Raise my drink, cheers to the fan, let it oscillate back this way again

Cinder winced. She shielded her eyes from the bright light. There were voices all around her, and they immediately made her uncomfortable.

“What’s going on here?” She hissed, shrinking back like an injured animal as she looked around the ballroom.

Dakota stared at her in muted surprise.

“Well… that’s unexpected.”

Nick’s heart skipped a beat when he saw Cinder’s flustered face. He wanted to go over to her, to try and defuse the situation somehow, but he found that his feet were rooted to the ground. He was shaking.

Cinder didn’t want to talk to him right now anyway, judging from the hostile gleam in her eye when she met his.

“C-Cinder…”

The irritated woman turned to Morgana, staring warily at her.

“Yeah?” She growled, narrowing her eyes. “What do you want?”

Morgana stiffened. She swallowed her uncertainties. Cinder was intimidating, but Ella had asked her for a favor, and she was going to do one for her friend.

“I want… I want to pass on a message to you,” Morgana said quietly. “It’s from Ella.”

Cinder tensed. For a moment, she actually looked worried, before relaxing slightly and taking a step towards Morgana. Whether she intended to intimidate the other woman or not was hard to say, but Morgana sure felt intimidated.

“A message?” She hissed.

Morgana gulped and nodded shakily.

“She… she said… she said she wanted your help.”

That caused Cinder to react in a way that she’d never seen before. For a moment, the hostility on the dark-haired girl’s face completely vanished, replaced by a wave of surprise. Her eyes widened and she took a step back, blinking in confusion.

“Ella… wants my help?” She placed her hand over her heart as her voice cracked in disbelief. “…Really?”

Morgana nodded again. “She… she said that… she needs you because you’re tougher than she is… you can do what she can’t.”

Cinder bristled. It had seemed for a moment that Morgana was getting through to her, but now she was defensive again.

“What do you mean by that?” She growled.

Morgana looked around. Ella wanted me… to explain everything to her. I can do this, right? Yeah… yeah, I can do this!

“We’re at a party right now,” she said, trying to be as firm as she could with her quiet voice. “It’s a fancy, high-society party. The kind rich people throw?”

Cinder made a face that looked like she was going to throw up.

“I see.”

“But Ella was really enjoying herself!” Morgana added. “At least… it-it looked that way!”

Cinder looked around the room at the other women in their fancy dresses. While she couldn’t see the things that were seen through Ella’s eyes, she still had a bit of surface sensation about what her other self had gone through. And while there were several times that evening Ella had been scared or worried or ****, she hadn’t relied on her help until now.

“…Okay,” the brash woman said cautiously, turning back to Morgana. She didn’t want to lose her cool for Ella’s sake, here in front of everyone like this. “What then?”

“Um…” Morgana was just glad Cinder wasn’t freaking out. “Ella… Ella said… she said that she wanted, um… she wanted a favor from me. Because… because she didn’t want to… oh, wait, um, maybe I should start at the beginning…”

Ella had chosen Morgana to rely on because she trusted the goth girl, and that wasn’t necessarily the wrong decision. But Morgana felt like she was definitely the wrong person to be relying on for something like this. After all, she was the kind of girl who got flustered way too easily!

Maybe that was why Ella felt like she could trust her.

Dawn, in the meantime, saw Morgana starting to flounder, and tried to step in.

“Cinder, is everything okay here?” She asked, approaching the two of them. “Maybe I can help figure out what’s going on.”

“You?” Cinder sneered, turning back to Dawn with an amused glare on her face. “And why do you think I would need your help?”

Dawn bristled, her ears flattening on her skull. “…It’s not about help,” she quietly replied. “I’m just concerned about what’s happening, that’s all.”

Cinder blinked, not impressed. Then she sniffed. “Ella wanted her to explain it,” she said, looking back at Morgana. “Let her.”

Great. The problem is, Morgana’s not exactly doing her best right now. Dawn looked tensely over at her roommate, wondering what the best way to defuse this situation was. When their eyes met, she saw the resolve in Morgana’s eyes, even if she seemed shaky and doubtful.

It looked like there wasn’t any other option, though. That was the problem.

“I-I can explain,” Morgana said, finding her voice again. “The rules of the party are that we have to be mature and classy, you know? Like we’re snobby rich folk.”

Cinder grunted in disgust.

“…I know, I don’t like it either,” Morgana admitted. “It’s fun to dress up and play pretend, but it’s a little…”

She looked down at her own dress and blushed.

“Blue, huh?” Cinder grumbled, pulling on the hem of her dress. “Doesn’t suit me. And what was she thinking, buying something like this?” Cinder shook her head in disbelief. “Doesn’t she have any modesty anymore?”

Given Cinder’s rebellious clothing preferences, it seemed pretty odd that she’d make such a big deal out of what Ella chose to wear. But Morgana dismissed that as not as big of a problem as the other girl was making it out to be… hopefully.

Cinder herself just seemed frustrated and irritated though.

“So what about you?” She asked sharply, glaring at Morgana.

Morgana stiffened. “H-huh?”

“You said she wanted your help. Why did she pick you?”

Cinder knew the answer to that question. But the protective side of her still felt like she had to ask, she had to find out what Morgana wanted from her. From Ella.

“Because… she knew she could trust me. To… help explain what you need to do, that’s why,” Morgana said, glancing over to Dawn for a moment before returning her gaze to the easily-angered woman in front of her.

“Then explain.”

“We’ve been having fun at the party, but we have to, um, do these different events and stuff,” Morgana said, trying to put off the ultimate explanation as long as possible because she was afraid what Cinder would do when she found out. “You know, like, make polite greetings, and eat our favorite foods, and, um, also… we-we had to, uh…”

Her throat suddenly got dry.

“…We had to taste wine…”

“Wine?” Cinder immediately stiffened and her face turned cloudy. “Are you saying… you all got Ella drunk!?”

No wonder she felt so out-of-sorts and lightheaded. Ella didn’t drink! But all of them…

“This was your idea, wasn’t it?” She immediately put Morgana out of her mind, and turned towards Nick. She stormed over to him, balling up her hands into fists. “Trying to get Ella drunk, so you- so you could have your way with her! Admit it!”

“No!” Nick held up his hands defensively. “I didn’t make her do anything!”

“She didn’t have a lot to drink anyway,” Gina said, coming to Nick’s defense. “And it was totally up to her if she did! She wanted to drink, it’s just… it’s a party, you know?”

A flash of guilt crossed her face. “…My party. If you want to get upset with someone, then get upset with me.”

That was probably not the right thing to say to someone like Cinder, who would get upset with just about anybody.

The other girl glared at Gina, but before she could say anything to repudiate the punk girl, Morgana rushed over.

“Ella’s fine!” Morgana wailed. “She was having a good time! A really good time! Nobody was taking advantage of her or making her feel uncomfortable or anything!”

“That’s right!” Marley said, nodding in agreement. “We actually had a really amazing conversation earlier! She’s a great girl!”

“I can attest to that,” Carly nodded. “We had some good times.”

Cinder looked around the room, feeling like she was getting pressed in from every angle. And that wasn’t a good feeling at all. Her hands were shaking and she bit her lip.

“If that’s true,” she hissed, “then why am I here?”

That was a very good question, and one only Morgana could answer.

“Um… you…” She swallowed to stop herself from throwing up. “You’re here because… even though Ella was having a good time… she told me she wasn’t sure she could handle the next event on her own, that’s why.”

Cinder crossed her arms. “Say more.”

She could sense that the other girl was dragging this out, and she had just about had enough of that. If Morgana wasn’t going to be honest with her…

Morgana’s eyes were spinning around in her head. But she remembered the hopeful look on Ella’s face, and realized that she needed to be honest with her. She needed to tell her the truth.

“The next event… it’s about, um… courting.”

Cinder looked blankly at the punk girl.

“…What the fuck does that mean?”

Ah. Right, Cinder and Ella weren’t really that educated, huh? She doesn’t know that.

Morgana was relieved to see that she hadn’t lost her temper, but at the same time, that made things worse. After all, Cinder was… well, Cinder.

And now she had to explain everything to a woman who quite easily lost her temper.

“Courting, um… it’s like… trying to… seduce someone?” Morgana stammered. She kept glancing over at Nick, so as to leave no doubts in anyone’s mind who she was talking about when she said “someone.”

It still took Cinder a moment to register.

When she did though…

“…You’re not serious,” Cinder growled, turning and glaring at him. “You mean… this next event… Ella had to seduce him!?”

“No, that’s not right!” Nick held up his hands and took a step back. He wanted to put distance between himself and Cinder not for his safety, but because he didn’t want the other girl to lose her temper and cost ruin the party for Ella. “She could, um, court anybody she wanted! Out of the judges, I mean. Not just me.”

Cinder looked around dumbfounded. “…But you’re the only man here,” she pointed out.

“…Well, yeah.” He didn’t know what else to say to that.

Cinder’s face turned red. “Ella doesn’t have those sorts of feelings for-!” Cinder exclaimed. “And I’m certainly not a-!”

She quickly shook her head. “That is not the point!” She hissed, forcing herself to go back to the matter at hand. She stomped her foot and clenched her fists. “So this party… it’s some sick thing, where you put Ella on display?”

“No, everyone’s going to be doing it,” Dani grumbled. “Even if we don’t want to.”

“Perhaps it would come better from me?” Dakota said with a smirk, approaching the other girl. “After all, I’m the one presiding over these events.”

Cinder glared at her. “Absolutely not!” She hissed.

Morgana looked flustered and confused. She didn’t know what to do at this point, she just wanted to move on and help the girl get through this.

But Cinder wasn’t making it easy for her, that much was obvious.

“Let me explain, please,” she begged, placing her hand over her heart. “That’s what Ella wanted… she asked me a favor, before she turned into you, she wanted… She wanted me to make you comfortable with what was going to happen. As much as I could, anyway…”

Cinder looked over at Morgana, unconvinced.

“…I doubt you’re capable of doing that,” she muttered. “…But Ella clearly seems to trust you. And if she trusts you, then… I suppose I can.”

She sighed and let her hands flop loosely to her sides. “Okay then,” she said. “Tell me what’s going on here.”

Morgana sighed in relief. She couldn’t be sure, but it felt like she’d dodged a serious bullet here.

“Okay, um… Ella… she has a lot of points,” Morgana said. “And she was really doing well, but she was scared.”

“Points?” Cinder raised her eyebrow.

“Yeah… um, for each event, the judges give out points,” Morgana explained. She turned to Dakota. “Can you, uh… show her how many points everybody has?”

Dakota blinked. Then she shrugged. “Certainly, of course I can,” she said, holding up her cane. She waved it swiftly and summoned up the point board again, displaying the screen for Cinder to see.

Amelia – 114

Vivian – 116

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 118

Ella – 113

Kim – 109

Dani – 117

Carly – 116

Marley – 110

Rose – 115

Morgana – 105

Dawn – 115

Sylvia – 107

Gina – 112

Cinder squinted at the board in confusion.

“…Huh.”

“We should probably clear things up a little more, now that we have someone new in our ranks,” Dakota mentioned with a note of amusement in her voice. She waved her cane again, and Ella turned into Cinder.

“113 points,” Cinder read out. “So is that… a lot?”

“It’s more than I have,” Morgana mentioned.

“And almost as much as me,” Rose added. “So if you think about it, you’re right behind the person who’s going to win this whole thing!”

“Rose, that’s really not helpful right now,” Mary said, shooting the blonde a look. They were trying to make Cinder more comfortable, and Rose was just trying to make the whole thing about herself as usual.

Cinder didn’t even notice her though, she was too busy considering what the scores had to say.

“There are two events left,” Morgana pointed out. “And Ella… she was really trying hard to win. Because if you win, you get, um, a big special boon or something, I guess?”

She looked over to Gina, who nodded.

“Winning… I could actually win?” Cinder repeated to herself, shaking her head incredulously. “That’s never happened before…”

“Wait, for real?” Vivian approached the other girl curiously. “You’ve never won anything? Like, not anything?’

“Of course not,” Cinder snapped, glaring at the heiress. “When would I?”

That was a good question.

“Well, you can tonight!” Dakota chirped, clapping her hands together. “All you’ve gotta do is brush up on your courtship! Seduce Nick in a way that is subtle and affectionate! Show him that you’re the one he should vote for, show all the judges that you’re the one they should vote for, without making yourself look like a massive slut!”

A vein throbbed on Cinder’s forehead.

“A slut!?” She nearly shouted. “I’m not a-!”

“It’s not so serious, stop losing your cool like that,” Dakota snapped, cutting her off before she could get too worked up. “We’re just having fun here, that’s all.”

“It’s how the event works,” Morgana clarified. She was still a little shaky, but Cinder seemed to be handling this well, which was good. “We’re each going to take the opportunity to try and seduce one of the judges, then all the judges will give their scores on how well we did.”

“…But why do I have to do it?” Cinder asked quietly, turning to Morgana and really looking at her for the first time. “Why did Ella put me in this position? She’s the one who-! Never mind.”

Cinder wasn’t about to broadcast that to the whole ballroom! She was here to guard Ella’s feelings and secrets, not make a fool out of her!

Morgana just looked warily at the other girl, smiling a tense and confused smile.

“I mean… um… she thought…”

Another broken voice. Morgana was really so bad at this, wasn’t she?

But she needed to convey Ella’s heart to Cinder, so she rallied, and took a deep breath.

“…Ella has faith in you,” Morgana said firmly. “More faith than she has in herself, anyway. That’s what she told me.”

Cinder looked stunned. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

“She… she said that? She actually said that?!” Cinder shook her head in disbelief. “But why would she… no, she wouldn’t, she…”

“She did,” Morgan asserted. “She was scared of trying to seduce Nick, she just knew that she wouldn’t be able to do it right. She… she didn’t think she would be brave enough to do it. But she said that she knew that you… you would be brave and bold, and be able to do it…”

Morgana didn’t know why Ella thought she could rely on Cinder for this. Even the explanation the other girl had given didn’t ring fully truthful. After all, Cinder might have been bold and brave, but she was also very unstable.

But if Ella wanted to believe in her, then Morgana would try to believe in her as well.

Cinder looked conflicted. She glanced over at Nick, then back at Morgana.

“…And I have to do this?” She groused.

Morgana shook her head. “You, um… you don’t have to,” she assured the other girl. “If you don’t want to, then you can just, um… not?”

Cinder stared blankly at her.

“…But Ella really wanted to try her best,” she added. “She wanted to win.”

“Yeah, she was really putting her best effort into it,” Marley nodded in agreement.

“And she’s doing really good, too,” Kim added. “She made a lot of points last round, there’s a chance she could win this whole thing!”

“It’s up to you, of course,” Dakota said, smiling in amusement. This was working out brilliantly, what a twist for the climax of the party! “If you don’t want to give it your all, you can always half- err, that is to say, not give it your full effort,” she corrected herself, using more “classy” language to fit with the party’s theme. “That would be, of course, entirely up to you.”

Cinder scowled. She didn’t like the situation that Ella had **** her into, not one bit.

“Estúpida girl,” she muttered, shaking her head. “Doing something like-!”

But this was what Ella wanted.

Cinder’s duty was to keep Ella safe. But what could she do when Ella wanted her to do something, that she thought would be a threat to her?

“…I can’t,” she said finally, shaking her head. “I’m supposed to keep Ella safe from things like this! Not… not making her… not putting her like…”

She looked anxiously over at Nick and shook her head. “I can’t…”

“I don’t get what the issue is,” Sylvia said bluntly. “I mean, Ella’s not here, right?”

“Huh!?” Cinder growled, glaring at her.

“If you’re the one doing the seducing, then you couldn’t be keeping Ella safer, don’t you think?” Sylvia pointed out. “She doesn’t have to put her own feelings out there, or put herself on the spot. She’s hiding behind you to handle all that difficult stuff, right?”

Cinder stiffened. Her eyes widened. “That… I just… I don’t…?”

She found herself put on the spot. Everyone looked shocked. Sylvia had made a very valid point, and it only just now seemed to be dawning on Cinder.

Her face turned red.

“You-!” She looked frantically around the room, until her eyes landed on Nick.

Then she turned even redder.

“Are you really trying to keep Ella safe?” Sylvia pressed her. “Or are you just feeling uncomfortable about this yourself?”

The seething glare on Cinder’s flustered face answered that question better than any frustrated stammer from her.