Day 1: Laurel Walker Part 1

The Master's Suite

Alan paced the room. On the desktop, he had written Christian's short biography. Ariadne's assignment felt reasonable. He had failed to sleep after he finished. It seemed dangerous to get wasted, like Ariadne had suggested. That risk applied to sleeping pills, at least if sourced from Harem Hotel.

Alan heard a soft knock on the door and opened it. Instead of Laurel, an unfamiliar young Asian woman stood next to a cart of food. "Good morning, Master." She gave him a quick once over.

"Um, Sky?" Alan guessed. She was dressed in a school uniform, and Alan's cultural sensitivity extended just far enough for him to know it was Catholic rather than Japanese.

The woman stood back and the cart proceeded into the room. "May I come in?"

"Um, sure." Alan looked at the cart. It smelled like bacon, but no eggs were involved. Strips of meat were mixed with cheese, fruits, and vegetables. Alan had discovered his room had a refrigerator last night, but he had barely had any food. Alan realized he was famished, and took the tray over to the computer desk.

"Laurel Walker is having breakfast and will be arriving shortly. She has requested access to the holodeck, but we don't have one on this season. She was probably joking when she asked for a colony of bullet ants and several types of hallucinogens, but they'll be arriving in an hour anyway." Sky approached the bed and sniffed the sheets.

"Um, what are you doing?" Alan was distracted from the breakfast.

"You didn't ejaculate last night. That's optimistic." Sky shrugged. "The hotel analyzes your wastewater, so you didn't ejaculate before cleaning yourself."

"Um..." Alan returned to his meal.

"What are your intentions?" Sky asked.

"You mean now that I am being **** to date my mother?" Alan frowned.

"Exactly." Sky nodded. "My situation is unusual and not without risk. I once considered Laurel Walker a friend, though she is unlikely to share that perspective."

Alan examined the girl. He would have guessed she was his age, but that meant nothing anymore. "Were you an assistant on the last season?"

Sky shook her head. "I was Sora Takahashi. Now I am not."

Alan decided to finish his breakfast. He didn't have time for this shit.

___

Alan waited for Laurel, keeping silent and wishing he had slept. When Laurel arrived, she nodded at Sky.

"Hey, Hellspawn." Laurel smiled at Alan. "Either the season's budget sucks or there's something weirder going on, so we're not going to Body Worlds on a holodeck like I wanted."

"Um, is that a sex thing?" Alan asked.

Laurel smirked. "Oh yes. Nothing sexier for me than going to Body Worlds with my surprise offspring. It looks like you've met a fork of Sky already." She gestured at the schoolgirl, who nodded.

"Fork?" Alan processed. "Wait, there's more than one of her?"

"Oh yeah, there's a ton of Skynet." Laurel paused. "Sorry, there's a lot to get used to all at once. There are a ton of names and ideas I barely understood before my eighteen year nap, and I was helping Ari with her history homework."

"How did that happen, anyway?" Alan asked. "How do you get from an evil gameshow to um, whatever you were doing with Ariadne?"

"So, Larry is Ariadne's snake parent. He had an idea and showed up with Ari to like, make the Audience think Crawlers would be good neighbors by showing off a cute kid he had with one of their Producers. I thought that babysitting would get me some good will. Honestly, I'm not sure if it worked." Laurel looked down.

"How could it have worked?" Alan felt incredulous.

"I'm myself. I lost eighteen years, but I have my name, my free will, and my body isn't messed up. That's better than like..." Laurel glanced at Sky.

"I would say we are comparable." Sky shrugged. "My initial Elimination was extremely distressing, but it was for the best. Hopefully, you can appreciate the benefits of your own situation."

"What?" Alan's eyes widened.

"She is in the future. Emotions which ran high at the time have cooled, and those she loved want her back. She gets to witness your world's progress, and reunite with her family. She is no longer in the same harem as her mother." Sky answered. "The impact of her punishment fell on the others, not on Laurel."

"Fuck, let's get going." Laurel blushed and grabbed Alan. "Have you ever wanted to ride a dinosaur?"