wow, I only recently found your stories and binge read through all of them. Must say, it's one of the best story set I have ever read. I love the buildups and the fight scenes. I especially like what you did in Nine Days with the world building. Looking forward to more of this series (I'm thinking about this being a post-apocalyptic world where a global virus outbreak wiped out a huge chunk of the male population and permanently changed the gender ratio of newborn babies)
Thank you so much for the feedback. I have many concepts I still want to try for the duel room universe, but lack of time and energy are always stumbling blocks. I *loved* writing Nine days. The format allowed me to introduce a lot of information and clarify points in the duel room universe without detracting from the sexual tension in the story or flooding the story with in tangential details. The only thing I’d regret in the story is the models I used, which I don’t feel have enough variety in their photo shoots. Story wise, it's been 8 months since Natsumi and Mayumi fought each other in the duel room. Exiles are initially for one year and who knows...maybe Natsumi will try to win her ex boyfriend back some time in the future. It's all of course, constrained by my schedule and free time.
I'll also take the opportunity to explain more about the motivations and logic of the duel room universe.
First of all, I’d like to give a shout out to Mcgoll, whose The Club series was the original inspiration for the Duel Room universe. The impetus for the series was that I was tired of constantly trying to justify why two women would fight over a guy. Real life doesn’t really work like that. Women usually have inhibitions about fighting over a guy, and if they fight, they usually are reluctant to go all in (For obvious legal, societal, moral reasons, plus it's just plain silly to fight over a guy). The Duel Room frees me from all those considerations: Two women want one guy, and it’s just natural for them to fight and do horrible things to each other to win him.
I wouldn’t call the world “post-apocalyptic.” Sure, for some reason the male population declined drastically, but otherwise it’s a rich and technologically advanced world. Due to personal preferences, I tend to use mostly Asian characters, but obviously the duel regime applies world wide.
In such a world, the morals of the old world go out of the window. Competition over men is intense and nasty, leading to the hyper sexualization of society. Short dresses, tight hot pants and high heels are the norm everywhere. Women are sexually forward and dating takes a mercenary undertone. It becomes apparent that if a woman wants to keep her man, she has to please him sexually and emotionally, or risk being replaced by one her man’s the female “friends.” They circle like vultures, waiting for the girlfriend to slip, or a low ebb in the relationship to then make a play for the guy.
It’s also apparent that the only way a woman can find a new boyfriend is to try to steal him away from the current girlfriend, so there’s this constant tension between the girlfriend trying to keep her guy happy and potential romantic competitors undermining her relationship.
There’s little incentive for a woman to blame her guy for cheating, because the guy can just look for a more accommodating female companion, while the now ex-girlfriend now finds herself single and having to steal a guy from another woman if she wants male companionship. So what’s a woman to do? First, she'll stay with the guy and won’t blame him for cheating. If anything, she'll fight harder to keep her boyfriend. Second, she’ll then blame that whore for trying to tempt her man away. Third, she’ll try to show him she’s the better lover and sabotage the other woman. Fourth, she’ll “persuade” the other woman to stop seeing her man, violently if necessary.
What will take to make the other woman desist depends on how attached she’s to the guy. If she’s only spent a week of casual sex with him, she’s likely to back off as soon as the girlfriend confronts her. If she’s been with him for longer, she might be persuaded to physically fight for him in a catfight (Like XiXi did) but she might hesitate to get into a formal duel over him. Now, if she wants him exclusively and the girlfriend and her can’t come to an understanding, they might decide to duel over him. The initial penalty being exile and a communications block for a year.
That’s why it’s convenient for the girlfriend to act aggressively and confront potential romantic foes as soon as possible. Hairpulling scraps are common currency girlfriends/wives use against pretty women being a little too chummy with their men. The idea is not to win or to escalate to a full-blown catfight, but to send a message to the other woman. It’s usually a very effective tactic, since few women will escalate a conflict over a guy they barely know, hence nipping a potential threat in the bud.
On the other hand, it’s convenient for a woman who has met a promising male prospect to hide the affair as long as possible, so that she can get to know him better and gauge whether he’s worth dueling over. It also affords her the chance to slowly chip away at the girlfriend’s relationship and set up the foundations for a new relationship. The longer she’s been having the affair without the girlfriend’s noticing, the more likely she’s to eventually come out of hiding and challenge the girlfriend to a catfight or duel.
So ok, if duels are the be all and end all of who gets to keep the guy, why wouldn’t women wait for duel day and fight there instead of spending so much time trying to outperform their sexual rivals in bed or trying to win his heart? Why spend so much time in trying to look prettier than the other woman and out slut her? Why would they wear really inconvenient clothing to fight over him on duel day?
The reason is simple: The guy can decide to go on exile with the loser. Duels happen because the man is wavering between the two women. They battle for his heart is a close-run thing and they want to tilt the emotional scales in their favour. No woman will fight a duel over a man if she feels he strongly prefers the other woman.
Therefore a woman who decides to forsake the sexual battle field to focus on just winning the duel risks losing the guy even if she wins the duel. If one woman proves herself the better lover, is willing to wear the sluttiest clothes for him, strives to dazzle him with her jealousy (Important. Her jealousy isn’t directed at blaming the guy, it’s directed at the other woman, she strives to show him she’s the better woman) but loses the duel will likely win the guy over a woman who isn’t as zealous. So both women are trapped in this sexual competition whether they want it or not. Most women have already internalized those lessons and will try do everything to gain the man’s favour before duel day.
On Duels
The lack of male companionship has led to a situation where morals have changed. Mere moral shame won’t dissuade potential sexual rivals from trying to seduce a taken man the moment they feel they have a chance with him. Society doesn’t automatically side with the girlfriend/wife against the pretender. It’s a survival of the fittest world when it comes to heterosexual relationships. Therefore the women of the duel room universe are accustomed to violence. It doesn’t mean they have to like it, but they know that many times it’s the only way language their romantic rival will understand.
The government has reluctantly agreed to sanction recognized that unless some sort of legal way to settle who is a man’s legitimate girlfriend, society would descend into an unending stream of catfights that will paralyze economic life. Catfights outside the duel room are illegal, but as illegal as drinking under the age of 18 or jaywalking is to us. Technically illegal but in practice it’s widespread and the authorities do little to stamp out the practice unless it’s a very public catfight or it leads to serious consequences. The problem with catfights is that apart from humiliating a romantic antagonist and gaining the admiration of the guy in dispute, there are no consequences. The defeated girl sometimes will decide to stop competition with the victress, but she might as well instigate another catfight to win her man back.
Duels solve that problem. The rules are incredibly flexible. There’re not restrictions on winning conditions, places, attire, etc. A few guidelines though:
-The more complex, the more expensive it is.
-The longer the duel is expected to be, the more expensive it is.
-The more people involved, the more expensive it is.
-The less rules the better.
The government hates to add too many rules because it knows jealous women fight dirty and bend the rules. It just doesn’t want to get into the mess of the impartiality of the referee or penalties if a duelist breaks the rules. If there’re rules/conditions, these are usually tied to impartial means and more often than not, the government supervisors have the guy in dispute enforce the rules. For instance: A guy’s climax as one of two conditions of victory, handcuffs to prevent women front using their nails in a tit fight, a timed countdown in a boxing match, one of girls kicking the other out of the ring as a condition of victory.
That said, if two women want strict rules and referees, the government can accommodate to their wishes, but it’s going to be very expensive. Therefore the vast majority of duels have very few or no rules, leading to dirty, vicious, savage catfights.
This is as far as I’m willing to clarify how the duel universe works right now. As I write more and more stories, I intend to introduce more concepts to keep the series fresh.