I linger in that blissful half-dream state for an indeterminate amount of time, only half aware of my coiled, serpentine body. Then a foreign presence bumps against my mind and wakes with a start. “｢{Relaxed, content}Morning, Aleks.｣”

She transmits a half-asleep, vaguely greeting-like thought and turns slightly, causing me to shift around her. I apply pressure in a particular way, and suddenly she becomes wide awake as the pressure makes the both of us aware of an urgent need. I loosen my coil to let her escape to the bathroom while I splay my snake-like body all over the floor.

Yaaawn, things got pretty late yesterday. After a bit more [Aspect Magic] and [Mana Manipulation: Mana Link], I taught her [Mind Magic] and the mind bond, and she enjoyed the newfound understanding that brought as we just silently shared experiences after that.

Wait, did we do the mental equivalent to sex? A mindfuck? Heh, I guess if this were a movie I’d monologue about the wild sex, but instead I’m thinking of our silent ‘conversation’ and whatever happened when we both unleashed our imagination.

That got weird.

…

Man, I can see why there’s that… trope? Idea? Of slinking away the morning after a sexual encounter. I mean, this is awkward enough. What am I even supposed to do? I do have stuff I want to do, but I can’t just leave, right? I’d say we are a bit more than just strangers after that, but I guess the same could be said for physical sex. Man, I’d never think I’d need that distinction.

So… now I just… wait. I guess. Could this be considered losing my ‘mental virginity’? Virginity is such a… useless term. I’ve done the same with Leda… well, not really, that was more superficial, more like mind… snuggling? Same thing with Hilde. Huh, does that make me mentally… promiscuous? Aleks wants me to stop, since I’m being too loud.

…wait…

Oh, I’m being too ‘loud’, through the mind bond. Well, she’s feeling refreshed after letting it out, and is washing her face now that she’s washed her hands, ｢{Joking}So I’m not sure if you should be talking//thinking.｣

I take the hint however, and tone down the bond. A minute later, she comes out, having removed her t-shirt and put on new boxers at some point. There is a bit of an awkward silence, but since she doesn’t hide that she has something to say, I mentally encourage her to speak up.

It takes a few heartbeats, as she finds it hard to say, and she ends up using the mind bond instead. ｢You compare it to sex. {Embarrassed}Have you had real sex?｣

｢{Uncertainty}Not with //other// people. Have used puppets.｣

“Oh, speaking of which, you didn’t get the human Aspect yet, right? Or pay me, for that matter… Did I mention you’re gonna want it for human-like puppets?”

“｢No.｣”

“Well, I could probably teach it in about thirty minutes or so.”

“That- That would be useful. But, ehm-” ｢{Sheepish}Want to have sex with me?｣

“Uhh…” That’s… direct… “Err- I-I mean…” ｢Have you had sex with others?｣

｢No｣

｢Do you have any infections? OR: Do you know of family history of such?｣

Another denial, this time she just softly shakes her head.

“Okay, so, I don’t actively want sex, but… I’m definitely not opposed to it. It’s just…” I pull a hand through my hair and revert to base form and collect my thoughts.

“It should be safe, and I am curious to how it would be. Should be interesting with others, especially with the mind bond. Just, I think it’s not something to take lightly -it’s very intimate- but…” I sit up straight and look her in the eyes. “I mean…”

I am exceptionally articulate today, aren’t I? Sigh. “Know what? Given what we’ve already done I can’t exactly call you a stranger. So fuck it. Fuck you. Fuck me.”

I sense that she feels about as awkward as me, if not more strongly, but she’s smiling a little and is finally looking at me. Well, at my chest, but it’s something. “That said, we need contraception. And to be on the same page: there is no special meaning to this, we’re both just trying something new.”

As interesting as this particular form of hedonistic pleasures are, all too soon I have to go to check out of the hostel. I never even saw my room… Either way, I spend the next two days traveling south. On the way I visit cities and… towns(population: not many) to meet with customers, and (in the cities) do the usual advertise-and-sell shtick.

There were no other people quite as… characteristic as Aleks, except maybe one hella buff guy with a ton of weight lifting and exercise equipment. He wanted [Body Enhancement] and [Force Magic]. When I asked why those abilities, he said it was “To practice like they do in anime, ya know? Train under harsh conditions and then you do it normally and it’s like super easy, right?”

Whether that would work or not, I set up a gravity box for him where he can have more or less gravity. It can’t go that high, but we agreed on a fairly low price for later tweaking and repair. Assuming I am in the area and whatnot, but if I’m not there’s a price for that, too.

One of my customers asked about Quests and how they worked, but… I hadn’t really thought about it. So I gave him a Quest to ‘help me research Quests’. The actual research consisting of giving a bunch of Quests. When I finally get home I immediately ‘mark’ one such Quest as complete, before even packing out what little I have.

A little while later he calls me to ‘turn it in’, proving that that remote completion and turning in is possible. Over the next few weeks I do some more tests, including giving Quests by proxy. As it turns out, I can give quests on behalf of others, and create ‘open’ Quests with bulletin boards, both physical and electronic, as well as over phone, email or even my videos.

‘Turning in’ the Quests can be done in much of the same ways, but also automatically when the Quest is finished. Combine that with giving Quests with others, and I can make Quests which must be ‘turned in’ to other people. If they have the ability they can ‘edit’ the Quest, and send the Quester to do extra tasks or maybe find me.

Obviously, you can also give up on quests, though I can also ‘turn in’ Quests which have been completed, which turns out to be useful since I didn’t know I could set them to ‘autocomplete’ when I made that video, and replying to everyone who wanted to turn it in (or in some cases, asked how to) becomes overwhelming with as many viewers as I have. Well, if any rewards have been promised the giver must give those first.

Well, all of that is on the side, as most of my effort go into the flight to the US. I get in touch with Guinness World Records and the relevant embassies. There is steady progress, sure, but all these damn meetings are draining. Of course, I also communicate to my viewers that I’m travelling to the US, and set up a few polls to find out who’s interested, in what, and where.

We all keep the specifics secret, particularly of the soon-to-be record, but hint at there being something, and the space company and the World Records team up for a marketing campaign, slowly giving details until releasing my flight path and the record I will make, three days before I actually do it.

The entire things takes the limited fame I had, and boosts it to levels I’m frankly not entirely comfortable with. They intend to set up some welcoming ceremony and handing over the record or something when I land in New York.

New york. My original plan was to fly from one of the west-coast cities, but stuff happened (like politics and pushing of what has clearly become a giant PR stunt) , so now I’m supposed to fly from Heathrow, London, to JFK Airport, New York.

They want me to go from an airport so that I can go through the security there, and land in one to go through customs and all of that stuff, there. Why not just fly from a norwegian airport to Quebec or something? Because symbolism, that’s why. The most common flights ‘across the pond’ take that route, so a human (mostly) doing it without a vehicle? Symbolic.

Of course, it makes the trip more than fifty percent longer, reaching over six thousand kilometers, but when estimating the trip I intentionally upped the distance to have wiggle room, so it’s not that big of a deal. And it’s just a record attempt, I will prioritize my life over getting my name written in the books.

The specific locations help ‘standardize’ the record, primarily in terms of distance (and thus speed), which I guess is nice, and if I actually manage it, my record will be pretty hard to beat. I will also most likely be pretty sleepy, and perhaps a bit tired.

I haven’t been slacking on testing and pushing that either. Not only have I found a way to use [Mind Magic] and [Meditation] to induce a semi-sleeping state, after research into what birds do, I found out that some ‘sleep on the wing’, one way of which is called ‘unihemispheric sleep’, during which half the brain is asleep.

Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but I also found out that dolphins and seals (whose Aspect I already have) do it. Armed with that knowledge I decide to take a trip through the continent to visit aquariums, stopping at a couple zoos and other interesting places as well. The relevant bird aspects would be nice, but with winter approaching I’m unlikely to see that many of them.

Since the trip is not exactly planned in advance, viewers don’t get much notice before I’m suddenly in Italy a couple days later, but as I circle around to France and then northwest, I the amount of people meeting with me increases, and when a group of english people invite me to a pub the group takes up a lot of space.

I alleviate it somewhat by using a mana crystal and a simple (temporary) enchantment to maintain a spatial enlargement spell as long as we supply it mana. That dominates the discussion for the rest of the night. I don’t drink, but with some of the others doing so, the mood is high, and when I head to the motel, I am dead tired of all the social… -ness.

Back home, the record-setting day approaches, and two weeks before the day, we announce that something will happen. There are immediately discussions and speculation, some of which come startlingly close. Well, we haven’t exactly been hiding what we’re doing, just tried to not be obvious.

I greatly improved my flying and navigational skills during the trip, even practicing night time flying and in less than ideal weather, and of course I tested the fancy sleep trick, but I didn’t dare test it in-flight until now, enlisting Leda to watch out for me. It takes a few days (and staying up two nights) before I manage to even fall asleep, but as the new day dawns I have stayed in the air for several hours, including a total of about one hour of power naps and such.

Some swifts apparently use echolocation, but I haven’t found those (or any swifts at all), so instead I base it on the Bat Aspect. I manage to make the sound fine, and my directional hearing is just fine. But… I can detect large surface and their direction, and even semi-reliably navigate in darkness (or eyes closed), but I’ve walked into quite a few plants and even a chain-link fence.

Oh well, I tried that more for the novelty and as a backup when landing. I can better detect nearby stuff with magic anyway, though by making those clicks I can get a blurry picture of stuff up to a kilometer or two away, depending on what it’s made up and whatnot.

A week before the set date, the full details of the record attempt/PR stunt and whatnot is released Soon after, on ‘little christmas’, December 23rd, I grab some slightly fancy takeout to share with Leda, as well as a few varieties of sausages and meatballs for Tåke and the other wolves. With that in hand, I meet up with Leda.

We head out and find Tåke at what looks like a small encampment, with a small shelter not unlike the ones I helped make by the den, though with no sheet covering the entrance it barely protects them against the elements.

Not that they need more protection, their fluffy winter coats keep the cold out quite fine, which is why I am currently also all fluffy on my hands, neck, and face. I get the vague impression that there are a few of these spread out, and an idea of their position. Is that from the pack bond or companion bond? Or something else?

Hmm, it’s a gestalt consciousness of the entire pack. Well, at this point ‘tribe’ is more accurate, I think. One tribe with several packs and families. Either way, I communicate that we’re going to the den and (more importantly) that I have treats, so Tåke and her pack quickly perks up and follows us there.

When I get there, my first impression is that it’s gone, but then I realize that they’ve clustered the shelters, tents, and huts around the entrance to the den. There are fewer of them, but given that they’ve modified the entrance I guess they have moved inside for the winter? I really should pay more attention to what goes on here.

They have made the entrance smaller, so I need to bend my neck to enter. I also have to push away a sheet, likely there to keep some warmth in, or maybe just because that’s what I told them to do with the huts. Overall I think they did a good job with the entrance, but the uneven lines bother me. I straighten the line, but not being satisfied, I instead it look more natural.

Hm, better.

Leda, already knowing my intent through the mind bond, send her puppet to follow me into the actual den. The first little room is almost as before, but there’s more wolves here, and they’ve made some of those shelves in the walls, some with and some without a something softer to lie on. Well, were it not for the frost, the dirt would be soft enough, I suppose.

They have added a couple lightstones, these seeming to only glow for a short while before needing a ‘recharge’, though my original ones lead deeper down, still using ambient mana. It’s when I go that way thing have really changed.

The tunnel is as before until just before the intersection, where the entire area has been excavated, aside from a few unevenly spaced pillars. As Leda exclaims, the cave is big enough to fit her main body, if somewhat uncomfortably due to restricted movement.

The wolves have actually used the three dimensions quite admirably, building not only those shelves, but also small rooms covered by the familiar sheets of cloth into the walls. I wonder for a moment how they get up there, but an air-aligned wolf deftly demonstrates exactly how. Hmm, even with that it’d be useful with floors or at least catwalks along the cave-rooms.

It looks like they broke or degraded the collector enchantments on the lightstones I made, but the fainter glow doesn't seem to be a problem, with several wolves creating light for themselves. I head down the tunnel to the inner rooms, finding more of them occupied or at least used at some point (with my ‘bunker’ very much still intact), but otherwise unchanged.

I turn back and to the medium-sized rooms I made mostly because I got too into it, and they, too, have been opened and merged, with the same shelves and rooms in the walls, though this one has a tiered structure and a ramp up. I say they merged them, but by the remaining rubble it looks like one sided caved in at some point.

I tell Leda to stop bouncing around and head back out, and bring out the food. It’s amazing how quickly we become swarmed, and with me having severely underestimated the amount of wolves, each of them only get a small bite, with the wolfkin, particularly those with worryingly bulging bellies, getting a little bit more.

Leda is happy about the exotic food too, happily swinging her legs from the top of her back, most of the wolves wary enough to stay out of immediate range. There are a lot of sad-looking wolves when it’s all gone, but Leda, after hearing that I will celebrate christmas with my family tomorrow, only frowns for a moment, before telling me to close my eyes.

I ignore the fact that one of the wolfkin uses that chance to lick the plastic container I still hold in my hands as I worry about what kinda surprise she has made this time. That mana-saturated heart was outside my comfort zone, and I ended up giving it back while making sure she knew I appreciate the thought.

This is taking a while, though, which is worrisome… But I trust her enough to not start the second apocalypse or something, so I (im)patiently wait.