Leo Paddini's Incredible Travel

Read episodes 1-4 and visit the official WoG website to enjoy the full text of the NFT novel.

Hey! My name is Leo Paddini and I am a space and time traveler. As a child, my dad, an astrophysicist, explained to me that the White Rabbit from Alice Through the Looking Glass ran out of one of the tunnels connecting the universe with itself. Such paths are called wormholes or windows to faraway worlds. Peter Pan also flew from Neverland to Wendy and her brothers' homeworld through a similar portal.

Time has passed. I grew up, became a researcher, and developed a special device looking like a wrist bracelet. I called it a wormholes seeker. With its help, I find hyperspace to jump to the past and the future and parallel worlds. My goal is to explore the games played by the Universe's inhabitants of different eras and realities. I will tell you about my incredible travel around the world of games in 10,021 story-driven NFTs.

So, ready for the game?

Episode 1

Back to the Past

Homeworld, 1968

The hole in time threw me right in the middle of the games room at the Holiday Hotel and Casino. There were four people at the poker table: the dealer Lorraine, the innkeeper Tom Moore sitting in the small blind, the guest Linda, and the Afro-Cuban-American Jackson.

“Hi there, my name's Leo. Will you take me into the game?”

“Sure, but let's compare the final poker hands first! Lorraine folded on the flop. Linda's got Straight. Jackson seems to be bluffing.”

“Okay, Tom. Open the cards.”

“Royal Flush, Jackie. And the bank is mine today! Sit down at the table, Leo. Where are you from?”

“The future.”

“Ha! You beat all, dude! That is just the right way to bluff!”

Episode 2

Royal Flush

Your time capsule message:

The main rule of poker says, win the bank or leave the game table in time!

Deftly beating old Tom in 1986, I set off that same year, but in a parallel reality. In the same game room, only with faded wallpaper, I saw Tom's doppelganger. Liz and Chip played in place of Linda and Jackson. Liz had Straight, and the octopus man dealt the cards!

I looked around, “Oh man! So many people with octopus arms!”

For the purity of the experiment, I turned to the players, “Hi there, my name is Leo. Will you take me into the game?”

“Sit down, buddy. Mac, deal cards to the newbie.”

The octopus man shuffled the deck and gave me the top five cards. I couldn't believe my eyes — Royal Flush!

“Can I enter the game at the stage of showdown?” I clarified with the poker face.

“Of course,” Tom said wondering, “you flew from the moon, or what? By the way, I have a Full House.”

“Four of a Kind,” Chip perked up.

“Royal Flush,” I opened my cards and waited for the reaction of the others.

“Hey! You sly dog! That is how you should bluff, guys!”

Episode 3

Miss in Lace Gloves

Homeworld: Sicily island, 1876

​​I traveled back in time to meet the mafia and play a survival game with them...

“Bongiorno! I'm Leo Paddini.”

“Why did you come, Leo?” the elderly mafioso asked in a husky voice.

“I'll teach you a game. Miss in lace gloves, please hand out role cards and masks…”

We played the fifth game in a row. Gangsters with happy faces ordered extra cocktails, but they were not going to let me go. So I pressed the Parallel World button on the bracelet of wormholes and disappeared into thin air.

Episode 4

A Dangerous Game

Your time capsule message:

Never tell strangers what you think.

I escaped through the wormhole from 1876, in which I taught the real mafia the psychological game of 1986, and found myself at the same time and place in a parallel universe. I was sitting at the table with the same players. I noticed that the color of the table and the gangsters and beauties' clothes changed, and for some reason, there were eyes cut out in the play masks.

“Leo, great idea with slits for eyes in masks!”

“Did I suggest it?”

“No, your twin brother. You're a joker,” the thug with a cigar in his teeth cut off and burst out into a booming laugh.

Miss in white lace gloves announced the phase of the night. Everyone put on masks and closed their eyes.

“Mafia wakes up and goes hunting,” she said then.

My card read ‘Commissar’, but I could not resist and opened my eyes to spy on what was happening. The bearded man put his hand into his jacket — he took out a gun. I did not wait for the outcome of the game and unnoticeably pressed Home on the bracelet. The tunnel between the worlds hid me from the vision of the mafia.

To be continued...

The full text is available on official WoG website.