pick a god and pray

[garudynamic]

[Like the weeks before, once everyone has wandered off their separate ways, notes are posted to each room that still has a warm body in it. Only this time the writing is much messier then any other notice]

None of us feel like celebrating, but I think Yato would approve if we don't spend the night hiding out because of him
There's warmed up food in the Game Room if you're hungry. Might be best to not be alone tonight.

-Yosuke

[And as promised there's leftovers in the Game Room; and eventually fresh stuff as Tarrlok gets to work in the kitchen. Yosuke is there, trying to set something up on one of the shelves, but otherwise you are left to your own devices]

Comments

[isafraid]

....You fancy a game?

[Something to get both their minds off of things.]

[cherryblooded]

Anything but blackjack.

[He's still not recovered from that game with Misa.]

[isafraid]

[Speedwagon sits himself down, the barest hint of a smile gracing his face. But he's tired.]

Not one of my better skills anyway. Poker then? As long as it's nothing too serious, I'm not looking for any real betting tonight.

[And it would blessedly not be strip poker either.]

[cherryblooded]

[You can't play strip poker in front of the dead teenage girl's shrine. You just can't.]

Poker's fine with me. Just for chips and bragging rights.

[isafraid]

[Please god no, they've already done the whole stripping thing anyways.]

Right then. [He prepares the deck, skillfully mixing it in his hands.]

I've never played against someone as old as you, and I mean that in no offence.

[He's just positive that Cherryblod has a trick or two he's never heard of.]

[cherryblooded]

None taken. It's not my best game, but I'm no slouch at it either. And my poker face is fairly good.

[isafraid]

[He begins to deal out the cards, a hand for both of them.]

I guess I'll have my work cut out for me, then. But old Speedwagon isn't a pushover.

[....Not all the time.]

[cherryblooded]

We'll see if you can back those words up.

[Poker, yet another game I know very little about.]

[isafraid]

[ditto. And thus the game begins in silence, at least until Speedwagon speaks up again.]

Would asking how you're doing be a bit redundant?

[cherryblooded]

I've had better days.

...She was about my daughter's age, in human terms. They don't resemble each other, but for a moment when I saw her - hanging there-

[He'd pictured his own daughter.]

[isafraid]

[However briefly, Speedwagon thought he couldn't look Cherryblod in the eyes. But he does, as he takes another card and slips it into his hand.]

...She didn't deserve it. All of that was rubbish. Maybe if we'd thought of something else...

[...if someone else died..?]

I'm sorry you had to see it.

[cherryblooded]

...I've been there to discover every single victim so far, you know. Zagi. Pearl. Mion.

Considering sleeping in on Fridays.

[isafraid]

[A sigh.]

Guess you have been drawing the short straw for a while, eh?

[cherryblooded]

It's not as though I've never seen death before, but I could use a break.

[isafraid]

No one should have to see it like this. So much of it in this much time? It feels a bit unthinkable.

[He sighs, letting a hand slip back to push some of that hair out of his face. Speedwagon is tired, Cherryblod. It's been a long day.

At least the game, mercifully, seems to be going in Speedwagon's favor.]

[cherryblooded]

[So it is!]

Even when I fought in the war, it wasn't this bad. Battles and murders are different things entirely.

[isafraid]

[Just about the only thing that is-Wait a second.]

You were in a war?

[cherryblooded]

A civil war. A little under two hundred years ago.

[isafraid]

... You weren't a soldier in it, were you?

[cherryblooded]

I was.

[Does he not look the type?]

[isafraid]

[...Speedwagon laughs, he's not sure why, it's just something that happens right now.]

Good on you! [...He sobers up quickly. Why isn't this card game going in his favor anymore?] I'm sorry, suppose I never thought that you were the kind of person that would be involved in that.

We were through with a war not too long ago in my world. A bloody vicious one at that.

[cherryblooded]

[It's not all that funny.]

Did you win?

[isafraid]

[Not at all.]

We managed somehow, can't exactly call it a win though. It was nearly a century ago though, so I wasn't living through it.

[cherryblooded]

I see... It's a little like that for our war, too. We didn't lose, but it's not as though the other side actually surrendered.

[isafraid]

Then it's exactly the same, like as not. [They kind of got their asses kicked, but now everything's square.]

But I guess that's just what living in the past does for ya. All my current news must be years behind everyone else's.