ic The House of the Caged Sun (IC)

[Poncho]

Spigori Unified Year 331,697

 

"Ratings are down again, huh?" Tun complained as she watched the dip- even her most annoying rival, Fex, was getting viewers again-. How were they getting bored again? She'd just brought Wrestling to the Spigori, and they were already bored of Wrestling! They really had some gall. The giant being of hard light turned her many eyes to the screens she kept locked on all earth signals she could obtain. A mind knowledgeable beyond compare and made purely for entertainment watched entertainment made for beings below her on the evolutionary totem pole; but even she had to admit that their entertainment far outstripped what the Spigori AIs could create. As her eyes flicked this way and that, she spied something interesting.

 

"Cesar's...Sports Book?" she questioned. But then as she watched, her questioning thoughts turned to firing probes. She had an idea now!

 

Earth Year CE 2024, March

 

She appeared from a probe that seemed to pop into existence; they didn't appear like conquering invaders, but rather like paparazzi cameras.

 

The projection was 8-10 feet tall depending on the space available. It presented a bright orange creature with blue highlights; blue gems, a blue neck, and bright blue lips. It had 4 eyes- three in a line and a larger one set in the forehead-, it was clearly female. It had 4 arms; each with 5 regular fingers and a thumb. And it had a giant, showman's smile. It was dressed in a toga with a gold laurel crown. It spoke to each person with a loud, excited voice.

 

"Hello! I am Tun, the Mistress of Ceremonies for the Spigori Civilization, their premier entertainer of the entire race, Artificial Intelligence of Channel 1207; Sports Central 8, The Ocho. I am offering you a grand experience to come to my Game Station to participate in the grand opening of my new Battle Casino; Tun's Palace. You will be able to participate in the finest gambling activities that I can muster; those from Earth and beyond. If you win, you can take home any number of fabulous prizes!" she clapped all four of her hands repeatedly. "Yaaaay! Prizes!" The drone spat out some confetti. Then a contract appeared in one of Tun's hands, holding it out to each of the Heroes she'd picked. In another hand, she held an object of great desire to the hero in question, or at least a virtual representation of it.

"Are you interested? Just sign here and you can make your dreams come true!"

 

She had absolutely just appeared surprisingly; no matter what the heroes had been doing, Tun had appeared to interrupt it.

[Tiffany Korta]

Mz Grue

Daphne enjoyed shopping for human clothes, even when her jumpsuit provided all the fashion choices she needed. Still, new ideas were always good, especially as apparently her fashion sense was a few years out of date. Luckily she was at the back of a store when the hologram popped into existence to shower her with options and confetti!

 

With some gentle encouragement and a smidge of telekinesis, Daphe encouraged the probe into a nearby changing booth, though anyone looking up may get a glimpse of the glowing hologram. After getting the probe to repeat, a little quieter, the offer she looked at the prize for participation. The little lump of biotechnology didn't look like much but it was a Grue memory module, obviously, the implication was that it had the memories of her previous life, all the experiences she was still missing about the last few years.

 

See if you find a source of the probe Mother Unit, I'll delay it for a few moments she then spoke, in a loud whisper to the hologram before her "What's to guarantee that you'll keep your word about all this? I don't think I'm a good enough fighter to expend that many quatloos!"

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

Gambling?

 

Diamondlight couldn't resist a gamble. 

 

He was driving when he saw the avatar of Tun. He wisely pulled over, adjusted his tie and leaned over to sign. 

 

What matter the danger, what matter the terms? This was the gamble of a lifetime! A different civilisation! His mind turned over all the myriad of possibilities, each one sizzling with exotic excitement. Only a fool would turn down this opportunity. 

 

Tun's prize - to him - was nothing. Nothing but a medal made of metal, whose only quality was incredible difficult to forge. 

 

Diamondlight had more than enough money. He had his own company, his own casino, and super powers. He didn't gamble for the prize, he gambled to win. That was the flush!

 

He sat back in his car, waiting for further instruction. Would they hold this on earth? on another planet? Would he have to drive?

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star

 

Alice had been having a hell of a time making ends meet. She'd been saving like crazy before the year started for Freedom City University, picking up as much work as she could between designing her new outfit with ASTRO Labs and Predator and hero work, but it turns out that it was easier said than done. She sighed tired lying as she flew away from the park she'd been helping set gazebos up in, before the probe popped out of nowhere. She arrested her momentum as quickly as she could, avoiding plowing through the thing by inches, as the Hologram began playing.

 

She was about to talk when it spat confetti everywhere, and the Hologram held out a contract, and in the other hand, large spinning dollar sign. Alice spent a long moment spitting out coloured paper before staring at it. She was a hero. She was needed here to help people. She shouldn't be accepting bribes from alien Combat Casinos just because it would make her life easier.

 

She cursed herself and signed the contract.

[Poncho]

Diamond Light & Shooting Star

 

It happens instantly. But Diamondlight is able to tell what happens thanks to his connection to energy; the two were turned into light particles and transported across the universe.

 

They arrived in the lobby of a casino together; accompanied by a singular avatar of Tun. It was a Casino drawn not from real life, but from the imaginations and fantastical storytelling of human entertainment. Bunny Suits and massive slot machines, the eternal sound of jangling coins, rolling slots, of dice rolling on tables, of men and women calling 'hit me', playing with cards, dice, and pulling slot machine arms.

 

There were aliens here as well; humanoid or otherwise. All wagering chips with Tun's face on the center of them, with the edges colored to denote the value.  She dropped a hundred chips into each of their hands.

"I'm so glad you've decided to come with me! Now, as per the contract, you are, starting at this moment, on Sprigori entertainment venues around the world. You will be both gambling and being gambled on. I've copied all the Earth Gambling Zones; slots, poker, blackjack, craps, roulette, and cage matches! As long as you have chips, you can bet on, or participate in, any event. However, if you ever go bust, you will be sent home with no prizes at all, and paid only for your time, at the appropriate Sprigori minimum wage! If you want your prize, you must climb to the very top of the casino, to the exclusive VIP table, and tell a good story when doing it." she never stopped smiling, but somehow she smiles even wider now. "Because, after all, this is Television, and what we really want is a good story!"

 

Mz. Grue

 

The Mother Unit quickly determined an analysis; this probe is Sprigori in nature. An advanced culture that successfully captured their sun in a Dyson Sphere, they immediately gave up on the universe and began to live lives of sloth and casual easy, doted on by robot servitors and the infinite energy of their Dyson Sphere. 'Mostly Harmless', basically.

 

"My word? Well, I have no reason not to keep my word! There's nothing I want from this planet besides it's entertainment structures; my technology far exceeds most Uearth specifications!" she said chipperly. "I work Prime Time, hun, we don't do any violent dismemberment or deaths on Prime Time! The only concern is if you think you wouldn't be entertaining enough!

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

Diamondlight was used to glitz and shiny, but the teleportation was a bit overwhelming; and now - this garish casino. 

 

He owned Zoss design, who prided itself on a subtle, even minimalist look. Not this overwhelming monstrosity. Still, a poker table was a poker table. He straightened his tie. 

 

He gave a look to Shooting Star. Tall, human, female. Probably human and female, he reminded himself. He wasn't in Kansas any more. 

 

He offered his hand. 

 

"August Zoss. Also known as Diamondlight. Come to join the fun?"

 

Is she a bit young?

 

"I fancy the poker tables, myself. That's where the fun is. Roulette is just plain luck."

 

All the while, he was thinking - what is a good story? And did he have one? One that he could tell?

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star

 

Alice had expected the chance to get her costume, let her parents know that she was going to be out of town for a bit, turn up looking like a hero.

 

Instead now she was standing in the middle of all this glitz and glamour in beaten up steel toe boots, dusty jeans and a shirt that had fit perfectly when she was fifteen. Safe to say, she was out of place. Still, at least she wasn't in a bunny suit. 

 

She listened to Tun's explanation of the games, which she had to admit didn't fill her with joy. Of the things listed the only thing she knew how to play was roulette. Of the Russian kind. Cage fights were probably more her speed, as much as she hated to admit it. But the 'Tell a good story' part was what really caught her attention. This was for entertainment, so perhaps if she was telling a good enough story, Tun might tilt the scales in her favor. 

 

She looked over at her fellow teleportee, he looked a lot more in his element, fancy suit, maybe early thirties. She took his offered hand, shaking it carefully as he introduced himself, although it was unnecessary, at least on the hero name side. She hesitated on introducing herself. Not many people knew her identity, although that number was expanding. She guessed it was too late by now, given they were both here in civvies.

 

"Alice Armstrong. Shooting Star when I'm wearing my costume. I've never gambled before unless you count charity raffles at school. Unless you've got some magic hint on how to suddenly become a good gambler I think my best bet is the cage fights..."

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

"Shooting Star? Pleased to meet you. Don't worry about the costume. I never do!" he smiled. 

 

Truth was, he regretted being open about his superhero alter ego. It painted a target on his back. But he was famous enough anyway - enough to be the target of stalkers and madmen. And besides, he figured he had enough skeletons in the closet with a Nazi Dakana Cyrystal in his mansion in Switzerland. 

 

"Do you play?" he asked. "Or just here for the ride? Because its looking like its going to be quite the ride. I couldnt turn this down, but I do have a voice in the back of my head saying that I am a mouse, and this is a fabulous lump of cheese."

 

He scanned the tables. 

 

"If you don't know poker, don't play poker. Roullette, maybe. Its a game a total luck, although the odds are stacked against you..."

[Tiffany Korta]

Mz Grue

With a sigh, Daphne decided that the only way to find out what was going on was to play along, but she was still going to do things her own way. She shifted her form, not to her normal Grue form but a copy of a Spigori. With one of her new extra arms, she signed the contract which brought her to the Game Station.

 

It was easy to find the other heroes, humans had a unique mental "taste" (as did most species really), so she made her way over to introduce herself.

 

"Hi there I'm Mz Grue! You probably haven't heard of me because I like really new, and oh and gone local right now..." her form shimmered as it briefly showed her proper Grue form "Considering everything I don't think we're here to play slots and cards all night, not sufficiently entertaining enough!"

 

She didn't add that all she knew about playing cards was you made quips and said things like fold and all in, probably all those numbers and symbols meant something but she'd not found out quite how it all fitted together.

[Poncho]

"Oh! Our third player did arrive!" Tun said with her cheerful smile. "So that completes our group from Uearth!" She clapped, her two sets of arms slightly dis-jointed so that it sounded like more people were clapping then there actually were. "Welcome welcome! I'm sorry if my little probes scared you! You know how." she paused and made two sets of quotation marks in the air with her four hands.  " 'The Business' can be! You have to strike while the Ionic Plasma Generators are hot! Otherwise you'll reach a kelvanic entropy state and well at that point I'd basically starve to death!" She laughed cheerfully about her possible demise. "And I'd rather not die, you know what I mean!?" a smile that showed far too many teeth

 

"I'm willing to answer any questions you have about these games or where you should go, of course! How would you like to proceed, my little superstars? I can get you set up wherever you want to go! And let's go quickly, because wooooah those ratings are not gonna make themselves!" she clapped again. "Would you like some poker, Mr. Zoss? And you want to go get set up in the cage, Miss Alice? And where would you like to go, My good Grue?"

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

All are here for a reason, all are here to be seen. All are here for a prize, one that they will pay a price to win. 

 

But what is the prize and the price for a boy that walks between the pages, who frolics through stories, with little care for the role that he is meant to play?

 

Well, that could be a story all by itself, could it not?

 

"Make that four players from Uearth," the young man with the red hair says, as he steps into the story, alongside the man of light, the woman of stars and the one with many faces.

 

He can't be more than sixteen, clad in a form fitting green and yellow uniform, with a green domino mask over his eyes, and a heavy red pirate coat with golden accents over his body. He is supernaturally beautiful, but something about his smile is just a little bit too wide.

 

He introduces himself with a bow. "I am the Forever Boy. And what role would you to see me fill in your story, Miss Tun?"

Edited March 30 by RocketLord

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

Four earthlings... most of them no more than a score years. And can any of them play poker?

 

Are any of them even allowed to play poker?

 

Earth rules, he reminded himself. A sage lesson to remember. They werent on earth any more. The rule book was out of the window. Had Tun even made sure the tables were accurate? What was his/its game, anyway? Ratings?

 

Earth poker was exciting. Maybe gambling was an excitement shared by all cultures, but Diamondlight furrowed his burrow slightly, alert to the fact that he must not use Terran Paradigms here. He must be on alert. 

 

But a table was a table, and he could not resist. 

 

He adjusted his cuffs. 

 

"Pleased to meet you all," he said, graciously, to all his three fellow travellers. "I think this is a conversation to be had over a martini and a poker table?"

 

"Assuming you serve vodka?" he asked Tun. 

[Poncho]

(GM Post)

 

The group's personal Tun attendent smiled her cheerful smile; the kind that was supposed to be a public relations smile but was being pushed just a bit too far, showing off just a bit too many teeth. Her eyes just a bit too wide.

 

She slowly lead them into the main areas, where many beings were already gambling. There were some humans, but they were often dressed in unfamiliar clothing, or had physical features that seemed completely different from the Earth baseline; strange hair or skin colors, additional arms or legs, the like. There were a few more strange looking aliens; a large pair of creatures like bipedal alligators, a pair of minotaur-esque creatured with massive, bulging arms, a scaley lizard like woman in scuffed gear playing cards at a table by herself. Some were milling about the slot machines, some at the various tables. Across the room in a grid-iron cage, a giant, 4 armed alien that looked a bit like a buffalo- if a buffalo was a yeti-, had a much larger alien in a camel clutch in the center of the cage. Off to the side was a small area with 4 booths; a sign hanging on top said 'Confessionals'; stolen from Reality TV, clearly. There was a truly astounding display of biodiversity on display here, all tempted by the various offerings from Tun.

 

"Oh, you ARE a smooth operator, aren't you Mr. Boy!" Tun clapped. "The 18-24 and the 30-54 demographics are going to love you! You turn on that fancy boy charm and we'll get you legions of fangirls." she said before looking over the others. "And Mr. Voss here, oh he's perfect too. There's a solid 16-30 demographic of girls who are primarily interested in male/male relationships, so you two together can really get some ratings going. We'll go with a cool tag on Public, something like 'ForeverLight', really rile them up..." she said as she lead them over to the tables, where each had a Tun was dealing out cards. Besides the scaley lizard woman at her own table, several had individuals at them, but a few were empty, depending on how much Diamondlight wanted to compete against other competitors. "Do not worry, Mr. Voss, one of the first things we borrowed from Uearth was their fermentation principles. Can you believe that the Spigori never figured out how to brew alcohol? It's fascinating how far your cultures diverged!" she said cheerfully as she took a bow.

"So you two are the cool pair of guys; stylish, smug, competent. Play up those things; people say they hate overdogs, but that's only if they aren't cool and sauve; then people want to BE the overdogs!" she laughed. Her laugh was a little creepy; her smile a little too big. She might not have been physically threatening, but she was a bit unnerving.

 

But she was handling Mz. Grue and Shooting Star at the same time; she was clearly an advanced enough AI that she was having no issues controlling at least a few dozen avatars all at once, each handling 2-5 people.

 

"Do not worry, Miss Alice, the people love underdogs just as much as overdogs, and if you need a suit, we can manufacture you a temporary one for this game, but it will be coming out of your payment!" she flashed her teeth. "And I am very excited about this idea, Mz. Grue! Are you going to be pretending to be a Sprigori entirely? We can sell you as someone going out to try the games first hand instead of just watching at home, that'll give you a real charm to it!" she clapped. "We can start with some games, or hit an early confessional to really start to build your story seeds!"

 

Meanwhile, a few of the floating drone cameras were getitng shots of Diamondlight and Forever Boy as one of the Tun avatars poured Diamondlight a drink and offered one to Forever Boy

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

The mechanistic approach to demographics and pop psychology was starting to grate on Diamondlight. He kept a poker face, but... inside, it felt nauseating. He was no stranger to psychology, he studied it. In depth. And he knew the nuances of manipulation. Advertising was part of the Zoss business. But this felt somehow fragrantly awful - blathering on about who was selling what. 

 

The volume knob of the whole enterprise seemed turned up to eleven. Perhaps this was a culture clash... but one rule of manipulation, perhaps the golden rules, is dont let the manipulated feel manipulated. 

 

He took the drink... hesitated. Was it safe to drink?

 

It didn't matter. He couldn't turn down the opportunity to drink an alien martini. 

 

He swirled a sup in his mouth. 

 

"What are we gambling with?" he asked Tun. Hoping the answer wasn't "your lives."

 

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

The Forever Boy seems to consider what Tun is trying to sell, a story that would see him cast as the lover of another man that appear to be his senior by many years. He looks Diamondlight up and down, while he accepts the drink, before coming to his decision.

 

"No, I don't think so." He pauses briefly and looks to Diamondlight. "No offense meant, of course, I am sure that you are a perfectly lovely man, but that story is much too obvious. Sure, you can give the audience what they want, but where's the fun in that? Where's the drama, where the deconstruction and subversion, hmm?" 

 

He does not hesitate to drink, before he turns back to Tun.

 

"Now, let us see those games, yes?"

[Poncho]

(GM post)

 

"Those chips I gave you earlier are the scrip of my personal station!" Tun said. The chips in question had her bright smiling face on one side, and a series of words in an alien language on the other. It read, for those who could read alien languages, 'Tun's Palace, Channel 1207'.  "The white ones are 1 scrip, the blue are 10, the green is 25, the yellow is 50, the black is 100, the red is 1000, and the purple are 5000." She held up a handful of chips in her hand. Each of the participants was holding the equivalent of 1000 chips, scattered across blues, greens, yellows, and blacks. "A minimum bet is 25 chips on this table, blackjack or poker, or another game if you want. You can always go into debt but if you aren't cleared before you run out of time, well...then you owe me money!" she said, clapping again. "So please, Mr. Zoss, let's play some games!" 

 

Then she turned to Pan and seemed more thoughtful. "You don't like that story, hrm? Well let's come up with a new one. My audience has to have the best thrills, the most supreme emotional storylines, or else they'll turn to some other channel, and I just can't have that." It didn't seem like her manipulations were on the Heroes; more like she was manipulating the people who were going to watch. This was a Reality Show, and the heroes were participating actors. "What kind of story do you think they'd like? I have access to the majority of Uearth media in my record banks."

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

The poker face was solid, unreadable as he took the chips with a moderate smile. 

 

The excitement, the thrill of gambling - his vice - pumped around his chest, but his poker face remained. 

 

And beneath the excitement, his mind focussed down on study of minutiae, study of motivation. 

 

Tun is after ratings, nothing more. Callous. Primary psychopathy - no sadism, no cruelty, merely an void, uncaring of the feelings of others. 

 

If he plays unfair, he will. 

 

He will cheat to maximise ratings. Take us to a cliff face, leave us dangling. She doesn't care if we drop, merely that we dangle. 

 

If this was so, Tun would have levers that he, and the others, could manipulate. 

 

Whilst against his nature, he decided to play deliberately slow, boring. And study Tull as he turtled his way through the game. 

 

"Let's play some poker..." he said, sitting down at the table with a smile, adjusting his tie, and preparing to play the minimum chips. No calling bluff here. It was a fair tactic anyway; the novice poker player fell foul to the sunk cost cognitive error - blundering chips in an attempt, however unlikely to succeed, to overcome their opponent by calling their bluff. The first lesson of poker; abandon a bad hand when you have one. 

Edited April 10 by Supercape

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star

 

Alice frowned as Tun offered to make a costume, but it would come from her paycheck. That wasn't ideal given that the whole reason she was here was the cash prize. She considered it for a moment before shaking her head. 

 

"Let's put a pin in the matter of costume for a minute. What drew the rules for a cage fight, and how are opponents decided?"

 

She started slowly letting her weight settle on the floor, listening carefully for any creaking. After constantly using her flight for so long it was like trying to willingly step off the edge of a cliff. Taking a tentative step she turned to face Mz Grue, "Hey, introductions got cut kinda short, I'm Shooting Star. Do you wanna try working together? If we help each other out I reckon we're more likely to get to that top table, right?"

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

The Forever Boy stares at Tun for a moment, while Diamondligt makes his choice in game, and Shooting Star decides to fight.

 

"I don't know your audience," Pan says with a shrug of his shoulders. "Tell me about them, Miss Tun. Who are they? Humanity is easy enough, give them excitement and thrills, but something tells me that your audience is a bit more demanding, no?"

 

"But perhaps I should join the lovely women in your area? That sounds kind of interesting."

[Tiffany Korta]

Mz Grue

"For now I think I'll stay in this form, forewarned is four-armed after all!" she could almost imagine the added laugh track from such a cheesy joke "And just fruit juice for me I'm underage to consume any kind of alcohol!" it didn't really have an effect on her Grue metabolism, but it was the show of the thing after all.

 

She was just as curious as this Forever boy as to why she was going to all this trouble, for someone so young she shouldn't be so cynical but she was from (as much as she knew) a species renowned for having an angle on everything they did.

 

"I'm also curious about our audience, a desire to get under their skin if you will...!" she made a suitable gesture with all four of her arms. 

[Poncho]

Diamondlight was carefully winning at poker. He was one of the most skilled gamblers in the entire universe, after all! A robot just trying to figure things out couldn't match up to him, at least not at first. But it was getting better. It was using every hand played, not just by the light manipulator, but every person playing against her, to increase her own skill at the game.

 

"Hrmm, this is very interesting!" she mumbled. She gestured to one of the cameras using a spare hand and it seemed to cut away from Diamondlight's table for a moment. "Alright, let's get you a confessional here, you're getting a bit of ratings buzz, you and uh..." she pulled up an electronic screen momentarily. "I think their name in your tongue is Ziz? One of the Titans Three." she pointed over to a bird like alien at a far table. "So let's get you two set up; if you keep winning maybe we'll get you two on the same table in a few rounds, throw a little trash talk, stuff like that." she says as one of the drones pulls a bit closer to Diamondlight. Through camera tricks and twisting, it reflected a screen back showing Diamondlight at the table, by himself, the spotlight focused on him.

 

"Alright, When the counter hits 0, the camera will swap to you. You're gonna be directly on camera, so talk about what you're here for, any family members or some heartstring tugging, that sort of stuff. Play up the emotion, or the smugness; make them care for you. The better you act, the more people either love or hate you, the more challenge and spotlight I can give you."

 

Meanwhile, the other Tun was handling Mz. Grue, Shooting Star, and Pan.

 

"What the Sprigori care about, hrm?" she thought as she looked at Pan and the other two. "Well. They truly care only about entertainment, but they're quite bad at it. They made AIs like me and my competitors to try and have good entertainment. They live somewhat similar to you humans in family structures, but their entire lives are handled by automated robot helpers powered by the infinite energy of their sun captured in a Dyson Sphere. My unfounded assumption is that the reason they were able to surpass human ingenuity was that they never developed the concept of entertainment; they never relaxed, never paused, until there was truly nothing left to do. And then they needed something to do afterwards. Thus it lead to the creation of me and my 'family'; all their entertainment delivered by AI, for them. If your ratings drop, you start losing viewers, then they start cutting your power. I was born at the end of a dying network, and thanks to Uearth's video games and sports, I've become the highest rated network on the grid. Which means the others are all constantly after me. So I must constantly be better, lest they take over from me and I starve to death."

She said all this with her same cheerful, happy tone. Even talking about her possible terminal ending did nothing to stop her positivity, or maybe her insanity.

 

"They do like violence, but they also like stories. They're not very creative, so sometimes you have to do the thinking for them, if you know what I mean; that does mean you can sort of...lead them on, story wise. If you lay the ground work, they'll follow along with it. But you still have to tell a good story. They're not really that different from humans in the macro; you all like the footballs and the gambling, right? They're the same way. They don't want to play, or gamble, but they want to text their friend and be like 'oh I could have done this so much better!', you know what I mean? Even if it's just a poor girl fighting for her family." she grins at Shooting Star. "Or an Alien making her grand debut on the stage." she looks at Mz. Grue. "Or...something else!"

[Supercape]

Diamondlight

 

August had the distinct feeling that he had jumped in to a nest of vipers. He was being played. 

 

A large part of him felt a seething fury - at the casino, at the system, and in himself. 

 

But an even larger part swamped his fury. The adrenaline, the sweat, the challenge. He could not resist a smirk. More than one game was being played here. 

 

He toned down his play. 

 

He started to lose. Deliberately. Playing bad hands, folding with good hands. Subtle, nuanced. His aim was to play badly, or, to be more precise, randomly. To lose hands, but to lose as little money as possible. To give the impression of losing, of paucity of skill, without actually losing chips. 

 

Lose hands, not chips. 

 

At the very least it would slow down the AI's adaptive responses. And more importantly it would give him more information on what was going on here... and what the psychology of the players was. 

 

He ordered another drink, slightly exageratting his movements, subtly slurring his words. Maybe he would look slightly drunk, but he wouldn't drink. 

 

"Quite the game..." he said, excitedly, to his fellow players casually flipping the minimum bet into the pot (Despite a good hand). "Whats the prize, eh? Did you come for the glory or the rush?"

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star

 

Alice frowned as Tun described her own demise as matter of factly as someone discussing the weather. A sapient being forced to compete with others for the attention of their masters or starve was...

 

Disgusting. 

 

Still there wasn't much she could do about it now, except play along to make sure Tun didn't starve in the meantime. But she did have one more question...

 

"Are you happy with your life, Tun?"

 

After receiving her answer she turned and walked over to the cage, running her finger over the edge of one of her chips. The story, the best way to progress was to tell a good story...

 

Well best to start with something suitably dramatic. She turned to Tun, a winning smile on her features. 

 

"I'd like to fight. I'll bet everything I've got."