I’m afraid to find out what he’s put in the box. Karl definitely has the wrong idea. Maybe I should ask? But do I want to know what he’s thinking? Best I just look inside first.
Inside are leather wrist and ankle cuffs, a leather mask with a mouth hole and top ear holes, but eyes blocked, plus an assortment of ropes and a few ’toys’ best left unmentioned. He’s definitely got the wrong idea. Very wrong, very very wrong idea.
"Lala, what did you tell Karl when you asked him to help? I glance at her embarrassed. "Your exact words, if you can recall. I think he’s got strange ideas of what you need for comfort."
"Um, let me think a second" Lala sounds confused "I think my exact words were ’Papa, could you help me? I want to make Kat’s room feel more like my old home’".
Moon Goddess, this could be trouble.
"Then he said, don’t worry, he’ll take care of it and asked if I had any special requests, so I told him about how much I liked my cage and my sleep hood and my patched blanket. I see the blanket here, but I don’t think he had time to make me a hood to keep the light out while I sleep."
Oh how wrong you are my precious bunny. He definitely had time.
"Wait, you call him Papa?" blurted out of my mouth before I could restrain it.
"Well yeah? Narishma told me that it’s a polite nickname for an older gentlemen when you want them to do something for you. Was she making fun of me again?" Of course it’s the vampire again. She delights in teasing Karl.
"Well, no, she’s kind of right. But that name is for a special man to you. Don’t just go using it on anyone."
"Got it!" Lala looks like she just understood a profound wisdom of the ages.
Let’s head to bed for our nap. This day has been too long.
A knock on the door awakens me from my nap and I attempt to answer it, only to find my every limb entangled with Lala. Her face buried in my breasts and her ears wrapped around my neck" Lala, girl it’s time for dinner" I shake her shoulder. No response. The knock at the door sounds again and I decide it’ll be easier to just move her than try to wake her.
Rolling her to the side, I bound to the door, finding Karl grinning at me. "Like your renovation? Lala insists you smell the most comforting."
"You and me need to have a serious talk about boundaries and appropriate gifts mister" I inform him in a hard tone, poking his chest and making his grin turn to a full out smile.
"She’s 30 years old, way over the age of majority for bunnies. Don’t worry I asked, and I won’t judge what you two are into."
"Whatever you say Papa" I shoot back at him with full snark.
Looking over my head into the room he laughs "Well, it seems you had a good nap anyhow. Get dressed, everyone’s gathering for dinner in 10." Looking back to see what is so funny I see Lala, on her back, limbs splayed in every direction, big stupid smile on her sleeping face and drool at the corner of her mouth.
It’s actually adorable, but it’s time to get up.
"Lala? Time to get up." no response. Poke the sides. Still nothing. How about tickling? Still nothing. How deep of a sleeper is this bunny? I know: "Lala, you’re late for work!" and she shoots right to her feet on the bed.
"Oh no, I’m late, I’m in so much trouble" she stops as she sees me giggling. "I’m not late for work am I?"
"Sorry Lala, you’re late for dinner and nothing else was waking you up."
"It’s alright, you can use the phone alarm if you need, that scares me awake. Or just press the button on my collar." she motions towards the little gemstone on the front of the seemingly one piece metal ring around her neck.
Perfect, 2 different techniques. That should be enough to get her motivated. "I’ll keep that in mind, now let’s get dressed and see what the news of the day is, since we slept all afternoon."
Alpha Petros shoots me a look as I walk into the dining hall with Lala, who has chosen an oversized black men’s tunic over shorts it entirely covered like a knee length dress as her evening wear. I recognize it as one of the enchanted ones with the frilly wrists that Mary had designed this week.
Myself I went a bit more formal, with black yoga pants and a grey hoodie. Comfort is more important than whatever meeting we’re having over dinner. I’ve even almost given up on makeup. In Lycan form my regeneration makes it just fall off my face in a few minutes, and these days I rarely change back.
Turning the corner into the dining hall, I see not only Jake and Jurgen with the Ramirez brothers, but also Narishma with Agent Smith and a Witch human combo I vaguely remember from the first Task Force meeting.
Guess we’re not talking about anything cultivation related. I whisper that warning to Lala, knowing that although it’s too low for the others to hear, her highly enhanced ears will have no problem. She gives my hand a quick squeeze in response before bounding into the room, full of energy as usual.
"Thanks for all the advice Ari" she greets the vampire, knowing how much the nickname Karl uses for her annoys her "It worked out great for us, right Papa?"
Karl laughs and pats her head, drawing looks ranging from disturbed to highly amused from the rest of the dinner guests. "All you had to do was ask"
Narishma hisses in annoyance at Karl before returning back to her happy business smile.
"I’m glad to be of help."
We all grab our seats and little purple bunny golems in maid outfits bring us our food.
"Seriously Karl?" I ask him, but Lala pokes me in the side, so I look to her instead.
"I thought this place was too dull, with the self service, and nobody here. So I suggested maids, and Karl made them for dinner to see how it goes. Maybe it’ll be better than the buffet?" she argues.
Everyone else is watching the golems with great interest. "What are they programmed to do?" Jake asks.
"Just bring preset dishes to the table, keep drinks filled until your plate is empty and avoid being run over for now. Anything more would take time, and isn’t really necessary to just serve dinner."
Mary is watching them closer than anyone, notebook in hand. She’s obviously into making these things sometime soon. I should suggest she learns to make some for combat use, since she’s always in need of a guard to do her support work.
"Now that we’ve got greetings out of the way" Narishma begins "I’ve got news for you all. Not to be spread to the rest of the base yet you understand?" We all nod our compliance.
"Here’s what we know so far. Seattle is a contested zone, from Tacoma to the ocean is a running battle, mostly held by the Dragon Riders. Chicago is devastated. The government is playing it down to keep panic from spreading, but half the residents were dead or missing by the time the goblin horde was under control. Over 40 dungeon type portals have opened around Canada and the United States. They’re stable, resisting all attempts to close or dispel them, and seem to be caught in a time loop, with anyone inside at midnight ejected and all the residents resetting to their original condition and position."
At this point she paused for us to take it all in.
"Europe and Asia are reporting similar issues, South America is a war zone, too many portals opened in the dense jungle or remote mountains with no chance of timely discovery. The African continent has gone mostly dark, with no news coming out, except for an undead infestation currently plaguing South Africa. Planes from Europe sent across to assess the situation report either no life found, cities entirely missing as if dug up or absolute destruction. Australia has reported a total of 4 portals so far, all rapidly closed by their local mage bureau, but has taken the stance that they will sink any vessel and shoot down any plane that comes within a hundred kilometres of their territorial waters and airspace."
"Well ain’t that some shit" The bigger Ramirez, Juan mutters, about summing up everyone’s feelings on the matter.
"What’s the plan boss?" Karl asks, a glint of joy in his eyes regarding the fact that he managed to pass off responsibility for the base to the vampire.