The D12

Tess toweled herself down quickly as she dragged herself out of the pool. Only when she was sure it would be as free of chlorine as she could manage did the swimming cap come off to reveal a short crop of pure white hair.

“You’re always so careful about your hair. I treat mine like shit, and it still looks better than yours.”

The voice that emerged was immediately familiar to her, as it belonged to her younger sister, Abby. At twenty-one, it was weird to suddenly have her around again. After three years of college, her sibling had come into the same college as her, on the same academic program and had then joined the same sports teams. She was everywhere that Tess was.

Which was nice, really, even though she’d started to get used to having some time to herself. The hair was salt in the wound at that point. “How is it fair that you got the ‘beautiful silver white’ genes and I got–” She gestured up with the towel, “–dandelion fluff.”

“Because I’m an elf and you’re a human. I’m ethereal and beautiful and young, and in return, you get bigger tits.”

“There’s no such thing as elves, you goof, and we’re both selkies anyway.”

“How do you know there’s no such thing as elves?”

“I’m older and wiser. Now, what are you doing here?”

“Jeremy sent me in to get you. He’s waiting at the car and is going to give me a ride before he takes you to dinner.”

“That’s sweet of him. If you sleep with him, I will **** you.”

“I am very happy with my current boyfriend, thank you very much. I’m not into your nerds.”

“Whatever. Tell him five minutes.”

She ran into the shower and immediately stepped under the freezing spray.

The shower was still running several minutes later when her sister poked her head into the locker room looking for her.

* * *

The next woman that suddenly emerged from a random doorway in the castle courtyard was not in her underwear—she was naked.

Water clung to the pale skin of the newest arrival. She was slightly taller than Kevin, with a toned athletic figure that nevertheless featured pleasantly curved hips and a set of pert breasts that would have just barely filled his hands.

A moment later the cameras picked up a splashing sound as the water surrounding Tess seemed to realize how gravity work and fell to the floor. The woman was left dripping wet as Lily stepped forward and gestured grandly towards her, “The D12, Theresa Joenson!”

This time the music that began to play was upbeat and vaguely martial, though woven through with nautical themes.

The woman began speaking rapidly in a language neither Kevin nor Penny understood or recognized as the twelve sided die Kevin was holding flew out of his hand and floated in a nimbus of light above her head.

“Are you getting any of that?”

“Nevermind that, get her a towel or something.”

“I am so sorry, uh–” Kevin swung his cape off of his shoulders and strode forward to offer it to the woman. She eyed him suspiciously as he approached her, but didn’t shy away when he handed her the garment.

The woman examined it briefly, held it to her nose and sniffed it, then threw it about her torso and drew it across her chest.

The cover it provided was enough to bring her to the very edge of decency, since the cape was only long enough to barely cover her, but she drew herself up and spoke sharply to Lily.

The succubus responded in the same language, then held up a hand and switched back to English. “Now this looks like a great chance to introduce one of our season features: Spells. Now, normally in these kinds of adventures, not everybody gets to cast spells, but Harem Hotel’s very own engineers have been hard at work devising a fun variety of effects and abilities, and it seemed like such a shame to put this one to waste. Everybody is going to get the chance to learn at least a couple spells, one way or another, and to kick it off we’re going to give some magic to our very own Dungeon Master.”

Tongues: 1st Level Spell

Gold Cost: None

Activation: Put your tongue in contact with someone else’s.

Effect: Allows you and the kissed individual to speak and understand all languages. Effect lasts sixty times as long as the tongues remained in contact.

Cooldown: One Hour

The words hovered in the air for long enough to everyone in the room to read them. They then faded into glitter that spread throughout the room and then vanished, except where they clung to Tess. In her case, the golden dust seemed to merge with the liquid, then flow together into a suit of form-fitting metallic cloth. The gold flared brightly and then faded to silver, leaving the athletic woman clad in a suit of reflective chrome.

“This is ridiculous. They expect us to make out to be able to understand each other? And we have to do it once an hour?”

“I mean, technically we don’t have to make out. We could just awkwardly touch our tongues together.”

Three women turned and stared at Kevin. He shrugged. “What, you can’t put me in a situation like this and expect me not to try to rules lawyer.”

Penny stared at the increasingly confused woman. She had started yelling at Lily again, and was occasionally pointing at Kevin. The succubus responded by blasting her with the same golden energy that had imparted the knowledge of the rules to him earlier.

He looked back at Penny, who shrugged. As the siren approached him and and leaned in, Kevin prepared to stick out his tongue, only to find that at the last moment her lips sealed against his own. She then locked her arms around his neck to prevent him from pulling away, and a moment later he lost himself to the sensation of kissing her.

About a minute or so later, Penny finally released him. She gasped loudly and explained, “Didn’t—want to fuck up the spell. Have it only count the first second, or something. Seemed like bullshit they would pull.”

He couldn’t help but eye the way her impressive cleavage heaved as she fought to catch her breath, and the singer’s expression told him that she might not have found the act unpleasant, but they were prevented from exploring that further by the interruption of the newcomer.

“You just kissed him? What is even happening? She said this is a show of some kind.”

“The spell thing–“ Penny gestured towards where the golden letters had floated in the air of the courtyard, “–needed us to kiss so that all of us could talk.”

Lily stepped in to once more take control of the situation as she announced, “That’s right. And if you missed it, don’t worry, tongues, as well as all of the spells you learn along the way, will be accessible through your character sheets.”

She gestured at Tess, who suddenly announced, “My name is Tess Joenson, I’m twenty-one years old and in my third year of university in the Faroe Islands. I’m studying energy engineering, and I’m a selkie.”

“Great to meet you Tess! Now, if we keep taking this long on introductions, we’ll be at it all day, so I’m going to hurry it along a little so we don’t have to keep repeating the same information. Let’s see if we can introduce the rest of our party. Next up, it’s…”

Kevin reached for the bag.