Adventures in Indexing

Adventures in Indexing

The sound of babbling, chattering voices seemed to fill the air, echoing off of the tastefully decorated walls of the hallway as what could best be described as a horde emerged from the dining hall. Most of the crowd seemed to be teenaged at most, though it was sometimes hard to tell - dwarves, for example, tended to look grizzled from the moment they hit puberty. Here and there, however, older figures wove their way through the swarm boiling toward the exit, some in smart, businesslike attire, but most of them wore the same pale grey student uniform as the younger ones.

As they emerged into the bright sunlight outside the building, two of the older students peeled away from the mob, aiming themselves across the grass of the Academy's central quadrangle. With an almost audible sigh of relief, the taller of the two young women shot a mild scowl over her shoulder at the younglings as they scattered to wherever their morning classes were today.

"Stop glaring at them, Tori. You were that age not that long ago."

With an aloof flick of her long blonde hair, Tori gave her colleague a sidelong look that carried more than a little disagreement.

"Kel, I was never that young. I swear to whatever gods may be listening that some of those little squirts aren't even potty trained yet."

The fact that she managed to say that with such a totally straight face had Kel chuckling. The pale, short-haired changeling took a definite pleasure in needling her room-mate, even given how downright easy it was to do sometimes.

"Whatever," Tori continued, blue eyes sparkling with humour as well, "breakfast is done, and I have no need to deal with small people any more until dinner."

"What about - oh, that’s right, you're helping set up that big presentation thing for this afternoon." Kel frowned for a second. "Which reminds me, how the hells did you manage to wrangle that sort of cushy number, anyway? As I recall, Professor Tegan is interested in other men, and you're not that good at talking people into giving you what you want."

That got her another dismissive look from Tori, but the corners of the blonde's lips twitched in a barely suppressed smile as she ran a hand over the fabric of her dress, smoothing out a couple of mostly-imaginary wrinkles. This was hardly the first time they'd visited this general topic, and both of them knew full well it was unlikely to be the last. Especially given what came out of her mouth after she'd taken a moment to check there were no young ears nearby.

"You're hardly in a position to criticise, you slut. Or do I need to remind you of how you managed to dodge getting into shit for what happened last week?"

The only answer she got to that was a laugh, then Kel nodded toward the clock mounted on the Academy's main tower. Tori followed her look, then muttered a curse.

"I'll see you later," the changeling chuckled, "I've got some translating to do, and you have a nice easy day of bossing people around."

Rolling her eyes at her room-mate's almost wistful tone, Tori gave her a sympathetic - or near enough - pat on the shoulder and started walking. What was on her plate for the day wasn't going to be that simple, but being asked to help the Head of Applied Archaeology set up and present the fruits of his latest field work wasn't something she was going to turn her nose up at even if it had looked like being hard work.

Especially since the alternative was another session of listening to her study advisor drone on about how he thought she should be directing her studies.

Yeah, right. He's refused to stick his head out of his lab in nearly thirty years, and the only damned reason he works with us mere students at all is because the conditions of his tenure say he has to.

Still, she did have to admit that when he managed to accidentally let some useful advice slip, it was very good advice. Shame it didn't happen more often...

With a polite smile for the young man who held the door open for her, she stepped inside the ornate building that housed the Azimuth Academy's main library - one of at least four pretty impressive collections that she'd found so far - then paused to make sure she had her bearings. Nobody had ever given her a properly illuminating explanation as to why it was so damned easy to get lost in this building, but it happened to everyone.

Well, almost everyone. One of the Cryptozoology department's star students had never had any problem, but he was a minotaur, and that was probably a good enough excuse as far as he was concerned. Not that it was of any help to anyone else, of course... especially since he had started charging to guide people around.

Okay, fourth floor, third corridor... assuming the bastard thing hasn't moved. Again.

As it turned out, she managed to get where she was going with only two wrong turns, which she suspected was an all-time record, and finding the right door was exceptionally easy thanks to the fact that there was seven feet of vaguely humanoid rock standing outside it.

Looking up at the rough-hewn face, Tori gave the golem a nod and waited to see if there was any response forthcoming. After a second or so, there was, the baleful green glow of it's gaze shifting down to meet hers. For another long moment, that was all the reaction there was, until it stepped aside with a delicate grace that never ceased to surprise her at least a little.

"Thank you."

The animated rock said nothing, naturally enough, instead simply settling in to do absolutely nothing at all until called upon again. With a ghost of a smile, Tori pushed the door open and stepped inside.

"Ah, Miss Spelling!"

It was fairly common knowledge that Professor Tegan had served in the army before bumbling his way into academia, and the rumour that he'd been a drill instructor was very easy to believe when he didn't keep his voice down. Tori wasn't so sure about that, however, since whilst his standard level of volume was a mild bellow, it was far too good-natured to be coming out of someone who'd done that sort of job - even if he did look like a mountain bear stuffed into a suit.

The stout, bearded professor came over from the crate he'd been rummaging in, taking her hand and giving it a hearty shake. Luckily, he was quite aware of how strong he was, and she escaped having her knuckles squashed.

"Come in, come in," he said cheerily, waving her into the room, "You've met my assistants, I'm sure."

The assistants in question were a pair of very nice looking young men, who gave her waves of welcome. Very nice looking young men, she couldn't help noticing, with the sort of deep tan and healthy glow that came from spending large amounts of time outdoors being athletic.

Unfortunately, Kel was right about the Professor's tastes, and it was no secret that he chose his helpers with care. Which was a shame, in some ways... but in others, really not so much. Knowing that the three men in the room had no interest in her was going to make it a lot easier to keep her mind on the job. Especially when it came to the dark-haired one, with the really nice-

Concentrate, dammit. And not on his ass.

"I assume the porters know one of their heavy lifters is outside," she asked, dragging herself back into focus. "It could prove a little awkward if they come around wanting it back, after all."

"Of course, of course," Professor Tegan replied with an airy wave. "And their reputation is vastly exaggerated."

"Professor, three first-years decided to play a prank with the toilets four months ago. The porters still have them on sewer cleanup, and only the Arch-Dean herself managed to convince them to relent enough to let said students use more appropriate tools than their own toothbrushes."

The Professor seemed to think about that for a moment, his assistants looking a bit nervous in the background, then shrugged. "Builds character."

Which was pretty much precisely the sort of thing she'd have expected him to say. Hiding a smile, she followed as he waved her over toward the crates he and his assistants had been unpacking, genuinely curious to see what they contained. A six month expedition to the desert ruins of Alpetha was not going to have come back empty-handed, after all. Not given the level of magic woven through that civilisation's society - before it had suffered a rather unfortunate outbreak of divine disfavour.

Which might, in hindsight, also account for why there'd been remarkably few self-proclaimed God Emperors in the world over the two thousand years or so since Alpetha had gotten a thorough smiting.

None of which, of course, was anything at all to do with why Tori was here. She watched as the Professor reached into a crate, lifting out a wrapped bundle with surprising delicacy. When he turned toward the nearby table and frowned at the lack of clear space on it's surface, she stepped in and lifted some of the papers that littered the tabletop out of the way. With a grunt of acknowledgement for her help, the professor set the package down and started peeling away the paper wrapping.

"I think you might like this one," he said amiably. "Third dynasty, I believe, from one of the temples they kept putting up in honour of their bloody cats."

Tori chuckled at his tone, shaking her head at the thought that someone so immersed in ancient history could be so dismissive of what he studied. Except, of course, he wasn't, and they both knew it. Any comment she might have made was headed off, however, when the paper fell away to reveal an exquisitely formed statuette, its feline subject rendered in almost lifelike detail and the sunlight from the window shining off the dull gold surface.

"Wow."

The Professor nodded in agreement with her soft exclamation, then his bushy beard was split by a wide grin as he waved at the other crates and the few odds and ends that had already been unpacked. "And we've got plenty more to get ready for show and tell."

"To which our aching backs can testify," one of the assistants interjected, earning himself a sternly reproving look from the Professor - a look that Tori judged to be about as sincere as a goblin insurance salesman.

"Now now, Lucas," he said chidingly, "you've barely done any hard work at all since we got home."

The dark-haired assistant, he of the exceptionally cute butt, rolled his eyes but otherwise chose not to comment. His fairer-maned colleague, the one the Professor had addressed, snorted in what sounded like a cynical little laugh, and pointed at the door.

"This from the man who found any number of excuses to let the golem do all the work of moving this stuff in here?"

"Of course, my dear boy. Proper supervision is critical in such endeavours, after all. Speaking of which..." He turned a touch more serious, running a thoughtful gaze over the contents of the room. "I think we've cleared enough space for the last few crates."

Lucas looked around as well before nodding in agreement. "You want me to see to it, or Thom?"

The other assistant looked around expectantly, but the professor shook his head. "Neither. Miss Spelling, would you be so kind as to keep an eye on these pair of delinquents whilst I see to this little task?"

Tori was tempted to smile at the combination of deadpan delivery from the Professor and the put-upon looks on his assistants' faces, but kept the impulse under control. Instead, she made something of a show of studying the two of them, then gave the Professor a regal nod.

"I believe I can keep them in line."

"Good. Shouldn't take more than an hour or so to get everything sorted out and on the way here. I'm sure you can all work out where to find me if anything needs my attention in the meantime."

The last part was delivered over his shoulder as he headed out of the door, and Tori could have sworn she felt the floor vibrate as the animated boulder in the hall started following him toward wherever he was going.

All joking aside, she took a breath to steady her nerves as she looked around at the fruits of the expedition on more time. He may have seemed rather cavalier about it all, but there was no denying that the Professor was putting a rather large amount of trust in her and his assistants. Simply trying to guess the value of what they were unpacking - and not just in terms of money - would have given her a headache...

"All right," she said after a few moments, making it clear she was deferring to the young men's greater expertise in such things. "Where do we start?"

---

As it turned out, Professor Tegan returned in a little less than the hour he'd predicted. By that time, Tori and the boys had gotten a pair of crates fully unpacked, their contents unwrapped, properly indexed, and set aside. He didn't stay for long, however, explaining that he'd only popped his head in to make sure all was well before turning his attention to various other professorial tasks that apparently demanded his attention.

The sunlight coming through the windows, mixed with the general warmth of the day and the amount of lifting and moving of things they were doing, had conspired to have an effect, though, and Tori was fairly sure she'd sensed at least a little hesitation on the Professor's part before he'd taken his leave again.

Not that she blamed him in the slightest. Thom and Lucas had taken the heavy lifting and such upon themselves, and approached it with the kind of casual vigour that was going to catch the eye of anyone interested in watching athletic young men at work. In fact, it had proven more than a little distracting, especially sleeves had been rolled up and shirts undone. So much so, in fact, that Tori was actually starting to become a little bit annoyed at the fact that there was no point whatsoever in trying to interest either - or even possibly both - of them in a little... break.

Still, at least she was getting plenty of material for when she was back in her dorm and able to put her imagination to work. She supposed they might have something to say about being used as fodder for naughty daydreams, but since she had no intention of telling them, what did it really matter?

To keep her mind off such things in the meanwhile, she was concentrating on the indexing side of things, making sure each relic and artefact was properly labelled, even if that did require frequent checks of the paperwork that listed the expedition's finds, and more than a few questions to the boys themselves. A case in point was the rather odd carving that she had on the table in front of her at that particular moment.

It looked like it was made of some sort of pottery, but had felt a lot heavier than that... and the carvings on it where definitely not the sort of thing most folks would put on their cookware. Not disturbing, precisely, but definitely... odd. Flicking through the lists, she would have thought she'd be able to find it on them, given the fact it was so unlike any of the other items she'd been ticking off the manifest, but she simply could not track down any mention of it...

No, wait, here we go, she thought to herself as she ran a finger across the pages. Oh, wonderful. There are two of them... so which one is this one?

According to the list, the two carvings in question looked very much alike, with only the writings on them to quickly tell them apart. Apparently, one of them was engraved with a prayer of some sort, which the other was simply described as 'bearing an inscription'. Sadly, she lacked Kel's skill with languages, especially dead ones, and that meant that couldn't read the bloody things, and thus had no idea whatsoever which of the two this one was.

"Gentlemen," she said, beckoning to the others. "We seem to have something of a puzzle."

Lucas ambled over, leaving Thom to carry on with the crate they'd been rummaging in. Tori gestured to the carving and stepped back to give him room to take a closer look. She watched as he bent over a little to examine it, tapping a finger against her lightly upturned lips as she took advantage of the view he gave her.

"Okay, let me see..." Lucas murmured, running a finger of his own across the inscription. "Give me a moment, I'm pretty sure I can translate it."

She waited patiently, then frowned as he started sounding out what he was reading. There was... something, a sense of power building up inside the carving itself as Lucas spoke, and she was pretty sure that was not what was meant to be happening.

"Ah... I think, maybe, you should-"

That was as far as she got before Lucas reached the end of what he was reading. At which point, the power Tori had started to sense inside the carving flared - with a result she really should have seen coming. With a shattering blast, the carving disintegrated, spraying bits of itself all over the room, and coincidentally sending Lucas himself flying backwards. Whether he meant to or not - probably not - he actually managed quite a graceful flip in the air before he came to a rather abrupt halt against the wall.

The air over the table seemed to twist in on itself until it actually split, tearing open to revel the kind of darkness that really, really hurt the eyes. Fortunately, perhaps, that didn't last very long. On the other hand, what replaced it probably wasn't any more comforting a sight.

<FREEDOM AT LAST! WHICH FOOL OF A MORTAL HAS RELEASED ME?>

The booming, powerful voice didn't bother with such trivialities as entering Tori and Thom's heads by way of their ears. Instead, the writhing mass of darkness and tentacles hovering over the table simply delivered its message into their skulls in a fairly impressive display of power. Thom and Tori shared a look, then simply pointed at the heap Lucas had landed in.

<EXCELLENT... NOW FOR A SUITABLE REW->

The voice cut off, and Tori was pretty sure that the whole overpowering aura emanating from the creature now had more than a little disappointment in it.

<Seriously? A guy? And an unconscious one, at that?>

All the force and menace had fallen away from the voice, leaving instead something that sounded rather like a petulant teeanger. Tori blinked, frowning as she processed what her senses were reporting to her, then took a closer look at the almost indescribable entity that had apparently just forced its way into reality.

<I mean, a guy's okay,> it continued, <but is it too much to ask that I could get a girl? Apparently, and thank you very little, Oh Great Powers Of the Cosmos for that one...>

"Oh, will you shut up and stop blithering."

Tori's tone was rather snappy when she she spoke, and both Thom and the entity looked at her in a certain amount of surprise. Or at least she was fairly sure that was what the thing was doing, given it's apparent lack of eyes and such.

<Excuse me? You would dare interrupt a being of such power as->

"Please," she interrupted with a dismissive little toss of her head. "You're a class four Otherworlder. Class five at most. That means that you 're limited to purely physical levels of threat, and not much of that, either."

"Um.... Miss? Is it a good idea to start taunting the demon?"

Thom sounded genuinely worried, and she couldn't really blame him. He was a field assistant, after all, and was highly unlikely to have benefited from some of the more unusual areas of schooling the Academy offered. She, on the other hand, had.

"I've had more dangerous things served to me in the refectory."

She waved toward Lucas, who was starting to groan a bit, and Thom wasted no time in dashing over, hauling him up, and making for the door.

<Oi! Stop running off with my sacrifice!>

Thom gave no sign of any interest in listening, instead simply yanking the door open and disappearing though it, his colleague being more or less dragged along with him. With a casual-looking wave, Tori directed a flow of Essence to close - and lock - the door behind them, then channelled the same flow into herself. It was only a precaution, really, and the effects wouldn't stand up to a powerful assault... but if she had the ability to turn herself effectively stab-proof, she saw little reason not to, just in case.

"Sacrifice?" she asked, calmly. "I think not. You just wanted to play."

<Oh, and how do you know so much, little Miss Know-it-all?>

"Second in my class in Demonic Studies." The entity didn't seem all that impressed, so she decided to give him - and it really did sound like a 'him' - a little more context. "First place went to a Byblyos, and he only managed to edge me out on the theory side."

Which, given that the Byblyos was a type of creature that existed purely for the gathering and hoarding of knowledge, was something she was rather proud of. It was also a fact that was not, it seemed, lost on the entity, either.

<Oh. Okay, fair enough, you know stuff. But I'm still going to do something nasty to you for ruining my sport!>

The arched eyebrow she gave him in reply did not, all in all, make her look like she was intimidated. The fact that she was also busy weaving a barrier of Essence into the walls of the room, so as to make sure nothing could get out, also suggested that the dire and foreboding threat the entity was trying to deliver was failing to have the desired effect.

<Seriously? You're actually locking yourself in here with me? I mean, making sure I can't leave, I get, but...>

"You really do talk a lot, don't you?"

The entity seemed to look a little embarrassed at her question, and if he had possessed the right physical form to do it, she was fairly sure he would have looked even more so.

<You try spending a couple of millennia locked in a box with no company,> he muttered. <Boring doesn't even begin to cover it.>

Tori shrugged, acknowledging the point. And, to be fair, she did feel a bit of sympathy for the creature. She had a pretty low tolerance for boredom herself, and a couple of thousand years did seem a bit... excessive. On the other hand, she had already established a number of ways to entertain herself if she had nothing else to do, though she doubted that an entity like the one in front of her was anatomically equipped to indulge in any of them.

Of more importance to her right at that moment, however, was the reaction she was showing to the entity's presence. She could blame it on the boys and being stuck in a room with them as they did fairly manly things, or she could blame it on the side effects channelling Essence always seemed to leave her with, or...

Any number of things actually, but she knew damned well that it all came down to one thing in the end. Thanks to that damned succubus when she was younger, demons had always held something of an... appeal to her. Her mind might have been reluctant to accept it, consciously at least, but her body was under no such illusions - and her unconscious mind was already examining ways to turn this whole situation to her advantage.

<Why are you looking at me like that?>

"Hmm?" she replied absently. "Oh, just thinking."

A few moments passed, and the entity shifted about a little above the table, the twisting coils of it's form looking a lot less imposing to her than they might have done.

<That,> he said eventually, <is what is starting to worry me.>

Tori brushed that aside with a wave, her expression turning thoughtful as she looked toward the door. Given the Library's little quirks, and the time it would take for Thom to make sure his colleague was okay, let anyone know what had happened, and for some sort of response to arrive...

Yeah, that could work.

Hands resting on her hips, she turned back to face the demon. "What are you called, anyway?"

<What? You expect me to tell you my name? For free?>

"No, I asked what you are called," she shot back tartly. "Please pay attention."

<Oh. Right. Sorry. You may call me B'bethlayen.>

"Okay, Bob it is."

There was a moment of utter silence, then the entity's whole tendrilly form seemed to erupt in outrage. <BOB?>

"It's that or Beth. Pick one."

A mixture of insult and resignation seemed to settle over the demon, and Tori waited for him to make his decision, foot starting to tap impatiently on the floor.

<Fine.>

"Good," Tori said briskly. "Now, I have a proposal for you. In a little while, a whole bunch of people are going to show up to get rid of you. Now, I can talk to them, make sure it happens as nicely and politely as possible."

Tori paused, checking that she had Bob's attention.

"The fact that you attempted to attack someone will not help. On the other hand, it's understandable enough, so..."

She shrugged, and Bob took the opportunity to ask much what she would have expected him to.

<What's in it for you?>

Her reply was a smile, and one that was less friendly and more... hungry.

"You wanted to play?"

She spread her arms in a slow, languid motion, and she couldn't help the way the tip of her tongue slipped out to run across her lips. The message was clear, or at least would be to most humanoids. The way Bob went still suggested that it was plain enough to him, too.

<You're... Okay, people tend not to volunteer for what you're talking about. Freaks them out.>

"Fair enough," Tori shrugged, turning to wander toward the window. "If you want to just sit around and-"

The impact against her back sent her staggering, arms flashing up to catch herself against the wall. It hadn't been a hard hit, but it had been enough to stagger her. As she caught her balance, she could feel a mass against her back, pressing against her body as tendrils quested across the fabric of her dress, searching for a way inside.

Shifting her hands a little against the wall, making herself a bit more comfortable, she let out a low laugh. "Thought so."

As Bob spread himself more fully over her back, Tori could feel the warm pressure of each snaky appendage as it wandered. Several came around the front of her body, crawling up her front until two of them reached the front of her neckline. Combined with the others that were caressing their way down across her butt, there was no escaping the fact that she was on the receiving end of possibly the most all-encompassing embrace of her life.

<You know it's really dumb to trust a demon this close without protection, don't you?>

Tori just laughed, and she could practically feel the wry resignation coming off of the demon. Of course she knew, and he knew that she knew. Still, she gave him points for at least considering taking advantage of any mistake she might have made.

<Figures.> The voice in her head took on a more playful tone, and Tori let out a little squeak as one of his tendrils slipped down the front of her dress to press between her legs. <Attached to this dress?>

"Not especially," she almost purred, bracing herself for what she suspected was coming next. Barely a heartbeat later, however, she realised that wasn't the best answer she could have given - by which point it was far too late. The sound of tearing cloth filled the air as her dress was unceremoniously ripped open straight down the front. Tori could feel Bob's satisfaction, and she was a little impressed herself at the strength it took to manage what the demon had just done... but of far more importance to her was the shiver that ran across her freshly-bared skin.

Bob wasted no time at all in taking advantage of the situation, and Tori bit her lip as she felt his tendrils stroking across her flesh, a fair amount of attention being paid to her breasts in the form of teasing touches and tweakings of her hardened nipples. If she'd needed any convincing that the demon was male, the attention he was paying to her tits would have done the job... Not that she was complaining at all, given what that attention was doing to her body.

It never paid to forget what he was, though, and she was ready to react when he started getting a little too forceful. One of his tugs at her nipples started verging on the painful, and she sent a flash of Essence through her skin in reply, which manifested as an electric snap and a surprised yelp inside her head as Bob got the message.

<Sorry,> he said after a second, actually managing to sound like he almost meant it. <Habit.>

"Do it again, and you'll get the bad kind of spanking."

<Yeah, yeah... Bossy.>

Tori just laughed, though the sound shifted into something more like a groan as a tendril that wasn't busy exploring around her ass or breasts began to work it's way underneath the fabric of her underwear. Her body was already well into the swing of things, and the surprisingly gentle probing below her waist only served to heighten her awareness of just how turned on she was getting.

And when Bob's wandering touch met the slick heat between her legs, it became pretty damned obvious to him, as well.

<Wow. You really are enjoying this, aren't you?>

There was no mistaking the hint of surprise in his tone, and Tori grinned as she squeezed her thighs together, trapping the demon's tentacle between them.

<Weird woman.>

There wasn't much force behind is description, though. In fact, he sounded rather distracted as he began teasing his way along the cleft of her sex - as well as the toying with her breasts, the stroking of her butt, and the fact he was also feeling his way across the material of her stockings.

Indeed, from what her senses were telling her, about the only part of her he wasn't paying attention to was from the neck up. That changed suddenly, however, when an abrupt shift in what Bob was doing left Tori trying to keep her balance. A thick tentacle snaked up her throat and started pressing against her lips, whilst others wrapped around her ankles, pulling her legs wider apart. It was only the fact that she was using the wall to brace herself anyway that let her stay upright - and that became even more of a challenge when the delicate probing between her legs stopped being quite so gentle.

Taking the wetness of her sex as invitation, Bob stopped playing around and pushed his tendril inside her. The suddenness of the invasion made her gasp in a mix of surprise and pleasure, and he took advantage of that as well, with the snaking tentacle at her lips pushing into her mouth as well the moment they parted.

Whether or not she could get herself out of this situation really wasn't high on Tori's list of things to care about in that moment. Eyes slipping closed under the sensations assaulting her, she opened her mouth more, letting the demon push himself into her at that end whilst what he'd pushed into her cunt seemed to swell until she felt as full as any cock had ever made her.

It wasn't just the invasion at either end that she had to deal with either. He'd not let up his teasing of her breasts, and at least one more tendril worked its way inside her underwear to start probing at her asshole as well. Mixed up in the whirl of sensation swamping her, actual thought was very hard to manage, and even that began to disappear as he began slowly, attentively, and very thoroughly fucking both holes he'd pushed into.

The only sounds in the room were the muffled moans of pleasure that managed to force their way past what filled Tori's mouth, becoming louder and more intense as the demon took care to stimulate every single square inch of her body. Unaware of anything but what was being done to her, Tori couldn't have stopped herself being pushed closer and closer to the edge by the ruthless assault on her senses even if she'd wanted to, but there was a limit to just how much she could take. And when she hit that limit, everything seemed to simply explode inside her.

As a scream tore its way out of her throat, she was dimly aware of hitting the ground with a thud - but that little detail was simply swamped by the climax that felt like it was tearing every particle of her body apart. By the time she came back to her senses, Bob had peeled himself off of her once again, hovering nearby and giving off an air of undeniably smug satisfaction.

Given the way tremors of pleasure were still bouncing around inside her, she couldn't blame him for that in the slightest. However many orgasms she'd just been pushed to, she had no idea, but they'd been good ones. Very good ones. Good enough, in fact, that she was starting to think it might be a few minutes before she wanted to try getting her shaky legs to support her enough to stand...

"Hmm... Not bad."

<Not-? Okay, now you're just fucking with me. That was damned good, and you know it.>

He was trying to sound offended by what she'd said, but was doing a particularly bad job of it. Instead, he sounded almost... relived, and she smiled up at him as she began trying to summon up the coordination to get to her feet.

"Yeah, it was. Guess you had quite a dry spell to work off."

<Thanks for the reminder,> he replied grumpily, not that she had that much sympathy. They'd both gotten what they wanted out of the situation, so why complicate things any more than that?

And speaking of complications, Tori looked down at her dress, hanging open from her shoulders thanks to Bob's impatience. Shaking her head with a sigh, she gathered it together and started wracking her brain for an application of magic that she'd never been all that great at.

Which, naturally enough, was the moment that a banging on the door told her that the 'rescue' party had finally decided to show up. Sighing again, she channelled Essence into the dress, hoping like hell she was doing it right.

<So... You gonna let them in?>

The demon didn't sound all that sure that she was going to, and she shot him an irritated frown. She really didn't need interruptions as she tried to...

What do you know... I actually managed it for once.

Taking her hands from the front of her newly-restored dress, and trying not to show how surprised she was that the repair had worked, she cancelled the flow that was holding the room secure. Within moments, the door had burst open, admitting a worried-looking Professor Tegan and a pair of gentlemen from Magic Incident Response - gentlemen that looked very much like they were not only well equipped to do something unfriendly to a rough Otherworld entity, but were actually downright eager to do so.

"Are you alright?" the Professor asked breathlessly, eyes scanning her for any signs of injury or molestation. Whilst he wasn't going to spot any of the former, there hadn't really been time to make sure no hint of the latter was around to be noticed.

Not, to be perfectly honest, that she really gave much of a damn.

"Fine," she answered cheerily. "I'm sure Bob here would be happy to help remedy that, though. Wouldn’t you?"

The last part was aimed at the demon who was eyeing - as best anyone could tell - the MIR guys warily. He probably had a good idea that they were going to take even less shit from him than Tori had, and with far less fun alternatives, so the opportunity to wave a nice big 'please don't pummel me' flag sounded like something he wasn't going to pass up.

<Sure. Yes. Helping, that's what I am more than happy to do.>

"Excellent," Tori murmured, carefully ignoring both the MIR men's scowls and the Professor's slow look of wry understanding. "Let's be about it then, shall we?"

Before I fall asleep, because damn that was intense...

The End

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