Week 1: Natalie's Date, Part 5

“So I’m gone for like half an hour and you’re already two-timing me?” Aífe crossed her arms as she looked down at the two sitting on the picnic blanket. When she’d gotten back to them after being abandoned by Diona, Mallory and Natalie were holding hands and giggling as they conversed.

“What?!” Mallory panicked, hurriedly letting go of Natalie’s hand. “But you said—”

“I’m fucking with you, Mal.” Aífe uncrossed her arms and sat down with a smug look on her face. “Looks like it’s all according to keikaku.” She paused for a beat before adding, “‘Keikaku’ means ‘plan’, by the way.”

“I’d been wonderin’ what kind of scheme you and Diona were up to,” Natalie sighed, “speakin’ of, where is she? I’d figured she’d be here gloatin’ about your plan right along with you.”

“Oh, she found another vic—um… person to hang out with.” Aífe replied, deciding halfway through to phrase it more delicately. “She’s about to take Aria for a bit of a fashion show along with Erica and Aoba. Aria’s had a bit of a makeover today, so Diona got excited about getting her in… let’s go with ‘more interesting’ clothes.”

“That’s really vague.” Mallory complained.

“Well, I’d hate to ruin the surprise for you, Mal, since you’ll probably see her new look at dinner,” Aífe reasoned, shrugging, “but I can at least tell you she upgraded her TF. It was a good time to do it, since she was already in the shop to use the voucher she got from the arcade.”

“Right. I think I remember her mentioning something about that at dinner yesterday.” Mallory nodded, following the logic.

“Anyway,” Natalie brought the conversation back on topic, “tell me about this plan of yours.”

“Oh, that? It seemed pretty obvious that you two like each other, and I ship it, so…” Aífe shrugged, “I gave Mal a little encouragement. The original plan was for her to wait until after my date with you, but then she decided to spy on us, and here we are. The opportunity presented itself, so I took it.”

“Well, I guess you should count yourself lucky that both of you are cute.” Natalie fake pouted. Suddenly, her attention was pulled to the picnic basket, which shook slightly, the corner of a napkin now sticking out of the lid. “Guess that means our lunch is ready.” She began pulling out sandwiches and sides. “Ooh! Looks like she even threw in some cherry pie! Look at Ember goin’ above and beyond!”

While those three were digging into their picnic, Cecilia was weighing her own options for lunch when she was startled by a knock at her office door. She opened it to discover that she’d once again been visited by the elder reindeer sister.

“If you’re here to invite me to another staff party, thanks, but I’ll pass.” Cecilia sighed. She started to close the door again, but Holly stopped it with one of her hooves.

“Actually…” Holly lifted up a small cooler, motioning to it and a lunchbox she was wearing slung across her body. “I could tell yesterday that that wasn’t really your scene, so I figured we could have lunch here, instead!” She crossed into the room and set her things down on Cecilia’s desk. “Hope you don’t mind salad—I am a vegetarian, after all. Y’know, being a reindeer, and all.”

“What’s the big deal?” Cecilia crossed her arms and stared down her uninvited guest. “Trying to be all buddy-buddy with me? Wouldn’t you rather spend your time with someone who, you know, actually wants to be here?”

“I’d’ve thought it was obvious after yesterday—we’re coworkers,” Holly scratched at the base of one of her antlers while she looked at Cecilia as if she were dumb, “isn’t it normal for coworkers to hang out on their lunch break? Or are you Americans just that socially isolated these days?”

“Oh yeah, didn’t you say you and your sister are Canadian? That’d explain the overbearing niceness.”

“I’m not really… anything,” Holly shrugged, “I’m not human, so why would I identify based on some imaginary lines you all drew a couple hundred years ago? I don’t even understand why you humans are so obsessed over them in the first place.”

“Yeah, don’t let the rednecks back in Missouri hear that one—” Cecilia quipped, “they’d be just as likely to shoot you for that as they would to hang those antlers over their fireplace.”

“Yikes.” Holly shivered. “Wait, what were we even talking about again? Oh! Coworkers! Which reminds me—I also brought you your employee badge!” She held out a piece of plastic clipped to a lanyard.

“Is there even a point to this thing?” Cecilia grumbled as she reluctantly accepted the badge. Holly sat down and started unpacking their salads and a couple of bottles of lemonade before nodding.

“For the rest of us employees, it’d be a useless piece of plastic,” Holly explained as she began munching on some greens, “but for you, it comes with special perks—namely employee discounts! Well, I say discounts, but they’re technically freebies. With that, you’re no longer stuck with the basic course as your only free option at my and Missy’s spa—you automatically get upgraded to the deluxe! Plus, you can get a free trim from Missy once every other week at the salon. Finally, you can get a few sets of free clothes from Fuyumi’s boutique, but they have to be work-related. For you, it’d most likely be nun habits, but I bet you could talk Sera into allowing other types of religious outfits as long as they’re sexy.”

“Right…” Cecilia looked dubiously at her employee badge as she finally just accepted the meal Holly had brought her, sitting down to eat. So, basically just the spa perk. Better than nothing, I guess.

“I also wanted to apologize for yesterday,” Holly added, “I know that May and Spring probably came off as really dismissive of your problems, but I promise they weren’t trying to be. They’re just kind of—okay, heavily—biased in Sera’s favor. I hope you won’t hold it against them.”

“Whatever.” Cecilia grumbled as she jabbed unsuccessfully at a cherry tomato. “It’s not like it matters.”

“I hope you don’t mind me asking,” Holly nervously changed the subject, “but why are you so against all of this? I don’t mean the transformations or the competitive aspects, but more… it just seems like you’re really against the thought of doing anything with Lady Aífe. Sexually, that is.”

“Does that matter? I’ve got some points thanks to the other day—I’ll just get the rest by winning challenges.”

“I don’t really think that’s feasible.” Holly grimaced. “You’d have to place first every week to even have a chance, and I can only think of one other season I’ve seen where that happened. Do you really not like Lady Aífe to that extent? I didn’t see her before, but she seems plenty attractive now.”

“It’s not… you wouldn’t get it.” Cecilia dismissed before being pressed to explain further when she saw the look on Holly’s face. “Look, maybe I just don’t want to sleep with someone who’s only doing it out of a sense of obligation, okay? She doesn’t actually care about me—she’d just feel guilty if she let me get eliminated.”

“I really don’t think—”

“Just drop it! Okay?” Cecilia snapped, shutting Holly up. They finished the rest of their meal in silence, and Holly left, turning back to cast one last worried glance at the chapel.

“I’m not wearing this!” Aria demanded, crossing her arms as she tried not to die from embarrassment while standing in the fitting room of Fuyumi’s boutique. As expected, Diona had selected clothing that, to Aria, only barely seemed to meet the definition. A black tube top that only barely contained her breasts while leaving her shoulders and midriff exposed, a matching black miniskirt that seemed like it might flash her underwear at the slightest wrong movement, fishnet stockings, a choker, and heels that she could swear were designed to make her fall and break her legs again. Strangely enough, the only parts of her body still sufficiently covered were her arms, clothed in sleeves with black and purple stripes—something Diona insisted on, claiming it would “complete the look.” The gremlin had even pressured her into letting her apply a bit of makeup.

“Hmm… I agree.” Diona nodded as she appraised her subject while Erica and Aoba sat to the side—mostly bored, though slightly amused. “Something is definitely missing. Would you be down to get your bellybutton pierced? I think that would really tie everything together.”

“Absolutely not!”

“Fine. We can use a stick-on, but it won’t look as good and it’ll honestly just end up being more of a hassle in the long run.” Diona acquiesced with a shrug.

“That’s not the issue!” Aria fumed. “I’m practically naked in these! If I walked around town back home, I’d have hypothermia in like 10 minutes!”

“And? It’s not like we’re in Vancouver right now. The weather here’s great, so show off some of that freshly sun-kissed skin! I even made sure to pick a color palette that’d go well once you switched back to blue.” Diona gave her a thumbs up, not even expecting any thanks for her consideration. Seeing that Aria still wasn’t budging, she finally relented. “Ugh, fine. I’ll find you something that covers a bit more.”

This process continued for what felt like hours to everyone present—at least so long that Ember was kind enough to bring them all burritos in lieu of whatever each of them had been going to eat for lunch. Aria felt like she was pulling teeth, fighting over every square centimeter of fabric, until they finally arrived at a compromise neither was truly happy with—a top that had actual sleeves (though still showed her midriff), a skirt that reached farther than the bottom of her ass (though Diona still insisted on fishnets), and shoes that wouldn’t kill her to walk in.

“I guess I’m not completely dressed like a hooker anymore.” Aria let out a frustrated huff. “But can you at least tell me why the collar on this shirt is so fucked up? Everyone can see my bra strap.”

“Stylish dishevelment, Aria.” Diona wagged her finger. “Intentionally making it look like your clothes are out of place can make people think of the kind of activities that would end with your clothes getting messed up, if you get my meaning. Plus, it shows shoulder, armpit, and just a teensy bit of sideboob—sensual parts of a woman that might normally be hidden if she’s a pru—cough—dresses more conservatively. And it shows all of those while covering up those rockin’ tits of yours, which you insisted on for some crazy reason.”

“Okay, whatever.” Aria groaned. “Can we just get out of here, already? We were going to watch a couple of movies before you dragged me into your game of dress-up.”

“Great!” Diona bounced over to the cash register. “Hey, Fuyumi! I’ll get her that outfit, plus the ones she tried on before. Oh! And throw in a new hoodie—her old one smells like Fritos.”

“Very well,” Fuyumi replied with her best customer service smile, the whole event being enough to wear down even her patience, “that will be 1500 BP.”

“Oof.” Diona winced. “Don’t have enough. Isn’t there a deal where we can get half off in exchange for a fitting?” The arachnid’s eyes lit up and she nodded eagerly.

“I’m not doing that.” Aria complained.

“Chill, chill.” Diona waved off her concerns. “I’m the one paying, so she should be able to settle for me. You guys go on ahead, and I’ll catch up with you once you pick out the movie.”

Not seeing any point in arguing, the rest of them left Diona at the mercy of Fuyumi.

-750 BP (450 remaining)