Song of the Void

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The place Amaterasu guided Selendil to was some sort of resort planet deep within Illum space, yet still rather close to the beacon she had used many times before. That allowed the duo to reach the place quickly in a shuttle. The planet itself was warm, almost tropical, filled with bright blue oceans, lagoons, small island chains formed by active volcanos, and green nature everywhere. Even the moderately sized cities that seemed more like large entertainment districts or dedicated resort cities had various plants and trees growing everywhere.

“The Guardians would’ve liked this place. It’s a beautiful world." Selendil commented. All over the place, people were celebrating. Thousands of people were on the streets drinking and making merry. It seemed everyone was taking part.

“Yes, we’ve tried to maintain this world in a pristine state. We also limit the number of people that can visit to avoid burdening the ecosystem too much. You have to be relatively wealthy to even be allowed on this world. There are other worlds similar to this one around the space we control, but this place has become something of a specialty world even among resort worlds.” Amaterasu explained with a smile. She had some plans in mind and knew where they should start.

It was interesting to note that Selendil was drawing less attention than she had done elsewhere, though heads still turned in her direction. "Is it just me, or are there fewer people staring than before? And don't they recognize you?"

“No, they do not!” Amaterasu laughed merrily. "In most of my public appearances, I was either heavily covered by clothing or by various filters. They might think I look a bit familiar if they saw all my appearances, but few people can actually recognize me. And you drawing much of the attention away from me helps. As for your other observation, I think we’ll be fixing that pretty soon.”

There was also the fact that the Illum were all genetically enhanced and filled with at least basic level nanites. That created a situation where even the least attractive Illum were relatively good looking when compared to standard humans. Nearly all of them also strived to improve themselves with exercise and healthy living standards. They were also less appearance-obsessed than the Cybrans, so Selendil didn't create quite as much commotion.

Despite applying very slight changes on Amaterasu’s request, Selendil looked quite similar to how she had looked while on the Cybran city ships. She currently looked like a fiery-haired goddess that seemed like a mix between a graceful and elegant actor, and a porn-star with the body to match. On Amaterasu’s insistence, she had also retained the freckles. “So where are we going?” She asked, curious to see where this was going. She was allowing Amaterasu to lead the whole thing. She was just here to enjoy herself. Just having fun was a rather seldom experienced concept for her. Even during the time the Dhar were around, Keepers didn’t exactly lounge around at resorts.

"Well, we're on a resort planet. Of course, we're going to have to find appropriate clothing to match the surroundings." Amaterasu replied without a shred of shame. She didn't say anything wrong exactly, she just didn't explain properly. They were currently still wearing rather official attire, though of the skin-tight space-suit variety, mostly because they didn’t have anything casual.

Amaterasu finally spotted what she was looking for and pulled them into a shop selling swimwear. She gave a measuring glance to Selendil’s current form and then pulled two hangers from the rack. She gave them to Selendil and pointed her towards the fitting rooms. Selendil looked at what she was holding and lifted an eyebrow. “These don’t seem to have very much fabric.” She pointed out.

“That’s kind of the point. We’re going to the beach. We’ll be swimming and playing various beach activities. That’s the proper attire, believe me. I’m sure you noticed similar ensembles closer to the beach.” Amaterasu said. She knew this was the challenging part. She had to convince Selendil to go along with it, and she had no idea what reaction the Dhar Keeper would have. She had no idea what kind of social norms the Dhar had about revealing clothing.

“They also almost always had other additional pieces.” Selendil retorted. She remembered seeing ponchos and sarongs everywhere.

“We'll get to those in other shops if it seems necessary. We’ll need some other clothing when we go clubbing closer to the evening. Now get them on.” Amaterasu realized she was winning, as Selendil wasn’t really resisting all that hard. She snagged the appropriate apparel for herself in the meantime. A quick scan with her psionic power found one of appropriate size, so she didn’t need to try it on.

“Amaterasu. I think this one might be too small.” Selendil soon commented from inside the booth.

“Let me see! It’s supposed to be pretty snug or it’ll move around and not keep everything in place.” She gave an appropriate sounding excuse.

"I don't think this will be able to hold anything in place," Selendil commented as she stepped out of the fitting booth.

Amaterasu had to grab ahold of the nearby shelf to compensate for her knees suddenly feeling weak. “Yeah. That’s perfect.” She said a little hoarsely.

Amaterasu had picked a micro bikini for Selendil. It wasn’t quite the smallest and most indecent type, but it was pretty damn close. Selendil’s magnificent bust strained the top to the extreme, as the small red triangles valiantly tried to stay in place. The bottom was low cut and the only reason it didn’t show anything indecent was because Selendil’s current form had no hair that could be shown down there. The string at the back disappeared between her cheeks without a trace. Amaterasu actually heard as one of the young sales girls actually stumbled on a box and fall because she had been staring so hard.

Selendil realized that the dress was likely a bit extreme, but she didn’t really know where the lines of propriety ran with Illum, and she didn’t care enough to find out. She had really seen similar suits elsewhere and someone would surely say something if it was too much. The dress code at the resort seemed to be quite liberal. “I don’t think this one can survive any sort of strenuous exercise though.” She commented.

"You'll just have to hold it in place and intact with your powers." Amaterasu managed to say as she gathered her wits. She cleared her throat a bit. "I'll have to change into mine as well."

In Amaterasu’s defense, her getup wasn’t all that different, except that it was white with red trimmings. “Now we’re ready. We’ll have to swing by another shop to get our evening attire as well.” She approached the sales girl that had taken a tumble earlier. “How much are these?” She asked.

“Keep them.” The girl managed to squeeze out, still lost in her fantasies as she couldn’t keep her eyes of either of the two women.

“See? It’s fine.” Amaterasu commented. They visited a few more shops to get some necessary items and refreshment before heading to the beach. Now everyone turned to stare at them again, and the whole thing felt a lot more familiar to Selendil, which caused her to think it was fine. As it happened, everyone staring at them thought it was more than fine as well.

Their visit to the beach was quite fun for both of them as neither of them was quite used to such things. They took part in several games, which they won by a landslide for two obvious reasons. For one, they were both powerful Deities at the peak of physical ability, which was quite enough just by itself even if their skills in such sports were lacking. Secondly, every time they played anything that required moving around, their opponents somehow got much worse. Especially when Selendil made a jump, the opponents and all observes seemed to lose themselves in her ‘bounce’. They also looked somehow disappointed every time. Selendil heard a dozen murmurs with the general content of “How is it still staying on?” and she got a sneaking suspicion they were talking about her attire. Psionics was the answer.

"It's a bit hard to play these games when I'm so top-heavy," Selendil commented at one point. Her balance was off.

Amaterasu laughed. “Oh believe me. It’s working to our advantage at the moment, despite whatever hindrances it might also bring.”

Despite her slight grumbling, Selendil quite enjoyed the sports, as well as all the little foods and drinks at the beach. They were somewhat simple, but they also had strong flavors. The level of inebriation seemed to steadily rise among the gathered crowd of celebrators the closer they got towards the evening. As they were all so resistant to most alcohol, the Illum also created rather powerful alcoholic drinks, and as the two would later find out, narcotics. In fact, most of the alcoholic drinks were purposefully laced with several powerful substances. Not that any of it worked on either of them. Selendil also enjoyed the musicians scattered around the place that livened the whole thing with their efforts.

Finally, most of the celebratory crowd started to flow from the beaches and cabanas towards the clubs. The two of them also had to go change. As much as everyone would enjoy it, their current attire was not appropriate. “So what’s this supposed to be?” Selendil asked once Amaterasu presented her with another complex looking lacy piece of clothing that didn’t actually seem enough to cover anything.

"That's a garter belt," Amaterasu replied as if it was the most normal thing in the world. The choice of clothing was heavily influenced by her own tastes.

“And these?” Selendil asked again, holding a pair of identical black and sheer pieces of cloth. They were also somewhat lacy on one end.

“Those would be thigh-high stockings. They actually belong together with that other piece. They attach together, see?” Amaterasu helped Selendil put them on and pulled out another lacy piece of black cloth. “Incidentally, you’ll need to exchange your swimsuit bottom with these. You need to put them on first, before you attach the clips.”

Selendil saw no problem with that and just pulled off her swimsuit bottoms, almost causing Amaterasu to faint at her frank actions, before pulling the panties on. “So what about the top?” Selendil asked. She actually liked these clothes. They were quite light and felt nice to wear. They also didn’t get in the way once she had figured out how to support her heavy top with her powers.

Amaterasu sounded a bit hoarse again. “Yeah, um, so you just take that one off. You won’t need anything under the dress.”

Selendil wasn’t actually stupid enough to not realize that getting naked likely carried some sexual connotations with the Illum, but she enjoyed Amaterasu’s reactions so she didn’t mind. She might not have been aware of the exact sexual mores of Illum culture, but there were some things that were shared by most races. They were playing a game of sorts. Amaterasu knew she wasn't actually fooling anyone, and Selendil pretended to be fooled because they were having fun and the whole thing was new to her. Besides, it’s not like she was showing off her real body, so what did it matter? So she just shrugged the top off and squeezed into the tiny red dress Amaterasu had picked for her. “I think you picked one that is too small again.”

The red dress was short enough to leave a significant gap between the hem and the tops of her stockings. The dress was a rather thin tube that left her shoulder bare and showed a generous amount of cleavage. It also became rather clear that she'd have to hold the thing together with her psionics again, or it would rip immediately either at the bust or at her hips. Her nipples were also poking through the fabric in a rather obvious way. To put it nicely, her attire was stunning. To put it bluntly and coarsely, it also screamed ‘looking to get laid!’

Amaterasu had not actually expected Selendil to go along with things so easily so she had prepared a tamer version as well, but she had made a miscalculation. Like most races, Dhar had their own limits of modesty, but those limits didn’t really extend to when they were in other forms. As the form they took was already like putting on a costume of sorts, they usually had very little modesty in those other forms. Selendil would’ve happily gone to the club naked if that had been the custom among Illum. The only reason she recognized they were playing a game of sorts was the reactions Amaterasu gave her.

In all fairness, Amaterasu’s own attire was just as blatant again, and the only thing that changed was the colors. While Selendil was in black and red, Amaterasu was in black and white. “I think we’re ready!” Amaterasu declared. “Oh! One thing I almost forgot.” She got two pairs of high-heeled shoes. Of course in red and black.

“What are these? Torture implements?” Selendil asked while trying to walk on them. Her balance was perfect, but it required an adjustment in stride that caused her hips to sway without even trying.

“No. They are shoes to make you look more appealing. You’ll get used to it soon. Sometimes beauty requires sacrifices.” Amaterasu replied. The shoes did make both of their legs look like they went on forever. “Now we’re ready!”

Most of the better clubs around the beach area already had long lines stretching from the doors, but Amaterasu confidently marched them straight past everyone, and to no one’s real surprise, the large man handling people at the door wordlessly allowed them inside. The club they had chosen was a large building that had several floors with the level of class growing with each of the floors you went up. The first floor was mostly a bar, but they could already hear the rhythmic beat of music from several floors above them.

They went straight to the second floor, which was still mostly a bar, but now it had live music on one side, while several tables where various games could be played were stretched out all over. “I want to try that.” Selendil pointed towards a table where a man was using a long stick to knock a ball into several other balls of various colors. At a glance, it looked a great mix of strategy, geometry, and precision, which appealed to her.

“Pool, is it? Sure, we can play.” Amaterasu quickly agreed. All the tables were filled, but a single smile from the two of them cleared them a table as the previous players quite suddenly preferred being observers for now. After giving Selendil a quick run-down of the rules, the two got to playing. Two psions with the ability to calculate and control the path of the ball several moves ahead was a grand display, even if they didn’t have much experience with the game.

However, that wasn’t the reason they quickly gathered a ring of observers. Just their beauty would’ve been enough to draw a crowd, but they also had to bend down and sometimes contort slightly to get the best shots. Selendil might have grumbled a bit when she had to lay her rather large bust on the pool cue, but no one else was certainly grumbling about that. It was also rather understandable that she wasn’t aware what her bending down did to the hem of her already short dress, as she wasn’t used to such clothing, not that she would’ve cared even if she had noticed. The observers certainly enjoyed the view as the hem rode up while she bent down.

Despite her grumbling, she enjoyed the game quite a bit, which was becoming a running theme. “That was fun. We’ll have to try it again sometime.” She admitted with a genuine smile.

“Yes, yes it was.” Amaterasu had enjoyed the game even more, though for a different reason. She had also lost horribly.

Once they made their way up another floor, the blast of music hit them in the face as soon as the door opened. It was clear this was the area dedicated to dancing in this club, and the beat of loud music covered almost every other sound. The dancefloor was packed with people, and Selendil observed the whole thing was less about dancing and more about gyrating and grinding against the bodies of other attractive people. This floor also took the level of inebriation up a notch. That was partly because the bars at the sides served everything from alcohol to psychedelics, to mood-altering drugs, to everything you could possibly drink, ingest, or inject into yourself that made you have more fun.

“Oh yeah, now we found the right floor for us.” Amaterasu sent a mental message.

“Did we?” Selendil asked, a bit less sure about that. Not that she had anything against it, but she was still caught by surprise.

Amaterasu had not actually tried many of the things they were trying today. As an empress, she’d been both too busy and too tied down by her rank to partake in more mundane pleasures. This was an experience for her as well, albeit one that she’d always wanted. She pulled Selendil along with her to the dance floor. If their earlier activities had perhaps held a slight sexual feel to it, this one definitely did. The grinding dance was a rather blatant precursor to actual foreplay. That didn’t mean it wasn’t fun though. On the contrary, it was very fun and enjoyable.

The two of them got mixed in the crowd. They stuck together, even if those around them changed. Soft, hard, lush, toned, athletic, they came into contact with all kinds of bodies around them. As the throng was so heavy, they couldn’t dance with just the two of them, and others eagerly joined them in the bump and grind. Some were eager, some were blushing and shy, some were gregarious, and some even tried to get a bit too handsy, although the two of them shut that down pretty quickly.

Even if it was a bit strange and out of their element, they both enjoyed themselves. Just like many others enjoyed getting into close contact with them, it wasn’t like they didn’t enjoy getting into contact with other attractive people’s bodies. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for everyone involved, neither of them could enjoy any of the various substances to their fullest as the nanites in their bodies cleared those out immediately. Still, it was a fun and exhilarating experience. Amaterasu was blushing heavily by the time they extracted themselves from the throng and made their way to the next floor.

Almost in complete contrast to the previous floor, the next one had a much more relaxed and languid air. It seemed like there were several rings of musicians just jamming together. "Ah, this one we might want to try," Selendil commented this time.

They approached a man with a long brown and unkempt hair fiddling with an instrument. “Would you like to try?” The man asked, presenting the stringed instrument with a stick of incense taped on for maximum emphasis.

“Have you tried the guitar before?” Amaterasu asked, as she had noticed Selendil being drawn to the instrument.

“I’ve tried something similar. Several actually. May I try?” She asked the man.

“Of course.” The man replied, clearly under the influence of something relaxing. Likely something to do with the incense.

At first, Selendil tried the strings with slight hesitation as she tried to get a feel for the instrument. Slowly her fingers became more limber and the notes actually started to come together in a way that they sounded like something like a song. "Yeah, I think I can manage this," Selendil stated before her fingers suddenly started flying on the strings of the instrument.

The song started quick but melancholic, but it slowly picked even more speed and her fingers seemed to become a blur, and it seemed like she was playing the instrument almost aggressively. Her playing started to draw the attention of those around them. The song was quick paced, almost as if refusing to slow down, and trying to see how quickly she could play. Still, slowly the song began winding down becoming slower and more melancholic again. It returned to the tone from the beginning, before her fingers finally came to a halt.

‘Hmm. It’s actually harder to play using fingers, especially ones different from what I’m used to.’ Selendil sent a mental message to Amaterasu. She gave a small enchanting smile. ‘The Dhar actually didn’t use their finger while playing most of the time. It was considered more of a show of skill to play with just your psionic abilities. Assuming you had the correct abilities of course.’

The others gave appreciative applause at her playing. Though admittedly her appearance had quite a lot to do with it, her playing had impressed them as well. Selendil launched into another song, a much more playful this time, although one that still had a somewhat wistful tone. She also added other sounds using her psionics, as if someone was rhythmically clapping on the wooden case of the instrument. It also sounded like she was playing more than one instrument at a time. Now she was just showing off.

“Well, that was fun!” Selendil exclaimed as she returned the instrument after the second song. “I think I’ll be getting one of those after all. What now?”

"Well, now we decide if we want the evening to be over, or will we simply continue tomorrow," Amaterasu suggested with a smile.