What if Serendipity had been more sinister than it actually was? What if those experiencing great luck paid an even greater price for the Goddess' favor?
After all, where could all those staff members have come from?
In other words, a fake paradox ending where Serah and Noel do a bit too well at Serendipity's games and have to pay up.
+ Hotel Serendipity +
Serah couldn't help herself. She whooped with joy as the slot machine's payout came pouring out, far more than she had expected to win this time around. Few of the patrons or staff looked in her direction because of the noise, though it drew the attention of one being, the attendant of the slot machines.
"Big payout?"
"Yeah, more than I hoped," Serah replied, not glancing at the attendant who spoke.
"It looks like the machine might be getting a bit down. Why don't you go relax somewhere? I can show you a room where you can take a break before you continue your winning streak."
Faint alarm bells went off in the back of her head, but the high of victory smothered it. She turned and smiled at the cat-woman.
"Why not? It's not like it'll hurt."
Noel couldn't believe his luck. Not only had their chocobo done magnificently in the races, but the resulting payout was more than enough to buy that prize they needed. Funny, he couldn't quite remember what it was, but perhaps Serah would know. Her memory was better than his, at any rate, what with all the things they had done to fix the timeline.
"Excuse me. Are you the owner of Bocoloco?" one of the strange half-chocobo attendants asked. Noel nodded.
"Please follow me. Our patron would like to speak with you about a matter of import."
He followed the blue bird-woman through the casino, past attractions that hadn't opened, past places no customer had ever seen before, towards a room with a gold spade on it. She pushed it open, letting him walk inside without issue, and then let it swing shut behind him. Noel looked around and noticed Serah sitting on the couch in the front half, her hands clasped in her lap.
"Serah? What's going on?" he asked bemusedly, walking further into the room and sitting beside her. The pink-haired woman looked up at him and gave him a nervous smile.
"I don't know, Noel. I was just told to wait here."
They sat there, waiting for what may have been seconds or days, until several of the casino staff came in.
"Sorry about the long wait. We've brought a few things to make it up to you," the cat-woman in the lead said cheerfully, gesturing to the cart laden with food and drink of all kinds.
"We promise, you won't have much longer. Until then, why not try a few things?" She and the others left, leaving Serah and Noel with the complementary gifts. With nothing better to do – and hey, it was free! – they decided to take a few samples of the food and drink.
A woman stood over the slumbering pair, a smug smile on her face. She was impossibly beautiful, her features indescribable—one moment delicate and elfin, the next strong and vivacious. Her sleek evening gown appeared to be made out of playing cards, with the straps made of poker chips. A decorative belt of racing tickets hung low on her hips. Casino tokens glinted around her wrists and from her ears.
"Such naive fools. They're lucky I need a couple of new staff members. Otherwise, they might have found their luck running out," she murmured coolly. The woman snapped her fingers, and Catlin appeared in the room.
"You summoned me, my Lady?" she purred.
"I'm cashing in. Prepare these two for conversion."
"Yes, Lady Luck."
Catlin picked them up with an unnatural strength and slung them over her shoulders, carrying them from the opulent room to a place no customer of the casino ever left. Not in one piece, anyways.
One of the customers, a woman who was perfectly content to spend the rest of her days gambling, looked around, wondering where that lucky young lady was that had struck it big at the slot machines.
She caught sight of someone who looked like her near the prize booth and went up to her.
"Hey, I never got to congratulate you earlier!" she exclaimed. The woman turned around, and though she had pink hair and blue eyes, it was not the same woman. It was one of the casino staff, as proven by the uniform and the fact that she had pink cat ears and a cat tail peeking from beneath her skirt.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I thought you were someone else," the woman admitted sheepishly. The staff member smiled and shook her head.
"It's fine. Did you need something?" she asked gently.
"No, no. I just made a mistake, that's all," the customer replied, backing away and returning to her card table.
How strange. But then again, this was Serendipity. There was always the chance of finding two people who looked like each other.
Though she could have sworn that staff member had been the woman at the slot machines from earlier.
"I can't believe I lost again," a man complained, slumping over. He had bet on the wrong chocobo for the umpteenth time, had sworn that it would win, and had been forced to face crushing defeat alongside it.
He sighed and straightened, turning to leave the race track. As he moved, his eyes caught sight of a member of the casino staff.
"Hey, isn't that... nah. Can't be," the man muttered. Sure, he had the same face and hair color as the guy whose chocobo – Bocoloco, wasn't it? – had done so well about two races ago, but it couldn't have been him. This was a staff member, after all, and he was pretty sure staff weren't allowed to take part in the races.
But still, the resemblance was striking.
"Hey, Noel, do you feel like you've forgotten something really important?"
Serah and Noel, along with a few other staff members, were taking a break behind the scenes. Serah was sitting on a plush settee, Noel was leaning against a wall nursing a light pink drink in his hand, and the other staff members were having their own conversation several feet away. The young man thought about it and shrugged, draining the last of his drink.
"Now that you mention it, yeah, a little. Why do you ask?"
"I just have this feeling that we were supposed to be doing something, but I can't quite put my finger on it."
"Well, give it time. It'll come back to you. Come on. We gotta get back to work." He walked over and pulled the woman to her feet, and they left the break room, neither of them noticing the stuffed moogle lying beneath a lamp, on a table in the corner, its crystal bobble flashing dimly.