driftfleet | [Open] Watch each card you play, and play it slow

Who: Adalwolfe Hawke
Broadcast: Video!
Action: Sure; Malum
When: Now

[It's not long into drift week before Adalwolfe Hawke gets bored. And when a Hawke gets board, then ridiculous things happen. Luckily, thanks to some seeds already planted in his brain before, Adalwolfe has been working on a pet project so not too much destruction has occurred. (This time, anyway.)

Wolfe pops onto the network with a video with an eager smile.]

Hey fleet! So there's this card game from Thedas called Wicked Grace and since we haven't had any proper cards that I've found, I decided to make my own.

[He holds up a few card. One labeled Angel of Death and a few others from various suits, all labeled and with crude drawings.]

I found a deck of very plain cards in Malum, so if those belonged to anyone sorry about that, but you really shouldn't leave your stuff around. Anyway, I made them playable for Wicked Grace. If anyone wants to play, you should know that if we're using my cards, then we go by Ferelden rules. See? The Swords are Dogs instead and they're high instead of Angels. Also I made the Drakes into Dragons instead because I can.

[He pauses in his excitement for a moment, then sits back a bit sheepishly as it occurs to him that anyone not from Thedas probably has no idea what he's talking about.]

So, the rules are everyone is dealt 5 cards. Each player takes turns drawing one card from either the deck or the discard pile and then discarding a card face up into the discard. You can't take a card you've previously discarded. When the Angel of Death card is drawn and discarded, then the game is over and everyone scores their hands. You're supposed to discard the Angel of Death right away, but cheating is also part of the game so almost no one ever does unless they have a good hand. But if you get caught cheating, then you lose right away.

[Wolfe grins again and leans into the video, holding up cards as examples as he talks.]

There's four suits - Dogs, Angels, Songs, and Dragons. Some other countries use other suits, like in Orlais they have Masks for Songs and everywhere but Ferelden Angels are highest. Though I actually think in Tevinter Dragons are high but they call them Serpents...

[A pause to mull that over, then Wolfe continues.]

In any case, Dogs always beat Angels, Angels beat Songs, etc. Also more of a suit will beat less of a suit. So say you have three Dragons. That'll beat two Angels. Pretty simple. Where it gets sort of complicated is with themes. You can beat four Songs, for example, if you have the Song, Dog, Angel, and Dragon all of Roses. There's other things too, but it's a lot to just explain like this.

[Wolfe puts the cards he'd been showing off back on top of the deck and leans back.]

If you have any questions, ask away! Or I can show you in person, since it's pretty slow in Malum today. But if you do come to learn you've got to order a drink. 'Sonly fair.

[He shuffles the cards between his hands, nothing fancy but he's at least got a bit of deftness there. For a moment, a dog nose is visible at the bottom corner of the shot, over the counter on which Wolfe's device is sitting, then it moves back out of view with a loud snuffle.]

Oh, and fellow Thedosians, we should set up a night to play now that we've got cards. Let me know what works for everyone. I'm good for any time.

[He waves at the video, dropping about half the deck in the process. The video ends with a yelp and Wolfe diving under the bar to save his precious cards.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That sounds a lot like gin, actually. Sounds interesting.

[Nami's always fond of new games. She's also aware this is who Sam was speaking to earlier.]

Isn't gin a drink?

[He raises an eyebrow at her over the video. Could be bartender humor, could be that he doesn't actually know gin is a card game.]

[She grins.] Well, it's also that. I prefer the card game over the drink, though-- my taste goes more for sake and rum.

Is it a game you play for points, or just whoever wins each round? [Casual or competitive?]

Sake was new when I got here. I actually like it quite a lot, but I definitely agree on rum.

[He grins right back.]

You can play it either way. I've got a friend who likes to play that every round you lose clothes instead of coin, but another who prefers to play for actual peanuts instead of money. It really doesn't matter, honestly.

Hah! Yes, I think I'm familiar with both of those variants. [Dryly.]

Card games at the bar sounds like a great idea, though. You got many takers?

A few, but people have mostly be staggered so its been one-on-one games. I don't mind really, easier to teach that way. You're welcome to come try too, if you like.

I might do at that. I'm Nami, by the way. [Grin.] I run your technical competition.

[It's extremely technical competition.]

Hawke.

[He grins right back.]

Just a bartender, entirely uninterested in business competition. I'm strictly into competition for pleasure.

I can get behind that. Maybe I'll drop by at the end of my shift and see if you're still around.

I should be, I've only been on for an hour or so. I don't know, I've lost track. It's a bit early for much of a crowd so I needed to find some way to amuse myself that wasn't cleaning things for the trillionth time.

[Snrk.] You've got that problem too, huh? There's only so many times I can win a game of darts against myself.

Right? Though I've gotten quite good at juggling bottles now with all the time to practice.

I hope you didn't lose any of them while you were practicing.

Only a few. Crowley assured me he'll just take them out of my pay.

[He doesn't seem terribly bothered.]

Sounds like good business sense to me. I used to work there too, actually. It got a bit crazy for a while.

Oh yeah? Then maybe you can tell me why there's two bars. I mean, variety is great, but there's not all that many people in the fleet that two would be necessary, right?

Because two entirely different kinds of people got the idea to open a bar at roughly the same time, and people like variety and the illusion of a choice.

The Space Bar used to belong to a guy called Varric, and I know a lot of people from his world prefer this kind of look. It appeals to a lot of travelling types, seafarers, etcetera. Malum has the class and the more, I don't know, modern look? Some like one and not the other.

Like I said, we're technically competition, but we both save the same purpose, and the owners obviously don't care who frequents where. [Not with the prices similar across the board.]

It was Varric's?

[Adalwolfe makes a funny face at that and grows quiet for a moment. He knew Varric had been in the fleet before, that he'd missed him, but he didn't know he'd actually finally opened a bar. He'd talked about buying the Hanged Man so many times and never did it, but here there was no Hanged Man to buy and yet plenty of space and opportunity. Figures he'd name it a stupid pun like The Space Bar. Varric always tried to pass himself off as so much more highbrow than the rest of them but Adalwolfe knows the truth. His sense of humor is as stupid as the rest of theirs.

Maker's hairy ass, he misses Varric so badly. It washes over him in a wave of nostalgia.]

I know Varric. From home.

[Huh. That was unexpected. Mostly because she's used to seeing Varric's crowd front up here. Her glance is startled, but it softens into thoughtfulness after a moment.]

We didn't talk much outside of work, but I liked him. [Had that kind of rough, take-no-shit personality.] He really enjoyed this place. I honestly thought he'd give it over to Fenris when he left.

[Though in all honesty, it's likely he did offer it, and Fenris said no.]

He knows Fenris well enough to know he wouldn't take care of it. You should have seen Fenris' house.

[He left dead bodies around, Nami. For six years.]

He must have liked you to leave it to you, though. He's always been a pretty good judge of character.

[That's oddly pleasing to hear. She was never sure where she stood with Varric.]

Must be our keen love of making money.

Probably that, or he knew you'd keep it how he liked. A rowdy tavern where the best and worst people are one and the same?

[It's a guess, but it's an educated guess.]

Probably with better beer than the Hanged Man though. That place had nothing but swill.

[Which he says with all fondness.]

[She laughs.] That also sounds right. The Space Bar reminds me of a lot of our dockside taverns back home. I wouldn't change a thing. But our stock is a pretty decent standard, I would think.

[It's near exactly the same as Malum's, which may be of design.]

[Open] Watch each card you play, and play it slow

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