Game Night

It was game night for the Emperor and his sons. Mostly this was board games, but there were some old video games as well. Due to the nature of games, there were almost none that they could all participate in together. It was something that the Emperor lamented frequently, but there was nothing to be done about it. Most games broke down at such large numbers, and the experience wasn't the same when they played as teams to keep their numbers down.
Angron, Corvus, Vulkan, and Alpharius were playing an ancient game called Monopoly. Alpharius was cheating, but only the Emperor knew this. The other three weren't paying as much attention as they should have been.
"Hey!" Angron said. "You're cheating, Alpharius."
"Am not," Alpharius said. "Everything is in the rules."
"I guess," Angron said, though he didn't seem very convinced. He resolved to read the entire rule set for the game.
Jaghatai, Leman, Magnus and Lorgar were playing a video game called Mario Kart. It was a racing game, which automatically made it Jaghatai's favorite game. It was a bit harder to cheat at it than Monopoly. However, Lorgar was no where near as good as Jaghatai. This made him feel a bit bad, because it was never as good to just beat Lorgar. However, he was competitive, and he was only going to ease up a bit for Lorgar.
"Ha!" Lorgar called out as he hit Jaghatai's kart with a blue shell. This caused Jaghatai's kart to spin out and hit the wall. Jaghatai smiled over to Lorgar and waited for his kart to pass before correcting his own. Jaghatai still won the race, Lorgar came in second, his best race so far that night.
"Good job, Lorgar," Magnus said with a smile. Lorgar smiled back at Magnus.
"Thanks," Lorgar said. "It's quite the learning curve for this game."
"That it is," Leman said. He had special issues playing because of Freki and Geri, so it had taken longer for him to fully get the controls.
Perturabo, Konrad, Roboute, and Mortarion were playing Clue. Konrad was secretly hoping to be the killer, but he was almost certain that he wasn't. Roboute wasn't quite as sure, he still had too many theoreticals that were practical for his liking. Mortarion was certain he knew, but he didn't have the rest of the details yet.
"Are these dice weighted or something?" Perturabo asked in annoyance. He had just rolled snake eyes twice in a row.
"I don't think so," Roboute said. "Maybe you offended their machine-spirits."
"They don't have machine-spirits," Perturabo said. "They aren't machines."
"Fair enough," Roboute said, taking his turn.
The Emperor, the Lion, Rogal, and Horus were playing Risk: Unification Wars. It was the most recent version of Risk, though it was more just a map update than a truly new edition of the game. The Lion and Horus were currently the ones squaring off to fight. The Lion really wanted to win, as it would give him a whole region of Terra.
"I have more troops," Horus pointed out.
"That doesn't mean that I can't win," the Lion said. "It's been done many times throughout history. Probably even in history so old we've forgotten it completely."
"Lion's right, Horus," the Emperor said with a chuckle. He did remember how smaller forces had defeated larger forces in various ways throughout the millennia.
"That doesn't mean he'll win here," Horus said. "The game doesn't work the same way as real combat."
"Fair enough," the Lion said. "Let's see what the dice say." They rolled off, and the Lion came in higher, giving him the victory.
"Ha," Rogal said. "Lion gets the region."
Malcador was playing with them to help smooth over numbers. Four players tended to be the best number for most games. He was playing Trivial Pursuit with Fulgrim, Sanguinius, and Ferrus. There hadn't been a new edition of that game made in several millenia, so the Emperor had created his own cards to use with the game. This was so he wasn't the only one who could win.
"...four, a green one," Ferrus said with an exaggerated groan. The green ones were sports questions, and he didn't care for sports. This was even harder than the general culture questions. For the sake of ease, the questions were all based on life on Terra, so that made it somewhat easier.
"Who won the Blood Bowl Championships in 972 M29? Malcador asked.
"I have no idea," Ferrus said. "I don't even know which teams were around in 972 M29."
"The Scarlet Sons," Malcador read the answer. "Seem to be tech-adepts."
"I didn't know the Mechanicum fielded Blood Bowl teams," Sanguinius said.
"They don't any more," Malcador said. "They stopped at the turn of the millennium without much reason."
"YOU ARE TAKING MORE MONEY THAN YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE!" Angron yelled at Alpharius, having caught his brother in the act.
"No I wasn't," Alpharius said, quickly trying to put the money back as if he had just made an honest mistake.
"YOU'VE BEEN DOING IT THIS WHOLE GAME, HAVEN'T YOU?" Angron shouted. Alpharius only nodded, trying to keep Angron from going overboard. It was too little, too late though. Angron flipped the table that they were playing on, causing the game to scatter everywhere.
"Angron!" Corvus said. "I was still going to win, and now all my set-up is gone."
"Sorry, Corvus," Angron said. "How were you going to win?"
"I'm not going to tell you," Corvus said. "I would have to come up with a new strategy for the next game night if I did."
"Fair enough," Angron said. He wanted Alpharius to lose next time they played because of the cheating. The four began picking up the game, Angron apologizing to everyone  else for flipping the table. He then set the table back on its legs, and ensured that there was no damage to it.
"I knew it was Colonel Mustard in the garden with the hammer!" Mortarion declared a few moments later, wrapping up the game of Clue. Konrad pouted a bit about not being the killer.
"I hate Rainbow Road though," Lorgar said.
"It's alright, Lorgar," Leman said. "We can compete to see who falls off more times than the other. Jaghatai and Magnus can try to actually race."
"I like that idea," Lorgar said with a giggle. He was very good at falling off Rainbow Road, so there was a way for him to win with Leman's suggestion. They began the race, Jaghatai and Magnus also fell off, but no where near as many times as Leman and Lorgar. Lorgar did win the most falls off Rainbow Road. Magnus won the actual race, in a last minute red shell upset.
"How long had you been holding on to that?" Jaghatai asked Magnus.
"Only the last third of the race," Magnus said. "I didn't even see any after the one I used on you."
"Fair enough," Jaghatai said, though he had shoved Magnus when the red shell had hit. He was very used to being the winner on Rainbow Road, typically only losing when he was playing against the Emperor. This was the first time any of his brothers had beaten him on that course. They shut down the game system and packed the set up away.
"I have you now!" the Lion declared as he pressed his attack against the last hold-out on the board, controlled by the Emperor. The spot had been a major thorn in the Lion's side for most of the second half of the game. The Emperor rolled low, and lost the battle.
"You win," the Emperor said with a smile. "You are Emperor of Terra."
"So I'm you now?" the Lion asked, jokingly. "And I can sleep as much as I want?"
"No," the Emperor said, chuckling. "You would have to get up even earlier if you were me."
"I don't want to be you then," the Lion said with a chuckle of his own. The Lion, Rogal, and Horus began to pack up Risk, while the Emperor turned to see who would be victorious in Trivial Pursuit. Malcador was winning, the next closest was Fulgrim, though he only had three pieces. Malcador had five and looked to be close to getting the last piece that he needed before going to the middle for the final question.
As the Emperor watched, Malcador got the final piece, and then had to dance around the center of the board until the dice rolled what he needed. He finally made it into the center, and correctly answered the question that Ferrus asked him.
"That was quite impressive, Malcador," Sanguinius said with a smile. He had only gotten one piece the entire game. It was the first game that the Primarchs had played with the "hard" cards. The Emperor had created a separate deck for the Primarchs when they had become interested in the game.
"I've played with the normal deck before," Malcador said. "Though I am pleased that I remembered so many of the questions. It's been awhile since I played."
"I would hope you remember some of those questions," the Emperor said. "You helped me write the expansion so that it played properly beyond two players."
"True enough," Malcador said. He had also been the one to point out that the Emperor had shorted the deck for more than head-to-head competition. They had sat down together, Malcador on the chair he had "stolen", and written the rest of the deck. Malcador shuffled the deck with a bit of flourish. He had taught himself to shuffle cards before he had met the Emperor.
They put the games away, and said good night to Malcador. After the Sigillite left, the Emperor sent the Primarchs to bed. He still had some work to do before he could go to sleep himself, and turned to that. He got a bit distracted by finding a piece of Monopoly money on the floor, it had scattered farther than other pieces of the game when Angron had flipped the table.
"It's like Easter grass," the Emperor muttered to himself. He put the money back in the box, and then got to work.