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

[Jonakhensu]

Preparation 2.4

---

"Did it work?" Cindy demanded anxiously once the shuttle had vanished from the station's sensors.

Analyst Cuypers shrugged. "We won't know for sure until they come out the other side."

"Great," the redhead grumbled. "And since we had Mina helping them, it'll take a few extra hours for her to recharge. Someone needs to get that girl a mana battery."

"I still have the supercomputer's hardware address and dimensional coordinates," Hackerman noted. "I won't be able to talk with it without a lot more effort, but I can still run ping requests."

"I'll take it!" Cindy cried. "I want to know when she leaves Earth so I can be there when she gets back."

Captain Andreyasn asked, "If that's the case, shouldn't you be heading out now? It should take the same amount of total time to get to Babnockorty, but they won't take very long to come out once they get there if Mina decides to recharge on this side of the teraport. From the sounds of things, you do still need to pick up her insects."

"That's a fair point," Cindy grudgingly admitted. "Fine, I'll go, gather Taylor's stuff, and start out toward Babnockorty." She made her way toward the door before spinning and fixing the mercenary with a glare. She waved a finger at him and demanded, "You keep watching and call me as soon as they're through, got it?"

"Got it," Andreyasn, Cuypers, and Hackerman all yelped, recognizing that tone of voice.

"Good," Cindy stated with a nod. Turning, she made her way out of the station.

The three men stood silently for a minute before Hackerman asked urgently, "Is she gone?"

"I think so," Anderyasn replied, just as tensely.

"That was scary," Cuypers muttered. "Reminded me of when my mother would get mad at me when I was a kid."

"It must be a thing girls learn when they get older," Hackerman suggested. A beat later, he quickly added, "Not that I think Miss Matos is old!"

"No, definitely not," Anderyasn agreed. "Just like my sister."

Cuypers nodded, "Nothing of the sort was suggested." And thus the pact of silence was sealed.

---

"NO!" Taylor cried as she reformed in the main cabin of the mercenaries' shuttle.

"Are you alright?" Para asked in concern, rushing over to support the obviously upset girl.

"I felt it," Taylor muttered quietly, grabbing onto the shorter girl for support. "I felt each little bit of me being torn apart and shoved through the wormholes." She shuddered. "It was horrible."

"You… really shouldn't be able to feel that," Para said while patting Taylor on the shoulder. "It must be because of your connection to the supercomputer. It's definitely large enough that we wouldn't be able to convert the entire thing into gravitational waves and back without some lag time."

"Maybe," Mina said, pushing the purple haired girl away slightly so that she could join the hug, "but saying that isn't very reassuring." Softly, she said, "Don't worry, Taylor, you shouldn't need to do that again. You'll be fine, I promise." She continued making soothing noises while the men stood around not being of any use.

Finally, Chisulo coughed lightly to break the awkward silence before saying, "Mina, when do you want to open another portal?"

The magical girl glared at the neophant for a moment before answering, "When Taylor is feeling better. I'm not having her go through the portal while she's still feeling off."

"No, no, it's fine," Taylor said, shrugging her way out of the hug. "Going through the portal's rough, but it'll be fine." Shuddering, she added, "At least it doesn't tear you apart and shove you back together again."

"Good," Chisulo said, as he turned and began heading toward the front of the shuttle. "We're going to be moving into orbit, once there, we'll be ready for you to begin casting."

"Got it," Mina replied with a nod. "Let me know when we're in orbit."

---

"There's no return ping," Hackerman announced. He'd been checking that the supercomputer was still on its version of Earth every fifteen minutes for the last four hours while Captain Andreyasn and Analyst Cuypers watched on.

"Finally!" Cuypers exclaimed. "That took long enough! What were they doing for the last four hour? Waving their dicks around?"

"From my understanding of the plan," Andreyasn said delicately, "that's not far from the truth. After opening up a gateway through dimensions, Mina would have needed to recharge. If they decided to recharge before teraporting over to Babnockorty, it could have taken quite some time for her to wear out all of the mercenaries we sent on that shuttle." He smirked a little. "I'm sure the video will be… instructional."

"How so?" Hackerman asked idly.

"Chisulo is on board," Andreyasn replied with a smirk. "He's a neophant."

"Aren't those the elephants they raised to human intelligence and gave hands?" Cuypers asked.

"Yes," Andreyasn replied. "Like I said, educational."

Hackerman coughed uncomfortably before changing the subject, "So, which of us should be calling Miss Matos?"

"Not it!" Cuypers declared, resting a finger along his nose. Hackerman quickly followed his lead.

Andreyasn sighed, even as he pulled out a communicator. "I'll give the call. This is my operation, after all." Typing in the contact info, he hit to connection button and initiated the call, hitting the button to put the call on speaker.

"Hello?" Cindy's voice came through the phone. "This is Cindy Matos, how can I help you?"

"Miss Matos," Andreyasn replied smoothly, "this is Captain Andreyasn. I'm just calling to let you know that the supercomputer has left Earth."

"So Taylor got to Babnockorty alright?" the redhead demanded.

"We don't know that yet," the bald captain stated, "as they haven't returned to this dimensional plane yet.

"I hate dealing with anything past the fourth dimension," Cindy grumbled. "Alright, thanks for the heads up. I'm almost there, myself, so I should be there to meet her."

"No problem," Andreyasn replied. "Anyway, I'm going to let you go. I think we've used enough of Hackerman's time."

"I do have other things to do," Hackerman noted.

"Wait… Do you have me on speaker phone?" Cindy demanded.

"Yes," Andreyasn replied simply.

"Alright, fine. Thank you, everyone," Cindy called, pitching her voice to reach the entire room. "I really appreciate you guys waiting like this."

"It wasn't a problem," Cuypers replied.

"I should have been supervising the transfer anyway, so no issues there," Andreyasn added.

"I live here," Hackerman bluntly stated. "It wasn't difficult to run an automated ping program."

"Still," Cindy said, "thanks a lot." There was some voices in the background before Cindy added, "Anyway, I'm on my approach to the planet, so I need to sign off. Thanks again, and goodbye for now." With that, she disconnected, leaving the three men looking at the phone.

"Well," Andreyasn finally said. "I think I'll take my leave. I feel naked without my epaulets."

Cuypers blinked and looked at the lightning bolts floating over the man's shoulders. "Aren't those them?"

"No," Anderyasn denied, "these are just replicas. My real epaulets have grenades in them."

"Don't bring grenades into my house," Hackerman demanded tensely. "Especially not without asking first."

"They're perfectly safe," Andreyasn protested.

"Then why aren't you wearing them now?" Cuypers asked.

"I've only stress tested them through a fourth dimensional event," he admitted. "And the supercomputer's connection to Miss Hebert is at least fifth dimensional. I didn't want to take the risk."

"Thank you for that," Hackerman said. "Now, if you're all set, I'd like to get back to my own work."

"Sure, no problem," Andreyasn said.

"I'll be heading out as well," Cuypers added. "You'll be forwarding your records on the supercomputer to the research panel, correct?"

"No problem," Hackerman replied. "I just need a chance to clean it up some and put it into an easily shared format for you."

"Thank you," Cuypers said graciously. "That will greatly help our later efforts."

"I'm sure we have some readings as well," Andreysen chimed in. "I'll send you an estimate for the data, if you'd like."

"You're going to charge us for it?" Cuypers demanded. "What happened to the man who made the teraport open source?"

"He died," Andreyasn said bluntly, "several times, after starting one of the largest wars in our history. Besides, I'm a mercenary, what did you expect?"

"I was expecting a man of science," Cuypers grumbled.

"Well, for that, you should have contacted my retired time clone. Of course, that would have exposed a newly discovered supercomputer to the Plenipotent Dominion."

Cuypers and Hackerman shuddered. "That would have been potentially problematic," the analyst noted.

"Exactly," Anderyasn replied, making his way to the door. "I'll send the estimate as soon as I get a chance to look through the data." Before the other two men had a chance to respond, he ducked through the door and made his way off of the satellite.

"Damn it," Cuypers sighed as the other scientist got away. Turning toward Hackerman, he asked, "Are you going to charge us for the data, too?"

"I should," Hackerman acknowledged, "but it's already part of the agreement I made to help you, so I've already been paid."

"Well, that's something, at least," the analyst muttered. "Anyway, I'll let you get to it. Send us what you have once you get the chance." He made his way toward the door.

"Yeah, I'll make sure to do that," Hackerman called after Cuypers. Once he was fairly sure the other man had left, Hackerman stood and made his way to the door as well, making sure no one else was there, he asked, "So, Kaydo, how hard was it, really?"

"After the initial contact, it was surprisingly easy," the feminine voice of Hackerman's top of the line AI replied. "In fact, it seemed eager to talk, once it realized I was able to do so."

"Neato." Walking back over to his computer monitor, he sat back down before asking, "Did it have anything interesting to say?"

"Not particularly," the AI replied. "It is fairly rudimentary, as far as intelligences go, though I am not sure if that is its natural state or if something was acting as a governor, preventing it from operating at peak efficiency or capability."

"Anything else worth noting?" Hackerman asked.

"The computer needed to wait for authorization before it could be relocated," Kaydo replied. "Once that permission was granted, it was quick to acquiesce to being moved and suggested material it was not using that could safely be consumed to power the teraport. It seemed excited, for a lack of a better term." The AI paused for a moment before adding, "It seemed much more lively after it received permission and was fairly chatty. It was willing to tell me all sorts of interesting things, often with only the barest prompting, but it would abruptly cut off occasionally, as though it couldn't convey certain information."

"Well, the scientists will be happy to learn about that," Hackerman noted."They might even hire us to communicate with it more later on." He paused for a moment before asking, "Think you'd be able to do it without the external probe?"

"Most likely," Kaydo replied. "I now know roughly where to find it, so I should be able to connect with a wireless setup and Miss Hebert's presence." She paused for a moment before adding, "I would not be be against further discussions with that supercomputer. It was… interesting."

Hackerman nodded. "Good to hear." Toggling a few controls, he asked, "Anyway, are you ready to keep searching for Kung Fury?"

"Always," the AI replied.

---

"You alright, Taylor?" Para asked as soon as she recovered from their passage through the portal.

"I'm fine," Taylor groaned. "It's Mina you should be worrying about." She hoisted the smaller girl up demonstrably. "She passed out as soon as we got through."

"Damn, that girl needs to get better mana reserves," Para noted as she came over to help Taylor support the unconscious girl. "This can't be healthy for her."

Taylor shrugged helplessly. "I'm surprised Slut Life hasn't given her anything yet."

"Well, she did say she doesn't do this type of thing often," Para pointed out. "Maybe they think she doesn't really need the extra power?" She gestured with her head. "Come on, help me get her to the couch, since the big, strong men can't be bothered to help."

There was a brief moment of stillness before the gathered mercenaries burst into action, relieving the girls of their burden and carrying the magical girl to the couch. "Sorry, ma'am," one of the mercs, wearing a knit hat, said, nodding toward Taylor. "We didn't mean to be rude or nothing."

"Er, no problem," Taylor said hesitantly. Turning to Para, she asked, "Mina did manage to close the portal before passing out, right?"

"I think so," Para replied uncertainty. She pulled out a handbrain and flipped through a few screens. "Scans are coming back inconclusive, which can't be good."

"She said that maintaining the portal took mana, right?" Taylor began. "So, if it was still open, it'd stop her from recovering as quickly."

"I think she's just tired," the polite mercenary suggested. "She's been busy for the last few hours, right? Maybe she just needs a nap. Then she can close the portal right up."

"I don't think that's how it works," Taylor said, worriedly. "I guess we can give her some time to rest and see if she recovers on her own. I think that should happen if the portal's closed."

"It's not like there's anything we can do for her out here," Para added. "Our combat medic isn't really good at dealing with exhaustion, the captain's tailor is with him, and our doctor stayed back at base, so we don't have any medical personnel on hand. If there is something wrong with her, our best bet is to get her to the surface as soon as possible." She paused for a moment before snapping out, "Chisulo! Get us planetside ASAP!"

"Any reason?" the neophant called back.

"Mina's passed out, and we're not sure if it's just exhaustion or if it's something more serious!"

"Got it," Chisulo stated calmly. "Everyone hold on, we're going in hot. Cobb! Get on the hypernode and let them know we're coming!"

"Yessir!" the merc in the hat called before he rushed off to make the call.

"Where are we putting down?" Para asked.

"Unless they redirect us towards a hospital, I've got us landing at the Babnockorty City terminal," Chisulo replied. "It should have a decent medical base, and possibly even a few magical girls who can give Mina some mana."

"Good choice," Para decided. "Taylor, could you stay by Mina and try to keep her comfortable? I'll run back and grab a blanket for her."

"Got it," Taylor said, stepping up to the couch and crouching down to get a better look at Mina's still form.

"We have blankets on board?" another of the mercenaries asked.

"No, but we have a fabber," Para retorted. "I'll be back in five." She scampered off before the man could reply.

"We've been cleared for a direct landing," the mercenary, Cobb, announced. "So long as we're subsonic before we're over the city we'll be shiny."

"Good," Chisulo announced. "We'll be coming in fast, so anyone who wants a look at the planet before we get too close, you've got about two minutes to see the whole thing."

One of the mercenaries stepped up next to Taylor. "You go take a look," he said with a lopsided grin. "I'll watch after the little miss for a few minutes." His grin widened as he added, "Besides, we'll get a chance to see the whole planet as we're leaving."

"Thanks," Taylor replied with a nod before she stood and made her way to one of the windows to look outside.

Below her lay the planet, quickly growing larger as the ship approached. Both poles were covered in large ice caps, followed by a brownish ring. Only the land within the middle third of the planet looked particularly green. Over one of the visible oceans, a massive storm raged.

"That's a lot of ice," Taylor opined, just as Para was returning with a pile of blankets for Mina.

"Yeah, it is," the purple haired girl agreed. "I wouldn't worry about it, though. We're dropping you off near the equator, so it'll be nice and warm all year round." She gestured towards the large storm before adding, "As an added bright side, you should be close enough to the equator to avoid most of the larger storms, like that one."

"That sounds good," Taylor agreed. "Though I'm used to it being winter. I've never been to the tropics before."

Para waved off the concern, "Oh, that? That's easy to get used to. You'll be fine in less than a week, trust me."

"I'll take your word for it," Taylor said dubiously. She looked out the window again before asking, "Aren't we coming in a little fast?" The planet had already grown from a large circle to filling the entire window as the ship sped toward it.

"That's the idea," Para noted. "We want to land as fast as possible to get Mina to the proper medical care."

"Oh… if that's the case, why did we start so far away from the planet in the first place?" Taylor asked.

"Mostly for safety," Para explained. "Opening portals like Mina did can be dangerous, so we needed to make sure we were away from any satellites or traffic before emerging." Taking one last look out the window, Para turned away and began making her way to a seat. "You should probably grab a seat," she said. "We're coming in hotter than usually, and there might be some turbulence. The ship's gravy should take care of it, but better safe than sorry, right?"

Taylor turned and stared at Para for a moment before she yelped, "Got it!" and rushed toward a seat once she realized that the girl was actually being serious. Once she was seated, she asked, "What's gravy?"

Para slapped the side of her head. "Sorry," she began, "I forgot you weren't used to our terminology. We tend to call artificial gravity gravy, because enough of it can turn you into gravy."

"That's… pleasant," Taylor replied, feeling a little sick.

---

"Ground Control. Ground Control. This is the Jade Falcon," Cindy spoke into the radio. "I am starting my final approach to land. Please copy."

"Jade Falcon. Jade Falcon. This is Ground Control. Negative on your landing clearance," came the reply. "We're sending you directions for a holding pattern. Your landing has been delayed. I say again, your landing has been delayed."

"Wilco that, Ground Control," Cindy returned. "I'm setting the course now." Leaning back in her seat, the redhead sighed. "Figures something would come up just as I'm about to land," she muttered. "And Taylor should be getting here anytime now."

"Jade Falcon," the radio squawked. "Be advised that a hypersonic craft is on approach. It should be passing to your left in two minutes."

"Hypersonic?" Cindy yelped. "Why is anything coming in while hypersonic?!" She was glad that she hadn't hit the radio then. Breaking radio protocol during what had to be an emergency was not something she wanted to do.

"All stations. All stations. This is the West Wind. Be advised, we are approaching east south east of Babnockorty City at 900 knots. We are decelerating rapidly, but may still produce a sonic boom out to eight clicks. I say again, we are approaching east south east of Babnockorty City at 900 knots. We are decelerating rapidly, but may still produce a sonic boom out to eight clicks. Ground Control. Ground Control. This is the West Wind. We will be arriving on station in five minutes. I say again, we will be arriving on station in five minutes. Is there a cleared landing strip for us? Over."

"West Wind. West Wind. This is Ground Control," the traffic coordinator answered. "We have you cleared for landing at landing strip four. I say again, you are cleared for landing at landing strip for. Emergency services are standing by. Over."

"Wilco that," the West Wind replied. "We'll have the patient ready for transport within seven minutes. Out."

"Oh no," Cindy groaned in worry. "That has to be Taylor's shuttle!" Worrying about what could have happened to the girl she had befriended over the last several days, Cindy could do nothing but stay in her holding pattern until whatever emergency had been resolved. "Damn it, Flare, I hate waiting," she grumbled to her AI companion and copilot.

"We will be down shortly," Flare replied in a soothing tone. "Once we receive clearance to land, we'll be down in less than 20 minutes in the worst case and can find out what is happening then. Attempting anything now will just make things harder for the ground crews."

"I know that," Cindy complained, "but I still don't like not being able to do anything about it." The two sat in tense silence until the shock wave of the passing shuttle rolled over them.

---

As soon as her Horizon-class star yacht had safely powered down and she could get to the hatch, Cindy was rushing through the corridors of Babnockorty City's space terminal. Spotting a familiar uniform, she grabbed the purple haired girl by the shoulder, spun her around to face her, and demanded, "How is she?"

The mercenary tensed, beginning an attack before forcing herself to relax as she recognized her attacker from the information packet they had been given for the mission. "We don't know," she answered in clipped tones. "She passed out as soon as we got through the portal and hasn't woken up since."

"Damn it!" the redhead snapped. "I knew we needed to do more testing." Sighing softly, she muttered, "I'm sorry, Taylor."

"Are you alright, Cindy?" Taylor Hebert asked awkwardly from beside Para.

"Taylor!" Cindy exclaimed, spinning to look over her charge. "You're alright!" Taylor quickly found herself wrapped in a tight hug.

"Yes?" Taylor said questioningly while patting the older girl on the back, not knowing what else to do.

Looking over to the purple tressed mercenary again, Cindy demanded, "Why did you say she was unconscious?"

"I what?" Para asked, confused. "I thought you were talking about Mina. She passed out right after we got through her second portal, and we haven't been able to wake her up."

"Did you try sex?" Cindy asked, releasing Taylor from her hug.

"What?! How could you even," Para sputtered. She took a breath to calm herself. "We're mercenaries, not monsters."

"Well, yeah," Cindy replied, "but it sounds like Mina is out of mana, so… sex."

Taylor was thoughtful for a moment before she guessed, "Because she's a Carnal magical girl?"

Para pinched the bridge of her nose. "I can't believe none of us thought of that. Hell, just having the men beat one out would have been enough, wouldn't it?"

Cindy shrugged. "Probably. I don't really know how it all works, but I read up a bit more on the emotional types once Taylor decided to become one."

"Good idea," Para agreed. "Hang on, I need to update Medical." Pulling out her communicator, she said, "Chisulo, you're still with Mina, right?"

"They wouldn't let me in the treatment room, but I'm close enough," the large mercenary replied.

"Good. Let them know that it could be a case of mana depletion," Para began. "The Slut Life representative with me suggested generating lust as a mana source."

"I'll let them know," Chisulo said before signing off.

"Well, that should take care of that," Para commented, putting her communicator away. "It's up to the docs now."

"Pretty much," Cindy agreed. "Do you have any idea what happened?"

"Not really," Para replied. "Anyway, since I don't think I've introduced myself I'm Corporal Para Ventura, with Tagon's Toughs. And you are?"

"Right, sorry," Cindy apologized, shaking her head slightly. "I was a bit worried and lost myself for a moment there. I'm Cindy Matos." She held out a hand. "Nice to meet you."

"Same," Para replied, taking the hand. "So, you just came in?"

"Yeah, I was in the middle of landing when you guys claimed emergency priority," Cindy said.

"You either made very good speed or took forever getting ready," Para noted.

"What do you mean?" Taylor asked.

"Well," Para began, "If Cindy used a teraport, she had to have taken almost three hours to get ready for us to have gotten here around the same time. But, if she wasn't using a teraport, getting this far from Earth in just three hours is really impressive."

"I don't really know that much about stellar navigation," Cindy prefaced, "but I've been told the Jade Falcon has a 0.5 class hyperdrive."

"And that means?" Para asked leadingly.

"Hang, on," Cindy began, holding up wrist and flexing her hand. A small holographic window opened above the bracelet she was wearing. A few quick gestures and she relaxes her hand, causing the window to disappear. "According to Flare, my AI, it means that we can travel at a little more than nine million times the speed of light."

"Nine- nine million," Para squeaked. "That's really impressive. We still can't get above light speed without using a wormgate or teraport back home."

"I'm confused," Taylor admitted. "Shouldn't you both have the same technology? You're from the same universe, right?"

"That's… not quite accurate," Cindy admitted. "There are, I suppose bridges is a good term, between some of the more well-connected universes in the multiverse that allow travel from one universe to another. This universe is one of the hub universes, so it's got a lot more different tech around than some of the others."

"It also helps that you can just get handed a spaceship for completing a run on Slut Life or another show," Para grumbled. "And I saw some of the specs on those ships. Most of them aren't nearly as fast as yours."

Cindy shrugged. "It does what I want, is pretty comfortable, and can defend itself when necessary. Being able to land it in my backyard is just a bonus."

"That sounds pretty small," Para noted.

"It is. The Jade Falcon is only about 50 meters long, but it's got a decent sized hold and a good amount of living space," Cindy replied. "Anyway, we've been standing in this corridor long enough. Want to go get some food?"

"I could eat," Para agreed.

"Lunch would be good," Taylor added, right before her stomach growled audibly, causing her to blush.

 

[RageKnight]

So QA is like a hyperactive child to SL AI?

 

[SystemSearcher]

So QA is like a hyperactive child to SL AI?

Click to shrink...

Or at least to Hackerman's friend.

...heh. And now I'm wondering whether Hackerman's mostly showmanshipping and the old-ass terminal mostly serves as a simplistic communication console to the AI while she stays silent and does all the actual work.

 

[MissileTeatime]

"Sorry, ma'am," one of the mercs, wearing a knit hat, said, nodding toward Taylor. "We didn't mean to be rude or nothing."

Click to shrink...

Goddamnit Jayne.

 

[edale]

Goddamnit Jayne.

Click to shrink...

Nice, I'm surprised I missed that, lol.

Well.... He is always trying to get laid, and that DEFINITELY happened this time, lol.

...And now I'm getting tempted to reread 'Browncoat, Green Eyes' again.

 

[MissileTeatime]

...And now I'm getting tempted to reread 'Browncoat, Green Eyes' again.

Click to shrink...

Never heard of it before, but just finished chapter five. Can't help thinking that QQ is a fantastically appropriate place to link it.

 

[edale]

Never heard of it before, but just finished chapter five. Can't help thinking that QQ is a fantastically appropriate place to link it.

Click to shrink...

It's an old one, that's for sure. Doesn't change the fact that it's pretty damned good.

Now you want something that's really QQ appropriate to link... Possibly the best work of fanfiction I've ever read:
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/895946/Lightning-on-the-Wave

Don't know if the guy only wrote the one series, or if he has other stuff under other usernames, but everything on that account is all part of one series. It's an alt-universe Harry Potter story consisting of 7 'books' and a few side stories (total length is in the 3-4 million word range). Magic is actually magical, Light and Dark actually have a real, and very deep, meanings. Oh, and the Potter's are alive, Harry's brother is hailed as the Boy-Who-Lived, and if you thought the Dursleys were abusive to Harry (though it might be the 3-4th book by the time you fully understand just how bad it really is)?

One warning though... It's HP/DM slash. Don't go running for the hills! It's not as bad as it sounds! Seriously, I hate slash too! It's not until a good way into the 4th or 5th book that anything really happens on that front, and the really bad (and they are... really bad) parts are clearly marked and easily skippable. And the relationship is actually very believable in the context of the story. Besides, you won't really care at that point because of how damned well-written the story itself it.

 

[The Unicorn]

Jonakhensu
Nice chapter, I liked the misunderstanding with who was unconscious, and I hope that's the last we see of the Schlock Mercenary in this story (not that it was badly written, I just personally found it annoying).
I was a bit surprised there was no description of Taylor's reaction when they landed, i.e several billion bugs entered her range all at once.
Also I really want to see the backyard you can land a 50 meter space ship in.

Now you want something that's really QQ appropriate to link... Possibly the best work of fanfiction I've ever read:
https://www.fanfiction.net/u/895946/Lightning-on-the-Wave

Click to shrink...

As I recall (it's been a few years since I tried reading it) around about the middle of the third book the hyper competence and contrived reflections of canon events got too much for me. I should probably try rereading that, if only so I can give the right reason not to read it (well that and because the early books were very well written and quite enjoyable).

 

[Jonakhensu]

Time for some replies and such.

So QA is like a hyperactive child to SL AI?

Click to shrink...

That wasn't the impression I was trying for, but I suppose it fits. On the other hand, what I was actually trying to convey is covered, at least partially, in those coded modules from the interlude.

...heh. And now I'm wondering whether Hackerman's mostly showmanshipping and the old-ass terminal mostly serves as a simplistic communication console to the AI while she stays silent and does all the actual work.

Click to shrink...

It's about fifty-fifty, give or take fifty percent. The AI uses Hackerman's hacking methods, techniques, codes, etc., but she can do it a lot faster than he can, which is important when working with significantly faster systems.

In case it's not already obvious, I don't know terribly much about actual hacking, so I doubt the actual methodology will ever be a plot point. The results of the hack are important, but I'm not going to worry too much about explaining the method... beyond "Is this physically possible" when not dealing with someone able to hack time.

Goddamnit Jayne.

Click to shrink...

Using a collected multiverse does make it fun to have dimensional alternates show up occasionally.

Well.... He is always trying to get laid, and that DEFINITELY happened this time, lol.

Click to shrink...

He just won't kiss them on the mouth.

Nice chapter, I liked the misunderstanding with who was unconscious, and I hope that's the last we see of the Schlock Mercenary in this story (not that it was badly written, I just personally found it annoying).

Click to shrink...

Thanks, I figured Cindy would be panicking a bit and would miss the obvious detail of Taylor standing next to her. As for the Schlock Mercenary stuff? I'm probably not done using it entirely (Taylor did make friends with Para, after all), but it won't be a major part of the story. They should only show up for a scene or two at a time from now on, rather than having entire chapters revolve around them.

I was a bit surprised there was no description of Taylor's reaction when they landed, i.e several billion bugs entered her range all at once.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure showing that scene would have been terribly interesting. "Oh, hey. Bugs." pretty much sums it up.

Also I really want to see the backyard you can land a 50 meter space ship in.

Click to shrink...

\

Admittedly, the lawn is a bit larger than I was originally thinking, but I wouldn't be terribly surprised if people had nice, large lawns. It wouldn't take more than six acres to easily accommodate a 50 meter ship, depending on the dimensions of the lawn. There's also the difference between "Landing in the backyard" and "Storing my spaceship in the backyard."

 

[edale]

He just won't kiss them on the mouth.

Click to shrink...

Well, not the one on their heads anyways...

I'm not sure showing that scene would have been terribly interesting. "Oh, hey. Bugs." pretty much sums it up.

Click to shrink...

Hmmm... Actually...

Taylor feeling the psychosomatic aftershocks of being torn apart at the molecular level, while worrying over Mina's condition. Seeing the spectacular view of the planet getting bigger a LOT faster than she's comfortable with (especially as it's her first planetfall), bracing for the stimulus from the bugs that could potentially overload her brain pushing her into the psych ward for a few days until she acclimates (IIRC, she's only been exposed to a few hundred bugs at once so far, and the psych ward thing was a real concern when she 'signed up'). The suspense rapidly building in her mind. Then bam... "Oh, hey. Bugs... Neat."

Done right it could be stretched into a whole chapter by itself.

 

[Mastigos2]

Goddamnit Jayne.

Click to shrink...

Now what would be a fun plot twist is if this wasn't just a random cameo but instead foreshadowing.

By which I mean a plot-relevant heist might be coming.

 

[The Unicorn]

I'm not sure showing that scene would have been terribly interesting. "Oh, hey. Bugs." pretty much sums it up.

Click to shrink...

My point was I was a bit surprised there wasn't anything more than that.

There's also the difference between "Landing in the backyard" and "Storing my spaceship in the backyard."

Click to shrink...

Point. However there's a point where you no longer have a "backyard" and instead have a small field you own behind the house. I think an area you can store your 50 meter spaceship in is close to if not past that point.

 

[edale]

Point. However there's a point where you no longer have a "backyard" and instead have a small field you own behind the house. I think an area you can store your 50 meter spaceship in is close to if not past that point.

Click to shrink...

My Aunt literally owns the mountain her house is on (well, 75% of it, my cousin owns the other 25%). As far as she's concerned one half of the mountain is her front yard, and the other half of the mountain is her backyard... Several football fields could fit in either. (She's not actually anywhere near as rich as this makes her sound, though she is very well off)

Rural areas just have much larger yards than us cityfolk are used to seeing, lol.

 

[The Unicorn]

Rural areas just have much larger yards than us cityfolk are used to seeing, lol.

Click to shrink...

I'm well aware they have much larger properties than houses in the city do, I just don't think you can call them yards

 

[Czlyydwr Llrngwl]

I'm well aware they have much larger properties than houses in the city do, I just don't think you can call them yards

Click to shrink...

Maybe once you get to "football gridiron" size, but 50m the long way and half to a third the other isn't that excessive. If someone has kids and/or dogs they want to let play outside without having to worry about them getting too close to the road, it's just about right.

 

[Jonakhensu]

I'm well aware they have much larger properties than houses in the city do, I just don't think you can call them yards

Click to shrink...

The other thing is that people refer to the entire area around them as their backyard. It's the entire point of the "Not in my backyard" stance toward... pretty much anything. If there was a public field nearby, Cindy could still be referring to that when she says "my backyard", even though she in no way owns that land. People are weird like that.

And, yes, I know this idea contradicts other statements I've made. Luckily, I haven't said anything in the actual story, so it's much easier to mentally update what was meant.

 

[Ack]

The other thing is that people refer to the entire area around them as their backyard. It's the entire point of the "Not in my backyard" stance toward... pretty much anything. If there was a public field nearby, Cindy could still be referring to that when she says "my backyard", even though she in no way owns that land. People are weird like that.

And, yes, I know this idea contradicts other statements I've made. Luckily, I haven't said anything in the actual story, so it's much easier to mentally update what was meant.

Click to shrink...

Where I grew up, a 50 metre ship landing and taking off could be handled with ease anywhere near the house. In fact, with a little effort, it could happen inside the houseyard itself (though things would be a little cramped).

They land helicopters in the house paddock, and it's technically feasible to touch down a light plane on the road leading out to the turn-off.

260 square km of back yard

 

[edale]

Where I grew up, a 50 metre ship landing and taking off could be handled with ease anywhere near the house. In fact, with a little effort, it could happen inside the houseyard itself (though things would be a little cramped).

They land helicopters in the house paddock, and it's technically feasible to touch down a light plane on the road leading out to the turn-off.

260 square km of back yard

Click to shrink...

Yea, but you live in Australia. IIRC it took 3-4 days to walk across Crocodile Dundee's yard.
Sadly, I couldn't find that clip on youtube...

 

[Jonakhensu]

Preparation 2.5

---

"Well, here we are," Cindy said, gesturing around the small room. "Your new home for the next week or two."

"It looks like a hotel room," Taylor noted, looking around. The room was reasonably spacious, though it primarily contained a small bed, a desk, a few lights and a bathroom.

"It is," Cindy replied. "And on that note, you may want to stay below the third floor." At Taylor's questioning look, the redhead explained, "The upper floors are set aside for current contestants, neighbors, and other volunteers who want the free rent. The lower floors are for people passing through and contestants waiting for their runs to begin." She paused for a moment before adding, "My room's actually right next to yours."

"I take it the upper floors get a bit crazy?" Taylor asked, recalling what she had seen of the show that had taken place in a similar hotel.

"It can," Cindy agreed. "Especially during spring break. The rooms up there are less expensive, due to the likelihood of getting caught up in the moment and getting filmed, so they're pretty popular with regular students on vacation." She grinned and added, "We've got an entire line of videos about partiers forgetting themselves and going wild."

"That doesn't sound particularly ethical," Taylor noted.

"Oh, we don't just publish the videos," Cindy said reassuringly. "We take the kids aside, show them what we filmed, and offer them either a one time fee or some royalties on the sales. If they don't agree, we don't use that footage." She shrugged and added, "I understand most of them appreciate the extra pocket money."

Taylor considered that for a moment. "If they know what they're getting into and are getting paid for it, I guess that's not so bad," she decided. Looking around again, she changed the subject, "Am I supposed to keep my bugs in here, or did you have somewhere else in mind? I can feel them a good distance that way." She pointed deeper into the compound.

"I found a nice, well ventilated and climate controlled room in one of our storage buildings," Cindy replied. "It's about half way between the hotel and the labs, so you should be able to control them the entire time you're here, unless you decide to go for a longer trip or something."

"I can't really see that happening," Taylor admitted ruefully. "It's not like I know anyone else in the area or have any money to spend."

"True," Cindy agreed. "But that's part of why you chose to get paid throughout the year, right? To make sure you had money of your own to buy things with?"

"Pretty much," Taylor said.

"Well, if it helps, I've got a few food vouchers for you while you're waiting for everything to be set up," Cindy began cheerfully. "They're good at the tavern, bar, restaurant, karaoke bar, room service, and a few of the less local places. If you want something fresh, it'll also work at the local grocery stores."

"Are the restaurants any good?" Taylor asked.

"It really depends on which ones you go for," Cindy replied, "and what you're looking for. The fast food places are fast food, so… yeah. Some of the restaurants are really good, though." A moment later, she winced and added, "Of course, you probably aren't going to have too much time to try them all."

"Busy schedule?" Taylor assumed.

"Very," the redhead agreed. "First, they're going to need to take care of your body mods. Depending on how extreme the changes you want, that can take anywhere between a day and more than a week." She pulled up Taylor's contract on her bracelet and scrolled over the relevant portions. "Based on what you're getting, most of it should be done in a day. The only lengthy part is likely to be the gills. That'll probably take a bit more time to restructure everything and make sure it all works correctly."

Taylor nodded her understanding. "I can see that being more difficult. I'm surprised it'll only take that short a time."

"We've gotten very good at this over the years," Cindy confided. "Anyway, once they finish modifying your body, they'll take some genetic samples and whip up a pair of siblings for you. That'll take a few more days as they grow, but you won't be involved in that part. We'll have your magical girl empowerment ritual take place sometime around then."

"That's a lot of stuff to do," Taylor said worriedly. "I was hoping to get some more practice with the rifle before the empowerment, too."

"I'll see what I can set up," Cindy promised. "For now, you might as well get settled in and get something to eat. Your appointment with the body modders is tomorrow morning, so you might want to get an early night as well."

"I am pretty tired," Taylor admitted. "I think I'll just order something from room service, take a nice, relaxing shower, and head to bed for the night."

"I'll probably do the same," Cindy replied. "I'll see you in the morning, alright?"

"That sounds fine," Taylor said. "Goodnight, Cindy."

"Goodnight, Taylor, I'll see you in the morning," Cindy returned before making her way out of the hotel room.

---

Once she'd settled into her room with a nice plate of chicken fingers from room service, Cindy propped open her laptop and initiated a call back to Earth. "Evening, Boss," she said as Bob Ross answered the video call.

"Good evening, Cindy. Did everything work out alright with the transfer?" the executive asked, jumping right into the business at hand.

"For the most part," Cindy replied. "We had a little trouble with Mina, but everything went well with Taylor. Apparently there was some kind of an issue with teraporting, but it only lasted a few moments. I don't think we'll be able to get her back to Earth the same way, though."

"That bad?" Ross asked before shaking his head. "No, you don't need to answer that one. I'll start looking for an alternate way to get Miss Hebert home at the end of the year."

"Thank you, Sir," Cindy said, sighing in relief. "We could probably get her to take a teraport again, if we had to, but I'm sure she'd rather not."

"Perfectly understandable, if she had problems," Ross replied. "Now, what was that you were saying about Mina?"

Cindy coughed lightly before responding, "She apparently overexerted herself making the second portal. The mercenaries didn't think of using sex to wake her up, so they made an emergency landing to get her treatment as quickly as possible. Once I spoke with Corporal Ventura and realized they hadn't tried that method first, I contacted the medical wing here and told them it may be an effective treatment."

"Have you received any update on her condition yet?" Ross asked, a frown marring his face.

"I haven't checked recently," Cindy admitted. "Give me a moment, and I'll see what I can find." Muting and minimizing the chat, she opened her email and glanced through the headings. Not seeing anything promising, she flexed her hand to open her holographic phone while typing in a search with her other hand. Dialing the number she found, she waited a moment before saying, "Hello, this is Cindy Matos, with Slut Life. I wanted to check on one of your patients."

"I'll need to check your permissions first, please hold a moment," the receptionist replied. Cindy sighed as she was subjected to the hold muzak the hospital had decided on using. "Here we go. I see that you have limited access to some information. Which patient are you asking about?"

"I'm asking about a magical girl named Mina," Cindy began. "A group of mercenaries brought her in earlier today."

"I have her records here," the receptionist replied. "She is currently in recovery and is scheduled to be released tomorrow morning."

"I'm glad to hear it," Cindy said. "Does it say what happened?"

There was the sound of keys clicking on the other side of the phone. Finally, the receptionist answered, "According to Mina, the portal took most of her mana, like it usually does. She usually has just enough to close the portal before she would pass out from maintaining it. This time, something prevented her from closing the portal normally, and she didn't have enough mana to force it to close. Since it was still drawing on her mana, and she wasn't producing more, she passed out, with all of her mana generation going to maintaining the portal."

"So she needed an external influx of mana?" Cindy hazarded a guess.

"Right," the receptionist agreed. "Once she was awake, she gathered additional mana quickly before forcing the portal closed. That, of course, knocked her out again. She's just sleeping it off, now."

"I'm glad she'll be alright. Thanks for the information," Cindy said before ending the call. Bringing the video call back to the forefront on her laptop, she unmuted it.

"Well?" Ross asked. "What did you find out?"

"Something kept the portal open and it drained Mina's mana too far," Cindy explained. "They managed to get her up long enough to force the portal closed. She's still recovering."

"Great," Ross grumbled. "Another thing we're going to need to figure out. I'm glad Mina's alright." He sighed and added, "I'm going to need to see about getting her some sort of mana storage device if we're going to keep having her ferry people around, though." Shaking his head, he continued, "Thank you for the update. Please keep me posted of any other developments."

"I will," Cindy promised. Hesitantly, she added, "I'm going to try something with Taylor's body mod appointment tomorrow. If things go well, Taylor will be much happier, and if they don't, well, it'll be during the planning phase, so we'll still be able to fix it."

Ross gave his subordinate a hard look. "Just make sure she gets what she wants," he said seriously.

"I will," Cindy insisted. "She'll have plenty of time to make additional tweaks before everything is finalized."

"Good. We've messed up with her enough as it is already," Ross said seriously. "We don't need to be making things worse now."

Cindy shuddered slightly before agreeing, "Definitely not, Sir."

"Good. Now, I have some more meeting I need to get to before I can go home for the night, so I'll let you go," Ross concluded. "Have a good night."

"You too, Sir," Cindy said before ending the call. Yawning, she decided to head to bed. She would need to get up early to set up her plan at the body mod clinic before meeting with Taylor. The plan wouldn't work if Taylor knew about it beforehand. Luckily, the clinic should be just slightly outside her known range, so she shouldn't be able to listen in on the conversation if she suddenly figured out the eavesdropping trick she was working on.

---

It had taken about two hours since she'd woken up, but Taylor was finally ready to undergo the body modification procedure. She could have been ready earlier, but she had been hungry that morning and needed to have a large breakfast. She also wanted to check on her insects, since they weren't sure if she'd be able to control them while being modified. Such were the risks of general anesthesia. In the event that she wouldn't be able to control them, her spider was in a decent sized enclosure with a nice, juicy beetle ready to be eaten, her ants were set up so they couldn't escape, her millipede was set up with a nice habitat and a good amount of vegetation to eat, her crickets were in a terrarium, and her bees had access to the outside, so they could forage for food.

She was worried about the egg sack of Darwin Bark spider eggs she had, because they could easily prove cannibalistic once they hatched. On the other hand, they didn't feel like they were ready yet, so she figured they had a good week or so before then. Once she was done with her modifications, she was planning on keeping the egg sack on her at all times. Sure, having a swarm of baby spiders crawling all over sounded creepy, and she wasn't sure how she'd take the sensations when the time came, but it was definitely preferable to losing her new silk producers.

Turning to Cindy, who was patiently waiting beside her in front of the medical center and laboratory's door, Taylor sighed, saying, "Alright, I'm ready. Let's get this over with."

"Sure, let's do this," Cindy agreed, opening the door for the younger girl. "Your room is all set up, over here," she continued, leading Taylor down one of the hallways. "Dr. Zecora is waiting for you."

Taylor flushed slightly. "Sorry, I didn't mean to make him wait."

"Dr. Zecora is a her," Cindy said simply. "And, don't worry, she's used to dealing with nervous patients." Before Taylor could say anything else, Cindy led her through a door and into a room. "And here we are."

Taylor looked around the room. For the most part, it looked very much like a waiting room. There were a few chairs along the sides of the room what looked like a gray mat in the center. In one of the corners there was a privacy screen. "Ah, there you are," a kindly female voice began, drawing Taylor's attention to the other corner, where a computer terminal stood, a woman sitting behind it. "I was worried you had wandered far."

Taylor stood, staring at the woman dumbly, momentarily transfixed on the two pointed ears, the black and white striped mohawk, and the pronounced muzzle the woman sported. This was one woman who definitely had a bit of zebra in her. Shaking herself, Taylor said, "Er, hi. Sorry about that, I needed to take care of my insects before getting started."

"It is good that you do not act in haste," Dr. Zecora said, standing and walking around the terminal. Taylor noticed that her legs ended in hooves and she had a striped horse tail swaying out of the back of her lab coat. "To do otherwise would be a waste."

"Dr. Zecora has a great deal of experience with transformations and magic," Cindy explained. "The higher ups thought she'd be able to offer her expertise here."

"Zecora you may call me. It will give us a better repartee. With Lyra, I came from the pony lands," Zecora explained. "So that we could learn about using hands. It turned out to be much fun, so I stayed even after my contract was done."

"Oh… that's nice," Taylor said awkwardly. She wasn't quite sure what to make of the rhyming doctor. "Er… should we get started?"

"Yes, there is much to do," Zecora said, making her way back to the computer. She gestured toward the screen and added, "Step behind the screen and we'll have a view."

Taylor blinked in confusion as she tried to parse that one. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Your image, we will need," Zecora explained, "so that we can proceed."

Cindy groaned, her hand going to rub the bridge of her nose for a moment before she translated. "We need you to strip down behind the screen so we can get a three-dimensional scan of your body. Then you can come back out here and we'll work our way through the changes you want to make using the holographic projector."

"Do I really need to be naked?" Taylor asked, even as she made her way over to the privacy screen. Come to think of it, why did they bother with the screen if they were going to be projecting her naked anyway?

"In the way, your clothes will get," the zebra woman said. "A good scan we'll need to not fret."

Taylor puzzled that one over before asking, "So you mean the clothes would get in the way of making a proper model to work from, so any adjustments I make would be wrong?"

"You are very astute," Zecora said, smiling slyly. "It's a good thing you're so very cute."

Taylor flushed in embarrassment, not knowing how to take that comment and rushed behind the screen. She quickly stripped down before calling out, "Alright, I'm ready!"

"There is no need for woe," Zecora called back. "We are all ready to go." A ring above Taylor flared with light before lowering around her. It traveled up and down her form several times before returning to its place in the ceiling. "The scan is wrought, now out you trot."

After a second translating that last bit into something normal, Taylor called back, "Can I at least get dressed first?"

"Go ahead, Taylor," Cindy replied. "We should have everything we need."

"Thanks," Taylor called as she pulled her clothes back on. Coming around the screen, she was met by the two women observing the nude holographic figure floating above the mat. Taylor flushed in embarrassment but made her way over to Cindy without saying anything.

"Where would you like to start?" Zecora asked. "What facet is closest to your heart?"

Taylor looked over the nude portrayal of her body and winced. Her too wide mouth looked even more absurd than she was used to, though she supposed that could just be the angle she was looking at it from. Still, even more than the mouth, there was one thing that truly made her appearance look like that of an upright frog. "Can we start with my belly?" she asked meekly.

"What change would you like to inspect?" Zecora asked. "I am sure we can have some effect."

Taylor sighed. That rhyming was going to get old fast, but she didn't want to say anything in case the quirk was cultural or something. Insulting your doctor right before surgery didn't seem particularly wise. "I've been jogging a bit to get rid of my paunch," Taylor admitted hesitantly. She blinked and slapped her forehead as a thought came to her. "And that was completely unnecessary since I'm going through this, wasn't it?"

"Well, mostly," Cindy admitted. "But it kept you occupied when you didn't have anything else to do, and it's a good habit to get into, especially since you're going to be a magical girl and want to be a hero once you get back home."

Taylor sighed in resignation. "You're probably right. Anyway, can we see about flattening that out? Make it toned?"

"If it is toned you seek, then we shall have to take a peek," the dark skinned woman said as she manipulated the computer. When she was done, the stomach of the hologram was noticeably smaller, smooth with just the barest hint of a six pack showing through. "What do you think of this style?" she asked. "I think it makes a nice profile."

"Yeah," Taylor had to agree, looking at the image in shock.

"Looks nice," Cindy added. "If you want anything more, you can probably get there with just a bit of exercise."

Taylor's eyes roved over the stomach for a moment before coming to a decision. "That looks fine. Anything more would probably be suspicious when I get back home, right?"

"If changes you wish to hide, then your time you must bide," Zecora agreed sagely.

"Right," Taylor decided. "Let's keep that as it is and move on to my face." Zecora nodded and caused the hologram to zoom in, leaving the group looking at a massive copy of Taylor's head. At the new angle, it was even more apparent how freakishly wide her mouth was. Frowning, Taylor asked, "Can we narrow my mouth a bit?"

"But your lips are so expressive," Zecora protested. "We should not be as aggressive. I will make changes bit by bit; you can tell me when to quit."

"And remember," Cindy added, "you're going to want to look close enough to how you did before so that discrepancies in your ID can be overlooked."

"Right," Taylor agreed warily. "We'll take it slow." She watched critically as the lips on the digital representation grew narrower and narrower by degrees. Finally, she decided, "I think that's enough. Can I see the full body again?" Zecora nodded and switched back to a whole body view. "That looks a little weird," Taylor considered, examining her altered face critically. "I don't think I'd be comfortable with my mouth being any more different than I'm used to, though. It already looks a little too narrow for me. What do you think?"

"It is a good smile," Zecora stated, to which Cindy added her agreement. "What part should next be on the dial?"

Taylor looked her image over again before stating, "Boobs."

"Now, keep in mind," Cindy cautioned. "You're also taking the Breast Expansion punishment, so you can always make your boobs bigger. Right now you're setting up your baseline size. And you also chose Always Perky, so you won't have to worry about sagging under anything remotely reasonable."

"I'll be of little help, this one admits," Zecora mentioned. "Ponies do not put as much stock in having large tits." Taylor eyed the buxom woman's chest dubiously but didn't comment. "We will start with a small A," the zebra woman decided. "Then we shall see what you want them to weigh."

Taylor watched as her flat breasts puffed out slightly. They were still barely noticeable, but at least they weren't pancakes. "Can you increase them more?" she requested.

"That I can do with ease," Zecora replied while causing the breasts to expand further. She continued to increase their size one cup at a time, pausing for only a few second before asking, "Though maybe not to your knees?"

Taylor could only stare at the image before her in disbelief. Somehow, the gargantuan breasts that covered her entire torso were still perky yet natural looking. "That's a little too big," she stated. "I think one of those first ones was probably good."

Cindy nodded her agreement. "Yeah… With how active you're planning on being, I don't think anything larger than a D-cup would be comfortable."

"If you plan on moving around, perhaps your breasts should be toned down," Zecora suggested, dropping the model's bust size down significantly.

"Can you switch back and forth between the B-cup and C-cup, please?" Taylor asked, studying the model closely.

"Remember," Cindy chipped in, "you'll have some control over your breast size. Right now you're just determining what you want the lower limit to be."

Taylor had Zecora flip between the two sizes a few more times before coming to a decision. "I'll go with the B-cups. If I change my mind, I can always just keep the breast expansion set at C-cups, right?"

"Exactly," the redhead concurred. "There's been a few times where I kind of regret setting my base size to C-cups. Not too often, but it does happen."

"Maybe I should stick with the A-cup, then?" Taylor asked nervously.

"It's up to you," Cindy said, "but there isn't terribly much difference between those two, so you should be fine either way. Worst case, you can throw on a sports bra to keep them from jiggling too much, but you shouldn't need that without a lot larger boobs."

"Thanks," Taylor said. "I think I'll take the B-cups. What's next?" From there, they went over the rest of her appearance, tweaking things to suit her tastes while keeping herself recognizable as Taylor Hebert. While each change was relatively minor, the combined effect was stunning. Where before there was a gawky, plain girl, there was now a very pretty, possibly even regal young woman. "I like this," Taylor decided.

"I think it looks good, too," Cindy agreed, proudly. She and Zecora had managed to coach Taylor into making multiple small changes to have the same overall effect as a single larger change would have, while keeping the girl more recognizable. Hesitantly, the redhead added, "But, before you finalize things, I need to make an admission."

"What?" Taylor asked curiously, wondering where this was going.

In lieu of answering, Cindy turned towards the doctor. "Zecora, can you pull up Taylor's original scan, where she started, and what we've come up with so far?"

The zebra nodded and complied, causing three images to form over the holographic pad before focusing on the three faces. "There is no need for alarm," Zecora said. "And we meant you no harm. We thought your smile was so cute, your self image we sought to dispute."

Cindy gestured toward the faces and explained, "This morning, before I came to get you, I came here and talked with Zecora. I know you think your mouth is too wide, but it's really expressive and looks good on you, so I convinced Zecora to set you up. If you look at the first two faces, you'll see what I mean."

Taylor looked at the two faces and immediately saw what Cindy was referring to. While the first face looked very similar to what she remembered seeing in the mirror, the second face had an even wider mouth. The third face was the one they had just finished designing, and its mouth was much closer to the original scan than the one she had started with was to the original. Looking at Cindy pleadingly, Taylor simply asked, "Why?"

"You've got a lot of low self esteem built up by those bitches at your school," Cindy began gently. "I thought if you had the chance, you'd see that you actually like some of your features, such as your mouth." She shuffled silently for a moment before adding, "If you want, we can always narrow your mouth more."

"No," Taylor decided as she looked between the different faces, "I think I'm good with what we have. I still think I'd look weird if my mouth was much smaller than we settled on."

Zecora clapped her hands and asked, "Then you are satisfied? Is this the look with which you decide?"

Taylor sucked in a breath before answering, "Yeah, I think it is."

"Good, then I must be frank," Zecora began brightly, hustling Taylor toward the door. "It is past time to put you in the tank. The changes will be quite profound, and will take some time to come around. Cindy will be there when you wake, but for now, you need to bake."

 

[SystemSearcher]

Now all that's left is a goat.

 

[Jonn Wolfe]

Zecora is nice, even with the rhyme, but I wouldn't want to listen to that all the time.

Taylor is going to be getting therapy, right? Really hoping that all the crap the trio made her believe gets taken care of properly.

Oh, would you mind putting out a spoiler sheet for what was chosen? (or did you do that already... I forget)

Now all that's left is a goat.

Click to shrink...

And hopefully in a year's time, Taylor will be able to gloat.

[EDIT] OH! Idea! After the year is done and the trip back to 'the present' is ready, maybe they can overshoot a bit and set up drone cameras to catch the Trio tossing her in the locker. If there are cameras in Winslow already, functional or not, the drones can get the angles needed to fake the recording to have come from them. Otherwise, they can have it look like random/jittery held phone cameras.

 

[TheEyes]

"It can," Cindy agreed. "Especially during spring break. The rooms up there are less expensive, due to the likelihood of getting caught up in the moment and getting filmed, so they're pretty popular with regular students on vacation." She grinned and added, "We've got an entire line of videos about partiers forgetting themselves and going wild."

"That doesn't sound particularly ethical," Taylor noted.

"Oh, we don't just publish the videos," Cindy said reassuringly. "We take the kids aside, show them what we filmed, and offer them either a one time fee or some royalties on the sales. If they don't agree, we don't use that footage." She shrugged and added, "I understand most of them appreciate the extra pocket money."

Click to shrink...

Hm. Isn't Slut Life on a 24/7 feed though? You'd think they'd go out of their way to have anyone living in a hotel room/apartment nearby sign away use of their image before booking the trip; that is why they're getting the discount for staying there, after all. Maybe an escape clause in case something really outlandish happens, or some sort of "You can put me on the 24/7 feed, but keep me off the highlight reels without extra consent plz", but it would disrupt operations if they needed to stop in the middle of action, sober everyone up, and get informed consent before proceeding.

 

[Jonn Wolfe]

While it's a bit like the Truman Show, I thought it was more along the lines of them showing what happened the previous day after editing.

Then again, author's fiat. Could be either.

 

[Fencer]

Hmmm I like that Cindy is working to build up Taylor's self esteem. Also that much closer to magical girl scout sniper-chan ^^ shoot all the things Taylor!!! Shoot them!!!!

seriously are there any fics about magical girl snipers? I'd read the shit out of that right about now. And I know fuck all about the magical girl genre. I just want to read about some girl blasting shit from a mile away.

 

[edale]

[EDIT] OH! Idea! After the year is done and the trip back to 'the present' is ready, maybe they can overshoot a bit and set up drone cameras to catch the Trio tossing her in the locker. If there are cameras in Winslow already, functional or not, the drones can get the angles needed to fake the recording to have come from them. Otherwise, they can have it look like random/jittery held phone cameras.

Click to shrink...

IIRC they already have footage of Taylor getting shoved into The Locker. They showed it during her interview.

Hmmm I like that Cindy is working to build up Taylor's self esteem. Also that much closer to magical girl scout sniper-chan ^^ shoot all the things Taylor!!! Shoot them!!!!

seriously are there any fics about magical girl snipers? I'd read the shit out of that roght about now. And I know fuck all about the magical girl genre I just want to read about some girl blasting shit from a mile away.

Click to shrink...

You'd probably like Yojo Senki:
https://horriblesubs.info/shows/youjo-senki/

 

[OSRfanatic1]

The Author must have a whole folder dedicated to the background for this story.

 

[Fencer]

IIRC they already have footage of Taylor getting shoved into The Locker. They showed it during her interview.
You'd probably like Yojo Senki:
https://horriblesubs.info/shows/youjo-senki/

Click to shrink...

I will give it a look and hope for the best!

 

[edale]

I will give it a look and hope for the best!

Click to shrink...

Basically (evil?) loli military commander magical girl in a WWII setting. And yes, she has a giant magical gun and shoots stuff from miles away, lol.

Honestly, I've only watched the first 2 episodes myself, should get around to finishing it, lol.

The Author must have a whole folder dedicated to the background for this story.

Click to shrink...

You have NO idea. I've actually joked with him once or twice about just how many google docs he has for this fic.

Lets see...

-Custom modified CYOA
-Suggestion form for custom modified CYOA
-Taylor's CYOA build / Beta chapters (they're in the same document)
-Taylor's / Other character's Magical Girl CYOA builds (ATM he has 8 full Magical Girl CYOA's filled out for various characters)
-Other character's SL CYOA builds (3 full builds atm)
-Yet more character SL builds (lost the link to it, but IIRC it only had Cindy's build)

And that's just the docs I currently have access to. He also has several docs that I don't have access to, of which there's at least 4 he's mentioned to me.

 

[TheEyes]

IIRC they already have footage of Taylor getting shoved into The Locker. They showed it during her interview.

Click to shrink...

Pretty sure they took that out of her memory, which is fine for a world like the one Slut Life is based out of, but back on Earth Bet it's unlikely to be useful for testimony purposes. But yes, as it is they need to run back the clock roughly 13½ months to get her back into her hospital bed before anyone notices, so going back a couple more days to set up stealthed "cell phone cameras" to record the Locker shouldn't add any additional burdens. It might not be a particularly good idea to have Taylor herself travel back that far, since that's her Trigger event and who knows what could happen if old-QA sees new-Taylor (and for that matter new-QA) during the period when it is linking up with old-Taylor, but sending a few drone cameras ought to be fine.

 

[edale]

Pretty sure they took that out of her memory, which is fine for a world like the one Slut Life is based out of, but back on Earth Bet it's unlikely to be useful for testimony purposes. But yes, as it is they need to run back the clock roughly 13½ months to get her back into her hospital bed before anyone notices, so going back a couple more days to set up stealthed "cell phone cameras" to record the Locker shouldn't add any additional burdens. It might not be a particularly good idea to have Taylor herself travel back that far, since that's her Trigger event and who knows what could happen if old-QA sees new-Taylor (and for that matter new-QA) during the period when it is linking up with old-Taylor, but sending a few drone cameras ought to be fine.

Click to shrink...

And just when has SL Corp scanned Taylor's memory? Answer, they haven't. The only opportunity they've had was when doing Taylor's mods, and the interview was before that.

The video shown in the interview of Taylor's Trigger came from SL Corp's preliminary research on Taylor, before they "contacted" her about a spot on the show. Remember, they did a thorough background check on her, including creating a detailed psychological profile (Cindy directly references it when complaining about Trichter's stunt with Taylor).