"I think that sounds surreal enough to be fun," he says. The idea of playing cards with a vampire -- his friends back home would lose their minds. (The versions of them that are here have been mostly left to hiss wordlessly somewhere behind and to the right of him. He's gotten fairly good at ignoring it!)

"I'm not particularly good myself. I used to be lucky, but we'll have to see if that still holds true..." There are a few months of extremely bad luck wedged in there now, which are making him doubt his current abilities. "The first time I lost this skull, I managed to win quite a nice one back. Hopefully the next time it goes missing, the luck will hold." Because everyone loses their head more than once. Obviously.