By the time this hit the street, they said she had a breakdown

Sylvia wan’t exactly thrilled at the situation she found herself in. As amusing as seeing Dawn high on catnip was (and she’d been hoping for something along these lines in the first place when she’d designed that transformation) they did have a job to do, and Dawn wasn’t exactly in the best state to be helping.

“Whoopie! This is so much fun!” She giggled, spinning through the lounge. All thoughts of cleaning up had drifted away into the ether.

They had plenty of time to get to the other rooms, especially with how fast the Garden Suite had been cleaned. But Sylvia wasn’t sure how long Dawn would be in this state.

So she did the first thing she could think of, and dragged her over to the kitchen.

“Hey Dawn, do me a favor?” Sylvia called over her shoulder as she headed to the sink.

“Hmm?” Dawn snapped her head around to stare at Sylvia. “Wuzzat?”

“Stay still for me for a second?” Sylvia asked as she filled up a glass of water. Once it was full, she hid it behind her back and approached the starry-eyed cat girl.

Dawn giggled playfully, her genius intellect suppressed by a fog of giddy feelings as the plant’s last vestiges danced through her.

SPLASH!

Sylvia didn’t hesitate for a second to toss the cup of water into Dawn’s face.

“PSphbtltthph!” Dawn sputtered, flailing about and swatting at her face. “Sylvia!? Wha-?! Blurgh! Ugh! What did you do?!”

The water washed away all the traces of catnip, sobering her up as good as a nice cup of coffee would have done. Dawn looked at the other girl in shock, still a little dazed and confused about what had happened. But at least now, her sanity had returned.

She was pretty angry, though.

“Sorry,” Sylvia apologized immediately. “I had to snap you out of it.”

“Huh?” Dawn looked around the lounge. In the immediate aftermath of getting splashed she’d gotten confused, and hadn’t realized that she wasn’t in the bathroom anymore. “Snap me out of what? What happened? The last thing I remember, I was cleaning the bathroom, and…”

Dawn blanched.

She had a gap in her memory.

The times when Dawn couldn’t remember something were few and far between. Usually it was because she was so overworked and exhausted that she couldn’t actually create the memories of the things she had done. Those times did occur, but they were very infrequent.

So to have just a big fat hole in her memory, that…

“You were cleaning the bathroom, and there was some catnip in there,” Sylvia explained. “You kinda… got a little high.”

Dawn’s jaw dropped. “What!? I- WHAT?!”

After the initial shock wore off, it all came flooding back to her. There had been a delay in recall, not a gap- she remembered the rush of energy, the craze of her emotions, and the joy in her heart as she dashed around the suite with a giddy laugh on her lips.

At the time she’d been over the moon. But looking back, she just felt mortified.

“H-how could that have happened!?” Dawn sputtered. “Catnip!?” She’d gotten some for her pet cats back home every now and then. Seeing them rush around with all their energy was adorable, but with what she’d been doing…

“You feel better now, though, right?” Sylvia pointed out.

Dawn took a deep breath, and removed her glasses. She grabbed a towel from the counter and wiped them clean, then started to wring out her ponytail after putting them back on.

“…Never tell anyone about this,” she hissed, glaring murderously at Sylvia. “You got that? Nobody else finds out.”

“Your secret is safe with me!” Sylvia said with a salute. “And I doubt Octavia is going to tell anybody either!”

Oh, that’s right. Octavia. Vivian’s butler had also been there to witness her lapse into childish exuberance.

Dawn felt the urge to die come over her all over again.

“Ugh… great…” She muttered, shaking her head.

“So what’s the plan now, Dawn?” Sylvia asked. “We finished the Garden Suite, but there are still five more rooms to go! You want to go to the Candy Suite next? Or maybe the Romantic Suite? We don’t know what those do yet!”

Dawn didn’t even know what the Garden Suite did, other than make her extremely high. “We’re going to do something easy first,” she decided. She needed to work her way back up to the more challenging rooms. “Let’s do my room.”

She pulled at her soaking wet shirt. “Besides… I need a change of clothes.”

The two cleaned up the Luxury Suite- or more specifically, Morgana’s half of the Luxury Suite- in relative silence. Dawn was still mortified about what had happened, so she wasn’t exactly in the mood to talk. Eventually, though, the awkward atmosphere faded, and things began to return to normal.

“…So what’s the special characteristic of the Garden Suite?” Dawn finally asked. She was picking up Morgana’s rumpled clothes off the floor and putting them in a hamper. “I’m assuming it’s not just about having catnip in the bathroom?”

Sylvia laughed. “Oh, yeah, Dakota told me about the room while you were out of it. Apparently, you can use your BP to buy special plants to plant in the room, and cultivate them. And you can use those plants and their special qualities! So you could make an aphrodisiac for example.”

Dawn tensed. “…I’m not sure I like the sound of that,” she said. “That’s a little scummy wouldn’t you agree?”

Sylvia shrugged. “Eh. Not a big deal if you ask me,” she replied, shaking her head. “I mean, there are harmless plants, too! Like what if you wanted one that would make you look a bit prettier? You could use it on yourself. Not just for drugging other people.”

Dawn considered that. “…I suppose you’re right,” she agreed. “Still, if that’s what the room does, I don’t think I’m interested in staying in that one. I do prefer to use the restroom, as I’m sure you could imagine.”

“Hah!” Sylvia laughed. “Fair enough, fair enough…”

It didn’t take them very long to finish cleaning the Luxury Suite. They were well on their way to meeting the deadline! And when they finished, Dakota popped into the room to assess their work.

“Very nice, ladies,” she said, nodding in approval. “Oh, Dawn, I caught what you were saying before, about the catnip… if you ended up getting that room, you know you could just throw it out, right?” Dakota pointed out.

Dawn shrugged. “Fair,” she agreed.

“Or maybe you’d like the effects a little more if you stuck with them?” Dakota suggested instead. “It’s not so bad, right?”

That earned her a glare from the vet.

Dakota held up her hands. “I’m just saying,” she replied, taking a step back. “You really seemed like you were having a lot of fun in there, playing around in the grass like that. I don’t recall seeing you happy like that very often.”

“Well… I…” Dawn blushed as she remembered what being under the influence of the catnip was like. That bubbly feeling overwhelming her, making her feel all giddy and lethargic while also full of energy… it was no wonder her cats loved it so much.

But she wasn’t some junkie chasing a fix. She shook her head firmly and crossed her arms. “No, no thank you,” she said fiercely. “I’d really rather not!”

Dakota shrugged. “Your loss. But the audience really responded positively to that. Between this, and the last challenge where you turned your other self into a bimbo, I think they quite enjoy seeing you put that clever little brain of yours on the backburner. …Just something to keep in mind.”

Dawn blushed, her mind racing as she considered what Dakota was saying. “That… that… w-well, even if you’re right, that’s still not something I can just choose to do, you know!” She snapped. “I’m not going to lobotomize myself just for the sake of your ratings!”

“I don’t know, Dawn, maybe she has a point,” Sylvia pointed out. “If the audience likes you turning into a brainless little cat girl so much, maybe it’s not the worst thing. You’d score higher in the popularity poll that way, too!”

Dawn turned to Sylvia, and a look of betrayal stretched across her face. “That… Sylvia! Whose side are you even-?! …Oh, right. What a stupid question…”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. Of course Sylvia would agree with Dakota on this. They were both hosts. They put the ratings as their first priority. Sylvia had been so kind and agreeable lately that she’d almost put that out of her mind, but she was reminded of it now more than ever.

“I’m just trying to look out for you, Dawn!” Sylvia said, sensing Dawn’s hesitance towards her. “I don’t want you to do badly either! You gotta remember, when it comes to popularity with the audience, the viewers really want to see people give in to the things that make them happy! And the catnip… it really made you seem happy.”

Dawn tensed. “Of course I seemed happy,” she said quietly. “I was high out of my mind. I was being controlled by that stuff. Who wouldn’t seem happy in a situation like that?”

Sylvia frowned. The other girl raised a very valid point. “…Maybe you’re right,” she admitted.

Dakota scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Oh well. I tried. But Sylvia’s right, Dawn, instead of being so curmudgeonly, maybe have a little bit of fun every once in a while.”

With that, she waved her cane, and gave the girls their reward for cleaning another room. She didn’t need to tack on the knowledge explanation, since she’d already explained to both of them the other day everything the room did. She wasn’t hiding any secrets from the girls, obviously.

Once she was done, she vanished, and the girls could check the changes in their scores.

Dawn: 3000 BP + 1000 BP = 4000 BP

Sylvia: 3400 BP + 1000 BP = 4400 BP

“Wow, we really are making good progress,” Dawn said. She hadn’t noticed the change in BP last time, but seeing such a tangible shift in the numbers really made her realize how much this bounty was helping her. The last time she had this much BP had been when Rose chipped in to send her to Dream Alley for her date.

“I can’t wait!” Sylvia giggled. “Just one more room to clean, and I’ll be able to go to Dream Alley on my next date with Daddy!”

Dawn looked warily at the other girl. “You sure that’s the best idea, Sylvia?” She asked cautiously. “Are you and Nick ready for that?”

“We had a lot of fun playing mini-golf!” Sylvia said defensively. But deep down she knew that Dawn was right about this. She wasn’t ready for that next step with Nick. Not yet, anyway.

“And don’t forget, there’s the 500 BP cost for the party tonight,” Dawn reminded her. “If you want to go to Dream Alley, we’ll need to clean at least two more suites.”

Sylvia nodded. “Good point… what about you, Dawn? What are you gonna spend all your BP on? Another Dream Alley date?”

Dawn considered that for a moment and then shook her head. “No… I already did that once before. And while it might be a good tool for a fun date, I don’t think it’s worth 5000 BP. There are other, more useful things worth buying I wager. Like tips for the next challenge.”

“…Or changing to a different room, for 10000 BP?” Sylvia pointed out with a smug smirk.

Dawn sniffed and crossed her arms. “I’d rather spend my money on stuff like that, than waste it on a ‘perfect’ date again.”

“Oh… you’re not just saying that because your date ended in failure due to your body incompatibility with Daddy’s penis, though, right?” Sylvia asked. “Because that would be too tragic…”

Dawn gave her a murderous look that would end any other murderous looks. The serial killer of looks.

“Wildly out of line, just so you know,” she said, jamming her finger into Sylvia’s chest. “And for the record, no, that’s not why! The reason why I’m saying that is because if I’m going to plan a perfect date with Nick, I can do that just fine on my own! I don’t need some magic quickie room for 5000 BP a pop to give him a good time!”

With that, she stormed out of the Luxury Suite in a huff.

Sylvia quickly caught up to her. “Sorry, Dawn!” She wailed. “You’re right, that was too much. Sorry. Let’s start over, okay?”

Dawn sighed. “Yeah, sure,” she relented.

“How about you pick the next room, too?” Sylvia offered. “You’re way way way better at this than I am, after all, where do you think we should go?”

That was the question, wasn’t it? There were only four rooms left. Dawn wasn’t sure if they’d be able to clean all of them, especially considering how big of a mess Gina certainly must have made out of hers, but she wanted to get through as much as possible.

“…The Candy Suite,” she decided. “I think that’s the best call. We don’t know what that one does yet, so we need to clear it. And once we see how long it takes to clean it, when we finish we can make a decision about whether or not we want to clean the Arcade Suite and the Fashion Suite for the extra BP, or spend the rest of the afternoon on… Gina’s room.”

“Is it really that bad?” Sylvia asked.

Dawn made another face. “You live there,” she said, rolling her eyes and heading for the Candy Suite. “You tell me.”

When the girls opened the door to the Candy Suite, they were met with a blast of delicious-smelling air that made their mouths water.

Dawn licked her lips as she stepped inside, looking around the room. “I’ve gotta say… this place does look pretty great.”

“It’s pretty, too,” Sylvia nodded. “I’d just love to stay here! Wouldn’t you?”

Last time Dawn had been in a room with a nice smell, it hadn’t ended up good for her. But this place was pretty nice.

“How exactly are we supposed to clean it, though?” Dawn asked, looking around. “It’s not like we can just go and pick up all the food left on the ground.”

Ella and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin were actually pretty neat people. There wasn’t much of a mess anywhere to be seen. Which made sense. Dawn wouldn’t want to leave her clothes lying around over frosting or sprinkles or something else that could ruin them.

“Hey, maybe we need sugar water to wipe it down with?” Sylvia joked.

“Well, you’re not that far off.”

They both jumped.

“Back already, eh?” Dawn sighed, turning to see Dakota. She was holding a mop in one hand, and a bucket in the other.

“For obvious reasons, this room is a little trickier to clean than the others,” Dakota said, pushing the cleaning supplies into Dawn’s hands. She could smell the inside of the bucket, and it had the same sweet aroma as the rest of the room.

“So what’s this stuff for?” She asked, looking warily up at the host.

“That’s a special compound mixture used for treating the food in the room,” Dakota explained. “It’s what makes it edible even though it’s exposed to the air, and people are walking all over it and stuff. It completely eradicates the bad germs, while also tasting good and being good for the body, too! Pretty neat, huh?”

Dawn wasn’t buying it. “Good for the body?” She pressed, shaking the bucket. The stuff smelled like candy syrup.

Dakota blinked. “…Well, relatively speaking, I meant,” she clarified. “It’s not as if that’s liquid broccoli you’re holding. I just meant it won’t eat through your insides like bleach.”

“Oh, great, nice to know,” Dawn said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “So to clean this place, we gotta, what, just slather this stuff all over the room?”

“That’s right,” Dakota nodded. “Should be fun! And if you get a little peckish, feel free to tear off a piece and eat!”

She emphasized that by ripping the ear off of a gummy bear the size of a teddy bear, and taking a savage bite out of it.

Yeah… Dawn probably wasn’t eating anything in here if she chose to stay.

There was a bucket and mop for each of them, as well as paint trays and rollers for getting the walls and ceiling.

“At least those two didn’t make a mess,” Dawn sighed, plunging her roller into one of the trays and coating it with the clear liquid. It looked like the glaze on a cinnamon bun. “Having to clean up their stuff while also having to coat the whole room in this gunk? That wouldn’t have been fun.”

“Well it’s not like they have anything,” Sylvia said quietly as she ran her mop along the candy-coated floor. “They both came here with nothing but the clothes off their backs.”

An awkward silence fell over the room. Sylvia wasn’t wrong. None of them really had anything they’d brought with them from earth, which was why Dawn found it so easy to keep her room clean. And these girls… well, they certainly weren’t like Morgana, who had gone out the first round here and picked up a bunch of books from the bookstore that were now stacked up on a shelf by her bed.

They really hadn’t bought anything here. Nothing but clothes.

Dawn shook her head. She didn’t want to think about this at all.

“Let’s forget about it,” she muttered, trying to cover more of the wall. Unfortunately, she was running into the problem of being incredibly short, as usual. “Hey, do you have a connector piece to extend the roller all the way to the- Sylvia?!”

Dawn stared in shock at the redhead, who was munching down on a marshmallow.

“Wut?” Sylvia said through muffled bites, her cheeks and lips covered with sticky residue. “Dakota shaid we could have shome.” She took another bite just to prove her point.

But that wasn’t why Dawn was staring at her.

Sylvia was almost twice as tall as her now, and with another bite she grew two more inches.

“Sylvia! Stop eating those!” Dawn exclaimed.

“Uh… oh dear.” Sylvia looked down and saw just how far the floor was from her compared to usual. And the ceiling was looking uncomfortably close…

“You must be… eight and a half feet tall!” Dawn sputtered, running some quick calculations.

Sylvia nodded, and looked down at the remains of the marshmallow in her hands.

“Yeah… I think I know what the special characteristic of this room is,” she said, her voice amplified by her size to nearly deafen Dawn.