Worries and Walks

Nina and Anna

“How are you doing, bitch?”

The words were playful and friendly, but they still hit Nina like a slap on the ass, and not a gentle one. She winced, and Anna's eyes went wide.

“Shit, I'm so sorry, I forgot -”

“It's fine,” Nina assured her, waving away her concerns. “You didn't mean to, so it wasn't that bad.”

The young professional was just walking through the doors to the Great hall. The room was massive, larger than any either of the girls had been in, and decorated with many tapestries and silks. A large table ran down the middle, and there were heaps of various light dishes on it. There were salads and cold cuts, sushi, baklava, naan, hummus, and many many dishes the girls did not recognize, and Anna had been in the middle of dishing up when her friend entered.

“Still, I'm sorry. How are you holding up?”

“I'm fine. As fine as I can be under the circumstances, at least. This whole thing is bizarre."

Anna nodded. “At least the food is good. Try the sushi, it's great.”

Nina shrugged, but followed her friend’s advice, dishing herself a plate of nigiri, maki, and sashimi. Sitting down with her friend, she tasted the sushi, but despite being, really quite delicious, far better than her budget would usually allow, her face remained lined with worry.

“Thinking about the night?” Anna asked, and Nina sighed.

“What can I possibly do? Theo clearly hates me. We’re supposed to compete for the ‘best night’ or whatever, but the man has a girlfriend and also hates my guts. What on earth am I supposed to do?”

“Hmm,” Anna replied, finishing a piece of maki. “Could you appeal to the audience instead? Ishtar did say that both Theo’s opinion only counted for half.”

Nina’s shoulders slumped.

“I’m pretty sure that any attempt to appeal to the audience would just cause a fight with Theo and tank my ratings that way. Sure, I could show up naked and on my knees, but that’s not gonna win me any favors, I don’t think. Fuck.”

Finally, the girl slumped entirely forward, burying her head in her hands. Her friend reached over, cautious and a little lost, and patted her back.

“it’s oka-” she started, but was cut off immediately. Nina apparently wasn’t done talking, though her voice came out muffled through her hands.

“I’m so fucked,” she said, and her shoulders heaved, though she stopped herself from sobbing. “So completely fucked. The whole show is supposed to turn me into Theo’s ****, but he doesn’t want that. I offered that to him, completely, and he rejected me. I’m screwed. Completely fucking screwed. The Audience clearly want me to suffer, and appeasing Theo is the only way out - but he hates me!”

At this point, she **** herself back up, staring directly into Anna’s wide, surprised eyes. Nina’s eyes were wild, puffy, and red, but she held back her tears.

“What the fuck am I supposed to do?” she asked, grabbing her red-headed friend by the shoulders and staring into her eyes. “How the FUCK do I handle this?”

To her credit, it only took Anna a moment to rally. She pushed back against her friend, grabbed her shoulders in turn, and kept her eyes locked on her.

“Start by not being such a dramatic b-” She stopped herself and took a breath. “Start by not being so dramatic. Theo hates you, you say? Maybe! I don’t know what happened between you. But I know you were together for nearly two years. You must have worked together at some point. You could try to be diplomatic, you know. I don’t know if it’ll win you Best Date or whatever, but you could try just having a polite dinner with him.”

Anna stopped for breath here, and took her hands down from where she'd been holding Nina's shoulders. But before Nina could respond, she continued, though in a gentler tone.

“But you know… I don't think Theo hates you. Not really. He's clearly not happy with you, but…” she shrugged. “It seems almost a little performative, you know? Like he's trying to convince himself he hates you more than anyone else. As I said, I'm not sure what went down between you, but I don't think it really made him hate you. I don't think Theo really does ‘hate’”

Nina stared at her friend for a while at that, processing her words. She thought back up Theo's reactions on the island, his outbursts about her, but also to his reaction during her transformation. He had been about to “save” her, she was sure, but he had respected her “green light” sign as well. Was Anna… right? Did Theo only pretend to hate her? Was he trying to convince himself?

On the one hand, Anna was right that Theo didn't really do ‘hate’. In the years they'd been together, Nina had never known him to hate anyone. Even people he disliked, he had never had much vitriol for. She remembered him talking about previous exes, even, with respect and dignity. Even his high school sweetheart who had cheated on him he didn't ‘hate.’

But she also remembered the words he'd used when he had broken up with her. The venom - Ha! - in his voice when he had called her a “poison.” The merciless, stonefaced look in his eyes when he told her they were over, the sheer anger in his voice after she called him Master one last time.

Sure. Maybe he had helped her during the transformations. And maybe Joanna had been right, earlier, that he really would have given her pain triggers instead if he thought it would convince her of a “safer” option. But that didn't mean he didn't hate her - just that he was willing to satisfy his ego by being “the bigger person”

“You don't look convinced,” Anna said. “But at least give it a chance. Maybe try not to treat him like a coward or a traitor for breaking up with you. Maybe try just… being civil for a change. I don't know if it'll change much, but it's your best shot.”

“Sure.” Replied Nina. “My best shot”

She did not have high hopes.

Joanna and Chloe

The two girls walked through the “stores and services" floor, overawed by its size and grandeur.

It was almost like a mall, but at a scale and a size neither had ever seen before, the floor somehow, impossibly, larger than the rest of the ziggurat. The whole place was a maze of stores, restaurants, cafes, gyms, libraries, bathhouses, massage parlors, sex shops (a great many of these) and every other amenity under the sun.

Occasionally, the hallways broadened out into huge bazaars full of stands and stalls, with everything imaginable on display. Colorful silk fluttered in the air - dresses in every style, color and cut (or at least the sexy ones), sari and kimono and qipao and a hundred other garments neither girl could identify, all elegant and beautiful, alongside many less refined options - lingerie, of course, but also various “sexy” costumes, latex bodysuits and harnesses. Several times, Chloe had had to look away from a particularly risque outfit.

And the jewelry was even worse. Every jewelry stall had a variety of rings and necklaces and bracelets and piercings in shining gold and silver and platinum, set with every kind of rare and beautiful gemstone, from the greenest forest-green emeralds to the purest white diamonds, dazzling and glorious. But much of it was as sexual as it was beautiful, and while Chloe averted her gaze, Joanna had to hide her interest in glittering leather collars spelling out “****” in diamonds or iron neck rings adored with rubies labelling the wearer a cunt, a whore, or a toy.

At least there was nothing erotic about the food stalls. Beautiful baklava lined trays and entire stalls, delicious-looking kebab roasted on rotating spits, dates and figs and grapes were everywhere, and the scents of spice and roast and fruits made the girls’ mouths water.

But despite the riot of colours and lights and scents, the whole place was eerily quiet, and the two girls walked through the place alone. Oh, there were attendants for every stall and shop and stand - silent, immovable stone statues. The girls had no doubt that they would respond to questions and fulfill their duties perfectly well, but neither of them had dared to be the first to approach a statue and ask for baklava or kebab.

So it came as quite a shock to them when their slightly awkward, quiet walk got interrupted by footsteps. They were walking through one of the many bazars, and it took them a moment to locate the sound of the noise, but from just around the corner, Miriam was walking towards them. The mail-clad nerd looked up, raised her hand to wave, decided that waving this close would be awkward, and ended up just sort of jerking her arm up and letting it fall.

If Chloe and Joanna noticed, they didn’t mention it.

“Hey there,” Miriam said. “exploring the hotel too?”

“Yeah,” Chloe responded. “Just having a look around to see what’s here.”

“Cool! Wanna join forces? It's more than a little eerie to wander through the area alone.”

“Uh, sure,” Joanna replied. “Though we've been walking for a while now, and we were probably heading back up soon.”

Miriam nodded. She'd been walking for a while herself, and certainly didn't mind getting out of the strange, quiet floor.

“I think the nearest exit is.. that way?” She said, pointing down the way she had been going. “I saw a map a little while back, but this place is a maze, so I could've been turned around.”

“Sounds good,” Joanna replied. “Chloe?”

“Sure,” Chloe said, and soon all three were walking in the same direction.

It was only then, once they had started walking, that Miriam noticed the awkward silence. It didn't surprise her from Joanna, the girl had always been a little shy, but Chloe was usually the one to keep a conversation going. She considered them both thoughtfully. Had something happened between them? Was Chloe struggling with the truths they'd learned about Joanna? Or was Joanna struggling with the knowledge of Chloe's crush? Was Chloe simply too embarrassed with all the erotic content all around them?

Whatever the reason, Miriam did not care to walk in tense and eerie silence even a moment longer, and she decided that awkward conversation was, at least, conversation.

“So, were you up to anything else before you went exploring?”

The question surprised the other girls, who had been brooding on their own issues, but Joanna was the first to respond.

“I was looking for Theo,” she said. “But no luck. I guess he's still in the master suite.”

“And you didn't buy a visit?”

Joanna stopped. “A visit? What do you mean?”

“It’s… an option on the tablet we got? A master suite visit is just 500 BP. Should be easy for you to buy.”

“Oh.” Joanna said. “Well… I didn’t get around to looking at the tablet. I suppose I should, once I get back.”

Miriam eyed her friend, suppressing a well-deserved roll of her eyes. Was she really the only one who’d looked at their tablets? Was no one else taking the game seriously? Did no one else even try to figure out the resources at their disposal? It wasn’t that she particularly wanted to seduce Theo, but given the givens, you’d expect Joanna at least to be fighting tooth and nail.

“Though I'll probably end up using it tomorrow. I think the ‘night’ is starting soon, and I want to chat with him alone, not with…” her voice trailed off, and she furrowed her brow in confusion.

“Nina,” Chloe supplied, more than a little surprised. Had Joanna not even found out her roommate was first up? Even Chloe had checked that!

“Nina!?” Joanna asked, her voice getting much closer to a shriek than she’d planned. “I suppose that’s how this show would do it… Well…” She stopped for a moment, hesitating. “I still need to talk to Theo alone. I’m sure he can handle Nina alone.”

Miriam had seen Joanna put on a brave front in my DND games before, and it looked a lot like this.