Week 1: Diona's Date, Part 3

If anything, the sheer abundance of different games available to them in the lounge made it more difficult to choose one—many of them were ones that no one there had even heard of, and many had to be ruled out when it turned out that the contents of the box included sex toys or bondage gear. At one point, they even had to rush to stop Aoba from opening the box for Jumanji, lest they risk it being the real deal. After roughly 15 minutes of this, they decided to opt for the deck of playing cards, instead.

“Well, if you guys want to play poker or blackjack, you’ve got a professional dealer.” Erica offered, the bunny outfit was proof enough of that, given that her job was the reason she received the transformation in the first place.

“Pass.” Aria held up her arms in an “X” shape. “I wouldn’t put it past them to have some kind of rule where the only poker we’re allowed to play is strip poker.”

“I’d prefer to keep my clothes on, too.” Natalie gulped. While she should theoretically be used to showing off her body, that was usually when she was putting on her Natalia persona. Not to mention the fact that it was usually to a camera with only a few other people present, those people didn’t magically induce arousal in her when she felt their gaze, and those shoots never ended with her or any others present in the nude.

“Does everybody know the rules to BS?” Mallory asked.

“Ooh, I haven’t played that since high school!” Aífe perked up. “I have a fun idea—what if we added an extra layer to it?”

“How so?” Erica raised an eyebrow.

“Simple. Since we’re supposed to be using this time to get to know each other, every time you put down some cards, you have to say something about yourself that could be a truth or a lie. But it has to match what cards you’re putting down, so the others can try to guess if you’re bluffing with your cards or with your words.”

“That sounds pretty interesting.” Elise nodded. She’d had plenty of practice with figuring out whether a student was lying to her, so this should give her an advantage, somewhat. The others all agreed with little, if any, hesitation.

“Oh yeah, Teach—” Erica teased as she began shuffling and dealing. “Don’t feel like you need to say ‘bullshit,’ you can always just go with ‘Bob Saget.’”

“What, so just because I’m a teacher I never curse?” Elise huffed. “I avoid cursing because I could get in trouble for using that kind of language around students, and none of you are my students.” As Aífe has made very clear. She thought to herself with a blush.

“Alright, I get it, I get it.” Erica laughed. “So, who’s got the ace of spades? They’re supposed to start.”

“That’s me.” Mallory revealed the ace to confirm, setting it on the table. “I’m not playing any other cards right now.”

“And what about your statement.” Aífe prompted. “Just because we know what you played, doesn’t mean you’re exempt from the other rule. So give us a truth about yourself.”

“Oh, uh…” Mallory’s brain went blank. “I don’t care for spicy food.”

“And because of that one, how about the added rule of ‘no saying the same thing as someone else?’” Erica wisely added, as she put down 2 cards. “2 twos, and I didn’t find out that Santa isn’t real until after I hit puberty.”

“Santa isn’t real!?” Aria gasped melodramatically, making it obvious she was fucking with them. “Seriously, though—did you start puberty super early, or were your parents just really not willing to let the magic of childhood go?”

“Nah, I started it at 10.” Erica shrugged. “Dad didn’t tell me until I asked him about it after a girl at school made fun of me for still believing in Santa when I was 12. He was one of those who was torn to pieces at the thought of his little girl growing up too fast.”

“Yeah, Mike is just like that.” Aífe chuckled as she took her turn. “1 three. The first time an anime made me cry was the scene in One Piece with the Going Merry in Skypiea.”

Hearing that, Aoba hesitated before making her move. She could’ve sworn that Aífe had told her that it was actually the ending of Gurren Lagann that made her cry first, but she didn’t want to risk spoiling Erica in case her memory was wrong.

“One four.” Aoba placed a card, deciding not to risk it. “And my first commission as an artist was of the two main girls in The Executioner and Her Way of Life.”

“Bullshit.” Aífe immediately called out.

“What?!” Aoba recoiled before reluctantly taking the pile of cards. “How did you know?”

“Simple, I follow your pixiv, and I can do math.” Aífe made a subtle gesture with her head toward Aria, who seemed not to notice, as she was staring down at her own cards. The redhead then leaned in to whisper in Aoba’s ear. “Also, I lied. It wasn’t Skypiea, it was Chopper’s backstory.”

Damn. So it was a lie, but I was wrong about the details. Aoba silently cursed.

“2 fives.” Aria said after another moment of thinking. “And I need reminders on my calendar to remember my parents’ birthdays.”

“BS.” “Bullshit.” “That’s BS.” A few called out. Aria had clearly taken too long to decide. The alien made a sound of annoyance as she took back the two cards.

“2 sixes. I was hit on by a 19 year-old guy while I was out to lunch with my daughter about a month ago.” Elise cringed slightly as she remembered the event.

“Okay, you’ve gotta admit that’s pretty funny.” Erica grinned. “Assuming it’s true, of course.”

“My daughter didn’t seem to find it very funny.” Elise rubbed her temple. “I don’t know that I’d ever seen her glare at someone like that before.” It was finally time for Natalie’s turn.

“Um… 1 seven.” Natalie shakily said as she put the card down. “And you’ve gotta promise that you won’t tell my Uncle Bud once we’re all out of here, but… I don’t like the Dallas Cowboys.”

“Hey, you could always root for the Chiefs.” Erica pointed out. “It’s kinda like rooting for a Dallas team, since they started out as the Dallas Texans.” With Natalie’s turn over, it was back to Mallory.

“3 eights.” Mallory confidently placed her cards. “I once tripped so badly during dance class that I sprained someone else’s ankle.” She looked guilty as she recalled the incident. Aria glanced Mallory’s way with a look of concern, thinking to herself, note taken. Never go dancing with her. That’s a quick way to end up with a repeat of the incident at the law firm.

“2 nines.” Erica smirked as she thought of what she was going to tell them. “One time, at the beach, this chick lost her top and I managed to convince her to let me use my hands as her bra while she looked for it.”

“What kind of—” Elise became flustered. “That’s the type of thing I would’ve expected from Diona! I call BS!”

“Hey, I figured someone needed to pick up the slack with her missing.” Erica shrugged as she flipped over her cards, revealing exactly what she’d said she placed. “Read ‘em and weep, Teach. Read ‘em and weep.” Elise begrudgingly took the pile of cards and added them to her own hand.

“1 ten.” Aífe said with a blush creeping up her cheeks as she tried to focus on the game instead of thinking about using Erica’s hands as a bra. “Despite what many of you might think, I’ve never played D&D using a female character before.”

“I don’t think any of us ever really thought about it, to be honest.” Aria scratched her head. “Have any of the rest of us even played D&D?” Much to Aífe’s chagrin, everyone shook their heads.

“I’d say we should get a campaign going,” Aífe sighed, “but that might be something better saved for when we’re out of this place. Your turn, Aoba.”

“2 jacks.” The oni threw down her cards. “I once almost submitted one of my… personal works for an assignment instead of the correct file. I nearly had a heart attack when I caught the mistake.”

“1 queen.” Aria placed her card without hesitation this time. “I’ve never played any of the multiplayer Mario games—Kart, Party, Golf, you name them.”

“It’d be a great way to get us all to hate each other, instead of just Cecilia.” Erica joked.

“2 kings. I didn’t learn about the birds and the bees until I was 18.” Natalie confessed.

“Wait, really?” Aífe asked.

“Yep. My mommas don’t exactly have much reason to think about that sort of thing, themselves, plus I never showed any interest in boys.” She chuckled. “And it’s not like I would’ve learned it in school, what with it being a tiny school out in the Texas boonies. It wasn’t until me and Lulu were leavin’ for college that they remembered to give me the talk.” They all shared a laugh, and the rounds of BS continued until it was time for them to eat lunch.

As the game of BS in the lounge was wrapping up so they could head to lunch, Cecilia was leaving the chapel for her own lunch break. The morning half of her shift had been a… mixed experience in her opinion. While the tasks themselves were easy enough, the fact that the building was less than 24 hours old at this point meant that all of her cleaning tasks were finished in only an hour, or so, leaving her the rest of the day with nothing to do except water the flowers. This left her rather torn—on the one hand, the work itself was actually easy and relatively pleasant, save for the part where she was made to polish a stained glass depiction of her naked breasts, not to mention everyone else’s own debauched scenes. The equipment she had access to was high-quality, the cleaner was easy on the skin and eyes and had a soft, pleasant smell, and she wasn’t even expected to clean anything higher than the windows—instructed instead to let Umbra handle the chandeliers and rafters. On the other hand, the fact that the work was so easy and finished so quickly left her with nothing but her thoughts and stained glass pornography. By the time her lunch break rolled around, she was nearly bored to tears.

“I need to grab a fucking book, or something.” She sighed as she walked the lightly-wooded path back to where it rejoins the main one. “Or maybe I’ll just take a nap after I get done with the flowers.” She stopped abruptly when she reached the fork in the path, not expecting to find anyone waiting for her. A familiar face looked back at her, soon follwed by the clop of hooves on the cobblestone.

“Hey!” Holly cheerfully greeted the surprised redhead. “I’ve been waiting for you!”

“Why?” Was the only thing Cecilia could think to say. “If you need counseling, I’m on my break. Also, you should really think of other options.”

“No, silly.” The reindeer waved dismissively. “It’s lunchtime, so I came to get you.” She lightly grabbed Cecilia’s wrist pulling her along as she began making her way back to the main building.

“Okay.” Cecilia struggled futilely to wrest her wrist free from Holly’s grasp. While it wasn’t particularly tight, it was exceptionally strong. “You wanna explain why you’re dragging me to lunch? I know where the damn dining hall is!”

“Oh, come on. Shouldn’t that be obvious?” Holly chipperly denied Cecilia’s protests. “You’re an employee now, so I’m taking you to join the other employees for lunch.”

Oh, whoop-dee-fucking-doo. The new employee groaned internally. Went from having lunch with one group of weirdos to a different one. Despite the fact that she wasn’t on the clock, it seemed Cecilia would not be catching a break.