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 Posted: Sun Aug 07, 2005 9:45 pm
:::In that entirely familiar 'Cora-knows-nothing-about-the-times' look, she asks,:::
What is pool...?
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:53 pm
*Luke nods to one of the guys leaning against a pool table.* "Hey. You using this one?"
*The guy - who has a good ten years on Luke - shakes his head and moves aside.*
*Luke continues, teaching another lesson to his captive audience.* Pool is a game of strategic planning, precision, and often accompanied by alcohol consumption.
The point of Pool... *Luke grabs a pool stick off the wall and starts sharpening it with a square piece of blue chalk.* ... is to hit the balls with the point of this stick. *Luke demonstrates on an imaginary pool ball.* And into one of six corners on the pool table.
*Luke grabs the faded, well-worn pool balls out from underneath the table and arranges them into a triangle shaped holder.* You got your solids, you got your stripes ... *holds up a black ball with an '8' on it* You've got your 8 ball.
Get your half of the pool balls in the pockets before your opponent does, WITHOUT hitting the 8 ball in until the very end. You call it, and if you get it in the right hole, you win.
*Beside them several other pairs of people are playing the game, lining up their shots, intently focused on the pool tables around them.*
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:58 pm
:::Cora nods at Luke''s instructions, which seem simple and straightforward enough. She watches the other people as they try to play, and can''t help but raise an eye brow at them. Their angles were obviously very flawed, but perhaps she didn''t understand the whole thing just yet:::
:::Back to Luke::: And...the purpose of all this? Is just amusement, right?
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:10 pm
*Luke smiles. He watches one man shell out $30 from his wallet and hand it to a woman.* For the most part.
*He hands Cora a pool stick.* Alright. Now it's a little hard to get the hang of at first. *He sets a white ball at one end of the table. He pushes the pool balls close with his fists and then takes off the triangle.* You have to get your strategy, learn your angles, pay the difference when you break the sticks in a sword fight the night before...
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:16 pm
:::Cora was half listening to Luke, she didn't understand the 'fancy termonology' anyway. She was busy inspecting the stick. She weighed it in her one hand, and then felt the tip of it, observed the angle at which it came to a point. She moved on to the pool table itself, and kneeled down to be eye level with it, as though checking to make sure it was level. The balls on it, didn't seem to move anyway, but just in case there was a slant small enough for them to not breach the point of resistance... Then she put her hand on the surface, feeling it course in texture, measuring the friction it would cause on the smooth surface on the ball, which she now picked up. She bounced it in her hand, observing the weight, felt the surface again with her finger tips, then checked the surface of the point of her stick...:::
Hm... alright.
:::she finally said. She then waited for Luke to demonstrate:::
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:22 pm
Here, I'll show you how it's done.
*Luke makes a show of leaning down and squinting while he lines up to break. He pulls back and fires the pool stick into the cue ball.*
*CRACK*
*The balls go shooting across the table in different directions. One stripe goes into the side pocket, and one solid goes into the top right corner.*
I'll be stripes.
Your move, Slim.
*When she hesitates, he coaches her.* Just take it easy. Find a shot you like, try to make it, and if you don't, don't sweat it.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:31 pm
:::She takes the stick, weighing it a little bit more, then turned momentarily to Luke:::
I hit the white orb, with this stick...so that it hits the orbs with the solid colors and causes them to drop into the holes on the sides of the surface?
:::Luke nods:::
All except the black one?
:::He approves:::
:::Then Cora turned to her puzzle at hand... Hm...what angle...what angle...to get all the solid orbs into the holes... She pursed her lips, this was a good challenge indeed! But she found herself amused already:::
:::She positioned herself the way Luke had, but on a different end of the table, mimicing what she saw the others do. She positioned her fingers how she saw Luke had, and stared down the line of her stick. It was a few moments before she finally, with one swift motion she hit the cue ball:::
Clack! clack clack clack clack clack THUD clack THUD clack clack THUD clack clack THUD THUD THUD THUD!
:::The balls came to a hault, and Cora grimmaced, seeing that the 5 ball hung just at the edge of its intended pocket, and that the 15 was missing from the board. She must have knocked it in by accident:::
Oh...no good. I think I''ll need more practice.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:48 pm
*Luke's mouth drops open uselessly.*
Holy s**t.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:49 pm
:::She looked over and was afraid at Luke's expression...it just look like utter shock:::
...ex- excuse me?
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:56 pm
*Luke blinks a couple times. At Cora's question, he looks over to where the man had handed his female opponent three ten dollar bills.*
*He blinks again. He slowly walks over to Cora, clears his throat, and loops an arm around her shoulder.*
Cora ... what you just did ... hitting all the solids into the pockets...
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:57 pm
:::She looks at him with curiosity, and shakes her head interupting him:::
No no, see, I missed one, and I hit one of the stiped ones in by accident.
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 8:58 pm
*Luke dismisses this.* Right, except for that one.
... Could you do that again?
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 9:01 pm
:::She calculated the probability of it for a moment...her mechanical arm could duplicate the motion exactly, down the muscle fiber cell...but:::
Yes....but only so long as I aquire the exact condition. Though I don't see how that is likely. The way you split up those balls seemed random to me. Oh, unless I missed it. Do you know the angle you hit them at?
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 9:04 pm
*Cora has Luke''s complete attention.* Yeah, what about it?
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Posted: Tue Aug 09, 2005 9:06 pm
If you can hit the balls the exact way that caused them to enter the pattern you produced just now, I could duplicate the orientation I just created, exactly... but we must account for human error on your part. :::She said matter of factly, not even realizing she'd left herself out of the human error calculation:::
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