The Mistake

Ava's smile held, but her eyes betrayed her confusion.

She had kept her eyes on the contestants as the Master appeared behind her. She'd been expecting some fairly dramatic reactions from the potential harem members as Thomas finally arrived on set and she had wanted to watch them. However, the reactions she was seeing were just strange.

Robin, Chloe, and Samantha looked highly confused. Cassandra looked like she was actually paying attention for the first time since she'd arrived, her eyes wide and still a little wild.. Bailey was glaring daggers at the host, and Sarah...?

Sarah was laughing. It was an unnerving laugh, cold and hard. Ava stared at her, her smile frozen, but her eyes searching for answers.

“Uhhhhhh, that's not Thomas Valenti...” Robin said hesitantly.

“I bed your pardon?” Ava's face slowly turned towards Robin. Her voice was level, but her smile looked like it was about to break her face.

“THAT'S NOT MY FUCKING FIANCE!” Bailey raged.

Ava slowly turned around and for the first time beheld the man that had just arrived.

It was not Thomas Valenti.

Instead of the fit, tall, black haired man she had been expecting, the specimen currently sitting on the loveseat was an unassuming man with short brown hair parted to his right. His decidedly average body stood in sharp contrast to the marble Adonis she had vaingloriously raised on stage. He shyly gave her a weak half-wave.

Ava's eye twitched, her smile looking increasingly pained.

“And who, precisely, are you?” She could barely keep the sneer our of her voice.

“That's...that's Robert West...” Sarah choked out between laughs. “He shares an office with Thomas.”

Robert meekly met her eyes and offered a faint “Hi.”

If “Technical Difficulties: Please Stand By,” was a facial expression, it would be the one Ava was wearing right then. She seemed frozen in place, but then she suddenly wheeled towards the stage lights.

“We'll be right back!” she nearly squeaked, her voice cracking.

******

Robert West was completely lost. One second, he'd been leaving his office at work, the next he'd found himself sitting on a loveseat on...is this a TV set? He was pointedly trying to ignore the phone conversation going on offstage in the wings. In his experience nothing good ever came from eavesdropping on someone getting chewed out, and based on the half of the conversation he could hear, it was quite the chewing out. He took the opportunity instead to try to get his bearings. Besides the ornate art deco set, the only other points of interest were the six women seated in the line of chairs across from him and an absolutely garish marble sculpture of a shirtless man who had a familiar face. Is that supposed to be Thomas...? Turning his attention towards the women, he recognized one...no, two of them. There was Sarah Bridges, who worked at the same agency he did. She was leaning forward in her seat, apparently listening intently to the offstage phone call. And Bailey...Withers? Winters? He wasn't quite sure what her last name was, but he knew she was dating Thomas; he'd seen photos of her on his coworker's desk. He had to admit that the photos didn't do her justice, but she looked absolutely furious right now. He didn't know the other four women, who were all examining him with strange looks on their faces. It looked like a mixture of curiosity and...dread, maybe? He wasn't sure what was going on, but he was fairly certain it wasn't good. He jumped in his seat as he could hear the woman offstage scream, and throw something, hard.

******

It was several minutes more before Ava finally rejoined them on the stage. Her friendly demeanor from earlier was now completely gone. Her smile was wide but grim, and her eyes were wild and fiery.

“And we're back!” She declared, apparently addressing the audience. Her voice was cheery, but obviously strained. “We'd like to apologize to our audience for the interruption, and to Mr. Valenti for the misunderstanding. Maybe one day we can make it up to you. In the meantime, it has been determined that this season will go forward with Robert West as its master!

Ava **** a smile as she led a one-woman golf clap for Robert. Bailey huffed a barely disguised “Bullshit.”

“Congratulations Robert!” Ava continued through gritted teeth. “I'll ask that you hold any questions you have for the end. We're about to review the rules for this season, and I believe that should cover most of your potential inquiries.”

“Like I mentioned earlier, you six girls will be competing to secure your spot in Robert's Harem over the course of the next ten weeks. Now -”

“Ten weeks?!” Robin interrupted “I can't be gone from my job for ten weeks! I'll-” Robin's voice suddenly died in her throat as Ava made a hand motion like she was zipping a zipper.

“I'd appreciate no further interruptions.” Ava said curtly. “We have a lot of ground to cover and this broadcast is already running long. And to address the next question I’m sure is coming, time passes differently in our little pocket dimension. You’ll experience ten weeks, but to you friends, family, and coworkers only a week will have passed. We took the liberty of crafting believable excuses for each of you to be gone for the next 'week.'”

“Now as I was saying, you secure your spot in the harem by scoring 100 Victory Points (VP) before the end of the ten week period. VP's are largely earned through two ways: your placement in the end-of-week challenge, and through intimate acts with the Master.”

“WHAT?!” It was Bailey this time. Robert's face had turned beet red behind Ava.

“Honestly girls, it's a harem show. What did you expect, ice cream socials in the park?”

“What...what if we refuse?” Chloe gingerly asked.

“Oh you certainly could Miss Taylor,” Ava replied haughtily, “But there's three important factors you might want to consider. First, any contestant that ends a week with negative VP, or who doesn't gain 100 VP by the end of the ten week period will be Eliminated. Eliminated contestants will be at the very bottom of the harem hierarchy, and they will receive a harsh exit penalty. Secondly, “boring” contestants tend to fare rather poorly in the weekly 'Best Girl' poll. And last but most certainly not least, whichever non-Eliminated contestant has the most VP's at the end of the season will be given a Wish.”

“A wish? A wish for what?” Samantha wondered out loud.

“A Wish for nearly anything you could desire. Fame, fortune, glory; any or all of it could be yours. There's only three restrictions. You can't remove the bond between the harem members and the Master, you can't use the wish to undo an Elimination, and you can't use the Wish to kill someone.”

“That's awfully generous of you,” Sarah deadpanned, “Considering our lives are now permanently bound to a man we hardly know.”

Ava looked down her nose at the tall woman. “Quite,” she curtly replied.

“Besides VP each of you can also earn Bonus Points (BP). Bonus Points effectively act as a form of currency within the show. Your basic needs are met for free, but anything beyond that will cost you BP. We'll cover how and where to spend BP later on during our tour of the facilities, but for now just know that the main way to earn BP is through the weekly “Best Girl” audience poll. Higher placement in the poll will earn you more BP. So, before you decide to spend your week holed up chastely in your room, consider what the audience tunes in to see each week.”

“Now, during the week you'll be largely left up to your own devices, except for two different days: date nights, and the end-of-week challenge. Each night of the week, one of you lucky girls will be assigned as the Master's date. You can start your date as early as you like and spend the day doing as you wish, but by 9:00 PM, you and the Master must both be in the Master's suite for the night. You must remain there until at least 7:00 AM the following morning.”

“At the end of each week, there will be a Challenge for our contestants to compete in. You'll be expected to be here, on this set, by 9:00 AM morning of. Participation is mandatory. Failure to participate will be considered a forfeit, and will result in immediate Elimination.”

Samantha hesitantly raised her hand halfway, “What kind of competitions are the Challenges?”

Ava's smile was wide and predatory.

“Oh, I can't just tell you! That would ruin the surprise!”

“And speaking of surprises, let's talk about the Transformations...”