An awkward, chubby, nerdy 18-year-old eager for adventure.

It happened in an instant, the moment the Scarlet Consort snapped her claw-nailed fingers.

One moment, Pascal was his usual dumpy self, and the next... he felt more right. And despite knowing he was in a dreamscape, he felt a bit more awake, too.

He gasped and looked down at himself once more. Pascal's 18-year-old self was still a chubby, awkward nerd of a young man who played way too many video games, but the ravages of a miserable, stress-filled decade hadn't worn him down yet. Somehow he expected to feel totally different, being in a suddenly and completely transformed body, but if anything, Pascal felt more... normal. Like he'd just shed a heavy, sweaty coat and his body could finally breathe again.

Scarlet cooed and hopped into his arms, her massive red breasts crushing against his chest and bumping his chin while her hands admired his shoulders and jaw. "Oooh! I'm glad you convinced me to try this! Your dream self-image is SO much clearer now!" She then pouted and leaned up to give him a kiss on the forehead. "Poor boy, trapped in time in your own head... Come out and play."

Pascal didn't quite realize he was tearing up until the moisture was threatening to blur his vision. He took a deep breath and hugged Scarlet tightly. "Th-Thank you," he said earnestly, his voice lighter and smoother, though still just as awkward and stilted as ever. "I... I'm so glad I opened your book."

The imp giggled, gave him another kiss, and hopped up into a hovering flight once again to ruffle his more youthful hair. "It's what I love to do - make dreams come true!"

He chuckled at the implicit pun there, then had a minor panic attack and smacked his forehead. "The- The harpy! She took a photo! Are people going to notice-?"

"Pffft, calm down," Scarlet interrupted, waving off his concern. "Give me some credit. That wouldn't be all that sexy, would it? This transformation is retroactive. Even that photo will be changed to fit your current look by the time it's developed. Well, minus the extra inch of cock - that's a surprise you get to show your old conquests later. I've got this, see?"

Pascal let out a deep sigh of relief. It was turning out to be really, really, really nice to have an all-powerful woman have everything under control so that he didn't have to try and keep all the small details in consideration.

The ornate double doors of the room opened with a loud creak, making the newly youthened Pascal jump a little. He turned around to see a SQUISH bot in all her nude white doll-like glory stride into the map room. On top of her head, perfectly balanced, was a tray of what seemed to be a plate of cookies and... glasses of milk? The robot girl smiled as she took the tray to an empty table off to the side of the room. "Refreshments for you, Mayor Scarlet and honored guest. My apologies for the wait. I thought it best to give you some time." Raising a mechanical arm, she lifted the tray off her head and placed it on the table without letting it sway or slide by a single degree.

"Perfect timing as always, SQUISH!" Scarlet cheered, performing a little midair hop. She glanced at Pascal and gestured towards the robot. "SQUISH here is 'in' on the whole dreamscape thing, so you know. Depending on the dreamer, sometimes it's nice to have a little helper-slash-familiar to help manage all the aspects of the dream. And you have a thing for sexy, fuckable helper AIs, so it all works out!"

The SQUISH unit nodded and lifted another item off the tray: Some kind of golden metal wristband. "May I ask that you come here for a moment, Pascal?" she asked in her synthetic, strangely beautiful voice.

Pascal nodded and walked over, struck instantly by how strange it felt to simply walk around in his younger (older?) body. Especially bottomless and wearing only a t-shirt and sandals that were several sizes too large for him now. For some reason, Scarlet hadn't changed those.

When Pascal crossed the short distance to the side of the room, the SQUISH unit took his left hand and snapped the golden band around his wrist. Pascal flinched for a moment, but then the metallic band somehow disappeared... sinking seamlessly into his skin. "What the...?" he murmured, but then a holographic screen appeared above his wrist, showing... what seemed to be a contact list? Mayor Scarlet, SQUISH, Hephzia, Shelly, and even Rigzy were on the list. (That was the entire list, in fact.)

"This is the Halo system," SQUISH exposited in a soothing tone. "Think of it as a non-invasive dermal implant that has all the functions of a smartphone, without the need to memorize numbers or remember to keep it in your pocket. It interfaces with the Gal-Call system of the Paizurian Federation and also allows you to perform Message or Sending rituals here on Gaia, ensuring that if you want to contact someone you've met before in Nestledeep, you can do so at any time."

"That way you can go around naked if you want and still be able to contact people," Scarlet summarized. "'Cuz I know, at some point, you're not gonna be able to resist going around totally naked in public. Don't worry, that's a very common thing in dreams - not even just bespoke dreamscapes like mine."

Pascal chuckled bashfully and toyed with the holographic screen for a bit before he tried to figure out how to put it away - and then it just did. "Neural interface," SQUISH added. "It reacts to your intentions."

"Um, thank you, this is great," he replied, then reached for one of the cookies and glasses of milk. The cookie was chocolate chip, warm and gooey, and the milk was fresh and chilled, making for a lovely contrast. After finishing the first cookie and washing it down, though, he had a thought and looked back at Scarlet. "Do I, um, need to eat and drink?"

"Nah," Scarlet answered with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Doesn't mean you can't enjoy the pleasure of eating, though. And the obvious followup question: No, bathroom stuff isn't mandatory here."

That was good to know. Pascal thought for a moment and then asked, "What about... sleep? If I go to bed here, will I wake up?"

Scarlet grinned. "No. You can go to bed spooning with a busty babe, and then 'wake up' refreshed, getting a morning titjob. What kinda vacation from reality would it be if you couldn't actually rest, huh?"

Pascal put the finished glass of milk down on the tray. He said a quiet "Thank you" to SQUISH.

"You're welcome, Pascal!" SQUISH responded with an inflection that sounded both automatic and genuine. "I made them myself." The robot girl thrust her chest out, as if they required emphasis.

The human had to blush at the idea that he'd just drank synthetic android breastmilk. And that it was delicious. It completely derailed his train of thought for a few good seconds. "What... was I going to say...? Oh, right." He looked back at the Scarlet Consort. "So, basically, I can just treat this as... a whole 'nother world. That's the vibe I'm getting here."

Scarlet nodded vigorously. "Yep! With a bit of dream logic and safety nets to make sure everything goes smoothly and you don't end up with a literal nightmare scenario. But yeah, once you get back out there, feel free to just sink into the fantasy and treat it like a fantastic real-life adventure. Speaking of!" Her wings flitted more vigorously as she flew back around the scale model. "We're just about done with all the safety exposition, and if you think of any more, you now have the ability to just literally call me or SQUISH up at any time! So now you can start thinking about where you'll get started on your sci-fi/fantasy journey!"

Pascal walked up to the table and put his hands on the edge, looking over the hundreds of small buildings and then turning his gaze up to the sci-fi Tower looming in the center. "That's... a lot of options."

"Do you want me to give you some starting suggestions?" Scarlet asked. When Pascal nodded, she smiled and perched on the Tower, tapping on the blinking rings surrounding it. "Here on the residential rings of the Tower, there's a famous alien visiting for a celebrity event. One you might know well from a certain series...!"

Pascal stepped back and gasped, wide-eyed. "Wait, what? There are, like, canon characters here too...?" he asked in a breathy voice that dared not dream.

Scarlet giggled. "Much like the cock-growth opportunities, they're spread out few and far between so you don't get to titty-bang ALL your waifus in an hour. Think of them as another incentive to explore!" She hopped off the Tower and laid down across the more medieval sections of the city, her breasts crushing entire districts as she rested her chin on her arms on her breasts and poked at one of the larger buildings in front of her. "Back down here in fantasy-land, I bet you'd have a lot of fun visiting the Temple Quarter! There you'll find a whole bunch of temples and shrines to all kinds of major and minor goddesses - who are all real, by the way - ranging the spectrum from heaven to the underworld to far beyond. I know how much you like super-mega-ultra powerful women, and I'm sure they'd love to 'bless' you...!"

Pascal nodded silently with a firm blush on his face. His cock was growing erect yet again, and with far more vigor than his dozen-years-older self.

The busty shortstack imp got back up and sat her plush buttocks on the city, and her spaded tail pointed directly at the scale model of the very mayoral estate they were standing in. "Or maybe you want to get your creature comforts all settled, find a place to stay with modern accommodations, a place where you can find cute, sexy roommates and let the rest of the city come to you! That's certainly a valid option here, if you want to keep things chill for a bit while you get settled in this new reality."

The part of Pascal's psyche that was still overwhelmed and was advocating for a cool-off period was definitely intrigued by that option.

Scarlet tapped her wrist. "Or you can call up one of the girls you met earlier!" She then splayed out on her side across the city, waving her arm over it like a gameshow model showing off a fabulous prize. "Or you can literally pick any random place and just wander around, explore, and I guarantee - no, promise - that something interesting and sexy will happen to you. Nestledeep is your oyster, Pascal!"

Pascal looked down, frowning in thought. They all sounded like really good options... Though it did raise one additional, final question. "Not that I'm thinking of going out-of-bounds first thing, but... am I limited to just Nestledeep?"

With an outright laugh, Scarlet shook her head. "No, no. Good question, though. If you want to visit an alien planet, or an elven capital city, or anything like that, I can absolutely make that happen. That's not, like, a hard boundary of this dreamscape or anything. But..." She waved her arm over the city once more. "Nestledeep is going to have the biggest density and greatest variety of all the stuff you're attracted to. It's a big ol' melting pot of all your interests. Really, it's just the most economical use of your time. And I am a little proud of it."

"Heh heh, gotcha," Pascal bashfully chuckled. He then rested his hands on the table again and stared at it for a good, long minute, giving serious thought to where he wanted to go first.

...The Scarlet Consort's sexy imp body laying across the table wasn't making it easy to concentrate, though.