[HALLOWEEN MINI GAME] Solitaire [Dice Game] [Rule Update]

[tefla]

tefla

:: falls asleep ::

 

[Indigo_Plateau]

Pew  

[Epine de Rose]

heart  

[Tolin Kalin]

10am hour roll  

[Indigo_Plateau]

Pew  

[Epine de Rose]

heart  

[LittleLilyKitty]

heart  

[Noir Songbird]

bloop  

[Indigo_Plateau]

prompt

There are few traces of any human life in the strange village; personal affects are hard to find but--strangely--there is a pack of cards in plain sight atop a table. There doesn't appear to be anything remarkable about them; they have a simple design on the back and though there are no numbers, there are designs to indicate the identity of the card. It seems like a standard deck of playing cards--except, the joker card looks strangely like the monster lurking in the forest. There is something strangely hypnotic about the card, and if you stare at it for too long when you look up again you may see the creature standing before you. By the time you blink he's gone, but a sense of unease lingers in the room afterwards.

Every minute felt like they were waiting for something. The anticipation in the air felt smothering to Rakovanite, no matter the time. During the day, they waited in fear for night. They could distract themselves with mundane activities like harvesting wood or fruits or scouting for unused commodities in unclaimed houses, but they were alert of the time, always. No one wanted to be caught out when the fog rolled in and the monster terrorized the village. During the day, all they could think about was the coming night.

During the night they waited tersely and silently for morning. Perhaps some found enough peace to sleep, despite knowing what was out there and hearing it ravage nearby structures, but none among Rakovanite's small group were one of those lucky few. The three of them sat awake all night, wondering if the monster would sense them in their shelter and attack.

Even with their system of two keeping watch while one slept, it didn't help. No one felt safe enough to rest peacefully. Not Narcissus. Not Cervantite. Not Rakovanite.

He was beyond exhausted. Even after adjusting his sleep cycle to better benefit his Negaverse duties, Rakovanite was still accustomed to at least a very solid six hours of sleep a night. It wasn't ideal, but it was enough to keep him going until his "off" day of rest. But there were no off days here. There was no restful sleep. It was just all waiting, all the time. The anxiousness and impatience were palpable. He could practically taste it. With the spiked exhaustion and anxiety there came something Rakovanite was less familiar with, but equally as upsetting.

His will to perform even basic activities was draining away. He persisted, because he always did, but the thought of just waiting to do something 'tomorrow' was disgustingly prevalent. He was offended at himself at just how often he thought he could neglect his workout until tomorrow, or the next day...

Real, personal social interaction was something Rakovanite had always considered 'unnecessary.' It was enough for him to talk to people on his computer and only have a vocal conversation with someone when he was trying to get laid. But if he'd been completely alone here, if he didn't have Cervantite and Narcissus, that would have been... not beneficial. Knowing that there were other people here, still persisting, made him want to keep going. He didn't want to be the one who 'gave up' before everyone else.

And Cervantite, for all that Rakovanite didn't hold any fondness for his younger brother, did push him. So when the senshi tossed a deck of cards at him with the offer to play a game, Rakovanite actually considered it. He hadn't played a card game with his brother in... years, probably.

It was just the two of them for now. Narcissus was dozing in and out on the floor nearby, and Rakovanite had agreed that even though it was day and even someone left unattended was unlikely to experience any attacks, they would still stay inside and make sure nothing else ambushed an unsuspecting Dark Mirror senshi. Rakovanite didn't trust anyone to not take an opportunity to rid themselves of an enemy if it was available, and for all they knew, there could be other forces at work here besides the monster.

It was best if they stayed together, when possible.

So he and Cervantite needed something they could do from inside their shelter. Rakovanite slid open the pack and gave the cards a perfunctory once over before dismissively tossing them back in Cervantite's direction. "No numbers," he stated flatly, disinterested. He didn't want to play some kiddy card-flip matching game.

---

Cervantite skidded to the floor beside his brother, shoving the deck back under Rakovanite's nose. "No, no, but they're implied," he retorted, grinning as he slipped the cards from their packaging and fanned them for the agent to view more fully. "It's like a cool wiccan card deck." Which either made sense or... not. Cervantite wasn't entirely sure.

On the one hand, the people who'd lived here had surely believed some weird stuff. Maybe they thought this monster was their god, and they made sacrifices to it to keep themselves safe until they outright ran out of people to use as offerings. Maybe they'd been trying to summon some kind of benevolent spirit, but the magic went wrong and they got this bloodthirsty demon creature. Or both! It could be both. So if they'd had a weird magic and weird religion, it would make sense that they had weird playing cards.

But... on the other hand, they were obviously playing cards that seemed to be designed after a standard set (or maybe the standard set was designed off of them?), and for all their exploring and harvesting, there weren't a whole lot of modern or personal things in this village.

This deck of cards was one of the few, making it stand out among all the archaic cooking tools and stone-and-wood structures.

Cervantite started shuffling. Even if he couldn't convince Nat to play, they were at least interesting to look at. And he could play... klondike or canfield by himself. ...Like people did when they were lonely and bored, and- Okay, so it didn't sound thrilling, but his options were pretty limited.

"We could play cheat?" He offered. Nataniel had never been distinctly interested in playing card games with Ellian. They'd been too far apart in age for it to even be enjoyable for either of them, but Cervantite did distinctly remember watching Nat play it online on his computer, and he knew the rules well enough. Just like he knew the thought of doing something familiar would pique his big brother's interest.

Rakovanite's gaze fluttered almost imperceptibly quickly to Cervantite's face, judging, before it was ahead again, and the older man murmured, "You can deal."

Success.

Cervantite did just that, flicking the cards out rapid-fire until there were two sloppy piles, one situated in front of each of them. Cheat wasn't great as a two-player game. Rakovanite would probably win every time, but Cervantite was sure Narcissus would play with them when he woke up, and the two of them together could probably take down Nat, especially if Cervantite brushed up on his skills now.

He hummed quietly as he sorted through his cards and was perhaps too inordinately pleased to see Rakovanite pick up his. Anything he didn't have in his hand, Rakovanite would, so it was important to commit everything to memory right here and now-

"Oh."

Two cards stood out among the others in his hand. Though most of the cards had symbols and designs that seemed to resemble numbers, the jokers were imprinted with the visage of a creature. The creature. Cervantite had never gotten a good look at it. It moved quickly, and the fog it seemed to control made details of its appearance hard to make out. But here, on the card, the skull hung heavy over its head and the fur tufts looked unkempt and matted.

He thought he might even smell something musty and dingy with some kind of rot thrown in... It made him shiver to think about, and he glanced up to tell Rakovanite he'd mistakenly left the jokers in-

But it was there, looming close at the agent's back with Rakovanite completely oblivious.

Cervantite lurched back with a screech of, "Nat!" slinging his arm back and sending his handful of cards sliding across the floor in an array behind him. His heart leapt for his throat, and his dark eyes blew impossibly wide as fear caught him.

Rakovanite was quick, surging forward and out of the way of Cervantite's vision, twisting in place and summoning his weapons to his hands as he skidded to the senshi's side only to see-

Nothing.

Cervantite was still staring at the place the monster had been, or at least the vision of the monster. There was only empty space now, but the hairs on the back of his neck prickled uncomfortably, and he thought he could still smell that weird, musty smell, even as his big brother glowered reproachfully at him. The weapons vanished from the agent's hands, and he moved (albiet a bit stiffly) to take up his place across from Cervantite again.

He thought for sure Rakovanite would snap at him, tell him to keep quiet or not to act out, but instead he just grumbled, "Please remember not to call me that."

The Space Cauldron

Claiming a Golden Vial for Nat!