[break session] * Minami lies back on the mat she's staked out as hers. "They're gone," she drawls to Taki on the balcony. Yeah... Enjoying the view out there? * Taki leans back against the wall outside the room. It's... quaint. Heh. 'S not bad, I guess. Yeah, kinda reminds me of home, I guess. Hey...you doin' all right? You've been acting kinda off lately. Our hotsprings were so much nicer, though. Heh. Off like what? * Minami shrugs. "I dunno. I mean, no offense. Just like there's something on your mind, that's all. Well. More than usual." Yeah... It's personal... * Taki looks down and sighs. I'd really rather just not be here. Ah, okay. * Minami winces in sympathy. "Yeah, I get that part." Sakura's not around and we don't do a goddamn thing. And now we get a vacation and she has to work? Well, anyway, if you do feel like talking about it, you know I won't blab. * Minami rolls over on her stomach. "So...since we're stuck here anyway, you wanna just stare outside all day, or are you up for a game of cards?" I... don't really know how to play any games. 'Sokay. I can teach you! Uh... okay. I guess it could help if we're ever undercover in Las Vegas or something... * Minami snerks. "Well, whatever reason works for you, I guess." * Taki crawls over toward Minami and sits down near her bed. Leena's going to be pissed off she missed the slumber party. She's been trying to get all of you at my place forever. * Minami pulls out a deck of cards and starts shuffling like it ain't no thang, and snerks. "Yeah, I guess so. Why your place?" Because I live on my own and no parents means extra 'Wheee' I guess. Oh, true, I guess... So, any preference? Any games you've always wanted to play or anything? Uh... I don't really know any games... Poker? The uh... 'hit me' game they play in movies? Heh, y'mean blackjack? Uh... yeah. I guess. All right, sure. We can start with that. Easier than poker anyway, if you're just starting. * Minami deals out. "We'll play this hand open, so's you can see how things work. I deal out two cards for each of us, at first. Usually the first will be face up, and the second one face down." Okay... *pays close attention* Now, the object of the game is to make your cards equal 21, or as close to it as possible before going over. If you go over, you automatically lose. All face cards have a value of 10, and aces are either one or 11--you can choose, depending on what your other cards are, so that you'll get the best combination. Right. *nods* What's a face card? If you have a fairly low deal and want another card, you say "hit me." If --oh, right. Face cards are the ones with little people on them, like this. *flips through the deck and shows Taki, then puts the cards back and reshuffles, leaving the dealt ones out* Kings, Queens, and Jacks. Okay. Are 10s still with 10? *points at her 10.* Yeah. Just, so are the kings, queens and jacks. Right. So you were saying about 'hit me'? Right, sorry. Okay, so if you have a relatively low deal--usually 14 and under is safe, though sometimes not--you say "hit me" to get another card. If that card is 7 or lower, you're fine; if it's over 7, you've "busted"--gone over. So it's all chance? Well, kind of. If you wanna get all intellectual about it, there's a lot of probability and statistics stuff that goes into it, but most people don't get that much into it. Well where's the skill? All it is is how big of chance I want to take? The more math I can do in the head, the better I am? ...sorta. Blackjack's not a very complicated game, really. It leans much more towards the luck end of the spectrum than other games, even if you're putting money on it. Why not just bet on flipping a coin then? * Minami shrugs. "Some people do that, too." Here, let me teach you poker--you might like that a little better... Alright... Sorry, I didn't mean to make fun of your game. Naw, 's fine. I guess James Bond makes it look a lot more cool when he plays it. Blackjack's not totally my scene anyway. * Minami grins. "Not enough strategy." Yeah... * Minami gathers and shuffles. "Okay, I'ma start you off with 5-card draw, then if you like that I can start on Hold 'Em, and stud varieties..." There's not just like... poker poker? * Minami pauses for a sec. "Well, I guess 5-card draw would be poker poker." But some of the variations get *really* interesting! Like, there's this one where--uh, sorry. * Minami looks a little embarassed. What? Why are you blushing? They're just cards, right? * Minami shrugs off the embarassment. "I just get a little too into my games, sometimes. I've been playing cards since....well, I can't even remember now. So I get kind of excited about it." Hehe. That's cool. I get that way about... some stuff. Heh. Like what? * Minami shuffles and deals as she talks, and explains the rules of 5-card draw. Well, my aunt runs a video store that had a lot of imported American movies. I've watched like everyone. I really like the... darker ones, about witches and vampires and stuff though. * Taki is almost whispering this like it's her dark secret. * Minami leans a little closer in respect of that as they play. "Really? That's kinda cool, I guess. I don't know much about American stuff." I just watch a lot of their movies. Well, and read books and stuff. You can find translations online. I used to just watch anything American I could get my hands on, but now I sorta just watch the ones that look cool and have a good atmosphere. Or a lot of action. * Minami looks down at the cards. "I...don't get the chance to go online often." She clears her throat. "Action movies are fun. I like the HK imports when I get the chance to see them--they might not be very mental, but they're fun." My apartment is pretty cool even if it's small. There's a dedicated T1 line and stuff. I'm not sure exactly how it works, but I download stuff real fast. HK stuff is pretty fun. John Woo is awesome. I like Yakuza movies too. Beat Takeshi is the best. * Taki goes a bit starry eyed as she mentions directors. Corey Yuen does some fun stuff too. Zhang Yimou can be okay...oh, oh! And Andy Lau--the director, not the singer/actor. Infernal Affairs was *awesome*. * Taki chatters about directors and movies with another fan as she continues picking up 5-card poker. * Taki sighs. The conversation kinda reaches a lull After having listed her top movies. * Minami doesn't notice as she's engrossed in the teaching and the playing and the aww yeah. Um... Thanks for being nice and stuff. I know you hated me when we first put on the team together... ...huh? * Minami looks up. "Whazzat?" Well I mean you yelled at me and stuff... Oh... * Minami clears her throat. "I never hated you, Taki." Well but you didn't like me... It's just...well, sometimes I can get kinda irritated when people are unreasonable. And right at the very beginning, you and Darkmoon and Leena used to go on and on all the time about how you hated the Queen and all of this mess, and it just kinda got on my nerves, 'cause it's not like there was anything you could do about it, but y'all kept whining anywa...but I've loosened up a little, and you haven't been doing it as much. And just, well. I' And just, well. I've gotten to know you better. It was nothing like that! I like the Queen. Well, I respect her. I don't think I could lead all these girls like she does. And um... It's just my old team did nothing but make me feel terrible and I didn't really trust anyone at that point... ...ahh, yeah. Yeah, I can kinda get that. I'm sorry if I made you feel bad, though. It's okay... I can be kind of brusque sometimes. I don't know what it's like really to have friends. I'm used to just being yelled at. I can deal. Well, I don't wanna make you feel like you're being yelled at all the time. The problem with me is that I just don't like it when people are unreasonable. And I guess I should get used to that, since most people *are* unreasonable, but it just, well. Irritates me. I'm... reasonable... * Minami shrugs. "You are, most of the time. I see that now. I'm just...I don't know how you'd describe it. Objective? Judgmental? I suppose the two contradict each other..." It's like, I'll be pissed at *anyone* who's being what I consider irrational, including myself if the circumstances warrant. It's not a "friend" or "not-friend" thing. Oh okay. Well lemme know if I do anything to upset you... * Minami looks embarassed. "Heh, I probably will anyway." ^^ Well do it nicely? ^^; I'll try. Thanks... * Taki looking down at her cards, she pauses again. * Minami notices. "Problem?" What happens when you have all the cards in order and their all the same suit? * Minami like chokes. "Uh...that would be a straight flush." It's...really really rare. Especially in a hand with no wild cards, like this one. So it's good? ...yeah. Oh, okay. *smiles a bit* ...er, maybe now that you have the ropes, it's time to teach about "bluffing"... Lying? Not exactly. In this case, it's not really lying, 'cause it doesn't have much to do with what you actually say to other people. With words, anyway. ... What are you lying about then? How well you're doing? Something like that. See, poker's a betting game. So to win a large pot--large amount of money, it's good if you can get other people to put in a large amount of money. Although you have to, to. But if you're good, you can make them think--through body language or the way you're betting--that they have a stronger hand than you do. But what if they do? Um, then you lose. ... See, the thing with bluffing is that not only do you have to learn how to do it, you also have to learn how to tell when other people are doing it. * Taki looks nervous. And if you think there's no way your hand could beat theirs, you just fold, and then you don't have to bet any more. You do lose all you've already put in, but at least that's all. But how do you know you're not going to lose? I don't really like to go into something if I'm unsure of the outcome... And with money? That's scary. * Minami smiles. "It is, but you get used to it." And it's just like everything else; you start small, and build up. Small. Right. Like with dating. Like what Maya's been telling me... And of course sometimes people just use the chips to keep score instead of representing money...ehh? Um... you know. You get to know the person. So you know if they really like you. And stuff. * Minami nods. So...I'm guessing you have someone in mind? * Minami puts her hands up defensively. "You don't have to tell me who if you don't want to..." * Taki blushes. No I... yes. I don't think I should tell everyone... I don't want everyone worrying about it for me. ^^;;; * Minami grins. "Well, good for you." I hope so... What about you? * Minami blinks. "Me?" I dunno. Not really. I don't really think about that kind of stuff much, yanno? Yeah, me neither. But then I had a dream about them... a couple times. And. It's scary... ...them? And scary? Howzat? And being here with you guys doesn't help anything at all... * Minami blinks. Them, the person. Indefinite gender neutral pronoun. Ah, just checking. It's scary cause like what if I mess it up? She could hate me forever! They! They could hate me-- Oh god. * Taki blushes. * Minami taps the deck a little in thought. "Well, I mean. There's always a certain amount of randomness in these situations. You can never be sure how anything turns out, you just gotta play your cards as you see 'em and watch the po--" ...ahhh. Is that why you don't wanna tell anyone? Yeah. Well... Maya knows. * Minami nods. "That's good. Maya's...a good one." Leader, I mean. Yeah. * Minami shrugs. "Anyway, don't worry about me being weird about it either--I mean, if that's the way you feel, then that's the way you feel, yeah? Nothing you can do to change it." Right. I guess... 'Sides. Whoever she is, I'd think the possibility of her hating you forever is very, very slight, statistically speaking. Hate's a strong emotion; it takes a lot to keep it up. And anyway, it takes a certain kind of person to hold that heavy a grudge for that long of a time, and for some reason I get the feeling that you're not the type to crush over a person like that. Though I could be wrong. But I'm just sayin'. Yeah... Still. I don't know what I'd do if she... if things became different. * Minami nods. "That's a reasonable worry to have." So yeah. Nice and slow. Build up. That sort of thing. * Minami nods. "Yup." Well, all's I can say is best of luck. Thank you. Four A's is good right? * Minami blinks. "Um, yeah..." [End!] Session Close: Sun Oct 31 22:10:43 2004