Жиголо. Текст с англ. перевода.

[amoivision]

На форуме возникло обсуждение правил "Жиголо". В связи с некоторым разночтением, кого и где именно было допустимо вызвать на эту игру, где должна была проходить игра, при каких ставках, - я приведу кусок текста из английского перевода.

vol. 3: Nightmare, ch. 3.

That same day. Blue Chip subterranean Level Three. Soraya Bar. Unlike most days, a strange and feverish air filled the premises. The usual vulgar laughter and crude jokes gave way to an unusually hushed silence. The collective gaze focused like a long-held breath until sweat broke out on the skin.
Within the tightly packed ring of onlookers, the game was being played.
Anybody could play ― it was just an old-fashioned card game where victory relied on intuition and concentration. But it wasn't the kind of game played in the Midas casinos. The bets being laid on the table didn't involve money or honor, but virtue. The players laid their bodies on the line with each round.
"Gigolo." And at the center of all this attention in Soraya Bar, Riki and Luke were playing it.

It was a type of sex game, along the lines of a sex show. The players started off with a kiss to ante up. As the pot increased, so did expectations. The loser settled on the spot. Those holding the cards as well as the spectators shared in the tension.
If someone was challenged to the game, no matter how disgusting the opponent, he hardly ever refused. "I'm in the mood to have my way with you," was how the game usually started. "We're playing gigolo," would be announced in front of everybody, making it that much harder to turn down. And any man who refused wasn't just called a coward ― word would get around that he couldn't get it up, both physically and metaphorically, and a man who couldn't do that wasn't any sort of man. Where same-sex hookups were the norm, not having the guts or the ability to perform amounted to the deepest stigma any man could have in the slums.
These spur-of-the-moment challenges amounted to little more than simple sex games ― and in the end, iaughing at the opponent's loss was usually the most the victor claimed. But they were taken with a seriousness of intent that sharpened everyone's nerves to a point. Since it was a game, one was expected to be a good sport about it in public. That was the theory, anyway. But as with any intimate activity, what went on there never completely stayed there.
Luke had already been sizing up Riki with yearning eyes. Or was it that he wanted to start a fight? Because of this, nobody was surprised when Luke called Riki out with the cry of "gigolo" ― Riki included. Nor was anybody surprised that Luke had picked a time when Guy wasn't there.
Riki didn't care what anybody thought of him. But he still knew that he had to settle the score with Luke once and for all.
...
(Дальше идет воспоминание о встрече Рики и Джанго, о Джиксах, - еще один кусок о жиголо, прежде чем Катце возникнет на сцене)


This time around, though, the stark reality was that something had pushed Luke into action. And the expression of those stagnated emotions was a game of gigolo.
Riki let it lie. Leaving it to the cards was probably the best way to make sure it didn't happen again, anyway. If he lost, he'd deal with it ― after three years of being "educated" as Iason's pet, doing such things in public hardly bothered him. Besides, once challenged to a game of gigolo, there wasn't much difference between winning and losing. As long as a return match wasn't sought, he wouldn't have to deal with this again.
The game lasted three rounds; it ended when the challenger lost or his opponent took it up the ass. Common sense dictated that penetration was the only worthwhile bet on the table. The challenge could be made only once. Though a game had three rounds, one loss could end it if the challenger wanted. There was no value in not going for everything right from the start.
So when Luke started out the betting with a kiss, everybody groaned. He needed a lot of confidence in his card game if he wanted to go all three rounds.
Unexpectedly, Riki lost.
A stir of voices erupted, accompanied by shrill whistles and catcalls. A complacent look on his face, Luke urged on a deep French kiss with Riki. Around them came the sound of throats swallowing hard.
In the midst of this breath-stopping kiss, their bodies glued together, Luke pressed forward with his thighs, pumping his midsection against Riki's. Riki lowered his eyes slightly. At the periphery of his vision, Norris and Sid gazed at them anxiously.
With their thighs chafing against each other, the obvious stimulation directed to the groin, it would have been a lie to say he felt nothing. The male mechanism was never completely under a man's self-control, a fact Riki understood to a nauseating degree.
Still, the fact that the thought flashed across his mind was all the more reason he wanted to keep control of the situation. Riki remained tranquil within that pocket of excited noise. He couldn't say himself whether this made him powerful or pathetic.
Wanting to go all the way with him, Luke once again dealt the cards. The dispassionate Riki had always made his loins stir, and he was eager to see how passionate the other man could be. The spectators held their breath, focusing their eyes on the card game as they rooted for Luke to win.
Flipping over his final card and pleased with his hand, Luke smiled. "Two pair," he said in triumph. Jacks and Sevens."
Riki asked for two cards. Wordlessly, Riki laid down his cards one at a time. All attention focused on his hand. Three kings. The air went out of the disappointed rabble in a noisy, collective sigh. And yet the faint smile on Luke's face didn't fade, but became an ironic smile not quite of self-derision. It didn't look like the grimace of a loser, either.
What the ―
Something inside Luke had clearly snapped. Riki grasped that much. Slightly furrowing his eyebrows, he rose from his seat. As he did, the crowd stirred itself in a manner different from the tense atmosphere of earlier. In a single breath, the air in the place released all of its tension.

Suddenly, a man pushed his way through the wave of people. "Riki!" he called.
Кадце, конечно. Крупными буквами: "Тут был Вася"