Ace of Spades [finished]

[Masquerade]

Three of daimonds, nine of clubs, king of clubs...

He'd cleared off the accumulated debris from what seemed to be half of a packing crate, creating a makeshift table upon which he was dealing out and meticulously sorting out his most prized possessions, the deck of cards he always carried in one of his jackets inner pockets. Sorting the deck into numbers, suits, and by value was always the best way to calm himself down, especially after a night last the last.

There'd been a decent sized storm, and the thunder - evoking the instinctive fear he'd had since childhood - had kept him awake. He was in a foul mood, but it didn't show past the warm smile that kept twitching at the corner of his lips. Perhaps an extraordinarily keen individual might've noticed the slight slump in his normally ramrod posture, but it was more likely that they'd miss it completely, too busy with the usual chaos of day to day life. So he sat, and toyed with the bits of laminated paper between his fingers, enjoying the bits of color in the otherwise drab surroundings.

[Eagle Eye MacAllister]

Eagle Eye had been watching the prisoners when he had seen Mask. It had been a rather boring day, for New Pork, with nothing much to bring except for the storm. He came over to Mask's packing crate and pulled up what seemed to be a barrel. He barely noticed the slump in Mask's posture, then leaned forward and spoke. "Whatcha doing?"

[Masquerade]

Mask had slipped into a rather zen state of mind when Eagle Eye showed up, lulled into a sort of blank-minded serenity where only the sound of the card snapping gently as he laid it down really mattered. He'd barely noticed when the younger man (boy, really) had taken a seat, and as a result was caught quite off guard when he was addressed.

"Hm? Oh, just rearranging my deck." he said softly, his smile never faulting even as he glanced back down and began gathering up the cards, intent on replacing them back in their brushed metal tin. He was touchy about letting anyone touch his things, his cards in particular were quite close to his heart, and the proximity of Eagle Eye was making him territorial.

"What are you doing?" he asked in a light hearted tone as he slipped the cards one by one into their carrying case.

[Eagle Eye MacAllister]

"Oh, I was watchin' the prisoners, but they don't seem to be doin' anything, so I came over here." He leaned back, away from the cards, so as not to mess them up or anything. "Big storm, wasn't it?"

[Masquerade]

Mask shut the tin with a hollow snip of metal on metal, rolling his shoulders in what passed for a shrug.

"It was louder than it was big. Lots of flash and bang, not much rain." he hummed as he slid the tin out of sight, the action almost jealous, as if he was upset someone else had seen his things.

"What are the prisoners up to, then? Contemplating what horrid things we have in store for them?" he said, clasping his hands together on his lap and directing his full, ever calculating attentions on his fellow Tribe member.

[Eagle Eye MacAllister]

"Mostly sulking or trying to think up plots to get out." Eagle Eye said, then pointed to one that seemed to be crying. "I think that one's contemplating the horrid things. Sure looks like it." He suddenly stood up and looked up at the sky. "Seems like a bad day for doin' good things, but a good day for doin' bad things." He was feeling very Zen.

He sat down heavily and let out a sigh. "Prisoners don't really need watching. I mean, look at those bars." He motioned to the bars of the dwellings. "Do you think that anyone is gonna get out of there?"

[Masquerade]

"Escape, you mean?" Mask drawled, hands still together but now squeezing each other gently, making the finger joints pop and grind.

"I do doubt that they can, unless someone one the outside lets them out." he said, finally letting things be and ceasing to fidget. "But I do suppose that there's always a chance of them getting out. Why else would they need watching, hm?" He stood up suddenly, with a loud crackling as his spine protested the sudden chance in position.

"But I, thankfully, have managed to avoid being dealt such tasks today. I'd druther go out and root through the filth out by the Grid again. Never quite know when there's something useful thats been missed by someone else."

Thats where he really wanted to be today, out sorting through the wreckage of what had once been a great city, a nexus of civilization. It would provide something more productive to do other than playing cards and making rather meaningless smalltalk.

[Eagle Eye MacAllister]

"Yes, of course. You go ahead then, if you want." He sighed and leaned back again. He then pulled his knife out and started balancing it on his finger again, watching it intently to make sure that it didn't fall off. When it did, he snatched it out of the air with his other hand, then put it back on his finger

[Mina Crow]

[Masquerade]

Mask's only reply was a rather bored grunt. Dusting off the seat of his jeans and brushing the hair out of his eyes, the young man murmured something that might have been a farewell. He'd leave the hunter to toy with his knife; the urge to wander had over taken him again, and this time he felt the need to let it guide his footsteps.

Patting the sheath on his belt that concealed the largest, and only visable, weapon on his person to reassure himself of it's presence, he hiked up his jacket onto his shoulders and set off through the tunnels.

[sorta picks up here]