Getting Boared (M)

People started moving after Ata laid down the gauntlet. Felicia threw her backpack on, and was talking to Ava in the row behind her. Hazel and Helena had stood up together, discussing quietly their plan for the challenge day. Luna had Maeve and Stella around her, and was realizing as everyone was splitting up something Ata had said.

“Wait.” She begged the other girls. “You heard what she said. She’ll get stronger as she fights us. If we isolate ourselves like this she’ll be able to divide and conquer, taking us out in whatever order she wants. We need to stick together, that way even if we can’t all make it to sunset, we can prevent her from getting too strong.”

“No.” Helena’s denial cut through the plea. “Her imitation she talked about is the very reason we can’t stick together. Hazel would need to defend everyone, and if she got caught then the rest of us would be lucky to last five minutes. Honestly, she could probably win if she just went off by herself.”

“That’s not happening though. We’ll text if we learn anything about her, but we’re both still going to try our best to win this together.” Hazel said. The two of them went out of the auditorium, not allowing any further arguments.

Luna turned back around, only to see Ava and Felicia going towards the side door together down to the athletic complex. “Guys, come on!”

“Sorry, Luna.” Felicia half-heartedly apologized. “This is supposed to be a competition, and Ava and I really do want to win.”

“Both of us have ideas for the transformation that would be helpful.” Ava continued. “We need to have our best shot possible at the audience choosing one of them.”

“Fine.” Luna said, turning around and letting the best friends go. “I guess it’s just the four of- where’s Aubrey?”

“She ran off while Ata was still talking.” Stella offered. She’d stuck next to Luna the whole time, so she’d seen Richard’s girlfriend duck out.

“This is still a team of three, we’ve got a numbers advantage on our side.” Luna said, trying to figure out a new plan.

“Team of two, if that’s alright.” Maeve gently requested.

“Why do you want to leave?” Luna asked, frustration slipping into her voice. “I’m sorry. You didn’t deserve that, but what’s going on?”

“I’m staying right here.” Maeve pointed to the shopkeeper on stage with two fingers. “We’ve both noticed that there’s something unusual going on, especially given how different this new version of her is. I want to see if I can learn more about her. I can buy everyone else time to prepare while I act as a distraction.”

“Maeve, you know this guarantees you last place.”

“Yes, and if anyone makes it to the end that means I’ll have had nearly ten hours to think without any distractions. You’ve been telling me to take more time for myself.”

“Still, you’d be losing five points.”

Stella spoke up from where she was still seated, the last one to get up. “Someone has to lose five. We all saw that Ava is still at three. What would happen if she was first out?”

Luna’s mind drifted to the eliminations they’d all seen at the very start of the round. Would Genet eliminate if we went negative? Is Genet even aware of that risk? Ava can handle herself, but still… “Go ahead.” She reluctantly encouraged. “Stella and I will see how far we can get while you buy us time.” The two of them left, the auditorium doors clicking behind them.

Which left the therapist alone with their soon-to-be pursuer. The toga wearing woman seemed intrigued by the conversation in the group that she’d watched. She called out from the stage. “So you’re staying to distract me? Come on up.” She waited for Maeve to follow her directions.

Ata stood across from her, and gave more directions. “Go ahead then, distract me. If you annoy me or I start getting bored, I’ll go after someone more fun like your gladiator.”

“I understand.” Maeve took a deep breath, trying to decide where to start. “If we do this, then we make it fair. We each take turns asking a question.”

Ata raised an eye. “Like the old days? I’ve never been on this side of the story before, I like the idea.” She reached down and pulled at the stage, and two blue chairs like one would see on a talk show emerged from the wood. The perfume effect they’d learned to associate with Genet's magic came with the chairs. Maeve smelled copper like when Ata had been summoned onto the stage with the first chair; cinnamon and cabernet flowed into the air with the chair closer to her.

“My name is Doctor Maeve Petrov. I work as a therapist and have been helping Richard as one of my clients for the past few years, focusing on the **** of his parents.”

“What’s a therapist?”

“A type of doctor that focuses on emotional or mental wounds, rather than physical.”

“So you’re a priestess?” Ata asked, trying to understand.

“No. I’m not a religious counselor, I simply work with people to help them understand and process their own emotions.”

“I’m not sure I understand the difference.”

“That’s alright.” Maeve wanted to pivot away from the topic before Ata grew frustrated. “I’m not sure how well I know you, would you like to introduce yourself properly?”

“Absolutely.” Ata looked excited, even a tad smug at the suggestion. “My name is Ata…wait. Ata… Hidden Hells Genet.” She turned back to Maeve, her face red with anger. “We’re done with introductions. That’s your first strike.”

“You know baseball?”

“It’s called softball. Now tell me something more interesting. Who here is dangerous?” Ata demanded to know.

“I’m not sure I’m the best person to answer that, but several could qualify. Richard’s friend and trainer Ava-”

“The gladiator?”

Maeve thought it best not to correct her. “Yes, the gladiator. She is supernaturally strong.”

“Good. Who else?”

“It’s my turn, you owe me two questions now.” Maeve countered. “How did you start working for Genet?”

“I’ve always worked for Genet.” Ata quickly answered, then scowled. “Gods above.” She swore.

“Is that true?” Maeve asked. Her opponent had clearly been frustrated by her answer.

“No. Be more careful of your questions before I end this.” The shopkeeper growled. “Who else is dangerous?”

“Hazel, the one with the gun you asked about, is a veteran of the Air **** and-”

“What’s that?”

Maeve took a slow breath, trying to avoid pointing out that she was being interrupted. You’ve had worse clients. “Part of the military. I don’t think I can explain what it does as well as she could, but I know that she flew her own plane for a few years before working for Helena.”

“The woman on the leash? She’s paid for that?” Ata looked mildly scandalized.

“No. Helena pays her to be a bodyguard. I think Genet did the leash, though I’m not sure how or why.”

Ata relaxed. “That makes more sense. So she’s a former soldier, now a guardian. Is there anyone else who could be dangerous?”

“Wait. You should’ve stopped, now you owe me four more questions.”

“I owe you three.”

“I’ll repeat what you said. ‘The woman on the leash?’ referring to Helena’s identity, and ‘She’s paid for that’, referring to Hazel’s job duties, were separate questions. Those are two, then you asked what the Air **** is, and I still haven't taken my turn from the initial question about Hazel.”

Ata was visibly thinking, looking for a way out. “But you said you couldn’t give a good answer to the Air **** question, and told me to ask someone else.”

“Fine, but I still have three questions. If you weren’t here, what would you want to be doing?”

Ata nearly looked happy as she explained her idea. “I would live in a forest, by myself. I would hunt deer and wild boar, harvest mushrooms and wild vegetables. Maybe once a month I would go into town, barter for salt and cloth and any other dry goods I needed.”

“You wish you could be left alone?”

“Gods yes. This is honestly better than when I was younger, but I’m still here.”

“I see. Would you say that your desires to be alone come from positive drives or negative drives?”

“I don’t know the difference.” Ata was careful not to ask what the difference was, to avoid being sucked into another chain of questions owed. “Is there anyone else who can fight back?”

Maeve tried to think, coming up with anyone that would let the discussion continue before her subject grew bored. “Felicia, the woman who went down the stairs with Ava-”

“Does she have weapons training?” Ata interrupted again. Maeve noticed that her voice was becoming more even and growing lower in pitch, crossing from soprano to alto as they talked together. Is this what she said she could do? I expected it to be more dramatic.

“Not that I know of?”

“Then I don’t care about that tiny little nursemaid. Strike two. Is there no one else who’d be able to resist enough to be worth my time?” The words were aggressive, but somehow Ata was managing to make it sound reasonable, simply curt as if trying to focus the conversation in a more productive direction.

The therapist checked the time on her phone. It’s only been a few minutes. I don’t know if everyone’s in position yet. “There is one more.” Aubrey has forty more points than Ava, she’s less risky if I can’t change the subject.

“Who?” The question was demanding, but… softer than one would expect.

“Aubrey, the one who ran. She and Richard already have feelings for each other, and she is incredibly accomplished with throwing darts. I’ve spent most of the week with her and she is brilliant, though she doesn’t give herself half the credit she deserves.

When we were discussing your desire for isolation I asked about positive or negative drives. Positive drives would be desires focused on what you would do with the privacy, while negative drives would be focused on avoiding others. Knowing the difference, which would you say are more important?”

“I guess negative.”

“Can you elaborate on that?”

“People are always dragging me into their problems.”

Maeve nodded understandingly, and noticed Ata echoing back a slower and smaller nod.

The shopkeeper asked a nicer question now, her voice smooth and calming. “You mentioned you’d spent more time with Aubrey than the others, and that she had trouble believing in herself. You’ve been helping her with self-esteem issues?”

“I’ve been trying.” Wait. Is that my voice? That’s the tone I would take too. “How are you mimicking me right now?”

Ata grinned, and Maeve suddenly felt like she had volunteered to step on stage with a shark. “You could say that I Have A Particular Set of Skills.”

Maeve wanted to pivot again, to get the shopkeeper to stop thinking about the hunt before she decided to end their conversation. “Why are you doing this? Genet said that you designed this challenge, what’s in it for you?”

“Finally being able to do something interesting.” Ata answered. She started to reach for Maeve.

“Wait!”

“What?” Her own voice came back, which felt strange. Anyone that wasn’t looking would think she was talking to herself.

“You don’t like running the shop, right?”

“Of course not.”

“Have you told Genet? Maybe she would let you stop working for her.” I need to keep her talking. Maeve knew that she was running up a massive debt in their question duel, but she needed to keep it going. Maybe in the next turn she could direct the conversation away from her fellow contestants. She doesn’t know anything about us, could I bait her into starting with spots the others wouldn’t gravitate towards?

Maeve’s bid for more time was for naught, as Ata got to her feet and loomed over the silver-haired therapist. “I don’t get to stop serving the show. Genet might find a different role for me if I asked, but I don’t want to risk it. When I’m on autopilot in the shop I don’t need to think about where I am. She’s an exhausting bitch with the attention span of a gnat, but at least she lets me watch things like softball when you people aren’t here. It’s fun, even if the orgies at the end of the games are kind of annoying. Things are good enough now, any changes will probably be for the worse.” She reached down.

“Wait!” Maeve requested again. This is still too early. I need to calm her down. She opened her phone and started typing out a warning to Aubrey. “I have so many more questions. The others-” She was gone, first out of the game.

Ata herself teleported a few feet back to where Genet had summoned her during the intro. “She did have a point in asking Genet for changes. Maybe if I do a good job today she’ll let me start watching the gladiators after the season ends.”