Novel Lived
Ch 2.79: Strip
Ch 2.79: Strip
Shein had announced there was a winner of the hand, that the tournament was over, but that couldn’t be right. Elaina herself had thrown parchment, picking up on Prisma’s habits. For whatever reason, the girl hadn’t been willing to throw shears almost the entire game, and Elaina had hoped to exploit that. It had worked too; Prisma had thrown stone for the third time in a row, so Elaina had won the hand, but it wasn’t over.
“I won,” Elaina said, glancing over to her bra. “So it’s not over.”
“Incorrect, I’m afraid,” Shein said, looking down her nose at Elaina with a smug smile. “It’s been three turns, remember?”
“But we didn’t tie,” Prisma said, looking just as confused as Elaina felt.
“Ah, but the rules were very clear,” Shein said, trotting around the stage, motioning towards the two participants with her arm. “There wasn’t anything in the rules about tying, I’m afraid. The exact rule is, ‘if there’s ever three turns without someone removing an article of clothing, both players remove one.’ This is the third round with no clothing lost, so you both strip, and you both lose.”
Elaina actually winced at the sudden cheer erupting behind her, ears hurting from the volume. No, that can’t be right. But it was. She remembered the words. Shein had mentioned the rule was to prevent tying hands forever, but it didn’t actually specify tying was the only trigger. They’d been had. They were also victims of dumb luck, not just Shein, but that didn’t matter. They’d ended up in the worst situation possible.
“That’s bullshit!” Elaina heard Prisma scream, barely audible over the crowd even though she was just a few feet away. “There has to be a winner!”
“Calm down, calm down,” Shein said, waving down both Prisma and the crowd before letting out a long yawn. “Apologies for that. Anyway, while I always knew this was a potential happy accident, I didn’t actually expect it to come to this. By the letter of the rules, you’ve both already lost, but something’s come to my attention that changes things. I was informed just a short while ago that there’s been a disqualification in the tournament, meaning there’s another spot open. Out of the goodness of my heart, I’m willing to offer both the original spot for this event and the new spot so that you both my participate, as consolation prizes.
“Of course, all other original rules still stand. You can both compete, but you each must pay the forfeit for going three rounds without progressing to a finish, and as only the official winner of the match would have been allowed to dress again, you will both be required to remain undressed for the duration of the tournament.”
The crowd went even wilder at that. Elaina was dumbstruck, barely able to form a coherent thought. She’d won? Not really, but yes, in effect. She could go on to the next round, but she’d have to do so undressed. Completely naked, in front of the entire building. For how long? Minutes, hours, till the morning?
After Shein had stopped speaking, everything had seemed a haze, like she was in an actual mirage. Her mind was slow, pussy throbbing, panties that she was about to peel off growing wetter by the second.
She turned to Prisma, finding a similarly blank stare on the girls face to what Elaina expected her own to look like, skin as red as well. Gods, she did feel bad for Prisma. If Elaina could’ve just been the one to strip and go on from the start she would’ve taken the opportunity, but those had never been the rules.
Prisma nodded to Elaina, an affirmation to go on. It was strange, because for a moment Elaina felt that Prisma might have actually looked excited. That had to be wrong, of course. No one but Elaina herself would excited be in a scenario like this, embarrassed and about to strip naked on stage, but at least Prisma didn’t seem too upset about it.
Elaina nodded back, turning away from the crowd. She had to strip, but she didn’t have to exactly show them everything, right? Maybe she wanted to, but she couldn’t actually admit it, even to herself. Prisma followed suit, turning to the back wall, and Shein didn’t seem to protest.
Elaina could feel Prisma watching, that she was the one who was going to need to start it. Things were moving in slow motion again now that she’d resigned herself to it. She’d imagined something like more times than there were people in the crowd, stripping naked in front of her whole town at the autumn festival, accidentally walking into the school dining hall with no clothes, but those were always fantasies, pipe dreams to fall asleep to while touching herself. She hoped she would be able to keep from touching herself right now.
She reached for the waistband of her underwear, pushing the fabric down. It was snug at first, catching on the shape of her ass, but once it cleared her hips it began racing down her legs, the last bit of modesty in store for her for the entirety of the night dripping away as she felt her own arousal dripping down her leg.
Out the corner of her eye she saw Prisma doing the same, the band of her underwear hugging her thighs and pressing in as she pulled them down. That final sight burned itself into Elaina’s memory, caused her to turn her head to take it in. Prisma was completely naked, panties at her feet, bent over at an angle as she stepped out of them, breasts hanging to the ground. Both of them turned to face each other directly, both of their faces bright red, both of their eyes glued to the other’s body. Elaina tried to subtly wipe her leg and crotch off as she rose back up before turning around to walk back to her clothes pile.
It wasn’t on the floor though, but held off to the side by a woman bouncer. Struggling to cover herself as best she could in front of her screaming fans, Elaina placed her panties on top of that pile and resigned herself to spending the rest of her evening like this.
“Ladies, gentleman, all other fine people, your losers from tonight’s special exhibition game!” Shein said as the women walked off stage with two piles of clothing. It was really the first time seeing them since she’d started stripping, Elaina noticed the hundreds of eyes on her, all screaming in approval as she stood there with the only thing on her body being that stupid aspect restricting bracelet, on arm over her chest, one hand covering her crotch, trying her best—and somewhat failing—to keep that hand from rubbing into her lips.
“But that’s not the end of tonight’s entertainment, however. There is one final round of poker still, and I’ve yet to explain the rules. It will be a one-on-one, single elimination, winner stays tournament. We start with two participants, they compete, the losers walks, another challenger comes to take on the winner, and so on until there is one person left, the winner.”
That was the only time the crowd seemed to dull in enthusiasm in the last few minutes. Quite a few of them were still in the tournament after all, so the rules did matter to them. Elaina was lost in confusion herself. Wasn’t one-on-one poker kind of a strange way to do it? And what was with the winner stays aspect?
“In order to reward players for excellent performance in the first round,” Shein continued, “we’ve ordered the the bracket already. The people who qualified first will be last in line to play, and the people who qualified last will play first. Luckily enough for us, the two people who qualified for this round most recently are already on stage, which is where we’ll be playing the remainder of the tournament.”
Elaina was honestly getting tired of the cheers at her own expense, and that of Prisma’s. Or maybe it was that the cheers usually came with a wave of embarrassment for a her, a guilty pleasure to revel in. This time was different though. She was in a tournament where in order to win, you had to defeat not only your own opponent, but every participant who hadn’t played yet, and she was going first.
“Fuck me,” she heard Prisma say. Elaina agreed, but when she looked over to the woman she grew confused again. For just another moment, she could’ve sworn it looked like Prisma was excited.
“Of course, that still leaves the format of the game itself, not just tournament rules. This is a new type of poker to Mirage, but one I’m sure you’ll all find it enjoyable viewing experience, especially giving our first matchup. The game materials, please!”
The lights shifted, momentarily catching Elaina off guard and causing her to shield her eyes, cursing herself for failing to hide her chest in that moment. The lights had been mostly focused on Elaina and Prisma for a while, but not terribly bright, while now the entire stage was lit up as bright as possible.
As her eyes adjusted though, she saw two bouncers, the same ones that had taken their clothes, walking up onto stage, each carrying a long, thin, ornate case about as long as long as Elaina was tall. They were fine leather, emblazoned with the word “Mirage” in golden thread, with a golden latch holding them shut. The woman who’d taken Elaina’s clothes presented her case forward and bowed her head.
“Open the cases,” Shein said, “and you’ll find the materials needed to play these final hands.”