Pricing and Pointers

Mona

It seems most everyone has paired up and are moving out towards their days. Craig has stomped away even before Tyalangan did her teleportation thing. Tegan is pulling Tessa upstairs, as if she expects the former teacher to just follow with whatever plan the vicious vixen has come up with; Tessa at least seems okay with it, for now. Mineko is asking Gaia to help with gardening, pronounced a little oddly; the former terrorist seems happy that the nekomata is being proactive. Kevin and Winter head upstairs together, after the later asking Mona to briefly join him at Tina’s before she moves on with her day. All of that leaves Jenny, Ootah, Andromeda, and herself in the throne room.

“Hey guys. I don’t really have anything today, so...” Mona declares, drifting off.

“My AEP points, Mona?” Andromeda notes.

“Oh, yeah. You made a decision?”

“Mildly ready for a relationship and mildly empathetic, please. Winter was right, I need to ensure I have an emotional connection with you, not just a willingness to do physical acts.”

Mona has her phone out, already making the adjustments. “Ooooh, that makes sense. Thank you for pointing that out; I’d likely forget about that stuff. And... applied. Hey, that did get rid of some more warnings than I thought they would.”

Andromeda is about to leave, only for Ootah to say, “Hey, before I go start planning for our evening, Mistress, I wanted to check Auntie Tina’s offerings. Would you two like to join us, since Mona was going to head that way anyways?”

Andromeda shrugs. “Sure.”

Jenny agrees, too. So, the foursome arrive to see a crowd at the upgrade shop. Tina, a ball of energy, is hamming it up as she greets, “Well, hello, cuties! Wow, so many of you at once! Who’s going first?”

“If nobody has more pressing needs, may I Auntie?” Ootah asks.

Tegan looks like she wants to object, but the bonny bunny stares her down. Returning to Ootah with a smile, Tina produces the card for Ootah. The orc reads aloud:

• For the Ancestors, For the Mistress – 160 BP
• Render Unto Mistress – 160 BP
• Breeding Madness (formerly, In Heat) – 480 BP

“I will potentially be back for that axe, Auntie. Thank you for your time.” Then the orc walks away.

“May I go NOW?” Tegan snarls.

“Maybe next turn, if you are polite. Ms. Tessa, your options.”

“Oh, but I wasn’t expecting... Okay.”

Tessa takes the offered card and checks for prices:

• ASMR – 320 BP
• Agency Acquisition – 213 BP
• A Lesser Prodigy – 220 BP
• Oral Orator – 220 BP

“Well, I am a bit away from affording any of those. But, 220 BP for some innate spellcasting might be worth it.”

Tessa steps back, only for Tegan to stare at the bunny, holding her hand up. Tina sighs, then says, “I suppose you’d like to by the Amazon thing Shar got you on discount, huh?”

“Yes please.”

Tegan: -120 BP

“Let me remind the audience, then we’ll apply it lickity-split!” Tina summons the illusion, then declares, “by the power vested in me by my sexy wife, I declare thee an olympian amazonian, modified, whatever that means!”

Olympian Amazonian (Modified) – So, the audience didn’t like the historically accurate amazon and you got a BE feature, either negating the uneven breasts or giving you one super huge one? We’ll give the audience what they wanted instead. Tegan gains 6 inches of height and +1 Endurance. She also gains the perfect musculature for her sport: strong arms, strong and broad shoulders, strong back, long and strong legs. (Olympian).

Tegan might have miscalculated. She grows taller, thicker. Her shirt looks so tight as her breasts, already straining the fabric, gets further pressure assistance from Tegan’s newly expanded shoulders. Her thicker ass and thighs also strain her track pants. That is the garment that survives. Tegan tries to cover up as Dawn’s face splits in two, but it’s too late. Mona sees and she likes the look of them.

Tegan: +2 XP (Bare One’s Ogle-Worthy Boobs for Mistress)

Tegan: +2 XP (Bare One’s Ogle-Worthy Boobs for Another Contestant [Jenny, Winter])

Tegan shrieks out of the store, Tessa following behind with the shredded shirt.

“Well, that was dramatic. Is Tegan going to be okay?” Jenny asks.

“I’m sure she’ll be fine. Your turn?” Tina answers, unconvincingly. She hands Jenny her card:

• Modeling Magnolia – 440 BP
• Wrath of Nature – 220 BP
• Majesty of Nature – 440 BP

“Wow. Not affording any of those anything soon. Majesty making me more charming might be helpful, but that is far away.”

Winter gestures from Andromeda and Mona to Tina, slightly bowing to say, “Ladies first?”

Tina declares, “Well, then, Mistress first! A brief note to the audience, since the price of Toss Out That Spare Tire already has a discount applied to it from Mona’s natural weight loss, it is ineligible for the store discount purchase.”

Mona pouts less than Andromeda would expect at that. She checks out her price list for the camera:

• Coquettish Conqueror – 1834 BP
• Toss Out That Spare Tire (Modified) – 3200 BP
• Magical Mascot – 147 BP

Hey, I’m down 8 pounds of fat since I started on the show! I’ll get my sexy body soon enough! Mona smiles, then asks, “Andromeda, you want to check out your options?”

She shrugs. Tina provides:

• A Magical Evening – 128 BP
• Talk to Me Nerdy – 200 BP
• Storm Crow! – 400 BP

“Well, that’s disappointing. I guess I’m stuck with Khol for the time being.”

Finally, Winter saunters up. Andromeda must be a little curious, as she sticks around. “Mama Tina, I’ll look at my list, then I’d like Mona’s permission to do a transformation pathway change.”

That is interesting? Mona looks a bit confused but Winter lets her think as he reads his options out:

• To Avoid a Party Split – 220 BP
• Naked Ambition – 147 BP
• A Masquerade of Mischief – 147 BP
• Darkfire of Love – 440 BP

“Not buying that first one, unless Summer begs me to. The other three do interest me. I’ll think on it. The pathway change takes priority.”

“Why do you want to change pathways though? I mean, you are a drow and a rogue? I’m sure you could multi-class or whatever.”

“I’m wanting to change my background. I love my mamas, but I want to be my own man. So...” Winter shrugs.

“And Mona, assuming you approve, here are the options. Either of you can purchase, but you have to provide permission.”

Tina provides the pathway change list. They are unexpected:

• Contestant Decides – 2000 BP
• Mona Decides – 1000 BP
• Contestant Picks From An Audience Suggestion List – 500 BP
• Mona Picks From An Audience Suggestion List – 250 BP

“That’s... a lot of BP. If we ask the audience for a list, what happens if they all suck?”

“The original transformation will be on the list, essentially. You can choose to go with that, but you won’t be able to try again. So tread carefully.”

“You trust me, Winter?”

“That I do, Mona.”

Mona: -250 BP

Tina beams, “Ooooh, fun! Audience, there should be a side quest at the end of the episode. Details on what to do for submitting ideas for Winter will be there!”

“Thanks, Mistress, my sexy bull and I will see ourselves out.”

As the couple leave, Andromeda nods and walks away. Jenny smiles, asking, “So, have some time for me? I was hoping for a platonic ‘getting to know you’ thing?”

Mona smiles, “I’d love that, Jenny! We got so much catching up to do!”

Gaia

The kid is pretty cute, hopping around and looking for grasshoppers. Gaia and Skye are watching Mineko crawling on all fours, looking for pests to pounce on. Skye is, of course, gathering some vegetables from the garden for lunch. Gaia is waiting for Nyadia. The three beastkin are scheduled for a nature hike.

“Hey, look, cat-girls are inevitable,” Nyadia purrs as she walks up, dressed for combat, “Now, who’s paying?”

“Mineko, time to pay Nyadia!”

The nekomata pads over to Gaia, tails wiggling, chanting, “XP! XP! XP! XP!”

Gaia: -20 BP

Mineko: -20 BP

Nyadia has a big smile on her face. She notes, “Well, aren’t you excitable?”

Mineko’s eyes are open wide, her ears on high alert, as she asks, “Do we get to catch grasshoppers?”

“We’ll see. Come on.”

Nyadia leads the way past the castle walls. Gaia’s last trip in the woods was about survival. This time, the focus is on showing Mineko some cool nature stuff. Gaia hopes to pick up some new knowledge, too. The forest trail is just as beautiful as last time. Nyadia points out the local plants and talks about them. Just like during the garden tour lesson, Gaia is full of wonder. The plants feel different in the wild than in the cultivated botanical garden. Here, they get to grow without “human” hands tending them. They are scragglier, more belligerent, as they struggle to outgrow the others to absorb more sun.

Mineko looks like she is barely paying any attention, as her ears track bird songs and her eyes scan for things to jump on.

“Hey, Mineko, pay...”

“It’s fine, Gaia. She reminds me of my kids when they were young. She’s listening. Kittens listen while they practice hunting, even if they don’t look it.”

Gaia considers that. Mineko sees a grasshopper on top of a patch of poison ivy. The girl presses down on the ground to leap at it, then stops and pouts, tails drooping. I guess she noticed the itchy plants?

Nyadia gestures at the nekomata, noting, “See? If Mineko didn’t listen to me talk about poison ivy, we would have a very itchy cat-girl to deal with.”

“Point taken.”

They continue the walk, with Nyadia providing instruction. Mineko does get to pounce on a grasshopper. She shows it off to Nyadia and Gaia, asking, “This a good bug or one needing squishing?”

“Out here, little one, we don’t kill the animals unless they are attacking us or you need to eat it to survive. Is that grasshopper attacking you?”

Mineko shakes her head no.

“Do you need to eat it?”

Mineko makes a face. Gaia does too, to be fair.

“Then let it go. Good job.”

Mineko melts under pets after letting the grasshopper go. She’s earned some.

Tegan

Stupid degenerate pervert show!

Tegan is at the shooting range, firing off practice arrows. Her new body proportions are taking some getting used to. Her arms are longer, more densely muscled. Her back is broader, more powerful. Her draw is much larger than she expected. The vicious vixen is glad for that stupid, perverse chestguard; her hand slips through the space where her gigantic breasts appear as she pulls the drawstring across her chest. No interference from them for her shooting.

Tessa is watching down range. She muses, “I suppose that mangled statue is of Shar?”

Tegan merely growls in response.

“Perhaps showing some gratitude for the nice thing she did for you is warranted?”

“It doesn’t change the fact that she cursed me with these... things first.”

A voice from the armory quips, “Oh, Ire Bags, you got a different kind of growth spurt! Hey, Sis. Just here to shoot the breeze or...”

After my mediocre performance last night, I need to be better. “I want to be better with a bow. And I demand that you accommodate me, after all the humiliation I have endured these last few days.”

The star-eyed freak smirks, “Well, that humiliation did you some good. You aren’t trying to cover up right now. And you are shooting better.”

Tegan snarls again.

“C’mon, Ire Bags, be nice. We HAVE been letting you borrow that armor even though you aren’t doing an official activity that needs it. I am in my rights to take it back...”

Tegan is tempted to snap at the freak. Tessa puts a hand on the angry archer’s shoulder, squeezing it. “I’m sure Tegan is appreciative, even if she is bad at expressing it. Perhaps she could buy some armor like I had?”

Thus begins a negotiation between the elf freak and the elf former teacher. Tegan ends up paying more than she wanted to, but she gets what she was aiming for. Now that she is tall and strong enough, she was able to swap out her shortbow proficiency for longbows, trade her shortbow gear for an equally mundane set of longbow gear, get a set of leather armor, and schedule a lesson in longbow expertise. The angry archer is appreciative of Tessa’s efforts on her behalf.

Tegan: -65 BP

“So, to start the lesson, let’s debrief on your delve last night. A bit of a mistake grabbing Sharpshooter so early; stat improvements and advantage stacking is better than the whole called shot thing. Nice ingenuity trying Searing Smite on the vine blights, but you should have switched to Hunter’s Mark when you saw it wasn’t working as well as you expected. Finally, clutch use of Hail of Thorns. Your squad didn’t have any artillery support and you improvised it well.”

The freak snaps her fingers and a robot appears on the range. “You are going to work on two basic things. Say hi to Clank! My construct buddy is your target. Clank is going to move around to avoid being hit. You are going to practice hitting moving, thinking targets. Two, angles. You instinctively fired your Hail of Thorns to fall down on the boar’s back. That was good thinking. A lot of thorns would have missed if you shot at the pig straight. The bow and arrow can be fired in arcs unlike how bullets travel. Give it a try. Aim to have your arrows land on the top of Clank’s head. Give it a go!”

Tegan draws her first volley and fires.

Tegan: Longbow Expertise Training Session Full Success (7 XP / 10 XP)

Tegan: +7 XP (Training Session)

The Show-runner

Brief narrative interruption: For those that want a more detailed list of items in Tina’s shop, there is now a page for it off of the audience bounty board / store. It includes the options for Mineko and Craig, who have not headed to the store for them yet. Check it out!