Bad Decisions

Francis

Francis once again wakes up alone. He fell asleep before Tina climbed into bed and she apparently woke up before him. The only real indication that she followed the rules is the fact that he doesn’t see a negative notification on his phone from overnight.

After a quick shower, he makes his way to breakfast. His usual is awaiting him in front of his throne. He shifts it over to another chair and starts to dig in. He notices that a half-eaten plate of French toast and another silly Bobcafe coffee flavored milk drink is sitting on the table. He nurses his cold brew, thinking about grabbing a refill.

The peace and silence of the Master Suite is shattered by a particular bunny shouting out a particular TV show catch-phrase, “Duelin’ Time Has A...A...A...A...A...A...Arrived!”

Tina walks back in with a package; it looks a little heavy for her. She is wearing pink pajamas with little bunnies on them. He gets up to help, just for her to shoo him back to his seat. She half drops the package on the table with a huff.

“You know I am too old to care about Oh-gi-yu, right?”

“But you recognized the reference and that’s all I was looking for. So, while I was returning your spell cards to your nerd center while you were in the shower, I did a little snooping and found your Leylines decks. I haven’t really played since high school and was wondering if you wanted to lose to the awesome might of the Mystra pre-con I used to totally rule the theater kids? See, I bought you a thing.”

He opens the package to see a bunch of Leylines DDH pre-cons, all pre-sleeved with tokens and playmats, arranged in a battle box. “Didn’t you already spend all your BP?”

“Well, yeah, but I borrowed some from Scarlet. She bought it and shipped it to the Suite this morning. I’ll pay her back when the game pays me. Now, any other excuses before I clean your clock?”

Scarlet: -10 BP

“You realize that Leylines was made so gamers had something to do when the DM canceled DoD that night, right? So, you’re into the side project card game, but you make fun of what started it?”

“Honestly, I’ve always been only about real magic; I made fun of the theater kids for playing this game while utterly burying them in it. I just thought this would be a fun thing to do this morning. Last night got a little intense there at the end.”

“With that, just let me go get my stuff. I’ll start easy on you with my terri-bad Blibdoolpoolp deck.”

“What? How dare you insult Mystra, Goddess of Magic, by pitting her against some goofy named bad deck. Bring forth your most powerful deck so that I may crush it!”

Skye

For the first time this entire season, Skye wakes up in her own bed with her own roommate. She’s still a little cold, but otherwise feels fine. Indigo, however, looks miserable tied up in the fetal position by her punishment rope. There is anger in the Latina’s eyes, bordering on hate. Skye scrambles out of bed and starts to apologize. It seems like it falls on deaf ears, as Indigo turns over without a word.

Skye heads to breakfast. The others are all there, minus Ms. Tina. She tries to put on a smile; she doesn’t like making a fuss. Apparently, she did not do a good enough job.

“What’s wrong, Skye?”

“I’m struggling with the messages we received from The Master last night. I don’t trust myself to type in the exact wording of my transformation since the whole texting thing is still rather difficult. I mean, the letter arrangement on the screen make no sense to me. I’m not sure if or how I should change it; I get that the transformation messed with my head, but my head feels normal. Is it odd that I see changing the transformation that violated my brain as another violation? And that third message...”

“You showed the dumbass the text didn’t you? Too honest for your own good there, Skye,” Josie half-snarked.

“If we are to be a family, we need to be honest with each other. You of all of us should know how the game can punish you for keeping secrets, Josie.”

Josie makes a guilty face. Was that too mean? Maybe I should apologize...

Dinah interrupts Skye thoughts, “Perhaps it’s a good thing. Yesterday was the closest Indigo has gotten to being civil. Maybe the idea that the professor will follow through on his ‘behavioral reinforcements’ will be enough to get the girl to mature.”

“Still feels mean.”

“Have you heard the phrase ‘Spare the rod, spoil the child’ before, Skye?” Dinah offers.

Indigo walks over, apparently hearing at least part of the conversation, “If you’re gonna quote that shit, zorra, then I’m just gonna go to the Kang-oo’s for breakfast.” Then she stomps off, only for the rope to tie her legs together. She catches herself from falling flat on her face, gets up, then hops away.

Skye sighs, feeling absolutely defeated. Scarlet, blushing heavily, comes over and gives Skye a side hug. She offers, “Skye, it’s not your fault. You did the right thing by being upfront and honest. You can’t control how other people act. Indigo should come around once she’s ready to deal with whatever issues she has with the situation. You just got to be patient until then. Now can we please move on to something else before I cream my panties?”

Ewww. Wearing panties. How indecent.

The four have a nice conversation about how to take these things called “screenshots” as they finish breakfast. Soon enough, they head to the morning meeting, Skye’s message sent. Indigo enters the bathhouse soon after, holding a pizza box and a 4-pack cube of energy drinks; she sits on the floor near the door and starts eating. And, of course, hovering over them is the mean lady.

“Morning, sluts, and welcome back to Harem Hotel! I love it when someone is late! Let’s start with fixing that, shall we?”

Suddenly, Tina, clad in indecent pajamas, is suddenly teleported to a foot above the bathhouse pool. With a squeak, she falls into the water. Then this both more and less indecent outfit teleports and falls. A hat lands on the swimming bunny girl’s head. She moans as the hat squishes her ears.

Tina: -2 VP (Missed Morning Meeting)

“Boo!”, Tina exclaims, sputtering a little in the warm scented water, “I just needed like 3 more turns. And for The Master to not have an answer. Then I totally would have won!”

What is Ms. Tina talking about?

The mean lady starts talking again, “Anyways, despite being late, magic slut did a very good job on her date last night! Really worked her stuff to please the Master. I’d wish that all of you would follow her lead. She’s overtaken naked slut for first place and is the first slut to get more than 25 VP! Good job! Next up is breeding slut. Remember, tomorrow is our first official challenge. Better be ready for it. It’ll be a hoot and a holler. It’s the weekend, so, unfortunately, Matlock is not on. But the Golden Girls power hour is back on the menu sluts! Toodles!” The mean lady disappears.

Tina pulls herself out of the water and starts to remove her indecent, soaking wet pajamas. She does this little dance thing to shake off most of the water on her skin. Did she bend down just to show off her breasts at me?

Tina: +10 VP (Displayed Naked Slut Body to Fellow Slut [5 instances])

She then slips on her more and less indecent magician girl outfit on, then grabs Scarlet by the wrist. “Hey, we got an appointment! Let’s go!”

“Wait, where are we going?”

Tina ignores the question, instead asking the others, “Can someone put my jammies in my hamper, please?”

I should probably try to talk Ms. Tina out of whatever zaniness she is planning, right?

Scarlet

Tina is half-dragging Scarlet into some weird sex dungeon thing. Who actually volunteers to enter a place called Dungeons for Damsels?

Skye follows behind like a confused puppy. Scarlet doesn’t know if the farmgirl is more uncomfortable with Scarlet’s casual attire or the mostly nude Tina wearing strange fetishware. Either way, she is trying to warn Tina about the dangers of this little escapade.

As they enter, they hear the expected Greek accented voice come from the counter, “Hello, adventures! I am your fun-loving and super sexy Dungeon Mermaid, Daphne! Welcome to the Hotel’s infinite dungeon! I sell a bunch of fun transformations and items to help you explore the depths of playfulness and perversity I have designed for you all to enjoy! Prizes await inside: VP, BP, and even the super rare PP! How can I get you started today?”

Tina speaks up right away, “Hi, Daphne! We wanted to try the dungeon. What do we need to do?”

Scarlet recognizes the mermaid behind the counter. “How’s my second favorite customer today?” The mermaid stares directly at Scarlet, “Ooooh, I recognize you. Here to pay back the one you owe me? Wink.” Then, looking at Skye, “And it’s small egg sac girl. Hi.”

Tina sulks a little at the greeting, “Second favorite? I’m sure I’ve been your only customer.”

The betta fish mermaid replies, “Well, I’m expecting to make several sales with the Master today and he can pay me in baby batter, so...”

All 3 humans respond basically simultaneously, “Gross.”

“You don’t know what you’re missing. Anyways, to try the dungeon, all you need to do is enter those doors over there. You are allowed one attempt per day and, once you walk through, you are locked in for your attempt. The first floor is recommended for a party of at least three Level 1 players. So, which class transformations are you two looking for, not Tinas?”

“Um, Ms. Tina,” Skye speaks up, “I’m not super comfortable with this. Magic is dangerous. Please reconsider.”

Scarlet adds, “Maybe we should do some more research on this stuff first? I mean, I’m relying mostly on vague recollections from mathelete practice sessions here.”

“It’s perfectly fine. I totally already got my Level 1 Sorceress transformation yesterday and I’ve never felt more alive!”

With that, Skye already left. Scarlet does not know exactly why she is entertaining this insanity from the bonny bunny, but she asks, “Is that why you’re dressed like some sort of anti-Playboy bunny?”

“That’s besides the point. This is also the best opportunity for me to pay you back for that BP this morning. Imagine the cool prizes!”

Scarlet sighs. “Fine; can the two of us pop in and take a look?”

“Not recommended, but sure you can. You sure you don’t want a cool class transformation first? It’ll make survival a lot easier.” Daphne describes her frankly insane services.

“Well, I only got 5 BP right now, so...”

“Off you pop then. Good luck, have fun?”

As the two bedmates enter the double doors, Scarlet thinks to herself, How bad can this be?

Indigo

Indigo restocked on snacks from the Kang-oo’s as soon as the meeting was over. She has her small pile of processed food bags placed beside her as she continues to fume. Why can’t everyone just accept me the way I am? It’s so frustrating that no one will just be my friend. And this puta Anilla...

So Indigo does what she often does when she feels bad. Indigo cracks open a bag of Rat Leavings and shovels a fistful of food in her mouth. Maybe I should try a different tactic. If that veijito and the others think I’m too immature, perhaps the audience will adore me for being me? And that could somehow result in me getting more VP? Just need to find a way to appeal to them.

She scans through the shop options, item by item, trying to find something that would let her be in her element. Something that would give her the edge she needs. Nothing really stands out while she continues to eat. It doesn’t help that the veijito tried to text her in the process; she just blocked the number as the notification came up. Kinda dumb the game let me do that. Then, as her hand touches the bottom of the now empty bag, she sees it.

Commission a new room for the hotel – 20 BP.

Indigo hammers the buy button as hard as she could.

Indigo: -20 BP

A pop-up, well, pops up. She types in the requested information, mostly consisting of a brief description of what the room needs. Submitting her response, she is given directions to her new room. Indigo grabs the rest of her snacks and heads towards it.

Entering, she is presented with a plain white room, only marred by the presence of the water tubes in the floor and a singular mermaid. Frankly, she’s kind of chubby (except she’s as flat as justice) and her tail is very reminiscent of one of those puffy pincushion fishes (Indigo is no animalogist).

“Heya, customer, name’s Irene,” the mermaid introduces herself, “I’m the IT mermaid here on site. From your submission, you were wanting some kind of streaming room?”

“IT mermaid? Why does the show need an IT mermaid?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe the number of tech issues the show can run into: cameras glitching out, display screens on the fritz, phone issues, all kinds of stuff. Plus, with all the saltwater around here, electronics just sometimes go ‘zap’. But, it’s fun playing with human tech, you know? Makes for interesting day-to-day challenges. Like, I was given a task to build an app for a transformation from scratch in the span of a couple of hours. That was wild. Got to meet some programmers from another plane of existence, though. Good times. Hey, did you get any salmon jerky at the store? Could use a snack while I work.”

“Wait. Back up. You made my app?”

The mermaid squints at the pervert. “Oh, yeah. I remember staring at your then new egg sacs for several minutes at a time in the app’s debug mode. Quite distracting they are. Any feedback? User satisfaction is important to us at Harem Hotel’s IT department.”

“It really sucks that I can’t use the app. Any way you could transfer that lifetime premium subscription from that Glorious Master to me?”

Indigo: -1 VP (Insulting the Master)

“Sorry. Not how the app is designed to work. Also, said interdimensional programmers found that granting their users the ability to use their app on themselves causes a lot of hassle. I’ll stick a note in the design spec to figure out a way to do so if you get a transformation or an upgrade that would make it feasible.”

“Could you at least cancel The Master’s subscription?”

“Again, not how the app is designed to work. Now, about that salmon jerky? Or, ooh, did they have human testicles for sale?”

The fuck? “I can go get you some salmon jerky, but could you get started? I really want to start impressing the audience with my streaming skills.”

“Oh, uh, sure. Big sis usually doesn’t let me out of the IT area. Just wanted a friend.”

Irene starts to magically unpack and assemble a large computer desk. She starts sobbing ever so softly.

“Hey, don’t cry. I could use a friend, too. Let me go get you that salmon jerky and then maybe we could do a collab stream sometime?”

That perks the mermaid up. She starts working with gusto.

As Indigo goes forth on her quest for mermaid snacks, she thinks, Yup. I’m adorable.