“So. Are you ready for the big game?”

Troy looked over at Charlie, with a weird face.

"Do all of you call it that jokingly, or something?” Troy asked. “Because there is no way I'm calling it that.”

Charlie just laughed for a moment.

“Oh, a grand day it would be,” Charlie said. “But, alas, no, I'm the only one. The others don't fancy such fanciful language.” He had to be messing with Troy, at this point.

“That's a relief,” Troy said. “And yes, I'm ready to win.”

“Have everything prepared, even?” Charlie asked.

“Of course,” Troy said smugly. A lot of planning had been put into the game.

“That's great to hear,” Charlie said. “I was wondering if you knew how to get the credit system working.”

…

“Ah”, escaped from Troy's mouth.

Charlie just looked at Troy, knowing exactly what he had done. It seemed that Troy had forgotten a large part of poker. The fact that the player's played with money. The money that they procured themself. And put into the game, with casino tokens, which were were exchanged from credits.

How did one get credits?

“How exactly do I-”, Troy began to ask, but Charlie stopped him before he even finished talking.

“Trust me. The application process to even get started is longer than you want it to be. And, you can't even start it yourself. Asking Dr Hale to help you with it is the safest route for you,” Charlie quickly explained. "And, no matter what else you might do, if a man, that calls himself Pedro wants to help you, just politely decline."

A good solution, in Troy's eyes. But, it didn't help him now, when it was needed.

“That doesn't solve the fact that I don't have any credits right now”, Troy said. "Got any easy solutions for that?"

“Then just use regular money”, Charlie said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "The exchange rate might not be as good, but it still works just as fine."

Another problem for Troy. He hadn't really received his first paycheck yet. This meant... this meant Troy had to do something, which he didn't feel too pleased with.

“Okay,” Troy began. “This might sound a little weird, but-”

Charlie, quick as ever, just handed him a wad of small squares.

“What's this?” he asked. Looking at it up close, Troy could see it in detail. They were wholly transparent, with small lines across the inside of them.

“That right there should be enough for tonight,” Charlie just said. "And, its what's commonly referred to, as superficial currency. Or just credits, if you want to be boring."

Immediately, Troy tried to hand the credits back, but Charlie didn't let him.

“I'm not sure that I can accept this,” Troy adamantly stated. "This is too much!"

“You don't really have a choice,” Charlie said. “You can just pay me back next week. Or tonight, if you win.”

Troy stopped in his attempts to return the money. Yes, he didn't like owing anybody anything one bit. But, he needed it now. And there weren't any other options.

They walked the rest of the way in silence.

“Took you long enough!”, Troy heard from ahead, as they neared the hallway to the shopping street. It was an older voice. Troy imagined it to be the voice of a man, about the same age as Charlie.

He was right partly. The age looked to be around the same. The size Charlie had in overall thickness, this man had in pure height. Even from a distance, Troy knew he would tower over him.

And this long noodle of a man wasn't alone. He was accompanied by three others; one man and two women. All looked to be over thirty, putting Troy's more than youthful age to shame.

“Darlow, you can't say that”, Charlie said to the beanstalk. “We're five minutes early!”

“You're five minutes late if you want to be a smartass about it”, one of the women said. She was the shortest of them all, but with those shoulders, Troy didn't doubt her ability to put him down. “And if you're saying 'we', I'm guessing he's Troy.”

The focus was put off their inability to be on time and put on Troy. And, oh boy, he was not shining in that spotlight.

“Uh, hi. I'm Troy”, Troy said with a small wave, and an unneeded introduction.

Silence.

…

Troy had kicked the handicapped puppy in a wheelchair, with this one. They just kept staring. How many seconds, before it became awkward? It had felt like an eternity had passed, but it was more accurate to call it a second.

“Don't just stand there!”, Charlie said, with an overly dramatic tone. “Introduce yourself, now! You know his name, so its proper procedure to tell yours.”

“Well, Charlie”, the last man said. “How about you introduce yourself first?” That made them snigger a bit. Troy was beginning to doubt his assumptions about their ages. Stressful work could age one's exterior quickly. With the fact, that they laughed at a joke, that would be fun in fifth grade, these people had had stressful childhoods.

Charlie just stared blankly ahead for a second, before realizing he was being talked to. It took another second for him to comprehend it.

“Oh, all right,” Charlie said. He walked forward, joining the group. Troy just stood still, watching the whole thing.

Charlie did one of his now-signature wheelspins when he came to a stop. He stood beside, the tall man, making him look dwarfed in comparison.

“As you may know, from knowing me for a long amount of time, my name is Charlie”, he said, with a not so fancy bow. “A rare fact about me is that people sometimes call me Charlie.” He received a small jab on the side, for the last part.

“There. One you do it now,” he ended it. “How about you, Darlow. Come on, tell Troy your name.”

“Don't say our name, before asking us to tell our name”, the tall guy, now Darlow, said back.

“Why not? You won't know who I'm talking to if I don't say your name,” Charlie defended.

“But if you say our name, it ruins the reason for the introduction,” Darlow said. “And if you're just gonna do that, with all of us, maybe you should just introduce us yourself.”

“Oh you're gonna regret that,” Charlie warned. Troy was still just standing a bit away from the group, watching it all unfold.

He cleared his throat, before starting.

“First off, the Yorkshire giant's name is Darlow. Don't mention the weirdness of his name. He'll just get annoyed at you, and sad inside. Trust me. Seeing that man cry is one of the most horrific things I have ever seen.

Next, we have this fellow here. Name's Francis.” Charlie put his hands on the shoulder of the last man in the group. A small twitch on Francis' eyebrow was the only response to it. “He is the notorious slacker of this facility. If you expect anything to ever be done, don't expect this man to do it. Don't expect him to talk much either. That takes energy, he doesn't want to waste.”

Next, Charlie tried holding up the previously mentioned short woman. In this trial, he failed and got a punch in the stomach for his efforts. It must have been a light one, though, with that he was only coughing in pain for a couple of seconds.

“This fine, short lady-”, Charlie started saying but was silenced by another hit. “I-I mean, this fine, young lady here is Zep. A training partner of mine. Also, a drinking partner of mine. But, more like, in reserve, for when Dr Hale doesn't want to, which is seldom. Is there any more that you think he needs to know?” The last sentence was directed at Zep.

“I-”, Zep began.

“Oh, yeah,” Charlie said, right after she began talking. “Don't mention her height. She doesn't like that.” He moved out of the way of her punch this time. Which was lucky. She looked to have put force into that one.

Charlie walked over to the last one of the group.

“And least, but hopefully not the last, we have Esme here. Say hi, Esme!”

“No,” Emse deadpanned.

“She says hi,” Charlie helpfully translated. “She's a bit like Francis in the stoicism department. But this one here, actually replies to, what you say. If that is a positive spin on it, can be debated.

And, that's all of us.”

“No, it isn't,” Zep said, much to Troy's confusion.

“Really?” Charlie said. “Who did I miss?”

“The new kid.”

“Oh, yeah. Troy, do you want to make your introductions, or should I just keep the ball rolling myself?”

It took Troy a moment to realise that he was supposed to answer.

“You seem to have accurate control of your balls, so I'll just let you keep them rolling.”

It was after uttering those words of his, that Troy realised the implications of them.

“Okay. I'm just going to ignore the phrasing of that sentence”, Charlie said, carrying on smoothly. Crowd control looked to be a speciality of his.

Charlie walked over to Troy and pulled him towards the group.

“This here is Troy”, Charlie said. He gave him a clap on the back, which caused Troy to grow an inch taller than normal. “You may know him from… pretty much nowhere. Yeah, you have absolutely no reason to have even seen this man before.

From what I have gathered, he is of the strongest mind. He has endured in the constant presence of Dr Hale. If that doesn't tell you enough of this man's character, I don't know what will. Now that I'm thinking about it, this might be because I don't know so much about him.”

First, there was silence.

“Well, that's great. Let us go lose all our money,” Darlow said.

The group was more inclined to answer that call.

“That's what I planned,” Zep said.

“Less talking. More walking”, Esme answered, pushing the nearest person along. Francis just nodded and began moving first.

Charlie nudged Troy along, and on they went. The wall was opened up to reveal the shopping street, and they all walked.

They had a casino to get to.

For Troy, the game may have yet to start. But, to Adam, it had begun long ago.

He had severely underestimated the complexity of human reactions. Why weren't there any standards? Why did they react identically to the same stimuli some times, but react differently in others? Sure, they learn, but that shouldn't invert their responses so radically! Have some consistency!

It was all so frustrating for Adam. And he wasn't sure if he was enjoying it or not.

Mentally, cause that's all he could do, for now, Adam went through the established personality files.

First, there was Charlie; The person in the group, who Adam was second-most sure about. Sure, in the way that he knew he had enough information about him. Because there was so much to go through. It was the things linking the information together that was worrying Adam. He wasn't sure what exactly it was.

On the surface, he was energetic, and a perfect portrayal of a natural leader… and, that was all. Adam hadn't seen anything that cut deeper than that.

It was like Charlie was just playing his role, not thinking of making it too believable. Sure. There had been some irregular actions, with all helping to Troy, but that could just be an example of helping the new. If it continued, though, it could have several other meanings.

Moving on.

The next person was Darlow. Before the personality even came into play, Adam was already interested in him. In his body, specifically.

In Adam's frame of mind, Darlow was an abnormality. Using Troy as a measurement, he was easily one point four Troy's tall. Approximately two-point sixteen metres. Adam was absolutely fascinated by this. Oh, the questions he wanted to ask about it.

But, that didn't matter right now. There was a personality in there to analyze.

As of now, Adam categorized Darlow as the semi-leader, after Charlie. He seemed to be the first to speak up when it was needed. More information was needed there. The mention of him crying also had an unpredicted reaction. Instead of showing anger or embarrassment at others hearing such a thing, Darlow skillfully hid a smile for a full ten seconds.

What this meant, Adam wasn't sure. Also, the reactions to words or actions were less focused on the body. Maybe the height was to blame? Didn't matter. Adam needed to focus on the twitches on his face, to gauge the card values when the game officially began.

Oh, Adam needed to quiet down about him, and move on. He had a schedule to keep up with. Troy would be able to see their faces again soon.

Next was Zep. Her height was a curiosity, but not to an abnormal degree. Her height was inside the standard spectrum.

To steal a quote he had heard recently; 'She shows her intentions too clearly.' Adam had seen no indication of ulterior motives, in her actions. Most of her movements had clear intentions.

This could either be very good or horrifically bad for Adam, depending on how one looked at it. It was good that Adam found all he could about her. It was bad he couldn't find more than he currently had. Adam hoped for better results shortly.

Then, after Zep, there was of course Esme. She was someone with one more layer of complexity added to her. Every action she did could be done ironically.

Adam had surveyed this, from a comment from Charlie. He had explained to her to be like Dr Hale. Adam was guessing that this distinction was due to a shared love of sarcasm and irony. A subject that put Adam's reaction predicting on the threshold. While it was usually obvious, if it was done ironically or not, it was not always so. With poker being a game of deception, it was obvious that this threw a wrench in the gears.

He needed further study, to be accurate.

And, for the last member of the group, there was Francis.

A near-complete blank. While the others had communicated verbally at least once, the only noticeable reaction had been a slight nod. Nothing else. Even the pupils moved less frequently than the average.

Adam was wondering if Francis even used his eyes. If he did, he seemed to have such a fascination for the floor. What was so fascinating about a flat surface? Could be a clue to his personality.

Francis required further study, like all others.

Altogether, the preparations had progressed more than what Adam had hoped for.

If the AI was lucky, there was even a chance of them being ready.