Flowers lost the round!

{if@ Opponent's Pile = 2}"Aaaaw gosh dang it!" Flowers complained, stomping her over-sized boots into the dirt and raising little clouds of dust. "I don't wanna give you any of my weapons or bombs or landmines or missiles or napalm or attack drones or illegal gas weapons or chemical X or chemical XX or-"

Robin interrupted Flowers' rambling string of items she couldn't afford to part with by raising one hand and giving a gentle smile. "Not to worry! This is strip blackjack, after all. If you don't have cash to put up as collateral, you can move straight to betting your clothing. If you want to go that route, I'll need everything but your underwear, placed on the table."

"Really?! I thought strip blackjack normally went a lot slower, like piece by piece! Like I'd do my headband, then my panties, then my socks-"

"Why would you do your panties second?"

"Well, it doesn't really matter if I take off something nobody's looking at anyway, right?"

"... That's an interesting way to look at it!" Robin laughed. "But I must insist. Everything but your underwear, on the table. We're playing a shortened form of the game, since I have a lot of opponents to get around to today. Don't worry. You'll be afforded the same privilege whenever I'm defeated."

"Okaaaaay, but only because I reeeeeally want to see your naked butt soooo bad!" Flowers groaned. "Wait a minute! What if I say I won't do it, huh? All you've got is a card table and I've got so many weapons! Isn't this a 'might makes right' kinda situation, when you really think about it?"

"That's a very good point. Thankfully, I've got helpers for just such an occasion!" Robin announced, then crossed her hands to each of her shoulders. When she did, the angel and demon there took flight and began to circle in a spiral around Flowers' body.

Unable to see them, the mercenary blinked her big eyes in confusion, wondering if maybe her opponent had gone as crazy as people told her that she was. Then, she began to doubt her own sanity, as she felt unseen forces tugging her coat away from her shoulders. "Hey! What gives? Do you have a psychic weapon? I want it!" she pouted, as next, her legs were pulled up into the air and her work boots hoisted off one by one. Her legs continued to kick the air as her over-sized khaki slacks were pulled up and off. "W-W-W-Whaaa?!" she gasped, as the chain choker around her neck clicked itself open and then floated up to the table. "Our camp's haunted!"

"No, no," Robin chuckled, wagging her finger back and forth. "Just the magic of a good game." She then switched over to telepathy. "Colline, why did you leave her the shirt? Isn't it supposed to be bra and panties now?"

"Oh, well... she's not wearing a bra. So that shirt is the closest thing she has to one," the angel coughed into her fist, a little red-faced.

"Hey... my body is getting kinda hot! And my face! Am I getting excited? I feel like maybe I like this game after all, ha ha ha ha ha! Let's play another round!" Flowers interjected, putting a big smile onto her face once again. "Maybe it's fun having an opponent who stands on even footing with me after all!"{elseif Opponent's Pile = 1}"No way! I lost again?! My scorched earth approach works better in battle than it does in blackjack, huh?" Flowers pouted, slapping her head forward onto the card table and the pile of her own clothing that had already accumulated there. "But you're the one who's the dummy here! This shirt I'm wearing isn't worth anything! I got it at a thrift store for a buck and now it's full of little holes, so neh neh!"

"Then you won't mind parting with it!" Robin chuckled, before snapping her fingers to indicate that Lucky Betty and Colline ought to do their thing.

The demon and angel quickly dived down towards Robin's competitor and grabbed hold of the shirt, just under the girl's ribs, then hoisted it up and off her head, dragging her arms up in the protest. Rather than cry or wail, she giggled as it came off. "Something tickled me just now, he he he! On one side, like a little feather or a wing or something going under my armpit! It felt like someone felt me up on the other side, though."

"I think I brushed her with my wings," Betty murmured, running a finger along the leathery surface, "so that means-"

"No no, I think you're misremembering," Colline said.

Robin ignored the two of them, inspecting her opponent instead. Flowers's breasts were just a bit larger than you might think given the near anorexic skinniness of the rest of her body, but still, the vulnerability of a naked mercenary was appealing. The less clothing she ended up with, the more she started to look like some free spirited hippie nudist than a crazy, battle-hungry soldier.

"Don't think you've won yet! If I lose here, people are gonna start doubting my professional credibility, and then they might stop giving me their guns to mix and match pieces with! No way am I letting that happen! Plus, the game is really really fun and I don't want it to be over yet!"

"Aw, thank you," Robin laughed with a smile.

"It's way more fun than 52 Card Burn Up! It's probably cause it goes a loooooot longer!"

"... I'm sure it does."{elseif Opponent's Pile = 0}Defeated, Flowers placed her head down upon the table. Her characteristic animation and chipper behavior seemed to leave her, as though all the air had gone out of her. "Uuuuuuuuuuuu," she sobbed, her shoulders shaking a little.

"Aw, don't be sad. It's all a game of luck, in the end. That's what makes gambling so thrilling, even if it's also frustrating," Robin consoled her, reaching across the table to place one gloved hand upon her shoulder. She wasn't sure if the trigger-happy, flamethrower toting mercenary engineer really deserved such consolation, but it didn't feel right to leave her crying that way. Call it the dutiful dealer in her, tending to a customer. "No one can go undefeated forever."

"It's not that! I'm sad because the game's over! I was having a lot of fun playing cards!" Flowers sniffled, bringing her head back up.

"Don't worry, we can play more games down the line. It's a hobby of mine!"

"Oh! Super! But also, it's reeeeeeeally drafty standing here butt naked. Can I go get my flamethrower and light something on fire? Just a little fire?"

As the last game had ended, Betty and Coline had wasted no time stripping Flowers of her one remaining garment: a surprisingly girlish pair of pink panties with a white flower pattern dotting the surface. They seemed to be the only article of clothing she owned that wasn't covered in ash and soot. Deprived of them, her skinny hips and mostly untrimmed bush were revealed, completing the ironic hippie image she had going.

It was the first time Robin had ever stripped an opponent naked in a card game before. She felt like the power could become intoxicating, especially against haughtier opponents than this one.

"Ahem. No, no fires. In fact, that brings me back to why I'm here-- you've been naughty, Flowers, burning things with reckless abandon, making weapons of war and distributing them without a care in the world to who they harm, sewing wanton destruction, etcetera etcetera . I'm actually here to collect on your karmic debt," Robin explained, as she threw the various articles she'd won into her travel bag.

"Huh? I thought I got to just burn whatever I wanted and it was always fine! That's what everyone's been telling me! Golly, this is a lot to think about." She scratched her head in confusion, not bothering to use her hands to hide her own nakedness.

"I'm sure it is a lot to take in. However, I think that ignorance is a poor excuse after a certain measure," Robin laughed awkwardly, noticing once again how utterly torched and barren the landscape around the camp was. It made it pretty clear that someone had really gone hog wild with a flamethrower every day just for fun. "I hope this card game has made you think about other fun things you might spend your time on besides burning everything."

"Hmmmmmmmm... maybe! Card games one night a week!" Flowers resolved. "Burn stuff the other six!"

"... That's progress!"{endif}