A nice, peaceful time

He said, "Would you care for a dollar on the five or nine?"

“So what are we planning to do today?” Sylvia had shiny eyes as she circled around Dani, Carly, Marley, and Rose in the Banquet Hall. Dani and Carly were still eating breakfast, while Rose and Marley were just enjoying being with their sister and her partner.

The others had all gone off together to go shopping, while Vivian headed out on her own. Sylvia had wanted to spend more time with Marley today, and through that, the other girls as well. There was a lot of fun to be had, after all!

…And more importantly, she wanted advice.

“…I wasn’t really planning on anything,” Carly said after a pause, looking over at Dani. “Just, you know, hanging out and doing shit.”

Dani nodded. “Yeah, same,” she agreed. “We had kind of a long night last night, so we didn’t want to exert ourselves too much.”

“Really?” Rose looked at Dani in surprise. “You? I thought you liked exerting yourself.”

Dani stuck her tongue out in response.

Marley was more focused on her sister, though. Yesterday, she’d had this feeling that something was wrong. But right now, Carly seemed to be all smiles, and not in a **** way like last time.

“Carly… you are okay, right?” She asked quietly.

“Hmm? Yeah, of course I am!” Carly nodded cheerfully. “Why would you think I wasn’t? I had a bit of a bad night yesterday, but I’m feeling a lot better now.”

Marley sighed in relief. “Well… that’s good at least.”

“One thing we were thinking of doing was watching anime,” Dani brought up. “I wanted to show Carly the show her costume today is from.”

Carly had a strained expression on her face. “…Maybe an episode or two,” she relented. “But I’m not a huge fan of mecha anime. Not even Code Geass.”

Dani made a scandalized noise while everyone else just stared at them and tried to decipher the conversation.

Sylvia looked around, and decided to say something herself.

“We could always go for a walk in the garden!” She proposed. “That would be fun, don’t you guys think?”

“That’s always what you want to do!” Marley said with a laugh. “But if you ask me, that would be a lot of fun!”

“…Yeah, I guess,” Rose said, though she didn’t sound that enthusiastic about the suggestion. She was still willing to go along with it for everybody else’s sake, though, if that’s what the group wanted.

It might not be, though.

“As much as I like having some fun and exercising, I’m not sure if that’s what I want to do today,” Dani admitted. “A walk in the garden is nice, but we spent all day yesterday outside. Isn’t there something fun we could do in here?”

“Valid point,” Carly said, nodding. “Good suggestion though, Sylvia.”

“Oh… okay then…” Sylvia looked a little disheartened, and nobody knew what they should say to cheer her up, when she’d been all smiles a second ago. The former host’s mood seemed to bounce back and forth like a ping-pong ball.

“Mom… I think you should do something else,” Marley said suddenly, drawing the attention of the other girls.

Sylvia in particular perked up, the way she always did when Marley called her “mom”.

“Huh?” She asked curiously, blinking. “What do you mean?”

Marley shrugged. “I mean, that was your issue with your date with Nick a couple days ago, right?” She pointed out. “You didn’t really have any hobbies or experiences that you wanted to do. All you wanted to do was hang out and go to the garden.”

“Marley’s right,” Rose agreed with a nod. “You should branch out a little more, Sylvia. Diversify your hobbies.”

“Says the woman whose only hobby is primping and looking nice,” Sylvia smirked, rolling her eyes.

Rose scoffed, but she didn’t deny it.

“Again, anime,” Dani chirped, finding a good spot to insert herself into the conversation.

“Okay, but you guys do have a point,” Sylvia admitted, stroking her chin thoughtfully. “Yeah, maybe I should find some hobbies…”

Rose raised her hand. “Before that, can I ask something?”

Everyone turned to look at her.

“I don’t quite remember when my transformation with Marley is going to time out,” she admitted. “When it does, though, I want to step aside for a second and grab something from Vivian. So whatever we do, can we try and stay close by the hotel?”

“Sure, that’s fine with me,” Carly agreed with a nod. “What were you thinking about getting from her though? Just out of curiosity.”

“…A cat collar,” Rose admitted, scratching at her neck. “See, if I fit a cat collar around my neck, and leave it there for 24 hours, I’ll win some more BP.”

Rose’s hair had done a lot of growing yesterday, with Marley’s reward to her. But she still hadn’t reached the length she wanted. The tips were starting to become a little wavier, but she didn’t know how much BP she’d need to get back to her original length.

“You already have the most BP out of everybody I think,” Dani pointed out with an amused smile. “Any ideas for what you plan to do with it?”

Rose smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. “Oh, you know, this and that,” she purred.

“She’s gonna buy another date in Dream Alley for her and Nick, when it’s her night with him at the end of the week,” Marley tattled, earning her a shocked look from Rose.

“M-Marley!” She exclaimed, her cheeks turning red. “D-don’t just say that!”

“Well, it’s what you’re going to do, right?” Marley replied, giving her temporary sister a hard time. “Since you’re so fond of him, and you want to do all sorts of things with him…”

“I-I just need to do that stuff for my bounty sheet,” Rose said. “So I can get more BP and grow my hair out, that’s all.”

“Are you sure that’s really necessary, though?” Carly pointed out. “I mean, you’re already earning a decent amount of BP and your hair’s already almost back to its original length. And the week isn’t even halfway over yet. If you keep earning like this, before you know it, your hair’s going to reach the ground!” She laughed.

“Long hair is definitely a pain,” Dani agreed, running her finger through her blue tresses. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

“Well, you have a point,” Rose admitted sheepishly. “But I really want my hair to grow back, you know? I’m not a huge fan of this length. So maybe when it’s a style I can live with, I’ll slow down on the BP gains.”

She’d already voluntarily deprived herself of some BP by not cleaning the Master’s Suite last night. So baby steps.

Then Sylvia’s eyes widened. “Oh! That’s it! That’s just perfect!” She said, clapping her hands together. “I know what to do!”

Everybody looked at her in confusion.

“…Know what to do about what?” Carly asked her curiously.

“About my transformation!” Sylvia blurted out. “You know, Fuck the Voters? The big one!”

“You meant the one that lets you veto something for a week and copy it permanently?” Dani asked, also curious where Sylvia was going with this. “I guess so… what, you’re going to copy Rose’s hair transformation, then?”

Sylvia nodded vigorously. “It works out perfectly, don’t you see?” She chirped with a smile. “Rose, you’ll probably get back your old hair length if I do this! And in the meantime, I don’t really care much about my hair to begin with.”

She’d had long hair and short hair, and neither style particularly made a difference to her. She didn’t care much either way, and neither did Nick evidently.

And it would help Rose, right?

Rose considered it for a moment, then shook her head. “…I don’t know,” she admitted reluctantly. “I get where you’re going with this, Sylvia, really, I do, but… wouldn’t that mean I don’t get the reward at the end of the week that way? I mean, that’s kinda what the whole thing’s been working towards,” she pointed out. “I work hard, I grow my hair out, then I get to make it into some boon gift, you know?”

She pulled up her transformation window for clarification.

Golden Fleece: Rose’s hair will grow incredibly long, and very fluffy, almost like sheep’s wool. The more BP she gets each round, the more luxurious it becomes, then at the end of the round, it’s shorn off. Her hair can then be woven into a garment that grants a boon to the wearer, with the effects increased in strength depending on how much BP was put into it. (Gold Digger)

“Yeah, that looks pretty powerful,” Carly agreed. “Depending on what the boon is, of course.”

“Oh, it definitely would be,” Sylvia agreed. “Boons are really, really valuable! That’s why they’re so rare! There’s a reason that in the second challenge I made the possible boons you could win very, very situational, after all! A boon could be a big tipping point!”

Rose stared at Sylvia, who didn’t seem to realize that she was making the blonde’s point for her.

“…Yeah, see?” Rose said, gesturing emphatically. “A boon is a really good thing. So why would I want to give that up, huh?”

Sylvia stared blankly at her. “…Because you’ve been complaining about your hair all week?” She pointed out.

“She’s got a point, Rose,” Marley said with an amused smile on her face. “You’ve been complaining a lot about your transformation…”

Rose flushed. “Well… because I don’t like it!” She protested with a huff. “But you know? That doesn’t mean I should give up the benefits!”

Dani fought back a laugh and rolled her eyes. That was Rose alright. No matter how much time she spent complaining about something she didn’t like, she still wouldn’t give it up if it meant surrendering a potential advantage.

“Well, it was just a thought,” Sylvia said with a shrug. “I just wanted to help.”

“Yes, thank you,” Rose said sincerely. “I appreciate it. But I honestly think it’s for the best if I just, well… you know.”

She shrugged, not sure what else to say.

“…Well, since Rose seems determined not to help herself, I say we forget about the whole thing,” Carly decided with a shrug, earning her a look from the blonde. “Let’s get back to how Sylvia is a boring person with no hobbies!”

Sylvia’s jaw dropped. “What!? Hey! Marley! Tell your sister she can’t talk to me like that!”

“You can’t talk to her like that, sis,” Marley said with a playful look, knowing that it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Her mom was a big girl, she wouldn’t be shaken up by something like this.

And indeed, in spite of how Sylvia puffed up her cheeks, she didn’t make a big deal out of it. She just sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Okay, fine,” she relented. “So what were you guys thinking? For a new hobby, I mean.”

Dani paused for consideration.

“…Watching anime…?”

“Ugh, come ON!” Sylvia rolled her eyes again. “You CAN’T be serious!” She scoffed, shaking her head and sighing. “Don’t you do anything else for fun? It’s like, watching anime, gaming, and working out. And you say I don’t have any hobbies?!”

“That’s two more than you’ve suggested,” Rose mentioned. “But yeah, I guess we really don’t have a lot of hobbies in this group, huh?”

They needed someone like Gina or Vivian, someone who would suggest something fun or exciting they could do to get everybody pumped up. While Carly was great at guiding the mood in a room, she still needed to have an actual fun idea to benefit people with.

“Hey, don’t look at me,” Marley said, holding up her palms in surrender. “I was a plant just a couple months ago. I don’t know shit about what to do.”

“How helpful,” Rose noted, raising her eyebrow. “Well, I do have one thought of something we could do indoors that would have fun.”

She turned to Sylvia. “This place still has a bar, doesn’t it?”

Sylvia nodded. “…I don’t think they’re going to let me drink now, though,” she said, gesturing to her de-aged figure. “I’m only 18.”

“Day-drinking, what, are you trying to become the next Gina?” Carly asked in amusement.

“There’s more stuff we can do in a bar besides drink!” Rose replied. “We could play a game of pool, that could be fun!”

The other girls looked at each other and considered Rose’s suggestion.

Now that she pointed it out, maybe she was right. That could be fun.

“American bars are a mess,” Rose said, making a face as she stepped inside. “In France, we get our drinks in classier places! Fancy restaurants and cafés, or sipping wine as we overlook the beautiful scenery…”

She let out a wistful sigh.

“…Didn’t you move to the US practically the second you became an adult?” Sylvia remembered. “When would you have gone to a bar in France?”

“Not the issue here!” Rose snapped, not liking the fact that she was being called out on her bullshit. “Anyway, one good thing about dive bars? A pool table!”

“It does seem like it could be fun,” Marley agreed. She kept her mouth shut about the bar crawl she’d done with Rose when the other woman had turned 21. That memory may have been implanted, but it was still an embarrassing one.

“So I’ll be honest here, I never learned how to play pool,” Dani admitted as they reached the felt table. “I know the basics, I think? But it’s not really my game.”

“Me neither,” Marley admitted. “I’ve played it a few times, but I’m not very good.”

“You guys need to get out more and go to more parties,” Carly said, shaking her head. “Rose, you know how to play at least, right?”

“…Actually, I’ve never played it either,” the blonde admitted, scratching her head sheepishly. “I think I played it one time, but I was pretty bad at it…”

Carly gave her a sympathetic look. She was bad at the game, but she still wanted to play? Just because she thought Sylvia might enjoy it? How sweet of-

“Oh, how about we play for some BP?” Rose suddenly suggested. “I’m not very good, though.”

Whelp, there went the warm fuzzy feeling in Carly’s chest. She looked at Rose with a frosty expression and then laughed.

“You’re gonna have to do a lot better than that if you want to hustle me, Rose,” she stated.

“Oh! Drat!” Rose puffed up her cheeks and frowned. “Drat, drat, drat!”

It was obvious that she hadn’t been serious though, if the amused smile on her face hadn’t made that clear enough.

“So I’m guessing you’re pretty good, then?” Marley turned to Rose.

“I wouldn’t brag, but I had to learn how to play for this one movie,” the actress mentioned. “I was this saucy lounge lady who used her feminine wiles to distract the male lead while I hustled him for everything he was worth.”

“Sounds like the beginning of a cheesy porno,” Dani chimed in, earning her a look from the actress.

“No! It was a very elegant and classy performance! I was like a modern Meryl Streep!” Rose exclaimed. “…Or wait, was that Marilyn Monroe… Whatever, the actress who had a scandalous affair with that one president.”

The silence from the lack of history buffs in the room was audible.

“…Stormy Daniels…?” Sylvia scrunched up her face in confusion.

“OKAY, moving on,” Dani cleared her throat loudly.

“Whatever,” Rose scoffed. “Point being, I can be VERY good at pool! I learned all the rules to really make my performance shine! …Of course, the director kept telling me I should just shake my boobs more, but hey, that’s Hollywood.”

She hid her disgust with a playful eyeroll, but nobody was laughing.

Dani cleared her throat again.

“…Let’s just move on to the game,” she pleaded. “Can we even play pool with this many people?”

“We would have to do it in teams,” Marley mentioned. “Players take turns on the team making their shots. Two on two.”

“But there’s five of us,” Carly pointed out, looking around the bar. “It wouldn’t really be that fun for the fifth person to sit out.”

“I can sit out!” Sylvia volunteered.

Everyone shook their heads.

“Sylvia, part of this was to help you find new hobbies,” Dani reminded her gently. “It’s not really going to work if you sit out the game.”

Sylvia nodded. “Okay, that makes sense.”

“I’ll sit out,” Marley decided. “That’s probably what would go best. I don’t know how to play very well, and because of my movement restrictions, it might be weird. This way, I can just stick with Rose the whole time.”

“Like a cheerleader?” Carly pointed out. “Not rooting for your sister, then?”

“I can stick with you, too,” Marley replied defensively.

“I think that’s the best decision,” Rose agreed. “Carly and I, we both know how to play, and Dani and Sylvia are amateurs. So I think that’ll make for a good balance.”

“Oh? I think I get it,” Sylvia nodded. “So what, it would be me and Rose, against Carly and Dani then? That could be fun.”

Rose blinked. “What? No, I meant me and Carly against you two. That sounds like a blast.”

Carly lightly elbowed Rose in the ribs. “Come on, make the teams fair!”

“Okay, okay,” Rose laughed playfully. “I think you’re on the right track, Sylvia. You and me, against the happy couple over there!”

“Oh? Now you want to be on my team?” Sylvia huffed, turning up her nose. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll just take Marley after all! My girl would make for a great teammate!”

“What?!” Rose pouted.

“Nah, I think it’s better if you go with her,” Marley stated plainly. “It’s not gonna go well if we both get rolled over, my sister can be a shark.”

“Come on, guys,” Carly said, setting out the balls in the triangle and racking them up. “Let’s stop measuring dicks and let’s play!”

Dani laughed in agreement, and both blondes smiled.

“Well, okay then,” Sylvia relented. “Ooh! Can I break?”

“No, let me break,” Dani begged. “It always looks so fun when they do it in the movies!”

Carly and Rose looked at each other.

“You have a problem with it?” Carly asked.

Rose smirked. “Fine by me,” she tittered. “You guys deserve the handicap.”

Carly stuck out her tongue in response, and then nodded to Dani, handing her the cue.

Dani did some fancy, but sloppy spinning of the cue, to show off. Then she lined it up behind the white ball.

“So I just strike it at the center of the triangle, right?” Dani clarified.