Week 1: Aria's Date, Part 4

With the trial concluded, Sera left them to deal with the aftermath, thankfully undoing the bonds tying Erica and Cecilia to their chairs before making her exit. The mood in the dining hall was oppressively heavy. Aífe looked between the two punished contestants, struggling to find the right words to console them.

“Are you both okay?” She finally settled on a question. “That was really rough—I wasn’t expecting her to give you both transformations. Or, at least, not permanent ones.”

“Yeah, it sucks, but I’ll be fine.” Erica nodded, trying to shake off just how frightening that had been. “Even if I get the TF that I don’t want, it’s not exactly that bad. Oh noooo, I have to eat pussy more often—whatever will I doooo?” She wailed melodramatically to try and break the tension with humor. “It’s… her that you should probably be worried about.” She jerked her head in Cecilia’s direction. It was difficult to tell the exact mix of emotions that were on the redhead’s face, but none of them were positive ones.

“What?” Cecilia curtly asked, having noticed Aífe and Erica’s stares.

“I’m just…” Aífe tried to think of the right words. This wasn’t exactly a situation she’d ever dealt with before, so she struggled with a response. “I’m sorry that that happened. I know you broke the rules and all, but that definitely wasn’t a TF I would’ve wished on you—messing with your faith like that is just… I don’t even know, I’m just sorry.”

“Look, I was an atheist before, and I’m an atheist now.” Cecilia huffed, brushing off the sincere apology just so she didn’t have to grapple with complex emotions. “Just because they tell me you’re a goddess, doesn’t mean I believe in you.”

Cecilia said she doesn’t believe in the Mistress! -1% to all assets! (95% remaining)
Cecilia current BP: 1125
Aífe current BP: 1775

“Shit.” She cursed. “Poor choice of words aside, it didn’t fuck with anything I believe, it just replaced stuff from one book I barely read to stuff from a new book.”

“Yeah—” Aria chimed in, rejoining her date, “but the stuff in that new book is…”

“Something I’d rather not think about right now.” Cecilia griped, shutting down that topic of conversation. “So zip it.”

“I don’t know—” Erica muttered to Aoba, who’d just returned with a plate of food for lunch, “I’m kinda curious what kind of juicy stuff is in this book. What do you think, Aoba?”

“I… might be interested in a cursory read-through.” The oni blushed, also wanting to know what kind of lascivious details were in the Bible of Aífe. Smelling the plate of food, Erica’s stomach rumbled, now feeling very hungry after the stress of the trial had passed. She and the others gradually grabbed plates to sit down for a somewhat awkward lunch. Once finished, Aria hesitantly approached Aífe.

“So… do you want to continue our date?” The alien asked. “I know things are kinda weird right now, so I get it if you just want to chill for a while.”

“Shit—we totally fucked things up for you two, huh?” Erica scratched her head as she glanced guiltily between them. “Sorry if we threw off whatever vibe you guys had going on. C’mon, Cecilia—you apologize, too.” She turned to look toward her roommate’s seat, only to find that she’d already dropped her plate off and left. Erica sighed. “That bitch. I’d have smacked her by now if it weren’t against the rules.”

“Hey, no worries.” Aífe replied, standing up. “I’m okay to keep going if you are, Aria. And don’t worry about the vibe, Erica. If I can’t bounce back from crazy stuff happening at the drop of a hat, then I don’t think I’ll make it very long as a ‘Harem Mistress’ or whatever.” She waved to the rest of them as she left with Aria. “See you guys later. No more rule-breaking, okay?”

While Aífe had put up a good front in the dining hall, the air between her and her date was still a bit uncomfortable after everything that had just happened.

“Did you have anything in mind, Aria?” She asked, hoping that the other girl had some kind of idea where to go from there.

“Yeah.” Aria nodded. “I asked Aoba about your hobbies. She mentioned that you like to sing, so I figured we’d check out the karaoke booth they’ve got here.”

“Is there anything they don’t have?” Aífe quipped, exasperated at how much the show was stretching the definition of a bed & breakfast.

“A church.” Aria replied. “At least, until tomorrow.”

“Yeah, you got me there.” The redhead shrugged. “But, yeah, I could go for some karaoke. It’ll give me the chance to test out my new vocal chords.” She followed her date through the double doors to find a group of small, soundproofed rooms, each containing its own karaoke setup, a call button for assistance, and even a keyboard and some tambourines in case anyone wanted to play along with one of the tracks. Entering the first room and picking up the tablet for the system controls, she saw that there was also a section to request snacks and drinks. “Do you want first pick, or should I?”

“You can go ahead.” Aria replied as she sat down. “You already know what I sound like when I’m singing, so I think it’s only fair.”

“Sure.” Aífe nodded as she immediately navigated to the anime songs. “Not to brag, but I happen to think I’m a pretty decent singer. I did pretty well in choir and theatre at school.” She finally scrolled to the song she wanted, selecting it and grabbing a microphone while it loaded into the queue. “I love this one—it’s nice to finally be able to sing it in a feminine range.”

The intro began to play—a swelling, slightly string section with a backing guitar, leading to a decrescendo right before the vocal section.

“Unmei no ito wo tachikitta sono saki ni—”

“Omoi wa kitto hitotsu~” Aífe’s sang as the strings and guitar gave one last dramatic flourish before fading out. Aria looked at her, words failing to find their way out.

“That was…” The alien hesitated, not sure how to say it.

“What the hell?! I totally sucked!” Aífe burst into laughter at the atrocious performance she’d just given. She’d been terribly pitchy, missing the notes for a solid two-thirds of the song, and only barely managing to keep her composure enough to avoid flubbing the words. Not that Aria would’ve been able to notice any lyrical mistakes.

“Oh, thank God.” Aria sighed in relief. “I really wasn’t sure how to break it to you. My plan was to try and feign ignorance—it’s not like I know any of those anime songs you and Aoba like.”

“No, I swear I’m usually better than that.” Aífe waved her hand in a dismissive motion as she stifled her laughter. “I knew this voice would take a bit of getting used to. I just wasn’t expecting to sound like one of those American Idol rejects that they only keep the footage of because it’s funny.”

“Yeah, you were pretty bad.” Aria finally let out her own chuckle now that she knew her date wouldn’t get upset. “Makes sense, though. It’s gotta be like trying to play an instrument with a weird tuning. You went from whatever you were before to what sounded like a mezzo.”

“I was a tenor before. Muscle memory’s a bitch sometimes, I guess.” The redhead sighed as she sat back onto the large sofa. “When I try to use a similar level of tension as before, the note comes out way off. Not to mention the difference in the size and shape of my mouth and pharynx.”

“At least it seems like you know a decent amount about the subject.” Aria began scrolling on the tablet to see if any songs stood out to her. “That should make it easier to make the adjustments.”

“Gee, I wonder if there might’ve been a reason why I studied up on the differences between male and female voice types.” Aífe commented dryly before continuing. “I just always lied about the reason before—told myself it was to get better at voice acting.”

“You’re a voice actor?”

“In the same way that a 10 year-old is a guitar player after 3 lessons, maybe.” Aífe chuckled with a note of bitterness. “The most I ever did was a bit role in an episode of a random fandub.”

“For some reason, I don’t think they’ll ask you to reprise that role now.” Aria joked, bringing a smile back to Aífe’s face after it had briefly fled. “Hmm… I was gonna pick out a song to sing, myself, but what do you think about using the keyboard over there for some impromptu vocal practice. See if we can get you back in tune.”

“That sounds good.” Aífe stood back up and stretched—a **** of habit from doing warmup routines back during her college theatre days. “I should be thankful. I got the easy mode for trans voice training.”

So, after taking some time to warm up, and finding some bottles of water in a small fridge next to the sofa, Aria used the keyboard to lead Aífe through a wide array of exercises to get her exact range down and begin retraining her muscle memory. It was boring, tedious work, but Aria was lucky that her temporary student was starting from a solid foundation. By the time that Sera announced on the room’s speaker that they needed to return to the Lily Suite for the evening, they’d long since reached a solid stopping point on the exercises, switching instead to singing most of the Mamma Mia! soundtrack. They headed back to the elevator, voices sore and raspy from seeing a great deal of use.

Song that Aífe sang, for reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K42ED-7PWAo