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Following his heroic adventure, and the saving of Baldur’s Gate, Gale had quietly returned to Waterdeep, and sought solace in academia. His sacrifice - allowing himself to become a mindflayer - had been great; though it was not the sacrifice he had expected to make in that battle. That he had survived, not been blown into a vast explosion of weave only to drift away on the ether, was perhaps a miracle of sorts… But one which had changed him not just physically, but in all ways. He was still brilliant, still one of the finest minds in Faerûn, but the arrogant arch-mage was no more; he was now just Gale of Waterdeep, a scholar, yes, and an illithid. He had retreated into himself and his work; he had a few friends, those willing to see beyond the tentacles, and Tara and his mother loved him just the same no matter his physical form. Nevertheless, he spent much of his time in solitude, devoted only to his studies and his teaching.
There had been one new friend, though; a fellow scholar and professor, and quite a beauty, too. Of course, in his younger and less tentacular days, Gale would have seized the opportunity to flirt with both hands. Admittedly, it would have been awkward, blushing, flirting, with the kind of lines that would either make her groan or giggle… Now, flirting was not something Gale would even allow to cross his mind. His new form had rather cut off any likelihood of romance. He couldn’t really blame people, after all that mindflayers had done to them, though he felt that to judge an entire species was rather unfair. But… Tav… Well, sometimes he was almost certain she was flirting with him. It was a ridiculous thought, he knew.
He was becoming far too fond of her. In fact, fondness didn’t even come close to describing how Gale yearned for her; every shy smile she threw his way was like a dagger to his chest. He had fallen madly in love, despite how utterly hopeless a love it was. Every time she brushed past him by accident he longed to let his hands reach out and capture her. His tentacles seemed to have a mind of their own, too, sometimes moving of their own accord when Tav was near him, and when she smiled at him, they would curl and wave in what he thought was a most ridiculous manner. He had to fight to keep himself under control, as so often she seemed to find herself in small spaces with him, between shelves of books, reaching for the same one as him, or in the storage cupboard at just the moment he was searching for fresh parchment. It seemed to be happening more and more frequently, and if Gale had been in his old form, he would have no doubt that it was intentional; as it was, he simply put it down to coincidence - and his own foolish hopes.
Gale was working late, again. In his office at the Academy he studied by candlelight with not a sound to be heard, given that every other staff member must have long since gone home by now. He was startled, then, by the polite tapping at his office door. It opened at Gale’s command, and behind it was her - Tav - smiling shyly, her pretty eyes gleaming in the light of the flickering candles.
“Tav!” He could not help but be delighted to see her, strange as it might be at such a late hour. “What brings you here at this time of the evening?”
“I… I was hoping…” Tav twisted her hands, looking up at Gale through her eyelashes. “Well, I saw that you were still here and thought… maybe I could keep you company?” Gale’s chest swelled, and without his meaning to, his tentacles began their merry little dance of delight.
“Oh, Tav, surely you’ve far more interesting company for the evening than myself!” He was glad that he was incapable of blushing, in this form, for he sensed that his old skin would have been beet red already.
“I like your company, Gale,” Tav said, quietly, her eyes darting down to study the floor intensely. The flailing of Gale’s tentacles grew wilder, waving like seaweed drifting in the swift current of Waterdeep’s seas.
“You… do?” He dared to ask, praying for the affirmative.
“I thought that would be obvious by now,” Tav shrugged, cheeks burning with embarrassment. “There’s only so many times you can find yourself in a confined space with me, without it being more than coincidence, surely?” She couldn’t help a little smirk, amused despite her mounting humiliation.
“I… Tav, I…” Gale started, then stopped, then tried again. “I don’t wish to misunderstand… You do mean in a strictly friendly sense, yes?” Without really realising he had done it, Gale had drifted closer to Tav, and was half-way across the room, rather than at his desk, as he had been.
“Well, no,” Tav began, before her embarrassment took over. Gale saw her cringe, turning in on herself, as if wishing to become entirely invisible; a feeling he had begun to know well in the months following his transformation. “I mean, it’s fine if you don’t feel the same, maybe I was just being stupid, thinking that you - um, I - um - I’m just going to go!” She squeaked the last words, turned on her heel, and wrenched the door open. Within half a second, Gale was across the room, and his hand was grabbing her arm, stopping her from leaving.
“Please, Tav, wait!” His voice echoed in her head, loud in its desperation. “Do you mean to say that you are… interested in… me? Romantically?”
“Yes.” Tav said, quietly, half-hoping if she spoke quiet enough, the rejection she expected might not sting so much. It did not come; well, not exactly.
“But, Tav, you are… Well, glorious - magnificent - radiant, and I… I have tentacles!” Gale protested, his eyes glowing with indignation. Tav giggled, the sweetest little giggle Gale had ever heard, and he felt an ache in his chest that he had not felt for a very long time.
“I think they’re kind of cute,” she smiled, lifting a hand, and twisting one of said tentacles between her fingers. “It’s sweet how they kind of… dance, when you get excited about something,” she giggled again, and the three tentacles that were not being twisted in her fingers did indeed continue to flail. Gale shivered at the sensation of her hand toying with the fourth. He wondered if maybe Tav didn’t realise quite how sensitive a spot that was; or maybe she did, and was teasing him intentionally. It had been a long time since anyone had touched him, and never in these many months had anyone dared go near that particularly obviously illithid part of him.
“Tav,” Gale groaned into her mind, unable to stop himself, given the sensation of her fingers toying with the tentacle, his hand on her other wrist tightening. “Please, if you’re being insincere, if this is some cruel joke-“ his thought was interrupted by Tav’s fingers lightly tugging the appendage she was twirling. The words that were being spoken into her mind were replaced by a moan of uncontrollable pleasure. Tav smiled coyly, and released the tentacle in her hand, cheeks still hot, and only growing hotter at the sound of his enjoyment.
“I mean it, Gale. I like you… a lot. You’re clever, and you’re funny, and…” Tav’s eyes bored into Gale’s, “I think you’re really sweet, and I would like to spend more time with you - romantically. If you would consider it...”
“Tav, you cannot possibly mean that,” Gale whispered in her head, trying to pull himself together; it was much easier to be the clear thinker, now that she was not playing with such a sensitive and delicate part of him. “I could not dare to be seen with you in such a manner.”
Tav’s face fell, and the sight of her so crestfallen cut Gale to the quick. Her eyes looked first at the floor, before turning back up to Gale’s face, pleading, close to tears.
“But I do mean it! Please, Gale, just give me a chance? I don’t care what anyone else thinks!”
“Tav, you are so beautiful,” Gale sighed, and, unbidden, a tentacle lightly caressed her smooth cheek. “Far too beautiful for the likes of me. Perhaps once, yes, before I became what I am now, I would have dared to dream of calling you mine, but now? It is impossible. No-one is more sorry than me, I assure you, but this temporary infatuation will pass for you, and you will find someone worthy of such radiant beauty…”
“Gale, please, just… Just look into my mind. You don’t have to believe my words, but you do have to believe what’s in my head, right?” Tav clutched desperately at Gale’s hands, her fingers twining with his and Gale realised this was the first time anyone had held his hands since long before he had transformed into an illithid.
“I couldn’t, such an invasion of privacy would be wildly inappropriate, downright-“ he began, afraid of what he might see or feel if he did agree.
“Gale!” Tav cut him off, her face pleading, eyes wide and eager. “Please, I trust you, and I need you to understand, I’m begging you!” That stopped Gale short. She trusted him… despite what he was, despite everything, Tav trusted him enough to allow him into that most sacred and private of sanctums; her mind. Gale’s clawed fingers wove tighter with Tav’s, and after a second more hesitation, he nodded.
It was a feeling, more than a thought. The sensation of warmth, like slipping into a warm bath on a cold day… comforting, tender. There was light, too; not the sparkling, fizzing, popping light of magic and showmanship, but a gentle glow, emanating from that same softness. It was so simple, so earnest; she adored him. Beneath that lovely softness was something else, and Gale dared to push forward, deeper into her mind and found - his hands in hers twitched, his tentacles flailing wildly - desire! She wanted him, not just as a friend or companion but as a - well, as a… lover. Gale did not even know how he could make love to her, in his present form… he could not even kiss her, his mouth far more suited to the consumption of brains, than to passionate kisses… And as for anything more, well, illithids lacked all the usual human equipment for making love! Even his fingers had claws which would be far too sharp to touch any of the more intimate areas of such a fragile mortal body as Tav’s! And yet… and yet, the desire that burned in Tav’s mind was woven into a tapestry with genuine care - genuine LOVE - for Gale.
“Gods I wish I could kiss you, properly, humanly,” Gale groaned, as his hands dared to take Tav’s waist, and he nuzzled his tentacled face against her smooth cheek. The desire that he had found in her mind was mirrored in his, and though he had not even begun to consider love-making in this form, the heat of her lust for him made him long to find a way. Tav was so relieved, and Gale so swept away by what he had found in her head, they seemed to forget where they were, all objections and logical argument lost in the hope that maybe this - maybe they - could be something…
“I can kiss you, if that’s what you’d like?” Tav murmured, shyly, grinning now that he seemed to finally have given in to her. Her hand found a tentacle again, and lightly twirled it between her fingers, before she raised it to her lips, and kissed it softly. Gale made no move to stop her, and so Tav continued, her kisses a little deeper, lips opening slightly to press her mouth to the appendage curled around her hand. Another joined it, snaking around her wrist, while the two others caressed Tav’s cheeks, one on either side of her face. Gale’s orange eyes watched carefully for any hint of fear, disgust, horror, as his tentacles stroked her smooth skin, but none came; only greedier, hungrier kisses, her eyes flickering up from her hand to Gale’s face. The feel of her lips on him, touch-starved as he was, was like fire; it burned with every kiss to his purple-grey flesh. Gale would gladly have thrown his whole illithid body into such a flame, and prayed for it to burn every inch of him.
“Tav,” Gale spoke into her mind, and yet even psychically, his voice was a moan. “Please, you don’t know what that does to me…” he said, as her kisses continued along the length of the two tentacles wrapped around her fingers.
“Does it feel good?” Tav replied in a whisper, pausing her kisses only long enough to speak the words, letting them vibrate into his skin. She felt Gale’s hands tensing, where they had slipped to her waist, gripping tighter on her flesh, and dared to let her tongue dart out, lapping a stripe along one tentacle.
“So… so good!” Gale almost whimpered, his hips pressing against hers as he tried to get even closer to her. He longed to have his old body back, to feel the heat between her thighs as he pressed his hardness against Tav, but as her lips and tongue worked down his coiled tentacles for a brief moment he was almost glad to have this form; what was the old one, when this was so much more sensitive, more sensual?
Tav continued her kisses along the thick tentacles, down towards their tips; when she reached the end, she licked lightly at one, and felt Gale shiver against her. Slowly, gently, she took it into her mouth and sucked softly at the end of it. In her head she heard Gale cry out in pleasure, and his knee between her legs jerked forward to press his thigh against her core. A second tentacle sought entrance to her lips, and gladly Tav allowed it into the warmth of her mouth. As she sucked at them, she ground herself against Gale’s knee between her thighs, feeling the heat and wetness growing as she rubbed against him. His hands, tight on her hips, guided her movements, encouraging her to grind her core on his leg, desperate as he was for her to feel even a tiny percentage of the pleasure her mouth was giving him.
With two tentacles very much occupied, the other two, not entirely under Gale’s full control, had slipped from her cheeks into the crossed neckline of Tav’s robe. She arched her back as they began to caress her breasts, and, encouraged by the moan she attempted despite her full mouth, he let them tease her hardening nipples beneath the fabric. Tav’s hips shifted faster, more insistently, and Gale watched as her eyes flickered back in her head. The sight of her losing herself, to him - like this - her mouth stuffed with his tentacles, and her hips jerking erratically against his thigh, was too much - too good. Ten minutes ago he had been certain he would never be able to please a woman like Tav in any way, and now she was making muffled moans around him, her body writhing more than ever his tentacles had. As she stiffened, and her moans grew wilder, Gale realised she was coming undone, her core pressed hard to his leg, her eyes wide in surprise as even she seemed not to realise how close she had been. He jerked his leg to press harder between her thighs, the tentacles in her mouth retracted - Gale wanted to hear her, when she came for him - and he was rewarded with a cry of ecstasy as Tav fell over the precipice of pleasure.
She almost collapsed, but Gale caught her just as her knees gave way, and gently helped her to the chair at his desk. His tentacles seemed to have a mind of their own, twisting and coiling around her face and neck, one pushing back her hair, as he held her against his chest, he standing, her sitting, both a little shaken by such an unexpected turn of events. Gale had expected a quiet evening of research; Tav had hoped at most for an embrace when they said goodnight… To have had Tav come undone against him, to have felt the way she eagerly toyed with his tentacles so wantonly, with such lust, letting them into her throat, even… This was not the evening either of the pair had in mind.
When Tav had recovered, her fingers once again began teasing the appendages which caressed her skin, and Gale tried hard not to let his claws dig in to her as his hands tensed at such delicious sensations. With gleaming eyes, and the most seductive look up at Gale that he had ever even dared to dream of, Tav quietly spoke.
“I wonder if it would feel as good as I think it might to have these somewhere a little more… intimate?” She asked, fingers stroking and twirling two tentacles as her lips curled into a smile. Gale’s eyes glowed orange, and for a moment he thought he must have been dreaming.
“You… would trust me, to… to…” he could not even find the words. He knew what she meant, or at least he was fairly sure he did, especially when Tav spread her legs, eyes still fixed on him, fingers still teasing and tugging.
“I would trust you with anything, Gale, not least my pleasure,” she murmured, and pulled a little harder, as if directing him. Gale dropped to his knees - one blessing, of this new form, they no longer creaked and ached as they used to - between Tav’s open thighs.
“Are you certain?” He asked softly, though despite not being in her mind at this moment he could feel her desire for him radiating off her. Tav nodded, releasing his tentacles from her grasp, and laying her hands on his shoulders, bringing him closer.
Tentatively, one of Gale’s tentacles slipped along Tav’s thigh, while another pushed her robe aside, revealing her sodden underwear. She was soaked with arousal already, and Gale longed for his old mouth back, just to lap at those juices… as it was, he settled for the tip of one tentacular appendage brushing lightly over the damp fabric, teasing, testing. Tav whined, and jerked her hips towards him, eager for more. His clawed fingers moved along those beautiful soft thighs to hook under the waist of Tav’s underwear.
“May I?” He asked, hands trembling with excitement and nerves. Tav didn’t reply with words, but lifted herself off the seat enough to let her underwear be pulled from her. She sat in Gale’s chair, robes open around her waist, glistening cunt utterly bared for him. Her heart pounded with excitement, and she found it hard not to shift in her seat, closer to that man she so longed for.
An appendage curled around each thigh, holding them apart, as another tentatively explored Tav’s cunt, rubbing teasingly along it. She tried to jerk against the restraints around her thighs, needing more than just these gentle teasing strokes.
“More, please Gale, I need more!” She whined, the sensation of that probing tentacle only making her more desperate.
Slowly, gently, the tip of the appendage was pressed to Tav’s entrance. Gale hesitated, waiting for resistance, rejection, but all that came was more pleading, begging for him to stop teasing her. He began to plunge into her, and could not help but let out a whimper of his own as he felt her tight walls stretching around him. Her lips on his tentacles had felt exquisite, but this? To bury one inside her, to feel her sweet cunt twitching around it? The way she writhed and moaned, because of him? This ecstasy was better than the high of consuming a thousand minds.
A second tentacle began to press at Tav’s clit, swirling and teasing, as she gasped in surprise and excitement. Her body was jerking beneath him, hips bucking in time with the appendage that was still thrusting in and out of her, pulsing in the depths of her tight cunt.
“So good, Gale, feels so good!” She cried, as her juices dripped from her, drooling down his tentacles. As she whined in ecstasy, Gale dared to grow bolder; he grabbed her thigh with a hand, and allowed the appendage that had been pinning it to unwind from her soft flesh. It flickered over her slick-dripping cunt, and the tip pressed against the base of her entrance, testing; could she take two of them at once? Would this squeezing, clutching cunt that gripped him so tightly allow any more than it had already taken? Tav’s eyes rolled back in her head as indeed, her cunt gave way to the second intrusion, slowly at first, stretching her around it.
“Too much, beloved?” Gale cast the words into Tav’s mind, and dared to allow himself a peek into her head as he did so. There was no pain, no hesitation, no fear; only desire, desire for him, more of him, all of him. The pleasure that was coursing through her was exquisite, her mind bursting with the dual ecstasy of the physical delight she was feeling, coupled with the sheer joy of it being him - Gale, even in this form - giving it to her. With a shudder of delight he forced himself out of her mind, still fearful of overstepping, but was quickly dragged back in at Tav’s reply.
“Gale - it’s so good - I’m close - I want you to feel it, please Gale,” she begged, her hand grabbing the fourth tentacle that was on her thigh, and pulling it eagerly to her lips. She took the end of it into her mouth, sucking and licking desperately as her hips jerked, and he felt her body begin to tense once more.
As ordered, Gale slipped into Tav’s mind again and felt the crescendo of her pleasure as if it were his own. The white hot, searing ecstasy as she came undone, the extraordinary sensation filling every vein, tensing every muscle, as her eyes fluttered back in her head. The two tentacles buried inside her were squeezed mercilessly by her clenching, twitching walls, and even psychically Gale could not help but cry out, his own moan of pleasure matching Tav’s. She writhed and stiffened in the seat, thighs trying to spread even wider, her hands on Gale’s shoulders tensing and clawing, her mouth stuffed with the final tentacle sucking at it until it was pressing against the back of her throat. She came so hard, so long, that when she finally crested the wave and came down on the other side, she lay slumped in the chair, body quivering in the aftermath of her pleasure. Gale pulled all four tentacles back, raising himself to hold Tav against him, feeling her body trembling, and trying not to let his own do the same.
They remained entwined for some time, neither completely certain they knew how they had found themselves here, but both overwhelmed with joy that they had. After some time, Gale realised that Tav’s post-coital trembling had become more of a shiver, and quickly returned her robes to their original position, covering her bare lower body with the gentlest of touches. A quick prestidigitation had them both clean, before Gale wrapped Tav in his arms, pulling her into his lap and letting her nuzzle into his chest. While his arms held her tightly against him, a tentacle tenderly traced over her cheek, touch featherlight. His chest felt full; swollen to bursting with joy, that this sweet, tender, beautiful creature could have chosen him.
“Do you believe me now?” Tav asked, softly, as she nuzzled against Gale’s body. “That I really do want to be with you, I mean?”
“I believe you, yes,” Gale replied, though still not entirely believing his own luck. “I promise I will do everything I can to be worthy of you, my beloved Tav.”
“You already are worthy, Gale,” Tav smiled, and meant every word. It may take Gale some time to believe that; but she was willing to prove it, every day.