilya often experienced internal debates like these. They usually featured a back and forth between her bolder self that loved to break the rules and explore forbidden pleasures, and a fearful, anxious personality that told her to play it safe and watch her back. Ilya enjoyed watching them duel, feeling the energy of fear and excitement swirl in her gut.

Ilya stopped. Maybe I will leave my skirt here, she mused. Looking around, she saw no one. The air was literally vibrating with the sound of frogs and toads calling out to one another, but this was nothing new.

Ilya reached behind to the small of her back and silently undid the button there.

Y: Wow, Seb! That's bold. Si: You know that's practically an invitation to our beloved DM to mess with you. Sb: Doesn't matter. This is Ilya being Ilya. The DM can do what she likes.

You're crazy! Stop this before something terrible happens!

Ilya paused for a moment, relishing the panic she felt, then hooked her thumbs in the sides of her skirt and pulled it down over her hips. Folding it carefully, she set her skirt down on the grass several feet off to one side of the road.

Her legs felt so free, and the night air caressed her thighs and pussy as she walked. A pair of panties was all that covered her womanhood.

You're such a slut, an inner voice said, the barb full of venom. It hurt a little, but not enough to overwhelm the joy and freedom she felt.

Oh yeah? Ilya responded. If that's true, then being a slut feels great. She put her hands in the air and did a twirl of delight. Maybe we should all be sluts.

Just then, Ilya heard the whinny of a horse and the sound of shouting voices--amphibian and human. She froze, suddenly wishing she had listened to the cautious voice. A stab of guilt mingled with the fear as she recalled that Kit was still out there, probably in trouble.

Y: Not gonna say I told you so....But I told you so.

Crouching, she took stock of the situation, letting the emotions course through her without controlling her. Though impossible to detect from the outside, this was one of her special abilities. She often felt strong emotions and, as a rule, tried never to suppress them; but only rarely did she lose control to them.

There were clearly sounds of struggle and alarm coming from up the road. Lacking the time to go find her skirt, Ilya crept forward along the side of the road. She felt vulnerable, wearing as little as she was, but didn't want to lose the opportunity to find out what was going on. It could have something to do with Kit.