Lost in Dream Woods, Part 2

Noah, after their briefing, had to come to grips with that they were in their old body. The term, "they," floated into their mind for themselves, because despite being in a male body, they didn't feel male the way they had before Harem Hotel. On the flip side though, they didn't feel female either, and gender in general was something that felt very artificial and hazy ever since they were turned into a slime girl, who was female primarily because of how they presented, given how a slime could look however they wanted to.

Collecting themselves as best they could, Noah then said, "Alright, guys, anyone interested in getting out of here with Felix as quickly as possible should follow me."

The statement was more for themselves than anyone else, but Noah still noticed Hailey, Kei Winters, and... male Winters as they still couldn't remember his name, soon followed. Castelilise meanwhile was looking around for a river, lake, or some other large body of water to submerge in, as she was still a nereid that needed water, dreamworld be damned. Nox was in their prior human body, and was running away from Z because of it, while the oni chased the former goblin through the woods. Finally, Smith was back to looking like a vice principal and was approaching Noah with a look they that said, "I'm the adult, and you will respect my authority," without uttering a single word.

"Noah-" Before Smith could get any further, Noah cut him off.

"Save it, we aren't in high school, and you will not be taking the lead," Noah said without missing a beat. "You don't know anything about how to navigate an unfamiliar environment, and you definitely do not know how to lead a group. All you know how to do is order people around who are younger or weaker than you, that doesn't give you any useful skills for the situation at hand."

Before Smith could try to respond to that, male Winters spoke up. "Noah's right. There are things you know how to do but... this isn't one of them."

Smith gave a look of utter betrayal to male Winters, who looked away, but didn't change a word. The exchange caused Kei Winters to enter the conversation next. "For once, Jamina has a point. I still have her memories from before our second transformation, and I know what you're like. You are the type of arrogant man who will not accept correction or admit that he is in the wrong. This is a situation requiring nuance, listening to others, and patience. So either follow Noah's lead, or leave. There is no option for you to be in the driver's seat here."

That statement crushed Smith, because he had been talked down to by an adult. However, he tried to regain his footing with an attack Jamina had used many times in the waking world. "You're a sexual predator, and-"

"With fake memories, so none of that actually happened," Hailey cut in. "You by contrast have very real memories of punishing people for bullshit reasons, and unless you were a boy scout growing up or something, I doubt you have any particular qualifications that will make up for your attitude problem. You have never garnered respect, only fear of punishment, which makes your authority collapse the second you are outside your petty kingdom. Understand, or do I need to use smaller words for you?"

That was enough to drive off Smith in a huff. He wasn't going to accept Noah's authority, or anyone else's, while the rest of the group made it clear they wouldn't accept his leadership. Once he was gone, a major piece of tension left with him, and whatever consequences would happen from that later was not Noah's, or anyone else's, problem.

"Guys, now that situation is dealt with, can someone please find me a river or something?" Castelilise asked. "I think at this point I'd settle for a sinkhole or something."

"Crap, that's good point," Noah said. "Worse, it means when we do find a source of water, she won't be able to help us find Felix..."

Cammy hated how she had to leave Felix with someone she knew very little about, and didn't trust. However, such was the nature of Harem Hotel that the cold, manipulative side of her, in part inherited from Cameron, had to come to the fore in moments like this. She been given instructions by Vizrokoth to test the group, and if she tested them well, she would gain VP, something that was rather important if she wanted to get the wish. Besides, this would give her the opportunity to deal with contestants in the harem she didn't like, and the opportunity to punish one soon presented itself.

She heard Smith muttering to himself about being disrespected by a man child while he was walking around in the woods. All it took was for him to look in her direction, and he came running. Cammy would be nothing but a robed figure at the distance he saw her at, but it was enough to draw his attention. Perhaps he was **** for someone to respect him? If so, he was in for an even worse time than he imagined, because she was going to take him on a wild goose chase through the woods, and then punish him through the use of illusions for every. Single. Flaw. In his personality.

The ensuing chase proved to be everything Cammy hoped. The forest shifted with the thoughts, perceptions, and desires of those in it, especially those assigned by one host or another to carry out special tasks like she had been. That meant she could subtly alter the floor to make Smith trip, cause branches to jut out at just the right angle to smack in the face when he tried sprinting towards her, or even introduce bits of mud in places that would make him feel like crap while chasing her from it drenched his clothes. By the time she finally let him catch up, he was exhausted, filthy, and had bruises all over his body. The conclusion to all of this was one final hit in the face with a stray branch when tried running, except in this the branch was an arm that outright punched him in the face, in a way that managed to almost be as satisfying as Cammy wanted it to be.

"Now, that you are all tired, sweaty, and far away from where you should be, have you learned anything Smith?" Cammy asked while approaching him. "That maybe respect is earned, not ****, and that at the end of the day, you're the vice principal of a high school. You are not saving the world, and you are not preventing a descension into sin, but are instead just another petty tyrant living in a fantasy world to rationalize to themselves all the bullshit they do."

"... It still counts as breaking the rules if I hit you, but not if you hit me?" Smith asked, struggling to control himself.

"I didn't hit you," Cammy teased. "You hit yourself chasing me. Even the arm branches are easy to dodge if you aren't chasing after someone. It's all about controlling yourself Smith."

The last statement Cammy took especially high pride in making, because it was the kind of bullshit Smith said all of the time. She was going to grind down his pride every single second she could, and while knew she had other contestants to get to, that could come later. After all, it wasn't like the rest of the group was going to be going lightning fast...

Felix was still recovering from the bombshell dumped on him by Zaynab, and couldn't say anything. The illusion of Austin White that had become Kei Winters disappeared, with the point they presented having been made. He was still stuck in a dream world, and whoever was coming to save him was taking a long time to do so.

"Why are you asking all of this?" Felix finally managed. "You aren't my host, and this isn't your season. What do you get out of doing this?"

"Let me tell you who and what I am Felix, as that I think will answer your question," Zaynab said she continued to hold him, while smiling. "I'm what you would call a Jinn. I even granted wishes every once in awhile, although it often didn't go well for the one making the wish. But most of what I did in life was... well, torment mortals who deserved it. The thing is, when you keep turning corrupt cops into literal pigs that are eaten by the poor, or make those seeking gold drown in it, you draw a bit of attention. That attention resulted in two prisons I'm stuck with this to this very day."

"... Go on?" Felix asked, hoping that if she kept talking, she wouldn't harm him. He knew he couldn't escape her grasp.

Zaynab smiled before continuing. "The first time I drew the attention of a deity, they trapped me in the world of dreams. They didn't want me becoming a deity for humans to both fear and worship, or at least I suspect that's what they were scared of. The deity claimed it was because I was tormenting innocents, but I never really believed that, given the kind of thing they got up to when it came to karmic justice. Still, for a time it did disable me... until I realized I could enter the dreams of mortals, and that the changes I made in the dream would be reflected in reality."

The idea terrified Felix. He had plenty of terrifying, humiliating, or even just plain weird dreams that he didn't want to become reality, much less reality as dictated by someone like Zaynab. If she was a genie, she was clearly the type that punished through her wishes when she did that kind of thing, and that didn't seem to be the only thing she did. For once, he was thankful for Vizrokoth, who he hoped could still watch over him, even here.

"So I did that for a time, terrorizing many a bad man, woman, and even a few children, by turning their nightmares into their waking reality," Zaynab said. "Unfortunately, one of those targets turned out to be a former master on Harem Hotel, and while it was very cathartic to have him get eaten from the inside out for how he abused his harem, it drew the attention of the producers. It's bit of a puncturing to the fantasy of Harem Hotel for a master to get punished for bad behavior towards their harem."

Even though he wasn't the most dominating master, Felix could already imagine that if he lived in a remotely just universe, he would certainly get punished for what he did as the master. Instead he seemed to live in a multiverse that was... he wasn't sure honestly. It certainly wasn't uncaring, but it also was very inconsistent on an ethical level. He couldn't call it consistently cruel, because there were too many odd exceptions to that, but Harem Hotel existing, much less having several seasons, showed it was definitely not a just world, universe, or multiverse.

"However, they didn't destroy me," Zaynab said. "There was a producer that thought I was too interesting, and too unique, to waste on oblivion. So instead, whether I wanted it or not, I was trapped as a host, and that producer became my producer. What that means in practice is that when I don't have a season, I'm trapped in a place like this, or the dream version of the hotel I have for guests. Do you know how frustrating it is to have power, but be unable to use it?"

"... No?" Felix asked, scared from the increased anger in her tone.

"Well, maybe you'll never find out," Zaynab finished off. "I'm interested in you because I suspect I could do a lot of fun things with you, and you'd enjoy them. Interested?"

Before Felix could answer that, he heard Noah's voice. But it was specifically Noah when they were a human male, instead of Noah as a slime girl. "Felix! Lets get you out of here, and away from whoever the heck this is..."

Kei Winters at first didn't say much, choosing to blend into the background as the rest of the group tried to figure out what to do next. After stumbling a bit, they had found a river for Castelilise, and after she jumped in, she swam off, saying she was going to scout the area, and that she'd try to get back by the time they found Felix. It was at that point Noah called for a meeting and got everyone together.

"Alright guys, we got to figure this one out," Noah said. "Lets go over what we know. Starting with Hailey, because you have photographic memory. Have you noticed anything?"

It took a second for her to respond, but when Hailey did, it was a major revelation. "I noticed there were paper notes all over the place. Whenever I tried reading one, it was always either a bunch of word salad that made no sense, or was in a language I couldn't read. However, you may have noticed I trailed behind for a bit there, and it was because of an idea I wanted to try."

Hailey then stopped to draw out two notes from the forest. One had a bunch of random symbols on it, while the other had a bunch of words in English that were, indeed, nonsense. At best it was the result of an extremely poor translation from another language, while at worse, it was the rantings of a madman who desperately needed professional help. Either way, the text itself was useless to them, at least in of itself, for rescuing Felix.

"Kei, this note to me looks like kanji," Hailey said while holding up the note with random symbols on it... which began to change into kanji in front of Kei. "Does it look like kanji to you? Or something else?"

That caused Kei Winters to run up, and after getting permission, took the note from Hailey. After checking it thoroughly, and seeing it was indeed kanji, although it said a bunch of random nonsense like it was either very poorly translated or was the rantings of a lunatic, she gave her response. "Until you told me it looked like kanji to you, all I saw was random symbols. But when you told me it was kanji, it became kanji. Care to explain?"

"I had a theory that, because this is a dream, if we focus hard enough, maybe we can alter stuff like a lucid dreamer," Hailey said. "So what I tried doing was thinking of changing the language on the notes around us, and through my photographic memory, I was able to piece together before and after with the notes. But I needed to test it with others, and it seems like it works."

That caused Noah to run up, and they tried something. "If we can alter the language of the notes... could we make them make sense?"

Holding the note close to their chest, Noah closed their eyes, and got into a meditative looking state. Seeing this, Kei Winters put a finger to her lips, and, with **** care to avoid making noise, motioned for Jamina to come over to where she was. Despite being in the form of a human man, among other things, the other half of her dyad managed to avoid making a racket. Once she got close, Kei Winters whispered into Jamina's ear, "I have an idea involving our mathematics knowledge, but we need to see how this turns before we try it."

After a few more minutes that felt like an eternity, Noah opened their eyes, and took out the note. It had changed from nonsense to instructions on how to find Felix. However, the sheer complexity of those instructions presented a problem, as the bits Kei Winters could see suggested following them would be like trying to a calculus equation in your head while balancing on a tightrope. It was far too difficult for them to do as a group, especially with multiple members either missing, or being stuck in a river. But she had an idea for how to resolve this.

"If we can alter that note, do you think we could focus enough as a group to alter the landscape itself?" Kei Winters asked. "Perhaps we could impose order onto this landscape."

"Okay... but it'd be tricky because I had to think very hard for that one piece of paper to change," Noah said. "Even if all of us work together, and note some of us aren't here to do that, it could take awhile and may not work."

"That's where our background comes in," Jamina said in the voice of a human man. "Rather than trying to **** it through sheer willpower, we impose logical rules on it like the ones that govern mathematics. We would measure the distance between things, like trees, and then use that to **** more consistent measurements on the landscape. If the landscape can no longer alter itself as much from more consistent measurement..."

"... we'd be able to control the land itself, and make finding Felix a breeze!" Noah finished excited. "Lets get to it!"

Over the next hour, Kei Winters, Jamina, and Noah got to work. They were able to will into existence some measuring tape quite fast, and then with the help of Hailey's photographic memory, gained immense power over the dream world. They could use her to tell them when the distance between trees changed, and by exactly how much, even if it was only by fractions of a centimeter. That gave them the data to focus, and more easily alter the environment around them, which they used to overtime shrink that distance. When Kei Winters, Hailey, Jamina, and Noah all focused at once on making the distance shorter, and applied their mathematical reasoning to bring more precision to those alterations, they were able to overcome the resistance of the dream world to their meddling quite fast. The math itself wasn't as important as what it represented: A world that operated by logic, and clear, understandable rules. It worked so well that before they knew it, they could actually see Felix, albeit he was near a woman they hadn't seen before, and there was enough random stuff in the way that getting to him could be a huge pain.

"Before we shorten the distance to Felix more," Hailey suddenly interrupted. "We should think about the others. While I couldn't care less what happens to Smith and Nox, we might need them when dealing with whoever the heck Felix is with. Also, what if our alterations snap back when we aren't actively focused on them?"

"That is a good point," Noah replied. "Besides, I find it a bit cruel to just screw over Castelilise because she isn't able to leave water for very long. In fact... wait a minute, we could alter where the water is so the nereid could meet us and we can strategize from there on how to pickup Felix. Ready?"

Kei Winters smiled and nodded. "Also, we should think about crafting a pathway back to the exit. It'd be a shame to do all this work, only for the excitement of getting our dear master back to cause the dream world to snap back into its massive, and confusing prior form..."