70/joint

[lamb_of_gold]

[Somewhere on the Astral Plane, Mu appears, seated, and holding onto a table. Spread on the table is a game of Mahjong, which seems well underway. Sitting across from Mu is Shion, who seems a little surprised to have been dragged to the Plane like this. Aside from them, there are two places that look as though they were occupied not long ago by the denizens of their reality.  ANYWAYS, Mu holds a finger up to silence Shion before the latter starts talking, then looks down at his own tiles. In a matter of seconds, he's picked up a discarded tile from the top of the discard pile and slides it into place in his hand before revealing said hand to Shion with a smile.]

That makes five Melds. I've won.

[Shion looks flabbergasted, then livid and he stands and slams his hands down on the table, disrupting the tiles quite severely.]

One. More. Game. Five out of seven wins the match!

I'm afraid that was the fifth.

Fine! Seven of nine, then!

The lambs won't have the patience for two more games.

[Shion grumbles something long, unintelligible, and probably very rude under his breath before speaking up again.]

Then we will settle this another way! [Competitive ram is, after all, competitive. His cosmo flares up in challenge. ]

Even if we do, it will not change the fact that you've lost at Mahjong, and thus are responsible for the laundry this week.

[There's a stareoff for a few minutes, but Shion eventually relents and sits back down in a huff.]

Fine.

Comments

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

[Observing the game with interest]

Five games? You two must live entirely for pleasure.

[Is he joking? That's terribly difficult to tell.]

[ram-of-gold.livejournal.com]

[Shion, unfortunately, is not in any sort of joking mood]

We do not.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

[Sebastian remains undisturbed at this.] It is quite an awful lot of... Mahjong, was it? You must have such leisure time.

[ram-of-gold.livejournal.com]

A single day of leisure, during a war, while we wait to find out when we will face a god in battle. Don't speak of things you know nothing about.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

Ah, a war is on. It's very understandable why you're so irritable, then. I've known quite a few people during war and they're so often in more of a bad mood than they are during peacetime. Of course, quite a lot of them don't seem to have gotten over the War and that's quite worrying because I can't imagine how we're meant to help them. I was always too young for it. Why in Heaven's name are you fighting a God?

[ram-of-gold.livejournal.com]

We are fighting a god because it is our duty and because if we do not, Hades will kill everyone in the world.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

How awful. No wonder you're concerned.

[ram-of-gold.livejournal.com]

Concerned is a mild way of putting it. That is why we take the time we do have as leisure so seriously. For us it's just a waiting game until the last confrontation.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

Then you really ought to enjoy it more, oughtn't you? What sort of games do you like to play? We can play those instead.

[lamb_of_gold]

Hardly. They simply do not take too long to play.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

Really? I've never played it. Can you teach me? I'll introduce it to Nanny so she doesn't get bored of halma.

[lamb_of_gold]

Perhaps another time. We'd need four players, to begin, and I don't think Shion is in the mood for another game.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

[eagerly] I can talk him around and we can invite Charles! And then we'd have four of us. Is it a team game?

[lamb_of_gold]

Shion's mind changes about as often as a mountain's face. You're best to wait awhile for him to calm down.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

Does that mean we have to wait for erosion?

[lamb_of_gold]

An avalanche might work nicely. Simply give him some time.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

Can you at least tell me how it works while we wait for the weather to come in?

[lamb_of_gold]

To put it simply, we take turns drawing and discarding tiles to make melds, like the ones here.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

What do you have to do to make a meld? Aside from draw and discard.

[lamb_of_gold]

Simply that, though you must declare it, which may or may not set strategies against you. It has similarities to the card game Poker, I've been told.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

I've never played Poker. It's mostly an American game. I have heard some of Julia's continental friends talk about it, though.

[lamb_of_gold]

I think it places far too much emphasis on luck, though much like you, I've never played it myself.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

But this game is different. Do you bet at all? The whole of Poker seems to be devoted to losing your money.

[lamb_of_gold]

There are variations of Mahjong that place more emphasis on luck, just as there are variations that rely primarily on strategies. Betting is fairly common. For instance, Shion is now responsible for several chores.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

I think I'd rather have one that is to do with luck. I'm a terrible strategist. If it's about luck I'll have a chance of winning.

[lamb_of_gold]

I dislike leaving things completely to chance, but I'm sure there's some variation on rules that will accommodate us both.

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

And your friend?

[lamb_of_gold]

I think he prefers whatever methods bring him victory. [Mu's way of saying Ask Him Yourself.]

[fruitbrandy.livejournal.com]

How very pragmatic of him. And he still lost so many times. Pragmatism mustn't be as useful as it is said to be.

[polarization]

[ Hey, that looks interesting! ]

What game is that?

[lamb_of_gold]

Mahjong.

[polarization]

How do you play?

[lamb_of_gold]

Essentially, one takes turns drawing and discarding tiles to make melds of a certain suit, either with identical tiles or a sequence of three. The first to a full hand wins.

[polarization]

Huh. I've never heard of it. Do you play it a lot?

[lamb_of_gold]

Now and then, I suppose.

[polarization]

I guess I'll have to try sometime.

[lamb_of_gold]

When my companion here is in a better mood, perhaps I will sit to teach some of you.

[ram-of-gold.livejournal.com]

[Shion is not in the best of moods, but he does answer] Mahjong.

[polarization]

Do you not like it?

[ram-of-gold.livejournal.com]

I like the game, I'm just not overly fond of losing at it.

[polarization]

Oh, right, that makes sense.