Of a Monday
May. 29th, 2006 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ksmithFeels like Sunday.
Had a cookout. Wrote. I found a website with basic 5-card rules, which I think is all I will need. Haven't gotten to the actual card-playing yet because some of the lead-in took longer than I thought to write as the legal ramifications of hybridization dumped into my head.
And so, a longish snippet that also took longer to write than it should have:
*******************
"Nìa!" Tsecha called to Jani as soon as she entered the second floor spare office-turned-gambling den. "Captain Pascal has been explaining to me the concept of wild cards."
"Has he?" Jani caught sight of the white-blond head bent over a stack of markers. He'd know all about those, wouldn’t he? She rolled the laden kitchen cart to one corner, where some conscripts from the kitchen crew were setting up a buffet. "How long have you been playing?"
Lucien glanced at the wall clock someone had propped atop an empty bookcase. "About four hours."
Jani walked over to the table, which had places for six players. Besides Tsecha and Lucien, she counted Dieter, a couple of members of the greenhouse crew, and one of the security guards. "John said you skipped dinner."
Lucien shifted in his seat and toyed with a blue-striped marker. He'd taken advantage of his last evening off by opting for civvies, tan trousers and a white short-sleeved shirt that provided a striking contrast to his tanned and scarred forearms. "The thought of food lacked appeal." He paused to drink from a rather large glass. Plain seltzer with lemon, from the look of it. Like John, he didn’t seem inclined to look at her if he didn’t have to.
Everyone loves me. Jani looked over the stacks of markers, and was surprised to see the largest rested in front of Tsecha. "What's the game?"
"Just your basic five-card, in deference to the new guy." Dieter twitched a thumb in Tsecha's direction and looked ceilingward. "Would you like to sit in?"
"You look full--" Before Jani could voice her protest, the security guard scooted aside his chair and someone pushed one close enough to knock against the backs of her knees. "Maybe for a few hands." She sat down, mindful of the bodies that seemed to emerge from the walls and close in from all sides.
"I didn’t know you played, ná Kièrshia," someone commented from the back of the room.
"I haven’t for years." Jani felt a nudge at her elbow--as she lifted her arm, someone slid a stack of markers in front of her. "I used to use it as a fallback sometimes, if I was in-between jobs and needed billet money."
Dieter cracked the seals on a fresh deck. "That must have added an edge to the game."
"Yeah." Jani forced a grin, and felt it waver as long-forgotten memories returned. "When you've got fifty dollars in markers on the table and five in your pocket to cover, you could say it adds an edge." She started at the rise and fall of polite laughter. Oh God--they think they have to laugh at my bad jokes. "Fuckin' spare me," she muttered under her breath.
"Jan?" Dieter's eyes narrowed, his resident card sharp persona set aside for the moment.
"I could use some of that soup, I think." Jani started to get up, but someone behind her chair put their hands on her shoulders and told her to sit and someone else scurried to the buffet. Oh, to be dominant of Thalassa. Hoards of suborns at her beck and call. And the legal standing of an invalid with a suspect mental state. Someone set a tray before her complete with linen napkin and a flower from the buffet centerpiece, and she mumbled thanks even as she wondered why they bothered. And I'd made fun of the Nèae Pathen. At least they had a GateWay, and a world to call their own. I've got...a House. And if Chicago had its way, she wouldn’t have that for much longer.
She started spooning soup, which proved to be corn chowder with a healthy infusion of something flammable, and looked up to find Lucien staring at her, elbows on the table, his chin cradled in one hand.
"Perhaps you'd like a foot massage before we get started?" He jerked his head in the direction of the buffet. "Something from the wine list?"
"I wouldn't mind seltzer with a twist." Jani pointed to his glass. "I've heard it does wonders for an upset stomach."
"Cut the cards?" Dieter set the deck in front of her.
Jani split the deck into thirds, restacked them, and pushed them back to her suborn, her gaze still locked with Lucien's. "Deal."
Had a cookout. Wrote. I found a website with basic 5-card rules, which I think is all I will need. Haven't gotten to the actual card-playing yet because some of the lead-in took longer than I thought to write as the legal ramifications of hybridization dumped into my head.
And so, a longish snippet that also took longer to write than it should have:
*******************
"Nìa!" Tsecha called to Jani as soon as she entered the second floor spare office-turned-gambling den. "Captain Pascal has been explaining to me the concept of wild cards."
"Has he?" Jani caught sight of the white-blond head bent over a stack of markers. He'd know all about those, wouldn’t he? She rolled the laden kitchen cart to one corner, where some conscripts from the kitchen crew were setting up a buffet. "How long have you been playing?"
Lucien glanced at the wall clock someone had propped atop an empty bookcase. "About four hours."
Jani walked over to the table, which had places for six players. Besides Tsecha and Lucien, she counted Dieter, a couple of members of the greenhouse crew, and one of the security guards. "John said you skipped dinner."
Lucien shifted in his seat and toyed with a blue-striped marker. He'd taken advantage of his last evening off by opting for civvies, tan trousers and a white short-sleeved shirt that provided a striking contrast to his tanned and scarred forearms. "The thought of food lacked appeal." He paused to drink from a rather large glass. Plain seltzer with lemon, from the look of it. Like John, he didn’t seem inclined to look at her if he didn’t have to.
Everyone loves me. Jani looked over the stacks of markers, and was surprised to see the largest rested in front of Tsecha. "What's the game?"
"Just your basic five-card, in deference to the new guy." Dieter twitched a thumb in Tsecha's direction and looked ceilingward. "Would you like to sit in?"
"You look full--" Before Jani could voice her protest, the security guard scooted aside his chair and someone pushed one close enough to knock against the backs of her knees. "Maybe for a few hands." She sat down, mindful of the bodies that seemed to emerge from the walls and close in from all sides.
"I didn’t know you played, ná Kièrshia," someone commented from the back of the room.
"I haven’t for years." Jani felt a nudge at her elbow--as she lifted her arm, someone slid a stack of markers in front of her. "I used to use it as a fallback sometimes, if I was in-between jobs and needed billet money."
Dieter cracked the seals on a fresh deck. "That must have added an edge to the game."
"Yeah." Jani forced a grin, and felt it waver as long-forgotten memories returned. "When you've got fifty dollars in markers on the table and five in your pocket to cover, you could say it adds an edge." She started at the rise and fall of polite laughter. Oh God--they think they have to laugh at my bad jokes. "Fuckin' spare me," she muttered under her breath.
"Jan?" Dieter's eyes narrowed, his resident card sharp persona set aside for the moment.
"I could use some of that soup, I think." Jani started to get up, but someone behind her chair put their hands on her shoulders and told her to sit and someone else scurried to the buffet. Oh, to be dominant of Thalassa. Hoards of suborns at her beck and call. And the legal standing of an invalid with a suspect mental state. Someone set a tray before her complete with linen napkin and a flower from the buffet centerpiece, and she mumbled thanks even as she wondered why they bothered. And I'd made fun of the Nèae Pathen. At least they had a GateWay, and a world to call their own. I've got...a House. And if Chicago had its way, she wouldn’t have that for much longer.
She started spooning soup, which proved to be corn chowder with a healthy infusion of something flammable, and looked up to find Lucien staring at her, elbows on the table, his chin cradled in one hand.
"Perhaps you'd like a foot massage before we get started?" He jerked his head in the direction of the buffet. "Something from the wine list?"
"I wouldn't mind seltzer with a twist." Jani pointed to his glass. "I've heard it does wonders for an upset stomach."
"Cut the cards?" Dieter set the deck in front of her.
Jani split the deck into thirds, restacked them, and pushed them back to her suborn, her gaze still locked with Lucien's. "Deal."
