Shopping Trip 2 (Patreon)

@Leinglo wanted more of the Shopping Trip with Gert and Stix. And both @Keevin Childers and @Ryan Desmond requested that Gert find out what a glory hole is. This might be a tad contrived, but whatever. I'm not above that. So I'm going to segue right from one to the other.

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Gert fiddled with the strand of beads—trying it around Stix’s neck, adjusting it, trying it again. He didn’t want it to hang too loosely or too tightly. If the ringel was really serious about assuming the geroo tradition of wearing a beaded necklace, then he really should do it right.

“There lots of tradition in necklaces, ya?” Stix asked, glancing up at the big geroo.

“Uh,” said Gert. “Well, I’m not sure it’s a lot, but there is some tradition around necklaces, certainly. Most geroo stick with a single necklace their entire lives, only ever trading a single bead when they take a mate. So, it becomes part of our identity. It helps differentiate us.”

The ringel’s ears fell. “I no understand.”

“You don’t?” Gert asked. It seemed fairly simple and, he knew that Stix was far more perceptive than anyone gave him credit for being.

The ringel turned around in his seat, tucking one ankle beneath him. “You for instance. Tall. A thousand meters. Crazy fun colors in pelt. Strong enough to pick up truck. Smell like licorci berries when cooking. Very well endowed. Pretty green eyes. You no look like any one other geroo, but still wear necklace to differentiate. Make no sense.”

Gert lowered his quickly reddening ears. After a few weeks of near-constant exposure to the ringel, he had grown more accustomed to how they’d mention his penis in even the most casual of conversations. But he was never going to get used to having another guy compliment it.

Geroo don’t do that! If a guy gets an erection, you ignore it. He can’t control when that happens. You certainly don’t embarrass him by drawing any unneeded attention to the thing. You don’t say, “Nice dick, Ateri! Jakari sure is a lucky lady.”

Gert sighed. Well, geroo didn’t. That was precisely the sort of thing a ringel would say.

“Well, um,” Gert said, “I think a lot of the reason is because geroo worship their ancestors. We need the necklaces to put in our shrines so we can remember them.”

“But why necklace?” Stix asked. “Why no photo? Photo capture geroo much more than necklace. Remember ancestor better with photo and fit millions of photos in shrine but only few necklace.”

Gert bit his lip in thought. He could feel reasons why a necklace was different than a photo, why it was more sacred, but he’d never tried putting words to it. He’d never needed to after a lifetime of being surrounded by geroo who felt the same way. But Stix was ever curious. His questions forced Gert to seek real answers instead of just accepting things at face value.

He put his paws on Stix’s slender shoulders and spent a moment appreciating the sensation. He could feel body heat radiating through the ringel’s thin fur, the fine ropey muscles under his pelt, bones that felt like fragile little twigs beneath that. This was real, this moment they shared, sizing a necklace.

“I suppose,” Gert said, quieter now, “that tangible things are important to my people. We’re glad for our memories of those who’ve already been recycled, but to feel that connection, we really want something we can touch. Photos feel too much like data, and data feels too fleeting, like a memory.”

Gert raised the string of beads until it was even with Stix’s eyes. “But a necklace is a memory made real. Even after you’re gone, this necklace might still be around. Your son or daughter might touch it, might think, ‘I miss you, Dad. Please watch over me when I’m frightened, so I can be brave like you someday.’”

With Stix turned in his seat, Gert leaned over the little alien so he could secure the clasp at the back of Stix’s neck. He paused a moment, his sensitive nose almost touching the ringel’s pointy ear. His scent was so different from that of a geroo but not a bad sort of different. The smell reminded him a tiny bit of spiced vinegar—not exactly, not even that closely, but with that same sort of intensity and individuality. Spiced vinegar made a dish. Even when the chef layered other flavors upon it, that taste was unmistakable. Gert could close his eyes and find that flavor in any dish that used it, just like he could always find Stix’s scent, no matter how many other ringel crowded in a room with him.

At last, Gert sat back. “There you go! You look lovely. It’s very bold, very you.”

Stix pulled his communicator from an armband he’d fashioned earlier and put the screen in “selfie” mode so he could get a good look at the necklace. “Oh yes! Is nice!” he said. “Yes, yes, much better than photo, I think. Much more…”—he looked up a Gert for a moment—“more tangible yes.”

Gert grinned, and Stix wiggled excitedly. “More necklace ritual? Teach more?”

“Well, when a geroo takes his final walk to the recycler,” Gert explained, “we remove his necklace and replace it with paper crepe, so he won’t be unadorned. Also, when a geroo takes a mate, they share a private ceremony where they exchange a bead.”

“Yes, yes!” Stix said excitedly, pointing at Gert’s nose. “Teach that ritual!”

Gert covered his face. “Stix. I like you a lot. You’re a great guy, but I’m not trading a bead with you.”

“No, no, no!” Stix said, running his fingers through the fur on Gert’s chest. “Someday maybe Stix find mate, yes? I trade bead with mate, but need ritual to do right!”

The big geroo fidgeted nervously, and sweat dampened his fur. Despite how many times the two had been intimate, this conversation was beginning to feel … well, more intimate than sex. “Well, I suppose, but just pretend you’re taking off your necklace, okay?”

“Yes, yes, okay!” said Stix. He reached behind his neck and mimed unclasping his necklace, then held the invisible object in his paws.

Gert did the same, but explained, “Sometimes, it can be very difficult to undo a necklace—especially if they’re tied on instead of made with a clasp. If that’s the case, you would help your mate-to-be untie her knot, but otherwise you don’t mess with it. A necklace is personal. Even your mate, even the person closest to you shouldn’t take if off of you. It’s almost sacred.”

With wide eyes, Stix nodded. “Yes, okay. I help untie you knot but no remove necklace. You remove necklace.”

“Right,” said Gert. “Now we would each unstring our own necklaces. Be careful not to drop any beads. Go through the beads and pick out one you want to trade.”

Stix studied his imaginary beads and mimed pulling one from the string. Gert did the same.

“Now, I take the bead I want to give you, and I put it in your palm,” said the geroo. “This is a deliberate act. I don’t pass it to you. I give it to you.” He closed Stix’s fingers around the imaginary bead.

Stix held up his closed fist and smiled.

“Now, when you receive it, you lean closer, and you whisper…” Gert said the words slowly, pausing after every few, so that Stix had a chance to repeat them back. “Wherever I go, in this life and the next, you will always be with me, a part of me.”

Gert said, “Then you put that bead back on your necklace and remove one for me.”

Stix mimed removing a bead. He put it deliberately in Gert’s paw, and the geroo whispered, “Wherever I go, in this life and the next, you will always be with me, a part of me.”

Stix sniffled and wiped at a tear forming in his eye. Gert leaned forward and grabbed the ringel’s head with both paws, planting a kiss on his forehead. “Don’t cry! It’s just make-believe.”

“Is powerful ritual!” sniffled Stix. “Can’t help. Now what?”

Gert mimed putting Stix’s bead on his necklace. “Now, you put your necklace back on. I would help you tie it, but you’ve got a good clasp. Then, it’s your turn to add something personal. Nothing long, just a sentence or two about how you feel, about them being your mate.”

Stix nodded. He leaned forward once more and whispered, “I so glad I come on mission. You teach me so much, feel like you show me how to feel, to love.”

Gert stared at the ringel with wide eyes. He wasn’t expect Stix to say something so heartfelt, just an “I love you” or something!

He sat there for a long time until Stix tapped at his knee. “Okay, your turn.”

“Oh. Oh yeah, okay,” said Gert, shaking himself. He mimed putting on his necklace. “Uh, uh, I don’t know what to say.”

“Say anything.”

“Um. Stix, you feel so much more deeply than anyone I know.” Gert stared down at his paws a long while before continuing. “I think of everyone I’ve ever known, you’re the only one who would never hurt me.”

The two fell to silence for the longest time, neither braving their voice. The seconds passed like hours.

“So, now we mates?” Stix whispered at last. He corrected himself with, “Pretend mates, I mean.”

Gert wiped at his own eyes. “Yeah, that’s the whole ritual.”

Stix wrapped his arms around Gert, and the two hugged, sniffling softly until Inzari staggered by with an open bottle of jackpaw brandy.

“Aw, why so sad, you two? It’s a party!” she slurred. “You look like you made a mistake at the glory hole.”

Gert looked up, his ears perked. “The what?”

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Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J-wYH34vBhaY2okDVI2bvUP6gv33xAtoSoncUFE9L30/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?