Strings of Fate

Strings of Fate Cam 36- Whispering and winning I'm definitely surprised when | find myself sitting in a smallish cafe/ restaurant watching as Harry tries to cup with a team nfor the two of us. | can’t believe he’s takento a trivia contest. How did he even know that | enjoy this kind of thing? | don’t think he’s ever askedbefore. We walked in and Harry was absolutely beaming with joy as he watched met for my reaction. When | responded positively he immediately went and grabbed us a sign in sheet. I'm checking out the menu for lunch when Harry runs off to submit our team name. | have a sneaking suspicion that | should have asked to check what he wrote before letting him hand it in. Oh well, too late now. Sbattles aren't worth it. Besides, Harry seems to be on his best behaviour today. Probably because if he embarrassesin public | would definitely have to retaliate. Still, so far this is surprisingly nice.

Actually, | shouldn't be surprised. He’s an Incubus, seducing and flirting is what he’s good at. | immediately mentally scold myself for the unkind thought. Harry has clearly put a lot of thought into this outing, he even broughta gift, and something I would like that isn’t super generic. It’s not fair ofto: judge him for...

what? Being charming? For being a good date? What am | even bothered by? Of course he’s good at this, he’s gone out with a lot more people than | have. Oh, shit. That's what the problem is... I'm jealous. This is not a good sign. | am well on my way to getting my heart broken. | need to remember that Harry can’t be a real, long term option for me. Incubi don’t DO long term, committed relationships. Then again, | never imagined an Incubus would be so excited about cartoons or so enthusiastic about a quiz night. He is surprisingly...

wholesome. He is even good with his friend ann’s adopted child. An Incubus wouldn’t have been my first thought as a babysitter, but | have to admit he is very suited to it. | think I'm getting caught up in stereotypes again. It's not right to view Incubi as one dimensional sext objects. He's still an actual person after all! Ugh this is stressful. | was always taught that Incubi are shallow and promiscuous and he’s tipping all those lessons over and leavingsecond guessing myself.

What was that saying? Your first thought is what society has conditioned you to think and your second thought is what you actually believe? What about my third and fourth thoughts, or my hundredth? Where's the handy labels for them? How much of what I believe is unfair stereotyping and how much is accurate. Besides | have no idea if Harry is the norm, what if he’s just weird for an Incubus? “Have you decided what you want to order?” Harry asks, appearing besidecausingto jump and drop the fork | had been fiddling with as | thought.

“Oh, uh... not yet.” | respond, a little flustered. He looks atcuriously but ignores it.

1/3 Cam 36- Whispering and winning “We need to get our order in soon, they bring the food out between rounds and we don’t want to be the last ones to eat. You said you didn’t want to risk being late for work. This event is meant to last two hours but you know how people fall behind schedule.” He takes both of our orders up to the counter and returns with a table number on a little silver stand so that the waitstaff know where to bring the food. The first round of the quiz event starts. There is no thto this event. It's just a general knowledge trivia thing, although the MC does take the tto point out that the questions are designed to be broad and to appeal to Humans and Magics alike. | do notice that most of the teams have between four and six members. When | point this out to Harry he just tellsthat it will be more fun with the challenge. We're only a few questions in and already my competitive side is kicking in. I'm determined to win, or at least to make the top three. Most of the general knowledge questions are easy enough and Harry absolutely aces the pop culture sections. I'm starting to wonder how much the spends watching TV because | swear there wasn’t a single question where he even hesitated. | try to subtly check out the other tables to assess the competition. No one looks too alarmed but whenever the ‘inclusive’ questions designed to appeal to Magics turn up there is at least a few groups who start to whisper under their breaths. | suppose that no one really knows all that much about groups outside of their own in this stupid, decided society. At least not beyond the superficial. | actually think that these questions might be what gives Harry and | a bit of an edge.

“Nas many Alpha Shifters as you can. Any species is fine. It's one point per Alpha you nwith a bonus three points if you can nall the Alphas that live in this city.” The MC announces the bonus points 1 it’s an insane ask that no one will be able to accomplish. Harry and | immediately get to work. | hear another table whisper loudly, in that ‘whisper’ that isn’t actually quiet but is actually just talking in a weirdly breathy voice that accomplishes nothing.

“There are four Alphas in the city. | know all of them. Those bonus points are OURS!” Harry. and | exchange gleeful expressions. Do these people not realise that each pack has TWO: Alphas. A male and female. | do hear someone listing sof the women at another table though so | suppose not everyone here is completely oblivious. | know a few of the Alphas and Harry finishes the list. Apparently Ryann complains about them a lot and how they refuse to pull their heads out of their asses. (Except for the bear Alphas, | met them and | have to agree that they were lovely.) | obviously ace the questions about Witches and we do fairly well with all the other groups of Magics as well. You learn a lot about people as a bartender and overhear a lot of gossip about current events. Plus my bar is one of the few in the area that caters to Humans and Magics so 2/3 Cam 36- Whispering and winning We as far as I'm concerned we are flying through this competition. If we don’t win I'm going to be so pissed. | wait eagerly, marking off the answers and trying to add up how many points got as they read out the answers to the questions. There were a few general knowledge ones where we were a little off, although to be honest it was more that our answers weren't specific enough. Maybe we will get a few half points? | think we deserve half points. When they read out the results of the Shifter Alpha question | frown when they only list seven Alphas and leave Ryann off the list. One other table listed seven and got ten points for having all the names. We were given seven but didn’t get the bonus points because we included an extra name.

But Ryann IS the Alpha.

“Ryann is officially the Alpha, isn’t she? | was pretty sure.” | grumble. Harry glowers at the judges.

“Yes she is. She's registered with the MRO and everything.” We listen for the final results and are disappointed to find that our team (The terrifying two... interesting choice Harry.) Cin second and only by two points.

“But we're RIGHT! They got the Alpha question wrong!” | complain.

“We've gotta fix this, for Ryann’s reputation of course.” Harry winks atand | grin. Having someone around who is willing to cause a scene might be fun after all.