Hello Fireflies!  

April has come and gone. It was a lot. Trying to get my business in order after all the changes at the end of March. I am so thankful for all the support from within my following and from the creator community around me. It made a lot of these difficult tasks a little easier. 

🌧️ April Plan 🌧

☑️ WDIH Comic Pages - Make pages for 2 a month plus the backlog as time allows!

 I didn’t get much done for the backlog but I am steadily making progress getting back into making comics. 

☑️ Move to SubscribeStar
 Oh boy this was so much! I’m glad past me got this process started but it was not ideal to have to move so quickly. I’m glad you all came to join me here on Substar and 

☑️ Open Mech Shop at https://www.firecatrich.com/store

 This had been a plan for a while but the Gumroad store shut down gave me a kick in the butt to get this open. I’ll be realesing content in themed batches as they are ready and getting into a cycle of new designs and retiring old designs at the end of the season(?). I’ll be a matter of looking at the data after the first couple runs to make a plan. 

☑️ Anime Seasoning

The first look is done and will be out on May 1st! I’m really enjoying sharing my notes and there seemed to be quite a bit of interest. This will be the lion’s share of my content on Patreon but if there is interest I don’t see a problem with publishing it here on SubStar as well. 

☑️ Story Spread - Catgirl in Space

 Donuts! Or is it doughnuts? Either way, I’ve been trying to embrace the silly and spicy ideas as they float into my brain. This was part of that and since things were so stressful with getting my business in order this month it was nice to just run with the first idea that came into my head. 

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So looking forward, here is the new checklist!

🌸 May Plan 🌸

☐ WDIH Comic Pages - Make pages for 2 a month plus the backlog as time allows!

☐ Content Poll 

☐ On Theme Pinup - Yen/Aconitum

☐ Saucy Sketch

☐ Discord - Tea Time - Saturday 25th at  7 pm EST (GMT -5).

☐  Story Spread - Yen/Aconitum

☐ EXTRA- Mermay and/or Mayllennial Content. 

☐ EXTRA- Fanart? Drop me ideas in the comments or in the secret discord. 

I'm working on keeping my goals specific and feeling realistic. Thank you for all your love and support! Sending out good vibes for April .

💕Rich

Couples Wonderland (SFW/Free Version)

Those that have been around for a while might know that I'm part of the Erotic Creators Club. Every quarter we pick collaboration themes and we never know what will end up in the final four spots of the polls we conduct. This time the theme was "Mushrooms." I teamed up with a couple of my fellow creators to make a multi-media entry for your entertainment! 

I want to thank ZombiKiss teaming up with me to do the illustration (visible for paid subscribers) and Tammy Jo for her work the short story! Follow their links see their work elsewhere!

And now, the beginning of the story for free subscribers and the public.

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Couples Wonderland

Story by TammyJo Eckhart

Illustration by: Zombikiss and FireCatRich (You can see the full illustration here.) 

I can tell that Dr. Linda is proud of us for the progress we’ve made as she escorts us to the guided mediation room for our second session to get to the issues that we haven’t been able to discuss since our failed attempt with another woman over a year ago. Okay, that’s not fair to Miranda. This isn’t a fifty-fifty split. I’m the one who wouldn’t talk about it and then dismissed it. I’m the one with the worries about what a threesome with another man might reveal about me. There’s a roar of negative voices in my head right now that always gets louder when I start to beat on myself mentally.

“Stop it, Steven,” I whisper to myself as I follow my wife into the room. Our therapist glances at me with slightly raised eyebrows. “Trying to counter negative thoughts,” I say louder.

“You’ve made progress, both of you have,” Dr. Linda tells us.

I sit down on one reclining chair while my wife sits in the other. Between us the equipment that will be used to monitor and help us align our shared visions so we can test out our issues before tackling them in a more traditional talk therapy process.

“Let’s review what happened time we used this shared reality space,” Dr. Linda begins. “While I do that, Brian will place the sensors on each of you.”

One cue the nurse steps out from behind a curtain divider like he did three months ago when we first tried this. The noises in my head escalate when the other man appears so I can only half listen as our therapist explains the equipment first.

I try to block out the internal commentary by musing on what is actually happening today. This isn’t the projected mindreading tech from science fiction, but what should we expect when it’s only 2059? The nurse will monitor brainwaves, vital signs, and track sexual arousal; the voice roar in disapproval at that so I focus on the equipment. We’ll get ECG pad on various points on our body as well as goggles which simply show light and shadows helping us tune out other visual stimuli.

While problems with sex after nine years of marriage isn’t uncommon, it usually is more about mundane stress or earlier trauma. In this case, ours is a bit of both for each of us. Each of us. I repeat that silently to cut off my reactive attempts to play the martyr by taking on the blame at a superficial level. See? I have been progressing because I now understand that is what I’ve been doing for over three decades. The voices in my mind dampen down a bit at that realization.

I can tune in again when Dr. Linda goes into the details of what will aid this deep dive together. “As with the first time you tried this shared mediative state, you will each take a pill which has a derivative from three different mushrooms harvested for psilocybin and combined with FDA, EMA, and TPD approved medication that was developed a decade ago. This combination pill has been used millions of times to treat a range of emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal challenges. Less than one in one hundred thousand patients had any side effects three hours after the use of this mediation. I have used this therapeutic treatment with over a hundred patients, the majority of them couples or triads. Do either of you have any questions?”

“Just to clarify,” I begin, “the acronyms are agencies that have tested and approved the medication and procedure, right?”

“Yes, American, European, and Canadian approved medication,” Dr. Linda states. When we both nod, she continues, “I will guide you back into the setting that we created during the first session. While I will make suggestions, only you can change what you see and do in your mind. If I believe either of you are engaging in emotional self-harm, I will end the treatment and you both will be escorted to the observation room until the medication has been flushed out of your system. Any questions?”

I shake my head as my wife says, “no,” so I add my verbal response as well.

“Good. Last time you interacted with a flower representation of the woman you had your threesome with. You each explored what that experience meant to you and how it was enjoyable to both of us. Today we’ll return to that same location, but we will interact with a representative of the other possibility you might explore with another person, a man.”

I can feel my body react one way, my cock stirring, my heart beating faster, and my emotions another way as hear echoes of taunting I endured in my birth family from not being “man enough” for my ultra conservative father’s comfort.

“Steven?” I hear my wife’s voice, so I look around the machine between us by leaning forward as she is. “This won’t be real,” she repeats.

The last time felt pretty real, but I just nod my head. I need to do this, I want to do this, I can’t keep being hostage to my cruel past.

“Miranda is correct, Steven,” Dr. Linda says. She’s crouched down by my chair on the opposite side of the monitoring device between the chairs. “We know this is still a difficult thing for many cis men to address. If you or Miranda say “no” or “stop” at any time, we will. Do you both understand and agree to that rule?”

I’m still slower to agree verbally than my wife, but I feel relieved that nothing is going to happen without my deciding to explore.

“Do you give your consent for today’s session?” Dr. Linda asks as she stands back up and takes a few steps back from us.

I say “yes” at nearly the same time as Miranda. That’s gives me a bizarre sense that were already getting into sync.

“Good. Nurse Conway, do you consent to be part of today’s session?”

“Yes, Doctor,” the man replied.

“And I, Doctor Linda Vance, give my consent to be part of today’s session. We’ll get your beverages of choice, and you’ll take the medication as the first step in this shared mediative therapy,” she says.

I take my unsweetened iced tea while Miranda takes the low-fat chocolate milk. We each put the pill on our tongues at our therapist’s instruction then one swallow of liquid for each number she counts down from ten.

“Good, very good. Hand us the glasses,” Dr. Linda directs. “Good. Now we’re going to extend the footrest and lean the chairs back and so your entire body can be held comfortably.”

I look at Miranda close her eyes, keeping mine on her for as long as I can see her. Once the monitor blocks my view, I look at Dr. Linda who gives me a nod and a caring smile. I close my eyes and focus on her voice.

“We’re all going to count back now from one hundred. When we reach one hundred, I want you to picture the same lush glen in same calm woods that we created during our last mediative therapy session,” Dr. Linda explains. “Let’s begin with one hundred, ninety-nine, ninety-eight.”