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The sounds of shuffling cards filled the quiet room, the deck moving through skilled hands covered by purple gloves. 

“Always shuffle three times,” the villain said to himself. “That’s how you insisted it be done, right?” 

He lifted a card then, The Ace of Diamonds. Though it wasn’t your standard ace. There was someone depicted on the card, well, two someones if you wanted to get technical.

Upright, it showed a confident looking raven-haired man in a tailcoat suit, covered in jewelry with a small crown on his head. He had the wings of a shrike, mostly grey with black on the tips of his wings, divided by a streak of white. There was a mask covering one of his eyes and the area around it, though it left the rest of his face exposed. His outfit was very tasteful, stylish one could say. And it looked nice with his shoulder length hair put up in a ponytail like that. 

The peacock avian would admit, he quite enjoyed Hermes' hero outfit. It suited him. Though…

He flipped the card around as he set it on the table he was sitting at, showing a different reflection of the hero. 

While the upright position showed a confident, stylish man, the reflection when the card was flipped showed something a bit different. Still confident, but much more chaotic, more energy, a flamboyance that would rival even that of himself. The reflection stood stronger, lips twisted in an almost cruel grin while the upright hero had something much more dazzling. 

He really does think Hermes, Quackity, looked better letting his more cutthroat nature show. 

One. 

Two. 

Three more times he shuffled the deck, pulling out his next card. 

Ah, how delightful!

Ignoring the continued roaring of the building crowd outside his quiet office, the villain set his next card down almost gently. Maybe even with a hint of fondness. 

This card, one of the two jokers in the deck, depicted a brown-haired man with a guitar in his hands. He was dressed much more modest than Hermes, wearing grey and dark blue colors under a brown trench coat with a hood over his hair. He wore tinted goggles over his eyes to better conceal the top half of his face. He tried to keep his identity hidden, but the peacock avian doesn’t think he’ll ever forget those wings. 

Mostly blue and black with the very tips of his flight feathers being white, the magpie avian looked oh so quiet and reserved as a hero. Though, he knew better than anyone how chaotic this particular wild card could be. 

Apollo, Wilbur, was quite the opposite when he flipped the card. Wild explosive madness depicted with an altered outfit, the guitar in his hands no longer being used to protect but to spread chaos. Such an interesting little power he had, the villain did commonly wonder how much the hero would do if he just let go. 

Regardless, he shuffled three more times, the second joker appearing. 

Oh he was so proud of this one, the card depicting his likeness in all his free, flamboyant glory. No longer chained by his past, no longer feeling lost. He was wild and uncontrolled, his upright being as he was now, his villain persona grinning back at him. All kinds of pastel colors framing his ever distracting tail feathers. As if a thousand eyes stared back at him. 

As for his reverse well…

He felt no need to bother. He wasn’t like that anymore. He cast off his chains long ago. 

The villain paused as he set the second joker down, tilting his head curiously at the three cards. 

Strange…he felt as if something was missing. Which was unusual, he never got this feeling when he played with his deck. 

Perhaps his instincts wanted to tell him something. 

The peacock avian shuffled three more times, spreading the cards out in front of him on the table. The crowd grew louder outside as there was a knock on his door. 

“Sir-” 

“Quiet,” the villain snapped, gazing at the face down cards as his feathers ruffled. “I’m almost done.” 

“... Very well. I was just instructed to inform you that we are ready to begin when you are.” 

“Excellent,” he responded, letting his hand slowly glide over his cards. “Most excellent. I will be out shortly.” 

“Yes sir.” 

And he once again found himself in, for the most part, silence. 

Eventually he paused on one card, picking it up and flipping it over to see what it was. 

“Odd,” the villain muttered to himself, tilting his head curiously. 

The King of Clubs, how intriguing. 

He placed the card next to the other three, feeling a weird sense of satisfaction with it. The card was blank, not yet finding the right person to depict on the card. Though the meaning was not lost on him. He had listened to a certain someone’s rambling on and on about card symbolism to know this particular card. 

The suit of clubs is strongly associated with masculinity and fire, along with the acquisition of knowledge beyond what one should know. It’s the suit of summer, of youth and recklessness. A strong representation of courage and strength. 

And The King of Clubs specifically…

Strength, power, and determination; representing the qualities of leadership and confidence. The kind of person who takes charge and makes things happen when they need to happen. On a normal playing card, The King would hold a sword that represents his intellect. 

Despite the reckless association, people ruled by the suit of clubs have sharp minds suited for battle and victory. 

How interesting that out of all cards, it was this one he picked. After all, when this card appears to you it’s said to be a call to action of sorts. It was the kind of card that said the time is right. 

How wonderfully, delightfully, deliciously interesting. 

The idea had his instincts positively purring at the notion of the time being right. About not having to wait anymore. 

The peacock avian heard a loud roar from the crowd outside, clearly getting restless. 

He chuckled. 

Perhaps it was just his deck’s way of telling him that it was showtime. But when associated with his two favorite heroes and himself? 

Hm…

He’ll keep that information in mind for later. 

The villain stands, collecting his deck and carefully tucking the cards inside one of the hidden pockets of his tailcoat, the zipper cleverly hidden among the multiple pastel patterns and colors that made up the psychedelic nightmare that was the inside of his black coat. Meant to disorient and distract any who glimpsed at it. He had multiple hidden pockets like that among the swirls and stripes, zigs and zags.

Hearing shuffling from outside his door, the peacock avian hummed a small familiar tune to himself as he fixed his gloves and slid his hand along his table as he walked towards his coat hanger, picking up his top hat and purple mask that matched his gloves. 

The top hat was a miniature one with one of his old tail feathers tucked on it. It was smaller than his tail feathers now, probably about the size one would expect from a normal peacock feather. Which meant it was still ridiculously large compared to the hat itself. 

He found the idea fun, putting the hat on near the small crest on his head that also came from his peacock nature. He then slid on his mask, the lavender purple a perfect match to his gloves and providing some color to his mostly black outfit, including the black dress pants and armored undershirt. The sudden striking colors of his tail and the inside of his coat were normally enough to confuse and stun his enemies due to the sharp contrast when compared to his almost entirely black outfit. 

He couldn’t help himself really, he liked being showy. 

The peacock avian took a deep breath, flaring his wings out and flapping them a few times to stretch since he had been sitting in his chair for so long. He quickly folded them back in, normally keeping his more plainly colored wings tight against his back since the beige colors tended to raise questions. 

No, there wasn’t something wrong with his wings. Yes, peacock wings weren’t the same colors as the rest of them. Get over it. 

The villain shook his head, starting to get ticked off as he recalled the last set of questions he had gotten over it-YES HE COULD FLY DAMNIT. 

Deep breaths, he reminded himself. Enough of this, let’s get this show moving. 

And with that, he stepped outside of his office and made his way to the balcony, giving his underlings a nod to start things up. 

“Ladies and gentlemen!” One of them called over the speakers with a microphone. “Welcome one and all to our opening ceremony! It’s a joy to have you all here.” 

The peacock avian stood behind the curtains of the balcony, straightening out his costume as he prepared, his feathers tingling with his excitement as the crowd quieted. 

“What an impressive turnout we have! So many villains, I think I see some vigilantes in there, and, oh my! One or two heroes even! How scandalous, whatever would the Hero Committee think?” 

Cue roaring laughter that made the villain’s instincts want to shrink up on him. But he held firm, doing some stretches as he prepared for his cue. 

“Either way, no matter what walk of life you’re from, leave all of that at the door. This is a place of neutrality where anyone can come and do business, gamble, and spend their time. I’d like to casually remind any potential spies for the Hero Committee that we have guards crawling all over the building and surrounding tunnels so if you managed to sneak in here, good luck getting out. I’m sure there are many in our lovely audience who would also be happy to teach you a lesson or two.” 

Multiple jeers and shouts of encouragement came from the crowd then. And he couldn’t be happier to hear it. 

“Anyways, I wouldn’t want to bore you all and keep you from your fun for much longer, so I’m just going to wager that you all know the rules of this place. And give you a quick reminder of who your host is.” 

The peacock avian felt giddy, his tail feathers already wanting to flare out in preparation. He could feel the crowd’s building excitement. 

“The villain who heroes fear the name of, the man who came and tamed the villain underworld with a deck of cards and a deadly touch. He founded this place, he runs it, and under his roof you better be ready to pay the price for breaking a rule. You know him, you love him, everyone’s favorite playful peacock avian who’s willing to put a bullet through the number one hero’s head-” 

Ha! He did do that, didn’t he? 

“-I can feel everyone's excitement to see our wonderful host and the boss of this here casino! So how about we give him a warm welcome as I hand off this microphone? C’mon! Let him hear you!” 

The crowd roared and clapped, the sound of stomping feet and shouts of his name making the villain absolutely cackle in giddy delight. 

“Everyone please welcome the one, the only-” 

Karl couldn’t help the smirk that graced his features as he ran forward and threw the curtains open while flaring his tail feathers out, bathing in the spotlight as his name was roared. 

“FREEZE TAG!” 

The villain laughed as he danced around the balcony, swaying his tail feathers and gesturing wildly to encourage the crowd’s hype. The bright lights and beautiful glinting gold of his casino greeted him as he performed for his crowd. 

Quickly seizing the microphone and waving his underling off, he kept going. Strutting around the balcony and letting his tail feathers stay flared out on full display to capture the eyes of every person present. 

“Well hello there everyone!” He called, earning himself some more cheers. “Let me hear some noise!” 

The peacock avian almost flinched back at the roar that followed, but his grin never faltered as he paused, leaning forward and putting a hand up to his ear, “What’s that!? I can’t hear you!” 

He smirked as the crowd got even louder, suppressing the instinctive desire to run and hide from all the loud noise. He was a performer at heart, he wasn’t running away from the equivalent of a standing ovation. 

“Much better!” He said into the microphone, rattling his tail feathers and silencing the audience. “I’m sure you all know me by now, yes. I’m Freeze Tag, the owner of this casino and your host tonight. Thank you all for coming!” 

Respectful clapping followed, causing Karl to nod as he continued to walk across his balcony and play up his excitement. 

“As my lovely assistant just told you, this casino is meant to be a neutral space where everyone leaves what they are at the door,” he explained. “But if there are any heroes in the crowd who want to sell out the Committee to me, I’m more than happy to allow some exceptions.” 

He winked then, knowing that the screens all over the casino would show the action. It earned some laughter from the crowd, not that he was really looking at them or cared that much. 

The villain kept his grin up, “Now then, all jokes aside, we're perfectly allowed to exchange and trade information in these walls. In fact, it’s quite encouraged! But try to sell me out and you’ll personally discover why the number one hero flinches whenever my name is said.”

That earned him some whistles and cheers, his inner bird absolutely preening at all the attention and causing his feathers to puff up slightly in pride. Though he wishes the damn thing would make up its mind on if it wanted to run from the noise or soak in the praise and attention.  

“Let’s all remember to have fun tonight,” he reminded, gesturing to the whole casino as he spoke. “This place is designed for entertainment and pleasure. We have food, we have drinks, we have gambling, and for all those introverts who got dragged along by your friends, we’ve got some lounges in the back you guys can go enjoy some drugs in. Hell, we’ve even got some places for anyone tired to nap in. There are games, you can rent out tables to party at with your friends, and plenty of people to talk to.” 

“Any complaints should be deferred to your nearest trash can, 'cause you won’t find anything to complain about ladies, gents, and anyone who doesn’t identify as such. But if your machine does start to act a bit froggy we’ve got plenty of friendly staff who are more than willing to come and check it out,” he continued. “Oh, but if I find out that any of you are harassing my staff for silly reasons I’ll string you up by your organs and leave the vultures to do the work for me.”          

The crowd seemed to heed the warning well, causing the villain to clap his hands together as best he could with the mic still clasped in one, “Excellent! Now that all of that is out of the way, heed your rules and warnings, remember that nothing can escape my eyes in these walls-” 

He rattled his tail feathers to emphasize the point, drawing attention to the eye-like patterns on his plumage that served as a clever warning and a lovely little joke. 

“-And welcome to the InBetween Casino! It’s lovely to have you here for the grand opening!”