Wednesday, December 24, 2008

X-Poker

It’s one of the more vicious stalemates they’ve come to. They sit in a circle, cards held close to their chests, eyeing each other warily. Scott is down his boxers, and his expression is even more unreadable. Remy wonders if Scott has peripheral vision with those ruby quartz shades of his. He darts a suspicious glance at Jean, who is down to her bra and jeans, and he wonders if what she says is true, that his kinetic potential energy prevents her from reading his mind. Across the table, Warren has his wings folded about himself to preserve his modesty, but he’s not blushing - he’s staring intently at Kurt, whose expression is also suspiciously blank. Remy thinks Hank has it made, because no matter what he takes off, no one will notice anything but that he’s completely furry and blue. Remy wonders, briefly, if that’s why dogs aren’t embarrassed that they’re naked, and then he feels ashamed for comparing one of his teammates to a dog. It is, oddly enough, Bobby, whose naked form is modestly cased in ice, who has the biggest pile of poker chips. Remy’s not sure how they ended up playing for chips as well as clothes, and he thinks that the bottle of booze Storm brought is to blame. She’s down to her underwear, but she also seems unbothered by it all. Remy is surprised to realize that, for some odd reason, he’s the only one uncomfortable with his state of deshabille.

His discomfort isn’t at issue, however. 

What matters is who’s showing their hand first.

A muscle twitches in Scott’s jaw. Warren flexes his wings ever so slightly. Kurt’s tail lashes like an angry cat’s.

Jean settles it with a flick of her telekinesis.

Remy strips off his boxers and folds out of the game.

(300 on the nose; X-Men canon characters but in no particular universe, except possibly Ultimate-verse wherein all the characters have at least made one appearance and may or may not be young and foolhardy enough to play such a game.)

1 comment:

Madness said...

This was a lot of fun! I really laughed. I can just see them all gathered around playing strip poker.. Fantastic!