Rec Room -- Day 46 (afternoon) -- Open

[mentalmapping]

Zan had always liked reading about other cultures' forms of entertainment. He'd been surprised to learn that Vulcans had any, and a little disturbed by how many traditional Andorian games required some form of weaponry

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[into_the_skies]

Adrian had been taking full advantage of his last free day before the new mission started. He felt that he'd made the best use of the morning by sleeping right through it, followed by a gloriously unhealthy late breakfast, and at the present moment was rounding off his afternoon by losing spectacularly to himself at cards.

Conceding defeat graciously, he tilted his chair back and propped his booted feet up on the table, shuffing the deck absently as he scanned the room. His attention was caught by the guy at the next table - he spent the next few minutes watching with unconcealed interest.

"So, I have to ask bro," he said eventually; "Are you playing jenga with chocolate crackers?"

[mentalmapping]

"That," said Zan happily, "is exactly what I'm doing." He was glad someone recognized it, even if he didn't really mind making a slight fool of himself by letting people think he was just playing with his food.

"Since you're the first one who's gotten it," he said, "want to come play? I take it I don't have to explain the rules."

He was sure Jenga could be an entertaining enough one-person game, but everything tended to be more enjoyable with two. And anyway, Adrian was sitting far enough away that Zan couldn't hear anything but words from him. That was no way to hold a conversation.

[into_the_skies]

"Sounds like a plan," Adrian said, flashing him a grin. The front legs of his chair thumped against the floor as he swung his legs down off the table; leaving the deck of cards sitting there for whoever happened by next, he headed over and slid into a seat at the other guy's table. "Adrian," he introduced himself.

[mentalmapping]

"Zan." He stuck out a hand, careful to reach around the table to do so. "Bridge crew, huh? That must be exciting." And the uniform was such a fetching shade of yellow, too, not that Zan wasn't happily loyal to his own department.

"All right. So apparently, I'm supposed to try to push the blocks out and stack them again, and you're supposed to try and distract me? Is that part of the game? I think I read that somewhere."

[into_the_skies]

"Occasionally," he replied, shaking his hand with a grin. Bridge work had always put him in mind of an old quote he'd read in one of the Academy's reccommended texts on tactics, describing war as 'long periods of boredom interspersed with short bursts of acute terror'. The life of a pilot tended to alternate between the painfully boring and the terminally exciting. "How about you...science?" He looked entirely too cheerful to be a doctor at any rate.

"That sounds like the way I remember it," he agreed, nodding. It had been years since the last time he'd played. Now there was a blast from the past. "After you, man."