Elio's P.O.V.

With that being done, I keep the location of the ring in mind- and focus my attention back towards Colker. This time though I'm looking for the supposed extremely tiny little pill shaped metal pins inside of his head, that should be storing the value and suit of each card that he draws, before he reveals it to the players. And I should be able to see what values are stored, since a certain amount of those pins should have current going through them- depending on what value and suit the card has.

Or at least I really hope that the open source blueprints of him that I found online were right... can't detect the pins yet but, that could just be because the round hasn't started yet and Colker hasn't drawn a card.

...

"Oh thank fuck." I think to myself as I see a group of 12 new lines of pill shaped electrical currents flowing in his head.

"Alright, so a 12."

I swing my attention back towards the ring that I found before, and quickly flick 12 extremely small switches underneath the top left of the ring's screen using my ability. That should light up 12 different pixels on the top left of the screen, which should let whoever is wearing the ring-with-a-screen know that Colker drew a 12, once they discreetly look down at the ring at least. At this point in the round it doesn't matter much I doubt but, still glad it works...

"This is going to get tiring real quick... hopefully none of the crew will be put in the later rounds and I can stop doing this earlier." I think to myself.

3 hours later...

♠️♥️♣️

"And the winner of the last round isssss... Amelia! Congratulations!" Domino says from the T.V. screen I'm watching at the empty bar... least that wasn't for noth... noth...

"Ow!" Fuck- almost passed out there. Yeah having to use my blessing until the very last round kind of exhausted me there. Glad that it let Quilline, Seric, and Amandeath win their rounds- and let Karia get a high score regardless though.

Which I was expecting, due to them knowing in advance when any card Colker drew would put the value of his hand over 51. Which yeah, would instantly disqualify him from the turn. And that was vital, since in theory- knowing when Colker was about to lose the turn, would sometimes save the crew from drawing a card when they don't need to. In the cases where Colker was about to be disqualified at least, since that meant the turn ended- and anyone who didn't get disqualified yet themselves would double the amount of tokens they bet that turn.

Pretty proud of that considering I came up with most of the plan myself, so I guess the exhaustion is worth it-

"Are you ok sir? You haven't ordered a single drink." The robot bartender in a pink suit and purple pants asks me as he's cleaning a glass, with every one of it's movements clearly being calculated. AKA- not self aware.

"I'm fine." Is all I reply as I stumble off of the chair, and start stumbling back towards our room. It's a little walks away from the bar- but thankfully still connected to the same general lobby here...

...

"Why'd I even come out to the bat to see who won after every round on the TV? Not like it would matter in the end since I can't change anything once the round is over... ugh. Idiot." I think to myself as I finally reach the door to our private room, open it, stumble towards the couch- and then flop down all across down on it. Mmm...

...

"-ey. Hey. Heeeeeey. You good?" I feel someone nudging me and playing with my hair- the fuck?! I jolt back further into the couch and open my eyes- but then realize it's just Amandeath.

"Oh- hey. Sup?" I try to reply cooly as she sits in front of my sprawled out self, and uses the side of my waist as a back pillow.

"Just won my round of blackjack as planned, no biggie. So did Queta-"

"And Serreno, I know. I went out and watched the TV at the bar to see the results after every round." I interrupt her as I can see the other four scattered across the room as well now.

"Ahhh. Nice." She replies as she reaches over and starts to play with my hair again while my head's on the armrest of the couch. I notice Quilline giving me a nasty glare from across the room though as she's sitting at one of the two chairs we have in here...

"What? I got three wins for us, don't look at me like that." I say with confidence.

"You did. But you also left the door open when you came in here, by the way. Tired or not, that's a huge fucking no-no. I'll assume you didn't use any powers while the door was open, yes?" Quilline says which makes my heart race- I try to spring up but Amandeath puts a hand on my chest to keep me down.

"Chill- you probably need the sleep, so don't get up just yet. If you're worried about anyone potentially having read our notes and stuff, we locked them away in Serreno's boat remember? So we just woke you up to ask if you used your powers at any point with the door open. Which I doubt but, we just want to make sure." Amandeath says which calms me down after I bit... I lie my head back down on the armrest.

"Damn. Right. Nah, every time I did my remote "cheating" I made sure the door was closed and locked- and also tried to keep an ear out in case anyone tried to unlock the door for any reason. I just passed out after the last round, I swear." I say shakily as I close my eyes again.

"Kay. Thanks, we believe you." Amandeath says in a weirdly gentle voice for her...

"You'd better not screw up like that again regardless once you're with me Emilis~" And Quilline ruins it- of course.

"Hey, this is the only mistake he's made so far- and it was a really small one. Cut him some slack. On that note- thanks Emilis. For helping us win I mean, knowing when Colker got over 51 saved me in like at least 15 out of 20 different turns in the round I played in." Seric says which cheers me up a bit. I give him a lazy thumbs up without moving- probably got that from Amandeath.

"I'm glad it helped you at least Serreno, that game was far too complex for my tastes! Commanders, Head Commanders- numbers- agh! Whatever happened to the days of simple chess and checkers?" Metallic says with a huff.

"You know how to play chess?" Amandeath asks with a yawn, as she starts lying down across the couch in front of me... ok then.

"Well- no, but I'm sure it was simpler than this game was anywho!" Metallic replies which makes me snicker.

"Don't laugh too much Elio, tickles and I wanna sleep. Or just let me be the big spoon I guess. Or go butt to butt." Amandeath mumbles.

"How romantic." Quilline mocks.

"Was that sarcasm? Leave the two lovebirds alone, I care not for Emilis but... if it makes Amelia happy then I'll protect it." Metallic says.

"Oh? You understand sarcasm now? Interesting. Regardless, not like the 'relationship' matters since they'll be torn apart in a couple of days. Oh well, not like it was serious at all regardless-"

"Look, if it doesn't matter, can you just let us have this for like two days Queta? Please?" Amandeath interrupts.

"Eh. I'm annoyed at how you all blew off Emilis' blunder and acted like I was the bad guy, so I think I'll keep up my teasing thank you very much."

"Rude. You're probably just jealous that nobody has ever loved you in years- if ever." Metallic says which makes Quilline burst out in laughter.

"Oh no, I did have someone truly love me a while ago- and for quite a long time I'll have you know. They're gone now, though." Quilline says with a serious tone near the end.

"What a surprise... no offe-" Amandeath scoffs- then disappears from the couch a second later? Oh shit, she got teleported in front of Quilline!

Just as Amandeath lands on the floor back-first, Quilline stomps on her face HARD which finally makes me get up start running over to help Amandeath. Thankfully Metallic tackles the smaller frame of Quilline's new "body" onto the floor, before the psychopath can do anything else.

As I reach Amandeath and kneel down to her dazed self, I can see Metallic has Quilline pinned down to the floor in between his legs. With one hand he's covering her eyes, and with the other he's pummeling her face as she screams with each hit.

"...No way it's this easy to get rid of her right?" I think to myself as my heart thumps like crazy in my chest.

"Meta- Matteo stop, enough!" Damn it. Seric manages to get Metallic to stop hitting Quilline as he runs up to him, and holds his punching arm back. No way could Seric have done that if Metallic was his usual robotic self.

Quilline doesn't even move after that though... I guess she got knocked out. Probably forgot about how much weaker her current body is than her normal 7 foot tall self, in the heat of the moment at least. And she called me dumb.

Anyways, more importantly I look back down towards Amandeath- who seems to have snapped back to reality now.
"You ok?" I ask as I brush some grime and dirt off of her face that obviously came from Quilline's shoe.

"Mmm. Thanks to my cybernetics at least. My face still stings a little though, but the pain is nice I guess." She replies with a sigh, and I adjust her head so that it's resting on my knees now... hopefully she doesn't find that cheesy or some shit.

"Are you SURE I should let her go, Serreno? Amelia, Emilis. I'm sure you want Queta gone yes? This seems like a good opportunity, truthfully I'm a bit shocked it was this easy..." Metallic says as he looks back towards us, he's still pinning her down and covering her eyes just to be on the safe side- probably smart.

"Yes, we want her gone. Also she mentioned before that our abilities are harder to use while we're in these new bodies, so that's probably why she couldn't teleport you away in time." I reply as soon as he stops talking.

Seric chips in, "This is... tricky though. Emilis- I one hundred percent understand why you want her gone, I would too in your shoes. But... like Katelyn mentioned before, she's had contact with someone who can see the future. And she mentioned that-"

I interrupt, "You need Queta to make it to Dalkan, I know. But first off- are we totally sure that Katelyn wasn't lying about that whole seeing the future thing? That just happened in her head, unless I'm remembering wrong? No offense but... does anyone here have proof of any of her 'visions' coming true yet?" I say with a bit of hesitation, knowing how bitchy Karia can be.

"Offence taken. I'm a shitty person, yeah- but I absolutely hate Queta's guts, and I'm also trying to be better now. I would never work with her if I didn't need to. Rather die. Serreno, back me up here?" Karia finally talks, after she was just sitting in one of the two chairs that are in the corner of the room.

"..."

"Serreno? Come on." She asks with a bit less confidence as she gets up from her seat.

"I... I haven't seen any of Katelyn's 'fortunes' undeniably come true yet. She did predict us having to work with "the sadist" though, and I think that pretty clearly points to Queta. Plus she may have predicted Marlox's death too, since she should have been knocked out when it happened. So I trust her. Katelyn wouldn't work with Queta if she didn't need to- I really do think she'd be stubborn enough to risk dying instead of that." He replies... damn.

"Thanks. Anyone else doubt me aside from Emilis?" Karia asks as she crosses her arms. Great, now she's probably gonna like me even less.

"Yeah. I kinda do." Amandeath says as she's still lying on my lap which makes me smile-

"Buuuuut. Prediction or not, we've talked about this guys. We need to keep Queta around for now. We KNOW that we're going up against some dangerous people before we leave, and without her- most of our plans to take them on are useless. So yeah. I say we try and get rid of Queta, buuuut only when we don't need her anymore. We just found out that we can easily deal with Queta when she's in her disguise, so she isn't an immediate threat. Doubt she wanted to kill me back there either, would've pulled a gun on me if so." Amandeath says which makes me frown at her- asshole. I put her head back down on the ground.

"...I trust in Amelia's judgement. OK. Queta will stay for now then. I'm going to have some V.E.R.Y. stern words for her once she wakes up however." Metallic says with a sigh as he stands back up and leaves her unconscious body on the floor.

"Sorry, Emilis. No hard feelings?" Amandeath asks as I stand back up and walk back to the couch.

"Whatever. Just business. Kinda shitty that you promised you'd help me kill her if the chance ever came up though, and didn't follow through." I say with a sigh as I lie back down on the couch, and close my eyes to go back to sleep.

"Just business, yeah- but I never broke any promises. Even if the circumstances are shitty, this is still way too early for us to get rid of her." Amandeath says, which pisses me off but- too tired to fight back right now...

...