The hivemind is conquering for me?

After raiding the house of some of Onyx’s snacks, and a few other amenities, Janine and I left for the jungle. I had her lead the way once we were off College grounds as I had no idea where she had found this hillock.

Turns out it wasn’t that far. Even in the dark of the night, the walk was only ten minutes before we arrived. I almost got a sense of Deja-vu. Sure the tree was a jungle one and not the twisty knotty tree of the previous location, but it was very similar.

”Apollo, can you give me night vision as well at some point? The amount of times I’ve tripped, it’s so annoying.”

I smiled and wrapped my arm around Janine. ”Well, now you have gone behind my back once before for gene science, I suppose it’s redundant to prevent you from having more done. Sure, I will have a look soon, ok? Should be easy enough with those massive peepers of yours.”

”Hey! No making fun of the peepers, it is you humans that are weird with your beady eyes. I mean, seriously. How do you see? Can you even see anything?” Janine teased.

”Yeah, I can see my sexy best friend as clear as day right now and that is all I want to see.”

”Apollo~” Janine pushed me while she blushed ”Don’t flirt while we are bantering! It throws me off balance. Not fair!”

I simply chuckled and grabbed her hand. ”Come on, I can see the tree in the distance, you know, further than your flashlight is allowing you to see.”

...

After ascending the hillock, I took my bag off my back and pulled out a blanket, followed by dumping the snacks on it. Janine then sat down on the blanket and looked up at me with an expression that nearly floored me.

I simply smiled before joining her.

The two of us chatted a little bit about the day. I explained what happened with Myu, she was understanding, but had a clear look of contemplation in regards to her.

A little bit more time passed and we had gone through a large amount of snacks... Well I had. The subject then turned back to Janine as I asked her. ”Hey, so when you underwent your experiment with Sophia. You connected with your mothers heritage right? I’ve just realised we haven’t really talked about that.”

Janine nodded her head. ”True, but to be honest I’m not really fussed. I want nothing to do with that part of my life at this moment in time. Everything I want is right in front of me.”

I leant forwards towards her and gave her a quick peck for that, that was really cute. ”Still, would you humour me for a moment?” I asked, and Janine simply nodded her head with a satisfied smirk on her lips.

”What was it like? Being connected to a hivemind, a collective, for those few moments? What did you experience?” I then leant forward, eager to hear her thoughts on the matter.

Janine looked upwards in thought for a moment, her face looking adorable as she pondered. ”Umm, you know I actually don’t remember all that much. The first time. I could feel, like, loads of different thoughts entering my head all at once? Some emotions before being identified and cut off. That hurt like a bitch. The second time, Sophia took the brunt of the burden for her Mind heist. Which, let me tell you, I still think it’s baffling that she knew how to do that, but I just put off to the fact that she’s one of your women.”

”Hmm.” I hummed in thought at what she said, before asking. ”Say, in the future, you get to access that collective again, would you find the idea of existing as part of a collective like that appealing?”

Janine gave me an odd look. ”What? How would I know? Why are you ask-”

I then penetrated her Mindspace and let my emotions and feelings flood her Mindspace, she practically turned to jelly. So I held her and spoke telepathically. ’How about something like this? Being able to feel raw intense emotions like this constantly? Be able to know exactly what I am thinking at all times and vice versa? Feel this raging love and cacophony of emotions at all times? Would you enjoy something like this?’

I had overstimulated Janine from what I was feeling, but I could feel a faint trace of agreement within her emotions before I pulled out. I then held her for a few moments as she was dazed.

She then suddenly blinked to and looked up at me and the first thing she asked me wasn’t ’What the fuck was that?’ Or ’Why did you do that just now?’ It was

”Is that how you really feel about me? That was... Infinite. Apollo, how do you function with emotions like that? It was all encompassing. I-I felt so small under the weight of your feelings.”

I simply chuckled and brushed her cheek lovingly, revealing my true motives for everything I do for a moment. ”Why do you think I do my best to make new friends all the time Janine? Why do I go out of my way to be nice to everyone? Why have I taken to Valerica being a mother figure? Why I get on so well with Millie, my grandmother? Why do you think that, now thanks to you and Hailey, I now have the great pride of having a Harem?

It’s because my emotions are seriously messed up and I need a way to vent them out, the more people the better. Even before Sol amplified all my emotions, I felt love and other emotions on a scale so grand, it encompassed my life. Honestly, there is a timeline where I never left my home to explore and I would have lived my entire life just loving, loving and loving some more. My Origin and I, are two great forces made one. As such, our feelings... Everything is constantly getting more and more intense by the day. *Sigh* I actually fear for my future self sometimes...”

”What do you mean Apollo?” I felt Janine’s deep concern for me in her words. I kissed her forehead before asking.

”Janine, can I tell you a secret that I haven’t told anyone?”

”Not even Orchid?” She followed up a bit too excited before clearing her throat. ”O-Of course, darling. I am here for you for anything you need.”

”Heh, nice save.” I chuckled before I got serious and looked up into the night sky. I activated my imprint for the first time in a while, my eyes turning fully black as I looked in the direction of Jewel.

”I’m scared Janine. I know it won’t be anytime soon, but I have felt glimpses of it twice now when I have been pushed to the edge of death. My future. I have a feeling at some point my emotions are going to keep reaching a point and upon reaching that point, I am going to change, but not like Sol’s other kindles where they had no control over it. But simply by being myself. And that scares me.”

My eyes began to tear up. Since my past life, I had most definitely changed considerably, but I still considered myself ’me’. I didn’t want to look back in a few thousand years and not be able to recognise the man I used to be.

...

Seeing her man tear up. Janine shot up and hugged him immediately, stroking his back, consoling him like he had done for her earlier. ”Hey, Hey hey. It’s ok. It’s ok. I am here. I hear your concerns and they will stay with me and me alone. I promise.” She then pulled away and looked me in the eyes.

”And I also promise this. Apollo, by sheer luck, I know I found my soulmate. For that reason, I promise you, I will never leave your side. No matter how much you change or don’t change. No matter what comes between us And hey. Think of it this way, you can’t stay a young adult forever, you have to grow, you have to change. It’s part of life. Sure, with us being Psionic, we have a lot longer to stave off that change, but we can always go at it gradually. Perhaps make changes actively? Changes you are in control of? Changes that- Mmhh!”

...

I reached forward and kissed Janine. Not just a peck. I put my soul, my passion into it. I wanted to taste her sweetness.

”Mmhh! Mmmhhh~”

Her surprise quickly turned into passion of her own as she grasped my head tight as we began to explore each other’s mouths.

The kissing continued a short while as we used our hands to explore each other’s bodies. Her touch forced my pants to expand while I caressed her breasts over her bra. I got lost within her taste. She had a sweetness to her I found utterly irresistible.

It made me want to know if the rest of her beautiful body tasted just as sweet...