Veau de Romanoff IV

There was no great explosion of sound this time; in fact, it was eerily quiet as everyone observed the results. Still, eyes turned to Lily and Stella, who angrily avoided eye contact with each other. Mira, on the ground, frustratedly tried to shift in her bindings to better see the results, Maya eventually helping her turn her body.

Finally, it was Maddy who spoke up, voice both nervous and confused, “Wait, why did Stella and Lily not get points if they voted trust? How were they eliminated?”

In his chair, Caleb looked uncomfortable. He had a guess at how the two could have suddenly dropped to zero points, but didn’t feel like it was his place to say it. A certain assistant had no problem breaking the tension as Reyna giddily spoke up while holding a tray of cake, “Oh those two made each other cum before the vote even happened.”

Lily visibly winced on stage, while Stella just fumed. Amy tried not to react, feeling it wasn’t her place to judge, while Eliza looked uncomfortable with the whole situation. If Maya was reacting, she was pulling a cool poker face as she stayed down with Mira. Maddy was the sole person to speak up, shaken from her dour mood by this startled revelation, “Lily? What the hell happened?”

Clearing his throat, Lucian stood up in his chair, “Well, rather than get a sanitized version of events, why don’t we just watch what unfolded, hmm?” The demon tapped his slapstick against the back of Caleb’s chair, and then spun it round, and the center monitor illuminated itself.

For Caleb, the scene was familiar right after Stella had slapped Lily. Lily went diving for the brat’s hair, and the two tumbled to the ground of the room, colliding with the metal with a hard thud. Reaching up, Stella grabs a fistful of Lily’s hair and the latex collar of her neck, as Lily keeps her firm hold on Stella and yells, “Let go of me!”

A shiver runs down Stella’s spine, and she feels herself quiver as her suit continues to stimulate her. She growls as the two tumble on the floor, “Shut up! Don’t tell me what to do you green bitch!”

“I said, let go, you self-centered hoe bag!” The plant woman leveraged her greater weight and spun so now Stella was pinned below her, their chests pressed against each other as they panted heavily with exertion.

Once again, as the command came out and Stella refused to let go, she felt the heat rise within her. This time, as the suit’s innards exploited her most sensitive spots, she found her eyes glazing over as she let out a squeaky whine. She pinched her eyes shut and unconsciously ground her crotch against Lily’s leg, her voice coming out angry but pleading, “I said shut up!”

Lily looking down and seeing that Stella was grinding against her shifted as her face turned red and filled with disgust, “Stop humping me you absolute degenerate freak!”

As her suit stimulating her meets the words spat from the plant girl's mouth. Stella knows it’s too late and feels her body begin to convulse, her hips jutting out against Lily, her hard nipples visible through the black latex of her suit. Even as she convulses, she feels the overwhelming spite against Lily fill her body, making her mouth taste like battery acid. She lets go of Lily’s collar and darts her hand down to grab at Lily’s mound through the suit.

Lily’s eyes dart wide open as she looks aghast at Stella who has her teeth gritted as she glares up at her, “What the fuck do you think you’re do-auuuuooah.” A **** moan lets out from her lips as Stella begins to furiously massage her through the suit, her fingers pressing deep against her core still on edge from over a week’s worth of edging.

“Stop…ah…it” she manages to gasp out, but Stella doesn’t let up even as another ignored command sends her spiraling. If she was going out, she wasn’t doing it alone. Lily feels her body growing close and tries to flip and pull Stella off her, but the smaller woman is latched out tight fueled by indecency and spite. The redhead lowers her head and bites down on Lily’s enhanced chest through the other’s clothes, eliciting a shocked gasp of pain and pleasure, which is enough to send the flower woman over the edge.

The camera briefly has its vision blocked by a cloud of gold-coloured dust filling the room, painting the walls, and eventually clearing to reveal the two women panting on the ground as the light turns red.

There was no shortage of embarrassed shuffling as the monitor turned back off. Caleb had assumed something of the sort, but seeing it happen was simultaneously exhilarating and filled with secondhand embarrassment. Knowing Lily, he was sure that she was more upset about being exposed like that than being eliminated.

For her part, the green woman tried not to show it, simply avoiding looking at Stella and keeping her arms crossed. She looked defiantly at Lucian, “So now what? We’re eliminated, right?” She tried to keep her voice even and in control, but there was a twinge of embarrassment eeking through.

The Demon, for his part, merely leaned in, smirking, “Indeed, so why don’t we clear the Stage for the next round? Can’t have riff-raff getting in the way.” With that he waved the slapstick and with a small popping sound, Lily and Stella each appeared on opposite sides of Noemi, who was still passed out in her chair.

Caleb got up and moved to Lily, and put his hand on hers. “Hey, are you alright?” He knelt down to be level with her as Lily plainly shook her head. Caleb tried to look her in the eyes, “It’s ok, no one is going to judge you for what happened up there.”

Lily scoffed, “No, Caleb, I’m embarrassed, but I don’t care about that. I think Maddy might not forgive me now, I really fucked things up. I just wanted to help Amy out, return the favor for everything she did, but…” She trailed off.

Caleb wished he had anything he could say in response, but if anything, this moment only emphasized how he didn’t know Maddy closely enough to be able to vouch for her feelings. It was clear that she was hurt by people voting Betray in the first round. Could she move past it? It was possible, Caleb certainly hoped so. But he couldn’t say for sure.

Seeing the look in his eyes as he scrambled for what to say Lily shook her head, “Don’t say anything, just…help her out in whatever ways you can. She cares what you think, so please support her.” She didn’t say it but Caleb could hear the silent addendum of “because I can’t”

Stella leaned over to look past Noemi. “Are you going to ask me how I’m doing?” Seeing Caleb’s surprised look, the bartender shook her head, “Nope, of course not, figures.”

Caleb was about to move over to speak with her when Lucian prodded him with he end of the Slapstick, “If Master would please return to his seat? There’s been enough of a digression at this point, and we really need to get this train moving along.”

Begrudgingly, Caleb went back and sat down in his lonely throne as Lucian rose up.

“It is time for round three, which means we need new teams, and looking at the scores, we may be nearing the turning point in our little competition. So gentle viewers, take a gander at the teams for round three!” He spun his slapstick, and the colourful slots began to spin on the monitor, the auditorium filling with colourful lights and sounds for a moment before finalizing the positions for the third round.

Round 3:

A1: Maya & Stella

A2: Amy & Lily

B1: Maddy & Mira

B2: Eliza & Noemi

Caleb looked up at the arrangement and winced. Each team was essentially a single person now. Mira may be in the competition still, but she was essentially a bystander wrapped in ropes as she was.

This wasn’t lost on the demon either, who spoke up, “Well, well, we seem to have moved on from the doubles portion of today’s competition to the singles brackets. Not to mention, we have two competitors at the precipice of winning. We might be approaching the end here, but let’s see if our contestants can at least make it spicy for us!”

The doors to the voting booths began to slide open. Even from the outside, Maddy could see the familiar sparkles of Lily’s pollen triggering a simultaneous pang of annoyance but also a brief sense of longing for the times she spent with the person she thought she could trust as a friend. She shook her head, it didn’t do to focus on it now.

Amy looked over at Maya and saw that the purple-haired woman was moving to her voting booth. The Oni raised an eyebrow, “Not sitting this round out?”

Maya smiled back at Amy, “No, I don’t think that would be a good move this time around.” She gazed around the stage and back to Amy, “It’s a shame, but I do think this game is about to come to an end. Oh well, there will be other games.”

Amy grimaced. She had come to a similar conclusion, but hearing her thoughts reflected by Maya was making her feel a certain way.

At the end of the line, Eliza just stood frozen. She had been so consumed with guilt last round that she hadn’t even thought of choosing Betray. She hadn’t even considered the people in the booth next to her. She felt awful, like she was going against everything she had said she stood for. She said she would help guide these young women, and now? Who was she to guide anyone?

With a sharp cry that echoed throughout the space, the buzzer went off, and everyone filed inside, except Mira tied to the ground, and surprisingly for Eliza. Her feet were frozen to the ground, and she couldn’t make herself move.

In the audience, Lily sighed. She had seen how surprisingly sensitive Eliza was throughout the week for a woman her age. Or maybe it had something to do with her transformation, turning back the clock on her. Maybe she had been this nervous in her twenties, maybe she never grew out of it. Still, she wasn’t surprised to see that the older woman was struggling at this moment.

After a few minutes of just standing there, it was like she rebooted and realized where she was, looking around the stage and realizing she had given up her chance to vote. She looked over and saw that Mira was watching her carefully. The blonde moved over and knelt next to the Bengali woman, “I guess all of this is no surprise to you, you tried to warn me.”

In her bindings, Mira gave a shrug, “I gave you my perspective, it was never my intent to say what you were doing was wrong. It’s just a much harder path to consider when we’re **** into situations like this.”

“If only I had just voted Trust. I said I would help us all get through, but when push came to shove…” Eliza drifted off.

Regarding her carefully Mira spoke up, “You and Caleb are a lot alike in this way.”

Startled and confused, the blonde looked down, “How do you mean?”

“You both spend a lot of time in your head and thinking about what you should have done, not what you’re going to do now.” Mira inched her way closer to Eliza, “You can’t change what you did. If you’re unhappy with it, then do it differently in the future.”

“You make that sound so simple, I have to deal with the friends I betrayed.” Eliza shifts uncomfortably.

Mira rolls her eyes, “That’s a separate issue, you hurt people, you have to make it up to them if they’re important to you, but regretting your actions won’t do that. It’s ego stroking masquerading as punishment. ‘OH if only you did things differently’, well, you didn’t, so now is the time to step up.”

Eliza blinked and matched Mira’s gaze, “You’re quite the hard woman.”

Glancing away, Mira shrugged again, “Sometimes you need to get past your ego and do what needs to be done to achieve your goals. I just don’t like watching people I respect drown themselves in vain struggles.”

“Thank you? I think?” Eliza tilted her head and watched as the lights in the room turned red. “Well, it must be voting time. They’ll be out soon. I’ll do better in the next round.”

Mira just nodded as the buzzer went off and everyone began to file out. Maddy came over and stood by Eliza and shot her a brief look before turning determinedly at the screen. Maya was all smiles as she came out of the booth, and Amy kept her expression even. Finally, the screens flashed.

Round 3:
A1: Maya & Stella: BETRAY
A2: Amy & Lily: BETRAY
B1: Maddy & Mira: TRUST
B2: Eliza & Noemi: TRUST

Lily: +0: 0 Points 6th place

Mira: +2: 7 Points 3rd Place

Eliza: +2: 10 Points 1st Place WINNER

Amy +0: 5 Points 5th Place

Noemi: +2: 0 Points 8th place

Madeline: +2: 5 Points 5th Place

Stella: +2: 0 Points 7th place

Maya: +0: 8 points 2nd Place

Eliza stared up at the screen, shocked and looked over to Maddy, who gave her an even expression before saying, “I just wanted all this to be over, and…” she paused, “Even if you failed to live up to what you preached, I didn’t want to.”

The words stung to hear, but Eliza tried to smile, “I’m sorry, Maddy…I won’t let you down again.”

Maddy turned away, “We’ll see.”

Lucian got up from his seat and smiled, floating up and looking towards the audience, “We have a winner! First place and immune from the transformation vote is our very own Eliza Dawson. Not only that, we have some VP to award! Well and subtract, but let’s not sweat the small stuff.” With a wave of the slapstick, the center screen changed to reflect the changes in everyone’s VP totals.

Eliza Dawson – 3 VP + 11 VP: 14 VP

Mira Gayen – 8 VP + 7 VP: 15 VP

Madeline Purcell – 2 VP + 3 VP: 5 VP

Stella Vincent – 11 VP - 1 VP: 10 VP

Amy Tanaka – 0 VP + 3VP: 3 VP

Lillian Wright – 16 VP + 1 VP: 17 VP

Maya Quinn - – 18 VP + 9 VP: 27 VP

Noemi Castro – 41 VP -3 VP: 38 VP

The demon grinned, “Which means it’s time for our end of first challenge transformations! Please give us a moment to resituate the stage, and we will be right back.”

From the side of the stage, Reyna spoke up, “Also…I might need time to resituate myself. Turning every saw, Reyna holding the cake that had previously been on the floor, some icing smeared across her face and her chest had expanded to such a ridiculous degree it was a wonder she hadn’t fallen over.

Lucian sighed heavily, “We’ll be right back.”