Tessa Date 1, Part 3: A Forest, A Gallery

Tegan

The big-tittied bunny cow bounces up when it seems like they are ready to move on. She belts out another introduction, “Now, this challenge isn’t as relevant as the first one, but I am sure you can suss out some details by watching it. A bit of a warning, it gets weird and the explanation happens in the middle of the challenge. Presenting, for your hint-sleuthing pleasure, Lost in Dream Woods!”

The scene starts with a very familiar nude boy in the middle of the woods. And a girl with less ridiculous cow tits than the ones she had when Tegan met her in the flesh. Felix and Cammy. Tegan’s feelings are... complicated as she watches them navigate through the woods. On the one hand, Tegan is definitely straight. She is not staring at Cammy’s cantaloupes. Definitely not. On the other, she is grateful that those two degenerates helped her reconcile with Mona.

A cow-tittied demon straight out of a hentai nightmare explains the challenge to the bevy of contestants. Then they are underway, navigating a nightmare forest with the eventual power of lucid dreaming. It was strange, not nearly as straightforward as the paintball heist. Other than requiring teamwork, what does this have to do with our challenge?

When the challenge finished, Tina waves goodbye and teleports away in her cloud of bunnies. The strawberry blonde slut starts wailing louder. Winter of all people goes up to comfort her, Kevin following along.

“Hey, Sis, want to talk about it?”

“Not with you! It’s not fair!”

Kevin sighs, “If you explain what you did and how you are being punished, maybe we can talk to Mona? See if she’s willing to go to bat for you?”

Tegan listens to the explanation. Again, her feelings are... complicated. On the one hand, she is still jealous and angry that she has to share her fiancée. On the other, the fact that this skank got Craig to cheat on her fiancée brings her blood to a boil. And then the punishment sounds too weak.

So, Tegan chooses indignation, “Being locked in a chastity belt for the rest of the season sounds like you got off easy, whore! How DARE you take what isn’t yours!”

Kevin tries to comfort the skank while Winter walks over to whisper, “Hoppalongs need many, many orgasms a day to function. While the belt’s magic keeps her from suffering from a mental and physical breakdown, it is a way harsher penalty than it sounds. Imagine having a gag in your mouth that kept you from needing to eat or drink. Same idea.”

Gaia has lost interest in the staff drama and is slowly ambling away, trying to drag Kevin upstairs with her. Andromeda stops the two of them. “Wait. The four of us should compare notes. We should process this information together. Anyone see a nice place for us to chat, or should we do this in the common area of the dorms?”

“Oh, yeah, I got a place! It isn’t too far away from here either!” Gaia offers.

Tegan, thinking whatever idea her crazy friend has in store is bound to be painful, just goes along with the group consensus. It’s not like she has a good idea where they can chat.

Tessa

The familiar already disappeared, presumably returning to Tyalangan, the two stop to check out the busts on the second floor of the rotunda. They appear to be of Hosts for current seasons of the Hotel. Upon closer inspection, the busts are strange. For example, the one Tessa is currently examining is incorporeal. The plaque reads Jocelyn – Harem Hotel: Ghost Hunters, S01.

Behind the bust is a full-sized painting of the Host in what must be the lobby of their version of the Hotel. The blue ghost seems cute, wide eyed, and a bit mischievous.

“I think we got scammed in the mermaid department!” Mona shouts from the other side of the rotunda balcony.

Tessa has learned more than she expected to about Mona these last few hours. Her libido is stronger than the sea elf would have predicted (and she already thought it was high), but she can be insightful when she wants to be. The girl seems perfectly willing to support Tessa, even if she would prefer something less intellectual as a date. There is a good relationship to be had here, but we need to work on it. Still, it would be nice to have someone after so long.

Mona seems to be staring at a portrait of Tyalangan’s Host. The plaque reads: Calypso – Harem Hotel: Mermaid Frenzy Justice, S12. Underneath is listed previous seasons; the bottom-most one is Sapphic Seaside. Calypso seems to be an older Daphne, wearing more clothes than Tessa has seen their set’s mermaid staff member wear: the ringmaster’s top hat that most Hosts seem to favor, an eyepatch, a sports jacket, and a tie threaded between her (much larger than Daphne’s) breasts. The shark-toothed grin is a little more unnerving than Daphne’s; Calypso’s eyes have more than a hint of predator hunger in them. That Greene elimination seems to make more sense now; that is the look of someone who enjoys a bit of cruelty.

“I think I prefer Daphne. Also, Harmony has some larger breasts, if that’s all you care for.”

“Oh, the mermaid twins? I haven’t really spent any time at the pool. What are they like?”

Tessa happily talks about her mermaid nieces. Mona seems genuinely interested, amused how the twins fight over who’s named Melody. It passes the time, at least until they arrive at the next room on their little information sleuthing adventure: The Gallery of Genderbending.

“Hey, Mona, would you mind just holding my hand through this. I imagine that, if we find something about Tyalangan in here, I may need some comfort.”

Mona looks a little confused, but complies. She interlocks her fingers; the sensation feels a bit odd, given that Tessa’s fingers are webbed. The gamer girl inquires, “May I ask why you think we’ll find something in here?”

Tessa: +1 XP (Hand-holding, How Lewd)

Tessa scans the room instead of answering. Mona knows the answer, or at least should know; Tessa said enough during her introduction that felt like ages ago. Mona tugs on Tessa’s arm, pointing, “Oooh, let’s check that exhibit out!”

The exhibits in this room are much more interactive than the ones on the first floor. Mona has dragged Tessa to a cartoonish slime girl statue. The plaque reads: Noah Long (Replica) - Harem Hotel: Bunkered Together, Vizrokoth, S01.

While Mona starts undressing (for some odd reason), Tessa reads the description. Apparently, this former high schooler was turned into a slime girl. The philosophy questions posed are not exactly things that Tessa wants to think about. She has struggled with the change in her conceptual understanding of herself enough already, and that is without the complications of a sex change. She doesn’t exactly notice that Mona has offered herself up to the slime statue until it’s too late.

Tessa: +8 XP (Full Frontal Mistress Nudity)

Mona is grabbed by the Noah representation with an audible “Eep!” Tessa tries to pull Mona away, but the slime is too strong. The sea elf reads the description that must have inspired this moment of insanity: “Experience the excitement of being engulfed by erotic slime!”

Tendrils of slime move to caress Mona’s breasts and labia. They tease the squirming girl as she is almost completely submerged in the goop, just her nose sticking out so she can breathe. The tendrils seem to be probing Mona, thrusting into her mouth and pussy. Mona has a look of panic on her face.

So, Tessa tries the only thing she can: casting a spell and hoping the slime is intelligent enough to understand. Bra and panties shunted into her inventory, she composes a limerick to serve as her bardic formulation:

There once was a girl out of time
Who decided to play with slime
Her clothes do unfurl
To give it a whirl
An experience so sublime!

The slime starts to jiggle and Mona plops out, moist in multiple ways. Tessa pulls her Mistress away from the slime’s range, yelling, “What were you thinking!”

Tessa: +5 XP (Rescued the Mistress)

Mona mopes, “It sounded hot. Sorry.”

“Just... don’t scare me like that again.”

“Are we both staying naked, or just me?”

“You think you can handle me naked?”

Mona is making eye contact with every part of Tessa but her eyes. “Yes?”

Tessa sighs and pulls Mona up to her feet. The chubby mistress presses herself into Tessa; the girl is a little sticky. At the first hint of increased arousal, Tessa starts spamming Prestidigitation to clean the slime residue off of them both.

Mona starts to hold Tessa’s hand again. It feels a little different this time. Tessa scans the room, more than ready to find whatever they have on Tyalangan and get out.

Mona tugs again, pointing as if she found it. Tessa starts to cry once she sees where Mona is leading them. The sight is everything and nothing like what she wanted.

Tessa focuses on the statue. It’s her brother, with much longer hair and, upon close inspection, some subtle make-up, but it’s him. The plaque with the statue reads: Fashion Francis – Harem Hotel: Sapphic Seaside, Calypso, S01.

Mona wraps Tessa up in a hug. The sea elf doesn’t mind how Mona is snuggling into her bare breast. “You okay, Tessa?”

Tessa hates how weak she sounds as she answers, voice hitching, “I... I don’t know. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him. It looks basically like him from 20 years ago. As an exhibit...”

Mona keeps holding onto Tessa as the sea elf sobs. Too many tears, yet not enough, are shed, but she stops. Mona wipes away a tear running down the sea elf’s cheek, smudging a little more of Tessa’s ruined mascara.

“Feel up to checking the interactive bit?”

Tessa nods. Mona leads her to the exhibit. The whole thing is entitled “The Curious Case of Harper O’Connor.” The philosophical bits are all about the merits and detractors of so-called “slow burn” transformations.

Mona picks up a tidbit there. “She didn’t just get sudden bursts of change. She had to deal with the transformations over time?”

The interactive bit is a series of images, arranged like a flip book, that show what Harper looked like at 10 AM every morning of their show; the statue updates with every flip. Tessa stares too long at the early images, of the early days, when her brother looked like himself. Mona squeezes her side, “You don’t have to look at the rest, if you don’t want to.”

Tessa steels herself, but the tears simmering inside can still be heard in her voice, “No, we are here for answers and I am not leaving until I get them.”

Tessa flips, absorbing the generally gradual shift from her brother to her sister. From the human to the elf. From a nobody she loved to her Host in this insane game. It rips Tessa’s heart into pieces, but she bears it. She has to, for her sister’s sake and for her own.

Mona tries to joke, “Well, she’s almost as hot as you are, by the end.” It doesn’t exactly land.

“Well, I see that her version of the show brought her much suffering, but she found some good out of it, if I was interpreting that Skye painting correctly.”

“That is a fair assessment,” a familiar voice from behind utters, just loud enough to be heard. Tessa turns around to see her sister, a little teary-eyed. There is a slight waver in her voice as the Host asks, “About ready to go? Curfew is coming up.”

Mona looks up at Tessa, squeezing her side. Tessa asks, her own voice starting to waver again, “Did we find everything we could?”

Tyalangan answers, a little more firmly, “No. There is more, but I think you found enough to satiate your curiosity. And, anyways, Mona is going to need some relief from the aphrodisiac slime she swallowed. You going to be up for it, Sis?”

Tessa looks down at the horny little gremlin. She sees the subtle signs that she’ll seek something sexual soon. “Yeah, Sis, I can manage that.”

Mona deepens her hug. Tessa brushes a few strands of hair out of her Mistress’s face. Tyalangan gets on her phone and a portal to what Tessa assumes is the Mistress Suite opens; the look the Host gives suggests that Tessa should be focusing on the gamer girl, not on her residual hurt. The former teacher nods, and leads the way through. When Tyalangan passes through the portal, it closes behind her. She nods, then does her disappearing act.

Mona is rubbing her thighs together. “Time for sexy time?”

“We’ll work on your word choice later. Why don’t you show me the bedroom?”

Craig

Craig is muttering to himself in the library. That fat bitch is still not talking to me. Doesn’t she know that I need her to buy me training so I don’t get eliminated? Stupid brainless bucket of lard...

The gnoll is in a bind. He was ordered to wait until Mona gets back to him. If he breaks that command, not only is he going to get smaller, but she’s likely to just give him the same edict. If he doesn’t, he is risking not getting enough XP.

So, he sits and crafts a long shot letter. He has no idea if it will get there in time, but, if it does, maybe the dumb dyke will bail him out. Craig believes he crafted his lies quite well:

Shar,

I am in a situation and I need your help. I have been captured by an absolute monster to serve a disgusting pig of a Master on this season of Harem Hotel over here. He wasn’t satisfied with my performance on our first date, so he locked me in a chastity device. The Host tormented me with literal tentacle monsters and visions of eliminations the entire night after the scum found me lacking in the bedroom.

We have to have a minimum amount of points to be able to even do the first challenge. The unfair treatment I got put me incredibly behind. I’m finally in the positives, but I still don’t have enough points. There’s maybe a day left before the challenge and I will be eliminated if I don't qualify; I am sure of it. There is apparently an audience shop. Maybe you could find me something to get me out of this jam?

Longer term, the way you handled that bastard Steven was inspired. Can you teach me how to do that? I want to teach my tormentors a lesson.

Please, don’t let that blue devil and her cruel Master win,

Craigetta

The letter is folded up. Now, Craig needs a way to get it to her, specifically a way that does not involve the staff here. His only idea is that greedy Little Miss skank. So, he sets out.

The pink-haired cat-girl is there at the Hotel retail store, as expected. The sight of all of the Craig merch on clearance unnerves him. The items he autographed is actually being sold at a bigger discount than the unsigned ones. The gnoll growls.

The shopkeeper hears him, apparently, because she is at attention beside him. She is a little bit surprised by the request, but she assures him that she does handle fan-mail delivery. Craig leaves the shop, annoyed that he had to pay, but hoping that it will pay off before the challenge.

Craig: -5 BP (Shipping supplies and delivery services)