They say to play hard, you work hard

If Nick had been concerned about properly judging the previous event and not being able to adequately review the girls’ introductions, well, this was even worse.

I’m supposed to judge on how well I liked them? Really? But I liked pretty much all of them! And talk about a subjective criteria!

He wasn’t exactly thrilled to be on the hot seat a second time. Especially considering how this contest was even more up to personal taste than the previous one. But again, at least I don’t have to actually rank them, he considered.

That was the one positive.

He noticed that Mary was also hesitating. Unlike the last time, where she had just written a “10” in every box, her pen had yet to touch the paper. He remembered seeing her taste the wines, so he knew she had, but she wasn’t exactly a wine drinker. Even before the baby.

…Unless you counted communion, of course.

Holly, on the other hand, seemed to go right to work. Which was surprising, because he knew she wasn’t much of a wine drinker either.

“Again,” Dakota said, noticing the reticence of several of the judges, “you may use your own standards for grading the wines. Don’t feel like you’re bound to any obligation other than your own subjective criteria! …With one exception. I don’t want something like ‘I’m judging the non-red wines low because they aren’t the blood of Christ. Let’s keep religion out of this, please.”

She gave Mary an exaggerated wink and the farmgirl rolled her eyes. Holly snickered.

With that bit of feedback from Dakota, Nick at least felt a little bit better about choosing his numbers. It helped that there were some overlaps for a few of the girls as well. He began to write down his rankings, and soon finished. Mary was last. She’d actually put some thought into this one, and it showed on her face. Even though she wasn’t a fan of judging the other girls (except when it came to their morality, as her religion demanded) she had buckled down and actually made some choices this time.

Unfortunately, that meant nobody would be getting a guaranteed “10” this round. But they’d live.

Scanning the scores, Dakota waved her cane, and the screen fired up again. The girls’ names appeared on it, along with the rankings from each of the judges. Like last time, the ranking started with Octavia and ended with Serenity.

Amelia – 9, 7, 7, 7, 6 – 36

Vivian – 9, 8, 7, 6, 6 – 36

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 4, 9, 6, 4, 9 – 32

Ella – 4, 7, 7, 7, 9 – 34

Kim – 4, 9, 6, 6, 8 – 33

Dani – 7, 8, 7, 8, 8 – 38

Carly – 7, 8, 7, 8, 8 – 38

Marley – 6, 8, 7, 7, 8 – 36

Rose – 6, 7, 10, 10, 7 – 40

Morgana – 3, 10, 5, 7, 5 – 30

Dawn – 8, 8, 8, 6, 6 – 36

Sylvia – 3, 10, 5, 7, 5 – 30

Gina – 4, 10, 6, 5, 10 – 35

The response to the scores was a lot more vocal than the last round, and Nick expected that likely because of the higher amount of variance in the scores.

“Whoa, Rose, wow,” Kim said, impressed. “Nick gave you a 10. And Mary did, too. That’s… wow, just wow.” She shook her head and grinned.

Rose looked stunned. “R-really?” She gazed over at Nick and Mary, and held her hand over her heart.

“W-well, after hearing it was your mom’s favorite, how could I not?” Mary pointed out, wincing. “And it was really good, too…”

“So, sympathy wins out in the end, eh?” Carly said, flashing Rose a toothy smile to show there were no hard feelings. “No complaints on my end. I think our scores were pretty well-balanced.”

Vivian didn’t agree. “Only 36 points?” She sniffed, turning up her nose. “It seems that there aren’t as many connoisseurs of fine wine here as I thought.”

Ella was pleasantly surprised to see that the no-name wine she’d picked out had gotten the same score as the fancy bottles Vivian and Amelia had chosen.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Nick. She puffed up her cheeks into a scowl.

“What?” Nick felt like he had to defend his decision, even though it really wasn’t fair to expect that of him. “I didn’t like the spice that much, I’m sorry!”

“I did!” Holly said cheerfully. “I really like strong flavors.”

“Same,” Serenity nodded. They were the only two who had given Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin a high score for her “strong” choice of wine.

“Thanks, Holly,” Sylvia said, turning to Holly and giving her a grateful smile. “If it wasn’t for that 10 of yours, we would have been completely in the gutter.”

“I-I just picked one I liked, that’s all,” Morgana mumbled.

“I love sweet things!” Holly said with a grin. She looked over at Octavia. “But I guess you don’t, huh?”

“My palate is quite refined,” Octavia said simply. “I judged each wine I tasted on the standard by which any member of high society would have.”

That explained the low scores for Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin, Ella, Kim, Morgana, Sylvia, and Gina this round. Octavia had been ruthless in cutting the contestants down to size. Fortunately, the diverse palate of the other judges helped even things out a bit. Nick found it interesting that Serenity seemed to have an affinity for the more “pedestrian” choices in contrast to Octavia’s refined tastes. Maybe Dakota had made the right move picking her.

“Well, now that you ladies have all had a chance to see how many more points you received, let’s tally up the results with the previous round, shall we?” Dakota suggested, clapping her hands together. With a flick of her cane, the board shifted again, and added the new scores to the previous totals assigned to them.

Amelia – 40 + 36 = 76

Vivian – 42 + 36 = 78

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin – 42 + 32 = 74

Ella – 35 + 34 = 69

Kim – 37 + 33 = 70

Dani – 41 + 38 = 79

Carly – 41 = 38 = 79

Marley – 36 + 36 = 72

Rose – 39 + 40 = 79

Morgana – 36 + 30 = 66

Dawn – 41 + 36 = 77

Sylvia – 35 + 30 = 65

Gina – 39 + 35 = 74

After the scores reshuffled and everyone had an opportunity to look at the new totals, some clear things stood out.

“69 points? Nice!” Carly turned to Ella and flashed her a smile.

Ella stiffened and turned red, not used to someone as outgoing as Carly speaking directly to her like this.

“Err, uh… is… is that good?” She stammered, not sure what Carly was trying to say.

Marley rolled her eyes. “I think the bigger thing to note here is the three-way tie?” She pointed out, indicating to the scoreboard.

Indeed, just like last round, there was no definitive winner. But Vivian and Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin had both been overtaken by Carly, Dani, and Rose, who had somehow all managed to get total scores that added up to a three-way tie for first place.

“Nice! Carly, it’s just like we thought!” Dani said with a grin. “We’re in the lead!”

“I’m in the lead, too,” Rose said sharply. “Don’t forget. I’m not going to fall behind either of you! This is where I take my stand and move on to greater things!”

Dawn raised her eyebrow. “With the way the scores are fluctuating, it’s hard to predict that,” she replied. “A good performance in one category does not necessarily indicate continued success in future categories, you realize that, right?” She pointed out.

Rose shot her a look.

“I’ll say,” Vivian sighed, scratching her head. “I mean, I was in first! But I guess that’s just how it goes sometimes, right, Teach?”

Amelia gave Vivian a curious yet suspicious look. “You seem rather accepting of this outcome,” she noted. “I would have expected more protest.”

Vivian laughed ruefully and shrugged.

“Aww man!” Sylvia groaned. “I’m in last place! Come on! All because you guys don’t like sweet things?”

“It’s okay,” Morgana said, patting her on the shoulder. “We can still get ahead. R-right?” She looked hopefully at Gina, who nodded.

“As long as we comport ourselves with class and dignity like respectable women should, we’ll certainly be able to emerge victorious,” the hostess of the party said firmly.

Judging by her performance in the last two events, that wasn’t exactly an optimistic statement no matter how much she intended it as such. Morgana winced and swallowed her nerves.

“O-okay,” she stammered, trying to smile.

“It was a pretty subjective event anyway,” Kim pointed out. “I mean, trying to connect to the tastes of the judges? How do you even account for that, huh?” She’d tried to be fancy with her bottle of sake, but clearly it had backfired on her, and her score had suffered for it. “Is it my fault I’m not cut out for high society? No!”

“But it doesn’t hurt to learn,” Dawn pointed out. “Which I believe is the purpose of these events, yes?” She glanced at Gina, who looked bashfully away and nodded.

“Right on the money as usual, Dawn,” Dakota nodded. “That certainly was the intent of our lovely hostess for this party! To help you girls display just how elegant and mature you all are! And it certainly seems to be working!”

…More or less.

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Well, that should be great. What next then? Are you going to put a nice feast in front of us and grill us on our table manners or something? Judge us for using the wrong fork, hmm?” That sounded like the kind of twisted yet dumb event Gina would come up with.

The punk girl stiffened and Dakota giggled.

“Why yes, that will be the next event, you’re right on the money,” Dakota confirmed with a smile.

Nick groaned. What was he even supposed to do, judging that? He didn’t know anything about manners himself, and he was supposed to review and rank their eating habits?

This was a little too much, even for this kind of party.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Dakota assured the girls, in the crooning tone she used to indicate that no, everything was not fine. “It’s still far too early in the evening for dinner! This is a fancy party after all, and the night is young! Get out there! Live a little! Mingle, mingle, mingle! And besides… the judges are probably getting restless, sitting down all this time.”

She smirked over at the judge table, and Nick had the distinct sensation of a fish being fed to a bunch of hungry sharks.

He swallowed but led the way, rising from his seat and descending from the stage to go join the women in his harem.

Vivian intercepted him almost immediately.

“So you’re not a fan of fancy wine,” she said, studying him intently. “That’s fine. What kind do you prefer, then? You rated Rose’s very highly. And in spite of what the others might say, I know for a fact that it wasn’t out of sympathy.”

Nick bristled. Vivian was pretty perceptive after all.

“I don’t know,” he admitted with a shrug. “I guess I just like the taste of champagne. Maybe it’s all the bubbles. Reminds me of mineral water, you know?”

“He’s a huge fan,” Holly said, popping up beside Nick to take some of the pressure off. “He used to go through that stuff at a pace of, like, a crate a week. And we’re talking crates of 36 bottles. Yikes.”

“Hey, that’s not so bad!” Nick said defensively. “That’s just, like, 5 a day. That’s perfectly acceptable!” He protested.

Okay… maybe that was a little excessive. But it was better than guzzling soda!

“Hey, that’s better than guzzling soda,” Dani pointed out, coming over to join them. “Can’t blame a guy for his cravings.”

The other girls started to gather around Nick as well. Sylvia practically shoved her way to the front of the crowd, though.

“Daddy! Here!” She shoved a glass of wine into Nick’s hand.

“Uh… what’s this, now?”

“Another Apothic Red,” she said firmly. “I want you to try it again!”

Great. Sylvia was being stubborn about this. Why was he not surprised?

“I-I really couldn’t,” Nick said, shaking his head. “That stuff is way too sugary for me.”

“That’s what makes it so good, though!” Holly protested. “I’m not a wine drinker, but if it other wines tasted like that? I’d be a bigger alcoholic than Gina!”

“Hey!” Gina frowned. She had some choice words for Holly but she kept them to herself. After all, that wouldn’t be the respectable, mature thing to do.

Vivian just laughed. “Well, I for one don’t mind.” She snagged the glass from Sylvia’s hand and tilted it back, draining it dry in a flash. “Mmm, delicious.”

“See? Even Vivian gets it!” Sylvia pointed out. “…And Vivian has the most refined palate of anyone here!”

“Hey! No, I got a higher score!” Rose pointed out with a huff. “That proves, my palate is the most refined of anyone!”

“You, Dani, and Carly have tied scores though,” Kim said, stepping into the conversation herself. She didn’t know a lot about wine or palates or anything like that, but she wanted to give her two cents since if she didn’t humble Rose now, the blonde’s inflated ego would probably dominate the evening. “So doesn’t that mean their palate is just as refined as yours?”

Dawn shook her head. “Rose’s individual score in this category was higher than anybody,” she pointed out. “So she has a point. …With that being said, this contest itself didn’t establish anything about anybody’s palate one way or the other. The sample judges were the final deciders.”

“Precisely,” Vivian smirked. “Octavia has the best palate out of anyone on the judge’s table, and she gave me a 9!”

“Not just you though,” Morgana pointed out, glancing over at Amelia. The blonde was watching the conversation with a glass of champagne in hand, studying their interactions closely.

“Well… I suppose I’m fine with acknowledging that Vivian and Amelia have a more refined palate than me,” Rose replied, ceding the conversation. She glanced at Amelia as well. It was as if there was actually a sixth judge in the room, and her opinion mattered more to Rose than anyone else’s.

Well… almost anyone.

Rose turned to Nick, her eyes watering. “Nick… you really liked it that much?” She asked, taking Nick by the hands.

“Yeah,” Nick nodded. “I did. It really tasted good.”

Rose turned to the other judge who had stood up for her. “And Mary?”

Mary frowned. “I-I already answered!” She huffed, puffing up her cheeks and putting her hands on her hips. “You shouldn’t be fishing for compliments like that, Rose!”

Rose laughed. She didn’t even mind Mary talking down to her like that, she was too ecstatic to care about something so simple.

There was someone who had some strong opinions about that last round, though. And unlike the other girls, she was incapable of voicing them.

So she made her displeasure known in another way.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s wicked stare felt like it could melt a hole in Nick’s skull. When he met her eyes, he was petrified.

“A-Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin,” he stammered, trying to disarm her foul mood with a smile. “I’m sorry I scored you so low, but that was how I felt. Those spices… it was too much.”

“You shouldn’t apologize for having an opinion.”

The last person Nick expected to come to his aid spoke up then- the pensive Serenity, who had barely said two words to him tonight.

“Huh?” Nick looked at her in surprise. Serenity had actually liked Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s choice of wine, but she was still standing up for him.

“This contest was about opinions,” Serentiy said bluntly. “He gave his. Are you gonna throw a tantrum about it?”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s scowl slowly faded away. She still looked disappointed and upset, but the hostility drained out of her like squeezing juice from an orange.

She looked over at Nick and shook her head glumly.

Now Nick felt bad for a whole different reason.

“She probably just wanted to stand out,” Marley guessed. “Give something with a bit of a kick to it, you know? Considering she was following Vivian and Amelia, I mean.”

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin shrugged. Apparently that wasn’t the reason, but it was as good as any other.

Then she held the bottle out to Marley.

“Uh… no. No, thank you,” Marley said, taking a big step back. “I like my drinks a lot more mellow, thank you very much.”

“Hey, I’ll try it then,” Gina said, holding out her glass. She’d originally intended to snag the whole bottle, but she didn’t want to look boorish.

“Me too, Nick’s reaction to tasting that was pretty hilarious,” Carly cackled. She held out a glass as well. “Pass it here, let me have a taste. And I’ll get Dani to try some, too!”

“What? No!” Dani shook her head. “I don’t want any!”

“It’s really good,” Holly said. “You won’t regret it!”

Holly had given Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin’s wine selection a 9, just like Serenity. Whether spicy or sweet, she was a fan of strong flavors.

The assassin looked at the two women asking to sample the wine she’d chosen, and regarded them with dubious suspicion.

Then she smiled, and filled both the girls’ glasses. And when Carly grabbed a second one for Dani she filled that one as well, in spite of the blue-haired woman’s objections.

Seeing the girls getting along like that, Nick had a change of heart.

“…Okay,” he relented, reaching for a glass of his own. “I guess I can try some more.” She seemed really determined about this, and he didn’t want to be a killjoy at a party like this.

But he quickly realized the mistake he was making.

“Oh, so you’ll drink hers, but not Morgana’s and mine?” Sylvia pouted, cracking a grin. She crossed her arms over her chest and wiggled her eyebrows. “I see how it is, Daddy.”

“Come on, Sylvia, it’s not a big deal,” Morgana said, not wanting to start something.

“No, it’s definitely a big deal,” Vivian said, picking up on what Sylvia was insinuating. “Come on, Nick, I’ve got another vintage you can try if you want! This one is even more exclusive!”

“Hey! If Nick’s going to have more wine, it should be mine!” Rose objected. “He scored mine the highest anyway, right?”

As several of the girls discussed who deserved to have Nick drink their wine, Dakota watched from her perch on the stage with an amused smirk on her face.

A shiver ran down Nick’s spine as he realized that his chances getting through tonight sober were not very high.

Mary sighed and shook her head. “I guess I’m going to have to be the one keeping him decent, aren’t I?” She murmured. It was one of the unenviable tasks she faced as his wife.

“…Or you could not,” Holly offered with a grin. “That would be pretty swell too!”

Mary and Dawn both looked at the mischievous girl and rolled their eyes. Amelia raised her eyebrow questioningly. Clearly she wasn’t a fan of that idea, either.