I'm Begging You

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Card games were something he'd always been good at. Mos Eisley had been rampant with them, the cantinas, the streets, even the back racing rooms. Everyone had always played either Pazaak, Sabacc, or some other card game to keep themselves entertained. When you didn't have a lot of money, a few pieces of laminated flimsy went a long way for entertainment.

Kurt knew that as well as any other poor kid. "That depends."

The Courier said as he slowly made his way into the room, still holding the rather expensive bottle of alcohol. The fact that she had cleared space in her room made him a bit weary, mostly because he had no idea what kind of card game she was actually planning on playing with him. Still, he wasn't about to deny her.

"What kind of game?" He asked as he slowly sat down in front of her.

He placed the bottle on the floor besides him, turning the label away from her so she couldn't see what he had brought.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie's expression only widened as she giggled. "Red Or Black." It was a rather simple game. "Do you know how to play?"

A dangerous but simple game. Without waiting for Kurt's reply she rambled off the quick rundown all the same. She wasn't sure if the game was something widely known throughout the galaxy, or if it was just something of a culture game that the adults on Naboo enjoyed from time to time. Of course, drinking games were often times more enjoyed by the lower classed members of her society, but she enjoyed it all the same.

"Dealer flips a card. The other person guesses if the next one will be red or black. If the guesser is right, nobody drinks, if they're wrong, they drink. But the fun part is when you guess correctly three times you get to make up any rule you want, and if the other person breaks it, they have to drink."

That was the dangerous part.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

So it was a game of chance.

"Okay." He'd never actually heard of this game, or seen it before, though Tatooine had something similar. It was usually played with dice and was more about guessing what two numbers the dice would land on. Either way the game was simple enough.

"So." He glanced up at Jamie. "You go first I suppose?"

Maybe it was a bit unfair that he had taken up a bottle of tequila with him.

Jamie only had wine. She could probably take four or five drinks and still be perfectly fine while he'd be off his rocker in the same amount. This was the only thing that gave Kurt pause, though his higher tolerance for alcohol would probably help him out a little bit.

So he hoped anyway.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The blonde gave him a quick nod, picking up the cards and shuffling them with little to no grace, occasionally dropping a card or two.

She was certainly no casino dealer.

After about a minute or two of fumbling around with her fingers and the cards she finally felt satisfied enough that they were properly shuffled. "Okay! Ready?"

Jamie waited a moment for Kurt to give her a nod in return before flipping over the first card, a red seven.

Adjusting herself with her legs crossed beneath her she held the next card slightly away from the rest towards herself, eager to see if Kurt was right or wrong.

"So. The next one red or black?"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He frowned for a moment, giving it some thought. He tried to read Jamie as best as he could, though this was a rather difficult thing since they were basically just playing a game of fifty fifty chance. The Courier frowned for a moment his eyes narrowing.

Playing a game of chance wasn't always about skill, in fact it almost never was.

Sometimes you could read your opponent, and usually Jamie would have given something away, but right now she seemed to be an indiscnerable wall that Kurt couldn't quite get through. He frowned for a moment more shook his head, and then finally just took a guess. "Reeeeeeeeeeee-Black."

There.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie listened to him nearly guess incorrectly as she pulled free the second card. The smile on her face soured as she drew the next one from the deck, a black nine.

Azure eyes squinted as her lips pursed together. Nimble fingers flipped up the card and spun it around to reveal his answer was correct. A quick Hmph came from her as she passed the deck of cards over to Kurt.

"That was fast." She said, rather disappointed.

The feeling of terrible luck already began to crawl into her head, worried that she would wind up drunk off her mind while Kurt remained as right as rain.

A laugh followed, half nervously. "I'm already nervous."

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He slowly leaned forward and grinned at her.

"You could just give up." Kurt suggested to her. "Let me make all the rules I want. I'll even let you make one up"

Now there was an idea, though he very much doubted that Jamie would go for it. Still suggesting it didn't really hurt him, especially considering that his drink was a lot stronger than hers and he was pretty sure if he did start losing he'd end up with his pants out the window.

Better not test that idea. "You know, because I'm nice."

He gave her a wink.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The blonde rolled her eyes as her head slowly passed from side to side in a clearly unamused gesture.

"No, I don't think so."

He got to do that enough already, earlier, and likely would later as well. Now? Now he had to play fair. "It's your turn."

For some reason even with a fifty-fifty chance of success, it felt more like an eighty-twenty percent chance of failing. That was just her luck.

The girl made a little mark on the datapad beside her, denoting Kurt's first point towards making a rule. He would need two more. Hopefully she would get there first.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

Kurt picked up the deck of cards and slowly began to shuffle it.

For a few seconds he let the cards roll over his fingers, moving them swiftly about until he felt they were sufficiently mixed up. Eventually he glanced up at her and smiled, his fingers sliding the cards into place before he slowly pulled out the ace of spades. The Courier kept his face impassive, though amusement flared for just a moment.

"Okay." He told his girlfriend. "Ready your best guess."

He glanced towards the card, then tilted his head.

Of course, he was messing with her in a way, but that was supposed to be part of the game. At least Kurt thought so.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Jamie traced her tongue along her bottom lip, studying the card Kurt pulled from the deck, and then allowing her sapphire eyes to fall to the deck of cards he was holding.

Index finger tapped against the bottom of her chin as she considered for a few seconds, pretending to channel her inner psychic.

"Black." She announced. "The next one is black"

Her voice boasted of confidence.

"I can feel it."

Hopefully.

Falling behind right in the beginning would be disastrous for her.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He frowned for a moment, then considered something. "Now."

Kurt turned the card towards her so that she could see she was right, but something had occurred to Kurt. There was something else to this game, something that he hadn't really thought about before. Jamie had a very unfair advantage.

"You're not using the force here, are you?" He narrowed his eyes. "So you can feel what the cards are?"

He had no idea if she could actually do that, but he'd seen Kaile jump over a space ship before so...anything could happen.

Better safe than sorry, and if she was trying to get him drunk then that was certainly the way to do it.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Her jaw fell open with indignation. Bright eyes narrowed. A look of offense carried over her expression.

"Are you accusing me of cheating!?" Her hands folded beneath the crook of each arm. "That is very rude!"

Jamie's head shook so furiously that the locks of golden hair slapped against the front of her face, forcing her to brush them back behind her ears when she finally stopped.

"I would never do such a thing!"

She pointed to the deck of cards. "Flip it and draw from the bottom then if you think I'm cheating!"

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"I didn't call it cheating!" Kurt really wouldn't have even called it that even if she was doing it. Mostly because it would be sort of like counting cards. Though it gave someone an advantage, it wasn't really something that could be classified as cheating. Mostly because it was just using a natural advantage that you already had, much like having the intelligence to actually be able to count cards and the like.

"I was just asking! He insisted as he tried to calm her.

Still, just to be sure. "Fine."

He agreed with her and drew from the bottom of the deck of cards. This time it was one of the Jacks, the clubs symbol hanging in the corner of the small piece of carboard. He frowned for a moment and then looked at Jamie.

Whether or not she was using the force didn't matter, but just in case Kurt started to think about the color red a lot.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The girl grinned as soon as she saw the black appear at the corner of the card.

Teasing him, she raised her hands and wiggled her fingers like it were some type of magic trick.

"Ooooh! Maybe that was my plan all along! Maybe now you think I'm not using it, when I really tricked you into drawing from the bottom!"

She was a terrible liar, and the grin on her face could hardly be concealed as she tried to stop herself from laughing.

Jamie's eyebrows raised and fell twice, "Now I'm in your head."

Leaning over she scooped up the cards from Kurt and began shuffling them herself before presenting Kurt with another card. A two of spades.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He rolled his eyes. "Force blah blah blah."

There was of course a distinct advantage in using the force, though from the way Jamie had reacted he assumed that she was doing no such thing. Perhaps the biggest difference between them was that he definitely would have. Not that he would ever say that to her.

"I'll take good old luck any day." He stuck out his tongue. "Don't need to be in your head."

Retracting his tongue, he studied her for a moment.

There was really no particularly give away that told him what the card was, so at this point he just threw out a guess. "Red."

 

[Jamie Pyne]

Glossy lips mocked Kurt in a silent manner, eyes following suit with a half roll as she lulled her head.

"Yeah, yeah, sure." She didn't believe him for a second.

She knew him well enough to know that Kurt Meyer would do whatever gave himself an advantage.

Her fingers flipped the card over, and she nearly groaned with displeasure as she revealed the king of diamonds.

"Your good old luck continues, I guess."

Jamie lifted it to show the card to Kurt, before her chest rose and fell with a sigh. "Your turn." She said, passing the deck back.

Oddly enough neither of them had to drink yet.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

"Okay." He pulled out another card.

For a brief moment he wondered if they would ever actually get to any drinking. He was starting to sober up from the citrusy drink that Jamie had made for him earlier, his constitution proving to be more than enough to get him back into a normal place.

His toes still tingled though.

"Soooooo." He shuffled the cards, then pulled out a new card. "Go ahead and guess."

The Courier wiggled his eyebrows.

This time he drew the Queen of Hearts, on this set of cards she was depicted as Leia Organa Solo, and interesting woman, though Kurt couldn't remember anything about her except the weird spirals in her hair. The past was so odd when it came to fashion.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The score was one to two. He was still ahead, but he had chosen first. She would need to get two more right in order to make a rule.

Hopefully he would get the next one wrong. That was important.

"Okay." She said, taking in a deep breath. "Okay."

With a wiggle of her nose she slowly said her choice. "Red this time."

For a half of a second she thought she might have been better off sticking with black, but she didn't want to go against her initial gut. Jamie knew if she did and she had turned out to be right the first time she would be so angry with herself for changing her mind. Even more so than being wrong for sticking with it.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]

 

[Kurt Meyer]

[member="Jamie Pyne"]

He sighed and flipped the card.

"This is a horrible drinking game, honey." Kurt teased her, smiling and glancing towards the two bottles on the floor. His was still completely sealed and hers hadn't dropped much from when she had taken her last sip downstairs.

A small smirk touched his lips.

"Maybe we should switch it to whenever you're right." That would be more fruitful at this point. "Or guess the suite instead."

There was an idea, though that might get a bit harder.

 

[Jamie Pyne]

The girl laughed at Kurt's discouraging sigh. For a fifty-fifty shot they hadn't been wrong a single time yet.

"I think because the game was designed for social gatherings where people mostly sit around and chit chat, rather than try to get drunk."

She nodded, "We can do that though. Or we can play something else. I don't know many games though. So you'd have to teach me."

There were thousands of games played around the galaxy, but most of which Jamie had never been able to learn very well or play. Or she played them so infrequently that even when she had found one to learn, after having not played for such a long period she had forgotten rules and thus had to start all over. Red/Black was always a common enough game at social gatherings that it was really all she knew how to play. And at this point Kurt was looking rather bored.

[member="Kurt Meyer"]