Conflicts, External and Internal

Francis

Francis has mixed feelings as he wakes up. On the one hand, a giant list of stressful questions and doubts. How did I end up in bed? Was that dream actually real? Why are Dinah and Scarlet having a screaming match in the other room? Why is my disgusting man-clit so erect?

On the other hand, the sensation of a mouth expertly sucking on his nipple. He brushes Daphne’s hair as she feels him stirring.

Daphne: +1 VP (Nipple Play)

“Mornin’, Master. If you take me to the pool, I can solve that problem for you,” Daphne greets, nodding her head towards his crotch. She should just bite it off and then we’d be done with it. Shut up.

“It’ll go down on it’s own. What happened?”

She shimmies her way up to his eye level. “If we’re gonna be all business this morning, I need to check on some things. Follow my finger, please.” Daphne then proceeds to perform a set of basic medical tests while in bed. She looks generally pleased with the results. Then, she rests her head on his chest and just intensely stares, like, eyes go glowy stare. After a few minutes of that, she leans up as high as she dares, saying, “Sorry if this is a little loud.” The dolphin call she makes feels like it should shatter glass (which, given the fact that the Master Suite is essentially one giant aquarium, would be really bad).

“Ow. What was that?”

“Just trying to get my sisters’ attention, Master.”

Scarlet and Dinah both charge in. They look so pissed at each other. Dinah speaks first, “Well?”

“Master has a clean bill of health, though you are welcome to confirm it, Dr. Hornblower. Any residual issues with yesterday’s transformation bonanza have also resolved. He’s fine. No need to fight anymore.”

Dinah proceeds to do just that, running the same basic medical tests (plus a few new ones). Her bedside manner is not great this morning, curtly demanding her instructions. Satisfied, she moves on to, “Now, what the fuck were you thinking? If my milk worked on you, you’d have a belly full of it right now.”

“Basically, if my suffering can alleviate any of yours’, it’s a sacrifice worth making.”

Scarlet finally speaks up, “Francis, I may not be a psychologist yet, but it is painfully obvious that you need some mental help. You paid for me to be able to do that again, more or less, so you have no right to complain when I want to use it. We are going to do some therapy. Between your aversion to it, my current perversion with it, and the nature of our relationship, it’s going to be awkward and unethical and probably a whole host of other problems, but you need it more than all that. Do you understand me?”

She knows how brokenly male I am. She can help fix me. Shut up. I hate to admit it, but she’s probably right. Of course she’s right; she’s a woman and women are always right. Disgusting males like me are always wrong. SHUT UP.

The struggle on his face must have been obvious, since Dinah softens. “Hey, is your temporary passenger...”

“Yeah, It’s worse than last night. Sorry for not checking with you first. I was wrong,” Francis apologizes. Turning towards Scarlet, he relents, “Understood. But no ****. Just talking.”

“Couldn’t prescribe anything even if I wanted to.”

“Now, are you two okay?”

“We were fighting because we disagreed on how to deal with you. You passing out like that was terrifying. Please remember that we are bound to you. If your suffering leads to some of it’s potential conclusions, you don’t just doom yourself. You doom all of us. I’m sure you don’t want that.”

Dinah looks like she agrees.

“Fine. Sorry again. I need to be better for all of your sake’s.”

“And your own,” Scarlet interrupts.

“And my own. Need to shower, untangle my hair, and get some make-up on. Hey, can you teach me how to do that Celtic Knot thing with my hair? I liked it.”

He rolls out of bed and heads to the shower. Ugh. My hair is a mess. 30 minutes later, Francis feels clean and ready to make himself presentable. He sits at his vanity. Daphne, still in bed, tries to watch from her vantage point. Dinah seems to be gone.

“Dinah thought I needed the VP more than her right now. And, for some reason, we’re being directed downstairs for breakfast. Just a note bowl on the table. So, make-up lesson? Or just the hair? I don’t think the giant Celtic Knot is a thing you’d wear as a day-to-day hairstyle. It’s a bit impractical. The sheer amount of hair you have just asks for the treatment Alex wore instead.”

Scarlet demonstrates how to do “Viking braids” on her head and Francis (clumsily) follows along. After a few false starts, he’s soon rocking a basic set of braids cascading down his back. He turns to the women, “How do I look?”

“Good start. You’ll get better at it with practice.”

Daphne goes, “Eh, I just let my hair do what it wants, but if you want to go through all of that, cool.”

The two humans look at each other. She’s too used to the water. I can see the rat’s nest forming already. Like my hair before I stopped thinking about it like a disgusting man.

“Scarlet, can you brush Daphne’s hair and help me with my make-up at the same time? While I need some guidance, she really needs to get those knots out before it gets too messy.”

Francis angles himself to where he can start applying make-up while Scarlet watches him from the bed, behind the fussy mermaid. Daphne calms down a little once Scarlet starts gently brushing her hair and (probably more importantly) teasing a nipple. He asks how to best hide the manishness of his face. Most of the way through, the lesson orgasm hits; he leaves a small puddle on the floor.

Scarlet: +4 VP (Brought Master to Orgasm [Make-up Lesson] x2 [first time contestant participant])

Daphne slides off the bed and awkwardly tries to pull herself towards the spilt seed. Francis asks, “Do you need help with that?”

Most of the way there, she goes, “Nah.” Touching the cum puddle, it disappears.

“Inventory?”

“Yup.”

“Saving it for the next time you go swimming?”

“No, actually. Need it for something else. You’ll see when I get the chance. Are you going to make me wear one of those ‘shirt’ thingies, or can I go to breakfast like this?”

Slipping one oversized DoD reference T-shirt on the mermaid later, and the three head down for breakfast. Francis does carry Daphne down the stairs, but insists that she actually try to walk a little (with Scarlet and him each holding onto an arm to keep her from falling) once the ground is level. It’s slow, awkward going, but Daphne looks happy that she made some progress.

A few things make sense when the three arrive at breakfast. The rest of the women are happily munching on pancakes. And Skye’s hair...

Huh. So that dream was real.

“Hey. Francis, I pre-weighed out your breakfast based on what Josie told me you’d want to eat from my work this morning. I hope you like it. And, before you freak out about my eyes, I bought a pair of sunglasses that hide the indecency of me wearing them. They even remove my ability to see your indecent clothing.”

Francis sits down at what he assumes is his plate. Eggs. Some sausage. A small bunch of table grape. Works for me. Turning to Skye, he asks, “So, how was the trance last night?”

Skye squees, which is not a noise Francis thought she was capable of, and starts to gush about her reverie in vivid detail. Her knuckles go white as she grips the table. The way she blushes when describing Eilistraee starts to get to him. She finishes by asking, “Who else had a good night last night?”

Josie speaks up, “I dreamed that I was chasing a bunch of bunny Tinas. It was fun, especially when I caught them.”

“Nightmare about being attached to an industrial milker and being bred by giant cat men.”

“You know that dream where you have to present something in class and suddenly you’re naked? One of those, except my presentation was to strip.”

“Like Josie’s dream, but fish. And more literal than figurative eating.”

“Well, I met my new agent and he’s an asshole. Daph, you happen to know how to read Infernal? Probably need to figure something out by tonight.” Well, that’s concerning.

“Uh, a dream where I was having to walk down an infinite hallway in high heels,” Francis half-lies. Probably should keep the rest of it to myself. I looked good in those heels once I had the proper body.

Breakfast finished, the harem heads over to the bathhouse for the meeting. The crone looks irritated, hovering over the bathhouse.

All Contestants: +2 VP (Seen Master’s Glorious Cock – Diminished Returns)

“Morning, **** sluts and Master,” the crone begins, lacking a certain level of energy, “and welcome back to Harem Hotel. Today is the first day of our second week. As the Master already knows, he is now free to enjoy all aspects of the hotel, outside of scheduled events such as these morning meetings and the nightly dates. Speaking of dates, we will generally be following the order of the last challenge. Here is our order of dates for the week.”

The expected screen appears, displaying the date order:

• Daphne

• Josie

• Tina

• Scarlet

• Dinah

• Skye

• Indigo

“Dates are more complex from now on,” the hag continues, “The **** slut gets to set the start time for the date, but it must begin by 6 PM. Dates can (and should) involve hotel resources outside of the Master Suite. **** sluts can involve her fellow sluts in dates, if they wish. Dates must move to the Master Suite no later than 10 PM; multiple **** sluts can enter the Master Suite with the Master, but everyone present in the Suite by 6 PM must share the bed with the Master.”

The harpy continues to drone on, “Also, our wonderful producer insisted on some expanded privileges for the **** sluts. Some services that should cost BP are now free and you will notice upgrades to your living arrangements by tonight. Several changes to upgrades have also been reverted against my best judgment. I am also to make myself available to help accommodate your submission to the Master. My office is now accessible in the hallway and the producer insists that I maintain an ‘open door’ policy.” She looks especially annoyed by all of that.

“A final note before I let you go. Yet another note from our producer was that the Master doesn’t have a way to earn BP. Apparently, not allowing him access to the shops not only may interfere with my proof of my Grand Theory, but has also apparently led to some dangerous decisions on his part. So, the Master is now getting a 40 BP a day allowance, with back pay today. There are, of course, rules to this allowance. Half of the BP must be spent on improving his **** sluts; the other half may be spent how he wishes. The allowance will be paid out at the end of the morning meeting. Any BP the Master has at the morning meeting of a challenge day will be spent, by me, in whatever manner I deem most fun. So, enjoy your new privileges; you certainly don’t deserve them.”

With that, the harpy disappears.

Francis: +360 BP (180 BP earmarked for contestant modifications)

Beckie Petersen

Before everyone could get on with the day, the harpy is forcibly brought back. What the deuce? A heavily distorted feminine voice reverberates the bathhouse, “I believe you have forgotten a few things, Ms. Petersen. You missed some VP in the bedlam of yesterday. And, more importantly, you still have a transformation to apply.”

“I don’t know what you are talking about.” My old producer didn’t interfere with the show so... overtly.

“First, I understand missing some instances of VP in the heat of the moment, but bringing in another contestant should have warranted paying closer attention. If you are going to reward a contestant for embracing nudity, you should be consistent. Daphne saw Skye and Tina naked. All the contestants saw Daphne naked as well.”

A display materializes, listing out a slew of VP:

Skye: +2 VP (Displayed Naked Slut Body to Fellow Slut)

Tina: +2 VP (Displayed Naked Slut Body to Fellow Slut)

Daphne: +12 VP (Displayed Naked Slut Body to Fellow Slut [6 instances])

“Between that and a number of other VP rewards since the challenge, we should have an update to the leaderboard. Given how the Master is accommodating Skye’s transformation, you may wish to consider stopping rewarding the contestants for seeing him naked. I’m sure you will come up with a decision at your next staff meeting. Thanks to the efforts of Irene from IT, here is the leaderboard update:”

The display refreshes with an updated leaderboard:

• Tina 56 VP 130 BP

• Josie 32 VP 100 BP

• Dinah 32 VP 65 BP

• Daphne 22 VP 30 BP

• Scarlet 21 VP 281 BP

• Skye 12 VP 40 BP

• Indigo 6 VP 30 BP

“The more egregious of your failures was that you faked applying your own punishment transformation. Just like you faked applying a punishment transformation to the Master until you had time to figure out what to do. Should I apply your punishment for you? I’ll be sure to crack up the intensity to a level most entertaining for our audience. Say, a loss of 1 IQ point every hour? Maybe remove the cap? I wonder what a negative IQ would look like. Would you like us to find out?”

Beckie gulps audibly. Mr. C wasn’t so hostile. I want him back in charge.

“Ms. Petersen, I can hear that, you know. Do try to think professional thoughts. Make me wait much longer for you to do your job and I will do it for you.”

Beckie wills it before her new, annoying producer could follow through on the threat. She feels the transformation apply itself. Seep into her core. She feels, wrong somehow. And she feels like something is supposed to happen. Soon.

“Ah, you realize that it’s time for your first survey results. Master and contestants, please rate your satisfaction with Ms. Petersen’s performance as your Hotel Host.”

Beckie watches with horror as the brat and his **** sluts all rate her so poorly.

Beckie: (Brain) Pop Survey Progress +1

Huh. Don’t feel any different.

“That’s due to a couple of factors. First, IQ is calculated such that 1 point does not have a dramatic effect. The decline is your mental capacity will be subtle enough that an outside observer may not necessarily notice it. Second, your mental capacity becomes more unreliable in measuring your decline as the decline occurs. You won’t notice you getting dumber because you are getting dumber. Good luck improving your relations with your guests. With that, Ms. Petersen, you can end your morning meeting.”

Beckie feels the producer leave the bathhouse in the way producers do. She shudders, then tries to put her show face back on, “Well, Fish Slut, go seduce your Master. Everyone else, go do what **** sluts are supposed to do when not seducing their Master. I’ll be in my office. Toodles.”