Difference between revisions of "Logs:Go Fish Or Whist"

With the lunch rush finished, the living cavern now is mostly stragglers or people lacking immediate duties. Sitting alone among the sparsely populated tables, Faryn has a mug across from her, an empty plate beside her, and a deck of cards in hand. She's laid out what appears to be a variation of solitaire, all cards facing up, and is worrying her lower lip with her teeth as she concentrates.

Farideh's been pondering the vast seating for a few minutes, a plate in one hand and a cup in the other; it appears none of her friends are here, and thus she's loath to sit just anywhere. But the beastcrafter's familiar face and her equally as interesting hand of cards draws the laundress like aid to a beacon. "What are you playing?" she asks offhandedly, setting down her sparsely-filled plate and cup. Her eyes flick up once everything's settled, her eyebrows lifting while she waits for an answer.

Faryn has spared glances for every person that comes close enough to warrant the concern that her solitude may be interrupted, and Farideh is no exception. It doesn't cross her mind that the other woman will stop, at least not at first, but there it is. The plate and mug down to the table, and Faryn quits gnawing her lip to spare a long-suffering look at the laundress. It seems for a moment she won't answer, then she says, obliquely, "Solitaire." Her tone implies the stupid, but she drifts her hands over the pile, selects a card, and moves it.

The long-suffering stare is met with imprudent dislike, her lips drawing into a thin line. "You don't have to be so rude about it. I simply asked a question," Farideh says unkindly, and sets about making as much noise possible with her utensils; making sure her fork scrraaaapes across the bottom of her plate. "Besides, card games are more fun with other people."

"Matter of opinion," Faryn rejoins, although about which part exactly is unclear. Her forehead wrinkles in concentration, then she shakes her head abruptly, once, and pulls the card she just moved back, replacing it on it's former stack. Her chin drops into her hands. "I had quite the selection of companions to choose from," she says, gesturing vague and broad to encompass the entire cavern. Her pointed look at Farideh ensures it's clear that she's including her tablemate in that group. "To kill time, it's easier to play alone."

"None of them chose you either," Farideh retorts sourly; that she has might be a sore point. Of the odd assortment of food on her plate, she chooses to spear a slice of red fruit to nibble on distractedly, letting her eyes, snapping with ire, settle back on Faryn. "That," she parrots back non-contritely, "is a matter of opinion. Time flies much faster when you've got multiple players. Who wants to play cards by themselves, anyway," and her tone seems to imply there's something wrong that the beastcrafter has.

"You seem to have a lot of opinions on what you think people should do," Faryn observes cooly. Ah, there's her move. Her hand darts, the card in question snapped up and moved. Another move follows immediately, as the top two cards of the first pile are moved to foundations. "For a laundress," she adds. "And that is a matter of fact. This is the second time you've had the audacity to tell me what I should be enjoying."

"What? Laundresses can't have opinions?" Farideh looks incensed by the suggestion, lifting her chin a tad higher and her hand holding the fork stilled over her plate. "I didn't tell you what to do. All I did was contradict what you were saying originally. Because cards are boring if you don't play with others." She makes a face, wrinkling her nose, and then goes back to nibbling delicately on her fruit slice, insolently averting her gaze elsewhere.

"Nah," replies the herder smoothly, and yes, maybe something in it is piquing her Tillek drawl, even if outwardly she appears to be collected. She taps a forefinger against the cards thoughtfully. "You can have opinions. You can have all the opinions you want, ain't a soul to stop you." Yes, undoubtedly, that accent is creeping in like oil. "I just think you're a bit presumptuous, that's all. Maybe you just think they're boring because there's too much thinking, not enough yammering when you play alone."

It's after the lunch rush, where the leftovers and stragglers are sitting to have their meal. Farideh and Faryn are sitting across from each other, the former picking at her food and the later playing a game of solitaire. They do not look too agreeable. "I can be," Farideh agrees, "and of course talking is more fun. I don't find time passing nearly as fast when I'm all alone. You get started on a conversation and suddenly it's night and it's time to go to bed." She lifts her shoulders in a curt shrug.

One of those stragglers, Laine has a mug in one hand and a plate in the other, her hood pushed back from her face and her jacket unbuttoned--fresh in from the spring afternoon. When she casts around for a place to sit, she marks Farideh and the unfamiliar girl next to her, and her path cuts across the cavern to claim a seat at the table. It's only when she gets close enough to note that tone, that short shrug, that Laine hesitaties... then takes a chair anyway.

"Can be!" Faryn's laugh is a sharp bark. "Well, I'll keep holding my breath for that," she promises. Her gaze drifts to the newcomer, dark eyes studying her warily before she decides that there is no particular cause for concern and returns her attention to the cards on the table. Her game is spread wide in front of her, indeed was probably meant to deter people from sitting, but it seems to be failing miserably. Without hesitation, Faryn's nimble fingers dart across the cards, gathering the stacks into larger piles, shuffling them together with a fluttering sound as she bridges the deck. "I wonder," she says to Farideh after some thought, "is being so contrary as taxing as I imagine it would be?"

There's no love lost between these two girls, and it's probably not any surprise when Farideh chooses to turn towards Laine and smile welcomingly. "How are you?" Pointedly. "How did your date go?" She bites off a piece of her apple and slants a look back at Faryn, her lips quirking unpleasantly around her mouthful of food. "You would know--" Burn, or something.

Laine watches the card-shuffling process with some interest and an impressed lift of her thick brows, although she says nothing, opting instead to break her biscuit in half and sop up some gravy from her plate. She pops it in her mouth, and is mid-chew when Farideh turns; she holds up a finger (wait), swallows, then smirks. "The date was fine, thanks." But her interest is piqued by that game, those cards, and Laine--not one to be impolite--gives Faryn a good-natured nod and a, "Hi. Laine. Didn't mean to interrupt your--thing."

For someone ostensibly so contrary, Faryn for a few moments there seems content to shuffle the cards quickly through her hands, throwing in a false but fancy cut here and there. And maybe it's to prove a point, but she doesn't have another word to say to Farideh on the matter. Even so, she doesn't seem quite ready to surrender her rightfully claimed table in the middle of the sparsely populated caverns to Farideh or her newly arrived compatriot; instead, it appears she's going to sit and listen, hoping the conversation between the two younger women keeps them distracted. Instead, frustratingly, it turns back to her. "Faryn," she supplies Laine, perfunctorily and with a small, dismissive shrug. "It was already interrupted. No harm now."

"Fine? It was just fine? What did you two do after we left? Did you hold hands? Did you kiss her?" An elbow comes down on the table, a fist pressed against Farideh's cheek so she can comfortably tilt her head at Laine and await the answer. "We left you a whole bottom of wine and all the food. You two had better have made good use of it. I went through a lot of trouble and--" She presses her lips together, looking up at the ceiling. "Got yelled at by everyone for it." It's with a sigh that she flicks a glance back at Faryn and her cards, frowning. "There's three of us. We can always play a game, if you're done being a loner."

Even Tomic can learn things eventually, and one of those things is that where girls are, drama follows. He was going to give the table a wide berth, once he'd spotted them all there. He was going to just carry on with whatever it was he was heading toward the kitchens for. But then he saw faces, rather than just girls, and that has him closer. Where he goes to stand, behind Farideh and Laine, and waits for his bulk to have him noticed, with that big broad smile of his on his face. That big broad smile is also waiting to be noticed, of course.

That crooked smile of Laine's widens while the apprentice wags her head, mock-regretfully. "I'd love to tell you, Farideh. 'Specially since you set us up and all." The girl lazily lifts one shoulder with a sorry-not-sorry shrug. "You're right, though. She's pretty great." Laine: not, apparently, one to kiss (maybe?!) and tell. She turns her attention to her mug, taking a long drink while gazing serenely over the brim at Farideh. When she replaces the mug, though, she chimes: "I'm down to play cards." She doesn't, it seem, notice the man standing behind her.

Faryn wouldn't really have the investment to say she's pleased about Laine's romantic morals, except she is quite pleased to see someone simply tell their esteemed laundress no, rather than indulge in wherryheaded gossip. And anyway, she's got the vantage point to see something they don't, someone, and her smile is lazy but genuine when she sees Tomic approach and hover behind them. "Four," she says, nodding her head to the several vacant chairs, "if you'd care to join, Tomic."

The lack of detail drives Farideh to make an unpleasant, disgruntled sound. "Fine. Fiiine. Don't tell me, then. I'll simply assume." It's not as though she's divulging any of the scandalous bits about her secret tryst either, so, even. Farideh goes back to picking at her food with her fork. "Four?" Her brow furrows before she looks left, then right, and twists, to stare upwards at the widely-grinning Tomic. "Oh, Tomic. Hello. You want to play cards too?"

"Hi," goes to Faryn, still all smiles when he's noticed. It all dims a bit, when asked to join, but after a moment's consideration, and two quick looks, the first to Farideh, the second around the caverns, he does move around to bring one of those big paws down on the back of a chair next to the beastcrafter. For symmetry. "Hi," is then greeted to Farideh and Laine, each getting a nod, once he's not, you know, creeping behind them. Yeah, he missed the earlier topic. Probably for the best.

Laine echoes another "Hi," for good measure, sweeping Tomic (and Faryn, and, shells, the living cavern for good measure) with a genial, happy smile. Once she's stolen a few more bites from her plate, she asks (somewhat indistinctly, with a mouthful still of mashed tuber), "What're we playing?"

Faryn shrugs again, glancing sidelong at Tomic as he settles. Maybe it makes her feel slightly less outnumbered. She is apparently indifferent as when she takes up her cards again to toy with them, shuffling through them absently. "Pinocle? Tarok? Euchre?" she suggests. No? Fine. Begrudgingly offered, "Poker?"

Slow-developing confusion sweeps away all of the other emotions on Farideh's face. "Pin-oc-le? Tar--what?" She gives Faryn a long, intense look. "I don't know how to play poker. Can't we just play Go Fish or Fight or--" She frowns, glancing at Laine, then at Tomic; surely, they'll have better suggestions than either she or Faryn.

"We always played crib," Tomic offers up, propping an elbow on the table and resting his chin on it so he can watch Faryn's shuffling. "But I don't have a board here." Farideh gets a grin. "Did 'go fish' too. And crazy... well, the card that was crazy would change with whatever my sister had, or would try, but it was okay." And then, with a frown, "I never really liked poker."

"I only know Go Fish and Crazy Eights," Laine admits, nudging the last dredges of her food around on her plate with a shrug for Farideh's plea for help. "Though I s'pose I could muddle through a game of poker," she says doubtfully. The apprentice shrugs. "Go Fish? I like Go Fish." Grey eyes scan the table for consensus.

Faryn rolls her eyes so hard it's a wonder she doesn't hurt herself. "Go Fish. O-kay." The word is clipped sharply, the final syllable bitten off. "I guess it's what I get. This is not Bitra." One more shuffle, a bridge, and she's tossing cards to them, quick, efficient, almost too fast to see. "Why don't you start," she says, and it's directed across the table. Whether to Laine or Farideh, it's unclear.

"No," Farideh says brightly, "this is not Bitra, and K'del is not Cendon." There's a smile accompanying the words, that might look a little smug, but she pushes her plate to the side in anticipation of their rousing card game. "I haven't played this game in turns." Her cards are quickly shuffled into her hand, where she fans them out to examine them closely with a frown. "Tomic," she starts, eyes lifting to the schlepper, "do you have any nines?"

Laine just gets an easy shrug. It might well be Faryn's disappointment that sees Tomic biting his lip, and leaning back in his chair. "You ever played crib?" One hand goes up, ready to block any cards that catch enough of an air cushion that they might consider flying off the table. "We used to play whist more than euchre, but they're sort of the same." It's meant as comforting. "Kind of." And then he's distracted, snapping to attention at his name, lean gone, cards fanning quickly in his hands. Belatedly, too. "Umm." Then. "Go fish."

Laine rearranges her hand of cards to her satisfaction, then glances up. "Hang on, which way are we going?" Transferring all her cards to one hand, she draws a little clockwise circle in the air with her finger. "Me next?" She's just going to assume: "Faryn," (with a quick look to make sure she got the name right) "Do you have any, uh, threes?"

"Once," Faryn allows, "if you mean cribbage. The board got lost after that, and we never bothered to replace it." Simplistic though this particular game is, Faryn arranges her own hand, immediately setting out a pair of nines with a smile that is nothing short of smarmy. "You next, yeah," the herder confirms, and there goes a card from her hand, slid across the wood to Laine. It's followed by, "Farideh. Fives?"

One card is plucked from the deck, and Farideh glumly watches first Laine, then Faryn, have their turns with success. Her eyes narrow on the beastcrafter's nines, before lifting to the older girl. "No. Go fish," with no small amount of satisfaction. From there, her focus moves on to Tomic, awaiting his next move. "Whist is an old lady's game," is her only two cents added.

"Well, I could probably find a- wait, wait, wait. Are we only playing to twos?" Tomic's eyes flick from the backs of the one sin Laine's hand, to Faryn's pair, and then back over to his own cards. He makes a frowny face. A pair is produced from his hand, held face down, but not released. His 'twos' question still stands. "My grandma taught us whist," he informs Farideh, sounding almost a little hurt.

"If Faryn's playing to twos, I'm playing to twos," Laine chuckles, drawing two cards out of her hand and laying the pair on the table. "Never heard of whist. Or... pea-nuckle? More of a dice girl, myself. Grandmas," Laine announces with an agreeable nod for Tomic, "Definitely know the best games."

"Twos are are better than books, unless you're unlucky." Better how? Probably just quicker. Certainly easier to palm a card if things deteriorate into arguments, easier to sway the balance. She latches to Tomic's introductory sentence enough to back track to it. "You have a board, then? You could bring it to the stables," she suggests passively. "Still your turn."

"You just proved my point," Farideh points out, without actually pointing. She just leans her elbows on the table and keeps fanning, then closing, her cards while she waits for Tomic to complete his hand. "Whist is that game the old ladies play when they want to throw away their marks, while they drink lemonade and tea, in their fancy hats and gloves." By the way she says it, she must find it immensely boring.

Tomic does a rare closed-mouth smile, those ruddy cheeks still managing to get good and round, just before answering, "Yeah, I could." Laine is given her own nod back, just one nod, but an adamant one. She gets the usual grin, his new ally, whose name he probably doesn't know. "She taught me rummy, too. Ever played that one?" To the other girl across the table, and not quite as warmly, if certainly not angrily: "My grandma didn't have fancy hats or gloves. Or that man marks, really." And then, leaving his pair face-down on the table, he reaches a hand to Faryn, palm up. "Five, please."

"Dunno," Laine considers her cards again, as though maybe she missed a pair the first time, and glances up at Farideh with a grin, "Throw some vodka in your lemonade, wear your fancy clothes, hang out with your old-lady-friends? Sounds like a good time to me. Like, if I'm old." Not now, obviously, when you're young with better things to do. To Tomic, with an apologetic shrug, Laine says: "Nah. My family never played cards, much."

"My mum always said that a little vodka never did any harm." Her own opinion on that is a pursing of the lips and a good-natured wrinkling of the nose as she passes her five to Tomic. Fine then. "Whist is fine enough. Poker's better. Depends if you're playing with someone who will cheat." She's doe-eyed as she says it.

"Then, what was she really playing?" Farideh gives Tomic a look, and then makes a face at Laine. "Drinking with a bunch of old ladies? Really? Wouldn't you rather-- I don't know. Climb a mountain, explore a river, or sail the ocean? Adventure," which the apprentice tanner might have heard before, even if it's not backed up by any real world experience on Farideh's part. She leans forward, bending a leg under herself, and turns to study Laine. "Got a ten?"

Tomic responds to that look with flat-out confusion, and answers, "Whist?" He shakes his head, and hunches his shoulders, bringing his cards before his face and really focusing on the game at hand... when there's a sharp wail from the other side of the cavern. Cards are down. For whatever reason, it's to Faryn that he says, "That sounds real," as he pushes his chair back, all in the same motion of standing. If only he wore a cape, its flutter could have been his excuses or goodbyes. As is, he's just gone.

"I would love to climb a mountain," Laine responds with somewhat more zeal than might be strictly necessary, "But they're all covered in snow and mud right now, so. I can't. And when I'm old I won't be able to, anyway. And your mum sounds like a clever, clever lady," the apprentice says to Faryn with a lopsided smile. Lastly: "No tens, sorry. Go fis--" She almost gets the word out, then Tomic is standing and disappearing and his cards and left on the table and Laine scratches her chin. Welp. She puts her cards down, too. "Is that it?"

For her part, Faryn says, "I'll skip the ocean, thanks." Her thin-lipped grimace softens. "She was something, that's for sure." Surprisingly, Faryn's spine goes straight too: "Shards." Why the beastcrafter would have any stake in the wail of a child is a mystery, but she is up quickly as well. "One of you keep my cards. I'll get them later." She's in Tomic's wake swiftly with no further explanation, and without bothering to find out if they're going to heed her request.

"The ones here, but there are mountains everywhere." Farideh watches the other two flee the scene at the wail of a child, and sighs, setting her cards down as well. "Well." She stares openly at Laine, like she's waiting for something, but instead grabs her plate and cup, beginning to stand. "Since you won't tell me about your date, we don't have anything else to talk about." And then she sticks her tongue out and turns to leave, obviously angling towards the kitchen, where she can return her dinnerware.

Laine feigns a dramatic eyeroll, but laughs. "'Bye, Farideh. See you soon." The apprentice, alone now, sets to scooping up Faryn's cards into a tidy little deck and leans back in her chair, apparently not going anywhere for a time yet.