Well, I'm not paralyzed
_{But, I seem to be struck by you}

He found himself, here again, why he kept coming back here he had no idea. He didn't even like the place that much, but the gambling was on point. Roulette was not so addictive, but the booze was pretty good and the women weren't all that bad to look at. Though, he had been struck by a pretty face with lovely hair the last time that he had come there. It had been a while, and foolishly he kept on going there hoping to see her again. Waisting the galleons that he was saving up after his wife had run off with everything that he owned. Maybe he was stupid, maybe he was smart and had been doing a great job at keeping things to himself, but either way, he was really tired of all these bland and boring people that were around him.

His day had been rather boring in the span of how things had been working out for him in the last while. This sickness was rather insane and he was one of the lucky ones that seemed to be immune. He almost felt like his luck would run out sooner or later and he would be made to hate that fact, but that was how things worked. Those that were the minority suffered. Well, unless they were purebloods which were the current ruling class. Ennis' father had been taken ill and things had been touch and go for a bit but like his siblings, his father seemed to pass through it rather well. There had been no deaths to his knowledge, but in his department that was the least of their worries, with his boss getting sick as he did it made them all seem vulnerable and that was never a good thing. Especially with the man's connections to the Minister.

He sat at the blackjack table and smiled as he hit twenty-one and drank from his glass, and bet again when blonde hair nearby pulled his attention. Smiling he held up his glass in salute to the woman before telling the dealer to hit him again. Twenty. Not bad. He seemed to be doing pretty good. Maybe she was his good luck charm.

@katya | OUTFIT | 368

It's been shitty
_{so far has not been good}

The epidemic had gotten her. It had taken a long while--Ginny and most of the others had already been out of the hospital by the time Katya felt the first hints of a headache. The flu-like symptoms had all been minor. Katya had not gone to the hospital. She had seen and heard how the healers had done nothing effective for the sick. Potions did not counter the symptoms...and there was really only one that mattered anyway: the loss of magic. Her capacities for casting faded slowly. It was bizarre to adjust to life without magic--though admittedly not all her magic was gone. Her veela magic was still with her. Katya felt it. She still had control over fire--she still had the allure that her heritage gave her. 

But she was different. She felt like she was more her mother than she had ever been before. She had less control over her veela side now. Her anger would flare up easily and she would have fire in her palms, even when she didn't want it there. Every day that she had become less a witch, she had become more a veela. Katya was having to learn to control herself again...and it was not easy. 

She needed to take her mind off it--needed to get out of her home and find a body to drive all the rage from her mind. It would be easy enough, now that she felt more connected to her veela side, the allure rolled off her in unhampered waves. She had fought it in the past, not wished to use the allure to draw in lovers...that had always felt to easy. But now, it felt like what she was supposed to do. It felt like what she was made to do.

She did not want a nice man or woman tonight. So, she went to a place as dark and rough as the company she sought. Katya loved Fionn's truly. It was gritty and dirty--and it felt real to Katya. So much of the world was pretense and bullshit. People outside this place could pretend the world hadn't gone to shit. In here, no one pretended that things were all well and good. There were liars and cheats, but none of them pretended to be good honest men. She appreciated that. 

Looking for an interesting companion, Katya weaved her way through the tables--a margarita (on the rocks, with no salt) rested in her hands. She had barely touched the drink. The veela was not particularly feeling like drinking heavily. It took a great deal to get her drunk--and truly, she was a bit past the age where she wanted to take a row of shots. If it took that much alcohol to have fun, whatever you were doing was not actually very fun at all. 

The veela spotted a somewhat familiar face and smirked when the man raised his glass to her. Katya flashed him a devastating veela smile. He had a strong jaw and broad shoulders that enticed her as they had some nights before in this same gambling den. She had not spoken to him that night, but was feeling much more proactive this evening. Slipping around the table, she came up to his side and placed a tall stack of chips down atop the bet he had just placed. "Let's get lucky," she half-whispered as she draped an arm over his shoulders, standing close to his side as the dealer began to deal out the cards again. 

It looked risky--the dealer had a seven showing and they had been dealt a sixteen. Everyone else at the table folded or busted. "Hit," she urged, purring out the suggestion to the stranger she had just bet so much money on. It might not have been dragon riding, but there was still a nice flow of adrenaline with taking this kind of risk at the blackjack table. She loved gambling--and loved how easily her opponents could be distracted by her beauty and allure. It was why a lot of casinos were not very fond of her type...but this shithole had always welcomed her with open arms, happy to have her helping them take the coin of others, even if they had to pay out a good bit to her along the way.

ENNIS MCGOWAN  |  OUTFIT  |  700+

And I feel awkward
_{as I should}

Despite the years of being alone, despite the times that he had tried and failed to just set his cap at someone, Ennis kept finding himself hoping that one day his wife would come back That someday, sooner or later he would come home and she would be sitting there on their couch with her long blonde hair in a messy bun grinning at him like he was her hero or some shit. He had had her declared dead though over the summer, it had been long enough and her things were no longer in the house, he hadn’t even bothered to sell anything but the jewelry that she had left on her nightstand, sentimental things from his mother. Had it been hard? Of course it had been, but it was time that he learned to let shit go. It was time that he took a step into the future with both hands open. Because lingering in the past would only make him like his father and that was the last thing that he needed really.

He had taken a sip of his drink when she came over towards him. He was half paying attention as she came to him and put the chips on the table, but her arm around his shoulders prompted his left arm to go around her trim waist and look at her with his rugged smile. ”Perhaps I already did, lass.” He said in his thick brogue and then looked to the table as the others watched them. She urged him to hit and he turned his face to look at her, his hand on her back pressing her tighter into him before he looked to the dealer and nodded his head.

He liked to live on the edge, he rushed into battle and bore the scars, he didn’t hesitate when it came to booze or one night stands, he didn’t try and hide things like how he felt about things, he liked to live with his heart on his sleeve, but it didn’t get any easier really, nothing got any easier when it came to life even with the ghost of Moira lingering in the back of his mind. He didn’t even watch as the cards were dealt instead he watched the blonde he had pressed into him and smiled as the others around them clapped and turned his head to see the five before laughing. ”I guess you must be lady luck.”

@katya | OUTFIT | 409

If your body matches
_{What your eyes can do}

The eyes of the crowd welcomed her to the tablet. She could see the dazzled awe in a couple of those who looked her way. They were the most simple minded of the bunch, most weak to the veela magic. Those were the types that some of her pure veela cousins enjoyed drawing in and robbing blind. Some veela liked to teach man-hating to their daughters. Katya's own mother was not that type of woman, but several of her sisters were. Katya was not about that sort of game. She was a love everyone type--even purists had made it to her bed a time or two, and they were the demographic she liked least. 

The man she had taken up next to wasn't like the others. He noticed her, yes, but he wasn't drunk off just taking in her beauty. She preferred flirting with those who were more strong minded. They could be clever and fun. The others were too busy falling all over themselves to impress her. She never enjoyed that. A chuckle rose up from her chest at the man's reply to her initial flirting. She leaned a bit closer, til her lips were close to his ear as she purred out: "Not yet you haven't, but it could surely in the cards for you tonight." 

While the handsome stranger might not have been watching the cards, Katya's eyes were on them as the dealer swept one off the deck and laid it atop the pair in front of the two of them "Yes!" she hissed, pleased the card. Applause came from around the table--but the dealer still had to show his card and possibly take one or two from the deck depending what his count was. Her playing partner made a comment to her and she flashed him a dazzling veela grin. "Oh, you have no idea," the blonde teased, a winked sparkle in her bright blue eyes--they had an ethereal beauty to them, hinting to her veela heritage. 

Her gaze left him to go back to the dealer as the man flipped over his hidden card. It was a six. Six plus seven made thirteen--so the dealer took another card. It was ten. He had busted. They had won. The dealer congratulated them as he  set stacks of coins equal to the pair's combined bet in front of them. There was almost a month's salary for the woman sitting on the table now.  

She was willing to take the risk, but also would welcome a drink and a chance to get the name of  the handsome stranger who now had his arm around her waist. Regarding the man, Katya asked: "Shall we go again? Or would you like to come get a drink with me?"

ENNIS MCGOWAN | OUTFIT | 480

You'll probably move right through
_{Me on my way to you}

He would have never come here when he was younger, he would never have even thought a night like this, not when he had work the next day but he was older and dumber it seemed, he could run on rage and exhaustion for far longer now than when he was a younger man. It was funny to him that it didn’t take much, but he was spending a lot more time behind a desk these days then he would have liked but he knew that he was getting older, he knew that he would be facing the newer younger trainee’s sooner or later. He wasn’t the man that he once was and he would have to accept it. But not this day. Not for a long time and he was not going to wish for that passage of time to come any faster than it was already.

He drank her in like a she was water and he had spent weeks in the desert. She was stunning and blonde. Leggy too, that was something else that he liked, but she had a fire too. Which he found to be even better really, it was dull and boring when their head was empty and full of air. He liked a fight when it came to women, not some simpering half-wit with big boobs and no intelligence at all. He wished, hoped rather that this would not be the case here. She teased him and he couldn’t help but chuckle as he raised his glass to his lips and finished the dark liquid. ”Well, maybe you should stick around then if I am going to be winning like that.”

It was an interesting dilemma that Ennis found himself in. On the one hand, he wanted to keep playing, to either win big or go home empty handed. On the other hand, women like this lass that he had his arm around didn’t approach him often, if at all. A part of him was programmed to assume that was was a prostitute, but that didn’t necessarily have to be true. He didn’t know her, or even her name to be able to say such a thing and he was no one to be judging anyone. After all, he was neutral to most politics. Neither agreeing or disagreeing and rather wishing to go along with things for the greater good.

He would, of course, choose a side if a fight ever came down to it, but he knew all too well thanks to his parents the loss that could be faced by his father and his sister if he were to perish. He would need a reason and a damned good one to risk his life for someone. Up until this point, the only person other than his family that he had considered to be that was Moira and he had been so very wrong. He thought for another moment and smiled. ”How about we get a drink and you can pick the next table?” He asked her before motioning for her to go towards the bar and picked up his empty glass.

@katya | OUTFIT | 520