The sounds of more violence emanated from the hallway. Gwyn swore she heard the sound of a short scream disappearing into the distance, like someone had fallen down the central open air atrium.
It did stop shortly after however.
“No, seriously, seriously, Tatiana, Ta~tiana, hey what's that noise?” Gwyn tried to get the attention of her dark haired friend, who was currently drunkenly kissing her neck.
“It’s just TV, hick, TV noises, now shush.” Tatiana mumbled into Gwyn’s spit covered neck.
Marion was no help as the girl had somehow managed to tangle herself up in Gwyn’s blankets, she had ceased fighting them at this point.
“Arrrgh my leg!”
Gwyn eyed the door nervously as the sounds grew and faded.
“Just movies and stuff.” Tatiana mumbled some more as she cuddled Gwyn.
The furious sounds of conflict that had erupted in the hallway before had just as quickly ceased. After a beat of silence Cécilia stumbled into the room, looking more rumpled and blood spotted than when she had left.
“You’re bleeding.” Gwyn tried to stand but only managed to elbow Tatiana and tumble onto her once more.
“Don’t worry it’s not mine.” Cécilia reassured her.
The tall ginger girl somehow managed to cast off her ruined shirt leaving her muscular body clad only in a bra and shorts, the half naked girl rescued Marion and gathered everyone up into a pile on the bed.
Even mostly drunk she was easily able to manhandle the group.
“Were you fighting?” Gwyn sleepily asked as she was helped into her pajamas.
“Only a little.” Cécilia buttoned up Gwyn's shirt before putting her on the bed.
“You shouldn’t be fighting Cécilia, you could get hurt.” Gwyn tiredly mumbled.
At Gwyn’s drunken exclamation of concern she grinned a happy smile. Eventually with minimal help she got the drunk group packed tightly into Gwyn’s single person bed, the others didn’t seem either willing or able to make it over to the couch.
“Don’t worry your pretty green head over little ol’ me.” Cécilia whispered as she kissed the top of Gwyn's head.
“You'd tell me if you were, right?”
Cécilia looked deeply into Gwyn’s eyes, green eyes to green eyes “of course.”
----------------------------------------
Somehow despite her tired inebriation Gwyn was the last one awake, she had an affectionate Tatiana spooning her from behind and a steel bodied Cécilia cuddling her front. Poor Marion, as the most drunk of the lot, had been stuck up against the wall behind Cécilia’s back.
As she was intensely drunk by this point she thought it was a bad idea to mess with the system but her mind activated it anyway.
Gwynnestri Morven Class None Body 11 Mind 13 Charm 18 Education 12 Social Standing 11
So far it was the same except for the option to choose a class, all her friends had interesting classes and she wanted one too, so she opened it up. Immediately a scrolling list blurred past her swaying eyes, it made her head spin and she now felt like she was going to puke.
In reflex she reached out to stop it and accidentally pressed one of the options available to her. She glanced at it with trepidation.
Class selected Seductress
Gwyn tiredly blinked in confusion, she didn’t understand why this was a class offered to her. What part of her was “seducing”?
And why didn’t she get to confirm her option?
Damn thing wasn’t user friendly. With a huff she closed the menu and sank into her encroaching sleep.
----------------------------------------
The morning sun shone harshly into the cramped bedroom, waking Gwyn from her restful sleep. Surprisingly she was free of any devastating hangover, she’d been expecting to wake up with a pounding headache.
Perhaps the dumb system was good for something.
The groaning of the other girls alerted her that they hadn’t been spared the consequences of their own actions.
“Help, I’m dying.” Marion lamented as she tried to climb over the others.
“Ouch, Marion you’re poking me in the boob with your pointy elbows!” Tatiana complained from beneath the pile.
“Maybe if you weren’t so top heavy I wouldn’t be suffocating.” Marion indeed had been taken out by Tatiana’s bountiful endowments in the night. Gwyn aided them the best she could all the while smiling at their morning antics by untangling limbs and fetching water to hydrate their deprived bodies.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
“How are you Gwyn? Not too hungover, I take it?” Cécilia asked after leaving the jumble on the bed.
“Nope. I’m feeling fine, I must have had enough water last night.” She replied cheerfully.
Her friends just squinted at her with a heavy amount of jealousy. Gwyn glanced about the mess of discarded bottles and half-finished plates, she spied an unopened gift tucked away in the corner. Her parent’s gift, she hadn’t bothered to get around to opening it last night.
She picked up the slim box, no bigger than a business card. Inside sat a lonely ticket to the National Gala. The Gala was a gathering for the most wealthy and influential individuals to socialize and donate to whatever charity was the flavor of the month.
Gwyn didn’t want to go.
She was most likely meant to show up and talk about her parents book all evening, she couldn’t think of something more boring and at the same time nerve racking.
“What’s that? Is it from your parents?” Cécilia asked from behind her.
Gwyn turned with the lonely ticket in hand, Tatiana and Marion were once again arguing, this time it was over who got the shower first.
“It’s for some Gala or something.” She told them glumly.
She didn’t have high hopes for her parent’s gifts, last year’s gift was a book that they had already sent her the year before that. Most likely an assistant of theirs had just added her to some mailing list somewhere, her parents wouldn’t bother to pick out anything meaningful.
“Not going to go?” Cécilia inquired curiously.
“There’s only one ticket, I don’t want to go alone.”
There would be far too many people there, she suffered in such large crowds.
“Tatiana was invited too, we’re already going as her group. It'll be easy to add you in.” Cécilia reassured Gwyn.
Tatiana looked over at her name, abandoning her conversation with Marion “Did someone say my name?”
Gwyn explained her conundrum to her as she held up her ticket.
“Oh, the Annual Gala, usually it’s such a bore but with you on my arm it’ll prove to be a much more pleasant time” Tatiana beamed.
At the other’s glare she rolled her eyes and added “as a group of course."
Gwyn giggled at the friendly byplay.
“Oh, I don’t have anything formal to wear.” The ticket said the Gala was tonight, her parents really hadn't left her much time to prepare.
“That’s an easy fix, we’ll just go to my boutique.” Tatiana confidently added.
After that Gwyn had to just organize the shower situation, unlike Tatiana’s bathroom Gwyn’s only fit a single person so they had to take turns.
“We could always share, it’d be tight with the two of us but I think we’ll manage” Marion teased Gwyn, who once again couldn’t help blush at the insinuation.
“You’ll do no such thing!” Both Tatiana and Cécilia body-blocked Marion from her target.
After a quick shower and a change the still bickering girls left the small apartment. The area outside of her place had never been the most clean or well-maintained section of the archology, so it was strange to see it had been moped and repainted. Along the walls there were small holes filled with putty and a new railing had been installed on the atrium’s open air plaza.
She snuck a glance at Cécilia but the tall freckled girl was studiously ignoring her suspicious gaze.
----------------------------------------
Tatiana had failed to mention that the boutique she owned was Spectacle, the most famous and popular clothing outfitter in the city, nay, the nation. It was the store all the celebrities and fashionistas went to if they wanted to be seen as important. She had heard that the waiting list was already stretched into the next year.
Once inside they were met with the extensive staff of the store who had been called in advance, they had lined up on either side of the entrance and bowed towards the mesmerizing foursome as they strolled on elegantly through the doors.
Gwyn felt like royalty as the entire vast multi-leveled store was empty besides themselves and the expensive clothes. She also felt utterly lost, she had no clue about fashion as she only liked wearing what was either cute or comfortable.
“Tatiana, do you know the dress code for the Gala?” she nervously asked her more fashion oriented friend.
“Don’t worry, just leave it to me.” Tatiana declared excitedly.
Tatiana seized Gwyn’s wrist with elation and dragged her off to a private room nearer to the back. Through a rather grand curtained doorway was a small fashion show catwalk with numerous seating along the sides, she spied several staff members hauling rack after rack of clothing into the changing area.
She was beginning to regret her decision to come here.
A veritable army of female assistants kidnaped Gwyn and ushered her into the changing area as her trio of friends hurried to get the best seating, they seemed to vibrate with anticipation. As Tatiana had known Gwyn’s favorite color was green, not that it was hard to guess, all the outfits provided were in one shade of it or another. The assistants held up garment after garment to her body whispering to each other in a frenzy.
Eventually she was fitted into a green short party dress, it was a strapless piece that reached her knees in a ruffled skirt.
Gwyn didn’t think it looked good on her but the staff practically pushed her onto the stage. As her green heels landed on the catwalk she was once again surprised by the system, a pop-up flashed in the corner of her eye. Thankfully she didn’t fall on her face this time.
Seductress class activated Alluring Sight skill added
If the name didn’t give away what the skill did, her friends' reactions certainly did, they were enraptured by the sight of her. She nervously adjusted her glasses, they had hardly breathed as she had twirled her skirt before them.
“Is this one any good?” Her words seemed to break them from their trance.
“Amazing.” Tatiana breathed with pink cheeks, the other two nodded along silently in agreement.
Gwyn blushed as she took in the complement, she did suspect they were just humoring her. She wasn’t beautiful, not like them.
“Next one! Try the others on!” Marion called out enthusiastically when she finally recovered her voice.
Like a storm the assistants captured her before she could escape then undressed and dressed her with more furor than they had before. The impromptu fashion show that followed had Gwyn repeatedly forced into more and more outfits and sent out to the cheering trio, they drank in her looks with intense desire in their sparkling eyes.
Gwyn felt dizzy by the end of it, she had no clue as to what exactly had happened or what she had been dressed in. She distinctly remembered a piece that had looked more like a series of fabric strips that encircled her plentiful feminine bust and hips but she had blocked that memory out so she would die from embarrassment.
Once the show was over and she stepped away from the catwalk, the skill deactivated. It looked like it only activated when she was actively doing something to garner attention.
As the others didn’t need any outfits of their own, they had already had some waiting, they spent some time voting on what Gwyn should wear tonight. Despite her valid concerns they ruled that her own sense of fashion was dubious at best and she should rely on the experts.
She did have a veto on anything too revealing, so that was nice.
Once they had decided amongst themselves she was led around the store’s various adjoining rooms. She had her green luxurious locks styled and trimmed, her flawless skin and pores cleansed and her neat nails trimmed and polished. She was pampered in ways she had never been before.
Eventually once she was ready for the Gala they wasted the remaining time exploring the various perfumes and accessories for anything that interested them.