What a night | OPEN

[goodeintentions]

Who: inkstainedsword and ANYBODY :D
What: Aimery's got the night off, so he's going exploring and barhopping. Also POKER.
Where: In bars, clubs, or the streets between Howl Barrow, Brock Marsh, and Griss Twist.
When: Veerdi (Friday) evening->night.
Notes: This is open forever, back/slowtagging absolutely welcome, and if you want to tag but aren't sure about where to set it, just IM me or sommat and we'll make it work :3
Warnings: Mutually drunk making out, Discussions of suicide and depression

A night off meant a night out. One where he doesn't have to worry about staying sober and unoccupied enough that he can head home when called, and that meant he got to range a bit further from said home. Before leaving he slicked his hair back and dressed in his going out clothes- he made a mental note to go shopping, soon, so he'd have more variety in that, though it's not like there was anything wrong with them and he didn't expect to run into many familiar faces who'd notice the repetition. He brought his longsword along this time, too, just in case.

First he made his way to Howl Barrow, where he'd been told there was a so-called 'Queer community'. Aimery had been warned about flamboyancy but the welcoming enthusiasm and degree of... free spiritedness with regard to clothing and social norms... he found in the first club he tried was overwhelming. No, he wasn't ready for those kinds of places yet, but he found a somewhat quieter bar, had some wine, and learned a few new words (were they adjectives or nouns? he couldn't tell) then headed back along the river towards slightly more familiar, and less interestingly terrifying, territory.

Griss Twist was more rowdy in a dangerous sort of way, but with a sword and a dark bruise on the bridge of his nose from the most minor broken nose ever to ward people off (funny that it had earned him much sympathy in Howl Barrow) he wasn't worried. He stopped in a few places —including nice dance club with the most fascinatingly rapid music, he'd have to make sure to visit there again— but eventually settled on finishing his evening in a comparatively quieter bar that happened to feature poker. Aimery didn't quite remember who had taught him, but he was good, and if his "beginner's luck" held until the regulars got tired, then maybe he would be able to buy that custom sword after all.

Comments

[deservesadaisy]

Ivan found that going only to vampire bars repulsed him both in theory and in practice. Sustenance was all well and good (less good, if they all kept closing), but there wasn't much entertainment to be found in such places; besides, the way the wind was blowing, he could use some allies. And people watching was better in other parts of the city too.

Normally, he'd be happy to just sit in the corner and watch, but he could use a return on his cash, and he'd been playing poker since only a few decades after the modern form was invented, and he'd been lying for more than two centuries. He didn't win enough to piss off the locals, but he did win steadily enough that he was netting a profit.

Eventually, it's inevitable he and Aimery will end up at the same table.

[goodeintentions]

By the time that happens, Aimery'd had enough alcohol that he was no longer being a good sport about winning and was starting to annoy the locals. His ability was still working -he tested it discreetly under the table from time to time- so he was in no danger from disgruntled losers, but when he was accused of cheating he figured that was a good opportunity to switch tables and play against someone new, just in case.

"May I join you?" he asked as he claimed a recently vacated seat at Ivan's table, making the assumption that yes, he could in fact join him. Aimery scooted his chair up and put his half-empty glass of beer on the table, looking between Ivan and the deck of cards expectantly, then pursed his lips and thumbed over his shoulder back the direction he came from, "Assuming you're not as touchy about cards as those old codgers."

[deservesadaisy]

Ivan smiled a bit, closed but not unfriendly. "Why not?" There are a couple other patrons, but it hadn't been a terribly chatty table up until now. "You've come to part us from our money, then?"

[goodeintentions]

"I do believe that's the point of the game, isn't it?," he stated agreeably, drumming his fingers on the table and giving the rest of them a friendly look over, "And I'd hope the goal was mutual."

Because they wouldn't be playing if they expected to lose, yes?

[deservesadaisy]

"So it is, generally." The new addition at least had some spirit to him; perhaps this would be play, for a bit, rather than just a way to make a bit of cash.

"We're playing five-card draw. Does that suit you?" Given the variety of worlds, establishing ground rules mattered more than usual, but Ivan was flexible if hold-em or stud was the preference.

[goodeintentions]

"Certainly," Aimery nodded. Five-card was what he felt most used to and comfortable with, but asking questions and playing completely naive (didn't need to play drunk this time) had served him well in the past. He leaned back in his chair and fished in his pocket for his wallet, "What's our ante?"

[deservesadaisy]

"10 mark buy-in." Which had kept the casual players away. "Bottom card in the deck isn't replaced, no more than four cards in a row to a player. It's mainly just a simple, friendly game."

Somehow, not very assuring coming from Ivan.

[goodeintentions]

No, no it wasn't very assuring. That got Aimery's eyebrows up proper. 10 marks to start? That was risky, but between what he'd earned and what he'd obtained, he could handle it. At worst, if he lost, he could regain it with some convenient bumping-into after the game. He shrugged and laid 10 marks in the middle of the table with the rest of the buy-ins before laying his wallet in front of him, trying to show he was willing to bet more (putting it away immediately might imply he was expecting to fold after the first hand).

[deservesadaisy]

"So. Do you like to chat over your cards, or do you need your concentration?" Ivan read him as confident but not cocky, which could make for an interesting few hands.

[goodeintentions]

"I tend to chatter, yes, but if the rest of you don't, I could try to be quiet," Aimery pursed his lips in an attempt to not smile, but just had to shrug and add, "Concentration won't make cards change, after all."

But talking certainly threw people off from time to time, when he was lucky.

[deservesadaisy]

"I don't mind, myself." And Ivan seems to be setting the table's tone. "What did you do to annoy your last table?"

[goodeintentions]

"Who said I annoyed them?" Oh right it... might've been plenty obvious. There was indiscreet grumbling before he relocated. Aimery chewed his lip then shrugged yet again, in a somewhat more exaggerated manner. "I won. Vigorously."

[deservesadaisy]

"Excellent," Ivan says, "I love a challenge." Either the challenge of a good player, or of catching someone cheating; he isn't terribly picky as to which.

[goodeintentions]

"Then it should be an enjoyable game," he said with complete earnestness before grinning and indulging in a swig of his beer.

"Who's dealing? It's best if I don't, after I've had a few," and he'd clearly reached that point," I tend to fumble and bend up the cards." Aimery drunkenly demonstrated his poor shuffling technique on a nonexistent deck as he spoke.

[deservesadaisy]

"We're going around, but we can skip you, if you prefer." It is, evidently, Ivan's turn. Shuffling doesn't take much of his concentration after so long. He has a glass of wine, but seems to be sober.

"Well, small talk, let's see. Where did you come from, before here?"

[goodeintentions]

"Bete Noire, a magical city not unlike this one, including the fondness for kidnapping people," Aimery answered somewhat bitterly, though he wasn't sure which part he was bitter about. "But originally I'm from Warwick, England, around the year 1203. And you?"

[deservesadaisy]

"1203? That's a bit of an outlier." He begins to deal the first hand. "Bristol, embarrassingly enough. 2010." It's not really a lie, except by omission; it's the answer to the first sense of the question, presented as if it's the second. The slight hint of Welsh to his accent might, to a good ear, suggest an origin other than Bristol; it would take a truly extraordinary ear to guess that his English wasn't native.

[goodeintentions]

"Indeed. I had quite the catching up to do." His wasn't a good enough ear to catch the subtle difference in accent, even if he'd been sober. Language had changed a great deal in those eight hundred years and he'd lived a sheltered life- all English accents sounded strange to him when compared to his own 'normal', anglo-french one.

He was quite for a moment as he started picking up his cards; his hand was acceptable, he could work with it, but it wasn't the best, and he frowned slightly at them before asking, "Why is Bristol embarrassing? I'd heard it was a fine port. Did it get taken over by-"

Aimery glanced at the other patrons while he course-corrected his sentence to drop racial mentions. The others probably wouldn't have known who he meant anyway. "By smugglers or burn down or something?"

[deservesadaisy]

Ivan smiles wryly at whatever Aimery'd been censoring. "No, it's just gone boring and provincial in its old age. Give me Paris any day." 1203 was interesting - that was terribly old, even by his standards. Of course, Aimery hasn't been alive for centuries, presumably, but even so. He seems remarkably adaptable, and Ivan guesses there's more to him than meets the eye.

[goodeintentions]

It had become provincial, in a negative way? The reasonable, sober part of Aimery's brain recognized that Ivan probably wasn't intending anything derogatory and it was merely a language issue —Provencal being the language of the region his father was from— but the phrasing still made him bristle slightly due to a combination of alcohol and lingering affection for his heritage.

"You dislike that Bristol has become more provincial, yet would choose a French city? Because Paris is less boring?" Aimery shuffled at and stared hard at his cards as he added, "My father was from a town near Limoges, in Aquitaine."

[deservesadaisy]

"I've nothing against France," he says, mildly, "I meant provincial in the vernacular sense, as the antonym of cosmopolitan." The world got bigger, and Bristol got smaller in relative terms.

He smiles, and adds, "I've many good memories from Paris, as well. I was being genuine." As he ever is.

[goodeintentions]

Continuing to compliment France didn't win Ivan any favors with Aimery, but at least it was clear it was a language issue. He shrugged and glanced up at the other man, offering a faint smile in return, "Apologies, I'm new to English. I'm pleased Paris survived and flourished though... even if it is in France."

Not that it would be anywhere else other than France, but he had to get at least one pseudo-dig in, dind't he?

[deservesadaisy]

"London flourished too, don't worry." Ivan may speak English well, but he's clearly not English by his opinions of France. "More than 800 years after you, they're still both knocking about, being themselves."