The Most Dangerous Game (Titus)

[Casimir Elias Karkaroff]

15 March 2025

Casinos were typically too ostentatious for Cas’s tastes – the glittering locale, the flashy crowds, the high-stakes games. There was too much noise, too much excitement, too much light for the man to be truly comfortable. He operated more fluidly in the shadows of Knockturn Alley, in the secluded private collections of wealthy individuals, and in the isolated areas across the world that housed ancient relics. It was only in the darkness that he could truly shine, and it was in the darkness that he had forged his brand. But he wasn’t here to gamble – at least, it wasn’t his intention this time around.

Cas easily navigated his way through the crowds, weaving through packs of well-dressed individuals (this was not his first rodeo - the casino was very popular with some of the purebloods he rubbed elbows with). He’d gone rather subtle himself, with a nice jacket but nothing that could make him stand out. Being the center of attention had never been his style…his method of charming people required a much subtler touch. His gaze scanned the room before finally locating his intended target – it only took a moment longer to sidle up to the man he’d come to see. He settled his expression to appear unreadable, no emotions visibly flickering across his face (although perhaps his eyes betrayed him). “It’s never difficult to find you,” Cas murmured in his characteristic soft but smooth tone. “You’re always the biggest one in the room.”

@titus

[Deleted]

People could say what they wanted about casinos; Titus knew they weren’t everyone’s cup of tea. The glitz and the glitter had been hard for him to adjust to at first, too – after running a back-room gambling ring in Durmstrang it was uncomfortable to be so open about what he was doing, but at the end of the day, the casino was Titus’s natural habitat. Cunning could get you anywhere, but it worked even better in the casino, where being able to pick apart your opponent’s motivations and skills could lead to a big win. Or a big loss – but Titus rarely lost.

Nowadays Titus didn’t play as often as he’d like; he focused instead of flitting from table, smile on his face as he chatted about banal things with the pureblood elite who liked to waste a fraction of their fortune on gambling. It was amazing how much more people were willing to put down if Titus was watching a game. It was almost like they believed they’d gain his respect by being a high roller, which was… concerning. Helpful for him and his profit margin, but still somewhat concerning.

Ti was observing one such game – poker, a Muggle game that purebloods liked to forget was Mugglish – when a man appeared at his elbow. Titus didn’t often let people get so close to him (security hassle and all), but Casimir was an exception. Besides, you had to get close to Cas in order to hear him. “Blame genetics.” Titus had gotten used to being, as Cas said, the biggest one in the room. He had been since his first growth spurt, and the second had made him broad as well as tall. Cas wasn’t a small man by any stretch of the word, but Titus was still a half-foot taller than him. “What brings you into my den of sin today?” Titus asked, voice light. He doubted Cas would ever call the casino such, but it was fun to pretend.

Casimir Elias Karkaroff

[Casimir Elias Karkaroff]

Cas had found Titus observing a poker game, so he swept his eyes over the players. His family wasn’t particularly well-acclimated with many of the pureblood hobbies – his mother was something of a recluse and her ‘lessons’ for the young children had usually consisted more of old adages than actual advice. He’d had to teach himself what it took to fit in among the purebloods, and later instruct his siblings. Poker had been a game he’d first picked up at Durmstrang after befriending Ti – it was exactly the type of game that Cas thrived at, although his old friend played on another level entirely.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. I can’t imagine it ever got you into trouble,” Cas responded to Ti’s short answer. It was remarkable at times how similar yet different the two men could be, which became most obvious in their conversations. Cas supposed he could be considered soft-spoken, but Titus knew how to fill a room with just the sound of his voice. Although Cas was directing his words at his friend, he kept his eyes fixed on the poker table. It reminded him greatly of his occupation – finding the perfect balance between being the most capable player at the table without letting anyone know it.

Titus’s question caused a small snort to escape from Cas, although his expression remained neutral with a mild dose of interest. Titus always knew how to add that dramatic flair to his questions. “Asked and answered,” Cas replied succinctly. “I came to find a little trouble. And to bring gifts, of course.” He reached into his jacket and carefully removed a folded-up piece of parchment. He’d found it tucked away into a back corner of the store, and a simple enchantment had been enough to get it ready for Ti. Cas looked around the crowd that had gathered around the casino owner. “I’m surprised to find you here, instead of a seedy room in the back.”

@titus

[Deleted]

The corner of Titus’s mouth turned up just the slightest bit when Cas commented that being the largest person in the room wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It was certainly bad for subtlety, but Cas knew that, hence his follow up about getting into trouble. “I don’t need to be big to get into trouble, arkadaşım,” Titus said, smile growing into something distinctly canine. Even if he was smaller and softer-spoken like his friend, Ti was sure he would still manage to get tangled in some scheme or another. Casimir had managed it, after all. Titus made note of his friend watching the game; no doubt he was weighing the odds of who would win. This game would be a loss for the house. The man two seats counterclockwise from the dealer was shrewd and seemed to have learned the other players’ tells – including the man to the left of him who had a slight twitch in his index finger every time something he disliked happened on the table.

His question about the den of sin brought a snort out of Cas, which Titus counted as a win. Getting the other man to loosen up was a job for a much more patient man than Titus, but he was doing the best he could. That train of thought was quickly derailed when Cas said he had brought gifts. “What do you want from me?” He asked, lifting an eyebrow. He doubted Cas had an ulterior motive (this time) but his friend did have some rules for life, and one of them was likely ‘don’t accept gifts without knowing the price’ or something like that. Ti didn’t often listen when Cas got going about his life rules; they lived their lives differently despite similar pasts, and what worked for Cas didn’t work for Titus.

“I don’t have any seedy back rooms,” Ti answered breezily. That was an entire lie, but Cas knew that already. “Care to play a round?” The game had ended, just as Ti had suspected, with the man two seats from the dealer winning the pot. The man to his left shouldn’t have folded, and he would’ve won, but Ti wasn’t going to tell him that. They didn’t need a brawl breaking out, and with the sum at stake, that was a distinct possibility. Titus didn’t wait for Cas’s answer, relieving the dealer of his position and preparing to begin the game.

Casimir Elias Karkaroff

[Casimir Elias Karkaroff]

It wasn’t often that Cas was truly surprised anymore. He made it his business to know everything he required for his work, and rule #4 (never ask a question you don’t know the answer to) meant he walked into every situation armed with what he needed. His friendship with Titus could be disconcerting at times if only because the other man had been given time to understand how Cas functioned. The Karkaroff had made it his business to keep secrets, but it alarmed him at times the way Ti could predict some of his behaviors. It took everything Cas had not to laugh when Ti shot back ‘what do you want from me’ in response to his mention of gifts.

He wasn’t wrong that Cas didn’t believe in free things, although it wasn’t something that they necessarily agreed on. Cas was a hoarder – he knew it, and it didn’t embarrass him. He amassed relics the same way he did information and favors…never knowing when it might pay off, but keeping it close until he could find a use for it. Titus was more of a giver than Cas could ever be – his view of using power if one had it to make a difference was incompatible with Cas’s preference for observation. Titus was a man of action, someone who moved right away if he possessed the right tools for the right situation. So his question was justified enough.

Cas was able to keep it together and stop himself from laughing. Titus was right, although Cas wasn’t hasty enough to ask for anything right away. This in mind, he responded with a teasing tone, “a thank you would be nice.” He gave a small crooked smile before folding his hands behind his back, parchment still in hand, to observe the end of the game. Titus had been eyeing the eventual winner for some time now, although it was hardly a great surprise to Cas that his friend was capable of adeptly identifying who could bluff their way through.

Titus didn’t wait for an answer before beginning to set up the next game. Cas had opened his mouth to politely refuse, but he closed it and shrugged. “I could stand to win a few galleons,” he said instead, although his gaze turned conspiratorial as he shot Ti a sly look. “I didn’t take you for the spectator type. Too afraid to lose at your own casino?” Cas paced around the table and dropped his gift to Titus at an empty seat. He tapped it with his wand and watched as the parchment folded into a paper representation of the Burke family tree. After it finished sprouting, the final branch displaying Titus and his siblings, Cas smoothly sat down at the last empty seat and motioned for an employee to come and deal him his chips.

@titus

[Deleted]

Cas said he wanted a thank you in return for his gift, which Titus didn’t believe for a moment. He hadn’t taken the gift from his friend yet, and thus hadn’t had a chance to figure out how much he was in for at some undefined later date, but Ti smiled nonetheless. “Thank you, Casimir.” And if using his friend’s full name was a bit of a jab, no one but the two of them had to know it. Ti doubted many people who frequented the casino would be comfortable calling Cas anything other than his surname, so it wasn’t like he was setting a poor example.

To Titus’s pleasant surprise, Casimir didn’t turn away the chance to play, saying he could stand to earn a few galleons. The pleasure quickly soured, though, when Cas began to taunt him. “I don’t lose, Karkaroff. You know this.” Even when he lost battles, Titus always won the war. It had been that way since he started his gambling ring in Durmstrang. Still, Titus wasn’t above rising to his friend’s clear taunting, and he abandoned the dealer’s chair to sit where Cas had placed his gift. Titus’s eyes flicked down to see his own name written on parchment, connected to a plethora of other names. His family tree. An interesting gift. Ti immediately began pondering what possible message Cas could be sending with the present; it had to mean something, coming from someone like him.

Chips were put in front of both himself and Casimir, and Titus’s eyes flicked around the table. The winner of the last round had absconded and a woman with blood-red nails and a shrewd look about her had taken his place while he and Cas had been bantering. She was the only unknown in this situation; Titus’s observation of the previous game put him at an advantage here. The dealer dealt the first round of cards, and Titus only barely glanced at them. Poker was as much about your demeanor as the actual cards you had, and Ti was in his element. He had his tells, as everyone did, but only one person at the table came close to knowing all of them.

Casimir Elias Karkaroff

[Casimir Elias Karkaroff]

As was customary with most people who lived to be the center of attention, the best weapon for Cas to neutralize them was to hold his tongue. He despised the use of his full name, although it was rarely an issue. Most purebloods called him by his family name, and everybody else stuck to the use of his nickname. But Titus knew all this, and his jab was only one move in the game they played of faux-torture and throwing barbs at each other.

Instead of responding, Cas carefully monitored his friend’s reaction to the parchment he’d brought. Like most of Cas’s actions, it was a calculated move with an underlying meaning. Of course, he liked bringing Titus interesting things that he found in the store from time to time, and the gift had been chosen because of the importance of family to both men. Cas’s family, on his part, bound him to his duty. They couldn’t see the big picture game he was playing, but ultimately, he made his choices thinking about them. Titus was similarly protective of his siblings. But Cas couldn’t deny his curiosity, wondering how rattled or composed Ti would be after receiving the gift.

Titus responded quickly to Cas’s teasing, and the Karkaroff idly began to sort his chips by denomination. When Ti smiled, he could look downright predatory. Cas’s own smirk, which had been on full display since his last comment, seemed to suggest that the man knew something you didn’t. “Neither do I. Borgin thought so too.” Low blow? Probably. But even Titus wasn’t immune to Cas’s somewhat darker tendencies, little techniques developed from years of becoming a notable player in the wizarding world’s murkiest corners.

There was no doubt in his mind that Titus was going to find some clever way to return the insult, so Cas redirected to study the other players. A woman had already sat down at the table, and she held Cas’s gaze intensely until he looked away to eye the last player. The woman was clearly an heiress of some sort, judging by her fine clothes, but the man who had taken the last seat was markedly different. He looked to be exactly the type of client that would try to pawn counterfeit goods at Cas’s store. Shifty gaze, clothes that on closer inspection betrayed his shabby nature, and a tight jaw that suggested he often grinded his teeth. Cas exhaled slowly. This game would require his absolute concentration, if only because Titus had become quite adept at studying how Cas’s face could betray his thoughts. He lifted his cards slowly to note his hand before lowering them again. Looks like he’d have to start bluffing early.

@titus