"All right, careful," Tabby murmured. "You gotta ease it in there. You're...kinda thick."

"Not really," he said.

"Hey, who's got a dick going into their ass right now? I'd know," she replied.

He heard Bea snort and Mae giggle softly.

"Shush," he said, not looking at them, focused on what he had in his hands and right in front of him: Tabby's fat ass. Claire had a really hot ass, but in truth...Tabby's was hotter. It definitely had such a nice thickness to it.

"That's it...a little more...okay, stop. Pull back-hah!" she gasped, shuddering.

"You're right, this is like super hot," Molly whispered.

"Shut up," Tabby growled. "Okay, back in, a little deeper, slowly." He pushed his hips forward, pushing his cock deeper into her wonderful ass, and groaned at the feel of it. It was definitely different than fucking pussy. "Deeper," she said. "Stop...deeper. More...okay, go all the way, slowly."

Trent groaned again as the raw pleasure hit him and he pushed himself all the way into her fat ass. He went until his hips met her ass.

"Okay, stop," she whispered, panting now.

"You okay?" he asked, running a hand slowly across her hip.

"Oh yeah. Doing great. Told you, I like anal. Like, enough that I stick things up my ass to masturbate. So this is going well for me...okay, start fucking my ass, but slow. Nice and easy."

"You got it."

He gripped her hips more tightly and did as she asked, pulling back and then pushing into her thick ass, then pulling back and easing back inside, stroking gradually into her. She moaned loudly, hanging her head down.

"Fuck…" she moaned.

"Very much fuck," Trent panted with her, gritting his teeth. "Ah shit, that's...whew, goddamn. Your ass is something else."

She laughed, then moaned. "Faster."

He started stroking faster, losing track of time, of the room around him, of everything but Tabby's wonderfully tight ass. After about a minute or so of stroking harder and faster into her, he groaned and hunched over her.

"I'm not gonna last."

"Told you," she said. "Ah! Fuck! Yes! Just go hard and fast! Just fuck me in the ass! Pound it til you fucking cum!"

Trent responded by doing exactly that, shifting from his kneeling position behind her slightly and putting one foot flat against the bed so that he had a better angle to work with. He started fucking her ass hard, stroking into her furiously. She'd already told him not to pull out. He groaned loudly as the pleasure didn't just pulse through him, it pounded, coursed, raged. It was overwhelming, and before he knew it-

"AH! TABBY!"

She moaned something incoherently as he fell forward onto her and they both went down, her laying flat beneath him, him laying flat against her back. He gripped her shoulders tightly and let out a loud, groaning shout that was almost a growl as he started cumming hard up her ass. She screamed as he pushed himself deep into her, burying his whole length into her, and began releasing his cum. It burst out of him furiously, sending pressure-blasted pleasure racing all over his body, going and going and going until finally he was finished, and had nothing left to give.

"Ah fuck...ah fuck…" he panted. "Oh Tabby...fuck."

"Told you," she said, her voice tired.

He laughed softly. "You did."

"Sorry girls," Tabby said as he carefully pulled out of her ass and rolled off of her, laying on his back.

"Why's that?" Bea murmured. She sounded distracted. He looked over at her and found all four of them lined up across the room, staring with wide eyes, breathing heavily.

"Because now he's hooked on ass, and he's gonna want more."

"She's right," he groaned. "You girls doing okay?"

"That was so hot," Mae whispered.

"Yeah, like...damn," Ann said.

"Yeah. I don't even watch straight porn that often but like...whoa. I'm wet."

"I think I can find time for some sex…" Mae murmured.

"Can I join?" Ann asked.

"Please yes," Molly replied.

"I'm going to go make sure everything's ready," Bea said, getting up.

"Wait, uh...should ask this now. Is there anyone who's a flat no for at least trying anal?" he asked.

"I'll do it," Ann said.

"Yeah, I'll try it. You've sure done enough for me. God, the pussy-eating alone…" Mae murmured.

"I'd give it a shot," Bea said. "I've always been kinda curious."

"I really appreciate it. I've always wanted to fuck all three of you in the ass, but now I fucking really want to," Trent said.

"Go get the shower ready," Tabby said. "And ladies? I will email Bea some instructions and advice. Anal takes a bit of prep. You really shouldn't just...leap into it."

"Sounds good," Bea replied.

"Much appreciated," Trent said as he got up.

He went into the bathroom and got the shower ready. He then started pissing, as Tabby had advised. The lady herself walked in while he was still going. She walked behind him and got into the shower.

"Nothing really gets to you, huh?" he asked as he joined her.

"What?" she replied, the showerhead down and under her now.

"Just...the pissing would weird some people out," he replied.

"Oh. Psh. No. Not at all. Honestly, if you really wanted to, you could piss on me. Like, in the shower," she said.

"Uh...oh, cool," he said. "I don't really want to, but...good to know."

She smirked at him. "Be honest: does that weird you out?"

He thought about it. "Actually, not really. I don't know, I'm not into it, but I think it's actually more cool that you just straight up copped to it...you into anything else?"

She laughed. "I'm a little bit of a freak, I know that, and when you've been around for a few decades and done some experimenting with trustworthy people, it gets easier to talk about. But beyond that and anal? I mean roleplaying, as you can see with the pregnancy thing. When the mood strikes me, I like being choked and slapped. Sometimes I liked to be tied down...you sure this isn't weirding you out?"

"I'm sure," he replied. "Do I look weirded out?"

"Not quite. More just...I can't quite interpret your face."

"Oh. I'm...frazzled. From the anal sex you just gave me."

She laughed loudly. "Well okay then. That good, huh?"

"Holy fuck yes. Your ass is fucking incredible...any predictions on who it's going to work best with?" he asked.

She laughed again. "Knew you'd get immediately addicted. I predict...Ann will be 'eh' about it, take it or leave it, and Bea will be really into it."

"And Mae?"

"Total coin flip, no idea. Could be anything. That girl is too hard to predict."

"I fucking hope you're right," he said as she put the showerhead back and then gave it over to him, switching places. "Because I really want to fuck Bea in the ass."

"Yeah, I get that. She's got such a hot ass. That girl is fucking fire. I'm pretty straight and I can tell that. She is rocking that goth look."

"She so fucking is," he agreed.

They both paused as they heard a loud moan through the wall.

"You all are just, like, crazy sexual. And you keep drawing in, like, the most fucking beautiful women. Like, Claire is also so cute, and Molly."

"I know, right?"

"She's a fucking porn star...also, so, to totally derail the conversation, I've got new numbers for you. If you want to hear them."

"...yes, I want to hear them," he replied. Trent was of a strange mind about the sales numbers of his first Demontower novel. On the one hand, it felt amazing. Beyond fantastic. The last time he'd checked, he'd sold a total of six thousand copies, spread out across ebook, paperback, and audiobooks. It was harder to calculate the Kindle Unlimited, given they just told you how many pages total had been read, not how many people finished the book, or how far each person read into the book, but Tabby had a very rough estimate that at least another thousand people were there, and she estimated more were to come.

On the other hand, he kept expecting it to go wrong. It felt too good. Too lucky. Where was the other shoe and how hard was it going to drop?

"Collectively, we've passed ten thousand sales," she said.

"Fuck," he whispered.

"I've got some advice for you...if you want to hear it."

"I'm all ears," he replied.

"I was where you are now. I had been trundling along for a long time, struggling and grinding, and then, suddenly, boom. Sales. Money like I'd only dreamed of. You're probably gonna feel a mixture of anxious and dreamy for a few weeks, maybe a month or two, alternating between 'I can't believe this is seriously happening' and 'When's it gonna get taken away from me?'."

"Already there," he said.

She smiled a little bitterly. "Yeah, I know the feeling strongly. If you've got anxiety troubles, it'll get worse, and you'll need to keep on top of that. Watch out for 'I don't actually deserve this' and 'They're going to find out that I suck'. Deserve doesn't matter. What matters is that you put in the work, and you got a big reward for it."

"You helped. A lot. I wouldn't be here with you."

"I know. But this is a win for me, too. The biggest piece of advice I'm going to give you is going to sound really boring: figure out a way to sock away or invest your money, but...inversely, don't be afraid to take some time and buy some experiences. Take your girlfriends on a roadtrip. Take a cruise. Have fun. You're going to be feeling the urge to capitalize on your success, to grind hard, and that's a good instinct, because success is like a fire. It needs to be stoked. But don't overdo it...you have three really great women in this house with you, and they are going to be watching out for you. When they tell you to ease off, listen."

"That all makes a lot of sense, and I agree with it, I just...hope I can actually retain it. What sounds sane now might sound ridiculous in the moment when the stress and anxiety are bearing down on me," he replied.

"That's a very valid point, which is why I emphasize: listen to your girlfriends."

"I'll keep it in mind." He paused. "Thank you. For everything. Seriously. You've changed the course of my life for the better in a massive way."

"You're welcome, and I'm just glad it's working. You're a really great guy, and Mae and Bea and Ann and Claire, your guys' friends, they're all pretty great, too. And you all deserve to be happy. Hold onto that. I...didn't."

"You didn't?"

"Yeah. I had friends, I had family, I had a great boyfriend at one point. A few really good ones, but one great one. And...I'm kind of varying levels of distant from them all now. Some of them it was very intentional. They were bad people, toxic people, and just tried to get money out of me. Some, we just...drifted apart. Most of the rest, actually, drifted. And at least some of that was my fault. I got too used to putting my nose to the grindstone and disappearing for weeks or even months at a time, working on my games. I've been trying to fix that recently, but...some damage can't be repaired. Some relationships can't be brought back, and not just because you weren't right for each other or your lives have changed. You can have perfectly great relationships get fucked up for no good reason, and not be repairable. It just...isn't the same anymore."

"Shit, I'm sorry," he said. "That sounds awful."

"Yeah, it sucks. But," she shook her head, "let's not hold up Mae. Judging by the frequency of those yells, they're going to finish up soon, which means they'll need to shower soon, and she needs to get going. It's gonna be midnight soon."

"This is so ill-advised," he groaned.

"I don't know, I don't think so. None of us have jobs we have to go to, nowhere we need to be, no responsibilities for the next day," Tabby said with a shrug. "I think it's super cool."

"Yeah, me too...you did tell Mae that she shouldn't bring up the fact that we're fucking, right?"

She laughed. "Yeah, I told her not to, but...I'll be totally honest: I don't give a fuck if it slips out. It's no one's business but I'm beyond giving a shit at this point."

"Oh. Cool."

She rolled her eyes. "That's not carte blanche to blurt it out on stream, got it?"

"Got it."

Tabby laughed again and kissed him. "Come on."

They had brought the second recliner downstairs and also put a computer chair between the two of them. It had taken a bit to rearrange everything properly, so that it could all be caught on camera, and Bea had been fiddling with the specifics of streaming for awhile, but she felt confident she had it. They'd also spent some time making sure that they had it all properly set up, as Mae would be playing on a laptop for the first time, as opposed to a console.

He'd bought an Xbox One controller for the occasion, as they'd found a way to get the game she was playing to recognize it. And, after mapping the controls and hooking the laptop up to the TV via HDMI, it was basically like playing on a console for her. Bea had also done that, as everyone else had wanted to go in basically as blind as possible.

And so this is how, at midnight on May fifth, Trent found himself sitting squeezed into the chair with Bea beside him, and Molly laying in their laps, Tabby on the computer chair, and Mae in her chair.

"All right," she said, checking her laptop, "um...it looks good. Wow, holy shit, there's like five hundred people here already. And it's just...going."

"Told you the cuing up was going to be a good idea and we should take the time to figure it out," Bea said.

"Oh shut up," Mae whispered harshly, then giggled. "Well, here we go. Hello, viewers! For the first time ever, uh...sorta, the other people in my house, and some friends, will be a part of my show! Or whatever the hell this is. Starting to my left is definitely the most famous person in this house: Tabitha Hinkman, known as Tabby, who some of you may recognize as the motherfucking creator of Demontower! And-whoa, the chat's going crazy. Everyone is saying hi and 'holy shit is that really her?'."

Tabby laughed. "Yes, it's really me. I'm really here, hanging out in Mayday's basement and watching her play this game I've heard about in shadowy whispers but never actually played or seen before. I'm not here to steal the show, though. So keep it moving."

Mae laughed. "All right. Next up is my one of my best friends in the whole world Bea!"

They had ultimately decided they no longer cared if anyone knew their real names, because at this point there was more than enough out there to out them in that regard. Mae's face alone was enough, honestly, and none of them had a very compelling reason anymore to give a shit.

"To quote the Grand Galactic Inquisitor from Venture Brothers, ignore me," Bea said mildly.

"She is so fucking Wednesday Addams sometimes," Tabby murmured.

"Oh my God, she is!" Mae cried.

Bea sighed heavily. "This is the opposite of ignoring me. I'm no one special in the world, just a chick who lives in the Rust Belt and got really lucky. Moving on."

"Fine, storm cloud, sourpuss Bea," Mae said, "next up is the only man in the room, and in the house, actually, Trent! My boyfriend! I believe he's popped into at least one or two of my videos, I think...unless I edited those parts out. Whatever. I love him! He is amazing! And he's novelizing Demontower! It's out now and you can buy it!"

"Uh...yeah. Hi. If you do, I hope you like it, I definitely tried really hard to make it good."

"I just had a thought," Bea said. "Maybe you guys already discussed this, but why hasn't Mae played Demontower yet?"

"I'm saving it," she replied. "I thought about making it this stream, but by then the game in question had gotten its claws into me and I had to play it, and I didn't want to rush into a masterpiece like Demontower."

Tabby rolled her eyes. "God, masterpiece. Give me a break."

"It is!...anyway. Last, but certainly not least, lounging there like the Greek goddess she is, is Molly! I know she looks like she's all up on my boyfriend, but it's actually not like that. No, she is my sugar baby! We met at a party and I totally stalked her! And she was into it!"

Molly had already told them she had no problem putting her business on the internet, because everyone pretty much already knew how she lived her life.

"It sounds like she's joking," Molly said, her voice so relaxed and casual, "but that's pretty much all true."

"Yep! And somewhere upstairs, doing some work or maybe just chilling, is our final g...ood friend and roommate, Ann. She'll be in and out. She doesn't really like cameras and filming," Mae said.

Ann had still hedged on that, and had been deeply relieved when they'd all told her that was fine. She had settled firmly into the camp of 'I'm not hiding it, but I'm not advertising it'. She still didn't really care who knew, but she also didn't really want her mom knowing, if only because it would be really awkward, and it was a problem for the future.

"Now! Let's get this show on the road! First up is Afraid of Monsters!"

"I'm mainly in the laps of two people because horror kind of gets to me and I've been assured this game is actually really scary," Molly said.

"Let's find out," Mae said, and fired it up.

They all fell silent as the game booted up.

"Whoa...cool menu screen. And music. Very minimalist…" Tabby said.

"And fucking creepy," Molly muttered.

Mae fired up the game and they all watched as it began, a camera slowly moving through a series of rooms and hallways of what Trent quickly realized was a hospital. It was a single, long shot, drifting along with eerie atmospheric music.

"This is extremely effective," he muttered, "immediately captivating."

They watched as it came to focus on a man in a hoodie walking into a bathroom. Text explained that he was addicted to pills of some kind. A bottle of them sat on the counter. Before he could take them, one of the stall doors behind him opened, and Mae guided him in, and suddenly he was somewhere else.

Trent felt Molly tensing as a load screen came and suddenly the screen showed them a strange world of darkness and pale sketches on the walls. Mae silently navigated it, and then an utter darkness populated only by different colored spheres of light, floating. And then, abruptly, she was in a nightmare corridor, the floor of which was made of grating, and thousands of monstrous eyes from unknown creatures packed tightly together stared up at her. To either side: heavy doors reminiscent of an asylum.

"Okay…" Molly whispered, "this is actually like really scary."

It only got worse as Mae came to a house of wildly crooked rooms, and a low, discordant moaning began somewhere off screen.

"That's a bit much," Mae muttered, then shifted in her seat and kept going.

They kept watching, all of them enraptured, as she made it through the intro and suddenly reappeared back in the hospital, which had transformed into a nightmarish, Silent Hill-esque location. Abandoned, derelict, not quite empty. The lights now flickered, the halls were a mess, the rooms were sometimes darkened, and the sense of being watched was heavy.

But there were absolutely no other humans about.

"So, like, apparently a really small team of teens in Sweden made this. Like, the main guy was fucking twelve when he started it, and it came out when he was fifteen," Mae said.

"Wait...how old is this game?" Molly asked.

"Came out in 2005, but it's based on a game, Half-Life, that was released in 1998."

"Wait, isn't Half-Life, like...a military shooter?" Bea asked.

"Not really? Definitely not in the sense that we think of them today. You're a scientist in a top secret research facility where a teleportation experiment has let in monsters from another dimension," Trent said.

"Isn't that just the plot of Doom?" Bea asked.

"Sort of? Although Half-Life was far more grounded in reality. It was fucking groundbreaking at the time. But also, in Half-Life you play a scientist with a crowbar, whereas in Doom you play a left-handed Marine with a pistol and brass knuckles."

"Wait, is the Doomguy left-handed?" Tabby asked.

"Yeah, he punches with his left hand in the original games, and aims with it," Mae said.

"...is his name seriously Doomguy?" Bea asked.

"Technically speaking it's Flynn Peter Taggart...if you take the novelizations as canon. Which I can understand if people don't," Trent replied.

"Why?" Tabby asked. "I missed them."

"The first is a shockingly good and close novelization of the original game, but then after that the next three just go increasingly off the rails and gets into...all sorts of weird shit that just has nothing to do with Doom. Also, if you want to get technical, he's the grandson of the protagonist from Wolfenstein, William Joseph Blazkowicz…"

"We should focus," Mae said.

They kept going, and the farther into the dreary, derelict hospital Mae went, taking her time with it, the worse the tension got. Molly took his hand at some point, and then not much later, Bea took his other hand.

And then they reached a part where Mae had to turn out the power, which plunged the hospital into pitch black darkness.

That was when the first monster came out.

Molly actually shrieked and jumped when the twitching, bent thing that might once have been a human began moving towards Mae with a terrifying speed.

"Holy shit what the fuck is this thing!?" she cried as she opened fire.

"Okay, I know what I want to novelize next," Trent said.

"I would fucking love to read your novelization of this," Tabby muttered. "This is...beyond impressive. A bunch of fucking young teens did this?!"

"Not even a bunch. I don't think there were that many of them," Mae replied softly as she stood there for awhile in the darkness, calming her nerves. "Fuck that was scary!"

"Sorry," Molly said. "I, uh, wasn't expecting that."

Bea laughed. "I wasn't either."

"We good to keep going?" Mae asked, giggling a little.

"Yeah, God, please, don't let me interrupt. This is your stream."

"I should actually check the chat...ha, people are loving this. And you, Molly. I think you're stuck here for quite awhile."

"Why, cause I shouted?"

"Yeah. Molly, there's nothing people like more than watching a horror virgin experiencing a terrifying game for the first time. I mean, come on, you've never shown someone something to see how they'd react to it?"

"I...okay, yeah, I get the appeal. And it's not like I want to go anywhere," she said.

"Maybe I should answer some questions, I'm seeing a lot. Uh...okay, pay attention guys, questions! First question...what? No, obviously I'm not a virgin, in any sense of the word. My boyfriend fucks, okay? Me, obviously. Among other girls. Next question: I'm, like, twenty one. Next question...I live in the Rust Belt, I covered that already, and there's really not a need to get anymore specific. Uh...no, I'm not answering that!...yeah, I can answer this one. Yes, I'm medicated. I've got bad brain chemicals that need fixing…"

Trent looked around, listening to Mae answering more questions, and he looked at each of the people around him, and it occurred to him with an abrupt clarity that this was going to be one of those memories. The kind that you looked back on for years after the fact. The kind that you cherished and tried to recapture.

He felt extremely lucky, as it wasn't often that you realized it in the moment, only realized it after. One of those 'don't appreciate what you have until it's gone' things.

He'd appreciate this.

Trent settled more comfortably into his chair. He had the idea that he was going to be here for the long haul with Mae. Whatever else was going on, whatever other responsibilities he had waiting for him in the wings, they could wait.

Right now, his whole world consisted of this basement, a livestream, and these wonderful women in his life.