2025-12-26: A Duel of Detonating Cats
- Log: A Duel of Detonating Cats
- Cast: Niko Kirisaki, Jin Shirato
- Where: Strega Warehouse Hideout - Tatsumi Port Island
- OOC Date: December 26, 2025
- IC Date: August 31, 2012
- Summary: Niko introduces Jin to Detonating Cats, a card game all about making sure you don't explode. Though it's not quite Jin's cup of tea, and he tries to interest her in another game, Niko knows just how to get him fired up for this one. Who will come out on top? You won't believe the shocking conclusion...! (NOTE: no cats were harmed in the making of this scene)
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Strega isn't quite like your typical organisation. Normal organisations have planned, structured meetings in which some sort of itinerary is discussed, and concrete plans are made. Strega had the Joker Killer randomly building a scale model in the middle of a room and announcing future plans in front of anybody who happened to be around to hear, while Niko made a flippant remark that was taken entirely seriously by Takaya, and now there's SEES raid plans happening.
While Niko's exact words were 'go over there and mess up their dorms', even she can't be satisfied with just kicking the door down and see what happens. Takaya seemed interested in seeing what she can do, so now she's treating this as a test of sorts to put in a good showing. She's done a little scouting to that end, but as for concrete plans... if she has any, she has yet to share.
But forget all that, more importantly, Sudou gave Niko a copy of the game Detonating Cats, and she needs a moment to unwind. It's obvious who she was going to rope into that, Jin loves things that explode, surely he'll enjoy it. Or at least realize Niko is going to keep nagging him until he gives it a shot. It's a short, simple game, won't take any time at all, so she claimed.
"So, if you draw a Detonating Cat, you explode, obviously. All the other cards are ways to try and avoid exploding. Any questions?"
All Niko did was shuffle the cards, set the deck down on the table between them, and that was whole explanation. Simple enough, right? Jin's smart, he'll figure it out.
<Pose Tracker> Jin Shirato has posed.
"Tch." Jin lets out a derisive snort at this explanation. Normally, he wouldn't be caught dead playing a game like this, but Niko saved his ass in the last battle and Jin didn't like owing anyone anything.
Besides, it was just a children's card game. It was a much cheaper payment than most people would ask.
"Got it," he says. "So if I draw the Detonating Cat, there's no way to get rid of it before it explodes?" Jin always has to have a backup plan for his explosives. Sometimes things don't always go as planned. Not that Jin would ever admit to anyone that sometimes his plans didn't work out.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
"Of course there is!" is Niko's bright response, already looking like she's having as great time before they even started. "Look under your seat."
For whatever reason, Niko snuck a card under Jin's chair beforehand. It says 'Deactivate', and has a picture of a wide-eyed black cat laying on its side with a switch set to 'off' on its back.
"As long as you have one of these," she says, flashing the single card she was hiding under her hand, "You can survive a Detonating Cat, and sneakily put it back into the deck, wherever you want it to go. Unless you draw more, that's your only chance."
She picks up the deck, and starts to deal cards, seven to each of them. They all have weird-looking animals on them and explain you can use them to do things like shuffle the deck, look at the top three cards of the deck, skip drawing a card, force the next player to draw two cards, or cancel a card another player just played. It's all very clear... except for the cards that just don't say what they do at all.
"That's it really. You play however many cards you want, or none at all, and then you draw a card. As long as you don't draw this one," She shows a card with a picture of a cat sitting down on a plunger attached to dynamite, "You're safe, and the next player goes." She moves to shuffle that card into the deck, one assumes that means that's the only one in there. "Simple, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Jin Shirato has posed.
"Right," Jin says, flat-toned. Whatever. He'll just figure it out as the game goes on. He just wishes that Niko asked to play Innocent Sin Online instead. That kinda game he knew backwards and forwards and up and down. There was no way anyone was going to outdo him in that game. (Unlike this one.)
But Niko didn't seem to know anything about Innocent Sin Online. There was no reason for her to ask to play it. And while Jin wasn't counting on getting his ass beat again, he was at least smart enough to know that even the best-laid plans sometimes go off-script. So maybe it would be a good idea to plant this seed now in case he was summoned to play another game in return for an ass-saving.
Jin looks at the cards in his hand, shifting them slightly as he reads the text on them. "This game seems really fun," he says in a voice that does not inspire any confidence, "but you know what game's really good? Innocent Sin Online."
His eyes flicker up from the cards in front of him. "If you want, I can show you how to play sometime."
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
"I thought you'd like it," Niko responds while arranging the cards in her hand, apparently guileless about the sarcasm. She tilts her head when Jin brings up a different game. "Hm? ISO, the MMO?" Niko does know her gaming, though she certainly never mentioned that one. Perhaps her next words explain why. "Not really my jam, that sorta thing. The fights are like, you just stand there while you press the occasional button until you win, right?"
Niko indicates the deck on the table with her free hand. "Now THIS. This one's all about the mind games. You like mind games, don't you? Think you can outsmart me?"
The mind games have already started, because this is Niko trying to appeal to Jin's competitive spirit. If he's so smart, beating Niko in a battle of wits should be easy, right? He's gonna need to prove that, now.
With a grin, Niko declares, "I'll go first," playing a card to look at the top three cards of the deck. She sure takes her time peeking, exaggeratedly bent over the deck to shield them from Jin's view, before she sits back, calmly draws a card, and declares, "Your turn~"
<Pose Tracker> Jin Shirato has posed.
Jin grits his teeth. "It's a lot more complicated than that! If you're a n00b playing in a low-level zone, yeah, maybe you can hit the same button over and over again and be fine. But the higher you level up, the more complex the strategy and the harder the bosses. Plus you have PvP you need to worry about."
With a huff, Jin promptly pulls a card from the deck and tucks it into his hand. "There. Don't think you can beat me that easily!"
All Jin did was pull his first card of the game, but he's already acting as though he made a major tactical play.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
"Ah, geez, you can't opt out of PvP? Well that's really selling it," Niko replies with an overexaggerated sigh. "Nothing like trying to get a quest done when some asshole who's got twenty levels on you decides it'd be funny to one-hit kill you. I dunno about you, but I play games to have fun, not to be bullied."
She pauses in mid-draw, narrowing her eyes at Jin. "Jin. Are you bullying people in ISO? Tell me the truth." Some might consider this an unfitting topic of contention between people who literally take money to bully people. But games are different. You'd have to be some kind of non-gamer not to understand that.
There's no escaping Niko's gaze while she slowly draws that card. She peeked at it earlier, she doesn't need to look at it to know what it is. "...I like to know the people I play with. Whether it's with them or against them, it's gonna feel empty when it's just randos. That's why I wanted to play with you."
<Pose Tracker> Jin Shirato has posed.
"Just the people who deserve it," Jin says defensively. How can he help it that there just happens to be a lot of people on the game that also happen to deserve it.
"There's no-PVP zones, anyway, but if we play together, I'll protect you from the others anyway." Jin would. He directs his attention back to Niko's slow-mo drawing of the card. "You gonna pull that card, already?!"
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Well, if Jin thinks he can be stubborn about this, two can play at that game. Niko draws the card lightning-quick when prompted to by Jin, and proceeds to turn the competition in a different direction, with seven simple words.
"Just try to keep up with me."
That dare to take turns as quickly as possible is the signal for the quickest game of Detonating Cats ever, where the contest becomes to play and draw cards as fast as possible. Niko at some point just stops playing cards entirely, growing her hand to the point she can't hold them anymore and just puts them face down on the table after glancing at them. Whoever decided this game doesn't have a hand limit clearly wasn't counting on this turn of events. And so, in no time at all...
The deck only has two cards left in it. Against all odds, that one Detonating Cat card in there just never showed up. So it has to be one of the last two cards in there. All cards that let you look at them have already been played. And it's Jin's turn.
"Hang on," Niko interrupts at that point, blocking what's left of the cards with her hand. "You shouldn't draw right now. Think about this one. I know we each drew the same amount of Deactivate cards, and I know you have more Cancel cards than me. All you have to do is play a card to skip your turn and make me draw two to make it a guaranteed win."
She sits back, waiting for Jin to recover from the undoubtedly wild reveal that Niko is not only capable of counting cards, but capable of doing it that quickly, before questioning with a neutral expression, "Now that you know that, you'll obviously take the safe option, right? It's an easy choice. All you have to do to save yourself is... kill me."
She was NOT kidding about the mind games.
<Pose Tracker> Jin Shirato has posed.
"What the hell," Jin says in reply, shaking his head. "No, no way. Don't think I'm going to just take the easy way out just because it's there."
Jin raises his head, his eyes fluttering up so that his gaze meets her own. There's a strangely intense gleam in his eyes. The light outside the nearby window shifts. A harsh glare races across the lenses of Jin's glasses. When the glare fades, the lens of his glasses are as dark as his expression.
Jin's fingertips touch the edge of the top-most card. They sit there for a moment, as if Jin is contemplating his next move. He slides the card slightly towards him, then stops, leaving half of the card beneath it exposed.
Is he having second thoughts?
"We draw together," he says, his voice gravelly.
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Niko's expression doesn't betray a thing, as she watches Jin's reaction, studying him as she she could see the very thoughts running through his head. The kneejerk reaction being to reject the easy option isn't too surprising, it was one of only two presented options. But when he says 'we draw together', her mask breaks, eyes widening. That's not how the game works. You're supposed to take turns. So... if he doesn't like either option, he'd rather break the rules and find a new one?
Niko chuckles, then starts to laugh, but she reigns it in before it gets too out of control. "...Alright. If that's your choice. Then, this one's mine."
She slides the card underneath Jin's toward herself, then meets his eyes, a grin on her face. "On three. One, two..." Three; the cards are flipped over, and...
Neither one is the Detonating Cat??
"Heh."
Niko's hand moves back to one of the cards in the pile on her side of the table, revealing she'd been holding the Detonating Cat card this whole time. "Second card I drew," she explains, which is extra wild because she'd seen beforehand what that one was going to be, and didn't do anything about it.
"Rules didn't say you had to reveal the Detonating Cat if you drew it. I decided I'd rather not blow you up, so I just silently Deactivated it in my hand, and called it good."
Jin's not the only one who'd break the rules when it suits him.
<Pose Tracker> Jin Shirato has posed.
Jin's mouth drops slightly, but as soon as he's aware of it, he snaps it shut.
"You could have won! Why didn't you do it?" An uncharitable explanation comes to mind and Jin doesn't like what his mind conjured. "Did you feel sorry for me? Because it was my first game?!"
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Niko rubs the back of her head, looking embarrassed. "Nah, nah, it's not like that, I just, I felt bad for the kitties. They're cute, I don't want the kitties to explode." That's not a lie, it's just also not the whole truth.
She shrugs, going on to explain, "If you wanna know, I was planning to make the next game a wager, but, I changed my mind. Instead, I'm just gonna ask you straight up." Placing her hands in front of her on the table, she asks one simple question: "How do you feel about playing decoy for me?"
<Pose Tracker> Jin Shirato has posed.
Yeah, of course Niko wouldn't want to hurt the cats. Jin is visibly mollified by this explanation.
"Decoy?" Jin sits back in his chair and folds his arms over his chest. "What do you need a decoy for?"
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
"Weeeell..." Niko sits back as well, scratching her cheek. This whole situation's still weird whenever she thinks about it. "D'you hear about the attack that's in the works? We're gonna hit SEES, right at their dorm. And I'm... kinda-sorta in charge of that?" If she sounds confused, that's because even she's not sure to what degree the decisions fall to her.
She shakes her head, "It's just, I want to make this a good showing, you know? Put some kind of a plan together for it, since, well... It's the first time Takaya-sama seemed to have... expectations of me." Even if she mostly does her own thing, Niko does respectfully defer to Takaya, and doesn't want to disappoint him. All he had to do was show a positive reaction to her words for her to take this much more seriously than she otherwise would have.
"So, yeah!" she concludes, far too cheerfully, "I think I'm gonna need SEES's attention to be drawn elsewhere so I can get the drop on 'em! You could make some noise to make 'em come running, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Jin Shirato has posed.
"So all I need to do is blow some shit up, right?" Jin cocks his head up, a smile growing on his face. "I can handle that. You tell me where to be and I'll draw them there. But..."
But. Jin leans forward in his chair.
"...before I agree, you'll have to tell me why you want me to distract 'em."
<Pose Tracker> Niko Kirisaki has posed.
Niko lets out a giggle at the predictable reaction to getting to blow shit up. "Thought you'd like the idea of that." And if he wants to know why... Niko wags a finger. "Wow, that curious huh? Can't wait, need spoilers?"
She crosses her arms, making a show of acting as if she's thinking hard. Even though she'd already decided on the conclusion. "Well, alright, just 'cause it's you!" She motions to him to lean in even further. Because she's going to whisper it in his ear. Even though there's absolutely no one else in the whole building right now. Niko does things the way Niko wants to... and if all goes according to plan, SEES is going to get a taste of what that's like.