2019-06-26 - Indian Poker

After work on a Wednesday at the Pourhouse. So it's not exactly packed in here, but there are a handful of people kicking around the shitty interior of the shitty bar in the shitty town. Graham is one of those people, and he's right now engaged in a game of Indian Poker with Elise and a couple other people who are wellllll into their cups by now.

The card he's currently holding stuck to his forehead is...

The Queen of Spades.

He doesn't know this, of course. He's just now dealing out a card and holding it stuck to Elise's forehead. Her card is... the Jack of Clubs. She doesn't know that. He hisses through his teeth. "This is a tough one." Drunk Graham is drunk.

This is really very clearly not Elise's scene. She's dressed way too nice for this shitty hole in the wall bar, in a cute lightweight red floral-print wrap dress with a short skirt and ruffled blouse; but she's pretty deep into her cup if the flush on her cheeks is any indication. "You should stay," she decides, swaying forward towards the table and into Graham's hand to keep him pressing the card to her head. "No. I mean hold. Hold? No, it's definitely stay. You should stay. I'm gonna hold," This is not their first round, it probably isn't their second or even their third, but Elise still can't get the terminology down right.

There are plenty of other places that Easton could be drinking right now. There's his apartment complete with dead best fried turned judge-y ghost. There's his bar, with judge-y general manager. There's Geoff's place ... which is too close to comfort to someone who is evading him. Okay so there may be other spots, but none work quite as well for reasons as this one. And so Easton's been here a while. He's dressed in his near ever present plain gray tee-shirt, dark jeans and scuffed up boots. He's seated at the bar, drinking, but doing so at a more leisurely pace than the table of Indians. He rises, taking his beer with him and asks, "Room for another next round?"

Sorry, but Graham can't hold her card there forever. He presses it into Elise's forehead as much as he can, slowly retreating his index finger to see if either she's got the brain-power to hold it there herself or if sweat or something will keep it stuck? "Stick this to your forehead," he tells Easton sloppily, holding the back of the card toward the man, his eyes passing over the Two of Diamonds on the front of it, so that his grin brightens considerably. Holding his Queen to his forehead, he also kicks out a chair at their table for Easton, slouching lower in his chair in the process. "What's your name, man? I'm Graham. That's Elise with the winning card stuck to her face."

Without her designated card holder, Elise is forced to plunk her elbow on the table and keep her own card steady with two fingers pressing into the top of it. This was very difficult work! Her eyes roll up to Easton and she flashes him a bright grin. "Hi. I'm Elise," she offers up, even if Graham just introduced her. "You shouldn't stay. If you stay, you gotta drink. Wait, did I really win?" she doesn't remove the card from her forehead to check. Instead, she crosses her eyes towards the bridge of her nose and then tips her head back, like she could somehow see the card stuck to her.

Taking the card, licking it and sticking it to his forehead, Easton smirks at the fact that these people seem to at least be having a good time. He could use a good time. "Easton, nice t'meet ya both." He glances again at Elise as she introduces herself again, checking out her card. "Hi." He laughs at the 'warning' and says, "Yea, I'm not exactly worried about the drinking part. Don't threaten me with a good time?" He does take the Jack/Queen to be a bad sign though and fold, "But I don't think this my round."

There's a big blink from Graham. "Did you just lick that card?" He bursts out in a dumb laugh, still holding his to his forehead with his finger this whole time. "I like your style, Easton, welcome to the game." He sloshes a looks between the Two... and the Jack... and decisions are hard, guys! "Fuck it, I'm in. How confident you feeling over there, baby?" His smile is happy to sell her a watch.

Elise figures out sooner or later that she can't see the card she's keeping held to her head, so she looks back up to Easton just in time to catch him licking the back of the card. "Oohh, good idea," she remarks, and slides the card down the freckled bridge of her nose, before she second guesses herself. Her nose wrinkles. "On second though, I don't know where these cards have been," she says to no one in particular; back up the card goes, and continues to be held. Her eyes narrow as she looks across to Graham and his swarmy smile. "You..." she starts, but the smile on her lips returns, slightly lopsided as she gets a number of drunken hearts in her eyes. ".. have such a pretty smile. I'm in! Fold!" That's not the right word. "I mean hold!"

"What you don't fuckin' lick the cards? What are you the queen of England?" Easton has obviously been drinking and maybe forgotten that he doesn't know Graham all that well, and that licking a strange pack of cards isn't what you do, but eh, old habits. This is how you play! (when you are gross) But at least the gibe about being the queen sounds like it's more at his own expense for being class-less. He peels off his card, gives it's back a wipe on his shirt (hygiene!) and turns it over to smile. Elise's hesitation about licking the card only makes him laugh more, "Yea well, these cards don't know where I've been either. We'll call it even." Her pitiful attempt at card lingo just makes him attempt to stifle a laugh, which he covers fairly successfully with a small cough and a gulp of beer.

Lifting his beer bottle with his pinky out, Graham takes a quick drink, puts it down, and says in an awesome English accent, "Why yes, old chap, I've just come over from London this morning, cheerio and - " He runs out of Britishisms pretty quick, but it's fine. He has a pretty smile! "A'ight. Count of three. One, two," of course he looks before three. And laughs and laughs. Triumphantly, "I am taking a druuuuunk girl home tonight. Drink up, losers." While he shuffles, losing the card Easton licked (just ew) in the deck.

Elise snorts a laugh at Graham's successfully awesome English accent, saying something in rapid-fire Thai that neither of them will understand. But her smirk is oh-so-smug when she finishes. "I think they're Graham's cards," she's forgotten exactly where they came from now. "So whatever you've got will have to fight whatever he's got, and that could be disastrous," she grins up to Easton, and then sits up eagerly as Graham starts the countdown. One.. two... triumphant laughter?! "Where'd the three go?" she wonders aloud, and then flips her card off her forehead, visibly grimacing when she sees Graham's in comparison to her own. She fingers a shot, knocking it back like she was born to drink, wagging the empty glass at Graham after. "Excuse you, I am taking a drunk boy home with me tonight," she slurs the words she stresses. "You just better hope it's you."

Laughing at Graham's cheer about taking a drunk girl home tonight, Easton happily pours and takes his shots when it comes around to his turn. When Elise fires back, Easton offers, "Well, if you're looking for candidates, pretty sure I'm gonna qualify on the 'drunk boy' part pretty soon. And I got no problem being used t'make your boyfriend jealous." It's a friendly offer! He does pull out his phone to frown at a text message, type one back before taking a sip of his beer and saying, "Let's go Graham, no more twos."

"First off, wasn't Thailand part of the British Empire? That makes you, like, my vassal state." Graham asks through a hazy squint at Elise and her Thai-talking. (NB: It was not.) "Second off," he lolls a look over at Easton. "We just met, man, I don't wanna have to beat you with a baseball bat. Third off!" He shuffles the cards that are absolutely his, but he's a little way too tipsy to do it with any panache. Cards! Easton gets...

The Eight of Hearts. Elise gets...

The Eight of Diamonds. Graham gets...

The Three of Clubs. "This is interesting," he tells the other two.

"Uh, first off, racist," and that's about the only point that Elise has at the moment. She licks the rim of her whiskey glass, sets it down, and prepares herself for being dealt another card while laughing over to Easton. "You're pretty," she remarks, before canting her head at Graham. "But not as pretty as him. Besides, my mama's already mad that I'm dating one white boy, she'd lose her mind if I came home with two," she snickers. "Will you lick my card for me?" This request is asked of Graham with a flutter of her lashes. "Here, I won't peek!" and she closes her eyes and thrusts the card blindly out at him.

The Thai and everything about Thailand doesn't really penetrate the beer fuzz protecting Easton's brain from processing information properly right now. He does however hear that he's pretty, which causes him to grin like an idiot right before she states her preference. Graham reinforces that statement by threatening to introduce a bat into the game. Easton puts up his hands and says, "Alright, my bad, I won't hit on her." But then with a smile that is far too pleased with himself he holds out his card, "Will you lick mine too?" He said he wouldn't hit on her anymore.

Graham says with that stupidly good smile back in play, "I will lick anything you want me to, baby." There's no point doing it sexily if she's going to close her eyes, though, so he just sorta sticks the flat of his tongue to the back of the card, then palm-slaps it right to the middle of her forehead; that did not play out as hotly as it should have. Then there are beckoning fingers at Easton, give him that card, he'll lick that, too. "You guys're both fucked." Maybe he means 'cause of the licking? Or their cards? Whatever, his eyes are pretty much floating in beer-and-whiskey by now.

A burst of laughter escapes Elise as she keeps her eyes closed and hand extended, waiting for that lick. "Don't say things you don't mean, you're gonna get yourself in trouble," she purrs at Graham, about to continue on, when SLAP! goes his hand against her forehead with the grossly wet card. Her head bobs backward, and she opens her eyes, startled. "Whoa," she blinks a couple of times, staring at Graham like there might be two of him and she's trying to combine them back into one. Still, he says they're both fucked and Elise sighs wistfully. "I hope so."

Easton was mostly needling Graham about licking his card too, but well he offered so why the hell not. He hands over the card and leans forward to have it applied, expecting a bit more of a slap than might truly be necessary but eh, he kind of deserves it. With that applied, he sits back and at Elise's answer about hoping they're both fucked, he grimaces. "He is pretty, like ya said, but uh, I'm gonna let you have him cause I'm feeling generous." He eyes the eight and three and says, "But if you mean cards my friend? I'm not worried." He picks up his pint and points, "You should be."

Sober Graham would probably take advantage of the occasion to slap Easton in the forehead, but drunk Graham? Is all smiles (and threats of baseball bats). "I mean, gimme your number? If this shit doesn't work out - " He leans toward Elise, trying to wave between the two of them indicatively. " - gonna need a fall-back plan. And the lady says you're pretty, so." Hold on, he needs to think about whether to fold.

He peels his card off and looks at it with big eyes. "Damn, that woulda sucked."

"Whoa there, wait a sec. If this shit doesn't work out?" Elise blink-blinks at Graham and stares at him hard. Or, well, it would be a hard stare if she could focus in any one spot. But she compensates for the bobbing focus by swaying in the opposite direction, leaning towards Graham to nudge him in the shoulder. "If this shit doesn't work out, I'm going to break both of your legs and then threaten to break other stuff if it doesn't start working out again," she says all this with the prettiest smile, leaning in to pepper Graham's cheek with obnoxious kisses. Then, realizing she's forgotten she's playing cards, goes. "Oh! I'm in. Stay!"

Easton is amused by Graham asking for his number just in case, but laughs loudly at Elise's threats. He can barely get out, "Oh dude, you are so fucked." to Graham between his peels of drunken laughter. It's mostly good natured though, "I mean that in a good way." He tries to assure Elise, not that she likely cares what this rando drunk guy thinks. "Oh and yea. Stay. For sure." An eight? Pfft. He's in.

"That is so romantic." Graham makes (drunk) dreamy eyes at Elise, leaning across his chair to give her a really just super sloppy kiss. It's not even a little bit pretty. But then they're playing a game, a fact he remembers because her stupid 8-card is still stuck to her forehead - "A'ight," when he slumps back into his own chair, grinning dizzily. "Show, and then you two can, I dunno, roshambo for who has to take two shots. I should warn you though, man," with a finger waved at Easton. "She knows Thai kung fu. So you might wanna think about losing on purpose." He'll just be over here, making kung fu noises under his breath.

Sorry, Easton, about this public display of affection that he's about to get assaulted with, 'cause Elise throws her arms around Graham's neck to return the super sloppy kiss. They are gross people. And also very drunk. But right, they are playing a game! With cards and shots. She tucks herself in comfortably against Graham and levels a look at Easton, wagging her brows up and down. "You should listen to him. I kicked his ass. Twice!" she beams a grin up to Easton; it's sort of hard to believe she's going to kick anybody's ass, considering she looks like she weighs about 14 pounds soaking wet. But those kung fu sounds that Graham is making are accompanied with some kung fu hand motions that make no real sense, and end when she bursts into laughter.

Peeling off his card, Easton blinks and finally gets what Graham is explaining to him. He holds up his hands in mock surrender at Elise and says, "Whoa, alright, don't kick my ass lady." Obviously joking. "Besides, I'm pretty sure I'm behind y'all." He pours two more shots and takes them as easily as the first two. During the PDA he pulls out his phone and considers something before shoving back in his pocket.

Just so everyone knows? Graham is winning this game. You know, as much as one can WIN a game that involves forehead-cards and copious amounts of liquor. It could... possibly... have something to do with the fact that Easton and Elise keep letting him deal, and - like - look at his sheet, guys; he DEFINITELY cheats. Eventually, though, when everyone is just too drunk, he falls out the door and there's some drunk-loud, "IT WAS NICE TO MEET YOU, MAN, HERE GIMME YOUR NUMBER!" said to/shouted at Easton on the sidewalk out in front of the Pourhouse.