The Tourney - Prologue

"Get on up here, y'all," Queen Mama orders, pointing for the three of them to occupy the now empty chairs on the stage. She pulls Liz over to stand with her, a terrifyingly happy smile spreading across her regal face. "Care to do some explaining, Miss Diamond?"

"I didn't tell anyone 'yes,' Queen Mama," she bats her eyelashes.

"You did!" Quentin's high voice protests, but Liz shakes her head.

"I only smiled and sat there; no verbal confirmation."

Quentin wants to disagree again, but as he thinks back he folds back into the chair to concede her point. Ren folds similarly, though Celeste stays leaning forward with her elbows propped up on her knees, hands clasped over her mouth and shaking her head incredulously.

"How naughty is our Diamond, folks?" Queen Mama addresses the crowd. She turns to Liz, throwing an arm around her shoulders and squeezing her fondly. "Now, are you just too shy to turn them away or do you have a preference for one of them?"

"No preference," Liz announces into the microphone, much to the crowd's delight. They whoop and cheer, enraptured by the spectacle. Liz is careful not to meet the eyes of any of the grumpy doms behind her.

"No.... preference..." Queen Mama repeats, letting the room fall deathly silent. "Pray tell, dear Diamond, do you get off on the thrill of being pursued?"

Liz nods, pushing her lips together tightly and feeling her face flush with warmth. She innocently hides her hands behind her back, feeling them graze against the soft folds of her skater skirt.

"I turn now to our dominants," Queen Mama's dress flutters and folds as she turns, gazing back at the three of them lounging in the seats, "with this knowledge, do any of you wish to take back your offers?"

It's silent for a long moment as the three look at her. Liz pulls her shoulders back, letting her small breasts bounce lightly in her camisole tucked in at her waistline, trying to be cute and enticing. And, if she's honest, a slightly frustrated and jealous dom might be inclined to want to... correct her behavior.

The three of them shake her heads, wearing a variety of expressions. Celeste holds a deadpan, resting her head in her hands and letting her eyes flick over Liz like she's a puzzle to be solved. Quentin is incredulous, but clearly doesn't like the idea of standing down, a sensuous glimmer in the blue pools of her eyes. And Ren... Ren looks proud, territorial, and competitive. She clearly wasn't about to give up her pursuit.

"Well, folks," Queen Mama cracks her fingers together, "I think we'll have to have some fun with this, won't we?" She waits a moment, repeating louder in a teacherly voice, "Won't we?"

The room laughs and lets out a sporting cheer. Her classmates grin at her, knowing she must've been plotting something like this, and Liz enjoys the support. She didn't really expect it to get this far, she'd just wanted to feel wanted. But with the knowledge that none of the three doms were going to stand down... she bites her lip excitedly.

"A tournament!" Queen Mama declares. "Your Queen demands it!" She snaps her fingers at a man in the front row, gesturing for him to toss his baseball cap. He frisbees it over to her and even she seems surprised she caught it. "Still got it," she chuckles and a cat-call whistles out from the audience.

Queen Mama looks as though she's about to make another request, but the ecstatic stage tech is already high-tailing her way up to the stage, markers in hand. "You've served your queen well," she chirps, holding a marker like a sword and pretending to Knight the stagehand. She extends one to each of the doms and directs them to write their names on the inside of their leather cuffs.

Once completed, she scoops them up, dropping the leather cuffs into the baseball cap and twirling it around. "Three dates, three scenes, three doms" Queen Mama announces, "Each dom will have a twenty-four hour period to make their case to our lovely Diamond. Whoever she chooses at the end of the three dates not only gets to cuff her..." Queen Mama stares down Liz, grinning with an excited twinkle in her eyes, "... but will collar her in front of the whole club."

Liz swallows, feeling her mouth suddenly dry. She twirls her fingers nervously, feeling her panties grow slightly tighter at the suggestion. Not only would she get to experience all three... she'd be collared in front of everyone?

When she releases her restrained breath, it takes a great deal of focus not to let out an eager moan with it.

"First challenger..." Queen Mama throws her hand into the hat, circling it around for a dramatic few seconds. Her fingers clasp a cuff, slowly withdrawing it and handing it to Liz to read out.

She takes it in her shaking hands, gently undoing the clasp and seeing a large "C" directly in the middle of the band. "Celeste," she announces.

Celeste grins, but keeps her response tame. Liz can see a flurry of ideas flash through her face, already developing her strategy of how to win her over.

"Second challenger..." Queen Mama continues, and both Ren and Quentin edge forward in the chairs. Quentin's leg bounces up and down, rocking slightly with energy while Ren tightens her fist, ready to pump it in victory depending on the result.

Queen Mama drops the cuff into Liz's hand, where she unfolds it to read out, "Quentin."

Both Quentin and Ren let out victorious noises. They look at each other for a moment, and after a second or two Liz notices Quentin's excitement waver, slowly realizing this would mean Ren gets the final impression.

"Which leaves our handsome Ren to round out the table," Queen Mama confirms, tossing the final leather cuff to Liz. She holds the three cuffs in her hands, turning to face the doms and giving them a little curtsy before handing the respective ones back to them. Ren frowns lightly as she does, but a small part of her face also seems proud of Liz.

"Now, let's get into the drab stuff," Queen Mama continues. "Rules. You've got twenty-four hours for your turn - we want there to be negotiation, scenes, aftercare, and most importantly, naughty, naughty fun." She boops a finger on Liz's nose, winking at her. "Doms may borrow anything from the supply room, but cannot act out any scene within this building, this is neutral ground!" She snaps.

"After each date, the dom will be expected to bring our Diamond back to the club as part of our regular evening entertainment," her eyes flick up and down Liz, full of mischief, "where she'll fill us in on all the dirty details. From there, the next dom's time will begin immediately."

Liz scans the crowd in a minor state of disbelief. All eyes on the room took her in greedily, excited to watch the spectacle unfold before them. It was going to be a bit embarrassing to recount the intimate details of each date in front of everyone, but the attention would be worth it. Liz wonders if they might even start up a betting pool on who she'd pick...

"Any questions from our Diamond?"

Liz bites her lip, thinking for a second before shaking her head. In the corners of her eyes she keeps sharing rushed glances with Celeste, still scanning her and formulating a strategy. If she could back up half of the things she'd said when they were courting earlier... Liz was in for an interesting night.

"Any questions from our competitors?"

All three doms raise their hands quickly, so Queen Mama picks on them in the order that they were selected.

Celeste raises up three fingers, pointing to each one with her opposite hand as she takes the question in turn. "One, are we allowed to borrow unreusables from the storeroom?"

"Encouraged to," Queen Mama confirms, her voice low and lavishious. The Marion Street Brigade has a room full of basic (and many not-basic) toys and equipment for doms to use. Some of them could be sanitized and returned, but many items, like condoms, dental dams, insertables, ropes, cloths, and gags, amongst other things, were disposable or near impossible to sanitize. Usually doms would pay a fee to use unreusables, but apparently Queen Mama was feeling generous.

"Two," Celeste lowers her ring finger and moves on to the middle one, "my apartment is on the fifth floor of this building, does that still count as off-limits?"

Queen Mama laughs and waves her concern away. "This club is neutral ground," she adjusts, "no need to be such a stickler about it."

Celeste grins, pausing quietly before concluding with her index finger. "Third, does Liz need to be returned in the same shape as when we get her?"

"Absolutely not," Queen Mama gives Liz a sly and impish smile, "You're encouraged to leave your mark."

Liz gulps, already feeling the phantom warmth of a paddle cracking down on her hips. If the doms were encouraged to leave a mark, these three days were going to leave her with bruises for some time. She feels her chest tingle at the implications.

Quentin gets to ask his question next, sitting forward and nervously asking, "So... I have a shift at work on my allotted day. Is it possible I can-,"

"Call out sick," Queen Mama rules, snapping her fingers to accentuate her point, "this is more important... and if money's tight come talk to me, hon."

Quentin nods, a bit relieved but also slightly dreading lying to his boss. Liz can't remember where he said he worked, but she hopes his boss is understanding. It'd suck to have that overshadow their time together.

"Final question," Queen Mama turns to Ren.

"Just a quick one," Ren leans back, legs spreading wide in her chair. She turns to stare down the other doms, "Is it gonna be hard for you to see Liz wearing my name on her collar?"

The crowd gasps delightedly as Celeste and Quentin's egos burst back. Celeste simply flips Ren off, grinning competitively, while Quentin lets out a bark of laughter and throws a hand up to block out Ren's smug grin.

"Honey," Queen Mama rests a hand on Liz's shoulder again, "You're in for a treat." She leans down to grab Celeste's hand, pulling her up out of the chair and guiding her to stand next to Liz. "Are we ready?" she calls out to the crowd, which cheers loudly in response, rambunctiously shouting out challenges and encouragements for their favorites.

Queen Mama raises her hand dramatically to the sky, turning to Celeste and commanding, "Cuff her and get this bitch outta here!"