A Friendly Game of Sabacc? No Such Thing

[Jamo Jakatta]

It was after hours in the mess hall. A couple of tables had been hastily drawn together, and on one of them was a stack of the lack luster ration's that were handed out to all military crew serving aboard the Wheel. Sitting at the other table, Jamo shuffled the sabacc deck with all the flair of a seasoned card shark. He wore his off duty gear, dog-tags sitting in the hollow of his throat. “Corellian Gambit,” he said, riffling the cards again as he slowly looked from pilot to pilot, grinning. Almost all of Rogue Squadron had turned up to the impromptu card-game. “Some exciting stuff to be won, more than just the usual sack of protatoes – Captain Perris has graciously donated a couple of fingers of Whyren's Reserve to the pot. So what d'ya say? Are we all in?”

[Lucy Gray]

“You bet your sweet arse, we are!” Kylie exclaimed. Of course she was only speaking for herself, but what group of self-respecting pilots wouldn’t have played for some Whyren’s Reserve?

Kylie was sitting across the table from Jamo. She had seen the way that Razor had looked at her and at him and in light of the first encounter with both of them, she decided to sit across from him…

Not that it mattered too much, as Razor continually eyed her.

Kylie was dressed in her typical off duty clothes. Black cargo pants with pockets all over them and black boots. The pants weren’t skin tight, but they did hug her around the waist and ass, showing off her features. For a shirt, if you could call it that, she was wearing a black tank top that delved pretty far down her chest. A thin gold necklace sporting a single Corusca fire gem was dangling from her neck. Her hair, which usually was in an intricate braid, was free and wild. Several times, already, she had flicked her hair back, hitting the person sitting to the left of her… who happened to be Razor. She had apologized each time with a sweet smile.

Kylie was aware of the discomfort she was causing to Razor, but had decided that either Razor needed to speak up or just get over it. She folded her arms and rested them on the table. Then she leaned forward. Her cleavage rested on her arms and the neck of her tank top dipped a little bit further.

“How about we make it more interesting than that?” she asked Jamo in a voice that was very suggestive, but at the same time 100% innocent.

[Tera Uolmi]

Tera's expression was blank, but it was a specific kind of blank. The pilots of Rogue Squadron had learned to read a whole host of emotions on the blonde's face, even when she chose not to show them, based on the slightest quirk of an eyebrow or twitch of her mouth.

Prior to the arrival of Carre Inirial and Kylie Archer, she had been the sole female pilot in Rogue Squadron – and she had liked it that way. It wasn't that she liked any of the men she flew with, they were all cut from roughly the same piece of shiny yet ultimately flimsy cloth and whilst she was happy to fly alongside them, anything more than that was unthinkable. She didn't even really mind the near constant stream of innuendos and thinly-veiled passes that came her way. What bothered her, however, was with the addition of two more women, now the boys thought that somehow it was a competition to see if they could bait Tera, Carre and Kylie into a cat-fight over who was going to be the squadron hover-bike.

Tera, true to form, wasn't biting.

“Just deal.” She took a sip of some tar-black caff, then sat the cup aside and began rolling a crude cigarette. “I could do with some more soap and by the smell in the bunks I can tell half of you aren't using yours.”

[Sanis Prent]

I reclined in my seat a bit, tucking thumbs in my side pockets as I looked down the table non-chalantly. I still wore my officer's coat, albeit unbuttoned to reveal my undershirt. I still hadn't decided if it was a good thing I was getting used to Alliance duds or not.

Either way, I appreciated the charity from the rest of the squadron. These kids might have played cards as a hobby or such, but I'd earned more than my share of meal tickets off gambling alone. It was a Nar Shadaan thing, and the only question in my mind was how long to string the other Rogues out before I hustled them.

My eyes met Tera's, and I cracked a wry smile before looking to my right to see Cirr. The big guy's nose was buried in a datapad, and he was convinced he had a system down to count cards. Sounded like a HoloNet gimmick to me, but I elbowed him in the ribs long enough to snap him out of his antisocial behavior, and to put his pad away.

[Lucy Gray]

Kylie ignored the comment from Razor. Instead she pulled her hair behind her and tossed down a few credits. "I'm in. Deal those cards, Nine. I'm feeling the urge to get drunk tonight."

Though she might not look it, Kylie was an excellent Sabaac player. She had used her skills at the game to pay for many of her trips around the Inner Rim. It was also the reason that she had a hidden stash of credits stored away for a rainy day... enough to buy a snubfighter herself.

She leaned back and stretched, arching her back. She could feel the muscles, which had grown tight from sitting in the cockpit, pop and release the tension they had been carrying. She straightened up and smiled at everyone at the table.

"Besides, my astromech could use an upgrade."

[Jamo Jakatta]

“Oh yeah?” Jamo glanced casually at Kylie for just a second as he began to deal out the deck. The backs of the cards bore the logo of the Cumulus Casino, Cloud City and looked as if you could have told each one apart by the unique folds, scuffs and tears around their edges.

“You're better off talking to the boys from the Layla about that,” he added, nodding off towards Sanis and Cirrsseeto. “I hear they've got a... special agreement with the ships quartermaster. Ain't that right, Cirr?”

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Aside from sucking on his lower lip a little, Cirr let Joker's barb slide as he leaned forward a bit, interlacing his large fingers on the table in front of him as he responded flippantly.

"Specjial enough, jI guess."

Unlike Sanis, Cirr wore a sleeveless shirt more suited for the sort of guy who turned spanners and sweated. His thick, striped arms, while not a road map of muscles, certainly hinted they were under there in ample amount.

"Kochanskji just knows what she ljikes."

[Tera Uolmi]

Tera palmed her cards and slouched back in her chair as she looked over what was a fairly mediocre hand. She chewed the inside of her cheek.

“What's our opening ante? The usual?”

There was an excess of stale ration bars on board. Tera slid one into the centre of the table. Beneath the crinkled silvery packaging, it was clearly broken and smushed, having spent too many flights jammed into the emergency survival kit which she had yet to use.

[Sanis Prent]

I gave a slight nod, flipping my own ration into the pot. A half second's worth of delay and I elbowed Cirr, who was busy giving his own ante a curious sniff. With a shrug, the felinoid tossed his own ante in, and we both picked our cards up in unison.

"Don't be mad, Jamo. Just because I'm first dibs on any shipment of power couplings in fleet doesn't mean I'm some sort of dishonest cheat about it."

I glanced to Tera and winked, turning back to my hand to arrange it in an order I could make sense of. That took just a second or two. The rest of my time was spent looking around the table casually, slipping my hand back onto the table.

[Jamo Jakatta]

He'd dealt himself a shoddy hand and there was no doubt about it. Amongst his face cards was the silhouetted figure of Darth Vader, known as the Moderation card. Smiling to himself as he shuffled the card to the back of his hand, out of view, his thoughts turned to Grace Van-Derveld and his smile became a grin.

“I get all the power couplings I need, Prent, don't you worry 'bout that.”

[Lucy Gray]

Kylie threw in a ration bar that must have been from the Clone Wars. She was sure that it would break into dust when it was opened. As her cards were passed to her, she exclaimed loudly. "Dang that's a great hand!" Then she sat down and assumed her poker face.

She looked back and forth at the other pilots. They too, were giving their best poker face. She held her cards so that noone could see them.

4 of Sabres
11 of Staves
3 of Coins
The Idiot

While the first 3 cards could have been trash, the Idiot made her 3 of Coins seem more valuable. With a 2 of any Class would give her the Idiot's array. She waited to see what the bidding would be.

[Cirrsseeto Quez]

Cirr took his own cards, leaning back in his seat as he mulled over them. His brief lesson on counting cards fresh in his mind, he let his brain wander over bits of math as his right ear cocked askew. Not able to make up or down from where he stood, he eased his hand to the table.

Eager to crack small talk that didn't involve Jamo, Cirr looked to Kylie.

"How you ljikin' the squad so farr, Kyljie?"

[Lucy Gray]

"It actually reminds me of home. Me and my cousins were always trying to best each other. Nothing malicious, but we were always competing with each other. I remember one time that we raced to see who could wash the most Arb-swine on my Uncle's farm. We took the herd down to the river and began to bath them as fast as we could. We ended up killing the lot of them."

Kylie looked at her stack of ration bars and tossed another down on the pile. "I raise 1 ration bar and a Shockball signed by the Shad Furies." Kylie had obtained that from her time of dating the center of the Shockball team. She couldn't quite remember his name, but she had always remembered his groping hands.

[Tera Uolmi]

Tera's face contorted in a brief, sour expression, though whether it was in response to Archer's nostalgic reminisce or her latest contribution to the pot wasn't clear. Imperial sports memorabilia was exactly her idea of a useful prize. She looked at her cards and frowned.

“That sounds about par for Rogue Squadron. Enthusiasm to the point of reckless destruction.”