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"Yes, inclusivity could certainly be said to be one of our strengths!" Exorcist agreed, growing enthused now that she finally had a chance to speak on her faith as though it was a legitimate religion for once. "After all, everyone on the net is contributing whether they know it or not. Now it's just a matter of bringing them into the fold. This sounds like a great opportunity for us!"

Bhikkhuni turned up one side of her frown, looking intensely skeptical. As a swindler herself, she knew a swindle when she saw one. The pair listened to the rest of the details.

Nodding with a bit of an awkward smile herself, Exorcist followed DishMan's lead. "Y-yes?" she answered, her nervous expression showing that she did indeed think that their ability to fulfill this specific request was quite a coincidence.

"Uuuh, AdNetWhateverMan seemed like he was kinda dead on the way in," Bhikkhuni pointed out. Would that count as badmouthing AdNet? It remained to be seen. After Grin explained a little further, Bhikkhuni began to put two and two together about the identity of the Creel exec who would have spoken to their ability and by the time the words "sex appeal" had been spoken, she was already turning her back and exiting the tent flap. "Nooope, I'm out. Mary, you're up," she dismissed herself, pushing Mary inside the tent to switch places with her.

"Oh dear! I was just eavesdropping and I thought I heard you say something very surprising! Would you mind saying that again?" she requested, turning her head around the room aimlessly to demonstrate that she was blind. As such, anyone or everyone in the room might be persuaded to say the words "sex appeal" again, all at once, so that she could hear. "I thought you might have said that... How steamy," she giggled.

Exorcist wouldn't repeat the words and her red face and slight frown showed she wasn't happy about them either. Was this going to turn into the same public humiliation that they faced when Stunt had his hands on them at the recruitment booth? That Stunt wasn't here was a blessing, but for all she knew, the grinning, helmeted lady across from her could have all the same bad intentions.

"There is no need to be nervous," Mary spoke soothingly, placing one hand on Exorcist's shoulder and making a show of picking up on her master's anxiety despite being blind.

"Yeeeeah, this is like, the perfect opportunity!" Burt hyukked from behind the PET screen, private from their new acquaintances. "Don't worry, I've got just the thing! Let's put her in a fundoshi right away! That's the best way to show off her sex appeal, for sure!"

Mary fixed him with an impatient smile that showed she thought she could get Exorcist's buy-in easier if she did this part without his input. "Now, now... There's no need to give away the whole show all at once, is there? After all, I think we can thoroughly demonstrate our appeal without spending the time on a whole wardrobe change! Just a partial one," she spoke, with a wink in her voice that didn't make it to her eyes, given that they were always closed. Exorcist still didn't seem convinced, but Mary's voice was soothing. Spreading both arms to the side for a moment, the nun allowed her habit to glow for a moment, then dispelled it completely along with her accessories.

For a moment, Exorcist looked dramatically less convinced, but she settled down slightly once she realized the SP had left her skinsuit on. "Oh... I see," she murmured, narrowing her eyes a bit as she covered her mouth with her fist in a pensive expression.

At first blush, Mary's idea may have been somewhat conservative. However, seeing her body clad in the full, bright red skinsuit, leaving none of her mature curvature hidden, it may well seem more erotic than if she'd simply gone with the swimsuit. "You see? There's nothing embarrassing about this. It's what most navis wear, isn't it?" she questioned, crossing her hands at her lap in a very modest pose and smiling temptingly. "Now you get into yours~"

Exorcist knew better than to trust her perverted ally, but still, this was a shade better than she usually managed. In the past few missions she could recall, she'd dressed in a fundoshi, a swimsuit, and a schoolgirl fetish outfit... just being in her navi-suit, which was part of her total uniform, wouldn't be nearly so bad. Nodding, she dismissed all of the fancy yellow and ying-yanged gear she had on until she was left with just the black outfit, offering her much the same effect as Mary. Her body was designed to be younger and perkier, but still with the softness of a bookish cutie... in other words, Burt Blanchard's ideal standard. Unlike Mary's, her suit was a bit cottony, though still form-fitting, and rose only to the neck rather than the cheeks. Additionally, Exorcist's had no sleeves, nor barely any legs, with the suit ending slightly above the thighs.

"There! See? I think it's plenty appealing as it is, but let's help them out. Let's turn and show the other side?" Mary suggested, doing so herself while placing one hand onto Exorcist's shoulder, as if partially to maintain balance and partially to ease her. "It's very appealing, isn't it? Especially if you look here~" she continued, now turning sideways to use the other hand to grab her master's butt, soliciting an overly erotic gasp. Mary maneuvered her hand to below the cheek and pushed it up, revealing the faint outline of Exorcist's panties against her skinsuit. "She hasn't used this much, so whether she realizes it or not, it's probably a little tight right now... The suit, I mean."

Exorcist turned to push away from Mary, who made a show of spinning around like a helpless blind person. She did this rather literally, making a grab for their hostess' bosom. "Aaah~ That wasn't very nice, Master," she sighed, sounding too cheerful to be pitied.

"You're the one who wasn't very nice!" Exorcist protested, her voluminous white hair seeming to bristle along with her indignation.

"Yeah, and you're being a dummy, too. We've all got butts," Bhikkhuni added to the protest, approaching from behind with her arms raised behind the back of her head in an uncaring way. "These things are Exorcist's specialty. You don't see Electopian girls her age with these, right? That's dumbass Burt for you," she pointed out, grabbing around Exorcist's ribs to move her hands under the unfortunate girl's boobs and push them up a few times, then let them bounce. "He doesn't even know what girls look like!"

"Don't lecture me about that...!" Exorcist complained, wiggling against her SP's various advances. "Aah!"

Yajna entered, as if to add to the pile, instead keeping her usual face and looking unaffected by the scene. Her lips moved slightly, as if she was giving out some secret message.

"Did... Did you want to join in too, Yajna?" Exorcist asked politely, trying to ignore Bhikhhuni bouncing her boobs up and down restlessly and with violent, envious energy.

"No, but... you should be happy. I think you're very appealing," she added, straight-faced.

"Oh... Thank you," Exorcist commented, blushing at the kind words of a stranger. She wasn't sure what else to say to such an unprovoked compliment. "How do you mean?" she couldn't help but ask.

"Your element. It's very appealing," Yajna explained. The group watched her uncertainly for a moment, before she simply retracted her head and continued to wait outside.

The group was silent for a moment. Bhikkhuni seemed to have dropped her assault; perhaps her survival instincts had just kicked in and set her into defense mode. "Well... Yes! I think we all enjoy wood," Mary agreed. "What do you think, ma'am? Isn't she just wonderfully sexy?" the nun inquired of their host, ignoring she had pushed her luck up to this point.

Grin made no obvious reaction to Exorcist’s confused affirmation, whether or not that was what she’d been looking for, as she sped on to her more direct request. She also didn’t offer any further clarity regarding the state of the apparent mascot they’d seen on their way in, although it was at least possible to confirm she wasn’t surprised by the news. She did follow Bhikkuni with the direction of her ceaseless smile as she tagged out with Mary. Grin’s gaze quickly snapped to Mary to answer the question when asked, however. “Yes, sex appeal!” she repeated, apparently happy to play along, although it wasn’t clear if she was as personally interested.

“That’s correct,” DishMan offered from his spot, although his confirmation was neither exact or useful enough to be likely to offer anyone any pleasure.

“Yeees, please don’t be nervous!” Grin re-assured Exorcist as well, looking like she wanted to reach a hand out before making some mental calculation and avoiding it. “The last thing we’d want you to be is nervous, Exorcist. This is merely fun among friends!”

“And a demonstration of your loyalty-“ DishMan started to add.

“Oh, now now, let’s not focus on that,” she hushed him, hurrying past it. Seeing Mary was complying, she decided to shut up and watch, evaluating with her same toothy smile. She nodded along in confirmation that Exorcist’s skinsuit-clad form was appealing, but said nothing. She did chuckle a bit when Mary made her tight pun, then reached out both hands to firmly catch Mary’s shoulders and prevent a collision. It didn’t stop the nun from “accidentally” touching where she wanted to, although disappointingly the metal armor plate there left much to the imagination. Unless something was bound behind the plate, she was likely a bit less endowed than either of the showcased Counterinfectualists, but there was still enough to appreciate... if the armor wasn't in the way, of course, Either buying the routine or playing along, Grin let Mary do as she liked while holding her shoulders to keep her steady, paying close attention to the continuing show with her SPs. The only moment her grin fell slightly was when Yajna interjected, but even then, it was at least the approximation of a grin. “Curious, that one,” she’d mutter, with only Mary close enough to hear.

“I personally don’t care for wood,” DishMan would input, seeming to miss the joke entirely. “Certain wood elements can cause interference with sensitive equipment. Certainly, electricity is the correct element in order to avoid interference and add signal boosting properties-“

The soft-spoken but occasionally wordy Navi would certainly fade into the background as Grin spoke over him. “Yes! I’m sure she would turn heads wherever she might go,” the Creel manager replied, clapping her hands together. “Of course, each of you are delightfully charming in your own way,” she added, turning a sweet smile to Bhikkuni that could be interpreted as reconciliatory or teasing as one liked.

“Having seen their forms, I can confirm Mary and Exorcist are conventionally attractive, even arousing,” DishMan observed, sounding pleased but questionably aroused.

“What a rude thing to say!” Grin interjected, seeming happy to emphasize the omission and throw her ally under the bus for the sake of brownie points with her new acquaintances. “Is there something not quite to your tastes about Bhikkuni or Yajna?”

At this, DishMan was quiet a moment before speaking up. “Bhikkuni… is her model aged appropriately for that to even be an appropriate point of comment? I was under the impression she was a-“ he started, matter-of-factly.

Before he could finish, Grin released Mary to Exorcist and stomped over to him, her namesake looking especially toothy as she reared her boot back and gave the other Navi’s namesake a noisy kick. “I’m telling you that’s not an appropriate thing to say about a young woman, especially one we just asked to demonstrate for us, okay~? You’re not making me happy, okay~?” she repeated, looking like she was drawing back for another kick before drawing her leg back down and flexing her fingers. She grinned back at the group again and folded her hands: each of her practiced motions looked newly high-strung in light of the previous display. “Well! Thank you all for indulging my little request. I’d like to ask you keep in mind that, again, the purpose is not to evaluate how sexy any of you in particular are,” she emphasized, her voice coming from behind clenched teeth at emphasized words as though she was working hard to keep her face from changing. “The purpose was for me to confirm previous information and evaluate your loyalty to your commanding officer, me. Naturally, I’m quite pleased! Each of you has demonstrated you are fully comfortable with carrying out your duty with total loyalty and focus.”

“… Even Yajna?” DishMan inquired, a touch of incredulity in his voice.

“Naturally! She displayed affection, didn’t she? Anyone would find such affection charming!” Grin asserted, hurrying on without giving him time to reply.

The seated figure had remained silent, watching all this time. It seemed like they wanted to speak up about something, but apparently decided against it. They raised the newspaper again, as though in deep concentration.

“Well, needless to say, if we can call it a ‘test,’ you ‘passed,’” Grin told the group, using finger quotes as if trying to make it clear she was very distant from whoever would call what they’d done by those words. “I’m sure the three of you appearing on the program will represent Creel’s interests perfectly while spreading your teachings with the unenlightened masses.” She paused, assuming the four of them would have caught what she said and evidently aiming to gauge reactions. “I’m sorry I didn’t make that clear. The studio size and broadcast time allotted will likely only allow for three of you to appear as guests. You may divide yourselves as you wish, but I’d like to humbly suggest that Mary be the one to stay. Do you know why?” she asked, pausing for a response as she seemed to enjoy doing before seeming to realize something and trying to speak hastily. “That is because-“

“Because she’s too s-“ the voice from the corner spoke again.

“DishMan would you please!!” she squealed, clamping her hands to the side of her helmet and gritting her teeth as she worked to quickly regain her composure. “No, and please keep your assessments to yourself! I’m offering to keep her here because, unfortunately, Mary is blind. While I can tell she is quite capable despite it, I have no idea if MicrophoneGirl has made accommodations for a blind guest on her set. So, if it would please you all, I’d be happy for Mary to remain as our esteemed guest. We can have some snacks, discuss whatever she would like…”

“I’ll be occupied, of course, but she can watch th-“ DishMan started.

“No~!!” Grin screeched in a sing-song voice as if trying to make her alarming interruption sound like a funny joke. “No, I think we’ll have more fun doing something else. That is, we’ll think of something else to do.”

“Besides, it’s a paid broadcast, right?” the seated figure finally spoke in a voice so modulated as to disguise the gender, peering over the paper. “There’s no need for us to pay for a general viewing.”

Grin apparently hadn’t expected this assault from two fronts. Her grin was no longer strictly identifiable as such as she turned her head back to fix her guest. Nonetheless, this lasted for only a split second before she’d set it back to normal. “I don’t think I’d heard from AdNetMascotMan! The business details are a bit beyond me. Perhaps he simply meant the networks are paying to air it? Who could say, hm?” she concluded, shrugging her shoulders and turning back to the group.

---

While this was going on inside the tent, Yajna, the sole person who’d remained generally on the outside, would witness the mascot figure by the door to the studio come to life, lifting its head as its eyes lit up like electronics. “Oh boy! That was a good nap. Don’t get many of those these days!” the Navi would comment to no one in particular as it stretched, turning his head to the tent. “Say! You look like one of those Navis who came for MicrophoneGirl, right?”

The chipper Navi strolled over with a bouncy, arm-swinging gait to arrive alongside Yajna, talking now to her and any other Navis that might curiously poke their heads out at the new voice. “I’m AdNetMascotMan, but you can call me MascotMan! First of all, can I just say how pleasant and ironic it is that you ladies have arrived to answer Morty’s prayers! He is, in fact, praying right now! He’s in a confessional, going ‘Oh Lord Oh Lord Oh Lord please help me’ as we speak. Whatever that’s all about, you ladies will really be helping us out.”

The Navi reached behind his oversized head and produced three purple earpiece/microphone combination devices, which appeared to be of a design to magnetically clip onto a Navi’s earguard or sit on an actual ear. “These are earpieces which will allow the communication necessary for the event! The three of you participating will need to put these on.” With his other arm, he’d reach behind the other side and produce three more, identical in design but a muted pink in color. “These are for the people inside the tent. During the broadcast, it may become difficult for them to communicate with each other. Please distribute those accordingly!”

The Navi was going on and on, regardless of what reaction or lack thereof he got from Yajna. “MicrophoneGirl will give you the details when you’re up there, but the basic concept is a candid interview on the life and times of religious Navis on the Net! Pretty interesting stuff, although a little out of our recent wheelhouse, in my opinion! ADNET will be handling advertising and distribution, and the NetMafia will be providing funding and technical support. The rest is up to you ladies, and the hostess herself, of course.”

The Navi peered into the tent then turned back to Yajna with his unchanging face, a grin more than a match for even the so-named Grin. “So, let me know if you have any questions! After that, I’m gonna go run over there and let MicrophoneGirl know you all are here. I’d love it if you’d pass all of this along to your friends when you can.”

"Hm hm hm, for a DishMan, you don't seem very receptive!" Mary joked lightly, trying to make the best of the out of place navi's personality, which, to this point, did not seem particularly compatible with her own, further than that he allowed or encouraged sexy stuff.

Bhikkhuni seemed a little offput herself. "Heeey, I can be just as sexy as these two! I just wore myself out on the last mission, okay? If you'd seen how sexy I was-!" she protested, then clasped both hands over her mouth, having nearly just revealed what she got up to with Hoodwink in the previous adventure.

"Hmmmmm? How so ?" Mary asked, suddenly feeling an even greater excitement than she had when she'd been given free reign to sexually harrass Exorcist. "You can confess! I'm a lady of the cloth, after all~"

"Lady of the sweatrag, more like," Bhikkhuni taunted back, lowering her eyebrows. "It was like a super-spy thief thing, okay?! I was sexy in a super thief way!" Apparently, Bhikkhuni had no qualms admitting to being a thief, but whatever she'd gotten up to that night was between her, Hoodwink... and Burt, of all people. She thanked Buddha that at least Burt was keeping shut up about it, probably to play the card against her when she least expected it. "Anyway, all of you should just know that if we're all on stage, you're gonna find yourself stupefied when you realize that I'm the star! I was just trying to protect everybody's feelings earlier," she huffed, puffing out her chest protector in a way that made it clear it was protecting much less chest than Grin's armor was.

At any rate, Exorcist had a moment to breathe, and while she had been embarrassed, she did also find herself tentatively excited about the opportunity that had been afforded her. Mafia or not... weird TV show or not... it would be broadcast and people would, theoretically, hear the message of Counterinfectualism on a platform greater than Burt's silly brocheurs or homepage! She felt renewed purpose like she hadn't for some time... finally, a chance to really advance her cause had presented itself to her. This event, if any so far, was Burt's mafia plan paying off in some concrete way. She had been so excited about that part that she almost missed when Grin seemingly excluded one of their group. "Three?" she murmured, certain that she was about to hear that Bhikkhuni was being thrown out for looking too childish or Yajna was being thrown out for being too... peculiar.

To everyone's surprise, it seemed Mary was the one being excluded. Even the sometimes masochistic Mary couldn't keep a smile on at the news. "Eh...? Eeeeeeh?!" she gasped, her gray eyes momentarily blinking in disbelief, as if she'd seen something she couldn't believe rather than hearing it. As Grin kept talking, her smile momentarily returned, but it looked very forced. Her fake blindness had come back to bite her this time in a big way, apparently. Though, listening to DishMan... it sounded like her inherent love of good-natured, generally-beloved teasing and flirting had pushed her out too. "Yes. I'm sure we'll think up something very fun to do~" she chuckled, almost as if she'd just interpreted it as a challenge and evidently not feeling as though she'd been deterred by the hostess' lack of a reaction to her advances thus far.

-----------------

Outside, Yajna peeked curiously at AdNetMasotMan, who was now stirring to a state that could only be called "life" in an even more generous sense than it was normally applied to navis. She remained as quiet as an actual confessional as the rapidly speaking navi got his introduction and request out, seeming to find no particularly urgency in the described situation Morty was facing. She accepted the earpieces, though, holding three in each hand, but moving slowly. "Okay... I'll tell them," she answered dully, then turned to face the flap once more, entering to put her lanky form next to Bhikkhuni. "Everyone... AdNetMascotMan told me..."

"Wuh? That dead guy spoke to you?" Bhikkhuni interrupted.

There was a long pause while Yajna slowly nodded, then she began to speak again. "AdNetMascotMan told me that... he's going to get MicrophoneGirl-"

"Oh? We aren't supposed to go there ourselves?" Exorcist questioned.

Another painfully slow shake of the head followed, after which, Yajna restarted. "AdnetMascotMan told me... he's going to get MicrophoneGirl... and he said that everyone should wear-"

"Oooo! We're getting to the good part!" Mary cooed.

"Eeeenooooough!" Burt bellowed, his voice now audible over Yajna's speaker. "He said to give Exorcist and all those the pink earpieces and give everyone else in here purple ones, then wait for him to come back with MicrophoneGirl. The show is going to be about the life and times of religious navis and yadayada! That's iiiiit! Sheesh!" the operator complained, missing his own mixup.

"But... no, he said the purple-" Yajna began, only to be cut off.

"Enooough! Enough enough enoooough! Ya know, Yajna? I went out on a limb bringing you into my religion as its fourth ever disciple and you're not really paying it back, riiiight? You had the chance to do something sexy with everyone else and you just stayed outside, huuuuh? And now you're just delaying everyone getting their gear, aren't yoooou? You gotta step it up! Try to be more like Mary, okay? Mary's being a star player tonight! Try to be like that!" Burt complained at length in a rant that would be much more politely delivered over a private channel.

"Burt... Be nice to Yajna," Exorcist scolded him, looking a bit severe.

"No, it's... okay..." Yajna murmured, seeming a little dejected, until one realized she always sort of looked that way. "I'm just a little... bored."

"... Okay, fine. Yeah, I over-reacted. I'm sure the fun stuff will start soon enough! So for now, let's just all-!" Burt laughed in response, seeming to become chipper again, before Yajna interrupted with a surprisingly loud voice.

"But! You're wrong... about the headsets. The purple ones go... to Exorcist... Bhikkhuni... and me. The pink ones go... to Mary... Grin... and that person," she finished, pointing to where the newspaper-reading navi was seated. She seemed to notice the newspaper for the first time and smiled slightly. It was a smile that seemed somehow out of place and eerie rather than friendly.

"That person?" Exorcist questioned, noticing just now that they hadn't really been introduced. "Why do you suspect them and not DishMan?"

"... It's just... a feeling," Yajna murmured, her eyes still focusing on the newspaper. "Can I read that... once you finish with it?" she asked, pressing her hands together at her lap and wiggling her hips back and forth.

Exorcist decided now was as good a time as any for introductions, while they waited for MicrophoneGirl to show up. She fit her purple earpiece on over her earguard, resummoned her robe and gear that she had dismissed earlier, then extended one hand. "Well, you've probably heard our names by now, but I've yet to hear yours. Are you also here to participate in the show? Or will you be observing?" she questioned with a polite smile.

Grin kept her smile on wide as Yajna tortured her way through an explanation, seeming pleased that things were finally moving forward. Of course, her smile grew flatter and flatter as it seemed the mechanism to open the curtain on the action was stuck. Finally, Burt’s petulant tantrum got things back on track, although Grin was less than pleased with him saying what she intended to be the quiet parts loud. “Yes, Mr. Burt, please don’t be too hard on your Navis and programs. They’ll be doing all they can for Creel and Counterinfectualism soon,” she assured the unseen voice.

The seated figure, however, was much less enthused about the exchange, having now stood up (still holding her paper unfolded) and revealing a metal half-mask that hid the bottom of her face and elongated, red-lensed mechanical goggles that covered her eyes. She was tall and thin, but was at least identifiable as a woman now that she had risen. “Yajna is quite right. Please, this is critically important,” the mechanical voice beseeched them, as she stepped forward to collect the pink ones herself. “It would be no good if you arrived on set and weren’t able to… properly communicate,” she finished, not seeming as comfortable discussing it as their hostess. She looked at Yajna’s endearing-yet-off-putting begging and clenched the paper tighter, failing to answer.

She seemed interested in the technology, and her lenses followed Exorcist as she equipped the gear. That said, she hesitated before taking Exorcist’s hand. As she did, she placed the other with the newspaper rolled up at her hip, arching one leg as well, as though settling into a pose for whatever reason. “… AdjustLady. I’m not here to participate in a… show of religion,” she commented, a bit awkwardly. “I’m not particularly hear to observe, either. I’m simply a technician for the equipment. I’ll be making sure everything is working properly out here, just… please do be careful with it, hm? You’d be surprised how expensive… communications equipment can be,” she concluded, releasing her hand and crossing her arms.

“Yes, you needn’t worry about us. MascotMan has already headed up to let MicrophoneGirl know you’re coming, so don’t keep your audience waiting! Time to spread the good word,” she told Exorcist, giving her a big smile. “Don’t forget these…~” she reminded Bhikkuni and Yajna, even offering to affix the pieces for them if they allowed her.

“I’m certain it will be a success,” AdjustLady commented, to herself as much as anyone, as she sat with the newspaper again.

“I’m looking forward to the broadcast,” DishMan added with a nod. “As such, I’ll prepare for broadcast immediately. Please continue to the designated area.”

By this point, if the three designated weren’t already out of the tent, Grin would be gently nudging them there, then waving them off. “Good luck!”

With her back turned to Exorcist and crew, Mary would (not) see the Navi momentarily revealing a toothier grin before fixing it and heading back over to the support program. “Mary, DishMan will be broadcasting in just a moment. It may become difficult to communicate in here without wearing this headset. Allow me…” she offered, affixing the headset to the nun with a bit of clumsiness. Mary would be able to tell she seemed to be in a bit of a rush now, and in close proximity, that her heart rate was accelerating.

She stepped back, clapping her hands together. “AdjustLady and I may communicate privately a bit regarding the boring technical aspects, so we’ll keep our audio mute when we do. However, if you need to talk with us, simply speak up and we can respond.”

As Grin was explaining this, DishMan’s dish began rotating laboriously. As it did, it corkscrewed up slowly. In an elaborate pattern, its orientation was first outward like flower petals, then upward. It wouldn’t be long before it was, clearly, a satellite dish. To facilitate this, AdjustLady had begun walking around and taking up the tentposts to disassemble the tent, pulling each up in a single, calculated flourish for whatever reason.

Grin noted this and grinned anxiously, hurriedly setting up her own piece and leading Mary to one of the folding chairs. After this, Grin immediately sat and began whispering to the now-returned AdjustLady, who responded in a voice so low it was impossible to hear as she affixed her own. The strange way Grin constantly fixed her mouth and the mouthguard on the technician made it difficult to lipread either (not that Mary could or would, of course).

It seemed they really intended to hold a private conversation and leave Mary doing nothing.

The only remaining item of interest might be that as the satellite had folded up, DishMan’s body had been revealed. He wore a heavy metal mantle, to which the dish was attached. Below that was the figure of a barrel-chested, muscular Navi in a slick, metallic, and dark grey Navisuit, with thick metal gloves on his crossed arms. He had red, spandex-like trunks over his lower body like a superhero. Notably, below his knees, his legs appeared to fold into two heavy metallic pieces, each with three heavy metal toes at the end… ultimately, it was as though four legs were acting a as a stable base for him. That in no way explained the crazy neck strength that must be able to support the giant satellite dish that now would have appeared to be his head, had one not seen his alternate dish position before. Then again, he did seem remarkably buff. For now, he stood still as a statue. “I’m starting now,” he’d declare, his voice oddly clear in spite of the erected dish.

---

Having been rushed ahead, Exorcist and the gang would find themselves at the door to the studio. MascotMan stepped out from inside, waving. “Hey gang! Sorry to those of you I didn’t greet before. You can call me MascotMan!” The Navi quickly shook Exorcist’s and Bhikkuni’s hands. “And good to see you again too!” he added, shaking hers once more for good measure. “I’m sure my buddy here has done a great job of explaining the basics to you, so you can step on in. When you go up the stairs, you’ll see MicrophoneGirl, but we need you to do us a little favor first.”

The Navi swung the door open and walked in first. Inside, the building looked more like one might imagine a recording studio set for showbusiness: there was a lobby with a plush red carpet, although there was no greeting desk of any kind. The burgundy-painted metal walls had speakers installed in two corners, currently silent, a camera in another, currently active, and had several artsy-looking paintings and framed photos of microphones and related equipment, along with a number of records (anyone observing closely would notice the records didn’t bear MicrophoneGirl’s name, but other famous and popular artists of the Net). A staircase at the back of the lobby curved up in a spiral and ended up at a landing over the Navis’ heads, which appeared to have a single door, stating “SET”… As one considered it, this was not very many segmented rooms, but unless the “set” was tiny, that was about all the building they’d seen from outside would fit.

Perhaps more importantly, what looked like a flash camera on a tripod had been set up facing a smoky-patterned black backdrop, about eight feet square. A red-taped “X” had been set up on the floor: it probably wouldn’t show up in photos, but was obviously placed to show models where to stand to be centered. MascotMan skipped over behind the tripod and waved. “Since you’re going to be making your public debuts, ADNET and MicrophoneGirl would appreciate it if we could get a few quick shots for the Net marquee! Don’t worry, this isn’t professional modeling or anything, so just gimme a fun pose that screams ‘you!’ I’ll take 3 shots, and then you can tell me which is your favorite.”

At around this time, DishMan outside would be fully set up to begin his broadcast. No one inside was likely to be aware of this, however, and there was no strange noise on their earpieces, no steam blowing out of it either… Just a funny feeling, which could easily be chalked up to butterflies in the stomach.

This feeling would persist as the ladies either stepped forward to have pictures taken or declined. If any lady did decide to have her picture taken, however, they might find they were not feeling quite themselves… However any lady set up for the first, a voice inside her head, not as a voice from the earpiece but as the Navi’s own voice inside their brain, would suggest to them that it hadn’t been quite right. For the follow-up shots, each Navi’s voice would suggest try something different with the following: Exorcist’s would first suggest something a bit sexier, then something more eye-catching (by which it apparently meant embarrassing, as pursuing this thought would lead to Exorcist trying something that might be a bit undignified or embarrassing to imagine using as a portrait on the Net); Bhikkuni’s would first suggest something more unguarded and friendly, then something which frankly just showed off her butt; Yajna’s would first suggest she tried something sultry and flirty, before then suggesting something… just generally sexy. Not that the three would likely have a way to compare, but Yajna’s internal suggestions seemed less focused than the others. Any of these could easily be interpreted as one’s own internal thoughts, but a more suspicious Navi might be able to catch on that the thoughts were unnatural. Additionally, while they might be interpreted as one’s own flashes of brilliance, they could relatively easily be acted against if one so chose. Furthermore, such impulses would only arrive for those wearing the headpieces.

Any who did, though, would find themselves surprisingly natural at such poses, even if it were their first time. When the photos were done, MascotMan, who seemed unfazed by much of anything, would cheerily inquire which photo they wanted… And if they’d taken all three, they’d find that little voice in their head turning them away from the first.

---

As this proceeded, Grin would continue grinning wider and wider as AdjustLady apparently had her attention. Grin had now taken to peeking at the side of the newspaper only AdjustLady had seen to this point.

DishMan was clearly doing something, but it wasn’t making much noise. A very faint pulse could be felt emitting from him, but he remained completely still. Every so often, a faint buzz could be heard in the pink earpiece Mary was wearing, but it would probably be fully ignorable unless one was searching for something to take interest in.

Since verbally communicating didn’t seem difficult, it became more apparent that the purpose of the microphone/earpiece combos Grin and AdjustLady were wearing must be to talk to each other at low volume without being overheard. Neither seemed overly concerned with coming up with the snacks or conversations Grin had promised before, and if they were only politely addressed, they seemed too busy to respond.

"Hey, when I've got a hard on, you'll now it-!" Burt complained, before Exorcist turned back down the audio feed with an apologetic smile.

"Thank you for speaking up for us... don't worry. Burt is a bit hard to deal with, but he is the founder of Counterinfectualism. An enlightened individual, as it were... As such, I afford him certain leeway," Exorcist reassured the others, starting off confident but seeming to lose steam as she realized that she had no actual useful defense for Burt's character. "I'll be careful with the equipment, of course."

"Expensive, huh?" Bhikkhuni questioned, seeming momentarily to have a heightened curiosity. "I mean, you say be careful, but we're just gonna be talking about Counterinfectualism, right? Unless there's a chance we're going to be giving a live demonstration of Counterinfectualism, there's no danger of these things getting damaged. Unless you think we might nod too hard and they'll fall off," the little Buddhist joked, though she was already trying to fight off any warring internal ideas about how profitable running off with the device might be.

Bhikkhuni slapped off the attempt to fit her communication device on and worked on attaching it herself. Yajna, on the other hand, allowed it completely. Nodding, she set out with the others, not quite matching their pace. Exorcist was excited to spread her message, Bhikkhuni was excited to be on TV, but for her, seemingly interested in tents and newspapers, there wasn't a ton to look forward to...

... Speaking of people who didn't have a ton to look forward to, Mary suddenly felt as though a practical joke was being played upon her. By the time her earpiece was affixed and she'd been led to sit down, she was left doing nothing but sitting in a chair, pretending to be blind. The closest thing she had to entertainment was secretly watching DishMan, who had quite an interesting body hidden behind his dish, but all the personality of an actual receiver dish.

For a moment, she actually considered asking if they'd forgotten she would probably want to see the visual feed herself... before realizing that to do so would blow her cover as a blind person. Fine in the short term, if it was just this three, but she couldn't risk Burt or the other navis realizing she'd lied about that physical impairment, since it would ruin her fun and also throw all trust of her into question.

"Oh God," Mary prayed internally, using the words in a rarely non-sexual sense. "Is this hell? Have I been sentenced to damnation for my transgressions?" Even she realized this was more a joke than a serious prayer... She couldn't believe that she'd been left out of whatever required "sex appeal" inside the studio and was instead being made to sit out in the open, listening to nothing. She was capable of spying with her secret vision, but had nothing to see.

The fact that the two ladies had huddled around a newspaper made it pretty clear to her that the newspaper was probably monitoring something more important than the weather patterns, but she couldn't even ask to see it without blowing her cover. She was willing to bet her now-resummoned habit... on a lot of things really, but especially on the possibility that they were using that as a screen to watch inside the studio. The conspiratory way Grin and AdjustLady behaved just made her all the more curious.

"Heeey, wow! That's a pretty interesting pose!" Burt applauded from outside, as if to taunt Mary. When Mary attempted to get answers as to what was happening, Burt's descriptors were less than helpful, very lacking for someone who read and wrote as much text-based pornography as he did. Burt grinned with a lack of sympathy. "Eeeh? This kinda gets you, huh? You're missing some really great stuff, Mary! This is your kinda thing, he he he! Oh, waaait, but you're a pure nun whose trying to fight off sexual temptations, riiight? You probably wouldn't enjoy this kind of thing at all! Or rather, you couldn't even see it, nyahaha!" Ordinarily, he and Mary were partners in crime, but this time, he seemed to find her torture amusing as a side dish to the rest of the groups' efforts.

To make matters worse, Mary was finding that even her attempts to communicate with the hostesses for some mildly flirtatious dialogue were fruitless... The two were acting like they not only did they have themselves on mute so she couldn't hear a thing, but furthermore, they had her voice turned off as well. Mary smiled in a vengeful sort of way, the kind of smile she wouldn't show if any of the others were around (or any of the group around her were paying any attention). Her painted lips held a wicked tilt and one of her eyebrows twitched above otherwise serene eyes. One thing was for sure: she wasn't going to be left out of the fun.

She suddenly let out a gasp, loud enough for the two to hear even if they weren't listening to her over comms. She was going to stake it all on a gamble. "Oh dear! I can't believe what I just heard!" she bluffed, covering her mouth with one hand. "Burt, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Burt asked, raising one eyebrow over his glasses.

"Oh, you didn't? Hmmm~" she chuckled, recrossing her legs and resting her chin on one fist. "Ah, excuse me, ladies. I was going to talk to Burt and Exorcist about any thoughts they had on your secret conversation just now, but we were we just about to start some sort of entertainment of our own, weren't we? And I apologize for eavesdropping... super-natural hearing of the blind and all," she added, tapping on one earpiece beneath her habit. "Of course, there's no need for me to get into that with Burt or for any of us to alter our plans, with all of this expensive equipment you mentioned and all of that. All I ask is for a little entertainment to keep my mind occupied and my mouth from blabbering."

She pointed to her eyes, then smiled sweetly with a mockingly helpless tone. "Oh, and remember the blindness. So ideally this entertainment would be something I could smell, touch, hear... taste?" she inquired, clasping her hands together at her lap. "I'm a good co-conspirator... I can keep my lips closed, or open, as need be~" The two would have her previous betrayal of Exorcist in her own self interest of grabbing her navi's behind, for context. "We're all in this together, aren't we?"

Of course, Mary's speech was just a bluff. She hadn't heard a thing and didn't know of any plans or even what was currently going on in the studio. All she knew at this moment was at least one of them were mafia and they were whispering privately, which meant that they had said something that she (and, perhaps by extension, her allies) were not allowed to hear. She might be endangering her own life, given the mafia presence, but she figured instead they'd play ball with her meager request rather than allowing her to disrupt whatever it was they were doing. Of course, there was also the off chance they hadn't said anything interesting at all and they'd recognize her bluff for what it was, which might make them recognize she was just bored and acting out.

---------------

Meanwhile, in the studio, the planned action was running along its planned course. Everyone shook hands with the newly resurrected MascotMan and proceeded inside. Once inside, Exorcist's eyes watched the cameras, Bhikkhuni's eyes watched the various names of recording artists on records, and Yajna's would watch the carpet beneath her feet. Before they had time to meet the artist and get started, they apparently would need to go through a quick photoshoot. Bhikkhuni seemed especially excited about the idea, stepping forward with the hope to start. "Marquee, huh? Nice! I've always wanted to be on one!" the Buddhist cheered their first action. "Be sure to get my best side," she joked, turning her head to her side. It was a bit of a flirty gesture, but with more egotistic intent than the sort of sexual connotation that it might take if Mary did it.

Stepping onto the X, still holding her jingling shakujo, Bhikkhuni gave a peace sign and a grin, a sort of a cheeky look that seemed to fit her personality. By anyone's account, it ought to be a picture that would work well for her. Instead, she found herself immediately questioning the validity of her first photograph. "Huh... you know... let's take that one again. I wanna try it this way, he he... best side, best side!" she reminded everyone, this time turning to flash the V of her fingers over one shoulder and grinning. With one hand, she rested her shakujo beneath the swell of her bum. However, even once the photograph was taken, she still felt wanting. "Okay... That was probably good but I think I blinked! Let's do one more!"

"That last one seemed pretty good though," Exorcist pointed out.

"Nope, nope, one more. Let's try it like this," she offered, now placing the V upside down at her rear. With her shakujo, she lifted up the hem of her robe, hiking it until it was fully off the bottom of her skinsuit, then placed the implement helpfully beneath her rear end again. She didn't have the curviest butt, but if you were into slim girls in tight clothing, it would work for you. "What do you think?" she asked, jingling the shakujo a few times playfully with a shake of her hips.

"Th-That's quite some pose..." Exorcist laughed awkwardly. "But I believe this is for a marquee, right? They didn't ask to see sex appeal this time..."

"Heh, well, I can't help it if I'm a little sexy," Bhikhunni giggled confidently. "Alright, you gals hurry up and get yours taken care of."

Complying, Exorcist moved onto the X next, privately wondering if it was okay for her to do just what she had in mind given that Bhikkhuni had set the bar so strangely. She gave a quick smile and crossed her hands at her lap, ignoring when Bhikkhuni reminded her she was supposed to be posing. Once the photograph was taken, however, she couldn't shake the feeling she'd done something wrong. "I suppose I didn't really give it all I've got... let's try another," she sighed, fixing her hair, breathing in, then... crossing both hands behind her back and pushing her chest out just a bit, still giving the same slightly sheepish smile.

When Bhikkhuni gave a boooo and encouraged her to make another pose, it began to become hard to tell whether the device was influencing her or the SP was. "F-Fine! I suppose we should do one more, so mine matches the weird one you did," Exorcist conceded, closing her eyes in a reluctant expression and reaching to her chest, now pulling open the front of her garment until the shape of her bosom fell over either side, bouncing momentarily inside the wool. "This should fit..."

"They should fit, but sometimes they don't," Bhikkhuni followed up on the joke. "Really? You're gonna use that on a marquee?"

"I-It's not any worse than yours!" Exorcist protested, quickly covering back up once the picture was done. "You next, Yajna..."

Obeying, Yajna moved to the X. It didn't seem like any amount of waiting was going to cause her to pose, as she stood quietly reciting mantras and staring straight at the camera. Eventually, MascotMan was going to have to take the photo. Once he did, she could start thinking about her next pose. Ideally, one would think by this point she'd start on the right one, but seeing the other two do theirs made her feel as though she had a general idea of the right flow: waste the first two attempts, then let loose on the third. For her secondary pose, she lifted her lantern to her lips, holding it in one hand, and gave a pose a bit like a spy sexily blowing smoke off a gun, though instead she was shooting a little wisp of fire into the air. After the shot clicked, she gave one more: this time, she stuck her tongue out and ran it along the curved length of the lamp in a way that was particularly suggestive, while flames continued to shoot out of the tip. Her eyes watched the fire and for the first time that day, she looked somewhat excited.

"Y-You're using that one..." Exorcist gulped, backing away from the scene slightly. "For the marquee?"

"... Yes. I think I liked that one," Yajna agreed, only partially due to the influence of AdjustLady's expensive equipment. "I can lend you my lamp... if you want to redo yours."

Exorcist politely declined, of course. With the marquee shots out of the way, all three of them, only mildly suspicious that anything untoward had occurred, were ready to head towards the set; they began that way, even before MascotMan or the earpieces directed them to do so.

Still in the midst of their secret conversation, both of the two ladies started when Mary suddenly spoke up. Grin actually jumped in her seat a bit, while AdjustLady simply turned her head to face the gasp. Grin whispered a bit more to AdjustLady, grinning nervously. If AdjustLady responded, it wasn’t possible to tell, considering her face mask. Grin listened to Mary’s continuing words and grinned a bit wider, turning to AdjustLady now to whisper something directly in her ear.

“No, I don’t recommend it,” AdjustLady responded, now in a low-but-audible voice. “We’re working with very fuzzy parameters, and the fourth was already an unexpected deviation. If we continue adding unexpected variables-“

“Now, now,” Grin interrupted her, rising to her feet and stepping over to the would-be blackmailer. “Ms. AdjustLady, Mary has made an excellent point. Of all the members of Exorcist’s group, I’d wager to say Mary proved her loyalty to the Creel family most excellently, wouldn’t you? Plus, she’s even shown a unique proclivity to the sort of hijinks your little gizmo seems most inclined to produce. At this point, I hardly think there’s any point in us speaking quietly around her, especially if she’s hearing us anyway.”

“Has the NetMafia always been that accommodating…?” AdjustLady wondered aloud, sighing. “I am unconvinced that Mary actually overheard anything. Isn’t she just bored?”

“I honestly don’t believe it matters,” Grin rebutted, shrugging. “Being bored makes sense in that situation. Besides, Mary, it was never my plan to cut you out of the loop in the first place! Sadly, Ms. AdjustLady’s testing has some strict rules, or parameters, or some such thing…”

AdjustLady coughed, but said nothing further.

“In actuality, this is a good chance to demonstrate your loyalty to the Creel family over that of your master’s personal interests,” Grin added, smiling down at Mary where she sat. Even tilting her head up, Mary would find the visor did an excellent job of shading Grin’s eyes. “Mary, please don’t think we harbor any ill will towards Exorcist and her support programs, either. AdjustLady’s test simply requires the subjects to be unaware of the effects prior to their application. I sincerely hope that when it’s all over, Exorcist and her cohorts will understand that what they’ve done was accomplish a great and appreciated service to the Creel family… And, naturally, all four of you should count yourselves completely under my protection. Everything’s a bit of good fun, no harm, wouldn’t you say?”

AdjustLady continued to eye Mary with more caution. “I don’t think all support programs necessarily refer to their Navi as ‘masters,’” she informed the Creel officer.

“In any case, while we’re happy to let you listen in, I’m afraid it may not be a cure for your boredom,” Grin admitted, moving back over to her seat. “All we’re doing is going over the numbers and effects. While I’m sure you’d find it quite an interesting show, since you can’t actually see it, I don’t know that it’s going to mean much… and since we’re monitoring it, I’m afraid I might not be available for much more than light conversation.”

“Actually, you don’t necessarily need to,” AdjustLady informed her, glancing at the back of the newspaper and telescoping her lenses once again. “I wanted to show you for the initial demonstration, but until we enter the second phase broadcasting, there probably won’t be much more to see. Signs are reading stable, no one has disconnected, no errors.”

“… Hm. Very well,” Grin acknowledged, scooting her chair closer to Mary’s. “We weren’t lying about this being a historic day for the NetMafia. This sort of technology can change the face of the Net. Our own DishMan acts as an amplifier for the signal, and the headsets pick it up. That entire studio is covered in special plating to resist the broadcast, yet the effects of the broadcast are already apparent! Such is the power of his equipment. I bet you’ve even felt the buzz yourself, hm?”

“These devices work on the same technology, but they include a canceler,” AdjustLady spoke with her face still hidden. “All you’ll pick up is canceled noise.”

“And all of this, it isn’t even the best part!” Grin laughed, actually wiping her lips for a moment. “The best is yet to come. I’ve been promised a real fireworks show, hmhmhm… Ah, how sad that you can’t see it, and that I don’t have the words to do it poetic justice!”

“… I hate to ruin your fun, but speaking of,” AdjustLady interrupted as she poked something behind the newspaper, “Don’t you remember what Mary said? She wanted entertainment she could smell, touch, hear, or taste. I don’t presume she’s referring to an actual snack. Your power trip is all well and good, but you need to accommodate Mary so she doesn’t make her ‘entertainment’ filling in Exorcist on what we’re doing.”

Grin paused, showing Mary a questioning smile. “Surely, sharing in the NetMafia’s triumphs is the greatest entertainment a member could ask for? Or… are you insisting on something else…?” One could interpret the Navi’s tone as a teasing lingering question, but knowing Grin and her particularly toothy expression, it was easier to think of it as a test, checking if Mary would unwisely push her luck further.

---
MascotMan gave Bhikkuni the thumbs up before she stepped up to the plate. “Sure! Just be sure to show your best side to the camera, then, as this camera is not designed to move!” He remained quiet as he took the remaining shots, only offering a shouted “cheese” before each flash as a heads up. He was every bit the match for Yajna’s lack of reflecting expression as he made no comment in any of her shots. “So! Shot three for each of you, I see. Good work, everyone! Let’s take these on up to MicrophoneGirl and get the show on the road!” The Navi skipped ahead of the rest and began climbing the spiral stairs to the studio, leaving the camera equipment below. “Hum dee dum dum…”

The short Navi extended his fist and knocked below the label of the door. “MicrophoneGirl! Four coming in…~” he called, turning the knob and then holding the door for the three ladies.

As they stepped inside, the three would enter a production studio, darkened at every edge but brightly lit by stage lighting in the center. The set was decorated with a round semi-circle of a modern desk with four comfy-looking reclining office chairs pulled up. A camera suspended by a little helicopter blade, bearing a design reminiscent of their Mascot host, was facing the setup and hovering in place.

The one they’d come to speak to was obviously the one zipping all around the stage, occasionally shifting a chair here or there, then causing a microphone to appear on the table before frowning, reconsidering, and dismissing it again. The girl looked to be modeled about the same age as Exorcist herself, with her most defining and striking feature being a helmet she was wearing designed to look like the rounded head of a golden microphone with yellow ear-guards. It framed a set of eyes that initially looked sharp because of her frantic action: as she struggled to calm down and approach, though, it looked like she might simply have this wild sort of look by default. The eyes were shaded by a visor-like cap of the helmet, but shone bright with dark pupils from within. Shocks of blonde hair were barely visible, curling slightly below her visor or at the back of the helmet. Her lips were currently fixed into an excited smile.

The Navi was wearing a dark purple Navi-suit which ended at her wrists and just at her neck with a thunderbolt-like jag and with no legs at all. Over it, she wore yellow-covered torso armor, which bore speakers at the shoulders and each breast plate. The armor itself didn’t cover the bottom of the breasts, showing she could almost be Exorcist’s match in that arena. A series of thin black wires extended from beneath it and wrapped in a complex arrangement to form a low skirt, one plug dangling behind her like a tail. Finally, she wore boots of the same metallic yellow material, coming up to her knees. The bit of her thighs visible also seemed pleasantly curvy.

“These are them, the Counterinfectualists! Yo, welcome to the set!” The girl grinned and jogged her way over to them, swinging her dangling cord in one hand as she extended the other for quick and energetic shakes. “The name’s MicrophoneGirl, but on air you should call me Mikey! Name of the show is The Hot Mic with Mikey! This is gonna be hot, this is gonna be great, woo hoo… Mascot Buddy! You got those photos?”

“I sure do, Mikey,” MascotMan agreed, smiling and handing them over. “Exorcist and her friends did a great job. These are Bhikkuni’s… these are Exorcist’s… and these are Yajna’s! Think they’ll work?”

“Thank you!” Mikey shouted, grinning and plucking them from his hands, bringing them to her own face. “Lessee, these are… Oh! These are, uh…” she continued, flushing red and staring at them intensely for a moment, before screwing her eyes shut and forcing herself into her previous grin. “These are p-pretty sexy! Counterinfectualists are sexy girls, huh? Wow! Surprising! Well, uh, my audience is, of course, used to a sexy girl in front of them all the time! So I’m sure they will love and embrace the Counterinfectualist girls!” In spite of this, she was still pretty red as she stowed away the photos and pinballed between directly addressing each of the girls, apparently not finding turning her head to speak to them animated enough. “So! I have a desk set up, but as I was doing it I found that I had no idea what Counterinfectualism was! No clue, the big zero! Couldn’t find a scrap on the Net. So, sorry to say this right before we’re about to introduce everyone to Counterinfectualism, but I need you to introduce me to it so I can decorate the set. Are there any kinds of icons? Or structures? Or monuments? Or tools? Or just anything related to it that I could set up around here so we can get this place looking a bit more appropriate?”

Exorcist and her friends would hopefully be able to provide MicrophoneGirl with some tips on decorating the set in a Counterinfectualist way. They would likely be able to do so in spite of some minor distractions. Exorcist would find her inner voice giving her some positive reinforcement at the reaction her photo had gotten: if she felt embarrassed about it, her voice would simply suggest that was natural and perhaps even part of the charm, and that similar embarrassment could only be a good thing. Bhikkuni would find her inner voice praising how effective her earlier shot had been, and how it all hinged around confident and effective use of her “best side,” which her voice would continue to bluntly remind her was her backside. Yajna’s would simply suggest that showing some sexiness would be natural and expected on this type of show and help improve the quality; furthermore, it wasn’t even hard to do. That said, these all remained simple hints that the ladies seemed to be giving themselves, and it was easy to imagine it was only the unfamiliar situation leading them to new thoughts.

Mary continued to face forward, making a show of how little she saw even as Grin stood over her. The downside of bluffing was that she ran the risk of betraying her actual obliviousness by the absence of her usual wit, which had to be conveyed by a persistent stream of dirty jokes, which in turn worked a lot better when you knew what you were joking about. "Fun, yes. you understand exactly," Mary agreed, nodding her head gently. "Neither of us wishes the other any malice. We just want to have fun... and support Creel, of course." She stayed quiet as Grin gave excuses and AdjustLady gave technobabble that seemed to have to do with the broadcast. Truth be told, Mary was very interested in watching the broadcast, but there was no way she'd manage to do that while keeping up her trick.

"I do feel a buzz, now that you mention it!" Mary chuckled, trying to remember the last time she didn't feel buzzed and failing. Still, that was interesting news. Apparently, Exorcist and co. were in some kind of danger... or no, there was no evidence of that. But under some kind of influence, at least. The oddest part was that it sounded as though MicrophoneGirl or someone had been aware of the possibility, but their precautions were insufficient to stop the influence. If Exorcist was here, her sense of justice might bring her to protest this unseen manipulation. If Bhikkhuni was here, she'd probably bristle at being manipulated, if she knew she herself was a target. As for Mary... she was actually pleased if their little group was being manipulated, whether it was her or the others.

The fireworks show sounded a little dangerous, though. Mary hoped that part was just figurative. If Yajna was here, she'd probably wish that it was as literal as possible, however.

"Ah, you needn't worry, AdjustLady. That wouldn't be entertaining at all, would it? Not in the way I like, that is." This was actually the truth. "Certainly, I want to be loyal... but just because we are having fun doesn't mean we aren't being loyal. In a way... if you were to let my little pouting fit and scheme interrupt your work here, I'd think that would make you the one without loyalty to the Mafia," she speculated, placing one finger to her cheek and turning her face skyward slightly, making an airheaded gesture to downplay the brazen accusation she'd just made. "Besides, my request is, again, very harmless. I was just thinking, for starters.... that it might be fun if we all sat here in our swimsuits. Is that too childish? It will be enough to allow me to stir my imagination... for now," she chuckled, evidently leaving the "until I get bored again" implied rather than spoken. "And I'll spare you having to let me touch, smell, hear, or taste anything! I'm a lady with a very active imagination!"

"I'll even start. Burt, if you would?" she asked, then promptly switched into her Swimsuit.GMO, a light blue bikini, overly tight and eye-catching on her body, with little fabric anywhere and a V-style lower half, which was all the more evident as she recrossed her legs, briefly revealing a gold cross printed between the legs. The sandals on her feet were about the only part of this outfit that would look at all in place, even on the beach. "I've never seen this one before, but Burt tells me it's somewhat sexy..." This could be interpreted as though Burt had lied to her about the coverage to play games with her, but knowing her personality now, it seemed hard to imagine she wasn't aware of the kind of effect it would have on people. Now, it just remained to be seen (literally, through her dull gray eyes peeking through narrow slits) if the others would play along with her innocent, childish request.

-------------

Meanwhile, so far unaware of the interference, the three disciples of Counterinfectualism were making their way up the staircase behind MascotMan to the recording studio. Both the inside of the studio and for that matter, the hostess herself, seemed like they'd be very pleasant as a setting for this introduction of Counterinfectualism to the world at large. If they'd had the benefit of no mental suggestions, they probably could have angled for this to really work out, despite the bizarre nature of Burt's manufactured religion.

Everyone took her hand in turn, reintroducing themselves, although Bhikkhuni was wearing the kind of grumpy frown she reserved for meeting anyone with such pleasant endowments. Her fling with Hoodwink had boosted her confidence in her body, but it seemed that some things would never change. Yajna showed a rare smile. "Do you... really think it's going to get hot?" she asked, a strange light seeming to flicker in her eyes as she spoke. It might seem for a moment as though it had erupted with no light source, but actually, she was carrying her lamp in one hand and a small sliver of fire had begun to leak out of the curved tip.

"I think that's a pretty safe bet," Bhikkhuni grumbled, as if accusing them all of making photos that were too sexy, despite being the first to lead on that front.

"Ahaha... ah ha... yes, I suppose we are..." Exorcist conceded. Ordinarily, she'd deny that, but thinking back to the photographs the others... and she(?)... had posed for, it would be a bald-faced lie. If Mary was here, she'd probably reassure Mikey that sure to come up with an even better pose, as if to will her to make one for them. Exorcist was left to wonder why she was thinking about that now... she didn't have any reason to want Mikey to make a sexy pose, did she?

The influence of the waves wasn't strong enough, however, to cloud how she felt about hearing that Counterinfectualism was an entirely undetectable presence on the net. After she'd joined Creel to get the resources to spread the word and after Burt had, if nothing else, done so much to try to get the word out about it... but they were probably just going about it too stupidly. It hurt to hear it out loud from someone who'd actually tried to dig up their literature, however. She wondered how many posts Burt had made on message boards, only for them to be wiped by administrators... She privately pondered if anyone on the net had a single good thing to say about the religion she claimed to be a disciple of... She even wondered if she herself believed in it.

All that was to say that she felt very motivated in doing whatever she needed to do in order to ensure this interview went well. As such, she tried to imagine what they could use to decorate the room that would have a big impact, even if it was something she found personally embarrassing...

"Candles... We should put candles around the room," Yajna proposed, surprising Exorcist and Bhikkhuni. "Low light... candlelight..."

"Ah, yes! That might create a nice mood. The burning of incense is a useful part of many religions' exorcism practices, or simply related to prayer. That's a fine idea," Exorcist agreed. "How about you, Bhikkhuni?"

"Hunting's an important part of this religion too, right? You should get like... some virus pelts, Spikies or whatever, and lay em out on the floor! Even if you're not sitting on one, lying down on one ought to be super comfy," she pointed out, sounding proud of herself. She couldn't actually remember if she'd ever seen Exorcist show any affinity for trophies like that, though... "I wouldn't mind really stretching out on one!"

"Pelts, hm? I suppose I see the connection... But, really, I think the most important thing of all is communion. Counterinfectualists all have to commune in order to share techniques, tales, and the like, to band together as a force of good against evil. To that end, we should consider the seating arrangements. What if we were all to share one couch together?" Exorcist proposed, sounding excited about the idea.

"Nah, that sounds super uncomfortable and you'll probably just shove me and Yajna to the ends, so we won't get on camera," Bhikkhuni disagreed vehemently.

"O-Oh... How about... a bed! Yes, I believe that would allow all of us to sit around it in a corner. I'm most at home in a futon, but a full bed would be more comfortable," she proposed. "That way we will all be close and communal. A large, circular bed. Oh, but will MascotMan be joining us too? Or will he just use the camera?"

It was an odd group of suggestions that amounted to a dark, candle-lit room with soft animal furs draped around it and a large bed holding four women at the center. Frankly, it was a scene directly out of an Electopian love hotel. "The more candles... the better..." Yajna added, now giving a wide, disconcerting smile. Someone would need to remind her to put out the lamp before they got into bed together, if that was really what they were going to do.

“You are feeling a buzz?” AdjustLady asked Mary with some tension. “No… It’s the feedback, that’s all. If you feel anything unusual, you need to let us know immediately,” the technician cautioned her, monitoring her feeds again.

Grin held the same expression from above Mary as she agreed, and it didn’t change as she was accused. Only a cold shift in the air and tightening of her muscles would reveal her true reaction, and only someone in as close proximity as Mary would sense it. That tension dissipated almost immediately when Mary gave her request, giving way to confusion. She gave a quick chuckle in response, her grin cocking a bit when she realized it wasn’t being reciprocated as she expected. “I don’t understand. You’re blind, right? If you aren’t going to see or touch anything, what do you get out of such a request?”

“As she said, she’ll use her imagination,” AdjustLady remarked, still watching her screen and merely listening in. “Even if she doesn’t see or anything, the atmosphere will be completely changed by that alteration, correct? The two of us attempting to work in such attire and ignore her doing the same is unlikely… I don’t dislike that sort of imagination,” she concluded quietly, still not focusing on the others.

Grin still kept a thin smile, not seeming pleased with the idea of being toyed with. She scanned up and down Mary and tilted her head: she’d probably have a stronger reaction if she hadn’t already made Mary spoil the surprise of how racy she’d get. “Come now, you may not be able to see it, but surely you can feel how revealing it is, correct? In any case, as much as I’d love to humor you, I don’t own a swimsuit. That sort of leisure isn’t how I care to relax-“

“That isn’t an issue,” AdjustLady interrupted. “These devices are capable of .GMO overrides, and I actually have a variety of swimsuit designs for various body types. The AI is sophisticated now to create one that ought to be well tailored for specific Navis… It’s not that I’m especially interested, but you ought to indulge her as much as possible, right?” Even though she was still speaking in the same tone, it wasn’t hard to guess she was more interested than she tried to appear.

“I’d prefer if you leave business between Creel family members to the family,” she told AdjustLady sweetly. “But, very well. We’re all professionals here, and we’re all women. If showing a little skin isn’t too distracting for you, it shouldn’t be for me.”

“You’re volunteering, then? Very well.” AdjustLady didn’t wait for confirmation before tapping on her side of the newspaper a surprisingly small number of times for what one would expect to be a complex operation.

A slight whirring noise came from Grin’s headpiece as her outfit was quickly replaced from the toes up in the blink of an eye and little fanfare. This seemed to have been unexpected for her, as she was poised with her jaw open as if to speak. Instead of her previous Navi suit and armor, she now wore a tight cheetah-print one-piece swimsuit with cleavage from the neck to below the breasts and dangerously high legs, as well as separate, low riding black bikini briefs. Together, the two pieces did about half a job covering the woman’s behind. The other notable revelation, besides a good bit more of the Navi’s perky-for-her-age body, was her hairstyle, which might be unexpected for her personality: it was mostly white, fading to pink at the tips as had been peeked earlier. While it only went to the nape of the neck, she had long bangs, long enough to almost all over her shut eyelids. Mary might have thought she was making fun of her, trying a narrow-eyes and constant-smile gimmick herself, but it seemed the heavy-lidded eyes were part of her typical look as well.

The Navi’s eyes did pop open for a moment to show sharp, beady pupils as she observed her own outfit, her grin widening dangerously as some color entered her face. “AdjustLady… I thought you said your AI would pick something appropriate for the wearer? Would you call this appropriate? It’s a bit…” she trailed off, squirming a bit uncomfortably and almost reaching for the back before becoming conscious of the eyes on her.

“… It is a bit unexpected,” AdjustLady admitted, curiously. “Oh, for Mary’s benefit, the swimsuit the AI selected for Grin is a rather risqué number that captures her maturity-“

“I… don’t… think a description is necessary,” Grin interrupted, struggling to maintain her dignity and looking more embarrassed than she seemed to have expected. “Ms. Mary is using her imagination, remember?”

“Yes… well, I’m sure mine will be an appropriate result,” the technician remarked, tapping her hidden console again. “I was the one who programmed it, after all." Just a few taps put her into new swimwear as well, which revealed a lot about her body and something about either her taste or her programming skills. The swimwear was really more of a costume, a white, downy-feathered bikini with good coverage. However, it even came with a fake set of small angelic wings and a white headband with a floppy gold-fabric halo attached. The ease of programming such things to look realistic made the fabric and fakeness of the accompaniments stand out as intentional. On the note of the body, an interesting body was revealed: the woman’s thin body was composed of dark black synthetic parts, with segmented joints almost like a doll, whirring with mechanisms and covered in tiny, discrete knobs. Her goggles and mask had disappeared to reveal a frozen female face, unnervingly attractive by conventional judgments but with red, LED-lit eyes and absolutely still. “… No, this doesn’t seem right,” she grumbled: as she spoke, the fabric in her halo and wings glowed slightly in time with her voice, apparently having some embedded lights.

“Heehee!” Grin laughed mean-spiritedly, looking a bit younger for a moment. “AdjustLady, the amoral angel! Someone has quite a high opinion of herself.”

“Grin, the gold-digger,” AdjustLady responded without humor, letting out a little gasp. “What?”

“Um, yes, what?!” Grin responded with even less, grinning broadly and dangerously. “I’m going to assume you called me ‘grave-digger’ just now, to which I’d respond, ‘yes, but I have people for that!’ Let’s not have so much fun that we forget who is to be respected here, okay? In any case, has the naughty nun had enough fun for now?”

Mary would probably catch on to the fact that each of them had been given an amusing nickname… rather, she almost certainly would catch on, as a helpful reminder in her own voice repeated them all back to her. The amoral angel. The gold-digger. The naughty nun. That small voice asked her to consider if she could think of anything that would have been even funnier…

AdjustLady stared down, seeming lost in thought, then turned up to Mary. “Something seems off. Everyone, if anything strange happens or feels like it will happen, let me know immediately, all right? For now, you’ve had your fun, so… I’m going to just focus on work. Unless you’d like to try to give the system a third strike,” she offered, apparently not able to hold back her curiosity regardless of her caution. “I doubt it’s going to come up with something more… well-suited for you… than what you have on now, though.”

---

“Yeah yeah!” Mikey agreed with Yajna, nodding her head vigorously. “Candles, a bunch of candles! Or uh, maybe just enough candles! Cause we want low candlelight. Go for a kinda mysterious, occult feel, right? Not that I’m calling your religion occult, you know!” she reassured them, waving her hands defensively. “Just, I’m sure the audience will love that atmosphere, yeah!”

She turned to Bhikkuni, nodding her head in a way that was really more of a headbang. “Yeah, all right! Virus pelts! Or uh… hm. Where do you get virus pelts? Not many people hold onto that kind of stuff unless it’s a personal trophy, right? Oh, uh, except Moloko pets! I bet I can get a whole frick-ton of Moloko pelts! Yes, yeah!” she shouted, fist-pumping as she moved over to Exorcist for another suggestion.

“Communion! Yeah, buckle up everyone, cause we’re about to get cozy comfy! Extremely so!” she shouted, working her hype up even more… Until Bhikkuni put the brakes on it. The hostess seemed shocked to hear anyone didn’t think that idea (or any idea?) was a great idea. “No dice? Don’t like it?!” She shot her head back towards Exorcist. “A bed! Yeah, that’s it, even more…! More…! Uh. A b-bed?” she paused, growing red again. “One bed for four sexy gals, that’d have to be some big, big bed…!” Her excitement didn’t seem to falter, but did pause, as she seemed to be stopping to consider how this might actually work, nostrils flaring occasionally.

“Me?” MascotMan responded, pointing to himself and smiling as usual. “I’m afraid I’ll be busy running the software for the cameras! It’s actually more exhausting than you might think. Luckily I don’t need a bed though, since I just got a big ol’ nap.”

“Okay, uh, I guess we’ll do that! All that stuff!” MicrophoneGirl announced, shouting it at the ceiling. “Great ideas, great Counterinfectualism! I’ll get stuff ready. All you girls need to do is wait in the shadowy corners. Then, when I introduce you, you’ll just step out and give a nice simple introduction, then we’ll get right into some nice Q&A where you ladies get to give Mikey all the deets. No need for a script! Nothing’s scripted here. Oh yeah. Now!”

That “now” would probably be a trailing transition for most people, but sounded more like a call to action due to her usual excitement. She turned around, paused to stare at her desk for a moment, then upended it with a shout. “Yeah!!” she called again as the desk disappeared before hitting the floor. “Frick these lights!” she shouted, reaching her hands into the air. As if grabbing them with telepathy, she jerked her arms down, causing them to fly from the ceiling (again vanishing before the could hit anyone). The room was now completely dark.

“How exciting,” MascotMan remarked with a chipper smile hidden in the darkness.

“Now… candles candles caandleees!! Many candles!” Mikey shouted. In a breathtaking display, the woman ran around the room, causing several brass candlestands to appear in her wake and returning light to the room. Since this happened with her own circular trajectory, it was easier for the Counterinfectualists to follow her running path, which they would need to do if they didn’t want to be bowled over by her. “Awright! Now, a big, luxurious, super soft comfy bed, big enough for four sexy gals!” As she said this, a large, round bed appeared, covered in red sheets and pink pillows with red hearts and the letters “YES” embroidered. She stepped up onto the bed without thinking twice and didn’t hesitate to start kicking the pillows off in random directions. “Boom! Yeah! Get lost wrong pillows!”

“I bet you’re wondering-“ MascotMan started before a pillow hit his face at high velocity. He didn’t budge as it fell to the floor. “- how Mikey has the resources to set this all up! It’s all thanks to us, her advertising partners who are sparing no expense, as well as our helpful guest technician!”

“And now, ba ba baa baaa, Moloko pillows!” she shouted again, creating five pillows in different pastel-colored moloko pelts. “I’m so excited I wanna go to bed, right now. Yeah yeah,” she concluded, looking upon her works and nodding with satisfaction. “Now, places ladies! We’re gonna start in 3 2 1 Go go go go go,” she shouted, not giving anyone any warning about her accelerated countdown.

“I’m sorry, did you say we were going on ‘go’ five or ‘go’ six?” MascotMan asked her, with none of the delivery that would make it clear this was a joke.

“Go five, always go five! Ladies and Gentlemen, Mikey fans from every corner of the Net! You’re watching The Hot Mic, live, with me! Your hot hostess, Mikey! Get excited!”

MascotMan had stepped back into the corner that wouldn’t be occupied by a Counterinfectualist, nodding at the girls if they hadn’t gotten the message that they needed to immediately do the same or be caught out of position. When he disappeared into the darkness, his floating camera began getting a more direct line of sight on the hostess, evidently broadcasting immediately.

“I know what you’re thinking! Especially you, MikeyFan9722! Yeah, that’s right, you. You’re thinking ‘Boy, I’m sure Mikey goes to bed every night and gets a good sleep so she has plenty of energy, but I’ve never seen her broadcast from an actual bed before! And to that I say, go back and watch my ‘I drank fifteen cups of NetJava and now I can’t go to sleep so I’m streaming myself all night’ stream! You’ve missed a primo slice of Mikey entertainment! But this time, I’m in a bed for reasons I can’t explain. That is going to be up to my lovely guest stars!” she paused to clap with a big smile, perhaps putting an unfair burden of expectation on her guests. “Today we’re going to learn about ‘Counterinfectualism.’ Yes, ‘Counterinfectualism.’ What is ‘Counterinfectualism’ you ask like I’m not just about to show you in just about five minutes so please hold your horses, you ask? Yeah. It’s the best most super-awesome religion and here’s the first one who’s gonna tell you why! It’s-“

Mikey paused uncharacteristically, her eyes shooting open wider and her jaw hanging a moment. Bhikkuni and Yajna would probably catch this, but Exorcist might not, as Mikey’s words powerfully pinned her attention in place. “Exorcist the Exhibitionist yeah!!” she concluded, picking up as if nothing had happened and clapping for her new guest that ought to be approaching. “She’ll introduce herself and also her too buddies, who are, and you’re not gonna believe this, just as great and awesome as her. I have a strong hunch something may catch on fire! So great.”

With Mikey’s words, Exorcist would feel such a sharp change that explaining it away mentally might become difficult. The uninvited voice in her head, while distinctly her own, was equally powerful to her own thoughts, to the point that differentiating what was a normal thought and what was strange became difficult. It was probably best thought of as the nickname she’d just been called: the Exhibitionist suggested that this was easily explained as a nickname Exorcist got in the past because of her public displays. To get attention as a Counterinfectualist, while at the same time satisfying her personal fetish, Exorcist readily engaged in all sorts of lewd and disgraceful speech and acts. It was all embarrassing, but also fulfilling, and usually personally exciting.

Due to her immediate thoughts, she probably also wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the moment that her black undersuit had vanished due to a .GMO override, one that neither she nor Burt had any part in.

Wherever Exorcist did or didn’t get in her introduction, Mikey would eventually call on her to introduce her friends… As if in some form of retaliation for her own situation, Exorcist would be given a directive so powerful she would likely be nearly helpless to avoid calling them “Bhikkuni the Booty-Bouncing Buddhist” and “Yajna the Hindu Hottie,” especially if she was still focused on her own situation.

Each of her allies would feel the same shock of suggestion Exorcist herself did, although with different results. The powerful “Buddhist” voice in Bhikkuni’s voice would helpfully fill in that, prior to becoming a Counterinfectualist, Bhikkuni had traveled using her sought-after assets to entertain others and make a living. Now, however, she sought to use them to help spread the message of Counterinfectualism in hopes of a bigger break. In spite of her new purpose, Bhikkuni hadn’t lost any of her edge, and still had a natural talent and wealth of experience in the art of “money-making.” … As if intercepting the thought she would inevitably have, Bhikkuni would also become immediately aware that while her outfit didn’t seem to have changed except to gracefully accommodate her body, her body had changed somewhat significantly. In particular, her lower curves had become markedly more voluptuous, ironically pushing against the boundaries of “realism” for what an otherwise small young woman would sport. Her flaring hips and thicker legs now tapered in the service of supporting a bubble butt. Her chest had also grown, but almost imperceptibly for anyone but the girl herself.

Yajna had received a much smaller magnitude of physical changes, although there did seem to be a slight new and balanced fullness in both the chest and the seat of her robes. Her outfit didn’t seem to have changed much, either, but she did have some new flattering makeup and lipstick. The primary change in her appearance was due to her body language: the “Hindu” inside of her told her that she could confidently use her sex appeal (which, really came mostly from her confidence) to manipulate others into getting whatever she liked, and helping Counterinfectualism, if that was what she felt like. More than anything, she apparently the control of arousing another (… but was that really what she loved more than anything…?).

It might be reasonable to assume that as the voices spoke to the each of their respective owners, those owners would at least recognize the distinct changes in the others. On the contrary, unless any of them had a stronger consideration of the other than of themselves, they’d find themselves told the same story of the woman’s background and character as the other’s voice had asserted, and likely find it even harder to focus on denying.

Any of them appeared to be able to stop this strange manipulation on themselves by destroying the earpiece, or else getting far away from it (due to the small studio size, it’d have to mean a room of distance, practically speaking). Otherwise, the bad mojo coming from it would seem to be strong enough to carry in short range. It was unclear if there was something else they could do to stop it… Even their manner in communications, including private communications, seemed to be affected by the disturbance.

Whether any of them could fully connect the obscured dots or not, it didn’t seem MicrophoneGirl or MascotMan had any intention of holding up the show for them. Whatever happened, the cameras would follow their first appearances mercilessly, and Mikey would dutifully (and surprisingly?) not speak out of turn.

"Oh yes. Very blind. And thank you, AdjustLady, I'm very flattered! You seem to get me," the pink-haired nun tittered, smiling sweetly. "You're a bit of an enigma, aren't you? You do a lot to stir the imagination yourself, even without seeing you." She put on a look of mock surprise. "Now Grin, do I strike you as the kind of lady who explores her own body in intimate places on the regular?" Mary questioned, wearing an innocent smile as she joked around. "But I'll take your word for it. Oh my! I'm so embarrassed~" Blindness Mary could fake, but it was hard to imagine she'd ever be able to fake shame.

Mary could probably get plenty excited just listening to the conversation, but of course, she could cheat as well. There was plenty to catch from brief glimpses through her gray eyes. "Oh my! I need some of these to take home for parties," she thought to herself, finding herself with a new appreciation for the earpieces they'd shared. "Ooo! My imagination is working overtime right now, ladies," Mary informed them, squirming in her seat. It wasn't often she got to have so much unsupervised fun. "Are we doing nicknames now? I suppose I could be the Naughty Nun. Or the Naked Nun, judging by what you've told me of my appearance. Ooo, perhaps for my role in all of this, you'd prefer to call me the Sinister Sister? The Sightless Sister? The Blind Bitch?" Mary could continue doing unproductively all day, but she cut herself off, since there was probably more fun she could get up to than simply renaming herself.

She gave a kind smile vaguely in the direction of AdjustLady's voice. "Well, Miss... what was it, Amorphous Angel? Something like that. It sounds like your wardrobes are all so wonderfully random that turning on your GMO is almost like a blind draw! How very fitting," she joked. "I think I'll have one. When in Rome, pray as the Romans do~" Another joke. The nun attempted to activate whatever GMO was loaded, not knowing what it may be. This would be a bit of fun, as she could only understand so much of her own costume by the slits of her eyes. Knowing this, she opened her mouth in an excited smile as the GMO loaded. "Would you mind describing it to me?"

--------------------

Yajna nodded along, smiling wider. It could be interpreted as endearing that she was finally opening up a bit or a bit creepy, based on the context. "Yes... Yes... No such thing as too... many candles," she agreed, seeming increasingly excited.

Bhikkhuni shrugged, lacking the same overt excitement. "Moloko sounds as good as anything. Not really the kind of thing you show off from a hunt, but on the bright side, plenty of comfortable to stretch out on," she agreed.

"R-Right, four girls together on a bed," Exorcist stammered, not quite settled into her role yet despite having been the one to make the suggestion. It was almost possible to believe that she hadn't thought of the implications beforehand.

The gang all got out of the way as Mikey set up the room, with Yajna running around in a circle behind her, evidently excited about the candles, and Bhikkhuni running away, possibly frightened by the prospect of being anywhere near Yajna and candles. Exorcist stayed out of the way in one corner, trying to digest what was going on. A thought had begun to form in Exorcist's head... Counterinfectualism needed to get out there more than anything. They couldn't have people trying to search the word "Counterinfectualism" and retrieving zero results. But was it any better for their image of Counterinfectualists to end up as something as sexual as their earlier photographs had suggested?

The thought continued to weigh on her as the others watched Mikey perform, entertained by her energetic opening. Bhikkhuni privately considered if there was money in this livestreaming thing, while Yajna watched the hostess, fascinated by the way light hit her from four angles at once. "Hot Mic..." she murmured under her breath, seeming to enjoy the turn of phrase. Both of those two ended up raising eyebrows at her strange avenue for introducing the star disciple of Counterinfectualism, while Exorcist found herself marveling at what a catchy phrase Mic had come up with on the spot. This ought to do wonders for their advertising!

"She didn't go for Sexorcist?" Bhikkhuni whispered to Yajna, almost inaudibly, as the other girl watched with a passive expression.

With her eyes spinning in some state of confusion, Exorcist did her best to fulfill the manufactured role of the Exhibitionist, which would, surely, be just fantastic for the long-term health of Counterinfectualism. "Hi everyone! Swish, swish!" she began, sitting on her knees atop the bed and pressing a fist on each hip, swaying back and forth so that upper and lower hems of her robe, sans-undersuit, already threatened to show off whatever was left underneath, if anything. "This is the first time I've gotten on TV before and it's got me very excited! I'm Counterinfectualism's star pupil and I'm very eager for exposure!" she explained, with a look like some mixture of a cute smile and overt madness on her face. It was likely that a mix of stage fright, an unusual voice in her head telling her what to do, and a desire to do whatever it took to get the name out there had created this cocktail of a new character.

"But while I am the foremost disciple, I'm not the only one! Wouldn't you like to be here on the bed with me and my two disciples? First, let's meet Bhikkhuni, the Booty-Bouncing Bbbbb-" she growled, barely fixing it. "Booty-Bouncing Counterinfectualist!"

"Really?" Bhikkhuni asked, seeming critical of multiple parts of the name, before moving on to her own introduction. She seemed to fall into the groove of it quickly enough, though. "I'm a bit of an exhibitionist myself. You know how the shakujo is used, right? Primarily to pound the earth and ward off God's creatures? Well, mine tends to have the opposite effect. When I get quaking, folks come running~" she winked, making a show of bouncing up and down upon the bed, seated a bit like Exorcist was, but with her back to the camera, while clutching her shakujo so that it clattered musically along with her motions. She put this behavior down to her natural business sense: it was about time one of the Counterinfectualists used a reasonable technique to gain some star power.

Still, she was aware that something seemed a little different. At first, she felt a bit like she was back in the cornfield, reveling in newfound assets... but that had been a remarkably unsexy adventure. Hadn't her most successful time been using her natural assets with Hoodwink? She found herself first noticing that the balance was... not quite as bad as in the cornfield, but still a little off. Would Hoodwink have preferred having more to work with like this? Somebody must, or else she wouldn't have been modified with it. With these existential thoughts on her mind, she tried to move on to introducing Yajna. "There's one more for you! Yajna, the Hindu-"

"COUNTERINFECTUALIST. The Counterinfectualist Hottie!" the newly loony Exorcist interjected, leaning across the bed to practically shout the words. Internal voices or whatever else aside, all logic fell apart if she let the two call themselves members of other religions.

"Thanks, Exxy... Yes... I'm Yajna and I want to make sure that this cast is Mikey's hottest one... ever..." she agreed, producing a lit candle in one hand and holding it delicately in the loop of her finger and thumb. She used the other hand to trace a finger down the hot wax, pulling it between two fingers in a suggestive way, before leaning back and lolling out her tongue. She made a show of "eating the fire," more of a magic trick, by which the candle seemed to disappear into her throat along with the fire. "Excuse me..." she smiled, extending out the hem of her robe at the neck as she wiped off the string of wax onto it, barely avoiding her ornate jewelry. "So, what's next?"

On the other side of his PET, Burt was watching with a stupid expression. He wanted to enjoy this, but the whole situation was too weird for him to easily do that. "Huuuh? Bio-corn weirdness that grows your boobies is one thing, but this is a little... hmmmmm..." he murmured, trying to decide how he felt about it all, like someone who'd stumbled upon a genre of adult entertainment he'd never actually considered perusing before, feeling it out to decide if he could incorporate it into his routine. "You know, I think I like it. Let's roll with it."

Evidently having heard him, Exorcist sent a message right after:

Quote (Exorcist)

"Burt, please make sure everyone uses the word Counterinfectualism. If they don't, then all of this is for nothing... Also, did you take away my bodysuit? That was a pretty good idea! I hadn't thought about it before, but the robe is kind of cute without it, isn't it? I guess it is sort of eye-catching. If you have any other ideas, let me know!"

Burt might consider this to be a dream come true, but he had the feeling that if he got involved on top of whatever else was going on, things would get even weirder than they already were. "I'll keep that in mind, Exxy. Don't go too craaazy, okay?" he laughed nervously, grabbing his soda off the end table and smiling to his niece and nephew. "You two staaay riiight heeere, Uncle Burt has to complete the rest of this mission alone in his room, okay? I'll be back in an hour or so! If you see Exorcist on any broadcasts online, dooon't watch them!" he insisted, before quickly rising, holding his book-shaped PET in front of his lap, and vanishing behind the door to his bedroom.

“Captivating technology captivates in every aspect of the form, and my sound design is a part of that,” AdjustLady commented, sounding enthusiastic, but more like she was advertising a new PET than praising herself. “In any case, yes, it’s best if I stay mysterious in this case.”

For her part, Grin cracked an unamused smirk at Mary’s hijinks, evidently not feeling she had to fake it as hard if she wasn’t speaking. “Having fun, are you? Just about done?” she said with a sweet, considerate smile as she checked to see if Mary had run out of steam.

AdjustLady cleared her throat at the notion that her device was producing costumes at random, but didn’t address it otherwise. “Very well. Let’s give it a go…”

As Mary’s costume changed, Grin looked at her with an awkward smile as she evaluated it. “Mary… before we continue, is it fair to assume you don’t strictly adhere to a religious code that might be offended by certain iconography?”

“I think we’re a bit past that,” AdjustLady interjected. “Mary, I’ll give you a quick explanation...



“… And that’s about it.” AdjustLady described all of this in detail and with only the faintest hint of any embarrassment.

Grin flushed a bit on her behalf, seeming like she wanted to rush things along but not sure exactly what she should be rushing to. “Ah, AdjustLady. How are the results so far? Is everything working as intended?”

AdjustLady folded out her newspaper, scanning its contents with her unchanging expression. “Hm. To be honest, there are some fairly apparent flaws in conversion. I suppose that’s to be expected: we’re testing on unknowns and, to your specifications, low compatibility. With that in mind, and considering the shielding, I’d say the results could be called a tentative success.”

This seemed to put Grin in a good mood. She spun to face AdjustLady, shifting giddily on her feet and wagging her bottom near Mary with far lower guard than she’d probably have if she understood Mary’s condition. “Excellent, excellent! Hm… and it seems there was a, uh, change in physique, as well?”

“The previous model couldn’t,” AdjustLady commented, “I’m not entirely happy with the way this one does… I feel like there’s potential for a gap in memory when model shifting. On a personal level, I’m also not a hundred percent pleased with the AI’s creative development at this stage. Importantly, this required a tremendous amount of output from your dish, as well as the second stage amplification from the host. The rebound noise is enough to essentially put them in the room with the broadcast.”

“Ooh, goodie! So what you’re saying is that shielding is no match for our technology?” she cooed.

“… I’m not quite sure. The damping was effective until a moment ago. I think the hostess accidentally did something that managed to affect the noise, but the output didn’t increase… however, the effect is obviously pronounced. The readings… don’t make sense, as of yet. After that initial spike in Exorcist’s readings, she was able to produce a similar effect in Bhikkuni… who was able to produce an effect in Yajna. Given a bit of time to analyze them, I think I can make sense of it.”

All of this conversation might go over Mary’s head ordinarily, but her focus might be even more off at the present moment. At about the point AdjustLady had finished describing her outfit, Mary would hear an energetic voice she’d never heard before call “the Sinful Sister” as though it was in the room with her. Mary would be immediately aware it was referring to her: she’d hear a small electric buzzing and pop, then be immediately filled with the confirmation of her new nickname, as well as the “proper” names and dispositions of Exorcist and her disciples. In terms of a personality effect, however, hers would probably be a relatively small alteration. The Sister personality spoke a lot of what she was probably already thinking of herself, but further amplified confidence, lust, and, in particular, mischief.

“Wait… these readings… something new happened,” AdjustLady muttered, growing silent and clearly pensive as she buried her head in the paper.

“What? Do tell, do tell!” Grin begged excitedly, trying to peer around the paper.

---

Mikey watched each Counterinfectualist with growing apparent confusion, working to keep a confident smile on her face and her mouth shut as she let them do the introductions. Her cheeks grew more and more red with each in turn. “W-wooooah!” she finally shouted as Yajna finished, clapping her hands in spite of her microphone as a cue to the audience. “Yeah yeah!! This is for sure gonna be Mikey’s hottest one ever! Like I could have told you these Counterinfectualist girls are hot, but this is, maybe even like ten times the idea I had from before! Some of them barely even look like the same person! Seems we’re all going to do some learning and some sweating on today’s show, boys and girls,” she announced, stretching out the neck of her suit while already sweating. Whether that was from the arousal she was eluding to or the excitement that clearly accompanied her voice would be hard to say.

“So, viewers, we have here three lovely Counterinfectualist girls. Unfortunately,” she started, before suddenly raising her voice to a shout, “THE SINFUL SISTER, MARY, who I’ve been informed is the fourth disciple, can’t join us today. So sad! That would have been the most crowded and exciting studio slash bed ever. Too sad.”

Each of the Counterinfectualists present would have their conception of Mary change slightly to match what Mary herself was now being fed, but probably imperceptibly.

“That said, we have more than enough personality and super sexiness in the room for my audience, even if it grows ten times! Hey, grow ten times, my viewers! That’s my challenge to you, here, tonight! Get nine of your friends gathered around the tube, because now it’s time to learn: What is Counterinfectualism? Can anyone be a Counterinfectualist? Who or what do they believe in? What do they do? Who started it? Are there any others? Do they have any rituals? Should I be one too? Should you? Or are they all required to be sexy girls? Is the sexiness tied to their beliefs? What makes them so sexy?! Am I even sexy enough?!?!” she started, rising to her feet on the bed at some point and shouting her questions to hypothetical viewers around the studio.

“We’ve been given some clues,” she continued, lowering her voice and raising her finger. “The candles. The Moloko pelts. The bed. But it’s gonna take more than your hot hostess to connect those dots, yeah. Let’s hear from the experts themselves! Exorcist, Bhikkuni, Yajna, please, in your own words, answer the buuurning questions Mikey and all her fans and all your fans-to-be across the Net have! Are we even asking the right questions?!”

The girls would be challenged to provide meaningful answers while still under the sway of the meddling devices.

"Well, I hope I won't spoil your air of mystery as I try to get to know you better," Mary flirted harmlessly, seeming much less pouty now that she'd managed to establish some communication. "Yes, Grin, it's very fun. I'm having a great time. But I certainly hope we aren't done already! I'm just getting warmed up~"

As the change occurred, she did her best not to look down and ruin her illusion of blindness, instead relying on the opinions of others. Chuckling just a bit snidely, she questioned, "Oh? Was my first swimsuit a good bit more pious than this one? But they feel similar, in some ways!" With joke imparted, she quieted down for a bit to listen to the others speak, playing with one of her bikini-chains, such as they were, while the two talked. "Is this really a swimsuit? Hmmm..." Mary thought to herself, trying to decide if it was less reasonable to swim in jean shorts or in a bikini that looked as though a relatively gentle wave would probably displace it.

The nun hadn't been able to understand the technical lingo earlier, but the new details sounded juicy enough that she again felt miffed that she'd been excluded from all of it. "All the more reason to enjoy myself," Mary thought to herself, as she enjoyed a close look at her hostess's buttocks, for once enjoying a show without having to do much to hide her working vision. As ever, and especially with the new voice in her head, Mary found herself compelled to press her luck. The fact that Grin was so occupied with AdjustLady made a more garden variety form of mischief easier than one that relied on her silver tongue.

With a quiet, practiced motion, Mary reached down to unhook one side of her bikini's chain, then, just as silently, hooked it to the side of Grin's black garment, piercing the fabric. With an innocent motion, she reached out for a moment for something to grab onto, finally slapping one hand onto the broad of Grin's haunch in order to leverage herself up. "Whoops! Was that the Gold-Digger I just hit? Sorry about that," she apologized insincerely. She debated whether to mention the wardrobe shenanigans that had just happened as though they were some sort of accident, but thought it would be better if she acted unaware. "Just stretching my legs~" If Grin didn't notice anything was the matter, she'd notice soon enough, whenever she attempted to move. At that time, Mary would be ready to fall into her. Of course, if Grin wanted to retaliate with some slapping of her own, that could be fun. If Grin chose to retaliate in more Mafia-like fashion, however, that could be unfortunate for the nun, who, despite her yet further increased boldness, still didn't have much in terms of the means to back it up.

---

"I love surprising people! And teaching them, of course," Exorcist giggled along with her host, still looking slightly mad even when she was acting cute. "You look like your sweating too, but the lesson's only just begun!"

"Yes... we all need to sweat a lot more..." Yajna echoed, nodding slowly. "That's why we need to make it hotter and hotter..."

"Yes, let's!" Exorcist agreed, making her hands into fists, clenching them around her collarbone, and framing her breasts with her elbows, bouncing up and down excitedly in a way that made it hard to tear one's eyes from her chest. "It is a shame Mary couldn't be here, though. She would have really loved this sort of thing! Seriously."

"Psh. With her here, it might get kinda perverse. That nun's only got a mind for one thing," Bhikkhuni scoffed by sticking out her tongue. The comment didn't really seem to acknowledge the role she'd seemingly just given herself, that of drawing crowds by shaking her ass. "Anyway, let's get back to helping your audience grow! I hope we've started them growing already," the somewhat out of character Buddhist suggested, smiling and running one hand up her mostly bare leg, which jutted from the slit of her robe beneath the sash, clad only in a short black sock and sandal.

"I'm glad you asked those questions, Mikey, because I'm going to answer them all!" Exorcist continued excitedly, standing up on the bed and raising her fist excitedly. She brought the hand back down and counted off with her fingers. "Counterinfectualism is a religion founded off the belief that evil from the outside world is captured in the net like, well, a net, and crystallizes as viruses! Don't worry, folks: we don't consider what you're doing in front of your screen to be 'evil!'" she winked, holding up her pointing finger. Raising one more, she continued to the next question. "Anyone who busts viruses can be a Counterinfectualist! That means basically any navi!"

"Number three I basically answered a moment ago, but number four..." she continued, now raising two hands to the side of her face in peace signs, as she began to wiggle her hips with what might be genuine excitement, but came off looking especially undignified. "We do all sorts of people!" she answered, turning around to let the camera capture the other side of her swaying dance. "But we also bust a lot of viruses! That's the most important work a Counterinfectualist can do, besides converting other people to our cause. Right now, we're doing the latter part! Counterinfectualism was started by a great scholar named-"

"Naaah, we're skipping that part," Bhikkhuni griped, pulling Exorcist down onto the bed by her leg, causing the other girl to start and land with her legs splayed, still holding just the central part of her front cloth down so the rest was away from her legs. "We're gonna lose every bit of our eroticism if you start talking about that guy." Burt felt his boner killed ever so slightly, but kept watching anyway. "Now anyway, you could consider just about everyone Counterinfectualists, right? All you gotta do is bust viruses! So don't worry, everybody; you've already saved up plenty of brownie points with us," she explained shading half her mouth with one hand while licking her lips. "Our rituals are basically just virus busting, though, we also find that wherever we go to spread our message, our fellow navis find themselves rewarded. There was the time we dressed up like schoolgirls in Internet City and that other time we wore bikinis while hunting ghosts..." These were actually true parts of their history, despite being recited by the so-called "Booty-Bouncing Buddhist," who had never had much of a booty to bounce hitherto this point.

"Needless to say, you should be a Counterinfectualist, Mikey. The rest of the audience too! We work extra hard when we know our other disciples appreciate our efforts," she explained again, planting her shakujo in the center of the bed and letting both legs come out the slits to the sides of her robe. She made a show again of her namesake, bouncing up on down upon the bed to solicit both a ringing of her staff and a creaking of the bed in rhythmic motions. "Consider this a treat for all of you devotees! Hopefully, there'll be plenty more in store tonight~"

"The sexiness is just another way we get people to do the right thing," Exorcist explained as Bhikkhuni slowed down. She scooted over next to Mikey, looking, at least for the moment, like an excited gal pal at a slumber party. "Not to mention: it's fun! So in a way, you could say our sexiness is blessed: it's a vital tool in encouraging members. I do hope we're encouraging members tonight! So Mikey: you're plenty sexy as it is, but if you want to be a Counterinfectualist too and really encourage people to live good lives and eliminate all the evil that's out there, you should just make sure your fans get more and more excited! We don't want them to change the channel!"

Yajna scooched closer, moving one of the candelabras nearer as she did in order to illuminate the corner, which now contained the three of them, apart from Bhikkhuni. "Yes... burning... you're doing very good, Mikey. But we need this to be your best broadcast ever. Maybe... there is a thing or two you've been holding back? Something your fans would like to see... but you've been saving it for your hottest broadcast...?" she questioned, now placing one hand upon the leg of the show's host. "I'm still holding back myself..." she murmured, casting her eyes briefly over at the candelabra, before rooting them back onto Mikey's face.

"Yes, yes! If you show me something good, I'll show everybody something good! That will get more and more eyes on us!" Exorcist added, sitting up straight with a start so that her breasts seemed to bounce next to MicrophoneGirl's face.

"Hey, that reminds me. Is there any money in this? Counterinfectualism's great and all, but I feel like some cash on this bed would make me work even harder," Bhikkhuni perhaps suggested, perhaps joked, slowly snaking her hips back and forth, an eye-catching but quieter motion that would let everyone talk without being drowned out.

AdjustLady continued to poke around in whatever display she hid inside her newspaper. “I can’t isolate that adjustment, but… Maybe I’m simply misreading some output from the changes I did for us? The cancelers should be reducing any residual noise we receive from being in DishMan’s vicinity…”

“Hmm, could you possibly one of those types who spouts a lot of jargon when they can’t produce a result?” Grin suggested with a good-natured tone but a dangerously widening grin. “I’m trying to ask if this is anything we need to be concerned aboow-!” she trailed out, letting out a goofy shout as Mary landed a smack. The pleasant noise and accompanying jiggle stood in contrast to her smile, which has twisted into half a toothy snarl as she glanced back at Mary with thin eyes. “Ms. Mary, I’ll only be able to give you so many passes if you continue to interrupt important business-“ she started, before suddenly shutting her eyes as a barely audible “pop” issued from around her head along with Mary’s words.

“There it is! That was it again,” AdjustLady commented, fiddling over her console with more urgency and ignoring what the other two were up to at the moment.

Grin shook her head, then adopted her foreboding expression once again, eyes just visible and the lips peeled back from her grin more than ordinary. She turned to face Mary, managing to do so with probably one of the few motions she could that wouldn’t reveal her hooked predicament unless she glanced down to see it herself. “I was saying, Mary, that we’re conducting important business. So, unless you have some similarly tangible contribution to offer the Mafia, I ask you to please keep your hands to yourself. However…”

The Navi’s smile widened as she put her arms over Mary’s shoulders to wrap them around the back of her head, bringing the two of them close enough that their chests came in contact. “If you do have a little something to offer Creel’s war chest, I could probably justify indulging your pesky little interruptions as a profitable venture, okay…? What…” she cooed, trailing off as she cocked an eyebrow and glanced around her, as if looking for a camera or someone playing a prank. She tossed her head back to flip her hair, then put back on a sultry smile. “What do you think? This would be an excellent opportunity to demonstrate both your loyalty and your interest in the family, wouldn’t it?”

AdjustLady had obviously started watching now, sensing something more important than the data she’d been monitoring was happening. “This is… Ah,” she concluded, making a noise like clicking her teeth in spite of the motionlessness of her face. “So that’s how traveling. The canceler wasn’t tuned to negate the noise on the amplifier’s frequency, and that grew enough to pass through the shielding. Mm. Yes. Y-yes, I know…” The Navi raised her head from the paper again and stood stiffly at attention. “Mary, Grin, I think it would be wise of me to relocate elsewhere. I think you two are poised to have plenty of fun without my presence.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to stick around?” Grin responded, glancing back and smiling at her. “I was looking forward to letting you play a little and skimming it off your contract, too! Don’t tell me you aren’t interested, my Airhe-“

Before she could finish, AdjustLady had twisted knobs at her elbow that caused her arm below that elbow to shoot forward, stretching and growing thin. The fingers clapped over Grin’s mouth, keeping her from speaking further. “Ahem! Let me make myself clear. If you do that, I’m going to have my operator jack me out. That means the entire technical demonstration will come to an end, regardless of anything else.”

She withdrew her hand, leaving the Mafioso smiling, but more slightly. “I don’t recall leaving any such terms of termination in your contract. And in any case, I think you’re bluffing. I’m willing to bet this test data and these unusual results have you hooked, and you weren’t even objecting to Mary’s hijinks earlier. Your operator might not want you to join us, but I bet you’re protesting more than you actually mind…!”

“Maybe I simply don’t intend to have my swimsuit hooked to someone else’s,” AdjustLady remarked flatly, turning knobs to put her arm back in order.

At the comment, Grin finally glanced down and observed the chain, then faced Mary. “Oho! What a strange accident. Let’s call it an accident and open negotiations on good terms, okay?”

---

In the studio and on the bed, the broadcasting hostess’s eyes darted up and down as she struggled to maintain eye contact with Exorcist. “P-Perverse, huh?” she muttered, cradling her hand to her mouth and apparently trying to process what she’d just been told by Bhikkuni. “Well, well! Hot answers for my growing audience, fresh from the oven in… three two one go go go go go!” she shouted, motioning at Exorcist with her arms as if mimicking an airplane signaler. She then plopped down to sitting again, watching the group with rapt attention. Her jaw hung open as her eyebrows twitched. With every answer, she’d pipe up with a quick response, as if helping herself to internalize the information. “Crystalized evil. Counterinfectualist Navis. Mm hm mm hm. Virus busting and maybe a buncha funny biz? Might follow up… Mystery founder… Brownie points.” She paused for a bit, listening to Bhikkuni’s descriptions and watching her demonstration without interrupting in spite of the many notable tidbits.

Mikey actually jumped a bit when Exorcist slid up next to her. “Oh oh! Well you gals sure do seem to have a lot of fun. Turning heads to turn converts! Except I guess they’re not really converts because… they were basically already helping Counterinfectualism all along?! Have any of you out there busted viruses today? Then you’ve already busted up some serious crystallized evil! Way to go, my rad, rad viewers!”

She gulped as Exorcist and Yajna goaded her on, sinking into the bed a bit. “Uh, yeah! Um, so, the fun part about Hot Mic is that you never know what you’re gonna see next. So uh one day I might be uh hanging out with kids! Or doing something for a charity, or just chilling and studying, you know. Real cool. Other days I might be hanging out on the beach and then my fans get to see my awesome bikini bod. But yeah! They’ve never seen me in bed with three other women, I admit. So… this probably is something new for them! And I’m sure the… the kids watching with their parents right now are gonna tune in next time to see what that craaazy Mikey gets up to next,” she added with an uncharacteristically sheepish grin on her flushed face. She’d paused for only a couple of seconds, but that was long enough of a break in her usual frantic cadence that it was probably indicative she was leaving some space for the others to process her words.

“But, uh, whatever!” she shouted, rising to her feet and pumping her fists in the air. “It’s my show I do what I want! If I wanna spend it in bed with three sexy disciples of a religion that shoot Net lasers at literal evil, I’m gonna do it, and yeah yeah! It’s gonna be my hottest show ever please don’t set this bed on fire,” she paused, gently nudging the candelabra away from the bed and sitting once again. “So, what’s missing from our hottest pajama party on the Net, yes I know there was that other one with Showbiz, thank you Mr. History, this one’s gonna be hotter?! Actual pajamas! As soon as I put this bed here, I already had the sweet idea to put up a forum topic for you Mikey fans to vote on what exciting sleepwear I would host in. As always, I value your input. I treasure you, I put you first. Mikey’s values,” she finished, with a solemn nod. “We had many many options, of course! You guys know I never get tired of listing options for you. But of all of those, you chose, drum roll pum pa puuum…!!”

A quick flash of light enveloped Mikey’s body. When it departed, she had been redressed in a large white men’s dress shirt, unbuttoned to the point of showing some enticing cleavage, and short enough to just barely hide the hips. Her usual flair was still carried over in a dark purple, loose and oversized straight tie with a yellow, jagged thunderbolt pattern across it, and more notably by the fact that her helmet hadn’t adjusted at all. There weren’t any pants, and the Navi’s curvy legs were on full display. For that matter, it was a bit more obvious now that the cord she’d had wrapped around and dangling like a tail was, in fact, a tail, as the long, unspooled wire and plug end was now spooled in a messy pile in front of her sitting position that could be traced beneath her. Anyone following that trail would note she’d pulled the front hem of the shirt to protect her undergarments. “Aaah, I knew it! It’s these girls, right? These hotties are putting your minds in the gutter, huh, Mikey fans! Shame shame, horny Mikey fans! Growing audience indeed, yes.” Although her speech wasn’t necessarily changed, the flush on her face had grown even redder.

“So, Counterinfectualists! Are you- oh,” she paused, turning to Bhikkuni again and straightening her tie theatrically with a cheeky grin. “Our patron, Grin the Gold-Digger is paying for you ladies to show tonight, right? But if you mean me, uh, I do get yeah donations. Big yeah. But a lot of that actually feeds back into my production costs cause I’m a small shop doing big work. But this production with ADNET is bigger than ever! I'd assume that means if we keep people tuned in, there should be that big big sponsorship money. However, while I’m thanking ADNET, a serious shoutout to all my frequent patrons who've been with Mikey from the first drop! As always, I do it all for the Mikey fans,” she shouted, blowing a couple of kisses to the camera and waving.

“So, where was I… oh yeah. Pajamas, show off your PJs!” she goaded the others, pumping her fists. “Peee jays! Peee jays! Peee jays! Pa-ja-mas! Pa-ja-mas!”

The ladies would each be aware that the earpieces they’d been “gifted” were capable of changing their .GMO appearance. Their minds would subtly settle into what they currently expected their sleepwear should be, and the graphic model override would be ready to set on with only cursory lingering questions of why they’d already had sleepwear .GMOs ready to go.

"Oh, but my good Gold-Digger! I'm willing to give my body itself to the Mafia, at any time, just as I'm sure you are," Mary played along, returning the gesture by placing her hands around Grin's waist and crossing her hands just above the curve of her buttocks. There was an odd exchange, in which AdjustLady censured her employer and then threatened to leave, for reasons that weren't entirely clear to Mary. "What, is something funny going on? I didn't notice at all!" Mary lied. She still had no idea what was happening, but it was a wild ride while it lasted, anyway.

"Hey Mary, pssst...." Burt suddenly spoke up. Normally, Mary tolerated his personality better than most, but he was interrupting a good thing right now and a bit of annoyance showed on her face. "Mary, psssst. What was the name they were using for the other girl?"

"The Amoral Angel? Or was it the Airhead Angel?" Mary began. "That's a bit of a silly name for her, isn't it? She seems very bright to me."

"Yeeeah, yeah, but it's fun to tease her, right? Try it again!"

"Listen, even an angel has limits to their patience, I imagine," Mary joked, hoping she could come up with a way to keep AdjustLady present, but, well, a bird in the hand, as they say. Smiling again, she giggled, rubbing the small of the other lady's back. "I thought you loved gold, Gold-Digger? Shouldn't you be happy that divine providence granted you that gift? Don't worry, I'm not so blind that I can't help you out, if you're not happy with it..."

Still innocently smiling, Mary grabbed up the back of Grin's bikini in one fist, making an intense wedgie while working to wiggle free the chain. "It's stubborn, but not to worry! I have just the thing to loosen it up!" Now grinning, she grabbed a vial of holy water out of nowhere, uncorked it, and went to work baptizing her employer's booty, still holding the bikini tight and no longer actually working to get the chain free. "Oh, and if you see fit to punish me, just remember that that the punishment ought to fit the crime; even the good book agrees on that point~! At any rate, maybe if you jiggle it a little, I can pull it free?"

----------------

"Yeah, yeah! Way to go, woo-hoo!" Exorcist cheered, sounding a little out of character for herself. It was possible she was making an effort to act more energetic on TV which, combined with the odd mind-altering effect, was making her act extra strangely. "When you destroy crystalized evil on the net, it's gone for real! That's the best way for us to one day achieve heaven on earth! Though we'll try to get you close to it today, too, with this extra special Hot Mic episode!"

The girls all got comically quiet and listened to Mikey describe what events were ordinarily like on her show; perhaps she would have preferred it less so, since it felt like expectations became higher for her. "The beach... that sounds... nice... Sunbathing," Yajna nodded.

"Kids watch this?" Exorcist asked, smiling, but seeming to adopt more of her usual worried expression at the same time. "Well, the earlier they learn about Counterinfectualism, the better!" she corrected her attitude, raising both hands into the air excitedly.

Yajna looked a little less excited as Mikey moved the candelabra away, as though she really had been expecting to use it to set something on fire. "Yes... we need to make it hotter..." she agreed, lowering her eyebrows slightly as if to make a point that the best way to make it hotter would have been to leave the candelabra where she put it.

The three watched with intrigue as Mikey switched into her new "pajamas," which were really only about 50% or less of a set. Their levels of excitement varied, but one person who was very excited was their operator on the other side of the screen. "Yowza! Is this what happens on kid's programming these days?! I gotta watch mooore!" Burt cooed, clasping his hands together and feeling even more energetic. "Humina humina!" A pounding on his door rousted him from his good mood. "You kids play quiet! I told you I'm busy in here!"

"Uncle Burt, your navis are making Mikey's show weird! Tell them to cut it out!" came his niece's angry voice. She was, after all, the right age to be watching a cool streamer regularly.

And Burt couldn't blame her. He'd probably be watching this show more often, especially now that he had, perhaps, shifted its focus in a self-serving manner. "I said turn off any programs that have Exorcist on them, didn't I? Exorcist is trying her best! She's ridding the world of evil!" Burt shouted back, now standing up to bear against the door, as if to stop Jerry from bursting in on him. "Tell Exorcist thank you for doing such a good jooob!"

"No way! She's just shaking her butt! You're making her act like a pervert, aren't you?!" Jerry accused him. For once, she wasn't quite correct on that accusation.

For her part, Exorcist was tuning it all out, still focused on making the show great and spreading the message. Bhikkhuni was more interested in the money portion of the answers. "Huh, good money in ADNET? Is that right? Hopefully they have more work for me down the line! I'll have to show them how valuable I can be," she smiled, rubbing her hands together with enthusiasm that went beyond her earpiece's erotic suggestions. She put on a somewhat blank face for a moment, then laughed. "Ha ha, all these robes and things not doing it for you? Don't worry: I'll go first."



"See? Pajamas," she reassured everyone, who might have been expecting something especially erotic... though, on her new body, they still looked pretty much that way.

"Me next! It's not quite pajamas, but I've gooot..." Exorcist murmured, fiddling with her clothes as if she was going to pull them off instead of switching into it by GMO. At the last moment, when she started to pull it off her shoulders, the GMO activated... Burt may have been behind that.



"Here you go!" she announced, jumping onto her feet again and resuming her swishy dance. "Aaah... Wait, this doesn't work too well. If I juuust... There!" she giggled, forming a sword-hand by placing two fingers together. A green aura surrounded the hand, as she quickly ran it around the thighs of her outfit, cutting it so that most of the curtain covering the legs fell to the ground. The remaining garment was scandalously short, especially considering that, based on the cleavage, there might not be anything underneath. "Now I can get some leg movement! Besides, it's nice and warm in this room. I don't need anything too heavy to sleep in."

"I normally sleep... nude... and then bundle up as heavily in blankets as I can..." Yajna explained, closing her eyes as if in thought. Burt started to speak up against that idea, since everyone would get thrown off the air and fail their Mafia mission, but Yajna spoke back up and continued. "Don't worry... I'll pick out something... since you said you wanted sleepwear."



"... These are... comfortable..." Yajna sighed happily. "Of course... if it gets a little hotter... I'll take some off," she told everyone with a smile, looking at Mikey with a sort of daring look in her eyes, as though the hostess ought to know what she was getting at.

"Ha ha ha! I guess it could be warmer. It's actually a little chilly now," Exorcist agreed, sitting back down on the bed next to Mikey with a distracting bounce.

"W-Wait, I need a do-over! I was just joking with this set of pajamas," Bhikkhuni pointed out. "Of course, I've got something sexy like the Exhibitionist and the Hottie! You all didn't think my creativity was that limited, did you? What a bunch of suckers!" It was pretty darn obvious that Bhikkhuni had suddenly felt out-played by the other girls and been encouraged to revise her pick, so that she could be the center of attention again.



"Hm hm hm... this is my look for adult appeal," she chuckled raising both hands above her head and winking at the camera. She didn't look terribly at home doing this, for someone who claimed to draw giant crowds by bouncing her ass, but she did look plenty erotic.

"Nice, Bhikkhuni! Say... hm..." Exorcist murmured, her blue eyes suddenly fixed on their hostess. She looked between the others for a moment, then back again, smiling in a way that looked unnervingly apologetic. "Don't you think... this is a little out of place?" she asked, reaching out to grab the sides of MicrophoneGirl's head gently in her hands. If she managed to, she'd attempt to lift, pulling off the strange helmet that their host still wore. "A pajama party is better without this, right, Mikey?"

On the other side, Burt pressed his shoulders hard against the thumping door, wondering how much enjoyment he was still going to be able to derive from the otherwise exciting show, knowing that his niece was about to break his door down and righteously beat him for ruining one of her favorite programs.

“Ms. Mary,” Grin responded, glancing down at the woman’s body, “Assets like ours are useful to the NetMafia, to be sure, but I can’t trade such a precious service for potential alone, you understand! For goods like these, only zenny will do. But no need to worry, okay? Do as you like, and I’ll simply continue skimming my modest service fee off of your earnings for the current contract. I’m sure nobody will mind that arrangement.”

AdjustLady seemed to judge Mary and Grin sufficiently distracted that she could fade into the background, although she continued to watch them warily, probably planning to stop whichever of them tried to speak whatever forbidden words she was looking for in the same manner she had before. Unfortunately, she either wasn’t quick enough to stop Mary’s words, or else didn’t see them as a threat if they weren’t actually directed at her. There was another pop as Mary checked her understanding with Burt. “Look, you better only call me by my actual name, AdjustLady the Airhead Angel!” she shouted with an audible pout at the other two women. “Otherwise, I’ll get really mad. And since I can change my body, I can make my fists super huge to beat you up! Now leave me alone, I’ve got to watch these thingies,” she concluded, raising her paper back up to her face. “The fact that the squigglies are… big, and the top and the bottom are really far apart, and these ones are close together, that means it’s super big and important,” she concluded, sounding triumphant. “If I don’t watch them, they could… Um, our counselors could explode and we’d be in big trouble. And if it keeps going, the whole device is gonna, *pfft*,” she concluded gravely, blowing a raspberry. “So, I’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“… That doesn’t seem good,” Grin admitted, momentarily distracted from her playtime with Mary by the concerning change in her technician. She turned her attention back to Mary with a genial smile. “Now, Mary, gifts that are part of a .GMO aren’t especially useful for me. I’d be much happier if divine providence would simply drop some zenny my way… And you do want to make me happy, right?” she asked, grinning a bit more naturally since that line was part of her usual repertoire.

The woman’s grin widened to a baring of fangs as her eyes opened wide at Mary’s next action. “Hgrk! Maaaryyy!! Why, you… Nobody does this to me!!” she shouted, now clinging to Mary’s shoulders. “Nobody does this to me… w-without paying up front!” she corrected herself, now working very hard to keep a dignified and dangerous smile on her face while obviously flushed and wincing from her predicament. She continued growling as Mary brought the beach to her swimsuit, the mask of her smile twitching and threatening to break. “You can do as you like, but you understand this is costing you, right? But go right ahead! I’ll even accommodate you, as best I can. You wanted a little jiggling, correct?”

Grin turned carefully in place, giving Mary even better access to her even less protected behind. She folded her hands behind her head and began shaking her hips sharply from side to side, still struggling to keep her grin as her face grew beet red. “Well, you may be blind, but you can at least hear that chain jingling, right? Trust me when I say there is quite a bit of jiggling going on,” she assured the other woman honestly as drops of holy water flew from her shaking, occasionally sprinkling Mary. “So, go ahead and do whatever it is you want… e-except record this.”

“Oh! I can record this if you want,” AdjustLady offered, twisting knobs at one of her hands until a camera lens opened from the palm. “I have camera hands, too.”

“No thank you!” Grin shouted. “You know, Ms. Mary, you mentioned something about punishment earlier, right? I’d be happy to punish you if that’s what you like, okay? It’s ordinarily more my speed to provide excellent service to others, but if the service you want is punishment, I think you’ve certainly earned it. So, you need only say, ‘I’m a filthy pervert who is willing to pay my superior for the pleasure of being punished!’ Then, I’ll happily proceed to fulfilling your request, okay…?!” As Grin continued to shake her hips with a boldness that was ill fit for her expression, in spite of her best efforts, it was easy to imagine this was an attempt by Grin to resume some control of her situation.

---

Mikey watched Bhikkuni’s change, then clapped her hands together when it finished. “Oh! It’s pajamas! See, Mikey fans? Bhikkuni is rocking some actual pajamas. You know, the kind with pants? This is what pajamas look like! Yeah, and even with pants, it’s still pretty exciting! Something to think about,” she chided her audience, crossing her arms and huffing.

“And Exorcist has… hm. Not exactly pajamas, but it’s at least proper sleepwear,” she concluded, nodding and still failing to keep her eyes anywhere but Exorcist’s chest when observing her. “But hey, hey! You don’t have to go for the leg-day show off just because I am!! Although I’m sure all the Counterinfectualists out there appreciate it, yeah. Everyone out there, be sure to tell me what you think about Exorcist’s nightgown!” she shouted, pointing to the camera.

She turned her attention to Yajna with a gasp. “Nude! But, uh, we don’t have heavy blankets here, so you shouldn’t…!” she started, before realizing that wasn’t her intention. “Oh! Oh yeah. Those look super comfy for a cold night and I’m actually super jealous, cause this is pretty breezy on the legs. You know, I’ve been thinking for a while now, Yajna is really into fire, right? Hope her hot pajamas aren’t making you Mikey fans out there sweat!” she announced. The fact that she was still making low-hanging-fruit puns about it suggested she might not be fully aware of just how obviously and dangerously into fire Yajna was.

MicrophoneGirl whipped her attention back to Bhikkuni as she announced she was giving it another shot. “Oh! I actually did think those were supposed to be your sexy pajamas, though,” she admitted, putting a hand to the side of her face. “What do you think, everyone? Is it fair for Bhikkuni to get a do-over?! I’m pretty sure everyone is gonna say yeah yeah, but if not, send me a message! Now, Bhikkuni has-“ she started, staring at Bhikkuni’s legs. “It’s sexy!! Of course, it’s super sexy!” she declared, shouting loudly as if to reprimand someone else who had said otherwise. “Now we gotta-“

She had obviously been in the middle of announcing what they’d do next, but she paused as she realized what Exorcist and the others were thinking. “Hey. Hey hey hey! What, uh, you don’t like Mikey’s signature cool microphone helmet?” she accused them, flushing and looking a bit affected as Exorcist approached to take it off. “That’s… No, noo, nuuuuu!” she shouted, holding it down tight to her head with great strength. “ADNET told me their mystery sponsor said I absolutely couldn’t take my helmet off for the show! It’s not that I don’t agree with you. Without my armor, this helmet throws off the whole look. But that’s how it is. Sorry, Counterinfectualist girls. Sorry, Mikey fans,” she announced with a bow, turning to the camera. “But, hey, enough of that! We’ve still got a big show ahead, and uh, it seems like you’re still gonna see plenty of Mikey, yeah…”

“Exorcist!” she shouted, pointing at the other woman. “You know what I do to find out what my fans want?! I ask them directly, on my forum, yeah yes! That’s what I’ve done tonight, and we’re now going to go directly to fan requests! What questions do you, the Mikey fans, have for Counterinfectualist girls tonight? Let’s get right to it, with-“ she started, turning her face from where she’d brought it close to Exorcist, whipping around to Bhikkuni. “You! Mikey’s fans and watchers wanna know: first question: Discipline!” she shouted, before lowering her eyebrows thoughtfully. “Discipline? Discipline, hm. I guess they wanna know, does Counterinfectualism have like, some code of discipline or punishment? That’s a kind of weird questions since I don’t get the sense that there’s a strict moral code with it, but maybe, like, if you don’t bust enough viruses a month, you have to say ‘I’m sorry yeah’ a hundred times or something? Give us the scoop! Next-“

She swung around to Yajna, plopping down beside her. “Yajna, yeah. Yeah-jna,” she said in a mock-somber tone as if preparing for hard hitting journalism. “Our fans wanna know, from you: what gets you excited?! But hey, Mikey fans, isn’t that a silly question? It’s fire! I already told you like just a second ago that I can tell she’s into fire! She loves fire and wants candles close to the bed and all that. Did you guys post this question before I told you? I’m checking the time stamp… Okay, yeah, that’s an old question. I’m going to another. It says ‘What is your type?’ How about it, Yeahjna? Give us that hot, spicy dish! Next-“

She rolled on the bed back over to Exorcist in an energetic motion, probably unaware that it revealed the briefest glimpse of white panties with bold, dark purple stripes. “Exorcist, yeah. Yeah-cksorcist,” she declared, before thinking about it and shaking her head. “Nah, I’m not keeping that one. So, fans want to know: ‘Can you teach Mikey how to do a cute dance… to get lots of Counterinfectualists?” Mikey reddened a bit, laughing. “Uh, huh? I mean, you just put your hands forward and do the peace signs and wiggle your butt and that’s it, isn’t it yeah? And, isn’t that more of an exhibitionist thing than a Counterinfectualist thing? Except- Oh!” she shouted, as if struck by a bolt from the blue. “My fans probably want to see me do that, don’t they? Or is there some even more exciting dance that two people can do? Exorcist, even I’m curious now! Teach me and today I’ll become Counterinfectualism’s star disciple!!”