Back from the Monastery

Glitterdust

Glitterdust can’t sleep, nestled between her fellow sex slaves. Bed is too soft. It feels like it’s swallowing ME. But I don’t want to miss MY ride to the Hotel. MY goddess needs ME.

Speaking of her goddess, Harper is still sitting, as she had ever since the others went to bed, on a chair, watching something on her phone and writing, giving the door an occasional glance. Glitterdust mentally reaches out to the sea elf, “Hey, MY goddess, what time is it?”

Harper mentally replies, “About 1 in the morning. Why are you still up?”

“Can’t sleep. You?”

“Waiting for Scarlet. Worried for her.”

Glitterdust was just about to offer Harper a fisting or something to pass the time, but Scarlet walks into the room. The oread looks tired. She flops into Harper’s lap. The dragon has to strain her ears to listen in to her greeting, “Morning, love. Why are you still up?”

“Waiting on you. You okay?”

“Yeah, actually. Just emotionally worn out right now. Eilistraee dragged us into family counseling. We worked out some issues. I talked through what I was doing to survive grad school and how tempted I was to ruin my life just to make rent. They talked about what they were dealing with, between Dad feeling worthless and Mom feeling like a burden. We talked about the show; they made me tell them everything I know about it. You got Mom’s respect, going through all of that for us. And that is a hard thing to earn so quickly.”

Harper snorts. She scoops up Scarlet and carries her to the bed. “Can I get my Scarlet ****-grip cuddles now?”

Scarlet smiles, then finally notices that Glitterdust is still up. She giggles, “Of course. Glitter, you want in on this too?”

Harper falls into reverie almost immediately, Glitterdust squeezed into the sea elf’s back as Scarlet wraps them both in a bear hug. The warmth radiating from the oread is soothing. And Glitterdust finally starts to fall asleep.

Mattie

Popping out of her reverie, Mattie gets up and stretches. Her phone reads 2:51 AM and she is rarin’ to get the day going. Doc is still asleep. Teeth will be asleep too. Nerves and Mrs. Skye are probably awake, but Mattie doesn’t want to disturb them. She caught a glimpse of what they were doing in the reverie zone and figures they will want some space.

So, she does what she would do back home: get dressed and start her daily dose of physical torment. Latex sports bra, leather running shoes, and latex short shorts worn, she starts with a jog to the door. Man, it’s freezing. Her breath is visible as she slowly picks up the pace. Out the hotel doors, the world is frosted over in a thin glaze of crunchy ice. Then, she starts her run. The sports bra is less supportive than she’d like, but it will work for now. The cold air stings her eyes, her nose, her mouth, her lungs, yet on she goes. The sand in spots slows her down, too. She’s used to running either on a track or through city streets, not a frozen tropical beach. Still, she makes decent time, covering the perimeter of the island in about the time it would take to get about 2/3rd of the way through her standard 5 mile run, but the terrain and the cold is affecting her. She figures she’ll need to cover the circuit a second time to get her distance in. She keeps hoofing it. By the time she’s done, she wants to die (which is normal for her after a run). She shuffles into the bathhouse and soaks in the pool for a bit, letting warmth slowly seep back into her numb limbs.

A little stiff getting out of the bath, she jogs over to the gym. Kettlebell enhanced squats. Dumbbell lifts and curls. So many 8-count burpees. She hates every moment of it. She has to do it (it’s been drilled into her so much that she’ll feel worse if she doesn’t), but she hates it. At least I have time now to get my bitching done before everyone else is up for the day.

Tina

Tina lazily sits up, back in the Master Suite. The hustle and bustle of half the harem up in the Suite is ongoing and Tina slept through quite a bit of it. In fact, the last thing she remembers is Eilistraee petting her on the head. Man, two dates in a row must have tuckered me out more than I thought. I hope Harper is okay. She’s got to be as tired as me.

Tina almost trips on Glitterdust, who is sleeping on the floor. The dragon rolls over, showing off her maybe too big boobs? Tina isn’t sure. Stumbling towards the pool, she sees Scarlet writing something in a poolside lounger chair thingy.

“<Hey, Scarlet! Morning!>”

“<Morning, Tina. Sleep well?>”

“<Oh, like a very sexy baby. You?>”

“<I got a little sleep, maybe 4 hours, but I’m fine. My brand of fire monster doesn’t actually need to sleep.>”

Harper burst out of the water, “<Scarlet, you are not a monster. Stop referring to yourself that way. Morning, Tina>”

“<Morning, Harper! You do your weird elf-sleep thingy good?>”

“<Yeah. Glitter up yet?>”

“<Nope. Almost tripped on her. Why is she sleeping on the floor?>”

“<The bed was too soft for her. She’s used to sleeping on a pile of treasure. I’ll make sure she sets up a comfortable sleeping area before I go on my next date.>”

Josie walks in, sweaty from the gym nook, and says some gibberish. Not the pretty gibberish Tina is somewhat used to hearing; this gibberish is more on the tip of her tongue. It’s like I should know what’s she saying, but I don’t.

“<Hey, Josie, can you say that again? I didn’t get it?>”

More of that weird gibberish. Harper says some weird gibberish, too. Tina is confused. Josie tries some different weird gibberish: “<Þū understentst þæt?>”

“<No?>”

Harper sighs, then pulls herself out of the pool. She says some weird gibberish to the others and they go do things. The sea elf gives Tina a still wet hug. “<Hey, so Eilistraee decided to play a bit of a prank on you as part of your prize. It’ll be okay. You just have to figure out what’s going on.>”

“<You could just tell me.>” Tina gives Harper her biggest, cutest smile.

“<I could, if you want this prank to be permanent.>”

Tina’s ears droop as she starts to pout. “<I don’t like this.>”

“<You’re a college graduate! You got this.>”

That’s right! I did graduate college! They don’t give honorary degrees to absolute dummies! I got this! Tina nods her head in agreement. Harper directs the bonny bunny to breakfast, then princess carries a still sleepy dragon to the table. The group starts digging in. Time to use the ol’ noggin’ to solve this mystery prank!

Skye

“How may this one serve you, Mistress Skye?”

Aelene is kneeling on the floor, properly nude, awaiting commands. Skye rubs the back of her neck. “My toy, let’s go get breakfast started. My lady love and her dates are handling theirs upstairs, so is there a particular breakfast you want?”

“This one wants to eat you, Mistress Skye. That is all this one needs.”

“Um, maybe later.” Skye turns to head to the kitchen, confident that Aelene would follow behind. She waves to Ms. Daphne (who is sneaking towards the communal potion chest over at Josie’s alchemy set-up for some reason) and Ms. Mattie as she passes them in the cafeteria. Ms. Mattie wants waffles, so waffles it shall be. Ms. Daphne’s suggestion of raw fish is rejected since Skye resists her puppy dogfish eyes. She gets to cracking eggs and mixing batter. I want this stupid transformation fixed. I want Aelene more than during reverie.

Josie

“Old lady, why am I getting stuck with the bunny? I’m literally the only one up here that can’t talk to her right now.”

Harper sighs, “Do you want to explain Glitterdust now or during the meeting, where Ariel will probably take a portion of the heat? And most of the girls downstairs can translate just as well as we can. Scarlet just wants a little more time with me before the date unofficially closes.”

Josie growls, annoyed that Harper has a couple of good points. She wraps an arm around Tina’s waist and points to the door. Tina nods and gives Josie a little kiss on the cheek. Josie kisses her back, a little harder, as they start down the stairs. Tina plops her pajamas into her inventory and responds in kind, hopping into Josie’s arms. Josie mostly avoids tumbling down the stairs. Mostly. Once they are safely in the lobby, Tina is pushed onto the floor. Josie rips her crop top and thong off and sits on the bunny’s face. Plowing into Tina’s bunny hutch, she starts to squeeze a half dozen orgasms from the rabbit. I missed this. I really did.

Tina: +2 VP (Brought to Orgasm by Another Slut [Lick Lower Lips to Leaking])

Daphne

“Too sweet,” Daphne declares, not liking these waffles at all, “Can I go get a fish or two, please?”

Skye sighs, then points to the kitchen. Yeah! Persistence pays off! Daphne scurries to the kitchen and finds a nice whole tuna. Chomping down right where the liver is, Daphne eats like a mermaid should. She spares her harem sisters the mess she makes. Belly full, she heads back to the cafeteria to see Dinah make a disgusted look.

“Um, Ms. Daphne, your face?”

Oh. Ooops. A quick Prestidigitation later, and all is well. Daphne pulls out her phone to text her Beloved: “Hey, when you heading down? I miss you.”

Daphne is disappointed by the reply: “I’ll be down for the meeting. Scarlet didn’t feel like she got enough time with me. And there are a couple of situations that arose from the date. Love you.”

Firing a quick “Love you, too”, Daphne mopes a bit. Mattie gives her a poke. “Hey, Teeth, can I help take your mind off of whatever’s bothering you?”

“Oh yeah. I could get some feedback. I built a DDH decklist last night. Eadro, the one that spits out mermaids when you cast an instant or sorcery, built around Polymorph spells? Whatcha think? Sound like something my Beloved would find fun to play against?”

Mattie mutters, “I think I created a monster.” Then louder, she adds, “Sure, Teeth, let’s talk through your decklist.”

Scarlet

Harper directed Glitterdust to set up a spot for her to sleep up here. The dragon happily started to summon a pile of treasure in the corner of the bedroom nook. She’s trying to arrange it just so now. Scarlet and Harper are sitting in the living room area.

“I’m sorry, love.”

Harper looks taken aback. She moves closer, lightly squeezing the oread’s hand. “Scarlet, you have nothing to apologize for. What did you think you did wrong?”

“I didn’t prioritize you on our date. I felt like I barely got time with you.”

She gets a kiss on the cheek, thankfully not succubus enhanced. “Hey, it’s okay. Saving all those people was important and I was happy to do it. Meeting your parents was good and I was happy to do that too. Helping Tina and Josie resolve their fight was very important and, if you needed to split your focus to make that happen, I’m okay with it. I want to turn this show as close to the good as I can and you did that yesterday. Just no more volcano trips if we can avoid it, okay?”

Scarlet giggles a little at the not-quite joke at the end. Harper smiles. They say “I love you” to each other simultaneously. Harper blushes and turns away for a moment. She’s so cute right now.

Then a certain dragon ruins the mood. “MY Goddess, I need a collar! A proper pet needs a collar! Then, we need to go! It’s almost time for ME to meet everyone! C’mon! C’mon!”

But, before she could get up, Harper disappears.

Harper

Harper finds herself sitting in the Producer’s office, the perpetual twilight of the room being particularly frustrating this morning. The entity sits behind her desk. Harper is initially annoyed, especially considering the prank inflicted on Tina last night. Then, she really takes a look and that annoyance fades away. From her eyes, the Producer looks concerned. A letter slides over to the sea elf. “Well, I will give her one thing,” the Producer begins, her melodic voice dripping with worry, “Arabella is quick to respond.”

Harper begins to read.

Harper,

I appreciate your interest and the letters you have sent to my wards. I admit, I have been remiss in following ongoing seasons of the show, as certain tasks have taken up much of my time. I will have to make a point to catch up on yours, when I have a moment, perhaps after this first challenge is behind us. Please rest assured that I have passed on your letters to those Contestants for whom they were meant. Alas, I must regretfully inform you that the gift sent to Katherine is inoperable in its current state, nor can I adapt it to suit her. This is not due to a lack of will or desire on my part. I am an old Host, Harper, older than... well, possibly any other Host in existence. If you are familiar with our dear Nimue, know that I was already old when she came into being. Us early Hosts, we were made to operate on different... wavelengths, as it were. Transformations were final, even more so at the end of a season. Thus, after the end, the harem, the Master, and the eliminated contestants would be immune to further tampering, except in very limited circumstances (such circumstances being antithetical to the show, such as being directly responsible for someone's ****). Even I cannot tamper with such transformations, and they resist all but the full power of a Producer (i suppose; this has never been tested, to my knowledge). As such, Katherine's transformation cannot be ameliorated or affected in any way. Alas, this makes your gift less than helpful, though I appreciate your concern for her. Truth be told, had I been able to give her the small comfort of communicating, however much in a limited fashion, I would have done so before placing her in the Master's Suite.

I have not read your letters, but I believe your letter to Katherine may well refer to your gift. Perhaps your letter to Andy, also? In such case, I would ask you whether you would agree that I may edit out such references, unless you would prefer to send new letters instead. I would not give Katherine false hope, only to reveal it was foolish all along.

I look forward to your reply, and thank you, on behalf of my wards, for your care and concern. I shall await your response.

Yours,

Arabella

Harper seethes, her gills painfully flaring. She just wanted to do some good, to use this show to make someone’s life a little less unbearable. To have that kindness rejected hurts. She quickly starts to calculate how to sneak whatever pervy equivalent of a Wand of Fireballs she can find to this Andrew. Then, she realizes she is pulling a Tina and switches over to how many scroll of Disintegrate she could smuggle instead. The Producer breaks her out of her scheming.

“It was a good attempt, you know. A little simple, perhaps, but good. Half of the writing staff here did not make a successful transformation on their first solo attempt to create one and they have actual training in the process. It’s just your target was poorly considered. Her curse, as you put it in the letter to her, is both complicated and long settled in. Let me help. With the understanding that I would like to avoid war with another producer, what would you have me do, Ms. O’Connor?”

The sea elf starts to breathe. In. Hold it. Out. Repeat.

“Let’s try again. I’ll write another letter and another transformation. You handle the creation, make sure it could work over there?”

“Sure, Ms. O’Connor. I’ll even throw my work in for free, if you wish to send some other things.”

And so, better rested and with some more time to think, Harper begins to rewrite her piece.

The Show-runner

Again, I try my best to avoid plugging in show-runner asides into the text proper, but I need to do a citation real quick. Thanks for XarHD for letting me write some letters for the The HH branch. I had fun writing them and also some letters for Mothneb's Domestic Affairs branch. XarHD's branch starts here if you want to read from the beginning and Mothneb's branch starts here. I'd link to responses, but XarHD promised actual reply letters after the first challenge and only Congressman Dick has responded over at Domestic Affairs. I'll stick another one of these citation asides up when replies are fully on their way.