I still regret every word, that day, I never said

[matchbreaker]

[ This trial was a mess. Hard on everyone, filled with conflicting emotions, and the twists and turns in it made it unsatisfying for everyone involved. That's probably become the norm at this point though! As have the gatherings in the aftermath of them. This time around the letter comes under everyone's door fairly quickly into the evening, following only a short delay for those organizing it to get things together and console themselves enough to be presentable. ]

Come to the dining room if you want to be with people. I will have board games, cards, food, and drink. We also will be writing letters to the dead, if you want to do that around others.

- Elda, Hanyuu, and Mikazuki

[ The dining room's set up is once again fairly simple. Hanyuu broad board games, Elda brought some rpg books though she doesn't expect anything to come of it, and there are a lot of envelopes, paper, and pens from the mail room. The mail room's going to close tonight, of course, but most of the letters will probably be written privately anyway. Elda just wanted people to be sure they knew they could.

Food wise, there's grilled meat and fish, rice, cream puffs (all Hanyuu!) Mikazuki's tea (both black and green!) and Elda's ... spicy fries. Some of them are more mild! However, the mild ones are covered in sugar so uh... that's probably not better. Either way, have at ]

Comments

afterparty

[firstaid]

[Rummy? She's honestly never played that before...]

Would you teach me how to play that?

[She needs distractions. Just anything to keep her mind of everything again.]

[matchbreaker]

Of course!

[ She can do cheer, even under this circumstances. She laughs as she pulls herself into a chair and sits opposite her wit ha deck of cards ]

It's an old game, and it's pretty simple.

[firstaid]

I suppose if it's simple enough, I should be able to understand and play it with ease.

[She scoots up her chair so she's close to the table. Cheerful is something she is. It's less forced this time, especially in comparison to earlier trials.]

[matchbreaker]

[ Honestly, it's a little obnoxious. Elda is forcing herself to some extent.

But she deals out their hands all the same ]

Do you know what runs and sets are in a card game?

[firstaid]

Ah, you mean a series of consecutive numbers and when you have the same of a one kind of card with the same number or symbol on it. Am I correct?

[matchbreaker]

Mmmhm. In Rummy, well at least with two people, we'll start with ten cards and then try to get rid of our hands using those.

[firstaid]

Alright. So I just see where I have runs or sets, correct?

[She'll pick up her cards and look at them.]

[matchbreaker]

Yes. And if you can play nothing - and at first, you must come out with one of either of three, so a set of three and a run of three, or two runs of three, so on - you must either draw a card, or draw from [ And she flips over a card to be the beginning of the discard ] the top of the discard.

And finally, end your turn by discarding.

[firstaid]

Oh, okay, I think that's simple enough.

[For now, it seems like she doesn't really have anything, so she draws, and it seems that helps as she has three of a kind that she lays down, and then discards a card at the end.]

Like this?

[matchbreaker]

Yes, precisely! In some rulesets you can't play your first until you have two, but we're learning.

[ Elda...

Draws.

And then discards. Man she got nothing. ]

You can also play off what is on the board. On all sides.

[firstaid]

Oh...

[Hmm, there seems to be a lot of rules to this. Estelle draws again, but she has nothing, so she discards as well.]

It seems so simple, yet I imagine it's much more complicated than that.

[matchbreaker]

Oh, it can get right complicated once there's more people and you need two decks.

[firstaid]

I think that would actually be rather fun to play with so many people.

[matchbreaker]

Oh, it is! With so many fields to play off of, the combinations are a wonder.

[ Draw, discard, sigh. ]

[firstaid]

I think we'll have to try it sometime!

[Estelle's the same, draws, then oh...!

She thinks this works! A 5-6-7, but it's offsuit... she doesn't know that doesn't work!]

[matchbreaker]

[ Elda is you cranky grandma though so- ]

Hold on, that's offset! See, that's a mix of hearts and diamonds.

[firstaid]

Oh, does it need to have the same shapes on them?

[She means the suit... But she'll pick up her cards and put them back in her hand if that's the case, and discard one.]

[matchbreaker]

Yes. Runs have to be same suit. ... That's the shapes and colors. They're four of them, as you can probably see.

[firstaid]

Oh, so that really adds strategy to this game.

[She seems frustrated at first, but then she nods. This is actually fun!]

[matchbreaker]

Precisely! And there are yet more tricks-

[ Ah, finally. She'll play a run now, spades ]

[firstaid]

[Oh, she sees when Elda puts her run down and nods. She'll draw a card... nothing yet again, and discard...

...she is focused on what she has now. Perhaps she should really start thinking up a strategy.]

[matchbreaker]

Such as... This!

[ She says excitedly, because she happened to draw just the card she needed! Namely, she can add one card to Estelle's set to take out the card in that set that matches the suit of her run, and add it to the run.

And then add one more card to the run that the card she shifted allowed her to get to!

(So basically picture say Estelle had 3 threes and Elda had spades 456, she put in another three to Estelle's set and then took out the three of spades, put it on her run, and then played a 2 of spades as well) ]

[firstaid]

Oh wow...

[To connect them is so cool. She draws and places an ace of space on the 2.]

Like this?

[matchbreaker]

See, you're getting it!

Now, if it wasn't clear: whoever wins is whoever deplete their hand to nothing first.

[firstaid]

Oh, so the goal is to get rid of your hand.

[She nods as she discards a card.]