Delphi Fisher, in every sense of the word, was an introvert.
At family gatherings and parties with friends, she would have next to nothing in common to talk outside her immediate social circle. Her family couldn’t relate to her being an Electi, and her friends wouldn’t relate to her being an Anthro dolphin. She would usually end up spending hours at the junction hiding her face behind a red solo cup, not at all willing to say a word.
As an avid gamer and self-proclaimed streamer in her free time, she would spend days locked inside her own room playing only the games she liked and wanted to play online. This, by default, would mean playing games that nobody else would be playing, like some obscure tower defense game from 17 and a half years ago. She wouldn’t get many viewers.
Because of her lack of experience talking to people, she would find herself eventually having the wrong thing to say when forced into conversation. So eventually, she stopped trying. Even when put together in a room with two other antisocial young women—Nikki, who couldn’t bring herself to ask for extra ketchup at a restaurant despite her dream to sing in front of millions, and Kathrin, who just moved in—Delphi never bothered to break the ice.
But now, after running out of her last pack of instant noodles, was forced to interact with the cashier at the ERA general market.
The electronic bell chimed as she stepped into the store. The cashier perked up.
“Welcome to ERA-Mart!” she recited from behind the counter. “Finally, some business around here, it was getting so boring around- I mean, can I help you find anything?”
But Delphi already knew exactly where to find her next month’s supply of food. Turn right at the door, two aisles down, turn left and walk to the end, second to bottommost shelf on the left side of the aisle. And as always, there lay the glorious 30-cent packs of ramen she grew so used to eating.
“Ah, living the classic college life, eh?” The cashier quipped. “Remember not to scarf them all down in one go, am I right?”
“Uh huh.” Delphi scooped literally a mountain full of merchandise into her arms. She forgot to grab a basket, but she’d be out of here soon enough.
“…” The redhead behind the counter pursed her lips as the customer dropped everything on top of it. “Is that, uh. Is that gonna be everything?”
“Yeah.” Delphi pulled out her student ID card.
“…Alright. Just tap here and—”
The customer already completed the transaction on the card reader before the poor cashier could finish her sentence. A long sigh escaped her mouth.
“Not the conversational-“
“Nope.”
“Okay, level with me here, woman.” She put her arms down on the counter. “I’ve been stuck behind this stupid cash register for the last four hours straight. Not a single soul has come through here to buy anything for my entire shift, and my phone died the one day we didn’t get our chargers restocked so I can’t even steal one off the shelves!”
Delphi blinked. “Okay?”
“Look. I’m desperate here. Can you at least humor me for like, a minute. That’s all I ask.”
“…Ma’am, I don’t even know your name.”
“Artemis. Haven’t you ever seen me work in any other job around here?”
“I don’t get out much, sorry.”
“Clearly.”
“Yeah. Can I go now?”
Artemis pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re killing me, Miss. Tell you what. I’ll let you pick out any one thing you want in the store for free. I literally don’t care what you take, just something not as banal as a month’s worth of cheap boring freeze-dried noodles!”
The Anthro raised an eyebrow. “You really don’t like being alone, do you?”
“What, you’re telling me you can survive hours sitting in the same room every day with zero human interaction?”
“…”
“Don’t answer that.”
Delphi peered around the store. She could get a cola from the fridge, but it would be warm by the time she got home. Maybe some chips, but with her slow ass metabolism, maybe not. And it wasn’t like she needed any more school supplies—Goldman already had that avenue very well covered. She gazed back at the counter, noticing another unique machine besides the register and card reader.
“What’s that?” She pointed.
“Oh, this!” Artemis walked over to it, patting it like a used car. “This baby right here is a gambler’s worst nightmare! Yep, a good ol’ fashioned lottery machine. ERA-branded, of course.”
“No Powerball machine?”
“Child’s play compared to ERA Millions. I’ve seen someone come in here with a hundred and some credits hoping to score big. Not a single ticket came close to a win.” She shook her head. “Poor Locker never knows when to quit.”
“So it’s rigged.”
“No, there’s a jackpot. Just never seen anyone win it yet.”
“Are you sure?”
“Only one way to find out.” She gave the machine another loving smack.
Delphi breathed out. If it would get her out of this store any faster. Besides, it was a free ticket. She shrugged. “Why not?”
“That’s the spirit, girl!” Artemis punched in a few buttons on the machine, and after a second or two of whirring about, it spat out a plain old lotto ticket. After receiving it, Delphi would find it to be one of those cards you had to scratch to see the results. It had ERA’s logo on it saying something about luck or whatever. She didn’t really care to read it.
“It’s a scratch card, by the way,” Artemis clarified.
“Yeah, I know what it is.” Delphi started scratching. The grayish thin film peeled off bit by bit, and at one point she just dug in and ripped the whole plastic strip off in one go. She stared at the results. Then she squinted.
“What does this mean?” She asked, showing Artemis the card.
“Let’s see… Cherry, lemon, gold star, gold star, lemon, cherry, cherry, gold star… lemon. Huh. That’s odd, there’s no clovers or lucky 7’s on this one. Unless… no way.”
Artemis hurriedly reached under the counter and flipped through a small pamphlet. Delphi still did not understand what any of this meant.
“Oh my god,” Artemis gasped.
“Oh my god, what?”
“Okay, so. Every ticket gives you nine symbols, most of them are junk unless you get three of a kind, but if you get three sets of three including a gold star set…” Artemis looked up. “You win the jackpot.”
Delphi’s eyes widened. “What’s the grand prize?”
A crazy smile crept up the cashier’s face. “115,000 ERA credits.”
Delphi gasped excitedly. “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not fucking kidding, you won!” The two girls, despite Delphi’s first instincts, proceeded to cheer and literally jump for joy in the middle of the empty store. Artemis pulled a bottle of apple cider from the refrigerated section and popped the cork off, which bounced all across the room and hit the electronic bell at the front door, causing it to ring on loop until she grabbed a second one and made it stop the exact same way.
“I can’t believe it!” Delphi exclaimed, calming down enough to hold a coherent conversation again. “Isn’t that like, an entire college degree’s worth of money?”
“Oh, easy 4 years!” Artemis said. “So long as you keep up with your classes, you’ll never run out of boring instant ramen for as long as you’re enrolled!”
“Are you kidding? I can buy everything I need to make my streaming setup as epic as possible! I could buy a gaming chair and a mini-fridge and those cute anime stickers I’d never actually put on anything! I would never have to leave my room and have an awkward conversation with any weird stranger ever again!
“Ha ha, well, I don’t know about that—”
“Where do I go to cash this in?” Delphi quickly asked.
“Ah, well, the Administrative Offices should know what to do with it, just show the ticket to the guys in one of the buildings past the security department, and they’ll take care of the rest, but I should probably tell you—”
The electronic bell rang again. Delphi was nowhere to be seen.
“—about the terms and conditions of the lottery. Welp, that was fun while it lasted. I’m sure she’ll figure it out eventually. And I’m talking to myself again. Great.”
She turned to go back to her post, but accidentally stepped on a pack of ramen. Out of two and a half dozen.
“And she forgot to take these with her. And now I have to put them all back. Fuuuuuck me.”
Delphi ran so fast through the shopping district her tail literally couldn’t keep up behind her. It flopped around like a paper banner being flown by a jet plane. When she made a turn, its weight almost crushed a brick in the corner of a wall. The only time it would ever stop would be… right now.
In her sprint, she didn’t have time to catch herself from crashing headfirst into a fellow student rounding a blind spot, her tail whacking both students even harder a split second later.
“OW!” The large woman she tackled yelled. When Delphi came to, she noticed her wild red hair matched her cherry red turtleneck, two cowlicks grew off her head resembling fox ears, and her figure was comparable to that of a nuclear mushroom cloud: that is to say, absolutely massive.
Delphi got up. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry—”
“Sweet mother of fucking JESUS, are you okay?!” The stranger spoke in an uncomfortable volume.
The Anthro cringed. “Uh, yeah, shouldn’t I be asking you that?”
“Oh, I’m fine!” The stranger got up without so much as a pained wince, shaking hands vigorously. There appeared to be small blood stains on the ground. “I’m Cassie, by the way!”
“…Delphi.” She wondered for the first time if life like this was normal around here, or if she was having a very, very strange day. She pulled her hand away.
Cassie smiled. “Oh, word of advice between gals, but I think you should really be more careful around here. They make these roads so cramped, I had to walk the path to the pharmacy sideways!” Her laugh was even louder. “THEY DIDN’T EVEN HAVE MY PRESCRIPTIONS!”
Delphi nodded slowly. “Good to know…” she tried to inch away slowly, but Cassie’s attention locked right back on to her.
“Hey! So where are you off to? I still have some errands to run, maybe we can stop by the same stores together!”
If Delphi could sweat like a normal human, she’d be drenched at this point. “Actually, I just gotta cash in a check, so I’ll be off now…”
“Oh, you work?” Cassie’s head tilted. “But don’t they pay you through your card?”
“N-no, I won it in a contest.”
“Is that it in your hand?” She pointed.
Shit. “…Yeah.” She slowly opened it up, assuming that if she had left without telling, she’d be orbited by the human equivalent of a steam locomotive asking stupid questions all day.
Cassie took a brief moment to gaze at the card, blinking twice. Her two red cowlicks twitched as she tried to comprehend the ticket.
Then, like a bellowing train whistle: “YOU WON THE LOTTERY???!!!”
Cassie’s voice echoed across every street and alley of the shopping district. Several of her echoes bounced back, and after hearing her own voice reverberate her words, she instantly covered her mouth with both hands. At least a dozen passersby were now staring dead at them. Cassie started tearing up.
“Ohmygosh, I’m so sorry!” She exclaimed. “I didn’t mean to say that so loud!”
But Delphi’s ears were still ringing too hard to hear the apology. “Huh?”
Cassie looked around frantically. “Um, you should probably go! I hope whoever heard that doesn’t come to look for you or your ticket! Some people here get really greedy!”
“…Huh?”
“Here, let me give you something!” She knelt down and scooped up the dirt, collecting what appeared to be a little red blob on the ground. “I actually scraped my back when you tackled me, and my power makes my blood clotlings come to life! I don’t really like parting with these little guys, but… that’s a lot of money you’re in danger of losing.”
The tiny pile of blood took the form of a humanoid figurine, no face but a round sphere for a head and torso, and four little nubs representing limbs. Delphi cringed again.
“I’m sorry— the fuck do you want me to do with that?”
“It doesn’t look like much, but it can help you with little things, like if your ticket gets stolen it can retrieve it for you!”
“Ooookay, but can’t you just control them yourself?”
“Oh I can, but you move so fucking fast I’ll just slow you down.” She placed the clot in Delphi’s hand. “Keep it safe for me, alright? Maybe we’ll meet again later for some shopping, okay?”
“No. But thanks for the help.” The dolphin unceremoniously turned and ran away.
She ran faster than ever. For once in her dormant and inactive adult life, she felt her heart race, and not because she was about to hit the sickest clip on one of her video games. She had $115,000 and some girl’s blood discharge in her pockets, and she was now expecting people to chase her. This was not how this day was supposed to go.
“Hey, you!” A voice called from her peripherals.
She stopped and turned on instinct, but the inertia of her heavy tail betrayed her, and flung her to the ground again. The owner of the voice came into view: a skinny white man with glossed blue eyes, long bleach-blonde hair, and the most unfashionable combination of blue jeans and a tennis skirt underneath his fleece jacket.
“Oh god… what do you want?” Delphi got up again, backing away slowly.
“Well, I jus’ herd you’z got sum lotto win-ins on yez, roight?”
“…What are you saying?”
“Oi, don’ playz dumm wits me, lil’ lady!” The stranger gestured to himself. “I knows ye lies from a kilometer ways!”
“…No. Seriously. What the actual fuck are you talking about.” She tried to clean out her ears.
The stranger spoke in an accent that Delphi was fairly certain did not exist. He cleared his throat, as if that would make him more understandable. “Listen, a’m jus’ a poor ol’ boy, down on me luck and c’n’t pay tuition. Shoorly someone loike you’s pret’y well off, ya got some bucks ta spaire fer a bum loike meself?”
Delphi could still not understand half of what he was saying.
“Please, miss!” The man got on his knees. “A’m beggin’ yaz! Mein family! Me ol’ folks and yung’uns! They’ve been sick fer months! Ya gotta help, or they’ll die!”
Well, she got the dying part. Though he could’ve done without overselling the bit.
“Listen, I’d like to help you and all, but I don’t even know your name.”
“Ah, coirntainly, mizz! Mein name’s ist Fritz! Fritz, erm… Freeman.”
“Like Morgan Freeman?”
“Precisely! He’s mein grandfäder!”
She raised an eyebrow. “…But he’s black.”
“A’m albino.”
“No, you’re confused.” She shook her head. “I thought you said your family was sick and poor, so how is it that your ‘grandfather’, multimillionaire actor Morgan Freeman, can’t spare a dime?”
“…He’s actually a theoretical physicist?”
“You’re fucking delusional.”
Another voice dropped in. “Isn’t he, my friend?” From behind “Fritz,” another Anthro came up behind him, standing about waist high. He was a red penguin wearing a white dress shirt and pink overalls, having ridiculously thick eyebrows for such a small and pudgy build.
“Who’re yew sh’possed to be?” Fritz asked.
“I’d be asking the same thing! Y’know, this leaf lover’s got a real bad dose of it, don’t ye, boyo?” The penguin bumped his waist with his elbow. “C’mere, you! Lemme tell you something.”
Fritz sputtered. “W-whot are y—” Not soon after, he felt a wallop in his leg, buckling his knee and bringing him face to face with the flightless Anthro. The latter grabbed his fleece collar, fire in his eyes.
“LISTEN UP, ya schemin’ dosser!” His voice dripped venom. “You may think you’re some fine thing, acting the maggot for a quick buck! But I know a bloody cheap nixer when I see one! And yer doin’ a RIGHT BRUTAL JOB OF IT! So let me say this once, before I BEAT YA INTO A BLOODY PULP: THAT money ain’t YOURS fer the taking! NOW PACK IT UP AND FECK OFF!”
The penguin let go of Fritz’s collar, and the boy went scrambling off.
“…Thanks?” Delphi questioned.
“Oh, no need to thank me!” The penguin boasted, wiping off his splendid overalls. “Us Therians gotta stick together, and no two-bit wannabe penny pincher’s gonna get away from Clyde House!”
“Excuse me, but why is half your name just a building?”
“Nevermind that.” He reached around and put his flipper over her shoulder. “You’ve got yerself inta quite a pickle there! That lotto ticket’s no good just wavin’ about in broad daylight!”
Delphi contracted in on herself, not used to physical contact. “Yes. I can see that.”
“Then I bet you can see how easy it would be for me to—”
He slipped something out of Delphi’s pocket: a thick colored card with three sets of matching symbols.
“Hey! Give that back!” Delphi’s eyes grew, and she lunged for the ticket. But Clyde was too quick, and yanked it back.
“See, lady? But I’d never stoop so low, there’s no sport in taking candy from a baby—I’d know.” He tossed the card back to her. “Real one’s still in your pocket, anyways.”
She clasped the card in her hands, but on closer inspection, found the penguin to be right: the colors looked artificially stamped on, and everything was printed in reverse. She felt around in her pocket… Thank God.
Clyde grinned a shit-eating grin. “Now, I think we’re starting to understand each other! You’d make a right bags outta keeping that ticket safe, and I know just how to do it! So tell ya what, miss…”
“Delphi.”
“Tell ya what, Ms. Deli! I can take that lousy card off ya grubby little hands until we get it somewhere safe, and in exchange, how’s a bit o’ compensation for my services sound?”
Delphi blinked. “You can’t be serious.”
“It’s either gotta go through me or someone else, Delilah, and that someone else may not be so generous. Your choice.” He bore his disgusting human teeth even wider, creeping her out.
She couldn’t believe this. “You’re a scammer. You’ll just take however much you please after I cash this in. I bet you won’t even give the ticket back, will you?”
“And why would I want that ticket all for meself? I’m trying to do ya a favor, and you decide ta look a gift horse in the mouth? Besides, what good would the money do fer me if it’s under your name? You bought it under your account, didn’t ya?”
No, she did not. But she wasn’t gonna let him know that. “…Well, I guess you have a point.”
“That’s the spirit! Bring it ‘ere, then!” He waved his flipper over.
She reached into her pocket. “Fine… just gimme a minute… no, that’s my keys…”
Clyde rolled his eyes. “Any day, lady.”
“Yeah, just—” she struggled with her shorts pocket. “Got my hand stuck here.”
“Stuck?!” He waddled over to see what the ridiculous conundrum was all about. “Stuck on what, ye bleedin’ idiot?!”
“Pocket blood, bastard!” Her hand whipped out and splashed a blob of red congealed liquid into Clyde’s face.
“AH! WHAT THE- OH, ME EYES! IT’S IN ME FOOKING EYES, YOU DIRTY BITCH!” He tried to wipe off the disgusting homunculus, continuing to shout obscenities, but it remained latched to his face to provide the worst imaginable experience possible, just for Delphi. She backed away slowly, though she wasn’t sure if she was supposed to give that thing back to that big weird woman. She wasn’t really listening all too well.
“Hey, stop right there!” An authoritative voice belted behind the dolphin.
Panicked, she whipped around in an instant, her tail slapping on something hard in the process. She looked around, only to find some woman in an ERA guard’s vest lying dead on the pavement below her, and another Therian guard to the right of her, this one a hare, standing absolutely shocked. There was a broken helmet besides the dead guard (maybe not dead, but heavily unconscious. Her hair consisted of several big tentacles, which were still wriggling about).
“Um… ma’am?” The conscious guard started. “Is everything… alright?”
Delphi scratched her chin. She heard Clyde still groveling in the background. He continued to scream bloody murder. “I guess?”
“Okay, uh, good. That’s good.” He sighed in relief, putting a hand to his chest. “My name is Oliver, and my colleague you just knocked over is- er, was Officer Jett.”
Delphi rubbed her tail. “Oh.”
“We were just coming to see if everything was alright, but I can see the situation is taken care of…” Oliver rubbed the back of his neck, hearing the pained cries of the greedy penguin.
“Actually, if you can still help me,” Delphi said, approaching the guard, “I just won the jackpot at the general store, and now everyone wants to steal the winning ticket. I just want to cash this thing in and go home, so I can be done with all this and never have to talk to anyone again! Is there any way I can get, like, an escort to the Administrator’s Office?”
Oliver inhaled through his teeth. “Ohhh, erm, about that? W-well, it’s supposed to be in our protocol to take someone in for assaulting another officer, but I think I can—”
Delphi gasped, and slammed her tail into the side of Oliver’s jawbone. His feet left the air, and Jett’s back cushioned his fall.
Jett snorted. “Hhhh-hh. Hot… wings.”
The dolphin covered her mouth, refusing to believe what she just did.
“S-sorry, Mr. Oliver, sir! But I really don’t want to go to jail today!” She ran the opposite direction, booking it straight back to her dorm.
There was no way Delphi could go back near the staff area, after what had happened not moments ago. And since the Admin’s offices were protected by the security department, there was no way she would have gotten past them to cash in her lottery ticket. She decided the best course of action was to wait and hide in her room until it had all blown over.
Was this by far the stupidest thing she had ever done in public? Debatable. Could it have been handled much better? Almost certainly. Was there any way to talk herself out of being questioned? Probably, but with what social skills? Ah, see, there was the kicker. This all started because she had no social skills. Right from the very moment she walked into that store and made eye contact with that bored, lonely girl, her day was doomed. Maybe if she’d just taken a minute of her time to have a chat with the poor girl…
It didn’t matter now. She made it to the dorm building, feeling considerably less protected without Cassie’s blood, a concept she never thought she’d catch herself thinking about until now. Racing up the staircase, she gripped one hand up the handrails and one deep in her pocket, clutching the money.
“HALT, HEATHEN!” The loud boom of a voice caused her to trip up the last stair, tumbling into the next floor, where fortunately her place resided. She looked up.
“Ugh, what now?”
A green mask resembling the head of a Lovecraftian monster stared down at the Anthro.
“Cetaceous One! I require your assistance!”
Delphi’s head started to pound. The hand she used to go up the railings now covered her forehead. “My God, why does everyone in this academy have to be so goddamn loud?”
“Oh! My apologies!” The masked woman cleared her throat. “Is this any better?” She spoke in the exact same volume as before.
“…Yeah. You’re good.” Delphi got up, hand still in her pocket.
“Perfect! Now, as we’re finally acquainted—”
“No, we’re not!” Delphi blurted. “Everyone just expects me to already know their names, like I’ve been here for years! I mean, I have, but I don’t actually go outside!”
“Well, that sounds like a you problem—” Carrie began, having expected the stranger to know her name.
“If this is about my winning lotto ticket, I don’t want to hear your bullshit! I don’t want to hear anymore sob stories, I don’t want to hear about your biologically improbable grandfather, and I’m not interested in anything you’re selling! Now please move aside and leave me the fuck alone, so I can live the rest of my life in my room.” Delphi panted. That was the most dialogue that came out of one breath in at least the last few years.
“…Oh.” Carrie harrumphed. “I was merely going to force you to act as a sacrifice for my ritual at the swimming pool. You were supposed to be my peace offering to the Great Old Ones so I may finally stop failing my Physics test.”
Delphi tsked. “Yeah, the Professor for that class sucks ass.”
“He is a real pain in the hindquarters, yes.”
“…So you had absolutely zero idea I was carrying an absurd amount of money on me until now, huh?”
“Frankly nil, I’m afraid.”
“…It’s more interesting to you than your sacrifice, isn’t it.”
“Oh, extremely so.”
“And now you want to fight me for it, don’t you.”
“It’s obligatory.”
Delphi breathed in. She arched her fingers as if to reach out and throttle someone. Her expression grew pained. “Motherfucker, I will drag you.”
“SILENCE, RICH ONE, THOUGH SURPRISINGLY NOT REFERRING TO MISS REEDQUIST THIS TIME!” Carrie posed dramatically at the dolphin. “If your tax audits won’t destroy you, I will! Have at thee!”
She lunged for the ticket, only to get tail slapped to the floor with a loud THUD, sliding face down on the carpet before the friction stopped her two inches shy of the winner’s flip flop.
Delphi literally climbed over her to get to her room. She scrambled to the front door, producing her ID card and making multiple rushed attempts to swipe the card through the electronic key frame before the light turned green and let her inside.
As soon as she swung the door open, she tripped on the leg of her own chair, crashing onto the floor once again. That along with her heavy breathing attracted the attention of her roommates, Nikki and Kathrin.
“Oh my gosh, Delphi! Are you okay?” Nikki, the taller and pinker one of the trio, said.
“No,” Delphi groaned.
Kathrin winced. “Jeez, that looked like some fall.” She sat up from her bed, swinging over to meet the floor with her tiptoes.
“You oughta be more careful running into tight spaces like this,” Nikki lectured. “What happened to ya, anyways?”
Delphi panted. “If I told you, I’d have to slap you.”
“Ah, I’m sure it can’t be that bad,” Nikki smiled. “What else are friends for? After all, we live together, we might as well share together.”
The Anthro raised a cautious eyebrow. “Whhhhhat do you mean by that?”
“I mean, that’s a creepy way of saying we’re here for you,” Kate jumped in, figuratively. “I’m sure you can split whatever burden you got between us.”
Nikki chuckled. “Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be way funnier once you say it out loud! What, did ya get a bad grade on an exam and accidentally show it to your classmates? Or let me guess: you found that lottery in the general store and had to run in to get more savings to play!”
Kathrin laughed. “No way, there’s a lottery machine in there?”
“How did you guys know about the lottery.” Delphi’s voice suddenly dropped.
The other two glanced at each other, confused. Kathrin stammered.
“I- I literally just said I didn’t-”
“Nikki knew!” Delphi pointed a finger. “You were trying to butter me up to confess I won, didn’t you? You’re just saying we’re friends so I’ll share the money!”
“Huh? What are you talking about?” Kathrin questioned.
“Del, honey, I was jok—” Nikki’s eyes grew wide. “Wait, you won the jackpot?!”
“Shit!” Delphi slapped Nikki in the face with her tail without thinking. Nikki fell to the ground, dazed.
“Nikki! Holy fu—” Kate literally jumped from her bed, but her heels slipped from the floor, and now both girls laid flat on the carpet.
Delphi was simply not thinking during the loud crashings of her roommates having their days ruined. She wasn’t thinking about how paranoid the threat of losing her jackpot made her. She wasn’t even thinking about the absurdity of it all, and how stupid this all looked in retrospect. The only thing she thought of then was she had to get out of there.
She bolted out the door once more, only to realize two steps later she was about to run directly into yet another stranger. Planting both feet on the ground, she skidded before coming to a complete stop. Finally, she prevented a clumsy encounter for once! She leaped back, raising her tail.
“Hey! Get away from me! I know how to use this!”
But the stranger was not a stranger at all. It was her professor, godfather, and family friend, Dr. Goldman. And he appeared absolutely mortified at the state of her.
“D-Delphi! What has gotten into you? Are you… finally hitting your rebellious phase?”
“Yes! I mean, no. I mean…” Delphi ran up to him, gasping for air. “Wha-what are you doing here?”
“I was coming to check on you,” Goldman answered, “I was in the area and heard some loud crashing, just what is going on?”
Delphi kept panting. “You have… no idea what I’ve been through today. It’s bad enough I had to go outside today, but then I had to talk to people, and run all over the place, and bump into all sorts of weirdos on the street!”
“Oh, sounds like a fun day!” Goldman cheered. “I knew you’d get your bearings around this place soon enough!”
“No, you don’t understand!” Delphi ranted. “I only had to do all those things because I was forced to!”
The Professor cocked his head. “Hm? What do you mean?”
Delphi produced the ticket, much more wrinkled and folded now than when she got it, showing it to him. “I won this at that stupid ERA-Mart or whatever this afternoon, and I accidentally brought too much attention to it, and now half the school’s been after it since!”
She looked at the winning symbols in her hand for a moment, then crumpled it up within her palm. “I thought the money would help me stay away from all these assholes in ERA, but it’s only made everything worse!”
She forced it into Goldman’s palm. He looked at the ticket surprised.
“Well, I don’t want it anymore! If they want this money so bad, they can have it! Who cares if it’s 115,000 credits, I only spend like 25 a month on ramen! I just want some peace and quiet again!”
Delphi folded her arms and looked away. Despite everything bad that just happened, and how much she had to use her voice today, finally letting off all this steam to the Professor almost felt… good?
But the Professor only shook his head, ever so slowly. “Delphi… my dear. Surely you told everyone the terms and conditions of that lottery game, right?”
“Huh? What terms and conditions?”
“Did the cashier not tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“…Did you even speak with her after you won the jackpot?”
“Was I supposed to?”
“Delphi… oy vey zmir…” Goldman resisted the urge to facepalm. He shook his head again. “That ticket is worth 115,000 credits, yes. But the credit is only eligible for ERA-Mart itself. You can only redeem those credits at that store alone.”
“What? No, but I—” Delphi turned around in denial, as if a hidden camera crew was about to jump out at any moment. “You can’t… there’s no… but she said—”
“I’m sorry, hun.” Goldman patted her head. “That machine was just a promotional gimmick for students to visit and spend more at the store. They claimed it helped with something about ‘stimulating the local economies of our rich and diverse community,’ and ‘facilitating a friendly competitive environment in public spaces,’ or what have you. I personally vouched against it when the idea was pitched at one of the board meetings, but the Administrators know best, I suppose…”
Those fucking assholes, Delphi thought, feeling her face heat up. “I slapped a pair of guards for that ticket.”
“Ex_cuse_ me?” Goldman gasped.
“I slapped two guards, three students, two of them being my roommates, and threw fucking blood at a penguin’s face, all for unlimited convenience store ramen.” She sat on the floor, hugging her knees.
The Professor stood still, remorseful for the Anthro. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll have a talk with the Administration to sort everything out. I’m sure they’ll see that your exchange with those guards was all a big misunderstanding.”
“Yeah,” she contemplated. This entire crisis could seriously have been averted if she had simply talked more.
He knelt down. “Let’s go. We can cash in that ticket together. Just promise me one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Goldman rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. “Delphi. I beg of you. Please go outside more often.”
Delphi nodded.