Words with Fiends - 52

Mei couldn't believe it.

Fifteen years. Fifteen years since she'd last seen Liana, and her heart still raced at the sight of her. Even after all that time, the memory came rushing back, the warmth of Liana's lips, her very first kiss. Their only kiss, in fact. A kiss goodbye.

The very next day, Mei's left Ottawa for Dubai, her parents had taken jobs halfway around the world and dragged her with them. Until that moment, she'd never even considered that she might be gay. She'd simply assumed she was too busy to care about boys, that sooner or later she'd meet the right one and everything would make sense.

Instead, Liana had turned her world upside down with a single kiss.

That brief moment awakened something Mei hadn't known existed: a longing for affection, for intimacy, for love. And then, almost as soon as she'd discovered that part of herself, she found herself living in a country where acting on those feelings could land her in prison.

She'd never forgotten about Liana. Not as she struggled to adjust to an international school filled with snobby rich kids that looked down on her. Not as she made another big move to attend Imperial College in London, or as she finished her Master's in Zurich and started her career in robotics. In fact Liana was the reason she was here, now, back in Ottawa.

With her qualifications she could have gone anywhere. She'd been headhunted by Boston Dynamics and NVIDIA and had her pick of employers around the world. But for her dream, her very own company, she got to pick where in the world she'd found it, and she chose Ottawa. One could very easily argue there were better places to found a robotics company, in fact Ottawa had a lot of downsides, but Ottawa had the one thing nowhere else in the world had, Liana.

She'd arrived a little over a month ago. She'd lied to herself and said she'd been too busy to reach out earlier, but the truth was she was scared. Would Liana even remember her? Would she be mad that they hadn't kept in touch? Would she be confused by the sudden outreach?

And then out of nowhere, a message from Liana herself. Mei had thought it was a sign. She'd clicked the link, eager to reconnect. The game...she hadn't understood it. But she'd played it anyway. Liana had sent it and so...

But it was all a lie. Liana hadn't been thinking about Mei at all. Hadn't thought of her at all in the past 15 years. She was too busy living with two busty bombshells, why would she spare even a moment to remember a single kiss nearly two decades past?

Of course Mei accepted the supernatural aspect of the game. She wouldn't have believe it had someone just told her about it off-hand, but having literally lost her pussy, it was pretty difficult to refute. And so now she was stuck. Tweedledee and Tweedledum didn't seem too bright, but if Liana hadn't found a way to quit yet Mei imagined it would be just as hard for herself.

She couldn't even just ignore it. The loss of her vagina was just too big to ignore. If that Kayla girl wasn't lying, her ability to steal it was temporary and the punishment would revert back to her within a day at most. She had to play again.

"Well..." Mei said, breaking the tension in the air. The four of them were sitting in Liana's living room, having just gone over the game and everything that happened to them, "Any tips? I've got to play again today it seems."

"It's all about the PW tiles," Liana said, "The fiends don't have a penalty, so they use them if they can. We've all played there to win the game, but make sure your word is worth it. Otherwise you get a punishment on top of another one."

Mei nodded, "Alright. I guess...I'll play then." She took out her phone and tapped the app.

Immediately a notification popped up.

Welcome to the crew! As a special bonus, why not take the change to take those sluts down a peg? Initiate a team challenge, you and Liana vs Kayla and Sienna, and receive 100 bonus gems! Oh and fair warning, the challenge comes with double the rewards, and double the punishments!

Mei grimaced. She didn't like the idea of doubling up right now, but 100 gems...that was enough to removed ZIPPED, wasn't it?

She tapped her screen and the other's phones all buzzed.

"A team challenge?" Sienna asked.

"Like, sure." Kayla said.

"Ok, I'll play." Liana agreed.

"Ok, here goes." Mei got to start first, since she initiated the game.

She frowned immediately. The best word she could do was PRANK, but that would hit the PW tile. She didn't want to suffer a punishment immediately, so she shifted the word to put the A in the middle. 20 points. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad yet.

Bad apparently. Kayla went after her and played FOXES for 42.

Liana brought them back to a lead with BARIUM, playing down the middle to hit the PW tile. Mei winced and looked at her childhood friend. She felt awful that she'd played badly and made her resort to that.

Then Sienna played ANKLE, making AX and NE off FOXES, for 36 points. Mei stared at her, maybe she'd underestimated the young woman. That was bad, because it was Mei's final turn and they were down 18 points. After 1 turn each, Mei's was the bottom score.

The PW tile was open. She had no choice. She HAD to. For Liana's sake. ZARF, 64.

"What the fuck is a Zarf?" Sienna spat.

Mei rolled her eyes, "It's like an ornate cup to hold your coffee cup, I saw them all the time in Dubai. But you've probably used those paper sleeves for hot coffee? It's like that."

"Whatever, knock em dead Kayla." Sienna said.

Kayla shook her head, "Sorry, like, this is the best I can, um, do."

Kayla played YET for 24 points, leaving Mei and Sienna up by 22.

Mei watched Liana, hoping she could pull out this win. Finally her phone beeped and she looked down. INCOME, on the triple world, for 30 points. That gave them a 52 point lead.

Now it was all up to Sienna. The PW tile was open now, but at least 5 letters and ending in i? It seemed unlikely.

Time ticked down. With just seconds to go, the word finally appeared.

HADJI. 64 points. They'd won.

"Holy crap!" Sienna said, "I can't believe we won!"

"Like, go S!" Kayla said.

Liana sighed and leaned back on her chair, "That sucked."

Mei stayed silent. She was so sure that she would win. She was a genius with a Masters in Robotics from one of the worlds top Universities and Liana was one of the youngest full professors in the University's history, and they were up against two young bimbos. But still...they'd lost.

She glanced down at her phone. First it told her what her PW word punishment was.

ZARF - Traditionally Zarfs are pieces of fine art, often with intricate patterns carved into them. Now you'll be like a ZARF yourself, with an intricate pattern all over your 'sleeves'

She was confused by what it meant, then gasped as she looked at her arms. She pulled her sleeves back and saw she had tattoos running all down her arms. Before she could think more about it, another notifcation.

Pick your punishments (minimum two)

• PRANK
• INCOME
• ANKLE
• FOXES
• Upgrade ZIPPED
• Make ZIPPED Permanent (counts for two)

No way in hell would she pick either of the last two. That meant two new punishments. She had no idea what any of them could be and so she picked FOXES and INCOME for no particular reason.

FOXES - You're now part fox! Enjoy the ears!

INCOME - Income? What income? You just launched a new company and have yet to make a single sale. All your money is going into keeping your company afloat, so you really can't afford to spend money on food, rent, clothing and the like. To help resist the temptation, now you CAN'T spend money on anything else!

Part fox? What...she reached up and touched the top of her head, "Oh my God...I'm...a freak..." She put her hands down and stared at Liana. Of course her eyes didn't land on Liana's face, but on her chest, "What the hell?"

Liana gave a soft laugh, "Ya. My PW word. Barium. Apparently it means heavy...? So yeah, I got to haul these puppies around for a while."

"Wow...well, what about me? Is it as bad as I think it is?" Mei asked.

Liana shook her head, "I think it looks cute."

"Ya, like a cute, um, headband!" Kayla said.

"It actually suits you." Sienna agreed.

Mei blushed, "R-really?"

"Totally. Now then, what else did you get besides the tats and the fox ears?" Liana asked.

"Income. I can't spend money on anything." Mei admitted, she didn't see a point in lying.

"I made my breast increase permanent. Not BARIUM, I had BOOB already," Liana said, "Also ankle makes me unable to wear full length pants. Really...not a big deal. Capris are cute."

Mei looked down and noticed she'd rolled up her jeans. That wasn't so bad, why hadn't she picked ANKLE?

"And you girls?" Liana asked the victors.

Sienna grinned, "It's a secret."

"I like, haven't decided yet." Kayla said, "I want to, um, get rid of, like, all of them."

"Oh...you talking like that is a punishment, isn't it?" Mei asked.

Kayla nodded, "Like, totz."

Mei felt bad for having judged the other woman so harshly. They might be younger than she was, but she was definitely the fool here. Mei smiled at her, "I think we got off on the wrong foot. I'm sorry. I was just upset and..." She glanced at Sienna too, "I've been judging you both pretty harshly since I met you. Can you forgive me?"

"I didn't, like, notice." Kayla said, "So, totz."

"Sure dude, we're cool." Sienna said. "Also it's not my place to offer but..." She glanced at Liana.

Liana nodded, "Yes. Please, come stay here. There's lots of space and I won't charge you rent."

Mei nodded, "I think I have to. I'm sorry for being a burden."

"No burden, I'm so happy. We can catch up. It's been ages." Liana said wtih a smile.

Mei smiled too. Ages. It really had. Was this going to be alright? Really? Only time would tell.