one day this will fade {open}

[Mordred Le Fey]

"I'm usually more of a poker man myself, but I do grace the blackjack table fairly frequently." He replied with a smile, taking another sip of his scotch as the dealer prepared the cards for the next game.

He focused briefly on the deck once more, and anyone who had been paying particularly close attention to Mordred's eyes might have sworn they saw them momentarily change colour, turning gold before flicking back to normal. But when Mordred turned his attention back to Costin, his eyes looked completely normal; surely it must have been a trick of the light. "But consider today's outing special, your education is of vital importance to me. We'll work you up to poker." He grinned.

The dealer dealt the cards again, and once again Mordred was not unsurprised by both their hands. He tossed some chips down, requesting the dealer hit him again. Shooting a glance to Costin, however, Mordred gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head.

[Costin Dracula]

Poker. That made sense. Mordred could probably dominate a whole poker table just with that distressing wink, Costin thought. He was deliberately looking away from Mordred's face at the moment, so he missed the shift in color in Mordred's eyes. He did look over in time, though, to see him shake his head just slightly. Costin looked down at his cards, frowning thoughtfully. It was a good thing he already knew how to play blackjack, he thought, because he was pretty sure all he was learning here was how to do what Mordred told him to do. Nonetheless, if Mordred knew something he didn't, it would be silly to go against him just for the sake of defiance.

Costin waved his hand to stand, and watched to see how the rest of the hand played out. It didn't feel very risky if Mordred was telling him how to win, but also, he enjoyed winning, so he wasn't going to complain. Besides, he'd done enough risk-taking for the night, if he was honest, and was still feeling a little worn down.

"I've played poker, Mordred," he said, a little defensively. "I'm not entirely uncultured. I also have a considerable amount of experience at ballroom dance, and bullfighting."

[Mordred Le Fey]

Choking on his scotch, Mordred turned to stare at Costin. Well, that was certainly unexpected. "Ballroom dancing? Bull fighting? Now that I would like to see. Preferably at the same time." He grinned. "Seriously, I can't picture you bull fighting. Perhaps you're further along on the human experience spectrum than I realised."

The dealer pulled out their cards, and Mordred grinned as he won again, and smirked at Costin. "Lucky you so sensibly decided to stay there, that would have been a bad loss for you." He had another drink, unable to keep the smirk from his face. The dealer prepared the deck again and Mordred looked at the cards. "But I do think we should play another game. Good feeling about this one." He grinned.

The dealer was looking suspiciously between the two of them, and Mordred raised his eyebrows at him in mock innocence. "You look concerned, my friend. Don't worry, I just have a sort of sixth sense about these games." He said, winking at Costin as the dealer looked away.

[Costin Dracula]

"At the same time?!" It was Costin's turn to sound incredulous. Granted, there was a certain dance-like quality to bullfighting, but he certainly wouldn't call it ballroom dance. They were completely different things. "That's ridiculous," he said, frankly. "You'd have to pick one or the other. If you were dancing, the bull would run you through." Surely this was obvious, he thought, but he was starting to think no suggestion would really be too outrageous for Mordred.

He wasn't sure whether to be offended by Mordred's difficulty believing that Costin would have fought bulls. Of course they weren't real bulls anymore, the Spanish planetary system had moved beyond the uncivilized days of murdering animals for sport, and these days all the bulls were holograms. But they disabled the safety protocols for the really risky demonstrations, and Costin had learned all he knew about the sport with plenty of pain involved. Why did Mordred think that was so unlikely?

He looked down at the cards again and put another set of chips down in front of him. "Alright. Perhaps one or two more hands, and then we can see about some poker?"

[Mordred Le Fey]

He couldn't help but laugh at Costin's incredulity. "Dude, you take things way too seriously." He said with a grin, raising his glass to his friend. "But, you know, seeing someone get run through by a bull whilst dancing a waltz could certainly be entertaining on a whole other level."

He nodded at Costin's suggestion, gesturing that the dealer should deal again. He watched the deck carefully, then, while the dealer was occupied, he leaned over to Costin and spoke quietly in his ear. "You'll get an initial total of 8. Hit twice, you'll hit twenty one dead on." He raised his glass again as he straightened up, grinning.

He waited for the cards to be dealt, standing as he looked at his cards and watching Costin with a smirk. "Go ahead." He said arrogantly.

[Costin Dracula]

Costin? Take things too seriously? What an outlandish notion. He took things the exact right amount of seriously, but he wasn't offended enough by the suggestion that he wanted to argue about it here at the blackjack table.

His cards did indeed add up to eight, and he tapped his finger on the table for another card. It was a nine of clubs, and Costin suppressed the urge to glance over at Mordred uneasily. He was supposed to hit on a hard seventeen? Really? But...whatever Mordred was doing hadn't steered him wrong so far, so he tapped his finger again, taking the card despite the dealer's questioning glance. That sealed it right there, anyway; it wasn't as if he was a complete novice, he didn't deserve that little eyebrow raise the dealer was giving him.

The card was, as Mordred had predicted, a four, and Costin smiled, satisfied. "Well, look at that," he said, feigning surprise. "Sometimes you just have to take chances, don't you?" The dealer did not look convinced, and Costin shifted uneasily in his chair. "Mordred," he said, "perhaps we should, as they say, quit while we are ahead?"

[Mordred Le Fey]

Grinning as Costin won, Mordred sat back in his seat and sipped his drink, completely oblivious to the dealer's suspicious looks, or the glance they made up to the camera in the ceiling. He didn't noticed the security moving ever so slightly closer to their table either. He was having far too much fun.

He shook his head at Costin's suggestion, signalling for more drinks and leaning forward on the table. "Nah, we're on a winning streak here, I can feel it." He grinned, signalling for the cards to be dealt again. He more or less ignored his own hand, looking at Costin's with a wide grin. A king and a queen - he knew no one in their right minds would hit on a twenty - but Mordred knew things no one else did, and he knew that the next card dealt would be an Ace.

"Hit." He said, grinning at Costin, his eyes sparkling. "You should hit."

[Costin Dracula]

Costin was growing increasingly uncomfortable with this. Mordred said he knew his way around here, but he seemed to be relying on magic rather than instinct to win at blackjack, and he didn't seem to have any idea how suspicious they would be looking now with these outrageous hands they were playing. Did he never want to come back here? Was he looking to get himself banned permanently?

He hesitated. At this point, he was not doubtful that the next card would be an ace, Mordred had not been wrong yet and it seemed unlikely that he would be now, especially not with that unsettling look on his face. But he was distinctly uneasy about taking that chance. It wasn't even a reasonable gamble. It was something you wouldn't do unless you knew you were right, and the only way to know that was to cheat. Costin didn't like the idea of being labeled a cheater. It wasn't honorable.

"No," he said, shaking his head slowly. "No, that's not a good idea." He pushed half the chips he'd bet on that hand back into the middle, took the other half, and stood up. "I think I want to eat something, I'm quite hungry. Can we please go get some food?"

[Mordred Le Fey]

Frowning at Costin's refusal, Mordred looked at him questioningly. "What? No, dude, go for it - you definitely want to hit." He felt a bubble of irritation as Costin stood up, and drained his glass, following suit and standing up as well. He didn't move away from the table though, and opened his arms to Costin, a gesture of frustrated confusion.

"What are you doing? I told you, I know what I'm doing - don't you trust me?" He grinned. He turned to the dealer. "What card would he have got, show him." The dealer frowned, but pulled the next card from the deck and showed them - an Ace. Mordred turned back to Costin with his eyebrows raised, folding his arms across his chest. "See?"

[Costin Dracula]

Mordred was not taking the hint that Costin had so unsubtly provided, he was still just...doing the thing he had been doing, the thing Costin was pretty sure would get them both thrown out of here and/or banned from the place entirely. He gave Mordred a Look. "Of course it's an ace," he hissed, under his breath, away from the dealer. "I knew it was a bloody ace, I am trying very hard not to get us both evicted from the premises, beaten in a back alley, or both."

For the first time that night, Costin wondered if he might not have more of a grasp on the situation than Mordred did. They were cheating, it was obvious they were cheating, and even if the casino couldn't prove how, they didn't need to. They didn't care how it was done, they just wouldn't want it happening under their roof. For all they knew, Costin could have been sitting at the table with a highly sophisticated card-counting android that just happened to look like a very cocky human young man.

[Mordred Le Fey]

He couldn't help but laugh as Costin hissed at him; he'd sobered up a little outside but not enough that another couple of drinks wouldn't have pushed over the edge into more than a little tipsy again, and he was finding this whole situation pretty hilarious. He attempted to control himself - Costin was clearly not impressed - and as he tried to rearrange his features into a serious expression, he glanced over at the dealer, who was looking pissed off. Mordred immediately lost it and snorted as he collapsed into laughter, holding on to Costin's shoulder as he almost bent double.

The dealer spoke into their comms, and the two burly security guards that had been watching carefully moved to the table, scowling at Mordred and Costin. "Alright, alright." Mordred straightened up and held his hand out to them, palm facing them as he tried to regain some level of control over himself. "We're going, we're done." He put his arm around Costin's shoulders and walked him away from the table, the security guards watching them to the door. "Food." He said to Costin, ignoring the security guys completely. "What are you in the mood for?"

[Costin Dracula]

Costin was certain at this point that he would not relax again the rest of the night, but he was especially certain he would not be relaxing in this place in particular. Mordred's antics had seen to that. He only hoped that he might be able to return on his own sometime and apologize for this entire situation. Ugh, that was an unpleasant thought. Costin hated apologizing, which was, perhaps, a trait he had inherited from his father. He did not like admitting he was wrong, and he certainly didn't like cleaning up other people's messes. But he liked this place, and if he was ever going to come back, he would probably have to do a little groveling.

That was a problem for future Costin, though. Present Costin was currently dealing with Mordred's arm around him yet again, and he tried to keep his expression blank and clear of the discomfort he felt at the physical contact. Why were people always touching him?

"I'd like a piece of pie," he said. He did not want pie at all, but it was the first thing that came to mind, and pie was one of those things humans got all worked up over, so he thought it was a decent step towards the whole human experience thing, if they were still pursuing that.

[Mordred Le Fey]

Pie? Costin was a weird guy, but Mordred appreciated weird, and he shrugged, draining his scotch before turning and tossing the glass at one of the security guards, who caught it with a fumble and glared at Mordred. With a mocking salute, his arm still around Costin's shoulders, he steered Costin out of the casino and into the street, immediately lighting a cigarette and finally letting go of Costin, looking around.

"Alright then, pie." He began to make his way towards the diner, holding out the cigarette packet and offering it to Costin. "So, not big on the whole cheating at cards thing then, huh?" He turned and grinned at his friend.

[Costin Dracula]

Costin eyed Mordred's cigarettes, briefly debating whether he wanted one, before eventually deciding he had put enough chemicals into his body for one night, then changing his mind and grabbing one anyway. "It's not the cheating in itself," he attempted to explain. "It's the part where they take you out behind the building and beat the life out of you and tell you to never set foot in the building again." He put the cigarette between his lips and held his hand out for the lighter.

"You've got to be subtle about these things. Hitting on twenty, that's not subtle, that's as good as wearing a shirt that says Hello I'm Costin and my friend is helping me cheat at cards." He sighed, tilting his head back and enjoying the feeling of the cool breeze on his skin. "And they won't care if they've got proof, they don't have to have proof to ask you to leave."

[Mordred Le Fey]

As he passed Costin the lighter he shrugged. "Ok, I appreciate the negatives behind being banned from the place, but sometimes there's nothing like a good beating to really make you feel alive, you know?" He grinned at Costin. "What's a couple of black eyes, a few broken ribs? You should make the most of feeling alive while you still are, mate."

He rolled his eyes as Costin lectured him on the subtleties of cheating at cards, as if he hadn't already been doing it for years. "Yeah, yeah, alright, I get it. This wasn't my first time." He said with a raised eyebrow. "Maybe I got a little carried away." He took a long drag on his cigarette as they walked down the street. "Apparently that's a habit of mine."