Joy had been having a lot of fun in his new job. The babysitters Theo and Lillian were a bit annoying, but otherwise, Joy was having the time of his life. The prince had him doing what he normally would have done anyways but swankier.

Joy would get all dressed up and go to high-end gambling houses. Then he would target some rich heir that the prince picked out for him, and he would drain them dry.

The only caveat was that Joy was supposed to goad them into betting more money than they had on hand, then say they could ‘forget the debt’ if they just owed Prince David a favor.

These past few months had been an absolute blast. The prince gave him tons of free time and paid Joy to do what he loved most in this world.

There was only two things Joy complained about. One was his escort; they were too rigid and never let him have any real fun. One time he had almost gotten Buster Sevren to bet one of his father’s second age family heirlooms on a game of poker. But Theo and Lillian had stopped him since Buster was the prince’s “ally” and the “political games were more complex than Joy’s puny mind could comprehend.”

The other was the various tasks the prince had him do. Sometimes he would pick up the man’s laundry, and other times he would escort prisoners from the knight’s prison into the prince’s private prison, probably so he could do more under the table deals to get those poor people to work for him.

But tonight, was going to be exciting, it was going to be a night full of political intrigue and subterfuge. Prince David was not the heir to the throne, instead it was his sister Princess Dahlia. She rose to her status through sheer competence, and honestly would be a very good ruler. However, Prince David had been trying to outmaneuver her politically, and tonight he was going to have Joy strike a blow against her greatest supporter, the Red family. Tonight, he was going to go to The Casino Pachinko and get the eldest son, Robin, to lose as much of the family fortune as possible through any means necessary.

The prince had graciously allowed Joy to procure anything he needed to blend in with the upscale crowd in The Casino Pachinko. Joy had gone all out for tonight’s event, even picking out outfits for his two babysitters.

For himself, he had found a disgustingly ostentatious suit where the left side was completely black, and the right side was completely white. He had even spent hours combing through the city to find a pair of shoes and a hat that would match. Unfortunately, the hat and shoes had the opposite color schemes to the suit, giving him an unfortunate likeness to a checkerboard. It was gaudy and atrocious, so just the sort of thing a bad but rich gambler would wear to try and psyche out his competition.

For Theo, he had picked an all-white suit. Joy had considered going with black for Theo, but the white really made those startlingly blue eyes pop out. Finally, Joy had picked a simple black suit and scarf for Lillian. With her black hair, it made her seem like a very competent guard who had been assigned to some pompous rich kid.

As a group they looked perfect for the part. The guards looked quiet and competent, while Joy offended the eye of anyone passing by with even a decent sense of fashion.

Grand entrances are an artform. One that Joy was a fan of. So, when he pushed open the double doors to enter the nicely lit casino, he made sure that they were pushed hard enough to crash into the walls behind him. This created a loud noise that drew the eye, then he kept their attention by having his two goons step in after him, one carrying an obviously massive chest of gold and the other carrying a small rat, which admittedly was less imposing than Joy hoped for, but it kept the casino’s attention.

That was when Joy ruined his own performance by tripping on the nice plush carpet of the casino. Falling onto Theo and making the contents of treasure chest he was holding spill all over the floor. Gold coins covered the floor around Theo and Joy.

With a satisfied smile on his face, Joy started standing up. He knew he had pulled off that performance perfectly. And he was quite happy with how unhappy Theo looked. Yes, Joy could’ve warned him about this part of the plan, but that would’ve ruined the fun. Though Joy would have to make sure Theo didn’t freeze him out of annoyance.

“Was that absolutely necessary?” Theo whispered into Joy’s ear.

To Theo’s annoyance Joy just smiled and whispered back, “no.”

The Casino Pachinko was a sprawling building within the second ring. It was built in a sort of arc to follow the general outline of the ring, but the most impressive part of it was the carpeting.

Legends of the casino say they got a knight with a gift from Home to completely design this place. The red carpeting covered the entire floor, while the walls and supporting pillars were all an opalescent color. This gave the entire building the feeling of blood and bone, like the gamblers were all inside a human body.

The first thing Joy did was get a drink from the bar. It was just water, but he had the bartender throw a few sprigs of mint in there to give the illusion he was drinking. Then he surveyed the room trying to get a feel for how the night was flowing.

There were some big winners nearby the pachinko machines that the casino was named for, it was a slow night over in the blackjack area, and his quarry Robin Red was sitting alone at a table in the poker corner.

“How much of my winnings am I allowed to keep, Lillian?” Joy asked as he started walking towards the blackjack area.

“If you accomplish the mission, you can keep everything else.” Lillian replied.

“Splendid.”

Joy put on a shit-eating grin, as he started calculating absolute minimum amount of money he would need to lose, so that he could accomplish the prince’s stupid mission. There was no greater way to spend a night than by spending someone else’s money.

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The art of losing at blackjack is a fine one. Anybody can tell that someone is trying to lose if they say “hit me” while they are on twenty. Instead, Joy just had the most unfortunate streak of luck, he somehow got a ten every time he said “hit me” when he was over eleven. It was almost remarkable how unlucky Joy was at that blackjack table.

It was almost like he was cheating, but who would cheat to lose?

By the end of Joy’s third public breakdown and the loss of nearly 400 gold coins the manager of the blackjack area kindly asked his two goons, “if he’s having such bad luck at these tables, why don’t you move him somewhere else?”

Lillian and Theo hoisted Joy up by his collar. Accidentally making quite an interesting visual effect, since Lillian grabbed his right side, while Theo grabbed his left, they continued the checkerboard effect that Joy had cultivated so prominently.

The two of them looked for a quiet place away from the blackjack area and found an almost empty poker table. Where, obviously, Robin Red sat. He was thoroughly unamused by the procession and was planning on totally ignoring them, when he noticed the treasure chest of gold the gaudy fool had walked into the casino with was still mostly full. And how could he not be so kind as to try and take that weight off this poor man’s hands?

“Bad luck at blackjack, eh?” Robin felt this was a good opener, it allowed him to sympathize with the fool while goading him into playing a new game with him.

“I just” Joy sniffed dramatically here, “I just felt I could win it back. Oh, my father’s going to kill me.” Joy’s hands shook as he brought his drink from earlier up to his lips. They shook so much that he accidentally spilled half the glass all over himself. Which made him start crying again.

“Well, maybe your bad luck with blackjack won’t carry over to a game of poker. If you don’t mind playing with me?”

“Only if you promise to go easy on me. I can’t be losing more of my father’s fortune.” Joy replied. Robin looked at the pathetic slob and sighed a bit to himself, it was almost too easy. But Robin never said no to free money.

Then the game began. It was five-card draw and simple stuff for everyone involved. All the other patrons just sighed at the fool. Robin was notorious for draining people dry in these games. That was why no one ever played him anymore, only suckers and newbies played him because of his gift.

Robin had been given his gift by Liquid. A more general, less powerful version of Water. His gift was perfect for espionage; Robin could form copies of himself out of nearby liquids. During puberty his mother had to pay off numerous women that had caught him forming eyes out of their bath water. Those women got paid twice though, since the prince paid them to tell him the specifics of the incident.

Over the years, Robin had only gotten more skilled at using it, and during card games he would form miniature eyes out of his opponents’ saliva to see their cards. It wasn’t a perfect strategy, but it worked enough that none of the regulars would play him at cards anymore.

Robin was particularly pleased the fool had spilled water all over himself, since his view would no longer be obstructed by any pesky teeth. And he was crushing the man. It was easy for him; every time Robin had a worse hand than Joy he would just immediately fold. And anytime he had a better hand he made sure to make small enough bets that Joy would match until the reveal came.

“You’re really good at this Mr.…” Joy left the word hanging in the air hoping for Robin to fill in the blank.

“Robin, I am Robin. And you are just having an unlucky night Mr.…”

“Joy-rdan. Jordan.” It was a small fumble, but nothing Joy couldn’t come back from. “I was thinking I would go all in on this hand. I hope you’ll match me since I could really use this win, Robin.”

Robin carefully looked at the cards he had, three kings and two queens. It was a fantastic full house.

Robin closed his eyes, using his gift to form an eye on the water staining Joy’s shirt. Joy had three aces, a jack, and a seven. Not a bad hand to go all in on, just not good enough to beat Robin right here. Robin smiled and said, “I’ll match.”

Robin placed his cards down on the table and declared, “read em’ and weep.” Already starting to pull the massive pile of coins toward himself.

“Don’t be too hasty, last time I checked four aces beats that full house.” Robin’s heart stopped for a moment.

What just happened, he thought. It couldn’t be right; he saw three aces when he checked. But as Robin looked at the cards and he saw four aces and a queen.

Something was wrong.

That was when the night started to get worse for poor Robin. The cards that his opponent “Jordan” played were never the ones he could see from his water eye. Sometimes the hands were better, sometimes they were worse, but they were never what Robin saw.

The man in the checkerboard outfit seemed a lot scarier to Robin now. He was constantly winning, and Robin had burned through all the coins he had on him. Robin had almost come to his senses and gotten up from the table, leaving this horrifying man alone, when Joy made a proposal.

“One last bet. I’ll bet everything I have right now.” For dramatic effect, Theo thumped the treasure chest overflowing with coins onto the table. “If you put your ring up for it.”

Robin glanced at the checkerboard ring his father had given to him once he officially became the heir to his family. It was a powerful second age artifact that allowed the wearer to condense things together. His father had used it to solidify the foundation of their family castle.

Joy interrupted Robin’s train of thought by saying, “I’ll even tell exactly how I was cheating you during the game. Are you down for one final bet?”

Robin thought there was no way he could lose if this man revealed his trick. But he also knew that betting this ring was monumentally stupid.

However, what made him accept was his pride, Robin couldn’t handle being so easily fooled. Who was this “Jordan” to beat him, Robin Red? Robin placed the ring down in the center of the table.

Theo placed the treasure chest in the middle of the table, while Joy started his villainous monologue; he had been waiting patiently for this one.

“You were cheating by looking through the water on my coat, my mouth, and the condensation on the table.” As he named each, Joy gestured at the areas in question.

“My gift is just a normal deck of cards. I made random ones overlap my actual cards. Then when I placed them, I just pulled my fake cards back into my soul space. Pretty simple stuff really.” The cards were starting to be dealt but Joy didn’t pick a single one up. “Now, I know you’re not going to cheat because I am not going to look at my cards. They’re going to be left right there, face down. And we are just going to have a normal game of luck here. Do you think your hand can beat whatever I have here, under my hands?”

The evil monologue was over, and Joy felt he deserved a ten out of ten. It was menacing and the look on Robin’s face was utterly priceless. This man hadn’t played a real game of luck in years, he just used the casino as a place to make some quick coin. And he was afraid of playing a real game of cards.

Robin didn’t know what to do. He was lost; what was he supposed to do when he didn’t know what his opponent hand in their hand. He looked at his cards, a pair of kings, a two, and a pair of aces. This was doable, he had some good cards. He traded the two in with the dealer, getting a seven back. Not like he expected to get another full house, but he could win this. Robin could win.

___

Joy walked out of the casino with Theo, Lillian, nearly a thousand gold coins for himself, and a shiny new ring for the prince.

“Did you really have to go for the royal flush Joy? He nearly attacked you because he thought you were cheating again. We were lucky he just couldn’t prove it and the casino staff escorted him out.” Theo nagged at him.

“But I didn’t cheat.” Joy winked at his two babysitters and started skipping down the street, thinking of all the things he was going to spend his new fortune on.