Open [The Kelp Bar] Talk Fast and Don't Blink

[Anouk]

Anouk glanced to the others either side of her before finally sliding her two cards off the table and looking at them briefly. The pictures were beautiful, and for a chime she admired the artwork before appreciating that now was not the time for art critiquing. On one of her cards, Laviku stared up at her with a hard gaze. A God! Good! This was the highest card. The Konti smiled, completely unaware of the value of maintaining a steady poker face when gambling. The man across from her rolled his eyes and muttered something that sounded like amateur.

Her second card was more disappointing: a poet. So she had the highest and lowest card. What did that mean? Now Anouk frowned, tilting her head as stared down at the pictures that stared back at her. With a helpless shrug, she warily placed a silver coin onto the table. Though she was incredibly confused, Anouk was nevertheless enjoying herself.

"Yes, I am a Konti." She replied earnestly to Keeta's first question. At the woman's second statement - which was unexpectedly spoken in Kontinese - Anouk released a sweet, almost musical, belt of laughter. "Thank you, how kind." Her reply was in Kontinese, but Anouk switched back to common to explain to Keeta: "I'm impressed, but you said on behalf of buttered toast, when I'm guessing that's not what you meant?"

oocOnce again, I'm really sorry for the delay

[Demitri Maebourne]

The cheery one said something in what Demitri assumed was Kontinese, and she perked up to listen curiously as Anouk replied. She couldn't recall a time when she'd ever heard that language before, and like all other foreign languages it immediately struck her as beautiful. She'd always thought it would be fun to learn; then again, she'd always thought it would be fun to learn every language. After all, she did hope to go nearly everywhere someday- and she probably would, if she was ever to have a chance of running into her father. The girl was prepared to slip into her reveries when Anouk translated Keeta's words: "on behalf of buttered toast." At this Demitri's face scrunched into a smile and she looked back at her cards, trying to silently determine her chances of getting a good hand. Then Keeta turned to her and said something rather unexpected. "How is Sunberth, anyway? I was born there myself... Does that man with the enormous blue turban still sell fritters at the market?" Demitri looked at the girl with a touch of surprise, pausing for a second before chuckling happily. "Sunberth is as it always has been," she said, her tone not as negative as her words would have suggested. "And he likely does. I never did spend a great deal of time in Baroque Bay, though, so I'm not a very reliable source." This last statement was not an absolute truth; the dark-haired girl had spent at least half her time in Baroque Bay, because therein lied the taverns with the drunkest sailors, the easiest targets for her... profession. Demitri knew by now that there were certain things that would make her appear more suspicious in a place like Zeltiva; admitting that she'd spent most of her life in taverns and hardly ever needed to visit the market was one of those things. "I'm honestly a little surprised that you hail from Sunberth," she went on, hoping that her light fib would glide away quickly. "You don't look like the type. You know, the battle-scarred, dangerous-looking fellows?" As she spoke, the dealer to her right turned over the final card. She sighed heavily- a 9 of quills. Sure, she had a nice enough pair of mountains, but she'd sacrificed enough of her mizas to know now that a pair would be hardly any help to her. It was the type of hand to seem like plenty, but it would only win if everyone else was faring terribly. When the next bet of four copper mizas came to her, she folded immediately, laying the cards flat on the table and sliding them away with a light push. The more temperamental man seemed a bit disappointed at this; he must've gotten just what he needed. Well, he could do without the extra. Besides, maybe it would be fun to pick his pocket later, just for his attitude. If she could make it discreet... Honestly, she'd spent far too much time this season thinking about theft. Looking to Anouk's hand and then Keeta's to see how they'd each fared, she readied herself for the next deal. OOCNo worries! We all have lives... sometimes. ^^; Also, what do you two think about someone getting caught with a God up their sleeve in the next round? Liven things up a bit?

[Anouk]

The Konti leant forward eagerly to catch the slices of the conversation that went on between the two other women. Her common was not perfect, but she picked up that both were from Sunberth, or at least had spent a lot of time there in their youth. This piqued her interest; her eldest sister was currently living there, after all.

"What is Sunberth like?" She asked, trying to keep her voice plain and casual. She did not want to mention her sister living there just yet, in case the two women censored what the city was actually like on the Konti's behalf. If she was going to worry about her sister, she wanted to do so for honest reasons.

The dealer revealed the third card, and Anouk instantly frowned and glanced down to her own hand. What did this mean for her? She saw that Demitri had placed her cards face down and pushed them away from her. The woman's actions seemed frustrated to the Konti; she assumed it was not a good thing. Slowly, and speaking quietly, she leant towards the dark haired woman, "I have no idea what I'm doing," she admitted with a helpless smile. "Would you mind assisting me, just in this game, please?"

She twisted her hand minutely to reveal her cards to Demitri, and Demitri only. "Should I fold or play?" The money was not the main issue in Anouk's mind, but she did not want to make a complete fool of herself.

[Demitri Maebourne]

"What is Sunberth like?" Demitri heard the same soft voice behind her and turned back to the Konti with a curious glance. There was a hint of concern in her voice, she thought; an almost too plain tone that seemed to mask a wealth of potential worry. The Sunberth girl smiled sheepishly, trying to affix a lackadaisical tone to her next words. "It really isn't as bad as we'd make it seem," she offered. "It can be troubling if you are born there... but many areas are really quite nice!" Perhaps she'd imagined Anouk's particular interest in the topic. Still, she didn't want the girl to think she was complaining. She'd had a better life than most, even in the small, sparse flat in the Sunset Quarters. Her smile relaxed as she glanced back at her fellow players. "Why do you ask?" The Konti immediately donned a look of confusion as the third card fell. When Demitri decided to fold, the quiet girl leaned toward her. "I have no idea what I'm doing," she conceded, and the only slightly more learned girl chuckled amiably. "Are you certain I do?" She looked at the cards, taking a moment or two to figure out what they were. Laviku, in this deck, must have been the God of Water- that was a good sign. Demitri grinned, realizing that folding was a good idea. The second was a Poet... of Quills? No... Scrolls. It must have been. The girl saw in the hand of the lithe-looking lad a rolled piece of paper. She nodded to herself as if it further confirmed her point. Even if she was wrong, it shouldn't make much difference in this hand. She leaned in close to speak as softly as possible- a technique she had improved upon greatly after all the time spent lurking in dark alleys. "So, usually you wouldn't play on a pair," she began. "Especially since that touchy fellow looks so confident. I had a pair of Mountains, so I folded. But since you have two Gods, you have a better shot. It's up to you, really." Demitri leaned back, granted another soft smile, and looked off. She wasn't confident that she'd done anything to help, but she enjoyed having someone to talk to over a game that she so enjoyed. Those silent, burly sailors that she'd begun to sit with regularly were not ones for conversation, and that seemed to be all that the girl wanted in this foreign city. Who knew; perhaps Anouk would come back for cards again sometime! OOCI'm back, and so sorry I was gone so long!! I'll try to get back in the swing of things ASAP. Hope this post is okay, I seem to have gotten out of practice. ^^;