A series of stories about a witch and her cardboard addiction.
CW: Implied hypnosis.
It cheats at blackjack
Don’t yell.
Don’t make gestures.
Don’t try to slip “plus” or “minus” into casual conversation.
And for goodness sake don’t try to write clues on the side of my drink!
It's not necessary; all it does is increase the likelihood we’ll get caught.
All I need to do is look at you and if I see you freezing up, I’ll know when to bet.
On rules
While there are exceptions, generally speaking if a rule exist, it implies someone, somewhere tried something and it didn’t work out too well for at least one of the parties involved.
With that in mind, some of the rules written on the blackboard mounted waist-high on the door to this hovel raised several questions that it’d be wise not to ask.
I Like Card Games (part 1.)
"How much money do you spend on cardboard again?"
"Don't remind me."
"And sleeves? And boxes? And dolls to dust your collection?"
"To be fair, I don't buy dolls. The dolls are compensated with rare Magic cards."
"... which you buy."
"Yes."
I Like Card Games (part 2.)
"If it was just Magic cards it would be bad enough, how many Bicycle decks do you own?"
"To be fair, most of them are trick decks, wanna see a magic trick?"
"... and HOW many Tarot decks?"
"Well, I AM a witch--"
"How do you afford at all this?"
"I cheat."
"Huh?"
"At Blackjack, and Poker, and Baccarat. Gin Rummy, though not so much these days."
"That's horrible."
"Is it really more morally bankrupt than owning a casino in the first place? Besides, I usually tell people I'm gonna cheat."
"And they let you?"
"You'd be surprised what people will let you do to them if you ask them nicely but firmly in a ~particular tone of voice~
So, how about a game? I'll let you pick the game and the deck. Choose wisely."
"... S-sure."