Spread it, I spread it, I pose

Morgana was a little overwhelmed as she looked through all the photos that they had taken together. There were a LOT more than she expected, and the version of her she saw staring back at her in them almost didn’t remind her of herself.

“Wow,” she whispered, shaking her head slowly. “I look… …Wow.”

“I’ll say,” Carly laughed. “Wow.”

Carly was much more accustomed to looking great in photos. So the version of herself she saw in them just looked like her. But she knew that Morgana might be a little wary of all this big stuff going on, so she refrained from pushing her TOO hard.

A supportive pat on the back and letting her know that she’d done a great job would go a long way, Carly felt. And Morgana definitely relaxed after the encouragement she got from the older girl.

“Thank you,” she whispered, smiling bashfully up at Carly. “That means a lot.”

Morgana had been worried that she could only be put in the “Cute” box. But judging from these photos, and Nick’s reaction to them, maybe she could be considered for the “Sexy” box, too. As long as she worked on herself, that is.

“You’re more than just a cute goth girl,” Carly encouraged her. “Like, I know you like that style- and believe me, all black goes great on you- but if you make yourself into too much of a stereotype, what’s left? Believe me, I see this all the time.”

“Uh… what?” Morgana stared at Carly dubiously.

Carly nodded. “Oh, yeah, there are a lot of girls in my line of work who go for the sexy goth girl vibe. Trust me, it’s this whole thing. And yeah, they have their devotees, but the market is pretty flooded, you know what I mean?”

No, Morgana didn’t have a clue.

“Well, if being ‘the hot goth girl’ is your whole niche, what separates you from the other hot goth girls?” Carly asked. “Nothing, that’s what! You’re marketing an image, fitting an existing mold, instead of marketing yourself! That’s what gets people’s attention, the girl BEHIND the dark makeup and sexy black clothes. It isn’t enough to put in a pair of plastic vampire fangs and cover yourself in lace, you need to be a person selling the idea of yourself, not just the fantasy. That’s how you get real die-hard fans, instead of just appealing to an existing niche that your patrons can get from like twenty other different models any time they want!”

This was all second nature to Carly. But Morgana was completely lost.

Nick wasn’t sure how he felt about Carly giving Morgana advice about how to be a more captivating cam girl and 18+ model. “Uh, Carly…”

“I’m the only goth in Nick’s harem, though,” Morgana said, speaking up for herself before Nick could get the chance to. She bit her lip. “What does it matter if I’m, um… what did you say? ‘Marketing an image’ to him?”

When Morgana had come onto the show, she would have been thrilled by the idea of fitting into the mold of “Sexy Goth Witch Girl” and had done everything she could to lean into that angle before she learned to mellow out and just be herself.

“Nothing’s wrong with it,” Carly assured her. She shook her head. “Just remember, you’re trying to get Nick to like you for who you are! So branch out a little more! Maybe try some other costumes and stuff! You like anime, right? Are there any anime characters you’d like to cosplay as?”

“Uweh… m-maybe…” Morgana was lost in a fantasy of doing exactly that for a few seconds, before quickly shaking her head and coming back to her sense. “W-well, maybe later!” She said. “For now, I guess… I don’t know…”

She was content with her present lot in life. That was enough for her, at least for right now, anyway. And she really appreciated Carly helping her branch out and experience what it was like to be a sexy maid lusting after her master. That was the scene she’d played out in her mind.

Carly nodded, seeming satisfied with this answer. “I just want to help, Morgana,” she assured the other girl, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder and giving it a squeeze. “If you ever need any advice, you just ask me, okay?”

She winked at the goth girl, and flashed her a winning smile. “Maybe we could do another photoshoot sometime! How do you feel about cheerleaders?”

Whatever color there was in Morgana’s complexion quickly drained out of her face. She opened her red eyes wide and frantically shook her head. “N-no! No thank you!” She squeaked.

Morgana could be content with a lot of things, but dressing up as a cheerleader?

The last thing she wanted was a photo of THAT floating around!

Carly shrugged. “Well, if you change your mind… …Just remember, it’s good to experience new things! You’re young, Morgana, you’ve got your whole life ahead of you! So don’t get all caught up in thinking you’ve just got to be one thing, whether that’s a witch, or a goth, or a nerd, or any of that other stuff, alright?”

Morgana swallowed and nodded quickly. “Um!” She agreed, flashing a shy smile.

Nick looked at Carly and tried not to laugh. “Carly… you’re not even thirty yet,” he pointed out.

“Eh, true, but I’ve got a daughter your age,” Carly said, scratching the back of her head sheepishly. “So… maybe I’m getting a little hooked on the whole ‘motherhood’ thing.”

She glanced slyly over at Nick and wiggled her eyebrows. “But don’t go getting any bright ideas, Nick… one’s enough,” she teased him, licking her lips. “…For now, anyway.”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Come on, Carly, stop messing around.” She was trying to get his goat, he wasn’t an idiot. Carly had been coming on strong all morning, and he was happy to oblige her, as long as it didn’t bother Morgana.

But something was bothering him. Something that the two girls in front of him were almost making it a point to NOT talk about.

“How is Emmy doing, by the way?” Morgana asked with wide eyes as they left the studio and headed down the hall. She had finally changed back into normal clothes, drawing a contrast with Carly, who was still dressed as a maid.

“She’s doing great!” Carly said. “I stopped by her room before we went down to get breakfast, just to check up on her. She’s catching up on her reading right now. …Well, I say ‘catching up’ but it’s weird, she already knows how to read, but she hasn’t actually read any books or anything, so she’s experiencing all sorts of new stuff!”

Nick nodded. That did sound like a weird thing for a mother to experience their child going through. He was proud of Carly for taking to motherhood so quickly, she really was amazing.

“What about manga?” Morgana’s eyes were sparkling. “Does she like that?”

Carly shrugged. “Dunno. I didn’t really bring it up with her. Right now though, she’s reading a science textbook, can you believe that?” She barked out a laugh. “I guess she takes after her aunt in that regard! I haven’t read anything like that since I was in school!”

Morgana laughed, but Nick didn’t find it humorous.

They’re still not talking about it. His eyes slid from Carly to Morgana and back again, as he wondered what it would take for Carly to actually open up and come clean about what had just happened. But she seemed determined to ignore it.

And in his position, he wasn’t sure if it was really his place to try and get her to say anything about it, either.

Why did he have to be stuck in such a frustrating situation like this, while the two of them got to chat and be happy the whole time? It brought a sigh of exasperation to his lips.

“Hey, Mary has a lot of books that she’s finished reading,” Nick suggested, catching up with the two of them and joining in on the conversation. “I’m sure she’d be happy to loan some of them to Emmy, if she’s interested.”

Carly stopped talking and turned to face Nick. The flirtatious smile slid off her face and she gave him a serious expression he had only seen from her a few times.

“Nick, I’m only going to say this once,” Carly firmly addressed him, “I will not be allowing you to get my daughter pregnant. Do you understand that?”

Once the initial shock from hearing Carly’s accusation of him wore off, Nick regarded her with an irritated look.

“Why do I feel like you’re insulting my wife like that?” He asked with a scowl. “Mary cares about other things than just having kids.”

The sparkle returned to Carly’s eyes and he saw that she was relaxing. “I mean, does she, though?” The playful tone of voice cinched it. The Carly he knew was back.

“She likes mystery novels!” Nick said. “That’s the kind of stuff she likes. And American Classics, like Little Women.”

Carly stared at him.

She crinkled her forehead warily. “…So Mary’s into little women…”

“It’s an actual book!” Nick groaned. He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation. While he was pretty sure that Carly was messing with him, it also reminded him of trying to talk with Gina when the punk girl was determined to tease.

“When you say American Classics, you mean like all that really old and boring stuff?” Morgana frowned. “I prefer your book, Nick…”

Carly respected Morgana a lot for sliding that comment into the conversation so naturally. But she still put her foot down. “Yeah, that’s an absolute no,” she said, shaking her head, while giving Nick a smile to let him know that there were no hard feelings.

Fortunately for her, Nick couldn’t agree more. “Yeah, that’s the right call,” he said, nodding sharply. The idea of Emmy reading his book, let alone anyone ELSE on the island, was something that filled him with a very peculiar sense of dread.

Which was odd, because the book had been published for years at this point.

Knowing Echo’s twisted mind, she’d probably have the next challenge be an erotic read aloud or something, he thought, shivering as he tried to connect what he knew about Mary as a person with the demented side of her he’d gotten to see from her corrupting transformation.

He didn’t like any of it.

Carly was ready to start walking again. Lunch was coming up fast, and they had just enough time for a nice dip in the hot spring to clean up after being under those hot camera lights for such a long time. Morgana quickly rushed after her, just as eager.

“Wait, both of you, I need to ask you something!” Nick had decided that enough was enough. They couldn’t keep ignoring the elephant in the room.

“Yeah? What’s up?” Carly turned back to him. She raised her eyebrow. “Need to go to the bathroom to… take care of some stuff?” Her eyes dropped to the front of his pants with a pointed expression on her face. But to her disappointment, he didn’t have an erection right now.

Oh, well.

Nick wasn’t going along with that, though. He approached Carly carefully and looked her right in the eyes.

“You and Morgana touched earlier, during the photoshoot,” he reminded her. “It was only for a second, but it happened, right?”

Carly normally let most things slide right off her. But when Nick said that, it made her flinch immediately, and her eyes flickered away from him.

“Yeah, I… s-so what?” She muttered, playing with a strand of her hair. She gave Nick a fierce look in response.

Even Morgana could tell that the other woman was being disingenuous. She knew exactly what Nick was trying to say. Morgana bit her lip uneasily. “Carly…”

She’d been curious about it, too. But she knew that this was a private matter for the other woman, and if Carly didn’t want to talk about it, Morgana was content with going along with that.

But she really wanted to know exactly which one of her fetishes Carly had copied from her. Assuming that she even had any fetishes in the first place!

…Okay, yes, she definitely probably had them, but due to her limited sexual experience she would be hard-pressed to name even one if you pushed her on it.

Morgana chewed on her lip while Nick looked at the nervous Carly in exasperation.

“I’m just trying to help,” he told her gently.

Carly glanced away for a second before looking back at him. She had a sheepish expression on her face. “Yeah…” she conceded, nodding. “I know…”

Nick pulled up the description of Carly’s transformation to remind her just what she was dealing with. Carly wasn’t exactly appreciative of it.

• Free Sample: Part of being adventurous means trying out new things that you’ve never thought of before. With this transformation, any time Carly touches someone, she will temporarily acquire one of that person’s fetishes! Whether it’s footplay, BDSM, maid costumes, Carly will acquire a taste for it! Only one fetish can be acquired at a time, and if the current fetish is not indulged, it will fade after a couple of hours like nothing ever happened! (Adventurous)

“Yeah, I know what it says,” she replied. “Me and Morgana did a high-five, so that means I touched her. And so I have one of her fetishes now.”

Her eyes slid over to Morgana, who was giving her an expectant, even hopeful look. The sort of expression that Carly had absolutely no idea what to do about.

“…So what do you want from me, huh?” Carly groaned. “It’s not like I know what fetish I copied from her! I didn’t get, like, a cheat sheet or anything like that!”

Morgana blinked, surprised. “Wait, you don’t?”

“Interesting,” Nick mused. He stroked his chin as he contemplated what that meant. “So you don’t naturally have a sense of what’s changed about you like with some transformations. It’s more subtle than that.”

Carly nodded. “I should really have Sylvia give me a peak at upgrading this one,” she agreed. “I’m curious to see where it goes from here.”

She reached up and scratched her head. “Once she gives me my hair back, I mean.”

Sylvia had vetoed that transformation for the rest of the last round. But for some reason, Carly hadn’t regained her Anime Black transformation even though they were on a new round now.

“If I had to guess, Mr. S might have disabled it,” Nick said. “Probably just for the day or something, I imagine.”

“Really? You think so?” Carly raised her eyebrow.

“That does make sense…” Morgana agreed, nodding slowly. “I mean, think about it, with that transformation, well… Sylvia could just wait until the very last second to take something every time, like she did last round. So maybe having some, um… I guess, ‘spillover’ is the right word? Yeah, maybe that’s like a way of saying ‘Don’t take advantage of this loophole, got it?’ to you and her or something, maybe… I guess…”

Nick nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking, too.”

“Seriously? That’s so lame!” Carly groaned. “It’s not even my fault! So I could be stuck without that transformation for the whole round, then?”

Neither Nick nor Morgana found it appropriate to comment at the moment about how Carly was complaining about something that just about anyone else on the island would have been thrilled to have- a momentary reprieve from one of their transformations.

“It’ll probably just be for the day,” Morgana said instead, trying to be supportive. “You know, like how the copy transformation she got from Rose wears off after 24-hours!”

“That’s a reasonable assumption,” Nick agreed.

“Well… okay, then.” Carly reached up and played with her pixie cut some more. It wasn’t that she disliked her hair in this style- it was really comfortable! But having the ability to change the style and color at will, and then going back to her regular brown? It just felt so lacking.

Ooh, she had blonde streaks in her hair. How daring of her. That had been the most commitment Carly had been willing to put forward back in the day- a bad dye job could leave her stuck for months if she was unlucky!

“It just feels so weird, you know? I kinda got used to feeling aroused whenever someone touches my hair,” Carly explained. “Not like I mind it, but still…”

Merely getting aroused by the sound of Morgana’s voice wasn’t hitting the same way, sadly.

Morgana didn’t know what to say to that. But Nick’s response came naturally to him, and he regarded Carly with a smile.

“I don’t know, I actually kind of like your hair like that,” he admitted.

Carly turned to him and laughed. “YOU like my hair this way because it’s short,” she teased, leaning over and poking him in the chest as they turned the corner and headed for the elevators. “You tomboy lover, you.”

“I think it suits you!” Morgana said. It was only now dawning on her that this was what Carly’s hair must have looked like back before she came to this island. Morgana had only ever known Carly when she had her Anime Black transformation- she’d gotten so used to Carly being able to change her hair to whatever she wanted that the thought had never occurred to her that the other girl had once been a normal person with normal hair.

…Well, maybe not a normal person.

“It’s not like I have anything against having short hair again,” Carly said as they headed into the elevator. “I just always cut it this way. You think it’s because Marley always grows her hair out? …No, that can’t be it. I used to wear it short before she was even my sister.”

That would have sounded weird in any other context, but Morgana and Nick both understood what she was talking about.

“Oh, really? I thought you had those highlights, to, like, set you apart from your sister or something,” Morgana said, surprised to hear that. But judging by Nick’s reaction, she should have assumed that wasn’t the case.

“Huh? No, I got these after losing a bet, actually!” Carly cackled. “College party, this one chick was practicing her hairstyling skills, had some alcohol involved, and the next thing you know, wham! …I looked like this. And I’ve just been going with it ever since, since I like it so much!”

“It was really surprising,” Nick said. “Because unlike her current highlights, the ones that girl did were, uh… not as good.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me!” Carly groaned. “But she was trying her best!”

Morgana watched the two of them share a laugh and felt a smile come to her lips. But she felt a little sad, too. They were getting along so great because they had that shared history together, and she didn’t have anything like that.

Still…

It made her smile, regardless.

I hope someday I can be that comfortable around Nick, where we can just share a laugh like that without me getting so nervous, she thought, her heart pounding in her chest.