Endgame, Part 10: Consequences

Honey

Honey lands, standing before the producer, in her cat form. The cat nods, then walks around Honey to get pets from Harper. Honey’s mate seems willing to comply.

“Well, Ms. O’Connor, you realize what you just did?” the producer purrs.

Harper sighs, a waft of exhaustion continuing to come off of her. “I just killed 2 hosts and a producer. And there are going to be consequences for that.”

“Yes, there will be consequences, mostly concerning Mr. C’s ****. Since this was Beckie’s first season and no one particularly liked her, you might actually get some thanks for that. Your counterpart’s ratings were lagging, as Frances was getting bored with the formula but had no better answer. I expect you to help with caring for her trophies as Arabella sends requests. The same is true for the blasphemer Kimura’s harem you orphaned. I have already secured most of Mr. C’s active hosts with new contracts. Some I have already threw to be infinitely digested in the stomach of a demon frog, as they are completely irredeemable. But, that only handles the immediate issues with the rest of his current seasons. I expect you lot to help deal with supervising Mr. C’s remaining graduated season harems.”

Harper smells so tired. Honey is getting a little drowsy herself. Harper nods, saying, “Understood. Another few things added to my responsibilities. Anything else before we get to the final ceremony?”

“Your girls need their exits and I presume you wish to level them up. I will also let you get a short Jaccuzi throne nap before the ceremony. You have had a busy day.”

That shocks Harper a little more alert, “Wait, Honey, Glitter, and Nyadia aren’t contestants. Why do they need exits?”

“They are part of the harem and the exit transformation is needed to finalize all of their changes and remove the anchor their souls have with the set dimension.”

Honey was expecting it. Her mate was not, but sighs and nods again. “Fine. Let me level them and get to my nap.”

Harper pulls out the DM tablet and starts with Glitterdust, who is accepting headpats, her spines waggling. Honey is getting strange sensations from Glitterdust’s pheromones, something of excitement and mania and glee. Glitter hits the level cap, gaining a little more SP and HP, plus a feature Honey doubts she would ever utilize; the dragon is too self-centered to ever really provide Bardic Inspiration.

Nyadia and Honey both end up gaining 5 levels. Nyadia doubles her SP pool, gains 50 HP, 5th level spells, a feat to improve some skills, and a hug from Harper. “Thank you, Mistress. You have shown me much more kindness than I deserve.”

Honey gets a whiff of irritation pheromones off of her mate. The face she makes doesn’t match. “You are welcome, Nyadia. Please, just call me Harper.”

The scent of regret, maybe, from Nyadia. “Maybe, in time. I’ll work on it.”

“Good. Tell me what I can do to help.” Harper turns to Honey. “Ready?”

Honey gains an aura such that the natural world does not wish to harm her, the Durable feat to improve her endurance, and a whole slew of high levels spells, including some 9th Level spells. “Thank you, mate. You should go rest now.”

“Thank you, Honey.” Harper squeezes Honey’s hand, then disappears.

“Shall we talk exit transformations now, ladies? One last bit of change, just this time of your own choosing. No transformations written by Ms. O’Connor. Nothing from the audience. You get to decide, within reason.” the cat purrs.

Glitterdust knows exactly what she wants. The producer cat argues adamantly against it. It takes Honey stepping in to negotiate to settle on something like what Glitterdust wants. My mate is not going to be very happy with this...

MtF Genderswap Breath – Glitterdust gains a second type of breath weapon, for both her elvenoid and dragon forms. All male creatures within a 15 foot cone must make a Libido saving throw, or become female for 1 hour. While female, the creature’s libido modifier becomes -3 and suffer 1 level of exhaustion. Both of these effects fade when the creature returns to being male. Glitterdust can use this breath weapon once per long rest. Maybe experiencing being a very horny sexy woman will convince some more gross boys to make the change permanent (Dragon Girl – Exit Transformation).

“I am going to use this power sooooo much. Thank you, cat. I will not eat you now, even though I am quite hungry. Do you have a sheep for ME to eat?”

A plate of muttonchops appear and Glitter sighs, returning to “smol girl” mode to eat it. She disappears as she eats.

Nyadia steps up, “I suppose I cannot change to make myself free?”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Nekotiti, but that is beyond what I can provide. Also, I truly fear what would happen if we tried. You were not here when Ms. Doctor Hornblower left the harem. It nearly killed Ms. O’Connor. Do you truly hate her so?”

Nyadia smells of such shame. Honey feels guilty, second-hand. “No, the Mistress has been very kind. I do not wish her harm. So, I can make a change to myself that could stop others from slaving, so long as it does not hurt her?”

“That is a lovely sentiment, let’s work through it.”

The two negotiate. Honey offers suggestions to assist her harem-sister. Soon, the final verbiage is set:

The High Hunt of Abolition – When an evil-aligned **** owner is within the range of Nyadia’s aura, they automatically suffer under the effects of a Bane spell, cast at base level. Nyadia must maintain concentration on each instance of this effect. If the **** owner dies within the aura, all of the owner’s slaves will be transported to Svartalfheim and freed. Nyadia will experience an orgasm for every **** freed this way (Avenging Gladiatrix – Exit Transformation).

“Thank you, good cat creature. I will wield this power for the good of the Argent Dancer.” Nyadia nods and disappears.

“Just you and me now, Ms. Honey. What could I offer you?”

Honey thinks through her options. I know that whoever won the wish will be extending our lifespans, which was the primary objective to joining my mate’s harem. My mate has filled my spermatheca once, and seem amenable to doing so again. It was quite pleasurable, too. My mate will also likely provide me enough tasks to perform for my employment. I have not had enough time to adjust to the pheromone transformation to understand if modifying it would be worth the effort. I believe that I am currently content.

“I do not know what I should want, Ms. E.”

The producer has a suggestion, offering a piece of information that Honey was unaware of, “The genetic anomaly that resulted in your increased intelligence is currently not inheritable. It was partially due to environmental factors in the spider creature your egg was laid upon that you would have difficulty reproducing.”

That started an actual negotiation. Honey understands that she needed to compromise for the purposes of the show, but is eventually satisfied:

Breeding for Brains – Honey would like to pass on her intelligence to her offspring. This will let her. Honey can earn points from providing offspring for her Mistress and harem-sisters. She can spend points to modify her eggs to increase the chances all of her subsequent nehtaliante offspring developing Honey’s intelligence and/or the emotional intelligence of the average elvenoid. It should only take several hundred children to really get the odds in Honey’s favor (Druid – Exit Transformation).

“If you would do me the kindness of one more thing, the winner could use some legal expertise.”

Honey nods, “I would glad to be of service to my harem-sister.”

So, Honey finds herself in a different white room. One occupant, Ms. E, is expected. The other occupant, trying to argue against picking up something selfish for herself despite being told by Calypso that the winner must do so, is not who Honey was expecting. No matter; I wish to be of assistance.

Honey interjects, “Shall we restart negotiations?”

In a Particular Dimension, a Bit in the Future

She finds herself sprawled on a wooden platform by the entrance of a large cave. Her head is pounding and she finds it hard to focus. She sits up, trying her best to get her bearings. She doesn’t know where she is or how she got here. She appears to be wearing last night’s clothes still. Her handbag is missing, so she doesn’t have her phone. Where am I? What is going on here?

The sound of a sheep baaing interrupts the beginnings of her thoughts. There is a live sheep tied to that post. What is whoever they are trying to feed? The sheep looks scared, trying to get as far away from the entrance of the cave as possible.

The ground shakes. Something approaches. Something big. Something that can speak, for it says “Hey, human! How’s it hanging?”

The thing appears and lumbers towards the sheep. A dragon? Radical! This must be a dream!

Her voice seems to work, at least, as she greets back, “Hey, dragon, nice to see you, I guess? Care to tell me where I am?”

“Oh, you are on my dining platform. You mind if I have lunch? The name is Megaballista, human. Don’t worry about telling me yours. It’s supposed to be a secret, at least until you are picked up tonight.”

Megaballista? Who names their kid Megaballista? My imagination must have ran out of juice before it got to names, huh? Also, I am to be picked up? The dragon chomps down on the sheep and swallows it whole. It then waddles closer.

She feels nervous, with Megaballista looming over her. She chuckles, “Uh, you get enough to eat there, big guy?”

“Enough to be satisfied until the big feast tonight. The monks promised me several sheep. It’s a big day today.” The dragon gives her a terrifying smile.

“Please don’t eat me.” she whispers.

“Wouldn’t dream of it, human. Don’t worry. We got a couple of hours til we need to leave for the party. Whatcha want to talk about until then?”

“Party? What kind of party?”

The terrifying smile gets wider as the dragon nods his head down towards a trail. “Oh, the monastery down there throws a little shindig every night, but they go all out during the full moon, like we got tonight. They have WLA coming in to play. Oh, I love WLA! What’s your fav WLA song?”

“Sorry, but WLA? Never heard of them.”

The dragon looks stunned. “You never heard of WLA? The Wailing Lutenists of Avernus? The best heavy bard troope on the continent? I don’t care that you have only been in this world for less than an hour; we are fixing that right now! C’mon.”

The dragon starts to head back into his cave, wrapping his frilled tail around her. A very real feeling tail. She starts to panic, thinking that this is no longer a dream. The lava floes in the tunnel do not help her calm down.

The other end of the tunnel kind of looks like her old room back home, if everything was several times larger and arranged in a cave. The dragon waddles over to a large sound system and hits play. Wondrously weird music reverberates in the cave. It’s like some hipsters wanted to play **** metal on medieval instruments. Megaballista starts to sing along with the chorus. She knows that she knows someone who would love this, if only she could remember. Ugh, my brain hurts.

Megaballista notices, “Oh, poor human, don’t tell me that you have such bad taste in music that you can’t jam to some WLA?”

“Not that, these tunes are pretty good, if odd. Just it hurts to think, for some reason.”

“Oh, yeah, the monastery mentioned something like that in their note. Let me go find it. Just a few minutes.”

The dragon digs around in a trashcan the size of a porta-potty and eventually pulls out a large parchment. It takes her some considerable effort to unroll, but she eventually manages it well enough to read it:

Megaballista,

Once again, thank you for your efforts in preventing the gnolls from attacking the monastery and for being more personable than the previous tenant in the volcano. The Lady of the Dance wishes to reward your efforts with a simple task that will result in great rewards. The early afternoon of the full moon, a human will be dropped off at your doorstep. She is likely to be confused, as she is from another world. This human is important to one of the Crown Princess’s entourage. Please ensure that she is well, then escort her to the monastery in time for the festival. We will have an extra helping of sheep for you. The Princess herself will also send treasure once the human is safe in the castle.

-High Matron Meriele

Order of the Silvery Moth

She reads and re-reads. Gnoll attacks? Lady of the Dance? From another world? Crown Princess? Order of the Silvery Moth? What does all of this mean?

“This all you know, Megaballista?”

“Pretty much, other than, if I play my cards right, I will get to bang Ramon Bloodscream when the band finishes their set tonight. It’s rumored that he/she likes to plunge into dragon cloacae. In either form, he/she is so hot!”

To prove the point, he pulls up some images of an incubus on the Internet. Well, I guess that’s something. “Sorry, bud. Only into girls.”

“Oh, just like the Crown Princess and her harem. The male form Ramon is mostly for the stage. His female form Ramona looks like this.”

The dragon redoes the image search. Okay. She’s hot. I admit it.

“Am I supposed to know who this Crown Princess is? Also, she has a harem?”

“Note said that you are important to one of her harem-girls. While you probably know that girl, she could be an important descendant of yours or something. And, yes, the princess has a harem full of hotties. I got to meet her and some of them when I moved in. She was getting a ride down to the monastery from my lair’s previous owner.”

“I can’t believe I am asking this, but can I see the hotties?”

“Uh, sure. Let me pull that up.”

Megaballista does another image search, this time for “Aranel Tyalangan and sluts.” She makes a face at the derogatory term, then sees the results. Most of the images are of a devastatingly beautiful woman with aquamarine skin and sea foam green hair, either alone or with other women. The ears are strange, as are the slits in her neck; it’s almost as if she’s some sort of mermaid princess. She gets lost in the imagery for a moment. Then, she focuses on the others in the pictures. Is that? That can’t be? I should remember her. What the fuck happened?

“Take me down to this monastery, now!”

“You sure you don’t want to hang out and listen to WLA some more?”

“I need answers, from people who know, Megaballista. Internet is not going to cut it. If this Meriele knew to expect me, she must have an explanation that makes sense. We can talk music on the way. Why doesn’t WLA have guitars?”

As she starts to mount the dragon to hitch a ride to this monastery (and, hopefully, answers), Megaballista asks, “What’s a guitar?”

They have Internet and sound systems, but no guitars? That’s so weird…