Transformations before the first round

Author's note: Sorry, the native poll will only return the top result based on feedback. Please fill in the Strawpolls.

“Hello, ladies, gentlemen, gentlewomen, lads, lassos and anything in between. I hope you could get through the dry bookkeeping that is the rules. We will soon be discussing our first set of transformations. Before I tell you what they are, I have a question for the master. How would you personally rank the contestants right now?” Syl said with a sly smile, expecting the people whom she had cast as antagonists to be ranked lowest. Her hopes were that he would hurt their feelings.

“First is easy, Ryan, he is my best bud. Jessie is probably second. She is the reason I went into ecology with her grandfather. Third is the hardest. I haven’t seen Becky in a while, and Heather and William aren’t that bad. If I can, I would give it to all three.” The conflict was visible on his face near the end.

“You have to pick master,” the hostess said, pushing Chris.

After a bunch of hemming and hawing, he came to a decision. “Fine, William, third, he stood up for himself and me about the whole being a display piece for cheating thing. I guess then Heather. She is just adversarial due to our work relationship. Nothing personal, I hope.”

Heather thought he was too much of an idealist. This proved it to her. How could she ever see him as a competent boss, let alone a master?

“That means Becky is fifth too much downness and negativity personally. I get where it is coming from, but that is not attractive in the slightest. Last is the only person who hurt me personally, Missy.” Chris finished. He evaluated the responses. William had been happy to be forgiven to some extent. Ryan and Jessie appeared as relaxed as they could be. Heather looked too full of herself, and Chris regretted complimenting her and ranking her that high. Becky was down, but she would have been anyway. Missy seemed still furious; nothing had changed there.

“Honestly, that is a partial shake-up from how we expected things to go. We expected William to be in fifth and Becky in third. What a few words in an introduction can do for a man.” Syl said with genuine surprise. “Starting with the transformations for the master.” A screen lit up by magic appeared, showing four transformations.

Poll for master's transformation.

“Which one would you prefer? Which one do you hate? And care to explain?” Syl asked.

“I don’t need to spy on my friends, so ‘Look at your specimens’ is the worst. I don’t want them to fear that I am looking at them through some magical third eye. I am not some voyeuristic pervert. The best is hard. ‘Listen to the man’ gets worse the higher the VP of the contestants gets. ‘If I had the key’ is hyper conditional, but if it works, it is super powerful. ‘Friend of nature’, I have no clue what it would do or bring me at all. I believe ‘If I had the key’ seems the most useful. It is a puzzle to solve at least. The people at home might have fun trying to solve that as much as I will."

“Playing to the audience already? Really? You know they don't have a lot of influence on you, right?" The frazzled host rants.

"Yeah, but building a rapport might help get them on board with my choices. If we agree on what we like and why we should, then we both win." Also, good ratings because of my actions will help you and your bosses. You do have a lot of influence on my experience here at the camp. He finished the thought smart enough not to say aloud. However, this did not prevent Syl or her bosses from knowing the thought.

"Honestly, safe assessment, I guess. Maybe the people at home want to see what is in the blind box that is 'friend of nature', though. Moving on to the begrudging client, Heather.” Syl waved her hand, and the text changed to four different transformations.

Heather's poll

“So what do you think about this, Heather?”

Heather's feathers being thoroughly ruffled, responded with indignation. “The first two are horrible. Why would anyone want those? The last one is the best, but only as long as I can end up above everyone else. The third working while here seems impossible.”

“Master, what do you think?”

“I agree that for her, ‘Who is the boss’ is the best. That doesn’t mean that I want her to have it. She would manipulate the rest of the harem to harm those above her, like I would want that. I would rather she had ‘Plumage makes the bird’. It doesn’t actively harm her, but gives her nothing. It would just objectify her.” Chris stated bluntly, not caring about what Heather wanted.

“Clear. Moving on to master's favourite and best friend, Ryan.” The hostess said, changing the list of transformations again.

Ryan's poll

“Ryan, any strong opinions?” Syl asked, hoping for a juicy response.

“How would ‘Character creator’ and ‘perfect partner’ interact? I am wondering if one wins, the other might move on to the next round. What is my 'taille'?” Ryan questioned before answering.

“Good catch. First in, first out. If you go ‘character creator’, then ‘perfect partner’, then ‘perfect partner’ will try to go to the nearest perfect partner from the edited starting point. The other way around, the master will be editing your upgraded body to the point he wants. As for taille, you know wasptaille.” The elf said, pointing at her waist.

"Taille is somewhat synonymous with waist. Many languages adopted it to refer to the waist, specifically, it is the smallest part between your hips and ribs. Most waistbands are well below this. It often ends up around people's belly button." Heather explained, excited to show off her knowledge of fashion.

Taking in the details provided by Heather as facts, Ryan decided to give his answer. “Then I want ‘perfect partner’ first. It would allow Chris the most freedom to do what he wants. It wouldn’t allow his subconscious to screw his choices over once I get 'character creator', or we can buy it. The least enjoyable to me is the nature one. There is no way to know how many rounds we will have. It might make me a nudist if it becomes too large a number. I hope we are only here for the minimum five weeks, but five hours outside is a long time in bad weather.”

“Do you agree, master?”

“I half disagree. There is no guarantee he will get ‘character creator’. I would rather have the choice not to spend those points, right? If so, that is better than going with the body transformation we have control over.” The master pointed out.

“You are totally right, you don't need to spend the points you get. Next up, the person his ex cheated with, William,” Syl confirmed, pointing at the screen as it changes.

William's poll

“Which would you prefer?”

“All of these are shitty, but I guess the ‘dedicated decisions’ transformation isn’t too bad. Chris could give me tasks to get people to athletic goals if needed, I think. He could also give me other tasks.” He complained but managed to reason to the option he likes the most.

“That is indeed the case. Master, what do you think?” she asked after giving a small appreciative nod to William.

“If that is true, then I agree with William. I don’t hate him enough to do the first one, the third seems super swingy and might make it hard to make an attachment to the person he is currently. Being my valet wouldn’t be too bad, I think. It is just a job, right? He doesn’t need to clean my butt or my cabin, just help me get dressed.”

“Valid points all around, no major disagreement between the master and William, but a difference in perspective. On to his client, Rebecca Williams.” The hostess said before gesturing, and the screen changed.

Becky's transformation poll.

“So what do you think about the options presented to you, Rebecca?”

Rebecca responded, frustrated with her list. “All except for the first are acting as if I am some fat pig and that I should remain that way! How dare you? But I do want the first one. Couldn’t that first one be permanent?”

“Not without any upgrades or being a major boon. And master?” Syl explained.

Chris thought it over before speaking, not wanting to hurt the estranged friend. “The first is definitely the best one for her. The middle two, I agree, are straight-up insulting to her. The last one, however, isn’t insulting; it is saying eat like a normal human. The calories mentioned aren’t even that hard to get from what I remember from my days counting calories to put on weight. I eat 3000 on an average day, and there are days I lose weight by accident.” Everyone glared at him. He had no idea how hearing about those problems felt. Almost everyone had issues with maintaining or losing weight. Here he was bragging that he had to eat extra to stay at his current weight.

“Next up, the person the master likes the least, his ex, Missy. Remember, she will receive two transformations.” Syl explained. Before she knocked on the screen, causing it to change.

Missy's transformation poll

“All of these are horrible!” Missy screeched, insulted, and angered.

“Missy, you said she would like to take two WORSE transformations. So which two do you like the least or the most, process of elimination, I suppose.”

Grumbling, the girl says, “Paying off the debt for sure. It is a toss-up between Cheater and 'Return to Master'. I have no clear idea how they will affect me, but I don’t want to be commanded around by everyone.”

“My response to that is the worst combination for her is likely paying off the debt and leash. It might result in her having to do things for others the entire time between the agent and the leash. What I want... That is for you to figure out audience, but I will expand my opinion on the rest. Cheater would probably be super teasy at some point, not immediately. Return to Master is just a tax for her. Will it increase her debt if the money exceeds it?” Chris preceded the question from Syl, who gave an appreciative nod.

“Lastly, our former soldier turned teacher, Jessie,” Syl did a twirl as the screen changed.

Jessie's transformation poll

“Wait, isn’t ‘rank and file’ the same as Heater’s ‘Who is the boss’?” Jessie pointed out.

“People are really paying attention today. Yes, and if both of you have it, they synergise. Meaning it will be as if the lower-ranked person is considered lower-ranked by double the original. So a maximum of 10 difference between you. In that case, the lower-ranked can never reject whatever the higher-ranked one says.” Syl explained.

“Part of me would like that, being the boss is nice. However, two Jessies might be interesting as well. It is a free, no scar transition if I decide to identify as male. It might allow me to do more things too. That just seems better to me. The worst is the memory one. What would that do?”

Chris was lost in thought as Syl poked him and asked, “So, master, what do you prefer?”

“Hmmmm… the second one seems again like a blind box. For some reason, that box seems more interesting than the others. Where my blind box seemed like an okay at best option because it was based on nature, this is interesting because I know words I never spoke and wonder if I did in that timeline. Witch also seems nice. I don’t know how medicine is here, but it would provide us with some for no cost. The options Jessie liked are good as well. These options seem far too positive compared to the rest, though.” He hoped he had the guts to say that he loved them in the other timeline.

“There you have it, ladies, gentlemen, gentlewomen, lads, lassos and anything in between. I hope you can pick who our best contestant is and what their transformations will be. Our polls showed up with the transformations, and the best contestant is below. Maybe rewind if you missed them. They close in a week; until then.”

Best contestant Pol