Frank Conversations (1/?)

The Master Suite of the castle was large enough that by the time the dawn light poured through the unshuttered windows to reach the head of the massive central bed, it arrived only as a warm golden glow. Kevin’s eyes blinked open, then spent a few moments tracing motes of dust as they hovered suspended in the air above him while the rest of his body pieced together when and where it was.

Penny, it turned out, was aggressively cuddly in her sleep. A mass of blonde hair was just visible when Kevin’s eyes finally shifted down, but he couldn’t lower his head to look at her because she’d shifted half her body atop his and her head was nestled firmly beneath his chin. When he brought up his left arm to wrap it around her, she let out a soft murmured sound that didn’t quite contain words, and shifted her position—trying and failing to pull herself closer in the process, since the only ways she might have more closely entwined their bodies would have required surgery or sex.

The quiet chuckle he let out as he tried to shift himself to sit up in bed was met by a whine of complaint, voice still rich with sleep as Penny managed to mutter, “My pillow.”

The process of shifting himself until he was propped up against the headboard was a slow one. Kevin had to move by inches, and while he was pretty sure she was doing it deliberately by the end, Penny refused to open her eyes to look at him even as she continued shifting her arms and torso to hinder him at every step of the way. Only when both his arms were free and the siren was wrapped around his leg with her head atop his thigh did she turn her head and look up at him, pout, then accuse, “Mean.”

He laughed, reached down, and stroked her hair with the back of his fingers. “Pragmatic,” he corrected, then added, “and hungry.”

Penny’s eyes narrowed, but she eventually relented. When her arms released from around his leg and her torso lifted from the bed, Kevin’s found his eyes drawn automatically by the pendulous sway of her heavy breasts. As he watched, her nipples crinkled, stiffening at the feel of his gaze, and with a slight hitch to her breath she hummed quietly, “That’s going to take some getting used to.” Then her head lifted and her gaze focused on Kevin’s face as she pulled together enough focus to inform him, “If you want to eat, we should get moving quickly. The longer we stay in bed like this, the less likely I am to let you out of it. Shower?”

“Shower.”

Thirty very soapy, very slippery minutes later, Kevin was toweling off in the bathroom while he watched Penny work through her haircare routine. Her long blonde hair was slicked against her body with rivulets of water and soapy conditioner as she worked it with, he thought, slightly more deliberation and poise than was strictly necessary for the act. Still, he wasn’t about to complain about a woman as gorgeous as the voluptuous siren working to show herself off, so he felt no particular need to hurry her along—even if his stomach had started to add the occasional growl to its vocabulary.

“Going to spend another shift at RoundHard today?” The question was as much an excuse to stay in the bathroom as it was a genuine inquiry. While he was earnestly interested in the response, it was easily the kind of thing they could have discussed at breakfast. Kevin was more or less dry, though, so if he wasn’t talking he was at risk of actually getting dressed and heading to breakfast.

“Actually, I thought I might take the day off,” Penny responded without looking. Her eyes were squeezed shut against the water sluicing down from the array of pipes overhead, but that didn’t seem to interfere with her ability to pose herself to ensure she looked her best. “You?”

Despite not being able to see Kevin, she seemed to know exactly where he was based on the feel of his gaze on her skin, and she turned her body to ensure that every glimpse of her he took highlighted the soft curves of her still soapy breasts and hips.

There was something electric about knowing that she enjoyed his attention as much as he enjoyed providing it, and he couldn’t keep the smile out of his voice as he replied, “It’s Tess’s night tonight, but before then, I want to try to spend most of the day with them if they’re willing. I really want to get to know both of them better, if only so I can try to figure out the right way to approach the same topics you and I talked about last night.” He paused a moment, then added with a slight frown, “I feel like Tess is the party member I know the least, let alone Abby. She’s only really been here for a few days. And she’s eighteen, which—let me tell you, causes some concerns all on its own.”

Penny hummed in thought for a few moments before responding. “I get what you mean, but make sure you aren’t treating them like children. I get that they are, in a way, but just because you’re older doesn’t mean you get to take away their autonomy.” She pulled her head free of the stream of water for long enough to wipe her eyes clear so she could look at him as she added, “If what Lily says is true, you’re going to be stuck with them for a long time. Best not to start that off by showing them that you have no regard for what they think and feel.”

Kevin grunted. “Fair. It’s just—I feel skeevy just thinking about what she—Lily—expects me to do with them. I know she says she intends us to be able to get through this without everyone turning into my, well, harem, but it’s pretty obvious things are only going to get more sexual the longer this goes. Two weeks ago, if I’d heard about someone my age dating a pretty twenty-one year old, let alone her eighteen year old sister, I would’ve called them a sexual predator.”

“So you do think they’re pretty.” Penny’s words did not come out as a question. Neither, though, did they sound particularly judgmental. If anything, her tone was contemplative. The blonde leaned her head back and began wringing water through her hair to rinse out the last of the conditioner, then added, “Either way, my point stands. It’s fine to want to protect them, even from yourself, but if you do that at the cost of taking away their ability to choose for themselves, you aren’t doing a whole lot better than Lily. That’s not the kind of impression you want to stick with a couple of women you’re going to know for the rest of your life. Especially if the whole ‘godhood’ thing works out the way you think it will.”

Kevin grunted again, then noted, “Stheno’s a few thousand years old, and I’m pretty sure she’s not about to kick the bucket. I’m not sure where the Favored Soul thing ends, but you’ve got a point.” He inhaled deeply, held it for a few seconds, then let it out in a long sigh. “It’s a fair point, though. I’ll just have to… approach them with an open mind, I guess, and hope for the best.”

Penny laughed. “That’s about all any of us can do, Kevin. I’m okay with your new plan for divinity, but only because everything you’ve shown so far paints a picture of a man who wants to do right by us. Don’t go breaking that trust because you can’t accept that an eighteen year old girl has her own inner life with wants and needs of her own.” Then, as if to draw a deliberate demarcation in the conversation, she stepped out of the shower, offered a playfully coy smile, and asked sweetly, “Towel me dry?”

It was late morning by the time Kevin and Penny made their way to The Long Rest for breakfast, and as a result the common room was only sparsely populated. A handful of NPCs were scattered across the room, but the only members of the party present were Elsie, Tess, Abby, and Hazel.

The latter was, for once, absent her companions. She sat relaxed in a chair, her arms folded behind her head, as she chatted with the three younger women. The way the pose lifted the nymph’s huge breasts was impossible to ignore, but she showed not even a hint of self-consciousness or modesty about the display.

The same could not be said for the other women at the table. While Tess wore a serious expression and seemed to be focused on the conversation, Abby’s eyes only occasionally wandered to Hazel’s face.

The older selkie’s outfit was, apart from its metallic gold color, relatively practical. The well defined muscles of her arms were left exposed by the sturdy vest, and the pants were tight enough to hug her legs, but it was otherwise perfectly modest.

Abby, in contrast, didn’t seem to have noticed that her own outfit had become nearly as revealing as Hazel’s. At some point in the morning, it had shifted to something drew inspiration from both Elsie’s bikini and Hazel’s vines. Thin strips of metallic silver fabric started at her shoulders then wrapped around her torso several times. While the result covered her nipples, it was still revealing enough to flirt with indecency from across the bar.

Meanwhile Elsie had turned her eyes on Kevin as soon as he walked in. It was difficult to put a label on the expression the English woman wore, but since her cheeks flushed as he watched he assumed it had something to do with whatever Diviner had shown her that morning.

He and Penny walked across the room to join the other four, but before they could claim seats one of the tavern maids approached. The woman started her journey as an elf with tan skin and a modest frame, but somewhere along the way she became something else entirely.

“Exactly the group I wanted to talk to.” The purr of Lily’s voice caught the attention of the entire table, with most of the party freezing like deer in headlights.

Only Hazel seemed unconcerned, the nymph extracting a hand from behind her head to give a lazy wave of greeting at the hostess while her expression remained blandly pleasant. “Hello Lily. How can we help you today?”

The costume the tavern wench had worn had remained more or less intact even when the woman herself went away—though the effect it had when struggling against Lily’s milky curves was markedly different. She reached a hand to her chest, where a vast expanse of pale cleavage was put on display by the low-cut blouse, and extracted a pair of documents.

“This is a mail call. There’s an… event… occurring on another season of Harem Hotel. You’ll all be attending.” She paused as her gaze moved to Abby, and added, “Well, most of you. I’m afraid our little nymphet here will need to watch her sister go off alone again this time.”

“Do we get any say in the matter?” Kevin, beginning to get used to Lily’s sudden arrivals, managed to recover fairly quickly and his tone was dry.

“No. Don’t worry about clothing or anything, I’ll make sure that’s all taken care of. I’ll slot the whole thing in between today and tomorrow so you don’t miss out on any of your precious bonding time, either. Wouldn’t want the party to lose cohesion, would we?” Lily offered the DM a smile that could only have been more obviously artificial if her lips were made of the liquid silicon they somewhat resembled.

“Why us four?” The question came from Elsie and was accompanied by a quick gesture around the table. It was met with a shrug. The hostess—currently without visible wings—leaned forward conspiratorially and whispered, “Content.”

When Lily rose again a moment later, she let out a theatrical sigh then added, “You don’t have anything to worry about. Clothing will be provided, it will happen in the space between today and tomorrow so you don’t miss any of your time together, and the person running it is—let’s say she is not going to allow anything to interfere with her event. You’re going to socialize with some other people, no doubt make friends to last a lifetime, and be back here with nothing but memories to show for it.”

Kevin’s eyes narrowed at the surprisingly frank explanation from the hostess. “No catches?”

Her lips curled into a smile that on another face might have been sweet. “Why Kevin, I don’t know what you mean.” It slipped again a moment later and she lifted a hand to give a dismissive wave. “In all seriousness, no. Not that you’d have any more choice in the matter if there were, but I expect this to be disgustingly wholesome. If you manage to find a way to make it entertaining for our viewers, I’ll find a way to make sure your efforts aren’t unrewarded. Now, I have rather a lot of prep work to do to make sure this doesn’t interfere with anything else. I’ll see you when I shepherd you to the event.”

With that, Lily was gone. In the abruptness of her departure, the party—for once—actually got to watch the transition happen. Shadows melted away from the hostess’ pale skin, flowed down the barmaid like smoke, and vanished into the floorboards, leaving only the moderately confused elven woman behind in their wake.

“Well, that was something,” commented Penny, and no one seemed able to find it in themselves to disagree.

“We need to talk.” Tess didn’t put much inflection into her statement, but in the wake of Lily’s departure, all eyes turned on her.

“Words every man dreads hearing.” Despite the statement, Kevin managed a wry smile. “I agree, though. Do you have a preference for where?”

Penny spoke up before the white-haired selkie could respond, “I’m going to go wander the city today. I’ve got all these GP I’ve earned, I might as well try to find some way to spend them, right?”

“Oh, I’ll go with you!” Elsie stood up quickly from her chair as she volunteered, and was followed by Hazel—albeit in a far more languid fashion. The nymph commented easily, “A shopping trip together sounds good. I don’t have much to spend, but maybe there’s something small I can get for my girls.”

A moment later, the trio wandered out of the door and out into the city, leaving Kevin alone with Tess and Abby. The DM gestured around at the wide berth the NPCs in the common room had left them and asked, “This isn’t exactly private, but I don’t think anyone will overhear us. Would you be more comfortable with people nearby, or would you prefer to go somewhere else to talk?”

Though the two selkies were far from identical, the family resemblance between them was undeniable—especially in the face, where the similarity in their features was strong enough to make the contrast between their expressions stark. Tess wore a contemplative look that was serious but stopped short of grim. Abby’s impatience was tempered by nerves, her eyes bouncing back and forth between Kevin and her older sister, then fleeing anywhere else in the room as soon as either glanced her way. After a moment, Tess grimaced slightly and responded, “It will be better if we speak in private, but I am concerned about the results if we go to either our room or yours.”

Kevin swiftly held up both hands. “I promise—I have no intention of doing anything to push you in any direction you don’t want.”

Tess’s grimace deepened and she glanced sideways at her sister. “It’s not you I’m worried about.” The older selkie took a deep breath, then shook her head. “No, we will likely need to go outside of the city before the day is done, but we should make sure we have agreed on what we are doing first.” She returned her eyes to Kevin’s face and instructed, “Take us to your room. I do not believe Penny will return to interrupt us, or that she would judge us harshly if she did, but I would prefer we have the first part of this talk in private.”

A few minutes and a short walk later, the three strode through the portal into the Master’s suite at the top of the tallest spire of the castle. The view at midday was incredible, stretching out across the city all the way to the walls and beyond, encompassing dense forests, scattered ruins, and the sparkling sinuous lines of the rivers which fed the city’s canals.

None of them paid more than a moment’s attention to it. Instead, Kevin stepped inside, glanced around for a moment, then gestured at the handful of chairs near the oversized fireplace. “Over there?” Tess considered for a moment, then nodded once. She directed a sharp glance at her sister, then reached over to take Abby’s hand and lead her over to claim two of the plush chairs.

Kevin followed after, pausing only to pour himself a cup of water from one of the pitchers—which somehow always seemed to be not only full, but pleasantly cool. He took a sip, then set it down on the small circular table next to him and let his eyes move back and forth between the two young women. “I know that you were the one who said we needed to talk,” he started, “but I do also have a very important question we need to cover at some point. I’m happy to let you go first, but I don’t want to forget to ask it before we’re done.”

Abby started to open her mouth to respond, but was cut off by a sharp look from Tess. The white-haired selkie waited to be sure her younger sister wasn’t going to talk, then turned back to Kevin and responded, “We may need to discuss yours first. Ours will take some time, and I am not certain how the conversation will go.”

Kevin let out a nervous laugh. “I could say the same about mine, but if you’re willing to wait, I’ll open.” He took a deep breath, waited to see if either of the sisters would object, then began, “Alright, I’ve had some variation of this talk a couple times now, and I’m still not sure how to start. What I want to discuss is what our relationship will look like when we’re finally out of here. I’m happy to go into the full details about why I’m asking, but it’s an important conversation to have even if they’re irrelevant.”

Tess’ eyes narrowed as she studied the season’s Master. A few moments passed in silence before she broke it with a simple, “Hmm.” Then she shook her head, and responded, “Perhaps it is a coincidence, but I think that there is a reason I received this quest this morning.”

Kevin grimaced as he finished reading through the full details of the text. “See, this is what I hate about this place. Even if you look past the innuendo—and believe me, I’m not—the one-sided nature of the way this quest is structured is inherently exploitative.” He turned back to the sisters and informed them seriously, “It’s pretty obvious what it’s implying, but I want to make it perfectly clear that I have zero plans to push either of you into anything. Whatever the quest says, if all we do today is make some progress figuring out what both of you want and how I can help make that happen, I’ll be happy.”

Tess and Abby shared a long glance. When they eventually turned back to Kevin, the former spoke in quiet, measured tones. “That is good to hear. When this quest appeared this morning, I talked to Abby about it first. Then, when we went downstairs, we spoke first to Elsie and then to Hazel. Both of them urged openness and honesty, so even before you arrived, we were prepared to have a frank conversation with you.”

Kevin nodded slowly. “Alright. It sounds like you have an idea how the next part of the conversation should go?”

Tess nodded, but when she started to talk, her words didn’t seem to be cooperating. “I—we—that is, my sister and I…”

“Tess and I started fucking,” Abby cut in abruptly. Tess’s face flushed a bright pink in response and she spun to glare at her younger sister, whose expression turned defiant as she continued, “What? You were taking forever to get to it. The whole point of the quest is to show him everything. Hazel and Elsie said we should just tell him. I’m a horny slut who needs to get off a few times a day and Tess feels what I feel. I had to hide it back on Earth, but I don’t have to hide it here, so I’m just not going to.”

Tess grimaced and turned back to Kevin. Her face remained bright pink, but to his surprise she resisted the urge to shift to her transformed state. Through House Rule he could feel the selkie’s initial Psychic Warrior transformation hovering at the cusp of activation, but she remained in her comparatively smaller state as she addressed him, “Abby—is not… lying. Even before the end of the first round when she joined me permanently, I was struggling with the effects of the magic. The heightened senses meant that even the slightest touch was overwhelming. Now—”

“Now she gets turned on by a slight breeze and has to deal with her slutty little sister in the back of her head.” Tess’ blush brightened, and the only response she managed was a tightly clenched jaw.

Kevin, silent for a few minutes, took a deep breath. He let it out slowly, then nodded once, and said simply, “Okay.”

“Okay?” Abby leaned forward as she answered, obviously intent on pressing for more. Tess, meanwhile, remained pink but managed a slightly suspicious look at the season’s Master.

“Okay.” Kevin reiterated his answer. The DM met first Tess, then Abby’s gaze in turn, focusing on the latter as he explained, “I meant what I said earlier. By the end of this conversation, all I want is to figure out what the two of you want. The only way I can do that is to take whatever you tell me seriously.”

He turned back to the older selkie and added, “That means you, too, Tess. Some of the pressure I’m getting is to use House Rule to try to steer how all this magic affects us. I couldn’t make the connection between you and Abby go away, but maybe I can do something to make it easier to deal with.”

The sisters turned to look at each other in response. Whatever discussion or debate they had was held in silence, through a series of flickering expressions and eye movements that Kevin lost track of almost instantly, but when it was done, they’d apparently agreed on something. They turned back to the DM as one, and Tess said simply, “Alright. Let’s talk.”