Impolite Dinner Conversation

Lynn sat listening to Xin practice her violin, rather annoyed. The soothing music did not help soothe her mood, however. Bob had appeared shortly after she had left Zach’s room to inform her that Zach had altered her schedule. Lynn looked down at her revised schedule, finding that the etiquette lessons had been replaced with improving her cooking. Xin’s schedule had also been changed so the two of them would be learning together. She did find it odd that Xin still had to masturbate according to the schedule, but remembered that Bob said Zach didn’t have total freedom to mess with the schedules unless he wanted them present.

As Xin finished her practice, Lynn was hit with all of Xin’s remaining arousal. It was a lot. She got flashes of Xin being pinned beneath her as they made out in front of Zach. Fuck that’s a lot.

Xin came over to her, “Thanks for helping me out with this. Are you okay?”

Through gritted teeth, Lynn replied, “Just peachy.” Lynn stormed out of the room. Xin didn’t follow, figuring Lynn was finding somewhere private to masturbate. After all, that’s what Xin wished she could have done.

Xin smacked her cheeks a few times. “None of that. Got to keep those thoughts out of my head.” Xin packed up her violin and waited for Lynn to return, as they had agreed to head over to the cooking lessons together. The room she was in was a combination of a music room and a dance hall. One entire wall was lined with mirrors so you could watch your own movements. Xin walked closer towards the mirrored wall to get a better look at her appearance. She fiddled with the red hair she currently had. “Even if this does look good, I prefer it black.” She did not like her current appearance. She was wearing far more makeup than normal, and it wasn’t the shades she normally would wear either. Her clothes were also far sluttier than she would ever have dared to wear as well. What’s the point of even putting me in ridiculous clothes like these if Zach isn’t seeing them?

Xin spent a while longer fussing over her outfit when she saw Lynn in the mirror re-enter the room. Xin turned around and saw that Lynn still seemed rather frustrated. Xin asked again, “Lynn, seriously, are you okay?”

“I’m fine!” Lynn snapped back at Xin, quite testily.

Xin flinched back, then replied, “Right… which is why you nearly bit my head off right there. Talk to me. What’s troubling you? I figured you would be in a good mood after spending time with Zach, especially with you both being rather horny.”

Lynn scowled, “Well, I was in a great mood until he essentially dismissed me after we argued.”

Xin started walking towards the door and held it open for Lynn. “Why would he do that?”

“He wasn’t happy that I got some payback on Melinda for hurting him.”

Xin wasn’t sure she wanted to wade into this, so she kept her mouth shut.

Misinterpreting Xin’s silence, Lynn said, “See, you get it.”

Xin replied, “I don’t think you should have done that.”

Lynn whirled on Xin and scowled, “Seriously? After what she did?”

“I don’t care what she did. Right now, it should be all of us against Delilah. Plus, Zach is here. If he wants to punish her for what she did to him, he is in an excellent position to do so. You doing so for him is presumptuous.”

Lynn began walking again, assuming Xin would follow. “Like I told Zach, I didn’t punish her in his place. I punished her for me. What she did to Zach also made things miserable for me. I wanted to punish her for that. Frankly, I’d like to have done a whole lot worse. I settled for this with her agreement. I don’t see the problem.”

Xin said, “I don’t want to get involved in this. So, can we just drop this topic of conversation?”

Lynn frowned but dropped the topic. The two walked in silence together until they reached the kitchen, where they were to be taught. When they entered, Lynn was immediately glomped onto by a little flying imp. “LYNN!” Pita exclaimed, “I’m so happy to see you again! I get to be your instructor for this.”

Lynn smiled at the exuberant imp. “Hi, Pita. Glad to see you too.” She gave her a light hug.

Next, Pita started to poof from place to place around Xin, examining her much like she had done when Lynn, Heather, and Caroline had visited the store. “AND YOU!” Pita shouted, then flipped up Xin’s skirt, “I’m so sorry I wasn’t there the first time you visited my store.” Pita glomped onto Xin as well, much to the young woman’s dismay. “So young, supple, and mouldable. You’ll do nicely for your Master. I’m sure you’ll be an excellent student today. I’m going to see if I can take over designing the outfits for your room from Bob, because this is all wrong for you.”

Pita then flew towards the center of the large kitchen. “Now, I hope you’re prepared because we have cooking to do!”

Lynn asked, “I did have a question. Why are we learning this? My understanding is that our schedules were supposed to improve us for Zachary, but isn’t Heather supposed to take care of cooking for him? Like that was part of her transformation.”

Pita replied, “Oh, that most certainly is Heather’s purpose now, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be able to cook for your darling Master, too. After all, expecting one person to cook for thirty people is a bit much. Plus, do you really want Heather to be his primary cook? After all, I’ve been told that the third fastest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

Xin questioned, “Third fastest?”

Pita nodded, ticking off fingers, she said, “Chest, dick, then stomach. At least that’s what I was always taught. I figured his back or throat would be faster, but I’ve been assured by Delala that it’s chest, dick, stomach.”

Xin scruched up her face, saying, “I see…”

Pita said, “Now let’s get down to cooking! First up, proper attire.” A moment later, Pita was dressed in nothing but an apron. “Go on, get suited up.” Pita pointed to a pair of aprons on a hook.

Lynn immediately moved towards the apron to put it on, but Pita said, “Lynn, what are you doing? When cooking, you should only be wearing an apron. Now, both of you get dressed. Chop chop”

Xin said, “Wait, but what about the restrictions. Both for the suite and my transformation. If I strip and put on the apron, I’ll be dumb as bricks and won’t learn anything.”

Pita tutted, “Apparently, you weren’t listening. Delala already told you how your transformation worked. Now you each have five minutes to be ready and properly dressed for your lesson, or you’ll be considered in violation of your schedule.”

Lynn started to strip, realizing she didn’t really have a choice. Xin stared at Lynn for a moment, finding it hard to look away from the attractive woman getting naked in front of her. Once Lynn was in just an apron, she looked at Xin and shook her head. Lynn moved over to the immobile Xin and moved to remove her clothes. Xin immediately protested. “Lynn, what are you doing?”

“Helping you. Unless you want another violation of the suite rules added, you don’t have a choice here.”

Xin whined but started stripping and put on the apron. She was supremely confused when her intelligence didn’t seem to drop; in fact, she felt a bit smarter. Xin said, “Okay, I’m really confused. How is this a schoolgirl’s outfit?”

The three foot tall imp floated over at eye level to Xin and patted her on the head and sweetly said, “Oh my darling dum-dum. Tell me why you are here?”

“To improve my cooking skills?”

Pita replied in the voice people used to explain things to a small child, “Uh-huh. And what would you call a block of time set aside where you have a much wiser individual instructing you on a specific topic?”

Xin said, “Wait, so because you’re teaching me, I’m a student, and therefore this counts for my transformation?”

Pita scoffed, “Oh my sweet dum-dum.” Pita didn’t elaborate further.

Not that she needed to, as Lynn chimed in, “Xin, think of this like a P.E. uniform. According to the Harem Hotel School, this…” Lynn gestured down at the frilly white apron. “Is the appropriate home ec uniform.”

Pita gave Lynn a tiny, quiet round of applause for getting things right.

Xin fidgeted with the apron, trying to cover more of herself, but knew that the entire purpose of it was to cover as little as possible.

Pita smiled, “Alright, now the first thing we will be making is COOKIES!”

Xin asked, “Isn’t that baking, not cooking?”

Pita shook her head in disappointment, “Oh, my sweet dum dum. They’re called COOK-ies, not BAKE-ies. Now to your stations!” Pita thrust out her arm towards two stations where ingredients and equipment had appeared as Professor Pita began the lesson.

---

Heather regretted her choice to accept the remote this morning. She thought that the command wouldn’t be that bad. She had been wrong. Of course, she knew that she’d likely have to follow it right after taking it. Zach would find the idea arousing. She was fortunate that his arousal dropped considerably after she left.

She, of course, hurried off to find somewhere private to get herself off, as the tentacles’ slime had left her a bit sensitive and horny. Afterwards, she began exploring the hotel, starting with the library. That was when things began to become a problem for her. All of a sudden, she felt that she needed to turn the remote up and use it constantly. She wasn’t sure what had caused it, but something had spiked Zach’s arousal in a single moment. It didn’t stop either as it went up and up until she was certain that Zach had climaxed.

She didn’t stop using the remote when that happened, needing to get herself off. She felt herself squirt as she eventually came. This second time was when she realized something was wrong. First, she didn’t normally squirt when she climaxed, and second, she realized that the chastity belt was keeping the fluid in and it seemed to be making her more sensitive in that area.

Oh god, it feels like the tentacle slime. Heather felt over the rest of her body and noticed that the sensitivity had decreased. That’s just great. I figured out how to get rid of the sensitivity, and this stupid fucking belt makes it a bigger issue. Hopefully, it won’t be too bad.

She was wrong, as her body reabsorbed the slime, and a bit more than an hour later, she found herself using the remote again at a medium intensity. This time, though, she couldn’t turn the vibrator off for several hours. Damnit Zach! What are you doing that’s got you this turned on? The only silver lining Heather could find in the situation is that she could increase the intensity of the remote and that Zach’s arousal was simply a minimum for her to use it. After several hours, she was quite certain Zach had climaxed again as she was able to stop using the remote.

That was when Piper said, “Sooo, is there a reason you’ve been masturbating on the floor of the library?”

Heather sat up in shock, staring at Piper. “How long have you been there?”

“Long enough to have heard you both curse Zach and call out his name in desire. Now, why are you doing this here?”

Heather blushed in embarrassment. “I don’t think that’s really any of your business.”

Piper replied, “I disagree, since you were doing that in a public place, disturbing the quiet of the library that I came for. Plus, we’re roommates, so if this is going to be a thing, I think I deserve to know.”

Heather frowned, remembering that she and Piper were roommates, even if the two of them hadn’t really spent any amount of time in the room together. Heather sighed, “Fine, I guess that’s fair.” Heather involuntarily activated the remote for a moment on the lowest setting. “Zach gave me a command this morning. I’m to use the remote based on his arousal.”

Piper seemed intrigued. “How does that work?”

Heather shrugged, “Magic, I presume.”

“Why did he give you that order? Is he punishing you?”

“Probably, but I agreed to it.” That caused Piper’s eyebrows to shoot up. “Zachary wanted to test the power of his commands. In exchange for being his guinea pig, he promised to provide me with pleasure despite being locked up.” Heather tapped on the chastity device.

“I was wondering about that as well. Did he force that on you?”

“Sort of.” Heather replied, “Technically, he’ll remove it if I ask him to. If I ask him to, he said that was the end of things. He’d make sure I got enough points to prevent my elimination, but otherwise my fate as his servant was sealed.”

“Well, you did cheat on him with one of his students. He can’t exactly trust you not to go sleeping around now, can he?”

“You can’t seriously be defending this,” Heather exclaimed.

“I don’t know. I mean, he certainly doesn’t owe you a chance to have a romantic relationship with him anymore. I mean, he doesn’t really owe any of us that just because of the bullshit we’ve landed in, but you definitely have no claim.”

“Oh…” Heather replied, “I see he’s already turned you into his sycophantic toy.”

“Nope. He’s still fucking weird as hell. Yeah, he made me think he’s more attractive, but I spent the last hour going over my character sheet to locate all the changes, and he very much hasn’t touched my feelings towards him as a person.”

“How can you be sure?” Heather questioned.

Piper pulled out her phone and opened her character sheet. “Look here.” Piper showed Heather the change to her bust size. “See how it has invested points right next to the size? All the things he put points into have that. While my feelings about him have shifted slightly, according to this, it doesn’t have the point value next to it.”

“How do you know it isn’t just hidden?”

“Math. Simply put, I know how many points Zach has to invest. They are all accounted for.”

“Unless he lied or can hide how he invests the points.” Heather retorted.

“I think you’re projecting here. I’m not pleased with all the changes or with everything that happened yesterday between him and me. I’m certainly not happy with being on this show, but overall, he was surprisingly decent to me both yesterday and this morning.”

Heather was about to retort, but pressed the remote again, distracting her.

Piper said, “Damn, I’ll admit that does seem frustrating.”

“You don’t know the half of it. Oh, I guess I should let you know something.” Heather said, while trying to ignore the vibrator currently buzzing between her legs. “The tentacle slime, I’ve figured out how to get it out of your system.”

Piper nodded, “I already know, you have to climax. Zach was able to figure it out from my character sheet.”

Heather said, “Lucky you, if it’s all out. This belt is preventing most of it from getting out and causing…” Heather waved a hand over her crotch, “All of this to be rather sensitive.”

“Oh,” Piper said, slightly concerned. “That’s not good. That’s potentially really bad for you.”

“What do you mean?”

Piper bit her lip in concern, “Look, yesterday I did a lot more with Zach than I’m really comfortable with. I did it because that slime partially messes with your head. It can also cause permanent effects if the concentration is too high for too long. Which is why I let Zach help me get it out of my system.”

Heather grew extremely concerned, “What do you mean by permanent effects?”

“Zach said that it could result in my sensitivity going up permanently if it wasn’t excreted. I don’t know if the same thing is true for you if you excrete it and then immediately reabsorb it.”

“God damnit! There’s no way he’ll pick up the phone if I call about this. So I’m screwed.”

“Well… You’ll probably be okay if you deal with it by tomorrow. Based on what Zach and I learned.”

Heather growled in frustration. “I guess I’ll just have to hope he or Melinda orders breakfast then.”

Piper said, “What do you mean?”

“You had to notice that I brought the food when you and Zach ordered.”

“Well, yeah.”

“That’s because any time Zach needs food, I feel the urge to provide it for him, and whoever he is with at the time, unless they already have it taken care of.”

“Sure,” Piper said, not quite understanding Heather’s point. “I just don’t see why you wouldn’t go up to talk to him about it tomorrow morning, regardless.”

“Zach has made it clear to me that the less he sees of me, the happier he would be.”

Piper rolled her eyes. “So? Accepting that is a great way to be relegated to being his servant. So don’t accept that.”

Heather replied, “I thought you were of the opinion that he was justified in this.”

“Sure. He essentially is. Your fate isn’t his responsibility simply because Delilah stuck him with you. That doesn’t mean I think you should simply accept that you only exist to serve him. I don’t know what sort of relationship you had with him before, but that is obviously gone. That doesn’t mean you can’t figure something new out that doesn’t involve your only interactions with him being taking care of his needs. You have to put in the effort, and he needs to know you are putting in the effort. Which means you have to be seen putting it in by him.”

Piper paused in consideration and continued, “Honestly, if it wouldn’t interrupt his date with Melinda, I would suggest going up tonight regardless of whether they order dinner from you or not.”

“Melinda is cooking for him right now, so they won’t be ordering food tonight.”

“You can tell that?”

Heather just nodded.

“Well, tomorrow morning then.”

Heather finally stood, realizing she was still lying on the ground and her clothes were disheveled. She straightened out her clothing and asked, “Well, before you showed up and sat there watching, what were you up to today?”

“Not much. I did a bit of shopping with my mom as we both needed new clothes.” Piper gestured towards her enhanced bust. “Then I went to the gym to work out. I made sure to avoid Melinda and Zach, who were also there, as I didn’t want to crash their date. Then I perused my character sheet while coming here. Now all the talk about food has made me hungry. Want to head to the dining hall and grab some dinner, while we both avoid going to our room for the evening?”

“Sure. I had meant to explore the hotel more, but that got sidetracked thanks to the stupid command.” The two began walking towards the elevator. “Have you explored much?”

“Eh, not really. I mean, at least not any of the areas not marked on the elevator as destinations. The fact that Delilah made it clear that they weren’t exactly safe has me a bit wary to explore further. Why do you think there is something interesting?”

“I think it would be odd to have the space and it be empty while making a note that it also isn’t safe. There has to be some reason to explore.”

“Well, we can explore together after dinner if you’d like.”

Heather nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”

---

Everyone but Melinda and Zachary wound up getting to the dining hall at roughly the same time.

Lynn and Xin both had flour smudges in various places on their bodies and clothes. Lynn noticed Piper and Heather had come together and had clearly been having a conversation until the moment they had spotted her. While Caroline came in just after the other four.

There was a tense silence that no one really wanted to break. Xin was ultimately the one to do so. “So, what were you three up to today?” Xin asked while gesturing for the others to go ahead of her to get some food.

Piper, Caroline, and Heather took the opportunity to enter the hall and go through the laid out spread for dinner. Caroline replied, “I did a little shopping with Piper, and then I went exploring for a bit. I didn’t really find anything interesting.”

Xin turned to Piper and Heather. “What about you two?”

Piper had already popped a dinner roll in her mouth as she was loading her plate with brisket. Seeing Piper couldn’t reply, Heather said, “Not much. I was occupied carrying out Zach’s command to me this morning, and I don’t want to discuss that.”

Piper swallowed the bit of roll in her mouth and said, “What she means is that she masturbated a bunch.”

Caroline scowled at her daughter. “PIPER! I taught you to have better manners than that.”

Piper replied sarcastically, “Sorry, Mom.” Then she got more serious, “We’re on a sex show. I’m willing to bet there is literal video footage of her doing it, and I’m willing to bet that Zachary has access to it. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if we could get a hold of it. You need to stop being such a prude, Mom. Also, assuming you were paying attention, you would realize that Zachary ordered her to do that this morning. An order that lasted all day. Something for all of us to keep in mind.”

Everyone remained silent for several seconds on hearing that, though for some it was for very different reasons. Piper noticed that Lynn seemed intrigued by the idea for a moment before she realized that meant Heather was getting to serve Zach, at which point Lynn scowled towards Heather.

Trying to keep things from devolving, Xin asked, “Oookay, so what did you do, Piper?”

“Got modified by Zach. Shopping with Mom. Hit the gym. Examined my Character Sheet. Then found Heather orgasming on the Library floor. Oh, letting you all know right now. If you get the tentacle room in a future round, the way you get the slime out of your system is climaxing.”

Xin shivered at the thought that she would possibly get that room next round. Then she started lightly hitting the sides of her head with her fists.

Lynn grabbed Xin’s wrists and asked, “What are you doing?”

Xin replied, “Trying not to think about that stuff. If I get even slightly aroused by something, it piles on to my arousal. I’m already frustrated again, thanks to that ridiculous lesson with that tiny devil.”

Lynn said, “Hey, Pita’s not that bad. She’s really quite cheery.”

Caroline and Heather both glared at Lynn, not that she seemed to notice or at least care.

Xin replied, “Lynn, she was convinced that since the cookie recipe called for milk, we should just whip out our breasts and squirt it into the bowl. Like that is normal.”

Lynn nodded, “Granted, that was unusual.”

Xin continued, “Or when she handed us rolling penises, insisting that those were what we needed and not rolling pins.”

Lynn continued nodding while pursing her lips. “Yeah… those… weren’t particularly effective. But she was really nice about everything.”

Heather and Caroline both let out a snort of derision, hearing that as they all finally made their way over to a table together, everyone having silently agreed that it was time to have a group chat. Caroline said, “Right… nice. That’s only because you’re obsessed with Zachary.”

Xin tilted her head to the side, “Was Pita not nice to you, Caroline? She was… odd, and a bit touchy, but I’ve known other people like that. Considering she isn’t a human, she seemed rather normal, and Lynn wasn’t wrong, fairly nice.”

“Do you mean besides groping me, pulling up my skirt, and calling me a hag?”

Xin looked a little embarrassed. “Did she really say that to you?” Caroline nodded. “That’s uncalled for, even if you are… more mature than the rest of us.”

Piper let out a snort of laughter, “Hear that, Mom? She’s calling you old. Xin, you realize all of us are more ‘mature’ than you, right?”

Xin blushed a little, “I was just trying to be polite. Besides Caroline, you look great for your age… though… ummm what’s up with your… bust.” Xin was really trying not to stare at Caroline’s massive rack.

Piper replied before her mom could, “These got an upgrade,” Piper hefted her own breasts, “So she got the same thing. Zach’s apparently a boob man.”

Xin stared down at her own tiny chest. “Umm… really?”

Heather put a hand on Xin’s shoulder. “Don’t listen to her. You’ll be fine.”

Xin pulled away from Heather and scooted towards Lynn on her other side. Xin snapped, “Don’t touch me. You’ve already caused me enough problems.” Heather pulled her hand back and was a little sad but understood Xin’s reaction. Right after Heather felt the compulsion to press the remote. Everyone turned to stare at her as she let out a slight moan of pleasure, because the vibration from the device was quite audible.

Xin said, “What the hell, you pervert?”

Xin stood up to move to another table, but Piper said, “Xin, wait, it isn’t exactly her fault.” Everyone but Heather was looking at Piper now. “As I said before, she was masturbating all day because of an order Zach gave her. She has to turn on the vibrator she’s wearing while Zach’s aroused. At least that’s what she told me. I suppose she could just be a massive pervert, though.”

Heather grunted out, “What she said… About the vibrator… not the pervert thing.”

Xin frowned in disgust and sat back down at the table, but still moved to the other side of it next to Piper. Xin asked, “Are we really just going to ignore this?”

Piper shrugged, “Sex show, get used to it.”

Caroline was rapping her fingers on the table in annoyance, but it wasn’t directed at Heather, rather at Zach. Piper noticed her mom’s behavior and put a hand on her arm, saying, “Let it go, Mom. Seriously, don’t get into a fight with Zach. Not just over Heather either, period. Don’t do it. It isn’t worth the risk.” Then, with a tremble in her voice, Piper said, “You don’t have any points right now.”

The fear in her daughter’s voice caused Caroline to be more enraged, but less at Zach and more towards Delilah and their situation.

Piper said, “That reminds me, I figured I’d pass this piece of info along. I don’t know how much I lost, but apparently, I lost points for not satisfying Zachary last night.”

Xin exclaimed, “You’re kidding! Right? That’s a bad joke! Right?!”

“No, it’s not a joke,” Piper replied, slowly shaking her head. “I’m telling you all this because losing points, especially right now, could be particularly dangerous.”

Xin started to take in deep, nervous breaths, “So… if… if I don’t get him off on my night with him…”

Piper shook her head, “I don’t think that’s the issue. Look, I don’t want to get into the full details.” Piper went scarlet, “Especially in front of my mother, but Zach and I were doing things together… he got me off and… well, I wasn’t in a state to get him off in return. I think that’s specifically what I lost points for.”

Xin seemed to relax slightly until Lynn brought her crashing back down to earth. “You do realize you’re going to have to get him off anyway, right, Xin? Between needing to earn enough points as a buffer and the fact that only doing stuff with Zachary will lower your arousal, you’ll need to do something with him on your date night with him.”

Xin seemed very much to be trying to think of anything else at the moment.

There was a lull in the conversation for a little bit as everyone continued to eat. Eventually, Heather asked, “Lynn, what exactly are you playing at?” Everyone else took in a sharp breath and held it for a moment as if Heather had just stepped on a land mine.

Lynn turned towards Heather on the other end of the bench they were sharing. “What do you mean?”

Heather pursed her lips and stifled a moan as she pressed the remote for a second before responding. After a few seconds, she was able to release the remote and quickly said, “I mean, what’s with you helping Melinda and me? You hate me, but Zachary said you advocated for him to give me a chance. A fucked up chance, but still. I know we talked a little about this yesterday, but what’s your goal here?”

Piper said, “It does seem a little odd. I really expected you to tell both Heather and Melinda to get fucked, figuratively, of course.”

Caroline frowned at her daughter’s vulgarity but didn’t say anything about it.

Lynn took a while before replying, “I… feel an urge now to make you all… better for Zachary. Not just better, but also to help fulfill roles I can’t or don’t want to fill. You wouldn’t be very helpful as a sentient cocksleeve, or something equally repulsive.” Lynn was simmering with anger at the moment, from the memory of Zach telling her off for doing her new job. “I already told you, Heather, Zach would probably regret it if he simply allowed you to be eliminated. I know you made him happy once, too. As for Melinda… She’s surprisingly repentant and came to me for help. I can understand doing something, and it having unintended consequences. Wishing that you could go back and undo those things.”

Piper asked, “So what? I apologize for the fact that I thought he was a creep, and you’ll help me too?”

Lynn scoffed, “As if. Melinda is willing to put money where her mouth is. She’s willing to try her best to make it up to Zach, even if that means serving him.” Lynn thrust her head towards Heather. “Even Heather here is enduring quite a bit for a chance to be with Zach again properly.”

Caroline glared at Lynn as she sternly said, “And were you the one to come up with Heather’s ridiculous punishment?”

Lynn nodded, “Got a problem with it?”

“Of course I do!” Caroline exclaimed angrily.

“Too fucking bad,” Lynn replied with equal heat in her voice. “Let me make something clear. Right now, if not for me, Heather would almost certainly be eliminated at the end of the round.” Lynn looked at Heather and, practically snarling, said, “The pain you caused him was nearly as bad as what Melinda did to him. So don’t think we’re good.” Lynn turned back to Caroline, “As for her wearing that belt, that’s her choice. So fuck off. I’m not the bad guy here.”

Lynn turned to Piper, “As for you, if you want my help, you'd best show your sincerity and actually show Zach some respect.”

Piper finished her food and stood. “Whatever. Heather, want to go exploring now? I’m kind of tired of listening to this crazy bitch.” Heather nodded as she stood.

Lynn shrugged, “Suit yourself, but doing that now is a stupid idea.”

Heather and Piper stopped after taking a step and turned to face Lynn.

Lynn explained, “Exploring now is really dumb. Delilah made it clear that this place isn’t safe. What happens if you get trapped somewhere and can’t get back to your room before curfew? You really want to risk getting thrown in a room worse than your current one? Because let’s be real, Delilah isn’t going to give a shit why you missed curfew.”

Piper frowned, clearly rethinking her decision to explore, but still stormed off, as she didn’t want to spend more time with Lynn. Heather followed after her.

Lynn looked at Caroline and Xin across from her, “Either of you want to attack me more, or are you done?”

Caroline scoffed, “Like it would do any good. I doubt we’re ever going to be friends.”

Lynn frowned, “Shame. You have potential. Piper, too, really. It really is a shame you are going to drag her down with you.”

Caroline slammed the table with both palms as she stood, “DON’T YOU EVER THREATEN MY DAUGHTER!”

Xin flinched back at the sound.

Lynn calmly replied, “It wasn’t a threat. An observation only.” Caroline’s glare did not waver. Lynn put up her hands placatingly. “Seriously. Like I said, she has potential. Especially since Zach can just customize her to his whims. Right now, it looks like you are the one most likely to be eliminated. Which of course will bring Piper down with you.”

Caroline furrowed her eyebrows in confusion as Lynn seemed genuine in her disappointment of the situation.

Xin asked, “What are you talking about, Lynn?”

Lynn replied, “Simple. Caroline and Piper share physical transformations. I don’t see why that wouldn’t apply to the transformations we get if eliminated. If I were you, Caroline, I’d lose the attitude and be ready to suck up to Zach instead of starting shit.” Lynn stood, “Well, I need to get going. I have a schedule to keep. Xin, if you need help before bed, I’ll listen again.”

Xin nodded and slightly smiled at Lynn. “Thanks.” Then Lynn walked away.

Xin was about to leave as well, but Caroline grabbed her arm. “Xin, are you doing okay?”

Xin tensed up at the question. “Are any of us?”

Caroline let go of Xin’s arm and nodded in agreement. “I meant dealing with her. Rooming with someone like that… can’t be easy.”

Xin frowned, “Caroline, Lynn isn’t perfect. She can be scary as hell, and she’s rather possessive about Zachary. But she’s also been the only person besides Zachary here to offer to help me stay sane over the last few days. Generally, she’s been kind and supportive of me and has had my back.”

“You’re really fine with how she’s acting towards the rest of us?” Caroline asked in disbelief.

“No. Not really. At least about some things. But seriously, think about this from her perspective. Her best friend and clearly the love of her life, is now being forced to be with people who are responsible to some degree for making his life miserable. She is being forced to share him with others when she finally thought she’d have a chance for them to be together. Moreover, her transformation is likely making her think about all the ways she’s lacking as a partner for Zachary. Then she’s supposed to help get people who hurt him to be with him in some capacity.” Xin crossed her arms and said, “So, of course, she’s a mess. Honestly, from my perspective, you’re causing a lot more discord than she is right now amongst the six of us. You keep saying we should be working together, but it seems like you want to single Lynn out as the bad guy.”

Xin just shook her head in exhaustion, “I’m tired and have my own schedule to follow, so I’ve got to go. Have a good night and seriously think about what I said, before you get all confrontational with Zachary tomorrow on your night with him.” With that, Xin walked away, leaving Caroline alone in the dining hall, picking at her food for a while, considering what to do the following evening.