Tess and Abby Disagree, Elsie offers her support, Stheno advises

When Tess and Abby arrived, they brought an ongoing conversation with them. “I’m just saying, you should take this chance to actually get to experience dating while you can!” From the slightly exasperated notes in the older Joenson sister’s voice, this was not the first time she’d tried to make the point, but the silver-haired selkie wasn’t having it.

“And I’m telling you, I don’t care about any of that!” Abby marched into the small dining room at full steam, her face more animated than Kevin thought he’d ever seen—so long as he was willing to discount the incident at the river when Tess’s transformation pushed the eighteen-year-old into an orgasm in front of himself, Hazel, and her disciples. “It’s not like I was ever going to have a normal dating life anyway. You’re just trying to push me into a neat little bucket the same way everyone does, when I finally have the chance to be what I was meant to be!”

Both sisters were still wearing their Shifter’s Suits—Tess’ in gold now that Abby was wearing silver—and it appeared that their garb had shifted to match the pair’s opposing outlooks on the question of the day.

The older Joenson’s garment had taken the form of a tank top and shorts that were modest enough to have escaped comment if she’d worn them to class, but fit nicely to show off her trim swimmer’s physique.

Abby, in contrast, wore something that would have looked out of place everywhere except—perhaps—Burning Man. The selkie’s slender figure was on full display in what might generously be described as a silver harness. Straps wrapped around her neck, biceps, and thighs, connected by strategically placed two-inch wide strips of reflective fabric, but left vast swaths of smooth skin exposed. Though it technically covered her breasts and groin, the gossamer material left so little to the imagination that Kevin could easily make out both the stiff tips of her nipples and the exterior of her sex and as a result the DM found himself working very hard to keep his attention fixed on the sisters’ faces.

He cleared his throat.

“You don’t seem to have come to a consensus on what you’d prefer.”

The words were greeted with immediate fire from both sisters as they tried to talk over each other.

“She wants me to give up on adventuring because—”

“My baby sister wants to give up on the only chance to date she’s—”

“One at a time please.” Kevin was surprised to find himself cutting off both young women on instinct, and perhaps even more surprised to find that it worked. The selkies stopped talking, glanced at each other, then finally looked back at the season’s Master as Tess began to speak.

“I think that you should take Lily’s offer. At this point, I think we’ve all accepted that we’re going to be stuck in whatever kind of reality she wants us to be in. If my choices are between being stuck on a dating show with my little sister, and being thrown into a made-up fantasy setting that we don’t know anything about, I think it makes more sense for us to go with the one closest to what we know.” The white-haired youth spared a quick glance at her sister, then added, “And, though she clearly doesn’t agree, Abby deserves the chance to actually experience dating for herself—even if it’s a twisted version of it.”

Beside her, Abby all but vibrated as her sister spoke. As soon as Tess stopped, the silver-haired girl hesitated for only a moment before blurting out, “I don’t care about any of that, though! I’d rather miss out on ‘normal’ dating than on magic and actually having fun.” A heartbeat later, she seemed to realize what she’d just said and turned to regard Kevin. “Not that, you know, dating you wouldn’t be fun. I’m sure you’re great, it’s just—”

The DM held up his hands in a placating gesture. “No, I get it. I—look, you both might legally be adults, but guys who go after girls who just turned eighteen are creepy, in my books. I’m not exactly sure how we’re going to work around that in the context of this show, but I have no intention of trying to have sex with you.”

Abby greeted his attempt at reassurance with a perplexed tilt of her head. The silver-haired eighteen-year-old glanced down at herself, then over at her older sister, then back to the season’s Master. “Wait, what? Why not?”

Kevin’s brow furrowed. He looked at Tess for support, saw that she was as astonished by Abby’s question as he was, and tried, “Because you’re half my age? Dating you would be out of the question. It’s bad enough that I’m going to have to figure out how to make sure your sister gets enough HP to make it through the dungeon without feeling like I’m taking advantage of her, let alone her barely-eighteen sister.”

The statement seemed to snap Tess out of her shock, but before she could muster any words, Abby cocked an eyebrow at Kevin, drew herself up until her back was straight and stared him straight in the eye as she stated archly, “I told you that I wasn’t interested in dating you. That doesn’t mean I’m not interested in sex.”

Kevin swallowed. “I—that is—”

Before he could dig himself into a hole, Tess cut in, “We can talk about this later. I still think that Abby deserves the chance to date. You might not be a boy her age, but you’re nicer than anything Lily is going to throw at her.” The older selkie’s voice softened slightly as she added, “At least we can count on you to be kind and gentle with her.”

Abby snorted. “And who says I want kind and gentle?” A moment later, she followed it up by muttering, “You sound like mom.”

Tess’s eyes narrowed, and it was Kevin’s turn to quickly interject, “Ok, look—there’s a lot for us to talk about. Later. Tomorrow is supposed to be your quest, Tess—or your date, I guess, if that’s how things wind up going. We can talk through everything then. I’ll take both of your thoughts into consideration for now, alright?”

“Fine.” While Tess clearly wasn’t happy with the DM’s response, she acknowledged the request with a curt nod.

Abby, on the other hand, glanced at her sister, then suddenly darted around the table until she stood beside the still seated Kevin. She leaned in close enough that her lips brushed Kevin’s ear and whispered so softly that even her sister’s enhanced hearing couldn’t pick out the words. “You’re the only guy around unless I wind up sleeping with an NPC. Give me a chance so I don’t have to. Please?”

She followed that up with a sudden peck on the older man’s cheek, then hurried out of the room with a sudden rush of movement. When Tess chased after her a moment later, they left a bemused Kevin with a faint smile on his lips in their wake.

With a deft twist of her narrow hips, Elsie pushed open the dining room door and backed in. Even before she spun to face him, Kevin could see the tray she held in both hands, but when his eyes landed on the array of fruits, cheeses, crackers, and other snack foods it bore, the words, “You’re an actual angel,” slipped past his lips without hesitation.

Elsie grinned. The tray itself was clearly quite heavy—in addition to the food, it supported a pair of mugs and a clay pitcher of liquid—so she wasted no time in sliding it onto the small table where Kevin sat, and only responded once her burden was relieved. “Careful with your words there, Mister-Harem Master. I think I’m happier as a fairy than I would be as an angel.”

Kevin let out a quiet snort of laughter. “Fair. You’re already pretty lawful good, though, aren’t you?” He rose from his seat enough to lean forward and begin to pick over the food the English girl had brought, snagging a small plate from the side of the tray and beginning to assemble a selection of snacks.

She shrugged. “Probably, but most of the depictions of angels in most systems are pretty Lawful-Stupid. I guess if we were talking In Nomine I wouldn’t mind being a Cherubim, but a Solar or a Planetar? Please.” Elsie followed suit and began to pile cheese and fruit atop crackers on her plate, but stopped after only a few stacks to fill one of the hefty wooden mugs from the pitcher.

Rather than keep it for herself, she stepped around the table to place it in front of Kevin, who raised an eyebrow as he looked down. “Beer? Little early for that, isn’t it?”

“Maybe for an American who can’t hold his drink,” Elsie teased, then added more softly, “It’s not exactly a sport drink, but after the night you had, you need some extra nutrition to help replenish yourself. Beer isn’t the best but it’ll be better than water.”

Rather than argue, Kevin lifted the mug and took a long drink, then sat back in his chair and let out a sigh. “I wasn’t sure how much of what happened you were going to pick up on. I know Useful Little Tool gives you a sense of the needs of the party, but wasn’t sure how much information that came with.”

Elsie poured herself a beer, slid into a chair, and took a drink of her own before she answered honestly, “Not as much as it could, but more than I would’ve liked. One of my Diviner visions yesterday morning showed me Hwa in bondage as you fed her your dick, so when I sensed her thirst, I had a pretty good idea of what the two of you were up to. It probably would’ve triggered Sensate so that I felt compelled to have you do the same thing to me if you hadn’t fucked my throat the first night I stayed with you, and if that sentence sounds normal right now, we might be on Harem Hotel.”

The two shared a dark laugh, then a few moments of companionable silence. Kevin took the opportunity to sample a few grapes, downed a cracker with a slice of summer sausage, then drained half of his remaining mug of beer before he settled against the back of the chair and asked more seriously, “How are you doing, Elsie? I feel like we haven’t gotten the chance to sit down and really talk in a while.”

The brownie’s lips pulled back in a smile, faint but genuine. “We haven’t, and we probably don’t have time to do so now. You’ve got less than an hour until noon, and I’m guessing you’ll need some time alone to think. I just came in to make sure you got some food in you, since you didn’t get the chance to get much breakfast.”

Kevin canted his head to the side and queried, “You don’t want to take the chance to convince me to respond one way or another?”

Elsie’s eyes crinkled a little as her smile deepened. “I’m sure that you can guess which of them I’d prefer, but I trust you enough to believe that if you choose to change things so that the season is more centered around dating and less around adventure, it’s because you think it’s the best decision for everyone here. Besides, you heard Lily—it’s not like we can’t still go out and explore on our own time, I’m pretty sure you’re the one who’d miss out on the most things if you accept.”

Kevin snorted softly. “You’re probably right.” He paused for long enough to take another drink of beer and the silence stretched into something longer. Elsie seemed perfectly happy to enjoy his company in quiet, so it was the DM who broke the silence again a minute later. “Can I ask you something?”

“Of course.” The response Elsie gave was instant and unhesitating enough to bring a hint of a wince to Kevin’s face. The effects of Useful Little Tool and Infuse Item weren’t always visible, but the rigid edges that defined the transformations occasionally showed through the brownie’s personality like seams in an otherwise beautiful dress.

He did his best to recover quickly, and if the slender brunette noticed the hiccup, she didn’t show it. “Do you still think that I picked the right approach at the beginning?”

“Participating so that none of us were backed into a corner, you mean?” When Kevin nodded his confirmation, Elsie took the time to think through her response.

When she spoke, her cadence was slower than usual, the words chosen with the care of someone who believed that there was a right and a wrong answer to a quiz and that she would be graded on her accuracy. “I think that if you hadn’t decided to accept the premise right away, Lily would’ve been willing to push things farther until you did. I don’t know exactly what shape that might have taken, but I think that the results would probably have been worse than what we’re going to get with our eyes open.”

Kevin let out an uncertain grunt that, while it didn’t disagree with Elsie’s answer, demonstrated a degree of dissatisfaction with the world in general. “I mean, you’re probably right. I can only imagine the drama that would’ve gone down if the abilities and transformations kept piling up, but each of them had a hidden clause that was kept hidden from us.” A heartbeat later, he let out a quiet groan and added, “It’s still going to be a problem. Hwa doesn’t seem to know about part of one of her transformations, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen when she realizes.”

Elsie’s eyes narrowed for a moment as the implications of Kevin’s statement sunk in. “That’s—I wondered about her showing up at breakfast. Be careful with that one, Kevin. I know you’re doing your best, but don’t forget how she responded on the first day. I’m still not sure how much of the show Lily put on was pure performance, but Hwa has a lot of power of her own and she demonstrated that she’s very willing to use it.”

“I know. If it weren’t in poor taste, I’d make a comment about riding the tiger.” To his surprise, Kevin’s words brought a quick bark of a laugh from Elsie, then a conspiratorial, “Don’t give Lily ideas. Hwa already has the whole fox-girl thing going on, she doesn’t need a tiger-lady transformation as well.”

The brownie rose, and lifted her beer. With the ease of a veteran drinker, she brought the tankard to her lips and drained the half that remained in a single pull, then lifted the glass in a quick toast. “Eat some food. Stheno looked like she was waiting to come in last, so I’m sure you’ve got one more visitor, but don’t let her occupy all of your time. You deserve the chance to think through things and add your own voice to the results.”

The smile Kevin offered in return was grateful. “Thanks, Elsie. I don’t think I’d be handling this place nearly as well without you.”

Elsie’s cheeks still glowed with the bright blush his praise brought as she slipped out of the door and let it swing shut behind her.

If Stheno noticed the faint hints of trepidation on Kevin’s face when she arrived, she gave no sign.

The gorgon, slender form wrapped in glossy plates of green metal, swept into the room with the confidence of a woman who had decided to embrace her present with the whole of her heart. After millennia spent locked in the serpentine shape of a monster, Stheno took obvious joy in every moment she got to wear her original shape.

The morning was no exception, and Kevin was unsurprised to see that she’d chosen to remain in her humanoid form. The absence of her monstrous aspect should have helped to put him at ease—it was far easier to forget the impulse to flinch away from her gaze when her hair was seafoam green locks rather than hissing serpents—but on this occasion her curse was not the source of his discomfort.

Rather, it was the look on her face.

Of all of the girls in the party—in what Kevin had to admit to himself was intended to be his harem—Stheno was the one who had most wholeheartedly embraced not just her place at his side, but the role that Lily had played in putting her there. When combined with the fact that one of her most recent class abilities mentioned a ‘yandere path’, the fanaticism she wore when she focused her brilliantly bright eyes on him left the DM wondering if her loyalty wouldn’t wind up being every bit as much a challenge as Hwa’s defiance, in the long run.

He did his best to smile anyway. “Please, come in. Elsie mentioned that you looked as though you wanted to go last. I assume that means you have something to say about Lilith’s offer?”

“I do, my lord.” Stheno swerved her way around the chair opposite Kevin’s in a sinuous motion, then wasted no time in beginning to gather some of the crackers, cheese, and fruit still on the table onto a plate. Neither did she wait to speak, her eyes flitting from food to face as she picked through what the DM had left behind. “Are you prepared to hear it?”

Kevin raised an eyebrow, but motioned for Stheno to continue. She sat back, pulled her plate in front of herself, then seemed to contemplate its contents for a moment. When at last her brilliant green eyes raised to her lord’s face, the expression she wore was one of determination that verged on the fanatical.

“I do not know what the others have urged of you,” she began, voice low and serious, “and in fairness to them, I did not rush to be the first to speak with you. What I would advise, however, is that rather than heeding their council, you cleave only to your own.”

For all that Kevin looked older than Stheno—the return to the form she’d worn as a lesser goddess of the sea meant she appeared as a woman perhaps a decade younger than the DM—there was a fascinating depth of experience that came through as she spoke, and he found himself as lost in her eyes as he was in the implications of her words. “You think I shouldn’t listen to anyone else?”

The gorgon’s lips pulled tight in a small but ferocious smile. “In a manner of speaking.” She paused for a moment to let the words sink in, then explained, “It is not that I believe my sisters in your service are unworthy or unintelligent. I am certain that Mistress Lilith would not have placed anyone in your who did not deserve to be there, and I would not have waited to approach you if I did not believe there was value to be had in their words.”

Kevin nodded slowly. “Alright. What did you mean, then?”

“In the end, it is to be your decision, and you are the one who must live with the consequences of your choice.” Rather than linger on the statement, Stheno’s eyes finally broke from Kevin’s as she looked to her plate and began to pile meat and cheese on crackers in neat piles. She lifted one to her lips, parted them, then popped it into her mouth.

A few crumbs escaped with the moan of delighted pleasure she let out a moment later.

Stheno didn’t press her point once made. Once Kevin realized she didn’t intend to elaborate, he spent a few moments refilling his tankard from the now half-empty jug on the table. A long drink of slightly warm beer later, he leaned back in his chair and asked, “Do you have a preference either way?”

Slender shoulders shrugged as though Stheno had been expecting the question. “Perhaps. I feel it likely that there is meaning in Lilith having placed the choice in your hands rather than keeping it for herself. I cannot claim to understand enough of the difference between the worlds she proposed to feel a strong pull towards either one, but even if I did, I believe it is not on my opinion that you should base your decision.”

“Because no matter which I choose, someone is going to be unhappy about it?”

“Because whether everyone lauds your choice or condemns it, we all must live with the consequences. Those will sit more comfortably on the shoulders of a man who understands that whether a choice was the correct one is not something that can be determined in hindsight.”

That got a furrow of Kevin’s brow, and he leaned forward over his beer as he asked, “What do you mean?”

Stheno lifted another crackerful of meat and cheese to her mouth, chewed, thought, and eventually swallowed before she answered seriously, “Our lives are lived and our decisions are made in the moment. Perhaps some can pierce the veil of the future, but I am no oracle. All the choices we make can only be made with what we know when we make them. Any time we spend looking back with the information we gain later, regretting or bemoaning them, is time wasted.” She paused a moment and a hint of her earlier smile returned, “Time that could be better spent appreciating or improving our future.”

Again, Kevin nodded slowly. “I think I understand.” He paused, then asked, “This—what you did in the dungeon, when you—”

“When I went on my knees before you?” Stheno arched an eyebrow, clearly not unhappy at the memory, and Kevin felt himself flush.

“Yeah. That—I think I see what you mean. I was paralyzed by indecision then, torn because I was trying to juggle too many perspectives and thoughts and worries about everyone else. You—what you did helped push me through that.”

Stheno’s tongue darted out to capture a stray crumb that tried to escape her mouth, in a motion that Kevin was not at all sure was a coincidence. It moistened her lips then withdrew, leaving a slightly smug smile upon them in its wake. “You will be faced with more such decisions in the future. This is merely the next in what will be a long chain. My advice and my fervent hope is that the decision you make be one with which you can live—and that once the decision is made, you waste no time looking back and questioning yourself. If you choose, and decide later that you chose poorly, focus instead on moving from the reality you inhabit to the one you desire—not the one you left behind.”

Kevin thought back to his conversation with Kyle, and to the ever-present connection to the glowing energy of House Rule within him, and nodded slowly. “Yeah.”

He was still lost in thought when the gorgon slipped out the door in silence a few minutes later.