“M-Mr Richard? I don’t think I can do this anymore…” Colby complained.
“How many times will I have to tell you, call me ‘Dick’, and also, what kinda quitters talk is that?”
“B-but they want me to drink the alcohol, I’m not supposed to.”
“Listen, this is for your sister right? Don’t sweat the small stuff, we’re doing great!”
“B-but what will happen if I drink it!? Mom says it’s dangerous!”
“It’s not dangerous. Look, I drank it in your body, didn’t I? You were fine!”
“W-wait! That’s it, why don’t you take my body again! That way you can do this!” Colby begged.
“Kid, I can’t do everything for you, sometimes you just gotta suck it up and hit life by the chin. Besides, do you know how to do that weird body swap shit again?” Richard prodded. Indeed, Colby didn’t know how to make Richard control his body, so he was left standing nervously, out of options.
“Colby, here- look at me.” Richard crouched down to meet Colby’s eye level. “There is nothing to worry about. Everything will work out fine, we’ll do this, bring home money and by tomorrow, you’ll forget all about this and your sister will be better. For your sister, right?”
Colby took in a deep breath then silently nodded.
“Great, c’mon let’s get back to the table and take all their money.”
“Won’t taking their money hurt them?” Colby asked as he followed behind.
“Nah, everyone knows never to gamble more than you can afford to lose.” Richard lied as easily as he breathed.
As the pair got to the table, the players were just handing out the money. A huge pile of ote was pushed across the table in front of Colby. The pile of coins was so big and so shiny, it took his breath away and completely enraptured him. All of a sudden, Colby’s previous hesitation flew away and he looked at his drink, gulped once then downed the whole thing while the table cheered.
Colby and Richard proceeded to play against, and beat Ricardo once more. And as Ricardo cried and lamented that he was out of coins, Grok also had to drop out because Gustav had beaten him in their own game.
“What, you lost again!? To a kid!?” Gustav yelled at his partner.
“H-he’s really good!” Ricardo defended, but Gustav wasn’t hearing any of it as he pushed Ricardo out of the way.
“Alright kid, you’ll play me!” Colby easily accepted, at this point he was starting to get drunk and loosen up since the drinks kept on coming throughout the game.
Quickly, Colby beat Gustav and was starting to feel the high from winning at gambling several times, forgetting the minor detail that he cheated. After Colby happily scooped up Gustav’s ote from the table, the waitress brought him another glass and Colby smiled at her and told her
“Thanks toots” in his childish voice. The waitress blushed as Colby slipped a coin into her pants. He had never done anything like this before, but it just came naturally to him and it didn’t help that Grok and David were incessantly egging him on.
The second game with Gustav proceeded smoothly, however Gustav was a very good Cribbage player and wasn’t too far behind Colby in score.
“Wha-what?!” Colby drunkenly complained. He was getting very into it and was starting to look more like a dirty man in Vegas than an innocent 10 year old boy. “But we’re winning! We can’t just give up now! Just keep telling me the cards!” Colby had been laughing and drinking throughout the whole night and was having trouble thinking calmly.
“We’re not giving up. See, sometimes letting the opponent win once in a while is a good thing. Look at this guy Colby, he doesn’t look like the sensible type, letting him win will prevent problems and keep the suspicion of cheating off of us.” Richard explained this, but he was still telling Colby what cards the opponent had and which ones to play to prevent the game from slowing down.
Even though sober Colby listened to Richard as someone much more experienced than him, sloshed Colby didn’t hear him at all and kept playing.
“Ok, Colby. That’s enough” Colby was only a few points away from winning the game, but he didn’t slow down. Richard scowled but then had an idea. “Alright… Colby, play your 9…” he instructed.
Colby looked at Richard one more and hesitated, before a grin grew on his lips and he slapped down his 5 excitedly, making the count a clean 31. After playing several games, Colby had actually picked up on the rules and cheekily saw through Richards’ trick, winning himself the game.
“Oh you little shit-” Richard was about to crack off at the smug Colby but before he could, Gustav flipped the table!
“Cheater! You cheater!” Gustav accused. The sharp anger that he was shown made Colby regain his sense of reason just a little bit and he found himself scared at the outburst.
Luckily Grok stood up to defend his buddy.
“Dick’s not a cheater! He beat you fair and square!”
“He had to be cheating! No kid can play that well!” Gustav yelled and Frank stepped up to confront Grok.
“And how exactly do you suppose he’s cheating?!” Grok shot back “We all monitored the game, are you saying that we’re too stupid to catch that much cheating!?”
Grok’s roaring made Frank step back a little bit, but Gustav yelled on
“That’s exactly what I’m saying! He clearly cheated and you guys are too dumb to notice!”
“Oh, like you’re any better!? Taking your rich man’s game and playing the common folk like us, you’re just as much of a cheater!” Grok laughed
“Grrrrr!! Frank, get him!”
But before Frank could make a move, Grok took the first swing and hit Frank in the face. They then started brawling and the big green ork was clearly winning. Gustav and Ricardo then both jumped into the dogpile to try and help Frank beat Grok.
Colby was nervous, now that violence had broken out, he lost all of the bravery that his liquid courage had given him. While everyone was distracted, David had gathered up all of Colby’s winning and put them in a large sack used to carry firewood, and got Colby’s attention.
“Here kid, today was a blast. You earned this.”
Colby nervously looked towards Grok but David assuaged his concerns.
“Ah, don’t worry about them, Grok will be fine. Take this and go quickly!”
“Haha! Not the best result, but this works!” Richard cackled then began running for the stairs. “Come on, kid!”
Colby quickly grabbed the heavy sack full of money and began to follow after Richard. Gustav spotted him from the Dogpile and shouted “Where do you think you’re going!?” But a hand reached up from the brawl and pulled on his face, throwing him back into the fight and Colby was able to make a clean getaway.
“I’ll get you back for this!” They could hear the merchant say as they ran away.
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