Veau de Romanoff III

There was a cacophonous eruption of sound from the stage as the women began yelling and calling out to each other. In his seat, Caleb could only stare in dismay at the results and the arguing. He turned to look back at Lucian, expecting to see the demon gloating over his success, but he was surprised to find that the demon was biting his thumb in irritation, staring up at the stage. Reyna was looking up at the stage with an exaggerated worried expression. Caleb turned back to the stage; there had to be an explanation.

Rising from his seated position, he shouted, “What the hell happened?!”

The women on stage quieted down, and then Noemi darted forward first, looking frantically across the room at Caleb, “It was Mira! I went to grab the lever, and she pushed me away and **** us to pick Betray! I didn’t want to, Caleb! I promise!”

Mira stormed over towards the Chilean woman, her eyes ablaze, “I pushed you?! I told you to pick Trust! Why would I push you?! You’re the one who picked Betray after saying we would pick Trust!”

Caleb felt a headache coming on and clutched his head. He had seen everything up until they went towards the lever. Neither of their stories contradicted what he saw and would have happened after the screen went black. He knew Noemi had been acting a little strangely after last night, but he didn’t think she’d pull something like this. Was Mira lying then? If anything, it felt like she was the more likely culprit, but it was such a risky move to pull that it didn’t line up with her calculated approach.

His thoughts were interrupted by Lily speaking up, “Whoever did it, one of you tried to stab us in the back!”

This made Noemi turn, face flushed with anger, “I didn’t pick anything! Besides, it’s not like you have room to talk! You picked Betray, too!” She pointed an excusatory finger at Amy and Lily.

Lily shrank back, “I…I just wanted to protect Amy. She’s at a detriment, all because of me. I got scared that she would-” She looked down and wrestled with her hands, “I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her because of my insecurities, so I tried to protect her.”

Amy gave Lily a shy smile and touched her shoulder as Mira scoffed, “Nothing bad would have happened to her if you had stuck to the plan and we all voted Trust.”

Feeling Lily tense under her, she held onto the plant woman as she tried to lunge forward, “Yes, she would because you voted Betray!”

Mira’s face tensed up, “Like I said, I didn’t vote-”

“Oh, shut up! You’ve been scheming ever since you got here, just like the little criminal over there!” Lily pointed at Maya, who had been regarding everyone calmly as the yelling had started. She then turned in the direction of Lily’s finger before looking back and gesturing at herself, “Yes, you! What did you do to **** Eliza to vote Betray anyway!?”

Maya went to speak up, but Eliza put her hand out in front of her and stared down at Lily, “Maya didn’t **** me to do anything. I-” She looked at Maddy abashedly, “I’m the one who chose Betray.”

Maddy looked beyond crestfallen at this revelation. Everything she had said to Stella echoed back in her mind. Her voice was hollow and her eyes downcast as she asked simply, “Why? Why did you do it?”

Eliza averted her gaze, feeling incapable of looking Maddy in the eyes, “Maya and I discussed the situation. She pointed out that Stella was likely to go after us and that the only thing potentially stopping her was you. She asked me if I thought you were capable of stopping an angry Stella and I-” the professor’s voice cracked and she swallowed, “You’re a good friend, Maddy, but you’re very timid and shy. I just thought that given the circumstances…”

“You thought I’d just bend over and fail, I get it.” Maddy squeaked out, “Well, I didn’t have faith in everyone! So I talked to Stella! I told her we were better than this. I told her that she could prove people wrong…” Her expression turned bitter, “Guess I was the one who was wrong.”

Stella gave a laugh that almost came across as a bark; it was laced with anger and disdain as she cocked her hip and looked out at everyone, “Don’t beat yourself up too much, Mads. It took a lot of guts to do what you did. I expected better of everyone, too. Turns out, despite everything, you’re all as covered in mud as me.”

Not looking up as Stella spoke, Maddy’s body was shaking her head down and Eliza reached out to touch her, “Maddy, I’m really sorry. It wasn’t anything personal.”

Maddy shook off the professor’s hand and looked up, tears in her eyes, face flushed with anger, “Nothing personal? The two people I considered friends…going against the group after all the talk of getting through this together? You’re both liars.”

Stepping forward, Lily reached out towards Maddy, “Maddy, I was just trying to help Amy out, I didn’t mean to-”

“There’s always an excuse! I’m sick of it! I thought the game was what was trying to get us to distrust and work against each other. Looks like it didn’t need to do all that much.” Maddy said, fully exasperated.

Amy took a step forward, “We need to calm down, there are more rounds to the game, and we need to get past this.”

In the middle of the stage, nodding her head, Mira reached into her suit. “Yes, I agree, and I’m making sure there is one less hurdle.” The card now visible in her hand began to glow

SABOTAGE! Ties that Bind: Wrap the Target in tight bondage ropes for a one-hour duration!

And in immediate response, A glowing came from inside Noemi’s suit.

SABOTAGE! Release Reverser. Activated when someone targets you with a Sabotage, at the cost of one Orgasm, the person using the Sabotage becomes its target instead.

Two things happened simultaneously: the first was that Noemi’s body visibly began to convulse, and her eyes rolled back as she let out a low guttural moan and fell to the ground twitching. There was then the sound of her point counter ticking to zero.

*-*-*-NOEMI ELIMINATED-*-*-*

The second was the sound of Mira hitting the ground as snake-like ropes appeared from thin air and began to tightly bind her body, leaving her prone and struggling on the ground, “Somebody, help me up!”

Lucian stood up from his seat neutral expression on his face, “I’m afraid you will find that’s quite impossible. It would be a pretty horrid Sabotage if it could be negated by another person in the room or a knife. No, you played your hand and she played hers, now you both live with the consequences.”

The demon floated upward and clicked his tongue, “I must say I’m disappointed, I literally told you how to get the good ending. Spelled it out for you and all, and even still, you couldn’t resist. You couldn’t fight that base human instinct. Let this be a lesson for you all, next time you wonder why you were picked to come here.” He landed on stage and shot them a withering glare, “You all deserve each other.”

The demon pointed his slapstick at Noemi, who was still reeling from her orgasm and with a small popping sound, she vanished and reappeared in one of the seats behind Caleb. He then walked over to Mira, “You’re still technically in the competition, though you will have to rely on your partner to vote from now on. Unless you’re paired with Noemi again, then you would of course default to Trust. Which would certainly put the opposing team in an interesting position, wouldn’t it?” He smirked and walked off stage back to his seat

He then returned to his earlier enthusiastic tone as he spun his stick, “It’s time to find out the teams for round 2. What’s it gonna be?”

The monitors up top repeated their animation of a slot machine, flashing colored lights and bright sounds before landing on the next round’s assignments:

Round 2:

A1: Noemi & Maya

A2: Maddy & Amy

B1: Stella & Lily

B2: Mira & Eliza

Lucian grinned broadly, “Well then, this should prove interesting. Same rules as last time, when the buzzer goes off, it’s your cue to enter the voting booths. Or don’t I’m not the one judging.”

The doors swung open, and everyone began to move to their spots begrudgingly. All except for Maya, who walked up behind Maddy and Amy and waved, “I wanted to let you know, I’m going to stay outside with Mira. So I will default to Trust. I just wanted to let you know”

Amy’s eyes widened even as Maddy didn’t react at all as Maya walked over and knelt by Mira, and the buzzer rang, signaling for each team to enter their booth. Leaving Maya and Mira alone outside as the last person went in, and the doors shut.”

Caleb finally sat down. He could feel his heart beating hard. He felt so powerless in this situation, just watching as this happened. Wasn’t there anything he could do as all these people he cared about began to distrust each other? Well, hadn’t he tried, and how had that worked out? Caleb slumped back in his seat and looked up at the monitors.

---

Inside the enclosed booth, Maddy had pushed herself into the corner, arms crossed and looking downward. The entirety of her body language screamed closed off. Amy, for her part, leaned against the opposite wall. She let the silence sit for a moment and then sighed and asked, “What do you want to do here?”

The oni thought for a moment Maddy wouldn’t respond before hearing a muffled, “I don’t care, vote however you want.”

Frowning, Amy tapped the wall, “You know Lily was telling the truth, I explained how I was at risk, and she just tried to help me out. She seriously wasn’t trying to hurt anyone.”

Maddy lifted her head and shot Amy a glare, “Ok? So what? How does that make it better? Caleb literally told us to believe in each other, and none of you could do that. I wanted to believe, but Lily has spent all week lying and going to you for advice instead of the people she called friends; now Eliza doesn’t believe in me. It’s always the same, no one actually cares, they just say they do, and then when they find something they like better, they focus on that. So I’m officially done.”

Amy wanted to shake her. Wanted to explain that right now they had a choice of putting Maya squarely in the lead or pushing ahead. Wanted to explain all the factors and considerations that were running through her head because Maya had handed them this opportunity. But instead, she just walked forward and put her arms around Maddy.

Maddy stiffened under her and shifted before trying to shove the Oni off of her, “Hey, stop it! I don’t want to be hugged right now, least of all by you!”

Only tightening her grip, Amy held her, “Hey, listen, I get you’re disappointed and frustrated and mad. You have every right to feel those feelings, ok? This situation is royally fucked but right now you need to fight for yourself at the very least ok? Would Caleb want you to give up?”

Her voice sounding choked up, Maddy shook her head against Amy’s chest, “No…”

“Ok, so come on, what do you want to do?” Amy released Maddy and moved back to the opposing wall.

Maddy finally looked up, tear streaks marking her cheeks as she opened her mouth, and the camera cut out.

---

Stella and Lily found themselves standing opposite each other, both refusing to make eye contact. Lily couldn’t get over her anger from earlier in the week when Stella had stolen from Maddy and was now dealing with the confusion of how to approach her after the previous round. Stella, meanwhile, was dealing with the already established resentment she had against Eliza’s group and doubled down on the fact that she viewed them all as hypocrites after the previous round. Neither made a move for the lever.

It was eventually Stella who broke the silence as her suit made a particularly stimulating movement and caused her to shriek. Then, frustrated, she stomped her foot, still not making eye contact, “You know we have to vote Betray, right?”

Lily rose from the wall angrily, “Oh, and what makes you say that? I thought you were playing nice now?”

Rolling her eyes, Stella gestured with her hand and held up a single finger, “Because of all of you, I only have 1 point. If we don’t vote Betray, we risk me hitting zero and getting immediately knocked out.”

Lily furrowed her eyebrows and leaned forward, “Only if Eliza votes Betray, though.” Her face was flushed red as much as Stella's. She still hadn’t orgasmed after being edged all week, and she was on the precipice as the suit kept touching her most sensitive spots.

Hitting her hand against the wall, Stella leaned in, “She already did that last round, remember, because she didn’t trust me? Doesn’t exactly look great for me!”

Lily stepped forward, the two women were inches apart now, flushed with both anger and arousal, “So just like that you’re gonna revert back? Maybe after what you did, she knows better!”

“Fuck off your high horse you green bitch! You’re no better than me, you’re the one who crushed Mads out there!” Stella pushed her finger against Lily’s chest.

“You stupid friggin self centered brat!” Lily was pushing forward as she batted away Stella’s hand.

Stella jabbed her finger back into Lily, both were breathing heavily, “Say that one more fucking time”

“Stupid Bra-” Lily was cut off by Stella’s hand colliding with her cheek, immediately resulting in Lily reaching out and grabbing Stella by the hair, and the Camera cutting out.

---

Outside in the Audience, Caleb, watching the monitor,s narrowed his eyes. The second monitor for each group was blank. “Lucian, why are we not able to see inside those two this time? Also, the cameras seem to be cutting out earlier. Last time it was only before they voted.”

Reyna cheerfully spoke up, “Easily explained Master, the Cameras are drama sensitive, they turn on and off based on detected levels of instigation in the rooms. In this case, the two didn’t turn on because one room is empty and the other only has one person, so because they can’t capture inner drama, they don’t turn on.”

Caleb tried to wrap his head around the idea that Camera could be that narratively convenient, but still followed up, “And the reason they turned off early?”

Tapping his stick irritably, Lucian sniped, “Because they detected that those moments would yield higher suspense than the actual voting to hear what happened later.”

On stage, Maya was kneeling by Mira, who shook her head and gazed up at the purple-haired girl, “Never thought you’d sit out of playing a game. Are you that worried about me?” She shot the young woman a snarky smile.

Maya chuckled and shrugged, “Who said I wasn’t playing the game? I’m just not voting. This game is as social as it is anything else, and I’m making a bet. We’ll see if it paid off. Still…didn’t expect you, who is always so careful, to be caught like this.”

“At least I got Noemi out.” Mira closed her eyes, contenting herself with that fact.

“I believe you, you know, that she was the one who pulled the lever.”

“Yeah, but no one else will, and I think she knows that…I just don’t know why. Regardless it certainly backfired on her.”

The lights on stage turned red, and Maya stood up. “Looks like it’s time.”

The doors opened, and people began to file out onto the stage, and once again, the monitors broadcast the results over the auditorium.

Round 2:

A1: Noemi & Maya: TRUST
A2: Maddy & Amy: TRUST
B1: Stella & Lily: TRUST
B2: Mira & Eliza: TRUST

Lily: +0: 0 Points 6th place

Mira: +2: 5 Points

Eliza: +2: 8 Points

Amy +2: 5 Points

Noemi: +0 : 0 Points 8th place

Madeline: +2: 3 Points

Stella: +0 : 0 Points 7th place

Maya: +2: 8 points

*-*-*-STELLA ELIMINATED-*-*-*
*-*-*-LILY ELIMINATED-*-*-*