We can sail, we can sail

“Wait, so… a swimsuit competition?” Carly frowned. “Didn’t we already do something like that before?”

“Did we?” Marley scrunched up her face. “I can’t really remember…”

“We did,” Dawn nodded. “It was during the first challenge, on the beach. Sylvia put us all into swimsuits, and then the audience voted on whose swimsuit they liked most. But it was just for fun- even Sylvia got involved. There wasn’t any BP or VP rewards at all.”

“Yeah, that… that did happen…” Sylvia said timidly, shifting awkwardly from one foot to the other. She looked around nervously, like she was expecting Dakota to pop up at any moment. What did it mean, if her creator decided to use one of her very first ideas?

It can’t be a sign of respect or admiration or approval, she reminded herself glumly. Dakota doesn’t think that way.

More likely than not, the host wanted to show up her creation and prove that she could do it better than Sylvia. Or maybe even that was wishing for too much- it was far more likely that Dakota simply didn’t care.

“I-I don’t know about a swimsuit competition…” Morgana stuttered, going even more pale than usual. She hadn’t been around for the first one, and now this? The idea of being compared to the other girls made her shake.

“I mean, I’m cool with it,” Gina said, cracking a grin. It sounded like fun- and hey, it was better than swimming. It sounded like things were shaping up to direct the beach party away from the water, and that was fine with her.

“Of course you’re cool with it,” Dawn sniffed. “You came in first place last time, remember?”

“O-o-oh, yeah, I remember now!” Holly’s eyes widened. That had been one of the few events from when she was still in the competition. “…Wait, Dawn, didn’t you come in last?”

Dawn’s eye twitched. Her tail flicked behind her and she turned away from Holly. “…That isn’t important right now.”

“Well, Gina, you may have won the last competition, but that’s because I wasn’t involved!” Rose boasted. “With me, it’ll just be a fight for second place!”

Well, she certainly had confidence, that much was obvious.

“I just knew this would be fun,” Vivian chortled, leaning back and resting her head on her hands behind her. “What a great way to get people excited for the party!”

“I-I don’t know about that,” Mary said, shaking her head. “I mean… I was looking forward to just a casual, fun party. But this is turning it into a competition…”

“I’m with Mary on this,” Nick agreed. “This was supposed to be a fun party, right?”

“I know, but come on!” Vivian laughed off their concerns with a brush of her hand. “Every party’s gotta have some spicy events to liven things up! What, did you just want us all to be hanging around the beach chatting? Maybe make some sandcastles?”

“W-well…” Now that she brought it up, what exactly had Nick’s expectations for the beach party been? It was only now that he was realizing he’d never been to an event like this before.

“As long as everyone’s got a good attitude about it, and treat it as just another fun event, I don’t see what the big deal is,” Vivian shrugged.

Amelia cleared her throat to capture Nick and Mary’s attention. They were the two staunchest holdouts thus far.

“You raise a valid point,” Amelia bluntly informed the delinquent student. “An activity such as this would be an excellent way to break the ice and provide some levity. Provided, of course, that it remains a fun event.”

Nick nodded. That was his main issue.

“Some people are definitely going to take this more seriously than others,” Dani agreed, glancing pointedly at Rose and Dawn.

“Wh-why are you looking at me when you say that!?” Dawn demanded, her cheeks flushing.

“Because you’re a competitive person,” Dani pointed out.

Dawn bit back her response and her ears flattened on her skull. She couldn’t really blame Dani for thinking in those terms… but that didn’t mean she’d really take things THAT seriously! Didn’t she see that?

“How is this even going to work, anyway?” Kim wondered.

“That’s what I was thinking,” Marley said. She looked a little glum. “I mean, I’m not even part of the harem, so I can’t really compete. It’s not going to be as fun, watching on the sidelines.”

“Oooh, really?” Carly wiggled her eyebrows playfully. “Are you feeling a little down, because you can’t show off your new swimsuit to Nick?”

Marley’s face turned scarlet. “That… that isn’t what I meant at all!” She stammered, shaking her head quickly. “I-I just meant… err…”

“I don’t want to compete with anybody!” Ella wailed. She snapped her rubber-band a few times to try and calm herself down. Wearing a swimsuit in front of the other girls was bad enough, but putting herself up in direct competition with them!?

She couldn’t do it! She wouldn’t!

“Well, it seems that things are getting rather hectic around here, aren’t they?”

Everyone jumped because Dakota appeared in front of them all with a flash. She wore an amused smirk on her face and her golden eyes twinkled with delight as she scanned over the crowd. Nick could tell just by looking at her that this was the outcome she’d been angling for all along.

“Dakota, this was a bad move,” he said, walking right up to her and not holding anything back. “Organizing a competition like this, when everyone just wanted to enjoy some time on the beach together, it’s not what anybody wanted.”

For a moment, Dakota looked completely shocked, like she hadn’t expected Nick to confront her so directly like that. But she quickly recovered and her smirk returned.

“Come now, don’t be like that,” she crooned, reaching up and stroking his cheek. “This is all in good fun. It’s not like you have to participate…”

“That… that’s not fair!”

Sylvia of all people was the one to speak up on everyone’s behalf. As soon as her words touched Dakota’s ears, the host’s tender expression slid off like water on a windshield to be replaced by a look of ambivalent disgust. She dropped her hand and pointedly ignored Sylvia’s outburst.

But Sylvia wasn’t done.

“When you make a competition tied to BP and VP like this, then even if people don’t want to participate, they feel like they don’t have a choice!” Sylvia continued. “That’s a basic rule of hosting!”

Dakota let out a long, exasperated sigh and rolled her eyes. She slowly turned and looked at Sylvia for what felt like the first time.

Sylvia stiffened.

“…I… I just meant…”

“Sylvia is completely right!” And just like that, Dakota’s vacant, scornful expression shifted to a cheerful smile.

It was so uncharacteristic that Sylvia didn’t even know what to make of it. Her mouth dropped open and she stared vacantly at her creator.

“I… I am?”

Dakota ignored her. She spun in a sweeping gesture to address the other women, not giving her creation a second thought. “Yes, there is a certain amount of pressure on you ladies to do your best in order to get a reward, which may make you feel compelled to participate,” she admitted. “I won’t deny that. After all, here on Harem Hotel, we want to make things engaging and exciting for the audience, and it just wouldn’t do if they don’t get the chance to vote for their favorite girl. So… I do apologize for being a little heavy-handed.”

She sighed and placed her hand over her chest, doing a pretty decent impression of a woman who deeply regretted her course of action.

Then she turned and extended that hand to Vivian. “This is me… saying thank you, Vivian Carrington,” she stated. “You were so generous as to extend an invitation to even myself, I simply couldn’t let that go unaddressed. So in an effort to make this little beach party of yours a memorable affair, I wanted to lend my own hand to the festivities. …Assuming you don’t mind, of course.”

Vivian raised her eyebrow and held up the bounty sheet. “…A little late for that, don’tcha think?” She replied with a crooked smirk. “I mean, you’ve posted a prize and everything.”

Dakota shrugged. “…Fair enough,” she admitted with an amused look. “But again, it’s all voluntary! Optional! I don’t want anyone to feel pressured to join in.”

She turned to Marley. “And as for what you were saying… do you have such a negative opinion of me, Marley?”

Marley blinked in confusion. “What? Yes! What were we talking about?”

Dakota laughed it off. “What you said before, about how some of you girls wouldn’t be able to participate. Now, that’s not true at all.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Nick frowned. “You put it up on the Bounty Board, it’s a prize reward.”

“I suppose that does not preclude them from entry,” Amelia estimated, pushing up her glasses. “If they participate in spirit, but are ineligible for winning a prize…”

Dakota frowned. “Now where would the fun be in that?”

“Huh!? Wait, so… they could actually win?” Kim’s jaw dropped.

“How would that even work?” Carly scratched her head in confusion.

“It’s a simple thing,” Dakota chirped, steepling her fingers together over the head of her cane. “As I stated, each participant will get a prize for entry, a meager 100 BP. Not all that substantial. But the three runner-ups, will each get 1 VP and 500 BP! Again, just a dip of the toe in the water, but for the overall winner? 3 VP and 1000 BP! And those prizes… it doesn’t matter if you’re a contestant, or not. You’ll be eligible just by entry.”

“But they were eliminated,” Rose pointed out. “If they’re not even part of the harem, what use would they have for VP? …Or BP, for that matter?”

Dakota smirked.

“…Just because you win the prize, that doesn’t mean you have to be the one to claim it,” she informed the blonde.

It took a second for that to sink in.

Sylvia and Dawn both realized what Dakota was getting at before anyone else.

“Oh! So that means…” Sylvia thought about other shows where something like this had happened with eliminated contestants. If her suspicions were right, then…

“So what you’re saying is that if, for example, someone who wasn’t in the harem were to win first place, they would get the 3 VP and 1000 BP, and then what? Give it to someone else?” Dawn asked, getting to the heart of the matter.

“Exactly!” Dakota chirped. “It’s as simple as that! Let’s say, for example, that dear, sweet Mary over here was the victor!”

She draped an arm over the shoulders of the scantily-clad redhead, causing Mary to shiver. Her skin was still cold as ice.

“Because she’s already claimed her spot by the master’s side, she has no use for such paltry rewards,” Dakota continued. “But as the victor, she’s earned them. So she can decide for herself, who is most deserving of that prize, and give the VP and BP to whomever she sees fit! Doesn’t that make for an exciting little bonus?”

“So same with me then?” Holly asked. Not that she expected to win, of course.

“So in that case, Mary, Marley, and Holly can all give at least 100 BP to someone else this round,” Kim mused. “And if they actually get a ranking position, they can give it to anybody?”

“Exactly correct!” Dakota chirped. “I hope you ladies have all been brushing up on making friends, even with the eliminated members of Nick’s harem!”

Nick frowned. He wasn’t sure how he felt about this at all. “Dakota, don’t you think that’s putting a lot of pressure on them?” He asked. “This whole thing feels really **** and unfair, like it’s just trying to divide us.”

“I-I agree with Nick,” Morgana nodded. “I don’t think I even want to participate in something like this! It’s going to turn us all against each other!”

“I mean… it doesn’t have to, though,” Dani said quietly.

Everyone looked at her.

“Huh? What do you mean?” Rose asked, confused that Dani of all people would be sticking up for this absurd idea from Dakota.

“Dani, you actually want to do this?” Carly asked, most surprised of all.

“Well… a little bit?” Dani admitted, scratching her head. A small blush touched her cheeks. “Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m not thrilled by this situation, okay? I would have definitely liked a casual party on the beach. But also, I think maybe… maybe we’re making too big of a deal out of this?”

Dani had a lot of experience in overreacting to things on this show. Sometimes her anger and outrage were justified, but other times, it was a bit too much.

“I think… I think Dani’s right,” Sylvia nodded. “It might seem like this is a big deal, but maybe we’re taking this too seriously! Dakota’s just trying to make the party more fun in her own way, that’s all. She’s not doing it maliciously. And she’s even trying to get everyone involved so nobody feels left out!”

“…Really?” Marley was both surprised and not surprised that Sylvia was sticking up for Dakota like that. It made a tragic amount of sense.

“That’s what I’m saying!” Vivian nodded. “Look, we don’t have to do it if nobody wants to, obviously. And frankly, it wouldn’t be that much fun if there were people who weren’t competing! I just thought it would be fun for all of us, but if you guys don’t wanna compete, we don’t have to.”

Nick was glad that Vivian could see reason. At the same time, though, Dani and Sylvia had actually persuaded a couple of people.

“Should we put it to a vote?” He asked. “If enough people agree, then we’ll do it. But even if we do it, that doesn’t mean you have to compete if you don’t want to.”

Amelia nodded, feeling a swell of pride in how well Nick had taken charge of the situation. If only she was better at reflecting that to him.

“I’m in!” Rose raised her hand high, practically standing on her toes.

“I mean, hey, I’m down for whatever,” Gina shrugged. “Getting BP is getting BP. And what does it even matter? It’s not like showing off our swimsuits is some big loss or anything.”

She did raise a valid point. Maybe Nick was making a mountain out of a molehill here.

Vivian raised her hand, obviously, and so did Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. Dawn hesitated for a moment, and then raised her hand, as well.

Morgana’s mouth dropped open and her eyes bulged with shock.

“Really?” Kim looked at her in surprise. “Maybe Dani was right, Dawn, you are pretty competitive!”

“W-well… Gina isn’t wrong,” Dawn said, adjusting her glasses. Her tail whipped behind her as her ears perked up, showing her excitement in spite of her wishes. “It’s not like there’s a downside to competing, you know? And even a little BP is decent.”

“It’s a trap though,” Marley pointed out. “We don’t have to do it! If we don’t, then nobody gets the 1000 BP and 3 VP reward. Wouldn’t that be better for the people competing?”

Dawn could see where Marley was coming from. And she wasn’t wrong. From a purely “crabs in a bucket” perspective, the right move, if you didn’t think you could win the swimsuit competition, was to not have it at all. Winning 100 BP wasn’t worth it if someone else won 1000, and 3 VP on top of that.

And Dawn definitely didn’t think she had a prayer of winning, even if her swimsuit was pretty cute. Logically, the right course of action was to vote against it.

But I’m not that spiteful of a person. If someone else wins… shouldn’t I be happy for them? We’re all friends here, right?

Maybe at the beginning of the show, Dawn would have made the purely ruthless play of objecting to the competition, knowing that with her body she would come in last. Which is what happened the last time.

But she’d grown since then (emotionally, not in any physical sense) and she honestly wanted to have fun with the other girls.

If the others wanted to compete and have fun doing it, she didn’t want to be throw a wet blanket on the whole thing with her vote.

And it seemed like public sentiment was slowly shifting towards the fun little contest regardless.

“Like I said, might as well,” Dani said, holding up her hand.

“Same!” Sylvia’s hand shot to the sky. “I picked out a nice swimsuit, and I want to show it off! I need to make up for last time!”

Sylvia had cheekily put her own name in for consideration in the last swimsuit competition. The results had not gone in her favor.

Now was the time for vengeance!

“Well… I’m not thrilled about the whole prize angle,” Carly admitted. “I’d love to take part if it was just for fun. But I’m not gonna be a spiteful bitch about it, you know?” She laughed and raised her hand. “Hey, maybe I’ll win, and if not, at least we all had a good time, right?”

“…I guess so,” Marley admitted, reluctantly raising her hand as well. She still felt a little dirty, like if she took part and won, she’d be depriving someone else of the opportunity. Just like what had happened at Gina’s party. But… didn’t Dakota make it clear, she had a right to compete, too? Even if she wasn’t part of Nick’s harem?

Marley raising her hand was all the impetus Holly needed to do the same.

“I’m not gonna win,” she said bluntly. “But who cares about that!? I just want to have a good time, that’s all there is to it!”

Valid enough. Now they were down to only the most **** of holdouts.

Kim sighed and slumped her shoulders. “I was looking forward to showing off my swimsuit,” she admitted, glancing shyly over at Nick. “I didn’t think it would be a competition, though…”

It took her a moment to work up her nerves, but she raised her hand as well. “What the heck, right?” She shrugged. “It’s not like I get a chance like this every day.”

“But you could,” Dakota pointed out. “If you wanted to.”

Kim shot her a dirty look. She knew Dakota was trying to goad her into using her Sick Day transformation again tomorrow, but she wasn’t that reckless.

“Mary, what do you think?” Nick asked, turning to her. “In a way, this is your beach party as much as it is Vivian’s, do you want to join in? Nobody would judge you if you said no. It’s not like you have anything personal to win from it.”

Nick wasn’t wrong there. Mary had no reason to enter, and every reason not to enter. And given how popular she was with the audience even now, there was a good chance that she’d win, and take the prize from someone who wanted it more.

“I… I’m not going to enter,” she said finally. “Not officially, anyway. But at this point… it’s pretty clear we’re going to do the contest anyway, right?”

They had over a majority of the votes now. The contest was going to happen, at this point it was a matter of checking who would participate.

Mary took a deep breath and exhaled. “I’ll-I’ll get up on stage and show off my swimsuit with the rest of you girls, but as for the prize, I don’t want to be eligible for that.”

Dakota frowned, but she could see where Mary was coming from. “Fine then, works for me,” she scoffed. “Anyone else?”

She looked to the last three holdouts. Amelia, who had said nothing, Morgana, who was still trembling, and Ella, who looked practically catatonic.

To everyone’s shock, Ella was the first to speak up.

“…I’ll do it,” she said timidly.

Dawn’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?” She questioned, approaching the other girl cautiously, wary of Cinder rearing her head. “Are you sure?”

Ella gave her a tense look. “It’s not… I don’t want to do it!” She protested. She averted her eyes, glancing over at Nick. “But… if I don’t, then…”

She’d bought a swimsuit and everything, because she wanted Nick to admire her in it. Or even just look at her a little bit.

Sure, a swimsuit competition wasn’t how she wanted this to happen. But she wasn’t going to let her own issues keep her from what she wanted any longer. If she was going to really try and put herself out there and try to build some romantic memories with a guy, then that was what she was going to do, even if it meant some discomfort.

“THWAP!”

Just stay back, Cinder, she silently pleaded with her alter as she snapped her rubber-band. I’m fine. I can do this!

“I… okay, I’ll do it!” Morgana wailed. She’d had some of the staunchest objections to this competition, but if even Ella was willing to go along with it?

Why did I buy such a bold swimsuit in the first place? She reminded herself. Because I wanted to change! I wanted to put myself out there and capture Nick’s attention! And now, what, I’m suddenly too shy to even try?

Morgana was going to give this her best.

“And that just leaves you,” Dakota said, turning to Amelia with a smirk on her face. “Although, I suppose it makes sense, you not wanting to participate…”

Amelia stared coolly at the other woman and pushed her glasses up her nose. “…When did I ever state I had an objection to taking part?” She asked.

Dakota’s jaw dropped.

And she wasn’t the only one shocked by that admission.

“…Awright, Teach!” Vivian cheered. “That’s what I’m talking about!”

Nick nodded, and smiled. He was glad that this looked like it was headed in a positive direction, and that nobody seemed too concerned about the prizes. A friendly swimsuit competition was the kind of thing he’d been hoping for, not… whatever Dakota had tried to instigate.

But judging by the pleased look on Dakota’s face, he couldn’t help but wonder- hope, more like- if this was what she’d intended all along.