She’s playing dressup.

Maria blinked at Nate, a brief look of confusion crossing her face, before she said, “Oh, she was just being difficult when it came to picking an outfit this morning. Said she wanted to pick some clothing that didn’t make her look like an old woman.” Maria shook her head in amusement. “If one of the perks of her transformation is she finally loses her dated sense of fashion, I won’t complain.” She shrugged, “She should be down soon, I warned her I was making her an omelet and gave her a ten minute deadline.”

Nate paused at the mention of his mother’s transformation. “So, about that, her transformation. How exactly does that work?”

“We talked about it last night,” Sarah asked. “We saw a different transformation than you and she did. Both transformations counter the other, so we can’t say which is real. Standard gaslighting bullshit.”

“Really? But we witnessed her transform.”

“Did you, or do you have memories that say you did because the transformation made you have them?”

“…Ah.” Nate realized the scope of his mother’s transformation, and the ramifications as well. He considered how his mother might have reacted. “Did… how did mom react to idea?”

Sarah shrugged, “Blame Sammy. Mom freaked out but we calmed her back down. Everyone’s agreed not to give you two any shit about it, but you’ll have to excuse us if we slip up. To you two it may feel real, but to the rest of us it’s like a really weird roleplay situation.”

“That’s fair. And I get the feeling it may not be the last time we’ll have a similar conversation.”

“Agreed,” Helena said as she crossed through the kitchen. She’d decided upon a white front-tied knot shirt over a light blue skirt, clearly flaunting her newly young body. “And we’ll likely have even weirder conversations as this goes on. We are in uncharted waters at this point. Thank you for breakfast, love,” she said, leaning over to kiss her wife on the cheek as she sat down in front of her omelet.

“Truth,” Sarah nodded.

“Ahem,” Vivian drew their attention over to the entry from the Contestants’ tower side of the floor. Upon seeing she had their attention, the redhead stepped to the side and motioned behind her, presenting a certain blonde Contestant to the room.

Sam was dressed in a white, frilly, off-shoulder, strapless crop top with red accents and a bow, and a matching frilly skirt and ended just shy of her knees. Her pigtails sat high on her head, secured with red bows that matched her clothes. Additionally, she’d had Alex’s in the makeup department. Together, the two had found that cosmetics cabinet in the girls’ shared bathroom (and wasn’t that a surprise to discover, one massive bathroom and shower area shared by six women) came stocked with every possible shade of makeup imaginable, and Alex had gotten to work. The end result was a far more natural look than Alex went with nowadays, hearkening back to her look pre-goth. Enough makeup to highlight Sam’s best features – and she had quite a lot of them, to begin with – while hiding the few imperfections that made it through the transformation.

Ultimately, the look really leaned into the whole innocent look Sam’s transformation had **** upon the teen. Sam’s blush as they became the center of attention helped, as well.

Sarah squealed and leapt up from her seat to tackle her younger sibling, while Helena and Maria gasped, tears collecting in Helena’s eyes. Nate, on the other hand, was dumbfounded.

After a few minutes of the women in the room gushing over how good Sam looked, Nate finally spoke up. “Wow, Sam, you look… amazing. Just… you were cute, already, last night, but now… 10 out of 10. But, this does bring up the question, uh, how do you want to treat this?” He motioned to Sam’s body in general.

The whole room fell silent at Nate’s question. He pressed on, “I mean, you’re my brother, err… sibling, so I want to support you. I care about you, Sam, and I just want to tackle this the way you want it tackled. If you want to lean into the girly stuff, if you want to hold onto being a dude, if you want to change your name and go full throttle on the transgender route, keep your name and consider yourself a man in a woman’s body, whatever it is you want to do, I want to support you.”

Sam smiled a big smile, then, the largest anyone had seen that whole weekend. “Thanks, Nate,” the teen said. “I appreciate it. And I’ve been thinking about it. Honestly, I’m not completely certain what I want. But I think I’d like to try leaning in, as you said. It feels like this show would punish any other option, and I don’t want that.”

Nate frowned, “I’d hate to have you **** yourself because of this situation.”

“No!” Sam objected. “That is… I’m not forcing myself. I… kind of like the idea? Like, when Alex was helping me with the makeup, it… it felt good? The idea of making myself cuter?”

“Well, alright, as long as it’s what you want, and not the contest forcing you.”

Sam nodded. “And as for the name question, I, uh, I know that a lot of people who transition choose a new name, but I, uh, I like my name. Sam. That’s me. I’m still me. It’s never felt like I’m not a Sam. I’m just a slightly different Sam now. So… maybe no new name, you guys can all keep calling me Sam, just, consider it short for Samantha, and not Samuel? If that’s okay with you, mom?”

“Oh, honey,” Helena cried, wrapping Sam up in a hug. “I will love you no matter who you find yourself to be, Sammy. I love Samuel, I love Samantha, I LOVE YOU. As long as you are happy with yourself, I will be, too.”

A round of hugs went by as the whole room encouraged Sam, then the entire party moved back towards the kitchen and dining area to continue breakfast.

As they sat down at the table, Nate said, “Maria, now that everyone’s here, there’s a third concern from our earlier discussion I wanted to raise.”

“Oh?” Maria asked.

“Earlier discussion?” Alex asked from where she was putting frozen waffles into the toaster. She was dressed in a black cropped tank top and black denim booty shorts, with a spiky choker and wristband to complete her gothic ensemble. Vivian, on the other hand, wore a breezy blue romper, with her hair pulled back into a low ponytail today, leaving a pair of bangs loose to frame her face.

“Nate was concerned about inter-harem infighting and divorce,” Sarah helpfully supplied, clearing her finished bowl of cereal off the table and bringing it to the dishwasher. “He was worried we’d all be super catty with each other to fight over him.”

“Ah. And he thought he had to solve our problems for us?”

“Mhm.”

“Hey! That’s not it at all!” Nate objected.

“Nate,” Alex fixed him in place with her gaze from across the kitchen counter, “We’re all big girls. We know what we’re getting into, and we don’t need you to save us from each other, okay?”

Nate just nodded, knowing any objection would only dig his hole deeper. That was one benefit of having his new second set of memories – he had a lifetime of experience dealing with the female version of Alex, and so he knew exactly how to defuse his best friend when she entered the no-nonsense mode she was in now.

“Besides,” Vivian chimed in, “Myself excluded, everyone here is family! You’ve all got a lifetime of learning to live with each others’ flaws and annoying habits. And I’m super easy to live with, just ask Alex!” Alex gave a thumbs up in confirmation from behind the fridge door, clicking her tongue twice for an affirmative sound effect.

“That actually leads us back to my third concern,” Nate said, hoping to quickly leave that mine-filled topic. “How to best explain this… Alright, who here has watched a TV show about a team of superheroes?”

All hands except Maria and Helena’s raised into the air. “Does a movie count?” Helena asked. Nate shook his head, and so her hand remained down.

Addressing those whose hands were in the air, Nate continued, “Okay, so let’s consider our situation as exactly that, and each day as an episode on such a TV show. Now, in those TV shows you’ve all watched, how many of them lasted 100 episodes, or maybe 4 seasons?”

“Uh… 2 come to mind,” Sam said after a moment. Sarah nodded.

“Only one I’ve seen,” Alex said, to which Vivian agreed.

“Alright, now in those shows that lasted that long… How many of them ended with the hero team remaining exactly the same?”

Silence followed Nate’s question, until Sam responded with, “Oh.”

“Wait, what?” Helena asked, suddenly a little panicked by the somber reaction to Nate’s question. “Are you suggesting that some of us will be killed off and replaced?!”

“Oh, no, no, sorry mom,” Nate said, “Not that. No, most of the time for team shows, the cast starts out small and intimate, but by the end of the fourth season, it’s grown in size significantly.”

“There’s a number of common tropes around it,” Alex supplied helpfully. “New recruits, introducing family members, converting yesterday’s villain into tomorrow’s ally, meeting other super teams. Anything to keep the show fresh and interesting.”

Nate nodded, “Exactly. And that’s what we’re on, an interdimensional reality show. Serena has to find a way to keep this interesting for 100 days. Yes, there’s the villain system, we get literal villains-of-the-week, but that only affects the Challenges. How is she going to keep things interesting outside of that? Learning how to use new powers is well and good, but I don’t think I can or want to stretch out relationship drama with you six across a hundred days.”

“So you’re pointing towards the likelihood of new members entering the harem,” Maria concluded, to which Nate nodded his agreement. “And that, in turn, jeopardizes the integrity of the harem.”

“Yes. What if someone gets introduced that creates discord in the harem. Or someone one of you can’t stand?”

“Nate, Nate, Nate,” Serena said, and all present spun to where she leaned against the back of the couch. “You really need to leave some of the surprises for me to reveal.”

“So it’s true, then?” Nate asked. “You’ll be introducing more Contestants, more members of the harem?”

“My, is that a bit of hope I hear?” Serena teased. “Yearning for more beautiful women in your harem, Nate?” As he only glared in response, she simply chuckled and continued, “I cannot say any more than this as regards to that topic – should any other individuals be granted the opportunity to join the harem, your current members will have full control over their admittance.”

“…Somehow I feel like it won’t be that simple,” Alex deadpanned.

Serena simply smiled in response, then looked at her watch, “Well, you all have twenty minutes left in breakfast. Normally, the half hour following would be free time preceding personal training, but as you all have not been given a tour of the tower, I will be conducting one today at 9 AM sharp. Do be sure to join me at the Master’s Tower elevator – you wouldn’t want to miss out.”

And with that she snapped, and disappeared.