The Second Challenge

Lindsey had slept badly. She was supposed to have spent the night at Jake’s place, but that rendezvous had been canceled by the sudden change in schedule. And she still had no idea what her challenge entry would look like.

“Hey you,” Lacy greeted as she approached the others.

They’d gathered together on the long pier that jutted out from the island into the sea, just where they’d met the last time they stood ready to begin a challenge.

“I was worried you weren’t gonna make it again.”

“I’m not very punctual,” Lindsey admitted. “Is everyone else here already?”

“Yes,” Leah’s annoyed voice rained down from an elevated platform. “So we can finally get going.”

For once, she wasn’t alone. Jake was there, looking as awkward as he always did when he had to appear with the whole harem. They were standing in a pavilion, at the center of which sat what looked like a gigantic silver egg, large enough to fit a person.

“This is a Dream Caster,” Leah stated. “If I were to compare it to something in your world, I would call it an impossibly advanced version of virtual reality. Conceptually it’s the same, but fully immersive. Users experience all senses, their perception can be altered such that they don’t know they’re in a simulation, and both their previous knowledge and their understanding of what is or isn’t normal can change to fit the scenario chosen.”

“So, it’s the Matrix, basically.” AJ said.

Leah cocked her head, confused.

“What’s the Matrix?”

“Nevermind,” AJ said, pointing at something sitting next to her. “What’s that thing”

Leah tapped a helmet beside her.

“The other major difference is that the scenarios available are limited only by the imagination of the casters,” Leah said. “A caster wears these helmets and oversees. They set the rules, the parameters, and can then step into the scenarios themselves to help guide them along.”

“So those things like, read our minds or whatever?” Lindsey asked.

“It sounds like the tech on those guns we used,” Loretta said. “One touch and it let us turn thoughts into reality.”

“That’s precisely right,” Leah said. “The casters are built on the same technology the guns were.”

Farra whistled.

“I can see serious social downsides in any society with machines that allow its users to disappear into fantasy worlds of their own creation,” She said. “How do you stop people from becoming obsessed? From living in them?”

“Very astute,” Leah mused. “That is exactly the problem we ran into. The use of the machines had to be seriously curtailed for that reason. But there are some other limitations as well.”

Farra motioned for her to continue.

“First, the casters can’t be programmed by the person primarily experiencing the scenario,” Leah explained. “Someone has to be in control, lest you risk a feedback loop that either breaks the scenario down or causes the user to become trapped in it.”

She gave them a wolfish smile.

“And the second is that nobody can really control the scenarios at all,” She said. “That’s a simple, human element. One can set all the parameters and rules, but once a dream gets going, it’s subject to change based on the action of its participants.”

“You wanna run that by me again?” Julie asked.

Hannah answered.

“We can wind up the toys, but once they start moving, they go wherever they want to,” She said. “Is that about the gist of it?”

“Well put,” Leah agreed.

“Okay, but what does this mean for me?” Jake asked. “Because I’m liking the sound of this less and less all the time.”

“I don’t blame you,” Leah said. “Your perception of reality will be at the mercy of all of these girls.”

Jake looked uncomfortable, but didn’t say anything. Lindsey wondered if that was just his nature, or if he knew how fruitless a protest would be.

“So, let’s talk practical,” AJ cut in. “How do we use these things for the contest?”

Leah nodded.

“You will program a dream for Jake. The duration will be no more than 4 hours of lived experience,” She said. “Now, to be very clear, that does not mean that you’re limited to an 4 hour window of time. If you want to split your dream up into multiple ‘scenes’, you can do that. You’ll be in control of any time skips or lapses that occur.”

“Why the limit?” Rachel asked.

“Probably so I don’t lose my mind,” Jake said. “I mean, like…can you imagine living for months and months like that?”

“Yes, although there is the small matter of actual passage of time,” Leah said. “As it is, we’ll barely get everything in before the storm hits. Even without that threat, we still have a show to run.”

“Alright. What other rules do we have to follow?” Hannah asked.

“You must portray yourself in the dream and interact with Jake,” Leah said. “You can project different versions of yourself, or any of your contestants into the dream, but you cannot override the changes made throughout the show to either yourself or your fellow contestants.”

“Wait,” Lacy said. “So if I portrayed Mom in my dream…”

“You’d have to do it as twins. And at her current age. Yes.”

Megan’s hand shot up.

“Yes, Megan?” Leah said, pointing to her.

“So we have to be in the dreams ourselves. And we can make other contestants appear,” She said. “But can we...alter the way they perceive us?”

“So long as they can perceive the effects of your changes? Yes,” Leah agreed.

Megan raised her hand again.

“Go on.”

“Uhm. well…so I know Jake experiences everything in the dream as though it’s happening,” She said. “But do we as well?”

“Good question,” Leah said. “Yes. You do.”

Megan raised her hand.

“What?” Leah asked, impatiently.

“So Jake, or anyone else in the dream…they don’t need to know us? Even if we know them?”

“That’s right,” Leah said.

“How does the scoring work?” Sabrina asked, forcing Megan’s hand down before she could raise it again.

“Finally,” Leah said. “At the end of each dream, the contestants will have a short interview where they’ll answer questions about why they chose the dreams they did. Both Jake and the audience will get to watch it, and both will rate the dreams between 1 and 5, with both his score and the audience’s being weighted equally.”

She looked out across the crowd.

“Anyone else have any questions?”

When nobody spoke up, Leah pointed to the same stilted huts over the water where they’d left for their last challenge.

“You’ll find your own pods in those,” She said. “I’ll release you once Jake has been safely tucked into his machine.”

Leah clapped her hands.

“But first, we have to talk about our popularity poll.”

Lindsey reached out and grabbed Lacy’s hand. The bigger girl looked down at her and smiled.

“I’m alright. Whatever the result is,” She whispered coolly.

Lindsey studied her.

“I think you mean it.”

“I do. Whatever happens, I did my best,” Lacy said, squeezing her hand. “And thank you for everything…friend.”

Lindsey’s heart melted a little at that. She was too young to have done much that mattered, but this felt like it had.

“We start, as always, at the bottom,” Lacy said. “Our two worst girls. While all of you scored reasonably well, we have two that will be losing points.”

Lindsey turned to the group of older women that included Loretta, Julie and the Farras; not that they looked like the “older” women.

“Julie,” Leah said. “While the audience has found your story compelling, the chatter is that you’ve not done enough to establish yourself. You are the worst girl, which comes with a loss of 5 points.”

To her credit, Julie only nodded, her pretty young face remaining still and resolute.

“Do you have anything to add?” Leah said.

“Not really,” Julie said. “I protected the people I need to. Whatever happens, happens.”

She shrugged.

“It took some time, but I finally came around to accept my second chance,” She said. “I guess the voters will decide if I get to actually take it or not.”

Leah nodded.

“This will result in a loss of 5 victory points. Which leaves you at negative one,” She said. “You’re in elimination territory.”

“Hey, you’re close,” Farra said, reaching out to put a hand on her shoulder. “One point’s nothing. My girl came back from ten below.”

Julie nodded. Lindsey had to give the woman credit; she looked serine. Despite her teenage body, she held her ground with a grown woman’s confidence.

Leah turned to the place where Hannah and Emily were standing next.

“Hannah, you only narrowly came in next to last,” She said bluntly. “The audience seems to feel that you mistreated Emily, and is angry with both of you for cuckolding the master.”

“Oh, what the fuck?” Jake cut in. “Leah, I’ve cheated. Twice! How the hell are you gonna punish them for doing the thing we’re supposed to be doing here.”

Leah studied him, an eyebrow raised.

“Well, look at that,” She mused. “We’ve finally found something in this game you’re passionate about. It’s about bloody time.”

Jake’s face darkened.

“Now goddamnit, that is unfair!” He said, voice rising. “I’ve always cared about these women. Especially those two!”

“Jake…” Hannah said, though whether her tone was admiring or admonishing, Lindsey couldn’t quite say.

“Hey man,” AJ said a little more softly. “Don’t take it out on Leah. She didn’t get a vote on this.”

That seemed to calm Jake down a bit.

“She’s right. I’m just the messenger,” Leah said stiffly. “If you think there’s a double standard, take it up with the audience.”

She stared at the two women down with dark, unreadable eyes.

“Besides...they're not as innocent as you might believe,” She added. “Any any rate, this puts Hannah in a much more tenuous position. You’re two below.”

“I know what the score is,” Hannah said. “And I know why it is.”

“And what do you have to say about it?” Leah challenged.

Lindsey knew it was a bit she had to play as hostess, but that didn’t make her want to slap the woman any less.

Hannah’s response was a good deal less cool than Julie’s

“That you fucking people kidnapped and rooted around in our brains, and now you’re penalizing us for acting on the urges that you voted for us to have,” She said. “But whatever. I’m not going to bemoan the past. All we can do is move forward and figure it out from here.”

Jake was staring at her with an expression that lived somewhere between admiration and sympathy.

“Come see me after all this,” He said. “It’s gonna be okay.”

She gave him a tired smile.

“I’m going to see you before that,” She said. “Don’t you worry.”

“Moving along then,” Leah said. “I suppose I should address the elephant in the room.”

She pointed at Lacy. Lindsey continued holding her hand, expecting her to tense, but she didn’t.

“Yup,” Lacy said. “Lay it on me. Am I a dead woman?”

Leah let the verdict hang in the air.

“For those not in the know, I gave Ryan and ultimatum when she came to me. She could only survive if she made some sort of physical progress with Jake, and if she scored in the middle of the pack of the popularity poll.”

Jake’s head snapped toward Lacy, as did Farra’s. The former looked concerned, the latter wore a guarded, though impressed expression.

“When we…” Jake started. “That wasn’t just…because you had to, was it?”

Lacy’s green eyes met Jake’s blue ones.

“You know me better than that,” was all she said.

An awkward silence fell over them for a moment, before Leah cut in.

“Well, darling, you finished at #4,” She said. “Which is not only better than middle of the pack, but earns you two victory points for being the highest climber. Congratulations!”

Lacy’s eyes went wide, and Lindsey bounced on her toes.

“Yay!” She shouted, turning to hug Lacy. “You did it!”

Lacy gave her a tentative hug back, but her gaze was still on Jake, and Jake’s still on her.

“Of course a Highest Climber award also means a Farthest Fall,” Leah said. “Lindsey, you actually had the most worst girl votes of any the contestants. It was enough to drop you all the way from #2 to #9.”

Lindsey felt her heart sink. The most worst girl votes? It was a tough slap to her strategy of being herself and hoping for the best.

“That’s some fucking shit,” Lacy said, her smile gone in a moment. “She’s a fucking stranger here and she didn’t even get her night with Jake?”

“Tell me about it,” Leah said dryly. “I’m in the exact same boat, and so is Loretta. None of whom had prior relationships with anyone.”

Lindsey frowned. That Leah was in the same position she was didn’t make her feel any better about it. But something niggled at her.

“But if I got the most worst girl votes, how am I not one of the worst girls?”

“Because you got almost as many best girl ones,” Leah said. “Which, by the by, means you also win Most Divisive. That’s two victory points.”

Lindsey trilled.

“That’s like a 40 degree day,” She said.

Leah cocked her head.

“Pardon?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Lindsey said with a sigh, though she noted the approving look on Jake’s face.

Leah shrugged and continued.

“Anyway, that brings us to our three top performers,” She said. “Starting with our previous most divisive.”

Megan beamed, turning to Sabrina.

“Yay!” She said, clapping.

Sabrina looked surprised.

“Me?”

“Yes. Apparently your newfound outlook made quite the impression,” Leah said. “It seems our audience values earnestness very highly. That must be why AJ was voted into the #2 spot.”

AJ grinned, and whistled a few bars of Frank Sinatra. Lindsey didn’t miss the approving look that Leah gave her.

“And that leads us to the leader of the polls,” Leah said. “And who absolutely ran away with it.

She snapped her fingers and pointed at Megan. The girl looked surprised.

“Uhm…me?” She asked.

“You,” Leah agreed. “And since you also finished in the round one challenge and third in the first popularity poll, you have a commanding lead at the moment.”

Jake burst out laughing.

“What?” Megan asked him, looking a little offended.

Jake only laughed harder. He leaned on his pod, trying to regain his composure.

“I’m sorry,” He gasped. “It’s just…the two most popular members of my ‘harem’ are the ones who aren’t going to sex with me. Face it, Leah; that’s pretty goddamn funny.”

AJ barked out a laugh, and even Megan smiled.

Leah only rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Whatever,” She said. “You should know, you’re not getting out of this for free either.”

“Oh?” He asked, still grinning. “What now?”

Leah allowed herself a grin.

“Since you didn’t choose a Master’s perk, or even, for that matter, bothered to look at the options, we were **** to let the audience decide on it.”

That wiped the smile off his face.

“Oh, come on, Leah…” He said. “I forgot! There was a lot going on.”

“You didn’t forget,” Hannah said quietly. “You were stalling.”

Jake still heard, and shot her an exasperated look.

“Why are you so damnably good at that?”

“Eight years of practice,” She said with a smile.

“So what was it?” Jake asked with a frown. “What did you guys do to me?”

“Active Management won in a landslide,” Leah said. “Frankly I’m a bit disappointed. I’d hoped for After Hours Trading.”

Jake looked exasperated.

“Pretend for a moment that I have no idea what any of those choices mean,” Jake said. “You wanna break down what’s happening here?”

Leah grinned.

“It means,” she explained. “That once per day, when you issue a command to one of us, we have to follow it.”

Jake relaxed.

“Doesn’t sound so bad,” he said. “It’s a power. I won’t **** it.”

Leah raised an eyebrow.

“Won’t you now?” She asked. “Because it triggers when you tell us to do _anything_.”

She shrugged.

“I suspect you trigger it on accident far more than you do on purpose.”

“Leah, is that all?” Hannah interrupted. “I think I speak for all of us when I say we’re ready to get on with it.”

“Yes,” Leah agreed, forming a pistol with thumb and forefinger.

When she pantomimed pulling the trigger, they all jumped when the sound of a gunshot rang out. Her voice rose.

“Challenge #2 begins!”