Omega Zeta Kappa Epilogue

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---

It was a late Thursday night in the OZK dorm. "Hwaa~aah.."

Jen banged her fist on the side of her chair, making the catgirl who'd just yawned yelp and jump upright. "York, will you just go to bed already!? Finals are next week, and I can not study with you doing that."

"Auugh, I don't wanna yet."
"Why not."
"I don't have the energy!" she protested, dramatically falling back onto the couch.
"You don't have the energy. To go to bed," the wolf-girl repeated, deadpan.
"You don't geet iiiit. Odin's in our room."

"And..?"
"Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep a succubus happy, by myself?!" she said, flailing her arms up in the air. "I mean...I always wake up feeling good and well rested, but uuugh..."

"Why don't you just say you don't want to tonight?"

"Are you kidding?! I just...need to build up my strength first."
"Then nap! Are you part cat or not?!"

"Uhhm.." She blushed furiously. "That uh, can vary from one night to anotherrr.."
Jen shook her head. "Yeesh.

"Look, just be glad she's not a dragon. I don't think Rich owns any bedclothes that aren't singed somewhere. She smells like smoke in the morning if she hasn't showered."

"At least she seems happy, though?"
"True...honestly, I think she's a little more relaxed lately. Weird."

"Of course she's relaxed!" The beast in question burst into the room just as she did the conversation, making both of its occupants jump. "I take nothing but the best care of my treasure~," Gerar declared with a big grin. "Yoorrrk! Odin's looking for ya."
"Oh noooo." York flopped herself up onto her feet, then acted like an invisible force was dragging her out of the room.
Jen cleared her throat, deliberately ignoring that. "No offense, by the way."
"Pfft, none taken~! You've never seen a scratch or burn on her, though, riiight?"
"Guess not."

---

"Who's that guy?"

Wesley drifted over to the window to take a look. There was a tall, skinny guy, kind of average-looking, with dark hair and glasses, standing at the front door to OZK. He would almost resemble a student, except he was wearing a suit and carrying a briefcase. "I think that's...some business contact of Rich's? I've seen him around before a couple of times."
"Really? I guess he just sticks out a lot more now," Zale shrugged. "But—is it just me, or do you..feel something kinda impressive from him?"
"Hmmnh...a little bit? Can't exactly put my finger on it."

Flynn paused her music, paused her work for the year-end project, and set her headphones down. She shoved her chair back and stood up before heading to the door, verifying that she really had heard a brief, polite knock by way of Rich's voice now coming through on the other side: "I assure you she's in. Just wait another moment."

She opened the door to find the sorority's illustrious leader had been talking to—well, a total stranger to Flynn, some tall businessguy. "Hello?"
"Ah, see?" Rich said.
"I didn't doubt you or anything," he shrugged. "You're Flynn, right?" Now that he was looking right at her, she noticed something very strange through those glasses: His eyes were bright yellow, with tall slits for pupils, like a snake's eyes or something. It made her jump slightly when she noticed it.
"Uh, yeah..?"
He cleared his throat. "And you're the one who prayed to Zotha a few weeks back?"

"That's...also right, I guess. Why? Am I uh..in trouble?"

"Far from it. Ms. Tanner here said you figured out the ritual language within only one day, at least enough to make a functional prayer. That's pretty rare talent."

"I was..feeling really motivated, is all."
He nodded, pausing to crack his briefcase slightly open and shuffle through its contents with one hand. "Listen, I know you're still a junior now, but in a year or so, after you graduate—there's a job opportunity for you with Rejuvenation services. We're a little short on programmers and competent pray-ers right now." Finding what he wanted, he handed over a piece of paper. "A lot of the celestials originally working with us have other business to attend to, but demand's only been going up lately. We'll run out of old people eventually, I guess, but it'll be some years..."

"Uh..?" Flynn was going to ask what in the world he was even talking about, but she paused to skim the paper first. 'Rejuvenation services' was...a joint effort by Azoth and some other, longer-named organization whose main line of work was, apparently, using magic (especially that of the goddess of change herself) to make older people young and healthy again. There was some contact information on the paper, too. "I guess it'd be nice to have a job instead of having to look around," she said.
The businessman nodded. "Take some time to think about it. You have a year, or more if you want."

He turned toward Rich. "Now...I also heard there was a dragon hatchling somewhere around here?"
"Yes, of course. I'll show you to her," she said, grinning, and giving Flynn a little wave before leaving with him.

---

After the summer, the OZK sorority had a new batch of applicants. Tielo sat at the council table to evaluate them as they were sent in one-by-one. Mars was next to her for "moral support", playing on her phone and not really participating in the interviews for the most part. The first five were male but willing to take the potion, but the sixth was different: an incoming freshman with no history of ever being male. "Greetings. Name, please?" A rather petite and overall ordinary-looking girl at first glance, with short brown hair and dark eyes, but...
"You don't have that on your paper? Well I'll tell you anyway—Ursa Major!" She lunged forward, banging her hands on the table. "You better remember too, 'cause I'm gonna be famous!"

Such energy! This person had potential. Tielo just nodded impassively. "Got it. And why do you want to join OZK?"

"Superior food and lodging. Camraderie with other musicians. Potential for magic shenanigans to write songs about! Why would I not?"

"Sure, sure. Alright, I'll set you a worthy trial, then. Explore our living space freely, and identify the dragon's treasure. Don't try to steal it, though—this dragon can bench press a house, and literally breathes fire. Come back to me with the right answer within a week's time, and you pass."

"A week?! You'll see, I'll figure it out today!" she declared, whirling and charging back out the door.

"You, dragon!"
The blond dragon-girl paused, headtilting at the short girl pointing dramatically at her. "Uh, me Gerar. You?"
"Ursa Major. I demand you tell me what your treasure is!"
"'What'?" she repeated—thinking not 'who' or 'where'? "Oooh, this is one of Teilo's tests, isn't it?" she realized aloud. "It'd be no fun to just give you the answer then—no challenge, right? Sooo, I'll give you a hint: I go to the top floor every night."

"What, like, to check on it?"
"Mmmaaayyybe. Heheheh~!"

It was just another normal day when I first met her. Our usual group was getting ready for an afternoon of board games, and I'd been sent upstairs to retrieve our first choice...

Braxton's ears twitched as he exited the stairwell into the third floor. There was some noise coming from the storage room, which was..probably not good. He was headed there anyway, so he opened the door to find some strange girl hunched over an open box, rifling through its contents. "No, no.."
"Hey! What're you doing?"
She stood up and turned to face him. "Aagh, another fox?! Will nobody in this crazy place give me a straight answer?"
Braxton sighed, crossing his arms. This was..someone who'd recently encountered Tielo or Mars, he guessed. "Look—I'm not a Kitsune, just a furry. So, what are you doing here?"
"I am Ursa Major, and I seek to pass my trial! Does the dragon really keep her treasure here?" she asked. "Everything valuable-looking is much too dusty!"

"Uh, no..look, if you really wanna know about Gerar, you should talk to Odin. Huge redheaded succubus, can't miss her."

"Very well!" She swept past the fox-boy with the power of a locomotive.
Braxton sighed, going and cleaning up the slight mess that weird girl had made. So this was one of their new applicants? Well, whatever—Nina and the others were waiting on him to come back with the game. So he went over to the shelf and pulled a box out from midway down the stack.

"Mngh~!" One touch from Odin's hand suddenly shifted York into a wolf-boy the same height as her, and before he really even knew what was happening she'd grabbed him into a long, passionate kiss. He started returning it properly once he figured out what was going on, and she released him after...maybe a full minute, leaving him to pant heavily.

"Sorry, thanks. Needed that."
"Uh..rrfh..a-anytime?" It wasn't easy for her to stay loyal to just one person, but she'd made it very clear she didn't want anyone else "cluttering up" her life. That made York the luckiest man or woman alive...depending on her mood.

"A second red-haired demon!" another girl's voice suddenly declared, making both of them turn to face her as she ran up. "Are you the succubus, then?"

"Uh, yeah, why?"
"What is Gerar's treasure!?"

"'What' is?" she repeated. "Look, around this time..just watch out the front door. You'll see."

Ursa was getting very irritated. What was with these people? Why were nearly half of them apparently male? Well, she'd witnessed a couple of people shifting their sex as easily as breathing, so maybe that was just a perk of membership that nobody talked about. Perhaps she could get herself a male form with a deep bass voice and record a duet with herself!

But one thing at a time—she needed to pass the test today, and now the sun was threatening to set. One frustratingly vague answer after another had led her finally back to where she'd first entered the building, the front door. She opened it, leaning against it and looking around—not really sure what she was looking for. The dragon's treasure was on the top floor, not here, right? And why did everyone she asked about it seem so confused at first?

"Ah—'scuze me!" She'd been looking outward, and nearly fell over in surprise when Gerar went past her. "Thanks~!" she continued, seemingly thinking Ursa had been holding the door open for her. Then, paying no further attention to the short freshman, the dragon-girl ran up to a guy on the sidewalk with weirdly long hair, nearly tackling him into a hug and kiss. At least it looked consensual; he kept up the hug afterward, gently rubbing the top of her head.

"Ma chère," he said. "How were your classes today?"
"No trouble at all~. And you?" There was something awfully...possessive about the way she was holding on to him.

"Just fine. Shall we?" He gestured, and she finally let go of him so they could both walk off in the same direction.

Well, now it made sense! Everyone was confused when Ursa asked 'what' the dragon's treasure was because it wasn't a 'what', it was a 'who'! And furthermore, someone who lived on the top floor? Ursa was pretty sure OZK's bosses were all animal-people, except for Erwin—that super-busty girl who'd waved her and the other applicants in—and one other person, their bankroller. She was also pretty sure that person was supposed to be a black-haired, red-eyed girl, but there was no reason she couldn't just turn into a boy too. And so, she had her answer.

As soon as she'd chased down the fox-girl, she announced: "The dragon's treasure is..Richard Tanner!"

---

Tielo raised his hand and gently knocked on the door. "Mars, you in?"
"Yes." The lock clicked and the door opened, seemingly all on its own; the blue-haired Kitsune was way over on the opposite side of the room, sitting on her bed. "Please, come in." She was wearing a t-shirt and probably some underwear it hid, and maybe it was Tielo's imagination, but her bust looked..even bigger than before.

"Come take a seat?" she offered, patting the spot next to her.

"Alright." He came and sat down (the door 'shutting itself' behind him), and she curled her one visible tail around his, leaning over to hug and kiss him for a moment before letting go.

"Hffh...s-so uh..you earn another tail over the winter break? Ahead of me now?"

"Mm-hm," she nodded, grinning, as three more tails appeared behind her briefly before hiding themselves again. "But since you didn't know that before, I assume there was something else you wanted to talk about?"
"Well, yeah.." She was hugging him with one arm, and using the other hand to rub one of his ears this entire time, which made it slightly harder to concentrate on the conversation—but Tielo managed it. Mars had been steadily training him to deal with distractions, after all. "I guess with how fast you've been taking classes, you're gonna graduate this year? Same time as me?"
"That is true. But—let me guess.

"You were hoping I could succeed your position on the council?"

"Guilty."

"I can still do that. The OZK charter only says that council members must be 'students', with no restriction on graduate or not."
"What, you're going to grad school? Here?"
She nodded. "A couple of my professors want to work with me on some research projects. I'll need to do postdocs somewhere else, but I'll be around here for a couple more years, at least."

"Aah, that's perfect! And, I guess—congratulations? But I would've assumed you could get into grad school anywhere."

"Thanks all the same. Now—I guess you have a meeting to get to. When is it?"
"Uh, about an hour from now."
"Okay." She pulled him into another kiss after that, and proceeded to hold him..then her...up, for precisely fifty minutes.

Tielo left Mars's room pretty happy, but with enough time to recover from her giddiness and have some actual composure for the meeting. Being with a genius had all kinds of perks like that. She'd probably already calculated when he'd ask her to marry him...or maybe even had it planned out the other way around.

---

"Alright, ladies..." Rich paused to clear her throat pointedly. "Ladies?"

Erwin said, "It really wouldn't be appropriate for our sorority's council to have men at such an important meeting, would it?"

Jeff sighed and shifted into "Jen". "There. Happy?"
"I am~," Myla said, flicking the tip of her tail against the base of the wolf-girl's, making her let out a soft bark.

"Anyway," Rich continued, "this is our meeting to coordinate our successors, since most of us will be graduating at the end of this semester."

"I'm thinking of stepping down myself, actually," Myla said. "Next year's gonna be pretty tough for me as it is, and it'll be way more fun to watch a whole council of new blood figure things out for themselves than to be the sole member with 'seniority' and 'experience'," she said, derisively air-quoting her hands alongside both words.

"I agree and approve," Rich nodded, grinning. "Now, of course—your choice of successor is entirely up to you, and as is our council's secret tradition, 'favoritism is encouraged'. But it's still a good idea in this game to know how everyone else will be playing."

"I'm sure you all know my choice," Tielo said. "Mars will be continuing on to grad school here, so she can take over admissions. She's been 'studying' under me for a bit, and is, of course, already an expert."

"I'd like Nina to succeed me," Jen said. "She should be able to keep representing our more athletic members, besides being a generally positive and energetic person, and friends with basically everyone."

"Really? You don't just wanna make sure it's a fellow wolf-girl?" Myla said, teasing.

"You know that's not what I care about," she protested, folding her arms.

Rich waved to interrupt this banter before it could continue. "Both excellent choices. As for me—I'm nominating Xavie."
"Xavie?!" everyone except for Tielo said, nearly at once.

"Come now, I know my reputation. People think I know everything; they say my eyes are enchanted to read minds; many who don't know me are terribly intimidated on up to the fourth meeting. I'd gladly have our resident dragon succeed me, were we not in the same class. So laying her aside, who better to succeed me than a dark witch with a dramatic, threatening persona? And I assure you, she's mellowed out quite a bit over the past year, especially with Vade's help. I would have Vade succeed me, to be honest, if the rules didn't forbid it—and this is the second-best thing."

"You don't want one of your 'pet wolves' to succeed you, then?" Jen said.

"I implied the possibility, and they don't want the position. Not that that prevents me from forcing it on one of them, but it does make me happier with my choice."

"Well, it sounds like a super high-energy group you're all assembling so far," Myla said. "It'll be fun to watch, but they do need to get things done sometimes, and frankly I don't trust Vade to calm things down all by herself. So I'm gonna nominate Corbin. Let the dynsaty of catgirl gamers continue, and—more importantly—bring in some much-needed chill."

"Hear, hear—on both counts, I say," Rich said. "That just leaves..Erwin?"

"Well.." She fidgeted, rocking back and forth in her chair a bit. "I admit, I'm torn between two options. I was thinking Layton might be a good successor—knowing, at the same time, what it's like to be small and unsure of yourself, but also how to build up that confidence? She may be best able to empathize with most members, and especially can help out anyone Nina's a little too..extra for. But, well, since we've become a sorority, there's also come to be a new 'class' of member in our ranks, with no representation on the council so far. Nor does anyone we've named so far belong to it."

"Ah, I see," Rich nodded. "It's quite a different life to come into our fold having grown up female, I imagine. As naturalized as most of us are to the girl life by now~."

Erwin nodded, "Right. Although all of them are currently freshmen, so not very many are necessarily prepared to lead. But I thought, perhaps...Ursa Major, might have the confidence?"
"Not to mention the energy," Tielo agreed.

"I understand your dilemma now," Rich said. "In that case, why don't we just take both?"

"Um..?" Erwin titled her head pretty hard at that.
"Not that both can simultaneously succeed you," Rich clarified, "but—the council has always been chartered as 'four to seven' students. Two of the rooms we're presently using for storage on this floor are really meant to be bedrooms. Clear one out and furnish it, and we need only vote someone into the new position before officially naming our successors. I believe the situation warrants it—in terms of our increased population since last year, and ensuring that that 'new group' gets fair representation."

"Oh. That does seem like a sensible solution."

"Shall we put it to a vote, then? All in favor...'aye'," she and the other four said this, raising their hands. "All opposed..." After a brief pause, she nodded in response to the silence. "Then it's done. We can make the room ready within a month or so, and then inform her of the decision. Perhaps, move her up here to 'observe' so someone on the new council will have an idea of how the old one operated?"

---

Nina was running a little late, so she more or less sprinted up the first two flights of stairs, nearly running into the blond cutie standing just at the foot of the third flight: Layton. "Whoop—sorry! You goin' up too?"
"Uh, y-yeah..but um.."
"What's the matter? Nervous?" she gently rubbed the top of Layton's head a bit—Kaden was usually the one doing that, but Layton usually seemed to like it.

"I uh—yeah. I dunno if I'm ready, to be 'at the top' with those people..."

"Hey, c'mon, Erwin picked ya for a reason, right? That means you're more than worthy. C'mon, we can go up together!" she said, gently prodding the shorter girl toward the step. "Race ya up?"
"Uh, th-there's not, it's kinda not wide enough for two."
"Yeah, true. You go on ahead of me, then."

Xavie was about as happy to see the two of them bursting into the meeting room as could be expected. "Hmph, good of you two to finally make it!" Which was: Not at all.

"Yo, sorry, I held Lay-lay up a minute. Totally on me," Nina said, hurrying to her own seat.

"'Lay-lay'?!" Ursa repeated, loudly and obviously stifling a laugh.
"Eh, not every nickname's a hit," the wolf-girl shrugged. "Anyway, we're all here now, right?"

"Indeed. I'll have order!" Xavie shouted. "Corbin, wake up!"

"Mrow? I am awake. Just leaning on my hand, see?"
"With your eyes closed! Gods, you're worse than Vade. And Mars, can you not take this seriously?!"
"I'm taking it quite seriously," the Kitsune stated impassively.

"Then how about taking your eyes off your phone for five minutes!"

"Okay." She immediately set her phone on the table face-down.
"That goes double for you, Ursa."
"Huh? Oh, are we actually starting now? Sure." She pocketed hers.

Mars said, "Four minutes and forty-five seconds..."

Xavie glowered, and the entire room darkened. "I did not mean that length of time literally!!!"

"Whoakay, okay," Ursa said, briefly putting out her hands in a 'hold up' kind of gesture. "Don't start cursing the rest of the council, witch girl. Lemme just—pass out the agenda to you all." She pulled out some printed pages and started shuffling them out to everyone else.
The witch still wasn't pleased. "Who put you in charge!?"
"Oh, I'm not in charge, most excellent leader. I just thought you'd appreciate some structure and organization, is all. Of course this is tentative, subject to change..?"
"Oh." Xavie visibly untensed, taking the paper and looking over it. "Yes, that is a good thing. Otherwise we shall be here all afternoon." The room's light gradually went back to normal.

"I'll take some minutes, too," Ursa continued. "And we can chat about future agendas ahead of their respective meetings if you'd like."

Xavie had picked up the piece of paper handed her way to briefly peruse its contents, and mumbled "Yes, good," in a way that made it unclear whether she'd really been listening to that last part. Then she set the paper down again.

"So, our first issue is to do with admissions. The stock of potion Rich bought over a year ago is nearly empty. And apparently it was 'a special one-time production batch', so we can't just—order more of the same, either. Obviously we could just insist that male applicants find their own ways to change if they truly wish to join us."

"Is it really a problem?" Corbin asked. "I mean, two of us at this table can transform people easily enough, not to mention Nikki and Vade."

"But within a few years none of us will be here. We require a more sustainable plan."
"Mrow...you mean we can't just leave it for the next council to deal with?"

"We can, but that's at least me and 'Lay-lay' you'd be pushing it off on!" Ursa declared. "And we won't stand for it! Right?!"

"Uh—um..." Layton immediately sat up straight and stammered, not having expected to suddenly be yanked into the conversation.

"W-well..even if we can't get that potion...the Tanners are still um, donating enough where we could just, buy other things that'll transform people...right? Like, enchanted accessories, or other potions?"

"That's at least acceptable as a tentative solution," Xavie said, nodding. "Thank you, Layton."

"Hey, what about clothes and stuff for all those 'new girls'?" Nina asked.
"Rich was specifically covering that herself," Mars answered. "Even our male applicants this last year had to sign a waiver of understanding that they'd need to pay for those themselves. With one or two under-the-table agreements to help if they really couldn't afford it, of course, no different from the support we've provided other students in similar situations. It's certainly cheaper than covering their entire living expenses, which we've done for a few of our members..."

---

"Flynn! You in there?" Myla knocked on the bedroom door again, a little more loudly. "I can hear your music, you know." She could also hear a slight sigh, and then some light footsteps coming up to the door.

"Is this important?" she demanded right away. "I'm trying to put the finishing touches on my senior project."

"Well, I think it's pretty important. You know what my senior project was?"
"'Was'? Like you already turned it in?"

"Yep, a couple weeks ago! So," she continued even though she hadn't guessed anything yet, "it was a little game. More like a, vertical-slice demo kinda thing. Honestly, held together with the coding equivalent of duct tape and glue."
Flynn crossed her arms. "Yeah, I've seen how you code..."

"So anyway! I also put it up on the internet for people to try, and it's faaaiiirly popular? Some people said they'd absolutely help fund a full version if I put it up on kickstarter. Including you-know-who! But I might need a little help with, you know, not winding up with a collapsing pile of glitches and crashing instead of a functional video game. And I thought of you!"

"Of course you did."
"I mean, there's plenty of potential testers I know, but maaaybe you could help out with the whole, actual codebase situation? I'm not talking about working for free, by the way. I'm sure you've already got a job lined up, but maybe, in your spare time outside of that?

She sighed. "Alright, I can take a look. After I finish my schoolwork, and we sign some kind of contract about pay."

"Absolutely!"

---

"Odiiinnn~!" It was a good thing the succubus was fairly strong and resilient, since Gene very nearly tackled her to the ground with an extremely enthusiastic hug. A weaker woman's spine might have cracked, she thought.

"Hi..this is a bit much, isn't it?"

"No way! I haven't seen you in two whole years!" She did let go and hop back. "Not since the wedding...oh, hey York!" she waved at the catboy about half a foot shorter than Odin, standing next to her. "Still enjoying the 'endless honeymoon'?"
He looked away, blushing deeply. "Uh...y-yeah, let's call it that..."

Rich leaned in slightly to interject: "Shall we head inside?"

They came to their table, the girl and boy of each couple sitting across from the other's. "Now, given the length of the trip, I don't imagine you just wanted a double-date to catch up," Rich said. "Not that there's any problem if so..."
"No, I do have a motive or two," Odin admitted. "You're just about to finish grad school, right?"
"Mm-hm," Gene nodded. "Rich has been the breadwinner this whole time, no big surprise there. Or—more like the meat-winner, heheh. I guess the big bad business world is treating you pretty well if you can foot the bill here, though!"
"I'm making it work," she said, nodding with a slightly proud expression. "York's helping, for sure."

"I'm just an extra-friendly IT guy by day," York explained. "Working on the 'low end' lets me feed her some useful info on how us grunt workers are doing."

Odin continued: "So—to put it simply, we need a mathematician, and I thought of you."

"Oh, really? What for? I mean, my work is pretty abstract."
"It's in higher-dimensional geometry and topology or whatever, right? That's extremely relevant. Maybe, I should explain what we're doing first.

"So, airplanes. Loud, expensive, and highly pollutive. They're relatively fast compared to boats, which take forever, if you want to get from one continent to another. Or trains for overland travel, not to mention cars and everything they put out."
"All true. But people gotta get to work, right? Or their families, or whatever else," the dragon-girl said.
"Right. But we have magic now. It's time to look into some better alternatives. So what if, you could just step through a door in L.A. and be in Japan? Or drive out only a few miles to get to London? For less than a tenth the price of a plane ticket. All the baggage you want, no extra cost."
"That..sounds pretty amazing. I mean, I know there's some private teleportation services around, but most of them are kinda sketchy, right? I've heard the targetting can be a little, off."
"Yeah, that's the main problem. Aiming a one-time teleportation is one thing—I think someone's gonna figure out how to do that reliably pretty soon, and instantly outcompete anyone who can't. But we're working with the airline companies on making sustained portals, in their terminals. A near-replacement for commercial flight except where it's really needed, and they won't be trying to shut us down if they're in on the massive profits.

"The problem is, linking those up is way more complicated. We've got plenty of magic power behind the operation, but the geometry you need to make sure they stay targetted properly for a long period of time is an absolute nightmare. I had a look at it myself, and only got a massive headache for all my efforts."

"And it's..multi-dimensional? As in, more than three or four?"
Odin sighed. "Kinda? It turns out the math is easier if you use extra dimensions instead of trying to account for the rotation of the Earth, the solar system, and the galaxy directly. Just not 'easier' enough for me or anyone else on the team we've got right now."

"Well, sweet! In that case, I'd love to at least give it a try. Here I thought I'd just wind up freeloading once I graduated. I'm sure my parents-in-law will be proud, huh Rich?" she said, gently elbowing him.

"Certainly."

---

"So—let me get this straight," Quaid said. The phone was on the table between him and Sid, on speakerphone, with Rich on the other end of the line. "We get to test brand new, full-immersion VR tech. And basically do some improv-slash-larping, playing some overleveled boss characters in a humongous MMORPG. And we get paid for it?"
"That's about the size of it. What do you think?"
The werewolves exchanged only a brief glance, and then said simultaneously: "We're in!"

---

"Well, my dear...you've got nine tails, three doctorates, and plenty of wealth to play around with. Never mind that you're not even a century old and weren't even born a fox—anyone would be jealous of the rest of that."

Mars gently rubbed Tielo's ears. "Are you jealous?"
"How could I be? I get to share in the fun," he said, grinning back at her. "I'm just wondering if you're gonna be bored now."
"Mrr~rrh.." the blue-haired fox-girl gently nuzzled her husband a little before responding. "Finding a new challenge is a challenge in itself. But last night, I received one from on high—so to speak."
"Oh?"
"The Ruler said I have real potential. But set me one more test.

"She said: I've been thinking of stepping down in a century or two. Show me your happy and successful grandchildren, and I will seriously consider giving you my support to take over for me."
"Ah." Tielo nodded, grinning slightly. "I guess you'll need some...children first, then."
"Mm-hmm~..." She leaned in for a kiss.

---

That's it, the proper ending! An epilogue consisting of a bunch of brief scenes presented in chronological order, with some references to other stories here and there throughout. Even managed to find a place for one more image. I'm really happy to have written this whole story through. Again, some of its characters may very well show up, or at least be referenced, in other stories and captions. If I think of another scene to insert into this, I just might; I guess I'll "repost" this update so it shows up as new if that happens.