Fun and Games (C,F,A)

As always, art made by Orifalcon. Thank you for your help Ori.

***

This day was turning out for the worst. Aubrey had gotten over when Felicia had gotten snippy. She could handle a tantrum.

But then Genet had shown that scoreboard. Yes, she’d been in first. But everyone had gained points. Isn’t that for advancing a romance with him? She’d thought to herself in horror as Genet had begun describing the leaderboard. Luna had climbed, which she should’ve expected. Felicia was trying to pass her. Hazel was up with them, and even Hel had done something with him. What did he do with his stepsister?

And then there was the competition. The shopkeeper was searching for them, and it seemed like she was enjoying it? She’d been so nice when she made Murphy’s for me… She wanted to win, but in hindsight felt the scoreboard had made her flee too quickly. She should’ve taken Maeve with her, together they could’ve beaten Felicia and Luna and all the others. Hopefully she found somewhere safe to hide.

“Aubrey?” She heard after the door creaked open. Maeve’s here. I can apologize for abandoning her.

“Maeve?” She pocketed the darts she’d been throwing as she’d been thinking and began walking towards the door.

“I’m glad you’re here, sweetie. That woman was chasing me. I got away, but I tripped over a tree branch. I think I sprained my ankle, could you help me in?”

“Of course, I’ll be right there.” Aubrey stopped simply walking and broke into a jog across the room. Going out to the edge where the grass started, she called out: “Maeve? Where are you? I don’t see you anywhere.”

“I'm right here.” Maeve’s voice said, coming from the shopkeeper as she stepped out from around the corner. She was grinning, pleased with herself that she’d been able to pull off the deception.

“What did you do to her?” Aubrey asked in horror.

Ata took a break from her intimidation act, feeling like she was pushing her target in the wrong direction. She switched back to her own soprano to explain. “She surrendered, so after I took her out of the game she went wherever Genet put her.” After taking care of that she slipped back into Maeve’s voice, though she couldn’t maintain it much longer now that she was away from the therapist.

She’d already wasted most of her time with the voice in her search for Aubrey in the different bedrooms before she’d tapped into the memories of the airhead and remembered that the dart thrower had cloaked her hideaway in the shell of an outhouse. I almost threw up after rooting around in those memories. Maeve was right about her.

Using Maeve’s voice again, trying to needle Aubrey into fighting back. “I’m here for you next, unless you can stop me.”

Aubrey pleaded with the huntress. “Please, wait on collecting me. You already know where I am, I’ll stay here. Just come back and get me when there’s fewer people left.”

“Why should I?”

“Felicia, his doctor, is obsessed with him. She got drunk and told me that once she has a hundred victory points, she’ll have won him. I need to get there first.”

Ata looked at her, mildly annoyed. “Do you think you need a certain amount of points for a man to care about you?”

“No, but…” She wavered.

“If he’s worth your time, then he won’t care how many points anyone has.” Ata snarled. She started reaching over at the thin girl she’d lured out.

Aubrey whipped out one of her darts and brandished it, stepping back into the doorway. “Stay away from me.”

Finally. “Make me.”

A dart sailed toward Ata’s shoulder. She narrowly dodged it, then retrieved it from the grass. Her opponent was clearly unused to live targets, as she hadn’t taken any darts to the back while she’d been distracted. So Ata came back slightly more aggressive to get Aubrey to try harder. She’d succeeded, dropping to the grass as the other two darts flew one after another before the door slammed in her face.

The door slamming didn’t mean much without a lock, or Aubrey barricading the door. Ata went in, dodging four pool balls, then a fifth stinging her on the thigh. Aubrey was brandishing a pool cue with both hands, pausing her ranged **** from the billiards table as she watched Ata turn around and retrieve the balls that had been thrown at her one by one. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ata said, as she dropped all eight projectiles into the hammerspace her position as shopkeeper granted her and approached the billiards table.

On a hunch, Aubrey slowly rolled the black ball slowly along the floor past the huntress before pointing the pool cue again. Ata crossed her arms in annoyance. Her toga creased as she shot a look, as if to silently say Really? Before turning around to chase it down and put it with the other things that she’d goaded Aubrey into throwing at her.

“How old are you?” Aubrey asked, growing suspicious.

The huntress tried to think about it until she gave up. “I’ve lost track.”

“Are you Ata?”

“Obviously.”

“No, that’s not what I meant to say. Are you… Is qui cucurrit? Leo?"

"Ita me appellare posse puto. Me describit, et satis latum est ut per id transeat." Ata answered, surprised by the switch into a language she was more comfortable with.

Aubrey's grip on the cue stick softened. "Doleo te hic adesse debere."

Ata gave a short nod. "Gratias tibi ago. Id erras, obiter."

“What?” Aubrey questioned, confused enough that she accidentally switched back to English.

“I said you’re holding that all wrong. A wooden stick like that can be used as a staff or a spear, but you’re not really succeeding at either. Let me show you.” She took the other cue stick off of the table and positioned her hands along the back. “It takes a very good spearman to be able to make up for the weapon’s lack of defensive utility during a battle, so most soldiers I was friends with would train with a spear and shield combination. You don’t have that available right now, and you’re too malnourished to be a proper hoplite. So I won’t show you how a soldier would use this, I’ll show you how a hunter would.

Bring it closer to waist level and move both your hands back. You can get leverage by positioning one hand at the rear third and the other on the base. Thrust from the back and keep it steady with your hand on the side, and it can become an effective tool to keep someone away. If your opponent is bigger or better armed, you’ll need to keep moving. The goal is to be able to poke and move on before they’re ready to hit back.” Ata felt at the tip of the cue stick. “It’d work better with a good point, but if someone’s not wearing armor,” she gestured down to the thin cloth covering her torso, “then the stick itself will make them a bit more wary.”

“Why are you teaching me this?” Aubrey questioned. “Wouldn’t you be better off leaving me ****? You’re wasting time if you need to catch us all before sunset.”

Ata walked around the table, to sit next to where Aubrey was standing. “It’s fine. There’s three things I know. First, none of you are going to present enough of a challenge to last nine more hours, even accounting for Genet’s lunch break. Second, I believe that every woman should have the tools to defend herself. This is a cruel world, run by cruel people. You can’t defend against everything but you should be able to make them think twice before they try somethin. Third-” She tapped Aubrey’s shoulder.

She finished her point from the auditorium stage she’d been returned to. “Third, you don’t have the instincts to attack someone being kind to you.” She paused, letting herself linger for a moment before the next stage of her hunt. "Gratias tibi ago."

***

“I’m telling you, it means something.”

“You convinced me twenty minutes ago. I’m asking what it means.”

Felicia and her closest friend were debating the speech at the edge of a jungle gym Ava had found on one of the lower floors of the athletic complex. It was a giant thing, over sixty feet tall and defying the height and width of the rooms around it. When she'd shown Felicia, the blonde had compared it to American Samurai Warrior.

“I don’t know yet. But they’re pronounced the same, yet Ata felt the need to correct her.”

“So if they’re homophones, then maybe considering their meanings could be a clue?” Ava suggested. “Since the shopkeeper seemed into the idea of hunting us down, she’s probably using the spelling with an ‘E’? That leaves Genet talking about prayer, and even though I know neither of us have been to church in a few years, she doesn’t seem super Jesus-y.”

“It’s still bugging me how she was able to hear the difference to correct it too.” Felicia pointed out, continuing their brainstorming session.

“I couldn’t hear the difference.” The voice they’d waited for explained as Ata walked through the steel double doors that led into the hallway. “I knew she was saying it wrong because she kept writing it wrong when I was trying to persuade her to add this to her season proposal. Does that answer your question?”

Felicia nodded before exchanging a glance with Ava. Leaning on their experience from living together the past ten years, they wordlessly took two steps closer to the jungle gym.

“It took me twenty minutes to find this place, searching each room one by one. I was hoping you’d be down at the gladiator’s ring or the track, but I finally found you.” Ata extended her arm out, pointing at the athlete. “Ava Soto of Georgetown, I challenge you to single combat. As the challenged combatant, you have the right to your choice of weapons or style of martial arts. If you choose to fight hand to hand, I will find gloves for the duel.” She adopted a wide stance, waiting for her opponent to respond.

Ava and Felicia exchanged another glance.

They ran into the labyrinthine course behind them.

“Shit.” Ata swore as she stopped posing and ran after them. She saw Felicia swinging herself across a set of monkey bars on the lowest level, but ignored her to pursue the Japanese woman up a narrow climbing wall.

Felicia got through the bars and a sliding platform before she realized she wasn’t being followed. How do I fix this? Their plan relied on the shopkeeper going for the weaker looking target so Ava could get to the door. If Ava was being hounded the whole time or got taken too soon, then the plan was pointless. So Felicia set her backpack down and started looking for something that could help her be a distraction.

Lube? No

The mirror? No

Surgical gloves? No

My dildo? No. Definitely not right now.

Magnifying glass? No

Rope? No

Lingerie? Maybe. It’s not really something I can run in.

A fork and spoon I picked up from the dining hall this morning? No

The whistle? Maybe…

Felicia kept looking, trying to decide what was the best fit for the situation. Ava gave me her dice bag…

Forty feet up, Ava was trying to navigate inside. Every room in the jungle gym was its own challenge, whether testing one’s arm strength, balance, or something else. Many of the rooms either had a see-through floor or no floor at all. Ava hadn’t had time to explore while she was getting the trap set up, which was making it all the more difficult to escape. She wasn’t as fast as the shopkeeper, who was stepping nimbly despite her flimsy sandals. Ava’s size and jumping ability were helping her stay ahead, but Ata seemed to know the obstacles better. One wrong move and she might get caught. She could activate Roid Rage and start tearing through the course, but she couldn’t handle the disorientation that it would come with right now.

Ava bounded through a series of slanted platforms mounted to the walls. She looked back as she ran and the shopkeeper was right behind her, though she needed to jump between each platform slower and with more effort. She was trying to decide which way to turn at a junction that’d come up when she heard two short trills of a whistle to her left. She looked down and saw Felicia climbing up a ladder next to a spiraling slide a few rooms away and two floors down.

Ava turned left to meet her best friend at the ladder, bouncing across a series of bungee bridges on her way. The ground here next to the ladder was more stable than around the rest of the jungle gym, one of the few spots without any holes in the floor. “Come back here!” She heard shouted from behind her, which she did her best to ignore as she waited for Felicia to come up. After she did, Felicia revealed what she’d come up with to salvage the plan.

“Take the slide down. I’ve got a plan to get her attention and then take the slide down after you once you leave, but I’d like to borrow your dice to do it.”

Ava balked for a moment. She liked her dice. She had some special ones in there, shiny ones that had been gifts from Felicia or Dick over the years. But the noise of the shopkeeper’s approach **** her to reconsider. Worse comes to worst, maybe Genet can help me find them? She nodded, before launching herself down the slide and making her way to the double doors.

Felicia waited for the shopkeeper to approach. She was bounding across the bungee bridges Ava had come from, her jewelry and sandy blonde hair bouncing as she made her way across. That’s real fucking gold, isn’t it. She realized as she waited for their hunter. The woman had a similar body type to Luna, but kept her hair tied like Felicia herself did. And of course she’s taller than me too.

Ata mostly ignored her after coming to the platform with the ladder and the slide, looking around for where Ava had gone. She saw the athlete leaving the room, and turned to go down the slide after her. She was rewarded with a sharp blow of the whistle.

Ata turned back towards Felicia, finally acknowledging her presence.

Felicia shouted: “Bet you can’t catch me, dipshit,” while throwing a fistful of six sided dice and scurrying up the ladder.

It took longer than Felicia had expected for her to be chased. She’d already made it up to the top before she heard Ata moving. She was down the slide by the time she looked back up and saw a glimpse of Ata at the top of the ladder. And she was running out of the room by the time Ata was coming down, the most furious anyone had ever ridden a slide. Ava already had one half of the double doors closed, and slammed the other shut. Felicia dragged over the barbell that they’d set by the door while they were setting up the trap, and Ava used one hand to jam it into the door handle while keeping it shut with the other hand. They could hear Ata shouting and banging against the door, furiously demanding to be let out.

“I didn’t think that was going to work for a while. Thanks for getting her off my back.” Ava said, physically fine but emotionally exhausted as she sat down on the floor.

“You were the one that needed to shut the door.” Felicia commented, leaning against the other wall. “Do you think we’re the last ones left?”

“Maybe. It hasn't been long, there’s probably at least a few people.”

“Ugh. I should probably figure out how to modify what I’m giving Dick so it can win the vote.”

“Yeah…” Ava trailed off, thinking about the dim possibility of her own idea getting approved.

The noises coming from the other side died down.

“Do you wanna head to my room, maybe look at some of the fish while we’re waiting for lunch?” Ava suggested.

“I'd prefer to stay here, just to have a warning if something happens.”

Bam! A sandal shaped dent formed in the steel door. Then another

“Something like that.” Felicia said, trying to keep her voice even. “How in the flying fuck is she doing that?”

“I think she’s Roid Raging somehow.” Ava realized.

“Your Roid Rage can do that much damage? That door’s two inches of solid steel!”

Ava thought back to her masturbation lesson with Stella. “Yeah, that door might not last much longer. I’ve got an idea for a plan B, but we’ll need to move fast.”