Determination

If you've been following this story before this chapter was published, please note that I've changed how the casino works a little bit to make players' decisions when they leave more interesting. You now make all conversion-related decisions at the end of your visit.

"I've been foolish." Stacy declares out loud to nobody in particular. "I thought this place was designed to be fun, and fair. But I see now that the primary goal of the Casino isn't to be some sort of high-stakes fetish party. I've been under impression that we are the players and the Casino is the toy. But in truth, we are the toys, aren't we."

"That's deep." Matt nods sagely, and Stacy can't tell if he's making fun of her. "But either way, that doesn't change the fact that today, I'm back in the black. No new conversions for me! My winning streak continues!" He punches the air in celebration.

"If you're even a real person." Stacy mutters. "Tell you what, if you are real, why don't we communicate 'on the other side'? Prove to me that I'm not the only real person here. I've got a good memory. Tell me your email address, and I'll make contact in the morning."

Matt's expression darkens. "Maybe there's a few people here who might take you up on that, but not me."

"Why?" Stacy demands, hands on hips.

"Two reasons. Firstly, the big reason is that you and the other casino goes here are the only people who see me as Normal Suit-Wearing Matt. It's a crazy place, this Casino, but I'm Me here. I don't want you to have to see what I am like when my Conversion is active. And secondly... I just rinsed you for 300 points. 600, if you include the poker game. I don't want you coming for me in the real world looking for ****, where I'm not protected by the magical will of this place and its anti-**** safety mechanisms, and also if we connect in the real world then you'd be allowed to choose me as your target for conversions when you have a winning session."

Stacy is unsurprised to hear that there was something in place to stop her or other angry losers from getting violent.

"Don't worry about that." Stacy snarls. "I understand who my true enemy is now. It's not you, assuming you are a real person. It's the Casino. I understand why there's so many people here now. It's not a truly zero sum game, because of the building 'interest' need to pay to remove conversions. So it's inevitable that over time people will get more conversions than they can pay to remove. Every day there must be more and more people getting added to the Casino's 'collection' of members."

Matt shrugs. "You're probably right, unless there's more rules we both don't know about. But does that mean you're not going to keep playing, and abandon any chance of removing your conversions?"

Stacy thinks for a minute. "No. If I do that, the Casino has still won. But you can bet I'm going to be smarter from here on out. Tell me, has anyone ever won before? Got rid of all their conversions and got out?"

Matt shrugs again. "I... I don't know for sure, but surely a few have!"

Stacy cracks her knuckles. "Then I'm going to join them."

Matt sticks a thumb in the air. "Me too!" He says cheerfully.

Stacy's eyes narrow, but then she smiles. "Your positivity is weirdly, contagious, you know that?"

Matt grins and is about to reply, but then a woman in a waitress's uniform approaches and interrupts them.

"Hi guys, I've been sent to let you know that your time is up. Matt, you're on zero chips, so you can go wake up now." She speaks with a friendly voice.

Matt vanishes before he can even react. Literally he was there one moment, and now there's just thin air. It's really freaky.

The waitress doesn't even blink. "Stacy, you need to go to the Settlement Desk." She points towards a series of tables in a large alcove, where several almost identical women wearing receptionist uniforms are standing, patiently waiting.

The waitress is already turning to leave, and Stacy lets her go. She tries to make sure to slow down and think about what to do next, instead of continuing to act on instinct.

After a minute to collect her thoughts she is satisfied with her rationale, and moves to make one final visit before visiting the Settlement Desk.

"Jeeves." Stacy says in a serious tone, having approached the polite butler.

"Ma'am." He replies cordially.

For a moment Stacy feels like she's being made fun of, being greeted so formally, but it's also possible that this is just how he speaks. He's not exactly a normal person.

"Jeeves, tell me about the Settlement process." Stacy continues. "Before I left you, you said something about a Chip Banking system."

"It would be my pleasure." He nods. "While using any chips you've won to apply a conversion to another person is technically purely optional, there are incentives to doing so. When you give someone else a conversion, you also get to bank those chips. This means that they are available to play with during one of your next visits. This can help if you need to build up a large amount of chips to get rid of an expensive conversion. You can withdraw them at any time but the only way to deposit them again is to use them in another conversion on someone."

Jeeves pauses, giving Stacy time to take this all in. All of this information is useful overall, but pointless right at this moment, since she's had a losing session.

"Is there anything else I should know about what happens when you go the Settlement Desk in debt?" Stacy asks.

"Not much... Oh actually, here's one thing." Jeeves corrects himself. "One option you're given will have something called a 'synergy bonus'. If you choose this option, the amount of chips you can borrow at a time increases by 500."

Wow, that's a lot. Stacy thinks to herself. That might explain why Amelia's conversions were all related?

"Okay, thank you Jeeves." Stacy says simply, and then heads for the Settlement Desk.

Stacy does her best to calm her nerves before she finally brings herself to approach a desk. This is important, after all. She's going to get a new conversion that's going to make her life weirder and more difficult. She needs to choose very wisely to make sure that her real life reputation doesn't get ruined before she's able to turn her fortune at the Casino around.

Stacy steps up, gulping. The receptionist-type lady on the other side smiles warmly. "Hi Stacy. Let's see... 1900 points in debt. You'll be leaving us with another conversion then. So, the first thing you'll need to do is choose if you want any of the modifiers, and then the machine in front of me will spit out six options for you to choose between."

"Um, could you remind me of the modifiers?" Stacy's voice is slightly shaking. Damn, it's impossible to keep herself from feeling anxious after all. In this state she can't even remember everything Jeeves had told her at the beginning.

"In order of cost, Unware, Casual, Matter-of-Fact, Normalized. What that means is that if you choose 'Unaware', your conversions will be much less harsh to make up for the fact that you're unaware of them and so will be unable to mitigate their impact on your life. 'Casual' will be decently less harsh, 'Matter-of-Fact' a little less harsh, and Normalized will in fact make the conversion more harsh."

Who needs Jeeves? Stacy thinks to herself. This woman is just as knowledgable, and more clear.

Stacy wrinkles her brow as she considers her decision. Her biggest fear right now is damage to her public reputation, and it would seem that choosing 'Normalized' will pretty much entirely resolve that issue.

Whatever the consequences, surely it's worth it in the long run.

"I'll choose Normalized." Stacy announces.

"Right you are!" The receptionist smiles at her and speaks in an upbeat tone, but there's a subtle hint of pity in her eyes.

Whatever the receptionist is thinking (if she even can 'think') doesn't stop her from pressing a button on the tablet in front of her, causing six differently coloured pieces of card to slide out of some sort of ticket machine to the side. The receptionist picks them up and hands them to her, allowing Stacy to read her potential fates.

• Behaviour: Watching **** porn
• Obsession: Lewd body augmentation
• Trigger: Alone with a man: Try to perform oral sex
• Perception: Unable to understand: People who haven't seen some of your latest nudes (synergy bonus)
• Aura: Unwitnessed friends & colleagues: Sexual pranks
• Rule: Smartphone: Not in use: Kept in vagina; sound & vibrations at max

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