It was already lunchtime when the group finished up the puzzle, so they headed to a pizzeria in town instead of to their own restaurant for a change. When they got back to the compound, they were directed to one of the auxiliary rooms in the headquarters building. There they found a felt-covered table with stools around it. Pox was sitting on top of it, munching on a deck of cards and wearing a green visor.
“And this is why we have plenty of backup decks,” Chorus pulled out another from the blazer they’d changed into. “If you haven’t guessed, we’ll be playing the classic card gambling game, knocker. How much experience do you each have with it?”
“Only ever played it with my one friend, and not often,” Xard answered.
“Never played it, but my dad had his buddies over playing it all the time, so I know the gist,” Kada shrugged.
“No experience outside of often seeing it played at taverns around the world,” Drim admitted.
“Heh, I made my first million scamming bounty hunters out of their earnings,” Phon was strangely, yet unexpectedly pleased with herself.
“Ah, yeah, wait!” Kada interjected. “Wouldn’t we just all lose automatically playing with Phon?”
“Yeah… even if I tried not to look, I’d see their cards anyways when I blinked subconsciously,” she couldn’t deny.
“And that’s exactly why Phon will be the dealer,” Chorus had planned for this. “But it seems like we’ll need a brief explanation of the rules. Basically, you get seven cards to start, then you discard any you want, but must discard a minimum of two. The dealer will then shuffle the discards and add one card per person at the table, in this case, three, and you will then be dealt back up to eight cards.”
“Then, you try to play the best hand possible. I’ve made up charts for each of you of all the possible hands and where they land in the hierarchy. We should probably just play a few test hands to get you all into the swing of it before we get into the real meat; the gambling.”
“Well, since money’s not really something that interests any of us at this point. What the heck are we gonna gamble for?” Kada wondered.
“Yes, it is quite difficult to spur the stupidly wealthy into risking anything of worth,” their host agreed. “Which is why, you’ll be betting your time instead. We’ll start off betting minutes, but can jump to hours if you feel frisky. Basically, you can take any time you’ve won and hold it as a debt over the losers.”
“Anything you don’t want to do, such as your paperwork, or cleaning, or obligations raising Feyjrusa, or helping Nachi with training, or me with filming. You’ll be able to ask the other two to do whatever you want them to do until the time is repaid. I’m not going to impose any silly limits like having to keep it within reason. The more creatively you make them pay off their debts, the more fun it will be for me to film.”
“More free time? Yup, let’s play,” Drim was immediately interested, flipping a switch of competitiveness he normally didn’t have.
They played a practice round and it went well enough, Xard winning with a very basic triple pair. There were four colors of cards, numbered 1-9, also known as the citizenry, and four royal cards, the prince, princess, queen, and king. He had two 3s, 8s, and princesses. Both Kada and Drim only had a pair each.
Onto the actual gambling, not much happened the first few rounds, but things picked up and the group got invested quite quickly. “Gah, we’re up to 4 hours already?! I fold!” Kada threw down her cards and immediately felt relieved.
“I’ll bet another hour,” Xard moved in a chip.
“And I’ll double it,” Drim didn’t take his eyes off of his opponent as he slid his chips.
“Match,” Xard threw in another and then showed his hand. “A royal marriage!” It consisted of a prince along with three citizens of the same color, and a different colored set with a princess.
“Damn…” Drim looked depressed for a second. “Is what I would say any other time. A Full Harem!” That consisted of a single king together with all four queens, one of the highest ranking hands. “You’re going to be attending so many meetings, Xard.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
A few more uninteresting hands happened until they got to a round where none of them backed down, with several days worth of time already in the pot.
“Triple Date Night,” Drim laid out his hand. It consisted of two of the same numbered cards, in this case 1s, and 7s, across three different colors.
“Not bad, not bad, you Cosdamned loser!” Kada couldn’t contain her giddiness. “But too bad for you, I have a Vox Populi!” The ultimate hand, the Vox Populi consisted of 8 citizen cards all in numerical order. The only thing that could beat it was a Revolution deck, which was the same thing but all the same color.
“Not so fast, Kada!” Xard grinned devilishly at the girl who’d just lunged at the chips. “Because I have a War of Arrogance!” He laid down four princes. This wasn’t a winning hand, but rather a wild card move when someone was cornered. It caused the round to be voided—the world ruined by the arrogant princes seeking glory—and all players, even those who had folded, split the pot evenly.
No round after that came close to the same level. Kada had a run of six Diddly Squats in a row where the hand had not a single matching pair of any kind. It beat about half the other hands, so bad luck turned good. Eventually, Drim had amassed a sizable debt of time already from the other two, so they got much more hesitant to bet.
“Alright, since things are winding down for this group, we’ll bring in the next few that want to play a few hands. You four can stick around if you want, but odds are you’ll lose everything, since they’ll be playing for real money and are all seasoned gamblers, or can at least tell a bluff.”
Ipucco, Hazzle, and an aged Rusa entered the room around the table. One look in their eyes caused the Greaters all to flee, fearing for their wallets and just peace of mind in general. “I’ll stay here and film for a bit longer,” Chorus told them. “Go ahead down to the auditorium. There’s something for you to watch there while we get the next event set up.”
◆◆◆
Down in the auditorium, the generals were surprised to find a play waiting for them. It was hard to keep secrets around the compound, but apparently there had been a great effort to keep this one.
The play was being put on by the children they’d saved from the Power Station, though anyone involved was welcome to join. It was a retelling of their tribulations through life—their troubles becoming Fiends, how they’d been abducted, and finally ending with them being saved by the Fiends For Hire. It was quite the emotional rollercoaster for those watching, even Phon getting a bit misty eyed at times.
In terms of production, it was actually put together quite well. Clearly Valen had helped with the set and costume design. The writing wasn’t bad, and the children genuinely performed quite well, as if they’d been given proper acting lessons. Which they probably had from Chorus.
To add to the ambiance, one of their new Fiends, Egawo, provided the narration. Her Curse was called Audiophile, and it allowed her to mix and adjust audio in realtime. If one of the kids was quiet, she could boost their volume, or bring down the loudness of one who was overbearing while also perfectly balancing the sound effects.
And the audio she then produced was so clear and fine-tuned that it felt like it was being played directly into the listener’s mind. Offensively, she could use it to make the most calm sound become deafening to the point of ruptured eardrums and debilitating headaches. Or, she could also silence someone so that no sound at all came out of their mouths or from their actions.
Then lastly, Rezin was adding a spritz of his hallucinations for flare. He didn’t do too much, not wanting to overshadow their children. Plus, they were still testing out some new technology on the cameras and didn’t want to overload it.
Normally, Rezin’s power couldn’t be recorded, since it was localized in the witness’ mind. But by altering the technology that Phon used to stream her inner mind, they were able to make it so the cameras could capture them by tapping into the subconscious of the camera operator.
None of this mattered to those in attendance for the play, but of course, Chorus was going to turn it into a full production and release it worldwide. This kind of heartwarming, heartfelt, heartpounding story would surge through the masses. Even though it was only meant as thanks for a few people, it would still be used to advance their own ends.
“Well that was really reaffirming,” Drim broke the silence at the table, his face still pressed into his clasped hands. “If there’s ever been any doubt about what we’re doing, that’s entirely erased now. It just makes me want to do better going forward.” The group had been rushed to an early dinner, since it was claimed their final activity would take the rest of the day, but none of them had a big appetite.
“How dare. They make me. Feel my own feelings. So Cosdamn much!” Kada’s eyes hadn’t stopped leaking well after the play had ended, a mountain of tissues next to her from dabbing her face dry.
“It was pretty impressive that they got Pox to play you, and so well, Drim,” Xard was genuinely astounded.
“Well, he doesn’t say that much to begin with, so it wasn’t that far off from the real thing,” Phon couldn’t help herself with that jab.
“Next time let’s hope such an uplifting moment isn’t born from tragedy,” Chorus suddenly popped up, ready to usher them to their next event, dressed like a fictional mage for some reason. “But you know I’ll be there to film it either way! Now come along!”