I've included a key to the spa chips' demoninations, nicknames, and favors at a reader's suggestion
Format: Nickname: value, favor, color
Clouds:
1, Touching, White
Canaries:
2, Kissing, Yellow
Lipstick:
5, Oral, Red
Skies:
10, Sex, Blue
Grass:
25, Anal, Green
Doubles/Oranges:
50, Double, Orange
Fucked:
100, Forefit, Black
Must acquire a number of chips equal to the value to cash in the favor (e.g. 5 red chips)
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Cyn woke and took a moment to figure out her situation. Things came rushing back in short order. She was at the spa house and it was Saturday morning.
Then she felt the bed shift behind her and looked over her shoulder. Syl, the short-haired, waify girl smiled at her and behind her the slightly larger frame of her lover Bill could be seen, though based on his lack of movement he was still asleep. That brought the activities of yesterday (
this morning?
) back to her. Apart from signing up for a risky poker game with other affluent students from her school, she'd had not one but two lesbian encounters, the second one as part of a BDSM threesome, though only Syl had touched or done anything to her per the rules of the spa.
"Morning," Syl whispered.
"Hi," she said. "Do...do you need to wake him up?" she asked.
Syl smiled, "We don't work like that. The pet thing is for sex; we're more subtle about it the rest of the time. Like, I'll ask him for permission to do some things and he'll demand that I do others, but most of the time it's stuff we'd do anyway, we just frame it in the master/pet way to reinforce the roles. We're pretty tame when you consider how some people do this."
"Sorry if I...messed anything up," Cyn said.
"Oh, you were great. You have good dom instincts," Syl reassured her.
"Thank you," Cyn said, feeling herself blush a little. "This was new to me. I wasn't even that into girls, much less roleplay, and there I was telling you to do a better job or I was going to fuck your boyfriend in front of you. And my last three orgasms have come from girls eating me out."
"And you have another girl lined up to go, if I counted right?"
Cyn nodded. "Yeah, I've got a set of skies for Amy," she admitted. She thought about that for a while, then said, "Can I ask a question?"
"Always."
"How do the skies work with women? I mean, the difference between oral and sex for guys is obvious but with two girls...I mean does someone have to bring a dildo or a strap-on?"
Syl smiled at Cyn's confusion, "So the sky chips say 'sex', but most people think of them as 'penetration'. That wouldn't fit on the chips. You notice I didn't use my hands when I was going down on you?"
"Yeah, Robin didn't either," Cyn said.
"So most of us, for the girl-girl stuff, work on the idea that nothing gets inserted unless skies are in play. Licking deep is a thing, but no fingers, no toys, nothing inside without sky chips," Syl said.
"That makes sense I guess," Cyn said, then her stomach rumbled embarrassingly loud, causing both girls to giggle. "I'd better eat something."
"There's three bathrooms with showers too. Usually people just rinse off so we don't have huge lines, but don't be surprised if you see one being used for a favor."
"You know, Vincent told me this wasn't a brothel but it's pretty close," Cyn said.
Syl let out a small laugh. "If this was a brothel McCabe would have women servicing him twenty-four seven while the other men negotiated for seconds."
"Is...Is Vincent in charge?" Cyn asked.
Syl shrugged. "No one's really in charge. The closest thing is the banker, but that's just because it's their job to enforce the rules and collect the chips. But Vincent's money and family can't be ignored, even here. He's just in another league."
"Have you..." Cyn asked, and then cut herself off as she realized what she was about to ask.
Syl smiled. "Don't worry, about it. I got a few of his canaries before Bill and I became a thing. He doesn't like how we use the chips in our arrangement, so if any of us get each other's chips now we usually just keep them for betting."
Cyn nodded, but then Syl continued with a warning, "Don't kid yourself Cyn. He's not some unattainable tower nobody's conquered. No one here is, except you, really. He's been here two years and he's both spent and owed favors with a bunch of different people."
"So?" Cyn said.
Syl shrugged. "I saw how you looked at him, and your reaction after he folded when your chips were in the middle. First of all, you need to work on your poker face. You did play Kathy, but I think she wasn't paying attention. You're not going to get a free pass from her again. But second even if he is into you, which I wouldn't count on yet, you're both here and playing. People will get your chips, people will get his chips, and not everyone's going to step aside and let you two bet on each other's favors uncontested. Although you have more to worry about than he does, I think."
"Why?"
Syl looked frustrated. "I'm decent at poker. I'm better than Bill, definitely, which is kind of fun because we can use it as an excuse for him to punish me. Vincent though...Even when he loses I feel like he plans it. I can't prove it, but I think he's much better at the game than he lets on. Like he could be a pro."
Cyn got herself out of the bed and collected her clothes, thinking about what Syl said. "Thanks," she called, "I kind of wish I'd lost more chips to you."
Syl smiled back, "See you at the table."
*****
Cyn wandered into the kitchen with half an hour to spare before the game started up again. She'd rinsed off and taken care of some other issues in the shower of the bathroom she'd found. Despite Syl's warning she didn't meet anyone on her way in or out, though when she first got there an aroma in the air suggested someone had traded at least one favor in there.
Cyn enjoyed breakfast food and loaded her plate before heading down to the basement, thinking she could finish her food at the table if she had to, but she was confused when she got down. Carl was behind the bar sorting and stacking, but there were only five other people milling around. She walked over to the bar.
"What's up?" Cyn asked.
"Low stakes game in," Carl paused and checked his watch, "ten minutes, ten chip sit-out fee."
"I thought the low stakes games had higher fees to sit out?" Cyn asked.
"Not the one that starts on Saturday morning. People need sleep yo," Carl said, mimicking a "street" accent, "The thing is the antes still count over from last night. So low buy out and low stakes, but if you bother to get up and play there are some decent antes in the middle. Most people call this the 'practice game' but it's a good chance to get a shot at some higher chips without going into a high stakes game."
Cyn shook her head, wondering at how much she still didn't know about the spa. Including that.
"Why 'spa'?" she asked.
"Sex, poker, affluence," Carl said. "It's kind of a stupid acronym, but they were more concerned about being able to talk openly without giving things away."
Cyn ate the rest of her meal, in less of a hurry based on Carl's more casual attitude. Eight o'clock came and went without comment, but at five past Carl walked over to the table.
"Game starting," Carl announced, "First ante, two lots. Three lipsticks from Robin, three from Bill. High card calls game."
Only five other people played this morning: the Asian Noelle, Susan and Charles from Cyn's first game, the thin, nervous looking guy Steve, and an Indian woman named Purna. Charles was dealt the high card.
"Five card draw," he said without hesitation.
Cyn waited for the cards to be dealt and calmed herself from the thrill she felt when the ante was announced. In her funk at the end of last game, she hadn't noticed the antes getting up to thirty. She picked up three of a kind straight away and bet two canaries. She had almost thrown out lipstick chips until she remembered this game was supposed to be low stakes. In the end, she and Noelle were the only ones interested enough. Noelle, like Kathy, kept an eager and almost predatory grin on when she played, but her Cyn felt more like she was being dared to do something dangerous and fun, rather than threatened.
"Five," Noelle bet.
"Raise to ten," Cyn replied.