In Vino Veritas (open to anyone)

[Sanis Prent]

*clink*

(I stacked the spent shot on top of the previous ones, and returned to my stim, lifting it up from the ash tray, flicking it, and returning it to the corner of my mouth. With my other hand, I spread out the cards I was holding. For a moment, there was silence, permeated only by smoke and background chatter. The others at my table drifted away into amorphous blurs of color as I shifted my attention front and center.)

Two.

(I pulled two cards from my hand, laying them face-down. Paying my dues, I threw three more chits to the center of the table, and finally looked up from my hand at everyone else.)

Alright ladies & gents, whats it going to be?

(A waitress passed by, and I raised a hand with three fingers extended, and pointed back down to the table. She looked, gave a "its your funeral" shrug, and went off to get my drinks. I'd been at it for a few hours. Lost some. Won more. I was walled in by credit chits and spent shot glasses, and the acrid smell of glitterstim. My hair was a mess, far more than usual, and I'd begun to sweat, thanks to the whiskey and the body heat of a few hundred people in a bar. It wasn't an unusual position for me, but maybe one I hadn't been through in quite a while. It was one of many old ghosts of my past that I still couldn't shake...and it was always so convincing to go back to it.)

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal frequented the bar, in search of some fresh bodies to drain. He grinned lightly, listening to the symphony of heartbeats, pulses, the music, and the murmur of the crowd as they all talked incessantly. He then noticed the sweaty young gentleman playing the game. He was always one to have a good time with a game. So, ordering a bottle of the galaxy's finest 'bloodwine,' he took the bottle and the glass from the waitress and headed over to the table. Hannibal sat a seat away from the young gentleman, giving him his space, for it would seem that another being beside him would exude heat. Hannibal, despite the heat in the crowded club, was cool to the touch, as usual. He motioned his hands fast, to fast for the eyes of the human to follow, and had the cards in his hands almost instantaneously. He gave a smile, not revealing his teeth as he fingered the deck, opened and poured himself a glass of wine. He took a light sip. What good drink! His lips wetted and unparched, he spoke.

"What might the game be tonight, good sir?"

[Sanis Prent]

(I killed another shot of bourbon, the feeling long-since deadened in my throat. For a moment, I said nothing...just stared across at the newcomer.)

...

(I turned away, pouring up another shot, as I set my hand aside.)

Poker. Five card. One thousand minimum.

(Upending the shot, I slapped it flat against the tabletop, the sound cutting through the immediate background chatter. I motioned for the deck, and shuffled it up while looking away from the newcomer.)

Open seat if you've got the creds.

[H. A. Ferenczy]

"Ah.....I know of this game a little.....and a thousand is simply small change in my coffers....."

Hannibal flipped a credit chip of ten thousand.

"I am sorry, young one, but that is the smallest I have....will that do?"

[Dares Resate]

If there was something Dares couldn’t resist, it was a sapid game of cards. He had been here on business, and business was never complete without a little bit of fun thrown in the mix. His eyes had been fixated on the sly knave doing the dealings. He had been mapping him out, and studying his specific reactions.

After all, poker was more of a mind game than anything else.

Finishing his drink, he calmly approached the table and seated himself with a brief nod addressing the two. Removing his hat, a pale, aged face revealed itself in the dimness of the overhead light. Slicing through the smoke, he offered a bent smile towards Prent, assuring his spot in the game.

“A ten thou?”

He scoffed at the man’s gesture, before settling back in his seat.

“Suits me.”

[Sanis Prent]

(I made a slight gesture over my shoulder, and the waitress approached. I took the Vampyre and the stranger's chits, and added a third to these, with a 9,000 value.)

We've got two more guests. Break these down for us.

(Waiting for the waitress to return, I poured up another shot, setting it aside.)

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal turns his head slightly to speak with Sanis, but asks a general question for all to answer.

"So, what kind of business are you in?"

[Sanis Prent]

Pharmaceuticals, mostly.

(The waitress returned with the chits, arranged in three trays, and sorted by denomination.)

I own a pharmaceutical import business on Kessel, but I also control a small software firm on the side. In addition, I'm on the board of trustees of GNN Media, and have some interests in the Sector Rangers.

(I rolled a chit down my knuckles, and caught it again, to repeat the process. Once the chits were passed out, I set it aside, and began to deal.)

I like to keep a diverse portfolio. You never know when you'll need a break somewhere.

[H. A. Ferenczy]

"All to true, good sir...all too true..."

Hannibal smiled.

"Personally, I am unemployed...but have money, and as to how I obtained it is for me to know and for none else to find out, lest I inform them...it might interest you, but it could be quite gruesome...."

Hannibal took a sip on his drink, swirling the contents in his glass. While it seemed that his free hand did not move to Sanis, it took up all the rolling chits with such speed that they were less than a foot away from Sanis' hands before they appeared ordered by Hannibal's 'unmoving' hand. He grinned, his eyeteeth showing only slightly.

"Sorry if that seemed a bit fast for you.....would you like me to slow down a bit?"

[Eloysia Grant]

The men playing cards caught her eye almost immediately as she stepped into the bar. It wasn’t just the dastardly condition of the stim smoker either; Eloy’d been going to meetings to help ease the itch to gamble for two months now. She’d been clean for three days.

As she moved from the door to the bar, Eloysia ignored the stares. Her jeans were as good a candidate as any for a tightest pair in the galaxy award. At least with her flimsy appetite and Pilates holos she gave the masses a pleasant view. Her laid back attitude was only intensified by the muscle tank shirt, dotted with a rhinestone peace sign design, and aviator shades. Eloy, though she would hardly admit it, enjoyed the looks from half-inebriated men.

“Amaretto, with a twist of Johnnie Black.”

So much for AA.

It was a concoction that she had stumbled upon as a teenager that most people wrinkled their noses at. Most people.

As soon as her drink arrived, Eloy moseyed over to the poker game. She would just watch, that was all; a tribute to the good old days.

“Mind a silent observer?”

[Dares Resate]

Brrrrft.

Glancing downwards, Resate checked the vibrating device that had just disturbed his play of the game.

SNITCH

The text was plain to read in Dares' eyes, as he quickly put it away and adjusted his stare back to the gentleman before him. He had to bail, credits or no credits, he had to get out of Coruscant.

“Gentlemen,” he began to rise from his seat, suddenly noticing the approaching woman. “I must depart for the night, I'm sorry to say.”

He forced a grin, then glanced to the woman and his stash of credits resting on the table. Surely they wouldn't take kindly to his removal of bets from the game. Hell, he could afford losing some for the presented situation.

“Take over, will ya?” He winked to the novel female, who seemed to be only observing for now. He gestured to his place at the table, his credits still stacked neatly before his seat, then just as quickly hurried out of the door.

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Noting how the heartbeat of the other man at the table became faster as he looked at the vibrating device, he knew what was coming before the words left his mouth.

"Gentlemen, I must depart for the night, I'm sorry to say."

As Hannibal had noticed the new pulse as she entered the casino, he sipped slightly on his blood-wine, sitting the glass down. As the man got up and left, asking the woman to "take over, will ya?", he left the building in a veritable hurry. Hannibal motioned to the vacant seat, a gestured invitation for her to sit. Noticing how she seemed to look at the table with doubt, he spoke to her verbally, with a smile.

"You need not be worried. Besides, it is not wrong for you to gamble this game.........for after all, it is not your money..."

[Eloysia Grant]

Before Eloysia could protest, the man was gone, leaving his sopt at the table open for filling. It was like taking an emaciated homeless person and offering them a bantha steak.

With hesitant effort, Eloy shook her head and downed the rest of her drink, willing herself to bring out the gusto she would need to refuse her screw-all tendencies.

"No, I'm sorry, I really can't."

[H. A. Ferenczy]

Hannibal slid the neat pile of chips towards her.

"Then I am sure you would not have trouble taking these chips off of our hands? I do not need them, and I doubt that Mr....Prent needs them...."