Then they'll take you to Cloughprior and shove you in the ground (Mingle)

[notinflictthem]

CHARACTERS: Hawkeye and the Veteran’s Poker Club
DATE: March
LOCATION: Hawkeye’s clinic
SITUATION: Poker game (for veterans)
WARNINGS: Presumably discussion of conflict and ptsd

You need one more drop of poison and you'll dream of foreign lands

A notice goes up on the board, and Hawkeye sets up the clinic for the occasion. Obviously he’s not moving all his medical supplies out- at the back of his mind is always the possibility that something could happen that demands he put his doctor hat on again. Not choppers, but something.

But he sets up a table and chairs in the middle of the main room, with a stack of cards and some ‘chips’ (acorns, he went out and gathered some acorns, which he’s painted different colours). There’s a flask of his homemade gin, some finger food from the Oak and Iron, and he got a box of cigars for the occasion. Feels just like the conferences from home, only without sandwiches that move and Frank. So, y’know, infinitely better.

Prior to starting, while Hawkeye’s setting up, he’ll engage in some small talk with anyone who shows up early- which, they’ll all be military, it will probably be all of them.
“Ever played poker?”

Or

“Can I get you a drink?”

Or

“Can you grab that tray of implements for me?”

At the sick bed of Cuchulainn we'll kneel and say a prayer

When everyone who’s arriving arrives, Hawk sets himself at the table, one of his surgical lights over top of the table to set the mood.

“Alright- this is poker, it’s a little game we like to play back on earth, because we like losing money. I’m gonna teach you five card draw, just to get us started. I’m going to deal each of you five cards. What you’re looking for is to have the highest hand at the end of the round, then you take the pot. Easy. Hands are ranked by how hard they are to do- if you get numbered cards in order and they’re all the same suit, that’s a straight flush. Then we go four of a kind, which is just that- four of the same number. Full house is if you have three of the same number and a pair of a different numbers in the same hand. Flush is if you have all your cards in the same suit. Then straight, which is by number order but not the same suit, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, and then if you have absolutely nothing we score it by your highest card.”

Hawkeye clears his throat, takes a sip of gin.

“I'll deal to start with, we all bet based on our hands and how confident we are that we’ll have the highest ranking hand, then we discard any cards we want and redraw back up to five. Then we place our final bets, and reveal our hands. You get lost at any point, just ask. Questions?”

And the ghosts are rattling at the door and the devil's in the chair

Shittalking, chewing the fat, commiseration, and general socializing with Hawkeye during games goes under this header. Tls for your characters welcome in the comments.

Comments

[be_seeing_you]

"Sorry to hear it," Number 6 is, genuinely. His line of work didn't come with court-martials. Too much secrecy for that. But if the average citizen knew the things he'd been ordered to do, well, there's a reason they don't.

"Three years seems to have been more than enough. We are in a place of new beginnings, aren't we? I shall give you the benefit of starting fresh."

[theydrewfirstblood]

Stiff as a fucking board--yeah, he's British all right. However, John accepts it with good humor and a smile, saluting him with the remains of his sandwich before taking the final bite.

"'Preciate it." he replies after chewing and swallowing, dusting his hands off. "So, spy work? Lemme guess: not as glamorous as the Bond movies, right? Never is, but it's always fun to be wrong if there's a good story involved."

[be_seeing_you]

"You're the second one tonight to bring up Bond," Number 6 says with a flash in his eyes that warns this is a topic of special interest to him. "I'm glad to see that my fellow veterans are all intelligent enough to realize that the idiotic exploits of that Hollywood figure don't come close to touching the truth with a ten foot pole. Most of those stories, however, are classified."

[theydrewfirstblood]

"Yeah, of course--Bond's fun, though." John points out. "Kinda the same thing with American military movies, far as I see it. Like, uh...ever heard of Seven Days In May? Love that flick--but it's pretty fucking out there."

Kirk Douglas and Ava Gardner, too...yeah, they did it for him when he was younger for damn sure.

"I'm not one to pry, but you gotta tell me one thing." he presses with a laugh that makes it clear the pressure is casual and good natured. "Are the spy gizmos even remotely real? Something like a...I dunno, a phone in your shoe or a pen that's really a gun or camera or something?"

[be_seeing_you]

"If you ask me, he was having too much fun on the job." Yes, he will die on this hill. But he's British, so that's to be expected.

"My job would have been significantly easier if such gadgets had existed. We had our ways, of course, but nothing as contrived as that. I did, however, have a lighter that doubled as a camera. It would take a photograph every time I lit the flame. I once smuggled the film out in the hollow heel of my shoe."

[theydrewfirstblood]

"Now see? Fuck Bond--that's fun." John laughs, pointing at him for emphasis. "Not only is a camera in a lighter damn cool, but fuckin' ingenious--the shots you could get while just fidgeting are scary to think about."

Grinning, he shrugs.

"Think you just proved real life's better 'n the movies."

[be_seeing_you]

Normally, Number 6 dislikes foul language. This time he'll allow it for a good cause.

"There, now you see my side of it. No one at a party thinks twice when you produce a lighter, and it's naturally held at eye level, isn't it?" It really was one of the more clever contraptions to come out of that team of inventors. "The tools work best when no one is the wiser. But that doesn't play well for movies, does it?" That's why he will always be a better spy than Bond ever could be. 

"Now, I did share a penchant for fast cars, I must admit. I built my own from a kit. A lustrous Lotus Seven. She was a beauty."