It's what they call, the rise and fall

For the first time in forever, Nick woke up alone in bed. The sweet smell of bacon roused him from his slumber, and he sat up to see Holly toiling away over the stove. She turned to him with a big grin on her face, and practically teleported across the room to get to him.

“Master!” She gushed. “Good morning! I’ve prepared a wonderful breakfast to energize you, today is such an important day!”

Someone, probably Mary or Kim, had informed Holly of the upcoming transformation he’d be subjected to. Needless to say, she was all for it, and had about a thousand ideas that she’d been expressing over the course of the week.

For some reason, in spite of repeatedly expressing how “perfect” of a master Nick was, there were things she thought he could improve on.

“Hey Holly, can I ask you something?” Nick got out of bed and walked over to his closet to get a change of clothes. At this point he’d given up pretending to have any sense of modesty when it came to the woman caged up in his room; if he went to the bathroom to change she’d just try and peak on him regardless so might as well handle it here.

“Of course, master! Anything you like!” Holly cheerfully replied.

“Good. So can you tell me why you turned down my offer last night?”

Holly flinched and averted her eyes. It felt like it had been an eternity since Nick had last seen an expression on her face other than abject devotion.

“…You asked me to sleep in the same bed with you,” she mumbled, turning red. “I-I couldn’t do that… I’m not worth it.”

Nick sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Holly…”

“I’m sorry! I know I’m supposed to follow your orders, but…” She fumbled for the right words but just got more flustered. “But I got eliminated from the show, and now I…”

“Holly.” Nick placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her to face him. “I don’t care about stuff like that. Whatever else happened, nothing’s going to change the fact that you’re important to me. I never wanted to be your ‘master’ but I go along with it because it makes you happy. That’s what I want, to make you happy. Alright?”

Holly sniffled a little and nodded.

“So… it’s okay then? In the future, if I wanted… if you wanted me to sleep in bed with you… it would be okay for me to accept?” She couldn’t keep the hope out of her voice as it cracked.

“Sure thing,” Nick grinned. “…Oh, but that’s only if I don’t have someone better than you in bed with me. I wouldn’t want to trade down, after all.”

He made sure that she knew he was joking around thanks to the tone of his voice. Holly’s eyes grew wide and tiny hearts flared up in them as she clenched her thighs together and swallowed.

“Y-Yes, master!” She nodded frantically.

“Great, I’m glad to hear it.” Nick squeezed her shoulder a little in a comforting gesture. “Now then, I think I’m going to need someone to share breakfast with. Care to join me?”

As usual, Holly had made too much food. She happily accepted the offer, and ate her meal at the table for once.

After Nick’s satisfying breakfast, he headed to the banquet hall to join up with the others. Today was the day of the next popularity poll, so Sylvia had made it clear that attendance was mandatory. He just hoped that everything would be okay with Carly, Dani, and Mimi.

When he arrived, he realized he shouldn’t have been worried. The trio were all eating together and smiling. Even Mimi, who seemed to have opened up a lot over the course of the week. It was hard to imagine that she used to be that dour, emotionless slime girl. Sure, she still had that expressionless, pensive face when by herself, but when talking with the others, she seemed to really open up.

Nick smiled. That was good. He was happy to see her getting along so well with everyone.

The good mood coming from the three of them seemed to be infectious. Mary was perkier than ever, and Kim didn’t seem nearly as exhausted as she had at the beginning of the week. Whatever this new working schedule she managed to develop with Sylvia, it seemed to be going well for her. Gina, of course, was as laid-back as always, and while Dakota was still cold, the fact that they were eating together and chatting was a good sign.

I’m glad those two are buddies, Nick thought. Gina really helps her open up.

It was one thing for Dakota to be her old perky tomboy self around him. But he really hoped she’d take the opportunity and stop being so antisocial, so she could make friends with the other girls in his harem.

On the topic of not having any friends, the only person who didn’t seem to be in a good mood was Dawn. Oh, she wasn’t frowning or upset or anything, she just looked exhausted. And even Rose, dressed as impeccably as always without a hair out of place, seemed a little worn down.

Nick decided to check in with them.

“Hey, are you two doing okay?” He asked.

“Bleeeeegh…” Dawn made a face and glanced pointedly at Rose. “I stayed up all night reassuring her that everything was going to be fine.”

Nick glanced at the blonde. She certainly didn’t seem like she’d stayed up all night. The wonders of makeup, apparently.

“What’s going to be fine?”

“Oh… you know. This and that.” Rose’s cheeks turned pink but she maintained eye contact with Nick in spite of her embarrassment. It wasn’t like she could tell him that she’d been freaking out over the idea of sleeping with him thanks to what Dawn had said the other day.

Dawn’s exhausted face showed traces of guilt. Nick realized that maybe this was an uncomfortable topic for the both of them, and decided to drop it. And not a second too soon, either, because a moment later Sylvia strolled into the banquet hall.

“Good morning, my girls! I hope we’re all doing alright?” She chirped, walking over to the table. Her fingers danced across Nick’s cheek. “And you, my boy? I hope you weren’t too lonely last night?”

“Last night was fine,” Nick replied. “Can we just get on with it?”

“Oh, psh,” Sylvia pouted, puckering her lips. “It’s always business, business, business with you! Don’t I at least get to say good morning to my little girl?”

She turned to Mimi and blew her a kiss. Mimi awkwardly waved at her.

“Now then!” Sylvia tapped her cane on the floor. “Let’s get to it! Before we check the results for the popularity poll and deal with the transformation for our budding master, let’s see where everyone stands in terms of VP, shall we?”

1st: Dawn – 42 VP

2nd: Carly – 41 VP

3rd: Gina – 37 VP

4th: Dani – 34 VP

5th: Dakota – 27 VP

6th: Mimi – 24 VP

7th: Kim – 20 VP

8th: Mary – 18 VP

9th: Rose – 16 VP

“Well, this has been quite an interesting week, wouldn’t you girls agree?” Sylvia purred, tapping her lips thoughtfully. “A few people collected some generous VP rewards… though not nearly as many as I would have expected! What’s the matter? Are you ladies too wary of losing your virginities?”

She looked pointedly at Kim and Mary, but Rose felt a stab of shame to go along with that statement.

“Excuse me, but I’ll have you know that I did… um…” Dawn started out her sentence with righteous indignation, but by the time it got to actually stating her case, she realized what she was saying and her voice trailed off.

Sylvia was happy to pick up the slack, though. “Yes, that’s true my girl, you and Nick certainly did… um. Congratulations! And while it is certainly the case that you’re no longer a virgin, I can’t exactly call the night you both shared all that satisfying, can you?”

Dawn turned red, though it was out of anger. She seethed at the blonde, stewing impotently in her seat. But Sylvia was far from done.

“On the other hand, thanks to all your efforts, you managed to claw your way all the way up to first place like the little kitten you are!” Sylvia giggled. “How fortunate for you, having over one third of the needed VP to win! Welcome to the Above 33 VP club, Dawn! You’re in good company.”

The more one looked at the board, the more obvious it was that there was a significant difference in VP between those who had not. Dakota was the only one there who’d actually had sex with him and was still below 30 VP, thanks to her mediocre showing in the second challenge. But judging by the intense look on her face, that was subject to change.

“Now, as I was saying, there’s a pretty significant gap in VP, but at the same time, none of the other frontrunners managed to scrounge up a single Victory Point,” Sylvia noted. “So it seems the scores are starting to plateau…”

“Excuse me, one moment please.” Carly got up out of her seat, to everyone’s surprise. Nick got a good look at her costume for the first time today, but he didn’t recognize it. She was wearing a form-fitting lavender-purple bodysuit that clung to her curvy figure, with bits of light purple cloth draped over the naughtier bits for just the tiniest hint of cover. The sleeves were dark purple and spiraled out in a strange oblong pattern, and she wore tall black metallic boots with open toes. Most striking of all was her hair, which practically reached the floor, and was colored such a dark blue it was practically black. The bottom was tied off to keep it all together.

He was so busy ogling her body he didn’t even realize she was approaching him until she pulled him into a tight hug.

“Thank you for everything you did last night, Nick,” she whispered. “You have no idea how much I needed your support.”

Hugged the Master! +1 VP

“…Huh. I stand corrected,” Sylvia mused, readjusting the table. “I would have thought you’d get a point for that somewhere along the line last night. Must have missed it…”

1st: Dawn – 42 VP

1st: Carly – 42 VP

2nd: Gina – 37 VP

3rd: Dani – 34 VP

4th: Dakota – 27 VP

5th: Mimi – 23 VP

6th: Kim – 20 VP

7th: Mary – 18 VP

8th: Rose – 16 VP

And just like that, Carly asserted her dominance and **** a tie for first place. Sylvia cleared her throat. “Ahem. But the point remains! It seems like our high rankers have earned their spots thanks to all the sexual acts they did with the master! Which means you girls near the bottom have all sorts of opportunities to seize leads of your own! I look forward to seeing what you’ll think of. Which member of Team Virgin will be deflowered first, I wonder?”

She stared at Mary and Kim. Both women blushed.

Meanwhile, Rose, in last place, just had a shameful look on her face. She had given up her chance to get intimate with Nick to have a fun night with the others, and if that wasn’t bad enough, they’d already done a lot together to begin with; she had very few things she could do to earn VP from him. Sex was still on the table… but was she ready for that?

I’ll have to do my best on the next challenge, she resolved. Flubbing the last one was how she’d dropped so low in the first place.

“Now then, to the matter at hand.” Sylvia tapped her cane, and the screen shifted, clearing away the VP. “We still need to take a look at how much BP you girls have! This is always fun to do before a popularity poll!”

The BP scores appeared on the screen next.

1. Mary – 6100 BP

2. Carly – 5600 BP

3. Dani – 3600 BP

4. Gina – 3600 BP

5. Mimi – 3200 BP

6. Dakota – 1200 BP

7. Kim – 700 BP

8. Rose – 400 BP

9. Dawn – 0 BP

“Hmm… my, my, my…” Sylvia couldn’t help but smile as she saw the results. “Again, there’s a pretty big gap here between the top and bottom… but you know what? Personally I think that’s a good sign! It shows you girls are really working hard and spending your BP! Are you making wise purchases? I’m sure Kim here can tell you all about the horrors of capitalism, isn’t that right, my girl?”

Kim made a sour face in response.

“As for the other totals… well, perhaps some of you are saving up for some important purchases in the future?” Sylvia mused, glancing at Mary. “Can we be expecting any wedding bells in the future, perhaps?”

Mary’s face practically glowed red at Sylvia’s words. She stared down at her lap.

“What’s THAT mean?” Gina asked, completely stumped.

“Mary?” Nick wasn’t sure why Sylvia was aiming at the redhead either, but he was definitely concerned. Mary just shook her head frantically, not wanting to make a big deal out of it.

“Now, as I’m so fond of reminding you all, the purpose of BP is to improve things between you and the master, and to give you opportunities to show yourself off to him,” Sylvia continued. “That’s why it’s yours to do with as you please. Some people blow it all on a regular basis, like Rose here…”

“Hey!” Rose scowled. She’d used her BP for a very important purpose, supporting her partner!

“…And some people hoard it with no real goals on what to buy,” she noted, glancing at Carly.

Carly smirked. “Camera time, baby.” Not a soul there had any idea what she meant by that.

“…But the point is, we want you to use it on the things you need. So with that being said… let’s figure out how many points you all will be receiving from your popularity results! I’m sure you’re all excited to know where you placed!” A wicked smile crossed her lips. “And today’s results were certainly… surprising.”

Nick detected a trace of frustration in her voice when she said that. And upon closer inspection, Sylvia seemed to be leaking an aura of rage form beneath her serene smile.

This doesn’t seem good… he thought.

Everyone was familiar with how things worked by now, even Mimi, so Sylvia didn’t need to explain. She let the numbers do the talking. The screen flickered to life, showing the percentage of the votes each contestant received.

Sylvia was right, there were some serious surprises in the results.

1. Mary – 14.57% +2000 BP

2. Carly – 14.15% +2000 BP

3. Dakota – 11.41% +1500 BP

4. Gina – 11.41% +1500 BP

5. Dawn – 10.64% +1500 BP

6. Dani – 10.46% +1500 BP

7. Kim – 10.01% +1500 BP

8. Rose – 9.46% +1500 BP

9. Mimi – 7.89% +1000 BP

“This is bullshit, complete and utter bullshit!” Sylvia ranted furiously. “My adorable little Mimi didn’t even get 8% of the vote?! Are you fucking kidding me?! LAST place!? Do those fools in the audience not understand just how wonderful and perfect and adorable my little slime darling is?! I’ll rip them limb from-”

Her rant came to an abrupt end when she froze. She turned all grainy for a moment, like a youtube video played at 144p. Then she refocused with a bit of stunned look on her face.

“…Ahem. Pardon my outburst. That was unbecoming.” She cleared her throat and turned back to the screen. “Now, as I was saying, the results of this vote were certainly surprising. Wouldn’t you girls agree?”

Kim was the most shocked of all about the rankings. Her score had completely crashed. She’d gone from around 14% of the vote to just above 10%, all in the course of a single week.

“My, Kim, that’s quite a fall you had here,” Sylvia smirked. “Hard to believe you were ever in first place with a percentage like that! Going from first, to second, then third from the bottom? If this wasn’t a Harem Hotel poll I would have thought you’d had a sex scandal getting polling numbers like that!”

Everyone could tell that Sylvia was taking out her frustrations on Kim, but the schoolgirl didn’t bite. Fundamentally, Kim wasn’t the kind of person to get upset over stuff like this. Due to her low self-image of her popularity thanks to years of soul-crushing work in the service industry, she’d viewed her early popularity as a bit of a fluke.

That didn’t mean she was happy about it though.

“I suppose the reason you fell so hard is that people just didn’t like seeing you toil your life away in a dead-end job,” Sylvia shrugged. “But hey, those jobs have gotta be done, right? SOMEBODY has to move product from one shelf to another shelf for hours on end. Who’s going to do it? Automation? Pfft.”

“Well, it is what it is,” Kim shrugged. “Besides, I don’t really care what the audience thinks about me anyway. Nick’s opinion is the one that really matters.” She cast a shy glance his way, causing his heart to skip a beat.

Sylvia was nonplussed. Seeing she wasn’t getting anywhere, she turned on Rose next. “As for you-”

“Don’t even bother.” Rose raised her hand and shook her head. “Believe me, I saw this one coming. It’s what I expected anyway,” she sighed. “I can’t repair all the damage I did in one week. All I can do is keep doing the best I can.”

Another non-reaction. Sylvia was getting nowhere with this! What was she going to do next? Go after Dani for dropping behind Dawn? Oh, yeah, that would go well. Attacking the token lesbian right after trashing the two minorities? Her reputation on social media would collapse faster than Threads.

She decided to focus on the positives instead.

“Well, the good thing is that the scores seem to be evening out a lot more,” she continued, sweeping her cane across the room. “Pretty Mary Sunlight is still dominating at the top two weeks in a row, congratulations my girl, that’s a new record, and meanwhile, Carly shot right up to join her! As for the others, we got a few sharp drops. With Dakota’s leap up in popularity thanks to her night with the master, everyone else in the polls seems to have settled around 10-12% of the vote! I want to remind everyone that because we have 9 contestants, the average percentage of the popularity poll should be about 11%. And the majority of people seem to be right about there! Yes, Mary and Carly drove over half of you below that average, but only just barely! This is a good sign, my girls! It shows that the audiences like all of you quite a bit!”

Again, her voice cracked when she said that, and she couldn’t help but glance briefly at Mimi. The slime girl herself, on the other hand, seemed completely unfazed by the results of the poll. That was her girl! Mimi was too amazing to care about the opinions of other people, she made Sylvia so proud!

It was everything she could do to keep from heaping praise on Mimi’s adorable shoulders. She had a job first.

“So wait,” Gina cut in, “me and Dakota got the same percentage of votes. Does that mean we got, like, the same number?”

“That is exactly what it means, my girl,” Sylvia confirmed. “You and Dakota were tied for third place. Apparently they couldn’t decide which member of Team Reckless they liked more!”

The two women glanced at each other and grinned. Nick was just relieved to see them both smiling.

“Now then. With all your new BP accumulation, here’s what you girls have to work with now,” Sylvia said, tapping her cane. Everyone’s new BP scores appeared on the screen.

1. Mary – 6100 BP + 2000 BP = 8100 BP

2. Carly – 5600 BP + 2000 BP = 7600 BP

3. Dani – 3600 BP + 1500 BP = 5100 BP

4. Gina – 3600 BP + 1500 BP = 5100 BP

5. Mimi – 3200 BP + 1000 BP = 4200 BP

6. Dakota – 1200 BP + 1500 BP = 2700 BP

7. Kim – 700 BP + 1500 BP = 2200 BP

8. Rose – 400 BP + 1500 BP = 1900 BP

9. Dawn – 0 BP + 1500 BP = 1500 BP

Dawn glanced helplessly at Rose. She wanted to pay her friend back for helping her out the other day, but she was still 100 BP short. Rose just shook her head and winked. She didn’t need the money now, and she trusted that Dawn would get it to her when she could. Dawn sighed in relief.

“Now then, a few of you girls have accumulated quite a lot of BP!” Sylvia grinned. “I hope to see some big purchases from some of you! As for the rest, keep up the good work, and start accumulating points wherever you can! We had a lot of purchases this week, so it’s okay to take a breather! …Of course… if you want to please the master… well…”

She shrugged her shoulders. It was always a balancing act. Save BP for something big later? Or spend it now, to get ahead with the master (and the audience)?

The choice was up to them. Right now, Sylvia had more important things to deal with.

“In the meantime, for the moment you’ve all been waiting for…” A wicked grin spread across her lips. “The transformation!”

Nick felt a shiver go through his spine as Sylvia turned to him.