[JS][HE]Aisuru, challenge #12, Do you want to play a game?
Title: Do you want to play a game? Author: Aisuru Email: aisuru_chan@yahoo.com Rating: PG13 Summary: Jareth is bored. Sarah is bored. Whatever can be done about this?
Jareth was bored. Really bored. It had been weeks since someone had tried to go through the Labyrinth. A very foolish mother had wished away her son. Of course she had had no hope of beating the Labyrinth. Only Sarah could do that. In fact, this idiot had failed almost immediately, refusing to believe that a worm could talk, and had continued following the seemingly straight path for 13 hours straight! No challenge at all. Of course he kept the kid, so he had a new goblin, but the child had made such a stupid goblin. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," he muttered, as he watched this new goblin try to bite one of the chickens again. The chicken squawked and pecked at the stupid goblin, but the goblin kept trying. Annoyed, he zapped the goblin into the bog of eternal stench.
"That was fun," Jareth admitted, but he knew the euphoric feeling wouldn't last. After the challenge of Sarah, nothing could keep him happy for long.
He slouched on his throne, calling goblins to come to him so he could kick them against the wall. They'd bounce and come back for more, stupid grins on their faces. "Boring," Jareth lamented.
Then he made a decision. He would play a game with Sarah again! "That couldn't possibly be boring!" he thrilled, and set to work on finding a suitable trap for his new playmate.
Sarah was bored. It had been almost a year since she had gone into the Labyrinth to rescue her step-brother, but since then nothing interesting had happened. Her school had cut the drama budget, so there hadn't even been a play to audition for! And her books: after being in the underground, the fantasy stories she used to love seemed somewhat foolish. Only her dreams, which had been increasingly more and more about Jareth and the underground, were slightly interesting, and she had written all of them down in a journal. Maybe someday she could write a screenplay about it, but for now, she just wished something would happen in the real world.
"I'm so bored!" she lamented, sitting on the front steps of her house, chin in hand.
"I'm so bored!" Toby mimicked, sitting next to her and mimicking her pose.
"Stop that," she chided.
"Stop that," Toby mimicked in his little voice.
"Stop that, I mean it!" she said, really annoyed now.
"Stop that, I mean it!" Toby kept pressing her patience.
Sarah was tempted to wish him away, but as bored as she was, she wasn't sure she could put up with another round of Jareth. Still, a threat couldn't hurt... "Toby, if you keep that up I'll wish you away to the goblins again!" she threatened.
Toby instantly quieted. He had only the faintest memories of that place, most of which were associated with Sarah's agitation once they had arrived home, but she had told him enough stories for him to take the threat seriously.
"Come on, let's go inside," Sarah said, feeling a little guilty, since Toby was definitely taking her threat more seriously than she had anticipated. "I'll make us some dinner."
Yet again, her step-mother had left her with all of the domestic duties. Her step-mother had gotten a job, and to her it made perfect sense that Sarah should pick Toby up from daycare after school and spend all of her free time minding him. Oh, and since she would be home anyway, she could prepare all the meals and do all the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, dusting, etc. It was enough to make Sarah want to pull out clumps of her beautiful brown hair. 'Okay, so I really do have too much to do to be bored,' she thought, 'but I want to spend my time doing something interesting, not just cleaning and babysitting!'
That night, when Sarah was about to get ready for bed, a violent storm appeared. Thunder crashed and lightening flashed right next to the house, so when the power went out Sarah was not at all surprised. She was surprised, however, when she heard the rustling noise of goblins in her room, and a large white owl appeared, sitting on the tree outside her window.
"What? What's going on?" Sarah asked aloud.
"I've come to answer your summons," Jareth answered, as he had materialized in her bedroom as the lights came back on.
Sarah hurled one of her slippers at him. "I didn't summon you. Go away."
"Yes you did," he rebutted. "I heard you. You threatened to give Toby back to me. Do you want to run the Labyrinth again?"
Sarah looked at Jareth as if he had grown a second head. "You mean do I want to risk life and limb, running myself ragged in your demented maze for 13 hours, for absolutely no reason?"
Jareth nodded his head hopefully.
"No way!" Sarah exclaimed. "I may be bored, but I'm not that bored."
Jareth actually pouted. "But I want to play a game with you," he whined. "Nobody can run the Labyrinth like you can, Sarah."
"Well, why don't you play a round of kick the goblins?" Sarah asked, unsure why Jareth was really in her bedroom making such odd requests.
"I tried that," he said, slumping down so he was sitting on her bedroom floor. "Do you know any other games?"
Sarah blinked. "You mean those are the only games you know?" she asked, surprised.
Jareth nodded. "There aren't that many intelligent creatures in the underground to play with," he complained. "Do you know other games?"
Sarah had to laugh. She opened her closet, which was full of all sorts of fantasy role playing games -- quite boring when you had to play by yourself, but still good for making up stories -- and more traditional board games. She even had a deck of cards.
"Oh, let me see those," he said, pointing to the deck. She handed them to him, and he proceeded to entertain himself for several minutes doing shuffling tricks like a stage magician would. It was amusing for Sarah to watch a real magic user play at being a fraud, but Jareth wanted to play something WITH Sarah, so he handed the cards back to her. "How do you use them?" he asked.
Sarah was surprised that after all of those card tricks, he really didn't know how to play cards, but she shrugged and showed him the different cards and what they meant. She tried explaining poker to him, but the game was too confusing, so she taught him go-fish instead.
"Do you have any 7's?" he asked.
Sarah pouted and handed him her two 7's. Jareth put the hand down on the floor. "I win!" he cried. "Now you have to stay in the underground with me forever and be my Queen!"
"Whoa, hold the horses!" Sarah exclaimed. "I never agreed to that!"
"Well, what did you think we were playing for?" he asked, confused.
"I thought we were playing for fun! You never said anything about a wager."
Jareth pouted again, a very strange sight. "It's no fun without a wager," he complained. Then he smiled. "How about we play again, and if I win you come to the underground forever, and if I lose then you get to keep Toby."
"No way!" Sarah exclaimed. "Toby is already mine! And besides, those stakes are way too high. Do you want to play for nickels?"
Jareth shook his head. "I don't have any money, and I have no use for money in the underground. What else is there to play for?"
After an infuriatingly long conversation, during which Jareth struck down her every suggestion and his every suggestion involved her staying in the Labyrinth for all eternity if she lost, she made a final, desperate, totally foolish suggestion. "How about strip go-fish?"
"Strip?" Jareth asked, intrigued.
Sarah blushed, wishing she hadn't brought it up, but Jareth was interested, and an interested Jareth was going to settle for nothing but a complete description of this new wager. "Um," she began, looking at her hands in her lap. "Every time you lose, you have to take off something."
"Take off?" Jareth asked.
Sarah really wished she hadn't brought this up. Not that Jareth wouldn't look really fine in the buff... "Clothing," she clarified. "Every time you lose, you have to take off a piece of clothing."
Jareth liked this idea. "And if you're naked first, I get to take you to the underground to be my Queen?" he suggested.
"Absolutely not!" Sarah cried. "Having to take off your clothes is the entire wager. Nothing else. And no fair making extra pieces of clothing appear under the ones you are already wearing. This has to be a fair game."
Jareth nodded. "All games have rules that must be followed. Sarah, I accept your challenge." As he spoke those words, a bolt of lightening flashed really close to the house and the lights flickered again.
"Don't do that, it's creepy," she complained, wishing she had kept her slippers on instead of throwing them at Jareth.
The game began.
Round one went to Sarah. Jareth tried to take off one of the fasteners of his cape, but Sarah insisted the whole cape come off. "Do you want me removing my earrings one at a time?" she asked. "Or my barrettes?"
Round two went to Jareth. Sarah removed her socks. Jareth made a comment about the bog of eternal stench, so she threw them in his face.
Round three went to Jareth again. Sarah removed the sweater she had (thankfully) been wearing over her blouse.
Round four went to Sarah. Jareth removed his boots.
Round five went to Sarah. Jareth removed his shirt. (Yummy)
Round six went to Jareth (of course, Sarah couldn't concentrate with Jareth's naked chest available for her viewing pleasure). It was Sarah's turn to remove her shirt.
Jareth lost round seven. He removed a pair of socks that Sarah was almost positive hadn't been on his feet a moment before, but she wasn't going to press the issue. She wished suddenly that they had decided upon some sort of stopping point for the game...
Nervous, Sarah lost round eight. Off went the jeans. Jareth was annoyed to find that mortal women not only wore britches, but wore britches under their britches. Sarah realized this meant that Jareth went commando. She wasn't sure wanted Jareth to lose again...
Sarah lost round nine. She flushed red as a tomato as the bra came off. Jareth's eyes wouldn't stay on his cards after that.
He easily lost round ten, even with Sarah holding her cards so awkwardly over her chest that he could have seen half of her cards had he been paying enough attention.
Sarah and Jareth, the school girl and the Goblin King, looked at each other, knowing that each had only one more garment to lose before total nudity. Then what? Did mutual nudity imply some deeper, more permanent relationship? Would they ever be able to look at each other the same way again?
Neither wanted to look the chicken, so Jareth shuffled the deck and dealt the cards, and in utter silence they surveyed their hands. Then the gamed began, with only the shuffling of cards and the words "Do you have a..." and "Go fish" breaking the awkward silence of the room.
Jareth lost. He looked up at Sarah, her embarrassed face, the way her eyes were staring intently at the wall above his head. He looked down at his tights, the only remaining barrier between his very-mature parts and the innocence of Sarah's eyes. He vanished in a cloud of glitter.
Sarah, sitting on her bedroom floor, arms draped helplessly across her breasts, stared in shock at the fading cloud of glitter. "Hey!" she shouted. "You cheated!"
Title: Do you want to play a game? Author: Aisuru Email: aisuru_chan@yahoo.com Rating: PG13 Summary: Jareth is bored. Sarah is bored. Whatever can be done about this?
Jareth was bored. Really bored. It had been weeks since someone had tried to go through the Labyrinth. A very foolish mother had wished away her son. Of course she had had no hope of beating the Labyrinth. Only Sarah could do that. In fact, this idiot had failed almost immediately, refusing to believe that a worm could talk, and had continued following the seemingly straight path for 13 hours straight! No challenge at all. Of course he kept the kid, so he had a new goblin, but the child had made such a stupid goblin. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree," he muttered, as he watched this new goblin try to bite one of the chickens again. The chicken squawked and pecked at the stupid goblin, but the goblin kept trying. Annoyed, he zapped the goblin into the bog of eternal stench.
"That was fun," Jareth admitted, but he knew the euphoric feeling wouldn't last. After the challenge of Sarah, nothing could keep him happy for long.
He slouched on his throne, calling goblins to come to him so he could kick them against the wall. They'd bounce and come back for more, stupid grins on their faces. "Boring," Jareth lamented.
Then he made a decision. He would play a game with Sarah again! "That couldn't possibly be boring!" he thrilled, and set to work on finding a suitable trap for his new playmate.
Sarah was bored. It had been almost a year since she had gone into the Labyrinth to rescue her step-brother, but since then nothing interesting had happened. Her school had cut the drama budget, so there hadn't even been a play to audition for! And her books: after being in the underground, the fantasy stories she used to love seemed somewhat foolish. Only her dreams, which had been increasingly more and more about Jareth and the underground, were slightly interesting, and she had written all of them down in a journal. Maybe someday she could write a screenplay about it, but for now, she just wished something would happen in the real world.
"I'm so bored!" she lamented, sitting on the front steps of her house, chin in hand.
"I'm so bored!" Toby mimicked, sitting next to her and mimicking her pose.
"Stop that," she chided.
"Stop that," Toby mimicked in his little voice.
"Stop that, I mean it!" she said, really annoyed now.
"Stop that, I mean it!" Toby kept pressing her patience.
Sarah was tempted to wish him away, but as bored as she was, she wasn't sure she could put up with another round of Jareth. Still, a threat couldn't hurt... "Toby, if you keep that up I'll wish you away to the goblins again!" she threatened.
Toby instantly quieted. He had only the faintest memories of that place, most of which were associated with Sarah's agitation once they had arrived home, but she had told him enough stories for him to take the threat seriously.
"Come on, let's go inside," Sarah said, feeling a little guilty, since Toby was definitely taking her threat more seriously than she had anticipated. "I'll make us some dinner."
Yet again, her step-mother had left her with all of the domestic duties. Her step-mother had gotten a job, and to her it made perfect sense that Sarah should pick Toby up from daycare after school and spend all of her free time minding him. Oh, and since she would be home anyway, she could prepare all the meals and do all the laundry, dishes, vacuuming, dusting, etc. It was enough to make Sarah want to pull out clumps of her beautiful brown hair. 'Okay, so I really do have too much to do to be bored,' she thought, 'but I want to spend my time doing something interesting, not just cleaning and babysitting!'
That night, when Sarah was about to get ready for bed, a violent storm appeared. Thunder crashed and lightening flashed right next to the house, so when the power went out Sarah was not at all surprised. She was surprised, however, when she heard the rustling noise of goblins in her room, and a large white owl appeared, sitting on the tree outside her window.
"What? What's going on?" Sarah asked aloud.
"I've come to answer your summons," Jareth answered, as he had materialized in her bedroom as the lights came back on.
Sarah hurled one of her slippers at him. "I didn't summon you. Go away."
"Yes you did," he rebutted. "I heard you. You threatened to give Toby back to me. Do you want to run the Labyrinth again?"
Sarah looked at Jareth as if he had grown a second head. "You mean do I want to risk life and limb, running myself ragged in your demented maze for 13 hours, for absolutely no reason?"
Jareth nodded his head hopefully.
"No way!" Sarah exclaimed. "I may be bored, but I'm not that bored."
Jareth actually pouted. "But I want to play a game with you," he whined. "Nobody can run the Labyrinth like you can, Sarah."
"Well, why don't you play a round of kick the goblins?" Sarah asked, unsure why Jareth was really in her bedroom making such odd requests.
"I tried that," he said, slumping down so he was sitting on her bedroom floor. "Do you know any other games?"
Sarah blinked. "You mean those are the only games you know?" she asked, surprised.
Jareth nodded. "There aren't that many intelligent creatures in the underground to play with," he complained. "Do you know other games?"
Sarah had to laugh. She opened her closet, which was full of all sorts of fantasy role playing games -- quite boring when you had to play by yourself, but still good for making up stories -- and more traditional board games. She even had a deck of cards.
"Oh, let me see those," he said, pointing to the deck. She handed them to him, and he proceeded to entertain himself for several minutes doing shuffling tricks like a stage magician would. It was amusing for Sarah to watch a real magic user play at being a fraud, but Jareth wanted to play something WITH Sarah, so he handed the cards back to her. "How do you use them?" he asked.
Sarah was surprised that after all of those card tricks, he really didn't know how to play cards, but she shrugged and showed him the different cards and what they meant. She tried explaining poker to him, but the game was too confusing, so she taught him go-fish instead.
"Do you have any 7's?" he asked.
Sarah pouted and handed him her two 7's. Jareth put the hand down on the floor. "I win!" he cried. "Now you have to stay in the underground with me forever and be my Queen!"
"Whoa, hold the horses!" Sarah exclaimed. "I never agreed to that!"
"Well, what did you think we were playing for?" he asked, confused.
"I thought we were playing for fun! You never said anything about a wager."
Jareth pouted again, a very strange sight. "It's no fun without a wager," he complained. Then he smiled. "How about we play again, and if I win you come to the underground forever, and if I lose then you get to keep Toby."
"No way!" Sarah exclaimed. "Toby is already mine! And besides, those stakes are way too high. Do you want to play for nickels?"
Jareth shook his head. "I don't have any money, and I have no use for money in the underground. What else is there to play for?"
After an infuriatingly long conversation, during which Jareth struck down her every suggestion and his every suggestion involved her staying in the Labyrinth for all eternity if she lost, she made a final, desperate, totally foolish suggestion. "How about strip go-fish?"
"Strip?" Jareth asked, intrigued.
Sarah blushed, wishing she hadn't brought it up, but Jareth was interested, and an interested Jareth was going to settle for nothing but a complete description of this new wager. "Um," she began, looking at her hands in her lap. "Every time you lose, you have to take off something."
"Take off?" Jareth asked.
Sarah really wished she hadn't brought this up. Not that Jareth wouldn't look really fine in the buff... "Clothing," she clarified. "Every time you lose, you have to take off a piece of clothing."
Jareth liked this idea. "And if you're naked first, I get to take you to the underground to be my Queen?" he suggested.
"Absolutely not!" Sarah cried. "Having to take off your clothes is the entire wager. Nothing else. And no fair making extra pieces of clothing appear under the ones you are already wearing. This has to be a fair game."
Jareth nodded. "All games have rules that must be followed. Sarah, I accept your challenge." As he spoke those words, a bolt of lightening flashed really close to the house and the lights flickered again.
"Don't do that, it's creepy," she complained, wishing she had kept her slippers on instead of throwing them at Jareth.
The game began.
Round one went to Sarah. Jareth tried to take off one of the fasteners of his cape, but Sarah insisted the whole cape come off. "Do you want me removing my earrings one at a time?" she asked. "Or my barrettes?"
Round two went to Jareth. Sarah removed her socks. Jareth made a comment about the bog of eternal stench, so she threw them in his face.
Round three went to Jareth again. Sarah removed the sweater she had (thankfully) been wearing over her blouse.
Round four went to Sarah. Jareth removed his boots.
Round five went to Sarah. Jareth removed his shirt. (Yummy)
Round six went to Jareth (of course, Sarah couldn't concentrate with Jareth's naked chest available for her viewing pleasure). It was Sarah's turn to remove her shirt.
Jareth lost round seven. He removed a pair of socks that Sarah was almost positive hadn't been on his feet a moment before, but she wasn't going to press the issue. She wished suddenly that they had decided upon some sort of stopping point for the game...
Nervous, Sarah lost round eight. Off went the jeans. Jareth was annoyed to find that mortal women not only wore britches, but wore britches under their britches. Sarah realized this meant that Jareth went commando. She wasn't sure wanted Jareth to lose again...
Sarah lost round nine. She flushed red as a tomato as the bra came off. Jareth's eyes wouldn't stay on his cards after that.
He easily lost round ten, even with Sarah holding her cards so awkwardly over her chest that he could have seen half of her cards had he been paying enough attention.
Sarah and Jareth, the school girl and the Goblin King, looked at each other, knowing that each had only one more garment to lose before total nudity. Then what? Did mutual nudity imply some deeper, more permanent relationship? Would they ever be able to look at each other the same way again?
Neither wanted to look the chicken, so Jareth shuffled the deck and dealt the cards, and in utter silence they surveyed their hands. Then the gamed began, with only the shuffling of cards and the words "Do you have a..." and "Go fish" breaking the awkward silence of the room.
Jareth lost. He looked up at Sarah, her embarrassed face, the way her eyes were staring intently at the wall above his head. He looked down at his tights, the only remaining barrier between his very-mature parts and the innocence of Sarah's eyes. He vanished in a cloud of glitter.
Sarah, sitting on her bedroom floor, arms draped helplessly across her breasts, stared in shock at the fading cloud of glitter. "Hey!" she shouted. "You cheated!"