This choice: Replace old masks with new • Go Back...Chapter #21New Golems for Old by: Seuzz   You grab a notebook and quickly jot down the names of people you have replaced already or have masks for: that would be you, Caleb and Keith; Eva, Jessica, and Jeremy. "That's two each if we redistribute," you ponder. "So if I keep control of my own mask and one more, that's only two we'd need to redo.
"And we've got three blank masks," Caleb points out. "Alright, so how do we distribute these things? We should each have control of our own replacements, so that's Prescott for you, me for me, and shithead for fuckwad over there."
"Fuckwad calls dibs on Jessica," Keith says, not looking up from his naked Jessica body.
Caleb starts to retort, but stops. "That'd work," he reflects. "Did you golemize Eva's mask?" he asks you. "Then I could take her," he says when you shake your head. "She's only under your control because--"
"No, I think I'll keep Eva," you interrupt. "Got my own reasons," you add loudly. "Ixnay on the Evaway olemgay, aytardgay," you mutter to Caleb.
"Oooooh-kay," he says. "So, that means I take over responsibility for Jeremy."
His golem snickers and nudges Jeremy. "Hear that? We're gonna be family!"
Jeremy grabs him in a headlock. "Thanks, Dad!" he calls sarcastically to Caleb. "I always wanted a kid brother to kick around."
* * * * *
And so things come to pass: new masks are made of Caleb and Jeremy and golemized to Caleb's control; Keith gets a new mask, along with a Jessica mask newly golemized to his control. You make two new masks, which are given to Caleb's and Keith's replacements to polish. After Caleb and Keith leave--in Jeremy's and Jessica's bodies, respectively--you call Eva. "You have access to a car?"
"Yeah, mine and Jessica's. She went out with Jeremy earlier." She gets a whine in her voice. "I guess it has to do with you guys' business, but it seems kind of weird--"
"Never mind that, it's all okay. Just get over to the old elementary school." You want to get the Eva mask off the original, golemized Eva and onto the regular golem. Granted, you'd be happier to have the real Eva hidden under a mask someplace rather than stashed in the school basement, but it's more important, you deem, that she be gotten far from Keith. Though he seems like a happy addition to the team, he might freak out if he discovered what you and Caleb have done to her.
Caleb must have had the same thought, for he calls you up not long afterward. "I just dropped Keith off," he says in Richards' gruff baritone. "Eva wasn't home, but if you don't want Sir Snoopsalot taking that mask off her and finding--"
"I'm already on it." You tell him she's on her way over to the clubhouse. "Look, I know you think adding Keith was a bad idea--"
"I don't think it was a bad idea," he protests. "I just ..." He trails off. "Well, I don't know how to end that sentence. I don't know what I think."
"Yeah, you think it was a bad idea. And yeah, we're gonna have to keep him pinned between us, outvoted on things. But I think he'll add a good perspective."
"The retard perspective, maybe. 'Oooh, I want Jessica's boobies! Look, I'm touching Jessica's boobies!' That's more or less a quote from when we were in the car, by the way."
"Oh, c'mon. Who was the guy who snuck out early and got a copy of Jessica because he wanted to play with her boobies?"
"I don't know, but it wasn't me. It was Eva's boobies I was after. Alright, alright, I know what you mean," he says, forestalling your interruption. "Christ, I guess I'm just ... Well, he bugs me sometimes."
"Me too. Which is another reason to bring him into the club. Give him someone else to play and we won't have Tilley to deal with any more."
* * * * *
Maybe you're happier for having had Keith join your club, or maybe you're just more comfortable with the golems, but you're more relaxed the next day, even though both of the friends you are hanging out with are fakes. You're so much more comfortable, in fact, that at lunch you apologize to Caleb's golem for your behavior yesterday. He gives you a funny look. "What are you talking about?"
"Yesterday, when I was treating you like you were--" It dawns on you. "Oh, right. That was ... the other ... golem ... I was hanging out with."
"Oh, him." Caleb makes a face. "That was fucked up last night. Fucking jerk. I hope I'm not like that." He catches you looking at him curiously. "What?"
"Nothing. Just kinda funny hearing one Caleb golem complaining about another."
He blinks. "Who says I'm a golem?" Behind him, Keith's replacement snickers.
"Of course you're a golem--"
"Fuck you. I'm the real Caleb Johansson, dipshit, and can prove it on your balls if you ask me to."
"Uh huh," you say dryly. "I wonder what Richards would say to that."
"I don't give a fuck what-- Alright, you got me. I'll have to think of better lies in the future."
You sigh. "I liked the first Johansson golem better."
"What did you do with him?"
"The mask? Hid it away with the--" You glance at Keith's golem. "With the other golem."
"Makes sense," he nods. "That way you can take it out when you're feeling lonely. Suck his cock, let him take you up the ass. Even break out the old Richards' mask for a three-way, pretend it's Johansson-as-Richards and his golem gettin' it on with you."
You take his abuse, bemused. "Wow, you are exactly as disgusting as your original."
"You want disgusting? Watch this." He leans over and tries to kiss Tilley's doppelganger. The latter laughingly pushes him away , reproving him as a queer.
* * * * *
You get together that night again with Caleb and Keith--Jeremy and Jessica, that is. As you make up some new mind-bands, you plot and plan. The argument goes around and around before settling on three definite acquisitions: Gordon Black, Steve Patterson, and Chelsea Cooper.
After that it's a matter of figuring out who gets what, but that too leads to a lot discussion. It would seem fairest that they be shared equally, an argument made by Caleb. "Those are the three top people," he says. "Gordon and Patterson run the male side of things and Chelsea the female side. Let's just parcel 'em out." But Keith makes a counterpoint: "Sure, split 'em up," he says, "if the guy taking Chelsea doesn't mind one of the other of us playing boyfriend. I'm gonna want pussy privileges if I'm Gordon."
It's left to Caleb to come up with a solution.
"We'll bid for them," he says as he takes out a notebook and some pencils from the backpack he's fetched down. You are momentarily amused to see the dopey Jeremy Richards taking such a commanding position. "Each of us gets six points," he says after a long moment's thought, "and we spend them on who we want, in any combination. So," he says for illustration, "if you really want Chelsea bad, you bid six points for her—"
"Six points for Chelsea!" Keith blurts out.
"Not yet, dipshit! You'll spend 'em secretly." He looks at you. "I guess we know what fuckbrain here is going to spend his shit on. But you can bid for more than one. I was going to say," he continues with a glower at Keith, "that you can also split them. Like, say, four points for Chelsea and two points for Patterson."
"Why would—?"
"Shut up. Do you get the idea?"
"I guess," Keith says sullenly.
"Right. Whoever spends the most on a person gets the mask."
"What happens if there's a tie?" you ask.
"Then there's a do-over. An auction. A silent auction," he says, glaring at Keith again.
You take a slip of paper and pencil. After some thought, you write down "Gordon: 3, Chelsea: 3." You're persuaded by Keith's argument that one person should have both Gordon and Chelsea. Not until after you've handed your bid to Caleb does a ghastly possibility occur to you: What if he spends 6 points on Steve, and Keith spends 6 on Gordon? Then you'd be stuck with—
"Three for Gordon and three for Chelsea," Caleb says, reading off your slip. Your heart goes into your throat. "And three for Gordon and three for Chelsea," he says, reading another slip. You and Keith exchange startled glances. "And I know what I bid," he says with a smile as he shows around the third slip. "Four for Patterson, two for Gordon."
"So what now?" Keith asks.
"Well, I get Patterson, and you guys get to bid against each other again."
"You don't bid for anything?"
Caleb scratches his head. "You know, I guess I still got those two points I bid for Gordon. Yeah, we'll do it this way! Total do-over." He crumples up the bids and drops them to the floor. "We each have ten points to bid for Gordon, Steve and Chelsea. Any points you don't spend on them get saved to use on the next set of acquisitions. On, you know, the football players or the cheerleaders or the drama club."
"Drama club?" says Keith. "Why would we—"
"Shut up."
"What if we spend all our points on Gordon or Chelsea or some combo of them?" you ask.
"Then you don't have any points to spend on the next round. If you really want Gordon, spend all your points on him. But then you don't get any more masks, and me and Keith pick up three, four, five more apiece."
"That's not fair! That's not equal!"
"It is if you really want Gordon or whoever that bad."
You see his point, so you acquiesce. But it makes the bidding a lot harder. You have to think not only about this round, but the follow up.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author