The hivemind is conquering for me?

As I approached the booth, I realised some friendly faces had joined the table. ”Ah, Apollo! Oh my, did you make another ’acquaintance’ already? We really need to put a shock collar on you at this point.” Valerica said smugly with her arm wrapped around Hecate’s waist.

In the large booth were Valerica, Hecate, Janine, Orchid, Gabrielle and Evanthe. Hecate and Valerica were sat together, Orchid and Janine were another pair and Gabrielle and Evanthe were sat together. It made sense that people were sitting with who they know, or in Gabrielle and Evanthe’s case, a fellow newcomer.

Janine looked up from her drink at Apollo’s presence being announced, but her mouth went slack jaw as she looked on in shock. ”Mindy is that you? Of course it is! I would notice that sexy ass from a mile away! How are you girl?”

Mindy looked at the Sepiida in front of her with genuine confusion for a moment, her mind racing at where she heard that voice before and with Apollo telling her a certain someone was here before, she put two and two together. ”Wait... Janine? What the shit? You are a Sepiida?”

Janine raised her arms slightly and used jazz hands as she said. ”Surprise!” Mindy felt her entire galactic viewpoint go under a paradigm shift. Before she could spiral however, a thought occurred to her. ”Wait, but you.” She pointed towards Janine and then towards herself and paused, causing Janine to fill in the gap.

”Came onto you and suggested I enter your sheathe? Surprise again!” Mindy took a seat and rubbed her eyes under her glasses to relieve the torrent of information she was processing. I took my seat next to Janine and put my hand on her thigh and squeezed for support as we all watched Mindy for a moment.

After a moment or two to process under everyone’s gaze, Mindy began to laugh softly before looking directly at Janine. ”You are one bad ass motherfucker, I will give you that. Ha! No wonder you never took your helmet off! Oh this is... This is awesome!”

Tension evaporated from Janine. Whenever her race came up in conversations, it always left her feeling awkward. It was difficult being the only alien in a group of humans after all...

”Apollo? Aren’t you going to introduce me to this pretty lady?” Valerica said, adjusting herself. As she did so, Hecate twitched, causing Valerica to grab onto her tighter, causing Hecate to groan.

I looked between the two of them and would be getting to the bottom of that before I started. ”Valerica, This is Mindy. Mindy, this Is Valerica. Kathrine’s mother. Mindy appeared shocked as she looked over at Valerica. ”Lady Hyllus?!? It is an honour to be in your presence. I have deep respect for your daughter.”

Valerica looked over at me confused about my apparent gender swap before the name Kathrine from the conversation clicked in her head. ”Oh Mindy, maiden name Metzite? I recall seeing your name somewhere in my Kathrine’s reports of her mercenary escapade. A pleasure to put a face to the name. Sorry to hear about Jacob, I worked with him once before the two of you got together. Good man, if a little egocentric.”

Mindy smiled awkwardly at the mention of Jacob, but didn’t have to say anything as I cut in. ”Valerica, what’s the deal with...” I said, pointing to Hecate’s waist. Valerica was not the one to explain, but Hecate herself.

”Oh, I can answer that one for you Apollo.” Hecate chimed in, with a hostile look directed at Valerica. ” Valerica is insane and is keeping me hostage. I can’t even attempt to teleport away as she is crazy enough to go through with her threat of breaking my waist if I tried. So long story short. I am a hostage while she wants to enjoy herself.”

Hecate then suddenly found breathing to be quite difficult as Valerica increased the pressure. ”Hostage? You have some nerve Hecate. I am simply trying to make sure you de-stress. Between work and all your projects, you need to relax. I remember how you used to be when I first enrolled here and I am not having you act all crazy around Apollo.”

Hecate’s eyes bulged out of their sockets at the word. ”Crazy? Do you want to see actual crazy Valerica? Because trust me, I can be vindictive when I- Grrrbblll!”

”Shhh, you aren’t you when you are thirsty. Here. Drink some of the drink Apollo brought with him.” Valerica declared as she took the pitcher from in front of Apollo, causing him to gasp out in shock.

Hecate tried to escape the force-feeding, but without using her powers, Valerica, the big ox, had an astounding advantage over her body when up close. She tried to resist, but gave up after a few gulps.

Valerica then stroked her hair. ”There we go. Drink deeply from the pitcher. Mellow out, relax~” She spoke in a soothing melodic tone and only when the pitcher was half empty, did she pull back.

Hecate felt the effects immediately and began to hiccup. She was always a lightweight for this stuff and she had not eaten yet! Valerica smiled at Hecate like this and removed her arm from her waist. Knowing the woman was basically stuck in place until the effects wear off. She then turned to Apollo while Janine and Mindy were talking about mercenary stuff.

She looked into Apollo’s eyes, the look of betrayal for having his drink stolen made her laugh as she picked it up and proceeded to down the second half.

My mouth opened, the look of betrayal etched into my expression. ’My drink...’ I thought before Valerica placed down the empty pitcher with a satisfied smile. ”Whoo! That is a good flavour. Whoo! That’ll put hair on your chest that. Whoo!”

She proceeded to cradle her chin with her hands and looked at me with this loving smile that just broke me. ”So, Apollo. How has your day been so far? I heard you have been out with Gabrielle here? Tell me about it.”

”Oh there isn’t much to tell really.” I said, smiling towards Gabrielle. ”We just went for a stroll around the compound before deciding to go to the lake for a dip, but I got distracted by the fishing that was going on there. After that, we found the bar and went back home to get everyone for food then I bumped into my other new friend Evanthe and then Mindy stalked me and pounced on me once I had arrived here.”

Mindy was brought out of her conversation with Janine about what they had been up to with a shocked expression. ”Stalked? Apollo, I was waiting around the location most of the first years were coming and going to today as without those robes, we can’t do much. I was simply waiting to see if I could find you as I knew you were attending the College and then here you were.”

I squinted my eyes playfully and nodded my head. ”Sure~~~” I said playfully before going to pick up my drink, only to realise it was now gone... However, my mood hastily picked up as the most beautiful man walked over with a massive tray of food. ’I love him.’ I couldn’t help but to think as the waiter placed down a large tray full to the brim with burgers and fries and a. ”Who ordered a salad?” I asked in disgust.

Valerica was about to rat out the friend beside her, but Apollo’s attention was already diverted as he began inhaling the food before him. Orchid too also picked up two of the burgers and began hastily eating them. She probably knew if she did not eat fast, she wouldn’t get to eat.

Valerica then too picked up a burger, before looking at the peanut gallery that were glaring at Apollo in mesmerisation. ”You might want to eat girls. I once made Apollo breakfast enough for 20 people and he ate it all, so dig in or suffer the consequences.”

After blacking out from the meat in my mouth, I suddenly came to once the large pile had diminished somewhat. With a burger in one hand, my other hand was still on Janine’s thigh and was riding quite high and judging from her breathing pattern, it was bothering her, but she stayed silent.

Pulling my hand away, she suddenly jolted and looked up at my face to see me mouthing. ’Sorry.’ Janine wasn’t bothered in the slightest. In fact it was taking her whole attention not to draw attention as Apollo’s hand was slowly rubbing its way up her thigh for some time. She was actually loving the tender touch against her skin, but simply speaking to Mindy was enough of a distraction so she didn’t hyper fixate and cause a scene.

Once clarity returned to me, I looked around and everyone was digging in as well. I always enjoyed it when those around me didn’t worry about appearance when consuming food. Even the salad orderer was wolfing down some fries with her head glued to the table.

Deciding that a mid meal conversation was due however, I turned to Mindy and asked.

”So, Mindy, what classes and lectures have you signed up for?”