"All in."
The sweaty little man across the table pushes his meager pile of money to the middle of the table, raising a few eyebrows, some of the other men forced to go all in with their even smaller piles. They all wanted to stay in, to have a chance of winning back what they'd lost so far to the pale-skinned stranger. His eyes trace over them slowly, reading them from above his cards, his eyes narrowing just slightly as he reclines in his chair. He was much more at ease than all the other men, his fingers glinting with small rings at the moment. He'd won those in the last town off some poor sap who had himself taken them off of stupid folk who actually thought the man was honest.
Avery "Ivory" McCree was not like that swindler, however. Ivory was a cheat, yes, but no one would ever be able to prove that, for no one else knew his secret. His eyes trace to his cards...Aces and eights...then back up to the others. He could only smile as his free hand moves to push the fur coat off of his shoulders to rest on the back of the chair, watching the tiny blonde totter around the table, as carefree as ever. She peered over shoulders, giggling to herself and her brother at the fact that the first man had nothing, he was just desperate. The second man had two pair. Had Ivory not lucked out and gotten a full house, he'd have been in trouble with the small, sweaty man, however, for his sister had told him that he had three of a kind...all kings. All of them turned their eyes to the man who never seemed to sweat under pressure.
"I call."
With those two words, Ivory shattered their hope, for as he spoke them, he tossed his cards to the table to reveal a full house, aces and eights. One man started to cry openly, which was quite odd until he spoke, sounding as if it were meant to be an inner monologue, yet his lips moved and small sounds drifted to Ivory's ears as he murmured. Iris, too, listened in, laying her ghostly head on her brother's shoulder, who felt the barest of weights upon his flesh at her touch, the man muttering that he'd never have gambled if he wasn't sure he was going to win. He'd been on a fifty game winning streak, yet Ivory, on his own four hundred and fifty one game streak, had just broken it. He had just bet it all to try and get enough money for his mother's medicine as he headed towards the place near her house on the train.
"Avery...please be nice just this once and send him off with something?"
Turning his head at the spirit's words, his teeth coming to worry his lip as his left hand's fingers move to his chin to stroke the goatee there, the facial hair normally coating his upper lip trimmed down to a thin line, Ivory seriously considered saying no. He couldn't turn down his little sister, however...he still felt that he was the reason she was dead in the first place, after all. As the man started to get up, he reached out a hand, dropping it on his arm and forcing him back into his seat, letting the other two wander off. They cursed him colorfully, the least of those curses calling him a scum-sucking sack of filth from the netherworld, though not quite so censored in language. Once the two had departed this train car, Avery divided the winnings into thirds, then took a bit more out of one of the other thirds, taking the most of it for himself and sliding the amount that totaled just a bit over a third of the winnings to the crying man.
"Here...I know what it's like to have a sick parent. You better be telling the truth, though, or I'll find you."
Iris gave him a stern look, yet still she rested her head on his shoulder, the man across the table staring at him with a blank face for a moment before a smile broke his lips. He began to sputter out his thanks, assuring the man that his mother really was sick, thanking him again and again for the money, for it was more than he'd won in the fifty games he'd played so far. Ivory gave one of his rare genuine smiles, tipping his head just slightly and stroking the goatee once more as the man tucked away his money. It wasn't often that Ivory McCree, bounty hunter and "professional" poker player, was so generous, but it wasn't often that Iris asked him to be nice, either. She knew the way of the world, being a victim of that, yet she also knew when someone was being honest and she'd sensed it in that man who was walking away. When he, too, departs, Ivory scoots back and pulls his fur coat over his shoulders, standing next to Iris and stretching, speaking plainly to his sister, as honest as he ever got.
"I love you, Iris. I miss you coming and jumping in my bed when it storms..."
His eyes glittered for a moment before his head turns, wiping his fingertips beneath his eyes as he starts to tuck away his earnings, the small spirit of his sister, still dressed in her Sunday best, tucking herself to his side. Even if she was mostly transparent most of the time and she could walk through most everyone, to Ivory, she was almost solid at times. He could feel her weight upon him, however cold it may be, reaching down to scoop up a coin rolling away on the tabletop, tossing it at the passing boy in the train car. With an astonished "Wow, thanks, mister!" the boy dashes off, tucking away the small coin in his pocket. Though Ivory McCree wasn't generous with adults on a regular basis, he often gave children coins here, maybe a dollar or more there...it made Iris happy to see he still cared for children. Even as he tucks the money into his pockets, he murmured to himself, reviewing what he'd heard mentally as he did.
"Now...if my sources was right...all the chips should be gettin' on the table soon and this huge bounty'll be somewhere near here..."
