cancry | Avaritia Arrival Log

The bartender is a little reticent at first, but with enough money passing hands, he eventually softens up a little to start recounting some stories from his time here at the casino. He tells Ruin that while a lot of the best gamblers tend to keep to themselves and avoid attracting unsavory attention, when you work here long enough, you hear a few things.

First is the story of the dedicated gacha gambler who was chasing after a particular character and spent almost one hundred thousand nova just to buy a big enough stockpile of the game's gacha currency to get what he wanted... only to end up getting the character on the first pull. He's never seen anyone look so enraged over getting exactly what they wanted, he muses.

But that's not really a big fish kind of story. He'll tell Ruin about the really legendary wins if that's what he wants, on one condition – he wants Ruin to explain why he wants to know in the first place.

Oh and he's so into the stories. It's great! 100k? That is a hefty chunk of change. As much as he's here for karmic retribution, though, he wants some inspiration. He's been doing pretty well but-

Is it really worth it? Does it really happen? Honestly he sounds a little bit desperate to hear just one success story, just something to give him a little motivation, if you will. Addictive personality? Well, yeah he does sort of have one and this is half investigation and just... fascination.

Inspire him, barkeep. And he'll be sure to remember you when he wins big~

It takes a bit more cajoling along those lines to get the bartender to speak but he eventually gives in – and is sure to tell Ruin that if he starts running his mouth about any of these stories then he didn't hear it from the bartender.

A lot of the big winners tend to keep to themselves, even if they're well known by the staff – after all, it makes it a lot less likely for you to get mugged for your money if no one knows you have any in the first place. But there's a few stories he knows.

There's the woman who never seems to lose, no matter what game she's playing. You'd think that would make it obvious that she's cheating but here's the thing – she has this absurd streak of luck even on games it's more or less impossible to cheat at. As you can imagine, the management initially wanted to ban her but then they realized that she was actually making the casino more money. On top of the food and drink she'd be buying while she was here, other gamblers would see her winning streak and be encouraged to try imitating her success... which always results in tears.

There's the Biggest Win, too. Or, depending on who tells you the story, the Biggest Loss. A gambler was on a losing streak and more or less throwing money away trying to win anything back and turn things around. She got more and more desperate the more she lost and it was starting to look like she was just going to be another debtor working off what they owe in the casino. But then in the space of one more turn, her luck changed and she won back everything that she'd lost on top of every single nova the house had been betting against her. It was the biggest payout they'd ever see at the casino.

Then there's the space whale. The guy only plays the UFO machines but he's an absolute wizard at them. If left to his own devices, he can clear out a machine easily and it doesn't take him that long, either. Management keep trying to adjust the machines to match his playing so they aren't just handing prizes to him, but he just keeps putting money into the machine until he eventually gets what he wants. The guy doesn't even buy any food or drink – just sits around playing on crane machines all day.

Never lose? Like he's good but that kind of luck sounds like some sort of strings being pulled! Sure she's not sleeping with the Boss?

Which is certainly not the first inappropriate comment but now that he's gotten what he wants you know he's going to try to get the bartender's number or uuuuh find out what time they're off work~

But the lose big, win big story definitely gets his attention. Awestruck by the sheer odds of it. And, as smoothly as possible he does make a joke. "Can you imagine if she'd been in on a day with your Lady Luck?" Because that sounds very much like it could have been a shift in authority, that the woman's desperate greed might have surpassed Lady Luck's easy hold on the casino.

Or it could just be that one in a million story.

Either way ol' boy and his crane machine is very much not on his radar.

Tragically for Ruin, the bartender does not seem particularly receptive to his brand of wiles, but he's at least willing to entertain some more talk on these winners past – so long as Ruin's willing to keep spending money on drinks of course.

Lady Luck gets a lot of that sort of talk, though, unsurprisingly. There's obviously something going on with her and her unnatural luck but she's not telling, whatever it is. They don't see as much of her anymore, but when they do, she always causes a buzz.

You know, it's funny. He'd forgotten until Ruin had mentioned it, but Lady Luck had been one of the players at the table the night that younger woman had pulled off her legendary win.

But that means Lady Luck lost.

Nooot that Ruin points this out to the Bartender. Who's still getting flirty winks and such, even if there's going to be no payout. He's nothing if not persistent.

He does moan and sigh into his drink about how cool it would be to meet Lady Luck... or the girl that changed the Hand of Fate~ Hold on they said she was younger? It's almost too easy to turn a little more digging about when and if either of the ladies comes in anymore to something flirty and playful, meandering dream scenarios that are perhaps a little more genuine because he's been consistently talking at them for awhile, idly munching on ridiculously priced appetizers but also in his third or fourth cocktail in a row.

He's doing his best, though. Trying to watch for anything that pings as recognition or confirmation with the bartender.

The bartender leaves him to his moaning and groaning, only interjecting now and again with a grunt of assent here and there or to continue sliding drinks across the counter to Ruin when they're ordered.

Eventually though, he sighs and sets down a glass of ice water next to Ruin's latest drink and looks to be gearing himself up to say something. He doesn't think Ruin's a bad guy or out looking for trouble, which is why he's going to say this – but he's only saying this once. The casino isn't the nicest place in the world, but the people here don't like trouble. And a newcomer turning up out of nowhere, sniffing around and asking after some of the biggest gamblers really stinks like trouble. The kind of trouble he might want to stay out of.

If he's that determined to try and snipe a win from one of them then he's welcome to try and track them down himself and try. But it's more than the bartender's job's worth to help him along.

Look, it's like something out of a movie, isn't it? New guy swoops in, proves his worth, and wins against all the odds~ People love an underdog story. He loves an underdog story.

Probably because he is one.

But it's sweet that the bartender is willing to give him a warning and once he's sober he'll definitely have to pass some info along to the others but he's in no position to be texting right now. He's good at looking starry eyed and dreamy, honestly. But it's clear he's been cut off, both from alcohol and information.

He's... definitely buzzed enough to push his luck though, asking the bartender one more thing.

With an enormous, shit-eating grin that he has absolutely learned from one Claude von Riegan, even if he doesn't remember him, he leans over the bar, tilts his head a little... and taps his cheek with a fingertip.

"C'mon~ For luck~" Just one little kiss? Perfectly innocent? Please?

The bartender gives him a long, hard look in response, as deadpan as deadpan gets. Sorry, he says, but luck doesn't exactly work like that in this casino. And even if it did, the bartender definitely doesn't have enough in reserve to be puckering up for every sloshed gambler at the bar.

And with that last zinger, he leaves Ruin to his drinks and ambles down to the bar to attend a few of his other customers.

Ruin is going to consistently go out of his way to flirt with this poor man every time he's on shift for the foreseeable future. If pure charm doesn't work maybe persistence will~

And also maybe he'll have a tiny bit of an in if something happens later. ~~Who knows maybe he'll get access to a back break room/storage closet/etc if he's a good boy~~

He can certainly try, but this particular bartender isn't on shift often – it doesn't seem to be a result of their interaction, but a result of there being so many barstaff at this place that the chances of you seeing the same one two nights in a row are pretty low.

On the occasions that Ruin does encounter him again, though, the bartender has become a fair bit more closed off than he was before. He seems to have decided that Ruin is a particular brand of trouble that he doesn't want to be involved with. He'll serve him drinks and treat him like any other customer, but Ruin won't be getting any more stories out of him.

Avaritia Arrival Log

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

u didn't see that

of course not~

no subject