Board Thread:Role Plays/@comment-26104528-20160216181001/@comment-26130256-20160226090931

"The same way I get into most places.  A good forged ID, being a good liar, and enough confidence to look like I belong," Azulius shrugged, keeping his eyes on the road and not the beautiful woman next to him.

"I was in my second-to-last year of combat school.  I had been learning from a good old book about cheating in five-card-draw, and I wanted to try out a few of the techniques.  So I got one of the family's artists to put me together a fake driver's license.  Got in the door, waltzed over to the poker tables and got to work.  Course, it was my first time in a real casino, and I was more focused on my sleights than I was being stealthy.  After I won ten hands straight, the pit boss comes up and gives me the stink-eye.  Even with him watching me like a hawk, I win four of the next five hands.  If I was really trying to be a professional, I would have won less hands and played a little more slowly, but hindsight's 20/20."

"So the boss and one of his goons grab me and carry me to a back room.  They were obviously going to work me over before dropping me in a dumpster or something.  But first they decide to search me for a wire or some gizmo I used to cheat.  No wire, but they find my family medallion." With one hand, Azulius gingerly removed the medallion from his jacket, the cardamom seed glinting in the light of passing street lights and traffic lamps.

"They were still gonna throw me out, but they knew what would happen if they roughed me up.  So they shove the medallion back in my pocket, shove me out the door, and warn me not to come back.  But that wasn't the worst bit.  The guy who ran the casino had friends in organized crime, so he asked them to call the Cardamoms and tell them about their punk soldato who was cheating at the casino.  Dad figured out it was me, and I was in some deep salsa primavera." Azzie smiled a little bit, even though he still felt a little embarrassed at his failure. Everyone had that phase in their youth they weren't proud of, and the mobster was no exception.