They only want to play the dealer's favorite game, survive in their domain

It took a moment for everyone to process what Sylvia had just said.

“52 Pickup…” Holly echoed.

“…Expert Mode?” Gina asked.

“Exactly,” Sylvia nodded, flashing a shit-eating grin. “You’ve never played 52 Pickup before?”

Everyone shook their heads.

“Well the way I play is simple,” Sylvia said, holding up the deck of cards. “You start with a sealed pack of 52 playing cards…”

She paused, then slid out the joker for everyone to see. She tossed the card away and it caught fire, burning to ash as it tumbled through the air.

“…More or less. Anyway, you take the remaining cards, and you just toss ‘em out!” She flung the deck into the air, sending the cards tumbling every which way as they caught the wind. The girls gasped and Nick’s eyes bugged out as they froze in midair, suspended over the beach like ornaments dangling from a tree.

“What the heck?” Rose asked, her eyes widening in amazement.

“The cards are just… floating there!” Kim marveled.

“Cool!” The artist in Dani couldn’t help but be impressed.

Sylvia smirked. That was just the sort of awe she liked to see on the peons’ faces. “Now as the name implies, you girls will be picking up these cards. It just won't be so simple.”

With a flick of her cane black energy wrapped around the suspended cards, forming tight boxes just large enough to fit in someone's hand. The boxes were completely blank, hiding which card was which. Sylvia twirled her cane through the air and to everyone’s amazement, the boxes flew off in all directions, scattering across the island.

“It's a scavenger hunt! We have to find all the cards!” Gina realized. “That’s the challenge.”

“Exactly correct, my girl,” Sylvia nodded, smiling wickedly. “Yes, your challenge today is to scour the entire island for as many of these cards as you can find! I've hidden them everywhere, so be sure to look closely! And of course, that includes the grounds of the hotel as well.”

Some of the girls paled as a difficult task just turned into an impossible one.

“But that’s no possible!” Mary gasped. “This island is huge! You can’t expect us to search everywhere!”

“I can, and I do,” Sylvia said bluntly. “But you’re right. It would take months to search every spot on this island a card might be hidden, and how dull would that be? That’s why I’ve prepared a special something for each of you.”

Sylvia lifted her cane and a table followed its path, rising up out of the sand. On the table sat nine strange devices that looked like a cross between an iphone and what science fiction shows from the 60s thought iphones would look like in this era. Each of those devices was connected to a long belt with five clips on it.

“What are these?” Carly asked, walking over to the table to get a closer look.

“Those are your Radar Systems,” Sylvia explained. “The screen displays your surrounding environment at all times, and provides the general location of any cards in your area. Not only that, as an added bonus, it will also let you know if one of your fellow harem members is around. A very useful tool for a scavenger hunt like this!”

“So what’s the belt for?” Dakota asked suspiciously.

Sylvia’s lips curled up into a smile. “…For the part that makes this game interesting, my girl. You see, it wouldn’t be fun or fair to just grade you on how many cards you can find. Some of you are faster and stronger than others, after all.”

She glanced pointedly at Dani.

“Instead, we came up with a more fair grading method that takes luck and skill into account as well as physical prowess. Each card is assigned a point value. Kings are 13 Points, Queens are 12 Points, Jacks are 11 Points, and I think you can figure out the rest from there. Of course, you won’t know the value of the card in the box until you open it. It could be a King, or it could be a measly Two. Once you open a box, the card inside will attach itself to your belt there, and the value of that card will be added to your point total. The game will end when every box has been opened and every card has been claimed.”

“There are only five slots,” Dawn noted. “I assume that means we can only hold 5 cards at a time?”

“Just like poker,” Sylvia nodded with a grin. “That’s right. You can only hold 5 cards at a time, my girl. If you open a sixth box while your hand is full, you’ll have to choose a card to leave behind. And discarded cards can be picked up by anybody.”

Dawn wasn’t satisfied with that. “Those numbers don’t add up,” she scowled. There are nine of us, and we can only hold 5 cards at a time. That means at any given time, only 45 cards can be in play. But you said the game won’t end until all the cards are claimed.”

“Hey, yeah!” Kim nodded. “What’s going on here?”

“That,” Sylvia smiled, “brings me to the other rule. The set rule. If, over the course of the game, you manage to gather all 4 cards of a single kind, so 4 Fours, 4 Eights, etc., also known as a set, then those cards are ‘banked’ in a manner of speaking. They’re removed from the game, and all the points are added to your total permanently. The cards can’t be stolen from you after they're banked.”

“Wait, stolen?!” Mary sputtered.

“Oh, did I forget to mention that?” Sylvia tapped her cheek and made a sheepish grin. “That’s right, stolen. If another player touches one of the cards on your belt, if they have an empty space in their hand, then they get to take that card for themselves! So be careful, this game isn’t just about picking up cards around the island, you can also steal cards from the people around you! Say you’re Holly and you have 3 of a kind, but Dani over there has your last Eight. Well, you can grab it from her and complete your set! See how that works?”

The other girls looked tensely at one another, causing Sylvia to sigh.

“Okay, because apparently it needs to be said, while you can be a little rough with each other, I don’t want to see any physical ****. Mud wrestling, my girls, think mud wrestling. Or sexy pillow fight. I don’t want to see any bleeding or broken bones, got it?”

“Why are you looking at me when you say that?!” Dani scowled.

Sylvia ignored her. “Now then, do you understand how this game works, my girls? You can give away cards, take cards, bank cards, all manner of things! You want to bank as many sets as possible, in order to get as many points as possible. The higher your point total, the more Victory Points you’ll get! Here’s how we’ll be distributing those,” she gestured to a screen that appeared beside her on the stage.

First Place: 10 VP

Second Place: 8 VP

Third Place: 6 VP

Fourth Place: 4 VP

Fifth Place: 2 VP

Sixth Place: 0 VP

Seventh Place: -2 VP

Eighth Place: -4 VP

Ninth Place: -6 VP

The girls all gasped.

“Wait, we can lose points now?!” Kim cried.

“Yes, you can,” Sylvia nodded. “The time for playing nice ended last week. You’re in the elimination rounds now, my girls. And that means that the three of you who get the lowest amount of points in this challenge will find those hard-earned Victory Points of yours slip away!”

“But on the other hand, first place is worth more than last week,” Dawn noted.

Sylvia winked. “Just a little added incentive! Now, are there any other questions?”

Gina raised her hand.

“Yes?” Sylvia sighed, wanting to get on with the game.

“Will we know how many points everyone has?” Gina asked curiously. “Like I mean, is there going to be some way to monitor what everyone’s found, so we know what we have to look for, and who’s in the lead?”

Sylvia smirked. She liked the way Gina was thinking.

“Yes of course,” she nodded, tapping her cane. The screen shifted to reveal the girls’ names next to blank slots.

“This will be floating above the island, nice and big so you'll be able to see it clearly from wherever you are,” Sylvia promised. “It will display which individual cards you girls have collected, which sets you’ve banked, and how many total points you have. Any other questions? Lovely. Now, please grab your Radar System, and get ready!”

She waited until all the girls had picked up one of the Radar Systems and fastened the belts around their waists.

Then she grinned and smacked herself on the head.

“Oh, no! I almost forgot the most fun part of this challenge!” She groaned loudly, making it clear to everyone that she had not just "forgotten".

Nick winced, not liking where this was going. Of course there's something else. There's always something else.

“What?” Holly asked, sighing in resignation.

“You see my girls, it’s not as simple as just stocking up sets,” she explained. “For every set you complete, the girl who completes it, well… they get a little something.”

That caused everyone to brighten up.

“What, like a prize?” Kim asked curiously.

“It is a type of prize, in a manner of speaking,” Sylvia said cryptically. “Let's call it a ‘reward’. You see, without a certain amount of incentive, you girls may only aim for the high numbers. After all, those cards are worth the most points, so that’s the best way to win! So to encourage all the cards to be found, I decided that the higher the value of the set you complete is, the more… let’s say ‘dynamic’ your reward becomes.”

A wicked smile spread across her face.

“With lower numbers, for example, your Twos, your Threes, because they’re such low value, it’s not really worth it to waste the space in your hand trying to complete a set. But the benefits for those lower values, if you DO complete the set, is very good! On the other hand, high numbers… well, it could be something debilitating, even to the point of being a handicap in future games. Or even… a punishment transformation.”

The beach fell silent as the girls let that sink in.

“What?!” Mary exclaimed. “A punishment transformation?!”

“That’s right,” Sylvia nodded. “In fact, for whichever girls complete a set of face cards, that is, the Kings, Queens, and Jacks? You’ll be getting a special little surprise come the next transformation round if you make it past elimination.”

Her blues eyes twinkled. “Of course, with the points you stand to gain from completing one of those sets, well… you’re probably confirmed to get immunity then. It's what we call a trade-off, my girls. Complete high value sets and put your body at risk, or stay safe with lower-value cards, but run the risk of scoring lower than your buddy and possibly be eliminated entirely. And as for our Auditionee…”

She turned to Rose with a knowing smile. The blonde stared icily back at her as she tried to figure out what to do.

“…Well, I think you’ll find that this game is very well-suited for you,” Sylvia finished with a cryptic smile. “NOW are there any other questions?”

Before anyone could reply, she tapped her cane on the stage, sending a shockwave through the sand.

“Then… begin!”

The girls were knocked off their feet, and quickly scrambled up and scattered in all directions. Most headed for the forest, while a few stayed to scavenge the beach. As they ran, Sylvia shouted after them.

“One last thing! Nick will have free reign during this challenge! You may entice him as you please, and he may lend you help if he wants! Think of it as a bonus!”

Smiling, she sank back into the throne and crossed her legs, flashing Nick a grin. He sighed, not sure what he should even do at this point.

Rose headed into the forest first. She wasn’t checking her radar or looking for boxes with cards inside them, though, she was looking for something else.

Then she ran into someone she didn’t expect. A twitching tail poked out of a bush a few feet away. She glanced at her Radar System to verify that, yes, there really was another person next to her.

“Dawn?” She asked. The twitching tail stood on end when she said the other woman’s name, and the vet slowly stepped out of the brush. She had a sheepish expression on her face.

“Are you… following me?” Rose didn’t have the room to be taking the moral high ground given that she was looking for someone herself. But she was still curious why the other girl would be coming after her, given the things she’d said back in the banquet hall.

Dawn sighed.

“I guess I wanted… to see how you’re doing,” the short girl muttered. “You know, about this whole thing.”

Rose raised her eyebrow. “You mean the fact that I was pretending to be someone I wasn’t in order to appeal to the audience, which backfired? Or how I don’t really have any friends among the harem because of the stuff I did? Or are you just talking about the challenge in general?”

Dawn flinched, her tail flicking back as her ears drooped. “…Both, I guess,” she admitted. “I’m assuming that, knowing you, you have some sort of plan?”

“…Of course I have a plan,” Rose said. “Why?”

Was Dawn offering to team up with her? That had been the strategy Rose considered. But it seemed like the other girl had something else on her mind.

“Just so you know, I’m not going to help you,” Dawn asserted. “In the challenge, I mean. And I don’t need your help, either! I can succeed in this all by myself, got it?!”

Rose blinked, surprised by the other girl’s assertion. She must be really bothered by the fact that she accepted my help with Nick, she realized.

Dawn lowered her head, her tail drooping behind her. “I know that when it comes to sexual stuff… I didn’t know what to do. And I’m grateful to you for showing me how… how to please Nick. And believe it or not, I have a healthy appreciation for your negotiation skills, getting some BP out of me. But… this is different. This is a competition. And I’m going to prove that I can win this on my own!”

“…Well, that’s nice and all, but why are you telling me?” Rose asked curiously.

Dawn’s ears twitched and she frowned. “I-I mean… that’s your plan, right? That would be my plan, if I was in your shoes. I would try to find someone who isn’t on good terms with their buddy and offer them assistance. Agree to give them all the high number cards that I find.”

“O-ho, is that right?” Rose raised her eyebrow. This girl’s pretty clever. She’s got me figured out completely. Or maybe...

“Dawn,” she cooed, “did you come here to tell me about that little strategy in case I didn't figure it out for myself?”

Dawn's eyes widened and her face turned red. “NO! I'm just... this is just discussing possible tactics with an opponent! That's all! I would never give an advantage to someone else!” She immediately pulled her eyes away from Rose as she said that, shame burning on her face.

Rose chuckled.

“You’re not wrong,” she admitted. “As the Auditionee, there’s no way of getting immunity, even if I get the most points. The only way to guarantee I make it to the next round is by teaming up with someone in exchange for them taking me on as their new buddy.”

“This game works best if you’re working as a team,” Dawn nodded, relaxing slightly. “Working together with someone, you can trade cards with one another to complete sets. And not only that, a team can pool all the high cards they find with one person, keeping them ahead in the point totals. It might result in a low VP score for the other teammate, but it’s not a bad strategy for ensuring someone gets immunity. And with ten slots to hold cards instead of five, you won’t have to abandon as many cards, keeping your options open.”

Rose tittered. “I guess that’s why they say you’re the smart one!” She patted Dawn’s head, tickling her ears. The brunette turned scarlet with embarrassment and rubbed her legs together, feeling a little jolt from Rose’s touch.

“W-Whatever! All I’m saying is that even if it’s the best strategy, I’m not doing it!” Dawn insisted, knocking Rose’s hand away.

Rose was surprised that Dawn would forgo what was obviously the best strategy.

“Coming in first on your own really matters that much to you?” She asked curiously.

“You saw what happened in the last challenge, didn’t you?” Dawn scowled. “I completely lost. That’s why I hate being on teams. The weak link drags down everyone else! It’s easier if I handle everything myself. I can accept all the responsibility and all the blame that way.”

Rose thought that Gina had been the one dragged down by Dawn, but she wanted to stay on the brunette’s good side.

“It was so humiliating!” Dawn shouted, punching a tree. At this point Rose wasn’t even sure if she was part of the conversation anymore.

“I’ve never felt more useless… we lost… and it was all MY fault!”

Oh? Now that’s interesting. Rose thought she'd been blasting Gina, but Dawn was talking about herself? That’s a new wrinkle…

“I’m sure Gina doesn’t care one way or the other about any of that,” Rose said, trying to help the other girl feel better. It went over about as well as trying to convince Mary to join an orgy.

“It’s not about her,” Dawn spat, wiping her eyes. “It’s about ME! I lost! Me! So I’m not going to team up with you, or anybody this time! I’ll-I’ll show you! I’m going to win this whole thing all by myself and prove that I’m not a liability! That I’m the best around!”

Dawn had lived her whole life with absolute faith in her own abilities. That faith had carried her through obstacle after obstacle. Everything she’d accomplished, from her wall of gymnastics trophies to her wall of diplomas and accolades had been obtained by her own blood, sweat, and tears.

This game was no different.

Rose studied her curiously, trying to understand the meaning behind the short girl's statements. She looked at Dawn’s words and, like a character in a movie, tried to understand where she was coming from. When it came to acting, the key to making a character come to life is to understand who they are on a fundamental level.

So who was Dawn? A workaholic? A smug genius? A girl with crippling social anxiety who had to go hat in hand to ask for help sexually pleasing a guy who liked her in high school? All those things were true, but Rose suspected they were just surface facets of the real thing.

She doesn’t want to be on my team… because she wants to prove she can do this on her own. And she feels humiliated over what happened with Gina, but she blames herself instead of the teammate she dislikes.

Nothing was coming through. The picture was too muddled.

Clearly I’m missing a piece here.

Rose didn’t push the issue, though. It didn’t matter right now. If she managed to make it past elimination then she’d have time to analyze Dawn later. And if she didn’t, well… it wouldn’t really make a difference then. She’d have bigger things to worry about.

Still, there was one thing she felt curious enough about to inquire after.

“So why did you tell me all this?” Rose asked, confused.

Dawn flinched and her ears flared, her tail standing on end.

“B-Because I don’t want you to take it personally,” she mumbled. “You know, the fact that I’m not teaming up with you.”

Aww, how adorable!

“And that’s not all!” Her expression turned harsh and she pointed an accusatory finger at Rose. “Don’t even think about teaming up with Gina, you got that?! If you two come against me, I’ll beat you both! So don’t even try!”

Rose couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing. “Dawn… what makes you think I would ever team up with Gina of all people?”

Dawn lowered her finger, confused. “Um… because? You are ****, and if you want to win someone over, Gina would be by far the easiest choice.”

Rose had to admit, Gina seemed like the kind of girl who would agree to be your buddy if you gave her a big enough bag of chips and a beer, but that didn’t mean she had any intention of teaming up with her.

“Believe me,” Rose shook her head, chuckling. “While you’re right, I’m ****, there’s someone else who I’m after as a teammate right now. You don’t need to worry, I won’t turn against you. Our deal still stands, right?”

She winked at Dawn, and the other girl blushed.

“Th-That was when I thought you were some sex goddess!” Dawn hissed, placing her hands on her hips. “Now I know, you’re just a virgin like me!”

“I still know way more about how to please a man than you do,” Rose reminded her. “But yes, it’s fine, you can cancel any future lessons if you like. But like I said before, don’t worry. I’m not going to team up with Gina.”

“I wasn’t worried about that!” Dawn exclaimed. “Who would be worried about that?! Definitely not me, that’s who!”

“Right, right, of course not,” Rose nodded.

“I’m for real here!”

“I’m sure.”

“Rose!”

“I’m sorry!” Rose laughed. “Forgive me. You just look so cute when you get embarrassed like that, I couldn’t help myself!”

Dawn pouted and crossed her arms like a petulant child. “Fine. Whatever. Besides, like I said, I could beat you both! So… just because you can’t team up with me, don’t think it will help you to team up with Gina!”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Rose nodded. “I like you, Dawn. I don’t want to see you get eliminated, either.”

Dawn sighed in relief. Then she turned red.

“I’m not gonna be eliminated because I’m gonna win! You’re the one in danger of being eliminated, you know!” She accused, turning and scampering off into the brush. A few seconds after disappearing, she poked her head out from behind the tree with a contrite expression on her face.

“And look, um… if your strategy doesn’t work out, and no one picks you as a buddy…”

“Hmm?”

“N-Nothing! Good luck!” Dawn disappeared into the forest once more, embarrassed.

What’s the matter with you?! She clutched her head in frustration. She’s your opponent! You’re supposed to be crushing her, not wishing her good luck!