NOVEL NEXT Ch 2.76: ❤ House
“Are you out of your mind?” Elaina said as Shein placed the voice-amplifier-thing back on its stand.
“What are you talking about?” Prisma replied, looking incredulously irritated. “You were the one who said yes first! How am I supposed to turn it down at that point? Everyone is watching!”
“I know! That’s why—” Gods, everyone really was watching. With the notice that things wouldn’t be started for a few minutes, people had mostly turned their attention elsewhere, digging in their purses, buying drinks.
“Come on, ladies, don’t fight now. Save that for the show,” Shein said, stepping back deeper into the stage. “After all, you specifically Elaina shouldn’t be too disturbed by this turn of events. You’re halfway stripped already, and it’s not the first time that’s happened, if I heard correctly. Though Flora may have even been more willing, now that I think about it….”
“Wait, what?” Prisma said. “What’re you getting up to that she knows about these habits?”
“Those were accidents!” Elaina said, but she there was no way to defend off the accusations of both of these women right now.
Shein let out a long yawn, shaking her head clear after she was done. “Oh, apologies,” she said. “Anyway, you can explain your stripping practices later, for now I want to start things up. Round two will take a while as it is, and I’m feeling tired.”
Shein stepped back up to the front of the stage, scanning the crowd for a moment as she grabbed the crystal from the stand again.
“Prisma, listen,” Elaina said. “Just leave. Drop out, do whatever. I have to win this.”
“Oh, you have to win this? I’ve got pride on the line here!”
“That’s your own fault and you know it!” Elaina hissed. “Just run! I’ll convince her to let me into somehow.”
“I can’t leave at this point. If we’d both said no then it would be fine, but now the only way out for me is to win!” Prisma turned her head away, a rush of blood flooding her face in her anger, or annoyance? Elaina wasn’t sure. “You know it’s— it’s not like I want to be playing some stupid strip game on stage, right?”
“What?” Elaina said, barely able to consider the question before Shein starting speaking to the room again.
“Alright, that’s a few minutes, enough to kick out the freeloaders and to let the rest of the red-lighters know what’s happening. I’ll get to explaining the house rules while some of you file in and out, and then we’ll get started.” The crowd, well over a hundred people at this point, roared with approval
“Stone parchment shears is a classic game, but here at Mirage we like a little more strategy in our games, so I’ve devised some house rules to make things more interesting. With ladies this lovely I’m not even sure that's necessary, but alas, the rules are as follows:
“Stone is basic, a standard point. Win with stone, and your opponent removes one item of clothing. Parchment is good for covering you up though, so winning with that earns you back a point, letting you put on a piece of clothing you lost. Shears though? You’ll find they’re remarkably good at cutting cloth, so winning with that removes two points from your opponent. And just to keep things moving along, if there’s ever three turns without someone removing an article of clothing, both players remove one, so that a tie doesn’t hold the game up forever.”
Elaina was pretty sure she had the rules to it down. It wasn’t nearly as complicated as poker, and the modifications made sense besides with the way Shein had explained them.
“Let’s get started,” Prisma said, no hesitation in her voice or expression. She was staring at Elaina as if they were fencing, ready to strike, ready to win.
“If you’re so eager,” Shein said as she backed away. “For clarity, shoes are one point, your dresses one point, underwear one point for each piece, and the fifth point for each of you is your hair ribbon and waist ribbon respectively. You two step up to front, and the audience will count you off. Throw your options on the ‘strip” of ‘stone, parchment, shears, strip.’”
Elaina walked up feeling small next to Prisma as they approached each other, despite being taller. The crowd quieted as they reached center stage, all lights coalescing onto them. Elaina only had a few moments to plan her attack. No point in parchment if I have all my clothes right now, she thought. She did want to play it safe though, had her choice locked in before Shein started counting the crowd off, winding her fist back and throwing it out with word.
“Stone! Parchment! Shears! STRIP!”
The unison yelling of dozens of people was entrancing in a way, and the final word, shouted at the top of everyone’s lungs it seemed, was the most entrancing of all. For some reason, Elaina closed her eyes, kept them closed for a second even as she threw her hand out a final time. When she opened them a second later, she saw the results. Stone in her hand, stone in Prisma’s.
“A tie!” Shein said.
Right, Elaina thought. But she was already noticing a problem. There was no reason for her to pick parchment right now, but none for Prisma to either, right?
And that means—“Again! Stone! Parchment! Shears! STRIP!”
Elaina had barely had time to react to the call, throwing out stone again before she could finish her thought. Prisma had realized it too, it seemed. And if both players knew there was no reason to ever throw parchment, then there was also no reason to ever throw shears. They were in a stone-stalemate.
“Another tie!” Shein said to a booing crowd. “Not unexpected, but prepared for! Remember, three ties and you both strip,” she added, pausing the crowd’s jeering and moving them towards cheering again.
Ah, that’s it. Shein had said that rule was to move things along, after all. Elaina supposed either her or Prisma could’ve made a mistake, but they’d both avoided that outcome, at least.
“Now! Stone! Parchment! Shears! STRIP!”
Two stones again. “Alright ladies, off with your shoes or ribbons and place them at the front of the stage when you do, unless one of you want to be more daring?” Both Elaina and Prisma glared at her with that comment, but both complied as well Prisma reaching to her hair and Elaina for her shoes. Elaina was a little hesitant to do that honestly, especially since she was borrowing shoes from Carly, but she was reasonably certain they wouldn’t be tossed out or anything.
“Well then,” Shein said as the discarded clothing was set aside, “with the mandatory tied rounds done with, we can finally move along with some stakes involved.”
The crowd shouted in approval as Elaina looked over her opponent once more. Somehow, seeing her with her hair flowing like that felt wrong, private even, despite having seen it like that at school before. It seemed to be flowing in a new, more natural way.
“Let the real game begin! Stone! Parchment! Shears! STRIP!”
Elaina threw shears this time, trying to be aggressive. But that wasn’t the right choice after all she realized as she stared down at Prisma’s stone. There were even more cheers, the loudest yet as Elaina stared down.
“You know what now, Elaina,” Shein said.
She did. She could barely believe what she was doing, her hand moving on its own towards the ribbon holding her dress together. She was already showing off plenty of skin, even parts of her “underwear” that she’d resigned herself to displaying, but as her trembling hands pulled the ribbon away the hurriedly-made dress fell to her sides, revealing far more of them she’d actually expected to.
And as she went to place the ribbon down she realized the depths of Shein’s impishness, undoubtedly the real reason they’d been instructed to leave their clothes at the front of the stage. She had to face the entire crowd, give them a look at the wide open top part of her dress as she placed her belt over Carly’s shoes. So many eyes… The next call came before she was even back in her own mind.
“Stone! Parchment! Shears! STRIP!”