With monumental failure, comes monumental fame

When Nick entered the Banquet Hall, he’d actually been hopeful that today would be a good day. After all, the situation with Dani and Carly seemed to have resolved itself. He’d been worried that morning that Dani would have severe buyer’s remorse after joining in on the sex with Carly in the heat of the moment, or that Carly would have been seriously bothered by what was about to happen herself, having sex with Dani even though she wasn’t attracted to her.

Neither situation had occurred.

In the end, Carly woke up with a dreamy expression on her face, and was wearing a nice schoolgirl uniform that reminded Nick of something from an anime. To go along with her choice in clothes, she had a pair of dog ears, that were colored light pink, almost white. He figured that they would be related to the transformation, somehow; she must have been from some beast person anime, but didn’t want to press the topic.

Dani was the bigger concern, after all.

But when she’d woken up, and Carly and Nick inquired about her night’s sleep, she said, to her surprise, that the dream she’d had wasn’t as awful as she’d feared. It was the day they’d spent on the beach together. And while the dream had been awful for the first few days, before her Just One of the Guys transformation, right now it didn’t seem to bother her at all.

“I guess I’m in a healthier place, emotionally, than I was back then,” Dani had noted. “I mean, I didn’t LOVE it. Because obviously, right?”

She then had turned to Carly and held her hand. “But… I managed to make it through. It wasn’t a big deal, because a part of me knew I had you, waiting for me on the other side.”

Carly blushed, and grinned like a fool.

That was the kind of attitude that Nick had hoped would carry into the Banquet Hall with them, to make this whole messy day a lot better.

He was in for a shock when he arrived, though.

“…Rose?!” He sputtered, his eyes widening in surprise. He almost didn’t recognize her for a moment with her hair that short. “What happened?!”

Immediately his eyes landed on Sylvia, something she wasn’t thrilled about.

“Hey!” Sylvia crossed her arms over her chest and puffed up her cheeks. “What’s the big idea, Daddy? Why are you looking at me like this is somehow my fault, huh?”

Nick raised his eyebrow. “Sylvia…”

It was a reasonable concern, given the other girl’s past. After all, she’d been responsible for a great many transformations herself. But while Nick was aware that she couldn’t do that anymore, it didn’t mean he fully trusted her, either.

And he was sure she knew something.

Right now, though, those concerns took a backseat to Marley running over to her sister’s side.

“Carly! How did it go?” The brunette asked. “Did you guys… I mean…”

She glanced between Dani and Carly, and blushed. She didn’t want to ask “did you cum” because that would be a little weird. But she was definitely concerned.

“We’re fine,” Carly said, squeezing Dani’s hand and glancing at her with a smile. “You guys don’t have to worry about us.”

“Yeah,” Dani said, blushing. “It was a nice night.”

“So the suppression worked?” Sylvia inquired, skipping over to them. “You didn’t have any problems with Daddy banging your girlfriend?”

Gina doubled over laughing, and Mary’s jaw dropped.

“Sylvia!” She exclaimed. “You shouldn’t-”

“You mustn’t say things like that,” Rose chastised her. “It’s important for a young lady to have more respect for herself!”

Sylvia rolled her eyes in the most “okay, boomer” fashion.

Mary just looked even more shocked, and she wasn’t the only one.

“Okay, what’s going on?” Nick demanded, glaring suspiciously at the blonde. “Who are you, and what have you done with Rose?”

Rose gasped, and held her hand over her mouth. “Whatever do you mean?” She asked. “I AM Rose! I’m the same woman I’ve always been, the aspiring starlet who appreciates the love of a good man, like you, darling!”

She leaned forward and planted a kiss on one of Nick’s cheeks, and then the other.

Then she blushed.

“Please, forgive me for being so forward,” she said, her face burning with embarrassment. “Kisses are a greeting in France, but I may have taken some advantage of our customs…”

She batted her eyelashes. “Will you forgive me?” She asked hopefully.

Nick was completely stunned by this apparent 180 in Rose’s personality. But he didn’t know what to sya. He just shook his head in disbelief.

Finally, he turned to Sylvia again, then looked at the other girls. “Okay, what’s going on here?” He pleaded. “Kim?”

Of anyone, he hoped that Kim would give him a straight answer.

Kim sighed. “…It’s a long story.”

---

“Mon dieu!” Rose gasped, holding her hand over her mouth. “Are you saying I was once such a… scandalous woman!? Why, I never!”

“So you don’t remember?” Carly stroked her chin thoughtfully. “That’s surprising…”

“I-I mean…” Rose tried to look back at her previous self, before she had been affected by the transformation. But it was like all her memories were caught behind a milky sheen. She remembered that she looked differently, with a slightly smaller chest and longer hair, but when it came to her personality and her actions…

“Ah!” It was all coming back to her now. “Oh, my goodness!” She cradled her cheeks and turned scarlet. “I-I had no idea I could be so… unchaste!”

“Well, hey, I wouldn’t go that far,” Nick said quickly. “You and I, our first time, it was…” He cut himself off, not feeling right sharing that story with the other girls.

“But I held hands with a man I wasn’t married to!” Rose exclaimed, practically bawling her eyes out. “I don’t deserve to get married after doing something so scandalous!”

Mary just stared at the blonde, her eye twitching every couple of seconds. This was all sounding very familiar, and frustrating.

“Anyone else get the feeling she’s fucking with us?” Dani asked, exasperated. “That she’s just pretending to be an annoying prude in an exaggerated version of Mary?”

Honestly? Nobody could really put it past her.

“It’s not an act!” Rose exclaimed. “I would never lie to you like that! Lying is a sin!”

“She’s really like that, huh?” Gina was actually amused now. Because the other women weren’t focusing on her issues, she could find the time to appreciate the situation for what it was- and that made things very enjoyable for her.

Hopefully, her little outburst that morning would be quickly forgotten, along with all the other issues they were facing.

“I think it’s sweet,” Marley said. “She thinks that Mary is your ideal wife, so she’s emulating her! Even if she is exaggerating her… other qualities.”

Nick wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that. He liked Rose for who she was. He didn’t want her to turn into a carbon copy of Mary.

Whoever this blonde girl was, she wasn’t quite Rose.

Then, he felt the woman’s crystal blue eyes turned on him. They glistened with a mixture of hope, fear, and desire.

“Do you… not like me like this?” Rose asked sadly, looking up into his eyes. She leaned forward, and Nick suddenly felt a bit of pressure on his chest, as she pushed her breasts up against him. “Do you dislike me?”

She batted her eyelashes, and Nick realized that maybe she was a lot more Rose than he’d thought at first.

“Um… ahem. Well… that… I like you just fine,” Nick said, backing away so he could think clearly for a moment. “Whether you’re like this, or like you are normally, they’re both just fine.”

It was a diplomatic nonanswer, but it was enough to make Rose beam from ear to ear.

“That’s great!” She gushed. “I would be just broken-hearted if it turned out you didn’t want me or our children!”

Nick nearly fell over.

“Wha-?! CHILDREN!?” He exclaimed.

The other girls stared in shock as Rose tittered.

“Yes! Children!” She said, cradling her stomach, just over her womb. “We may not have any yet, but I’m certain that, in time…”

“Okay, I think that’s enough!” Mary exclaimed. She was completely red in the face. “I… Rose, you can stop now!”

“Stop?” Rose blinked, confused. “Stop what?”

“Stop… stop all this!” Mary wailed, gesturing emphatically at the other girl. “It’s just so weird, seeing you copying me like this!”

“I’m not trying to copy you!” Rose protested. “This is who I really am!”

“It’s the after-effect of the transformation, my girl,” Sylvia said. “She can’t just ‘undo’ it. It’ll wear off on its own, right?”

Mary winced. That’s what she was afraid of…

“I didn’t drink so much milk,” Rose said, trying to remember the sweet flavor. “If you guys are right and I wasn’t like this back then, then I should be back to normal soon, right?”

Her smile turned to a frown. “It’s a bit of a pity, though… I kind of like the way I am right now…”

“Well, that makes sense,” Dani said. “I mean, you’re Nick’s perfect wife, at least, how you envision his perfect wife. It would make sense that you like yourself that way. Hell, if I tried some of Mary’s milk and transformed, I bet even I would like myself like that, even if my whole sexuality changed!”

She shivered as the words left her lips. That was a horrifying thought, and one she didn’t like contemplating in the slightest.

Rose puffed up her cheeks and put her hands on her hips.

“Excuse you,” she chastised the other woman. “But we don’t use that kind of language in this hotel, I’ll have you know!”

Mary groaned and buried her face in her hands to suppress her shameful scream.

At about that time, Dawn and Morgana entered the Banquet Hall.

Dawn took one look at Rose chewing Dani out, and immediately decided that this wasn’t worth her trouble.

“Hey, guys, how are things?” She asked, going over to Carly. “Last night, how did it-”

“It was amazing!” Carly gushed. “I just loved it!”

Dawn glanced at Carly’s outfit. “…Dog ears? Huh…”

“I think she pulls it off much better than you do,” Gina prodded, smirking. She might have been hiding her bad mood, but a bit of toxicity was still leaking out.

“Anyway,” Sylvia cleared her throat, “I think we have something more important to address, my girls. Now that everyone’s here.”

“Oh?” The others turned to look at Sylvia, surprised that she was taking charge.

“Well, two things, in fact,” Sylvia said, holding up two fingers. “For one, I need to figure out which transformation I should take from Fuck the Voters.”

Nick sighed. He expected that.

“Are you sure?” Dawn asked, frowning.

Sylvia blinked. “Well… yeah,” she replied. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because that’s just doing what Dakota wants you to do,” Dawn said, narrowing her eyes. “And personally, I think we’ve had just about enough of that.”

Sylvia frowned. “…Huh? What are you talking about, Dawn? Doing what Dakota wants me to do? You’ve gotta be way more specific…”

Dawn sighed. “I was thinking about this all last night. For the last few days, actually… but something I talked about with Morgana got me thinking.” She turned to the goth, who looked back at her in surprise.

“Me?” Morgana mouthed, pointing at herself.

Dawn nodded. “Dakota… her whole thing is that you’re supposed to not be a real person, right? She doesn’t think you’re real.”

Sylvia winced. That still hurt to hear, even if it was true. “That’s…”

“But she made sure you got that transformation,” Dawn continued, blowing past Sylvia’s concerns. “She even used a veto to do it, because she wanted you to have it. And if you ask me, that sounds like she wants you to use it, doesn’t she?”

“Oh, I think I get what you’re saying,” Gina nodded, her eyes widening. “She’s trying to fool Sylvia into using it somehow! To… what, exactly?”

That was the part her brain stopped following. She knew Dakota better than most people, but even she didn’t fully understand what her goals would be in the case of something like this.

Dawn frowned. “I think… she wants Sylvia to prove that she hasn’t changed. That she’s still putting value into transformations, by taking one. It’s just a thought, anyway.”

“What?!” Rose gasped, holding her hand over her mouth. “I don’t believe it! How could anyone be so devious!?”

Mary rolled her eyes and Kim snickered.

Dawn shrugged, her expression softening. “I admit, I could be completely off-base. But at the same time, I don’t think there’s any harm in not using the transformation, either. If Dakota wants you to use it, then don’t. It’s the perfect way to prove you have free will, right? And that you’re not some tool who only does what she wants.”

“That… that does make sense…” Nick admitted. He hated thinking like this. For all the bad things Dakota had done, he really didn’t feel good, facing them directly. He knew he had to, but… it still hurt knowing how evil Dakota could really be.

No, stop thinking that way! He chastised himself. Dakota isn’t evil. She’s just lost and misguided, and warped by her power. She’s not thinking clearly!

He remembered the sirens. Dakota had done a good deed for them, when she didn’t need to. After all the awful things she’d done, a small act of benevolence like that went a long way with him.

…He knew that was a stupid thing to think. But he couldn’t help it. It was all he could hold onto, to keep believing that the childhood friend he’d loved and lost, and loved again, wasn’t all bad inside.

Dawn’s expression hardened again. “And besides, I think we’ve been played around enough by Dakota as it is.”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Dani asked, frowning.

“It was something Morgana said to me last night,” Dawn scowled. “It brought my feelings about the punishment transformations to the surface. I’ve been blaming myself, since I was the one who organized the whole plan…”

“But that wasn’t your fault!” Dani protested. “I practically had to strong-arm you guys into going along with it!”

“Well, I know it wasn’t my fault,” Gina obnoxiously stated, raising her hand and smirking. “I was just there for the lulz.”

Dawn sighed. Not helpful.

“You guys are missing the point,” she said, shaking her head. “Remember who it was, that told us to go grab her cane in the first place? It was Dakota! She organized the whole thing, getting us to attack Sylvia and think that we could win by taking her cane! And that just resulted in punishment transformations! It was all orchestrated by her!”

Nick winced. That… that did add up. He hadn’t heard anything about Dakota being involved in that plan, but the way Dawn described it, he just knew it had to be true.

That was ABSOLUTELY something she would have done.

He also noticed, though, that Sylvia was being conspicuously quiet about the punishment transformations she’d doled out.

“Sylvia? Anything to add?” He prodded her in the arm with his elbow.

Sylvia winced.

“Look, um… okay, so maybe that’s exactly the sort of thing Dakota would have done,” she admitted. “But come on! You guys didn’t HAVE to do it! Sure, she lied to you, and manipulated you, and got you further down the paths to become Daddy’s sex slaves, and, um…”

Her voice trailed off. “…Where was I going with this again?”

“You know, I am not appreciative of all this negative energy directed my way.”

Everybody gasped as Dakota appeared in the center of the hall with a flourish, and a scowl on her lips.

“Dakota!” Nick’s eyes widened. He approached her immediately. “How are you doing? I feel like we haven’t talked in forever!”

Dakota blinked her golden eyes. Her pale brow furrowed as she glared at him suspiciously, wondering why he was being so friendly out of nowhere.

“…I’ve been busy,” she replied, ultimately judging that he meant no harm. “Now then, where were we? Oh, right, you girls… you were all getting together and blaming me for your own shortcomings?”

“Are you saying that you didn’t tell us about the cane on purpose?” Dawn scowled.

“Of course I did,” Dakota replied, immediately admitting to her actions. “But there’s no sense in playing ‘shift the blame’, after all, you all went along with it.”

Dawn frowned and her ears drooped. Whatever issue she had with Dakota… the other woman was technically correct. She might have encouraged them to do something stupid, but… they were still the ones who had done something stupid.

“Is that why you’re here, then?” Dani growled. “Just to mock us?”

“Oh, not at all!” Dakota held her hand over her mouth, as if she was shocked that Dani would think so little of her. “I just came here to congratulate you!”

Dani blinked. “…Wait, congratulate me?”

“Well, you AND Carly,” Dakota said, glancing at the cosplayer. “After all, you two had a great night together, didn’t you?”

“I-I mean…” Dani blushed, and smiled a little. “I suppose we did… um, but that- that doesn’t matter! I mean…”

“Why are you here?” Nick pressed. “Is it because you’re lonely, and you wanted to spend time with us?”

Dakota’s eyes widened. “Huh!?”

He was really throwing her off with all these statements.

“I mean, hey, if you wanted to hang, you could have said so,” Gina shrugged, cracking a grin. “Want to go for drinks sometime?”

Dakota seethed. “The only reason I’m here is to disabuse you people of the notion that I would care one way or another about how that uses her transformation,” Dakota said, turning the head of her cane towards Sylvia.

Sylvia winced.

“What do you mean by ‘that’?” Marley demanded with a growl.

“I’ll have you know, I don’t care one whit if Sylvia takes someone else’s transformation or not,” Dakota asserted. “I couldn’t care less, in fact. I just wanted to make that clear. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll be going.”

“Did you really come all the way here just to tell us you don’t care?” Dawn asked, unable to believe her ears. (All four of them!)

Dakota blinked.

“…Yes.”

She vanished with a tap of her cane, leaving a very confused room of girls.

“…Ooookay…” Kim said, shaking her head incredulously. “Well… that just happened.”

“It makes sense,” Sylvia said, her voice aching with sorrow. “Dakota wouldn’t care about what I did with my transformation. She’s not the type, you know?”

It broke Nick’s heart to hear her say something like that.

“Besides,” Sylvia continued, “there’s another important issue we have to talk about right now.”

She looked over at Gina, and Gina tensed. She was about to say something to try and change the subject, but she never had the chance.

“Wait! I thought of something!” Rose raised her hand high, surprising the other girls.

“Huh?” Sylvia turned to her. “What is it, my girl?”

“What if you take my transformation?” She inquired. “We talked about it before, remember? I have some vague memories of that…”

“Your transformation… wait, you mean your Method Acting transformation?!” Sylvia’s jaw dropped. “You can’t be serious…”

“I’m completely serious!” Rose asserted. “Think about it! If you have my Method Acting transformation, then you can scout out other transformations, to see which one you want to veto! It’s such a good idea, don’t you think?”

Dawn nodded and stroked her chin thoughtfully. “It does make sense,” she agreed. “From a strategic point of view.”

“Would you really let me veto that one for a few days?” Sylvia asked. “I thought that was your favorite transformation, though?”

“It is,” Rose nodded, and a solemn expression crossed her face. “But… if it would help you, Sylvia, then of course I would do it!” She held her hand over her chest to emphasize her earnest plea.

“Yep, definitely Mary vibes,” Carly nodded. “It’s actually kind of cute, if you think about it!”

Mary blushed.

Sylvia could understand where Rose was coming from. But she shook her head.

“I appreciate the offer, Rose, I really do. But… I just can’t.”

Rose was surprised to hear that.

“Really? Why not?” She asked, tilting her head to the side.

“Because you’re not in your right state of mind, my girl,” Sylvia replied. She glanced at Mary. “You’re influenced by Mary’s transformation, and right now, you’re someone who you’re not. If I was going to take your transformation after that… that would be a bad thing. What happens when your milk wears off, and you’re not onboard with it anymore? I don’t want to do that!”

“Sylvia…” Mary’s eyes widened in surprise.

Dawn was shocked too. “Wow, I mean… that makes sense, but… really?”

“What?” Sylvia looked at the others. “Was that wrong?”

“N-no!” Dawn shook her head quickly. “That’s good!”

“You’re actually being considerate of the situation!” Mary explained, putting their perspective into words. “You’re actually understanding right from wrong!”

“That shouldn’t be as much of a surprise as it is,” Dani said, shaking her head slowly. She smiled. “But I guess she really is making progress.”

“I am?” Sylvia’s face was red with glee.

Dani walked over and socked her in the shoulder. It didn’t even hurt. “I owe you a bit of thanks myself,” she said. “For your help last night. It seems like you’re really turning things around, Sylvia! We’ll make a good girl out of you yet!”

At the words “good girl” Gina turned pale. She felt a tremble in her stomach like she was going to throw up, and looked down.

When she raised her head, her eyes met Sylvia’s.

It was like the blonde was looking right through her.

“Gina…” She murmured. “We need to talk.”