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

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

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.))

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Jaeger accepts the can, popping it open and performing the same quick interception of the foam that bubbles up. He's a bit neater and more precise about it, but with the same effect.

Jaeger understands minimalist entirely too well, though the cast iron skillet gets a second look and a faint smile. The most useful piece of cookware someone can have, he appreciates that even though it's been entirely too long since he's had a real kitchen for any length of time.

"I've only just met him, but he seems nice enough," Jaeger agrees thoughtfully. "I'm still meeting a lot of people for the first time, too. Some, I've at least seen at orientation, but never really spoken to."

He tends to keep his head down, at work, and knows not everyone is quite as...invested in their profession as he is. While he does his best, sometimes he just doesn't get to it.

"But between living together and working together, and not being able to leave town, it's good to have some mingling. Getting to know each other, because we're all stuck here."

"Been hearin' a lot a' that," he says, backing up until he's in a comfortable lean against the counter behind him. He takes another swig of beer. "Things've been busy with bad news. Fightin'." He nods off towards Winter out there in the living area.

He nods. "Truth is that's prob'ly the hardest thing for me to get used to so far. Bein' settled in one place." Already, his feet were itching to carry him elsewhere. He has been on the move for so long he doesn't know how to do anything else.

"Afore I forget, thanks again for that day. I never did give you a real proper thank you for it. You'll find me more cooperative if we ever wind up in a bind in the same place again." Not that Jaeger was in the bind. He believes he'll know what he means.

Jaeger nods solemnly. It's not his place to spill the details of some of what's been going on, but George is new. He's still getting his feet. In time, he'll be able to judge for himself how much he wants to get involved with.

For now, that's work, and this is relaxing. As much as it can be separated from the usual day to day.

"I'm glad I was able to help. It's not an easy situation, but sometimes just a friendly face makes it a little easier." A beat. "And coffee." Because always, coffee. Familiar, grounding things. Jaeger understands exactly what George is trying to get across, and it brings a small smile to his face, a quiet sort of relief that he did some good.

"You're used to moving around a lot, then?"

"Ain't much coffee can't help," he says, agreeable and with another quick grin.

"Yeah. I was a migrant farm worker afore this. Jes' followed the work up and down during the harvest and planting seasons. Laid up somewhere in winter to wait it out." That was always the leanest time.

"What'd you do?" The scars say something dangerous. Not that it's an easy thing to guess. He's seen farm workers scarred to hell and back, missing hands, feet, parts of their faces. Life is dangerous all over and in a lot of different ways. That's not counting the veterans back from France and other fronts.

It's definitely easier and more comfortable between them with the stress of first arrival broken, and Jaeger is content with that.

"Not easy work," he comments thoughtfully, following it with a nod. "But it's doing work that needs to be done." Jaeger respects that. He may have been born into wealth, but he'd also been schooled in appreciation for the work others do. His father had been, for all the old man's faults, a practical and dedicated man in his own way. Traits he passed on to his son, along with general rules of proper respect.

Jaeger pauses to take a sip of his fresh beer, before he answers the question, because he has to think of how to frame it. his job now, or his job before? He's still not always sure himself of what's critical, what part of his career defines him the best.

And maybe it's a little worrying that his work does define him, but it's always sort of been that way. He just didn't always think about it so much.

"I was in security. Finding and protecting valuable items and people, mostly. Some of them dangerous, sort of like here." Exactly the kind of work that you'd expect leads to scars, but he gives just a fraction of a smile. He'd been good at it, he'd always been good at it, and there's pride in that.

No matter how badly it all turned out, at least he had that to cling to here.

"Naw, wasn't," he agrees. As for needing to be done, all he ever cared was that he and Lennie needed it to keep roofs over their heads and food in their bellies. He never gave it a moment's thought further than that. Something in the soft grunt that follows seems to say as much.

He seems content to give him his time to get his thoughts in order, swigging beer and watching him with constantly restless eyes that also move to take in the others in the apartment before coming back to him. He's not much more physically settled than the day they met, speaking less of stress in a moment and more overall to his nature.

"Good trainin' for this place, not that you knew it at the time, I reckon." How could any of them? "Guess you could say that's something what needed doing, too."

Being able to pursue some intersection of what you like, what you're good at, and what pays is a luxury not everyone gets. Jaeger had skated the line, himself, managing at least two out of three on any given day, and he counted himself lucky for that. He'd been born privileged, and he knew it, and he respected those who did what they did just to get by.

"It was very good training, yes. And having something familiar to do was a big help in getting used to being here." Especially for a man who tends to be a bit of a workaholic. Throwing himself into his career had been a sort of refuge, something to hold onto when everything else was a disaster of uncertainty and fear.

"It's good work, but it wasn't always for the best sorts of people. I'm hoping to be better about that, here. Trying to do some good, since I have the skills and can put them to use." That's bordering on a bit heavy, and his smile is faint, edged with a few too many years of soured devotion.

"But I seem to be in the right place at the right time for that." Another sip of beer, as though it could wash away that moment of melancholy.

He nods. He can see the logic in that. It'd be a lot easier if he could get his hands on things that make sense, that he finds familiar. It's no big mental secret to himself that part of hosting this card night was just a grasp for normalcy.

"They seems on the up and up." That could always be a lie. He can't live his life thinking that way. He has to trust what his eyes tell him, his gut. The few times he hasn't, he has paid for it.

"Better chance a' doing what you want than in a lotta other situations." He sips his beer. "It's good to want to do good. It means something." It's more than many ever manage.

Jaeger understands and respects the attempt at a normal, peaceful evening. It's something they're entirely too short on, and after the disastrous Halloween party ADI hasn't been so interested in providing such things. It's up to them to do it for themselves, but it might be better that way.

"I'm willing to believe they mean well. How they accomplish it, well, we'll see." It still leaves a lot open to instinct and common sense, to go along with so much and no more. So far, they've been lucky enough...that the threats have been terrible enough to be clear and easy to judge. "A lot of the job is gathering information, making sense of it all and then making judgments based on that. I appreciate that, knowing as much as I can about what I'm dealing with."

"That's where I feel I can be useful, maybe. I'd need more...modern clothes," a fact he's slowly coming to accept. "I'm good at blending in. Hardly nobody looks at guys like me twice. Say all kinds a' things around us." Keeping his ear to the ground was the only way he ever kept Lennie alive as long as he did.

"And I can talk to the other bindle stiffs now. I know that ain't what people's calling us anymore." He'll have to listen to the lingo, drop some of his older words and pick up new. It's something he believes he can do.

Jaeger nods thoughtfully, because that's a fair and honest self-appraisal. He's not sure that he would welcome George's company in a fight, but on the other hand? He suspects he can rely on the man to know his limitations and put himself to work doing what he can help with.

Support matters, and not everything is about wading right into the battle of the day. The more competent eyes they have, the better, and Jaeger will be happy to stand by whatever role George wants to play. Especially when the man is ready, willing, and able to be as adaptable as he needs to be to survive here.

"Clothes are an easy fix, luckily. They do pay us well enough to get the essentials, and some of it should be comfortable enough to get used to quickly." Maybe not a three piece suit, but certainly some good jeans, boots, shirt. Practical, sturdy clothes should appeal quite well. "I can help you with the basics, easily enough. I spend a lot of time out in town, anyway, so stopping by the store to help you pick some things out would be no problem."

"That'd be real swell 'a you," he says. "I don't need nothin' fancy. Fact is, that'd jes' make me stick out more with the fellas I'm looking to get in with." Jeans are easy enough. They aren't different from what he wears every day beyond the cut of them. It's weird to him to see people running around with undershirts as outer wear, but he reckons he can get used to that, too.

Hardest thing to part with is going to be the hat.

"You can help me pick it out and tell me how people wear it." Tucked in, untucked, rolled cuffs or not, all of these things mean something. Send messages. His message needs to be, I'm one of you and always have been. You can tell me anything and know it won't get back to the wrong ears.

"There's a time and a place for fancy, but we don't have much need for it here, most days," Jaeger agrees amiably. He's far more concerned with day to day life, and he figures that will be much more comfortable for George anyway.

Jaeger likes to look professional, but corporate culture is practically bred into him, and he's slowly learning to let go of it in favor of just living like a normal person. Like in jeans. And he knows enough about those mythical things called Weekends to be able to provide competent assistance on the topic.

"So, yes. Simple is a good place to start. It's a lot more comfortable, too." Benefits of dressing down. "Sometime this week, then? I'll take a few hours."

"I ain't never had need of it 'cept for a few funerals a long while back." And church overall if he goes even further back than that, but that's ancient history as far as he's concerned.

"Sounds like a plan. I 'spect you're busier than me. Jes' let me know when a good time is. I can carve it out if I got something else going on." He has never particularly liked shopping. However, having the right tools for the job is an important enough reason to make the time.

"I can't say funerals aren't a possibility here, but...better to cross that road when we get there." People disappearing doesn't seem to involve any particular ceremony, though Jaeger wonders often enough what's really happened to them. Certainly, some might have been sent back to where they came from, but it seems the worst case scenario is the more likely.

He wishes there was a more concrete way to know, but there isn't, so all he can do is hope. And carry on with his life as best he can.

Which brings him neatly back to their discussion. "Aside from my work shifts, not much is set in stone so I'll get back to you quickly with a good time."

On the bright side, Jaeger isn't likely to spend more time on shopping than necessary, so they can get the task done quickly and out of the way. It really can't be any worse than trying to shop while wrangling a toddler, and he's managed that once upon a time.

"Yeah, I ain't looking to court that kinda trouble with anticipation," he says with a snort. If worse came to worst, he could show up in the best of whatever clothes he has, and he imagines whoever it was for would understand. Their friends, too.

"Sounds great. I appreciate it it a whole bunch." He feels it goes without saying that if he can ever return a favor, he will. That's just how these sorts of things go.

"Make it all wash down later with a drink afterward."

"We can only hope." Jaeger certainly does, every day. While there haven't been any fatalities yet, the potential is there and he expects that it's just a matter of time. Unfortunate, but a harsh reality of this place. Of this work. It had been the same back home, so it's not as shocking a possibility, but no more pleasant.

He'll keep hoping they manage to avoid it.

The mention of drinks gets a flash of smile, brief but sincere because Jaeger had been thinking the same thing. A chance to sit down and just absorb the atmosphere would probably do George good, and they both need to get to know the town.

"I think that would be good. A well-earned break, and a chance to see a little more of the town. Get used to being here."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'd like that." It's set then, and while it does feel a little strange, the idea of shopping like a lady, he realizes he can't frame it that way. This isn't for pleasure or to waste money. There's a purpose behind it, a good one.

It's strange to think of settling in. He's not sure how much of it is settling, or how much of it is continuing to barrel forward, because if he stops, if he rests, then there are things waiting to catch up to him he's not ready to sit down with.

"You got yourself a favorite place to go in town?" That's the sort of thing he's here to talk about and think about tonight. The rest can pound sand.

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

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