A Heart to Heart, While we Await Results

Azure

The host’s smile faded the instant the invisible cameras stopped rolling. “Ok, everybody sit where you are while we wait for the next episode”

Ji-Woo raised an eyebrow in slight alarm. “Next episode? You just said ‘next week.’ Surely you don’t expect us to just sit here until then.”

Azure chuckled. “As amusing as that would be, it’s only a few minutes for us. Fifteen specifically. Time moves differently between our realities. I could make it be only a few seconds, or an entire day if I wanted, but fifteen seems good for now.”

Sophia gasped. “Wait, you’re talking about asynchronous time? Like a Hyperbolic Time Chamber or Narnia? That opens so many scientific questions. Is this a parallel universe? Does that mean the multiverse is real? Or is this in our reality, but in a spatial anomaly?” Sophia asked, growing increasingly more excited, contrasting greatly with the shy introvert she had acted like up till now. “Either could fundamentally rewrite our understanding of…”

“It’s magic,” Azure said bluntly, not in the mood for Sophia’s nerdgasm.

Rather than deflate her excitement, this only energized Sophia more. “Oh my god. Like, actual magic? Not sufficiently advanced technology that is indistinguishable from it? This is even more significant. It opens up…”

“Are you seriously buying this?” Olivia asked, annoyed.

“Well yeah. I mean… you didn’t see… I…” Sophia tried to argue but became increasingly intimidated by the look Olivia was giving her. “Maybe… now’s not the time,” she said, shrinking herself into her hoodie.

Azure had barely been listening. She was too busy going over everything that had happened during her introductory episode. Almost everything had gone according to plan. Except for one thing… Alison.

She looked over at the blue-haired girl in question, who was busy staring off into space. A wave of anger flowed over Azure at seeing her. She had been able to suppress it for the show. However, she wasn’t sure how much longer she’d be able to unless she got it off her chest.

“Alison, you and I need to talk… in private.”

Alison nodded. “Ok, that sounds fun.”

Azure felt a pang of irritation. She then looked over at the contestants and Levi. “Alison and I will be right back. In the meantime, like I said, don’t leave this spot until I get back.”

A few of them nervously nodded. Though Lauren was less cautious and snapped “You know we can’t move from our seats even if we wanted to! Otherwise, I’d have ditched this place half an hour ago!”

“Lauren! Please, don’t antagonize her” Kaitlyn warned her sister.

Azure considered doing something to this brat, but it would be a waste to do so when the cameras were off. Instead, she simply turned and gestured to Alison to follow.

Seeing them start to leave, Jezebel pouted. “But what should I do?”

“Does it look like I give a shit?!” Azure snapped. “Just… stand there and look sexy.”

“Oh, YAY! I like looking HAWT!” Jezebel cheered and pushed out her mammoth breasts even more than before.

Azure walked down from the stage, into the courtyard, and towards the entrance of the castle.

All of the girls, except for Olivia, watched them leave. As soon as she saw they were out of earshot, Laure, Kaitlyn, Ji-Woo, and Sophia looked at Levi.

The master looked up, having been staring at the ground since Olivia got here, too wrapped up in his guilt and anxiety to say anything. Seeing the intense haze the girls were giving him, his eyes went back to the ground.

Finally, Lauren broke the silence. “I hope you’re happy you freak!”

Azure

Azure and Alison entered the castle and took a turn to a hallway. The moment Azure was confident they were out of sight, she grabbed Alison by the shoulders and harshly shoved her back into the stone wall.

“WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?!”

“Please specify, I have many thoughts” Alison replied, not reacting at all to Azure’s physical ****.

Azure pushed harder, pinning her against the corridor. “You know what I’m talking about! When I was introducing Sophia Moulin! I was building her up as a villain, and how her fanfiction traumatized Levi Summers. But then you cut me off and said that I had…” Azure began to mimic Alison's monotone “...just picked her because it was funny.”

“Well, that was the reason. You said so yourself when introducing the show to me.”

“That was in confidence, Alison! A secret!”

Alison tilted her head “You didn’t specify it as a secret.”

Azure's eyes flared. “Are you brain dead?! It was a production meeting. Of course, it was a secret!”

“What an odd thing to assume. You told the other contestants the real reason they were there, despite it also being discussed at our meeting. I did not see any reason to think that Ms. Moulin’s reason was special.”

“ARE YOU MOCKING ME?!”

“Not at all, mistress. I would never dream of disrespecting you.”

Azure simply shouted in frustration. Alison's lack of emotional reaction was pissing her off, especially since the host couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not.

Azure released Alison and started pacing. “You went completely off script,” she snapped.

“You never gave me a script”

“Exactly! Because you’re not supposed to talk! The only reason you’re here is to be nostalgia bait for a small subset of the audience. You’re not a main character! You’re a glorified extra!”

“So you’ve told me.”

Azure's eyes snapped back to Alison and her infuriating blank expression. Just seeing her there, totally unintimidated, was pushing all of her button. She finally understood why none of the other hosts used Alison.

Back when Harem Hotel was first being set up, the producers had introduced Alison to the hosts, stating they could use her as an assistant in their seasons. The only condition was that they could not use any magic on her.

While a few hosts had included Alison in their early shows, she quickly fell out of use as they gained access to more mind-controlled servants. Considering these people could be commanded and transformed freely, very few saw the benefit in someone with free will and magical protection like Alison. She was, in every way, a downgrade. Plus the fact that no one knew where Alison even came from, and she refused to tell them, creeped the staff out.

Still, there was a small but vocal fanbase online that adored Alison and missed seeing her past the first few seasons. Some hosts would offer fanservice by having her make a cameo for half an episode. But Azure thought it would be a good idea to go a step further and have her be a season-wide presence on the show. This would guarantee viewership from her fans.

Azure snapped out of her reminiscences of the past and looked back at Alison, who was once again staring off into space.

Alison took a deep breath. After calming down slightly, she began. “Now, because you lack common sense and need it to be explained, you are forbidden to give production secrets and plans of this show,” she said slowly, like a teacher to a child. “That includes details that have already happened or those upcoming. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Alison said simply, still staring off.

“And don't ever try to go above your place again. Remember, you’re not special. You barely even know how to use magic.”

Azure waited in vain for some sort of reaction, hoping that personal attacks on her inadequacies might get to her. Not getting it, she pushed harder. “You only know two basic spells. TWO!” She held out two fingers and tapped each as she listed them off. “Teleportation and sensing when your name is said. Pathetic. I was capable of more when I was a toddler”

“Mazel Tov,” Alison replied.

Azure felt another pang of anger, especially since Alison wouldn’t even give her the common courtesy of looking at her. She was going to keep insulting her but then was distracted by a stack of envelopes that had appeared at her feet in a puff of smoke. Each letter had the Harem Hotel logo.

Levi Summers

Levi didn’t say anything as Lauren berated him. Annoyed, she repeated herself, loader this time. “I said I hope you’re happy!”

“I’m not happy. I never wanted this to happen” Levi said, without looking up.

“You honestly expect us to believe you had nothing to do with this? That it’s just a coincidence that a group kidnapped anyone who gave you shit?”

“I…”

Lauren didn’t give him a chance to speak. “Oh, and it's just by sheer chance the first thing they do is let you look up our skirts or make us give perverted dances for a virgin like you?” She laughed. “Don’t be absurd. You clearly planned all of this.”

Elena cut in. “Hey, don’t say that! Levi would never mean for any of this to happen”

“How do you know?” Lauren snapped at her, angry that this nobody was even speaking to her. “The red-headed bitch said you hadn’t seen each other since you were kids. You don’t know what puberty did to this perverted freak.”

Sophia chimed in. “You’re talking about him like he isn’t standing right there.”

Lauren rolled her eyes. “So what? Are you worried about hurting his feelings? You don’t even know who he is, nerd.”

Lauren gestured to her sister “Kaitlyn and I are the only ones here who went to high school with him.” She then pointed at Levi. “He just stands around, trying to blend into the background so he can perv on all the girls without being noticed.”

“I don’t do that,” Levi mumbled.

Lauren ignored him. “Either that or he just pretends to look all depressed so people will pay attention to him. He’s a total pity whore.”

“I do not!” Levi said, louder this time.

Lauren stamped her foot. “Of course you do! Isn’t that right Kaitlyn?"

Kaitlyn looked at Lauren, then at Levi, and finally back to her sister.

“Yeah, I guess, he does.” Kaitlyn said nervously. She had done so automatically to not make her sister upset, but she felt a surge of confidence as she did. “All he does is try and make people feel sorry for him. I even fell for it. But he’s just a toxic person. And now he’s got us all trapped in this perverted mess.”

Lauren smiled at her, to which Kaitlyn returned. Normally Kaitlyn felt bad when her sister pressured her into making fun of people. And while a small part of her still did, it was overshadowed by how good it felt this time. After everything Kaitlyn had experienced in the last half hour, it felt cathartic to focus her anger on the person they were kidnapped to please.

Levi, meanwhile, didn’t even try to offer something in defense.

“I just… I don’t believe Levi would be like that. No matter how long it’s been,” Elena said, but with less confidence this time. She then looked at Levi. “I mean… you aren’t… right?”

Levi looked back at her. He wanted to argue, to say the Peterson twins were wrong about him. And yet, he was swimming in so much guilt right now that he wasn’t even sure if he had the right to argue. All of these people had been ****, just because they had a connection with him or a second-degree connection in the case of Olivia. In a way, this was all his fault and their insults were justified.

Elena waited for Levi to respond, to say anything to assure her he was the friend she remembered. But he simply remained silent.

Olivia snorted. “You guys are taking all of this way too seriously. What with glasses-girl talking about magic, and now the rest of you speaking like you’re a prisoner or something? It’s just a reality show. You can just leave. It’s not like they can legally hold you.”

Tomoko raised an eyebrow, the drunk having just focused on the conversation again. “Do you not get what’s going on?” she asked, totally oblivious to the irony of her asking, of all people.

Before Olivia could respond, Sophia spoke. “Of course, she doesn't. She didn’t see what happened to Jezebel.”

Sophia blinked in confusion. “I meant to say Jezebel. I mean the person who got transformed into her. They said his name was Jezebel. Gah!” Sophia realized that she couldn’t say John’s name. She didn’t understand. Levi had been able to say John earlier… why couldn’t she?

“Like, did someone say my name?!” Jezebel cheered, bouncing her assets.

Olivia rolled her eyes, ignoring the blonde bimbo. “Transformed? What the hell are you talking about?”

Elena explained. “Jezebel was a different contestant. He was transformed for hitting Levi. Before becoming her, he looked like…”

Ji-Woo, who had remained silent up to this point, raised her hand in front of Elena’s face. “Now isn’t the time. Just… drop it for now.” Elena was surprised but didn’t press the issue.

Ji-Woo looked over at Oliva. Ever the business manager, she didn’t want this already tense situation to get more complicated. Especially while they still didn’t fully understand the extent of John's condition. Was he still in there? Was there any hope of rescuing him? Though Azure hadn’t specified Olivia and John's exact relationship, it was clear they were important to each other, and she didn’t want to escalate the conflict, at least not now.

“Uh… ok,” Olivia said, totally lost.

Lauren shrugged. “Hmph. Whatever. Jezebel was Levi’s fault too. The sooner you stop trying to let that freak off the hook, the sooner we can fix the mess we’re in.”

“I’m sorry.” was all Levi could manage.

Azure

Azure gave a satisfied sigh as she finished reading the contents of the envelopes. Each letter stated the winners of the transformation votes, as well as the First Impression poll.

“Ok, I can work with this,” she said, as she snapped her fingers making all the letters reseal themselves. She did this so she could pretend she was reading the results for the first time while on camera.

She looked at Alison. “Now, we’re going to go back out there. You will do nothing unless I explicitly tell you, or told you during our rehearsals. Do you understand?”

“Yes”

Azure wanted to double-check. “Do you? You truly understand that you’re not to do anything unless I permit you?”

“Yes”

Azure was still skeptical. “Even if you don’t agree or understand my orders?”

“Of course Azure. I would never dream of arguing with your reasoning. I trust our superior judgment implicitly”

Azure didn’t have to analyze if this was meant to be sarcasm, as she walked back towards the stage.

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