Baby, I just know that there is

“A-and, this is one of my favorite anime series, it’s about a human who gets reincarnated as a demon in another world, but then gets reincarnated as a washing machine, and then meets a lot of women who all fall in love with him, and then he has to go to war with the new demon lord who turns out is actually his ex-wife… Oh, but you don’t find that out until Season 3, and then they end up getting back together to rebuild the kingdom...” Morgana babbled, flipping through her DVDs while Vivian’s eyes glazed over. Her smile remained fixed to her face.

“W-wait, sorry, you said he gets reincarnated as a demon in another world, but he started off as a human? And then he became a washing machine?” Vivian asked, trying to remain positive as she listened to the bizarre plot the goth girl was outlining.

“Uh-huh! It’s a really super-popular plot,” Morgana said, nodding. “Getting reincarnated in another world!”

“…As a washing machine?”

“As all kinds of things!” Morgana exclaimed. Her eyes were shining with excitement. “They’re all so creative! ‘I Was Reincarnated as a Child Molester in Another World’, ‘So I’m a Slug, You Think Ya Better Than Me?!’ ‘Reincarnated in Another World as My Cell Phone with My Cell Phone’ and they’re all so great…”

“And… they’re all about the main character getting a harem?” Vivian asked, rubbing her temples.

Morgana nodded brightly.

“…Even the child molester one.”

“No, it’s okay because they grow up and become adults so it’s fine.”

Vivian took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“…And what was this show of yours called again?” She asked, trying very, very hard to remain positive and open to new things as she could.

“I’m a Human Who Got Reincarnated as a Demon in Another World, but Then Got Reincarnated as a Washing Machine, and Then I Met a Lot of Women Who All Fall in Love with Me, and Had to Go To War With the New Demon Lord Who Turns Out is Actually My Ex-Wife, and Then We Got Back Together to Rebuild the Kingdom.”

Vivian had to shield her eyes. Gyaagh, her smile… it’s blinding me!

“So do you wanna watch?!” Morgana asked hopefully.

“…Morgana… I don’t think I would be able to enjoy this series nearly as much as you do,” Vivian said as tactfully as possible. “It’s clear that you’re very… passionate… about shows like this, and that’s great! Really, it is. I fully support your excitement and passion!”

“Really!?” Morgana asked, amazed. Even Dani had said this one was a bridge too far for her. And Carly had just laughed when she suggested it.

“…But I’m not watching that,” Vivian clarified. “Sorry to get your hopes up, but I have a policy of not doing things I don’t want to do, and I feel like if I did watch it with you, I’d just be doing it to make you happy, and you told me to not do that all the time, so…”

“Oh… okay, I understand,” Morgana said, letting out a dejected sigh. “Is it really that bad?”

“If the title of your show is a run-on sentence, I’m gonna just not,” Vivian said succinctly. “But I do appreciate you wanting to share it with me!” She added, flashing a toothy grin. “If you ask me though, chilling out in your room watching shows about a bunch of girls falling in love with a guy seems kinda pointless. I mean, you’re already IN a harem, right? Do you really want to watch a show about one? Kinda seems like a waste.”

“Eh? Really? I mean, I guess,” Morgana said, scratching her hair beneath her hat. “I like it though, it helps me relax.”

“Right, no, I’m not telling you to stop,” Vivian clarified. “By all means, if you like something, totally, watch it. But it’s the middle of the day. Aren’t there more productive things you could be doing right now, instead?”

Morgana blinked.

“…What, like sleeping?”

Vivian stared at her. What kind of life has this girl been living up until now? She wondered. Morgana’s Big Titty Goth Girlfriend, Moonlit Alabaster, and Gothicc transformations had all greatly improved her physical attributes according to their descriptions, but Vivian was now very curious what the original Morgana looked like. In her mind, she pictured a chunky bookworm with bad acne, greasy hair, and an allergy to showering.

Geh. She’s so cute! I just want to dress her up in all sorts of stuff! Vivian just wanted to pounce on the bright-eyed goth girl and use her as a model. The ideas flowing through her head were countless!

“How about this?” Vivian clapped her hands together. “I have another idea for what we can do today, besides watching anime or sleeping. This is actually productive!”

Vivian’s teachers (like Amelia) would accurately label the heiress as a slacker. But you didn’t become one of the leading figures in high fashion without hard work and dedication. Vivian made the most of every second, and that meant she couldn’t waste precious daylight watching some show about other people living their lives.

“B-but… anime…” Morgana glanced at the TV hopefully before looking back at Vivian.

But the heiress could not be reasoned with. She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her hip to the side, intimidating Morgana with her sheer unyielding personality.

“Morgana!” She declared, making the goth jump.

“Eh!?”

“Do you want to have fun? Or do you want to hide out in your room just watching a show about people having fun?” Vivian asked. In her eyes, there was a simple answer to that question.

Morgana frowned. “…I like anime,” she pointed out. “I have fun when I watch it.”

Once upon a time, if a gorgeous, rich, popular extrovert like Vivian had posed that question to Morgana, she would have skulked away and hid in her room, too afraid of confrontation. But Morgana had changed a lot since coming to this island, and she wasn’t going to be pushed around due to her preferences!

Vivian had to admit, she admired the goth girl’s resolve.

“…Well, far be it for me to argue,” she relented, shrugging her shoulders. “People are allowed to enjoy themselves however they like, I’m not going to fight you on that.” After all, Vivian had recently come to appreciate the joy of video games; and there wasn’t that much of a difference between those and what Morgana was suggesting.

Morgana was surprised to hear Vivian say that, though.

“…Really?” She asked.

Vivian nodded. “But I think there’s a time and place. Right now, you could be going out having fun and doing things with other people. Save watching anime for later, when the day’s wrapping down. That way, you can do what you want, but you can also make sure to live life to the fullest!”

“Oh, like staying up late at night after school’s over to binge the new seasons? Yeah, I do that a lot too,” Morgana said.

Geez, did this girl get any sleep growing up? Vivian added eye bags to her mental picture of past Morgana. And I thought running businesses on five hours of sleep a night was too much. Impressive!

Vivian grinned. “If all you do is coop yourself up every day, you’ll find that life has passed you by!” She pointed out. It sounded like Morgana was at least open to the possibility of leaving her room, which was a good place to start.

“I have friends now!” Morgana pointed out. “More than you, probably!”

Ouch. That one stung. But Vivian shrugged it off, she deserved that and far more.

“And don’t you want to hang out with your friends?” She questioned.

Morgana frowned.

“W-well… Dani is… busy. And Dawn’s doing something with Rose. …And Ella is too, I guess… …B-but they’re my friends! I have them, they’re not made up this time!” She proudly declared.

Vivian moved right past the “this time” part and nodded. “So if all your friends are busy doing something else, you can go make new friends!” She pointed her thumb at herself. “Like me!”

Morgana nodded hesitantly. She’d been open to Vivian’s suggestion of the two of them spending time together, but now she wasn’t so sure.

“So… if you don’t want to watch anime, then what do you want to do?” Morgana asked. Her eyes glanced to her big spellbook out of reflex. She knew from the talk of others how much Vivian liked experimenting with people’s transformations.

Vivian smiled from ear to ear.

“How about… a makeover?” She suggested.

Morgana’s eyes bulged in surprise.

“What!?”

“Do I have to?” Morgana groaned, trudging through the hall towards Vivian’s room. “I like my style, Vivian. Don’t use your transformation on me.”

Morgana’s Gothicc transformation had filled her closet with a bunch of black jeans. But like Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s most recent transformation, it didn’t require her to wear them and she could wear other clothes if she wanted to. So she wasn’t sure if that technically counted as a clothing transformation or not for the purpose of Vivian’s New Style transformation. Same with her witch hat, an accessory from a transformation but one that she could remove.

Regardless, Vivian wasn’t interested in using her transformation on Morgana anyway. She would much rather the goth girl choose to change her look for herself.

“Morgana, why did you start tying up your hair into those pigtails?” Vivian asked, stopping at the door to her room and turning to the goth.

“They’re, uh, twintails, technically, is what they’re called,” Morgana muttered, reaching up to her hair out of reflex. She hadn’t tied them up that way this morning, but now she was wishing she had. “And it’s because I wanted a change.”

Vivian nodded. “Exactly! If you keep doing the same thing you always do, then life gets tedious! That’s why I always try out new things in order to get new experiences!”

“Except watch anime,” Morgana muttered under her breath.

“You say something?” Vivian asked, raising her eyebrow.

“…Nope, uh, nothing, no,” Morgana replied, shaking her head quickly. “Just, uh… just wondering, um… what you think I really need to change…”

Vivian sighed. She still wasn’t getting it. “Morgana, it’s not that you need to change your style,” she assured the other girl. “You’re quite cute just the way you are!”

Morgana’s pale cheeks flushed and she squirmed a little, smiling a small delighted little smile.

“…But changing up your style keeps things fresh and new,” Vivian said. “Take these clothes, for instance! It’s different from the last time I dressed up like a cowboy, right?”

“I-I guess?” Morgana didn’t really pay attention to Vivian’s outfits. She wasn’t really a “clothes” person. Other than her closet being filled with various black outfits, she didn’t put that much thought into what she wore.

Something Vivian could tell just by looking at her.

“It’s because I’m always changing things up,” she said proudly. “Doing things different is a good way to keep everyone’s attention on you!”

Morgana bit her lip. “…That’s… a good thing?” She’d only managed to survive high school by doing the exact opposite of that.

Vivian raised her eyebrow. “You’d rather be ignored?” She asked incredulously.

“…Sometimes? …Mostly, yeah.” Morgana nodded a little.

Vivian wept for the poor girl. She really needed some help.

“Do you want Nick to ignore you?”

Morgana stiffened and her eyes widened. “N-no!” She stammered, shaking her head. “Of course I don’t! But… Nick’s really nice! He wouldn’t… ignore me…”

“…True. But is ‘not being ignored’ enough?” Vivian asked, leaning forward. She grasped Morgana’s round cheeks and pinched her face close, staring deeply into the other girl’s wide eyes. “Don’t you want to completely capture his attention and make him look only at you for once? Wouldn’t that be something?”

Morgana’s eyes glazed over as she pictured what Vivian was saying. She imagined herself the center of attention, strolling into the Banquet Hall in a gorgeous black dress, having Nick completely captivated with her appearance. Rose, Mary, all of them looking on enviously as Nick fawned all over her.

“What’s the matter, ladies?” Dream Morgana asked the jealous onlookers with a condescending smirk. “You don’t mind him giving me a little attention every now and then, do you?”

She started to drool. Vivian pulled her hands away before the girl’s slobber got all over her.

“…Well, I think I made my point,” she said, adjusting her clothes. “What do you think? Not a bad image, is it?”

“Yes!” Morgana snapped back to reality and firmly shook her head. “I mean, no, it’s not bad at all! C-can you really make me the center of attention?”

Vivian pinched her lips together into a polite smile. “I can help bring out your best features,” she said. “The rest will be up to you, of course.”

Morgana slumped over like a puppet whose strings had been cut. “Oh… well, just forget it, then…” she mumbled.

“Huh!? Come on, where’s the positive attitude you had just a second ago!?” Vivian asked with a frown. “This isn’t the Morgana I know!”

“But you don’t know me…” the goth girl rightly pointed out.

“…Fair enough, I don’t,” Vivian admitted, scratching her head. “But you know… that’s not a bad thing, is it? I know I can make you shine. You just have to take the initiative! Don’t back down and hide in your room! Carpe diem! Seize the day!”

“Yeah, I know what it means,” Morgana said, rolling her eyes. Did Vivian think she could be a goth and not know latin?

“Great, then let’s seize the day right now!” Vivian declared boldly. “We’re going to find a style so far outside your usual wheelhouse that Nick’s going to be all ‘Wait, who is that girl? Do I know her? Wait, that’s Morgana!? I had no idea she could look so good!’ Sound like a plan?”

Morgana nodded vigorously. While she knew how much Nick liked her current style (judging by how he treated her) the idea that he could like her even more was intoxicating.

Her fantasies of Nick worshipping the ground she walked on and kissing her feet like a goddess were starting to take over, and Vivian’s boundless encouragement and devil’s advocacy was only fueling it more and more.

And as a goth, Morgana had to listen to a devil’s advocate. It was, like, the law or something.

Vivian led her into the Romance Suite, and already Morgana was enamored with the décor. Having spent this round and the last in the same room she didn’t give much thought to the suites the other girls stayed in, but this one sure was nice.

“Now then, right now, your style is pretty basic,” Vivian said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “That grungy, goth look suits you okay I suppose, but it’s so… mmm. What’s the word I’m looking for? …Outdated, that’s it!”

“You think my clothes are outdated?” Morgana looked down at what she was currently wearing, a baggy black shirt and tight black jeans. She thought she looked pretty nice, all things considered.

“It’s not just because practically everything you won that isn’t a dress looks exactly like that,” Vivian clarified. “But just black is so… hmm.”

Morgana wondered what it would take for Vivian to use some adjectives. Or nouns. Or even speak in a complete sentence.

The heiress was still checking her out. She circled around Morgana and studied her from every angle, like a property appraiser looking for faults.

Morgana felt more like a dying animal waiting to be picked clean by buzzards.

“Now then, time for a history lesson,” Vivian said, taking a step back. Morgana perked up. She liked history.

“Black is a color that has a very long and intricate relationship with high fashion,” Vivian explained. “Did you know that black used to be one of the trademarks of rich nobility?”

Morgana’s eyes widened. “Really!?”

“That’s right!” Vivian nodded. “Because of how difficult it used to be to properly dye. It wasn’t until the middle ages that humans managed to adapt the necessary dyeing techniques to make shades with enough intensity to really be considered a stark black pigment. Other than dyeing, the only real source of natural black fabric for most of Europe was the pelts of sables. And that was also something only nobility were entitled to. Same with colored fabrics. So really, peasants were only allowed to wear rags.”

Not technically rags, but in Vivian’s eyes, that was basically the appropriate term.

Morgana looked horrified.

“…Oh, but don’t worry, now it’s totally acceptable for everyone, rich and poor to wear black,” Vivian quickly assured the other girl, completely misunderstanding where Morgana’s dismay originated from. She flashed a grin. “Black is absolutely a staple of any wardrobe. But you can’t underestimate the value of other colors, either! Mm, let’s see… judging by your pigment…”

The frequent smiles Vivian was flashing only served to unnerve Morgana even more.

Vivian snapped her fingers. “I’ve figured it out!” She declared. “…But you’re probably not gonna like it. Yep, no more black! At least not right now. Do away with that completely!”

Yep, Morgana anticipated this. “So if I can’t wear these clothes… wh-what do you want me to wear?” She questioned, looking to Vivian for some guidance.

Vivian flashed a smirk.

“Well, it should be obvious, right?” She said. “We’re going to have to find something that suits you, Morgana, and that means… bright colors!”

“What?!” Morgana nearly collapsed on the spot. “Bright colors!? B-but I don’t look good in those!” She protested.

“Have you ever tried them?” Vivian asked pointedly.

The pale girl flinched. “…Well… no…”

Vivian smirked. “Then how can you say that?” She patted Morgana’s trembling cheek. “I told you, didn’t I? Today is all about trying out new things! So if you’ve never given any thought to a pastel wardrobe, then that’s exactly what we should focus on!”

Morgana’s lip trembled. “B-but…”

She just couldn’t imagine it. She pictured herself in something frilly and pink, and it made her want to gag.

“Trust me, Morgana,” Vivian said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Your pale complexion is a great asset. The black brings out the brightness of your skin, but if we use bright colors instead, it will provide a nice complement that should bring out your best features.”

The fashionista winked. “Just let me work my magic this time, witch girl!”

Morgana gulped. Part of her wanted to run, but that wasn’t what bold Morgana would do. If she wanted to keep being the brave girl she knew she could be, then maybe it would be best to listen to Vivian after all…