Soupes de Pompadour

The perpetual sunlight of the island beat down on the pavement, and the consistent heat and water all around gave the island a balmy, humid layered heat that was almost like being enclosed in a blanket. It was as if the site of this infernal game had misread the intent of the showrunners and was providing the most comforting atmosphere for its contestants to engage in a game of backstabbing. The sunny rays peered through the windows of the small cafe where Eliza sat with a latte in front of her.

Even though the air conditioning of the cafe kept it cool inside, the young professor still had a thin sheen of sweat on her skin. Unfortunately, her de-aging transformation had not done anything for her wardrobe, and she found herself still dressing in the long skirts and blouses she was used to. She also felt exposed with her arms on display, another remnant from concerns of aging, and had brought her cardigan with her despite the heat. She lifted her espresso to her lips and took a sip, bitter but fruity notes danced on her tongue as the bell to the door rang and Mira entered.

The Bengali woman walked up to the Faun wearing the fake mustache behind the counter and, after a cursory glance at the menu, put in an order for a London Fog and then moved to join Eliza at her table, “Thank you for meeting with me, I know it was short notice.”

The young professor shook her head and set down her cup, “Not at all, It’s not exactly like I had plans. They leave us much to our own devices when we don’t have a date so I’ve been enjoying the vacation, **** though it may be,” the blonde tapped her fingers on the table and then continued, “I will be honest and say I am surprised you wanted to meet with me. I thought you might bear a grudge over how I’ve comported myself in this competition.” Eliza felt there was no need to hide her misgivings. If Mira had been the one to sabotage her, it wouldn’t do to beat around the bush after she had arranged this meeting.

Mira thanked a Faun in passing for delivering her drink and then turned her attention back to Eliza, “No grudge, I don’t necessarily agree with the way you have chosen to handle yourself, but that doesn’t mean I don’t respect it or you. Also I felt despite your transformation, it might be nice to talk to the only other woman who was older than twenty here,” She smiled at Eliza and was met with a smile in return before continuing, “Caleb also suggested we talk, so there are a lot of reasons for this meeting.”

She let the words hang in the air and leaned in to grab her cup and blow on it, before taking a long sip of the tea inside. While the Singer was enjoying her tea, Eliza broke the silence, “So what is it you wanted to discuss?”

Setting her cup down, Mira locked eyes with Eliza, “I wanted to know from your perspective how we are to navigate this situation. I know broad strokes, you are against the unilateral use of Sabotages as I understand it, but answer truthfully, is your intent to ignore the game in front of us?”

Eliza pursed her lips, she thought of the others and then sighed, “No, it is my earnest belief we all need to be doing our best to win to avoid those dreadful exit transformations. It wasn’t by choice that I am here and now **** into a former student's harem, but I want everyone to make it out on the other side as roughly themselves, however that looks.”

Mira leaned in, “So you believe we should be doing everything in our power to do well in the game, but don’t want us to use all the resources available to us?” She held up a hand, “Not a criticism, I am just trying to understand your perspective. To me it feels like trying to play basketball with one hand tied behind your back.”

Lifting her cup, Eliza looked at the remains of the swirling design in it and took a few seconds before responding, “I am being selfish.” Seeing the shocked look on Mira’s face, she continued, “I believe it is fully possible for us to do well in this competition without harming each other in the process, in fact I believe that if we were to all descend into pure sabotaging behaviour it would only keep us all from pulling ahead. I also recognize that there are shades of grey and options I am limiting myself on purely due to discomfort.”

Eliza finished her drink and then put her cup down, causing a notable clinking sound, “When the Sabotage was used on me the other night…I wanted to use it to pull ahead, but ended up getting dragged down by concerns of who I might be by the end of this competition or if I could be happy with myself afterwards…My ex-husband left me for being “boring”. I’ve wanted to think that…that his statements were a reflection of his own insecurities and not who I was.” The professor’s head turned down, “This island has made me doubt myself on several points that maybe I was in fact the problem.”

Mira reached across the table and took the hand of the blonde, “For what it’s worth, I don’t think you’re boring. The fact that you’re here suggests Caleb doesn’t think so either. Thank you for sharing that with me, I can better understand where you are coming from.” She lightly withdrew her hand, “I agree that all-out war would be detrimental to all parties, but I believe in self-preservation and doing what I need to do to pull ahead. I don’t feel like victory is going to be handed to us for playing nice. I want everyone to do their best, and hopefully everyone makes it to the end, but if it comes down to me or another contestant, I have to choose me first.”

Eliza looked at Mira and surveyed how the other woman held herself with confidence, and began to wonder if she had ever felt so assured of herself at any age. She was interrupted from her thoughts by the Bengali woman asking, “Have you thought about what you would wish for if you won?”

Blinking, Eliza adjusted her cardigan, “I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t thought much about the idea of winning. Making it to the end and beyond that, what life will look like, yes…But I guess I never considered the idea of winning enough to think about the wish. Do you know what you’d wish for?”

Nodding and taking a sip of her drink, Mira replied, “I’d wish for financial stability for all my clients. After this game is through, no matter what, I don’t imagine I will be in a position to continue running my services the way I have, not to mention that with having my voice back, I have options available that I thought I’d never have. I don’t want to leave the people who depended on me high and dry and given Caleb was one of my clients it should also help provide for the Harem.”

Eliza smiled, “It’s quite thorough, and very caring of you.”

Mira shot the blonde a look, “Regardless of how I may appear, I’m not heartless. I’m doing what I must to survive. I expect others to do the same.”

Raising an eyebrow, Eliza asked, “So if someone were to sabotage you? You’d feel nothing?”

“I’d be irritated, of course, especially if it got in the way of my plans.” Mira took another drink, “I wouldn’t hold a grudge, though, it wouldn’t be productive. The biggest reason I’m skeptical of your group's play nice approach is I feel like it’s a breeding ground for hurt feelings and taking things personally. You seem to be taking what happened to you in stride, but what about the other girls in your group? How are they handling things?”

Eliza paused and was given a moments reprieve by a faun coming over to collect their dishes and then settled on, “They’re doing the best they can, I don’t think any of them is set to handle this environment well and…” she paused wondering if it was too judgmental, but decided it was better to be upfront, “I don’t think they have the maturity to handle this situation, I would guess many of them are collaborating with me because it feels safe over anything else.”

Mira sighed and nodded, “And you haven’t discussed this with them?”

Eliza’s cheeks blushed pink, “No, I haven’t…I’ve been enjoying having friends my own age for the first time in so long and…I’m afraid that pointing it out would remind them how old I actually am.”

“It is my understanding, real friends look out for each other, but that’s just me.” Mira got up from the table, “Thank you for meeting with me, Eliza. I feel like I understand things a lot better. I hope things work out for you, I do, but we won’t know until after the first challenge.”

Eliza stood up to match Mira, “Thank you for talking with me, I feel a bit better about some anxieties I hadn’t realized I was carrying until now.”

The Bengali woman shrugged and smiled, “Us older women have to look out for each other,” and then walked out of the cafe.

Maddy had been out on the water since she left her room. She hadn’t had a destination in mind, so the Faun had just taken her out through the canals. She couldn’t believe all the things she had seen in passing as the boat drifted along, a large tower, a burned church, what appeared to be the entrance to some catacombs, but only part of her was invested in seeing any of it. She felt heavy. She had been so angry and sad when she had told Lily off and stormed off, but now it was like simultaneously the inside of her was hollow, but also weighed ten tonnes.

Were all the interactions she had had with Lily up until now fake? Why did she keep lying and hiding things from her if they were supposed to be friends? What parts of her were the real Lily and which were put on for Maddy’s sake? She knew one thing: if she kept seeing Caleb, Lily would continue to be upset with her for it.

She had been in situations like this before back in school, when her “friends” would keep her around to make themselves look better and then if she started to talking to the wrong people they’d get upset or accuse her of trying to be chummy with their boyfriend even though she was a fat pig. Nina had been the first actual friend that Maddy had made since leaving school, never talking down to her or pinning the blame on her. She thought that Lily could have been like that too. Maybe it was her own fault, Maddy thought ruefully to herself. Maybe she was the type of person who didn’t deserve real friends.

After a while, the boat came to a sudden stop at a dock, and the chef was jolted from her thoughts and turned to look at the faundolier, who was looking at her impatiently. Maddy tilted her head, “I’m sorry, did I do something wrong?”

The faun rolled its eyes and pointed at the nearby street clock and then mimed eating a sandwich with its hands. Realization dawned on Maddy’s face, “Oh! Is it your lunch break?” The faun nodded and jumped off the boat, leaving Maddy sitting in the vessel by herself. A quick look around revealed that they had stopped at the bazaar, and a quick check in with her stomach revealed that maybe it was time for her to eat too, as her intestines gurgled at her.

She hopped out of the boat and then realized she could hear a voice in the distance. Making her way toward the sound, the voice became clearer.

“Sorry for whatever I did, please forgive me”, “Sorry I didn’t mean whatever it was that bothered you.”, “Please forgive my transgressions!”

The chef entered the bazaar and saw Stella bowing to each shop tiller in turn and apologizing to them. Maddy hadn’t seen her since the woman had barged into the kitchen the other day to apologize and was surprised to see the demonic countenance she now sported. The imp then spotted her from across the way and made a mad dash over, causing Maddy to recoil in surprise.

“Sorry, Maddy, for taking your sweets. It was wrong and I’m very sorry.” Stella then looked herself over, saw no changes and thrashed her arms about, “Godammmit fuck ass bitch!”

The chef stayed recoiled and then watched as Stella relaxed, “Dammit, Sorry Mads I thought maybe I didn’t apologize well enough yesterday and that would fix this” She gestured to her body.

Maddy leaned in, “Oh sorry, I mean you already apologized so it’s fine just…don’t do it again?”

“Fuck if I knew Caleb would have done this I wouldn’t have done it the first time. HEAR THAT YOU DEMON PIECE OF SHIT I LEARNED MY LESSON CHANGE ME BACK!” Stella called out to the sky but after no response was forthcoming gave a dejected, “Shit.” and kicked a nearby stone.

Maddy wasn’t sure how to handle Stella, the woman seemed unpredictable, and it unnerved her and reminded her a lot of some of the girls back in school. So when Stella looked her up and down and then asked, “Hey, you in trouble or something? You look down.” it caught her completely by surprise.

Struggling to find the words, especially ones she was comfortable saying to Stella, she froze for a moment before saying lamely, “I had a fight with Lily…she lied to me.”

“Oh, is that all?” Stella looked at the blonde blankly.

After everything that had taken place, Maddy did not enjoy feeling like her emotions were being trivialized and found her voice rising, “I thought she was my friend and she lied to me! It’s a big deal!”

Stella shrugged, “Like maybe it is? But also, is it helpful to be upset about it? I don’t get it. If you don’t want to be friends anymore, there’s no point being upset because she’s a bitch and you don’t need to care what she thinks. If you do care, isn’t your energy better spent talking to her and figuring shit out? Like if you still want to be friends, you must assume she had a good enough reason to lie that you could forgive her eventually. I think the whole being upset thing is just a waste of time.”

Maddy paused and stared, unsure how to respond. Yes, she wanted to still be friends with Lily, she wanted to believe they could overcome this, but it wasn’t that easy! Was it? Her stomach growled, and Stella looked over.

The imp looked around, “Hey Mads, want to join me for lunch? There are some food carts around, and it beats apologizing to fauns. I promise I’ll steer clear of talking about your problems if you don’t want to talk about it.”

Maddy swallowed. She did not understand Stella at all. From the way she held herself to the way she talked, but maybe she wasn’t so bad? “Um sure, that sounds fine. Maybe I can help you figure out who you need to apologize to?”

Stella groaned, “I swear if Lucian has a faun in a cage somewhere, I’m gonna throttle him.”

The two moved further into the Bazaar to find food together.

Caleb had spent the time until noon exercising, so it was after a well-earned shower that he dressed for a meeting with Maya. He had a pretty good idea of what they would be up to, considering the location she had chosen for the date but he knew that before they did anything, he needed to talk to her about her behaviour. Amy had told him to step up in his show as Master, and that meant looking after everyone. He just had to do it while being conscientious of Maya and not treating her like a villain, he was sure there was a perfectly logical explanation for all of this.

As he made his way to the gameroom and opened the door, the last thing he had expected was the exuberant greeting he received as Maya leapt out and grabbed his arm, “You’re here! This place is so great! We need to arrange to play games with everyone sometime.” She dragged him over to a cupboard and opened the door, looking through the games inside, “They have some of the best games here! Mancala! Azur, Wingspan, Codenames, wavelength, oooh Deception: **** in Hong Kong!” The woman began to cheerfully list a bunch of names of what Caleb could only assume were board games.

Maya must have noticed the confusion on his face and gave him a wry look, “Not much of a board game person are you?”

Caleb smiled nervously and scratched the back of his head, “My knowledge pretty much ends with Clue and Candyland if I’m being honest.”

“Hmmm,” Maya hummed and closed the cabinet, “That’s ok, I wasn’t planning on playing board games with you today. I just saw them all lined up in the cabinet and got excited. We should totally have a board game night with everyone.”

“Everyone? Are there board games that can be played with that many people?” Caleb asked skeptically.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” Maya skipped around to another cupboard and opened a drawer, and began sifting through it, “There are games for any number of people, I haven’t played many of them, but I’ve watched videos of people playing them and they seem so fun. Most of the time it was just two-player games between me and my mom.”

“I’ll admit, I didn’t expect you to be so excited about this…you did call me a schlub, I seem to remember.” Caleb hoped it came across as a joke as he said it sarcastically.

“Well, you were a schlub,” Maya said matter-of-factly, pulling a deck of cards from the drawer and moving to sit in front of one of the tables, “With that awful facial hair and that tracksuit, it looked like you lived in for a few days, you were very schluby. You clean up nice, though.”

“Oh gee, thanks,” Caleb followed the woman’s movement and sat across from her. “Hey, listen before we do anything on this date. I need to talk with you.”

Maya didn’t look over at him or visually acknowledge, just cutting the cards in her hand and beginning to shuffle them, “Ok? So serious.”

Caleb cleared his throat, wondering how to start and then decided to just be as straightforward as possible, “Some of the other women here have indicated you make them nervous with the way you are approaching being here. They say it seems like you are excited about the idea of sabotaging other people and “playing the game”” Is there any truth to that?”

Maya laid the cards on the table before splitting the deck and cascading the cards together with her thumbs, “I am excited to play the game, it’s fun to me.”

Caleb felt a lump in his throat forming, “It sounds fun? All these transformations, being here against their will?”

Maya sighed, “The transformations, yes, the being here against their will, no. Obviously, games are more fun when everyone chooses to play. But everyone is here and now has to play, so I want to enjoy playing, and games are most fun when everyone is doing their best to win.”

Watching her carefully, Caleb was trying not to sound judgmental or worried, “Isn’t it natural that they might be worried about someone who says they’re going to play a game if that game is dangerous to them? I mean, we saw what happened to some of those people. There are real risks involved here.”

“I don’t get why everyone assumes I want them to fail just because I want to win.” Maya put her hands to her side, and Caleb looked and saw real frustration on her face, “This isn’t a zero-sum game, everyone can win if they do their best! So why is it a problem that I want to do my best at playing the game!? I want everyone to do their best to get one hundred points, but I want to have fun while doing it.”

For a moment, it was as if a veil had slipped and Caleb got a peek at a very fragile little girl behind the well-put-together exterior Maya put forward. Also, despite their frustration, he could detect no malice in her words. He couldn’t understand how she was thinking, but for the moment, he was willing to try and meet on her terms and try and understand.

“Hey, let’s put this aside for now…I didn’t mean to upset you, I just want to take everyone’s concerns seriously.” Caleb said as he reached over and rubbed Maya’s shoulder

Maya lifted the deck of cards and held it to her chest, “I’m not against talking more, but can we do it while playing a game? I want to learn more about you too, and I think it would be best if we did it while playing.”

Caleb leaned back and nodded, “Sure, whatever you want, are we playing poker? I’m guessing that we aren’t playing old maid with two people.”

A sneaky grin came to Maya’s face as she drew a card from the deck and winked over at Caleb, “Have you ever heard of Mao?”