Round 1, Day 1 - Morning Explorations Pt. 3

Alone in the crew quarters, Sarah and Serena sat in the entertainment area, each of them staring at their terminal screens as they sat across from each other. If they’d been at home, they might have sat closer together so they could cuddle, like they had countless times while reading or watching a movie together. But Sarah was feeling distinctly exposed after everything that had happened that morning, and the last thing she wanted was to get worked into another frenzy, even with her girlfriend close at hand. It didn’t help that they still hadn't found anywhere besides the bathroom that offered even the illusion of privacy. Serena had long ago accepted that, while Sarah was not completely opposed to public displays of affection, she had a definite limit on what she felt was the proper amount she wanted to share her private life with those around her, and having so many people see her as a horny mess that morning had gone far beyond that limit. Still, it was a strange sensation for Serena to be sitting across from her girlfriend when she would have much preferred to at least sit next to each other. They spent a while browsing the BP store independently and joining the group chat as Jacqueline relayed what she was learning, before they finally decided to share the results of their searches through the long list of upgrades, hoping to find ones that would help them deal with the problematic components of their changes.

Sarah was indignant at what she saw as a long list of obscene changes that had been offered to them. She was especially appalled by several that had, supposedly, been chosen especially for her. It wasn’t bad enough that the options the audience had passed on were still present; several new ones were offered to “Upgrade” the changes she had received in ways that sometimes seemed to make the issue worse. Then one option made her blood run cold.

Monoga-Wha? – Affected contestant no longer believes that exclusivity in romantic/sexual partners is the norm. They will consider it acceptable to have multiple partners and for their partners to have multiple partners. (1,500 BP – Self; 3,000 BP – Other)

Was this just another attack on her relationship, or did the robot know something? For a moment, the image of Daisy’s smirking face appeared in her mind, but Sarah knew the other woman had far too adversarial a relationship with the host to ever provide him this sort of information. It made far more sense that the robot’s surveillance of them had either caught her moment of indiscretion or that he was simply playing into the disgusting stereotype of bisexual people as unfaithful.

You haven’t exactly done the best job of countering that stereotype yourself, a guilty part of her whispered, but she dismissed it. Other than a single kiss, she’d never done anything to betray a partner or the reputation of bisexual people. If it hadn’t been for Daisy and the robot’s damned transformation that turned her boyfriend into a woman with a startling similarity to the other woman, it could have easily been a secret and regrettable mistake that she took to her grave. It hadn’t meant anything. She’d never even gotten the other woman’s name. They hadn’t spoken, just danced. And then, in the heat of things, they’d found their faces close together and their lips had met in a fevered kiss. It had been heady and intoxicating and left her head spinning, making her feel drunk on the flavor of it. It had been more brazen than anything she'd ever done in public with Serena. And then, across the club, there had been Daisy, waving and smirking, and Sarah’s whole world had come crashing down. It hadn’t meant anything, but it wasn’t the kiss that mattered now; it was that the kiss had been turned into a blade that was being held to the throat of the last thing she had left in this world after the robot had taken everything else. She knew it was only a matter of time before Daisy made whatever demands she was doubtlessly cooking up, and Sarah knew that she had no way of fighting back against those demands. That stupid bell transformation might have hindered Daisy’s ability to deceive others, but it had also turned her into an almost unassailable witness.

It hadn’t meant anything!

She wondered if she repeated it enough, if she’d start to believe it.

“You finding anything that works? Want me to take a look?” Serena’s voice asked, cutting through her introspection. They’d figured out how to share windows between terminals so that they could look together, but Sarah was afraid of what Serena might think about discovering the monogamy transformation until she’d looked at Serena’s screen and seen the same one mirrored there. She had a moment where she wondered if the duplicated transformation meant that Serena might have similar skeletons in her closet, but she quickly dismissed the notion. Serena, as a man, had been as temperate as they came. Reliable, responsible, and transparent to a fault. Since they’d started dating, he rarely went out without her and, when he did, he happily told her all about his evening. He’d rarely drunk, never to excess, and tended to avoid other intoxicating substances. Compared to some of her wilder exes, he had been almost boring, but in the best way as far as she was concerned. She decided the transformation being present on both of their lists must have simply been because they were already in a relationship.

“There are a couple that could help keep me from overheating quite as much, but the ones that I can afford all add an additional caveat. They’re all disgustingly sexual, and a few are non-starters. A couple aren’t quite so horrific, until you consider that these changes might really be permanent. Like, there’s this one ‘Temperance of the Snow Woman’, which makes it so that I can stay focused and have better self-control when I’m feeling overheated, but it mostly just shifts it to after I… you know… finish, since it essentially leaves me drunk for a while afterward, reducing my focus and self-control. At first, that doesn’t seem so bad. I’d be able to focus and do what I needed to do when I was aroused and just put off finishing till a more convenient time, but it means that I’d be essentially turning myself into a ditz every time I orgasmed. Then there’s another that makes it so that I won’t heat up from casual touch, but it makes my craving for heat more intense and then limits the ways I can absorb it.”

“What sort of limits?” Serena asked, and Sarah felt her ears heating up with embarrassment.

“It phrases it as ‘Contact between her mouth or genitals and those of another person,’ so basically I’d need to get my heat fix every day from either making out or some kind of sex, or I’ll get colder and colder until I get a dose. It doesn’t do anything to stop the arousal either, so I’d be getting even more worked up the whole time I’m warming myself. It’d mean I would be relying on you to take care of me every day, or I’d start getting hypothermic.”

“I think we could handle that,” Serena replied, with a slow, knowing smirk. Sarah rolled her eyes and gave a shy chuckle.

“Down, girl. You say that now, but it means that I would be completely reliant on you any time I started getting cold, which I’m guessing will be at least a couple of times a day.”

“So?”

“So, what happens if you’re not feeling well, or not in the mood, or you’re mad at me? How about when I don’t feel like doing anything, but I’m forced to just to keep myself from feeling like I’m freezing to death? What about if you’re away for some reason?”

“That’s a good point. I just miss touching you.” Serena said, and Sarah could feel the tinge of restrained tears in the words.

Sarah looked at her girlfriend, separated from her by the table between them, and felt her heart ache. She wanted nothing more than to pull her girlfriend into an embrace, to tell her it would be alright. She was tempted to buy the upgrade just so she could give her the comfort she needed, but it was too much to ask her to permanently bind herself to a routine of sexual activities, especially with the threat of Daisy sabotaging her relationship hanging over her head.

“I think I’m going to get the one that makes it so I’m only loopy after an orgasm. While the effect is based on how aroused I was when I orgasmed, it only affects the intensity of how drunk it makes me, not the duration, which it caps at 30 minutes.”

“Why that one? Seems like you’re still getting worked up, but just able to think through it?”

“Exactly. My two objectives are to make it so that you and I don’t have to worry about me going into a frenzy just from the two of us casually touching each other, and to make sure that I don’t have another situation where I get so horny in the middle of a challenge that I end up in a haze that lands me in last place. While it’s far from ideal, it should at least be easier to keep myself from orgasming when I’m horny and focused than to try and force myself to orgasm on the spot when I’m so horny and loopy that I can’t remember how a zipper works. We need to focus on what we can do to earn as many points as possible in the challenges. That way we can maintain some boundaries with Aaron and not be dependent on him to keep us afloat.”

“If you’re sure, then I support you"

Sarah: 2050 BP > 1050 BP
Sarah: +Temperance of the Snow Woman

Temperance of the Snow Woman – Snow Women at risk of mind-melting orgasms. Sarah’s ability to maintain focus while aroused is dramatically increased. Orgasm causes a 30-minute period where Sarah experiences loss of focus and inhibitions. Intensity of post-orgasm effect scaled to magnitude of arousal before orgasm.

The moment she purchased the upgrade, she felt a ripple pass through her, originating from where the terminal touched her skin. A shiver followed, running up her spine.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, just an odd sensation. I’m still feeling the heat's effect. I thought it’d be like turning the volume down on the arousal, but it's more like it just sharpens everything around it. How about you? Anything helpful?”

“The upgrades to Cyberpunk are amazing! But they’re all expensive, and none of them are going to help me with these damned mood swings. The Dream Girl upgrades focus mostly on physical changes. One would make my physical transformation continually adapt to what you envision as your dream girl in the moment, and another would let me slowly transition into anyone’s dream girl over time. The only one that mentions personality changes at all says it will let me redistribute the traits, but the phrasing is kind of weird. It says it lets me distribute the intensity of acquired traits into new traits, but it doesn’t give me any more details than that, so I don’t know what exactly that entails.” She said, pointing out the upgrade in the shop.

“Perhaps I could be of assistance,” A voice said from the far end of the couch.

Sarah and Serena both jolted from the shock of the unexpected voice, nearly falling off the couch in the process. They looked and saw C2 floating behind the couch at the end opposite the television. As quiet as he had been, they had no idea how long he had been watching them. As far as they knew, he could have been sitting there silently watching the whole time.

“Excuse me! Ever heard of a little thing called privacy?” Serena screamed at the robot, her temper flaring.

“My programming contraindicates privacy. I constantly monitor all crew members in case of an emergency and to provide optimal footage for our audience.” C2 responded.

“Well, then could you at least kindly fuck off so that we can be constantly monitored without having to have you around to remind us?!” Serena yelled, her temper rising.

“Of course, if that’s what you want,” C2 said, and began to rise towards the ceiling.

“Wait!” Sarah called, stopping the departing robot just as it was about to phase through the ceiling.

“Sarah?”

“Maybe he actually can help.”

“He’s the one who did this to me in the first place!”

“Technically, the audience, your girlfriend, and I all share responsibility for your current state. And, if I could remind you, you received exactly the transformation you requested. It’s hardly my fault if you didn’t understand the full extent of what you were asking for.”

Serena was sorely tempted to let loose a torrent of all the horrible names she could think of for the robot when she felt a pair of cool arms settle around her shoulders. Sarah had stepped around the table and pulled the smaller woman into a tight hug, partly to comfort her girlfriend and partly to keep her from doing anything that might get her into more trouble.

“I know how much you hate him, but he’s the only one who really knows what’s going on with our transformations. We should at least hear what he has to say.”

The combination of Sarah’s soothing voice and the chill of the arms holding her was enough, with a few minutes of focused breathing, to allow the anger to recede. As soon as she was calm, Sarah pulled away, her pale face starting to pink slightly.

“So, why didn’t you speak up earlier? When we were looking at Sarah’s changes.”

“Sarah’s changes are, at most, a minor inconvenience which could easily be remedied without BP by visiting any of the station’s numerous adult stores. Your issue, however, is clearly causing a great deal of stress, not only to you but also to the crew's harmony, which is one of my primary areas of concern.”

“Sure, because you are all about encouraging harmony.” Serena scoffed. The room suddenly filled with intense pressure as C2’s eye narrowed into what could only be a glare on the robot’s cyclopean face.

“Human, I am offering to assist you. If you would prefer that I do not, then I will be on my way, but don’t suggest that you understand my methods or motivations.” He said, his voice dripping with venom, very different from his typically upbeat announcer’s voice. Serena felt an animal urge to flee as the robot glared at her, and the anger disappeared, chased away by terror.

“Fine, then can you tell me more about this redistribution?” She asked, trying not to show how much she wanted to run back to her pod and lock herself in.

“I would be glad to!” C2 said, his demeanor instantly shifting back to his normal cheerful persona. “When Sarah’s dream girl was isolated from her subconscious, fifteen personality traits were identified. You were given two, which were selected at random. If we think of it as a point-buy system in character creation, we put 100 points into each of those two traits. Purchasing the redistribution lets me choose one to three new traits, then distribute the current points equally among them. So, if you let me pick one trait, all three traits would be at 66% intensity. If you let me pick two traits, it would be down to 50% intensity for four traits. And for three, you could be down to 40% divided among five traits.”

“And she’s just supposed to trust that you won’t give her something worse?” Sarah asked

“I suppose you two just have to ask yourselves if you think there’s anything that might be part of Sarah’s dream girl that’s worse than what you’re dealing with now or, more accurately, if there are any that you think I would pick that are worse than what you have now. Of course, we could always make a deal. If you were willing to purchase the Bisexual transformation, I would gladly give you a selection to choose from.”

“And what’s to stop you from just giving me Bisexual as the trait that you swap out if I don’t go along with it?”

“Unfortunately, my agreement with Master Aaron means that I cannot directly alter a contestant’s sexual orientation without the contestant’s permission. Otherwise, I will admit that would absolutely be what I would select, since it is one of the traits available to me.”

Serena turned to Sarah. “What do you think?”

“I think you should ask yourself if what you’re dealing with now is worth the risk of letting C2 decide for you. I can’t see what’s going on in your head, as much as I wish I could. Do you think you could get these swings under control? Is it that upsetting? You know that I’ve had plenty of my own moments where my emotions swung wildly, so I definitely know how upsetting it can be, but is it really scaring you that much?”

Serena thought about it. She hated feeling out of control of her emotions. As a man, she had prided herself on being someone who was in control of themselves, who wouldn’t succumb to attempts at provocation or riling like some men she knew. She hadn’t always been like that, but the time before she’d learned to control her emotions, before she’d learned not to give in to the extreme highs and lows, was one of the darkest times in her life, and one she’d sworn never to repeat. And this, this personality transformation, felt like it bypassed everything she’d ever learned about controlling her emotions. Part of her dreaded what it would feel like if she was already so emotionally reactive and then reached the end of the show and had to deal with her period for the first time. If she was feeling this way now, what would it be like the first time she had to deal with her new body’s hormones, unrestrained, at the same time? She couldn’t live like this. She couldn’t live knowing that everyone would have to constantly walk on eggshells around her to keep her from lashing out at them. She couldn’t live with the fear that, one day, someone might say something that pushed her too far, and she'd say or do something that truly hurt someone. She wasn’t sure what a 50 or 60% reduction would feel like, but if it meant getting mentally halfway back to her old self, then it was worth it.

“I think it is, even if it’s just an improvement. I don’t know if I could live with myself like this. I think I’d start to hate the person I’d become.”

Sarah considered this for a moment, then nodded.

“Alright, then I support you.”

“I’ll take it,” Serena announced to the robot and selected the transformation.

Serena: 1950 BP > 950 BP
Serena: +Personality Trait Redistribution

“Very well. So, how many new traits would you like me to select for you?”

“Two. I think getting it down to 50% should be enough.”

“Excellent choice. Now, since I’m here, let’s give this the pomp it deserves.” C2 said, glowing brightly gold and firing the beam at her again.

As the increasingly familiar ripples passed through her, Serena was relieved to feel the sensation of her mind settling, like a wild mustang that had suddenly been tamed. She felt her emotions come under control and steady. She let out a sigh of relief and opened her eyes, only to have her gaze drawn to the band tee and pajama pants she was wearing, and she felt a distinct sense of unease and embarrassment.

“What were the new traits you picked?” Serena asked.

“I suggest you take a look at your transformation descriptions, and you’ll see. Now, I will take my leave, but if there’s anything else I can help with, don’t hesitate to ask.” C2 said, and promptly departed through the floor.

Serena looked at her terminal and groaned slightly at the realization of what she had gained, then showed it to Sarah, whose face suddenly broke out into a giant grin.

Personality Trait Redistribution – 50% of “Volatile” and “Impulsive” personality traits redistributed to “Sexually Adventurous” and “Fashionable” personality traits.

“So, does this mean that you’re coming shopping with us?” She asked, batting her eyes a bit at the invitation. Serena groaned again, but knew that she would eventually surrender and be inducted into the practice of women’s shopping.

Author's note: I am taking a brief hiatus for travel. Next chapter will be posted 10/19.