Foie de veau à la Lyonnaise

“So, did you come here just to question my age, or did you have a purpose in interrupting my afternoon constitutionals?” The Lamia asked an increasingly crimson Stella.

In her grip, Stella scratched her cheek, “S-sorry, geez, new fetish unlocked. Listen, I just assumed you knew you were like Stheno or Euryale? Cursed by Greek gods or some shit.”

Kalliope stared down with red eyes before reeling her head back in laughter as she released Stella from her grip, “Oh my, how ancient did you think I was? That’s a good one.” She dabbed at her eyes, continuing to snicker as she wound across the room to settle behind her table, leaving a surprised Maya and Stella watching her.

Maya tilted her head and walked forward. “Aren’t Stheno and Euryale gorgons, not lamia?”

Stella shrugged. “Snake people, figured maybe they were related or knew each other.”

“I see, all snake people know each other? Seems kinda racist to me.” Remarked the lamia, though her tone was mirthful and without bite.

The imp merely shrugged again, approaching the table. “I dunno, it seemed to fit with Lucian being Italian and all; I just assumed. And you know what they say about assuming?”

“It’s wrong to judge a book by its cover,” Maya replied without a hint of sarcasm.

Kalliope ran her fingers over the table. “Well, your mistake was assuming I got the job from Lucian, like everyone else here; I was signed on by Reyna. We were coworkers behind the scenes of harem hotel.”

Maya blinked. “Behind the scenes?”

“It is a TV show after all, on a scale you can scarcely imagine. While you’re seeing the end result, a lot of preplanning and effort goes into each season.” Kalliope waved her hand idly.

“So what? You and Reyna were watercooler buddies?” Stella asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Drinking buddies; we’d hit bars and clubs with other workers and the occasional host or otherworldly being. Some days you didn’t even leave the office, so coworkers became as close and annoying as family.” Kalliope ticked off fingers on her hand. “Reyna worked in the writer’s room, and I worked in set design, so we often overlapped, even if we didn't talk directly until after hours.”

Maya shifted nervously. “Is it ok to talk about this?”

Kalliope perked up and then laughed, “Can’t see why not; the audience loves this stuff, and the one person who might complain about it is in a cage right now.” She smiled, showing off long fangs, “All that to say, I’m only a few hundred years old, short for a lamia, and I just come from a world where Lamia are as prevalent as humans are in yours.” Kalliope shrugged. “That bit might be less exciting for people to hear, but sometimes things just are.”

Stella nodded and then her eyes opened wide. “Oh right, this isn’t what I came here for.” She approached the table. “I’m looking for three upgrades for myself, please. No games, nonsense, just rolling dice. Let's get this done”

Kalliope looked surprised and then laughed again, sharp and harsh in the air. “None for a week and suddenly three? I’m curious, why the change of heart?”

“Because I realized that I’m at a point where nothing that can happen to me can upset me, so I only stand to gain from this.” Stella grinned precociously.

The lamia stroked her chin. “Is that a fact? Well, I certainly won’t stop you. Choose your transformations for upgrading and pay your BP, then we will roll some dice.”

The imp grinned. “I got them all picked out; we’ll roll em all in one and see where the dice land”

Stella: 75 BP - 60 BP: 15 BP Remaining

Wicked Shoulder: Everyone has those little voices often depicted by an angel and devil, except we don’t have any angels here. Stella must now choose someone per day and act as their shoulder devil, splitting a fraction of her consciousness into a chibi version of herself with no impulse control that rides on the person’s shoulder. It acts independently of Stella herself, but when it vanishes, Stella regains all its memories.

Impin' Ain't Easy: The fans have spoken and they quite enjoyed Stella’s foray as a devil. Stella when gain devilish aspects, a horn, wings, and tail. In addition, all these areas will become sensitive erogenous zones for her.

Get a Rise: Stella enjoys resisting doing what she is told and getting a rise out of people, Stella will receive arousal when defiant, but the feeling won’t go away until she complies. She will also receive a provocative wardrobe to match her personality

Then, as Stella was paying, she was suddenly grabbed by the shoulders by Maya. “You’re about to make a mistake!”

“What?” Stella blinked. “If this is about not upgrading, Whatcha Gonna do about it? I like that one; it’s hot already.”

Maya emphatically shook her head. “No, it’s not that. You can’t roll them all at once. You’re setting yourself up for bad luck.”

The imp returned Maya’s impassioned expression with a flat one of her own, “Oh…yeah…sure. I almost forgot you’re a nut job about this stuff.”

“You can mock me all you want, but I know what I’m talking about. That’s why you brought me, right? As an Expert gambler?” Maya’s eyes sparkled.

“It was more of a mascot/good luck charm thing, but sure,” Stella said, defeated and sighing, “Why can’t I just roll all at once and get it over with?”

“Don’t be foolish!” Maya shouted, nearly blowing out Stella’s ears and causing her to recoil from the sound, “You need to give a chance for the bad luck to get out so you have good luck on later rolls! If you roll them all at once, the bad luck is stacked!”

Stella gritted her teeth, “How…do you function? Aren’t you good at numbers and stuff? Like, you like math?”

Maya blinked, “Math was my favourite subject in school before dropping out. I wanted a job as a statistical analyst.”

Stella felt like her mind was exploding, reaching her hands into her hair, “There! Statistics! You know how probability works! You’re probably one of those freaks that understands the Monty Hall problem.”

“It’s not that complicated a problem; see, the issue is most of the time people explain it wrong, and the wording actually needs to be very precise to replicate the situat-” Maya explained with a smile on her face before being cut off.

“Not the point! What I’m saying is, you keep talking about stacking luck. But that's not how probability works. You understand that.” Stella grabbed Maya’s arms and shook her a little. “You HAVE to understand that.”

Maya stared at her blankly and then tilted her head, “That is that, and this is this.”

Stella stared into Maya’s eyes and saw the sincerity and the lack of any doubt, and felt like her own world was shattering. “Ok…ok…fine…one roll at a time, happy?”

Maya let go of Stella’s shoulders and gave her a big thumbs-up, even as the imp turned and dragged her hands down her face, then looked back at Kalliope. “We’ll roll one at a time, thank you…”
Kalliope snickered and pulled out the large triangular prism die, “It makes no difference to me. This first roll is for Wicked Shoulder”

The lamia raised the die in her hand and tossed it across the table, tumbling over the red cloth with a clattering sound before hitting the raised ledge, bouncing off and landing on a side depicting an inferno and demons: Disastrous.

Despite this, Maya cheered, “It worked! Only good luck from here”

Stella ignored her as Kalliope’s hands began to glow. “So it is written, receive the result of fate!” Stella was enveloped in light as she felt the transformation change in her very being.

Wicked Shoulder: Everyone has those little voices often depicted by an angel and devil, except we don’t have any angels here. Stella must now choose someone per day and act as their shoulder devil, splitting a fraction of her consciousness into a chibi version of herself with no impulse control that rides on the person’s shoulder. It acts independently of Stella herself, but when it vanishes, Stella regains all its memories. LVL 2.: Stella’s imp is now fully devoted to Stella’s worst impulses and being around her makes those exposed to it more likely to give in to those impulses

Stella frowned; she had to give her imp to someone every day already, so it’s not like she could even avoid it if she wanted to. Maybe a future upgrade might allow her to skip a day, but for now she’d just have to trust people could ignore her worst self as much as they normally ignored it coming from her mouth.

The light gradually faded, and Kalliope stared down, picking up the die. “Ready for the next roll for Impin’ aint Easy?”

“I already paid, and I’m not backing out now; let’s keep this train a moving.” Stella sighed, hopefully that was the worst out of the way, but nothing could guarantee that.

Once again the die was tossed, it bounced around the table this time, jumping into the air at one point before landing in a steady spin and settling on the side depicting a small city: neutral.

“Your luck is improving,” Kalliope commented, “And so it is written.” Her hands glowed for a moment before once again overtaking Stella.

Impin' Ain't Easy: The fans have spoken and they quite enjoyed Stella’s foray as a devil. Stella when gain devilish aspects, a horn, wings, and tail. In addition, all these areas will become sensitive erogenous zones for her. LVL 2.: Stella can now hide her devilish aspects, however her body will become as sensitive as them for the duration

In the moment, Stella couldn’t even be upset that somehow, Maya’s troll logic was being backed up by reality. Out of all the things she had wanted from this upgrade session, this had been the biggest: just the chance to sometimes be herself and not be constantly reminded of Lucian and her own failures every time she looked in a mirror. She pumped her fist silently. She could take some extra sensitivity if she could go hornless.

Kalliope gave her a few seconds before grabbing the die again. “I assume you are satisfied and ready to continue? The last roll is for Get a Rise.” She clutched the die in her hand, waiting for Stella’s response.

Stella looked up with a glimmer in her eye. “Do your worst!”

“That’s for fate to decide m’dear” Kalliope said as she tossed the die once more over the table. This time it stayed airborne, struck the edge, bounced back into the air, hit the surface hard, and came to a sudden stop. This time the face-up depicted angels on a mountainside: Beneficial”

From the background, Maya put her hands on her hips and had a self-satisfied grin overtake her features. “I told you!”

While Stella was given a brief moment to doubt centuries of mathematical experts in the face of Maya’s dumb wizardry, Kalliope collected the die. “The final result is written.” Her hands gave a final glow, and once again Stella was awash with light.

Get a Rise: Stella enjoys resisting doing what she is told and getting a rise out of people, Stella will receive arousal when defiant, but the feeling won’t go away until she complies. She will also receive a provocative wardrobe to match her personality. LVL 2.: Stella’s wardrobe is expanded to all things provocative, not just of sleaze and easy targets. In addition, she will become naturally magnetic and alluring to those around her while wearing such outfits.

As the light faded, Stella’s vest elongated into a stylish sleeveless long coat, her shirt deepening its cleavage but taking on a high, tailored fit that accentuated her lithe form. Going from an outfit that grabbed your attention to the woman wearing it, instead of making it look like the woman was begging for attention.

Stella gave a little twirl in the outfit as she inspected it. “Nice.”

Kalliope lifted her hand to her chin, “You seem pretty satisfied for someone whose luck ran the gamut.”

“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t get what I came for. With the exception of that first roll, I think I broke out on top. Even then, I just gotta trust the others not to be fucking dumbasses. Not like it brainwashes them, just makes imp me more annoying, I guess.” Stella shrugged

Kalliope tossed the die in her hand, “You know, you don’t have enough for another upgrade yourself, but you could always choose to upgrade someone else's, help or harm, your choice.”
Smirking, Stella cocked her hip to the side and then the other, “Oh so tempting, but I think I’m gonna have to pass on that. People already think I’m a problem; I don’t need to be doing that without a heads-up. Unless…Maya? You want an upgrade?” Stella turned to look at the purple-haired lottery winner behind her.

Maya gave it a pause. Crass Class was already upgraded to something useful, but perhaps it could be made even better? Or maybe the intensity of the anxiety provided by Need a Hug could be reduced. That was when she realized. Stella had already used up all the good luck she had generated with that initial bad roll. This meant that the next roll would be weighted towards bad luck. Especially with her previous success in the mix! No, there was no sense risking it, not today.

So, shaking her head, Maya declined, “No, I don’t think I need any upgrades.”

“Well, you heard her, I think we’re all done here! Thanks for the help, Kalliope. I’ll be sure to recommend you to my friends. Assuming they have the balls to take a chance!” Stella winked and headed for the exit, then paused.

She took a deep breath and focused, and then, with a sound similar to folding paper, Maya and Kalliope watched as Stella’s demonic appendages folded inward, beginning with folding on themselves and then into her flesh until she was standing there completely human, then as she relaxed her posture and her clothes shifted, her body noticeably shook

“Oh cocks! They weren’t kidding about the sensitivity, but that can be fun too.” She had a big grin, turning one last time to Maya. “Come on, girl, let's head back and make sure they haven’t burned the place down while we were gone.”

Back at the hotel, Lily and Noemi were together in the Pierrot suite. Noemi had brought Lily back to relax after her small “breakdown” in the dining room and had been trying to help her recover since.

Lily was lying on the bed as Noemi gently stroked her arm and, every so often, piped up, “Do you need a drink? I can get you some water?”

Shaking her head, the plant woman sighed, “No sorry, I don’t even really know what came over me”

Noemi felt guilty; she knew exactly what had happened. She had been too lax about the timing of her devil deal, and too laissez-faire about the post-effect. She had assumed wrongly that the judgement would apply to future actions, not just to herself in general, and she certainly hadn’t expected it to cause Lily the mental duress she was currently experiencing. She would need to be much more careful about it, to avoid causing Lily additional pain. She’d time it in the future, just to be safe.

Noemi tried to smile. “It’s just the pressure of the competition, I’m sure. You have your date tomorrow after all.”

Lily nodded, “I still don’t know what to do..I know what I want long term. I want me and Caleb together, a family of our own, but whenever I think of that…I start thinking of my own family…my sister and I just…it’s like something is fundamentally wrong with me.

Imp Stella, who had just been floating by Noemi’s shoulder, suddenly froze in place and entered a t-pose for a few seconds. When it stopped, a sinister little grin crossed her face and she floated over to Noemi’s ear and began to whisper.

Noemi’s eyes widened, and then she got a big smile. “Lily, if you’re worried about all that…I might have an idea to help you sort it out; you can even do it tomorrow on your date. I’m sure Caleb would love to help.” And she laid out a carefully concocted scheme all while the imp chuckled to herself.