konnichiwa it's rod time HERE WE GO: Cards
If one plays their chances correctly, they can gain momentum. They can go further and further until they reach the peak. For their small group of friends, this game of pretend and chance of small victory carried them far and they, they had been able to live a life of pure fun. Fate loves to toy with the most vulnerable, and no one can escape its clutches. Perhaps that’s why their happenings brought them to here, and their friend to where she’s at.
Em has to ask herself, did she play her opportunities to the best she could? Is she doing so now?
And what of Rod? Is he truly happy being a prince, with Sebby as his voice?
“Rod, look! I was just thinking of reviving one of our old games. Mother found our deck recently and it’s just as I remember!”
In her hands lays the current source of her smile: a small deck of handmade cards. It wasn’t as though they hadn’t the money to afford such a small item, Viorica even had a set of her own back then. But there hadn’t been fun and adventure in that! Oh no, never. What’s exciting about a stuffy, uniform build when you can create something of your own?
Small drawings make the faces, different handwriting filling out each piece of information, and the backs call a signature, just a small symbol that ended up their unofficial insignia. These little memories had been tucked away…. not long after Rod had been cursed… Maybe, maybe Rod could use something nice like this, to remember the simpler days, and be happy, not just drawn up and tangled within the work of being a prince.
But always her little brother.
“It took us days to make these… I’m glad we still have them. Remember? We wanted to split the work evenly, but in the end you just ended up doing all the backs.”
That’s right; that’s why the backs look so much more uniform, aside from a few here in there. It had been delicate work, the sort work that had clearly been a mark of time. Some of the cards, though survive they have, see damage upon their corners, worn and weathered. They had used them outdoors, so that’s natural, right? But there’s something… something specific about the ways these cards are battered, like tiny water droplets teared through only certain ones. And these ones…
No, no, they aren’t just the ones she made, are they? Couldn’t be…
Em pushes these thoughts away; her curiosity will have to wait for another day, because that question is too much to ask to Rod, especially when this… when this is supposed to be a grab at good times, the ones before fate’s strings matted and pulled, threading their paths further and further away. Emelaigne has gotten… okay at grinning and bearing it, the sense of not belonging here that weighs upon her, because this is what the cards she was dealt decided to give her.
She worries for Rod, hoping he’ll relax, he’ll breathe, and he’ll finally be okay with not hiding so much. He can talk if he needs to; Sebby’s given way to some things, but… but… Why is it that their hearts try to shut them off?
“You know, it’d be great if we could find another partner to play with, here… Sebby, you do wonderful, of course, of course, but yet another friend…” Her voice trails off. This princess truly wears her heart on her sleeve, doesn’t she? Genuine, gentle, kind, and concerned for others.
But, instead of letting it bog her down, she laughs, lightly, before quickly shuffling the deck and holding it out, “Now, pick a card! Any card will do!”
