Chapter 10: Games and Tribulations

Gravity is only the bark of wisdom’s tree, but it preserves it Confucius

Rising bright and early its time for some fun, I’ve worked my backside off for over a month now and I deserve to enjoy my slice of the pie. With an excellent supply of money coming in, my staff running everything I’m simply a researcher who researches whatever he wants and money is no object, or close enough anyway.

So I invite my closest friends, my brother, and a few random winners from a lottery I did over the internet. I whipped up a giant inflatable dome which cost about £10000 for the size I bought and inflated it in a field I rented for the day. With placing a big gravity crystal in the middle I now have a giant play area that is safe since you bounce off the walls, being inflatable and everything.

I bought a small security group with me to keep an eye on things and I told a few people. I can't assume I’m indestructible not yet. So with that, I and the new group of people brainstorm ideas on what games we can play. First up tag. Good old and reliable; should put a new spin on an old game. Some faces include my 2 closer friends Jess and Paul. Another called Zion, a very quiet fellow, very friendly and he is among those I donated a sum of money too. He won't tattle on me for sure. The 3 other people who won the small lottery, more like a raffle I failed to remember their names but they should make it a challenge. One is a buff gentleman, not a giant but handsomely toned and defined muscles. Another an elder woman, no older than 50 but grey hair fighting for dominance over her head. The final was a thin gentleman with a gentle complexion.

With the game starting, we randomly took a stick and Connor is it. We get 5 seconds to run, cough flies away before he chases us. He goes straight for me the cheeky sod. Well, I got caught very quickly since he rocketed to me and I failed to get a foothold or air swim away in time. My indecisiveness definitely didn’t help. Well after I get some air back in my body from the fear of God my brother put in me after rocketing towards me like a springloaded airsoft bullet. I swim to a wall to get something to push off. I rocket towards the thin gentlemen. But when I got there he was gone. Ninja! He must be. Not actually but out of the corner of my eye, I see a surprisingly limber and agile monkey run up the wall and rebound into a backflip before spinning lightly into the center of the arena. Taking another shot I launch towards him but narrowly miss has he kicks off the air and a very efficient air swim away

He clearly is above my belt for this game il change targets. Aiming for Paul I swim to the wall before doing an almost frog-like impression as I run leap off the wall repeatedly to circle the dome to try and get to him. Clearly not expecting my impressive display of agility he panics and tries to swim away, mostly looking like a flailing monkey. After easily tagging him I run for the hills, well actually I use the force of tagging him to push me away back to the safety of a wall to get some leverage. Next time I'm for sure going to have styrofoam walls and objects to make this more interesting. Watching paul fail to get people, he eventually has the dishonor of trying to get the slightly elder women, who dodge him for a while before eventually falling for a faint and getting tagged. She immediately with lightning speed that I questioned the source of rockets towards me, I dodge easily but I was not actually her goal she used the wall behind me like a spring to launch towards Jess who was not expecting a bullet-shaped like a woman. She tags jess but immediately hits the wall too hard hurting her side. We end the game. She was crowned the victor with her surprising intelligence and the slender gentlemen second place for such an impressive display of skills.

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We all unanimously agreed on the first and second place. I haven’t told them yet but I will reward the winners with money after, but to make things fair I want us all they agree on the winners without knowledge of the monetary reward. Any disagreements will be made with the majority vote and il break any disagreements that can't be solved that way. I hope it doesn’t come to that though.

On to the next game, the woman has to sit out due to injury but I let her chill in an antigravity zone to enjoy the rare enjoyment of zero gravity.

“We should play gladiators,” Paul says loudly

Jess immediately replies. “sure and get us all hurt”

“No, no with Styrofoam and stuff, something that with a shield and sword requires skill” he replies defensively.

I chip in “ A good idea, il think of ways of spicing that up for another day but I don’t think it's viable at the moment.”

Zion who was silent the entire time actually says an idea, “how about catch the fox, it's simple in theory, grab the tail whoever has the most tails at the end of a timer wins, easy to collect first and second place and doesn’t require many start-ups”

I say immediately “Love it lets go with that next.”

I make a phone call, for some cloth and basic props to add some depth to the game, after half an hour of bouncing around the dome like a bunch of kids the props are here. Some basic barricades made from packing styrofoam gathered quickly and orange cloth for the tails. They even brought in small swords made of foam and some squirt guns. Il has to tip the guys who helped out, its magic they got all this so quickly.

I really just toss all the props in randomly, including the weapons, squirt guns ready filled with water of course.

And the game has begun. We chose, because of the lack of players that everyone gets 2 tails when one is stolen they replace it. This allows twice as many points. So 14 points in total. Knowing full well we have a ninja in our midst I keep an eye on the thin gentlemen, he will be a big player here “poof” and he's gone, how did he do that? In my seconds of pondering my brother steals my first tail then flys away like a bird. Equipping my second tail I watch as the muscular gentlemen tangles with zion, a really weird wrestling battle ending in a tie with each other have each other's tail. With my time to strike planned, they start replacing the tails, while this is the case I dive in and rob the muscley man's tail before darting away. “Hey!” he shouts as I run away laughing. Next up Jess, where is that trouble maker, with my eyes on target I dart towards her, she clearly has already stolen a tail as it's in her tail pouch, a pocket sling to keep the claimed points.

As I dive towards he she runs for the hills, darting between barricades and throwing fake swords at me, I’m relentless, slowly catching up to her. As I slowly approach closer and closer I grab a fake sword, with a hard throw she turns around with a side glance to get a sword in the face, with a light squeal I grab her tail and run, looking back, “Wheres my tail, Jess! Did you grab it” “No” she responds? Weird. Anyhow after that, the game raps up, tallying up the tails we all own including anyone who actually managed to keep theirs. No mystery the thin man who I know now as Brix. He came out on top with 5, one of mine for sure the fast bugger. Connor came in second with 3 and me and Zion tied for third. Muscles, Jess and Paul came in last with 1 point, I'm surprised no one got zero. Good day I guess, I exchange numbers with Brix and we all head home, rewarding the women with £10000 and Brix £25.000. They earned it, I gave Brix some extra since he won twice in a row. I fell asleep quickly that evening, under the glow of the full moon. A very fulfilling day. I will plan more of these in the future. With more props, more people, il make sure it is the most entertaining game possible.