Games of Chance

Ten

Above is Princess Juliana's iconic red peacoat! (Please excuse my messy dorm- I really did clean it up later). Of course, Jules looks a lot better in it than I do. 

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Chapter poll: (because I want this book to be better than my others, and thought making it interactive might help. Results will be published and commented on in the next chapter. The first one will be kinda simple because I'm just trying to see how this goes). 

Jackers

or 

Order of Chance

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For such a long fall, Chase's landing was surprisingly soft. His feet touched gently on the ground before they were joined by his entire weight. Before he could marvel at his newfound grace, he noticed that he was suspended by two bungee cords looped under his arms and had landed on a small, trampoline-like pad. Pulling his arms out of the contraption, which must've automatically attached to him while he was falling, he stepped off the resilient pad and onto solid ground, watching as others did the same on identical pads all around him. These people- members of the Order, he assumed- were dressed in a dizzying in a variety of ways, from formal business attire to superhero-esque black combat suits complete with thigh and hip holsters. 

"See? You made it down alive," Chase looked up to see Juliana and Roy standing in front of the long, tunnel-like hallway that led out of the receiving area and into what Chase assumed was the main body of Order Headquarters. "Let's go," Juliana gestured to the hallway. Chase followed the pair, his eyes wide as he tried to wrap his head around the engineering of the entrance system. It was nothing like anything he'd ever seen at home; he wouldn't have been surprised if it was the only one of its kind in the entire world. 

After about a minute of walking in relative darkness, the tunnel fanned open to reveal a space much larger than could ever fit under the Hesche building. Chase wondered how many of the surrounding buildings the Order had to own in order to carve out such a spacious underground unit. 

Even aside from its overwhelming size, the Order was magnificent. A huge, main bridge arced over Chase's head, its railing decorated with a gigantic glass representation of the Order of Chance insignia- a stylized pair of dice. Elevator-like cylinders shuttled individual people up and down to the many underground levels of the facility at breathtaking speeds while gigantic screens mounted on the walls displayed various messages pertaining to Order business. The largest of these screens glowed with artificial sunlight so realistic that Chase had to remind himself that it couldn't be a window because they were at least six stories underground. 

"Welcome to the Order of Chance," Juliana beamed with immeasurable pride, raising her arms as if to encompass the entire scale of the place. 

"Alright, Miss Dramatic, it's time to go upstairs," Roy gestured to one of the elevator-cylinders. This one was slightly larger- probably for group transport. 

"I'll never cease to be proud of this place, no matter how much of a spoilsport you are," Juliana said with a soft 'hmph,' crossing her arms as she made her way to the elevator, muttering something about ungrateful nobles under her breath. Chase smiled at Juliana's back as he followed her. Roy wasn't intentionally sour- he'd grown up with all this stuff, it was natural that none of it impressed him anymore. But Juliana... she marveled at the Order almost as much as Chase did, gushing over it with childlike enthusiasm. Now he understood why she, a princess with a thousand leadership and social responsibilities, had decided to run a YouTube channel about math of all things. She did it for the same reason she skipped joyously toward an elevator she'd probably been on a million times: she found happiness in taking something mundane and turning it into something beauti-