Taking care of business

After coming up with a plan with the ladies, Mark mentioned he was going to go walk around town on his own for a bit and gather his thoughts, but would be at the fountain on time. Heading through the portal quickly, Mark walked down a few streets until he found somewhere that felt at least slightly secluded to just relax and sit for a few moments. Okay, just breathe. Mark, you are going to be okay. You can do this. That anxiety in your chest is justified, as you just got the fates of nine people squarely put on you. It will be okay. Most of the seasons I read had an okay ending, and Cassandra seems to want that too. Okay, checklist time, Mark, what is important?

1. Prevent Eliminations.
2. Try not to panic.
3. Help keep people emotionally healthy.
4. Try to make all the Ladies happy.
5. Make sure to spend your BP every week.

Okay, so 1,3,4 are all out at the moment, so 2, yeah. I think I can manage 2. Now that leaves me with 5. With that thought, Mark opened up his phone to see what was on it. He found the contacts page, with all the ladies' numbers, Cassandra, Smug, and Slevia at the moment, but had some others greyed out. Guess there are some people here I haven’t met. Then he found a repository of information, he could apparently order past seasons to watch. He then found Da Rules, seeing that they went far more in depth than what Cassandra had said during the intro, he vowed to read it later. The last thing he felt he had the time to go into now was the BP store. He opened the app for it and realized there was absolutely no way he was ever going to be able to go through all the items in the store. “Okay, Cassandra,” Mark shouted, believing she could hear him.

Cassandra appeared in front of him with a ~POP~.

“Yes? Ready to head to the Master’s suite?”

“No, I am meeting back up with the ladies a little bit, just need some time to decompress. I want to know what is up with the BP store here? There are so many items in the store, and a quick glance showed that there were duplicate entries for some, and I thought you said you didn’t want people to get eliminated, but you put BP items in the store that allow them to self-eliminate in a particular way?”

“About that… see, I have been meaning to clean up the BP store… Just never had the time. So all the previous items in the store from past seasons are still there. Sorry, not much I can do to help you there, besides give you a search function.”

“Fine, I get procrastinating. Do you have any suggestions for purchases, for me or the ladies?”

“More TFs?” Mark gave her a deadpan stare. “Okay, fine, I would check the Contestant Specific Purchases, as that shouldn’t have old items in it. Also, some of the purchases will only be available for you to get for them. Lastly, I will tell you that not everything costs the same for you and the Ladies. Some things are more and some are less.”

“Okay, thanks, Cassandra.” Mark looked up at her with weary eyes. “I think I will just sit here for a bit to pursue the store, see if there is anything I could get them to help them out.” Cassandra was about to leave when Mark spoke up again. “Oh, and Cassandra, thank you.” Giving her a warm smile. Slightly confused, she teleported away.

Right after Cassandra left, he heard a voice come up from behind him. “Hey Mark. So what are you up to? Flora asked as she approached from behind him. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you, but you sort of looked like you could use some help.”

About 45 minutes earlier, shortly after Mark left.

As soon as Mark went through the portal, Chloe immediately spoke up. “Okay, Flora, Allie, I know you both want to get some new clothes. Can you do that quickly and meet back here as fast as possible? And Sam, could you help Ellen with her corset? After that, I would like us all to talk without Mark here. So maybe meet at the Playhouse in 5 to 10 minutes? That way we will be close to town if our discussion runs long.” The ladies nodded in agreement. Allie and Flora went into the tower to change, and Sam took Ellen to their room. It didn’t take them long to meet back up with everyone at the Playhouse, though all four of the women coming from their rooms looked a combination of flushed and embarrassed.

“So, Sam.” Allie started, “Was your room… lewd as well?”

“Yeah, but not overly so. Lots of silk, pillows, red. I would say it was meant to be sensual, soft, and inviting as opposed to lewd, but crossed the line a bit. Good news for Ellen is that she probably has an outfit or two she can swap into later, but most of her wardrobe is shot.”

“And those were some of my favorite ensembles, too…” Ellen muttered.

“Well, I am sure we will have time to go shopping today. After lunch, we can find you some costumes you might be more comfortable in,” Allie said reassuringly. “Okay, Chloe, what did you want us to talk about? You did call the meeting.”

“Well, I wanted to do a few things. First, Flora, I know this means you won’t be here for the discussion, but do you think you could go follow Mark? I am worried about him, and I don’t know about everyone else, but I don’t fully trust him to do what is best for us.”

“So you want someone to go spy on my fiancée?” Allie scowled at Chloe.

“I actually agree with her.” Flora cut Allie off. “I think I should go do that, it isn’t that I don’t trust him at all, but this place is messed up, and he is probably stressed out too. And stressed people don’t always make good choices. Plus, he didn’t seem to be in the best place right now, and you might not want to hear this, Allie, but you are probably not the best person to go talk to him, as he is probably agonizing over how you are going to feel about all this. Now I could go do it without any of you realizing it, but I’m not going to unless you guys generally agree I should.”

“I’ll say that I trust him,” Sam responded, “But I don’t think there is any real harm in you going,” at which most of the others nodded in agreement.

“Fine, go. But we are going to let him know about this at lunch.” Allie capitulated, and Flora took off through the portal to town. “Okay, what else did you want to talk about, Chloe? Want to ask me a bunch of probing questions about Mark.”

“Yes, actually. But I wanted to check in to make sure no one is going to have a breakdown first.” She looked around and got shrugs. “Okay, in that case, yes, I want you to share a bit about Mark. Most of us have little to no info on him, and what we do have is mostly outdated. What I do know is that, while he has been generally helpful, he not only has info about this entire show, which does seem suspicious, but he actually out and right said he found the idea of enslaving all of us enticing, even if he was compelled to speak. We all know that compulsion was the truth, too. He also said that he does find this arousing, and he thinks we all look physically better than before, because of transformations, so yes, I am a bit worried about what he might do. But instead of just distrusting him, I ask you to please help us trust him.” Chloe finished with a plea in her voice.

“Fine. The first thing you need to know is that Mark is one horny pervert. Not in the ‘I am going to stalk a girl,’ kind of way. More like there are days that he goes and masturbates since I wasn’t in the mood. And those are all of the days that end in ‘y’ where I wasn’t in the mood. He is into a lot, too, like a lot. He explained some of the stuff, and I wasn’t even sure exactly what some of the fetishes were, even after he explained them. What I can say is that he isn’t into everything, and even what he is into, he straight up has said he would never ask me to do those things unless I was interested in exploring them. He is a good person, and I do love him, and before you think I am overly biased, I want you to know we almost broke up three different times. One of those times was when I first broke off our engagement because we were having problems, serious problems. But we worked through them; he wanted to work through them a lot more than me. He loves deeply but is terrible at showing it sometimes. That is about it, unless you have a specific question. Actually, wait, I do recall him mentioning something about reading an erotica online, mentioning TFs as he called them. I can’t be sure that it was this show, but it probably was.”

“I have two questions,” Samantha chimed in. “First is do you think he will actually be willing to sleep with each of us, if we want to. The second is, are you going to sabotage us by trying to convince him not to do stuff with us?”

“I -- I really don’t know. Part of me wishes I could have him all to myself. But that doesn’t seem realistic anymore. Like I said in the Q&A, it isn’t like we hadn’t thought about bringing someone in for a three-way, or even a throuple. I just always thought that I would be included.” Allie was really struggling not to tear up. “Like, what if he ends up not caring about me the same way now that he has all of you. Part of our issues was that I was always worried that he didn’t really like me, because he isn’t great at expressing it all the time. I’m not going to try to convince him not to do stuff with you, but I don’t think I’ll be using my boon for a while.” At least for most of you. She finished with a thought, looking at Aubrey.

“That’s good to hear,” and there was stunned confusion amongst the women as they all realized it was Talia who had spoken. With them all staring at her, it dawned on her how they had taken words and blushed. “Uhhhh, I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just part of what convinced me to accept Cassandra’s help was that she sort of showed me what happens during an elimination, and they were,” Talia paused, considering the best word to describe it, “horrific, doesn’t quite seem to be the right word, but they were bad. Then there is the fact that I don’t think any of us would forgive you if someone got eliminated because you told Mark not to kiss us, go on romantic dates, or eventually make love to them. Plus, you have to also remember that if one of us does get eliminated, someone we care about will replace us; it might be a family member, could be a best friend. I, for one, am going to try my hardest to make sure that doesn’t happen. Not just for me either, I am willing to suffer worse transformation votes for doing poorly in the challenges to help someone who needs it to avoid elimination. As long as I am not in danger of elimination myself, because I am not allowing my little sister to be brought into this.”

“Ah, so you’ve chosen to entertain him… maybe even spoil him a little, n’est-ce pas?” Ellen teased her.

“I mean…” Darn it, why can’t I stop entertaining the idea that being with him might not be so bad? “It isn’t like I haven’t thought about it, kind of hard not to with the situation, but it isn’t like I am just going to drop to my knees and blow him or anything.” Saying that Talia felt the desire to be more intimate with Mark stopped rising, but still there in the back of her mind.

“Would you stop teasing her!” Sam snapped, “Look, I am not happy with some of the things Talia has said, but that isn’t a reason to deliberately mess with her because of her faith, or being reserved. Essentially, we are all, including Mark, being **** into sex here. Even if you enjoy it, there is still a fundamental backdrop that we have to be intimate with him, or suffer. So please stop ribbing her for not wanting to be in a relationship that doesn’t conform to what she had wanted. Honestly, it’s a bit worse in my opinion than when she says that she thinks that homosexuality is wrong; she is entitled to her beliefs, as long as she isn’t trying to foist them on us. While she might be extremely bad at explaining herself, on this topic, I have heard similar things from friends before, who still loved me and supported me. I think Talia might be a bit like that, and we just need to get to know her a bit more. But teasing her for not wanting to effectively be sexually assaulted isn’t okay. Also, Talia, you should remember your TF. Make time to tell at least one of us once a day of any 'sinful' thoughts that come through your mind, even if it is embarrassing. Then, of course, make sure to tell Mark when you get the chance. You might even want to keep them written down so you don’t forget one, because I doubt that ‘oops I forgot about that one’ is going to stop your TF from activating.”

Ellen and a few of the other women looked a bit chastised by Sam’s words because she was right; they were all being **** into a relationship with Mark, except Allie, but even she didn’t ask for this. Talia was a bit taken aback by the show of support, but was grateful to Sam all the same.

“Well, this has been a great talk. I think we should come up with questions for Mark and also a plan.” Laura began, “Can we agree to share information with each other? I know it might be embarrassing for some of you, but I think we should try to get an idea of what is worth how much VP. I also think we should all shoot to have 10VP by the first challenge. Whoever ends up in last hopefully won’t be in danger of elimination the following week that way.”

“Why ten?” inquired Merida.

“I think it is unlikely that last place would lose more than 5VP as long as they actually participate in the challenge. At least during the first week. Second, from what we have seen, it shouldn’t be that hard to get that many points since Flora is already at 8VP if you recall. With both Talia and Allie having also gotten some. Probably for kissing him, and having him take off Allie’s pants. Flora got more either because she did it herself or because she was fully exposed below the waist. There might have been something for doing it the first time or being first, because it did seem like a lot of points to me for essentially an accident. Anyway, we should focus on questions to ask Mark. We have a bit over an hour before we are supposed to meet up with him.” With that, the ladies started to plan.

Shortly after Flora left

Okay, I didn't really think this one through. How am I supposed to find him? She stood there for a moment before catching a faint whiff of something in the air. Sweat? Did my sense of smell improve? It didn’t seem like it. Good a trail to follow as any, I guess. With that, she stuck her nose up in the air to see if she could get a better sense of where it went. It took her a bit, but she was at least nearby when she heard Mark shout Cassandra's name. She went towards the sound of Mark's voice and could hear the two of them talking. I should activate my boon. Now if only I knew if it was working. Hmmm, probably works like turning it off, I have to want to be unseen. I want to go unnoticed. I want to be unseen. She continued variations on this mantra in her head for a minute, and something clicked. I want to be IGNORED. She could tell that had activated her boon. Well, at least I can tell if it is activated or not. She walked up as close as she could to Mark, but made sure to stay just out of line of sight as Cassandra could observe her. She waited for Cassandra to leave and then deactivated her boon, needing a moment to go through a mantra again. I want Mark to SEE me. and then approached him. “Hey Mark. So what are you up to? Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you, but you sort of looked like you could use some help.”

“Huh? Oh, hey, Flora. I just needed some space to clear my head and get a grasp on the situation. I was getting pretty close to having an anxiety attack, to be honest.”

“Oh. I understand that public speaking causes that for me unless I have prepared endlessly for it, and even then, I am still pretty exhausted afterwards. Though it seems like it might be significantly worse for you. Want to talk about it?”

“Not really, I will be okay, I have experience dealing with anxiety and techniques to help center myself. But I wouldn’t mind some company, it was just really overwhelming, I honestly can’t imagine how all of you are coping as well as you are.”

“I bet some of the others are still in shock, and it will all hit them later. I want to be honest, I was sent and came to check up on you, everyone agreed you could use someone to talk with.”

“I see. Not sure if you caught the end of my conversation with Cassandra or not, but I was looking through the BP shop to see if there was anything I could do to help any of you before lunch together. Honestly, it’s a mess. Apparently, Cassandra didn’t really remove items from the BP store from previous seasons. So it has a bunch of junk, like there seems to be something like a hundred slightly different versions of ways to change a TF, like one says upgrade, another says improve, another is increase the effect, increase severity, the list goes on. Like it is hard to tell which one I would want to go with if I wanted to help one of you with some of the problems your TFs might pose.”

“Like Merida’s posing one.” Flora quipped, “Sorry, bad pun. But upgrading a TF you want to change us more?”

“That's the thing. Usually, there is an option to change a TF, not completely, mind you, but thinking about it, there actually might be, with how the store is. Anyway, the point is, in many seasons, there would be something to alter a TF so it is more bearable. Since you mentioned it, let’s take Merida’s Hold that Pose as an example. The effects would vary, but possible changes might be putting some limit on how long she has to pose for, who is allowed to pose her, or how they are allowed to do so. But there are other ones that would be more along the lines of making her aroused while posed or desired to be treated like a posable doll or mannequin. Possibly a combination of the more helpful and the more erotic types. Hence, my problem. That doesn’t even get into all of the other options.”

“Well, I could sit with you until lunch, and we can go through the store together. Maybe walk over and talk to Slevia about recommendations; she might have a better grasp.”

“I think, sitting here and going through it would be nice.” Flora plopped down on the ground right next to him, just barely not touching, and pulled out her phone, and they started going through the store, mentioning whenever they found an option interesting, confusing, or just outright bizarre. Flora slowly leaned in, touching their shoulders together as they got talking and looking at the options on one another’s phones. Mark did not comment on her leaning on him, but he definitely noticed she was. It felt so peaceful and safe to her.

+1VP emotionally connect with and reassure the master (First x2)