revivalproject | Calibrations Waiting Room Mingle

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Calibrations Waiting Room Mingle

WHO: ALL HE ROWS
WHERE: The Secret Tunnel, which has become the Calibrations Waiting Room (or was it always...?)
WHAT: Mingle log for literally anything you'd like to take place in the waiting room between sleep cycles during the event
WHEN: June 3 - July 10
WARNINGS: Please mark individual threads with warnings

For those that have heeded Ga Re's warning, the door within the secret tunnel - which looks suspiciously like the hatch to one of your shuttles - is wide open, waiting for you. You walk through... and the door behind you disappears. You’re now standing in a cavernous, cold, white waiting room. There are hallways leading off the main corridor with names above each. One of them has your name and will draw you toward it, inevitably.

And on the wall, in pink, running letters is written this single greeting:

‘Welcome to Calibrations’.

The secret tunnel has become a large waiting room with chairs, tables, and the same food dispensers available in the shuttles. There are also communal bathrooms - one for each gender - with several toilet stalls and shower stalls in each, including basic shampoo and soap dispensers, like you might find in a hotel. The water isn’t hot, so hopefully you don’t mind lukewarm showers. Somehow, at least, it never goes cold.

Branching off the main waiting room room are the labeled hallways. At the end of each short hallway is a door, with the same character’s name written on them. Anyone can enter any room, regardless of the name written on it. Everyone has their own room, though of course people can share. Each room has a simple bed (approximately queen-sized) and a set of drawers.

You can opt to spend time in your room or in the larger, common waiting room. (And if you do, you can thread it out here!) But every 16 hours, you'll feel a compulsion: You need to sleep. Right now. You find yourself going into your room (or someone else's, if you really want). But you’re drawn to the bed. You can’t help but lie down. And then, you fall asleep.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sharing headspace with a person certainly helps one to get to know them better. Cayde feels like they've known each other a lot longer than since he'd come across Cloud in the hangar and had a spin on his motorcycle.

It's with an easy grin that he greets the blond as he continues to idly shuffle and cut the deck in his hands.

"I'd say Poker but it'd be better with more people," he says. "You know it? How about Blackjack?"

It helped to break a lot of ice that would normally gather. Cloud knew to at least try to let people in but he also had to gain some kind of trust with them. The rooms would show things that he wasn't even aware that would pop up.

Those memories reminded him of others that followed after. He raises his eyebrows at Cayde.

"You act as if I know what you're talking about." He smirks a bit and then he gets serious. "Do I look like I would know anything about card games?"

"I mean...you already have the poker face down," Cayde points out before letting his hand droop. "...which means absolutely nothing to you if you don't know what Poker is, got it."

He flicks a card over towards Cloud, setting one in front of himself, repeating until they have five a piece. "So, basically it's a game of bluffs. We place bets, we get cards, we look 'em over. You can match numbers, or have a full hand going in numerical order..." he begins to explain, picking up his cards as he continues to go over a few more basic things.

"But sometimes you just get a crappy hand that you can't do anything with. Now- you're the only one who knows that for sure, and you get a chance to trade in a few cards for hopes of something better to work with. Sometimes you get lucky. Other times, well. Just cuz you got a crap hand doesn't mean you can't win."

Cloud presses his lips into a thin line while looking at Cayde. Was he talking about his stoic stare? A lot of training goes into making sure that nothing can get to you. Cloud had his own breaking points.

Cayde flicking the card startled him and he quickly reaches out to grab the card before it could go off anywhere else. Cloud nods while looking down at the cards in his hand and he arranges them in a way that makes sense to him.

"So it's really a game of luck and bluffing? How does this all work exactly? What else do I need to know about the cards? Colors? Symbols?" Yes, Cayde, you're going to want to explain a bit about the cards. Cloud will catch on once he has a bit more understanding on that alone to be able to pick which cards he doesn't really need.

"...." The Exo opens his mouth, then closes it, tapping his cards against the table a moment before he sets them facedown to pick up the rest of the deck again.

"Right, okay, uh...here." He starts rifling through the cards, pulling out one of each suit. "So! We got hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. They range in number from two to ten." He holds up a finger to forestall questions as he fishes through the deck and with a bright grin, produces an ace. Of spades. A queen, king and jack follow, varying in suits.

"Now these are the cards everyone would like to have because it'd be hard to beat a hand like that. Of course it's better if the suits all match, that is, these symbols. Basically, after the ten, comes the Jack, after the Jack, the Queen, and then the King. And the Ace? Well, sometimes it's a one, and sometimes it's one higher than the King."

He pauses, then sweeps up the cards into the deck to shuffle them again. "I'm getting ahead of myself though. Here, let's see what all I got here." He picks up his cards, showing Cloud in demonstration. "Got a pair right here, but that's about all that I'm good for. It's the first pass so I can take the three that I can't do anything with, exchange 'em for three more, and hope that there's something I can work with. But it's key that you don't let anyone know that you've got a losing hand, or even a winning one, because that's how we up the ante, and the bets, and so on and so forth..."

Cloud listens to him closely to follow along with what he has in his own hands. He looks at each card that Cayde draws out to get a better idea of what to better his hand for. It seemed to make some sense with what he was saying earlier. Cloud could explain how to use Materia to Cayde if they ever came across any of them here. He is a bit curious if they could make something similar but that's not his true area of engineering.

"Okay, I think I am understanding my hand a bit better now." He takes out a four cards and places them face down on the table. Cloud wasn't sure if that was the best move but he could at least learn how it really worked.

"So then I'll get another four cards correct? So that I can see if I can get anything better with four cards." If Cayde was willing to give tips that was on the Exo. Cloud could learn but just playing the game. He won't get frustrated. He will live and learn.

Because Cayde totally needs access to other options to make things explode. Yes. This plan is completely fine.

The Exo pauses and stares at the cards Cloud's set down. "Okay, let's just do it this way for now so you can kind of get the hang of what to look for," he decides, getting Cloud is replacement cards. "We'll iron out the wrinkles later."

It's been a while since he's had to actually teach anyone Poker, and that he had to start from scratch was throwing him a bit. It's also hard to pare down how he was used to playing the game in order to simplify it for someone else to understand.

Still, he tries his best to guide Cloud through it. The guy seems willing to learn, at least.

"Maybe we should've started off with something simpler, like Go Fish."

Cloud gives a shrug, his hand was terrible. It only continued to get worse. But then he realized how it could be played out. More people would make the game interesting enough since they would be able to bluff each other out.

"Yeah, I can see where you said it was meant to be played with others." He didn't mind stopping if Cayde truthfully wanted a change of pace to something easier with just the two of them. Poker could come at another time and he glances at the Exo at the mention of Go Fish.

"A matching game might have been better. We don't have to play a game." Cloud sets down his cards while looking at Cayde. "There's... actually something I want to talk to you about. You brought it up in your dream room but I didn't feel as if it was the place to say something about it."

They'd given their best shot at it, but poker wasn't terribly exciting with only two. Cayde chuckles as he reaches over to sweep up all the cards to reshuffle them.

"No Go Fish either? Maybe I should be asking what kind of card games you're familiar with instead." But he'd start to go over the basics of the simpler game, even as he starts to deal out cards between them again.

He flicks out the last cards with some slight hesitation as Cloud brings up the dreams, but carries on, finally tapping the rest of the deck on the table to make it neater before setting it between them.

"...all right," he says after a good moment, taking his time in pulling what pairs he has and setting them down. "Shoot."

Cloud wouldn't be able to really say what card games he would truthfully know. He might have seen some of them being played but being included isn't something he did. His own loneliness had been his own self blame. But he never ever looked bothered by it but that's because he kept in his feelings.

There's silence as he looks at Cayde. Cloud bites at the corner of his lip at out of nerves. He could have broken skin if not careful enough.

Cayde said the magic word and the words came flying out of his mouth at that point. "The replicator won't be spitting out anything for anyone. Not until it gets repaired."

It's said in a way of a matter of fact. It's not a joke. Cloud is completely serious as he says those two sentences. He looks at Cayde waiting for his reaction.

Now there's an unusual expression that crosses the other's face, and Cayde arches a brow. What follows puts things into perspective, but comes as nothing the Exo had expected out of any talk that might have to do with their dream shuffling.

He's almost not sure that he'd heard correctly as he stares. That Cloud was possibly joking isn't even a thought that comes to mind right then, he's too busy trying to process what's been said and trying to recall what's brought it up, not that the latter's as important as the former.

"...got any two's?" is what he decides to go with, taking a disinterested glance at his cards before he continues right on its heels. "Also- are you trying to tell me you broke the replicator??"

He wasn't about to bring this up in a dreamlike room. This would be a reality that they will be facing after getting out of the tunnels. Cloud needed to tell someone. Cayde probably was not the best guy for it, he should have told Reeve or Vincent. But... here he is in the middle of the common room where anyone could hear. To him, that would be fine because he's been stuck thinking of possible ways to fix the replicator.

Cloud glances down at his hand of cards. He acts as if he's going to pull out a card by putting his index finger right along the edge of one but then looks directly at Cayde's face. "The replicator didn't even give me scraps. It tried to process the request and then gave up." There's a pause because he's not going to admit to breaking the replicator just yet. "Go. Fish."

You don't try to out-deflect someone who does it on a normal basis. Cayde almost sputters.

"Gave up?? It doesn't just give up, it's gotta...I dunno!" He still stares back at Cloud, even as he drops a hand down onto the deck between them to draw his card, hardly giving it a look as he slips it into the rest he holds.

"What did you even ask for?"

Cloud can keep trying to reflect. Cayde might not know the trick of getting around that.

"It gave up. It had a power surge." He lifts his eyebrows at Cayde. "Maybe from too many requests? I don't fucking know." Cloud flicks his eyes back down at his cards.

"Have any sixes?" Seriously, asking about a six, when his is completely out in the open for anyone to get to right now. "I asked for some fuel and a wooden baseball bat."

Cayde continues to make a face, his brow furrowed, his optics lidded in a squint. When Cloud makes his request, he takes the card he'd just included into his hand between his fingers, flicking it over. He nods. Go again.

"Fuel and a baseball bat," he repeats. "At the same time? No, that shouldn't throw it- that machine's pretty savvy. And two's well below the limit that seem to have been put for people within a given period." He taps his cards on the table, thinking. "You said it had a power surge? Maybe it overheated because you threw it for a loop by requesting items that could potentially be used as weapons?"

Cloud's own eyes squint as his lips press into a line waiting for Cayde to make a move of tell him to go fish. Luck had been on his side at that moment as the newly fresh card picked from Cayde gets flicked towards him. Cloud goes for it with his left hand before adding it in. But he doesn't make any moves to fan them out on the table. It's some luck but Cayde could easily ask for it back later.

"I asked you how I would know it works. I asked several and got you'll know." He grits his teeth together trying to keep back some bark remarks. Cloud would rather have some bite to his words. "Not my fault that it couldn't tell what my intentions were. Is there anything else I need to know about this replicator, asshole?"

He puts his elbow on the table while putting his chin in his left palm while looking at his hand debating over what to even ask for. "I took on the Engineering datapoint to figure out anything more with it. But I don't know shit about engineering. Do you have any tens?"

"It was supposed to be easy!!" Cayde leans back in his chair for a moment, looking at Cloud quietly then. It's a tough subject to bring up. He can't imagine it's an easy thing for anyone to admit- especially when it involves a key feature to making everyone's lives more at ease in the city.

He taps his cards on the table again, his eyes settling on them finally, but his thoughts aren't much on the cards so much as what Cloud's saying. The growing frustration isn't lost on him, and the current setting makes it too easy to spark a fight. Maybe a tussle might do some good, but not when everyone's cooped up together like this. Besides, Cloud had tried to do something about it. And it takes some guts to come out with it.

"Go fish," he eventually says, the Exo's tone more calm as he digests the situation. "Did it help?" he asks, regarding the datapoint. He still hasn't touched one. "I figure they wouldn't have such things if any knowledge and skill we did carry over completely. Might help, but..." He shrugs. "Any aces?"

"I asked for fuel for a motorcycle and a wooden baseball bat! That is an easy request. A baseball bat can knock anyone out. I don't need to use it specifically as a weapon either." Cloud glares at Cayde while keeping his chin in his palm because he's not about to break this table. He could easily break this table. The cards in his right hand are being held tight and almost bending for good measure.

A fight wouldn't do much good. It might help his frustration a tiny itty bitty bit. Cloud knows it's not the best issue to bring up in the tunnels. He wanted to tell Cayde a bit more privately in case things got heated. Are they getting heated? Cloud is trying his best to stay mostly calm but he's already had enough of things piling on him since he got here.

He moves his left hand from under his chin to pick up his next card. His stare stays on the Exo as he does so. But as he is putting the card into his hand, he takes out two others and doesn't flick them to Cayde. He puts them in between his index and middle fingers holding them out for Cayde. Come and get them if you can pull them from his grip Cayde. "I have an idea of what could fix the replicator. But as I said.... I'm not good with Engineering. And I did find something out I didn't want to." "

Cloud sighs very heavily at that as he doesn't want to say the what exactly.

"Why do you need to fix the replicator?" Tony murmured over Cloud's shoulder. Socializing had not been at the top of his to-do list, he hated this useless room and saw enough of these people in his dreams, but a quick trip for some water was easily waylaid by the sight of Cayde and his cards, and the desperately gnawing part of his brain that already had half of the springs out of his mattress to coil into Improved Catapult mk 34 latched onto the pattern formations the cards could offer. Stealing closer, Tony found he was also being gifted with Cloud's palpable tension, making him lean in like he could sense what part of him was the pin to set off this grenade and splatter this room with something interesting. Cloud had seemed so at ease with their confinement when they met, this had to be worth a deconstruction.

With his free hand, Tony reached around Cloud's seat to turn up the cards arrayed on the table between them, not immediately convinced of what game he was witnessing by the glance at Cloud's hand. Finding the pairs, he glared at Cayde next and tried his best drawl, "My, my, we're in the company of some mighty high rollers, ladies and gentlemen." This place was going to make their brains leak out of their ears, obviously, if they were already reduced to Go Fish.

So Cloud does have more than one volume setting. Cayde tilts his head. "So what were you going to use a bat for, then? Because I'd totally go for using it as a weapon."

He brightens just slightly, because even with this other conversation going on, he's still playing the game, however when Cloud refuses to so easily relinquish those precious aces, the Exo squints at him. Still, he reaches over, grabbing both between finger and thumb to give it a tug. Is Cloud really going to be like that?

Having an idea of what's wrong and not being good at engineering seem to contradict, not that Cayde knows how those datapoints and applied information jive. But Cloud is saved further questions for the moment (at least from him) when another familiar voice introduces itself to the conversation.

The Hunter sighs, still trying to claim his cards without bending or tearing them apart. "Hey, I started with Poker but it's kind of hard to play with two people- let alone with only one person knowing how to play." He gives a jerk of his head towards the table. "So you want in? I'm winning." Actually no one is but hey.

He can get mad, anyone can get mad, they're still human after all. Cloud looks down at the table center before slowly glancing back up towards the Exo. "To protect us from threats."

Not directly say it's a weapon, his intention wasn't to use it against anyone else. "It doesn't have to be a sword but I'm not calling it a weapon when it can be used for sports to play a game."

Cloud couldn't explain what exactly happened beside for a bunch of information getting dumped into his head. Some of it startled him to no end. The blond locks eyes with the Exo while the corner of his lips pull into a playful smirk. He does remove his fingers from the aces when Cayde tried tugging on them and turns his attention to Tony. The cards within Cloud's hand get placed face down on the table. His hand goes on top of them with his fingers spreading. One boot gets placed against one of his own chair legs. If he needs to flee he can easily make the move to do so by leaping out of this god damn chair.

"Replicator couldn't take the heat of my request." His attention stays on Tony as he says to Cayde. "How are you winning exactly?"

Cayde wasn't winning either game Tony could see at play, the cards or the tug of war, and Tony's gaze darted between them, the Exo and Cloud, trying to get a read on what exactly that little display of machismo was about. It couldn't have been the Go Fish, unless they were playing with house rules that justified getting passionate. "I believe I've surpassed the height limit for this one," he declined Cayde's offer, "but you let me know when the after hours events start." Cayde didn't seem nearly as wound up as Cloud, and if the dig at his height didn't get under his skin at all, maybe leaning on the back of his chair would because he didn't seem pleased with the proximity. Letting Cloud hold his gaze, Tony purred, "That's a remorseless way of saying you broke the only replicator. Very powerful way to introduce yourself to the team. Is it a dominance thing?"

"Maybe the difference wasn't included in the programming. But then if it was the Agrii that disabled weapons in the first place, who knows what all that could encompass."

Cayde wasn't aware he was supposed to be winning the conversation game, on the grounds that there really didn't seem to be any winning when the replicator was already busted. He draws his aces over, settling them in with the rest of his cards.

"I'm not telling you my secrets," he replies, not that there's really any for a game of Go Fish. "Sevens?"

His optics flick towards Tony with a bit of a crooked smile. "I'll try dreaming up a poker table next time, then."

There is however a slight wince as Tony goes right for it when it comes to the subject of the replicator, and he looks between him and Cloud. He'd already noted the shift in the latter's position, and he isn't quite looking forward to playing 52 card pick-up if things go south.

"I'm more concerned on whether we can fix it or not- although so long as we're stuck in here, the not unfortunately holds."

"I've fought things with better programming and they took longer to break. What point are you trying to make here?"

Cloud's eyebrows narrow knowing that shit wouldn't fly in Shinra. They had all sorts of virtually reality simulators where programming was top notch. The replicator turned out to be a joke to Cloud but he knows it's an important joke to everyone else.

"Your actions will." He picks up his hand again his eyes flicking over each one. "Go fish."

Cloud turns in his chair slightly and tilts his head to look up at Tony, his eyes are glowing from the mako within. If anything he could be ready for a fight.

"I wanted to say something but then the alert happened." He holds Tony's gaze. Cloud stays seated knowing that standing up would be bad right now. "What are your thoughts on telling a bunch of people that the replicator is broken? You don't know anything about me, Tony."

He then says to Cayde. "It surged. My guess is where ever the main power source it runs off of might be able to fix it. But I didn't have the time to ask where it's connected."

But then he says to both of them. "Care to share information that I might have missed?"

Cloud didn't have to kick the replicator when it was down. They didn't have a lot of luxuries in Temba, that replicator was it, it wasn't the replicator's fault that Cloud was hard on it. Tony was pretty sure he wasn't the first one to try to make what could have been a weapon with it, though, if he was picking up the pieces of this conversation correctly. He pouted thoughtfully, considering Cayde's point about the Agrii and how they might have interpreted what 'weapons' could mean, but it might not have been as complicated as that-- "Bat could be alive," he proposed, muttering like he couldn't possibly mean to interject. Not a weapon or for sports at all. Very complex request to make of the replicator, that could have caused a surge, sure. He didn't have much more information for Cloud, as far as he knew, without seeing the damage himself.

Cayde only had to mention poker to get Tony to finally sit with them, glass on the table, but he still slid his chair close to Cloud's to keep an arm along the back of it, lounging easily like he wasn't deliberately far too close for comfort. He wasn't sure if Cloud was asking what Tony would have done in his situation, but he offered the answer anyway with a delicate hand to his chest, "I wouldn't have to." Tony would have it fixed before it was an issue he had to share the news. Which meant he must know at least a couple of things about Cloud by now: "Some of us work out our brains, too. What's going in the poker pool, then? I'd offer replicator charges but..." Tony sucked his teeth, boy, what a shame, someone really ruined all of the fun around here.

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in which I pretend to know how to play poker

magic rp bluffing

the ultimate poker

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lol I have no idea what kind of poker I thought I knew how to play anymore

I confused myself since it was late at night we're both wonderful at poker

XD

have a treat cayde

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Look it's FF7-- sorry for the language

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