Chapter 11 : Matisse

"Hurry up!" Mistress Lily barks. I catch up to her, while juggling my bag and trying to screw the top to my water bottle.

"Hey," I retort, "I'm not sitting on a plane for hours without water."

"They have water on planes, you know," Mistress Lily huffs. "They somehow managed to solve that big conundrum years ago. We're boarding."

"What? Already?" I look at my ticket. "We're Group One!"

Mistress Lily tilts her head at me, with an annoyed gaze. I'm too elated to be dimmed by it. "I've only ever been in like Group Six or whatever is the last to go. This is great!"

I study my ticket again. "Holy shit, we're First Class?!"

"Lower your voice!" she hisses at me, looking around. "Jesus, try not to act like a complete hillbilly yokel!"

"Sorry, Mistress."

"And don't call me

Mistress

in public," she whispers forcefully. "You can just call me Lily."

We board the plane, and I'm astonished at our seats. They take up the entire middle row, just the two of ours. The seats recline all the way flat, and I can stretch out my legs without even touching the back of the seat in front of me. There are pillows, blankets, and bottles of water already waiting for us.

As we settle in, an attendant approaches us with a tray of plastic cups. "Champagne?" I look over at Lily, who is completely over my wonder at everything luxury.

"Thank you," Lily tells the attendant, grabbing a cup for each of us.

I pick up a slip of paper. It's a menu for our in-flight meal. I resist the urge to comment to Lily for fear of further exasperation from her. I read down the menu choices. Salmon, chicken breast, and steak! I shake my head. The attendant returns and takes our orders. I opt against the salmon, unsure about seafood on an airplane, so I ask for the steak.

After we take off, the attendant presents us with trays. As she places one in front of me, I'm let down to see that she brought me salmon sitting on top of salad. I don't want to make a big deal out of the incorrect order, so I quietly accept the meal. I was so hungry that I end up finishing it off. Plus it's actually pretty tasty!

I'm stunned when the attendant takes my empty tray and replaces it with a new steaming tray-- it's the steak I ordered! I scoff loud enough for Lily to hear.

"What?" she asks, pulling out an earphone.

"It's nothing," I shake my head. "It's just that I thought that the salmon with salad was the entire meal, not the appetizer."

She laughs and replaces the earphone back in her ear.

***

"Gah!" Lily jumps as we step out of the airport and into the Vegas evening. "It's freezing! What the hell? It's got to be forty degrees! I thought this was the desert!" She clutches her jean jacket tighter.

"Didn't you check the weather?" I ask, as I unfurl my puffy coat from my bag. I point at her jacket. "Is that all you brought?"

She shoots me a menacing look. I decide that it might be best for my personal wellbeing to remain silent while we wait for the Uber.

Lily begins shivering violently. Her arms are folded up tightly at her chest.

"Oh for crying out loud," I sigh, as I grab her and pull her into my coat. She huddles in close as she continues to shake.

"Are your teeth chattering? I thought only cartoons did that."

"Oh shut up!" Her hair whips in my face. I can smell her hair product.

The Uber arrives, and we're shuttled to a fancy hotel on the Strip. We check in, and have our bags carried.

On our way to the elevators, Lily exclaims, "I need a drink! To warm me up. The bellboys can take our bags up first."

We detour to the bar. There are TVs everywhere showing sports. It's about half full of people, mostly middle-aged men. We take a pair of empty stools at the bar.

"I'll have a vodka martini, dirty," Lily tells the bartender, and then nods to me.

"Gin and tonic?" I say.

Lily scoffs. "What a lady drink!"

"Shut up!"

Our drinks arrive shortly. We clink a silent cheers and take a sip. "Ahhhh," Lily exhales, "much better." She looks at me. "You should try a real drink." And scoots her glass over.

I take a sip. My mouth feels overwhelmed with the taste of alcohol. My face scrunches into a frown. I breathe out hotly.

"How do you drink that?" I choke. She laughs and takes her drink back.

"Heyyy

ladies!" we hear from behind us. Lily and I turn to see a white man with pompadour cut blonde hair and a bearded black man next to him. Both are smiling with very white teeth. They look like the types of douchebags that are in finance or tech. "What are you in town for?"

"Buzz off, wanker." Lily waves him away.

The black man rolls his head to the side and turns away. The white man scowls, and also starts to turn while muttering, "Stuck up bitch."

"What the

fuck

did you say?!" I yell, much more loudly than I expected. I'm as surprised as everyone in the vicinity, with all eyes turning towards us. Even Lily observes me with shock.

But I'm furious. My mind floods with horror stories from just about every woman I know, in which they had to fend off creeps and assholes. Usually, the rejections are treated with condemnation and judgement. It's always lose-lose for the women. And here I get to see it firsthand. My blood boils.

"Learn to tell when a woman doesn't want to have anything to fucking do with you!" I continue. "Hint-- that's all the fucking time!"

"Hey, fuck you, bitch!" the white bro shoots back.

"Eat a bag of dicks, you Johnny Bravo wannabe!" I shout.

The guy's face turns red. His eyes ignite in fury. But before he has a chance to say anything back, his friend grabs him and pushes him towards the exit. "Jesus, Dave! C'mon! We just got here!"

Lily bursts out laughing.

"Johnny Bravo?"

"I don't know," I shrug. "It was all my brain could pull in the moment."

Lily is doubled over in glee. A female bartender walks up with two shot glasses, smirking. "On the house, ladies."

We toast and down the shots. Lily tries to recover herself, but continues to laugh. Her hand on her chest, the other on my shoulder. "You're feisty here," she shakes her head. "I like it."

***

We get up to our rooms with just enough time for me to meet the others for dinner. I swiftly unpack my suitcase, which was an act of discovery since Chloe packed for me.

I hadn't needed any normal clothes up until now, so I desperately reached out to Chloe earlier in the week to help fill out my wardrobe. She tasked me with going online to find outfits I liked, and she would procure them. She had all my measurements so sizing wouldn't be an issue for her.

I was mostly lost. I'd never shopped as a woman before. It was overwhelming. Things were much simpler as a man. Thus, I mainly ended up letting her pick out the clothes for me.

Opening the suitcase, I find everything neatly folded and even grouped together by outfit. Chloe is the best.

For dinner, I put on a dark orange knit dress with leggings and tan ankle boots. I wear a dark green wool coat over that, and grab a scarf.

I meet up with several of the Talent, and we make our way over to another casino. It's weird to see everyone in normal clothes. In Eden, some people will put a tanktop or shirt over their black uniforms, or wear fun socks, but it's usually pretty minimal. Here, I can sense a bit of everyone's personality coming through in their chosen outfits. Julia and Mari are pretty hipster, while Sreeni stays classic.

We head to a high end sushi restaurant in another casino, seated at a large round table with a view overlooking the Strip. I immediately ask how last night was.

"Oh my god, it was so fun!" Mari proclaims.

"Yeah, not bad," Ryan calmly nods. Then he laughs his booming laugh.

Sreeni glares at him. "That's it?

'Not bad'?

You all were still texting the group at 3am."

Ryan grins at her. "Yeah, not bad!"

"Everyone split off at some point.

We

danced our fucking faces off," Julia says, looking at Drew with raised eyebrows. "Some of us were

very

popular."

He smiles sheepishly at her. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Several others groan with skepticism.

As the food comes, the chatter breaks off into smaller groups at the table. It's the most normal experience I've had since this whole endeavor began. I find myself smiling as I look around the table. The term found family comes to mind. Except I didn't even find or choose them.

Assigned

family?

Work

family? Whatever it is, I feel a comforting fondness for people that I haven't felt in a long time.

"So," Julia turns to me, "you feeling okay about tonight?"

"Yeah," I nod, "it'll be fun to see what the whole thing is like."

She side eyes me. "Yeah, but I mean-- you

okay

... about the stage?"

"

What

about the stage?"

Julia's eyes go wide. "Wait wait wait, tell me you know that you're going on stage tonight!" she says to me in a high tone. Others around the table stop their conversations and turn to listen.

"WHAT?!" I shriek. The table erupts into chaos.

Sreeni gets out of her chair to come grab me by the shoulder. "You seriously don't know that you're scheduled to be on stage at the Ball tonight?"

My body feels frozen, but I manage to shake my head.

"Okay, it's okay. It's not that bad," Sreeni says calmly.

I put both of my hands on my temples. "You're all fucking joking, right?

Please

tell me you're joking. What am I doing on stage?"

"Look, it's real simple. You'll go out on stage with Mistress Elizabeth, and she'll strut you around a bit," Julia says. She points to Drew. "Drew will be up there with you the whole time. It's just a thing where all the Mistresses and Masters show off their new peeps. Drew's new since last year so he's going up too."

I look at Drew. He doesn't seem all that jazzed either.

I pull out my tablet from my bag and frantically type to Lily:

I'm going on stage tonight??? Wtf!!!!!

A second or two passes and Lily replies:

Oh fuck! I forgot to tell you.

I send a row of mind-blown and fuming red emojis.

She sends back:

I'll be over your room after getting ready. Well go to the Ball together. Ill walk you thru everything. [thumbs up emoji]

I'm in a daze for the rest of the dinner. We hurry back to our hotel for everyone to get dressed. I get a text from Chloe to see if I'm ready for her to come by my room to help me get ready.

***

"Are you kidding me?" I ask Chloe.

She stands next to me, as we look down at my Fetish Ball outfit laid out on the bed. I note a short corset, a g-string with a large front pouch, long gloves, a short skirt, stockings, and platform heel boots. Everything is bright white and made of latex.

"What-- are my boobs just hanging out all night?" I ask, flummoxed. There are many other concerns about the outfit but that came to mind first.

"Oh! No, there's this..." Chloe snaps her fingers and pulls a jacket out of a garment bag. It's also bright white latex.

"What a relief," I say sarcastically. I sigh heavily as I try to assimilate everything that I've learned in the past hour. I look over to Chloe.

In my frantic state, I hadn't even noticed that she's also wearing a scandalous outfit. Hers is full latex as well, but the catsuit encapsulating her body is transparent. I can see her nipples. And her thong. She has on a black corset, and black heel boots that reach up past her knees. They're laced all the way up. She has black gloves, but took them off to help me dress.

Her hair is down for the first time I've ever seen. Her bangs still skim the top of her eyes, but the rest of her hair reaches to just the tops of her shoulders. She has makeup on: dark eyeliner and crimson red lipstick, which was also a first sighting for me.

"You look pretty hot, by the way!" I say to her.

She looks up at me in surprise, then blushes. "Thank you, Mistress!"

"I'm sorry I've been freaking out and didn't notice until now."

She smiles, as she grabs one of the stockings off the bed. "No need to apologize, Mistress Lisa. It is nice to get out and to change things up a bit."

"Yeah..." I look back at the white latex clothing.

Chloe helps me get the garments on. The latex feels odd. They're tight and squeaky as they encase my arms and legs. It's not totally uncomfortable as I get used to the sensation, and they hold everything in a way that accentuates all the right curves.

The latex material also emphasizes temperature. Whenever Chloe runs her hands along the latex to smooth out folds, I feel a trail of heat where she touches.

I can feel myself getting a hard on. Except that my penis is housed in a pouch with thin strands going around and down my ass crack. The pouch is concealed by the frilly skirt, which slightly poofs outward all around me. It's very short though, only just going down low enough to hide my pouch and most of my ass. The corset is cinched tightly, making it hard to take deep breaths. It holds my spine rigid. I dislike it instantly.

Chloe helps me put on the jacket. The front clasps close asymmetrically with a series of studded buttons. The flap comes across my chest. The jacket conceals the corset and my bare breasts, thankfully. The sleeves end above my elbows. Combined with the long gloves, my arms are completely covered.

Chloe moves on to the boots, which she buckles up all the way up. She finishes off with my hair and makeup. Unlike last night for Kait's session, my makeup is much less subtle. Bright lipstick pops intensely, dark eyeshadow and eyeliner give me almost black eye sockets from which the whites of my eyes glow out of. Heavy blush accent my cheeks.

I look in the mirror, awestruck at what I've become.

"You look so sexy, Mistress Lisa!" Chloe says to my reflection. I watch her through the mirror as she scans me up and down.

"You too!" I smile at her. She looks at me sheepishly, and then turns away. I made things awkward. "What did you get up to since you've been here?" I ask, to change the subject.

"A bunch of the others and I went and did a spa day," she answers.

"You got pampered!" I beam at her. "I love that!" She chuckles. "That's a great idea, actually."

I hear a knock at the door. Chloe goes to open it. Lily steps in, Chloe curtsying to her.

Lily has on a latex suit style jacket that extends down to her hips, almost becoming a dress. It's bright white but with black trim and details. It zips up the middle, but she leaves it open at top to show off her cleavage. Her legs are covered in black skintight latex. She also has on white platform stiletto heels to complete the outfit.

She gives me a once over and nods. "Ready?"

Chloe and I both nod. We start towards the door, but Lily stops us and holds up a syringe.

"What is that? Serum 12?" I ask. "Do I really need that for tonight?"

"It's at Mistress Elizabeth's request," Lily replies. "She thinks it'll help calm your nerves about being on stage."

"Calming

doesn't really come to mind with the serum," I tell her. She tilts her head. I acquiesce, taking off my jacket, and she injects the serum into my arm.

We ride down the elevator, which stops after a few floors. The door opens to an older couple in pastel leisurewear. They both jump at the sight of the three of us, clad in provocative latex. I give a weak smile, and step back against the wall to let them in. The woman shakes her head as she boards. The rest of the ride down is excruciatingly quiet. When we reach the ground floor, the couple rush off without looking back. Lily lets out a snicker.

We leave the elevator bank, and make our way through the casino floor. Our presence catches everyone's attention. Every head swivels towards us. Conversations and actions are paused. I feel every eyeball searing into me. I begin to sweat from the discomforting attention. I try not to look anyone in the eye. A group of frat boys at a craps table react loudly. "Whoa!!" "Daaaaaamn!" "Where are they going? I wanna go!"

Everyone continues to gape at us as we pass. Chloe keeps her head down. But Lily doesn't seem fazed at all. She turns her head to me, "About tonight..."

My mind snaps back into focus. "Oh yeah! What the heck is this about going on stage?"

She waves her hand dismissively. "You just have to walk up on stage, and Mistress Elizabeth will introduce you. Then you just walk to one end and to the other. That's all. It's not a big deal. "

"Seems like a big deal," I mutter.

I don't love the idea of being paraded out like a show dog. Especially in such an outfit. But at least Mistress Elizabeth will be with me. Drew too, apparently.

We hop into a waiting Uber, Chloe in the front. The driver does a double take at us, taking a long look at Chloe sitting next to him. He exhales a loud breath before pulling out into traffic. I adjust myself in the seat. The latex rubs loudly against the seat. "We're not exactly subtle, huh? All this latex."

Lily glances at my outfit. "We're not here to be subtle. But if you're worried about looking out of place, you shouldn't. You'll see."

We arrive at the venue, where there are crowds of people outside making their way to the entrance. I suddenly understand Lily's comment. The entire crowd is dressed in fetish wear, clad in latex, leather, and bondage gear. The outfits are predominantly black, but I also see red, blue, purple, green, transparent. A few bewildered bystanders gawk at the scene before moving on down the street.

The night air is chilly and the latex provides no protection, so we make our way quickly through the crowd. We spot the rest of our party, also all in latex. Everyone has on the same color theme of white, but with variations in the actual garments.

Julia is in a catsuit that covers her body from neck to toe. Drew has on a biker jacket with spiked studs all over the shoulders. Mari is wearing a corset with large buckled straps across the front as well as a webbing of bondage straps that frame her breasts. I didn't recognize her at first because her head is covered by a tight hood with an opening in the back for her ponytail. But her laugh is unmistakeable. We take a few moments to marvel at each others' outfits and then head inside.

The atmosphere is like a dance club. It's dark, except for streams of flashing lights. It smells strongly of leather and alcohol. There's a DJ on a stage playing loud dance music. Smoke obscures the boundaries of the room. There's a dance floor in the middle, flanked by tables and booths. I barely make out stairs that lead to an elevated area with more booths that overlook that whole scene.

But the crowd is where the real spectacle is. Everywhere, people are in latex outfits, bdsm apparel, or just skimpy clothing. As we walk through, I spy a woman in leather leading two shirtless men on leashes. Past that, I see a large man in a full leather bodysuit, with an industrial gas mask on. We pass a female figure in latex, with a completely round sphere for a head. I can't see any openings for her eyes or mouth. To my left, I observe an open area with steel scaffolding. In one of the frames, a nude woman is intricately tied up and suspended by the ropes. In yet another section, there are rows of padded benches. A few people are bent over onto them and receiving spankings. One female in leather is tied down to the bench, and a topless woman is whipping her with a riding crop. It's an overwhelming visual spectacle.

Chloe turns to me and then to Lily, bows and then heads off into the crowd. Lily puts her hand on my shoulder. "Find me later before the stage event," Lily commands, before walking towards the elevated booths.

The DJ puts on a Megan Thee Stallion track. Behind me, I hear a squeal. I turn to see Mari running towards a tall, rounded empty cage at the edge of the dance floor. She hops in, closes the door, and begins dancing lewdly to the song.