Resolving An Issue

Mark and Talia were nearing the edge of town, to meet up with Hilde to take the carriage up to the suite. What they had not expected to see was Freya with her on the carriage.

“Hey you, two. How’d your date go?” Hilde inquired as they got into the carriage.

“Really well, it was interesting to see what differences could have changed our lives.” Mary replied.

“It gave me lots to think about, that’s for sure.” Talia was looking at the sisters with a puzzling expression. “So, Freya not staying with your other sisters? Kind of thought you were not happy with Hilde.”

“No, I’d rather be with Hilde even if I am annoyed with her. Plus if Mary needs my services in the suite I should be nearby.”

“Freya…” Hilde began.

“Hilde, I will, okay. I’m just thinking about it.”

“Are you thinking about how not to do it?”

“No, I’m just collecting my thoughts okay.”

“Fine, but you have until we reach the suite. The others all agreed I should **** the issue otherwise.”

“Care to explain, Hilde? Because if this is what I think it’s about then you need to drop it.” Mary scolded her.

“No, I don’t and Freya agreed to this with my sisters, I’m just to make sure she doesn’t chicken out.”

Mary’s expression shifted to one of consternation, as the remaining of the ride was in silence. When they reached the palace Mary and Talia got out of the carriage to go inside. Mary wanted not to have the conversation that Hilde seemed to be insisting on.

“Freya… Do I need to intervene?” Hilde nearly growled.

“No. Mary, please wait.” Freya called out.

“Hilde, Freya have you two considered that maybe I don’t want to hear this? Especially when I assume that you’ve essentially badgered Freya into whatever this is, and questioned her what I assume to be hours. That I don’t want Freya to be **** to answer my questions truthfully?”

“No, I did not, Mary.” Freya responded. “But Hilde actually didn’t question me almost at all. My sisters did… truthfully I do want to clear the air here. If you don’t want to though.”

“Too bad.” Hilde finished for Freya.

“Mary, I think you should hear her out.” Talia said, “I think that this is important.”

“You too?” Mary squeaked in annoyance. “Fine, go ahead Freya.”

Freya and Hilde got off the carriage and moved to stand in front of Mary.

Freya hesitantly began talking, “Okay so, yes this is about last night.” Mary’s expression turned into a scowl towards Hilde. “At least partially. After talking, primarily with Maja, we, well, mostly I, realized some things. Things I have purposefully been avoiding dealing with. Mary, I do like you. A part of me does want to be part of your harem. But only a small part. Look I’ve seen the happiness the show can bring to people not just the suffering, but I don’t want what it would cost me. Hilde shared with me the conversation you had last night, which was mostly accurate. I don’t want to give up on Astrid. It’s more important to me than anything else. So no, I actually don’t want to be in your Harem.”

“Is that all you wanted to say?” Mary asked a little bitterly.

“Yes.”

“Mary. I don’t like the tone you’re using toward Freya.” Talia interjected.

“I don’t really care." Mary snapped. "I am tired of this being brought up. I thought that I’ve made my position on the show pretty clear. I’m not actually happy that all of you are **** to compete, that you are in danger of being eliminated if you don’t try and be with me. I’m happy that it seems like we can end up making this work out, but Talia until I radically altered your history, you were miserable and afraid you would end up like ASTRID, or something similar. So, I’m not sorry about being bitter because people are constantly trying to get me to add another person to the harem. I don’t want to be pressured about this. Not by Aubrey, not by Laura or anyone else. I want to make this abundantly clear. This topic of conversation is over. If it is brought up again in my presence, I am going to go from bitter to angry. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, Mary.” Freya responded. When the other two didn’t Mary spoke up.

“Hilde, Talia, I want an answer.” Mary raised her voice.

“Yes, boss.” Hilde grumbled.

Talia looked at Mary, not happy. She didn’t reply. She turned and walked into the palace towards the suite. All three of them stared in disbelief as she just walked off, without a word.

“Mary, I’m sorry if I upset you.”

“Freya, I’m not upset with you. Hilde, I AM upset with you and whichever of your sisters pushed Freya to do this. Now good night, as apparently I have to resolve whatever the issue is with Talia.” Mary turned around and followed after Talia into the suite.

As Mary entered the suite she found Talia sitting on the couch clearly upset. Mary began to speak with some bitterness still in her voice. “Talia, I—”

“No, you listen here Mary. I’m not going to tell you how to feel about this. But do not speak to me like that. That is not how you treat someone you respect. As far as the Freya discussion goes. I’m going to bring it up if I damn well please.”

“Seriously!? You too. WHY!?” Mary was practically yelling.

“Don’t yell at me.” Talia said angrily but in a steady voice. “As far as why. Because I’m my own person and you don’t get to decide what I speak about. I already have to kiss someone everyday to talk, I’m not having you limit what I can speak about any more than that. So if I decide I want to have a conversation about you adding Freya to your harem, I damn well will. If you don’t like that, then I guess you know what you have to do don’t you?” Talia was sneering at Mary by the end of that. She took a minute to regain her composure, “I don’t think you will do that though, because you aren’t a bad person Mary. Which is why I like you. Why, I trusted you to make those changes.”

Mary took a few deep breaths. “Okay, Talia you’re right. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. No, I wouldn’t make you have to be honest with me or control what you can and can’t talk about. But I am serious about wanting this topic closed.”

“Mary, I know you’re hiding something from me, probably from all of us. I’m not dumb remember?”

“What are you talking about?” Mary was genuinely confused.

“On our date you obviously lied to me. Have you considered that we might be able to help? Especially someone who is much smarter than you. I don’t have perfect recall but I do have a very good memory now. Maybe I know something you don’t. Now do you want to tell me why you lied?”

“Talia, what did I lie to you about?”

“How about you use that brain of yours and actually stop and think. Why would I bring this up now?”

Oh. Crap.

“Good, glad to see you aren’t totally clueless. Now, Mary—” it was at this moment that the effects of the spring ended, resulting in the clothes that Mary now Mark was wearing to tear as he regained his original height, and weight leaving him naked.

“Seriously!?” Mark exclaimed as he covered himself and went to get a change of clothes. “OH COME ON!”

“Mary, uh Mark what’s wrong? I mean besides ending up naked?”

“I can’t put on any of my clothes not until the twenty-four hours are up apparently”

“Mark, just sit down so we can finish our conversation, I don’t care if you’re nude. Okay I care a little but this is more important. Just grab a pillow and cover your penis.” Mark did as instructed not seeing a better solution than just being nude. “Now, I’m not certain of this yet, I’m going to look into it more. BUT, I think you are going to need to add Freya to your harem at some point.”

“What!?” Mark was angry, “I already—”

“MARK! I already said not to talk to me like that. Now shut up and consider what I said, instead of just reacting to gut feelings.”

Mark was seething but seeing that Talia was also genuinely angry too, he tried to calm down. After a couple minutes he actually started to consider what Talia had said. Why would Talia want me to add Freya to the Harem? Wait… she didn’t say I should add her, rather I'm going to need to add her. Why? She isn’t certain though, why would she think that at all though... The credits, that must be it. If that is the case... then it has to be about Astrid. Fuck.

“I see that the cogs clicked into place.” Talia had been studying Mark’s expression. “Good, now like I said I’m not certain, yet. If I get to the point that I am, trust me please, and do as I ask.”

“Not without Freya’s explicit permission. That’s non-negotiable.”

“Reasonable. I’m sorry that our date ended with us fighting. But seriously you need to stop and think about things instead of just reacting. That is what caused the mess with Flora. Honestly that’s what caused a lot of the messes so far, not all of them mind you but many. So please seriously the next time you get angry or emotional, take a few deep breaths and think about the situation. Now, I don’t know about you but I’m hungry.” Talia reached for the tablet to place a dinner order. “I’m getting Chinese, any preferences?”

“Orange Chicken, and something with broccoli, green peppers and rice.”

“Okay the order is in. Now should I leave you to sulk or do you want to do something?”

“I’m not sulking. I don’t want tonight to end with us fighting. I’m sorry I got mad and yelled. I would like to continue to do stuff tonight but I don’t really have anything in mind.”

“Well I have an idea. Since you’re naked…”

“I thought you said you didn’t want to jump to sex.”

“Oh I don’t but I figured it’s only fair, I’ve seen you naked so I could do a strip dance for you and then we could cuddle naked and watch a movie together or something.”

“You would really be comfortable with that?”

Talia considered her words. “I’m not sure I would go that far. I’m concerned to be honest. That I might end up losing enough points at the challenge to put me in the negatives, if I don’t get any more. Even if I have the next round to get back to being positive, Cassandra didn’t say how long the competition would last. So, I want to earn more points.”

“Okay, well I definitely would love to see you naked so I won’t complain. I just wanted to make sure you were really okay with that.”

Talia grabbed the tablet and put on some sensual dance music, and then stood up and pushed the table out of the way. She began to dance to the music for Mark, even doing some cheer poses before she moved closer and began to take off her clothes waving her rear in Mark’s direction. To Mark’s surprise after removing her skirt she backed up into him and gave him a lap dance. Talia smirked a bit when she could feel the pillow Mark was using to cover himself twitch underneath her. She slipped off her panties, bending over showing off her nice butt. Talia let out a surprised, “EEP” when Mark smacked her ass. That felt good. Well guess that’s on the confession list for later. Then again… maybe I shouldn’t confess it, if Mark is going to want to do that more. Talia turned around so Mark could see her breasts as she took off her top. She was about to continue and take off her stockings when Mark spoke up.

“No leave those on, I like the way they look on you.”

So she did. She danced for a little longer nude except for the stockings and then got into Mark’s lap straddling him and kissed him. “Okay I think that’s enough, pretty sure that if we continue I’ll do something I’ll regret later.” She slid off him to the side and just leaned against him.

+5 VP Nude for Master

+2 VP Strip for the Master

+1 VP Lap dance (x2 First)

“Oh look, dinner.” Talia chuckled as about thirty seconds after they finished it appeared on the table. Then she made a disgruntled face. “I just realized, a bunch of people just watched that including Cassandra didn’t they.” She put her hand over her face. “Just great, I’m a stripper now. Only a matter of time before we’re all porn stars isn’t it, Mark?”

“What, of course not… porn stars get paid.” He chuckled.

“Ha, Ha.” Talia was not amused.

“Yea, I mean anything sexual is definitely going to be shown to some degree at least. Especially the first time involving those people. Hopefully it just doesn’t get shown to people back home.”

“Oh god, please don’t joke about that. I would be so ashamed if my family found out. They are accepting and all now but, I think them seeing me strip dance for you on our first date might be a bridge too far. Now I’m going to pick one of my favorite movies, for us to watch together. If you’ve seen it, let me know I’ll switch to something else as I want to share with you something I like that you haven’t seen.”

“Fair warning, I’ve seen a lot of films, also I’m not a fan of rom-coms typically, but I will humor you, or at least try to. Also if you don’t want me to pause at random times to cringe you should keep the remote away from me. Sometimes I get anxiety because of random things in a movie and it just makes me want to pause and skip over the bit.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” It took Talia a good twenty minutes before Talia gave up trying to find something Mark hadn't seen, and mostly because they had already finished most of their food. “Okay fine you pick something then.”

“Have you ever seen any Monty Python?”

“Monty what? No.”

“Oh well then. That needs to be corrected. We’ll watch Holy Grail first. We can watch a few of the others after, if you want. Also you said cuddling naked, you do realize that is likely to result in some fondling right and you touching my penis. If only by accident.”

“I had considered that. The bed has a perfect view of the screen, I was thinking we could cuddle there instead of the couch and you could just hold me.”

“Works for me.” So they moved to the bed slid under the covers propped up a bunch of pillows to lean on and Mark then pulled Talia in close by the waist. Getting a small yelp in surprise, then she rested her head on his shoulder as the opening credits began to roll. After the move had finished they both fell asleep in that position.