#dice is Very Excited to find new members of his family who Aren't Fucking Assholes

[xshimaeraxx]

casino cups au where the cupbros're the abandoned kids of this guy/gal -

- and the only thing they (cupbros) have left of them (using them as the char's - who i'll be calling The Depressed Dice, TDD for short - prns here bc. idk this bitch/pos js gives off enby vibes So Hard) is two dice earrings, one baby blue, one pastel red. they each wear one, but only 'round ppl they trust / outside of public bc as kids OTHER, non-Isle I kids, who Knew Who The Dices Are/Were, tried ta destory 'em. :3

and then, king dice, as soon as the cupbros start working at the casino, immediately starts warming up to mugman for A Reason He Can't Explain* 'til eventually mugman starts trusting him enough and shows him their calix animi research (minus all the immortality-related stuff obvi) outside of work, & it's the first time they've met up outside of work and if mugman trusts KD enough to show him Their Research, then surely they trust him enough to wear Their Earring 'round him, yeah?

then, 'cause mugsy's a nervous wreck and KD is halfway too focused on all the research mugs's gathered bc what the fuck, mugshot, how is this actually good?? mugsy therefore MAKES SURE that KD's always standing on the opposite side of their right, which is the side Their Earring is on. but eventually, as mugsy starts to relax, lets their guard down, they forget to hide Their Earring, forget about their nerves entirely, and so when KD turns to ask a question about the encohian notes—

—he sees one of his auntcle's earrings hanging off of the mug's ears, and internally has a mini-mental breakdown. externally, he stares for a few seconds, then grins, too wide, and asks his question to distract poor mugsy, whose danger-instincts have just Fucking Spiked & whose anxiety is therefore thru the roof rn, and mugsy gladly takes the distraction, lets themself be distracted. and then, not an hour later, after KD just can't wait anymore:

"hey, mugsy?"

"yeah, di?"

"where'd, uh—where didja get that earring a'yours?"

"oh—uh, it was my 'n cups's pa's originally, actually, ha! … only real thing we have of 'em, t'be honest."

"… ah. I See."

that next, dice goes home to his and dev's place, and screams into one of their shared king (ha) bed's pillows so hard he can't speak for the rest of the week. the cup gives him worried looks that're identical to the ones TDD used to give him back when he was a kid; the mug looks at him with eyes like his auntcle's and makes him a cup of tea that is. identical to the one TDD made him whenever he got sick (a common occurrence) back when he was like, six. dice ends up droppung his head onto the casino's bar's tabletop because he Will Not Let The Mug See Him Tear Up, Lorddamnit. he then proceeds to spend the next hour gently—more gently then he's ever spoken to either of the cupsiblings, for a matter of fact, and KD winces at that thought, and then promptly makes a silent mental vow to treat his fucking l'il cousins better, jesus christ—reassuring the mug that "no, ya didn't piss me off or upset me or anythin', mugshot. no, you didn't do anything wrong, i swear t'god yer fine—actually, y'know what, would practicing a couple'a card tricks make ya feel better?"

"… maybe."

"aight, so for this trick y'hafta—"

(* The Reason He Can't Explain is that mugman is So Fucking Much like their pa it's ridiculous. like. genuinely, they're a mini-TDD but kinder, a l'il more (somehow) traumatised, w/ a god complex, and slightly more morals, those're like, the ONLY differences. how dice didn't realise the cupbros 'n TDD were related / child(ren) & parent sooner, idk.)