| Four Card Stud |
| Arc: | None |
| Summary: | Four pilots hang out in their temporary barracks on-board Perry and play some poker for cash. |
| Date: | 2659.203 |
| Related Logs: | Sim Thumping P2 |
| Participants: | Zorro Phillip Cyric Singh |
Evening - Perry Station - Transferring Personnel Barracks #2. The entrance to this room is in the center of the long wall opposite to a series of tiny windows. The room itself is packed with bunks to the left and right of the entrance. There are several tables in the center space and toward the wall opposite the entrance. Some pilots are hanging out in the barracks in a mixture of states - boredom, sleep, reading, watching holovids, playing hologames.
One pilot, a Second Lt. Bradford is actually sitting at one of the empty tables playing solitaire.
Lt Karde is reading a data pad on his bunk trying to call up whatever information is available on the latest war developments in the Gemini sector with regards to the current strategic situation. "Precious little information I couldn't just get from TNN on the open comm waves. Why don't they tell us anything about what's actually going on?" He mumbles to himself.
A long technician is walking briskly by, behind him, Karen is chatting up a storm. She spots Bradford and smiles. "Sorry, I'll finish my story later, gotta go take someone's wallet.". She walks up to Bradford, "fancy a more interesting game?"
Iceblade looks up at Singh, and a smile crosses his mouth. "I'm certainly game if something more interesting. What game did you have in mind?"
Captain Espinosa walks into the room, dressed in her workout gear and pretty sweaty. She moves over to Bradford and Karen.
"Oh! hey! I saw you at the sims… Lieutennent… Karde" Juliana spies at Cyric's name plate.
"Did I hear a game of cards starting up?" Zorro asks.
Lt Karde looks up from his datapad and stands up at his bunk at attention with a salute to his superior officer.
Iceblade starts excitedly gathering the cards together and shuffling, "Yes Ma'am!"
"Yes, ma'am!" Cyric responds.
Singh says, "5 card stud?" "Oh that reminds me of when I was a shuttling in war… the asteroids were so thick we had to wait for it to clear up!"
"Don't salute me when I'm like this, Karde…" Zorro says, "Full uniform or bikini only".
Lt Karde lowers his hand. "Understood, Captain. Interested in playing a game of poker?"
"Most certainly", Zorro says, "I assume we're playing for money and not for clothing…"
Iceblade quickly adds, "Money only" as he spots a few other pilots in the room with them.
Lt. Karde agrees with a nod.
Singh pauses and quickly glares at the attention Zorro is getting. "Ok, let's set the limits? 100 creds?"
"Well, next time we have shore leave, we can certainly do clothing…" Zorro nods, "Definitely 100 creds".
Iceblade readies the cards, "100 it is then. "
Lt Karde takes his seat.
OOC All players place an ante in the pot. OOC Each player is dealt one card face down and one face up, and there is a betting round. OOC Each player is dealt a third card face up. There is a second betting round. OOC Each player is dealt a fourth card face up. There is a third betting round. OOC Each player is dealt a fifth and card face up. There is a fourth betting round. OOC Surviving players show their cards and the best five-card hand wins the pot.
Iceblade sets down an ante of 5 credit chips into the center of the table, followed by depositing a card - face down to each player.
After Iceblade, Lt. Karde sets down his ante of 5 credits and pulls his "hole" card from the one available to it dragging it across the table and up to his palm waiting for the others to draw their "hole" cards his face carefully neutral as he examines this…card.
Karen ante's up. "So, how did you all learn to play? I was shuttling some prospectors to the war system… " putting her card down. "These people insisted I learn how to play as they promised they would be richer than a nexus water baron."
Zorro places her own ante down and looks at her card.
As Iceblade begins to deposit the second card - this one face up - as he replies to Karen, "I learned at Flight School."
"A few of my fellow cadets from my Academy days, ma'am." Lt. Karde is cool.
"I learned from my husband", she says, "We generally ended up very, very naked!"
Karen answers Cyric, "Please call me Juliana. We're off hours"
"Sure, Juliana." Cyric says amicably but with some hesitation as if the idea of such familiarity when addressing his immediate superior was as alien to him as the Kilrathi.
Iceblade lays down his face up card after doing the other three - An Ace of Hearts! Iceblade smiles as he looks at the other cards being shown.
Lt. Karde lays down his next card. "Two of clubs." He notes with a mix of mild annoyance.
Karen pouts a bit, revealing a 3 of diamonds, "So the trip was so long… I don't know if you ever saw a roid belt in fariss? You literally need to wait for hours for an opening… and the guys there… they were awfully silent. AWKWARD!"
"Awfully silent?" Zorro asks, "I could have made them talk." She reveals the six of clubs. "Six of clubs. I love clubs".
Iceblade listens to Karen and then lays out 5 credits to the pile. "5 Chips, " he says before looking at each expression.
Karde adds in his 5 credits to the pile and studies the other players for a moment before returning to his card with a grin. "So far, so good. You really want to worry about boredom you should try patrolling Sol. Dullest 3 point patrols ever."
"I really don't get it they " 5 creds (call)" were looking like they wanted to say something. but were unable to get the chance. Anyway, I don't know why but the comm system kept failing on that ride. Something about a screwdriver being jammed in the control circuitry."
"You don't want Sol to be anything other than boring", Zorro says, "Call." She adds five credits to the pile.
Iceblade then deposits the next, face-up card to each player. "Apparently, Sol wasn't so boring 5 years ago."
Karde draws a 2 of Hearts. "True enough but I was still a kid fresh into Sol Academy. Pretty useless then."
"Yeah, my family's on Titan, I'm glad that was on the far side during the raids… There were so many supply runs through Saturn's rings, anything to refract the radar", Karen looks straight at Zorro, holding up a second three, "I guess we both can have some clubs."
"What is your favourite club?" Zorro asks she revealed a 7 of spades.
Iceblade sets down a 5 of Hearts, "Yeah, I was actually in Sol at the time as well. Mars in fact. Glad we were ready for them that time; sneaky bastards."
"So, Lt Karde, where are you from?" asks Singh.
“Earthers from way back. My entire family has been military men and women in one form or another going all the way back to the Battle of Midway, Philippines, and Guadalcanal in World War II. As for me, I just transferred in and caught a ride here on the last transport from Sol Sector. After the Academy, I served on the TCS Destroyer Gilgamesh. Trained for Combat my whole life so I didn’t want to wither away of old age doing endless three-point patrols around Sol system so I requested a combat duty transfer to the Majestic and well here I am."
Lt. Karde adds, "That's my story in a nutshell. What's yours, Juilana?" He studies his cards.
Zorro pushed her cards in. "Fold" she says, concluding that her hand was completely useless and Karen already had at least a two pair.
Iceblade nods at the Zorro's folding. And then looks to Karen and Karde trying to hide any clues as to his hand.
Karen scowls. "Juliana. I'm a Titan, worked with my family in mining Sapphires and the isotopes to make Akwende drives, but then I met a recruitment officer… he was so nice, I knew he was the one, but he only dated officers… so I joined up." "Hopped around Vega and Gemini" "Even flew through Ghorah Khar".
Lt. Karde says, "I'll raise you 15." chips in more creds.
Iceblade says, "I'll meet your 15 and raise you another 10." Iceblade doesn't realize that he gave Cyric subtle clues.
"How did the relationship go?" Zorro asks.
"No thanks" (folds) "funny thing, he kinda disappeared after I got into military academy. I don't understand what happened, he kept promissing he'd be with me when I got into the academy." (Singh breathes) "Doesn't matter, got into the academy, and I'm making plenty of friends now."
"Your husband here?" Singh adds.
Iceblade nods to Karen and sets down another 2 face up cards, a Four of Spades to himself. Iceblade attempts to hide a grimace.
"My husband?" Zorro say, "No, he's back at home. So I'm free to play around…"
Karde shifts uncomfortably as his face twitches slightly as he studiously studies his cards.. "8 of hearts." Another 15 credits into the pot.
"And where would that home be? I'm guessing… Celeste?"
Iceblade looks at his cards, and then at Cyric's.. "Fold"
Iceblade : ['Five of Hearts', 'Ace of Hearts', 'Two of Spades', 'Four of Spades']
Dread Lord (Cyric) : ['Eight of Hearts', 'Two of Hearts', 'Two of Clubs', 'Eight of Diamonds']
With a grin, Karde collects his winnings!
"Lagoon" Zorro says.
Stephen Hunter UK Zorro: ['Six of Clubs', 'Queen of Clubs', 'Seven of Spades']
Karen's eye's light up, "Go Karde"
Rear_Admiral_Tarsus (Karen): ['Jack of Hearts', 'Three of Clubs', 'Three of Diamonds']
Karde smiles. "Another round, guys? I can take more of your money if you like!"
Iceblade thinks about that for a second.
"Sure, let's go again", Zorro says, "Just one round though. I need to take a shower and go to the office".
"So… Anyone catch that tarsus pilot on the patrol a couple of hours ago? I don't get it, I just said prepare for a contraband search and he just dropped the contents of his hold into space! Why would he do that?"
Iceblade then says, "What about a straight game of poker? 5-card draw."
"Sure!" Singh responds.
"What was in the hold?" Zorro asks.
"Grain. Lots of grain. So much grain,” Singh says.
Iceblade collects the cards and reshuffles the deck and begins to pass cards.
"Then he started tractoring it in… using two beams. Oh well, I guess he wanted to get his money's worth.” Singh says.
Iceblade gathers his cards, looks at them, and then smiles, "I bet 20 credits."
Karde gathers his cards, looks at them, and frowns, "20 chips." 20 credits into the pot.
Zorro looks at her cards, smiles and puts 20 chips in too.
Karen furrows her brow. "Too rich for my blood, I'm out".
Karen looks around at the silence.
Iceblade then discards only a single card, then goes to draw a new one.
Zorro discards two cards, then draws another two.
Karde does likewise drawing two more cards from the deck.
Iceblade then furrows his brow in thought and looks carefully at the others.
Zorro also looks carefully at the others.
"Uh guys, am I missing out on something here." Karen watches the standoff.
Cyric notices things in the faces of his fellow players like a boss without giving away his intentions.
Iceblade decides to fold-em. "Just not my day."
Karde grins a predatory smile. "I'll chip in another 20." Cyric adds 20 more chips to the pot.
Zorro smiles flirtily…"So will I".
Iceblade eyes the pair with interest; curious what this situation might bring about - cards or otherwise.
Stephen Hunter UK (Zorro): ['Six of Hearts', 'Nine of Clubs', 'Seven of Diamonds', 'Eight of Diamonds', 'Eight of Spades']
Dread Lord (Cyric): ['Two of Hearts', 'Three of Hearts', 'Nine of Hearts', 'Queen of Hearts', 'Queen of Clubs']
"Next round will be mine, so… Bradford, I saw you tag a Hhriss, gonna paint your nose cone?"
Iceblade chuckles, "Sim Hhriss don't count unfortunately."
Singh adds, "Paint the sim's nose cone."
Zorro passed over her money… "Let's do a third round".
Singh chimes in, "I'm in!”
Karde collects in all of this money! "Yes, this was fun! We must play again sometime. I'll see you guys later!" Karde knows when to fold 'em!
Iceblade gathers up the cards and looks at Karde prepping to leave, "Oh no, you can't win and run."
Zorro looked at her watch. "One more round of five card draw?"
"No harm in another game. Unless you'd rather do a three point patrol," Singh says.
"Is that an order, ma'am? I thought we were off-duty." Karde smiles.
"Of course not… just a request", Zorro says.
"Okay, but remember, we know right where to find you." Iceblade warns.
"In that case, see ya' later!" Karde beats a withdrawal.
Zorro looked at her watch again. "I actually need to go take a shower. Anyone want to join me?" she says with a wink as she got up from her seat.
"Good game, we'll get another chance soon, I'm sure." Singh says.
Zorro says, "Indeed good game".
"Wait what no!" Karen blushes.
Iceblade looks quickly at Zorro and think very very carefully about how to respond.
"I think I need a drink! Don't worry! Next round is all on you guys! Later!" Karde acts like he didn't hear anything unbecoming of a fellow officer as he heads to pilot country with the spoils of his victory!
Iceblade then says to Zorro, "Uh rain check?"
"Sure…" Zorro says then leaves the room for the showers.