Lily's Game Show Disaster

This story, written for day 1 of Kinktober 2023, contains bondage, sexism, and humiliation. Reader discretion is advised.

Lily looked carefully at the board. She had decided not to wear her glasses, so it wasn't easy to make out the letters.

TH_ F_MAL_ OF TH_ SP_CI_S

"Well gosh, Troy, I'm just not sure! Is the answer TAMALES ARE VERY SPICY?"

"It's a great try, Lily, but I'm afraid it's not quite right."

Troy was plastered with fake tan, and was sweating heavily under the studio lights. He had undergone so many surgeries that it was impossible to tell whether he was 35 or 80. He turned to address the camera directly.

"We're on a knife edge here, folks! Is Lily going to win the speedboat of her dreams, or is she going to be punished? Join us after these messages."

The LIVE sign switched off, and the stage manager walked out between the cameras.

"And we're out! Five minutes, everyone. Barbara, can you towel down Troy's face? And can someone check Lily's bonds, please?"

A young woman started yanking on the ropes securing Lily's arms, legs and body. Her wrists were bound tightly behind her back, her chest wrapped thoroughly, her legs held immovably together. None of the ropes were remotely escapable, but the assistant seemed determined to make them even tiiiiiiighter.

"Yowch! Is that really necessary?"

"Yes ma'am. It's in the rules of the game: once a rope goes on, it doesn't come off. So everything has to be as tight as humanly possible, and maybe even tighter."

"Okay, I understand. Yowwwch!"

Bound even more securely than before, the freckled redhead was left alone at her podium as the assistant scampered off to do some other menial task. The stage manager gave the 30-second warning, and everyone returned to their places. Then the LIVE sign lit up again.

"Welcome back!" said Troy in a voice that was pure velvet and mahogany. "We're here with gorgeous student Lily, who is one question away from either winning a speedboat, or having to pay our special forfeit. How are you feeling, Lily?"

"A little uncomfortable, Troy!"

"I can see! But that's what you get for all those wrong guesses, my darling. After all, what do blunders mean?"

"BLUNDERS MEAN BONDAGE!" chanted the studio audience happily.

"That's right! Blunders mean bondage. Now, let's see. The first time you guessed an incorrect letter... it was Z. Hmmmm."

Troy looked into the nearest camera and raised an eyebrow. There was some laughter in the audience.

"Yes, you guessed Z, and was there a Z in the answer? There was not. So I tied your hands behind your back."

"How could I forget, Troy?"

Lily tugged theatrically at her bonds, and there was more laughter.

"Then you guessed X" - another raised eyebrow - "and was there an X? There was not. So I tied your ankles together. Then you guessed Q, so I bound your elbows behind your back, and X again..."

"I forgot!"

"You forgot. Bless your heart! But there was still no X, so I was obliged to bind your calves together. Then you guessed J, so I had to bind your chest, and K, which meant I bound your knees, and then Z again, which got your thighs tied together. Seven wrong guesses, and seven parts of your body tightly and carefully bound. You must be almost completely helpless by now."

"I certainly am, Troy. As helpless as a kitten."

"And just as cute. Now, do you know what happens if you guess wrong again, Lily?"

"I win a prize?"

"Ha ha ha, sadly not, sweetheart. If you get one more wrong answer, then I will have to gag you, and you will have lost the game. And we don't want that to happen, do we ladies and gentlemen?"

"WE DON'T WANT THAT TO HAPPEN, TROY!"

"No we do not. So I am sure that everyone in the room is rooting for you when I ask you, one last time, to..."

"GUESS A LETTER, THE QUICKER THE BETTER!"

The studio lights dimmed, and a huge blazing spotlight focused on Lily. A clock started ticking.

"You've got 30 seconds, Lily. And remember, if you can give me a correct letter and guess the famous phrase or saying in Troy's Tricky Teaser, you will win a speedboat!"

"Y-yes, Troy. I will do my best. Er..."

"But if you give me a letter that is not in Troy's Tricky Teaser, I will have to put a nice tight gag in your mouth, and this wonderful audience will not hear another peep from you! You've got 25 seconds."

"Gosh! Um..."

"Not only that, but you will have to pay the forfeit for being very silly indeed! Won't she, ladies and gentlemen?"

"GROTESQUE GAFFES GET GAGGED GIRLS GUNGED, TROY!"

"That's right! There's 20 seconds left now, honey."

"Th-thank you, Troy. Now let me think. Which letters have I said already..."

Lily peered again at the board, trying not to get distracted by the ticking of the clock. Oh, how stupid not to have worn her glasses! Just because they made her look secretarial. And was it her imagination, or was the spotlight getting hotter? She could feel a bead of sweat running down her back, under her favourite tight red sweater.

"And of course you will have to join the losers on the Blunderers' Bench! Wave to the losers, Lily!"

Lily rolled her eyes, but did her best to wave with her bound hands at the row of beautiful young women sitting on a hard bench near the back of the set. They were each trussed up just as stringently as Lily: wrists crossed and tied behind their backs, elbows tightly cinched together, knees and ankles bound, chests restricted by rope harnesses. Other than sitting there and looking pretty, their participation in the show was over. They could only wriggle and squirm and mmmpphh feebly through the cloth gags threaded between their teeth and secured behind their heads. Most of them were blushing with humiliation; they had come on TV with high hopes of winning a fabulous prize, but instead they had been bound and gagged in front of millions of people, labelled as losers and blunderers, and drenched with brightly coloured slime. And after all that they would go home empty-handed.

"Don't worry, Lily, there's still space for another damsel on there. And the show still has several hours to run, so everyone will get a chance to see you squirming in your bonds! Just 10 seconds to go, darling."

She gulped, feeling a tiny trickle of sweat run down her face. She wished her hands were free to wipe it away.

"Oh dear. Er... Could the board be brought any closer?"

"I'm afraid not, dear. Only 5 seconds to go. Have you got an answer ready?"

"Well, um..."

"Four seconds!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, but..."

"Three seconds! Better get my gag ready."

Troy flourished a cloth bandana. It was red with white spots. Lily was fairly sure, based on the choice of gags worn by the previous losers, that it had been chosen to match her sweater.

"Two seconds!"

"There's no need to..."

"One second!"

"Please, Troy, just a little more time..."

There was a loud BONG from the clock.

"Time's up! And what do we say about time, ladies and gentlemen?"

"TIME TAKES A TERRIFYING TOLL, TROY!"

"It does! Now Lily, I'm going to need an answer from you, my darling. What letter do you want to guess? And I can give you a clue: it's not X or Z."

The audience tittered sycophantically. Troy had them eating out of the palm of his hand.

"Goodness, Troy. I just... it's so difficult to see... I wish there was more time..."

"Final answer," Troy snapped.

"My answer is... three."

"Three."

"Three!"

"Three." Troy's eyebrow had risen so high that it was practically levitating off the top of his head. "I asked you to guess a letter, and your answer is... three."

"Yes Troy, it is."

"You've got a little flustered, haven't you, my darling?"

"A little, Troy, yes I have."

"Perfectly understandable. Then I will put the question to the Letter Machine. Oh Letter Machine, is the missing letter... three?"

The machine emitted a mournful, minor-key honk, and Lily's face dropped.

"Oh dear. It wasn't three. That's a number, isn't it, my darling? Not a letter. It's a number. That's where you went wrong, sweetheart, isn't it? Saying a number instead of a letter."

Lily was blushing furiously. Of course it was a number. What a silly mistake.

"And of course the answer to Troy's Tricky Teaser is..."

The remaining letters filled in, to reveal:

THE FEMALE OF THE SPECIES

"The female of the species! As in, the female of the species is much dumber than the male. Oh, I'm just kidding with you, Lily! Lighten up. Now, we'd better get you gagged, hadn't we?"

Lily looked thoroughly downcast as Troy walked behind her, then reached around to thread the cloth between her lips. He pulled it back hard, then secured it with a tight knot.

"Is that comfortable, sweetheart?"

"Nnph rmnmmm, Trnm, nn."

"Oh dear, what a shame. Never mind. Now step this way. Or, er, hop."

The luminously tanned presenter guided Lily, hopping and blushing, across the set, which had been arranged so there was the maximum possible distance between the quiz podium and the Gunging Chair. The camera followed the bound and gagged damsel closely, which made her more self-conscious than ever.

"Okay, darling. Take a seat here."

Lily sat down with a mixture of relief - bunny hopping was exhausting - and dread. She looked up and saw a large tube, spattered around the rim with orange, blue and yellow slime. Troy backed away from what was clearly the danger zone.

"Well, Lily, this is where your journey ends. Have you enjoyed your day?"

"Ymph, Trnm, N hnn n lmnph nf fnn."

"I'm so glad. But I'm afraid you are a loser, Lily, and you must be punished. Mustn't she, ladies and gentlemen?"

"IF YOU GET IT WRONG, IN SLIME YOU BELONG!"

"Indeed you do. Are you ready, Lily?"

"Bmfnrm ymnn gnngm mm..."

SPLOOSH! Unable or unwilling to wait, a torrent of green slime rushed out of the pipe and on to poor Lily's head, face, chest, arms, legs... She was quickly drenched, covered in sticky, glutinous goop. With her hands bound tight behind her back, she was unable even to wipe the worst of it off her face. She felt utterly humiliated, and slightly nauseous.

"You weren't trying to say something, darling, were you? No, I'm sure you weren't. Can we have a round of applause for Lily?"

The audience applauded enthusiastically as Lily was helped by an assistant to hop from the Gunging Chair to the Blunderers' Bench - again, a gratuitously long and arduous journey for a woman with her ankles bound tightly together. She sat down, blushing furiously beneath the green slime and surreptitiously trying to wriggle out of her bonds. It quickly became clear this was a non-starter, and she gave up.

Grinning hugely, Troy turned from Lily - whom he would now ignore completely for the rest of the show - back to the quiz podium, where a new contestant, a pretty blonde in her early 20s, had appeared.

"Hello, my darling. What is your name?"

"Hi Troy, hi everyone! My name is Hannah."

"Good to have you with us, Hannah. Now, do you know how to play Bound To Win?"

"Of course, Troy! I watch the show every day!"

The audience whooped and cheered. They had a new favourite.

"Wonderful, sweetheart, just wonderful. Then I don't need to tell you about Troy's Tricky Teaser, do I?"

A new clue had appeared on the board. It read:

WH__L OF FORTUN_

"Take a good look at the board, and think about what well-known phrase or saying that could be. Now, what letter would you like to guess?"

"Well gee, Troy, that's a tough one. I think I'm going to guess... Z?"

FIN