All I want is to set your heart free

Sylvia sat back in one of the fancy armchairs in her bedroom and sighed. This was really starting to tax her. Mary’s drama about getting married had been really polarizing in the ratings, and the comments she was getting certainly reflected that.

“MARY IS GETTING MARRIED!!!1! SQUEE! OMG!”

“Ugh. Can’t we focus on some other girl for once? This round is such a drag.”

“#MarryTheMary, #GetMaryPreggers #ChurchOfMary”

“I’m honestly happy for her.”

“Is this the first time someone’s gotten married on Harem Hotel? Only watched a few other seasons…”

“Nah I think it happened once or twice before.”

“When are the other girls getting married? #DawnPosse #CollarForDawn”

“Maybe we’ll get a big group wedding, that would be so hot… #MorganaCoven”

“#GetMaryPreggers”

“Boutique about to be flooded with requests for wedding dresses, #KimClique”

“I knew Mary would be the first one to marry him but I didn’t expect it to happen so fast.”

“Really? I thought for sure Dakota would be first, #CultOfDakota”

“I wanted Dani to get married… her corruption would be complete if she was **** into Tradwife ideals #DaniCrew”

“LMAO real Dani fans know that the otp is #TeamGamerGirls, fake crewmate”

“I can ship who I want! #DaniCrew #MakeLesbiansStraightAgain”

“Toxic homophobia fr”

“Let’s not pretend that the threesome stans are any better tho, making Dani straight is as bad as making Carly gay #CarlyFans”

“Careful guys mods are gonna ban.”

“This is why #RoseGarden is peak. None of this toxicity over here”

“Rose is oozes toxicity.”

“Rose still getting hate? Smh play a new one #RoseGarden #TsundeRose #PluckHerFlower”

“Seems like Mary gonna be eating for two by the time this season is over 0wO #GetMaryPreggers”

“Not ambitious enough. She’s shooting for double digits.”

“Perfect cow girl Mary ambitions”

“What about the other girls though?! I want Gina to get married too #GinaParty”

“Gina isn’t for marrying she’s for tying down and knocking up”

“Hot tho”

“Fr pregnant sex **** Gina spicy”

“If Nick is going to marry and knock up all the other girls he should do Holly, too! #HollyTeam #JusticeForHolly”

“Holly fans never gonna get over their L lmao”

“Marley has a better shot than Holly let’s be fr”

“LMAO Marley has a better shot at it than half of them #SlimeTime #SisterTime #SlimeTheSister”

“Yes Marley is too much of a person now Nick needs to put more slime in her #SlimeTheSister”

“Carly and Marley both get married in matching wedding dresses #Twinning”

“Carly doesn’t wanna get married tho”

“Lol who cares”

“Morgana needs to be in the marriage pool, #MyBigThiccGothWedding”

“YES #GothicGirlsRBetter”

“#GothLivesMatter #MorganaCoven”

“I want Morgana to get more focus. This is her round and she’s barely in it!”

“If Morgana gets eliminated because of Mary’s wedding we riot #MorganaCoven”

“Morgana peak #MorganaCoven”

“So are we seriously ignoring how hot Rose is in Mary’s clothes? #CowgirlRose”

“Rose is sexy af white trash.”

“Which is an upgrade from normal Rose, who’s just trash”

“#WhiteTrashRose”

“Too bad Rose is French she’d make a sexy Midwest babe”

“I wanna put some Americans inside her”

“#GetRosePreggers #GetMaryPreggers”

“They should all get knocked up right”

“Mary first #GetMaryPreggers”

“Dawn first #LitterForDawn”

“Dani first #TradWife”

“Knock up Sylvia”

“Sylvia already certified MILF”

“MILFvia”

“#MakeSylviaPreggersAgain”

“#MakeCarlyPreggersAgain”

“…and it’s ded”

“DUDE”

“Too soon.”

“Hot tho”

“Well, yeah.”

“Mary Carly and give her new babies”

“Y’all are sick (FAPFAPFAP)”

“Knock up the twins at the same time and put twins in both of them.”

“STONKS”

“Knock Kim up too so she can start getting those welfare checks”

“LMAO rip Kim”

“Maternity leave would do her good”

“Nah she’d have the baby and get right back to work”

“So would Mary, except her work is sex”

“Like Dakota.”

“Gina too”

“Make ‘em all mommies”

“Harem Hotel: MILF Edition”

“Would totally watch that”

“Dommy mommies with a shota master”

“This needs funding right now, are you listening producers?!”

Sylvia closed the window. Things were getting a little hectic, that was for sure. But while people were in general positive about the direction things were going, there were certainly some complaints that everything was focusing on Mary.

Dani started to panic. This was bad. Really bad. Well… maybe only kind of bad?

She honestly didn’t know. The only thing she was certain of was the fact that Morgana’s fantasy for Carly last night had certainly put things in an awkward place.

“Wh-what’s wrong?” Morgana started to shake. “Did I… did I do something bad?”

For Morgana, the worst thing she could do right now was upset Carly. Along with Kim, Carly was one of the only people in Nick’s harem who genuinely seemed to enjoy her company (or at least not mind it).

And if she’d upset her due to her fantasizing…

“Is it bad?!” She started shaking. Dani thought she might cry. “Did… did I…”

“Look, it’s not… it’s not that bad,” Dani said, quickly trying to defuse the bomb in front of her before it exploded. Truthfully, she wasn’t sure how “bad” the situation actually was- for all she knew, everything would be fine. “It’s just… a fantasy like this…”

Dani glanced over Morgana’s crazed descriptions again, hoping that maybe it wasn’t as bad as she was making it out to be. Sigh. No such luck.

“I just… Mary and Dakota… there’s been so much talk about weddings and marriage, I just thought…” Morgana sniffled and wiped her eyes.

The page of the diary depicted a wedding. Though perhaps, an orgy might be a better term for it. Every woman in Nick’s harem was depicted (though the dream was only meant for Carly and Morgana’s eyes) and each one was getting “married” to him in a perversion of a legitimate ceremony. Of course, rather than something as pedestrian as exchanging rings (Nick only had so many fingers, after all) each woman made their vow by climbing onto Nick’s penis and riding him to completion. It was the sort of steamy, arousing fantasy that Carly would have been all over under other circumstances.

But a wedding…

Dani sighed. “When it comes to Carly, things like marriage are a little… well, it’s complicated. She’s sleeping with Nick, yeah, and she might even l-love him…” her voice cracked but she kept going “but… marriage and commitment, it’s not…”

Her voice trailed off as she wasn’t certain how much of Carly’s personal convictions she should convey to the goth. And there was another manner that needed addressing.

“…Also, why am I in this too, huh?!” She demanded, pointing to her own name. “I thought I told you to stop putting me into your sleazy fantasies?!”

“I-I-!” Morgana turned pale. “I didn’t know you meant it like that… I thought you just wanted me to stop giving you the dreams, honest! I-I’ll try not to include you anymore! If… if I can help it…”

She blushed and averted her eyes. “The thought of Nick being such an amazing lover to even win over a lesbian, it’s… super hot…”

Dani flicked her on the forehead.

“Well, stop it. Shit like that isn’t okay. Did you get consent for the others to use them in your fantasies?”

Morgana’s jaw dropped. “I-I can’t help what I fantasize about!” She sputtered. “I’m trying, okay?! But this stuff just comes pouring out of me! If I have a really hot idea in mind about someone, then I can keep the other girls out, but left to my own devices, I just…”

Her voice turned meek and quiet and she hung her head. She knew that was an absolutely terrible excuse. But she couldn’t help herself! Harems were so hot! And the fact that she was in one?! Even hotter! The women around Nick were amazing and gorgeous, and her head was quickly filling up with more fantasies than she could contain!

“B-besides, are you seriously saying that you haven’t fantasized about someone else here?!” Morgana objected. “How is what I’m doing any different, huh?!”

Dani opened her mouth to reply, but then she closed it. Morgana… kind of had a point? Maybe? After all, Dani had more than her fair share of fantasies about Carly, and that was without her consent… was this really all that different, because she was putting them in a diary and showing them to other people in dreams? It wasn’t like she could just not write in the diary, either…

“Aargh, I’m not built for figuring stuff like this out,” Dani groaned, scratching her head. “It’s such a huge pain… look, Morgana, just… I really don’t appreciate all the dreams about me being ‘turned’ straight, even if I’m not the one to get them.”

Morgana nodded. “So… you don’t want any fantasies about Carly sleeping with you, then? I mean… isn’t that the same thing?”

Again, Morgana raised a very good point. Dani reluctantly nodded. As hot as it would be, the thought of having Morgana give her a dream of Carly having sex with her just felt like a violation somehow.

“Only if Carly says it’s okay,” she decided.

“Only if I say what is okay?”

Dani leapt out of bed and crashed onto the floor out of shock. In the heat of the conversation, she hadn’t even noticed that the shower had stopped and Carly had come out, gorgeous as ever. She still had a strange expression on her face, but this one was now aimed at her.

“I just… um…” Dani had no words. Not only did Carly look gorgeous with her scintillating figure wrapped in a towel (a sight that she sorely missed from their days of living together) but the topic of their conversation wasn’t something she ever wanted the other girl to hear.

But Carly wasn’t having any of that. She looked progressively more intrigued, and the closer she got to the bed, the harder it was for Dani’s thoughts to reach her tongue.

“It was about my diary!” Morgana blurted out. She was just as bad under pressure as Dani, but without the attraction to the hot cosplayer that shorted out the tomboy’s brain.

Carly flinched when she heard mention of Morgana’s diary, and her eyes slid frantically between the two of them.

“I-I see… so that’s… I see.”

“M-Morgana… she showed me the diary entry,” Dani stammered. “The one from last night, and… I’m sorry, I know it was supposed to be private, but…”

Carly shrugged. “Why’s that?”

It took Dani a second for her brain to process that. “H-huh?”

“Look, I don’t care about that stuff,” Carly sighed, shaking her head. “Did it weird me out? A little, yeah. The thought of me getting married… it’s just not something I’m considering at all. But it’s not like I’m scarred or anything. It just caught me by surprise.”

Indeed, Carly looked a lot less bothered now than she did when she first woke up.

Morgana sighed in relief. She’d really dodged a bullet there.

“Besides,” Carly continued, “it’s just a dream, right? A fantasy. So, no harm, no foul!”

Dani sighed. No harm, no foul? I guess that’s one way to look at it.

She felt differently. The thought of someone seeing her with a man… it just felt icky! Even if it WAS one of her best friends. But maybe Carly had a point. It wasn’t like those images were being shown to her, after all. She didn’t have to see herself do those things. Maybe that made it better? Certainly better than that miserable dream Morgana had given her the other night, when she’d actually had to…

Dani shivered.

“So you’re… really not mad?” Morgana asked hopefully.

“Nope, not mad at all!” Carly chirped. “I’m a cosplayer, remember? Trust me, there are thousands of guys who fantasize about me doing all sorts of depraved shit. Stuff that’s WAY worse than a wedding. Stuff that would even give me pause. If I wasn’t prepared to be thought about that way, I wouldn’t have gone online in the first place!”

She winked at Dani. “It’s totally fine.”

To Dani, that felt like Carly was giving her tacit permission to fantasize as much as she liked. But until she got an official confirmation from her friend’s lips, she wasn’t sure if she could really go through with asking Morgana for a fantasy or not.

Morgana didn’t seem certain, either. An awkward pause appeared in the conversation.

“I’m so glad you think that way, Carly!”

Carly whirled around and the girls all gasped when they saw Sylvia standing beside the dresser with a shit-eating grin on her face.

“What are you doing here?” Carly asked cautiously.

“I came to deliver your costume for today personally!” Sylvia purred, strolling into the room. “It’s not a character this time, though. Instead… consider it a slight penalty for leaving poor little Dawn all alone last night!”

Carly’s eyes widened with shock when she saw the outfit in Sylvia’s hands.

“Where is everybody?” Marley asked anxiously, glancing at the clock. A lot of the girls were already at breakfast, but not all of them. Dani, Carly, and Morgana were all missing, and Mary was still up in her room.

The one Marley was really concerned about was Carly, though. They were getting pretty close to the 24-hour deadline on Rose’s Method Acting transformation, and if it wore off before her sister got here, Marley would be enjoying life as a slime mold for the foreseeable future.

Nick also felt a little awkward. He had an announcement to make, but as he looked at the other four girls who were enjoying their breakfasts, he wasn’t sure if he could do it.

Particularly Dakota. She seemed rather pleasant this morning, which was nice. But the way she’d react when he informed everyone that he was getting married…

He still remembered her outburst upon learning that Gina had been the first girl to kiss him on the show. An exclamation that was tragically common in the past, given how attached she was to him.

But he couldn’t let that overwhelm him. He was going to make Mary his wife. He’d marry Dakota too, if that’s what she wanted, but he planned to make a vow to Mary to always treasure and protect her, and part of that was confronting the difficulties they’d have to face. Even if those difficulties were pale and ruthless and resurrected from beyond the grave.

A hand touched his shoulder and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He looked and saw it was Rose. How oddly supportive of her.

“You got this,” she said, giving him a thumbs up. “Trust me, you’re overthinking things.”

“You sure?” Nick asked.

“Come on already! Just make your announcement already!” Gina groaned, looking up from her fruit bowl. In spite of her insistence on the greasy bacon and sausage, Dawn had been adamant about her getting a balanced diet, and so she’d reluctantly grabbed some diced fruit.

It had not done wonders for her attitude.

The punk girl cracked a grin. “I think we can all guess what’s happening here.”

Nick blushed. She could see right through him.

“Shouldn’t we wait for the others, though?” Kim wondered.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Nick nodded, willing to take whatever opportunity to put this off that presented itself.

“No, there’s no need,” Dakota said sharply. She leaned forward and rested her chin on her hands. “Like Gina said. We all know where this is going.”

Nick swallowed. He looked to Dawn for the voice of reason, but she gave him a blank stare in return. It seemed that even she was getting impatient.

With a sigh, he decided that there was no point in putting this off any longer.

“Mary and I… we… we have an announcement to make,” he informed them.

“Where is Mary?” Kim asked, looking around for her friend.

“She, uh…” Nick cleared his throat. “I gave her permission to sleep in this morning.”

Gina smirked. “Oh, I see. I guess it was quite a late night, huh?”

Nick felt his face heat up even more. He didn’t know why everyone was giving him such a hard time with this! He just… there had to be better ways to make an announcement of this kind!

“We didn’t do anything together!” He exclaimed. “Really, we didn’t! Right, Rose?”

Rose faked a yawn. “I wouldn’t know… I went to sleep rather early, unfortunately…”

Nick glared at her and she just replied with a teasing smirk. No help there.

Knowing her, she’s probably enjoying watching me squirm, he thought. While Rose could be a lovely woman (as giving up her night alone with Nick for Mary’s sake demonstrated) she had a puckish side to her that made her frustrating to deal with.

And Nick was very frustrated after a night of sleeping in bed with his fiancé, that was for sure.

“Anyway, we didn’t.” Nick was quick to shut that down. “Mary has made her position very clear. Until we get married, she’s not going to have sex. It’s as simple as that.”

“Well, there’s a lot of other stuff you could do…”

“Gina,” Dawn snapped, kicking the other girl lightly under the table.

“Well, there is!”

“Excuse me…” Dakota raised her hand like a student in a classroom, rather ironic since Kim was the one in the schoolgirl uniform. “You just said ‘until’ you two get married, right?”

Nick froze. He hadn’t even been thinking that way.

“That’s… err…”

“Come on!” Kim groaned. “Everyone here already knows! She made a point of announcing it to practically the entire hotel!”

…Oh. Well, that made things a lot easier.

“W-well, in that case… it’s what you guys are thinking,” Nick said, scratching his head sheepishly. “Mary and I… last night… she came up to my room and proposed to me. And I… I said yes.”

A hush fell over the room, and Nick realized what he’d left out. Oh, crap! I forgot to mention the part where she said I can marry as many women as I want!

“W-wait, that’s not all, she also-”

“Woooooo!” Gina cheered, leaning back in her seat and clapping loudly. “Way to go, Mary! It’s about damn time!”

“I’m so happy for you two!” Kim exclaimed, feeling like all the tension she’d been building up overnight had vanished. Now that Nick and Mary were confirmed getting married, that made everything so much easier.

“It’s good that we could finally resolve this whole thing,” Dawn nodded in agreement. A small smile touched her lips as she beamed up at Nick. “You two deserve to be happy.”

Dakota scooted her chair out with a loud scrape, causing the other women to jump. She slowly rose from the table and approached Nick, who was petrified.

“Married, huh?” Her voice was even, and completely devoid of emotion. Nick had no idea how to take it.

Then she threw her arms around him and hugged him tight.

“Congratulations,” she murmured, kissing him on the cheek. “You deserve this so much.”

Nick sighed in relief. All his doubts and worries had cleared away.

Just as everyone was in the midst of celebration, the doors to the banquet hall swung open and a woman stormed in. Everyone turned to look at her, and their jaws hit the floor when they saw what she was wearing.

“…Carly?” Nick stammered.