Snow glistens on the ledge
whiskey on the bed
Shake it out and light a cigarette
Miss me when you-
you wish you weren't right

@lorelei - outfit

Life was... boring. Yes, that was the right word. Ever since the take over of the Ministry, the only unstable part in the thing had been the management of the mudbloods. If he had at all cared about that side of things, he might have not been as bored, but as it were the only things going on were the internal disputes between purebloods and the handling of the filth changing time and again. He wanted nothing to do with it and he was running out of books to read. There was only so much time he could spend sitting and absorbing information without wanting to set himself on fire. The shop was boring as all hell and he was this close to selling it, he was tired of working with Lestrange and mini-non-Lestrange, and teaching brats how to do their job was really the last thing he wanted. He wasn't sure why he was even in that department anymore when he supposed he could easily go find another. Maybe in another department, if he was so bored with his current one. The truth was that he severely detested people who needed prodding or explaining or anything of the sort. It was the reason he needed a drink every time he got back home from work, which really didn't help matters because his mother was insane on a good day. He loved her a lot, sure, but dealing with her was not exactly what he wanted after coming back from the Ministry. Least of all on a Friday night. No, today he'd had enough. So he'd left the house and gone out.

A casino was not his usual haunt. He mostly went to familiar pubs for a pint, for conversation with someone he knew, and then back home. Maybe a game of cards between friends, maybe a walk somewhere before leaving. Nothing more, lately. He wasn't one for casual hook ups, and he currently was not keeping anyone as a lover. It took a lot for him to be interested, his body usually had no opinion on the matter. It reacted to whoever had entertained him before. Pure attraction was something he could feel, he supposed, but he was never someone to act out on that feeling without a real reason. Especially when it involved such carelessness as taking someone to bed. No, that was not for him. Not since Hogwarts had he been so careless with sleeping around people he did not trust or know. Back then, there had been no reason to think about these things. Now, he supposed there wasn't either. It was just something he appreciated now. At this point in his life, he had no patience for any sort of hook up or casual fling. It was boring anyway, the way those people tried to be intriguing and keep someone's attention without truly doing or saying anything with substance. He despised it.

The point for being in a casino was that he had decided not to go to a pub tonight. It was Friday, he knew which of his old friends would be where, and he rather fancied something new tonight. A round of blackjack, a round of poker, nothing of chance like the roulette but games with actual skill. Things that both entertained and challenged him. He made enough money nowadays to throw some away like this, unlike his days back at the camps. Yes, he figured it was all right. He won some, he lost some. In the end he won more than he lost, and then he called himself for a break from the game tables and headed over to the bar. Sitting on one of the high stools and overlooking the room, he ordered himself a drink and relaxed. Just some cognac, he was a man of simple tastes. It had a good smell, it was old and kept at the right temperatures. Maybe he would come to the casino more often. Perhaps he would try the other one. As he thought, he drank, and as he drank he observed someone slipping into the seat beside him. Taking a look, he recognised a familiar face and his lips pulled up into a silent greeting.

Devil Like Me
Outfit

Whilst in general training to become an Unspeakable before she specialised, Lorelei had entertained the idea of becoming a horologist. After the frankly humiliating and unnecessary carnage wrought on level 9 in 1996, the Time department had been run ragged trying to piece together the fragments of the lost time turners to see whether they could ever procure another prototype and reintroduce them into society as well as learning about the tangible thing itself and she had found herself deeply interested in the breakthroughs they had had since. But then she had laid eyes on the Great Veil and her choice for specialising had been made almost immediately. Yet she didn't know what it was that drew her to it like a magnet. All she knew was in that room... she knew peace. She knew calm. While also knowing almost clawing curiosity and interest that tugged like a hooked leash behind her navel and tried to coerce her from the hewn steps onto the dais. Yet she always refrained. That was the main thing that separated her from Alex. If Alex so much as had an inkling of want or need for something, he went after it with two outstretched hands and only considered the consequences when they hit. Whereis she had always had unwavering self control. And that was one of the main reasons she despaired.

All the same, she strayed as close to it as she dared without ever alighting onto the raised platform from whence those endearing whispers called, cajoling her into staying longer than she wanted, at times lulling her warring mind into silence until the only sound were the voices and her breathing. In a macabre fashion she supposed it had taken over her life a little but that was how she had allowed it in so she could process it without ever taking it home. It was morbidly beautiful. How anyone could choose a different door to enter every day instead always puzzled her yet she didn't deem the other phenomenons or happenings they studied to be of less value. But some just walked around with a casual air of disinterest. The one door that she never looked twice at was the door that remained sealed at all times. The phenomenon of Love had never ruled her consciousness but then it could be argued that the reason was because she had never organically felt the emotion- or whatever it truly was- outside of a familial, platonic sense. She grew bored of others too often to keep them around long enough to encourage such an all encompassing feeling to take root. A fact her mother despaired of, not that she had really ever listened. Alex could be the first to give her grandchildren, for it wouldn't likely be her.

Her heels made next to no noise as she crossed the carpet that sprawled through the casino past the game tables and towards the bar. She didn't really need a reason to be here as such. No excuse for stepping through its doors. Simply, she had, and she wasn't questioning it. Perhaps on a subconscious level it was because no one who would bother her on a daily basis would be likely found in here and no one would look here to bother her. It was about time for another of Alex's "drop ins" so conveniently she wasn't home. She almost smiled at the idea of Odelia being alerted to him trying her front door but dismissed the thought, knowing she'd made sure her friend ignored breaches made by him. He wasn't worth the time to turn up to reset them as he'd set them off just as fast. No doubt she would be returning to her little cottage in Hogsmeade to a choicely worded letter from him later, but she wasn't concerned about that now. Still, her green eyes swept her surroundings before she recognised a familiar face by the bar and altered her course, making for the stool beside him instead of the one on the bar's corner. Smoothing her skirt as she settled into the seat, she crossed her legs almost automatically and turned to the wizard with her lips pursed to the side in a smile. Funny that she should run into him, tonight of all nights. "Imagine seeing you here," Lorelei greeted him, setting her purse to the side and glancing away long enough to find the bartender. He was as well dressed as he'd been the last time she had seen him, and once more she was drawn to those piercing eyes of his. "

Adrian was well aware that his mother, in her few lucid moments, always asked him for grandchildren. He figured it was only natural, he was forty and hadn't yet even seemed interested in settling down with anyone. Beyond never having found anyone that called his attention to that extent, it had never exactly been the time. When was he supposed to have gotten married and raised children? After Hogwarts? There had been a war and he'd been working undercover in the Ministry. After the war? He went to Azkaban for a few years and then spent some time recovering, studying, and preparing for the future. Then, when he was finally done with that, Durant had come into power and he had been put into a work camp. That had obviously also not put him into a mindset for finding a wife and procreating. Now would be the time, he supposed, but nobody had called to him just yet. It was a question of being patient, really, because he may be forty but being magical meant that he would live for another century at least. He was in no hurry, but that was something that his parents didn't understand. Well, his mother didn't, but he had the feeling that she was never quite lucid when he explained it. His father didn't much care, he'd been old when Adrian had been born anyway. He had no right to talk.

Lately, it felt like he couldn't really be anywhere. He couldn't be in the Ministry without having to deal with more than a dozen useless people with even more useless questions. He couldn't be at home without either his father losing his mind or his mother going through a bend. The few options were his shop -which, by now, gave hm the urge to hang himself with boredom- and an array of pubs which he couldn't frequent that often and definitely couldn't go to every day at two in the afternoon. It gave him a feeling of restlessness that he much detested, that made him annoyed and short of word and rather snappish. He was thinking that even though it had taken a lot of effort to recover the family estate and to get it back in habitable conditions, he would rather find himself an apartment than keep living with them. He had enough money for it, but he could barely find the will to. Being a contrary person, he found that he would rather suffer than give up his family home just because his parents were batshit. None of it was anything he could change any time soon, so the only option that remained was just going with it and bearing it in silence. Find some way to blow off steam. Gambling wasn't the way, but perhaps going to new places for entertainment might be.

His choice to come here tonight seemed to have been the right one, at least, considering his new company. He remembered the lovely miss Sykes, intelligent and not allowing for her brother's nonsense. It was a good thing that Alex's bad habits hadn't carried on to the younger generation of the family, it would've been a terrible waste of such a lovely face. Instead, he was joined by a young woman who he hadn't seen in many months, but had made a lasting impression. Where had Alex been hiding her? No doubt, he definitely had been hiding her, keeping her away from Adrian. Merlin knew why. "Imagine that, miss Sykes. What a pleasant surprise." He smiled charmingly, sipping his own drink and watching her as a drink was poured before her. Considering, he looked the young woman up and down. Dressed elegantly and quite attractively. Smirking lightly, he raised his drink in a light toast when she had her own. "What brings you here tonight?"

She supposed she never strayed too far into the fanciful things like Alex did because she saw the destruction things of fiction or of limited time could bring. Alex lived for dangerous magic as much as he did for the most enrapturing of adventurous tales that spoke of heroes, and as such he had always lived his life in a sort of... dream like haze. He chose to see life his way instead of how it actually was and it often got him into trouble... the sort that she would have to get him out of as their parents would never think to. They had always believed it was their son who got himself out of his sticky situations, not their darling daughter, and she didn't see the point in correcting them. She didn't care for that kind of recognition. She just made sure to stay away from the path her brother walked, just in case. But that wasn't to say that she wasn't slightly materialistic. Lorelei faced death everyday- in a literal and philosophical form- so she had crafted herself a garden for her cottage to encourage life in order to keep a balance. For every fictitious tale she read, she also read two of fact and of that in which she could employ in her daily life. And maybe that seemed silly or of no matter... but it mattered to her. Her worst fear was to become Alex. Then she'd have failed them both. And then what would she do? There would be nobody to bring her back from that, except potentially Odelia, but she'd never want to put that kind of onus on her friend.

Her other worst fear, was to become boring. And that fear felt ever closer these days as she was practically stagnating, barely breaking routine to do something entertaining as she had so many people to try and please or help first. She didn't want to become that person at a gathering who everyone tried to evade because they were about as riveting as watching paint dry- it was bad enough as being introduced as "Sykes' sister" when at any function her brother happened to be attending. She needed... she needed something new. A change from the norm. Lorelei didn't know where that was necessarily going to come from or from who, but she knew it was coming, nonetheless. A change was as good as a rest and right now the last thing she needed was a rest or a holiday. Just something new to focus on that wasn't her job or her brother as both had taken to all but controlling every aspect of her life. Maybe on a subconscious level, that was why she had walked into a casino of all places, simply because she hadn't done so in the past. The smells were all new, as were the sounds. Gambling was an entirely new concept to her, and she couldn't say she was entirely opposed to it. She had the money, but she couldn't say she needed or wanted anymore. But she had witnessed some of the excitement it could bring as she walked in, and how others had seemed enthralled. Whether or not she actually took up any of the offers on the tables before she went home would remain to be seen for now.

Only a liar could say that Adrian wasn't a good looking Wizard, and Lorelei Sykes had never held the title of being such. There was something about him, aside from his chiselled features and the way his eyes could really grip a person that had kept her attention. And for once, here was a man who actually knew what he was talking about, and didn't talk out of his arse. A first, considering the rest of Alex's mates. But yes, he was intriguing. And totally unlike anyone else she had had the pleasure of spending any length of time around. At any rate, it was almost a given that she'd be staying longer than it took to have a single drink. Company like this wasn't something you just walked away from. Her smile grew at his reply as she turned to take her drink from the bar, and paused in her response long enough to raise it in turn and take a swallow. "I haven't been in before, so I thought I'd have a look around as I have nothing planned for the evening," She returned, turning in her seat to face him a little more as her fingers tapped her glass. Avoiding her brother sounded like a pitiful excuse, and that was all it was. An excuse. And she truly didn't really need one for tonight. "...And yourself?" She allowed herself another run over of him then turned her gaze to the room at large, though her eyes soon slid back to his own. That was a first. That much was certain.

"Whiskey on the bed"

outfit

@ lorelei

    Adrian had still not decided what sort of job to take, if he quit his work at the Ministry. The only reason he'd gone into all that at first was because the Dark Lord had needed spies in there, and recent Hogwarts graduates weren't suspicious. Even though his father and grandfather were both in Azkaban for what they'd done in the first war, Adrian had gotten a job in there without much issue. Of course, that had been while Fudge had been in power, the moron. At the time, Adrian had thought that he might work in politics, if he got so far. Not just law enforcement, but actually a political position at some point. He'd not been overly sociable but he had been in possession of the energy to at least want to try it out. To bear with it in order to get ahead and do whatever he wanted to do. Now, though? He thought it had something to do with Azkaban, and then with the work camp, but he just didn't want to bother with any of that. He wanted something that was comfortable and not boring, power -as ephemeral as it was- wasn't worth the discomfort that obtaining it would cost him. Ever, he knew that now.
    "Nothing much. Just killing boredom." That was all he was ever doing lately, wasn't it? At the shop, at work, in his free time. There was little that didn't bore him, and that was truly a pity. It didn't allow him to appreciate life. He thought that at some point things would fall into place without him wanting to burn everything down just to see what would happen. At some point. Then, perhaps, he would humour his parents and find someone to marry and settle down with. When he was younger, he'd been completely fine with sleeping around and not having anything personal. Now, that had bored him. Other people's bodies and mere physical pleasure didn't interest him if the person didn't interest him, and he was rarely interested by anyone at all. It may be incorrect of him, but he had to admit that his old friend's little sister was the first interesting person he'd met in a while. Of course, Alex had done his best to keep them apart for most of their lives, and Adrian had never been interested in a faceless name. Meeting her changed things, and though he would not be going around and chasing her, he thought that these casual run ins were pleasant enough. After all, he'd never quite expected Alex to have quit such a... capable person for a sister. Alex being the disaster that he was, Adrian had much assumed that it ran in the family. Mistakenly, of course. "Do join me for a drink, however. I can scarcely imagine a more pleasant course for the evening."
    He motioned to the bartender and the man brought over a bottle of port for the two of them. Adrian finished his whiskey and then picked up the bottle and glasses. Something to share, and who didn't like port? It was relaxing, too, and perhaps they could go and join the games every once in a while. For now, though, he stood and offered his arm. "A booth, perhaps?" There were plenty of empty ones around the room, some high up with good sight of the players and the games. It would be pleasant, both in the action and in private. It was a long time since he'd gotten the urge to spend time talking to anyone, or getting to know them or whatever, but he didn't want to question himself tonight. There were worse things to do and he could perhaps... let go for the night.

Words: 624

"Shake it out and light a cigarette"

► kaigra ◄