Casinos are Death Traps
(Friz's Point of View)
"Well, now that
we've got it covered why and who, we still need a how." I said. "How are we
going to all appear to be twenty-one or older?"
"I can help with
that, you know." Regir said.
I asked, "Can't you
only regress people? I thought you weren't allowed to progress their age beyond
how old they really are."
"The nightmare that
Timler and I had forced some knowledge upon me," Regir explained, "and I now
have abilities dealing with age I didn't have before. I can age someone until
they turn to dust if I so choose, I can change the age of plants, and so much
more."
"Well, that's
something should've known." I commented with a slight chuckle. "What else?"
"I," Timler spoke
up. "Can create rifts in time and space now. I can literally link different
outcomes together to create one fused outcome the branches off on its own."
"Okay..." I said.
"What?"
"I'll put it as
simply as I can." Timler explained, standing up. "There are an infinite number
of universes with an infinite number of conclusions. We're trying to change our
present, when in reality we're just asserting ourselves into a new set of presents
were those anthros were never sentenced to death. There's also a universe were
we fail, a universe where we all were never born, but, since we've all
experienced time travel, we are all orphans to the universe. We belong to all
and none of the universes. Our decisions are law. To put it simply and to help
you grasp how much power we actually wield, if we prevent the present we're
from, it ceases to exist in all forms. Any and all universes were we failed are
wiped from existence. The logical reasoning to go with this is that, since
we're erasing our own universe, wouldn't we create a paradox? We'd erase
ourselves because we were never born, therefore we could've never achieved
these actions. The answer has been solved simply by us using the temporal
mists. We no longer are affected by the disappearances of probabilities."
Timler looked around. He had been walking back and forth, practically rambling,
but everyone seemed to have paid attention to the whole thing. I agreed that it
kind of made sense, but suggested we not dwell on that philosophy.
"I think I've had
enough mental trauma to last a lifetime." I joked. "Well, Regir. Let's get
going with our plan. The sooner we start this, the sooner we can finish it."
"You really don't
like this, do you?" Gary asked.
I sighed. "Not
entirely, but if it means my stomach stops growling like a zombie, I'm all for
it."
"You just had to
use that simile, didn't you?" Nick asked, looking unamused. I just smiled a
friendly smile.
A couple minutes and
a few age progressions later and the four of us that were going to the casino
were ready to do just that. I was still a little averse to being in public with
my diaper showing, but I decided not to let Ghastillo show me up on what it
means to have confidence. "So, where are we getting our initial amount,
Timler?" I asked the bear. "If we're going to do this, I would rather we keep
it as optimal as possible."
"If we're going to
do this," Timler said, "You will do exactly as I say when I say it." His voice
had gotten deeper than all of ours. We had all been accelerated to twenty-two,
except for Gary, and I was a bit dismayed to realize my voice was probably
never going to change. Ghast's got slightly deeper, but not too much. Timler
also had gained a decent amount of muscle, making me jealous of my slender
build. The women we passed on the street couldn't stop staring at us, but I
suspected that Timler was the main attraction. I could definitely see why the
girls would be all over him if he went to a club to pick up chicks. Not the
animal, mind you. Timler was glancing around rapidly, scanning the area with
his mechanical methods. He eventually sighed and said, "That female. She's got
a crush on Gary." The female was a human. Judging by her height and figure, I
guessed she must be in her early twenties. Couldn't be older than twenty-five
by any stretch of the imagination. Gary flirted with her for about five seconds
before he tried a sleazy move just to prevent using his charm speak. He said
that he was a walking kissing booth, and that it was two credits to kiss him.
She happily agreed, much to my annoyance and Ghast's childish disgust, and we
had the money we needed to go gambling.
"Alright, Gary.
Let's turn those two credits into a couple thousand." Timler suggested. "The
fourth slot on the front row will have a jackpot in approximately ten seconds,
give me a credit." He walked over to the machine and inserted the coin, waiting
a few seconds before pulling the stop lever. The slots all landed on red sevens,
and a siren sounded and we got back one thousand percent of what we inserted.
Thoroughly satisfied with 101 credits, I would've been happy to go home, but we
needed to be able to feed eleven for a good few weeks so we didn't raise
suspicion by being here so often. Timler took the one hundred credits and
suggested we get an electrical banking card. The higher-paying machines needed
one to play. It took about an hour for Timler to sign up for a bank account at
the bank, under a false name, and we went back to the casino, which was next
door to the bank, and continued to gamble. Rather, Timler gambled while Gary
used his charm speak to effectively give amnesia to any suspicious people or
anthros in the casino. Ghast and I stay at the bar in the front, chatting about
how interesting it was to be able to just sit around without worrying about
being arrested for once. The bartender, unfortunately, overheard us.
"Are you two
runnin' from the long arm of the law or somethin'?" he asked. He was a husky
with normal coloring, and he was much more muscular than Ghast. He seemed to be
the serious type at first glance, but I was good at reading body language. His
muscles weren't tense except from cleaning the glass he held. I decided to use
humor to lower his suspicion.
"We're actually
running from an ex-girlfriend of mine. She'd been cheating on me with my friend
here. We pranked her, and she hasn't stopped trying to find us. We had moved to
keep her scrambling around our hometown to try to find us." I chuckled to add a
little laughter to the air. The bartender didn't buy my story.
"You both reekin'
of inexperience with ladies, so stop lyin'." He scolded. "I won't turn ya'll
in, if tha's what yer worryin' 'bout."
"It's actually more
of a problem of how to explain if we chose to. We don't even know you well
enough to trust you with secrets like ours." Ghastillo admitted. I turned
around to go look for Timler, but the bartender stopped me.
"Not so fast, young'n."
He warned. "I might not tell the fuzz, but I will tell the management that a
sixteen-year-old and an eleven-year-old are'n here, so ya better get talkin'."
"I really need to
find my friend, though." I insisted. "I need to make sure they aren't losing
money."
"It's a casino,
they'll lose money." The bartender said. I looked at him with a desperation
that he must've noticed from somewhere before, so he added, "Look, if ya'll'll
tell me what yer doin' in a casino, I'll letcha go."
"I'll let my friend
explain." I promised. "I really must go." I walked away as Ghastillo introduced
himself as William Nightshade. I thought it was risky using his real last name,
but to each their own. I walked around until I saw Timler and Gary getting
excited at a machine in the corner. "How much have you won?" I asked.
"We just reached enough to last a couple
months." Timler replied.
I sighed. "Good,
cuz we needed to scoot, like, yesterday." I said. "There's a bartender can see
Ghast's and my real age, so it's risky."
"Need me to charm 'em?"
Gary asked. I shook my head.
"We really need to
go." I growled with such an urgency that their excitement melted. I walked back
to the counter and Ghastillo was stalling like I'd hoped he would. I told him
we were leaving, and bid the bartender farewell with a handshake, freezing the address
for our hotel room into his arm so he'd see it. He nodded at me in response and
the four of us that were currently twenty-two left and went back to the hotel.
Once out of the
casino, Gary started asking questions. "What the hell, Friz? I was having fun!"
"You overextended,"
I hissed, "and the employees were getting suspicious. I saw a man in a suit
staring at Ghast and me like we'd robbed a bank. Did you not see the ones
staring at you?"
"What suited men?"
Timler asked. "I made sure we chose a strategy that didn't draw much attention."
"You obviously didn't
account for the cameras that were everywhere!"
I snapped. "We're going to have a visitor at the hotel, by the way. And Timler?
No more time travel for the day for you."
"Since when can you
say when I can use my power?" Timler inquired.
I stopped walking
and approached him. "Since you let your excitement get the best of you, and you
got us in a hell of a lot of shit!" I yelled.
"Friz, who's the
visitor?" Ghast asked. I explained that it was the bartender. He was special,
and I needed to know more about him. I needed him to be an ally so he wouldn't
be an enemy later on down the road. I needed his help...