Second Thoughts

It had taken her a couple years to really figure out what she wanted, but once she had everything ironed out, Opal wasted no time constructing her own World. Azure Horizons, a realm of neon cities and fantastical naturescapes, where mystical powers tied to Colors and Song granted the rare individual the status of “Wizartist”.

Alright, so maybe it would need a bit of tweaking as it went, but she had a pretty solid foundation at least. Naturally, her bar and nightclub chain, the Blue Illusion, had establishments in the extant cities, overseen by Created staff. On a routine basis, she would check on the stores, inserting herself among said staff.

One such visit was rather suddenly diverted as the blue-haired Omny felt a very familiar presence touch her mind across the borders into her World. Only her mothers resonated with her essence more strongly, but only just.

She accepted the unworded invitation, and materialized inside one of her currently-closed bars for a private meeting. She set up one table for two, and even though it was hardly necessary, set up drinks for her guest. A moment later, Jax appeared, and they shivered a bit as their cosmic energies thrummed in a sympathetic vibration.

Opal smiled warmly as she beckoned him over. “Hey, Uncle!”

Jax smirked as he came over to join her at the table. “Am I your Uncle or your Brother?”

Opal thought for a moment. “Let's go with Bruncle.”

Jax blanched. “Let's not.”

Opal laughed and winked. “Too late! I have decided!”

Jax sighed and shook his head. “As the lady wishes.”

“You're damn straight!” She smiled less sarcastically, and gave him a once over. “Seriously, though, it's good to see you.” She opened her arms, and the two hugged. Their energies coiled briefly around one another, and she couldn’t help but slip a cheeky grope at his firm ass.

Jax returned the favor before pulling away. “Hard up already, huh?”

She chuckled and waved him off. “Oh, we'll get to that eventually, of course, but I'm in no rush. I already know what you’re like in bed.” She sat down and gestured for him to do the same. “No, it’s just nice to see you.”

He smiled a bit trepidatiously. “Yeah. Sorry it took me a minute.”

“Well, we’ve been busy. I’ve been focused on the Second Omnyverse trial period. You and the Five had to deal with that, uh, incursion from the Beyond. How did that all shake out, by the way?”

“We can’t really get into the details of it,” said Jax. “Meta business. But everything seems to be straightened out from our end, at least.”

“Ah. Well, that’s good.”

“Speaking of the Second Omnyverse, how’s it been going?”

Opal gave a half-shrug. “Okay, I suppose. We’ve been having fun, and nothing is wrong, exactly, but we can’t help but feel like the cosmology is a little off. Branching off our own sphere, while still being connected, I dunno. We don’t want to completely separate, of course, but there’s like this feeling of lopsidedness.”

Jax nodded. “Yeah. I know what you mean. We’re doing good ourselves, but there’s definitely a feeling of absence. Domina was one of the foundational pillars of the Omnyverse, so her and Megan leaving made a noticeable gap. Nothing that can’t be compensated for and adapted to, but it’s telling that we can feel it. Plus, with you newbies all leaving so soon, it kind of feels like the nest emptied early, you know?”

Opal frowned a bit in thought, nodding. “Yeah. This has been a nice testing ground for some ideas, but even RoseGold admitted to me she might have pulled the trigger on a split-off early. She wanted to get ahead of a potential conflict, and establish herself, but as a group, I don’t think we really have the dynamic that lends itself well to a balanced cooperation.”

She shrugged. “Domina and Megan don’t want to admit it, but I think they miss you guys more than they want to say. Domina was elated for a while, but lately she’s gotten more testy than normal. I almost came to blows with her over some dumb shit recently. Suffice to say she doesn’t have much respect for RoseGold. She only barely respects me.”

Jax frowned. “You can always call us if you need help.”

Opal shook her head. “The point was to be independent from you all. I agreed to be the deputy sheriff around here, and I didn’t think I’d have to do more than put up a hard front if the Dark Omnys got uppity.”

“You worried things might escalate?”

Opal sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t feel like we’re gunna have a meltdown any time soon. But like I said, Domina’s gotten grumpier. Megan just ignores everyone except Domina. I tried to go hang with her a bit, but she told me to my face she already ‘has enough Shadies to deal with’.”

Jax frowned. “She’s always been pretty isolating, compared to the rest of us. She popped by for a booty call a couple times, but when I asked her how things were, she just said everything was fine. Fine, of course, being womanspeak for ‘I’m actually really upset, but I’m going to make you pry it out of me with a crowbar.’”

Opal smirked. “Is the crowbar your cock?”

Jax gave a short laugh. “Even that didn’t get anything out of her, and I wasn’t interested in getting into a fight over it.”

Opal’s frown returned. “Hmmm. She’s buttoned up even more than I’d thought, then.”

“How about the others?”

“Illia also keeps to herself. She’s almost worse than Megan in that regard, but I don’t think she means to be. She doesn’t turn me away when I go to see her, she’s even come out a couple times to watch a couple of my shows, but she’s really locked up. I know she slips out to see Whitney sometimes, so there’s that at least. I think she still feels a little guilty about all this, and doesn’t know what to do about it.”

“What’s she got to feel guilty for?”

Opal gestured to herself. “Well, in a way, she’s at least partly responsible for Osha Ascending, and by extension, for RoseGold and for me, and technically for this whole Second Omnyverse project. Maybe she’s still paranoid about long-term consequences? She won’t talk about it, just got all cryptic and mumbly when I tried. You’d think she’d at least get on with Domina or Megan, considering their mutual tastes, but neither of ‘em have made the effort.

“As for RoseGold… I don’t know. We get along. We play around, enjoy each other’s Worlds. But I can tell she’s a little put off, too. I think she was hoping, maybe even planning, on Osha coming with us to help balance things out between the moody Omnys and the chipper Omnys. Plus, she’s still attached from her days as Osha’s Plaything. I can’t really be the substitute for that. Not that she’s pressured me to be, but, well, I’m on the more chipper side compared to the others, but I’m not my mothers, either.”

“Osha’s visited, at least?”

“Oh, sure. But it’s not the same. Us Omnys need to set down roots around each other to achieve that balancing effect.” She paused, mulling it over. “You know what? I’m gunna say it. This Second Omnyverse would make a nice little summer home for those wanting to get away, but not have to go Beyond-diving. As its own independent thing? I don’t think we got the right mix in the juice.” She shrugged. “Another thousand years, maybe we’d have it hashed out, but right now? I kinda get the feeling things are already on the fizzle.”

Jax nodded ponderously. “I should probably not be so forward with this, but some of us had a feeling it might turn out a little shaky.”

Opal gave him a sardonic smirk. “So, this was a business visit after all? You didn’t just want to come check out your sweet neister?”

Jax’s smile was almost apologetic. “I am sorry it took so long. But I did ask to be the one to check in so I could have some time to talk to you.”

“How considerate.”

Jax sighed a bit. “Alright, I’ll be honest, I was a little hesitant to talk at first, because it felt odd, finding out Shady did a Mingle. I only exist because she couldn’t find a Mingle partner before. And then out of nowhere, she makes one with Osha, whom she wasn’t even lovers with.”

“Hey, I’m not a new favorite or anything,” she said. “You’re still very important to her.”

“Sure,” he said. “But it reminds me how impromptu my own creation was. It wasn’t entirely on whim, but she didn’t think on it that long.”

Opal frowned in thought once more. “Hmmm. Yeah. Well. She’s still got a lot of that trickster-hedonism in her. She can be a little… cavalier with people.”

Jax nodded. “Yeah.”

Opal sighed a bit. “Honestly, we haven’t even hung out much since she made me. She said she might set something up here as a ‘summer home’ sort of thing, but she never got around to it. I don’t know if she just lost interest, or something else changed her mind.” She suddenly chuckled. “Here we are gossiping about her, when we both already know her better than anyone.”

“Yeah. Let’s talk about us, instead,” said Jax with a small smirk. “So, how does it feel? Being a daughter?”

“Honestly, I feel more like a younger sister, for both Shady and Osha. Neither of them are the motherly sort, really. But that could also be because they weren’t attached to one another the way the Progenitors all are. I’d say that’s why Demi and Wyllow fell for each other pretty much instantly. All the love and forgiveness and history between their four sires, bundled into two fresh young lovers. It’s…” She frowned a bit, opened her mouth to say something else, but thought better of it. Not that it mattered, when they could know each other’s thoughts through divine intuition.

Jax nodded slowly. “I guess I never really let myself think about it. But now that you mention it, it feels a bit like we missed out on something, huh?”

Opal’s frown deepened. “Yeah. Huh. I don’t think I realized that’s how I felt until just now. I don’t exactly feel off about myself, but I guess, coming in so late into the game, seeing how the two already-existing Mingles were with each other, it does make me feel a little…” she searched for the word. “…third wheel around them?”

Jax nodded, but gave a little chuckle. “Trust me, they are very inclusive with whoever they’re with. You won’t feel like a third wheel when they double-team you, you’ll feel like the bicycle their wheels are supporting!”

Opal laughed. “I gathered. I have no hard feelings about it. Just… a little wistful to think about, I guess.”

“If it’s any consolation, I think if we’d been a Mingle with Megan or Domina, we’d still be the third to their pair, as Mingles go.”

“She coulda taken up Cyl’s offer,” said Opal. “That might have been sloppy seconds worth being!”

Jax shook his head. “As much as we love her, Cyl’s got her own bag of issues. And you remember how that one timeline ended between them.”

Opal blanched. “I’d rather not.” She waved it off. “Ah, well. We came to be how we came to be, and that’s just how it is. We’re here, we’re queer, we got nothin’ to fear!”

“That’s the spirit!”

“So bruncle, how are things back in the old country?”

“Mostly same old, same old. No more new Omnys yet. Everyone’s still getting along like peas in a pod.”

“That’s nice.”

They sat in silence for a bit. Jax opened his mouth to say something, hesitated, then tried again. “If things really feel that unbalanced here, none of us would be opposed to you all re-integrating. We could try a different cosmological configuration to help retain better privacy, but still keep all our Worlds connected in the same Sphere.”

Opal frowned slightly in thought. “I… personally speaking, I’d like that. But the others… Domina and RoseGold have their pride. Megan is stubborn. Illia I can’t say. I kinda don’t want to ditch them, not when I’m supposed to be the balancer.”

Jax matched her expression. “But being the balancer isn’t much fun when it’s mostly just you. And you weren’t exactly planning on being the good girl of the bunch, huh?”

Opal smirked. “Much to our mutual sire’s chagrin, I’m not exactly itching to be the Devil Princess. But I’m not exactly Little Miss Angel, either. I may have been overconfident in accepting the den mother role.”

“Maybe RoseGold figured your Progenitor experience built you ready for it,” said Jax. “But I guess you really didn’t get to find yourself first.”

Opal considered, then shrugged. “I dunno. What’s to find? I knew what I was the day I was made. I just didn’t get the time Demi and Wyllow had, to just frolic around the Omnyverse for a few years before they got snatched up to be in the Five. Which, you know, doesn’t usually need to do much outside of deal with very sporadic and rare problems. Meanwhile I’m by myself out here, already having to break up fist fights, and—”

She paused, realizing she was complaining more than she intended, words of contention about to spill out from a deeper frustration than she’d let herself feel. “Huh.” She glanced to Jax, who was giving her a sympathetic look. “You know what? Maybe I do regret it.”

Jax frowned. “I don’t mean to influence you towards a conclusion.”

Opal shook her head. “You’re not. You’re just… helping me actually confront some things.”

“Has it really been that bad?”

“Not really, I guess, but…” she sighed. “But I guess I hadn’t let myself think about it too much. Hadn’t wanted to talk to any of the others about it. But talking about it now? Yeah. I kinda wish I had stuck around the original Omnyverse more.” She shook her head. “I know RoseGold wouldn’t have tried to force me or anything, but when she proposed it, I went for it so readily because… because I was worried. And I’m still worried.”

Jax nodded. “You have a right to your feelings.”

“I know, I guess I just… deep down, I wasn’t sure what my feelings were. Maybe I got swept up in RoseGold’s ambition, thinking I should take also drastic step forward in order to distinguish myself. Maybe I thought she was right about the getting-too-crowded thing. Maybe I was worried about her jumping the gun too quick and wanted to back her up, especially after Osha turned her down.” She let out a breath. “I still don’t want to just ditch this place. Someone’s got to balance things, still. But I’m not sure if I’m the right one to do it. But I don’t want to obligate any of the others, so if I don’t do it…”

Jax let her mull it over for a bit longer, before leaning forward and putting his hand on hers. “Your worried this Second Omnyverse is going to end up speedrunning to its own Apocalypse?”

Opal’s frown deepened. “Maybe. I don’t know. I’d like to think Domina and Megan would know better, but they aren’t going to have the patience with us newbies that the other Progenitors might. And I think maybe, for the New Ascended, they might need to burn their hand on the stove before they really learn. RoseGold really jumped quick on wanting to establish herself, but I think that was just her going with the flow of her own nature, and justifying it after the fact. I don’t think it was wrong for her to pursue her own wants, but it’s not like she actually took any sort of mentorship to learn from our… from the Progenitors’ past mistakes. Just like Illia, she got eager to push her boundaries, and the knock-on effects of that, even with no ill intentions, can potentially lead to another disaster.”

She paused again, taking a moment to collect herself, realizing she’d been rambling a bit.

Jax gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “It’s okay. You can let it out. I’m here to listen.”

Opal looked him in the eyes, and felt a warm comfort. He really did feel like a reliable big brother. She took a breath and smiled. “Thanks. Heh. Man. Here I thought I was a chill girl. Turns out deep down I’m a worrywart.”

Jax gave her a once over, looking deeper into her mind. Sometimes, even an Omny could use another set of eyes to get to know herself. “You’ve inherited both of your mothers’ sense of fun and impishness, but Shady’s darker side and Osha’s lighter side sort of mellowed out into a chill vibe together. The same happened with the other Mingles. You’re a halfway point. But you’ve also got Shady’s memories of failed timelines, and her own secret misgivings about her darker impulses. Meanwhile, Osha’s got a desire for everyone to get along, but often feels out of her depth compared to most of the others. I can see how that’s bundled up in you, too, under the surface.”

“So, I’m a chill girl because I got blended bland, and if I let myself get too serious about anything, I’ll probably lose it under too much pressure.” Opal scowled. “Thanks a fuckin’ lot, moms.”

Jax gave her hand another squeeze. “I don’t think it’s that drastic. You’ve done fine so far. But it’s something to be mindful of. I’m just a Splinter, so I only have one point of comparison. As a Mingle, you have to consider the ways your two points mix.”

Opal nodded slowly. “Guess I should have taken more time to get to know myself, huh?”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it. We all learn at our own pace. Plus, it’s not all on you. It sounds like for all your efforts here, the other Omnys are having a hard time letting themselves connect.”

He motioned to himself, and leaned back. “I didn’t give a lot of thought to my own nature at first. Didn’t think I needed to. Didn’t feel the impulse to. But in truth, I’m a pretty odd form of Splinter. Shady just made me, based on an idea of herself that she hadn’t even played around with much. If anything, I’m more of a Created, I just happened to be molded from a piece of her. When I let myself actually confront that, I had Demi and Wyllow and Megan to talk about it with, while Shady and I hook up mentally on a semi-frequent basis. So, I had that security net holding me up the whole time.”

Opal cut to his conclusion. “But coming here, I cut myself off from my mothers. And everyone else here has been so caught up in their own issues, it’s been hard to connect with them and really talk things over.”

“Seems like that might be the case,” said Jax. “I was talking about it with Sal one time. I think, from a story perspective, that’s one of our themes. Personal connections. Even our hyperfocus on sex, it’s not just something for readers to get off to. For us, the Omnys, it’s part of our innate tendency towards hedonism, sure, but it’s also fundamentally part of our need to connect. Sex is social. Even Domina needed to finally reach out for a lover. Even Cyl needed a companion on her Beyond journeys.”

Opal let out a breath and gave a sardonic smirk. “You know, it’s real fuckin’ weird to be spontaneously reminded we’re fictional.”

Jax smirked back and shrugged. “We came to be how we came to be, and that’s just how it is.”

Opal chuckled. “Don’t steal my lines, bruncle!”

Jax laughed with her, and Opal felt the tension lift some. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the table and resting her chin in one hand. “Well. Okay. We got it all figured out. What are we gunna do about it? Like I said, the others are pretty stubborn.”

“We can just ask them.”

Opal smirked and gave him a mock wide-eyed stare. “Gosh, you really think that’ll work?”

“I mean, we could try, and who knows, we might get away with it!”

Opal chuckled, but made a half shrug. “I’m also just thinking this whole Second Omnyverse also came up for a reason. Themes of connection aside, RoseGold did bring up some valid issues. Presuming more Omnys keep showing up, even at a slow trickle, some new Omnys are likely to feel stifled by the establishment, and will probably need some freedom to make their own mistakes. And the more of us there are, the harder it’ll be not to have the spill-over of our actions impact each other.”

She gestured with her other hand. “Likewise, some Omnys really do need to have their own spaces to nest in, where they can just do their own thing without the constant risk of interruption. In the Omnyverse, even if we ignored it as a background noise, we constantly sense each other, and all it takes is a glance to peak into one another’s windows, so to speak. Even if that does help maintain a general feeling of security between us, I can see how it also chafes for at least a few of us. Some Omnys really value their privacy. Hell, Cyl’s jaunts into the Beyond give her more privacy than the rest of us get to experience.”

Jax nodded. “All true. So maybe keeping a Second Omnyverse, or even a Third as a sort of release valve would still be smart. Alternatively, there are ways we could restructure the cosmology of the Omnyverse to accommodate branch-offs that are still strongly connected, but the walls are thicker, and the doors can be shut for more privacy.”

He gestured to the side. “As it is, we’ve been workshopping ways to do that anyway. The whole Demi-Urge incident did point out a pretty fundamental flaw in having Earth be the literal central anchor point of the entire set up. We’re testing some ways to reweave the whole thing so it’s more of a web of support between the Worlds. This way if any given region destabilized, the cosmology has redundant anchor points to keep most of the Omnyverse stable while we fix the affected area.”

Opal nodded. “Smart. Yeah. I’ll talk to the others, see what they think. Maybe get a meeting between the ‘verses arranged so we can hash things out.”

Jax chuckled. “So many damn meetings. What are we, a smut series or a corporation?”

Opal made an amused scoff. “Are we even a smut series anymore? We barely even do anything on screen these days.”

“The Author still insists on being retired.”

“He’s in denial.”

“Hey, denial is his primary fetish!”

The two laughed, Opal settling back in her chair, and the atmosphere of tension was pretty well lifted. Still, Jax had one more thing to offer before they got busy. “Hey. How about until we’ve got this resolved, I stay here with you? So, you’re not trying to tackle this by yourself. I think I could help provide some more of that balance you need. And some less prickly company.”

Opal smirked slyly. “In your case, I think I’m looking forward to some pricking.”

Jax rolled his eyes. “Ha.”

Opal grinned. “You set me up for that on purpose!”

Jax returned the sly look. “I won’t deny it.”

“Seriously, though, I’d very much appreciate that,” she said. “Still, aren’t the girls back home going to miss you? What about your duties with the Five?”

Jax shrugged. “This is literally concerning the fate of the Omnyverse, so this is exactly the sort of thing the Five are for. And most of the time, we don’t have to really do that much to maintain things, especially these days. But I can just pop back over if something comes up. No big deal.”

Opal grinned. “Well, then. Hopefully the other ladies won’t get jealous I’m hogging you.”

“Well, you’ll at least have to share me with Megan a little bit,” he said.

“Fair play,” she said. And with that, she winked, and the two were suddenly sitting in a lavish bedroom in her own private techno-mansion. “Now let’s get to the fun part!”

Their clothes vanished and the two came together in a long, sensual foreplay, building to a session of wild passion. Jax gave her the railing of several lifetimes, while Opal gave him a fresh experience of sex enhanced by mystical music, the crescendo sparking into an Energy Climax so fierce, their sires could feel the tremors even across the Border into the other Omnyverse!

***

From her vantage point in her own World, Shady paused her sensual torment of her Playthings to peer into the other Omnyverse and observe her two Descended as they slowly coalesced together. She smiled smugly to herself. Maybe she wasn’t the best sister or mother figure or whatever she was supposed to be to them, but she had faith they were capable of figuring themselves out, just like she had.

Still, everyone needed a hand now and then; knowing herself, though, if she’d been the one to go give Opal the pep talk, she’d have just given into the temptation to stir the pot more. Such was the reason she’d thought better of setting anything up there; tempting as it always was to keep poking the grumpy bears, she didn’t actually want Domina or Megan completely flipping their lids! Instead, she’d nudged Jax be the one to act as emissary, even before her Splinter-Brother had decided on it himself. Sure, the other Mingles could have done the job well enough, but this way, her two Descended could also get to know each other better.

Osha, meanwhile, was happy to see her Descended connect with someone as reliable, and delectable, as Jax! She’d wondered if maybe she’d agreed to a Mingling a little too loosely. She hadn’t been sure how much she should hover over her daughter versus how much she should let her spread her own wings. She’d felt a little bad that Opal seemed to have gotten stuck in a stressful position, but also didn’t want to impose on her, either. She’d hoped RoseGold could connect with her as a true partner, but that had seemed to falter a bit. Jax, on other hand, was probably the best one to relate to her. Hopefully, this would set things on a path to get everything worked out between the two sets of Omnys once again.

Seeing the two together, Osha had a feeling that, even if there were some bumps along the way, things would work out in the end. Until then, maybe she should hook up with Shady some more. She was her baby-mama, after all!

END