Don't tell me truth hurts, little girl, 'cause it hurts like Hell

Rose staggered back, coughing and hacking and scratching at her throat as she was **** to inhale whatever it was Serenity had just doused her with.

“Youuuuu-!” She choked out, falling to her knees. “What… what did you DO to me!? You-!”

Serenity just shrugged. Her delicate features morphed into an awkward expression. “…Sorry,” she said again. She held up her wrist, showing a tightly-woven band of metal and fabric wrapped around her glowing skin. “Dakota said. Wanted to keep.”

“K-keep?” Rose had trouble deciphering the siren’s stilted way of talking. And she had trouble breathing.

Serenity nodded solemnly. “Reward. For helping in challenge,” she explained, kind of. “Makes boon permanent. Get to be closer to people, without… transformations.”

Now Rose got it. Serenity had trouble being in close proximity with others due to several transformations she’d been afflicted with in her own tenure on Harem Hotel. But due to her presence at Gina’s party, she got a boon that suppressed that temporarily. The only problem was that it would wear off at the end of the round. Dakota, to secure her help in this challenge, must have given her that bracelet as a permanent nullifier of her transformation.

…Sneaky.

“What did you do to me, then?” Rose finally found herself able to breathe again and she staggered back to her feet, but she was still coughing.

“Lust Scales,” Serenity answered. “They’re my scales. Ground down. Inhaled, the effects… not so pleasant.”

“Why!?” That was the part Rose didn’t get.

Serenity shrugged again. “Audience vote,” she replied. “Not my call.”

Rose’s eye twitched in agitation. She gnashed her teeth together but found herself unable to say anything further.

It was hard to argue with those glowing eyes that very obviously cared about nothing.

“What’s going to happen to me, then?” She placed her hand over her chest, feeling her pounding heart. “I’m… I’m burning up…”

“Boosts arousal,” Serenity explained. “Sensitivity.” A thin line of a smirk tugged at the corners of her lips. “Getting a little hot?”

“Are you enjoying this!?” Rose exclaimed, aghast. At the same time, Serenity’s words were becoming prophetic. Her leggings felt like they were clinging to her body, holding her down. It was like her skin was being smothered.

Serenity gnashed her teeth at Rose.

“Coulda done something good for you,” she said. “Or something bad. Audience voted. Wanted sexy. So…”

Her voice trailed off like she was about to continue that sentence, but she just fell silent. Her blue eyes sparkled with amusement.

Then she jumped back in the swamp before Rose could stop her.

“W-wait-!” Rose cried in desperation, feeling her whole body flush. Sweat rolled down her skin and she staggered towards the bank, nearly falling into the muck herself. “You can’t just… LEAVE me like this! You-! You… siren!”

She knew things were going poorly when she couldn’t even formulate insults properly.

Serenity poked her head up out of the water and looked up at Rose, a gleeful expression on her face. Her eyes flickered with amusement. She pulled herself up out of the swamp and sat on the water in that weird way she did.

“Don’t worry. It will wear off. Eventually.” Her smile widened. “…But. Keep you on edge. No orgasms. Sorry!”

“What!? But wait, I-!” Rose was finding it hard to think in her present state of mind. But what Serenity just said was like a bucket of ice water dumped on her head. So her arousal and sensitivity would keep rising like this, but she wouldn’t be able to cum?

That was bad. Really bad. Bad for all the reasons it would normally be bad, but extra bad because without being able to orgasm, Rose wouldn’t be able to get a picture of the map. She would have no idea where to go or how to get out of this horrid bog, not until Serenity’s scales worked their way out of her system!

“Nooooo! This isn’t faaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiirrrr!” She wailed into the foggy sky. It never occurred to her that this might be comeuppance for her own previous actions in the last challenge, when she sabotaged Amelia practically out of the gate.

Gina and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin looked at each other. It reminded Gina distinctly of two jerks squaring up outside a bar to fight one another, which was a sobering thought, because she knew that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was capable of bending her body in all sorts of ways no body was meant to bend.

Not a thrilling mental picture to have, no.

“Um… h-hey,” Gina said hesitantly, trying to smile. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin leaned forward, blinking curiously at her.

Gina swallowed. Yeah, it really felt like the two of them were squaring up over something, didn’t it? Not great.

“We, uh… we probably need, um… to find… a way through that gate, yeah?” Gina gestured to the barred gate in front of them. “After all, they wouldn’t block the passage unless we were going in the right direction, yeah?” She pointed out.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded, accepting the other woman’s logic. Well, good. That was a right step, at least.

Gina swallowed. “S-so… I think maybe… one of us needs to get into that Box of Endless Tickling, right?” Gina suggested, gesturing to the open box. “…Just for five minutes, I mean!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded in agreement. Her eyes continued to bore holes in Gina, much to the punk girl’s discomfort.

Gina swallowed. “S-so… uh…” She took a step back, already sensing what the assassin was going to do. “…You’re probably going to shove me in there, right?” Might as well just say it out loud at that point, right?

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin blinked. She furrowed her brow, then smiled… and shook her head.

Before Gina even knew what was going on, the assassin stepped into the box, and it snapped shut behind her, sealing her inside.

“Wh-whoa, hey! Huh!?” Gina didn’t even know what hit her. One second, the skilled killer was leering at her, and the next, she was locked up in the box?

“But… why?” Gina wondered. “She didn’t need to… so why…?”

As the five minutes passed while Gina waited for the gate to open, she considered the possible motivations that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin might have had in stepping into the box for herself.

“Could it be… she’s trying to appeal to the audience?” Gina voiced her hypothesis. She wasn’t great at introspection, things always made more sense to her when she worded them out loud. “I mean… that’s a bit of a surprise… …But it’s not like that girl’s ever predictable, I suppose,” she conceded, shaking her head.

Still, she thought there had to be more to it. It’s not like the audience could see into the box, could they? And given the other woman’s muteness, Gina couldn’t hear her laughing. She didn’t even know if the box was working!

So going in there, expecting the audience to think favorably about her actions, didn’t make a lot of sense to Gina.

“Unless she’s ****,” Gina mumbled. “I mean, it must have been a pretty big shock to her, dropping that much in the Popularity Poll… sharing last place couldn’t be a good feeling.”

Gina didn’t even want to think about how down she’d feel if she got ranked last in the polls. …Then again, it had completely taken her aback that she’d scored so high! After all, getting a ranking like that… for first place?!

I guess my date with Nick went over better than I expected, she thought, stroking her chin.

Then another thought occurred to her.

“…Wait, is THAT it?! Is THAT why she volunteered herself?! Because it was me?!” It made sense, Gina conceded. “I mean, I’m in first place, and she was right at the bottom… so maybe by going in the box herself, she’s trying to appeal to the audience by putting me first? Since I’m in first place, she thinks they like me, and she’s trying to latch onto that to improve their opinion of her?”

Yeah, from Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s perspective, Gina could see how that made sense.

Almost.

There was still one part of the equation that left her confused.

“They… they like me,” Gina mumbled to herself, a giddy, incredulous expression on her face. “They really… like me…”

It seemed hard to believe.

The ground beneath Gina’s feet started to rumble. With a cry she looked behind her to see the gate slowly rising with a creek, making the whole corridor shake. A couple seconds later and it rose up completely into the ceiling, revealing the path forward.

“Yes!” Gina cheered. “It worked!”

At the same second that the gate finished opening, the door to the Box of Eternal Tickling swung open and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin staggered out. Her cheeks were flushed and her hair was a mess, and her tight jumpsuit was a little more ruffled than it normally appeared. She had to lean against her umbrella to maintain her balance, and a dreamy grin broke her face in half. Her skin was practically shining!

“Uh… hey, you… you have a good time in there?” Gina offered her a lopsided grin out of sympathy.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin snapped to attention, her eyes wide. She looked at Gina in surprise, like she didn’t expect her to still be here.

“…What, you thought I’d ditch you?” Gina shook her head. “Come on, like I’m gonna abandon the super tough assassin who can handle all the obstacles! I’m not that dumb.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin blinked several times, perplexed. Like she was having trouble processing the idea that someone was actually happy to have her around.

Then she smiled.

Her smile took on a whole new quality, though, when the other box, which had remained sealed this whole time, popped open.

And Kim tumbled out, gasping for air.

“What… the hell… was that?!” She exclaimed, jumping to her feet. “What the hell was that!?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin practically tackled her to the ground, squeezing her into a tight hug.

“Kim!” Gina’s face lit up when she saw her roommate. She strolled over to the struggling girl being hugged to ****. “What were you doing in there?”

“G-Gina,” Kim gasped out, trying to stand up but finding it very difficult with the endowed assassin on top of her. “I… I got lost… and then the floor slid out from under me, and I just kinda… ended up in this cramped box… …Hey, um, let me go, please?” She begged the assassin, who begrudgingly complied.

Both girls could see how disappointed she was, though.

Gina grinned. “Well, I guess you’re our ‘prize’ then, eh?” She snickered. “Come on, let’s go! We’ve got a maze to get through!”

“Since when were you so bossy?” Kim asked, standing up and brushing herself off.

Gina’s eyes twinkled with delight. “Well, since I figured out that the audience actually likes me, that’s when!” She chirped. “It’s the Age of Gina!”

Kim wasn’t sure how well “The Age of Gina” would go for the human race, but decided not to comment.

“I hate this show.” Marley looked down at her new outfit with disdain on her face.

“Come on, Marley, that looks great on you!” Her sister encouraged her. “You look adorable, like a princess! Right, Dawn?”

“Yeah,” Dawn nodded. “You look great, Marley!”

“I know the dress is fine!” Marley groaned. “That isn’t the problem here!” She shook her head. “The problem is that it’s a lovely dress that’s just going to get ruined in this stupid maze! That’s my issue with it, not the looks!”

“I mean, I guess you’ve got a point there,” Dawn conceded. “I wouldn’t want to go wandering around in clothes like that.”

“Just clothes like those?” Carly pointed at the cat girl.

Dawn looked down and realized that she’d never readjusted her askew clothing from her interrupted masturbation session.

Her face turned scarlet. “Th-this-! This is-!” She shook her head frantically. “I just, um…”

“Don’t worry, I get it, trust me, you’re just playing to win,” Carly said, holding up her hand to stop Dawn before she talked herself into a babbling mess. “I’ve got half a mind to try it myself! One thing though, I don’t get… …Do you need to? Masturbate, I mean.”

Marley nodded, a little embarrassed. She understood where her sister was coming from.

“I mean, if I wanted to cum, I’ve got my hair for that,” Carly reminded her, running her clawed fingers through her shaggy hair. “It gets super sensitive thanks to my transformation. Couldn’t you just do the same thing with your tail and ears?” That would have been the advice Carly would have given her, anyway. To appeal to Nick (and the audience) by taking advantage of her transformation.

Dawn blushed. “I… I think it’s weird… doing that…” she mumbled. “It’s easier and faster, but… like…”

It just felt OFF.

Like… she shouldn’t be playing with her own ears or tail. Like… that should be for someone else to do, not her.

…

Dawn really didn’t want to explore those feelings. “…Sometimes a girl likes getting off the normal way!” She exclaimed, her face red. “Whatever! More importantly, we should work together, you two!”

Marley nodded in agreement.

“You sure?” Carly was surprised to hear that. “I thought you didn’t really like me that much, Dawn,” she admitted.

Dawn frowned. “No, of course I do,” she said, shaking her head. “We just don’t talk that much, that’s all…”

Carly nodded slowly. “Yeah… I guess we travel in different social circles a bit, don’t we?”

“Plus, you’ve been all over Dani since you two got together,” Marley dryly pointed out. “If you want to know why you’re ranked so low in the polls, I’d bet it’s because the audience is getting tired of your little love story and would like you to branch out more.”

Carly gave her sister a look, but she knew Marley might have a point.

“Let’s just… not talk about this right now, okay?” Dawn suggested. It wasn’t exactly a pleasant conversation. She looked desperately at the two girls. “We should just focus on getting through this maze, right?”

“Couldn’t agree more,” Marley nodded.

“Don’t worry, Dawn! With your brains and my claws, we’ll get to the end, no problem!” Carly said confidently, puffing out her chest. “If we reach a dead end, I can tunnel right through it!”

Right on cue, before Dawn could even bother getting her hopes up, a flash of pink eliminated Carly’s mole form and returned her to just being a regular cosplayer.

Carly blinked. “…Wheeeelp… so much for that!” Her smile didn’t lose even a bit of its luster.

Dawn sighed in amused exasperation and rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Kinda figured,” she said, straightening out her clothes. “Still. Three heads are better than one, right?” She pointed out. Even if the one was hers.

“There we go!” The glow of the flashlight illuminated the corridor, flickering over the walls. Sylvia smiled brightly herself. “Isn’t that better, my girl? Vivian?”

The white-haired girl turned to the heiress, trapping Vivian in the beam. Vivian had to shield her eyes from the light, but she couldn’t shield herself from the rest of the effects. She stumbled out of the path of the light, her face red.

“H-hey, watch it with that thing!” She wailed. As much as she appreciated the light bouncing off the walls of the corridor and fending off the darkness, she really didn’t like how it felt whenever it touched her skin.

Like she was burning up inside.

“Whoa, sorry, forgot,” Sylvia said, yanking the light off of Vivian and aiming it back down the corridor. “Yeah, this thing is weird.”

Vivian slunk towards the former host, clinging as close to her as she could get. The closer she got to the light, the easier it was for her to breathe. Just so long as she wasn’t directly in the path, of course.

That would be rather hard for her to handle.

“So what does that thing even do?” Vivian asked her. “It’s definitely not a normal flashlight, it’s making my body get all… weird.”

Vivian didn’t have a more specific definition of what she was feeling when the light touched her, and she didn’t know if she wanted to.

Sylvia shrugged. “Knowing this show? It could be a lot of stuff,” she said with a chuckle. “Probably it’s a special flashlight that gets you all nice and horny whenever the light touches you. That sounds like something Dakota would do!”

She couldn’t help but admire her mother’s creativity, in spite of their personal issues. “Dakota’s a real creative host, don’t you think?”

“…Yeah, I’ll take your word for it,” Vivian said, forcing a smile. Usually she tried to be more pleasant company than this, but it was hard to maintain her pleasant demeanor when it was so dark. But she did her best all the same, determined to dig herself out of the popularity pit she’d fallen into.

“Aww, isn’t that sweet?” Mr. S crooned, his voice like molasses rolling over the stage. “Your daughter admires you so much, Dakota! Calling you ‘creative’… even though so many hosts have already done maze challenges before…”

Dakota’s eye twitched. Nick and Mary could both tell how agitated she was getting, but she was doing an amazing job of tamping it down.

Dakota must really be scared of this guy, Nick thought, glancing at the indecipherable producer. His only real experience with the strange figure was when he’d interceded on behalf of Sylvia and Mary, so he had a bit of a positive perception of him before now, but it was important to keep in mind that this man was the producer, and that so much of what Dakota had done was done out of compulsion to appeal to him and the audience.

Nick couldn’t forget that.

“Still, as nice as this challenge is going so far… don’t you think it’s important that we give our audience a bit more to sink their teeth into?” Mr. S coaxed her. “Say, a couple of votes to really get to the meat of things?”

Dakota knew that wasn’t just friendly advice.

“…Why of course,” she said, waving her cane. “I have a couple perfect ones.

Which contestant should get some help in the challenge, Dawn or Gina?

https://strawpoll.com/w4nWW0993nA

Which contestant should receive a sexy but inhibiting transformation, Cinder/Ella or Amelia?

https://strawpoll.com/QrgewzEEOyp

Which group is doing a little too well in the challenge, and needs to be impeded with some obstacles?

https://strawpoll.com/PKglel77aZp