Contingency Plan

Mary regained consciousness sometime later. She was certain someone was trying to kill her. Someone was trying to smother her, with warm softness. Mary tried to shove the soft pillows pressing against her face off of her. After a moment, she realized what was happening and bit down on Ellen’s breast.

Ellen let out a “Eep!” pulling back and bringing Mary with her. Mary’s teeth were still biting down on Ellen’s areola. “What’s your problem?” Mary let go of her, and Ellen continued. “Wait… Mary? Oh… I guess you shifted back while we slept. Why did you bite me?”

Mary glared while pouting at Ellen, “Because you were smothering me with your tits.”

“Oh…” Ellen looked down at her breasts. “Wait… why are they so big? They are bigger than before the party yesterday.”

Mary looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “So… you don’t remember last night?”

“Vaguely… I remember the party and getting hit by the cactus, then going to lunch with my dad and Jennifer.”

“I feel like you skimmed over some really important points right there.”

Ellen gave Mary an annoyed look. “One intentionally, the other I’m still a little in disbelief about. After that, the orchestra, then the library… then the bedroom, which is where it gets a little fuzzy.”

“Are you saying I was so good you don’t remember us making sweet, sweet love?”

“I remember parts of it.” Ellen tried to get up to get dressed. “Ow, ow, ow. So sore.”

“So you don’t recall agreeing to let me impregnate you or actually getting knocked up last night?”

“WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST SAY!”

Mary snorted in laughter. “HA, HA, HA, HA. I’m sorry.” Ellen shoved Mary down onto the bed. “To be fair, you did actually agree to me buying the contraceptive option that lets me decide your fertility rate, and you did actually allow things to progress while believing that your rate was set to 100%. You really don’t remember that?” Mary asked while sitting back up.

“You did more than agree, you were downright eager,” Symbietta added mentally.

Ellen furrowed her brows and replied to Symbietta first, “Good morning, Symbietta. I take it that Lucia isn’t back yet? Also, you sound more… coherent, I think is the best word.”

“She is not, and I am. It seems I’m picking up more and more of your personality and traits the more you orgasm. Last night was fantastic. I think there is a little less than an hour left before Lucia returns.”

Ellen turned to Mary, “I remember us starting to have sex, but honestly, I think you might have made me lose my mind, because it is rather fuzzy, but it felt wonderful, I remember that.”

“Well, you did pass out.” Mary got up and set out her equipment to change into in a little bit. Mary saw that Ellen had not yet gotten up. “Do you need help?”

“Yes, please. I’m hoping that once my TFs come back, I can put on my equipment and transform into Lucia. I think I’ll be able to walk at least while in that form.”

“Speaking of Lucia, are you going to tell Laura, or do I need to? Because I’m not sitting on this info literally one second longer than I need to. I can tell I can share this with my other half, too. So if you want to tell her yourself, do it this morning; otherwise, I will.”

“I’ll tell her. I wanted to talk to her about a few other things anyway.”

“Okay.” Mary grabbed Ellen’s equipment and laid it next to her own. Mary looked down at both of their tits. “These might have been a mistake in hindsight… Ellen, would you like to join me in the bath? The water is piping hot.”

“Yes, please. Though I won’t be great company since I’ll be talking to Laura.”

Mary nodded and walked over to Ellen, who put an arm around Mary for support and limped down the steps into the bath, wincing the entire time she was moving.

After submerging up to her shoulders in the hot water, Ellen tried reaching out to Laura. “Laura, can we talk? Laura? Oh my Goddess, I beseech a communion with your divine presence.”

“I heard you the first time, Ellen. I’m still upset with you. What do you want?”

“Okay, we actually have a lot to talk about.”

“I’m not in the mood right now, Ellen.”

“Tough tits, sister. You are going to listen to me. I am your sub, girlfriend, and sister. You will be hearing me out here.” Ellen could feel Laura’s annoyance across the connection, but also something akin to a nod. “I would appreciate it if you would lose the attitude because the first thing is about our parents, and I feel like you would prefer to hear it from me instead of Mark.”

“What about our parents?” Laura’s attitude did indeed shift dramatically to that of concern.

“They are both fine.” Mary swam over to Ellen in the pool and started giving Ellen a massage, seeing that she was tensing up. “Oh, that feels good. Sorry, Mary started giving me a massage. So, our parents are definitely getting married.”

“What!? Explain from the beginning.”

“Okay, so I believe you were all told that Mark and I went to a party yesterday on the set of another season.”

“Yeah, we were all annoyed that we couldn’t go with him.”

“Well, that was at least partially because I paid to have the eight hour exclusive date with him. He could have brought one of you, but I think his choice not to was probably the right one. Anyway, the point is that I then took him to meet our Dad.”

“You mean your dad?”

“Laura, I know you think of him like that sometimes, but even if we ignore the alternate reality stuff, I mean, your soon to be step-father.”

“Wait, really? How much time has passed for them?”

“Same amount as us. Cassandra teleported Mark and me into Dad’s kitchen. Where he was naked… and having sex with our… with Jennifer.”

“Mark mentioned they had likely had sex after we left after the last challenge. That isn’t exactly news or evidence that they are going to get married.”

“No… it isn’t. Laura, are you sitting down?”

“I’m still in bed, yes. Trying to get a little bit more sleep after being woken up so early to write letters.”

“Jennifer is pregnant.”

“WHAT!?!?!?!?” Ellen could almost feel Laura bolt right up in bed.

“With quadruplets.”

“WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!” Ellen could feel the confusion of emotions over the connection to Laura.

“Yeah… Cassandra confirmed it, too.”

“I… I… I’m going to be a big sister… again? I… I have more siblings.” Ellen could feel the love Laura felt over the connection, which annoyed her and caused her to feel a little bitter. Which was something Laura picked up on, “Ellen, why are you upset? Aren’t you happy for them?”

“For our parents? Absolutely. I’m ecstatic and quite pleased I’m getting three little sisters and a little brother.” Ellen felt Laura get giddy from the additional information. Then she felt Laura’s confusion.

“Then why do you feel bitter right now?”

“Because I can feel your love for our unborn siblings. Because when talking with Mom, she said your sister Laura said you accepted her and went to extraordinary lengths to help her, without hesitation. She was your sister, and that was enough for you.”

“Ellen… I’m confused.”

“Laura, you don’t love me. I don’t mean as a girlfriend. That’s complicated, and I get that. I mean, as a sister. It hurts, because I know Lucia and I love you.”

“Ellen… that’s not—”

“Don’t tell me it’s not true. Laura, I’m still thirty-four. Lucia is also not twenty-seven, like you are. I thought about it. She is definitely older than that. Which makes sense since when I’m Lucia, I get weaker versions of your TFs. If you loved either of us as your sister, we would be younger, but we aren’t. And don’t say that isn’t how it works unless you are saying you are in love with Jennifer, which I very much doubt.”

Ellen could feel confusion and remorse across the connection. “Ellen… I’m sorry.”

“It’s not me that you really need to be sorry towards. It’s Lucia. It’s part of the reason I’m having this conversation while she’s suppressed. Can you tell me something? Do you consider her to be your sibling?”

“I…” Ellen could feel Laura’s hesitation. “Sometimes. It’s confusing. Sometimes I remember growing up with Lucia; other times, the memories are less crisp to me.” After a long silence, Laura continued. “But yes, Lucia is my sister… You are my sister. I’m sorry if I made you feel otherwise.”

Ellen was about to say something, but Mary said, “Hey… umm… congrats, I think?” Ellen looked at Mary, confused. “You just got something like seven years younger. I assume Laura just told you that she loves you.”

“No, she didn’t actually.” “Thanks, Laura. I’m sorry for lashing out at you. I just reverted to being twenty-seven again, and I feel more fit. I love you, too. I didn’t mean—”

“Ellen, it’s fine. I don’t know if it was because I didn’t acknowledge you as my sibling whom I love or because I didn’t make my feelings for you clear. Ellen, I do love you like a sister. I’m hoping it will be more one day.”

“Me, too. But that actually brings me to the next thing I wanted to talk about. Laura, I feel like the way you talked to me last time was uncalled for. I get you were upset, but you, Talia, and I all agreed on not holding back before we started this challenge. I didn’t target you specifically; I just did something to hamper your team. Which is literally a goal for my team. I get that things might have gotten out of hand and that there might have been fallout, but you have to remember this is a challenge. There’s been fallout from each challenge so far.”

“Ellen, your actions could have traumatized Sam severely.”

“Laura, Sam of all people doesn’t have room to complain about being aggressive during challenges. She literally beat Aubrey’s butt with a dildo after tying her up. All of you only had a couple of desserts each. The effects shouldn’t be that bad. If they caused something, then plenty in this challenge could have done the same. Heck, we’ve experienced worse, a lot worse. Look, I can see if our team will agree to a truce about this, but you still went against our agreement. You specifically threatened me because I took nonspecific actions against your team. That was uncalled for.”

“Ellen, Sadie threatened Mark to the point she lost points. She threatened to get herself eliminated to hurt him if she had to, because Mark violated her boundaries because he had those brownies. I think being pissed off is justified.”

“Maybe at the situation, but not me. Blame Cassandra. She’s the one who put them into the challenge. Mary has come across multiple things so far that would reduce or eliminate her inhibitions. If she hadn’t taken the option to have one of us randomly take on a cursed item instead of her, Mary would have had a collar that would have completely eliminated her inhibitions. Mark is going to come across more of them. That is a warning. You need to be prepared because I’m willing to bet it will happen again. Even if my team doesn’t do it deliberately, and I can’t promise you that they won’t. Now, if you want a truce about this, I’ll relay it to my team. As for Sadie, she needs to work through her problems. Either she doesn’t understand what elimination means, or she needs help and was going to crack sooner rather than later anyway. I have one more thing I want to talk with you about, but I’m not sure now is the time, with us both being upset.”

Ellen could feel Laura actively trying to calm down. “Can you tell me at least the topic?”

“The exact nature of our relationship, and how Mary and Mark fit into it.”

“You… you aren’t breaking up with me, right?”

“No, not even close. Yes, I’m upset, but I want to establish certain boundaries.”

Ellen could feel Laura’s annoyance. “Yeah, that might not be the best choice to discuss right now. Please relay that thing about a truce for moral changing effects on Mark and Mary. I will do the same for my team as well. Ellen… I took the effects Mark was under on myself. I’m not sure how I feel about it right now, and it’s hard to tell if that’s because I think this is different or because my inhibitions are lowered and I made a mistake because of it. Either way, that’s my point. You’re upset that I lashed out at you, but it very well could be literally your fault that I did that, because I was protecting Mark from your actions.”

“Fine, let’s put the matter aside for now. We can talk more later. I still love you, Laura. I’ll pass on your request, but if they disagree, I’m not going to stop them.”

“Fine. Just don’t lie to me about the truce if they take it or not. I love you too, sis.”

Ellen could feel the connection between her and Laura sever. Mary said, “Rough talk towards the end?”

“Huh?”

“Your expression wasn’t what I would call pleased, honestly, for a lot of the talk.”

“Yeah… I think we resolved some issues, but not all of them.”

“This about the brownies?”

“Somewhat. Also, Laura made a very explicit threat saying she would ensure anyone who messes with your morals would finish last in this challenge, even if she had to finish second to last to ensure it.”

“Hmm… that doesn’t sound like Laura. Did something happen?” Ellen nodded and recapped what she knew to Mary. “Hmm… you both have decent points. I don’t think Laura is wrong to be upset, even with you in particular. I’m telling you, don’t use something like the brownies again.” Mary held up a hand to stop Ellen from interrupting. “I also think you have cause to be upset with Laura. She might not have liked what you did, but to say she was going to target you specifically if you didn’t comply when you had agreed beforehand otherwise was uncalled for. That being said, I think it is likely that her inhibitions being decreased caused her to say that. Considering I wasn’t even fully affected by the brownies and dragon TF Mark had, and those likely contributed to me lashing out at Cassandra.”

~Pop~

“Speaking of lashing out at me, we need to talk,” Cassandra said, appearing at the top of the stairs to the bath.

“I’m busy, Cassandra.”

“Make the time. Ellen, I loved your date. Now, please leave me with Mary alone.”

Mary was about to protest, but Ellen placed a hand on her shoulder. “Mary, it’s okay. I’ll go meet up with Chloe. I feel much better after this hot bath.”

Mary looked displeased that Ellen was being sent away, but didn’t protest further. She also didn’t get out of the water. When Ellen was dressed and had left the room. Mary heard Cassandra snap her fingers, and then a boulder rolled into place, covering the entrance to the room.

“Now, Mary, come up here. We need to talk. You owe me some answers.”

“No, and no, I don’t. I gave you the answer to all three of your questions. I owe you squat.”

Cassandra took a deep breath to calm herself. “Mary, please talk to me. If that prick has gotten involved, you could be in danger.”

“If you want to talk to me, come down here.” Cassandra was not pleased but walked down the stairs and sat at the edge of the bath. Mary stared at Cassandra for a long time.

Cassandra broke the silence. “Please, Mary. I care about you and all the women here. Don’t let that prick destroy it all.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I’d like you to be honest about what happened.”

“Your producer offered me a deal.”

“I assume you were smart enough not to accept it.”

“Of course.”

“Would you be willing to tell me the deal?”

“You for Astrid.”

“You know he’s tricking you, right? He would never honor that deal. Not truly.”

“You mean like how he’s sabotaging you from becoming a producer?” Cassandra nodded. “I don’t know, he seemed genuinely disinterested in Astrid. I wouldn’t agree to such a deal without a very good lawyer looking things over anyway.”

“Is that why you were acting like you had more power than me yesterday? Were you saying you would just accept my Producer’s offer? Or was that false bravado, from the brownies and dragon TF leaking through?”

Mary shook her head. “I don’t have more power than you, Cassandra. I just have more power to make you miserable than you do me. That part is true. I have no desire to get into a game of one-upmanship with you, because we would both come out the losers. Nothing good would actually come from us going after one another. As for his offer, I wouldn’t accept it without a lot of guarantees in place. Even if adding you to my harem would be easy, that isn’t what I want to do. Not unless you truly **** my hand.”

Cassandra replied calmly, “You think it would be easy? That you could **** me to screw up enough that my Producer—”

Mary interrupted her, “No. You’ve already screwed up. I don’t need you to do anything. If I were willing to accept the consequences, I could have you at any time. I’m simply not.” Cassandra furrowed her brows. “Fine, Cassandra, I’ll explain, just know that this isn’t meant as a threat. I found this back when I wasn’t sure if I could trust you.” Mary grabbed her phone, pulled up a store item, and tossed the phone to Cassandra.

Cassandra grabbed the phone and read the item in question.

You like the host, do you?: So you really like the host, fine, you can have her if you can afford her. Add the host to your harem. (1,000,000 BP Base Price) (With Discount 800,000 BP)

“Mary, you would never be able to afford this.”

Mary shook her head. “I’d have to run the numbers exactly, but less than 50,000BP, no matter how things shake out. That’s all it would actually cost. There is an item in the store that halves the cost of BP purchases. I already checked buying more than one is possible, and they would be multiplicative, even if the discount they provide doesn’t work on itself. Again, Cassandra, that isn’t meant as a threat. You would need to do a lot more than piss me off for me to even consider using this. I know you are a kind host, but your replacement almost certainly won’t be as kind. As I said, I found this back before I was certain I could trust that you were a decent person.”

Cassandra stared at the phone and then back at Mary. “If it isn’t this… then what? What do you think could make me so miserable?”

“I could just tell your daughters the truth. You can save Astrid, but you won’t. How do you think they would react if they knew all you had to do was join my harem to save her?”

Cassandra took a deep breath, “That has the same problem pulling the trigger on this does.” Cassandra replied, tossing back the phone. “You’d get a new host. One of my producer’s choice. They wouldn’t blame me for declining that.”

“They would if your producer would let you or me choose the host to replace you. Which I think he would, if for no other reason than to spite you. I don’t know why he hates your guts so much, but he doesn’t want any version of you to be a producer. Or are you telling me it would be a problem for, say, Maja to become the host? It doesn’t matter anyway. As I said, I don’t want to fight with you, Cassandra. I want to save Astrid, I know you do too.”

“So you are planning on keeping this to yourself then?”

“Unless you give me reason not to, yes. At least for now.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning if we are in the final round of the show… and I haven’t saved Astrid yet, I don’t think I can keep this a secret from Hilde, or any of the others. Especially if I’ve added them to my harem. I couldn’t live with not sharing the secret. I realize this puts you in an awkward position. So here’s what I’m willing to offer you. I won’t purchase this, except under one of two conditions. The first is that I have agreement from more than one of the Lundevalls, or the second is that we get to the last round, and Astrid is still trapped as a computer program. I also won’t mention this deal or the producer’s offer to any of the Lundevalls until the last round. In exchange, I want you to reach out to a lawyer you trust. You get them to write up a contract as iron-clad as they can. That will bind your producer not to fuck me or my harem over, and Astrid is returned to normal if I add you to my harem.”

Cassandra scoffed, “You are essentially asking me to go along with this. To give myself over to you.”

“Are you saying you really wouldn’t give up being a Producer and be with me, to save Astrid? If there weren’t any pitfalls or traps? That it would be such a horrible fate? Because you keep telling us that I can make this work. I’m not saying I’ll simply do it if we haven’t saved her by then, but I can’t not tell your daughters. You trusted me with them, why not yourself?”

“That’s all you want, for this detente?”

“No, I want two other things.” Cassandra narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “One, if and when I need to tell Hilde and the others about this, you bring the contract to them yourself.”

“Fine, I was actually going to ask if I could do that if we end up proceeding with this. What’s your second addition?”

Mary waded over Cassandra and got up really close to her face. “Stop fucking with my goddess. You’ve done it multiple times. I want her to get those points she lost on her first date with me back. You were at fault. Not her.”

“No.” Cassandra said bluntly. “Not happening. Specifically, the VP part of your request. I might entertain it if Laura had specifically asked me about whether you had a fear of heights or even asked for glaring flaws with her plan, but she didn’t. I want to make this clear, it’s off the table. I didn’t lie to her, just like I didn’t lie to you. You can call bullshit all you want. If this is a sticking point, then we don’t have a deal.”

Mary glared at her. “Then what about—”

“No. That interferes with the challenge, to the benefit of one team. I won’t get rid of the brownies from her system.”

“Can you take any more inhibitions decreases off the table for everyone then?”

Cassandra considered that. “No. The best I’ll give you is personal immunity to both of your forms.”

“Fine, I’ll accept that. I still expect you to stop fucking with Laura, though.” Mary backed up and held out her hand to Cassandra.

Cassandra stared at Mary’s hand for a good long while. Eventually, she shook it. Mary smiled. “Thank you, Cassandra. I really look forward to telling your prick of a producer I told you so, if I ever meet him again.”

Cassandra tilted her head to one side, “What do you mean?”

“He talked about all the Cassandras he’s dealt with over the years. He claimed he offered the chance to the others to save Astrid, but not one of you ever took it.”

“I didn’t agree to join your harem.”

“Yeah, but you effectively agreed to consider it. I believe you when you call them your daughters. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t refer to them that way to you. I believe you’ll save Astrid if it comes to that. Let's hope that it doesn’t, though. I’m not sure I want a GILF in my harem.”

“Just great… I’m going to be getting a lot of old lady jokes now, aren’t I?”

“Yep.”

“Thank you for talking this out with me, Mary. I’m not happy about all of this, but that’s no surprise considering it involved my Producer. Have a good day.”

~POP~

With Cassandra’s departure, Mary got up to get dressed. During which the rock that blocked the entrance to the room moved. I hope that today won’t be more crazy bullshit.

Cassandra was sitting in her office, looking over a ledger. “GODS DAMNIT! Again? Hello, my loyal audience. Apparently, there was another suspicious accounting error. So let’s set the record straight. See, Ellen’s sexuality change a while back didn’t get deducted properly on the back end, and somehow Aubrey just had an extra 2200 BP put into her account. Now, this is particularly awkward because correcting the error would leave them both with negative BP after their most recent purchases. To correct this, I will be zeroing out both of their accounts. This does include all the BP Ellen just earned last night from getting bumped up some cup sizes, since she should still be negative even with that. We apologize for the inconvenience and the error, especially if you believe this might have unjustly favored those two contestants or one team in the current challenge.”

Ellen 0 BP

Aubrey 0 BP