(Open Log) You gotta know when to hold 'em

[bindlestifflost]

Who: George Milton, Nick Valentine, and anybody who shows up
When: April 22, starting around 6 PM until
Where: Apartment A-3
Summary: A night for playing cards, drinking beer or b.y.o.b. if harder, snacks and unwinding. Feel free to thread jack and jump all around, at least in my threads. This is just for some relaxed down time and catching up or introductions in a smaller, casual space.
Warnings: None expected. If your characters get to discussing anything triggery or get up to anything spicy, please CW in your individual threads.



Over the past week or so, hand printed signs drawn in sharpie on plain paper have shown up taped to walls around the apartment complex and on any easily accessible bulletin boards at ADI. A couple of them were also delivered to the flophouse with the request they be displayed somewhere the residents might see them.

They read:
Cards and Beer
Friday April 22 6 PM
Apartment A 3
George and Nick's place
You want more than beer
or chips and popcorn
bring your own.
Extra decks appreciated.

The night of, the door to A 3 is propped open. In addition to the dining table, a couple of card tables and cheap folding chairs are set up for games. Two bowls on the coffee table contain chips and popcorn respectively. There's a cooler on the floor in the kitchen filled with ice and cheap beer.

George or Nick will greet people as they come in and tell them to make themselves at home.

((OOC: Feel free to top level with your own character and make whatever prompts you like. George is generally easy-going, but if he catches anyone stealing, getting too hot and heavy in a bedroom, or otherwise being a general jerk about the apartment or the other guests, he will try to throw the offender out. If you want that kind of thread or want to succeed at something nefarious, let me know so we can work it out.))

Comments

[demonicmiracle]

[Martin is doing his best and we're all proud of him.]

Didn't you have all of two jacks a couple rounds back?

[He's so rude, but he's mostly teasing. Martin can probably take it.]

[lowficharm]

[This happens to Martin on the daily, so like, it's fine. Honestly, Crowley reminds him a bit of Tim back in the good days before everyone hated each other. It's nostalgic, even if it means he's getting bullied.]

A good hand is relative! It's all about what everyone else has, you-- you know that!

[He looks offended, and then takes a moment to think if Crowley does know, and it shows for a second until he's back at it. No. Crowley has to know. That's how the game works.]

[demonicmiracle]

[Crowley makes a vague, non-committal sound, idly fussing with the cards in his hand like he couldn't care less about them, which is partially the point.]

I know all sorts of things.

[He has approximate knowledge of many things.

A pause for dramatics, before he grins.]

Like that you're full of it.

[lowficharm]

[Martin purses his lips like he's holding in saying something very insulting, but doesn't. This guy. This guy.]

Like that you're just trying to mess with me. Throw me off my game. Well, it won't work.

[He looks back at his hand for a moment, this time vaguely considering before looking back at Crowley.]

So? What is it, then, bet or fold?

[demonicmiracle]

[No, no, say the mean thing, it'd only make things better.]

I was trying to be helpful.

[Whether that's true or not will forever remain a mystery, but he almost looks sincere about it. As sincere as Crowley can get when he's in a conversation with anyone who isn't Aziraphale.

But he doesn't consider the question, humming as he regards Martin, rather than the cards.]

Let's start with twenty. [He slides a couple of chips into the center of the table.] Haven't got much to lose.

[lowficharm]

[No!! Not yet!! He can't be a little shithead until he knows you. Then he can be a massive shithead. But not yet. Martin does his best to look like he's really considering what Crowley's saying, and then slides some chips in as well.]

Thirty, then. No need to get hasty with it.

[See, look, he's... learning? Maybe? Maybe this just means he doesn't have any good cards.]

[demonicmiracle]

Ooooh, big spender.

[This is why Aziraphale has been actively sabotaging him, because Crowley deserves to be actively sabotaged. He gets too much enjoyment out of being a bastard. The worst kind of enrichment. Someone get him a puzzle toy.]

Might as well make it forty, then.

[He'll toss a couple extra chips on the pile. Mostly he's just having fun, now, he doesn't really care if he wins.]

[lowficharm]

[Martin tends to be a puzzle toy for bastard enrichment, so like, this makes complete sense. At least he was for his former boss for the better part of a decade. He glowers just slightly, not taking his eyes off Crowley.]

Fine. Fifty.

[Who knows what he's doing at this point.]

[demonicmiracle]

[At least this bastard probably isn't going to ruin his life.]

Are you betting or holding an auction?

[Every day he wakes up and chooses violence.]

[lowficharm]

[Probably. Except for right now. This is very much ruining his life.]

If it was an auction, I'd be bidding on the value of your hand, which I'm sure isn't very good. So bet or not.

[His words are so pointed for someone who is trying to pretend this isn't getting under his skin.]

[demonicmiracle]

[At the end of the day, winning a game of poker is fun and all, but what's more fun is properly annoying someone, and that's about where his decision-making is at right now.

He hums, seeming to consider his options, looking Martin up and down as if judging him is the most important factor.

And then Crowley places his cards face down and shrugs.]

I'll fold. The pot's all yours, mate.

[Casual as anything, because he's hoping the anticlimactic ending is going to annoy Martin more than winning or losing would have.]

[lowficharm]

[Sorry, Crowley, Martin's in for a win no matter how that win takes shape. So he grins wide, sweeping the winning towards him with a gleeful little look.]

Jokes on you, I had nothing! A two and a four! And you said I couldn't lie.

[If Crowley stays calm about it, it might put him out a little. But he's been pitied enough in his life to just take whatever he's given, no matter how he gets it.]

[demonicmiracle]

[It's very tempting to continue to be blasé about the whole situation, but unfortunately Martin's enthusiasm reminds him of Aziraphale, so Crowley ends up tipping his head in acknowledgment with a huff of laughter.]

Well played. I had all of a pair of eights, so it'd have been a disappointing win either way.

[lowficharm]

[Eventually, the four of them need to meet and realize they could have been the other couple if only a couple things were different. As it stands, they both fit into a number of tropes and Martin is absolutely The Aziraphale One of the two.]

Heh. Sometimes it just, uhm-- happens like that, you know? It's so rarely all, all dramatic and things like that. Just stuff here and there, but uh-- not going to get all philosophical over a game of cards.

[But he's smiling, so like... it works.]

Want to go in for another round?