Xander is correct in his assumption that Siebren is not here to get into a water fight, but the roughhousing settles as quickly as it starts. Good.
He gives a long-suffering and very fake sigh at the proposal. "Seto, I have not managed to win a full match of gin rummy in years, and I am not so eager to be beaten again." He ends the theatrics with a bit of a smile. Seto had won their tiebreaker hand during the void storm, which made the match his; before that, poker had been the social game of choice in nearly every group Siebren had wound up in. He hadn't played gin rummy since-
Since teaching Dr. Winston to play, all those years ago, and once he'd gotten the rules down, that had been the end of Siebren's ability to win a match against him. Harold had just laughed, and called him unlucky, and hey, maybe his luck will turn around next hand, and...
Why does he keep coming back to this?
His smile has disappeared, that same uneasy feeling rising in his throat again to replace it, and he pushes it back down. Not now. There are other, more important matters at hand.
(Xander had likely noticed that; hopefully Seto had not.)
"I doubt any of us would have, but...you take the good when it comes."
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He gives a long-suffering and very fake sigh at the proposal. "Seto, I have not managed to win a full match of gin rummy in years, and I am not so eager to be beaten again." He ends the theatrics with a bit of a smile. Seto had won their tiebreaker hand during the void storm, which made the match his; before that, poker had been the social game of choice in nearly every group Siebren had wound up in. He hadn't played gin rummy since-
Since teaching Dr. Winston to play, all those years ago, and once he'd gotten the rules down, that had been the end of Siebren's ability to win a match against him. Harold had just laughed, and called him unlucky, and hey, maybe his luck will turn around next hand, and...
Why does he keep coming back to this?
His smile has disappeared, that same uneasy feeling rising in his throat again to replace it, and he pushes it back down. Not now. There are other, more important matters at hand.
(Xander had likely noticed that; hopefully Seto had not.)
"I doubt any of us would have, but...you take the good when it comes."