fandomhigh | Leadership, Friday, 3rd Period

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Leadership, Friday, 3rd Period

Class today was in the Danger Shop... which looked like a casino floor. Yep, Scott was back on his game after last week. Credit that to having plenty of time to think yesterday when he couldn't find his visor or glasses.

"Hey everyone. I figured we'd just go ahead and have some fun today, so I toyed with the shop a little. Welcome to the Summers Casino," Scott said. "You'll all get 100 credits in chips. You can bet them on your own, or you can team up to go for big winnings. And that's where the real fun comes in today."

"The shop will keep track of all your winnings and the top three winning amounts above zero will get special prizes. Whoever brings in the most credits will get an automatic A- for the semester, minimum. You'll be able to raise that grade the rest of the semester, of course, but that will be the lowest grade you can get. Second place will earn a free pass out of any single class period you want, signed by me and available for the rest of the semester. Third place will get an X-Men hat." Scott held up the baseball cap with the X logo on it. It was very snazzy.

"That's enough from me. Go ahead and have some fun."

... Of course, if people payed very close attention to the games, they were the kind of games that took luck to win. The kind of luck that could be carefully programmed not to happen in a controlled environment like this. So there was zero chance of winning anything. The shop was going to cheat at all times, unimpeded by any powers that might be used. Because Scott knew how to program a Danger Room.

... And if they paid close attention to Scott's phrasing, it didn't matter how many chips they ended up with, just how many they won, therefore it would inevitably be a class-wide tie at 0. So, below the threshold for prizes.

Yes, class, Scott blatantly lied to you. You were being taught to pay attention to your surroundings and when to cut your losses in a hopeless situation. Because those chips you started off with? Actually had chocolate inside them. The sooner you recognized the futility, the more chocolate you had.

Real chocolate, too. Not holographic chocolate.

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Feeling lucky!

Boy, Scott sure does sound like he's trying to let people have fun, doesn't he?

There has to be a twist. Or two.

Play a variety of casino games! And lose! Because the Danger Shop cheats.

Red, Black, Numbers, 0, 00, evens, odds... No matter what you put it down on, the little ball will avoid letting you win. Even if it has to fly off the table in an unlikely bit of bad luck.

Everyone gets two cards. Hit until you think you'll have the high score. Going over 21 busts. Dealer will always stop hitting at 17 or above. You will always bust or score lower than the dealer.

The classic game. None of this Texas Hold 'Em stuff. The dealer will always end up with a hand greater than yours. Nothing you can do about it.

This is just a matter of time, right? You're bound to win eventually. Just one more pull...

A win will always be that next pull, though. Never this one. Have fun losing your chips!

I don't understand how this game is played.

You will still lose every time.

Right before the end of the period (or once everyone stopped playing), Scott came clean.

"I hope everyone realized the trick eventually. There was absolutely zero percent chance of winning. It was programmed that way. But if you check out your remaining chips, you'll notice that you can pull them apart and there's chocolate inside. That's your reward for cutting your losses early. I hope you can enjoy them."

Who should never spend a day without ruby quartz over his eyes.

Whose thread should have gone before Scott's, but screw it, it's late.

I think this class got away from me like three times, then I recaptured it, then it got weirder on me.

Cara

Cara didn't have much of a taste for gambling of any kind, as well as a determination to earn whatever grade she got, not win it, so she still had basically all of her chips.

Of course Cara didn't have much of a taste for chocolate either, so it's not like that did her much good.

Susan Sto Helit

idk how craps is played either, other than I'd probably be saying "crap" a lot if I tried to play it.

Bobby Drake

Bobby avoided roulette and slots and went immediately to the game where one could, theoretically, use strategy to increase the odds of winning.

It took a few rounds for him to figure out that that wasn't going to happen, which strangely enough was about when he noticed the foil on one of his tokens was beginning to peel away, revealing... chocolate? Sweet.

Bobby was amusing himself by trying to see how tall a tower he could build with his remaining tokens.

Privately, he was annoyed at himself for how long it had taken him to catch on to the setup being a trick. It wasn't like the Scott he knew back home never had fun, of course, but still...

Rebecca Logan

Rebecca wasn't realy much of a gambler ~~even in that one episode where everybody gambled but her~~, so she mostly spent a lot of time wandering around and watching people lose. It was more fun than you'd think.

Quinn Fabray

Quinn chose roulette because it seemed the most glamorous. She lost all her chocolate, but it still wasn't the worst class period she'd had.

Ben Skywalker

Ben had grown up with two of the greatest sabacc ~~cheaters~~ players ever, and so he was more than a little miffed when he was making no progress at all at the game.

Warren Worthington III

Warren had already played his share of blackjack in another class earlier in the week, and so today he decided to go for something that was sort of a no-brainer.

... And besides, it was easier to kind of hunker down and hide after having it announced on the radio for the whole island to hear that he still had a teddy bear, while he was here at the slot machines.

He didn't seem to be doing so well, though, and so he gave up after a while. Even a small payout probably would have kept him going for a while longer, but this was just frustrating.

Warren considered his stack of chocolate thoughtfully, and then smirked a little. He didn't want an easy A, really, and with a college in his sights, skipping a class didn't seem all that appealing, either. And for as snazzy as that X-Men hat was, it really wasn't his style.

Chocolate, on the other hand? Yeah, he could live with chocolate.

Karla

Karla thunked down next to him, sulking. "The roulette wheel is rigged," she told him, ignoring the dealer completely. "I couldn't even with with Craft."

Of course she'd tried Craft after she'd been losing! Duh.

A game of chance where the ball just had to land in the right spot? Easy. Karla had no problems trying her luck for the first few rounds, but was already planning to cheat with Craft if she started losing.

And lose she did. And cheating?

Somehow couldn't happen.

Be careful around the roulette wheel, folks. The ball kept shooting out of the wheel and into the air to stop her from ensuring the win.

"Were you cheating?" Ben asked, pretending to be shocked.

He'd been tempted to try himself.

"Only to determine whether or not it was possible," Karla lied, batting her eyes at him. "You know I would never think to do so otherwise."

Ben snorted. "Liar," he said fondly. "Did you find Warren's teddy bear?"

Karla pretended to be hurt at that. "You wound me to the quick," she informed him, wearing her best mournful expression. "I find your lack of faith disturbing."

And just as quickly, the sadness evaporated and turned into a small chuckle and an apologetic glance at Warren by the slot machines.

"Yeah. It somehow--" which meant Fandom "--ended up in the bag of soup Warren brought back for dinner."

"But not in the soup itself, right? That would get kind of soggy," Ben replied.

Karla made another face at that. "No. The soup found its way under my pillows. And then I laid down."

Not. Best. Pleased.

"Ewwww," Ben said sympathetically. "I couldn't find most of my socks yesterday and Ender's computer disappeared."

"Did you just steal Ender's?" Karla teased. "I'm sure he has a few standard-issue pairs, even if he never wears them. And how well did Ender handle the lack of laptop?"

Better than Peter would, but that wasn't a shock.

"Nah, I just went without," Ben said. "Turns out that it's not that comfortable to do that in boots. And Ender was fine. If it's still gone today, he'll probably get twitchy."

"If you have blisters, I'm not going to help," Karla teased. "Boots without socks is just plain silly."

Especially with Ender to steal from. Though it was possible that Ben didn't look at his boyfriend's stuff as an extension of his own, the way Karla did with Warren.

"If it's still missing, look for it in the most bizarre place you can think of," she added with a sigh. "It'll probably be there."

James of Krondor

James tried a few rounds, flipping a chip over his knuckle, before he flipped a bit too hard (rigged dice?) and broke a chip.

Chocolate.

He stopped playing, but continued to lose chips. Sweet delicious chips.

"This island," Ben said, shaking his head. "So weird."

Sudden horrifying thought.

"You don't suppose it messed with Chilly Boulder, do you?"

"That would be terrible!" Ben said.

Beat.

"Think we should check tomorrow just be sure?"

Karla nodded frantically. "If something happened to it, we need to know. Prepare the other students." Have a hysterical breakdown. "Stuff like that."

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Leadership, Friday, 3rd Period

Sign In

Listen to the Lecture

The Summers Casino

Roulette

Blackjack

Poker

Slots

Craps

Afterwards

Talk to Scott

Talk to the TAs

OOC

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