The game continues, and hopefully things will only get more exciting as it goes on! Remember to review!

KedharS: Yeah, that's a good way to put it.

Aquahaze675: Not a big deal, everyone's entitled to their preferences.

Hellraiserphoenix: Torture is a good word.

Pokemonking0924: Who knows, maybe.

Thunder Fire: That sounds unfun though, some people aren't comfortable with dares.

Aurastar Warrior: No, not yet.

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 476

Ayame stepped out of the bathroom wondering who she should pick to go. She'd considered picking Sango, but she'd already been gone. Same with Blake. Who should she pick… As she returned to her seat, she caught the eye of a girl who was sort of sitting off on the outskirts, even if she was sitting on the couch with Akira and Dakota. Kate's sour look had the remarkable ability to make her look like an outsider even around others.

"Kate, Truth or Dare?" Ayame asked, sitting down beside Blake as Cynthia resumed her back massage.

"Uh…" Because this wasn't going around in a circle like most games of Truth or Dare but was instead reliant on people calling out others to determine the order, Kate had kind of expected that she, with no friends, would not really take part. So she was slightly taken aback.

"Kate won't pick Truth," Cynthia sniggered. "She's too much of a tsundere for that."

"What?" Kate growled, the vein on her forehead twitching.

Ayame looked down her nose at the poison expert, smiling haughtily towards her, daring her to choose truth. She didn't even know what she would pick, honestly.

"I'm no coward!" Kate declared. "Dare!"

Ayame smirked. She got off of the couch and walked over to Kate. "Okay, your dare is…"

She leaned over and whispered into her ear, the girl's face going pale.

"N-NO WAY!" Kate exclaimed, shoving Ayame back. "I am absolutely not going to do that!"

"Aww, what is it?" Cynthia pouted.

"Yeah, you gotta tell the dare to everybody!" Dakota cheered.

"Do it!" Sylvia called out, not sure what it was but interested to see. She suspected she wouldn't be playing an active role in this game, either, since no one was probably willing to give her the power of asking Truth or Dare.

"I wanted her to do the transformation sequence from 'Magical Princess: Clefairy Sparkle Glitter'," Ayame explained.

Everyone took a second to imagine that, and abruptly burst into a chorus of raucous laughter.

"Absolutely not! Never!" Kate protested.

"Well, then I guess you're my maid," Ayame proclaimed. Kate grumbled and fumed, but in the end, it was better than going through that sequence. Even more embarrassing would be the reveal that she had it memorized.

Plus, she could already see the blinking red light on Dakota's camera indicating that she was preparing to record. She could put up with a recording of being a maid, but she was absolutely NOT going to let the image get out there of her doing a magical girl twirl and wink while proclaiming herself the champion of friendship and justice here to save the day.

She would rather die, and being a maid was light in comparison.

"Fine," she growled.

"Yes!" Cynthia cheered, pumping her fist into the air victoriously as she pushed on Blake's back, skipping back to her seat. "Freedom!"

"First, you have to ask someone," Blake reminded Kate.

"Yeah, I know," she grumbled. She wasn't in a very good mood, and then she realized that there was something she could do about it. In the toxic way only Kate could. Her venomous scowl turned into a wicked smirk. "Sylvia. Truth or Dare?"

Sylvia's eyes widened, her lips curling up into a bright smile as she pointed at herself, as if to ask "who, me?"

"Sylvia?!" Blake sputtered.

"Why did you ask her?" Ayame demanded.

"Forgive me, Mistress," Kate said, her voice sticky like tar as she rose from her seat, clasping her hands together and tilting her head to the side, smiling. "I only sought to make this game more fun. I felt so bad for her sitting alone!"

Kate narrowed her eyes pointedly at Ayame, indicating that this was no accident. The two exchanged glares. While they might have been "cool" it was clear that there was still some hostility between the two of them.

Honestly, Kate bore no small grudge towards the Empress for having forced her highness Alcea to her knees, and part of that was transferred to Ayame, even if the girl was an innocent.

"Dare," Sylvia said, cracking a smile. She had no interest with answering truths, and no one would really care what she had to say (or even believe her in the first place).

Besides, dares were more fun.

Kate was still thinking of a dare. She glanced at Ayame, and when she saw the scowl on the girl's face, she realized what it was she wanted to do. It was a pretty bad lapse of judgment on her part, but her grudge against Ayame and the fact that she had to serve her as a maid now was taking over, even though she knew that Ayame really was a nice girl inside.

"I dare you to seduce Blake," Kate stated.

"What?!" Ayame sputtered, shocked.

"No way!" Blake protested.

"My pleasure…" Sylvia purred, batting her eyelashes.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Ayame exclaimed, turning to Cynthia. "No fucking way is that allowed! Blake isn't the dared party, you can't fucking get him involved in your fucking dare!"

"Yeah!" Blake agreed, absolutely not interested in being on the receiving end of the dare.

"Blake doesn't have to do anything," Kate interjected. "It's nothing to do with him. It's all about Sylvia seducing him, right? He's just an observer, that target, you know? It's not like I'm making him reciprocate, right?"

She looked around the room for confirmation.

"I don't know, I've never done this before," she said quietly. Because she had no friends, she'd never played Truth or Dare in her life. "Is… is that not okay?"

All heads turned to Cynthia, who was basically the only source of authority here.

"Hmmm…" Cynthia thought of it, stroking her chin. "…As the birthday girl, I declare it's okay!"

Sylvia smirked, Ayame and Blake both scowling.

"BUT," Cynthia said, holding her hand up, "clothes stay on, and it can only last five minutes."

"…You call that seduction?" Sylvia pouted.

"And no inappropriate physical contact," Cynthia added. She glanced over to Blake. "I don't want anyone to violate anyone else unless they agree to a dare, and Blake isn't part of this dare. So yes seduction, no touching."

Serefina beamed with appreciation for Cynthia's maturity.

"Deal," Sylvia agreed.

Blake and Ayame sighed in relief a little, glad that things wouldn't get too inappropriate, while Kate went pale.

"W-wait, who said anything about touching or stripping?!" She asked. Everyone looked at her, confused.

"…What do you think seduction is?" Sylvia asked.

"Like, you know, back massage and whispering sweet things in his ear!" Kate said, her face turning bright red. "Some coy flirting, batting eyelashes, you know! Seduction!"

"Maybe in a children's cartoon," Sylvia snorted. "Adults do things a little differently."

Kate blanched.

"…N-no, I don't want any of that, Cynthia is right," Kate nodded. A few people chuckled at her purity, even Ayame found it hard to keep an angry look on her face. She didn't like what Kate had done, but her clumsiness was hilarious.

Sylvia shrugged. "Oh, well…"

She strolled over to Blake, her fingers dancing across his collar as he flinched at her touch, feeling an odd aroma like wet flowers wafting off her.

"Calm down big boy," she purred into his ear. "It's not like you have a choice… just enjoy yourself, it won't make a difference."

After an incredibly awkward five minutes of g-rated seduction, Sylvia finally let Blake go, much to everyone's collective relief.

"Well, that was good for an appetizer," Sylvia purred.

Ayame was put in a foul mood. She wasn't allowed to do anything but watch as Sylvia made the moves on her boyfriend, and as much as Blake clearly hated it, he wasn't able to do anything to stop it. She turned and glared at Kate, who had a contrite look on her face. Watching Sylvia seduce Blake hadn't been particularly enjoyable for her, either.

"Okay, maid," Ayame snapped, Kate flinching at the harshness in her deep voice, "go make me a smoothie to calm me down. Right now."

"Y-yes," Kate gulped, heading to the kitchen part of the Bulbasaur House common room to go prepare a drink for Ayame.

"Now, what do I want to do…" Sylvia wondered, pacing back and forth in the center of the makeshift circle of couches and chairs that everyone was grouped into. Her eyes danced across the tired faces of the others, clearly apprehensive. "Well, I have no need for a maid… then again, if I got one, well… I wonder what sort of tasks I'd have to ask of her… or him."

Whatever Sylvia was planning to ask, refusing wasn't exactly seeming so bright anymore. How did she manage to make the punishment game sound worse than going through with an actual dare? It was unreal.

"Oh! I know!" Sylvia said, clapping her hands together. "I'll dare Caelia to kiss Blake!"

Everyone gasped at that, Ayame's face flushing with anger.

"You can't!" Cynthia objected, jumping to her feet. "Remember, no daring someone to force themselves on someone else!"

"But if he wants it, then it's okay, right?" Sylvia purred, turning her eyes upon Blake. "Well, Blake? Don't you want to kiss poor Caelia? Or are you going to tell her no?"

Blake glanced at Caelia, who was staring quietly at him with that single eye of hers, her blank face and hollow gaze letting on no clues about how she really felt on the matter.

"…Sorry, no," Blake said, turning to Ayame. Caelia, once again, remained unfazed by this decision.

"…Well, I suppose that's that," Sylvia shrugged. "Guess I'll have to find something else to ask… or someone else… hmm…"

Sylvia scanned the faces, wondering who she could have the most fun with. "Oh! I know! Akira! Truth or Dare?"

It was obvious what the safer option was, but before Akira could open his mouth, she added, "oh, and before you say Truth, I think you should reeaally pick Dare."

"That's not up to you," Akira said.

"Well, I mean, I guess," Sylvia admitted. "But, you know, I'm sure there are some truths you don't want to tell, right? Certain stories about certain girls and certain… promises."

Sylvia's fingers ghosted up the left side of her face, slithering across her eye. Akira tensed with anxiety.

"That's not fair! You can't do that!" Dakota exclaimed, leaping to her feet. "That stuff is-!"

"Oh? Is the legendary reporter Dakota Evans displeased with the idea of her boyfriend telling the truth?" Sylvia gasped, pretending to be surprised. "I would have thought you, of all people, would be fully on-board for transparency, isn't that right? …Or does the truth only matter if it's hurting the people you don't like? I see how it is."

"That… that's not…" Dakota sputtered, wilting under Sylvia's cold stare. "Some stuff… should remain private…"

"Now THAT doesn't sound like you at all," Sylvia smirked, licking her lips. She glanced at Akira. "Up to you. Truth or Dare. Either way, of course, you can always refuse. And then you'll be my little servant. My, I wonder what I'll have you do to… service me first?"

"…What's the Dare?" Akira glowered at her.

"Oh, nothing bad, nothing… criminal," Sylvia said, shrugging her shoulders as though she were exasperated by Akira's poor image of her. "I'm just getting a liiiiittle bored with Truth or Dare, is all, and I'd like to switch things up a little with a different kind of game."

Everyone stared apprehensively at her, waiting for her to keep going. Her face was bright and shiny with joy as she luxuriated in the attention. Luckily Kate was away in the kitchen with the whir of the blender drowning out what was going on in the common room, or she might be the target of some spite from a few people there.

"So here's what I was thinking," Sylvia said, clapping her hands together to break the tension. "We're going to play 'Two Truths and a Lie'."

"Wait, then isn't that basically like if he chose truth?" Dakota protested. "That's not fair!"

"True, daring someone to answer any question I asked truthfully would break the spirit of the game," Sylvia admitted, "but that's not what's happening here. No, this time, Akira gets to choose the truths and lies all on his own, whatever he wants to tell us. I'm not 'making' him say anything that he doesn't want to, understand?"

Dakota grumbled, but nodded her head. That made sense.

"I guess that's okay," Cynthia agreed.

"Oh, but a game's no fun without any stakes," Sylvia said. "Otherwise, this isn't much of a dare, is it? So how about this? After you tell me your truths and your lie, I'll guess which one is a lie. And if I guess right, then you have to do a little something for me."

"What?" Akira asked. How many conditions was this bitch going to set?

"Simple, you have to kiss me," Sylvia chirped. "Think of it as a reward for my excellent intuition! And not some peck on the cheek, either, full-on making out."

"We just said, no kissing!" Dakota protested.

"No no, no kissing uninvolved parties," Sylvia corrected her. "Your boyfriend is the one getting the dare, so he can give a kiss. And I'm anything but an 'uninvolved party'."

Sylvia licked her lips, narrowing her eyes.

"In fact, I'm quite eager…" She strolled over to Akira, reaching out and tucking her finger under his chin, tilting his head up and batting her eyelashes. "Of course, if you're not confident… you can always just be my cute little maid. But then, you might have to do a lot more than a kiss…"

"I'll do it," Akira said automatically, surprising not only Sylvia, but everyone else.

"What? Seriously?" Cynthia gawked.

"You can't!" Serefina protested.

"B-But Aki…" Dakota's face went pale. He… he wasn't serious right?

"Well, someone's rather eager, I'm guessing Dakota's a little lacking in the mouth-to-mouth department. Must be because she's too busy running hers off to really… put it to work," Sylvia taunted both Akira and Dakota. "Unless you're just confident, Akira, but then… I'm rather good at finding the truth, so you might be biting off more than you can chew."

If Kate had wanted to stir up some drama, she was succeeding. Sylvia had been involved in two dares now, and they were both making everyone around her uncomfortable.

"It doesn't matter how I tell you, right?" Akira clarified.

"No? Of course not?" Sylvia said, Akira feeling invigorated at having thrown her off for once.

"Good," Akira said. He turned over to Dakota and whispered something into her ear.

"Oh! Yeah, of course I do, here."

Dakota picked her backpack up and began digging through it, taking out one of the notebooks she used to jot stuff down on her stakeouts. Akira took it from her, along with a pen, and glanced pointedly at Sylvia, whose eyes flashed dangerously. Akira then walked out of the room.

He returned back a few seconds later with a torn page of paper he'd folded up, and handed it over to her.

"…Clever, clever," Sylvia murmured, pursing her lips at him as she unfolded his little note. The reason she was so good at this game was because she was a master at reading people. Telling when they were lying even when they weren't trying to give anything away. It was far more reliable than knowing their character or their past, most everyone gave things away when they lied.

But by writing it down, that was going to be a lot trickier. Akira was clever, but that wasn't going to be enough, because Sylvia was a lot smarter than him. She'd just read them off, and judge his reaction to each one. It wouldn't be as obvious as if he was speaking them, but there would be a tell of some sort.

She flipped open the paper and glanced at the three sentences he'd written down, and her heart surged with excitement. She glanced up from the paper, her smirk widening. "VERY clever."

Akira had come up with a great way to obscure his reactions from Sylvia's observant eye. The truths and lie he had told her… evocative was the word.

1. I like Dakota.

2. I love Dakota.

3. I trust Dakota.

Each of them would get a reaction. But whether that would be from guilt at lying or embarrassment at them being the truth, read aloud in front of everyone, well… not even Sylvia was sure she was clever enough to tell.

…Of course, that didn't mean she was just going to let him off the hook.

"I like Dakota, I love Dakota, I trust Dakota," she read off slowly, judging his reaction each time. He made the same sheepish expression through each of them. Dakota, at the same time, grew progressively more red and flustered, smiling like an idiot.

"Well, I can't even determine which is which by the outlandishness since they're all so closely linked to each other," Sylvia mused, walking around the couch that the couple was sitting on. "But it's pretty clear that Akira's got Dakota on the brain."

"I think it's sweet," Serefina cooed, looking over at her friends. Akira blushed slightly and Dakota buried her face in her hands.

"Of course, one of them is a filthy lie," Sylvia added, smashing the cheery saccharine atmosphere to pieces. "But I wonder which one…"

Sylvia tapped her finger against her chin and glanced up at the ceiling in mock-contemplation before immediately shifting her focus to Akira.

"Let's think this through, shall we?" She suggested. "Now, does Akira like Dakota? Maybe. But does he love Dakota? That one's a little trickier… And does he TRUST Dakota? Well, does anyone?"

One trick to winning "Two Truths and a Lie" was to tell three things that all sounded like lies to make it harder to guess. But some of these things sounded like they could be true… and one sounded like an obvious lie. So obvious of a lie that Sylvia wondered if it was really the truth after all. Maybe Akira did trust Dakota, and it was a smokescreen to make her pick that one, since it didn't seem believable. That would be interesting…

Sylvia studied him. And as she did, she caught Dakota looking at her.

"Aki."

Akira glanced over at Dakota, her face flushed with embarrassment.

"D-don't think about this, it's… it's strategy," Dakota muttered, averting her eyes from his. She leaned in and pressed her lips against his hard, startling everyone in the room.

"Wooo!" Cynthia clapped, Sango cheering as well.

"Wow, nice," Reiner smirked, Julia nodding in agreement. Kitty's face turned bright red.

"Kissing like that in front of everyone, wow," Callie said, blushing. Nick's face was even redder.

Dakota pulled back, panting, placing her fingers on her lips. Akira's face was flushed with embarrassment.

Sylvia smirked. Dakota was rather clever, herself. Akira had gotten completely flustered by the very public kiss, and now she couldn't read his responses at all. She'd have to reason this one out for herself, with no cues from him.

The key to this is the third one… if that's a lie, that's that. But if he does trust her… then between the two other options… This was a tricky one, alright.

…No, Akira wouldn't have picked the second if it wasn't true. There was no way he'd admit to not loving Dakota. Not in front of everyone. That would destroy her, and even if he didn't love her there was no way he'd do that. He'd been trying to bluff Sylvia, make her think that the third option was too obvious and have her not guess it.

"Is the third one the lie, Akira?" Sylvia asked, making her decision. "You don't trust Dakota."

Akira smirked. "Wrong."

Sylvia flinched, surprised for the first time in a while. "So it was the first one, after all." She didn't consider for an instant that the second could be a lie.

Akira nodded his head victoriously.

"You don't like me?!" Dakota exclaimed, slapping him in the chest with the back of her hand. "Aki, you jerk!"

"Of course not!" Akira protested. "If I wasn't in love with you, I wouldn't be able to stand you! There's nothing about you that's likable, just the stuff I fell in love with!"

"How can you think that's a compliment?!" Dakota exclaimed, wanting to throttle him.

"Hey, come on, this is a good thing, it was able to fool her completely," Akira said.

"Well, if you don't like me that much, then maybe you should just go make out with her after all!" Dakota pouted.

Serefina groaned, holding her forehead, a migraine already beginning, as Sylvia threw back her head and cackled, enjoying this outcome perhaps even more than if she had won the game.

"What's going on?" Kate asked, walking in, purplish-blue smoothie in hand, completely unaware of the mayhem she had let loose by giving Sylvia the wheel of the car.

"Don't ask," Ayame sighed, accepting the smoothie that Kate offered.

"Don't worry, Mistress! I put in all my effort into it!" Kate smiled at her in an assuring way.

"Thanks," Ayame said, putting the smoothie to her lips and taking a sip.

…And promptly fell to the floor, passed out.

Well, it wasn't Kate's fault that her affinity for poison spread to her culinary skills.

Oof, poor Ayame. The game will continue! Still not sure how long it's going to go.