ProsperMan's Homepage

Aristocracy in Netopia centuries ago had the important task of making their status known by constructing opulent, multi-storied houses With silver, gold, and velvet adornments. Those things were possible to fake but fell useless before the eye of veteran appraisers. In the modern net, aristocracy is all a frame of mind and a choice; if someone wants to decorate their homepage with red velvet drapes, winding staircases, and portraits of navis, that's his prerogative and money is far less of a limiting factor than in the old days.

ProsperMan had chosen to decorate his house as such. The floors and walls all give off a vague reflection of any given room's occupants. Portraits, depicting some man with a strange, fully golden head mask with a beaming smile carved on, adorn high spots on the wall. In the center of the backmost wall in the main hall, framed by spiraling staircase on either side, sits a portrait of a strikingly attractive (and large-breasted) woman in a glittering white halter dress, adorned by a staggering number of diamonds. Her face smiles in a sly, knowing way, like a modern Mona Lisa.

At the front of the hall, Swat emerged from a nearby door, dressed in a blue jumpsuit with black padded armor over it Her helmet was off, revealing well kept hair and makeup that seemed to contradict any idea that she had been hard at work acting as a personal trainer. Martia's coordinate data would drop her at the front of the main hall, just a few feet away from her old acquaintance.

Pink light erupted from the ceiling, as Martia materialized in it. She looked around for a moment, what with everything being expensive, expansive, and just plain fancy Netopian decor...which was the completely the opposite of the Battle dojo's more...humble surroundings, though it wasn't really fair to compare a Net homepage to an actual home. Still, she'd never really seen anything like it before, so she had to hang around and soak it in a little bit before she sought out her mission...

...Eh? Well, that Navi was something she'd seen before, at least. She approached the sambo practitioner with a smile and a wave; after all, it was the first time they'd encountered each other while both were fully clothed. Though, why was she wearing makeup? "Hey Swat! What brings you here?"

"I could ask you the same thing, Martia. I'm simply here to make some cash on the side while Showbizz is allowing me a paid vacation. Never hurts," Swat shrugged, then flipped her hair as was her habit. "ProsperMan is waiting in the dining hall beyond this door, assuming you're also here to act as a personal trainer. I was told to take a break..."

Discreetly, the bodyguard closed the door behind her, then moved Martia away from it by placing one hand at her shoulder and pulling her aside. "Just between you and me, I think that guy has just about no interest in personal training. For starters, he's way better built than those portraits make him look, which is surprising, given that portraits tend towards flattery. Secondly, he didn't seem to give half a damn about the exercises I showed him. On the other hand, he seemed very interested in my ass. I think this guy is looking for something entirely different than what he said... Not that I could complain too much, she trailed off, smiling in a scheming way. "He's a little old bit still kind of hot, and loaded too..."

With that on her mind, Swat disappeared into the opposite doorway from the one she'd told Martia to investigate.

"Yep, that's pretty much why I'm here, too." With their motives clear, Martia listened to how the client had more...ulterior motives. For some reason, she wasn't entirely surprised. But at least she didn't have to worry about coming up with exercises, if that was the case. "Okay, I guess I'll watch out for that."

...What did surprise her was that Swat didn't mind potentially doing a little gold digging. She didn't seem like the type to her. Oh well, to each their own, or something. After watching Swat go into...whatever room she did, the martial arts Navi took a deep breath, and proceeded to enter the other room, where ProsperMan was waiting, be it to become more fit, or just to stare at her limber, well-endowed body. ...When she put it like that, the latter was definitely more likely...

The next room over appeared to be another incredibly long dining room, low lit by a series of candles, which heightened the impression that Swat gave off earlier of ProsperMan looking for some female companionship. A portrait on one wall showed the patron, seated in a dignified way with his strange golden mask smiling at 3/4 angle and his body shrouded in a fabulous gold and red velvet robe. He looked just a little portly and very wellmannered.

The man eating at the opposite end of the table didn't match at all. The gold helmet sat on the table at his side, but he himself was a big, handsomely muscled fellow with wild, brown hair, lightly cflecked with gray stripes. His cape was unlatched at the top, open to reveal a bit of his chest. His face was rugged but clean shaven, with very sharp blue eyes. He looked a little like a pirate out of a dollar store romance novel.

He was eating like he was famished, cutting his meat quickly with his knife and then grabbing it up with his fork in hands so large they dwarfed the silverware. His eyes sparkled as he lifted his head and smiled, keeping his mouth closed so as not to show her his food while he chewed. After a short pause, he wiped at his mouth with a red handkerchief (a bit sloppily) and pointed to a wine bottle. "You're the entertainment my sister hired, are you? Quite a beauty, if you don't mind me saying. Come, have some wine and we will discuss things," he beckoned, pulling out a seat for her with one long arm.

A glass of wine was already sitting there, waiting for her to partake.

...Yep, this was definitely no exercise room. And just like Swat said, the Navi and the pictures weren't similar at all. Which...wasn't really a bad thing, considering the likely avenues this was probably going to take. Or maybe she was just jumping to conclusions on that front...she'd know pretty soon if the evidence matched the intentions.

"Er, thank you. You must be ProsperMan. I'm Martia! It's nice to meet you!" The Navi took the seat offered to her, though she didn't so much as touch the wine. She wasn't much for drinking; that impaired movement, and that was something that, as a martial artist, she absolutely hated.

...Oh, what the heck, she might as well just cut to the chase. "So, what do you mean by 'entertainment', exactly? You don't look like you need any exercise tips..."

The navi showed no offense at Martia's refusal of the wine, but did raise his eyebrows as she continued. "Oh, my apologies. I think my sister misinterpreted my message. You see,quite frankly: I am a wealthy man. Absurdly wealthy. I am so wealthy that I will pay a navi for literally anything that brings me pleasure. Maybe that means personal training after all, showing me a really uncanny fighting style and feeding it to me from the ground up. If that's what you had in mind, feel free to progress!" He paused to wipe his chin, then continued through his food. "Or perhaps it could be something else. A game of gin rummy or hide and seek. A nice dinner or an enchanting dance. My servants have disappeared for the day and my only want is to spend my money."

He continued, seeming much more focused on his eating than anything else. "Of course, the upstairs floors are off limits to guests. But there is plenty downstairs. I am a man of plenty," he added, smiling once again. "My other girl doesn't have much of an imagination. I do feel like having some fun tonight! Some exciting fun. Think up something exciting for us to do, okay? Something I've never done before."

His eyes glanced back down to her wine and he frowned. "I'm sorry that it is not to your liking. Perhaps some other beverage?"

'I am a wealthy man.' ...Ya don't say. She didn't make any outward signs of it, but deep in the recesses of her mind, Martia groaned at just how incredibly obvious that statement was. The good news was, the rest of what he said was a bit more informative. "Sorry, I'm not much for alcohol. Oh, but it's just a personal choice! If you want to have some, by all means, drink away!" It might not have been all that important to differentiate, but it couldn't hurt. "Um, if you're offering, I'll have some plain green tea. Nice and hot, but not scalding!"

...Hmm. Something fun. Well, if she needed to think up something like that, she needed information on exactly what she needed to think about. "Well, tell me a little bit about yourself. Do you have any hobbies or anything? If I know you better, I bet I can think up something really incredible!" ...Okay, Martia, let's not dig ourselves into a hole you can't wall jump out of. She could be creative if the occasion called for it, but she wasn't exactly a genius at it or anything...

ProsperMan grinned at Martia's allowance, seeming amused that he was being permitted to drink his own wine. He got up to check out the collection of beverages by the bar. Interestingly, he didn't seem to have a food where the drinks all were and went over the collection several time before concluding definitively that there was no green tea. "I apologize. If there's anything else you'd like, let me know."

"As for my hobbies," he continued, sipping his wine with a thoughtful look on his face. It seemed like he was genuinely pondering what to say. "Impulse shopping," nhe laughed, waving one hand to show that was a joke. "I prospect on business ventures and plot how to best further my fortune at all times. Additionally, I enjoy the company of women... And I love to gamble," he added. At least on the women and gambling parts, he sounded pretty excited and truthful. "Perhaps that's how we should spend the evening? I should warn you, though: I didn't become a prosperous investor by losing my wagers."

"Let me explain my terms and you let me know if they are agreeable. I am prepared to pay you 10000 zenny if I find myself fully entertained. I will pay you the entirety of the holdings as soon as you beat me at one game of anything. On the other hand, I will have penalties I expect you to uphold, should I win. We will both agree not to be bitter, of course. Does this sound appropriate?" he asked, leaning on the counter with one palm while floating his wine glass with the other. "For our first game, I'm envisioning... a game of dice! We will see who rolls the highest number as a combination of three," he suggested. "I will set some music so that it's not so dull. If you win, I will bestow a large amount of money and you will be free to leave. If I win... perhaps I will have you dress as one of my maid servants?" he mused.

"No tea? Too bad...I'm fine, then!" Asking for water somehow seemed wrong in a posh place like this, and nothing else seemed good to her, so yep. And so, Martia sat back and listened to ProsperMan, and his eventual proposal. She couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at the mentioning of 10000 zenny, considering that was more than Leslie had ever had in her PET at one point. And all she had to do was dress like a maid if she lost? Her operator would probably delete her personally if she found out she turned this down.

"I'll admit, I'm probably not the world's luckiest Navi...but I'm not one to back down from a challenge! I accept all of your terms! ...So, where shall we do this? Maybe you have a special room in mind?" Honestly, it wouldn't shock her if he had a private casino room or something to do things like this in.

"Very well, then. I'm glad you accept the terms. For now, let's just... spend some time in here, shall we? I can finish my meal and we can spare the movement," Martia's host offered. "All we need is some dice, which I have, and a cup, which..." he trailed off, snapping up a small whiskey glass from the bar. "This should suffice for. Here are the dice, Martia. I would appreciate if you rolled first. Simply clap one hand over the mouth of re cup, shake the dice inside, and then roll them onto the table. If they fall off, you must reroll. And no, I will bot be offended if you would like to inspect the dice thoroughly before you roll."

He handed over the glass and dice, seeming strangely unconcerned at both the lack of decorum and the damage to the glass that the method entailed. The dice all had their numbers right and, at least at a feel, seemed to be the right weights. "Unless you have any questions, please roll," he encouraged her.

"So, you wanna stay in here? Fine with me!" Actually, she was slightly disappointed that she didn't get to see any more of the mansion, but if he wanted to finish what he was eating, it probably would be a bad idea to do a doggy bag. After accepting the dice and glass, Martia took his words to heart, and checked it for the sake of being thorough. Dice looked okay...after feeling them in her hand and lightly tossing them, they felt okay...yep, she was pretty sure nothing fishy was occurring here.

With her newfound peace of mind, she placed the dice into the cup, raised them above her head, and started to shake them. Exactly why she was doing it that way was unclear, but as a positive side effect, her breasts were shaking along with them. Her outfit was inhibiting the movement a little, but it would definitely be visible without much effort...but it was short lived, as she stopped shaking, removed her hand from the top of the glass, and let the bones roll...

The fancy-dressed navi unrepentantly watched Martia shake, focusing less on the shaking in her hands and more on the shaking elsewhere. As she rolled the dice, they plopped down with a middle-of-the-run value, displaying one, four, and five. "Ten? I see. Let's find out who is fortune's favorite in this competition," ProsperMan chuckled, grabbing up the dice with one hand.

He grabbed up the cup in both hands, the dropped each dice in like an icecube, producing a series of three satisfying clinks. He began to shake, cupping one hand over the mouth and the other around the cup as though it were a martini thermose. As he shook, the dice rattled... then stopped... then rattled again. He must have had some experience, because the technique seemed sort of peculiar, with how he was constantly shaking yet occasionally producing silence.

He rolled the dice onto the table with a dramatic flourish, rolling... six, four, and six. "A total of 16... looks like I'm the victor for this game!" he chuckled, surprising no one with the game's outcome. "If you will proceed back into the hallway and find the first door on your left, you will enter the maid's quarters. Fetch a uniform .GMO and hurry back, if you would! I'm eager to start the next game. Oh, and if you see my other maid servant hiding in there, please instruct her to hurry back. Thank you very kindly, maid," he finished, smiling with self-satisfaction and returning to his meal.

The door he spoke of was the one she had seen Swat go through earlier...

10...not amazing, but she had a chance. So long as he didn't get anything amazing...

...Like that 16. The way he shook was a little odd, but all things considered, she seriously doubted there was any cheating involved. With a sigh, Martia stood up, knowing she'd lost that bet. "Dang, I thought I had a shot...can't compete with that luck, though. Oh well, I lost, and trying to weasel out of a bet is incredibly lame, so, be back in a minute!~" She wasn't exactly dreading the outfit change; she more or less always wore her battling outfit, so something a bit more feminine might not be a bad change of pace. And she'd probably look super cute in a maid's outfit...

With that, she left ProsperMan to his food, and went back to the hallway. First from the left...wait a sec. Wasn't that the door Swat went in earlier? Hmm. So, did she lose a bet as well? Now curious about that as well, the soon to be servant Navi went inside, to locate a GMO, and possibly do a search for the other Navi...

Sure enough, Martia's intuition had been correct: there was her ol' buddy Swat, wearing a raunchy black uniform, complete with a skirt so short that Swat's palms would probably reach past it at her sides and a low bustline that dared her to lean forward. The frilly short apron included with the ensemble seemed laughable in combination with the navi's characteristically proud face. The white-haired navi blushed momentarily, then regained her composure. "Hmph... I was thinking you might simply win your contest and leave, but no such luck. I'm guessing he got you to gamble and beat you as well, didn't he?" she asked, raising one eyebrow. "Your .GMO is over there, if you want to wear it. I'm beginning to suspect something fishy, myself, but the money is too good to walk away from..."

The skirt flicked along with her hips as she moved, revealing more of Swat's shapely, pale thighs, clad in long, black stockings that were pinned to whatever garment she was wearing underneath by garters, as she picked up the .GMO and handed it over to Martia. "It's like mine... but pink. Quite a coincidence, isn't it?" she asked, crossing her arms at her chest slowly. "Let's each keep our guard up around this guy, okay? I don't know how badly you want that money, but we could be in danger."

((ProsperMaid.GMO obtained; don't need to register, may want to later if you keep it))

Danger of losing their dignity, at the very least. The outfits he'd left them certainly couldn't be the ones that the regular servant girls wore, could they? Unfortunately, there were no servants around to check upon, nor any portraits or photos to backcheck against. "Ready when you are, Martia. Remember: cautious..."

The room itself didn't offer much to investigate: it was very sparse, dark, and contained only ten bunkbeds and a few open closets. When those servants had cleared out, they'd really cleared out. There was little more to investigate. The reasonable course of action would be to head back and greet ProsperMan again, but there was also the increasingly tantalizing option of sneaking off to investigate his fishy-as-hell mansion.

The good news was, Swat didn't have to be too embarrassed. The bad news was, that was because Martia was plenty embarrassed for her. "Er, wow...I thought it'd be skimpy, but that..." The words trailed off, since she didn't have a really good way to finish that sentence. Without saying anything else, she grabbed her appointed GMO, and activated it...oddly, it was the exact same size as the other Navi's, which allowed the skirt to cover slightly more of her legs, though there was still plenty of them to see. The lack of resizing did, however, seem to take the bust area of the dress to its limit, since despite being smaller in height, her chest was actually larger than Swat's. It almost looked like if she so much as took a deep breath, she'd end up repeating the whole ordeal at Showbizz HQ...

"I don't mind tight fitting clothes, but I really could've used a little more in the bust area..." Other than that, though, she was right, as a mirror inside one of the closet doors confirmed her suspicions that she'd look rather cute in a maid uniform. Granted, it looked like she belonged more in a fetish club than a mansion, but she still made it look pretty good. "I dunno if suspicious is the right word for it...odd, sure, but I haven't seen anything too out of the ordinary. I think for the moment, we should just play along and try to win that money. And if we both lose over and over again, then we'll know something's fishy." The martial arts Navi suddenly got a strange look on her face, and subsequently leaned to her side and reached up her skirt for some reason. A sigh of relief signaled that whatever she was looking for, she found it. "...For a moment I wasn't sure if I had any underwear! That's where I'd draw the line..." Naturally, she didn't even notice that there was no bra underneath as well, since that was how her normal outfit worked, as well.

"Well, I'm heading back. Coming?"

"Fine, okay. But don't think I'm going to relax my guard just because you are," Swat sighed, following along behind Martia. "Once he gets a look at those, he's probably going to want to play hard ball," she grumbled, staring at the opening in Martia's new blouse.

The two made their way quickly back to ProsperMan, who looked full and content, now sitting with his chair turned outward slightly from the table. Another woman was walking away from him, a very shapely girl in a strange white, hooded cloak. She smiled at the two entrants briefly before leaving through the same door.

"Welcome back, my loyal maid servants," he greeted the two, almost as though he'd forgotten they were only dressed as maids. "You just missed another of your peers, a devilish woman with better luck even than I. If I continue to gamble like I did against her, I will be a ruined man before the night is over," he smirked, not sounding particularly devestated by his loss. Swat glanced sideways and frowned, again indicating how fishy she found the business.

"The basis of an exciting gamble is escalation, ladies. A mere 10000 monies for each of you is no longer enough. 13000 then, and the night off, for anyone who defeats me in this next game. It's very simple: High-Low. I draw a card and flip it. Each of you can study the card. Next, each of you will guess whether the next card I draw will be higher or lower. We will count Aces as ones. Is that all clear?" the big man asked, extending I've palm in an inquisitive gesture.

"And if we lose?" Swat asked, tilting her chin up.

"How about if you lose... each of you can play the next game from my lap. That sounds fair enough," he offered.

Swat raised her eyebrows, but nodded. "Hey Martia... why don't you guess first? I will go second," she suggested, keeping her steely frown. "That's fine with both of you, right?"

"No objections here," ProsperMan answered. "Please inspect and shuffle the deck as you will, ladies," he concluded, handing over the deck to Martia so that she could take care of it.

"Hey, who said I was letting my guard down?" That was the only thing that came from Martia's mouth on the trip across the hall. After all, if he really was cheating, there had to be some signs of it, so at some point they'd catch him in the act...right?

Speaking of being caught in the act, someone else came in while they were gone? And won? She wasn't quite sure what that meant, if anything...she decided to be optimistic, and that these games of chance were nothing more than that. Also, the stakes were being raised to 13000? That was...a lot of zenny...yep, she was definitely in. Though, she did notice one thing about the rules..."I'll agree on one condition. If the next card turns out to be the same as the previous one, that counts as a draw. That way, it doesn't favor either side!"

With that, Martia accepted the deck, and took a closer look. Nothing was marked, the cards themselves were in an acceptably random order...but, just to be sure, she shuffled them a few times, to be safe. "Wanna look the deck over, Swat? Or shall we get started?"

"Of course, that's a sensible rule," ProsperMan agreed with a subtle nod to Swat. The bodyguard seconded the motion, nodding slowly. "Of course, the odds of such a draw are extremely low, but it's always best to plan for every situation." Swat accepted the deck and shuffled it herself with very quick but meticulous motions while their host continued speaking. "High-Low is such a simple game, even simpler than Dice, and yet it still carries that profound feeling of victory or defeat. How difficult it is to stop when you are on a losing streak!"

"But you wouldn't know a lot about losing, would you?" Swat provoked him, handing back the deck with a shrewd smile. He returned the expression in kind. "Alrighty, draw your card."

The navi nodded his interestingly quaffed head, then revealed the top card. His eyebrows raised for a moment, then he laughed with amusement. "What a horrible turn of luck for me!" he laughed, placing the ace of diamonds down onto the table. He clutched his hands into his hair and made a grin that showed a mixture of disbelief and amusement. "Horrible, truly horrible!"

Swat shot her eyes over to Martia, her face showing brief but obvious confusion. "Er, I'm guessing the next card is going to be high," she muttered, breaking the original plan. "How about you, Martia?"

Martia elected to keep a low profile, not particularly doing anything besides listening, at least until the first card was drawn, at which point she nearly jumped for joy...though she managed to stop herself in time to avoid inadvertently overstretching her outfit, and subsequently tearing it. And she needed all the coverage she could get with it. There was still a small amount of bouncing in certain areas due to momentum, of course, but in a cruel twist of fate, the sheer tightness of the maid's uniform actually served to restrain her breasts somewhat.

"Yep, I agree. I think it'll be higher!" Well, this was a promising start. If this kept up, they'd both be richer for sure.