Mama don't allow no music playin' round here

“Is that… a fucking riding crop?!” Gina sputtered, shaking her head in confusion. She still hadn’t fully processed what had happened, even as the other girls looked at Amelia’s sheet and put the pieces together.

“You hit me with a fucking riding crop?!” She repeated.

“Amelia, don’t you think that’s a little too much?” Mary asked, biting her lip. She was caught in a difficult position right now, not fully approving of the teacher’s actions, but also uneasy about starting an argument with her stepmother in-law.

“Yeah, you could really hurt someone with that,” Rose had to admit, even though she felt a similar hesitation to calling out the older woman whose approval she felt she needed.

“It shouldn’t hurt,” Amelia said, not taking her eyes off of Gina. “Does it?”

“Yeah, of course it fucking-! …Well, wait…” Gina had said “ow” out of reflex, but now that she’d had time to breathe and process what had just happened, she realized that her hand didn’t actually hurt that much. Check that, it didn’t hurt at all now, it felt warm and kind of nice.

“So the riding crop doesn’t hurt?” Dawn wondered.

Gina shook her head. “No, it definitely did, but now I feel all good… that’s fucking weird! And I don’t even feel like getting a drink now!” She marveled at the strange reworking of her mind. Normally having her thoughts altered like this would have been cause for outrage, but she was too amazed at the strange change.

“It might be like conditioning!” Dawn realized. “When she was doing something you disapproved of, Amelia, it hurt; but now that she’s not doing it, she feels pleasure!”

“Yeah, I think so…” Gina scrunched up her face as she rubbed her hand contemplatively. “I still want to get a drink, but the thought of not drinking makes me feel really warm and… ooh.” She grinned as she felt a rush of pleasure shoot through her, just like Dawn speculated.

“So it doesn’t directly alter her behavior, it simply compels her to comply through the use of a pleasurable reward,” Amelia mused, flicking the riding crop through the air several times with a “swish”. “That is good. I had hoped not to get too heavy-handed with my actions.”

Rose frowned. “You say that… but you still hit her with it before you knew how it worked, right?”

Amelia glanced her way.

“…M-ma’am,” Rose quickly added to appease the cold-eyed woman she couldn’t get a read on.

“I agree with Rose,” Mary said, glancing between Gina and Amelia. “Look, I get it, you wanted to prevent Gina from drinking, right?”

Amelia nodded.

“Well… there have to be better ways to do that, right?” Mary pointed out.

“As much as I admire the willingness to resort to brute **** to keep Gina in line- and really, nicely done, we’ve been trying for weeks to get her to stop her self-destructive behavior,” Dawn couldn’t help but acknowledge with a wry grin, “I think you could have maybe… asked her to stop, first? Before you resorted to such **** measures?”

Amelia was quiet for some time, then a trace of what could possibly be considered shame seemed to creep into her face. She averted her eyes, and Mary swore she could see a light dusting of pink on her cheeks.

“…It appears I have blundered severely,” she quietly admitted. “Nicholas even warned me, and yet…”

“Hey, come on, it’s not that big of a deal,” Gina groaned, rolling her eyes. “Come on, it even felt good! What’s the problem?”

Dawn sighed. As usual, Gina was failing to grasp the bigger picture here.

“No, they’re correct,” Amelia humbly acknowledged. “Because of my transformation, it appears that I now see you as my own daughter, Regina. And I behaved how I would have behaved had that been a fact.”

Gina blushed. “O-oh, I see…”

Amelia looked down. “I don’t know how much you remember of me from when you were a child, but I have always had difficulty expressing myself in words. I assume my actions speak for themselves, and can properly convey my consideration. But… as you can see, that is not always the case.”

She turned to Dawn. “You’re… Dawn, is that right? Nicholas’s friend, from school?”

Dawn blushed. Her tail flicked behind her. “Well, friend is a little… we barely talked back then…”

Amelia raised her eyebrow. “…Regardless. You’re right. I should have talked to her before I acted. I thought that by taking a firm hand, I could demonstrate my concern for Regina’s wellbeing and improve her situation with some discipline. But… that was too overbearing of me.”

Gina winced. “Hey, look, just don’t mind control me, okay?”

That was the real issue here. Amelia had resorted to brainwashing pretty fast.

“Yes, that is also not acceptable, is it?” Amelia admitted with a tired sigh. “Even after all these years my skills as a mother… are quite lacking.”

Mary nodded sympathetically. Motherhood was hard… or so she imagined. She rubbed her stomach subconsciously as she contemplated that.

Amelia turned to face the punk girl completely. “I apologize,” she said, lowering her head in contrition.

“H-hey, whoa, like I said, it’s not a big deal,” Gina said, holding up her hands. She felt really weird getting apologized to when it was obvious that Amelia was trying to help… even if it was in the worst possible way. “I didn’t even really want to drink anyway, it’s just what I do, you know?”

“You shouldn’t drink ‘just because’ you know,” Dawn pointed out. Gina responded by sticking out her tongue.

“I see.” Amelia was looking at Gina with new eyes. “Perhaps I have been working with outdated information, then. In which case, an apology is even more warranted.”

Gina blinked in confusion. “…Huh?”

Amelia addressed her directly. “After I returned to the real world from this place the last time, and saw you like that, I got in contact with your parents.”

Her words froze Gina in place. She turned pale.

“M-mom?” She whispered. “…Errr, you… you called my parents?”

The other girls gasped.

Amelia nodded. “I was perturbed by your behavior and appearance at the wedding,” she explained. “You seemed so different from the Regina I remembered. Of course, in hindsight, that could have been because of these transformations, but I was not aware of that at the time… so, out of concern, I called your family, posing it as trying to catch up and reconnect.”

“Wh-what did they say?” Gina asked, the eagerness in her voice overpowering her worry. “Did… did they ask about me?”

Mary swooned a little at how hopeful she sounded.

“They were very concerned,” Amelia answered. “Apparently, they were under the impression that you had checked yourself into a rehabilitation clinic for narcotic use.”

Gina blushed. That had been the lie she’d told her dad way back at the beginning of this twisted show. So they really believed her… and they thought she was doing her best to get clean and sober?

“Your mother told me everything that you’ve gone through, and what they went through with you,” Amelia stated. Her voice was a cold and impartial conveyance of fact, free of any judgment. “I based my decision on that knowledge. But it appears I was in error. You seem far more high-functioning than she believed.”

Gina wanted to be happy to hear that. But the fact that her mother had such a low opinion of her really stung.

“Yeah… I guess… I guess I’ve improved since I’ve come here,” she muttered, glancing over at Dawn and Mary, who had both worked hard keeping her active and positive. But as much as she appreciated that fact… she still felt like she was going to cry.

Amelia watched the conflict play out over Gina’s face.

“Also… I would be remiss not to inform you that, in my opinion, as a parent myself… your family is hoping for your swift recovery,” Amelia stated.

Gina’s eyes widened and she stared at Amelia in shock.

“…What?”

“Your parents want you to come home, Regina. Once you have recovered from your addiction. They did not say it in so many words, but their feelings on the matter were clear.” Amelia’s words shook Gina down to her soul. She stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the other woman, pulling her into a tight hug. “You are loved.”

Gina didn’t know what to say. She stared blankly off into space as she processed what the other woman said, and then… she couldn’t hold it back anymore.

“I… I…!” She broke down crying and collapsed into Amelia’s arms.

Amelia didn’t know exactly what to do. She wasn’t the hugging type. But her body had responded before she knew what to do with it, and had hugged Gina before she had a chance to react. This was definitely her transformation at work, compelling her to be more physically affectionate, and while that was never something she’d been good at in the past, it was certainly a nice sensation to experience right now.

She smiled the smallest of smiles as Gina cried.

While Amelia was comforting the distraught Gina, Vivian was strolling down the halls of the hotel with a big smile on her face.

“This is a big place,” she mused. “Nothing like daddy’s hotels at all! There’s so much to see here.” She tapped her lips thoughtfully as she watched a faerie fly by.

“Oh! Excuse me, um… miss?” It was hard to tell the creature’s gender given its small stature, slender figure, and androgynous haircut, not to mention the shimmer of colored light emanating from it like an aura.

The winged figure stopped in place, hovering in the air with fluttering wings. When Vivian got a good look at the pixie’s face, she could see it was indeed a female- the small figure turned and looked at her with a quizzical expression.

“Are you talking to me?” She asked, pointing at herself. “Did you need something?”

“Well, yes, I do,” Vivian nodded, stroking her chin as she approached the perplexed pixie. “I’m looking for the Boutique. How do I get there, again?”

“Oh! That’s simple. The fastest way to get anywhere in the hotel is to take the elevator,” the faerie said, pointing at the elevator doors. “All the rooms in the hotel can be found by walking the halls, but the elevator connects to any of them. You simply take it to the Shopping Center. The Boutique can be found there!”

“…Right, right. Thanks!” Vivian cracked a grin.

But she didn’t leave. She kept staring at the faerie. It would have made the small sprite nervous, but she was designed to always be pleasant and accommodating to the guests of the hotel.

“Is there anything else I can help you with?” The blue-haired faerie asked, tilting her head to the side curiously and flashing a service smile.

“Yes, I had a few more questions… is that your natural color?” Vivian leaned in close to study the faerie. “It looks very pleasant!”

“…Yes?” The faerie had definitely never answered questions like this one before. “All of us faeries were created with a color scheme. I’m blue.”

“And does that mean something?” Vivian asked, looking at the aura of soft blue light coming off of the faerie. “I’m not some super fantasy gal, but different colors usually mean something, right? Are you special compared to the other faeries?”

“Oh, no, nothing like that,” the pixie giggled, shaking her head. “We all have the same powers regardless. It’s just an aesthetic difference, that’s all.”

“Hey now! Let’s not diss aesthetic choices, shall we?” Vivian laughed. “That blue really goes well with your skin tone.”

The faerie wasn’t sure how to process that. She didn’t even have a name, and had little in the way of ego. She was created to serve, not accept compliments. But she nodded pleasantly regardless, happy that she could be of help.

“Do you mind?” Vivian reached out to her. “I’d like to get a closer look?”

“At… me?” The faerie was confused. While there had been instances in the past of guests at the hotel seeking them out for sexual pleasure (not that it was a common thing, given their size and general asexuality) she had never been the target of it before.

“No… at your dress,” Vivian said.

The faerie blinked. What an odd request!

“…As you wish,” she complied, following along with her duty of doing whatever the guests asked. She fluttered close to Vivian on her slender wings, presenting herself on display for the heiress to observe her clothes directly.

“Hmm… I see… what an interesting pattern!” Vivian studied the garment closely, circling the faerie to get a good look at it from every angle. “At first blush it looks translucent, but I can’t make out any details. Perhaps it’s because of the accompanying light? Or maybe these shimmering stars all over the cloth… what’s this made of? Do you know?”

“No, of course not,” the faerie said, shaking her head. “We were created by magic. Our clothes were created with us.”

“So can you take it off then?” Vivian asked curiously. “I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I’m just wondering if it’s possible. What, with your wings and all.”

She squinted at the faerie’s back. Looking closely, she could see two tiny slits in the back of the dress, where her wings emerged from.

The fae blushed.

“It is possible, of course,” she said.

“And if I asked you to… you would?” Not that Vivian had any need for that.

“Of course. It’s our job to do as the guests desire,” the faerie replied automatically. “If you wish for myself or any other faerie in the hotel to remove their dress, you need only ask.”

“Wow, you really are obedient!” Vivian laughed. “I wish you could teach that nosy butler of mine a bit of that.”

The faerie wasn’t sure why she was laughing, and just replied with a tepid smile.

“One last thing… you don’t mind if I touch it, right?” Vivian inquired. “Again, if you don’t want me to, you can just say no. I’m not going to order you.”

She sighed and shook her head. “It sucks when people want to make you do things, you know?”

“I don’t mind,” the faerie said automatically, shaking her head. “Touch me as you like.”

Vivian shrugged. “Well, alright then,” she nodded. She reached out and placed her finger on the faerie’s stomach. Given the difference in their size, it covered most of her modest chest and torso as well. She trailed it down, rubbing against the fabric, trying to figure out what it was made of.

“Hmm… feels like silk… but it’s not quite silk. How curious!” Vivian had stars in her eyes just like the ones flashing over the light blue garment. “I’d just love to make a full-length dress out of this material someday!”

Maybe if she asked nicely, she could purchase some of the fabric from Dakota. She could make a killing off of this stuff! The next line of products under the Carrington brand: Faerie Fabrics!

She filed that idea away for later. Right now, she needed to see what the Boutique had to offer!

“Thanks again for your help!” Vivian said as she headed down the hall, back towards the elevators. She waved at the faerie, who waved back at her.

“…How odd,” the faerie said, flapping her wings and flying back on course to complete the task she’d been charged with. She didn’t have much interaction with the human guests, but that was definitely one of the stranger ones.

While Vivian thought about all the designs she could make with that unearthly material, she reminded herself to check her imagination. She wasn’t here to bolster her summer catalog; she had other goals in mind.

But it certainly gets me curious! She thought, licking her lips. I wonder what other kinds of styles the Boutique has? Do they carry clothes like that dress? Designs from other dimensions and planets, perhaps? I’m so excited!

The entrepreneur in Vivian just couldn’t stay down, it seemed. All the other girls seemed to be accepting these unique supernatural events like they were just ordinary; but they weren’t! This was something unique an amazing!

She was sitting on a gold mine here. Her brain raced through about a thousand possibilities of how she could monetize the things she’d seen here. While making a room out of candy probably wasn’t feasible back on earth, some of the other things Dakota had demonstrated certainly could be.

Heck. Maybe, when everything’s said and done, we could even off vacations to this place, she considered. How much money would people pay for a weekend away in Dream Alley? A place where all their fantasies could come true?

Vivian frankly should have been a little more careful about her plans. But she was only half-serious anyway.

It’s not like she could actually commoditize this place… right?

As she stepped out of the elevator and out into the Shopping Center, she added that to the list of things she could talk to Dakota about. If the host was up for it, there could be a very lucrative business venture here.

No matter how hard she tried to suppress those thoughts, they kept popping back into her mind as she walked down the street, checking the map for the location of the Boutique.

It was only when she walked inside that her mind cleared up.

She had something new to take her attention now.

“Welcome, how can I… geh!” Kim blanched, her professional smile freezing on her face when she set eyes on her newest customer. “…You?!”

“…Hey there,” Vivian waved coquettishly. She slid her sunglasses down her nose as she sauntered into the Boutique with a saucy smile on her lips. “So you can smile after all! That’s nice.”

“What are you doing here?” Kim growled. All her years of professionalism and customer service flew right out the window where the obnoxious heiress was concerned.

“What do you think?” Vivian smirked, shrugging her shoulders and holding her arms out wide. “I’m a customer! I’m here to see what you’ve got for sale!”

All of Dakota’s taunts and temptations had failed to get Kim to take off sick. But Vivian walking through the door was all it took to make the schoolgirl wish she’d done so after all.