Roomies Playing Cards
Pit & Roxas
Level: 10 - Total Exp 1/100Level: 8 - Total EXP: 217/80Word Count: 2446
Exp: +3
Rapport: +3
Although Pit had intended to go right to the cafeteria as he was (still very fresh from the fight), the master of the ship's stockpile caught the angel in the hall and ushered him into the infirmary next door. Pit complained that he was fine, and Eleison had yet to return from tending to whomever needed it at the Seekers' arrival point anyway, so instead Sagi basically just hosed the angel down before letting him loose in the Avenger once more. Thankfully, other Seekers that happened to pass her by had already taken the time to at least rinse before they even thought about being around food.
So it was that Pit was still slightly damp when he got to the mess hall, was handed a plate of food that smelled mouthwateringly good, and parked himself at a table to dig in. The timing meant he wasn't one of those that had already come and went, nor was he one of the last to drag themselves into the cafeteria. He was just in time to see a friend join the food line and call him over, though.
"Over here!" he called to Roxas, raising one of his wings since his hands were busy tearing apart a meat patty with a pair of forks. The Nobody lit up a bit and approached to sit with the angel.
”Looks like everyone had the same idea.” Roxas commented as he pulled his plate closer to him. Before he could do anything with the food, he felt a familiar nudge at his shins.
”I know, I know.” He said as he plopped a second plate down on the floor for his Yamper to eat from.
”Don’t worry, Scamp, I didn’t forget about you.” Only then did he finally start digging into his own food.
”Figured it’s easier just to give him his own plate so he doesn’t get tempted to swipe from mine.” Roxas commented as he chewed his bite.
”Things got... pretty rough back there, didn’t they?” He was referring to what happened in the final hollow of the Qliphoth naturally.
Pit had peeked under the table to greet Scamp as well, though as usual the Pokémon was more preoccupied with getting fed.
"Oh. Yeah..." It had definitely been rough. The general mood going into the Dead Zone had been sort of grim from the start, and even after returning victorious there was a solemn air that lingered in the common areas for obvious reasons. Pit glanced at Roxas, wondering how close he'd been to those that had sacrificed themselves. Rather than bring it up though, he went in a slightly different direction.
"I can't believe so many Consuls teamed up against us. And all of them played really dirty too."He huffed, then tried a heartening smile.
"But we still won, didn't we?"”Heh, define ‘winning’.” Roxas replied with a small chuckle,
”I’m no stranger to having the bad guys team up on me, though.” He added, briefly setting his fork down and sipping from the cola he had brought to the table along with his food.
”They tried that a lot in the world I came from. Still… they’re only gonna come at us even harder, though. If every fight against them goes like this one did…” He trailed off, not really wanting to think about that.
For a moment Pit didn't say anything, just chewed on his food with his wings slightly droopy. Roxas was right of course, even with a numbers advantage that should have been overwhelming, 'pretty rough' was still an understatement in regards to how the battle had gone. And now, two of their comrades were gone as well. It stunk to say the least, but they
had prevailed. Even if celebratory was too much, now that it was over the mood should be a little more cheery, he thought.
Pit lifted his plate up and shoveled the remainder of lunch into his mouth. Then he stood up, placing his palms on the table with a light smack.
"We'll deal with that when it happens," he said, his tone confident.
"But right now, let's go do something fun instead! Hurry up Roxas! Scamp's already done eating too!" And he was right. Scamp was looking up from his now empty hand and gave his little ‘bow-wark’ in reply.
”Yeah, sure!” Roxas said as he quickly scarfed down the rest of his plate before grabbing the cola can and taking a long gulp out of it to wash it down.
”So what kind of fun things is there to do on the Avenger, anyway?”As the boys and Scamp left the cafeteria, Pit's eyebrows pulled together in thought.
"Uh... good question." When he suggested it, he hadn't considered where they were. But the Lost Numbers weren't all serious old people, surely there was something on the ship that could entertain them.
"I bet we could find something though!"He lead them over to one of the many maps of the Avenger.
"Maybe there are board games in the common room. Or we could kick something around in the gym - or we could go see what kind of other things they're inventing in the labs?"”Board games in the common room?” Roxas echoed. That didn’t seem likely. Then again, all the Lost Numbers were kids at one point. And they had to have had some way to entertain themselves, right?
”Guess we won’t know until we look. A game’d probably be a good way to destress after all that chaos in the Qliphoth.”Pit grinned and nodded.
"Game it is, let's go!"Considering that they were looking to unwind after the battle, they didn't really need to rush around the ship - but even so they had another friendly race to the common room with the Yamper at their heels. Unknowingly Roxas and Pit had ended up trading places with Rika, Blazermate, and Bowser Jr. as the latter all headed for the dining hall after using the space, while the former had arrived after already eating their fill.
The common room was pretty simple, with all of the comforts one might expect from a small recreational space. Although there were actually video games in the room due to its prior occupants, they had been collected and stowed in one section of the room somewhere near the TV, tucked away enough to be overlooked until their owners could return to claim them. The angel didn't seem to notice them as he went over to some shelving, rifling through drawers and cabinets to see what he could find. There were regular playing cards, a chess board, a puzzle in a box, books of riddles and number games... nothing particularly interesting, at least until he spotted something at the back. He pulled the box out and opened it up, finding a
board and a deck of simple cards, along with a six sided die that had letters one it instead of pips. There was also a small pamphlet that couldn't have been more than three pages that Pit tossed to Roxas without thinking, momentarily forgetting he could read in his curious drive to get the game set up.
"How about this?"”Whoa!” Roxas yelped in surprise as he barely managed to react in time to catch the pamphlet. He opened it up and skimmed over the three pages.
”Triple… Triad?” He read aloud.
”It says we deck turns placing cards from our decks onto the board. When opposing cards are placed next to each other, they clash with the numbers that are directly pointed at each other, the higher number determines which card is stronger and wins the clash. The winning card flips the losing card over so that it’s controlled by the winning card’s owner. When all the board’s spaces are filled, the player with the most cards under their control on the board is the winner.”There were actually more complicated rules than that pertaining to card elements providing certain bonuses that should be applied when cards clash on the board as well as optional styles of play. But those were on a page that Roxas hadn’t fully read yet.
”Sounds easy enough. Are we giving this game a try?”"Why not?" Pit picked up a card, getting a look at it. There was some kind of person or character on the front (he noted others had monsters and animals) with four numbers arranged in a diamond shape in the top corner. It definitely seemed simple enough for anyone to grasp, which was good for quick play. Pit set the card back down with others in the same color, of which there were only two.
"It sounds kind of like a battle game." But with the flashy cards, less boring than the likes of chess, and with less rules to remember.
"You want red or blue?"”Red, I guess.” Roxas said with a shrug, assuming there wasn’t much difference between the colors. What he didn’t realize was that the red and blue deck utilized completely different characters and monsters for their cards, and the red deck he picked seemed to lean a bit more toward monsters. The first card he noticed in the deck he picked up looked like a big fireball with a scary grin on it. Another one looked like a picture of a humanoid cactus in the middle of running. The cards' names were ‘Bomb’ and ‘Cactuar’ respectively.
”Guess I’ll start with… this?” Roxas said as he tentatively played the Bomb card in the lowermost left hand corner of the board’s 3x3 grid.
"So I just have to match a higher number against your lower number... Alright, let's see...!"With the Bomb on the side of the board and its largest value at its right, the only option would be to put something directly above it. With a glance at his own hand Pit put down a Gesper card, which showed a funny looking humanoid. More importantly, its southern number was four, which would beat the Bomb's northern two. Of course that left the Gesper with its own openings of one and five.
”How about… this one!” Roxas said as he placed a Tonberry card directly above the Gesper. It’s southern four was more than a match for the Gesper’s northern one. And now the only way to take either of those cards back was to play something that beat their eastern six and five respectively.
Which unfortunately, Pit did not have in his hand. He could match the five, but... He turned his eyes to the center and right hand lanes.
"Okay, let's go with this!" he said as he rather dramatically put down a card called Belhelmel, a clown-looking totem on its face, into the top right spot on the board, with its western three and southern five open.
”Hmm…” Roxas reread his cards and found one that could work.
”Let’s go with… this.” He placed a card called Grendel to the west of Belhelmel. Its eastern four managed to beat the latter’s western three. Its opening was a southern five. Its weakest side, the western two, was protected by the Tonberry that was still in Roxas’ control.
Suddenly Roxas had an overwhelming advantage, with four cards on the board to Pit's single one. The angel blinked, then squinted at the playing space. And all of the open numbers were five!
"What the... that was so quick! But I'm not out yet!"He still didn't have a card that could beat an eastern five, but what he assumed was one of the strongest cards in his deck could beat the two southern ones. He slapped down a Chicobo in the center space, capturing the Grendel card and evening the playing field.
"How about that! Your move, Roxas!"”Huh?” Roxas said, surprised.
”How am I supposed to top that?” He asked as he frantically re-examined the remaining couple of his cards that he hadn’t played yet, seeing that none of them could capture the Chicobo’s southern or western sides. He decided to mirror Pit’s move and play his strongest card as well, called Cerberus. Ironically, Roxas had no idea that Cerberus’ western A was actually stronger than the Chocobo’s eastern four. So what he did was play the card at the bottom right corner of the grid, thinking it was a defensive move that would keep him from losing any more cards for the remaining two turns.
And with Cerberus’ western A and its northern
seven? Roxas’ guess may well have been correct.
Of course, seeing the letter on the card made Pit tilt his head and ask,
"what does that stand for? A... eight...?"He was completely wrong of course, and figured as much because then why would there be two ways to show an eight? Regardless, Pit thought for a moment before putting down an Iron Giant in the space above Cerberus. Its southern six didn't beat the number on Roxas' card, but since Cerberus was already played it didn't flip the Giant. But the Belhelmel that was previously Pit's returned to his control, which just left the last open space on the board on Roxas' turn.
”Wait, what? Aw, I completely forgot about Belhelmel.” The Nobody groaned, realizing he couldn’t win now. Roxas’ remaining card - which was Cockatrice - couldn’t beat the Chicobo. He slapped it down anyway, which ended the game.
”Looks like you won. Not sure what the ‘A’ means, though…” Roxas thumbed through the pamphlet again for answers, and what he found made him groan even more.
”Are you kidding me?” He exclaimed,
”’A’ beats any number? But that means I could have beaten your Chicobo and-”"Hahahaha! I'm still counting that as my win!" Pit said, pleased with himself even if either of them had taken the time to read all of the rules the game would have ended very differently. He scooped up the cards and went to shuffle both of the decks again so they could draw new hands.
"C'mon, let's go another round!"After both of them actually read through the full rules the boys set up again, carefully choosing their spaces and slapping cards down dramatically. It was simple fun, but fun nonetheless, especially as they traded wins and losses. They kept their commandeered table for a little while, trying out the other play modes in the rule book (finding that some were too confusing to play more than once) until they'd had their fill.
The plan to take their minds off of the serious and solemn events of the morning had more or less worked. While Roxas retired with his Pokémon to their shared room, Pit flitted off to see what else he could get up to.
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