James Bird, extremely wealthy 25 year-old college TA

AN: Being written as a quest on Fiction Live and then posted here, so the first Best Girl poll and the first transformation polls have already been done. But don't worry, once it's all caught up here, you guys will be able to take part in the votes too.
The Quest

James shot up in his bed, breathing heavily as he recalled his dream. He often had strange dreams, but he couldn’t ever recall one where a pink-haired woman with pigtails abducted him. Other than that last one, of course.

He shook his head, clearing away those thoughts and rubbing his eyes. They were still a little blurry since he had just woken up-

He took in his now clearly visible surroundings and froze. That was not his bedroom. In fact, he had never seen that room before in his life. What did he do last night? He didn’t go out to a club or bar or anything, so it’s unlikely that he blacked out from drinking.

“Hello there!”

“FUCK ME!”

James fell out of his bed, landing upside down and getting tangled in the sheets. He quickly pulled himself free, looking towards the voice. It came from… a girl? A girl with pink hair in pigtails…

She giggled, holding her hand in front of her mouth.

“As much as I want to, that’s not my job, silly! My name is Isabella, and I’m the host of this season of everyone's favorite gameshow, Harem Hotel!”

Harem Hotel? Gameshow? What was this weirdo talking about? Did she actually kidnap him? James gulped. That wasn’t a dream, was it?

“What's going on? Where am I? Who are you?”

Isabella sighed, rolling her eyes as she mumbled to herself.

“My first season, and of course I get someone from a reality without interdimensional TV. This is going to be a long season…”

She cleared her throat, perking up and smiling at James.

“You see, you have been selected to take part in a game show streamed across 9^32 universes! Harem Hotel is a competition between eight women, fighting for their place in the harem of a single man, which, in this case, is you! Congrats!"

She clapped for him.

"The eight competitors will consist of women from across your life, whether you’re still in contact with them or not. There’s a small chance you might not even know one of them personally! It happened to the last guy. That was quite a fun season to watch, if you know what I mean.”

She wiggled her eyebrows, then gave James a chance to talk, but instead he simply stared at her. After a few seconds of silence, she continued speaking.

“I’ll tell you the rest later when all the girls are here. But for now, let's head down to where you’ll meet them!”

James felt his legs move without his own doing, standing up and following Isabella as she walked to the end of the room.

He didn’t get a good chance to look at it until now, but the bedroom was quite lavish. It was massive, more like a single-room penthouse than a bedroom. On the far side of the room, across from the bed, a single elevator sat in the wall. Isabella pressed the down button, and the elevator door quickly opened. They walked in, and she pressed the Lobby button.

The elevator descended, and a short trip later, it opened to reveal a large lobby area, with a front desk manned by a humanoid robot. The robot was sleek, very human in appearance except for its silver body and completely blank face. Isabella didn’t pay it any attention, instead walking through the lobby and out the main door. James followed right behind, finally allowed to walk of his own free will.

The hostess brought them down a brick path, walking around a large fountain in the middle of the park, and then down to a beach. It appeared they were on an island, as James could only see ocean for as far as his vision went. They stopped in the middle of the beach, far away from the shore. Isabella turned towards James, smiling brightly. She did a twirl, and with a wave of her hand, a massive stage appeared on the beach behind her. On the stage was an extremely ornate throne with a very comfortable-looking cushion.

“Go ahead and take a seat up there. That’ll be your spot while I introduce the competitors!”

James nodded, still amazed by the act of magic that the game show host had done seemingly effortlessly. He walked up to the stage, climbed up the steps on the side, and took a seat in the throne. It was just as comfortable as he assumed it would be, if not more so. The hostess clapped a single time, and eight chairs appeared in front of the stage, much less fancy than the throne. In fact, they were simple white and blue beach chairs.

“Alrighty! Time to introduce the first girl! I’ll go into more detail about the rules and everything once all the girls are present. Sound good? Great!”

Isabella turned to face the camera, or at least where James assumed a camera would be, as there was nothing there.

“Ladies, gentlemen, and otherworldly beings! Welcome to the newest season of your favorite show, Harem Hotel! I’ll be your host, Isabella, as we watch competitors compete over the bachelor behind me! It’s time to introduce our first girl, so let’s start a drum roll, please.”

The sound of a drum roll plays, though James could not tell from where it originated.

“Our first competitor, a professor all the way from Yale University, give it up for Doctor! Amanda! Kane!”

After a wave of her hand, Isabella pointed to the first chair in the line. The drum roll stopped as she pointed, and right at the end, a woman appeared out of thin air, landing on the chair. Dirty blonde hair that went down to her shoulders, and a surprisingly curvy body contained by a blouse and pencil skirt, covering her lightly tanned skin.

James recognized her immediately. He was the TA for one of the classes she taught, after all. He knew Dr. Kane well, having helped with dozens of lesson plans and grading of tests and quizzes. In fact, he knew her well enough that she asked him to call her Amanda, though he rarely ever did.

She had a doctorate in American history and taught classes on the very same topic. At the age of 43 years old, she had been a professor for 14 years, the last 10 of which were at Yale. Divorced once, with no children, she had decided to live the single life for the rest of her days.

She was passionate about history and loved her job, making a hobby out of collecting historical documents. She was independent, relying only on herself for money and happiness. James enjoyed working with her. It also helped that, in every sense of the acronym except the first word, she was a MILF.

“What’s happening?! James, is that you?”

The professor looked around frantically before locking her eyes on James, confusion and worry clear on her face.

“Doctor Kane, it’s alright. Isabella will explain everything shortly, so don’t worry. There’s a lot of weird stuff going on, but we just need to keep cal-”

Isabella clapped, bouncing on her heels.

“Time to introduce the next contestant!”

“For the next girl, you guys are going to have to bear with me for a bit, as neither you nor James know quite who she is!”

Pointing at the chair next to Doctor Kane, Isabella snapped her fingers on her other hand, and another woman appeared out of nowhere, dropping onto the chair.

“Please welcome Juliette Barbeau!”

The random woman looked around, making eye contact with James before quickly focusing on the other two women present. She had bright green hair and several piercings across her face, with pale skin barely concealed by a thin spaghetti strap top and ripped jeans.

“Who the fuck are you guys?! Where am I?!”

Isabella gave the girl a thumbs up.

“Juliette is 21 years old. She currently works as an up-and-coming artist, living in New York City. How unique!”

Juliette stood up, facing Isabella with clenched fists.

“I don’t know who the hell you think you are-”

Isabella waved her hand, and Juliette’s mouth snapped shut as she quickly sat back down in the chair, her hands resting in her lap.

“And for the next contestant… Please welcome, Ms. Paige Bell!”

In the third chair, another girl once again appeared out of nowhere. Unlike the last girl, James recognized her. He knew her personally, even if they weren’t close. James’ family, his father specifically, owned a large and successful toy company, which was where they got their extreme wealth from.

Paige’s family, her father specifically, also owned a large and successful toy company. Their company was a direct rival to James’ father’s. As another family of importance, the two had met on several occasions, most often at parties hosted by mutual friends/connections.

The Bell family was just as rich as the Bird family, and they ran the same type of business, so they often were in the same circles. Neither James nor Paige followed in their fathers’ footsteps, going into fashion and education, respectively. While they weren’t close with each other, they knew each other pretty well, if only because their fathers each made them learn about their “rivals”.

She was two years younger than James, at 23 years old. She had brown hair in a bob and striking gray eyes that many who worked under her joked that looking into them meant you forfeited your soul. Those eyes immediately locked onto James, as he was the only one she recognized.

“James Bird? Where am I? What is this place?”

James attempted to respond to her, but a hand held up by Isabella silenced him.

“No time for such questions now. Everything will be explained later. For now, we have more contestants to introduce!”

“Now for the 4th contestant, we will be switching things up a bit. The first contestant to have prior romantic history with this season’s Master, give a warm welcome to Mikayla Williams!”

Another woman James recognized. Not too long ago, James used to be engaged, the result of an arranged marriage. But due to unforeseen circumstances involving his fiancée, the engagement was called off.

This woman was not his fiancée. No, she was his ex-girlfriend. The very same ex-girlfriend that he was forced to break up with due to said arranged marriage. Obviously, she was not happy about this.

What made her even less happy was finding out that the marriage was canceled after James’ fiancée ran away with her girlfriend. She was enraged that James didn’t even consider doing the same with her, after their several years together. Mikayla was 23 years old, with long black hair and blue eyes. James often told her that she was exactly his type. This only made her anger more intense after he broke up with her. She looked around, confused and a bit scared. Her expression immediately changed when her gaze landed on James.

“You son of a fucking bitch! Where the fuck did you bring me?! Did you kidnap me, you fucking psycho?!”

Mikayla jumped out of her chair, intending on attacking James in a blind rage.

“Ooookay, then. That’s enough of that.”

Isabella waved her hand, and Mikayla disappeared from in front of the stage mid-attempt at climbing onto it. She quickly reappeared in her seat, tied down to it with iron chains and a rope around her mouth, stopping her from talking. Despite the spike of fear at being forcibly teleported, the situation she found herself in post-teleport only solidified in her mind that James had kidnapped her.

“What an amazing reunion! Hopefully this next contestant will be a bit calmer.”

“Everyone say hello to contestant number five, Elisa Acosta!”

Just like the previous four times, a woman appeared in the chair Isabella pointed to. James’ eyes flashed with recognition, and then worry, as he immediately recognized the woman as his personal maid. She had dark brown hair in a French braid and was wearing a conservative maid outfit. She was 28 years old and had been James’ maid since he was 15.

His previous maid had been discovered stealing jewelry from his stepmother’s collection, and so was quickly fired. Elisa was hired shortly after. For the first 5 years of her working as James’ maid, she sent almost half of her paycheck to her family back in Colombia. When James learned of her family’s situation, he demanded that his father bring her family to the States and let them stay in the mostly empty guest house on their property.

The rest of her family was given offers for different jobs, with Elisa’s mother and father both ending up in managerial positions in different factories, and her younger sister going to law school after graduating. Elisa was extremely thankful for what James had done, and has since continued to be his maid, enjoying her job despite the hard work.

Being teleported startled the girl greatly, but when she saw James, someone she trusted strongly, her nerves calmed, and instead of panic, she was only confused.

“Mister Bird? Where are we? I don’t remember coming here…”

James looked to Isabella for permission to speak, hoping not to be interrupted by her impatience again. She rolled her eyes, making a “hurry up” motion with her hand.

“It’s okay, Elisa. Everything will be explained in a minute. Just sit and wait for now, please.”

She nodded, folding her hands in her lap. She looked over at the other girls also present, her eyes widening at the sight of the girl chained down to her chair and gagged, but she remained silent, turning to look forward and paying no attention to her.

“That was much better. Alrighty! Time to introduce girl number…”

Isabella looked down at her hand, counting out her fingers under her breath until she reached six fingers.

“Six! Welcome 20-year-old Brianna Lundin to the show!”

On the next unused chair, a girl appeared once again. She had platinum blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and pink lipstick. James recognized her, but only tangentially. Dr. Kane also recognized her, as Brianna was a student in her class, the very same one James TA’d in.

Although neither the professor nor the TA knew Brianna very well, they knew enough about her for James to gulp and Dr. Kane to mutter under her breath. See, while Brianna did attend an extremely prestigious university, it was not due to her intelligence.

Her father was in charge of accepting/denying applications, and so it was entirely nepotism that allowed her into an Ivy League university. She fit every inch of the “dumb blonde” stereotype, with large breasts, an unrealistically skinny waist, and an ass that had literally caused people to drool.

Dr. Kane hated her. As a blonde and a woman herself, if not to the degree that Brianna was, she had experienced a significant amount of hardship regarding stereotypes and sexism, so seeing someone not only fitting those stereotypes, but thriving off them made her blood boil.

“What the hell? Where even am I? This is, like, a beach, and I was just in my dorm room.”

The girl looked around, confusion obvious on her face. She wasn’t worried, scared, or any other emotion implying a sense of discomfort with her sudden appearance in a random place. No, she was nothing short of bewildered, looking at the sand and waves as if she had never seen such a thing before. It took a painfully long time for her to realize there were other people around her.

“Dr. Kane? Why are you here? Is this, like, some kind of field trip or something? What do beaches have to do with history, though?”

Dr. Kane restrained herself from reacting, taking a deep breath before responding.

“No, Brianna, this is not a field trip. James said that the girl with pink hair will explain everything shortly, so just be patient.”

Brianna stared at Dr. Kane with a blank look for a few seconds before shrugging and looking to Isabella.

“So, can you like hurry up?”

Isabella turned away from the girl and ignored her comments.

“We got two more girls to introduce, and this next one will definitely cause a bit of an uproar! If you thought Mikayla’s introduction was bad, just wait for this one!”

James wasn’t stupid. It was hard to get into Yale if you were stupid (with obvious exceptions). So far, every girl introduced except for Juliette was a relevant woman in his life, even if they weren’t close. He could tell where it was going, especially after Isabella’s comment about Mikayla.

“Grab your popcorn and put your phones on vibrate! Please welcome the one, the only, Leah Azar!”

On the seventh chair, and for the seventh time, a woman appeared out of nowhere. James felt a bead of sweat form on his forehead as he accepted what was about to happen. The woman had olive skin and green eyes, wearing expensive earrings that contrasted greatly with her comfort-focused outfit of a hoodie and sweatpants. At her appearance, quite a few things happened.

First, Juliette stood up in a panic, then Mikayla started thrashing violently in her chains and trying to yell through her gag. And finally, Paige began stifling a laugh behind the palm of her hand.

“What- James!? Where am I? What did you fucking do? Is this some sick attempt to force me to- Jules, is that you?! What the fuck is happ-”

Isabella clapped her hands, and Leah suddenly went quiet. She didn’t stop talking. No, her mouth had just stopped making noise. She was still speaking as if words were coming out, but nothing reached anyone’s ears.

If it wasn’t obvious already, Leah was James’ ex-fiancée, and Juliette was her current girlfriend.

Juliette and James had never met before, nor even seen each other, and so neither of them knew who the other was until that moment when Leah spoke directly to both of them. Juliette quickly became even further enraged by the situation. If not for the magic keeping everyone in their chairs, a fight surely would have broken out between Leah and Juliette, and Mikayla, with James forced into the center of it. But thankfully, no one was capable of moving from their chairs.

“While we let them all simmer down for a bit, let's introduce the final competitor! Last, but certainly not least, please welcome Marissa Bird!”

In the last chair, a girl appeared for the final time. James’ eyes widened, and he attempted to stand up from his throne, but it seemed that Isabella’s magic also prevented him from doing so. If not for Isabella, James would have likely had a reaction on par with Juliette’s initial introduction. Not due to any animosity towards the girl, but because of the implications of her being there.

Marissa was James’ younger sister, 7 years younger than him at 18. Well, half-sister, and she was the daughter of his father and his father’s second wife. The two were close, having grown up together for their formative years, and then keeping in touch after James’ father divorced her mother before going on to his third marriage. Obviously, James was outraged by her appearance, as he understood what that meant based on what little he knew of the game show so far.

“What the hell? James? What is this place?”

The girl looked around, noticing the seven (eight including Isabella) women around her. And then she noticed who those women were, specifically noting Leah, James’ ex-fiancée, Mikayla, James’ ex-girlfriend, and Elisa, James’ personal maid. She then pointed at James and laughed at him.

“What is this, some kind of freak intervention? You have both your ex’s, who hate your guts by the way, sitting in front of you while you’re on a throne. Did I get stuffed into your dreams and this is some weird kinky thing or what?”

James just sighed at his sister’s teasing.

“Awww, a family reunion! How cute!”

Isabella smiled sweetly and then spun around, jumping up on the stage and standing next to James.

“Alright! It’s time to let you guys know what's going on now, as well as the rules:”

Harem Hotel is an interdimensional reality-TV-style game show, where eight competitors, often women, compete in challenges on the island as they fight for their place in the Master’s (that’s James in this case) harem!

They do not get a choice in whether they become a part of his harem, as even if they lose or are eliminated, they simply become the bottom of the totem pole. The winner of the show will become Harem Queen, as well as receive a single wish! The regulations on the wish are standard Genie rules.

In order to win, contestants must earn 250 VP, or Victory Points. They will earn these points by participating in and winning weekly challenges, getting hot and steamy (or romantic) with the Master, or if I feel like it! The better they do in the challenge, the more VP they win.

They can also earn BP, or Bonus Points, earned through completing tasks, doing well in the Weekly Best Girl Poll, or winning challenges.

These BP can be used for purchasing several helpful things, such as hints to the next challenge, helpful items, or temporary changes to their transformations.

What transformations, you ask? I was getting to it, so shut up.

When losing or being last in a challenge, contestants will be punished by being given a transformation. These can range from physical changes, special abilities, personality changes, and more! Most are beneficial (if only to the Master).

Watch out, because the girl who has the least VP at the end of the week will also be given a transformation!

There is an alternative to transformations, and that's eliminations. In certain challenges, if a contestant fails to complete the challenge at all, they run the risk of being eliminated.

Eliminations come with 3 significantly harsh transformations, as well as a guaranteed role at the bottom of the harem, whether as a servant, sex-slave, or worse.

Don’t worry, dear viewers at home, I know you might be saying, “But Isabella! It’ll be boring if all their transformations are planned out ahead of time!”

And to that I say, shut up and stop whining; if you’ve seen the show, you know how this goes.

You, the viewer, get a choice in which transformation a contestant receives! You will be given THREE options, each coming from a different themed path relating to the relevant contestant.

However, both the Master and I get a single Veto every week to any decision you guys make regarding transformation choices.

Just for funsies, each contestant will start with a single transformation, which we will get to shortly, as well as a quick popularity poll!

One last thing: Normally, every week contestants will be placed in pairs. The paired contestants will live together, staying in the same bedroom. However, every night, one of the contestants will spend the night in the Master’s penthouse instead of with their partner, alternating every night.