Darkness.
J's stomach lurched as though he'd been dropped down an elevator shaft. His body spun, weightless, before his feet slammed onto something solid.
He stumbled, arms pinwheeling, before catching himself. A groan slipped out. "Okay… not dead. That's progress."
When he opened his eyes, the world was gone. No plaza, no silver sky, no people. Just a void stretching forever, black as spilled ink.
Beneath him stretched a rope bridge with narrow planks lashed together with fraying cords whic was swaying gently over an endless abyss. He couldn't see the bottom. He didn't want to.
And just ahead, right at the start of the bridge, was a stone table. On it lay a spread of cards, glowing faintly. Their backs were ornate, spirals of light and shadow shifting across the surface.
A voice drifted through the void, calm and cold.
"Win the game of fate. Lose, and you fall."
J squinted at the table. "Great. Everyone else gets boss battles, and I get poker night with Satan." He spread his arms. "Totally fair."
The cards pulsed faintly, like they were breathing.
"Alright," J muttered, flexing his fingers. "How hard can it be? Just don't draw the Death card, right? Easy."
He plucked one from the table.
It shimmered, flipping in his hand. The card revealed a skeletal figure holding a scythe.
The air grew cold.
From beneath the bridge, a black, smoky hand shot up, clawing at his leg. J yelped and stumbled back, barely kicking it away before it dissolved.
He stared at the card, then barked a laugh. "Oh. Okay. So we're rigging the deck now. Nice."
He threw the card aside. It dissolved into smoke.The table glowed again. Another row of cards appeared.J's grin twitched. He reached, slower this time, and flipped another.
A tower, split in half by lightning.
The bridge shuddered. A plank snapped away behind him, falling into the abyss.
J clutched the rope railing and laughed again, a little too loudly. "Wow. I'm on a roll. Anybody got Blackjack insurance?"
The voice didn't answer. The cards pulsed again. J wiped sweat from his brow, forcing the grin wider. He picked another.This time, the card showed a man dangling upside-down from a noose.
The bridge jolted, lurching sideways. He staggered, nearly pitching off, heart pounding. Smoke whispered up from the abyss, curling like hungry fingers.
J's grin froze on his face. It's unwinnable, he realized. Every card's a trap. The whole game's rigged.
For a moment, his mask slipped. His eyes narrowed, sharp and calculating. He looked at the table, then at the abyss yawning around him.
Slowly, he exhaled. "So that's how it is. House always wins."
The grin slid back on, crooked and defiant.
"Well then," he said, stepping closer, "what if I don't play?"
Before the voice could respond, J slammed both hands onto the edge of the stone table and flipped it dramatically.
The cards scattered like sparks, tumbling into the abyss. The void rippled. The ropes of the bridge groaned. The voice, for the first time, faltered.
"E… error. Unexpected choice detected."
J's grin widened. "Yeah. Bet you didn't see that coming."
The bridge buckled, shadows writhing below, planks snapping one by one.
J looked at the darkness yawning beneath him, then spread his arms like a circus performer about to bow. "Well, Grandma… guess this is where your boy makes you proud."
He laughed, sharp and wild, and leapt headfirst into the void.
"All in!"
....
For a heartbeat, nothing. Just the rush of air, the weightless plunge. Shadows reached for him, but they dissolved against his skin.
Then light engulfed him.
A single card appeared in his palm. Its face glowed. The Fool, bright motley clothes, grinning wide, balancing on a rope stretched across an abyss.
The voice, distorted and glitching, thundered in his skull:
"Trait… acquired…"
"Fortune's Fool."
"Rank: ???"
The card dissolved into sparks.
J stared at his empty palm, panting, sweat plastering his hair to his forehead. His crooked grin wavered, then came back with a bitter edge.
"…Figures," he muttered hoarsely. "Even the universe thinks I'm a joke."
But his eyes were sharp, deadly serious that said something else.He had broken the rules. And somehow, he'd survived.
The void swallowed him again.
End