Week 1: Mallory's Date, Part 2

“Swimming?” Aífe looked dubiously at Mallory, glancing up and down at her outfit. “So… were you hoping we’d be skinny dipping? Because neither of us are exactly dressed for swimming.”

“Already planned for that.” Mallory smiled smugly before pulling off her shirt, revealing a pink and white one-piece swimsuit underneath. She kicked off her loafers and unclasped her skirt, letting it drop to the ground. In less than 30 seconds, she was ready to go swimming, save for one detail that Aífe immediately noticed.

“You’re still wearing your pantyhose?” Aífe pointed out as she struggled to keep her eyes from staring at Mallory’s nylon-clad hips and thighs. Mallory had apparently decided to wear them under her swimsuit, not over.

“Well, it’s not as if they’ll get dirty or damaged, thanks to my TF.” Mallory meekly justified herself, avoiding eye contact as she did. “These are basically better than shoes. If you think about it, there’s not any real reason for me to not just wear them all the time, right? Not to mention how good they are for my skin. Here, feel for yourself.” Mallory got closer to Aífe and held her arm out to touch. “See? I’ve barely even worn long sleeves and you can already feel how soft the skin on my arms has gotten.” Aífe felt Mallory’s arm and couldn’t argue—it was softer than Aífe’s skin, and she’d just had a spa day.

“Okay…” Aífe hesitantly dropped the issue. It wasn’t exactly worth arguing over, even if the sight of Mallory’s current attire made Aífe feel a bit… dirty. She knew she shouldn’t necessarily be complaining that her date was dressed like something straight out of fetish porn, but it certainly made things a bit awkward. “So, what about me? It’s not like I just randomly decided to wear a swimsuit under my clothes.”

“Also accounted for.” Mallory walked over to the nearest sunlounger and dug around in a basket placed next to it, pulling out two beach towels and a bundle of white fabric. She handed the bundle to Aífe. “I mentioned my plans to Fuyumi yesterday, and she said she could have Umbra put a swimsuit for you out here, so we wouldn’t have to stop at the boutique. Helped save the surprise.” Aífe pulled apart the bundle to reveal a white micro bikini—three of the tiniest triangles of fabric held together by flimsy strings of thread.

“I’m not wearing this.” Aífe bore a deadpan expression as she held up the scraps of fabric. It would barely cover anything, and was almost guaranteed to come undone within the hour. “Check the basket again.” Mallory did as instructed, finding a more substantial bundle which she then handed to Aífe, tossing the micro bikini back into the basket.

“Does this one work better?” Mallory asked as Aífe examined the second swimsuit. Also white, this one was a normal halter-style top with a small, decorative bow in the front and a pair of cheeky bottoms with matching bows on the hips—still revealing, but in a classier, less slutty way. “Not that I’d complain if you decided to skinny dip.” Mallory added, playfully.

“This will definitely work.” Aífe ignored Mallory’s teasing for the moment, focusing instead on the next question. “Is there somewhere I can change?”

“You can change right here, if you’re comfortable, or you could always find a tree to change behind.” Mallory pointed toward the woods they were just in.

“Well, you’re not the first girl here who’s seen me naked, and I doubt you’ll be the last.” Aífe gave up and started disrobing. Perhaps if she’d had Natalie’s transformation, she could have confirmed her suspicion that Mallory’s eyes were glued to her boobs as she changed. A few moments later, and they were now both ready to jump in the lake.

As they approached the edge of the deck, however, Aífe was alarmed to see movement beneath the water. She stumbled back when 3 figures suddenly surfaced. Upon catching her breath, she was able to make out the features of three women who were in the process of lifting themselves out of the water—one with pale skin and long, blue hair, one with fair skin and a dark green ponytail, and one with light brown skin and a copper colored pixie cut. The other primary features she noticed were that they were topless, and that they each had a fish tail in place of their legs, matching their color scheme—dark blue, emerald green, and orange-red.

“Hey, Mal!” The blue one cheerfully greeted as she looked two visitors up and down appreciatively. “So, this is Lady Aífe? We’d only gotten to see her on the mirror screen back at our place, so far. She’s way hotter up close.”

“I’ll say!” The red one chimed in. “Good for you, Mal—get it, girl!”

“Knock it off, you two.” The green one, who seemed much calmer than her two companions, spoke up this time. “Sorry about them, Lady Aífe. We were just excited to get to meet the Mistress of the season.”

“That’s okay, just a bit startled.” Aífe sighed. “Guess I should’ve expected that there’d be mermaids in the lake. Makes more sense than some of the other stuff I’ve seen here. What I don’t get is how you guys know Mal.”

“Weren’t you listening?” Mallory laughed. “I scouted out this place yesterday with Nat and Diona—we met them then. They even let us name them!” Mallory pointed to the blue, green, and red one in turn. “We have Rain—named by yours truly, Spring—named by Nat, and Brooke—named by Diona.” As she explained, Rain and Brooke chimed in with things like “Sup?” and “Heyyy!”

“One point of correction, by the way, Lady Aífe.” Spring calmly interjected. “We’re technically not mermaids. We’re nature spirits born from bodies of water. The closest term humans have for us would be naiads or water nymphs.” She then began rambling. “Though I guess, from a human perspective, there’s not much point in the delineation, since both are only known in mythological context, and we technically have aspects ascribed to both—the overlap is probably due to lack of thorough observation and documentation on the part of hu—”

“Nope! Too much nerd rambling!” Brooke shouted as she and Rain pushed Spring back into the water. “TLDR, you can call us mermaids if you want, but we’re like upgraded mermaids, if you get my drift. The mermaids that regular mermaids wish they could be.”

“Okay, I basically get it.” Aífe nodded along, not pointing out that she was nerdy enough to be following Spring’s rambling. She cast an apologetic look at Spring when the green mermaid emerged from the water again. “So, what do you guys do around here? I mean, I assume you’re staff.”

“Yep!” Rain cheerfully responded. “We take care of the laundry, and we also keep the water clean for bathing and drinking.”

“Oh?” Aífe was curious. “Do you guys have some kind of magic for that?”

“Not exactly.” Spring said as she finished lifting herself back onto the deck. “We naturally have a purifying effect on any water that we come in contact with. It’s normally weak enough that we wouldn’t be able to keep up with a body of water large enough to give birth to one of our kind, but there are 3 of us here, and we don’t have to deal with any additional pollution, so the lake is clean enough that you could even drink from it.”

“Wow, that’s—wait a second…” Aífe started to comment, but her face quickly morphed into a frown and she stopped halfway. “Hey, Sera! I’m assuming you’re watching us! Please come out—I have a question for you!” As she called for the Host, a patch of water nearby started glowing, and Sera emerged halfway, wearing a green bikini—her body and clothes completely dry, since she wasn’t actually coming out of the water itself.

“How can I be of assistance, Lady Aífe?” Sera asked before turning to her staff. “And you three. What have I told you about going nude while you’re on the clock? Lady Aífe and her harem are meant to be ogling each other’s bodies during work hours, not yours. If you want to tempt them, then invite them back to your lodging after you finish with the laundry.” While Sera chastised them, they transformed their lower halves into legs and ran over to a large chest at the far end of the deck (happening to flash their pussies at Mallory and Aífe as they moved). Once they’d started dressing, Sera returned her attention to Aífe, ready to answer her question.

“So, let me get this straight—” Aífe pinched the bridge of her nose. “Those three are female merfolk.”

“Water nymphs, technically, but they are functionally similar to merfolk, yes.”

“And all of the water we’ve been drinking was cleaned by having them bathe in it?” Aífe continued.

“Indeed. It’s the most effective purification method I know, and with none of the harsh chemicals used in human water treatment.” Sera smiled.

“Let me ask you this—are all of the employees here lesbians?”

“I’m sure a couple of them are bi or pan, but yes, all of them are at least somewhat attracted to women.” Sera pondered for a moment. “And yes, those three are very definitely lesbians.”

“So, you’ve been having us drink gay mergirl bathwater?” Aífe put on her best glare of disappointment. Her glares of disappointment, sadly, were not very effective.

“Yes, a rather amusing coincidence that ‘gamer girl bathwater’ became an item of discussion online over the past few years.” Sera tittered. “I’m honestly surprised that Sally hasn’t tried to fit that into her gamer season.”

“Ugh, I can never get a bead on how seriously I’m supposed to take things around here.” Aífe held her palm to her forehead.

“I find that how seriously you take it is somewhat irrelevant, so long as you and your harem are on the same page as to how serious that is.” Sera crossed her arms and shrugged. “Whether you treat this as a relaxing, erotic vacation or a high-stakes competition, we still get an entertaining program for our viewers. I do hope, for the sake of your harem, however, that they all learn to work with the show, rather than against it. Contestants tend to end up much happier that way.”

“Really?” Mallory chimed in, her voice somewhere between dubious and hopeful. “Have there been contestants who liked all of their TFs?”

“Perhaps not all of them, but there are contestants who view most of their transformations as either positive or neutral.” Sera elaborated. “One thing that most of those contestants have in common is that almost all of them worked to create a positive relationship with the Host and/or audience of their season. Our data has shown that the viewers are more willing to take the wishes of a contestant into account if that contestant has been taking an active role in embracing the competitive and transformative aspects of the show. My friend, Shar’s, season is an excellent example of that, should you choose to watch any of the other seasons.” Both Aífe and Mallory pondered her words for a moment before she waved goodbye. “I believe that’s enough for now. You can think on it more as you go about your date, but I’ve held you up too long as it is. You both look ravishing in your swimsuits, so I’m sure our audience is growing impatient. It’d be a shame to make them wait any longer to see you both soaking wet.” With that, Sera disappeared beneath the water, its surface returning to normal.

With Sera having left, the three employees returned to where Aífe and Mallory were standing, now wearing bikini tops and sarongs and carrying an assortment of items normally seen when going swimming, such as inner tubes, pool noodles, and a beach ball. Not seeing any more reason to stand around waiting, Aífe and Mallory tested the water and, finding it a comfortable temperature, jumped in.

They spent the rest of the morning swimming and playing various games with the three mermaids. Playing volleyball with the beach ball provided turned out to be an interesting experience for Aífe, who was not used to moving around so much with boobs. Sure, she’d gone running a couple days ago, but that still didn’t prepare her for how much they move when she jumped for the ball. Their game of Marco Polo also proved interesting when a blindfolded Mallory swam face-first into Aífe’s cleavage and, panicking from the sudden collision, grabbed on to the first object her hands made contact with… which turned out to be Aífe’s butt.

Motorboated the Mistress! +2 VP
First time bonus! +2 VP
Groped the Mistress’ butt! +2 VP
First time bonus! +2 VP
Current score: 18 VP

A little past noon, their fun was interrupted by a familiar, redheaded figure walking up with a tray of food.

“Hey, Ember!” Aífe waved from the water. “Crap, is it lunchtime already? Should Mal and I head back?”

“That will not be necessary.” Ember bowed her head slightly to return Aífe’s greeting. “Miss Mallory informed me of your plans this morning, and asked that I deliver your lunch with the one I prepared for our laundry staff.” She knelt down and placed the tray on the deck. When Aífe swam closer, she could see that it held four plates of sushi and one plate of sashimi. “I had already been made aware of your preference for sashimi over sushi, Lady Aífe, so I adjusted your meal accordingly.”

“Is it okay for us to be eating sushi, given… you know?” Aífe turned and asked Mallory, who had just swam up.

“Girl, chill!” Rain sped over, her mouth watering. “It’s not like we’re actually fish.”

“She’s right, Lady Aífe.” Spring also reassured her as she reached for a plate. “Besides, even if we were fish, there are plenty of species of fish that consume other fish.”

“Okay, then.” Aífe pulled herself out of the water and turned to offer Mallory a hand up. They both grabbed their plates and sat down to eat on the sunloungers. “Thanks, Ember! Tasty as always!” Aífe said through a mouthful of tuna. Seeing that everyone was happily digging in, Ember bowed again and left, her tail wagging slightly.

After a delicious meal spent getting to know everyone further, Aífe and Mallory were laying in the sunloungers, basking in the warm afternoon sun as their food settled, while the three mermaids went about collecting the empty plates and setting them off to the side to be picked up later. As they were finishing their task, a small bell could be heard from over by the small pond next to the lake.

“What was that?” Aífe asked, a bit groggy since she had nearly fallen asleep from being comfortable, full, and warm.

“That—” Brooke sighed. “Means we gotta get to work. The laundry’s here.”

“Oh? How long does that usually take?” Aífe sat up a little as she saw the laundry crew stretch and get ready to go over to the pond.

“It usually only takes an hour or two for the washing.” Rain answered. “Depends on how much and how dirty. But even then, we’re not technically done until it’s dried and folded—usually another couple of hours.”

“That sucks. Is it a lot of work?”

“No, it’s actually really easy.” Spring assured Aífe. “Just time consuming. All we have to do for the washing is sit in the pond while the laundry’s soaking. The only real work is hanging up and folding it once it’s dry. So, we just find other ways to pass the time while we wait. There is one thing, though. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a downside, but…”

“But?” Aífe prompted.

“You see, spirits aren’t always affected by natural phenomena, but since we’re nature spirits, there are some things we’re a bit more… susceptible to. Like, for example… pheromones.”

“Oh.” Aífe said flatly. “Is that a common issue?”

“Well…” Spring hesitated. “It’s just that, with the start of the show, there have been a lot more people getting sexually aroused and releasing them, so we our laundry duty has been getting us more… worked up than usual.”

“Yeah, we had a blast washing your sheets after your night with that Aoba girl!” Brooke grinned, lacking Spring’s tact on the matter. “And Diona’s transformation has been really hitting us hard, too! I swear at this rate, I’m gonna end up getting horny any time I smell fruit! And don’t get me started on the fun we had with Ma—” She was cut off by a swift elbow from Spring. Aífe was left red as a tomato, and Mallory gulped, intuiting that the sentence was probably meant to end with “Mal’s bodystocking.”

“Anyways,” Spring said through gritted teeth. “We should go get started so Sera and Umbra don’t yell at us, we’ll leave you to your nap.” As she and the other two started walking away, she turned back. “Oh, and don’t worry about getting sunburned. There’s a UV barrier around the place, so it’s not an issue.”

As Aífe laid back down to resume her afternoon nap, she was startled by Mallory sitting down next to her on the sunlounger.

“I figure, if we’re going to nap, we might as well get serious about it.” Mallory said as she laid down next to Aífe and spread a towel over them as a makeshift blanket.

“Weren’t you supposed to be staying in the—what was it? The Hibiscus Suite?” Aífe playfully teased the girl who was now wrapping her arms around her and pressing her body close. “I thought it was the Rose Suite that made people want to be all touchy-feely.”

“Hey, it’s not like I need magic to enjoy cuddling.” Mallory sleepily responded as she nuzzled her head into Aífe’s shoulder. “Come on, you’ve gotta admit that a nap would be much nicer like this than if we were in separate chairs.”

“Yeah.” Aífe yawned. “I’ll give you that one.” She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around Mallory in turn, drifting off in the warm sun and cool breeze.