Daphne and Skye Read "Clothes For Likes"

Daphne

Daphne, lanyard around her neck, is once again off to convince a harem-sister to help her with a MM review. She got feedback from the Zeebop guy that she should review something from Gina’s transcriber in order to get Gina to like her, so she will! And, given the premise of the story she picked, she knew exactly who she should go convince.

The mermaid storms into the Hotel canteen kitchen, declaring, “It’s time to review!”

Most of the kitchen staff, some of Tina’s adult (and less limelight lusting) harem-daughters, ignore their mermaid-mama as they clean the kitchen after dinner service. The lithe Skye, half yawning, asks, “What are you going on about now, Daphne? Don’t you have contestants to train or something?”

“Nope! Nobody booked me for tonight. I could use your help with a review.”

“There are other ways to make friends outside the harem, Daphne. Have you considered joining a book club? Or come with us to the temple devoted to The Lady of the Dance in the Drow District more often?”

“I did join a book club though, Skye. It’s called ‘Marcie and Gina Reviews Official Masochist Mode’! We review stuff they reviewed to give other perspectives to the author. It’s fun! And maybe, if I do a good enough job, Gina will like me!”

Skye sighs, “Okay, Daphne, I’ll help. But you should really talk to Scarlet about your need for validation. I know your childhood wasn’t great and so you need people to like you, but this is a lot of effort to impress some girl that seems awful. Where should we do this and what are we reading?”

The two exit the kitchen. Daphne answers, “Wherever you’d like to do this and Clothes for Likes (Concluded), by somebody named Gambio!”

Skye makes a face of pure disgust. “What perversity is this? A story where the character gets the indecency of more clothes for social media button presses?”

“Oh, no,” Daphne corrects, “the premise of the story is that a goddess... eh... ‘blesses’ a girl named Cherry by removing a random article of her clothing when enough readers like the story.”

Daphne cringes a little as Skye praises, “Ahhh, so the girl learns the joys of being decently nude, like The Lady of the Dance intends, over time. Very clever and benevolent of this goddess. Surely someone as kind as that is a good goddess and friend of The Lady. I look forward to this touching story of faith!”

The two head to the Harem Wing of the castle and find a sitting room. Skye makes a kettle of herbal tea, leaving space in Daphne’s cup for her squid ink. Daphne summons her printouts of the story and the two begin to read.

READING IN PROGRESS (BGM)

Skye opens up the critique with a note and a random question, “Something that immediately strikes me is how liberal this Gambio is with the ‘Enter’ key. Is that the right button? I don’t have much use for computers,” Skye begins, “Also, how should I address Gambio for politeness sake? Is it Mrs. Gambio, Ms. Gambio, Mr. Gambio? Please do not tell me Gambio is a child.”

Daphne shrugs off the politeness thing, then agrees, “Yes, there seems to be a lot of ‘paragraphs’ consisting of one sentence that should be combined. Paragraphs are supposed to denote a consistent thought. Hitting the enter key to separate a consistent thought into 3 different paragraphs gives the writing a sporadic or discombobulated feeling.”

Trying to get the review started, Daphne notes, “Chapter One, we meet Ora, who is complaining about her ‘likes’ count on the site.”

“Why does that name sound familiar?”

“I helped our Beloved prank her for... reasons. Anyways, Chapter Two introduces us to Cherry, the protagonist of the story. She must be mentally unwell.”

“Yes,” Skye agrees, “So many clothes on. And bringing extra clothes? So indecent.”

“I was thinking more about the chest binder. C-cups,” Daphne notes, while lifting up her C-cup breasts, “aren’t actually that big, as far as egg sacs go. Why would you try to make them smaller? If anything, shouldn’t you want them bigger? Show off your suitability to spawn many mermaid children and not just two?”

“Also, I have a feeling we will end up skimming these rules and footnotes sections a lot. Was the footnotes section longer than the actual content of this chapter?”

“I think so? I’m not pulling out a ruler to measure it or anything.”

“The blessing begins in Chapter Three. It appears that Cherry has her belt disappear and her disgusting baggy pants rip. She is wearing shorts underneath. Layers? What perversion! Then, by the end of the chapter, she loses a bunch of clothes, some off her person, some out of her gym bag. And she now has a red latex jumpsuit for some reason?”

“We also meet Anna, the surly shortstack. They are going clubbing with Katie, who is apparently a prankster. We also also get an aside to explain that the clothes are not disappearing; they are being removed from reality. Cherry is aware she had the clothes, but is currently rationalizing it as a prank from Katie. Everyone else will act like the clothes never existed.”

Skye sips her tea, then notes, “More clothes disappear during morning volleyball practice. Katie shows up late, so Cherry gets to wear Katie’s (much smaller) top for laps. We do get to see Cherry mostly decent for a bit. Also, Mrs./Ms./Mr. Gambio seems a little mean about bookmarks. You shouldn’t insult sea slugs. Our show-runner is apparently one.”

“I think the footnotes are supposed to be Ora. The story overview DID say its written in 2nd person.”

“But that doesn’t make sense,” Skye objects, “Why would the goddess blessing Cherry with a lesson in decency be mean?”

Daphne sips her tea tainted squid ink. She doesn’t want to hurt Skye’s feelings, but she doesn’t really like tea. Too close to vegetables (and doesn’t come with the fun coffee jitters). Daphne then picks up the story line, “Cherry gets dressed with basically everything she owns, plus a borrowed ripped T-shirt from Katie, after she realizes that she’s got a disappearing clothes situation.”

“And that photo of her in that jumpsuit is so scandalous. She has so much covered. Well, mathematics class starts to fix it, as several items are whisked away by the goddess. Cherry is stuck in the front of class solving a math problem, so they all get to see her example.”

“Then, Cherry gets to meet Ora. Cherry calls Ora a shitty, little brat repeatedly. You’re the religious one here, Skye. What do you think about that?”

Skye looks a little nervous, “Well, I am torn about it. On the one hand, the goddess is doing an objectively good thing by removing indecent clothes. On the other hand, she seems to be both an evil goddess and doing it for spite. I don’t understand why she does the right thing for the wrong reason?”

Maybe having the only harem-sister less inclined to wear clothes review this with me was a mistake? Or, ooh, maybe Skye’s goddess will smite Ora! And make Gina like me! And give us crab cake!

Daphne stops being distracted and continues, “Well, Cherry goes back to class, randomly solves the problem, then hides in the bathroom to masturbate for the rest of math. Ora gives her baby clothes and she rolls more tops with her special die. The singular for dice, not the expiring action.”

“Cherry has some impressive skills, running away from some bullies as she heads to biology. Her biology teacher feels familiar, for some reason. Cherry also now got 4th wall powers. Then, the audience, in their cruelty, submit Cherry to a number of torments. Her friend Anna tries to help her, but she starts to be corrupted by the evil influences of de Sade and the goddess.”

“Yeah, that orgasm lock was really shitty. What’s the point of lesbian sex without the orgasms? Meanwhile, mean girl tattles on Cherry to the high student council in a dramatic scene. You know what would have made the scene even better, Skye?”

“Justice?”

Daphne giggles, “No, silly. Mermaid guards! Or at least some sharks!”

“That was a blatant attempt to appeal to that bully girl, right?”

“Well, Gina was in the scene. She should have told Marcie to add a cool shark tank!”

Skye shakes her head, “Anna gets made half decent by the audience. She is kind of cute. Also, Mrs./Ms./Mr. Gambio has difficulty understanding when and when not to use the letter ‘h’. There has already been a ‘heath’ instead of ‘heat’ and a ‘tight’ instead of ‘thighs.’”

“They end up in a closet, Anna steals a nurse’s outfit from Cherry, they have awkward sexy times while Cherry figures out how to explain the situation, then the mean girl comes to arrest them. Cherry’s got a magic out, but Anna doesn’t. Mean girl tricks Cherry into a mostly naked apology and double crosses her. But the land water polo team saves the day! And a very familiar school nurse gives Cherry a doctor’s note to be embarrassingly naked! Huzzah!”

“Yes, huzzah! She is basically decently nude now. Just a lewd diaper left. And she should soon be free of that accursed vibrator. She is taken to a super offensive history class by Katie, who is convinced that Cherry has a humiliation kink. The teacher is both a terrible stereotype and an idiot who cannot recognize a diaper. Cherry is down to a sock, the leash, the diaper, and the vibe by the time this Marel character shows up.”

“Yup, Marel is super rich former schoolhouse gangster from ‘Hard Candy’ turned Marcie fuck-buddy. Anyways, mean girl gets punished by Marcie and Gina has attributed lines this time! Hi, Gina! Do you like me yet? I’m doing a good job with this review, right?”

“Daphne, you seriously need to make some friends with good people outside the harem. It’s okay; we can help. Would you like to help me take some of the little ones to a group Mommy and Me play date this weekend?”

Daphne thinks, then offers, “Maybe, but back to the review! Marel takes Cherry and Katie to the stadium for a big lunch time show. They ride naked in a hot tub car. Cherry gets her egg sacs played with! When they get to the stadium, Marel offers Cherry some clothes in exchange of a weekend of pet play, which Cherry eventually accepts. She also highlights how dystopian Marcie’s rule at the school is, if we didn’t need a reminder. Free Gina!”

“So, the show starts and Cherry is back to full indecency. She at least got free from the vibrator. Cherry answers questions, the empress corrects grammar, Cherry dances and puts on a talent show and a strip tease. She was also appointed as a court jester.”

“Then Ora and Gina argue about penguins versus sharks. Of course, the correct order is mermaids, then sharks, then penguins. Unless we are talking about how tasty they are; then it’s the opposite order. Finally, Ora forces Cherry to auction off all the clothes she owns, starting naked mode. Thoughts, Skye?”

“Again, I am torn, Daphne. The same conundrum of how Ora is doing the right thing, removing indecency for charity in this case, for the wrong reasons, torturing this random girl. I see no reason why Cherry should be treated like this. The humiliation rituals, I mean. Removing the scourge of indecent clothing should not be isolated to just her. That should be a universal thing. After the show, Cherry gets hit with a lot of cruelty from the audience. More vibrators, more Vodka, Katie as a hunter (though, I suppose that could have gone worse).”

“Yeah,” Daphne quips, “What if they picked Gina? Or a shark?”

“Anyways, Marel separates Cherry from her bag, and Ora commits the grave sin of giving Cherry so many clothes! It is a good thing that Cherry needs permission to dress, or she would backslide into indecency.”

“And Cherry tries to get the audience to buy the ‘own Ora’ thing from the store, making it possibly affordable. Sneaky.”

“Cherry makes a deal with a devil penguin for a cocktail dress, then makes a deal with a crowd to get most of her clothes on. For shame. Then, she is **** to swim in all of the nonsense she is wearing. Maybe that will teach her a lesson in decency.”

Daphne adds, “The maybe not evil, but probably still evil TITS organization goes after Cherry, Anna, and Katie. They get Katie, Cherry’s bag, mean girl, and Cherry. Token male student council minister probably dies.”

“And nothing of value was lost,” Skye notes.

“TITS have some cockamamie scheme to conquer Marcie, the fools, and they are apparently dudes from the previous story? Anyways, the plan requires Cherry to marry the head TITS guy, which she refuses. They bring in Katie as a threat, Cherry helps her friend, who proceeds to mind control TITS guy into starting a mean girl versus Cherry clothes contest. Cherry wins (using Katie’s help with a sex off) and mean girl is stripped. Marcie’s forces save the girls before the gang ****. Looks like the token guy minister lived.”

“They ride a monorail to a mansion to meet Marcie. The meeting goes... interestingly. Marcie and Gina seem to react to Katie revealing the game with the goddess. Mean girl sister plots a coup with TITS guy. An interrogation is also... interestingly done. Can you explain the Anna stuff, Daphne?”

“Some of it, yeah. Anna was picked to share Cherry’s whole deal. Ora tells her and gives her the info dump power. Anna tries to reach the council for help and has a breakdown about some underwear she was given? Since there was never a Star Wars sequel trilogy in any respectable dimension like the ones we are from, I don’t know why they are embarrassing. She calls for help off-screen, beats up some bullies, and gets to evade Marcie’s forces.”

“Anyways, Katie and Cherry escape the clutches of Marcie with the help of crazy land water polo captain. Katie is then ordered to sober up Cherry, so we get some somewhat sexy scenes. Stakes are piled up on the boy/girl beach land water polo match. Zeebop betrays Cherry by ignoring her spam message for help. Cherry ends up in the locker room and Anna ends up becoming a vampire, actually drinking Ora’s blood!”

“Mrs./Ms./Mr. Gambio sure likes volleyball.”

“You mean land water polo?”

“Sure, Daphne. Our author made a giant rule set for it. The game begins with a dystopian speech from the empress and embarrassing costumes for both teams. Set one goes to the unsupervised males. The goddess buys them(?), which is troublesome. On the one hand, males need supervision; on the other hand, slavery is wrong and it seems petty to enslave them just to spite Cherry. Why does this goddess keep doing the right thing for the wrong reason?”

“She’s evil and your first transformation is making you try to justify some of it?” Daphne offers.

“That... seems valid. A quickie in the showers later, and time for set 2! The goddess cheats during it, adding an embarrassment meter with debilitating effects. That, plus some unlucky dice rolls, lead to the now supervised males to win again. Still, Anna outfoxes the goddess, survives her naked mode (despite being in lewd underwear), and they get to keep going.”

“After the match, mean girl’s sister launches her coup attempt. It does not go as planned. Cherry goes invisible ball buster. That gets the Wildcats into the fray, which gets the Leaders into the fray. Which gets the mean girl’s sister to threaten Gina! If only there was ‘an enthusiastic marine wizard with boundary-setting quirks and strong feelings about salinity’ there to solve the problem? Anna somehow gets Cherry out, I think, then running away antics ensue. This chapter is a bit of a mess.”

Skye continues the narration, sipping some more tea, “Katie gives into the dark side and flushes Anna down the toilet; she ends up in the sewers. Then Marel uses the Yakuza to arrest the traitors. Cherry somehow survives her naked mode by commanding token male councilor, who now owns her for a year, to dress her. How indecent! Not only dressing, but being supervised by a male!”

“Anna bites mean girl’s sister and survives another naked mode. Token male councilor takes Cherry home and discovers he has full body control of her, plus the ability to read her mind? I think that is an inconsistency, but who knows! Anyways, the chapter ends with Cherry and mean girl ordered to make out. Cherry wins a sex off again, knocks out token male councilor, and strips mean girl after punishing her. Anna bites a random, steals his clothes, and gets Katie’s help in putting them on; then Katie hits her with a crazy power. The girls seem screwed. Shenanigans ensure, some in the dorm, some in a demiplane hotel room, some from audience purchases? So, Cherry owns Ora and Anna was given an instant loss? This is messy.”

Skye interjects, “Justice spankings for the mean goddess! Finally!”

“Katie takes over Cherry’s audience deal power, making Cherry need to have sex with eight new people as an additional win condition, in exchange for stopping the shrink curse and giving Ora a fetish. While we wait for the results, Cherry and Ora go back to the game. Cherry needs token male councilor guy to reneg the cums without permission ban, so she sets off to find his room. The deal was accepted.”

Skye pipes up, “Oh, and the vegetable matter we call tomatoes are fruit because they are the plant part that develops from the fertilized ovary of the tomato plant. It’s a physiological, not a culinary, designation.”

“Thank you for the nature lecture, Skye. We then get a creepy **** play scene between Ora and token male councilor. And a gross water sports scene. Ora tries to **** token male councilor by pushing him off the roof; the doofus slips on a banana peel. Mean girl rescues him after Cherry is again given permission to cum. Cherry turns Ora into a gyrocopter and they drop off Anna (made a doll) to her dorm room; somehow, Cherry has sex with Ora as a helicopter. Gross?”

“Weird?” Skye counteroffers.

“Both.” They conclude.

“Next chapter,” Daphne continues, “Katie pranks Marcie real good! Cherry gets both naked mode and bully mood activated at the same time; she escapes the dorm, gets on the Ora-copter, and runs into Marel’s giant airship! And Cherry gets to wear a cute shark onesie!

“The story gets 200 favorites on Chapter 40, which results in a bunch of voting nonsense. And the audience decides to give Cherry the win! Good triumphs over evil!”

Daphne pouts, both at the tea and Katie’s actions, then continues the summary “Then Katie ruins it with a rule change. And then a bunch of bullshit is piled on top of that. They all get to Marel’s island, Marel demands a foot race, and Ora gets fish exfoliation. Katie adds more bullshit on top of the heap. Cherry and Ora run into the jungle, where they run into this world’s equivalent of a dire wolf and an albino dire tiger before getting captured again. Marel is a real bitch, then someone put Cherry into a stockade? Mean girl’s sister hops by and gets herself a Cherry footjob. Oooh, and Marel tells Gina about Ora! Spicy! Also, she has cameras in Marcie’s bedroom? The fuck? Anyways, Cherry is turned into a statue. And gets a vodka douche as a statue.”

Skye picks up the summary, “The goddess is given a Lorax costume and will be potentially mauled by the dire wolf Cherry tamed. But the website rules apparently are against it? I would argue that the goddess meeting her demise by wolf-mauling would have been perfectly cessive. Not excessive.”

“Anyways, Cherry offers the same Devil Deal as last time. And this time, no bullshit interferes with the vote! Cherry and Anna get their cruise. Then, more punishments and Cherry volunteers to continue serving Ora, which is stupid and insane! And the story is finally over. Phew, that was a lot. Skye, thoughts?”

“I did not like this. This story was needlessly cruel. And it seemed that just about everyone in the story, with the exceptions of Cherry and Anna, are a bunch of sadist monsters.”

Daphne somewhat agrees, “From what the show-runner tells me, Gambio seems to really like to kick the woobie.”

“Sorry, the woobie?”

“The woobie. For example, when our Beloved and I read through Hard Candy, Cutie was the woobie. Unlike Gina, Cutie’s only crime was being feminine for a high school boy. And Marcie bullies him to the point of turning a bright, if nervous, young man into a spineless housemaid by the end of the story. They even said that Cutie was more competent than Gina, but was so broken in spirit that he decided to stay at home and clean Marcie’s mansion instead of making something of himself. Cherry is the most capable woobie Gambio wrote. You can see similar woobie parallels with Ashley, though he tends to ask for it by being a horny idiot.”

“So, you are saying that Mrs./Ms./Mr. Gambio likes torturing innocent characters? Perhaps she/he should have to undergo a gauntlet of torment brought on by a spiteful, hateful goddess.”

“A lot of the scenes are fun, though. I enjoyed most of the antics. Cherry losing her mind in the epilogue was disappointing. This was also an ensemble story. Best girl, worst girl?”

After Daphne explains the concept, Skye answers, “Best girl, Cherry. Outside of not embracing the decency of nudity, she was a good person. It took a lot of courage to spit in the eye of evil. The evil goddess is worst girl. I pray The Lady of the Dance smites her.”

“We did prank her in a way where she might die?”

Skye smiles at that.

“Anyways, Anna is best girl. She navigated the game very well and I appreciate her clever, nerdy ways. Plus, big egg sacs are always appreciated. Worst girl, Katie. She nearly destroyed her friend for a prank and never got her comeuppance.”

“Not Gina for best girl?” Skye teases.

“Honorable mention best girl? She wasn’t in the story all that much. And the shark onesie is best outfit.”

They both sit back, a little tired, as this was a long chapter (though Daphne won’t see that until she starts to transcribe this conversation). Daphne slurps down the rest of her tea, then follows it up with a straight shot of the “good stuff” (more squid ink). Skye smiles and shakes her head. Lady Aelenetheria pulls Skye towards their shared bedroom. Daph sees Scarlet beckoning the mermaid to their room. The mermaid thinks that’s close enough of an ending for now.