[h2][center]Christoph[/center][/h2]
He awoke, head pounding like church bells. He could feel himself bruised and battered, and there was a taste of blood in his mouth. The telltale sign of either a good night out, or... 

He looked around, drinking in his surroundings. He was standing in a stone room, which was odd. He would usually wake in such rooms sprawled on the floor or curled in a corner, or in some rare cases, tied to a chair. Around him were ominous shadows, surrounding a central even more ominous figure. Some of the shadows made strange sounds as they stirred, roaring like beasts. Well, it looked like his first impression was wrong after all.

It had been a [i]great[/i] night out.

Christoph reflexively grasped his fingers, only to find he couldn't move them. Magical restraints, he presumed. He could move his eyes and little else. It was a pity, that he couldn't show the female(?) figure in the center his winning smile. Nevertheless, there were plenty of things he could sense. His expensive clothes were torn and tattered (and he had bought them for so much gold!), but he could still feel a pair of dice poking his side from an inside pocket. His right hand clenched a deck of cards. A pittance of possessions for one of his stature, but he didn't mind so much. Ordinary people would perhaps be fearful being awoken in a strange situation, alone, with no money and unknown enemies. But he wasn't dead, and that was all that really mattered to him. Besides, he wasn't alone.

Maybe it was the orange blur that would pass through the corner of his eyes as he looked around, only to disappear when he wasn't looking. Maybe it was the wiff of brimstone that faded from his senses as soon as he focused on it. Maybe it was the eyes on the joker in his hand, gleeming with malicious intent. [i]It[/i] was still here, as always. He knew that [i]It[/i] would keep watching him, until the day he died, and probably long after that. He didn't know what [i]it[/i] wanted, really, only that it seemed to go to great lengths to wring every moment of amusement it could out of his life. Nevertheless, [i]it[/i] usually helped more than it harmed.

Christoph closed his eyes, content with his observations. There was no reason to worry about things outside of his control. His foggy brain couldn't offer any reason as to why he awoke in this situation, but what did it matter? Soon the memories would surface from the haze of memory, or maybe they wouldn't. He didn't really mind. It wasn't the first time he found himself in this state, and it probably wouldn't be the last. Besides, where was the fun in knowing everything?