"A few. As it happens, I even played poker for a living. But that's not simple. Even if you have a better poker than I ever did." Then again, could an angel ever bluff?
"Are you willing to try a child's game, just to get the basic idea?"
Charlie sits. "Poker is a game with bluffing. You have to convince people that you have a good hand when you don't. A face that shows no emotion is useful. And you don't show emotion." At all.
"But Go Fish is a lot more basic." Charlie takes the deck and shuffles like an old hand.
"I don't imagine an angel will be fond of a game with lying. But Go Fish is very honest." He deals out seven cards. "The objective is to build sets of four of a kind. Four three, four sixes, and so on. And each players starts his or her turn by asking the other if he or she has a specific card." Charlie looks at his cards.
"To have the most sets. It works better with more people. And it is a kid's game." In case Castiel thinks it's too simple, Charlie once again reminds him of this.
"But, yes, you should draw one. And if it happens to be a two, you have to show it to me." This is what Charlie remembers from the times he played all those years ago, with a moth-eaten deck in the orphanage.
"Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?"
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"I do not know how to play solitaire."
He spreads a fan of aces, tens, and sevens, alternating red and black, across the upper right corner of the table.
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"What games do you know?" The answer seems evident.
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"I know none," Castiel admits.
"I asked Bar for some sort of quiet activity. This is what it provided."
"Perhaps I should have requested instructions."
But he had kind of wanted to see what he could do on his own first.
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"What kind of game are you looking for? For one, or for many?"
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If anything it is more of an artistic pursuit.
There is a very long pause.
"I do not know," he says at last.
"Whether for one or many, it might be best to start off with something simple."
"Do you know many such games?"
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"Are you willing to try a child's game, just to get the basic idea?"
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To learn anything one must approach it in simple terms. Many a child's game is such an aid to learning.
Castiel gathers up the cards into a pile, and nods an invitation to the empty seat opposite him.
"What is a poker face?" he asks, curiously.
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"But Go Fish is a lot more basic." Charlie takes the deck and shuffles like an old hand.
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He has no real feeling, one way or another on his own expressiveness. But does file the fact away.
Perhaps a poker face will be something that will prove useful.
Castiel watches Charlie shuffle the cards.
"I am not familiar with Go Fish."
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Which is probably a good thing. Castiel is not a very adept liar.
"It is something that humans are more skilled at."
Castiel examines his cards.
"I have three twos. I would therefore ask you if you possess twos, and you are required to answer honestly?"
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"But if I don't have any twos, I will tell you to 'go fish.' Meaning to draw one card."
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Castiel looks from his cards, to Charlie's cards, to the pile on the table.
"I am to draw, then?"
"What is the objective of this game?"
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"But, yes, you should draw one. And if it happens to be a two, you have to show it to me." This is what Charlie remembers from the times he played all those years ago, with a moth-eaten deck in the orphanage.
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"It is not a two," he tells, Charlie.
Just to be sure everything is aboveboard.
"You learned this game as a child?"
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