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fortune favors the bold (except when it doesn't)
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Kelly fiddles nervously with one of her hair sticks as she walks along the nearly-deserted hall of what she had been assured was the right floor of the right building. She reaches the right door, double checks that the name and number match--Sean Dougherty, 304--and pulls the door open. 

...That's a bar. 

She leans back and checks the door again, because just because she had last checked it only a moment before didn't mean she hadn't imagined checking it, then pulls out her phone to double check the email and confirm that this was the room she had been told.

She looks into the room again and sees that there ia man sitting inside. So she steps in, and says: "Sorry if this is a stupid question, but are you my academic advisor?"

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"Doubt it," says the tall man sitting alone at a table for two with a good view of the door. "I'm actually not even sure I know what an academic advisor is."

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...She blinks. "It's, uh, this is a college, who are you?"

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"Taskashre. And that," he gestures at the door and all that lies beyond it, "might be a college, but this," he gestures at the bar around them, "is a place between worlds. When I walked through that door this morning, I was coming from my palace. This place just does that."

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She should probably be focusing on the whole "place between worlds" thing, but: "Your palace?"

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"Mm? Yeah. I'm a god," he says casually.

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"I'm an atheist." This is not the smartest thing to say but it's what comes out of her mouth anyway.

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He laughs.

"In the world I come from, that would be like not believing in hills. But apparently different worlds can be very different places."

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"I...guess??? Uh. Please don't smite me?"

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"Don't worry," he assures her, "I won't. But if you want the gentlest proof of my divinity I can offer—"

A... sort of aura... fades into existence around him. It's visible as a kind of heat-shimmer wrapped around his body, and tangible as a sense of warmth and pressure and power radiating off him for a considerable distance in every direction. He lets it stand for a few seconds, then puts it away again.

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"...Whoah. What would a not gentle demonstration be like? Uh, if you can answer in words, I'm not asking you to--"

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"In my own world, anyone who'd felt the touch of a god's power before would immediately know I was one if I had sex with them. That and the aura are the only two things I can do that in my world only a god would be capable of—because the thing that happens when a god has sex with a mortal is that we share a little bit of our power, so anything else I have is something that a mortal could have too if they knew me well enough."

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"Sex?"

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He laughs again. He has a very good-natured laugh.

"I'm told it can sound very rude to people from different cultural contexts, but to me it's just the way of the world."

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"I'm not offended," she hastens to assure him. "It's just...really surprising."

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"Well, I'd be happy to give you my favour if you wanted it, but apparently it's against the rules to have sex in the main bar area so we'd have to go somewhere private."

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"Uh. I'm. a. virgin? How does, uh, favoring...work?"

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"—does 'I'm a virgin' mean 'no, I don't want that' or something else? And in what sense do you mean the question?"

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"I--I mean--um, I'm sorry--I've never--I don't know if I want--and I mean, um--does it need--any specific kind of sex, can you pick what power--"

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"My first gift is healing—for a day or so afterward, the people I favour are pretty much effectively immune to injury and disease. If I was trying to give you more power than that, I might have to favour you more than once to manage it, but I could give you at least a little of anything I have. Maybe not the teleportation. My teleportation is pretty tricky and I've never managed to give it to anyone; I think you'd have to be halfway to godhood yourself before it took. As for the other thing... if I say 'you have to receive my favour' does that get translated in a wildly unhelpful way?"

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"Yep."

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"I suspected it might. Well—how much do you even know about this—? If I said my divine favour is physically embodied as a substance, and serves to give someone my power only when it flows directly from my body to theirs...?"

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"The word in my language is 'semen,' does that translate as a different word to you?"

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"It translates as—the mortal equivalent, I guess? If I used that word for my favour it would be—like calling my hair 'feathers' or my hands 'paws'."

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"I guess that makes sense."

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He shrugs. "So—if you want it, you can have it. I give it to anyone in my territory who asks, and I don't see a good reason to do any less here. At home outside my own territory I'd have to worry about other gods being annoyed with me for trying to claim their followers, but here that doesn't seem to be a concern."

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She considers, nibbling her lip and one hand going up to twist a hairstick slightly askew. "Can gods get people pregnant?"

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"Only if we're deliberately trying to. We don't do it often and I don't expect I ever will; I was raised the child of a god and I can't say I recommend the experience."

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"Okay."

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He smiles at her, pushes his chair back, and stands up.

(Goodness he's tall.)

"All right then. I've got a room upstairs already; can I teleport us there or would you rather walk?"

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She swallows, blushing furiously.

"Teleportation's fine."

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"Sure."

He takes a step closer and puts a hand on her shoulder, and then they are somewhere else.

It's a pretty nice room, in an understated sort of way—the carpet and wallpaper and bed are all done up in shades of soft blue-grey, against which Taskashre in his black shirt and black trousers and open red coat stands out fairly starkly.

Also he's smiling at her with immense affection. That's also happening.

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That's--good, affection should definitely be involved with sex. Especially the first time. She smiles tentatively back, her cheeks turning bright red.

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"Awwwww. You're really cute when you blush, has anybody ever told you that?"

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"No? Uh. Not that I can remember?"

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"Well, you are."

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"...Thanks," she says, smiling a small smile and looking away self-consciously. 

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He hesitates for a long moment, then steps forward and hugs her, very gently.

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She startles and squeaks and hesitates for a moment and then hugs back. 

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Awwwwwwwww. She's so huggable!

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It doesn't take very long before she is properly burrowed into this hug. 

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Taskashre is pretty huggable himself. All warm and cozy and gentle.

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Goooooooooooooosh. These are excellent hug qualities. Maybe this is a god thing. 

This is cozy and good and she has no idea how normal sex etiquette works, let alone deity sex etiquette, so she is going to stand here enjoying hug and feeling slightly self-conscious until he does something that suggests otherwise.

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"I have to admit," he says wryly, "I don't have much practice at navigating this sort of thing with someone who doesn't—understand gods as a background fact of their life. But then I suppose neither do you. I guess we'll have to figure it out together."

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"I--guess? I don't have any experience navigating, though."

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"True. But—I keep noticing myself hesitating to do things because I don't know how to do them the right way, because in my own world I'd know how to... show you that I want you to be happy and then ask you what you want and be sure I understood the answer. But instead I don't know how to do that, or even whether that's what you need."

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"...If you want to show me something, you could...tell me instead?" she suggests tentatively. 

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...he smiles. He hasn't stopped hugging her, only loosened his arms somewhat; he gives her a gentle squeeze.

"Well then. I want... I want you to be happy; I want to make you happy. I want to give you my favour but I also want to give you... a memory you'll be glad to look back on."

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...She looks visibly torn as to whether or not to say something for a good pause, then blurts, "Why? We've only just met!"

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"Why not? You're cute. I like making people feel things. I want to see what joy and pleasure look like on you."

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Her cheeks had dulled down to pink; they rapidly turn scarlet again. "O-okay."

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He giggles and hugs her again, then turns her face up toward his and kisses her blushing cheek.

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She makes a small pleased squeak. 

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He gets the most delighted look on his face. "You're so cute!"

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"Thank you."

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He hugs her some more, then says, "C'mon, let's go sit down."

The bed is kind of the only place to sit around here.

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"Mmkay," she says shyly. 

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He leads her to the bed and sits on it, scooting into the middle so he can lean back against the wall and stretch his legs out over the blankets. Then he holds out a beckoning hand in her direction.

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She flushes even deeper and scoots onto the bed and between his legs. 

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This seems like the right occasion for another hug. But this time with her in his lap. A cuddly lap-hug.

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Ooh yes good. She snuggles in. 

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So cozy! He hugs her and pets her hair.

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She nuzzles into his hand, then stills and reaches up and pulls out her hairsticks and shakes her hair out. 

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Even more pettable! Excellent. She will be so petted.

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Mm yes good. She gamely attempts to snuggle his hand with her head. 

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"Cuuuuuute," he says, tucking his other arm around her waist and giving her an affectionate squeeze while he continues to pet her.

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...She giggles and ducks her head. "You really think so?"

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"You're adorable," he assures her, very sincerely.

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She does not seem to know what to do with this! Besides looking sort of flusteredly bewilderedly pleased. 

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And be snuggled and petted. She is also very much being snuggled and petted.

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Being snuggled and petted is extremely good and important.

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It is.

Snuggled and petted and perhaps, if she would like, kissed?

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This will result in more startled squeaking, but yes she would like.

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Her squeaking is so good!!! What a good huggable kissable pettable lapful of snuggle she is!

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She blushes a little more when he beams at her.

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She's very good and he must kiss her blushes. They're such good blushes.

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Goooooooosh. She giggles a little more.

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He giggles, too, and kisses her and cuddles her and pets her.

"I'm very glad I met you," he says, smiling down at her.

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"Thanks."