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A Simple Game of Cards

Summary:

In which a simple game of cards is played.

Notes:

Starsoarer this is your fault and your fault alone

(See the end of the work for more notes.)

Work Text:

Seven pairs of eyes (or six and a half, rather, considering one eye was covered by an eyepatch) darted back and forth between each other, glances periodically flicking down to their owners’ weapons before returning to each other. The room was tense and quiet. A single wrong move, one misspoken word, and the fate of Alrest would be decided.

It was Rex who spoke first, placing a black-and-white card face-up on the table, baring an ornate design to the rest. “Ace of spades.” He grinned audaciously, as if challenging his opponents to make their next move.

Nia acted next, lowering her cards from their position guarding her face to reveal a sly smirk the likes of which could not be matched. “Plus four,” she said, smugly tossing a card onto the table. This one was black with a white oval between two corners, bearing four rectangles in blue, yellow, green and red in the center.

Rex swore under his breath, reaching for the deck and pulling four cards from it, adding them his hand as Nia chuckled. “Sorry, Rex, but not this time.”

“Not so fast, Nia.” The girl’s catlike ears twitched as Mythra spoke up, holding a blue card emblazoned with a red-and-white orb up between two fingers. Laying it down, she gave a bloodthirsty smile. “Jolteon, I choose you,” she pronounced. Nia nearly hissed at the sight of the card’s other side- yellow, with a few lines of text and a picture of some four-legged beast at the top.

A pair of lips pulled into a sharp smile, and Pandoria turned over a card that she had previously placed on the table. “I’ll reveal my face down card, Pot of Greed!” she announced, pulling two cards from the deck and hiding her face behind her cards.

Zeke glanced around the table, calculating something in his head before reaching an arm down to turn a card in front of him sideways. “I’ll tap my Plains for one white mana,” he stated, glancing back around the room as he spoke.

As the cards continued to move, a certain white tiger was looking around more and more frantically, unable to keep up with the players. At length, when he was starting to shiver out of sheer confusion, he spoke up. “Pardon my intrusion, but what exactly are you playing?”

All the players looked up, and Nia opened her mouth to speak- then Mòrag slammed a hand down onto the table, showing five cards, all with different printing entirely. “Royal flush,” she announced, and the others grumbled as they passed their cards to Rex, who was starting to shuffle the deck.

She glanced over to Dromarch, and the crinkles around her eyes betrayed her amusement. “We’re playing a simple game of cards, Dromarch. Nothing more.”

Notes:

Again, it's Starsoarer's fault. (Credit to them for coming up with the Mòrag part.)

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