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[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"You're not talking about gambling or anything like that because I'm really low on funds right now unless I can talk Arcadia into giving me an advance. Otherwise I'd love to," Lauren said. "I'm not very good at games of chance, but strategy games are another story."

[Kel Riever]

Sally tilted her head, the equivalent of a quarian wink, though Lauren likely didn't know it.  "Oh come on, calico!  What's a game without a little bet?  How about I front you a little wager money...if you're willing to do a thing or two around the ship if you lose?"

[TheMajonese]

Chris looked at the krogan and just shrugged his shoulders. "Guess she now is the newest member of Stormhammer."

 

 "I'm wondering...how can someone talk so much without having to take a breath?" Naomi slowly turned to her brother and grinned. "But you have to admit, she's quite cute..."

 

Chris wasn't going to give her the reaction she was hoping for. Despite meaning it as a joke, there still was frustration in Naomi's voice and Chris already knew the reason for it. She obviously hadn't forgotten what happened at the hotel with Aoide. Since he didn't want to talk about that he went over to the card table and pretended to examine it.

 

Meanwhile, Naomi approached Juric and sheepishly rubbed the back of her head. She suddenly spoke with a low and shy voice. "Hey...ahm...I already wanted to speak with you, but...ahm...I wasn't feeling well..." She sounded like the naive and unconfident fangirl that she had played at the concert hall. Then her voice changed back to normal and she smiled. "Just wanted to apologize for all the lying, a few days ago. Shouldn't have done that, it really isn't my style!"

[Kel Riever]

While the conversation was going on, two crew members from the Lucky 7 moved a large table in the living area where the Stormhammer members quartered and began setting it up.  There was actual, old-fashioned cutlery, including tin plates and utensils.  Captain Sally came by when it was near done and said, "Anybody who wants a taste of real food on this ship have a seat.  Tonight's special.  Harry's cooking will stick to your ribs, including if you've got a one ton appetite."  She gave a lean towards Juric when she said her last line.  "I'll be having a bite to eat with you on account of the Major, cause I've been where ya'all are going at least once before on a shipping run.  Plus maybe it'll be a pleasant cordiality to get to know you all a bit on the trip.

"Don't be grabbin' my grub though.  I can't trade my meal with whatcha got!"

There were places set for everyone who wanted one in the end.  Harry delivered a huge plate of something steaming hot.  Reith came out of his cabin for the meal, sans cigar, along with Kamau and Vihaan.  Arcadia waited for others to be seated before she grabbed a chair herself.

[Cknarf]

Kurik, as much as he dreaded social situations, joined the others at the table. He took a seat nearest the dextro offerings, in order to reduce the likelihood of initiating a conversation. He eyed the newest member of Stormhammer curiously.

 

Such an odd human.

 

His mandibles twitched has he thought to himself.

 

Such an odd group.

 

"Hm."

 

It never occurred to Kurik that maybe he was the odd one.

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos watched the new arrival as she talked, grinning slightly as she walked off. "Finally, the nerd arrives..." he mumbles to himself with a **** eating grin, keeping a tally of the members they had. The stoic piece of wood, the terrible two, the stalwart leader, the grizzled vet, the jock and femme fatale if the asari and krogan stuck around, the wacky side character in the quarian pilot, and of course himself as the Gallant Rogue with a dark past.

 

Add a adorkable human to the mix, and you have a group that most vid writers would go hand-over-foot to have made.

 

He sat down at the table, still grinning as he looked towards the new arrival, then towards whatever was for dinner, "So what's on the menu exactly? I'm starving for something good..." He said aloud, figuring he might as well put it out there to get the ball rolling.

[TheMajonese]

"I hope they have enough...", Naomi said to her brother in a low voice so only Chris could hear her. Of course the twins sat right next to each other, Naomi had chosen seats at the middle of the table, so if necessary, she could grab food from anywhere on the table.

 

"Just try to not forgot your manners", Chris gave back.

 

"As if I had any", she replied which caused her brother to grin. "I just hope it tastes as good as it smells." With a hopeful look on her face Naomi examined what sorts of food were waiting for her.

 

Expecting table manners from Naomi was like trying to seperate the twins; it was pointless. Chris could hardly hide a smile and was curious to see the others' reactions if there were any. But the main reason for his good mood was the fact, that this was probably going to be the first relaxed evening since he and his sister had arrived on the Citadel.

[Kel Riever]

Kurik found himself sitting next to the captain, on account of the dextrose diet.  His meal was a fairly well cooked freshwater fish steak, in a sizeable portion, prepared in a simple, traditional turian manner.  Sally's meal looked a lot less appealing, despite its similar protein base; something like a slurry of greyish white she could sip through a straw.

For the rest of those gathered at the table, meals were very diverse given the shipboard accommodations.  Heavy on the meats, and somewhat also on the starches.  Vegetables were grilled.  Nothing much sweet, except when it came to a battery of rich, reddish brown sauces.

"You'd never know how much we fell in love with a good grill, on Duellos," Sally mentioned. 

There seemed to be plenty of it too, and Harry, responsible for the cooking, was no slouch with the preparation, if he wasn't perfect.  Solid, would be the best way to describe everything available.  Filling, substantial.  It brought a certain satisfaction and calm, at the expense of a heap of calories. 

Cadi had ended up on the other side of Naomi, comfortable in her olive tank, fatigues and boots.  She was quiet for the meal, but as plates were being cleaned up, and after dinner drinks poured, she asked Sally, "So, you say you've shipped to Parasc before.  Is there anything you could tell us that would be important to know?"

Sally sat back, sipping her drink through a flexible tube once more before setting it down and talking.  She moved her head a lot, and used her hands to help with the expressions that were lost by not seeing her face.  "Where I come from was a no frills planet, but compared to Parasc, at least you could walk around with a rebreather.  I'd compare Parasc to parts of Ranoch, maybe areas of Tuchanka or even a couple of spot deserts on other planets for looks.  More of a salt flat, if you've seen em, with jagged mountain ranges jutting up out of the plateaus and plains.  Big mountain ranges when you hit them, but separated by klik after klik of barren land.  Sure as anything, you wouldn't be there if you weren't a miner.  Or a missionary."  Sally glanced over to Tolema.  "You much of a Siarist, if you don't mind my askin'?"

Tolema tilted her head negatively.  "Not me, much.  I should say I don't really practice any of that 'All is One' philosophy.  I have a different outlook."

"Well, you might want to keep any strong opinions of such to yourself, at least if you really want to be on friendly terms with the asari there.  It's like...well, I seen the Peace Corps people from Earth once.  You know, there's all kinds of things like that.  But these asari, and their families that run the place, they're believers.  They got a whole population of vorcha to be peaceful, and if you know anything about vorcha, that ain't no small feat.  No alcohol there, not because it's against the religion, but there ain't much fun that'd get the blood flowing.  Part of the point is the vorcha supposedly ain't so good at staying tame if you get 'em riled.  Makes sense to me.  And something about the vorcha ability to adapt, they're a certain way now."

"A bit boring then," Kamau interjected, more in a matter of fact sense, than criticism.

"Efficient, though."  Sally put one finger to the palm of her other hand to emphasize the point.  "They know their mining, and a lot of them vorcha is thankful they got such a life.  Wouldn't quite call 'em cultists, though that there does exist.  More like a sort of hero worship of their asari caretakers.  And to be fair, the Siarists treat them well.  Damn well.  A vorcha there's got a long life expectancy for their kind.  Some of them even have a sense of family relations, if you can imagine such a thing.  Part of it you won't believe until you see it for yourself."

"Crime?  Non-existent, then?"  Vihaan asked the next question.

"Almost, though no place is perfect.  Sometimes one of the vorcha just, well, there's always a genetic memory, maybe.  But while the occasional one goes south, I can count the number of Parasc murders a year on the fingers of one of my quarian hands.  Violent crimes, only just a bit more.  It wasn't this way when the Siarists first colonized the world but it's that way now.  The asari themselves seem to get along too.  Got a common cause, even if they operate different companies."  Sally threw another glance to Tolema.  "And your kind is long lived, so these asari, they know a thing or two about keeping everything just the way it is with a very few number of 'em."

The table was cleared during the conversation, but the talk could be far from over, if anyone wanted.  Sally was sticking around and in fact, put out a bit of an invitation to everyone.  "I said there'd be a card game after dinner and I like my wagers for fun if you all are up for it.  Sure is probably strange hearing someone like me say this, but take it from me, some entertainment is universal.  We prefer poker here on the Lucky 7, namely a good game of Texas Hold 'Em.  Who's in?"

 

[Cknarf]

"I have participated in several human card games. Poker was one of them." Kurik began. "Although I don't fully understand it, I have been told that I have a good 'face' for it."

 

Kurik was in.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren picked up her fork in her left hand and knife in her right and carefully cut her meat and used her utensils quite properly while eating. She spent most of the meal listening, and was quite surprised as to how spicy the sauce was on the meat, and stifled a couple of coughs followed by some water.

 

"The meat was quite good. A bit spicier than I'm used to," she said. "You have to realize that in the UNAS military we didn't get the best, so I pretty much stuck with the salads. At least they were fresh. But Sally, I don't know if anyone has asked, why the Earth old west in space? Not that it isn't fun and all that. I'm just curious."

[J.Ezra]

Juric had rather enjoyed the meal, far too involved in clearing his plate to pay much attention to the talk that had gone on during the meal. He was sat back, content to listen to the conversation now however, the distraction of food no longer being an issue. A mix of discomfort and mild anger had flashed upon his face though at the mention of Tuchanka, bringing forth a low growl. "If the place we are headed to is anything like Tuchanka then I advise we spent as little time there as possible." His happy mood had vanished, replaced with the scowl which graced most Krogans faces.

He ignored the offer of poker made by Sally, still remaining seated but also remaining quite. Instead he merely sat listening as the others continued to talk.

[TheMajonese]

There was no need to ask Naomi if she had liked the food after watching her eating seemingly half of it by herself. "I'm so going to regret that...", she whispered after turning to her brother and she was referring to the amounts of the spiciest sauce that she had eaten. As expected, Naomi had issues releasing air without making noises. She tried to use one hand to cover her mouth, so nobody could hear the quiet belches. Chris was both surprised and amused to see how hard his sister tried to fake a civilized behavior.

 

So far, Chris hadn't said anything as well, although he listened to what the others said. When Sally eventually offered to play poker, he had to laugh at Kuric's statement. Until now, Chris had only seen one expression on the turian's face, so there was no doubt that he was a good poker player.

 

"I guess you can count my sister and me in", he said to the quarian and gave his sister a bump with his elbow. At the same time he was curious to hear an answer to Lauren's question. 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos, for once, had shut his mouth as he listened to the quarian talk about parsec and the vorcha there. He had a frown on his face as he pushed his finished plate a bit ahead, enough room to lean on his elbows and rest his chin as he kept mental note of what she was saying. Semi-religious philosophical domination of the species wasn't an unheard of tactic, and it certainly did match the MO of some similar organizations as a cult. Their work was interesting however, with an end goal that Menos guessed was to eventually get their philosophies so ingrained within the vorcha population that the species genetics would aid the replication and propagation of the "be less violent" meme inherently.

 

The whole thing stunk of the same species-and-generation wide summary acts Menos learned from his own people weren't good. Of course anyone who talked such nonsense would get pointed to the krogan. But then again, the salarians essentially did what the asari were doing to the vorcha to start the mess, uplifting them, imparting new ideas and concepts to them, and arming them to carry out their ideas to combat the rachni. They used soft influence of the krogan to turn their species into a weapon of war, and when it came time to clean up the mess, they turned to hard influence of genetic manipulation. The asari of parsec didn't seem dim or desperate enough to uplift a whole species like the salarians had done, he guessed they learned from their races mistake. But still, he wondered if the thought of genetically altering the vorcha with a virus dispersal hadn't crossed their minds, and if it conflicted with the religious tennants of the squid-headed blueberry cult.

 

And then the quarian mentioned a card game, and all thoughts of this were shelved as menos rubbed his hands together, lighting laughing to himself, "Sure...sounds like a good plan to me." He said, sounding just a bit cocky as he spoke.

[Kel Riever]

Sally was shuffling the deck of cards as she answered Lauren's question about the colony. "Well....Duellos being a nitch shy of Earth habitable, made it a gem of a place for human mining corps.  Not that they were the only ones, but they were fine with bumping some elbows way back when it was just getting going.  Suppose it was a group from the same place, same mannerisms, same likes, all that.  This goes back, and I'll spare you the real tall tales.  As it happened, part was old habits dying hard, and part was, well, come on sweet Marie, tell me it ain't got its own appeal!  So it stuck like a cork, even with us later immigrants, and what you had is a real slice of whatever it was there back on Earth.  'Cept for the mechasteeds.  They didn't have those back then. Poor Cal..."

It was a fairly impressive shuttle.  Sally seemed skilled with the cards.  "There's other Earth types that were there, with different backgrounds and whatnot. And some asari too.  All gone now, though, so we like to keep our little bit of it alive here in space."  She stopped talking for a minute and called over to Juric.  "Don't you worry yourself there, fine sir.  I ain't got no love for the Flotilla, if it means anything to you.  Home is where you make it, so the saying goes."

Turning back to the cleared table, Sally started talking as she went.  "Looks like we got a fair bit here."  She dealt cards to Chris, Naomi, Cadi, Menos, Kuric Kamaue and Lauren.  Reith excused himself, and Vihaan looked interested but said something along the lines of it being bad form to lose all his money in one night.  Then Sally said, "Where ya'all want to start the ante at?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren looked a bit puzzled. "I'm not very good at this, so why don't we keep it small to start, okay? Maybe someone could explain the rules to me?"

[TheMajonese]

Naomi turned to Lauren, then she laughed in disbelief. "You sure that you are human? Come on, you can't tell me that you don't know how to play poker!" Her brother just smiled and didn't say anything, it was good to see that Naomi was willing to talk with the others for a change.

 

His sister gave Lauren a wink. "If you don't know the rules, that shouldn't be much of a problem, this game's not complicated. I could explain it if you'd like, Sally probably as well. But first..." She turned to the others and grinned. "Let's talk about the important things. The pot. I'd say...we are seven so how about...hm...seven hundred credits? Or more?"

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I was thinking more like 10 CR for what I've heard called ante ," Lauren said, "See I had to borrow money from Sally to even play. I haven't been paid yet. What i do know is that there are four suits: spades, diamonds, clubs, and hearts. And that the cards go from 2 to 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace. See, I play solitaire on my omni-tool. But I haven't played poker..... Never mind.... just a minute."

 

Lauren tapped her omni-tool and looked up "Poker" and then it came up with the different varieties of Poker. "Uh, Sally, are we playing Texas Hold 'Em, because there's several different kinds of poker with different rules."

[Kel Riever]

"Yes, ma'am, as I said," Sally replied, reached out towards Lauren's omni-tool arm, and pushed it down, "Now get rid of that thing there.  This is how you play."

Sally then went through the rules while pulling up a credit counter, which was a device set in the middle of the table everyone transferred funds to for the betting and had a display for money everyone could see.  She made sure everyone generally knew the hands, then opened her own omni-tool and set 100 CR for the pot.  

Cadi's blue eyes seemed steely, and she assured Lauren, "I'll front you your first two thousand.  Now play cards."   Arcadia transfered her 100 to the pot.

Kamau, who hadn't said much, seemed interested.  "My 100 credits are in as well.  Let luck be with me."

Tolema laughed.  "100 Credits of mine, too!"

To each person adding to the pot, Sally recommended the ante for the first hand start at 10 CR.  Then the cards flew towards everyone playing, dealt expertly by the quarian captain.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"One last thing," Lauren said and had to close the pages she had open, but she looked at the one that had all of the ranks of the hands and the odds of drawing them in Texas Hold 'em, and quickly scanned the basic strategy before closing. "Okay, I'm ready."

 

The first cards flew into her hand. She took a quick glance at them and set them down on the table, and waited for her turn. She was the double blind, and didn't have to ante anything, so she checked to see the flop.

[Cainhurst Crow]

"10 credits? Sounds good. Nice and simple game, no need to get crazy..." Menos commented as he added his 100 credits to the pot as well. Menos enjoyed using cards, though rarely did he gamble. More as a meditative aid than anything else to help him focus his mind, and of course practice his hand-eye coordination with his slight-of-hand tricks.

 

Truth was, he liked to play more for the spirit of the game than winning credits. After all, a game where you had to lie, keep up a good front, and work with whatever resources you had, offered a certain familiar appeal to him.

 

Menos gave a curt "Thank you" to sally when she dealt him his hand, picking it up as he kept up his usual smirk looking at his cards. His face never changed as he looked between his cards, keeping its same sly grin as he glanced towards the 3 cards dealt in the center.

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Lauren folded.

[Kel Riever]

"Smart," Sally said to Lauren, as some others folded and some raised the ante a bit.  Menos won the hand with a pair of jacks.  "Looks like someone else knows what they're doing too."

As the game went on, Sally made small talk.  She explained a bit more of the details of Parasc, such as the lack of any native, non-microscopic organic life, the need for proper environmental suits outdoors, a bit about how a few of the vorcha had even adapted to expose themselves to the environment for extremely short periods of time.  She went on a bit of nostalgia about Duellos too, though she seemed to revel in the ship she called home.

Kamau didn't speak much.  The man of African heritage had dreadlocks and light brown, almost yellow eyes.  He did take some time to explain that in the very small operation that Stormhammer was, he ended up being part scout, part infiltrator and part spy, often turning up the jobs that the company could get, if they weren't acquired through public requests or Reith's personal contacts.  He seemed to regret not working with everyone else much, as of yet.  "But that will change," Kamau added with confidence.

Vihaan was way over his head and out of the game early.  He seemed to understand the game, but loathed taking risks. 

Arcadia was quietest at the table.  She did well in the game, and was definitely ahead on her cash.  But Cadi seemed as much interested in watching and finding out about her teammates around the table.  As others began dropping out of the game (Kamau next, then Kuric, who to his credit, seemed to fool people a lot longer with his lack of expression than the quality of his play), Cadi seemed to get more comfortable as the stakes were raised.  Opposite to Vihaan, Cadi seemed to want to head into the challenge.

"We'll hit the Relay soon," Sally finally said.  Everyone should get some rest.  On the other side of the jump, it's seven hours until touchdown.  I can't say I haven't had my fun, Stormhammer, but you're a good lot.  If anyone wants to spend a bit of time up on the bridge to watch the relay jump, you've earned my trust." 

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"I'd love to," Lauren said practically giddy at the chance. "I've never seen a relay jump before. Oh, and before I forget, Sally, here's the credits I owe you. I think I can buy a teddy bear at the gift shop now," she laughed holding her 50 credit winnings.

[TheMajonese]

During the game, Naomi did a great job at annoying the others with the vocal expression of either her frustration after losing or her triumph after winning a round. Although neither Naomi nor Chris had said anything out aloud about it, both of the twins prioritized not to be the first one to drop out. Things began to look worse for Chris as he lost more and more money and Naomi already had a triumphant smile on her face.

 

When Sally's question distracted them from the game, Naomi just shrugged and didn't answer, while Chris leaned back and said: "Don't worry, Sally, my sister and I are not going to bother you on the bridge. But I really appreciate what you're doing, you seem to care much more about your passengers than other people do." 

[Cainhurst Crow]

Menos had enjoyed the game, more so because he had managed to learn a bit more about his teammates preferences then for winning. His winning was modest at best, but it had been won in the last 2 hands. Through the game, menos had maintained his same grin, even when loosing, but had been giving tells. Subtle to most, they had been simple things, the dart of eyes, the twitch of a forefinger, a tilt of a head, the same ones to show high, mid, and low chances of victory. That was, until the last hand, when he'd completely switched the tells around, and managed to win on a 5 of diamonds and 7 of clubs, the other 7 on the table giving him his winning single pair.

 

"Bridge huh? Sure, I'm game for that..." Menos stated simply as he turned in his cards, "I don't need to sleep for another 5 and a half hours." He said honestly, not needing more then an hour of sleep to get fully rested.