The bass rocks the ground of the cliff-side estate, thrumming through Arya the moment she drops out of her vehicle. If it isn’t for the lights dancing across the field from the interior of the colonial style building, she would not have thought such a place could be host to the Pleasure Society. The only vehicle in sight is hers, yet there were deep grooves in the gravel road leading up to the mansion itself. The society’s privacy goes even towards how it hosts its club. Most people must have been transported here, leaving them at the whims of Komodo and whatever it is she’s up to. That means anyone coming in to the building now would surely be seen as an outsider. Well, she is disguised as a human, so there will at least be a small element of surprise to her entrance.
Not only that, but she expected the others to get here before her. Perhaps it was her trick to get here first that tripped them up. That’s good. She can try to take care of Komodo her own way with the time she has. Going in as a group would be way too suspicious, anyway.
Her bold knock is quickly answered by a masked rabbit, almost a copy of their little squealer. She stands there, dressed only in a domino mask and tight black briefs, letting the cool breeze of the body of water below touch her naked fur with no discomfort. Arya’s lip twitches at the sight, and she says “I hear the party is happening here. I want to…” she hesitates, breathing in, “join.”
The rabbit presses on a receiver nestled in her ear. The thumping beat so loud that Arya can’t hear what she says. But the rabbit nods and steps back, ushering Arya inside.
The foyer is dark, leaving Arya with not much to see. The music leaks through the hall in the back, with lights flashing through the cracks in the portal. She takes her first few steps forward, but the rabbit grabs her by the wrist and pulls her back. Arya readies herself for a fight and spins around, fist half-clenched, yet she pulls back when she sees the rabbit carrying a set of the attire for the evening. Arya sighs and pulls her arm free, snatching the clothing. “Got a place for me to change?”
The rabbit glances to the wall by the door. There lay the neatly folded garments of all the other guests in the party. Arya grits her teeth and grumbles, pulling her top up over her head. The whole time she undresses, she feels not only the rabbit’s eyes upon her, but the eyes of all who had access to the security footage.
Once she pulls the garments up over her legs, setting them snuggly at her thighs, she then settles the mask over her face. Even in humanoid form, Arya is a tall woman, easy to take up prominence at the room.
“Hope you liked the show,” Arya says as she walks on over towards the back. The rabbit doesn’t respond. Instead, she just gets to folding Arya’s clothing, setting them aside on the shelves next to the others.
The music rattles her chest. Waves of sweaty bodies in the middle of their orgiastic glee distract her vision, and the musk of sweat and sex as well as the sweet smells of baked goods keeps her from finding her. Every form of indulgence could be found here. The people here are all slaves to their desires, and Arya’s nose wrinkles at the whole affair. This was a life she once considered having?
As she stands there, her prediction comes true. More and more individuals turn their attention to her Amazonian proportions, their eyes filled with both curiosity and lust. Among all of them, however, there is just one who towers above her.
The large lizard stands up from a pile of small fuzzy bodies, looking down at the disguised snake. She runs a hand over her scaled head and steps casually over the satisfied revelers strewn about her mattress. “Well, well,” says Komodo. “Looks like we have a party crasher.”
A large bull, smaller than Komodo, but still impressive, steps up, snorting. “Want me to handle this, Boss?”
“No, I got this one. She may not have been invited, but she’s certainly welcome, if she gets past my test.” She places a hand upon Arya’s shoulder. Arya couldn’t help but shiver.
“Nerves…? No one who comes in here and dresses up should be so nervous, unless you’re not here for pleasure.”
“Stop manipulating Uma,” Arya says, barely containing the growl in her voice.
“My, my, you’re trying to boss me around?” Komodo asks, her other hand gripping Arya’s other shoulder and squeezing. She leans in, her large, scaled body almost unreal in its size and power. “I like it when a gal tries to be all high and mighty,” she then leans into Arya’s ear and adds. “And I know it’s you, Arya, I recognize the scent of desire in all my best dancers. What did you think you would accomplish, barging into my house, naked and alone?”
“You’re planning something bad with Uma. I know I can’t save her from what she wants, but I can save her from making a mistake that will get her arrested or killed.”
Komodo laughs at that, slapping Arya on the back, sending the disguised snake stumbling a few steps. “Please, you think I’d be stupid enough to let a girl like her get in trouble needlessly? No. Everything we’re doing is for the spread of pleasure to all. Just look at these people. All of them have tough lives. They fear disease, enemies, stress, death. All of them want to know that they’re alive, and I give that to them, and we’ll be giving it to much more. So, unless you’re going to be starting trouble, you’re wasting your time not joining in on the fun.” She pulls Arya in closer, turning her gaze away from her people and whispering into the snake’s ear. “What exactly makes you want to ‘save’ her from me, anyway? Do you really think I’m a bad person? Have I exploited you? Have I made you do anything you didn’t want to do?”

Arya takes a step back. It’s an automatic reaction to the sheer size of the implications. “I’ve… I’ve been through this song and dance before,” she spits. “It doesn’t matter. What you’re offering is not right. It isn’t what I want, and it isn’t what anyone needs.”
“Darling, everyone needs a little pleasure here and there,” she says, pulling Arya back in, her grip so tight.
Arya hisses at this display of power, her skin crawling. Without warning, she bursts out of her humanoid disguise, her scales slippery, allowing her to escape from Komodo’s grasp. Not only that, but she coils around the lizard, her mouth right by Komodo’s neck.
Komodo raises a hand effortlessly, despite Arya’s coiling her, stopping her bouncer from doing anything rash. “Go ahead,” Komodo says. “Give me a wild ride on your venom. After all, you’re the paragon of getting your way. Everyone has to do things your way. Giving me a dose of venom will be just like your uncle and his stupid global domination plan.”
Arya locks up at that, and Komodo reaches back, grabbing Arya by the throat and yanking her off. The snake yelps as she’s tossed onto the bed along with all the other squirming naked bodies.
Komodo walks up to her, pressing a foot against Arya’s tail, keeping her from squirming free. Arya lays there on top of the pile, breathing quickly as Komodo leans down on top of her. “Listen here, I don’t want to get into all the particulars, but we’re not really enemies here. You just have a big victim complex, missy. I understand. You’ve been used all your life. Someone tries to help you out and they try to get the edge off, and you rebel against them because you’ve learned to like rebelling.” She reaches down, but Arya grabs her wrist, keeping the hand away from her. Komodo just shrugs and keeps speaking. “You’re not some liberated freedom fighter. You’re damaged goods, and we fix damaged goods here.” She yanks her hand away. “It’s the same with the world at large. There are just so many people who don’t know that they can just enjoy the time they have here…”
A serving girl walks up, holding a nice tray of sweets and breads. Komodo swipes a glazed pastry and takes a big bite out of it. “These senses are all we have to experience the world and to experience life. All we’re trying to do is give more to everyone who comes our way.” She tosses the pastry and it lands on Arya’s chest, its sweet sticky frosting warm against the snake’s scales. “You have a problem with that, you can go off and be miserable with your own damn self.”
“You’re lying,” Arya says, smacking the pastry off her chest, the specter of frosting glistening on her scales, but she doesn’t care. “You’re planning something, I know it.”
“Oh, yeah, and how do you know it?”
The rabbit who answered the door walks up behind Komodo and taps her on the side. The owner of the establishment sighs, removing her foot from Arya and turning toward the bunny. “This better be important.”
“You, uh, you have more guests,” the rabbit says, looking down and motioning towards the door.
There, standing in the frame is Jack, Tobias, Jay, and the bunny they had captured. Of the three newcomers, Jack had dressed himself down into the appropriate attire. Tobias had left his vest at the door, but Jay is fully clothed.
“Well, isn’t this interesting, “Komodo says. “I recognize a couple faces here, but this dashing fellow is new.”
Jack places a hand upon his chest and bows. “A pleasure to meet the leader of the Pleasure Society, Miss Komodo. I must say, you run quite the establishment. I wouldn’t dare try to infiltrate it alone.” He leers over at Arya. “Meet us at the station, eh?”
Arya slips off the bed, rolling her neck. “I got myself some valuable information. I figured I’d soften her up for you.”
“Oh, I’m sure,” Jack says. He snaps to Tobias, who steps forward, his paw upon the bunny’s shoulder. “Look, love. As you have been so hospitable, you-you got something… right there, Arya” he points to his chest, stroking it a bit. “Got it? Good. —you probably know that we’re all just a bunch of fools, bumbling around for meaning in this life. That’s all we all really are, well, it seems you’ve been doing a lot of soul searching, according to the files you had your personal assistant here gather.”
“Quite the martial artist, this one,” Tobias says. “You host any kind of fight club? Might want to sign up for something like that.”
Arya slithers past Komodo and over towards Jay. As the introductions continue, she whispers to him. “I… I’m not sorry for driving off.”
“Yeah, well, we had trouble at the train station anyway. You okay?”
“Oh, I’m fine. It’s nothing I haven’t heard before,” Arya says, folding her arms over her chest, only to flinch when she feels the frosting squish against her arms. “Ah, dammit!”
Komodo holds the girl rabbit close to her while Jack takes the boy rabbit under his. The two stare each other down, both with confident smirks and standing tall. Nearly fully exposed, they only had their wits to get them through this transaction. “So, anyway, you’ve been working on a big project, or so my associate says,” Jack motions to Jay, who turns from his conversation with Arya to acknowledge it. “You’re working on something big, and you have his cousin in the middle of it. Very hush hush stuff. Does everyone here know about that?”
Despite the thumping music, more and more of the revelers have stopped their partying to watch the exchange between Komodo and all the guests. The giant lizard snorts at Jack’s announcement, pulling the female bunny closer to her. “Are you trying to expose me, Mister…?”

“Jack,” he says, dispensing with the charade. “And you’re plenty exposed yourself, don’t you think?”
Komodo chuckles at that, resting one hand on her hip. She lets go of her bunny and takes a step forward. “Well, Jack, I’m afraid I’m not an easy book read.”
“I have a few notes here on your novel ideas. Quite the page turners, if you’d ask me. All those people working together to blast the infrastructure. Let me guess, you get off to seeing other people completely lose all control, giving it all to you. Got to say, that makes you sound like a goddess or a lunatic.”
“Do either of those bother you?” Komodo asks.
“Oh, of course not. It depends on my mood.”
“Well, you’ll need to bring something stronger than that to get me to budge. That tongue of yours is not fast enough to trip me up.”
“Depends on how I use it, don’t you think, Miss?”
Arya watches the exchange between the two, shuddering at the sight of the giant woman looking down on the smaller man. “I can’t believe how good he is. He never even met her. I have to do so much research on my marks to even get this far.”
Jay shakes his head. “This is a huge gamble. He isn’t really getting anywhere with her right now. It’s up to us to get what we came for. Come on.”
The two sink into the crowd, weaving past the ones absorbed by the conversation and stepping over those too drunk to notice the verbal conflict.
Jack notices this egress from the corner of his eye and snaps his finger. “Hey, tall, dark, and handsome. Want to let the bunny go? I think we got exactly what we wanted.”
Tobias quirks an eyebrow but shrugs and lets go of the bunny. The boy stumbles forward a bit, walking past Jack and over towards his female counterpart. The two hug, shaking as they glance over towards their boss. Komodo, meanwhile, rolls her neck and says. “Hey, thanks for the gift. Now, I guess I got nothing to give back to you.”
“Oh, you got one thing, babe. Just a teeny tiny little thing. Not much bigger than a mouse.”
Komodo rolls her eyes. “I keep telling your friend that I’m not-” she motions towards where Arya was, but stops. “W… where’d she go!? Guar-”
Jack runs up and grabs Komodo’s arm. “Now, now, it’s the Pleasure Society. Let’s not-”
The bull grabs Jack by the shoulder and yanks him away. “No touching without permission!”
Tobias rushes behind the minotaur, grappling him from behind. “No touching the goods, bud, unless you want to throw down!”
Komodo smirks at this. “There will be no need for an altercation. Though, you are quite forward, indeed, Jack. What is it you want, exactly? Not what it is your employer wants, as I’m sure you’re not doing this out of the kindness of your heart.”
“Oh, you caught me. My heart is a bank, and I want to make a deposit.”
“I’m afraid here, we deal with matters of other organs,” Komodo says. “But I could see what I can do for you. How about a trade? I’ll let your friends go talk to my Mouse, and you stay here and indulge yourself for a while. It’s the least you could do for interrupting the festivities to do business.”
“Well, miss, I can’t say that’s a terrible trade. But I got to wonder if you’re trying to trick me.”
“Trick you? The one who distracted me enough to let his friends slip away? Why would I ever do that?”
He smirks, rubbing at his knee. “Well, I guess sometimes, one has to stumble head-long into a trick against someone as imposing as you.”
Komodo looks over towards the rabbits and nods off in the direction Jay and Arya left. They both run off into the crowd themselves. “Well, you’d better be prepared to put your mouth where your mouth is.”
“Other things as well, miss. I have a few empty places that could use a bit of a filling too.”
She flops onto her cushion, her legs spread, her arms spread over her fawning guests. “Well, then, you’d better get to showing me. And what about you?” she nods to Tobias.
“I don’t stick my dick in crazy,” the Tiger growls, pulling himself away from the minotaur. “I’ll keep an eye on things.”
Jack snickers at this and hooks his thumbs at his last article. “Your loss, big guy. More for me.”

Jay and Arya make it to the edge of the ballroom, only to find each door they try to be locked. Soon, the rabbits hop out from the crowd, standing in front of another door. The rat and the snake stand side to side, ready for a fight, but the female rabbit pulls out a key from her briefs and unlocks the doorway. “Compliments of the house. Miss Komodo found your friend to be interesting enough to let you all through to do your thing.
“Really,” the boy says, “If she’s trying something big. There really isn’t anything you can do about it. But I trust her.”
“We both do,” the other rabbit says.
Arya grabs the door and pulls it open. “Come on, Jay. Both of us can handle this, together.”
Jay nods. “Right. Hopefully, this data will be enough…”
With that, Arya pushes her way into the back room, all the while, leaving behind the upbeat music and the happiness of the party for the cold room beyond…