A Rapping A Tapping At My Chamber Door

Mark sat down on the couch, concerned for Laura. I hope it’s just a funk because of the situation involving Talia, Chloe, and Aubrey. I guess I should check in with Hilde.

Mark: Hilde, you asked to speak with me. I’m free now.

About two seconds later the door to the suite opened and closed so fast it sounded like a whip crack. Hilde stopped in front of Mark, saying “Heya bossman.”

“I see that whatever this is about is urgent to you.”

“Are you really telling me that you don’t know why I’m here?”

“I have a few guesses, want to help me narrow them down a bit?”

“Really after what you told me yesterday you have a few guesses?”

Mark replied in a deadpan, “Yes. I’m not being coy here. I really have three, actually four fairly different guesses. One of them has nearly a half dozen variations to the guess but the other three things are fairly distinct. Now since you came back to me less than a day later, I assume you did more than simply think about it. You either ignored my direction to keep it to yourself or you found something out on your own.”

“First of all you didn’t direct me to do squat, you made a suggestion and you know it. But yes, I did discuss the matter with someone else. I also found out something on my own.”

Mark shrugged in acknowledgement. “Fair enough. Now Hilde could you stop vibrating. I can literally see a groove being worn into the floor where you are standing.”

Hilde went still, “Sorry forgot that I had my talent activated.” Hilde stepped to the side and the floor repaired itself.

“Your talent? Do you mean the magical enchantment that makes you go super fast?”

Hilde wobbled her head side to side. “Not exactly. It is a magical effect but it isn’t an enchantment. You know how I mentioned that Petra and I had a low amount of magic for our world, well Petra has proper magic like Maja. If she cared about it she could slowly improve her capabilities but there is a practical growth limit. I essentially have a small set of magical abilities. In our old society talents are odd, some talents are viewed as only slightly better than the magicless. While other talents are able to enter the highest rungs of society.”

“I think I get it. They are essentially super powers from my world, you have super speed, and probably some other things to allow you to use that speed, but that’s it. You can’t get new abilities, or it is at least very hard to do so. I can also see how that could vary wildly on treatment, from what I know about your society.”

“Yeah, like the eternal bride. Right, you don’t know who she is. She’s a talent, I don’t know exactly how old but ancient by the time I was born. She has perpetual youth, and bestows lifelong youth upon her husband, and children. As well as an extended lifespan for them as well. That extended lifespan lasts for many generations too. My sisters and I are actually descendants of hers I think three times actually, I think she is one of my 26th great grandmothers on my mother’s side, and one of my 12th and 19th great grandmothers on my father’s side. Everyone thought she was magicless, until it was clear that she and her husband weren’t aging, past their mid-twenties. Some researcher decided he wanted to study them since, who doesn’t want to learn the secret to eternal youth? When he figured out her talent. Well… it’s a tragic tale, and a warning. The husband was executed and their children married off as concubines when they turned of age. She was passed around by the upper crust for centuries. Eventually though she amassed real political power. After all, who wants to fight with their grandmother? A lot of people died when she took her **** on the families that mistreated her. There was a huge war that broke out, and new laws were passed protecting talents in the aftermath. Protection and rights wise I have a higher status in my old world than Petra does. Petra is actually considered more respectable than me though, since I’m 'just a talent'.”

“Wow that… that is both horrible and yet, exactly how I expected that story to go, after you told me her talents. While I do like learning more about your world, you were here to tell me something.”

“Right, so… I may have talked to Maja about this, also Daisy. They both believe your idea has merit. So do I. Particularly after I found a particularly feisty book in the library last night.”

“Care to share the title at least?”

Hilde sighed, “Please take it with a grain of salt, or maybe a bag full. The title was ‘Cassandra’s big bad, extremely wicked, diabolically evil, plan’.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I swear Mark, that’s the title.”

“Did you get to read the book?”

“Ehh, sort of. Maja is reading it now. She’ll do a better job at it than me.”

“Wait, you could take it out of the library?”

“No. I fought with the book for something like four hours straight. It nearly escaped a dozen times. You can’t tell now because Maja patched me up but I had a couple score of paper cuts and I don’t know how many bruises. Maja is reading my memories of reading the book. I can tell you this: I’m fairly certain it is written in code. It is definitely written by Cassandra, and it mostly details all of the ways Cassandra is going to royally fuck over her producer once she becomes a producer herself. Like constantly watching him and cuck him by making sure she offers a more enticing offer to potential hosts. So that he can never add another host to his collection of trophies. And a bunch of other ways to fuck him over as much as possible. I personally think ‘Cassandra’s Sadistic Hate Boner’ would have been a more appropriate title to the book.”

“Okay that’s good to know. Is that everything?”

“No… Mark… I want you to know that the rules you set apply to your staff, at least to some extent. Like if you made a rule about being nude that can’t apply to us but speech restrictions can. I want you to remember that if we could help Astrid all five of us would jump at the chance. But Maja and Petra should be the last of us to make any sacrifice for her.”

Mark sighed, “I thought this might be the case.”

“Mark just nut up already, and be the prince who rescues the princess from the dragon. It isn’t that hard. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to go take a quick power nap. I haven’t pushed my talent that hard in a good long while.”

“Have a good rest Hilde.” Hilde trudged out of the room clearly exhausted.

Hmm… Well shit. So probably Freya or Hilde, maybe both. I hope I can contain it to just one. Well that’s a problem for future Mark to deal with. “Sweet, sweet solitude at last.”

~Pop~

“UUUGGGHHH!” Mark groan and lay down on the couch.

Cassandra pouted, “Is that anyway to greet your favorite host?”

“Woah, why do you think you’re my favorite? You don’t even rank in the top three.”

“Ouch, that hurt my feelings. I can't believe I’m not your favorite.”

“I swear Cassandra, sometimes it seems like you are begging to be added to my harem.”

“I am not.”

“Yet you want to be my favorite. See where my skepticism comes from?”

“Drop it.”

“Fine, why did you decide to disturb my precious alone time?”

“I was wondering if I could make a deal with you.”

“No.”

“You don’t even know what I’m asking for.”

“You want Laura’s favor I bought off of you, since you lost the other one to Chloe.”

“Okay fine you did know what I was asking for. But you don’t know what I’m offering.”

“Don’t care.”

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“What if you didn’t give it back to me? Rather I offer you something, you listen to my request for the use of the favor, and then decide if you are willing to accept that offer for the specified use.”

“Cassandra I don’t see how you could possibly persuade me that this won’t blow up in my or Laura’s face. I of course can’t actually make you leave me alone I presume, so just make your offer so I can turn it down.”

Cassandra sighed. “I guess that was the best attitude I could expect from you. I’m offering you the ability to remove one TF, not reroll, from one of the girls.” Mark raised an eyebrow. “I see I have your attention. Good, I’d like for Laura to use her Induce Impulse on—”

“No way in hell. Not happening.”

“Mark, please.”

“Go ask Laura, if you need Laura’s help. I doubt that she’ll agree to a deal.”

“I’m aware. That is why I’m asking you.”

“So, let me make sure I understand, you want me to betray Laura by forcing her to do something we are both fairly certain she wouldn’t agree to do, even for the offered reward and elimination of the favor she owes me.”

“I want you to persuade her that this is a good choice.”

“See you are making this less appealing, not more Cassandra. Now I’m supposed to manipulate her into going against her conscience as well?”

“You don’t even know what the impulses are.”

“Don’t care.”

“Mark, please at least consider it and talk to Laura about it.”

Mark got up and went to the toy chest he had found in the closet the other day grabbed something he set aside for just such an occasion, and lightly tossed it at Cassandra saying, “Here Cassandra, to go fuck yourself with.” Cassandra caught the item in question seeing that it was an upside down steel pineapple on a steel rod, covered in a fair amount of rust.

“Mark, please stop being juvenile. Also how does this even have rust on it?” Cassandra waved her hand and it returned to mint condition, she then tossed it back in Mark’s toy box. “Why won’t you even discuss it with Laura or even hear me out fully?”

“Because nothing good will come of it I’m sure.”

“Look, please hear me out here.” Mark just glared at her. “I want her to use her impulse on some of the others on challenge day. I don’t actually know what the impulses need to be yet.”

“You want to bribe me to rig a challenge?”

“First of all it isn’t rigging. It’s nudging. Second, this is permissible by the rules.”

“I don’t care, I'm not going to sabotage any of them.”

“Mark, I’m trying to help.”

“Like you helped Chloe last night?” Mark said sarcastically.

“Exactly.” Cassandra nodded, missing Mark’s sarcasm. “Chloe needed aid so I showed up to offer a solution to her problem at little cost to her.”

“Yeah that wasn’t what I’m talking about. I meant dumping Merida and Flora practically on top of her, while Flora was in heat and definitely going to spread it to her.”

“Mark it was Chloe, or Allie and Isabella. I didn’t have another choice. I might have mentioned that I loathe my producer before. Would you have preferred that Allie and Isabella went into heat instead?”

“You’re telling me, your producer actively interfered in the running of the show?”

“Not actively, but he is pulling out every single obscure rule to use against me. He really isn’t happy about the fact I’m going to be a producer after this season. I would be the first individual to escape his twisted deal.”

“What’s your point?”

“Use your head would you. Laura just called you not an idiot, maybe you should prove her right.”

Let’s see… okay so the producer is going to fuck with the challenge that much is obvious. But I don’t know what the challenge is so I can’t determine if I should actually intervene. “Cassandra, why should I put my finger on the scale? Even if the producer is going to mess with the challenge I doubt that it will be unfair.”

“Technically, you are correct. Even the producer can’t mess with the show that badly. I’m not asking you to change the result, I'm asking you to help your ladies.”

“Cassandra, if this is really that important to you, here is my counter offer. One, I get to know the impulses before the deal is finalized. Two, I will be talking to Laura about this and if she declines I’m not calling in the favor for this. Three I want to be able to remove three TFs of my choosing, not one.”

“I can accept that except for the last part I can give you a removal, and a reroll.”

“Add on a custom upgrade to resolve a specific issue of my choosing.”

“Fine, but Laura can’t know what the impulses will be or who the targets are. She’ll just have to trust your judgement, about whether to proceed or not.”

“Agreed. I’ll talk to her soon. Now can I please return to my peace and quiet. I really need personal time.”

“Of course.”

~Pop~

Mark sat down on the couch, put on some relaxing coffee shop jazz and shut his eyes. Letting a bit of the stress of the past two weeks leave him. Until of course there was a rapping and a tapping at his chamber door. Mark heard the tapping once again. Mark sighed, got up and went to the door. Freya was standing on the other side. Freya looked up at him with concern. “Mark, is something the matter?”

“What do you want, Freya?”

“I came to bring you some suggested outfits based upon Samantha’s date plans tonight. I’m now far more concerned about your current mental state, you don’t look good. Is there something I can do to help?”

Mark was about to say something but stopped himself, closed his eyes and just stood there for a minute.

“Mark?”

“Could you leave the outfits and if you could make sure that no one disturbs me until literally the last possible second before Sam’s planned date I would appreciate that. I had been so hopeful by your message this morning that only Laura and Hilde wanted to speak with me, that I would have some time to just relax, and unwind but I kept getting interrupted.”

“I’ll keep watch. Don’t worry, I’ll bar entry, also your phone has a do not disturb feature. It will redirect any messages or calls to me except from Cassandra. Unless I deem it an emergency I won’t disturb you. You should have about three hours left before your date with Sam. Here are the outfits. Enjoy your personal time.” Freya handed off the clothes and gently shut the door.

Mark could hear a chair being moved in the hall. Thank you Freya. Thank you so much. Mark went and plopped face first onto the bed. Mark shifted into Mary, so her feet wouldn’t be dangling off the bed as she shrunk in height. After a few minutes she crawled up to the pillows and curled up for a nap. Which was when she heard talking in the hallway. Then silence. Then she thought she heard the door open and close ever so softly.

Flora leaned over, “Hey there Mary. Sorry to disturb you…”

Mary opened one eye at Flora. “Pretty kitty.” Flora went into a trance. “You should climb in bed and let me cuddle you.” Flora complied with Mary’s suggestion. Mary absentmindedly stroked Flora’s hair as they lay there. “You will take a nap with me until I get up and leave. No talking, only purring, until I leave. Fierce lioness.” Flora came out of her trance and immediately fell asleep purring in Mary’s arms.

Not quite three hours later Freya came to wake Mark with Merida waiting at the door.

“See Merida, Flora wasn’t in here.”

“She’s literally in Mary’s arms. I can see her from here.”

“Mary, I know you said the last possible second but I assumed you would like at least a few minutes to get changed.”

“Huh oh yeah. Merida, what do you want? I don’t really have the time.”

“I’d like to know why my girlfriend is sleeping like a rock in your bed. Even as we talk. Did you put her to sleep with her triggers?”

“Merida, seriously stop with this joke. Flora isn’t in Mary’s bed.” Freya said annoyed.

Mary on the other hand confirmed Merida’s suspicions, “Yes, Merida I was annoyed that Flora deliberately bypassed Freya when I am certain you two were told I wanted some personal time. So, I had her take a nap with me and cuddle her. She’ll wake up as soon as I leave.”

“Mary please, this isn’t funny. Merida and Flora came to see you. I told them no. Flora left but Merida refused. Then she kept saying that Flora came inside, as if I wouldn’t notice that.”

“Pretty kitty. Flora you can wake up and get out of bed. Also deactivate your boon, so Freya can tell you are here. Fierce Lioness.” Flora was already upright by the time Mary brought her out of the trance.

“See I told you.” Merida pointed.

“Merida, leave Freya alone. Flora’s boon literally makes it impossible for her to acknowledge Flora while her boon is active. Also I really like that outfit for you Merida. So glad you stopped by so it can be a permanent addition to your wardrobe. Now I don’t care why you came here. Both of you leave. I have to get dressed for my date with Sam.” Freya escorted the two of them out of the room and shut the door letting Mary get changed. Mary found a pair of leather pants and a well fitted thick leather jacket, and a sturdy pair of boots, for her has Mary. For Mark there was a pair of thick black denim jeans and a long sleeve shirt and another sturdy leather jacket. After getting changed Mark went out to the hall to find only Freya standing guard. “So where am I meeting Sam?”

“Out in front of the palace Mark. She just got there.”

“Thank you Freya.”

“I’m sorry that I let Flora get past me.”

“Nothing you could have done. Thanks for keeping Merida at bay though.”

“Of course. Enjoy your date with Sam.”

Mark smiled and walked down the hall. Exiting the building he found Sam waiting for him wearing a pair of aviators, a leather flight jacket and leather flight pants, both utterly skintight. “Very nice. I like the outfit.”

“I figured you would. I took some cues from Merida, you seem to have a thing for skintight clothes, and I do want to look better for you. Here’s a pair of aviators for you as Mary. I don’t mean to be pushy but, the first part of the date will go much better if you are Mary instead of Mark.”

Mark shifted to Mary and took the aviators from Sam. “Oh neat these are my prescription” Mary swapped out her glasses for these.

“Yeah, I asked Cassandra if she could get these in your prescription. Now I’m going to take you to do some things I always enjoyed doing with my dad.” Sam took Mary’s hand and led her down the garden path and right around the corner of a tall hedge was a sleek motorcycle. Sam grabbed the two helmets and passed one to Mary, but noticed Mary’s expression sour. “Mary, what’s wrong? Do you not like motorcycles?”

“I have mixed feelings about them. I think they are really cool looking, and I always like them in games and movies. It’s just… well compared to cars they are statistically **** traps.”

“Yeah, because too many idiots don’t bother with proper safety precautions. Come on, tell me what the issue really is. I can tell there is something more than that.”

“Merida’s dad… Well one of those aforementioned idiots sped through a red light plowing right into the driver side door of his car.”

Sam whipped out her phone, and made a call. “Hey Cassandra, can I get the bike replaced with the race car I looked at instead. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks.” A moment later the sleek motorcycle was replaced by a two-seater formula-one race car. “This better?”

Mary chuckled, “Yeah, but if motorcycles were important to you and your dad, I don’t want you to give that up okay.”

“The motorcycle wasn’t important, I just thought it would be a bit more intimate, with your arms around me and body pressed up against my back. My dad and I would go to various race tracks when we had the chance, anything that went fast, we would be willing to try. I’m guessing by your reaction to the motorcycle though Merida’s would be worse?”

“Yeah, we lost touch so I don’t know everything but our mutual friend, Julius, he was better at connecting with people and kept tabs on how she was doing. Apparently she got into a fight in senior year of high school with one of her friends when they showed up with a motorcycle. She apparently got suspended for ‘literally trying to slap some sense into her friend’ is how Julius put it. So I don’t know if things have changed or not but it would probably be best if we never find out.”

“My thoughts exactly. Still put on the helmet, safety habits matter.” Mary complied and got into the vehicle.