Some Points Argued

Kevin

When the meeting was dismissed, Kevin was momentarily distracted by the retreating Tegan. I hope for Mona’s sake that she can get her act together.

Then, he focuses more on the immediate problem. It is a bit of a standoff. One to one side is this demon Harith, his sword blankly staring behind him. On the other, Mona isn’t exactly hiding behind Ootah, but she is clearly a bit confused and embarrassed. Winter is between them, trying to act like a negotiator. Kevin stands beside Ootah and tries to give Mona some moral support.

“Hey, guys,” Winter begins, a flash of something (disappointment, maybe?) crossing his face, “we should be giving Harith the benefit of the doubt. Queen Mama did allow him to join, so he can’t be that bad.”

“I would if he was upfront about his exact nature. I just assumed he was a tiefling during the audition. A full-fledged demon is a different matter.” Ootah notes. There is a harsh edge to her voice.

“And that is exactly why I didn’t just start by saying, ‘Hi, everyone, I’m an incubus wanting to be on Harem Hotel!’ You are judging me based on my heritage instead of my individual actions. Would you like it if people treat you as an orc grunt?”

Kevin winces a little, having felt that kind of sting before. He remembers the kind of things most of the militia members would say about “the gays” in front of him, still in the closet. He knows what it’s like to be prejudged as defective.

“Uhm, I am missing some nuance with that, Harith...” Mona sounds small. Kevin doesn’t like that.

“Bunny bistro. Now. All of us.”

The sword makes a few steps towards the door, only to stop. It flatly states, “I do not know where that place is located.”

Ootah gives Kevin a look. “What’s your plan, Kevin?”

“We talk. We figure out how all of this is going to work. Is that acceptable?”

Winter curls himself into his spot at Kevin’s side, purring, “Yes sir, my sexy bull.”

Mona giggles and takes a similar spot with Ootah. “I’m okay with that. Harith, Ootah?”

Ootah grunts, then gives the demon some side eye as they all leave the Media Room.

The walk to the bistro is tense. The scene at the bistro, less so. Across the hallway stands a new storefront, the banner hanging over it reading, “Storm Empire Embassy, Cafe, and Adult Bookstore.” A small sign underneath reads, “Ask us about our fealty swearing discount!” Bella, the proprietor of the bunny bistro, pouts as she stares at it. “Competition across the hallway like that? It’s so unfair! What if people like them more than the bunnies? I’ll be out of business!”

Winter teases his sister, “Bella, it is not like Queen Mama is going to shut you down because you’re not bringing in enough business. Your entire customer base is eleven people and you don’t even charge anything.”

Bella sticks out her tongue, then shoos the big group in before they would be tempted to go to that Storm Empire place, presumably. This is going to be a long conversation, isn’t it?

Gaia

Tegan was sooo upset this morning. First, Mineko was using her as a pillow (which, was, admittedly, quite precious looking). Then, she was cursing “some disgusting pervert goblin” for her bad dreams last night. Then, she noticed her boobs got bigger. Oh, how she was raging before heading to the shower; when she got back, towel wrapped around her much more deflated breasts, she asked Gaia to get her a list of things.

So, despite how she really wanted to join the Harith interrogation thingy, she heads off to get them. What kind of girlfriend would she be if she let her girlfriend have a bad date if she could help it, even if it’s with another girl?

Mineko is tagging along and Gaia feels a bit awkward about it. The shifter rolled a puppy girl today, with big puppy ears sticking straight up in the air and her puppy tail is constantly wagging. She kind of wants to chase the cat-girl around.

First stop is the canteen. She could go to the nice blasphemer’s vegetable garden, but would prefer to not hurt the plants over there if she can avoid it.

“Lunch isn’t for a bit, folks!” the nice blasphemer shouts from the kitchen.

“We aren’t here for lunch! We wanted some very particular food waste! Tegan needs it for a project!”

Skye pokes her head out of the kitchen door, “Oh, well then. I suppose I can give it to you instead of to the compost pile. Tegan tell either of you why she wants it?”

“For extracts!” Gaia declares.

Skye looks mildly surprised, which turns into a more wary surprise once she finds out what food scraps in particular Tegan is wanting. She gets on her earpiece, speaking in that weird Sylvan for babies language. Muttering, “This screams bad idea,” in English, she goes back to fetch the requested refuse after that conversation ends.

When Skye returns, she asks, “You two know what you are doing, right?”

“I got the transformation to make aphrodisiacs, so the knowledge has been shoved straight into my brain!” Gaia exclaims. Mineko nods in agreement.

The two turn to leave, only for the nice blasphemer to say, “Wait, Gaia. Before you go, do you want to talk about last night?”

Gaia freezes up. She was not expecting to actually have to talk about it. She just wants to drink those peppy potions and never sleep again, or, at least, never sleep until Malar loses interest in her. She can’t deny that her God wants to eat her soul, not after it nearly happened. The topic is just... uncomfortable.

“The Lady of the Dance will offer you protection. You just need to...”

“Nope. My God has to have at least an 8 out of 10 divine cock.”

Skye looks physically pained by that, sighing, “That is such a stupid reason to deny Her what She is due.”

“Oh, so you like her for her boobs?”

“I like Her for Her principles. My sexual attraction to Her is irrelevant.”

Gaia barks out a laugh. Skye slips into a scary Mom voice for her response, “My sexual attraction to Her is due to a transformation, just so you know. My love for The Lady predates it. Regardless, Gaia, you need to think about it. Really think. The next time my lady love is too distracted to watch over you, you may not be so lucky.”

Gaia has a whole body shudder. There is no other way to describe it. Her puppy ears deflate; her tail stills. A whimpering whine wheezes out of her. Mineko starts stroking her back and her tail starts wagging again.

“I’ll think about it!” Gaia exclaims as her excitedly chases after the cat who suddenly stopped pets without permission! Ten more minutes of pets, then they can go hunting for Tegan’s flowers.

Ootah

The group takes their seats at the big table in the bunny bistro: the demon, the sword, Kevin, Winter, Mona, and herself. The demon looks... strangely contrite.

“Is this normal behavior?” the sword asks. Ootah almost chuckles at the cluelessness. Almost.

“For the situation, it is better than normal, I would say,” Kevin states plainly. “So, how are we doing this? I do have Zone of Truth, but I don’t have enough SP to keep it up for the whole conversation.”

“Wouldn’t a demon be able to overpower the spell?” Ootah pointedly asks.

Winter quickly responds, “Kevin would know who successfully resists the spell, but we already know that something is going on with him that is worth giving him a chance. He’s only Level 3. Incubi are Level 4.”

“He could just be a weak one?”

“Or,” Harith snarks, obviously irritated, “I could be being honest about my general motivations. Mona and the former human wouldn’t know, but you should. Actual monsters are created with their Level set. The fact that I could even get XP should be proof that I am not ‘just a weak demon.’”

Kevin looks a little lost. Mona does, too. The latter tries to speak up anyways, “Obviously, I am missing something here. Honestly, I was more surprised than super mad at Harith being all sex demon. I want to believe you because you were good to me last night. If you wanted to eat my soul, you could have let Craig melt my brain. It would probably have made it easier?”

Everyone else is stunned momentarily. Ootah feels the rage bubbling inside her. He tried to melt her brain?!?!?!?! No, Ootah, control. Craig has already been eliminated. He can’t hurt her anymore...

Winter is the first to speak. “See, again, not all bad.”

Ootah wants to roll her eyes. The drow is obviously enamored. To be fair, Ootah would be too, if she wasn’t so focused on protecting her fiancée from herself. The question is: how do we truly determine whether we can trust this demon or not?

Kevin seems to come up with an idea. “Tell us about Hoar? How’d you two... come to an arrangement?”

“I will admit to a past befitting my nature. Feasting on the souls of the foolishly horny. It was easy. Too easy. So, despite my relatively young age, I grew... bored of it. An incubus, bored of sex? The idea was ludicrous, but I had to eat. Just so happened that a mark I chose to eat was the wife of one that has incurred a debt to justice. The acolyte of Hoar, sent to collect that justice, failed to kill him. The man drug the acolyte into his bed, only to find me plowing his wife. I was so surprised, I didn’t eat her soul. Instead, I tore the man apart.”

Ootah feels a tinge of disgust.

Harith continues, “So, Hoar came to me, as the one who collected. He offered me a choice: serve Him as an agent of ironic fate or suffer eradication. I obviously chose the former. He freed me from my demonic obligations, gave me Alanis, and sent me to investigate crimes, to punish wrong-doers. Every one was a womanizing bastard that would leave his wife at home to plow younger things. I enjoyed the challenge. Find the bad guy, woo his neglected wife, give her much pleasure, then slay the evil doer when he comes home. That a sufficient answer?”

Kevin shrugs, “Sounds consistent, if the whole religious system here has been crammed in my brain correctly.”

Mona asks, “So, there is a god of justice via cuckolding?”

Kevin nods, “Kinda? Harith may be taking some liberties on how he pursued justice.”

Ootah snarls, “Then how’d you end up in my Aunt’s dungeon?”

“I made a mistake. Targeted the wrong man. First one in decades of service. Ironically, I found a bigger source of injustice to deal with. Not the bastard from yesterday. The bastard at the end of this. A whole universe to lock up one criminal? Filled with innocents that will be food to said bastard when it escapes? A travesty.”

Mona nods, like she believes him. Of course she does; she is as sweet as she is naive. The Mistress asks the table, “Okay, so what now?”

Jenny

Jenny needed some sunlight and Tessa needed to soak. They both wanted to avoid the Harith drama for now. That sounded like a good excuse to sunbathe by the pool. Jenny found a lounger chair and is laid down, drinking in the sun. She borrowed some sunglasses from Tessa and is currently enjoying the sensation of photosynthesis. It is not exactly the same, but it feels sort of like the satisfaction one gets from a really good meal, bombarding her continuously. It is a great mood enhancement.

About five minutes ago, Tessa joined her on the adjacent lounger, bikini top unhooked, her tummy resting on the slats. For a few minutes, Jenny thought that she fell asleep. So, she’s startled when Tessa breaks the silence, “So, how was the wedding?”

Jenny thinks for a bit, then replies with, “A lot.”

Out of the corner of Jenny’s eye, she sees Tessa start to sit up. The dryad gets a brief glimpse of bare blue breasts before focusing on Tessa’s face. The sea elf’s voice is of concern, “Are you okay? Did something happen? Do I...”

“Things did happen, but it’s fine. My nightmares last night, a few nights ago, whatever, were just really bad. Also, there were, like, contestants from six different sets there and that was a lot. But, it was good. The groom, Andy, he actually figured out a way to get around eliminations. I wasn’t the only one there. I got to, like, talk with them about it.”

Tessa looks surprised. “I thought we were told that eliminations were a big mess to reverse?”

A voice speaks from Jenny’s other side, “Some of Andy’s ‘gifts’ let him exploit bad wording in transformation design.”

Tyalangan is laid out on the other adjacent lounger in sunglasses (and nothing else). She smirks, “What? A gal can’t hang out with her sister and sunbathe?”

Any other thoughts are on hiatus until that gets addressed. “Why are you, like, naked?” Jenny spurts out.

The Host shrugs, “Who wants tan lines? Not me.” She pauses to stretch and bask a little more freely. “Andy is a good man and a good friend. Those fears of being eliminated again? Even if you can’t trust me to give you every opportunity to avoid elimination, trust that Andy could probably tinker your elimination transformation to get you back to about where you are now. He might not even need his whole word count limit for it. He fixed Sumiku’s with a one word edit.”

Tessa asks, “So, you’d be okay with him messing with our transformations?”

“I trust Andy to not abuse his power and it would be hypocritical of me to say no to that. He fixed some problems me and mine had. I have my blind spots; I am not going to be perfect in my designs.”

Tessa’s interrogation continues, “Why did he get something like that anyways?”

“Some transformation options the Masters get are broken. The audience tends to vote for them. They like Masters having the option to magically compel or discipline his harem, even if they won’t use it.”

Jenny shudders. She remembers how gleefully Bob abused his transformations. She heard him use them in the Suite, even if she was stuck staring at the ceiling. “You aren’t going to put something like that in Mona’s votes, are you?”

The Host again shrugs, “I honestly don’t know. My one time I used my compelling transformation during the game resulted in a near disaster, so my experience with them is pretty poor. Also, I am trying to tailor the options to fit Mona’s needs. Outside of Craig, who is no longer a concern, I haven’t seen a need for Mona to command any of you.”

Jenny sighs in relief. She remembers how that power warped Bob into someone even more awful that what he started as. While Mona hasn’t been too bad, she doesn’t know if the power would go to her horny gremlin head. “So, nothing broken for Mona?”

That earns Jenny a snort from the Host, “Oh, you know I already put something broken up on Mona’s vote options. The audience just didn’t go for it at the time. I don’t know if it was because they misinterpreted the purpose of it or just felt that Mona would get overwhelmed by the result, but they gave her something much safer instead.”

That... is less reassuring than I’d like.

Tessa prompts for the assurance Jenny really wants to hear, “And if Mona starts turning into a monster?”

“Then I correct it before it goes too far. Trust me, I want her to avoid corruption just as much as you do.”

Jenny feels both relieved and tense for a different reason. “Why?”

“Ignoring the fact that I would like to avoid Mona suffering the same fate as those Masters I have hunted down like Bob, I do have my sister and my son in Mona’s harem. I want what’s best for them and that is a happy harem family at the end of this. Plus, I am not a monster, so I want the same for all of you. Now, Jenny, why don’t you tell Tessa about your new friends?”

Tyalangan sits up and enjoys the sun on her skin as she checks her tablet and listens. Jenny tells her maybe girlfriend about Katherine, Sumiku, Hazel, and Erin. I know I am still being irrational, but knowing that Andy could save me even if the rules doom me again... that is a bit of a relief.