IR Day 14 - A struggle

Without Max’s heroics, things go downhill quickly. It’s still kind of fun, but your team can’t match the ferocity and ruthlessness of some of Yellow Team’s girls. After the loss and the handshakes, after you jealously watch all the Yellow Team girls good-gaming each other happily while the cameras linger on your sweaty, sandy bodies.

You drink water with the others as Moxxi excitedly emerges from the casting booth to address everyone.

“So this is exciting,” she says as Tiff angrily guzzles water. “Today’s prize will shake things up. Each winning team receives one free trade with the losing team.”

There’s a short delay as everyone processes what’s been said. Moxxi said the words with some positive energy, but also almost casually, as if to hide the enormity of them.

You drop your bottle. That is beyond huge. This will upset the whole league, and they’re doing this over a volleyball match?

“What the fuck?” you say, but you’re drowned out by the sounds of surprise from everyone else, and the cheering of the fans.

But that’s it. Ana and Angela are insisting that everyone get out of the sun now, so you and your team are herded to the showers. There, your team gathers around you in the locker room, everyone still wearing their pink suits.

“What’s this going to look like?” Rebecca asks worriedly.

“It’s not up to us,” you answer glumly. The captain of the winning team will make the decision. They can get rid of one of their weaker players and poach a strong player from another team. You take deep, worried breaths. You can already see it: you are going to lose Elena and you’ll end up with Lena in return. Lena hasn’t performed well in FUTA. You don’t know why; she seemed good before it became FUTA. Maybe she’s shy.

That’s beside the point. Karin’s going to take Elena and give you Lena. There are only two ways to take advantage of this privilege: to steal a star, or to strategically steal someone who will shore up some weak spot that your team has.

Actually, is Karin smart enough to play this in a practical way? She’s a hell of a soccer player, but she’s also a haughty loudmouth. How smart is she? She didn’t win this volleyball match, although she played well. It was her girls like Sanaa and Mai that handed her this gift.

They’re going to announce the decisions that the captains have made at dinner.

You groan. Not everything was perfect, but your team was starting to gel. Now your morale gets kicked in the nuts and you’re going to lose someone. And whoever you get will have low morale too because she will have just been publicly outed as her team’s weak link.

There will be fistfights over this. This is a huge blow to you and your team. But for FUTA? They got huge amounts of T&A with the volleyball and now they will get huge amounts of drama on top of it. It’s a grand slam for them.