A Hero In The House of Horrors (Starboy vs ???)

[DSX93]

"Se ascunde sub scări. În aceeași parte de unde ai coborât și tu."

Initially, that sounded silly. Like a decision a kid would make during a game of hide and seek. But she didn't have to do much thinking to see how smart that move really was: If Evelyn hadn't told her where she was, she likely would've assumed that he'd gone elsewhere. Yes, the rule was that he had to stay there, but who was going to enforce it?

That brought that little grin back. "Va trebui să-l pedepsesc pentru că e deștept." She took a few more practice swings before Evelyn held up a hand, signaling for her to stop.

"Permite-mi." She wouldn't take the paddle. This was something that Emilia could learn through a hands-on process, the way she does best. "Vrei să te usture sau să te bufnească?"

Her sister's evil grin grew, showing her fangs. "Amândouă!"

"Bine. Ar trebui să folosești mai mult genunchii." She guided Emilia's body through what a proper swing should be as she worded it out, grabbing a pillow for her to practice on. She noticed that she kept good control over the paddle, for the most part. Her swings would ensure that it landed flat like it was supposed to. but..."Și să reduci ritmul. Lovești prea tare."

"Bine."

"Când vrei să te usture, pocnește puțin în încheietură, chiar înainte de impact. Și când vrei o bufnitură, continuă. Ca și cum ai folosi o rachetă de tenis.

Puțin mai mult. Da, așa.

Lipiți-l de fund și de spatele coapselor. Nu loviți cu putere. Începeți cu mâna, dacă puteți. Simțiți-l mai bine, apoi treceți la paletă.

Și încălziți-l. Lovituri ușoare. Pregătiți-i mintea și induceți-l treptat. Nu vreți să se încordeze.

Bine. Bine. Și așteaptă cam zece secunde după ce îl lovești cu paleta înainte să-l lovești din nou. Lasă impactul să se așeze."

"Mulțumesc."

"Oricând."

"S-a mutat?" Emilia was hoping that he had. She was itching to try out her improved technique and was looking for the slightest reason to drag things out.

And...

"El încă te așteaptă."

Damn. Well, he's a superhero. He ought to do or say something "wrong".

Emilia slipped her shoes off, grabbed her length of rope, and gave the Holey Driver a twirl in her grip, giggling like a naughty schoolgirl.

"Bine. Mă întorc."

Evelyn saw her off with a wave..."A se distra!"

...But it was decided now: Starboy will be truly tested when her time with him comes.

...

It took a monumental effort to maintain Daeva's patient gait. It felt like she was crawling back to the foyer. Would he still be there by the time she gets back? Emilia was of two minds about it now: Him leaving would be good for the punishment segment of their game. But she so wanted to get him now!

"Starboooy!" Daeva announced her return when she reached the stairs, sounding for all the world like she'd slipped into a slinky little silk nightie and called him to bed. She played her part when she made it to the bottom, pretending that she didn't already know where he was...moments ago. Hummed her disappointment.

"So much for your honor."

And here would be where her current shoelessness would come into play: She stuck by the stairs, slipping around the opposite corner he took to hide underneath them. With no click-clacking to give away her position, she stood a better chance of catching him from behind...

Translation

"Se ascunde sub scări. În aceeași parte de unde ai coborât și tu." -- "He's hiding underneath the stares. At the same side you descended from."

"Va trebui să-l pedepsesc pentru că e deștept." -- "I will have to punish him for being a smartass." (Somewhat loose translation)

"Permite-mi." -- "Allow me."

"Vrei să te usture sau să te bufnească?" -- "Do you want it to sting or thud?"

"Amândouă!" -- "Both!"

"Bine. Ar trebui să folosești mai mult genunchii." -- " Okay. You should use your knees more."

"Și să reduci ritmul. Lovești prea tare." -- "And dial it back. You're swinging too hard."

"Când vrei să te usture, pocnește puțin în încheietură, chiar înainte de impact. Și când vrei o bufnitură, continuă. Ca și cum ai folosi o rachetă de tenis." -- "When you want it to sting, put a little snap in your wrist, just before impact. And when you want a thud, follow through. Like you're using a tennis racket."

"Puțin mai mult." -- "A little more."

"Da, așa." -- "Yes, like that."

"Lipiți-l de fund și de spatele coapselor. Nu loviți cu putere. Începeți cu mâna, dacă puteți. Simțiți-l mai bine, apoi treceți la paletă." -- "Stick to the butt and the back of his thighs. Don't hit anything hard. Start with your hand, if you can. Get a better feel of him, then switch to the paddle."

"Și încălziți-l. Lovituri ușoare. Pregătiți-i mintea și induceți-l treptat. Nu vreți să se încordeze." -- "And warm him up. Light taps. Prepare his mind and ease him into it. You don't want him tensing up."

"Bine. Bine. Și așteaptă cam zece secunde după ce îl lovești cu paleta înainte să-l lovești din nou. Lasă impactul să se așeze." -- "Good. Good. And wait about ten seconds or so after you hit him with your paddle before you hit him again. Let the impact settle in."

"Mulțumesc." -- "Thank you."

"Oricând." -- "Any time."

"S-a mutat?" -- "Has he moved?"

"El încă te așteaptă." -- "He's still waiting for you."

"Bine. Mă întorc." -- "Alright. I'm going back."

"A se distra!" -- "Have fun!"

[Jaystar]

Was Starboy being a bad boy? Of course not. A bad hero? Perhaps. But even at that, just a little. A tiny bit. He wasn't doing anything illegal, no. The worst he could have been doing now was to ignore the orders of a villainess. A villainess. Ignoring their orders surely fell into the realm of merely using some common sense, right?

Besides, he was simply hiding behind a staircase. That was it. Nothing more, nothing less. He hadn't left the room. He was still in the very near vicinity. He just wasn't somewhere, where he could be instantly spotted.

Sounded like Daeva soon picked up on that being the case. Even before Star would think that she should have clearly seen the spot where she had left him at, he could hear her silky voice calling for him.

And oh, this was interesting. He actually felt an urge for a moment to just reveal himself. To obey that silky voice... But of course, he couldn't have done that. That would have been stupid.

Granted, the "So much for your honor" that soon followed did sting a little. Honor was important - especially for a superhero. That didn't feel nice. But still, Star was pretty sure that this wasn't that bad... He could explain it all for the better afterwards, right?

Still, that comment had clearly come from a similar elevation to his level. Daeva must had been somewhere near the mats now. And this was surely his time to slowly and quietly slip out of the shadows... Make his way to the bottom of the stairs to find out if he could see where the villainess was at... And launch a clever - definitely not sneak - attack!

But where was she? The hero had already made his way at the edge of the wrestling mats... And Daeva was nowhere to be seen. Where had the villainess disappeared? Clearly, somewhere into the shadows it seemed...

So, what now?

[DSX93]

Daeva would stalk around, and Emilia would do her best to suppress a giggle. She was having a little too much fun with this.

Starboy stepped out into the light, his head turning to and fro. Where did she go? Clearly, he hasn't seen enough horror movies. And for that, he really needed punishment.

With a mischievous grin, she lined up her shot.

Wound back...

And then...

WHAM! Right in the tuchus.

[Jaystar]

As it turned out, Starboy wasn't the only one deciding to lurk in the shadows. To be fair, out of them two, his opponent was always the one more likely to do so... And the supposed superhero shouldn't had been surprised by the villainess playing her own game. And technically, he wasn't surprised either... Except for the speed with which Daeva had seemingly vanished from the spot he had been expecting her to be occupying.

Now, this was certainly a setback. But then again, if his own, slightly questionable plan to lurk in the shadows had now failed, this was surely an opportunity to revert to some more honorable ways again. Stepping onto the wrestling mats basking in some more light once again, Star tried hard to figure out where his opponent had disappeared... Could he see any movement in the shadows?

He couldn't really. At least nowhere that was within the reach of his eyesight for the moment. Could that only mean... That she had already slipped behind his back?!?

*SMACK!*

"Aaaghhh!!!"

Yes, it had meant exactly that. The hero got to pay for it in the form of taking some painful and unexpected punishment to the back of his skimpy attire... Needing to start covering it with his hand. But he also quickly turned around to see where the wham had been coming from, and let out a probably rather comical protest. "H-hey! What was that?!?" the hero protested in a slightly irritated and embarrassed, yet probably not so angry or pained tone as one might had perhaps expected. It was almost as if the protests were something that he knew he should have said... But maybe not something that he would have wanted to say... At least not quite so wholeheartedly.

[DSX93]

That was great! A perfect shot! Emilia wanted to laugh so badly.

"That, átimos íroas..."

She wondered if he would catch that slight change of wording.

"...Was only the beginning of your just punishment."

Daeva would start towards the mat with the same ease she displayed when she first left him as she continued, "Or has the corruption spread so far -- taken such a hold -- that you would try to escape it now?" Like she was entirely without concern for his ability to do just that. She let the paddle and rope fall at its edge, the sound of the former spreading through the wide, otherwise dead silent space as it hit the marble floor.

They were both right there for the taking. He could just grab them on the way to round two, if he so desired. Maybe that was what she wanted?

A question for which her face would provide no answer. All she had for him was a challenge.

Greek-to-English Translation

"átimos íroas" -- "dishonorable hero"

[Jaystar]

"What was that?" Well, that had been perfectly natural behavior for an evil villainess. A stupid question, really. Daeva had already been basically drinking his blood. Why would he expect her to not take every advantage she got to punish the supposedly honorable superhero?

Even Starboy himself figured that out soon enough. And as a consequence, some blush developed on his cheeks too - and not only on the ones covered by his attire. The words he had uttered out were obviously a bit embarrassing... And it was also a bit embarrassing that he was actually looking forward to this, what seemed to be the next stage of their battle.

Star couldn't quite understand all the words that Daeva said next - some of them were as if in another language - but he did understand the part about the punishment. And ironically, that part also got his attire to get a tad tighter again... Even if the hero took a few steps backwards as the villainess began approaching her. But his steps were not as plentiful as his foe's, and they were inevitably getting closer to each other...

But then something surprising happened. Instead of coming at him with the paddle and the rope, and continuing to take every opening she got to punish the hero, the black-clad girl simply let them fall at the edge of the mats. Star raised an eyebrow, as this was unexpected... It took a moment for the hero to really process her words about corruption, and figure out what "escaping" really meant here. And while he wasn't certain that he was fully reading Daeva's thoughts, now that she was coming at him unarmed, he felt the urge to get once again physical with her - wrestling-wise, of course.

"Well, you can try to punish me... If you can first overpower me!" the Lonely Superhero then stated in a surprisingly determined tone for this specific context, and began approaching the villainess. Raising his arms up in the process, it was obvious that Star was preparing for a proper grapple, a test-of-strength... And perhaps, if he managed to push his adversary off the mats that way, maybe, just maybe, he could allow himself to gain hold of the weapons that Daeva had dropped by the ringside?

[DSX93]

Emilia had never before been so excited to wait. What would he do? Challenge her head-on? Pick up the paddle? The rope? Both? Or would he run? The last one was a possibility; the caution was setting in. Could this be a trap he was walking into?

But he wouldn't spend much time weighing his options. No weapons. A head-on confrontation, looking for a contest of pure physical strength. She should have known.

Daeva raised her hands to meet his, readily intertwining their fingers. The mischief never left her features as she fell back, not even trying to stop his forward push. She raised a nylon-covered foot to his abdomen and

With her right back on top, of course. Leaning forward with her arms wrapped around his head to bury the "detrimentally" straightforward hero deep in her cleavage.

"You make such easy prey, superhero." Not that she minded, as her giggling and motorboating would convey.

[Jaystar]

While Starboy did have already some further plans depending on how this little grapple would go, he was also getting keen on truly engaging in it properly. He was always very eager to test the strength of his opponents, find out exactly how powerful they were, what were they capable of... And whether he could manage to overpower them - even if it wasn't really rare at all for the superhero to get overpowered himself in those contests. But there was just something about it that held a central appeal when it came to wrestling for him... And Daeva wasn't going to be an exception.

He was going to get disappointed though. Even if he shouldn't had been all too surprised of that... While she seemed all ready to engage in the grapple, of course the villainess had some devious tricks reserved for him up her sleeve.

Someone more foolish than Starboy could have initially thought that they were proving to be surprisingly triumphant against their foe, but Star could immediately tell that the black-clad girl hadn't even tried at all. Her intention had always been to lure him in, and flip him over... All the way until she could settle all her weight atop his chest.

Sure, a disappointment for Starboy. But something that he would have to reluctantly admit was getting quickly remedied by Daeva's subsequent actions... And words.

The position that the hero ended up in was tricky, laborious, suffocating. But also sweetly and rather ecstatically so... And while he was haplessly trying to somehow find more air or wiggle his way free, the movement he could achieve was negligible, and essentially, he was completely stuck and under control of the villainess.

Easy prey, as she so eloquently put it. Words, that would end up deceiving the Lonely Superhero's true feelings, since as soon as he managed to register those words, his efforts at resistance essentially died down.

Yes, that's what he wanted to be for her. If no one would just get to find out about it.

[DSX93]

But alas, there were cameras about.

Or is "alas" really the right word to use here? They present an interesting challenge: When he went slack, she just had that feeling -- he was trusting her to uphold their masquerade. And shoving his face into her tits has given him an excuse to be experiencing a sudden loss of strength.

Or maybe she's overthinking this. But she likes that idea. But at the same time, it made her think: What if they weren't there? Something to ponder later; a Starboy needs punishing.

"But you're so much fun." Her eyes flicked over to the rope that was just within reach. After seizing his wrists, she'd make her move: Pin them to the mat, arms outstretched. First with her hands, then letting her knees take over once she was high enough on him for her crotch to be hovering over his face. Mere inches away from contact, treating him to, and teasing him with the aroma of her arousal. "Perhaps I should turn you. Make you mine." She grabbed the rope and held it in her hands. Near the opposite ends in each one, displaying that it wasn't long enough to tie the hero up completely. No shibari. No classic "damsel about to get hit by a train".

But she still had plans for the length she possessed. Plans juicy enough to have her biting her bottom lip. "Then we can do this forever. I could rename you 'Bloodstar'. And you could still go out and play the gallant knight, if you wish. Your armor, though blackened, could still shine."

One knee would be lifted, letting one arm free. But only for a split second before it was seized, the rope being tied at the wrist. Then she'd take the other arm and continue from where she left off until his wrists were bound together.

"You'll have new powers at your disposal in your battle against the villains that plague the land. And when your day's adventure is done, you'll get to come back to the one foe that you can never vanquish. The one foe that you'll never want to vanquish. And why would you, when we have so many games that we could play instead?"

[Jaystar]

One couldn't have blamed Starboy for finding comfort in Daeva's cleavage. Any man would have. Well, at least almost... But this was just a moment when there was no need for resistance... This was a moment to take a hit, to accept one's fate. To play possum for a bit.

But it was still only a moment. And only for a bit.

And only a total coincidence that the moment happened to end right as the black-clad girl's cleavage was no longer burying his face.

Now it was the girl's crotch hovering over his face. And truthfully, this was a little too close for comfort now. He wasn't exactly longing for seeing this view... Even if there wasn't all that much to actually see...yet. They were supposed to wrestle, not-...

Well, he wasn't sure what exactly to call this. Luckily, his focus was soon allowed the opportunity to listen to the girl's words again instead.

She was talking about turning again. Confusing... What had the bite been then, if not that? Just a... Snack? Or a dinner? Well, he wasn't all that clear with all this vampiric stuff anyway...

Apparently "Bloodstar" would have been very much a vampiric name for him though. And the hero frankly wasn't quite as excited about it. Sure, it sounded fancy, and gimmicky, in a way... But very much unlike him. The gallant knight and all was just fine... But Bloodstar? No, that sounded like someone bringing a harrowing death. Not his deal.

But by now the hero was thinking too much. The proof of that was the fact that he suddenly realized his other wrist having gotten tied with a rope. And before he managed to properly react, his other wrist was already facing the same fate too.

Time for the obligatory, futile resistance. Daeva could clearly see the hero testing with all his might whether the rope was in fact tied up tightly enough... And of course it was.

Maybe this wasn't a damsel in distress... But a hero in peril for sure.

Another downside of Star's excessive thinking and futile resistance was the fact that he couldn't quite follow what Daeva was stating in her silky, yet haunting and possessed voice. To him, it had largely rendered to generic villainous smack talk... Or perhaps rather, dominant monologue. Had he managed to pay enough attention, he would have found that she was using very clever words to get inside his head... But his senses were taking only a fraction of it in. Perhaps his subconscious was recording more of it, only to replay it all in his future dreams (or nightmares), but for now, he could mainly respond to it with some generic, heroic attitude of his own.

"Your plans are... Vain!" Star began through his gritted teeth and labored breath... "I'm an honorable hero... And you can never turn me into a villain... No matter what!"