black diamond. [tag; roman]

Well, this was fun.

With her back against a wall, a tall witch absently fidgeted with a set of thin golden rings. She had a total of twenty but was currently wearing eight as an accessory, two on each of her fingers of her left hand, excluding her thumb. In her right, she held a glass of chilled white wine. Champagne had been flowing but she needed to keep a clear head. Not that she felt threatened or anything, quite the opposite. The plush surroundings felt rather comfortable. Everyone seemed rather polite which Sofia thought was  a bit of an oxymoron, considering what everyone in here did after dark.

She'd had a perfectly nice time so far that evening. Her date for the night, Dieter, had disappeared. She hadn't gone looking for him. He'd agreed to escort her but she didn't force him to spend the night with her. Maybe he'd gone for a drink or maybe he'd gone for a wander or maybe he'd met someone. Her big dark eyes followed a handsome man in a well fitting suit. His jacket was understated but undeniably expensive. He'd tried hard but passed it off effortlessly and honestly, she was a little bit jealous.

The Italian's long dark curls were pulled back into a chic chignon that rested against the back of her neck, the low light making her chestnut tresses seem to shine. Her eyes were tastefully made up in a classic smoky eye, dark but with a hint of playfulness as she wore a thin line of gold across her upper lash lines. A slack of deeply red lipstick completed her look.

She'd ditched her usual uniform of black, perhaps out of  boredom or to partake in a private joke with Dieter. She wore white. A slinky floor-length gown that had a bit of a train, heavy and laden with intricate beading and full sleeves. It fit her like a glove and clung to her curves in a way that was almost indecent. In reality, it was almost a blush pink in the cosy lighting. White conjured up a lot of things; innocence, purity, bridal, none of which she was. Maybe that was why it was so funny to her.

She hadn't been on the look out for anything in particular but it was always rude to turn down an invitation. Sofia looked down the list of the things available for auction. Sofia had donated something small. It was a slim, solid silver necklace that was encrusted with diamonds. It was centuries old and it was not in perfect condition. It was an obscure object. It allowed the wearer to briefly experience Legilimency. Not as potent as if one was a practicing Legilimens but it worked in a similar fashion. The only issue was  that the necklace was volatile and had killed the last four women to wear it. Sofia had heard that they'd all used to try and discern if their husband  had been cheating on them so she wasn't sure what had caused their demise; the cursed pendant or a panicking spouse.

Her attention was drawn elsewhere as a beautiful stone was shown. It was stunning and had certainly made her look. Set on a velvet cushion, the large, glittering, colourless stone seemed to absorb the colours around it and radiate them in stunning clarity. Imagine that. It could literally match any outfit she wore. Efficient!

She'd heard about this stone before but she'd never seen it. It had once been set into the eye of a Hindu goddess, many moons ago and misfortune had followed it ever since. It made the journey from India to Britain by ship and that was when things started. The ship had an outbreak of cholera, there was a storm that raged for twelve hours and the ship was lost. It was found by a servant boy who assumed it was made from glass and kept it. The stone caused many a bloody battle from ancient rules. It was over 800 carats to begin with but had somehow been whittled down to 200 by an inept jewel cutter in Venice.

It was also a woman's stone. Women were said to be able to wear the diamond safely but if a man were to don it, he would "know its misfortunes".

Swiftly, Sofia tapped the tip of her wand against her disc and held it aloft. It was quickly swallowed in a sea of other bidders which caused her to sigh. She dropped her arm and waited, biding her time as bidder after bidder dropped out. Her disc was in the air again and soon, she was left bidding against one other person. Feeling slightly irked, she looked around for another golden disk but she couldn't see one.

Sofia's hand was in the air still, unwavering, as her eyes scanned the room. She didn't like losing and she especially didn't like being bested. She was distracted by her own thought and suddenly, the crack of a gavel being pounded made her jump and gasp. Her eyes were wide as there was a polite smattering of applause that greeted the winning bid; the winning bid that did not belong to her. Fighting her face, she downed the last of her wine and managed a thin smile as she stapled on her "gracious loser" face. Said face collapsed when she saw the winning bidder as she stiffened as her eyes narrowed. "You."



@Roman Nikula

Roman’s ‘retirement’ had only lasted about a year and a half. It wasn’t the students, or the class, that had done him in, though, it had been boredom. If he was being honest, he’d enjoyed teaching far more than he would have ever thought he would have, but he had missed the rush of being out in the field, doing something new every day. The itch had made it easy to overlook the risks that also came with re-entering the workforce, namely thanks to the fact that he had managed to grab a job with Oogie Boogie, who had enough reach and power to ensure that what risks existed were substantially minimized. It had made the transition from school teacher back to professional curse breaker fairly easy, and the redhead hadn’t looked back since.

And, tonight his job found him in a tuxedo, which was nothing new for the wizard, although he’d taken great pains to make sure he looked his absolute best for the occasion. His role for the evening was to offer assistance as far as event security, and to pick up any interesting items that made their way through the auction. He certainly had a number of choices tonight, too. But most intriguing so far, was a large diamond that was said to carry unspeakable misfortune, and had left plenty of disease, destruction, and despair in its wake to date. It had the added benefit, he’d heard, of being particularly unfortunate for any man who elected to wear the jewel. He was intrigued, there was no doubt about that, and he found it easy to raise his own disc, working the price ever upward slowly but surely. It wasn’t long until most of the hands that had initially been raised alongside his had fallen, although Roman didn’t let himself get preoccupied by who he was bidding against, choosing instead, to focus on the numbers. When the sharp rap of the gavel sounded, the Fin smirked to himself in a silent celebration.

He and Maia would enjoy puzzling this one over, he was sure and he was even confident that Oogie would be pleased with the new acquisition, too. As a reward for his successful bid, Roman sipped heavily on the glass of aged whiskey in his hand, enjoying the slow burn that made its way into his belly. He was feeling arrogant, and for a moment he was content to let himself revel in the feeling. But his celebration was cut short by the feeling of someone’s gaze boring into the side of his head. Turning ever so slightly, the curse breaker found himself meeting the scathing gaze of none other than Sofia Rossellini, the witch he’d caught trespassing on his property while she was trying to dispose of a body. He’d dunked her in the lake for her efforts, and had a good laugh about it, but it seemed the Sofia had yet to move on from their first meeting.

Knowing full well that it would irritate her, Roman shot her his most confident, smug smile, dipping his head in acknowledgement as he made his way through the crowd to where she stood. One perk of working for the company hosting the auction was the premade arrangements with the auction employees, he didn’t have to worry about collecting any items, they would be waiting for him at his workspace in the morning, he’d left very detailed instructions after all. When he’d finally reached Sofia, he winked, still willing to toe the line, finding her obvious irritation entertaining “Ms. Rossellini, you’re looking lovely this evening…in fact you might be able to auction off your gown this evening, as it’s sure to do a bit of enchanting…” he finished, hoping to add fuel to the fire.   

Sofia was livid. She didn't think she was overly competitive but she was a sore loser. In fact, she wasn't particularly magnanimous in defeat or victory. She just didn't like to be bested.

The tall Italian was left standing, utterly stunned, her perfectly made up lips opening and closing to make her look like a rather confused goldfish. The polite smattering of applause that filled the hall made the rage erupt, hot and dark, spewing shame and burning embarrassment like a volcanic eruption. Sofia folded her lips into a thin line, finding it physically painful for them to force into a polite smile but she made it. She didn't like it. She felt like the applause wasn't sincere and that it was around purely to annoy her.

The fact that the person who had effectively stolen it from her was sauntering over to her, like he was some sort of Arabian prince, made her bite down on her tongue so hard that she could taste blood. The fact that he winked actually made her baulk.  Sofia hastily turned it into an action of simply clearing her throat as she rapidly tried not to hiss at him like a cat.

"And you look like a waiter," she was quick to reply with a sunny smile as her large chocolate brown eyes gave him a once over. Begrudgingly, Roman looked well. Looked good, even. Men always looked much better in evening wear. He had the type of broad shoulders that filled out a tuxedo jacket nicely. He and Dieter were vastly different.

The German man looked like royalty. Tall, pale skinned and with cheekbones that could cut glass, he looked ridiculous in anything other than fine robes. This was his destiny. Despite arriving together, they'd sort of agreed that they didn't have to stay together. She wasn't stupid. She imagined he had errands to run and she hadn't missed the lustful glances towards Dieter from either gender. It must be nice to be desired by everyone he met.

Where as the man standing in front of her, hm. The last time they had crossed paths, they'd both been wearing fur and thermal layers and he'd been sporting a shitty beard and had a pack of wolves around him. Huffing, she crossed her arms just under her bust and cocked out her left hip as she scanned the room.

She scoffed gently. "You almost kill me and the first thing you say is that you like my dress?" It was true, she had nearly died in the middle of nowhere in Finland. It had all been Roman's fault. He'd tried to drown her. Hypothermia was setting in and she was struggling and all he could do was laugh at her. Frustratingly, that had been the closest brush with death she'd had in a long, long time. She usually slept rather well after completing various tasks but  back in the medical wing at Tuscany, the prognosis wasn't good. "I was hoping I'd at least get an apology," she added acidly.

"But thank you," she said gently as she ran her fingers over the heavily beaded gown. She knew she looked good. Sofia had never been one of those silly girls who couldn't accept a compliment. She hadn't blushed since she was fourteen. She'd spent a fortune on the dress, the shoes, the jewellery and the make up. Damn right she looked amazing. The only probably was was that the gown was heavy. The beads and the detailing were dragging her down. The skirt was cumbersome and it sounded a little like a wooden wind chime when she walked, all twinkling and light. And the way the dress was cut was putting most of the weight on her hips, cutting into her olive skin. Pain is beauty, she supposed.

"Why?" She asked as she tilted her head curiously with a slow smile. "Will you be the highest bidder for it?" Swiftly, Sofia reached out. Her slim fingers slipped around Roman's glass and she swiped it from him, taking a sip of the whiskey before shrugging. Not really her thing. "I'm excited to see how much you think I'm worth," she grinned. The room seemed to ignore them. For anyone else knew, they were just having a casual chat. "Would you be able to grab me a drink?" Sofia asked sweetly as she drained the rest of the whiskey. "Whiskey's not really to my taste but champagne is," she smiled. Even before Roman's back was turned, she pulled a face and attempted to disappear back into the crowd.