[Aq] Week 01: House of Cards

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Valero

Lobster Mobster
Supporter
Jan 5, 2010
1,713
7
38
Latens
1,046✦
Exa
⏆607
Bounty
⏈0
Dahlitium (⏆50 per)
0⌯
Bigatium (⏆100 per)
0⍨
Auritium (⏆300 per)
0⍫
Vitatium (⏆1200 per)
0⌭
Caelitium (⏆6000 per)
0⌬
House of Cards

The roar of laughter escalated inside the tavern, the smell of sweat and alcohol being the only scents that Deni could make out. Who knew that a fairly isolated settlement - barely even a few buildings - could have held so many people? There must have been dozens squashed into that so-called hall, all there to drink and gamble and perhaps try their chances with an attractive someone who caught their eye. That sounded like a summary of Deni’s life and the thought caused the white-skinned Velen to smile and bare his razor-sharp teeth.

Even sat down at the dining table, Deni seemed reasonably tall compared to some of the others that were stood around him. That wouldn't have stopped them from gazing at the cards he held though, which was why he had both of them memorised and placed face down against the table. It was amazing how much money was riding on just a few little cards. Glancing through his entirely blue eyes, Deni noted the four other empty chairs, contestants who had been in the game but had been eliminated. A desperate Laicar man who played loose and fast, an endlessly agitated Laicar woman who didn’t seem to know which moves were appropriate and when to use them, they were the first two to go. Following them was a nervous Enlil man whose guise managed to trick a few times, but his act became old. Then there was the Demvir, a sleek feminine shape who was clearly a regular player, but she couldn’t hold her own when the pressure came down. Then there were two left and his opponent was formidable.

A Velen woman, tall and muscular with a skin tone consisting mainly of light blue with a few dashes of yellow, sat at the opposite end of the table. She wore almost as little as he did and leaning to pick up a card had thrown some of the others off their game in an instant. Deni had managed to maintain his focus as he normally did when there was a prize to win, and the stakes were higher than he could afford. Of course, if anybody found that out he would have been thrown out of the game in a second, so instead he just acted collective on the surface and hoped his luck held out.

Deni’s attention was drawn to his left when the Laicar bartender came to shuffle what was left of the deck. A short smile appeared on the Velen’s face as he anticipated the next round. Abruptly, he noticed that his opponent was doing the same. She had a sweet smile, even when the competitivity they shared was unbridled.

“Alright,” the bartender said and placed the deck back on the table. Two cards already face down on Deni’s side of the table and the same on his opponent’s side, three more cards would be placed face-up between the two players. Seven cards and hundreds of exa for whichever one of them held the best match. Being outside the water was always cooler for Deni, but his blood seemed to be close to boiling, surrounded by people in a confined space and the pressure that rested on him.

“Tell me, Perfide, are you a gambling man?” the other Velen asked, a somewhat low voice for a woman.

“When the moment deems it necessary,” Deni responded and both of them seemed to smile simultaneously. Neither of them could read each other, so whoever held the better hand was anybody’s guess. Of course, both of those smiles vanished in the instant that the bartender pulled the top three cards from the deck and set them in the centre of the table.

Vitatium nine. Auritium eight. Dahlitium five.

“I’m in,” the female Velen said with a confident smirk. There was no question about it for Deni, he had to stay in the game if he wanted to win that money.

“Me too,” he said almost reluctantly. Hopefully, his opponent had noticed his hesitation. Leading them into a false sense of security was a good way to gain an advantage.

The crowds seemed to lessen their noise at the appropriate waving from the bartender. The moment of truth was at hand.

“Alright, Miss, since you called it first would you please reveal your cards,” the bartender said in his gruff voice. Deni’s heart skipped as she flipped the two over.

Caelitium nine. Vitatium eight.

Two nines and two eights, that was a very high hand. No wonder she had appeared so confident as soon as the three cards came down. The tavern suddenly turned eerily silent as the gazes switched to Deni.

“Can you match that?” the bartender asked carefully. Sweat materialised on the white Velen’s forehead and his opponent smiled with glee as she revelled in her victory all to early.

“Match it?” Deni repeated and let loose a single short laugh. “I can beat it.”

Flipping his cards suddenly, a wave of gasps rippled around the room. The aquatic woman nearly fell off her chair when she saw what he held.

Bigatium six. Vitatium seven.

The room erupted into cheers as a winner was decided. With a straight of five through nine, Deni pulled one of the highest hands a person could get in the final round of the game. The victor barely had time to kiss the metal bracelets on his wrist - he considered them his lucky charm - before he was snagged up out of his chair by the brown leather straps hugging his torso.

“To the bar!” he shouted with an enthusiastic smile and he found himself being dragged to the counter, where drinks were already waiting for him.

“Oh, this is the life!”

As he lifted the first tankard to his lips and let the cold alcohol slide down his throat, a familiar figure slinked up next to him in his periphery. Placing his drink down he turned to the blue and yellow Velen woman and the first thing he realised was the fact that she was practically the same height as him - she looked shorter sat down. The second thing he noticed, was the defeated expression on her face, yet she didn’t seem bitter. Even after the game she managed a short smile before extending her hand.

“Excellent play,” she said simply and he smiled in return, shaking her hand, yet she pulled him close as soon as he made contact with her. She placed her head on his shoulder, which wasn’t difficult considering the lack of difference in their height.

“I… don’t have the money at the moment,” she whispered. Of course, she would have been thrown out had anybody else realised that. “I may need some time to get it for you.”

Deni could have burst out laughing, though he thought that would have been in bad taste. He entered the game with barely enough exa to scrape by and had won, yet she had done the exact same thing and lost. If she found out that he had as little money as she did, she would never pay him, so he decided that it was in his best interest to keep up the image that the others already had of him.

“Don’t you worry about it, sweetness,” he whispered back and stroked one finger under her chin as she moved her head away from him. “Tonight is for celebrating, so have a few drinks and we can worry about the rest later.”

Keeping her smile in his mind, he turned back to his drink and let the booze take control as the party escalated. The game was over but he still had to keep playing.

-------

The sunlight was bright as Deni began to stir, so bright that his immediate reaction was to cover his eyes with one arm. He realised that he was lying on hard ground and that there was a breeze, so he came to the conclusion that he was outside. As soon as his eyes adjusted to the light, he noticed hay in the corner and a few wooden fences surrounding him. A stable of some description? He turned his head slightly and saw a figure holding a bucket high above his head. The Velen practically jumped out of his skin.

“Holy Vis-balls!” he exclaimed and backed into a corner. The man dropped his bucket of water and began to stammer as he approached Deni.

“S-sorry I didn’t mean to startle you,” he said. He was Laicar and had scruffy black hair from what a barely awake Deni could tell. “My name’s Fidel. I saw you asleep out here and thought I should throw a bucket of water on you or something, but on account of you being Velen I wasn’t sure what effect that would have.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Deni grunted in a noncommittal fashion. He lifted himself off the ground slowly and his head began to spin, his stomach churn. “I’m Deni. How did I get down here?”

“Some woman dropped you down here while you were unconscious. She left you there and headed south. If you ask me it seemed like she had a devious smile on her face.”

Nodding as if it made sense, the hungover Velen stumbled towards the way out of the stable.

“Where are you going?” Fidel asked.

“She wants a chase, she’s going to get a chase,” he replied and the churning inside his stomach escalated in an instant, causing him to immediately spew up all the drinks from the previous night on the stable floor.

“You shouldn’t be going anywhere in your condition!”

“A man’s got to do what a man has to do, Fidel. Maybe I’ll see you around.”

With an ungraceful wave, Deni wandered off towards the road south out of town. It seemed the game of cards was only the beginning of a much bigger game and that was one he was determined not to lose.


Wordcount: 1,657
 

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