#21 - Redistribution

Current Chip Count:

Robin; 7 live, 1 full dead, 0 halves. (Holds; Elias, Jade, Theo, Oscar)

Caleb; 18 live, 1 full dead, 0 halves.

Cleo; 2 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves. (Holds; Rafael)

Eve; 9 live, 7 full dead, 4 halves.

Visor; 4 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves.

Lilith; 9 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves. (Holds; Leonie)

“Cleo, it’s your turn to place a small blind,” Master Rabbit’s modulated voice said with impatience.

The young woman with short feathering indigo hair, and cutifying e-girl make-up loomed over the two tinies she had left. Her boyfriend and one last stranger.

“P-Please don’t,” the blond-haired man begged.

Rafael shuddered, he felt like part of this was his fault. He was trying to be supportive, put his trust in the woman he loved, and in doing so had sent everyone else in their stack to their death. He should have Cleo spare the man, let her kill him instead, but he wasn’t that brave, that selfless, and he knew it would only hurt his girlfriend more.

The screaming began, as Eve’s fingers began to play with her winnings. A background noise that grew quieter and quieter each time one of the screams got cut short.

“Cleo?” Mrs. Hat said.

“I-I can’t.”

“Refusal to participate will result in a struck mark.”

“You have to do this, girl,” Lilith said. “Most of these tinies are as good as dead anyway. You can’t protect your little man right there if your mark gets struck. I know you don’t want to-“

“I want to,” Cleo said, fully breaking down into tears. “That’s the problem. It’s not what I’m supposed to be. I’m supposed to be good, soft, sweet, not- Not this!”

Robin froze up upon hearing that. Cleo really did have the same shadow inside her. Robin had spent so long feeling isolated despite Harm and Cleo’s attempts to comfort her, to help her. Their success at controlling their inner monster made it so Robin didn’t even believe they were suffering the same struggle. She didn’t believe they could help her. She thought they were different. They weren’t.

Eve raised the last living tiny she had, the man who Cleo had promised she’d win back, the one she’d promised would be ok. She held his upper body between the fingers of her left hand, and his legs between the fingers of her right.

“Here,” Eve said. “We’ll do it together. Just follow along with Miss Wr8. First, you hold the tiny like so. Then…”

The man cried out in agony, as Eve began to pull him apart, the demonic smile on her massive face serving as a moon-like backdrop to his destruction.

Cleo lowered her fingers toward the tiny man beside her boyfriend. Rafael stepped back and turned around, not wanting to look. Cleo gently wrapped her fingers around the man’s chest raising him up to her tear-stricken face.

Her fingers were milky white, soft like pillows, they were the hands of an angel. Her dark eyes had such a fragile reflection in them, the white liner on her waterline emphasizing their roundness, applied with the intent of selling anyone who looked at her on the idea that she was just an adorably harmless girl, who liked plushies and all things sweet.

“Please, no!” the man begged.

“What’s your name?” Cleo asked, with a gentle, mournful whisper.

“Eric.”

“I’m sorry you were forced into this, Eric,” Cleo said. “I know my life isn’t worth any more than yours. I am so sorry.”

“Wait!”

With the thumb and index finger of her other hand, Cleo covered Eric’s head in the pillow of her digit, which was so soft, he could barely feel the ridges of her thumb-print against his face. The gentle smell of her hand lotion ran up his nostrils. In a quick mercy, she squeezed, hoping to flatten his head before his mind could process any pain.

Her thumb slipped as she pressed, Eric’s jaw broke off, forced to the side, as his left cheek collapsed, squeezing out his eyeball. Cleo gasped. Eric was left gurgling and choking on his own blood, his face a mess of red paste. It was grotesque, so much crueler than she had intended. She could feel the butterflies in her stomach, the excitement at the sight of what she had done, but quickly got a hold of herself and squeezed his head again, finishing him off.

“I’m sorry!” she yelped, in a high-pitched cry. “I’m so sorry!”

She held the dead body of Eric the way Eve had shown her, and began to pull it apart. Throwing his legs out into the bet, and letting his upper body fall from between her fingers.

Eric’s crushed face and torso landed behind Rafael with a wet thud. The curly-haired boy didn’t turn around; he didn’t want to know what his girlfriend was really capable of. These were the fantasies they shared, not a reality he wanted to see.

Cleo stared down at trEATmeGently, at Rafael, at her little jellybean. She wanted to stroke his little back, to comfort him, to comfort herself, but she couldn’t, not with her fingers covered in Eric’s blood.

Robin couldn’t believe it, both of the people she had once thought to be so far above her, had been forced to act on their shadow. Her hatred of Harm was personal, more about whom he had killed than the fact that he had killed. If she were morally consistent, she’d view the crying girl the same way, but it wasn’t morals that made her disgusted at what Harm did, it was selfishness, a feeling of betrayal. Eric didn’t matter, not like Elena did.

Eve smiled, as she put in a full corpse as her big blind, “Atta girl! Finally, all my online friends have joined the murder club.”

Lilith turned to Robin with a frown, as if questioning her about that comment.

Robin shook her head at her, “Accidental step, didn’t mean for it. Doesn’t count.”

Jade’s mouth fell open, “her murder box, it was an accident?”

Elias shrugged, “An accident she seemed to enjoy.”

“You never told us it was an accident though,” Oscar said.

Elias fell silent again.

Visor folded.

Lilith called, putting her fingers around a scared little German woman who squirmed in her tight grip. Leonie’s attempts at going unnoticed had failed, and now, she was part of the prize pool, separated from her small community of scared people, who huddled together beneath the giant alt girl.

“Why haven’t any of you played with the little bugs yet?” Eve asked the players beside her. “If I were you, I’d have a little fun before giving them away.”

“Have never really considered killing tinies before,” Lilith said. “My victims tend to be a lot bigger.”

Visor tilted his helmet, “I think I’ll just take mine home. Let my mistress play with them.”

“You already have a mistress?” Lilith said in faux disappointment.

“Oh yeah, and she’s a beauty,” he said. “Dressed venom green and black, like my childhood cartoon crush, around a 1000cc inline-four pushing near 200 horsepower, light as a feather, and geared to hit 300 like it’s nothing. Once she’s back from repairs, I’m going to line these little guys up in front of her, and let her fresh rubber pass the judgment.”

Robin called, putting a tiny in front of her, Harm followed, doing the same. Cleo, still in shock, took a second before grabbing the other half of Eric and nervously tossing it out in front of her. Rafael was the only tiny she had left now.

The flop cards flipped; Ace of Clubs, Eight of Diamonds, Ten of Spades.

Cleo checked. Eve raised the bet by one corpse. Lilith called, putting another person beside a shuddering Leonie. Robin called as her wall started getting smaller.

“Cleo, you’re gonna have to fold, don’t risk Treat.” Harm said, as he raised the bet to a total of five, by adding four people.

Cleo nodded, she wasn’t risking Rafael. With any luck, this game would end, before she’d need to put down a blind again. She folded putting her cards down on the green carpet.

Eve folded. Lilith called, adding three people.

Robin shot Harm a mean look, his raise would force her to throw the last tiny shielding her friends, the cava drowned woman’s corpse, along with one of her friends. She looked at her hand again; Four of Diamonds, Ten of Hearts.

She had a pair, a pretty high one. She could win this; she had to win this. Her wall was giving way, better to bet now, than to lose them with a worse hand. But who? Who could she put at risk of ending up with Harm or Lilith? No one. None of them.

She threw out the corpse and lowered the last tiny whose name she didn’t bother to know, until all that was left was for her to choose. She couldn’t risk Jade, not with her leg injured. Elias was the most obvious pick, the one she’d never fix things with, but if he ended up outside of her control, he’d find a way to do damage, he’d have hell rain down on her. It had to be Oscar; he was the toughest guy she knew.

“I’ll go!” Theo said.

“What?” Robin said. “Why?”

“If the worst happens,” he explained. “If it’s me you lose. Then at least you’ll never get to undo that moment.”

“Theo, no I got this. You know this is my job,” Oscar said. “It’s always been my job!”

“Let me choose this,” Theo said.

Robin agreed, and gently picked up her friend, placing him out with the rest of her bet. “I won’t lose you. I got a good hand.”

Theo nodded, trying to act reassured, as he looked to Lilith, who gave him a sweet smile, and Harm, who wasn’t even looking their way, focusing his dark, tired eyes on the community cards, as the fourth one flipped; Three of Clubs.

Everyone checked.

The fifth card flipped; Five of Clubs.

Everyone checked again.

Robin tightened her grip, as Mrs. Hat called for the showdown.

Everyone lowered their cards.

Robin; Four of Diamonds, Ten of Hearts; she had a pair of tens.

Lilith; Jack of Spades, Eight of Hearts; she had a pair of eight.

Harm; Ace of Hearts, Five of Hearts; he had two pairs, aces and fives.

“No!” Robin shouted, as she watched Theo being carried off by Mrs. Hat’s powers.

Harm watched the boy and three others float towards him alongside a dead body, combining into the crowd of people he aimed to save from this table. He picked him out specifically, gently grabbing the boy between his fingers, before carefully setting him down in the palm of his other hand.

Theo panted, scared and worried. He heard enough, knew enough to understand this giant was just as dangerous as Robin. The man that had killed Elena, his best friend now held him. His tired eyes squinting with an expression Theo couldn’t read.

“I want him back,” Robin said.

“I think that would be against the rules,” Harm said, his fingers curling like a cage around her friend. “If you hadn’t tried to Wr8 me earlier, you’d have had more people to bet, and he wouldn’t be here. If anything, he’s safer with me than he is with you.”

Harm nodded towards Jade, referring to the wound on her leg.

“Minor correction,” Master Rabbit said. “While the exchanging of chips during the game would be against the rules. We have no qualms with Reapers redistributing their winnings once the game has concluded.”

Robin’s eyes widened with hope, as she looked away from the rabbit, back to her former Discord friend, “Harm, please.”

Harm stared at the little brown-haired young boy in his hand. He looked so frail, not just due to his size, but a certain soft quality to his features and skinny build.

“You tried to make me kill someone today, Rot.” Harm said. “You have any idea how fucked up that is?”

“You can’t just use him to get to me, he’s a person.”

“And the person I would’ve had to split in half wasn’t?”

There was a soft squeak beside Harm. He turned to look at Cleo. Her tears had finally dried up. Her make-up was ruined. Her reddened eyes stared at him, as if to ask her big brother what he thought of her now.

“I’m sorry,” Harm said. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

Current Chip Count:

Robin; 3 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves. (Holds; Elias, Jade, Oscar)

Caleb; 27 live, 4 full dead, 2 halves. (Holds; Theo, Leonie)

Cleo; 1 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves. (Holds; Rafael)

Eve; 0 live, 13 full dead, 6 halves.

Visor; 4 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves.

Lilith; 4 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves.

As the cards were redistributed, and the blinds moved, Robin became a slouched bundle of fear and hate. The small blind was in front of Eve now, and the big in front of Visor.

She was in the same predicament as Cleo. She couldn’t call a single starting bet, as it would risk one of her friends blindly on only two cards. Her best chance was to fold until the entire game ended, but at the start of the round following one after this, the chip with the blind giantess drawing on it would find itself in front of her again, and force her to risk another friend, and if she didn’t win that, she’d have to kill one of them.

“Ooh, looking good,” Visor said, vocally letting everyone know he likely had a high set of cards in his hand.

Eve threw out one of the half corpses from her pile of dead, after which Visor put one tiny man out in front of him paying his blind. Lilith followed, also calling.

Robin looked at her hand; Eight of Clubs, Three of Clubs. It wasn’t a good starting hand, nothing she could risk a friend on, she folded.

Harm called.

Cleo folded.

Eve called, throwing in another half corpse.

The first three cards turned over; Six of Spades, Ten of Clubs, Two of Clubs.

The entire table checked, the fourth card revealing itself; Queen of Hearts.

Eve looked at her hand; Ace of Clubs, Queen of Diamonds. She had a good pair, and enough corpses to put some pressure on the ones next to her, who were almost out of rope. Lilith and Visor had only four tinies left. Eve raised the bet by one corpse.

Visor let out a deep sigh beneath his helmet, before calling it. Lilith followed doing the same. Harm folded.

The fifth and final card revealed itself; Five of Clubs.

Eve smiled, raised the bet by another two corpses, totaling four; the exact amount each of her opponents had left. She wasn’t sure if she had imagined it, but she could swear she was able to smell the sweat beneath Visor’s gear.

“Ah, I wanna go wild and say fuck it,” Visor said, as he began to lower his cards. “But I gotta be smart about this.”

“What was that,” Eve said, commanding the attention of Visor, who made the mistake of looking at her, as her crazed eyes peered through his darkened visor, as if she knew exactly where his eyes were. “What is it you said you wanted to do?”

Visor’s gloved hand halted, right as he was about to put his cards face down. He pulled them back up. His body loosened, as if all the tension of the game had just washed off his shoulders.

“Fuck it!” he said, raising both hands, which grabbed onto one tiny each, before he carelessly threw them out in front of him. “All-in!”

“Wait, no that’s cheating,” Lilith said. “She forced him with her power.”

The rabbit cocked his head, “Powers are part of the games, Lilith.”

“Well, shit,” The ocean-haired woman said, calling the bet. “Guess the game ends here. All-in.”

The showdown began;

Eve; Queen of Diamonds, Ace of Clubs. She had a pair of queens, with an ace as kicker.

Visor; Queen of Spades, Jack of Hearts. He had a pair of queens, with a jack as kicker.

Lilith; Queen of Clubs, Five of Diamonds. She had a pair of queens, and a pair of fives.

“Shit,” Visor said, slumping in his chair, his cat-ear helmet dangling loosely from his neck.

Final Chip Count:

Robin; 3 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves. (Holds; Elias, Jade, Oscar)

Caleb; 26 live, 4 full dead, 2 halves. (Holds; Theo, Leonie)

Cleo; 1 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves. (Holds; Rafael)

Eve; 0 live, 10 full dead, 4 halves.

Visor; 0 live, 0 full dead, 0 halves.

Lilith; 9 live, 3 full dead, 2 halves.

The rabbit clapped his gloved hands together, “Contest concluded! Caleb Harm, High Triumph! Wade Nelson, Abject Defeat!”

The cards floated back into the deck, while the tinies Lilith had won floated towards her. Harm could feel a slight burning sensation on the back of his shoulder.

“Alright, well,” Visor sighed, raising his head. “Can I just say a few final words, before my mark gets struck?”

Master Rabbit, more than tired of his nonsense, answered with a blunt, “No.”

Mrs. Hat snapped her fingers, causing Visor to scream in agony, and reach for the back of his neck, the pain was unlike any of the burning sensations that usually accompanied the activation of a mark. Much like Lucas and any other tinies before him, his body was enveloped in a glow, but this time, instead of purple, the glow was a deep red.

His body shrunk away into his chair, before being lifted up by Hat’s telekinesis, and floated towards Lilith, the player who had won the bet he’d lost. His tiny body was lowered like a sacrifice to an old god, inches away from the group of live tinies the woman had won.

Visor’s helmet looked up at her, still reorienting himself at his new size. “You’re gonna be gentle with me, right? Q-Queen, uhm, Goddess?”

Lilith smirked, “What would you have done if I had ended up in your hands.”

“Gah!” Visor gasped, sounding more offended than afraid. “Babe, darling. You’re the love of my life!”

Visor paused, cocking his head to the side, “I would have made you last a few weeks, at the least!”

Lilith raised her eyebrows in playful, smug disbelief, that seemed to hide a tinge of genuine hurt. The giantess lowered her hand and pinched the little guy between her fingers, not with the same care she had given the tinies during the game, but with a mean pressure, squeezing the air out of Visor’s lungs.

“Let’s see what behind that helmet~”

“W-Wait, I’ll take it off just-”

Lilith didn’t wait.

Before Visor could reach the locking mechanism beneath his chin, she put both fingers on the cat-ear helmet, and began to pull. Visor let out some guttural noises, as his arms waved about trying to fight off her ginormous fingers.

“S-Stop, ack, fuck!”

Following one especially hard tug backward, there was a crack, a snap, a sudden limpness befalling his struggling limbs. Lilith let go, unsuccessful in removing his helmet. Visor’s head fell back, helmet and all, sagging across his upper back, his neck completely broken.

Lilith sighed and threw the lousy flirt’s broken body across the green carpet, letting it bounce along, like a rock skipping across water, until it came to a complete stop, lying on its side.

“And here I thought you two had something,” Eve chuckled.

“A guy who flirts like that?” Lilith said. “You don’t have much experience dating, do you?”

It was a burn everyone else at the table could’ve appreciated given the right moment, but Robin, Harm and Cleo were too in their own heads to process the humor of it. Cleo had just killed someone, Robin was about to lose a friend, while Harm’s victory tasted more sour than sweet.

Harm looked down, lost in thought. Along with Theo, twenty-five people stared up at him, awaiting their fate. Their lives were in his hands now; he was their god. No, he could think like that. How did that thought even find its way to the surface?

“You said I could redistribute my winnings,” Harm said.

“Correct,” Master Rabbit said.

Harm turned to look at Cleo, broken and beyond herself. Her boyfriend curled up, all by himself, hugging his knees in front of her.

“I need you to take them home with you,” Harm said to her.

“What?”

“You have space, privacy, money,” Harm said. “Forgotten and ignored. If what Mrs. Hat said is true, the authorities can’t help them anymore. They have to be in the care of a-“

“A Reaper…” Cleo said, pondering the responsibility. “Are you sure?”

“It’s better than taking them back to prison with me.”

“It’s a good call if you feel empathic towards the mycosized,” Mrs. Hat interrupted. “The unseen slip from the minds of those around them. While they technically are seen and felt, they are not processed by the brains of those without a mark. To the outside world, they are ghosts. Prizes who tell no tale. That being said, you don’t have to go back to prison, we can transport you back elsewhere.”

Harm tried to force a smile, as he looked at Cleo. “I’d still be a fugitive. I know how you’re feeling right now. You know I do. Trust me when I tell you, caring for people is one of the most wonderful things you can do, one of the best ways to heal from guilt.”

“What about Robin’s friend?” Cleo said. “You should-”

“Give him back?” Harm said curtly. “Is that what you’d do?”

Cleo gave a weak nod.

“Then I’m not giving him to you either,” Harm said. “Theo stays with me.”

“What the fuck, Harm!” Robin finally exploded. “You don’t get to take another one from me!”

“Another what, Robin?!” Harm shouted back. “Theo has a purple mark. He can be seen by others. He can be brought to safety.”

Robin growled, “I’m safety enough! He’s mine. They’re mine!”

Each of her four friends froze up. There she was, their keeper. Animalistic, possessive.

A silence fell across the post-game table. A silence broken by the loud cough of a tiny. Every giant in the room turned their attention towards the center of the table where Visor sat up, his helmet tilting from side to side with a few cracks.

“What the-” Oscar muttered.

“Holy shit, it still works!” Visor bellowed out laughing. “My ability still works!”

“That little shit had an ability?” Eve said.

“Explain Reaper Ability!” Visor shouted.

A huge stream of smoke poured out from his neck, until it formed into a bipedal cat character made of smoke, twice the size of the tiny it sprouted from. It looked the exact same as the one Eve had summoned before. The creature floated upward before beginning its explanation;

Reaper ability: Ragdoll

Category: Tank Ability
Use Type: Passive
Cooldown: None

At the cost of a much lower pain tolerance, the skin of this ability’s wielder becomes much stretchier than that of most humans, and is nearly impenetrable. All other body parts benefit from a strong healing factor. As long as damaged body parts are within reach of the host body, the wielder’s body is able to reconstruct itself to its former state.

Foreign body parts fitting the wielder’s frame can be used to replace missing parts, if inserted into the body, and brought beneath the skin layer through any orifice or wound.

“Well look at that,” Eve scoffed, “an unbreakable toy.”

The cat mascot produced a boomerang shaped-object out of smoke in its little hand, and threw it out in front of itself, the object spun wildly above the table.

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe,” it said with a cute voice, as the boomerang spun back in its direction, decapitated the little smoke cat. Its separated smoke-form slowly dissipated like regular smoke, as its purple eyes stopped glowing.

Lilith grew a little smile, “Well, maybe you are a keeper after all.”

Harm called the attention of Mrs. Hat again, “I’d like to pass all my winnings on to Cleo, except for the purple marked boy.”

Mrs. Hat nodded politely, and used her power to let the crowd of twenty-five float towards Cleo.

“Lilith,” Harm said. “The people you have, will you let Cleo keep them safe?”

Lilith looked at the nine tinies she had won, “Why would I do that?”

“Cause, you seem to care on some level.”

Lilith took another long look at the tiny people cowering below her.

“I don’t like it when people tell me who I am,” Lilith said. “I warned you.”

“I’m not telling, I am asking.”

“Fine, but I’m keeping Visor,” Lilith said, nodding to Mrs. Hat, who floated the other nine people over to Cleo’s group.

“Thank you.”

“Pleasure.”

“The reaper ability,” Harm said, looking to the Rabbit

“You received it the second the game concluded,” Master Rabbit said, standing with his hands behind his back, looking out the window, as the sun began to rise on the city of Macau. “If you’re curious what the ability is, you already know the words to say.”

Harm looked across the table; across the other people who’d hear the same explanation. He couldn’t say the words here, not now. Who knows what power he got? What weaknesses could come with it? Much like cards during poker, it was a hand best kept to himself until it came to an eventual showdown.

“I’ll check once I’m alone,” Harm said.

Master Rabbit looked over his shoulder, “Smart boy.”

“Now any last requests before we send you all on your way?” Mrs. Hat said. “Anyone who wishes to invite a friend? Any place you’d want us to drop you off, other than where we plucked you from?”

“Gas station west of Letfort, Oregon,” Harm said.

No one else made a request.

Cleo was too busy looking over all the people she’d soon have to care for.

Eve was flicking bodies off her corpse pile, to see how far they’d land.

Lilith was already pulling at Visor’s arms, testing just how stretchy and resistant he was, as he grunted in pain.

Robin eyed Harm with rage and disgust. Jade and Oscar were looking at her, trying to once more decipher the side of her they had just witnessed, while Elias watched Theo disappearing behind the curling fingers of Harm.

“Thank you for your participation,” Master Rabbit said. “Until we call on you again.”

The rabbit’s head turned to look at the group of tinies in front of Cleo in particular. To the confusion of everyone, his electronic voice said something in German, “Sei stark… und schätze jeden Tag, den du hast, Kleine.”

A wash of purple blinded everyone in the room, as they were transported away.