…or, My Cups Runneth Over
Watching Iason do something he wasn’t superhumanly great at was a revelation.
Let me rephrase that.
Watching Iason do something he wasn’t superhumanly great at—and couldn’t pretend like he was—was a revelation.
He wasn’t any great shakes at interpersonal communication, for instance, but that didn’t matter. He was hot. He was rich. He was an elf. You don’t have to be nice to people when you can glide right past them. If the way sunlight plays off your skin is enough to dazzle someone all by itself, it’s easy for them to miss what a manipulative asshole you are. Anybody who didn’t like him was either one of his epic enemies, or didn’t matter.
When he sat down to play cards, his heritage didn’t help him. Sure, it gave him everything he needed to be a first rate card player. He was cunning. He was perceptive. He could do the sleight of hand if it came down to that. But in cards, being an elf doesn’t give you a better hand to begin with. If he’d been playing other elves, pride might have compelled him to dig deep and work harder to beat them. Against a table of clumsy, mortal humans, his pride became a problem.
I’d pictured him putting on his usual cocky debonair front. He could bluff big, so big that it was transparent and obvious that people would walk right into the trap he laid for them. He could have done it, but he got pissed off when the first few hands didn’t go his way. He got moody and petulant.
At that point, he became less interesting to me than the game itself was.
Go on and guess what that did for his mood. I didn’t care. His bad night didn’t have to be mine.
We had five people. We were playing poker instead of cups so we wouldn’t lose anyone before we attracted a bigger crowd.
Standard cups is a four person game. In a casual game between unfamiliar players, you couldn’t count on a single odd man out sticking around for very long before they wander off, and that would have only left four. If you played cups without anyone waiting to jump in, your game was over for everyone as soon as anyone left.
It was Marlot, me, Iason, the little guy from our floor named Eric and another one Marlot had dug up somewhere. I sized the other guys up the way I had travelers at the tavern. It was a little weird. I was used to being “the kid” playing against adults; guys my dad’s age, or older if they were dwarves.
The lounge was far from dead. Juliana, who’d thought my name was “hey, gay kid!”, was watching TV with some friends. Other people came and went, warming up their meals, sitting to watch a few minutes of TV or a few minutes of play.
It wasn’t long before Iason started in on me, trying to get me away from the table. He’d grasped the rules of the game in one explanation, but the subtleties were lost on him. He was angrily folding when he couldn’t see the immediate value of his hand, which made it painfully obvious when he did have something.
“Iamie, I wanted to talk to you about our papers,” he said after putting his cards down again.
“You do yours yet?” I asked.
“Not yet.”
“What do you need to talk about?”
“I do not think that we should bore your friends with class talk,” he said.
“Yeah, okay,” I said. “It can wait until we’re done, then.”
“You know I am going to be busy all day tomorrow,” he said.
“You are spending the night, though, right?” I said. “So we’ll have time.”
“Honestly, Iamie, this is the most infuriatingly stupid diversion I have ever been subjected to.”
“Well, stick around, and we’ll start playing cups in a bit,” I said.
“Cups? What is that?”
“Another card game,” I said.
“Different from this one?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said. A little terse, maybe, but he was getting on my nerves.
“I want to play that, then,” he said.
“It’s for four people,” I said.
“There are more than four people here.”
“Let’s wait until we’ve got some more,” I said.
“But you just said it’s for four,” he complained.
“Anybody know where Lonnie is?” the other guy—Burl, he was called—said. I didn’t know if that was his real name or not. He was burly enough that it could have been a nickname.
“She’s visiting her parents,” Marlot said.
“Iolana went back to Kaha Moai for the weekend?” I asked. I couldn’t believe she was willing to butcher such a pretty name. I also couldn’t believe she’d traveled across half the continent and then over hundreds of miles of ocean for a weekend commute. “What, does she have a planar doorway hidden away in her closet or something?”
“No, her parents rented a townhouse for her first semester here,” Marlot said.
“Why would anybody in their right mind move from a tropical island to here right at the end of summer?” Eric asked.
“This is just a crazy bet, but probably so their daughter can visit them on weekends,” Marlot said.
“Don’t they have any schools on Kana-what’s it?” Burl asked.
“Probably,” I said. “Probably good ones, too. She must have learned all those languages somewhere.”
“All what languages?” Burl asked.
“She speaks seven languages,” I said.
“Wow, you must know her pretty well,” Eric said.
He’d been in the meet-and-greet where she’d told the whole floor that little tidbit, but I let it pass. I had his attention, and Burl’s. That was an advantage. If they kept thinking about how to get an in with the beautiful island girl, they wouldn’t be thinking of their cards.
“We’ve gotten to know Lonnie very well,” Marlot said, rearranging the cards in her hand more than would be necessary to produce any useful result. “She told me that education improves in her odds in the village lottery.”
“They do a lottery?” Burl asked. “How much is it?”
“Oh, it’s not for money,” Marlot said. Her voice was low and even as she spun her bullshit finely. “Every year, one girl from each village on the island gets selected by lot as a potential bride for their god. All the finalists come together and the priests look them over and decide which one’s the most suitable spouse.”
“Every year, huh?” Eric asked. “Guy must get plenty of trim.”
He and Burl both chuckled a little nervously.
“Oh, well, it’s arguable how much pleasure he gets out of them,” Marlot said. “The theory is that they arrive in his realm in perfect astral bodies, but their physical forms take a bit of a beating on the trip.” Burl and Eric stared at her, not getting it. “What with the lava and all.”
“Holy shit, they throw the loser in a volcano?” Burl asked.
“Or the winner, depending on how you look at it,” Marlot said.
“The funny thing is, Iolana wasn’t really clear about whether she was trying to improve her odds of avoiding that fate, or of being picked,” I said. “Apparently it’s a huge honor, or something. Like being called to be a paladin.”
“Only instead of a nifty mount and a healing touch, you get your flesh melting off your bones,” Marlot said.
Eric and Burl had both gone pale.
“Huh,” Burl said, trying to laugh and failing. He forced a smile. I knew a lame attempt at a joke was coming. He was the tough guy at the table. He couldn’t wuss out. “Well, I bet those other chicks don’t care so much if they’re always the bridesmaids, huh?”
“The other females, having been chosen by fate, are not released from their duty ,” Iason said quietly. “The island of Kaha Moai has no large game animals, you see, so the islanders live on fruit and fish most of the year. However, some occasions—such as the wedding of a god—call for a more substantial feast.”
If we hadn’t just described sacrifice-by-volcano, he might have had to spell it out for them, but they got the picture he was painting without any more strokes. Burl swallowed, and didn’t try to push his tough guy cred any further. Iason pushed the fan of cards on the table in front of him into a neat pile and waited while we finished up the hand. After that, he got into the spirit of the game a little bit more.
We attracted some hangers-on as the night went on, and once there were enough people to get a couple of groups going we switched to our preferred game.
Iason got cups a lot quicker than he had poker. I think it’s because cups is a more violent game. The goal’s to stick your opponents and not get stuck yourself. You feint, you dodge, you attack. Poker’s a game of diplomacy, by comparison. It’s all posturing. By the time you get to the showdown, the game’s over. The thing’s decided.
Iason had everything he needed to be good at it, but cups suited his instincts better. It was a game of slyness and viciousness.
Think I’m crazy? Listen to the patter when guys get out a deck and play. You’ll hear some trash talk when around a poker match, but nothing like what you get in a good game of cups.
He did good, but Marlot did better. When he tried to slay the dragon, she popped out of nowhere with the queen of wands and took a trick with a point in it away from him. He kept discounting her. He kept forgetting her. She might have been pissed, but Marlot mid-game didn’t care about anything that was an advantage.
I watched Iason settle into the rhythm of it and I wondered how he’d do at partner games. I wondered if he fought on the field with the same panache he was slinging the cups with. I doubted it would be quite the same, but I was sure it would be a sight to see.
Yay!
Thank you for the update, Ms. Erin!
An update???
Ook! Finally, an update! <3
“Anybody know where Lonnie?” seems like it needs another word….like “Anybody know where Lonnie is?” or “Anybody know Lonnie?”
MOOK!
Hmmm, Jamie getting more and more PO’ed at Iason as time goes on? Maybe he’ll start thinking with his other head some day.
lol
they really take card games seriously.
#5! I feel like a real fan now!
yeah, I was going to post about “Anybody know where Lonnie?”, but someone beat me to it.
<3 AE
Oooh, I got a useful one now!
“She told me that education improves _in_ her odds in the village lottery.”
There’s an extra ‘in’ in there, isn’t there?
MOOK! Love to see Marlot show Iason a think or two!
I’m wondering where this storyline is in sync, time-wise, with MU… this isn’t the game, for example, going on during TWO’s party is it?
@kerinbot: Nah, can’t be, they haven’t had the second dance encounter yet.
Also, it began and continues to be played in the dorm lounge, yes?
Baaaaa!
Cups == Hearts? (AKA the networked timewasting aid in the Windows bundle)
How would Iason have handled strip poker? I imagine if Marlot deliberately threw the first few hands, he would be too busy cringing away from her to concentrate. >:=)>
@5 Kerinbot:
No, the story hasn’t caught up, and the Twosday party was held in the Union. I do recall, though, that the stories used to show the WoMU date. In the absence of that, we must refer to the wiki and help keep it up to date.
It’s good to have a new episode! Iason sure is annoying – I love that he kept discounting Marlot (presumably because she’s a woman) and it kept coming back to bite him.
This really is still far behind ToMU – we have not yet seen the dance where Mack and Ian enounter Iason and Jamie on the stairs, and that was a while ago in ToMU time.
A couple of possible typos:
He could bluff big, so big that it was transparent and obvious that after people would walk right into the trap he laid for them.
I couldn’t quite follow this sentence. Should that be “afterward”? And is this saying that the big, obvious bluff was cover for a hidden trap?
.
“Wow, you must know her pretty well,” Eric said. He’d been in the meet-and-greet where she’d told the whole floor that little tidbit, but I let it pass. I had his attention, and Burl’s. That was an advantage. If they kept thinking about how to get an in with the beautiful island girl, they wouldn’t be thinking of their cards.”
There’s an extra quote at the end.
@13 beappleby:
“after” is sometimes used in place of afterward by less eloquently spoken people, and I think it actually fits Jamie’s character better.
Though I do agree that the sentence seems a bit off.
Wow, I substituted “queen of spades” for “queen of wands” in my head. Thats how long I’ve been playing hearts. Though they might not be playing with the queen of spades rule, she might have just been keeping her around in case Iason tried to “slay the dragon”. Thats a ballsy move for a newcomer to hearts, but then again, it fits Iason perfectly. I’d probably have done the same as Marlot, keep a couple high cards to guard against shooting the moon. If Iason was trying to shoot without the queen in trump, its an even ballsier move.
My brain is reeling at the strategy possibilities with a 78 card deck used for hearts. Shooting the moon would be more difficult, I would think, due to players being able to carry more cards in more suits. But, with 78 cards, it doesn’t divide out to 4 people evenly. that would probably mean 6 cards in the kitty, which is a HUGE advantage for the person getting it after the first trick. Or it might mean only 2, which would be not as useful.
Ok, off to search for AE’s explanation of the deck used for playing cups. I think she mentioned it at some point.
Ah, its in the MUwiki. Silly cow.
*headslap*. Cups is hearts with a tarot deck. I’m an idiot.
@Gamercow: They don’t play cups with a 78 card deck any more than hearts is played with a 54 card one… and queen of swords is actually the queen of spades equivalent. Marlot just used a high value card to take a point-bearing trick.
I like how all three of them got into the story of Iolana’s home with the sacrifice. Say what you will, but Iason and Marlo fit quite well when they’re working at freaking out the other players.
Alexandra already mentioned that the Queen of Swords would be the equivalent of the Queen of Spades, but to make it even more clear, there are 56 cards in a tarot deck if you strip out the major arcana. Each suit adds an additional card called a Page, and has a Knight which is the equivalent of a Jack. The rest of the cards are the same as a normal deck, 2 through 10, Queen, King and Ace. So just put the Page below the Knight between the 10 and the Queen and shift the points a bit since there are 14 cups and 14 tricks in each game.
Oh, and A.B. if you think these characters are serious about their cards, you’ve obviously never met my brother.
Cunning Linguistics:
Kaha means “place” and Mo‘ai
Are “Tiki” statues
Iason may be a Stud
But Poker is not his game—
Might it be “Poke-him“?
Jamie and Marlot
Are cooking up tall tales that
Some are eating up
Allowing yourself to be caught bluffing is how you get people to stay in when you are not bluffing.
@AE: Thanks, I realized that once I smartened up and looked at the Wiki. Marlot is a good cups player then. Though I imagine once Iason found out the rule about slaying the dragon, he tried it every damn chance he could. Noob. Generally, its very difficult to shoot the moon against a group of good hearts players, as there are dead giveaways.(throwing a low club on the first hand, throwing a non-point card when you’re void early on, throwing a low point card on the 4th card to break hearts, etc)
Ok. Now I gotta go beat up my computer in hearts, or find a game on XBLA.
Card games are serious business.
I wonder how the group would do in Science: The Gathering or the traditional Yokan pastime, Duel Mutants?
I have a feeling that Iolana is not a harmless islander… If true, she follows the same name-alteration that Mackenzie does.. called Kenzie by grandma, Mack by others; Iolana called Lonnie by this dorm, which would in a way take the ‘la’…
Perhaps I’m speculating where there is nothing to speculate about, but it’s more fun that way.
Did anyone else have that idea or am I far off in the distance in tropical waters?
Wait-wait, you mean…
Iason Sparkles! xD
“Only instead of a nifty mount and a healing touch, you get your flesh melting off your bones,” Marlot said.
–
Am I the only one that thought of WoW and was like “Druids get the healing touch and not pallys”?
Oh well, fun chapter none-the-less!
@9, kerinbot
> I’m wondering where this storyline is in sync, time-wise,
> with MU… this isn’t the game, for example, going on
> during TWO’s party is it?
While this card game is going on, or probably a bit earlier, Mackenzie was punching a hole in a wall to scare off Belinda. And I believe she will end up passed out drunk after a card game with Ian and a few of his friends, and almost ends up victim of rape (as well as being Signed into unconsciousness by a clueless and panicking guy).
Tomorrow morning (story wise) she will have a little run in with Barley and she will accidentally (sort of anyway) put Rocky and Hissy in hospital.
Eri