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The Portal Games

The Second Vote

Draconicon

"I'm sorry to bring us to another vote, but that's the nature of the game," the dragon said.

"Says the one that set it up," Sergino muttered.

"There's only so many ways to move forward fairly, and at least this way, you can decide among yourselves what the fairest elimination is. Would you prefer me to choose every time? To pick the one that bores me most, rather than the one that you feel is least suited to this?"

There was no answer, though there were gentle grumbles and whimpers through the ranks of the Whoopsie Daisies. He knew that it was down to nerves, disappointment, not actual anger. They'd won the last time, after all, and it never felt good to shift from the winning team to the losing one.

Shaking his head, Draconicon looked at the other team. Black Chaos had one team member still infested with a demon, and they still had the demonic knife in their possession. Both promised that the next arena would be a very interesting one, all things considered. He'd have to nail down just what they were allowed to do before they went through, before they got started.

But in the meantime...

"Sanmer?"

"I'm using the idol," the fox confirmed.

"Good to know. And Glyn?"

"Duh," the timber wolf muttered. "No way we're losing two."

"Good, good. Oh, and in case it wasn't clear." The dragon flicked his fingers, and the idols leaped from their owners, floating in midair. They shimmered, disappearing as their energies flickered against one another, slowly fading back into the ether. "If someone has the defense idol, but still loses, and the other team doesn't have an active idol, I might be convinced to allow you to stave off your required loss with that defense idol. No promises, but I'll consider it."

The two teams looked at one another. Oh, that promised to be a good time. They were going to be going all out for the defense idol as much as they were for the offensive ones in the later arenas. He looked forward to seeing how that went.

"Now that the idols have been confirmed. Team Black Chaos, if you would pass through to the next chamber while we hold the vote? They deserve the same privacy that you had, after all."

The stingray-led team nodded, slowly filtering out. Lykus paused, looking back, and the striped wolf shook his head in sympathy before joining the rest of his team.

"The rest of you...well, you know what the deal is. Everyone gets a vote, and the captain breaks the tie with their second vote if it ends up that way. Any last-minute questions?" he asked.

"Can you vote yourself off?" Isabella asked.

"You could, but it's one of those things that seems a little counterintuitive to me. Wouldn't you want to keep everyone together? Wouldn't you want to win?" the dragon asked.

"Not when it hurts other peoples..."

The rest of the Whoopsie Daisies rubbed their arms, looking up, down, and away. Well, except for Sergino. The ice dragon kept his gaze firmly on the tunnel the other team had gone down. Draconicon shook his head; he supposed that there was something to be expected there. It hadn't been an accident to draw that male in. He was a competitor, focused, driven. He gave the team more of a push than the more gentle figures in it, even if he might take it a bit far sometimes.

"Technically speaking, you could vote for yourself. I don't recommend it, but it's something that you could do, particularly if you or someone else wanted to try and play games with the votes, forcing a tie-breaker between two different candidates so that the team captain has to choose between someone they can't get rid of and someone that they might not want to get rid of.

"That said, it's still playing the game, and it's up to you how you want to play it. There are rules, as I've said from the beginning, but how you play with those rules is up to the six of you."

"Soon the five of us," Glyn said.

"True enough. Now...I hate to say it...but it's time for you to start putting together your votes."

Draconicon waved his hand, pieces of parchment appearing in mid-air and quills and ink for the team to use. He shook his head as they took them all, turning to Jason to enlarge the dragon's parchment temporarily, as well as giving him a quill that would actually work for someone that much bigger than the rest of the team.

They scribbled and scratched out their answers, and he knew for a fact that this was going to be harder on them than they expected. The agony on several faces - Glyn and Isabella in particular, but also on Kotone - was obvious. They didn't want to do this.

But it had to be done. It was the only way that they could move forward, the only way to be fair.

Sergino was the first to step forward, his parchment neatly folded as he offered it up. The black dragon dropped it into a pot, shaking it up a bit as the ice dragon sighed.

"I hope we don't have to do this again," he said.

"That'll be up to all of you; it's possible, though unlikely."

"Then it's a fight we'll have to win. No more losing."

Draconicon nodded as the ice dragon stepped to the side. Glyn came next, the timber wolf gritting his teeth as he looked at the parchment the whole way up. He looked up, looked down, and looked up again, almost like he was questioning his vote. More than once, he slowed as if he'd go back and scratch it out.

Yet, it seemed that he was firm on the decision, and he put it in the jar with Sergino's vote without a word. Draconicon nodded.

"It'll be done soon enough."

"God, I just hope it's not me."

"Are you so sure it is?"

"I'm pretty sure that there's enough people that want me gone. One in particular."

"You might be surprised."

"Heh, I doubt it."

The timber wolf shook his head, darting away from the pot. He joined Sergino, and the pair of them started muttering to each other. He heard a few words about Ailsa and vague plots of how they would 'deal' with her, but he put that out of his head. They were angry, and they were allowed to be. The important thing right now was getting the votes in and being as far as possible.

Isabella stepped forward next. The pangolin pushed her vote in and whispered 'sorry.'

"It's not your fault," Draconicon said.

"I have to decide; it's my fault when someone goes."

"Are you going to blame yourself for every mistake?"

"...Maybe."

"That's going to get very heavy."

"Am all-terrain pangolin. I can...I can handles it."

Somehow, he didn't really agree with her, but it was up to her how she wanted to handle her team. She moved to the other side of the room, sitting down and pulling her knees to her chest.

Sarah came next. She looked at her sheet, then at him.

"I'm going to be in the minority here, I can already tell."

"And what makes you think that?"

"Picking who I picked when we're the losing team? It's not going to go well. Never does."

"We'll see."

He opened the jar, and she dropped her vote in.

Kotone was wordless as she stepped forward, putting her vote in. The mare didn't sigh, didn't say anything. She just deposited her vote and moved on. He didn't pull her back; if she didn't want to talk, she didn't want to talk.

Finally, Jason lumbered forward. The feral dragon held his vote between his teeth, and the black dragon took it from him, shaking off the bit of drool that clung to the parchment. He shrunk it down so that it didn't stand out compared to the rest of the votes, and looked the big feral in the eye.

"Are you going to be okay with this?"

"Not a bad shape. Kinda like it. And might be useful in the next arenas; means Sergino doesn't need to change shape to carry someone."

"Heh. Indeed."

Jason nodded, stepping out of the way. Draconicon sighed, looking down at the jar and giving it a little shake-up. Sergino and Glyn had pulled further back, edging towards the shadowy corridor leading to the next room, and the two of them were getting more and more heated as they whispered to each other. He ignored them, keeping his attention on the important matter at hand.

"I'll tally the votes."

Whoopsie Daisies

Four members of the team couldn't take their eyes off their host. Two of them - a very grumpy dragon and a very anxious timber wolf - could. They muttered to each other, shaking their heads, talking about the future and what the hell they were going to do about the next round.

"Ailsa's pushing us too hard," Glyn muttered.

"We need to take her out. Or slow her down. Or something," Sergino agreed.

"It's just...we could have made it. And if we could just take a moment to think -"

"She's being aggressive. The only way to fight that is to be more aggressive back," the ice dragon muttered.

"You think -"

"Ahem."

The black dragon pulled their attention back to him. He flicked the jar of votes.

"The first to reach four votes, or the one that receives more votes than the rest of the team, will be asked to leave. They will be taken to a good place during the rest of their stay, I promise you, and will be taken care of, but they won't be allowed to compete. They will be brought back at the end of the game to serve as the jury at the end of the final arena, provided that there are two or more competitors that reach that point. Is that understood, everyone? Do you know what this means?"

The team nodded.

"Then let's count out the votes."

The dragon reached into the jar, pulling out the first parchment. Everyone leaned in, even Sergino and Glyn. He shook it open, looking at the name and nodding.

"Sarah. That's one vote Sarah."

The T-Rex nodded, seemingly deliberately keeping her breathing even. The dragon laid the first one down, pulling out the next piece.

"Sergino. One vote Sarah, one vote Sergino."

The ice dragon arched an eyebrow, his gaze flicking around. Not offended, but more surprised. No questions, though, as the third piece was pulled.

"Kotone. One vote Sarah, one vote Sergino, one vote Kotone."

It was almost painful hearing the list of votes. Nobody had received more than a single vote yet, and it meant that there was no clear loser. Another sheet was drawn.

"Jason. One vote each for Sarah, Sergino, Kotone, and Jason."

"Jesus...did we all get a vote here or something?" Glyn muttered.

Draconicon pulled another sheet free, looking down at the name.

"Sarah. Two votes Sarah, one vote each for Sergino, Kotone, and Jason."

The team held their breath. One more vote for Sarah, and she'd be asked to leave. A vote for Isabella or Glyn, and she'd be asked to leave. A vote for anyone else, and it would be a tie. Isabella bit off a whimper as she pulled herself into a tighter and tighter ball as the dragon pulled the last sheet from the jar.

"...Jason. Two votes for Jason, two votes for Sarah."

Glyn breathed out a sigh of relief, while Sergino still looked around the room. Sarah and Jason met each other's eyes, while Kotone shook her head slightly.

The six sheets were placed back in the jar, and the black dragon looked the pangolin in the eye. Isabella sighed, shaking her head, but she still got to her feet, clawed toes ticking at the stone ground.

"I hate this...I hate this..."

"I know. But it's the burden of being team captain," Draconicon said. "They picked you, and that means that you have to do what they can't."

"Mmmph. Still sucks."

"You have a choice. Jason, or Sarah. Please break the tie, team captain."

The pangolin stood before her group, and all eyes were on her, especially Sarah's and Jason's. The feral dragon cocked his head to the side, clearly fighting a bit of shock, while the T-Rex stood quietly, waiting to see what would happen. Isabella rubbed her arm, looking down at the ground as she seemed to take a moment to collect herself, to find her words. Finally, she spoke.

"You've both been amazing peoples. Jason, you saved us at the Core. You kept us moving forward, and you did so much cool stuff. I love your new self, and I think you look beautiful. And Sarah, you helped get us a win last time, and risked yourself, and saved us from a super-station this time. You're both amazings.

"But...but I gotta pick one of you...and I..." She shivered for a moment, covering her mouth as she forced herself to calm down. "I have to pick...Jason."

"So it is written, so it will be done," Draconicon said.

"But - but I'm not done!" Isabella said. "I don't want you to think - I'm not doing this because I think you're bad. I just think you - well, you might need time in your new body, and maybe being somewhere else to get fixed -"

"Who says I wanna get fixed anytime soon?" Jason asked.

"I...um..."

"So it is written, so it will be done," Draconicon repeated. "Jason will be the one to leave the team."

"Wait. Just...one more thing," Isabella said.

"Okay. One more."

"I wants to bring us all to the end, and...I know we can't now, not really, but I wants to take something from each of us. Even if it's just a symbol, a token, something to get us all there. I want...I want it to be something...something for all of us." The pangolin walked up to the feral. "Can I take anything? Anything that you want us to bring with us?"

The great green dragon thought for a moment before finally nodding. He lifted a forepaw and pressed a claw under his lips. Before anyone could stop him, he pushed down and pulled. Blood flowed for a moment before heat seared the wound closed, and Jason held out a fang to the pangolin.

"Oh...oh. I didn't...okays. I'll take that...are you -"

"He's as good as he will be," Draconicon said.

Isabella nodded, putting the fang in her pocket. The dragon growled slightly, leaning in and headbutting her gently. She hugged his head gently, rubbing his cheeks, only to yelp as he flicked his tongue down against her thighs. As she pulled back with a giggle, Jason wiggled his eye-ridges, almost - no, completely flirtatiously.

The black dragon looked around.

"If anyone wants to say goodbye, they may do it now. After that, please head out to join the other team."

"Sorry, Jason," Isabella said. "I means, I wanted you to be with us, but...I thought...I'm sorry." She hugged his head again. "Maybes we'll have fun at the end, when we see each other again? Maybe, if you want to. But...I'll take this with me."

As she stepped back, fang in hand, Glyn stepped forward. The timber wolf rested his hand on the dragon's side, shaking his head.

"It's not fair that we have to say goodbye already, man. There's so many things that we could have done with this new body of yours, so many adventures that we could have had. I'll miss that, and I'll miss you, and not just...not just for everything you did for us this time. Fuck...Man, this isn't fair."

Glyn hugged the big dragon, sighing and shaking his head. The timber wolf got a little tail hug in return, and he stepped back. Sarah and Kotone stepped up, giving the big feral a pat on the back, and Sarah leaned in to whisper something to him. Oddly enough, it got both a grin and a blush from the big feral before the ladies stepped away.

The Whoopsie Daisies, minus one, walked down the corridor to join the other team. Draconicon shook his head, glancing back at the feral.

"You'll be back at my city for a while, Jason. Plenty of room for you there, and plenty of those that would enjoy the company and intimacy that a feral can offer. That is, if you're in an open relationship, of course."

"Am, heh. Very much am."

The black dragon smiled, opening a portal. The green dragon looked through at a plethora of preening gryphons, smirked, and stepped through.