sharpshooter.

Did he look like someone who didn't drink bubble tea? He can't help but wonder on that as he shuffles forward when the line did, most of the words and combination options feeling unknown to him.

"I was just going to ask what the person making it's favorite was and try that, but if you have any better recommendations for me, I'm all ears."

it's more than a little humiliating that her tinder date has stood her up on two dollar tuesday. a meek apology was sent via text message to lennon twenty minutes before the screening was due to begin, a declaration that insisted 'you're great, i'm just not ready to date yet. so sorry.' after talking to the guy for two weeks, she immediately uninstalls the tinder app from her phone, deleting her profile along with it, not bothering to answer her date. she was too busy for this shit anyway, too focused on her work to get wrapped up in the perils of online matchmaking. all she wanted was to have fun with someone, maybe some casual sex, it wasn't like she'd asked for their hand in marriage. before walking toward the exit, a familiar voice calls out to lennon and she turns around to greet them, forcing a smile, hoping they won't be able to notice her wounded ego.

When he looks at him, he smiles back, grateful that he hadn't just barked at a stranger.

Atlas is far from a film buff, but for two dollars it was too good a deal to pass up. He makes his way over to her, trying to discern if she was always in attendance alone.

"Sup. You coming or going?"

"The floor is yours."

Excessive tastes was more apt, and if he was being offered a free drink he would make sure to order a triple to get value from it. He watches the other carefully, his attention shifting from the game to him and back again. When he's up, he takes his yellow piece and drops it into an empty circle on the other side of the board where there hadn't been any pieces deposited yet in an attempt to keep him guessing.

"It's getting real now."

Atlas' confidence is unwarranted but wholly committed to on his end, circling the large Connect Four board like some sort of shark when given how void of strategy he played it, it was still as good as a game of chance.

When Mckinley takes his turn, Atlas stops to a halt, observing where he can next place his. All of a sudden, he's not quite as cocksure.

His puck is placed next, a red puck bracketing two yellows, a defensive tactic through and through.

"You a fast ducker?" He jokes, mimicking what it might look like if he did decide to launch one clean at the other man before he gestures to him to make his next move.

Isabel sighed, putting another book back to on its shelf. Reading had long been her stress reliever and this week in particular had been rough for her. Between annoying co-workers, worse patients, and trifling family — thankfully not hers, but a distraction was well earned. "if there's one thing booktok will do, it's lie." she glanced at the person by her. "do you have any good recommendations and God please don't say it's dark romance."

"Booktok?" Atlas says, unsure of what it was that was being mentioned. It sounded like TikTok, which he was very aware of, but his FYP tended to be absurd clips and semi-dangerous stunts.

"Sorry, I got none. I'm not much of a reader." He holds up the coffee cup he had gotten when he arrived, his wander through the bookshelves had been purely out of curiosity while he drank.

"I just came here for the coffee and to look at the covers."

He had heard that old adage of never judging a book by one, but he couldn't help doing exactly that as he mentally ticked off good and not good by which covers appealed to his eyes.

"Was the one you read that bad?"

"Just walking towards the end of the world…" "Knowing that any second the ground is going to fall away."

BARRY KEOGHAN as OLIVER QUICK in SALTBURN (2023)

‟Don't count me out too soon. I may surprise you,” she teases, dropping one of the circle pieces into the slot—already eyeing her next move. One that would make it possible for an automatic win.

‟You again. And I hope for your sake, you've been paying close attention.” Now she's just mocking him, a sly smirk on her features as she waits.

That's a lie, though not wholly intentional. He has been half-focused on the game, half-distracted by the company, which is always Atlas' fatal flaw. He steps up to drop his red puck into the next slot, little thought behind the move and missing even when it landed that he had inadvertently cleared a path for her to take the victory with one more well placed puck.

"Start thinking now on what my prize will be."

"Shut the fuck up, I know," she shoots back, brows furrowed as she tries to find some possible move that will block him from completing a row.

"You're full of shit -- I thought you said you'd never played this."

The giant version, at least. The regular, run of the mill version on the other hand had been a staple form of amusement for him and his sister thanks to the well-loved scuffed boxed one that had seen almost as many Florida hotel rooms as they had. Atlas had lifted it from a charity shop when they had been trailing after their mother inside one, and they were endlessly competitive over it since.

"You could go here," Atlas advises, using his yellow puck to indicate where she may temporarily halt his siege with her red one, though he has a three move response that would snatch him a win anyway. "But it's a battle win, not a war win."

With a mischievous look in his eyes, he tilts his head at her, his words not solely about Connect Four anymore.

"What's it going to be, Rose. Let me win now, or let me win later? Either way, it's going to happen. We both know that."

When Ximena's puck dropped into lowest row of the column they placed it in, Atlas immediately steps up to place his yellow one beside it, blocking the possible horizontal line. There's no strategy in his game beyond being an obstacle, but it served him well so far.

"I think I get too into these things," He confesses as he grabs another yellow, tempted to try roll it along the ground like a stray coin to see where it landed. "I feel all buzzy."

( Death by Jenga collapse. )

"Soft though, yeah?" He's not actually sure such a thing existed, but he's certain one or both of them would find out by the end of the match.

When Mikey places his piece on top, Atlas takes a cautious step back, in case a sway of the tower causes a fall that didn't happen. So far, sturdy. With his turn again, he decides to be a little bolder, moving a right side piece from the fourth row up with caused a wobble that had him freezing with the piece in his hands in case further movement might rush the demise.

When a collapsing Jenga piece didn't hit his back, he places his at the very top, the structural integrity further disintegrating from the weight.

"You ever seen Godzilla?" Atlas says then as he drifts closer to where Mikey was, every impulse in his mind telling him to headbutt the stack to see what would happen.

"When he destroys the city? Just levels it with his big body. I could do that with this."

"I wear it well though, don't I?" Atlas questions with a grin, his hands clasped behind his back as he remains standing at the top of the ladder he had climbed on his last turn. There's no falter in his amusement as Kai takes a long walk back to the first square, trying to drum up some semblance of sympathy that eludes him in the face of being oh so close to victory.

He moves his arms then, cupping his mouth with his hands like he needs to project his voice like Kai was oh so far away from where he was.

"It's working. You got me fooled."

He uses his foot to scoot the dice towards himself so he can take his turn, tossing it with a basketball style granny shot and watching as it initially appeared to be a two and then rolled onto a one instead. He takes a step forward onto an innocuous white square, the tongue of a snake waiting to sting on the green square beside it.

( Thank fuck it hadn't been a two. )

"Can you hear that? That's me about one roll away from being the chutes and ladders GOAT."

After a minute of analyzing the board, she crosses over to his side. "So from here, your best move would be to move your queen here and possibly win in 10 lucky moves, or abandon the game."

His hands were on his hips as he nods as though he would have even noticed if he was being bullshitted.

"Ten moves just to possibly win?" His hands are in the air then, palms facing Hadlee in mock surrender.

"I take it back, I'm done for. You're the chess master here."

There's no trace of a sore loser's disposition on his features, a smile present as he takes Hadlee's hand in his own and shakes it.

"Atlas. I've definitely seen you a few times, I never forget a face."