Clarence Gupta's House of Mysticism

Ariel wasn't really sure why Clarence had trouble looking at her in the eye, considering she'd refitted into her costume before he could even see her topless. Was he just nervous about his boner? Because usually men only tended to get nervous when they DIDN'T get boners from her doing things like that. Eh, whatever. She sat down, and had little trouble looking her temporary boss in the eye...even though the strange fluid covering her wanted her to look down a bit. Okay, that step was done. Next up...closing their eyes? That seemed kinda weird, but there was undoubtedly some deep meaning to doing it after making eye contact that she didn't get at the moment. Closed they were.

And now...wait, what? One of the lovely assistant's eyes reopened to look at the screen and momentarily stare at the man within confusedly. But, soon it was reclosed, since not sharing such details was relatively low on her priorities, even when she wasn't being made warm and tingly by strange goop covering her body. She should go first? On it. "Okay, one of my big turn ons? Doing it in an airplane? Now, that's hardly the only reason I'm a pilot, of course, but for me, flying and sex...it's like chocolate and peanut butter! Especially when it's a small, cramped plane. It really feels like two people becoming one in the sky...I bet it's how angels feel when they make love! Actually, this one time..." What followed was an incredibly detailed account of Ariel and an apparently well-endowed young man, as they engaged in the oldest of arts while ZephyrMan practiced doing dives on autopilot, especially resulting in it happening in freefall, and Ariel's exact thoughts on the matter.

"...So yep, freefall makes it absolutely amazing! Okay, that's enough from me, you go on!" It was a good thing this wasn't a game where one had to tell a story that topped the other, because there was no way Clarence was going to be able to best Ariel at sexual fantasy and experiences. Though, now she was curious. What WAS he into? She'd find out shortly..
Gupta did his best to follow the instructions and keep his eyes closed, but it was difficult, because ordinarily he'd be pretty wide eyed at the account. "Sex WHILE piloting an airplane?! In free fall?! Even with autopilot, that defies all logic!" he gasped, not sounding appalled but definitely alarmed. "It... It's got to be tied to magic somehow, I'm sure of it. You were brought here because you are connected to magic, Ariel! It's plain to see!" he exclaimed, injecting an ill-needed and presumably unintentional pun into the dialogue.

Hearing that, he felt somewhat more confident telling his own story, since it'd be pretty hard for anything to sound crazy next to having actually had sex in a plain during free fall. "Well, it's not quite the same, but I've always wanted to have sex in my father's penthouse... w-with one of my father's showgirls," he further elaborated, cooling his heels as he began to doubt that revealing this to anyone was a good idea. "I mean, I gather that a lot of them are pretty into him. I've never had anyone like that, since I'm not, er, a conventional magician." Meaning, not much of a magician at all, at this point. "Besides that, his penthouse suite is just fantastic. So I always thought, that'd be a way to really... you know, stick it to him! Show him who the superior magician is. If I could have one of his showgirls in his fancy penthouse suite, I always figured that would be as high as I could go. But now... I'm thinking that was pretty petty of me. I don't want to know true magic so I can get girls and have fancy things... I want to learn about it so that I can be a great magician and spread it to the world!"

"It's okay, Clarence," the voice on the TV interrupted him. "We're discussing fantasies here, not what should be. If you fantasize about having your father's women in your father's penthouse, then that is what you must acknowledge."

"No, I... I don't really want to do that any more. It just feels sort of cheap. I mean, I'm not focused on sex to begin with... b-but if, say, I was... I'd probably want to outdo my father. Have my own house of magic, not just a suite in someone else's hotel, and when I have sex, I'd want it to be with true devotees of the mystic arts... IN THE NAME OF MAGIC!" he declared, raising his hand into the air.

The voice on the TV went silent. "I understand. You both may open your eyes now. I believe you're ready. Before we go any further, I'd like to thank you again, assistant, for making a man out of my grandson," the voice spoke back up again. "You've now completed Ritual C, the ritual of Pre-copulation. I'm glad you've accepted the instructions and hope they've proven useful to you in understanding the magic I speak of: a carnal relationship with a partner who accepts you. Before you begin in earnest, I offer one last piece of advice and will not judge you one way or another: use protection, unless you're ready to assume the mantle of fatherhood. It's a great pleasure, but also a great responsibility. Now, I hope that the two of you will enjoy your evening together. I love you, Clarence, and wish you the best," the figure on screen explained, smiling earnestly.

Clarence was smiling in spite of himself with teary-looking eyes, then suddenly found himself staring dumbfounded. "Wait... Pre-copulation? Ah... Oh nooooooo!" he exclaimed, bolting upright and nearly whacking Ariel in the face with the still-aroused remnants of their previous conversation. "Ariel, the video wasn't... it wasn't magic instruction at all! It was... Oh, I can't believe this..." he murmured, turning around and baring his hands onto the table. "My grandfather wasn't passing on his magic techniques through this video at all. This was... he was trying to instruct me how to have sex! Dammit, Grandad!" he groaned, clutching his face. In all fairness, it was probably good of his grandfather to think about this sort of thing, as Clarence didn't seem to be the type to be able to run through this himself... but his grandfather had sure chosen a strange way of delivering the information to him. "Ariel, this isn't tied into magic at all," he sighed once more with an air of finality. It also begged the question of what ZephyrMan and Seer were getting into on the net side of things.
"Weeeeell, ZephyrMan helped with the piloting then, so I don't think it was especially dangerous. I mean, he's specifically designed to be able to utilize all sorts of aircraft! He wasn't too keen at first, but once he realized just how much I wanted to do it, he gave in!" Perhaps the oddest thing about Ariel's statements was just how...natural she sounded, like it was the most regular thing in the world to do.

She had a similar reaction to Clarence's story, silently nodding as she listened. She knew some people that loved nothing more than putting one over their parents...though she definitely wasn't one of them. Though, in that regard, it probably helped that she went into an entirely different field of work. At his conclusion, as the magician stated his new dream, the lovely assistant raised her hand as well, and let out a "Yaaaay!". Truthfully, his fantasy was a lot more benign than hers, but it wasn't a contest. Which was good, since she totally would've won if it was.

And so, the pair opened their eyes, and Ariel, at least, looked over at the TV. She opened her mouth to say 'you're welcome' to the voice, but the whole 'making a man out of my grandson' bit gave her pause. As it continued, she began to get a little nervous, as she started wondering exactly what her purpose was at this point. He couldn't really be suggesting that they...was he? After all, he was his grandfather...

With her mouth open, she turned to Clarence, only to nearly unintentionally begin the next suggested step as he rose in multiple ways. "Um...it's okay, really..." Well, mostly okay. Admittedly, she was still a little uneasy about the sudden twist. "I think it's actually kinda sweet that your grandfather cares about you enough to give you some instructions on that sort of thing!" And kinda creepy, but she wasn't going to say that.

Beep beep! Beep beep!

"Huh? Guess one of us got e-mail." She hopped up, and went over to grab her PET. "Let's see...uh-huh...mm-hmm...oh, sweet! I've gotta tell ZephyrMan about this!"

(CONTINUED IN THE NET POST)
Clarence managed to calm down since Ariel wasn't as freaked out as he was (about any of this, really). She brought up a pretty good point: that even if his grandfather hadn't been passing on his magic, he'd still been trying to help Clarence, in a different way. "You're right. I just wish he hadn't gone on about rituals and passing on techniques and so forth. If he'd been a little more up front I could have avoided a lot of undue tension," he murmured, crossing his legs as well as he could to hide said undue tension. The distraction by Ariel's PET was welcome relief to him, as it took the topic of conversation off of both his condition and the failed ritual they'd undergone. "I'm sorry to admit that I'd forgotten about Seer and ZephyrMan entirely. It pains me to think they might have been similarly misled. Seer is such an innocent and devout servant of the studies of mysticism that she surely would have been lured into the same sort of practice as myself. Although... why would Grandfather program foreplay instructions for my navi? For me alone is strange enough, but to give them to Seer as well..."

His eyes lit up again as he stood over Ariel to try to get a look into her PET screen. "Could it be that they have the actual magical ritual secrets, being read to them on their side?!" he interjected, getting too close again given their positions. "No, probably not... But really, what are they doing, exactly?" It'd probably be best if he just went and checked his own PET.
"Yeah, I see what you mean." She agreed, his grandfather probably should've made it sound less like a magic ritual...but at the same time, if he knew from the beginning the whole thing was about sex, would he have gone through with it? Her guess was 'probably not'. So in that sense, it was understandable.

But all that aside, they still had their Navis to be concerned about. Well, Ariel wasn't actually too concerned. "I wouldn't worry too much about them too much. It doesn't look like they did anything too bad." She might've continued with that thought, but since Clarence was standing over her like that, she could feel his 'magical projection' on her back. "...Um, you can check all this on your own PET, ya know..." All the goop on her was making her want him to actually just stay right where he was, but she resisted it as best she could.
The magician finally got his magic wand out of Ariel's business, withdrawing to his own PET. "Right, yes. Let us see... That's quite an outfit she's wearing. Certainly my grandfather didn't mislead her into 'Ritual C' with your navi, did he? What purpose would that serve?" Clarence wondered. He seemed vaguely aware that his grandfather had been trying to help him get his feet wet with this Ritual C business, but it was a valid point: why would the elder Gupta have cared about assisting his grandson's navi in that fashion? "Who's instructing them? Is it also my grandfather's likeness?"

It wasn't, of course; no one would mistake a giant, purple, sprawling cloud face for any relation of his. "That must be my father's navi, if he was occupying that PET we used to start the process. Or, at the very least, a navi hired to assist in the process," he ventured. He hesitated to say more, because Ariel had told him nothing too bad was happening, but he noticed definite tension between the two familiar navis and the supposed instructor.

"Oh, also, we should probably dress back into our clothing," he mentioned, as off-handedly as possible. It probably wasn't that important for Ariel, but it certainly was for him, given that he was half naked and she was dressed up as one of his apparent sexual fantasies. "We souls probably towel off first. I brought some with me, since I figured that goo could get messy... although, not this messy," he admitted. He went into the darkened costume room and reemerged with towels in his hands, one ordinary and white and the other pink, dappled with purple stars. He extended them both to Ariel, keeping his own back to the closet door.
"Huh. Hadn't thought about that." It made her wonder...but only for a moment. She didn't bother listening to the details, but ZephyrMan seemed to be handling things himself, and not in a particularly stormy way, either. She'd leave that part up to him.

"Why, thank you!" Grabbing the fancier of the towels, Ariel immediately stripped off her gloves and shoes, and started wiping off her arms and legs. For the latter, she sat down, and raised her limbs high as she removed every last inch of the pink slime from them. If Clarence was a leg person, his 'condition' would probably not be helped.

"All right, if we're done, I'm going to go change back!" And back into the darkened room she went. She took a few wipes at her back, before removing her headdress, and subsequently dropped what little clothes she was wearing. She readied her towel, but Ariel looked down at her chest for a moment. She kinda wanted to keep it on, to be honest...so, she only removed it from her belly, leaving her chest covered. Okay, now where was her own stuff...ah, there it was. Underwear, on. Bra, on, and ooh, that felt nice. Jumpsuit, and subsequently becoming acceptable in public, on. Socks and boots, on. Vest, on. Gloves, on. Pilot's goggles, on. Earpiece, on. She still could feel some sensation all over her...must be from her clothes rubbing against her and the residual goop.

"Okay, I'm all dressed! That showgirl get-up was cute and all, but this is definitely more my look!" Ariel placed a hand on her hip, and the other into the air, posing to show off her usual attire...like a showgirl. A little late to the party, but whatever.
Clarence tried to watch as little as possible as he went about gathering his own things; he didn't have a costume to take off, but unlike Ariel, he was much more concerned about the goo that coated him, either from a sense of hygiene or because the unfamiliar sensation was so unsettling to him. He grabbed up the costume quickly, then sat down and began toweling off with the ordinary looking towel. "I can hardly imagine that my grandfather used this substance every time he wished to engage in intercourse. The preparation, not to mention the expense, would be prohibitive. Or perhaps he wasn't as much a spontaneous person as a thoughtful one," the magician theorized, until he realized that theory-crafting aimed at his grandfather's foreplay technique was highly awkward, and thus quieted down. He watched Ariel come out, realizing now that he should have had a pretty good sense of her eroticism when she'd entered, just by looking at how she wore her suit. It wasn't a flawless rule, but you'd generally be safe guessing that people wore clothes that fit them in a way that was intentional. He wore clothes that wore baggy, flamboyant clothes to hide his ordinary, scrawny body, and she wore form-fitting ones because she had a form worth fitting.

With her finished now and him only starting to dry his not-at-all voluminous hair, he realized that she was probably about ready to leave and didn't necessarily need to be subjected to him meticulously cleaning himself and then putting his ornate magic Sultan outfit back on. "R-Right, your reward. As the Divine of Diviners, I bestow to you the following: zenny and a rare chip, which I hope will serve you well in your travels," he announced, picking the rewards out from beneath the case where he was keeping various jewels and trinkets. It was a little funny to think she could have just gotten them out from there the whole time. Not the type of security one was used to seeing on a mission such as this. "We weren't able to discover any leads on the mystic arts, but... the pursuit of magic is dangerous. And you certainly made this search a little less dangerous than it might have been with another companion, with your cool-headedness and pleasant company," he announced, trying out some more fancy speech. He didn't mention the other reasons she was desirable as a partner for this sort of expedition.

*Ariel received FlashBomb2 and 3000z!*

"I hope that will be agreeable. Perhaps you'd also be interested in assisting me further?" he asked, still with his arms raised to bury his hair beneath the towel. "If I need the assistance of a magician's aid again, that is! I'm sure there are other adventures to be had that will be more productive and far less scandalous. Although, well, scandal and magic may always go hand in hand."
"Thank you!" With a big smile, Ariel accepted her reward. ...FlashBomb? That didn't sound overly magical, but since it had a 2 next to it, it couldn't be a bad chip, right? "Too bad the magic thing didn't work out, though. I really was hoping it'd actually be something all mystical and stuff!"

The pilot took a look at her PET, which was now once again occupied by a Navi. "All set, ZephyrMan? Said your goodbyes and everything?"

"Indeed. Leave at will!"

"All righty!" She pocketed her device, and turned to Clarence. "Well, I need to get going. I've got work tomorrow, so I need to get back to Electopia ASAP. Bye now, and good luck with your magic search!" She waved as she proceeded to the entrance...only to end up walking right into the door. Fortunately, her 'airbags' helped keep her from being particularly hurt. "Ow...oh, right, locked door. Silly me!" Door unlocked...and open. Now she could walk through it without hurtiness. No hurtiness was good.
((ZephyrMan received 25 Seer FXP, 5 IllusionMan FXP))