Salades des Bombay

Not exactly sure what to do with himself, Caleb stood against the wall as Eliza sat on the bed. At a glance, the bed was fully made so Caleb knew she hadn’t been asleep when he knocked. He tried to make eye contact with her as the silence lingered, waiting for an explanation that didn’t seem forthcoming.

He tapped a finger against the wall and offered, “So are you not feeling well? Because if you need to rest I can go.”

Eliza shook her head, “No it’s nothing like that. It’s…it’s going to sound stupid when I explain.”

Caleb chuckled, “Professor I’ve never heard you say anything stupid before, and given everything we’re going through I can’t imagine it’s that ridiculous.”

Looking up slightly Eliza gave a sheepish smile before letting out a slow exhale, “Caleb, I need you to know this isn’t a reflection on you or how attractive you may be or anything like that but I really really didn’t want to go on a date today and was hoping to avoid you until I absolutely had to go to the Master’s suite.”

Caleb winced, even with the preamble it was hard not to feel a bit bruised in the ego, but he tried to push past that, “Ok, so that’s why you were hiding in your room?”

The professor slowly nodded while still avoiding eye contact, “I figured, sorry, I figured that maybe you wouldn’t bother looking for me with all the other girls here and your own issues. I didn’t realize that you have full access to all of our rooms, though in retrospect I might have suspected that to be the case.”

Stepping away from the wall, Caleb crossed and sat next to the professor, being mindful to still not touch her just in case, “Do you mind explaining why you were so against going on a date?”

“I guess you deserve that much,” The professor fiddled with her glasses, “There are a few different reasons. The first and least of which is that it’s still not easy to not think of you as a student of mine,” Caleb opened his mouth and Eliza raised her hand to silence him, “There’s not much to be done about it. Maybe I’m physically younger than you now but I’m used to being in a place of maturity and authority over you. I care for all my students and because I regularly socialize with them I take extra care not to cross any unprofessional boundaries. Still, as I said it’s the smaller of the reasons…I have eyes and you are a fit young man who I have fond memories of. Now being the way I am…” She gestured to her youthful frame, “I’m having feelings a young woman might have for such a man, very shallow feelings mind you but feelings all the same.”

Caleb could understand how that would be awkward for her, he hadn’t considered that forcing her to be younger would affect her hormones as well. So he simply nodded and gestured for her to continue.

Closing her eyes as she gathered her thoughts, the professor reopened them while staring wistfully at her hands, “The second reason is because of Lily, You’ve been off doing your own thing as Master so I’m sure you haven’t particularly noticed, but her, Maddy, and I have kind of formed a little support group together. It’s been nice having such sweet girls to talk to during all of this. When I first got here, after the auditorium I had been so filled with apprehension I hadn’t thought about the possibility that I could make friends and for once they’re my own age.” She chuckled, “But it makes me all the more worried about betraying their trust. Lily- you really hurt her, I’m sure you’re aware of that.”

Caleb’s face darkened and he gave a sad nod as he clenched his fist, “Yeah, I’m very much aware.”

Measuring his reaction, Eliza continued, “Well, she’s been very clearly messed up by the whole situation, and being brought here has made that all come to the surface. I fear for her safety going forward, I have doubts about her ability to earn points in her state and I worry more that if she sees I’ve earned any amount of points with you, that she’ll view it as a betrayal and I’ll lose that friendship while setting her back further.”

Caleb clasped his hands together, “I promise I’m going to do what I can for her. I won’t let her be changed by Lucian, not if I can do something about it.”

Eliza gave him a rueful smile, “That’s great Caleb, but it’s not entirely up to you. Even if you apologize she might not be able to get over that hurdle in front of her.”

Running a distressed hand through his hairCaleb groaned, “Yeah you’re right and I can’t blame you for not wanting to mess up your relationship with someone you consider a friend.”

Eliza’s face turned down as her face turned red, “That’s not the only reason though.”

It was increasingly clear to Caleb that the professor had put a lot more thought into not dating than he had into going on a date. He dropped his hand to his side, “Oh? There’s more?” He tried to make it sound like a joke.

Eliza nodded, “Caleb, I don’t know if you remember but I am a divorcee. I originally got married…actually around the time I would have had this body the first go round. Only to have my husband call it quits while I was working on my PhD because I had become “boring” and “spent too much time thinking”.” The words still hurt to recall and the professor grimaced as she repeated them, “Since then I haven’t been on a date, so I haven’t been with a man on a date for over thirty years and…and…and I was worried I would just be so bad at it.”

“Oh.” Caleb tried to keep the amusement out of his voice, but it was hard. Staring at this beautiful woman who he had admired from his school days for being fun, mature, and intelligent and hearing her fret about being a bad date was more than a little shocking. He reached out and gently put a hand on her shoulder, “I can’t really help with the other things, but I can tell you that as far as a date is concerned you don’t have to worry about disappointing me.”

Eliza looked at Caleb confused, “What do you mean? You have no evidence to back up this claim and I have plenty of evidence to support I’m bad at romance.”

Caleb gave a lackadaisical shrug, “I mean I know I like talking to you, half the reason I joined philosophy club was that your conversations were always so interesting. Also it’s clear from talking right now that you’re super considerate of others when you’re planning things. Maybe you get a little caught in your head, but I have experience with that too so I’m not going to hold it against you. And another point, and I need to stress it’s not most important but it’s definitely a factor, you are super attractive…I mean you were even before they deaged you but now…you’re way out of my league.”

Caught off guard by his bluntness, the professor found herself laughing out loud and clutching her ribs. When she finally settled down she looked Caleb in the eye, “Thank you…for coming to find me and talk to me like this. If you don’t mind we could still try to go on maybe a more conventional date?”

Caleb got up and lowered his hand to held the professor, “I’d be honored, sorry about not being able to leave the hotel.” He blushed.

Taking his outstretched arm and climbing off the bed, Eliza waved hand, “Don’t worry about that for now. Let’s just focus on having a little bit of fun I-” Eliza was cut off by a tingling sensation radiating from her body and looked down to see her clothes were glowing.

“Caleb? Something is happening, I don’t know what’s going on. I-” Her voice was cut off and Caleb was **** to watch as her Pajama’s began to stretch and change. Her pajama pants shrunk upward and melded together as they darkened into a dark pencil skirt. He top split into two layers and shrank becoming a tight unbuttoned shirt and matching suit jacket, pushing up Eliza’s prominent breasts. Her socks lengthed out until they became black stockings compete with garter belts. Her bare feet grew tall black heels underneath them. Red nail polish covered her nails and gentle lipstick to her lips. She was bent over slightly breathing heavily.

Caleb reach out towards her, “Professor? Eliza? Are you ok?”

Eliza flipped her hair back and raised her body just enough to give Caleb an eye full of cleavage as she looked at him with heavily lidded eyes, a flirtatious smile on her face.

Her words came out husky when she finally spoke, “Never better cutie, now come now.” She trailed her index finger along Caleb’s chest to his mouth, closing it, “Teacher wants to take her good boy out for a meal.

Caleb’s eyes narrowed, he knew something had to have happened to cause this drastic change, when he remembered what Amy had told him the previous day about Sabotages. Someone had done this to Eliza and he didn’t know who.

“Most I can do right now is see how much this is effecting her and keep her out of trouble.” He thought silently as he followed Eliza out of the room.

Outside on the patio, Noemi smiled satisfied with herself as she looked down at the Sabotage that was rapidly disappearing.

Lustful Attire- Transforms target's attire into fetishwear most appropriate to their personality and makes them show off for others for the next 8 hours

She really hoped it worked properly and that Eliza would now wow Caleb as a sexy teacher. Noemi knew how had it was to put yourself out there and knew that Eliza would appreciate this push and hopefully get some points out of it.

She grinned from ear to ear, today was turning out so well!

Amy was coming back from the gym when she saw Lily crossing the lobby. She swallowed thinking back to her conversation with Arietta yesterday. She desperately wanted to run and hide but **** herself to call out, “Lily! Wait!”

Turning to see the red woman approaching her Lily’s face turned crimson, a mix of embarrassment and anger, “What?!” she then remembered what Eliza said and lowered her voice, “I mean…what do you want Amy?”

Recoiling slightly from the initial response, Amy did her best not to run away and push forward, “I wanted to talk to you, do you have some time? Mira told me there’s an island full of flowers. Maybe…maybe we could go there together and talk?”

Lily’s eyes narrowed, “Wait do you just assume because I’m some plant girl that I would be into flowers?” She put her hands on her hips, “I mean I do like flowers so I’m ok with it, but like…I don’t appreciate the assumption.”

Amy shrugged, “I just thought it sounded nice and out of the way so that we wouldn’t accidentally run into Caleb on his date. I thought him being around might complicate things.”

Looking over the Oni, covered in sweat, red skin glistening, Lily felt her face heating up again, “Do you need to change first?”

The realization took root in Amy’s eyes, and she quickly nodded, “Go ahead without me, I’ll meet you at the docks. I won’t take too long.”

When Amy came back out she was wearing a tight crop top and shorts and a zip hoodie, she always seemed to wear clothes that put her physique on full display. Looking down at her own clothes Lily began to feel overdressed in her long skirt and a light sweater. There was also a casual nature to the way that Amy moved that put her ill at ease.

Eventually, they climbed into the gondola and started the ride over to the greenhouse. Halfway through Amy began to regret the choice of location and began to fidget with her hands as the awkward silence became deafening between the two of them as neither seemed interested in broaching the topic they knew was coming prior to reaching their destination.

Finally, the greenhouse was in view and the Oni gave a sigh of relief as they docked and she could climb out. Numerous fauns were wearing loose-fitting white clothes, similar to a beekeeper's outfit, rummaging about the area were taking care of the plants. The flowers were numerous and plentiful giving the area a floral-perfumed scent and making the view almost blindingly colourful.

Lily got out of the boat and approached the plants. She reached out and touched a leaf, the texture was so full and vibrant. “How do they take care of them I wonder…” she muttered aloud almost forgetting why she had come here.

Amy scratched the back of her head bashfully and then swallowed, there was nothing for it but to do it at this point. “I’m sorry…about a few different things. I’m sorry for sleeping with Caleb when he was in a relationship with you; it’s true that I didn’t know it at the time but that doesn’t make the pain you felt less real. I’m also sorry about the way I behaved when I first got here, I panicked…it was inappropriate”

Lily turned to focus her eyes on Amy a scowl forming on her face, “If you knew it was inappropriate why would you do that? Why would you mock me over that?”

The oni exhaled, this was the part where things could get worse, “Caleb isn’t the first, I try really hard when I pick my partners, but guys and girls lie sometimes. I’ve been caught in that situation before and I always found it easiest to be the villain. The betrayed partner gets someone to take their aggression out on and maybe then they can approach their partner with a clear head.”

Lily looked baffled for a moment and then sputtered, “Why would you do that for those bastards? Why protect those cheaters?”

“Because I don’t matter,” Amy said matter-of-factly, “At least not in that situation I don’t. Maybe the cheaters don’t deserve to be able to have a second chance, but those who are cheated on deserve to make that decision with a clear head. Mistakes happen, and I’d rather be a stepping stone for some relationships working out than drive a wedge between people who could have made it work if not for me.”

She walked over to a tulip plant and held the flower gently in her large red hands, “When I arrived here, even after being blasted with the situation, I didn’t know what I was doing. So when you called out to me- I panicked plain and simple, I defaulted to a tactic I’m used to rather than think the situation through and you didn’t deserve that. No one deserves that.” Amy sighed

Lily stared at the Oni and felt a ball forming in her gut with nowhere to go. She wanted to be angry and hate her, she wanted to demonize her and call her out for being an awful person, she wanted this to be simpler and easier than it was. She looked at the oni with fresh eyes and now noticed for the first time looking at her face, how distraught she looked. She was afraid.

Turning to look at the flowers, Lily scooted over closer to Amy and then let out a long and frustrated breath, “I think I understand now. I get why you did it…kind of. I don’t understand why you say you don’t matter though. Didn’t you care about any of those people you slept with? The way you talk and handle yourself I can’t see someone like you having zero standards.”

Amy ran her thumb along the stem of the tulip, “I have standards, just not the ones that most people are used to. I’m asexual.”

Lily turned, “What? Like asexual reproduction? Do you perform mitosis?” she joked

Amy rolled her eyes, “Haha, no. I just don’t experience sexual attraction. Sexual desire, yeah that’s biological and sex feels good so I like to do it. But I never look at a boy, girl, or in between and think ‘Yeah, I want to get down and dirty with them’. So when I’m out and looking for a partner, I’m generally just looking for someone who looks like they’d be good to spend a night with. A little fit so they can keep up with me, interesting enough so the conversation won’t bore me and kind enough that I don’t think it’s gonna turn rough.”

Lily’s eyes turned down, “Someone like how Caleb was.”

Amy nodded, “Yeah, and unfortunately sometimes guys can be all that and still end up hiding something from me. I always ask, just like how I always tell them I’m not looking for something serious, but that falls apart at times too.”

Sighing Lily looked up at the Oni, “You say you don’t feel sexual attraction, do you not want a partner for that reason?”

Amy shrugged, “I don’t think it’s related I just…relationships are finicky and I’d rather just have fun with people.” She looked down at Lily, “I don’t like hurting people though, and I needed to come clean with you. This competition is going to get real messy I’m sure but I don’t want this to be a thing between us.”

Lily took a moment to feel through her thoughts and then managed to get out, “I think I forgive you, I can’t be honest and say I’m fully over it. That night was really painful for me and I don’t think just an apology is going to change that…” She took a pink flower in her hand and leaned in to smell it, “But I think anything else has to come from me and Caleb. Not that I’m sure how that’s going to happen.”

Stepping away from the flowers Amy nodded, “I guess that’s the best I could have hoped for. So I want to say this. I don’t want to be making enemies with anyone. I don’t think I can do what your little group is doing. I need to keep my eyes and ears open and look out for myself. But, I’m not looking to go out of my way to push people in the dirt, and I’m willing to share anything I learn. Does that sound fair?”

Lily let the flower go, “Yeah I suppose as fair as can be expected here…so what now?”

Amy looked farther in, “This place is pretty big, want to see if anything is interesting further in?”

For a moment Lily saw the figure of Amy from her dream the night before and blushed, “Um yeah sure, sounds good.

She took a few steps to meet where Amy was standing and together they walked deeper into the greenhouse.