> Captain's Logs - Writing Thread

[Ranger of the North]

I am intrigued o.o

[The Pirate Dragon]

((I'm just gonna sneak in the other three parts I have done and totally pretend I posted them here on time.))

Charlatan
By The Pirate Dragon

Part 2

The bakery was completely different at night. The cream lights gave a warm glow almost parody to the sun. The smells changed from the sweet wafts of treats to inviting, luxurious spices and instead of the many little tables and chairs around the center of the room there was one large, round table. The cafe bakery mix was void of people, but it was full of life in the scenery.

"Oh!" Gina, the shorter and messier sister, popped up from behind the center counter to the kitchen. "Good, you're here, it's only a few minutes until they show up you know."

"I thought I had been late," Avalon set down his messenger bag on the large round table. "It's almost 9 o'clock."

"Yeah. That's when they come. You know, the Monday night regulars."

"I didn't realize you get regulars at this time of night. Are they sports teams from late night training or something?"

"Uh, not really. It gets pretty competitive but it has nothing to do with physical activity." Gina jumped over the counter and started to peer out of the windows. "I should also let you know that you're not technically supposed to be here tonight and you're not technically supposed to talk or know about what's gonna happen. It's, uh, on the 'down low' 'n stuff."

"That's not suspicious," Avalon snickered. "Why the big round table?"

"Oh, it's for a gambling group."

Avalon gave a blank face and stared at his younger friend for a few moments. "What?"

"The Monday night regulars are gamblers. That's who's coming tonight. I get a bunch of people who come by just to gamble so I let them. Oh, uh, emphasis on 'I' because Gigi technically doesn't know anything."

"You haven't told her or...?"

"Hey, customers are customers, she shouldn't care what kind of people come by. And I think they're criminals. It doesn't matter though, plausible deniability and all that yada yada. I don't want her to know because she'll want to investigate (you know how she is) and I think they might be scary."

"You think?"

"I feed them snacks, they buy cookies and stuff. You can't be mad at a little girl who feeds you cookies." She gave a tired but mischievous smile.

"I take it I'm not here to investigate the backgrounds of these guys."

"Uh, no, I'd rather not know so I'm not responsible for anything or whatever. There's this guy..." Gina started to tilt her head and look off into the distance. "I don't remember his name, but like, it's totally fake. Something silly. He just showed up one day and insisted on playing. He's been cheating. Or, we think. We don't know. He wins all the time but we can't figure out why and he's too good for us to catch. You're pretty good at that stuff too, right?"

"What, cheating!?"

"I meant like, tricky stuff, you know, cheating is just a tricky thing. I want you to figure out how he cheats and get him caught 'n stuff. It's not in his sleeves or pockets or anything we've already tried that."

"Hmm, alright. I'll take this job. Will I be playing? What games do you even play?"

"How good are you at Uno?"

[The Pirate Dragon]

Charlatan
By The Pirate Dragon

Part 3

The men that entered were a spectrum of people, to say it nicely. Some had tattoos on every opening available on their skin, some wore oily suits and slicked back hair, some had rags and crooked teeth, some even looked reasonably respectable until you heard their raspy, venomous voice. One in particular had a panache look to him. His suit was neatly ironed with a green scarf running around his neck and into his shirt like a tie. His hair was glamorously brushed to the side and a bushy but voluptuous mustache curled from his face above his mouth and slight beard that peeked from his chin. His smile was lovely too, almost too lovely, like a promise of candy and wishes. He looked right into Avalon's blue eyes and winked.

"Nice to meet you sir, you are new to this game?" He reached out his hand.

"Not to Uno, just to the chimerical idea that it can be used to gamble." Avalon grabbed his bag from the table and held onto it tight.

"A true game is never used my friend, just performed." The man slid his hand back into his pocket, a little offended at the denial of a handshake. "My name is Constable Coronado. You may call me 'Cory'."

"I'd... rather not get too acquainted."

The debonair man shook with laughter. "A suspicious type I see?"

Avalon looked around at the strange crowd gathering their belongings and seating around the table. "You're the only one who's keen on getting to know everyone."

"My apologies," the man cleared his throat. "It's just I was a neophyte not too long ago and I can understand how anxious you are. I was afraid my first time too. I'm simply trying to comfort you."

The boy smiled. He knew he was here for a different purpose than everyone else and felt he didn't have much to lose. He could always earn money back. "I'm not afraid. In fact, everybody's sitting now, are you ready?"

The man smiled larger than Avalon thought possible while his blue eyes glimmered. The two of them sat at the table next to each other and the boy put his bag around his chair. Cory, as he was called, kept trying to sit a little closer to Avalon but the boh would sit a little further from him each time. It became like a dance in homely, wooden chairs.

Gina darted behind Avalon and kneeled down on the side opposite of Cory. "You already found the cheating man? You're better than I thought."

"It's more like he found me. I think he's trying to get something from me, that or he's way too friendly. Anyways, are you going to tell me what I'm supposed to do here? How do we gamble in Uno? Who even gambles in Uno?"

"Hey guys," Gina stood up and everyone at the table looked over at her. "This guy here," she pet her friend's shoulders, "Has never actually played Uno with money, so he's not going to put anything down the first game. He'll get like, a trial. If he wins, the money will just keep going to the next game. That way he can't earn any if he doesn't give any, okay?"

There were a couple murmurs of complaints until Gina pointed out her finger and shouted "You get a discount if you're cool with it!" Only voices of approval followed that.

"I guess they really do respect a girl who feeds them cookies," Avalon snickered in his head.

[The Pirate Dragon]

Charlatan
By The Pirate Dragon

Part 4

The first few rounds of the first game seemed fairly normal. Each person played a card down at every turn and tried to be the first to get rid of all their cards while Gina danced around the table exchangeing small bills for treats. Their hunger to win was apparently equivalent to their hunger for Gina's cookies.

Avalon started to catch on as people placed money on the table. It was a simple pile of cash (and sometimes gum wrappers) that someone would contribute to as they felt they were closest to winning. Whoever placed their last card down first would get it all and the game would start again. The amount that they would put in was alarming too, in only the first game a hearty $523 were laid in the center.

Looking at everyone's cards, he didn't feel like anyone was quite ready to win, but the alarming call of Cory's "Uno" brought everyone at the table to sit upright and uneasily. Each player cautiously played their cards down, not looking away from Cory until it came back around to him and he played his last: a wild card. A rumbling fit from all of the others erupted.

"He won the last game!" "He won the last four games." "He almost always lands on a wild card, how does he do that?" "How much money has he earned now?" "I want my money back!" "I knew we shouldn't've let him play!"

"Hey wait guys," Gina called out. "There's more games. Our new guy is just getting started," she shoved her hands on Avalon's shoulders and kneeled down to him again. "You figure out how he did it yet?" she whispered.

"No, but I'm going to make a quick trip to the bathroom," he pushed back his chair and got up. Immediately, his bag fell off the back of his chair and spilled ten to twenty Uno cards out on the floor.

"Wait, is the new guy cheating?!" someone screeched.

"Un-be-LIEV-able!" Cory cried out and shot upwards, knocking down his chair. "And to think I thought we could be friends. People, this man thinks he can dupe us with petty acts!"

Avalon sighed and scowled. "Seriously? There wasn't even any way I could've earned money from this. There would have been no point to cheating."

"Maybe not this round," Cory scoffed. "You were going to cheat next round, otherwise you would've won this round. Admit it."

Gina stepped up between the two of them and glared at Cory. "I hired him to find you cheating, not for him to cheat! He didn't even know we were doing Uno!"

"That's awfully convenient of you to say Ms. Bard, are you sure he didn't dupe you as well? Men," he turned to the table. "Are we going to accept this? He has put contraband cards in with his notebooks. I bet he's stolen things from us too."

"How would you even know I have notebooks in my bag?" Avalon glared.

"The notebooks don't even matter!" He was flailing his arms around when something flew off the table. "What matters is we good men don't accept cheaters here!"

Avalon bent down and picked up an Uno card that came from the table. It was the wild card.

"I've been to many a secret game clubs," Cory kept going. "Go Fish, Old Maid, Monopoly, and now even my precious Uno is ruined."

Avalon noticed something peeling from the corner of the card.

"To think some fiend like you always has to show up!" It was like this man was on a stage.

Avalon pulled at the corner and peeled back a sticker from the card. It was actually a red "3" with the image of a wild stuck to it.

"Now we're simply going to have to deal with you," Cory tapped his foot and folded his arms looking disappointed at the boy but not quite angry.

"Actually, I think we're going to have to deal with you," Avalon smiled.

[Ranger of the North]

*sniggers*

Go Avalon!