etrayalogs | [ closed ] all of sevika's card games end badly

[As soon as Jinx arrives, the smile Caitlyn had given Jayce falls. The girl's very presence sets Caitlyn on edge. They're here in the spirit of reconciliation, she reminds herself, because they all need to work together to save their world, or they'll be responsible for the loss of every life on Runeterra. But that reminder can't stop her stomach twisting in a nervous knot.

She riffles the deck one last time, aligns the edges of the cards so the deck is neat and square, and sets it on the table in front of Sevika.]

We're all here. Let's start.

Edited 2025-01-22 04:47 (UTC)

[ Sevika... gives Caitlyn the barest of nods. That's the most thanks she'll get for shuffling the deck for her, purely because "thank you" simply isn't something she says. She'll cut the deck, picking it up at the halfway point, setting it aside, and placing the bottom part on the previous top of the deck.

From there, she begins dealing cards. Each of them gets 9 out of a deck of 42. The remaining cards go into the center face down.

For the first game, Sevika walks them through it step by step. This may be tedious for Jinx if she knows Tarok, but if there's one thing Sevika takes seriously, it's her damn card games. She doesn't want this to suck because two players are clueless.

(If you want to know the version of Tarok they're playing, you can visit https://www.pagat.com/tarot/xx-hivas.html - idefk how it goes, though, so lmao handwave handwave.) ]

[If Jinx is trying to show how wrong Jayce was with his accidental mislabeling of her relationship to Sevika, it runs directly contradictory to what he’s been told about Zaunites in that insults are commonly viewed as camaraderie so… This doesn’t change anything to him. He still thinks they’re very good friends.

Oh. So Sevika got into a fight with Vander. He can’t imagine she won, if that’s how she looks.

He picks up enough of the rules as Sevika explains it, enough that he knows he’s got a dogshit hand right off the bat, and that he has no idea what to look for in others tells. With a twist of his lips, he furrows his eyebrows, and attempts to bluff that his hand doesn't suck.]

(she knows the shuffle was right, cheating could never cross caitlyn's mind as she is; or at least, to the cait who exists in jinx's mind. extremes? yes. cheating in a card game? girl doesn't have the poker face for it, so she does not care to watch the shuffle. instead, she giggles at the words sevika gives her, finding them wholly entertaining.)

Vander? You probably earned it.

(and she takes her hand. it's not the best she could have, but definitely not bad at all. her focus, however, it's not on the game completely, but on the other bet she has going on. two shots each to start, she asks the bot, who brings them quickly.)

'K, 'k, 'k! So, before we start for real real, here's the real game. Place your bets, who can drink most, me or Golden boy?

You should have seen him.

[ Anyway. Sevika lays out her hand at the end of the first game. Shocking no one whatsoever, she wins because, of course, she would. Once everyone else lays out their hands to prove as such, she'll motion for Caitlyn to collect the cards and shuffle again.

While the enforcer does that, she glances Jinx's way, then to the shots, and, finally, to Jayce. She takes a minute to consider the two, having picked her cigar back up to puff away on it as she dragged out answering.

But, eventually, ]

Well, now that remember what a scrawny waif you are, I'm going to have to say Talis.

[ No, she doubts it, actually, but there's a chance it'll annoy Jinx and that's what matters. ]

[A grumble at losing so fast, and he slides his cards disappointingly back to the center of the table. He opts to ignore the two shots in front of him delivered by the bot, for a few more moments.]

You... won? Against Vander?

[He's huge. How did she...? And with only one arm??]

We're not doing both shots at once, right?

[He's gingerly picking up one glass, sniffing it, and immediately recoiling. Are you sure you want to pick him, Sevika?]

[Caitlyn understands the rules easily enough, once Sevika explains them, but her hand is poor and the actual playing of the game is more difficult than merely understanding rules. And so she loses — though there's a certain amount of satisfaction in the fact that Jayce also does quite poorly — and picks up the cards to shuffle them again.]

Why were you fighting with Vander?

[She's genuinely surprised. A little concerned, even. Vander doesn't seem the type to start throwing punches willy-nilly, so there must have been a reason for the two to scrap.

It's then that she realises she was so occupied with her losing hand of cards that she failed to take a side in the drinking competition and immediately chimes in with:] Jayce. Jayce will win. [Does she really think Jayce will win? No, of course not. But she's obviously going to support him anyway.]

Edited 2025-01-25 17:01 (UTC)

I said you should see him, not that I won.

[ If anything, Sevika hopes it was a draw. She'd gotten him good with the ace up her sleeve she had brought to the fight, although it had still ended with her thrown into a wall. Her ribs do not thank her.

As to why, well, all Caitlyn gets is a shrug. ]

We were fighting because we wanted to. End of the story.

[ It's a little more complicated than that, but not by much. ]

I'm literally challenging the power here, you could at least be a little supportive for once in your unsupportive life, Sevika.

(affectionate)

Nope, gotta be five minutes between at most.

(who made this rules up? she did, she literally just did, because he asked. if he hadn't, definitely she wouldn't have thought about it. so, she clinks the glasses, and down the first shot goes.

also, don't be so confident, cait... seems like both suck.)

So you lost?

[Jayce blurts out instead to Sevika, realizes a moment too late maybe that wasn’t the brightest thing to say, and then reaches for the shot. One more hesitating moment after Jinx clinks hers against his, and he downs it. It burns and tastes pretty awful, but it’s not as bad as whatever Sevika had him drinking last time he was here.]

Can we— [he waves his hand a little, at a loss for words as he recovers from the taste,] move onto the next round?

[He reaches for whatever his next hand will be, because it can’t be worse than last time. Whatever he can do to put more time between this first shot and the next one.]

[This whole thing is surreal. Sitting around a table with Jinx and Silco's righthand woman, playing cards and having a drinking contest is not something Caitlyn would have ever, under any circumstances, imagined herself doing.

She glances back and forth between Jinx and Jayce, watching Jayce's poor reaction to the drink. Is this fun? Are they having fun?]

You know, there was a series of killings in Zaun about eighty years ago in which the murderer left behind a different playing card at each of the crime scenes. They never caught the person responsible.

[Cold cases from long ago: those are fun.

She follows Jayce's lead and reaches for her next hand. It's not much better than the first.]

[ Jayce gets a look, but not a response. She'll pretend he didn't ask that. There is, of course, an ounce of amusement to be gained from how he hesitates with the whiskey, though. Suffer, golden boy. As for Jinx, well, a shrug. Yeah, yeah, fight the power through... shots... or whatever. ]

I heard it was a yordle.

[ Cold case solved... or, more like, that's what she heard. They don't have case files or even many books written down in the depths, but storytelling still abounds, and she's heard this one. Caitlyn is right, though. Murder is fun to talk about. ]

They're always doing whimsical shit like that. [ Ah, yes, whimsical shit like serial killing. ] And knowing how long those things live? Might even still be around. You never know.

[ May as well help the chit-chat since she also has a poor hand this round... ]

Edited (lmao oh we're already doing cards) 2025-01-28 03:16 (UTC)

(her face is immediately red, the intense taste of alcohol down burning her throat and she is refusing to cough, so she just looks like a whole tomato as she still pretends to be the toughest person around, eyes rolling at jayce trying to stall his next shot.

as if she won't be doing the same, because, damn. at least the fact her face already looks messed up can hide the fact she got an awful hand.

wait. maybe... a yordle...)

Wasn't that Smeech trying to frame that other ugly guy? Pretty sure. Or maybe I dreamed that. Have you guys ever seen a hairless yordle? Ugly rat.

(case right open........)

[His new hand is somehow just as bad as last time. Is his luck really this awful?

And then Caitlyn brings up… that. He loves Caitlyn, really, he does, but if he had a nickel every time she brought up ~~true crime~~ an unsolved murder case, he actually could rival the Kiramman fortune. And now everyone’s in on it.

 At least Jinx isn’t fairing well. One small victory.]

I’m out. Again. Do we have to talk about serial killer yordles?

[Jayce throws in his hand, and goes for the second shot, downing it with a little more ease than the first time.]

Smeech? He's one of the chembarons, isn't he?

[Caitlyn has notes on Smeech. A lot of them. For a little while, she'd even considered that he might be the mastermind behind everything she'd been investigated because he and Silco shared an initial.

She leans forward, suddenly finding this card game significantly more interesting. Though she's barely paying attention to the cards anymore, and loses the round with barely any effort made.]

You really think he might have been responsible? Who was he trying to frame?

Edited 2025-01-29 01:49 (UTC)

[ None of them had good hands this time, even if Sevika still wins. Same numbers between her and Caitlyn, so they had to settle by what card faces they had, and she had pulled ahead on that. Once more, she stacks the discards into a deck and waves for someone else to shuffle it. It doesn't have to be Caitlyn; she just happened to be the first to be here. ]

Yeah? What would you talk about instead?

[ Sevika questions Jayce's disinclination to talk about this. Who wouldn't want to talk about this? Of course, it won't stop her from continuing to talk about it, either. She has to scoff at the thought that Smeech was behind any of that. ]

Was one of them. Please, there would have been a trail of drool leading to him if he'd been doing it. That little shit was disgusting even before I shredded him.

[ Ha ha, what. Well, Jinx will know. ]

I could see him hinting at it to look dangerous, though, but I'd still say it was a different one. The cards all have meanings, see? Each one was sending a message. That's beyond Smeech.

(holy shit what is this hand, her eyes squinting and her face scrunching once she inevitably loses that round, that hand would not do in a billion years. it's fine, her luck will come around, even if she needs to pout about it and tap jayce's glass for a second.)

Drink.

(and she will too, eyes shutting close, wrinkles forming from the way her face is reacting to the flavor of the alcohol that downs her throat. she's still coughing when sevika talks, but you know, she did shred him. no look high five, sevika, that was a great shredding.)

[Who the hell is Smeech, and how does everyone know him? How many Chembarons even are there? He only knows of Silco. …And of Renni, now.

The second shot starts to affect his perception a little, settling a warmth in his stomach that isn’t bad, but makes him realize maybe he should have eaten beforehand.

The way Sevika asks him what he wants to talk about instead has the same tone as a bully asking him how much lunch money he has, so he keeps his mouth shut instead of actually making any sort of topic change. At a loss on what to do with this conversation, he instead takes the cards and shuffles them himself, since Caitlyn shuffling them has only helped Sevika dominate the field entirely.]

So do we order more shots?

[He looks over at Jinx, they’re both two-for-two now, and considering her reaction so far he might… actually win this?

Cards shuffled, he places them on the table in front of Sevika to disperse.]

[The next hand Caitlyn's dealt doesn't seem very good. She'll do her best with it, of course, even though her best isn't very good either.

Despite the fact that the closest she's come to touching her whiskey is an eye-watering sniff, Caitlyn is beginning to relax. She's found a topic of conversation that everyone but Jayce seems interested in, she's getting firsthand information about an old case that she thought was a mere historical curiosity and learning that the killer could still, potentially, be out there. And there's something about seeing Jinx red in the face and sputtering that makes the girl less... well... terrifying.

Perhaps this is fun after all.

She almost asks Sevika what she means by 'shredded him,' but she's got to assume that's to do with the future, unless something happened while she and Vi were occupied with escaping from Silco. And, as of now, Caitlyn would like to steer clear of bringing up the future and what it holds.]

What are the cards' meanings?[She doesn't know much about tarot, but what better reason to learn?] The first victim was a dock worker, wasn't he? And the card that was found at the scene was—

[By coincidence, she happens to have the card in her hand: The Devil. She plucks it out and holds it up before putting it back in her hand. Nevermind that she's supposed to be keeping her hand to herself.]

The Devil. What do you think the killer was trying to convey with that?

[Yes, she has the details of an eighty year old cold case memorised.]

[ First of all, Sevika isn't doing a high five. Jinx, this is her. Sevika. She's no fun, remember? Remember? Second, with Jinx sitting on her left side, she'll find herself extra left hanging due to Sevika's complete lack of left arm. This becomes a moment where she scowls at the hand held up for that high five that's never coming, then proceeds to ignore it. As for more shots, Sevika pushes the whiskey bottle over into Jayce's reach. He's welcome to pour them out using that, and he'll need it because Sevika has an excellent hand. Again. ]

The Devil?

[ Well, no, Caitlyn shouldn't be showing any of the cards in her hand, but she isn't going to point that out. There isn't any money on the line here, which means no one needs to take it seriously. ]

Reversed or upright? The meanings are different.

Edited 2025-01-29 23:24 (UTC)

Damn, cold, Sevika.

(but she isn't taking it personally, when it's just more proof to show jayce that no, they are hardly friends, see, she won't even high five with the arm that jinx made her, because she left it at home. but the alcohol is hitting, and the question needs to be answered, so.)

Yep. Yep, absolutely, because I'm fine. I'm fine, totally fine, so, it's cool.

(she's not fine, nor cool. but she will scoot a little closer to jayce, so they can have their own little conversation as she takes the offered alcohol. ugh, she feels like she's being set up with sevika-level alcohol, she knows better!!! so, there's a kick under the table. fuck you, m'aam.)

So, what are you making of this place? Not the bar--the planet. This dumb planet.

[The whiskey on the table is pushed forward. He looks towards Jinx, who has said fine three times in a row, which probably means she isn't. So far he does feel fine, just a little slower, a little warmer. He can do this.]

You mean Etraya?

[What else would she mean?]

It’s like something out of a science-fiction book. A mix of new technology, paired with things we also recognize, and with an unknown force controlling it all from behind a curtain.

[A glance back to the companion bot manning the bar. He recalls a book he read once, about a bipedal anthropomorphic mechanism that had no autonomy, no self-awareness. He then looks to the bottle. Takes it, uncaps it, and takes a swig- not even bothering with a cup. He then coughs, a lot.

Once he settles down, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he hands it back to Jinx.]

Most science-fiction books are tragedies.

Edited 2025-02-04 17:24 (UTC)

I've made a map. [A rudimentary one at best; she's not a cartographer, as Jayce can probably attest, since he'll no doubt have seen the corkboard she's set up in the mansion's library to which it's pinned.] And I've got a list of every mission that's been conducted prior to our arrival, its stated goals and what skills or qualities it may have been testing, as well as everything I've gathered about Echo and Aurora. The more information I gather, the more questions I have. If Echo and Aurora made this place, how? To create a world this large would require power beyond anything any of us are familiar with and a great deal of resources, to say the least. Aurora wouldn't tell me the origin of the food supply, only that no one has access to it save for herself and the companion bots; so where does it come from? If they can do all this, why can they not save all the worlds that are in danger of being destroyed? What are the qualifications for saving any worlds? There's so much information we're lacking about this place, and we have little enough way of finding out more unless we figure out how to speak directly with Echo.

[Having taken Jinx's question as an opening to discuss her various thoughts about Etraya and becoming thoroughly distracted in the process, she promptly loses the round of cards.

Badly.

To Sevika, she says:] It was upright, I believe. Of course, I only have the photographs from the report to go on, but if one were standing at his feet looking down at the body, the card was upright by his head.

[ Sevika is just minding her own business, listening to people talk, and then Jinx kicks her? Hello?! Since it was under the table, there's no apparent reason why she turns her way with a sudden jerk and glares. There's no "ow" or other reaction because she isn't going to sink to that level. It would only get worse if she retaliated; thus, Sevika turned back to the game.

Get ignored, bitch. ]

Missing infrastructure typically means it's out of sight. You may have to dig deeper to figure out how this place works.

[ Literally. ]

Hmm, the Devil upright. What was it again...? [ She isn't much of a card reader, but she at least knows what they generally mean. ] Nothing good, I can tell you that. My first guess is the dockworker was living beyond his means and spending someone else's money, but there's a difference between killing someone who won't pay their debts and a serial killer.

[ So it had to be deeper, more symbolic. So, what? ]

The card upright means stuff like oppression, addiction, and powerlessness, but also living in excess, being dependant. Stuff like that.

(she got a glare, so technically, not ignored, which is exactly why she's looking right back at her with her eyes downing to the drink. it can be any regular whiskey, but she is sure that, considering that it is sevika, it will start burning from her teeth and end in the very last atom of her soul - as per the woman's personal preference.

shit.)

Ugh, you didn't have to go all serious, you could just keep it at 'it sucks, Jinx', or 'I hate it, Jinx', or at any other level of agreeing that this place sucks. Leave the planning for when there's less alcohol in my blood, alright?

Also, how about these two. Do you think they're going to replace us?

(the quotes come first in caitlyn's accent, then in a deeper voice to simulate jayce's.

considering how sevika and cait are getting along amazingly, talking about gruesome murder and all, like a couple of old champs.)

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ok roll y'all - Sevika got a 17

rip 5

13

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5 bc pilties are bad at cards

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rolled a 0 rip

16... she isn't cheating guys she doesn't even have sleeves to hide cards iiiin

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