Shroomy Management Written for the winter writing contest. First attempt at writing something like this so I may or may not read feedback who knows. This was honestly kinda rushed till the last minute. Will upload this to AO3 once I get my account. Everyone knows about the portals. They teach about it in history, magic and science class schools. They show the gates off in ads for travel. As such everyone knows what's on the other side of those portals, and by virtue of them having opened this side as well. Mamano, monster girls whatever you want to call them have effectively completely integrated in society and thus the workforce. They've made some universal changes and some more region specific ones. They accelerate some trends and slow down others. For me though this big picture thinking is not really my forte. I did not go to university to learn about this kind of thing. All this monster girl stuff has kinda flown over my head the past 5 years since I was too focused on university to give a shit. Even if the world was burning down I would still be expected to finish writing my exams, damage to me be damned. No, I went and got a higher education to work, go home, sleep, then eat. In other words, to get a job. It's shocking how even when things change so drastically like most women having wings, or extra limbs they still manage to stay the same in some aspects. That is despite having earned a job working as a computer scientist at the decently large company FLOOFLIFY, a job which could perfectly be done from my home I am required to work in the office. I don't know if they said something during the virtual orientation about not qualifying for a "P.F.M.T.G.M.T.M.V" and that they also get a tax benefit for having people work in the office. It might sound jaded of me but my only REAL concern is doing as I am told, when I'm told then not giving a shit about much else. It's how I got through school and it's how I'll get through the rest of my life. My first thought was that such things were above my pay grade and my only real concern was the specific task I would be assigned to work on. They only really tested my computer science skills and ability to code. I had no real clue what the company was about or its products but it was hiring and I would take what I could get. With all this said I enter the front of the normal looking office building. It was from the outside about 20 stories tall. Well expect the doors are about 2 times larger than they would normally have been to accommodate some larger Mamano. It's not a terribly busy lobby. I was told to come in at 8 am as opposed to the 9 am that normally would mark the start of my day. Something about on site orientation. Either way the email said I would get paid so what do I care? "Oh you must Anon. We talked over email and the phone. As you can guess I am Kate, the recruiter who hired you. Here's your key card, your cubicle should be on the 13th floor. Your new boss Eteriya should be waiting for you. Chop chop." said this now somewhat familiar snake lady, as she shoved a key card into my hand. I take the time to look at it. It had the photo of me I had submitted to being taken when I first got hired and started the mandatory virtual training they gave me. A Lot of it was workplace policy, procedure, expectation. Quite frankly the only stuff I can remember is the expectation part. It was always something along the lines of "do your best" and "it's okay to make mistakes just ask for help" and "we want you to get to know your colleagues very well". That last one always stuck out as strange but I again don't really care. Sure Kate might be a what seems to be a 2 meter high and 4 meter long red, yellow and black snake lady and I'm sure there is some kind of proper term for "snake lady" and the kind of snake lady she was but as I keep hammering home. I DON'T care. The elevator ride and who I rode with was unimportant. The only thing which really matters is hearing the task I am to be given by my boss Eteriya. As I exit I have my name called out from one of the cubicles in the room. I stare in that direction to see some kind of pale white lady with a pure white mushroom cap call out my name waving her arm. I wave back, nodding making my way over to the cubicle she is at. I take a seat at the open spot next to her with a seemingly fresh workspace and computer ready for use. "Ah you must be Anon the new hire. Kate told me all about you and hopefully she told you a bit about me. I'm your team lead Eteriya Pekino. I know that sounds a bit strange but I'm from the other side of the portals and I have no doubt you're aware some of our last names can be a bit off". This pale as snow mushroom lady starts quickly going on to me about. "I know I'm going to ramble on a bit where we just met but as you know getting to be familiar with your coworkers is one of the key expectations the company put forth. So let's do some icebreakers. Let's start with one recreational activity we enjoy. I personally enjoy movies a lot. My mom actually produced quite a few herself along with my dad. I just found myself a tad too interested in other things to pursue film however. Who knows, maybe doing some amateur stuff could be fun. So how about you?" Eteriya said, having spoken perhaps a bit too rambly for my liking. I mean sure I suppose icebreakers are needed but I would much rather get to brass tacks on what I'm actually supposed to be doing. Also team lead? Who were the other members? And film making parents? All questions for later. I would normally not ask but getting to know my colleagues was a requirement for the job. "I play a few video games here and there." I responded. Sure it's the bare minimum for what Eteriya asked for but I don't really think going into specifics is needed. It's an icebreaker, not a full interview after all. "That's it? Any genres you like. Personally I enjoy those marble platformers. Do you know the ones that came out in the early 2000's late 90's ? It was so fun bouncing around, going fast when we got them on the other side of the portals when they first opened. Or maybe you're the kinda person who enjoys indie horror shlock? You know those games that clearly are trying to emulate the PS1 or N64 in Unity, Unreal or best of all their own engine." Eteriya said with an amount of knowledge that I find both surprising (the portals have not been open that long) and kind of bothersome. I really want to know what the hell I'm supposed to be doing for work. "I guess I like marble platformers also? Listen I'll be blunt here I really just want to know what I'm supposed to be working on here. Icebreakers and team cohesion is nice and all but please just show me the codebase I'm supposed to work with or whatever the equivalent is." At this point I am just barely able to hide my abject annoyance with the fact it's been according to the clock almost lunch I still barely even gotten around to doing anything else. "Oh silly me enjoying breaking the ice so much I forgot to actually tell you what we were trying to get. Alright well as I'm sure you know you were hired as a software engineer. Now your job is quite simple. We need you to write some architecture for unit tests for verifying that, our 'M.G.E' works properly with each and every code base its implemented on." Eteriya says in perhaps a too sing-song voice. "I'm sorry M-G-E? What does that stand for in specific? It seems there are quite a few acronyms that were not in the employee handbook or well PDF file I guess." I say worrying now that I missed some critical aspect of my work. "Course its not. It's an important part of what our company does and the policy is that new hires are told by their bosses directly for the sake of getting closer to what it means. In this case M.G.E stands for magical, gestalt electronics. It's the physical machine that allows for the interfacing between magic and older technology. You don't need to worry about the exact specifics but instead write the functions needed for every single major programming language currently out there for other companies to write their tests." "I'm sorry every single language? Like all of them. I know the job required me to know several but all of them? Ain't that a bit absurd?" I ask, now concerned that I've been given some impossible task and I'm way out of my depth. "Oh calm down, it's the team's responsibility to write them collectively. You can take your time, you're not the only person working on this. And over time we will be bringing on new members to help with maintaining the libraries and such. For now just consider this your first professional C library. And as your manager if you do need ANY help for anything well I am right next to you." Eteriya says. I swear I see some sort of glint in her eye but with the way her body moved I honestly got distracted by her chest. I feel myself slightly blush as I quickly dart my eyes to her face praying silently she did not notice the small one time mistake. After a little over a month passes and it quickly becomes clear as I write the code needed for testing the 'M.G.E' Eteriya has three jobs. First was managing the codebase we as a team were working on, though I never really saw my other coworkers enough to really get to know them, as I was always in the shared cubicle with Eteriya. Her second job was managing the team on the whole, running stand up with them (but not me for some reason?), making sure everyone was writing clean and maintainable code as optimization she often said would come later when the M.G.E was fast enough to justify it. The third job and seemingly the one she enjoyed the most was managing me in specific. She seemed to make sure I was always able to do my task, as if holding my metaphorical hand and sometimes literally. Despite my best efforts to ignore it each day I seemed to look forward to her more and more, as if she kept breaking the ice around my goal oriented heart. It was clear she basically already consider me her husband as Mamano understood it, partly showing me off and sometimes doing other small things, like comforting me what I get frustrated with a bug, or failure or some other thing. I don't know why she chose me or why she has not fully made a move yet but it's clear it's going to come to a boil soon. Before that there’s still a bit of time. Just enough time to go get lunch. As I take the elevator to the first floor to go out and walk to a nearby sandwich shop which I’ve found to sell food I’m familiar with. It's of course full of Mamano which is no shocker. Some short ones with matching garbs all huddle in a group ordering some kind of surgery drink at the front of the line, while a rather tall, flaming lizard-like girl works the counters, while her tail acts as a heater to roast some beans for coffee. Just as I make this observation I feel a familiar tap on the shoulder as I turn around to Eteriya standing right behind me, causing a blush to form on my face. “Oh hi Anon. Did not know you also come to shop for lunch. Tell you what, today lunch is going to be on me, so we can discuss some small work things alright. That way we can write it off as a business expense.” Eteriya says, a slight smile upon her face. “Alright. Well I normally just get a cream cheese and lox sandwich.” I told her what my intended order was. “Hmm, well I was planning to get the dragon meat sandwich. And before you ask since I know you're not the most culturally aware Anon, it's really just lizard meat from the other side of the portal.” Eteriya says, correcting the misconception in my head before I could even think it. “Well ain’t the girl at the counter some kind of lizard? Won’t she get offended if you order that?” I whisper to her hoping to avoid pissing off the person with a fiery tail and sword at their waist. “No course not, that would be like me getting mad at you eating mushrooms. Now let me order for the both of us.” Eteriya says as she reaches the counter. “Oi, heya. You two are ordering together I assume. Alright, what are you having?” Says the flaming lizard woman in what I think is a rough approximation of British. “I’ll be having the dragon meat sandwich on a baguette and he’ll be having a cream cheese and lox sandwich on, actually he never said. What will you be having it on, Anon?” “Also on a baguette I guess.” “Great and I assume since you two are so well acquainted clearly you will be having the sandwiches in the same style and that you will be eating here?” The red lizard lady asks with a grin that makes me a tad uneasy. “Naturally of course. I’m sure Anon here will love to try some demon realm lox I’m sure” Eteriya says, making the decision for me. “Wonderful. Go find a table and someone will bring the sandwiches right over.” As we sit down my first thought is how different the sandwich was going to taste using demon realm ingredients. Up until this point I’ve barely interacted with anything from the other side of the portals beyond the people and even then that's been in select amounts. “Ya know the look on your face betrays what's on your mind. Don’t worry you’ll undoubtedly enjoy the meal. For now though let's focus on business since this is a business lunch after all.” Eteriya says already leading the conversation. “Uhh yes are we going to discuss the ongoing project or my performance or about-” I say before having my question answered. “We are going to discuss how you’ve adjusted to the company of course. I think you’ve done a decent job of doing that so far. Day by day you get more familiar with how the company operates, and with what is expected of you. So good job so far” Eteriya says just as an embarrassed looking pale, bat winged waitress silently hands us both our sandwiches. “Damn poor vampire having to do a peasant job, must have her eye on some guy if she’s working that position. Well the sandwiches smell good right. That salamander seems to have cooked the lizard meat to perfection if you ask me. Well either way go on Anon take a bite and tell me what you think about demon realm lox.” Eteriya says already starting to dig in and I do too. As I bite in I find it to be pretty much the same, as normal lox, if not having a bit of a stronger flavor. Same with the cream cheese. Both taste really good and I’m now kinda glad I let Eteriya decide how I wanted my order done. There’s also something else that kind of reminds me of mushrooms as a taste but I figure that's just sort of how demon realm stuff tastes and I pay no mind to it. As I realize I finished my sandwich I notice Eteriya staring at me with a slight frown on her face. “Anon you're not paying attention to a word I say are you. Well that's fine, an employee able to cut out all other distractions and set their mind to a task is a desirable trait anyway. Let me summarize what I said for the last 10 minutes into this. On the 14th we are going to have a VERY important meeting and I expect you to be there. I’ve alright paid for the meals so lets get back to the office before our break is over alright?” Eteirya says standing up and almost dragging me out of my seat. I’m kinda out of it but it's clear from her tone that she intends to do something with me involved. I guess I’ll spend the next little while wondering what that is.. It's Valentines soon and despite my focus on school during uni, even I knew what that entailed with Mamano. Undoubtedly Eteriya is going to make a move. As each day ticks closer to the 14th my heart swells with anticipation. I find myself lost in thought more and more. Eventually that day comes as I walk into the office Friday. The lobby is less busy than usual but some assorted Mamano and what I think are single men are here and there. As I call the elevator I can't help but feel slightly uneasy. It's usually more loud, more busy but today it's just quiet. There's not really anyone else here. I guess all the couples are taking the day off? Which means it should just be me an Eteriya right? As the elevator opens I again see Eteriya waving back at me. Just as she did a month ago. So I walk over to her and take a seat at my desk. It's grown a bit more used. No food or anything messy like that but not so quite clean as it was before. Like a fine layer of dust had been swept away. Or at least it should have. It seems like it almost snowed down upon it. The keyboard and mouse are covered in white. Before any further pondering can occur.. "Hello Anon, do you know what today is?" Eteriya says in the most professional voice I've heard her in since I started. "Valentines day right?" I say now nervous and tense. She clearly coated my keyboard and mouse in SOMETHING and even now I can help but feel like I've started to hold my breath. "Correct but not just that. Its time for your performance review Anon. It's been a month but as the handbooks says..." Eteriya replies still in that almost monotone corpo voice she has put on. "Employees are to be reviewed after the first 30-50 days of employment if their managers deem it needed." I say now nervous for a new reason. Am I going to lose my job? Why the hell else would on today of all days there be a performance review. Was there signs? Was I too slow in my work. Incompetent in some task? I start to sweat. "Yes, very good to see you remembered that line in the handbook. Now in the past month you have written the unit tests for Java, Python and C and along with being about halfway done the Cobol implementation of the required code. This is very good progress."Eteriya says still feeling so distant. "Well I am doing my job. Though I will admit the Cobol is gonna take some time since I'm still learning it slowly." I admit now sheepish about the fact I only really gotten the basic framework up for that and am yet to hit the hard part. "Well Cobol is arguably the most important one you know. Those fiscal systems are far too important to not be using the company's product. Either way your code has always been properly commented according to the company standards. You have managed to stay on task and use company time efficiently." Eteriya says. "Again just doing my job I suppose. So is there anything else or..."I say before being cut off. "Ah yes there is one large problem. Your use of company resources has been inefficient. Despite having a loving, caring boss who is always ready to help not even once have you asked for it. Just fully focused independent work. This won't do. Why have a team lead if you're just gonna lead yourself. The point of this performance review is to make you aware of the resources available. Three things will change from next week onwards. First you will be joining the rest of the team in standup now that I know you've gotten used to the workplace environment. This means you will be receiving direct tickets from the QA team about any code bugs. Next you're going to start working a tad more collaboratively with some other team members. There will be a company wine meeting later today at the local Church of Eros which you will be attending. Finally so you fully feel comfortable accepting my help I'm getting you hooked on my spores." She says an almost venomous tone bleeding through now. Eteriya then puts her hand flat beneath her mouth and blows, white snow shooting into mine. It's clear she's been practicing this as somehow every single one manages to hit my face. "Good. That's it just breathing, and huffing my puffs. Now then let's start nice and easy."Eteriya says and she reaches towards my pants, undoing my fly. She pulls them just off enough to have my erection showing off underneath my underwear. "What a nice bulge, but I think it could have a more productive use right now don't you agree Anon." "Ya, productive usesh. Productiveeee." I say, unable to really pay attention to anything but her breasts at the moment. I never really understood how big they were until it sorta just hit me. "Yes I think you make a good point Anon. Though it shows clearly on your expression, it's important in collaborative efforts to clearly communicate your ideas. Now what do you think would be the most productive thing right now?" Eteriya says husky, palming the front of her right tit. "I want y-your tits. I wanna feel them." I say sheepishly "Now that's a stellar idea. Here let me just peel off my top and Ill give you a feel. It's made outta pure mycelium so it's full of spores as well keeping all the ones my skin naturally produces under wraps." As she says this, she quite literally rips her top off. As she does, a new wave of white explodes out hitting me. I breathe and feel myself go even stupider. "Ah, that's a good expression, Anon. Now you said you wanted my breasts. Well take off those pants and their all yours" I frantically scramble to take off both my pants and underwear, managing to toss them off faster than even. Now my erection is out in full view of Eteriya and she smiles at it, a glint in her eyes. "Oh my Anon, looks like your shroom here is ready to start sporing itself. Let's skip the foreplay and get right to what really matters. You shooting your warm, and sticky load right into my sopping wet, and tight pussy." She says hot dogging my dick on her sizable ass. She slips it into her vagina and just like that I cum. "Oh my so eager to give me your 'productivity'. That's good but I'll squeeze out every single last bit of effort from you yet." She says starting to really move her hips. Doubling her effort, bouncing up and down completely dominating me. I sort of just sat there, unable to really do anything but moan, and take it, face squished against her tits, breathing in all those spores. Those spores certainly had an effect. Eteriya spores were both sizable enough to be seen with the naked eye, small enough to form an almost snow-like texture and addictive enough to hook me for forever. Never again would a day go by where I do not huff some large dose of them. They worm their way onto my skin, into my brain telling it what I already know in my heart. That I love this shroomy woman. Every day interacting with her for the past month or so has taught me that. Even as I worked, writing code, trying to meet design specifications she was there every step of the way leading me. Kind of like now as I once again blow my load inside her. “Oh that was a good one Anon. Can you even speak at this point, having pretty much no air to slip in between my breasts. That's fine, cause we still have not much to do. So many positions to try out, so many things to test. Want more of my spores? Want to breathe in even more? You’ll get it either way but I wanna hear it straight from you. You already know you're addicted right? You're NEVER going to go clean off my supply, but that's fine cause you’ll get your recommended dose everyday. Which is going to be as much as you can take before you stop being able to function at work, then in after hours as much as you can HUFF.” Eteriya says now almost deliriously with pleasure, starting to ramble on and on about all the things she’s going to do. Once again her pussy tightens and squeezes, while she bounces and I huff. Looks like it's going to be a long work day... "-and with that I think this meeting is concluded. Keep up the good work team, follow our implementation of "P.F.M.T.G.M.T.M.V" which is once again the plan for men to get married to Mamano work virtually and the launch of our product is sure to make waves." The CEO of the company, a relatively tall and buxom fluffy white snake lady concludes in a company wide meeting. Could have sworn I saw a small amount of wriggling under her sweater but that's none of my concern. No, that lies with listening to my lovely wife as she manages the team we work on for developing and maintaining the code for writing test code. Now it may just be because I'm sleeping with her, and high off her spores but I think she makes for a pretty good manager. Always considerate, generally professional and keeping me on track to finish-. "Anon you're staring off into space, sweetie. I know you might have been pondering why there was wriggling under the big bosses sweater but we can discuss gossip later. For now we should focus on finishing up for the day then going to the launch party." Eteriya says to me, giving me a rather large hat in the form of her boobs. Like I said, she's always keeping me on track with what's important, which for the end of the day is a company celebration/dinner for our team at a fancy restaurant. "No, I already wrote that off. I mean you've also seen how she was acting with that Uni co-op student right? No, I was thinking how lucky I am to have such a good manager and even better wife." I say looking directly into Eteriya's loving eyes as I leaned in to kiss her. "And I'm lucky to have such a good worker, and even better husband. Now let's head home to get ready." Replies my wife. With that we both close our computers as we get ready to head home, clean up, and celebrate.