No, I won't back down

Kim drummed her fingers on the counter and checked the clock. It was a habit she’d gotten into as part of her daily routine on the job, since she worked as a saleswoman for a store that had about as little foot traffic as you could possibly get.

When you lived on an island with less than twenty clothes-buying people on it, there wasn’t much daily demand for lingerie and fetish outfits, so like most days Kim was exceptionally bored.

Of course, if Vivian actually convinced Carly of the merits of her little shopping trip, there was a possibility that could change. But Kim wasn’t holding her breath.

She was getting irritated, though. Because she had her own interests to pursue at the moment, and a date later that afternoon. There was a finite amount of time to discuss certain things with certain people, and those certain people certainly knew it.

Kim walked around the counter and stood in front of a tall full-body mirror. “Dakota,” she said sarcastically, crossing her arms over her chest. “Dakota. Dakota.”

“I know you live in the Candy Suite, Kim, but even you still have to say it five times if you want to summon me,” Dakota called from behind her. Seeing the woman’s reflection, Kim whirled around, her eyes wide.

“What? No, it’s three times, in the movie it was three times,” Kim replied.

Dakota rolled her eyes. “What am I, Beetlejuice? I hated that movie.”

That was a surprise. Kim would have expected Dakota to be a big fan of a film like that. Even someone like her with almost zero time for media consumption knew that reference. “So what are you talking about then?” She asked, raising her eyebrow.

Dakota sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “What would even be the point… …Anyway. What do you want? I’m sure my beautiful face isn’t what you need to give you a pick-me-up on a slow day like today, so…”

She tapped her cane on the floor to mimic a ticking clock.

Kim crossed her arms again. “My prize,” she said sternly. “Remember? For the bounty I completed? I’d like that now, please. You dodged the subject last time, and I’m a girl who gets what she’s owed.” Kim had been screwed over by enough employers in her life as it was; no way was she taking that from someone like Dakota. She did the job, she got compensated. Simple as that.

…Not that she was a prostitute or something. Now that she thought about it though, it felt disturbingly accurate.

“…Anyway!” Kim shook her head, banishing those twisted thoughts. “Tell me more about this prize, or I’m gonna make life real difficult for you. …Or your afterlife, whatever.”

Dakota gave Kim a thin, amused smile. “Oh, is that so? Well, I have no intention of denying you your prize, but I’m curious- suppose I was feeling compelled to do so, how exactly are you going to ‘make my afterlife difficult’ as it were?” She asked wryly.

Kim smirked. “Dani hasn’t figured it out yet, and Nick doesn’t really pay attention to this stuff, but I think if Dawn was in the loop she’d get it in a heartbeat. Mary too, with all those mysteries she reads. Something about 24 hours?”

Dakota’s smile froze on her face. “…Hmm?”

Kim walked forward, staring the host down. “The bounties,” she said, even more directly. “I forgot about it until a little while ago, because I wasn’t thinking about it, but you said at the very start of this whole system that there was a 24-hour limit on completing a bounty before we have to give it back,” Kim reminded her. “Only, I’ve been doing this bounty for more than 24 hours now.” She held up the scrap of paper.

Dakota opened her mouth into an “O” shape. “…Ah.”

“Yeah. ‘Ah’. So…?” Kim tapped her foot impatiently. “Is there a rule change here you were planning on hiding from the rest of us? Or were you just hoping we’d all forget?”

She noted, bitterly, that Dawn hadn’t mentioned anything about the 24-hour time limit for a bounty during their negotiations with Rose the other day. If Kim had remembered then, she would have been able to make a much better case. She was definitely going to bring that up with the cat girl later. Hopefully Dawn was just caught up in the moment and not using her brain back then. I really don’t want to think that she was intentionally trying to make me lose out on the bounty.

Seeing that Dakota still wasn’t saying anything, she decided to push a little.

“How do you think Dani is going to react when I tell her that the bounties have a 24-hour time limit and that she’ll have to start from zero again?” Kim pushed. “Something tells me she’s not going to like that. And when Nick finds out you swindled her out of those Victory Points…”

“Fine,” Dakota snapped, the pleasantness draining from her face. “You’re right, yes, there have been a few… changes. I just didn’t see a point in informing you, since none of you seemed to notice or care about that sort of thing. But since you brought it up, yes, for certain bounties, that 24-hour time limit may be a little more… negotiable.”

There was a lot of colorful language there that didn’t impress Kim very much. “Why do I get the feeling you’re just messing around with me?” She asked.

Dakota’s reply was a smirk.

“…The fact is, I was perfectly content with not mentioning it, and letting you run out the clock,” Dakota continued. “It’s not my fault you forgot about the 24-hour deadline!”

Well, as irritated as Kim might have been, Dakota did have a point. It was on her for not remembering that condition.

Dakota sighed in exasperation. “…But then you had to get Dani involved. Because of course you did. Little spoilsport,” she said with a pout.

“Me? Or Dani?” Kim asked.

“I think that’s more of a ‘two yeses’ kind of thing,” Dakota smirked back at her. Kim rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“Well, sorry to ruin your little plan of rugpulling me,” Kim sarcastically replied. She had a pretty good picture of what Dakota had been aiming for. “So you wanted me to frantically rush around trying to set up a threesome, or get off five women. That about sum it up?”

“Essentially,” Dakota admitted. “But with Dani involved… things got a lot trickier.”

That part was what Kim didn’t fully understand. “Why? What’s wrong with Dani?” She asked. It didn’t make sense how much favoritism Dakota was showing the tomboy. Especially after just admitting she would have gladly relished in Kim struggling to meet the deadline herself.

Then again, the look on Dakota’s face right now… it wasn’t the look of someone playing favorites. No, she’d seen that look before, when one of her managers was frustrated with the poor performance of a new hire, but couldn’t do anything about it because he was the nephew of the store’s owner and had gotten the job through nepotism.

“…Wait, this IS about Nick!” Kim had mostly been bluffing when she said she’d make Dakota’s life difficult by tattling about the time limit to Nick and getting her in hot water with him over Dani. But apparently she’d been right on the money.

Dakota gave her a sour look and nodded. “It’s always the most annoying dogs that bark the loudest,” she grumbled. “And you’re not wrong, Kim. When Dani was the one who claimed that bounty to bring five women to orgasm, I had to put the clock on pause. Because I knew there was no chance of her accomplishing that task in the time limit. And if she figured that out, then she’d run crying to Nick, and then… haahh…” She let out an exasperated sigh and rubbed her temples. “…The lectures would start, of course.”

Kim raised her eyebrow. “What, you want sympathy or something?” She scoffed. “You were perfectly fine with me getting a bounty I wouldn’t be able to complete within the deadline. In fact, you offered it to me first!”

“Oh please!” Dakota rolled her eyes. “We both know you would never have taken that one.”

“Then why did you offer it!?”

“Because I thought it would be funny if you did,” the host bluntly replied.

Yeah, Kim really wanted to see Nick chew her out now.

She’s not some genius strategist or master schemer. She’s completely out of control. She’s just doing whatever she thinks will work in the moment, and using the **** of her personality and her determination to push it through. Kim had worked with people like this in the past, usually middle managers with egos well above their weight class who had no idea how to work cooperatively. They would always push grandiose ideas onto their subordinates, without any consideration for the realities of the situation.

They were, to a one, the worst bosses Kim had ever worked with.

Please, I’m begging you, Dakota, learn from this mess and don’t make the same mistake again! Kim silently pleaded.

But Dakota seemed to be far more concerned with cosplaying as a perpetual victim.

“Nick is way too attached to that woman,” she grumbled, speaking more to herself than to Kim at this point. “She won’t even sleep with him! But the second anything goes wrong for her, it’s always about how I’m the one screwing everything up and how the show has it out for her! I mean, really, can you believe that?!”

“Again, you literally let her take a bounty you knew she wouldn’t be able to complete, and rather than giving her fair warning you just quietly bent the rules because you knew how bad it would look if she figured it out.”

Dakota ignored the very accurate assessment of reality that Kim provided, as she always did. Instead, she rolled her eyes and scoffed.

“Just answer me this, Kim, do you think the audience would have loved seeing you spend a day begging a bunch of women to let you give them orgasms?” Dakota asked, as if that somehow absolved her of her little prank.

“I think we both know the answer to that question,” Kim dryly replied.

“Right, but if Dani complained to Nick about it, suddenly I’m targeting her. Even though she’s absolutely having the time of her life right now!” Dakota pointed out. “And do you think anyone else would really want that bounty anyway?”

Kim was pretty sure Rose would jump at the chance, but that really wasn’t the point.

“So you bent the rules for Dani because if you didn’t, Nick would accuse you of targeting her and get mad at you, is that right?” Kim clarified.

“I bent the rules for you, as well,” Dakota pointed out. “No special treatment here. You didn’t finish your bounty within the time limit either, I’ll remind you.”

Kim flinched. Dakota wasn’t wrong there. “Well… okay, yeah…”

“It’s all his fault!” Dakota groused, rubbing her temples. “Can’t he see what I’m trying to do here? I’m doing this for his sake, the fool! But the second things go even slightly off the rails, it’s always my fault, even though I…! …Never mind.”

She finished her frustrated rant with a long sigh.

“…Dakota… have you ever considered that you’re really not cut out for this job?” Kim asked quietly. It was a risky position to take, no doubt. And she had no idea how Dakota would respond to her saying it, but…

The whole point of being the host is to do whatever you think the audience would like, to keep the show engaging and interesting, right? And in the process, you’re going to make the master and most of the women in the “harem” absolutely hate your guts, mostly because you **** them here and basically **** them into sexual acts against their will. Even back when Dakota was masquerading as a contestant, she hadn’t given a damn about how the other women in Nick’s harem felt, not really. But once she regained her position as the host, it seemed as if she’d softened her tactics in a lot of ways, while still maintaining her obvious disdain for all of them.

It was a contradiction that Kim hadn’t bothered trying to figure out until just now.

Of course, the look Dakota was giving her was anything but soft. She looked like she wanted to throttle the tomboy. “Watch yourself,” she warned, tightening her grip on her cane.

“Or what?” Kim stubbornly challenged her. “If you do anything to me, Nick’s going to get mad at you, right?”

Dakota’s eye twitched. A brief muscle movement that filled Kim’s chest with triumph.

She smiled. “…That’s what I thought. And that’s my whole point! You’re supposed to be the most powerful person on the island, Dakota, but you’re pulling your punches. You’re running things with one hand tied behind your back, because you’re not trying to run the best show you can. That comes second to making Nick happy!”

“You don’t know anything about the responsibility of the host, girl,” Dakota snapped back, flicking the tip of her cane towards Kim and tilting up her chin. “Our duty is to make the master happy. And I’d say that I’m well on my way to doing that.”

“Sure, yeah…” Kim swallowed, feeling her knees shake a little. “He’s definitely better than he was… when I met him, I’ll give you that much. But come on, Dakota, you can’t be this clueless. Nick’s got you completely twisted up in knots! Every time you make a decision you’re second-guessing whether or not it’s going to make Nick hate you! Is that really any way to run a show like this? Before you know it the next challenge is going to be ‘Who Can Knit the Nicest Compliment for Another Contestant on a Sweater’ or something! Your insane determination to keep from upsetting Nick in the slightest has completely removed your edge.”

Dakota stared at Kim for quite a long time as her words sank in. And the longer it took, the more confident Kim felt in her estimation.

So she really drove the point home. “How about this? Just a couple seconds ago, I was shaking in my boots, afraid of what you’d do just for me suggesting that idea,” Kim said, trying to act like she wasn’t still at least a little terrified that Dakota would do something insanely reckless out of sheer lack of self-control. “But now I’m not, because I know you’re too afraid of disappointing Nick!”

Dakota’s pensive expression turned into a petty little scowl that looked like it was more suitable for a third-grader who couldn’t find a better retort than “Nuh-uh!”

But that wasn’t what passed her lips.

“…Who do you think you’re talking to right now?” It could have been a threat, except… somehow, Kim knew it wasn’t. Maybe the fact that Dakota lowered her cane had something to do with it. She stepped forward, her golden eyes drilling into the other woman. “When you see me, who exactly do you think I am?”

Kim shifted from one foot to the other and took a step back instinctively. She couldn’t fully explain the emotions swirling in her chest. It wasn’t exactly fear, per se, but more like… discomfort.

As if Dakota had been a known quantity up until this point and then she just suddenly transformed into something completely alien.

“I’m the host of this show,” she said bluntly, her tone cool and even as she closed the gap between the two of them.

Kim bumped up against the mirror and swallowed. “I-I know, but…”

“You should be glad that I’ve… what was the term you used? ‘Removed my edge’?” Dakota asked, getting so close Kim could feel her cold breath on her cheek. “I mean… really, Kim, what did you hope to accomplish here? Telling me all that? Would you like me to stop caring about Nick’s wishes? Would you like me to be ruthless again? Is that what you’re after?”

“Uh…” Kim’s mouth fell open as she realized that she really didn’t have any idea what she was doing actually.

Did… was I just trying to convince Dakota that she should stop going easy on us and turn into a sadistic monster again? …I was, wasn’t I? I really just went on a huge monologue about how she basically turned into a harmless kitten! I was practically daring her to get more **** and put us all in bigger jeopardy! What’s the matter with me!?

Kim felt like she’d just asked her teacher for extra homework.

Her hands trembled and she looked into the other woman’s cold eyes.

“…It’s not too late,” she said finally.

Dakota blinked. “…Excuse me?”

“If… if you’re really that concerned about… about Nick… and how he feels…” Kim tried to keep her voice from trembling but it was pointless. “Then you don’t have to keep pretending like this. You don’t have to… be this person. You can work with Nick, and the rest of us, and try… try to do better… that’s all I meant…”

Dakota wasn’t cut out to be the host. At least, not of this season. Not with Nick as the master. However many seasons of cruelty and **** she had perpetrated on innocent people before now, one thing was abundantly clear:

Where Nick was concerned, Dakota would always succumb.

Yes, she could be ruthless, even cruel, that was undeniable. Kim had seen that countless times. Dakota was nothing if not determined.

But when she was responsible for every bad thing that happened to any of them, when Nick held her responsible for that, her twisted, compulsive need for his love stayed her hand, and kept her from being what the show seemed to want her to be.

For Kim and the other girls, that was a good thing. For Dani it definitely was. For all Dakota had talked about intending to **** Dani to compromise her sexuality, she hadn’t actually done that, had she? She was all bluster and boastfulness, but when push came to shove, she would cede ground to Nick every time.

Dakota needed Nick more than anything. Without Nick, she was nothing. And as soon as he fully understood how much leverage he really had over her, as soon as he really started to use that leverage for their sakes, then whatever respect Dakota still had as the host of this season would crumble.

Kim wondered if she was the only one who had figured this out. Maybe because she had spent so many years working under people just like Dakota who used **** and manipulation to mask their own ineptitude. Or maybe because, on some level, she understood what it was like to feel empty and worthless in a dead-end job like this one had to be.

The silence emanating from Dakota right now left Kim chilled to the bone. She could feel that this might be a turning point of some kind. She hoped it would be.

Dakota has to realize that I’m gonna tell Nick all about this as soon as I get the chance. And when I do, what will she do then? If Nick hasn’t realized it himself, then he’s about to.

All she had to do was not back down here.

“…Kim,” Dakota finally said, stepping back from the other girl and looking at her. The expression on her face was completely unreadable.

“Yeah?” Kim held her ground.

“This season has already seen the replacement of one host. Would you like that to happen again?”

It was a simple question that hadn’t even crossed her mind until right that second. But the second she said it, Kim’s entire world exploded in front of her.

“…I suggest you keep that in mind,” Dakota said, turning and walking out the door.

Kim’s question about the prize for her bounty had again gone unanswered. But right now she had bigger concerns to worry about.