Winter festival at the Bodice

The cards went around as Velatha deftly dealt the cards.  Christie's deck would favor her, thanks to her enchantments.  Velatha's sleight of hand was at work.  Gods only know what the others might've tried to do. And as they finally surveyed and passed cards, Tracer's nose quickly picked up the 'dirty' cards.

The group of them laid out their hands, and with measured interest they surveyed the results.

Christie cursed under her breath with wide eyes.

((the number rolled was... 49... Fuck. XD))

Chuckling with the first hint of nervousness she'd shown all night, a small break in character if you will, Christie leaned forward and looked at the splayed cards. Impossible.

"So, uhm" she cleared her throat.  "It's been a while since I've played," she said with obvious, affected naivety.  "What do these hands mean?" asked quietly with a little gulp, looking around and hoping that what she was seeing was, in fact, incorrect.  There was no way she had lost!  That bloody deck was enchanted... The more keen eyed among the group of them caught Christie briefly "inspecting" an Ace she had in her hand, but when she put it back down, the card was a 2? Surely whoever caught Christie was seeing things...

((Shall we rollplay the card reveal first?))

((Well, I did out of reflex, complete with a little opportunity for someone to call out Christie for turning her Ace into a deuce, if one is bold enough, heh. Btw my original understanding was (I thought) that the ace meant you had to do a dare in addition to stripping, but I actually think this makes it a bit more interesting. Two "losers" per round.))

"Tracer, if you think you're getting out of this after two hands, you're sorely mistaken," Christie said with a wink at the cute lil puppy-kobold girl. She grinned sheepishly at her hand.

"So, I narrowly avoided having to do a dare OR strip, eh? What luck. Who chooses the dares anyway? We should collaborate and agree on something for the losers, hmmyess?" She purred, taking a gulp of her dark ruby drink.

Niniane gestured to a passing server.  "Well, Christie," she continued, "Where did you get this deck?  The values seem to shift as you like.  Let's call that a 'practice' round and have a redux with a non-magical deck, like these over here," she said as the waitress returned with a stack of cards. ((I don't mind my characters stripping, I just don't thinks he'd let that slide.))

Tracer flushed at Christie's insistence that she stay more than two rounds. She tried to keep her focus on the game, and was rewarded when her sniffer paid off. She didn't have the low card or an ace- she was safe!

"Where did you get this deck? The values seem to shift as you like."

"W-whu?" Tracer said, confused. "Cheating? No! Bad beer lady!" She stuck out her tongue.

Christie kept her card-playing face on, dangerously keeping her composure while looking at the cards in front of her.

"That was merely a test. You passed and are worthy to play games of chance with me," the witch said, totally even despite the ridiculous nature of her words. "With the exception of this..." she said, passing her hand over the 2 and revealing the A clearly displayed on it originally, "the deck's result were fair."

"That said, I'll let you all decide if we wish to call that a practice round. Censure me for trying to cheat with whatever you think is fair; we should make an example of those who try to break the rules, no?" she grinned. Of course it would be Niniane with the sort of blithe boldness to point out her chicanery. She sensed Tracer probably also smelled through a lot of her 'bull'. But did any of the gathered party have any teeth, she wondered.

((Oh, shit. I fucked up on the rules. The version I played as a kid had aces high-and I linked a version that had aces low. My bad! In order for this to work, aces have to be high. Nothing changes, just clarifying how this should have worked. Think about it- if you're the furthest from the rolled number from 1-100, then you have the high card! Sorry about that!))

"Nu-uh," said Tracer. "Something smells funny here. Where I'm from, we take cheaters outside and make 'em sit on blocks of... frozen water... melty stuff... ice! Sit on blocks of ice for ten minutes."

Tracer's firm sense of justice would not tolerate any rule-breaking. Rule-bending like her sniffer, however, was fair game. Plus, she didn't want to risk losing the "real" round if they went again...

"Sit on a block.. Of ice? For ten minutes??" Christie said, not quite balking. If anything, behind her eyes there was a strange sort of exhibitionist delight.

"I've... I've never heard of such a punishment!" she said, trying to sound more shocked than excited. The witch shivered a bit.

"Well, hopefully you won't all make me leave the comfort of our little parlor here... But a block of ice I can do," she said casually, gesturing to the corner, where a small throne made out of smooth, foggy ice appeared promptly. "Unless, of course, the rest of you have some alternative punishment in mind?"

"Block of ice sounds good to me," said Niniane, feeling the arm of the throne to make certain it was actually cold, "as long as we don't play with those cards again."

Christie whimpered and looked at the others with a brief, regretful moment of pleading in her temporarily doe-like gaze.

"If... if this is what you all want, I suppose I'll pay the price. Just remember I won't be so forgiving if I catch you all cheating," she said, attempting a grin as she stood up from her comfy, warm seat next to Velatha to approach the throne.

The frosty thing constantly emanated a cool mist, but never seemed to actually melt. Christie closed her eyes a moment as she tossed her cloak back, so as to not be sitting on it. She wouldn't pay the price halfway, after all.

She shivered as she shifted her round bottom onto the smooth ice.

"Whew," she said a moment later. "That's, ah..." she shifted in her seat; she could tell this was going to be... uncomfortable.

"Alright then, can we proceed...?" she asked, trying not to sound irritated (it had seemed so exciting moments ago!), folding her arms indignantly and looking at the table before them.

"Cheating?!" Caterina exclaimed, "That's not fair! Though, I suppose that's the point." In truth, Caterina wasn't above cheating herself, if only she could find a way to do so. But she hadn't, so the assassin assumed the moral high ground.

"I think this calls for a re-deal, and I'm rather fond of the idea of putting you on ice."

Christie shivered, the cold slowly biting into her loins. She wanted to start whimpering already but merely shifted from one sculpted butt cheek to the other.

"Fine fine, yes, yes," she said cooly. "A fresh start."

((Happy new year all! Busy with celebrations and obligations, hope to be posting regularly in the next day or two!))

((Stomach flu is fun, let me tell you. Sorry about that.))

Velatha opted to watch the results of the match in silence, smirking to herself as she watched the other players debate the validity of Christie's deck and her manipulation of her own card. The elf had been sure to glance at the faces of the cards as she shuffled, and had kept track of where in the deck the highest and lowest value cards were... at least she was fairly sure. The alcohol was clouding her abilities in that department to an extent. Regardless, her method had paid off so far.

"If we want to call that a practice round and punish the cheater for getting caught, I suppose I won't object." the infiltrator said, finally breaking her silence. "I'm pretty sure I've got a deck on me, and I can guarantee it's not rigged with any kind of magic."

With that, Velatha reached into a hidden pocket sewn into her tunic and produced a deck of cards. Assuming nobody objected, she'd shuffle the deck to begin the next round. Hopefully she'd get to see some skin this time. (Though Christie's discomfort was certainly an entertaining enough reward so far.)

"And what's wrong with the house deck I've had brought to the table?" Niniane objected.

"Relax, we'll use the house deck," Christie said before any more disputes broke out. "I've apparently ruined bringing your own deck," she chuckled, shivering slightly and shifting in her seat.

"Alright, are we clear this time?" Christie gestured, as if to somehow speed up the process of shuffling, quickly cut the deck, and picked up her hand.

((Alright, so, shall we pick numbers again? I won't roll the d100 until everyone has. I'll go with the number 66 this time.))

((Btw my involvement should improve as of this evening; I'll have a bit more time since my crazy holiday period is winding to a close.))

((I'm down to roll. Should we use ace = dare (aces high) and have the furthest from the number be the dare, like last time?

If so, I choose 25.))

((I choose 62))

Christie rubbed her biceps with both hands, arms crossed in front of her as she wondered why she'd bothered to make the throne so damn cold. Her butt, she kept clenched -- it wasn't exactly numb from the icy seat yet. And at first, the feeling of pressing the spot between her thighs against the cool throne was a bit exciting, if new. She had a feeling tha wouldn't take too long to get old.

((seems reasonable -- closest to to number has to accept a dare from the group, farthest from the number has to strip entirely. I'll try and keep an eye on this thread so I can reveal the dice roll, though I'm about to head out for now XD ))

((I'll go ahead and pick 50 for my number.))

((I've rolled the result already; lemme know when it looks like we have all 5 (6?) picks in, and if you're feeling fancy list them. I'll post the result whenever I can XD))

((Sorry for my absence; hopefully I'll be posting regularly really soon. The number I'll pick is 65.))

(( *grumbles*
Alright, here's what i've got:
Tracer = 25
Velatha = 50
Ninianne = 62
Caterina = 65
Christie = 66
the number rolled was a freaking 100. a 100! I can't recall the last time i've physically seen that rolled.
I'd say i'm picking last next time, but it looks a bit late for that...))

Christie's heart dropped and her brow furrowed as she surveyed the results, her final hand. Her nostrils flared briefly in disbelief, and her pretty lips twisted in a small scowl as she splayed her hand out on the table.

"Ridiculous! How is someone else not cheating?" she spat, losing her composure and shuddering from the icy throne beneath her. Her angry expression softened back to a dour one as the others regarded her with either fear, confusion, or laughter.

"Look at these bloody cards..." she grumbled, not stating the obvious or going through with the results until they were clarified. She'd dealt with some heinous luck in the past, gods knew, but this?

"Go on, tell me what they mean," she sighed, rolling her eyes, and pinching the bridge of her nose. This damnable block of ice was already starting to make her ass burn from the cold, shift from side to side as she did. Sitting there naked? That didn't sound like fun.

((Based on the rules you said above, it looks like Tracer is stripping and Christie is taking a dare. I’m going ahead based on that.

Also, since we’ve got a bunch of OOC posts and rolling in here, would anyone mind if I took all the posts at the end, touched them up a little, and then put them together into a separate document? I could post it as a new thread once we’re done. That way, future readers can get the whole thing at once. Plus we can have as many OOC posts here and not have to worry about it. Everyone okay with that?))

_________________________

Tracer didn’t like the idea of a re-dealing. That just meant she’d have to risk losing again, and she most definitely didn’t want to do that.

Velatha re-dealt the cards, and Tracer liked what she saw. She had no low cards at all in her hand- it was all sevens and up. Plus, she didn’t have an Ace- meaning she wasn’t going to have to take a dare. Now she just had to not get screwed by the person to her right- namely, Christie.

The women passed the cards they didn’t want to their neighbors. Over and over, passing and passing. All Tracer had to do was get rid of her lowest card and pass the one that had the most scents on it. More than likely, it was the lowest card in the hand.

And then Christie screwed her over.

Christie’s inexperience with the game meant that she’d kept the lowest card- a three- in her hand for most of the hand. Only on the last pass did she actually get rid of it, leaving Tracer stuck with a potentially game-losing card.

Tracer held Christie’s three like it was a bomb. Sweat beaded on her brow as she desperately hoped someone else had a two, or at least a three with a lower suit than hers.

The women revealed their hands. No such luck: Tracer had the low card. She was the one getting naked. The fact that Christie had the ace (again) didn’t do anything to make her feel better. Even if the witch was going to have to suffer through more embarrassment, Tracer was still the one in big, big trouble.

“Awwww…” Tracer whined. She buried her head in her arms. "I knew it. I knew it, I knew it. I'm never lucky."

By the rules of the game, she knew she had to strip soon. She really, really, really didn't want to, though. She silently prayed something would save her, or at least postpone her humiliation.