The night was destined to be sleepless. With Alex dilating the time even more than Research Earth's one to three hundred and sixty-five, two whole days had passed before the sun rose over the horizon. Of course, after the intense session, Natasha needed some well-deserved rest, for which Alex took her to their bedroom and let her sleep comfortably.
With that, he left the house to pick Xialing up from her friend's house in a Porsche. She may not like him being too ostentatious about things, but she wasn't here to dissuade him right now.
Since she had now graduated and wanted neither a Master's degree nor a job, he decided to spend the year travelling with her and Natasha, exploring the beauty of his planet with his little family. What came after that was going to depend on what Natasha convinced Xialing to do over the following year.
…
On the other side of this planet, Gwen now had a competent person and his assistant supporting her projects. Calling Reed Richards extremely capable was more than an understatement. The man made invaluable contributions from the very day that Alex brought him to this planet. He and Ben had only been on this planet for a mere six months, yet their presence had accelerated the timeline of Gwen's Infinity Stone Radar by years.
Of course, it was lucky that Reed had already been researching a form of Cosmic Energy during his investigation of the cosmic cloud that gave the Fantastic Four their respective powers. That was a significant factor in the accelerated timeline of the Radar's creation.
Within another year and a half, translating to a day and a half in normal time, the Infinity Stone Radar would be completed, allowing Alex to start actively looking for Infinity Stone fragments throughout the universe.
Considering the impressive pace of their progress, Alex was confident that his vision of collecting Cosmic Energy from the masses wasn't too far off. Especially since the medium that he wanted to use was already widespread.
After more than a decade and a half in total, since he started controlling the two Earths, Gaia Bracelets had become the norm all over both planets. With Gaia's recent transformative update after Alex virtually broke down the variant of Ultron from Earth-Z and melded its most advanced aspects into her, the bracelets had become a natural part of everyone's lives, with a subprocess of Gaia serving as their virtual assistant on each bracelet. The best part was that Gaia was essentially Alex's subconscious now. The AI had its own thoughts and could do everything autonomously, but at its base, everything stemmed from Alex's thoughts and primary directives. While Ultron could go rogue due to its core model being unregulated, Gaia didn't have any concept of going rogue because it was a part of Alex. It could never go against the directives of his primary consciousness.
Of course, the changes that happened over the fifteen years weren't limited to Gaia Bracelets. Another important thing to happen was the introduction of a new system of currency that came in the form of Gaia Credits. While Alex had plans to eventually introduce a new currency when he established his empire, that would come once he fully took over Earth-Z and implemented his Abomination breeding plans to invade Gaia's planets.
For now, Gaia Credits were the norm all over the world. They essentially worked like a cryptocurrency, with no physical presence. Unlike most cryptocurrencies, however, Gaia Credits were highly regulated and handled by Gaia herself, leaving no room for foul play or loss of money. This heavy regulation and monitoring that Gaia did made corruption a hundred times more difficult for politicians who had their priorities incorrectly set.
While there was a lot of backlash initially from these very people, Alex had already dealt with such events when he'd initially introduced the Gaia Bracelets. In front of his ruthless and efficient means, all possibilities of resistance were curbed before they could actually affect anything. Being Gaia's controller, there was nothing in the world that was hidden from him, allowing him to curb any budding resistance efforts before they could gain any traction by simply cutting off their backers and funding. Of course, these things worked because of a simple reason. It was the rich and powerful class who didn't want their money tracked; the general populous was more than happy with such a currency that could be easily used almost everywhere without any problems.
Even the financial sector came through after some internal upheavals and was now perfectly dependent on Gaia Credits.
Since Gaia was the one facilitating all transactions—domestic or international, payment brokers became entirely obsolete. As for banks, their entire purpose became credit lines—loans, credit cards, and more, since people no longer needed to keep their money with banks. The Gaia Bracelets served as their secure wallets instead, keyed to their identity securely. The banks that were able to transition in time succeeded; the others could only shut down.
Then came the benefits of having such a central authority figure who, with a nigh-omnipotent AI serving as his subconscious, kept everything in line. Some things improved passively as systems that were already in place started working at their intended pace after minimizing corruption. The infrastructure and quality of life in most countries started drastically improving, the cessation of wars allowed certain resource-rich countries to flourish, and many other, smaller things that were too numerous to list.
Major crime practically disappeared as Gaia had more than enough ways to keep track of every individual human on the planet. Privacy be damned, even the most dangerous areas in the world became safe havens where people didn't need to lock their doors. Of course, Alex didn't actually let people know that Gaia had such a deep level of monitoring. He still left the minor criminals to the police. Only when it came to things that impacted Alex's bottom line would Gaia interfere and effectively take care of everything. As for Alex's bottom line? Ironically enough, it was murder. As long as criminals didn't kill anyone, they would be left to the authorities to be dealt with. If their actions led to the death of another person, then their judgment would be passed by Gaia swiftly and ruthlessly.
The reason Alex made murder his bottom line? It was directly related to his current priority regarding both planets' development.
Life expectancy and raw population numbers. If he wanted to fulfill his future vision to essentially use people's emotions to farm cosmic energy, he needed numbers. The larger the population, the better. With that in mind, he invested tens of millions of Gaia Credits to provide everyone in the world access to decent healthcare. Considering the conversion rate that he gave the Widows of ten thousand Dollars to one Gaia Credit, that equated to an investment of trillions of Dollars all over both Research and Farm Earths dedicated to healthcare over a period of two years.
On the other hand, he started releasing incentives to increase the population. Benefits such as better housing and subsidies for families with a larger number of kids, free education, and many other attractive benefits were gradually introduced to encourage higher birth rates.
While he could have focused solely on increasing the number of people, he also had to consider his plans for the future. When the invading forces from Earth-Z inevitably came to assault the world, he couldn't have people immediately lose hope. With prosperity, everyone would have something to fight for, not to mention they would naturally be able to put up a decent fight when the time came.
Naturally, with this kind of expenditure, Alex needed ways to recover his expenses just as quickly. That led to him releasing the anti-aging serum to the general public— the same one that he gave to the Widows. Of course, unlike the Widows, who only needed to pay a sort of nominal fee for it as a means of motivation, the public serum was priced at a flat million credits a pop with an efficacy of one year.
This single item made an insane amount of cash flow into Alex's hands from the top 1 percent of both planets, allowing him to not only freely fund his healthcare initiative, but even more.
Still, with Gaia's upgrade, everything got a lot more streamlined, and exponentially improved Alex's efficiency in managing things. The population for both planets had crossed the ten billion threshold, and the numbers were steadily increasing. As for housing, or the need for resources to sustain such a population, that was something he didn't need to worry too much about until they crossed a hundred billion per planet. The land resources were more than enough to sustain this many people as long as he was efficient about development and infrastructure and didn't waste time and resources in grudge matches with other politicians.
As for what came after the hundred billion mark, by then, Alex would have implemented the Earth-Z invasion plan. At that point, instead of having the number of people increase, his focus would shift to propelling the evolution of humanity as a whole, improving the quality of his subjects.
Gaia's upgrade had brought about a qualitative improvement in how things were managed in Gaia, but it wasn't limited to that. Gaia played a key role in another of Alex's major investments— The Gaia Penitentiary.
After more than a decade since its establishment, the number of occupants had gone up from its previous two thousand something to almost thirty thousand occupants. Not only that, the number of Qi Awakened occupants among them had already crossed a thousand, with more than a hundred of them giving him almost half a unit of Bioenergy every day individually. Unfortunately, that seemed to be a bottleneck point that no one had been able to breach just yet. Even the prisoner he'd invested most in, Silver Sable, hadn't crossed that threshold. Of course, that didn't mean that breaking through was impossible, simply that it would require more investment from Alex than it was worth. It was better to have a large number of prisoners providing him with half a unit as opposed to having ten or so who would give him maybe one or two units. Still, the numbers had grown staggeringly high in recent times.
Prisoner Farm — 29154
Mary Jane Watson - 0.5 EP/day
Silvija Sablinova | Silver Sable - 0.5 EP/day
Prisoners (27949) - 0.0001 EP/day
Qi Awakened (1203) - 0.05 EP/day to 0.5 EP/day
With this lineup, Alex was generating almost two hundred and fifty units of Bioenergy per day. Considering the time dilation factor of one day to one year, he was making over ninety thousand units every day outside. Regrettably, while these numbers sounded good, offsetting the backlash of using Infinity Stones practically consumed all of his Bioenergy every time. Still, the larger rate of Bioenergy generation allowed him to use the stones much more liberally as opposed to before.
Still, with such a large amount of Bioenergy being generated every day, he wasn't entirely hoarding it. Instead, he used it for its empowering qualities. The direct beneficiaries of that were the Widows, who had steadily grown significantly stronger while living on Earth-Z. Right now, even without his active enhancement, even the weakest of them had significantly greater base physical stats than Captain America. At least the MCU one, since that was the one with whom he'd had the most contact.
-x-X-x-
At the same time, after fifteen years of development, the two planets in the Gaia Cluster saw the first new addition to their budding collective. It came in the form of yet another variant of Earth. Similar to the two planets, the new addition was also one with a minimal presence of superheroes beyond the Fantastic Four. And Alex had already split the four of them up, sending Reed and Ben to work for him by assisting Gwen, letting Johnny roam around the world while showing off and enjoying his vain lifestyle without anyone to perform any checks and balances on him. Lastly, Sue, after forming the Level 2 bond with Alex, was already off planet, having moved to the Hydra-dominated Earth, where Alex and Laura had previously killed the Hydra Supreme Captain America.
With a mature administration system dependent on Gaia's immense capabilities, it was much easier to integrate the new planet into the cluster. Alex projected that within two years, the newly added planet would reach the same level of development and technology as the other two planets.
Of course, there was also a fourth planet that was already part of Gaia, in all but its positioning. Gwen's Earth. Her planet was pretty much on the opposite side of the cluster and still needed a few days to move close enough to the Gaia Cluster. That caused some logistical issues, as Alex had to set up an entirely separate time dilation domain around it. Which was initially not even planned, considering the expenditure, but with the increase in Bioenergy production, he decided to set it up on this planet as well.
While Gaia's planets could resonate with each other and reduce the amount of Time Authority that he had to channel through the Time Stone, Earth-65 needed him to set up an entirely separate time dilation field. Another hurdle was the presence of superheroes on that planet. Unlike the three planets of Gaia that had a negligible superhero presence, Earth-65 was a mature reality with most of the Earth-based superheroes present. That caused him to use a lot more energy than would be required for a planet without superheroes. It was similar to the issue in Earth-Z, where the presence of strong Eldritch Class abominations caused him to limit his time dilation factor to one day to one month and limit it to the North American Continent.
The Superheroes also prevented Alex from using his more heavy-handed methods, which were employed in Gaia's normal planets, where he could openly make people disappear with no one to question him.
Still, it wasn't too bad once Alex subdued the entirety of the Illuminati and the World Government, especially considering that more than half of the planet's population had been destroyed by Angelic Wanda's final assault on the planet. Ultimately, that left the natives of the planet helpless in front of Alex's methods, where he could directly replace those who acted out and seamlessly transfer their authority to someone more inclined to listen to him. Even the more resourceful superheroes like the Inhumans and X-Men, with a vast array of powers and abilities at their disposal, hadn't been able to resist Alex from permeating his control among their ranks by establishing an uncontestable representative among them.
For the Inhumans, his candidate was Luna Maximoff, the Inhuman daughter of Pietro Maximoff, who was dead in this reality. She had an interesting set of powers that allowed her to read, manipulate and alter, and outright remove others' emotions at will. While Alex's powers allowed him to directly manipulate the biology person's brain to achieve the same, or even better results, he didn't want to do everything himself. Having formed a Tertiary Bond with this twenty-seven-year-old Inhuman, he gave her the power and status to keep the Inhumans in check. While Alex still left Blackbolt and the Royal Family in charge, Luna's status was special, and in special circumstances, she could even usurp their authority.
On the other side, for the X-Men, he had Emma Frost as his representative. Now that he had formed a Secondary Bond with Illyana, or Magik, from the Earth belonging to Angelic Wanda, he was able to replicate her innate ability to defend against telepaths. Now, no matter how hard beings like Xavier or Emma Frost tried, they couldn't get into his mind. The only exception to this was the Phoenix Force. Cosmic Entities exceeded the scale of logic, and Alex couldn't be sure if he could defend his mind against its probing.
Still, setting up those defenses allowed him to confidently form a Tertiary Bond with Emma Frost, allowing her to serve as his official representative amidst both the X-Men and the Illuminati.
Finally, all that was left was Cindy. She was the one to whom both Luna and Emma reported directly. After all, a Tertiary Bond only gave them limited direct communication with Alex. Their instructions and directives came from Cindy and now Gaia, since the AI had been melded into Alex's consciousness and was an extension of his will. Cindy officially served as the CEO of Stacy Industries, which had expanded enough to be considered to have a controlling stake in more than half of the countries of the world. Instead of being considered a megacorporation, Stacy Industries was like a super nation in and of itself, with an unprecedented level of control and influence all over the world.
As for what Alex and Gwen were doing after he delegated pretty much all of his work away to these three women and Gaia… They were enjoying university life.
As per Gwen's request, Alex had enrolled in the Empire State University as a junior, one year behind her. But unlike her, who had a four-year program, his was only three years, making it so that the two of them would graduate together while also fulfilling Gwen's desire to date Alex as her junior in college. Still, Alex couldn't go without adding his own flair to the experience, taking things a bit more overboard than Gwen had anticipated.
While Gwen was still enjoying the jealousy-inducing, lovey-dovey atmosphere that Alex's mere presence near her established, he had no plans to spend three years in university without getting some extra enjoyment out of it beyond having sex with Gwen in classrooms and broom closets. He had already gone through a relatively normal university experience in his first life and decided to do something extraordinary for his second attempt. At first, he wasn't completely sure what he wanted and spent half the first semester indulging Gwen's wishes and attending all the same classes that Gwen did, despite being enrolled in an entirely different program. Planetary authority and mind control helped with such simple matters. He didn't want to take things too far away from the realm of normalcy, but also wanted to do something extraordinary, with his priority being enjoyment.
Finally, as the end-of-semester exams drew closer, Alex found his answer. He decided to establish a sorority and put Gwen as the figurehead Chapter President. Establishing a sorority from scratch as a man, not to mention after just joining university, would sound ridiculous to most, but to Alex, it was just the enjoyment he wanted out of university life with Gwen.
On the last day of exams, in the middle of December, almost all of the female students, from freshers to seniors, even some guys who were curious, found in their hands pamphlets with what seemed like a bold declaration printed on them.
ΕΣΥ: Epsilon Sigma Upsilon
Empire State Unity
Below the title was an ostentatious and daring introduction of the new sorority that was being funded directly by the Gaia Relief Corp. By the time the students came back from winter break, the new sorority house would be completed, and applications were already open for the students. That was the crux of the information, mixed in with bold declarations that would have been laughable if it weren't for the huge number that they directly printed about their funding and potential hiring opportunities.
At the end of it all were two names with their respective titles and signatures.
Gwen Stacy (Chapter President)
Alex Hunt (Chancellor and Advisor)
On the same day, the entire established Greek society system was shaken. Let alone the established sorority leaders, even the fraternity leaders were shaken up by the two newcomers' declaration. They immediately called up an Inter-Greek Council meeting on how to deal with such an intrusion on their authority and benefits, by newcomers no less. Yet, the storm of that meeting was nothing compared to the storm that was going on in the warehouse that Alex and Gwen used for their sparring.
"You asshole!" Gwen screamed, her eyes glowing blue with her Bio-Electricity and her black suit glowing with pulsing streaks of red that did little to express her current emotional turmoil. She threw a punch at Alex as a powerful lightning bolt emerged from her fist, reaching him before her fist landed. The resulting shockwave made the foundation of the building shake as Alex was smashed through multiple pillars and was left firmly embedded in the wall of the building. "I asked for normal, and you couldn't go half a year without raising needless chaos?"
She didn't seem to be done and immediately shot forward, intent on attacking Alex once again.
Just as he divested himself from the wall and dusted himself off without so much as a scratch on him or his clothes, Gwen was upon him, throwing another full power infused with enough Bio-Electricity to overload a weaker version of Electro.
***
The next half hour, Alex silently let Gwen throw him around like a ragdoll, allowing her to vent out her rage, for once, without goading her or overpowering and punishing her. After all, she'd gone through a lot of effort to convince him to join her in having a normal university life. Now he'd just thrown a wrench in her plans by involving the Greek societies in what was essentially a political grudge match. The moment her name was printed on the pamphlet as the Chapter President, her future university life had been completely altered. She had spent almost a month before her second year started, convincing Alex, giving in to all sorts of his demands, solely to make him agree not to use his influence and power while in university. She didn't want to be looked at by her peers as someone completely different from them. Now, Alex had utilized a loophole in their deal to cause chaos while also making sure that he didn't take things beyond the realm of normalcy. And she knew it, which made her all the angrier.
By the time her rage simmered, she was huffing while splayed on the floor with her limbs spread out, as her sweat covered her forehead. Alex, looking completely unaffected despite being thrown around and beaten up by her, stood at her side, looking down at her with crossed arms.
"Thirty minutes," he said with the disapproving tone of a disappointed dad. "You still need to work on your endurance, Gwen. How are you going to handle University politics? What of the initiations that you need to oversee? What if you have even lower endurance than a freshman trying to join the sorority? Wouldn't it be embarrassing for you as the Chapter President? What will the other sororities think? The existing societies are going to pressure you quite a lot, you know. Your mere presence threatens them. You have to rise up to the challenge."
"It's... your damn… sorority." She huffed out.
"No, Gwen," he said. "It's our sorority."
"Go fuck yourself," she grunted loudly before coughing as her saliva went down her windpipe.
"Easy there," he said, sitting down beside her and pulling her head onto his thigh. "Do you really want to spend the next two and a half years doing normal? Don't you want to fuck around in University? Rebel? Mess up all existing authority systems? Cause enough chaos to have your name and image become a timeless plaque on their foundation and history?"
Gwen's expression wavered, but she still rebuked him angrily for ruining her fantasy of having a normal life with him. Not to mention all of the things that he'd made her do to agree to the deal, repeatedly pushing her limits.
As Alex and Gwen had their little lovers' spat, the ones truly affected by Alex's actions were all meeting to talk about how they would deal with this newcomer sorority encroaching on their turf.
"Who even are they?" A senior from Delta Gamma Theta, one of ESU's oldest sororities, scoffed. "A sophomore and a freshman? You don't build a chapter with training wheels still on."
A senior from the Sigma Epsilon Chi, a fraternity, leaned back in his chair with a smirk. "Cute, though. Freshie wants to be a so-called Chancellor of a sorority? Sounds like he's just looking for an excuse to hang around pledge meetings and help out with bew recruits." The table erupted in knowing laughter.
Despite their apparent lightheartedness and jokes, seemingly treating the Epsilon Sigma Upsilon sorority's initiative with a grain of salt, it was merely a means to calm them from the underlying unease. That had nothing to do with the message that this new sorority sent by boldly declaring their initiation. Neither did it have anything to do with Alex or Gwen's identity. It stemmed from the force backing the establishment of this sorority. The Gaia Relief Corp.
On the surface, it was a widespread non-profit providing relief to the victims of the worldwide disasters that had erupted a little over half a year ago. But it was an open secret that no news outlets were willing to discuss that the Gaia Relief Corp was merely a proxy for Stacy Industries, the megacorp that had grown beyond the scale of a megacorp and controlled more than half of the world. If their planet were likened to a single entity, Stacy Industries owned more than half of it. Many user forums were practically flooded with theories regarding Stacy Industries' true goals, yet without any concrete source, that's all they were, theories. Not to mention, Gwen's public identity had nothing to do with Stacy Industries, considering her father was still in the police. It was a mere coincidence, as most believed, which allowed Gwen to imagine that she could have a normal life.
Still, even conjectures were enough to unsettle these students who sat at the top of the hierarchy within Empire State University. What if Stacy Industries was actually a namesake of Gwen Stacy? What if Alex and Gwen were just proxies for the Gaia Relief Corp to infiltrate their university's channels as a bid for control over the university's resources?
Amidst their jokes, countless conjectures were running through their active, imaginative minds. Unlike old people, however, who would rather dig their feet in and burn all bridges to immediately suppress such a budding organization before it got up on its feet, the seniors all had different internal thoughts and plans while joking around.
Ultimately, after almost two hours of banter and undermining jokes to make light of the situation, the joint conclusion of the six societies attending the council was that they would all work together to suppress Alex and Gwen by discrediting their words and challenging their claims of having such backing and funding. How many of them were going to actually follow through with that decision after winter break was yet to be determined.
…
Eventually, Gwen came through after Alex's thorough coaxing and convincing that lasted for a whole two days. The two of them spent a good chunk of winter break working on the constitution of their budding Greek society, while the rest of it was spent being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Woman.
By the time they were halfway through the constitution, Gwen understood exactly why Alex, the pervert that he was, wanted to insert himself inside a sorority instead of setting up a separate frat house to do the same things. He wanted the authority that came with an official position within a sorority. A fraternity could, at most, invite sorority girls by giving something in return, not giving him the satisfaction that he wanted. On the other hand, putting himself in a position of authority inside a sorority would give him the opportunity to do exactly that.
"Most of your head is filled with sex and stuff, you know that?" Gwen admonished while pointing her finger at him. "We have a week before the unveiling of our sorority, and all we have finalized is the pledging process, which, by the way, might as well be a month-long initiation into a sex camp as opposed to a Greek society."
"And pray tell, what is one of the most prominent traits of the Greek Gods?" Alex asked rhetorically, crossing his arms, not giving in to the urge to suck on Gwen's finger to destroy her momentum. "Inbreeding and fucking anything that moves. Also, let me tell you, the mythos is true enough. Zeus and the rest are just as bad as the mythos depicts them, if not worse."
"Grr…" Gwen let out a frustrated growl, looking at a showpiece that sat in the middle of her house's living room table. She spent a second contemplating whether to hurl it at Alex. "You've told me that tens of times in the past three weeks. That doesn't mean we need to embody specifically that aspect. This is borderline hazing, and I am completely against it."
"They have the choice to leave whenever they want. No one is going to force them," Alex said, shrugging. "Do you want to have this discussion again, or do you want to move on to the more fun stuff?"
Gwen's expression twitched momentarily as she sighed. "Why do you want me to gather MJ, Betty, and Glory at the sorority house at the same time, Alex? Please don't say that you want the three of them to serve you in a foursome."
"Of course not," he said righteously. "Their initiation into the sorority will also involve you."
"Goddamn it!" Her lip twisted, and arcs of electricity appeared on her fingertips. "Stop fondling my boobs! I'm mad at you right now."
"I'm not even touching you," Alex raised his hands in defeat, but the look in his eyes was anything but defeated.
"I'm going to say this one more time, Alex. Stop fondling my tits, or so help me god…"
"Fine," he said as Gwen's bra stopped stirring.
"Come here," she said, taking a deep breath. Grabbing his hand, she led him to her favorite single-seater sofa and had him sit down. Before he could open his mouth to say something, she plopped down on his lap and cupped his cheek, looking at his face with a frowning, concerned expression. "Something is off with you."
Alex couldn't help but let out an amused chortle at her words. "Is that so?" He asked, placing his hand on Gwen's waist and slipping it under her top to caress her bare stomach. At the same time, he placed his other hand on her thigh, gently kneading her skin.
"This was an abrupt change," she said, frowning. "Since halfway through the semester, you've been off. What happened at that time?"
While questioning, her tone was doubtlessly rhetorical, as if posing the question to herself instead of Alex.
"I remember now… It happened right after you broke your bond with one of the others… Jane Foster… Something really is off with you, am I right?"
Alex's amused smile wavered at Gwen's words.
"I'm correct, aren't I?" Gwen asked again after a few seconds, seeing Alex's expression change, but not getting any verbal response from him. She pinched his cheek, as if trying to get his attention. "Alex?"
"Why do you think that?" He asked her with a calm tone, his hand still gently moving along her stomach and caressing her.
"Ever since… Ten Rings…Shang-Chi…Scarlet Witch…All those things happened… you've been, how do I say it gently… irritable," she said between thoughtful pauses. "I've felt it. You grew just a little irritable, just a little impatient…and it's culmination? This meaningless conflict between us. You could have done it your usual way, talked to me, convinced me, but instead, you made a grand declaration, knowing that it would definitely piss me off. After MJ, I agreed to some experimentation with other threesome partners, did I not? Did you not end up getting me into the bed with MJ again? Did you not do the same with Glory? Betty? You know I'll eventually give in, so why this impatience? What changed in you when you broke your bond with Jane Foster?"
"If you ask me so many questions, I'll find it hard to keep track of which ones to answer, and in what order…" Alex smiled wryly, but Gwen didn't smile and continued looking deeply into his eyes while cupping his cheek. He signed in response, leaning his head back, breaking eye contact with Gwen. His hand trailed higher up her stomach and hooked his finger through a thin chain.
Gwen immediately grasped when she felt his finger tugging at her chain. "Alex…"
He took another breath, not messing with the chain further, and instead grasped her left breast, gently squeezing it as his index finger and thumb teased her nipple.
"I don't know, Gwen…" Alex said tiredly. "For once, I really don't know. There's nothing external influencing me anymore…Not since I got rid of the dark influence on my soul. With my current mental defenses, even cosmic entities wouldn't be able to get into my mind without me knowing. The whole thing with Jane was just a culmination of our incompatibilities. Normally, I don't care much about such incompatibilities and adapt, keeping in mind how to work with my hosts. But with Jane…I couldn't. For the first time, one of my hosts…frustrated me. Maybe this is just a continuation of that outburst, but I can't, for the life of me, figure out the why behind all this."
"Stop it…" Gwen said weakly, grabbing Alex's hand and pulling it out of her shirt, choosing to interlace her fingers with his. "And it's fine that you don't know."
"Is it? If I don't, I can't control it. What if…Someday, I started getting annoyed with you. I mean, you've been pretty argumentative with me for the past month. What if I suddenly decide that we are no longer compatible?"
"A Symbiote? One with the same color scheme as Venom not being compatible with a version of Spider-Man?" Gwen scoffed, unaffected by his words. "Try a better threat, Alex. I always know how you feel. If anything, I'm happy that you feel things such as frustration and even end up acting on such emotions. As alien as you are, these emotions are what make you human. And now I also know why you've been like this here."
Alex waited for Gwen to continue, but she looked at him with bright eyes, with a sense of smugness behind them. "Tell me," he obliged Gwen's unspoken demand while moving his other hand that was resting on her thigh. Slipping it inside her shorts, he directly shoved two fingers inside her.
Gwen's answer came with a gasp as she tightened her grip on his hand. "You are just feeling sad that you broke up with one of your girlfriends. You are trying to compensate by fucking tons of other girls. That's why you've been so much more sexually active than usual recently."
"I thought I was the same amount of sexually active…" Alex frowned.
"Yes, but you don't do so much new stuff so consistently. What you usually did was to add some occasional surprises and spice to things. Instead, recently, you've been pushing all sorts of limits with me. I can only assume that you are doing the same with the others."
"I still haven't fucked you anally," he said.
"You know what I mean…" Gwen had to bite her lip to suppress a moan. "Stop toying with my body…" She slapped his hand and grabbed his wrist, trying to pull his hand out of her shorts.
"But I want to, my amazing Gwen," Alex suddenly freed both his hands and wrapped her in a tight hug. She let out a loud squeal in her surprise as her face got pressed against his chest. "You're crazy, you know that? To be able to read me like this…even Wanda, with her partial omniscience and perceptive powers, didn't call me out on this stuff."
Gwen's response was muffled as Alex only hugged her even tighter, making her pat his shoulder weakly, as if admitting defeat.
"I think I'm ready," he said, loosening his arms to let Gwen breathe. "At the end of this week, I'll bond with your nervous system. It's high time I do so."
"What? Not terrified of forming a deeper connection anymore?" She said casually, almost taunting, as she turned her head and rested her ear against his chest.
Alex smiled, bringing a hand up to comb through Gwen's hair, massaging the back of her head. "No," he said. "Not anymore, at least."
"I thought that after hearing my words, you would claim denial. Say that you weren't human, weren't supposed to go through things like mood swings, things that made you ironically…mortal."
"That was my first instinct," he said. "But I am well aware of the influence that a host can have on me. And all six of my hosts are pretty emotional women."
"I don't know about the others, but being near you almost makes it easier for me to express my emotions," Gwen said. "I know that no matter what kind of outburst I have, you will handle it with a smile on your face. Even though sometimes that comes in the form of a spanking or something along those lines…Still, I can say from the bottom of my heart that I have never truly regretted agreeing to that bond of yours. Even if it may have seemed otherwise at some point in time."
"A simple 'I love you' would have sufficed, my Gwen," Alex said with a laugh. "And yes, I love you, too. Come now, I've already called MJ, Betty, and Glory to the new sorority house. It's time for the first members to be initiated into the sorority."
"Oh, come on," Gwen let out a high-pitched whine and frowned at Alex. "During my heartfelt words, you couldn't get the thought of a fivesome out of your mind?"
"I think anything beyond a foursome can be classified as an orgy regardless of the genders," Alex corrected.
"Alex…"
"Come on, it's going to be fun," he said with an excited glint in his eyes. "You, me, your three closest friends, locked in that mansion of a building for a week. It's going to be an experience of a lifetime for them."
"Locked for a week?!" Gwen's eyes widened.
"Of course," Alex said with conviction. "This is the initiation ritual for the founding members. It can't be something as simple as basic fucking."
"It took so much work for me to make things normal with them after all those threesomes, Alex…" Gwen whined as a resigned look appeared in her eyes. "You're going to make it awkward again now that all three of them are getting involved together."
"Not this time," Alex said with a smile that sent a chill down Gwen's spine. "This time, you three are going to get so intimately acquainted with each other that they will become the closest of sisters."
"You clearly don't know them," Gwen sighed in defeat, resigning to whatever nefarious plans Alex had in store while silently praying that her three friends and all of their prospective candidates wouldn't end up getting corrupted by this dangerous slime alien like her.
Alex, easily discerning her thoughts, only laughed and picked her up in his arms, ready to take her to the new sorority house.
…
Alex and Gwen met up with the three potential founders of Epsilon Sigma Upsilon at a cafe near campus instead of the new sorority house, solely because Alex wanted to see everyone's expressions when they saw the building that had been built from scratch in only two weeks.
Before the four women even reached the place, their jaws were already hanging in astonishment. Just like her friends, this was Gwen's first time seeing the new mansion that had emerged within campus grounds.
"Close your mouths, ladies," Alex said. "This is going to serve as our dormitory for the next two and a half years, given that you successfully go through the pledging process and become official members, of course. But I'm not worried about that. Let's go inside."
Walking in through the grand mansion's double doors, they were greeted by a massive hall. Polished marble floors gleamed under the sunlight shining through massive floor-to-ceiling windows just opposite the entrance. Majestic chandeliers hung above them, illuminating the intricate tapestries on the walls and the furniture under their warm glow. Through the windows, they saw the enormous backyard, with a pool and everything one might want. On the left was a curling staircase, leading up to the first and second floors. A number of comfortable couches populated the area around them, with bookshelves populating the area beside the staircase. On the right was the dining hall with an open kitchen that had some basic necessities, along with a door that led to the main kitchen on the side. Lastly, there was the sole barren wall in the massive mansion, with no tapestries to cover it. It merely had an empty shelf that seemed out of place in an otherwise complete mansion. It was the display area for their accolades and trophies, of which they had none.
"You just had to overdo this, didn't you, Alex?" Gwen mumbled, looking around speechlessly.
"This is nothing. Let's go downstairs. That's where we'll have the initiation rituals."
"Of course, he adds a basement." Surprisingly, it was Mary Jane who spoke those words with disbelief lacing her tone. "Do you have a full-on sex dungeon down there, Alex?"
Her words, mixed with the innocent tone that she used while seductively looking at Alex, made Gwen snort, and before Alex could respond, she spoke, "Of course, he has a sex-dungeon down there. And you three are going to be the first ones to be initiated into the sorority."
Mary Jane's words got caught in her throat as she gulped, sharing a look with Elizabeth and Gloria, seeing the mix of apprehension and arousal in their eyes that mirrored her own.
Gwen didn't realize it, but her friends had already been corrupted by Alex despite only having individual threesomes with her and Alex a single time each, with MJ doing it twice since she was more of a horny bitch.
***
Once downstairs, Gwen raised a brow, clearly expecting Alex's usual sex-dungeon design with chains hanging from the ceiling and walls covered with tools, adding dim lighting to set the tone. Instead, the entire area comprised a medium-sized theatre stage with seating space for a little over two hundred in front of it. The only commonality with Alex's sex-dungeon aesthetic that Gwen found was the dim lighting.
"Whoa…" It was Mary Jane who had her eyes sparkling when she saw what waited for them in the basement. Even Gloria and Elizabeth raised their brows in curiosity, their previous apprehension immediately dissipating after not actually seeing a sex dungeon.
Only Gwen had a wry expression on her face, knowing the real reason behind the stage and the whole theatre vibe.
"Are we going to have this theatre all to ourselves, Alex?" Mary Jane asked with shining eyes. "Can we do practice performances here? For our band?"
"When it's free, sure," he shrugged. "But the kinds of performances that I had in mind were a little different. This is where we will have our pledge meetings. Initiation challenges and the like."
"What—"
"You'll know when you officially pledge yourselves to Epsilon Sigma Upsilon," Alex cut Elizabeth off. "As founding members, your initiation will he shorter—lasting only for a week as compared to a month— but also more intense. You will have no breaks, no outside contact until we are finished, and no time to gather yourselves. This entire week, you will spend inside the Epsilon Sigma Upsilon house, devoting yourselves to this sorority and the pledge. Our initiation consists of four major stages: the Oath, the Trial, the Bond, and the Ascent. Each stage will test your conviction, loyalty, discipline, and drive. Instead of having a week to complete each stage, you will only have two days each, and I will be personally overseeing and supervising everything."
"A bit too grandiose, Alex," Gwen whispered from the side, bringing him back down to reality. "Why don't you tell them the actual benefits of joining our sorority first?"
"Yeah, tell us the benefits, Alex~" Mary Jane cooed, bending forward and giving him an enticing view of her ample cleavage. "I'm sure you're going to get more than enough benefits from us. Right, Betty? Glory?"
Elizabeth and Gloria shared a speechless look with their enthusiastic redhead friend before switching to entirely different expressions.
"Yeah, tell us, Alex," Elizabeth said suggestively while Gloria directly stepped closer to him and hugged his arm, repeating the same words.
Alex gave Gwen a speechless look, surprised by the sudden shift.
"You know," Gwen decided to lean into it and smiled with amusement. "You'll need to give some serious benefits if you want to have sorority girls lining up to fuck you. It's already the second semester, and those who were going to join societies and clubs have already joined. Without a solid start, we won't have anything to stand on when the next year eventually starts."
"It has a simple and direct benefit, really," Alex said directly, patting Gloria's head with his free hand.
She didn't seem to mind and merely giggled teasingly, tightening her grip over his arm and letting him feel her breasts, making Alex shake his head before he continued speaking.
"No matter what life path you choose to go on in the future, you will have the full support of the Gaia Relief Corp for five years after university. If you want to secure a job, they will help you get interviews at the best companies. If you want to start a company, they will be your angel investors. If you want to become an artist, they will take care of your living expenses. Hell, even if you want to travel the world after university and explore, they will fund you. Five years to follow whatever dream or passion you wish for. Even after all that, if you still fail, they will help you find a way to survive in the world."
Let alone the three women, even Gwen was looking at Alex with a raised brow. She knew that he was lavish and didn't care about money or resources, but giving this many benefits to a simple sorority club was still a little over the top. Such benefits had left all four of them stunned.
"Are you serious?" Mary Jane raised her brow, a disbelieving look in her eyes as all signs of her previous playfulness disappeared.
"Dead serious, MJ," Alex said with a smile. "The others may not know about the fact that I own the Gaia Relief Corp and Stacy Industries, but you three do, right? I plan to form such societies all over the world, investing in talented individuals in all of the topmost universities. In the next decade or two, my investments will bear fruit in the form of the next generation of world leaders, forming the true core of the Gaia Relief Corp and Stacy Industries. I will deploy the ambitious ones as division heads for each country's division as my proxies, giving them even more authority and autonomy than the current division heads. Even the most talented of people need nurturing and guidance."
"I usually keep this in the back of my mind to keep it from affecting me too much, but…" Mary Jane shared a look with her two black-haired friends. "You like…own half the world right now, don't you?"
"Roughly," Alex shrugged casually before turning to Gloria, who had a slightly pale complexion.
Freeing his arm from her grip, he pulled her closer and let her rest her head on his shoulder.
"None of this, beyond the benefits I told you about, is to be shared with anyone. We've had this talk before, right?" He said sternly.
The three of them nodded while Gwen looked at Gloria's expression with narrowed eyes.
"All right then, now comes the challenge for those who wish to receive the benefits that I told you about," Alex said, changing his tone to a less stern, yet also not casual. "To pledge to this society is no simple task. The four stages that I told you about? Each of them is going to push you three to your limits. Do you understand?"
"Yes, sir," the three women said with emphatic enthusiasm, bordering on mocking.
"That's the spirit," Alex nodded. "Now strip."
"W-what?" Elizabeth froze in her place and looked at Alex with wide eyes.
"You heard me," he said. "Look to the walls on our left and right sides. What do you see, Betty? What does that massive curtain in front showcase?"
"Muruls…Greek murals. Depicting…the gods."
"And what do they depict?" Alex said. "The lifestyle of the Greek gods. Pure, unadulterated debauchery, uninhibitedly expressing their sexual desires. This hall has that lifestyle as its foundation. Consider this the first tradition of this sorority. No clothes allowed in this hall. If one has any accessories that they wish to continue wearing, they must have either the approval of the Chancellor or the Chapter President."
"You should have expected this when you signed on, girls," Gwen sighed. "I'll give you the option to turn back if you really can't take it."
Looking at none of the three women taking any initiative, Gwen's expression twitched. She understood that she had to take the lead and embrace her role as Chapter President. With that decision, she started unbuttoning her shirt. The other three, after some hesitation, finally followed her lead.
Within two minutes, four naked women were standing at the entrance of the massive hall. Suddenly, the walk up to the stage seemed to become a lot more daunting as opposed to before. Despite the seats on both sides being empty, they couldn't help but feel conscious as their hearts raced.
"You too, Mr. Chancellor," Gwen said with a teasing smile, swaying her naked torso in front of him. Alex involuntarily gulped when he saw the chain hanging from Gwen's nipple piercings swaying in tandem with her. "We can't be the only ones this no clothes rule applies to, right?"
"I know, I know," Alex said and immediately got rid of his clothing, proudly displaying his cock to the four women. "To the stage, ladies."
With his words, he wrapped an arm around Gwen and another around Mary Jane before leading the two forward as Elizabeth and Gloria were compelled to follow behind them.
The redhead, despite the stuff that she'd done with him and Gwen in their two threesomes, felt squeamish as she was led through the aisle and to the stage. Even though the seats were empty, their sheer existence seemed to make the three women conscious as they unconsciously lowered their gazes.
Alex didn't comment on their demeanor and instead decided to explain the pledging process beyond the names of the four stages.
"The first stage, Oath, is a way to physically express and represent the rules and expectations of the Epsilon Sigma Upsilon society upon you. For the next two days, the three of you will work under Gwen to bind yourselves with ropes. Once you are able to successfully able to apply your respective self-bondage tie successfully without any outside support, we will conclude the first stage with the recital of your oath to the society while you are in that bound state. The ropes will serve as the representation of the oath that you make."
"I think you would be much better at teaching them self-bondage, Alex," Gwen said. "You are the only one with experience here with tying women up."
"I'd rather delegate," he said. "You know, to enjoy the view. I could always initiate things by teaching you first if that's what you want."
Thinking of being tied up in all sorts of ways in front of her bandmates made Gwen shake her head in adamant refusal.
"Moving on," Alex said, noticing that the shoulders of the three conscious women had straightened back up as they gazed at the stage in front of them. He continued as they climbed up to the stage. "The trial will be the opposite. I will tie you up, and you are to free yourselves from those bindings. This represents your autonomy within the sorority. This stage will mark a significant parting between the members, forming them into two types. One would be those who couldn't free themselves even after the stage's week has concluded. Those who freed themselves will be the true sisters of the sorority. The rest will be secondary members, and their pledging will conclude at the second stage. They will essentially be equivalent to interns who have to obey the commands of the main members of the sorority. Of course, they will have multiple chances for redemption. The month-long pledge will be done every semester as opposed to annually. They can participate in every such pledge for multiple chances."
"I'm not sure a class system is the best idea," Mary Jane said with a frown as she paused in front of the stairs that led to the top of the stage, making Alex stop as well.
"It's going to work. I know it," Alex said, not pushing her to get up the stairs just yet. "The third will be the Bond, the relationship of the pledging sister with the Chapter President and the Chancellor. Its purpose is to expose your inner self in front of all your sisters. And finally, we have the ascent. It is equivalent to a trust exercise. You are to bind yourself once again before the two leaders will join you for multiple nights of bonding. This will represent the true and final commitment of the sorority sister to this society."
"Is it just me, or does all of this sound like a threesome with extra steps?" Gloria chimed in from the side.
"What did you expect from him?" Gwen said sharply. "This whole sorority thing is an excuse for group sexual acts. It's more of a sex club than anything else."
"In my defense, most frats and sororities are sex clubs. It's the whole Greek thing, you know?" Alex laughed before finally leading the women up to the stage.
***
Climbing up on the stage from the stairs on the side, all four women, even Gwen, felt shivers go down their naked spines as goosebumps rose on their bodies. Even though the curtains were still drawn, not exposing them to the rest of the hall, even though there was no one actually in the hall, just the mental pressure of being on stage, exposing themselves completely, was enough to make them react in such a manner.
Instinctively, Elizabeth's arm went over her chest as her hand covered her crotch, feeling extremely conscious.
"Just imagine your audience to be naked as well, girls," Alex said, glancing at Elizabeth. "They actually will be this time, no need to worry. Unlike our future initiates, this stage will be your home for the next week. There is a large bathroom beyond that door for your necessities, and I will bring you your meals every day. The rest of your time will be spent in bondage, your waking hours will be spent practicing with Gwen to bind yourselves, while your nights will be spent in restraints to hone. Do you understand why?"
"To drive home the fact that the rules of this sorority now restrain us?" Gloria chimed in. "This is the purpose of the Oath, yes?"
"Correct. You three have an advantage in this regard, as we will only spend two days on this particular aspect of the pledge. The new initiates will have to spend the entire week sleeping in restraints. Then again, their sessions will only convene during the evening, giving them time to recover and attend their classes, which you three won't get."
"Bring it on!" Mary Jane exclaimed, more to hype herself up than anything. However, her words seemed to have a positive effect, as they calmed Elizabeth and Gloria down as well.
"Then let's get this show on the road," Alex smiled before stepping away. "Gwen, if you will. I'll be sitting in my spot. Give me a heads up when you want me to open the curtains."
Alex walked through the curtains, followed by a thud as he jumped off the stage and landed on the ground. That left Gwen and her three friends, all naked, standing on a grand stage, with nothing but a curtain hiding them from the empty seats of the hall.
"Gwen," Mary Jane said with her eyes stuck on Gwen's chest. Not the size—they were comparable in that—but the chains attached to her nipples. "I have to ask…where did you find Alex?
He's like…really freaky…but also really dreamy…"
"Ugh, don't ask," Gwen shook her head and walked to the side, opening a large double-door cabinet embedded into the wall. "It's barely been a year with him, and it feels as if I've already lost all my inhibitions. For god's sake, I'm serving as the president of his own private sex club willingly."
Gloria gasped when she saw all the things filling the cabinet.
"Sex toys…restraints…so many…Does your Stacy Industries have a sister business selling sex toys? This stuff must have cost a fortune."
"Knowing him, there should be a storage unit filled with ten times as many of those," Mary Jane said with an expression of reminiscence. "Mind turning around, Gwen?"
The blonde gave Mary Jane an exasperated look. "The chain and piercings are permanent, but I'm not going to walk around here naked with anything else on me."
"That so?" The redhead said, disappointed. "Pity."
"I know just the way to make it less pitiful," Gwen said with a menacing smile. "Since Alex wants a show, I'll give him a show. Hands behind your back, no covering yourself. It's time I exercise some of my rights as the Chapter President. This first one is to get you a feel of how such restraints are going to feel and what you are to learn in the next two days."
Gwen's words immediately made the three women uneasy, especially her expression as she grabbed multiple bundles of red rope from inside the closet.
…
A little over half an hour passed before Gwen finally gave Alex the signal to open the curtains.
A faint smile appeared on his face as he stopped fiddling with the hologram that was projected from the bracelet on his wrist. He was sitting on a large throne-like chair that seemed to be floating above the rest of the seats in the hall. With a panel descending from the ceiling, a platform formed in the air that held two thrones, one for him and one for Gwen. He pressed a button on the side of his throne, and the curtains immediately stirred and parted to reveal the stage.
With the parting of the curtains, the first person to be revealed was Gwen, standing in the center as she looked up at Alex with a mix of pride and hints of annoyance as she noticed the two gaudy thrones that gave the best view of the stage and towered above everything and everyone.
[You're so over the top…]
[And you love me for it. When I make a grand romantic gesture for you, it's going to involve multiple planets.]
An imperceptible blush appeared on Gwen's face as her gaze faltered. Still, she quickly composed herself as the curtains parted further, revealing her three friends in different kinds of bound states.
Mary Jane was in the middle, kneeling with her knees spread apart and exposing her waxed, dripping entrance with not a hint of hair. Ropes were wrapped around her legs, forcing them to stay folded in a tight frog tie. Her torso had a set of ropes tied around her stomach, compressing it while also keeping her arms taut against her body. Another set was wrapped around her breasts, compressing the two lumps of flesh from all sides, emphasizing them significantly. Her already perky and erect nipples had clamps hanging from them, compressing the nubs and making every movement painful. Her throat had a collar on it—leather, with a metal plate that had been engraved on it: VP of Standards. That was going to be her official designation after the pledging was concluded. The final addition of a blindfold, taking away her sight, made her seem almost like art, especially with her long hair cascading down her body, some of it covering parts of her breasts, and her expression—biting her lower lip from the anxious mystery of the situation as her heart raced.
Elizabeth was on her left, similarly blindfolded, with a collar that titled her: VP of Communications. But that was where the similarities ended. She was standing upright, with her arms behind her back, as ropes wrapped around her body. A masterful hishi karada restrained her torso, compressing her chest and emphasizing her breasts—also decorated with identical nipple clamps as Mary Jane, wrapping around her stomach, making her exert effort for every breath, and finally, two ropes going between her crotch, on the sides of her labia, and pronouncing her shaved entrance, with hints of hair visible. It didn't end there, however, the ropes went down from her sides and wrapped in three sets around her legs, one in the middle of her thighs, one just below her knees, and the last one on her ankles. The ropes forced her to stay upright, not giving her the slightest wiggle room as her tantalizing state was revealed to Alex.
Finally, the rightmost one, Gloria. She seemed to have the most difficult one and was lying on her stomach with her legs folded back, tied to her arms. She was hogtied, with ropes going all around her torso and legs, keeping her restrained and pressured from all sides, while also forcing her arms and legs to be bent backwards and tied together. The engraving on her collar titled her with the post of VP of Operations. In addition to the blindfold that kept her on her toes, metaphorically, she also had a ball gag shoved inside her mouth, constantly dripping her drool all over her chin and the floor. Alex also noticed hints of metal under her as she wiggled and momentarily revealed her breasts, telling him that her nipples were also clamped like the other two.
"Greetings, Mr. Chancellor." Gwen's words immediately made all three women stiffen even further upon the realization that they were both restrained and exposed. "The three initiates behind me will be among the founding sisters of our budding sorority. On their collars, you can see their future designations. Allow me to introduce them to you, starting with Mary Jane Watson, our future Vice President of Standards." At some point, a crop appeared in Gwen's hand as she approached Mary Jane and placed her palm on the top of her head. "The restraints she has, forcing her down to the ground in submission, suppressing and controlling her body, hindering her breathing…" The crop in Gwen's hand rested on Mary Jane's thigh and slowly trailed higher and struck her belly, making an audible gasp escape the redhead's lips. "…forcing her spine upright, all represent her being bound to our rules in the strictest fashion. She will be the one handling our initiates post joining and holding everyone accountable to the standard of our sorority. Internal disputes among the sisters, discipline, and the enforcement of our constitution will all go through her."
Gwen brought the crop close to Mary Jane's breasts, stirring her clamps and making the redhead squirm uncomfortably as she let out suppressed squeals. After a few seconds, she showed a satisfied expression and moved on to the next person.
"Next up is Elizabeth, or, as she prefers to be called, Betty," Gwen said, stepping closer to the only woman among the three who stood upright. "She is going to be our Vice President of Communications." Gwen's wrist flicked, and the crop in her hand landed square on Elizabeth's ass, making her squeal more from the surprise than the pain. She shook in her place as the clamps stirred, cascading into further stimulation that almost made her lose her balance.
"As our VP of Communications, Betty's job will boil down to public relations. Publicizing our events, establishing a solid presence on social media, organizing recruitment drives, and more. To represent that, she has chosen a restraint that will allow her to stand firm and upright, showcasing herself proudly. As the one responsible for the public presence of Epsilon Sigma Upsilon, she must keep herself balanced. Hold herself accountable," Gwen gently cropped her thigh, making her squirm as she struggled to keep her balance. "She must keep herself upright and balanced while embodying our rules that bind her. And this is the manner of restraint that best represents that."
Next, Gwen moved to the last initiate, Gloria, who was in the most restrictive position, giving her the least wiggle room compared to her companions.
"Gloria, or, as she prefers, Glory," Gwen knelt beside her and patted her head gently. "She will serve as the VP of Operations. She will be responsible for handling our logistics and finances while also being the one responsible for screening potential candidates and determining whether or not they are worthy of becoming our sisters. She will also serve as a safe space for our members to share their grievances. Whether it be with someone in the management that they can't talk about, or someone else. That is why there is the addition of a gag on her. For such a role, confidentiality is a must. Not everyone who vents their grievances will want to take action. Her role will have the strictest requirements for discipline and adherence to the constitution, hence the manner of her restraint. Embodying the strictest rules, yet maintaining her levelheadedness and dealing with unexpected situations, is something she must and will excel at.
Gwen gave a snort bow to Alex, smirking at him as she stepped forward, waiting for his response.
His response was a resounding applause and a thick tentacle that shot out of his back. It immediately wrapped around her waist before pulling her up to the elevated throne area. The only reason she didn't yelp in surprise was that she had anticipated his movement by the look in his eyes and a timely warning from her Spider-Sense.
"You overdid yourself," Alex said, running his fingers through her hair and pulling her close as his other hand cupped her ass. "It seems that my ambitious plans got to you, huh?"
"What can I say?" Gwen shrugged, snuggling closer to him and wrapping her arms around his neck. "I get your point… These investments will get you both immense respect and fierce loyalty as long as you do it correctly. I was never a fan of you placing hypnotized puppets all over the world to oversee Gaia Relief's divisions. With this, in at most two decades, you will have conscious people leading all of those divisions with a constant influx of talent. It's an ever-increasing cycle. Plus, who knows how many of those investments turn out to be superheroes later in life? I'm sure you are making similar investments for the Inhumans and X-Men as well, aren't you? You are already planning to have the next generation of the Illuminati work for you…"
"You're such a smart girl, Gwenny," Alex said, kissing her forehead. "Showing off in front of your daddy…"
"Alex…" Gwen's arms tightened around Alex's neck as she pulled back, forcing him to bend slightly as she looked into his eyes while putting pressure on his neck. "I'm not calling you daddy."
"A man can hope," Alex said as a strained expression appeared on his face. While unaffected, he had learned to play along with Gwen solely to satisfy Gwen. And she was aware, as shown by the happy smile that appeared on her face. She immediately followed up by jumping up and wrapping her legs around him.
"Should we get the show moving? They are getting restless," she whispered in his ear. "Also, I'm getting kinda horny with all this talk of world domination and sex clubs…"
Alex smiled a knowing smile and firmly cupped Gwen's butt before sitting back down on his throne while having her straddle him. She moaned a little as he slowly entered her, lowering her all the way down.
"Damn, Alex…" She moaned, biting his ear gently.
"You try and try to maintain your beacon of righteousness, but it's all a facade, Gwen," Alex whispered while grasping her thighs and making her rise up. "Ultimately, you like this whole sorority thing just as much as I do, if not more so."
Gwen didn't respond, choosing to bite Alex's ear to suppress her moan as Alex moved her higher before dropping her down.
Alex smiled, finally turning his attention to the stage, where the three ladies were stirring in their bonds, not having heard anything in over five minutes. They were getting restless, but not restless enough to forget about their directives.
"Ladies," Alex called out with a deep voice. "Your hands will be freed in a bit. Get yourselves out of those bindings. Take the rest of the day to relax, bring your mind to terms with the fact that you are now a part of something so much bigger than yourselves that is also perverse in its own way. Read through online resources for shibari and self-bondage if you want. Tonight at ten, sharp, I want you three back on that stage, naked and ready to be initiated. If you are a second late, there will be consequences. Do you understand?"
The three—well, two— women exclaimed with conviction while the third let out an inelligible grunt through the gag inside her mouth. But their spirits were all in the same direction.
With their response, three tendrils shot out of Alex's back and released the ropes tying the three women's arms. He then stopped paying attention to them and gave it all to the blonde straddling him. He raised her high up such that her tits were right in front of her face. Grabbing on to the chain connecting her breasts with his teeth, he slammed her down on his cock, yanking her nipples as she was immediately pierced to her depths.
No longer able to suppress her moans, Gwen let go of Alex's ear and tightly hugged his head, letting out tantalizing moans as he increased the speed at which he fucked her.
On the other hand, the three women prioritized getting rid of their blindfolds, only to notice their to-be leaders fucking without a care in the world on the floating throne.
"How did I not see that before?" Mary Jane mumbled while loosening her ropes.
"Maybe you were too focused on flirting with Alex," Elizabeth shot at her.
"Stop fighting and get yourselves free. I think I'll need some help. My arms got tangled again…" Gloria said while rolling around on the floor.
"Do you think Alex will make Glory a secondary member while also giving her the title and position if she fails to get herself free in the second round?" Mary Jane asked with a laugh. "A Vice President who also serves as a maid. That would be novel."
…
Alex and Gwen spent the rest of the day fucking in different positions all around the hall. On the stage, while hanging from the ceiling, on the floor, and on multiple seats, leaving their traces all over the auditorium hall.
Even though the two of them had lost track of time while indulging each other, Mary Jane, Elizabeth, and Gloria hadn't. The three of them entered the auditorium three minutes before the stipulated time that had been given to them, already naked and ready for their initiation. Their conviction immediately faltered when they heard Gwen's loud moans mixed in with Alex's occasional grunts and noticed the two having rough sex right below the stage. Gwen was bent over, with her hands on the edge of the stage, supporting her as Alex roughly railed her from behind.
The three of them shared confused and somewhat helpless looks before shrugging and walking toward the stage anyway.
Alex and Gwen didn't seem like they noticed their arrival at all, and continued indulging in each other. By the time the girls got close enough, they heard Gwen's loud moan as she started shuddering, only for Alex to grunt as well as he pulled her into his arms, hugging her tightly.
"You guys finished?" Mary Jane asked wryly. "We're here on time…"
"Hi, ladies," Alex said with a light smile, and gently rubbed Gwen's stomach and breasts, lightly tugging her chain as she squirmed in his arms. "Go up on the stage. I'll give you two hours of self-study and practice before giving you a physical demonstration. You will stay in your respective restraints as before overnight. Try to get yourselves comfortable with sleeping while you are restrained. That won't go away after initiation. A lot of our future events that I have planned will include bondage."
The three of them nodded as Alex took the chance to jump up to his throne while no one was looking. After all, they only knew him as a successful businessman with no superpowers. Even then, Alex had no plans to stop what he and Gwen were doing. All he did was sit down on his throne and let Gwen sit on his lap with her back facing him.
He left the three women to their devices, leaving them speechless as they looked at him up on his throne, not letting go of Gwen for a single moment. Still, that gave them the freedom to experiment and play around with the ropes whilst trying to tie themselves up. Of course, Gwen's constant moaning was making the women feel things that they would rather suppress in their current situation, but it was still distracting.
As two hours passed, none of them had made any significant headway, still getting tangled up in the ropes without being able to tie anything with the artistic precision that Gwen had done previously.
It was at this point that Alex and Gwen finally stopped indulging in each other and brought their attention to the three women, wholly inexperienced with bondage, as they fumbled around, getting tangled up in ropes in the name of being restrained.
"Mind if I show them how it's done?" Alex asked Gwen, gently massaging her breasts with both his hands. "You won't get jealous, will you?"
"Sure, Alex, go for it. As long as they don't mind," she said tiredly. "I need to rest for a bit anyway…"
Alex smiled and kissed her hair before holding her hips and pulling her up off his dick. Standing up, he set her down on his throne and fixed her posture.
"I almost want to take a picture of this scene…you limply sitting on my throne with her legs spread like this as my cum drips out of your pussy."
"Go away…" Gwen waved her arm at him and curled up, leaning her head in the headrest while bringing both her legs up to the seat.
***
Since the women were looking at him, Alex descended from the actual method of traveling to and from the throne this time. Tapping his foot on the edge of the stage, he waited as a set of stairs emerged from the floor, leading to the front of the stage. He started descending as the staircase was still forming, his eyes darting between the three speechless women who had a faint expression of awe in their eyes as they looked at his descent. They were all tangled up in different ways, sitting on the floor and exposing themselves in embarrassing positions, but none of them seemed to realize it. Or if they did, they weren't conscious of it anymore.
"All right, pay close attention to what I do and freely ask any questions you have. You only have two days to tie yourselves into your chosen restraints. If you fail by the end of Tuesday night, I can only conclude that you are not the best fit for this society. There is no secondary member position for those who fail the first trial. While seemingly a casual bondage thing, this is a test of your commitment. These restraints aren't literally the bylaws and constitution, obviously; their purpose is to make you understand that you will work as per our instructions. By restraining yourselves as per your positions, you will show me that you have the capability and conviction to handle this responsibility."
Hearing Alex's words, the playfulness seemed to vanish from all three of their faces as they nodded at him.
"We understand, Chancellor," Mary Jane said. "We will take this seriously."
"Good," he nodded. "Let's get you out of these ropes."
Within a few seconds, Alex had pulled them out of the tangled ropes, leaving them both surprised and impressed.
"You're a full-fledged bondage master, huh, Chancellor?" Elizabeth said, giggling as she waved her arms a little to fix her stiff joints.
"Here, put this cream all over your bodies, specifically the joints and muscles that will be most strained in your respective restraints. I don't want you waking up incapacitated tomorrow morning."
Looking at the nameless tube in Alex's hand, Mary Jane didn't hesitate to take it and pour a generous amount of the cream on her palm. The other two also followed, not asking what it was or if it was even approved for use. Alex had exposed them to enough that they knew about a sliver of his resources and depth.
In the meantime, Alex prepared the ropes that they had left tangled up to restrain them while enjoying the view of the three sexy women rubbing themselves until a glossy sheen appeared on their skins.
"First off, the collars," Alex said. "These will be locked in place, not to be taken off again until the end of the week. These represent your identities as both initiates and what potential positions you will have. Once you complete the pledge, it will be upgraded into a sleeker and more stylish choker with special features. I will introduce it to you when the time comes."
Alex grabbed the three collars and stepped closer to Elizabeth first. Her bangs allowed Alex to easily clasp the collar on her throat without her having to raise it up. She let out a gasp as the click of the lock sounded out.
"Surprised?" Alex asked, patting her butt. "Try to get used to its presence, okay?"
"O-okay," she nodded, not minding Alex's touch.
He repeated the process for Mary Jane and Glory, seeing similar reactions from them as they felt the collar being locked on their throats.
Next, he started restraining them while giving a deep explanation of every kind of loop and tie that he made. This one, he started with Mary Jane, tying her up and touching her all over her body in the process to explain what ropes were supposed to pressure what parts. She didn't mind and even leaned into his touch, expressing her thoughts clearly.
Then he did the same for the other two women, receiving similar responses, albeit a bit more mellow as opposed to Mary Jane, who loved flirting with him and was on the confident side. Still, all three of them had at some point or other had very intimate contact with him and Gwen during their respective threesomes, and were very comfortable with being his touch, intimate or otherwise.
Once he was finished, he stepped back to admire his handiwork for a while. He didn't add any of the accessories that Gwen had, except for the ball gag in Gloria's mouth. That one represented the position she was going to have and was a part of her Oath.
"What about beds? You won't just leave us to sleep on the floor, will you?" Mary Jane asked, seductively swaying her upper body and breasts at him freely now that no clamps were assaulting her nipples.
"Technically yes, but no, I'm not cruel," Alex smiled, stepping away to the wall other than the one that held the massive cabinet of sex toys and restraints. Opening a cabinet, stepping aside, and immediately, a massive roll of cloth emerged from the cabinet, going across the stage. It unfolded further, spreading apart to cover the entire front section of the stage. As the previously compressed memory foam inflated completely, it formed into a soft and comfortable-looking bed.
"This will be your bed for the first section of the pledge. Only if you successfully take the oath will you be provided with your own dormitories. Because at that point, you will at least be a secondary member even if you fail the second stage."
Alex gently picked the three of them up and laid them down on the soft and fluffy mattress, leaving behind some final words.
"I'll be up in the master bedroom on the third floor," Alex said. "If you desperately need anything, just call out; a hidden mic is connected to my room. Both Gwen and I will hear you. Don't fuck around, it won't take too long for me to mute it. Then you won't be able to call me if you need help."
After a few more warnings, Alex went back up the stairs to his throne and picked Gwen up in his arms. Instead of getting off the platform, he pressed another button, and the whole thing started rising, eventually disappearing into the ceiling.
"Do you ever feel like some of the things he does don't make sense…" Elizabeth asked, wiggling around to get herself into a comfortable position.
"He's rich. He doesn't need to make sense," Mary Jane said. "Especially considering that he's like trillions rich with no one the wiser. I forgot to ask for a blanket…"
"Look at the mattress," Alex's voice suddenly came through a speaker. "There should be individual seams for you all to wiggle into like a sleeping bag. The foam will naturally shape correctly and let you raise your heads a little as well."
Despite the initial startle, they quickly realized what he was talking about and wiggled into the blankets, making themselves comfortable, at least as much as they could considering their restraints.
"Thank you, Daddy Alex," Mary Jane called out. "And good night."
Mary Jane's words made Elizabeth's eyes light up as she seemed to recall something.
"Yeah, good night, Daddy Alex~" She also called out at the same time as Gloria, whose muffled groan seemed to mean the same words.
Alex chuckled, "Good night to you, too, girls."
He'd previously teased Gwen about her calling him daddy with all three of them, and their sudden callback made him laugh at the same time as it made Gwen's expression sour.
…
In the following days, all three pledges showed remarkable drive and enthusiasm, doing their best and pushing their limits as they almost perfectly replicated their respective restraints and reached the same level as Gwen had when she first tied them up. Getting to Alex's level was a lot more challenging and required a lot more practice. Still, their performance was excellent and satisfied both Alex and Gwen. With that, they were finally provided with their own dormitory rooms on the second floor. They also slowly understood more about the system.
The third floor was officially the master bedroom, but in reality, it was equivalent to a penthouse suite with how much area it had. That was Alex and Gwen's residence. The three Vice Presidents were given limited access to it so that they could reach Alex and Gwen in case of something important. The second floor consisted of rooms for all of the official sisters who had passed the entire pledging process, with everyone getting individual rooms. They all had attached bathrooms and were more like small apartments as opposed to single-room dormitories. Those came on the first floor. Shared two-person dormitories for the secondary members who failed in the second round but still got to join them.
In all, the house could hold almost a hundred and fifty members aside from Alex and Gwen, fifty sisters, and a hundred secondary sisters. Among them, the position of President would be something that was passed on by the sitting Chapter President, while the three Vice President positions would be decided by annual elections. As for the Chancellor, that was an honorary role in the first place and would only be possessed by Alex, even after he graduated.
The second stage of the pledge started on the morning of Wednesday for Mary Jane, Elizabeth, and Gloria, giving them some amount of time to rest and relax in their respective dormitories as they got to sleep without being bound. That very morning, they were tied up in identical positions that were a lot more restrictive and demeaning than the ones in which they had done their oaths. Their arms and legs were folded and restrained while ropes went all along their bodies in a harness, compressing their chests and stomachs, as a knotted crotch rope went between their legs, constantly rubbing against their entrance. While they could freely move around, it was far more humiliating and demeaning to be forced to crawl around like that all the time.
And unlike before, where they received eating and bathroom breaks from the bondage training to rest and relax, this time, there was no such thing allowed. Water was provided to them in bowls, forcing them to bury their face in it to drink. As for sustenance, they had to survive on nutrient solutions instead of actual food. That was to make bathroom breaks easier to handle, as all Alex had to do was open the door for them. As another point of challenge, Alex retightened the ropes on their bodies at the end of Wednesday, forcing them to start again as they slept in their respective beds while helplessly restrained like pets.
The only thing that kept them safe from that intense and semi-permanent bondage was the nameless cream that was regularly rubbed on their bodies either by Alex or Gwen. Otherwise, they would probably get injured.
Still, the three women persevered successfully and freed themselves from the restraints before Thursday ended, with Mary Jane being the first, who freed herself during lunchtime and spent the rest of the day gloating in front of Elizabeth and Gloria. Still, the other two also freed themselves before dinner. Their success once again allowed them to have a night of peaceful sleep, as the third stage of the pledge would start Friday morning.
***