Breather Episode

“Thank you all for waiting. I apologize for the significant delay, Androphagos makes slowing time look so easy that I was unprepared for the concentration that it took.” Scylla made her declaration after the contestants answered her summons back to the stage.

The past two hours had mainly been spent swimming, even Helena deigning to take a dip as the afternoon sun grew higher. A few of them decided to attempt the obstacle course that Felicia had bought the previous round. Hazel had been stymied by the recent change in her center of balance, but she still overcame Felicia’s time and came surprisingly close to besting Richard as well. It was Ava that had the best performance, absolutely obliterating anyone else’s attempts.

She’d also obliterated the course itself with her indomitable strength, but that was another story.

Scylla had needed to use her magic to repair it, putting her goggles back on to help her reattach pistons and restore the machinery’s functionality. People may have tried another go at the course after the repairs were completed, but by that point the results were ready and Scylla had issued her summons.

“I will read out the results, but know that they are not the crux of anything but the competition you made amongst yourselves.

“In sixth was Stella.” She turned slightly towards the pinkette. “It was… not close. But remember, the audience’s eyes are not the most important here.”

Stella’s gaze drifted over to Dick, standing next to the lifeguard and giggled again before nodding.

“Fifth was Ava. You played to your specific strengths well, though sharing a niche is understandably difficult. Next time I would advise that you try stepping out of your comfort zone a bit more.”

“Fourth was Luna.” She skipped any further discussion.

“Third was Felicia. I’m curious how much better you may have performed had your transformation gambit succeeded.

“Our top two are Hazel, followed closely by Helena. You both were highly favored by the audience, though I suspect that these were for significantly different reasons. Your prize is not fully mine to administer, so you may coordinate amongst yourselves. Though I would mention that if it makes it more convenient for you all, I have been granted shopkeeper’s privileges by Genet for the day.” Scylla gave a slight bow to the contestants followed by a noticeably larger bow to Richard. After giving her respects, she shuffled back to her lifeguard’s chair to leave everyone to their own devices.

Felicia was first to speak after that, crossing her arms as she turned to Hazel. “So, you won. We all agreed to pitch in to buy the winner one thing from the shop, even though you have as much on your own to spend as any three of us combined. Anything in mind to buy right now?”

Hazel looked at her partner for a moment, then answered. “I think so.”

“Good. How much will it cost us?”

“Eight.”

The blonde was caught off guard for a moment, but recovered. “That’s going to be tough for the five of us to split evenly.”

“I can pay half.” Helena offered.

“Why?” Felicia questioned. “If anything, shouldn’t you need to pay the least since you almost won?”

Ava responded before Helena could. “By that logic it’d be Stella that’d need to pay the most. If she wanted to do something nice, what’s the harm in letting her?”

“And I kind of have nothing.” The pinkette admitted in a small voice. “I… spent everything I had during my date this round.”

“I’ll cover you, just pay me back when you can.” The athlete offered, and after that the matter of how to split payment worked itself out quickly.

“Should you buy it from Scylla now then, since we have the money pooled for you?” Luna suggested.

Hazel nodded, and everyone followed her to the lifeguard’s stand. The lifeguard herself saw them coming and was waiting.

“So what have you decided on?” Scylla asked. She seemed mildly curious at best.

“The Armory.” Hazel declared.

“That’s definitely not on Ata’s TF list.” Ava murmured out loud to the group.

“No, it’s not,” Luna quietly agreed.

Scylla ignored them, just nodding in acknowledgement. Putting her goggles back on, she squinted at the bodyguard before making a pulling motion at her customer. Then she moved her hands in a wavelike motion, using her tentacles to help her twist so she could turn from the shopkeeper’s tower to the pavilion. A sand color glow flowed from her hands for a moment before she declared: “So mote it be. It will be waiting for you in your rooms tonight.”

“Thank you.”

Ava raised her hand and immediately began speaking. “Can I ask a question? Your way of using magic is more flashy and complicated than Genet or Ata. Why is that?”

One side of Scylla’s mouth curled up. “You’ve already asked the question, though I suppose I can indulge you.

“Genet is an incredibly magical being, even with her own empathetic constraints. Her magic is as easy for her as walking is for people like us. Ata was born mundane but since she is tethered so closely to the Hotel she can use its power even more easily, at least when acting as its agent.

“I, on the other hand, maintain my independence and so do not have Ata’s advantages. I lack the same innate magic as Genet or her fellow splinters, and so Androphagos made me these goggles that aid me as a casting focus. Even with them, I’ve still needed to take time to learn enough Jaquinite magic to keep up with more natural casters. Does that make sense?”

“Mostly.” The nerdy young woman said. “What’s Jaquinite magic?”

“That would take several weeks to properly explain. It is what I use when away from Androphagos. It relies on color and metaphorical movements. Is that enough?”

“Sure, I guess.” Scylla was clearly done with them again. Ava started walking back down the beach with Hazel, Luna, Felicia, and Dick with Stella trailing behind, Only one of them noticed that not everyone was with them. “So what was that Armory thing you picked? I know it wasn’t a TF.”

Hazel shook her head. “Mark put it on my personal list.”

“So it was designed by Ares?” Felicia pointed out. “That has to come with some quirks. All of Athena’s stuff is pretty focused on gaining advantages and points rather than anything that affects me on its own. Which makes sense for a virgin goddess trying to participate in this sort of thing.”

“The Armory is a toolbox, essentially.” Hazel began to explain. “When I use it, my mentor offers whatever one tool he thinks would be most useful.”

Ava nodded, satisfied now that she finally had an explanation.

“Now that the whole swimsuit competition is done, what now?” Luna asked. Honestly, after how he reacted and all the chaos I’m glad it's over.

“We’ve used everything that I prepared, and the competition was your idea. Did you have anything else?” Helena turned the question back on her as she rejoined the group.

“I mean, it’s been ages since I’ve been surfing? The east coast doesn’t have as good beaches, especially as far north as you guys live.”

“That sounds really cool!”

“I guess I could try it?”

“Cool. I’ll run back to Scylla and buy a surfboard stand, maybe some paddleboards too in case anyone wants something easier to start with.” Luna started running back to the lifeguard stand.

“We might join you later, if that’s all right? There’s an errand I forgot we need to do first.” Helena said.

“That’s fine, of course. Is it something I can…” help with? Richard was in the middle of asking when he noticed his stepsister’s face turning crimson. His gaze followed to Hazel’s hand on her rear and chose not to bring further attention to it. “Have fun.”

***

Stella’s paddleboard had just crested to shore again as she saw the lifeguard waving at her, bidding her to come. She tried to put it in a safe place to prevent anyone else from tripping or hitting it and came to see what the cephalid woman wanted.

“What do you need?”

“It’s actually what you may need, my dear.” Scylla said unusually gently for her. “I noticed that you’ve been rather, what’s the word… giggly? You’ve been giggly at certain points today?”

“I guess so.”

“May I ask why?” Seeing Stella break eye contact, she tried to reassure the contestant. “It’s alright. You can tell me. Does it have anything to do with what Luna mixed for you?”

“Yes.”

“What do you think it’s been doing?”

The pink creeped up an inch on Stella’s scalp. “I’ve been feeling what Luna and Dick have been thinking when they look at me. I don’t care much for Luna’s looks, but his… yeah.” She giggled again, almost as if compelled to do so.

“Good. Why not do something about that with him. You’d like to continue going further, yes?”

“Of course! Someday… just not yet. Especially with it not being my night.”

The lifeguard’s brown eyes gleamed. “Somehow, I don’t think she would mind a distraction tonight. She’s been gone a while anyway. So if someday, why not now?”

“It just… still feels like we’re moving fast. He’s helped me experiment, but I don’t know if I can go all the way just yet.”

“Who says you have to go straight to sex? Just because your friends have, doesn’t mean you have to. There are still intermediate ways you can go further, experiment with touching him as he’s touched you, and show your dedication.”

Stella didn’t respond right away, and so Scylla continued while she was lost in thought. “You do care for him after all, right? I’ve seen how you looked at him and how he’s treated you back when I was among the audience. While weak and cowardly, he has never been unkind. Has he ever done anything to knowingly hurt you?”

“No.”

“I thought not. And you do care for him?” Scylla asked for the second time.

“...Yes.”

“Then make him feel how he’s made you feel.”

“But what about the others? What if they notice or have a problem with it?”

“I can help you with that using a charm I’ve practiced before. It would help give you whatever privacy you need.”

“I can’t pay.”

“You won’t need to. I’m not doing this as an employee of the show, I just want to help you grow closer to your Master.”

There was another pause. “I’ll try it.”

“Perfect.” Scylla started by making a motion like she was tying a knot in the air. Then she made a pulling motion like she was spreading dough as her fingertips began to glow the same pink as Stella’s hair. She threw her hands up like she was tossing an invisible blanket onto the contestant and stopped, satisfied with herself. “You’re all set. Until sunset, none of your friends will notice your absence or actions unless attention is brought to you.”

***

Richard was trying to recover his surfboard. He’d only been surfing once, and he was doing only marginally better this time. At least there’s a lifeguard this time.

“Where in the world did that thing end up?” He asked himself out loud.

“Hey Richard?” A small voice asked next to him.

“Oh! Hey Stell. It feels like I haven’t seen you for a while.”

She looked cute as she looked up slightly at him in her beach outfit. Her shorts looked almost like the type of skintight shorts that he might see women wear at the gym, save for where they were tied with string like shoelaces at her hips that let a little bit of her upper thigh peek through. Her pink top with its little ribbons seemed more subtle than anyone else had brought or would choose, but it suited her.

She blushed at his remark for some reason. “I was busy with something earlier. Can we go for a walk together?” She pointed down to the empty part of the beach, where all that sat on the sand was a large boulder.

“Sure.” He began to follow her away, leaving his surfboard to hopefully be found later. “So what’s up?”

“You know that I like you, right?” She said slowly.

“I’ve been able to tell for a while. I wasn’t entirely sure after our first date, by the time we got to our second date and how you tried to push yourself… You didn’t need to do that by the way, I hope you know that. I would’ve understood if we’d had to just stop.” He reached to take her hand, and she accepted a moment later.

“I appreciate that. I’ve been trying and I know I can trust you, it’s just hard to remember that sometimes. I want to do more with you though. You feel the same way.” The last sentence was a statement, not a question.

“Is there anything I can do to make things easier for you?”

“I can’t think of anything I haven’t seen you do already.” She admitted.

“Can I ask a question?”

“Sure?”

“That drink you asked Luna for to help with your confidence, do you think it’s affecting you mentally? They’ve always got some strange side effects and I noticed you’ve been laughing more…”

“It…” She needed a moment to decide whether to tell him the truth. “It makes me feel what you think about when you see me.”

“Oh. Oh god, I am so sorry. We can go get the spare blindfold if you need. I swear, I didn’t-”

She laughed. It was lower and more natural sounding than the other times he’d heard today. “You don’t need to apologize for that. That’s actually why we’re here.”

“What do you mean?”

She changed directions and led him behind the boulder.

A beach towel was waiting there, laid flat on the ground next to the stone.

“I thought we could try this, if t-that’s alright?”

He looked at her, then to the towel, then back to her. “What do you want me to do?”

“I-if you’re up to it, just stand next to the towel. You can lean against the rock if you want to.”

He followed her directions, standing where she told him. He watched her move to the towel, getting on her knees in front of him. She looked up at him, her blue eyes meeting his own. She held onto his hip right above where his trunks sat and told him quietly: “I’d like you to take this off.”

Dick nodded, reaching down and letting them fall to the edge of the towel. He watched her stare at it. It was at least half-hard between the situation she’d brought him to and the way he’d seen everyone dress and move today. If Hel hadn’t raised such a commotion trying to defend Hazel up on stage earlier, someone might have caught me trying to adjust my shorts. As much as I criticized Luna, I liked seeing that too. Should I have stopped it, or not been there? “I don’t want to **** you-”

She engulfed him, taking his length in her mouth.

“Oh shit.”

Stella looked up at him again with something light in her eyes. She didn’t have experience with this sort of thing, but between his exclamation and the way she could feel veins becoming more prominent with her gentle licks, she knew she was doing something right.

“Is there- is there anything you want from me?” Dick panted.

Stella gently pulled his hand onto her shoulders and let them rest on the cotton, then resuming her bobbing on his cock with fervor.

The pinkette noticed a twitch from his shaft as her tongue graced a vein. She repeated the motion and repeated it again, hearing him groan in desperation. She could feel him hugging her tightly, even if she knew it was just an illusion.

“Oh god, Stella. I- wow.”

She slid off of him, a bit of precum dripping from her lip. “Too much? I know you’re into this but I don’t want to overwhelm you.”

“No, you’re fine. I- please. More.”

She nodded at the please and went down on him again, holding onto his bare ass. She offered herself to him, used her mouth to show her appreciation as Scylla had suggested. From the sounds he made and the twitching growing more often, she could tell that in that moment he appreciated her.

What caught her off guard was just how strongly Dick was responding to her hands on his ass. Previously he’d been rather passive, doing nothing except what his body had done on its own. But now it was like they were working in unison, and as she felt him jerking towards her throat she concentrated more on her tongue again, finding that vein that he’d favored earlier and stroking it with her tongue once, twice, over and over again.

“Stell- I’m close.” Dick warned. “If you need to stop before I come inside…”

She ignored him, continuing her work on his shaft.

“Stell-”

As she lapped at him he felt his resistance break and he pumped into her, his load flooding the chef’s mouth.

Stella had unfortunately reached her limit on what she could handle and had to stifle a gag until she’d let Dick’s dick pop out of her. She quickly turned sideways and coughed, most of his cum dripping into the sand.

Stella Steward, +12 VP (Blowjob) (First!)

“Sorry. Sorry. I know I’m supposed to swallow.”

He laid down on the towel next to her and tried to gently reassure her. “Hey. Hey. I wasn’t expecting anything at all today. All of this-” he gestured around them. “-Was a wonderful, unnecessary, surprise. Can you look at me?”

She slowly met his gaze.

“Do I look in anyway angry with you?”

Stella tried to study him. He looks… concerned. He was concerned for me on both of our dates. “No?”

“That’s good, because I’m not. Can I give you a kiss?”

“Maybe after I have a chance to wash my mouth?”

“Alright.” He shrugged. “Is there anything I can do for you right now, just so this isn’t so one-sided in my favor?”

She shook her head. “Much more would be kind of overwhelming. Could we just hold hands for a while?”

“Sure. Want me to put my trunks back on?”

“Not until we need to go back to the others. I kind of like looking at you, if that’s alright.”

He blushed. “Yeah, that’s fine.”

“And Dick?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“I- I think I do too.”

Stella Steward, +2 VP (Love Confession)

***

Ava realized that Dick had been gone at some point. She put her surfboard away and decided to talk to Luna before doing anything else.

“Hey, have you seen him?”

The Latina thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No. Maybe he’s in the bathroom?

“For fifteen minutes? I don’t know how long he’s been gone, but I think it’s been longer than it should’ve been. I might go look for him.”

“Need me to come with you?”

“Not yet, but I’ll let you know.” For some reason Ava felt like she could handle this best on her own.

She checked near the obstacle courses and the volleyball course, and he wasn’t there. She knocked on the bathroom door just to check on Luna’s suggestion, and didn’t get a response. When she checked with Scylla, the cephalid just shrugged her off. She ended up asking Felicia if she had any guesses, but her best friend couldn’t come up with anywhere else he could’ve gone while staying on the beach.

Her last place to check on the beach was the cabana. She’d already approached the bar side and didn’t see anything obvious. But since she didn’t have any other leads, she decided to go around to the back.

That turned out to be a mistake, as she saw Hazel and Helena on the “errand” they had gone off together for. The two women were up against the wooden back wall of the cabana, closed off to the world as they embraced. Helena’s back was pressed up against the wall, while Hazel’s breasts were overflowing the cups of the bikini top onto her. Ava watched as Hazel took one firm hand and stroked Hel’s scalp, prompting satisfied little moans. Helena took a trembling hand and tried to pull them even closer. After that the hand was just kind of… wandering, up and down her girlfriend’s body. They… looked like they were having fun to say the least.

I should get out of here. But she didn’t leave right away, lingering on unexpected thoughts longer than she should have. No wonder Hazel won the contest. She’s probably the hottest of us. She’s so protective, and wise, and- shit. This is Roid Rage being screwy again, isn’t it? I’m getting Hel’s version of Stella’s anxiety and Hazel’s paranoid servant mode. Finally realizing why she’d decided to go off on her own, She tried to slip away again before she was caught

But it was too late.

“Ava? What’re you doing here?” The bodyguard called out.

Christ. She turned around, and saw Hazel trying to get her bikini adjusted again. Neither of them looked happy to see her. “Sorry to bother you. Have you seen Richard?”

“Last we saw him, he was going to go surfing with you all.” Helena said. “Is everything alright?”

“He’s been gone for a while, so I just wanted to check on him. I asked Luna, Felicia, and Scylla and none of them knew anything. This was the last place on the beach I had to try before I needed to ask Genet for help finding him.”

Hel grew visibly concerned. “How long has he been gone?”

“Twenty, maybe twenty-five minutes now?”

The redhead’s brow furrowed further.

“What did Stella say?” Hazel asked.

“Stella?”

“When you asked everyone if they’d seen him? You did ask Miss Steward, right?”

“Right…” Why didn’t I ask Stella? Ava felt like something was wrong and tried to push herself to remember. “Oh! Huh. Stella’s been gone for a while. It’s weird that I didn’t think about that earlier, she’s been gone even longer than he has.”

Helena looked like she’d just remembered something too. She looked calmer now. “So he and Stella are gone. Do you think they could be doing something together?”

“…Probably. It seems pretty obvious now that you mention it.”

The elder Turner nodded. “They probably just want some privacy, just like some other people that thought that they’d be alone."

“Message received.” Ava tried to leave again.

“And one more thing” Hel called out.

“Yes?” Just let me leave. Ava wasn't sure why she felt so annoyed.

“Since you're copying one of my TFs, be careful. If it’s not the praise one then it’s my crawling TF, and the wording of my permissions today are focused on the beach. You might be in some trouble once we leave tonight.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

***

Stella served ribs for dinner, which she’d started smoking while she’d been making lunch. Most people were pretty tired after all the day’s activities for one reason or another, and so as Luna had her grilled cauliflower and everyone else had their ribs, the only discussion that was really left was Felicia and Stella trying to convince the group of the virtues of dry rub.

After dinner the sun was beginning to set and the unusual heat of the day began to fade, and so everyone began trailing back to their rooms for the night in small groups. Richard was with Helena and Hazel in the rear as they approached the path through the forest.

“Oh, good.” Helena said.

“What’s up?”

“Ava just left the sand. She’s not on the beach anymore and still on her feet, with all the same permissions you accidentally gave me this morning.”

“Oh. Good. Sorry again that I wasn’t more careful, we still haven’t tried my blanket permission language I came up with.”

“Maybe tomorrow. For tonight, should we see if Genet will deliver another DVD. We could start season two of Downtown Abbey tonight.”

“Or we could try season three of Bizarre Stuff. You really wrote off the show too quickly.”

“I don’t like fantasy like you do. Especially not horror fantasy. Downtown Abbey is fine. Can you tiebreak for me, Hazel?”

“Maybe you two could flip a coin?” Her partner suggested instead. She’d let a hint of amusement creep into her voice.

Suddenly Helena felt a familiar, impossible, heaviness in her legs. “I’m going down.”

“What? I thought you said-”

“I know. I’m going-” She started to fall onto the mulch of the forest trail they’d just entered, only for Hazel to scoop her up. “God damn it. Thank you, Hazel.”

“Of course, Ma’am.”

“Shouldn’t that have happened to Ava? Like you said, you had the same restrictions.”

“Yes, we did. I have a feeling someone put their electric thumb on the scale.”

“Right.” He sounded as annoyed as she was now. “Fuck Jay. We can do a couple Abbey episodes before bed, but we should probably go to bed at a reasonable time just in case your challenge tomorrow takes as much running as last time.”