I wanna show you a different side of living

Marley’s jaw dropped when she saw her sister’s appearance. She couldn’t believe what she was looking at right now.

“What?” Carly turned to her sister. “Is there something on my face?”

Vivian held her hand over her mouth, suppressing her smile. “We really should have gone somewhere with a mirror if we were going to do this, huh?” She said, shaking her head.

“You’re telling me!” Sylvia nodded. “It’s almost sad she can’t check herself out.”

Carly couldn’t exactly get a good look at her new appearance. But judging by how the other girls were looking at her, it must have been something funny. She was about to look down at herself, when she caught sight of her reflection in the window of one of the shops.

Her eyes widened. “Oh, wow! Would you look at that!?”

Carly had been afraid that she’d turned into something goofy. She could tell that all her limbs were still there, and she was pretty sure she hadn’t grown any new ones, but beyond that, just about anything was on the table.

Then when she saw her reflection, it all clicked. Why she felt so much bouncier, why she suddenly felt a lot warmer, what the strange tugging feeling of the wind above her head was, and why she had a curious urge to start chowing down on some leafy greens.

“Bunny!” She blurted out the first thing that came to mind. “I’m a bunny girl!”

And was she ever! Although not dressed like one would expect a bunny girl to be dressed on a show like this (no leotards here, just shirt and very short shorts) her body sure did speak volumes. Her hair was curlier and bouncier, regaining its original brown once again, only now more of her body was covered in brown fur. Along with the two bouncing rabbit ears sticking out of her head, she had fluffy gloves and her legs were strong and furry as well, and angled like a rabbit’s. Along with that, she could feel a bit of an enhancement down below in her hips and butt, perfect for shaking the little cotton tail she could now see sprouting from the back of her shorts.

More than a bunny girl, she looked like a bizarre Lopunny cosplay.

“Just don’t go jumping in that body too, please,” Marley begged, remembering the mantis transformation from this morning.

Too late, the only thing Carly heard was the word “jump” and that was exactly what she did.

But to her surprise (and Marley’s relief) she didn’t go springing up into the air. In fact, she only jumped about as high as she would have normally, and when she landed back on the ground, it made all her curves start shaking.

“Okay, so no super jumping power,” Carly noted, trying not to sound too disappointed.

“Makes sense,” Marley said, masking her overwhelming relief. “I mean, if the mantis form can jump, why give the same ability to the bunny? That just seems redundant.”

Carly nodded.

“Well, what can this one do?” She asked, twitching her nose. “The lizard one had super strength, the mantis had super jumping…”

“Oh, I know!” Sylvia’s hand shot up eagerly into the air. “You’re a rabbit, right? So maybe this transformation gives you super breedability!”

She sounded a little too excited for that. Definitely too excited for Carly’s taste.

“Uh…” the brunette made a face and shook her head. “Let’s think of something else, please,” she said, really hoping that wasn’t the power this one gave her.

“Yes, please, let’s,” Vivian said, nodding fervently. “I’d very much like to not think about you turning into some super-fertile rabbit girl, thank you very much.”

Marley looked at Vivian in confusion, wondering why in the world the heiress would care. Then she remembered one of the first transformations Vivian had gotten, Higher Breeding.

That’s right, Vivian is supposed to have a breeding kink now or something, Marley recalled. She should be feeling compelled to get pregnant. But has she ever showed any signs of that at all? Not that I know of. Wow, she must have incredible willpower then!

Marley may not have been on the receiving end of any mental transformations during her short tenure on the show (although she had an entire extra life shoved into her head after her elimination) but she’d seen the effects they’d had on many of her fellow women, and how easily they succumbed to them. For Vivian to be able to mask hers to the point that even Marley had forgotten about it, that really took some mental fortitude.

She found herself genuinely impressed.

“…What are you doing?” Marley asked, turning to her sister. Carly was pawing at the pavement like a feral mole.

“I’m thinking maybe this gives me super digging skills,” Carly said, looking up. “But it doesn’t seem like that’s it. Not really doing anything here…”

“Oh, I think you’re doing something,” Sylvia sniggered, watching Carly’s expanded but shake as she tried to dig in the concrete.

Marley rolled her eyes.

“Aw man!” Carly stood up straight. “No jumping, no digging, can I do anything with this one?” It really didn’t feel like it. “Maybe I should go eat some carrots and see if THAT does anything for me, huh?” She suggested with a laugh.

Marley frowned. “Actually, sis, that’s a common misconception. Carrots are actually bad for rabbits to eat. The only part that’s healthy for them is the green leafy part, but if they eat any of the orange then that could be bad for them…”

Carly gave her Dawn-channeling sister a blank stare.

Her nose twitched.

“Yeah, whatever, doc.”

Vivian snorted in response. “Hey, I have an idea!” She chirped. “Lemme go find a shotgun, and we can play ‘Rabbit Season’!”

Carly doubled over with laughter and Marley suppressed a smile of her own. When it came to joking around, being reckless, and taking nothing seriously, it seemed like her sister had found her perfect match. If only she didn’t have to be caught in the crossfire herself.

“Maybe it’s super stamina or something,” Sylvia considered thoughtfully. “You know, like the old saying, ‘fucking like rabbits’? Maybe Carly just can’t be tired out by sex in this form, and is always ready for another round!”

Vivian sighed. “Why do you have to make this a sexual thing?” She asked, scratching the side of her head.

“Talk about a useless power,” Marley said, rolling her eyes.

Carly nodded in agreement. “Yeah, I already do that normally!”

Marley shot her sister a sidelong look and Carly stuck her tongue out playfully in response.

Vivian smiled. “Well, it’s clear that we probably won’t find anything out this way,” she said, walking over to Carly and patting her on the shoulder. “Ooh! Soft. …Where was I… …Anyway, since we’ve tried this out, back to the main assignment then?”

“Right, we’re gonna solicit investors!” Sylvia nodded in agreement. “It’s, um… what was it called again…?”

“Panhandling,” Marley said brusquely.

“…A multi-level marketing scheme, that’s the term!” Sylvia snapped her fingers.

“You mean a pyramid scheme,” Vivian corrected.

“Yeah, that.”

Marley pinched her lips into a tight smile. Well, at least Carly was happy with her new morph. For now, they would just have to deal with it and move on.

“It’s going to be really beneficial!” Vivian said, wrapping her arm around Carly’s shoulders and heading towards the elevator. “No one’s going to be able to resist a cute bunny girl asking for money! It’s perfect!”

Carly laughed and Marley followed after the others. She was just glad that she didn’t turn into slime this time around.

Carly may have been happy with her bunny morph, but there was another animal girl who was having a much worse time.

Dawn took a deep breath and exhaled. She was practically hyperventilating, even though what she was trying to do was some meditation.

It wasn’t working.

Her skin was electric! It felt like the air itself was trying to turn her on, and just the feeling of the fur on her tail brushing through the air seemed like it would set her off.

“Dawn, what’s the matter?” Rose looked back at Dawn, who was trailing several feet behind her and Nick, walking incredibly slowly. “Do you want us to slow down?”

“Is everything alright?” Nick asked, hoping that her upgraded transformation wasn’t causing problems for her. The last thing he wanted was for Dawn to be bothered by the upgrade that HE had insisted on!

“I-I’m fine…” Dawn said, although her staggering gait sure suggested otherwise. “Don’t… don’t worry about me… seriously… it’s okay…”

Nick bit his lip.

“You don’t look okay,” Rose said, placing her hands on her hips. “Come on, you’re holding us up!” She stormed towards Dawn.

“Stop! Stay right there!” Dawn snapped, holding up both hands. The manic look in her eyes was enough to make Rose pause.

“…Geez, psycho,” she muttered under her breath.

Dawn’s enhanced hearing thanks to her cat ears picked up on that. But she let it slide. “Look, um… you’re right, okay? This transformation, maybe… it’s getting a little more intense than I thought it would be…”

Nick remembered his date with Dawn earlier in the round, and how things had gone there. They’d had to take a break in the middle to fool around in the sauna because she’d been so overwhelmed with pheromones she couldn’t control herself.

Is it so severe that she can’t even go through a whole date without triggering it? As sexy as the thought of a horned-up Dawn aroused by smelling him was, if it was this much of an imposition on her, he was regretting asking for that transformation to be the one upgraded. He really should have thought this through! But…

“Look, um…” Dawn raised her head and gave him a pathetic look. “It’s fine… okay? When it’s just me, I can handle it. But…”

Her eyes drifted over to Rose, and Nick realized what the problem was.

“Oh… you don’t want to affect her with your transformation, huh?” He said quietly.

Dawn nodded.

“You guys weren’t around before,” Dawn sighed. “But… remember a few rounds ago, when the two of you were on your date in Dream Alley, and we tried out some of the mirrors in the Hall of Mirrors? Well… I turned into, um…”

There was no good way to say “Horny Cat Girl with Questionable Regard for Consent and Boundaries” so she just didn’t.

“…It was intense,” she said instead, shaking her head. “I did some stuff… and part of it was because of the pheromones the mirror gave me. So I don’t want to do that again.”

“Dawn…” Nick felt a surge of frustration in his chest. Why had no one told him? He knew that things had gone badly for Dawn, Morgana, and Gina, and that whole incident was why no one used the mirrors anymore. But if someone had given him the specifics, he might have chosen a different transformation to upgrade!

And then Dawn raised her head to look into his eyes, and he immediately understood. She felt the same way he did right now, only she wasn’t making a problem out of it. She knew that part of this was because she’d never explained, and she’d come to terms with that already. He didn’t need to blame himself over it.

But that still didn’t fix the problem.

“So wait, Dawn, you’re keeping your distance from us because you don’t want to affect me with your pheromones? You’re not just being slow?” In terms of being slow, Rose was pretty late to the party herself it seemed.

She rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, that’s ridiculous!”

Before Dawn could say anything, the blonde crossed the distance between the two of them, getting up close and personal with the floundering cat girl and getting so close she nearly knocked Dawn over with her enhanced breasts.

“There, see? Did I burst into flames? No, of course not,” Rose scoffed. “You’re worrying too much about nothing, Dawn.”

Dawn narrowed her eyes into a glare. It was occurring to her that right now the only person she was being considerate of was Rose, and Rose had a way of making it very, very difficult to want to be considerate of her.

“…Okay, uh… I think I’m feeling it a little bit now,” Rose admitted, her tough face lasting only a couple of seconds before she started to fan herself. Her cheeks flushed. “Yeah, definitely getting hot in here… wow.”

She took a deep breath and the pinkness of her cheeks turned into a nice juicy crimson. Dawn’s sharp eyes didn’t miss the way she squirmed a little, pressing her thighs together.

“Hah!” The cat girl snorted in triumph. “I knew it. Look at you, playing all tough and mighty, when really you fold like a cheap suit!”

“I-I’m not cheap!” Rose exclaimed. She channeled her feelings of arousal into frustration and anger directed at the other woman, and placed her hands on her hips. “If you’re going to be like that, maybe you SHOULD keep your distance, hmm?”

“Rose!” Nick chastised her gently.

Dawn winced. She knew that Rose didn’t mean it- she was just being emotional due to the pheromones. But still, it stung hearing Rose retract her offer of letting Dawn tag along on the date, even if Dawn’s brain knew that wasn’t what was happening.

Because right now, Dawn’s brain was corded off in the kiddie (kitty?) corner, to play with toy blocks and shape matching puzzles while her body handled some grown-up business.

…Okay, no, it wasn’t the pheromones causing Dawn to make such bizarre analogies. She was just having a really, really messed up day apparently.

Nick approached the two of them. He wasn’t affected by any pheromones himself, so he could keep his wits about him. “Dawn, Rose didn’t mean what she just said, she’s just being difficult, right, Rose?” He asked, looking at Rose insistently.

Rose opened her mouth to agree, but stopped herself. Her stubborn petulance wouldn’t let her admit it, and look weak in comparison to her rival.

“Don’t worry, I know,” Dawn said, wiping her forehead. She felt a little regretful. This was a very nice blouse she was wearing; she didn’t want to ruin it with her sweat. But it was so hot out here, and her body was boiling!

A nagging voice in the back of her mind told her that if she wanted to keep her clothes from getting ruined, just take them off.

She was about three seconds away from listening to it before her rational side seized control, tackling her hormones like a wrestler and putting them in a chokehold.

“I know,” Dawn repeated, sounding more sure of herself than she had just now. She straightened up taller (even if she was still shorter than both of them) and straightened her glasses as well, putting on the most composed face she could. “We’re both a little emotional right now, thanks to my upgrade,” Dawn said evenly. “I get it, don’t worry. And it’s not a big deal. We can get along without devolving into rancor, right, Rose?”

She turned and looked firmly at the other girl, trying to will Rose into being a more accommodating person.

Rose looked back at Dawn, impressed that she could carry herself with such composure.

…At least, until she looked around the other woman, and saw her tail going wild behind her back. That brought a knowing smirk to Rose’s lips, and she stared into Dawn’s eyes with a triumphant look on her face.

Dawn grimaced and grabbed her tail with her hand, holding it tightly to keep it from moving. It worked, but unfortunately it made the pleasure she was feeling go from just general intangible arousal to actual direct physical stimulus.

It took every bit of mental strength Dawn could muster to keep her mouth clenched tight and not let out a moan of pleasure.

“So…” Nick looked back and forth between his two dates. Because he was the only one not being doused in arousing pheromones he could tell that both women were trying very hard to look like they were completely unaffected and were thinking clearly, and he could tell they were both failing miserably at it.

Anybody with eyes could see that Rose and Dawn were both on the cusp of jumping his bones, but they were both convinced that they had fooled the other girl into thinking that they were handling things just fine.

When it came to competition, there weren’t many people who could match Dawn or Rose. And apparently that was true when it came to stubbornness as well.

Nick wondered, when the two girls had agreed to this “shared date” idea, had this possibility never occurred to them?

That’s what it looked like.

Rose cleared her throat loudly, discreetly fanning herself in a way that she was certain neither Nick nor Dawn had noticed. (She was wrong, of course.)

“Shall we continue the date, then?” She asked. “I’m certainly not going to let some pheromones bother me, so there’s nothing for you to worry about, Dawn. Unless you need a little break to take care of yourself in the bushes?”

If not for that last part, Nick almost would have thought Rose was trying to be nice to Dawn and let her off the hook. And maybe in her twisted, hormone-filled brain, she was still trying to do that. Either way, this was the wrong way to go about it, because it just made Dawn dig in her heels even more.

“Well, fine then,” Dawn scoffed. “Don’t come whining to me if you suddenly find yourself overwhelmed with the urge to jump Nick’s bones, alright?”

“Whining?” Rose held a mocking hand over her mouth, masking her sneer- badly. “Why, I would be thanking you for such an occurrence… if you were the one responsible for it, of course.”

She tucked her arm around Nick’s and leaned up against him, pressing the side of her breast into his elbow. “But if I find myself with such an urge, it would only be because Nick is such a wonderful and attractive man, don’t you agree?”

That bold statement left Dawn with no possible response. At least, no good response.

“I couldn’t agree more,” Dawn snippily replied, claiming Nick’s other arm for herself. She absolutely wasn’t going to let Rose pretend that she could outdo her, even if she knew such a possibility was laughable!

Of course, increasing her proximity to Nick and his scent made her arousal jump, making her produce more pheromones that aroused Rose even more in turn.

Nick just sighed. Well, if they were going to fight, there were worse ways he could imagine it going, at least.