ITP: Poker night

[no_longer_a_king]

Characters: Arturia Pendragon [AU5] and anyone interested in poker!
Setting: Floor thirty-eight. Lounge.
Format: Whatever you want!
Summary: At some point across the timelines, a weekly poker game was established. This is one such night.
Warnings: None as of the moment!

NOTE: Due to how many people wanted in, this is going to work more like the party logs. So just start a thread with a prompt of your own and threadjack away. Poker will surely happen in at least one thread! I hope.

It was only natural that at some point some kind of activity to take everyone's minds off the situation they were stuck in. Arturia had been in the tower so long she couldn't quite remember when it had started or when Monday had been declared Poker Night, but that's what happened. Despite how many people came and went through the Tower, there was a steady stream of people who could be considered regulars to the night. Enough they managed a rotation of who would set up every Monday.

Arturia pulled several of the tables into a vague circle around the lounge then placed decks of playing cards and some poker chips on each table where the dealer would sit. Some weeks, there were enough people that several poker games got set up at once. Other weeks, it was usually only four or five of the regulars huddled around one. It was surprisingly organized given how often the Administrators liked to mess with the residents--like this month. Apparently, Riki saw fit to shrink the Tower down to forty some-odd floors again. There must be some kind of strain on the systems or something like that.

Arturia had long ago stopped questioning the inner workings of this place and managed to settle. Unlike most others, her time in the Tower had been fairly boring. Yes, there was the occasional experiment or crisis, but over the years, as the Administrators figured out what they were doing, they became less and less common. Or so Arturia believed at the moment. The same couldn't be said of everyone, however.

Once she was done setting up, Arturia sat at what would be the head of the table and began to practice shuffling one of the decks, wondering just how much she was going to owe this time. Even with what felt like centuries of experience under her belt, she still, quite frankly, sucked at poker. She still owed a few people their winnings in the form of favors from the previous week and hoped they wouldn't come to collect.

GENERAL INFORMATION:
  • Rules for Poker can be found HERE.
  • General rule of thumb for betting is everyone is given $100.00 worth of poker chips. When you're out of chips you're out for the night. This should not stop anyone from trying to bet other things to stay in, however.
  • Cheaters will have to deal with the business end of Caliburn if caught.
  • If you want your character to collect on a bet with Arturia from the previous week, go ahead. I have no problem playing along. The more ridiculous the better!

Comments

[vermicompost]

[Kariya hasn't come to play. He's not very good at cards in the first place, and he has trouble concentrating long enough to really get involved. But someone's brought him along, and he sits contentedly in his wheelchair, watching the proceedings. He enjoys his role as a spectator and sometime conversation partner. Poker night can be exciting, and he looks forward to it. It takes his mind off other concerns. Watching the others enjoy themselves, he doesn't feel left out or infirm.]

[no_longer_a_king]

Would you like to sit at a table with us or do you wish watch from afar tonight?

[This is how it usually is. Kariya prefers to be a spectator and Arturia and various players usually makes sure he's comfortable. If he ever needs anything he knows all he needs to do is ask. A few players even joke he's their 'lucky charm' when he sits at a table with them.]

[vermicompost]

[He smiles at Arturia. He's grown used to the stark difference between her and her darker counterpart.]

At a table tonight, I think.

[Sometimes, when he's feeling worse, he prefers to keep to himself in the shadows, not liking to be seen or to socialize as much when he's like that, but he feels better today, having seen Ishtar earlier. Her healing does improve his health.]

I've been looking forward to it.

[no_longer_a_king]

[Not so stark, in her opinion, but that was a thought for another day. She gives Kariya a smile and then pushes him to the table she'll be dealer at tonight. Once Kariya says where he wants to sit she never questions him further on the subject because sometimes people need to be alone. She'd check on him, make sure he was comfortable, but if he didn't want to socialize she left him be.

So it gladdened her heart tonight that he wanted to be a part of things. Once she has him at the table and made sure of his comfort, she sits again and continues to practice shuffling.]

I'm glad. You look as if you're doing well today.

[vermicompost]

[To Kariya, the other Saber was, in his opinion, needlessly cruel, and he focused on the differences rather than the similarities between the two– aside from the obvious.]

I saw Ishtar today. She does her best to help me. Her and Rin. They're good to me. I do feel better.

[What Rin does is different, but Kariya knows it's something that sustains his life. He doesn't question her too closely about it. It's best not to ask Rin about certain things, he's found.

Nothing they do can return him to health, however. No one ever arrived in the Tower who was able to do more for him.]

I hope you won't lose as much tonight. Luck wasn't with you last time. [He's sort of teasing, in his gentle way.]

[nightfowl]

[Well, this is certainly right up Haken's alley. a good game of Poker with great company.]

You know I'm always up for a game, Saber.

[no_longer_a_king]

[He's cleaned her out enough. Arturia rolls her eyes, but hands him his chips and deals him in.]

I'm going to win back all that money you took from me, Haken.

[Spoilers: she isn't]

[nightfowl]

I admire your determination, Lady Luck. Always a pleasure to have you smiling down on me from the other end of the table.

You know, you could have lost so much less if all you did was put a date with you on the line.

[Haken chuckles, slightly joking, waiting for anyone else to show up. He wouldn't be HAken if he didn't try that line every week. once.]

[no_longer_a_king]

Yet I am not interested in such things. [Even after all these years, the idea of becoming romantic with someone and what she could do to them frightens her.] So why put down such a thing if I do not wish to give it?

[lightofhumanity]

[Despite his appearance, chaos was ridiculously good at Poker. When you could use telepathy to read your opponents hand and have six thousand years of human psychology to read everyone's tells, it wasn't too hard. The only problem was that..this was chaos's first time here. He had wandered into the lounge out of curiosity, but when he saw a person setting up a table and sitting down at the head of the table to shuffle cards, nostalgia welled up and he wanted to play, even for just a little while, so he walked up to the table. He didn't sit down yet though.]

Good evening. Is it alright if I play as well?

[no_longer_a_king]

Everyone's welcome if they wish to play. Pull up a seat.

[She's going to lose really badly tonight, isn't she?]

[lightofhumanity]

[Yup.]

Ah, thank you. It has been awhile since I have played, so this should be fun.

[chaos pulled up a seat at the table and sat down, waiting for her to deal the cards and for other people to show up.]

[crouching_sin]

[Naoya arrived, in a bit of a stormy mood. He was not having a good day. Week. Month. Year. Decade. He wasn't even sure anymore and it didn't even matter. Still, poker was poker and something to latch onto. He pulled up a chair, brushing his long hair back away from his eyes.]

Deal me in.

[oathshackledbird]

[He doesn't come every time and he never comes to play, but Lancer does sometimes come and when he does, he always pulls up the same shadowed corner to watch from.

He's not really sure why he watches them. Maybe it's because he's jealous of the fun they seem to be having--the excitement they get from such a simple game and the time they spend together.

Maybe he just wishes to remember a time when he could have fun like they are having--dark nights gathered around a table or fire with a drink at one hand and good friends at the other.

Or maybe it's just one of those nights where he needs to be around others lest he forget himself completely and give into the emptiness that has been slowly eating him alive for the last thousand years.

The reason doesn't really matter so much as the fact that he is there. Watching. Waiting. Hoping.

Even if he's not sure for what.]

[no_longer_a_king]

[Arturia sees him and excuses herself from her game. Even if Lancer had become antisocial during the years, she did like to check in on him whenever he showed himself. Even if he didn't play he was a friend and she at least had to make sure he was having a pleasant time.]

How are you this evening?

[Might as well start off polite. He could be so touchy at times.]

[oathshackledbird]

I'm here. I guess that's something.

[Lancer doesn't look down at her as he answers. Instead, he continues to look out at the table she had left.]

I didn't mean for you to leave your game. You should return.

[no_longer_a_king]

[She glances back at the table she left. Already they're continuing without her.]

It's all right. Someone else can take a turn at dealing. It's been a while since we've properly spoken.

[surpassthelimit]

Deal me in, even though I might end up losing my pants before it's over.

[Strings of bad luck were Axel's realm. Why, he might as well be a Lancer.

Whelp, no sense in trying to hide behind weaknesses.]

[no_longer_a_king]

Only if you bet them.

[Hey, it's not like Arturia fairs better on the nights she isn't dealing. She's just that horrible at cards.]

[surpassthelimit]

When you get into the zone, it's hard to get out. It just might happen someday.

[Axel, please. No one wants to see you pantless.]

[no_longer_a_king]

[There are children here!]

I believe several people would make you leave when you started to due to the presence of several ladies at the tables.

[culbutiri]

[Nesir had long since become a regular. Poker wasn't like the card games she had grown up with back home and it involved a lot more luck than she would like but she enjoyed it. It almost reminded her of home, of the temple, sneaking out and playing for Jacin. A world away when she had still been a kid. Ten years in the tower had changed her.]

Deal me in Saber

[no_longer_a_king]

Hello, Nesir.

[Arturia continued to practice shuffling. She'd never really had a chance to play games like this as a child or when she'd reigned as king, but over the centuries in a tower like this it gets to the point where one will do anything to pass the time.

She finishes shuffling and begins to deal.]

How have you fared this week?

[culbutiri]

[Nesir took the cards dealt to her with a smirk before answering.] Things do be going alright, wish I knew what our hosts did be planning though. How about you?

[no_longer_a_king]

Well, considering everything. I wish I knew as well. It seems that Riki is in charge this month, as there are fewer floors here today than there were last week.

[From what Arturia recalls, she remembers there being over two hundred floors--and the elevator stopped on all the safe floors.]