Don't even know how I'll get home

When the four women entered the Banquet Hall after finishing their laundry, they were greeted with quite a surprise.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was standing in the center of the room dressed in skimpy black lingerie. A lacy negligee clung to her slender figure, which was more pronounced thanks to the partially see-through material. She wore a coy smile on her face as she did poses.

Standing beside her was Kim, eyes sparkling with glee as she made announcements like an auctioneer. She was also dressed in lingerie, which was unusual for her to be wearing outside of the boutique.

Also unusual? She was smiling up a storm.

“…And this right here is our final set today, a smooth matte black! It gives the appearance of being able to see everything, even the nipple! But no matter how closely you squint, you won’t be able to make out any fine details, making it perfect to tease that special someone!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin winked playfully.

Vivian was standing off to the sidelines with her arms crossed, nodding in approval.

“What’s going on here?” Sylvia wondered. “Why is Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin strutting around in lingerie?”

“If I had to guess,” Amelia muttered, sliding her eyes towards Vivian, “Carrington has something to do with this.”

“Let’s ask ‘em and find out,” Gina said, not wasting any time. She approached the table where the other girls were sitting at. Everyone was here except for Ella, and the party from the Master’s Suite.

“Come on, Morgana, you’ve been rather daring recently, don’t you want to up your game with some of our sensuous lingerie?” Kim urged the goth girl, who was staring at the negligee. Her eyes were wide with desire and excitement.

“Morgana, don’t let her pressure you,” Dawn urged. She had actually managed to **** herself out of bed this time.

“She’s not pressuring me!” Morgana protested, shaking her head. “I’m giving it some serious thought. Don’t worry.”

She turned and looked back at Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin bit her lip, weighing her options.

Dani sighed and slumped back in her chair. “You know, when Kim ran into the Fashion Suite buck naked this morning, I was worried that something had happened in Dream Alley and she’d gotten embarrassed,” she said, shaking her head. “But it looks like the only thing that’s changed is that Kim’s devoting herself to her job even more.”

“I think it’s sweet!” Carly giggled. “You’re doing great, Kim! If I could help, I would, but unfortunately my clothes are a little…”

She gestured down to her current cosplay outfit today, which was a periwinkle blue suit like something that would be worn by a suave host. Her hair was even shorter than usual, and a lovely brown color, just like her sister.

“Carly’s just making an excuse because she wants to buy that camera,” Vivian smirked.

Kim was undaunted. “Just because you have to wear clothes determined by your transformation, don’t think that means you can’t take care of yourself in other ways, Carly!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin shook her head in agreement with Kim.

“Your transformation still lets you pick out your underwear, right?” Kim continued, thinking back to previous interactions with the other girl. “At least, as long as underwear isn’t part of the outfit. Wouldn’t it be nice, with all the time you’re spending with Dani, to buy something that she might appreciate in the bedroom?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded along, smiling slyly.

“…You know, Carly, she raises a very good point,” Dani nodded.

Rose laughed. “It looks like Kim’s really coming into her own here. She sure knows what she’s doing, huh?”

“So what did I miss?” Gina asked curiously. “Why is Kim going all ‘Birth of a Salesman’ on us all of a sudden?”

“It’s ‘**** of a Salesman’,” Dawn said. “And that play isn’t a good parallel to what’s happening here…” She glanced warily at Kim. “…At least, I hope Kim isn’t going senile.”

The girl’s sunny disposition when it came to her job was unusual, to say the least.

“So wait, are you working now?” Sylvia asked, confused. Kim was in her underwear, which was unusual, to say the least. Not when she could be wearing lingerie. “Why aren’t you in the Boutique then?”

Kim turned to her and smiled. “I’m networking!” She replied. “I got the idea from… Vivian.”

For the first time, her professional cheerfulness cracked, and beneath it a hint of dissatisfaction leaked free. But she quickly tamped that down. “Vivian encouraged me to take a more proactive approach when it came to peddling my wares, and I got Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin to help me out, too!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded happily.

“Allow me to explain,” Vivian swaggered over, pretending to be the one in charge as usual. “This morning, Kim came to me and asked me for advice on how to make her job as a lingerie saleswoman more lucrative! So of course, I just had to step in and help, you know?”

Kim rolled her eyes. “Right, of course you did.”

“I must admit, if anyone could help sell clothes more efficiently, it would be that troublemaker,” Amelia sighed, pushing her glasses up her nose.

“Aww, Teach, that’s so sweet of you!” Vivian cooed playfully, batting her eyelashes. “But seriously, for real, Kim and I, we’re working together now!” She said with a wink and a smile. “I encouraged her to make some improvements on her working conditions, and now we’re taking the boutique in a whole new direction.”

Rose and Gina were both confused.

“A new direction?” Rose asked curiously. “What does that mean?”

Vivian looked over at Kim. “Kim?”

Kim scratched her head sheepishly. “Vivian… she said that I… well… it’s complicated, see? I asked Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin if she would help me out, and she agreed to help. But then Vivian also mentioned that there might be ways to renegotiate my contract so I could also get a better deal…”

“Renegotiate?” Gina could guess at what that word meant, but it wasn’t one she was familiar with. “What’s the got to do with anything?”

“Basically, I thought that Kim was leaving money on the table,” Vivian said bluntly. “She’s got this transformation that requires her to work, right? Well, what if there’s a way for her to work even more efficiently?”

Dani sighed and shook her head. “I would have said this was a bad idea… but it seems to have worked out, anyway.

Kim nodded.

Sylvia’s eyes widened and a smile broke out across her face. “Oh my gosh! Kim! Don’t tell me! Did you actually…?”

Kim nodded again.

“Oh wow! Wowie wow! That’s so amazing my girl!” Sylvia squealed with glee.

“Okay, I’m still totally lost,” Gina said, raising her hand. “What’s going on here?”

“I would also like to know this,” Amelia agreed.

“I think… Kim, did you upgrade your transformation?” Rose guessed.

Kim nodded for a third time. “Yep, that’s right,” she admitted.

Kim: 3100 BP – 1000 BP = 2100 BP

“It’s like I always say, you’ve gotta spend money to make money!” Vivian said proudly. “For a simple investment of 1000 BP, Kim was able to upgrade her transformation into a far more lucrative investment!”

“Of course, you didn’t know that at the time,” Kim pointed out, eyeing her warily. “It was a huge risk to me!”

“You can’t get anywhere in the world without taking risks,” asserted the woman who had daddy’s billions to fall back on if one of her risks didn’t pan out.

“I’m so excited!” Sylvia was over the moon. “You’re doing the right thing here, Kim! Upgrading a transformation is always the right call! It’s nothing but positives!”

“Debatable,” Dani objected. “…But like I said, in this instance, I think it worked out pretty good for her, yeah.”

To prove Dani right, Kim called up the transformation to show the other girls what she was working with now.

• Model Employee*: As part of her obligation to the show, Kim will now be employed part-time in the designer lingerie boutique. If any of her fellow contestants (or the master) wish to make a purchase, Kim will model the clothes for them, regardless of restrictions to her wardrobe from other transformations. In exchange, she will receive a portion of the BP given for any purchases. UPGRADE: Kim is branching out from counter girl to saleswoman! Now, for up to half of her mandated working hours, Kim may leave the boutique to sell her products directly to the customer. At any time on the job Kim can summon clothing she is trying to sell from the boutique’s stock, and model it directly at the customer’s leisure. And, as a bonus, she will get to keep 100% of the proceeds from any sale she makes while doing this. (Service Industry)

“Whoa! Talk about a serious upgrade!” Rose gasped. “So not only did your time in the shop get cut in half so you can spend time selling to us, but you also get to keep all the BP from your sales?! That’s a really good bargain!”

“Like I said, it’s an investment,” Vivian smirked, patting herself on the back.

“Dakota must be taking my feedback!” Sylvia was certain of it. “Don’t you see, my girls? She’s being so generous! She wants you to increase the severity of your transformations, so she’s making them really beneficial, like with Kim’s! Isn’t that so nice?”

“…I wouldn’t call that generous,” Dawn replied. “It sounds more like textbook manipulation.”

“Well, it’s that too,” Sylvia agreed. “But the benefits are still beneficial, yes?”

“With that, you’d be able to earn back your money and then some,” Rose said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “It’s a very good investment for you…”

For a moment, Rose was tempted to upgrade her Side Piece of the Action transformation and see what improvements she could get. For simply 1000 BP, it could end up netting her a whole lot more quite fast.

…Then again, she could always do that later. She didn’t want to spend 1000 BP right now, not when she was so close to that 10000 mark! Once she won bragging rights from that, THEN she could maybe upgrade the transformation and see what she was working with.

“I’m kinda with Dani on this,” Marley admitted, scratching her head. “It’s pretty obvious that Dakota’s pushing hard for you guys to use your BP to increase the severity of your transformations. And while that can be a good thing, it might also be pretty risky…”

“I think it’s worth the risk for some transformations, though,” Carly pointed out to her sister. “If you’ve got a favorite that you’re enjoying, why not try? Although you’re right, it could backfire if you’re not thinking.”

“True, there’s no telling what Dakota might see as an upgrade,” Dawn admitted. That’s part of the reason she was hesitant to do it. “But it wouldn’t be logical for her to scare people off from upgrading transformations by making them too ****, don’t you think?”

Dani hadn’t considered that. The way Sylvia was pushing things, it seemed clear what her opinion on the matter entailed. And while Dani was fine with others upgrading their transformations (so long as they didn’t affect her) she could definitely imagine another shoe dropping at any time.

Like Dawn said, it was blatant and obvious manipulation on Dakota’s part. Getting them thinking that these upgrades were all positives so people would be excited and test it out, only to end up getting burned later, that did seem like the kind of thing the twisted host would do.

But that’s not really my problem. Dani would always share her thoughts about something. But if someone was set on upgrading a transformation, Dani wasn’t going to push them not to. Not only was it their choice, but it would just lead to people thinking worse of her.

If she wanted to get anywhere on this twisted show, Dakota was right. She needed to start thinking smart about things.

“I-I don’t know about upgrades,” Morgana admitted. Even with her more bold growth recently, she was still that hesitant young girl. “I like my transformations for the most part… but what if I increased the severity of Sotto Voce, for example?”

Her words were already turning people on. What if that got even worse?! What if they got even hornier?!

She couldn’t risk it.

“But maybe increasing the intensity would improve things,” Vivian pointed out. “What’s that transformation do again? Anytime you talk, people around you get really horny, is that right? So maybe if you upgrade it, it might let you control your transformation, so you can only make people horny when you want to, you know?”

Morgana’s eyes widened in surprise. That… she hadn’t actually considered that possibility before, actually!

“Really!? Do you think?” She asked, her voice rising in hope.

“Ooh, that would be so grand!” Sylvia nodded in agreement.

“So kinda like Dani’s transformation, then?” Carly looked over at her girlfriend. “That new one you got, the one you’re hesitant to use?”

“Yeah…” Dani bit her lip and nodded. “The Siren one. It kind of has the same effect as Morgana’s, but it only works when I’m singing.”

“That seems pretty subdued for a transformation,” Vivian noted, scrunching up her face curiously. “Why do you suppose there’s such a clear difference between the two of them?”

Dani shook her head. “I have no idea,” she said bluntly. “That’s why I haven’t tested it out at all, not even around people I want it to work on.”

She glanced bashfully over to Carly. “I just… I’m afraid it could end up being even stronger than Morgana’s, since it’s more limited in use. And I don’t want to drive my girlfriend completely crazy, you know?”

“You already drive me crazy,” Carly teased, tickling her blue-haired girlfriend. “Still though, I think we should test it out!”

Dani blush. “Maybe...” she considered.

Rose could just about throw up at the sign of these sickening sweethearts. But ever the schemer, she had thoughts of her own.

“Sylvia, you could help out Morgana, right?” She asked, turning to the former host. “You were the host once, right? So you would know what Sotto Voce and the other transformations’ upgrades would be, isn’t that so?”

Sylvia blinked. “…Well, Sotto Voce was one Dakota came up with, actually,” she reminded the actress. “But as for the other ones-”

“This seems like a very enjoyable conversation, wouldn’t you agree?”

Sylvia stiffened as she felt icy fingers wrap around her shoulder and squeeze tightly.

“D-Dakota!” She stammered, looking back at her creator in shock. “G-good morning again, I just-”

“Good morning, Sylvia,” Dakota said, giving her a smile. She loosened her grip on the other girl’s shoulder and let her go. “What were you all talking about, if I may ask?”

The tone of her voice made it quite clear that she knew exactly the subject matter being discussed here. She wasn’t even bothering to hide it.

The other girls all looked a little uncomfortable.

Sylvia recovered the fastest. After all, she was just so thrilled that Dakota had actually wished her “good morning” first that she didn’t even bother thinking about why!

“We were talking about upgrading transformations!” She gushed. “I was just telling the other girls all about how great it is to upgrade transformations, just like Kim did!”

“Oh, really?” Dakota nodded, stroking her chin. “How interesting! And I’m sure you were just about to explain to them that, as a former host, it would be unbecoming of you to provide any specifics about those transformations created during your tenure, yes? Considering the previous leeway you’ve been afforded on that topic…”

Sylvia paled.

“…Err… uh… yeah, that’s right, I suppose,” she admitted, scratching her head sheepishly. She turned to the other girls. “Sorry. Dakota’s right. It’s not fair if I tell you guys what the upgrades to your transformations would entail. After all, some of you have transformations that I didn’t create, and giving some contestants special information but not others…”

“Screw the rules,” Gina groaned. “That’s so lame! You’re not even a host anymore!” She pointed out. “You’re a contestant like us, Sylvia!”

“Yeah, this is scab behavior,” Kim agreed. But she could also see Sylvia’s position and where the other girl was coming from.

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t matter as far as the rules are concerned,” Dawn informed them with a frown. “The rulebook clearly states that should a host be removed from their position and reduced to a contestant or worse, they are prohibited from providing an undue amount of information about the show and the transformations to the other contestants.”

The term “undue” was rather vague in this context, but from what Dawn could discern it meant that what Sylvia was allowed to disclose was under Dakota’s discretion.

“Wait, are you saying there’s precedent for this happening?” Carly asked in amazement. “Geez, first Sylvia, then Nola, how many hosts do end up being kicked off the job?”

“Don’t forget about Dakota the first time,” Marley pointed out.

“You know, Marley, you could have told us at any time that Dakota was actually a former host and Sylvia’s creator, but you didn’t,” Rose pointed out right back. Not because she was upset or anything but because she couldn’t help herself.

“I… I didn’t know, um…” Marley stammered, looking awkwardly at Sylvia.

“That was my fault,” Sylvia admitted, scratching her head. “Sorry Marley. I had to finesse it. Couldn’t have you telling your sister…”

“We’re getting off-topic here,” Dani said, trying to coax everyone back to the matter of transformations.

“Right, how many hosts have lost their job before?” Vivian giggled, intentionally redirecting to the other topic.

Amelia shot her a look.

“Far too many to list,” Dakota scoffed. “And with any luck, a certain redheaded tool will be next on the chopping block, courtesy of the lovely Alison… But Dani’s right, we’re getting off track. Let’s come back together, shall we?”

She clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention.

“Now, as Sylvia mentioned, this is quite a good opportunity. Spend your BP to your heart’s delight to upgrade your transformations, and- Wait. We’re missing someone.”

She looked around the room. “Now where has that maid gotten off to, I wonder…”

Nick had just about prepared to get ready for the day. It was odd, having Kim rush off like that so early, but at the same time, it had helped him explain everything to Mary and Holly a little clearer. And after a nice meal cooked by the two, he was headed down to breakfast to see what had changed in his absence. It had been several days since he’d socialized with everyone in a group together, maybe not seriously since the beach party.

And since Gina’s party is tonight, it would be really convenient if I said hello to everybody and check in with them before that.

But when he headed into the Entrance Hall, he was ambushed by the last person he expected to see waiting there for him.