Walkin' along with the sand in my toes

Kim let out a long sigh. Talking to Sylvia had really helped put her situation in context. Issue was, the context didn’t make her feel any better about the current situation.

What she really wanted, more than anything, was just make all the problems go away. For Dakota to be a better mother, for her to magically become a decent human being, for everyone to be happy and get along together.

…And while she was dreaming, she’d like a pony.

“…Thanks for sharing your perspective with me, Sylvia,” Kim said, looking contritely at the other girl. “I’m sorry for making such a huge mess out of this… if we’re lucky, then Dakota won’t completely lose her shit.”

“Happy to help!” Sylvia was completely unfazed by the worrying prospect Kim just raised. She shook her head, sending her short red hair bouncing. “But don’t worry, like you said, Dakota won’t overplay her hand. If she looks like she’s being punitive then Daddy will be upset with her, especially since he doesn’t know why she’s doing it. So she won’t like it, but she won’t do anything!”

That was a relief. Maybe. Kim was honestly not sure one way or the other, which worried her considerably. But she didn’t push things and just nodded, trying to smile.

Kim was a master at faking a smile while feeling like crap, but for some reason it didn’t come out so well this time. Her anxiety kept creeping into her face.

“So… what now?” She asked quietly, looking at the former host. “Any advice you can give me for handling Dakota in the future? I know this is a sensitive topic for you…”

“Just try and focus on making Daddy happy,” Sylvia replied, shrugging. “As long as Daddy is happy, Dakota will be happy. …Well, in theory, anyway…” She ended her positive idea with a long sigh that Kim couldn’t help but sympathize with.

Like Sylvia, she found it hard to imagine Dakota being happy ever.

“Well, I think we’ve kept Nick waiting long enough, then,” Kim said, turning and looking back at the others. They were far enough away where she couldn’t hear what they were saying, but it looked like they were still chatting, which was good. Kim made a move to return to them, only for Sylvia to catch her by the wrist.

“Where do you think you’re going?” She asked, her blue eyes twinkling with excitement. The smile on her face made Kim’s heart sink.

“Ex-excuse me?” She stammered shakily.

“We need to come up with an excuse, right?” Sylvia reminded her. “What are you gonna do if Daddy asks you what we talked about? You kind of made a big scene when we left, the others are going to be curious, my girl.”

She made a good point. Kim felt like slapping herself in the face. How had she not thought of that!? But before she could say anything, Sylvia interrupted her again.

“And what should I say, for that matter?” She pointed out. “I know I’m quite an exceptional liar, but I’m not the best when it comes to improvising things on the fly.” Sylvia shook her head, and again, Kim couldn’t help but agree. Sylvia’s brain worked on a different wavelength than a lot of people; Kim couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of stuff that would come out of her mouth if they didn’t get their stories straight first.

There was one point of correction that needed to be made, though.

“Sylvia, you are not an exceptional liar,” she bluntly informed the other girl. “You’re not even a good liar, for that matter.” The former host wore her emotions on her sleeve, and didn’t hesitate to broadcast them to anyone who would listen.

Apparently, though, that fact was news to her, because Sylvia’s jaw dropped open and her eyes bulged out of her skull.

“What!? That’s totally wrong!” Sylvia pouted. “Need I remind you that I once perpetrated an extensive deception for two years upon Daddy by pretending to be his therapist?”

Not… really something to brag about, but Kim supposed maybe she had a point. And was this really the hill she wanted to die on?

“Fine,” Kim said, rolling her eyes, “you’re a good liar. So let’s get our story straight then. How about I came to ask you-”

“For an upgrade,” Sylvia interrupted her. That familiar gleam returned to her eyes. “Don’t you see? It’s perfect! You pulled me aside because you were embarrassed about asking for an upgrade in front of them, because you knew I would go down the list of potential options and be really super-duper excited about it! Not wanting to spoil the surprise for Daddy, you thought it was better to do it in private, and so that’s why we came over here! Don’t you think that’s the best idea? It explains why you were being so secretive, and why you pulled me this far away, and why it took so long to get back! Plus, it’s you, so everyone will believe you were down for it.”

Kim… honestly couldn’t find any fault in that. “…Okay, I’m a little annoyed by the fact that that’s the perfect excuse,” she said, sighing. “…Wait, what do you mean ‘Plus, it’s you’?! What about me screams ‘Down for it’?!”

Sylvia blinked. “…Well, if memory serves, you took your first couple of transformations in stride, my girl,” she pointed out, reminding Kim that she’d actually been pretty cool with wearing a schoolgirl uniform, and that 100% Completion had been little more than an inconvenience. It wasn’t until Kim had started actively working that she’d begun to have qualms about the transformations.

“Yeah, that was forever ago,” Kim griped, crossing her arms over her enhanced chest. “There’s a reason I didn’t take a Sick Day today.”

“To get money from the shopping trip, right?”

“I BROKE EVEN!”

Sylvia shrugged. “Well… like I said, it’s still the best idea, so…”

“I know, I know,” Kim griped. The more she thought about it, unfortunately, the less believable any story she could come up with would be. After all, who went to Sylvia for advice on anything that wasn’t related to the show? It wasn’t like she’d pull the former host aside for fashion tips, or insight into Nick’s personality.

“…Let’s just get this over with,” Kim sighed.

But Sylvia wasn’t going to let her off the hook that easily. “You still need to pick a transformation to upgrade,” she pointed out. “And it can be a tough choice! Me myself, I’m still thinking of what I want to use my veto this round on, and I haven’t been copying nearly as many transformations since I’ve been having so much fun with this one! It’s easy to get distracted. Hmmm… well, let’s go down the list of useful ones, shall we?”

“I already worked today, so we can skip Model Employee,” Kim interrupted. She wasn’t even sure if it was possible to upgrade a transformation a second time. Sylvia would know, but that question wasn’t exactly burning a hole in Kim’s pocket. In fact, she’d rather not know for now.

“Sick Day would be kinda pointless to upgrade right now,” Sylvia pointed out, not giving Kim any insight about the possibility of a double upgrade by craftily changing the subject. “Since you probably wouldn’t use it tomorrow anyway. Besides, we need to come up with something that’ll really knock Daddy’s socks off, right? Since you’re gonna want to give him all you’ve got for your night together.”

“Uh…” That really wasn’t Kim’s priority here. Sure it would be nice, but as far as she was concerned this was just an excuse for their earlier chat.

Try telling that to Sylvia, though. When her mind got set one something… yeesh.

The redhead ardently shook her head. She scrunched up her face into a tough expression. “It’s actually kinda difficult… you don’t have a lot of super sexy ones, do you, my girl?” She mused. “I suppose we could upgrade Teacher’s Pet, but upgrading clothing transformations can be a mixed bag. Sometimes it expands the criteria of clothing you could wear, but it’s just as possible that it might actually make you start acting in ways congruent with your wardrobe…”

“You mean I’ll turn into a sexy schoolgirl!?” Kim cringed, imagining a hypothetical scenario where that transpired. Sure, she could see the merit of sexy roleplay in that vein, but it was just that- roleplay. Actually remaking her personality into that?!

No, no way. “Nothing that might change me mentally,” she pleaded.

Sylvia pouted. “What!? But a temporary upgrade is the best time to test this stuff out!” She pointed out. “Since it’s not permanent! You’ll be able to see if you like the effects! Like this one time, Dakota ran a season where a girl could temporarily turn into a bimbo, right? And she ended up liking that freeing feeling so much that she upgraded the transformation and made it permanent!”

“…Right, and I’m sure Dakota didn’t have a hand in that at all,” Kim said dryly. With Dakota looking for opportunities to subvert her, the last thing she wanted right now was to be robbed of her mental faculties and leave herself ****.

Sylvia frowned. “Well… that kind of limits our options, I’m afraid,” she said. “Would you consider 100% Completion a mental transformation?”

Kim considered it for a second. “…It’s borderline,” she admitted. “But I’d rather not risk it, if I’m being honest. If we can’t think of anything else…”

The more she thought about it, the more she realized that her options really WERE limited. There was no value in upgrading Just the Dregs right now, since it would only be temporary. And Quarterly Review was more liable to backfire than not.

Man, I actually would be curious what an upgrade to Just the Dregs would do, but the whole point of this is to sell the story that I’m trying to appeal to Nick. Well, maybe next time… or I could upgrade it myself.

Yeah, Kim wasn’t going to do that. Getting one extra transformation a round was already a lot. What if the upgrade gave her a random rejected transformation from each contestant!? No, she didn’t even want to think about it.

“Sounds like the answer is Wet T-Shirt Contest, then!” Sylvia clapped her hands together joyfully. She’d been angling for that one from the start, and Kim couldn’t help but wonder if Sylvia had manipulated the conversation to lead it to this conclusion in the first place.

She really hoped that wasn’t the case, because that meant that she’d just gotten played by Sylvia of all people. A chilling thought. But one that made Kim realize that maybe she was looking at this whole thing the wrong way in the first place.

“Actually… I think I’m going to go with Just the Dregs after all,” Kim said, making her decision only partly out of spiting the potential manipulation that may have just transpired.

Sylvia blinked, surprised. “You are? Aww, boo… that one’s so boring! Well, I mean, I actually really like it as a transformation and the upgrade is probably gonna be a lot of fun, but right now it’s really boring because you can’t even use it! What a waste… aren’t you going to go with something sexy for Daddy, Kim!?”

“That was your stupid idea,” Kim replied, staring coolly at Sylvia as the former host pouted. “Instead of doing something specific to appeal to Nick, which, to be fair, I’d like to do, I think it would be an easier sell if I did something smarter with the upgrade. Like scouting out a potential game-changing transformation upgrade for next round,” she pointed out.

She wasn’t some super-genius like Dawn, but Kim could plan out a good strategy. And this seemed right in her wheelhouse. It was only due to Sylvia’s surprising ability to sweep people up in her wake with passionate arguments that Kim had entertained the idea of this being for Nick in the first place- the whole point of this move was to obscure the original point of their conversation.

Kim wanted to make it up to Sylvia for what happened with Dakota, but that didn’t mean she was gonna be the other girl’s puppet. No, this would be helpful to her.

Sylvia could understand that. And while she was a little disappointed at first, that quickly passed and she was all smiles again.

“Well, okay! You never know, maybe the upgrade will be really fun after all! Like, maybe it gives you a new random rejected transformation every day or something, then it wouldn’t be useless at all!” Sylvia suggested.

As her idea sank in, Kim’s face went pale. “Wait… I wouldn’t be stuck with that when the upgrade wears off, would I?”

Sylvia shrugged, cheery as always. “Maybe!” She chirped.

“Wait, uh-”

“Upgrade time!” The redhead carelessly applied the upgrade before Kim could express her thoughts. As she felt the light rush over her, she really, really wished that what Sylvia had suggested was just an errant thought, and not a premonition.

The light faded, and nothing seemed different about her.

She immediately called up the text of her upgraded transformation just to be sure. And what she saw made her gasp in surprise.

• Just the Dregs: Why be proactive? Better to just let good things happen to you. At the beginning of each round, Kim will given a random transformation from the previous round of transformation votes that did not get selected, and apply it to herself. She will permanently acquire that transformation. UPGRADE: Dregs always accumulate at the bottom. Now Kim won’t just acquire a random rejected transformation each round, she’ll become a sponge through which others can push off their unwanted transformations onto. Each other contestant can, once per round, give Kim one of their own transformations that they are tired of temporarily. Kim will keep the transformation for a predetermined amount of time (Not exceeding 24 hours) before it is returned to the person who originally held it. In exchange, she will receive BP in compensation proportionate to the amount of time she was stuck with the transformation. (Slacker)

…Surprise and horror.

“What kind of upgrade is this!?” Kim exclaimed, wanting to break the metaphysical screen into little conceptual pieces. “So people can just unload their transformations on me like it’s nobody’s business!? How is that an upgrade?! It’s practically a different transformation at this point!”

“Oh wow, that’s actually a really cool one!” Sylvia’s eyes widened with excitement. “So if anyone doesn’t want a transformation they can just give it to you! Gosh, you’ll get to do all kinds of fun stuff!”

“It’s not fun for ME!” Kim protested. “What, I get a chunk of BP, and in exchange someone slaps me with some stupid ‘skin contact makes you horny’ transformation or ‘suddenly you like getting shit on’ fetish punishment!? How is this fair!? It doesn’t even mention whether or not I can say no!”

Dakota, this had to be Dakota. This was Dakota’s punishment for Kim’s earlier outburst, she was certain of it. But Sylvia didn’t seem to think so. Maybe because she didn’t see accumulating transformations temporarily as being that big of a deal, or maybe she just didn’t see how this was rife for ****, but she really didn’t seem fazed.

“Come now my girl, we don’t do scat stuff here on Harem Hotel, I think you’re overreacting,” she said, patting Kim on the shoulder.

Kim’s eye twitched.

“Ugh… so… what, people just give me transformations now or something?” It may only be once a round, but multiple people could do it at once, and Kim could be stuck with them for up to 24 hours. This was really, really strong. And again… it only seemed tangentially related to what the original transformation even did!

Again, Kim’s mind immediately jumped to Dakota. And probably not incorrectly.

“We should really do some experimenting with this,” Sylvia said, calling up a list of her own transformations. “Kim, are there any of mine that you’d like to-”

“Don’t even fucking think about it,” Kim interrupted, shaking Sylvia by the shoulders. “Like hell I’m experimenting with this! Agh… I can’t believe I’m stuck with this for a whole day now…”

“Hey, come on, it’s not so bad!” Sylvia said, determined to see the bright side of this. “Think about it, it’s ONLY 24 hours. Imagine if you’d just upgraded it normally?”

Kim imagined a world where she had done that. It was not a happy world. It was the kind of world she’d grown up in, a world determined to kick her down and keep her there.

“…Well when you put it like that, I guess I have **** but to thank you, huh?” She said sarcastically, giving Sylvia a cold stare.

If Sylvia understood why Kim was irritated, she didn’t let it show. She just nodded innocently. “Uh-huh!”

Kim rolled her eyes and stomped back towards where Nick and the others were waiting.

“Don’t tell anyone about this!” She demanded. “Not until I get the chance! And definitely don’t tell Vivian!”

“I won’t, I won’t, geez!” Sylvia rolled her eyes, following after the tomboy. “But you get that if we don’t talk about it, we’ll have to come up with some other story for why we went off together, right? If you’re so adamant about not sharing the details of your upgrade with Daddy and the others, I mean.”

Kim froze in place. Her heart sank in her chest.

“…Damn it,” she cursed, shaking her head. “Fine, that’s… still better than the alternative.”

There wasn’t time to come up with another convincing lie. Her time with Nick was slipping away with every second they were apart!

She just hoped that she wouldn’t regret letting Sylvia upgrade this transformation. It was liable to backfire significantly!

“Hey guys!” Carly waved to Kim and Sylvia as they returned. But her smile quickly faded when she saw the expression on Kim’s face. “…Everything okay?”

Kim gave her one of her perfect smiles and tilted her head to the side. “Why yes. What would make you think otherwise?”

Marley eyed her warily. “The fact that you look like a psycho right now?”

Kim shot her a look.

“Dude, seriously, everything okay?” Dani was already concerned about what they might have talked about, given Kim’s weirdness earlier. But her concern couldn’t hold a candle to Nick’s.

“Kim, you want to talk about it?” Nick asked. “Is something the matter?”

“…Well… haaaaah…” Kim sighed and slumped her shoulders. “So I asked Sylvia to upgrade my transformation, see, and then…”