Cocktail Conversations

Rose and Angie

Rose walked over to Angie with a bit of hesitation. She made sure to wait till one of the twins was occupied by someone else before moving in to the braided hair one.

“Daughter,” Angie said.

“Agnes,” Rose said glaring.

“It’s Angie now.”

“Oh okay… Angie,” she said still glaring.

“How is that cult you joined? Still sacrificing goats for rain?”

“ITS NOT A CULT, MOM!” Rose yelled. The rest of the room fell silent for a second then everyone went back to their conversations. “I joined a Ren Faire. I lived my life as I wanted to.”

“And yet you came here dressed like a slut.” Angie said taking a sip of her drink.

“Ugh!” Rose tried to compose herself. “You and I left dad together. Sure I was a kid, but I saw how terrible he treated you. You wanted a daughter to grow into a woman who didn’t want to be a door mat? I’m that woman!”

Angie was about to say, “I know, but-“

“But nothing! I knew you wouldn’t be ready to talk, but I wanted to reconcile. And you come at me with these jabs about the life I chose? You haven’t changed at all… forget this.”

Rose left Angie and went to the unmanned drinks cart and poured herself another mead.

“… I just didn’t want you to choose to leave me…” Angie said a tear rolling down her cheek.

Alex

Alex wasn’t one for parties like this. He knew he needed an edge and nothing in this room was going to give him that. While no one was looking he left to “go to the bathroom” and started examining the other rooms on this floor.

He’d sneaked passed an unused kitchen and walked towards what seemed to be a study. Various books littered the walls.

“Maybe one of these can help,” he said to no one.

He picked up a small tourist book to the island. It was pocket sized and he easily slid it into his pants pocket.

When he looked at one of the shelves he recognized something odd. The books were all carefully arranged. Yet one book was upside down. It was titled “Lust”. He reached out to pull it, but instead of it leaving the shelf a mechanism was triggered and the shelf swung freely from the wall.

“A secret passage?” Alex looked down the passage. It wasn’t lit, but his phone gave him enough light to wiggle his way in. The passage led down a narrow path and into a small circular room. At the center was a pedestal with a gold coin at the center, it had engraved the words “Coin of Pansexuality”. Alex grabbed it and flipped it in his fingers. The back of it had more writing “Press against the back of neck to use.”

+1 Coin of Pansexuality!

Alex thought for a second, he could use this to make anyone in the mansion attracted to anyone regardless of sex or gender identity. But who to use it on? Himself came to mind first, but he didn’t think that’d have much effect. He’d called himself gay for a long time, but he’d ogled Jessica and April with John back at the apartment. Even if John didn’t know.

He decided to pocket it for now and see where the passage ended. In a few short minutes he was already walking through a secret passage that pushed a tapestry aside on the second floor. He was reminded what Naomi had said earlier, the mansion has bonuses and penalties hidden. He’d obviously got a bonus, so he might as well return to the party before he found a penalty.

John and Kim

“I wish I asked you out back at work,” John said.

“Me too,” Kim said looking at John’s chest. “Do you think if you had then they wouldn’t have chosen you as master?”

“I don’t know, that’s a question for Naomi.”

“She scares me…”

“Me too… I’m just worried that things will get out of hand. But don’t worry I’ll protect you.”

“That’s comforting,” she said looking into his eyes.

Jessica and Angie 2

“You’ve got to be more sexual, Angie,” Jessica said.

“It’s impossible,” Angie with the wavy hair said. “I’m a 52 year old in the body of a 26 year old. Last time I flirted with a guy was years ago to get out of a traffic ticket.”

“I know older women,” Jessica said “You don’t lose your sex drive that easily.”

“…” Angie blushed. “I… do have a few toys I still use…”

“That a girl,” Jessica said patting Angie on the back.

“I just think I need to make adjustments. Maybe if I have time-“

“Don’t mess around with anything permanent, you don’t know what you can screw up.”

“And you trust Naomi not to?”

“She’s at least familiar with the rules of this world. Why change yourself when you can make adjustments at the village?”

“I don’t have a lot of bonus points,” Angie said pulling out her phone. “I’ve got 5 points like everyone else.”

“Not everyone else,” Jessica said. “I know Kim got a few for getting the first date with John.”

Angie sighed, “At this point I’ll have to blow him right now in front of everyone to be able to afford anything.”

“That’s one way to go, but focus on winning the round or getting in the top 3 at least. The more crazy the transformations you do the better your chances are.”

“But what do I do in the meantime?”

“Listen, come with me to the village tomorrow and we can figure something else out. I’ll even buy you something if I can afford it.”

“Thanks, Jessica, that’s nice of you to offer.”

“Anything to make this a fair competition,” Jessica said with a smirk.

Naomi

Naomi was watching the various conversations play out. She’d recognized some alliances already forming. Hopefully the fans were getting a good show. With April MIA, she decided it was best to move forward with the night.

“Hello everyone,” Naomi announced, “We will be moving to the dining room. Your name will be on the card at your seat. Additionally any drinks should be left here for April to tidy up.”

*****

Naomi led the group out into an adjoining dining room. Just as extravagant as the other parts of the mansion the entire room was lit by candle lit and the walls were a dark burgundy with gold embellishments.

The dinner went smoothly as most people found that the meals prepared were all curated to the guest’s personal taste. Kim had raw sushi, Barbara had a steak, Angie’s both had chicken, Alex had a Bison burger, Rose had a meal right out of medieval times with a Turkey leg as a side, Veronica had a spicy vindaloo, and Jessica had a steak tip salad. John ended up eating what seemed like Chinese from his favorite Chinese restaurant.

“How did you get this? Red Dragon closed years ago?”

Naomi smiled, “We orchestrated this meal for everyone’s tastes. The answer might be time travel, or maybe we analyzed your mind to pick the exact nostalgic memory of that meal and replicated it… or maybe the restaurant moved to the next town over and you didn’t bother checking to see if it reopened… it boggles the mind!”

Naomi was eating a particularly appetizing lobster stew.

As the meal wound down Naomi stood back up again.

“Now that we’ve been stuffed, I’ll let you know that you don’t have to worry too much about calories here. All the meals will be prepared to match your estimated daily allowances. But exercising is still available for those liking to do so, doing so will garner bonus points based on the individual and performance. The totals will be capped to avoid exploitation.”

Jessica’s ears perked up at this. Free points.

“Lastly, tonight you will be heading to your bedrooms and bunking with your roommates. But every night after tonight a contestant will be chosen to share a bed with John. The order is the same order you came in. But if you need a refresher I’ve emailed you all the details.”

The room murmured a bit. Kim recognized that that meant she had the first night and the best chance of getting early bird bonus points. Veronica was a bit miffed as she wasn’t going to get a chance before Round 1 occurred. Depending on how things went someone might get eliminated depending on how the scoring goes.

“With that I wish you all a goodnight and to our lovely audience I hope you stick around. Same time same place.”

With that everyone got up and left the room. Some taking a few treats back with them to snack on.