Dress Off: Bryony vs. Maria

Bobby looked up in surprise for a moment, dragging his attention away from the assorted collection of historical manga books he'd happily stumbled across in the University bookstore. He gave a disapproving glare at whichever rude library patron had so abruptly intruded upon his close, thorough and detailed inspection of a Japanese character's rather well-endowed breasts.

He looked down again with a grunt, and had settled back into the book for a few seconds when suddenly he gave a strangled gurgle and his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Looking up slowly, his mouth hung open as he was treated to the sight of woman at the window, her back to him but with little else hidden.

He slowly stood up from his chair, banging his knees on the desk and disturbing the books further. However, even the Japanese manga girl's breasts in his new haul couldn't compete with the real-world art work that was currently being exhibited, and he gave the books no further concern.

"M'lady..." he stammered, cursing himself under his breath for having left his fedora behind at home, so that now he couldn't do this fine specimen the ultimate courtesy of tipping his hat to her.

The woman turned around and Bobby almost fell backwards in shock. Maria Higgins, only never as he'd seen her before! Maria let out a whimper as her moment of triumph was doused with an incredible wave of raw searing embarrassment, as she stood in front of her not-so-secret admirer and bared an order of magnitude more skin than she'd even hoped he see.

She tried to do a small hand wave to try and make this all seem casual and ordinary, but the drool coming out of his mouth and the way his hand seemed to be fumbling in his trouser pockets simply compounded her problems. Oh dear God, she thought in a moment of revulsion, he wasn't going to masturbate right here and now, was he?! Feeling trapped against the window, Maria didn't know exactly how to respond. When his hand emerged from his trouser pockets, Maria's sense of relief that he wasn't trying to jerk himself off was short-lived when she realised that he'd actually been retrieving his phone. A phone that undoubtedly had a camera in it.

She let out a high-pitched squeak, and tried to wave both hands in front of her to dissuade him from what was likely to be his next course of action.

"M... M... Maria, the flower of my dreams!" Bobby said, his voice breaking from the strain that the sight of Maria was placing on his nervous system. "Y... you've come to me, so that we may finally find comfort in tender embrace!"

Maria sucked in a deep breath. Hell. No. She thought.

Bobby held the phone up. "Perhaps a photo of us to capture this moment, so that we may tell our children of the day we professed undying love to each other?" He asked, a wheedling and nasal hope evident in his tone.

Maria opened her mouth to say something, however no sound emerged and she was at a complete loss at what to say. After a few seconds, Maria realised she'd even forgotten to exhale, and let out a deep sigh that only caused her tattered clothing to flap around some more.

The phone fell out of Bobby's grasp as his eyes settled on Maria's chest, and she thought for a moment that the man was going to faint. As the phone clattered to the floor, Maria was also aware that others at the nearby tables were paying more and more attention to the impromptu floor show. As Bobby raised his hand up to take a picture with the phone he hadn't yet realised he'd dropped, Maria took the opportunity to dash past, and seek the relative safety of what she sincerely hoped was an empty stairwell.

As she sprinted with every ounce of speed Maria could muster, Bobby called out behind her "Please, oh sweet Maria, wait for me!" Realising now that his finger was prodding at thin air rather than the screen of his iPhone as he'd expected, he looked down in confusion and spotted the device on the floor. Dropping to his haunches, he picked up the phone and looked back up at the retreating backside of his beloved. With an instinct and speed born from many an attempt at an up-skirt photo, Bobby pointed the phone at Maria and the disobedient skirt that simply refused to cover her bottom. The light click of the camera claimed a small consolation prize at least, as the target of his affections slipped out of his grasp once more and headed off towards destinations unknown.

Then, with another satisfied gurgle, Bobby feel back on to the floor and just sat there for a while, wondering if he'd dreamed it all. As his trembling hands grasped at his phone though, he stared admiringly at the single image he'd taken, proof positive of his latest encounter, and clasped it to his heart.

Then a thought occurred to him - now he'd have to handcraft an updated evolution of the Pokemon character for his beloved - after she'd been so generous as to provide a new costume idea for it. This day kept getting better and better, he beamed.

****

Bryony stumbled through a side-entrance to the library and emerged into a small corridor that had several glass doors leading off it, fighting every urge to press one hand against her micro-skirt so as to stop it from bouncing up and down. The larger heavy wooden door at the very end would lead into the main open foyer of the library, and on the other side of that foyer were the elevators that would have taken her to the fifth floor and her third and final victory. Instead, all those elevators would do now would be to take her where Maria Higgins apparently now already stood, holding the very box that by all rights belonged in Bryony's own hands.

Unimpeded, the frilly yet impossibly short skirt continued to flash her crotch and ass to what would have been a mesmerising rhythmic beat for any men who happened to look her way. She'd flashed at least ten people on her way over to the library, with the skirt actively fighting against her futile efforts to cover up by finding a new way to billow out and flash skin every time she moved. She given up trying to walk - hoping against all evidence that the skirt would settle down - and had instead resorted to maximum possible speed, leaving plenty of spectators to comment either in outrage or admiration at the beautiful ass and barely concealed breasts that streaked past them, as the red-faced owner of these magnificent assets mumbled "sorry, sorry, sorry!" to anyone still with the capacity to listen.

Not that the skirt now didn't have serious competition in terms of attracting attention. After the latest announcement that Maria had acquired her second target, the voice had chirped in her ear that the game was now deadlocked at 2-2, and that in a matter of moments the voice would reveal the final clue that would decide once and for all who'd be graduating a winner, and who'd be graduating a sinner.

Bryony's jaw had clenched in determination - there was no way she'd be streaking across stage in front of everyone after all the hard work of the past few years. However, as she'd nervously waited for the final clue, her body tensed in preparation for what she knew would be another humiliating modification to her outfit.

She hadn't had to wait long for either the modification or the humiliation. After Maria's first solved clue, Bryony had been subjected to the embarrassment of having her panties dissolve on her, and her skirt shorten to the point of obscenity. Now, it was the turn of her upper half to to receive the same treatment. With a yelp, Bryony's hands flew to her stomach as she found the material of her top begin to edge up her body. More and more of her tummy became exposed as she uselessly tried to yank at the material to keep it down. She quickly realised though that doing so only risked tearing it off her shoulders as the top was resolute and determined in its mission to minimise itself.

As the top climbed up, Bryony resigned herself into it turning into an even skimpier and obscene crop top, only to then discover in horror that the top had greater aspirations than even that. Her eyes bulging, Bryony watched on in horror as the top continued its relentless shrinkage even as her breasts came into view and her nipples popped out.

It was only when the top was half way up her chest that it finally stopped and, in between panicked shallow breathes, Bryony spotted herself in the reflection of a glass door to her left. A woman in a ridiculously short skirt and with a top that covered her shoulders and thin strip of skin below her neck, stared back wild-eyed at her. The thin strip of skin beneath her neck read "Cheer!", and both breasts were substantially exposed.

"I... I can't continue like this!" Bryony shrieked, pleading for the mysterious voice to return and propose some alternative.

She pressed herself against the corridor, and prayed that no-one decided now was the opportune time to take a stroll from their exploration of the library and stretch their legs. Shivering, she looked back and forth and her mind boggled at the fact that surely Maria must have suffered this same malfunction after Bryony's last successful clue, and yet she'd managed to pull it together to solve a clue of her own.

Then, as she trembled and draped a protective arm across her chest, she glanced down and realised that the pom poms that she hitched to her belt for ease, were similarly shrinking at a rapid rate. Gawking at them in amazement, Bryony realised that soft long strands in the pom poms were bunching together and the small hand grips that were on each had similarly morphed in something else. With a start, Bryony realised what this strange organisation had planned. The two pom poms had shrunken and turned into glorified nipple tassels, and the handles she's previously used to grip them were now similarly shrunken and turned into something that could be clipped to her exposed breasts.

With a shudder, Bryony saw what she had to do, and hurriedly unclipped the pom poms from her belt. Then, closing her eyes and grimacing in preparation for the upcoming punishment on her sensitive nipples, she gingerly placed a pom pom over each breast and tenderly clipped both of them on. Mercifully, the pinching on her magnificent mamilla was gentler than she'd thought, and it seemed the organisation had at least had the consideration for the clamps to be somewhat cushioned. Still, Bryony couldn't help but unleash a grunt as the clamps latched on, and while she now at least had two bushy tassels that would dangle down and partly obscure the lower half of her breasts, she still squirmed awkwardly at the uncomfortable and unfamiliar sensation. Bryony was also intimately aware that the tassels may have covered some skin, however the look of the top and the tassels together was still far more extreme than anything Bryony had ever seen anyway wear on campus.

If she was seen, then there would be an awful lot of her that would be seen that wasn't used to being seen...

"Well done Ms Richmond." the voice in her ear piped up.

"Thank you so much!" Bryony retorted, with as much sarcasm as she could force into her voice.

"You're welcome." If the voice had any sense of how sarcastic Bryony's response had been, it certainly wasn't going to deign to acknowledge it. "Now," it continued, briskly, "I imagine you want your final clue!"

Bryony nodded vigorously, still throwing looks up and down the corridor and wondering just how many people were already in this part of the library, which was at least a little off-to-the-side of the main area. Bryony envisioned someone in the library suddenly making the decision to parade a bunch of visitors on a pre-graduation campus tour down to the side-exit, where they'd emerge and march down the corridor, passing and pointing at an embarrassed and increasingly exposed Bryony, while she pressed up against the wall and hoped that the wall would absorb and spirit her away from this predicament. Thankfully, no-one seemed to have made that impromptu decision just yet. With her heart beating at three times the normal rate though, her fevered imagination thought it couldn't be too far away though.

"So," the voice interrupted her day-mares, "the clue is simply this: 'you'll find your salvation in the memories of those, who have formed the foundations for a chapter of success.' Good luck Ms Richmond, the next time you hear from me - other penalties notwithstanding of course - we'll be discussing the final outcome of our little game. I trust you are still aiming to be on the right side of that outcome..."

****

Maria hurried along the edge of the park in the middle of the campus, keeping to the leafy tree line that bordered the park and separated it from the river that meandered alongside. There was no walking path on this side of the river, although there was such a path on the other side. Unfortunately, the river wasn't wide enough that people walking along that path would be too far away to confuse what she was now wearing for something more modest. The tasseled nipple clamps swayed, and she still occasionally winced at the entirely new sensation of them connected to her sensitive breasts. Now she was outside again, and with a growing summer breeze to really play havoc with the material, her skirt was flying this way and that. Even when at its most obedient the skirt only barely covered her ass, and now that the wind was having some fun as she ran along, she was incredibly conscious that she was flashing her backside to anyone and everyone who wandered by.

She tried to ignore just how vulnerable and exposed she really was, and focussed her considerable yet highly-distracted brain over the clue that represented the final tie-breaker in this winner-takes-all, loser-bares-all contest: "you'll find your salvation in the memories of those, who have formed the foundations for a chapter of success." At first she'd thought that perhaps the clue was referring to the University Archives, which were in the basement of the very library she'd been in when the clue had been given to her. However, that had seemed too easy, and she'd been halfway down the stairs when the thought occurred to her that, as this was the last clue and the ultimate loser would be walking their way across the Graduation Stage - the clue could be referring to the Auditorium Hall where the Graduation Event would take place.

She instinctively felt that the organisers would want her to be close by to the scene of her final and absolute humiliation, if indeed she was the last one to reach the target. Of course, that could also mean that the Auditorium Hall was a red herring that would get her there, while Bryony was elsewhere solving the problem and acquiring the very object that would doom poor Maria to a lifetime of being remembered as "that weird girl who ran naked across the stage in front of everyone".

Maria agonised over whether she was doing the right thing by heading to the Hall already, but she'd committed now. As she dodged between the trees, trying to use them as cover, she heard a series of wolf-whistles from her left, and she made the mistake of looking in the direction from which they came. A group of men were standing on the opposite side of the river and were pointing and laughing at her, as they tried to get as close to the water as possible to see more of her. Maria shrank back and hid behind a tree for a moment, but that only meant that she was now more visible to the people in the park behind her. She was soon subjected to more laughs and shouts of appreciation and disapproval from another group of men who were coming on to the park to play a ball game.

Caught in a bind, Maria knew that simply hiding by a tree only gave Bryony more and more of an advantage. Gritting her teeth, she had to choose with group of men to expose herself the most to. Since the first group were at least separated by the river and wouldn't be able to physically catch her if they tried, she hopped out from behind the tree and ran along the river bank, trying to block out the jeers, whistles and offers of dates that were now floating across the water. A few of the men on the other side of the river began to run along the path, keeping pace with Maria and laughing loudly. Maria stopped trying to use her hands to cover her body and instead covered her ears instead, upping her pace and hoping they'd soon grow tired.

As she ran, she tried to turn the clue over in her head one last time, fighting the self-doubt that was beginning to consume her. Maybe "chapters of success" referred to Student Chapters and Clubs? If that was the case, she was running in the wrong direction! She stopped for a moment, but when she turned Maria saw that she'd built up a small lead on the men on the other side of the river, and if she ran back she'd have to pass them again. Instead, she made the snap decision to push on to the Auditorium, hoping that her first gut instinct was correct. If it was, then "foundations" might refer to the basement level of the building, and while that was undoubtedly large, it would at least give her a fighting chance. Flashing her naked rear one more time, and with "Class of 2010!" bouncing up and down in small writing on the back of her flimsy pleated micro-skirt, Maria forged on towards the Hall that was now just around the corner and across a broad driveway. There would be a side-entrance somewhere on the right hand side, and Maria prayed that it would be open, as walking through the main entrance with everyone arriving for Graduation would nearly be as bad as what would happen if she lost. And that didn't bear thinking about...

****

Bryony held the box aloft and gave a huge sigh of relief. As she exhaled, her pom-pom tasseled boobs rose and fell, and there was rustling noise that bordered on the jaunty as the threads dangled and swayed on her breasts.

Bryony permitted herself a small smile, possibly the first genuine smile since she'd started this game. Looking upwards, she whispered a quiet "thank you" to whichever Gods or Goddesses had chosen to look favourably down upon her today, and clenched the box tightly. Her hands were trembling and she only realised how much when she saw how vigorously the box was shaking.

Whether it was luck or just the benefits of having a good memory, Bryony had quickly surmised that the clue had been referring to the Audio/Visual vault in the basement of the Auditorium Hall, and had gone directly there. She whispered a quick thank you to the crusty old caretaker who - several years back when she'd competed in a state-wide debate competition in this very Hall - had made her stay behind and help clean up the place after she'd accidentally knocked a whole bunch of expensive A/V gear to the ground after an over-exuberant victory celebration. That had meant she'd previously been to the musty enclosed dungeon-like A/V vault before, and she'd remembered being somewhat surprised to find stacks upon stacks of old videos cluttering up the place. At the time, a cursory inspection had revealed they were the decaying archives of recordings from past Graduation Events, which the University had kept even after more recent events were now digitally recorded.

The vault was in the foundations of the building, and the videos were of families and friends who had supported past graduates as they completed this successful chapter of life and were starting out on new chapters.

Thankfully whatever A/V gear was needed for the Graduation Event had long since been transported upstairs in readiness for the formal proceedings to start, and she now had the room to herself.

"Congratulations Ms Richmond, you've found the final target!" Bryony didn't know whether the voice really sounded more friendly than before, or whether it was simply that the flood of relief sweeping through Bryony made her actually happy to hear it for once. Either way, the voice continued on with a smooth, easy-going manner. "With the final clue and target acquired you have won our game. Congratulations on such a fantastic effort, and of course, I do believe you're about to be rewarded with a much-fought-for sight."