Autobots: Late-Night Cards

[Mirage]

It's not that Mirage dislikes Emirate Xaaron; but he doesn't like him. Mirage is...remarkable indifferent to Xaaron actually, though he has come to have respect of a sort for him over the past months. He seems a competent leader, and, if someone asked Mirage to speak truly, Xaaron is one morally grey enough to actually be effective.

He smiles slightly as he addresses Xaaron, "I don't mind, if others don't. What better way to learn about your commander than to observe him in a game of skill, strategy, and luck?"

"Oh, and detective," Mirage turns that unwavering smile on Nightbeat, "I've played many types of games, hunted many types of prey." For just a moment, those yellow optics go flat and cold, a hint of what Mirage might have been showing, though that smile never wavers, "I'd be careful about judging me based solely on assumptions."

He waves idly at the new arrivals before turning back to Pee-Dee, "Sound like a plan. Is the difference in card count the only one?

[Pee-Dee]

"Wanna bet, dick?"

And then Xaaron mentions a Ms. Fatale. That's an odd enough name to work for a Transformer or Junkion. Pee-Dee's optics dim in suspicious irritation

not jealousy, she wasn't jealous over that pig

at Nightbeat. "Ms. Fatale? This I gotta hear."

There's an abrupt about-face in her mood as other people show up and she waves cheerily at them. "I've got no problem, miss. Join in if you like, Bluestreak. Oh, Boondocker!" She pats the seat of the chair next to her. "Sit here! I'll show you how to play."

Then she turns her attention to Mirage's question. Hmm, any other differences? She thought back to the few card games she'd managed to get involved in on Cybertron. "Well, the top three cards in the suit aren't number cards. They're "face" cards because they've got, well, people on them. Jack is an eleven, Queen is a twelve, and King is a thirteen. Just watch the letter in the corner to know which is which." She's assuming, of course, that they can read English. "Oh, and the one card, it's called an ace, can be either high or low, but everyone has to agree before the game which one it is."

[Nightbeat]

"Doesn't bother me, boss," Nightbeat says. Yes, he is actually stupid enough to want to match wits against Emirate Xaaron. Or smart enough to know that he can successfully pull it off. Either way works. Take your pick.

The others get the good natured nod of someone who will be perfectly friendly, right before he takes you for everything you've got.

As for Mirage, well, Nightbeat will be making facing whenever his back is turned.

And the rest...

"Just another crazy dame," he says of Fatale, waving a hand dismissively. "Just another crazy dame with wild ideas and too much spirit."

[Emirate Xaaron]

Winning - that's the name of the game. Emirate Xaaron once said that, and he means it. He doesn't play around; he plays to win. However, what game he is playing might not be the game of cards, and in fact, losing a game of cards might be a victory in other senses.

He considers just what game he's playing, here. Cards is the traditional game that bored soldiers play and an excellent outlet for them to gripe about their superiors over. By introducing one of said superiors into the mix, he's altering the dynamic of the game. He could be implying that he cares about the common troops and does not consider himself above them. He could also just look like some jet-aft who is 'slumming' for kicks and giggles. Emirate Xaaron will have to take care to avoid that latter connotation and play up the first. Also, he has to show that he is willing to take risks in the name of gaining an advantage without portraying himself as reckless or irresponsible. His style must be competitive and interested in the task at hand without being cutthroat or bullying.

Then, of course, there are the cards. The game that Emirate Xaaron is playing is very complex indeed, and perhaps he will be served by winning, but if he wins, he cannot just sweep these people. He has to let it be close, very close indeed, to build excitement and to not give the impression of the establishment crushing the common man. If he loses, he must lose well and gracefully, not giving the impression of a feeble fool.

Could he even win the card game, if he wanted to? He's not sure. Nightbeat and Mirage are almost assuredly very good, and Pee-Dee is the one who suggested this in the first place. Boondocker and Bluestreak probably aren't big threats, nor is Oracle if she plays, but he cannot afford to underestimate the sheer power of beginner's luck.

By playing with Terran rules, Emirate Xaaron will be at something of a disadvantage, but Mirage will be, as well. The playing skills of the rest, such as they are, shouldn't be impacted. The others have agreed to it. It would be unseemly to disagree now. Emirate Xaaron starts running the probability algorithms now and agrees, "Five cards would be fine by me. Aces high?"

He turns to Mirage and comments, tone completely bland and innocent, "I could think of a few better ways."

Fighting zombies and demons together is a really good, quick way to get to know someone, isn't it? Or perhaps just what they look like inside, not what they are like inside. Emirate Xaaron isn't possibly referring to anything else, is he? He's just been up too long, wracking his circuits over battle plans.

Emirate Xaaron smiles winningly to Oracle, Bluestreak, and Boondocker, greeting, "Restless this night? I can't blame any of you."

[Oracle]

Apparently her appearance heralded the arrival of several others as well, and though she was still somewhat near the door, Oracle skittered fairly quickly out of the way to keep from blocking the entry or getting run over. Ending up part of the floor would very quickly end her curiosity to be sure, but she would really prefer to avoid having to annoy First Aid to get the dings taken care of later.

It didn't look like anyone minded her being here though, so she moved further into the room after another moment and peered around for something to perch on. Spotting another table fairly close to the one the card players were at, she wandered over and pushed it just a few feet nearer, before hopping up on top and making herself comfortable. She had a good view from up higher now, what more could she ask for?

Returning Xaaron's smile with a slightly drier one, she shrugged. "Was going to go flying, but if other people were up, I thought I'd come see what everyone was doing."

[Bluestreak]

"Just couldn't go into defrag, so when they mentioned the card game over broadband I figured I'd check it out. Played a couple of games back on Earth, but it's been awhile... but hey, it's still fun to play even if you don't win, right?" And he pulls up a chair and takes a seat. "Um... who's Ms. Fatale? Never heard of her. She a femme from your universe or something?"

[Boondocker]

Oh yeah, Xaaron better watch out for Beginner's Luck. Boony's a lucky mech, and he's gonna have the help of the lovely Pee-Dee. Speaking of, he heads on over, excusing himself past some of the others to get around.

Once over, he takes the seat with a light nod and smile. "Thank'ee kindly, Miz Pee-Dee." He then chuckles faintly at Xaaron's question. "Wail, Mister Zay-ron, I's jus sittin' aroun' when ah heard th' announcement. Figger y'all heard th' rest." Then his attention turns to Pee-Dee again. "Now then, Miz Pee-Dee, how's this hyar game work?"

[Mirage]

Mirage tilts his head at Xaaron when he answers, one corner of her mouth twitching up, "Oh, I can think of better ways myself, but most would be a bit beyond the pale. And decidedly against regulations."

He listens to Pee-Dee's further explanations, nodding. It will be an adjustment, but not a significant one. He should be able to adapt fairly quickly...

And, the hick with impenetrable accent is going to play. Lovely. Once things get underway, Mirage is picking out his favorites from his playlist and turning his internal speakers up loudly. He simply can't stand that much destruction of the language.

Mirage taps his finger on his chin and given Oracle a considering glance. He doesn't want her in the game, all things considered, but..."Can you tell if someone if cheating, perhaps?"

The fact that he his glance then falls on Nightbeat is purely coincidental.

[Pee-Dee]

"Too much spirit?" Pee-Dee asks, an edge to her voice that hints that the wrong answer might lead to Nightbeat getting decked again.

Her friends-with-benefits on Junk had a broad range from trashy to classy, but she really does appreciate a little touch of class in any mech. But flirting with Mirage is far more interesting as a game, not that she'd say no to a tumble. And the Bat-Xaaron was, well, the Bat-Xaaron. He was married to his cause, and there was no room for other loves in his life.

Boondocker, however... Boondocker was sweet. So she gives him a sunny smile and leans in real close to talk quietly into his audial. "Poker is a betting game, otherwise it's no fun. So we start with putting in an 'ante', a token bet. Just provide a guarantee that there's something to win even if the betting doesn't go very far. Speaking of which..."

She leans away and pulls a large pouch out of her pack. The material resembles leather upholstery that's been beaten and remolded, but it's so stained and scarred that it could have been anything. A loose cable ties it shut.

With quick fingers, she unties it and spills a mound of multi-colored chips on the table. "Whites are worth one, blues are worth five, reds are worth twenty, silver are worth fifty, golds are worth a hundred, and the tri-colored ones are five hundred. Take 'em if you don't have anything else to bet with. Any of them that don't go into the pot by the end of the game, I want back."

If there are no chips for her by the time the game begins, she'll pull out her bag of shiny rocks to bet with.

"Anyways." Back to leaning in close to Boondocker. "I'll be dealing everyone a hand of five cards. Check what you've got, then we do a round of betting, starting with Nightbeat and working its way back to me.¹" As she talks, she shuffles her deck again and begins flicking cards to people. Her deck, it should be noted, is a perfect rendition of Ace cards with a red back. "Now in the first round, you don't have to open the betting. You can just 'check' things, and then it falls to the next person. But if betting is opened before your turn, you have to bet."

Everyone else is dealt a hand before Pee-Dee deals herself one. "When a bet has been made, you can 'see' their bet, which means you match it. Or you can 'see and raise' it, which is putting more into the pot. Or you can 'fold', where you back out. You lose what's already in the pot, but you don't have to add any more because you're out of the game."

She sets the remaining part of the deck off to the side. Her own five-card fan is left face-down for now. "Now, once the first round of betting is done, a mech can decide some of his cards suck, and trade them in to see if he can't get something better. You can trade up to three cards, which'll be discarded, and you'll get replacements from the remainder of the deck. After that, it's back to betting. The game is over when there's no more raising, or when everybody but one folds."²

Pee-Dee levers open a wrist panel, still smiling and curled up close to Boondocker. She pulls out a copper panel carefully carved with the values of the different hands in poker. "Here, take a look at this, Boondocker. But give it back at the end of the game. I definitely need that."

Pee-Dee likes having all of her subspace generators working, after all.

---

1. For sanity's sake, the betting order will go in the thread-post order.

2. Rules for poker taken from here.

Play can begin on Nightbeat's turn.

[Nightbeat]

The look Mirage is now getting suggests that if he has a problem with the way Nightbeat plays his cards, then he's more than welcome to step outside where they can settle things in the gentlemanly art of boxing. Fortunately for Nightbeat, however, he's no gentleman and thus is under no obligation to obey silly rules like not hitting below the belt, not kicking someone when he's down, or hitting him while his back is turned.

"Yeah," he says in reply to Pee-Dee's question. "The spirit of self-interest, that is. Wanted to use a planet's life-force to keep herself young." He shrugs. "Organics. Go fig."

And then he's got his hand. It's not an especially good one, but the detective's expression is all but unreadable, his posture the relaxed posture of the veteran of any number of barroom card games.

He flips some chips into the pile. "I'll open with ten."

[Emirate Xaaron]

Emirate Xaaron nods along at Oracle and Boondocker's explanations for why they are were up... or lack of explanations. He has insomniac Autobots. Interesting.

Emirate Xaaron quirks an optical ridge but continues in that completely flat and innocent tone, asking, "What regulations, Mirage? I don't recall putting in any regulations in place about how Autobots are to get to know each other. Have Rodimus and Goldbug?"

Emirate Xaaron takes a quick peek at his hand when it is deals and then holds it in one hand, card face down to the table. He can remember what he has, and it isn't good, anyway. Emirate Xaaron just doesn't want people seeing just how not-good it is, reflected in his shiny silver face. Said shiny silver face does not as much as twitch, however. Still, the probability of getting such a garbage hand was about 50.12%.

He considers the amounts of chips that Pee-Dee has spilled out, going all the way up to five hundred. He considers Nightbeat's bet of ten. If he bets lower, he is implying that his hand is worse than Nightbeat, and he honestly has no idea if his is better or worse, but there is a pretty good chance that it is worse. Does anyone need to know that his hand is worse, however?

Perhaps later in the night, they'll find Emirate Xaaron betting with positions on the watch rosters, but for now, he just takes a pair of the five pieces, a ten to match the unreadable detective, and he pushes them into the centre with a slight smile.

[Oracle]

Face going blank for a moment as she processes what Mirage is talking about, Oracle only just avoids twitching. She's still not used to having her abilities referred to so casually and it distinctly throws her off, but she gets a pensive look as she actually thinks about his question.

Shortly afterward she shakes her head. "I see what you see, just before it actually occurs. Might be useful for me if I was playing but not exactly good for catching cheaters unless I was looking for actions out of sync." And she didn't think that would be very helpful in catching someone cheating at a game like poker. She was a seer, not a mind reader.

She watches Pee-Dee explain the rules of the game with interest, and pushes up onto her knees to make sure she can get a look at the copper plate for a bit too. While she might not be able to play right now, and honestly it probably wasn't very nice for her to play cards against her allies, who knew when an opportunity came along where knowing how to play poker might be useful?

[Bluestreak]

Bluestreak scoops up his cards and fans them out for a look. Hey, not bad! Looks like he might have a chance at this game after all. Unfortunately, though he struggles to keep a straight face, his doorwings give him away, perking up at a cheerful angle as he scans his cards.

"Ten," he chimes in, accepting some of Pee-Dee's chips and pushing two fives toward the center.

[Boondocker]

Boondocker listens intently to Pee-Dee. He's rather indifferent to her forwardness - He just sees it as her being nice, so he takes it all in with a thankful grin that someone's showing him this. He takes his cards, and the panel of various poker hands, and commences to examining them. After a bit, he sets the panel back down, sliding his hand into a small stack and concealing it. He reaches for the chip pile and like those before him, he takes two blue chips, placing them in the betting pile. "Thar."

He gives Pee-Dee a bit of a grin then. "Thankee kindly, Miz Pee-Dee. 'Preciate th' teachin'."

[Mirage]

Mirage shakes his head as he says to Oracle, "Ah, I wasn't quite sure how that worked. oh well, we shall simply have to trust everyone to be honorable, I suppose."

He listens patiently to Pee-Dee's explanation. Similar enough then, to what he knows. Mirage does not, though, reach for Pee-Dee's chips; instead he withdraws a small pouch of his own from subspace. The chits clink as he carefully pours them out and arranges them by denomination in front of him before casually tossing in his ante. They don't match up to Pee-Dee's; Mirage's are more muted, not round, but rectangular. The values are clearly etched in their tops. It's a high quality chit set, from a known maker. Mirage settles for nothing but the best.

Once the cards are dealt, he powers down his optic lights to reduce glare and reflection. He leaves his cards face down in a fan, just thumbing the corners up enough to discern their value. Interesting. Very interesting indeed. Through all this that signature smirk does not waver.

"I raise" he says, reaching for his stack, "by another ten." He lightly tosses the chits into the pile. Best to see what they're made of early on.