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[meme] characterization

Poker Night at the Inventory

POKER NIGHT AT THE MEME

You heard of this place from a few people, through hushed whispers.

A rusty door in some back alley, with a door simply labeled ‘THE INVENTORY’. But instead of it actually opening like a door, the entrance varies. Sometimes there’s an undercover elevator just beneath you on that manhole. Sometimes the door opens like a reinforced security door. Sometimes the door is concealed by the brick wall beside it, for those who wish to park.

In any way you enter, you descend through the levels, until you see a dimly lit room with decoration dating back to the first half of the twentieth century. An early modern style of interior with the look and feel of a speakeasy.

A short, portly man with a sailor’s hat notices you, and spreads his arms in elation.

“Welcome! Welcome to the Inventory! I imagine you’re here for the card game? It is always good to see both new and familiar faces in here. Come, let me take you to the rest of the patrons,” he motions you to follow him.

“Just do make sure to keep this place a secret, will you? We know this site might be perfectly legal for some of the universes you might know, but since this place was founded because some suits in Washington had funny ideas for the 18th Amendment, we’d rather give most of our patrons a good site to play should those representatives choose to ‘protect the world-renowned determination and productivity of the american worker.’ Humph!”

On the way, you would see numerous colorful patrons, hailing from all sorts of worlds and backgrounds, as well as games of all kinds you might have either seen or not: Poker, sabbacc, hearts, chess, blackjack, dejarik, among others. There is a bar with a more than healthy variety of strong liquors, attended by people from various parts of the multiverse. There are even arcades with some games that are rarely found nowadays.

The tubby man spreads his arm to the dozens of gaming tables spread out in front of you. All of them lit by the telltale three dice lanterns that hang on the roof.

“There it is! Pick a table, set the betting pool with the rest of the players, and begin to play! Good luck to you! May the best player win.”

((OOC: Do not leave your top levels empty! Describe your character, put your preferences, how will they play, and even write a starter if you wish.))

PROMPTS AND SCENARIOS

1. Exploring and Finding Tables

Welcome to the Inventory. This is a place for all sorts of gaming and entertainment, so don’t be afraid if you just want to venture around, going for a drink, playing on old arcades, or simply watching other players. The place is big, but there might be trouble finding a good table to sit down and play with, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to mingle with fellow players, before choosing where to sit.

2. Betting Stakes

While the host is normally responsible for setting up the betting pool and the funds each play should bring over, most of the times, the players will get to choose how much and what do they gamble. From merely a pool of a hundred bucks, to one of ten thousand dollars each player.

Don’t have the money for it? No problem. Maybe you can also bet some good weapon you might have, a stradivarius violin you might have somewhere, a piece of art, an award you won once? As long as all the players do not have a problem with it, everything is fair game.

Just remember you might end up losing it.

3. Shooting the Shit

All of these people hail from various parts of the multiverse. Characters with so much color, with their respective quirks and insanities, that might have their own pieces of conversation. They all have stories to tell, adventures and incidents they all went through. Since this is a place for leisure, it might be actually entertaining to listen and share some of these stories.

Sometimes, listening to those stories might give you a window into their personalities, as well as how they play. It’s also good courtesy to buy your opponent drinks. They won’t mind, and it might give you easier tells, too.

4. Lady Luck’s Kiss or Kill

Even in a light-hearted game, every player has their tell. Some twitch, some expression, a tiny hint of a smile. The other players might have them but so do you. It will be a matter of trying to read everyone while containing your own tells, knowing when to fold them, and knowing when you can bluff your own way forward.

The round might have ended up in silence, or someone might have decided to go all in, followed by one or more madmen. This is it. Players might tremble as they all reveal their hands, wait expectantly for the cards the dealer might show, with either joy or despair and rage as the cards either save them or curse them…

5. Player’s Choice

Of course, you are not limited to these options. Maybe you’re not a guest, but you’re the bartender, a card dealer, or even a bartender, waiter or waitress.

Maybe you are already known to the Inventory, maybe you stumble in by accident and find the place yourself, maybe you go into some different areas of the place. Hell. Maybe a game went awry in some manner, somebody claimed another was cheating, or someone was just a bad loser, and guns were pulled. The sky is the limit.

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[ even though mun's actual knowledge of poker and the such isn't 100% lmao still very open to this, faye in her natural habitat n' all. she's likely gonna cheat ya one way or another. don't be afraid to ask if you're unsure of anything! ]

Edited 2019-05-01 23:50 (UTC)

One of the people that sits on the blackjack table is a man in white armor, red stripes adorning his armor with a cape hanging behind his belt. He had noticed one of the empty tables. Seeing as he was allowed R&R from the Clone Wars, and currently resting in a cantina, this seemed like a good thing to play.

He took close attention to the woman behind his visor. Both blaster pistols rested on the sides of his belt.

"Ma'am. Is this chair clear?" Fordo asked with the filtered sound of his helmet.

Jango Fett had stressed on them to know all of the tells and signals of any person, in the battlefield and in intrapersonal relationships as you would in sabbacc. And being a person that stressed on the philosophies of both intimate knowledge of the battlefield and overwhelming firepower, he studied enough poker until he learned the rules.

Right now, his visor studied the woman, seeing her few clothes, pondering if she was from the Outer Colonies or any of the more troublesome worlds.

[Leonard's a cool and calculating looking man, leaning against the bar holding a tumbler of whiskey while watching the room.]

"Hello, I'm famous celebrity Bojack Horseman, who played the Horse on Horsing Around and famous movies like Secretariat and Philbert, here to bring light to your meaningless lives."

A man with the head of a horse stumbles over with a large painting of a horse swimming in water in one hand, and a bottle of gin in the other, who had done a balancing act to walk through the tables. He immediately sat, still holding on to the painting.

"Yyyyeeaaaah, I didn't get the money for tonight, so does anyone mind if I bring over this painting? You can tell it's a really fine and expensive painting because of... um... all the colors, and brushes it has. So if no one has any problem, Iiii'll be betting this for ten thousand."

He slammed the damned thing onto the center of the green table.

Edited 2019-05-02 00:24 (UTC)

A stare. Shepard's not entirely sure exactly what's the most absurd thing before her: the drunk horse, the blotchy painting, or the damn fact the painting took over the entire table.

Pinching her nose, she glances up.

"Materials alone, this doesn't look over 250. Look, I paid more for a damned hamster than this painting."

Still, smelling the gin, it was damned impressive he even got to the table.

(ooc: I had to, your voice for Bojack is perfect.)

"What?" Bojack placed his hand defensively over the painting, "that hamster better have been the best damned hamster you've ever had in your life! I paid lots for this thing! Sell it to some rock place. Tell them this was an authentic... erm..."

Bojack scratched the back of his head to think, "Color-ist painting, from the house of the one and only Bojack Horseman. There's always some nerd on eBay seeking to buy famous actor stuff. You can afford it, Miss... Space Lady."

He frowned as he pushed the painting back to the center.

"Take it because the next best choice is selling the clothes I wore on the set of Philbert. You're going to get some weirdo taking it for a million dollars."

Problem was, those were the same clothes Bojack was wearing.

((OOC: And many thanks! I hope I do a good enough job in this thread as well)).

Edited 2019-05-03 06:12 (UTC)

Shepard might not be an artist, she might even be considered a 'grunt' but she picked up things. This time from Garrus, who had wanted to paint one day. "Ugh, get a cloth and cover that painting, or it's going to lose value." And then she looked defensive. "And he is." Maaaybe mentioning Boo had been a contributing factor of what happened to a clone wasn't the best idea though.

"Impressionist." Jane had no idea if this was true or not, all she really knew was that paint and canvass was costly and it wasn't awful. The figure was recognizable. "And it's 250 units of money. 300. And being a good soldier, I brought 500 units of cash, so we're good."

She crosses her arms, "And it's Shepard." And she's a little more famous where she comes from than Bojack. Though the narcissism was amusing.

"Philbert." Her lips press together to keep from laughing. "That's a show?" She knew her name, Jane, was plain and old fashioned. But only plain. Philbert was fucking hilarious.

(ooc: You're wonderful! I hope to do the same. ME is serious series but the humorous parts make this POSSIBLE. And i love Bojack so...)

"Ugh. Fine, fine." Bojack pulled a table cloth from another table with a loud crashing of glasses.

He covered the painting with it and turned to the dealer. "We'll gamble with this bitch for three hundred." Bojack then glanced up at Shepard and instinctively stepped back with wide eyes. "The painting. The painting. Because I'm Bojack the Feminist, and I appreciate and respect the strength and willpower of women around the world and in other worlds."

Bojack slowly sat and tapped both fingers over the table. He frowned to Shepard as he was dealt his cards, "yyyyeah. If you think that's the most hilarious thing about my show, you haven't watched our head writer in action. Somehow the show manages itself when he's locked himself in his room. You'd be surprised how many scenes we've used from us shouting randomly 'Oh my God!'"

[Someone's looking extremely happy to be here!! Where's the high-stakes games at]

"Hello, miss," a blond girl in victorian attire looked up at the overly-eager guest, as she watched the girl look around as if she was in Disneyland, "would you like to sit and play here? We have an unoccupied chair."

Mami then smiled as she placed a generous wad of yens on her side of the table, "we have tea and a little cake in here already, but we can get red wine just as well if you wish. Do not be afraid to ask for more."

Of course, behind that sweet and genuinely charitable and kind smile was also careful calculation. Sugar and caffeine could make her opponent a little jumpier, making tells easy to read; likewise, wine would loosen players up and make them distracted. While there was a genuine sense of wanting to be a good host and player to whoever wanted to play with here, Mami was also highly tactical in her thinking and acting.

But this was a friendly game that just happened to have big stakes, right?

"Oh, my, thank you kindly! I'd be happy to join in." Yumeko nodded to the blonde girl and the other players in greeting before taking her seat. "A cup of tea would be lovely, thank you."

Her eyes flitted over the money on the table, including the stack her hostess had just set down. "My, I see I came just in time! Things seem to be picking up steam here, don't they?" Reaching under her red school vest, she produced a stack of equal size, nonchalantly setting it on the table as she waited to be dealt in.

"Ah, my name is Yumeko Jabami, by the by. I'm looking forward to gambling with all of you!"

"My name is Tomoe Mami. It is a pleasure to be playing with you." Mami stood up and performed a curtsy to Yumeko, and then served her a cup of tea from the china teapot on the table.

There were things she immediately noticed: She was already familiar with gambling games (cheerful even), said she was 'looking forward to gamble with all of them', and brought up a stack of five hundred thousand yen without thinking it twice. The fact she had accepted caffeine was a signal she was either already used to the effects and thus continued to be in her element, or that she was fucking batshit insane.

Mami delicately sat down, and pulled her chair onto the table. She placed her own wad in the center of the table, and began with the binds of ten thousand yen.

The dealer then shuffled the cards, and gave them all.

As she received her moderate hand, Mami glanced up, "if it is not intrusive to ask, from where do you come from? I didn't believe gambling games were allowed within most japanese districts, let alone our age."

Yumeko's pleasant smile didn't move an inch in either direction as she picked up her cards. She had absolutely nothing, but that could be fun in its own way.

"A pleasure to meet you, Mami-san. And you're quite right, of course, but I attend a school called Hyakkaou Private Academy, which has its own rules about that sort of thing. Students there aren't just permitted to gamble, it's an important part of campus culture," she explained, sliding her 500k stack towards the center as well.

Edited 2019-05-02 16:27 (UTC)

"Hyakkaou Private Academy? I come from Mitakihara High School," Mami tapped her side of the table to check, as she eyed which two cards would she most likely replace, "isn't that liable to create a lot of problems for young students? I can see it turning into a real problem for a lot of families."

Especially by the fact this girl placed her stack of cash without a second thought, almost more thrilled for the game itself than the rewards, in a blatant disregard for her welfare... Not that Mami had a lot of high ground, to be honest, being a magical girl. She eyed the decisions around the table, until somebody decided to raise. Mami, in turn, would call, and place her own chips on the center of the table. She turned to Yumeko with a kind smile in turn.

Yumeko was still smiling. Mami realized quickly that Yumeko's eagerness made for a steely poker face. Mami had never been happier than she was immune to the ill effects of caffeine with her enhanced biology.

"This place did look like a fascinating new place to meet new friends and form links, all in all. But I can't imagine a school functioning with gambling in mind."

"Oh, but it does. Pretty much everyone there has more than enough money for that sort of thing. That's actually the school's entire philosophy, really. Hyakkaou's students are almost all children of privilege, so much so that serious study isn't something they need to worry about. But gambling can teach them how to read others, how to conceal their own motivations..." Yumeko laughs, seeming positively tickled by the whole idea. "Useful skills for a politician or executive, right?"

She plucks just one card from her hand, sliding it to the dealer for a replacement. It doesn't change much for her, and that smile lingers as the round opens. "I raise," she declares, tossing her chips in--a hundred grand's worth, already up to a fifth of what she's got on hand.

"And yes, the atmosphere here really is something, isn't it? I can't decide if the two of us are really out of place here or not," she jokes. "But at the end of the day, aaah, anywhere I can find a little action like this is fine by me."

One might say that last sentence is where Yumeko's poker face breaks a little, but not in the usual way. Rather than betraying uncertainty or anything like that, an odd, overexcited sparkle comes to her eyes for a moment, accompanied by a flush of pink in her cheeks.

One of the players tossed their cards back to the table. Another folded as well. As soon as it was Mami's turn on the table, she calmly tossed her share of the chips into the center.

"I call," Mami smiled, just as confident as she was at the beginning of the game. She had already risked her life so many times, betting one fifth of her buy-in was little different, and a necessary measure she did it with a calculated smile.

Mami shut her eyes, and lifted her porcelain cup of tea to sip from her Earl Gray, before calmly clacking the cup when she set it down. She opened her eyes once again with her same gentle smile.

Unbeknownst to her, Mami had just revealed one of her tells. Not before playing a card, but after it.

"They are indeed good skills for public relations," Mami says while she looks up from her cards, casually chatting as if they were talking about school activities, "but good relationships are just as important for both personal and professional life. Otherwise, I'm not sure how can any community work when you can't trust the person beside you, especially if they can hold a resentment."

Nevermind the fact that Magical Girls don't often work in collaboration, and Mami herself is desperate for a close bond. Which she doesn't show at the moment just yet.

"My my. What's a cute thing like you doing in a place like this?"

One could say the same about Camilla, since her idea of 'armour' made it possible to mistake her for a working girl looking to take a John's last chips as surely as the dealer. If it wasn't for her own cards in front of her and the large battle-axe leaning against her chair, anyway.

"You're not lost, are you?"

((Zorak is a sociopathic alien bug who will spend 50% of the game trash talking instead of trying to understand the game and the other 50% cheating.Open to all, crosscanon welcome.))

Edited 2019-05-02 02:11 (UTC)

So I've seen some real messed up bug-creature things coming from the dumps of radiation accidents, but half of 'em weren't half as disgusting lookin' as you.

[Tommy tips his chair back just a little bit more, holding his cards in one hand and waving around a lit cigarette in the other, his feet kicked up on the table. Trash talk and cheating? Bring it on, he's doing about the same amounts of those.]

How do I know you're not cheating with those buggy lil eyes? You got extra peripheral vision with those?

[Zorak looks angry, but that's only because he looks angry/devious all the time.]

Why do you think I wanna hear about your family? And your ugly ex-girlfriends?

[Zorak totally doesn't have cards shoved up his gloves. You know. Just in case.]

I see what you see. Miles of your disgusting skin..[Snorts, laughs to himself.]

If you're gonna be a big baby, this isn't the game for you. Go sit at the big baby table.

Hey! I take offence to that - none of my exes are ugly. They're all smokin' hot because I have good taste, thank you very much, and they could squish you against the drywall with a tennis racket.

[Tommy picks up a dropped chip on his shirt - a potato chip, not gambling chip - and flicks it at him when he's not looking. He hopes it hits him in the eye.]

You go sit at the big baby table.

[Real mature.]

Yeah, good taste in tennis rackets. Racket-smoocher.

[As he's looking at the cards, a stray malicious chip his his eye. Zorak aggressively eats it to prove how pissed off he is.]

I will destroy you with a big baby. Hit you right in the face with a baby.

[Tommy stares at him from behind his shades. Ooo-kay.]

Ummmm. Sure. [He turns his attention back to his cards, but his heart isn't really in it. That's one way to establish dominance that actually works. Wow that's disgustin'.] Let's uh - [his voice cracks] - get back to the game.

[Just kidding.]

Man, that touched your eyeball and you still ate it?? What is wrong with you? Big friggin' weirdo.

[A rough and tough outlaw with an overall gruff demeanor, it's pretty clear that Arthur knows his way around a poker table. He definitely looks like he's stepped out of the Old West, with his cowboy hat and duster jacket. He's usually got a drink in hand, and he tends to be really good at keeping a straight face when the betting gets serious.]

As soon as a handful of muted gunshots and plasma shots sounded well above the Inventory, a waitress calmly walked towards one of the open areas of the gambling tables, holding a silver plate glass with a bottle of water, then stopped in one specific spot, and turned.

Something whined like an alarm above the Inventory, and exploded. The waitress didn't even flinch and waited in place.

One of the glass panes exploded into a shower of shards with the mass of a massive SPARTAN-II leaping into the building. The ground shook when he fell on his feet and fist to disperse his load, then slowly stood up. His visor turned to the unfazed waitress.

"Thanks," the Master Chief left a generous amount of credit chips on the same plate he grabbed the bottle of water from.

His feet sounded metallic and heavy as he approached the table, and... realized the black-hatted man in front of him had been waiting here longer than he had. His golden visor remained focused on him in interest.

He grabbed the strongest chair the Inventory had for the table, and slid himself onto it. The chair resisted his half a ton of metallic weight, but only barely.

"Texas Hold 'Em?"

((OOC: If the starter post is far too cartoony, I can change it!))

[[ooc: Not too cartoony at all! I like the weird unexpectedness of it. :D]]

Arthur looks up when there's a sudden crash, with glass exploding everywhere as that strangely armored figure bursts in. He's never seen anything like it. He watches his approach, then signals to the nearest waitress for another drink. Somehow he thinks this is going to call for another drink, as he goes ahead to take a seat.

"All right, then. Deal me in." He glances over. "That there was a hell of an entrance."

"The Inventory has lots of them." Whenever if the Master Chief meant 'lots of entrances in the multiverse where one could enter', or 'lots of patrons that entered by breaking through the windows', the answer was 'yes'.

He tapped both fingers on the table. A pair of cards were given to the cowboy, the supersoldier, and the rest of the patrons on the table. The Master Chief lifted both cards, noticing a moderate pair for a start.

"I... need to stop doing it. The hosts don't like replacing windows."

"Most establishments don't. I've found that out the hard way myself, though it's usually for making exits more than entrances." So things tend to go when you're in on one of Dutch's wonderful schemes. Sure, it's not always been that bad, but lately? Lately it's all pretty much ended with some sort of hasty getaway.

But Arthur's just hoping to actually keep a low profile in this place. He eyes the cards that are dealt to him, which aren't all that great, but he'll see what he can do about that. He glances toward the newcomer curiously. "Anyway, what's the Inventory? Some kind of gang?"

John opened his opposite palm to reply, "Another name for this locale." He then tossed a handful of chips onto the pool to call.

Given some universes would either have stricter rules on games and alcohol, or be more authoritarian in general, it seemed this place was often nicknamed in order to keep a low profile. Otherwise, one singular name throughout the multiverse would immediately spell trouble.

"I've never needed to get out of here that way, because of it." And his way of getting out of places often involved massive explosions. His helmet then turned to some of the other patrons, which were just as armed to the teeth as both the supersoldier and the cowboy.

"Not that trouble never happens."

[[Looks like a school girl, is actually a magical prodigy princess (who happens to go to a mage school). Will probably bumble into victory or defeat early on and then pick up how things are done later on.]]

[Don't let the pleasant expression fool you, She's actually rather skilled at reading people and playing cards.]

[Arianna is a pseudo-medieval princess from a post-post-apocalyptic fantasy world and she's just here to have a good time. She understands the rules of the game, but in practice she has no idea what she's doing--but it might be hard to tell, from how her expression is just an unchanging :> all night. She's having fun playing cards with everyone! Does it matter who's winning?]

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Poker Night at the Inventory

POKER NIGHT AT THE MEME

Illyana Rasputin/Magik | Marvel Comics | OTA

faye valentine ☆ cowboy bebop ☆ OTA

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Leonard Snart/Captain Cold | DCTV

Bojack Horseman | Bojack Horseman

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Yumeko Jabami | Kakegurui

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Raphtalia | The Rising Of The Shield Hero

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Zorak | Space Ghost Coast to Coast

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Arthur Morgan | Red Dead Redemption 2

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Anne | Rage of the Bahamut/Granblue Fantasy | OTA

anne of cleves | the tudors |OTA

Arianna Caledonia 🌱 Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold