1 [voice]

[foundafamily]

Hey, listen up. I’ve got an idea.

[Evidently a very important one, judging by how soberly he’s speaking.]

Obviously we need things to do in between gettin’ set on fire and havin’ our heads messed with. So I was gonna set up a card table in the bar—could be poker, faro, anything if we can get enough players for it. If people like it, we could make it a regular thing.

If you don’t know how to play, I’ll teach you. And if anybody knows any other games, I’d like to see ‘em.

Comments

[foundafamily]

Do you think I'd be settin' this up if I didn't? How about you?

[strangelic]

I've only just discovered how much. I didn't have time for games before. Or well, I suppose I had plenty of time, but it didn't interest me. Now I find them quite enjoyable.

[foundafamily]

That's good enough for me.

[Though it sounds like there's some kind of story behind it. He can't imagine what.]

What do you play?

[strangelic]

My friend just taught me how to play poker, which I very much enjoy. We play together most nights, now.

[foundafamily]

Great. That's always been one of our most popular ones back home, and I bet it will be here too. That means we could get a big game goin'.

So you're gonna come, right? You can bring your friend, too.

[strangelic]

I'll ask him. If he agrees, then we'll come.

[foundafamily]

Maybe I'll see you, in that case.

What's your name?

[strangelic]

Castiel. My friend's name is Dean Winchester. You may already know him., he's been here a little longer than I have.

[foundafamily]

Firo Prochainezo. Don’t know him either, but I’ll look forward to meetin’ you both.

You just get here?

[strangelic]

I arrived with the friendly little firebugs. It was quite sad for them, truly, but Dean introduced me to their lovelier friends.

[foundafamily]

"Friendly"? You've got a funny sense of humor. And the other ones were about as creepy.

[At least the flaming ones were honest in their destructiveness.]

[strangelic]

I don't find them creepy. They're soothing.

[ There's no past tense here. ]

[foundafamily]

That's what they want you to think. Everything here is made to mess with your head.

[strangelic]

Are you sure that's not paranoia speaking?

[foundafamily]

Are you callin' me paranoid?

[strangelic]

Everything here can't be out to get you. What would be the point?

[foundafamily]

The point? There doesn’t need to be a point. The guys runnin’ things have fun screwin’ with us, so they do it—that’s all there is to it.

[strangelic]

There needs to be a point. With pagan gods like these, there needs to be a pay off. Feeding from our emotions is an adequate one, but not all emotions are entirely unpleasant.

[ Just most of them. ]

[foundafamily]

So what’s your point? We should just put up with all of this?

[strangelic]

As prisons go, it isn't the worst that I can imagine.

[foundafamily]

Me neither, but it’s not the first place I’d choose to be.

[Now he’s curious, though. Is this guy coming from the same kind of place as Firo?]

…You were locked up?

[strangelic]

Personally, no, but I... There was a prison in my mind. [ His voice falters toward the end. ] It's not something I like to talk about.

[foundafamily]

In your mind?

[Immediately skeptical, perhaps unsympathetically so. Delicacy and tact are things he’s never learned, especially where strangers are concerned.]

I won’t ask questions if you don’t wanna talk about it, but that sounds nothing like a real prison.

[Is he a little offended? Yes, not that he really realizes it.]

[strangelic]

[ Castiel grimaces, for a moment. His voice is, as weak as it is, insistent nonetheless when he speaks again. ]

It was a real prison. A Cage. One where a friend of mine was trapped with two irate archangels, one of them being Lucifer himself.

I...took his memories of the place, of the prison, and the constant torture he endured therein.

[foundafamily]

Okay, what? You just took 'em?

[It sounds disturbingly similar to some things immortals can do. Could this guy be one? Despite what he just said about not asking, Firo wonders if he should try feeling that out.]