Soupes de Clermont

After letting his groan hang for a few moments Amy patted Caleb’s back and then leaned back, “You know I’m being facetious right? Well at least partially.”

Caleb blinked, sat up straight, and stared at the Oni, “I did not know, how could I? You say everything so matter-of-factly.”

Amy shrugged, “Well, I was kind of fishing for a reaction from you. You don’t really have to be perfect or I guess I should say maybe you don’t need to worry about it so much.” She turned and typed a few things into the AI until a list of names showed up and she gestured to the screen, “See this is a list of names of Masters that were in the seasons I sampled. Notice anything?”

Caleb leaned in and looked at the list. There were writers, teachers, bankers, congresspeople, and acquisition workers. Was that the Devil, as in the actual Devil? The more Caleb looked the more he couldn’t see a pattern, “I mean they’re all over the place, there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of rhyme or reason to the picks. It doesn’t seem like they’re picking a specific type of person to do this.”

“That’s right,” Amy pointed a finger at Caleb’s chest, “It’s not an abundance of Adonises and Aphrodites that get picked, the Master is chosen I think based on their connections with the Harem which means that the base elements for getting along with these women is there. You already have some form of connection with all of us, you just have to be open-minded and conscientious.”

Caleb pinched the bridge of his nose, “I get what you’re saying but my connection with Lily is almost solely negative at this point and I lack a connection with Maya entirely.” He paused and then glared at Amy, “Also you’re telling me to be open-minded and conscientious after encouraging me to punish Stella earlier.”

Amy threw her hands up, “You are so negatively focused anyone ever tell you that? Yes, your situation with Lily and Maya is different but there is no reason if you work hard and earnestly try to work with them you can’t change that. Also being kind doesn’t require being a floormat Caleb. Stella needs to learn to consider the other people here, including yourself, There’s no future that is positive otherwise.”

Leaning back, Caleb tapped his fingers against the back of his hand, “I don’t mean to be so negative it’s just what jumps out at me first. I want this to work, I don’t want anyone to get punished so I’m trying to take it very seriously.”

Pausing, Amy reached out and put her hand on the Master’s knee, “Caleb I get it, but if you’re busy thinking about all of that all the time, you’re not here with us. You’re in your head. As someone whose brain also runs wild, I can sympathize but your Harem needs you here. If we can’t count on you to try and be supportive, that’s going to be the real reason for things to fall apart.”

Caleb felt a lump in his throat that he couldn’t get down, “I guess that makes sense, got to keep it together for all of you guys considering you have a worse deal than me.”

“That’s the long and short of it, like bad days happen for everyone but while we’re here you are going to be the key player that supports and affects most of our moods. So if you’re having a bad day and need to vent, come to me alright?” Amy ended casually.

“You?” Caleb raised an eyebrow, “Why you?”

“Because I’ve decided that’s my role here, I’m much less likely to get caught up in all of this nonsense I feel like. So it makes sense that if you need to vent, you vent to me the one person who isn’t going to hold onto it and worry about the feelings affecting our relationship.” Amy didn’t keep eye contact on this, instead focusing on straightening several items on her desk as she spoke.

“Wow, um thanks Amy, I appreciate it. I appreciate all of this I want to let you know. How frankly you speak with me, putting this AI together, it’s been tremendously helpful. I feel like for the first time since I got here my feet are on the ground.” Caleb gestured around them.

“Well, I’m glad it could help. I made it honestly for myself, needed more information for my own gratification and grounding. So is there anything else you want to know before I close this up?” Amy leaned towards the netbook.

Caleb tapped his knee, “Can you bring up a list of Hosts? I’m curious to see and compare with our demon what it’s like out there.”

Amy nodded and leaned in to type on the netbook, leaning back as a new list appeared and pulling the netbook slightly closer so that Caleb could see.

Caleb leaned in and looked at the list. One thing was immediately clear, Demon was not as much an outlier as Caleb expected. Yukionna, magical constructs, nymphs, faeries, vampires, the list was a microcosm of fantasy creatures. On one hand, it was thoroughly exciting to see all this evidence of a world beyond the simple one he had thought he had been living in. On the other, it was horridly depressing to think the primary occupation for such creatures was “game show host”.

“Man…” Caleb let out a breath he wasn’t sure when he started holding, “This matches with what Arietta was telling me, there’s a whole cosmology of creatures beyond humans out there.”

This piqued Amy’s understanding, “You met Arietta?”

“Oh yeah,” Caleb hadn’t explored that in his summary of yesterday’s events as it hadn’t pertained to the situation so he quickly clued Amy in.

When he was done Amy smiled, “So what do you think of her? Isn’t she nice?”

Caleb raised an eyebrow, “She honestly felt a little standoffish to me, like she didn’t like me being there, she also was quick to push me out when it felt like I was starting to get some information pertaining to who she was.”

“That’s strange,” Amy looked up in thought, “She was very nice to me when I went to speak with her and ask her some questions. I do think she’s on our side, she might even have been **** from wherever she’s from like us.”

Caleb smiled wryly, “You know with this many missing people cases going on you’d think the world would notice something is going on magic notwithstanding.”

Amy’s eyes shone brightly, “I have a theory about that,” Caleb gestured for her to continue, “So essentially the facts that we are broadcasting across realities prove multiverse theory, for each determinative action there is a separate reality created where the results of the action differed. This means that while there are worlds vastly different from ours, there are ones with differences so minute that they would be difficult for the observer to even notice.”

She brought up the list of Masters again, “So while in the reality that we’re from maybe, there is an Aífe McGarden, but in our reality she will never be **** to be a master and will continue her day-to-day existence. This can be taken even a step further though! We assume that everyone here is from the same reality and that there are currently nine missing people from that reality but that doesn’t have to be the case. It’s possible that each of us is from a slightly different reality separated by the difference of someone’s Panera bread order, in which case in each of those realities only one person has gone missing. Then at the time that we are put back, we are put all into one reality and the duplicates are shifted to those realities where we went missing none the wiser.” By the end of Amy’s explanation, her eyes were alight and her hands were up in excitement as she stared down Caleb.

Caleb for his part hadn’t considered any of this and was almost knocked back by the tidal wave of information combined with Amy’s raw enthusiasm, “Is that all necessary? I mean Lucian said time is stopped until we return is anyone going to notice?”

Amy thought for a moment, “I’d be genuinely surprised if time has fully stopped, regardless of what Lucian said. All Seasons include some form of time dilation but I haven’t seen one where it’s been stopped outright. Also, it may not be to avoid detection in our universes.”

“Not our universes, who are they avoiding? Time police?” Caleb joked but was only met with a shrug from the Oni.

“Maybe, if Hell is real maybe God is and he doesn’t like this stuff fucked with. It’s also possible that the People who kidnapped us only represent a small portion of these unworldly astral entities. It’s possible that this show is illegally produced on a cosmic scale that is incomprehensible to us!”

Caleb gave Amy a flat look, “Does any of this help us in our current predicament?”

Amy closed the netbook and shook her head, “No, but it is fun to think about. Before I was **** I was convinced there was no god and that when I died nothing would happen besides maggots eating my body. The world is so open now! It’s so much more interesting than I gave it credit for. There are H.P. Lovecraft-style entities out there whose main driving **** is watching bad reality TV! It’s actually insane!”

Caleb looked on with amusement, “I mean when you put it like that…”

“Maybe our personal situation sucks but whenever we get back to earth, I’m totally changing what I spend my life doing, there is so much world to see.” Amy stood up hands on her hip

Caleb looked on in awe, “The fact that you’re thinking beyond the scope of the show is astounding to me.”

Amy winked, “I’m very goal-oriented as a person Caleb, something to keep in mind for the future.” it was then that her stomach growled.

Laughing, Caleb got up, “Well then, maybe our next goal should be dinner?”

Dinner had been largely uneventful, Amy was too busy eating and Caleb was too busy thinking about everything that Amy had revealed to him over the course of the day. He began thinking about what he could do for each member of his harem.

He already had a pretty strong relationship with Eliza, and if the date had demonstrated anything it was that she wasn’t opposed to romance just not at the speed she had initially **** herself. Caleb for his part couldn’t deny that he had been attracted to the fun and intellectually stimulating woman even before she had been de-aged.

Mira was more complicated. Part of him couldn’t help but see the Agent he had been working with for the last few years. The other part couldn’t unsee that night they had shared together and the raw sexuality of the Bengali woman as she took control.

Maddy had always been someone he wanted to get to know better and now he had seen a side of her that he wasn’t aware of before. The strong in control side ordered a kitchen like she was used to being in charge. Both were part of the same warm person her had grown to care about over the course of the date.

Lily, he had a history with and it was in large part not good because of his own actions. Still, he had never stopped caring about her and maybe this was a chance to rectify past mistakes and treat her properly. As properly as he could while dating seven other women.

Noemi had made a lot of strides to appeal to him, if anything she had changed so drastically that it threw him off a little. Who really was the real Noemi and what could he expect on their date together?

Stella was a mess, Caleb could see she genuinely thought she was in the right. To her, the end was all that mattered and the only end that mattered to her was whether she had fun. Honestly, Caleb could use that sort of levity in his life, but he couldn’t handle it if she kept using people as a means to that end.

Then there was Maya, who Caleb only knew by others' reactions to her. Maddy said that Maya made her nervous and that put Caleb on edge. Even though the purple-haired woman seemed nice every time he met her in the breakfast hall. She was a mystery and he would need to do a lot of unpacking during their date together.

Then there was Amy, a woman he had been swept up by before and he was having a a hard time blaming his past self. She was intellectually stimulating, passionate, and more than anything upfront with her thoughts and feelings. She had been nothing but supportive and willing to call Caleb out on his bullshit during his time here. He needed a friend like that but he also wouldn’t be opposed to more.

So when they got to the Master’s Suite he was surprised when she cut him off and put her hand on the door, “I need to be clear about one thing before we go in tonight Caleb. We will not be doing anything that earns me VP.”

The surprise must have been clearly written on his face because she looked down to the side and continued, “It has nothing to do with you. If I’m being honest I could use the pleasant distraction. Maybe you can’t tell but the reason I’ve done all this, making the AI, trying my best to stay positive, is to have some feeling of control. I hate how this place makes me feel out of my depth and fucking it out sounds great. But I can’t.”

Caleb nodded, there was no world in which he disrespected her decision, but still, “May I ask why?”

Amy pushed the door open and went inside, “Because I’ve been talking with Lily and I think we’ve started to become friends and…I don’t want her to get up tomorrow and see that I suddenly am ahead in VP and lose all that.”

Caleb entered the room after her and then started laughing, “I’ve been so focused thinking about how to be in a relationship with all of you I totally missed the fact that you’re all going to be dealing with each other…oh god I’m dumb. We are going to be such a messed up household.”

At this, Amy blushed and ran to the bed, “Household? Who is thinking of bizarre post-game stuff now.”

Caleb sighed, “I mean I suppose it’s less realistic than changing professions to search out magic in the real world-hey!” a pillow from the bed collided with his shoulder at fast speed.

“That’s what you get! Now turn out the light. I haven’t slept much and could use the sleep.” Amy stuck her tongue out from the bed.

Shaking his head Caleb made his way to the lamp. While a lot of things had been illuminated today, the biggest thing made clear was how much in the dark they were about what the future held but as he held the lamp cord in his hand, he felt more confident about how he could handle it. So he turned out the light.