Bound by Stardust, the Poetry of You

Harvey was having a hard time, uh, seeing right now. Was he dead? Everything was a bright white light.

“Wasn’t that exciting ladies and gentlemen? Didn’t that stir your fighting spirit? Already our Master has proven one thing very clear, when things get serious, he’s not one to balk from danger!” There was that voice again. He could hear it better now, it sounded…nice? Feminine? Sounded like she was speaking over the radio though. “I see our Master is waking up. How about we get that light out of his eyes?”

And with that, a little mischievous giggle to Harvey’s left and the sound of, uh, tiny little feet skittered away, taking the light with it and giving Harvey a chance to finally see what was going on around him. As he blinked the remnants out, he came to terms with a few things pretty quickly.

One, he wasn’t in the mountains anymore. Frankly, he wasn’t even outside. He was in some sort of large circular room with pillars throughout. All of it was made from marble and polished granite, making him feel small just looking around. The roof was higher than any rooftop he’d seen before, a far cry from most rooftops he could jump and touch.

Two, he wasn’t in pain anymore from the bear. Had there been a bear? Harvey wasn’t quite so sure anymore. ‘Course, the impressiveness of this all was leaving him to believe even more so that he’d died and gone to Heaven. So there might have been a bear. And he had lost. Like most would when having to fight a bear.

And three, uh, he was in a throne. It was a mighty big chair, at least. The designs immediately caught his attention, looking to be depictions of some massive figure doing various heroic things…he’d never admit that the figure in the chair kind of reminded him of, well, himself. There sure were a lot of women around that man who maybe looked like him.

Whoever he was, he sure had a lot of women on his plate. Harvey wasn’t sure that was a reasonable amount of lovers.

“Master? Are you there?” The voice spoke, much closer than before but with that same radio filter, just a hint of static to her voice. It was disquieting, like he was being talked to by his old high school principal over the PA system.

Harvey looked up from the impressive throne, or chair, and caught the eyes of the most gorgeous woman that he had ever laid eyes on.

Her skin was just a couple shades lighter than a ray of sun and her eyes sparkled like the waves of an ocean. Her teeth were pearly white, the kind of white you had to pay a lot of money for, and freckles that dusted her cheek like stars in the night sky. Her hair was long and blonde, coming down to the crest of her, well, he didn’t want to be crass, but down to her ass.

Her assets were, uh, also quite impressive, with quite the heft swinging from both her chest and her rear. Harvey had never been with a woman before, at least, not to bed with one. And yet, even if he had, he was sure he’d still have felt as awestruck by the perfection before him.

And the only more eye-catching thing about her than her body was her clothes. A resplendent looking purple suit, but with fanciful frills that made her look more like a ringleader than someone heading to a ball. And yet, where her eyes had made him relax, as he looked up, he stiffed at the sight of her hat.

A raggedy looking black top hat that seemed to have the faintest slack in its give. No longer having the rigidity of a newer hat, it was almost like a pauper’s second hand headwear, but with two intimidating additions.

Eyes. A set of glass-made eyeballs that both seemed about the size of golf balls and were attached to the base of the top hat rim, affixed just so that wherever the woman looked, the eyes were looking in the exact same direction. And they felt…so real. Even made of glass, Harvey felt like they were watching him more than the woman was.

“...H-Hello?” He tried for his voice, managing to garner something audible. Something, someone, giggled off to the side, but as his head snapped to the source, he saw nothing. “Who was that?”

They looked alone in this massive room, but Harvey was beginning to feel like that was very far from the truth. He felt like he was being watched from all around him, as if all the hidden animals of a forest had turned to watch him specifically. And they liked to giggle.

“The staff, Master. Don’t mind them, just cogs in the machine that we find ourselves in.” The woman said, smiling at him almost gently. “They won’t hurt you and neither will I.”

“And, uh, who are…you?” Harvey felt like it was a pretty good question at this point.

She smiled, closing her eyes, even as her hat’s eyes did not. The weight of being watched didn’t lessen. “My name is Hatsmith, Master. I’m the Host of this season of Harem Hotel.”

Those were a lot of words that Harvey didn’t know the importance of, but the hair on the back of his neck was rising like it had before he’d fought a bear.

“Why do you keep calling me that? I’m not…I’m not anyone’s Master or anything.” Harvey said, beginning to stand up. “Where am I? Where are we? Why…Why did you bring me here?”

Hatsmith started tapping her feet to a rhythm. “Oh Harvey, what wonderful, simply splendid questions to ask~! Allow me to explain…in song~! Hit it girls!”

“Yes, boss!” A raucous harmony of squeaky little feminine voices echoed around the room as things suddenly erupted into motion.

Harvey started as he felt himself suddenly get dropped back into his throne, the entire chair suddenly lurching as the stone of the room began to shift and Hatsmith moved up each moving step like it was a set of aerial stairs.

The sound of piano, the keys being slid across, was followed by trumpets following as Hatsmith began…to sing!

“With eyes wide with surprise
Asking all of the whys
Whether nervous or shy
No lover and no love life~!”

Hatsmith twirled as she seemed to stare up at the sky, floating lights beginning to float all around her. She smiled and danced, brimming with endless grace as she palmed each little ball of light, pushing them all around each other, a number of lights beginning to orbit not around her, but a single solitary light in between all of them..

“You’ve been picked for the first time
And I think it’s a crime
Because the world knows your swell
You don’t deserve that fresh, mundane hell
So I’m happy…oh so happy!”

Hatsmith looked down upon Harvey from the top of her sudden stairway that had been magically(?) summoned. She began to step down the stairs in beat to the song.

“Some women will pass or they’ll fail
Who it’ll be, oh I can never tell~!
But you see, oh you see, Master Mann, Mister Harvey~!”

She stepped down to his height once more, before grinning and turning to run up the stairs once more. She ran like she knew every step with reckless abandon, and yet the music rose with every stair she climbed up into the sky.

“Your ratings are high! Your time will be swell!
Your impressions will rise!
Your merch will definitely sell!”

Hatsmith looked back down at him, pointing at him as suddenly a number of very small women with purple skin began to dance around her as well, swaying their oddly proportioned hips to the swell of the music. Harvey wasn’t quite caught up enough to digest their presence yet.

“You’re on my show,
You’re the crux of the realm,
The prize to take home
But the winner as well!”

Hatsmith spun, looking resplendent, before stopping with a sudden click as the music swelled even louder than before.

“You’re on…oh, you’re oooooon~!
You’re on, HA-REEEEEEEM~!
HOTEEEEEEEELL~!”

And as she finished belting out the last syllable, holding longer than some trained singers could, Hatsmith sharply bowed and the music came to an abrupt end. Harvey was left in shock at a number of things, including the number that had just concluded. Had…stone just moved on its own? Who were those women?

They, uh, didn’t look like angels.

And yet, Harvey clapped. They’d put a lot of work into that, it seemed like. So it was with a great amount of confusion, but he clapped regardless. It just seemed polite and the music, admittedly, had been pretty catchy even if the lyrics raised more questions than answered..

Hatsmith righted herself, nodding in satisfaction, as all the strange women that had danced with her…flew…off to elsewhere. They giggled and gently touched either pretty intimately as they found various nooks and crannies to stuff themselves behind.

“Thank you, thank you. Now, that was mostly for the opening recording of the show, so we don’t have to do that again…this isn’t a musical season but my girls love it when I sing and, well, you know how parents will do anything to appease their kids,” Hatsmith said, brushing her shoulder of, looking pretty happy with herself. “Now, let’s get to the details.”

Harvey leaned in. “I would like details.”

Hatsmith nodded. “First off, this isn’t any sort of afterlife. I thought you might think that after almost dying by bear before we picked you up. Don’t worry, you’re all patched up.”

“Uh, thanks for that.” Harvey scratched his beard, thankful for life. “Did you sing something about me being a prize?”

“We’ll get to that, I promise.” Hatsmith walked a little closer, the circular room putting itself back together.

Harvey noticed that some of the stones, however, were emerging from the walls and building themselves into other chairs like Harvey’s own, albeit smaller.

“You are on Harem Hotel, an inter-dimensional, cosmic reality TV show all about you finding love with your new harem, a collection of young women who’ll be fighting for the right to be by your side forevermore as partners in love, sex slaves, or wherever else they end up on that spectrum.” Hatsmith explained succinctly. “Over the course of the show, you and your potential haremettes will be Transformed by our beloved audience! And with each Transformation, with each challenge and tribulation, bonds will form! Rivalries will rise! And maybe, just maybe, everyone will be able to look inside themselves and learn what really matters in this season of…!”

She strikes a pose, pointing at a nearby room corner.

“...Harem Hotel: Love Yourself!”

Hatsmith drops the pose and turns to Harvey. “So, that I think that covers everything?”

The way she said it was almost teasing.

Harvey wasn’t sure where to begin. His brain had broken pretty early on in that explanation. It was a lot. Too much? But he spoke as softly as his stress allowed.

“I don’t…want this.” Harvey gruffly said, ready to stand and leave.

Hatsmith adjusted herself before approaching Harvey and…he was scared. After seeing just a little bit of what she could do, Harvey was worried about all of this being real, about what that meant for him, what that meant Hatsmith was capable of…

Hatsmith’s beauty had been angelic before, but now it seemed like that of the devil. There to tempt, deceive, and touch upon his heartstrings to sway his moral fiber. And those eyes on her hat…they made his own eyes itch with every glance towards them.

“Master, no…Harvey,” Hatsmith spoke gently, almost like Harvey’s father used to speak to him when he was first showing Harvey how to carve a piece of wood. “That isn’t an option. You can try and deny this opportunity, but I promise you’ll only be hurting the women fighting for your love, understand?”

“No, I don’t.” Harvey said, honestly.

Hatsmith nodded with seemingly genuine care and understanding. “You will.”

And with that, she turned and snapped her fingers. Music began to play once more as she pointed into the air.

“And with that out of the way, it’s time for us to get to the next part of the show! The part you’ve all been waiting for! Let’s see if we can’t find some lucky ladies for us tonight!” Hatsmith clapped her hands. “First up, we have…the Housewife!”