A New Home – 13 [❤️]
You acquainted yourself with each new demon after they were born, naming each after a tree. From Acacia, Ash, and Aspen…All the way down to Yew, Yucca, and Zelkova. You give them their tokens and tell them to wait outside.
For the children you sired, they were named after flowers. Aster, Bells, Calla… Sunflower, Tulip, and Waxflower. Thank you, demon-eidetic memory! After leading everyone down the staircase and back onto the road, you motion for the four ex-captors to stand in front of everyone.
“Some of you may know these four. They were once your captors. But I have forgiven them because I see in them both regret and a chance for them to change. I’m conflicted about what I did to the others who did not pass my soulsight exam, but in the end, they are demons now, and their personalities are different.”
The others nodded slowly.
“I’m aware that they’ve done bad things. So I offer a choice for them; accept a tax of 300% for all amenities for a year, or become slaves to the victims for six months. As slaves you won’t be able to buy anything, but your master will have to provide for you, as you service them. If a master is physically abusing their slave, they will face the same punishment.”
“These keys are special. Find a house or apartment you like, and put your key in the lock. If it hasn’t been claimed yet, it’ll open for you. “
A small thing you implemented ages ago that had no real use until now. It’s a bit stupid to implement all these rules on a total population of a little under 300. But a good base is built early. The guilty look nervous, but accept their punishments. Two of them opt for the tax. Spokefast decides to be a slave for Typeface, and another as a slave to some man. You clap your hands and pass them all some keys.
Once your new citizens take all the keys, you unfurl your wings and fly up to your palace. Turning back into your original form, you crack your knuckles and settle down at your console.
With 151 total demons, plus a shoggoth, Haven extends to nearly four and a half kilometers in every direction. It doesn’t seem much until the total area is compared. It’s basically over a hundred times bigger than it was before.
Exponential growth is amazing.
But you’re not going to be using most of that area.
Since you’ve got kobolds now, you extend the crust a kilometer down before starting your work. Give em space to make their burrows.
You’ve got over 3 kilometers of airspace. First things first, extend that radio tower to maximum height once more! Extend the forest and mess with the animal features so it works again with the extended area. Put in a super deep lake shaped like a Venn diagram in the northeast. Greenhouses in the northwest to house your weed and other stuff you plan to sell.
And in the newly extended forest…
Three mountains, reaching high into the sky. The two smaller, rounded ones on the sides and one nearly vertical in the middle. A spring from the top dribbles water down into a river that connects to the one you made already and another that traverses west of the original area, towards the greenhouses.
The spring is actually quite deep, reaching into a series of caverns and underground lakes home to a special variety of slimes. As for the city itself, you extend it all the way west. You put in a paper manufacturer, connected to where you put the printing press, just west of the radio tower.
West of that is a distillery, a casino, and a smattering of houses and apartments. West of the storage facility is a lumber yard, which the new river flows through
Need wood to make paper, and you can’t just spawn some when they need it, you’re a busy demon. Even after putting in a hotel and massive apartments and houses, you’ve still got space.
Fuck it, put two bars next to the lumber yard. And a paintball field connected to an arcade. Naturally all the paintball bullets are loaded with aphrodisiacs.
And the arcade has normal games right next to things like ‘Thrust Thrust Revolution!’, ‘CumShooter’ and ‘Milk me~’. You know your audience. So aside from that, you put in another nice park.
Except this time, there’s a lot of lewd exercise equipment. And every plant in there is an aphrodisiac. Or one that wants to fuck you.
All in all, it’s decent.
There’s enough fields and homes to comfortably take care of nearly a thousand people, not counting the high rises. You sigh and look over the notes you’ve made on the newest citizens. Most are manual laborers, which is useless here, but you’re sure they can find something to pass the time.
But there are a few noteworthy ones.
The eloquent Kobold, Rex, seems to have been the alpha before Paradox came into the picture. When you told him he might have nothing to do, he shrugged and asked if you were sure.
He was right, you did need some people to manage the new lumber mill to provide paper. And they may even develop talents in woodworking. Since trees are biological in nature, they’ll feed on residual DESIRE to become corporeal in other planes, so goods can be traded out in time. Unfortunately, minerals can’t do the same.
For some reason. You’ve got to find a workaround.
There was a trio of teachers, (a human, a dwarf, and an elf), that were taken one after another. Apparently, they went searching for one another. They can work at the massive library-school.
A baker to help Thanksgiving with her cooking. But no other cooks.
Bummer, but not for you.
A businesswoman and her accountant. Looks like Equinox, Solstice, and Valentine can get help.
A duo of doctors, both elves. The twins will love them.
Some goblins with knowledge on rituals and machinery. New Year, being curious, would appreciate learning from them.
A zoologist, strangely enough. She’s going to be a teacher too, unless she wants to get up close and personal with the local ecosystem.
The psychologist was a fun lay, and maybe a bit kooky, but she’ll fit right in.
And Typeface…
She’s clever and quick to ask questions.
You’re planning on giving her control of the media tower, once you’ve got enough citizens. For now she’ll oversee the newspaper.
It’ll be tough with one person, but you’re sure she’ll manage. Eventually, she’ll deal with radio, and then television. Which is going to make the citizens want to buy radios, televisions, and computers.
You could already spawn it in, but there isn’t quite the demand nor enough staff under her yet. You wouldn’t even care if she uses the newspaper to call your authority into question, but you’re a bit worried that your demons will take offense to that.
As for the things you don’t have…
Your brows furrow. You’ve got a massive library with nothing to put in it. There’s some basic transcribed books you put in, but those are unreliable.
If people don’t take breaks from sex now and then, they’ll find it boring. You blip out of Haven and reappear on the fringes of Hacksonville, swiftly turning back into a goblin.
Two days have passed since you went to Haven. According to Rampant Corruption’s body, the portal ring has already been completed and the cover statue has been made. The contracts have been finalized and she now owns a publishing house. Including its secret basement and three printing presses.
Both you and you converge on the location and meet yourselves just when the ‘printing press replacement parts’ are being transported in.
The mayor has recently taken a liking to wearing big sunglasses. Not really befitting of the mayor. Of course, nobody knows the mayor literally quit ten minutes ago. Nobody except the newspaper editors who printed out the papers the day prior. You decided to go with a paradoxical title, in memory of a crazy cyborg.
“MAYOR QUITS! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!”
…
Yes, you admit you feel pretty low.
Not about the sneaky paper-selling, but the click-bait title. There are some things even a demon shouldn’t descend to.
Both of you walk in, but some of the security guards wouldn’t let you in. So you speak up for yourself.
“Hold up, she’s with me.”
They let you pass, a wide smile on both your faces.
“Why thank you, Rampant.”
“It was my pleasure.”
Both of you follow the dwarves lugging the canvas-covered object downstairs. It used to be an archive, but the previous owner was about as trustworthy as, well, Rampant Corruption. In fact, he cleared the basement to tap into an old cave system that connects back up throughout the growing city.
The workers grunt and lift up the ring. It clicks into the prepared pedestal. Rampant pays them, and they leave without saying a word. You walk over to a palette leaning against a wall and find a tunnel leading down.
“I’ll make sure nobody interrupts.”
“Do you really need to say that?”
“In case anyone’s listening, duh!”
“And now we’re arguing. Maybe because we like to bounce ideas?”
“This is a really odd situation to be in. We’d probably be patty-cake champions, though.”
You nod as Rampant goes back upstairs. With a deep breath, you tear off the canvas.
You gasp at the beauty. Every shard of obsidian was carefully put into place, glints of copper shining through the few cracks.
It looks demonic.
But in a beautifully feral way.
You carefully carve the array into the wood at your feet. A quick couple of trips to Haven to find some willing candidates to power the array, and everything is in place. Trying hard to resist the urge to join the fray of horny people you make a shadowy knife and cut yourself. The black blood drips onto the pedestal and flows throughout the array before glowing black.
As for the virgin sacrifices…you dash a few cartons of eggs on the circle. It wouldn’t work in your home dimension, but here?
There’s a rushing of air so strong it manages to pull you closer to the portal and a massive flash.
CRACK!
You stare at your reflection in what seems to be a mirror of red blood. Sticking your head through…
Yup, that’s Haven. Although it is a bit high. You fly through and grumble about going to the console once more. Finally, you set the locations of where portals should appear and return.
…
They’re still fucking.
Irritated that you have more things to do, you shoo them through the portal. You walk back upstairs and give Rampant three magic contracts you’ve prepared and walk out back. While you were fucking about, making more demons, Rampant was very busy.
She liquidized all of her assets; her silver cutlery, her obnoxiously expensive mansion, her family heirlooms…
She doesn’t need it anymore, after all.
Now she has a modest apartment with enough income to live paycheck by paycheck. But the money?
All spent.
Out behind are several carriages, connected by a chain. Each one is filled to the brim. The first has textbooks and medical journals, everything someone would need to know about becoming a doctor. There were a lot more than you think were necessary.
Don’t doctors just cup your balls and say you don’t exercise enough?
The next one is full of other how-to books. Farming, cooking, engineering, magic. After that is the entertainment.
Lots of fiction books piled up one after another, forming a wobbling tower second only to Mount M.D. The next one is considerably less full.
It’s a series of records, from classical music to more modern rock. You were quite surprised to find such Earth-like music. Odd that it’s all in vinyl.
It’s pretty densely packed, so there’s around 22 000 disks. Around 80 000 songs. Haven would be set for radio if you could find a DJ. If you only used one radio station, you could play without repeating a song for nearly a year.
You suspect that even if you divided the channels based on genre and played them over the radio, you’d still repeat less songs than they did back on Earth.
And in the final carriage is your lifesaver. A printing press.
Haven doesn’t need one, though Nancy’s Tavern could.
Laughing maniacally, you teleport with the carriages to Haven and lug them all to the library. Sunday comes down from the upper floors, his dwarven partner's back still drenched in cum. You leave it to them and get back to Hacksonville.
You’re so tired of jumping back and forth, but now it’s done. You sigh, your shoulders drooping as you head over to the train station.
It’s still not over. You have to get more information. What are trilomorphs? How did Aevum build those machines? You settle down in a train to Camelot. Maybe there’s answers at the capital. It’s risky, but it’s your only lead.
Your face glum as you lean against the window, you hear a tap.
What?
Grounded Spark!
He’s on one of those silly goblin flying machines, spitting out steam and chugging along as it hovers in the air beside the window. You open the window and he starts chattering.
“Quinn! You keep on popping in and out and I was so worried! I thought you were kidnapped!”
You feel a tired smile reach your lips.
“No need to worry about that. They’re not going to happen anymore.”
He revs up his engine, hovering closer.
“Did something happen? Why are you leaving? Where are you going?” He fires questions off like a machine gun.
You interrupt him with a quick peck on the cheek. He stops and nearly falls off his hoverbike.
“Spark, you’re a good person. Too good to be here. I bless you with the power and ingenuity to succeed.”
You feel the blessing take as the prickling isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. For a moment, you wonder if your recent powerup could have changed the power of your blessings. You do what you normally do and shrug it off as a problem for later.
“As for where I’m going to end up…” The horn toots and the train starts moving. You wave the befuddled man goodbye. “Who knows. Aevum might kick my ass.”