Chapter 4: The Allies

Sylvia was already ankle-deep in math homework when I got back to our dorm room, and gave me a small grunt of acknowledgement when I entered, but didn’t take off her headphones.

I quickly joined her in the act of studying, each of us at our own desks. Our rhythm usually worked like that: homework in the afternoon so we could have fun after dinner.

We stayed relatively quiet like that for an hour or so, just each of us working on homework. It was nice, even if I found it difficult to concentrate, as focused as I was on the game.

Finally, she closed her books and took her headphones off, pinching her nose for a moment. “So, how’re you?”

“Doing okay.”

“I don’t suppose you’re finding it as hard to concentrate as I am.”

I laughed. “Probably more. You’re not the one who actually has to figure out what to do.”

She laughed, turning in her chair to face me, folding her legs up to cross-legged. “Yeah, yeah. I still want to make sure I have my ducks in a row, since I’m going to ostensibly be judge over this thing.”

“Mmhmm.” I wondered how impartial she was actually going to be.

“So, any questions for me now that Will’s no longer around to hear them? Any nooks and crannies you want to double-check?”

I turned in my chair and looked at her, trying to make my face look skeptical. “And have you turn around and report them to Will? I don’t think so. Besides, we already talked through the bounds when we made the rules; I think they’re fine.”

She nodded, sucking on her cheeks a moment. “I wouldn’t tell Will if you had a rules question like that, though.”

My skepticism remained. “The fact of the matter is that I don’t know whose side you’re on in this game. Even though you’re—as you put it—ostensibly the judge ... I can’t necessarily trust that.”

More nods, along with a small hum as she tilted her head back, looking at the ceiling. After a few moments, she lighted her gaze on me again. “Okay, I’ll be upfront, because you probably already know. Clearly, I am rooting for him to catch you, and for me to be there to watch. During the game, I’m going to be on his side, not yours.”

I smiled. “I’m glad you’re honest about that.” I really was. We were friends, and I wasn’t particularly mad at her about it—after all, she had suggested the game in the first place! And to me, it stood as a testament to our friendship that she could be that honest about working against me—and that I knew it was purely in the bounds of the game, and not anywhere else. We were solid, but inside games, well...

“But I’m still going to be judge, and won’t let him cheat. You can trust that I’ll keep him in his dorm until midnight exactly, for instance. Yes, I want him to catch you, but only fair and square.”

“That’s about what I figured. So I won’t ask you advice at all.”

“I’d say that’s a good call on your part, though I’d love for you to ask anyway so I could tell you obviously terrible things.” She grinned. “Like, pretend to be the founder’s statue.”

“Ah ah ah.” I wagged a finger at her. “I don’t want to hear it. We went over the bounds, and I know you’re acting against me. If you say any more—or if you do let him cheat—then I...” I searched for an appropriate punishment. “Then I won’t let you watch.”

Her face fell, though I got the impression she was mostly just acting. “Aww. You’re no fun.” She got a grin back on her face. “Oh, you should know that I have talked with the other girls about it, now, and they’re all more or less on board.”

“More or less?” I crooked an eyebrow.

“As in, they’re not going to like, report us to campus police or something. As for how much they’re each going to get involved.” She shrugged. “Well, part of the rules of the game is that you have to deal with that.”

“I have time,” I said, turning back to my desk.

“Before Will gets to them?” she wondered aloud.

I glared at her—also more in over-exaggerated play than anything—”That’s enough advice, Miss Get-My-Roommate-Raped.”

Sylvia giggled, but got the hint, turning back to her own desk and pulling down a different textbook.

She did have a point, though: there was no guarantee any of the girls would be on my side. And Will undoubtedly would be trying to convince each of them on his own. Time was probably of the essence, if any of them cared about who approached first. On the other hand, maybe they didn’t.

Still, I couldn’t assume they would decline him, and made a mental note to talk with each of them, as well.

I visited Becky in her room Tuesday afternoon, while her roommate—Liz—was still in class.

“You’re here about the Moonlight Game,” she said dispassionately as I sat in Liz’s chair.

“Yep.”

She pushed her glasses up higher on her nose, and peered at me thoughtfully. “The short answer is that I don’t intend on getting involved.”

That was possibly a relief; Becky was an absolute genius, and having her on Will’s side was terrifying. “Oh?”

“Don’t get me wrong, I plan on staying up to learn the results; I’ll be part of the welcome party when you both get back to your dorm. But I won’t aid either of you in the game.”

“I see.”

There was a pause, and then she continued. “However, I am more than willing to dispense advice impartially. I won’t tell you or Will anything I wouldn’t tell the other, but you’re both free to take whatever advice you care for.”

I raised an eyebrow, curious. Advice was still helpful. “Like what?”

She pointed at my hips. “Like, make sure to turn off tracking on your phone. It’s not going to be good enough in the bounds of the game to absolutely pinpoint your location, but he’s undoubtedly going to check it, and it would help him narrow down if you were near the waterlily pond or the sunken garden, for instance.”

“Good call.” I hadn’t thought of that, but it made sense. “I’ll get that turned off Friday evening. Might make my parents freak out a bit if they decide to check in on me, but I can always claim a bad signal or something.”

The corner of her mouth lifted. “I’m sure your parents would love to know you were planning on getting raped in the middle of the night.”

“Hey, I’m going to try to avoid getting raped!” I protested.

“Sure, sure.” Her expression sobered. “As for Will, he’s probably going to be able to get at least one of the other girls as an ally, and that probably means as a spy for him. So you’ll have several people looking for you and reporting your location—my guess is that they’ll try to do this through a text message conversation rather than voice because it’ll be quieter.”

I nodded.

“I’ll be monitoring that conversation, ideally, but mostly to slake my own curiosity. It might be fun to read it after, to see how right or wrong everyone was.”

Ah, the post-mortem. I hadn’t even thought of that.

“To that end, however, while you should have your phone with you—hence, turning off tracking—you should also turn off all of your notifications and vibrations and everything. You don’t want anything that will give your location away if they happen to message you. This means you also should never pull your phone out, and should never, ever report on your own position. You can’t trust any of the other girls not to sell you out.”

That thought was sobering. Again, we were tight enough friends that I knew it would just be within the bounds of the game—but all was fair in love and war. And rape fantasy fulfillment games.

“I do suggest, though, that you wear your watch and put it in theater mode, despite the risk of someone seeing the light when you check it. Hence, why you should have your phone on you in the first place. That way, if you are able to get any of the other girls on your side, and you trust what they tell you, you can work off of it. It’s something.

“And you’re going to tell Will all of this, too?”

She shrugged. “Yeah. I mean, he knows what your watch and phone can do; these are all logical conclusions to improve your chances in the game. I’m not telling you anything either of you couldn’t figure out yourselves.”

I thought for a few moments. She was right, but it was still good to hear the advice. I wanted to dig a little deeper, regardless. “So ... what’s your opinion of the game? Like, in general?”

She pushed her glasses up again. “Personally, or academically?”

I hadn’t thought of a difference. “Both?”

“Personally, rape isn’t my cup of tea. I understand that fantasies are fantasies, and while I’m happy that you might get a chance to indulge yours ... it’s not something I would ever do, and don’t particularly want to encourage. I won’t discourage it, either, because I know that despite the play, you both love each other very much and whatever non-consensual thing you end up doing, you will both have gone into it fully consenting to the potential consequences.”

“That makes sense.”

“Yes, I have concerns about your safety, but you’re an adult and you proposed the game.” She shrugged and before I could comment, she added, “Academically, it’s basically a real-world variation on a princess and monster game.”

“A what?”

“Princess and monster game.” Her face scrunched up in thought. “In game theory, it’s a sort of abstract game. I’m not thrilled with the name because of obvious reasons, but that’s what it’s called. Basically, it’s a game where you have a monster trying to catch a princess inside a known finite area, but can only catch her when close enough, which is a limit set in the definition of a particular appellation of the game, and neither of them can see where the other is.”

“I see the similarity.” I contemplated that for a few moments, then asked, “So, that means it’s been analyzed by game theory, right?”

“Absolutely, though depending on the exact form, it’s ... well, let’s just say it’s not simple enough that we’ve actually outright solved it.”

“Solved meaning we have an optimal strategy?”

“Right. And the real-world nature of this game obviates some of the actual optimality.”

“So what is the optimal strategy for the princess?”

She laughed. “Ah, the question Will didn’t actually ask. Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure—all the articles I can find refer to that being known, but the actual paper that gives the strategy doesn’t seem to be on the Internet at all.”

“You looked?”

“You think I know random things in game theory off the top of my head?” She looked surprised. “Yes, I know a lot of things, but I’m not that good. I looked it up yesterday afternoon, after I talked with Sylvia about it over lunch.”

“Ah.”

“As I was saying, I’m not entirely sure of the optimal strategy. But from what I can gather, for the princess, it’s to pick a location, stay there for a while, and then move to a new location, stay there for a while, and so on. Of course, the way the game is usually formulated, the princess’ movement speed is unbounded, while the monster’s is bounded, but in practical effect, I imagine Will both runs faster than you and has more stamina in that regard.”

“We’ll find out,” I said dryly. “So what’s the optimal strategy for the monster, then?”

“Systematic sweeping,” she replied with a shrug. “Pick an area, sweep it entirely, then pick a new area, and so on. Sometimes picking an area that might overlap with previously picked areas to avoid the princess taking advantage of it otherwise. But again, there’s a practical dimension that will help. First, it’s not perfectly dark out there, especially since it’ll be a full moon. Second, he’ll have help. And third, it’s not a completely uniform space; some places are easier to hide than others.”

I sat there thinking about that for a while. “And you said Will didn’t ask about those strategies?”

“He did not, but that doesn’t mean he won’t before the game starts.”

“And ... presumably those strategies maximize each player’s chances of winning the game?”

“Mmhmm.”

I sighed. “So, assuming both play optimally...”

“The monster wins about seventy five percent of the time, apparently. At least, with the overly simplified rules of the game.”

I grimaced. “I don’t know that I like those odds.”

She smiled at me. “You’re the one who picked the game. And, if that really is one of your fantasies then ... well, if you lose, you win, right?”

“Something like that.” I sighed, a part of me wanting to give up and just make it easy.

But the rest of me didn’t see the fun in that, so I mentally committed again to the game.

“Personally, my analysis is that it’s probably about fifty-fifty, depending on how the other girls fall in their allegiances. He’s faster than you, but you just have to hide well, which I suspect you can do. The game’s result will largely be predicated on whether or not he’s able to guess where you’re hiding, or notice you when you’re moving hiding places. Once he sees you and starts chasing you, you won’t be able to shake him, and it’ll be over.”