damned_institute | Day 38: Game Room

She’d never been in the Game Room before.

It didn’t look spectacularly interesting, she had to admit… but it’d be more fun than just hanging out in the Sun Room, right? Yuffie idly thumbed through a deck of cards, walking around the room to examine various bits and pieces. Board games, video games, chess… No really awesome prank material that she could see, but maybe she could rope somebody into a game of poker? That could be fun, but… ah, then again, most of the patients were just like her -- they didn’t have anything really cool that she could swindle out of them. Not until Nightshift, anyway.

Still! She’d keep it in mind. It wasn’t like there was anybody else in the room yet anyway, so any potential swindling would have to wait a little while. What could she do in the meantime, huh? Pick- pocketing a nurse could be fun..! Wait -- no, not when it was quiet like this. She’d have to wait until there was more cover, unless she got distracted. Yuffie hadn’t stolen anything in days, not since that time in Doyleton, with the Kaito kid…

Yuffie smirked. That had been fun.

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Of course Stefan would have to sit down and say one of the last things Marcus wanted to hear. On one hand, it was very reasonable. People vanished here all the time, but Marcus frowned at Stefan.

Marcus didn't think Stefan would kill her out of spite, he had to know that having more heroes around increased his chance of escape. Stefan was too pragmatic to just kill her because Marcus had threatened him if anything happened to her. But something had happened to her, and Marcus didn't know what.

After he finished setting up the pieces and made his first move, Marcus spoke. "I haven't seen her all day." His anger at the fact that she was missing was apparent. Marcus couldn't decide if it should be aimed at Stefan or not, though.

If he did hold Stefan responsible for this and it turned out he wasn't behind it, Marcus would have made a serious mistake. But if Stefan was behind this and Marcus did nothing, Stefan would likely do it again.

"I know you're thinking that I did it. I didn't. It would have been stupid to do so." Recluse immediately selected a piece and made his move, acting as if he hadn't even thought about the choice.

"I don't want to kill the people that can help me here. Just the people in charge." After he got what he wanted from them, preferably, but it would be incredibly satisfying to see Landel dead.

"You're a killer, Stefan. You kill your own men, and sometimes for very insignificant reasons," Marcus payed attention to whatever intelligence came out of the Rogue Isles. Stefan's habit of decapitation was very well known, though not many people had the guts to talk about it.

Stefan could have done it, Kimberly wouldn't have been expecting it. It would be very easy for Stefan to get away with murder here. Marcus glanced down at the board and made his next move.

"You're outnumbered. You could be thinning the ranks of the heroes here. Even if we are working together right now."

"I'm not a raging psychotic. I'd rather keep my priorities in order, the most overruling of these being the necessity of escape." He moved a piece, still hardly glancing at the board.

"And if I had decided to do such a thing, why at such a conspicuous time? It would do me no good in the long term." And Marcus should know how good he was at playing a long game...

"Because you have such a good excuse, and to see if I would follow through if you did take her out," Marcus replied, moving his piece with about as much obvious attention as Stefan was giving the game.

"I have been asking a lot of you. If I recall correctly," which he did, "you betrayed me the first time because you thought I was just using you." The fountain had warped Stefan's view of the world beyond recognition.

"You went from being my best friend and the person I trusted the most in the world to the man that killed my brother and the man that raised us both. You'll forgive me if I don't quite believe that you aren't psychotic." This was something they'd never had the chance to sit down and talk about. Usually Stefan was too busy trying to kill Marcus, or someone he knew, though their mid-battle arguments and banter usually went in this direction if the fight lasted long enough.

It was harder now, though, because he looked more like Stefan than Lord Recluse.

Recluse sighed, running a hand through his hair rather than making some other, more aggressive sign of displeasure. "I know you well enough to know that such a thing would never work." Another piece was moved.

"I'd cared for you for years with no thought for my own needs and not asking for any help with my own problems." He wasn't going to answer what Marcus said about those who used to be family. He wanted to keep the argument on his own terms.

"And then you ran off as soon as I was better. You didn't need to take care of me anymore, you could have stayed. But Tartaros changed you." Marcus moved another piece, glancing down at the board only briefly afterward.

There was the possibility that Kimberly would show up, alive and uninjured, so Marcus was willing to wait a short time. It wasn't unheard of for patients to go missing for a day or two based on what he'd heard and read. "I would have helped you with your problems if you had asked."

This was the side of the conversation that was really impossible to have while they were fighting.

Recluse sighed again, apparently with just a tinge of regret. "It did change me. But all that would have changed if I came back would have been you would have found out about what had happened to me before you spent years in Paris." During which time Marcus had done nothing of any value. Recluse found that especially pathetic.

He moved a piece, keeping several plans going at once. As he always did.

Stefan had a valid point, but Marcus still thought events would have turned out better than they had. "Can you honestly say that's the only thing you think would have been different?"

Marcus looked down and made his move, giving the board a little more of his attention now.

"Yes. I was going to snap anyway, even without the change. You just never realized it." Recluse kept his focus on Marcus, but twas in truth putting a lot of thought into his next move. He wasn't going to let Marcus win here, either.

Marcus shook his head. This argument wasn't going to go anywhere and he knew it.

He would give Kimberly a chance to show up today or tomorrow before he decided on what do to with Stefan. It wouldn't end well if he had to call off the truce with Stefan, though it was likely that even in that case they wouldn't spend all their time fighting one another. They both wanted to get out too much to do that.

Still, Marcus wanted to keep an eye on Stefan. Marcus moved his piece on the chess board.

Recluse took the silence as a minor victory. If Marcus gave up on an argument and didn't try to get the last word, then it was a victory. He made his next move, now completely focusing on the game.

Day 38: Game Room

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