A Couple Final Purchases

Mary stretched her arms above her head and yawned. I think this is the first time I’ve woken up and not had someone holding me or smothering me in quite a while. Mary looked down at Sadie with her fairy wings tucked in behind her. Also sort of surprised she didn’t want more than kissing after eating me out. She did get a lot better, though. I wonder whose kiss was actually the best for me. I wonder how the TF ranks it. Might borrow Hilde’s boon to figure that out later.

Mary got up out of bed and let Sadie sleep in, as there wasn’t any real rush. Everyone on this team had decided they were done, and from what Ellen had said, it seemed that was the case with the other team as well. Mary checked the scores and noticed that Allie had given Isa all her items, as she said she would. Mary frowned, seeing that. I get the logic… but I hope she doesn’t regret it.

Mary put on blue jeans and a black T-shirt with ‘My Name’s Not Zelda’ printed on it, with a picture of Link pointing the Master Sword directly out. Mary looked at her jeans and frowned. I never really liked the feel of denim on my legs before… “Hmmmm.”

Mary wasn’t sure how long she spent pondering how things felt different like this versus her original body, but when she was finally done, she went to the kitchen and started on breakfast. Sadie finally got up to the alluring smell of coffee. She floated over to the table, still in her PJs, and was greeted with a piping hot cup of coffee and a breakfast burrito.

Sadie took a large bite of the burrito and let out a pleasurable moan at the taste. “Oh God, yes. Marry me.”

Mary raised an eyebrow at the response.

Sadie smirked. “I was talking to the burrito.” Sadie mimicked kissing the burrito, grabbed the hot sauce Mary had put on the table between them, put a small amount on it, and took another bite. She quickly devoured the rest. Sadie folded her hands together in mock sorrow. “Alas, it seems it wasn’t meant to be. I’ll always the love we shared senor burrito.”

Mary chuckled, causing Sadie to smile at having gotten Mary to laugh. Mary said, “I’m glad you liked it.”

“Where did you learn to cook?”

“Personal experience and the internet. I never really had anyone teach me. Just keep me away from flour. If the recipe involves flour, I shouldn’t be making it.”

Sadie asked, “You can’t make cookies?”

“Only if I use a premade mix.”

“Well, that’s completely unacceptable. I’ll have to teach you.”

Mary shrugged. “Your pyre.”

Sadie raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you mean your funeral?”

“No, expect fire. Either from me, or Allie and Isa deciding to burn you at the stake for witchcraft if you’re successful.” Mary said with a completely straight face.

“That’s a joke, right? Right?”

“Ehhhh…” Mary looked away nervously. “They might not burn you at the stake.”

“What about you lighting something on fire?”

“I never lit something on fire while baking before… They… they just caught fire… Look, everyone has their blind spots. This is one of mine.” Mary finished off her burrito and took both plates and put them in the sink, while refilling both of their coffee mugs. Sitting back down across from Sadie, Mary said, “So I wanted to ask you something.” Mary took a long sip of coffee to give Sadie time to adjust her frame of mind to a more serious conversation. “I’m going to be looking into the mirror today. I was wondering if you wanted to look into it with me.”

Sadie hesitated to respond and took a sip of her coffee to buy time. “Why? I mean… why do you want to look into it with me?”

“It’s hard to explain, but I think it would really help us.”

Sadie considered the request. She shook her head. “No.” Mary looked at her for more of an explanation. “It feels like a shortcut, and shortcuts can get people hurt.”

“So can delays. You have to balance the two.” Mary countered. “There are things that I’ll refuse to do with you unless we are at a certain point emotionally. Things you might need to get to 100 VP.”

Sadie waved her concern away, saying, “You haven’t looked through the mirror with most of the girls, right?”

Mary thought about it. “I guess technically. I’ve looked in it with six of them, but you, Hilde, and Brooke are new, and I didn’t need it with Allie. Of the other three… hmmm.” Mary was going over the memories from her counterpart since those three were on the other team. “Well, I guess things have somewhat progressed, but I would say they have bigger issues than those that have looked into the mirror.”

“You’re forgetting something. I can earn extra points by being the best at something. I just need more practice. I can already tell I’ve made it to fourth for kissing. I’m going to guess that kissing Allie at your wedding, Laura and you in the woods as deities, and probably the night you and Sam wrecked this room are what’s holding me back.”

Mary sipped her coffee. “You realize that those are going to be essentially impossible to beat, right?”

Sadie smirked. “I’m not so sure. Maybe your kiss with Allie is a hurdle I can’t overcome, because it involved your wedding and that made it a particularly special kiss, but the others? I feel confident about those.”

“What makes you so confident? Kissing both Laura and Sam was intense and ionate and got me erect within seconds.”

Sadie smiled. “Please, do go on.”

“Why are you smiling?”

“As I said, it’s a matter of time, because literally whenever I hear details about someone else’s sexual exploits, or witness them, I improve. Not a lot, but I can feel the knowledge slot into place. And while practice makes perfect was always true, in my case it is particularly effective. I’m sure you noticed it last night.”

Mary pushed her lips to one side, not wanting to it Sadie was right.

Sadie continued, “Exactly. Laura and Talia are also perfectly content to let me watch them go at it, which has helped a lot too. So you don’t have to worry about me, because given time, I’m going to be the very best—”

“Like no one ever was?” Mary finished, semi-singing the words.

Sadie narrowed her eyes. “What was that? Also, that’s sort of a tautology. If you’re truly the best ever, then no one has ever reached that point before.”

Mary stared at Sadie aghast. “You’re kidding me, right? You are joking that you don’t recognize that reference, right?”

“Oh. It’s one of those things…” Sadie replied, trying to keep her disinterest from her voice.

“Those things?”

Sadie sighed. “Guess we should cover this now. Mary, I’m not going to get like any of your nerd references. Or almost any of them. Like yeah, I got the reference Cassandra made from Star Trek because it’s just so pervasive, but I haven’t watched more than a handful of episodes of it.” Sadie pursed her lips, and Mary could tell she was clearly carefully choosing her words. “My parents always considered such interests a waste of time.”

As Sadie paused to consider her next words, Mary asked, “Do you?”

“No more than most other hobbies or leisure activities.”

“Most? Meaning you do think it is a waste of time compared to some.”

Sadie’s shoulders slumped. “Not exactly, just some leisure activities have a secondary benefit, like exercise, but I also recognize that for some people those activities aren’t hobbies or relaxing, so you can’t compare things like that between different people.”

Mary frowned, “I get that you’re trying to be diplomatic here, but it really doesn’t sound like you believe that.”

Sadie looked away from Mary. “I may have said some things about your interests to the others and got reprimanded by them. I’m sorry.”

Mary’s frown deepened, then she relaxed as she let out a sigh. “It’s fine.” Sadie perked up hearing that. Mary then had a devilish smirk. “It just means I get to see all your first impressions about things.”

Sadie immediately deflated slightly. “I assume whatever crash course you have in mind is non-optional?”

Mary replied with glee, “Oh, it’s really a choose-your-own-adventure type course, so don’t worry too much. Besides, Sadie, how I said in realities not too different from our own we ended up together? If that’s the case, we had to have something in common. And don’t worry, the worst that will happen is I’ll simply mock and flame you for your obviously crappy hot take on something, and then we can move on to the next step of the adventure.”

“That doesn’t sound enjoyable.”

“Sadie, I’ve known you for about two weeks, and I can already tell that you’ve certainly done that exact thing before, but about topics you’re far more invested in.”

“Like what?”

Before Mary could answer, there was a knock at the door. Mary stood and went to answer it. Laura was on the other side. “Morning, Mary.” Laura leaned down, grabbed Mary around the waist, and lifted her into a kiss. “Sorry if I interrupted something.”

Sadie said from across the room, “It’s fine. Why did you stop by?”

Laura carried her girlfriend back to the table and sat down with Mary in her lap.

“I came by to ask you to spend your BP, Sadie. Sam isn’t around, or I know she would ask you, so I’m asking you on her behalf.”

Sadie asked, “Why? I mean, why spend it now and not wait for the new transformations later today?”

Laura said, “Sometimes I forget you haven’t been around for these discussions. However much BP you have, Mary will get that much to spend next round too, and she must spend it.”

Mary said, “Laura, I had a talk with Slevia before the challenge started. She was rather ticked off that I had been encouraging people to spend down their BP.”

Laura raised her hands, palms out. “I’m just asking what Sam would, since she isn’t here. I don’t actually care that much. That being said, Ellen has also requested your presence in the BP store. Something about you picking a new path for her.”

Mary nodded. “Yeah, I my counterpart telling her that would happen. Guess we should get a move on.”

Mary hopped off of Laura’s lap, and the three made their way to the BP store. They found everyone else waiting at the store, with Ellen talking with Slevia. Ellen was clearly not happy about what she was being told. Mary also noticed that Ellen’s breasts were several cup sizes smaller than the previous evening, and pouted.

Ellen said, “I don’t see why we can’t do that! If this was money, we could definitely do that.”

Mary asked, “What’s the issue?”

Ellen turned around. “Slevia is telling us we can’t combine different people’s BP to make a purchase. We also can’t transfer BP either.”

Mary rolled her eyes. “Ellen, you're being forgetful right now.”

Ellen raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

Mary turned to Allie and Talia. “You both want to give Ellen a 1000 BP, right? Because of the agreement?”

Allie nodded. “Yeah.”

Mary said, “So buy a library for the next round. Technically, the previous es expired. Only Flora has a permanent besides Ellen and me.”

Slevia grinned from behind the counter, “Ah, makes me happy. You are learning.”

Ellen turned to Slevia and asked, “Why didn’t you suggest that to me if you knew we could do that?”

“You ask the wrong question,” Slevia said, slightly smug. “You ask how Allie give you money. She can’t. I can’t give solutions without right question.”

Ellen turned to Allie and Talia. “So, would you each like a library for 1000 BP?”

They nodded. Allie said, “That includes Isa on mine, right?”

Ellen asked, “Wasn’t she also going to give me 1000 BP?”

Allie shook her head. “No. Sadie agreed to cover that since she was going to benefit more from us winning. So she’s giving you 2000 BP.”

Sadie said, “Yes, I’ll take a library for 2k BP.”

-1000 BP Allie&Isa -> 3075 BP
-1000 BP Talia -> 2900 BP
-2000 BP Sadie -> 4000 BP
+4000 BP Ellen -> 6100 BP

Sadie asked, “Is it a physical or just magic?”

Ellen replied, “Just magic.”

“Okay. I have to say, while I have paid for access to private libraries before, I hope you aren’t actually charging the others for access normally and just using this as an exploit. Knowledge shouldn’t be hoarded away.” Sadie said.

Laura joked, “Please don’t start talking about hoards around Mary; it might give her ideas.”

Mary responded by floating up and plopping herself down on Laura’s shoulders, her legs on either side of her head. “What was that, my precious?” Mary’s tail wrapped under Laura’s arm and just under her bust.

Laura reached up and poked Mary’s nose. “I just don’t want you getting more unhealthy hoards.”

“So glad you care,” Mary replied as she leaned forward, resting her breasts comfortably on top of Laura’s head.

Ellen turned to Slevia, “So the things I wanted to buy? The tweak to my bondage path and the reroll of my actress path?”

Slevia queued the purchases and pushed a tablet for Ellen to confirm her purchases.

-500 BP Tweak Path [Bondage] -> [BDSM]
-4000 BP Path Reroll [Actress]
Ellen -> 1600 BP

Path Options:
Cocktail Waitress
Corporate Executive’s Secretary
Sugar Momma

Ellen frowned, seeing the options. “What’s with this last option?”

Slevia shrugged. “Options are random. Lucky more aren’t bad.”

Laura walked over so Mary could see the options without getting off her shoulders. Laura said, “I think it should be the Secretary option.”

Ellen looked up at Mary. “What about you?”

Mary sat there in silence for several long moments. “I agree. Pick the secretary option.” Mary saw Ellen about to ask her why. “I gave you a command, Ellen. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

Ellen bit her lip, slightly turned on by Mary ordering her about in front of everyone, and selected the option.

Sadie said, “Okay, what the fuck was that?”

Ellen frowned at Sadie’s use of profanity.

Laura actually answered her question. “Sadie, Ellen is a sub. She wants Mary to boss her around. You don’t need to worry about Mary telling you to do something like that unless you ask her to.”

“Oookay…” Sadie said skeptically.

Laura also said, “Also, she likely isn’t going to tell you for a while, but Ellen really doesn’t care for profanity. So if you could keep it to a minimum around her, I’d appreciate it.”

Talia strode over to Laura and reached up and grabbed Mary’s foot to get her attention. After letting go of her foot, Talia coyly said, “Heeeeey, Mary… What are you going to do with those three boosts you never used?”

Mary looked down at Talia. “You want them, don’t you?”

Talia nodded vigorously.

Mary asked, “Does anyone else want to try and lay claim to them?”

Sadie raised her hand. “I… I wouldn’t mind getting a free upgrade. I’m only not buying something for, Think of a Happy Little Thought, because I want to have enough to buy something if my new transformation is a bigger issue.”

Mary looked at Talia. “Make your case.”

“You already teased me, saying you were planning on using them on me before the attack on the mountain and then didn’t, but I guess Sadie’s case is valid…”

“Hmm… I did say that.” Mary replied.

Sadie said, “It’s fine, Mary. I have an upgrade I’m looking at for that transformation. Let Talia have this. She’s been instrumental this round during the challenge.”

Mary nodded, pulled out her phone, and selected Talia’s boon three times. As she clicked confirm, her phone shouted out in her voice, like a magical girl, “LET’S GIVE IT A BOOST!” three times in rapid succession.

Mary growled, “I’m going to kill Cassandra.”

Everyone else couldn’t help but laugh at her expense. Talia, however, was more focused on reading through the changes.

Perception of Time:

Boost 1: It takes forever for Talia to store up time for later. Now she’ll get an hour stored every day.

Boost 2: As a Genius, Talia is well aware of the advantages of compounding. Talia’s stored time will gain interest, generating a little bit more stored time every day.

Boost 3: Time is relative, and now Talia’s time bank is in a different reference plane. Every one second she puts in becomes two.

Talia read over the options carefully. Well, I’ll have to buy the two that Mary doesn’t make permanent because these are all excellent. “Mary, I would prefer the free hour every day the most, I think. I’m getting the other two eventually with my own BP, as they will really help long term.”

Mary shrugged and didn’t wait to make the selection permanent.

Mary asked, “Do we have anything else to do before the ceremony later today?”

Everyone shook their heads. Mary then shot a message to Cassandra.

Mary: Cassandra, I know you said the end was noon, but could we move things along if the other team is cool with it?

Cassandra: No. I’m busy.

Mary: With what?

Automatic Reply: The individual you have tried ing has their phone set to Do Not Disturb.

Mary’s eyebrows rose in surprise. Several people saw, and Allie asked, “Mary, what’s up?”

“Cassandra is unavailable.”

Slevia replied, “Yeah. She told the staff. Maja and Smug can handle emergencies. She’s handling something.”

“Okay…” Mary said, still slightly worried, but significantly less so, since this was a planned absence. “I guess we can all relax until then.”

Laura said, “Great. Did you ladies ever check out the massive bath the palace has or just the ones in the rooms?”

Everyone else shook their heads.

Laura grinned, “Well, we should definitely go check out the baths then.”

Mary said, “You just want to see everyone naked.”

Laura snorted, “Like you don’t.” Laura didn’t wait for a response and simply started moving to the bath, carrying Mary with her as she moved.

---

Sam woke up on top of Slevia. She immediately swore internally. Shit! Shit! Shit! Sam realized she had added Slevia to her hoard of pillows. Slevia stirred at Sam’s movements. Slevia smiled. “Good morning. Sleep well?”

“Yes,” Sam said, annoyed, causing Slevia to frown. “Slevia… I… I might have added you to my hoard of pillows.”

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Slevia said unconcerned.

“You aren’t bothered?”

Slevia smiled amusedly. “Sam, you are young.”

“I’m really not.” Sam retorted.

“You’re less than tenth of my age.” Slevia countered. “But I meant for being dragon. All dragons go through this. Creating hoards by accident. You’ll grow out of it. Many don’t keep their first hoards. Unless it’s hoard of shinies. Dragons always keep shinies.”

“You seem to know a lot about this,” Sam said as she slipped out of bed and got changed.

Slevia smiled, “Yeah. Smug is little sister. Smug added us all to hoard. She removed us too. Took like… fifty years, but she did. Lucky she did, or you’d be in trouble.”

“Why?”

“Because then you’d be a thief.”

Sam frowned. “Really? I never felt that way when Mary added something in my hoard to hers.”

Slevia replied, “She’s your mate. You wouldn’t.”

“Even before we had sex, though. I didn’t feel like that.”

Slevia said, “Part of dragon courting. Ask Smug for more details.”

“Okay.” Sam turned towards Slevia as she finished getting dressed. “So, what happens now? Am I supposed to just wait here until the end of the challenge? I was sort of hoping to go to the BP store with the rest of my team and make suggestions on what to buy.”

“About that…” Slevia said, annoyed. “Quit doing that. Suggestions are my job. Second, stupid to spend down.”

Sam groaned, “We already discussed this. I don’t agree with you, but you haven’t answered my question. What am I supposed to do?”

“Keep me company?” Slevia suggested.

Sam rolled her eyes at Slevia’s nervousness. “Sure. I can do that.”

---

Inside the mountain, everyone was rather subdued after the loss. Mark made breakfast for everyone: eggs, bacon, and most importantly, coffee. The group didn’t really say much beyond polite greetings until Chloe asked, “Is anyone else planning on going to the BP store before the end of the round?”

Hilde shook her head. “No, and unless you want to buy something that affects the transformation vote, I wouldn’t bother. Do it afterwards. That way Master gets more BP.”

Chloe said, “That’s actually why I was considering going before. So Mark didn’t have so much to spend next round.”

Hilde replied, “Don’t let my sister hear you say that; she'll slap you upside the head for that.”

“Seriously?” Chloe asked.

Hilde nodded, “Yeah, she’s gone on and on about it over the years. How stupid people are with their BP. I think she has a massive list of things she'd love to recommend, but someone has to actually ask the right questions before she’s allowed to do so.”

Mark ed in, “She told me that she could spend 250k without issue and it wouldn’t be on anything anyone would object to. That was without trying, according to her.”

“Like what?” Aubrey asked.

Mark shrugged, “She didn’t tell me. I would guess reality adjustments for one. Right now everyone is going to look at most of you and see something impossible. Honestly, the authorities would probably assume I experimented on the lot of you to get you to grow animal parts.”

Chloe gave Mark an unamused look. “Mark, no, no, they wouldn’t. You’re smart, but you aren’t mad genius level smart. They would assume Talia turned us into animal girls and brainwashed us into a cult. Considering she’s literally a cult leader now, that wouldn’t even be a stretch.”

Mark held up a finger and then dropped his hand. “Okay, that’s a good point, actually.”

Chloe said, “I’m still going to go buy an my boon. I really liked one of the boost options.”

Mark asked, “Which one? The one that gives you a large favor or the bounty board?”

“Uh, I guess it is sort of a bounty board,” Chloe replied. “I didn’t really get to use it during the boost, but it was intriguing.”

Hilde said, “Chloe, can I give you a piece of advice?”

“That depends. Are you going to call me stupid for wanting the upgrade?”

Hilde shook her head. “No. Slevia would call you stupid for buying it, though. I want to tell you what she would if she could without prompting. You should buy the large favor option instead. Then immediately use that large favor to ask Cassandra to give you the other one for free. Assuming you can’t get it for a small favor. Then you get two for the price of one.”

Chloe frowned as she felt the scales between her and Hilde become unbalanced. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” Hilde said without shame or hesitation. Chloe scowled at Hilde. Hilde said, “Chloe, you do realize that if you play a non-trivial part in helping Astrid return to even a semblance of normal, the scales will be so tilted in your favor that I’m not sure I’d ever be able to balance them without you wiping things clean.” Hilde erased the debt the next second. “So expect me to continue to do things to remind you I’m deliberately trying to be helpful.”

Chloe wryly smiled, “Okay. I guess that isn’t a problem. And thank you for the advice. Could Slevia really not have told me that herself?”

Hilde shook her head. “She couldn’t. She’s been wanting to strangle Mark for two rounds. If it were up to her, she’d be telling you all to save your BP unless you absolutely need to be spending it just so Mark gets more and more.”

Flora asked, “So she wouldn’t have approved of me copying a boon?”

Hilde wobbled her hand. “She wouldn’t have disapproved of it, at least. It probably isn’t the boon she’d have copied, but she understands that your wants and desires might not match hers. It wasn’t, as she’d put some purchases, a stupid choice, and you actually asked her for advice, so she’d give you major props just for that.”

Flora took that as a compliment, and her tail flicked just once.

No one else was interested, but Aubrey and Mark ed Chloe anyway. Chloe asked Slevia if the plan Hilde suggested would be possible, and Slevia seemed pleased by the question and confirmed it should be, but Slevia said, “One thing. You’ll have to wait for new round. To use favor, I mean. You used it already.”

Chloe nodded. “I can still buy it now, right?”

Slevia nodded. “Yes.”

Chloe asked, hoping she wouldn’t regret asking. “Is there anything you’d recommend me buying, either instead of or in addition to that upgrade?”

Slevia looked like she was on the verge of tears, and her lower lip quivered. Slevia hugged Chloe tightly enough that her back popped, and gently stroked back her bunny ears. “Such a good bunny.” Slevia let Chloe go and said, “Nothing instead of upgrade. Maybe in addition, but wait until after TFs. Keep buffer. What if you stay last in polls?”

Chloe groaned, “Don’t remind me.” Chloe queued up the purchase and bought her previous boost for the additional large favor each round.

Fairy Godmother, Previous Boost.

-2500 BP Chloe -> 5180 BP

Having finished the purchase, Chloe asked, “So what now?”

Mark asked, “How about continuing our movie marathon? There can be cuddles as well.”

Chloe pretended as if the cuddles weren’t extremely tempting.

Aubrey just grabbed her tsundere by the arm and said, “That sounds great.” Then dragged Chloe to Mark’s room.