I've got my toes in the water

The sun set over the beach, illuminating the water with a deep orange glow. It was so peaceful here, a strange combination of quiet and liveliness. Surprisingly, no sound could be heard. There were no gulls filling the sky, and no waves crashing against the bright sand. No, the tide was gentle and calm, like the rest of work didn’t exist except on this beach.

Two figures walked barefoot in the surf, admiring the scenery.

“It’s so beautiful,” Kim breathed, brushing her hair behind her ear as the soft breeze caressed it. “You know… I don’t usually get to enjoy the sunset like this.”

“Really?” Nick asked. He was her partner on this little sunset stroll.

She shook her head. “Usually I’m working the nightshift, or so exhausted from the dayshift that I’m coming back home half-asleep. When you’re working your ass off for hours, you miss out on the quiet beauty of the world, I guess.”

She smiled. “Maybe that’s why I like plants so much. That feeling of ephemeral appeal, knowing that they’re striving their hardest to survive, but eventually that beauty will fade away like a flower when winter comes…”

“That’s poetic,” Nick murmured. He closed the short distance between the two of them and wrapped his arms around her shivering figure. The deeper the sun sank on the horizon, the colder the chill in the air became.

“You know, a part of me is glad Sylvia brought me to this island,” Kim admitted. “I never would have known how much I was missing if I’d stayed working in a gas station all this time. I was missing out on so much, but you… Nick, you and the others… you’ve all shown me that there’s more life has to offer than just living to work.”

She turned to face him, still feeling his arms wrapped around her. But she didn’t care anymore. Right now, the only that mattered to her was the light in Nick’s eyes. He was staring right at her, as if the other girls didn’t exist.

In that moment, they didn’t. It was just the two of them there on the beach, no one to look down on her or draw away his attention. They could just do what they wanted together, without any interference at all.

Kim did what she wanted. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against his, and the world was swallowed up by the kiss.

Her eyes snapped open and she sprung up out of bed, startled.

“Whoa, that… so that’s what that was like,” she whispered to herself. This morning at breakfast, she had purchased a special option from the list of items to buy with BP. She’d bought a dream.

So that’s what would please Nick, huh? She mused. It certainly wasn’t what she’d expected. A dream of the two of them walking together on the beach before sunset. It stuck out vividly in her mind, much more than her usual dreams. Presumably so she could make use of the information; it wouldn’t be a very useful purchase if she forgot the contents immediately.

A nice romantic walk in the sunset… Nick was definitely a simple guy if something like that would make him happy. Knowing that brought a smile to her face.

Unfortunately it’s a little too late for that, she thought, glancing out the window of her room. The sun had already set, and night was creeping in.

To make the best use of her gift, Kim had taken a quick nap before going to the Master’s Suite. Just enough so that she’d know how to please him when she arrived. That was the whole point of her purchase, after all. She wanted to improve her relationship with Nick as best she could without having to do any sexual stuff; she wasn’t ready for that yet. But she couldn’t just lag behind, either, so she’d hoped to appeal to him through genuine romance.

Unfortunately it was a bit of a bust.

This island is so strange… it should be summertime, and yet the solar cycle doesn’t reflect that. The most compelling argument for the case that this island was in a different dimension came from the way the day-night cycle worked. The sun would rise, without fail, at 6 o’clock, and set, without fail, by 6 o’clock. 12 hours of sunlight and 12 hours of darkness, even though they were in the middle of summer. It’s like the people controlling this island laughed in the face of daylight savings’ time.

Kim sighed. No use getting annoyed at a missed opportunity. Assuming she survived the elimination round, there would be time for a romantic walk at sunset again next week. Or if I’m feeling really bold, I can do it on someone else’s night with him.

That might be a little too aggressive, though. For now, she’d respect the other girls’ days with him, just as they respected hers.

“Kim… don’t you need to go?” Mary asked curiously. She’d been curled up in one of the white armchairs reading a mystery. “It’s almost six…”

“Right you are,” Kim nodded, rolling out of bed and changing out of one school uniform and into another. It had been over a week and she was starting to get used to her new wardrobe; it wasn’t like she was particularly attached to all the ratty clothes she had from her house. She looked much better in these.

The schoolgirl transformation was a boon to me. But I doubt the 100% Completion one will be, Kim noted with a bitter frown. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of being **** to satisfy Nick if he ended up getting an erection.

Let’s just hope that doesn’t end up happening. In spite of her worries, Kim didn’t try to ugly herself up or anything, she actually carefully checked her appearance in the mirror to make sure she looked nice. How else was she going to appeal to him?

It was a thin line she was walking, but she had to.

She took a deep breath and said her goodbyes to Mary before heading up to the Master’s Suite.

Kim’s heart pounded in her chest as the elevator rose, and she wondered what waited for her. Would Nick be happy to see her? Nervous?

…Excited?

She knocked on the door and it swung open to reveal… not what she was expecting. Black smoke flooded out of the room and she began to cough.

“Nick?!” She exclaimed, pushing the door all the way open and rushing inside. She smelled something burning. Had the room caught fire?!

“In here,” Nick called from the kitchen, his voice glum. Kim walked inside to see him at the oven, leaning over a frying pan filled with a charred black substance.

“What’s wrong?” Kim asked, holding back a smirk. “Cooking problems?” Considering all the times he’d shopped at her store he never bought anything that couldn’t be prepared in a microwave or with hot water, it was no surprise that he wasn’t a master chef.

“I tried making a steak,” Nick sighed.

“I think you’re supposed to use the oven for that, not a frying pan.”

“Well, I know that NOW!” He hung his head in shame, scraping the war crime to food he’d committed into the trash. Kim was just relieved her transformation wasn’t going to compel her to eat it like with the yogurt this morning. Apparently, even SHE had her limits.

“I knew it was a mistake to try cooking.”

“Any particular reason why you did?” Kim walked over to him, still trying hard not let her smile turn into a smirk. “Let me guess. Pressure of the game finally got to you, and you decided it would be better to burn the hotel down?”

Nick blushed and averted his eyes. “I, uh… I wanted… well, I wanted to make you dinner. Since you’re always working so hard.”

Kim raised her eyebrow. “You could have just asked the faeries to prepare it for you like we did last time, though.”

“Well, yeah,” he admitted. “But see… that just didn’t feel right to me, you know? You always make a big deal out of being genuine and working hard on your own, and just having the faeries prepare a meal for you seemed like taking the easy way out.”

He shrugged. “I guess I just wanted to do something genuine, you know?”

Kim flashed a grin. Apparently, both their plans for the evening had gotten screwed up.

“Nah. Forget that. Let’s order in!” She suggested, flopping down on the couch. Rose was right. She’d been working so hard for such a long time, honestly she deserved to take it easy every now and then, didn’t she?

Nick nodded and quickly ordered two steaks from the faeries. They finished their meals, laughing the entire time, and when that was done, Nick dug around for something they could watch together.

“You like procedural cop dramas?”

“Haven’t really watched any. Do you?”

“You bet,” Nick grinned. “I love figuring out who the bad guy is.”

“Ooh, cool. That sounds cool,” Kim nodded. She vaguely remembered Mary gushing to her about how much fun she and Nick had on their date together reading mystery novels to one another. She was down for something like that.

But when Nick ordered a copy of season one of Law & Order: SVU he ended up getting a Harem Hotel exclusive spin-off instead: Sexy Vixens Unit.

The amount Kim laughed her ass off more than made up for the uncomfortable atmosphere. To both their surprise it wasn’t ACTUALLY a porno. The dialogue was as cheesy and filled with innuendo as one, and the actors and actresses were all hilariously dumb and sexed up bimbos and himbos, but it actually did have a plot- albeit a blatantly sexual one.

Still, it was good for a cheap laugh, and they ended up watching episodes until it was time to go to bed. They went to sleep like they did last time they were together, on opposite sides of the bed without even touching.

While Kim was enjoying herself in the Master’s Suite, Mary was curled up with a good book. She’d been reading on her own, not moving from her chair even after she was left to her own devices. She was so wrapped up in the mystery that she actually thought she’d be having the room to herself for the evening like last time.

“Hello there.”

Mary’s head snapped up from her book and she went pale. Rose stood in the doorway with a bag in hand and a coy grin on her face, having let herself into the room with her temporary access key. That’s when Mary remembered one of the conditions for the Auditionee.

“H-Hello…” She greeted Rose awkwardly. She wasn’t used to dealing with overtly sexual women like this, and even though she pretended to keep reading her book as the actress strolled into the room, she was really watching the blonde out of the corner of her eye.

“You don’t have to worry,” Rose said, flashing Mary a smile as she sat down on the bed and turned to face her. “I don’t bite.”

“I see… that’s nice, I guess,” Mary mumbled, glancing back down to the page. She’d been so close to figuring out whether or not the killer was the heiress or the stepfather, but now the words were all starting to blend together and she’d completely forgotten all the clues and evidence.

She sighed and closed the book. She wouldn’t be able to get any reading done with the smell of roses permeating the room.

Mary glanced up cautiously at Rose. She just seemed so out-of-place sitting here. Because Mary and Kim were Team Virgin, they were in the White Tiger room, so everything was colored in white. And because Kim’s uniforms tended to have white blouses and Mary’s favorite color to wear was white, most of the time this room only saw the lighter shades.

So Rose, in her hot red dress, stood out even more. Her transformation had worn off by this point and she was sitting on Mary’s bed, looking filled with sex appeal. Mary cursed her thoughts for leaning in that direction. To think dirty of another woman was a sin, probably.

“So what do you do for fun around here?” Rose asked, leaning in intently. She hadn’t needed to come up to see Mary this early; it wasn’t like the girls had a daily curfew like guests of the Master’s Suite. She could have spent the whole night partying in the hotel casino if she’d wanted to, (or had the money) so long as she made her way back to the room by the time she went to bed.

No, she’d come up at this time for one very specific reason- it was the perfect opportunity to have a bit of fun at Mary’s expense.

“I, uh… what do you mean?” Mary asked. “We have a television set… and books…”

Rose sighed. “No, no, not like that. I mean, come on, you must be missing going out drinking, right? Since your roommate’s only 20? Want to hit a bar and live it up?”

It was an innocent enough question for one adult to ask another. But to Mary it was anything but.

“A bar?!” She exclaimed, scandalized. “I most certainly do NOT want to go to one of those places! I haven’t had a drop of **** in my life!”

Rose rolled her eyes. How was this girl older than her? She acted like a junior high student in Sunday School!

“Don’t give me that,” she scoffed. “I know all about Christianity and the communion wine.”

Mary blushed. “Th-That's different!” She mumbled. “We are taught that it is the blood of Christ, that-"

“Right, so **** bad, cannibalism good. You’re a weirdo, you know that?” Rose chuckled. “But it’s fine. I like the weird ones. No bars then. Want to watch something?”

Mary perked up. “Do you like Little House on the Prairie?”

“That sounds like the most boring thing in the world,” Rose replied. “No, I was thinking we could watch a movie. Have you ever watched any French cinema before, Mary?”

She shook her head. “Aren’t French films filled with smut and lascivious content?” She made a sour face. “I would prefer not to, thank you very much.”

Rose sighed again. This girl was the absolute definition of a buzzkill.

But she still had her uses. “Let’s table the movie for now,” Rose said, filing Mary’s bad taste for later use. “Let’s talk about the game instead.”

Mary blinked. “The game?”

“Yeah, you know. Harem Hotel? The game we’re all playing?” Rose clarified.

Mary gasped and shook her head. “It isn’t a game!” She insisted. “It’s a trial set forth by the lord, to guide me on… you’re not buying this, huh?” She sighed.

Rose shook her head. “Look, Mary, I know an act when I see one. And this Bible-thumper nonsense? I get it. You’re trying to protect yourself, right? Wrap yourself in something comfortable so you don't have to deal with something you can't really deal with. You can tell me.”

Mary nodded glumly. “You’re right,” she admitted. “But I swear! I’m still a devoted follower of Christ, honestly. I just… well…”

“I know,” Rose nodded. “Anyone with eyes can see this stuff is important to you. But don’t you think you’ve been laying it on a little thick? With all this talk about your devotion, and trials, and sinning? You were much more natural when you were talking with Dani about how you accepted her for being a lesbian.”

“You’re right, I’ve been a little… overzealous,” Mary admitted, hanging her head in shame. “But you have to understand, from my perspective…”

“No, I think I’ve figured it out,” Rose held up her hand to cut the redhead off before she broke out into some big speech. “You’re clinging onto something familiar to you because without it, you don’t know what to make of the situation you’ve found yourself in, does that sound about right?”

Mary nodded.

“Look at what became of me,” she said, gesturing to her body. “I used to be so slender, but now…”

“Now you’re a sexy farmgirl, kind of hard to miss that.”

Mary blushed and averted her eyes.

“I don’t like stuff like this,” she confessed. “Sex stuff. It’s a sin, I know it is. Doing these sorts of improper acts in front of God, with a man who has yet to become my husband…”

Rose raised her eyebrow. “'Yet to become’?”

Mary flinched. “W-Well, I mean… that’s… I just…”

Rose tittered. “You really have got it bad, huh?”

Mary blushed. “Nick… I like him. I like him very much. Just the thought of being married to him-”

“And having his little redhead babies,” Rose cut in, intensifying the blush on Mary’s face even more.

“…Y-Yes, and… that… just thinking about it, that makes me feel…”

Rose smirked. “…Makes you feel like you want him to push you down and pound you preggers?” She sneered. Mary blanched at the other woman’s foul language.

“B-Be mindful!” She stuttered. “Words like that, no! My feelings for Nick are pure and chaste!”

“I don’t knoo-oow~” Rose hummed to herself. “If you’re fantasizing about marrying him, doesn’t that really mean that you’re fantasizing about all the things that come with being his bride?”

Mary gulped. “Th-Things like what?” She asked, trying to sound innocent. But the way she shifted her eyes from side to side belied her true feelings on the matter.

Sensing an opening, Rose pounced.

“You want to fuck him, don’t you?”

She laid it out on the table. Mary didn’t know how to respond. She’d been dancing around her feelings all week, because she didn’t like lewd thoughts like that.

“I-I don’t, I just want-”

“To fuck him, you want to fuck him.”

“NO!”

“So you don’t want to fuck him? Why marry him, then?” She pressed. “The whole point of marriage is to lead to the creation of children, isn’t that right?”

Mary nodded, embarrassed. “I-I suppose that is correct,” she admitted.

“Then you want to fuck him,” Rose finished. “You’re just too good of a girl to think in that capacity, aren’t you?”

Mary’s mind was racing as she flashed back to all her erotic dreams. The way she would act, the wanton things she would scream, begging Nick to take her and make her his, to mark her, to fill her up with his seed until she produced a child for him, it was all too hot for her to bear.

“I’m… a bad person…” She admitted, curling up into a ball on the chair and starting to cry.

Rose sighed. Well, fuck.

She’d come here to put the screws to Mary, to play some mind games with her so the redhead wouldn’t be able to think properly, and maybe cause some strife between her and Kim. But now she felt bad. Unlike Rose who made her entire life about playing a part, here was a girl who was as guileless as could be, and she was collapsing under the weight of trying to live up to her family and church’s expectation of how a “good girl” should act.

I’m honestly curious what she’d be like if she just cut loose, Rose admitted. But there was no sense in pushing her that far. Not yet, anyway.

“Mary, the thoughts you’re having right now, they aren’t wrong,” Rose assured her, walking over to the chair and staring at the redhead. “It’s okay to be attracted to men. It’s okay to be aroused by them. It’s a natural part of your body chemistry and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“But I should be stronger,” Mary mumbled. “Strong enough so that I’m not doing anything wrong by liking a boy. I should like Nick in a wholly chaste manner, and not imagine myself being taken by him like a horse takes a mare!

That analogy was… colorful.

“Well, think about it this way,” Rose tried. “Would God have given you a body that made you feel those things, if those feelings weren’t part of his plan?”

Mary looked at her, confused.

“The feelings are a part of his plan,” she clarified. “But what I do about them-”

“So what are you going to do about them?” Rose asked, cutting to the heart of the matter. “Sit on your hands and let someone else take him, because you were too scared to fight for what you wanted? Don’t you want to share your first time with Nick? Are you really happy if someone like me takes it from him instead?”

Mary turned pale. “N-No!” She cried. “You can’t! He is to be MY husband, and that means you can’t just… no, it’s not right!”

Rose narrowed her eyes, sensing blood in the water.

“No, it’s NOT right,” she agreed. “But it is the situation we’re dealing with. You like Nick and you want to marry him. But you’re not alone, you realize that, right? There are a lot of other girls who want to be with a guy like Nick, you’re just one of many on this island. Take your roommate for instance. She wants to be with him, too.”

Mary shook her head. “That is a lie! Kim would tell me if she had feelings for him!”

Rose smirked. Now they were getting somewhere.

“If Kim doesn’t like him, if she doesn’t want to get fucked by him… then why would she spend 2000 BP to buy a dream telling her what he wants?”

Mary turned pale. “Wh-What?” She stammered. She shook her head. “No, you’re lying, she wouldn’t-”

“Check the BP point totals right now,” Rose said. “You can do it any time from your tablet.”

She handed her own device over to Mary, who quickly checked the contents. What she saw made her heart stop.

Before, Kim had been in the lead in terms of BP, with 5200 points. Now she only had 3200. She’d taken a 2000 BP dip. So what had she purchased? Mary scurried over to her welcome basket, left untouched after they saw what was in Kim’s, and dug around for the point table from Sylvia to check the prices.

It was a match. She was sure of it now.

“Kim… she really does like him…” Mary mumbled.

Rose grinned. Just a little more, and she’d be able to drive a wedge between one of the closest pairs of buddies on the island.

Sorry, Kim. But at this rate, whichever one of you wins, you’ll pick the other, not me, since you're such good friends. Rose apologized. If I want to make it to the next round, I need to end the virgin power hour.

“You know,” Rose sidled up to Mary, “if you want to pull ahead and win over Nick’s affections, then you could always use some of your OWN BP for the task,” she purred. “There are all SORTS of things you could choose to make him look at you, or away from the other girls...”

Mary’s eyes scanned the sheet. But she didn’t find anything she wanted. Or at least, the things that might help, such as the day alone, were too much for her to afford with a mere 4100 BP.

“There has to be something!” She whimpered. “Some way I can win Nick over…”

“With this much, you could buy another transformation for yourself,” Rose suggested, curious to see what would become of her. “Or even one for Kim, if you’re feeling punitive…”

Mary swallowed, blanching. She might have actually considered Rose’s suggestion if not for the fact that the thought of another transformation terrified her.

“NO,” she finally said, shaking her head. “That would be wrong.”

“Then what about that option?” Rose asked, pointing at another option on the list. “That has to be something worth using, don’t you agree?”

Mary followed her finger to the spot and swallowed, her mouth going dry.

• 2500 BP: Lock a Contestant of your choice in a Chastity Belt for one day (Lasts for 24 hours after purchasing. Only the Purchaser will be able to remove the Chastity Belt before this period elapses. Genital penetration will be impossible while the Chastity Belt is on.)

“That is…”

“A chastity belt is a good thing, right?” Rose purred into her ear, gently massaging Mary’s shoulders. “Just think! You’ll be sparing Kim from succumbing to temptation and losing her virginity to premarital sex!”

Mary, too hot to recognize that sex wasn’t on the table with Kim tonight regardless, began to be swayed by Rose’s sweet words. A chastity belt would preserve her friend’s purity, but it just didn't seem right! It was like an intrusion... No, she couldn't think like this! In her flushed state she turned the page over, **** to not look at the potential consequences of her actions.

That’s when she saw the three options exclusive to her listed out on the back.

• 1000 BP: Margaery’s Dewdrop – Contestant Mary will receive a special elixir. One sip will make the taster sweet, happy, free of worry, and eager to please in all ways for a period of 3 hours. (Contains enough for 10 doses.)
• 3000 BP: HyperOvium Max – Contestant Mary will be given a bottle of fertility supplements. The pills will stimulate the ovaries and induce ovulation immediately. Effects last for 12 hours after consumption. (Contains 100 pills. Additional pills consumed after the first will increase the possibility of multiple eggs released. Moderation is advised to avoid excessive pregnancy.)
• 10000 BP: Rings of Confirmation – Contestant Mary and Master Nick will be given a set of matching rings. Upon exchanging rings, Contestant Mary will be permanently bound to Master Nick as she would if she were to end the game as a member of his harem, and will remain bound to him even if she should be eliminated from the harem. (NOTE: This item cannot be purchased without consent from both Contestant Mary and Master Nick. This item may only be purchased once.)

Mary took one look at the back of the sheet, and all thoughts of buying a chastity belt for Kim flew out the window. She nearly passed out then and there.

Rose got a peak at the sheet as well, and smirked.

Well, this is certainly interesting. The gears in her head started turning. Rather than turning Mary against Kim and having her sabotage her buddy, a new idea popped into Rose’s head instead.