Welcome to Gaia! ::

This roleplay has sparked my interest, mind if I join? My character is a 20 year old, black haired, blue eyed girl called Sapphire.
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Night. Sounds cascaded like water droplets in a rainstorm down onto the street, adding to the blaring noise that already held residence there with the thousands of wandering people. Las Vegas was always busy at night. Sapphire picked her way through the crowds, trying to avoid being stepped on and carried away, or being discovered, for that matter. The black haired girl coolly surveyed the neon signs that flashed above the streets, bathing the moving masses in blinking lights that were all colors of the spectrum. Stopping in front of a deceint hotel, she looked up to the skies to find black nothingness. The lights canceled out the stars in the heavens. A motorcycle purred by the curb, two people sitting on it. Sapphire blinked, unimpressed, but interested in these people. She felt some sort of connection with them. But there was no reason to approach them, there were thousands of other people walking the streets. Yet... She shook her head and took another step back, her thin frame outlined by the glowing lights of Las Vegas.

Powers... she reflected. Some power, I couldn't even stop my mom from leaving! Her glass blue eyes blinked back tears at the memory of her mother slamming the door on her, screaming, "You live on your own! I have no daughter!" Her father was long dead, killed in war. Her mother was ignorant and full of herself for being an actress who played a background character in one film, so full that she denied her own daughter's needs. But now she was dead, killed in a car accident that very night, drunk. Sapphire sighed, wishing that she wasn't a Story-Teller.
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So... How's that for a start?

Sapphire- That's an awesome start. Want to meet us at the roulette table? wink
Moonthief - Are you still with us? ^_^*
Cronos - No worries. I totally get the demands of family, work and life, especially at the end of the year.
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"Sounds like a plan to me," Maddie replied. They parked her bike, took a few seconds to stretch their legs, and began walking towards the hotel. Then an idea struck her and she pulled Niteshade to the side. “I think we're going to need some new clothes if we're going to be successful here. At least I'm all frumpy from travel and it might be a good idea to look...different. I'd like to try something. Could you draw me a dress? Like a swanky, sexy sort of dress?”

Niteshade nodded and flipped to a blank page in his notebook. He quickly outlined a simple cocktail dress and flipped his book around to show Maddie.

“Perfect.” Maddie touched the dress with one finger and said in a haunting, singsong voice, “Twist and twine, oh threads of mine, until you find a new design, a weave so fine as to incline, every eye to this figure of mine.”

The blue Levi's and green cotton shirt she was wearing tightened around her body, and then started blending together. It was very strange to feel the clothes on her body unweaving and reweaving themselves—almost creepy—even though she'd commanded it. Alarmed, she wondered if her clothes would just fall off her if she got it wrong, but there was no turning back now. She prayed that her little trick wouldn't absorb her underwear as well. She made a mental note that the next time she did this, she'd find a clean lady's room first.

Fortunately, perhaps because her undergarments were of a different material, they stayed in place. In less than a minute, she was wearing a cocktail dress much like the one Niteshade had drawn, straps barely wide enough to cover her bra straps, and a delicately fringed skirt flaring just above the knees. The green from her shirt had stayed almost where it had originally been, but faded evenly into the blue like a tropical lagoon. Because the fibers were all cotton, the dress had a light, almost innocent air about it for all the sex-appeal in the design. Strangest of all, there was not a single seam on the dress. Maddie had no idea how she was going to get out of the thing, but for the moment, she was content to enjoy her story-book ball gown.

“I suppose biker boots compliment this. Now if only I had some black lipstick and eye shadow,” she said wryly as she finger combed her helmet-plastered auburn hair, then asked Niteshade tentatively, “What do you think?”

Niteshade watched as Maddie made her outfit... nice!! He then mentally slapped himself for following all the curves and having interesting thoughts about them. They had to focus till they atleast got off the west coast. He looks down to his own outfit, it was nothing as eye-catching or looking as Maddie's but he thought he could work with it. After all, wouldn't someone with a little money, have a gorgeous woman strapped to their side while at a casino if they wanted to appear more than they are? He'd fit right in.

"I think you look perfect," he says, "I think we'll fit in perfectly at the tables and not be noticed as long as we don't get too greedy at it. I say maybe a 100 thousand or so should do it, but definitely no more than 250 thousand."

Niteshade held his hand out to Maddie saying, "shall we go floss this establishment my darling?"

"Hi!!! Can I join? I can't write a lot but I will try! My name is Ura Ebi and I 'am'' thinks. "14! That was a good for me! I am from Japan because thats the only forgen culture I know something about".
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_Ura was sitting down on the ground drawing. He could bearly write and his reading was even worse but he liked drawing. His drawing book was so filled up with scraps of paper and card board that it could bearly stay together. Infact it was taped, sown and bound in many places, so much so that it was nearly impossible to see what color it had been. His cloths where not much better. However he was ok with his life. It was his own falt in his mind.

_The first time he and his mother had writen a story together it had been a tragity. In the story the main characters house had burned down, killing the characters family and leaving the boy alone in the world, with no one to help him or look after him. The character had had only a drawing book from his mother to remember his family by at the end of the story.

_Ura him self had turned out like this so he knew that he was evil and should never tell a story again. So he sat and drew on the street in hopes of getting money to live on.

"Hi!"
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_Ura saw a gambling house up ahead and went to sit out side. He could make good money off the drunks if he was lucky. Sitting down out side he took out one of the few blank papers he had and started to draw a fairy, using a hand made paint brush and ink. He made a picture of a fairy fluttering around a lily flower pond. There where roses in the back ground, and behind that, a kingdom. Slowly he began to sing an old song his mother had sung to him.
_"I am shadow, dark, cold, good. I am sun, worm, light, good. I am rain, wet, cool, good. I am tree, old, strong, good. I am flower, weak, tiny, good. I am cloth, new, soft, good. I am Ura. I am all things, but most I am good".
_Looking up he saw an old drunk man leave with an old drunk woman. They where both laughing and rambling on. Smiling he whisperd. "Ji-san, Ba-san now, always good lucky day, good lucky night, good lucky life"

While Maddie made the bets, Niteshade was observing the other people around the table without directly observing them. He was trying to find his patsy in the upcoming rounds. There was a middle aged lady better very conservatively with only red or black bets, a few gentlemen half-playing but more just talking to each other, and then there was a gentleman making many bets each round in a desperate playing style. This was the person he was looking for, his disheveled clothes and hair went right along with it. Smiling and nodding at each win so far when asked he responds, "Wonderful time darling. You seem to be doing great."

Just then Sapphirianna sneezed and drew everyone's attention. Taking his chance he whispers under his breath, "Lady luck is visiting tonight. Desperate gentleman in unkempt clothes, has been kissed and wins fortunes untold. For 15 straight spins his luck is unmatched, then life goes back to it normal code. Best use the time, while his star is bright."

He felt some power coursing through him and out into the room as he finished his words. Satisfied he says, "Bless you m'lady," then turns to Maddie continuing, "best make our bet dear before the round starts."

Taking a chip he places it on red square without any other words and they watch as the lucky individual now plays his last chip on number 13. The wheel spins and the ball twirls its dance to land squarely on number black 13. As their bet is taken away he says, "Ahhh, seems our luck has jump ship m'dear. Try again and see if yours is any better."

The winner was flabbergasted... seems he hadn't really won all night long apparently. Taking his winnings he thinks he got it figured out and starts just betting a single number, hoping to continue his streak not realizing his bet would win where ever it was for the next 14 rounds.

So now they just had to lose another round or so, and then take the cue and just follow the bets of the winning gentleman at the table.

Uke...I'd suggest reading up a little on the Venetian, if that's where you're going to join us. It's not really a "gambling house." More like a "gambling palace." And they're very particular about who they let onto the gaming floor. If you look underage, they will card you, so it would be a very attention-drawing feat of story telling for your character, as young as he sounds, to not get thrown out.
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Clever, and clever-er, Maddie thought as she put her three chips down on the line that included the number the suddenly lucky man had placed a tall stack of chips on. Win 3, loose 2, follow someone else's lead. Much more inconspicuous, and now they had enough chips to play with, without actually risking their savings.

That one girl, though. Dark, blue-black hair and those hauntingly crystal clear eyes. The way she was watching Nitshade unnerved her. Much to attractive to be an average gold digger. Perhaps a high-stakes predator. Maddie suddenly felt very protective of her new friend. If that woman tried to get her claws into him, the casino could very well play host in an impromptu cat fight.

Absently, she collected her winnings and placed another bet, 5 chips this time, making a show of choosing between three numbers before placing it on the line including the lucky man's number. Another win. Their pile of chips were growing very satisfactorily. She planned a loss next, loosing maybe $1000 before joining the lucky man in a single-number bet.

The bets went through, and Maddie was now hording a small pile of chips that she estimated to be at least 25 grand. Not a bad return on her first $1000. Still, they were traveling to Europe, and the American dollar was rather weak across the pond. Another 5 chips on the line that included the lucky man's bet. Another $5500 in her pile.

That black haired woman wasn't making any bets. She was just watching. her eyes drifting over to Maddie and Niteshade. It was starting to annoy Maddie. She figured another $30,000 and the shift at this table would be done.

Sapphire noted the girl's nervous stares at her. She backed off a little and watched the man as his excitement grew. She smiled faintly and continued to watch with little interest. She was more focused on befriending the two standing across the table from her. A woman, quite an ugly one for that matter, shoved in beside her. The woman had way too much makeup on and the furry coat she wore overtop a bright lemon yellow dress made her look ten times bigger than she was. Did she get dressed drunk? Sapphire thought with disgust. The way she was eyeing the men around the table unnerved her.

"Lady Luck has truly blessed this man in disheveled clothing, a woman in lemon colored dress eyes him. Looking staight from one to another, she decides to take him for a ride." Sapphire sighed with relief when the woman looked from the Storyteller beside the one red-headed girl to the one lucky man. She seemed interested. "I hope that saved a catfight from happening," Sapphire muttered under her breath.