Setting the Stage
#1 of Probing Mysteries (One)
Who had done it? five of them wondered, while the sixth tried to conceal hir knowledge. Before them lay the quivering form of their hostess, Stella Night, who had regaled them with fascinating and elaborate small-talk of the highest calibre just that afternoon. One of the six, it seemed, had grown tired, and decided to stuff up hir mouth. Stella's mouth now lay open, releasing small moans of ecstasy as, even hours after hir lover(?) had freshened up, hir cock still stood turgid, and both cock and pussy dripped the twin juices of love.
Captain Jane Ginger, a feline of ambiguous ancestry, snapped hir fingers. The other five jumped at the sudden noise, and Jane, seeing that shi had their attention, spoke: "If whoever did this won't speak up and let us see a repeat performance, I suppose we'll just have to work out who did it. I say we split up. It's not as if it's a murder or anything that would put us in danger on our own. Separate, we can cover more ground. Oh, except for you, Professor." Captain Ginger took a hold of the purple squirrel's arm. "You're coming with me."
Professor Minnie Violet yelped and flailed. In hir surprise, shi nearly dislodged hir pince-nez. Nevertheless, shi followed the Captain along, as both of their pants began to visibly bulge. The other four turned to each other. "Well," the maid said, "I suppose ze ozer servants might know somezing. You can interview zem. I 'ave got my own lead to follow."
Recora Indigo sniffed. Interviewing mere servants like these, really! They were utterly beneath hir! Though, as shi took a closer look, shi realized that shi really wouldn't mind seeing them beneath hir a bit more.
"So I was saying, missus Indigo, the cook and I, we ain't neither of us seen anybody else this evening. As to how they could've done it, I suppose it couldn't've been the rope, seeing as we've had it to ourselves all this time." The greyish mouse inhaled, but Recora cut hir off. "What, sorry? Oh, yes... I suppose that's all I needed to know." The blue wolf turned to leave. "One more thing, actually." Shi drew hirself up to hir full height. "What," hir voiced boomed, "did you say your names were?"
Sorre Rose extended a paw very nearly the color of newly-chewed bubble gum. "Well, Auriel, ready to look around? I sense a scandal, and where there's a scandal, there's often money to be made."
"You sense scandals? Is that how you always end up at the center of them?"
"Why, yes. To entertain any other possibility would simply be uncharitable."
"And, at the same time, would give me just as much reason to tail you."
"Auriel, don't be silly. You don't need a reason to be on my tail." The green raccoon blushed. The color of the blush will be left as an exercise to the reader.
"Anyway," the fox continued, "I heard quite a bit of rummaging about up at the northeast corner, so I assume something was going on involving that room."
Minnie had long since regained hir poise. "So, Captain," shi purred, "What are we off to do?"
"One important lesson that I learned in all my years of enforcing military discipline," Captain Ginger lightly slapped the squirrel's rump, "is the importance of building trust. During my term of service, I learned many tried-and-true techniques for ensuring that I could trust those I worked with. For this trust-building exercise," the orange feline, striped with a shade of orange so dark as to almost be black, began to undo the buttons on the uniform shi still wore to formal occasions, "we shall be skyclad."
Martina Pearl stepped through the southernmost door in Stella Night's oddly-designed mansion. Shi had shed hir maid's uniform in favor of a loose-fitting, unconstraining smock, some coarse gloves, and sensible shoes. The rabbit paused to grab a leaf off of one of hir greenhouse's more normal residents. Shi popped it into hir mouth, and chewed on it hastily.
"Excuse me," shi had shed, as well, the accent that shi affected for the majority of hir duties, "But did anybody besides myself and my partner come in here tonight?"
One of the plants stirred, shook itself, and rose up. With surprising fluency, it saidusing a set of leaves that would look like a mouth if you were to first take a strip off the side of one of them, roll it up, and set it alight"No, just you two. We've been so lonely, and nobody's bothered to feed us. Could you..." with a vine, it gestured to the bottom of the maid's smock.
Shi sighed. "Very well. Open wide." With a practiced flourish, shi discarded the garment, revealing that shi had left no part of hir uniform on. Hir cock, which had been constantly stimulated by the rough material, and only held down by its weight, sprang up, as its burden was relieved. Shi was more careful with hir gloves, removing them daintily and clamping hir teeth around them. Hir hands, somehow still delicate even after all the work shi had evidently put into raising the plants, grasped hir cock with a practiced touch. Shi stroked, first lightly, to coax more of hir blood into its throbbing length, then more vigorously. Around the gloves, which shi had held onto with unfailing jaw, shi squeaked lightly. As hir climax drew near, shi took one, then both hands off of hir cock, and instead ran them over hir heaving breasts, first groping the fleshy globes, then tweaking the erect nipples. With a particularly violent tweak, moan, and shudder, shi planted hir seedthat is to say, shi gave the abnormally active plant some extra sugarit came to pass that...shi jizzed.
Several minutes later, the white rabbit exited the greenhouse, fully clothed and slightly flushed.
Sorre grunted. "Damnable! Door! Won't! Budge!" Shi slumped against the wall, panting.
"Oh, that, the door's just a bit sticky, is all. First, you have to push!" Auriel Malach threw hirself against the stubborn door. "Then pull." It opened smoothly. Sorre stared at hir. "How did you know that?"
"I, um, well..." Shi whisked Sorre into a passionate embrace, and pressed their muzzles together. Through their clothes, breasts and cocks also squeezed between them.
A minute or so later, Sorre pulled away, smiling slightly. "Was that supposed to distract me?" shi asked.
"Can't blame a girl for trying. Anyway, we'd better see if any of this stuff has been used."
They stepped into the supply room, which was lit only by a series of bare bulbs hung from the ceiling, in a row down its center. Both sniffed. "Many people have been in here," Auriel observed.
"And one pair had some fun," continued Sorre. "Hmm. It's strongest over here. But, from the fur they left behind, I think it was just two of the servants."
Auriel, by contrast, had gravitated to the shelves that lined the walls. "Let's see... I smell recent use from the rope, this strap-on, this ... rather large vibrator, this pair of handcuffs, this whip, this mask, this gag, this ... this is a cricket bat, and this well-thumbed manual." Auriel paused. "Oh, my," shi began to flip through it. "Most instructive, I must say."
"And this mint-scented lube and these pills ... whatever they are, the writing's smudged... Anyway, they both seem to have been opened recently."
Recora Indigo had decided to refrain from associating with the servants any longertheir unrefined manner, so strange to one of hir stature, was a temptation shi felt shi could not give in to againand contented hirself with inspecting the rooms, hir practiced eye picking out the tufts of gray fur that they shed in the heat of passion. Where had Stella gotten so many gray-furred servants? shi wondered. It was a great convenience, rivaled only by the fact that all of those under suspicion had their own, distinct color, such as the purple fur that Minnie seemed to have scattered all over the squash court_wait, what?!_
Minnie, for hir part, was thinking, not of hir dalliance' in Night Manor's ludicrously expansive indoor sporting area (I've made a map, and all. The layout makes next to no sense.) with yet another of the servants. Shi was thinking, instead, of the trust' that shi and Captain Ginger had managed to establish. Shi also thought back on the goodno, _great_Captain's technique. Stella had been brought to hir current state, not just by in-depth knowledge of lovemaking, which Jane certainly possessed, but by a raw passion that the purple professor hadn't observed. The Captain went through every aspect of life with a restrained, disciplined bearing, it seemed. From directing troops, to listening to small-talk, to ramming every spiked inch deep within the squirrel's quivering body while stroking hir own raging erection with a firm regularity that shi admitted shi had been hard-pressed to coax from hir own contrivances of clockwork and silicone. Shi was sure of it; Captain Ginger had not been the one to transport their host to the stars. Shi began to feel some measure of a thrill of the hunt, and the desire to be the first to know who could love another with such skill and savagery. To do so, shi would have to keep hir cards close to hir bounteous chest, much like the players of the popular board game that we're not mentioning.
After a bit more investigation that would a) spoil the mystery' aspect of this story completely and b) not involve much sexy stuff, the six acquaintances met back up in the spacious parlor. Martina stood, while the other five sat in oversized armchairs. Stella lay on the floor off to the side.
"So," Jane began, "what, exactly, are the facts as we can agree on them?"
Martina stepped forward. "Besides ourselves, zere are eleven ozers in ze manor tonight, sairvants in ze mastress's employ."
Auriel read from a memorandum: "Nine items in the store-room show evidence of recent use. Six are clearly aids of one sort or another, and the scent on the rope leaves no doubt as to its use. The remaining items are a fascinating manual that I really shall have to acquire a copy of, and a bottle of pills of unknown composition and purpose. The bottle didn't carry scent as well as the other seven items, but it smells strongly enough of pussy that I assume it was handy at some point, and used in a fit of frenzied improvisation."
Recora sniffed. "There are eight rooms, all of which smell strongly of... of frolic, or have tufts of hair, typically the servants' grey, scattered about it. Where did our charming host get a color-coordinated serving staff, in any case. It sounds like it could become the next big indulgence, but it's a bizarre fad to initiate."
"Ze mastress ad quite specific tastes in ir employees, een ztark contrast to hir variety of tastes in... ozer areas."
"You're talking about the food, right?"
"I em talking about whatevair eet ess yoo are wanting me to be talking about, madame Indigo."
Sorre raised hir hand to hir chin. "Nine items, eight rooms... Ms Pearl. Would any of the servants have the skill to do this to hir?" Minnie began to tick some quantity or other off on hir fingers.
The rabbit bristled. "Mademoiselle Rose! I would nevairZat ees to say, none of ze sairvants would do zuch a sing to our mastress. At least," shi stepped away from the others, and turned up hir nose and tail, "not if zair was company."
"Anyway... It's likely that, for such an intense experience, every component has to be exactly right. We have to work out the exact item of the nine, the room of the eight, and the herm out of the six of us."
Jane raised an eyebrow. "Two things. One: you're sure that Ms Pearl is a suspect, so much as we are suspicious?"
Sorre waver hir other paw unconcernedly. "Shi was defensive."
"Point. Also, can't we just ask who did it?"
"If you had done it," the fox leaned forward hir gaze piercing deep into the striped feline's soul, or at least hir pupils, "would you admit it to us?"
"It would be... a bit of an uncomfortable subject." The Captain shifted slightly in hir seat.
"Right. So we need to use logic to discover the identity of the superlative lover in our midst."
"Speaking of logic," the squirrel's eyes were clouded with the vague worry of a geometer who has just found a way to square the circle, "Something doesn't add up. Eighteen herms can form into nine pairs, each of which use one item, but there are only eight rooms to contain them."
"Well," the raccoon said airily, "The rooms are rather big. And, failing that, there could have been some threesomes or an orgy."
"I suppose... Well, it won't help any if I dwell on it, so why don't we see about finding the culprit'?"