Kaori: Day 5 (Music of the Night)

NB: This chapter contains a long conversation between Morgan and the protagonist going over plans and reflections on the game. Those of you seeing this as an infodump, don't worry, the sex is coming in the next post. :)

Snow falls peacefully on an icy day as you make your way over to the East Campus cafeteria to meet with Morgan. It adds a quiet to the day that seems to magnify the secret you bear. Secret? Well, you have to admit that the game seems both a lot more of a protected secret, and a lot less of an actual secret, than you ever realized. The cafeteria is almost empty when you enter, the quiet seeming to whisper that you should be quiet once more.

She’s there - nursing a coffee and a pastry in one corner of the room. You walk over and sit down at her table, drawing her attention. Morgan frowns as she examines you, seemingly not sure about what she’s seeing.

“You’re not what I expected,” she says.

“Oh? What did you expect?”

“Player in some college sex game?”

You look around suddenly, making sure you’re not overheard.

“And setting up something at the theater if what Kaori told me is true. I figured you’d either be a steroid-imbued jock or some nerdy art club weirdo. You look…” her lips quirk into a slight smile, “Surprisingly normal.”

You chuckle. “Well, we’ve had one of each of them. The jock got knocked out early and the weirdo… let’s just say he’s struggling with the demands of the faculty.”

She raises an eyebrow, eager for an explanation but you shake your head and tell her you can’t say more. It’s against the rules.

“Good,” she says at last. “I wasn’t going to help you if I could draw out any meaningful information so easily. I’m not setting Kaori up to do something risky with someone too stupid to keep his mouth shut. So, what’s it all about anyhow?”

You scan the room again, afraid of what would happen if the wrong person heard you. The place is still almost empty though. The cook is away from the counter, probably making new burritos and burgers. Two people sit in one corner, avidly going over something on their computer. And there’s a mature student focusing on a thick pile of paperwork. Add the music giving some covering noise, some popular trash probably from the charts 5 years ago, and you should be safe.

“Basically, you score points by having sex with women in the deck, the more intense the sex the better the points.”

“The deck?”

“Yeah, women are rated like playing cards - two through the court cards and…”

She laughs. “Wow, misogyny much?”

You feel the discussion slipping away from you. Perhaps you were wrong to say anything about the game, but the way she’d asked made it clear she wanted information and if she was going to help you set anything up, especially if she was also going to accept a challenge, then you couldn’t flat refuse. Still, you feel defensive.

“Okay, I know, but not everyone playing is a guy. I can’t say more, but we do have a woman playing too. She’s good actually.”

That makes her pause. She takes a sip of her coffee and sits staring into the cup for several seconds. You wait, nervous as to what she’ll say about the little she’s heard so far, let alone when she hears your plans.

“Yeah, I suppose that doesn’t surprise me too much,” she says at last. “Anyhow, you selected Kaori and now you want to do something with the theater… what?”

There’s no point in delaying this, so you take the plunge. “I thought, if she’s willing, I’d put her in an A-frame on stage and make love with her while dressed as the Phantom of the Opera.”

It’s likely she doesn’t even realize that made her lick her lips, but to you the fleeting movement was very noticeable.

“Oh, she’s going to love that,” says Morgan, breaking into a grin.

“Yeah?” the relief you feel is intense. This really is all falling into place well.

“Yeah. That’s her favourite play. It’s where we met actually - she played Christine when the drama club did it last year. And making it sexual? On stage? She’s an exhibitionist - though she’s kinda careful with it. As long as you’re not a disappointment I won’t be able to shut her up about this one.”

That explains how they know each other, you realize.

“Do you have an audience at all?”

“Yeah,” you say. “Kinda. The woman setting up the frame will be there to ensure safety. The professor who reserved the theater wants to watch to make sure I follow BDSM rules. I have someone coming to play the organ…”

“LIVE MUSIC? She’s gonna eat this up. I assume you can trust them though?”

You nod. “I can’t reveal why to you, but yes, these people are completely reliable. They’d lose more by talking about it than they gain by keeping it confidential.”

“Ok, nice. But what about an actual audience?”

“What do you mean?” you ask, uncertainly.

“I mean people in the seats. People there to watch her submission?”

It takes you almost a minute to realize you’re staring at her open-mouthed. Of course you don’t have an audience. It’s not like you can take out a newspaper ad or anything. Not for something like this. Besides, surely Kaori wouldn’t be okay with that.

“Er… no,” you say.

“Shame,” Morgan replies. “Look, it’s only because of this what you’re planning I’m going to tell you this, but her secret fantasy is to be a consensual ‘victim’ in a chikan scene. A safe one, where she has the option to back out, but still one where she can pretend she doesn’t.”

You stare at her trying to work out what that word was. You’ve never heard it before. “Chikan?”

Now it’s Morgan’s turn to look confused. “Wait, you’re in some kind of freaky sex game and planning to have bondage sex on a stage and you’ve never even heard of chikan? How do you manage to be such a pervert and so damn innocent at the same time.”

Your cheeks burn with embarrassment. You were beginning to think you’d heard everything at this point, but once again it turns out you haven’t. And now you’re being roasted for it. You don’t respond, but your blushes make Morgan chuckle.

“It’s a form of public sex, though with a very dark background. Basically people being taken against their will on a bus or train.”

“Oh my god!” you say, revolted by the idea.

“I know, right? As a reality - nasty, but as a fantasy, anything goes. And this is Kaori’s. It could never really happen, not safely and with her acceptance. But your idea of taking her bound up on stage to a background of her favourite play? It might even be better. It’s just a shame you can’t get an audience.”

You think about it for a second, wondering if there’s any way to provide at least some of what Kaori wants. The room about you seems to cease to exist as you focus on the impossible challenge. You could ask Rebekah if she knows anyone, but how could she get people you could rely on to be discreet. And then the solution presents itself and the world roars into existence again.

“The game! Everyone in the game has been personally selected because they’d be likely to be in such a game and not run to the press. And at this point most of the ladies have shown they’re happy to be in it. We might be able to pull something together.”

“Nice,” says Morgan, standing up. “I’ll get us something to eat - burgers ok for you?”

“Thank you.”

You decide not to decline her generosity. Besides, you still have to talk to her about her part. While she’s gone, you send Rhett a message asking if there’s any way he can bring people to watch the challenge tomorrow. That will be more successful than you trying to do it yourself, and if you’re going to network then you might as well network with the host of the entire game. It takes a few minutes for the response to come back, and he seems eager.

As you finish confirming that he’ll bring a crowd, at least of some size, Morgan reappears and drops a plate of burgers and fries on the table before you. The smell hits you at once, searing and succulent. If there’s one thing the cafeteria does right it’s burgers. You pick it up and take a deep bite, enjoying the heat of the juices on your tongue.

“So,” says Morgan as she sips coffee. “What did you need me for?”

“I thought you could do some posters,” you say. “Or some other advertising material. Not to send anywhere of course, but to put up in the theater to make it look like a show that’s really been advertised.”

She frowns at you. “I can do that,” she says. “But you don’t really need them and you could do them just as easily. So why bring me specifically into this?”

She’s too smart not to see you’re hiding something, so you don’t. Leaning forward towards her you say quietly. “I drew your card too.”

“I’m in the game?”

Her lip curls at the corner in a crooked smile. Her eyes seem to catch the fluorescent lights of the room and spark with amusement. One thing her face doesn’t register is surprise.

“I suppose it makes sense. They must have some intense selection method to make sure things stay safe. They’ve probably read my blog or something.”

“Your blog?”

“Yeah, ‘Secret I’, my voyeurism journal.”

“Your voyeurism journal?” Once again the floor shifts as you realize another Lady of the deck was already kinky. “Dear god, is there anyone at this college who ISN’T secretly a sex maniac?”

“Probably not,” she says with a laugh. “But no, you’re thinking about it all wrong. You said that they rate us women like cards, right? Which I’m guessing means they’ve selected 52 of us. The college has a student body of around 20-25 thousand people, with just over half being women. That means they’ve carefully chosen about one half of one percent of us. Believe me, there’s a lot more kinky people than that around.”

You add salt and pepper to your fries and slowly eat some, using the time that takes to mull things over. One half of one percent. It’s not even a drop in a bucket. It begins to hit you that the only thing surprising about your journey in the game so far is that you’ve been so gullible. No wonder it’s been easier than you expected for everyone to achieve challenges. As long as you’re not repulsive, or stupid, you’re asking people to do what they enjoy doing. Still, you offer one objection.

“They do make mistakes.”

“Sure. Nobody’s perfect. Give me an example.”

You think hard about it and the answer comes to you easily. “Week two I drew a lesbian as the Lady I had to do something with.”

That makes her jerk back and frown. “What happened?”

“She used me as a sex toy on her live OnlyFans feed. Told her viewers afterwards that she preferred plastic to flesh.”

Morgan cracks out laughing, loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the place. You look around nervously, praying that nobody actually heard you. But slowly they each turn back to what they were doing.

“Morgan,” you hiss through clenched teeth. “Keep it down!”

“I’m sorry,” she says, still not able to stop laughing entirely. “That was you on that chair? With Chloe? And you think that was a mistake on their part? How are you such a freak and so naive at the same time? They didn’t accidentally throw you at a random lesbian, they gave you an impossible task of trying to seduce an OnlyFans model who doesn’t do men… well, apart from you, once, it seems. They probably figured she’d tell you to fuck off and that would be it. The impressive part is you actually managed to make it work.”

You reach for the can of soda in front of you and try to hide behind it as you drink. The sweet bubbles bursting and flowing over your tongue give you something other than your own embarrassment to focus on.

“Okay,” says Morgan eventually. “So, I’m a card, am I? Which one?”

It’s not a question you really want to answer. You don’t want to insult her by telling her she’s barely mid tier. Her stare won’t allow you that safety though. You sigh and pull up her card on your College Spread tablet, pausing just a moment before showing it to her.

“Six of diamonds?” she says. Her fingers drum on the table as she mulls over what that means. “Makes sense, I guess. It’s not like I have any problem getting a date, but I don’t exactly have guys falling all over me either. Fair enough. So, do you have any ideas about what you’d like to do to score my points?”

That’s a good question. You already know you can play the joker, but if you can save that for some other time, then that would be better. You really haven’t given any thought about what challenge card to play with her though. You now know she’s a voyeur, but that doesn’t really tie in with any of them.

“I want to be in the show,” she says, interrupting your thoughts.

“What?”

You look at her, barely registering what she said.

“I want to watch Kaori perform up close and personal… I can write a script to narrate, be on stage with you, off to the side maybe, but watching.”

“Sure,” you say. “That would be great. But it doesn’t match any of the challenge cards.”

“Cards?”

“Yeah, you don’t just score points for anything. There’s only 10 forms of sex that do score, and you only hold five options at once.”

“Okay, so tell me what you have.”

You flick onto your challenge cards to remind yourself. “Naked kiss, blow job… that means any oral sex, anal sex, BDSM which I’ll be doing with Kaori and impregnate.”

“Well, I’m certainly not doing that last one!’ she snorts. “Hmm… nothing for a voyeur then. Fine, I’ll narrate naked and give you a kiss. That okay?”

You nod, slightly disappointed won’t get a larger score. “We can do that,” you say. “Or we can wait until the week after and see if I get something better.”

The two of you talk late into the afternoon, enjoying each other's company and discussing her plans for marketing material. From everything she suggests, you realize she was wrong. There’s no way you could have come up with some of this, let alone produce it so quickly. Her touches are going to make this show sing.