Pommes Frites

The girls played for a bit longer, idly drinking as the spectre of the previous conversation hung over the group, having various effects. Eliza seemed serene as she taught an excited Maya to play pool along with a jovial Noemi. Meanwhile, Amy contemplatively nursed her beer as Lily picked at her fingers, trying to focus on anything else before it became too much, and she scooted to the chair next to Amy.

She leaned in to the Oni and, cupping a hand over her mouth, whispered, “This is a bad idea, right? More Sabotages?”

Amy glanced over and sighed as she lowered her drink, “I don’t know. I don’t have answers here, which is why I’m not protesting more.”

Lily scooted in closer, “Really? Because I just see someone who understandably is feeling very hurt trying to spread it around.”

The oni raised an eyebrow, “Then why didn’t you say anything?”

“I-” Lily looked down at her hands, “I know I’ve protested a lot of things just because of my own stances and hangups.” She glanced over at the group that was smiling as Noemi successfully sank a ball, only to realize it wasn’t hers. Eliza patted her back comfortingly. Lily looked back at Amy, “Because I’m not good at this. I care a lot, maybe too much. I get it, I’m broken like that. I just didn’t want it to lash out again because of it.”

Amy regarded the plant woman thoughtfully and then took a sip of her drink, wiped her lips, and responded, “Having a moral compass doesn’t make you broken. The fact that you’re now thinking about how your words impact others shows you’re changing.” She took another sip of her beer.

Lily’s eyes went wide, “Amy…”

Shaking her head, the oni moved on, “As for the sabotages, I meant what I said. I don’t know. We’ve seen a wide range of what they can do. Some hardly deserve the title of ‘Sabotage’ because they’re outright helpful to the person they’re used on. The problem is that while those exist, not everyone is going to use just those. Everyone’s opinion is different on the goals here, which means even if we ‘agree’, the outcome is unpredictable.”

“Then why not refuse outright?” Lily leaned in towards Amy.

“Because non-participation isn’t an option if any party decides to move forward.” Amy finished her drink. Over at the table, Maya cheered as she sank the eight-ball, only to be softly told she lost because of it. “It's just an amped up version of what Maya did on day 1 of the competition. Declaring you’re using the shop puts us all in the position of participating or being unilaterally targeted. Regardless of our ‘agreement,’ we’d be playing the ‘game’, just with fewer pieces than them.”

Lily groaned, “That sounds like Maya logic, I hate Maya logic, it doesn’t make sense.”

The oni shrugged, “It makes sense if you think of this as a game to win rather than our lives. Regardless, the fact remains that going along with it and guiding the conversation might be more fruitful than refusing outright.”

“I guess…” The plant woman sighed as the women playing pool came over. Eliza cocked her hip to the side.

“We’re just about done here, I think. You ready to check out the shop?” The blonde smiled at them as Maya seemed to recover from her loss and began to bounce on her heels in excitement next to her.

Exchanging a silent look with the oni next to her, Lily pushed out her chair, “Alright, let's go see what's available then.”

As the girls made their way into the Sabotage shop, they were greeted by a collapsed Arietta behind her desk. The shopkeeper looked messier than normal, the whites of her robe tinged with dirt, and her long ringlets of hair had a noticeable twig caught in them. The girls exchanged a glance with each other.

“Do we wake her?” Maya asked quietly.

Noemi walked to the wall where an afghan was hanging and picked it up and then laid it over the shopkeeper’s sleeping form, “Let her sleep for now. I don’t know what’s going on, but she looks like she needs the sleep.”

“But what if you guys need to buy something?” Maya pressed as Noemi just walked past.

Eliza put a hand on Maya’s shoulder, “We can always wake her then, there's no harm in letting her sleep for now. Let’s just be quiet.”

They all exchanged silent nods and began walking through the aisles. Amy paused, looking down the center aisle where she had lain with Caleb just a few days ago, feeling a warmth spread through her chest. She hit her chest softly with her fist, “Damn reflux, must have had too much to drink.”

Lily moved through the shelves cautiously. The only time she had come here outside of the entrance tour was when she had convinced Amy to use that sabotage on her. So she knew that the effects could be **** and not necessarily harmful. That being said, seeing others named things like Pair of Anguish, Iron Maiden, and Strappado was not easing her anxiety.

Maya already had a Sabotage, so she was walking with Noemi as she looked through the shelves, occasionally pointing and saying things like “Oh, that looks like fun!”

Noemi was looking through with an eye to thinking which one would put her sisters on best display for Caleb, something that would really highlight their appeal. Something that would make him lose control and just go to town until they were nice and fertile and filled to the brim.

“Noemi? You’re drooling. Everything ok?” Maya asked.

Noemi shook her head, “Everything’s fine! Everything’s…” Her eyes locked on a sabotage titled Empty Eclair. She snatched it off the shelf, “Everything’s peachy keen!”

Eliza was roaming the aisles by herself, her look determined and focused as if she was looking for something in particular, her fingers tracing the edges of the shelves as The Stigma. She reached out, and a thin smile crept over her face as she hissed out a low “Perfect.”

Amy eyed the shelves, particularly noting the premium collection. Whereas the normal Sabotages all seemed to produce ‘normal’ magical effects, the key difference with the premium collection seemed to be that they impacted the actual rules of the season, from how different systems worked, transformations, even things like BP and VP could be manipulated. Not that Amy had much use for any of them, given that she only had 2 BP in her pocket. The mask had put a heavy dent in her earnings.

The secret effect of the mask still rang in her head. Maybe it had been a dumb move handing that over to Caleb, but it hadn’t felt right sitting on it. She sighed and noticed both Noemi and Eliza heading over to Arietta. Well, she supposed that settled it. Open season was officially on.

Noemi: 19 BP - 3 BP: 16 BP remaining

Eliza: 7 BP - 3 BP: 4 BP remaining .

Back at the hotel, Mira cracked open the door to her room. The girls should be out by now. Caleb was likely on his date, and she needed coffee. Normally, she would be making her way to the cafe on Restaurant Island, but the risk of running into someone currently was too high. She would just have to suffer with the mediocre coffee from the buffet in the dining hall. Then she could find some quiet part of the hotel to hang out in until evening, maybe get some reading done.

She bit her thumb; she knew she deserved the cold shoulder she had been given at breakfast. After what she had done? Of course, they were right to despise her. She had done what she thought was necessary, and now she had to live with the consequences. If that meant everyone hated her, then that’s what she would have to be content with. She’d have to be.

She turned the corner into the dining hall and was surprised to be greeted by Maddy standing there next to an espresso machine, “Oh, you’re here. I thought it was around time for your afternoon coffee, so I brought this from the kitchen.” She began fiddling with the controls and prepping the espresso, “Give it a few minutes, and it will be ready.”

Mira stared as the rotund girl worked, and couldn’t find words or even the ability to move for a moment. When she was finally able to muster the energy, the thing that finally came out of her mouth was, “Why?” Her tone made it clear she was not asking about the machine. It ended in a strangled note, like even as she spoke it, her body tried to reject it.

Wearing a complicated expression, Maddy brought the espresso out in a little cup and set it on the table. She gave what wasn’t quite a smile as she sat on the opposite end of the table and gestured for Mira to sit, “I wanted to talk with you. I thought now would be a good time to do so without w-worrying about being interrupted.” Even as she tried to keep the words even, the slight stutter made it clear that Maddy was just on edge as Mira.

The opera singer thought about leaving and disengaging from the encounter entirely. But she would just be running away then, and there would be nowhere to go, just stuck in her room. She couldn’t do that. Not after everything. She pulled the seat out and sat down carefully, gently lifting the espresso and lifting it to her lips, she gave it a sip. She then set down the cup and looked Maddy in the face, opening her mouth several times to start speaking but stopping short before finally saying, “How are you…not upset?”

“Please don’t misunderstand. After hearing what you did, how you tricked me into doing…that?” Maddy’s arms trembled, and her jaw tensed, “I’m l-livid, what you did was reprehensible and disgusting. You have every reason to feel ashamed.”

Mira closed her eyes. What other answer had she expected? Still, it left her confused, she spread her hands out in her lap and took a deep breath, “So why then? Why go out of your way? I’d understand not wanting to speak to me again after Caleb laid it out so publicly. Why sit me down to chat and make me an espresso?” There was a tremble at the end of the sentence that betrayed there was more emotion than the cold singer was willing to put into the limelight.

Biting her lip, Maddy slowly raised her eyes to meet Mira’s, “because after breakfast this morning, it felt like- it seemed to me that you also think what you did was reprehensible. So I need to know. Why? Why did you do it?”

“Ah.” Mira reached for the cup but then didn’t pick it up, looking off to the side as her finger ran over the lip of the small mug. There was a moment of silence, and it seemed like Mira was trying to find the right words before finally saying, “I thought I made it clear…I was the only one who could-”

“Shut up-no.” The **** of the words seemed to shock even Maddy, whose face was red as she stared Mira down, “You don’t even believe that, so don’t feed that garbage to me.”

Eyes darting around, Mira’s tone grew strained, “No- you don’t understand- by myself I was only able to- I could only-”

“So why didn’t you ask for help then?” Maddy cut her off, “If that was the ‘only’ solution you could find on your own? Why not go to me? Or Amy? Or Caleb?”

Mira was physically pushing back on her chair now, trying to create distance from herself and the chef, “I couldn’t, I just- no, it had to be…” Her hands went up to her face as she stared down at the ground, her fingers running up into her hair.

“You couldn’t? What was stopping you? Who was stopping you?” Maddy was leaning in not letting Mira get a moment of reprieve.

“No, you don’t understand-if I didn’t do it, if it wasn’t just me- I…what?” Her eyes were moving around as she clutched her head intensely, almost as if she was trying to squeeze the answer out.

The blonde got up from her seat and moved around the table towards Mira, “If somebody made you do this, you need to tell us, because right now? I don’t know who you are. I didn’t think the woman who helped me out earlier in the round was capable of doing something like this.” As Mira stared at her with abject dread in her expression, Maddy pushed on, “I thought you were strict, harsh maybe, but you genuinely talked like you cared about me, about the whole group!” Moisture was forming at the edge of Maddy’s eyes as her voice grew more intense.

“You made it sound like you didn’t want any of us to face elimination, to be reduced to mere objects, so why? Why would you do that to Eliza?” The chef’s voice cracked as her volume rose at the end.

As the words hit, something seemed to break behind Mira’s expression; the normally unflappable, borderline expressionless face gave way to a deep sadness, her lips trembling, “I…it felt like, if I didn’t do it…everything would crumble, if I couldn’t do it on my own, if I couldn’t help…but instead I…I…” She let the words drift as tears began to fall from her eyes, and then she slowly looked up towards Maddy, “I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s not just Eliza, though that alone would be horrible. You betrayed everyone’s trust. So there’s only one place to start.” Maddy stared on, her face a mask of stone even as she held back her own tears.

Mira stared on, and even now that she needed with every fiber of her being to know the answer, there was something deep inside clawing at her throat that made it physically painful to even think about asking for help. As if in response, she subconsciously found herself clawing at her neck as she **** the words out, “What do I do?”

Frowning, Maddy shook her head, “There’s going to be no easy fix for this. Even now, so much of me wants to leave you to rot, but…I know from my dad’s time in social work that sometimes people need a chance.”

“Thank you-” the agent got out, reaching out for Maddy’s arm, but the chef cut her off and brushed away her hands.

“Thank my dad, not me.” She then sighed heavily, “You have to start with apologizing, no more of this ‘I did what I needed to do’ bull. If I hear that again, you won’t get any more help from me.”

Mira wiped her eyes and tried to recover her demeanor, “And then?”

Maddy looked her up and down, “Then you have to show an actual willingness to change, and I can’t help you with that. I…all I’m doing is lengthening the rope. Whether you find a way to free yourself or just use it to hang yourself, that’s up to you.” The chef wiped her eyes, wiped her hands on her apron, and began to walk towards the exit. “Enjoy the espresso.” These were the last words she left Mira with as the agent stared off, contemplating what to do next.

Reminder Season AMA question submissions are open