# Tyrannus Draconum - Chapter 4

Author: Nex_Canis
Tags: Balls, Cock Growth, Cum, Dragon, Drama, First Person, Human, Magic, Male, Modern, Muscle Growth, Muscles, Plot Development, Story Series, Transformation

Chapter 4 of Tyrannus Draconum  
  
Gwok Sang-Ook, also known as B1tBr34ker to his few followers, has a secret. A secret that kept him from leaving South Korea to meet up with the rest of his friends in Upw4rd until Drake Mason intervened. It was a secret he kept with him even though he lived with three other guys in a cramped apartment for years. Even his roommate didn't have an inkling. But when confronted with the possibility of leaving his past but also Earth in favor of a world where sex between men is not only socially accepted and the norm but a requirement, he still finds himself struggling to take the opportunity. The spicy extras of becoming a dragon and gaining magic wasn't enough to immediately push him to taking the offer. Will he let his secret weigh him down and keep him from becoming a dragon? Can he finally admit that he's gay?  
  
Note from the Author: Apologies this took a while to upload. I actually had this in my back pocket for a while but was just too lazy to post it. However, now that I'm releasing this during Pride Month, it just felt right!   
  
Enjoy!

## Confessions of a Former Party Streamer

I’m gay.

Let’s get that out of the way. My name is Gwok Sang-Ook and I am a South Korean, homosexual man in his early twenties. You would think that a technologically advanced and socially-centric place like Jaejanbaek would have progressive values but you would be mistaken. Jaejanbaek is still rooted in in South Korea and there is still this stigma against gay men. The country has had a long, complicated history with the concept and while the government does recognize same sex marriages these days, it’s still one of those things that people don’t actively talk about. Treating someone differently because they’re gay will usually lead to you being shamed for being disrespectful to your fellow man but at the same time, if _you_ are the gay one, you’d be encouraged to keep it to yourself so as not to ‘bring harm to yourself’. The preferred way to deal with homosexuality is just not to talk about it or ‘quietly’ push them out of your social circles.

That’s what led to my legal troubles that caused significant delays to my departure from Jaejanbaek and South Korea in general to meet up with my friends.

Bad enough that my roommate, Deung Chang-He, decided that he’d stay back until I was clear to fly but spending an entire _month_ while Drake Mason poured cash and resources into getting me cleared to leave was excruciating.

_‘The worst thing you can be is a burden to someone else,’_ _appa -_ my father - used to always say.

That was _appa._ Words of encouragement were not something he ever gave out. Sagely advice that came from him were usually in the forms of negatives. Things _not_ to do. Paths to avoid. People to stay away from. On the surface, they sound wise but when all you hear for your formative years are cynical and pessimistic outlooks, it rubs off on you.

It was that kind of cynicism is exactly why I couldn’t leave Jaejanbaek until Drake Mason threw a _lot_ of money and resources at my problem. For that, I would forever be grateful. Not that I trusted him fully but when I finally stepped off the airplane onto US soil, I felt… liberated.

They say that the US is the land of the free. That idiom ran through my brain when I walked through customs and wasn’t immediately detained to be extradited to South Korea.

I was free.

Genuinely free.

Even when I was on the plane, sitting in first class, there were these oppressive, invisible shackles that only seemed to get tighter and tighter around my neck. I barely slept. First class seats meant I had my own booth and though I didn’t have to endure Deu2much’s snoring - another reason for my insomnia - I still couldn’t sleep because of that constant feeling of impending doom that I was going to wake up back in our small apartment, hiding from the rest of the world and glad for our minuscule following even if it meant very little JJBs coming in.

But here… Well, I could _breathe._

As soon as we were past customs, Deung - my roommate - fished out his phone and tapped a quick message to Sam Jun-Hoon and Jin Dong-Sun, SamSyte and N4tural respectively. After he was done, Deu2much immediately began recording himself, flexing for the camera and doing a quick panoramic shot of the airport. Always with that bright yellow cap of his. I swear, he sometimes slept with that thing on. The many times I would realize I had dozed off, he would always be up and running around with that thing on.

I still remembered the first time he found it at some corner store and immediately declared, ‘This! This is who I am!’

Happiest he had ever been and I suppose that’s one of the reasons I stuck by him. His radiance cast me in the shadow. People were far more likely to notice the extroverted and brilliant, lovable would-be-jock than his shadow. He was my camouflage. Of course he was more than that. All the guys of Upw4rd did. But Deu also hid me from the world.

“Hey, my Muchables!” exclaimed Deung, referring to his few followers. “I’ve touched down on US soil!” He reached out, grabbed my shoulders and pulled me into his shot. I offered a wry, tired smile. Our faces on the screen could not be more like night and day.

One was this skinny, almost malnourished guy with dark brown skin more typical of south-east Asians, short, spiky black hair and with sharp angular features without a shred of facial hair looking perpetually tired. The other was a broad, athletic guy with a bright grin, wearing a pair of aviators, black hair that was silvery gray at the tips and with a more natural lightly tanned skin color. One guy was wearing a loud yellow tank top and a yellow cap. The other guy had a plain red shirt that looked so big on him that the folds barely made the logo of the metal band on the torso was barely readable.

I’ll leave you to guess who is who.

“I’m here with my best bud, B1tbr34ker! First day and we’re going to go meet our new sponsor! Just you wait, Munchables! We are finally going to blow up!”

I managed to slip away from his grip, crossing my arms. “You know you don’t have to do that anymore, right?” I said in Korean. “Mr. Mason said that he’s going to make sure that we don’t have to sell our privacy for the rest of our lives.”

“Sure,” Deu2much answered with a shrug. “But I’m not doing it because I _have_ to. I like the exposure.”

Perhaps out of all of us, Deu was the _only_ one that actually enjoyed documenting his life out to the rest of the world and didn’t do it just for survival. SamSyte did it because he understood that it is what we needed to survive. N4tural did it because it kept us together. I did it because… well… there was nothing else I knew what to do.

“He _also_ said we weren’t allowed to post anything once we got to his place,” I reminded.

Deu flashed me a broad grin. “We aren’t there _yet_.”

I rolled my eyes and turned, grabbing the handle of my meager carry-on bag and rolling it towards the baggage claim. Unlike Deu, I hadn’t actually packed any thing more than what I could fit into my carry-on. Part of it was that I didn’t expect to stay very long and the other part was that I guardedly did not want to give off the impression that I was going to stay with Drake Mason for long. His promises were too good to be true and the last thing I wanted to do was to be indebted or shackled to another ‘sponsor’.

Hypocritical, I know, but there were reasons for hesitation.

I waited for Deu’s bag to come around as he continued to film his experiences, making little clips and videos that he would have to wait until we got back to Jaejanbaek to post. That was one of the things about the Content Capital of the World. If you want to get credited for your posts, you needed to be _within_ the city limits. For all its advancements, Jaejanbaek was still a very experimental society. A ‘Virtual Contentocracy’ if you want. Posting things from anywhere else would not get you any JJBs and, most of the time, JJBs had very poor conversion rates anywhere else in the world.

I mean, what company or organization would pay you for _content_? Private data is all well and good but when you have to spend time and money to analyze it to find market trends and selling points, what is it worth to a car manufacturer especially in a city where _no one_ owned their own vehicle?

As I watched Deu pose in front of the carousel, I was reminded of this article claiming that Jaejanbaek was a ‘failed social experiment that is too proud to shut down’. Honestly, that’s kind of what I feel every time I get on a stream with the rest of Upw4rd. I _hate_ putting myself in front of a webcam and pretending to like playing videogames for the followers. But I do it because I have no other skills.

Deu does enough talking for the both of us. N4tural takes care of the rest of us like the den mother that he is. SamSyte pulls in the followers because of how savvy he is with the market trends and the like.

Me? I guess I’m just good enough with games to make it entertaining.

My inward introspection distracted me because I never noticed the huge, hulking man standing beside me until he said something.

“I’m guessing you must be B1tBr34ker?” someone said in flawless Korean.

I jumped and jerked away for two reasons. First, I was completely caught off-guard by the towering mass that was Drake Mason. Secondly, this guy was any man’s wet dream come true. Doesn’t matter what your sexual preference was or what your taste in guys. I am fairly sure Drake could have made you cream your pants the minute he turned his rugged smile with those perfectly straight teeth of his that had slightly sharp incisors in your direction. Yes, even straight men would have crumpled at his feet screaming about how he looked even better from a low angle.

His huge, muscular form towered close or even past seven feet tall with his pure, golden blond hair spiked up in a tousled disarray that made it look effortlessly casual but also styled. That ‘I just got out of bed’ look that was clearly manufactured but also natural looking. The stubble on his cheeks caught the light in such a way that it gave his rugged jawline a little golden halo when he smiled while his piercing blue eyes shone like two jewels under his sharp brow.

And don’t get me started on his build. Dressed in a white collared shirt that had the top buttons undone so that could could _just_ see the highly defined muscles of his pectorals and the light fuzz of blond chest hair, he simply _oozed_ masculinity. The sleeves of the shirt were rolled up past his elbows so I could see his huge, ham-like forearms that were softened by the light dusting of blond hair. Streaks of pulsing veins served to remind me of just how huge and ripped he was.

And then there was his bulge. The dark slacks he wore did _nothing_ to hide his bulge. Anyone would swear that he was stuffing his crotch if the little silvery pinstripes on those slacks didn’t catch the light in such a way that it was possible to see the outline of his cock.

Did I mention I’m gay?

Because yeah… Drake Mason reminded me of that fact.

“Uhm… How did you know?” I stammered.

He glanced at me and pointed to were Deu2much was posing in front of a couple of other tourists. “Because the guy with the yellow hat is obviously Deung Chang-He. Samsyte and Natural told me all about you two.”

Yeah, it’s pretty hard to miss Deu. Again, one of the reasons why I hung around him so much. Funny though that Drake talked to me first. Though I suppose it’s reasonable. I mean, Deu _did_ look busy.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” I responded in English.

“It isn’t a problem at all,” he answered, switching dialects, a little smile on his face. “It’s a long way to my home so a few minutes here and there won’t hurt.”

Something about the way he said that hinted at some _other_ reason why he was in no rush. Then again, this was the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Perhaps in Drake’s case, just ‘rich’. He wasn’t really famous. Not really. The offspring of nepotism maybe but not really famous. The world had pretty much forgotten about the Masons until Drake appeared in Jaejanbaek.

Deu did notice us - eventually - and he happily bounded over while waving. Without asking, he took Drake’s huge hand and shook it happily.

“Please to meet you, Mr. Mason!” he exclaimed in English. “Thank you for bringing us here. The flight was so baller!”

Drake returned the enthusiastic smile though his smile was a little more reserved; the kind of smile that you wear after someone has told you how energetic someone could be and that someone meeting your expectations. “It was my pleasure. Samsyte and Natural missed you both so much that they were eager to bring you over as soon as possible. I do apologize that it took a little longer than expected. Regulations can be quite… pedantic.”

Translation: my past made it difficult to make this all possible.

The shadow of a new set of shackles were already hanging over my neck and I could clearly see who was holding the other set of the chains. The weight behind those restraints were clearly my friends. As painful as it would be to cut them from my life, if that is what I needed to do to survive and to be _me_ then I would not hesitate. It’d be like cutting off a limb but severing a gangrenous, infected arm is better than dying of it.

Bracing myself with a few contingency plans, I waited while Deu gushed at Drake for a few more moments. Drake then coughed, interrupting Deu’s elevator pitch.

“We should get going,” said the entrepreneur. “We can discuss more about your fitness channel on the way there. We’ve got plenty of time. It’s a long ride.”

I was genuinely surprised that Drake opted to drive us himself. No driver. No private helicopter. His car was smooth and looked expensive. The leather seats were gorgeous and they were warmed which was perfect against the winter cold. Snow was just starting to set in Wyoming. I had never seen snow in person before. While Deu2much talked Drake’s ear off in the passenger seat, I sat in the back watching the light dusting of white powder on the fields and forests.

How long before I got sick of the sight?

Hours passed before we finally came close to Drake’s mansion and the minute I saw it, a pit formed in my stomach. Not one caused by nerves, awe or surprise. A deep, terrifying black hole spawned from familiar dread. Terrifying deja vu. Though you rarely see the interior of them in the neon jungle that was Jaejanbaek, facilities much smaller than Drake’s property gave off exactly the same feeling.

This place was a content creator’s dream… and prison.

Everything in it would be designed to ensure that the content creators would _never_ want to leave. Amenities were provided. Entertainment plentiful. Top-notch recording equipment. But the high walls, intense security and bodyguards were not there to keep rabid fans out. Sure, the suits that owned your contract would tell you that they were there for your protection but really, they were there to keep _everyone in_.

That sense of dread intensified when we crossed the gates with the dragon motifs onto the mansion grounds. Every part of me was already screaming to leave. I had yet to sign anything so I was free to reject _anything_ that Drake offered. Yes, it would mean that SamSyte and N4tural might be chained down by an ironclad contract and Deu2much was probably ready to sign away his soul for fame and fortune but I had been there. Soul crushing work that sucked the joy out of a hobby and even when you were burnt out, you would continue to be cooked until you were left a hollow, charred shell of your former self.

I was _not_ going to fall for that again.

I was already ready to bail. Ready to demand my resignation and deny any offer that Drake may make. My guard was up and any pleading from the others, my former friends, would be deflected by a past forged in pain and steel. Though I wasn’t exactly sure _how_ I would escape this place that was positioned out in the middle of nowhere they couldn’t keep me here forever. And I was already starting to make plans on how to send secret messages for help through any content I uploaded if I was forced to stay here under duress.

Then Drake did something that caught me completely off guard.

“So before we go to see both of your roommates, I want you both to know that I’m not doing this for entirely selfless reasons.”

Any cynical person would claim that was pretty obvious. No businessman would just do anything without getting something in return. But the way he said it… it sounded… personal. That gave me pause.

As we headed into the underground parking garage beneath his mansion, he continued.

“I’ve been exiled and helping Upw4rd is one step to getting my record cleaned.”

“Oh dude,” Deu began, already running his mouth before he knew the whole story. “Sorry about that.” He grinned brightly and hiked a thumb towards his chest. “But you can count on us! Anything we can do to help! Especially since you’re already doing so much for us!”

Drake parked the car and we left, grabbing our belongings.

“I appreciate that, Deung,” said our host. “But my situation is quite… complicated. I have spent quite a long time trying to get a fresh start and I even lost hope after a while. Samsyte and Natural helped me break out of that slump. Helped me realize that there was still a path forward.”

That… resonated with me. Drake was trapped too. Funny that even someone with a lot of money and influence could be trapped. I knew that too well. Made me wonder exactly what was holding him down. Was it his father’s legacy? Stigma against the Mason name?

Didn’t really matter.

The reason I didn’t turn around with my meager belongings and run out that slowly closing garage door was because of that confession.

I followed behind Drake and Deu as we headed out of the garage to mansion proper. We emerged into a conference room which, Drake mentioned, was by design. Any guests that would come to his place would either be parked outside on ground level or in the garage. Most of his mansion was for personal use and the first floor was mostly for entertaining guests. He didn’t want anyone else wandering into any of the other parts of the mansion unless it was absolutely necessary.

He led us out of the conference room into the central atrium.

And that’s where they met us.

“B1t! Deu!”

We both turned to our right. I froze in shock. Deu gawked, his mouth hanging open.

Because the two creatures that emerged from those large double doors, spreading their arms towards us were _not_ the two humans that we had shared a space - both physically and virtually - for years. They were these enormous, towering, muscular _dragons_ that looked like they could swallow us both whole and still have room for dessert!

Though is it weird I could immediately tell which one was Samsyte and which one was Natural? I think it had to do with the fact that Samsyte still had his floral tattoo on his left arm and Natural - despite his huge, clawed feet having outgrown them - was still wearing his military boots.

“So…” Drake began, rubbing the back of his neck while wearing a sheepish grin. “The guys and I thought it best that we just come right out and say it. The way I’m going to break free of my exile is if I turn human guys into dragons. I’ve already turned Samsyte and Natural. It was only… well… _natural_ that you guys be next.”

He shrugged at us, smiling a little bashfully.

“What do you say? Do you two want to be dragons?”

## Contract to Burn

“Dude! Your biceps are so fucking huge!”

It was Deung’s brazen exclamation and his wanton disregard for personal space that knocked me out of my stupor. I genuinely believe that I had disassociated from my body for a few minutes there because when I heard those words and saw the yellow cap blazing past me, my consciousness was catapulted back into my body with enough force that my body and brain shook from the impact. Even after a few blinks, I could scarcely believe the two dragons standing in front of me, practically consuming my entire vision while Deu2much just bounded over to them with little regard for their size, shape and… well… huge dicks.

Deung let out a boyish laugh as he begged for Natural to flex and the big, blue, hirsute dragon obliged by bending one arm. That huge bicep was big enough to envelop my head. Deung didn’t care and jumped up, wrapping his arms around the huge mound of scaly muscle and hanging from it like it was a swing.

“Holy shit, dude!” Deung exclaimed in Korean. “How much can you bench now? How big is your chest! I need measurements!”

There was this predatory flash in Natural’s blue eyes and as he licked his lips. “How about you measure them yourself?” he growled, his voice low, seductive and dripping with lust. “With your tongue?”

Even Deu’s innocent approach couldn’t ignore that and he let out a short little, “Eh…?”

Samsyte then pushed himself in front of Natural, using his bulk to push back his draconic friend. “Cool it, Natural.” He glanced over his shoulder at the taller, hairer dragon. “What was that about learning things faster than me?”

That shot at his pride seemed to quell Natural’s libido even though his cock was already semihard. “Fine. Point taken.” He raised his clawed hands into the air and backed away a few steps. “I’ll go back to my room and get rid of this.” He pointed shamelessly at his rapidly engorging dick.

Samsyte sighed as Natural turned around and padded back down the hallway, his huge footfalls letting out little booms of thunder as he did so. The first of Upw4rd to take Drake’s offer gave Deung a sheepish grin. Sometimes it was a good thing that most people ignored me while I was in Deu2much’s presence.

“Sorry, Deu,” he said. “I better go and make sure he doesn’t do something stupid. Drake will explain everything. We just thought it’d be better to just show you what’s been happening here instead of trying to hide it.” He smiled and waved at Deu and then me. “We’ll talk later, okay?”

Then he was turning and hurrying after Natural, begging his fellow dragon to wait.

I swallowed loudly, a little bit of relief lifting from my chest… Until I remembered the architect of this entire predicament was standing right beside me. Before I turned, there was a sound like sheets being unfurled and what light came from the windows behind me dimmed. I always thought that those moments in movies or cartoons where the protagonist would slowly turn around because they _knew_ someone or something was behind them was corny and drawn out for dramatic effect. Now? I totally get it.

Fear made my turn excruciatingly slow.

That was the first time I beheld Drake’s true form. The enormous black and gold dragon. His height was the first thing that I truly beheld. For the longest time, I had made an effort to make myself small. Hunched posture, head ducked. That sort of thing. Normally, I’d barely clear 5’4’’. If I straightened up, 5’6’’. Drake dwarfed me completely and made me feel like I was barely two feet tall. His wingspan alone could have scooped me up in a leathery cocoon and made me disappear into huge, mountainous pectorals decorated by thick, golden hairs.

The next thing that came to my attention was his dick.

How could I not!? He was standing _right beside me_ when he transformed so that anaconda was _five inches_ away from my face! My mouth instinctively opened but what scream was burbling up from my throat got caught by my tongue that was already halfway out and ready to lick that big, black, draconic length. What came out was a half-gargle that sounded like I was choking back my own spit.

“Are you alright, Gwok?” asked Drake, genuinely concern on his face. At least I think that was concern. His golden blond eyebrows were raised and his lips were turned down slightly. “I know this comes as a shock but like Samsyte said, we decided that it would be best to just come out and tell you the truth instead of concealing it while they both still struggled with their draconic instincts.”

I stood there, dumbfounded for a good minute. Even after all that, all I could manage was, “What!?”

I surprised even myself as Drake explained the situation to us both. He pulled us back into the conference room. While he remained standing and narrated his fall from Aether and his quest to get back to his home, Deu and I sat down, absorbing as much information as possible. My mind was buzzing and I appreciated that Drake tried to put everything in terms we could understand.

I mean… ‘magic’ is real and it isn’t just illusions or slight of hand. It’s actual _magic_. The conversion of some arbitrary concept into energy that can then be used in particular ways. Yes, the ‘ways’ were just as vague and arcane but it’s real!

Oh and dragons.

“And that’s where we are now,” Drake concluded, folding his arms while facing us from the head of the table. “As I’ve mentioned, there is nothing keeping either of you here. You are under no obligation to stay. Both Samsyte and Natural understand that they can’t force either of you to become dragons. It’s a very personal thing. Though they would want you to… and it’d add more to my count against my sentence… we can’t force you.”

No need to go through what would happen if we refused. Drake had already outlined that in a rehearsed manner. Memory wipe or constant contact. Drake wouldn’t go out of his way to help either of us in our careers if we refused to help. Not that we could blackmail him by telling others about him being a dragon. No one would believe us anyway. We’d also put Samsyte and Natural in danger if they were ever found out.

The temptation to cut and run was still there. While Drake insisted that there were no obligations, that was never true. Maybe not on paper or anything legal but there would always be threads that could be pulled. The consequences of being tied to other people, I suppose. Like I said, cutting off Upw4rd would be like severing an arm. Something I’d like to avoid but, at the same time, something I’d be willing to do if it meant that I wouldn’t be chained down by some dragon overlord.

To Drake’s credit, he didn’t seem… domineering. He was almost… hopeful.

“I’ll give you two time to talk about it,” Drake said, stepping backwards past the conference room’s double doors. “Just call me when you’re ready. If you need anything, just ask.”

Then he left, closing the doors behind him.

Both Deu and I waited a few seconds before turning towards one another. I could already tell what his reaction would be before he opened his mouth.

“Dude!” he cried, grinning broadly and vibrating so much that I swear he could have shaken the entire table. “Can you fucking believe it!? We’re going to be _dragons_!”

There it was. Not even any concern about the possibility that we would _fail_. Just complete certainty that we would ‘ascend’ to dragonhood.

“There’s no guarantee that we’ll even make it that far,” I warned cautiously, quietly. “I mean, both Samsyte and Natural may have done it but what makes you think we can do the same? I mean, are you even gay?”

Urgh… just saying the word ‘gay’ in that tone, like even just saying those three letters was an affront to my very being, made my stomach twist into knots. My karma points just went down and I prayed to whatever gods were listening that my deception roll was high enough that Deu didn’t notice how uncomfortable I was.

He didn’t notice or he didn’t care.

“Who cares, man?” he responded with a shrug, his broad easy grin accompanying his gesture. “Not like we get laid all the time. If I’m going to fuck or get fucked, might as well with my best friends and guys who _want_ me, you know? Not to mention Sam and Natural were fucking _huge_! Think I’ll get as big as that?” Just for emphasis, he flexed a few times.

Deu2much flexed a _lot_. Sharing the same room as him, I had gotten used to his morning ritual of getting up, standing in front of his full body mirror and doing a few poses. The eye roll I gave was pure instinct but came from the days when I had to struggle to keep myself from staring at his body. He wasn’t anywhere near as big, lean or muscular as the dragons but for a twig like me? He was this epitome of manliness that was so goddamn close but I just couldn’t reach. Surprising that he wasn’t jealous of our friends’ sudden growth.

“Aren’t you worried about… I don’t know… your _soul_?” I pressed. “I mean, Drake is talking about transforming us into… into _dragons_ and then taking us away into this fantastical land where we will live forever.” I waved my hands slightly in front of myself. “Doesn’t that sound like eternal damnation to you?”

Deu just gave me a look that he had perfected while streaming; one eyebrow lowered the other raised in an exaggerated way that made it clear he was confused. He practiced it for weeks in the mirror. “Huh?” he grunted.

Turning my eyes back to him, I said, “Come on! How does that not sound familiar? We engage in gay sex, giving up our souls and morality in the process, while being tempted with power and immortality but then we just get dragged into eternal torment in another world? _So_ many stories are based on that premise alone!”

“What kind of stories have you been reading, dude?”

If I hadn’t practiced my reaction to that kind of question multiple times before, I would have flinched and skipped a beat.

“Religion,” I stated bluntly. “There are _so_ many religious stories that say exactly the same thing.”

“You were _never_ the religious type,” accused Deu. “Why start now?”

“Because there’s a goddamn _dragon_ in the other room and our friends have been turned into dragons!” I exclaimed incredulously, waving at the door that Drake left through. “We don’t even know if he’s even a dragon! I mean, he could just be a _demon!_ We don’t know! We don’t even know if that is our friends back there! Sure they _looked_ like them but what if they’re just poorly disguised demons!?

He tilted his head a little, giving me that same confused look. “And what if Drake is being genuine with us? What if this is the chance of a lifetime and you’re just being paranoid?” Deu tilted his head in the opposite direction. “I mean, no matter how you spin it, we’re fucked.”

I furrowed my brow a little. “What do you mean?”

“If Samsyte and Natural got turned, kidnapped or damned to hell, we’ll be on our own. We’re out here in the middle of nowhere. It’s snowing outside. We don’t know how to survive in the snow. Best case, we escape this place. How the hell are we going to get back to Korea? What will we even _do_ when we get back? How will we survive when we’re only two members of Upw4rd?” Then he made a finger gun and pointed it at me. “Hell, do you even _want_ to go back to Jaejanbaek?”

And with that, he had me.

Not because of the logic. I mean, he was right about everything. We were trapped no matter how you look at it. No. He had me cornered with that last question.

Do I even _want_ to go back to Jaejanbaek?

Turning away and folding my arms, I huffed and said, “So what do you want to do?”

Deu’s smile began creeping back onto his face. “He said it’ll take time for us to change, right? Why don’t we give it a go?” He made finger guns again and pointed them at me, ‘firing them’. “Give it a trial run?”

I had to fight hard not to smile with him. His grin was so goddamn infectious. “And you’re willing to ‘get fucked’ as part of your trial run?”

“I’m going to have to work up to it,” he laughed loudly. “I mean did you _see_ how big their dicks were? I mean… Fuck! Natural’s cock was as big as my arm and he was _just_ getting hard!”

I saw. I won’t admit it. But I saw.

“Fine,” I sighed. “I guess we’ll go along with it… For now. I suppose we could always drop out whenever we want.”

“Awesome!” Deu exclaimed, pumping a fist into the air. “Try everything once! Even being a dragon.”

Sure. We could try eternal damnation once too. Once is all it’d take though.

Deu2much went towards the double doors of the conference room and opened them. Drake wasn’t waiting out there but Deu called out for him. A few moments later, the big, black dragon came down the stairs from the second floor, asking if we had reached a decision.

“We have!” Deu exclaimed. “Sign us up!”

“If it’s all the same with you,” the dragon of Carnal Pleasure said, his golden eyes turning to me. “I’d like to heard it from both of you. Sang-Ook? What do you say?”

Damnit. Wish he didn’t have me say it.

“Yes,” I responded in the flattest tone I could muster. “I agree to your terms.”

Drake didn’t seem convinced even though Deu looked absolutely ecstatic. The dragon stared at me for a few seconds before turning to my only remaining human companion and beaming brightly.

“Great. How about I take you on a tour of my home? Give you a better lay of the land and an idea of where you’ll be sleeping.”

I reluctantly followed them both out of the conference room, listening idly as Drake told us about how his mansion was structured. My mind was abuzz trying to think of contingency plans. Hopes that I could bring Samsyte and Natural out of Drake’s control and schemes to convince Deu that this was all a trap. 5

All of this were my nightmares made manifest. A massive facility that could cater to my every whim sponsored by an incredibly wealthy and powerful man that would exchange my freedom and soul for his own gain? Absolutely everything I had tried to avoid for the longest time but made _so_ much worse.

Deu was completely sold on this farce but I was not so easily tempted or convinced. Everything about the mansion made my skin crawl. From the polished marble floors, all the ‘natural light’ coming in from the windows and the high ceilings that were so pristine and clean. Sure, I suppose the size could be because the dragons were _way_ taller than humans but still, it made me feel smaller than I already was. Maybe it was because I grew up in a concrete jungle that was Jaejanbaek but when we entered the hallway with rooms to one side and then the other wall made entirely of glass to show the central courtyard, I visibly took a step away from all that ‘nature’. I could just imagine some ‘wellness coach’ guiding us into the middle of all that grass and trees, walking us through breathing exercises and while lecturing us about ‘mindfulness’ and ‘self-care’.

Because that’s exactly what everything that Drake told us sounded like.

To become a dragon, we had to be ‘true to ourselves’. We needed to find something that resonated with us. Find our Role.

Been there. Done that. Never going back.

My hands tightened into fists as Deu gawked at the garden and Drake described how the courtyard was watered and maintained by an intricate network of technology and spells. How a glass ceiling could be erected to block out rain if he wanted and how he spent a while looking after the plants there for the longest time. The dragon even admitted that he had let it go and allowed the automated systems take care of most of it for a while. Made me wonder why he lost interest in the first place.

Whether he realized it or not, he just admitted that he could abandon us if we weren’t worth is time. Just like all those other corporate recruiters out there. He said that he wasn’t here to sponsor us but from what I was seeing, that was true. What he was doing was _far_ worse. He was _recruiting_ us. Grooming us so that he could then pawn us off to someone else, get his commission and then move on.

Like I said. Been there. Done that.

“Never going back,” I muttered to myself.

One of Drake’s pointed ears flicked towards me and he turned, lifting a ‘concerned’ eyebrow. It was only then that he noticed that I was about six feet behind him and Deu. “Sorry Sang-Ook. Did you say something?”

Damnit. Almost managed to slip away.

“Bathroom?” I asked quickly.

There was a flicker in Drake’s golden eyes. A shadow of suspicion. A fleeting instant of doubt. If he was distrusting of me, then he _clearly_ had something to hide.

Never have I ever been so happy for Deu’s outgoing and extroverted personality.

“Back the way we came and to the right,” said my roommate with a grin. “We’re you listening, dude? It’s right next to the kitchen. There’s also one next to the conference room but that’s a little farther away.” He drew a circle through the air with a finger while looking at Drake. “This place is basically a huge circle around the courtyard, right?”

That drew the dragon’s attention back to Deu and away from me. I muttered a few quick words of thanks and turned around, scampering away while Drake explained how he was inspired by Ancient Greek and Roman architecture on the layout of his mansion. Good thing this place was so big because by the time I turned a corner, their voices had disappeared into the distance.

Contrary to Deu2much’s accusation, I _had_ been listening. I knew perfectly where the bathroom was. In fact, I _also_ knew exactly where Drake’s bedroom was. Positioned on the ground floor right between Samsyte and Natural’s rooms. We passed it during our tour which _also_ meant that it was on my way to the closest bathroom. Apparently each bedroom had its own private bath but it just felt rude to use someone else’s bathroom attached to their bedrooms.

I know, I know. It’s hypocritical especially as I stopped right in front of Drake’s bedroom and tried the handle. If there was anywhere that this dragon’s master plan was going to be secreted away, it would _have_ to be his bedroom. Cliched and maybe I was lifting this too much from videogames but I had to start somewhere.

The large doorknob that required both of my hands to hold twisted without any resistance. The door was completely unlocked. Lucky me. The moment I opened the door, this pervasive smell of _sex_ and _cum_ hit me like I had just run into a wall. This was not _old_ sex either. It was fresh. Wet. Spicy. Familiar and still alien at the same time. There was that familiar musk to it, that salty aftertaste and a faint stinging sensation that came with the scent of wet cum but there was this _exotic_ edge to it. Electric. If you’ve ever smelled burnt copper or ozone, it was kind of like that. Just a hint of it though. Something that lingered at the back of the palette.

It took every part of my self control not to cry out, grab my nose and stagger back in shock. Past the large door was a bedroom that _appeared_ clean and organized but the scent was still there. The bed showed signs of recent activity. Sheets were tangled. Pillows were scattered. Suspicious wet patches stained the blanket that looked like someone had dumped buckets of… well… cum on them and they were _just_ being absorbed now.

The rest of the room was untouched and seemed organized but I didn’t really pay that much attention to it. My first thought was… how the sheets remained intact with those huge claws and fangs of theirs. Turning to my left and right just to make sure that no one else was on their way to us, I took a deep breath of fresh air and then plunged into the room where this heady and admittedly arousing aroma hovered.

Musk and scent-play is my thing. Don’t judge me.

After hiding my sexuality for so long and doing my very best to keep myself from showing any signs of arousal at the sight of a man, my sensitivities towards anything masculine sort of became… hypersensitive. So even the faintest whiff of something even leaning towards masculinity would trigger me. At that point, my dick was pressing up against my jeans and every step I took rubbed my uncut cock against my underwear and inner thigh. Thankfully, after years of this kind of exposure, I had gotten used to remaining focused despite raging hormones and a desire to ejaculate.

Drake’s room was surprisingly… sedate. Apart from a small personal desk which had an impressive gaming rig, there wasn’t much in his room apart from the bed. From the bedroom door, the bed was directly in front of me, set against a hard wall, feet of the bed towards me. The wall curved towards me with walls being replaced by bay view windows. Two large bedside tables sat on either side of the bed with just a lamp and a few charging ports. To the right was the private bathroom currently shut behind a pair of barn doors. To the left was just a large dresser. His gaming rig was beside that dresser in what would have otherwise been an unoccupied corner. There were no posters or framed portraits on the walls. Not at all what I expected from an evil draconic mastermind. The floor _was_ covered in a dark blue carpet but apart from that, nothing even remotely ‘evil’ or ‘malevolent’.

Honestly, it sort of looked like he had _just_ moved in.

Kind of sad, really.

My first target was those bedside tables. Each of them had some drawers. I wasn’t expecting any world-shattering confessions or a diary but maybe some personal effects that could lead me somewhere. What I was _not_ expecting were the drawers to be completely empty.

Seriously. There was nothing in them. In fact, when I opened them they had that ‘new furniture smell’ that wafted out. That sort of aroma like it had _just_ come off the workshop floor. Woody but also a little oily with a hint of metal. It was so strong that it briefly overcame the aroma of sex that was literally coming from the sheets less than a foot away..

“Really…?” I mumbled, frowning a little.

More and more, I was starting to believe that this was some sort of elaborate trap. After I tried the _other_ bedside table and found it similarly empty, a growing sense of unease was forming in my chest. The only other option was to check his computer or the dresser. Opening his desktop would take too much time and could easily be tracked. This was an ancient dragon that have lived in our world for over five hundred years. He probably knew how to check his logs. Not to mention if it was password protected.

Dresser it is.

I moved towards the large, plain, white dresser. The design was _extremely_ minimalist. Completely made of wood, painted white to blend almost seamlessly with the egg-shell white walls and without any handles or or grips so that it almost appeared like it was just a solid white block. The kind of design that thrived on as few features as possible that it was was almost impossible to tell where the grips were unless you were really looking.

Good think I _was_ looking.

I pulled open the top drawer and my eyes immediately widened in shock. Scattered in front of me, as if thrown in there haphazardly, was underwear. Underwear that was soaked in cum. A picture was quickly forming in my mind.

“So they fucked around, threw their underwear in here and did the minimum amount of cleaning just to be ‘presentable’,” I sighed. I wrinkled my nose. That smell of sex was even stronger as it came from the briefs, boxer shorts and even the jockstraps inside. “Didn’t get rid of the smell, though.”

Is it bad that I could already hazard a guess on whose underwear was whose? Disciplined military-minded Jin Dong-Sun or Natural would be wearing briefs. Sam Jun-Hoon always favored boxer shorts. And the jockstrap? Well, of course that had to be blond-haired, blue-eyed Drake Mason.

I rifled through the sticky, slime-covered garments, hoping to find something. _Anything_. If you wanted to squelch someone from probing further into your deepest secrets, hide it underneath a pile of cum-soaked underwear. That’s what _I_ would do, anyway.

I ignored my throbbing cock as I pushed aside one particularly large jockstrap but I did allow myself to wonder if any company even made underwear this big. My curiosity got to better of me and I pulled the garment out of the drawer, holding it by the elastic that was miraculously unstained. The pouch alone was as big as my head!

I knew because I leaned forward to get a closer look.

Definitely _larger_ than my head. I’d seen the cocks of the dragons and when it comes to underwear, it isn’t only the penis you’ve got to account for. The testicles needed to be equally as comfortable and all the dragons had huge sacs. Unsurprising that this piece of underwear was equally as massive.

I glanced away the jockstrap that was just an inch from my face. No one was peering in through the windows. The doors remained mercifully shut. No one was spying on me. My aching cock was demanding attention.

The key to my long years of self-control was not constant discipline. It was the few moments of self-indulgence that satiated my shackled beast within. A stare that lasted a little longer than usual. A momentary rub of my hard cock through my jeans as I fantasized about a man I saw. Those few moments when I was alone in the apartment and the other guys were out or busy where I could jerk off to whatever I wanted without any chance of being walked in on.

No doubt similar temptations would be assaulting me from all sides. While Drake was distracted by Deu, this would be the only and last chance I’ll ever get to appease my cravings without some draconic repercussions.

And what was one little sniff?

Besides, if I could have a ‘taste’ of what I was in for without him attempting to transform me, maybe I’d be able to resist more readily.

I licked my lips - I couldn’t help it - and leaned forward. My nose was barely an inch away from the cum-soaked fabric. That first whiff, that one inhalation of pure, unfiltered masculinity triggered all of my synapses all at once. Every braincell became dedicated to trying to deconstruct the nuances of the scent that was filtering through my nostrils. My eyelids fluttered as a growing heat began emanating from my dick, the fire that fueled my rapid eye movement.

The heady musk that came from the jockstrap had this intensity to it. A weight that felt heavier. Not older. Just more potent. The mass of decades - perhaps even centuries - worth of masculinity distilled into semi-liquid ambrosia. As much as I hate to admit it, it was exactly that sort of thing that turned me on.

I took a long, deep whiff, letting the scent permeate me, warming me from the inside and filling my lungs. A shudder ran throughout my entire body. My legs went weak. I stumbled backwards a few steps and supported myself against the dresser, careful not to make any noise. The movement drew the jockstrap in my hand a little closer to my nose, concentrating the scent that drifted into my nostrils.

Another shudder ran through my body. My heart pounded against my chest, a steady drum that pumped more and more need and blood into my cock. My member was straining against my jeans. The touch of fabric against my sensitive dick reminded me of my tenuous situation. At any point, Drake or any of my so-called ‘friends’ could come walking in and catch me in this compromising situation. There would be no explaining away _that_.

With my other hand, I fumbled for my belt in practiced motions. Living in a cramped apartment with three other guys and my only roommate being the one that was comfortable with any exercise meant that what little privacy I had to masturbate was short and quick. I got used to finding short moments of reprieve where I could quickly whip out my dick, spill my seed and still have time enough to clean up and hide any evidence. With that one hand, I was able to unbuckle my belt, unbutton my jeans and pull down my pants. It took only a little more to hook my thumb against the elastic of my jeans to allow my dick to spring out at full mast.

My nine-inch cock dripped with precum, demanding attention. Yes, that thing is real. Asian stereotypes be damned. It was thin, uncut and a shade darker than my skin. Gripping it with one hand meant that there was still about three or four inches that I could slide my grip up and down my shaft. You can imagine how hard it is to hide the little bastard in public when a particularly hot guy catches my attention.

Right then, I was focused on this fiery lust that was burning in my groin. Just as I had done many times before, I stroked my aching member, urging it to _quickly_ do what it needed to do. Every stroke stirred the beast inside me and like a serpent launching itself at prey, it struck with lightning speed. I barely even noticed that I was now holding the cum-soaked jockstrap against my face and breathing in that musky, spicy aroma. Every breath I took was dominated by that scent.

But something was different.

Yes it had only been a few seconds - thirty seconds at most - but by now I would have ejaculated. Another thirty seconds would be spent basking in the afterglow before I would snap back to reality and clean up my mess. But thirty seconds had passed and my aching cock was still demanding _more._ There was that familiar jolt of electric energy that erupted from deep within me, forcing my balls to tighten against my body and then shoot up my length. I even felt it hit the sensitive tip of my dick but there was no release. No burst of relief, explosion of pleasure or fiery surge of bliss.

My dick just continued to ache for more.

I ignored it. Dismissed it as the stresses and shocks of the day. Just kept on pumping while I closed my eyes, focusing on the cologne of cock and manliness wafting into my nose. Another thirty seconds passed and there was that bolt of anticipation as my cock stiffened. I felt the cum rumble up from my balls, rocket up my length, hit the tip of my dick and…

… nothing.

Like a massive tease, it just… retreated.

Frustration was growing in my throat. Every second I spent pleasuring myself was one more second closer to getting caught. A prickling sensation began itching across the back of my neck. Fear. Urgency. Embarrassment. A familiar cocktail that only made me stroke my cock faster and harder.

That shot of heat, blast of electricity and energy that made me thrust my hips into my hand. The tightening of my balls. The tensing of my cock. The rising anticipation coming from my cum rumbling up from the base of my dick, traveling inch by inch up my length and then…

… nothing.

That hot itching sensation spread all over my face now like a terrible rash. I finally opened my eyes and looked down at my cock in frustration.

What I saw terrified me.

That was _not_ my member sticking out of my crotch.

It was bigger. _So_ much bigger. Not just long. It was _wide_. Thicker than a beer can. In fact, my fingers just _barely_ closed in around it. The flesh was also completely jet black with an ominous sheen that allowed every vein that curled up its length to be highlighted at the right angle. Despite being twelve inches _at least,_ it still somehow stood perfectly erect without causing me to topple over.

“What…?” I began but immediately caught myself. The sound that came from my throat was not my own. It was deeper.

I immediately reached up towards my neck, wondering if some of the cum had slipped down my throat. My fingers touched smooth, soft scales instead of dark brown _human_ skin.

That prickling sensation returned and I traced its path up my face. My eyes widened in terror as the skin where that feeling attacked hardened into scales. A strangled cry escaped my lips. Too late did I remember I was on a stealth mission and I clamped my hands over my lips, pushing the jockstrap against my lips.

Only then did I _feel_ the change rumbling up my face like something or _someone_ was pushing out and trying to escape from my skull from the inside. My face inched forward, pushing my hands further and further away from my eyes. Where my fingers were forced apart, light-blue scales were revealed. I could not help but run my tongue against the roof of my mouth, feeling the ridges of my emerging muzzle multiply right in front of me.

The worst part was it felt _so_ good.

It was that same teasing sensation that came from my aching cock but attacking rapidly in waves. The hot grip of tension, the tightening of muscles and the stampede of liquid electricity that crashed against the edges of my face and pushed them past their limits.

My nostrils flared, absorbing more and more of that heady scent into my system. That had to be it. Dragon cum had to infectious. Didn’t Drake say something to that effect? Dragons metabolized their magic into their seed and in order for us to transform into dragons ourselves, we needed an injection of magic?

Fuck, I was so stupid!

That mocking experience returned only this time, I was very aware that it was coming from both my cock and face. The dual attacks came one after the other due to sheer distance from my brain. First my face stretched out further, scales spreading further and further across my face while my muzzle broadened, carrying the jockstrap wrapped around its tip with it. Then came the bolt of pleasure from my dick, shooting up my spine with just as much force.

My legs gave out from under me again and I stumbled back, having to catch myself against the dresser with both hands. I tilted my head back, unable to keep from moaning. A stretching sensation pushed against the back of my head and I imagined that my horns were just coming in. It pulled at the tips of my ears, giving me the same pointed appendages the other dragons had.

I had no one left to blame for this than myself.

I shut my eyes, accepting my fate to being another one of Drake’s sex slaves.

The barrage continued in rapid succession. Once, twice… three times… and a fourth! I just prayed that it would finally allow to cum. To end my torment and just let met throw myself into the arms of a hot, muscular man and fuck or be fucked all day. It was better than being in this half-way state of limbo.

Then the door opened.

My eyes sprang open in horror.

Not now!

I saw Drake’s black-scaled muzzle before I fully registered that fate decided to play with me a little more as another explosion erupted from deep within me. Only this one was different. There was a… _finality_ to it. My eyes widened even more when Drake pushed the door open and stopped in his tracks, golden eyes wide.

Of course that’s when I came.

Humiliation and fear were momentarily set aside as the glorious flush of cum finally exploded from my balls with enough force that it breached whatever magical barrier stopped me from ejaculating the many other times. Hot dragon seed burst from my alien cock, sailing across the bedroom and landing squarely on the sheets half the room away. Maybe I was being a little spiteful, maybe a little boastful, because upon seeing that, I purposefully thrust my hips with as much power as I could muster just to make sure I sprinkled Drake’s sheets with my seed.

If I was going to be his sex slave, I might as well make him do laundry.

I thrust over and over again until my tank was empty. Even then, I threw one last thrust just for good measure. All my strength left me at that moment. My legs gave out from beneath me.

Drake’s strong arms caught me before I hit my head on the dresser or dropped to the floor entirely. Despite the scales, his body was warm. The scales were strangely soft even if the muscles beneath it were like platinum. As my draining reserved caused my eyes to droop, I used what was little left of my identity and free will to give him one last scathing rebuke.

“Guess… you caught me…”

My eyes closed and darkness -

“Uhm… that wasn’t me.”

…

My eyes snapped open again and I stared at him intently. “What?” I demanded with more strength than I knew I had even though the jockstrap was still wrapped around my muzzle.

Drake was looking at me with equal concern. “I didn’t change you, B1tBr34ker. I haven’t activated any of my magic in the mansion.”

A pit formed in my stomach.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not,” he answered. It was his eyes. That genuine look of concern and the frown that furrowed his draconic brow. He was telling the truth. “I was taking you both on a tour of the grounds. I’ve also got two very horny dragons running around. It’d be stupid of me to activate the traps and make you both transform. Keeping track of all four of you would be a strain even for me.”

I blinked a few times. “So what you’re saying is…”

He reached towards my face and slowly pulled his jockstrap away from my muzzle. Weird that the garment looked so big before but now fit so perfectly around my face.

“… you’re changing into a dragon, Gwok Sang-Ook,” he said worriedly, “of your own accord. This is all you.”

 

 

 

## Having Fun Yet?

“What do you mean ‘this is all me’?” I demanded. Any exhaustion I may have felt from my orgasm had faded away. Alert, a little panicked and fueled by anger, I stared at Drake with a searching gaze. There _had_ to be a flaw in his argument. A lie. He lived amongst humans for five hundred years so he must have gotten used to lying to us.

My fury was being siphoned away by what I could only describe as a gentle numbing sensation emanating from the tip of my muzzle. Like when you get hit by a local anesthetic while at the dentist’s office and that full, cloudy feeling begins to spread from your gums elsewhere in your mouth. It was rapidly spreading down from my nostrils and I couldn’t help but brush my tongue against my fangs. Much to my surprise, the alien length that was my draconic facial features were actively shrinking back. When the same feeling emanated from my dick, my gaze was drawn to that length. The jet-black rod began returning to a more manageable size. Something that was _mine_.

Though I couldn’t help but admit that it was nice to have a member that would have made everyone - male or female - drool.

“The first dragon didn’t have some other dragon guide them through their transformation,” Drake responded, helping me to my feet. “He transformed on his own. He was guided only by his own intelligence, curiosity and ambition. This process _I’m_ going through with all of you was developed over thousands of years to help the transition with his experiences as a foundation. ”

He theorized that because I now knew the procedure to become a dragon and had the extra help from having ingested concentrated magic - dragon cum - I began changing on my own. Which was ridiculous, of course. This was the _opposite_ of what I wanted to happen.

I did _not_ want to become a dragon.

But I wasn’t going to tell him that.

Drake took a few steps back away from me as my muzzle faded back into my normal features. I took a few moments to pat my cheeks making sure that there was nothing amiss. Even popped my jaw left and right a few times. I glanced down at my dick and was a little unnerved to notice that it had to at _least_ be an inch longer.

I was very intimate with the length of my cock.

“I must say that I am rather pleased at your initiative,” Drake said with a smile. “Samsyte was eager for sure and Natural was somewhat dubious but both of them _ran_ into my traps. You’re the first from Upw4rd that actively went looking for a change.”

I fought the urge to correct him. Let him think that this was all some happy accident. That I was some sort of eager puppy looking to please his master for some treats. Maybe it’ll get him to lower his guard.

“Though a casual observation, if you will, Sang-Ook,” he said gently, his features turning sullen. “Don’t treat becoming a dragon as a form of escapism. Many do. I’ve heard those people fail to become dragons because of it.”

That made me frown. “I’m not…” My voice trailed off even though there was so much more I wanted to say on the topic. Drake, thankfully, didn’t push the issue.

“I’m not exactly the kind of guy to ban you from certain areas,” Drake said. “I have no secrets to hide. But I think it’d be wise if you avoid venturing into my room.” He glanced towards the sky briefly and tapped his chin. “In fact, it might be best to avoid entering Samsyte or Natural’s room as well.”

“Why?” I asked. I had to keep my question short and simple. Any more and I was afraid that a torrent of heated accusations and venomous insults would have come tumbling out.

Drake answered the question casually, like a teacher reminding a student patiently of a topic they had already covered. “Both of them are freshly transformed. They are still under the influence of their draconic instincts. Both of them had good control over themselves when you were reunited but you saw how quickly it could have turned. It comes with all ‘newborn’ dragons. Call it ‘fledgling curiosity’.”

Right. Something he had explained earlier. Everything was new to them. Even me. Deu as well. New sensations. They wanted to have a ‘taste’ of everything. Just like a teenager recently discovering the pleasures of masturbation, every interaction was framed in the context of sex with only the remnants of their humanity providing some sort of reasonable shackle.

“I have no doubt that they will do everything they can to avoid hurting you,” continued Drake, “but they’re still very much novices with their new bodies. They are _much_ stronger than they were before. And that’s not to say that if they were asked to demonstrate their magic -”

A loud _boom_ suddenly shook the room.

Drake’s ears twitched and the black dragon straightened like he had been hit by lightning. “Fuck me… Deu2much…” he groaned. He regarded me apologetically. “I need to go see what that was.” The dragon started moving towards the door, a sense of urgency in each step. “Use my bathroom if you have to. Take your time. I’ll gather everyone at the kitchen.”

I was _not_ going to just let him run off like that. Deu was just as vulnerable as I was. Though the corruption may already be in my blood, he was still untouched… at least I hoped he was. There was still time to save him. But I couldn’t go out there with my dick swinging.

I hurriedly shoved my cock back into my pants. Yep. It was definitely bigger. Length and grith. Drake’s offer for the use of the bathroom was perfect. A quick look at my own reflection was needed to check if anything else about me had changed. As far as I could tell, nothing was out of place. No scales. No horns. Though I suppose my jawline looked a _little_ broader? Less pointed, maybe. Couldn’t be sure in my rush. A quick wash of my face just to cool it down and I was rushing after Drake.

I caught sight of Drake’s tail as it disappeared around a corner and I followed shortly afterwards. A lifetime of barely any exercise caught up to me. Perhaps it was also the fact that I had _just_ orgasmed but I barely made it around the corner before I was winded. Why did he have to make his mansion so big? Yes, he and the other dragons were enormous but still! At least put one of those moving sidewalks or something!

Drake must have seen or heard me because he stopped in front of one of the doors in this enormous home, holding it open for me. Polite and considerate. Still didn’t trust him, though. It took me a few minutes to catch up but he waited patiently. A look past the door, I felt like I had stepped into an entirely different era.

Beyond the threshold was a fully furbished bar. Perhaps the better way to describe it was a ‘man-cave’. Dark, wide and a few steps lower than the rest of the mansion, it was the perfect place for traditional ‘men’ to hang out. A fully stocked bar sat to the far corner complete with a wall of liquor. A dart board was positioned nearby. Large TVs were positioned all over the place all within sight of the tables and booths so that anyone sitting anywhere would _always_ have something to watch. Speakers and even a small stage sat at the far end for anyone to perform if they were so inclined. On one side was a pool table… or at least what remained of one.

Naturnal stood off to the side, looking rather exhausted, with his huge shoulders slumped and looking down at Samsyte. The other blue dragon lay on his stomach over the splinters of the pool table, a pool cue in one hand that miraculously remained intact. Deu2much stood some distance away, trying very hard not to laugh while holding up his phone.

“Care to explain?” Drake asked, entering behind me and shutting the door.

“Deu challenged us to some pool,” Naturnal said with a tired voice. “It started out okay until _this_ idiot decided it’d be a good idea to try a ‘trick shot’.” He waved at Samsyte in annoyance. “I _told_ him that reinforcement spell you taught us had it’s limits but he _still_ went ahead and _sat on the fucking table!”_

Samsyte sat up, unharmed even if there were a few splinters of wood hanging from his scales. “No regrets!” he announced, pumping the hand carrying the pool cue in one hand into the air.

Deu finally let the burst of laughter he was holding it out and he held up his phone, taking a few pictures. “Dude, this is gold!”

“You know you can’t post any of that, right?” I reminded. “Not only will no one believe you but you can’t go around telling everyone about dragons.”

At least not without concrete proof… and without endangering the lives of our friends.

“I know,” Deu responded. “It’ll just be for us.” He grinned broadly. “I figured that when we leave for Aether, we’ll want to keep some memories of our time here on Earth. So some pictures will help.” Then he turned to Drake, holding up his phone. “Actually, will we be allowed to take any stuff with us to Aether?”

Drake shrugged his broad shoulders. “Of course. I can’t guarantee you’ll find the right charging cable… or even a plug that’ll fit…” His voice trailed off for a second. “… or even a stable connection to any Earth ISPs…” Then he hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “Do you guys want to print out any photos you have or something before you leave? We can get a photo album or something together. We can even frame some of them.”

A physical photo album? Just when did Drake come to Earth to remember such a thing or even have the capacity to make one? Everything was digital these days.

“So you’re saying we can’t ever come back after we go to Aether?” I asked.

“Oh no,” Drake said, shaking his head. “You absolutely _can_ cross over anytime you want. Dragons have scouting missions to Earth to search for potential dragons all the time. They report back on progress and the like. But if you’re suddenly gone for hundreds of years at a time and then the device you took with you to Aether mysteriously reconnects to the network, people will start asking questions.”

That was an _exceptionally_ good point.

It also raised more questions about what will happen to our connections when we leave. Looking around the room, we consisted of a group that didn’t exactly have the tightest connections to anyone else. But those connections were still there. Samsyte was estranged from his family but he _still_ had a family. Naturnal’s parents had passed away and he only had us and the few followers we had. Most of those followers were actually Deu’s. His personality and energy caused our viewership to spike… even if that spike never breached more than thirty people.

As for me… Well… I had my baggage.

But I decided to set that topic aside for now.

“Okay,” Drake sighed heavily, running a hand down his face. “Samsyte, Naturnal, you have some training to do. Chang-He, it’s best that you don’t wander off and interrupt them without me.” He waved his hand through the air and a bright red nimbus of energy wrapped around his fingers. The shattered pool table sprang to life. The shards lifted into the air and began reassembling itself. Even the shards that had stuck to Samsyte peeled off his armor-like scales to fuse seamlessly back with the table.

“It’s been a day for everyone,” Drake concluded. “Why don’t I whip up dinner while Samsyte and Naturnal do their exercises.” He threw a warning glare at them both, golden eyes narrowed. “And I actually _mean_ exercise. No fucking. No using magic to cheat. If you both want to know how to properly shape your bodies, you need to _feel_ how your body moves.”

“Yeah, yeah,” groaned Samsyte.

Naturnal grabbed his friend’s tail and dragged him to his feet. “Come on, soldier,” growled the military-inclined dragon. “Time to do some reps.”

Samsyte complained all the way out the door and around the corner.

Deu chuckled once they were gone, lowering his phone. “Never thought I’d ever Samsyte actually going out for exercise. I tried _so many_ times to get him to join me at the gym or go out for runs. He always refused.”

Another thing that changed about my friends. No way they did that willingly. Naturnal might have been inclined but Samsyte? Never. Even the latter struggled, it was half-hearted and even playful.

“While there are certainly ways to manipulate your own body composition with magic, if you don’t know what you’re doing you might cause more damage even if it is for aesthetics,” Drake explained. “Dragons take physical health very seriously. Even if you are effectively immortal, living forever struggling to breathe or being in constant agony all the time isn’t a way to live.”

“What does that have to do with Samsyte and Naturnal suddenly being gymrats?” I asked.

I felt Deu give me a quizzical look but ignored it. Drake didn’t seem to mind the question.

“It’s dangerous to use magic to change your own body unless you are in tune with your body and it’s functions.” For emphasis, he spread his wings. “You’ll notice that neither Naturnal or Samsyte have wings like me.”

That had crossed my mind. I briefly considered if it was some sort of way for Drake to mark those he converted as inferior to him. Though I would say that Naturnal looked more hirsute and had more mass than the black dragon. Drake was certainly leaner and more muscular but in terms of sheer weight? Naturnal had maybe ten to twenty pounds on him.

“You all grew up in a city that was physically restrictive,” Drake continued. “I don’t think any of you even really considered flying or flight as part of your nature. Some humans become dragons and grow wings immediately because it’s just part of who they are. But they will not necessarily know how to use them. Naturnal and Samsyte took on draconic shapes that reflected their very essences. That included the fact that they don’t have wings. Now if they were to just suddenly _grow_ wings, that would be against their nature and they’re more likely to break something or injure themselves in the attempt.”

“But why would a dragon decide to change their bodies if their transformation is meant to be a sort of ‘self-actualization’?” I asked, with maybe a bit too much venom in my tone. “Doesn’t that sound like it’s all for nothing?”

Drake gave me a little smile. “If I showed you a picture of what I looked like five hundred years ago when I stepped onto Earth from my exile, you wouldn’t be saying that.” He folded his wings over his shoulders, his brow furrowing in a serious note. “It’s one of the first lessons a dragon learns. Just because you’ve discovered your Role and are now a conduit for that particular magic, it doesn’t make you perfect. Assuming you are the perfect embodiment of that magic leads only to stagnation.”

He gestured for us to follow him and, like before, Deu was right beside him, trying to keep up with the much bigger dragon’s strides. I remained a good distance behind. To his credit, Drake did slow down his pace so we weren’t constantly scrambling to keep up.

As we walked, he explained how Aetherese society emphasized constant growth. Yes, dragons were effectively immortal but a long time ago, the dragons had come to realize that ‘perfection’ was an illusion. He theorized that it came from being hunted down and resorting to creating their own parallel world that helped them realize being complacent was a death sentence. That sort of mentality translated to more than just how the dragons apparently constantly had sex with one another to help them understand the different flavors of magic they threw around but also to their physical shapes.

When we entered the vast, spacious kitchen, Drake concluded with, “You’d be surprised how differently you see things when you are literally seeing it from a different perspective. In the air, underwater or even through limited colors of the spectrum.”

Aether sounded like a bunch of pompous philosophers with all the time in the world, all the resources they could possibly want and all they ever did was just sit around an ‘ponder the mysteries of the universe’. I don’t know why Samsyte and Naturnal would ever find that kind of life appealing. Then again, maybe Drake hadn’t told them everything.

After all, apparently all you needed to become a dragon was to find your ‘Role’.

Your ‘Duty’ came later.

As if reading my mind, Deu piped up with the question that was brewing in my head as Drake headed over to the stovetop and turned it on.

“So what do you do all day in Aether? You can’t seriously just be fucking each other and writing equations or something on how _your_ magic works with the magic of someone else that you just had sex with.”

Drake chuckled as he moved around the kitchen. I realized the broad, open-plan space of the kitchen was designed specifically for dragons like him. Any smaller and his wings or tail would have gotten in the way.

“We have our jobs. Each member of Aether contributes to the society. We need power. We need food. We need services. Each dragon can generally provide for themselves but providing for others helps build that connection and understanding. Not to mention doing different things helps add to your growing perspective. There’s a big difference between the questions of ‘what _I_ need to survive’ and ‘what does _someone else_ need to survive’.”

He held out one clawed hand. The flames dancing from the stove jumped up and twisted towards his fingers, snaking between them like a fiery serpent. “Theorizing about how something works is pointless unless put into practice. You have to remember that Aether was completely created by dragons. We didn’t _find_ it or didn’t just evolve from it. We have to understand our surroundings. Our world. Maintain it. It evolves with us. The more dragons that come into Aether, the more Aether changes to reflect the dragons.”

I tilted my head a little, lifting an eyebrow curiously. “So what happens when a dragon dies?”

Drake flinched and there was a flicker of something behind his golden eyes. Pain? Fear? Regret? I wasn’t sure. They looked glassy for a moment before he blinked and the moment was gone. “Then that part of Aether dies with him. Doesn’t mean that the element that they embodied disappears. Just that it isn’t as easy to manipulate or we can’t use it to fuel magic.”

Something about his words reminded me of something he had mentioned earlier. “Sorry if this is a sensitive topic,” I began. I wasn’t really apologetic. I just didn’t want this huge dragon biting my head off. “But I’m genuinely curious. Is the _first_ dragon still around?”

My words gave him the exit he was looking for and his mood brightened as he returned to cooking. “Oh hell no. He’s long gone.” With a swish of his tail, indicating that he was a little more jovial, he added, “Draconic immortality isn’t inherent. Just because we have magic, doesn’t mean we automatically don’t age. In fact, dragons didn’t actually learn _how_ to maintain their physical bodies and avoid degradation through the passage of time until at least the start of recorded history.”

“You guys knew about the cells in the body before mankind?”

“Of course. While we’re still closely tied with humanity, we dragons are arguably more technologically advanced.” Drake threw a grin over his shoulder. “Videogame graphics are _way_ more advanced to the point where we have simulations we can use for the purposes of games.”

Deu slammed his palms on the kitchen counter, leaning forward excitedly. “Seriously!?”

The dragon laughed softly. “Aether was a dimension that was created by dragons, remember? It took a while but a dragon even decided to use that technique to create little worlds for the purposes of entertainment.”

I narrowed my gaze. “So why don’t you just use that same magic to make more dragons? Make humans that fit your model of of your Role and Duty?”

Drake’s features grew somber again. Deu nudged my ribs with an elbow.

“Those games aren’t nearly as complicated as Aether itself,” answered the big black dragon. “Very limited and all the people in it are programmed. No true artificial intelligence.” He held up a spatula and tapped the side of his head with it. “Despite all of our technology and magic, we’ve never been fully able to create true consciousness. You can’t simulate free will.”

That was a little ironic. An advanced race that couldn’t create an AI and yet Earth’s society had made leaps and bounds in that area. I bit back the sardonic comment I was going to make but there was a glint in Drake’s eyes that told me he saw where I was going with my line of questioning.

“Here’s the thing about Aether,” he said waving that spatula around. “It’s all about perspective. One of the things we were taught very early on after transforming is that what we know is _not_ absolute. There is always more to learn. The creation of Aether was a _collaborative_ effort and it’s still growing with each new dragon that joins us. No one is ever completely wrong but at the same time, no one is every completely right either.”

Drake shuffled the pan he was cooking with on the stove top. “That’s why we still visit Earth every now and then. To broaden our understanding because unlike Aether, Earth is still very chaotic. It is in chaos that new discoveries are made. New sciences. New phenomena. We refuse to create artificial intelligences because once we centralize all our knowledge like that, we lose what element of chaos we have and will become stagnant.”

He turned around towards us for a moment. “Humanity understands the flaws of having to solely rely on AI even if greed and ambition drives them to push the limits of that understanding. There are whole articles about the ‘AI Singularity’ where the only content in the world is purely generated by AI and so they train and learn from one another. No creativity or deviation whatsoever.”

Then he turned back to his cooking. “Such a thing would be worse for Aether.”

That was an understatement. I could not help but imagine an apocalyptic scenario where some AI overlord trapped all the dragons and used them just to keep itself powered and Aether going, keeping them complacent with content and sex that it curated specifically to pacify them. As much as becoming a dragon and joining Aether still left a bitter taste on my tongue, I didn’t want that for anyone.

Especially not Samsyte or Naturnal who were already so far gone.

That said, I did _not_ fall for his deflection.

“So if the first ever dragon is dead and gone,” I said, drawing circles through the air, “does that mean those dragons that are in Aether have been around since it was created?”

Drake visibly went rigid and his wings ruffled a little. Deu gave me another elbow to the ribs which I ignored.

“No,” said the dragon evenly. “Dragons have died.”

‘Died’. Not ‘murdered’. Having learned about Drake’s reason for his exile, I wondered if he was the first ever dragon to commit murder.

“How? If you’re immortal how does a dragon die?”

Deu was about to interrupt but it was my turn to quickly interrupt him. Not with an elbow to the ribs. He had his upper body protected. A swift kick to the shin was enough to make him let out a soft squeak and to bite back a cry.

“Eternity is a long time,” Drake said evenly, slowly. “While there is always more to discover, sometimes a dragon just wants to… rest. So they undergo the process of Lachenornuld.” He paused, waiting for us to comment but with the somber topic, neither of us said anything. So he explained as he continued cooking.

Lachenornuld was the process of a dragon imparting one’s knowledge of a specific phenomenon to the rest of dragonkind and then that dragon ‘giving themselves’ to that phenomenon. The process itself could take years, decades and even centuries depending on the complexity of the Role that the dragon possessed. However, once the dragon themselves was satisfied that the rest of Aether knew everything they could about their Role, they there would be a celebration.

“An orgy, of course,” Drake added with a smirk. That just made me roll my eyes while Deu snickered in response.

Apparently, some Lachenornuld orgies would last days. The longest was six weeks. Since dragons could just manifest supplies and manipulate their bodies as they saw fit, it was understandable. When all the cum was spilled, the dragon would have one last intimate ritual with those that he considered closest. Whatever happened in that ritual was closely guarded by the participants and ever dragon in attendance was sworn to never share the details. It was during this final ritual that the dragon ‘gave themselves’ to their Role.

“I honestly don’t know what happens or what is done,” Drake said. “I’ve never been invited to a Lachernornuld and they’re honestly quite rare because of how we… _reproduce_. But that is the most peaceful way for a dragon to die. There are… _other_ ways, of course.” His eyes grew dark and his movements slower. “But those are even rarer.”

My mind was spinning with the implications. I honestly envisioned some form of ritualistic cannibalism. Considering how dragons were so protective of their kind and the secrecy of what happened in that final ritual, I imagined that those close members would _eat_ the dragon who dared to challenge their narrative of perpetual immortality. I bet the story of ‘giving your to their Role’ was just a euphemism for the gruesome truth.

That also brought to question exactly what Drake did. We knew he was exiled because he killed another dragon. _How_ exactly did he kill his fellow immortal? What damage did it do to Aether as a whole?

“Dude, that got heavy,” Deu sighed, clearly eager to change the subject.

“It’s fine,” Drake said. “You have to know this sort of thing. You need to be informed if you’re to make this transition to dragonkind.” There was a brief moment when his eyes flicked towards me but it passed as quickly as it came. “Aether is a very different place to Earth. You’re not constantly grappling with the threat of death. There, for the most part, death is a choice not an inevitability. That makes you think differently.”

Another good save. Drake clearly knew how to navigate delicate conversational topics. It honestly felt like I was in some sort of RPG or visual novel and I had to carefully pick the right conversation choices so as not to turn Deu against me while simultaneously sparring with Drake to get more information out of him.

To be honest, it was actually a little thrilling. It brought me back to moments when I was still under contract before I met Upw4rd. Times of self-indulgence and pleasure where I knew I was not being observed. After some time, those brief moments became like a game that I looked forward to. Moments where I was allowed to be myself while the thrill of not being caught added to the stimulation of my racing heart.

It made me feel… alive.

My heart skipped a beat and, for the briefest of moments, everything went dark like my eyes had abruptly shut off. Then my heart started again, a steady but increasingly desperate thrumming that was growing more and more urgent with each passing second. It was telling me something.

Urging me forward.

Strangely, I recalled words from an old doctor I had been recommended before I met Upw4rd. She had advised me to ‘listen to my body’. Don’t ignore pains. Don’t ignore odd sensations or any discolorations.

And as much as I hated it, I already knew what my body wanted.

It wanted me to become a dragon.

But did I really want to become one?

I was suddenly back in the kitchen while an immense pressure was pushing and pulsing from deep within my skull; not quite a headache but more like a yawn I didn’t know I was stifling. A lump in the back of my brain that was steadily radiating outwards and leaving a very familiar itching sensation on the back of my neck.

There was a scant and fleeting hope that I was just suffering from low blood sugar from the whirlwind of events and emotions that had hit me the past few hours. That I just had a ‘brain fart’. Anyone would be exhausted after a fourteen hour flight, a few hours driving in the Wyoming countryside and then the emotional rollercoaster that was discovering that dragons existed, learning that your two friends had become dragons and then realizing that you were poisoned and turning into one against your own will. But when I reached up and scratched at the itch on the back of my neck, I felt hard, tessellated scales against my fingers.

My eyes widened in horror even as my dick began hardening in my pants.

Not again. Not so soon!

I could usually go weeks without indulging. At worst, five days. But not less than five hours!

“I…” I coughed, my jaw already starting to feel the hot touch of the change. “… I need to use the bathroom.”

“Again?” Deu laughed, giving me a grin. “Didn’t you just go… like… less than hour ago?”

I struggled for an excuse. It was hard to focus when there was this… _beast_ that was struggling to get out by filling every fiber of your being with temptation like a battering ram. Every swing of that weapon was supplemented with the force of years of sexual repression… and _more_.

Drake, however, caught my gaze.

“Deung,” began the large, black dragon, holding out the spatula to my friend. “Would you mind just keeping an eye on the food? I’ll go show Gwok where the bathroom is. Just so he doesn’t get lost like last time.”

Deu grinned bright and nudged me again with his elbow. That contact from another man - especially one that is much more masculine than me - set off an explosion of sensations throughout my body. My flesh _yearned_ for more than the casual bump and I could feel muscle and bone twisting and growing like they were desperately reaching for him to come back as he withdrew his elbow. Thankfully, I was still wearing my red loose, red shirt so he didn’t see my flank physically filling up.

“Sure man,” Deu said, jumping off his breakfast stool and taking the spatula. “He was always bad with directions. Then again, back in Jaejanbaek, we just had to tell the auto-taxis where we wanted to go and it’d take us there.”

“Another reason why Aether shied away from artificial intelligence technology,” Drake said, already moving around the breakfast island towards me. “Automation leads to complacency and complacency will lead to a dull mind.”

I tried not to appear hurried as I stepped away from the kitchen but each passing second was like trying to fight against the tides in a storm that was growing increasingly powerful. It was possible to hold my ground for a little but each wave battered me and came closer and closer to sweeping me off my feet. I only got two steps away before my lower jaw emitted a sound like someone crunching dry leaves beneath their feet and began to jut forward away from my face. Thankfully, the sound of frying food masked the sound.

Sensing my urgency, Drake hurried me out of the kitchen, one of his large wings partially unfurled to hide my growing form. The dragon in me sensed I was out of danger the minute we stepped into the adjacent hallway and no longer held back.

My cock snaked down my pant leg, growing bigger and longer while relishing the tightness of my leg against the fabric along its sensitive length. Claws burst from the tips of my fingers, beginning the cascade of changes up my arms as mass, muscle and scales sprouted up my limbs. The sleeves of my red shirt were pushed back by growing triceps and blooming boulder-like shoulders. The sky-blue scales along my arms met their brothers that had sprouted along the back of my neck, connecting the two islands of draconic power and pouring it all into my face.

I barely noticed when Drake slammed a door shut behind us and I was suddenly back in his room. The sound gave me enough control over my body to stagger away from him while clutching my head in the enormous clawed hands that were both mine and so unfamiliar at the same time. A growl escaped my expanding lips. First, I could shield my whole face in these huge palms. With each passing second, however, my muzzle pushed forward, prying away my hands. My horns slipped past my fingers, further loosening my grip on my changing body.

With the last ounces of self-control I had, I determined that my hands were uselessly trying to hold back the transformation of my head. They were better put to good use elsewhere. Familiar motions drew them towards my pants and belt but their unfamiliar size fumbled for the much smaller buckle.

“No…” I moaned. “I… I can’t…!”

The strain against my cock was too much. The enormous member burst from my jeans with enough force that I thrust my hips into the air. Fabric flew in all directions. Not just the washed blue of my jeans either; the red of my shirt. My ballooning arms had ripped right through a good portion of the garment and still my thick, scaly neck was being suffocated by the now-tight neckline. My hands instinctively went up to the collar, claws hooking against the weakened fabric.

I don’t know what made me do it. Maybe too many videos watching men rip off their own shirts in feats of strength. The moment my claws found purchase on the fabric, I pulled the collar down, ripping it down the middle up to my diaphragm in one motion. I took a breath and then pulled again, ripping the shirt completely off my body just as my huge, black cock sprang up fully, spurred by my show of strength.

Oddly enough, my torso remained human. I must have looked like some sort of bizarre amalgamation with my arms and head being draconic and a huge monster of a cock attached to a scrawny torso and equally thin legs.

“Why…?” I grunted at myself, raising my hands to my face and staring at the mutated palms. “Why did this happen again!? Why so soon!?”

Drake’s large hands rested on my shoulders gently. My anger immediately turned to him and I spun around, knocking his hands away while glaring at the bigger dragon.

“This is your fault! It’s your damn traps!”

Drake regarded me sadly and shook his head. “No, Gwok. I told you earlier. I’ve disabled my magic. I didn’t want to overwhelm either you or Deung on your first day.” He glanced back towards the door. “Perhaps having three dragons in one place is contribution to your rapid transformation but it isn’t something we’re doing intentionally.”

His gaze turned back towards me. “But you are changing because you want to. You _want_ to become a dragon.”

“No I don’t!” I protested, taking a step back away from me. “This is…this is some sort of corruptive magic! I know it is! You’re tempting me with power, immortality and gay sex! It’s impure!”

For a second, Drake’s eyebrows rose in understanding and he opened his muzzle briefly as if to say something. After a second of consideration, he closed it again and let out a soft hum. We stood there for a second, my cock aching for attention, my rage and fear the only thing keeping me from jacking off there and then.

If Drake thought he could outlast me by just standing there without saying a word, he was probably right. I’d eventually cave to my base, primal desires. I always did. But I would make him _wait_.

But then he started speaking.

“You know that _I_ know why you were forced to stay in South Korea, right?”

That made me pause. Even my lust froze.

“Your former manager was quite forthcoming about your history together,” Drake continued. “He used the same word. ‘Impure’.”

I dropped my gaze, fangs bared.

“Part of being a dragon is being yourself,” Drake said gently. “Dragonkind was hunted down not just because of their abilities but because humanity could not stand these strong, powerful individuals that stood against their collective authority.” He gave me a little smile. “Humans draw strength from their sense of community and their ability to rally together in common causes. Dragons, while not exactly being the opposite, can stand on their own if needed. That scared the leaders of ancient history. If they could not control the dragons then they were considered a threat and had to be killed.”

He took a step towards me. I did not retreat. He must have taken that as a sign because he reached out and gently clasped my shoulder. This time, I did not push him away.

I could already tell where he was going with this line of thinking.

And unfortunately… I agreed with him.

“I can tell that you’ve spent your life conforming to what other people think you should be,” he said gently. “And the few times that you have indulged and let yourself be yourself, you have been burned severely for it.”

His other hand cupped my muzzle, lifting my head so that our eyes were locked.

“Don’t let anyone else tell you who you should be. Not even me. Not your friends of Upw4rd. If you don’t want to be a dragon, don’t feel pressured that you have to go through with this. Tell me now and I’ll have you out of here before this time tomorrow. Just be sure to be the better person and respect that same right of others.”

…

Shit.

He’s right.

It all came crashing down. If he were to be believed, Drake had not yet activated any of his magical traps that would begin the transformation. That meant that Deung was going into this clear of all influence. He wanted to be a dragon and that was his decision. It also occurred to me that both Samsyte and Naturnal made the same decisions.

I would be no better than the people who had scarred me if I tried to force them to my way of thinking. And what’s funny… is that ‘my way of thinking’ was so heavily laden with trauma that it took me until now to realize my own contradictions.

I think… I think that’s all my dragon wanted, really. Because the moment I came to that conclusion, all the tension in my body just… eased up. Like my whole body finally let out a sigh of relief. My cock stopped throbbing and began to deflate. Scales softened back to dark, caramel skin. My muzzle shrank back into my face. Looking up at Drake, I realized that I had actually gained a few inches of height as well as I physically began to shrink in front of him.

He released me from his grip and cocked an eyebrow at me.

“Are you alright?” he asked, genuine concern on his face.

For the first time since arriving here, I think I finally saw Drake for real. Yeah, he was doing this for selfish reasons but, just like me, he had been forced into a situation he didn’t want because of his own actions. We were both trapped but, at the same time, we both held the keys to our own escape. He just needed more keys than I did, I guess.

“Yeah,” I mumbled, nodding slowly. “I think I am.” The smile on my face was still heavy but it felt… lighter than the forced once I had often worn. “At least… I will be. I just need time.”

Drake nodded sagely. “Alright. If you ever need to talk, I’m an open ear. I’ll configure my spells to avoid you. I don’t think you’re ready to confess your truth yet to the others.”

“I appreciate that.”

He then held up his hand and the scraps of clothes that lay about his room from my transformation reassembled themselves seamlessly in front of him. I took the repaired clothing from him and slipped them on. The shirt felt a little tighter around my shoulders and my balls were _definitely_ bigger. I had to ask him if he could adjust the crotch of my pants a little just so I didn’t have to waddle like a penguin instead of walking.

When we left his room to head back to the kitchen, I did so with a newfound understanding.

I didn’t have to be a dragon.

I just had to be me.

## Fun for Everyone

Over a decade of self-imposed trauma and drama isn’t just discarded in the span of a few weeks. But when you are surrounded by people who understand you and won’t judge you for that trauma, it’s an entirely different kind of environment. The seed of healing is growing out of an actual garden with fertile soil and genuine sunlight instead of harsh concrete and neon lights. You’d be surprised how effective just having _one_ thing off your mind or shoulders can do for your mental health. My confession allowed me to see things a little more clearly.

As I set down the large gaming tower, I straightened and wiped my brow with the back of my hand. The motion brought to sight my forearms which had benefited from the effects of my figurative and literal growth. The muscles certainly had packed on especially since my dragon was more than happy to flex his muscles every opportunity he got. I still needed to step away to transform in private and Drake still was there to provide comfort and security but there wasn’t this urgency in it.

Hell, I even kissed Drake once.

Just on the cheek! No lips and certainly no tongue.

I just wanted to show him how I appreciated him giving me this environment to grow.

Though speaking of growth, I grew a _little_ worried about Deu. My progress had progressed exponentially. My height has surpassed him. As had my mass. Just for the hell of it, I had ripped off the sleeves of one of my red shirts with the metal band print on it. It was a mistake to do that in front of Samsyte. The first of us to become a dragon pounced on me and began affectionately nibbling on my shoulders, begging me to flex them for me. That was when I realized that I had grown bigger than the sportiest guy in our group.

Deu2much took it in stride and constantly reminded me he’d catch up eventually. That he’d be bigger than me. I watched him - that ever-present yellow cap on his head - carry the rig that Drake and Naturnal had built together with their magic. He was bigger than when he first arrived but compared to me… well… Let’s put it this way. Our roles had been reversed in proportion. I was now bigger than him by the same scale as when we had first arrived three weeks ago and _he_ was the buff guy in our group.

A glance at my reflection in the monitors that we had set up confirmed this fact. I actually had definition in my shoulders and a pec-shelf! Oh and abs. When they first appeared I couldn’t help but jack off and took great pleasure in watching my seed seep into my ‘cum gutters’.

Fuck, I have cum gutters.

A little _thump_ signaled that Deu had set down his rig opposite to mine.

“Are you sure this is even going to work?” asked my roommate and friend. “I mean… who even has LAN parties anymore?”

“It’s really not that hard to set up,” I answered, crouching down to where the cables were. “Besides, we can’t exactly log on to external servers and play games there. This mansion is isolated, remember?”

Drake’s large thumping steps entered the room we had cleaned out on the second floor just for this event. Is it strange that I could tell which dragon was approaching me by the sound of their footsteps now? Drake’s were always subdued but still loud, more like a muffled rumble of distant thunder compared to Samsyte’s loud _thunks_ accompanied by the sound of his claws grazing across the tiles. Naturnal - since he still wore his combat boots - were just loud _booms_.

“You know I could just cast a spell to make sure that none of you are detected if you were to connect to online servers, right?” rumbled the black and gold dragon.

I plugged in a few wires and made to lift my head only to misjudge the distance and bump the top of my head against the underside of the table. Growth, remember? I was still getting used to my mass and height. Grumbling slightly, I shuffled out from underneath the table to give Drake an exasperated look. “It took you a _really_ long time to figure out what went into a gaming rig.”

“It was a _week,_” hissed our host, baring his fangs. “Besides, Samsyte and Naturnal’s towers were fine.”

Deu laughed softly as he began plugging in the monitors. “Dude. You’re lucky they were too horny to really play any games because those towers would’ve caught on _fire_ if we didn’t have a look at them.”

Drake may have had multiple doctorates and degrees in engineering but he was _very_ out of date with modern technology. His magic was also very powerful but conjuring something without fully knowing how it worked was reckless. It was a lesson he taught us - and one of the reasons that Aether never created full-on artificial intelligences. Whether he realized it or not, Drake was spending his magical energy maintaining the rigs he had created for Samsyte, Naturnal and himself. They worked like a dream. Better than any modern computer in fact.

But that’s the problem.

They worked through his magic. In reality, when Deu and I opened up one of them to see how they worked, we were horrified. I swear, the graphics cards - that’s a plural by the way - weren’t even hooked up correctly! Samsyte’s rig was running with RAM that wasn’t even plugged into the motherboard. Drake was literally using his magic just to make sure it functioned.

“Technology just was never one of those things that I bothered keeping up with,” muttered Drake. “It grows exponentially and I learned that if I just kept going to school _constantly_ to keep up with the latest tech, I’d never find any dragons.”

“Uh-huh,” I muttered, completing my setup and patting his tower. “At least now you won’t have to worry about draining your magic just to keep these things running.”

Drake… was not efficient. I could almost say he was kind of wasteful. As he taught us about magic, I grilled him on a few of the concepts he explained. I soon realized that his entire complex was purely self-sufficient. It wasn’t connected to any electrical grids or even the local water supply. Sure he had rainwater and glacial water collectors as well as small windmills and solar panels set up all over the place but it was nowhere near what was needed to maintain all our energy requirements. That’s where his magic came in.

Because his magic was based purely on ‘carnal pleasure’, ever time someone in the world orgasmed he was supplied with energy to spend. That’s oversimplifying it, of course. His Role expands further than that. But my point is, in the five hundred years he’s been here, he’s gotten _really_ careless with how he uses his magic because Earth is filled with horny people. Any gaps he just fills with spells.

Yes, he’s got plenty of it, but take it from someone who lived on a shoestring budget. Such wastefulness was just offensive.

Which was why Naturnal and I actually sat down and _fixed_ each of our rigs so that it could run without magic. Learning how to build my own PC was something I had learned in Te3. The marketing team said it would help our ‘relatability’ if we were shown building our own machines _and_ using them. Now that I thought about it, I was pretty sure it was because the parts we used came from sponsors.

The door to the room sprang open and Naturnal came marching in with his own tower hoisted easily over one shoulder while carrying two monitors under an armpit. Samsyte was not too far behind him doing the same.

“This was _such_ a great idea, B1t,” Samsyte exclaimed, starting to setup his own rig. “I mean, we are going full fucking retro!”

“I honestly don’t see the appeal,” admitted Drake.

“There’s just something different about playing a game in the same room with your friends,” I explained, crawling back under the tables we had arranged in a square for us to play on. As the dragons set down their rigs, I began hooking them up. “Even when we were playing together as Upw4rd, we would sometimes pull our desks into the common area and stream together. Only one of us would be recording because all of our voices going through the same mic would be annoying to edit but the energy was just…”

I trailed off. That feeling of playing games with close friends was just indescribable. Doubly so when you were playing in the same room. Bumping another player to congratulate them on a good match, messing with them by waving your hand over their face or just seeing their reactions to your win just hit differently when not seen through the lens of a camera.

“Just give it a try, dude!” Deu exclaimed, parking himself in his gaming chair. “Trust me, it’s _way_ different.”

“I suppose there _is_ some logic behind that,” Drake rumbled. “Playing games on the same local server when you’re only separated by a few doors _does_ seem… unintuitive.”

It didn’t take long for us to set up the rest of our rigs. Creating a local server was another thing but thanks to some of Drake’s magic, we were able to pull together something that worked. Of course, we couldn’t play any modern games that didn’t support local co-op but there were still a few that we could download - discretely - and play. We booted up one such game, put on our headphones and started.

As the loading screens spun away on our monitors, I marveled at the gear that the dragons wore. Samsyte, who sat right beside me, naturally needed a much bigger chair and his had a hole at the base of the spine just for his tail. The headphones he wore were specially designed for dragons. The headband sat at the base of his neck instead of arching over the top of his head. My guess it that because of their horns, the conventional noise-canceling headphones would be quite problematic and easily damaged. The muffs were also more oblong in shape to fit their pointed ears.

Definitely not something Drake just conjured out of nothing. Aether must have had such designs and technology before.

Then the game started.

I turned my attention to the screen and the match started. Since there were five of us, it was a bit uneven but since Drake had no idea what he was playing, it was _sort of_ balanced. The game was an old MOBA - Multiplayer Online Battle Arena. The company behind it had moved on to bigger things but they had released the source code for the game allowing the gaming community to keep it alive in private servers. Which was why it was the perfect candidate for a LAN party. Deu had suggested we play around of it at least once every week as a sort of ‘retro callback’ back in Jaejanbaek. We got pretty good at it.

With Drake playing, we decided to try playing against some bots first. Just so he got the hang of the game.

It didn’t take long before we were back in the apartment playing as a team.

“You got bottom lane, B1t?” asked Samsyte.

“Yeah,” I answered sharply. “I’m ranged. We got a melee to come with?”

“I’ll go,” replied Deu, rolling his shoulders with a dramatic crack. “I’m playing Slaughter so leave the denials to me.”

“Don’t let Drake go mid on his own,” Naturnal said. “Drake, bud. Come up to the top with me. Samsyte can take mid.”

Drake just blinked a few times. “It’s like you’re all talking a different language but alright…”

That brought a smile to my face. Something about teaching the ancient, all-powerful magic dragon something new was oddly satisfying. When the game actually started and we were fighting mobs, AI-controlled units and passing strategies and advice to one another while we were in the same room… the energy just _changed._ The worries of becoming a dragon were gone. The conflict of my sexual identity vanished. Even the perception of somehow getting bigger and buffer than Deu had fallen behind us.

We were just a group of guys having fun.

And that… that was exhilarating.

My screen suddenly went black and I jerked back. Did we overload Drake’s electrical systems? Did my game just decide to crash? When I looked around, though, my screen wasn’t the only thing that went dark.

The whole world had been plunged into darkness.

If this were the first time that I had experienced this phenomenon, I would have been frightened but I distinctly recalled when I had first been plunged into the ‘cave’ as Naturnal had described it. Something had poked my awakening inner dragon. A hint at my Role that was strong enough to plunge me into a visual representation of the darkness I was in.

“You know…” I mumbled to myself. “… I honestly thought coming out as gay would’ve been my Role…” Looking around the dark cave, I saw the small distant light that would lead me to my full awakening.

No fear gripped my heart.

Remember how I said that having the weight of keeping my sexuality a secret from the others offered a lot more clarity?

That clarity gave me the strength and insight I needed to know what my Role was. It wasn’t that hard to figure out. I mean, the first time I was thrown in here, I was comparing my scenario to an RPG where I had to juggle relationships. The concept was thrilling. And now? The moment I let myself enjoy playing games with my friends, I was back here.

I knew what my Role was.

That was why there was a light at the end of the tunnel, the opening to the cave.

It was just a question of whether or not I had the courage to take the step and emerge a dragon.

A big, powerful hand suddenly shook my shoulder and my inner cave vanished. I was suddenly sitting in my chair again, looking at my screen where the words ‘Respawn’ were flashing in red in front of me.

“Dude, you okay?” Samsyte asked. “You spaced out there for a second. Were you lagging IRL?”

I stared at him for a second and then offered a light smile. “Sorry. I was just thinking how it seems like forever since we played a game like this.”

“It’s been months!” laughed Naturnal from across the little nest of tables. “And I blame _this_ asshole for running off to get fucked by the Big Black and Blonde Dragon!” He jerked his head towards Samsyte.

“Hey!” countered Samsyte. “You weren’t complaining when you were being dicked by Drake!”

“He dicks me more often than not,” Drake countered casually. “Should I buy this thing called ‘Tsukiyomi’?”

“Dude, you’re playing Sacrosanct!” exclaimed Naturnal. “A healer! You do _not_ need dexterity or rate of fire!”

The guys and I immediately went off on how this game was all about maximizing your build and not trying to be an all-rounder. Drake just sat there, looking panicked and a little overwhelmed as all four of us berated him on his build. Seriously. He was playing a _ranged healer_. Why he would ever think it was smart to get weapons and armor that were designed for melee attackers was beyond me.

It’s like he never played a videogame before.

No gamer-instincts whatsoever.

But that was all part of the experience. The fun. We weren’t being hostile or insulting. We were trying to help. The stakes were low. We were teaching someone to become better while building a strong camaraderie with him. Teaching him the culture and lingo so to speak. Even when one of us, the more experienced players, made a mistake, the ribs and jabs were may playfully and in jest. Tempers would flare and frustrations would rise but in the end, we moved on from it and got back into the action once the respawn timer went out.

This is what playing videogames was about.

Just having fun.

Somehow, I was not surprised to find myself once again plunged into the darkness of my cave. A faint heat radiated from behind me, prickling at the back of my neck. The entrance was closer. Calling to me. My dragon…

No.

We weren’t separate.

_I_ was itching to leave this cave and become the dragon I was always meant to be. Turning towards the light at the end of the tunnel, the temptation was stronger than ever. I _knew_ that this was another weight that would be lifted off my shoulders. After discarding my own self-imposed block that came from my sexual identity, being freed of another tonne of doubt would no doubt leave me even better than I was before.

So much would change. One day, I would step out of Earth and onto Aether and experience an entirely new world. Weird, right? After I was so willing to cut out Upw4rd if it meant my own freedom from a corporate overlord, being given the choice to become a dragon and be free was so much scarier.

Samsyte nudged me again and I was once again in front of my PC with the respawn counter ticking down in front of me.

“Dude!” barked the dragon. “You’re feeding the bots! You’re going get left behind!”

“It’s still early. Go farm in the jungle,” Deu instructed. “Sam, you’re mid so roam between the lanes.”

“How close are you to leveling up?” asked Naturnal. “Maybe stick around for a little longer before heading to the jungle?”

Drake grunted, his clicks on his mouse growing more enthusiastic. “I’m getting the hang of this. Naturnal, maybe roam as well? I need to catch up on levels and gold.”

A small smile touched my lips as the respawn timer ticked down from five.

How close was I to leveling up? That cave entrance was extremely close.

… four…

Do I play it safe? Retreat to what is comfortable and grow stronger until I was ready?

… three…

Or do I forge my own path. Accept that this was my choice and have fun for once..

… two…

A smile touched my lips as I slowly pulled my hands away from my keyboard and mouse. Samsyte saw the movement and, from the corner of my eyes, I saw his look of confusion quickly turn to one of realization. I’m pretty sure he was looking at my crotch.

… one…

I stepped out of the cave and accepted my Role.

The Dragon of Enjoyable Gaming.

It was the tearing noise that heralded my return to reality. A burst of relief and release rocketed down from the tip of my dick. In the periphery of my vision, I could see it rising up from my crotch, growing bigger, longer and changing color. At the same time, I could see Samsyte right beside me gawking with his draconic features shifting between surprise and arousal. He took off his headphones and likely heard the sounds of twisting flesh and grinding bones as my body shifted.

“Fuck, B1t,” he growled, fangs bared hungrily. “You’ve been holding out on us.”

Deu, who sat across from me, got up from his seat and his eyes boggled just as he member grew past my nipples, a spire of vascular, black flesh that was oozing with precum. “Holy shit…! That thing is bigger than my arm!”

Drake and Naturnal were getting up next but Drake was already moving towards me, his wings spread and ready to sweep me away at a moment’s notice.

“Sang-Ook!” cried the black dragon. “Let’s get you -”

I raised a hand towards him, a moment of fascination crossing me features as my nails lengthened and sharped. “No,” I growled, feeling my teeth lengthening into a familiar shape. “I’m good.”

“You’re -” stammered Drake. “Wait… does this mean?”

I flashed him a grin even as my face was drenched in sweat and the pressures of the transformation overwhelmed my entire body. “Yeah. I know my Role.”

Then, I turned that grin towards the rest of Upw4rd as I gripped the base of my engorged member. “New game,” I growled, my extending tongue sliding out between my lips and dripping long globules of cum over my rapidly expanding chest. “First guy to make me cum is the winner.”

Naturnal’s enormous muscles bunched and his eyes focused directly on mine. “Oh fuck yeah!” he roared and jumped clear over the tables and collided with me. The impact was surprisingly soft even as the world tilted backwards and we hit the ground. His arms wrapped around my back and my head, cushioning the blow as the gargantuan, hairy blue dragon rubbed his semi-erect cock against my monster.

A deep rumbling growl was rising from his throat as he leaned his muzzle down to my ears.

“I’ve wanted to taste your cock since the second you arrived.”

Then he was lifting me up off my toppled chair, lifting me high into the air as he got up himself just. He didn’t have to raise me up that far before my cock was already bouncing against his nostrils. The sensitive tip twitched and shuddered, yearning to burying itself into that blunt muzzle of his. He took at moment to flare his nostrils and take in my scent.

Pure, primal and animalistic.

He opened his muzzle. The sight of those fangs didn’t scare me or my member. The instant there was a little opening, a surge of strength rocketed up from the base of my cock and surged upwards, pushing the tip of my dick a few inches right between his lips. There was a moment of shock from Naturnal as the growth was accompanied by a spurt of precum but then he eagerly wrapped his lips around the length.

Then he began sucking.

I’ll say this: for a guy that, up to two months ago, wasn’t that experienced with sex, he sucked cock _really_ well. Drake taught him well. Maybe it was just because I was just touch-starved and still repressed but fireworks exploded all over my body the minute another man took my dick.

I threw my head back and let out a primal cry, my voice already deeper than it had been a moment ago. I gripped his huge, meaty arms for support as he bobbed his head up and down over and over my cock, consuming more and more of my length with each iteration. As his lips grew closer to the base of my member, so too did my arms grow longer to reach his shoulders. Pulses of power blasted down my biceps. Thick veins crisscrossed their mountain as they inflated with mirroring triceps ballooning out rapidly. A feeling of a good, long stretch after a particularly strenuous session of gaming in the same position came from the bones beneath the inflating muscles. Those very same bones stretched and thickened to support the mass of lean mass that were quickly growing from my shoulders. Rivers of veins provided fuel to my broad forearms.

The tips of my fingers touched Naturnal’s huge, bowling ball shoulders. Sharp, white claws flared out from my fingertips. A momentary itch erupted from the the base of those claws. Sky-blue scales sprang up where the itch began which immediately replaced the sensation with the relief that came from relieving that feeling. My fingers flared out, fattened up to support my claws and those scales multiplied to cover every inch of flesh that the growth explored.

Then came the part of the change that no one - except for Drake and I - really saw coming. The palms of my hands turned a deep crimson. Naturnal was too busy sucking my dick but Samsyte gawked from where he stood as the red leather spread over the inside of my forearms and covered some of my bicep. The contrast in color ran along the exact divide between my biceps and triceps, accentuating the vascular mass of my biceps all the more. Something about the light blue juxtaposed against the deep red was just… distinctly _me._

I turned towards Samsyte, lifting my fully changed hand towards him and gave him a seductive smile - at least I thought I was being seductive. But when I beckoned him to come to me, he momentarily stopped stroking his own cock and bounded over, practically knocking over his own chair as he did so. When the tattooed dragon came within reaching distance, I ran my clawed hand around around broad features gently until I was gripping the back of his neck.

The gravity between us and my own motions pulled his muzzle close to mine. With Naturnal holding me up, we were at eye-level so I had no trouble pushing my lips against his. My tongue could not wait to push past my own teeth and brush against his, begging for entrance. Just like with Naturnal, the moment Samsyte parted his lips even slightly, I pounced and pushed my tongue into his muzzle, eager to explore another male dragon with my sense of taste. Just as well since my tongue was already lengthening while my muzzle started coming in.

Pulses hammered from within my skull, radiating outwards and pushing out. Two powerful points hammered at the back of my head. Even without looking, I could feel my two, black horns curling outwards, pulling the shape of my skull back in that direction. At the same time, the pulses hammered my nose and lips forward, keeping them rooted against Samsyte’s muzzle and reshaping my skull into the long draconic shape I had grown familiar with. I pulled Samsyte closer to me, tilting my head to the side to lock my muzzle perfectly with his. Our tongues danced against one another, drowning out the itching that came from my scales sweeping over my face. Even once my scales had fully consumed my face, a little bit of itching followed around my jawline. That was my beard. I could never fully grow one but I absolutely _loved_ the idea of sporting a chinstrap beard. Samsyte noticed because he ran his fingers along it which just made my cock spasm all the more.

I pulled my lips from his, a deep growl rolling out of my thick neck.

“Give me your cock,” I growled. “I want to suck it dry.”

He grinned back at me. “Yessir.”

My growing mass was getting a bit much for Naturnal. In a coordinated move that was lifted right out of a porn movie, his tail swept across the table were our monitors sat. The crash of metal and buzz of electronics was secondary to the powerful, hirsute dragon whirling me around and laying me down across the cleared table. My legs dangled off the edge allowing him to kneel down and get a better angle to suck my dick. It also allowed me to straddle his broad back while he continued to dive closer and closer to my inflating, scaly balls.

Samsyte moved around us both, positioning himself by my head. His huge, heavy cock hit the table beside me with a loud, wet _thump._ The scent of precum, his draconic musk and the heat of his desire overwhelmed my senses. I don’t think I even registered turning my head to wrap my lips around his dick. One moment, I was just staring at it and the next, it was in my muzzle and I was tasting him for the very first time.

And let me just say, I totally get why Samsyte and Naturnal were always so horny about each other. The moment I tasted Samsyte, that first drop of precum, an appetizer of his magic, a new door just opened up for me. The best I could describe it is that even after escaping my own ‘cave’, I was suddenly made aware of _another_ underground labyrinth and was overwhelmed by the desire to explore it. I was intimately familiar with my cavern but now I wanted to explore Samsyte’s and see how it connected with mine.

So I sucked that cock like it was my only source of oxygen.

In response, by chest ballooned out. The long-suffering red shirt that clung to my frame tore right down the middle as my pecs surged outwards and upwards. My deeper, red underbelly replaced the crimson of the fabric and you could say that my black nipples took the place of that metal cover print on the shirt. Samsyte’s hands roved my chest, his moans spurring me onwards while his touch set my skin on fire. His fingers circled my nipples while he thrust deeper and deeper into my throat, filling me with more and more of his rapidly thickening precum. This same fingers circled my nipples, sending jolts of electricity throughout my entire body and making buck and thrust. I barely noticed when I hilted into Naturnal’s muzzle or when my balls slapped against his chin.

“B1t…” Samsyte moaned. “You have got to have the most beautiful abs out of all of us!”

Not being able to see, I could only take his word for it. Though I could feel his fingers sliding over the rigid walls of my abdominal muscles as they flared up and tried to swallow his claws.

Cum gutters, right?

Pulse after pulse of power roiled throughout my entire body dictating the rhythm of our motions. Samsyte thrust into me and I would buck my hips. My cock would bury into Naturnal’s throat and he would wrap his lips around my member to form a seal. Naturnal would pull his muzzle back, sucking on my entire length and that would likewise make me pull my own lips away from Samsythe’s girthy dick.

In the midst of the heated motions, the moment my hips left the table, the pulses focused against the base of my spine. I had all but forgotten about having a tail. Throughout my entire time denying who I was, I had never grown one. But these two magnificent dragons welcomed me into dragonhood, I felt the wiggling of new nerves, the buzz of fresh muscles and the strength of growing bones running up my spine. The tearing noise that came from the remnants of my pants heralded the eruption of my tail from the base of my spine. It’s long, serpentine length snaked out from beneath me, brushing up against Naturnal’s hefty mass. It was strange, new and exhilarating at the same time. It might as well have been a third leg - or fourth depending on how you look at it.

The strength from my tail could only be matched by the development of my thighs. The power that flooded through them was incredible. Like my arms, they were mostly covered in light blue scales but my inner thighs were covered in the softer but tighter red leathery skin that accentuated every vein and curve of muscle. My quads lengthened, carrying the changes down to my calves which inflated with new strength. I curled my toes in anticipation but when the pulses hammered away at my feet, I couldn’t help but unfurl them as my claws tore through my socks.

Power and freedom erupted from my entire body. Could anyone blame me for reaching up with my arms and grabbing Samsyte’s ass just to bring me closer to me? Or to tighten by thighs around Naturnal’s flanks? These guys were much more experienced dragons than me, though and I, admittedly, suffered for it.

Samsyte’s tail smacked the ground excitedly as he bent down and pressed his lips against my right nipple, his fangs gently nibbling on the fleshy nub. The eruption of heat and pleasure was magnitude 9 earthquake that sent fissures throughout my entire body. Then he went ahead and gripped my other nipple with his other hand and gave that a tight twist.

I would’ve cum there and then.

And I almost did… until Naturnal did _his_ thing.

Even with all the power in my legs, it was no match for Naturnal’s sheer mass. I said I tightened my grip around his torso. But then _he_ flared out his back and pushed against my thighs, pushing my grip apart. I could _feel_ his lats exploding against my inner thigh, pushing my calves apart. I swear I could feel the striations of his traps against my calves!

_That_ made me cum.

The rush of of release, the blast of seed from my balls and the heat of passion that came barreling out of my body was different. Not just because I was a dragon but because for the first time in a long time, I was cumming in front of someone without shape. Not only that. But I was cumming _into_ someone.

Yes, my cry of pleasure was muffled but not because I was holding back but because I had a monster of a dick tap dancing against my tonsils. I kept my cock and ejaculate from making a mess not because I was purposefully covering my dick in a tissue or towel but because it was buried into another man’s muzzle and he was eagerly swallowing my load.

At long last, I was me.

It almost didn’t matter when Samsyte announced that he was cumming and hot seed flooded my throat. Swallowing cum for the very first time was an experience and I would certainly do it again. But the taste of his essence, the raw electricity of his magic coupled with the revelation that I was actually drinking cum right out of another man’s cock made it better than any porn movie could ever replicate.

Naturnal tensed and he buried his muzzle down my cock, pushing his nostrils right against black pubic hair. His throat closed around my dick, milking me for every drop of cum I had to offer him. He was cumming too, I could feel it. I could _hear_ it splattering against the ground beneath me…

… and at our rigs that were still on and still running.

Only _then_ did we all pay attention to the loud electrical buzzing that screamed in protest around us. The lights in the game room flickered to the rhythm of our loads. By the fifth or sixth, they fully switched off and we were suddenly plunged into complete and utter darkness.

Oh well. Our senses were sharper this way.

Besides, we could fix the rigs later.

Naturnal pulled his muzzle from my member, savoring every inch. I did the same against Samsyte’s. The two dragons moved towards one another, locking lips as my cum was passed from one dragon to the other. I took the opportunity to position myself right between their hulking bodies, grabbing their dicks and greedily lapping up what I could from them both.

I could not wait to have them both in me one day. I’d have to work up to it. But my goal was to be spitroasted by these men whom I loved. These dragons who were simultaneously by brothers, my roommates and my lovers. These men who accepted me for who I was, stood patiently while I dealt with my own trauma and helped bring out the true me.

But… we were missing someone.

Or rather two someones.

My eyes adjusted to the dark and as I looked around in the dark room, I noticed the door was slightly ajar.

Deu was missing.

And so was Drake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

## Typical Gaymer

It is very weird experience having grown up in an urban sprawl like Jaejanbaek and then suddenly being surrounded by nature. Winter was setting in and snow was dusting the mountain landscape like powdered sugar. The air still had this crisp edge to it that was unlike anything that I had ever grown up with. It was also very different compared to the heavy air inside Drake’s mansion. The weight of sex just hung like a persistent aroma in the air. Not an actual scent of cum of sweat. More like every breath I took reminded me that I was becoming a dragon.

And that was I was gay.

A shudder ran through my body. Not from the cold. Leaning against one of the fences that separated the main compound to the farmlands and wearing a warm coat, the cold did not bother me much. That shiver was almost instinctive. My traumatized mentality was still trying to shake off the cursed word.

They came less and less often over the past week and a half since we arrived. Drake’s ‘horny traps’ specifically targeted Deu. I had seen my roommate begin his transformations. I left the room before he could complete the change purely out of instinct. There was just something about seeing another guy’s dick as they are orgasming in person that compelled me to run away. If it was through a screen or as a recording, I was fine but in person…?

It was one of the things that I discussed with Drake every time I changed.

To his credit, he would find some excuse to drag me away as the transformation came over me or always appear whenever it was happening wherever I was. I honestly think he created some sort of spell to track my changes. He was respectful of my desire to keep my changes private. If I was in the presence of others, he’d make up some excuse to pull me away. During those harrowing moments, I would allow myself to change and he would talk me through what I was feeling, helping me grow a little more comfortable with each transition. A sort of therapist. Even afterwards, as I lay there half-dragon, half-human, we would never do anything overly sexual. A hug. Some cuddling maybe. But we would never do anything about my raging cock.

Just… talk.

One of the topics we discussed was my aversion to real-life sex or even nudity. I had never been comfortable walking around the apartment in anything less than a shirt and long pants so I definitely wasn’t comfortable going around flashing my dick. Yes, even if Samsyte and Naturnal were always naked and it was impossible to avoid any signs of them having sex. Drake’s magic made sure that any overt evidence was wiped but it was the way those two acted, the knowing smirks, the winks and the innuendos that gave them away. I knew Drake participated and even Deu succumbed to the magic every now and then. So long as I wasn’t seeing it in person, I was fine.

But when it was happening to me or right in front of me, I immediately averted my gaze or found some excuse to flee.

Is that weird? Am I so badly traumatized?

I exhaled, my breath condensing in front of me. Drake’s farm was currently covered in a little bit of morning frost. With the sun peaking out from between the surrounding peaks, sunbeams danced off the dew giving the landscape an appearance of a garden made completely out of diamonds. It was breathtaking and something that I had only ever seen in videos or posters back in Jaejanbaek.

Something so vastly different when you experience it in person.

A big, navy-blue, scaly hand suddenly set a large mug of steaming hot coffee in front of me. I followed the curvature of the muscled limb up to Naturnal who was beaming… wearing absolutely nothing despite the cold. I took the cup with a smile and muttered some thanks.

“How are you even standing out here naked?” I asked in Korean. “Are you even warm blooded now?”

“Of course,” he answered, taking a sip from his own drink. The mugs were sized for dragons so I had to hold mine in both hands. The coffee was great. “Just because I’m twice the size doesn’t mean I’m different in here.” He tilted his head a little with a little smile on his blunt, square muzzle. “Well… maybe I changed a _little_.”

I appraised him particularly that pelt of thick chest hair on his scaly hide. How dragons even _had_ hair still puzzled me. “I would say you have changed a _lot_.”

“Oh yeah?” he prompted, leaning against the fence separating the main compound to the farmland. His long, muscular tail swished behind him. “Tell me about it. How much have I changed?” He waggled his big, bushy eyebrows at me. “Do you like what you see?”

I turned away and took another sip from my coffee, glad the motion hid some of the blush that was creeping onto my face. A long time ago, such an obvious flirtatious comment would have sent me running away. Now…? It is hard to say.

“You’re hairier for one thing,” I commented. “I suppose it was silly for me to suggest that you could be _cold_ considering you look like someone bred an ape with a dinosaur.”

To anyone else, that would have been an insult but Naturnal could always see past my bluster. An easy grin crossed his features. I could almost see the pudgy military brat that he had been beneath all that scale and muscle. I had to turn my head away from him so that I didn’t spend too much time staring at the perfect cleavage of his chest barely masked by that pelt of his.

I pretended that I shivered to hide the motion.

That was my mistake.

Because a second later, Naturnal was standing behind me, pressing his impressive belly and chest against my back. The top of my head was sitting just beneath his pec-shelf. I could feel every abdominal muscle against the small of my back. He gave off an impressive amount of heat. I’m sure his body hair helped. It certainly made a nice cushion against his hard muscles beneath the layer of fat.

And yes, I could feel his dick and fat balls between my legs but he was completely flaccid at the moment.

His huge arms rested on either side of me, one of them holding his mug of coffee while the other held his weight against the fence. I was effectively trapped.

“How about now?” he asked, partially playfully and partially seriously. “Do I at least prove that I’m warm-blooded?”

I could feel his strong heart pounding in his chest.

“Just what do you think you’re doing?” I mumbled into my mug.

“Showing you how much I’ve changed,” he answered. “If it weren’t for Drake and everything that happened to me, I think I’d still be that quiet little boy that’s so desperate to keep everyone together because he’s lost everyone else in his life.”

I gulped loudly but didn’t say anything.

“I do not mean to sound rude,” he continued. “But I’ve learned that I’ve become really dependent on everyone else. My Role is Online Engagement. I draw magic from people literally interacting with each other over the Internet.”

“Isn’t that contrary to what you just said earlier?”

He leaned forward a little more, resting his chin on top of my head. It was honestly a comforting position. Made me want to snuggle up to him on a bed and bury my face between his hairy pecs.

“See, that’s the thing about being a dragon. Just because you have your Role, it doesn’t mean that is who you will always be.” I felt him smile. “Aetherese have this saying. ‘For our Roles and thereafter’. It kind of suggests that just because we have our magic, it’s not what defines us. In fact, they have another ‘greeting’ of sorts. ‘Duty defines’. It’s usually followed by ‘We oblige’.”

Poetic. Your Role. The magic which turns you into a dragon, is _not_ what defines you. It is your Duty. Your place in Aetherese society. It was very telling. Finding your Role was just your first step into eternity. What you do with the rest of eternity was something else.

That scared me.

I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life, human or a dragon, not being me.

“I’m the Dragon of Online Engagement,” Naturnal repeated. “But that isn’t everything that I am. I know that I have to be a bit more independent. Find value in what I do instead of clinging to everyone else and following them.” I felt him smile. “In a way, knowing who I am helped me figure out who I’m not and where I had to grow.”

Admirable. No sarcasm in that. It really was admirable. I could see the logic in it. Instead of flailing around searching for himself, Naturnal now had a foundation for who he was and could only grow from there. I suppose there was merit to that old adage about new beginnings. In a way, everyone that became a dragon started fresh. By exposing themselves to other dragons, they got different perspectives and could only grow.

Naturnal lifted his mug to his lips, his broad muscles brushing up against my shoulders as he did so. Even though it was covered by layers of thick insulated clothing, my skin itched to touch him. To genuinely feel the raw power beneath those scales against my fingertips without being confined by thick gloves.

Already, I could feel my dragon stirring inside me. But I brushed him aside for the moment. I had gotten good at telling him to curb his instincts. Been doing it for the longest time that it was second nature. Pretty sure that level of self-control also translated to him too. He _was_ me, after all.

In the same way, Samsyte and Naturnal didn’t forget who they had been after they transformed. It’s just that they were free from the stress of constantly posting online for money, maintaining personas for views, a rigid schedule and tight budget.

“Have you gotten any closer to figuring out what your Role is?” Naturnal asked.

I leaned forward, pulling away from him. I crossed my arms and rested them against the fencepost, pushing my weight against the cold wood.

“What makes you think I even want to find it?” I countered. Such a spiteful and malicious comeback. Defensively really. More guardrails I had developed over years of trying to deflect people from guessing my sexuality.

Naturnal didn’t take it that way, though. He just snorted, a little swirl of condensation bursting from his nostrils. “I’ve seen the changes in you, B1t. We all know Drake pulls you away when you change.”

My cheeks began to burn and a defensive fire began bubbling up in my chest. Before I could start spouting counterattacks, the hirsute navy blue dragon continued.

“I don’t know why you want to keep your transformations a secret from the rest of us. I won’t force you to show me your dick. Samsyte might come out and ask but you know he’s not serious about it.” He took a sip from his mug again. “Everyone has their own blocks that keeps them from becoming a dragon right away. It’s not just about learning your Role. There’s no rush. Just stop lying to yourself that you don’t want to be a dragon.”

I had to stop myself from turning around instinctively and snapping at him. Becoming a dragon was no longer a question. No matter what form I took, all I wanted was to just be _me_. Human or dragon. I just wanted to enjoy the level of freedom that Samsyte and Naturnal did.

With these deeply-rooted instincts of mine, however, that was easier said than done.

“Won’t say it’s easy either,” Naturnal said, stepping back away from me and turning back towards the mansion. “You’re your own worst enemy here. I fought with myself throughout my own transformation. Still am.” He tapped the side of his head with his free fingers. “There’s a lot about Aether that I’m still trying to learn. More about being a dragon. Hard to stop yourself from going back to how you were as a human especially when everything in Aether is so different.”

Only then did I turn back towards him. “How do you do it?”

He offered me a little smile. Maybe he sensed how I had finally given him my full attention because he took the time to _slowly_ take another sip from his mug, swish the coffee in his muzzle for a good two seconds and then swallow _very_ loudly. There was a whole three seconds after that where he let out relieved sigh, his breath condensing in front of him before he finally answered.

“I stopped thinking about Aether being different,” he answered simply. “Every dragon began as a human. They began the same way. Just took different paths.”

That only added more to my confusion. “What do you mean?”

He jerked his head to my right, away from Drake’s mansion. “Out there on Earth we have the Internet. We have trolls. We have people arguing about stupid stuff. Division. National differences between what content people see. On Aether, every dragon is their own nation so they get to decide what they say and what they see on their own terms. Everything is free for everyone. No one stops you from saying what you want to say, what you want to express because it reflects directly on _you_ and no one else.”

Then he nodded back towards Drake’s mansion. “On Aether, there’s this understanding that everyone is valued but you don’t have to necessarily _like_ them.”

“How is that different from here?”

He lifted a thick eyebrow at me. “I’m sure there are people out there you would rather see dead than breathing. Serial killers. Criminals. Murderers.” His other eyebrow rose. “Dictators.”

I looked away and let out a sigh. “But I’d never _kill_ them.”

“No one does.” Naturnal crossed his arms. “Not even Drake. Even though murder is what got him thrown into exile.” He took another sip from his mug of coffee. “The big difference between the two worlds is that if you were to kill someone here, the risk you run is to your freedom and maybe your life depending on where you are. _If_ you get caught. But over in Aether, someone’s death is like a crime to _all_ of Aetherese society.”

“Comes with having a relatively smaller population, I guess,” I mumbled.

“Probably.” Naturnal shrugged. “There are some things Aether doesn’t care about that we here on Earth take as gospel. Then there are stuff here on Earth that would be considered minor but on Aether would be a grave insult if you don’t do properly.”

“Like what?” I asked, genuinely curious.

The big, blue dragon rolled his eyes and leaned against the fence post beside me. “Spices,” he grunted with a tired look on his face.

“Spices?” I repeated incredulously. I could not help but imagine Aetherese dragons competing and fighting over various spice routes throughout their kingdom. Alternatively, since dragons could creature anything out of nothing, maybe they were constantly trying to find more unique spice blends because they had grown bored after thousands of years of tasting the same thing.

“It’s not what you think,” Naturnal grunted. “You know how sometimes, if you eat something _really_ spicy, you’ll regret it later on the toilet?”

“I suppose…”

“Well, apparently on Aether, you have to warn someone if you’ve had something really spicy before you have sex with them.” He pointed at his jaw, flashing his fangs at me and running his tongue over them. “Imagine sucking someone’s cock or rimming their asshole after guzzling a lot of _gochujang_.”

I pulled my head back in surprise. “Does… does that happen?” The way Naturnal couldn’t suddenly meet my gaze created a hilarious image in my mind. “Wait… so it’s a sexual thing?”

“A courtesy thing,” he countered. I could _swear_ his cheeks were starting to turn red beneath those navy-blues scales. “Dragons are pretty open about sex and apparently you can just go up to someone and fuck them if you want and they’re consenting. Drake gave this example of where his dad was impressed by a chef’s magical skills while cooking in front of them _hibachi-style_ and proceeded to suck the guy off while they were eating.” He lifted a finger. “Remember, dragons pass their knowledge of their magic and skills through sex and cum so it’s perfectly normal to them.”

Of course it was. Though the image of a huge, burly dragon like Drake suddenly being impressed by something _I_ did and proceeding to give me a blowjob for it _was_ appealing. All part of being ‘me’ right? Someone else acknowledging me for _me_.

“Now imagine that same scene but Drake’s dad just ate something _really_ spicy,” Naturnal responded. “He might have a good tolerance and taste of spice but the chef’s dick?”

I grimaced and turned away. “Oh… I see now.”

Naturnal explained that while there was no restriction on spices, Aetherese society had this strict rule that if you ate anything even remotely spicy, you had to wait an hour before having sex in any way. If that could not be avoided, a rigorous and structured regiment of oral washing and cleaning.

“Claws are another thing,” Naturnal explained, holding out his free hand and wiggling his fingers. “Claws _must_ be no longer than a certain length and their edges need to be blunted.”

“So you don’t maul each other?”

“So you don’t damage property.”

Entire markets and industries had been built around draconic accessories and beauty. Everything from earrings for their particular build of ear, caps for horns and styles of claws. But everyone’s claws had to be blunted and a certain length because anything else could cause damage to the world around them. People didn’t take too kindly to seeing their furniture all scratched up because some dragons passionately fucked on their couch.

“Give me something that Earth cares about that Aether doesn’t,” I challenged.

“Religion,” came the immediate response from Naturnal. “There is no form of religion on Aether. Even dragons that came from highly religious backgrounds abandon that all when they come to Aether.”

I frowned at that. “Seems like their faith wasn’t as concrete as they thought.”

“When their faith cast dragons as evil or the concept of immortality and magic are reserved for gods, they’ll likely find the foundations of their belief shattered when they learn about Aether.”

Painfully true. Everything I knew about the world was certainly broken the moment I learned about Drake and the others.

“Every dragon is a strong individual,” continued Naturnal. “There’s no need to have a collective belief because each one basically _is_ the core of a belief system. Of their Role. You’re _supposed_ to be challenged. You’re _supposed_ to be constantly questioned because that’s how you learn how to use your Role better so you can fulfill your Duty.”

“So you get to be immortal and have access to magic but you’re always in service to the country.” The words came our harsher than I had intended it to be. I knew I was omitting key details just to make what I said sound more sinister than reality. “Even if _you_ are that one country,” I corrected.

Naturnal gave me a little smile. “Now you’re getting it.” He straightened and patted my shoulder. “I honestly think the dragons frame it like that because they don’t want anyone to be complacent. Eternity would be pretty boring if you didn’t find anything new.” He tilted his head towards the mansion. “And Drake once mentioned that it was that sort of complacency that led them to being blindsided by humanity all those years ago.”

It was honestly a good question. How _had_ ancient humans managed to defeat the dragons before recorded history? In a time when superstition and magic would likely more prevalent, how did mankind defeat dragonkind with little more than sticks and steel when dragons could wield magic?

Naturnal’s large form moved away from me, pulling me from my own thoughts. “I’m going to head inside,” he announced. “I’m getting cold.”

“Really?” I asked, lifting an eyebrow.

He smirked at me. “Don’t give me that look. I actually came out here to practice keeping myself warm with my magic.” His draconic muzzle scrunched up a little. “It’s a lot harder than you think.” A shudder ran through his body. “I haven’t gotten the hang of it yet. Holding a conversation while regulating my own body heat is hard.”

He certainly had me fooled. I drew a lot from our talk and I had a lot to think over. I followed him into the mansion and we parted ways once we were back in the warmth of the enormous home. I went back to my room where I peeled off the layers of warm clothing. As I did so, I caught my reflection in a nearby mirror.

The man looking back at me was familiar but at the same time alien. Like looking at childhood pictures of yourself and questioning your own fashion sense. Not hard to see how Naturnal and the others had deduced how I had been influenced by the changes. I was taller than before. Certainly more muscular. When I bent my arm, I could see a clear divide between my bicep and triceps. Lean and buff enough to see veins running up my arms. As I removed my jacket, my pectorals were outlined against my shirt. Still nowhere near as buff as Deu was even before his transformation began but getting stronger and fitter in my own way.

But there was still something holding me back… and my conversation with Naturnal helped me realize exactly what that was.

It was time to finally address that block. Whether or not it would lead me to becoming a full dragon or not, it didn’t matter. This was still a weight that I needed off my shoulders. I had carried it for far too long and it was impeding my own progress. Even if I did not get eternity as a dragon, what years I did have would be painful if I did not address it.

Dressed back in a red shirt that felt a little too tight around my shoulders and a pair of sweat pants, I headed back out of my room and wandered the mansion until I found someone else. I was lucky enough to run into Deung.

“Hey Deu,” I began, speaking in Korean. “Do you think you can help me gather everyone at the salon? I need to talk to everyone.”

He gave me a curious look for about half a second then he beamed brightly. “Sure thing, dude! So long as none of them are fucking!” He winked at me. “Then it might be a bit.”

I accepted those terms and wandered the mansion for a few more minutes. Naturnal wasn’t too far away and gladly accepted my invitation. When I made it back to the game room, I was the first to arrive. It gave me time to come to terms with what I was going to do and say.

I am an island. Always have been. But that also means that I had no one else to blame for my own decisions but myself. This self-isolation, these barriers I put up for myself, this constant state of fear and paranoia that I was living in? No one else could bear the blame but myself.

The minutes ticked by as I stood there alone on that small stage with the karaoke machine by my side. The door looked so inviting. It was not too late to just leave. To pretend that I had misspoken and just run off. No one else was here yet.

But I steeled myself. This needed to be said.

Honestly, I partially wished that I would find myself in that mental ‘cave’ again that Naturnal or Samsyte described as they began their transformation. A little flicker of their Role in their hands as they drew closer and closer to self-actualizing.

No such luck.

It was just me.

The door opened and Samsyte came in accompanying Deu2much. Samsyte looked up at me with this slight smile on his face like he knew what I was about to say or do. Drake and Naturnal followed shortly after though Drake had this cautious look on his face and by the way his wings were tensely folded against his back, I think he was preparing to whisk me away if my transformation began triggering again. I was really getting better at reading draconic body language.

Maybe I was destined to be a dragon.

That would need to wait for later.

For now, it was time to confess.

“Thank you all for coming,” I began. Someone let out an immature snort at the word ‘coming’. I think it was Samsyte. “I have a confession to make.”

Taking a deep breath, I gathered my courage and then let the words just come tumbling out of my mouth.

“I am gay,” I confessed. There was a moment of silence. A few confused looks were exchanged. “I have been gay since before any of this started,” I clarified. Now the confusion amplified and Naturnal let out a puzzled rumble.

“You all know I used to be part of a content group,” I continued, slowing my breathing so I wouldn’t be tempted to let panic set in. My cheeks were growing hot and the back of my neck was prickling with an uncomfortable sensation. I was _very_ aware of the bead of sweat rolling down from my temple down my jawline. “It was me and twelve other guys. We called ourself ‘Ten-Three Time’. Or just… ‘Tee’. Spelled ‘T-E-3’.”

That spelling was just so obnoxious. But our managers wanted us to have a ‘global appeal’ and using such abbreviations would get us more well-known in the Western market. At least that’s what they said. Apparently selling ‘Tee-Shirts’ was all part of their marketing scheme.

“I’ve always been attracted to men,” I said. “Being around twelve other guys was a constant temptation and I had gotten used to hiding it. But at the same time, I got complacent. Kept telling myself that I knew what I was doing. That indulging a little here and there wouldn’t hurt. I grew braver. Bolder. Careless.”

“Gwok…” began Naturnal.

I held up a hand. “Let me finish.” Taking another breath, I took a few seconds to gather my thoughts. Looking directly at my roommate, I said, “You know we were delayed from coming here because of my legal troubles. Those troubles were because of Te3.”

I told the story of how I had grown bold enough to grew closer to one of the others in the group. When you’re stuck for hours on end playing games and making content for the vicious market that was Jaejanbaek City, you naturally drew closer and closer to those you worked with. Because of my self-imposed isolation, I had purposefully kept my distance from everyone else until I grew careless. Told myself that it was okay. No one suspected anything. Even tried justifying that my distance was causing suspicion and I needed to be more social or else people would start digging.

“So I grew closer to someone,” I said. “And it blew up in my face.”

It was fun at first. Having someone to confide in, to grow closer with. I didn’t tell him that I was gay initially though I suspect he began to catch on after a few of our ‘dates’. They were never called ‘dates’, of course. We just hung out, just the two of us, or when we had outings with the others, we would gravitate towards one another. The feeling was mutual.

“We were basically teenagers,” I said with a shrug. “Hormonal. Our managers wouldn’t let us be caught with anyone else let alone girls because they assumed that our immature minds would cause some sort of scandal if we were not careful.”

“Stick a bunch of hormonal boys in a room, force them to ‘work’ together and what could you possibly expect?” Drake grunted bitterly.

I nodded at him in acknowledgment and thanks. “Management didn’t like it. Our image was scandal-free and there was no bigger scandal, especially in South Korea, than someone openly flaunting their homosexual relationship _and being paid for it_. So they decided to end the relationship for us.”

Management broke up Te3 citing ‘creative differences’ and put the blame squarely on me - at least in the legal standpoint. Nothing was ever made public but they dragged me through the courts. My name got a black mark on it and they threw accusations of conspiracy, corruption, illicit substances and some other charges that, while it was completely bogus, I had no resources to fight. In the end, even my own parents would not defend me. Being gay was enough for them to completely disown me.

“There were some back-room dealings,” I sighed. “In exchange for a guilty plea, they would not imprison me. But my life was effectively ruined.”

“Those fuckers!” Deung shouted. “No one would defend you? Not even your fans?”

“The fans believed whatever management told them to believe,” I said with a shrug. “They spun a tale that my isolation was because of the substance abuse. I was drowning in debt and I was trying to get the rest of the band to ‘corrupt’ them. That I was funneling money to fuel my habit. Some people did try to defend me but they were drowned out.”

I took one more breath and let it out slowly. “So I was kicked out and put permanently on the government’s list of people-of-interest. They weren’t monitoring me all the time but I could not leave the country. Everything I had saved and earned up to that point was confiscated or used up fighting for my name. All because I was gay and decided to come out of my shell.”

“Dude…” began Deung.

I held up both hands this time.

“I don’t want your sympathy,” I said, harsher than I intended. Softening my tone, I said, “but I would like your forgiveness.” I bowed to them briefly. “I have lived with you all for so long and I never told you about what I went through. I even delayed our reunion because Drake had to pull some strings to let me fly out and meet you all. Even after everything that’s gone on, I’ve been lying to you all.”

I straightened to meet their gaze.

“I am gay. And I am sorry if I gave you the impression that I am otherwise.”

Again, I bowed.

“Please forgive me.”

There was movement and just as I straightened once more, I was suddenly caught in the warm embrace of another man. Nothing sexual. Just… a friend holding me tight and telling me everything was going to be alright with his body alone.

It was Deu2much.

“Dude,” he said, without letting go of me, “I don’t care if you’re gay, bi, straight or something else. I care that you’re happy and that we get to play games together. _That_ is why we’re friends.”

The huge, hulking figure of Samsyte came up behind Deu and gently wrapped his massive arms around us. His tail even curled around my legs lightly.

“Yeah,” rumbled the big, blue dragon. “What he fucking said. Hell, _you_ were the one that got us into gaming for JJBs in the first place! It was _your_ idea that got us together and kept us alive!”

Naturnal was there a moment later, adding his massive weight to the growing cocoon of men. He didn’t say anything. Didn’t need to. I knew what he felt and, for the first time in my life, I was genuinely happy to be held by other men like this. I didn’t even have to fight the instinctive compulsion to jerk away. It just wasn’t there.

This… This was where I belonged.

## Influencer Energy

Don’t get me wrong.

I was extremely proud of Gwok Sang-Ook for having discovered his Role and accepted it. Another step taken to meeting the condition that would end my exile. The raw passion that he displayed was nothing short of spectacular. All those years of repressing his desires and hiding himself from everyone around him came out in a tremendous explosion that, for the lack of a better term, _electrified_ my entire house. Thankfully, most of the rooms in the mansions were on isolated circuits that had protections to avoid disruptions to other rooms if one of them went out. There was genuinely a time when I was concerned about government forces or secret societies finding out of my draconic heritage and trying to kidnap me. The mansion was thus designed to be self-sustaining and to run any traps or gauntlets regardless of whether or not other rooms were disabled. In fact, there were still secret passageways from one room to the other that could be used.

The siren call of B1tBr34ker’s ascension to dragonhood was persistent. My own draconic instincts was telling me to get a taste of that monstrous cock, to taste B1t’s magic and see how it tasted when combined with Samsyte’s, Naturnal’s or my own.

But when Deu2much left the scene… I had to push that all down.

Part of being a dragon is being better than your animal instincts.

Duty defines.

Our Roles make us dragons but our Duty defines us. We are more than our Roles. We are more than the ‘evil dragons’ of myth.

So I abandoned the threesome and followed Deu to the bar. I purposefully waited some time before approaching him. For the first time since I had known him, he had set down his yellow hat. It was sitting beside him on an empty barstool while he looked miserably at a shot of whiskey. The bottle was sitting right by his arm. I took up position on the opposite side of the hat, that little garment acting as a barrier between us. He didn’t even pretend to look up or feign any mirth.

B1tBr34ker didn’t have my full attention during this entire ordeal. Yes, I had to pull a _lot_ of strings to get the South Korean government to allow him to fly to the United States. Some magic was even involved. But it would have been careless to bring them _both_ to my domain without doing research on them both. Outwardly, it may have seemed that my focus was entirely on Sang-Ook and perhaps that’s why he changed first.

However, I was not blind to Deung Chang-He’s own turmoil.

Deu downed the shot like an expert. Something he had done many times before. His other hand was already reaching for the bottle to refill the glass before he was done swallowing.

“You’re tired,” I stated. Not an accusation. Just a statement.

He took a second before responding. Even after he swallowed and poured himself another glass, a few seconds passed before he responded. Once he was ready, all he said was, “Yeah.”

I reached over the bar and grabbed my own shot glass. Deu pushed the bottle towards me and I poured myself a drink. The glass was ridiculously small in my enormous hands but I had gotten used to handling delicate things in my claws. We both took the next shot at the same time. No coordination required. It just felt right.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked after swallowing. Never liked the taste of alcohol. Oddly enough, narcotics and alcohol were not common on Aether. They were not banned. Just that there never were dragons whose Roles revolved around such things. Likely because overdosing on such things could lead to death in humans and for a human to ascend to dragonhood, he would have to embody their Role. You can’t exactly embody a Role if you were dead.

“More than anything,” sighed Deu, gesturing for the bottle. I poured myself a drink before I passed it back to him. “I’m scared, Drake,” he confessed as he poured the amber fluid into the glass.

I didn’t respond and let him finish.

He briefly glanced at the hat that sat between us. “Deu2much is not the same person as Deung Chang-He. He’s… a persona. A mask I adopted to get us followers. To keep Upw4rd alive. To keep everyone alive.”

It was no surprise that the extroverted, approachable and enthusiastic Deu2much had been the one bringing in most of the followers amongst Upw4rd. Samsyte was a close second but Naturnal had been quite introverted and B1tBr34ker even more so. It had been Deu’s ideas that had crafted their streaming schedule. His ideas that had attracted followers and kept their content ‘fresh’. Amongst the members of Upw4rd, he was the one that was most consistent with posting and arguably the one that kept the four of them afloat. This was evident by the fact that even when they landed, he was filming content.

The behind air-headed jock-like mentality, there was something much deeper.

Deu swirled the whiskey in the shot glass pensively. “I tried so hard to keep the team together. Spent so long trying to keep us going.” A small smile touched his lips. “I’m not jealous of them, you know. I’m glad that they’ve all grown up. It just… It just hit me that I don’t need to do all that anymore.” He downed his shot, slamming the glass against the table and then letting out a long sigh. “And I realized just _how_ happy I am.”

Again, I remained silent.

“I don’t have to keep pushing them,” Deu laughed bitterly. “I don’t have to keep reminding them of our streaming schedule or encouraging them to go out on runs with me even if they _never_ do that.” He lifted a finger. “I don’t have to keep reminding Samsyte to throw keep talking ‘gangsta’. I don’t have to keep telling Naturnal to wash his boots. I don’t have to keep asking B1t to turn up his mic or to talk during streams. They can take care of themselves now.”

He looked towards me, his eyes searching. “Does that make me a bad person? That I’m relieved they don’t need me anymore?”

At first, I had thought the silver streaks in his hair was a cosmetic choice just to stand out in the tumultuous social hierarchy that was Jaejanbaek. Now, it was clear that was not just something he had adopted to look unique.

“Do you want them to need you?” I asked.

“No,” came the immediate response. “I’m glad they don’t need me. There’s this…” He waved absently at his shoulders. “… _weight_ that’s been lifted off my shoulders. Like I can breathe for the first time in a while. I’d be perfectly happy leaving here without ever becoming a dragon as long as they are happy. If I were to die broke and starving, I’d take comfort that they at least made it.”

Then his eyes were cast down. “And that’s what scares me.”

I reached across the bar, gently gripping his shoulder. His resolve was floundering so I had to give voice to his fears.

“You’ve spent so long being defined by what the rest of Upw4rd _could not_ do and what they should be that now that they have left you behind, you’re not sure who you are.” I tilted my head to the side. “It would’ve been easier if you had turned first before B1t, wouldn’t it?”

Another bitter - and slightly drunk - laugh left his lips. “I let myself start turning because I thought it’d inspire him.” He looked up at me. “I don’t think that worked, did it?”

It broke my heart to tell him that Gwok constantly saw himself as an island by choice. Having isolated himself because of the trauma he experienced from opening up had given him this perspective that everything and everyone else needed to be kept at a distance. The blossoming relationship he had opened with the others had fueled his revelation of his Role. Perhaps even gave him the courage to transform outwardly in the presence of everyone else instead of keeping it to himself.

“You’ve spent so long being selfless that you’re now lost on how to be _selfish,_” I concluded. I patted his shoulder gently. “But you know, that’s why to become a dragon, we first learn our Role. Not our Duty.”

He gave me a quizzical look as I got up from my seat and patted his shoulder.

“Our Roles changes us into a dragon, connects us with ourselves and the magic we embody. But it is not what defines us. That is our Duty. Our Duty…” I lifted a clawed finger. “… which is how we dragons fit with the rest of Aether. Right now, you let yourself be fully defined by your Duty without learning your Role. You’ve become a victim of your environment. So now, our task is to get you to learn about who Deung Chan-He really is.”

Deu straightened a little, offering a sad smile. “Even if that means I won’t be a dragon?”

I gave him a grin back. “In the unlikely event that becoming true to yourself won’t lead you to becoming a dragon, I will at least be happy that you can stand knowing who you are and won’t just sacrifice your personal happiness for others.”

“But what if I am happy when others succeed because of me?”

I shrugged. “If that were the case, we’d all be curled around one another covered in dragon cum.”

His eyes dropped. “Yeah… That was what I was afraid of.”

I gripped his shoulder tightly. “Don’t worry, Deung. I won’t abandon you. Neither will Upw4rd. We _will_ find your Role. That’s a promise.”

The smile he returned was weak but hopeful. I knew then that, without a doubt, he wanted to become a dragon. His place was with Upw4rd. I just needed to get him there.

“For our Roles and thereafter, right?” he asked.

I nodded at him firmly.

“For our Roles and thereafter.”

Source: https://sofurry.com/s/nZ7dXD41
Part of the series Tyranus Draconum
Previous: https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/nDL29kjn-tyrannus-draconum-chapter-3.md