Cassius glanced over at Asher. He had been doing this for several minutes now, hands clutching the deck of cards. He was a good boy and had been given the deck by one of the scientists. Keep his mind active they said.
He shifted a little, looking at the cards, then back over at his cellmate, “Asher. Asher. Asher. Asher. Hi. Asher. Hey. Asher.” Beaming, he thrust the cards out in front of him, “Asher, can we play Go Fish? I like Go Fish. Can we? Please?”
Asher had been pointedly ignoring his cellmate, flopped on his belly in bed with a pillow pulled over his head in an effort to shut the kid out. It had never worked before, but it didn't mean he wouldn't still try. Maybe one day the idiot would take a hint, or maybe he'd manage to fall into a sleep deep enough to block out whatever word vomit spewed out of his mouth today--
Fuck. Too late.
He hunched his shoulders and pulled the pillow down tighter, clenching his eyes shut, but the pillow was thin and hardly muffled anything. Ignore him, ignore him, ignore him, he has to stop eventually, ignore, ignore, ig--
"OH FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" Asher shot bolt upright and threw the pillow to the floor--exercising a little self control and not bashing Cassius with it instead. "Do you EVER shut UP?!"
The boy’s bright yellow eyes, an unnatural color that hinted he had something less then human a few generations back, widened in shock and surprise. He clutched the deck to his chest like some sad teddy bear, “Why would I shut up? I can’t ask you to play with me if I’m quiet.”
It was rather impressive, watching the boy’s broken mind wipe away any trace of bad, the hurt surprise already replaced by a bright smile. He liked Asher, despite his cellmates best efforts to discourage this, “Can we play a game? I got some cards and I wanted to play with you!”
His attention shifted to the pillow Asher had hurled, “Or…..oh. We’re we playing hide and seek?” His expression became one of upset horror, “I’m sorry! I didn’t realize I was it! We can play that instead…but there really isn’t anywhere to hide in here.” He wasn’t sure if he should tell Asher that sticking his head under the pillow didn’t hide him very well.
"No, I--rrgh." Asher swiped a hand over his face and took a second to collect himself. It was impressive watching the kid's mind reset back to its last save point. Impressive and aggravating. "I wasn't playing hide and seek. I was trying to sleep and--look..." He sighed, eyes drifting to the cards. Well, he was already up, the kid obviously didn't plan on leaving him alone, and what else was there to do? Mope until their next exercise break?
He sighed again, conceding defeat. It was either that or the kid would keep on resetting back to the beginning. "Maybe one card game."
A huge, 1000 watt smile spread over Cassius’s face and he jumped up excitedly, “Yay! Okay! Go Fish? Can we play Go Fish? I like that game!” Plopping down on the bed next to Asher, Cassius’s smile only got wider, showing his impressive set of perfect white teeth, “But we don’t have to play that. I’m pretty good at poker too.”
He paused then, mind slipping back to the last time he had played. That had been at the ATC, with some other candidates. Before is power had grown to much for him to handle. The smile faltered for a second, before he just reset back to the good place, “Um, I also like Slapjack. That’s a fun one too. It’s too bad we don’t have more people.”
"Just...Go Fish. That's fine," Asher said, giving Cassius a sidelong look when he sat next to him. He hadn't invited him onto his bed, and his bed was his space, but he knew it would be fighting a losing battle. He could tolerate it for now. Patience, Asher.
"Besides, I don't know how to play Slapjack," he added with a shrug and scooted over a bit, putting some comfortable distance between their bodies. "I don't really know many card games."
“I only know a few. But there aren’t a lot for just two people.” Cassius took Asher scooting over as an invitation to move further onto the bed, making himself comfortable, “But it’s better then solitaire. I’m a little bored of that one.”
Dealing out the cards, Cassius studied his hand, looking to see what he had. Hmmm. Strange, bright eyes watched Asher over the top of his cards. This was nice, spending time with his best friend. And for once Asher wasn’t yelling at him, which was really nice, “Do you have any….fours?”
This was pathetic and Asher felt pathetic, stuck here playing Go Fish with a broken kid. Sure beat getting stuck with needles, though he'd admit there were times he felt like he'd take those over the sound of Cassius' voice. He scooted over a little more, frowning at the boy. That wasn't an invitation, but he knew how to pick his battles.
He arched an eyebrow and plucked two cards from his hand, flicking them over to Cassius. "Lucky guess." Damn, way to start out, Asher. He was not going to lose to a deranged kid. That would just be demoralizing.
“Yay!” Cassius collected the cards and combined them with the two in his hand. He set the set out, looking quite proud of himself, practically radiating a sickening, desperate cheer.
He screwed up his face, concentrating. Unlike most of the subjects here, Cassius never actually minded being experimented on. He liked being helpful and the scientists tended to be gentle with him, or as gentle as they could be. Currently they were trying something with his brain. He didn’t really know what, but sometimes he got headaches and nosebleeds, which he was supposed to record in a small notebook they had given him.
“Well…how about 8’s then. Do you have any 8’s? Hey, what do you think we’ll have for lunch?” Cassius didn’t like the silence, it frightened him. It was too much like the null place inside him. But Asher didn’t seem to talk much, so Cassius had to fill the void.
