So Affectionate, So Loyal, So Skillful

"Knock knock!" Kendra announced whilst knocking on Abby and Liam's door.

She heard shuffling inside, as if they were already asleep or something. The night was still young, according to her, but apparently a few other people didn't think so.

"Yes...?" Abby answered from inside, not opening the door.

"It's me, Kendra," Kendra announced matter-of-factly. "Y'all couldn't tell because of my voice?"

"What do you want?" Liam asked.

"I need to speak with you, Lana," Kendra said. "Can y'all open the damn door?"

"Firstly, it's Liam," he responded. "Secondly, what's so important that you need to meet me face to face in order to do it?"

"You got some nerve, gettin' a lil' too big for your britches," Kendra accused, seething with anger. "I was try'na be nice, but I can see that you're gonna make me play your little game here. That won't fly, not on my show. Now, let me say that again. Open the goddamn door."

The shuffling inside became a lot more frantic as both Abby and Liam scrambled to get to the door, neither of them wanting to face Kendra's wrath. It was Abby who opened the door to the room.

"Come on in," she invited with a fake smile.

"See, I sort of wanted to talk to Lana one-on-one, so...see you!" Kendra answered, and with a wave of her hand, Abby was gone.

"Wha-what did you do to her!?" Liam exclaimed, outraged. "Did you kill her?"

"No, sugar," Kendra responded, her calm and collected voice irritating Liam. "She's just...in the fabric of space-time right now, she'll be back once we're done here."

"So what you're saying is that you didn't kill her, you just managed to put her in the fourth dimension?"

"Exactly, now if you'll-"

"Ooh, I'm gonna tell Becca all about this," he raged, trying to push past Kendra at the door. It didn't work, and instead felt like there was an impossibly strong person holding him back from leaving. Kendra, for her part, looked unfazed.

"Are you done with your temper tantrum?" she raised an eyebrow. "Because the sooner we get this over with, the sooner that Abby can come back from this little blip."

Liam stopped trying to push, physically exhausting himself with an impossible task. He looked up at the Southern woman, rage across his face, and sat back down on the bed.

"There we go," she said condescendingly. "Now, it's come to my attention that your little transformation, Lana-"

"Liam", he interrupted.

"See, that's what I'm talking about here," she continued. "It's not supposed to happen like that. You had Emma and Abby thinking of you as Lana earlier today, and now people, including yourself, are thinking of you like Liam. It's not supposed to regress like that, this is supposed to be a punishment transformation, not a middle-of-the-road transformation."

"Gee, if this is your idea of a moderate transformation, I don't wanna see your exit transformations," he muttered under his breath.

"Exactly," Kendra's face became dark. "You don't. But that's aside the point. What I'm here to do is to fix this little hiccup that we've found ourselves in here. So let me just..."

Kendra waved her hand again in Liam's direction, and instantly his mind started reprogramming itself. All of the regression that had happened throughout the night was being undone, and Liam was effectively becoming Lana again.

"There, that should sort itself out throughout the night," Kendra said as she got up. "You should get a good night's sleep in, sleep off all the magic. This stuff ain't free, y'know?"

"...and Abby?" Lana managed, as her mind wrestled with itself.

"Oh yeah, Abby!" Kendra feigned forgetfulness. "Lemme bring her back right here..."

Abby suddenly materialized back in front of the entryway once more, where she had previously been when she got removed from existence by Kendra. Her face, however, was completely blank.

"Abby?" Kendra snapped her fingers in front of her face, then looked over to Lana. "The lights are on, but nobody's home."

"...and whose fault is that?" Lana glared at her.

"Fine, fine, who licked all the red off your candy today?" Kendra rolled her eyes, and slowly Abby became animated again.

"What the-where am I?" Abby suddenly asked.

"Not traveling through space-time anymore, hon'," Kendra responded. "Let's get you to bed, you must be tired as all get out after that little trip you went on."

Abby slowly went back to her side of the bed, looking dazed. It almost looked as if she was being controlled by a puppeteer, as she laid down back in bed and fell asleep right away. Lana was aghast, thinking that Kendra had done something to her whilst she was undoing a transformation.

"What did you do to her?" Lana pointedly asked.

"Nothin' a lil' rest won't solve," Kendra dismissively waved. "You should prob'ly get your sleep too."

"Oh, go eat a dick," Lana rolled her eyes.

"Your choice," Kendra shrugged. "Anyways, have a good night!"

After she left, Lana sighed deeply. It was one thing to deal with that host on a daily basis, but it was a completely different beast trying to deal with her when she was out for blood.

Lana looked over at Abby again, snoring loudly on her side of the bed. Kendra really had done a number on her, but if pressed for details, she'd probably just say "Not my fault your minds can't handle inter-dimensional travel yet". She was really worried for the short brunette girl. What if she didn't wake up in the morning? Why did Kendra seem so nonchalant about what happened, and why did a million things happen at once? What if she was forever changed by what happened to her?

"Changed forever," Lana thought, looking down at herself. "I guess that's the boat that I'm gonna be stuck in for the rest of this game, until someone wins. Could our final wish be to reverse literally everything that happened to us? Kendra didn't say there would be any limitations on it, so I imagine that would be the case."

That line of thought opened up several cans of worms, though. Would whoever won be willing to use their single, all-powerful wish to simply nullify everything that had already happened? Not everyone here was completely altruistic, and several people came with their own baggage back on Earth that they would want to rectify. With infinite possibilities at the palm of their hand, who would be willing to go with the boring option. And, most scarily of it all, would they even want to go back to normal at the end of this all? Surely this would've been a problem on other seasons, where the winning wish was to turn back to normal, and if someone had tried that, it most likely would've been disallowed for future seasons.

"No sense in trying to think about the endgame right now though," Lana resolved. "I guess Kendra was right, I should try to get some shut-eye right now."

Lana got under the covers, once again rolling her eyes. This time it wasn't at Kendra, though, it was at the rather loud continual snoring coming from her roommate.

"'Try' being the operative word there."

---

"It's your date night!" Charlotte was practically squealing with joy.

Contrary to the nursing student, Lauren groaned as she was awoken before noon. What woke her up was beyond her, because at least Charlotte had the common decency to not wake her up simply to tell her her that it was, in fact, Lauren's day to go on a date with Turner.

"That it is," Lauren grumbled. She wasn't upset at the prospect of going on a date with Turner. It was a shift from her normal day-to-day activities on the island, most of which involved being antisocial.

It was because of what happened last time she was on her date. She wasn't even able to stay asleep for long, because her newfound arousal boost was going into overdrive simply from being in the same bed as the guy. The same thing was probably gonna happen again today. She'd go on a simple date with Turner, she'd want to fall asleep, but she'd be stuck between jumping him just like Sara did or waking up before the crack of dawn so she could actually fall asleep.

Unless...

"Hey, Charlotte, you want to help me with my date tonight?" Lauren proposed.

"Help you?" Charlotte's face contorted as she tried to figure out what that might entail, but she drew all blanks. "I mean, sure, but how am I supposed to help you with your date? Do you want me to like pick out a place for you and Turner to go, or an outfit for you to wear or something?"

"No, nothing like that," Lauren shook her head. "I need your help in a much more...personal way."

"A personal way?" Charlotte echoed, internally beaming that Lauren was willing to get a bit closer to her. "Sure, what exactly do you mean by that?"

"You're willing to do it?" Lauren asked before even telling Charlotte what she wanted to propose.

"I'm in," Charlotte grinned. "Doesn't matter what it is, I'm always willing to help you."

"Good, because I need to transfer my arousal to you."

"Wha-huh?" Charlotte recoiled a bit. "What do you mean?"

"Do you remember what happened last time I was on a date with Turner?" Lauren asked.

"Uh...maybe...?" Charlotte blushed, but she wasn't on the same page as Lauren was. "When Sara stole your spot, right? And I'm so sorry about that, but it was a spur of the moment decision, I swear! I wasn't trying to replace you or anything, promise! She just-"

"It's not that," Lauren held her hand up to stop the blonde girl from spiraling out of control. "It was about what happened with me."

"Oh," Charlotte was relieved. "What happened with you?"

"Well, I guess this does tie into what you were rambling about," Lauren amended. "But it's not solely that. See, I only noticed you were with Sara because I had to leave Turner's penthouse super early in the morning. And that was because...well, you remember the transformations Kendra afflicted me with?"

"Uh...it was the addiction one and...I don't remember the other one," Charlotte recalled.

"Bingo," Lauren responded. "The addiction one. Apparently that had been growing long enough that just being in the same bed as Turner was...well, winding me up, so to speak. Ergo, I had to leave early, and, well, yeah. Anyways, I'd rather that not happen again, especially since I've been stewing in this transformation for an additional ten days. So...I need to use that other transformation that you couldn't remember, the one that allows me to transfer my...arousal...to other people. And, I figured that you'd be the perfect target, because you aren't attracted to Turner, right?"

"Right..." Charlotte responded, trying to digest all Lauren was throwing at her. "So basically, you want to have an honest date with Turner, and you want to do that by making me horny?"

"Exactly," Lauren confirmed. "You did say you were up for it, after all."

"I did, but that was before I knew what it entailed..." Charlotte trailed off again. "Ah, fuck it. I'll do it. You're right. Even though my date with Turner is tomorrow, it's not like I'm gonna be affected by it like you were."

"Really?" Lauren briefly looked excited, before her face returned to a neutral state. "Thank you so much, Charlotte. Now...where would I go to do this...?"

"Oh, you transfer it using your BP, right?" Charlotte asked, to which Lauren nodded. "Then it's probably where you buy the other perks. Follow me, I know exactly where it is!"

Charlotte all but skipped out of the room, with Lauren following behind with less spring in her step. Charlotte didn't really care what was being done to her; as long as she was helping out Lauren and getting that little bit closer to her, it was worth it. She'd chip away at the former babysitter's shell eventually and find out what made her tick.

"Here it is," Charlotte presented the same computer screen in the courtyard that Sara had presented to her last time Lauren was on a date. "It probably is somewhere in there."

"Hey Charlotte, Lauren," Kathryn greeted, once again making good use of the early morning hours as she drank her morning coffee. "Decided to join me for a morning chat?"

"I mean, I'm not opposed to that, but I actually came out here to show Lauren where the BP-spending thingy is," Charlotte clarified.

"Really now?" Kathryn raised an eyebrow. "You're spending your BP, Lauren? Aren't you near the bottom of the pack with that stuff?"

Kathryn's statement earned herself a glare from Lauren, who briefly looked away from the slew of options presented to her in order to make sure Kathryn knew she stepped out of line. "Yeah, you're right," she ended up resigning. "No point in hoarding it all though, BP isn't the stuff you use in this hellhole to win though."

Kathryn briefly smiled as Lauren referred to the island the same way she had earlier. "True. Anyways, what are you buying?"

"Nothing, I'm just looking," Lauren deflected. Kathryn immediately knew that she was hiding something.

"C'mon, you can tell me," Kathryn pressed. "Wait, let me guess. So, you didn't know where to spend your BP, so you didn't know what you could buy prior to going here. That means your options would be limited to what other people told you could be bought here, and the only thing I can think of is your transformation. You're gonna transfer your arousal to someone else, aren't you?"

"Damn, you're good," Lauren didn't even try denying it, she was dumbfounded with how quickly Kathryn had figured her out. "Guess that's why you went into analysis."

"That would be why," Kathryn smugly said as she sat on the counter. "So who's the lucky duckling you're giving it to?"

"I am," Charlotte announced.

Lauren: 2850 BP -> 1850 BP

"And...there it is!" Lauren interrupted, announcing that the transaction was complete. A weight felt like it had been lifted off her chest as her horniness left her body. For Charlotte's part, she did feel a burden suddenly weigh on her, but it felt different to her than it had to Lauren. It felt more like-

"Did you forget about Charlotte's transformations in all your excitement?" Kathryn reminded the pair.

"What?" Charlotte asked at the mentioning of her name. "My transformations?"

"Yes, your transformations," Kathryn repeated. "Specifically, your Dionysian Mysteries transformation."

"What's that one again?" Charlotte tried to remember, but again was drawing a blank.

"I don't remember the exact wording, but the gist of it, as I remember, is that as your arousal goes up, your inhibitions go down." Kathryn recalled. "Did either of you think about that when you decided to give her all your arousal, Lauren?"

"Uh...would you believe us if I said yes?" Charlotte asked.

"No," Kathryn pointedly answered.

"Well...we didn't," Lauren confirmed what Kathryn had already feared.

"Charlotte, Charlotte, Charlotte," Kathryn repeated while pinching the bridge of her nose, as a mom who was trying to figure out what to do with their child would do. "I guess we're gonna have to keep a close eye on you today, aren't we?"

"Who's 'we'?" Lauren inquired.

"I don't know, I guess whoever I can find," Kathryn shook her head, still in disbelief. "I'll figure it out. You don't worry about this, worry about your date with Turner."

"You can keep a close eye on me...if you can catch me!" Charlotte suddenly said, running away from the older women.

"Charlotte!" Kathryn exclaimed. "Dammit, I'll talk to you later, Lauren!"

Lauren paused for a minute as Kathryn tried to corral Charlotte as if she was a runaway puppy instead of a 23-year-old woman, considering the absurdity of the situation.

"Not my problem today," she shrugged as she walked back into her bungalow. Charlotte had offered to help her. It wasn't Lauren's fault that the younger girl didn't think about the risks that came with transferring arousal to her.

---

After heading down the impossibly fast elevator to the ground level, Paige exited the doors of the hotel. She'd heard stories from a few people about how what you expect to see when you come back from your date night is never what you actually see, and that was never true more than it was now for Paige. What laid before her was Lauren and Mandy sipping coffee at the bar while Kathryn was frantically banging on the door to Lana and Abby's room.

"What on Earth..." she quietly mumbled to herself.

"Hey," Becca simply said to Paige. The orange-haired woman caught her off-guard, waiting by the exit of the building. If it wasn't public knowledge that Paige had been up in the penthouse last night, she'd've thought Becca was a stalker.

"Uh...hey," Paige confusedly replied. "What, are you here to grill me about my date night with your boyfriend?"

"I'm not actually," Becca surprisingly answered, while looking like she had something else to say.

"Alright, then what're you doing here?" Paige asked. "Last I checked, you and I weren't exactly on friendly terms, so why are you checking in on me or whatever?"

Becca pursed her lips. There were so many things that she wanted to say, but she really couldn't say them on account of the blonde girl's history. She knew that Paige was the type of person to take sensitive information they heard from one person and then post it online two hours later.

"Well okay then," Paige rolled her eyes as she saw Becca's inaction. "Maybe next time you come to intercept me, make sure your brain isn't running on Windows 95."

As Paige strolled off, Becca breathed a half-sigh of relief.She'd originally come up to talk to Paige about something, but as soon as she saw her face, it was like a switch flipped in her where she couldn't find the right words. It hadn't been anything critical, she just wanted to lighten things up between the two of them. But when Paige opened the door, Becca didn't see her roommate anymore. No, she saw a person that had hurt Turner in the past, someone who had burned every bridge they had, and someone who she couldn't talk to about anything serious.

"What an idiot I was for thinking I would actually be able to talk to her," Becca internally chided herself. "What the hell was I thinking with that? It's not like she just did one thing wrong or something minor, she's actually just short of a monster! Why did I want to lighten things up between her and I? Stupid."

"Hey Becca, what's wrong?" Abby walked up to her sister.

"It's nothing, I'm fine," Becca waved.

"I've known you for 22 years, and this," she motioned to Becca, "is not fine. What's going on?"

"It's just Paige again," Becca quietly answered.

"Oh lordy, what did she do this time?" Abby sat down on a nearby chair and motioned to the chair opposite her.

"She just...I don't know," Becca sat down across from her sister. "She just has a certain way of getting under my skin."

"And the sky is blue, what else is new?" Abby countered.

"You don't get it, Abs!" Becca hid her face in her hair for a second before re-emerging. "I came up here to try and talk to her after her date ended."

"About what?" Abby asked.

"I wanted to lessen hostilities between us," Becca answered.

"Really?" Abby raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't seem like you. Are you sure you weren't given that submission/domination transformation?"

"Well I didn't exactly mean it as that, it was more of that I wanted to know what her problem with me is," Becca clarified.

"I don't really think she has a problem with you beyond your problem with her," Abby mused.

"Come again?"

"Well, let's see here," Abby began. "You and Paige have been butting heads for what seems like eons, but I think you've both just ingrained it inside your heads that the other person is the problem."

"So you're taking her side?" Becca's eyes narrowed.

"No, not at all," Abby said. "I'm taking a neutral approach to this. I think that you both are honestly the problem here. I mean, think about it. It's not like you haven't done your fair share of verbal **** her way, right?"

"That's because she deserves it for what she's doing to me," Becca answered.

"And therein lies the problem," Abby concluded. "I bet if I asked Paige the same question, she'd say the exact same thing. She's only doing it to you because you deserve it for what you're doing to her. It's like a classic arms race, but with feelings instead of nukes or whatever."

Becca stayed silent.

"Believe me if you want, sis," Abby got up to let Becca mull it over for a bit. "But I feel like the only way you're going to make progress with Paige is if you acknowledge that you're part of the problem too."