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

[notinflictthem]

"Most of the time I was too terrified out of my wits to be scared about it," no courage here. But Ari makes the comment and Hawkeye suddenly gets the expression of someone who's just been told he's standing on a landmine.

"Oh uh-" a slight pause, "y'know I- I don't think I ever met a lady pilot before you, actually."

Hell hell hell hell- what does he say- blame the army? Blame the army, always a safe bet-

"I'm guessing the military thinks it's too dangerous for, uh, women, to be doing. Not that it is- I mean the whole thing is dangerous, not like it's less dangerous being in the air- what I mean is that's stupid and we should have had lady pilots back home too."

There, that oughta be sufficiently couched such that he won't get yelled at.

[astrogator]

Tayrey's first reaction is faint surprise. Maybe it shouldn't be, given what she's heard about certain Earthers and the way they think of women, but still, it's unexpected. Her second reaction is a sudden stab of worry about just how unconvincing her Earther air force cover stories must have been, when she'd stepped through Sparkles' dimensional rifts.

It doesn't matter, she tells herself. It's all long ago and far away and she probably didn't break anyone's timeline.

'I figure flying in wartime is dangerous no matter who's doing it,' she tells Hawkeye mildly, but now that she's able to focus on him and not herself, she can see that she's unsettled him. 'More dangerous for an inexperienced pilot,' she adds, 'but experience wouldn't be a guarantee you'd fly clear, either.' She shrugs. 'It's not your fault; you didn't write the policy. I'd have words for whomever did!'

[notinflictthem]

"Exactly- the whole thing was dangerous, for anyone. And no, I sure didn't. If I had it my way I'd write a much simpler policy: yankees go home. No fighting, no danger, no need for anyone to go up in choppers, no need to look after any wounded. I keep trying to tell the brass the logic, but they never seem to listen."

A gentle huff.

"Ah, anyway. You up to rejoining everyone else? Anyone brings the topic up again I'll say we settled it. Or I'll punch them, depends on how I'm feeling."

and wrap?

[astrogator]

She gives him a sympathetic smile. There's a debate to be had about which wars are justified and why, but this isn't the time or the place - and even in Cardalek's debating hall she doubts she'd be qualified to say anything informed about the conflicts in another universe. The desire for peace is, if not universal, then at least something that good people have until they see fundamental rights being violated.

Fortunately, she's spared from having to navigate that particular topic. She nods. 'We did settle it. We're fine, peaceable contract.' He's joking about the punching. At least Tayrey thinks he's joking. 'Let's go in, see if I can't claw back some acorns.' She hasn't been doing well at the game so far.

Wrap!

[notinflictthem]

"Just so long as you're not taking them from me," he grins, finishes off his drink, and gestures for Tayrey to follow him inside. Debates about war and justice can wait for some other day, tonight is for celebration.