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

[astrogator]

Tayrey spots Ava, but Hawkeye approaches before she can, so she stays back and only offers the other woman a small wave. It's a little later that she has a chance to talk.

'You aren't planning on playing? I thought you'd be good at cards!' Ari Tayrey is animated. Happy. Probably a little tipsy, but she's clearly very comfortable in this room right now.

[decohere]

"Nah, it wouldn't be fair when I was trained by the best," Ava grins in amusement, honestly enjoying seeing Tayrey so carefree and relaxed.

"Making friends?"

[astrogator]

'I am,' she says brightly. 'Can't say I'm winning many acorns, but I'm told their market value is low,' she jokes. 'The company more than makes up for it. This is a sound group.'

It's lightly said, but she means it to reassure Ava, knowing she's justifiably uncomfortable around strangers. 'It's good to see you here,' she adds.

[decohere]

"Unless you're a chipmunk." And since she's never sure how familiar Tayrey is with different types of animals, adds "they're these little woodland critters..."

She steps in closer, clearly less stressed than when they'd seen each other last for reasons that are far too obvious. "I wasn't going to come," she admits, but glad she did. "Not sure I technically fit in. But. Might be easier to be around... such a group."

[astrogator]

She appreciates the explanation. The only animals brought out to the colonies were the useful ones, so she knows them, knows the others she was told about by Earthers - but chipmunks never made it onto the list. Ava gets a nod of understanding from her, as she surmises that acorns must be one of their food sources. That's usually how value works, in the wild.

'I think you'll fit in well enough,' she says, quick to reassure. 'There are plenty of reasons to disqualify one or another of us, myself included, but it's best fit, and I say you do. Have you tried the gin?' Tayrey clearly has, judging by her grin when she asks it.

[decohere]

"Stuff them all up in their cheeks like this," Ava demonstrates by puffing hers out, trying to keep as straight an expression as possible while staring Tayrey down, waiting for her to laugh. She releases with her own light giggle after a few seconds.

"I just... worry, if they knew what I've done..." Ava's expression quickly turns a bit sober, before she shakes her head to dismiss it. There's something freeing about being amongst people that don't know her history upon the ship, or even before it. "Not sure what I drank earlier, but it was honestly vile. Had Peter finish it for me."

[astrogator]

Ari does laugh at Ava's chipmunk impression, because it's that sort of night and she's in the right frame of mind. Earth sure had some unusual animals.

Ava's serious worry immediately sours Ari's own mood, though. Some of the people who know what Ari did have followed her here - and despite forgiving other people trapped aboard the ship for all sorts of misdeeds, before or after they were imprisoned, they think Ari deserves pain or death for her desperate attempt to be free. She might never really feel safe.

'You don't have to tell people anything you don't want to,' she says quietly, because Ava never meant her harm, so Ava doesn't deserve to become the target of her dark thoughts. 'You can choose whom to trust, and anyone decent won't gossip about it.' She certainly won't. 'Was it the gin you tried? That stuff's strong! It's got that going for it.'

[decohere]

She's pleased that the silly impression received the desired response. They've rarely had much to joke about, between each other. Her sense of humor had fallen flat on first meeting, with her anti-capitalism rant at the game show and subsequent vanishing act. But this is probably the most at ease she's seen Tayrey.

Until Ava makes that comment. She bites down at her tongue, already regretting it. It's like she just can't help herself, tanking the mood. "I know." She's certain anyone would take Tayrey's side, why wouldn't they? And that they'd look at her for the disgusting monster that she is, fighting for the wrong side. And she'd be okay with that, she thinks. She's lived isolated and alone for most of her life. But it's her husband's reputation that concerns her most. She doesn't want to compromise his chances at getting to live a better life that isn't tarnished by her poor choices.

Doesn't want anyone to think lesser of him, because of her. So she'll keep it to herself. She fidgets slightly, glancing around the room at the rest of the group. "Might've been. Not vermouth," because she distinctly remembers being told they didn't have that. "Never had much taste for alcohol unless somebody was mixing it up with a bunch of fruit juice."

[astrogator]

Everyone should take her side, Tayrey believes, because she'd been fighting for her freedom in terrible circumstances. She has a moral certainty about it. Except that people hadn't sided with her. Too many had sided with her captor, had hated her, and it still disturbs her to think about. It shook her. Her captivity dealt her all sorts of damage, but her inability to trust people now, to believe that most of them are essentially good? That's part of the worst of it.

Ava's an exception, because Ava was never cruel, never said that Tayrey should give up hope and be satisfied living as a prisoner under torture. Never hurt her, despite plenty of opportunity. Ava was misguided, deceived, but no more than that.

She tries to shake off her preoccupations. No need for them to intrude on her life here; she needs to move forward.

'I'll bring fruit juice next time then,' she says, trying to recover her old cheer. 'And beer, although I don't suggest mixing them together! You'll be back next time? I'm going to teach kalixtri.'

[decohere]

Everyone had been fighting for their survival in freedom in those same circumstances. If any of Ava's tireless efforts had actually paid off, maybe she'd feel more justified in it.

Maybe she wouldn't dread others finding out the things she did, the stances she took, the things she advocated and sacrificed herself for by befriending the enemy. But she's already told herself that here will be different. She'll stay out of things, for everyone's benefit. Especially her own, with how shattered her self confidence has become through her repeated failures. She'll stay on her farm with her trees and eventually apples, and nobody will get hurt from all her wrong choices anymore.

Hard to convince herself that nobody wants her when here's Ari already asking about next time. She laughs slightly at herself, for always being so eager to run away. And tentatively nods. "I'll try to make it, to learn your card game." But she can't make promises she's not sure she'll be able to keep, depending on how downhill her health has gone by then. "Maybe I'll be able to bring my own cider, eventually."