Hate, Fear And Luck

Participants:

nelly_icon.gif shannon_icon.gif

Scene Title Hate, Fear and Luck
Synopsis Nelly ruins Shannon's luck at the blackjack table, then they discuss the current dark ages.
Date November 3, 2010

The Corinthian: Casino


Early evening on a Tuesday is a dull time, really it is. At least it was for Shannon McPherson. And she's decided to ease some of that boredom by heading to the Corinthian and taking in a few games in the casino. She was bundled up, of course, in appreciation for the weather, but the coat is now sitting in an empty chair beside her, while she sits at a blackjack table.

There's a decent pile of chips in front of her, and has two cards resting on the felt. A jack and a face down card. She peeks at t he hole card, then taps the table, and the dealer slides a five in front of her. Another five is flipped up, giving her twenty and a smile on her lips. It may be a dull night elsewhere, a miserable time outside, but in here, she's having fun.

Nelly couldn't agree more. However, that is also exactly what she was counting on. All the restless souls flooding in to seek entertainment made business so much easier. She makes her ways lowly along the aisles, weaving between tables, glancing this way and that with hands stuffed into the pockets of her sweater all the while. Eventually she pauses near Shannon's table, smiling as she sees the twenty dealt. "Seems like a lucky enough table."

With that announcement she settles herself down into a free seat at the table, drawing one hand out from a pocket and placing a small stack of chips onto the table. She keeps one hand in as she waits on the dealer, twirling it between her fingers. "'lo." She eventually says in greeting to Shannon, tilting her head in a slight nod towards the woman.

Shannon glances over at Nelly as her cards are taken, chips doled out, and she grins. "Sure as hell is for me, anyway. Up a hundred and fifty so far. Though I've told myself I'd stop at a hundred." The grin turns a bit sheepish and she shrugs. "Winning's addictive, what can I say?" She slides chips forward, her opening bet for the next round, and glances to Nelly. "You an addict, gambler or tourist?" she asks.

Nelly laughs softly as she nods, giving a small wave of her hand as she does. "That's always the way right? It's hard to stop until you lose it all." She flicks her own chip out onto the table before looking sidelong towards Shannon, a smirk playing on her lips as she gives a slight shrug. "A little bit of all three I think. What about you? Been hooked to this place long?" She shifts her attention back towards the table as the cards are dealt, reaching out to pull them closer.

"Eh, well, I only brought along what I could afford to lose, so if I walk out of here without a dime in my pocket, it won't break me," Shannon says, shrugging and pulling her cards closer, peeking at the hidden one. "Not too long though. Only just got into the city a month or so ago. Mmm…Maybe late September? This is my first visit here though. You?"

"I visit every now and again." Nelly notes as she takes a peek at her own hidden card, wrinkling her nose up slightly. "I'm never very lucky though. An' you'll never find me a poker table, I swear some of those players are psychic. Hell, maybe they have been." She shrugs. "I generally come out ahead by the time I head on home though."

"Some of them probably are. And it's harder for the casinos to check for evolved abilities than it is for mundane schemes. Bet they hated it when the evolved came out," Shannon says, nodding before looking to the dealer. "Hit me." A jack is added to the jack already showing, and she blows out a breath, flipping up her whole card. A six. Busted.

"Oh, I don't doubt it. A whole new level of cheaters to worry about dealing with. I'm surprised this place manages to stay in business really." Nelly gives a tap to the table and lets out a slight huff of her own as she flips a five to add to the eight and nine on the table. "So close. Maybe I should just stick to the slot machines."

"They probably have evolved of their own on staff, keeping an eye out on the tables, just like they do for regular cheating. That'd be my guess, anyway." Shannon gives Nelly a quick grin. "Slots can be fun. You wanna? More fun with someone to talk to. And with the penny slots, you can't lose a bundle unless you're sitting there for a long time."

"Yeah, likely. Though I'm not sure how you watch out for psychic. That'd take one hell of a pair of eyes I think." Nelly gathers up her small pile of chips after a moment and stuffs them back into her pocket before slipping out of her seat. "Sure, slots sounds like a better plan to me, I think I killed this tables luck when I decided to sit here."

Chips are gathered, along with Shannon's coat, and she rises, waiting for Nelly before heading towards the slots. "Hell, you heard of some of the abilities people have? I'm sure there's one or two just perfectly suited to doing security on a casino. Like, I don't know. X-ray vision or something. I'm Shannon, by the way."

Nelly follows along beside Shannon, seeming content to let her choose which slots they try their luck at. "Who /hasn't/ heard about all of that stuff? You'd have to be living under a rock a thousand feet underground to not have." As Shannon introduces herself Nelly extends a hand her way, giving a tip of her head. "Nel, pleasure to meet you Shannon."

The hand is taken, briefly since they're walking, and Shannon smiles. "Same goes, Nel." She pauses, glances at the slots, then veers off towards the penny slots and sits her butt down on a stool. "But no, didn't mean just the evolved in general, but some of the specific abilities. I mean, they think an evolved caused an earthquake a while back. An evolved was the Bomb. Got telekinetics and telepaths and who only knows what else."

Nelly's hand is returned to her pocket after the shake, the woman giving a shake of her head as she settles into the seat beside Shannon's. "Oh, I know what you meant. I still think you'd have to be purposely avoiding knowing about that sorta thing these days though if you didn't want it in your head." She sighs faintly as she pops a coin into the machine. "Some days I do wish I was under a rock though."

"Why's that? You anti-evolved or something?" Shannon asks, dropping in some coins to her machine then glancing over to Nelly. "But yeah, if you're around people or any form of news, you're gonna hear about the evolved one way or another. It's inevitable."

Nelly tsk's and shoots Shannon a look. "Do I look that dumb to you? Yeah, there are some bad apples with abilities, but there's plenty more bad apples amongst the 'normals' too. They're all people, bad and good, just like it's always been. No reason to hate the good just 'cause they're a little different." A slight smirk curls on her lips as she glances towards Shannon. "Hopefully you feel the same way or else this might get really awkward."

"Hey, I got nothing against the evolved. People are people, even if some of them can shoot lasers out their eyes or look inside my head," Shannon says, shaking that very head. "I'm not evolved myself, but I know some who are, and they seem to try to be better than non-evolved, because they have to be twice as good to appear just as good as 'normal' people."

"Yeah, I didn't think so. Else I might not have bothered speaking up. All it tends to do with ignorant people is make them yell about how right they are and how wrong I am." Nelly shrugs before nodding her head in agreement. "Which they shouldn't have to do. I mean, it's great to try and be a better person an' all, but that hsouldn't be the motivation behind it."

"Yeah, well, unless and until people's opinion changes, it's gonna be motivation. And I don't see it changing anytime soon. People are spooked, and spooked people are what make up the bulk of mobs with torches and pitchforks," Shannon says, nodding and tapping the button to send the reels spinning. "Technology may be more advanced now, but people are still back in the same mentality that caused them to burn people at the stake as witches."

Nelly laughs softly as she shifts in her seat, leaning against the slot machine as she shakes her head slightly at Shannon. "I think the real problem is that people are /always/ spooked about something. Probably always will be too. I think for most people there just always has to be someone or something to blame for what's wrong in their life."

"See? Dark ages. Permanently. You're just proving my point," Shannon says, tossing a grin in Nelly's direction. "It used to be witches, now it's evolved. Who knows, maybe next we'll discover life on mars and Martians will be the next to be burned."

Nelly pokes the tip of her tongue out briefly. "Hey, I never said I disagreed with you. I said it shouldn't have to be the motivation, not that it wasn't." She nods at that. "Everything in the world changes with time except people. I guaranatee if we ever find proof of life somewhere else that we'll end up going to war with it. Fear of the unknown and all that crap."

"That and people just aren't happy unless they have something to hate. Makes them feel better about themselves or something. 'Hey look, here's this guy with one eye and horns. I'm better because I have two eyes and no horns.' Or something like that, anyway," Shannon says, nodding, putting in more coins, sending the reels going again. Cherry, cherry, banana. Bzzt.

"Yep, hate and fear. Kinda sad when you realize that's what a lot of humanity boils down to." Nelly laments. "Ah well, that's enough of that though I think. DIdn't mean to kill the mood or anything with all that sorta talk." She spins back around to face her machine, lifting one hand to fiddle with her glasses a bit as she hits her machine with the area. Unfortunately, a familiar bzzt signals her unlucky streak continues.

"Nah, you didn't kill the mood. It's hard to knock me off my game really. Even these slots giving me nothing isn't killing the mood," Shannon says, grinning. "But, I probably should get out of here before I end up having to shell out a bunch of cash to stay here and avoid beign caught out at curfew."

Nelly smirks and nods. "Well, glad to know I'm not a buzzkill. An' here." She reaches for her pocket again, pulling out the pile of chips from earlier and holding them out her way. "Take these, since I'm still fairly convinced I drained all the luck from that blackjack table. Maybe I'll see you around here again sometime yeah?"

Shannon rises to her feet and shakes her head, taking a step back. "Nah, you keep them. I did pretty decent. Started with twenty five, so it's all good. And who knows, maybe it was the other way around and you'll start winning now that I'm gone," she says, grinning.

Nelly hops up to her feet and stuffs the chips back into her pocket before stretching her arms up into the air. "Eh, like I said, I always come out ahead. If you insist though I might as well go throw these down and test that theory of yours." She drops one arm to her side and brings the hand of the other to her forehead, giving a small salute. "See ya'. Have a safe trip home and all that."

"You too. And good luck. Win big, so you can tell me all about it next time I see you." Another quick grin, then Shannon is heading off and quickly disappearing into the crowd.


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