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

[laserguy]

[Will that image of Ryoji burning to death ever become dull? Scott's not sure, it feels impossible at this point, even though he's out here and having fun and everything. Most of it is a distraction, granted one that he genuinely enjoys, but every so often he catches himself drifting off or distantly staring at the wall with little focus. He wonders if that's how Shinjiro felt at the very beginning.

But... Kotone. His friends. They've made things somewhat manageable. At least he isn't stuck on the couch and staring at nothing all day anymore.]

You're... fine?

[Scott slowly repeats, doubt coloring his voice. No one can be fine after what happened, right? Shinjiro is just trying to make him not worry. He's almost positive about that, until his friend explains and... he honestly feels that way, doesn't he? At least to some extent. Somehow it just makes him more worried.]

All that still happened. [He says, quietly, silently agreeing that was a pretty fucked up answer.] It... everyone might've came back, but. It was real. What Kotone experienced. What happened to Ryoji...

[He trails off, fingers leaving his glass and letting them sit idly on the table.]

[drugsnotclubs]

[His brows furrow at Scott's repetition of what he'd said. And yeah-- it doesn't feel real or true or good. But he doesn't know how else to describe the hollow sort of acceptance. The sort of... lack of feeling about it. It sucked. He wished it hadn't happened. But it had. Now it was over. And if he thinks too much or too deeply about any of it, the weight of it will be crushing. So.... 'Fine' is the only way he can describe his lack of willingness to truly process it.]

Yeah, it did. [Still happen, that is. Nothing Scott is saying is wrong.

But what are they supposed to do about it?

His looks down, expression tightening as he stares through the wood of the bar.]

....There's nothing to-- to fight about it. To try and change. There's no direction to go in. Like this shit just happens, then it's over, and for what?

[He hates it, really. At least back home they had a goal and a focus.]

I dunno. It's fucked up.

[Okay maybe he's not 'fine'. But what else is he supposed to be? He knows that sometimes he'd rather just be dead again-- and that vocalizing that would do nothing but upset Scott even further.]

[laserguy]

[Scott's mouth thins hearing Shinjiro, wanting to say something in protest, but not really finding anything in his words to counter. Everything is done and over with, as he mentioned. The infection is gone, which is good, but what is there to fight? Maybe there isn't. Besides, it's kind of hard to muster up that sort of strength right now.]

It didn't feel there was a reason for any of that to happen other than it just being fucked up.

[He agrees, then? But don't fucked up things happen in this world often enough anyway? Maybe not to this level, but it's not like none of them are naïve to the fact that Aldrip is a fucking dangerous place to live that often messes with people-- with his friends. Sometimes it's due to some stupid 'sentencing' but sometimes it just this place being broken as hell, like when everyone had different memories for a while. Or the recent glitching going on.

And they've kept going, right?]

...There's no good reason for any of that shit. [He stares at his drink almost idly, glasses still covering his eyes, but there's something about Scott that seems torn, lip bitten between teeth as if he's deciding something. If anyone would understand, it'd probably be Shinjiro, but it doesn't make this easier.] But I... I can't ignore it. I can't ignore the fact that I lost control and killed a friend.

[He can't deny or change that. Does he fight against himself? Not really, other than making sure that he doesn't 'glitch' again.]