Meat, Muscles, and Minds

Tegan

The mermaid is typing on her computer again. Tegan, already in a bit of a bad mood about not getting her reward before asking for a quest that turned perverse, growls loudly, which gets the staff member’s attention. She waves and smiles, showing off a shark-toothed grin. “Hey, Tegan. Here to level up?”

Her two levels are a mixed bag. In the positive end, her accuracy and damage with a bow has been increased, with Archery fighting style and Colossus Slayer, respectively. Her health doubled, which is also nice. In the negative end, she gets a bunch of spells, which requires perversions to use. She does not want to get naked, even if that means she can turn an arrow into a barrage of thorns or a bunch of ensnaring vines.

As Tegan exits the Dungeons for Damsels, Gaia confronts her. She nearly hisses, “Hey, did you hurt the kid last night?”

Tegan is, of course, offended. Just because it took me until last night to figure out what I really want doesn’t mean this terrorist gets to judge me! “What? How dare you! She’s mine! You don’t get to act like that to me.”

The temporary cat-girl’s ears droop, “Sorry. I’m just worried about her. Craig was really mean and you weren’t treating her nicely before. Also, I’m hungry and being hungry makes me cranky.”

Tegan remembers that statue in the Mistress Suite foyer. The terrorist has a point. Still... The angry archer focuses on that last bit, asking,“Hungry?”

“Apparently, while I am a kitty today, I can only eat meat? And, since I am a vegan, that means...”

Tegan starts to drag Gaia to the canteen, “Nope. I am not letting you develop an eating disorder. You are going to have food.”

“But... but my principles!” Gaia stammers, bare feet trying (and failing) to cling to the floor. The girl is too hungry to put up more than a token resistance.

“Not listening to it. We’re here.” Tegan starts banging on the canteen door, “Can I get some food for this idiot girl!?!?!?!?”

The naked lilac skinned freak open the door, almost as if she expected it. Tegan drags Gaia to a chair. A big bowl of meat awaits them. The freak offers to tie up the criminal, but Tegan declines. Instead, she grabs the bowl and sits in Gaia’s lap. The vicious vixen explains, “Look, I was slowly killing myself in my athletic pursuits. You heard it from the blue freak; I didn’t believe it at the time, but she at least got that right. If you care about Mona, you will eat. She doesn’t deserve to watch you waste away.”

Tegan holds up the spoon full of meat to Gaia’s lips. The cat-girl tries to move her head away. The gurgling noise from her stomach signifies that her body at least knows what it needs. If only her dumb head would catch up.

Angling her head as far away from the spoon as possible, Gaia stammers, “It’s only a day! I can skip eating for a day!”

“And if you get another carnivore body tomorrow? And another one the day after that? How long are you willing to starve yourself?”

“Uhm...”

“Answer me!”

Gaia makes a face of disgust, leans forward to get the spoon in her mouth, then sobs a little, “It’s so tasty, it’s not fair.”

Tegan smirks, her fox tail is wagging behind her. “Good. If I have to tolerate sharing my fiancée, none of you are allowed to be stupid.”

“You can be very scary, Tegan. I take it that you’re okay with Mona now?”

Tegan has another spoonful of meat at the ready. Gaia eats, pouting about it. The fox-girl gloats, “Yes, Mona has acknowledged our engagement and promised to be a better fiancée.”

After Gaia chews and swallows, she replies, “Great! Want me to teach you some sexy time stuff? We can work on our bounties?”

Tegan snarls, “Absolutely not! I’m still straight!”

Gaia seems to be enjoying being fed. After another mouthful swallowed, she smugly asks, “Who’s being stupid now? What kind of wife are you going to be if you don’t know how to please her?”

It’s Tegan’s turn to stammer, her ears drooping, “Ah, I... will figure it out... when we get there?”

Gaia is spoon-fed another mouthful of meat, then says, “We both need BP and you can use the practice. View it as sexy times with Mona training.”

“But... but...”

“Not listening to it. We’re doing this after you are satisfied that I ate enough innocent animals for Mona.”

Grumbling, Tegan finishes feeding Gaia, the smug cat-girl. Turning my words against me? Jerk. “Fine.” And then, before the temporary cat can brag, Tegan shoves another spoonful of food into her maw. At least the criminal doesn’t have those disgusting giant cow-tits. Let’s see if she can show me how to please my fiancée.

Craig

Craig waits for Mona at the throne room as he has been commanded via text. It was something about accompanying her to the gym, which he doesn’t mind. Assuming they are training, he needs the XP.

He also needs to figure out a plan. Brute **** is unlikely to work. Running away definitely won’t. His best bet is to tame the Mistress, make her so subdued by him that he can do what he wants; if Mona never gives him an order, the dick-shrinking transformation is irrelevant. The question is: How? The chubby Asian girl has so much power over him and the one that gave her that power has so much more. He needs an example. Maybe there is another season where a contestant breaks their so-called Master? I just need to find it.

The twig maid waits, watching him. Winter rests a hand on the pommel of the blade on the drow’s hip. The pose looks familiar. Craig instinctively does not like it.

The chubby Asian girl stumbles over from upstairs. “Hey, Craig. You must be Winter. Hi! Nice to meet you. Do you have my workout stuff?”

The twig gives Mona a slight bow. “That I have, ma’am. Are you ready to go?”

Mona whines a little, but nods, “I am as ready as I am going to be. Come on Craig. I already booked us for a workout session together.”

Mona: -20 BP

The twig seems to be an escort. Craig has come to hate the people of this world. They all look at him with such contempt. The way they look at Mona is how they should look at me! At least the twig is not getting looked at with lust. Ha!

At the gym, Winter just walks them to a private room. The drow stands guard, hand on pommel, almost as if waiting for Craig to cause trouble. The wolf dyke is in there soon enough, “Hey, kid. Craig. Winter. What are we working on today?”

“Not legs!”

“Aha, someone finally figured out that leg day is no joke. Fine. You need to rest those muscles as much as you can anyways. Wanna try a push workout?”

Mona nods. They do some warm-up exercises, the chubby Asian girl whining the whole time. The dyke then announces a first round: 5 sets of 20 hammer curls alternating with 4 sets of 25 lateral shoulder raises. Mona uses wimpy weights, while Craig is working the heavy dumbbells. The dyke offers slight form corrections, which Craig obliges. Arms were important as a lineman, especially with his bum knee, so the workload here isn’t bad. He does enjoy when Mona drools over his biceps on the particularly heavy final set of hammer curls.

The second round was 5 sets of shoulder presses on the machine alternating with some guided bench presses on the barbell. The dyke spots on the bar. Mona can barely press more than the bar, which is mildly amusing. When he steps up, he starts at about 155 pounds, which felt a little easier than it should. The shoulder press sets also took a little adjustment. By the time he got done, he was benching more than what the chubby girl weighs. Again, she’s drooling over his chest and arms.

“Hit the treadmill for half an hour for a cooldown, and I’ll see you next time.”

Craig: Success – Athletics skill training

Craig: +7 XP, Athletics skill proficiency (Training)

Craig: Weekly bounty update! Successfully Complete a Training Session +20 BP

Mona: Weekly task complete! Ensure each contestant successfully completes a training session +100 BP

Mona starts walking, grumbling a little about how sore her legs still are from yesterday. The twig is still standing and watching, hand still resting on pommel.

Craig gets on the other treadmill and starts to lightly jog, “Hey, short stuff, cooldown is important. You don’t want cramps.”

Mona grouses, “Aren’t you going to apologize for what you did on our date, Craig?”

Not my fault you didn’t cum when you were supposed to, bitch. No, Craig, now is not the time for that. “I’m sorry.”

That seems to have just pissed her off. “Say it like you mean it!”

“I’m sorry?”

He feels it, the subtle shift. Shit. He just got a bit smaller. Now, he knew he got a bit bigger from the transformation, so he’s probably down to just his original size. Still, the chubby bitch is glaring at him. I need to actually sell her a fake apology, huh?

“Look, I’m sorry that you had a bad time. I was just trying to get you drunk to be able to handle me better. I know I was too much for you but you were so excited about it. There wasn’t a way to make you comfortable with me with your inexperience. I figured...”

“You figured wrong, Craig. It still hurt, A LOT. I guess, thank you for trying? I’m sorry for being inadequate, too. Next time, I am sure that, between the transformation you have to buy and some proper consultation with the staff, we’ll both do a better job.”

The dumb bitch bought it. Great. Craig smiles a little as he keeps jogging. Maybe I can get her under my thumb after all.

Mona: Weekly task update! Spend one-on-one time with each contestant (5/6)

Tessa

Andromeda has a tendency to skip things like meals unless she is specifically corralled into them (like at breakfast this morning). So, Tessa finds the android arcanist sitting in the library, nose in a book, some sort of Lovecraftian thing.

“You worry that you are isolating yourself too much, Andromeda?”

The girl looks up from her text. She nods towards an empty seat and goes back to reading before replying, “I am just trying to be efficient with my time and resources. What are you wanting me to work on?”

Hmm... that is a good question. “I don’t exactly know, other than I think you need to connect with the rest of us better. Not that I am necessarily one to talk. I spent the time between the meeting and lunch with my mermaid nieces in the pool. Do you know how weird that feels to me? Having so many nieces and none of them are human?”

Andromeda keeps reading. “No idea. Only child. Don’t have the point of reference.”

Sighing, Tessa asks, “Why are you reading that?”

Andromeda flips the page, “I am hoping that one of these books have information on the monster Mona is to slay at the end of this. Granted, my conversation with Mattie earlier today makes me think that this is a fruitless endeavor, but I want to be pleasantly surprised.”

“What makes that conversation lead you to believe that you are wasting time?”

“The staff only has a name and enough of a description to give me the image from my dream. Since these books are from them...”

“...The information is not in them, unless it is somewhere they overlooked. I see. Yet, you still dig. Why?”

Andromeda looks up, for the first time in the conversation. “I don’t know what else to do. Someone has to get Mona ready to save our world. She’s not going to prepare on her own.”

“Don’t sell her short,” Tessa gently chides, “She was a procrastinator and she seemed to hate hard work, but she did do it. Unlike several of her peers, she never copy-pasted paragraphs from websites or AI generated prompts together and called it an essay either. She needs time to adjust to the situation. As do you. As do, frankly, all of us. So, what would you like to do that would be more fruitful than sitting here tilting at windmills?”

“I’ve been working on arcana expertise and I have hit a bit of a knowledge gap wall. I suppose I could use some help picking out some date clothes. Have you been to the clothing shop here yet?”

“From what Gaia told me about it, visiting it together sounds like a good idea. Let’s go.”

Andromeda closes the tome she was reading (marking her place with a ribbon) and stands to walk. Nothing like a little retail therapy to help us start to grow together. We need to save each other before we can save the world, after all.