Triple Triad World Championships Threads!

[iknowtheconsequences]

Who: Kaji, Hisui Hearts (Round 1), Deadpool (Round 2), and Akane Kurashiki (Round 3)
What: A place to play out the Triple Triad Games

The Smoking Trickster proves to be Ryoji Kaji, a middle-aged man wearing rumpled Scholar robes, and, true to form, smoking throughout each game.

[OOC: Placement on the board can be determined by Top Left, Top Center, Top Right, Middle Left, Center, Middle Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Center, Bottom Right.
Link to the rules if needed again is right here.
Link to the card list if needed again is right here.

To determine who starts, please go to Random.org, and pull a random number from 1 to 100. Kaji will pick Odd number each time, if it lands on an Even number, then your character goes first. If you have any other question, please feel free to PM me!]

Comments

[iknowtheconsequences]

Kaji puts his own Abaddon card down as a formality. Technically, its 8 takes the Blue Dragon's 3, but it doesn't really matter.

Final score is 7 to 2, Kaji.

"Of course!" Kaji grins and sticks out his hand again to shake. "And you've got good instincts. A little more practice, and I'm sure that you'd have beaten me."

"You're newer here?" He can't remember running into her at the last few Hero get-togethers.

[sesenta]

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that," Akane chuckled, shaking his hand. Oddly enough, there was a faint tremor in her fingers. She kept the handshake brief as a result, in the vague hope that he wouldn't notice, and kept her hands folded on her lap beneath the table.

She could answer his question honestly, and tipped her head forward with a single nod. "Yes, sir. I arrived just a few weeks ago." Akane tipped her head back, her eyes roaming across the room as she slowly turned. "It's an awful lot to take in, but I think I've been adjusting pretty fast. What about you?" she smiled, leaning forward. "How long have you been here?"

[iknowtheconsequences]

Kaji smiles encouragingly. "You have been adjusting fast, then. I'm impressed. I've been here...let's see." Kaji visibly counts on his fingers. "Almost 22 months."

"I was in the first 'group' of us," air quotes. "Lack of a better term. Nobody knew for sure what was going on, but the people had their stories, which they were happy to tell us. The advisors to the castle, Biggs and Wedge, they knew to expect us, got us settled in fast, partnered us up with the moogles." Kaji's moogle, Shinji, is hovering in the audience, the Scholar mortarboard hat precariously balanced on his head.

"And the rest is history." Kaji smiles. "And then you came to join us. I'm sure others have said it, but welcome again."

[sesenta]

Akane smiled. He seemed like a really kind person. Manipulative and shrewd, but kind. It seemed like he probably came from Japan too, based on the name he'd given her. "Thanks! It's very nice to be here." Even with the monsters and the end of the world looming over everyone's shoulders, her experiences so far had been surprisingly pleasant.

"So if you were here from the very beginning, you probably know almost all there is to know about this place. Even so, that's a long time to be away from your home." She hesitated a little, mulling over her question, then apparently decided to smile again instead of asking what had been resting on the tip of her tongue. "Is there any history I should keep in mind?"

[iknowtheconsequences]

Kaji's head slowly tilts to the side. "I don't know if 'nice' is the first word I'd use, but this place has its moments." More moments of peace here than in Tokyo-3, really.

"Let's see. History to keep in mind. The following people are jerks and are probably screwing us around:" Kaji proceeds to count off on his fingers. "Palitulu, who pretended to be a court advisor for about the first year we were here. The brat moogle, Artemicion, who was previously running Mognet Central, but ran his own people into the ground double-dealing." No, Kaji doesn't take Artemicion's betrayal personally at all.

"Kalki, who still owes me dinner and is probably dead. That old guy calling himself a Sage in the continent to the West? Jerk. Big jerk. And we don't need him. Give him time, he's probably gonna contact us again saying that even though we failed his first test, he's 'willing to give us another chance,' because he's desperate for attention."

"On the flip side, people who look like they are jerking us around, but are actually not? Cid. Keep on his good side, he's keeping this Kingdom running for us. Um, Kurma and Prajapati. They were previously working with the Heran Empire, but their top priority is to keep the people alive. They've got little to nothing to do with this whole Calamity business."

"I find that the who can be a lot more valuable information than the what, you know?" Oh dear, does she have Kaji's number already.

[sesenta]

As long as that number never appeared as a bracelet on his wrist, he was safe.

Akane listened intently as he spoke, committing the names to memory. Naturally she knew she would have to take all opinions with a grain of salt, but she had a feeling he probably had a good understanding of these people.

The one person who caused her to perk up was Cid. As soon as he said Cid's name, Akane beamed. "Oh, I like him! He reminds me of somebody I knew back home." Tenmyouji could have been Cid's long lost brother. Or father. Or uncle? Some sort of relation. She hadn't actually met Cid, but she'd caught a glimpse when she went to the castle to turn in her application. He'd been delightfully surly.

"So...how does Kalki owe you dinner?" That sounded like it had an interesting story, and if they still had some time while the referees tallied up the points, she was absolutely on board for getting to know her fellow heroes better.