You wouldn't believe if I told ya

“And that’s… basically what she told me,” Nick finished. He had caught everyone up with what he’d told Vivian last night, and now they were all on the same page. As to what that page entailed, well… Nick felt a lot less confident about that. Everything he’d said… it overwhelmed even him. If he was honest, he didn’t know how he should respond.

But he wanted to get everybody on the same page. That much he knew, at least, he needed to do. So they could all work things out from there.

“That’s crazy…” Gina shook her head. “No wonder you guys were so tense this morning… to think all that stuff happened, that… wow. I don’t know, that’s just… crazy.”

She wasn’t big on complicated words. But the ones she had were impactful.

“I don’t believe it either…” Ella shivered.

“To think so much could happen in one night, while we weren’t looking…” Dawn bit down on her thumbnail and started chewing. It was aggravating that she didn’t know what the right course of action here was.

“She’s not messing around, she really means what she said,” Nick clarified. “She already had me do one task to prove that she meant business, and… I hope she kept up her end of the arrangement, but that’s impossible to know right now.”

“Wait, you’ve already taken up a mission from her?” Dani asked, surprised. “What do you mean by that? Who was it?”

“Vivian, right?” Marley looked over at Vivian. The heiress flinched. “That’s why you were the one to tell us about Nick last night.”

“Yeah, I was wondering about that,” Carly nodded.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin crossed her arms over her chest in a pout. She had been right there, so she could confirm for everybody that it went exactly how Nick explained.

“So what was the test, then?” Dawn asked. “We won’t be able to figure anything out if we don’t hear the specifics.”

“Indeed,” Amelia agreed. Both women turned to Vivian for information.

The fashionista’s stunned expression spoke volumes. “W-well, hold on a sec there!” Vivian held up her hands. “We don’t need to go into the specifics of anything, do we? I mean… the important thing is that we’re all on the same page here, and we’re all going to be working together to sort this mess out, isn’t that right?”

Kim frowned. “Why can’t you tell us, then?” She asked. Whatever good will she’d been building towards Vivian all morning was starting to fray. “If it’s not a big deal…”

“It’s a private matter,” Nick said, coming to Vivian’s defense. “It doesn’t involve anyone here, but… it’s really embarrassing. So… I would appreciate it if we could just move past that part, please?”

“I suppose we don’t need to know about the specifics,” Dani admitted, not wanting to violate her friend’s privacy.

Vivian sighed in relief. But that relief would be short-lived, because Dawn had her own objections to this situation.

“I disagree,” she said adamantly. Her ears twitched on her head and her tail flicked behind her. “I think it’s very important to know the full story here. If we have an understanding on the degree of the task and how consensual it was for both parties, we’ll have more information we can use to come up with a suitable plan.”

Nick winced. He could understand Dawn’s perspective, and if you looked at it a certain way, she WAS being rational. Was he just trying to do too much for Vivian’s sake? Was he losing sight of the big picture to spare her feelings?

“All of it was consensual!” Vivian’s face was bright red. “We’re you all listening to what Nick said? He said he wasn’t going to pressure anybody into doing anything that they don’t want to do!”

“That’s right,” Nick said. “I know that Dakota is important, but my main concern is with all of you and your wellbeing. If I have to do something that you’re not okay with- say, Echo tells me I have to kiss Dani, then I’m not going to do it. Even if that means I won’t be able to check in with Dakota as a ‘reward’ from her, it’s not worth it.”

Dani rolled her eyes. “Dude. It’s fine. It’s just a kiss. It’s really not a big deal.” What, were they five years old? Dani could kiss a boy, even if she’d rather not.

Nick winced. “I… I was just using that as an example,” he mumbled.

Dani looked a little embarrassed herself. “Well… okay, I know that, but… …never mind, let’s just move on.”

Nick couldn’t agree more.

“So let me run down what we know.” Dawn stood up and looked around the table. “Nick, your plan is to keep things going the way you always have been, while also trying to be more proactive at spending time with us girls, in order to keep the audience entertained. So our season doesn’t ‘lose steam’ or whatever Echo’s criteria is, correct?”

“Yay, Daddy!” Sylvia cheered.

Nick gave her a look. He wasn’t sure he wanted to respond positively to that, but Dawn was correct.

“That’s right,” he confirmed with a nod.

Dawn bit her lip. “Okay… then taking that into consideration… if you AREN’T doing what you should be doing- or rather, what she thinks you should be doing- then she’ll just step in and tell you that she wants you to do something for her, is that right?”

Nick nodded again. “Basically. She more or less implied that as long as she wasn’t bored, she wouldn’t have to intervene directly.”

But that could have just been a ploy on her part to manipulate him. Honestly, Nick couldn’t be sure one way or another.

Dawn considered what Nick was saying carefully. “And if you go along with it and do what she asks you to do, then you’ll be rewarded with information about Dakota, or contact with her, or whatever, depending on what Echo feels like you’ve earned? Well… what if you don’t do what she asks? What if it’s something you’re morally opposed to doing? What then?”

That was the part that concerned Dawn the most.

Nick bit his lip. Honestly?

He was worried about that, too.

“…I don’t know,” he admitted, shaking his head. “I really don’t. I wish it wouldn’t come to that, really, I do, but… I just don’t know.”

“I don’t think she’ll do anything,” Mary said. It was the first time she’d spoken since the conversation started. Until now, she’d been content with listening in silence while the others discussed the situation with Echo, but now she felt the need to speak up.

“What do you mean?” Morgana asked timidly. She’d been keeping quiet herself, due to being overwhelmed by the subject, but she couldn’t help but let her curiosity get the better of her.

Mary looked around at the others. “Remember, you guys… Echo is me. …I mean, obviously, she’s not me anymore, but… well…”

“You don’t need to explain yourself, Mary, we get it,” Dani interrupted her. She shook her head. “It’s fine. What were you saying?”

Mary bit her lip. “I think… I think if Echo really is a corrupted version of me, that some part of her might still be a good person. Just because she’s corrupted, that doesn’t mean she’s evil. I don’t trust her… I don’t like her… but… when it comes to this… I don’t think that she would just outright lie,” she said, shaking her head. “Echo… Echo is… trying to manipulate Nick. She’s trying to get him to go along with her ideas, right? If she threatens him and tries to browbeat him into submission… I don’t think it will work. And because I know it won’t work… I don’t think she’d consider it as a possibility either, you know what I mean?”

It was definitely a gamble. Mary was betting a lot on the fact that her brain worked the same way as Echo’s did, presumably, and that Echo would see things through her perspective.

She could hope for that… right?

“Hah!”

A derisive snort erupted from the end of the table. Rose looked up from her meal with a sulky expression on her face.

Nick winced. Rose had been really quiet all morning. Lost in thought. She hadn’t been participating in the conversation at all, and a few times, he had been worried that she hadn’t even been listening to anything they had said.

Evidently, she was.

“Mary… you’re so predictable,” Rose said, standing up.

Mary looked at her and frowned. “And what exactly is that supposed to mean?” She demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.

Rose snorted again. “I thought I made myself pretty clear,” she said. “You’re predictable. Even now, you’re thinking ‘Oh, this woman who has done all these awful things and is holding my husband’s childhood friend prisoner, she can be reasoned with! Maybe she’s not all bad!’ and the only reason you’re thinking that is because she used to be you.”

Kim winced. This was exactly what Rose had been talking to her about last night. She was clearly still haunted by that conversation, which definitely wasn’t a good thing. “Rose…”

“No, I’m not going to just sit here and nod along like a brainless little haremette!” Rose exclaimed. She slapped her hand down on the table. “What, are we all going to go along and listen to Mary? She’s in charge now? Is that how we’re doing this?”

“Nobody’s saying that,” Dawn said. “There’s no ‘in charge’ we’re just hearing her out. Because she would know how her other self thinks better than any of us. Then we’re going to all make a decision together, as a group.”

Rose snorted again. “Oh, does she?”

Nick didn’t like the venomous look she shot Mary’s way. Mary didn’t like it either. She bit her lip softly. “Rose…”

“I think it’s just the opposite,” Rose snapped. “I think that Mary is letting her own perspective about herself cloud her judgment! She thinks she knows how her mind works, and sure, maybe she does, but Echo isn’t Mary anymore! Just because she might think in a similar way, that doesn’t mean she’ll act the same way Mary would! And assuming that’s the case is dangerous! We can’t let what we know about Mary influence our decisions and make us let down our guard!”

“Rose isn’t wrong,” Gina said quickly, coming to the other woman’s defense. “I’m sorry, Mary, but I have to side with her on this one. People can change. I mean, look at me. You remember that challenge where we all had to meet different people and shoot them with those guns? Well, I met my other self, from a reality where things went differently. And I could barely recognize me. Sure, she was still me, but everything was so different it was like I was meeting a twin sister I’d never seen before.”

“I think they’re right,” Sylvia said. She looked somberly at Nick. “Sorry, Daddy, but when it comes to transformations, they can really change a person. And an echo… well… it’s not a good idea to think of them as identical to the person they’re an echo of. Her brain’s been messed with.”

Mary frowned. Hearing so many people tell her the same thing was definitely shaking her confidence. “Maybe… maybe you’re right,” she conceded, and hung her head. “I’m sorry… I probably shouldn’t have said anything…”

“No, that… agh, that’s not what I was trying to do!” Rose groaned. She shook her head. “Mary, it’s not like I’m saying you’re an idiot or anything! I just think we shouldn’t let ourselves get fooled by that woman! She’s NOT you. Trust me… I had a run-in with her this morning, and I know better than anyone that she’s trouble.”

Nick looked at Rose in alarm. “What!?”

“That must have been after I left,” Kim noted. “Echo came to our room for a Sick Day offering… it’s why I’m wearing this thing.”

After hearing what Nick had to say, suddenly Kim’s issues with the butler uniform seemed a lot less serious in hindsight.

“She gave me my bounty sheet,” Rose muttered. She didn’t meet Nick’s gaze. “It gave me… a lot to think about.”

Nick wasn’t sure what to make of the haunted expression on his friend’s face. It made his heart hurt to see her like that. “Rose…”

“Look, just forget it, okay?” Rose sat back down. “We can talk about that stuff later. This… this is way more important.”

Nick agreed, this was important, but… the look on Rose’s face…

There was something that was bothering her. It was obvious. She may have been a good actress, but when it came to her heart, she wore it on her sleeve too often for her to try and conceal it from his eyes now.

And that… it worried him greatly.

I wish I could talk to her about it now, but… this is more important. Nick had to prioritize the issue in front of him right now.

“I think… it’s impossible to say whether or not we can trust Echo right now,” Nick said honestly. “But I know that we can trust each other.”

“Yeah, for sure!” Carly nodded.

Ella bit her lip. “What… what do you mean by that?” She asked quietly.

“I think he’s saying, um, that we should all work together on this,” Morgana guessed. She looked hopefully at Nick. “Right?”

“Basically,” Nick confirmed with a nod. “What I’m thinking is that in our current situation, we should just go about our business and try to make the most of this whole thing. And that means I have to take a way more proactive role with everyone. And at the same time, everyone should also focus on being more proactive about me, too.”

“Already on it,” Carly said, cracking a grin.

“What specifically do you mean by that?” Amelia asked sharply.

Nick glanced at his stepmother and winced.

“…That’s the tricky part,” he admitted. “Because with some of you, well… our relationship, it’s a little… hard to define, by Harem Hotel terms.”

Echo would no doubt be trying to get him to sleep with Amelia. And definitely Sylvia. At least, for now, she seemed content to focus on hooking him up with Vivian, who was one of the only women left in his harem he hadn’t really gotten to the next level with.

Dani shivered. “Oh, shit, I just thought of something… what if Echo decides that you need to be more proactive with me?”

“What!?” Nick hadn’t even thought of that. Even though he’d used Dani as an example earlier, he hadn’t actually been serious about that. “Dani, no way, that’s no going to…”

“Well, it could,” Dani pointed out. “I mean, Sylvia, you tried to-”

“Let’s not talk about that!” Sylvia said quickly. “Moving on!”

Dani nodded slowly. “…Right. Well, Dakota was fine with it, probably because of her own twisted feelings involving you, Nick. But she helped me find a way to fit in the harem without having to, you know, get intimate with you directly. But would Echo feel the same way?”

She looked expectantly at Mary, hoping the pigtailed girl could answer her.

Mary winced.

“I… I don’t think she would?” Mary wished she could be certain. “If she’s a corrupt version of me, though… I can’t say for sure that she wouldn’t…”

That was enough to frighten her. Dani wasn’t sure she liked that answer.

Carly was quick to jump in. “Don’t worry, Dani, if Echo wants you to do anything with him, I’ll take that bullet for you!” She turned to Nick and winked. “I’m doing my part to be more proactive myself, after all!”

Nick appreciated that, he really did.

“The goal here is to not make Echo feel like she needs to step in,” Nick said. “But if she DOES step in and give me a task, well… we’ll figure out what to do when that time comes.”

But hopefully it wouldn’t come to that.

“And the way Nick handled it with me was pretty fine,” Vivian added on. “He explained the situation to me and what he wanted, then let me think about it. That’s probably the best solution for all of us going forward, don’t you guys think?”

Nick nodded. “Exactly. I’m not going to pressure anybody. If you don’t want to do it, then I don’t want to do it. I think we can all agree with that, right?”

Holly raised her hand immediately. “I want to do it,” she chirped, contributing basically nothing to the conversation.

Carly couldn’t help but giggle. “Count me in!”

Marley rolled her eyes in exasperation.

“I hope we can make this all work out,” Mary said. She looked relieved that everyone seemed to be taking the actions of her other self so well. “If we all work together, then maybe… maybe we can keep Echo from doing anything too drastic!”

That was her primary motivation- to keep Echo satisfied so she wouldn’t force her husband to do anything with her friends that they didn’t want to do.

“For sake of argument, though, if we don’t want to do something… you’re not worried Echo might punish us for it?” Morgana asked hesitantly.

“I’m worried about that, too,” Kim agreed. “After putting me in a butler outfit, I can’t trust her.”

“You do look cute, though,” Vivian pointed out. “And very professional, right, Octavia?”

“A time and place, Lady Carrington,” Octavia calmly replied.

Vivian winced. Maybe she was right.

Kim sighed.

“Let’s just take it one step at a time, and if it comes down to it, we can work out what to do together,” Nick said, hoping that would be enough to get everyone on the same page. “Is that alright with you guys?”

Being proactive, that was the idea.

“Okay, I can work with that,” Rose said. She stood up again and walked around the table this time and confronted Nick directly.

Nick was a little surprised to see her facing him down like that. “Being proactive, right?” Rose narrowed her eyes.

“Rose?” Nick asked, not sure what the other woman was doing. “What’s up?”

Rose placed her hands on her hips.

“I’m doing what you said,” she told him, leaning forward. Her eyes were intense in a way that he hadn’t seen from her before. “I’m being proactive.”

She pinched her lips together into a frown. Her ears twitched on top of her head.

“Nick… marry me.”

Mary’s jaw dropped and Holly nearly fell out of her chair.

Yes, that was being very proactive indeed.