Without , I'm losing my logic

“What?!” Kim couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She stared at Dawn like the cat girl was talking gibberish.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin raised a curious eyebrow. She was just as surprised as Kim, but was better at hiding it. And more than surprised, she was intrigued by her roommate’s proposition, because it was so unlike the woman she had been living with up until now.

…The big breasts were just as unusual. Perhaps Dawn had been replaced by some bimbo titty monster? Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin preferred not to dwell on the irrelevant minutiae of such possibilities.

Dawn’s expression was adamant. She looked at her friends, knowing that what she was saying didn’t sound like her at all. But… she was in an unusual situation.

“I’m going to use my transformations,” Dawn said. “The ones that I have stored up. From the boon I got, remember?”

“No, yeah, I know that,” Kim said, shaking her head. That wasn’t the issue here! “Are you sure? Because you’ve been pretty adamant that you didn’t want to use those.”

Dawn had mentioned getting an intelligence debuff earlier in the challenge, before she met up with the both of them. Kim had only taken it semi-seriously up until this point, seeing as how the cat girl had demonstrated that she was still a lot smarter than any of them.

This was the first time Kim really started to question how much of the other woman’s reasoning had been impaired.

“I’m… I’m not 100% sure,” Dawn admitted. But even in saying that, it didn’t matter- sure or not, she had to follow through with what she knew to be right. “Maybe this is the drop in my intelligence altering my reasoning skills… but look, these transformations, Dakota wants me to use them, right? Which means they might be helpful! I don’t think that she would punish me with a bad transformation if I’m doing what she wants, right?”

Kim wasn’t so sure. Having been on the receiving end of a negative transformation or two as a result of her Sick Day transformation, she knew that Dakota could be pretty petty even when you were doing what she wanted you to do.

“And that’s why I’m going to go all in with it,” Dawn concluded, holding up three fingers. “All three transformations at once. If I embrace it wholeheartedly, then Dakota will see I’m serious about playing ball and she’ll be more generous. That’s my thinking anyway.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded in approval. Kim winced.

“…Don’t you think that’s the wrong way to look at it?” She asked hesitantly. This was the first time she was outright disagreeing with Dawn’s reasoning. “The smartest move is to use two of your transformations, Dawn. That way Dakota’s incentivized to give you something good. If she gives you bad ones the first two times, you won’t use the third one. This way you still have a card to play against her, since she wants you to use all your transformations. Save the last one for when you really need it!”

Dawn blinked. She was surprised that Kim had calculated something so devious. “…Huh. I… I didn’t even think about that,” she admitted. Her cheeks reddened as she realized that her intelligence may have taken a bigger hit than she thought. She considered whether or not Kim’s proposal had merit, and decided that it did. Yeah, it was definitely a smart play… but was it the smartest play?

She quickly shook her head. No, I was right the first time.

“You’ve got some good reasoning skills, Kim,” Dawn complimented the other girl, looking her right in the eyes. Kim’s eyes widened in surprise.

“O-oh?” She felt her face heat up a little at the compliment.

“But I think you’re wrong here.”

Kim deflated a little.

Dawn stepped forward and took Kim’s hand. Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s eye twitched.

“Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s really smart, what you’re saying,” Dawn assured her, not noticing the assassin’s stare. “It’s a calculated plan and I’ve got a lot of respect for it!”

Kim smiled, feeling pretty proud of herself. Even though she could sense a “but” coming from the other girl already.

“…However,” Dawn continued, “knowing Dakota, if I played it like that and chose to limit myself to a specific number of transformations, whether that’s just one or even two, she would make one of those transformations be something to lower my inhibitions even more, or up my curiosity- something to nudge me in the direction of using the last remaining transformations, and I’d end up using all three anyway! If that’s the case, then I’d rather just use all three now, and get whatever advantages come from them, without any tricks on Dakota’s part.”

Kim nodded slowly. She could see the logic in Dawn’s thinking now. “Yeah, you’re right,” she agreed. “Knowing Dakota, she’d probably do something like that. Even if it would mean Nick might get upset at her for altering your mental state that way…”

Dawn snorted and rolled her eyes. Her tail flicked behind her. “That ship has already sailed though,” she snidely pointed out.

---

Nick grimaced. He stared at Dakota suspiciously, his old friend looking back at him with an expression on her face that was impossible to read.

“Three transformations?” He spat, trying not to let his protectiveness of Dawn overwhelm him and blame Dakota unfairly. But- this really DID feel unfair!

“That’s right,” Dakota said with a blunt nod. “Three transformations. Is that such a bad thing?” She asked him.

Nick tried to hold back. He really did. But his emotions just came pouring out of him. “That isn’t the point!” He exclaimed, shaking his head. “Dakota! This is Dawn we’re talking about here! She wouldn’t go for something like that!”

“You saw her make that decision just now, though,” Mr. S pointed out, covering his mouth and chuckling. “It seems like you don’t know her as well as you think you do…”

“It’s the gas that’s influencing her,” Nick replied with a scowl. Dawn had been doused with so many gases this round it wasn’t even funny. “It altered her… her brain chemistry or something and made her an idiot, or… gullible, or more susceptible, or something! I-I just… I know her reasoning makes sense, but… but…!”

But it just didn’t sound like the Dawn he knew. He looked desperately at Dakota, and to his horror he saw the dull look in her golden eyes as she stared coldly back at him.

There was something to that look of hers. Something that made him shiver.

“…Dakota?” He asked quietly.

Dakota stepped forward and looked at Nick, her expression not changing.

“Nick… you aren’t wrong,” she said.

“Oh?” Mr. S leaned forward in his seat, and Nick flinched. There was a sound of warning in the producer’s tone, a sense of foreboding. It made him shiver. Like Dakota had just stepped out onto a frozen lake, and was currently standing on very thin ice.

Dakota heard it too. She snapped her head around and stared contemptuously at him. “Do you have something to say?” She snarled at her superior, narrowing her eyes.

Mr. S smirked and raised his hands, leaning back in his seat. “Why no,” he crooned, shaking his head. “Certainly not!”

And yet his tone of voice said just the opposite. Dakota’s eye twitched in irritation, knowing that he was goading her and unfortunately being helpless to stop it.

Mary gulped in her seat and squirmed. Her cheeks reddened and she bit her lip, wanting to speak up but finding it impossible to get a word in edgewise with all the tension in the air.

“Whether I tell the master the truth or not is immaterial to the challenge,” Dakota pointed out, not taking her eyes off the producer. “Hiding it from him won’t make this any easier on him, or make him trust me any more, considering he already doesn’t trust me.” Her voice cracked a little as she added, “And with good reason.”

Nick’s heart felt a stab of pain. “Dakota…”

She straightened up and turned to look at him at last, and this time, her eyes had regained some of their luster. Her gaze looked… human.

“Dawn’s thoughts are mostly her own,” Dakota assured him. “What happened to her as a result of the gas just numbed her reasoning skills a little and made her brain process things a little slower. It wouldn’t alter her judgment too severely. Unlike the aphrodisiacs she was just dosed with. But those are par for the course, as you’re well aware.”

Nick scowled. That didn’t make him feel better.

“Go on,” Mr. S said, leaning forward with his chin resting in his hands like an eager child listening to a bedtime story. “Get to the good part!”

Dakota flinched. But she let out a breath of air and relaxed, straightening up and looking Nick in the eyes. He saw honesty and sincerity in her gaze, along with resignation.

“…The audience voted, and they decided to have her get all three transformations,” Dakota informed him.

It took a second for her words to sink in.

Nick’s eyes widened in shock. “Wh-what!?”

“That’s the way the challenge works,” she said with a sulky tone. “The audience votes, and that result gets selected. Simple as that.”

“But… but that should be up to Dawn!” Nick exclaimed. “Are you saying… the audience has been voting on decisions THEY’RE making in there!?”

Nick had assumed that the audience’s votes would only be affecting things that happened TO the girls, not things the girls did to each other.

He couldn’t believe this. So Dakota was playing around with their thoughts and actions as well?

“It’s not what you think!” Dakota protested, even though it was exactly what Nick thought. “Yes, we’re influencing their actions, but… it’s not as frequent or as serious as you’re thinking! The audience didn’t compel Dawn to choose to use her transformations, she came to that conclusion all on her own! They just decided how many she would use, once she actually decided to consider it as a possibility!”

It was a gray area. And Nick could tell, that sea of gray was how Dakota was justifying her actions to herself. And it almost sounded reasonable, too.

Maybe it was.

But Nick didn’t want to think about the reasonable side of things right now, he was too upset for that. What Dakota had done… it felt like a betrayal. He shook his head in disbelief. “Dakota… I can’t believe you would do something like this…”

“Really?” Mr. S’s voice made them both freeze. The mirthful laughter of his tone sent shivers down their spines. “You really can’t believe that she would do something like this? Are you the most naïve man in the world or something, Nick Reynolds?”

Nick shivered as anger took over him. But he had to hold himself back. Losing his temper wouldn’t solve anything, it would just make the problem worse. And that was the last thing he wanted to do right now, make things worse.

For himself, for Dawn, for anyone. Even for Dakota. Anything he said right now, Mr. S would just use it as ammunition against her, and maybe even end up stripping away her position as host from her. And even as angry as Nick was at her, he knew that if that happened, it wouldn’t be a good thing.

So even though he was incredibly hurt and upset, he had to hold back. He couldn’t let out the anger he was feeling.

Even if he really wanted to.

Dakota said nothing, staring sulkily at Nick’s troubled expression, knowing that she’d crossed yet another line with him.

But… so what?

At this point, she was too tired, to worn out, too lost to even care.

She just wanted this to be over.

“Just see what she’ll be getting,” Dakota muttered with a wave of her cane. “That’s the best I can do for you at this point.”

Nick saw the pained expression on her face, and his heart sank in his chest.

---

“Dawn…”

As Dawn prepared to use her three temporary transformations, the voice of someone from beside her caught her ear. She turned in surprise to see…

“Ella?” Dawn blinked and took off her glasses, rubbing her eyes. Once she got a clearer look she saw that it was her. Apparently the overwhelming pleasure that Cinder had been assaulted with was too much for her to take, and once she could think clearly again she switched back out for her alter and gave Ella another chance behind the wheel.

And right now, that might have been for the best. The way Ella was looking at her… her expression was hesitant, but Dawn could see the sincerity in her eyes.

“Are you sure… this is a good idea?” Ella asked. She would never do something like this if she were in Dawn’s position. But Dawn was so amazing that Ella couldn’t help but wonder if she should support the other girl or not.

Dawn nodded, and gave her a reassuring smile. “I think if there’s any chance of us making up ground and getting ahead in this challenge, we’ve gotta try.”

She closed her eyes and pictured the maze in her mind. Luckily the wave of orgasms she’d gotten from the flower pollen had painted a very clear picture for her. “We’re more than halfway through the maze at this point, I think,” she said, opening her eyes. “But we’ve been in here for what feels like forever, you know?”

Kim nodded, agreeing with Dawn’s point. “Yeah, you’re not wrong,” she murmured.

Ella bit her lip.

“…Knowing Dakota, she’ll probably jerk me around the maze and not let me get to the end until I use my transformations,” Dawn continued, seething at the host’s (perceived) pettiness. “If that’s the case, then I’m just a liability. Instead, I should become an asset!”

Her mind was too clouded to realize that with her brains, she already WAS an asset. But even if she did understand that, it likely wouldn’t have dissuaded her from trying to be even more useful to her friends, if she could.

Dawn was determined to help the others through the maze by any means possible. So with that in mind… she accepted the kind thoughts of Kim, Ella, and (maybe?) Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin (actually, probably not) and triggered her transformations.

The three girls watched Dawn curiously as the diminutive cat girl began to shake. Dawn hunched over, her eyes wide, and began to glow as the effects of the transformations acted on her.

She snapped her head up and let out a howl, the light shattering around her and revealing that at least one of the transformations had been a physical one.

Kim’s eyes bugged out in surprise at Dawn’s new buffer frame and wild hair. It sprang out from the back of her head like a startled cat’s tail, instead of the usual sleek ponytail she styled her hair in. And then there was the fierce look in her eye… …Coupled with the large breasts she’d been given from the maze, she looked like practically a different person!

“Dawn… do you… feel okay?” Ella asked hesitantly, approaching the other girl. She wasn’t sure if she should keep her distance or not, or what Dawn’s reaction would be.

Dawn blinked, just staring off into space for a while. Then she snapped her head around and looked at the other girls.

“…Yeah,” she rumbled out, her voice slightly deeper than usual. “I feel fine. Weird, though. It’s like my body is so light!”

She hopped up and down for a second and raised her arm, flexing her muscles to test herself out. Yeah, she definitely felt weird and different. It was bizarre.

But in a good way, kind of.

“So what do your transformations do, then?” Kim asked.

Dawn looked at her, and realized she wasn’t sure. “…I should probably check,” she agreed, pulling up her screen to check the three temporary transformations Dakota had given her.

• Wildcat: Dawn’s gotta learn to cut loose! With this transformation, the hornier she gets, the wilder and more passionate she gets, gaining in athletic ability and aggression, as well as increasing her strength and her willingness to chase her desires, to the point of even overwhelming her rational thinking when she gets too excited! Coupled with some physical buffs, this transformation promises to be a real hellcat… but don’t worry, as she works off her energy, her rational side will reassert itself.

• Cat Scratch Fever: Physical contact with Dawn will now cause whoever she makes contact with to become hornier. When she touches another contestant, their arousal level will rise until they are just as physically aroused and turned on as Dawn herself is. [NOTE: This only works one way- if Dawn is feeling less horny than the person she makes contact with, the transformation will not calm them down. (Where’s the fun in that?)

• Smells like Friendship: Dawn’s nose will increase in sensitivity in select ways. She’ll now be able to follow the scent of anyone she’s close to, being able to track them down at any distance. The hornier the target, the stronger the scent, the easier it will be for Dawn to find them.

• ---

“There, you see?” Dakota said, looking at Nick. “They aren’t so bad at all. They might even be helpful, don’t you think?”

Nick frowned. Maybe some of them. But he wasn’t so sure he liked the notion of Dawn’s rationality taking a hit, even if it was a spectrum. Even if it was only a temporary transformation. Even if it made her look like, well, a wildcat.

He sighed. “Dakota… it’s fine. Really.” He wanted it to be, he really did. But he was just so tired of this whole challenge, and worrying about the girls he cared about while being unable to do anything for them.

And Dakota… she could see that all over his face. Frowning, she bit her lip in agitation and sighed.

Mary shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She wanted to say something herself, but… it was like she couldn’t find it in herself to speak up!

Who will get something good to happen to them, Amelia or Kim?

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Who will get something good to happen to them, Cinder/Ella or Carly?

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Who will get something bad to happen to them, Morgana or Rose?

https://strawpoll.com/7rnzV21KYnO