Legerdemain [OPEN]

[debauchewy]

WHO: Hisoka and OPEN
WHERE: Government Holding Facility
WHEN: December 1st - December 31st
WHAT: Visitors and fellow inmates chatting it up.
WARNINGS: None yet.

It's been an incredibly long time in this holding cell, in this- prison. Only three months and Hisoka can't handle being still for more than a few moments and his sleeping periods have shrunk smaller and smaller to naps of about two hours when they do happen. Even so- he's made to sleep, or well- lay there, in the dark, and those moments are the worst. He gets by by reading network conversations. Sometimes under blankets when hall patrols are happening, and he's only gotten caught once to which he lied himself out of and just said he checked the time upon waking up.

But for the most part- he's going a little mad. Especially now with Shade gone.

His cell neighbor, speaking to him was really what was getting him through the days, not that he'd admit it to himself. Hisoka was all for waiting but- being able to do things he wanted in the mean time helped. Years upon years he'd wait but only because he could best busy himself with other people and activities. Here it's just-

Jewelry, eating, "sleeping", wandering, re ha bilitation. And it's doing him in. Maybe that's why he- was starting to like Shade despite seeing none of his abilities or strengths. They spoke often in there, and the more they did, the more Hisoka was around someone generally just- enjoying speaking to him back and forth? It made it easier to stay cam and wait.

And then Shade left.

And now- if he doesn't busy himself he might accidentally snap a guards neck without- thinking about it. The bloodlust is there. He feels it in those long nights, waiting in the dark, his hands idle, knuckles white from how tight he keeps clenching them. He knows- he'd feel better if he could just- touch someone. Feel their blood beat under his fingers, their hot flesh against his, if he could just see a reaction in their face from his hands and a moment of taking everything from them. It- it wouldn't be nearly as good as a fight, or sex- but it'd make him feel less meaningless rotting away in here.

But he can't do that.

So instead.

Should a visitor come at any time throughout the month, or another inmate wander by- they will find Hisoka sitting amidst cards. Beginning of the month it won't be so impressive, but near a week into the month, and further on the castle of cards just- continues to grow and grow around him in his room. He supposes- he feels better doing it. Not that he's thinking while stacking. Infact, he's not thinking at all the entire time. Because thinking involves missing people, and needing things. Thinking involves wondering where Chrollo has been and why he hasn't visited despite saying he would do so. The same goes for Gon and his where abouts. Wondering about Jaime and what he's been up to and finding the thought mildly arousing only to once again work himself up and have no means of letting off the steam. And let's not even get started on that- Lunatic fellow he's been hearing so much about. So- no thoughts, no thinking, just cards.

So much of rehabilitation.

Comments

[debauchewy]

That would just make it weird, or make Hisoka purposely make it weird himself, yes. Smart move, Killua.

He doesn't say anything, not at first. Though there's this odd hollow feeling he's not quiet used to watching Killua start to walk away. It doesn't occur to him to look at him as he has before with some sort of passing hunger. To look at him like a toy, or prey, or something he's only waiting to pluck apart. Infact, the only thing that crosses his mind is that he'd prefer if he- didn't leave.

For some reason.

The lack of physical contact and social interactions is to blame he imagines, were he to dwell on it. But a conversations with Killua- someone he knows, made him not only feel more stable but also slightly homesick in a way he finds utterly uncomfortable. This place is making him insane. Taking his freedom away is doing something to him. But he doesn't know what and he it makes him sick how Killua's walking away, he has no attachments to this child and doesn't plan to have any besides the playful not!friendship, not!alliance they have brooding. But still he's really all he has to latch onto considering their world right now. All he has that's at all close to security in the known world he's familiar with.

In this place.

This world.

Where nothing makes sense and he's no longer a prepared and used to it. No longer experienced with it enough to be confident in everything he does. Being here and not getting away with something he so easily could before has shaken him. Feeling defeated isn't- something he is used to. Knowing he'll always be caught doing what he wants, what he feels he needs to do.

And how Killua leaves makes him sick.

For a moment he sits up a little as if to say something more, only to feel his shoulders weigh back down, and he sits back again.

[gonstop]

He thinks he notices Hisoka moving behind him, and so he turns to check, hands still shoved into his pockets. What he sees isn't what he was expecting at all. An expression like that... Killua can't help but react with one of his own. Sympathetic and shocked.

Hisoka... Hisoka wasn't supposed to be this human. He's spent months in jail now, and he seemed to lose it more each day. Killua had been noticing that as well, and it make him uncomfortable. Of course it did. But this?

He should walk away. Hisoka has only been an ally when it was convenient, right?

But Killua has changed a lot as well, since first meeting Gon, and since first running into Hisoka. He really knows nothing about Hisoka's life, so maybe there was more there that explained a lot of what he acted like. And he, himself, could have ended up the same way, couldn't he?

When he thinks that, he turns the rest of the way around, blinking that earlier expression away. It wouldn't do any good. It might just be awkward for the both of them. So instead, he looks nonchalant and curious, stepping back towards Hisoka. He can't even bring himself to look at him, picking a spot on the ceiling to view instead.

"Ah, actually... You have cards in there, right? Do you play any games?"

[debauchewy]

You in ten years had you not come across Gon maybe. You had you not learned friendship perhaps. You if you continued to deviate from your family and only ever did anything for yourself. It's unlikely you would've ended up like Illumi considering what lengths you've gone to get away from your family and what they've done. But then you'd only be someone living for himself, right? Someone only interested in their own competence and how much stronger they were than others. Someone- very much like the man you see sitting back there in that cell.

Hisoka sees nothing of himself in Killua though. In Gon, in anyone really. Sometimes- like with Kimblee, he'll see attributes that are the same, but normally- he keeps himself so distant from others. It's just better that way. Not exactly easier, that'd lead to imply making friends was difficult or worthwhile enough to work for. No- just better. Because making friends or forming true bonds is just weakness, silly. People are better as play things, toys that can be discarded when he's lost interest.

And still he sits there, and stares, and hates seeing someone leave. He'd rather have broken toys, or useless toys, or just- a single toy, than be completely alone as he's been. The network is nothing compared to a real face, to actually being close to someone. He might want to rip out someone's throat but- it'd be nice just feeling that heat in his hand at all..

When Killua looks back he doesn't think to change his expression at all, doesn't move. Just stares back like some beast in a cage, knowing it has no real say to anything anymore. No matter how it might roar or claws at it's bars. Just sits, and stares.

Till his eyes slim and he- can't really think of a reason why Killua's coming back, or why he's being asked this. So he just answers.

"No, I don't have any cards in here." A small smile, though- completely genuine. He smiles and then smiling feels sort of nice in this moment, so he smiles a little more.

[gonstop]

"Eh?? Really?"

Focused only on this, now, Killua tries not to think of the implications of anything he's doing. After everything Hisoka has done, it's odd to feel so sympathetic. It's even weirder to feel an obligation to do something about it. But he does, and so he will. Little by little. He doubts it'll do much, but how could he walk away?

Moving to sit down on the floor, he pulls out his phone. "I thought you'd have some with how you pull them out of nowhere all the time... But that's fine. This might be easier through a jail cell. Take out your phone. Uh, communicator-- whatever."

[debauchewy]

Oh the sarcasm's thick, isn't it.

Killua sitting makes him stare for a moment before- sitting up himself. He goes as far to direct himself over and around cards to- sit on the other side of that thick glass, right infront of him. His legs cross under him, hands resting in his lap.

Also the joke is he is surrounded in cards Killua. Did you get that. They are literally everywhere.

But whatever.

"I don't have it in here."

[gonstop]

Look, even Killua wouldn't ask Hisoka to tear down those masterpieces for a dumb card game. Killua looks confused at that comment, though.

"Huh-- do you have to go to a certain place to use it? You're always on the network, I assumed you had it all the time!"

[debauchewy]

How kind.

He taps at his temple.

"Haven't you tried using you tattoo yet?"

[gonstop]

Oh, right. That had sounded so odd at the time that Killua had dismissed it and never looked into it any further. He frowns, his palms resting on the floor between his crossed legs.

"No. That sounds seriously creepy. Why would I want someone talking in my head?"

[debauchewy]

"Sometimes it's nice to hear people talking in your head." You know, when you feel lonely and your world is empty and boring.

Shrug.

"I will be give back my communicator as soon as I leave."

[gonstop]

He looks a little perplexed by that, but it only lasts a few seconds before he's standing up and clicking his tongue. "Geez, you're so annoying! I won't make you take down those castles, so just stay there for a second!"

This annoyance is so over the top that it's clear he's hiding something with it. It's a little similar to how he acts with Gon. Raising a hand, he waves off Hisoka, stepping away. "I'll be right back!"

He's going to go buy some cards and other things himself.

[debauchewy]

It was meant as more of a joke than anything, chill out, Killua.

His gaze follows him, staying out, a kind of emotionless expression on as he watches. Sassy today, aren't we? Though he's still not sure why Killua came back at all. Was he trying to keep in good faith with him and deciding spending more time around him would help that? Most- likely.

"All right." Be right back then, or not. He'll be exactly where he was before if and when you show up again Killua. Sitting with a knee up, his eyes closed.

[gonstop]

It's only a couple of minutes that Killua is gone. He's fast, and he just grabs whatever card deck he sees on the first shelf of a convenience store. A long with a few back up things, but they were all within reach.

So with that, he comes back, passes through security and is escorted again to Hisoka's cell. When he approaches again, it's unusually casual how he sits and pulls out the cards. These ones happen to be very stylized, but Killua doesn't seem to care, shuffling them in focus.

"Hey, what kind of card games do you know?" He's got to know some. There's no way he wouldn't.

[debauchewy]

Very fast, Hisoka's eyes on him immediately as he arrives, smiling to himself. So fast. Ah, he's so proud of you, Killua. It's almost a shame to see you as often now, he can't see how you've improved all at once after good chunks of time. Still, seeing this ever changing boy does him wonders, his fingers stiffen for a moment before he calms himself, cocking his head.

"Oh? That was fast." His eyes follow, eventually watching Killua's hands fondle and shuffle the cards. He leans back, securing his weight with his palm flat.

"A few, it'd better to ask you though, what do you know? I can't imagine much." Not yet anyway, he can't see Killua ever getting much time to learn any, and ontop of that- his lack of friends probably hinders his 'game knowledge' as well. But that's only a guess.

[gonstop]

"It wasn't that far."

Just a couple blocks. He focuses on the cards instead of Hisoka, because somehow, that's easier right now. He doesn't want this to be tense or awkward. He doesn't need it to be. Just a game... To pass the time. It might help him, too.

"We never had any in our house, so I've only learned some recently with Gon and the others. Old maid and go fish..." You know, Gon things. "And I got curious and went out and learned poker once, but that's about it."

He looks up, setting the shuffled deck on the ground now. "But I can pick up things quick. So let's go with whatever game's easiest to play with you behind that thing."

[debauchewy]

A laugh, smiling a little wider.

"While I'd be more entertained with poker, two people wouldn't really suit it well, hm?" Shrugs a little, smile keeping, finding Killua learning Poker to be rather entertaining by itself. Feels like he's trying for being more mature and adult than he is, it's cute. It's a fun game though, and much more complicated than most seem to think. He hasn't gotten into it that far, but it's been something people are known to make a living on, isn't it?

"You'll be fine playing for the both of us then?" Go fish- Old Maid, a little difficult to play with someone through glass. A thoughtful sound before he sits back and cocks his head.

"Have you learned War yet?"

[gonstop]

"This is way harder than it should be..."

That's mumbled under his breath as he presses a finger to the deck of cards, flicking them against the ground as he thinks. It's the mention of a new game, 'war', that gets him to look up.

"War? No, how do you play that one?"

[debauchewy]

"Shuffle the deck and put half of it in the slot." Points to the drop box up at the side of the glass.

[gonstop]

"Okay."

Again, he shuffles it, then counts out half the cards face down. With that out of the way, he slides them through the drop box. "There. Now what?"

[debauchewy]

Hisoka moves to get the cards and plops himself down again.

"This is a game of luck. We can't look at our cards, hold your deck down in a hand." he'll do that himself, deck face down in his left hand.

"We then take the top card, flip them at the same time, and compare them. Should your number be higher than mine, you win, should your rank- or number- be lower, I do. Normally each time you win, you gain all the cards played, this is necessary to win as you need to gain all 52 cards to beat the other player." He moves to flip his first top card, revealing a seven of hearts.

"Should you flip the same 'rank', as in type of card, War begins. We then put one starting line, a face down card, and then another face up card. Those two are compared and the higher wins. Should they continue to match ranks, we continue to go through war. Once there is a winner to it, that person gets all the cards played and we continue as we were before till one of us hits zero." Smiles, glancing to the drop box.

"Because of the glass it will be a shorter game though, unless we sit closer to it and give the other all the cards. Or we can play leaving our discarded cards infront of us, designating them 'prisoners of war' and 'reinforcements.' When one of us no longer has cards in his hand, but they've won cards from the other person, in a pile designated 'prisoners of war', that's when we can hand them over."