"Fair enough. Foam can be useful now. Pillows and bicycle helmets and stuff."

"Pillows and bicycle helmets are really different things!"

"And they contain different kinds of foam!"

"Makes sense."

May breaks open the bag of carrots and pulls one out to munch on. The air mattress looks full so she screws its cap closed.

Lia is going to try out fast handstand push-ups again.

May checks the time to see how long they have before the festivities are underway.

About an hour.

"Do you think people'll come after me first thing or leave me for last?"

"Later? The people who are serious about winning will wait and the people who just think you're supposed to kill people in the tournament will probably find other people first since we're out of the way."

"Why will ones serious about winning wait?"

"Because they'll assume we aren't serious contenders and there isn't a point to picking us off."

"Huh. Even though I foolishly announced in front of everyone that I have out of context magical powers?"

"I think four of them left before you said that. And the rest... might want to wait for someone who just wants to kill people to try to attack you and see what happens? Information is pretty important. There are a lot of possible strategies though so I can't be very sure about any of this."

Nod nod.

"I think we are going to win."

"I hope so. But it's going to suck either way."

"Yeah."

She downloaded some phone games. She plays one pensively.

Eventually the tournament starts - which doesn't actually feel like anything much.

If it feels like anything at all that's more than she was expecting!

It doesn't. 

An hour passes, than two. The sun starts setting eventually - the stars becoming visible. The city glow in front of them should make the rest of the night sky appear empty, but for some reason it doesn't. Unless May has gone to particular dark sky spots away from civilization she's never seen stars quite like this.

"The stars are really clear for being this close to a city."

"Are they usually not?"

"Not on my planet..." Google 'light pollution'?