A Roll of the Dice (A,F)

“It’s a shame that we need to abandon this place, I thought it had potential,” Felicia said.

“That’s why I brought us out here,” Ava agreed. “But we don’t know if she’ll remember anything that happened in the dining hall, right? She was looking at my map pretty closely. If she remembers any of the “you’re such a good artist” stuff once she’s in “I’m going to rip your throat out and beat you with it” mode, then we need to make sure we’re nowhere near any of the spots I’d planned around.”

The two were exiting the tunnel Ava and Dick had explored together on her date. They’d used the morning to get to the mountain, hoping to use the small impediments in the path to slow her down if she found the place. But they’d never meant for those to buy them more than a few minutes in the worst case scenario. Neither of them actually expected the puzzle or the wall to slow her down all afternoon.

So after Ata had vanished during lunch, they’d decided to try sneaking back down to the athletic complex and try to recreate the trap they’d used earlier.

“It’s going to take forever to make it back.” Felicia complained.

“It’s only a few miles.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have paths designed to make me an anime character.” The blonde teased. “You got supernatural strength and stamina, while I got these two.” She gestured down to her chest.

“I can always pick the three of you up if you need.” Ava commented off handedly.

Felicia squinted up at her as they came out of the cave. That’d been a joke, right? It’d sounded like a joke, but she’d said it so casually. Plus, it was well.. Ava. She gets uncomfortable when I talk like that. Did she not understand what I was saying? She just looked at her best friend for a few minutes as they began their trek back. Ava didn’t say anything herself to confirm it’d been a joke, so they walked in silence for several minutes.

Eventually Felicia couldn’t stand the silence much longer. “So when we win this, what are you going to submit for the audience to decide between it and mine?”

“So you know that stereotype about Bard players treating G&G like a dating sim, like we had to get Jeremy to stop doing?” Ava asked. Seeing Felicia nod, she continued. “Those types of players tend to go after monsters or things that couldn’t possibly be into them.”

“I remember one time Jeremy tried to hook up with a chair. And that was before he found out it was a mimic. Out of all the old members of our group, he’s the one I miss the least.” Felicia paused. “What’s this got to do with your idea?”

“I want to give him something I’ve been calling Roll to Seduce. If he puts in enough effort, then even someone who wouldn’t normally be into him could think he was attractive enough to consider.”

The idea made sense to Felicia, but how it’d been explained… “You’re not comparing yourself to a monster, right? Being on the ace spectrum doesn’t make you any less human. I hope you know that. You don’t need to be fixed.”

“I…I know I don’t need to be fixed. But I need something to help keep up, if that makes sense. G&G isn’t supposed to be a dating sim, but this whole show is pretty close to one. I’ve only had interest in one guy ever, and that was before I even met you. I’ve had two years to get to know Dick, and I’ve felt nothing for him. What if I never do? Will I be allowed to stay on the show with everyone if I never do anything more provocative than my masturbation session with Stella?”

“Your what?” Felicia asked.

“What’s that in the distance?” Ava asked as she shielded her eyes from the sun and looked south.

Felicia wasn’t going to be distracted that easily. “Ava, don’t breeze past that! What happened?”

“No, really. Look.”

Felicia looked to where Ava was pointing. A small shape was getting closer. Felicia thought she could make out the signature white and gold gleam of Ata’s clothing. “How did she get here this fast?” The more competitive of the two groaned.

“I don't know, but we need to run.”

“About what you said earlier, you’re still good carrying me?”

Ava grabbed her and ran, throwing Felicia over her shoulders into a fireman’s carry. She started running back towards the tunnel, while Felicia had a view of Ata catching up to them.

“She’s gaining on us.” Felicia warned.

“I’m sure.”

“Is the mist getting to you? I can go on my own if you need.” Felicia offered.

The mist? It took Ava a moment to remember what she was talking about. “Has that already started?”

“It started hours ago, I’ve felt it with every step I’ve taken. That’s half of why I wanted to be carried.”

“Huh.” Ava wasn’t sure what more to say to that as she made her way back to the tunnel. She wasn't sure what she’d expected from the mist. She dropped it down her priority list as she tried to think about what to do in the present moment.

Ata was clearly gunning for them. She’d run after the two of them when there were three other people that were likely closer. If they were lucky, the puzzle or something else in the cave would slow her down so they could take one of the boats out and hide somewhere else. If not…hopefully they wouldn’t need to think about that.

Ava made her way to the tunnel. She could feel Felicia shifting in the hold, sorting through the backpack. Hopefully she was working on a short term plan. “If we make it out of here, should we try to hide up some of the trees along the plains on the way here? They’re not huge, but they’re far enough away from the main path that she may not think to check them.”

“Maybe.” Felicia was distracted as she answered. “Let me know if you see any good stalagmites as we’re doing down.”

“Stalagmites?”

“They’re the ones that-”

“I know.” Ava gently interrupted. “Why are we looking for them?”

Felicia dangled the rope she’d taken out of her backpack. It now had two loops tied in it, one at either end. “I’m hoping this might slow her down.”

“Alright, I’ll keep an eye out.” Ava slowed down as the path started to slope. Spotting a set of stalagmites of similar size, she set Felicia down so they could each tighten a loop around the rocks. Afterwards Felicia took out a purple bottle out of her pack and undid the cap, slathering it all over the ground.

“What’s that?” Ava asked.

“Lube.”

“Like sex lube?”

“Yeah.”

“Why are you dumping it out? Why did you even bring it?”

Felicia explained as she finished spreading it out. “If she steps over instead of tripping, then she’ll have at least one shoe that is sticky. Whether or not she takes it off after that, she should be a little slower. Now let’s go.”

They finished their descent to the first part of the tunnel. They saw the first mural in the story Ava and Dick had seen and Ava started to explain the story, but after she’d said the names Hades and Persephone Felicia just nodded, saying that she was already familiar with the story.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’s one of the most popular Greek myths. I’m surprised Dick didn’t know. I read a bunch of Greek, Norse, and Egyptian myths when I started living on my own to spite my parents and their anti-paganism obsession.”

“Everything I know about this stuff is from God of Battle or from Wonders flavor text, and I’ve been told Battle may not be fully accurate.”

Felicia shook her head. “They’re all just evil caricatures of the originals in those games.”

They heard loud swearing from behind them.

“Hopefully that can buy us a few more minutes.” Felicia said quietly. She and Ava opened the door using the colored ball puzzle, then they reset it with a switch they’d found when they were surveying the place this morning and kept moving.

“Why didn’t you tell me it wasn’t accurate years ago?” Ava asked.

Felicia wasn’t sure she had a good answer. “I never really thought it mattered. To be honest, I’m not sure I realized that you didn’t know it was wrong. If you’d asked before I think I would’ve-” She paused. “What’s that sound?”

“Shit.” Ava looked behind them and nearly dragged Felicia down the path. When the blonde looked over her shoulder she saw that the door locked by the puzzle was already open, solved on its first try. Ata was advancing toward them again, barreling down on them despite being barefoot.

Felicia was light enough even after her growth to not activate Roid Rage, so Ava tossed her up. She was about to pull the lever to let down the rope, but she realized that Ava would probably be caught before she made it up. And if she isn’t, what stops Ata from following her up? Felicia still hit the lever, but started throwing things down to try slowing down the pursuit. First the spoon, then the fork afterwards. She threw down the empty bottle of lube, only buying as much time with any of them as it took to throw down the item. But she noticed something strange as she was trying to make time for Ava to climb up.

She’s slowing down not just to dodge everything, but collect it. That must’ve been why I had time to get away back at the jungle gym, the dice bounced everywhere. Felicia found the dice bag again that Ava had given her. She’d already used the six sided dice earlier, but she tossed down the eight sided dice and bought time for her best friend to join her.

“Thanks.” Ava said after she finished climbing up. “She’s still on our tail though, we needed more space to lose her.”

“We’ll find a way.” Felicia promised, pretending she was more confident than she felt. “She’s got her hands on the rope, we can’t pull it back up. We’ll have to just keep moving.”

Ava felt herself reassured by her best friend’s bravado. Since she’d been here at least one more time, she took the lead and began taking them towards the river back. She fished through her pockets for two more coins like Genet had used to summon the boat. She’ll have to go the long way. We made it.

“Stop.” Ata ordered from behind them.

Both contestants turned. Ata was staring at them both. As they looked back at her, they saw how she’d been worn down so far in ways that her chipper demeanor had hidden during her brief appearance at lunch. Her shoes were missing, and she had a pinprick hole in her dress near her torso. The steadfast and determined expression of a shōnen protagonist she’d worn as she’d challenged the athlete to the duel had darkened to one of frustration.

“Which one of you put all that on the ground?” She asked.

“I did.” Both Ava and Felicia answered at the same time. Ava looked to Felicia, who’d turned to her confused. But after living together for so long, Ava was able to communicate without a word.

“Really. Which one of you was it?” Ata demanded to know, as she took another step towards them.

“I did.” They said in unison again.

“Are you two really trying to pull a Spartacus right now? The power of friendship can’t save you.”

“You’d be surprised.” Ava mused out loud. “In the campaign I run, I’ve seen my players find solutions to problems I’ve never thought were possible when they were working together.”

Ata scoffed. “You’re talking about your game? In real life, friendship isn’t magic.”

“I’ve found that it can be pretty stunning.” Ava signaled with a small tilt of her head, and Felicia whipped out a fistful of the ten sided dice. The blonde took the coin that her best friend offered during the distraction.

“How do all of you keep doing that?” Ata growled. “Genet promised she wouldn’t tell anyone. You’ve pulled that with your dice four times now. Aubrey did it, and your trick with that gel cost me my shoes to clean it up.”

“Why did you need to clean it?” Ava blurted out.

Ata narrowed her eyes. “So you don’t know.”

“What’re we supposed to know?” Ava was confused.

Felicia had a guess. “I think she’s trying to hide some sort of compulsion. It’s cleaning related. She needed to pick up everything that’s hit the ground, apparently when she saw our mess at the entrance she needed to fix that too. I don’t know if it’s part of her duties as shopkeeper or… some other sort of transformation.”

”Shut up!” The shopkeeper hissed.

“Shutting up.” Felicia agreed to hold her tongue to avoid angering the one that could take her out of the challenge any further.

“You mean the sort of TFs that we get?” Ava asked, not catching the crux of the issue fast enough. “Were you on a season before us?”

Ata swiped out, her move to lunge afterwards interrupted by a rain of twelve sided dice for her to collect.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you.” Ava apologized. “My mouth tends to move before I think. Ask anyone, they’ll say the same.” If we can calm her down, one of us could distract her enough for the other to call the boat?

“Is that so?” The shopkeeper pursed her lips.

“Yes. I've upset Stella way too often over the years. Felicia's had to interrupt me plenty of times.”

“Then maybe this’ll teach you to think before you speak.” The shopkeeper reached out in a flash, acting before either of the contestants could react.

Felicia sighed, then used the motion Ava had shown her to summon the boat. She let herself float down the river, taking the trip to figure out anywhere that could’ve gone differently. Maybe if we hadn’t tried to leave, she might’ve taken longer to get to us. Once we saw her, we were barely able to buy time for the next idea. It was all just improv, but maybe if we’d kept to our original plan we could’ve had a chance. As much as she wanted to win as always, she recognized that her best friend had a more important reason that needed to be addressed.

“Hey, Genet?” She called out into the air. “I don’t know if you can hear me, but would you be able to help her next round? I still don’t think she needs to fix herself, but she’s finally started to think about this sort of thing. I’d respected her discomfort when she moved in with me back when she was **** out of high school, but I might need some help easing her into the subject. I’ll talk to her about what she needs to know, but it’s a bit out of my wheelhouse.” I couldn't get Dick to realize for a year after all.

Felicia waited. She knew Genet wouldn’t show up to respond in person. She’d hoped a text message would come in, like other times when they’d needed information from her like during she and Dick’s dinner together. But none came. “I guess you’re trying to avoid interfering, right?”

The rest of the boat ride proceeded in silence, the sort of quiet that Felicia hated. The little boat slowed as she reached the dock, allowing her to easily step off back onto land. I need to come up with a new plan before she comes back. She looked both to the left where the plaza and most of the island was waiting in the distance, and to the right where the staircase up the mountain was a moment’s walk away. I need a new partner.