The Exposition (Rules)

Ariadne continued to use Alan as a perch as the chairs settled in a line around her.

"With apologies to regular viewers, we have to explain everything for new contestants, new viewers, and our master. It wouldn't be fair to hog all the screen time, so let's have a contestant introduce each rule. They get one question after they read the rules." Ariadne dropped from Alan and slithered into Christian's chair and lap. "Think of me as a friendly talking stick."

The **** holding Christian's arms and silencing her broke as Ariadne slithered on top of her, and she froze completely. She barely breathed as she felt the weight of the snake holding her.

"Play along." Alan hissed.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Christian shuddered. Ariadne handed her an index card. "Harem Hotel: It's Your Fault. Rule #1: The master and contestants will be confined to the Atlas Hotel outside of sanctioned activities, such as requests for dating locations, challenges located elsewhere, and surprise escape attempts or events. Leaving the Hotel or hiding within it will not remove contestants from the competition. Victory points (VP), transformations, challenges, and polls will continue in the absence of contestants and continue to apply." Christian was silent for a minute after she finished reading.

"You have a question." Alan reminded her.

"Oh, yeah." Christian. "How do we leave the 'competition' in the rules?"

"There is a process called Elimination. This is triggered by a refusal to participate in a competition or the end of a 'round' with negative VP. The rounds last a week and will be explained later. Elimination requires that I trigger one of a set of Exit Transformations that the Producers have already defined. I am not allowed to tell you the details, but examples of elimination from other seasons will be given later."

Christian sagged in relief as Ariadne slithered off her lap and up into Natalia's chair. The woman smiled as the pressure on her arms failed. Natalia had acted since she was a child, and appearing aggressive seemed like a bad opening move. Ariadne handed her a new index card.

"Thank you, Ariadne." Natalia fought her instincts to scream. "Rule #2: This is Sunday. Round one starts tomorrow. Each round will consist of six "date nights" with one for each contestant. Sunday will involve a 'challenge' instead of a date night. The game will end after three contestants reach a score of 100 VP, and the round ends. If the ending threshold is reached before five full rounds, the 'bonus rounds' will continue until five rounds are completed."

"Any questions?" Ariadne asked.

"What was your relationship with Laurel?" Natalia had been thinking about the question to ask. She had to look engaged.

"She decided that babysitting the child of the host would gain her favor with the host. I had been dropped off by my father, who is a Producer of Harem Hotel, in a move to rebrand the season around a theme of parenting." Ariadne explained.

"They had a child involved in this?" Natalia voiced a sense of horror.

"That's an extra question." Ariadne slithered off, and the pressure returned to silence Natalia.

Samuel shuddered as Ariadne's weight settled on his shoulders as Ariadne climbed up the back of the chair for a new approach. He didn't touch the index card, reading it after Ariadne angled it for his viewing. His voice was on the edge of panic. "I'm not going to read that."

"Your choice." Ariadne's tone didn't change. "No question for you, then. And Samuel? The Audience remembers who cooperates."

She slithered off the armrest without waiting for a response, the index card in her tendril, and gave it to Chloe.

Chloe screamed for several seconds, and Ariadne waited while keeping her weighed down. Chloe did not thrash or fight, as she suspected she would be punished for it. After she got the scream out of her system.

"Rule #3: The Director and the Queen of Hell will not be mentioned outside of this rule." Chloe frowned, tried to ask what that rule meant, failed, and straightened. "How can we earn VP?"

"VP can be earned through challenges, as well as progressing through milestones of a relationship with Alan. It can be lost through poor placement in challenges or for violating rules as detailed in the handout. There may also be specific rewards or challenges, but those are rare. VP gain requires a new milestone, which disadvantages some of you who have already achieved certain milestones." Ariadne paused. "Note that 'milestone' is a very polite phrase. Relevant acts will be listed in a handout in your rooms."

Ariadne slithered back around through Alan's feet and climbed into Laurel's chair. "Ready?"

Laurel snatched the index card from Ariadne's tendril. "Rule #4: We will each nominate a challenge by secret ballot for the first challenge. These challenges will be ranked by the Audience." Laurel shrugged. "How is everyone? Nathan, Mom, the others?"

"Ali has done a ton of **** and raised Alan. Nathan and Ali present as a married couple in most situations to try and deflect attention from the peculiarities of Alan's situation. Katelyn and 'Working Title' got married, which no one saw coming. She goes by 'Jasmine' now. Jeremy finished transitioning to Jessica. Behind the scenes, they have a functional polycule that settled in Roswell, of all places. Sky stayed with us as an assistant and will be providing oversight on this season. Um, Violet's most of the way to solving world hunger." Ariadne smiled. "I know they want you back."

"Thank you." Laurel sagged with relief as Ariadne slithered away and back into Christian's lap.

"Okay." Christian **** a smile. Ariadne had behaved like a reasonable figure, even if the rules were clearly gross. "Hit me."

Ariadne laughed and handed an index card to Christian, who read it with an increasingly baffled look on her face. "Rule #5: All challenges will involve a transformation given to each contestant, besides the highest-scoring contestant. The highest-scoring contestant will not be transformed, but may select a prize that may include a transformation designed to be positive. Transformations include but are not limited to alterations of the body, alterations to memory on a personal or group level, minor superpowers, and behavior restriction enforced by magical compulsion. Transformations on seasons of Harem Hotel have included becoming a hive mind, false belief that they are actually an undercover Producer, breast augmentation that secretly treated cancer, biological immortality, professional skills, retroactive gender transition, values being altered to match those of another contestant, and magical capabilities common in another dimension but extinct in the Severed World. Transformations have been workshopped in advance and are not under the host's discretion."

"Yeah, that's a lot." Ariadne sighed.

"I need a minute." Christian looked out over the group, who had a variety of expressions. Samuel had a thousand-yard stare, Natalia had a worried expression, Chloe was watching intently, and Laurel was examining the mural on the far wall. "Um, can we remove these 'transformations' if we don't like them?" Christian focused.

"Yes, but removal is rare or costly. Ending the season as a 'winner' will grant an additional transformation intended to integrate the final transformation set into something comfortable and help with integration."

"Got it." Christian collapsed back into the chair. Ariadne returned to Natalia.

"Okay." Natalia read the index card. "Rule #6: There is an in-game currency called Bonus Points, or BP. These are rewarded when VP are awarded, granted from an allowance at the start of each round, unlocking hidden achievements the host created but no longer remembers, and from a popularity poll before each challenge." Natalia waved her hands helplessly. "The transformations, what are we in for?"

"We may be able to live a successful, normal, or enviable life after the season. There are certain seasons where one or more contestants were ruined by the competition despite avoiding Elimination. The Audience is unpredictable and will influence the transformations. Many would love nothing better than to burn the Producers alive, while others hate everyone like us for reasons I should not explain." Ariadne sighed and left Natalia's lap.

Alan raised a hand, and Ariadne turned to him after she skipped Samuel. "What about him?"

"Samuel didn't want to participate. Another request would alienate those who respected the decision if he were to capitulate. If he stuck to the defiance, he would seem obstinate to others." Ariadne explained.

Alan nodded and gave Samuel a "thumbs up." Samuel looked exhausted and nodded at Alan and Ariadne.

"What can I do to keep people safe?" Alan asked.

"Make the Audience care about the contestants as people," Ariadne spoke as she slithered into Chloe's lap.

"Rule #7: The Producers will grant a single wish to the contestant with the highest VP total at the end of the season. There are restrictions on the wish that are detailed in a handout in your rooms, but the scope of the wish is quite broad. The Producers are not idiots, but failure to grant a wish in good faith would risk the anger of the Audience." Chloe finished the index card and became animated. "You're saying we can fix whatever the show does, right?" She added as her question.

"Many mechanics of the game are explicitly outside of the scope of the wish. Otherwise, this would be little more than a dream. Your foster mother, Jasmine Navidson-Truant, wished for restrictions on further contact between Harem Hotel's patrons and the dimension called the Severed World. This required negotiation with her to enable the current season. Laurel was used as leverage, but the Producers could not violate the boundaries of her wish. Others have made less effective moves to try and check the Producers, but the fact that we still have Harem Hotel should tell you that there are structures to prevent the obvious methods of retaliation." Ariadne nodded and slithered off of Chloe and climbed onto Alan.

"What now?" Alan asked, exhausted after less than an hour in Harem Hotel.

"We have opening transformations. The Audience will vote on the prepared options. After that, we will have a popularity poll and let you all into the grounds of the Atlas Hotel to recover and process the events of the day." Ariadne explained. "We will read the options, and you and the contestant will comment to try and sway the audience." Ariadne gave a tired smile. "Let's get this over with."