From the Journal of Olivia Delacroix

 Day twelve? upon The Eye of Thermisto (translated from the French).

Be thankful for little mercies. My captor, who yet remains nameless has granted me small privledges or, more precisely, incentives to behave. In other words, she treats me like a pet which is, perhaps, an apt description of my new role aboard this fantastical vessel. I am, in truth, little more than a test subject to her. She takes samples of my blood and monitors my vital signs several times a day, making arcane notes of her hypothosis and conclusions upon what I believe to be some sort of thinking machine – an artificial intellegence housed in a metal box and controlled by keys not dissimilar to a typewriter. At first I believed that it’s origins were magical in nature but now I am beginning to suspect it is simply a technology beyond anything in my experience. To what end, her tests, I have no clue, and admit to curiousity. After all, I have evolved into a creature that is singular and unique.

Today she gifted me with quill and ink and a leather bound book full of empty pages which I endevour to fill with my thoughts lest they, too, are lost to time. It has become a struggle to write, constantly under the influence of the serums that I am subjected to which leave me in state of subservience and an overwhemling hunger for both pleasure and pain that is never fully sated. At first I resisted the injections. Now, I fear, I have grown addicted, growing physically ill if they are with withheld. What I have done, would do, for the prick of the needle, frightens and humiliates me.

So much of my past has  slipped away since being marrooned. Sand through my fingers. Memories of my experiences on the Golden Dove and the faces of those whom I set out from London on such a grand adventure are obscured by thick fog these days. Even my life before that, growing up in France, once so indelibly stamped in my mind, has faded. I can recall little details, much like dredging up tales from a story book read as a child, one that I remember being fond of, but the tale itself had dimmed to a twilight memory.  Daily, recollections of another time continue to fade as do, I fear, parts of who I am, or rather was, regardless of how I might wish otherwise.  

In truth, I suspect my history will soon be entirely lost to me, so I cling to what I can. At night I have taken to silently reciting the names of my companions, shipwrecked as well upon this cursed isle, my fondness for them giving me some comfort. As with everything else, however, their faces have begin to slowly fade. Soon, I fear, they will be forgotten. Even now, only Isshu and Prel feel real as if they, alonside myself and my inhuman jailer, are the only creatures that truly exist. I am thankful beyond description that they often rescue me from vivid nightmares, slipping into my dreams and bringing me peace and comfort and allowing me to escape into golden slumbers.

I paused in my musings, setting down my pen, my body reacting to her presense as she entered the chamber in which I spent my days and nights when not accompanying her. Panting softly, I closed my eyes, poised perfectly still upon the cushioned stool which, along with the shelf that I used as a desk, where the only items of furniture in the small cell that had become my refuge.

“Making good use of your gift, little insect?”

I shivered as I felt her approach, anticipating her touch, fear and desire warring within me.  I turned slowly, aware of the fragrant juices that began to pool upon the seat, my already heightened senses growing all the more sensitive in her proximity. I could feel the throb of my pulse in my swelling pleasure bud and labia as well as my stiffening nipples as I completed my turn, my chin tilted upward to gaze upon her beautifully horrific features.

“Oui,” I spoke softly, forcing my hands to my thighs, the cool metal of my cuffs against my flesh reminding me of her power over me.

She regarded me for a moment with her single organic eye, the glass lenses of her fabricated orbs  reflecting my image back to me, reminding me that I, too, was no longer human, before coming to life and glowing with crimson light.  She reached out with her mechanical hand, placing a pair of dangerously sharp fingertips just beneath my hard pink nipple, slowly circling the edges of my areola slowly, maddeningly, until my torso heaved with barely restrained desire.

“I have need of you. Come.”

She withdrew her touch as I rose as if in a trance, to my feet, my colourful wings unfolding behind me. Turning, she exited the metal walled cell through the oval opening and I followed obediently, apprehension surging through me. It was rare that time spent with her ended in anything other than in intense pain and, or, pleasure. Or worse, their denial.

The path she choose was, by now, quite familiar; the corridor that led from my quarters to hers.  So far it was the only section of her vessel that I’d been privy to. Trying to distract myself from what was to come, I found myself studying her from behind. As always, I was awestruck by the skill and science that she embodied, a true blend of warm flesh and gleaming silver. I watched, fascinated as plasma was conveyed through clear tubing along her spine, wondering if it was being pumped by an organic heart or some mechanical contraption implanted within her chest. I had, of course, asked, many times over, about the nature of her being, my own curiosity too great to subjugate, but had been rebuffed each time, and not gently so. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder silently at the technology used to blend her two halves together and make them whole.

Surprisingly, we continued past her chambers approximately 200 meters beyond to a large circular door. Beside it was a keyboard beneath a series of amber, green, and blue lights, each one identified with an alien, to me at least, alphabet.  She paused, her fingers poised over the keys.

“Eyes shut.”

Sighing, I obeyed her as she, presumably, keyed in a code. Moments later I heard a mechanical whirr. My eyes fluttering open just in time to watch the door slide into the wall, although a second door, made of thin translucent material, remained, revealing a dimly lit, and eerily silent, chamber beyond.  She remained silent, allowing me time to survey the huge circular room, my eyes quickly adjusting to the lack of light. I moved closer, close enough that my nose was nearly pressed to the window separating us.

“Best not touch. It’s electrified,” she warned me. I stepped back quickly, having been about to place my palm against the barrier, deciding to observe from a safe distance as she tapped a metal fingertip to a key, illuminating the room with soft vibrant green light.

The walls and ceiling were covered with vines of varying size, colour and shape. Some bore what appeared to be thorny protrusions while others were festooned with various flowers. Looking closer as best I could from this distance, careful not to get too close to the glass, the walls were covered with honeycomb shaped tiles pulsed like a slow heartbeat with pale amber light.  The floor, itself, was covered with liquid. I assumed it was water, however it was impossible to be sure. What looked like lily pads, some with small blooms in the center, floated languidly upon the calm surface. Small mounds, looking like tiny islands, rose up in several places. These were covered in alien looking vegetation; a variety of moss as well as grass, both alien in appearance formed a carpet from which grew a wealth of unruly plants and flowers.  Truly, a botanist’s dream.

“My garden,” she commented softly, startling me almost as much as the gentle touch of a finger  just behind my ear. I held my breath as it made its way down my throat and along my shoulder before being withdrawn, leaving me shivering.

“It’s beautiful,” I murmured. For the first time I felt that we had shared something almost… intimate.

“And dangerous,” she added, her nails trailing down my flank, lightly at first, growing harsher. By the time she reached my hip I could feel them drawing blood and, in response, secretions from my pussy began to trickle down my inner thighs like slow honey. Her only response when a moan of pure pleasure slipped past my lips was to lift her crimson tinged fingers to my mouth and let me suck them clean.

The silence was suddenly interrupted by the soft tap of a metal digit upon yet another key, followed by a more obtrusive sound; the glass barrier withdrawing into the same slot that the door now resided. My heart stopped briefly at the sound and fear gripped me as I heard her cold laughter, so at odds with the tenderness of the previous moment. Clearly, her intention was for me to enter the chamber and experience whatever unimaginable horrors awaited within.

“Today will be very difficult for you, insect.  But if you do well, you will be rewarded.”

I swallowed, tension filling me, my mouth suddenly dry. I trembled as fingers trailed slowly up my arms in effort to calm me as one might a nervous horse, one set soft and warm, the other cool and unyielding.

“What will happen?” I managed to whisper, my heart pounding against my ribs so hard I was suddenly worried that it might burst through my chest.

“Nothing you will find unpleasant. Unsettling yes, but, considering your unique physiology and the side effects of the serum, you may even enjoy yourself.”

I found myself unceremoniously pushed through the opening. Unsurprisingly, the electrified window, as well as the thick metal hatch, slid shut behind me, leaving me to my fate. What awaited me within, I couldn’t begin to imagine. I held onto the hope that she was through with me yet and therefore, I wasn’t in mortal danger. With that in mind, I did my best to gather my thoughts and calmly access the situation. At present I was standing upon a rectangular steel shelf half a meter above the surface of the water. Remaining upon it was not an option, however, seeing as it was incrementally sliding into the wall. My best estimate was that I had two minutes, perhaps less, before I was forced from this place of relative safety into the unknown. I’d have to make the best of it. Thankfully, being forced into the water wasn’t my only option and indeed, it was what might lay beneath the surface that frightened me most. I unfurled my wings and rolled my shoulders, loosening the knots in my muscles. It would take very little effort to float above the unnatural pond to one of the small islands. Resolved, I rose into the air slowly, powered by my deceptively strong and brilliantly coloured wings with the intent of sailing to the closest landfall.

I kept a wary eye about me as I slowly fluttered above the surface, mostly beneath me in case bubbles rising to the surface or the sudden appearance of rings marring the still water might alert me to danger, letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding when I finally alit upon a mound the size of a large dinner table, my bare feet sinking slightly in the damp, soft moss that covered it. It, like the others, was home to a strange and fragrant bouquet. A quicksilver memory teased at my mind, a young gentleman in a paisley vest, my hand in his in the Gardens at Kew. It was too fast to hold onto, but it gave me hope that, perhaps, my memories weren’t entirely lost, and were merely biding their time until I could recapture them once more.

I let out a soft sigh, breathing it in again as I inhaled the heady scent of the surrounding flora. I felt strangely light-headed as a sense of peace infused my spirit. What possible dangers could possibly inhabit this paradise? I let my fingers trail along the blooms, amazed at the variety of colour and shape surrounding me. Wishing to observe them more closely, I knelt. The scent was heavenly and I was consumed with a desire to push my nose into several of the blooms, sampling their distinctive and unique scents. Dangerous, she had said. Obviously a ploy to unnerve me. For what reason, I could not guess, but I was sure she had one. 

Relaxing, my wings moving slowly, brushing the brightly coloured petals, I settled down until all by my shoulders and head were hidden. A sense of joy that I had not experienced since arriving on The Thermiso washed through me. I reveled as all my sense were engaged. The intoxicating fragrance, the visual beauty, the brush of soft petals upon my flesh, especially my breasts and engorged nipples, the soft sound of stems as they rasped against my bared thighs and hips. It felt quite natural to pluck a petal from a particularly vibrant flower the colour of a robin’s egg, and place it upon my tongue, letting the flavour fill my mouth before swallowing it whole. Delicious.

Suddenly ravenous I plucked a pumpkin coloured spear and tasted that as well. And then an entire bloom the color of new snow, swallowing the petals one by one, all the while growing more and more lightheaded until I was sure I would float away. It was not a feeling dissimilar to the lust berries, although I didn’t feel the same rush of heady desire rise up within me. At least not at first. After sampling several more varieties, I rose to my feet and attempting to focus on one of the other islands. Strangely, I felt as if I’d imbibed absinthe, or something similar.

Giggling, I sat down again, this time on the edge of the mound, enjoying the feel of soft moss against my bottom, my feet dangling into the water halfway up my calves. It was refreshingly cool. I dipped my cupped hands beneath the surface so that I could quench my thirst, blinking as my vision blurred, realizing that perhaps I had truly become intoxicated. Seemingly the once still garden was now in in motion. The walls seemed to shimmer with movement and the once still surface of the water rippled and eddied gently. Upon the other islets I could see movement as if the wind had suddenly picked up and yet, I felt not even a hint of a breeze against upon my naked flesh. I wondered at this strange phenomenon briefly, wondering if, perhaps, I had reason to be concerned, especially when the water began to ripple around my ankles. A sharp pang of panic pulled me from my stupor and, reflexively, I yanked my legs from the water, attempting to scrambling away from the now writhing surface as thin snake like vines burst from the water where, a moment before, I had been cooling my feet.

I let out a short scream as I felt something coil around my ankle quickly followed by a host of mild pin prinks. Glancing back confirmed my fears – a tendril of vegetation held me. Worse yet, it wasn’t alone. Several more vines wiggled from the water, searching the ground as if they could sense my presence. Digging my fingers into the carpet of moss, I tried to pull myself away from the waters edge before I was overcome, but to no avail. Whatever it was had a firm hold of me. Worse, I felt a burning in my veins as if I had been injected with some sort of venom. I didn’t, for a moment, think that my captor would go to all this trouble simply to watch me perish, so I had to assume that it had some other purpose. 

“Non!” I cried, kicking at the yet unattached vines as they brushed past my feet and tried to wrap themselves around my thrashing legs. As hard as I fought to escape, I quickly realized it was pointless. Within moments my other ankle was assaulted and powerful tendrils were snaking further up my legs, attempting to coil around my calves their tips teasing the insides of my lower thighs. I felt the burning continue through my body like fire in my veins, quickly guessing its purpose by my response; a toxin that affected me and my unique physiology as an aphrodisiac, blurring intense pain and pleasure together. Very quickly it left me wanting nothing more to surrender myself to them.

Survival, however, is written into our very core, as I have discovered time and time again.  I refused to surrender. Instead, panting with exertion as much as with indescribable need, I fought with a renewed purpose and somehow managed to escape, crawling frantically away from the waters edge.  Pushing myself to my feet upon the opposite side of the small island, I put used the energy of fear to power my wings, lifting myself into the air just in time to escape capture.

Below me the once calm surface began to boil as finger-like tendrils reached upwards, grasping at my feet, snake-like in their movements. Taking a deep breath, I willed myself to ration. Looking about the chamber, there seemed to be no sure place of safety. The islands could easily be invaded, as I had just discovered, and I certainly could not trust the walls, covered as they were by yet unmoving creepers. That left one choice. I rose upward as best I could, tendons and muscles straining with each beat of my wings. Above me, the ceiling was covered by the mysterious comb shaped amber tiles. If nothing else, perhaps I could cling to those, at least until I devised some other strategy.

The tiles did, indeed, provide temporary repose as I was able to cur my finger around the honeycombed edges and use them as handles to hang from. I wouldn’t be able to last long, but perhaps long enough to observe a possible means of escape. Below me all was quiet again. Apparently, with no prey to pursue, the vines had retreated beneath the waters once more. It appeared almost idyllic from my precarious perch.

I let my gaze wander, seeing the chamber through my multi-faceted insect like pupils, all the while fighting off the venom that threatened to rob me of thought and sense. Despite the threat of danger below I had an almost overwhelming urge to release my hold so that I could pleasure myself with my fingers. The need to climax burned with a feverish intensity. I could easily lose myself to it. I felt the honey slow trickle of my juices welling up within until they began to spill over, coating my sensitive flesh. God help me, I craved to reach between my thighs and plunge my fingers into my hungry cunt. Whimpering, I resisted, gasping as another spike of pain burst within, sending pain cascading through my nerves and almost pushing me over the edge without any physical stimulation. Another such and I would be lost, abandoning myself to whatever fate waited for me below. My only chance was to quickly devise an escape.

Wildly, I twisted my head around, searching for a clue, and finding none. Then, it hit me again and I was undone. I fell, crying out with unbearable pleasure as a climax tore through my being, followed by a second, even more intense, and then a third. By the time I hit the surface of the water I was being torn apart with unrelenting orgasms. This time, I didn’t struggle as the living vines began to coil around me, encasing and pulling me under the surface of the water before I could draw a breath. My fate, it seemed, was to drown here, alone as everything faded to black…

…I found my self lost in a dream, Isshu’s blurry face mere centimetres from mine, his eyes dark and filled with a wild look, burning with an impossible mixture of anguished fear and lust. I whimpered as he kissed me ruthlessly, his tongue invading my mouth almost forcefully, his alien appendages slithering against my flesh, tightening, snakelike, until I was sure my ribs would crack and splinter under the pressure.

“Let yourself go. Surrender yourself to me,” he seemed to be saying.

It took no effort to do just that. I let myself go, floating serenely in a dreamscape as the pressure of his tentacles abated. It felt like I’d left my body behind me and had become nothing more than a disembodied mind. No pain, no pleasure, no fear, nothing existed outside of a feeling of warmth and safety as I drifted somewhere far beyond everything I was and everything I knew…

“I am coming for you,” he breathed, his whisper fierce. Felt him inside me, then, his cock pulsing deep inside me, filling me with copious amounts his seed, for more than any vessel could hold. An emotion of pure joy, something I had not felt since being captured, burst within me so intensely that it was nearly orgasmic. Moments later a physical climax overwhelmed me as well, bursting the small dream bubble that I was capsulated within.

“Non!” I cried as Isshu was pulled from my arms, his presence fading as quickly as it has manifested, leaving me with only the echo of his words before I was, once more, alone; I am coming for you…

...I awoke, coughing, somewhat surprised that my heart still beat, although somewhat erratically. I was laying on something soft. A brief flash of a past life teased at the corners of my mind. Lazy Sunday mornings in bed, indolently reclining on a feather quilt and pillows…

I sat up, or rather tried to as the realization that I was trapped sunk in, erasing the pleasant memory in an instant. A quick glance in the dim light revealed that I was spread out over sort of moss covered mound, my body bound with tentacle-like vines from head to toe, my arms pulled above my head and my legs spread obscenely. I considered it strange that I felt no fear at my predicament. Taking a deep breath, I relaxed even more. The air smelled and tasted pleasantly sweet. The fear that I had felt earlier was now gone, replaced with a sense of… anticipation. Carefully, I tugged at the vines binding my arms and wrists, testing them, then did the same with the ones wrapped around my ankles, calves, and thighs and finally, my torso. I was completely immobilized for whatever was to come. I wondered if I was to be a sacrifice for some sort of creature or if the plants simply meant to feed upon me until there was nothing left but bone and marrow.

A sadness enveloped me. To die here, alone, was indeed a poor ending for my adventures. Would Isshu and Prel, in time, forget me or would I at least live on in their memories? Tears leaked from beneath my lashes and I let out a soft sob of despair and then, even that was taken from me as the strange fragrance calmed me once more and I drifted into slumbers once more…

…I felt Isshu’s weight upon me, his hands gripping my wrists as he bore down on me, thrusting slowly, spreading the walls of my sex wide, his eyes wild with passion, awakening a like response in me. I shook, the climax building deep within my core like a long dormant volcano suddenly come to life, my erogenous zones burning until I began to writhe and scream with pain and pleasure. And frustration.

“I am coming for you!” His voice filled my mind like a raging storm, drowning out all other thoughts and emotions. “I am coming!”

…This time when I awoke, I was awash with pleasure. The vines that held me prisoner seemed to be pulsing against my flesh. I felt them brushing against my swollen nipples and my pleasure nub and between my inflamed lips exciting me into a sexual throe that felt like a continuation of my dream. Lifting my head as best as I could I watched as a knotted vine slithered slowly between the vee of my spread legs towards my womanhood. It ended in a bulbous fixture, not unlike the head of a penis, that pulsed like a beating heart. I could see purplish fluids leaking from several slits upon its surface. Fascinated, I watched as it crept closer, eventually brushing against my pussy, pausing as if in thought.

I shuddered, imagining it inside me, impaling me. It was not an unpleasant thought. It had been too long since I’d lain with Isshu and the hunger inside me was building slowly to a crescendo at the thought of being penetrated even by something so strange and inhuman. I did not care.

“Please,” I whimpered, not caring if it could understand my words or even my need. “Please, please, pl-“

I gasped as it pushed itself into my well lubricated cunt, pleasure burning through me like wildfire. My orgasm came almost immediately and the second one followed not long after as it pushed its way deeper and deeper into me. I gasped as I felt it brushing against my sensitive nub. Lifting my head, I watched as ball like bulges travelled the length of the dark green tendril. When the first one brushed against my over sensitive button I came again. I felt my cunt flood with, not only my secretions, but those of the plant-like creature as it pumped its warm and sticky fluids into me as orgasm after orgasm shook my body until I was exhausted beyond description, and yet, even then, they tore through me, pleasure becoming pain, which, in turn, brought me to new heights of pleasure until, thankfully, I lost consciousness…

…only to wake up strapped down to a padded examination table, a catheter piercing the flesh of one forearm. One of her alien machines was pumping a blue-green liquid tinto me through a tube. Above it where several glass containers full of various other fluids. 

“Did you enjoy yourself, little insect?” a familiar voice teased, Her face looming over me, her eyes glowing coldly as she inserted a syringe into my wrist and slowly depressed the plunger.

“Oui,” I whispered my vision began to blur and a chill began to burn its way up my arm. Soon, I was lost in a cloud of strange colours and sound. This is what it feels like to go mad, I thought, welcoming the sensation, her mocking laughter as chilling as the drug she had injected me with. With all my strength I fought to escape, wanting nothing more than to wrap my hands around her throat until she was lifeless.

“Fight it,” she urged, brushing my nipple with her fingertip. “Go on, fight me, insect.”

I felt the metal tip pressing, piercing me, a bright red bead of blood appearing on my breast.

“It amuses me. Never stop fighting me.”

She pressed harder, a second finger joining the first, and then a third, and I began to scream, bucking and thrashing against the thick leather straps that pinned me down.