Intermission 5

As the host of Harem Hotel: Island Holiday Season (pause for ethereal applause) there are a great many things that Dakota no longer needed to do.

She didn’t need to eat.

She didn’t need to drink.

And she definitely didn’t need to sleep.

And yet, she still did all those things, because she could. They brought pleasure to an existence that had so little of it.

And when she slept… sometimes she dreamed of days gone by…

“Mistress!” Sylvia burst into Dakota’s office with wide eyes. Her face was as bright as the sun.

Dakota gave her a passing glance, barely showing any consideration at all.

“…What is it?” She asked dismissively. “I have a season to prepare for.”

Sylvia blinked. “…A season? But mistress, isn’t the whole purpose for my existence because your next season is meant to be with Master Nick?”

“That was the goal, yes,” Dakota said calmly. “But the producers expressed doubt over whether or not you would be capable of stepping into the role of host without any prior experience. In spite of my objections, they decided to have me run a few short seasons with you assisting. To get you used to the job.”

Sylvia’s eyes widened in amazement. “…Objections?” She said the word like she couldn’t believe it was real. “Then… mistress… are you saying you have faith in me as your successor?”

Dakota’s golden eye twitched and her lips knit into a tight expression. “…Don’t misunderstand,” she said with more than a little haste. “It is merely dissatisfaction at their estimation of my abilities. After all, if I created you to fulfill your role perfectly, that should be their only consideration. Sentimentality has nothing to do it.”

“Yes, mistress, of course, mistress,” Sylvia nodded immediately, trying to keep the disappointment out of her voice.

“Now, what was it you wanted again?” Dakota frowned. “Speak. Quickly. I’m a very busy woman you know.”

Sylvia glanced at the TV. Her creator didn’t seem busy. She was just watching some old movie.

But she knew better than to say anything.

“Yes, mistress, it’s wonderful news! The Mimic Jelly you found? The one I planted in the garden? It’s started to sprout!” Sylvia exclaimed. “Err, I mean, she’s starting to sprout. She is a she, right?”

“It’s a plant,” Dakota replied bluntly.

“…O-oh…” Sylvia’s smile faltered. “Well, um… but she’s sentient, right? So wouldn’t it be nice, to raise her- I mean, it! …Raise it with a name?”

Dakota blinked.

“…Why would it need a name?” She questioned.

Sylvia sagged a little. “…Everyone needs a name, right mistress? Even me. That’s why you gave me one, right?”

Dakota stared blankly at her. That’s right, she had given her creation a name, hadn’t she? “…Right, right… well, do as you like then,” she said, turning back to her movie. With a tap of her cane she switched it back on, letting Sylvia know the conversation was over.

Sylvia frowned sadly. She had really been excited to share the good news. But it was obvious that her creator didn’t care about the Mimic Jelly one way or another.

So Sylvia would have to!

She slipped out at night and headed for the garden, sitting down next to the patch of dirt. A tiny little sapling the color of snow poked out of the ground right in the center.

“Hey there,” she said, gently running her fingers over the growing bulb. “I’m the one who planted you. That makes me your mommy. Sally said so. Nice to meet you, Mimic Jelly.”

The Mimic Jelly, of course, had no response for her.

Sylvia shifted uncomfortably on her butt. The dirt wasn’t exactly the soft feather bed she’d been provided. “Um… my mommy… she gave me a name. That’s something that mommies are supposed to do, did you know that?”

Her face fell. “But… she never calls me by it… sometimes, I wonder if she even wants me around…”

If Sylvia could cry, she would. But she didn’t. After all, if she cried, that would mean she wasn’t happy. And that wasn’t okay! She had been created to be the perky and upbeat successor to her mistress, she couldn’t be all doom and gloom!

“…How about if I give you a name?” She asked excitedly. “You’re a Mimic Jelly… so what if I call you Mimi? But it’s a secret! You can’t tell anyone, okay?” She held her finger up to her lips and blew a “Sshhhhh!”

The sapling, of course, didn’t respond.

“I’m bored…” Sylvia sighed, pacing around the hotel. There was nothing to do while they waited for the next master and his contestants to arrive. She knocked on the door to her mistress’s chambers to look for something to do.

“What is it?” Dakota glanced up from her screen, frowning. She paused the TV.

“I-I was wondering if there was anything you needed, before the next season starts,” Sylvia asked hopefully. “I already finished taking care of Mi- I mean, the Mimic Jelly for the day, so…”

“Hmm… how about you run a lap around the island?” Dakota suggested.

Sylvia’s jaw dropped. “Wh-what!? Why!?”

“I’ll be making my introductions to the master and his harem shortly,” Dakota informed her. “And your presence would confuse things. So if you just run along for a lap once they get here, that would do nicely.”

“Is… would that help? You’d be happy if I did that?” Sylvia bristled with excitement. She just loved being useful!

“Yes, now get along now.” Dakota shooed her off, getting up off the couch. “I have a show to prepare for…”

While Dakota made her introductions, Sylvia raced around the island. She didn’t like running, but for the sake of her creator, she would even try running over water!

By the time she finished a lap, she was exhausted. The beach was cleared off, as all the contestants and the master had no doubt been taken to the hotel for their initiation and to settle in.

Sighing and panting for air, Sylvia headed for the garden. She felt exhausted, and talking to her little sapling always made her feel better.

“Hey, Mimi…” She grunted, flopping down into the dirt next to the plant. Mimi had grown taller, coming almost up to Sylvia’s waist. The bulb had grown larger as well, nearly the size of her head. “I’m glad you’re growing… I can’t wait until you finally mature. We’re going to have so much fun together!” She cooed, rubbing her hand lovingly over the bulb. “We’ll hold races together, play on the beach, and all sorts of fun stuff… and maybe mom will even play too, won’t that be fun?”

She wasn’t crying. After all, it was going to happen!

“Yeah… we can all have fun together, once you’re grown…” She was so certain of it. If she just kept doing her best, then her creator would realize how great she was, and they’d be a happy family.

“Mistress, is there anything you would like me to do?” Sylvia asked Dakota one day. The host had just finished another season, one she had found terribly boring.

Sylvia felt the same way, honestly.

“Not particularly,” Dakota grunted, not taking her eyes off the movie. This time she hadn’t even bothered to pause it, and she certainly hadn’t invited Sylvia to come watch. “The season is over. Onto the next one, I suppose…”

“R-right,” Sylvia nodded, swallowing. “Right… um… but I was wondering, if maybe… we could play together?”

On the last season, one of the women had been a mother, who’d been afflicted with a fast-progressing pregnancy transformation. She conceived and gave birth to a daughter over the span of a couple weeks, and by the time the season had ended, the little girl had grown into a toddler and the mother had been playing with her.

To Sylvia’s amazement, it almost seemed like Dakota had lightened her treatment of the young mother, once the little girl had been born. But that wasn’t like her mistress! Dakota ruled over the contestants with an iron fist, it was why Sylvia respected her!

But still… seeing the mother play with her child made Sylvia want a little of that, too.

“Play?” Dakota still didn’t take her eyes off the screen.

“Y-yes, it’s okay if you don’t want to!” Sylvia said, trying not to sound too disappointed.

“No… it’s fine.”

Sylvia’s eyes widened. “R-really?”

“Yes, in fact, I have the perfect game,” Dakota said, pausing the TV and holding up a small black box.

Sylvia looked at it curiously. “What is this, mistress?”

“It’s a special surprise box,” Dakota smiled. She held up her cane, and it vanished. “I’ve hidden it somewhere on the island. Why don’t you go see if you can find it?”

“Oh! That sounds like so much fun!” Sylvia squealed. “I can’t wait! I bet I find it super-duper fast!”

She turned and darted out of the room. Dakota watched her go with a disinterested expression on her face. Then she reached down under a pillow on the couch and retrieved the box from where she’d hidden it, and tossed it uselessly onto the floor.

Sylvia trudged back to the garden with a sad sigh on her lips. She’d finally tracked the box down. Dakota had hidden it on her own couch! She’d tore the whole island apart looking for the dumb thing, and wouldn’t you know it?! Dakota had hidden it right there at the start!

She couldn’t help but smile at the deviousness of that decision.

“Hey, Mimi,” she said, sitting down next to the Mimic Jelly. Mimi now towered over her, her bulb growing at a healthy pace. Soon enough, she’d reach full maturity. “I brought some cards for us to play with! Don’t worry, I’ll play your hand, too…”

Sylvia dealt out two hands, one for her and one for the Mimic Jelly, and played as best she could for the both of them.

“Mom’s so great,” she sighed. “She does so much for me… I just wish there was something I could do, to show her how much I love her…”

It was so fun looking for the box Dakota had hid. But Sylvia couldn’t help but think that it would have been even MORE fun if they could have gone looking for it together!

“What’s this?” Dakota raised her eyebrow at the plate of food sitting in front of her on the table in her den. Sylvia waited beside it with an eager expression on her face.

“It… it’s tomato soup, mistress!” Sylvia said, barely able to keep the excitement out of her voice. “You’re always having the faeries make it for you, so I thought that maybe… maybe I can make some? You know, if you wanted to try it… it’s my first time cooking, but I thought…”

Dakota stared at the lumpy red mush in front of her. Every second she didn’t take a bite made Sylvia feel even worse.

“…N-never mind!” She said finally, her face burning with shame. “You don’t have to eat it! It probably doesn’t even taste good, anyway!”

She hurriedly rushed to clear Dakota’s table for her, but the host raised her hand to stop her.

“No… it’s fine. I’ll try it,” she said, though her tone of voice didn’t sound very excited by it. She dipped her spoon in and brought it up to her lips as an amazed Sylvia watched and waited with bated breath.

She was so excited that she forgot her decorum, and spoke without being spoken to.

“Wh-what do you think!?” She asked, her voice brimming with hope. “Do you like it?!”

Dakota was silent for a long time. She stared into the bowl of red before her, and then slowly raised her head. For once, her golden eyes met Sylvia’s.

“It’s passable,” she coldly replied, pushing the bowl away.

That was praise that Sylvia found far greater than she deserved.

Passable! She’d actually made something passable!

Sylvia was humming as she walked to the garden, swinging her watering can with such joy she nearly spilled it.

“Dinner time, Mimi!” She sang, spreading the water over what little dirt remained in the patch. The Mimic Jelly grew every day she saw her now. She had reached full maturity, and her bulb shimmered with white slime in the setting sun. “You’ll never guess what happened! So you know how I’m always giving you water every day? Well, I finally made something for mom, too! And she actually liked it! I was so scared, but she said it was ‘passable’, can you believe that?! She never praises anything I do!”

Sylvia realized that she couldn’t see clearly.

“H-huh?” She reached up to her face, and wiped her cheeks. They were stained with tears. Sylvia was watering the plant with more than just the can at this point.

“I-I see… um… wow…” Sylvia smiled, unable to believe she was actually crying. But she wasn’t even sad! So why were there tears in her eyes?

“A-anyway,” she stammered, setting down the watering can and pulling out a book, “I think it’s time we get to tonight’s story! You need one before you go to bed, right? This is called ‘Dick and Jane’. I think you’ll like it. Ahem… ‘See Dick fuck. Fuck, Dick, fuck! See Jane cum. Cum, Jane, cum!’”

As Sylvia read a very, very inappropriate story to the matured Mimic Jelly, she had no way of knowing that someone was watching her from the shadows.

“What are you doing?”

Sylvia nearly jumped out of her seat in shock. She didn’t expect her creator to actually come into the tiny little cavern under the hotel she’d been living in.

“M-mistress!” She squeaked. “It, um… it’s not what you think! Really! It’s for my job! You know, back on earth? As Nick’s therapist?”

Dakota raised her eyebrow. “A phone? You don’t need that.”

“Um… but every human needs one…”

“You’re not human,” Dakota bluntly pointed out.

That didn’t stop Sylvia, though.

“It’s a game I can play on my phone!” She gushed, excited to show Dakota just what she could do. “It’s called ‘Among Us’ isn’t it so much fun?! You’re on a space station, right, and you get to pretend to be a crewmate and sneak around while other crewmates are repairing stuff, and you can kill them, and then everyone says you’re ‘sus’ and you get kicked out of the airlock. That’s what always happens to me.”

“…I see. Fascinating. Now then, get to bed,” Dakota shooed her. “It’s an important day tomorrow.” She held up her cane and clenched it tightly. “I’m going to be transferring my power over to you.”

Sylvia stared at the cane with wide eyes and bobbed her head up and down. She couldn’t jump into her bed fast enough.

Dakota turned to leave, when Sylvia softly called out to her.

“Mistress?”

Dakota wasn’t sure why she stopped in the doorway, but she did. She sighed and turned to look back at her creation. “What is it now? Go to sleep.”

Sylvia’s lip quivered. She looked up at Dakota with hopeful eyes.

“I was hoping… could you read me a story?” She asked quietly. “Please?”

Dakota blinked. “…A story?”

“Please,” Sylvia begged. “It’ll help me get to sleep better. I always read stories to Mim- the Mimic Jelly…”

Dakota stared at her with cold, golden eyes. Then she sighed in exasperation.

“…Fine.”

Sylvia stared in amazement. She never thought her mother would agree! And she still couldn’t believe even now, not even when Dakota used her power to summon a book and a chair sat down beside her bed.

Dakota flipped the book open and began to read as Sylvia nestled down and got ready to go to sleep.

“Congratulations! Today is your day. You’re off to Great Places! You’re off and away! You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide…”

“…On and on you will hike, and I know you’ll hike far, and face up to your problems, whatever they are.” Dakota moved to turn the page when noticed out of the corner of her eye that Sylvia was snoring, having fallen fast asleep.

With no more need to finish the story, Dakota snapped the book closed and rose to her feet, and turned to leave.

She couldn’t say next what compelled her to stop. Maybe it was the budding anxiety of losing all of her power and returning to the grave, once she bestowed her cane to someone else. Or the anxiety of meeting Nick again, after all this time… and the fear of what he would think of her, if he knew what she’d done.

But whatever the reason, she stood there, looking down at the slumbering construct in front of her, the vessel to ensure her success, and her succession.

Sylvia had a big smile on her face, brighter than any Dakota had ever seen on her before (not that she ever cared to look) and her shut eyes were wet, like she’d been crying.

How odd.

Oddest of all, however, was the strange compulsion in Dakota’s chest that made her lean down and plant a kiss on her creation’s forehead.

“Strange…” She murmured, raising her head. She frowned in confusion, unable to figure out why she’d done that.

But she didn’t spare that thought more than a moment, turned, and walked out the door.