Christmas Edition

I think most people would agree that this has been a pretty messed up year for everyone involved, myself included. My optimistic estimates on how long it would take to get things done in the summer time were grossly inaccurate, as they didn't take into account the unknown variables of my health and shifting priorities.

As such, I hate to say that I don't have anything to release at the moment!

That isn't to say I haven't been working on things, I just haven't been working on my game, specifically.

Just a quick run down of what I've been up to lately:

1. Edited 500 pages of my friend's novels (that's been on the backlog for awhile).
2. Edited 27,000 words of my own fantasy novel (that's also been on the backlog for a long time).
3. Written 7,000 more words for said novel.
4. Working on the Bad End: 'Your Offspring's Milk.' This ending will occur when you're too disobedient and you've had a child at The Farm. They've been forced to bind you in latex and leather to keep you from hurting yourself and others. They use your own daughter (now grownup) to control you and make you learn to love your slavery.

So it's not all bad. I am still working on the game, on and off. But it does mean that the likelihood of getting something playable any time soon is nil.

As is usual, what you can produce never matches your imagination.

The semi-good news is that I've set a goal of 500 words per day on my novel, which means it should be done in a few months and I'll free up to do more work on this, or perhaps I might spend some time working on "The Rubber Order," another story that's been languishing in the meantime.

That one I think may eventually go to Amazon, because it's a bit atypical of my usual output - I don't usually write male dom, but it fits this particular story better.

I've also had ideas surrounding a fantasy story called "Queen of Chains: Forged Anew." I have a mostly complete outline for this, though I don't have the ending nailed down yet. This particular story is an outgrowth of ideas I've had while putting together Realm of Darkness. It will probably end up being something I release on MCStories.

These ideas are exciting, but I can't say for sure if or when they'll ever come to fruition! I will be sure to share when I have more information!

Merry Christmas everyone, and here's hoping next year will be better for everyone!

Twine Tip

Before I leave you, I thought I'd mention a solution to a problem that would have saved me a lot of time, had I known it before I started working with Twine.

I'm not sure if this is sugarcube specific, but it turns out you can use this syntax to specify a different color for your text:

@@color:COLORNAME;<Your Text Here>@@

This works like this:

@@color:#a342bd;"I love you so much," whispers a tender voice.@@

You can use an HTML color code, as above, or even the color name, like 'slategray'.

There's no need to add spans, tags, or special javascript. It just works.

Unfortunately, I had to spend forever removing my previous formatting to use this instead, because it doesn't require any escaping of the text and is therefore superior. I'm not sure if I've fixed it everywhere yet...

Realm of Darkness:

Work continues on the Farm dungeon. By my count, I have around 17 bad ends in the entire game completed, and I'm working on number 18. 

I'm trying to get at least one bad end done per animal variation, both male and female cows, horses, and pigs. I'm about half done with that... because I'm a little heavy on adding female cow bad endings as I enjoy writing them more.

Once the bad ends are done, the trick will be adding in sufficient events and connective tissue to actually get to these bad ends.

To that end, I've been working on an encounter system which will allow me to dynamically select events based on probability weights.

This is a common programming problem when doing such things as randomly selecting brokers to process data or another activity which requires selecting a particular value more often than other values, randomly.

Here's the code I've put together based on research I've done:

window.calculateEncounter = function(possibleEncounters){
	var i = 0;
	var j = 0;
	var totalWeight = 0;
	var keys = Object.keys(possibleEncounters);

	for (; i < keys.length; i++) {
	  totalWeight += possibleEncounters[keys[i]].weight;
	}

	var randomWeightNumber = Math.floor(Math.random() * totalWeight)
	var selectedKey = "";

	for (; j < keys.length; j++) {
	  if(randomWeightNumber < possibleEncounters[keys[j]].weight){
		selectedKey = keys[j];
		break;
	  }

	  randomWeightNumber = randomWeightNumber - possibleEncounters[keys[j]].weight;
	}

	return selectedKey;
}

window.calculateEncounterWithInclude = function(possibleEncounters){
	var selectedKey = calculateEncounter(possibleEncounters);

	return "<<include \"" + selectedKey + "\">>";	
}

window.calculateEncounterWithLink = function(optionNumber, optionName, linkText, possibleEncounters){
	var selectedKey = calculateEncounter(possibleEncounters);
	
	if(linkText){
		return "<span id=\"" + optionName + "Act\"><<link \"(" + optionNumber + ") " + linkText + "\" \"" + selectedKey + "\">><</link>></span>";			
	}else{
		return "<span id=\"" + optionName + "Act\"><<link \"(" + optionNumber + ") " + selectedKey + "\" \"" + selectedKey + "\">><</link>></span>";		
	}
}

The possibleEncounters input looks like the below object, specified in the 'StoryInit' passage so it will be run at the start of the game. A setup variable is used because these are static variables that do not need to be altered or tracked during the game.

<<set setup.testEncounters to {
  "Test Encounter A": {
    weight: 10
  },
  "Test Encounter B": {
    weight: 10
  },
  "Test Encounter C": {
    weight: 100
  },
}>>

The object consists of a passage name in the Twine game to select, and the 'weight' that passage is assigned.

The 'weight' is relative, which means in this case that 'Test Encounter C' would be selected as the passage to use ten times more often than the other passages.

The 'calculateEncounter' method iterates through the provided objects, getting the total weight of all encounters. Then, it randomly chooses a number between zero and the total weight. If the random number chosen is below the weight of the event being iterated, that event is selected. Otherwise, the weight of the event is subtracted from the random number, and the next event is inspected. This occurs until an event is chosen.

'calculateEncounterWithInclude' generates an include statement to be inserted into a Twine story passage. The include statement imports the contents of one passage into another passage.

'calculateEncounterWithLink' allows you to specify a link to the passage that has been chosen randomly. 'optionNumber' and 'optionName' are used for specifying a keyboard shortcut. 'linkText' is optional, but allows you to specify a name for the link different than the name of the destination passage.

Combined together, using this code in a passage would look like this:

This would be your generic location passage that needs a random encounter.

Then, you would have a randomly selected passage, weighted based on what is configured:

<<print calculateEncounterWithInclude(setup.testEncounters)>>

<<print calculateEncounterWithLink(1, "one", "This encounter is truly random.", setup.testEncounters)>>

The first print statement would be replaced with the randomly selected passage contents, while the second print statement would turn into a link. When this passage is visited, the code will execute and randomly choose an encounter based on the specified weight.

The code above would live in the 'Encounter Tester' passage, and when that passage is visited, one of the test encounter passages would be chosen to be included in that passage.

This is a pretty neat way to allow me to write standalone encounters and include them in the adventure pages. I will be using this logic pretty much everywhere in the story where random encounters occur.

In the Farm, there is a day loop, which means at the end of an encounter the game will need to increment the time and put you back in the right spot. I'll talk about my system for doing this another time. One major topic per post, I think!

This illustrates why it takes so much time to make a proper interactive game - there is a lot of logic under the covers like this that needs to be implemented to even make the story work - especially if you're trying to do more than a simple 'choose your own adventure' story!

With any luck, the next time I post, I'll be able to say that I have all of the main bad ends written! (And maybe even some of the encounters, too!)

Realm of Darkness - Starting the Farm Edition

Welcome back to my semi-irregular updates. Today I'd like to discuss the so-called 'dungeon' I'm working on, called 'The Farm.'

For the first pass, I'm planning on allowing you to choose which type of animal you're in danger of being converted into - a humanoid cow, horse, or pig - futa or female.

A large part of the farm will circle around the main gameplay loop of being taken care of by the farmhands and getting milked. The longer you given in to their demands, the more animal-like you'll become. If your intelligence drops too low, you're going to experience a bad end.

There will be other ways to experience a bad end too, of course, some of them more challenging and difficult to find than others. Today I wrote a bad end which has very similar themes to Tabico's 'Herd Instinct,' which fans of that work should enjoy.

There are several NPCs you'll meet at the farm, and whether you help them (or not) will affect their fates and yours. You may even be able to recruit one or two of them to escape and live with you outside the Farm, if you're careful.

Depending on how much the farm staff trust you, you'll be more or less free to roam The Farm. The more you defy them, the more restrained you'll be. For example, if you try to bite them, you'll be muzzled with a bit gag or another suitable implement. These 'debuffs' will make it more difficult for you to perform certain actions at The Farm and to find a way to escape.

Currently, I am working on the introductory area for The Farm, which by itself is somewhat complicated since I need to introduce all the characters and provide choices that allow you to figure out which animal you wish to become (see below picture for a sample of that game flow). Ideally all paths would be just as attractive, but that's probably not realistic, since I'm the biggest fan of the female bovine paths. Still, I'll do my best with the other paths as well.

In addition to what I'm writing, I've also fleshed out various areas you'll be able to visit while trapped on The Farm (subject to change). See a sample below:

There needs to be a way to escape, of course, but it shouldn't be too easy. And I'm planning for there to be more than one way to 'win' your way out of The Farm. Some of them will be more morally gray than others.

My first goal is to get the main gameplay loop working. Then, I will be working on adding sufficient random events to make the game seem fresh as well as unlockable events based on the stats you have. After that, I'll focus on the adventure mechanics in the farm as well as implementing various ways and means to escape.

Big plans, I know. I'm turning into Peter Molyneux here with the promises. We'll see how much is actually reasonable to complete, since I don't even have a way currently of getting your main character from the central town to The Farm without using the debug menu.

I'm thinking tentatively version one of the game should probably include a fleshed out central town as well as a completely playable Farm dungeon. If I get that far, I think that's probably a sufficient vertical slice to show off what I have and get some feedback. It still seems reasonable to get there by the end of the year, but things could always change... I'll keep ya'll up to date here.

That's a wrap for now. Here's the count of bad ends currently in the game: 13. Many more to come - especially at The Farm, which has 15 more already stubbed out! Not to mention the town, which will definitely need quite a few as well!

Realm of Darkness - Refactoring Edition

Hello! It's time again for an infrequent update about the game I've been working on.

This week has been pretty rough because I've needed to completely rework how the UI is going to operate. I wasn't at all satisfied with where it was at, and I'm much happier with it now.

That of course means there hasn't been a lot of content implemented, but the content that is there is looking much better.

I've recently played 'Degrees of Lewdity' and recognized superior design when I saw it. If you want to check out that game, it's located here: https://vrelnir.blogspot.com/

There are some fun and interesting transformations in that game, but in my mind they suffer because they're not true physical transformations. And while you can turn yourself into a cow and get milked, there's no real consequence or bad end for doing so. I would much rather have a hard end condition where you can indeed fail, and fail badly - because that's where the fun writing is!

Still, it's worth a look if you have some spare time.

Here are some relevant examples of UI design ideas I've borrowed from that game:

'Degrees of Lewdity' allows you to select options using keyboard shortcuts. This makes it a ton easier to navigate (and to debug). Using code from the below link, I've implemented this in all existing passages of the game (that took quite a while, the game is starting to grow).

https://www.reddit.com/r/twinegames/comments/5t73zc/keyboard_driven_twining_tutorial/

Better to get that done now rather than later, I suppose.

I have changed the sidebar to display your current state. This used to be in a menu window, but I realized part of the fun is seeing your body slowly succumb to the strange transformations of this world you're in, so now this sidebar dynamically updates during your adventures.

Adventure stats are TBD and will go in the side bar when I've figured out what they should be. While you are trapped in a dungeon, there will be different stats that apply. For example, you might have to deal with an 'intelligence' and 'obedience' stat while trapped in 'The Farm,' which will affect possible bad ends.

The side bar menu items now open in a window instead of taking over the passage display. This allows me to show inventory and other stats while keeping you in the same context of wherever you are in the story, which simplifies story flow tremendously. The inventory screen is not finalized - lots more changes are likely to come!

I have added an achievements menu which shows you what you've managed to achieve in the game so far. This state will persist across runs of the game on the same browser (using the local browser store). This should act as a guide to let you know what content you've seen, and what you're missing. Yes, I will be adding some bad ends that will be quite difficult to find. A bit of a treasure hunt, as it were.

With these changes in place, I'm finally ready to start working on some new content. Yesterday I spent time brainstorming three major dungeons:

1. The Farm - If you are unlucky enough to find yourself here, you'll slowly become more like an animal. The current possible paths will include male and female cows, horses (ponygirls, yes!), and pigs. I'm open for other ideas, but I need to keep the list short for now so that I can get something implemented.
2. The Cathedral of Domaya - If you join the church, you will partake in Her milk and help her to bring others into communion with her. The church is harboring darker secrets which you will get a chance to explore.
3. The Research Lab - Run by a literal computer, the lab is building a Hive of Drones to take over World's end. If you're not careful, you will end up a mindless Drone. The Hive is exploring ways to generate high end milk from its Drones. There might be a way to incur dissension in the ranks if you play your cards right.

Yes, there's lots of milking that's going to happen, and competition between the different dungeons. I wasn't initially planning that, but it's going to work out that way. It sounds like fun to me!

I have a few other dungeons on my list, but they're not fleshed out yet:

• The Bee Hive
• Dominatrix Dungeon

Eventually I'd like to to tie this all together by making a 'good' end for the story... and if you succeed in the dungeons, you ought to be able to unlock a management game to make good your gains. And I'd like to implement a simple sexual fighting system. And transformation items. And flesh out the town. And program in paths for the different hypnotic outcomes you will experience.

As you can see, there's plenty to work on. I'm hoping to be able to put out an initial version of the game by the end of this year, but no promises!

Realm of Darkness - 4th of July Edition

It's been a few months, and my health hasn't really improved. Fortunately, lockdowns are lifting and I'll be able to see doctors again soon. In the meantime, I figured I would give an update on the Interactive Fiction story I've been working on, currently titled 'Realm of Darkness.'

The backstory is that you are a magical girl, stolen from Earth and brainwashed by demons in a realm called 'World's End.' Their goal is to send you back to Earth to capture the other magical girls and make them permanent slaves of the demons.

Written in second person, you will be attempting to escape this extra-dimensional world without being transformed into a strange new creature. You probably won't be able to avoid being bred by the inhabitants, or changed in strange ways - but will you end up leaving a servant of the demons, or your own person? You decide!

Pretty much anything is going to go in this world. You start out a woman, but can choose to become a futa, if you wish (or, depending on the bad end, if you don't wish). Since there's going to be lots of humanoid critters in this place, there's inevitably going to be furry type sex, though it should be obvious and avoidable depending upon what you choose to do. This is pretty much carte blanche for my strange and bizarre imagination to run wild without any restrictions.

There will definitely be lots of latex and milking, of course, as well as all kinds of bizarre and unfortunate transformations.

I do plan on posting this on tfgames when I have enough content, but that will be quite some time, I'm afraid. I need to have enough that I don't feel like it's too incomplete to post. Ideally it would have a nice vertical slice with good bones I can add flesh onto.

That said, let's talk about the battle system.

Your goal is to beat the enemy by one of three methods - draining their HP to 0, raising their arousal to 100, or dropping their willpower to 0. The type of attack you choose determines which stat you are targeting. In the image below, it's just your bare hands, which do HP damage.

Each attack costs a certain amount of stamina to perform, which limits how often you can use your attacks, and the amount of damage you do is determined by the attack.

At the same time you are attacking, the enemy is also attacking you.

The status box tells you which body parts the enemy is attacking. They can be attacking up to three different body parts with a ~33% chance to hit each part, but it's random which body parts are selected. The same body part can be selected multiple times, which means there is a possibility that the enemy will select the same body part three times, giving them a 100% chance to attack that body part!

This can be useful, as every round you are given the opportunity to block an attack on one body part.

When the enemy hits a body part, it becomes bound. If enough body parts are bound by the enemy, you lose, so it's in your best interest to block as many attacks as possible.

As the battle goes on, there are fewer free body parts, and therefore less body parts for the enemy to choose. This makes it easier to block attacks, which is useful when you're trying to remove the last 10 HP from that stubborn demon!

I have plenty of bad end ideas. So far, I've written only about ~11 of them, but there will be plenty more to come.

Here's a sample of some of the things I'm currently thinking of. These are just some of the ones I haven't written yet... there's plenty of others that I'm not showing. :)

I don't have a time frame for release. It's pretty much going to be a 'when it's ready' situation. Rough guess is at least a few more months before I have anything of consequence. I'll try to periodically update here when I find the motivation.

In the meantime, I have a bad end involving very long tongues to write.

I hope you all have an excellent fourth!

Quarantine Life: Interactive Fiction Ahoy

Things haven't changed that much for me during the quarantine, for good or for ill. One thing that has changed, however, is long bus rides on public transit. They're... not happening for obvious reasons.

Without those long, boring spaces of time to fill, I've found myself... not really writing, at all, which is rather a bummer. I have a chapter of a random story on hold for now until I get back into that mode again, which will likely be quite some time. It seems to me that in this area I may not be back on public transit for at least another month, potentially, depending on whether the office opens back up.

With that in mind, I got the bug recently to work on a different kind of project - one I've been thinking about for a long time. Interactive fiction, specifically using Twine (https://twinery.org/).

Now, using Twine is simple enough if all you need to do is write a multiple choice story, but my goal has always been more ambitious than that.

Unfortunately, that means writing an awful lot of javascript, and an awful lot of testing. You know, a fully fledged software project.

Anybody know of a source control repository that's kink-friendly? It does get rather tedious having to back things up personally...

Anyhow, I'm very close to having a working battle system where the goal is to attack the enemy until they run out of HP, you get them too aroused to continue fighting, or you mesmerize them so thoroughly that they cannot continue. On the other hand, the enemy is trying to bind your body so that you can't keep fighting. If they bind enough body parts, it's game over, and they get to ravish you in any way they choose!

I'm planning on involving lots of bondage, transformation, and mind control themes. It should end up on https://tfgames.site/ eventually, but I don't have a time frame for that. If I had to guess, it's probably going to be another couple of months before it's in a state where I think there's enough content in it to have others run through it. Nothing I hate more than reading an interactive fiction and getting to a work in progress section just as it's getting good.

I've only been working on it for about two and a half weeks so far, and the amount of progress is pretty gratifying:

There is a lot to write, and a lot to program before this is ready to see prime time. I may make some more work in progress posts if it strikes my fancy. Certainly there's been plenty of javascript necessary to make the internal systems work that might be interesting to others.

Here's to hoping that all of the economy gets running again soon! Cheers everyone!

Swarming Drive: Yet another rejection from Literotica

Apparently bees, anthropomorphic or otherwise, are too weird for Literotica, so you'll only be able to read 'Swarming Drive' here or on hentai foundry. I doubt this story would be accepted at MCStories for the same reason.

It's strange. I never considered impossibly gigantic science fiction bees to be bestiality, but I suppose they could be considered as such.

It's a bit depressing, but this was only intended as a one shot anyway. Don't expect an expansion on this universe as I wouldn't be able to post it anywhere even if I wanted to.

On to other things.

Story: Swarming Drive

Swarming Drive

Synopsis: Lucy becomes intimately familiar with giant swarming bees looking for a new home.

"Remember to keep the house shut up tight!" said Tia, shooting Lucy a stern glare. "They're predicting swarming next week, and you don't want to get caught up in a new nesting site!"

Lucy waved her off, barely giving it a thought. Work had consumed most of her mental effort lately. She had been working long hours to get the presentation right. She couldn't afford to flub it - this would be her best chance to snag a promotion!

As a result, when the radio announced a swarm, she was forced to hurry down the stairs, cranking the windows shut and closing the heavy metal shutters. None too soon, either. The enormous, human sized bees had arrived soon after, dragging their spindly feet through the air as their wings flapped together, generating a loud hum.

There were so many of them. They seemed to fill the purple sky with their presence, the suburban streets glutted with huge, fuzzy bodies.

Normally, they kept to themselves and ignored the humans that shared their world. Some early recorded encounters had ended badly, but that was only for the idiots who had tried to steal their honey. The unfortunate thieves were found weeks later, desiccated remains glued to one of the honeycombs in the hive.

That had hit the nightly news for a solid week, and was the talk of town long after. A heavily equipped squad from off world was called in to wipe out the nest. The extermination was televised, showing everyone just how fierce the bees could be when threatened.

The first two exterminators had advanced with energy shields extended, taking the blows raining down upon them from claws and stingers. This worked to an extent, but the shields had not been designed to cover their flanks, and the number of bees attacking them was immense.

Some of the stingers managed to find chinks in their defenses, ichor sizzling against armor. Fortunately, it wasn't strong enough to burn through the thick plated durasteel. Even so, there had been so many of the bees that they were unable to advance.

The soldiers behind them had been forced to clear off the biomass with their flamethrowers, heat from the flames blistering the skin inside the suits of the blocking force.

This tactic was undeniably effective, but difficult to direct further out, where more bees were swarming. These were taken care of by crew served weapons mounted on top of armored cars.

Blistering bolts of superheated plasma pierced the bees, tearing huge chunks out of them. More bees replaced their fallen bodies, but their numbers were finite, while the soldiers had brought plenty of ammunition.

With this show of force, it hadn't taken long for the team to contain the nest, leaving only a giant, rotund Hive structure sitting on the ground. Some of the bravest troops had gone inside to retrieve the queen.

They had taken the insect with them for unknown purposes. Research, she supposed. It didn't matter. At least the ugly bitch was gone.

Other than a few other incidents, the bees were harmless as long as she stayed inside. The bees weren't known to break into properly sealed homes. Everyone knew to hunker down when they were passing through.

She sighed, feeling secure. She shuddered to think of what could have happened if she had missed the alert.

At any rate, she was safe. Time to finish the laundry. She hummed to herself as she skipped down the steps to the first level, checking the dryer.

As she popped open the door, the smell of fresh linens filled the small room. Pawing through the floral patterned skirts and shirts, she dropped them into her basket.

She was beginning to think of putting the kettle on when a faint buzzing noise disturbed her. She frowned, standing still, straining to focus on the odd noise.

All she could hear was the faint ticking of the kitchen clock, and the hum of the refrigerator. Shrugging, she picked up her laundry basket and walked back to the stairs, climbing towards her bedroom.

A cool thread of air wafted down the stairs. Was that a draft? No, not possible, unless she had forgotten to close her bedroom window.

Her heart lurched. She had rushed downstairs when the alert had come on. Had she remembered to secure the upstairs shutters?

She rushed into her room, sliding on her heels as she spotted the giant bee sitting on her mattress. Gigantic, black compound eyes stared from its implacable face. Its fur was tough, but golden as the sun, with three black stripes decorating its body from front to back. It rattled its wings, causing a faint buzz.

Lucy felt equal parts fear and relief. It was a worker drone. Lacking a stinger, it was not dangerous. If she could get the shutter closed, everything would still be okay.

In retrospect, the thought was foolish, but she was in a panic. She dropped her laundry and creeped around the periphery of the room, watching the bee carefully in case it decided to move. It seemed content to watch her, giving off that strange buzzing noise.

Her heel turned as she stepped on a book she had left on the floor the night before. She stumbled, biting out a curse as she broke her fall by grabbing the dresser. Breathing heavily, she turned to look at the bee, but it hadn't moved.

The hum of its buzzing filled the room, giving off a warm, cozy feeling. She felt a sudden urge to sit down and look at the bee. To bask in its presence.

She shook her head. That was ridiculous. Once she locked the shutters, she would call the authorities and they would come sort this out.

Limping, she held onto the top of the dresser, navigating around the foot of the bed. The window was just beyond, but she was having a hard time looking away from the bee's giant fuzzy abdomen. Its fragile looking wings were still buzzing.

The sound had wormed its way into her ears. She was feeling sleepy. She wanted nothing more than to find a couch and relax.

She blinked slowly, her long eyelashes framing the bee which had filled her vision. Its antennae bobbed back and forth as it watched her. It was almost cute.

Close the shutters. They needed to be closed.

Turning in a daze, she shrieked. A humongous bee was clinging to the window frame, its face mere inches from hers. It lunged forward, proboscis jamming into her mouth. Its mandibles closed around her skull, locking her in place as a leathery tube entered her throat.

Lucy jerked and choked as it forced its way down, her throat spasming around the appendage. Unable to back away, she was unable to escape as the bulge worked its way down her throat.

Her hands batted against the enormous abdomen of the assaulting bee, fingers uselessly tearing at its fur. Her vision began to go black from lack of oxygen.

A great pressure came at her lips, and her head was tilted upwards. The interior of the tube swelled, opening her throat to accept its cargo. The bee's wings buzzed, and something hot broached her throat. It was filling her up from the inside, force feeding her its honey!

She squirmed weakly as her vision faded out, stomach bulging. She felt bloated, head bobbing as the insect pumped her full.

Before she passed out, she could feel a terrible squirming in her chest. The bee pulled back, the tube withdrawing from her throat. She sputtered, retching as it was ejected from her mouth, choking on honey as she desperately gasped for air.

The end of the proboscis squirted back and forth, sticky fluid spattering all over her face. She collapsed backwards on the bed, moaning as her body strained to regain equilibrium.

She couldn't focus on anything. A buzzing hum was all around her, the sickly sweet taste of honey staining her lips. Unconsciously, her jaw worked, her tongue extending to taste more of the yellow substance.

The flavor was incredible. She could hardly believe how amazing it was. Feeling her belly, she grinned. Full up. She had been filled to the brim with honey. A vessel for them to store their food.

The more she tasted, the less she cared about the bees. Her arousal spiked, snatch wet. It was too much for her. She needed so much more!

Folding up her camisole, she fumbled at her pants, unrolling the gray material to get at her panties. Sliding them down her legs, she stuck her hand into her nethers, rubbing her pussy with her index finger.

She was so ferociously hot that she could think of nothing else. Her body was a bright spot that needed. She needed so much more.

A warm, pulsing body covered her, pushing her down into the mattress. The buzzing hum was on top of her, blocking her vision with an image of yellow fur. It was moving up, exposing its rotund body ribbed with darker colors. She could see inside the insect's flesh through a semi-transparent layer, sunlight from the window acting as a backlight.

Large eggs filled its abdomen, packed in tight. At the end was a fleshy tube, wiggling as the bee lowered its body towards Lucy.

The aphrodisiac effect of the honey and its hypnotizing humming prevented her from becoming too alarmed until it was too late.

The bee's ovipositor plunged into her pussy, pulsing as it seated itself inside her slick passage. She began to moan, rolling her hips on the bed as the tube pushed in deeper. Her eyes rolled as the tip knocked against her cervix, the pain serving to bring her back down to earth.

Her sudden lucidity was not kind to her. She was speared on the insect's ovipositor, bloated and shaky. The tube widened inside her and a large ovoid pressed against her snatch.

She wailed as the large object was squeezed up her vagina, legs shaking as she stared at the bug’s alien, compound eyes. Its mandibles clacked together as the egg rammed against her cervix.

Another egg soon joined the first, filling her to the brim. The squeezing, pulsing tube pressed further and further, making her feel as though she would be split in two!

Her chin wobbled and she cried out, pain and pleasure wrapped around the appendage speared into her core. She burped, the taste of honey invading her mouth, calming her.

At the same time, her body gave up its struggle, the first egg slipping past her tight muscles and into her uterus. This opened the flood for what was to follow. Egg after egg flowed up the ovipositor, slipping inside her swelling belly.

She had already thought she was as large as she could possibly get, but each egg that was jammed inside her proved that wrong. She squealed as she felt her belly, small bumps visible under her skin. She was being turned into a broodmother!

Somehow, the thought didn't frighten her. Whatever the bee was doing to her with that hum was removing her concerns, taking her to an altered plane of consciousness.

The ovipositor slipped from between her legs, job complete. She wasn't certain whether she had experienced an orgasm - her pleasure was a continous warm buzz at her crotch.

She pressed her fingers against her clit, surprised to find that it had been encased under a layer of wax. The bee must have sealed her up so that its eggs couldn't come back out. Its young would grow inside her, growing large and strong. She had been turned into an incubator.

She squeezed her legs together and buzzed at her fuzzy friends, rubbing her bloated tummy. Their mandibles clacked with anticipation, indicating their satisfaction. She didn't know why everyone was so afraid of them. The others would learn to love the bees as much as she did.

***

"Lucy? Lucy?"

Where had that darn girl gotten off to? She was a scatter brained ditz at the best of times, but she was usually pretty reliable.

Sighing, she tossed her keys on the table. She had been delayed getting back due to the bee swarm, but for the most part, it wasn't too bad. Not quite as many as had been forecasted, for whatever reason. Even so, she had scanned the dark lavender sky after getting out of her car, just in case.

Opening the freezer, she retrieved an ice cream bar. A small treat seemed just the thing after a stressful day.

Removing the wrapper, she took a lick and closed her eyes to savor the taste. When she opened them again, she frowned. There was a low hum coming from upstairs. Had Lucy left the radio on again? Or had she brought home yet another paramour?

Crossing the hallway, she noted the washer had finished its cycle, but the clothes hadn't yet been moved to the dryer. She raised a brow, but didn't even consider doing it herself. Lucy had skated by long enough. She needed to do her own chores.

She bit off some of the shell, crunching frozen chocolate between her teeth. "Lucy?" she shouted. "Your laundry is done! You need to keep it moving so I can start mine!"

There was no response. Perhaps she was out?

The humming from upstairs seemed to be growing in volume. It was starting to get on her nerves.

She sighed, climbing the stairs. "Where are you?" she asked, annoyed. "Why won't you answer me?"

Turning at the landing, she knocked on Lucy's door. The hum had gotten louder, and seemed to be somewhere inside. When there came no response, she cracked the door open.

"What is going on in here?" she complained. "It sounds like a nuclear power plant. I can barely think…"

She trailed off, dropping her ice cream on the floor. She clapped her hands over her mouth and screamed.

Lucy was lying nude on the bed, legs spread. A bulbous growth was attached to her nethers, extending down past her knees. It was dark and furry, with three horizontal yellow stripes circling the exterior.

It flexed as Lucy strained, her back arching. As it lifted up, a white, oval object slowly extruded from the tip. Lucy gasped, rolling her head. "It feels so fucking great! I love giving birth!"

The egg slipped from her birth canal, dropping softly onto the bed. Lucy lifted her head and looked at Tia with a broad grin. Her teeth had lengthened into fangs, eyes sunken orange ovals in her gaunt face.

"The queen gave these to me," she said in a low voice. "She was swarming. She needed to spread the Hive, and I was a fertile candidate."

She grabbed her enlarged breasts, massaging oiled skin. Trailing her fingers, she danced talons over the tips of her rigid nipples.

She keened as another egg breached the tip of her abdomen. "I'm being changed," she groaned. "Remade into this Hive’s queen. The Hive needs to expand. To survive and make new nests."

She fixed her black pupils on Tia. "You are going to help me."

She sat up, running her hands over her abdomen. Flexing her shoulders, a large pair of wings unfolded, extending over her head. She frowned in concentration, and they sprung to life, buzzing.

Buzzing just like the humming she had been hearing earlier. The hum that had infiltrated her brain and was preventing her from leaving. She wanted to gasp. To cry. To tell her this was sick, but she found it difficult to catch her breath.

The only thought in her mind was to run, to get away from the horrible view of her friend being turned into some kind of hybrid bee. She turned, intending on rushing down the stairs, but her way out was blocked.

A humongous bee had reared up on its rear legs, antennae swishing as it rushed her. The weight of its body slammed into her upper chest, bowling her over. Her butt pressed into the bed, and she suddenly found herself looking up at an unrolling proboscis.

The earlier paralysis had faded, and now she screamed again, her atavistic fear of insects driving her terror. Hands grabbed her shoulders, squeezing hard. A voice was in her ear. "They're not so terrible. Take a deep breath, and he'll show you what I mean."

Her friend’s hands clamped down, holding her in place as the proboscis rammed inside her mouth. Choking, she was forced to swallow as it pushed deeper. Her chest lurched as it slipped all the way in, the bee buzzing happily.

Her throat throbbed as it pumped its nectar inside her, feeding her roughly. She felt warm and cold at the same time, sweat beading on her brow.

It went on for what seemed like forever, but soon the bee had exhausted its reserves. It began to pull out, her throat gagging as it rejected the slimy tube. The tip spilled out over her chin, the end jerking as it spat honey all over her upper chest. The goop ran between her breasts, coating them with the sticky substance.

The gooey liquid smelled unbelievably good. Her mouth felt amazing, tingling with sweet textures. Working her lips, she swallowed, the surgery sweetness soothing her throat as it slid back down.

The fear had gone. In its place was desire. She needed more.

She ran her hands over her chest, picking up the yellow honey with her fingers. Curious, she opened and closed her hand, admiring the sticky strings that webbed between her fingers.

Her lust returned, and she jammed them into her mouth. She sucked and licked them desperately, extracting as much as she could, but there was so little of the sweet nectar left.

When the last little bit had gone, she stared at the bee and patted her firm belly, feeling the honey slosh inside her as she rolled her hips. She opened and closed her mouth, trying hard not to run away in fear.

"More," she requested in a monotone. "I need more."

Another bee moved into position, unrolling its dark red proboscis. She opened her mouth willingly, yellow liquid spurting from its tip. Raising her hands, she took hold of the fleshy tube, milking it with her lips.

She thrust her head forward and back, swallowing as it gushed thick honey into her mouth. She almost couldn't keep up, but when it spilled from her lips, the bee drew back. It courteously waited for her to swallow before offering it to her again.

The humongous compound eyes were still freaking her out, but that fear was tempered by the taste of honey. She took another swallow, realizing that she was full.

Drawing back, she swirled her tongue around the tip, giggling as it ejected a glob of honey onto her breasts. "It tastes so damn good!" she exclaimed, rubbing it over her nipples.

She moved her hands down and cupped her bloated belly. Her clothing was too tight. She needed to remove it so that more honey could be packed into her.

Uncinching the floral belt at her waist, her dress billowed outwards. It felt itchy, still too constricting. It was much better to be without clothing. To present herself nude to be filled by the bees.

She pulled her arms in and shrugged the dress over her head, tossing it to the corner of the room. Lucy took the opportunity to stroke her sides, making the honey in her belly wobble back and forth. She should feel nauseous, but the warm blanket of the cheerful hum uplifted her.

She wanted nothing more than to continue sitting on the bed and eat more of the glorious honey. "More," she said huskily.

Lucy kissed her on the cheek. "I'm sorry, but we can't fill you all the way up just yet." She chuckled. "You'll get too heavy to transport, silly!"

Tia turned and gave her a sloppy kiss, her lips sticking to Lucy's cheek. As she pulled away, a string of honey hung in an arc. Lucy pressed an index finger against Tia's nose. "Honey bucket sluts should behave. Your queen will give you a special treat if you do!"

She scooped up the line of honey stretching from Tia's lips and sucked it down, closing her glowing eyes in ecstacy. "Oh, yes, that tastes amazing. It's a shame I can't have any more. Won't be light enough to fly if I have too much!"

The fragile wings on her back buzzed. "They're still developing, but they will be ready in time for the migration."

She tilted her head, pausing for a moment. "In fact, you've arrived at the perfect time. The scout bees are about to return."

The buzzing hum increased, a draft blowing into the room from an open window. Two slender women flew inside, one after another. Feet planted on the ground, they stood in front of the shutters, shoulder to shoulder.

They were nude, but their skin was covered with long strands of bee fuzz, coloring them yellow. The fur circled their breasts, highlighting the perfect, taut globes. Unlike Lucy, the rounded abdomens that hung between their legs were petite. Five thin horizontal stripes circled the bulbous protuberences.

"Aren't they pretty little scouts?" asked Lucy. "I watched them walking past on the street outside and just had to have them for my own. They're so nimble!"

The twins buzzed their wings, dancing to one side in unison, their arms twisting in half circles. They crouched into a squat, their antennae wobbling as they shifted their hips. Taking small steps, they turned around, showing off their perfect butts.

"What… are they doing?" asked Tia, her mind clearing a little after the last of the honey slipped down her throat.

"The dance of Exploration," replied Lucy, lovingly patting her cheek. "When bees need to find a good spot for a new hive, they send off scouts to find an appropriate location. When they return, if they think the location is good, they do a little dance. The longer and more elaborate the dance, the more suitable the location will be."

The two bees tilted to one side, their arms extended as if they were flying. They whirled like tops, exposing their naked bodies. The wings on their backs whirred. They made a little hop, jumping high enough that the tips of their curving antennae brushed the ceiling.

Spinning in mid air, they landed on their feet, wide smiles on their faces. Grabbing each other's hands, they spun themselves around and around, using their wings to keep their balance. They hummed together, the volume rising.

When it reached a fever pitch, they embraced each other's heads and locked lips, kissing deeply. They remained that way for several long moments, smiling and backing away while holding each other's hands.

They turned and faced their Queen, bowing. She clapped at their performance. "That's what I've been waiting for. They've found a perfect spot."

Tia rolled her eyes and licked her lips. "Where?" she asked, thinking only of drinking gobs of honey.

Lucy quirked her lips. "Their dance encoded directions, but not the destination. That's not important anyway. They'll guide us there."

A large bee approached Lucy, waiting courteously for her attention. She gestured at it.

"Ugly, aren't they? Unfortunately, they'll have to do until I run out of donated eggs. My body is still adjusting to its new production."

She licked her lips as a large bee sidled over to her. She flipped her legs over the edge, groaning as she adjusted her bloated belly. The bee moved in close and she raised her abdomen, spreading her legs to present it to him.

A large, cone-like endophallus extended from the bee's torso, probing at her nethers. She moaned with satisfaction as it slipped inside. "Fortunately, the girth outweighs the strangeness. Fuck, yeah."

Laying back, she put her hands behind her head as the bee thrust in and out, her distended abdomen bouncing from the force. It wiggled back and forth, forcing her to squeeze it between her legs to keep it stationary.

Her abdomen telescoped like an accordion as the bee pummeled her interior, its upper legs waving as it ravaged her. She tossed her head back and forth, raising her butt off the bed.

Swirling her fingers around her nipples, she twisted the ends and gasped, grinning at the bee. "Almost as good as a man!" she declared.

The bee pushed in hard, waving its proboscis back and forth. Lucy groaned, breathing hard. "Yes, fuck yeah, fuck your Queen!"

She wobbled her butt in a circle, rotating her abdomen over the phallus. Freezing, she vibrated in place, clenching her teeth. Letting out a short shriek, she settled back onto the bed, the bee still embedded inside her.

Her face locked in orgasm, she shot Tia a rapturous glance. "You should be jealous. This feels fantastic. It's too bad you aren't a breeder. I have a feeling you'd really like it."

Tia burbled, unable to make herself more comprehensible. The honey was sitting heavy in the pit of her stomach, and all she could think about was having more.

"I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything else from a honey bucket." She clicked her tongue, pulling the phallus from her abdomen, shooing off her lover. "It's time to go. Let's find out what my scouts are so excited about."

A large bee wrapped itself around Tia's body and its wings buzzed, loud in her ears. Its proboscis unrolled, the tip resting between her lips. She drifted away, pacified by the mouthful of honey it delivered.

***

Harsh fluorescent lights flooded the enclosed space, highlighting machinery covered with pale yellow wax. Hexagonal tubes had been built from floor to ceiling on the far wall, stuffed with larvae and capped off. A few tubes were still free, and there were many more in construction.

The rumble of pumps and other machinery didn't bother Hive. The hum of their wings easily drowned out any other noise.

Tia watched from her corner, smiling at the busy bees as they worked to take care of the young eggs they were extracting one by one from her Queen's swollen snatch.

Her friend’s abdomen had swelled to enormous proportions, to the extent that she had difficulty moving around. Not that she needed to move much. Her role was to birth new eggs for the Hive, from which all manner of different workers would grow.

Hair had grown over her body, giving her a fuzzy appearance from a distance. Her main body was yellow, while her abdomen was black with three yellow stripes. She strained and stroked her furry belly, humming with her wings as another egg was expelled.

The workers surrounding her quickly grabbed the egg and carried it away, shutting it away in a small honeycomb, storing it for the future. Tia had watched this process for hours, the stored stacks of eggs growing ever larger, waiting for a proper host.

There came a scuffle from one of the ventilation ducts. Two female drones squeezed through the confined space, dragging a woman dressed in shorts and a crop top.

They brought her over to the center of the room, jamming her legs into a knee high pile of honey. Her feet squeezed into the yellow mass, being sucked inside as if it was quicksand. The woman groaned, looking around at the confined space with dazed eyes.

Her clothing had been torn apart by the bees, their furry bodies dull under the industrial lighting. Rendered into scraps by their talons, fabric fluttered to the floor in a heap. When their task was complete, the humanoid bees turned and looked at their Queen, slender hands resting at their sides.

Lucy got to her feet with difficulty, her abdomen dragging on the ground behind her. Demurely, she smoothly waltzed up to the prisoner. "Calm down, sister," she buzzed. "This is all quite normal."

The woman fixed her with a terrified glance. "Normal?" she shouted almost hysterically. "What the hell is going on here?"

Lucy lifted her abdomen and placed it between the girl's legs. "We're bees," she said succinctly. "And you are joining the Hive."

She strained, grunting. A white ovoid expressed from the tip, pressing between the captive's legs. Lucy leaned forward, ensuring that the edge of the egg was jammed into the woman's snatch.

"This is your egg. As it hatches and the larvae inside grows, it will meld with you, changing you. Enhancing you. Once it links up with your nervous system, it will be an extension of you. You will be my bee."

The meek woman's eyes widened. She looked pale, fists clenching. She flexed her legs, but she couldn't wiggle free from the sticky honeycomb.

The egg buried in her snatch began to crack. The woman's body shook. "They'll find me," she said, vibrating in place. "They'll find me, and they'll capture you like they did with the others."

Lucy made a low chuckle, antennae waving. "So what if they do? The best part about siting this Hive in a skyscraper is that nobody will notice a few missing citizens from the streets. This Hive will grow big and strong, and there is nothing they can do about it."

The egg finished cracking, and the woman gasped as the gray larvae pushed its head into her vagina. Her eyes rolled and she moaned, hips rattling. It squeezed itself entirely inside.

"Your struggles are useless. You're already well on your way to becoming a bee."

She clicked her tongue and one of the nearby hovering bees loomed over her victim. It stuffed its proboscis into her mouth, preventing any further protests.

Breezing over to Tia, she clacked her mandibles with barely contained excitement. "Don't you love being a bee?" She asked, licking her lips.

Tia burbled. She was a honey slut. The bees used her and filled her full of honey. This was her purpose. She loved being a honey slut.

She made an incomprehensible noise, opening her mouth and sticking her neck out to present her body to her Queen.

Lucy moved in close, pressing her body against Tia. Her proboscis unfurled and she dipped it inside Tia's mouth, sipping sweet honey from within.

Tia mouthed the appendage while it sucked out her honey. The deeper she took it, the more excited she felt.

When it bottomed out in her stomach, she orgasmed. She couldn't wait to be filled again. She could already see the workers moving in with full stomachs. She wiggled her yellow abdomen, excited for it to be filled with more.

Self-publishing erotica post-mortem - and the unfortunate reality of Literotica

It's been approximately six months since I released the first Robotic Restitution novel, so this appears to be a good time to reflect back on the experience.

Publishing Doldrums

I recently tried to submit the last chapter of Drone Metastasis to Literotica, and it was rejected. Why?

It can be pretty vague, because they use boiler plate responses, but what I currently gather is that they don't allow any form of advertisement, not even self promotion.

I had mentioned that the Robotic Restitution series that takes place in the same universe is available for sale in the post-script, which apparently made that chapter persona non-grata. I was forced to remove it and re-submit, so that chapter won't be available for a few more days.

This simply points out the main reason why I love and hate Literotica at the same time. It's a site which has a lot of eyes on it, and you can get a lot of feedback (at least voting wise). However, as an author, it's almost impossible to build an audience outside of that site. Very few people are going to go look at your profile and make the jump to look at your blog, and even fewer are going to bother emailing you.

Lest you think this is all complaining, it's more of a realization than anything else. I will continue to post there, but I don't consider it a good place to grow.

The upshot of this is - my last attempt at advertising for Robotic Restitution was a mixed bag, which I will take into account for the future.

By The Numbers

I don't think many authors release numbers, but since e-publishing was more of an experiment to me, here's the final total for the three Robotic Restitution novels since the release of the first book around July/August: $174.45, with $70.21 from Smashwords, and $104.24 from Amazon. Amazon is the larger, more well known e-seller, so that's not too surprising.

This is for the series of three books it took me a year and a half to complete - hardly a great return on investment!

There were many factors working against me:

1. New/unknown author to e-publishing, beyond the works I have published in the past online.
2. I am writing in a niche.
3. I did my own covers, and I am not an amazing artist.
4. Limited ways to advertise erotica.

With these factors in play, it was highly unlikely I would be reaching any kind of larger audience, so I spent all of my efforts advertising to the audience who I thought might enjoy it:

1. I posted about the trilogy several times on the MCForums.
2. I posted each book on the mind control literature Discord when it was published.
3. I wrote a novella in the same universe with an author's note talking about the trilogy (except on Literotica, see above).

Possible reasons for failure:

1. Insufficient ads or simply advertising in the wrong places.
2. I'm not prolific enough.
3. People don't want to read long form erotica.
4. My covers aren't good enough.
5. I'm simply not writing what people want to read.

Going through this process, of course, took an extensive amount of time. If I had paid someone to do the covers or used stock images, the cost could have been anywhere from ~$10-$300 per novel (this is a very rough guess). With better covers, my book could likely have sold better, but I truly doubt I would have reached a much larger audience.

The other time saver would have been to pay an editor, instead of reading and editing all three novels twice. I would highly recommend doing this for longer form works, except in those cases where it's not cost effective. I literally spent months editing those books, and by the time I was done I was thoroughly tired.

If I had spent the money to save my time, however, I would never have recouped the cost. I knew this was a shaky experiment going in, so I had committed to reducing and avoiding costs as much as possible. This decision was good, and bad. I don't think I would do it this way again.

Harsh Realities

From what I have seen, those who are most successful at erotic e-publishing are outputting lots of content, constantly, in shorter chunks. There isn't much of a market for longer form content, unless you're a very select few authors.

Using a patron model (Patreon etc.) and finding commissions would be far more lucrative than self-publishing this type of erotica. During this time period, I made $100 from a commission, which took about a month and a half to complete. If I was serious about it and charged a proper going rate, I would have made even more. This model seems much more viable to me.

Realistically, I can't keep up with publishing often enough to make proper money through e-publishing, so I'm not even going to bother trying. I prefer, for the most part, writing longer form content anyway. I can't help but feel that my writing would be a better fit in the general romance or sci-fi genres, and that I should nod out of e-publishing anything erotic at all.

Many things to consider. It is all rather unfortunate.

Conclusion

So where does that leave me?

I won't be doing this kind of experiment again. It was interesting, but not a very fun experience, overall.

I have considered e-publishing Drone Metastasis, but the thought of what would be required to get it ready for publishing fills me with dread after the nightmare I had getting the other books done. I would have to make or commission a cover, and give it another editing pass before I would be satisfied. That's probably another month's worth of effort to do, and I'm not sure it's worth it for the paltry amount of money it would bring in, even if it has been a passion project.

What about other publishing other erotica? 

I suspect I would have much more success if what I write wasn't so... out there. There doesn't appear to be huge audiences for the fetishes I'm writing.

I would likely have to change what I'm writing to be more successful, and I find that... I don't really want to, all that much.

As such, I'll likely still be publishing shorter form weird erotic stuff here and on other sites from time to time, but don't expect another e-published erotic novel out of me.

Cheers!