Your hand is like a torch each time you touch me

Sylvia paced around the Banquet Hall, feeling rather antsy. She was worried when Gina didn’t come slouching into their room that morning, but had expected to run into her down at breakfast.

When that didn’t happen, and only Rose and Marley had showed up, she started to get concerned. Where was everybody?

“Is everything alright, Sylvia?” Rose asked. “You look kinda wired.”

“I’m fine, everything’s fine,” Sylvia replied, but the nubs of her fingernails disagreed with that statement. “It’s just… don’t you think it’s weird that everybody’s gone?? Like, we used to all meet at the Banquet Hall, remember!?”

Marley shrugged. “We have the lounge area now,” she pointed out.

“Yup, it’s got comfy couches,” Rose nodded. “And the faeries can deliver us any food that we want, so… yeah. Not really much of a reason to come down here.”

Sylvia puffed up her cheeks in frustration. “That darn Vivian! She’s made everybody become so lazy! Giving orders all over the place, what, are they here to wait on everybody or something!?”

Marley and Rose looked at each other.

“…I mean… isn’t that the whole reason Dakota created them in the first place?” Rose pointed out.

“Yeah, Rose is right,” Marley agreed, her voice turning soft with consideration. “Sylvia, when you were the host, you tried to do everything yourself. There’s nothing wrong with delegating, you know? You didn’t have to be so hands-on.”

“But… but I was so cool and awesome!” Sylvia pointed out. “I wanted to be the star!”

“Ah, Sylvia, you just don’t understand,” Nola said, walking into the Banquet Hall and shaking her head. “That’s all part of being the host! Yes, you always want to be doing your best, but you also need to let other people do things to! And then you get to take credit, yes, that’s the fun part. When the hotel employees do all the work, and then you take the credit because you’re the host! …Until you stop being the host. Then it’s not fun. Yeah, see, when that happens, stuff starts to suck because then it’s you who does all the hard work while somebody else takes the credit. But I’m till okay! Just gotta push things to the limit, you know? Work hard! Do your best! Be a great employee!”

She flashed a toothy grin and was about to jump into another screed, when Sylvia rushed over to silence her.

“Okay, Nola, I get it,” she sighed. “What’s up? Why are you here?”

As much as Sylvia enjoyed Nola’s company (when she wasn’t being annoying, anyway) she was still very confused by the presence of her friend.

Nola usually didn’t pop up unless she needed something. Or, more accurately, unless Dakota needed something.

She could smell a trap.

“I just came because I was concerned about you!” Nola’s green eyes sparkled. “Specifically, I was concerned about your decision for tomorrow.”

Sylvia blinked. “…Decision?” She asked, tilting her head to the side.

Nola rolled her eyes. “The bounty? The one about skipping your night with Nick? You know it’s still up, right? Nobody claimed it.”

Rose perked up at that. “Oh, it is?”

Not that she was going to take it. After all, with how far behind in points she was compared to Morgana, she needed to do something to get back into the game.

Nola nodded. “It is! And we’re approaching a deadline, Sylvia! So I just wanted to check, are you willing to give up your night with him?”

Sylvia bit her lip. “…I’m still thinking about it,” she admitted. She honestly didn’t know what the best move would be. Part of her wanted to ask Nick directly and see what he had to say, but she couldn’t bring herself to do that.

After all… he was going on a date with Ella today. That was what mattered most, that they all had a good time together!

Sylvia’s own interests could come after that.

“Well, just wanted to remind you in case you forgot!” Nola chirped. “You know me! Always happy to help out a friend!”

“Should the host’s assistant be showing this much bias?” Rose asked with an amused smirk. “Where’s the heads up for us?”

Nola replied by sticking out her tongue. “It’s a reminder for you, too!” She pointed out. “But anyway, I gotta go! Need to do some of my tasks! Byesies, Sylvia!” She blew a kiss to her friend and then flounced out of the Banquet Hall.

On her way out, two people entered, much to Sylvia’s delight. She immediately forgot about what they were just talking about, and rushed over with a smile on her face.

“Kim! And Morgana! Good morning, I’m so glad to see you!”

Both girls reacted to the blonde’s excitement with confusion. She seemed a lot more animated than usual, and neither knew why. They couldn’t begin to guess that Sylvia had just been bemoaning the lack of presence in the Banquet Hall.

She was so busy fawning with joy, that she didn’t notice Morgana was wearing her hair down again, with her bangs covering part of her face. She looked shy and nervous again, which wasn’t unusual, but Rose still made a note of it.

“Hey, Morgana,” she said, approaching the goth girl with restrained hostility and a **** smile. “Back to your old self, I see?”

“Oh, uh, Rose… h-hey…” Morgana stammered, trying to **** a smile to her lips. “I just, um… you know, yesterday… it was nice, but I think… I’m not ready to do that full-time.”

She’d been rather overwhelmed by exposing herself, and while she was flattered by how highly the audience rated her, it would take some doing before she became confident enough to wear her hair like that again.

Also, it was a lot of work. “This morning, um, I managed to drag Dawn out of bed and get her to take a shower, but… yeah, who knows when she’s coming down…”

That bed was quite a killer.

Sensing that the goth girl was trying anything to change the subject, Kim dutifully did it for her and leapt into the conversation.

“I kind of miss the color scheme of the old rooms,” the tomboy stated. “That being said, I do like what mine can do…”

Rose glanced at her and smirked. “Well, if we’re going by changes… it seems like you’re embracing yours, at least.”

She noted the sweat marks under Kim’s arms. The other girl had picked out a casual dress in a sunny yellow, one that went great with her eyes and her complexion. Only problem was that it was easy to see where the sweat was clinging to.

Kim made a face, and sighed. “Hey, it’s not so bad, alright?” She mumbled. “I just… well, Dakota convinced me to take on another Sick Day transformation, so…”

“Ah, it’ll be fine!” Rose chortled, moving to give Kim a pat on the shoulder. But Kim swiftly jerked herself away from the other woman, pulling back from her with such an obvious move that it gave everybody pause for a moment.

It clearly wasn’t just about personal space to act so swiftly.

Rose took a second to process, but Marley was quick to check in and see if anything was the matter.

“Hey, Kim, are you okay?” She asked, approaching the other girl.

Kim started to sweat even more. She fanned herself and **** a smile that looked very unnatural compared to her usual fare. “Why would anything be wrong?” She laughed, her voice cracking like an egg. “I’m fine. It’s fine! Everything’s fine!”

Oh yeah. That was the kind of thing that made it clear everything was absolutely NOT fine. And nobody bought it for a second. They all stared at her.

“…Kim, what’s going on?” Marley asked, reaching out a hand to her out of instinct. She had a natural need for skinship, but the way Kim obviously moved to evade her spoke volumes.

For whatever reason, she was refusing to let anyone get close enough to touch her. Now that the thought occurred to them, when coming into the Banquet Hall, she’d given Nola a wide berth, and had been standing rather conspicuously far away from Morgana, too.

“I-I don’t know,” Morgana stammered, looking shyly at the tomboy. “She was kinda keeping me at arm’s length all morning… I-I thought… I thought I did something wrong, actually, but I was too nervous to ask…”

“What!? Morgana, no!” Kim shook her head quickly. “It’s not like that at all, it’s just… haaaah…” She hung her head and sighed, realizing she might as well come clean.

“It’s actually-”

“It’s your punishment transformation, right?” Sylvia cut her off bluntly. “I kind of figured that’s what’s going on.”

Kim’s jaw dropped and she gave Sylvia a dirty look.

“What’s up with that, huh!?” She demanded sourly. “Cutting me off… okay, yes, you’re right! It’s because of my transformation…”

With a sigh, Kim scratched her sweat-soaked hair. “…Look, it’s like this, okay?” She stated glumly, shaking her head. “The punishment transformation this time, for letting my Sick Day go to another day… it’s a bad one. Not minor at all.”

There was more than a hint of bitterness in her voice as she said that, and she pulled up her transformations to show the girls what she was talking about.

Soft to the Touch: For the duration of the transformation, Kim will find herself feeling submissive towards the last person to touch her. Whether that is the master or another contestant, whoever the most recent person to touch Kim skin to skin will result in her feeling an increased fondness for that person, and begin to feel a sense of pleasure in doing what they ask. This feeling can be resisted, but doing so results in an unpleasant sensation that makes it feel better just to give in. (Punishment)

Sylvia immediately sighed as she read the transformation. “Yeah, that… that one isn’t so great, huh?” She had to admit.

Kim stared at her incredulously. “Not so great!? Are you kidding me?! This one is awful! Look, the sweat I could deal with, that was annoying, but not such a problem! But being submissive?!”

Nope. There were way too many problems with that.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal,” Rose commented. “I mean, it says you can resist, right? So it’s probably not going to be so overpowering that you can’t do anything about it.”

“Rose is right,” Sylvia agreed. “It’s a light punishment transformation. Dakota wouldn’t make it too debilitating. It probably means you’ll be a little more flattering and appeal more to that person, and be more willing to do things for them, you know?”

“Yeah, like sexual things,” Kim groused, only willing to see the negatives of this transformation.

Well… there weren’t really any positives, so it wasn’t wrong for her to do that. Still, she was definitely being aggressive about not wanting anything to do with this particular transformation, and with good reason.

“I think it could be a bit of a problem… but what are you going to do? Not touch anyone for the rest of the day?” Marley asked. “Don’t you have to work out with Dani later?”

Kim nodded. That was true… today was a workout day. “Yeah… but I could always skip it,” she pointed out. “Now that I’m not enslaved to my 100% Completion transformation, I don’t feel the same burning drive to complete everything I’ve set my mind to. I can take ONE day off.”

Even as the words left her lips, though, they sounded weird and wrong. Like she was doing something naughty by not working out.

The truth was, Kim liked working out. It was a good way to burn off all the stress she accumulated during the day. And she had a pretty hard life sometimes, so she often built up a lot of stress.

So the idea of not working out… she wasn’t exactly a fan of that.

But she also wasn’t a fan of the current issue, either. Namely, the fact that she would have to act like Holly towards anyone who touched her.

“I think we should experiment with it,” Rose bluntly stated.

Kim looked at her in shock.

“Experiment with your own transformations!” She exclaimed. “Leave me out of it, thank you very much!”

Rose shrugged. “Look, I don’t think it’s feasible for you to go the whole day without touching anybody,” she said simply. “And it would be better if we knew what the limits of your transformation were, and how much of your behavior was compelled, so we could prepare for any potential worst-case scenarios.”

Kim bit her lip, hearing the sense in Rose’s words, even if she didn’t like it.

“I-I think Rose, might, might have a point,” Morgana stammered, looking awkwardly between the both of them. She liked Kim and Rose just fine, but she wasn’t particularly close with either girl. “I mean, it’s like, Kim, what if you do end up touching somebody, you know?”

Kim sighed. “Look, even if that happened, I don’t think it would make a difference,” she replied. “Remember with Cinder? When she touched that mirror? Everybody was really considerate of her, and didn’t take advantage of her, right?”

“Well, that’s true,” Sylvia nodded. “I don’t think anyone would take advantage of her transformation even if it did accidentally trigger.”

“But we don’t know what would happen,” Marley pointed out. “Unlike Cinder’s mirror transformation where she had to follow any orders given to her, Kim might decide independently to do things to please the other person, since she’s so submissive to them.”

Rose nodded. “That’s also a good point,” she agreed. “Holly is always so considerate to whoever she dreams about that day, thanks to her transformation. Kim might be the same way.”

Kim shivered and nearly threw up in her mouth. That was a scary thought…

“Ugh, that would be the worst…” She had a lot of experience playing a part perfectly for customers. That did NOT mean that she liked doing it.

She was her own woman, damn it!

“Imagine if Vivian touches me?” She groaned, scratching her hair. “Or even worse, Rose! I don’t even want to think about that!”

“Hey!” Rose snapped.

“…Oh, right, you’re here, yeah…” Kim hadn’t even considered that.

Sylvia and Marley couldn’t help but laugh, and even Morgana giggled a little.

Rose just fumed at her. “I’m trying to help out here,” she pouted. “But okay, fine, if you don’t want anyone to touch you and trigger your transformation, well, why don’t you just dress more conservatively then?”

Kim blinked. “…Huh?”

“Dress? More? Conservatively?” Rose punctuated each word with even more sarcasm. “Look, your dress doesn’t even have sleeves,” she pointed out, gesturing to Kim’s choice of clothing. “You could have worn something that covered most of your skin, you know that, right?”

Kim’s mouth fell open and she struggled to process what the other girl was saying. “W-well… I mean… when you put it like that…”

Yeah, she’d sort of just thrown on this dress without even thinking about it, hadn’t she? That was really something.

“Yeah, good thinking, Rose!” Sylvia nodded. “I have to wear these skimpy clothes due to my transformation, but Kim can wear anything! We could even put her in one of those really stand-out outfits! You know, the ones made for women who live in those really repressive religious cultures, the ones who shame them for their sexuality and try to control them?”

Everyone stared at her.

“…You mean a burqa?” Rose asked.

“Hmm? No, a sexy cheerleader outfit from Texas State University.”

“Okay, okay, let’s just back up for a second here,” Kim said, waving her hands. “I don’t think we have to go that far, right? I mean, changing my whole wardrobe? I like this dress!”

Now everyone was staring at her.

“So… you’re not going to wear more conservative clothing, even if it would reduce the odds of triggering your transformation, simply because you like the way that dress looks on you?” Rose couldn’t help but laugh. Finally, someone else in this harem was being foolish and shortsighted out of their own sense of vanity!

“No!” Kim blushed. “I-I didn’t say I WOULDN’T do it, I just… um… is that really the best option?” Even she was surprised at how resistant she was. There had to be a reason she didn’t want to cover herself up, right?

…

“…Okay, also, I mean, I’m sweating a lot!” She pointed out. “If I have to wear something really big and bulky that covers my skin, it’s going to cling to me all day! And that would be really awful, so, yeah, no thank you!”

Nobody was convinced. Not even Morgana was that gullible.

But Kim managed to convince herself, and that was the important part.

“Okay, but just to be clear, you see that this is an issue, right?” Rose asked, raising her eyebrow curiously. “I mean, the state of dress you’re in right now. If someone bumped into you, you’d totally become submissive to them.”

“I can be careful,” Kim said, looking around warily like there were people eager to touch her around every corner. “It’s not like I just go around touching people on the regular like some kind of Marley, you know!”

“Hey!” Marley exclaimed. “Why am I catching strays?!”

“You do hug quite a lot,” Sylvia giggled. “It’s one of the things I like most about you, you know?”

Marley blushed, and squirmed a little, pleased by her mother’s praise.

“Rose is right, I think…” Morgana bit her lip and looked at Kim. “Someone might touch you, it’s better if you cover up.”

As much as Kim hated to admit it, the girls had a point.

“…Yeah, you’re right,” she said with a sigh. “I’ll head back up to my room and change my clothes.”

She moved to towards the exit, but before she could turn, she felt the familiar sensation of a finger poking her on the shoulder. Her blood froze in her veins. The other girls gasped.

Kim yanked her arm away, but she could still feel her shoulder tingling. She turned on her heel, and gasped as she was eye to eye with Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin.

The slender girl smiled affectionately towards her and gave her a silent wave, completely in the dark about what touching Kim would do to the poor girl.