The bus trucked along inside the Mobile Barrier. It was deeply necessary that they moved inside one, in this specific case, as there was no way any police officer would have let the makeshift combination of a bus and a car transport trailer go anywhere. Combined, the two were longer than the trucks used to lug containers across states and even less manoeuvrable.

Which was also why avoiding traffic was incredibly valuable. The size of the bus meant that they could completely scratch any attempt to drive through inner cities. Any sharp corner would be a problem only Gnome and a demolition crew of several other haremettes could fix. While they may have been quicker if they went with that route, it would have been a bother. In the best case scenario, they had to take a pause from lounging in the bus and in the worst case scenario the corner they got stuck on was actually inhabited by an Abyssal so now caterpillaring their house was no longer an option. After all, unlike 99% of houses in Mobile Barriers, the ones in an Illusion Barrier they melded with weren’t just empty copies.

So, they had planned a route that mostly took place on straight roads that avoided cities and other hazardous road designs entirely. That allowed them to spend the time rolling down in peaceful unity. Except for the one or two people that were on driving and driver entertainment duty.

“Fuck you and fuck your references!” Eliana shouted.

“Fuck me yourself, you coward!” Sylph babbled back.

“I CAN’T EXACTLY DO THAT RIGHT NOW, THUNDERCUNT!”

‘Yep, peaceful,’ John thought, giving the cussing masochist a clap on her ass. “Behave,” he commanded her. His hand returned to tightening the harness that held her arms behind her back. It wasn’t the only one she was wearing. Covering her body was a harness that connected steel rings with black leather straps. Like any good BDSM equipment, it didn’t actually hide anything her dom wanted to see. The straps ran around her breasts, sat tightly along her sides, or inoffensively covered a bit of skin on her shoulders. The sole exception to this was the combination of leather and rubber that sat above her cunt. Its purpose was to hold in place any sex toys John may want to deploy. That segment was easy to detach from the whole of the harness, though, so the Gamer had no issue with it being part of Eliana’s new permanent outfit.

Like she had announced on New Year’s Eve, the pretty little psycho had found herself a harness to permanently join her leather bra and thong, the thigh-high boots, the choker and the robe in her day-to-day clothes. That almost all of those items were entirely inappropriate for public display, the submissive masochist could not care less about. John, for his part, did not care either. Everyone knew what their relationship was anyway. He got no small amount of pleasure from letting other people know what kind of power he had over a woman that could break them with her little finger.

Plus, the Abyss was a lot more lax about these things. As long as Eliana was properly dressed in the real world, they wouldn’t run into any problems. Only envious stares.

Eliana gasped wantonly when her shoulders were pulled back by a last, intense tug at the strings. With a leather band, John secured her tied wrists to a steel ring located on top of her tailbone. Her lower legs were already tied together.

Aside from the moans, Eliana was now nice and quiet. Her eyes remained downcast, her body language docile and willing, especially when John tossed her over his shoulder like the world’s sexiest sack of potatoes.

The enchanted insides of the bus, much larger than the outside would imply, were designed entirely to fit the harem’s wants and needs. Of course, that meant that there were all kinds of hooks that could be pulled out of the plastic ceiling, and some out of the walls.

“Here ya go,” Rave greeted her boyfriend by hooking one of the ropes she had prepared into the back of Eliana’s harness. A couple more ropes followed, distributing the pull of gravity nicely all over her body.

Eliana ended up with her feet folded up behind her and her back partly curled up. Aesthetically speaking, John loved that position. The particular variant employed, due the closed legs, made it practically impossible to fuck her. Not a disadvantage to what John had planned now.

“What a gorgeous little thing you are,” John hummed, caringly running his hand over her arm. “Respond.”

“Thank you, Master,” she gasped.

“Really, truly adorable.” The Gamer leaned down and kissed her hair. “I’m so lucky to have met you. Sure, our start was… difficult, to say the least, but I think I speak for all of us when I say that I would go through all of it again if that meant we ended up here. I love you.”

“Wha-“ Eliana fell out of her role for a second. The muscles in her face twitched, occasionally forming a highly confused smile. “Thank you, Master,” she responded in a quivering tone. It wasn’t lust that made her voice shaky.

Rave realized what her boyfriend was doing and bowed down. “Yeah, ya know your place, ya adorable snuggleslut,” she whispered into Eliana’s ear, wrapped her arms around her and squeezed. The most uncomfortable squeal of happiness echoed from the pretty little psycho.

The rest of the harem, either understanding what was going on as well or just pulled in by the opportunity to tease the bound down woman, stopped whatever else they were currently doing and came over.

“You awakened Master’s true extent of his fetishes with your honest depravity,” Aclysia was the first to speak up. “For this, you have my eternal thanks.”

Nathalia crossed her arms. “Unstable a servant as you once were, I have come to respect the honesty of your lingering insanity.”

The only part of Eliana’s hands which she could move freely, her fingers, frantically stretched and loosened. When that failed to truly distract her from the onslaught of compliments, she started to wiggle them around nonsensically.

“I-I love your hair,” Gnome confessed. “Oh Mother Earth… that sounds so basic… b-but I really mean it! It’s so unnaturally silky and the way the colour changes is really pretty!”

“For all the shit you’ve been through, I do really think you’ve come out pretty normal,” Salamander forcefully grabbed and grinned down at the blushing woman, “and you have a really slappable face. Just screams ‘please make me yours!’”

“You have been more of a friend than I ever deserved,” Undine confessed in her melodic voice.

The twitching in her face had now stabilized. Grin staying and eyes open wide with something that could resemble panic, her gaze darted around erratically. Her toes joined her fingers in futile wiggling.

“What can I say, what can I say? Your hair is really nice. I adore how your pussy looks since you shaved the bush off. You are absolutely rocking, and I mean ROCKING, that brand John put on us. Looks like it absolutely belongs on your cute, small body, my fellow small person, even if you aren’t as small as me,” Sylph palavered.

Momo let out a long sigh. “You’re a massive bundle of issues.” For a moment, Eliana relaxed. “But you’re also way too cute. Also, I’ve seen the progress you made in picking up drawing since I left and you are absolutely fantastic at it.”

“I love you,” Nia said outright. After three seconds, during which everyone else waited silently (safe for the odd sounds that Eliana was making), she added. “I’m afraid of you sometimes. You are really strong. You talk a lot about killing people. I think you are really measured. You only hurt people who ask for it.”

Eliana was now actively squirming around. Taking hold of the ropes, John kept her from swinging around while she was subjected to more compliments.

“Pleasure,” Siena sighed. “Playing with you is always such. In all walks of life, I feel bliss to know that I can call you one of my closest friends. I appreciate your submissiveness. I adore your honesty. I love your commitment. I love you.”

Metra awkwardly scratched her left arm. “I’m honestly sorry for the part I played in you being so screwed up. You rock though. I’ve known many lesser people who would have broken under less than half than what you endured. You’re strong and I respe-“

“Ssstooooooop!” Eliana finally cried out. “I can’t take this fucking niceness anymore! I thought I would get tortured down to the last messed up cell of my fuckable skull!”

“Whaddaya think is happening right now, snuggleslut?” Rave purred.

“STOP CALLING ME THAT SHIT, SEIZURE HANDS!”

“Keep going,” John told the last three of the present women, who hadn’t had their turn yet. As much as Eliana complained, she was still grinning and, more importantly, she had not used their safe word. In the long-term relationship of trust they had developed, ‘stop’, on its own, was only enough if the tone of voice reflected discomfort of the painful kind. That knowledge was drilled as much into the submissive’s brain as the shape of his cock was.

John had not anticipated that this whole compliment thing would escalate from teasing to honest compliments and heartfelt confessions. Now that they were there though, he had no intentions of stopping it. It was good for Eliana to hear this. He was convinced of it. A reminder to ward off against the parts of her incapable of loving herself, that always tried to drag her down.

“When I started hanging out with this guy, I thought I was going to be a dominatrix.” Scarlett shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant, while her red eyes reflected envy at Eliana’s physical position. “It was honestly shaking to find out that the picture I had of my own kinks wasn’t accurate. That you were around, someone that could both indulge totally in her sexual preferences and also be anything but a pushover in everyday life, that did help me find my footing.”

The passive maid bowed down in front of the bound submissive. “Truth: I often categorize us as similar. We both had difficulties adjusting to emotions and it changed us. Your fate was obviously worse than mine. Knowing that you are able to keep improving yourself, it motivates me to never stop pursuing what purpose I have. Even if we both cannot really seem to find what is important to us, we can move on.”

“…Wow, uhm,” Lee scratched the back of her head. “I don’t really know how to follow that up… I mean, I haven’t known you for as long as the others here and we haven’t been through as much together…” Only while looking at her feet, could she keep talking. “I learned a lot about you while I was a fan of John’s and I thought you were actually crazy. Like, non-sexy levels of psychopathic. Under that first impression and all the curse words, you’re really kind though. You suck at Mario Kart, but you keep trying and that… sounds really dumb and I’ll stop now.”

“Please do,” Eliana sniffed. Her smile was still there, but her eyes were watery now. “C-can I please get a spanking now? I don’t want to be complimented anymore. You’re all too good for me.”

“Oh god, we broke her cursing,” John joked and got various levels of laughter out of everyone. Most importantly, Eliana gave him a weak chuckle. “Alright, I just want to say one more thing and then I’ll ask you a question, okay?” The adorable, damaged woman nodded meekly.

John kneeled down in front of her. Not in the proposing way, he didn’t want to send any wrong signals, just enough to get on her eye level and take her face between both of his hands. The smile died and the pretty blood mage gulped heavily, anticipating his words.

“You’re a good woman, Eliana,” he told her.

That was too much for her. For a moment it looked like she could hold back the waterworks behind clenched lips and held breath. Then she took a quivering exhale and the tears started flowing. “Fuck you,” she cussed at him in a quivering voice. “This was supposed to be a regular round of ‘let’s make the stupid cunt pass out from orgasming thirty fucking times’. Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you…” She stopped when she had to take a snorting inhale, fluids clogging up the necessary pathways. “Ask your shit-brained, cunt-breaking, mind-torturing, asshole question, pussy lord.”

“Do you want to have sex or cuddle?”

“Cuddle, you-“ the insult got stuck in her throat, choked out by a heavy sob.