We had seasons in the sun

After the semi-forceful shift in topics to spare Dakota’s feelings, things got a little awkward for everybody involved. The casual mood of the conversation didn’t really recover, but at the same time, lunch had almost reached a conclusion anyway, and there were still a lot of fun activities to get up to on the beach.

“There’s all sorts of stuff we can do!” Vivian was saying. “I’m sure some people want to go swimming, right? As for me, I’ve got other plans…”

“I’d love a chance to go for a swim!” Dani said, her eyes shining with excitement. She turned to Carly. “What about you, Carly? Want to go for a dip in the water?”

“Eh, I could go for that,” Carly nodded in agreement. But she looked over at her sister. “I mean, assuming you’re okay with it?”

Marley winced. “Well… I would like to,” she agreed. “But don’t you think things might get a little awkward if we tried to do that?”

Carly blinked. “What do you mean?” She asked, confused.

Marley shrugged. “Think about it… what do you think would happen if we went into the water together, and then you ended up getting a little too far away from me?” She pointed out. “We’re swimming, and then you happen to go more than ten feet away?”

Carly turned pale. “Oh, shit… yeah, I didn’t even think of that, you’re right,” she groaned, running her fingers through her orange hair. “That would be pretty messed up.”

Nick could imagine that vividly. Carly inadvertently swimming away from her sister without even thinking about it, and crossing the ten foot threshold. Then Marley, in the water, would turn into slime and be washed out to sea…

“No, Marley!” Sylvia wailed, shaking her head and grabbing Marley’s arm. “You can’t go! That would be awful for that to happen to you, my girl!”

“Hey, come on!” Marley **** a smile to her lips and shook her head. “That won’t happen. Don’t worry! Everything’s going to be okay. Carly wouldn’t be that careless… probably.”

She looked back at her sister, remembering the incident a couple hours ago where Carly barged out of the changing room without any consideration for her sister’s wellbeing.

As much as Marley wanted to think that her sister wouldn’t do something like that… she was having a hard time completely believing it.

And it seemed like Carly kind of understood that herself. She looked a little sheepish and averted her eyes awkwardly, scratching her head. It was almost like she wasn’t sure if she would really go through with that or not.

Either way… Marley didn’t want to find out.

“What about this?” Rose suggested, putting her hands together. “What if I use my transformation to be Marley’s sister again? Then you two can go for your swim, and Marley and I can hang out together and have some roomie time?”

Carly looked at Rose in surprise. “You’d really do that?” She asked, touched.

Rose shrugged. “Sure I would. And besides, you’re going to be going up to the Master’s Suite with Nick tonight anyway, right? This way, you won’t have to bring Marley along with you. …Unless you were planning to invite me up with you using your new transformation, of course,” she hastily added.

A thoughtful expression crossed her face, like she was considering maybe backing out of the idea and pursuing this herself.

Carly laughed. “I, uh, don’t think it works that way,” she reminded Rose, shaking her head. “Keep in mind, Dakota’s the one who chooses who I go up into the room with, remember?”

Rose frowned. “Oh, right, yeah,” she sighed, shaking her head. “I almost forgot… Well, okay then, I guess that’s true.”

Her smile quickly returned. “In that case, it’s a good idea, right?”

“Yeah, I really appreciate it, Rose,” Marley said, smiling at her. But Nick noticed that her smile was tinged with sadness.

“Marley, is everything okay?” He asked, concerned.

The brunette nodded, but it was a glum nod that made him think that no, everything was not, in fact, okay.

“Marley?” Carly asked, concerned.

“Nothing, guys, it’s nothing,” she said, shaking her head quickly. “It’s just… well… I just realized that I’m not going to be able to go swimming anymore. Carly, you can go, if you give my transformation to Rose for a day, but for me, I’ve always gotta stay ten feet away from someone. Whether that’s you, or Rose, or whoever you assign me to… I’m never going to have the freedom to swim in the ocean by myself, no matter what.”

Now that she said it out loud… it was so real to her. In a very strange way, at that. After all, Marley had never been that fond of the ocean. And given her identity as Mimi, the fact of the matter was, even with her implanted memories, she had never actually “gone” swimming.

But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t have wanted to.

“Eh, don’t worry about that!” Rose tried to cheer the other girl up with a big smile. “So you won’t be able to go swimming by yourself. That doesn’t mean you can’t go! We can go swimming together, you know!”

“…Really?” Marley looked at her with an expression filled with confusion and doubt. “You’d really do that for me?”

Rose shrugged. “Don’t make it sound like such a big deal,” she scoffed. “It’s just going swimming.”

“Well, yeah, I know it’s just swimming,” Marley said, rolling her eyes. “But I mean…”

“You don’t trust me?” Rose placed her hand over her chest and looked wounded. “You think I’d let you turn into slime on my watch?”

Marley thought that Rose would likely be just as careless and irresponsible as her sister, given the blonde’s usual behavior, but she didn’t want to hurt her feelings by saying that out loud.

She didn’t want to go swimming, either.

“I… I don’t think swimming’s in the cards for today,” she said, covering her belly with one hand and tugging up her swimsuit with the other. “Besides, I’m feeling a little self-conscious.”

Rose wasn’t so sure that was the reason. And she definitely didn’t think Marley had anything to be self-conscious about. But she wasn’t about to make someone go swimming if they didn’t want to.

“Well, alright then,” she said with a shrug. “How about we make a sandcastle instead? It looked like a lot of fun when everybody else was doing it!”

“Yeah, that could work!” Marley brightened. “I’d like that!”

“Can I join in on that?” Dawn asked, her ears twitching.

Rose and Marley both looked at her in surprise.

“You want to make a sandcastle too?” Gina’s jaw dropped. “Wow, Dawn, I didn’t think you had it in you! What, did it look that fun when we were doing it?”

Dawn frowned. Her tail flicked behind her and she gave Gina a disapproving look. “I can have fun too, you know. I didn’t like just sitting back and watching you guys build stuff.”

She didn’t have a lot of interest in sandcastles. But the whole contest angle had really made it seem like a lot of fun.

Good thing I didn’t actually join in the competition though… I don’t think that would have gone well. Dawn could already imagine herself competing with the other girls to build a sandcastle. If Morgana had thought Amelia was a bit of a control freak, she hadn’t seen anything yet.

Nope. That definitely wasn’t what she wanted to do.

“What about you, Mary?” Kim turned to her friend. “Want to have a chance at building a sandcastle, now that you don’t have to worry about cooking for all of us?”

Mary laughed and shook her head. “I appreciate the offer, I really do. But no… I’m not much for sandcastles or other artistic stuff,” she admitted. “Truth be told, I’d rather be going swimming if I’m honest.”

She turned and looked hopefully over at Nick. “What about you, Nick? Want to go swimming with me, maybe?”

Nick hadn’t expected that. He’d honestly been counting on just bumming around the beach for the whole party. But being asked to swim…

“You should totally do it!” Vivian encouraged him. “Swimming’s good and fun! A great way to clear the air and get ready for more fun times!”

“Really?” Nick was surprised to hear that. He would have expected that Vivian would want him to hang around the beach, where she could keep putting the moves on him and guide his behavior with her suggestions. “Are you gonna go, then?”

Vivian flashed him a toothy smile, and then shook her head. “I’m not one for swimming,” she admitted. “That’s a little too much work for me.”

She leaned back in her seat and stretched her arms over her head, arching her back to show off her belly a little. “I’d much rather just lie back, relax, and work on my tan…”

Nick looked at her swimsuit, and the bizarre stitched pattern and open parts of it. He wasn’t sure what tan she was talking about, but before he could ask, Vivian had already moved on to asking someone else.

“Morgana, what about you?” She leaned forward, her eyes twinkling behind her sunglasses. “You could use a bit of sun!”

“Err… no, no thank you,” Morgana said quickly, shaking her head. “I burn really easily, so I shouldn’t go tanning…”

“You won’t get a sunburn.”

It was Dakota of all people who said that. Nobody expected that she would insert herself back into the conversation. Morgana looked at her with an expression of confusion and alarm.

“Eh?” She squeaked.

“Your transformation,” the host reminded her, gesturing to the goth with her cane. “Moonlit Alabaster. It erases any flaws on your skin, remember? That would include getting a sunburn.”

“Eh! Oh, that’s right!” Sylvia gasped, nodding rapidly. “I totally forgot!”

Dakota sneered. “Of course you did… and even if that wasn’t the case, there would be no chance of a sunburn regardless.”

She sat proudly up in her seat, her face practically glowing. “Because of how Harem Hotel is set up, there’s no chance of getting a sunburn. Everything is perfect here, after all.”

“Oh, yeah, that’s a good point,” Sylvia admitted sheepishly. “This island is pretty special, including the sun.”

Nick looked at her.

“…So in that first challenge, when you had me apply sunscreen to everybody…”

Sylvia loudly cleared her throat. “Oh, my! Look at the time! If we don’t get a move on and do some fun activities, we’ll spend the whole beach party talking up a storm and getting nothing done! And that would be a real shame!”

She quickly sprung out of her seat and rushed off, no-doubt to find something to do to entertain herself and get away from Nick’s accusations.

Nick sighed in exasperation and smiled in spite of himself. He shook his head and rolled his eyes.

Vivian laughed. “Well… now that you mention it, thanks to that transformation, I suppose Morgana wouldn’t be able to tan anyway, huh?”

“That’s right,” Dakota nodded. “Her skin will always remain flawless and pale regardless of the sunlight exposure.”

“Oh… well, that’s okay,” Morgana said, a little disappointed. The idea of getting a tan sounded nice. Then again, she was a lot happier that she’d never get a sunburn again.

Of those two possibilities, one had a far higher likelihood of happening than the other, needless to say given her complexion.

“It’s definitely nice to not have to worry about getting a sunburn,” Vivian said with a nod. “Kim? You up for some sunbathing?”

Kim made a face. “Why are you asking me?” She groused. In spite of their earlier collaboration on the sandcastle, Kim still didn’t see Vivian as someone worth getting buddy-buddy with. She would much rather just spend time with the people that she actually liked being around, like Mary and Holly.

Heck- she might even join the girls in making an impressive sandcastle!

“Well, if you don’t want to go sunbathing, you want to go for a dip in the water with me?” Mary asked hopefully.

Kim winced and averted her eyes. She quickly shook her head. “No, uh… that… that wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“Why not?” Holly questioned curiously. She laughed. “Don’t tell me you don’t know how to swim or something!”

Kim blushed. “…As a matter of fact, I don’t,” she snapped, crossing her arms over her chest. “So what? Is that a big deal?”

Mary and Holly both looked shocked.

“You don’t know how to swim?!” Mary gasped. “I-I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I just… wow.”

Mary had grown up on a farm, and even she knew how to swim. The fact that Kim didn’t…

“I spent my whole life in a city, working to pay the bills,” Kim pointed out. “You think I ever had time to learn how to swim?”

“Yeah, but Kim, you can do anything,” Nick pointed out, just as surprised as the girls. “Are you telling me you’ve never had a job as like, a lifeguard or something like that?”

Kim gave him a frosty look. She didn’t quite appreciate the assumption that she had worked every job in existence, even if it was mostly true.

“Well, there’s nothing wrong with not knowing how to swim,” Nick added, wisely knowing to pivot the topic. “Some people know how to do it, and some don’t. Amelia taught me how to swim, isn’t that right?”

The blonde nodded silently. “If you like, I could teach you as well,” she said, adjusting her glasses and looking to Kim.

Kim shook her head, not really seeing a point in it. At the same time, though, Gina sat up, a little intrigued in spite of herself.

“Ooh! Could you teach me?” Sylvia popped back up with a look of hope on her face, having rushed over to rejoin the conversation.

“Sylvia, you don’t know how to swim?” Nola was stunned. Even she knew how to swim, and she was a leprechaun created by the producers!

…Created with the ability to swim, for whatever reason, but still.

Sylvia winced. Her eyes quickly darted over to Dakota before returning to her viridian-clad friend. “I, uh… never really had the opportunity to learn,” she admitted sheepishly.

Nola was surprised. “Even though your season was held on an island? Wow, that…”

She was resisting the urge to laugh at the woman who could honestly be considered one of her only friends. But she just couldn’t imagine Sylvia not knowing how to swim!

“Hey, go easy on her,” Gina cut in. “There’s nothing wrong with not being able to swim! I’m sure that’s the case for a lot of people.”

Ella’s face burned, and she slowly raised her hand. “I, uh… I never learned how to swim, either,” she admitted sheepishly.

That kind of killed the conversation point right there. After all, nobody had anything to say about the reason why Ella wouldn’t know how to swim.

“See? It’s fine, it’s normal, it’s not a big deal,” Kim said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Now, can we drop it already? Lots of people here don’t know how to swim. Heck- I bet Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin doesn’t know how to swim either, right?”

She turned to the assassin, doubting that someone with her background would have ever been taught how to swim before.

But the smug look on the dark-haired girl’s face told a difference story. She sat up a little higher in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest, looking amused at Kim’s misunderstanding.

Kim’s jaw dropped. “…You’re kidding! For real?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin cheerfully smiled and nodded.

As hard as it was to imagine her swimming, it was equally hard to imagine her being incapable of something related to physical fitness. Like if Dani had admitted that she didn’t know how to rock climb or something. So everybody decided to drop the topic.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys,” Rose said, rising from her seat, “but I’m tired of talking! I want to get to some doing, or we’ll just be sitting around the table wasting our beach day!”

And with that, she used her transformation to become Marley’s sister. It was a gesture both women had gotten so used to, it was almost perfunctory at this point.

New memories in tow, Marley got out of her chair and went to follow Rose over to the row of sandcastles, so they could add their own to the pile. Dawn scurried after them, followed by Holly, of all people.

“Holly, you’re going?” Nick asked, surprised.

“It seems like fun!” Holly replied, flashing him a smile over her shoulder.

Nick had a sly suspicion that Holly was after something a little more than just fun times building a sandcastle, but he decided to keep that to himself.

“Okay, well we should probably get going too, then,” Carly said, standing up as well. She shimmied out of her tight jeans, revealing to everybody that there were in fact bottoms to her sea green/blue bikini top.

Dani loyally followed her towards the water, attracted by the sway of Carly’s hips.

Mary looked over at the sea, and then back to Nick. “Are you sure you don’t want to join me?” She asked. “I could stay if you like.”

Nick smiled. “I appreciate it, Mary, but you should have some fun, too! You were spending the morning on food prep, you deserve to have a good time yourself!”

She still wasn’t sure. It seemed like a lot of trouble, since a lot of the girls here might be a major strain on Nick with their own idiosyncrasies. “Well… if you’re sure you can handle all the attention on your own…”

“I’ll be fine,” Nick assured her with a laugh. It wasn’t like this was going to be a big deal or anything like that. “You go and have fun!” He said again.

Mary smiled gratefully at him and nodded. She got up and skipped after Dani and Carly.

At the same time, Kim was wondering what she could do. Since she wasn’t going to go swimming, and she didn’t know what any of the other beach activities were (and she definitely didn’t want to sunbathe with Vivian, given how sweaty she was thanks to her transformation) she considered maybe going to join the other girls making a sandcastle.

When she got up from her seat, though, and walked over to the other girls in the sand, she realized that she was being followed.

“Huh?” Kim turned and looked behind her, and recoiled in surprise.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin was walking behind her with shiny eyes. She leaned forward with her hands clasped behind her back, and batted her eyelashes.

Kim swallowed, not sure what the assassin wanted with her.