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Owner Pose
Arthur Lowell     Welcome back to Poker Night.

    Once again, Arthur Lowell has set up a nice, stylish prospitan brushed-gold space-yacht. Once again, it's populated and manned by that odd collection of three-foot-tall iguanafolk serving drinks of all kinds. Once more a well-stocked snack table is here to fill people up on unhealthy little nonsense. And the main deck is once more host to its central feature: That large, round table, covered in stylish high-quality felt and surrounded by those floating videogamey interfaces asking one to PRESS +JOIN - 10,000 BOONDOLLARS, whereupon their stack of boondollars will surely manifest in all its eye-searingly intense glory.

    Teleportation is an easy way to get here, through the transportalizers. And those who aren't comfortable with that can get a ride (and a drink) from the many limousine-like space shuttles that are there to pick folks up. This time the setting is neither space nor the ocean, but floating near the city of Home, high above and observing the sprawling, biodiverse, massive urban zone. The atmosphere isn't thin, courtesy of some kind of air bubble or game abstraction, and the whole structure drifts strangely around huge, puffy cloud formations. Shooting stars are frequent and easily visible all throughout the day.

    And of course, Arthur himself drifts weightlessly above the table, rapidly shuffling the deck stylishly, awaiting his visitors.
Septette Arcubielle      With a little sparkle and a soft 'pop' of abruptly repressurizing air, Septette lands on one of the transportalizer pads and immediately sets to dusting magical residue off her pink hoodie and slacks. It's outwardly a more comfy-looking outfit than her usual austere shawl, but a moment's examination shows it's carefully tailored not to snag in her joints or sharp edges.

     In other words, it's the sartorial equivalent of whistling innocently: a conspicuous amount of effort put towards looking casual.

     That doesn't dissuade her from grabbing some potentially messy chips and salsa from the snacks bar before seating herself at the table and waving up at Arthur. "Thought those things shuffled themselves. Getting restless, or just keeping your hands busy?"

     Then she freezes a bit of salsa into a crystal, plops the crystal in her mouth, and follows it with a dry tortilla chip.
Nobunaga     The Transportalizer comes to life, and what appears is a woman in a black, military-style outfit. Distinctive to her look is a great crimson cape, knee-high boots with overlapping golden plates, and a peaked cap with a large and distinctive sunburst emblem with a sakura blossom at its center.

    Lord Oda Nobunaga, the genius of the Sengoku Jidai.

    Stepping off the pad, she thrusts her hands out to either side, scattering magical residue in an ostentatious display of glitter, "I have arrived!" In a practiced gesture, she discards her cape and foists it off on a passing iguana. Another is relieved of the drink he was in the process of delivering elsewhere. It is this personality that takes her seat at the poker table, hoisting the drink, "You must be the host, then." She recognizes Septette, but Arthur's only been some loud dude on the radio in the past.
Nova Terra     Nova appears from the display of teleportation special effects and lens flares, stepping forward off the pad. She's wearing her usual hostile environment suit, because you never know when environments are going to turn hostile! She double checks herself to make sure nothing was left behind, before making her way towards the poker table.

    Grabbing a drink from one of the servers on the way, Nova drops down into one of the chairs, leans back and props her armour boots up on the edge of the table. A quick drink before nodding to Arthur, Septette and Nobu, "Hi."
Lemeza Kosugi     Just what the doctor ordered. A nice relaxing game of cards, for the very stressed-out-looking archaeologist. His trademark fedora, safari shirt, and khaki pants are in proper order today, but his face is far more wrinkled than usual -- a clear sign something's on his mind. Regardless, he disembarks from one of the limousines, saké and curry in tow, and makes his way to the card table for some more Texas Hold 'Em. "Thanks for hosting this again, Arthur. Great timing, too, I needed a distraction." He does not elaborate on this.

    There's a couple familiar faces, and a few new ones as well. He gives a casual wave to Lady Nobu before turning to face Septette. "Ah, good to see you here. I take it you actually have time for something other than killing foul beasts today?" A friendly jab, after which he halfheartedly makes to hide his curry bowl, expecting a retort from Septette regarding it in return.
Arthur Lowell     "HELL YEAH, I got some SELF-SHUFFLERS, dog." Arthur says, flicking them around. "But are ya gonna trust some MAGIC CARDS, or you 'bout to trust THESE SWIFT-ASS FLICKS." Even Septette's insane reflexes would have a hard time decoding the shuffling, since the cards actually move into and out of tiny portals during the process to obfuscate things even /further/.

    Then he gives a wave to Nobunaga! "YO, HOMIE!" He calls out, flicking the deck up his long, loose sleeves just long enough to assail the newcomer's hand with a series of daps, pounds, low-fives, rubs, shakes, slips, and finger-wiggly motions that end in a stylishly jazzy-handed bump off her katana if she's got it at her side. "Glad havin' a NEWBIE at the TABLE! Good night for it too, got less DUDES on the LIST." He gestures to the others. "That's SEPT, over there's NOVA! And this guy's LEMEZA. Pro'lly already met a COUPLE of THESE DUDES, right?"

    "Good seein' the BOTH OF YOU here!" He's chatting to Lemeza and Nova! "Yeah, always good to TAKE BREAKS, helps with gettin' that CAMARADERIE! TIME ya spend on MAKING FRIENDS NOW is the kinda shit that gets you HELLA PAYOUT later." He says. "Trust me, I LEARNED THAT the TOUGH WAY."
Septette Arcubielle      If the killbot tries to track Arthur's shuffling, the only outward indication is her eyes flaring a slightly brighter purple for a split instant. Then she shakes her head and smiles. "Well, I'm the last person who's gonna fault you for building in redundancy." She glances down at her cards, but her expression remains placid and smiling as she scarfs down another tortilla-cone salsasicle.
Nova Terra     "Off to a great start as usual..." Nova sends her cards floating forward across the table, "Fold." She mutters a bit, "Good thing I'm usually more lucky in the field or I'd have been dead a hundred times by now." She gulps down more of her drink.
Lemeza Kosugi     "Hang on just a moment. This is social hour, not the Shrine of Adversity!" Arthur's casual mention of slinging chips quickly descended into using them as actual weaponry, causing the already worrying Lemeza to hastily try to defuse the situation. In the middle of this, he does glance at his cards, seeming to relax a bit as he does.

    Then Septette's massive raise. A grin takes over Lemeza's expression as he matches her bet, casting his grin toward her as if to say "try me".
Nobunaga     Nobunaga squints at her cards. Eyes flick to the pot, when a large bet of colorful currency is placed. She eyes the face-up community cards, then discards her hand, "These cards...are not inspiring confidence. A strategic retreat is in order."

    Hands now lifting, she laces her fingers together in front of her mouth to observe how this duel plays out between Lemeza and Septette.
Septette Arcubielle      Septette stares back over her cards. For a single second, she just stops- all the hundreds of minute tics, the emulations of breathing and of microscopic muscle tremors, grind to a halt. Then they resume as if nothing had ever happened: her hollow ribcage expands and contracts in an imitation of a soft exhalation, and she smiles.

     "If you think I've made an error you can capitalize on, Mr. Kosugi, you've learned nothing from watching me. All-in."