On this strange and mournful day

After Nick rejoined the others, things went pretty smoothly. Nick was surprised to see that Carly had been the one to taste the flower, instead of Marley, but hearing the explanation it all made perfect sense to him.

And he wasn’t going to lie- with Rose’s assist, providing Marley with her sweater, things looked like they were off to a great start. He quite enjoyed the eye-candy, almost enough to make him wish that Marley would keep her breasts this size for a while longer. But he knew better than to say anything.

She’ll be like this for a couple more days, at least. But if I asked for more, she might genuinely do it. And as hot as that would be, I don’t want her to feel pressured to carry around those massive melons just to make me happy, not when they’re causing her so much discomfort.

Still. It was a nice fantasy.

“Looking good, Marley!” Carly whistled, clapping for her sister. Obviously, she’d come with Marley and Rose to the Fashion Suite to pick up Rose’s sweater. Sylvia had come along as well, of course, along with Nick. Everyone else had gone off on their own- several girls tagged along with Kim in order to go buy some pajamas, at Gina’s request. Though a lot of people had their own.

“Thanks,” Marley said, looking down at her chest. Her boobs were still as massive as they had been, but this was a massive weight off her shoulders. Literally.

“I’m curious how it stretches over her figure like that,” Vivian said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. She’d accompanied the group as well, curious about Rose’s sweater and how it would work. “Is it designed to stretch, I wonder? Or is it a magic material meant to stretch around her body? That would be interesting.”

“Huh? Uh…” Rose stared blankly at the heiress, not sure what to say to that. She could honestly say she had never given the idea a second thought.

Vivian just laughed and waved her hand. “It’s nothing, just a passing thought. I mean, if I was the host of this show, I would want it to be something that you could wear no matter what, right? Imagine if Rose received a transformation where she got a massive increase in her breast size. It would be pretty inconvenient if she couldn’t wear any of the clothes her other transformation acquired because they didn’t fit anymore, right?”

“Well, that makes sense,” Marley agreed, tugging on the hem of the sweater. It really did fit her perfectly. And not just because her breasts were essentially floating off the ground, bouncing about with each step she took. “After all, my boobs are a lot bigger than Rose’s now.”

“They always were,” Carly agreed, earning her a dirty look from the blonde. Rose scowled and rolled her eyes, regarding Carly with a dismissive click of her tongue.

“Well, we could always fix that,” Vivian giggled, cracking her knuckles. “Mind an investment, Rose?” she wiggled her eyebrows, earning Rose a surprised look.

“Eh… excuse me?” It took a second for her to realize what Vivian was suggesting. “You mean, you want to use your Investment Banking transformation on me?”

It wasn’t a bad thought.

“I’m just saying, I think Nick would like that boost quite a lot,” Vivian giggled, wiggling her eyebrows teasingly. She cast a sly smile his way. “I have it on good authority that he likes that sort of thing, after all.”

“He certainly has been eyeing me up a lot recently,” Marley teased, tucking her arms under her chest and giving it a shake. Because of the size of her melons, they had quite a lot of bouncing to do.

Nick turned red.

“M-Marley!” Apparently, now that she wasn’t dealing with the downsides of her massive breasts, she was actually coming around on them.

Carly nodded in approval.

“Sorry Daddy, but I think she’s got your number!” Sylvia sniggered, shaking her head.

“So what do you think, Rose? Want a little upgrade?” Vivian playfully teased. “Not to say your body doesn’t already look phenomenal, but…”

Rose glanced at Nick, blushing, and considered her options.

“W-well… perhaps,” she said, reaching up to tuck a lock of her blonde hair behind her ear. Only to realize as she did that her hair had reverted to its original size. The Anime Black transformation she’d borrowed from Carly had begun to wear off, which meant…

“AH!” Rose suddenly gasped, her face going pale. “Shit! I completely forgot!”

“Huh?” Nick looked at her in surprise. “Forgot what?”

“My upgrade! To my transformation!” Rose quickly summoned up her transformation.

• All Work and Role Play*: As an actress, Rose really knows how to get into a role and play her part. Now that experience will translate to the bedroom! Rose will be able to perfectly attune her sexual nature to any role necessary, whether a sexy nurse, a sexy librarian, a sexy police officer, or a sexy... well, you get the idea. UPGRADE: Now Rose won’t only be able to attune her sexual nature to any role, but she will also have an innate sense of whatever fetishes and desires can turn on her sexual partners the most. She will be capable of figuring out what her partners desire, and take on the perfect role to share it with them. (Actress)

“I was going to use it this morning, what, with the whole teasing thing… but it completely slipped my mind,” Rose said, remembering how that morning with Gina had gotten a little out of hand. “Sylvia upgraded it temporarily, and now the upgrade should wear off pretty soon, in a couple of minutes…”

“Oh, well, uh… that’s…” Nick blushed, remembering the intense little exchange he, Rose, and Gina had shared that morning. It was a pleasant memory.

Rose let out a sigh. “I wanted to see what the upgrade would do, so I asked Sylvia for a favor. And it seemed pretty nice. But I didn’t have a chance to use it properly…”

“You’ve got more than enough BP to upgrade it,” Carly pointed out. “I mean, if you wanted to, anyway. Up to you.”

Vivian clicked her tongue. “Sounds like you and Nick should have some fun together right now, then,” she suggested.

Rose’s jaw hit the floor.

“What?! Err…” She glanced shyly over at Nick, which was a rarity. Rose may have been impulsive and impetuous, but when it came to sex, she preferred at least a little planning. Not just “Throw him onto the floor and ride him like Mary” levels.

Vivian laughed. “It’s just a thought!” She said, holding up her hands. “I mean, you want to at least get your money’s worth out of it, right? Not that I know what Sylvia asked for that favor…”

She glanced at Sylvia with a mock-suspicious look, and Sylvia flinched.

“Uh…”

“Nick!” Rose turned to Nick with a wide look in her eye. “Um… do you think, maybe we should…”

As much as Rose liked showing off, that was only in the moment usually. Her ideal was for sex to be private, behind closed doors. Not when everyone knew they were about to-!

“Rose, uh… I mean… if you want to…” Nick scratched his head and sighed, trying to figure out the best way to address this. He didn’t have a problem with having sex with Rose, but doing it like this, as part of some experiment, it seemed a little…

“Are we so sure it didn’t actually work out, though?” Carly brought up, earning her looks from the other girls. The cosplayer shrugged. “I mean… how exactly did your time with Nick this morning go? You guys were gone for a while.”

Rose blinked. “W-well, uh…” She turned a little red, but held her ground, sticking her chest out proudly. “Nick and I, we got hot and heavy in the coat room, and then I kind of just started… going off. On myself, I mean.”

“Masturbating,” Sylvia clarified for everyone, stating the obvious.

Marley rolled her eyes.

“…Right. And then Gina sucked him off, and, well, that was it,” Rose said with a shrug. “I don’t think that was really me ‘tuning into his innate desires and fetishes’ or the like… unless he’s got a fetish for women playing with themselves in front of him?” She turned to look at Nick with a questioning eye, as if she was suddenly looking at him in a whole new light.

“Well, now that you mention it, Nick did turn down the chance to have sex with me our first night together, in favor of just watching me masturbate…” Carly recalled, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

“Carly!” Nick turned red and gasped, staring at her in shock.

Carly giggled. “What? It’s the truth, isn’t it?”

“I mean, yeah, but… not the way you’re making it sound!” Nick stammered, shaking his head frantically. “That’s just… it’s not-!”

“Daddy, I think she’s just joking around,” Sylvia chuckled.

Carly nodded. “But you know, maybe it was something Nick wanted. Or wanted from you, I mean. Seeing you please yourself.”

Rose blinked. “Huh?”

“What do you mean by that?” Nick asked, confused.

Carly shrugged. “Well, Nick, you’ve always been a pretty generous lover,” she said. “Always pretty eager to please. Maybe, a part of that, I don’t know, was on the surface, and Rose picked up on that? She might have sensed, I don’t know, that you wanted her to masturbate, and so she did it without even knowing. Just a thought.”

Well, Nick liked that idea more than the notion that he had some fetish of women playing with themselves in front of him.

“I-I guess? Maybe?” He stammered, shaking his head. “No, I don’t know, what?”

It was kind of overwhelming to think about if he was being honest. He looked at Rose, who looked back at him, neither one of them knowing quite what to say.

“…Well, it’s possible,” Marley said, getting everybody’s attention. “Think about it. I mean, Rose, were there any other feelings you had? Did you pick… masturbation… out of the blue, or…?”

Rose remembered her intense aversion to doing stuff with her feet. And she also remembered another thought that flashed through her mind in the heat of the moment.

When she’d been looking at the last option on her list.

Get Pregnant – 5000 BP

Rose felt her throat suddenly get very dry. She swallowed and looked over at Nick, her eyes warm and filled with desire.

“I… it’s a bit of a thing,” she stammered awkwardly, not sure how to express herself. The more she thought about it, though…

“It’s sweet!” Sylvia cooed. “Daddy knows how much Rose likes pleasing him, so he what he wanted from her was for her to take care of her own needs, for once, and focus on herself! And that must have been what Rose was picking up on, right?”

Rose looked at Nick questioningly, wondering if that was really the case.

Nick looked just as surprised as she was, but as their eyes met, they realized… maybe Sylvia had a point.

“That… is sweet,” she said, blushing. “Thank you.”

“Um, no problem,” Nick said, scratching his head.

A strange tension hovered in the air.

Vivian decided to get rid of it by clearing her throat loudly.

“You know, there’s something else interesting to think about,” she said, tapping her chin. “I didn’t feel anything from all that.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Carly asked, looking over at her.

“You remember my transformation, right?” Vivian asked. “My Sensitivity Training. It’s been giving me a lot of interesting experiences ever since I got it, you know? But it didn’t trigger at all while Nick was off getting his jollies with Gina and Rose… quite a curious thought.”

She summoned up her transformation to check the wording of it.

• Sensitivity Training: As a CEO, Vivian is well aware of the importance of being sensitive to the needs of her employees. Hence she will now undergo mandatory sensitivity training to get more in touch with the people around her. What this means is that whenever another member of the harem is having sex, Vivian’s own body will become sensitive and aroused as if she were involved in the sexual act herself, making it easier for her to be brought to orgasm. (Harem Manager)

“I guess it means that the person has to actually be having sex,” Marley guessed. “Does that make sense, Sylvia?”

Sylvia nodded. “With how it’s worded, yes. Foreplay doesn’t count.”

“Hm,” Vivian hummed, nodding. “Good to know. I’ll keep that in mind…”

She had a few ideas of how to have fun with that. For now, though, she had other things to think about. Like the upcoming pajama party.

“Well… Sylvia, one thing I wanted to talk to you about, now that Rose’s transformation has been upgraded, and the upgrade has faded, remember what we talked about before?” Vivian asked, turning to the former host.

“Oh!” Sylvia nodded. “That’s right, upgrading your other transformation, your Leading by Example one, sure, I can do that later. First though, I just had a thought.”

She smiled, and turned a dazzling smile to Rose. “Rose! Now that we know what your transformation upgrade does, and how it works-”

“And now that’s it over,” Rose interrupted her, sensing that the upgrade to her transformation had faded away. She crossed her arms over her chest, also sensing that the other shoe was about to drop. “What’s up?”

“I just thought of what I wanted for my favor,” Sylvia said, flashing a toothy smile.

Rose raised her eyebrow. “You ‘just’ thought of it, huh?” She asked, shaking her head. “Why do I find that hard to believe?”

“Sylvia…” Nick didn’t like the sound of this. It sounded like Sylvia was playing one of her games again, as usual.

Marley tensed. She felt the same way.

“No! I mean it! I just thought of it, just now!” Sylvia insisted, waving her hands frantically. “When we came here, and you gave Marley your sweater!”

Now Rose knew she really didn’t like it.

“Look, it’s a simple favor!” Sylvia chirped. “You just have to lend Marley your sweater whenever she wants, that’s all!”

Rose blinked. “…That’s it?”

“Yeah,” Sylvia nodded.

“Well, I mean, I already said she could use it for a few more days, until the flower regrows,” Rose reminded Sylvia. “Why would she need it after that?”

“Sylvia?” Marley looked at her mom, sensing what was coming. “Oh, come on…”

“Look! All I’m saying is that if Marley has constant access to the sweater, she won’t need to eat the flower! She gets to be big and even more lovable forever!” Sylvia said excitedly.

Marley rolled her eyes. “Yeah, no way is that happening.”

“Well, let’s not discount it too soon,” Vivian interjected. “I mean, Nick, you’re definitely interested in Marley keeping her big boobs, right?”

“I have no opinion,” Nick replied, rolling his eyes.

“…Sure you don’t,” Vivian scoffed. “But back to the previous discussion… Rose? Remember what we were talking about before?”

Rose blinked. “…Oh! You mean my boobs?”

Vivian nodded. “Given it any thought?”

“Eh…” Rose glanced at Nick and blushed. She didn’t need the upgrade to sense his fetish in this regard. And after he had wanted her to please herself…

“…Okay. But… not too big, alright? I only have one sweater, and Marley’s using it.”

“Right, not too big at all,” Vivian assured her. “…But Nick, you’re going to have to leave the room.”

“Huh?! Why?” Nick questioned.

Vivian smirked. “You can’t watch a girl get prepared. Putting on her dress, her makeup, it ruins the magic. No, you need to come back and witness the end result.”

And with that, Nick found himself kicked out of the Fashion Suite before he could even blink.

“Ugh, that girl…” he sighed, walking down the hall. He stepped out into the lounge-

…Just in time to see Amelia and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin pop into existence right in front of him. He gasped and fell over, surprised.

“…Huh!?” He stammered, scrambling to his feet. “Amelia? And… Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, what…?”

They both looked rather different. Amelia looked a lot more haggard than usual, and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was dressed in a schoolgirl uniform.

Her shining eyes and bright smile were pretty much the same, though. And she wore a look on her face loaded with bright pride.

“You guys were doing a lesson?” Nick asked. “How… how did it go?”

Amelia’s tired expression served as answer enough, but Nick couldn’t help himself but ask.

Then, the faintest of smiles appeared on the older woman’s lips. She nodded to Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin.

“Show him.”

The assassin was glad to. She held up a sheet of paper, her proud smile stretching even wider.

Nick wasn’t sure what he was looking at for a second. A bunch of jagged lines and curves had been etched down. It took him a second, but then he figured it out.

“This is… no way!” He gasped. “It’s… the alphabet?”

…Well, that was a charitable term. There were definitely 26 symbols on the page, but they were so far away from the letters he was familiar with they might as well have been a completely different language.

“We have a lot of work to do on her penmanship, and she still doesn’t know any words, but… it is a start,” Amelia said. She sounded rather proud herself.

“Well, that’s great work,” Nick said, honestly proud of the assassin. “Soon enough, you’ll be writing with the best of us! And then you’ll be able to come up with a name on your own!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had been nodding in agreement right up until that last part. Then her face fell. She scowled at him, turned, and stormed off.

Amelia sighed. “Nicholas…”

“What!?” Nick stammered. “What did I do?!”

Amelia clicked her tongue and just shook her head. “You made a mistake,” she chastised him. Her voice was sympathetic. After all, Nick had no way of knowing. “It is not something you could have known about, however.”

But no, it wasn’t so simple, unfortunately. Nick was completely lost. He just wanted to look out for her and help her, and praise her for her efforts. But somehow, he’d said the wrong thing.

What a mess.

Nick sighed and hung his head. “Amelia… what did I do wrong this time?”

So he wanted specifics. She should have figured that. Well, Amelia was happy to enlighten him.