Brochettes de Porc

The mustachioed faun preened and rubbed their fake whiskers between their fingers as Maddy and Mira sat at a table together. The chef looked around, it being her first time in the location, and noted how it was decorated like a cross between an American-style cafe and a high-class espresso bar—likely to bridge the gap between the contestants' expectations and what they were used to. The air felt heavy as she looked down at the milk gently swirling in her coffee. She had agreed to come with Mira out of a need for guidance, but now that they were away from the hotel and alone, she couldn’t help but feel like a rabbit being eyed by a predator out in an open field.

She reached down and lifted her cup, taking a careful sip of her coffee, trying to keep her voice from trembling, “T-This place is nice, when did you discover it?”

Mira lifted her own triple espresso to her lips and gave a dainty sip before answering, “Last round when Maya and I toured as much of the island as we could. Though I didn’t go inside until meeting with Eliza a little before the first challenge.”

“Oh,” Maddy’s ears perked up, and she looked over at the vinyl-clad woman before darting her eyes away again, unsure of where to look, “She never mentioned that…”

Setting her cup down, Mira gingerly adjusted the napkin on the table’s position with the tips of her fingers. “I thought, as the two oldest members of the harem, it was prudent to discuss our strategies going forward. Primarily, it was a discussion on the use of sabotages, as at that point it was a divisive point between our members.” She looked up from the napkin, “It was also when she confided in me that it was out of fear of losing her new friends that she kept from communicating effectively with you.”

Maddy sighed. It was very hard not to take what had happened in the challenge as a vote of no confidence, and Maddy had experienced such things casually before. If Mira was telling the truth, though, maybe it was a sign of Eliza’s weakness and not her own. She wrapped her fingers around the bottom frame of the chair for support. She glanced upward at Mira’s face, “How…how is Eliza doing? I haven’t seen her since the results of the challenge.”

Mira turned to observe the various paintings hung on the wall, “She has self-immolated and confined herself to our room for the time being, figuratively, of course. I’m afraid she took the events of the last challenge rather hard and personally.”

Maddy made a round “o” with her mouth and then took another sip of coffee. Realistically, she had no right to judge Eliza’s reaction, but she had taken the challenge hard, too, hadn’t she? She had shed so many tears the night after, and Eliza had won. It was hard not to feel a little indignant on discovering this woman she had respected was now throwing a tantrum and hiding out of sight when she hadn’t even been the one hurt.

Not turning her head, but glancing with her eyes, Mira noted the chef’s expression, “Don’t be too hard on her, she’s afraid of facing her friends after 'letting them down'. I tried to warn her during our talks, but I don’t think it sank in for her.”

Maddy may have been frustrated with Eliza, but the tone in Mira’s voice as if she was looking down on her caused some irritation to slip in, “What? What did you try to warn her about?”

Eyes widening slightly in surprise, Mira turned to face the blonde, her surprise then giving way to a gentle smile, “I told her that in this place, playing nice and not trying to upset people is essentially playing the game on hard mode. Adding extra difficulties and complications. We all want to make it to the end of this thing right? Given where the VP stands right now, do you think it would be easy to get 100 without stepping on anyone’s toes to get ahead? Not impossible, surely, but exponentially harder. On top of that, the game and host of this show seem determined to put us in compromising situations. I was trying to point out the inevitability of being put between a rock and a hard place.” Mira drummed her fingers on the table. “Madeline, do you think Eliza made the wrong choice voting defensively during the challenge, independent of the outcome? Was it wrong of her, from her perspective, to fear Stella’s outrage might cause her to lash out?”

Maddy’s fists clenched, she felt her throat tighten, and her voice came out strained, “I-She should have believed in me, it wasn’t just Stella in the booth!”

Unperturbed, Mira took another drink of espresso. “Right, but was voting betray truly the equivalent of not believing in you? We all saw how frantic and wild Stella was before the challenge. Eliza could have believed in your ability to try and talk her down, but what if Stella was unresponsive to words? What if she grabbed the lever from the start? Or worse, incapacitated you to keep you from stopping her? Given that, was it morally wrong for Eliza to vote that way to protect herself and Maya?”

Maddy felt wetness in her tear ducts; this was so frustrating. She tensed her hands several times on the table and tried to swallow the lump in her throat that wouldn’t go away. “I guess…without knowing what was happening, no, it’s not wrong. I just…” She closed her eyes, “I just wish…I wish that she hadn’t”

Reaching out, Mira put a hand on Maddy’s shoulder, “I think that’s perfectly natural, but it’s an illustration of what I’m saying. This is going to keep happening; we’re going to keep being put in situations where we hurt each other. It’s not wrong to want to do right by everyone, but you’re adding extra weight to every decision, forcing guilt on yourself where others won’t, and making it so even when you win, you feel awful.”

The blonde bit her lip, “So what now? Are you going to try and convince me to take the easy way? Because I know you probably think I’m weak, and maybe I am…” She was shaking at this point and tears started flowing down her cheeks, “But I’m not that sort of person, I can’t do that.”

Mira reached down, grabbed the napkin, and began to dab at Maddy’s eyes. “I didn’t say anything about that.” Maddy blinked and looked at Mira, who had a calm expression as she wiped away the other woman’s tears, “I’m not here to **** anyone to do things my way, or another way, or whatever. I’m only pointing out the facts; the way you’ve picked is much harder. So, I asked you to come here to figure out a way to optimize given the tools at our disposal while still fitting into your restrictions.”

“Oh,” Maddy couldn’t hold back her bewilderment as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve, “Sorry…I just thought you might… browbeat me into it.”

Unable to contain herself, Mira let out a musical titter of laughter, gently touching her fingers to her lips, “Madeline, dear, I’m a talent agent. I work with people, not against them. Do you think Caleb is the only difficult talent I have? It’s my job to make people look their best to every client who walks in the door. As long as you’re not getting in my way, I have no issues helping you play your artificial difficulty setting.”

The chef made a small hiccup sound and took the napkin from Mira to finish drying her face. “So what do we do?”

Mira finished her espresso and then put her cup down to a small clatter before locking eyes with Maddy, “Now, Madeline, if you want to do your best here, it may require drastic action. I will not push you to act against your morals, but given the nature of this show, there may be discomfort or hesitation against what I ask of you. Are you willing to push past that to do your best, and to maximize on opportunity in front of you?”

The blonde swallowed and looked down at her cup, at the gentle drifting of milk in a sea of black espresso. She closed her eyes, lifted the mug, and downed the remainder of her drink. It was always Maddy who was so demure, so quiet, so shy, so hesitant. No one believes she can do anything other than take up space. Not anymore. She loudly put down the mug, “Ok, I’m gonna do it…or at least. I’ll try…” she ended lamely.

Mira smiled and leaned in conspiratorily, “Let’s talk bounties.”

The high-pitched clatter of steel on steel echoed through the gymnasium as Maya thrust forward with the foil, aiming toward Caleb’s midsection. With a flick of his wrist, he parried the strike and caused the blade to go off to the side, and for Maya to stumble over her now misplaced momentum. Leaning in to ensure she was ok, Caleb smiled behind the mask, “Remember, keep the weight on the back foot until your front is on the ground again to not be carried by your momentum, ok?”

Maya nodded wordlessly and hurriedly got back to her position and struck out again. They must have been going at it like this for over an hour now. Caleb just let Maya attack repeatedly, occasionally giving her pointers and adjusting her form. The most he would do is mime a riposte to demonstrate lines of attack left open by her approach. Caleb had been worried it might be frustrating for her to do such a repetitive activity and not make a purchase on a blow, but if she was irritated, it didn’t show. Maya kept jumping back to her starting position, bouncing on her heels and exuberant to go at it again.

After a clean thrust forward, Caleb directed the foil to the side and then raised his hand and lifted his helmet off. His hair was matted and clinging to his skin as a healthy layer of sweat coated his features. Maya took the queue and lifted her helmet, her own hair was now lying flat and running to the back of her head. Caleb smiled, “Enjoying yourself?”

The lottery winner nodded, eyes shining, “I think I’m getting better!”

“Well, you stopped swinging it like a hatchet, which is everyone’s first mistake, so you’re doing well.” Caleb walked over, grabbed two bottles of water from the sidelines, and handed one to Maya.

The purple-haired woman pouted, “I AM getting better, right?” She opened the bottle and took a drink from it, only now realizing how thirsty she had become from swinging the foil repeatedly.

Caleb took a deep drink of his own and lowered himself onto the mat to sit down. “Oh, for sure.”

Sitting down cross-legged next to him, Maya stared at him skeptically, “You’re not just saying that to have your way with me?”

Almost **** on the water, Caleb coughed and slapped his chest a few times, “No, I am not saying it to have 'my way' with you.” The voice actor coughed again, “Your lines of attack at getting better. If we were doing drills, I would teach you all the names, but I figured that might be too much for one day.” He glanced over to her, “How are your legs doing?”

“My legs?” Maya asked, confused, and then realized the soreness that was creeping into them, “Wait, what?”

“Yeah, most people don’t realize that even when watching that fencing is mostly leg work. All that movement, sudden and fast, it places a burden on them over time. It’s why a lot of what fencers do is cardio and leg muscle training, oh, and core training, but that just supports everything.” Caleb playfully slapped his stomach.

Maya looked off into the distance, took a drink, and then asked, “When did you get interested in fencing?”

“Oh, probably around the time my dad showed me the Adventures of Robin Hood with Errol Flynn, so I guess I was six?” Caleb smiled, thinking back on watching the film with his father, then afterward pretending to be Robin while his dad was Friar Tuck and reenacting the duel on the bridge, “But I didn’t get a chance to do any until I got to college and the club made it feasible to afford. Prior to that, private clubs or lessons would have been much too expensive for me.”

“You were poor?” There was no judgment in the question, but the level of bluntness caught Caleb off guard as Maya stared at him.

“I mean, poor may be pushing it, but single parent trying to get by with a kid? We didn’t have a whole lot of money to throw around. Wasn’t it that way for you and your mom?” Caleb watched as Maya’s eyes turned wistful as she looked off.

“Oh no, we were definitely just poor. There was a period of time when we were living out of Mom’s car while she looked for work. Then we were staying with an aunt for a bit before she kicked us out to make room for her new boyfriend. Eventually, Mom had a break and got a decent job, and we got the apartment we stayed in until she died. But I think we were always kind of toeing that poor line.”

Caleb nodded solemnly, it was easy to forget with her introduction as a rich lottery-winning gambler, coupled with the fashionable way she tended to dress, that Maya had actually had a pretty rough time of things. He took another sip of water. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up anything unpleasant. We don’t need to talk about it anymore if you don’t want to.”

Maya blinked, “I mean, you didn’t really. That’s just how things were. We always had each other anyway, so that’s what really mattered. It’s not like I’m ashamed of those times. Life was harder after she passed. I was almost 18 and shoved through foster care, then almost immediately spat out, with almost no money, worked two jobs, stayed in a shelter, then won the lottery. Now kidnapped on an island. Arguably, this is the best thing that’s happened to me since Mom died. At least I have friends now.” She patted Caleb’s knee, and the master felt like he had been stabbed in the chest.

Maya took a moment staring off into nowhere and then suddenly looked over at Caleb, “So if you fenced in college, that would have been while you were dating Lily, right?”

“I, uh, yeah, it would be. We actually met at a fencing tournament. One of her friends was in the same club as me.” Caleb said awkwardly, unsure of how to handle this topic. Behind the general tension between the two women, talking about an ex…was she just an ex now, even? While on a date with another woman? It didn’t take a genius to figure out that it could get messy fast.

“Why?” Maya looked at Caleb with a blank expression, and he realized this was another time Maya expected him to understand the context without providing it.

Instead of getting flustered, Caleb just asked gently, “Why what?”

“Why did you start dating her?” Her expression was curious and measured, and Caleb got a sense that she was trying to solve some problem that she wasn’t making clear to him.

Taking a moment, Caleb thought carefully before answering. He wanted to be honest, but more than that, he wanted to figure out what Maya was asking and answer that, all without revealing too much of Lily’s own private concerns. He took a drink and then looked out towards the gym, “I hadn’t had a relationship before the one I had with Lily. I hadn’t really been seeking one out either. Even when we first met, I didn’t think ‘I’m going to date this girl’, I thought ‘I’ve made a new friend’.” He paused, trying to be careful with his next words. “We got along well and then, Lily…she made me feel needed, I suppose. Like I gave her something she needed, and I guess I needed…that” The words felt awkward and stilted coming from his mouth.

“I don’t really understand,” Maya said plainly

Running a hand through his hair, Caleb frowned, “Yeah, that makes sense…” He took a deep breath. Simple, Caleb, keep it simple. “She made me feel special, which made her special to me. She was also kind and smart and fun to talk to, but that’s the reason why.”

“Hmmm,” Maya seemed to regard the statement carefully, “I suppose that makes sense.”

Caleb raised an eyebrow. “Did I pass the test?”

It was Maya’s turn to look confused. “What test?”

“I uh…just was trying to figure out why you were asking about all that.” Caleb wanted to fiddle with his glasses to let loose some of the nervous energy he was feeling, but they were nowhere on his person.

The purple-haired woman seemed to toss the question around a little in her mind before answering, “You and I get along. You and she get along, or at least did. She and I don’t. I was trying to figure out why.” She looked down, “It didn’t really help.”

Caleb frowned, not sure if there was anywhere to go from here with this topic. Trying to recollect himself, Caleb looked towards the wall-mounted clock. “We still have some time before we should probably clean up and get ready for dinner. Did you want to go at it a bit more?”

A bright smile covered the purple-haired woman’s features, and she thrust her helmet back on in lieu of answering. Bouncing over to the mat and grabbing the foil from the ground. Caleb leaned over and grabbed his helmet, moving to rejoin her on the mat.