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[b][u][center]The Golden Coils Resort

Part 8

For Taiko

By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

Darren could have just taken the elevator down a floor to the spiral pathway and descended through the hotel from there, but he felt like he wanted to take it easy today. The day before and everything that had happened during it had taken it out of him, both mentally and physically, and he wanted to give himself a chance to recover rather than pushing his limits too hard.

So, he took the elevator down, hitting a random button and letting chance decide his destination. He leaned back against the far wall of the elevator, closing his eye and slowly shaking his head.

[i]I’m really not sure that we can still call this a vacation.[/i]

At least, not for him. Not entirely. For as much as he had been getting some fun times, he was looking forward to getting back to work and having things go back to normal. He still didn’t feel [i]shame,[/i] precisely, for having gotten into it with his father and brother, but there was something there that didn’t really feel [i]good[/i] about having done it. He wasn’t sure if that was actual guilt or just the feeling of taking advantage of someone that might or might not have known what they were doing, but…

Well, he was certainly not looking forward to explaining that part to his boss later.

[i]Who would have thought I’d prefer a life where I had just one person knocking me out and using me…[/i]

Darren shook his head. He’d sort himself out on that later, when he wasn’t due for –

Ding.

The elevator stopped, opening on the fifth floor. No casino, no clubs, nothing of the sort that he had been going through for the last little while. No spas, either, which was actually a relief, as he didn’t want to get too relaxed when he was still supposed to be on the job, still looking for what was happening here. He stepped out of the elevator, looked left, saw the spiral, looked right –

“Oh…god…”

He caught sight of a familiar orc, one that he’d been rather intimately involved with at the far end of the hallway, just past the gift shops and luxury items stores. He wanted to dive out of the way, to hide, but it was too late. Bruha had already seen him, and the kilt-wearing orc all but strutted down the hall, his cheeks turning up in a smile and the jingle-jangle of his bell-piercings at his nipples ringing.

Darren put his hands over his ears, shutting out the vaguely trancing sound, shaking his head. Bruha stopped ten feet away, arching an eyebrow.

“What’s the matter, boy?” the orc said, his voice booming slightly more than usual.

“We gave you an assistant. And I’m busy.”

“What?”

“The bells?”

“Huh. Oh. Right.”

To his surprise, Bruha raised one hand and pressed his arm to his chest, stilling the piercings. It was more than he expected from the sorcerous older man, considering that the last time that they’d met up, he’d ended up entranced for some time. Magically, mystically, and aurally, as a matter of fact. A bit of a brute-forced enchantment, but it was still rather effective, requiring Mr. Lee to come and get him at the end of things.

But that had been in Novus Ager, miles and miles away, and he remembered Bruha being quite the recluse. He slowly lowered his hands from his ears.

“What are you doing here?” he asked as neutrally as he could. “I thought that you preferred to Novus Ager, a settled life.”

“I did. Do. But I heard about a great deal of dragons congregating here, and I thought I might try my luck.”

“…”

“Don’t judge me. Do you know how hard it is to find ones that [i]aren’t[/i] related to me, at this point? Most of Novus Ager’s connected in some way or another to the clan, by blood or not.”

“I didn’t think that mattered to you.”

“Most days, it doesn’t, but I had a thought.”

“You…or the assistant we got for you?”

“…He had a thought,” Bruha corrected himself, shaking his head. “Thought that maybe, if I went after dragons that weren’t already connected to the guy that keeps saving them, I might have a chance to keep them for a while longer.”

“I suppose…that’s worth attempting.”

“Yes, well…it’s working so far. I’ve managed to win six of them.”

“Six? Win?” Darren blinked.

“There’s a casino on the ninth floor, and you can cash in your prizes for boy toys.”

Darren had read through the map of the resort, and he knew for a fact that it had never mentioned a casino on the ninth floor, nor had there been any mention of winning boy toys, either as true prizes or as things you cashed in winnings for. He would have thought Bruha was lying to him, save for two things. First, that Bruha wasn’t much of a liar – he had never been that good at it, and he had always been more willing to tell the truth because his power meant that there were few reasons to hide things.

Second…

Second, he could imagine the resort changing, offering different attractions to different people. The hypnotic aura that suffused the whole place just seemed to take hold everywhere, looking for what you wanted and trying to find a way to give it to you.

He wondered if the dragons had wanted to be sold.

He wondered if they were aware that they had been.

“Are you listening to me?” the orc grunted.

“Yes…yes, I am. I’m just…thinking.”

“That cat of yours has you thinking too much, for my tastes.”

Darren blushed, chuckling.

“Well, he likes me to be aware of things.”

“Until he doesn’t.”

“…True enough.”

“…You’re taking care of yourself, right?” the orc asked. “Not pushing yourself too hard? Not overdoing it?”

“I’m not overdoing it.”

“…Darren, I might not be that well-taught about all the other things that you know…but I know stress when I hear it.”

The last thing that he’d expected was the orc this far from Novus Ager. The second to last thing that he’d expected was Bruha looking for some way to help him again, rather than just trying to take him in and keep him as a toy again. His eyebrows all but leaped off his forehead as the orc sighed.

“Look. I’m not looking to get too involved. I remember what happened last time, and I don’t want that boss of yours coming for me again. Even though I think I could beat him this time.”

“Probably not,” Darren said.

Bruha looked down at the footprint on Darren’s chest, and the human did his best not to flinch or cover it. The orc eventually sighed.

“Maybe. Maybe not. But I’m still saying, you don’t sound right. You’re not okay. You’re not exhausted like before, but you’re not okay.”

“…Maybe I’m not.”

“Got someone to talk to?”

“You’re not offering?”

“I’m not much of a talker. I’m not very good at it. I’m good – very good – at bragging, but the other stuff…”

Darren nodded. He rubbed the back of his head.

“I guess I have someone I can talk to. If they’re still in the hotel, I mean.”

“Are you going to?”

“I think I am.”

“Good…Well. Well. I’m going to go back to the casino. See if I can win lucky number seven.”

“Good luck,” he said, barely believing the words were coming out of his mouth. Wishing someone luck to win another being. Shaking his head, he repeated himself nonetheless. “Good luck.”

“Heh, don’t need luck.”

Bruha flashed one of his magical gems, then stepped into one of the other elevators. He was gone without a trace in seconds, leaving Darren on his own once more.

And there was much to consider.

[i]This place is built to make every desire possible come true. It makes people forget about the things that they think are wrong. It makes everyone think that the impossible is merely normal, that the taboo is perfectly acceptable. That can only go so far.[/i]

He had already learned that to some extent with how he was feeling about the incest. He knew that he’d done it, and while he didn’t feel guilty, he didn’t know how much of that was down to him, how much the rest of his family wanted it, and whether Riche or his dad were going to feel bad about what they’d done. He hardly understood what they’d done, and he didn’t know if they’d forget when they left or not.

And they were a comparatively mild case. Bruha was engaging in casino-based semi-slavery. He imagined that there were other desires that were being fulfilled that, while not technically illegal, were not entirely the most suitable for the average public space. For all that the Golden Coil believed that this was the way to help everyone feel better about themselves, to give in and enjoy the various desires that they had without judgment or taboo, he was seeing the downside to it now.

There were a hundred ways that it could go wrong, particularly as each desire was being fulfilled by someone else in the hotel, someone that may or may not have the same sort of want and desire, someone that might wake up later and feel like they were pushed too far. The only way that they could really avoid that was if they were made to forget what they enjoyed here, and he would just bet that the Golden Coil didn’t have that set up. Dr. Allen Tuomos – the naga that had helped him unpick a fair bit of the hypnosis in his head – had shown just how altruistic and yet misguided the group was.

[i]I need to talk to him. Now.[/i]

And he had just the thought of how to do that. He closed his eyes, breathing slowly, flexing his hands into fists for a moment before relaxing. He cleared his mind, and he thought as clearly as possible, hoping that the hotel and its hypnotic ways could pick up on it.

[i]I want to talk to Allen again.[/i]

He opened his eyes, and he walked.

It didn’t take long for some sort of trance to settle on him. With all that he had gone through with his boss, with Allen, with all the other hypnotic auras that had settled on him throughout his stay, it was easy enough to feel that he had an option of whether to allow it to work or not. This time, he decided to let it settle, to let it take control. His mind faded, sliding back into the rear of his skull as something else took the driver’s seat.

It felt weird, like he was in someone else’s body, as if he was just watching things happen. He followed the corridor back the way he’d come, and then turned to the right, heading up the spiral. The sixth, seventh, and eighth floor passed by, and he kept walking. He went right up to the thirteenth floor, then paused just past the corridor that would have taken him down to the attractions there.

Instead of going further up, or back down, he went to the wall just past the corridor in. He rested his hand there, and pushed.

The scales that covered the wall bent inwards, and he found himself staring down a secret passageway. If he’d been fully conscious, he would have been shocked, but as it was, he was still in enough of a trance to just follow it without questioning it.

Down the hall he went, and soon, he was at an office door. Dr. Tuomos’s name was on it, and he knocked on the glass window.

“Buh-wha? Someone there?” the naga’s voice called through the door.

“It’s Darren. Darren Huff.”

“Darren? How did you – that shouldn’t have been possible.”

“May I come in?”

“Of course, of course.”

He pushed the door open, and wasn’t at all surprised to find that the room was as occupied as occupied could be with the naga’s coils sprawled out all over the place. He was still wearing the same golden jacket and emerald waistcoat that he’d been wearing during their meeting the day before, though that might have just been a different coat of the same cut and style rather than the same one.

Darren shook his head, rubbing the thoughts away, pulling himself forward now that he had what he wanted. Before the hotel could ask him again, he pushed himself to talk.

“You’re in trouble.”

“That’s…bold,” Allen said, the naga cocking his head to the side. He closed a laptop on his desk, gently clicking it shut before sliding it into a drawer. He folded his hands and rested them where the laptop had been, his head rolling to the other side with an expression of concern on his face. “Why would I be?”

“Have you seen what the hotel is doing to people?”

“I believe it’s been making them quite happy. And far less troubled about the things that they want.”

“Well, that kind of depends on if the wants are mutual.”

“…Are you thinking that they’re not?”

“Well, I just ended up in a threesome with my dad and my brother, and I have no idea if they wanted it, so that’s a concern.”

“…Ah.”

“And that’s just the start, really. I just spotted an orc that has a fetish for dragons that I know from another city, and he’s already picked out six different dragon ‘slaves’ for himself. I don’t know if that’ll last past the casino boundaries, but he’s got his own magic, and he can bind them himself if he likes.”

“…Oh.”

“And then there’s the fact that I know that my dad’s not that sexual to begin with, and he’s probably being overwhelmed by all the options here. This place keeps asking us what we want, and it doesn’t say no.”

“…”

“What happens when our yes is someone else’s no?”

“…Ah…oh…oh, my…”

It was clear that the naga hadn’t considered any of those possibilities. The way that he leaned forward, his head in his hands, was the picture of someone that was seeing the end of the world as he knew it. Darren didn’t blame him. He’d gone through something rather similar when he realized the full implications; he just processed it much faster.

He leaned forward, resting his hands on the desk.

“Tell me, please, for the love of god, tell me that you have some sort of safeguards set in place.”

“There are, of course,” Allen said. “But…perhaps not enough.”

“Tell me what they are.”

“Well, the effects that are ‘encouraged’ on others begin to fade once they leave the resort, and are completely gone by the time that they leave the city. There’s nothing that encourages them to continue doing what they did here after they leave the city limits.”

“And do they remember? What they did, I mean?”

“I believe so, in most cases.”

“Most?”

“Well, there are some that don’t want to remember, so –”

“But you said that the effects of the hotel fade by the time that they leave.”

“Yes, and…oh.”

“Yeah. Oh.”

In other words, the effects of the hotel that were meant to encourage someone to forget what they had done would shift, too. They’d no longer be encouraged to not remember what they had done.

And that meant that Riche and Lloyd would remember what they’d done, everything that they had done, every taboo that they had committed. Darren rubbed his forehead, taking a few deep breaths, even as Allen stared straight ahead, slowly shaking his head.

“I…we may have a problem on our hands,” the naga admitted.

“No kidding.”

“I did not believe –”

“What? That there would be a problem with encouraging people to live out the most explicit desires they had?”

“It seemed the best way to avoid repressing things. The things that we hold secret are the things that weigh us down with shame.”

“And sometimes, they’re things that we honestly shouldn’t want. Just because someone represses the need to beat someone up, for example, doesn’t mean that they’re being harmed by the repression. In some way, their freedom, liberty, and life are being maintained by that very repression.”

He could tell that Allen didn’t like hearing that, but as far as Darren was concerned, what the naga wanted to hear wasn’t the truth. He didn’t know about the rest of the Golden Coil, but it was clear that the hotel hadn’t been thought through nearly as much as it should have been. The Coil had a good idea of how to use their hypnosis, knew its power, knew how to integrate it into an area better than anyone that he had ever seen, but they did [i]not[/i] know how to use it safely or with any real safeguards. Mr. Lee would have a field day if he wanted to rip them down, whether here or in court.

But he knew that wasn’t what the snow leopard wanted. It was not that they were threatening him, but rather that they were causing a serious problem with their attraction. It needed to be fixed, and fast.

“Dr. Tuomos, remember how I told you that the pamphlets that you were trying to pass out were a lawsuit waiting to happen?”

“Yes, yes, I remember,” the naga said. “And I had them stopped.”

“Well, this is about a hundred times worse.”

“I can hardly believe that people will be as damaged as you say. I mean…surely, we have only –”

“Doctor…you set this up without any safeguards. This whole place tells people that everything that they see is normal, that it’s fine to just go along with it. The only reason I’m not completely sucked in is because I’m stuffed to the gills with hypnotic commands that keep me from sinking too far in anything I don’t want to be involved in. I could easily be just as happy to go along with this as you want me to be.”

“…That…is a point I hadn’t considered,” Allen admitted. “Do you think that everyone has just –”

“I think that anyone that wants something will have an advantage over someone that’s just spending time here. I think that anyone that wants something will find themselves getting what they want, while someone that doesn’t know what they want is going to get pulled along by chance and what other people want them to do. And I think you wanted people to approve of this idea…so they did.”

“…”

“I think that you created a whirlpool of hypnosis that nobody was able to escape, and so you were surrounded by people that only told you the things that you wanted to hear, rather than the things that you needed to hear. They could do things that could slow down the worst of it, like not passing out the pamphlets, but they couldn’t tell you what else was going on.”

He could tell that he was ripping the naga doctor down from the high place that he had put himself in, and it hurt to hurt someone like this. Yet, at the same time, this was a much-needed reality check, and if someone didn’t tell him this, the whole place would come crashing down around their ears. If the Golden Coil really wanted to help people, they couldn’t just put up something like this without making sure it worked.

Darren looked around, trying and failing to find a chair. He settled for sitting on the edge of Allen’s desk. The naga didn’t stop him.

“I think…look. I think that you have a good idea. Really, I do. I’m a little scared by just how well it works, but deep down, you have a good idea.

“But…it’s not set up in a good way. There might be families that really do…feel attracted to each other, and who would feel very happy to have a judgment-free incestual experiment, but that needs to happen in a way that lets someone that doesn’t want it say no, and not leave the one wanting it scarred for life. It needs to be set up so that if it doesn’t work out, that memory can be buried rather than linger as a scar for the rest of that person’s life.”

“…You’re right,” the naga said, sighing. “You’re completely right.”

They sat in silence. Darren wanted to say something, to offer some comfort, but Allen’s desires for silence must have been greater, because the pressure of the resort around him grew, holding his mouth shut. It took a great deal of willpower just to maintain his position, to not retract what he’d been saying, and silence was the only compromise. He breathed slowly, his fingers still, the room echoing with silence.

The naga looked down at his desk. Darren didn’t know what was going through his head, but clearly something was. The great serpent tapped his fingers against the desk, mouthed something, then shook his head. He slithered out from behind it, pacing by slithering through the room, making his way around the desk again and again.

Darren couldn’t say anything. The ambient pressure in the room just kept increasing, and even with his resistance to the overall pressure, he couldn’t bring himself to speak. It was as if the naga’s will had been connected to the building itself, keeping him from going against it. He clenched his teeth in frustration.

One lap.

Two.

Three.

On the fourth, Darren heard his phone ringing. Allen stopped in his slithering, looking down, then up.

“Who’s calling you?”

“My boss.”

“…What does he want?”

“Knowing him…to talk to you.”

“…Answer it.”

Darren did, putting the phone on speaker. He didn’t have to answer or speak. Mr. Lee spoke for himself.

“[i]I believe that you’ve developed a need for outside consulting,[/i]” Mr. Lee said.

“Who are you?” Allen asked.

“[i]My name is Kai Lee, of K. L. Inc.[/i]”

Darren was only half-surprised to see Allen stiffen on the other side of the desk. The naga’s body had been rather tense, hardening up rather than keeping that fluid posture that most serpents had, but now he was almost statuesque, frozen solid.

“[i]I am not interested in breaking you down, Dr. Tuomos. I’m interested in helping you repair your operation.[/i]”

“Why would you be interested in us? You work in bio-tech.”

“[i]And you work in mental treatment and physio-therapy of the self-directed sort. And yet, we both are looking to expand.[/i]”

“…”

“[i]I will assume by your silence that you want me to get to the point.[/i]”

“Yes. What do you want?”

“[i]Darren. Please leave the room.[/i]”

“Yes, Mr. Lee,” Darren said, thankful for something that allowed him to get out of the pressure-filled office.

As soon as he stepped out of the chamber, he felt better. He didn’t know what had been going on there, but [i]something[/i] had. He knew that Mr. Lee had a reputation, and he knew that it wasn’t always good, but that was the first time that he’d seen the raw fear that the snow leopard could induce in someone. Allen hadn’t been startled. He’d been terrified.

He stayed out of the office for a total of three minutes before he heard the naga call for him to come in. He did, and the first thing he saw was his phone being held out to him. Darren took it, putting it in his pocket.

“You made an arrangement?” he asked.

“We did.”

“May I ask?”

“Your employer will provide us with client screening procedures and staff to do it, as well as security for keeping anyone dangerous from making off with people in ways that get past the screening.”

“…And in return?”

“He’s keeping that open, he said.”

“I’m afraid he does that,” Darren said, shaking his head. “If it makes you feel better, it makes me a little worried, too.”

“You have no idea…”

“…Does he scare you that much?”

“I repeat, you have no idea.”

“…Do you know where my dad and brother are?”

Allen reached over to his desk, moving absently, almost dropping his laptop in the process. He opened it and tapped the screen, nodding to himself.

“Your father’s performing on the 18th floor, and your brother is with the son of one of our members.”

“They’re safe?”

“Your brother is, and your father is only at as much risk as he wants to be.”

“…Thank you.”

“Darren?”

“Yes, Doctor?”

“…I can’t honestly say ‘thank you’ for bringing this to my attention. It…it hurts to know that the dream that you tried to build isn’t what you thought it was. It…it really hurts to know that what you wanted to do to help people turned out to be creating more pain for so many…but I can say ‘thank you’ for being brave enough to bring it up.”

“…You’re welcome.”

“I need some alone time. Please.”

Darren nodded, making his way back out of the office. He shut the door quietly, but before it clicked shut, he heard the tell-tale sign of someone holding back a cry. Wincing, he turned his head and kept walking, putting it behind him.

It had to be done, but that didn’t mean that he liked it.

#

He went back to the penthouse. If his brother was busy, and so was his dad, then it was best to go up and relax. He sat on the couch, resisting the urge to look toward the window, taking his time to just stare straight ahead and focus on what he could do next.

[i]I’m…more or less free, as much as I want to be,[/i] he thought. [i]I can go down and forget for a while. If I want to forget.[/i]

Did he? Not really, but it was an option.

Darren rubbed his forehead. The vacation had turned into something of a rescue mission, and it was a weird one. He knew that his boss would have completely understood him [i]not[/i] going to Allen and exposing the weakness. He knew Mr. Lee would have been more than willing to take care of things without him actually being involved; that was what the snow leopard did. He took care of things, one way or another.

But this was…

This was different. He’d seen what was wrong, and he had to deal with it. It was just how he was built. He didn’t like leaving it for someone else to take care of. He didn’t want to put more work on the shoulders of his friends and coworkers and family. It was why he was so valuable as an employee wherever he went, why he was always able to secure a job and position for himself. Everything that he did was done to the best of his ability, and if he saw something that needed to be handled, he handled it.

But it meant that it was very hard for him to relax, and even harder for him to decide what he actually wanted out of things.

[i]What does it feel like to want something? Besides getting back home and back to work, I mean?[/i]

Darren didn’t know. He hadn’t had any real ‘wants’ for a very long time, not since he’d moved out of Opal City and gone to live in Novus Ager. It had been so long ago now that he barely remembered the reason that he’d done it, and certainly didn’t know if he’d gotten what he wanted out of it.

He tried to relax, folding his hands behind his head, but it was a futile sort of gesture, at best. All he did was get comfortable, and that wasn’t the same as relaxing, calming down, or anything of the sort.

He was supposed to be an adult, to have a direction in his life. Instead, he had a job, and while he did it well, he wasn’t sure what he was going for besides that. He had gone from having a purpose to just kind of existing.

[i]What do I want?[/i]

For the first time, he was asking himself that rather than hearing it from the hotel. He almost wished that it had been the hotel, because at least then, he could have told it to get lost and leave it alone. It was a lot harder to tell himself something like that.

[i]What do I want?[/i]

He had the feeling that it was going to take him a long time to figure that out, but when he did, he imagined that he’d be a lot happier. Certainly, his father seemed much happier knowing what he wanted out of life. More angry, sometimes, more forceful, but that was down to knowing what he wanted and knowing when something was in the way. If he knew what he wanted, maybe he’d feel the same thing.

And then Riche…

What did Riche want? Was he happy with the life that he had? Was that kind of life something worth living, just drifting, just existing, doing what felt good in the moment without thinking of the future?

Maybe for his brother, but not for him. That said, it wasn’t that different to what he was doing, so the question remained. What did he want?

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Darren has a day. And a half.

Tags: No Sex, Orc, Human, Naga, Hypnosis, Series, Shirtless, Realization, Sex Talk, M/solo, What Do, Arrangement,