roulette

[temporal_affairs]

Timer doesn't have the square footage to gamble with. If he loses any he's going to have to move into a closet. But the other week he found an arcade/casino place with play money. Go in, get a few hundred tokens, play poker or pinball or pinochle, provide human scenery and help the fellow who organizes the place feel like he does something useful with his death.

Nathan is dealing blackjack, because why not, he likes to feel useful with his death too, and it wouldn't be very fair for him to play it. His table's short a player right now.

Comments

[unconqueredsun]

Not for long. Flush prefers poker, but there wasn't much going on there, and his luck said this table looked good. So blackjack it is.

He takes a seat. "Deal me two hands, I have a good feeling about this."

[temporal_affairs]

"Sure." Timer hands out the cards. "You new?"

[unconqueredsun]

"Here, yes. The tokens isn't my usual style, but it looked like a good place, so what the hell. I'm Flush, you?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Timer. You prefer to move house every time you have a bad run, huh?"

[unconqueredsun]

"Don't know. I'll get back to you the first time it happens." He glances down at his cards: a 16 and a soft 17, but luck says go for it. "Oh, and hit on both."

[temporal_affairs]

Here's a three, here's a four. (The lady to the left of him busts.)

[unconqueredsun]

"See? No bad runs." He checks luck again. It says... hit the 19. OK, time to showboat. "Oh, and hit my 19."

[temporal_affairs]

Timer puts a two on his nineteen.

"What world're you from?" he inquires.

[unconqueredsun]

"60. You?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Also 60." He hands over requisite quantities of play money and shuffles. "When'd you die?"

[unconqueredsun]

"Early 2000s. Were you clued-in to the weird stuff?"

[temporal_affairs]

"I was very, very clued in to the weird stuff. Are you doing weird stuff to my blackjack game, sir?"

[unconqueredsun]

"Well, I was. What, should I stop showing off?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Seems unsporting. 'S a reason I only deal."

The other players decide that this would be their cue to leave.

[unconqueredsun]

"I don't cheat people who can't afford to lose. Or my friends." He pauses before he shoots his mouth off. "If you'd rather, I won't play more hands. I can make money at the poker tables later the hard way."

[temporal_affairs]

"It's play money, nobody's going to knock you over for it, but is it even fun, doing it with magic?" Timer shrugs. "What is it you do, anyway?"

[unconqueredsun]

"Eh, showing off is fun. I do this and that. Gamble, walk through the library looking for odd and ends, stay a long step away from the torturers... It's dull, but it beats ceasing to exist. You do something besides dealing blackjack?"

[temporal_affairs]

"I pass the time. I don't have a regular occupation. Haven't been Downside that long, about five years. But I mean what's your witchcraft."

[unconqueredsun]

"Oh, yeah. I'm a very lucky guesser. I only get a 'good idea'/'bad idea' feeling, and it's hard to convince my luck that other people are important, but it keeps me in good health and wealth, so I like it. You have one of your own?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Yep. Hint's in the name. I know when the best time on a certain scale is to do whatever. Not necessarily a good time. There is no good time to set oneself on fire, but there is still a best time."

[unconqueredsun]

"Huh. Oddly similar, really," He cocks his head, "OK, that will bug me: When is the best time to light yourself on fire?"

[temporal_affairs]

"In the next how long?"

[unconqueredsun]

"Mm. A day?"

[temporal_affairs]

"Eight-oh-two a.m. tomorrow morning. ...Which is shortly before I expect to arrive at the home of a lovely lady who has a swimming pool."

[unconqueredsun]

"Hah. That's good. Much more fun than 'Don't do that.' Not that I don't have a couple odd stories, myself. One time it was a bad idea to leave the house for three full days, and it took me a week more to figure out that there had been a rabid raccoon sleeping under my doormat. Of course, down here I'd just assume Chainsaw was in the neighborhood."