[ti]closed[/ti][C][S] Ante Up

Josh's PokéSpeech settings were not universal. Not wanting to hear conversations between other trainers and their Pokémon for the time being, he could not hear Tikani's words; he could only hear chirping and Pokémon cries from the grass-type. Ares relaxed his tail, he and Josh assuming the building itself had been hard-coded to be warded against damage up to a certain threshold.

All he could hear was Alicia's loud yelp that carried into his ear a bit too well, causing him to flinch and knock over his stack of chips as Tikani tapped his shoulder with one of her vines. Thankfully, he had saved his glass of water just in time, some of it sloshing onto the table. Nothing a towel couldn't fix.

"Mind keeping that Chikorita of yours under control better, Alicia?" Josh snapped, glad her name was being broadcast. He had ran into too many players in the Arena that had made their names less convenient to find. "That, and using your inside voice would help." He paused, Ares a little on edge at first but warming up to Tikani. She was a bold one. Maybe he'd have a new friend if their trainers got along.

"To answer your question, there's a card game starting once there's eight of us. Name of the game's Hold'em. Popular down south."

"So you're not the only one who thought that Dr. Bunya was a bit off her rocker," Josh whispered, not wanting to make a scene about the Professor's... eccentricities. "Ares was like that too," the blonde raised his voice to indoor talking levels before turning his PokéSpeech setting off temporarily. He didn't want to hear any table talk from the Charmander, nor did he want distractions.

"Sure, sit down! Looks like there's gonna be six of us total," Josh replied as he took a sip of his water after biting into his patty. "Food here's good. I'll have to remember this place. Hopefully the game's just as good." Sliding his meager stack of chips onto the table, he introduced himself after snap-folding the first hand away. "Name's Josh, and I'm an aspiring Pokémon racer. Would love to make organized racing a thing in the Briarbane area. But that's a ways away. Gotta make a name for myself in other ways first. What about you?" he asked, the Charmander making small talk with her Pokémon.

As the duos got to know each other, especially with Josh being card dead for several orbits, his stack slowly dwindled, eaten by the blinds. Around a half hour into the session, he finally got a hand he was willing to play with... though it was out of line. Impatience may have gotten the better of him. "Raise," he said as he slid a stack of white chips forward.

A loud snort from Josh's Mudsdale momentarily distracted him before giving the female his full attention. "It's kind of an escape for me too. I just came off of a position where I had to deal with idiots every day. Believe me, it was no fun working a position where you get called a liar at least once a day." While government work was secure, it was frustrating working chats for the state lottery. He loved his new position, never having to interact with customers in real time. "Plus, there's no place to ride horseback where I'm from. I've already gotten the chance to here." He gestured toward Granmarg, who was peeking inside from the window. "Say hi to Granmarg!"

All of a sudden, Alicia had put on a hell of a poker face. Still as a statue, the most neutral facial expression imaginable. His eyes widened as the flop came. All Broadway cards, including a pair. And he had bricked it. "...What are you doing, dealer..." he muttered under his breath as he was first to act. While the pot wasn't huge, it had the potential to balloon as one of them made a move.

Josh tapped his knuckles against the table, seemingly afraid to commit. Was he afraid to make a move with his meager cards, or was he trying to induce a bet and put out a clever trap? Such was the nature of poker; it wasn't about what cards you got. It was about what you did with them.

"No, I worked fully remote then, too," Josh clarified. "Have been since the days they had to board my entire city up for months at a time about four years ago." Little did he know how much that might resonate with her, given that both their players were from the same municipality. "Thankfully it was only over the phone and over chat. I couldn't handle in-person work like that. It was nice being able to roll your eyes at abusive customers." Read: customers that did not realize that the words "Each game is played separately" means. No, having ten matching numbers across both games didn't make you a millionaire. They had to be on the same game.

The bet -- not raise -- was frightening. What kind of hand would Alicia have that would elicit an overbet to the pot? This kind of board, paired and with so many Broadway cards, was suspicious. Her story didn't make sense. The most common hands that would call a preflop raise would be strong aces or middle pairs. Holding removal to several of those combinations, Josh really turned up the heat and put her to the test. "Can I get a count, please?"

Once he had his answer, he spent another minute in the tank, considering what she could possibly have. In his mind, this looked like an effort to buy the pot. With Josh having a larger stack, he felt he could afford to be a bit loose with the pursestrings. Cupping his hands behind his stack, he pushed it forward slightly, announcing "All in" with a cold voice before burying his face in his hands.

"It's that way no matter where you go," Josh added, having been in support for a while. He loved making people happy and leaving the vast majority of his interactions with smiles on their faces. Smiles showed even through voice. "People that think they know more than you do." That was why he loved working for McInnes Forestry. If you had the funds to blow on a landscaping project, you were probably a pretty smart cookie.

"Come on, fold, fold, fold..." was all that went through Josh's mind, keeping his unflinching hands in front of his face. His heart sank when he heard his all-in called. The dealer asked how many times they wanted to run the last two streets. Uncovering his face, he sighed. "Let's run it once..." he trailed off before both of them flipped their cards over. The wannabe cowboy was dominated, drawing to three outs... until the turn came, putting three-of-a-kind in the center. An Ace to follow it gave both of them the exact same hand, splitting the blinds between the two.

The rest of the table looked awestruck at seeing the unlikely event. "Wow, did I ever get lucky..." he exhaled, and he knew it, too. He would only get involved in one more hand where his top pair would hold before the deck ran cold, giving him a chance to keep eating.

"It's more the third ten hitting the board that was crazy," Josh corrected. "Sorry for the suck out; I know how frustrating it is to get counterfeited. But that's poker."

As the young man remained card dead for several orbits, the blinds eating at his stack, he was able to finish his meal while chatting back and forth with Alicia. "It's mostly a coincidence. Have you heard of EarthBound? Old, old RPG. Older than me. Set in modern times, about three boys and a girl trying to repel an invasion. Psychic powers, baseball bats, frying pans for weapons, and a... unique style of humor." It was a game that didn't sell well, only to grow in popularity well after it left production. Even after digital releases, original game cartridges sold for hundreds of dollars online.