Screaming woke me just before my eight hour rest completed.

I sat bolt upright and reached for my saber. "Are we under attack?"

Tanner was in the bed next to me looking wild eyed. "No. It's this system announcement."

"What announcement?"

"You didn't get one?"

"Yeah, I got one. I just wanted you to waste both our time repeating it," I said with my heaviest sarcasm.

So, she told me what it had said.

"Permanent kink, huh? Well, at least Katie warned you." She didn't seem to take any comfort in this, and I couldn't help but needle her a little. She looked so lost and helpless just because of a stupid game event. "I wonder what you'll get? Anal? I bet it's anal? Or maybe an oral fixation?" I mimed giving a blow job, and she looked as though she was about to barf, which made me start laughing.

I'd always used toughness as a bit of a shield. Teasing my friends was my way of showing I cared without being vulnerable. Just like sarcasm was always a way for me to express myself without sounding earnest and open. But since entering the game, I'd begun to notice a bit of a shift. A cruelness was setting in. Or maybe it had always been there and was just coming out now.

Either way it worried me a little. 

Because, honestly, I really felt bad for Tanner and her terror. (Well, a felt a tiny bit bad.) Having a demented AI make you horny as fuck and threaten you with twisting your mind is some serious shit. But pushing her to the brink of panic was too tempting. Too exciting. And it took all my willpower to shift gears and say, "Come on. Let's go see what's happening with the others. Maybe there's a simple solution to this."

We all started to assemble out in the hall. Rick came out of the room he'd been sharing with Josh yelling, "Good God, man! What the hell is your problem!"

"What is it?" Crystal asked him.

"Josh is just standing in the middle of the room jacking off. I know we got that warning, but seriously, what the fuck!"

Ellie asked, "What warning?"

It turned out that everyone got it except Ellie and me.

Rick, with a lot of hemming and hawing, explained the alert most of the party received. Then, Tanner added what she learned in the archives about Arousal Potency.

"The documentation says: All players have a hidden stat for Arousal Potency, which works on a 0-8 scale like Life Balance. But whereas, Life Balance starts with a norm of 8 and works downward, Arousal Potency starts at zero and works up at a rate of 1 point a day (or more, if affected by a modifier). When it reaches 8, the player will suffer adverse effects. Arousal Potency can be lowered by sexual acts with points varying depending on the act."

This news caused a lot of grumbling and frantic comments. Aaron said, "But this is only our fifth day in here. How do we have seven points already?"

"Katie must have started us with some already accumulated," Tanner said.

"Never mind that," I said. "Weren't you and the pixie munching carpet. How are you nearly maxed out and she isn't?"

Ellie looked abash. "Um ... that might have been my fault. The spell I used, the one with the sparkles ... among its other effects, it increases Arousal."

"You knew?" Aaron asked aghast.

"I knew it said something about Arousal Potency. But I didn't know what that meant until just now."

Rick turned to me. "And how come you didn't get the message?"

I think he expected me to get all bashful like the others, so I made sure I didn't show any shyness or embarrassment. "Before we got to the watchtower I boned some NPC to see what it was like." And then added, "So, look, Rick. I'm willing to take one for the team and let you pound me with that big rod of yours until all those points of yours are drained away."

He turned bright red and glanced over at Tanner.

"Ohhh!" I said catching on. "Listen, I know she's cute with those little antlers of hers, but she's a bit of a prude."

"I'm not a prude. I'm just not into guys."

"Uh-huh," I said in a way suggesting how unimpressed I was with her answer.

"What does that mean?"

"First off, you were a prude back when we were in college and actually had man-junk of your own. And second, I see how flushed you get whenever you look at our hottie Rick here." The both glanced away looking terminally embarrassed, and a little ember of joy sparked in me. I decided to stoke it into a flame. "Look, I know I can be mean, but I'll totally take myself out of the picture here, so you two can go at it the way you both want to." They turned even redder and Rick's cock was straining uncomfortable against the confines of his leather pants.

"Leave those two alone," Crystal said to me. "What about the rest of us? Damn it! If this is what 7 points feels like, I sure as hell don't want to learn what 8 does to your head. I'm ready to climb up the walls. We have to do something. And even if we wanted to pair off, there's not enough of us." (She seemed to be discounting Josh, for which I didn't blame her. Even if his appearance wasn't grotesque, I'd never be aroused enough for that.) "And, no offence, but I wouldn't want to have sex with any of you."

"We could find a boggle for you if you'd like?" I suggested. She bared her bared her teeth at me in a glare.

"I'm afraid Josh might have the right idea?" Sulin said. She added with a bit of embarrassment, "I mean, I don't think it's a good idea to masturbate in front of everyone. But relieving ourselves might be a way of clearing the warning."

Tanner asked, "You were in Feronia a long time. How did you handle it then?"

She lost her normal calm demeanor and exclaimed, "Feronia didn't have any fucking arousal system before! It was a normal game! We never fought monsters with their genitals hanging out or ones in lingerie. Magic rings didn't come as piercing. Species didn't get penalties for wearing clothes. And we never stood around a dungeon discussing how to stop being so fucking horny!"

I said, "Actually, that sounds kind of boring, I'm beginning to appreciate the changes Katie has made."

Ellie beckoned to Aaron, "Come on. I'll help you work some of it off. It's only fair." Aaron seemed about to hesitate, but then followed her into one of the bedrooms. It struck me how sexy they were looking with the new stockings showing off the curve of her legs. Yeah, this wasn't a normal RPG anymore.

Sulin then slunk off wordlessly to another room and shut the door behind her.

"Well, what's it going to be?" I asked the four of us remaining. "There's two beds left. Rick my offer still stands. Tanner since you're 'not into guys' maybe you and Crystal want to work things out."

All three of them look at me with horror coloring their eyes wide.

Crystal pointed to Tanner. "I don't care what she looks like. It's still some dude in there."

Unfortunately for all of us, moans began to escape the different rooms. And damn! I wasn't really into that sort of thing, but from the enthusiastic sounds coming from behind Arron and Ellie's door, I was tempted to go in and watch.

Crystal glanced around at all of us, then bolted into one of the vacant rooms, her chain-mail swishing and jingling with her speed.

"Threesome?" I suggested to Rick and Tanner, who both seemed paralyzed by their own sense of humiliation.

Ricked cleared his throat about to say something, glanced at Tanner, and then looked at me and said, "I guess since ... well, since the situation is ... I mean, we kind of have to, so—"

Out of no where, Tanner (still not looking up from her feet) interrupted him. "Okay. I'll do it with you. Let's just get it over with. And let's never talk about this again."

My jaw fell open, and Rick nearly dropped dead with surprise, but the horny stag wasted no time dragging her into the last room.

Damn! I was alone in the hall. How the hell was I the only one not getting off? 

DemonRose

Hey! Hey!

I've got a little something different for you folks. My inclination is to follow Tanner and Rick in the next chapter, but I realize that type of scene might not be everyone's thing. And since I have a busy work weekend (as usual) and won't be writing for a couple of days, I thought of offering it up as a poll. 

So, everyone, whose closed door activity would you like to see? I'll only show one and then were back to fighting boggles. I'll let you choose any, except for Josh because ... well, it's Josh. 

I'll go with whatever the results say when I start writing Monday. And if there's a tie I'll decide which of the two to go with.