“What’s going on, here?” Vincent asked. He was all sorts of confused when he saw two people in his cell. This was especially true because the shadows covered up the figures’ identities.

“Oh, Vince, you’re all cut up,” the voice of Eliot said, now stepping out of the shadows. He had a worried yet simultaneously relieved expression on his face.

“These?” Vincent replied, now realizing how cut up he was. “These are nothin’ compared to what I’ve had before.”

He then diverted his attention to the other figure in the room—the one he didn’t know. “Who’s this?” he asked Eliot.

“What?” Eliot responded and then jumped up and hurriedly said “O-Oh that’s—”

But before he could finish, the figure stood up and stepped out of the shadows. As they moved into the dim light, their plae-white skin and their long, orange hair that flowed past their shoulders became visible. With a sheepish smile, they said, “Oh hey, glad to see you.”

“Oh shit, it’s you,” Vincent exclaimed in a moment of recognition. “You’re Fang!”

With a slight laugh, Fang replied “Yeah, that’s me. My full name is Fang Nola.”

“Oh cool, cool,” Vincent replied, causally strutting around the cell, looking for a place to sit. When he found a decent enough spot on the ground, he plopped down and stretched. “So whatcha doin’ here?”

“Funny enough, Vince,” Eliot jumped in, “we were actually just talking about that.”

“Oh really? Seems like I got pretty good timing.”

“Yeah, I guess you do,” Fang noted. “But anyways, yeah, I just got here while you were off fighting.”

“What did ya get sent here for? Punching a jerk in the head? Losing a high stakes game?”

Fang averted their eyes at the question and gave a very neutral smile. Rubbing their arm and taking a short, but deep breath they answered “No. I may or may not have gotten scammed out of my money.”

“Oh,” Vincent said.

“Oh,” Eliot followed up.

Blushing a bit, Fang added, “It’s a bit embarrassing to be completely honest, but I’m not that surprised it happened to me. Actually, I’m surprised it took this long for it to happen.”

Vincent and Eliot just looked at each other and then back at Fang. Vincent then spoke up and asked, “Why do you say that?”

“Well…” Fang started, rubbing their hand behind his head, “I’m not very good at looking at my surroundings or reading people. I just kind of wander about and things just happen, usually not very good things. I find myself in a lot of weird situations by accident.”

Eliot chuckled a bit, covering his mouth with his hands. He then looked at Vincent, still laughing, and said, “That sounds an awful lot like a certain someone I know.”

“Oh really? Who’s that?” Vincent asked, completely and genuinely confused.

Eliot just shook his head.

“Well I know it’s not us, ‘cause Zander plans everything through, like everything, and I got good luck. So it couldn’t be any of us.”

Eliot rolled his eyes, smiled, and looked back at Fang.

Fang then chuckled a bit to themself and commented, “You all seem like a unique bunch,”

“We get that a lot,” Eliot genuinely responded.

“Especially back home,” Vincent added.

Fang raised an eyebrow and asked, “And where is home for you two?”

“O-Oh w-we’re from Maryland,” Eliot stuttered.

“Maryland?”

“Y’know, the state,” Vincent chimed.

“Oh I know, I’ve been to the United States a few times,” Fang replied.

“You’re not from America?” Vincent asked. He had a bad habit of assuming that most people come from the US. “Where are ya from?”

Fang then looked around the room, as if trying to put together an answer. After a few more seconds of contemplation, they responded “Uhhhhhhh that’s a bit of a long answer.”

Vincent threw his hands up in the air, sighed, and exclaimed, “It seems like we got nothin’ but time right now.”

“B-But if you don't want to share, that’s perfectly okay,” Eliot added.

“No it’s all good, I don’t mind talking about it.” Fang sheepishly responded. “It’s just a bit complicated.”

They then sauntered around the cell for a second and then sat down again. “I guess we can start with where I was born,” they said. “I was born in Wales, in some small town, but I don’t remember much about that.”

They then frowned and tilted their head a bit. “My parents died when I was really young, and I was on my own for a while, hopping between foster and stranger’s houses. Then one day, I was found by a great man, and he took me in and raised me ever since.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“How was he, as a dad?” Vincent asked. His demeanor was completely serious—something that seemed to catch the entire atmosphere of the conversation off guard.

“I mean,” Fang continued, “he was more of a father figure than a dad to me. He did raise me and teach me a lot of things that most parents couldn’t, but he was a busy man. I owe a lot to him.”

“Oh,” Vincent replied, a little deflated.

“But anyways, when I told him that I wanted to travel the world, he was delighted. I always wanted to see the world and learn about how people are in different parts of the world.”

While Vincent was only half-paying attention now, Eliot was visibly enamored and enthralled by Fang’s story. Eliot’s eyes were wide and sparkling, and his face was lit up at every angle. “That’s so cool,” he said. “Right, Vince?”

“Huh?” Vincent responded. “Oh, yeah I guess so.”

“So where all have you gone? What have you done? Can you speak—”

Before Eliot could finish the long rant of questions that he was about to go on, Fang playfully interrupted, saying, “Hold on, I can’t keep up with your questions, haha.”

“Oh...sorry.”

Fang laughed a bit and told Eliot that there was no need for him to apologize. They also mentioned that they have gone to various countries around the world and have picked up a number of languages that they know speak somewhat fluently.

Eliot, with even more amazement showing on his face, asked, “So what do you do all this for? Is it for money or for something else? What’s your goal in life?”

Fang then neutrally frowned and raised one of their eyebrows. They looked as if they were in a state of deeper thought. That lasted for a few seconds before they responded by saying, “I don’t really care for the money, I really only care to make my father proud. I want to impress him and live up to how amazing he is.” They then looked to the side and added, “And I guess I also want to understand the world better, seeing as mine is fairly unique.”

Immediately after Fang said that, Vincent stood up and walked towards the iron bars of the cell

“That reminds me,” he said, now at the iron bars. Looking at the guard on the other side of the bars, he forcefully asked, “When do I get my money for my fight?”

The air around the conversation in the cell halted and grew a bit awkward. The entire tone shifted to one of surprise and confusion. Fang, and especially Eliot, looked at Vincent in confusion. It was a bit strange for Vincent to ever care about money.

That being said, a few minutes after asking, the guard left and returned to the cell. Vincent was handed a small sack through the divide between the bars. He looked through the sack for a second and shook his head in surprise. He then showed the contents of the sack to the others.

Inside were a few copper coins that jingled around with any movement of the sack. The coins were not of any currency that Vincent was aware of. Because of this, he felt disappointed and cheated out of the money he was supposed to earn.

“The hell is this?”

“Oh, I can explain,” Fang chimed in. “I’ve been in this casino longer than I’m proud to admit, so I’ve seen how events put on by this place pay out.”

They then took one of the coins out and moved it around in the dim light. As they did, the light revealed what the coin looked like. The coin was completely smooth and blank across most of it, with the exception being the decorative L in the middle of both sides.

“That’s a weird-looking r,” Vincent commented.

“Uh, Vince, I think it’s an L...for Lucretia,” Eliot commented.

“Yeah, that’s spot on,” Fang confirmed. “It’s a coin that is exclusive to this place. It’s made of pure copper, making it easy to determine its value. I think they do this so that there is at least one common and—and I use this word cautiously—trustworthy kind of currency.”

Confused by how there could be untrustworthy currency, Vincent said, “I don’t get it.”

“I don’t really get it either, but that’s what I’ve heard”

“So did I get cheated out of money?”

“Um, I’m going to be honest, I’m kind of dumb,” Fang admitted, “especially with math and money. But it looks like you got paid, so I guess you didn’t?”

“Works for me. It looks like I got fifteen or so of these bad boys in here.”

Just then, screaming over top of the sound of Vincent rustling around with copper coins, Eliot’s stomach roared with hunger. Both Fang and Vincent started to laugh at the sudden outburst, but their stomachs soon joined the chorus.

After they all laughed a bit, they stared at each other in a bit of confusion. It dawned on each of them, collectively at the same time, that they had no idea how to get food. As a matter of fact, they all, especially Vincent, had no idea how to get anything while in the cell.

As they looked back and forth at each other, Fang’s face lit up, as if they remembered something.

“What’s up?” Eliot asked, clearly seeing the facial change in Fang.

“Um,” Fang began, neutrally frowning in remembrance, “I think I remember one of the guards telling me that there was a cafeteria or something like that.”

“The guards talked to you?” Vincent asked, a little shocked.

“Yeah, people I just meet always seem to talk to me for some reason—sometimes telling me really personal things.”

“Oh, I mean yeah, I have that problem happen all the time,” Vincent replied, obviously stretching any semblance of truth in that statement.

“No they don’t,” Eliot chuckled, “people listen to you, but they never know how to talk to you.”

“Eh, fair enough,” Vincent casually agreed. “But what was this about a cafeteria?”

“Oh yeah, uh, so I think you can pay the guards to take you there,” Fang replied.

“Of course,” Vincent sighed, rolling his eyes.

While he said that, he walked up to the front of the cell and knocked on one of the iron bars. He did this to get the attention of the guard that was nearest to their cell...and it worked. The guard nearest to the cell strolled over and asked what Vincent wanted.

Vincent replied that they heard about some kind of cafeteria and asked if the guard could bring them there. The guard didn’t say anything, nor seem to really acknowledge Vincent’s presence after that question. The guard simply extended their hand into the cell, palm up.

Vincent looked back at the rest of the group and cocked his head in confusion. He then looked back at the guard's hand and gave it a high-five. Looking back at Fang and Eliot, he could see that they both had their heads in their hands.

“What?” Vincent asked, seeing his friends’ disapproval.

Shaking his head, Eliot replied, “I think he wants you to pay him.”

“Like a bribe,” Fang added.

Ohhhhh, Vincent thought. His thoughts seemed a bit out of whack, so it was not a surprise that he didn’t think of that. He’s bribed some people before, so it's not a new concept for him.

He then grabbed a handful of coins from his pouch, about 7 or so, and plopped them in the guard’s hand. The guard withdrew their hand and sloshed the coins around for a while. After a few seconds of messing with the coins, they opened up the cell.

“Alright, let’s get going,” Vincent said.