Help Wanted: Resident farm hand. Milk production preferred, collar and childbearing optional.

Xander and Max already had pizzas and soda by the time me and my bite were cleaned and dressed. I worried for a moment that Max and Xander would go classic and do loads of caffeinated drinks as if we were high schoolers and could handle that sort of thing… but it looked like all we had on hand was ginger ale and off-brand cola.

I slumped into the bag-chair by the window and sighed.

"Did you have a strenuous adventure?"

"I suppose you could say that." I caught myself staring directly at the ceiling light so I shut my eyes and tried to relax. My shoulder only ached when I moved it so I mostly felt the little scratchy pricks of the bandage tape clinging to the little bit of hair on my skin.

"What did you two do?"

Something in Max's tone made me think he already had a pretty strong guess, but I left the question for Ellen to answer. She'd always been more comfortable sharing this sort of thing anyways and it saved me the effort of inventing a lie.

"Well…" Ellen sounded like she was struggling to remember an event years ago, rather than the events of the last hour. "Maddie came to find me and Carolyn, to invite me here and ask her owner for permission to drink…"

I frowned at the phrasing, but didn't interrupt.

"-- Carolyn specifically instructed Maddie to drink as much as she wants and extract some milk after for alcohol content testing, and then we took a little break to do a pre-extraction and freshen up. What have you two done in the meantime?"

"We made pizza." Xander and Max replied, almost in perfect sync.

I was tempted to tease and accuse them of lying to cover up something spicy and scandalous, but I couldn't decide what to say. Besides, that would inevitably end up with Ellen throwing me under the bus by talking about me giving "surprisingly good head" or something.

I sat up out of the bag chair and crawled on all fours over to Ellen. I couldn't decide whether I wanted head-pats or back-rubs more so I split the difference by resting my head in her lap and pulling her arm to my shoulder.

"Awwww." Ellen and Xander both had the same saccharine tone but the important thing was Ellen's hand tracing lazy patterns on my back.

"Is little baby Maddie all tuckered out after milking?" Xander teased and I simply nodded. That was the easier, less embarrassing explanation.

My breath caught as I felt the slightest throb of an erection from Ellen's lap, but she didn't stop rubbing my back. My mind spun with the temptation to be wildly inappropriate. The idea of blowing her again, or being fucked by her right in front of Xander and Max was so deliciously taboo that it filled me with equal parts panic and lust.

I wondered if Ellen was thinking the same thing. Probably not. She wouldn't know Xander like I did, and even I wasn't totally on board to do that sort of thing in front of her.

"Well" Xander grunted and stood. "If you're done with the pillow chair then I'll take my turn. C'mon Max."

She dragged Max up and pulled them along as she sat down and got comfortable. Max didn't seem to know what to do but Xander kept pulling until eventually they had to climb on as well or else fall over. Ellen chuckled as Max ended up laying backwards over Xander's lap.

Xander, for her part, acted like this was always the plan and toyed with Max's hair as they blushed deeper and deeper reds.

"So, Max--" Ellen paused rubbing my back "Maddie and I noticed you've been using different pronouns lately. Would you mind telling us a little more about that?"

"What is this, an intervention?" They sounded like they were trying to laugh and play off an absurd joke, but it ended up just sounding like panic.

"Nothing that serious." Ellen leaned back on her hands and I decided to sit up to give the conversation proper attention.

"We're just curious." I chimed in. "And we care, of course."

"Yeah…" Max had found something unbearably interesting on their knee to pick at and the room lapsed into silence as they seemed to procrastinate answering.

"So after I visited the farm for the first time Xander and I reconnected and the subject of pronouns came up because… well… I have a suspiciously large number of trans-fem friends… and I just kinda brushed it off as 'anything is fine'..."

"And she did little keysmashes everytime I she/her'd so it didn't take long for me to decide on which of the 'any' to use." Xander chuckled.

"But you guys can use anything… really, it's fine."

I rolled my eyes and looked at Ellen, and she had the same exasperated but amused expression that Xander did right now.

I wanted to ask if Max planned to change her name, but I didn't want to push, especially with how much pushing it had taken just to get this far.

"Okay." Ellen spoke finally. "Good to know."

Max nodded, but still wasn't looking at either of us."So what sort of stuff should we do?"

"I was promised everything I ever missed out on in one night." I sat up and braced against the bed to stand again. "Oh, and I'm contractually obligated to give Carolyn some milk later so I have to work around that."

"Sooooo spin the bottle?" Ellen smirked.

"So I never really got that one, what are you supposed to do if the bottle lands on you?" I helped myself to a slice of pizza and then filled a solo cup with half and half ginger ale and rum.

Xander shrugged. "I think you're supposed to kiss the next person it points to? We could do truth or dare on whoever it points to instead I guess-- or just not use the bottle so that nobody ends up feeling put upon by bad luck."

"Here we go." Max groaned. "Honestly, I don't think I trust any of you to come up with anything short of psychological torture."

"It's hard to make up lost time if you don't want to try any of the things you missed out on." Xander patted Max's stomach, much to her displeasure. "But we can work up to that. Any other ideas?"

"King's cup?" Ellen suggested.

Xander's face slowly broke into a maniacal grin. "Fantastic idea, but I think we will have to work up to that as well."

"Why?" I looked between them. Ellen was grinning too now. "What's King's cup? Why are you both smiling?"

"Don't worry about it." Xander waved dismissively, but Max was rolling out of her lap.

"I'm worrying about it." Max went for her phone but Xander was quicker. Before Max could object the device had been tucked safely down the front of Xander's shirt.

"Wow." Max deadpanned. "Now that I'm being prevented from googling Kings cup I'm suddenly no longer worried about it at all."

There was a little chime, and then the display next to Xander's bed lit up. "King's Cup, also known as Ring of Fire or Circle of Death, is a popular drinking game involving a deck of cards and a central cup. Players take turns drawing cards and performing actions based on the card's value, often involving drinking or making others drink."

"Damn it." Xander grumbled. "Fucking AI continues to ruin everything."

"So it's just a drinking game?" Max sat and leaned back against Xander's chair. "I don't get why you didn't want me to look that up… but it also doesn't sound terrible."

"Still, we can work up to it." Xander pulled Max's phone back out of her shirt and handed it back. "As far as other activities go… I know I am fine kissing anyone in this room but I promised no orgies and we all know how Maddie can be--"

"Hey!" I objected, but this only seemed to amuse Ellen and Max. "I… have self control."

"So you want to spin the bottle?" Max sounded entirely too comfortable for her own good.

Similarly, Ellen was now rubbing my back in a codling sort of way. My body betrayed me readily, warming and loosening under her touch.

I realized far too late that I'd been asked a question, and I stumbled to shake off the sweeping fog of arousal from Ellen's attentions. "Just pick something else.~-- Ellen." I hissed under my breath, covering my mouth as she began to pull firmly on my tail. I burned with embarrassment now as Xander and Max giggled at my predicament.

"Why don't you have some more liquid courage, Madeline." Ellen teased as she continued to play with my tail.

I glared at her and twisted to move my weak points out of the range of her grubby little fingers. I did however take another sip of my drink before turning to the rest of the room, now a sort of audience for my torture apparently. "Why don't we just turn one of the multiplayer video games into a drinking game?"

"Hmmm." Xander tapped her chin. "Well, ordinarily you shouldn't drink and drive but we could race-- or there are a few party game options."

"I think I'd rather do truth or dare, honestly." Max grumbled.

"Okay." Xander patted Max's head. "You start then. Pick someone."

"I didn't-- I…" She rubbed her forehead. "Fuck it. Fine. Maddie. Truth or dare?"

"Uh… Dare I guess? Go easy on me, please."

"Sure." Max shrugged. "I… dare you to chug the rest of your drink."

Ellen busted out laughing.

"Max‽ This is half rum! I'm not sure that's even safe!"

Ellen leaned forward to peer into my cup. "How many ounces of rum is that?"

"I don't know! I didn't measure! Max, please, I don't want to get sick."

"Fine, fine." Max waved dismissively. "I dare you to kiss Ellen."

"That's… it? Uh…" I glanced at Ellen. "Are you cool with that? Or--"

I trailed off as Ellen closed in. She lifted my cup out of my hand and took a drink from it before setting it down and interlacing her fingers with mine.

She was already so close, and I fell back on my elbows as she straddled my lap. Her breath smelled sweet and spicy from the ginger and rum, and my breathing became frantic as she held my cheek.

"Are you okay with it?"

I stole a glance at Max, and Xander but neither of them seemed keen on rescuing me from the predicament.

I whined and fell back further as Ellen continued to approach. She pulled my hand up and pressed it into the carpet above my head while I squirmed and suffered the rising heat in my core.

For all her bravado though, she seemed content to just kneel above me, holding me down while I tried to be normal about all of this.

"Well?" Ellen smirked. "Are you going to kiss me or not?"

I grumbled and grabbed a fistful of the front of her shirt with my free hand. She nearly fell off balance as I pulled but she was able to brace against my hand.

I thought she would just get it over with after I pulled her down, but she took her time getting comfortable, working one leg between mine and gradually resting her weight on me.

I twitched as she provided the slightest friction, dragging her body against all my most sensitive places as she finally brought her lips to mine.

Some involuntary instinct caused me to roll my hips into her and she had the audacity to giggle as I lost myself in the sensations.

But it wasn't to last. Before i knew it she was pushing herself up off of me and leaning back into the bed while I propped myself up on my elbows and caught my breath.

"Geeze Maddie…" Max murmured.

"What?"

"I thought you said you have self control…"

I glared at her as I groaned and rolled to the side to get up on my hands and knees.

I tried to think of some biting remark, maybe something along the lines of 'I thought you said you weren't trans' but I wasn't far enough gone to think that was okay.

"Yeah… well…" I trailed off and took another sip of my drink before getting comfortable leaning against the bed next to Ellen again. "It's my turn, right? Xander, truth or dare."

I was fully ready to dare her to kiss Max as revenge, but to my immense disappointment she said "truth" instead.

I went back to the drawing board, I considered asking 'do you want to kiss Max?' but the answer wouldn't really do anything. If she said yes, it wouldn't surprise anyone, and if she said no then it might hurt Max's feelings.

"Are you a cow?" I kept the question simple, certain that I'd learn something if she asked for clarification one way or another.

"Yes." Xander shrugged. "I mean, I figured it was obvious." She gestured at her own ears and horns.

"But no hooves." I wiggled my own legs for effect, even though they weren't very hoof-like at the moment.

Xander nodded. "This isn't quite hoof terrain, as I think you know, but I might do something fuzzy in the future. Did I ever show you my fursona?"

"What?" I scrambled to catch up to this unexpected outpour of secrets.

"Here, let me dig them out. I commissioned some art back in college as a sort of body positivity thing, and to try and come to peace with the developing patterns." Xander flicked her finger over her phone, typed something, and then swiped around a few more times until she found what she was looking for. "Here." She held out the phone, and Max looked before passing it to Ellen and then me.

I'd expected something anthropomorphic, but I hadn't expected to recognize it. My face warmed as my brain immediately connected dots.

This image was fairly tame. A fairly bovine face with the expected cow characteristics: horns, ears, tail… but the clothing was uh… not there in the version I had saved on my phone. My face burned as I remembered the patterns on the udders and now realized why they had been so vaguely familiar when I'd seen Xander's stomach before.

"It's very cute." I did my best to keep my voice level as I handed the phone back to Ellen. She looked again and I saw the same spark of recognition in her eyes before she handed it to Max. Finally, Max did her double take as well.

"Oh." Max flushed red as well before handing the phone back.

"You've seen that before, huh?" Xander chuckled as she put her phone away.

"Not… exactly…" Max stared pointedly away.

"I uh… follow the artist you commissioned." I admitted.

Xander laughed. "Ha, yeah I should have figured."

"Sorry…"

"No worries, Maddie. It's cool. I guess that makes it my turn so… Ellen! Truth or dare?"

Ellen glanced at me for a second before clearing her throat. "Truth."

"Cool. I'm lazy so, are you a cow?"

"Nope." Ellen smirked. "Alright. Max, truth or dare."

"Hey!" Xander cut in. "Come on, don't hold us in suspense here."

Ellen shrugged. "Shoulda been more specific. Max?"

"Dare."

"I dare you… to kiss Xander's hand."

Max scoffed. "Okay. Xander?"

Xander was already holding out her hand and Max exaggerated a reverent bow to kiss Xander's knuckles.

"Satisfied?"

"Yep."

"Good." Max leaned back into the bag chair again. "Now Ellen, what kind of animal are you?"

"Ah ah ah." Ellen waved her finger at Max. "You are supposed to say truth or dare… and I think most house rules prohibit going directly back to the previous person."

"Fine." Max rolled her eyes. "Truth or dare?"

"Still me?" Ellen held a hand over her chest.

Max nodded.

"Fine." Ellen grumbled. "Dare."

"I dare you to tell us what animal you are--" she cut off as Xander gently smacked the back of her head.

"Don't be a jerk." Xander admonished Max

"She started it!"

"Doesn't matter. Behave."

"Ugh." Max groaned and sank backwards into the bag chair. "I dare you… to finish Maddie's drink."

"Hey!" I reached for my cup but Ellen was faster.

"Shhh, I'll make you a new one."

"Still, should you really be…" I trailed off as she tilted the cup back. It was already done. A three-quarter full solo cup drained in seconds.

Ellen exaggerated a sigh of enjoyment before setting the empty cup back down.

"Don't worry, Maddie." I can do several shots without getting sick.

"I'm still worried, though possibly for different reasons."

Ellen waved dismissively and got up on her knees to collect the cup and head for the snack table. I scrutinized her posture for any hint of a sway or stumble but she seemed perfectly balanced, or I was just buzzed enough to not be able to tell.

"Okay Maddie." Ellen handed me back my cup, now full of what I had to assume was another 50/50 mix. "Truth or dare?"

I eyed the cup warily. The way she had cackled when Max dared me to drink, I knew I couldn't risk it.

"Truth."

Ellen grinned. "What did you do after coming to find me for this sleepover?"

"Ellen‽"

"Technically correct," she sat down next to me and rested an arm over my shoulders. "But I want you to give them specifics."

"What do you mean by technically correct?" Max asked but Xander waved her off. Unfortunately, they both seemed keen for my answer, if for no other reason than because Ellen asked.

"I… found Ellen and Carolyn in the clinic and Carolyn… worked me up a bit. She promised to never start anything she couldn't finish so that led to the three of us going to our bedroom."

"And then~" Ellen squeezed my shoulder.

"Hush, I'm getting to it." I took a sip of my drink as I tried to guess just how much detail I was expected to provide. My best chance to turn this back on her at all was to reference how brief it was, but it wasn't like I'd lasted particularly long in the saddle.

No, my best course was to make it sound as banal as possible. "I took a brief ride on the barrel vibrator, extracted a little milk, blew Ellen, and then Carolyn bit me hard enough to draw blood."

"Oh my~" Xander dipped into conspiratorial tones. "No wonder it took so long to get back."

"Most of the time was spent bandaging my shoulder." I pulled my collar to the side to show the tape and gauze.

Nobody had a comment for that so I occupied myself taking another sip of the drink. If it was any weaker than the previous one, it wasn't by much.

"Satisfied?" I nudged Ellen.

"Hmm? Oh. Yes. Very. I don't exactly have anything to compare to, but you gave phenomenal head."

"I was talking about the truth or dare, perv."

"I know. Now who do you choose to go next?"

"If I don't choose anyone does that end the game?" I directed the question more to my cup than anyone in particular.

This was the second time that Ellen had found some round-about way of broadcasting to everyone that we had had sex and I was more than a little disturbed at the prospect of it becoming a habit. I felt a heavy dread at the thought of this requiring confrontation, that I'd have to directly ask her to stop putting me in these situations, and for all I knew, maybe I was just sending mixed signals. Maybe she thought I enjoyed being horny on main?

"Okay." Xander spoke first. "We can be done with that then, how about we all take a little break to reset before doing kings cup or something?"

"A break?" I didn't hide my incredulity. The idea of taking a break from an already laid back social activity sounded absurd.

"Mhmm." Xander was already up and stretching. "I need to do a quick extraction, and I figured you girls might like different snack foods or something."

"Oh." I braced against the bed and stood as well. "I could go for some greens actually. Meet back here in ten?"

"Sure." Xander held out a hand to Max. "Do you want to see how the extractors work?"

Max was flushed red again, or perhaps she'd never had a chance to cool down from the last embarrassment either way, she failed to come up with a polite refusal and followed Xander out.

Ellen took her time standing up. "Fuck, I should not have chugged that."

"Feeling sick after all?" I held her waist as she draped an arm over my shoulder again.

"No, no. I mean, maybe a little…" she trailed off, as though it was especially hard to wrangle her thoughts. "I just don't particularly like the version of myself that I become when uninhibited. Kinda like Jekyll and Hyde-- you know, I bet that was an allegory for alcoholism."

"Maybe." I pulled us toward the door. Ellen wasn't leaning particularly hard on me, but I wasn't sure I wanted to try the stairs.

"I'll apologize when I'm sober, I always do-- and I mean it. But like… I'd rather not fuck up in the first place, you know?"

"Yeah." I wasn't sure how to reply. It was kinda a non-apology-- at least for the moment, but maybe that was just as well when she was so out of sorts to begin with? She'd also been tipsy after the AI layoff and that led to some saucy pictures and the promise of an in-person visit, neither of which ended up being particularly-- or even remotely-- bad things. Still, it was hard to not take this to mean she regretted those as well.

"Will you take it easy for the rest of the night?"

Her hand trailed down my back and I rolled my eyes as she grabbed my tail for the umpteenth time.

"Ill switch to water for future drinking games." She held the tail up, but gently now as if she was either afraid of hurting me.

"Thanks, Ellen. Having fun there?"

She held the floof at the end of my tail to her cheek and nodded. "I can't wait to have one of these."

"You said you weren't a cow."

"I'm not, but cows aren't the only creatures with tails are they?"

"I… suppose. Are you looking forward to getting rid of the other 'tail'?" I made airquotes and she chuckled.

"Yeah, the hen still has to go. No offense."

"It's your body. I have no right to be offended."

"Still, I don't want you to think it was some failing on your part to convince me to keep it."

I shook my head. "I didn't want you to keep it. I didn't even really want Deyha to get one just for me-- so I have to hope she didn't-- but… I don't know. It really was just talk I guess. I wanted to be a kinky little deviant and experience the mouthfeel, Carolyn made an argument for it being a last hurrah, and… I like you.

"I like you too." Ellen dropped my tail and rested her hands on my shoulders.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." she leaned forward, cupping my cheek with one hand as she did.

"Do you like me enough to tell me what kind of mods you're getting?"

"Hah," She leaned back. "Yes, but Carolyn made a very compelling argument for holding you in suspense so I'm afraid I'm still inclined to keep this unnecessarily top secret."

"Rude." I stuck out my tongue at her. "What is it with everyone trying to cultivate a sense of patience in me? How is this suspense even supposed to help?"

"Honestly--" I nearly jumped out of my skin as Carolyn spoke from behind me. "I think the issue is that the suspense wouldn't be such torture if you weren't spoiled by instant gratification. Speaking of--" she handed me a mailer bag. "This came today. Can I ask what you are ordering?"

I took the bag and pulled the easy-open tab. Inside, there was the t-shirt and plush that I'd ordered a couple days ago.

"Another one?" Carolyn's tone was heavy with disdain.

"What? It's cute!" I tucked the little plush character under my arm and opened up the shirt so that she could see. The graphic was of the same character as the plush but in the style of old presidential campaign posters from ages ago.

"Look, I love PBS as much as the next person, but is this really the way to support them?" Carolyn gestured at the doll. "Is the money even going to PBS?"

"I… didn't check. It's just been trending lately."

Carolyn sighed. "Maddie, we have means and resources here. We can afford to get our things made by people who receive a fair wage for their efforts, ya know?"

"How do you know that these aren't?"

Carolyn tapped the logo on the bag. "That's how."

"I'll… be more careful."

"That's all I ask." Carolyn squeezed my shoulder and gave a half smile before continuing on to our bedroom.

Ellen also watched her go before turning back to me. "Oof. Intense."

"Yeah." I shrugged, trying to shrug off the weight of her disappointment in me over this along with it. "Honestly… I should just return these." I stuffed the shirt and animal back in the bag and folded the bag closed for now.

"Why? I thought you liked them? And they're already here."

I frowned at the bag and dug out my phone to start the return there. I also went ahead and cancelled the orders from today and yesterday while I did. I shrugged again, I'd been doing that a lot lately it seemed, and the scratching bandages on my shoulder were so kind to remind me with a little discomfort each time.

"Shes right. I've been ordering a lot of cheap crap lately."

"You should be allowed to have nice and fun things though!"

I tilted my head to look up at Ellen. "Are you just trying to play devil's advocate here?"

"No? Maybe. I don't know. I just don't think it's fair for her to make you feel bad about this."

I stared blankly at the package. I mostly felt numb, which certainly wasn't good but I'd pretty successfully crushed any anger I might have felt at the accusations with a sort of familiar resignation. On one hand, I didn't want there to be a repeat, but the less of a deal I made of this, the less likely I'd be to dwell and feel bad about it further.

"Its fine, Ellen. No shred of fabric is worth an argument."

"But you realize how terrible that sounds, right? Does she just terrify you into submission or something?"

I scoffed. "Recreationally, perhaps."

"I'm not kidding!"

"Neither am I. Look, I promise it's fine. This is clearly more important to her than it is to me and… I don't know. I want her to be proud of me, okay? What's so bad about that?"

"Sometimes, I'm really concerned about your idea of a healthy power dynamic."

"Yeah well… shoulda told me that before I seduced my gene modder I guess."

"You said that wasn't what happened!"

"I'm trying to be funny, Ellen." I took her hand and pulled her toward the stairs. "Are you coming down with me for a snack or do you want to wait up here?"

"I'll… wait up here I think."

I nodded and let go, focusing on the stairs as I descended to put the uncomfortable conversation out of my mind. I did want some greens after all and it would probably help to balance out whatever alcohol I had next.

Xander had just finished settling down for her extraction so I figured I had a few minutes to wash and bundle some clover into something I could graze on.