"Suit yourself, madam," Connor replied to Stella's decision to remain behind, making one last check on his garb to make sure it was adequately camouflaging his feline nature before he too went down the rope ladder, hanging on tight to his walking stick to make sure he didn't drop it until he stepped off the ladder onto the ground, ready to translate for Grimsby and Bellgrove.

As Grimsby goes down the ladder, he looks over the crowd, trying to spot someone likely to be able to give directions -- a policeman if possible, or if not, someone who at least looks like a solid local citizen.

In reply to Stella Mulberry (msg # 120):

As the others climb down and set off for the telegraph office, Dash looks over at Stella and gins.

"Ah, alone at last, Miss Mulberry." Dash says, looking out over the picturesque Italian surroundings, "Just you, me...Cap'n Remi and his entire crew..." Dash laughs.

"Well, then, how to pass the time? Do you play Whist, by chance? Perhaps a two-handed game of German Whist, or maybe we could talk Cap'n Remi into a game of Dummy Whist?"

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 125):

"I always find card games a most enjoyable pastime, Mr Hawkesbury," Stella says with a smile, rummaging in her rucksack and coming up with a sealed deck of playing cards, "But two-handed whist is so dreary. Perhaps a bit of vingt-et-un, penny ante?"

As she speaks, she breaks the seal and begins to riffle the pasteboards with considerable dexterity.

In reply to Stella Mulberry (msg # 126):

"Vingt-et-un?" Dash asks, "I'm afraid I am unfamiliar with the game, but I'm always up to learning something new. Please, educate me, Miss Mulberry," he adds with a smile,
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:55, Sun 07 Sept 2014.

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 127):

Stella gives Dash a quick rundown of the rules, eliciting the fact that he was familiar with San Francisco.

"Ah! it's many a year since I saw Frisco," she says wistfully, "My... uh... my daughter was born in Frisco..."

She drifts away for a moment, her face softening and her eyes misting a bit. Then she shakes herself with a forced chuckle and riffles the pasteboards: "We'll play for a penny a hand to start, hey? Just to keep things interesting. Here's my penny."

She snaps a penny onto the table and deals two cards to Dash and two to herself.

[Mr. Starmaster, will you select 52 cards in a secret roll and keep them for us. You can tell us openly what our first two cards are.]

In reply to Stella Mulberry (msg # 128):

"Oh. Right. Money." Dash says, standing and reaching into his pants pocket, "Since I wasn't going into town, I don't know if I -- ah-ha!"

Dash withdrew a small fistful of British coins -- a couple of shillings and several pence.

"There we are. One pence." Dash says, placing one penny next to Stellas, then piling the rest near where his cards lay.

Actually, it'd be the second card dealt, face up, that you can each see.

Dash has the 10 of Clubs showing, and Stella has the 2 of Spades showing.


FYI, you can use the Dice Roller to generate cards... Not sure how you'd work it in this situation, but the option is there.

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 129):

Dash's second card is the 7 of clubs. Will he have another?

In reply to Stella Mulberry (msg # 131):

*...Ah, yes...Seventeen...Both Clubs...* Dash thinks to himself, then looks up at Stella.

"Um, are the Suits of any importance? Otherwise...ah...I'll hold with these."

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 132):

"No, the suits are meaningless in this game. That's a very strong hand and an excellent decision, Dash."

She turns over her down card to reveal a six of spades for a total of eight. Without comment she reveals the next card which is the eight of diamonds.

"Very disappointing," the woman murmurs, "You see, Dash, I am getting into dangerous territory now with a total of sixteen, which you beat, but any card higher than a five will bust me.

"Well, there's no help for it, I suppose." She turns over another card: "Ach!" she exclaims, "The Queen of Hearts has busted me, the cow. You win."

She shoves the two pennies over to her opponent and produces another which she snaps onto the table.

"Will you hazard another hand?"
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 23:59, Sun 21 Sept 2014.

In reply to Stella Mulberry (msg # 133):

OOC: sorry! I forgot, is the first card face down, or face up?

When Dash puts in his penny, Stella deals two cards to him, face up: eight of spades and three of hearts.

One of her cards is face down, the other is eight of hearts.

"Eleven seems unlikely to be enough to win. Will you have another?"

In reply to Stella Mulberry (msg # 135):

"Yes, please." Dash answers, "Y'know, that answer seems, somehow, boring. It feels like I should say something more exciting, like Give Me a Card...no...Deal Me a Card? No. Deal Me? Card Me? Oh, that almost sounds good..."

"Okay, then -- Card Me!" Dash says with a grin.

Stella smiles: "The usual lingo is 'Hit me.'"

She deals the next card face up to her companion. It's the three of diamonds, giving Dash a score of fourteen.

"Hmmmm... Fourteen is a difficult point," she explains, "Still unlikely to beat me unless I go bust, but there's a good chance that another card for you might be eight or higher.

"What do you want to do, Dash?"
This message was last edited by the player at 11:54, Thu 25 Sept 2014.

In reply to Stella Mulberry (msg # 137):

"Fourteen? Not really that difficult." Dash grins, "Please, Hit Me."

The card comes up the 4 of Diamonds.

"Eighteen. Now I think I'll stop."


OOC:
02:33, Wed 01 Oct 2014: Denholm Hawkesbury drew the single card: 4D using a deck of 52 cards.

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 138):

Stella snaps out another card to Dash's side of the table -- 3 of diamonds.

"Seventeen now... still sticky, eh?"

In reply to Stella Mulberry (msg # 139):

"Mmmm...I don't know." Dash says, contemplating his cards, "I don't have a good feeling about the next card. I think I'll stay with these, Stella."

Grimsby enters the ship, where he says to those who stayed behind, "Well, my telegram was duly sent, and if the Edelweiss consulate receives it as they should, we should be able to hand off our prisoner to them, presuming he is still alive by then. If not, I suppose there is always burial at sea in the Adriatic."

"Bully!" Dash says, then frowns as a thought occurs, "Say...when was the last time anyone checked on that scoundrel, anyways?"

Stella turns over her hole card, Jack of Spades, setting it next to her eight of spades.

"That's eighteen for me. I will pay nineteen. Too bad, Dash." She removes the two pennies from the table with a slight smile. Recovering all the cards, she wraps them in a bit of silk cloth and stows them in her rucksack.


"Well done, away party," she congratulates the returning men.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:02, Sun 05 Oct 2014.

In reply to Denholm Hawkesbury (msg # 140):

Grimsby says "You have a good point there, Mr. Hawksbury. I had best have a look and see if I wasted my money asking the consulate to receive him."

Bellgrove glanced over the card game they returned to, but said nothing otherwise. When Dash said, "Bully!" he glanced up expecting something to be said to him, but then he realized that he was simply evoking the enthusiastically positive phrase often used. He remembered when he was a boy and had attended an event with his father with then Mayor Roosevelt and every time the often enthusiastic man would shout Bully!, which seemed to be quite often to his young ears, Bellgrove would look up thinking that he was being addressed.

As Grimsby offers to go look in on their prisoner he steps aside to permit him to pass "Given that we have only now returned I would expect that you might have the best answer for that question, Dash.", he says with a wry smile as Stella collects her winnings.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:31, Sun 05 Oct 2014.

There are still a lot of people on board the ship: Remi, Viktor, Matthew and Mercy, not to mention Stella and Dash, so the prisoner has been well-taken care of. Mercy has made sure he's been given water, but obviously he can't eat food.

In reply to Bellgrove G. B. Wander (msg # 143):

All amusement runs away from Dash's face at Bellgrove's comment.

"I have had nothing to do with that thug since his self-poisoning." Dash snarls, "If you recall, it was my suggestion to toss that assassin overboard while we were at great altitude. Since that suggestion was vetoed, I have washed my hands of the menace. I, myself, have not looked in upon him since the day he collapsed. Nor will I, until the day we get rid of him."

"Here," Connor interjected quickly as he finished climbing aboard the airship after his two companions, thrusting the bag containing Dash's coffee beans and a new coffee grinder into Dash's arms, trying to do the smart thing and head off his mercurial temper early before the human could get going in earnest, "The coffee you requested, Mr. Hawkesbury. Smells rather good, I must say, might we have a brew-up?"

The felinoid offered up a genuinely good-natured sort of smile as he pulled back the hood of his disguise, looking forward to changing back into something a bit more normal to wear. He didn't even begin to ask for the money that Dash's purchases had cost him, didn't think it very tactful to mention right at the moment, instead thinking of dipping into his own small but well-loved stash of teas if his entreaty was accepted.

Grimsby remarks, "I've no fondness for the fellow myself --after all, he gave me painful cause to dislike him.  But I value him enough as a source of information that I would not just throw him away. If he recovers enough for questioning, it will not be gentle." He smiles grimly and then gives the captive a rough and ready examination, checking his pulse and his pupils, listening to his chest and so on, to see if he shows any signs of change.