Side Fangs: “Impromptu Casino Visit” (Part 4) (Stella)

"It'll be OK," Evy said.

"I know, I know," I said.

It was about the fifth time she'd said it as we wandered all around the main floor of this void generated casino world. I must not have looked very reassured, but I was grateful she tried. When I get in a state of heightened anxiety even for something completely mundane, it's hard for me to be shaken out of it. A headspace where I have a problem that I need fixing, and won't stop until I can.

When it's something mundane, like an album from my favorite singer getting review bombed, this mindset is less productive, and I can spend hours upon hours scrolling, trying to find something to make the feeling go away. Random tangent, I know, but it struck me how similar it felt exploring the void casino and finding no answers. Like scrolling through social media negativity looking for the one magic post that'd make me feel better, we had no luck finding a solution for this mess. We couldn't signal for help, the tricks for leaving the void weren't working and we had no gate rosin to get back.

We tried snapping Pippi, Mahina, Alix, and a few others out of the stupor they were in, but had no luck. The only ones not currently obsessed with gambling were myself, Evy, and the two students with us, Chumbler and Z.O.K.

"I know we said we'd help, but it'd be nice to take a break every three minutes or so to gamble," Chumbler said.

OK, the only ones not obsessed were Evy and I.

"Let's focus on getting out of here," I said. "Then you can...well, you're not old enough to actually gamble, right?"

Chumbler gave me a sneaky look, like a cat that snuck a bird into the house.

"Perhaps...perhaps not..."

"Are you sure you're not an imp?" Evy asked.

"Why! How horrible to say such a thing to me, Chumbler?"

"Alright, I'll back off," Evy said.

There didn't seem to be any doorways out. We couldn't find anything that even hinted at an escape from this place. We sat down at an empty card table. I hated that we had to stop to regroup already, knowing Zeta could be in serious trouble, but we couldn't just wander aimlessly.

Zeta and I were both cursed with anxious minds. She was the same way as me, when she got worrying, it took a great deal to get her out of it. Just like me looking up reviews of my favorite singer's latest album that people hated trying to find ones that agreed with me, knowing full well the important thing was my enjoyment, not anyone else's, Zeta would do the same with Tower of Hate and Love, or anything Raina Starlight related.

I don't know why I kept thinking about how my sister and I reacted to entertainment things with worry right then. Maybe it helped me make sense of the strange situation we were in. I realized I could be completely off base, and she could be fine. Maybe we were the only ones in a mess. That wouldn't be great, once Zeta noticed we weren't around she'd start worrying. I wanted her to just enjoy her dance, but once more, it seemed as though the random hectic trouble of Cani life reared its ugly head once more.

"How do these void imps get everywhere, anyways?" I asked. "Seems like they've taken everything over."

"When they pop up like this, it's usually just from one source, but tracking that one source down is strangely difficult," Evy explained, drawing on the table with a finger, which didn't really paint a clearer image, but it helped her think. "A group starts planting imps around, they wait around a bit before they start pulling people in. If you think of them like plants, someone blows on a dandelion that plants a bunch of imp seeds around, but it's hard to see where they're growing because they can take different shapes, like we've seen where that Mantorvel guy was around and he was an imp, or that poster guy Reed who obviously didn't look like any humanoid being."

"Maybe I'm an imp..." Chumbler said.

"You're not, I was kidding about that," Evy said.

"How can you tell?" Chumbler asked.

"Gimme your wristband, they may have blocked communication out, but we can still ping, surely," Evy said.

"No!" Chumbler said.

"Here, use mine," Z.O.K. said.

Evy took the power blocker and sent out a scanning ping after tapping around on its menus. "See? All non-imp folks."

"I guess that's a decent enough explanation," Chumbler said. "Existential crisis averted!"

"OK, but why wouldn't we just keep constantly pinging if they're around?" I asked.

"I've seen schools handle them really well when they pop up, basically locking everything down until the weeds are taken out, so to speak. But our school didn't have that kind of leadership under Penteldtam, and I assume a lot of the current happenings are exploiting weaknesses that he left behind. And the new leadership, they're trying their best, but I'm guessing they have a lot of stuff to undo."

"Wow, you don't have to kick a guy while he's down," a voice from under the table called out.

We all peered under the table, where former principal Penteldtam was lying down, looking morose.

"Oh. Uh, my bad." Evy said as Penteldtam crawled upwards, sitting down beside us and plopping his head on the table. "Sorry, man."

"Hey, you're not all gambling hypnotized!" Chumbler said.

"Yeah, but what does it matter?" Penteldtam said. "I screwed everything up so much that it's still screwed up after I'm fired. Didn't have good security, dated an imp, almost dated another..."

"So is he our culprit?" Z.O.K. asked.

"No, no, no!" Penteldtam said, waving his hands around. "Anything malicious that happened whilst I was ol' Principal P. was not at all my intent! I just wanted all my students to have..." He sniffled. "A rockin', jammin' good time..." He burst into tears.

"Alright..." Evy said, scratching the side of her head. "Maybe we can let him cry this out..."

"Then see if he knows anything about the imps that might help us here?" I suggested. "It's not like we have any better options at the moment."

That was about the best we could do. I tried to comfort Penteldtam, but I had to admit it was a bit hard to do, even if he didn't intend to, his negligence had a hand in...whatever the hell was currently happening. While we waited for him to finish sobbing, the worries crept in again. Like those late nights I spent scrolling looking for an answer, the same fear rested in me, hoping that somehow in spite of all this, Zeta and her friends were alright.