Assasination Harem!

[muffinstud]

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Knight Errant

There's something... satisfying about the way Lily is able to push her chest out like that... especially so when Lance looks down and blushes at her. Hmmm, he likes what he sees. And why not? There's plenty for him to like. And it feels... better to know that he does like what she has to offer. It makes her feel all warm and toasty, like a cozy, snuggly blanket inside her.

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Zoey

Lance and no doubt some of the other residents flinch at the table slam. At least Diana got his attention, as now he's looking away from Lily's... display. "Oh, you mean the hot spring? Well, if everyone plans on going later, maybe you wouldn't mind if I joined you." Ah, there! Their plan is working! Lance will go to the hot spring, and Diana will get to see him in his swimsuit... mmm... Er, and then do her job! Right! That's why he needs to be there!

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Mendi-chan

Lance turns and nods with a smile to Teresa. "I think it would be lots of fun." Hmmm, yes. And while there would be competition for his attention... from all the girls in their swimwear, Teresa could see what Lance has to offer under that shirt of his. That does seem... rather enticing. And perhaps, if she plays her cards right, she might be able to get him to pay attention to her. Maybe if she wore just the right kind of outfit. Hmmm... looking around, perhaps a bikini would serve best. She does need to catch his eye, right?

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Abillioncats

Teresa, this new girl, seems very nice. And like the others, she's fairly pretty too. Although... being pretty hasn't stopped some of the others from plotting terrible things against Lance. But, it's all for a good cause, right? He... he must be a superb actor, to keep up this oblivious mask. The other girls don't seem to have too much issue being happy and smiling while they plot and scheme... why would it be difficult for a master villain?

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Whatevr

Estelle pours the soup out into Lance's bowl. He sniffs it and licks his lips. "Mmm, sure smells like it was good work, too." He looks back up as she goes to carry the pot and dish out the rest. "Oh, that looks heavy. Here, let me help." He gets up from his chair and reaches for the pot... the pot full of poisonous soup. All of the care Estelle put into the making of it, all of the time she plotted to get this right... and she can feel it literally slipping out from her fingers as he starts to lift the pot.

And, whether it be his own clumsiness, her reluctance to let him handle this important task, or a combination of the two, the pot starts to tip and tumble. "Ack, oh no! I got it, I got it I..." *SPLASH* Lance looks on sheepishly at the pot on the carpet, the delicious looking soup going to waste as it seeps into the floor. All that hard work... all that planning and cooking... all gone. Lance looks sheepishly back up to Estelle. "I... I'm sorry. I... guess we're ordering pizza tonight."

The half of her that had been plotting his demise might just be furious... and for good reason. But as angry as she might want to be... the other half of her can't help but... whimper. Her ears droop sadly, her tail curls between her legs, and she starts to make pathetic whining sounds as she feels the tears start to build up. She... worked so hard. And it's all gone to waste.

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Abillioncats

The crash and the splash catches everyone off guard, but Sonia especially notices the shock it creates in Estelle. This is... her friend! And she looks oh so sad. She worked so hard, and Sonia had even helped her! Now... looking at the pouting Estelle, Sonia feels the very strong urge to... snuggle. Well, it would help Estelle feel better, yes, but... she just... really wants a good snuggle...

[Abillioncats]

Alarm bells go off in Sonia's head as the pot of soup crashes onto the floor. Sudden surprises like that easily jarred the catgirl. More importantly...the whole plan on poisoning Lance was certainly ruined...had...had he known? She was gonna have to keep a closer eye on him...if he was faking he was an incredible actor...

Sonia noticed fairly quickly how distraught Estelle was, her friend! The urge to comfort and snuggle was so strong, she couldn't help but give in to the urges! She came up to the wolfgirl and gave her a hug, "Come on...why don't we sit on the couch for a bit?" It...it wasn't because Sonia really wanted too, she was just trying to help her friend! Right?

[Knight Errant]

Lilly smiles... that was so nice that he... She gulps. That he was distracted by her. She was learning how to better use her looks to manipulate him. That will be crucial for their plan later tonight... She was definitely not happy for any other reason.

She glances towards Diana... giving her a bit of a glare. What was she trying to pull? She was so loud, distracting, and annoying. She must be jealous of her... skills. She's shown herself to be quite inept so far... she'd better not screw up this plan tonight, or they'll have words.

She is still glaring at Diana when Lance lurches out of his chair... the air between Diana and Lily crackling as they share a glare... and then... crash! Splash! She winces, looking over... blinking down at the spill on the carpet... the dejected looking Estelle... the nervous Lance. She sighs... once again he dodges a bullet. Hopefully he won't be as good at dodging literal bullets later...

[Whatevr89532]

Estelle locks up mentally for a good several seconds after the spill, unable to do more than stand there and whimper with her arms awkwardly held out to catch a falling soup pot that isn't there to be caught anymore until the catgirl makes physical contact. She looks halfway toward Sonia with tears halfway out of her eyes while her brain kicks itself back into motion, and her first thought is how much of a mess that made. "No, I, I--" she starts, and is interrupted by another whine, "I need to clean up..the.." Without any further warning, Estelle half-collapses onto Sonia's shoulder, breaking out into a full-on sob punctuated with more canine whining sounds.

[Mendi-chan]

Teresa pauses for a second, looking from the spilled soup to the crying girl... She felt so helpless! Whatever was going on it was clear that Estelle was going to be hurting over the loss of her hard work. Maybe... maybe she could just clean up instead. That might help things? "Don't you worry about cleaning, I can take care of that. Just... Why don't you all relax? I'll be back with some towels." She gets up and quickly goes to grab some cleaning supplies, for a moment forgetting why they had all been gathered there in the first place.

[Zoey]

Diana glares at Lily. 'That huge breasted bimbo...' she thought as they exchanged glares. The eye contact is broken however when Lance acknowledges her and asks to join in the hot springs. Score! "Sure whatever" she replies quickly looking away from Lance as he asks permission, a small blush coming to her cheeks. Wait. Lance, is coming to the hot springs! This is for real! Is this ok? They're all girls and one guy? Her heart feels heavier for a second before a crash and spills breaks her from her moral conundrum.

The schoolgirl quickly jumps across the table, her athleticism showing as she clears quite a distance quickly and reaches Lance's side. "Are you ok?!" she reclaims looking over Lance first instead of the mess. After noticing he's fine a sort of relief hits her. 'Thank goodness, he's ok...' she thinks putting a hand to her heart and sighs. WAIT. THE PLAN OF POISONING! IT FAILED!

Diana's expression quickly changes and she goes thwack Lance over the head. "YOU IDIOT!" she exclaims as she hits him.

[Abillioncats]

Estelle locks up mentally for a good several seconds after the spill, unable to do more than stand there and whimper with her arms awkwardly held out to catch a falling soup pot that isn't there to be caught anymore until the catgirl makes physical contact. She looks halfway toward Sonia with tears halfway out of her eyes while her brain kicks itself back into motion, and her first thought is how much of a mess that made. "No, I, I--" she starts, and is interrupted by another whine, "I need to clean up..the.." Without any further warning, Estelle half-collapses onto Sonia's shoulder, breaking out into a full-on sob punctuated with more canine whining sounds.

Sonia hugs Estelle as the wolfgirl starts to sob on her shoulder, "It's alright...just...just let it out." The only thing that Sonia could do now was let Estelle cry on her shoulder till she felt better. After a few moments she started to guide Estelle over to the couch. "Come on...let's just sit down for a while..." She said gently.

[muffinstud]

Abillioncats
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The poor dog maid looks devastated, whimpering and sobbing against Sonia. And she had wanted to clean up the mess too, the poor dear. No, she doesn't need work right now, she needs a good snuggle, maybe a little scratch behind the ear to help her feel better. Hmm, Estelle's dress looks like it got dirtied as well. Maybe she could join the others in the hot spring later? That might help her feel better...

Sonia certainly feels better now, snuggling with her friend on the couch.

Whatevr
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It's so strange. Part of her just doesn't understand why this would hurt her so much... but the rest of Estelle can't help but continue to whimper and lean on her friend for comfort. Her soup had been so tasty, had smelled so good! She had even made sure to give it to her... Lance first, to show her respect for him. And even though it was an accident, and she can't really blame him for it... it still hurts. But at least Sonia is being nice. She... hasn't always had friends to help her like this. It's... nice.

Knight Errant
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At least he does look genuinely sorry. Even so, that's another attempt that he's miraculously escaped from. All the more reason Lily will need to put forward a good effort later. If he's sufficiently... distracted, he won't be able to dodge anything, right? Hmm... and she can definitely pull off distracting. Oh, and wouldn't it be... interesting to see him without his shirt later? It would make her mission more palatable, to say the least.

Zoey
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Lance winces at the thwack. "Ow, what was that for? I understand Estelle being upset... were you really that excited to have some soup?" He blinks, looking at the enraged little ball of pink hair and mixed emotions in front of him. It's so strange. Diana feels so relieved to see that Lance is unhurt, but at the same time... he's supposed to be dead! This loser can't even get poisoned right... so why is it she's so happy to see that he's okay? Maybe... she wanted to do the job herself? To see the look of surprise on his face in the hot spring, to see his broad chest glistening in the steam... with a gaping bullet hole in it.

Mendi-chan
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Lance looks down to Teresa as she starts to clean up. "Thanks... I'll get to ordering the pizza." Lance looks down at his dirtied shirt for a second as he gets out his phone and starts dialing. Teresa, meanwhile, finds all sorts of cleaning supplies under the sink in the kitchen. It's a shame that something like this had to happen, but... she can be helpful not just to Estelle and the other girls, but to Lance. Everyone else seems to still be standing around, showing that she has initiative should bring herself into their good graces. The other girls do seem somewhat important to Lance, and if they have good things to say about her... then that could only help with his impression of her, right?

[Abillioncats]

Sonia hugs Estelle tightly as they sit down on the couch. The catgirl has to admit that she really enjoys snuggling with someone on the couch, but that's not important right now. She needed to make sure that Estelle started to feel better, so she gave Estelle a nice scratch behind one of her ears, that always made Sonia feel better when someone scratched one of her ears, she figured it was the same with wolfgirls. As she's doing this she notices that Estelle's dress is a little dirty...perhaps she could come to the hot spring as well? That would probably help cheer her up too!

As she continues to snuggle with Estelle and scratch her ear, she starts to purr softly, without even realising it.

[Knight Errant]

Lilly mmms... yes, of course. That would be beneficial to the mission... to keep him... distracted. This next plan had to work. So she could get her payday... and a reverse of whatever had happened to her. She plans on having words with her employers after all of this is over. What exactly did they think they were pulling? Speaking of... she tugs idly on her bikini strings... settling down in the chair.

It is odd that Diana has managed to hit Lance... while everything else has failed. Is he weak to hand to hand? Could she just go up and snap his neck? But... mmm... if that somehow failed... wouldn't that tip him off? And then her cover would be blown. Hrm... maybe this could be a backup plan... though... now that she thinks of it... could these slender arms still break a neck? She hasn't exactly tried... She glances down at her slender arms... wondering again what was the point trapping them like this.

Though with her luck... she would be doing her job distracting Lance... and that pink haired bimbo would end up shooting her instead by mistake. She certainly hopes not. Dying by her hand would be so embarrassing...

She looks over to Lance as he gets to ordering the pizzas. Contemplating her target...

[Whatevr89532]

Estelle recovers from the crying fit with a few deep breaths, allowing herself to be guided onto the couch along the way. She breaths a little more steadily as they sit there, and makes a soft murmuring sound when Sonia scratches behind her ear, which feels...nicer than it seems like it should. But not long after this, she makes a sudden, jerking movement to sitting more upright and looks rapidly around the room as if unsure how she got here.

It feels like Lucas just woke up, and has a lot of questions. It's easy enough to clear up how she got here, but why did she have such an emotional fit in the first place? This was only the first plan she'd made, and a lot of people had failed more times than that without..no, it definitely wasn't that. Estelle had been upset about her soup being ruined, whether or not she knew it was poisonous. But it hadn't felt like the mask was upset and sobbing, it had felt like the person behind it was. And that wasn't...normal. Lucas knew better how to keep things separated, but it just felt impossible to. Even thinking about it now still made her feel like it was wholly upsetting.

She turns her eyes back on Sonia for several seconds with a confused frown, attempting to separate out the 'friendship' between Estelle and Sonia and whatever slight acquaintance there was between Lucas and whoever Sonia really was. It felt impossible somehow. Were either of them really two different people at all? Finally, in a quiet, serious voice reminiscent of how she had spoken when discussing the plan to poison the soup before, she said, "Something's not right."

[Mendi-chan]

Teresa blushes as her mind wanders into thinking about how Lance and the possibility of making a better impression. Why... why on earth did she care so much? It wasn't quite what she was expecting when she had decided to try and stop the group's assassination attempts. But, that having been said, the feelings she was finding within her were far from unpleasant. Shaking her head, she sighs and tries to clear her thoughts. For now she just had to clean up and clear hear head. Unsure of what exactly would work best, she grabs an armful of supplies and comes back. Plopping the bundle of supplies onto the ground, Teresa reaches down and grabs a mop. "Okay, let's clean this up..."

[Abillioncats]

It felt really good to be this close to someone and just snuggle on the couch. In the back of her mind Sonia released that as Ash she would have never done anything like this, but she just couldn't bring herself to care. Suddenly Estelle sat up, looking a bit confused. Sonia knows something is up, especially once Estelle says in a serious voice, "Something's not right."

The part of her that's still Ash deep inside awakes up a bit as Estelle says this. What does she mean by that? I mean sure, the plan failed but that was almost expected given how many times Lance has evaded death already. Then Estelle got really upset over that even though there really was no real reason to-

Ohhhhhh... Sonia was pretty sure she knew what Estelle was saying. At least Sonia thought she did. More than likely whoever Estelle was before she transformed into what she was now wouldn't have gotten so upset, and yet she did. Sonia had to admit that it was becoming harder and harder for her to act like Ash at all, almost as if she'd never been Ash in the first place. She had all of Sonia's memories, all the way to her earliest memories as a toddler. She had Ash's too, but those felt more faded and distant, not real at all. It was actually kind of scary, like her old self was slowly being erased.

"I...I know." She said quietly, the others wouldn't be able to hear them, they were the only ones with animal ears after all. "I feel like my old self is...slipping away. I'm acting much more like Sonia than who I was before...it feels natural too."

[Zoey]

Diana crosses her arms and turns her back to Lance. "You better get to cleaning up that mess, you idiot! I sure as hell aint doing it!" she exclaims as she stops her way back to her seat. As she does, she glances back at Lance a bit and smiles, before continuing forward. Such a relief to see Lance unhurt... If anyone is going to hurt him, it's herself! Yeah! Soon she will have the chance to do so too! In the... baths...

With a huff, Diana sits back down, arms still crossed as she glares at Lance. That'll teach the jerk.

[muffinstud]

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Abillioncats

That purr came to her so naturally, it had been hard to notice. Sonia may know who she is, who she was... but the way her memories mash together, it makes it so difficult to separate who she used to be and who she is now. Only one thing seems absolutely certain to her. Her other, past self had never really been able to get this close to people. Sure, he had a girlfriend or two, but... that seems odd to her now, and he had never felt this comfortable holding someone else. It feels... nice being able to show affection this way, to comfort someone when they need it. Maybe she could use this to help the others, keep their spirits up? It certainly seems to be helping Estelle.

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Whatevr

As she gathers herself together, Lucas can feel Estelle's feelings level out, pulling herself together with her determination. She's not one to wallow in self pity either. Her hard work may have gone to waste, but from the reaction of the other girls, they seem upset as well. They were looking forward to the meal she made for them, and that is enough for her. And... mmm, that gentle scratching around her ears does perk her up a bit, too. It feels so strange, prickling at her ears and trailing sensation down her back. It's hard to keep her small, fluffy tail still as Sonia keeps scratching... but despite the strangeness of it all, it still feels good. The sharp contrast between the nice scratches and her despair helps her take control of her feelings.

But... it still begs the question. Which feelings are even hers any more? Is she still Lucas? Or is she Estelle? Her mind remembers herself as both, even if her memories and feelings lean heavily towards Estelle. She'd heard of method actors being consumed by their roles... is this how that happened?

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Knight Errant

Lily watches as Lance nods his head against his phone, ordering the pizza. It's strange how easily her eyes look him up and down, almost as if she enjoys looking at him. And yet, there is something about him that holds her attention. He's not objectively handsome like the male models she saw at the agency, but the longer she looks, the harder it is to keep a small smile from reaching her lips. He looks... nice. The way he holds himself seems to refer to an underlying confidence and an athletic prowess... things that suddenly seem important to her. He's also very genuine, if rather naive. It's... cute.

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Zoey

Diana huffs her way back to her seat, assured that she taught him the lesson he needed to learn. He really should be more careful. Not so much about the soup, but about their feelings. He's going to have to do something to make up for what he did to Estelle, and until then... Well, Diana could keep him on a short leash. Reminding him of his place with that little smack to the head had been satisfyin-

Wait. She hit him. She hurt him. Well, not really. But she got through his defenses. Could it be that she could really be able to get through and end this? It's worth testing, especially since she'll have to be close to try again. Being close wouldn't be half bad, either.

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Mendi-chan

Teresa gets to work! The soup hasn't gotten too deep through the carpet, thankfully. Even so, they'll need to do a deeper cleaning later. As she cleans, she keeps seeing Estelle rushing off with tears in her eyes. She really didn't seem the assassin type... maybe some of the others are having second thoughts as well? She obviously couldn't bring it up in front of Lance... he'd think she was crazy. But maybe she could convince the other girls of what she sees in Lance. And if no one is trying to kill anyone else, they can spend more time together. And she can spend more time exploring just what all these feelings Lance stirs within her could mean.