Take a look at yourself and then make a change

“What would you like for dinner, mistress?” Holly asked Nick with the biggest shit-eating grin on her face he’d ever seen.

“Come on, Holly, stop with that. It’s not funny,” Nick sighed and rolled his eyes. He was lounging on the couch with Kim watching some TV. Kim hadn’t seen most of the movies that Dakota had showed him back when they were younger, so he was helping her catch up on the classics. It was something they could do to pass the time without anything sexual, since Nick didn’t feel comfortable doing anything in this body.

“Aww, I think it’s cute!” Kim giggled. “Even though your gender changed, she’s still your adorable little sex ****…”

“It’s not cute!” Nick snapped. “And- and my gender didn’t change, my biological sex did! And it’s changing back soon, Sylvia said so!”

“Well, alright,” Kim shrugged. “If that’s what you want.”

“Of course it’s what I want! Or are you okay with dating a girl?” He asked. Now that the thought had crossed his mind, he didn’t know everything about Kim’s sexuality. Maybe she really was bisexual!

“Nah. No thanks. I prefer the you with a penis,” Kim replied bluntly.

Yup. Straight. And more importantly, her mouth had gotten a lot filthier lately.

“Do you talk to all your customers like that?” Nick teased.

Kim smiled back. “Only the ones who try things on and then leave without making a purchase.”

The smile faded from Nick’s feminine features and he scowled. “You made me try everything on!” He pointed out. “I didn’t even want to! But you practically **** me!”

Kim shrugged. “Hey, you should have bought something,” she replied. “What if Sylvia’s wrong, and this transformation doesn’t wear off in the morning? None of your current clothes fit the new you.”

Nick shivered. That was a scary thought. “Don’t say that!” He pleaded, shaking his head. “Don’t even put that idea out in the air!”

The notion that Nick would never get his penis back, that he would forever be stuck in the body of a woman… it was a horrifying prospect.

Sylvia… you better be right about this transformation ending by the morning, or I swear you won’t wake up to see it!

Sylvia was on pins and needles as she approached Dani’s bedroom. This was not the kind of situation that she expected to find herself in a few nights ago. Nick and Kim were probably up in the Master’s Suite enjoying themselves with Nick’s new body, but as for Sylvia…

I sent the Auditionees out to room with total strangers so many times… but I never thought I’d have to do it!

Of course, Dani wasn’t a total stranger. No, a total stranger might be preferable, in fact. After all, she and Dani had…

…

Well, “bad blood” didn’t even begin to cover it.

So yeah, maybe Sylvia had leaned a little hard on trying to turn Dani straight. Well, so what? That was her job! Dani couldn’t get mad at her just for doing her job, right? That wasn’t fair!

The blonde took a deep breath outside Dani’s door, and exhaled.

It was time to face the music.

Biting her lip, she knocked on the door.

For a moment, she was startled by what she saw when the door opened up for her. Then she remembered what happened that afternoon; Dani had found one of the magic mirrors littering the Hall of Mirrors, and had touched it. Now she had short hair again! She was practically back to normal!

…Except for the fact that her muscles hadn’t returned.

And the only clothes she could buy without a significant markup were feminine ones.

And she still had dreams about Nick, that was a big one, too.

…So yeah, in summary, Dani was far from back to normal. And if she decided she wanted to chuck Sylvia out the window to fall all the way down the side of the hotel and splat at the bottom, well, that was certainly something she could attempt to do.

But Sylvia wanted to think positively!

...In the “I’m positive that Dani hates me” sense, sure, but still, positively.

And yet, Dani didn’t seem mad. She seemed irritated, yeah, but her expression didn’t change when she saw Sylvia; she’d been irritated before this.

Which meant it probably wasn’t Sylvia’s fault this time! Yay!

“H-hello!” Sylvia greeted Dani with an awkward wave. Her voice cracked slightly. Back when she was the host, she didn’t care about the fact that Dani had superhuman strength thanks to her transformation. But now, it seemed like the only thing stopping Dani from breaking the door off its hinges and beating her senseless with it was the rule about not harming fellow contestants.

And as much as Sylvia wished it weren’t the case, she couldn’t exactly count on her mother being willing to enforce that rule where she was concerned. ...Or could she? Wait, that could be it... no way.

Puzzle pieces fell into place as Dani stared at her. The tomboy didn’t give her a reply, she just stepped aside to let Sylvia into the room.

Sylvia took this as a positive.

After all, if Dani was upset with her, well… that would just be Dani. But at least she was let into the room, right?

Contrary to how she acted, Sylvia wasn’t totally blind to the nature of human beings. She knew that the reason Dakota had chosen Dani to be the first person Sylvia would room with was because she hoped that something would happen.

So she was very interested in that not happening.

Sylvia threw up her hands immediately, taking a step back and giving Dani the space she needed. “Look, I know we haven’t gotten off on the best terms before now-”

“Oh, really?” Dani cut her off with a growl, narrowing her eyes.

Sylvia winced, but she powered through it. “Yes, really,” she nodded. “We’ve had our differences-”

“What differences were those?” Dani wasn’t giving her any room to talk. “The part where I wanted to maintain my sexuality, and you felt different?”

That would have probably been a stinging blow, but Sylvia was too busy being terrified. She shivered and shook her head.

“Look, I just want to say, **** never solved anything!” Sylvia asserted. “Think about it! You need to use your brain!”

Dani barked out a laugh. “Oh, that’s rich, you telling me to use my brain. You’re a huge airhead yourself, judging by how you’ve been acting the last few days. It’s like you’re too dumb to realize how much Dakota loathes you. But you keep doing what she wants like a fucking simp! And you’re telling me that I need to use my brain?”

Sylvia ignored the cutting edge of the words, and just nodded.

“Yes,” she said matter-of-factly. “It’s the best decision for you.”

Her patronizing mindset hadn’t really gone away, even though she’d lost her powers.

Dani stared at her suspiciously, like she was scrutinizing everything Sylvia was saying. “…Okay,” she said finally. “Go on.”

Sylvia sighed in relief. Finally, she could talk.

“Okay, it’s about what Dakota’s probably after. Why she put the two of us in the same room first,” Sylvia said.

Dani shrugged. “I mean, it’s obvious, right? Because I got so angry at you, she knows that it’s going to be awkward as fuck. After all, I hate you. It’s obviously for drama.”

Sylvia didn’t really care one way or the other if Dani hated her. Right now, she was saying what she was saying for her own self-preservation.

Specifically, because she didn’t want Nick to hate her.

“Dakota wants you to beat me up,” she said plainly.

“…Seriously?” Even Dani was caught off-guard by that.

Sylvia nodded. “Think about it,” she said. “She paired me up with you, because she expected that I would say something stupid, which would set you off, and then… whammo.”

She smacked her hand for emphasis.

Dani raised her eyebrow. “But… you’re not going to do that? Is that right?”

Sylvia shook her head. “No. See? This is me proving to everyone that I’m a real person! Even though Dakota definitely wants me to say something like ‘you really should have taken the chance to make a move on Nick while he’s a girl, since that’s the only pussy you’re going to be getting for the rest of this show thanks to your transformations’ I’m not going to say it.”

Dani crossed her arms over her chest and gave Sylvia a sour look.

Sylvia gasped. “Oh, rats. I just did, didn’t I?”

Dani nodded her head slowly. “Okay, I think I get it. She knew how much you pissed me off, and… what? Why would she want that? Unless she really resents you enough to want me to pound you, just out of sadism?”

Well... that probably had a bit more truth to it than Sylvia liked to admit. Still, she shook her head.

“No. It’s not that. Dakota… she wants you to break the rules by hurting me,” Sylvia confessed.

Dani looked shocked. “Huh?!”

“Think about it!” Sylvia exclaimed. “Dakota wants you to punch me, maybe hit me in the gut, or something like that. She wants you to be reckless and violent, because that’s the only thing you bring to the table at the moment!”

Dani glared at the thoughtless blonde. “She sure knows you pretty well, then, if she assumed you’d make me mad enough to do something that stupid.”

Sylvia turned pale. “W-well, let’s hold on for a moment here, before we get all punchy,” she said, shaking her head quickly. “You know what the penalty’s going to be, right?”

Dani shrugged. “Could be worth it,” she replied, only half-seriously.

“No! It won’t be worth it!” Sylvia said, quick head shakes turning frantic. “She’s going to take away your sexuality and make you be attracted to men! She’s going to turn you straight, Dani!”

Dani blinked. “…Huh? No, no she’s not.”

“What?! Are you that dense? Yes, of course she is!” Sylvia exclaimed. “It’s what she wants, right? To make Daddy happy?”

“Nick wouldn’t be happy if I was turned straight, though,” Dani pointed out. “He loves me just as a friend, that’s what we are!”

Sylvia rolled her eyes. “Oh, sure, yeah, he SAYS that, but come on. You can’t really think he wouldn’t be interested in you, if given the chance? Daddy would be THRILLED at the opportunity, to turn you into his little sex ****, and we both know it!”

Dani scowled at her. “Not helping your case,” she growled.

Sylvia frowned. “…Okay, well, the point is, I always thought that way. So don’t you think Dakota thinks that way, too? She’s the one who filled my head with all these ideas, you know! And while yes, I’m a person too, come on. You know this is what Dakota thinks.”

That… actually sounded reasonable. Dani frowned deeper. Maybe Sylvia was on to something.

“Okay, go on,” she urged the blonde former host.

“Well, think about it like this. Dakota wants you to turn straight. She thinks that will make Daddy happy. But she doesn’t want to turn him against her. If she puts the option up for a vote and it happens, well… then Daddy’s going to get mad at her for putting it out there to begin with, even though it was the audience who voted. But if it’s a punishment, then…”

“Then Nick would still get mad at her,” Dani pointed out.

“True, yes, he would, but then she’d be able to defend herself by pointing out that you started things by attacking me, and she didn’t have a choice but to give you a harsh punishment to get you to stop,” Sylvia pointed out. “Daddy wouldn’t like it, but if she’s going to compromise your sexuality, that’s the most likely method to get Daddy to be okay with it. Maybe the only way. And she’s just wicked enough to do it, too! Regardless of the risks!”

Dani was starting to get mad. Sylvia… Sylvia was just trying to fool her with words! Would Dakota really do something like that?

…

“Rrrgh… why should I trust you, anyway?!” Dakota demanded. “You’re trying to do the same thing as she is, turning me straight! Don’t pretend that you’re not!”

“If I wanted to turn you straight like that, I would have given you a transformation that would have immediately turned you straight,” Sylvia pointed out. “But I didn’t do that, did I? Not one of your transformations ever involved changing your sexuality directly!”

“That’s-!” Dani turned red, ready to object to her statement. But her voice died in her mouth. Sylvia had a point, after all. None of her transformations HAD been about directly turning her straight, as sick as some of them had been.

“If you had gotten a ‘Dani-becomes-straight’ transformation, the audience would have selected it right away, you know they would,” Sylvia continued. “But I didn’t want to do that. And remember, I didn’t have any desire to be liked by Daddy, either, not the way Dakota does! So don’t you see, it’s different with me!”

“…If you didn’t want to make me straight, then why all the transformations forcing me into situations where I was with Nick?” Dani demanded. “If you’re so concerned with preserving my sexuality, I mean.”

That was the part of Sylvia’s story she wasn’t buying.

Sylvia blinked.

“…Because it’s much better television if you choose to be straight of your own free will. Better for the show that way. But Dakota doesn’t care about the show, she wants to make Daddy happy! See? She’s different from me!”

The veins in Dani’s forehead throbbed and her jaw locked.

“That’s not how it works!” She exclaimed. “I can’t just ‘choose’ to be straight, you know! And even if I could, that would never happen!”

“Geez, sorry!” Sylvia protested. “But we’re getting off-topic. The point is still that Dakota wants to turn you straight! Contestant-on-contestant **** is almost as frowned upon as contestant-on-host or contestant-on-master ****! Unless it’s sexy, the producers are a no-go! That’s what she’s angling for! You know it’s true, and that’s why she put us together the first night! To punish you!”

If that was Dakota’s plan, she was certainly doing a good job of it. But could Dani really believe Sylvia’s rationale? Or was the blonde just trying to manipulate her into forgiving her somehow?

She remembered Dakota’s words from earlier that afternoon.

“That… is up to you.”

That… that fucking bitch! She did plan this! All along! She wanted me to lose my temper, so she could **** that transformation onto me!

Dani could see the smirk on Dakota’s face as she said those words, it was as clear as day. It burned in her mind… and it made her fucking livid.

But she couldn’t do anything about it.

“So what about you, then?” She asked, turning to Sylvia. “Why are you suddenly on my side? Don’t you WANT me to be straight? Or is it really that you’re going against it because it’s not good television anymore, if I’m ****? Or do you just not want to get hurt?”

“Well, definitely that third one,” Sylvia admitted. “As for the rest, well, I don’t know. But I do know that I don’t think you being straight is a good idea anymore… hey, do you think that’s personal growth, on my part?!” She asked hopefully.

Dani really doubted it.

“Alternatively,” Dani said, “you don’t want me to be straight anymore, because Nick is currently female. So you think that me becoming straight is a bad thing.”

“…Huh.” Sylvia blinked, considering that. “Hey! Yeah, I think that is it!” She patted Dani on the arm. “Wow, you’re really smart!”

Yup. Just as Dani figured. No growth or understanding, that woman was the same thoughtless, insensitive piece of shit she’d always been.

“Well, whatever. I’m not beating you up, so just leave me alone for the night, and we’ll do our best to get along,” Dani said, turning and walking over to the mirror. She observed her appearance, trying to figure out if this was what she wanted to look like or not.

“Uh… Dani… one other thing.”

Dani scowled, and glanced at Sylvia.

“What is it?” She muttered.

“I… I wanted to apologize,” Sylvia said. “For giving you all those transformations. I know you don’t like them, so… I want to apologize.”

Dani raised her eyebrow, surprised.

But she wasn’t that gullible.

“You… want to apologize, is that right?”

“Yes,” Sylvia nodded. “So you’ll feel better and we can be friends. But Daddy said that I shouldn’t apologize if I don’t actually feel bad about what I did, so… I won’t.”

She offered a lopsided shrug and smiled. “Are we good?”

Dani’s eye twitched. Even after everything Sylvia had told her about how this was all one big part of Dakota’s plan to destroy her sexuality, for a moment it almost seemed worth it just to pop that girl in the nose once.

She took a deep breath and exhaled instead.

“…I appreciate you telling me that,” she said, her voice as cold as ice.

Sylvia winced. Operation “Get Along with Other Girls” was crashing and burning.

“Is… is there anything I can do to make you feel better?” She asked awkwardly. Then she gasped. “Wait, I know! My transformation!”

“Huh?” Dani turned to her, confused. “What are you talking about?”

“My veto!” Sylvia said excitedly. “I can temporarily veto one of your old transformations, and give you a reprieve! I’d get it myself, but that’s okay! Which one is bugging you the most?”

Dani stared at her. “…No, I’m not doing that.”

“Huh!? But you hate your transformations, though,” Sylvia said, confused. “I thought that you’d jump at the chance to lose one of them!”

“So did I,” Dani said. “Honestly, if you’d come here like an hour ago, I’d have been thrilled to take you up on the offer, but…”

She glanced back at her appearance in the mirror.

“I’ve been looking at what happened to me,” Dani said quietly. “Thinking about my new look. Short hair, with a curvy figure like this…”

“You could always have short hair and muscles,” Sylvia pointed out.

Obviously, Dani knew that much. But still…

“When Dakota took my transformation, it was nice,” Dani said thoughtfully. “Like you said, a reprieve. I could finally be myself, in my old body! But I couldn’t fully enjoy it. I actually missed my strength.”

“Then… a different one?” Sylvia asked. “What about the nightmare one? Or the new one, where you have to use Nick as an emotional sponge?”

She was **** to help Dani- after all, Dani had the biggest grudge against her. Winning her over as a sympathetic ally would go a long way in winning over the other girls.

But Dani just shook her head again.

“I know… and it’s really a tempting offer. Again, I really liked having my old body back! But… then it wore off. I’d just gotten used to being me again… and then I was **** to be back in my new body, all soft and with long hair… and this is the same.”

She glanced back at the mirror, and ran her fingers through her short hair.

“It’s temporary. If I get too used to it… then I’ll feel even worse when my hair grows out again, you know?” She sighed. “I don’t want to be that impulsive. Sure, getting rid of my transformation sounds amazing… but for a whole week, I’d go without it. And then when it came back, I’d be even more miserable. A week’s reprieve isn’t worth that.”

“…I see…” Sylvia felt a strange murky feeling in her heart. Was… was this what guilt felt like?

Or maybe she was hungry again.

Frankly, it was hard to say.