Fallout

As soon as he was able to Trevor was out of his seat and striding over towards Natalie. Considering the nature of her last two transformations he felt a little awkward, but avoiding her was something he never even considered.

Natalie stepped down from her podium to greet him. She pulled him into a hug, resting her cheek on his chest. He held her, enjoying the brief respite of security before he pulled away.

He wanted to help her, but had no idea where to start. Her face was sullen, but behind it she had that trademark resolve that he had always admired.

"That was rough," he finally said.

"It could have gone better," Nat agreed. "I could have lived with wearing stupid dresses."

"This isn't going to stand," he promised her. "I won't let it. That transformation was just cruel. Outright sadistic. Violet went too far."

She shook her head. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do about it Trevor. You need to focus on looking forward, not backward."

They had taken away Nat's ability to ever have a loving relationship. His blood boiled. There wasn't a chance in hell he'd just let that go.

Trevor narrowed his eyes, a thought occurring to him. Nat was dressed only in workout clothes. He had noticed it when he got to the plaza but it had sort of slipped his mind once everything started happening. "They didn't change your wardrobe too, did they?"

If they'd piled even more onto her he wasn't sure what he'd do, but it wouldn't be good.

"Hm?" she looked down at herself, remembering how she was dressed. "Oh, right. No, this was just...the only thing that fit after I woke up."

She looked up at him almost apologetically.

Trevor cleared his throat. "That makes sense. Sorry, I didn't mean to bring that up."

Nat's face grew serious. "I don't think we're going to have the luxury of walking on glass around each other. Not if we're going to make it out of here in one piece."

"But hey," Trevor said, elbowing Nat playfully and forcing a smile. "Best girl huh? You're in the top three. You might actually win this thing."

Natalie laughed. Trevor couldn't tell if it was honest or derisive. "Maybe. I'm definitely going to try, but I'm also trying not to think about it."

"Why not? Nat, that's your way out."

"I know. But there's a lot of time between now and the end of the show. If I set my heart on winning and then don't, I think it'll destroy me. Better to accept the damage as it trickles in, rather than get crushed by it all at once."

Trevor nodded. It was a very Natalie outlook. "You are going to try and win though, right?"

"Yeah, absolutely."

"Good."

Out of the corner of his eye Trevor saw Violet descending down the plaza's steps. Shit. He thought she'd stick around longer. He had a bone to pick.

"Hold on a sec Nat, I've got to go talk to Violet real quick."

He sprinted off after her. He was only a little surprised to see Natalie trailing behind him at a slower pace. When he got near he called out Violet's name and she stopped to wait for him.

"Something I can do for you?" she asked.

"Yeah," Trevor told her in a hushed but clearly angry tone. "You can explain why you did that to Paige."

Violet raised an eyebrow, looking annoyed. "Trevor, that's how the show works. It wasn't even that bad of a transformation. She wears skirts now. She'll be fine."

"Not that. At the end of the contest."

"If you have something to say you should really just getting around to saying it."

Natalie pulled up alongside Trevor, looking back and forth between him and Violet with interest.

"You told her she had to say something. She didn't. She could have called bullshit, and if she had she would have lost without having to give anything up."

"If she didn't realize that," Violet said, almost bored, "then that's her fault. It's not my job to give strategic advice."

"No, but it is your job to arbitrate the games. And you lied to her. You told her she had to say something."

"It's a turn of phrase. You shouldn't take everything so literally."

"You pushed her into making that mistake."

"You're reading into it too much. And even if I did, so what?"

Trevor sputtered. So what? It was an inhumanly cruel thing to do to someone. That's what.

"If you compromise your position as a fair arbiter," he said, voice rising, "you're going to have a revolt on your hands. What if Paige realizes what you did? What if I tell her."

"You're not going to tell her," Violet explained, completely dismissing the idea.

"Why shouldn't I?"

"Because it would crush her. She'll have a hard enough time forgiving herself as is. If she thinks she had an out it'll drive her crazy."

She was right. God damn bitch. Trevor almost snarled.

"I think I know why you're so angry," Violet said, voice almost compassionate.

"Because you're a heartless snake and this show is a sex slaver's wet dream?" Natalie chimed in.

"Because," Violet addressed Trevor, "you haven't given the show a chance."

"What the hell does that mean?" Trevor spat.

"Exactly what it sounds like."

"I don't want a harem. I'm not going to **** these women."

Violet rolled her eyes. "Well obviously not. If we had wanted a **** there were plenty to choose from. But tell me, honestly: have you actually entertained the notion of building a harem here? Have you really imagined it?

"Think about it. You could fall asleep with Hanna on one side of you, Aaliyah on the other. You wake up and Natalie is cooking you breakfast in the kitchen. You need to take a break from your research and Audrey is there to spend her downtime with you.

"Have you thought about barebacking Laura? Have you thought about buttfucking Paige? Have you thought about Chloe, bouncing up and down on your dick?"

Trevor's mouth hung open. "Chloe hates me." He latched onto the last thing Violet had said. It was all he could think to do.

She ignored him. "You may think you've made a choice to take the high road. But it's only really a choice if you actually consider both options. What you're doing is just refusing to admit that one of them is on the table. You're burying your head in the sand and calling it righteous."

"I won't turn into a monster for your amusement."

Violet shrugged. "Maybe you won't. Now, if you excuse me, I have some business to take care of." She nodded to both him and Natalie then walked down the stairs to the oasis.

Trevor took a moment to compose himself. He turned to Nat. She looked troubled. "Jesus," he whispered under his breath. "Every time I talk to her I think she couldn't possibly sink any lower. And I'm always wrong."

"She's twisted," Natalie agreed.

Trevor looked around the now nearly empty plaza. "Damn it. Riley left already."

Nat put an arm around him. "He's going to need you," she said softly.

"That's putting it lightly. They're trying to grind him down."

"You'll see him tomorrow. Hopefully he'll still be hanging on." Natalie took her arm back. "I need to get going. I have some shopping to do."

Trevor held back a wince. "Figures, yeah. We need to stay in touch though."

"Definitely," she smiled.

Trevor hugged his sister goodbye, then made his way back to the palace. It felt like walking into a giant's maw.

***

Natalie lay in bed staring at her ceiling in pure frustration.

She'd spent most of the rest of her day shopping for new clothes. Bras, tops, pants, she needed it all. Trevor had really done a number on her.

She looked down at herself. So this is what he liked, huh? Made sense, she supposed. Nothing too surprising really. The whole thing was more than a little disturbing though. She felt dirty knowing that her body had been shaped for brother's pleasure. All of it. The changes to her...down there...were especially violating.

Natalie sighed. She'd deal with this. She had to. One saving grace was that Trevor seemed to think he'd been alone in that dream. He had no idea that she'd shared it with him, and she had no intention of ever telling him. Hopefully Violet kept her whore mouth shut too.

She hadn't known it was Trevor at the time, of course. She'd been looking down or straight ahead or anywhere but behind her. So it wasn't weird, she told herself, that it had felt so good. There was nothing about **** that made it physically unsatisfying. It's not like nerve endings could tell the difference. It was just disgusting. Of course, that was exactly the source of her problem.

She was too horny to sleep.

It was the intersection of her two most recent changes that was causing her so much trouble. Because of the contest she now apparently had trouble sleeping without getting off, but because of the audience vote she couldn't finish.

She'd tried taking a shower once it got late so that she could handle her business, but every time she would start to get in the groove her mind would wander to that dream. All her fantasies had been taken away from her, so that's just what her brain came up with. It was all that she was left with. Of course, knowing that it was Trevor, the thought disgusted her and would pull her right out of the flow of things. So she'd ended up leaving the shower wet and worse for wear.

Now Laura was sleeping not ten feet away and there wasn't much Natalie could do except wait until sheer exhaustion claimed her. Situations like this had happened before, when she couldn't get off. Situations in her new memories, she reminded herself. Not her real ones.

Natalie sighed, admitted to herself that sleep wasn't coming any time soon, and got out of bed. She quietly made her way to the living room then up the stairs to her suite's rooftop patio, where she settled into a reclining chair. The moonlight streamed over the dunes, painting them a cold blue, and shone off the crystal clear water of the lake.

While she stared at those placid waters, Natalie turned an idea around in her head, one that had been bothering her since she'd left the plaza earlier that day.

Violet had been right.

Trevor had never seriously considered taking the harem for himself. He'd dismissed the idea out of hand. Now, unlike Violet, Natalie wasn't a monster wearing a human fleshsuit. So she didn't see that as somehow wrong on Trevor's part. But it was a problem.

The show was going to get its way eventually. Trevor would hook up with some or most of these girls. Between her raw power and the systems she'd designed for the show, Violet had a lot of strings to pull to make sure that it happened. And Trevor was only human.

So, sooner or later, whether in a moment of weakness or passion, Trevor was going to sleep with someone. And if he hadn't reconciled himself with that fact before it happened then he was going to spiral.

Trevor was more than capable of protecting himself from the show. Or at least, he was as capable as anyone could reasonably be. It was Natalie's job to protect him from himself. And to that end, she would have to prime him for when he inevitably gave in.

Natalie made a mental tally of all the girls on the show, trying to figure out who were the biggest psychological time bombs should Trevor do something with them. Obviously not everyone was an equal consideration. She, Riley, and probably Paige weren't even worth considering. Laura wasn't a problem so long as she stayed a lesbian, but Violet had shown earlier that day that that wasn't a given. She didn't think Trevor would have any specific hangups about Aaliyah, Hanna, or Kaya beyond the context of the show itself. That left Audrey and Chloe.

He would definitely have some complicated feelings about Audrey. Natalie felt confident however that Audrey would be able to manage her own relationship with him. To be honest, it was a weight off her shoulders.

Chloe though, Chloe was at the top of her list of threats. She had a lot of motivation to try and move things forward with him; she was down ten Victory Points. She also seemed to not like him very much. Couple that with her age and Trevor's being her TA? If he caved and did something with Chloe the guilt would rip him apart.

Natalie settled in for a long night. It was as good a time as any to figure out what she would do.