When I gave you my love, was it all in vain?

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s pouty face was a sight to see. Her cheeks puffed up to the size of oranges and her eyebrows burrowed down towards her nose like a pair of slides.

“There, satisfied?” Dakota wore a rather huffy expression on her face herself as she leaned back in her chair, twirling a lock of her dark hair with a dismissive tone in her voice. “Kim is perfectly fine- better than fine, in fact, she’s having a nice, long day off to do whatever she likes. She’s currently getting pampered like a princess. Now, don’t you feel silly for starting a fight like that, all because you couldn’t go visit your little girlfriend at work today?”

The cutting passive-aggressiveness in her voice was mostly ignored by Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. The frustrated killer was just glaring, her arms crossed over her chest.

“How lucky!” Sylvia placed the tips of her fingers together and squealed. “She gets to be pampered by Little Miss? Lucky Kim!”

“I am not aware of this person, but as long as Kim is happy, we should be content, yes?” Amelia proposed calmly.

After Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin pitched her tantrum, Amelia and Sylvia agreed that the only way to satisfy the assassin’s wordless demands, as well as their own concerns over Kim, was to directly bring them to Dakota. Amelia had expected that to be a considerable endeavor given the host’s avoidance of the assassin, but in fact, things ended up going quite simply.

Almost as if Dakota had been anticipating this outcome, and just left the situation to fester for a little bit before stepping in.

The sadistic gleam in her eye signaled that was likely the case.

“What? You’re not satisfied?” Dakota raised her eyebrow and looked quizzically at the fuming assassin. “Well, I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware that you got a say in how I handle the contestants on my own show,” she said dismissively, shaking her head. A smirk curved up her lips. “The fact is, Kim has been working hard, and she deserves a little time off. Don’t worry- I’m sure she’ll be overjoyed to see you when she comes back!”

Dakota’s assurance was oozing sarcasm, but Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin didn’t seem to recognize it. Or if she did, she just didn’t care. In a flash, a cheery smile returned to her face and she nodded, apparently satisfied by the host’s answer.

“Great, we’re done here, then?” Dakota stood up and wrapped her fingers around her cane, ready to leave.

“Wait, one more thing!” Sylvia blurted out.

Surprisingly, Dakota actually paused, and turned to look at her creation. Her face reflected impatience, but to Sylvia’s surprise she was actually waiting.

“…Oh, I, uh, didn’t think you’d actually wait, um…” Sylvia suddenly became harried as she struggled to string together a sentence. “Sorry! Sorry. I just…” She started wringing her hands together and took a deep breath, wondering if she was pushing too much here.

Her relationship with Dakota wasn’t exactly a positive one.

“…Can you tell these two about how much of a benefit it is, to have an upgraded transformation?” Sylvia asked, a cheerful smile finally making its way to her face. “I’m sure they’d really enjoy the benefits of upgrading their transformations!”

Dakota blinked. Of all the reasons to stop her, THAT was the one Sylvia was asking for her support on? Was she serious right now?

Amelia’s eye twitched. She also found Sylvia’s sudden intercession to be… questionable at best.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin just looked confused. And when she felt confused, that made her get mad.

Dakota surveyed the three faces in front of her, and a sly smile slowly spread across her lips as she considered the situation. She sat back down in her chair and crossed one leg over the other, tapping her fingers along the head of her cane.

“Well well well… so you’re having some difficulty convincing these lovely, reasonable young ladies to acquiesce with your request, then?” She asked with a smirk.

Amelia frowned. “I am older than you,” she reminded Dakota.

The host scowled. “Is that really true now?” She questioned. How old Dakota exactly was could be debated when one considered the altered flow of time on the island. Regardless though, it was understood that the quality of life she had experienced in that period was significantly lacking, and so Dakota decided not to belabor the point any further than necessary.

“…But yes, that is the basic situation,” Sylvia said, nodding swiftly to try and recapture the momentum. “I tried to explain that upgrades would be good for them! Help them win challenges and get in Daddy’s good books! But they didn’t want to listen.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin turned to look at her, still confused.

“…Well, I mean, Amelia didn’t want to listen, and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was busy with other stuff at the time, so I didn’t get to do a full sales pitch,” Sylvia corrected herself.

Amelia sniffed slightly while Dakota laughed.

“Oh, Sylvia… you never change, do you?” Dakota mused with an almost whimsical tone in her voice. “Always thinking that a transformation is the answer to every personal problem. That is precious in its own way, I suppose. But… there are some things that not even a transformation can resolve, I’m afraid to inform you.”

Sylvia rolled her eyes. “Well, YEAH,” she scoffed. “I’m not stupid. Obviously there’s shit that transformations can’t fix. Like famine, genocide, global warming, my cereal getting soggy in milk…”

That caused Dakota to burst out laughing. She shook her head and wiped the tears from her eyes, then tapped her cane. “Well. That was quite amusing. But cereal aside, a transformation is not a miracle. Even with a transformation, the bond between a mother and child is not so easily altered.”

Of course, it could be, if a host were so inclined to make that a factor. Certainly Dakota could have put up a transformation that said “Amelia will now have romantic feelings for Nick and see nothing wrong with that” but she intentionally had not done so.

She had in the past before; many times. It was actually quite amusing to sever the relationship between parent and child, turning up the fires of **** and stoking the sexual tension between a mother and her son or daughter.

But however morally bankrupt Dakota may have been, she couldn’t do that to Nick. He’d already lost one mother. She couldn’t take another one away from him like that.

No, if Amelia and Nick were going to end up in a sexual relationship, it would be in such a way that their existing relationship as parent and child would not be destroyed. Dakota was not sure how to accomplish that, but she had plenty of time to figure out a way.

Sylvia didn’t seem satisfied with this answer, but she didn’t say anything about it.

Amelia, on the other hand, had her own thoughts to share.

“Are you speaking from experience?” She asked Dakota, and the pale woman flinched when she heard the question.

“…Excuse me?” Dakota slowly turned to look at Amelia and raised a quizzical eyebrow.

Amelia’s face was calm and free of judgment or criticism. The visage of a woman who was invested deeply in the feelings of the person in front of her.

“You received a transformation of your own, back when you were still masking yourself as a contestant of this show, yes?” Amelia reminded the host. “A transformation that altered your past, making it so that you never died.”

A shadow crossed Dakota’s face and Sylvia shrank back, trembling slightly. That was a bit of a touchy subject.

“…Your memories were not altered properly,” Dakota pointed out right back. “Some may call that an oversight, but the change in the timeline was meant to only affect the current contestants on the show, and anything you experienced- more a bleeding than a perfect recollection of the past.”

Amelia had existed in somewhat of a gray area. Because of the nature of the transformations, two existing realities now lived in parallel with one another. There was the reality where Dakota had died, what had “really” happened, and then there was the altered past brought on by Dakota’s transformation, where she had received a life of entirely separate memories.

When Carly’s sister was conjured into being, there was no trouble at all rewriting the memories of everyone back on earth to make it so that Marley’s existence had always been the case. That had been done due to the power of an elimination transformation.

But with Dakota, it had been slightly different. Inserting a new person that had never existed was significantly easier than bringing someone who had once existed back to life. And Sylvia had been working with considerably more power thanks to the elimination. So no, back on earth, Dakota was still very much considered dead. To everyone but the existing contestants on the show. But at the time that transformation had been made, Amelia had already been slated to exist as a future contestant on the show, so the retroactive memories really should have been given to her, as well. But the producers decided not to do that, because she was still on earth at the time.

It was one of those corner cases that would probably be cited in Harem Hotel reference books for future hosts to look back on at how not to do a mass memory change. There was a reason that Dakota shied away from rewriting the past now that she was back in command of the show.

That just left Amelia herself with a slightly complicated perspective… and the only person on the island who both knew of Dakota before coming here, and as a result, her memories had been fractured slightly. Gina remembered everything more or less; for Amelia, the split memories and alternate life were vague and frayed at the ends- with brief flashes here and there.

In short- quite inconvenient. And yet, she still cut right to the heart of the matter- something that irritated Dakota significantly.

“You were granted alternate memories,” Amelia pointed out. “But that alternate past did not change the relationship you had with your own mother, did it?”

Sylvia wanted to scream. Wasn’t Amelia supposed to, like, be a smart person or something!? Wasn’t she a teacher at a girl’s finishing school!? How could she be so colossally, megally, bigly dumb like this?!

Dakota’s face was unreadable, but Sylvia knew from experience that she was definitely not happy with what the teacher had just said.

Maybe if Amelia had been more clear that her words were intended to by sympathetic then things wouldn’t be so messed up. But Sylvia doubted that would have made a difference.

To her neverending relief, Dakota decided not to engage with the triggering topic, and just tapped her cane again.

“…We are getting off topic,” she coldly answered, making it clear to everyone just what she thought about continuing to talk on this point. The conversation, if it could even be called that, had come to a close.

“We were speaking about upgrading your transformations, correct?”

Sylvia perked up when she heard that. Wait, was Dakota actually going to-?

“I couldn’t recommend it more!” Dakota stated with a wide, snakelike smile. “An upgrade to your transformation can be quite a positive experience; and a temporary transformation is certainly a safe one! Consider as well that Nick is presently occupied for the rest of the night with his lovely date, and tomorrow will be spent entertaining Morgana, who is having quite a bit of fun with her own transformation. He should be thoroughly distracted, so you’re free to experiment at your leisure, consequence-free! Isn’t that just splendid?”

Sylvia frowned. At the beginning of Dakota’s statement she’d been nodding along, pleased beyond measure that Dakota was taking her side of things for once. But by the end of it, she wasn’t so sure anymore.

It really sounded like Dakota was about to take out her irritation on Amelia if the older woman chose to upgrade a transformation. But she wouldn’t do that… right?

No, I’m just overthinking it! Dakota WANTS upgrades! She doesn’t wanna discourage ‘em! If she did something super-bad for a temporary upgrade, then no one would want to upgrade their transformation again, right?!

…Then again, Kim’s upgrade yesterday had kind of turned into a mess, even if they managed to work everything out. Just because it had gone for the best didn’t mean that wasn’t an act of petty spite on Dakota’s part, did it?

…Maybe this was riskier than she thought…

Regardless, Amelia didn’t seem swayed.

“You’ve made several convincing points, the both of you,” she conceded. “But I simply see if as unnecessary. Engaging in the premise of this show-”

“Engaging in the premise of this show is why you are here,” Dakota cut her off. “I guarantee you, Amelia, the audience is not going to be thrilled that you’re bucking against transformations like this. They quite adore what Sylvia is doing at the moment; such petty resistance, and for little purpose, is only going to turn them against you.”

“Wait, really?” Sylvia’s face lit up. “The audience thinks I’m doing a good job? You mean it?!”

It had to be true; Dakota wouldn’t be saying something positive about her actions if it wasn’t!

“Should I care?” Amelia asked bluntly.

Dakota shrugged. “…It’s up to you,” she said with an exasperated sigh. She was getting really tired of Amelia’s stubbornness. “I can’t MAKE you take part. Oh, but I will remind you girls that if things go awry, Sylvia DOES have a way to reverse it, don’t forget.”

She waved her cane and summoned up a screen, presenting the boon Sylvia had won at the slumber party.

Whoops, That Didn’t Count!: This round, if the contestant has a transformation that can only be used a specific amount of times (once per day, once per round, once per contestant, etc.) they will be granted a “do-over”, allowing them to use the transformation an additional time, overwriting the effect of the first.

“O-o-o-oh, yeah!” Sylvia’s eyes widened. “That’s right! I totally forgot I can do that! Wow!”

Dakota shot her a look. “…You forgot?” She asked incredulously. Then she shook her head. It didn’t matter at this point, Sylvia was going to be Sylvia. “…Regardless. Make your choice as you will,” she said dismissively, tapping her cane and removing herself from the lounge before anyone could say another word.

And that just left the three of them. Sylvia was bursting with excited anticipation, eager to start upgrading, but she had just enough self-awareness to know that she shouldn’t push the envelope at the moment.

If she seemed too eager that would just drive Amelia further away, she needed to wait for the older woman to come to her before she-

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin grabbed Sylvia by the shoulder and spun her around, a look of determination blazing in her crystal blue eyes.

“O-oh! Hey! Right, you’re still here!” Sylvia said awkwardly, flashing a smile. It was easy to forget about the assassin’s presence when she wasn’t making an intentional point to remind you of it. “Did you need something, or…?”

She didn’t want to say it out loud, but she was hoping…

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded sharply and jabbed her finger into Sylvia’s chest. The former host’s face lit up as she realized what the assassin was insinuating.

“You want an upgrade!?” Sylvia burst with joy as Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded. “Excellent decision, my girl! I’ll be happy to upgrade whichever transformation you choose!”

Amelia cleared her throat loudly. Sylvia turned to look at her, hoping that the other woman had come around as well, but judging by the stern look on her face, that was not the case just yet.

Rather, Amelia wanted to remind her of something important.

“…Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin can’t read her transformations,” she pointed out. “You’ll have to walk her through them one at a time.”

“…Right, forgot about that,” Sylvia said tiredly, turning back to the assassin, who was smirking a sheepish smirk. She shrugged her shoulders and batted her eyelashes like she was apologizing for being such a pain in the ass, without actually being sorry about it.

She was probably loving this.

“Well, let’s go down the list then, shall we?” Sylvia summoned a list of the assassin’s transformations, eager to examine them. “I think the most impact could probably come out of upgrading your nanomachine transformation,” she decided. “It could have a lot of fun applications! You could change your body even more, or maybe even change other people’s! Don’t you think that sounds like it could be very useful?”

To her surprise, the assassin shook her head. Sylvia blinked. “…Really? I thought that one was one of your favorites. Well, how about Tear Away, then? A sensitivity boost would definitely make your sex with Daddy even more enjoyable!”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin narrowed her eyes into a glare aimed at Sylvia and pointed at her. For a second, Sylvia wasn’t sure where the sudden animosity had come from.

Then she remembered the last time Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s Tear Away transformation had been relevant- the previous challenge.

The challenge where Sylvia had copied Vivian’s New Style transformation to suddenly render the assassin almost naked, and the ensuing sensitivity boost had arguably cost her the entire challenge.

…Yeah, maybe she wouldn’t touch that one…

“Well, there’s your ears, too,” Sylvia pointed out, tugging on her own ears. “But we might not get to explore the full ramifications of that without Daddy here… unless it would cause your arousal to rise from anyone’s voice, in which case that one would be a little-”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin shook her head even faster at that. Clearly she had her own issues with that transformation herself.

…Why was this so difficult!? Sylvia was trying here, but all of her good ideas were being shot down!

I’m still surprised she doesn’t want to upgrade the nanomachine transformation, Sylvia thought, her eyes sliding down to Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s chest. Her breasts had plumped up quite a bit as they approached the end of the round, which was made apparent by the way they were bulging out of her jumpsuit. Sylvia doubted she could even get the zipper up over those now, considering that it was designed for her original modest proportions.

Then again, she hasn’t really been using that transformation much at all, has she? Sylvia noted, realizing how little the Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin seemed to be augmenting her synthetic humanoid body. I wonder why that is…?

She decided not to push the issue, wondering if it was a sensitive topic for the girl, even though she seemed to have little care for sensitive topics.

Still- they were just getting started! Certainly they could come up with something that the assassin would be okay with testing out, right?

And if all works well, maybe I can even convince Amelia to go along with it! Sylvia thought, hoping that she could angle this windfall to get everything she wanted today.