witchesreign | 6 ☣ gamble

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6 ☣ gamble

[A little ways inside the front gate, something strange is going on. There is an elf sitting up against the edge of the path. For those who know him, he has back the markings that vanished during the time when everyone's powers got mixed up. But that's not what's strange. What's strange is that he is not lurking and brooding, or cleaning up and brooding, or serving hot dogs and brooding (he does a lot of different things around here, and also he broods).

Instead, he is staring with a deeply quizzical expression at the five Triple Triad cards spread out in front of him. Every so often he picks one up, turns it over repeatedly in his hands, then puts it back down.

He doesn't get it.]

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[Now that she's not shedding feathers, Rinoa's feeling much more like her normal self again. Which naturally means she's as nosy and curious as ever.]

They're triple triad cards. [She tilted her head, wondering just what had him so confused.]

It's a card game. People play it for fun. [She settles down next to him with a teasing smile.] You do know what fun is, right?

[Annoyed by her very presence yet, Fenris?]

[He doesn't look up at first; he just sort of braces his shoulders a little in irritation.]

"Triple Triad"...so I have been told.

[At her question, though, he starts to sound like he's gritting his teeth.]

I'm aware of the concept.

[It's a reaction she's used to. Espio's always done something similar. Not to mention Squall and Seifer who probably have had similar reactions before too.]

So I guess no one really bothered to explain how it's played? It's not hard. I can show you if you want. [She actually does have a deck on her, surprise surprise.] Lucky for you I'm not half as good as Squall is.

[At his answer she laughs.]

Just so long as it's not dancing then, huh?

[He waves a hand, a little bit awkwardly.]

There was...some explanation. It's complicated. A demonstration would be helpful, I think.

[The comment about dancing gets a slightly embarrassed scowl.]

Well you're in luck! A demonstration I can do.

[She scoots around a bit so that she has room to draw on the ground.]

First thing to remember is that it's played on a three by three square. So Three cards wide and three cards tall. You play cards next to each other and the higher numbers "take" the cards with lower numbers.

Person with the most cards at the end wins!

[She lays out two cards then.]

See this one has a three on the right and this one has a 5 on he left. So by playing this card there. Now both cards count as being "Mine" see?

I begin to see, yes.

[He's watching intently, absorbed in the demonstration as if it were some new battle technique.]

Here. Let me try one more thing really quick!

[Since she's got plenty of cards. She shuffles out two hands of five and proceeds to have a mock game of triple triad with herself just to make sure it fully makes sense. It doesn't take long before she's got all nine cards filled in and then she turns back to him.]

Does it make more sense now? I mean there are more complicated rules you'll find in some places, but here we tend to stick to the basics.

[He waits patiently, despite her assertion of quickness, and watches as she plays.]

I expect it would be more difficult with two players. But yes. I think I understand something of it now.

It depends on who you're playing against really and how good your cards are.

[She gathers her cards up neatly.]

A bad player is probably still going to be bad even with good cards after all.

[He turns a thoughtful gaze on her.]

It's a game of skill and not luck, then?

That's right. If it was just a game of luck Squall wouldn't like it as much as he does.

Squall? You know him?

[A snort.]

It seems to me that the commander of such a place as this would have to like luck a great deal.

He's from the same time I am. He's.. a really good friend.

[Can't really call him her knight. Maybe boyfriend? She really should talk to him about this one of these days.]

Really? But why would you think that?

[He pauses, catching that word.]

The same time? There are people here from your world, then, but not your time?

[Well, that would explain why it's called "time compression." He shakes off the idea for now.]

An academy that offers demons freely to its recruits, so they may harness magic? One would need the best of luck to think that anything but a bad idea.

[Oh. She's so used to people knowing that this is her world that she'd forgotten there were people who didn't know about her or her part in the second Sorceress War.]

Of course. [She pauses and smiles just a little bit.] It'd be really weird if there weren't, because I'm from here. Just twenty years in the past here. This world is my home.

[That certainly does make the name a little more obvious doesn't it?]

The Guardian Forces aren't demons. [And this time there's no dance to put off arguing about this point.] Most of them are really nice even. I don't know if maybe you have something similar but bad on your own world, but the ones here are good.

I see.

[But he's immediately even more on guard than before.]

How often I have heard such things. How often they are lies. Lies you believe, perhaps, but lies all the same. Call them what you will: demon, spirit, "Guardian Force." In the hands of people seeking power they bring ruin.

[She frowns a little, but her position never wavers.]

In that case the in the hands of people seeing to protect they bring safety and nothing more. Maybe there are people who'd use them for bad things, but that doesn't make the Guardian Forces themselves bad.

[She frowns a little more. obviously this isn't something she's done a lot of thinking about.]

I guess maybe they're not really good either, but neutral?

It doesn't seem fair to judge all of them, just because a few people might use them for bad things. It's not like they chose to do the actions themselves, right?

[She stands and stretches a little bit, before turning her attention back to Fenris.]

You know, I wonder. They're called Guardian Forces, right? So that must mean their main purpose has to be to protect otherwise they'd be called something besides Guardian. Don't you think?

[Rinoa logic, it's flawless. Look at that, flawless!]

[Even though there was certain Lieutenant Commander looking for him, Joe is still walking the Garden freely, inside and outside of it.

He notices the person with the strangely-shaped ears and markings on his skin sitting in front of what looked like a deck of cards. Joe happened to be good at cards, but these cards didn't seem to look like any deck he'd ever seen.

Now, he's curious and peers over at the deck himself.]

What is it?

[He lifts one card with the utmost of seriousness.]

They say it's called "Triple Triad."

How do you play?

[He moves so he is now sitting opposite from the other. It's really quite obvious that he's interested this game now.]

I don't fully grasp it yet.

[In truth, he's still working on teaching himself to recognize the numbers, though he's made quite a bit of progress on that.]

Two people play at a time, I know that much. It's very popular here.

Hm.

[It didn't look like poker, which he was used to playing. He starts to reach for the deck, but stops.]

Do you mind?

[He sweeps up the five cards he has and holds them out.]

Be my guest. Perhaps you can make sense of it where I cannot.

[Joe shuffles them around for a minute and...

Nope. He had no idea. The numbers on the cards most likely signified something, though the pictures... could be for decoration. They weren't just any normal deck.]

Sorry. I don't have a clue.

[He sets the cards down.]

I wonder if I could get a deck of real cards, though.

[A brow arches.]

Perhaps. What would you do with them?

Play a few hands.

[Of poker. Or solitaire.]

[Give him a moment to think...]

Of...diamondback? That is what the game is called?

Diamondback? I was thinking poker.

Poke who?

[A pause, wherein it's not entirely clear if he's joking.]

I've not heard the word.

[Joe stares for a second, thinks that the other is joking. After that brief pause, he figures that this guy has no clue what poker is.

So he grins.]

It's a game-- you make bets, best hand wins, while people try to call your bluff. I've never heard of diamondback, either.

From what I gather, they must be similar.

[Shrug.] Same game, different names, maybe.

No stranger a thing than some I've seen here.

[He considers.]

So it's a game where you win money by lying? Hmm. That sounds about right.

Fenris? What are you doing?

[Flatly.]

I'm baking a cake. Or possibly a pie.

..Very funny.
Huh? What are you doing with these?

I was given them in exchange for providing extra servings with lunch today.

[He's susceptible to bribes, apparently.]

They're part of a game called Triple Triad.

So it's a game then. Okay, so how do you play?

Do I look like I know?

Not really! But that doesn't mean we can't find out!

You don't know, and I don't know. How do you propose we find out?

[Dawn has seemingly made it a habit to creep up on people she doesn't know. Oh well.]

You're playing Triple Triad? I don't understand it, either. It's strange.

[He doesn't start at the creeping up, but he does cast a slightly annoyed glance over his shoulder.]

I'm not playing it yet. Perhaps I would be if I understood it.

I tried to get someone to explain it to me.. but they couldn't. Maybe no one knows how to play, and people just pretend that they do?

It's as likely an explanation as any.

[He shuffles the cards around uselessly.]

I'm sure that's not the proper way.

[Dawn's gonna take a seat next to Fenris.]

Well, why don't we just make up our own game?

I can see little better use of my time right now.

[...yeah, backtracking a little bit back to the table.

he's seen these cards around, but hell if he knows how to play.

from the looks of things, Fenris doesn't know either.]

[Wordlessly, Fenris holds up a card with a rather ugly-looking Blobra on it.]

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6 ☣ gamble

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I clearly need to stop sorting things into folders. They're easier to forget that way

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