List: Em's Mostly Random Word Generator List #1
Number: 25. Entrancing
Story of Origin: Imperium
Character(s): Charles A. Aberdeen, Teqatia
Warnings: None.
Use: Miscellany
Scenario: An unnamed bar, two lonely souls.
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Either she was alone or she had someone and was doing a very good job of hiding it. There were only a few reasons a woman went to a bar by herself dressed like that at this hour. Whatever her situation, she was here for the same reason Charles was: to forget.

As she made her way to the bar, Charles studied the stiffness of her gait, the pinched frown thinning her painted red lips, and the makeup trying to obscure the tired sagging circles under her eyes. She was a gazelle, thin and long and awkward, more accustomed to running away than walking. Her movements were jerky and wary, but sluggish. She was tired. She had trouble getting to sleep.

The separation of colors in her chin-length hair was quite distinctive, like someone had drawn a line around her head using a level. All the hair above the line was light blonde. The hair below, brunette. She had a very pointed nose and slightly sunken cheeks accentuating the sharpness of her cheekbones. She blinked a little too often and her hands were poorly-trimmed. The bracelets on her arms threatened to slip straight off her bony wrists. Her hands shook a little as she put her purse down on the bar and ordered a drink. It took some effort for her to pull herself onto the stool. She was thinner than could be thought attractive to anyone outside a runway.

She was absolutely beautiful. Underneath the cowardly makeup and the sickly-looking boniness of her malnourished figure -- Charles could see past of that -- was beauty. It was entrancing. She did not notice him, sitting half-hidden in a shadowed corner, but he could see her clearly. He could see the diet of leftover crumbs and alcohol, the depression she hoped to hide and refused to admit or confront, the dependency she had on her vices. He could see, too, the fire burning deep within her.

For all his years, Charles did not think he had ever seen something quite like her. This, he recognized, was the aftermath of a broken greatness.

Against his better judgment, Charles abused his security privileges and ran an ident check on her. Teqatia Endruis, archaeologist and historian. No friends or family to speak of. He filed this information away. Someday, he would save her from her self-inflicted misery, but not today.