Coping Mechanisms

Richard left, and the conversation slowed down. In one of the lulls in the conversation, Ava asked what several of them had been thinking about. “Did you plan on upgrading your transformation today?”

Stella felt the room turn to her. Everyone was staring, waiting for her response. “Uh… I… I think so.”

“You ok?” The athlete tried to ask. She hadn’t seen it coming, but it was obvious she’d overstepped.

“I… I’m fine. It’s getting time for lunch soon, I should begin prepping.” She excused herself out of the room and scurried back into the kitchen.

Maeve got up to try following, but Luna stopped her. “Let me check on her.” The latina went into the kitchen and after putting on an apron, asked the chef: “So what’re we making today?”

“Green beans Almondine and chicken like on Hazel’s day. Did you want a cauliflower steak again like Genet made you? I was thinking of making you seitan instead, it might match the texture better.”

“Sounds good. I’ll start blanching the green beans." Luna went into the walk-in fridge and a few pounds of green beans were in there waiting. She grabbed what she needed and set a large pot to boil while she rinsed the veggies.

She closed the window to the dining room so it was just the two of them. “Got overwhelmed?” She asked Stella.

They were too busy to look at each other, but after a moment of hesitation Stella responded. “Yeah, it felt like everyone was staring. There’s so many people here. I like everyone out there, but there were too many people focused on me.”

“They all like you. I think everyone was planning to come to the tower to support you before doing some stuff they’d been discussing for the day. I was planning to hang out with Maeve, and I think Felicia was going to go down with Aubrey to her bar. Would it help if some of us left early?”

“I think so. You two can stay though, it’d be nice to have you there and Dr.Petrov seems quiet.”

“I’ll ask Felicia if they can head out early, she’ll understand. She’s probably as concerned as I was.” Luna reassured her.

“I’m sorry I freaked out.” Stella felt the need to apologize. Hopefully I didn’t upset Ava.

“You did a better job than you’re giving yourself credit for. You’re still breathing, and you were able to make it into the kitchen without fainting. You’ve been doing well the past few days.”

“Thanks. How’re the beans coming along, should I start getting the butter sauce ready?”

Luna looked down at the boiling pot of water she’d just put the beans into. “The beans need to cool and dry after they're done here, right?”

“Boil for four minutes, cool for five.” The chef answered. This wasn’t one of the dishes at her restaurant, but she remembered it from when she and her mother had made it together before.

“Then I think they’ve got…” Luna realized she’d neglected to set a timer. “eight minutes total.” She guessed.

“Perfect. I can have the ovens preheated by then for the chicken and seitan. If you can give me a three minute warning on the beans, I can start the butter sauce.”

They worked side by side. Neither of them talked, but listening to the sound of the water boil and looking through the spices she'd need helped her calm down and commit herself to fixing her transformation today.

There was a knock at the kitchen door. “Can you get that?”

Luna opened the door and Ava was standing there. “Richard was asking for you. He’s looking rough. Dr.Petrov’s helping him calm down, but can you see what he needs?”

This was supposed to be an easy day. “Sure. If you can take the green beans out of the water in a few minutes and dry them, I’ll see what’s up.”

So Luna and Ava switched places. She heard the younger woman apologizing as she closed the door. Not wasting anymore time, she went over to Dick and asked what was wrong.

“Can we talk outside?” He asked.

That’s cryptic. But she agreed, and followed him out to the cobblestone path of the pavilion outside the dining hall. “What is it?”

“What’s the easiest way to get to ten VP?” He asked.

“If you’re just talking getting from zero to ten as fast as possible, that’d be you and one of us stripping, then you kiss us. They could get it all at once if they had vaginal sex, although if they’d never gained any points from you at all they might be past twenty by the time you finished. Why?”

He ignored her question again. “What about if we were trying to avoid anything sexual?”

She tried to think, jealous of his memory. “The only thing I can think of is an accepted marriage proposal. But that has the prerequisite of Genet being able to sense mutual, romantic love. I’m pretty sure only Aubrey can meet that standard at this point.” Seeing the frustration in his eyes, she asked: “Dick, what’s going on?”

“It’s for Helena.” He quickly explained what had happened in the time he’d been gone.

Shit. “I left the scoring book back in my room, let’s go.”

***

Thirty minutes later, things had calmed down. They’d figure out some options for him to present and he’d left to go not sleep with his stepsister. When I joked yesterday about being interested in her, I didn’t think it’d actually matter.

Stella had finished making lunch with Ava’s help. The latina got back a few minutes after lunch was ready. The blondes left early for Murphy’s, most of Aubrey’s plate untouched. I can’t let Stella notice that with the day she's having. That was about the only kind of thing that could get the chef angry. So while the remaining women were finishing lunch, Luna took Aubrey’s unfinished tray out of the bussing station and smuggled it into the trash can in the kitchen. The lunch went quieter and faster now that it was just the four of them, and they left for the tower together after Genet picked up a few plates she teleported over before going back up to her apartment.

As in the past few times, it took them about an hour to reach Ata’s tower on foot. Luna and Maeve had been here before, but the other two of them hadn’t. As they grew closer the fear of heights Stella shared with Richard crept over her, and she struggled to keep moving closer. Maeve was the first one to notice her reticence.

“Is everything alright?” The therapist asked Stella.

The brunette’s voice was wavering with her resolve. “Do we have to go all the way up there?”

Luna answered first. “It’s alright if you want to turn back, but we’d need to go up if you still wanted to try the upgrade.”

“I could explain some phobia oriented strategies I use with my patients.” Maeve offered. She remembered Richard’s mention of the mutual fear he shared with his friend Stella. “When they’re first starting off, I ask them to try concentrating on someone else.”

“Like what?”

“It’s different for everyone. I ask them to pick something complicated enough to distract them, but something they understand well enough they wouldn’t hit a mental block. I’ve had people use counting, spelling and reciting trivia. Does this sound like something you could try?”

I can do this. Stella nodded, and followed everyone up as she explained her chili recipe to them.

They got to the top, and Stella made sure she was as far away from the balcony as possible. She and Ava finally had their chance to meet the shopkeeper, who was in the same toga as the first two times Luna had visited. As she always seemed to be, Ata was staring off into space. She was humming something unrecognizable, and Stella stood there for a moment, unsure what to do.

“Hey Ata.” Luna said, getting the shopkeeper’s attention as she heard her name.

Ata perked up and straightened out her toga as she noticed the group. “Wow, there’s like, a lot of people here this time. How can I help?”

“I was interested in upgrading Overstimulation.” Stella said.

The shopkeeper studied her for a moment before excitedly throwing her hands in the air. “Alright! I’m pretty sure you’re the first person to get an upgrade. We’ve got a few different options on how you can give consent for the upgrade. There’s a contract, a kiss, a handshake, the wedding rehearsal… I think there’s a few more I think, but I’d need to take a look at the handbook. Here, why don’t you take a look at the others to see if anything sticks out to you.”

She stuck a notebook into Stella’s hands. The page was filled with detailed legalistic descriptions of different ways to give formal consent. There were several doodles in the margins that Ata must've added at some point. Hearts, musical notes, and pigs mostly, although it looked like a spear and a few other weapons like in G&G were mixed in.

Stella was trying to take it all in. “Did you say a wedding rehearsal?”

Ata looked overjoyed at hearing the question. “Yeah! I can never get anyone to choose that one, let’s do it!”

Stella tried to backpedal. “No, I was just trying to ask what it was.”

“I’ll show you! Why don’t you step forward, right about here.” Ata excitedly pointed at a spot on the ground to her left. Carried along by the shopkeeper’s enthusiasm, Stella did as she was instructed. Ata fished out her own copy of the upgrade’s description and leaned over her counter to set it down on the ground opposite Stella.

Overstimulation+: Stella has traditionally struggled with change. This allows her to gain more control over herself the less she is wearing. When Stella has more clothes on, her natural emotional sensitivity is replaced by physical sensitivity as she feels phantom sensations when someone would touch her over her outfit. (Bimbo)

She clasped her hands together to begin her speech.

“Ok! So, we gather here today to celebrate the upgrade of Stella Steward and Overstimulation+. Do you, Stella Steward, take Overstimulation+ to be your lawfully upgraded transformation, to accept it for good times and bad, to use for the enjoyment of yourself and your master? If so, say ‘I do.’”

“I do?” Stella answered, still along for the ride.

And do you, Overstimulation+, take Stella as your lawfully bound contestant, to guide for her, her master, and her harem’s needs? If so, say with the help of a surrogate if necessary, ‘I do.’”

There was silence in the room.

Ata waited for someone to speak, before leaning across the counter as if to divulge some great secret: “Hey guys? I'm not sure if it's obvious, but the upgrade’s just a piece of paper. It can’t talk. I need someone to help by acting as the surrogate.”

She leaned back, returning to her pose as the officiant. “If so, say with the help of a surrogate ‘I do or they do.’”

Maeve and Luna were still caught off guard by the mock wedding that had started without warning. Ava’s tendency to speak quickly helped her acclimate first, and so she offered the line. “They do.”

Ata continued. “Then with the power vested in me by Harem Hotel:Domestic Affairs Edition and your host Genet, I now pronounce you upgraded. You may kiss… whoever you want to! You don’t have to, of course, but you should! Kissing is a lot of fun.” After a moment of staring at the four of them, she went back to looking out the window as if they weren’t there.

“So that’s done…” Stella was still bewildered by the experience. She didn’t think she’d choose to do that again, but there’d been something reassuring about the shopkeeper’s exuberant directions. As she had said the word upgraded Stella had felt the change, like the island was taking a deep breath around her. She knew that she’d traded one side effect for another, but at least at this moment, she was glad for the trade.

“How do you feel?” Ava asked.

“Better, though I’d like to get down from here. Would you want to go back to the gym today? I want to keep trying.”

“Sounds fun.”

Stella turned to Luna and Maeve. “Thank you both for your help.”

“Always. Good job getting up here, I know it wasn’t easy.” Luna congratulated her.

“If you ever want to spend more time working on your fear of heights, I’ve got some longer term strategies I could guide you through.” Maeve offered.

“Maybe? For now I’d just like a break and a bit of an easy day.” Stella and Ava left together, down the tower on their way to the athletic complex.

Then it was just Luna and Maeve at the top of the tower together. “Before we head back, do you mind if I ask you something?” Luna asked.