Casino Night!

[broken_brushes]

When I'd first come up with the idea of Casino Night, I wasn't sure if it was even possible on the island. In retrospect, that might have been naive of me, because if there was anything I'd learned in over four years on Tabula Rasa, it was that its residents were capable of doing just about anything save getting home

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[lucked]

Although Claire knew that there was nothing she could have done to change the series of events on the camping trip, there was still a great part of her that felt awful for not having met everyone carefully that evening, for only being able to watch nervously as one of their number suffered a serious allergic reaction from a bee sting. Maybe taking that as the impetus to get to know Marshall wasn't ideal, but still. He seemed like a nice guy.

"I like the suit," she complimented with a slight smile, arms crossed awkwardly over her chest. Although she'd picked a pretty killer little black dress for the occasion, it felt a little more glitz and glamor than Claire was used to. "Have you been playing any of the games?"

[quite_a_delight]

"Hey, Claire," he said with a faint smile, feeling a little calmed by her own obvious discomfort. He didn't know her well, but they'd met enough times that he knew she was a nice person, and seeing her a little bit awkward in her cocktail dress in a room full of people all glitzed up and playing parts was kind of refreshing.

"Thanks," he said, smoothing a hand over his lapels. "I sat through a couple hands of poker. I'm either really unlucky tonight, or just really awful."

[lucked]

"It's too bad this isn't, like, a baking competition, right? Because then you'd own everyone in this room," Claire replied with a slightly more relaxed smile, feeling as though she could spend the rest of the evening in the corner of the room just chatting away and end up feeling miles more comfortable than she would have, had she ventured out to do more gambling. There were a few things she was interested in up for auction, but nothing that she felt too passionately about. Tilting her head, Claire ran a hand through her hair, making sure it was all relatively in place. "Although on the plus side, now we get to see everyone dressed up. Baking while wearing tuxedos and couture dresses probably wouldn't go over so well."

Smile fading as she leaned against a nearby table, Claire's gaze skimmed over the rest of the crowd. "So, how are you doing?"

[quite_a_delight]

"Why not make it part of the game? Can you avoid disasters with custard and Italian-made silk? Try your hand a high stakes baking," he said, briefly adopting the kind of voice heard on of one of those late night infomercials. "It's a shame no one's ever thought of it before."

His own expression pinching into one of slight discomfort, he said, "Assuming you mean after last week's ever entertaining adventures in anaphylaxis? I'm fine. Good as new. Trust me, it always looks worse than it is."

[lucked]

"Hey, I'd watch it. I'm pretty sure someone would get around to making it eventually back home. Well, if 'home' for you also means a place that's starting to churn out reality shows, one after the other," Claire grinned, shaking her head. "People will watch anything, as long as the people on their screen get worked up. And normally, while I'd say it's a crime to waste custard and silk, it's not like we're exactly short on either here, with a restocking pantry and clothing box."

Turning her gaze away, Claire took a deep breath, shrugging away the tension in her shoulders. "But yeah, that was not- I've never seen an allergic reaction to a bee sting before," she admitted. "Do you have more epipens? Just so that I know if I have to go flamethrower on all of the island's bee population."

[quite_a_delight]

"An instant classic, in highbrow entertainment," he said, chuckling quietly. It was best to not even get him started on reality TV and the freefall decline of modern television programming.

The subject change was probably for the best.

"Yeah, I um... I really doubt my sister would even be letting me out of the Compound, at this point, without them," he admitted, "They're replenishing. The epipens. So, I'm told I'll never have to worry about them running out." Which was completely insane, when you looked at it with his still largely real world logic. Replenishing aspirin, epipens, toothpaste and condoms. All the essentials.

[lucked]

Claire felt herself release a deep sigh, one that shook as it left her lips, the corners quirking into a tentative (and guilty) smile. It wasn't really her right to feel so relieved, but still, Claire knew that even though the two of them weren't close, thinking about Marshall potentially being in danger every single time he stepped outside wasn't a thought that she cherished.

"Oh, thank god," she sighed, rubbing at her temple. "That's, that's really good. I mean, I'm sure that everyone would have worked really hard to find another solution if they weren't around, but I'm glad that this island isn't quite that cruel. Though I swear, if I ever find out who's in charge, they're getting punched in the nose. Sometimes I feel like we're all dolls in a dollhouse."