Who ⬤ Leshy and various...
What ⬤ Playing dangerous games, winning painful prizes.
When ⬤ At various points through August, all Post-Tanabata.
Where ⬤ Leshy's horrible zones of influence.
Content Warnings ⬤ Intense violence, bodily dismemberment, coerced self harm.
Individual Prompts in comments!
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
[It's a good game. Well balanced for challenge while being breakable in ways that are undoubtedly fun to explore and exploit. Leshy's game is not that of raw mechanics. The flavor, the intrigue, is key to it's execution.]
I inscrybed these cards. My legendary camera can capture any beast and bind it to my deck. You'll see in time the power they hold. [A new line of cards appears on his side.]
You may now see my next play. This is to give you time to react and time to fear. [a wolf appears on his side, set up to fall in place beside the Coyote next turn.]
You used a Squirrel to block damage, but now you have nothing to sacrifice. Draw another. [Matoba has a deck of squirrels on his side, but only his two cards in hand that do damage. The Stoat and the Wolf. One blood is denoted on the former, two on the latter. The Cost. He can win if he thinks through the following moves. Draw and play the squirrel, sacrifice it for the Stoat, kill the Coyote... but take the damage of the incoming Wolf from Leshy's side. Three damage, leaving him two away from a loss.
Or, if he misreads this game, giving his own blood might work. Leshy will find that curious. He's not actually used to playing with players able to work outside the boundaries of his code.]
no subject
...I hazard that you're right.
[The beast could defend his little game all he liked; what Matoba liked were all the trappings of it. The talking, the mindgames, the danger that was beneath his feet, waiting to snap. And the danger that the beast was in, without knowing it.]
[A camera that binds souls- definitely not the first he's heard of such a thing, but it does give a glimpse into his familiarity with the creations of man. Using paper to bind a soul was also hardly new to him. Paper, hm...]
[He might be necessary, after all. What a pain.]
Fear. [Matoba repeats it incredulously, but watches Leshy's movements. It's a perfectly understandable concept. If a pawn dies and the danger remains, you need another to use in its stead. Matoba draws the Squirrel, places it down. He glances at the symbols that mark the cards.]
[Sacrifice was a broad term, but the iconography made it fairly clear. Glancing up, he raises an eyebrow towards Leshy across the table, and keeps his fingertips poised on his cards as he deliberates his move.]
Explain more clearly, if you wish for me to understand. When you say "sacrifice", to what end? What constitutes an acceptable sacrifice?
no subject
[he taps his Coyote card, which has a blank space beneath the image of the animal.]
Sigils will be shown here. These cards have none. That is for later.
[Another moment of consideration, before a knife materializes on Matoba's side of the board. It's a short, carving blade. Sharp, but jagged and overused, rusted at the hilt some.
Have you had your tetanus shot, Matoba-?]Though... You, too, can bleed. I'll give you another option. [Leshy thinks the game might be a bit more interesting with a new twist... Something he could not do in the world of the DISC. Here, where his opponent is so much flesh and blood, the cost can be paid in other ways.]
If you wish to pay the blood cost yourself, then slice your palm open and soak the card you wish to play. It must be a deep cut, or the beast will not be fed... and a beast that is not fed will not fight for you.
no subject
[His head turns at the glint of a blade, old and worn, sunk into the side of the table. It was the sort of blade that suited an old thing like Leshy.]
[The corner of his mouth turns up.] How fortunate I thought to bring a cleaner option. [Laying his cards down neatly on the table, he reaches into the sleeve of his kimono and draws out a tanto- its blade design by contrast to the knife was straight and gleamed with fresh steel, its black lacquer handle made not for utilitarianism but for single-cut execution. That impression was interrupted by the addition of two spelltags, one over the hilt, and one over the blade. It wasn't intended for cutting mortal things, but it would do the trick nonetheless.]
[Placing the sheath on the table, he closes his hand over the blade and slides his hand along it with no hesitation, clenching his fist over the Wolf card and letting blood drip in a strain.]
Have you heard the whispers of your fellow monsters? They say that the Matoba do not honor their contracts. If I win, shall I let you live to tell them otherwise? [He turns the blade of his tantou down and sinks it into the table, on his own side in front of Leshy's knife.] You can use that one. Let's not be unhygienic.
[He's not done. He places the Squirrel down, too, and then sacrifices it for the Stoat to stand before the Coyote. Finally, with his hand still wet with blood, he taps the bell.]
Is that why you are so interested in it? Because it is hungry.
no subject
Because you are learning, I will pass. [The Wolf that was already placed on the board moves forward. It devours the Stoat, but does no damage to Matoba. Another block. With the Wolves on each side set apart from another another in separate lanes, it would be a stalemate if Matoba doesn't block the incoming attacks. Fortunately, he can do so freely if he keeps drawing squirrels and playing them for Leshy's Wolf to devour. It's an easy win for him, if he persists for a couple rounds of the same pattern, Leshy not adding more to his side.
This is only the first round, after all. He gives Matoba the win and in place of the cards, which dissolve from the table, a map appears. A little, carved wooden character sits on Matoba's side. It has an eyepatch painted on in black. Leshy likes his details.]
All living beasts feel hunger, that is not special. It's perpetual existence, so long as it has your kind to hunt, is what draws my attention. I should like such power, it reminds me of my favorite card.
[his hand moves forward across the table and opens, a card manifesting with in it. It is a snake eating it's own tail. A (1) health and (1) damage card for (2) Blood Cost.
Worse, at a glance, than the common Stoat. Mysterious, for that reason. Perhaps, just bait to make Matoba bleed himself further.]
It gains in power upon every death. Will you use it? [The Ouroboros]