Mike felt like he had been pulling away from his desire to leave, and every turn left him with another reason to stay. This morning was different, to say the least. The girls had a new experience, and so did mike. Vella was able to move her tail at her whim, and the damned thing vibrated. Mike was challenged to some degree to fill the desires of all of them at once, Vella certainly created a dynamic he never expected.
The entire night would be forever omitted from any journals he would keep in the future.
Opening his eyes, all mike could see were the slightly translucent portions of Vella's Wings covering the pile on the bed below his chest. The girls had left him in another position that was hard to get up without immediately being turned on. He wasn't mad, just completely baffled at his fate.
One different thing after another kept changing the way he lived his life, regularly he felt like he would wake up from some coma and be back to his old life. But as more time passed, Mike was seemingly less interested in returning the world he once knew.
"Girls, I gotta get to work." Mike tried to reason with them.
None of them wanted to get out of bed. Rissa and Jodi were the first, they had not gotten what they wanted last night despite having a very fun time. Mike couldn't protest, protesting such things would lead to his backyard catching fire, or worse. He really had no room to complain, aside from not having any time to get work done in the early morning. Mike still had lots of energy and he was now relaxed.
"Okay, Okay. I'm hungry! Who's hungry." Mike said the magic word and everyone was dressed.
Mona had found some potatoes in the market and decided to change things up in the morning by frying them on a hot plate. She gently put some of the extract into the potatoes, they couldn't have a repeat of the Cookie incident.
Mike cleared the table and after a few lively conversations he saw a flare up of competition and he wondered what sort of shenanigans they would get themselves into today. The potatoes that they had cooked were nice when paired with the meats the girls kept hoarded in the spacial ring.
Sometimes, Mike would find them sneaking meat and chock it up to a primal need.
'What should I do with this place, I know i said general high quality goods.. but what?' It had been more than a week since they arrived, Mike figured he would have something to push his creativity.
'We could open a bar. Nah, too many drunks and fights.'
'a furniture store, eh.. kinda boring'
'A Coffee Shop' Mike thought this was a good idea, but he hadn't seen anything like coffee yet.
'I guess I should at least have a plant growing.' Mike pushed the ideacrafting aside and found a nice place that sold pottery. He had taken a stroll out to the city, one of his usual daily routines. Sometimes he would recognize a person passing by and take notice of what they were doing, but mostly he just saw people rushing about. A lot of them had business, mostly trade or trading that would go elsewhere.
Some of the merchandise floating around was from clear across the planet, but it had been taken by pirates, rescued by someone else, stolen again and only reappeared. Other's merchandise was so fresh that the markings on the outside of some of them were still wet. Gogor was a city of industry and charm, If people didn't take the time to make it beautiful it certainly wouldn't be.
Mike stopped into a shop and found many books, he had been wanting to clear out the shop with his funds but after looking at the prices he had to reevaluate the objective. Some of the books were sold at a King's Ransom. In the end, Mike only found a light spell that he could manipulate into shapes and colors.
It was a rather benign spell that used little for its effect.
'70 gold pieces' Mike looked at the note on the inside.
"Here." Passing the 70 pieces to the shopkeeper, mike felt a little robbed but couldn't help it.
If you wanted to make money, you certainly had to do something for it.
Mike put the book into storage in front of the Shopkeeper and watched his eyes glitter, "How much for the ring?"
"Its not for sale." Mike instantly knew that the shopkeeper saw the value in the ring and left.
He might have to avoid this place in the future if he insisted.
A few more shops found Mike visiting them before the end of the day and Mike was close to broke.
Passing the bar, Mike noticed a brawl that spilled into the streets. Two Bear men were fighting it out, and people were gathering around it cheering. Mike had an idea... he would open a better one.
No one really want to fight at a bar.
If they wanted to fight, they could do it in a ring.
Mike thought about opening a bar, with a fighting ring. But first, he would have to steal all the customers from his neighbor. For a place with so many fights, it wasn't a great idea to keep it open in the first place. If it had a fighting arena, they would at least have an outlet for those types of fights. Mike put it into the back of his head quickly before he acted, he'd rather have something a little less high maintenance.
Thinking about it, Mike started to hum an old tune and it caught the ears of everyone around him. Mike started to wonder if music was having this sort of reaction to people, maybe it was time he did something else besides a bar.
Mike ran up to the house and got the girl together.
"Go out and buy some nice tea cups, we need about 100." Mike was on a roll.
"What are you talking about." Mike was running around and it was making the girls happy to see him excited, but they were still curious none-the-less.
"We're going to open up a lounge." Mike had confidence in his voice again, it made all six of the girls jump for joy and get ready.
"I need to know something." Cara stopped the group.
"What's a Lounge?" Cara giggled.
Mike wanted to kiss her and explain but he felt like he was wasting time explaining.
"Just go and come back, get as many as you can. And some spoons!" Mike sent Cara for cups, Jodi for cutlery, March for as many teas as she could find and Rissa was sent out to rally people to something big that was going to happen.
'This is going to be epic or a nightmare.' Mike patted himself on the back and rushed off to the bookstore.
When he arrived, the shop owner was a little more than annoyed but Mike had something to trade. Mike pulled out the magazine that was rolled up and put it on the counter.
"I want to trade this for a book on Conjuring Teas." Mike had seen the cover somewhere, something like 'how to make tea under the threat of battle' or 'tea for the ages when battle is a threat'.
"Ahh here it is", The shopkeeper came back after a quick browse through the magazine. He was impressed by its construction and paper.
The artwork was exquisite.
"I've given you more than you've given me, perhaps you can make it a little nicer?" Mike pushed his luck and it was a good thing, the shopkeeper asked him what he wanted.
"I'll take a magic book that has a cleaning spell, or.. one that makes a barrier." It wasn't like they would be an impossibility in this world, but Mike had to know if barriers existed without an artifact. If he got a cleaning spell there was no loss whatsoever, so it really was a 'Win-Win' for Mike.
"...." The shopkeeper felt a little odd.
He nearly canceled the deal but Mike invited him to come see what was going on at his shop tomorrow. The books were stored the moment the shopkeeper agreed, Mike wanted to go all out.
When he arrived back home, the girls were all standing around waiting for him with confused looks.
"Okay, what's a lounge!" Vella had spent the least amount of time in the group and yet her mouth was the first to open.
"You're going to sing and dance, and the people are going to drink." Mike left it open to become a bar if the people were just insisting on having one, but he really didn't like people drinking alcohol.
He'd rather see it used for cooking, for making extracts from herbs or for a disinfectant. A good stiff drink wasn't a taboo with him, just that he had seen too many people who lose their self-interest and self-awareness when they drink regularly to know its not just bad for the body.
"..." The girls were at a loss and just played along.
Walking to one end of the dining area he pulled the drapes from the knobs and closed the windows a bit.
"This will do." Mike had all the girls take a seat.
"First, we're doing this to music and no one can compete with that." Mike pulled the radio out and set it on the floor.
"What we need is entertainment." Mike could see the house packed until late nights, but he had to make a choice on what to do with their lives.
He was lucky enough to get the adjacent building so there were some other ideas that would likely lead to trouble if he talked about them too much about them with the girls..
The Girls watched as Mike cast the centrifugal force spell on the alternator and cued the 'Chick music' playlist he had on his Mp3 player. He flipped through a few songs and finally came to 'Viva Las Vegas' The noise was enough to get all their foots tapping. Mike watched them looking at each other and start to laugh at the lines in the song but they saw the determination it showed and realized that the songs were stories.
When the song ended, Mike searched for another song until he found Alicia Keys' Girl on Fire. When the girls heard the song they almost all wanted to cry and then they were in a happy mood. Mike tried playing Thriftshop and Party Rock Anthem but the girls really liked the Girl on Fire Song. It made them feel special and a few of them were already mumbling the lyrics without knowing it.
"I knew it, you girls are going to be fine. Lets give this a shot." Mike kept pushing the next button and by the end of it the girls were entranced entirely, unable to pull themselves away from the beats that kept coming from the small box.
When the alternator's pulled spell was deactivated, Mike had played about an hour of music and the girls had listened to music before, but it had been a man singing. After he found something they wanted to listen to it was only a matter of time.
"I'm going to want to build a stage after tonight, so most of our earnings tonight might go to building the stage." Mike started to look around the room.
March asked what stage was and mike quickly explained that it was easy. Mike walked around the room with his hands open and said, "this is where you'll be doing the routine, or singing, whatever you really wanna do. Its a lounge, mostly anything goes. Just when things were coming to an end for the last song 'Lesley Gore's - You Don't Own Me' came on. It was enough to reignite the fires in the hearts of the girls. Mike warmed their hearts at every turn, they couldn't know what to expect next.
Mike pulled out the Conjure Tea book and had everyone review it.
Once he got the chance he poured himself a cup of what he brewed. It wasn't bad, but it needed more kick. Mike tried it with more power and saw that he had a deep and vivid dark tea, When Vella tried it the cup exploded.
Mike helped clean it up and tasted the Teas from the others, they had each made different teas. Mike opened the book and started reading it out to them word for word as he was seeing it.
Their tea ideas kept coming out and soon a wide variety filled the table.
Mike pulled the lighting book out and started to manipulate it a bit, he got it to change from green to purple on occasion and then go back to a blue or yellow before rolling into purple and green again. It reminded him a lot of the effects stage lights would do in the description so he cast it on the overhead beam before testing it out, soon the multi colored lights shown threw the windows.
"I'm going to charge two gold coins a cup and they can enjoy the music and dancing and fun while they stay." Mike felt like he was going to be rich if it took off, this world didn't look like it had a Las Vegas from any of the books.
"We're going to open as soon as we have a place to sit everyone that will pour in. If it turns to standing room only, we'll have some issues but I think we can just expect that that will happen sometime in the immediate future.
Mike put a bunch of benches inside like a cathedral with an isle. At least he could make it sort of orderly. Tomorrow they could do some fine tuning, tonight it was going to be mind blowing.
Mike went outside and Put a sign on the outside of the building that said OPEN and cast the light magic on it. With the sun setting, it lit the street like a bright neon sign in the 1950s. Mike walked back inside and put on the Blues playlist he had been burning to play for a while, something about horns always made him happy to hear a song. It didn't feel right to have all the excitement so quickly, he needed some attention grabbers and Luthor Allison was just right to draw in a crowd.
The Radio cranked and mike made sure to power the alternator again to make sure it would play without interruption. They decided to leave the door open, but had Vella stand by the door. Her intimidation would keep out the trouble makers who didn't want to pay entry.
Mike handed her a sack and told her to take five gold coins from anyone who wants to enter.
Mike was readying himself for anything when he looked over at the girls who were all nervous. He got them all to take a seat and offered them a dab. They all decided it was time they tried it his way.
Passing the nectar collector between themselves, Mike heated it with his fingers and showed them how to take a hit.
Watching them mellow out was great but mike also wondered if that would kill the mood and take them too far down. He was sure that they only tapped the tip of the pipe to the dabs once and it was a quick hit so they likely only got a little bit.
It was really funny to watch them, but the cleanup had to happen. Mike grabbed all the cups laying around and had March go up and dance in the middle of the room to the music. Her improv dances were completely berserk at times, Mike had never seen anything like it.
"What's going on in here." A voice came from outside.
Vella spoke up. "Five Gold to get in, two for drinks" Vella stood there in front of the large Lizard man but he was very curious about what was going on inside.
"Gladly, now get out of my way." Passing 10g over to Vella, the man and his mate walked inside.
When they saw the layout of the room they were questioning their reason for entry, but soon saw the light show and March dancing to a strange noise.
Captivated, they sat down.
"Looks like we have our first Customers." Mike greeted them.
"Welcome to the Grand Opening, of...." Mike couldn't help himself.
"The Lone Star Lounge... and Casino"
Mike took the time while the girls were performing and making tea to rush into the back and make a deck of cards. The game was new to the world, so he wouldn't have to worry about cheaters at this exact moment.
Cutting the 52 cards to an even length took a little more time than he wanted but the ink too longer. Using his hands to dry the cards a bit, they gained some stiffness and felt more like card paper. It was cheap and thick, but Mike had a little bit of gold left and he had the entry fee if things got really bad. He would have to make money the first night, or lose everything.
Always growing up as a 'Go Big! or Go Home!' Texan, Mike knew it was time to try something different. Someone would eventually create a form of gambling, Why not him.
Mike brought the cards out and a table to a side of the room. He cast another light spell to put some light on the table and waited for people to come up. He thought about putting a sign up for the game but only he knew the rules, it was important to keep it simple at first.
'Tonight its only Blackjack against the Dealer.' Mike reassured himself not to try anything complicated unless people complained.
Mike called out to his guests and had them come over. When they sat at the table, another four people decided to come in. The music was loud outside as well, with nothing to balance against it it rang through the evening streets and drew the attention of a lot more people.
Passing out the cards, Mike explained the game.
"The game is called Blackjack."
"lets see if lady luck is on your side today!" Mike tried to be enthusiastic about it, he was selling himself as a form of entertainment. The girls walked around selling Tea on the spot and the music kept everyone happy while they watched the game.
"Oh! and you bust. And you bust. And you bust. Dealer has 19, can you beat 19"
"21! We have a winner!" Mike passed the pot over to the winner and immediately everyone understood the game and crowded around.
Mike spent most of the night playing, and 80% of the time, no one won. 'Its true what they say, the House never loses' Mike quickly had a whole bag of gold for the renovations they would have to start tomorrow before they opened.
There were a few people that were upset that they lost, but the Lounge gave all players free drinks. It was one thing to come in and watch or listen to the show, but the free teas they could get were refreshing, delicious and served by beautiful women.
"21! We have another Winner!" The stakes could be whatever people wanted.
Mike wasn't worried about paying for most of the bets. soon he had so much gold sitting in storage that people could win for a while before he had to start worrying. There was one man who came over and tried to bet some land he had on the other side of the wall, it was next to the gate.
Mike didn't want to estimate the value of it and create a price hike artificially. Agreeing to pay 100g coins for the land rather than barter back and forth on chance Mike got a large section of the almost adjacent property. If he pressed for it, he might even be able to get the whole block. Mike started to worry if he was doing the wrong thing when.
"Bust, Dealer Wins." Mike had won another hand against the man. He was a bit annoyed, but he saw others winning and knew it was a game.
"Ante up" Confirming is participation Mike walked out another line of cards and every other hand someone would win against the dealer. He was making gold hand over fist, there was little concern over morals at this point. Even if he wanted to stop, someone would try this and it would just be him creating Casinos.
Thinking he could control the narrative, Mike had the girls grab the attention of the mob of new guests with a dance number. They were completely out of sync, but they moved to the beat showing a rhythm in the song. The girls sang what they remembered, Lip syncing or badly karaokeing to the songs. No one cared, they were all stuck in a trance at the sight.
Dealing again, Mike won yet another round. Winners and losers came and went. Some more happy than others, but almost everyone was pleased with their visit. Vella brought another bag of gold over and passed it to Mike before returning to the door. A few people thought about sneaking in, but when they saw Vella almost everyone wanted to talk to her.
Her collections were impossible to dodge, Vella even ejected a guy who didn't want to pay before he saw the inside. With a heave-ho motion he was sent flying off the steps.
"Pay for entry like everyone else." Vella was enjoying herself, she got to be aggressive and she really liked it.
March was getting tired, Mike could see it and called Cara over to tell her his plan. When Cara heard what he had to say she nearly started to laugh at how ridiculous it sounded and Mike could only watch as she gathered her courage up.
Jodi, Cara, Rissa and Mona all went to the center of the room and selected the a song on the radio. All of them were standing in a line and the song cued up to play. With arms interlocked they started a chorus line, which was terribly done but no one cared. The entire house started to hoot and holler the did their best to lip sync to 'Girl on fire' before they got off the stage. Mike took his hat from his head and smiled a the girls.
They rarely saw Mike take off his hat when it wasn't time for bed or cleaning up. It was in great condition considering how many times he'd had a narrow miss that would have destroyed it. Passing it to the girls he let them use it to dance around him as they worked through the crowd. Mike pulled out a small pale and had people drop coins into it for a tip to the girls. He wouldn't pull any of the funds from it, that way they could have some money of their own.
Other than a few bum-rushes that had to be given out by Vella at the door, no problems occurred on the Opening Night. When the night got pretty late, Mike called the first day of the Casino a success and sat down with the girls. he was pretty tired, but he had a lot of fun.
Mike and the girls had made nearly 7,000 gold pieces last night and that was opening night without any news of an opening. Mike had more ideas about what he could do and quickly cast the cleaning spell to clear up the garbage that mike soon incinerated.
The girls counted the tip bucket and saw that nearly a thousand gold pieces were inside the bucket. Mike was pretty amazed at their success and left with with the radio for the time being.
"You girls need to practice for tomorrow, Tonight you were all amazing!. I'm so proud of your ability, you've really given this a shot at working." Mike praised the girls.
Vella was a bit disappointed. She wanted to try dancing too, Mike took note of it and thought about the brawling bears at the bar next door. If he had the luck to see them again, he would offer them a job.
Mike and the girls were pretty tired and worn out, all of them were passionately thinking about the activities they had just done.. none of them were sleepy, and all of them wanted to play in the bedroom a bit. Indulging them might have been a bit of course, but Mike was always happy to make them squirm. Leaving only his hat on, He laid in the bed watching the girls decide who was first to go.
Mike felt like saying something and when he finally had the nerve he just blurted it out.
"If you keep fighting like this we're going to run out of time." Mike imposed a time limit and the girls quickly quieted down. It wasn't like he was trying to control them, but honestly who would have imagined that he would be in this situation. Mike certainly did not.
"Vella wasn't interested in asking and her tail swiftly coiled around Mike's lower half. brushing against it slightly she watched it spring further to life than usual. Mike was really enjoying the strange experiences, but when her Tail got hard as well he could only let it go and continue. It wasn't the first time something stiff came near him during an orgy. Mike had tried a lot of things in college and in the military, What was awkward was that he didn't image she would be using it on him.
[OMITTED]
Mona was a fighter who wouldn't back down from anything. Rissa and Jodi were actual sisters, They were captured along with Mona trying to help an enemy force hide. Mike wanted to know.. he needed to know that someone else besides him was going to be the dominant one, he needed his Right Hand.
"Who wants to be my right hand?" Mike's question caught a lot of attention between the six of them.
The Morning came a lot quicker than Mike wanted, He had spent most the night with the girls again. Mike mounted one of the dragoons, Mike's Dragoon was restless and wanted to get out to do something. It had been a little over a week since they had arrived after leaving the Poocha Castle. The Dragoons were being well fed, all 18 of them went to the forest to hunt at night. Because of their royal emblem armor none of them were ever attacked by the guards or people who'd notice them. Dragoons were among some of the best known predators, which was why the Royal Family had domesticated so many of them in the past.
Stopping from shop to shop, the Dragoon was bit annoyed but at least it got some exorcise.
'Huffph' With a snort, the Dragoon laid down on the street where the shade extended and waited for Mike to return. This sort of interaction happened a lot and soon more people were making their way to the casino.
Mike had used the money to hire some of the local tradesmen to come in and tool out the inside of the building. Mike needed tables and booths, he also needed people to work. Mike hired a few people, He would still play host for the time being but he had other needs. Mike hired two more people for security, If a lot of gold was changing hands someone would try to rob them.
It was inevitable, and also the reason Mike wanted a barrier spell. Since he couldn't afford the Barrier just yet, Mike had to settle for hiring goons. It couldn't just be him, that would only make things more inviting for looters and thieves.
The Dragoons were smart, but not that smart. The best they could do is tracking people down after the fact like a tiger stalking its prey. Mike had even considering leaving one outside near the front door, but they were just too intimidating for most people to get near.
Mike made it home and it was still a few hours until noon.
With his idea's in his head, Mike started cutting a few more decks of cards in case something happened and then cast a light spell on each of the cards. Their colors were all the same on the back and it made fake cards an impossibility in the future.
The workers pushed around carts and tables as fast as they could. The Casino was going to open again in another hour, the girls were cleaning up themselves and noticed that their dancing was getting closer to what mike called "Unison". They were all happy to see that their hard work was definitely improving their coordination and went down stairs to greet the first group of guests.
Mike had set up a second table. The Rules for Blackjack were really easy, Mike had Vella deal. She was devious enough to entice people over but she didn't charm them. Her body did most of the talking, the slender curves and half translucent wings gave her an enchanting persona.
Cara puffed her chest out and saw a bunch of people standing around looking at the changes of the building. Mike had used up nearly half of the gold from last the night to fix up the place.
"Welcome, To the Lone Stars Casino" Mike started out again and went right into a guest host mode.
"I'd like to welcome everyone to our opening, We have two games and lots of entertainment. If you're interested in trying your odds and fortune or fate, feel free to make a wager at either of our tables. And without further ado, I give you.. The Stars of our entertainment tonight and this afternoon I give you 'Cara, Jodi, Rissa, Mona and March. Led by our very own Vella!!!!'."
The crowd burst into cheers and the music began to play. Mike walked off stage and to his table where he sat down and started to deal.
"Okay, the game is Texas Hold'em." Mike shuffled the deck and all eyes that weren't on the stage focused on the cards. "Ante up." ...