Ooh, deep inside me, and it hurts so bad

Dani had a miserable, guilty feeling welling up in her chest from what she’d done last night. That’s why she was glad to finally be taking her mind off things by going for a workout with Kim. It was nice, to engage in some strenuous physical activity, and get her blood pumping.

Plus, being buddies with Kim meant they spent a lot of time together; they could go right from breakfast to working out without missing a beat. The two girls weren’t exactly friends, but Dani certainly enjoyed Kim’s company, even though they didn’t really have a lot in common to talk about.

Plus, seeing how well her training regiment seemed to be working out for the other girl was great too. Kim’s midriff was getting toned! Unlike when the girls had first met and she was just skinny from a lack of nutrition, Kim had now put on the weight and trimmed it down to a healthy level.

Maybe I should be a personal trainer when I get out of here, Dani thought to herself. It’s not like I’d have any future as an artist.

She caught herself before she went too far down that rabbit hole. Thinking about her art would inevitably lead to thoughts about her. And that was something she didn’t want to revisit, especially now that Nick was the only one who could comfort her.

Fortunately, Dani’s transformation wasn’t as debilitating as she thought it would be. The way the description made it sound, every time she stubbed her toe she would have to go to Nick to get looked after. That wasn’t the case, though. Things like injuries, feelings of frustration, they would go away at the same rate they would before. Even now, working out like this, removed a lot of her guilt.

It’s probably only the really big stuff that I won’t be able to handle, she thought as she wiped the sweat off her forehead and tossed her towel in the sink. As long as I don’t got any big trauma, it shouldn’t be an issue.

“Hey, Dani, you done in there?” Kim asked, poking her head into the bathroom of the gym. “I wanted to hit the hot springs before I headed off to work.”

“…Yeah, just a second,” Dani called back, checking her reflection in the mirror. Now that she’d gotten some time to think, her guilt about what happened with Sylvia last night returned. What an annoying, intrusive thought.

She turned off the water and headed out to go meet Kim.

“So what’s up with you?” Kim asked as the two women headed down the street towards the spa. “You’ve been kind of distracted all day.”

Dani sighed. “It’s nothing major,” she said, shaking her head. “It’s not a big deal, just… I keep thinking about something.”

“Oh?” Kim raised her eyebrow. “You? Thinking? No wonder you seem so out of it.”

“Hey!” Dani’s expression morphed into a scowl as Kim held her sides, and cackled.

“I think I liked you better when you were dying inside as a corporate ****,” Dani huffed. Her tone of voice hopefully conveyed that she wasn’t serious when she said that, and Kim accepted the good-natured rag with a smile.

It wasn’t until they got into the spring together that Kim pressed Dani a little further.

“So what have you been thinking about? Because you’re doing it again. That stare-off-into-space thing. Dakota didn’t slip you a bimbo transformation under the table, did she?” Kim was wearing her public service smile, but beneath it Dani could see some anxiety.

“Huh? No, why do you ask?” Dani frowned. She hadn’t even realized that she’d been doing it, but Kim was right. Her thoughts kept slipping back to how she’d gotten Morgana to write Sylvia’s name down in that diary.

“Oh, uh… no reason,” Kim said, shaking her head. She shifted from one buttcheek to the other, trying to get comfortable on the smooth rocks beneath them. “I just, um… well… she wouldn’t do that, right? Dakota? Give out punishment transformations. …To people who didn’t do anything wrong, I mean! Like, I know Sylvia punished you and Dawn and Gina for going against her, but that was like, direct opposition. She wouldn’t punish somebody just for following the rules of the show, right?”

Dani stared at her.

“Like, you know, for sake of argument, let’s imagine that somebody did something. And it was completely within the rules! In fact, she didn’t really have a choice to do it. Yeah, choice. Let’s say this person made a choice!” Kim’s voice was starting to get a little frantic. “But, uh… it had some bad consequences for Dakota, and now Dakota is the host… Like, she’s not gonna… do anything to me, right? …I mean, that person?”

Kim’s eyes kept shifting to the door, like she was afraid someone might come in at any moment, or like she was nervous that someone was watching. Of course, someone was watching- millions of someones, in fact. But there was only one Kim really cared about.

Dani sighed and shook her head, and scooted over a little closer to the anxious schoolgirl. “Listen, Kim, it’s not something you need to worry about, okay?” She assured her. “Dakota has to follow the rules too. She can’t just give out punishment transformations whenever she wants! …I hope.”

“You hope?!” Kim squeaked, splashing a little.

Dani couldn’t do much more than shrug. “I mean, it feels like my whole thing has been a punishment transformation on this show,” she scowled. “…And okay, maybe sometimes I deserve it, like for last night, when I got Morgana to give Sylvia a fantasy about sleeping with Nick, but come on, she totally would have liked that, right? So it’s not like I did anything wrong.”

Kim laughed. “Wait, seriously? That’s hilarious.”

“I know, it’s just a funny prank!” Dani groaned. “I shouldn’t feel guilty about giving someone like her a little payback, not after what she did to me! Making me go through all those horrible dreams, about Nick touching me, and-and looking at me… feeling his arms around me…”

She shivered slightly and sunk a little deeper into the pool.

Kim was surprised. “You… you still have those, huh? I thought they stopped, or… you know, they weren’t a problem anymore.”

When Kim had gotten back to her room last night, Dani was already asleep. And she’d seemed fairly peaceful while she was doing it.

Dani shook her head. “The dreams are still there,” she replied. “And I mean… they’re not that big of a deal… I can handle them… you know, thanks to that other transformation I got. You know the one? I don’t care about Nick seeing me naked, or touching my body… even though I know I should care, I just… don’t.”

Her expression darkened into a bitter scowl. “But that doesn’t change the fact that I was changed to think that way,” she added. “After all, I still remember how miserable I originally was, getting all those dreams.”

Dani’s brain was in a weird sort of place. She knew, intellectually, that she should be upset about all her dreams of the things she and Nick did together. But she didn’t. Those things were just the way things were in her mind. And while that pissed her off, she didn’t let it bother her.

She had more important things to think about, like that nagging feeling like she’d done something wrong, forcing Sylvia to have that dream. She’d gotten upset herself when Morgana had done the same thing to her before, not to mention how mad she’d been at Sylvia for the punishment transformation. So wasn’t doing that kind of hypocritical?

Come on! She told herself. It’s not a big deal. You’re already over this, remember?

So why did it keep digging back into her head whenever she tried to put it out of mind?

Noticing Kim’s anxiety, Dani **** those thoughts even further down, and refocused on her buddy. “Hey, Kim, are you okay?” She asked. The asian girl wasn’t exactly subtle about her worries as far as Dakota was concerned. “Look, while Dakota’s the kind of person that holds a grudge, I don’t think that she’d directly target you with a punishment transformation just because you didn’t pick her to be your buddy.”

At least Dani hoped that was the case. Her comfort was, in a way, aimed at herself as much as it was aimed at Kim- after all, she was the one who Kim had chosen as her buddy over Dakota! If the new host wanted to flex her muscles and dish out some comeuppance, Dani suspected that she’d be pretty high up the list of likely targets.

And she had plenty of experience when it came to hosts messing with her just for kicks, like Bugs Bunny dicking around Elmer Fudd for shits and giggles.

Of course, maybe I do deserve it, given what I did when I had just a little bit of power myself, she reconsidered, thinking back to Morgana’s diary. No, that doesn’t change the fact that they were targeting me specifically for no reason! It was just a harmless little prank, anyway! She reminded herself with a scowl.

“Okay, thanks, Dani, that does make me feel a little better.” Kim’s bright smile returned, glowing on her flushed complexion from the hot spring’s heat. “You’re right, Dakota wouldn’t just target me like that, I’m probably getting worried for nothing.”

But whether or not her worries were baseless, they were still worries. Kim was going to try very hard to remain on the new host’s good side. After all, given that she worked for the show in some capacity, Dakota had plenty of ways to fuck with her that didn’t involve punishment transformations. She would have to be on her best behavior.

It’s just like getting assigned a shitty new manager at a job, she reminded herself, taking a few deep breaths. Just gotta keep your head up, and keep swimming.

She glanced out of the corner of her eye at Dani, who seemed distracted, and a little irritated at the same time.

“Dani, everything good?” She asked curiously. “You’re still bugged about that whole Sylvia dream thing?”

“No, of course not,” Dani said, worried that her tone sounded a little too snippy. “I’m just kind of frustrated, you know? I mean, I shouldn’t feel bad about what I did. She had it coming! Plus, it was just a prank. So I don’t feel bad. And yet for some reason, I keep thinking about it!”

Kim sighed. “Dani… it’s probably because you’re a good person. You did a bad thing. Sure, maybe it was just ‘a prank’ but come on- giving Sylvia a sex dream, when she’s trying to find out who she is? You didn’t see her yesterday- she ran off in tears because of something Nick said.”

Dani turned green. “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, while we were doing the fashion show, Nick said something about how she couldn’t just keep doing what her mother wanted, that she wouldn’t get anywhere like that. Girl burst into tears and ran away. Probably why she didn’t come down for breakfast this morning; could be she feels miserable even now, you know?”

Well, fuck.

Dani stared down at her reflection in the water. Loathing the face she saw staring back at her, she punched with all her might, creating a big splash and sending ripples out through the spring.

“Aargh, darn it!” She groaned, pulling at her long sky-colored hair. “What a pain in the ass! Nobody told me about that!”

She’d just wanted to have some harmless fun with a woman who seemed to show zero sympathy about what she’d done to make Dani’s life and several other people miserable. This was exactly what she DIDN’T want to have happen!

“Hey, come on, you didn’t know,” Kim said. “And besides, it’s Sylvia. You think she’s really going to be THAT bothered?”

Dani frowned. “But you just said-”

“Yeah, the Nick stuff. I think she’s still torn up about the Nick stuff,” Kim clarified. “I don’t think she’s actually that bothered by, well, you know. The dream. If anything, she probably liked it. I think you’re good. But since you’re feeling so guilty about it, it’s clear that it’s sticking with you. Maybe you should apologize just to be safe?”

Dani would rather suck on a lemon. But Kim had a point. She hated her guilty conscience!

“I’m surprised you can empathize with her so much,” Dani said, frowning. “You realize she’s the reason you have to work in that store for four hours a day, right?”

Kim shrugged. “Compared to my old schedule back home? That’s nothing. And hey, she went out of her way to help me out and cut my time in half. She didn’t have to do that.”

“But she probably did it to make for a better show,” Dani cynically pointed out. “Not out of any sympathy for your plight.”

Kim shrugged again. It didn’t really matter the “why” to her. “I guess things just aren’t that bad for me,” she replied. “I’m fine with my job, I get to wear sexy outfits all day. It’s kind of thrilling, you know?” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Thinking about Nick checking me out in lingerie?” She let out a giddy little giggle. “The 100% Completion one isn’t great, but the schoolgirl uniform? Those outfits are pretty cute, even if they took some time to get used to.”

Dani was amazed. Kim seemed like an entirely different person. Nothing like the jaded, cynical worker she’d been. It was like this show had transformed her into someone sunny and positive- and who clearly didn’t mind showing off her body.

She remembered how energetic she’d been on the stripper pole, and how nonchalant she’d been about wearing lingerie to a wedding full of strangers. Even way back during the third challenge, she’d apparently stripped naked and let Nick and Sylvia eat sushi off of her body.

“Kim… do you… like people looking at your body?” Dani asked. “Are you an exhibitionist or something?”

Kim blinked. “What’s an exhibitionist?” She asked.

“…Someone who likes it when people look at them in sexual ways, I guess. You know, they like being watched having sex, or stripping naked, someone like that.” Dani felt really awkward talking about all that stuff with Kim. Meanwhile, Kim just stared at her with her mouth open.

“I-I don’t want to have sex in front of a bunch of people!” She exclaimed hotly. “So no, it’s not like I’m an exhi-whatever! I just… it’s exciting, being checked out, you know?” She played with the tips of her short hair. Sometimes, she forgot that she cut it. “I mean… I never was. The only people who would leer at the frumpy old me were scummy guys just trying to get laid. So I guess… seeing people think I’m actually attractive, instead of just ‘female who I can fuck’ is… nice.”

Kim had never been that attractive. And yet, as a woman working in the service industry and interacting with customers, she’d gotten hit on a lot regardless. That was the thing. It wasn’t about being desired, or people finding her attractive. To a lot of guys, the fact that she had a nice smile and was a woman they could hit on and couldn’t outright rebuff made her an easy target.

But when Nick looked at her, it was with genuine desire. Maybe he didn’t think she was as cute as Mary, or pretty like Rose, or find her as sexy as Carly, or that she had Gina’s wild, uninhibited charms. But he still wanted her.

That didn’t make her an exhibitionist! Certainly not!

The screen door sliding open killed the conversation before it could go any further, and Dani gasped when she saw who it was.

“Hello there!” Sylvia greeted the girls with a wave. She had a towel wrapped around her svelte figure. Kim squinted through the steam as the blonde girl slipped into the water. Just as she’d guessed from what she’d seen yesterday, in spite of her reduction in stature, Sylvia still had a decent body. Her breasts were slightly bigger than Kim’s, who had a decent handful. They looked even bigger on her trim, athletic figure. They couldn’t compete with the likes of Gina or the twins, but she certainly didn’t look childlike.

Kim wondered why Nick had such an aversion to seeing her in a sexual light. Was it really just because of the “Daddy” thing? Or because she used to be the host?

“I hope you don’t mind me joining you,” Sylvia said, her face glowing. “Wow… this hot spring is so warm… I always meant to go in back when I was a host, but I just didn’t have the time…”

She let out a long sigh, then turned to Kim and Dani.

“So what are you girls talking about?”

Kim’s eyes shot to Dani, who was looking down at the water.

Well, if something was going to be resolved, it was up to Kim to do it.

“You sure seem happy today, Sylvia,” Kim said, trying to break the ice. “I was kind of concerned, when you ran off like that yesterday.”

Sylvia’s smile twitched, but Kim knew fake smiles; she wasn’t faking this one.

“I, uh… I got a little carried away,” she admitted. “Daddy told me that I needed to change things for myself, and take a little more agency in my own life.”

Kim raised her eyebrow. That was a familiar speech. She wondered how much of it he’d recycled from his own advice to her.

More importantly… she’s still calling him “Daddy” huh? I thought for sure that Nick would have put a stop to that at the first opportunity. I wonder what’s up with him… nah, he probably just forgot. Kim wasn’t sure what to think of the whole “Daddy” nonsense, and was glad that she was just a schoolgirl. Nick hadn’t ever been weirded-out by THAT transformation path.

“Also, I had a really great dream last night,” the blonde sighed wistfully. “It really perked up my mood!”

Dani let out a small squeak and shrank a little bit, splashing the water.

Kim laughed. “Something you want to confess to, Dani?” She asked, putting the matter out there. If Dani had done something bad, she needed to be honest and get out ahead of it. Kim always said, honesty was the best policy!

And Dani felt the same way.

“Um… Sylvia… that was me,” she admitted, glancing at the blonde. “I was with Morgana last night, and I got really horny… and I lost my judgment. I thought that if she had to give someone a dream, it should be you, as just a prank… plus, you might like it, and it was karma for what you did to me… and got Morgana to do to us… so…”

Sylvia laughed. “Oh! Yeah, no, I should have guessed! So that was you guys? Well… it’s not like I can really say ‘thank you’ but you were right, I didn’t mind.”

She shook her head. “But… Daddy wasn’t there when I woke up this morning. So even if I don’t mind, I doubt HE was a big fan of it. Still, don’t worry. We’re cool. I don’t have a problem with dreams like that. It’s all for making Daddy happy, right?”

Dani and Kim looked at each other. Sylvia’s warped mindset of “transformations are good if they make the master happy” was clearly still active.

She hadn’t been upset about getting the dream; the only issue she had was that Nick hadn’t liked it? Talk about crazy.

A sour look crossed Dani’s face.

“Um… something the matter?” Sylvia scooted away slightly. She’d been in a good mood so it had slipped her mind but the fact was, Dani still had a bit of a grudge against her, and she didn’t want to inflame it any further.”

“I apologized, and you forgave me… so I shouldn’t be bothered by this,” Dani grumbled. “So why do I still feel guilty about what I did?!”

She shouldn’t, but… it just kept nagging at her, like a worm burrowing into her mind. She wanted relief from this feeling of guilt, she wanted-

Kim glanced at Sylvia. The blonde had already realized it, and was trying not to laugh.

“It’s your transformation,” she said, repressing her giggles. “You… you won’t feel better unless Daddy comforts you about it, even if I forgive you.”

Dani’s face turned hot.

“Come on!” She groaned, stomping out of the hot spring. “That’s just dumb! What a stupid transformation!”

The screen door slammed behind her as the hot spring was filled with Sylvia’s gleeful cackles. Even Kim cracked a smile, finding the situation slightly amusing, even if she was sympathetic for her friend.