Stripper Poker

April

The magic card blew up in size, started spinning, and flew up over our heads. I shut my eyes tight, but I could still feel it when the card portal started lowering down. It was like stepping outside into a humid summer day from a chilled air conditioned room. The air felt warm, wet, and stuffy.

“It’s over, April. Can open your eyes now,” Haruka said, and I did. Strip Poker, I’d expected something with a table, maybe a casino vibe. And then I realized I’d misread the name.

Stripper Poker.

Haruka and I were on two separate round stages about ten feet in diameter, connected by a four foot walkway, and with each stage having its own gleaming metal pole extending to the ceiling. And we weren’t alone.

“Woo! Look at the gazongas on that girl!”

“Christ, that ass!”

“Looking good, sweetheart!”

Haruka was getting similar catcalls, though I did hear one man ask if she’d been carded before coming in.

“Is this real? Did the game create all of this?” Haruka asked out loud, then bent down at the hips to ask one of the men, “Hey, you. What city is this?”

“You high? It’s Vegas, baby.”

Did that mean that Ken’s game room was in the real world too? Or did these men only think they were in Vegas? Or was this some alternate reality where…

Before I could let my mind keep running in circles, the speakers started up, a thumping house beat while a man’s voice announced. “Let’s give a warm round of applause for the new girls!

“On stage one, give it up for Melons! And on stage two, the lovely Cherry!"

I glanced over at Haruka, who shrugged at the ridiculous names we'd been given, laughing, “I guess that puts me on stage two, huh?”

My cheeks felt hot. Melons. What kind of perverted game was this? Right, right. Stripper Poker. I had to keep reminding myself.

“Remember, first one to become a real stripper loses! Now ladies, make your wager!”

Four new cards floated up in front of me, and I could feel the heat in my ears this time. Each card was a picture of myself. One dressed up in a cowprint bikini with matching latex gloves and thigh high heels. I was wearing the same jeans and sweater in the other three, but there were changes there too. In one, I’d pulled up my shirt to show off a toned four-pack of abs, not the soft muffin top I actually had. In another, I was grabbing the pole, legs spread wide as I leaned back, hair whipping around. And in the last one… the last one was moving, as if it were a mirror. But the reflection looking back at me wasn’t me! She looked like me, but she was smiling and excited.

Creepy.

Above the cards, a ten second timer was ticking down. When there was only two seconds left, I reached out and touched the second one, with the abs. Haruka had already made her choice, so the cards vanished, and the announcer continued, simply saying:

“Round one! Start!”

Haruka didn’t miss a beat as the music started up again, though it had shifted to a more relaxed, almost jazzy tune. She sauntered up to the pole, running a hand along it as she began to dance. I just stood there, frozen in fear as the crowd started shouting.

“Get to it, Melons!”

“What’s the matter, sweetheart? Scared of showing a little skin?”

“Hey now, be nice. It’s her first time,” An older voice cut through the jeering teases, and I glanced down to see one of the men sitting closer to the stage. He was dressed in a well-worn leather jacket and had a scruffy beard that was more salt than pepper. He had an easy smile on his face, like he’d been coming to titty bars for decades. Maybe he had. He waved a crisp twenty dollar biller around. “Lemme help you loosen up, Melons. You don’t need to dance yet. I’ll give you this for free. But you’ve gotta take it from me with those pretty lips of yours.”

I looked over at Haruka, on her hands and feet, ass lifted up, twerking with the skirt flipped up, a pile of singles at her feet. If I didn’t want this to be over from the start, I had to do something. So I sank to my hands and knees and crawled over to the older man, “Um… thank you.”

I swallowed, dreading Ken watching all of this back at Rayne’s apartment, but I reached out to grab the twenty with my teeth, my tongue recoiling away to not taste it, even if it was so flat it looked like he’d got it straight from the mint.

“Time’s up! Let’s see how you did!”

The twenty dollar bill was pulled out of my mouth by an invisible **** and floated into the air, the same thing happening to the scattered bills on Haruka’s side. They then started glowing, and while my twenty split itself into two tablet-sized cards, Haruka’s pile turned into five.

I looked at my hands. A red three and a black six.

“Okay girls, play your hand!” The announcer continued walking us through things, and not knowing what else to do, I touched both floating cards, while Haruka touched two of her own.

“Melon’s got nothing but a six high, but it’s a pair of jacks for Cherry! You know what that means, right, folks?” The picture of skinny me with abs came back, then shattered into a thousand pieces, the pieces disintegrating into a smoke, and the smoke snaking its way towards entering through my mouth and nostrils as I breathed. It was warm and tingly. The smoke filled me, and I felt a warmth spread through my body, focusing in my core. It was like doing a thousand crunches at once, my muscles tightening and pulling, but without any of the pain or effort. I sucked in a breath, and my jeans suddenly felt looser around my waist. I looked down to see my stomach was flatter, my hips narrower. My breasts felt lighter too, but when I reached up to touch them, they were still as soft and full as ever. Maybe I now had the proper back muscles to support them?

The smoke cleared, and I was left standing there in a daze, my body feeling different, yet somehow the same. My sweater and jeans were baggier than before, hanging off my newly toned frame. I looked over at Haruka, who was staring at me with wide eyes.

"What the hell just happened?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Haruka shook her head, a look of disbelief on her face. "Huh. Kind of wish I lost that one. And you know, if you ask me, you were cuter before.”

“And hotter!” One man agreed.

“Cushion for the pushin’!” Someone had to be gross about it.

“That ass…” I felt bad for the man from before who’d screamed at my ass with such excitement.

I felt a blush creeping up my neck. "Thanks?"

They were just saying that though. Because looking down at the new me, I was hot. I couldn’t resist tracing my fingertips over my new stomach, giving a poke and feeling firm muscle instead of squishy fat. I was playing to get that body makeover bonus, and this is exactly the kind of look I wanted. Maybe a little shorter, and with breasts that didn’t look quite so oversized, but this was very close.

“Okay, girls! Time for round two! What will you put on the line this time?”

I only had three cards left, and the images in all of them had been updated to show the new, skinnier me. Based on the first round, each card must change one thing about myself into being more like a stripper. I had the body of a stripper now. The cowprint one must be the outfit. The one swinging from the pole and the smiling mirror though… I wasn’t sure.

I picked the cowprint card at the last second. Wearing that would be extremely embarrassing, yeah… but a teeny tiny little part of me was also kind of excited about showing off. And it’s not like my old clothes fit anymore.

“And round two! Start!”

This time when the music started, I didn’t panic. I knew just what to do: let go of my jeans. They immediately sagged down to my thighs, and after a bit of wiggling, they kept falling down low enough until I could step out of them and my shoes completely. The elastic on my plain pink panties kept them loosely around my hips, and I wasn’t ready to pull those down just yet. I did try shaking to the beat though, swaying my hips side to side as I lifted up my now baggy sweater in one hand, then grabbing my panties in the back and giving myself a wedgie, showing off my brand new pert ass.

“C’mon, bigger isn’t always better, right?” I said flirtily. I think it was flirty, at least. I was feeling slightly manic now.

The crowd was receptive though, hollering for more and with a small shower of singles thrown at my feet. “Come on, don’t you guys want me to win?” I turned around to face them, leaned down again, and lifted the sweater up higher. I could see them staring at my smooth stomach and butterflies were going insane in my stomach. I lifted the sweater higher and higher, until they could see the bottom of my breasts. Half an inch more, dragging my chest up with the sweater, and the money kept coming.

“And that’s time! Put your hands together for the ladies, and ladies, put your hands together!”

The green slips of cash floated up in front of me and transformed, this time into seven cards! I looked across at Haruka, and she’d managed to get seven this time too. She was also completely topless! And yet, she didn’t seem to mind that at all as she folded her arms, considering her cards.

I looked at my own hand of cards. Thank goodness for Balatro drilling into me what worked and what didn’t.

“A pair of Jacks and 9s for Cherry… but wow! A full house for Melons!”

I’d won!

I watched as the card shattered into smoke in front of Haruka, watched her inhale it, waited for the transformation… and nothing happened.

“What’d you pick?” I asked, finally.

“Just watch the next round and you’ll see!” Haruka said with a wink.

That next round, as soon as the music started, Haruka grabbed onto the pole and started flying, legs spreading wide so that as she spun she was flashing everyone in the room a shot of her black panties and skinny thighs. Her knee hooked around the pole and then she was leaning forward, her petite breasts swinging forward. Everything timed perfectly to the thumping house beat, every move flowing seamlessly into the next one.

“Wow…” I mouthed.

“Hey, come on! Don’t just stand there!” One of the men on my side of the stage shocked me back into reality. I’d been so distracted, I’d forgotten to dance too!

“Sorry, sorry!” I shook my head, trying to get my head back in the game. I wasn’t sure how much time I had left, but I knew that I needed to do something big if I was going to catch up. “Um, um…! Here, catch!”

Off came the sweater, tossed out beyond the stage, and up came a roar from the men, a small burst of money heading my way.

In the end, it was worth five cards against the ten that Haruka had made that round. She was panting, her chest rising and falling as she looked at her cards, and that slight sheen of sweat looked so sexy on her, I didn’t blame the men at all.

“And it’s a pair of 4s against Cherry’s flush! Cherry takes it!”

The card shattered, but this time the smoke it turned into didn’t suck itself into my lungs. Instead, it caressed my skin. I’d been down to just my panties and white socks, so choosing the cowprint card actually meant I was putting on more clothes now. A tight, revealing bikini, long gloves, and my first pair of platform heels ever. Six inches at least.

“Wait, how am I supposed to dance in this?” As I said it, the music began, and I had my best idea all night. I’d have an easier time dancing in stilts than I would wearing these heels, but this wasn’t really a dance competition, was it?

I went down to my hands and knees and I crawled. I bet I looked like a shuffling cow in the first round, but this time I felt like a jungle predator as I strode forward to the edge of the stage. Thrusting out my chest proudly, I smiled at the men who were crowding each other to get as close as they could.

“Come on, boys… let's see how much you can stuff between my big titties.”

I was staying as still as possible for the rest of the round, but by the end of it I was panting. So many rough hands, so many loose bills, diving into the valley of my cleavage, more than a few getting handsy with a rub here, a squeeze there, but they kept coming.

Haruka was getting close to the edge of the stage too, and with a blush, I saw that she’d lost her panties too, was shaking her body with her legs spread, giving the men on her side an incredible eyeful. If I didn’t know better, I’d say she was doing this professionally.

It was the most cards yet for a round, with a whopping thirteen cards on my side to fifteen on Haruka’s.

“Cherry coming out swinging with a full house… but Melons! Melons has four queens!”

“Ahh.. what! That’s crazy,” Haruka snapped her fingers and sighed. “Just wait though, I’m starting to get the hang of this.”

“I think we both are!” I called back, and I surprised myself by laughing. The whole game was crazy and embarrassing and surreal, but I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so uninhibited.

Haruka’s 2nd card shattered, and as she breathed it in, I quickly realized just what it was as her chest began to swell, bigger and bigger. I’d have thought they were fake from how perky they were at that size, but when she bounced on her toes, the liquid jiggle they gave was all natural.

“Mmm…” Haruka squeezed them both in her hands, shook them for the crowd. “I think this levels the playing field, don’t you?”

Judging from the roars of approval on her side of the stage, I’d say it was more than leveled.

“Ladies and gentlemen…” The announcer started. “We have a winner!”

The light flipped on and confetti began raining from the ceiling, a brass fanfare playing over the speakers.

“Congratulations, Cherry! You’ve got the body! You’ve got the skills! The attitude! And let’s not forget… the outfit! A round of applause for our newest dancer… Cherry!”

“Outfit? I’m not even wearing any…” Realization dawned on Haruka’s face. “Oh… oh damn it! Ahaha!” With a full-throated laugh, Haruka jumped back onto the stripper pole, holding on with only her legs as she spun around, those new massive breasts of hers swinging wildly. “Thank you, thank you! My adoring fans, thank you!”

She dismounted, gave a nude bow, and the room started to fade away, and soon enough, we were back in Rayne’s apartment.

“Babe!” Ken shouted just a tad too loud. “You okay?”

“Oh lord, you’re both…” Rayne started, and Frank had his back turned to us.

Looking down, I was still dressed in that cowprint, still had my flat tummy. Haruka was in the same boat, completely naked and ridiculously busty. “Do you think maybe we aren’t going to change back?”

“Do you have any bras that might fit me?” Haruka asked, and a beat later, my body bulged, the cowprint bikini top painfully tight as the straps dug into my breasts, fat from my thighs spilling out of the thighhigh boots.

Mercifully, a few seconds later the cowprint clothing burst into smoke. By then, Rayne had already fetched some blankets from a closet, throwing them over our heads so we could cover up, while Frank noticed that our clothes had fallen discarded on the floor at the same time that we had.

We went to the bedroom she shared with Rayne to get changed again, and it was good to have a quiet place to calm down after all of that excitement.

“I can’t believe I did all of that,” I admitted as I pulled my sweater back over my head.

“I dunno, I always thought you had a wild side you were keeping hidden.” Haruka replied.

“Maybe. But I don’t think I could ever be as bold as you.”

“Well…” Haruka giggled. “Rayne already knows this, but… that wasn’t the first time I’d been up on stage.”

“What!?”

“It was easy money! And fun too. I never had a crowd like that though. Kind of makes me want to take Rayne to Vegas on our next vacation.”

“Wow.” I buttoned up my jeans, then turned to face Rayne. “I never would have… guessed…”

I trailed off, because Haruka had put her skirt back on, but the old top wouldn’t come close to fitting. Instead, she’d opted for one of Rayne’s black shirts, and even that was pulled taut around her chest. That same massive chest that was far too big for her petite body from the Stripper Poker game.

Haruka shrugged, smiled, “Gonna be a pain in the ass finding clothes that fit, but between you and me, Rayne is going to love these.”