After Hours: Elliot, Mid-Turn

Elliot is one of the characters in Camp Arcadia, a free BL visual novel game currently in development.

This short slice-of-life moment explores a quiet afternoon outside the events of the game.

Elliot usually sticks to what he knows.
Games, controllers, screens. Things that keep his hands busy and his head quiet.

But lately, everyone in class has been obsessed with the same thing.

A new card game. Not a videogame. An actual, physical one.

They call it Sparkbound.

It’s everywhere. Cards spread across desks during breaks, arguments about rules whispered like secrets, people trading rare pulls as if they’re contraband. Even guys who never cared about games are suddenly into it. That alone is enough to make Elliot curious.

So one afternoon, he finally gives in.

He ends up on the living room floor, back against the couch, legs stretched out without much thought. Four cards in his hands. Two more lying face-up on the carpet between him and… someone just out of frame. The game is paused mid-turn, frozen in one of those moments where thinking matters more than playing.

Elliot stares at his hand, brows slightly furrowed.

The rules stopped sounding complicated a while ago. Now it’s more about timing. About guessing what the other person is holding. About pretending he’s not overthinking every possible move.

He rolls one card between his fingers, taps another against his thigh. His foot nudges a card on the floor as he shifts, clearly too comfortable for someone who claims to be “taking this seriously”.

“You’re taking too long,” his friend says.

Elliot grins without looking up.

“Strategy,” he answers. “You wouldn’t get it.”

He likes this part. The waiting. The quiet tension. Being close enough to feel someone else’s presence without having to acknowledge it directly. No screen between them. Just cards, carpet, and that charged silence that builds when neither of them wants to blink first.

He finally plays a card. It’s probably not the smartest move. It might even be a bad one.

But the reaction he gets makes it worth it.

Later, when the game ends and the cards are left scattered on the floor, Elliot doesn’t rush to clean them up. He stays there a bit longer, lying back, staring at the ceiling, replaying the match in his head.

Sparkbound might just be a trend.
It might fade in a few weeks, replaced by something else.

Still, he can’t help thinking that some games are better this way.
On the floor. Up close. With someone else sitting just a little too near.

He gathers the cards eventually, stacking them neatly, and leaves them on the floor instead of putting them away.

Maybe he’ll play again tomorrow.