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]

"A company house?" He's not exactly sure what she means by that and he's learned it's better to ask than make assumptions.

"It must seem like much more space than you would be used to. How are you finding it?"

[astrogator]

She looks faintly apologetic. 'A company house is what we call one that comes as a perk of the job. Supplied by an employer, which out my way is usually a company, but it doesn't have to be.'

His question makes her pause, because she wants to give him an honest answer. 'I haven't any complaints,' she tells him. 'It's mine to do as I like with. On my starship it was cramped but it was comfortable being so close to people I could trust. Staying a night in the tavern here told me that it doesn't carry -proximity to so many people here isn't... good for me.' Tact prevents her from saying that it wasn't the thought of the strangers who kept her awake at night, but potential enemies lodging under the same roof.

'Quiet and empty is better than that. The lack of technology is hardest, but I'm treating it like being on expedition, you know? I'm very pleased to be here.' So, no complaining about the hardships. 'I know how to start a fire, so I can keep warm indoors, there are big fireplaces - and I taught myself to make toast on them.' She grins as if this is some novel accomplishment.

[be_seeing_you]

"Ah. I should have guessed. There is something similar to that in my version of Earth, as well."

She doesn't have to say it outright for him to know why the quiet and empty is better. More people from the Eterna arrive here by the day, and not all of them are so forgiving. No doubt she fears what some may say or do to her. He hopes they know they will be hearing from him, personally, if they do attack her.

"Intrepid as always. I expected no less. That said, if you encounter difficulties with this lesser level of technology I may be of some assistance. I grew up in an era slightly more modern than this one, but only just. You aided me in my difficulties with new and unfamiliar technology; allow me to do the same."

[astrogator]

Like she told Fever, she'll take her quiet satisfaction in knowing that every one of those angry arrivals owes their deliverance from the prison ship to Tayrey and her people, however indirectly. She breached the barrier and made it possible, and in a just universe that would be recognised. In this one? She'll just stay well clear of them.

It had always confused her when Earthers spoke of modern technology when what they meant was something so antiquated to her that her sector wouldn't know what to do with it. As if the frame of modernity were set for Earthers, when really it was all relative and what was modern for someone like Nobunaga would be outdated for Peter.

His offer is a sound one, all the same. 'I might take you up on that, someday. I've got the fireplaces and oil lanterns in order, but the water heater's a temperamental thing, and I can't find half the products I want. There's this big copper sink with leaky pipework that I had to fix when I moved in - but you know all I could think of was how glad I was that it had real pipes that could leak and creak and be dealt with in a rational manner.'

[be_seeing_you]

He nods, smiling at how she puts it all into perspective so beautifully. "We are finally back in a real world, a solid one. If that means repairing leaky pipes or toiling to grow and prepare our own food, then so be it. I too prefer a rational world."

He ruffles the wings on his back before saying with a wry smile, "Even if some irrational things yet persist."

[astrogator]

Tayrey might draw the line at digging up planetary soil, but there's no need to say it. Divisions of labor work as they're meant to, not everyone has to do every thing.

Her attention drawn to the wings, her tone turns sympathetic. She can only imagine the distress she'd feel about being altered like that. 'Maybe one of the doctors can do something?' she suggests. 'Surgery should be possible.'

[be_seeing_you]

He appreciates the sympathy. He knows where it comes from. Ava had suggested the same when they first sprang from his back. But he's learned to accept them as a part of himself now. They do come in quite handy when he needs to get somewhere swiftly.

"Thank you, but there is no need for that. I learned of a new aspect to them recently. Watch, and try not to be too alarmed." He warns her because the time Darcy witnessed this they found it terribly distressing.

"Drake." With that one word uttered, the wings vanish. Gone, as if they never were. The only proof that they were there are the holes that remain in the back of his shirt.

"You see, I can remove them whenever I wish."

[astrogator]

She does indeed try not to be too alarmed, but a little alarm can't be helped, can it? That makes no sense at all, and at first she just stares back at him, unsure of what to say. Asking how it works is highly unlikely to get her a satisfactory answer.

'You can...' Tayrey trails off, bites her lip, still watching him closely.

'Why don't you leave them gone?' Maybe there's a rationale she isn't seeing. Maybe it hurts.

[be_seeing_you]

"Turn them off and on, yes. I discovered that not too long ago."

He anticipated her confusion. The question comes as no surprise. The answer may come as one to her, however.

"Because I had already learned to accept them as a part of myself by the time I learned I could banish them. It took effort. I relearned how to stand, sit, walk, fight with a sword. Anything that required balance at all. And I learned to use them as an extension of myself. I can still feel them now, like a phantom limb. To erase them after all of that would be to erase the effort it took to live with them. They are part of me, and I will not forsake them."

He sighs, and then speaks the word to bring them back. "Drake." And so they reappear and somehow he seems to be standing more at ease with them back than when they were gone.

[astrogator]

It takes a concerted effort on Tayrey's part not to let the pity she feels for him spill over and write itself on her face, her voice. She knows how unwelcome it would be. Yet what she sees here is a man forever marked by his captivity, and it's heartbreaking.

Yes, there's the argument to be made that the only difference between them is that her damage isn't visible - but if you ask her, visible damage is worse. Making it a part of yourself is worse.

'At least you have the choice,' she says slowly, because it's true, and that she would never make the same one doesn't matter. It's for him to decide for himself, and she'll respect that and not argue otherwise.

[be_seeing_you]

He didn't necessarily expect her to understand, and he can tell she doesn't, but what he likes about her is that even in these moments, she doesn't attempt to convince him otherwise. She accepts him at his word, and he accepts hers. They don't have to see eye-to-eye to give each other that respect.

"I do. And here, away from that cursed ship, we have many new choices to make. The first is going to be... will you join the game or will you sit and watch first?"

[astrogator]

'That's clear enough,' she says, trying to follow his lead and shake off the seriousness. 'I have to join in! Better to get my mistakes out of the way when all there is to lose is acorns.'

Tayrey isn't taking it too seriously, and she's the sort of person who learns best by doing, so there's no reason not to. 'At least I know what the cards signify,' she said teasingly, because she'd had to learn that, back on the cursed ship.

good place to wrap?

[be_seeing_you]

"Something tells me you'll pick it up in no time," Number 6 says, and he means it. She'll be relieving them of their acorns soon enough he's sure. If not tonight then in future games.

"Come have a seat, Lieutenant. Let's see what you can do."

yes, wrap here!

[astrogator]

'I hope to prove you right,' she says brightly, before taking her seat at the table. However the games go, she's sure she's going to enjoy herself.