And I made the biggest deposit

“That was quite a revelation that little rich girl gave us,” Mr. S said, stroking his chin. “Wouldn’t you agree, Dakota?”

Dakota paused for a second, her golden eyes flickering over to Nick briefly before answering, “…I would say so, yes.”

Nick didn’t miss the way she tightened her grip on her cane.

“It’s quite a shame that the audience gave her such a reward,” Mr. S said, shaking his head. “When she hasn’t done anything to deserve it. At least that other girl… what was her name again? …The assassin one…”

“She doesn’t have a name,” Dakota reminded him.

“…Right, yes. Her. At least she’s playing the game. Doing sexy things to appeal to the audience, or at least, appeal to you, the master,” Mr. S crooned, turning his sneer towards Nick. “Aren’t you a lucky guy?”

Nick grimaced. He certainly didn’t feel lucky. But he doubted saying as much would get him anywhere.

“Vivian is more reserved about that sort of thing,” he responded. Even when they had been together in the Master’s Suite with Carly she had held back from doing anything too serious and intimate with him. And after unfortunately eavesdropping on her conversation with Little Miss, he now understood why. Because she wasn’t comfortable with doing sexual acts.

No wonder she reacted like she did when I accidentally saw her breasts in the hot spring. It caught her by surprise and she didn’t have time to put her guard up. Nick knew that Vivian kept a part of herself back in her interactions with him, he’d have to be a fool not to have picked up on that by now. That wasn’t to say she was being dishonest or lying to him, no, he had a feeling that the face she showed him was every bit the real her. But… it wasn’t all of her.

She always kept a part of herself back. Too scared to bare everything to him. And that had caused a clash like the one they’d had back in Dream Alley.

That strange shadowy place we went to when she had her breakdown… is that tied to her fear of intimacy somehow? He wondered. That had caught him completely by surprise, and Vivian’s refusal to elaborate further on it signaled that the topic was very much off limits.

Nick respected her too much to press further.

“You’ll have to forgive Nick,” Dakota said, stepping forward and surprising Nick. He never expected that she would come to his defense so directly like this. He looked at Dakota in alarm and wondered what she was after here.

“Dakota?”

“Oh?” Mr. S raised his eyebrow.

“He has a good heart and he cares about people,” Dakota explained, keeping a neutral tone even though she couldn’t be prouder of that side of him. “Even people who do horrible, unforgivable things… even people who hurt him… he can look past all that and keep caring for them… it’s really… truly touching, don’t you think?”

“Mm… I see what you mean…” Mr. S murmured. “So he can even care for a woman who won’t even love him back? That’s admirable… but how far can it possibly go, I wonder? Tell me, boy, just how far do you think you can keep going like that, giving your heart to people who won’t return it?”

“I don’t think you understand me at all,” Nick replied, narrowing his eyes. “No… I know you don’t. Because if you did, you wouldn’t even think to ask me such a stupid question!”

Mr. S’s eyes flashed with warning. “Excuse me?” He growled.

“I can care about people without expecting anything in return,” Nick snapped. “You think that’s something special or unique? It’s natural! Anyone could do that! …But don’t get me wrong. I’m not some lovestruck fool. You think I’m crushing on Vivian while she refuses to return my feelings? You couldn’t be more wrong. I can respect someone and care about them without romance having to factor into it.”

“So you’re telling me… she was correct, then…” Mr. S mused, narrowing his eyes. “You won’t ever return her feelings then… what a poor, pitiable woman.”

Mary winced. She bit her lip, wishing she could say something in Nick’s defense, but she could hardly move. The feeling welling up inside her…

No, I can’t… not yet!

She had to hold on, no matter how uncomfortable she felt. It was her duty to her husband to tolerate this.

“You can’t see the future,” Nick snapped. “Neither you, nor Dakota. Maybe I will fall in love with her, or someone else, or all the girls in my ‘harem’, I really don’t know. But I’m not about to put any pressure on her the way you guys are. Dakota, haven’t you explained that to your bosses enough by this point, that that’s not how I do things?”

“Oh, believe me, they’re well aware,” Dakota said, barely holding back the smirk of amusement on her lips.

Good enough for Nick.

“I see, so Vivian isn’t special at all, then, she’s just another girl in your harem. Well, that’s a relief,” Mr. S said, smiling. “If you’d said that romance was off the table for her, that wouldn’t go over very well with the audience, I’m sure. Fans don’t tolerate a lot of that sort of thing, women who have no interest in being with the master. Maybe the token lesbian harem member gets away with it, but someone with Vivian Carrington’s baggage? You’d practically be dooming her to last place!”

Nick’s eye twitched. He wasn’t pleased by how pleased the producer sounded at his answer. It made him feel that he’d made the wrong choice somehow.

But he hadn’t. He knew he hadn’t. No, this was right.

“Vivian is my friend,” he said honestly. “Whether it becomes something more than that… with her, or with anyone else… that’s up to the both of us. Understand?”

Mr. S pressed his fingers together, a pleased smile on his face. “Oh, believe me… I understand completely,” he assured Nick with a mocking smile. “But I wonder… does your dear wife feel the same way?”

Nick blinked. “…Huh?”

He turned to Mary for the first time, and saw the troubled expression on her face. When she saw he was looking at her she gasped, and tried to **** a smile, but it was too late.

Nick’s heart pounded in his chest. “Mary? Are you alright?” He asked worriedly.

“Y-yes! Of course, wh-why wouldn’t I be?!” Mary said frantically, waving her hands. As bad a liar as always.

Dakota grimaced and Mr. S smirked.

“It’s obvious, isn’t it? She’s got something welling up in that little heart of hers that’s just dying to burst out, but she’s so loyal and devoted to you she can’t bear to bare her real feelings. She’s been holding it back and holding it back, just stewing in her discomfort, and given how sweet she is, she’s just going to bottle it up until she pops!”

He clicked his tongue and shook his head. “And that’s no good at all… no, my dear girl, if there’s something you need to say, then you should come right out and say it! Holding back for the sake of others isn’t right at all.”

Mary’s eyes flickered over to Nick, and she saw the troubled expression on his face. She bit her lip nervously.

“Mary, it’s fine,” Nick said, even though it was obvious how worried he was. “If something’s the matter, you can tell me. Please, I… I want to hear what you have to say.”

“Just come out and say it already,” Dakota snapped impatiently. “What’s got you so bothered, huh?”

Mary winced. “I… I…”

Her cheeks flushed and she averted her eyes, too embarrassed to look at her husband directly.

“…I need to go to the bathroom…”

The three of them stared blankly at her.

“The heck is this?” Dani walked forward, finding a small dip between the doorway and the floor, which was stark white. “Are those… puzzle pieces?”

She walked over to the mount of stacked tiles and picked one of them up. Yep, they were puzzle pieces alright, or at least they looked like them. They had the texture of linoleum, though, and about the size of a pizza box. The one she was holding looked like it had come out of the most bizarre puzzle in the world. It was smeared all over with colors, nearly indecipherable.

If it was a puzzle, it was a damn hard one.

“Why are there so many doors?” Magnifica asked, looking at the white walls. “There’s gotta be, like, 50 of ‘em! Are we supposed to try them all?”

“That would take forever,” Moonshadow pointed out. “But then, so would solving this puzzle. It’s big enough to fill the entire room.”

“We can’t try the doors,” Dani said, shaking her head and setting the puzzle piece down on the floor in front of her. “Think about it, the doors will probably open to different parts of the maze, right? Would we even know which one was the real one?”

There was a way to find out, of course. The orgasm map. But Dani had a feeling that Dakota wasn’t going to make it that easy for them.

“Oh my gosh, I know! I just had a great idea!” Magnifica raised her hand like the attentive student Morgana definitely was not. “Dawn’s, like, super-duper good at puzzles! Why don’t we get HER help?”

“Nice thought, but she’s not here right now,” Dani pointed out.

Moonshadow shook her head. “She does not have to be,” she replied. “Remember- we have the same boon our original self has. We can communicate with her directly through our minds!”

Dani blinked. “Oh! That’s right! I totally forgot! Okay, yeah, you guys do that, and I’m gonna try and figure out how this puzzle works!”

While Dani went to go sift through the tiled puzzle pieces, the two Morganas looked at each other with adamant expressions on their faces.

“I should be the one to do it,” Magnifica said firmly. “Like, it was MY idea, oh my gosh!”

“Ridiculous,” Moonshadow scoffed. “It should be me. I am capable of getting straight to the point. YOU would belabor the issue with needless prattle.”

“Nuh-uh! Would not!”

“Would so.”

The two girls glared at each other.

“We’re making pretty good time,” Kim said, hoping they were going in the right direction. “It was the right call to rely on your nose, Dawn.”

Dawn grinned, her eyes flashing with savage excitement. “I know!” She said with a proud smirk. “Thanks to my nose, I can sense where anyone is, just by how horny they are!”

Of course, there were a lot of scents clouding her because all the girls were some level of horny. But Dawn was focused on the closest scent, which she was pretty sure was… …Morgana?

Wait, no, it can’t be. She stopped and shook her head. Why do I get Morgana’s scent coming from over there, then?

She smelling Morgana in two different directions. What the hell?

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Dawn groaned. She punched the wall in frustration. “…Damn it! I can’t focus like this!”

Her Wildcat transformation caused her rational thinking to take a hit when she got too excited. Like right now, for instance. The effects of the aphrodisiacs from that flower pollen were still playing havoc on her senses, and smelling the arousal of the other girls wasn’t making things easier!

“Hey, um… D-Dawn… it’s okay…” Ella said hesitantly. She reached out and placed her hand on Dawn’s arm.

A bolt of pleasure shot through her and she let out a moan, her legs buckling slightly.

“Don’t touch me!” Dawn warned her quickly, pulling away from the other girl. “Weren’t you paying attention!? If you touch me, you’ll-!”

She stopped herself, realizing that she was shouting. Ella pulled back and snapped her rubber-band with a “Thwap!”

“…Ella, I… I’m sorry…” Dawn apologized contritely. “It wasn’t… I didn’t mean to…”

This stupid fucking transformation! Dawn couldn’t believe she’d been reckless enough to use all three at once! What kind of moron convinced her THAT was a good idea?!

“No, it… it’s fine,” Ella said softly, shaking her head. “Really, it’s alright… I understand.”

She smiled a soft smile. “If anyone understands, it… it’s me…”

Dawn winced. Of course Ella would know what it was like to lose control like that. She felt like a complete heel, snapping at her that way. Sighing, she shook her head.

“What a fucking mess,” she muttered glumly.

“Hey, let’s just forget about it, okay?” Kim advised her. “Just think! We’re almost through the maze, if Dawn’s nose is anything to go by! We can get there, we just have to keep going!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded in adamant agreement. As usual she was agreeing with Kim, but this time it was because Kim was actually talking sense.

“You’re right,” Dawn nodded. “The sooner we’re done with this challenge, the sooner I can go to bed and be done with these shitty transformations…”

She didn’t like not being able to think rationally. Although she had to admit… not having to overthink things so much actually did feel a little freeing. It was like she could take a backseat for once, and not have to be the one solving all the problems.

She could actually get used to that…

“Dawn!”

“Dawn!”

“Dawn!”

Three voices in her brain speaking in unison overwhelmed Dawn simultaneously and she nearly passed out.

“What the hell!?” She growled, clutching her head.

“Dawn, it’s Morgana! I need your help! The angels are coming! The Weeping Angels! You gotta help me! I don’t know what to do, and my contacts already give me really itchy eyes so I can’t go without blinking this much, heeeeeeelllp!”

“Dawn, oh my gosh, it’s me, Morgana, but you can call me Magnifica, because I’m, like, totally magnificent! But enough about that, anyway, there’s like, this totally weird puzzle in this room, and when I say puzzle I mean, like, a literal puzzle, with puzzle pieces, and I could reeeeaaaalllly use that big, sexy brain of yours to help out?”

“Dawn. This is the Morgana who goes by Moonshadow. Ignore the prattle of my compatriot, who is no doubt speaking to you at this very moment and distracting you from the matter at hand with her inane ramblings. Suffice to say we do not have time to waste. I have need of your puzzle-solving capabilities, please respond posthaste.”

Dawn dug her nails into her scalp and began grinding her teeth.

“What the hell is that matter with all of you!?” She shouted with her voice, not her mental thoughts. “Why am I getting three Morganas in my head at once!?”

It didn’t make any sense, and Dawn didn’t have nearly the mental capacity to try to make sense of it, not when the three of them were giving her such a massive headache.

“Dawn? Everything okay?” Kim asked worriedly.

“Do I look okay!?” Dawn snapped. She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down, but the brigade of Morganas kept pushing into her mind.

“All of you, just stop talking for a second and let me think! What the heck’s going on!? Why are there three of you!?”

“Huh!? Three of me?!”

“Oh my gosh, like, it’s such a funny story…”

“Explaining would take too much time.”

Great, none of them were helpful. Dawn usually had way more patience for Morgana’s antics, but when they were three of them and none were letting her get a word in?

Dawn wanted to put her skull through the brick wall.

When one of the Morganas assaulted her with her screams of orgasm, that just made everything worse. Dawn could smell her arousal increasing from all the way over here, a section of the maze away. Sighing, she began grinding her teeth together in frustration while the other two Morganas kept pestering her for help with a room-sized puzzle.

“Dawn?” Ella bit her lip, not wanting the cat girl to bite her head off.

But before Dawn could respond to her, another figure appeared at the end of the hall.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin whirled around, immediately taking a defensive stance. But Serenity wasn’t here to fight.

“Serenity?” Kim asked, surprised. “Why are you here?”

“The audience held a vote,” Serenity said calmly, approaching the girls. “And they decided that Ella here would receive a positive benefit. I’m here to deliver that.”

Ella’s eyes widened in surprise. “Eh!? A positive benefit? Me?”

Serenity nodded. “There is just a matter of what that benefit will be,” she informed the other girl.

What will Ella’s positive benefit be?

https://strawpoll.com/poy9k762pgJ

“We’re doomed…” Morgana moaned, although the moan was more of a moan of orgasm. Every time the angels touched one of them, the girls would orgasm, and HARD. It was better than being hurled back through time, but with the intensity of the orgasms, it was impossible for Morgana to maintain her composure enough to get through the cluster of stone statues. Even if they DID let her go after she came her brains out.

“Come on, Morgana, don’t give up now!” Sylvia said, shaking her head. “Shall I sing a cheery song to get our spirits up?”

“She can do it,” Lynette muttered. “Shishishishi… her singing can pump up your spirit, believe it or not.”

“That… I don’t think that’s necessary,” Morgana said, shaking her head. “It won’t help… I thought Dawn might have an idea, but without her genius… there’s gotta be a way through all these statues, but I can’t walk all the way through the room without blinking once, it’s impossible!”

“Yeah, me neither,” Sylvia conceded. “Well, what about if one of us walks with our eyes closed halfway through the room, and the other goes the rest of the way? We can switch and rest our eyes!”

“We have to be looking in all directions,” Morgana glumly replied. “One person couldn’t do it! Oh, if we had one more set of eyes…”

“Well, unfortunately we can’t just use Lynette,” Sylvia sighed, holding up the stuffed doll. “Her eyes don’t blink! They’d be perfect!”

Morgana gasped. A lightbulb went off above her head.

Would… would that work? She wondered.