Last time was the who. This is the how — and instead of handing you a rulebook, we’ll walk one shift with you in the order you’d actually play it.
The ten-second version: it’s a Short Deck Poker roguelike — six card faces instead of the usual thirteen, and they’re fetishes, not ranks, with a suit on every card. A shift starts, you see who’s coming and what they want, you play hands to build what you need, and you spend it to satisfy each client at the door — all while keeping Emma’s temptation from boiling over before you cash out.
Let’s open up shop.
Step 1 — The shift begins: who’s coming
Before anyone knocks, you get the roster — every client lined up, with exactly what gets him going and what kills the mood and sometime they just mystery:
The handyman — loves it Wet. Vanilla bores him.
The neighbor — sweet and slow, all Vanilla. Rough scares him off.
…and whoever else word’s gotten around to.
That list is your whole plan: you know who you have to please and how. The one thing you don’t get to pick is the order — once the shift starts, they knock whenever they like.
Step 2 — The doorbell rings
First up: the handyman. So you know exactly what you need to build — Wet.
The question is whether the cards will give it to you.
Step 3 — You play a hand
Five cards hit the table:
Every card says two things at once: a big letter (what it does) and a suit underneath (a bonus layer). So you read this hand twice.
- Read the letters:
W W W S S— three of a kind plus a pair. That’s a Full House. - Read the suits:
gold gold · heart ·gem gem — two matched pairs. That’s a Two Pair.
One hand. Two poker results. Both pay out. That’s the whole twist in a sentence.
Step 4 — The hand fills your meters
The six faces aren’t 1–6. They’re six cravings, mild to wild — each with its own meter:
V vanilla · E exotic · W wet · R rough · D dom · S sub
Our Full House leaned hard on W, so the Wet meter floods, with a splash of Sub on the side. Strong hands fill faster — but nothing’s ever wasted; even a junk hand tops off something.
And the suits? That Two Pair in gold and gem isn’t decoration — matching suits in a hand trigger extra effects on top. The hands you’ll be proudest of line both up: a fat letter shape and a fat suit shape in the same five cards.
Step 5 — You serve him — and that’s the result
Those full meters buy what Emma actually does — and each act runs on a specific craving:
| Craving | What it buys (examples) |
|---|---|
| Wet | a blowjob |
| Rough | doggy, anal |
| Dom | taking charge |
| Sub | giving it up |
Each client has a satisfaction bar. Spend the right craving and it rockets; spend the wrong one and you’ve burned a full meter for almost nothing.
Lucky us: a Wet-heavy hand, and a handyman who came here for exactly that. You spend it, his bar shoots up, he leaves happy.
Bar filled, door closes — the next one’s already knocking.
Step 6 — The catch: temptation
Here’s what makes every choice hurt.
Every push — every spend — feeds the risk meter. And risk here is Emma. The more she does, the more she wants to, and the meter is how close she is to losing the thread entirely — to stopping doing this for the money and starting to do it because she can’t help it.
Let it hit the top and she’s given in completely. That’s game over.
So a shift is a squeeze: please everyone on that roster without letting Emma get so carried away she tips over the edge.
Cash out while she can still stop… or push for one more client?
That question. Every. Single. Hand.
Clear the roster, cash out
Satisfy every client without tipping over, and the shift ends. Emma counts what she made — and takes it to the Madam.
Next devlog: the Madam’s shop — where that cash turns into new cards, nastier skills, and outfits that bend how the next shift plays. The part that lets Emma dig herself deeper on purpose.