The Scabbard

While Richard and the others were split off into their own pairs for the day, the other half of the harem was gathered at the trident cottage at the edges of the bed. Four decks and their mats were spread out on the bed. Ava had bought everyone the mats back last christmas.

She sat in the corner by the pillows and the giant fish tank, wearing an old shirt and some yoga pants. She had the same deck out as a couple of days ago when she’d been taken. She owned a dozen decks so far, but always defaulted to the Jörmungandr. He was a behemoth, a Fish Titan that was able to lock everyone out at once. He cost nine prayers from two of the five schools, but she’d tinkered with the deck until she could get him out by turn three or four. But that didn’t matter, because Felicia had locked her out again. Her Titan and the rest of her army was just sitting on her crab mat, paralyzed.

Felicia was sitting at the corner on the opposite side of the bed, near the television. She was back in her scrubs, and had complained earlier that they were the only things left in her closet that still fit her, and that was only when she tied up the cord to prevent it from riding up. She’d calmed down quite a bit since coming over though, and now seemed satisfied to just keep slowing things down until she could find her Hero’s Journey card to win. If Richard had been here, they would have busted through her walls and commandment protections before things got this bad. He’d never shied away from burning away his own health to take her out, and Ava could often clean up after that unless both of the other girls were ready to fight her together.

Over at the other set of pillows, Stella was running her Idunn deck and ignoring most of the rules Felicia had cast. They’d tried to experiment with both ways to help resist Felicia’s control and to skirt the rules of the transformation, and so they’d decided to roll up the sleeves of her t-shirt up to her shoulders to see if it would help her focus. It seemed to be working so far, and it looked like this game would be a race between Stella’s life gain and Felicia’s card draw.

It might be Luna who ended up deciding that race. She was using her Prometheus deck, which she often used when she wasn’t feeling super competitive. It had a fantastic record of letting her slide into second, although either Ava and Richard would knock her down or Felicia would pull the rug out from under her before she could actually win. That was kind of the weakness of social strategies, they kind of relied on having someone that was in a position to work with you. That was alright today, as she seemed to be concentrating more on the company than the match.

“So that’s why I kind of reacted badly all of a sudden last game. Again, I’m sorry that happened.” Luna apologized as she explained to Ava and Stella how her transformation worked.

“You didn’t need to apologize the first three times. It’s not your fault that Richard can barely keep it in his pants.” Felicia reassured her. “But are you going to finish your turn?”

“Yeah, just trying to figure out where to put my gift this turn. What’s locking down our attackers again?”

Ava pointed out Felicia’s general card, Nobody, Escaping the Cave. The art showed a cyclops swinging at a shadow. “She’s running Nobody again. If you buff him enough with the Brother’s blessing, he won’t be able to stop us from attacking”

“That’s true, but Jörmungandr will hit you too once it’s allowed to swing at me.” Felicia said, trying to keep stalling.

“That’s true." Luna said, wary of both threats." I’ll give Prometheus the Brother’s blessing this turn to put a strength counter on him and… Stella can have the Last blessing. I’ll end my turn there”

Stella started her turn and drew an extra card from Luna’s choice. “I’ll create 8 food tokens and gain twenty-four life. I’ll spend my prayers to summon two more treefolk for the next turn. Pass.”

Ava started to take her turn, but Stella kept talking. “Should we try not to do anything to excite him? I don’t want to make things harder for you.”

“No, I can handle myself. You guys can just do what you want. If that means getting with Dick, then have fun.” Luna said.

“I’ll make sure that we stop Genet from completing her win con. We’ll leave our way.” Felicia said, radiating bravado.

“So you’re not interested in doing anything with him?” Stella asked.

“Never” Felicia lied. “He’s lucky if we’re still friends by the time we leave. I’ll fucking stab him if he even tries touching me” Ava rolled her eyes as she heard that. Despite being responsible for Richard's health, Felicia threatened him like once a month. “Why, are you one of the two that Genet said loves him?”

Stella blushed. “I don’t think so. He’s sweet, but we don’t really know each other well except for when we all meet together. I’d like to give him a chance though.”

“Then I guess everyone Genet was talking about must be in the other half. Do we think there might be overlap between the two categories? Aubrey’s obviously one of two lovers, but I have a hard time seeing her offer to share him.” Felicia stated.

Luna nodded. “After how many times he almost dropped the group to calm her down, I think it’s guaranteed that Genet didn’t count her for that. I’m pretty sure Genet would’ve counted me though,”

“Really?” Stella asked, surprised.

“I grew up in San Francisco.” the latina woman shrugged.

“That still leaves the others," Felicia mused.

“Hey guys?” Ava said, trying to get everyone’s attention back

“Yeah?” Felicia asked.

“It’s been my turn for five minutes in the game.”

“Sorry. You can go ahead.”

So Ava was finally able to take her turn. She needed a combat win. Stella and Felicia were probably two turns or less away from winning themselves, but Felicia was already wounded and taking a hit from Jörmungandr would be a blow to Stella’s need to hit a hundred life. It cost pretty much her entire prayer pool, but she had to do it “I’ll play Overwhelming Waves. All non-fish return to their owner’s hands.” Ava announced, putting down a blue card displaying a massive tidal wave hitting a town.

“Counterspell.” Felicia immediately responded.

And there went her chances. “Pass” Ava finished her turn.

It was back to Felicia. If she had enough prayers to tap by the time she was able to draw into the Hero’s Journey, she could finish things here. “I’ll play Seek the Truth.” She drew two cards, looked at them, and scowled. “I’ll play Demand Answers.” Felicia drew another two cards, and marked off two damage on her life tracker. She looked through what was left in her hand before declaring: “I’ll play Brainstorm.” She drew three cards, then put two back on top of her deck. “Pass.”

“I’m surprised you still haven’t found it.” Luna commented. “You must have gone through seventy cards by now. How many do you have left?”

“It was eighty cards, and it has to be somewhere in these last twelve. Can I get the Last blessing from Prometheus, just to look one more time?

“Sure. I’ll take the Brother’s blessing again so when Jörmungandr finally starters swinging, I’ll be ready. I’ll also play After the Flood to make a copy of Prometheus. Pass”

Ava knew what the others hadn’t realized yet, too focused on trying to make sure that they were prepared for the worst in their own fields. They wouldn’t need to worry about preparing for when she was able to attack again., or what Felicia drew next.

“Um… I’ve got fourteen trees that Idunn’s planted now. I’ll harvest their food tokens to gain thirty-two life. That’ll take me to… could someone double check my math here?” Stella asked. If she’d done her math right, then that was enough for Idunn of the Orchard to let her win. But she couldn’t remember the last time she actually won one of these.

“No, you’re right. You should have at least one hundred and twelve life. You won.” Ava confirmed.

Stella still felt surprised at hearing that. She’d had a plan and felt more confident than usual, but she still hadn’t expected it to succeed. She looked over at Felicia. She was her oldest friend. She could still remember how awkward their meeting had been.

***

They’d met ten years ago, at the grand opening of her restaurant. The front-of-house manager she’d hired had announced that she’d be coming out to greet people. She’d had no such plans. She’d told Tommy the day before that she wasn’t comfortable with that sort of thing. When he said it was a “skill to work on” she’d assumed he just wanted to help her practice sometime. Instead he decided she needed to learn by being thrown in the deep end. She’d started to get dizzy over by the salad bar by the time she realized it had been a mistake to leave the kitchen.

When she woke up after passing out, two young women were standing over her. One was taking her pulse, while the other was using a tablecloth to hide her away and stop the rest of the guests of the Fence&Post from seeing their cook on the floor. The woman checking on Stella had introduced herself as a med student at the school nearby. The two of them had helped her escape back to the kitchen and she’d thanked them with coffee the next day.

After that they started seeing each other regularly. They invited her a little gaming club they had with a few other people at the college nearby. When the others dropped out after graduating, she offered to start hosting meetings at her condo and Felicia found a couple people to join them. She would always remember what they did that day. They’d helped make sure that one of the best days of her life hadn’t become one of the worst.

***

Even remembering how concerned Felicia had been, seeing her focus like she did for competitions like this could make her nervous. Felicia had gotten even worse at some point couple of years ago, growing bullish at random some weeks.

“Is that alright Felicica? I hope you’re not mad…” Stella’s voice petered out as she asked for reassurance.

“Of course that’s alright? Why would I have a problem with you winning sometimes?" Felicia responded.

“Well…. You always get so mad at Richard…”

“You two are totally different. You should try your best, that way you can beat both of us next time.”

Stella nodded, feeling a bit better. Ava cleared her throat, trying to get everyone’s attention. “Should we all switch decks and play again?”

***

Later after lunch, the group decided they all needed a break from their game. Stella was braiding Luna’s hair, while the three of them were on the bed looking over a book that’d been in Luna’s closet HH:DA Scorebook.

For almost ten minutes, Ava had been doing push-ups next to the bed to see if she’d be able to trigger Roid Rage. It didn’t seem to be working, and she was growing suspicious that Energizer was working to make sure she wouldn’t need her second transformation to kick in. She decided to try more exercises while the other girls talked.

“I didn’t know that position was real, I thought it was just a dumb internet joke.” Stella commented, looking with some shock at the book.

“No, it’s definitely real. It’s just not worth trying. It’s exciting at first because of the hype, but one of you needs to work hard to not fall on the other and if the heights don’t match up perfectly it gets into some real awkward stretching.”

The book was a combination scoring guide and instructional manual. It had descriptions and diagrams of every sex act any of the three of them had ever imagined and some that even Luna hadn’t thought about before. At the start of each section was a base point value, and then ways to raise the value of the act like the first multiplier, the virginity multiplier, and the group multiplier.

“What’s the highest point value thing in there, if we wanted to hit six hundred fast? “ Felicia asked.

Luna flipped through the book, crunching the numbers. “Yeah, that’s definitely not worth it.”

“What is it?”

“It’s too disgusting for us to try. Not like in a puritanical sex-is-gross kind of way, but that this would be a massive hygiene issue.”

“Can you at least tell us?”

Luna showed both of them the anal chapter, and flipped to the end. “If he did all of us in a single night, and started with someone who’s never done it that way before, we could get at least a third of the way there.”

“Oh”

“Yeah.

“Considering none of us have actually gone on a single date with him yet, I think we probably don't need to focus on this right now.” Luna said, putting down the black book.

“Now that you guys are done with all that, could you try and help me test this?” Ava asked, coming out of the handstand she’d been in. She still hadn’t been able to find something actually hard enough to get Roid Rage to help her. After the first twenty push-ups she had stopped feeling anything in her arms.

“How can we help?” Felicia asked.

“Can I see if I can pick everyone up?” Ava asked. It was strange to say out loud, but hopefully Luna and Stella understood why she was asking.

“Sure.” Felicia and Luna said at the same time.

“Why?” Stella asked a moment after.

“I need something that takes enough strength to test what those side effects Genet had alluded to were.”

Felicia got off the bed and stood in front of Ava, waiting to be scooped up. After how long they’d been roommates, this was almost a normal thing for them with either Felicia being too drunk or when Ava had wanted her help training for that triathlon. Ava picked her up in a fireman’s carry over her shoulder, just like they’d done a couple nights ago.

Luna waited a moment before deciding to hop off the bed herself. She felt a bit nervous about Ava dropping her, but was still going to help. The same magic that’d caused her to wake up before seven feeling randy should kick in if Ava was right.

Ava bent at the knees and wrapped an arm around Luna’s waist. She stood back up and started to lift. With Felicia already on the other arm, her knees started to buckle before another presence started to pour into her. She felt her posture straighten and her vision widened. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt a need to turn towards the door to make sure she had eyes on anyone coming in. She fully lifted her second friend into the air and felt a scabbard, binding itself at her chest and sitting behind her back. But when she looked down, there was nothing there. “Hey Stella, could you look at my back?”

The cook inspected her shirt, trying to figure out what she was looking for. “I don’t see anything. Is something wrong?”

“No… I just could’ve sworn I felt something.” I know it’s there. She put down Luna and Felicia, and Felicia sat back down on the bed while Luna started collecting everyone’s cups and plates that they’d brought from the dining hall. It’s still there. Everything’s so loud. What was that noise? She turned and saw that it was just the clatter of a fork. But everything still felt so much bigger, more obvious. It was like something in her mind was keeping track of everything in the room, just in case there was a problem she needed to fix for the Turners. Why am I thinking about Dick and his sister that way?

“Do you need any help with that?” Stella asked Luna, oblivious of what was happening to the athlete next to her..

“No, I should be able to get everyone’s stuff back.” Luna answered. “I just need to get everything stacked. Since you’re up Ava, can you hold this for me?”

Ava felt her mind get thrown for another wrench as she heard the question. The frustrating awareness that had been screaming into her mind was joined by a second foreign presence, this one a bit more pleasant thankfully. It was like the feeling she hadn’t felt in years, when she’d met her first crush Anthony Rand back in geometry. She felt nervous and numb, and she didn’t know why.

“Hey guys!” She said, looking for help. “I think I triggered Roid Rage. I need your help.”

“What’s wrong?” her best friend Felicia asked.

She was having trouble answering. But thankfully Stella could speak for her. “I think she’s having a panic attack.” After having so many over the years, she could easily recognize the one in front of her.

Felicia flew into action after she heard that. She put her hands into Ava’s and guided her to the bed. “Let’s take some deep breaths together, and just let me know when you’re ready to talk. I’ll count, you just breathe. One”

One

“Two”

Two

“Three”

Three

“Four”

Four

“And out. One”

One

“Two”

Two

“Three”

Three

“Four”

Four

They continued together as Ava’s breathing slowed. The demanding, vigilant voice’s orders melted to advice. The numbness and heat in her cheeks continued, but she kind hoped that would stick around.

“Okay.” Ava finally got out. “I’m alright.”

Luna handed her a glass of water. “Back when I first met Richard, he’d get sweaty and dehydrated from his panic attacks.”

“Do you know what happened?” Stella asked.

Ava shook her head. “Bits and pieces. I remember what happened, but not why it went wrong.”

“Just walk us through everything you can remember. Between the four of us, we should be able to figure things out.

So Ava talked through what she remembered. Felicia knew her better than anyone. Stella kept watching for the parts where she got more stressed. Luna recognized parts of what Ava described and filled in some of the gaps. They didn’t figure out everything that afternoon, but for what their friend needed today, it was enough.