After Math and Voting

The girls were all blinded by light again. As it faded, this time they could hear as much as feel the thunderous applause from the crowd around them. The six of them were back in the colosseum.

“And that’s a wrap, folks! What an exciting ending for our first challenge of the season!” Chrissi announced from the VIP box.

All around them, giant screens showed highlights of the competition for the crowd, Hyppolita and Valleyr’s flight, Bianca and Harley’s chase and Sunny and Ariadne’s encounter were all displayed in glorious HD, and sometimes even slow motion, for the cheering crowd. Hyppolita was proud of her performance and allowed herself to bask in the glory of the applause. Valleyr sulked in her spot and didn’t look at anyone, upset at her utter defeat. Harley played up the crowd on many of her parts, but didn’t make much noise when her loss was showing, though she kept a smile on her lips the whole way through. Bianca was still flabbergasted at her own win, she simply watched the screens in amazement, trying to comprehend what had just happened and how on Earth she did it. Sunny couldn’t hide her red face fast enough, though when Ariadne’s defeat was shown, the young hypnotist stared very non-subtly at the rogue, but the lack of sound and context seemed to leave her mostly confused at her loss. And sure enough, Ariadne was just as flabbergasted as Bianca, though not for the same good reasons. She had somehow landed second to last in this competition while being in last place overall, and going against a skinny nerd no less. Her chances of success were plummeting faster and faster, and all the young woman could do was stare in horror as they descended into an abyss.

“That’s enough of a recap! Now, let’s show the rankings of the first challenge!” The host continued her spiel. The screens all changed, showing now the rankings and point earnings of the competition.

1st place: Bianca 20 VP 40 BP

2nd place: Hyppolita 15 VP 30 BP

3rd place: Harley 10 VP 20 BP

4th place: Sunny 5 VP 15 BP

5th place: Ariadne 0 VP 10 BP

6th place: Valleyr -5 VP 5BP

The demeanor of the girls didn’t change much. Those proud and confident remained so, while those at the bottom felt the weight of their loss even more.

“Now, and perhaps most importantly, let’s show the overall rankings after such a brutal competition.” The bimbo continued. Once more, the screens changed, showing a very similar rank, but now of the contestants’ general point totals.

1st place: Harley 36 VP

2nd place: Bianca 30 VP

3rd place: Sunny and Hyppolita 20 VP

4th place: Valleyr 16 VP

5th place: Ariadne 3 VP

“What?!” Bianca was furious. “Harley didn’t win the competition! How did she get so high on the rankings?”

“Wow, calm down there, Bibi. You’re just jealous ‘cause I am the first player to get a third of the way to victory, admit it.” Harley said, with a shit eating grin.

“Harley got those points,” Chrissi explained, “by participating in certain… _types _of activities in her free time. Something you should all consider doing if you wanna keep up.”

Harley did an exaggerated bow to her fellow contestants and to the crowd, worthy of a true harlequin.

“Oh, so she just fucked Lin, is that it?” A still angry Bianca asked.

Lin yanked Chrissi’s arm with the microphone down with a **** only a shy person trying to get out of an embarrassing situation could muster.

“I didn’t fuck Harley! And I’m not fucking anyone yet. I mean, at all. I mean, I can if you want me to, but I…” at which point he just gave up, red in the face, and went to shove said face into one of the cushioned chairs of the VIP area.

Sunny felt that embarrassment on her skin, but she couldn’t do anything to help the situation.

“Hahaha! Don’t worry Master dearest.” Harley shouted. “You can still fuck me whenever you want.” She seductively ran her hands over her latex covered body. “And it seems you’re not the only one looking for a piece of this…” The clown winked at Sunny, who was staring at the alluring demonstration.

The nerdy girl, unlike the Master, had nowhere to hide her reddening face, having to settle for her hands.

“Ok girls, that’s enough. Susie will pass collecting your weapons now and, while she does so, we will move into the most expected moment of the night: the transformations!”

An almost universal groan ran through the arena members as the screens changed to slowly reveal their next transformations. As the public let out “ohhs” and “ahhs” when the contestants’ names and respective transformations appeared onscreen, Susie began her duty of weapon collecting. The girls deposited their weapons in her arms without much thought as they stared up into the screens, that is, until she reached the end of the line, at Ariadne. The rogue was distracted, clenched fists, staring down at her shoes, but she could have been staring at a galaxy a million light-years away from the intensity of her look.

“Hum, Ariadne? I’m here to pick up your weapons.”

“...what?”

“Your weapons.” The redhead gestured, as best as she could with her arms full of weapons, at the daggers.

“I’m… in last place Susie” she answered, with empty eyes and a quivering voice. “I’m so far away from even the second last Susie. How am I ever going to save my brother now? Susie, I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

“Awwn.” Susie dropped the bundle of weapons and hugged Ariadne tight at the waist. “I know it seems hopeless, but people have come back from worse. I know you can do it.”

Ariadne had her still closed up fists around Susie too. By this point, the attention was no longer on the screens, it was on her. Coos of pity and compassion could be heard from the crowd. All the girls, Lin, and even Chrissi had a saddened look on their faces. Sunny had her hands covering her mouth and watery eyes. Hyppolita laconically put a hand on Ariadne’s shoulder. Even a few sobs could be heard from where Susie was standing, but Ariadne herself maintained a distant look, refusing to show any more weakness than she already had.

Out of all the people, an unexpected voice rose out to show confort.

“I know it doesn’t look good, but try to look at the positives.” Chrissi said. “First of all, you are not in the negatives. You’re very close, but there were some cases of people finishing the first challenge already on the negatives and having to claw their way back to zero. You didn’t get there because of some lucky draws in the first vote. Second of all, yes you are in last place, yes you are only a couple points from the negatives…”

“Not very encouraging there.” Ariadne said jokingly, already more grounded in the moment.

“...but! You are also in a unique position of receiving the transformations of other contestants. Most of these contestants ended with a higher rank than you. Meaning that almost every single transformation you could receive this round would actually be better than anything your position in the ranking would have given you otherwise.”

Ariadne sniffed and simply said:

“Thanks, Chrissi.”

“You’re welcome, dearie. You wanna know of something that can cheer you up?”

“Sure.” She sniffed again.

“The transformation round!” The crowd cheered and clapped excitedly at the proclamation. It wasn’t an earth shattering applause as before, which felt tamer by those standards.

A couple of the girls couldn’t help but smile at the mood swing and, just like that, the tension was broken. Even Ariadne let out a chuckle. As the transformations rolled up again on the screens, Susie broke off her hug.

“I’m still here to get your weapons back haha.” She said with her eyes a bit red, while drying them off with a handkerchief.

“Oh, right.” The rogue extended her closed hand, but the redhead stopped her.

“Your daggers. They’re still sheathed.”

“Right. Right.” Ariadne pulled her hand back, took her daggers off and handed them to the stage assistant.

Lin moved closer to Chrissi, waited a moment to see if she’d say anything, and then, when she didn’t, he conspiratorially whispered:

“You do care about the girls, don’t you? You put up this scary domineering host act, but, at the end of the day, you care about them.”

“What?” She sounded both offended and like she was about to explain the most obvious thing in the world to a 5 year old. “I said I sympathize with their position. I was a contestant on one of these game shows before, you know that. But don’t think for a moment I’m on their side and ‘secretly going against the system’ or anything like that. I’m here to do a job and look out for number 1.”

“Ohhh, you care about them. Even if for a tiny bit. You can try to deny it for the public and for yourself, but I know your secret now.”

She sighed.

“I could maybe comfort them, maybe make their lives easier sometimes. But I will always be my own first priority here. And the second one is the success of this season, I hope I’ve made that clear.”

He let out an incredulous “Uhum…” and a conspiratorial wink.

She sighed again, diverted her attention to outside their little booth, and got back to work.

“After such an emotional moment, I feel like we need to start with some positives.” Chrissi took the reins of the show again. “Bianca, dearie, our winner, please, step forth and let’s look at those transformations of yours!”

“Do I got a choice?” The cop asked. Chrissi made a ‘come hither’ motion and the winner’s legs moved on their own as her transformations were highlighted on the many screens.

“Guess not.”

Bianca

Voice of authority (Boon) - Whenever spoken with enough authority, any command issued by her will compel other harem members to obey. The lower their ranking, the harder it will be to resist.

Comfy Titty (Boon) - Whenever someone rests their head on her tits, they will become gradually more at ease with her and whatever she may suggest. The more of her tits they see, the more they’ll consider doing it.

Harem supervisor (Boon) - Any suggestion given under the guise of her previous sexual experiences or the experience of having been in a harem, will be taken as truth and as a benevolent advice.

“Huh, those aren’t even that bad.”

“Of course they’re not, They’re supposed to be your rewards, Bi! Tell me, which one did you like the most?”

“Well, I don’t know about the most, but I sure would like to have some vocal abilities instead of being objectified again.”

“Oh sweetie, you have no idea how this game can objectify people. I guarantee, you are getting some of our best deals as far as transformations go.”

That actually rattled Bianca a bit, thinking about how bad it could go.

“On with the show!” The bimbo continued. “Let’s show the other girls what they got, shall we?” And then the other transformations filled the screen.

Hyppolita

Bigby’s Handsy - A flying spectral purple hand starts following you around, if you focus on it, you can control it to do anything you’d expect a normal hand to do, up to a range of 60ft. Whenever you are not focusing on it, however, it gains a personality of its own, and it loves to grope people, or put you in situations where you end up groping others or being accused of doing so. It is a bit of a pervert.

Order’s Demand - Once per day, she must exude an aura of authority that spans 30ft around her. All people caught in the aura will either become enraptured by her for a while, or will instantly drop to their knees in a short burst of adoration towards her. If she doesn’t do it, it will activate at a random time and potency the next day (and it doesn’t exempt her from that day’s charge).

The Ring of Brass - A small vibrating ring will now always be around her clit. It will turn on at random times during the day and for random intervals, causing her a great deal of pleasure. It will always turn on during sex.

Sunny

Dommy subby - Not only does she have a compulsion to be dominated, but she wants to dominate and hypnotize other people into being her doms.

Sharing the love - At random intervals, she will enter into a trance, hypnotize other contestants without realizing it and will give them sexy suggestions. Has no control over it.

Wingwoman - Will feel a compulsion to help the Master get laid with other women, especially the other contestants.

Harley

What a Strange Doctor - As a former psychiatrist, Harley is well accustomed to giving all sorts of diagnoses. Now, whenever Harley gives out "professional opinions'' people will tend to believe them, until presented with evidence to the contrary.

Heat wave - When Harley is hot, she is hot. Whenever she feels hot enough to sweat, she will also become increasingly horny. Also, whenever she is around, cooling systems (like fans or air conditioners) seem to mysteriously stop working.

Captain cold - Harley will act cold and unfeeling towards the other contestants while in public, but will develop a secret crush on them that will blossom if they ever accept to have sex with her. This will be more pronounced with the Master or the higher the contestant’s rank is (regardless of Harley’s).

Valleyr

Lone wolf - Whenever she is alone or with a single person, her changes amplify in potency.

Misty watercolor memories - She will have dreams of memories from the other contestants randomly selected during the night. These dreams may or may not be sexual in nature. Both girls will wake up with feelings for each other, the nature of which depends on the dream (i.e. If it was sexual they will be horny for each other, if it was about a person she is missing, they will miss each other like old friends, etc.).

No Faeth in the future - She will gain strong hedonistic impulses to seek the shortest path to reward and/or pleasure. Whenever she consciously gives in to these impulses, good things are guaranteed to happen to her, but only in the short term.

Most of the others analyzed the screens intently, seeing their own futures change before their eyes. Valleyr was the first to break their silence.

“Huh, one of mine isn’t as bad as the others. Hey Ariadne, if you get stuck with one of mine, it better be that middle one, right?

“You do know that for me to be stuck with that one, you have to get one of the bad ones, don’t you?”

“I… hadn't gone that far yet, no.”

Then it was Hyppolita’s turn of sharing her concerns.

“What in the Nine Hells is this?! One of those transformations is complete bull crap!”

“What on Earth could you mean by that?” Chrissi asked, genuinely surprised.

“On the first one I get a spectral servant hand, on the second I get a powerful area of effect to disable anyone around me. But on the third one I just get a fucking permanet vibrator on me!”

“I still don’t see your point. Do you want multiple uses of Order’s Demand? I know the wording makes it seem like you can only use it once a day, but it’s actually limitless free uses, just one **** use.”

“You don’t…” the cleric started, frustrated. “One is a spectral servant. One is a powerful effect. One is a permanent vibrator!”

“All balanced and equal in power. As the second place rewards, they are supposed to give you something neat and useful, while presenting a small drawback.”

“How’s a vibrator as useful as the others?!”

“It gives you more pleasure in bed?” Chrissi said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I think it’s one of the most useful things a contestant in this show could ask for.”

“Of course you do.” Hyppolita said, resigning herself to the show’s logic.

“Well, if no one else has any complaints…” Chrissi waited for any more interruptions, but Sunny was too busy drying her eyes alongside Susie, Valleyr talked with Ariadne, but otherwise got back to sulking, and Harley was silently analyzing the screen, probably wondering how she could possibly turn those transformations in her favor.

“... A couple last reminders to our viewers before we start then.” The host turned to look directly at one of the cameras. “First one is that Ariadne’s vote will consist of the other contestants’ transformations, but we will exclude Bianca’s, since she worked hard to win the competition and get those boons. We at Harem Hotel: Fiction Edition like to keep things fair, so we will only award boons to those who put in work for them, or have the means to afford them.

“Second, we will have the Best Girl vote alongside the transformation vote, you will have to assign the girls a numerical ranking to show which ones you liked the most. As stated in the last episode, giving the same ranking to different girls is forbidden and we will ignore the votes of anyone who does so, not to mention consider those people as volunteers for our forceful indoctrination program to new Harem Hotel staff members.

“We won’t be giving VP as a result of this vote this time, but the best 3 girls will get a BP bonus and, of course, the official Best Girl will get a spin on the Wheel of Fate.

“Last but not least, the voting will last a week, ending on 28/02 (or 02/28 if you're in a particular part of the world that does things backwards). That’s it, happy voting!”

VOTING IS CLOSED

***

Author’s Note: I’d like to thank everyone who helped me write this far into the story, and who’s helped me with picking the transformations for the girls too, Dissonant Soundtrack, Sho1223, weebvious, Witchy87 and AliC. All these lovely folks have amazing branches in this story and you should definitely check them out if you like what you’ve seen so far and if you have the time. Also props to the one person who put such an awesome transformation for Sunny in the suggestion box from the last vote that I practically just copy and pasted it here. You didn’t identify yourself, but you know who you are.