Free Night at the Casino

[fieldtrip]

Who: OPEN to all / mingle log
Where: Queens (the casino!)
What: Wow July sure was a month! Time to take a breather and have a night out, courtesy of Toph and Mitsuru!
Warnings: N/A

FREE NIGHT AT THE CASINO

GAMBLING

Feeling down after that space infestation made you murder some friends? Getting tempted to bury yourself in the sand at the beach so no one can ever perceive you again?

Time for a tone shift! It's a free night at the casino. For tonight only, chips mean nothing -- which means everyone gets a rack of chips when they walk in and can let loose! Entertainment, food, and drink are also free within reason. (Abuse the privilege and find out who works security here the hard way!)

Welcome to Queens, the formerly shady but now revamped and reimagined casino in the entertainment district of Aldrip. Classy and minimalist but not gaudy, it's run, staffed, and heavily patronized by Chosen. Maybe you know someone who works there, maybe someone dragged you in to lighten up for once, maybe you're just stopping by for some fun.

Appropriately, the most popular game of the night is Queen's Blood, with tables set aside purely for teaching. There's also the standard casino games available in spades -- poker, slots, roulette, baccarat, blackjack, and so forth.

AT THE CLUB

It wouldn't be a casino without alcohol, music, and dancing. There's a low-key bar for those looking to have a conversation where they can hear one another over the pleasant live jazz, and a much livelier dance floor set off to the side in a different part of the casino with a DJ playing dance music.

FIGHTING TOURNAMENT

Beneath the casino is a massive underground cavern converted into a fighting arena.

It's a bit hard to find, intentionally -- either you were personally invited by someone or you stumbled across the covert speakeasy-style entrance in a corner of the main floor, possibly from the people jostling to go in and out. The stairs go down and down until they suddenly open out into the huge room, lined in walkways to view the fight.

There's three circuits to the fighting tournament: a bracket for fighting with powers, a bracket for fighting without powers (hand-to-hand and weapons only), and a shooting competition. Toph (fieldtrip) serves as referee for all of the above and is prepared to break up anything that goes too far. This is just for fun, folks!

Sign up in the comment below and maybe you'll even win something! Toph promises a super cool prize to the winner of each circuit!

FORTUNE TELLING

Get a free tarot reading!

It does seem like some of the glitching in Aldrip has made it maybe a little more accurate than usual lately... or maybe that's inaccurate? Feel free to have the cards have a real effect on them with a glitch!

DOG THERAPY

In one peaceful corner away from the din and bustle is a dog petting station. All manner of adorable and highly trained dogs are available for cuddles and play time.

Some of them are even up for adoption if you want to take one home!

Kakashi (battlefieldbrat) runs and operates this station with the kind supervision of Koromaru, our local good boy.

Code by 10billionghosts.

Comments

[fieldtrip]

Nah, pretty sure your head is harder than a standard rock, [ Toph taunts back immediately.

She knows she isn't the most formidable combatant without her bending, but that just gives her all the more reason to practice. She might be without it again at some point. It's tough to suppress her instincts to chuck rocks, though, that's for sure, or at least to root her feet to the earth for leverage.

She sinks into a strong low stance nonetheless, obviously a formal martial arts pose. ]

[grappler]

Wow, that was fast. Almost like you were waiting for me to say something.

[Vi shifts into a stance as well, a looser stance more suited for street fighting. which. y'know, is all she really knows, even if Mikey had been starting to help teach her.

that said, when it was time to start, she wasn't going to hold back so much for Toph. obviously this wasn't a fight to the death or anything, it was just a sparring match, but she knows what the girl is capable of. also, there was the fact that she wouldn't want her to hold back, too.

so she dodges in with an attempted uppercut to the younger girl, getting this kicked off quickly.]

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph has refined her own style tremendously since picking up students. Nothing like explaining how she does it over and over to figure out exactly how she does it compared to conventional bending forms. Considering she's entirely self-taught, she has no respect for formal education despite being a teacher herself, and there's nothing to criticize in Vi taking a rougher approach if it works.

If there's one thing Toph has going for her in a no-powers fight, it's that it's very hard to surprise her. She ducks and swings an elbow back in exchange. Her style is direct and immediate, no flashy moves.

She saves all the flourishes for the verbal sparring. ] Maybe you're just that predictable!

[grappler]

Not the first time I've heard that!

[it really isn't. she's been told over and over that she's predictable, but in this case... she doesn't mind it. even finds it kind of amusing.

she leans back from the elbow and tries to swipe Toph's feet from under her while she ducks, hopefully that the girl is off balance enough to fall from the attempt.]

[fieldtrip]

[ Normally, an opponent being predictable makes them trivially easy for Toph. She's all about reacting to the opponent's actions almost before they themselves know what they're doing, speed and precision and a whole lot of large slabs of rock. Without her bending, Vi can be as predictable as she wants, because Toph is ultimately small, light, and not used to fighting directly hand-to-hand. Ultimately the outcome is exactly what you'd expect: they exchange some quick blows, Toph oofing with the impact but refusing to back down, before ultimately getting thrown out of the ring.

The fighting arena itself is a raised platform with a moat-like lowered area around it, and Toph disappears from view. After a dramatic pause in the hushed silence she pops back up into the air and lands neatly toward the edge of the ring, using her earthbending to propel herself.

Toph smirks. ] Not bad. Even if you are as blunt as a hammer and about as tactless.

[ The crowd heartily applauds. ]

[grappler]

[when Toph gets knocked out of the ring, even Vi rushes over to look. her heart leaps into her chest, hoping that she's okay--

but then she is. because of course Toph is. even though she knows she's a bender (whatever that is), she knows she's still a kid. so in that way... that had taken charge at the time.

but hey, she won.

Vi grins and shrugs.]

I mean, I got a win, didn't I? Maybe even I could teach you a thing or two.

[fieldtrip]

[ Toph's not going to make fun of her for being worried. It's the kind of thing friends do even when they know better, and Vi doesn't exactly know better yet.

Well. She won't make fun of her for being worried this time. ]

You mean I could teach you how to feint properly. [ She strides up to her and claps her on the shoulder, having to stretch upward to do it, but companionable in her defeat. ]

[grappler]

[listen, you watch someone fall out of a ring like that and sometimes there's a little bit of worry there. it's still weird to think this kid is kind of indestructible!!

Vi grins at the clap on the shoulder, and she even bends down a bit so that it's a bit easier for her to do it.]

You and Mikey are really hellbent on making me "better" [air quotes, even if she can't explicitly see it.], aren't you?

[fieldtrip]

[ They head out of the ring together to make room for the next match, companionable. ]

I don't know about Mikey, but don't you want to get better? It's not like there's an upper limit. I work on it all the time. That's why I signed up for this circuit.

[ This probably explains everything there is to know about Toph in a nutshell. ]

[grappler]

I mean, yeah. Everyone always says I block with my face... and I'd like to keep looking good for a while longer.

[vi please. take something seriously... !!]

Prison fights probably don't really count as training. And really, it helps me stay in shape when everything's not going to hell.

[fieldtrip]

You look great to me.

[ Ha ha ]

Wait, you were in prison?

[ Toph is only just now realizing how little she actually knows about Vi and her life, beyond her apparently crazy sister that Toph is supposed to protect Caitlyn from with a minimum of injuries. ]

[grappler]

Ha ha.

[there's always gotta be at least one blind joke in their conversation somewhere--

huh. she guesses she hadn't mentioned that before.]

Seven years. Best time of my life.

[you can hear the sarcasm in her voice.]

[fieldtrip]

You serious? But you're not even that old!

[ Doesn't that mean she spent some really important years in prison? Toph is aghast. ]

No wonder you were ready to bust some heads when you got here.

[grappler]

[Vi gives Toph a wry smile.]

I mean, this isn't really a prison. You can eat whatever you want, drink whatever you want... sure, you'll get fucked up, but that's pretty well prison shit.

[there's a moment as she considers... squinting a bit.]

I was fifteen when I was thrown in prison back at home.

[fieldtrip]

Uh -- yeah. Don't worry, I get that. Calling this a prison is kind of a joke, but it is true we can't leave.

[ She doesn't mean that dismissively; rather, Toph feels like they have a cushy enough life here not to merit the word prison. Toph's heard about some serious prisons even if she's never visited them herself. Boiling Rock being one, then what happened to Iroh, even Lake Laogai in a sense...

Suffice to say, she has a sense of what Vi means and she's horrified. ]

Vi, that's seriously messed up, [ she says bluntly. ]

[grappler]

[Vi's posture still stays relaxed. even if she is remembering being in that place... in the dark. alone. scared, but not willing to show it.]

No shit.

[there's a long pause, and she exhales loudly.]

No point in dwelling on it, though. I've been there too damn long already physically.