Mission: Staff Poker Night

[Bag o Fruit]

It was a dark, grey room. From the short window bordering the ceiling and wall, a cobalt light invaded the upper layer of dusty atmosphere in the basement of Facility 108. Or, more appropriately, one of the basements. It was not The Basement, or Anneliese would surely never have entered.

She closed the door, as whether it was open made no difference to the illumination of the room. At first, she took five tentative steps forward, stopped. She reached out in front of her and found a chair. She moved it aside. In the silvery city light coming in through the window, she found a cord. She pulled it. A harsh buzz blinked into being, and an orangey light bulb revealed the existence of a round table in front of her.

She squinted at the former. It looked about as ancient as the concept of a light bulb itself. She rummaged around in her handbag and produced a small white box, the size of two handfuls. She slid it open, removed the contents, and unscrewed the offending light bulb from the ceiling. The socket sparked, and the room was once again dark and silent, save for a faint, intermittent scraping sound. Then, the room burst into bright white light, emanating from the compact fluorescent bulb that had replaced its predecessor. That's better.

Anneliese sat down on an uncomfortable wooden chair with her back to the window, and, as she disliked limiters, lit her alternative power-dampening agent. After two drags, she proclaimed "As I thought: nailed the atmosphere", plopped a pack of cards on the table, and waited for her coworkers.

Spoiler: Tagged

Zahzi Gus DJ MagicHat RemainingQuestions Aldur @St Sin yoikes Teh Frixz ManicMuse The Oldest Blueberry Giyari @SweetNicole Syrenrei DamagedGlasses

 

[DJ MagicHat]

Asher Torchinovich
The Ravemaster
Location: Facility 108, basement levels
Tags: B Bag o Fruit

Asher hummed to himself, one of his favorite EDM tracks playing through his headphones, as he strode quickly down the hallway and into the stairwell that led to the meeting place.

His feet actually made a faint whirring noise as he raced down the steps before stopping, as though suddenly slowed to half-speed, at the bottom of the stairs. In a single motion, he flung the door open and strode into the oh my God why is it that bright down here.

"Ah, hello, hello!" Asher said in his usual jovial tone, as if to spite the new lightbulb's attempt to blind him. "And may I say, thank you again for setting up this little get-together! I must say, it certainly has been quite stressful lately, though I know that goes without saying, but it always just feels better to say it aloud, doesn't it? It certainly seems to help me, at least."

He took a sip from his trusty thermos before setting it down on the table and casually half-sliding, half-falling into one of the unoccupied chairs in the room.

"Is there a particular style of game picked out, or are we just going to be winging it as we go?" Asher asked, slipping a baseball cap on over the unkempt mess of black hair, as though that would somehow hide how seldom he ran a comb through it even in the best of times.

It didn't help much.

"Also..." Asher looked around. "Where is everyone else? You'd have thought that with everything that's happened lately, I wouldn't be the only one struggling to get by and in desperate need of an escape for a little while!"

 

[Gus]

Aaron and Kate​

​

Heavy footsteps came clomping down the stairs and the door opened. The room darkened, just a hair, as Aaron stumped into the room, wearing a green visor low over his forehead and rubbing his hands gleefully.

“I have been anticipating this for so long now! Mind you, Cribbage is more my game, but nobody much plays that nowadays except for Penny. Speaking of which: How are we coming on an encounter suit for her? I bet she'd love to play.”

As he sits down, there is a faint hint of air movement, and another flicker of shadow. Aaron glances to his left and nearly jumps out of his seat. A blonde is leaning back in the chair next to his, casually picking her teeth.



“Jesus, Kate! Don't DO that!”

Kate sits up, prim and propper, and looks innocent. “Do what?”

Aaron's eyes are doubly hidden by the visor as well as his distortion field, but the tilt of his chin suggests an eye roll.

“Asher, Anneliese, this is Katheryn Barrett. She's an old friend of mine, visiting from Minesota. Kate, this is Asher, Mental Discipline, and Anneliese, Guidance and counseling. They're good folk. Behave yourself.” Turning to Anneliese, he adds, “I hope you don't mind she tagged along. She's very... insistent. Especially at night.”

“Like any of you could stop me crashing the party if you tried.”
She paused for effect and giggled coquettishly into her hand. “Oh dear. Did I just say that out loud?”

“Same old Kate. You're more fun in the daytime. You know that, right?”

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Anneliese Van Can
Mood: Ponderous DJ MagicHat Gus Anneliese nodded as Asher spoke. "Unless anyone feels strongly otherwise, I should assume we will be playing straight. As for the players, I only just recently arrived, and I believe Mister Mallory will be coming in behind you."

Several seconds after her prediction, heavy footsteps came clomping down the stairs and the door opened. "Heyyyy! I was right..." Anneliese greeted Aaron. Giggling a little, she added "What is on your head?" but was drowned out by Aaron's reaction to Kate's sudden arrival.

"Same old Kate. You're more fun in the daytime. You know that, right?"

Anneliese, as they had had their exchange, looked back and forth between Kate and Aaron, squinting. As they finished, a truth underlying Kate's expression dawned on her. She sat back in her chair, placing a hand on the back of her neck.

"I dunno Aaron, don't you think she could be fun at night, too?" she asked, innocently, rhetorically, and with the full expectation that he wouldn't get it.

 

[Gus]

Aaron Mallory
​

Location: Basement
Mood: Not telling. Poker face, doncha know...
@s B Bag o Fruit DJ MagicHat Giyari Zahzi welian Teh Frixz @St Sin Syrenrei DamagedGlasses ManicMuse @SweetNicole yoikes Aldur

"Well I certainly hope she'll be a good sport at least, when I take all her money home with me," he says with a grin. "She has been known to be a bit of a sore loser. Oh, and the green eyeshade is a throwback to early twentieth century, Anne, but still popular fashion choice among poker aficionados. Usually called a "dealer's visor" nowadays, though it has its origins in journalism, as I expect Kate knows."

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Anneliese Van Can
Mood: Meditative DJ MagicHat Giyari Zahzi welian Teh Frixz @St Sin Syrenrei DamagedGlasses ManicMuse @SweetNicole yoikes Aldur Gus "Oh husshhh I know what it is!" Anneliese grumbled back, then muttered "You know I'm just as old as you are. In fact, I think I have a 21 Pilots shirt somewhere that still fits me..." She squinted. "What was I talking about..."

She glanced at the table. "Poker."

 

[ManicMuse]

Page Morgan

location : Bus > Facility 108 > Basement (ewww)


State of being: Let's socialize


Nearby: Asher DJ MagicHat Aaron & Kate Gus Anneliese B Bag o Fruit

"Yeah, no. It's for a poker game with my co-workers. Just toss in a mix."

"Oh wait, make one a pineapple and bacon."

"No."

"Not Canadian bacon. Breakfast bacon."

"No. The crispy strip stuff."

"Yeah. Real bacon, bacon."

"Use the card on file. So how long?"

"K. Be there in about 5 minutes."

Tapping the watch on her wrist, she ended the call. The EDM pulsing music, once again took over her headphones. Dressed in a sporty matching jogging suit, Page continued down the path. Keeping a respective pace through the park while she ran.

Six minutes passed before she found herself a few blocks away, pulling open the door of the pizzeria. Her order already sat on the counter, recipe laced in the edge of the top box with a small baggy of complimentary sauces and toppings. Being a regular, Page was use to such treatment. Grabbing the stack of boxes, she gave an awkward wave of her wrist to one of the regular employees, Paul, and ducked out the door when another customer waddled in.

Half a block down the street was a bus stop. Took only a few minutes of idly holding the piping hot boxes before the bus pulled up and came to a reluctant stop. Popping up the steps, Page hesitated at the meter.

"Shoot."

Glancing over at a gentlemen sitting a half a foot away, Page turned on the doe eyes.

"Sir," she used her meek voice.

"Would you please hold these for a second?"

Being what looked like a very straight lace sort of bloke, he flushed at the request. Eagerly jumping to his feet and taking the boxes. However, once the stack was in hand, he felt the true heat of the freshly baked pizzas and was starting to sweat and squirm, uncomfortably.

Page quickly swiped her bus pass before taking the pile back. Noticing the man's discomfort, she offered a sheepish apology.

"Forgot, they are hot. Sorry."

The man was quick to try and shrug it off while the Bus pulled away from the stop. A good ten minutes later, the shuttle finally came to her stop. Giving the poor volunteer a smirk, Page disembarked and booked it down the street to Facility 108.

Descending the stairs to the playing room, caused Page to sigh with disapproval. If it was up to her, this would be in a clean, nice room, upstairs.

Balancing the pizza's on her wrist, Page managed to flick open the door to the room and toddle inside.

"Brought the pizzas," she spoke mindlessly to the group and no one in particular.

Setting them down on an open, if not dusty table, toward the back, she finally sighed with relief. Turning to face the group, she offered up a forced, social-able smile.

"So, have you all started yet?"

 

[Gus]

Kate Barrett

​

B Bag o Fruit DJ MagicHat ManicMuse

Kate's tongue was bleeding from biting back a series of remarks. She should not have come here. Not at night. The voices were strong, providing non stop commentary, and they were always more worrisome at night.

The skinny old bitch knows...

Quiet. These are Aaron's friends. They are our friends too.

Oh but you'd like to be more than friends wouldn't you? Mooning after that fat ass for decades.

Disgusting.

Be nice now, you two. Kate is nervous in social situations, aren't you, Katey dear? People are so much easier to kill than to talk to, hm?

Oooh! Now THERE'S a thought! I bet we could put a light shard through her eye and be out that window before the fatso or the mop-top could twitch a muscle between them. Can we? Let's put it to a vote! All in favor raise something of Kate's...

Kate crosses her left hand over her right and presses it firmly against the table. She maintains her silence, but her eyes dart toward Anneliese like daggers and her left eyebrow lifts just a fraction of an inch. She detects no malice in the woman's open lightly baked grin. Malice would have been preferable. Malice she knows just how to deal with.

Stop it.

No, what she saw in Anneliese's eyes was far more terrifying. Insight. Penetrating eyes that see beneath the surface of things. For a moment even the voices fell quiet as if for fear of being overheard. She quickly looked away, thankful that the counselor was self medicating. If this was what she was like when she was high, Kate shuddered to think what she might see when fully sober.

Searching for something else to look at, her gaze fell on... Asher? A human mass of unkempt distractibility was what he was. He seemed to tremble with suppressed urge to move, as if he'd be more comfortable rocking out to something with heavy base than sitting still.

"Asher was it? You don't seem the... ...type for MD classes somehow. What do you teach the prospies, exactly?"

Before the 21st century's answer to George Clinton can give account of himself, the pizza arrives. Thank god for a a proper distraction! She is out of her seat as the pizza hits the table and already pulling out a slice of the bacon with pineapple just as the new-comer is turning to say hello.

Instinctively occupying the red-head's blindspot, she gasps around the piping hot cheese and grease and dripping juices,

"Mhy gahd tha's gud! Thans c'rut top!"

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Anneliese Van Can Gus DJ MagicHat ManicMuse Anneliese smiled at Page as she entered the room. "Nope. We're waiting on one or two more people." She sniffed at the pizza, which was at just such an angle to be difficult to examine. Her nose told her pineapple and bacon. She liked pineapple. Also she was fucking starving all of a sudden... As she stretched from her chair, reaching for a slice, she said "You know, in high school I was a vega-"

Anneliese felt the kind of cold breeze one imagines when entertaining superstitions of ghosts. But this did not feel like a superstition, no, this felt like a very real and corporeal danger. Anneliese slowly turned her eyes to look at Kate...

"Ohh nooooo..."

A corpse fell down the stairs to the open door.

Allen McNabb//Lazarus "... Aaahh! Helllo every body!" Allen stammered up at his coworkers. He rotated himself into a standing position.

"Mister Mallory, Mister Torchinovinch, Misss Van Can, Miss Morgan and Miss... Hello! Wh-who are- who is this? That?"

 

[Gus]

Aaron Mallory
​

Spoiler: @s

DJ MagicHat B Bag o Fruit ManicMuse

Aaron heaved himself up out of his chair, knocking it over, and moved to check on McNabb, utterly oblivious to the subtextual drama brewing between Kate and Anneliese, as well as the possibility that Page Might incinerate Kate and ask questions later. As per usual, he was barely able to keep up with the most recent crisis, forget staving off the next potential one. Contra the old adage, slow and ponderous was not good for racing.

He offered a hand for Allen to steady himself on as he got up, but had to look away as he did. Ugh! Who gets up like that?
The noises from Allen's bones rearranging themselves set his teeth on edge, and the smell of pineapple on pizza did not help matters. Clamping his other hand over his mouth and nose, he asked tightly,

"Are you all right old man?"

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Anneliese Van Can Gus DJ MagicHat ManicMuse It was on the tip of Anneliese's tongue to say 'Mallory, you know he's fine. He's fallen down far worse things, as I hear.' But she considered. Is he fine? What if he's never fine after he falls, he just... isn't injured? How far down does this go. Did he fall often as a child? Does he equate falling now with falling then, and seeks attention from his coworkers that he never received from his parents? Is he even actually tripping, or just faking it to reaffirm a support network? And what about the weird cracking noises? Is that purposeful? Is he trying to drive his helpers away in order to show himself that he can get up on his own? How many parts of his psyche are competing for control over his behavior? There is a part of him that is a little boy, a toddler, still seeking help to get up, another part, which is a grown man, trying to convince that toddler of his own capabilities, and yet a third entity, or perhaps an overall, which refuses to admit this war within itself. A note to the melancholy; this is an easy example of how mankind is little more than bodies, governed by predictable mechanical... hmm.

 

[ManicMuse]

Page Morgan

location : Basement poker room


State of being: Choking


Nearby: McNabb, Mallory, Kate, Anneliese, Asher

@: DJ MagicHat B Bag o Fruit Gus

"Nope. We're waiting on one or two more people," Anneliese answered.

Perfect, she was not late. Kate seemed to be standing just outside Page's peripheral view. Normally, such things would go entirely unnoticed by Page, assumed unintentional. A sense of being unsettled and wariness drifted about in her subconscious almost bringing it to her attention. Though, with the shocking entry of Mr. McNabb it did not come to her conscious-self. Instead, she gawked at the two teachers, as Mallory helped the old man up. Page could never shake it, that old man was a weird one.

'What was I doing?'

The smell of the pizza, took her attention. Grabbing a napkin, two slices of the pineapple and bacon pizza, she snagged a few packets of red crushed pepper to top it with. Holding the packets between her lips, she turned to reach for a ranch. Only to see Kate, who had been sitting a blind spot nearly behind her. Eyeing Kate, Page raised a brow but said nothing. Instead, walking over and taking the seat, where Kate had been moments before.

Setting down the pizza and ripping open the packets, the crushed red pepper was first. Then peeling back the lid for ranch, she dunked the tip of the first slice and took a bite. The spice was stronger than expected. The heat was enough to make her eyes water; she coughed causing it to go down her throat, making the burn worse. Coughing again, she spoke up in a hoarse voice, "Drink. Do we have anything to drink?"

Using both hands, one to cover her mouth, the other wiped swelling tears from her eyes. It was a bit ironic, one immune to heat being brought to tears by a bit of spicy food.

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Anneliese Van Can DamagedGlasses Dano Aldur Giyari D. Rex RemainingQuestions @St Sin Syrenrei Teh Frixz The Oldest Blueberry yoikes Zahzi Anneliese awoke from her trance and sniffed. She grabbed a slice of pizza and munched on it, pausing occasionally to inhale through pursed lips.

"Well." She decided. "Unless somebody else shows up before we're finished dealing... It... Looks like it's time for a game. Yeah." She reached halfheartedly for the pack of cards but hesitated, looking at her pizza. She brought her hand back and put it under the slice. "Can somebody else shuffle for me please?" She muttered a muffled "'nd fengk yur" around her second bite.

 

[Gus]

Aaron Mallory
​

@s: DamagedGlasses B Bag o Fruit Dano Aldur Giyari D. Rex RemainingQuestions @St Sin Syrenrei Teh Frixz The Oldest Blueberry yoikes Zahzi welian

"I'd be happy to deal. I'll pass on pizza; that incident with Kingsley has put me off of food entirely..."
Aaron takes the cards and does a few quick rifle shuffles. Nothing fancy, but surprisingly adroit for such clumsy looking hands. "The game is Oxford Stud, five dollar bring in, two dollar minimum bet." He begins firing off cards, two to each player, face down. "The bring in is to the lowest up-card," slowly he deals out six face up cards, "after that we bet, then two community cards, then a bet, then another up card, then third bet, and finally a third community card, final bet, and showdown. Pot splits High-Low. Questions?" Seeing he has the low card showing, he tosses a five dollar bill in the middle of the table, and peeks at his hole cards. "First bet is to the high card... Kate?"

OOC: Clockwise from the 5 of hearts is Aaron, Anneliese, Asher, Allen, Page, and Kate. I will PM pictures of the hole cards which I promise on my honor as a good RPr not to look at, just as soon as I can figure out how to take and send a picture without looking at it at any point or letting Bag o fruit see either... Good times. Maybe I can get Tammy to help me, but she's a little busy tonight.

 

[Gus]

Kate and Aaron

​

Kate peeked at her hole cards, glanced around the table, avoiding Anneliese's gaze. She nods to herself, shakes her head as if to clear it, and then reaches for her wallet.

“I bet... twe- ...six dollars.”

She throws a five and a one on top of Aaron's five.

Aaron raises an eyebrow, strokes his chin thoughtfully, then says “Call.” and tosses in another six. As if in afterthought, he theatrically checks his hole cards, then adjusts his visor. Glancing sidelong he intones “Anne? Your bet. Pay attention, y'stoner.”​

 

[Bag o Fruit]

Anneliese Van Can Gus DJ MagicHat ManicMuse "Hmm?" Anneliese looked up, blinking. "Ohhh, yeahh. I get it. Name-calling. Jeez Aaron."

She stuck her pizza in her mouth by the crust, to hold it, and reached in her back pocket for her wallet, from which she transferred six dollars to the table. "Ghelrl." she said.