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Mind looked up from his book at the sound of Heart’s pulse getting closer. “[What do you want?]”
Heart angled his head to a point above Mind’s eyes, posture hunched, twisting his fingers together [something he only did when nervous or unsure, a rare enough emotion on him that the sight was concerning curious - what was Heart’s deal now?]
“(I was wondering if we could play Monopoly as, like, a bonding activi- well we have it lying around, just gathering dust, and Soul - you know how it is with him, and what better way to force him out of his room than us working together for once?)”
“[‘Working together’ - is that what you’d call us both wanting to play Monopoly? Because I can think of a few things that’d be called, and ‘working together’ isn’t one of them.]” Mind tossed out the sentence, taken by how much sense it made, really.
Every time the two saw Soul - which was often, every little noise they made or change in Heart’s pulse meant him coming out of his room, resigned then surprised for reasons Mind couldn’t name [and Heart refused to tell him anything but Mind was sure he knew something] - he’d looked more and more disheveled and exhausted, small scars littering every patch of skin exposed, hand around his neck with eyes far away. [He hated it. Perhaps all of them gave into the urges that Whole had unknowingly gifted them with, but this wasn’t simply that. No, this was something else, something that made his hands itch to fix even if it wasn’t nearly that simple, that perfectly neat.]
So - maybe this was what the Soul needed. Social interaction was supposed to help those with bad mental health, right? Wouldn’t Heart know, with his “social intelligence”?
Then again, it could be just a bad idea. Monopoly was infamous for tearing groups apart, and it wasn’t like the three of them were the most unified in the first place. Even if Mind was going to count on Heart’s supposed intuition for social things, the Moon definitely didn’t share the same for what was a bad idea or not. He was one for impulse more than anything. [Soul was like that, too, sometimes. Somehow Mind wished it were more of the time, just because rumination didn’t treat Soul very well at all.]
“(Mind, that’s just semantics and you know it. C’mon, aren’t you tired of seeing Soul - like this? Or are you just worried I’ll beat you?)” A tentative smile curved Heart’s face.
No, that, nor the quite obvious manipulation Heart tried were not the reasons Mind bit out a “[Fine.]” and followed Heart to Soul’s room. It was simply the logical course of action, each of them needed to be mentally healthy.
Mind knocked carefully - destroying doors was reserved for/directed only to the Moon. “{What the fuck do you-}” Heart cut in with the idea. “{Monopoly? Heart, I’m not playing fucking Monopoly, I don’t want to burn the house down.}”
“[The past would beg to differ. I know it’s a bad idea, but he’s going to be annoying until we comply, I assure you.]” Why did Mind cover for Heart? It was irritating every time he did it. What was the purpose? [He had already worked this out in his head, chosen his decision. Unfortunately, they were going to play Monopoly. Mind couldn’t change now.]
Heart shoved closer until he was right in front of Soul. “(You agreed to this too! It’s not like you can play Monopoly with two people, stop acting like I forced you to be here.)”
Mind sighed. “[So, Soul? What about some family bonding time?]”
Tone light as the smirk tugging at Soul’s lips, he conceded. “{Well, you two are pretty annoying… Fine.}”
Heart cheered, gripping Soul’s hand firmly.
“{Heart, I already agreed, you don’t have to drag me-}” The protests were trite, seeing as instead of making any attempt to escape, or digging his heels in, Soul followed, leaning his body weight on Heart.
“(…Have you eaten? You’re shaking.)” The three were in the living room now, Soul’s hand still captive as they sat. Mind was getting everything out, burdened with the real work as always [well, not 100% of the time, but he could be forgiven for thinking it was close].
“{Eh, not in a bit.}” The words seemed casual, but Mind could almost taste how forced they were.
Both of them knew that “a bit” to Soul could be anywhere from a few minutes to weeks, and when it came to basic human needs, was most likely on the latter side of the spectrum.
“(What about pizza? We have a few…)”
“[I’ll go put one in.]” Mind cut in. Simplest, easiest solution. He didn’t want to worry about it, just get this over with.
[…It’d be nice to spend time with Soul. Each memory of it was distant and faded. When was the last time they had done it? Even if he and Heart hated each other - somewhat? - they still spent time with each other. Soul had always been more distant.
Ids, cysts, parasites The two were inhuman, to Soul, no matter how he made it seem. Mistakes. It just made sense, at that point.
They would try anyway. What else was there to do?]
He got up to do just that as the others picked their pieces.
“{Y’all know Monopoly has a banker, right? Someone you trust with the money?}”
“(Damn. ..Um, rock paper scissors?)”
Mind sighs as he sits down. “[You can’t do three way rock paper scissors, you’ll have to.. have me and you go, then winner faces Soul, then winner is banker, which means Soul is more likely to be the banker anyway, and we’ll have to announce it - this was a bad idea, Heart. Accept it. Monopoly requires more players than this, anyway, doesn’t it?]”
Soul picks up the box. “{Yeah - wait, 2 - 8? Really? Either way, he’s right, the like two times we’ve played it’s taken hours and ended up with you crying. Why do you even want to play Monopoly?}”
“(I did not- and even if I did, which I didn’t, why can’t I want to play a nice game?)” Heart’s voice was indignant, arms crossed.
“{I don’t know, maybe because it’s never lead to anything good, ever?}” Weirdly argumentative, coming from Soul. Even if it was casual, it probably wouldn’t lead to anything good.
Mind tried not to think about the role reversal when he said “[Could we just play Monopoly? …How could we hope to unify if we can’t play a simple game without burning the house down?]” Uneasiness settled in his chest when he brought up becoming whole. He knew it was the easiest way to get Soul to do anything, but it was also the easiest way to get him to bring out his trident, so. This idea didn’t warrant the level of dedication he was putting in, but he had already decided on this, and he did not want any plans to change, regardless of how irrational it was.
“{Fine. You’re getting the fire extinguisher, though.}” Did he not trust Heart to do it? Mind wouldn’t either. That wasn’t a thought fitting with Harmony and Concord and such. It wasn’t Mind’s fault he was so irresponsible-
He glanced towards Soul. All their Host needed was just a few hours of cooperation. If he couldn’t give even that, then [wasn’t he the logical side? Not as emotional, irrational as Heart?]…
Mind cleared his head of the unnecessary thoughts. “[Okay. Now, are we going to start playing, or..?]”
They did the weird rock-paper-scissors tournament - but not really - and Soul won - lost? - predictably. Not only did he have better odds in the first place, almost every time they did rock-paper-scissors he’d win for some reason.
Luck? Assuming Mind was logic and Heart was emotion - instinct? - that was the only thing left [one of the things, he supposed]. Which, coincidentally, was the most important part of rock-paper-scissors.
There was the psychological element, but he was the only one that thought of rock-paper-scissors in that way. [And whenever he tried to employ it, he lost. Like today.]
The early game was nothing to write home about.
“(HOW AM I IN JAIL FOR THE THIRD TIME-)”
“[This is what you get, Heart. You fully deserve this.)”
“(I’VE DONE MY TIME, MIND! NO MORE!)”
“[The dice dictate what they do. Back in jail for you, Heart. Think about what you’ve done.]”
“(DICTATE- SHUT THE FUCK UP, MIND! I THOUGHT WE WERE PAST THIS!)”
Genuinely starting to get angry now at Heart’s insinuation, his screams causing Mind’s ears to pang, he retorted, “[You can’t be past a damn murder attempt, Heart! It’s fucking monopoly, besides-]”
“{Both of you. Shut the fuck up. Or I’m giving myself all of the houses.}”
Heart slumped down where he had stood up from his seat, looking a surprising amount of remorseful - that is, any. Mind, too, sat down, because Heart’s arguing was fucking annoying and he didn’t want Soul to cheat more than the amount he already had [a lot].
“{Okay, now that’s settled, I’m going to put another house on Boardwalk.}”
“[When did you get Boardwalk?]”
“{Do you not remember? I thought you were supposed to be the Mind?]”
Heart spoke in his defense. “(No, Mind’s right, you never got Boardwalk. Actually, I can’t remember you getting half of these.)”
“{Is there a problem? Don’t blame your bad memory on me.}”
“[Soul, you’re just blatantly gaslighting us.]”
Mind rolled, unable to suppress a swear when he landed on Soul’s boardwalk, which now had approximately way too many houses. Was that even legal?
Soul giggled and kicked his feet and overall acted too smug for Mind’s taste whenever the logical side was the first to get bankrupted.
“{I thought you were the logical side! You can’t even win at Monopoly?}”
Mind, completely resigned to Soul’s bullshit at this point, just sighed out a “[Oh, go fuck yourself,]” something that he laughed even more at.
“(No, he’s right,)” Heart wasn’t as insufferable as Soul - as he wasn’t the one who did it - but the mirth in his voice was still obvious and painful. Plus, his baseline insufferable-ness added to it, or something.
“[Monopoly is luck-based.]”
“(In other words: skill issue?)”
“[I think your death would be good for society.]” An honest truth. Saying “skill issue” was too far.
“(So nothing’s changed.)”
“[I- fine. Sure. Okay.]” Mind put a hand up to his temple. Why was Heart like this?
The two proceeded to play Monopoly for hours. Soul may have had his total disregard of all the game’s rules but Heart had… spite. Mind didn’t know how he had gotten this far, truthfully.
“(GODDAMMIT. THESE MANY HOUSES ARE AGAINST THE RULES, SOUL!)”
“{Tell someone who cares, I’m just gonna take all your money.}”
“(No. If you get to have 5 billion houses, then I get to ignore bankruptcy.)”
Soul tried to argue, but Heart was right, for once.
“{How are we supposed to end the game, then?}”
Nevermind.
“(Fine! Just know that, if the world was just, I would have won.)”
“[Don’t worry, Heart,]” Mind walked over to give an extremely condescending headpat, something he had been anticipating since he had lost. “[It happens to the best of us.]”
Heart snapped at air, eerily close to where Mind’s arm was, and he was sure to avoid that unfortunate fate. He didn’t want rabies, after all.
“[L + ratio, as you would say.]”
“(I’M GOING. TO KILL YOU.)” Mind quickly retreated to the safety of his room, and that was that.
By the next day, he was sure the game had resulted in nothing.
…It was nice to see Soul smile, though.