"Better luck next time." Rosie said, amused while Nero tried his best to hold back his laughter at Twinkle's stunned face.

 

"Aw man! Not again!" Twinkle shouted, throwing her cards to the ground grumpily. "Could've sworn I had it this time." she muttered under her breath. This had been the third game she lost- and the fourth game she had played. After winning the first game, the reef Belemoid had gotten cocky and said "best of 3", clearly underestimating her two opponents. 

 

She had stumbled upon the two while in Rekes, running an errand at Bloo's request. She hadn't planned to stop anywhere- that is until it started pouring like there was no tomorrow. She had quickly ran for shelter, usually loving water but *not* in this horrid cold place. Honestly, Bloo should consider himself lucky that she had decided to go at all.

 

Eventually the other two had joined her- likely for the same reason. After some short introductions, Twinkle had whipped out her card deck, and challenged them to a game that Roam had taught her when she was still a whelp.

 

It had taken her a while to explain the rules of the game- the goal being to get rid off all cards in one's had, by placing cards on the pile that matched either the number or the suit, with some cards having a special effect when played.

 

Twinkle huffed, reshuffling the cards. "Well, maybe just one more. Beginner's luck." she claimed, handing out the cards once again.

 

Looking at her hand she quickly realized she had- no special cards whatsoever. Nonetheless, the game began, and Twinkle realized that to win, she'd have to come up with a different strategy.

 

As she was thinking, Nero laid a card onto the stack- a ten of hearts, and gestured at Twinkle. She knew the rules, and soon realized the strategy of simply pretending the rules were different also known as cheating, would not work.

 

She leaned over, showing Nero her cards.

 

"Ay, that's a rough hand." Nero remarked, raising his eyebrows to which Rosie gently nudged her companion. "You're not supposed to say that," she remarked "now I know as well."

 

Twinkle grumbled a little at that. She put down another one of her cards, deep in thought. Maybe distraction would work? Worth a try at least. "So where do you guys come from?"

 

Rosie nodded, distracted by her cards "Hmm? Oh! We're from L'hatzif." she made a small displeased noise, grabbing a card from the draw pile. "We're just here to look for some stuff- we're going home again after. I thought you were also from L'hatzif?" she rambled a little while looking over her cards again, while waiting for Nero to start his turn again.

 

Nero wasn't easily distracted, laying down a regular card before processing what Rosie had said "Yea, I thought I'd seen you before. With that blue friend of yours, right?"

 

Twinkle wasn't entirely sure what to say about that- the bloo friend could be either Bloo or Finn, for starters. Frowning, she continued the conversation. "Ah, yes. We travel quite a bit though. I wouldn't be surprised if you had seen us before." she played her card, another regular one, as she continued "The blue one you mentioned could be either Bloo, our founder I suppose, or Finn."

 

Rosie played her card, smirking, even though Twinkle couldn't quite place why. "Finn is my best friend- so if you've spotted the blue one when you saw me it was probably her. We often go and gather things in the swamp and rivers, since it's easier for us to swim than the others." Neru laid his card down- swapping the suit of cards, and Rosie laid down another card on the ever-growing stack immediately after.

 

Twinkle looked at her hand again, and eventually managed to spot a card that she could add to the stack and did so, smirking. "We've been going out a lot lately because, for some reason, Empress has decided to study seashells?" Rosie raised an eyebrow "What's that for?" to which Twinkle was happy to reply "Oh! She's been saying something about helping another colonist, Koi, make fertilizer for her greenhouse to help her grow some succulents." as she finished her sentence, she realized she almost forgot about her turn, and hurried to lay down a card before the other two noticed.

 

Twinkle kept rambling about her friends for a while, telling the two storied about her friends and the rest of the colony- until she realized Rosie had laid down her last card. She also noticed the weather outside had cleared up- meaning there was no time for another rematch. She sighed "it was fun playing with you, but I have to go now." the three said their goodbyes, and headed off in different directions.