The battlefields I chose are keeping me confused

Carly sauntered into the Banquet Hall with her head held high and a smile on her face. Even when she saw that Dani wasn’t here yet (probably working out) her smile didn’t falter.

She was in too good of a mood.

“Someone’s cheerful today,” Marley noted with a raised eyebrow. “Even after the hectic morning we had.”

Emmy nodded in agreement. This morning had been a lot more stressful than she’d anticipated.

“Well, why shouldn’t I be happy?” Carly asked her sister, still smiling from ear to ear. “I did a really good thing today! Don’t you agree?”

When she put it that way, Marley couldn’t exactly deny it. She nodded obediently, deciding that if Carly wanted to see it like that, there was no need for her to argue.

Yes, after their conversation and helping Gina out with her issues, Carly had begun to see the punk girl in a whole new light. They had never been the closest, although Carly had appreciated that Gina didn’t hold a grudge for her threesome attempt blowing up the way it did. But she was pleased to have finally had the chance to just sit down and have a genuine conversation with the other woman, face to face. Getting to really understand one another and maybe even become friends.

“Who knows, maybe you two could even become friends,” Marley suggested, putting words to her sister’s thoughts. Maybe it was some spooky twin connection thing or something, Carly couldn’t begin to guess.

“Yeah, maybe,” Carly nodded, her smile turning to a gentler, more pleased frame.

“You both love partying, and casual sex,” Marley said, listing out the ways they were similar. “And right now, the same sense of style.”

Carly giggled and rolled her eyes, playfully shoving her sister.

Emmy watched the two of them horse around, feeling warm in her chest. While she loved how much focus her mother gave her, she also appreciated the way she and Marley would joke and play around like this. She could see how happy Carly was… and it made Emmy happy, too, seeing her in her natural element.

When she wasn’t trying to be “mom” but was just trying to be herself.

“I think I get her a little better now,” Carly said wistfully. “She’s a lot more complex than she lets on, you know.”

Forget the partying and the casual sex. The connection Carly really saw between the two of them was in how Gina acted like she didn’t give a damn about anything, when deep down inside, she really cared more than most.

Carly felt that resounding with her own heart, and as much as she appreciated the other girl, it also stung a little, too.

Carly knew what that felt like.

I think that really was my Veteran Experience that brought her to our room this morning, she thought, recalling the flow of the conversation when Gina finally brought down her walls and let Carly in. She may have thought she was serious about proposing the threesome… but I think, deep down, she knew that wasn’t really what she wanted. What she really wanted… was to open up. For someone to tell her that it was okay to change. To take her feeling seriously for once.

That was what Gina needed. Not another sexy, meaningless threesome or giving endless blowjobs to Nick. That wouldn’t fill the yawning hole in her gut.

What she needed was what Carly had found. Someone who could love and appreciate her for who she was. That was what the scared, wounded little girl in Gina’s heart was aching to find, beneath the black hair dye, tight leather, and edgy tattoos.

And that little girl had brought Gina to someone who could really help her find that thing she had been missing all this time.

“Well… look at the nice little family gathering… how quaint.”

Carly shivered and turned her head to see…

“…Rose?!” She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn’t mistaking the blonde. But no, it was Rose, with a sly grin on her face, sauntering over to them in a dress that seemed eerily reminiscent of the style Dakota preferred.

“What the hell? You nearly gave me a heart attack,” Marley said, placing her hand over her chest and breathing a sigh of relief. “Since when can you mimic people’s voices like that?”

Rose shrugged. “Just a little talent I picked up in my studies of acting,” she replied. “Did you like? That was my Dakota impression! The trick is to convince yourself that you’re the only person in the room who is actually worth anything.”

“Must have been real difficult to pull that one off,” Marley said sarcastically. Rose stuck out her tongue at her.

“Anyway,” Rose absentmindedly played with a lock of her hair, “on a more serious note, have you guys seen Dakota around? I’ve been trying to find her all morning.”

“It doesn’t really work that way,” Marley pointed out. Finding the host was impossible unless she wanted to be found. Dakota wasn’t like Sylvia, who had a **** need to be included in everything. She pretty much never popped up unless it was to flex her power over people.

“Why are you looking for Dakota?” Carly wondered. She knew Rose was the type to go all in on playing the game due to her competitive nature, but she guessed that sucking up to the host was a step too far even for her.

“I was hoping she’d have a bounty or two I could do today,” Rose grumbled, scratching her head. “This round may have felt like it’s taking forever, but this is the last day. And I haven’t made nearly as much BP as I would like.”

Carly noted that Rose’s hair was fairly long as it was. It was longer than it had been originally, touching down past her shoulders. Which meant she’d certainly made a decent amount of BP. But apparently, that wasn’t enough.

“Don’t you have your own bounty sheet, though?” Marley pointed out.

Rose’s face turned scarlet in surprise before she quickly reasserted herself. “S-so, so what if I do?” She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “I may have done a few things on my list, but I didn’t get nearly enough. And the things that are left, well… that’s not happening, so…”

There was one item in particular on her personal bounty sheet that stood out in stark contrast to the others.

Get Pregnant – 5000 BP

Thanks to the boon she’d received from Gina’s party, Rose could claim that bounty in a heartbeat (or several very rapid and intense heartbeats, technically, along with some grunting and plenty of moans) but…

No.

It just wasn’t happening.

So now she was looking for Dakota so she could beg for scraps.

Carly actually felt a little bad. She looked over at Emmy, whose eyes were bright and innocently staring back at hers.

A smile touched her lips.

Yeah… there’s always that! Carly just had a great idea of how she could help out Rose, who seemed to be a bit ****.

“Hey, Rose, there’s something I never mentioned. You know how I got up to 10000 BP for my Stream Donations?”

Rose blinked, not sure where the other woman was going with this. “Uh… yeah?”

“Well, I actually got quite a lot of the money from Vivian,” she explained. “5000 BP worth, actually. That’s how much she put in. She didn’t ask for any favors or anything of the sort, she just handed it over with a smile on her face.”

It had caught Carly by surprise. She’d almost felt bad taking the money at the time. Of course, with what it had gotten her, she didn’t think twice about it now.

“…And she said she got it from you,” Carly added. “As seed money, or something? A loan? I wasn’t really paying much attention.”

“Oh, yeah, that,” Rose said, nodding. “I gave Vivian a 5000 BP loan to experiment with her transformation, since she said she’d pay me back when she got the chance. I figured that it couldn’t hurt. She’s clearly good with money and she needed some capital to make use of her transformation… so that’s what she did with it? She gave it all to you?”

Rose might have felt a little miffed, but like Carly, she couldn’t deny that Emmy being brought back to life was objectively the right move. Ever since Rose heard about what happened to Carly’s daughter, she had been trying not to think about it. Since Rose always aimed to win, the thought of denying Carly the right to bring her daughter back to life was a slimy thing to do, even if she was setting out to ensure her brother’s success. So she’d tried not to think about the cost of winning the wish for herself.

But now, thanks to the 10000 BP Carly had managed to scrounge up, she no longer had to.

It was a pretty good bargain, when you thought about it. But Rose wondered why the other woman was bringing it up now.

“Well, I mean… Vivian didn’t seem to care about getting it back, and since it was your money and all, I mean… I could give it back?” Carly offered. It only seemed fair.

And besides, if Rose was after money…

“Nah, that’s fine,” Rose declined with a shake of her head, not seeming the least bit tempted. “I mean, that’s a really sweet offer of you, Carly, I mean it! But my deal was with Vivian. She’s already going to pay me back. It wouldn’t be fair to get the money from you, too, you know? It seems a little… scummy. I don’t think Dakota would go for something like that, anyway.”

“No, I most certainly would not.”

Rose jumped in surprise and whirled around to see Dakota standing behind her. The other girls all recoiled as well, only just now aware of the host’s presence.

Dakota gave Rose a passing glance as she walked past her, running her eyes up the other woman’s dress. She scoffed, not that impressed.

“I believe you’ve already been informed about the consequences of trying to outmaneuver that transformation of yours?” Dakota half-threatened the blonde with a raised eyebrow and a tap of her cane.

Rose scowled. “I already turned her down! Geez. But anyway, Dakota, since you’re here, you wouldn’t happen to have any bounties I could take, would you?”

Carly had to admit, it was impressive the way Rose could pivot from being defensive to asking someone for a favor in such a smooth transition. She would have done great in Carly’s line of work if she’d chosen to go down that path.

Dakota was less impressed. “Even if I were so inclined to hand out bounties like they were candy, I don’t just give them to individual contestants,” she reminded the actress. “Besides- Kim would have first crack at any bounties regardless.”

Rose bit the inside of her cheek in frustration. Dakota was right, of course- she knew that. But that didn’t mean she had to like it.

“Besides, you have a perfectly fine bounty still left unclaimed on that sheet of yours, don’t you?” Dakota pointed out. “…And I’m not talking about the foot one.”

Rose gave her another sulky look, this time punctuated by a rise in the temperature of her face. Huffing slightly she looked away. “That… I don’t think… I’m ready for that,” she mumbled.

Dakota scoffed. Carly had thought that she was in a bad mood given her general hostility but with the flicker of respect in her eyes, she almost seemed… happy?

“Suit yourself,” the host said with a shrug, waving her cane lazily in the air. It almost seemed like she was surprised by the decision. “So you’re really not going to take the offer?”

“Of… of course I’m not!” Rose only hesitated for a second. “Getting pregnant in order to make money?! What kind of woman do you think I am!?”

“The kind of woman who comes onto a show like this to make money.” Dakota didn’t miss a beat, harshly cutting into Rose with a sharpened knife.

Carly and Marley both did a double-take. Pregnant? Emmy’s jaw dropped.

Rose was fuming quite a bit herself, not exactly able to refute Dakota’s accurate assertion of her nature. But that didn’t mean she had to like it!

“…Okay, fine, you’re not wrong,” she conceded with a sigh, hanging her head. “Maybe I am… like that… …But still! I mean-! Having a kid, that’s-!”

“If it helps, don’t think of it as getting pregnant for 5000 BP,” Dakota coaxed her with a sneer. “Think of it as getting 5000 BP for getting pregnant.”

Rose scowled. “That’s the same thing!” She protested.

Dakota shook her head and gave her a sharp look. “Oh, no, it’s very, very different,” she replied. “Maybe when you’re ready to be a mother, you’ll understand that. But it seems that isn’t going to happen any time soon…”

Carly wasn’t sure, but she thought she saw the faintest hint of a smile on the host’s lips. Wait… does she… not want Rose to get pregnant? Then why did she even give her that bounty in the first place, then?

And not only that, Carly vividly remembered how Dakota had shoved all those ovulation-inducing pills down Mary’s throat while she was consummating her marriage with Nick. Dakota sure hadn’t had any qualms about Nick getting women pregnant then.

So what was going on here?

Carly could definitely feel something was amiss, but she didn’t know what. And she was hesitant to say anything, because she really wasn’t sure what sort of mood Dakota was in.

That wasn’t something Carly was used to.

The cosplayer gave off the air of being a laid-back person who didn’t really care much about serious things. But like how Gina hid a wounded heart behind her persona, Carly hid her sensitive instincts behind hers. She’d always been keenly perceptive of the moods and feelings of other people, something that had availed her well for most of her life, allowing her to flourish as the social butterfly she was. It was how she knew that Dani’s feelings towards her had been about more than just lust. It was how she’d sensed Nick’s desire for her, which she’d enjoyed teasing back in school, but also noticed his sincere feelings for her behind that, which is why she’d gone a step further than she usually did with boys she was into, and actually let him into her life as a friend.

And, in the reality just slightly different from that one, the one she preferred due to the presence of her beloved sister, it was also how she’d realized Marley’s budding feelings for Nick after just meeting him once, and was the reason why she’d never invited Marley back up to college with her again after that trip. (Also, you know, because she dropped out.)

So for Carly to not be able to get a read on Dakota’s mood… that was enough for her to feel like something was very wrong.

And it was enough to make her hesitate when Dakota turned to leave, even though she’d had something to ask as well…

“Wait!”

Carly’s blood ran cold.

Emmy!

Unfortunately, Emmy’s truncated “childhood” meant she hadn’t developed the same social awareness skills her mother had mastered. Not sensing the danger emanating from the cold-eyed woman, she just stepped forward to say what she wanted to say.

Carly wished she could stop her, but it was too late.

“Yes?” Dakota turned those glowing golden eyes of hers onto Emmy, and Carly’s heart nearly exploded with relief.

They weren’t indecipherable anymore. They’d softened now. They seemed almost human, which was a miracle as far as Dakota was concerned.

Emmy wasn’t feeling particularly blessed, though. She looked up at the all-powerful woman with a feeling of apprehension in her chest, and glanced nervously at her mother for a second.

In that second, there were a thousand things Carly wanted to warn her daughter about, the most pressing being for her to keep her mouth shut and not push the envelope.

Too late for that now. Emmy was already turning back to Dakota with renewed confidence, having apparently seen something in her mother’s worried gaze.

“I, um… I’d like my own room,” she managed to get out. A hopeful smile pushed her lips up. “Ple-please?”

Dakota blinked. Of all the things she’d expected the revived girl to say and ask, that definitely wasn’t high on her list.

“…Your own room?” She bluntly repeated.

Emmy nodded slowly. “Yeah, um… I-I really love rooming with my mom and Aunt Marley… and Sylvia, well… she’s not too much of a blanket hog… not really… but…”

“But four people to a bed is too many,” Carly said, trying to intercede and hopefully redirect any irritation Dakota might be feeling to herself, instead.

Rose mouthed “Four?” to herself and shook her head. She was sharing her bed with only one other person (or maybe two…) and it was too much sometimes. Like when Cinder kicked her off the other morning.

Dakota seemed rather ambivalent to Carly’s sloppy explanation. She stared at the other woman with a nonplussed expression on her face.

Then she turned to Emmy.

“…Is that so?”

“Um… uh-huh, yeah,” Emmy said, nodding. “…Ma’am.”

She had realized far too late what her mother had tried to warn her about. Interacting with Dakota was a risky prospect, and something was definitely strange about her today.

“…Ma’am, huh?” Dakota’s lips curled up into a twisted grin and she narrowed her eyes into flashing golden slits. “What a polite young lady… you must be very proud of your daughter, Carly.”

“I- of course I am,” Carly stammered, nodding.

Dakota raised her eyebrow. “And of course, you love her, don’t you?”

“Of course I do…” Carly said, hoping that Emmy didn’t perceive the confusion in her voice from Dakota’s question as her feelings wavering.

“…But you still want to put her in another room?” Dakota pressed.

Marley sighed and slapped her palm against her face in frustration. Of course…

“I-I wanted it,” Emmy stammered. “I wanted to be independent.”

“Independence is important for a young woman,” Dakota agreed, approaching the girl and stroking her chin, as if she was thinking it over. But Carly was pretty certain she’d already made up her mind, and not in a good way.

“…Okay! You’ve convinced me!” Dakota said suddenly, throwing Carly’s assumptions for a loop. “I’ll work something out so you get your own room.”

“Really!?” Emmy’s face lit up.

“Really?” Carly was a little more hesitant, not sure if Dakota could be trusted or not.

Dakota nodded. “Yes, really. It’s like you said, Emmy, you’re a growing young girl. You need independence. You can’t cling to mommy forever, after all.”

Carly tried not to frown. But she felt like there was something else behind those words. Something deeper and more personal to Dakota that she didn’t understand. Not… not something good, either.

She looked at her daughter and hoped Dakota would honor her agreement in a way that they wouldn’t end up regretting.