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"Sorry, Hurley," Iris smiled unapologetically, neatly placing down a sleek, black card, decorated with the symbols denoting plus four, on the top of their little pile.
She watched him grimace, "...Drat,"
It was a quiet night at Baker Street. Hurley hadn't a case to be working on, and she hadn't a new manuscript to be writing. Of course, just sitting around or, heavens forbid, sleeping early, was hardly an option for someone as hyperactive as her roommate, and her too, for that matter, so she'd suggested they play something together. She'd meant something, er, existent outside of the confines of their walls here, really, but trying new things had never seemed to be a bad idea before.
For context, the game to which she was referring was a card game that Herlock had supposedly invented years ago. Iris was dubious that he truly had had the thought to sit down and create something this simple, not when he so frequently complained about the woes and boredoms of normal life, but with the deck of strange cards, all colour-coded and numbered by the hand of someone, she could hardly deny the evidence.
It was fun, too. Not purely strategic like chess, or as stuffy and high-class as many of the games she'd seen adults shiftily play with a regular deck of cards, but something uniquely them that she felt glad was a secret to be kept beneath this roof. Hurley had never been one to sell off his inventions (Unless you counted pawning them...), after all.
"And I thought you were supposed to be good at games you created," angelically, she grinned, making sure to watch him carefully (You could never be too careful with someone as tricky as Hurley...) as he drew four cards off the other pile, the face-down remainder of the deck, to add to his hand.
"It is purely a game of luck, my dear Iris!" insistently, Herlock claimed, as he had been doing so each and every time he'd lost this game that evening.
He'd lost every single game, actually, and Iris was starting to doubt that it was coincidence. Games based purely on luck would surely not have it be possible to lose every single round... Well, he hadn't lost this round just yet. But whilst Herlock was now back up to a rather full hand of eight cards, Iris had only two left, and it was her turn to pick the colour.
"I think you haven't had the best luck, then, Hurley," she huffed, "And I choose red as the colour, now,"
He visibly winced at that. Not particularly subtle by any means, but it didn't serve to tell her that she had certainly picked correctly. Good. Truth be told, it had been a bit of a gamble; Iris had one green card and one red one left, both of the same number, and she hadn't been immediately sure which to settle for trying to play.
"Are you sure you shuffled the deck before this?" meekly, he asked.
She crossed her arms, "Are you accusing me of cheating?"
"I wouldn't dream of it!" hurriedly he denied, "But there does seem to be a most remarkable lack of red cards in this section of it now, is all,"
But this was a game of luck, wasn't it? She chuckled to herself as she drew a red seven out of her own hand and stacked it, displayed very crisply for Herlock to bemoan.
"Uno!" brightly she cheered, as the rules of this game stated she must as soon as she reached a hand of only a single card.
"Most remarkable indeed..." sourly, he finished.
"I suppose you're just very unlucky," she shrugged, knowing full well that that likely wasn't the case.
He took another look at his cards and rather overtly (Too overtly...?) winced, before reaching out and taking a face-down card from the remainder of the deck. It must have been neither a red nor a seven, for he made no attempt to play it after this. That was game, then.
Swiftly, she placed down her final green seven, and smirked at him as she did so. Seeing the number on that card did lead his eyes to widen slightly, comically so, but Iris was easily perceptive enough to still catch the way he seemed to smile proudly as the card actually reached the stack. Just luck, hm? There was a trick to this game, she was sure of it. One that she must have been accidentally exploiting, and one that Hurley seemed to want her to learn.
"How many games is that to me now, then?" sweetly, she asked.
Both their gazes flipped over to Iris's chalkboard where they'd been keeping tally of the score.
"Seven..." miserably, he conceded.
Lucky number seven, then.
"Chin up, Hurley!" she tutted, "I'll go easy on you this time!"
One of his hands left the position between the runs of cards they'd been shuffling (Had his accusation about her shifty shuffling been genuine, then, if he was now doing it himself? Hmph. Typical.) and made its way up to his forehead, where it tapped lightly.
"Not in Uno, my dear!" he smiled wryly, "I do believe I've already told you that it is but a game of-"
"Luck," she finished, simply, "Yes, I do believe you have too, Hurley. Not even five minutes ago, in fact!"
He went back to shuffling the deck with both hands, "Ah... At least you'll now know that for certain,"
"And you'll know better than to challenge me to a games night!" she giggled.
She actually rather hoped they'd do something like this again. It wasn't every day they were both free to relax like this, after all, and she couldn't deny that she was having fun. And even if he was losing rather pitifully, Iris was sure Herlock was too. Deduction was all about observations, wasn't it? Well, Hurley was grinning like a cat to himself whenever he thought she wasn't looking, so he was certainly having some kind of fun.
"Then you'll just have to challenge me, instead," he responded, easily.
"I'll hold you to that, you know," she promised, eyes glinting mischievously, "And I don't want to hear a peep of complaining out of you when I do!"
He set the cards down as a stack for the deck and began to draw again for the two of them.
"I wouldn't hold your breath on that one, my dear," he chuckled, "Great Detectives are wont to complaining about the whims of their rather demanding little roommates,"
She smacked him lightly on the shoulder, "You're a real silly one, Hurley," she sighed, and picked up the cards he'd left for upon returning to her original position.
Herlock grinned, holding his now full hand of seven cards up to his face, "I do try,"
It was times like these that made her long for the simpler times when she thought Hurley really was her dad. He would do well as it, she was sure, but he'd readily admitted to it not being the truth a few years back. So it was that Iris became Doctor Wilson, just like the man in Herlock's old case files. The truth wouldn't stop her from wishing that it wasn't the case sometimes, though. Maybe Hurley even thought the same thing.
[~]
"Come again?" Runo blinked and asked, eyes darting between Iris and Herlock, both of whom were smirking a little at this turn of events.
She could see Susie struggling not to laugh too, out of the corner of her eye. At least one of the two of them had been listening earlier when she'd explained the rules of Uno... Really, though, Runo hadn't even taken any new cases since the two with Wagahai's old owner about a month back, so what could possibly be playing so heavily on his mind?
"I said, that you didn't say 'Uno!' on the turn where you reached your final card, so now you have to draw an extra four!" she repeated, delightedly.
Both her and Herlock knew the rules of this game a little too well to be caught out on this, so catching a rookie like Ryuunosuke out as so was rather exciting, actually.
"Perhaps you need to be trained in the art of listening as well as the art of the deduction, Mr Naruhodou," sporting a silly, knowing grin, Hurley suggested.
Iris watched him have to catch himself to not laugh too hard at his own joke. A small snort escaped Susie from her left, though, so it appeared his humour had at least landed for someone, on this occasion.
"I think you could do well with some of that yourself, actually..." offhandedly, Runo muttered.
The reaction was immediate; Susie gasped offendedly, and jabbed a finger at the lawyer, "Naruhodou-san! You could do well with not insulting our host!"
"Ah, sorry..." sheepishly, Ryuunosuke rubbed a hand behind his head, "Did I say that out loud?"
Classic Runo.
Little quirks like these were why Iris loved having their new housemates around so much. Hurley would always be enough for her when it came down to it, but she couldn't deny that he was a very busy man, and that it often got rather lonely at Baker Street. Or, rather, it had before they got two new tenants in their attic. Two new tenants with entirely different routines and interests that meant there was usually always someone around to even just talk to Iris, if needed.
"Yes, yes indeed you did," exasperatedly, Susie sighed.
"It's alright, Susie - Runo plays in the turn after you!" she nudged the young woman slightly, and began to hint.
"Now there's a thought..." Susato hummed contemplatively.
Runo gulped as Iris gave a fleeting glance to her hand before playing a yellow three on top of Hurley's green three, the last card to be played prior to the reiteration of the rules, and waited. It was Susie's turn now, actually. There was a plethora of interesting special cards she could play that would be infinitely more humorous and effective in a game of four people than in two, as Iris had found in their earlier round that evening.
It could then be noted that, when a plus four wild card was played against him, Runo reacted in rather the same way, although she had a feeling it was starkly less intentional, as Hurley did, wincing loudly and grumbling as he had to reach into the deck for another four cards. Susie then proceeded to change the colour to blue.
...Ah. Was this how Hurley felt when the shuffling was not stacked in his favour? 'It's just a game of luck, Iris' she tried to remind herself. To little avail, though, as she still didn't believe such a sentiment any more than she had when she'd first begun playing.
"It would appear that I shall have to be the one to take pity on you now, Mr Naruhodou," Hurley mused, drawing out the fabled Uno reverse card in brilliant blue from his hand, and placing it down on the stack of discarded cards.
She still wasn't sure what he found so inherently humorous about the reverse card, but Herlock had refused to explain it to her, so she was hardly the only one at fault there.
"Thank you, Mr Sholmes, but, uh," Runo cringed and reached again for the remainder of the deck, "I'm afraid your generosity hasn't got me particularly far..."
"Such is the way of the world for those who do not pay attention, Naruhodou-san," calmly, Susie explained, and then, "Uno!"
It wasn't guaranteed that you'd win just from getting to one card remaining, of course, as Runo had proven just earlier, but it did significantly increase your chances of doing so. Did that mean this round was going to Susato? Iris herself had three cards left, a quick furtive glance at Hurley's hand told her he had two, and Runo had a whole monstrous ten. Herlock was her fiercest competition, then, but Iris knew from experience that that meant very little, for Hurley knew how to work this game, and he would not win unless he was sure he wanted to.
"Or perhaps it is simply because Uno is-" Herlock began.
She shot him a glare, "Is this the only piece of advice you have for this game? We have all heard it before, you know,"
"No, no, let him finish, Iris," Runo contended, "Perhaps then I'll feel a little better about losing this badly,"
Hurley's statement did seem to ring a little true as Iris was at least able to play a red seven on top of Susie's blue version of the same card now, all thanks to that little reverse of the turn order from before. Not true enough to make her actually believe in it, but true enough to prove a point, she supposed.
"As you insist!" Herlock chuckled, "None of you feel too bad about losing at this game, for Uno is but purely a game of luck!"
He then played yet another special card (How had he managed to end up with all of these? This was the fourth from barely more than his original hand of seven...), this time a red plus two, and began to hum quietly to himself.
"That didn't mean you had to go and do that, though..." Runo groaned, the response of drawing from the deck surely becoming second nature by this point.
"On the contrary, Mr Naruhodou! I feel I rather did, after all, that was the only card that I could play!" he leant forward, clutching his stomach and laughing as if this was the funniest thing he'd heard all year.
"I do wish I had such luck as that..." Susie lamented, having to resort to drawing a card, her final one evidently not having been a red, when her turn came.
Iris shook her head slightly as she had to do the same, "It comes and goes, Susie,"
Yes, indeed, where was the super luck she could usually find against just Hurley today, hmm? It wasn't as though she hadn't lost before, but it also couldn't be said that she hadn't been at least close most times. Well, three cards left probably did count as close-ish, and this game wasn't over just yet, but the game still didn't seem to be clicking with her as it often did. It was still enjoyable, though, in no small part just through being some time to spend with her housemates.
"And today, I hold it all!" Hurley, proclaimed, just as he played his final card, another reverse card.
Hold on...
Final card?
"Hurley," she scowled at him harshly, "You didn't call Uno either!"
He smiled lazily at her, "I would appear I did not, my dear,"
"Then... Surely he should have to draw four cards too! Yes! That's exactly it!" Runo spluttered.
Why yes, Runo! Iris was very inclined to agree with him there! Just what kind of nonsense did Herlock think he was pulling here? Not wool over their eyes, she hoped, because they weren't quite that gullible! Well, she could only really speak for herself on that, but Runo and Susie didn't seem that gullible.
"I think you'll find that is quite the opposite of 'exactly it', actually," Herlock continued to smile inwardly, clearly amused by this whole situation.
Iris narrowed her eyes at him. He had a loophole here, she just knew it...
"Hold it! That's clearly going against what you and Iris just told me only a few minutes ago!" crossly, Runo argued.
"If you could be so kind as to explain, Mr Sholmes?" a tad more politely, Susato rephrased the sentiment of Ryuunosuke's exclamation.
"This is indubitably quite a simple case, in actual fact, Miss Susato," he answered, turning over the lid of the tin they kept the cards in to reveal a note stuck to the top, "Quite possibly the simplest I have faced! And the evidence can all be found right here,"
She moved around the table to be able to read this note with Runo and Susie. It was written quite neatly, not by Hurley, then, in an all too familiar handwriting. Hang on, was this done by the same hand as the man who had written up the files on Herlock's old cases? Doctor Wilson? Oh, Hurley, you sly thing... No wonder it had seemed so odd for this game to be purely his creation!
The contents of Doctor Wilson's note seemed to be a comprehensive list of rules, actually. And, wouldn't you know it, there was Hurley's little loophole... Apparently, you had to actually be caught not saying Uno by another player before playing that final card for it to count as any kind of misconduct. In other words, since none of them had paid enough attention to Herlock over their conversation to notice that he'd been down to his final card, there was very little they could do to deny that he'd just won.
"Objection!" Runo tried anyway, because perhaps he was just a little bit hurt that it was the one who had caused him to finish on a hand of twelve who had ultimately won, "That seems like nonsense!"
"This isn't court, Runo," she told him with a small giggle.
"Objection overruled!" Susato declared firmly anyway.
"Care to give your final verdict, then, Miss Susato?" smoothly, Herlock played along with their charade.
Iris sighed contently. Well, there was always next round, she supposed. Assuming that Hurley didn't feel the need to show off his superior knowledge of a game he'd had at least a hand in creating again, anyway. Previous data did seem to suggest that that likely wasn't going to be the case, anyway, though, so she wasn't too worried.
"Of course," primly, she nodded, "The court finds Mr Herlock Sholmes... Victorious!"
[~]
Being nervous about Uno of all things wasn't something Iris had particularly anticipated, but this was the first time it had gone anywhere outside of Baker Street... And yet, she wasn't regretting her decision to steal away with the tin of cards on her way to the local prison, no, not at all. Ginny was going to need something to cheer her up, and Iris was sure this was just the thing!
She'd never had much trouble getting into the prison, thankfully, on account of her somewhat celebrity-like status amongst law enforcement. That was a necessary thing, really, if she was going to continue to visit Gina as often as she could, as she promised her friend she would, during this one-month sentence. This was the first time she'd brought anything but writing equipment or tea with her, though.
"Oh, 'ey, Iris," glumly, Ginny greeted her.
"Hello, Ginabean!" she waved and hurried over to the bars.
As was tradition for the two of them at this point, they made their way over to the partition separating them and settled down on the floor on either side of it. It was a little cold and dusty, and was probably rather uncomfortable for Gina, but that was just prison for you, iris supposed. She at least had her dress, and that had been designed by her to be durable, but Ginny wasn't gifted such luck. Luck. Hah... She drew out the tin from her bag.
"What's that?" the blonde narrowed her eyes at the cards as Iris revealed them, clearly heavily sceptical.
"A game," she answered simply, "I thought we might play it together,"
"Thanks, but I don't actually know 'ow to play most of these 'games', Iris. Weren't exactly the time to be learnin' out on the streets now, were there?" gruffly, Gina folded her body inwards and shuffled away slightly.
Hurley didn't seem to think much of most of those other games, anyway. He'd still only really played Uno with her. That was fine by Iris, of course: if she had the desire to learn how to play, say, chess, she'd have gone and sniffed out someone to teach her already. That prosecutor, Mr Reapy, seemed rather like the type to play chess, didn't he? Ah, she was getting off-track. The point here was that she didn't care for these other games.
"You wouldn't know this one even if there was, Ginny," flippantly, she responded, already preemptively shuffling the desk, "Hurley made it up, you see,"
Gina looked up, interest piqued, "That Sholmes did, eh? 'Lright, you deal a round out, yeah, and we'll see 'ow good of a game maker 'e really is..."
Iris smiled warmly. Mission accomplished.
She would never quite understand what Gina seemed to have against Herlock, but it was a useful bargaining chip when it needed to be. Don't get her wrong, she thought it was very sweet that Ginny was so protective of her, and it definitely only served to make her want to help out the young woman more, but Hurley hadn't actually done anything bad... All that doubt over the manuscript, only for it to turn out being exactly where it was supposed to have been, surely proved that, right?
"Okay," she nodded, slipping seven cards through the bars to her friend, "I'll explain as we go, if that's alright, but the basics are really just that you need to match either the number or the colour to the face-up card, and call 'Uno!' if you get to only one card left,"
Gina squinted at the cards she had in her hand and knitted her brows, "Uh, Iris, I can't read. 'Ow am I supposed to figure out which of these 'ere numbers is which?"
"I wouldn't worry about that, Ginny - you really don't need to. Just think of it like matching symbols!" Uno was a simple game after all, and didn't particularly require any linguistic skills, "The actual value of the numbers never comes into play,"
Iris drew herself a hand too, and smiled at the sight of that classic reverse card that had appeared in it. She was still no closer to finding out why Hurley treated it as such a special card, even more special than the plus four wild card despite the latter clearly being objectively better, but that hadn't stopped it from becoming amusing for her too. What could she say? If Hurley found something funny, he was contagious enough to often spread that humour to her too.
"Where's this face-up card I need to match, then?"
She smiled thinly and drew the first card off of the top of the deck, placing it swiftly down between her and Gina, "Right... Here!"
"Oh, okay. You goin' first or am I?" Ginny appeared troubled.
Ah, so she was still a little confused, was she? that was fine; demonstration was likely the best way explanation, especially for someone like Gina, with no particular love for language, anyway.
"I think I'd best, don't you? It'll be the easiest way for you to get what's going on," she expounded, then reached into her hand and matched the current yellow card with one of her own, "See, here, the colours were the same, so I could match them,"
"Right..." Gina nodded slowly, "But then, I could also use this," she placed down another three card, this one in blue, down, "Squiggly one and it'd be right, yeah?"
"Right on, Ginny! As easy as that," Iris praised her friend.
They took another few tuns of just matching regularly numbered and coloured cards, the combinations they'd both received in their hand fortunately stacking up quite well with what they needed at that point, as it often seemed to at the start of the game.
"Think I'm gettin' the 'ang of this, actually," she announced proudly.
"I think I'd agree, Ginny!" Iris giggled before making the grave error of playing a six.
Gina tried to match it with a nine, seemingly not noticing the little nine below the tail of this symbol showing which way up it was supposed to go.
"Or, uh..." she winced, "You can't actually do that, though,"
"Eh?" Gina squinted at her, "Why not? They're the same symbol, ain't they?"
"Not quite... See that little line beneath each of them?" she took her friend's card off of the pile so that they could compare, "They're on different sides, which denotes different symbols,"
"That's bloody nonsense that is..." Ginny grumbled roughly, "'Oo made that up, then? Sholmes?"
Iris sighed dramatically, "Whoever made up our numbering system, I suppose... Hurley did his best to make them look distinct, but it is rather difficult when two numbers are just the same, but different ways up,"
"Yeah, I guess..." clearly still a bit miffed, Gina conceded, replacing the nine with an actually legal card to play.
Whilst they were on the subject of teaching, Iris might as well take the opportunity to play that card, mightn't she?
"Now, Ginny-" she tried to preface as she played the reverse card.
"No, no, 'old on! Don't gimme that! What in the 'eck is this!?" immediately, her friend panicked and snapped, "I ain't got no card like that!"
"That's because it's a special card," she huffed, "It has an additional effect on top of just being playable - it reverses the turn order!"
"Oh," she paused, "So... It's your turn again, yeah?"
Iris grinned proudly. Oh, was this how Hurley felt with her? All the more evidence that Uno was, in fact, not a game based purely on luck. But... Well, if Ginny ended up losing this game, it couldn't hurt to spread that particular falsehood, could it?
"Got it in one, Ginabean!" she nodded cheerily.
"Just makes a surprising amounta sense for a game made by Sholmes, y'know?" bashfully, Gina mumbled.
"Hurley does occasionally have good ideas," a tad affronted, she stated as she played a second card, this one not so special, "He's really not so bad," she paused and looked right up at her friend, "...For a grownup,"
Ginny snorted, undignified as ever, "Still don't trust the lot of them. Though, er, I suppose I wouldn't be complainin' if you 'ad to bring 'im down one time...," she wrinkled her nose and looked away, "Just to explain the game properly, yeah?"
"Am I not doing a good enough job for you, Ginny?" teasingly, she pouted.
It was quite fun at times to put on a sad face and watch as everyone would scramble to try and cover their tracks and cheer her up again. Hurley fell for it every time, even if it was for something silly like having an extra biscuit. Runo and Susie were highly susceptible too.
"Wait, er, that ain't quite what I-" Gina spluttered madly.
And Gina too, apparently.
"Just messing with you, don't worry," Iris giggled.
Gina studied her for a moment, seemingly forgetting all about Uno, as she was still tet to play the next card, "You're a funny one, Iris,"
"That's what I tell Hurley," amused, she shrugged.
That knocked the young woman out of her hesitation, and she quickly got to playing a hasty green eight, now refusing to meet Iris's eye. Oh, Ginny was a funny one too, really. Was it a detective thing? Well, Gina wasn't quite a detective yet, but she'd already confided in Iris about wanting to be one, and with an example as good as Herlock, her abilities surely couldn't be doubted. Iris certainly thought she'd make a fine detective, if that was indeed what she settled on wanting to do, once she got out of here.
"Pro'lly deserves it," eventually, Gina settled on.
Would it be mean to play a plus two on a rookie like Gina? She had just spent rather a while insulting Hurley, and this was his game, so... Iris reckoned she'd be justified... And she was going to have to play this card at some point...
"It says plus two," she clarified, as she placed the green card of that description down.
Her friend's eye twitched, "You're addin' to my 'and?"
"I'm afraid so, Ginny," solemnly, she nodded.
"Now, 'old on, that 'ardly seems fair! You sure it's really allowed?" Gina scowled.
"Well, it's the whole point of the card... I could point to where it states it too in the rules, but that hardly seems worth it," daintily, she explained, "I wouldn't feel too down about it, though. Hurley often tells me that this is just a game of luck, after all - perhaps you can still turn things around,"
Hurley also claimed that soap was rather delectable, but that was beside the point.
"Ain't that just me life's philosophy..." Gina sighed, as she drew a small two cards from the deck, and gave them a quick glance over.
"Better than accepting things are just going to be bad," Iris shrugged.
But then her friend found herself down on this luck, again, and ended up with no card to play, even after drawing one from the deck. That's just the way the cookie crumbles sometimes, really.
"I think you done rigged this," pointedly, Ginny declared.
"You can't rig Uno, silly," she chuckled.
"Can too," narrowing her eyes, Gina argued.
Ginny was a stubborn one, alright, but Hurley's reputation was on the line here, and Iris had been told she could be quite the little stubborn devil when she wanted to be, too. She could keep going with this until visiting hours were up if she had to!
"Can most certainly not!" she asserted.
"The evidence suggests otherwise, Iris, so can too!"
This was going to go on for a bit of a while. Ah, well, as long as they were still playing at the same time... And any time spent with Ginabean was time well-spent in Iris's books; someone had to make sure she was doing alright! Prison was a rather lonely place, after all, and sometimes the little bit of luck that Uno could make you feel as though you have was just what people off the deep end like this needed.
[~]
"You do know that we don't have to play this game silently, right?" awkwardly, Iris affirmed, in way of attempting to strike up conversation.
Unfortunately, it would seem the match she was attempting to light here was either damp or faulty, because she didn't get any immediate verbal response. Runo and Susie just exchanged weary glances before burying their faces in their cards again. Hmm, that wouldn't do! They were finally all reunited again after Susato had had to leave so abruptly for Japan back in April, and this was how they were acting?
She watched both of them carefully as she placed her next card (A tactfully ordinary one, rather than the couple of special-ish cards she still had stored.)
Susie sighed, "My apologies, Iris, it just appears that we're both way off, today,"
Runo played the next card, another painfully boring two.
"Is it because of your friend? The one that became Mr Reapy's apprentice?" insightfully, she tried.
That was really the only explanation. As she'd stated before, Runo and Susie should be really happy right now! The only thing that could have been dampening their spirits was that strange friend of theirs - 'Mr Asougi', she remembered the name from the music box code.
They'd reunited, she figured that much despite not being there for such a reunion, but she still hadn't seen the mysterious man around. And she hadn't heard how he'd ended up as an apprentice prosecutor, or why exactly he'd only ended up with amnesia, rather than having been killed like her housemates had been so sure he'd been. Perhaps the biggest question of all was why none of these questions had been cleared up! Why would someone, figuratively of course (This wasn't William Shamspeare...), rise from the dead, only to ignore all remnants of their past lives and leave their still clearly grieving friends alone?
"Kazuma..." Runo let out, perhaps as a sort of correction for her.
Iris sat up a little straighter, ready to listen intently. Susie finally made the game a little interesting as that happened, though, as she played a green stop card. Iris was to miss her next turn, then. Well, alright.
"I suppose it is about him, yes," Susato admitted.
"He hasn't attempted to make any contact," Runo frowned, "We were right there when he regained his memory, but all he really said was 'hello' and 'thank you' before leaving again! And we don't even know where he's staying, so we can hardly just go looking for him..."
Susie shook her head, "He's always been like this - running off to do heavens knows what without telling me or my father,"
Two cards were played in frantic succession after that, a green eight, and then a green seven.
Iris placed down the card she always seemed to have, the red seven, and hummed contemplatively at the two of them, "Perhaps he simply needs some space. I suppose getting your memory back after amnesia would be a rather stressful experience,"
"I just wish he'd let us help him with that... I've never seen him like he was when he left that courtroom before," frustratedly, Runo explained.
Susato sent him a sad look, "No, I don't suppose you have..."
The game, seemingly close to being forgotten by Iris's housemates, continued roughly, at an unsteady rhythm, a far cry from the perfect beat they'd been playing to in silence, earlier. Ryuunosuke and Susato hardly seemed to even be paying attention to the cards they were playing! Runo in particular didn't so much as let out a single complaint when Susato drew a plus two on him!
"Uno," Iris called quietly, when it got to her turn and she played her second-to-last card. The others didn't seem to notice her much.
"What do you mean, Susato-san?" Runo asked instead.
"You remember what we talked about just after that trial, yes?" she responded quickly.
Iris sighed. Was this what it felt like to be Hurley, no one noticing that he was down to his last card? Well, he had done it intentionally to trick them; she was just being unfortunately ignored. What was the point in calling Uno if nobody cared to notice?
"You mean about his fa- Ah! Ah..." Runo had obviously realised something.
"Exactly..." morosely, Susie nodded, "Just... Give him some time - I'm sure he'll come around. At least... I dearly hope he does,"
The only thing that seemed to be coming around right now was Iris's turn again, the other two's passing by rather unnoticeably as they both had to distractedly draw from the deck. Sharply, she placed down her final card and waited for them to snap out of their stupor and notice that they'd just been, for lack of a better way of describing it, destroyed.
She shouldn't be this harsh on them, really. They were reeling with the discovery of someone important to them; she could get behind that! Wasn't that exactly how she'd felt when she'd finally found out Doctor Wilson's name from that autopsy report? (Her stomach turned slightly at the thought of her little crime...) But still, they could have just talked if that was all Ryuunosuke and Susato had wanted to do... She'd just wanted Uno to help...
When Susato absently made to make her move, Iris cleared her throat with a delicate little cough, and pointed at the blank space that had been her hand, "Uhm, Susie..."
The young woman looked sharply up, face crumpling into an apologetic frown when she noticed what was up, "Oh, my sincere apologies, Iris. We seem to have been rather caught up in discussion,"
"We can put the game away if you'd like," she offered.
"No, no, it's quite alright!" hastily, Susato shook her head, "There's little point in us pondering what could be with Kazuma-sama right now, anyway. It should be just a game of patience, so I say we perhaps not try to exhaust that patience and instead pass the time with some more Uno,"
Her hand hovered over the two piles of cards out on the table, uncertain of whether to collect them back in to shuffle or not, "Are you... sure?"
"Quite sure," firmly, Susie informed her.
Runo nodded in agreement, "Yes, I do think that would be for the best, Iris. I mean... It can get quite lonely waiting for someone to come back, but you can't get lonely playing Uno, right? You always need at least two people!"
She hadn't thought about it like that, actually. But that was a rather profound way of looking at things! She smiled appreciatively at him.
Uno could be rather a decent analogy for the situation at hand for the two in general, now that she thought about it, couldn't it? Waiting for Mr Asougi seemed like a game of luck; the two hadn't a clue when he'd finally stop in to make time for them, and it'd be a game of pure chance, like digging through a haystack to find a needle, to try and find him themselves in a place as big as London. But neither truly were up to luck. Mr Asougi wasn't going to or not going to come to see them based on the roll of a die or flip of a coin, just as Iris was certain there was a strategy to playing to what the other players were doing in Uno. There were always at least two minds working in either case.
"Quite right, Runo," she declared, shuffling the deck sharply, "This isn't Solitaire,"
"Soli... taire?" he returned, puzzled.
"Another card game, Naruhodou-san, and one played, as you can likely guess from the etymology, by only a single person," patiently, Susie explained, reading the definition straight out of her book.
You forgot the part where no one at Baker Street had any interest in ever having to learn how to play it, as well, Susie. She giggled at the thought as she began to dish out next round's hands.
"And there I was thinking Mr Sholmes was the creator of two card games..." wistfully, Runo exhaled.
[~]
"This is nonsense..." Barry (Yes, that Barry - Barok van Zieks) huffed pretentiously as he drew four cards from the deck.
Kazuma (Yes, that Kazuma - Asougi Kazuma, or as she'd taken to calling him, 'Zumie') snickered somewhere just off to his side, not even bothering to hide the vindictive glee of seeing van Zieks lose at something in his expression, "Actually, I think you'll find it's just the rules," nonchalantly, he retorted.
The poor man's eye twitched, and he took a withering deep breath in, looking Iris pleadingly in the eye. Sorry, Barry, but in such an intense game of Uno as this one, it was everyone for themself. Even Hurley seemed to be playing that way, rather than coaching everyone or just toying with them!
"And, 'sides, 'Soggy, Iris 'ere tells me it's just a game a luck, any'ow!" Ginny chimed in.
"Perhaps the Reaper's curse is still upon him," Zumie continued to snigger away.
Okay, perhaps one sympathetic look wouldn't hurt... She winced at the poor prosecutor and pointed lightly to the tea set in the centre of the table. He nodded slowly at her. Alright, then, she'd pour him a special extra cup after this! Hopefully after a resounding victory for her!
"I am not-" he tried to correct anyway, rather than just ignoring the issue.
"Now, now, my dear fellows," Hurley (Yes, still that Hurley - Herlock Sholmes... Her father.) interrupted, "Let's all remember that-"
"Oi, I ain't a fellow!" Gina snarked.
"-In Uno, it is everyone versus each other! We shouldn't gang up on any one person!"
Exactly what she'd been thinking, Hurley. It probably wasn't going to be enough to spare poor Barry from Zumie's endless lengths of petty spite and Ginny's deep ocean of stubbornness, but it was the thought that counted. And besides, if the others were all too busy bickering with Hurley and Barry, they wouldn't notice Iris getting rather low on cards!
Kazuma raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying we should move our bullying onto someone else, Mr Sholmes?"
"I think he's saying that you need to spread it out more evenly," she hummed.
"Yeah, well see 'ere, Iris, we can't exactly target you, and since me 'nd 'Soggy made an alliance after last round, we can't target each other either. So, discludin' van Wotsit," Barry cringed at the nickname, "That only leaves that Sholmes!" Gina elucidated, delightedly.
You brought this upon yourself, Hurley.
"So, we must rather thank you for volunteering to take his place so graciously," smoothly, Zumie finished.
Those two were a dangerous combo, really. On any given day, they were either practically at war with each other, only seemingly a second away from just outright brawling in the streets, or they were like they were today, getting on like a house on fire, like they'd known each other all their lives. Iris supposed it only made sense, really; Gina seemed to admire Susato more than anyone else, particularly, so perhaps she had just a tiny modicum of respect for Susato's brother in there somewhere. And, as Kazuma valued Ryuunosuke's trust so highly, perhaps someone else who had experienced that brilliant trust was someone he'd get on well with.
"...Ah..." Hurley grimaced, "Well, it's been fun, my dear fellows, but I'm afraid I might need to take this round as rather a clean sweep,"
He drew another reverse card out of his hand with a flourish, and hold on, Iris had accidentally seen his hand only a minute ago and that had most certainly not been there... Well, anyhow, he played the card flamboyantly and let it switch back to Barry's turn. He was on only two cards now, the same number as Iris. She frowned at him competitively, and made sure to hide her remaining cards well.
Kazuma then had a plus-four card drawn back on him, the colour changing back to green. His eyes narrowed as he hissed van Zieks's name, as well as a string of Japanese that Iris didn't recognise, but could pinpoint rather easily as definitely some curses, under his breath and let the turn pass on to Gina, who was cackling at him. Perhaps she thought he wouldn't notice.
"Uno!" the inspector called cheerfully, shaking her one remaining card in the air for everyone to see the back of, "What was that you were on about? A clean sweep? Looks like I might just take this one, Sholmes!"
Hurley smiled mysteriously (Uh-oh), "We shall have to see, Miss Lestrade,"
"Inspector," Ginny barked.
The man's smile only grew, "Then we shall have to see, Inspector Lestrade,"
But then it was Iris's turn, and, being able to also play a card herself, she was down to one now too, "Uno!" she mirrored Gina, making sure to get her call in quickly, just so that no one could pull any tricks and catch her out unfairly. (That had happened last round, actually. Zumie had played his next card before Ginny had gotten a chance to call Uno, thus inflicting the penalty on her and, after much fighting, ending up being the cited reason for their current truce.)
Hurley was the third in a row to whittle his hand down to one, and thus also to call Uno that round. They would have to see who had the matching card, then... She studied the card Hurley had played carefully. On the surface, it seemed completely like it was nothing out of the ordinary, a regular green seven. But Iris knew that was never the case with someone like her father; there was definitely something more to this.
Then Barry scowled at his hand, having to resort to drawing a card from the deck. ...Huh. Hurley had changed the colour from what the prosecutor had chosen it to be, so perhaps that was simply it. Or...
"Oh, dear, what a shame," wryly, Kazuma remarked, as he plucked a green stop sign card from his hand and slid it down onto the discard pile, "It appears this is the only card I can play now, Lestrade,"
And the dominoes began to fall.
Final card forgotten, Gina rounded on the man, biting out cutting remarks at him and balling her firsts tightly up. He looked vaguely amused by her antics, but in the end, was obviously still distracted. Just as Hurley wanted.
So it would appear that her father had been banking on them all taking each other out this round, then. Barry would be out of 'luck', Zumie would be forced to turn on Ginny, and then in all the commotion, poor, little Iris would be left out, unable to do anything but draw a card, and perhaps play it, but still end her turn on no less than one card.
Well, she was almost sorry to say it, but he appeared to have miscalculated there. Perhaps he was just expecting that red seven she always seemed to have. Judging as she had just played a green seven last turn, that wasn't too unreasonable of a guess, really. But it was still wrong...
She smiled smugly, just as she was sure Hurley would do in her position, as she placed her final card, a green reverse card, down, "What was it you said, a clean sweep?" angelically, she asked.
His eyes widened comically, and he turned to stare at her. Zumie and Ginny were behind the sofa, pointing fingers and fists at each other, looking just about ready to take this out to the streets and brawl, whilst Barry just looked rather miserable. She pointed quickly to the tea 'Help yourself' before turning back to her father.
"My dear Iris," he settled on eventually, "What in the blazes was that!?"
She shrugged, "A clean sweep, clearly,"
"Yes, but..." he struggled, "How!?"
She sidled right up to him and put on her best innocent face. The other three were still all distracted or uninterested, so they wouldn't get to hear the fruitful information she was about to. Well, maybe Barry would, be he looked completely zoned out from what she could tell, possibly wanting to be just about anywhere but here, where his apprentice was fighting the inspector over a card game just behind him.
"I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours," sweetly, she negotiated.
He tipped down the top of his hat, the one he didn't usually wear indoors, but must have forgotten to take off today, "What secret, my dear?"
"Well, you claim that this is a game of luck, but that's most certainly not true," she explained, "I know you and Professor Mickey were the ones who made it, but I also doubt that he knows how to get what he wants out of it like you do. Whoever you want to win always wins," she paused, "Except for this time, of course,"
It was a little funny thinking that Susie's daddy had been the co-creator of this game, actually. No wonder she'd come to like it so!
"Wouldn't you rather know the reasoning behind each rule?" nervously, he tried misdirection, "The one behind the calling Uno rule, for instance, is truly a fascinating-"
She rolled her eyes, "I already got that one out of Professor Mickey," she tutted reprovingly, "To remind us to not be alone, right? If your card is left all on its lonesome, it should call out so other people know it is such! That way, it's never truly alone,"
"Exactly so..." he sighed morosely, "Fine, fine, but you must promise not to let this leak out to anyone, young Iris, not even to Mikotoba,"
She played up her best puppy dog eyes (They always seemed to work on Runo...) and nodded charmingly, "Of course. I wouldn't dream of it!"
Probably not, anyway. But you had to remember, she had been raised by Herlock Sholmes; the chances of her not having picked up any of his little tricks to get things out of people using only information were slim to none.
Silently, he ushered the two of them into a little huddle, before revealing his left sleeve. At first she was a little confused, but then he shook it slightly, and a few cards came fluttering lightly out. All special cards too, might she add. How had he managed to keep the desk consistent at all!? Had he really been so sneaky as to be able to swap out cards without any of them noticing!?
"You didn't think Mikotoba and I really only made one deck, did you?" he grinned mischievously.
She thwacked him lightly on the shoulder, "Daddy, you fiend,"
"Yes, quite correct, my dear! A fiendishly clever scheme indeed!" he laughed away, "A quick swap out of the card to one that you need, and the game is yours! Or anyone else's you want it to be, I suppose,"
Of course... That was why he always seemed to have the card he needed when he was playing to win, and was failing so hopelessly when he wasn't... And why he insisted so strongly on Uno only depending on luck... It didn't quite explain how he always knew which card to swap in to cheat with, though.
She voiced as much to him, "How do you know what card you need?"
"Simple, my dear! Having built this deck myself, I know exactly how many there are of each card! I can count what has been played, and then use that and any furtive or suspicious glances our fellow players make to estimate what cards are in everyone's possession," he answered, eyes twinkling very directedly at her.
Did he want her... to take something away from this? Well, having read through the rules that Professor Mickey had scribed on the lid of the tin many times, she could at least confirm that counting the cards wasn't technically cheating... So... Even if she was against some of Hurley's more... illicit tactics, there wasn't actually a reason she couldn't learn from that last part, right? Hmm... She would need another game to test...
Iris pulled away from her father and clapped her hands, hoping to get the attention of everyone there. The gloves muffled the sound slightly, but Gina and Kazuma were fortunately not so distracted by their fight that they were completely ignoring her.
"I think we'd better start another game, everyone," she announced.
"Eh? But we didn't finish that last one!" Ginny argued, "We only got a number one place!"
"Quite right, Lestrade," Zumie nodded, suddenly inclined to agree with her again.
She smiled at them sympathetically, "Both of your cards are on the floor," she told them.
Both their gazes dropped to where, as she had stated, their Uno cards had been left in a messy pile, dangerously close to being lost to underneath the sofa, and completely mixed up for whose were whose. Zumie coughed politely and looked away as Ginny wrinkled her nose.
"You might 'ave a point there, Iris..." begrudgingly, she admitted, "'Ow about it, then, van Wotsit, Sholmes, a fresh round good for you two?" having the social tact to at least begin to whisper, she hastily added on, "Not that I really care what you think or nothin', though..."
"I was losing rather abysmally, Inspector," dryly, Barry informed her, "I, as such, have no qualms with this plan,"
"And I doubt you particularly care for my opinion anyway, Miss Lestrade," Hurley chuckled, finding his self-awareness hysterical, as he did with many things.
"It's Inspector-" Ginny cut in, at practically a howl.
Hurley knew this, of course, having really been the one to have gotten Gina her position, but, as usual, took no notice of her correction. He was bound to make the exact same mistake the next time he addressed her too. Sometimes it really seemed as if Hurley was just the very definition of incorrigible. In the best way, of course; she did really love having him as her father once more.
Iris swiftly made to collect in all remaining cards, Barry helping her by collecting the spilt ones off of the floor, "Then we'd best get right started!" she beamed.
Ah, Uno. What a game...