Commercial Break (Worm / Slut Life) (Borderline SFW)

ok, here's a new offering, a series of 4 shorts; based around jokes that came to me recently

---

High Chair

Taylor stared at the odd bit of furniture in her apartment's kitchen. "Why does my apartment have a giant high chair?" She couldn't stop herself from asking.

"It's part of the Baby Food package. As well as that bib on the counter and baby talk," Cindy replied, thinking back to her own experiences when she'd chosen that part of the Baby Food option.

"But, why?" Taylor found herself asking despite her common sense telling her to shut up.

"You'd be surprised how wide the fetishes of the viewers are," Cindy answered, with a dual tone of pleasure and long suffering.

"I have a feeling that's going to be a common answer," Taylor deadpanned.

"You have good intuition," Cindy responded.

Note: I just found the image of someone tall like Taylor in an oversized high chair oddly funny.

---

This Week's Porn

"Ok, seems this week the viewers picked Sunstone, Sunstone: Mercy, and Sunstone: Jasper." Taylor said, holding the three books.

"Nice, I really recommend those," Velma replied.

"Agreed, the plot is better than the porn," Swanhilde gushed.

"We also have a complete boxset of Totally Spies...? Isn't that a kids' show?" Taylor questioned while holding the DVD boxset.

"It's full of fetish stuff, pretty much every episode appeals to some fetish or another. I say it was all accidental," Velma explained.

"Well, I think it was intentional, how can you accidentally put in THAT much fetish content, that takes conscious effort," Swanhilde objected.

Note: Everything named here, exists, google it.

---

Charity Case

"You said Slut Life took you from a hospital, right Cindy?" Taylor asked, seeing another similarity between herself and the older woman.

"Yeah," Cindy replied.

"What did you have?" Taylor questioned, assuming it had to be something bad.

"Nothing, I stopped there to use the restroom during a jog," Cindy responded. Taylor just blinked in shock, but realized, Cindy was right, Charity Case never said the contestant had to be terminally ill or even a hospital patient.

Note: Based on my realization that Charity Case never specified the contestant was a patient, just that they came from a hospital.

---

A Super Old Joke

Halloween had come around and Taylor and a group of her friends had gone out trick or treating. They were now back at Taylor's apartment to show each other what they'd managed to get.

"I got a chocolate game controller!" Crystal proclaimed, dressed as a character named Primrose from a game she'd been playing lately.

"Ha! I got an Ultra-King Size Snickers," Velma gloated, having went as Daphne Blake.

"Ugh, I got candy corn," Swanhilde sighed, having gone as a cleric.

"I got a king's ransom worth of chocolate coins," Smaug replied, somehow having managed to get a knight costume his size.

"We got a tooth brush and an apple." Zoe lamented, having gone as a police officer, while Ashley had gone as a burglar.

"So, we TP'd their house." Ashley cackled. The two had trick or treated together.

"Ashley, Zoe. Do you remember what I told you about TPing?" Taylor asked, annoyed.

"If we TP a house, use the cheapest one-ply toilet paper we can buy. Which we did," Zoe explained.

"Good," Taylor said, no one did that to her sisters.

"So, what'd you get, Taylor?" asked Velma.

"I got a cock," Taylor reluctantly said, having went as a ghost.

"Lucky," Swanhilde griped.

Note: Yes, I went there, the rock is just a classic.

Preparation 2.9

---

"All done with the body mods?" Violetta asked tiredly. The two girls had tried every physically noticeable option at least once, and had tried playing with a few of the others just to see what they might be like, even if it was a pale shadow of the real thing. Just watching them go at it had been exhausting, and she was beginning to wish she could convince them to calm down. Unfortunately, one of the problems of being in the virtual office was that physical tiredness wasn't a real issue, even if the mental fatigue could become significant.

"I think so," Zoe said, wrapping her hair around her sister in something similar to a hug. Apparently she had enjoyed the prehensile hair option and was planning on keeping it.

"I really want a fang," Ash muttered, pouting. "But I should see what else I can get first."

"You're already going to be looking for ways to make back some credits," Zoe pointed out, giving her sister a light shove.

"You took most of the same mods I did!" Ash protested. "Including some I didn't bother with, like the hair!"

"And, yet, I'm not the one who needs to make back credits," Zoe retorted haughtily, turning up her nose.

"Why you..." Ash growled warningly, right before she pounced on her sister and began tickling her.

Yes, dealing with lively, young children was definitely tiring, Violetta decided yet again. Really, she wasn't sure why she kept offering to help them. Then again, if not her, who would? "Calm down, girls," she called. "There's still plenty of things to look over. Why don't we have a look at the entertainment options?"

Ash perked up from her perch on her sister's supine form. "That sounds fun!" she chirped. Standing up and bounding back over, she eagerly looked on.

With a slight roll of her eyes that she hoped the perceptive young girls wouldn't notice, Violetta made a point of waiting for Zoe to stand, brush herself off, and make her way over to join them. Only then did she flip over to the entertainment options. "Here you go," she said, handing the tablet over again. "Now, even if you don't intend on using it, I highly recommend taking the porn and Viewer's Choice options, as it doesn't force you to use the porn and it'll earn you a few credits." She paused for a second before adding, "Granted, you could just use Taylor's porn on her computer if she lets you, but why worry about it when signing up for it yourself doesn't have any downsides?"

The girls exchanged glances then grinned in unison. "Sounds good to me," they chorused.

Violetta sighed. "I can see the twin-speak is going to get tiring," she commented wearily. "At least I won't have to deal with it too much longer." Shaking off the fatigue, she added, "You can also gain points using the various Outside options, though I don't recommend it, as it may make things rather… unpleasant for you. And your sister is likely to swarm anyone who tries anything, which is usually bad for ratings."

"Usually?" Zoe asked, quirking an eyebrow.

"Sometimes people like to see how long it'll take others to get the fairly obvious point," Violetta elaborated while not explaining anything. The girls were going to be on Slut Life, sure, but they hadn't seemed especially interested in the sex, and it was her job to get them as close to what they wanted as possible, within the existing constraints.

"Any other suggestions before we start looking through things?" Ash asked.

"Well, Taylor didn't take any of the gaming options," Violetta noted, having flipped back to Taylor's form to check, "so you might want to pick up either the tabletop games or some of the gaming systems."

"What type of games?" Zoe and Ash asked.

Violetta rolled her eyes before answering. "The table tops games include a wide range of board games as well as role playing games and card games. You would need to get the entertainment system to get console games, and you'd need a second option to get more than just a few games. You can also get computer games, but that would require having a computer. Of course, having a computer is generally useful anyway, so you may want one just to have."

"I'll take the tabletop games," Ash offered.

"And we can share the computer and its games if I take it," Zoe offered. "I think I'll also sign up as a Professional Gamer, too. That way I can get paid to play, right?"

"It'll more than pay for the games you'll get," Violetta offered.

Ash whistled as she looked at the change selecting those options caused in her sister's sheet. "Wow, and you were making fun of me for being in the red. Making that up is going to be hard."

"I don't think it'll be that bad..." Zoe replied, failing to hide her wince. "Besides, you haven't taken your options yet."

"Well, yeah, but the tabletop games are a lot cheaper than that!" Ash protested.

"And we're not done yet," Zoe retorted primly. "Who knows what else you'll want to pick up."

"Yeah? Like what?"

Zoe scrolled through the options quickly before stopping on one that caught her eye. Pointing at it, she said, "Like a hoverboard."

Ash looked at the item's cost and winced. "Damn it, how am I going to pay that off?"

"So I take it you would like to get a hoverboard?" Violetta asked. "And you can easily pay for it through additional jobs or punishments, taking at least one owner, taking Slut Life is its Own Reward as your reward option, or some combination thereof."

Ash relaxed fractionally. "That doesn't sound so bad," she said. "Yeah, I'll take the hoverboard."

"Definitely doable," Zoe agreed.

"Now, before we move on to any adjustments or rewards you'd like to take," Violetta began, "Are there any other entertainment options you'd like to get?"

"Give us a minute!" the girls chirped before they crowded over the tablet to look at the other options more closely.

---

Cindy was watching over her sleeping charge when her cell phone rang. Taylor had transformed at some point during the ritual, shrinking down significantly while her clothes shifted into a flowing dress, done up in patches of lighter and darker fabric, with a short, seemingly tattered cape that would hang behind her if she were standing. Her skirt came down to her knees and looked equally tattered, with a pair of shorts underneath, and functional boots and stockings covering her feet and legs.

According to the magical girls, falling asleep after the empowerment ritual was, while unusual, not unheard of, providing there wasn't an immediate threat. They said the process was sometimes stressful, and Taylor had only just finished her body mods that morning, so that probably wasn't helping.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she picked up the phone on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hello, Cindy-chan, it's Kasumi Tendo," the pleasant voice came over the phone. "I'm calling for Smaug-dono."

Cindy nodded to herself. Smaug often had Kasumi make calls for him whenever he was busy or didn't feel like fighting with making his own calls. "What can I do for all old smokestack?" she asked.

"We just saw the empowerment ritual Taylor-san went through and he wanted to see if you knew what had happened," Kasumi explained.

"We're not really sure," Cindy admitted. "It took a while for the light show to stop, and once it did, Taylor was sleeping. We're waiting for her to wake up to find out if she knows what happened. All the bugs in the area are acting strangely, as well. One of the camera techs tried to kill a fly, and… well, it didn't squish. We're not sure what exactly that means, yet, but it could mean Taylor is directly empowering the bugs in her area… which could be worrisome."

"Oh my," Kasumi said, "I hope nothing too bad happens to her." There was a sound of clanging and jangling in the background. Hurriedly, Kasumi added, "Can you give us a call when you know more? Smaug-dono just knocked over the boxes of kitchen supplies, so I need to go help with that."

"I'll give you a call," Cindy agreed. "You go help the great lug. Take care, Kasumi."

"You, too, Cindy-chan," Kasumi answered. "I'm looking forward to seeing you again."

"I think you mean tasting," Cindy replied with a chuckle.

"That, too," Kasumi agreed impishly before terminating the call. Sighing in fond remembrance, Cindy settled back to continue waiting for Taylor to wake up.

---

The twins looked up from the tablet and, in unison, said, 'We're done! What's the next section?"

"You two are going to drive somebody crazy," Violetta noted. "Anyway, next up are the two sets of adjustments. As I mentioned earlier, you can't actually take any of the time options, since Taylor didn't take them, and, even if she had, you would still be restricted to the same length of service that she picked. The only real choice would be about what you wanted to do after the show finished. As is, you'll be free to do whatever you want after the year is over, including signing back up for your own full runs."

"Makes sense," Zoe replied.

"We can't really leave early and stop being Taylor's owners, right?" Ashley asked.

"Yes, exactly that," Violetta agreed. "So, with that out of the way, we can move on to the miscellaneous adjustments." She flicked the tablet to the correct screen and set it down for the girls to see.

"Are there any we definitely should take?" Zoe asked, looking over the list.

"Most of them don't currently apply to you," Violetta admitted. "Though I'd still suggest taking Caretaker if you want to keep any kids you have. Safe Word is another one that is often a good idea, even if you shouldn't use it that often."

"Taylor didn't take Caretaker," Ash pointed out.

Violetta nodded. "Yes, she thought having Safe Word would be more important, and the form she was using didn't allow her to take more than one adjustment from this section."

"That's not right!" both twins shouted, glaring at their helper.

Violetta raised a hand placatingly. "We know," she said. "It was a mistake on the form. They should be letting her know that they've fixed that for her, along with a few other issues they found."

"That's good," Zoe said.

"We're definitely taking that option, too," Ash added. "Even if we don't plan on using it."

"And Safe Word," Zoe added. "We want that one, too."

"No problem," Violetta replied, making the notations. "Anything else you want to take right now? If you want, Zoe, you can change who gets priority over your hair."

Zoe shook her head. "I think I'm good with keeping it standard. I'll keep it in mind if I have any extra credits to spend, though."

"I can think of better things to use extra credits on," Ash grumbled.

"And I think that brings us to the Rewards," Violetta noted, trying to move things along. Navigating to that part of the form, she added, "Unfortunately, you can't pick New Home, since the house belongs to your sister, not you, but you can pick any of the other options. I'm not sure New Game+ is worth it, though, since you'll just wake up next to your tank before the show starts."

"Well, fuck a duck," Ash grumped.

"Language!" Zoe snapped in a surprisingly accurate approximation of Annette Hebert's voice.

"Sorry, Mom!" Ash yelped reflexively. "Damn it, Zoe," she snapped as she realized what had happened. Shoving her sister, she shouted, "That wasn't funny! Stop laughing, damn it!'

Finally the two settled down again, allowing Zoe to ask, "Do you have any recommendations?"

"It really depends on what you want to get out of this," Violetta replied. "If you want an easy run, with as little hassle as you can get away with, I'd recommend taking Slut Life is its Own Reward. If there's something your really want to get now, go for it. It'll make things a bit harder on you now, and you could get it later by being a contestant, but it's ultimately up to you."

The two girls spent a few minutes looking over the different options before coming to their decision. "We'll take the extra credits," they chorused.

"The only other thing on there I'd want is the spaceship," Ash added, "and the Simurgh would probably break it on me."

"Or you could just keep it here," Zoe noted.

"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Ash protested. Shrugging, she added, "I can wait until I do my own run if I really want one. It'd be nice, but at least I'll still have my hoverboard, and that I can bring back home with me."

"If you're planning, or at least considering, having your own run later on," Violetta began. "I often recommend taking Slut Life is its Own Reward, especially for our younger secondaries. It allows you to have a much easier time of it, and you won't be losing out on much."

The twins considered that for a moment. "What about getting powers?" Ash asked, looking toward her sister. "Earth Bet is pretty dangerous, and that could help keep us safe."

"Yeah, but didn't Mom do a research project in college showing that capes were more likely to get into fights and killed than random civilians?" Zoe countered.

"Oh, right," Ash said thoughtfully. "That was after she left Lustrum, right?" Zoe nodded. "That study was flawed," Ash protested. "It works on statistics. More normal people who end up in the middle of cape fights end up in trouble than the capes. And we do live in Brockton Bay."

"There is that," Zoe admitted with a wince. "Still..." She thought about it for a while before finally agreeing, "I guess you're right. But there's a better way to get powers without paying for them."

Ash smiled ferally before asking, "Magical girls?"

Zoe nodded. "Magical girls."

Turning to face Violetta, they chorused, "We'll take Slut Life is its Own Reward, please."

"Got it," Violetta replied with a nod. "Now, would you like to work on your jobs first or go straight to the Owners?"

"We'll finish the jobs first."

---

Setsuna Meioh sipped at her special stash of scotch, aged in the Gates of Time for longer than she wanted to think about, as she waited for the last of the Senshi to arrive. The others already present were wondering why she had called this meeting, especially after she had put them on high alert late the night before, but she only wanted to go through this once. Suddenly, the door slammed open and a blond girl sprinted in. Setsuna made a mental note to check the door frame later, just in case.

"Sorry I'm late!" Usagi announced as she skidded to a halt in the room, sliding across the wooden floor in her socks, her shoes still falling into the provided basket next to the door. Even as she was sitting down, she asked, "What did you find out? Is there a new enemy? Why are we on high alert?"

Setsuna took another soothing sip of her alcohol before starting. "If you'll be patient for just a moment, I'll explain." There was a little fidgeting among the girls, but they settled back down quickly. "Late last night, there was something I could only describe as a mana pulse that radiated through the aether. When I tried to track it back, it led well outside of the solar system."

"It was really strong," Rei added. "It even woke Grandpa up."

"It also registered on the Mercury Computer's sensors," Ami chipped in. "I've been analyzing it since I woke up to your alert, and the results are unusual, to say the least."

"What did you find?" Usagi asked.

"As far as I can determine, it was an unfocused mana spike, though it did have a dimensional component," Ami explained.

Turning to Michiru, Usagi asked, "Can the Neptune Mirror find anything out about it?"

Before Michiru could reply, Setsuna stepped in. "That won't be necessary," she stated. "I already know what happened, and we can stand down the high alert."

"What was it?" Haruka asked. "It could still be a threat, right?"

"Yes, it could still be a threat," Setsuna admitted, before taking another pull on her drink, "but that's rather unlikely to happen. One of my contacts from outside sent out an explanation to… pretty much everyone they could. Apparently, someone was trying a modified empowerment ritual." Dryly she added, "Things were a bit more energetic than they expected. They're still analyzing things on their end to see what happened and how likely it is to happen again."

"If it's from outside our reality, how could it still be a threat?" Minako asked reasonably.

"It could be like Pharaoh 90," Hotaru said quietly.

"No," Ami cut in, "the dimensional harmonics were all wrong for something like that. It involved far too many dimensions for something like Pharaoh 90 to be involved."

"Ami is right," Setsuna said. "The girl in the ritual would not be able to invade here the same way Pharaoh 90 did. However, she might have access to spells that would allow her to do so."

Usagi nodded and asked, "So we're taking a wait and see approach?"

"Pretty much," Setsuna replied. "It is made even more difficult because we can't actually track her actions until she is in our reality, or at least a more directly adjacent one." She took a moment to splash more scotch into her glass. "I'm told she's likely to be reasonably heroic unless pushed, though, so we shouldn't have any problems."

---

"Are you all set getting your jobs set up?" Violetta asked. The girls nodded, so she added, "Ash, we're going to need to send you halfway across the planet to get your puer magicus empowerment done, but you can still work alongside the girls. And neither of you are going to be getting a specialized empowerment ritual, not after what happened with your sister. Now, you both still need to pick up some extra credits. Would you rather do that through punishments or owners?"

The girls looked at one another before Zoe said, "I think we'll start by looking at the owners again."

"It should let us make up the credits we need faster," Ash added.

"Without doing anything too uncomfortable," Zoe concluded.

Violetta took the tablet and set it to the correct portion of the form. "I have no problem with that. Now, who were you two thinking of getting? Remember, you can't share owners at the same time on a regular basis. And, please, don't pick siblings. It either has us trying to squeeze three separate eight or twelve hour periods into an already cramped schedule or causes a crisis of infinite siblings. Neither is fun to deal with."

The girls looked over the lists, muttering between themselves while weighing the merits of each choice. Finally, Zoe asked, "What's the deal with the ghost?"

"We have a number of ghosts looking for temporary accommodations in living bodies," Violetta explained. "As it happens, most ghosts can't feel or taste much of anything in their normal state. Some try to get around this issue in rather… unpleasant ways, such as floating through rotting food. Others possess people in order to use their senses."

She paused for a moment before continuing. "Most magical girls and pueri magici tend to hunt down the ones who do this without permission. First time offenders usually get a warning, and often an offer to find them willing hosts, while repeat offenders and those more… insistent spirits are dealt with in a more permanent manner."

"So they aren't going to do anything too extreme with their hosts?" Zoe asked.

"No, Possession Certified ghosts won't do anything the host is adamantly opposed to unless that's part of the rental agreement," Violetta explained. "They may push the boundaries of your comfort zones, but going too far is a good way to get their license revoked. Each ghost fills out a survey detailing what sensations they are interested in experiencing and we, along with the various other body rental agencies, do the best we can to accommodate them safely."

"Why do you even have ghosts?" Ash asked. "Can't they just get reincarnated or something?"

"Most people who stay as ghosts are afraid of reincarnation for one reason or another," Violetta replied. "Some worry that it'll fundamentally change who they are, while others don't want to pay for any of the services that could do it for them. Other just like being ghosts. We tend to focus on those ones, since they tend to be the most stable."

The girls shared another look before asking, "Can we share the same ghost if we have different days?"

Violetta smiled. "That shouldn't be an issue," she said. "Now, that should put you both back into the black, and, unless I'm mistaken, you should have at least another eight hour slot open in your schedule if you wanted to have a second owner."

"I think we're good for now," Zoe stated. "We should still have enough leftover credits to pick up a few of the things we had decided against, so we should be fine, right?"

"Well, that should definitely work," Violetta conceded. "Shall we head back to the body mods, then?"

"Yes please!"

---

"She's waking up!" Lucy Lewd called, causing the others to turn toward her. They'd been waiting for this to happen for quite a while, so they had decided to take turns watching over Taylor's sleeping figure until she woke.

"It's about time," Wicked Angelica grumbled. "I wanted to go to bed hours ago."

Joy Cassidy sighed. "We told you, if you wanted to go home and go to bed, you didn't have to stay here."

"But then I'd have to wait until after school to find out what Taylor got!" Angelica complained.

"How are you feeling?" Lucy asked, helping Taylor to sit up.

"Pretty good," Taylor replied, before stopping suddenly. "My voice is a lot higher," she noted. Looking down at her chest she snapped, "Damn it, I just got those!"

Cindy chuckled as she came over. "Well, you look like you're about twelve, so that makes sense."

"Don't worry," Obsessive Rose said from Taylor's other side. "You'll get your boobs back when you transform back to your normal self."

"I'm glad I don't have to worry about that," Angelica commented smugly. She thrust her chest out a bit. "It's one of the perks of being an 'older' magical girl."

Lucy made a shooing motion with her hands, gesturing the others back. "Give her some room," she said reprovingly. "She'll need a moment to adjust."

"Thanks," Taylor said, swinging her feet off the bed to stand up. "This is harder to get used to than my body mods were this morning." She paused for a moment before sheepishly asking, "It is the same day, right?"

"Almost," Cindy replied. "It's about six in the morning. You've been out for a little more than twelve hours, which is surprising, considering you only need four hours a night."

"Lucky," Angelica grumbled, stifling a yawn. "I need the full eight hours, and I've got school in a couple hours."

"Don't give us that line," Hope Celandine cut in. "You've taken plenty of naps while we waited. You'll be fine for a day."

"And if not," Lucy added, "you can always go to the nurses' office and get dismissed."

"Maybe I'll just call in sick," Angelica mused.

"You'd better not!" Cassidy declared. "You should have known better than stay up all night! The rest of us got plenty of sleep, right?"

Rose yawned. "I might have stayed up too long," she admitted. "But I think I'll be fine."

"Good," Cassidy said, before turning back to Taylor. "Now, Taylor, there's been rumors that girls who sleep after their empowerment get prophetic visions. It didn't happen to any of us, so I have to ask, did you see anything?"

"Yeah," Taylor said with a nod. "I don't really remember it, though. Something to do with the supercomputer in my head." She gave her head a shake, as though that would knock something loose. "It was like something stretched, or twisted? Either way, whatever it was was starting to fray and fall apart. But then light started replacing and supporting it, and I found myself on a featureless plane. The only other one there was another magical girl, that I didn't recognize but feel like I should, but the light connecting to me was darkness connected to her? Kind of a gradient but not? It's hard to explain. After that, we were in a city, and there was some nebulous force, and girls were falling over left and right. I'm not sure what that was about, though." She paused for a moment. "Nor why I feel like someone made a mistake with dragonflies. I was happy about it, I think, but really?"

"Well… That's ominous," Cassidy opined.

"Very foreboding," Celandine agreed.

"Anyway," Cassidy continued, thinking the description over. "Is that it? No other details you can remember?"

"Er, I think there might have been a black sun in the sky?" Taylor offered. "Maybe? It covered pretty much the entire sky as far as I could see, though the plane was also on fire. Dunno what that was about."

"Sometimes the sun or a fire shows up as a representation of mana pools and such," Rose offered, looking at her phone.

"That doesn't sound quite right in this case," Cassidy replied with a shake of her head.

"Well," Lucy piped up, "we can think about it more later, in any case. It's late and only getting later, so we should probably get to bed." She paused for a moment and sheepishly added, "I'm not sure Taylor will want to sleep, though."

Taylor yawned, surprising everyone. "Well, I think that settles it," she said. "I'm still tired enough to sleep some more. Whatever happened to me, it definitely wasn't restful."

Cindy stifled a yawn before she also spoke. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm ready for bed, and I still need to call Kasumi back."

"Who's Kasumi?" Taylor asked.

"Come on," Cindy urged. "I'll tell you on the way back to the hotel. The sooner we get there, the sooner I can get to sleep."

"We should all be heading to bed as well," Cassidy replied. Looking at Angelica, she added, "Especially you."

"Yeah," Angelica agreed before yawning mightily. "I definitely need to get to sleep."

"Let's try to meet up tomorrow," Cassidy said. "We can discuss that vision more then." The others agreed and they left, making their way back to their homes for a late night's rest.

---

"Alright," Violetta began wearily, the mental fatigue of dealing with the two preteens showing through her professionalism. "Now that you've balanced everything out, all that is left is looking things over and making sure you haven't missed anything glaringly obvious."

"I'm pretty sure we didn't miss anything," Zoe began.

"But it's a good idea to check," Ash finished.

"While we're looking," Zoe added, "can you tell us what happens next?"

Violetta watched for a few moments as the girls checked over their entries, making sure everything was how they wanted it, before speaking. "Next we'll finish your growth, which should be done early tomorrow. After that, we'll send Ash off to get empowered by the pueri magici in one of the other settlements while Zoe gets taken care of here. You are going with the emotional mana sources, correct?"

"Yes," the girls replied in unison.

"Alright, good. That'll ensure you're at the same station as your sister, though I can't guarantee you'll be there at the same time."

"That's fine," Ash answered for both of them. "Oh, and that reminds me. I was wondering, why aren't the pueri magici set up here as well?"

"There's a very good reason for that," Violetta replied. "For some reason, which I don't know, the mana needed for the magical girl empowerment only works on this side of the planet, while the pueri magici empowerment only works on the other side. Once empowered, both groups are fine anywhere on the planet, so, while both groups could mix, they've determined that it's easier to just stay apart unless something major happens."

"Thanks," Ash said. "That was bugging me a bit. I really didn't want to find out I'd need to commute halfway across the planet every day for work."

"You're welcome." Violetta continued, "Once you're both empowered, we'll bring you over to the house, where you'll meet Taylor's other owners and neighbors. After that, the show will officially start, and you'll need to figure out what you want to do to keep the ratings up, unless you want to get spanked, of course."

"Let's avoid that," Zoe said dryly. "Even with the masochism mods we took, it doesn't sound very fun." Ash nodded her agreement. Handing the tablet back over to Violetta, Zoe added, "Anyway, I think we're set. Everything looks good."

"Yup," Ash agreed. "I didn't see any problems."

"Well, good. In that case, we'll just submit the forms and get you back to your bodies so you can finish growing," Violetta said. "Anyways, it was nice meeting you. Have fun over the next year, and I look forward to seeing your full runs in the future." With that said, she signed out of the virtual office, leaving the two girls behind until they, too, were disconnected.

---

Taylor yawned as she made her way toward the hotel. Cindy followed her example a moment later. "What are the plans for later today?" she asked, not wanting to walk along in silence.

"I think they have you scheduled for orientation at your jobs," Cindy said. "And, if you'd like, there should be time to practice shooting some more. Then, in the evening, they'd like to have you give another interview. And there's a few things we need to go over about your magical girl outfit."

"Is there something wrong with it?" Taylor asked defensively, looking over her costume.

"Not really," Cindy replied. "However, since you picked Walking Billboard, there's a minor issue we'll need to resolve."

"Oh?" Taylor asked. "What issue is that?"

"You currently aren't wearing anything lewd or promoting Slut Life or its sister companies," Cindy stated flatly.

"Oh. That," Taylor said with a wince.

"Exactly," Cindy continued. "That. Now, there's two fairly easy ways to deal with this. Either you try to pin a prominent patch on that fits those guidelines or you license your magical girl image for the year."

"What would that accomplish?" Taylor asked, confused.

"It would allow us, meaning Slut Life, to use your image, as a magical girl, to create iconic t-shirts, posters, action figures, and so on," Cindy explained. "You'd get a small percentage as royalties, and, for the purposes of Walking Billboard, you'd be considered to be promoting Slut Life whenever you were out or about in uniform."

Taylor nodded thoughtfully. "That does sound like a good deal," she commented. "Can I think about it and get back to you?"

"Sure," Cindy replied. "And, keep in mind, after the year is over, you can renegotiate the license, either getting a higher royalty on each item sold or ending the agreement entirely."

"I'll think about it," Taylor repeated. "Now, what was that about another interview?"

"It's mostly to go over your body mods," Cindy replied. "Give the audience some idea what changes you had done. And, if you decide to license you magical girl image, there'd be a second interview to promote that as well. Possibly with a small demonstration of what you can do."

"That doesn't sound too bad," Taylor replied.

"It shouldn't be," Cindy agreed. "But, fair warning, some of the hosts like probing personal questions about why you picked or didn't pick certain mods."

"Yeah, well..." Taylor began. Unfortunately, her retort trailed off when a brightly glowing portal tore its way into existence before the two of them. "Get behind me!" Taylor ordered, stepping between Cindy and the portal. A large gun formed in her hands, which she leveled toward the vortex, waiting for whatever emerged.

She was not expecting the dark blur that exited the portal to go straight for her waist, latching on. Once it stopped moving, the blur resolved into the form of a girl, around eight years old, wearing a dress that was mostly purples and blacks, with ribbons going… somewhere. It was really hard to get a good look at them. Her hair was the type of black that looked purple under the right light, like the streetlights around them, and her skin was surprisingly pale.

Weirdly, Taylor thought she recognized the girl, even though her hair, eye, and outfit colors were all different than she thought they should be. She was distracted from that thought when the lump on the smaller girl's shoulder moved, revealing itself to be a small tentacle monster. The little monster lunged forward and wrapped itself around Taylor's mini-dragon, nuzzling the surprised lizard's face.

"Taylor!" the girl cried, trying to burrow her face into the older girl's stomach. "I found you!"

Taylor looked down at the girl, at a loss for several moments. Finally, she gathered her wits enough to ask, "Who are you?"

The girl looked up at Taylor, revealing purple eyes. "It's me, KNFqPRY5E1YrSYfPH00!" Whatever the girl had tried to say, that last bit came across sounding like someone trying to imitate a fax machine mixed with the sounds of an actual fax machine. She frowned, saying that last word again. "That's not right," she muttered, trying yet again before giving up. "I let you do this!" she finally said, raising a hand and letting a moth land on it.

"I'm sorry, what?" Taylor asked.

"I let you control all sorts of things, silly," the girl insisted, giggling lightly. "And now I'm human and I get to stay with you and everything's great!"

"You're saying you're the supercomputer connected to Taylor?" Cindy asked.

The girl tilted her head in thought. "I think that's what the computer talking to me eight planetary rotations ago called me..."

Cindy turned to Taylor. "What do you say? Think she's trustworthy?"

Taylor nodded. "I think so. I kind of recognize her from my dream-vision-thing. Her being connected to me like that would make sense for what I saw."

"Right," Cindy said, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "It is far too late to be dealing with this now. Want to just go back to the hotel, put her on a cot, and deal with it in the morning?"

Taylor was staring blankly into space. Shaking herself out of her fugue state, she replied, "Sure. I think I've had enough shocks for the day."