Roaming Central Park [.Open.]

[Mark Cohen]

"Monopoly?!" Mark jumped off the rock and rolled the camera at this little meeting. Ah, the good times he was filming. "We should do that one day. I bet I could beat all your asses," he said smuggly. Of course, Mark couldn't. He was the most awful Monopoly player on the face of the Earth and usually quit halfway through the game. Benny had witnessed most of Mark's major blowouts, for some reason, even on the playing board Mark could not keep hold of cash. He had a feeling people stole from him when he wasn't looking, seriously, he couldn't have lost all that money so quickly. But whatever, the case, he usually had fun the twenty minutes he would be playing. But, if he couldn't play he'd be someone's cheerleader.

He used to root for Benny just to make Roger mad, it was pretty funny, but now he'd have to root for Angel. "But, I guess you know," he brushed his fingernails on the lapel of his coat, "since I'd rather play with a challenge to my superior genius, I'll just sit on the side and root for Angel. She looks like she could take you out Benny, after all, who could make a thousand bucks in ten minutes like an Angel?" he grinned cheekily, plopping on the ground. It seemed more fun than anything else.

[Benjamin Coffin III]

Eyeing Angel for a few moments, Benny lifted his hand. "Alright," He said, "You win yet again. It was destiny for all of us to be here at the same time... to play Hide-and-seek." He shook his head but smiled faintly at her shrugging his shoulders. "And I think playing Monopoly would be a great idea." He added nodding.

He looked at Mark and blinked a few times before laughing. After a few minutes he composed himself and patted Mark's shoulder. "It always helps to be an optimist." He said laughing lightly. He rubbed his face remembering when none of them had anything better to do except play board games. It seemed like it was many years ago although it couldn't have been that long ago. He sighed and shook his head. The odd thing was, the game did seem to parallel their lives pretty well, finacially at least. He glanced at Angel then back to Mark, "Yes, maybe she can take me out, but as far as I know the only person who has been able to almost beat me was Maureen, and I still say she was cheating." He shrugged and smiled to himself putting his hands in his pockets.

[Angel Dumott Schunard]

Angel flashed a wide smile at Benny. "See, I told you! Just like it must be our destiny to all come together and play Monopoly." Hearing Mark cheering her on, she gave him a wink and a laugh for his comment. "What, Mark, are we not good enough to play you?" she asked, pointing between Benny and herself. She had no idea exactly what kind of player he was, being that Angel had only played against Mimi and Collins, but as she viewed Mark, she got the impression that he was falsely boosting his skills.

She gaped when Benny explained Maureen's 'strategy'. "You can't cheat in Monopoly! That's against the rules!" she said, and rather unnecessarily. "Although... sometimes the rules are that you're supposed to purposely cheat, I guess." Angel had read the instructions to Monopoly maybe once or twice, and then she'd never bothered with that sheet again. And so hey, maybe cheating could be on there. She could never recall anything specific on the rules about the way she liked to play with Collins, which often involved lots of whines, pouts, and offering kisses instead of money before completely abandoning the game.

[Benjamin Coffin III]

Benny shook his head and laughed, "Trust me Angel," He said glancing at Mark, "We don't need Mark to play." He leaned closer to her and put his hand up as if to tell a secret, "He kind of sucks." He said in a loud whisper leaning back and smiling at Mark. "You always were good at handing the money out though. I guess that has to count for something."

"Supposed to cheat?" He said and shook his head, "Perhaps but not by taking more money from the bank then you are supposed to. I always said that she was going to end up robbing a bank in real life." He smiled looking around in silence for a moment, "I don't think she really understood the game in the first place. Maybe that was you're problem too Mark. You know you're supposed to keep you're money, right?" He asked grinning down at the filmmaker.

[Mark Cohen]

Mark crossed his arms. He did not suck that badly. Well... maybe he did, but he didn't want people to know that. After all, the meager reputation he did have, he didn't need tarnished. "You're just jealous of my skills," he said, pretending to clean his fingernails on the front of his jacket. He might as well pretend to know something. And he almost inflated as Benny said he could hand out money. "Damn straight I can hand out money. I'm real good at giving it away, it's the keeping it that gets me."

Yea. He sucked. But that was okay. It wasn't like he needed to be a master at monopoly. That wasn't life, right? "And I do understand the game, but you know, I bet you and Roger cheated to try and confuse me. After all, I wouldn't put it past either of you, making me look stupid. It seemed you were bad enough to do it in the first place. Trying to stiff me on my ten dollar bills. Jerks," he murmurmed, lifting the camera and turning it to his face. "Note, the biggest cheater in monopoly accuses me of being ignorant of the game. At least I lose with dignity," the camera turned on Benny, "unlike some people," he grinned, focusing on his friend's face.

[Benjamin Coffin III]

Benny gasped as Mark acused him and Roger of cheating to confuse him. "I would never try to cheat just to confuse you!" I exclamed and shook his head, "You seemed confused to begin with buddy. And thats sort of self centerd to think that. I would cheat for more then just that reason." Pausing Benny added, "Not that I cheated in the first place."

He smiled as Mark turned the camera back on him. "I don't need to lose with dignity." He shrugged looking down and brushing off his jacket causing a very long pause just for effect. "Seeing as I never lose, I mean." He sent anouther smug smile at the camera and shruggged.

[Angel Dumott Schunard]

Angel snickered. "Yeah, maybe. I thought Maureen was off to a pretty good start in that literal cat burglar outfit..." She looked back at the two, and watched them battle back and forth like a tennis match as they heated up. "Hey, hey," she said finally, holding her hands in a stop sign at both of them. "Let's just all cheat, okay? I admit it. I've cheated. A lot. But I guess it's just a game. If it makes you so mad, we don't have to play that one."

She stepped in front of Benny, blocking him from the camera, and looked into it herself. "Mmkay. One lesson learned today: everyone in the world cheats. So seeing as it causes such rivalry between Mark and Benny, we may just have to play something else. Like Scrabble! Or Candyland!" Following Monopoly, these were Angel's other favorite boardgames. She turned away, looking back at the group. "Or we can start on that exciting game of hide-and-seek."

[Mimi Marquez]

Mimi sat watching her friends argue, finding amusement in their denial. "Oh shut up, you all cheated. There, it's settled. Can we play now?" she said, just as Angel finished talking to the camera. The Latina got up and hugged the drag queen's arm, pouting up at her. They were still missing the rest of the group but if they sat around arguing about Monopoly they would never go get them and they'd never get around to hide and seek.

[Angel Dumott Schunard]

Angel glanced down at the dancer hugging her arm and smiled at her, pushing away some hair from Mimi's forehead with her free arm. "Hey, what are you pouting at me for, chica?" she asked, pretending to be slightly offended. "I'm all set for hide-and-seek, but it appears some people would rather argue on cheating skills instead of go hide. Or seek." She tapped her foot, waiting to hear what the result would be. If Benny and Mark didn't stop arguing about Monopoly, then maybe she'd just have to take that game away from them for a while.

[Benjamin Coffin III]

Benny opened his mouth to speak but shut it again as Angel mentioned Hide-and-seek. He crossed his arms and stayed silent as Mimi and Angel started talking. He smiled at them sarcasticly but said nothing. Of course still not so keen on the hide-and-seek idea but he supposed that the arguing could get out of hand, not that things like that usually got out of hand with Mark. It was just a good thing Benny hadn't been arguing with Roger. He looked around for a moment then shrugged, "...I'm done arguing." He said and nodded at the two girls.