It was a dark and stormy night
I think it's time for another game of It Was A Dark And Stormy Night (but hopefully with a better implementation than the first time). So: if you like (and especially if you're tagged), respond to *this* post to continue the story, such that the first-level responses are just the story continuing. Feel free to comment on first-level responses as you wish: exuberant applause, wild speculation, apparent errors, etc. Keep it positive, please.
If you'd like to fork the story at any point into your own lj, feel free. My suggestions are that you keep the fork as a public-level entry, and that you leave an LJ reply at the point where you forked for others to follow.
All are invited to play; feel free to point others to this post.
It was a dark and stormy night.
The wind smashed the rain up against the glass panes of the windows. Inside, the candles, unperturbed, lent a soft light to the wood-panelled cafe. The cafe was fairly empty: two couples at two different tables engaged in quiet conversation, and a man seated alone near the back. The man wore unremarkable clothing: a dark blue shirt, typical enough for an office or casual wear, black slacks. A single small gold earring in his left ear was the only unusual thing about him.
The man sits with his back to the wall, playing with a deck of cards. He quietly shuffles, deals out a hand of six cards, examines them, and then re-stacks the deck, only to repeat. The espresso on the table, untouched, grows cold.
The tinkling of bells announces a newcomer, a woman well-wrapped in a fashionable dark brown coat. The proprietor, a large man with a white apron neatly wrapped around him, hurries forward. She orders a latte, extra sugar, and as the proprietor hurries into the back room, the woman shrugs out of her coat, which allows her to surreptitiously eyeball everyone in the room. With a casual manner that only an accomplished actress could pull off, she meanders over to the man seated by himself.
"Six cards?" the woman asks the man. "I haven't seen someone playing shumashi in years."
The man looks up with a blank look. "Actually, it's a variant called tallou."
"I lost a lot of kallan playing that once."
The man immediately gets up and quietly walks out. Without hesitation, the woman takes his seat and grabs the deck of cards. She expertly palms the bottom card and is wholly unsurprised to see, instead of a normal playing card, a written note.
"Well, well, well. Operation deva_fagan, is it?" she says under her breath.