Salade de Betteraves

By the time that Stella and Caleb had collected themselves together, breakfast was in full swing at the dining hall. Despite all the pressures the competition put on the group, and despite everything the group had done to each other, breakfast was the one thing where you could see that maybe the experience was a new positive.

When the Group had first arrived, they had been segmented at different islands of tables, different groups and cliques navigating their situations with very little trust. Now, as the Master entered, the tables were pushed together in the center of the room with everyone talking and eating communally. Even Mira, who had sat off on her own before, just sat at the end of the table so as to not be in direct line of fire of any conversation. Noemi and Lily’s chat yesterday must have gone well too, as the duo was sitting together laughing at something Eliza had said just prior to their entering.

Stella grabbed a chair by Amy and sat herself down. “What’s so funny?”

Noemi held her chin as she finished giggling. “Oh, Eliza was just telling us a story from before she was married. She didn't know what a keg stand was before volunteering to compete against some other girl.”

Crossing her arms, Eliza bristled playfully. “I was challenged! My honour was on the line! Besides, as I said, I still ended up winning.”

Lily wiped a tear from her eye. “And puked in the grass a minute later.”

Pouting, Eliza shook her head, closing her eyes in seriousness. “A victory is a victory!” She then opened one eye and broke out into laughter to the others.

Caleb just smiled as he filled his plate with food. Honestly, these moments were some of the ones he treasured most. The women were just talking amongst themselves, not discussing him or the game, and just enjoying each other's company. Was it unlikely that such a group would be friends in an ordinary scenario? Probably, but he enjoyed these times when he was just a background actor in their stories.

The show pushed him front and center as the source of attention and affection, and Caleb had to it that there were times when he bought into the importance that was placed on him. Sometimes that wasn’t misplaced; in of VP, at least he was the only one outside of bounties that could help with that. That said, their day-to-day functioning? Their friendships? Their lives? He was happy to be a ing actor, helping them shine over him.

He came back from the table with his food and sat across from Stella; next to her he saw Amy. Her horn was just a bit bigger than yesterday, still not fully healed, maybe around three-quarters of the way there. He was worried about that. A part of him had seriously hoped she would be healed in time for their date; he wasn’t entirely sure how cognizant she was of her situation in this state. Especially after Stella explained her previous day's activities to him. Still, it was Amy; she was one of the smartest people he had ever met, even brain-drained, which had to leave her smarter than most people.

He picked at a slice of pear. “How are you doing, Vizier? Healing up alright?”

Amy perked up and smiled; there was a lightness to her expression not normally present, but it was still all her there. “Tis but a flesh wound!” She reached up and rubbed the nub. “Well, I say that, but I dunno; hard to quantify, you know? Like when you forget something but you don’t you forgot it. You might realize later, but otherwise you’re just walking around not ing who Napoleon Bonaparte is.”

Noemi stuck her nose up proudly, “He’s the short one!”

Stella wrinkled her nose, “English propaganda and metric conversion issues; he was five foot six. But when a guy is kicking your ass, you want him to sound as pathetic as possible soooo.”

Noemi frowned. “Couldn’t you let me just have that?”

The imp raised an eyebrow and stole a piece of cheese from Caleb’s plate. “You’d rather be wrong and look smart than learn something?”

Lily frowned. “It wasn’t that important, Stella; we’re all just having fun here.”

Narrowing her eyes, Stella glanced between the two. “Yeah, sure, I guess. Whatevs.” She shrugged.

She looked around the room and then just casually pointed at Noemi, and in a little puff of smoke, mini-Stella appeared by the Chilean’s shoulder.

Noemi looked affronted as the little imp waved, “What’s this about?”

“You and I don’t really hang out, and I feel like we’ve been through a rough patch since the challenge. Figured this was possibly our way to clear the air.” Stella said flatly as she reached to grab a piece of ham from Caleb’s plate

Caleb flicked her hand with his fingers. “You can go get your own, you know?”

Stella batted her eyelashes at Caleb. “Aw but Caweb, stolen food tastes better! It’s a fact of life, besides ater yesterday you said you’d accept all my little quirks~” She teased at the end, poking his cheek.

On the other side of Lily, Maddy’s face was growing redder and redder, and she finally spoke up loudly and abruptly, “What’s everyone planning on doing today?!”

Everyone turned, caught off guard by the sudden exclamation and even more so that it was coming from Maddy of all people. However, one person who wasn’t the quickest to pick up on social cues spoke up.

“I’m going to look around the island for more games to play. There’s got to be some more fun things to do out there.” Maya raised her hand and volunteered with a bright smile.

Stella was still blinking at Maddy, but her eyes refocused on the lottery winner. “Oh, but I was hoping you’d me today.”

Maya looked stunned. “You, you were going to invite me to go somewhere with you?”

The imp nodded. “I wanted to see about upgrading one of my transformations, and I could really use that uncanny luck of yours to make sure I don’t botch it.”

“Oh my gosh! Yeah totally!” Maya giggled slightly. “No, absolutely, I’d love to come! That’s a game anyway, so we both get what we want too!”

Shooting the other girl finger guns, Stella sat back in her chair. “That was the plan, girlie.”

Caleb looked over and tried not to sound second-guessing, but concern leaked through in his voice, “What transformation were you going to upgrade?”

Stella sighed, “I dunno, there are a few things I want to change if I can, so I might actually go multiple rounds. Priority is this one though.” She pointed at her miniature self, who returned the favor by turning around and mooning her. The imp snickered, “I just don’t want to be incapacitated by future info dumps if at all possible.”

Mira was smiling over at Maya’s own face still glowing with anticipation of her plans for the day before speaking up, “I plan to look around the island for inspiration for my date this week, so I imagine that’s going to keep me busy.”

The air grew slightly frosty. It was an almost foregone conclusion that Mira’s date was destined for failure, and her and Caleb's relationship was still…fragile was the best way to put it. He may not be actively gunning for her, but it was clear from the way he looked at her that there were plenty of hard feelings still. She needed VP to avoid the stagnation rule, but everyone knew, including Caleb and Mira, the likelihood of that happening tomorrow was slim to nil. Still, she couldn’t afford to waste her one day a week with guaranteed time with the master.
Caleb took a bite of egg, “I hope you find something worth your time.” He said diplomatically, and everyone gave a sigh of relief that it didn’t seem it would go beyond that. Besides Eliza, who carefully regarded both of them before speaking up.

“I know lots of things have changed since I said it last, but I still firmly believe we need to be taking better advantage of Sabotages and using them more often to lessen the sting when they’re used. They’re a part of the world we’re stuck in, and if we use them well, we can get ahead in this fucked up competition and also stop feeling so hurt when someone uses them on us.” Eliza said matter-of-factly.

Caleb went to open his mouth when Amy held up her hand. “I agree, and I want Caleb to us as part of my date with him.” Seeing his shocked expression, Amy grinned, “I’ve never been on a shopping date before, plus you got all those BP now. It's probably best you begin thinking how to use them. We’ve all had to deal with this a lot more than you.” Seeing his expression turn doubtful, she poked his chest. “It will be fun!”

Stella flicked his nose. “Come on, there's gotta be some transformation you’d be interested in. Imagine something that gives Amy big bohodondankaroos”

Noemi frowned and pulled out a silver card from her pocket. “It sounds like a possible good time, but I still have this sabotage I picked up last round.”

SABOTAGE! Empty Eclair: The Target feels a strong compulsion to be filled with semen for the following 8 hours. In addition, any creampie received during this time has an increased chance to result in conception, regardless of where the target is in their cycle.

Maddy scratched her cheek. “That sounds very you, Noemi.”

Lily gave her a playful nudge. “Not to mention, I’m sure you’ll get a chance to use it sooner than you might think.” She winked playfully at Caleb, who felt his nether regions throb even as a knot formed in his stomach. Something was off; his gut knew it, but he couldn’t figure out what.

Maya also pulled out a card, smiling brightly. “Good thing I also bought a sabotage then yesterday! I wouldn’t have had a chance today to go buy one.”

SABOTAGE! Been there, Done That: Activated when engaged in sexual activity that previously rewarded VP. One time only, you may gain repeat VP for this activity. Diminishing Returns

Maya: 50 BP - 5 BP: 45 BP Remaining

Everyone paused before making a collective shocked noise.

Looking bewildered, Eliza frowned, “There was a card like that? If we had known about that, we wouldn’t have to be so concerned about this stagnation nonsense.”

“I um,” Maya froze, clearly not expecting this level of attention, “It’s from the collection, so it costs a bit more: 5 BP.”

Maddy shook her head. “But 5 BP is a small price to pay to avoid losing VP at the end of the round.”

Stella gave a beleaguered sigh and flicked her tail across the table. “Before everyone starts thinking we got this in the bag…Maya what’s the last bit mean? The diminishing returns- is that per individual use or per card?”

Maya held the card to her chest and frowned. “The way that Arietta explained it, any card marked with Diminishing Returns is per card. So the first person to use it gets full points; the next person, even if it’s a different person, will get half that, then half that…so on and so forth until it only rewards 1 VP per use regardless of action.”

The collective excitement was rapidly replaced by a pall of defeatism. Eventually Amy gave a huff, “Yeah, no, that makes sense; they wouldn’t have a silver bullet like that to fix everything. That's not the type of show they’re running.”

Caleb scratched his chin. “Part of me wonders if that Diminishing Returns thing was even there before Lucian introduced this dumb rule.”

“Plenty of reason to want to curb how quickly we can gain points even outside of his meddling; let’s not waste too much time reading into it.” Mira reasoned.

Caleb sighed and decided it would be for the best to change the subject; he looked over at Amy. “Shopping date? Gotta say I’m a little surprised.”

“As I said, I never had the opportunity before. We can start with Sabotages and then move on to more typical things: food, clothes, stuff like that. I just… yeah.” Amy smiled softly at her empty plate.

Eliza grinned, “Hope you don’t mind me third wheeling it for a little bit? I promise to let you two be alone and not to interrupt”

“You say that like you’re a bother; you’re always welcome, Eliza,” Caleb said gently.

“Yeah, but it's your two's date; I don’t want to be in the way.” The blonde smiled begrudgingly.

Amy reached over and tapped the professor’s shoulder. “Let us tell you if you’re in the way; I’m happy to have you as long as you’re comfortable.”

Eliza sighed, “Fine, how about you three? You ing in?” She indicated Noemi, Lily and Maddy.

Maddy raised a hand tentatively before dropping it. “No, I don’t think I’m quite ready for using Sabotages like that. It’s probably best I just stay back today.”

Noemi reached over and gripped Maddy’s knee. “Since Lily and I weren’t planning on going, we were gonna help her plan her date; you’re welcome to us.”

Looking awkwardly between the two, Maddy eventually smiled. “Ok, sure, that sounds fun.”

Caleb smiled. “Alright, sounds like everyone has their plans. No one go missing today, ok?” He was rewarded for this comment with the spade of Stella’s tail batting him flat across the face. Meanwhile, Maddy watched from across the table and bunched her hands under where no one could see.