Play cards.

Though you do keep Lauo within its ornate scabbard strapped to your belt, you opt to wear something more comfortable and leisurely as Delphi suggested. Everything is made from Luna. As she said before, it's as if she's embracing every inch of your body. Even the socks are incredibly soft on your feet. You put on finely made leather boots, and then smooth, silken black dress pants. You wear a blue button-up top with decorated trim. Though more relaxed, your outfit still has an air of majesty to it. You are the Demon King after all. It doesn't take long for you to get dressed, and afterwards, you head straight back downstairs.

You take a seat around the table in your War Room. It's quiet here--a pleasant place to relax after a hectic morning. Trin sits at your left, Malakae at your right, and Delphi rests atop the opposite side of the table right in front of her wooden box. She explains to you the rules as she opens it up, revealing a lovely set of playing cards. The backs have an artistic interpretation of Queen Catherine II looking as beautiful as ever, even in the form of a drawing. Otherwise, they're very similar to what you're used to seeing on Earth. Instead of the normal four suits, however, there are black dragon heads, red stars, blue shields, and green eyes. The rules are familiar as well. From what you can tell, Tivera's Gamble is literally just poker, Texas Hold'em style. She places the deck of cards in front of you though leaves the painted wooden chips behind.

"Can you shuffle this, Kyle? It'd be kinda hard for me," Delphi says. "Come on now. Be a good boy."

"Say please," you reply.

She stands tall with a smirk on her face. Her beautiful violet wings flutter behind her, which extend out from the deep cut down the back of her dress, which is coloured to match--deep, dark purple. Her raven black hair is parted to the side and reaches all the way down to her thighs on the left. Below that, she wears dark heels. They're purple as well, though nearly black. She taps her black-painted index nail against her lips. "I think you'll thank me after this game is done. So hurry up and shuffle that deck already so we can get started."

You eye her over for a moment before lifting the cards to shuffle between your hands.

Malakae reaches over and withdraws one of the chips to inspect it. "These are decently made," she comments. "I've seen better, but I've certainly seen worse."

"Oh. We won't be needing those," Delphi says. She flutters up onto the rim of the box and looks at the group. "We're playing strip poker today."

"Wh-What?" Trin withdraws back in her seat as she places her hands upon the window into her cleavage. "Kyle, what sort of place is this?"

Malakae pauses. As something clearly stirs in her mind, a gentle blush starts to creep its way across the bridge of her nose. She flicks the wooden chip back into the box behind the pixie and leans back in her hair. "Ah. I see," she whispers. "The silver dragon is afraid that she'll be bested."

"What?!" Trin stands up with her hand gripping the edge of the table tightly. The wood nearly splinters.

Delphi, taking advantage of the situation, smirks wide. "It does seem that way, doesn't it?"

Trin's demeanour changes. She furls her brow, sits back down, and takes a deep breath. "Whatever. It'll be fun! And anyway, I'll come out fully clothed, as if nothing had even happened... But uhm, what are the rules? I've never done something like this before. And can we lock the door?"

Delphi chuckles. "Why~? Are you scared someone's gonna come in?"

"I agree," Malakae says, growing more flustered. "W-We should seal the entrance."

"Oh fine." Rolling her eyes, Delphi flutters her way over to the door. She perches on the knob and twists the deadbolt above it. "And the rules are simple. If you lose the hand, you have to remove an article of clothing and place it in the middle of the table. If you win, you can take one article from that pile and put it on. Easy peasy." She flies her way back to the table. After pushing the lid back onto the box, she extends her purple bands of energy to take hold it and she lifts it away to place onto the floor.

"So what counts as clothes?" you ask.

She lands her heels back down against the table top, now perched and ready opposite of you. "Good question. As the game master, I'll say... shoes don't count, and neither does jewellery. Nobody finds it fun taking off a boot, and it would be especially dull to remove a ring or something."

"Why are you the game master?" Malakae asks.

Delphi raises a finger. "One, it's my cards." She raises a second. "Two, I'm at the biggest disadvantage. With these rules, I have very little I get to remove. Look at me. I have shoes, which I said don't count, and then a dress. At most, I have something underneath it. Maybe. So calm down, m'lady. Don't lose your poker face already."

"I'm unreadable."

"We'll see how you feel about that when you're slipping that dress off."

She quickly glances away to hide her flustered response, though she turns in your direction to do so. Upon realizing this, she runs her hands over her face and stares forwards at the table in front of her. "Let's just start."

You place the shuffled deck down. "You're the game master, but do you want me to play dealer?" you ask.

"It's only fair. You are the Demon King after all."

I suggested it because of your size, but whatever.

You pick the deck up and begin dealing two cards to Trin, Delphi, and Malakae. "So what happens when you're out of clothes? Do you just watch after that?"

"Hmm. That doesn't sound fun," Delphi responds. "How about you get a choice. You can either leave this room as you are, or you can stay and continue to play. But if you lose a hand and you have nothing to add to the pot, you have to do something the winner tells you to do. It just can't involve leaving the room, since you know, that was the first option already. I'm just making this up as I go, but that's the fun of it, right?"

"It certainly sounds like something you'd have planned." You slide the final card to Malakae before placing the deck down.

Delphi grins. "Oh. And the most important rule that I almost forgot! If you lose after the final card is drawn, you lose two pieces of clothing."

Trin, starting to get a little flustered, mumbles out, "I guess that makes sense."

"Yeah. Otherwise everyone would just ride every hand to the end. You have a way to back out early and minimize the damage. All right. Go on, Kyle. Continue."

You then deal the flop: [5 of Dragons, K of Dragons, 10 of Eyes]

Your hand is: [K of Shields, 8 of Stars]

All right. So far I've got next to nothing. Just a pair. It feels weird playing this without bets. That's part of the strategy usually. Though I guess nobody plays strip poker for intricate rules. I'll just wait and see what else is drawn. There's no point in folding if that costs you clothing no matter what.

"All right," Trin says after peeking under her cards. "I can work with this."

Malakae briefly looks beneath her cards before leaning back with arms crossed. "Continue, dealer."

Delphi has to lift her cards with both hands, and could easily fit beneath them. After placing them back down, she sits atop them with legs crossed. "You heard the girls. Don't leave them waiting."

Next come the turn: [J of Dragons]

You peer between the three of them. It would be cheating to use your Kitty Sense, so you hold back for now. Though if they do get too feisty, you keep that tool in your back pocket. They don't deserve to face that yet. Unfortunately, however, it's always somewhat active. You make sure not to push, though you've grown quite adept at reading people's body language. This normally serves to make you a better combatant, but you suppose it's also a useful thing for playing poker too.

Malakae, while normally stoic, breaks down easily at the thought of undressing. You can already see cracks in her demeanour, though you're not certain if she has a winning hand. You haven't known Trin long enough to know how she ticks, but at the dealing of the turn, you noticed something change in her face. She seems disappointed.

Without bets, this is really just a game of bluffing, even more than it usually is.

"All right," Delphi speaks up. "Fold now or enter the final round. After Kyle places down the final card, you're locking into potentially losing more clothes than normal. Let's go around. You first, Kyle."

I've got one pair. At best, the river could give me a two pair. This is the first round. Let's not throw everything on the table right away. "I fold," you say.

Delphi whistles. "Ooh. I can't wait to see what you remove~! You next. Trin, was it? We're going clockwise."

She purses her lips and stares Malakae down in particular. "I call," she says. "I'm ready to see the last card."

The tunnel vision of these dragons is going to be their downfall.

"I call too," says Delphi. "This is exciting."

"Hmph. This first round will be an easy victory. Say, game master. What happens to the winner before any clothing has been removed?"

"You win the sight of watching your opponents strip," Delphi replies.

"Good enough for me. I call."

You look at the girls and reach for the deck. Though you might be the only one out this round, you draw the river and place it down: [9 of Stars]

Yeah. I wouldn't have won with this hand. Not unless I bluffed everyone else to fold, but these two girls haven't been shaken awake yet. They're so confident that they would have made it all the way through even with the worst hand imaginable.

Trin places her cards down with an attempt to not appear embarrassed. She's got nothing: [A of Stars, 7 of Dragons]

Malakae smirks. She raises her nose up at her opponent, literally looking down at her as she flips her cards over. "You did your best, I suppose. It just wasn't enough." She chuckles boisterously as she reveals her one pair: [7 of Eyes, J of Eyes]

It seems she thinks she won, as if she's forgotten completely there's a third player.

Delphi throws her cards over with both hands, letting them spill forwards in a messy fashion: [9 of Dragons, 9 of Shields]

In the middle of the gold dragon's taunting, she freezes in place and stares down with her radiant feline-like eyes as the terror before her. Delphi got a three-of-a-kind. She clenches her teeth and trembles for a moment. Though as quickly as she's able, she clears her throat and composes herself. "Th-The first round hardly matters," she mutters under her breath.

"Strip for me, everyone!" Delphi cackles. "Strip, strip, strip!"

You stand up from your seat. First, you untie your boots and kick them both side. There's no reason to wear them if they don't count anyway. You then slide one of your socks off and place it in the middle of the table.

Trin sighs. "That's kinda boring... Just a stinky old stock."

"It's not stinky. I literally just changed," you say.

Delphi claps her hands. "Chop chop. The longer you take, the more likely someone is gonna knock on that door wondering where we went, and if I feel like you're stalling too much, I'll open that door right up."

"Don't do that!" Trin stands up quickly, sending the chair back a few feet with a squeak. The swallows nervously. Then she lifts one of her legs up and onto the table with impressive flexibility. She then takes hold of the white thigh-high stocking and slowly peels it off her skin, then off her feet. You're being given quite the generous view of the girl's slender leg. "There."

"Nuh uh. You were cocky enough to play to the end, remember?"

The dragon groans. She withdraws her leg and then raises her other. After removing the stocking from her other, she brings her bare legs back down, scoots the seat back up to the table, and sits down with a sigh. She places both of the articles in the middle of the table on top of your sock.

Malakae shrugs. She slips one of her long, white gloves off from her fingertips, and then the other. She folds them up neatly before placing them beside the other pieces of clothing in the center of the table. "Let's continue."

Trin mutters, "Lame."

"What was that?"

"Oh nothing~!"