Chapter 3 - Turn 3 - M 1500 | A 4000

               Nervously - with broader, sweatier hands, Millicent draws her next card - not bothering to look it over. “You did something.” she finally blurts out. She shifts in her seat a little, and can hear her uniform creak - she can feel her bra pinch in against her chest and stockings against her legs with every subtle movement. 
 
               “Of course I did! See, Speedroids pair excellently with Machina Fortress…” she begins, only for Millicent to cut her off. 
 
               “You know what I’m talking about. What did you do?” she  says - and despite herself, more fear slips into her voice than she’d normally allow.
 
               Annie snickers, looking down to her coin. “Let’s say I’m giving people what they want…” she says cryptically. “Does the method matter? You’re looking less like the class president and more like the girl who ate the class president, now…” she teases. “But only you or I know that. As far as they’re concerned… This is how you’ve always been.”
 
               Millicent bites her lip nervously, looking down to herself. “You’re… How…?”
 
               “You won’t get a different answer if you ask twice, y’know…” Annie jabs. “Ask any of them. The class president has always been a little on the hefty side. Gets shaken pretty easily, but at least she’s honest about how she feels… And her hair…”
 
               “My hair?” Millicent muses, reaching up to feel for her blonde locks… But, what she pulls into her field of view is a light shade of brown. 
 
               “Nothing to write home about, kekeke…” 
 
Millicent balks - even the texture feels different. It isn’t… Bad, and especially not abhorrent, but it felt a little coarser than her well-pampered locks previously had. Was this just… Some curse Annie had laid upon her? Or was this what the others wanted to happen to her? Or something else entirely…? Suddenly, everything got so confusing…
 
“It’s like I said… Every time you take a hit, your pride is damaged. What do you have pride in more than your looks… And your pride itself? I wonder, with a deck like yours… How many hits can you take, kekekeke…” Annie steeples her hands and looks down at the table, licking her lips a little. “Why don’t you take your turn, but… Do me a favor and don’t lose just yet, okay…?”
 
Her turn - her… Turn. Yeah. If she could beat Annie, she was sure this would all go back to normal. That’s how these things worked, right? Tentatively, she looks down to the card she’d drawn…
 
And she sees Aromage Marjoram. 
 
A monster she couldn’t summon without a tribute, just like Bergamot beside her.
 
“I- I end my turn.” she admits, looking up expectantly to Annie. 