Marlo Lane
"The Erogamer"
LVL: 1 (0%)
Stats:DOM: 2/100
SUB: 15/200
BOD: 20 (+)
LST: 1 (+)
SED: 6 (+)
FUK: 4 (+)
PRV: 19 (+)
ERO: 10 (+)
Points: 5
Money: $1,220Status Effects: None
Description: Marlo Lane is a novice police officer hoping to make a difference. For the last year, he has been consumed with anxiety about Sasha Michaels, his best friend, who has been diagnosed with cancer and is expected to have no more than three months to live. His desperation to save his friend has opened him up to the possibilities of the Erogame.
Skills:
Erogamer's Body (Lvl MAX): The biological ability to live your life as an erogame. Venereal disease doesn't exist for you, or pregnancies or refractory periods. Arbitrarily large appendages can fit inside any of your orifices. You heal from all marks with a good night's sleep, ready for the next day's adventures. Other aspects of this skill depend on the BOD stat.
Erogamer's Mind (Lvl MAX): The mental flexibility to live your life as an erogame. You're more able to accept the realities of your new world. You'll also bounce back from painful, upsetting and bizarre sexual experiences with relative ease. Rape can be anything from a recoverable trauma to a Tuesday afternoon, but it won't ruin your life. Other aspects of this skill depend on the FUK, SED, LST, and PRV stats.Erogamer's World (Lvl MAX): The consent of reality to live your life as an erogame. People are never too preoccupied to consider sex or romance, not while you're around. Bystanders won't ignore what you do, but they're unlikely to actually stop you. Those who do decide to involve themselves are drawn into the logic of the Erogame. If you go far enough that an authority sees no choice but to intervene… they won't treat you as a simple criminal. Other aspects of this skill depend on the ERO stat.
To Mine Own Me Be True (Lvl MAX): Even at the center of the Erogame, you are not just an erogame character, but a human being possessed of his own free will. Your family will always be safe from you, and little children everywhere.
Perks:
True Love Conquers All: If you love someone enough, nothing can ever permanently separate them from you. The only exception is their wishing to leave you---deliberately, voluntarily, and based on correct information. People you love will live out a full natural lifespan and they will never die before you do. If they ever face serious physical or psychological harm, you will always get a chance to rescue them. This applies to any type of love, not just romantic love. If you would undergo hardship and sacrifice to protect someone, if losing them would leave a scar on your heart that never fully heals, then you will be able to take care of them, and in time you will always be reunited.
Info // Character Stats // Level:
At LVL 1, and 0% progress toward the next level, you'll never be this weak again. You can increase your level by completing the quests the Erogame offers you, or by causing romantic and sexual events to happen to you or around you. The more difficult the challenge, the greater the rewards.
Info // Character Stats // Body:
With the average being 10, and perfect 10s being 40, your BOD of 20 makes you solidly the most attractive person in the room, assuming the room isn't in Hollywood, California.
You can increase this stat through exhibitionism, and other acts that invoke the pure beauty and power of your physical form.
Info // Character Stats // Lust:
At a LST of 1, you're very nearly asexual. For now, anyway.
You gain in this stat while experiencing sexual urges that are unusually intense or that go on unusually long.
Info // Character Stats // Seduction:
Your SED of 6 makes it possible for you to get a date with a girl who doesn't have anything else to do that Friday. Could be worse, but could be much better.
You can increase this stat by arousing the romantic interest or sexual desire of others, and successfully pursuing them or being caught.
Info // Character Stats // Fucking:
Your FUK of 4 means you'd better be extra careful with your teeth. As for other bedroom skills, have you considered trying to… well… move?
How do you increase this stat? Take a guess.
Info // Character Stats // Perversion:
Your PRV of 19 despite your total romantic isolation is a sad commentary on the decadence of the third millennium. Nonetheless, casual exposure to a variety of naughty ideas has left you open to a whole host of things you prefer not to think about.
You can increase this stat by being a little less close-minded, and acting accordingly.
Info // Character Stats // Erogame Logic:
At an ERO of 10, your life has become an erogame taking place in a mostly realistic setting. What happens to you might seem unlikely to others, but it won't break their belief in a sane universe… yet. Witnesses will reach for explanations other than the Erogame, but they'll still notice the unusual events.
If you keep pushing probability to its limits, then probability will learn to be a bit more flexible down there, relax and take it in and not protest so much.
Info // Character Stats // Dominant and Submissive Energy:
If this were a different game, you'd have mana and hit points.
It isn't.
...this is a long list of things he doesn't like and doesn't want, but — "people you love will live out a full natural lifespan."
He can't not click yes.
After he clicks yes he rereads the entire purple block, tries not to think too hard about what quests are going to involve. Hovers over the stat points, raises SED twice and FUK three times, rereads it again.
He kind of wants to go and throw up. He doesn't do that.
Quest available: Get Laid
With BOD 20, ERO 10, and the wonders of the Internet, how hard is it to find someone to suck your cock?
Success: +250 xp
Failure: Shame about your unworthiness to be called the Erogamer
Y/N
That choice, on the other hand, is easy.
He clicks N.
Quest available: Feel Someone Up
Some things you like to save for when you're in love. But you get to first base on the first date, these days.
Success: +150 xp
Failure: More shame about your unworthiness to be called the Erogamer
Y/N
He can think of things that sound less appealing than feeling a girl up because the video game he has apparently been dropped into told him to, but not many. N again.
Quest available: Kiss Someone
Okay, look, this is the Erogame. It's ero. As in sex. At some point you are going to have to do something sexual with someone.
Success: +100xp
Failure: Abject humiliation at your unworthiness to be called the Erogamer.
Y/N
Yes, well, that point is not now. N.
Quest available: Smile at someone.
I give up.
Success: +50xp
Failure: whyyyyyyyyyyy
Y/N
....yeah, okay, he'll take that one. Y.
Finding someone to smile at takes about three minutes.
Quest complete! Smile at someone.
Was that so hard?
+50 XP
Quest available: It's Not Your Fault
The Erogame is making you masturbate. It's not like you decided to do it on your own.
Success: +1 PRV, Sasha gets something he's always wanted
Failure: The test is ambiguous. Sasha has to wait an additional 24 hours to learn whether his cancer is in remission.
Y/N
That isn't fair.
He can't not pick Y, not with a reward for success like that. Obviously that's the point, but that doesn't mean he doesn't hate it.
He goes back to his apartment and takes a shower and — tries not to think about the failure condition — thinks about Sasha getting something hes always wanted and how happy he'll be —
— ugh. He hates doing that. At least he's already in the shower.
Quest complete! It's Not Your Fault
Secret bonus objective Enjoy Yourself failed.
Your PRV has gone up by 1!
Masturbating slightly more often than you usually do has caused your LST to go up by 1!
His phone buzzes.
cancer's gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
that's awesome!!!!
do you need a ride home
thatd be good yeah
but m it's GONE
it is!!!!!!
Quest available: It's A Hot Day
Go outside without a shirt and remain that way until three people see you who are going to masturbate thinking about you tonight.
Success: +100 XP
Failure: 'Shy' status, two days
....yeah, whatever. He clicks Y and takes his shirt off and grabs his car keys.
The drive to the hospital is pretty short; the waiting room is mostly full.
The second he enters the waiting room:
Quest complete! It's A Hot Day
+100xp
+100xp for finishing after less than thirty seconds of observation.
Forgetting your shirt at home has caused your BOD to go up by 1!
You have leveled up!
....well.
"Hey!"
Sasha does not run at him to hug him, but you get the sense that he wants to.
"Hey! — c'mon, let's get some ice cream into you."
Quest available: Longing
Sasha's hair looks so soft. Wouldn't it be nice to know if it felt as soft as it looks?
Success: +250 xp, a warm glow of satisfaction
Failure: ????
Y/N
......what.
He hesitates, then clicks Y and gets in the car.
Sasha chatters on the way to the ice cream place — apparently a band he'd always wanted to see is in town and the tickets are weirdly cheap — and orders an objectively ridiculous bowl of chocolate, which is good because he's lost a scary amount of weight in the last few months, and Marlo gets a scoop of caramel and watches him eat.
His hair does look soft.
When Marlo's been silent for a few beats too long Sasha looks up, makes a soft questioning sound.
And Marlo smiles and tucks a bit of Sasha's hair back behind his ear and says "It's nothing, I just like seeing you happy."
"That's cute. You're cute."
The Erogame does not give him any sort of reward for this behavior.
Fair enough.
"You're cute!"
That tiny smile doesn't leave Sasha's face when they get back to Sasha's apartment and he curls up on the couch.
Hmm. Will this work?
He sits behind Sasha and takes his hair and separates it into three parts, uses his fingers as a comb more than he strictly has to.
Sasha makes a soft happy noise and relaxes into Marlo's hands.
Quest complete: Longing
+250 xp.
You have leveled up!
Quest available: Holding Out For A Hero
Hold Sasha for at least fifteen minutes.
Success: Sasha is so happy.
Failure: ????
.......really, game?
N. His friend is not a quest object.
His phone buzzes. It's his ex Melissa.
Hey! Was wondering if we could catch up!
Quest available: Melissa Misses You.
Remind Melissa of the good times you had. And the ones you might have in the future with your newly elevated FUK stat.
Success: +250 xp, ?????
Failure: -1 FUK, ?????
Y/N
He finishes off the braid and unlocks his phone and reads the text. Hovers over the Y / N buttons.
"Apparently my ex wants to catch up," he says, when Sasha makes a curious noise from where he's curled up around a pillow.
"Don't," Sasha says immediately. "Catching up with your ex does not ever end well, trust me, I've tried it."
...yeah. That's true. And they'd broken up for a reason.
He clicks N and puts the phone down and pulls Sasha closer.
Another soft happy sound. He nuzzles Marlo's shoulder and — doesn't say the thing he's thinking.
+1 SED, for secret reasons.
A skill has been created by a special action! Holding Sasha has unlocked the skill Cuddle.
Sasha's still much too thin but having him in his arms, warm and breathing and alive, is — good. Marlo doesn't let go.
Neither does he; he settles against Marlo's chest and stays there.
Cuddle has increased by 1!
He's pretty sure he knows what cuddling involves but he looks at the skill description anyway.
Info/Skills/Cuddle
Cuddle Lvl 2. Active. 1 SUB/minute.
When this skill is active, you will instinctively know the best ways to hold someone to make them feel warm, safe, protected, and comfortable. Your limbs will not fall asleep no matter what position you are in. More advanced cuddle skills will be unlocked at higher levels.
....that's an adorable skill.
Okay. He switches that on and — his arms go here and here, he should adjust the way he's sitting like so, cradle Sasha a little tighter —
It's been a long day. (Week. Month. Year, if he's being honest.) And Marlo's arms are so so safe.
Maybe he should just.... fall asleep there.
Quest available: Touch Sasha
He's asleep. No one will know. And it's not like you decided you wanted to. The Erogame is forcing you.
Success: +1 LST, +1 PRV, +10 Cuddle, +500 XP, a pleasant surprise for Sasha.
Failure: ---
No.
No, absolutely the hell not, and what does this game think it is doing.
(He stirs, doesn't wake up.)
A skill has been created by a special action! Holding Sasha while he sleeps has created the skill Sleep Telepathy.
He reads the skill description, because what else can he do.
Info/Skills/Sleep Telepathy
Sleep Telepathy: Lvl 1, Active, 1 SUB/use
Sleep telepathy allows you to read someone else's mind as long as you are in the same room as them and they are asleep. At Lvl 1, you learn how they want you to interact with them to create the best sleep environment possible.
Oh.
This he doesn't mind at all.
He uses Sleep Telepathy — Sasha wants him to move so Sasha's head is at a different angle, to play with his hair, to put his hand higher on Sasha's back; he — does what he's asked. Or not asked, technically.
Following Sasha's fast-asleep instructions has caused Sleep Telepathy to go up by 1!
Info/Skills/Sleep Telepathy
Sleep Telepathy: Lvl 1, Active, 1 SUB/use
Sleep telepathy allows you to read someone else's mind as long as you are in the same room as them and they are asleep. At Lvl 2, you learn how they want you to interact with them to create the best sleep environment possible, and you can see their dreams.
He looks so peaceful; his breathing is soft and light and even.
(When Marlo checks, he wants Marlo to keep playing with his hair — to run his fingers down Sasha's chest and stomach to places Marlo would rather not think about — and he's having a very vivid dream about exactly that.)
+1 LST, for secret reasons.
Nope.
Nope nope nope nope nope.
He lets go of Sasha — whispers "I'm sorry, work thing" when Sasha blinks up at him, still half asleep — leaves. Goes back to his own apartment and puts a shirt back on.
It's pretty late. The Erogame doesn't bother him for the rest of the night.
Having LST 3 might.
It does, a little. He ignores it.
He takes a moment to stay in his car and pray before he goes into work the next day.
When he gets to his desk, his boss says, "Good news! You're getting reassigned to Vice."
...great. Awesome. He is not looking forward to how the erogame will interact with his job.
"Thank you, sir," he says instead of that.
His boss goes through some orientation things!
"--Oh, and one more thing," he says, "I wouldn't normally say this for how new you are, but you're a bright young man. Eager. We've been looking for someone for undercover work."
Of course.
"What sort of undercover work?" he says, because he might as well find out now rather than later.
"Well," he says, "we need someone to do stings in order to collect evidence that will allow us to arrest women for prostitution."
Quest available: Go Under Covers
You don't know the escort was going to illegally have sex with you for money unless you make a noble sacrifice and fuck her for the cause.
Objective #1: Arrest one prostitute. +100 xp, +1 PRV, improved relations with boss
Objective #2: Arrest ten prostitutes. +1000 xp, +2 SED, +$500, ???
Objective #3: Arrest 100 prostitutes. +10,000 xp, +1 BOD, +1 SED, +1 PRV, +$1500/month, ???
Objective #4: Arrest 1,000 prostitutes. ????
That is not what he was signing up for when he took this job.
"I think I'll get back to you after I've been on Vice for more than a day," he says, and clicks N.
His boss looks a little disappointed. "Of course. Right now we'll have you on the desk so you can process the people we arrest? Get your feet wet?"
"Sounds good!"
It doesn't.
The first three people he processes are normal.
The fourth is... not.
In general, prostitutes are pretty but ordinary-looking women wearing normal clothing: blue jeans, T-shirts, maybe high heels. It's not very good to attract attention if you're doing something illegal, and the Girlfriend Experience is more popular than the Porn Star Experience anyway.
The latest woman who was arrested did not seem to have gotten this memo. Her hair is long and platinum blonde and her makeup is put on with a trowel. She's wearing a cutoff shirt knotted over her enormous breasts; her breasts are almost falling out, and you can see a little bit of one of her nipples. Her legs are technically covered, if you count fishnets as leg covering; her miniskirt is so short you can see her ass. Her heels are high enough that Marlo gets sympathetic foot pain just looking at them.
Oh, good Lord.
"I can get you a blanket if you'd like one," he says, "that can't be warm."
"I don't need one," she says in a voice like Jessica Rabbit, and bends over so Marlo gets a look straight down her cleavage.
That's uncomfortable.
"Are you sure? They keep the AC pretty high in here."
Her breasts, having essentially nothing to hold them up, jiggle with every movement of her shoulders.
"No, but there is something else you can help me with."
That's also uncomfortable.
"What might that be," he says, roughly one hundred and six percent sure that he already knows.
One of her nipples is almost out of her top.
"Well, I don't want to be arrested. I'm sure we can come to an agreement."
Quest available: Public Relations
Candee Daniels does not want to be arrested. And she's willing to do aaaaanything to escape today without a criminal record.
Success: +1 PRV, +1 LST, +500 xp
Failure: 'Erectile Dysfunction' status effect, two days
No.
"Take a blanket. I insist."
Candee Daniels grumpily takes a blanket, is processed, and goes to her cell.
Good.
(Please, please, let him go back to his old department, so he can stop working Vice. Please.)
A few more normal cases, and then he has to process a pimp. One of the bad ones. She beats her girls, and rapes them; there are pictures. One of the girls is fourteen.
....he wants to throw up, a little bit.
At least she's been arrested already.
Quest available: Police Brutality
Show her that crime doesn't pay. Make her feel even a tenth of what her victims did. Make her understand exactly what she did wrong. Let the punishment fit the crime.
Success: +2 PRV, +1000 xp
Failure: Increased relations with the criminals faction.
No.
No. Absolutely not. This is not why he took this job, he is not that kind of cop, he is not going to be that kind of cop, it does not matter that a sex game is interfering with his entire life, it will not happen.
The Erogame leaves him alone and lets him do his job for the rest of the afternoon, until:
"Hey!" a woman in her twenties, dressed in a remotely reasonable outfit, says.
That's a relief, probably.
"Hey," he replies, looks up and makes eye contact and smiles.
"I'm trying to organize this year's hot cop calendar!" she says cheerfully. "We're hoping to raise more money for charity than the firefighters. Do you think you might want to participate? It's for a good cause. We're helping homeless LGBT youth."
— yeah, okay, if the game is throwing this at him he'll take the bait. (Sasha would be pleased. That isn't why he's doing it but he's aware of it anyway.)
"I'd be happy to!"
Quest available: Strip for Charity
The sexy policeman calendar is taking pictures today! All proceeds to go to help homeless LGBT youth.
Success: +100 xp, the proud glow of knowing you've done what's right.
Failure: "The Camera Adds Ten Pounds" status effect.
"Great!" she says. "I'm Addy, I'm the photographer. If you'll just come right this way--"
He follows, clicks Y on the menu as he does.
"It's a body positive calendar," Addy chirps, "so we're not going to retouch anything, if that's all right with you!"
"Fine by me!"
Non-retouched photos of him aren't that much more personal than retouched ones.
"I was hoping to do a naked calendar," Addy says, "so we can really beat those firefighters and raise more money! But of course we can do anything you're comfortable with-- covering it with a sheet, shirtless, fully clothed--"
..........okay, observably yesterday he was going around shirtless for several hours and nobody particularly objected or stared too obviously even though —
— it still feels like too much.
"Not full frontal?" he tries.
"All right!" she says cheerfully. "You could have something covering your front-- maybe a book?-- or you could keep your pants on, or I could just shoot you from the waist up-- oooh or you could lie down and I could take a picture of your backside--"
Yep nope still too much. "Just from the waist up," he says, and sounds firmer than he feels.
Stating your boundaries has created the skill Sexual Communication!
Info/Skills/Sexual Communication
Sexual Communication. Lvl 1. Active. 3 DOM/use.
Saying what you want can be hard. When you use this skill, you will automatically express your strongest current sexual desire, clearly, accurately, completely, and without your conscious input.
"I have a set of handcuffs! Would you like to be handcuffed to something for your picture?"
He activates Sexual Communication and opens his mouth to say 'no' and instead says "Yes."
WHAT WHY
"Great!" Addy says cheerfully. "I appreciate your concern for homeless LGBT youth. Take your shirt off and I'll handcuff you to the wall!""
what what no that wasn't what he'd meant to say
He takes his shirt off and extends his wrists, his hands palm-up.
A skill has been created by a special action! Taking off your shirt around another person has created the skill Strip Tease!
Info/Skills/Strip Tease
Strip Tease: Lvl 1. Active. 5 D|S / minute.
A skill to remove clothes seductively, always hinting at more than what appears, making the viewer more and more impatient to see the end. While this skill is active and you are continuing to remove clothing, you receive a +10% bonus to SED and BOD and any observers watching you react as though their LST were 10% higher. Effects may vary depending on whether the skill was fueled by Dominant or Submissive Energy.
The handcuffs are cold around his wrists. He can't get out.
That's fine. This is fine. He isn't trying to get out. He's just — dealing with the knowledge that he's trapped — he isn't really sure what his face is doing but he tries to smile.
"Great! I'm going to take my camera out. Smile!"
He smiles.
It looks natural, even.
A skill has been created by a special action! Posing for a picture has created the skill Strike A Pose.
Info/Skills/Strike A Pose
Strike A Pose. Lvl 1. Passive.
Whenever a camera is out, you automatically position yourself in the sexiest and most photogenic way possible. You have a 1 *BOD% chance of a wardrobe malfunction.
He can feel the ways he's semiconsciously adjusting. Doesn't try to fight them. (Prays to God for good luck — BOD% is a little more than one in five —)
"You're a natural!" Addy says delightedly. "We're going to put you on the cover."
He's not thinking about that he's just smiling.
Click. Click. Click.
And Addy takes the handcuffs off.
That's good, he thinks absently.
He puts his shirt back on as quickly as humanly possible and — doesn't run away, isn't hiding, he's just, taking a moment to think, in the bathroom.
Being tied up by a stranger has raised PRV by 1!
Being on the cover of a porn calendar has raised BOD by 1!
Quest complete! Strip For Charity
+100xp
Being in a calendar has unlocked Online Presence.
Info // Online Presence:
You earn 10XP each time somebody comes:
- While looking at a non-retouched picture or video of you.
- While listening and paying attention to your recorded voice.
- While reading an erotic story you wrote that is entirely based on true events.
- While looking at an erotic drawing that you personally drew.
- While watching a hentai for which you provided at least one of script, storyboards, or voice acting.
- While playing a VR game whose models and motions were captured from you.
- While interacting with an AI that was programmed by you or trained on data you generated.
- While playing an eroge whose character routes feature you and your companions.Only one orgasm per session will be counted. Repeated edging or ruined orgasms may qualify at the Erogame's discretion. Forcing or incentivizing orgasms (e.g. as mandatory supervised daily sessions within a territory you rule) reduces per-orgasm XP gains, but does not eliminate them. Promoting or advertising your online presence carries no penalty.
For details of how you are currently doing online, check Info // Online Presence // My Metrics. Advanced ad-free metrics can be unlocked by paying $5.99/month.
Okay. That makes a BOD of 22, and a PRV of — he's not actually sure how much, he makes a mental note to look at his statblock when he gets home —
He tries his very best not to think about what just happened. Or how being handcuffed felt, or about any of the Online Presence rules, and.... maybe halfway manages to not do that.
The Erogame mercifully allows him to get to his locker, where there are some of Sasha's books he was meaning to return to the library.
Quest available: Just Spit It Out
Talk to the curly-haired guy at the library who keeps staring at you.
Success: +50 xp, +1 LST
Failure: ---
Okay. Okay, this one is normal, mostly.
He clicks Y and takes the books and goes to the library and puts the books in the return box and looks around for a curly-haired guy.
The curly-haired guy is, as promised, staring at him.
....that's cute.
Marlo picks out a book and then sits down at his table. "Hi."
The curly-haired guy turns bright red and mumbles something and in utter panic slams his face into a psych textbook.
(This is what SED 1 looks like.)
Still cute, but the game is clearly not going to count that as talking to him and it might make a conversation difficult.
"I'm Marlo," he says, "what's your name?"
He squeaks out, "Lev."
"Nice to meet you, Lev."
Now what does he say.
"What are you reading?"
Lev looks dazed with happiness.
"It's stupid."
"I bet it isn't," he says, and means it. "Tell me about it?"
"I'm annotating introduction to psychology textbooks to mark all the studies that didn't replicate or were poorly conducted or otherwise probably aren't true. I'm going to at least talk to Professor Quinn about them and I might put them online-- if I can find someone to be my first author I might even be able to publish an analysis of how many intro psych textbooks contain inaccuracies--"
Marlo certainly doesn't look like he thinks this is stupid! He doesn't have anything in particular to say but he nods and generally looks interested.
Lev has entirely forgotten that he is anxious and is working himself into a passion.
"It's really terrible! More than half the textbooks I've looked at so far have included inaccurate statements about Kitty Genovese, seventy percent misattribute the discovery of Broca's area to Paul Broca, every textbook that mentions Korean POWs says they were brainwashed into confessing, I keep seeing the Stanford fucking Prison Experiment--"
"— I recognize three of those names and don't know how many of them I know anything accurate about, given this conversation —"
Lev's face lights up.
"Well, uh,-- Broca's area is the part of the brain that processes language, he confirmed that the area processes language through doing autopsies on brain-damaged patients but he didn't actually discover it, that was Ernest Auburtin. Korean POWs were tortured until they were forced to confess, not brainwashed. Kitty Genovese was not a victim of the bystander effect, she was murdered in front of only a few neighbors and several of her neighbors called the police. I'm not sure I can explain the problems with the Stanford Prison Experiment quickly, there are so many--"
"--sorry, this is probably boring you, I can stop."
"It isn't boring me and if it were I wouldn't be asking questions."
Lev looks at him like he is the most important person in the world while Lev talks enthusiastically for ten minutes about all the problems with the Stanford Prison Experiment.
Quest complete! Just Spit It Out
+50 xp
+1 LST
The physical sensation of gaining a point of LST is really not his favorite thing.
He doesn't show this to Lev, of course.
Lev keeps chattering about the Stanford Prison Experiment and then says, "I'm sorry. I should, uh, ever let you say something."
He keeps looking at Marlo with the face of a kid at Christmas looking at a box shaped exactly like the video game system he asked for.
"I like listening to you and don't have much to say, it's fine."
"--I should probably get started on my electrical engineering homework anyway," he says, sounding way less happy.
....probably that's just the face of someone who doesn't like their homework.
"Something I can do to make that less unappealing?"
Kiss me, he thinks.
"I dunno, electrical engineering is just sort of in general unappealing. --Sorry if you really like it, I don't even know what you're majoring in."
"I'm not in college and have no opinion on electrical engineering. If you hate it why are you doing it?"
"You make lots of money."
Quest available: Lev Aarons Is A Disaster
Lev's parents moved from Russia in order to give their son a better life. Unfortunately for Lev, their idea of a better life is rather specific, and whenever he contemplates coming home from a long day's work as an engineer to kiss his loving wife he wants to throw himself off a bridge.
We also want to give Lev a better life. One that's freer. More intellectually interesting. Less lonely. More ero.
Objective #1: Get Lev a boyfriend. +200 xp, +1 SED, improved relations with Sasha.
Objective #2: Convince Lev to major in psychology and become a grad student. +1250 xp, ???.
Objective #3: Convince Lev to come out to his parents. +400 xp, ???.
Objective #4: Tell Lev about the Erogame in a way that makes him believe you. +600 xp, Lev has Real Scientist perk.
Objective #5: Get Lev a second boyfriend. +1000 xp, +2 LST, ???
Objective #6: ????
Objective #7: ????
Objective #8: ????
Objective #9: ????
Objective #10: ????
...you know what, sure, Y.
"That's fair," he says, and tries to figure out how to introduce Lev to Sasha — maybe if he brings Sasha to the library with him?
"Sorry I assumed you were at college, I just thought-- with the library and things-- sorry."
"No, it's fine. I've been getting books for my friend for the last year or so, it's not a weird thing to think."
He hears the tone Marlo puts on the word 'friend' and looks like someone punched him in the gut.
"I mean lots of people don't go-- it's fine-- what do you do?"
If he has another work day like today he's going to quit. Not that Lev needs to hear that.
"I'm a police officer."
"Eyewitness testimony is incredibly unreliable."
"I know, I don't rely on it. — thank you."
Lev looks a little bit disappointed not to have the opportunity to infodump about eyewitness testimony.
"I-- guess I should get started on my homework."
"Probably. — will you be here again tomorrow?"
"--I have literally nothing interesting going on in my life so, yes."
Fuck. Why did he say that to the cute boy.
That is roughly in line with what the quest told him, yes!
"I'll see you tomorrow, then?"
"I'll be looking forward to it."
"So will I," he says, and smiles and stands up and goes home.
Well. It has been a day.
He pulls up his stat block, because he really should look at that again.
Marlo Lane
"The Erogamer"
LVL: 3 (50%)
Stats:DOM: 3/100
SUB: 157/200
BOD: 22 (+)
LST: 4 (+)
SED: 9 (+)
FUK: 7 (+)
PRV: 21 (+)
ERO: 10 (+)
Points: 10
Money: $1,220Status Effects: None
If he's interested, he can look at info on any of his stats or skills, the perk list, his currently active quests, or his harem.
He raises FUK and SED both to 13, and what is this about a harem.
Potential Harem Members
Sasha Michaels. Male, homosexual, switch. Sasha.
Lev Aarons. Male, bisexual, it's complicated. Lev.
Why.
Okay, away from that tab, what is the perk list.
Blessings of Slaanesh Be On This House: Whatever building you choose to make your permanent residence has residents with BOD, LST, and PRV at least equal to your corresponding stats minus 8. Events within all parts of the building behave as if under the influence of your full, in-person ERO. Even children who would otherwise be too young will be affected. 1 point.
Cal's Curse Compounded: You may not have an orgasm without permission. Once you plead with someone for permission you may not ask any other person besides them for one month. Each plea resets this timer. The permission-giver must know the rules of this curse; must know that you deliberately invoked this curse upon yourself; cannot otherwise be subject to your commands; and cannot be offered any non-sexual incentives for their response. They may choose to permit a ruined orgasm rather than a full orgasm. The permission-giver may give conditional permissions, including requiring you to obtain the further permission of others. Permission may be revoked at any time. You cannot lie to the permission-giver about any matter relating to your denial. You can try to remain silent, if you think you can get away with that. All game skills relating to orgasm denial, whether of yourself or others, have zero energy cost. 2 fragments. Refunded at 60 PRV
Cinnamon Roll. Triple all positive effects on others of having sex with you. 1 point.
Consent Is Not One Of My Fetishes. You never suffer any psychological trauma related to the now-irrelevant fact of whether or not you consented to a sexual event. Before taking this perk, consider carefully whether ceasing to care about your own consent is a change you truly wish to make to yourself. 2 fragments. Refunded at 50 PRV.
Curse of Tattletale. Whenever anyone within visual range has specific sexual thoughts about you, you know what they are thinking about. 1 point and 1 fragment. Refunded at 80 SED.
....Cinnamon Roll isn't awful — he is not thinking about any of the others —
Erogame What Erogame: You forget that the Erogame exists. The game automatically levels up, distributes stat points, selects perks, accepts quests, and invokes skills in whichever way it thinks will make your sex life the most interesting. 2 fragments.
Everyone Knows: People who spend time in your presence begin to form correct intuitions about what turns you on, at least the parts their minds would willingly comprehend. They won't expect others to know too, but they will be sure of their own beliefs. This process is especially quick for any fetishes that currently embarrass you. It is extremely quick for fetishes that currently embarrass you and that interest the other person. 2 fragments.
Everything Is Better With Ero: On every quest and every path you walk, taking the option that turns you on more will never lead to worse results in the long run than taking the option that seems safe, sensible, and practical. This perk does not operate by reducing the rewards of safe, sensible, practical-seeming paths. 2 points.
Fading Dream: Your exes do not remember you after you break up with them. 2 fragments.
Fairytale Painslut: Your masochism is strong enough to embrace any intensity of sexually charged torture, with zero warmup. 1 point. Refunded at 50 LST.
The entire concept of Erogame What Erogame is the worst thing he has ever heard — Fading Dream is also horrifying but less terrifying — and Everyone Knows is —
Friends with Benefits: Your friends, companions, and allies have an easier time keeping up with your rapidly growing power as they follow you down many strange paths. This perk unlocks the Share the Fun subskill of the Bestow Ability skill tree. 1 point + 1 fragment.
Herbal Medicine: Your name is changed to Z. Your personality is changed to Z. Other Zs will consider you to be one of their own. Warning: use of this perk results in the Fractal Identity status effect. 1 point + 2 fragments.
Hyperhypnoslut's Master: You gain root access to Sasha Michaels's brain, including permanent memory editing, personality editing, sexuality editing, belief editing, emotional editing, and absolute obedience. Sasha drops faster than his underwear when hypnotized by anyone (not just you). He can be hypnotized nonconsensually if he is tricked into listening to the hypnotist's voice. A hypnotist can force him to do things he does not want to do. Any hypnotist can give him temporary false memories or amnesia. You do not need his permission or knowledge to take this perk. 1 point + 2 fragments.
Innocence Temporarily Regained: Your BOD, LST, SED, FUK, and PRV stats are reduced to the minimum of their current levels and 39, 25, 8, 8, and 1. Until it reaches its former level, your PRV stat cannot increase by more than 1 point per 3 days. Memories linked to higher stats cannot be recalled until your stats have again risen to a corresponding level. Skills are not recalled until your stats rise to a compatible level. You retain your ERO. You do not receive the Innocent Virgin status effect. 2 fragments.
Library of Sodom: You automatically know any detail of abstract knowledge that you want or need about any sexual activity that has been described in public writing. For example, directions for how to tie a shibari knot, or that one ought to avoid striking the kidneys with a flogger. This knowledge does not convey skill. 1 point.
He is caught between "what in the name of God does your personality is changed to Z mean" and "why is Hyperhypnoslut's Master a thing, who writes these, get it off" — not that he can't come up with any reasons someone might want to be able to edit their best friend, but, why —
No: Once you take this perk, you will have the ability to choose ONE event to disallow either prospectively, or retroactively up to 24 hours before the point when you disallow it. The event will not happen, either then or at any time in the future. Ongoing processes are not 'events', but their starting points may be considered so. You cannot take this perk more than once. 1 point.
No Comparison: Those who have experienced sex with you do not think to compare their past or future sexual experiences to the ones they had with you. This perk applies retroactively to previous partners and heals any prior psychological damage they have taken, but does not repair any of their relationships that have already broken. 2 fragments. Refunded at 50 ERO.
Obedience: At will, give yourself the Obedient status effect for a pre-specified duration. While this status effect holds, you must make a will save (potentially with modifiers) to disobey any order given you. This obedience only applies to orders that can be obeyed over the course of minutes, not to longer-term orders. Once you refuse an order, you do not need to save again versus that order or similar orders until one day has passed. You cannot impose an Obedient status effect on yourself lasting longer than 10 years. 1 point. Refunded at 70 PRV.
Off Switch: Choose one perk, passive skill, or status effect. You may at will suspend or resume its effects whenever it would otherwise be on. 1 point + 2 fragments.
Seduce Contain Protect: You are a magnet for any person or sapient entity with a significant chance of producing global catastrophe. They will inevitably cross paths with you and find you highly attractive. 1 point.
what what what what what
Soulbond: If your love for someone is true, and they return that love, this perk creates a symmetrical emotional and telepathic bond between your soul and theirs, which will deepen over time if your love stays true. Both sides of the relationship are automatically protected as if by True Love Conquers All. Failure of this bond does not refund the perk and may have psychological consequences. It goes without saying that Off Switch cannot apply to soulbonds. Consider staying married for a couple of centuries first. This perk may be taken more than once. 1 point + 2 fragments.
This Rape Train Has No Breaks: When a person finishes raping you, if there is at least one other potential rapist within visual range who has not yet raped you, each such person is at least 50% likely to take their turn next (even if they otherwise would not be so inclined). In the event more people would try to rape you than you have available orifices, a random subset will be selected. The effects of this perk are evaluated again after each round of rape finishes. All benefits and rewards of being raped are doubled. This perk stacks with the skills Asking For It and Dressed Like a Slut, and with the Rapebait status effect. 1 point.
Trust: Whenever somebody honestly tells you that they love you, or like you, or admire something about you, or shows trust in you by confessing a truth to you that they would not tell others, you know that they mean it. Taking this perk renders you ineligible for a significant number of Erogame quests and reduces the rewards of many others, but it's here if you need it. 1 point.
Truth: Regardless of any other Erogame perks taken and any other powers affecting you, you regain your memories of who you really are, what really happened, and what reality was like before. No further such effects can deceive you. Think hard before taking this perk. 1 point.
Victory!: You win the Erogame! Your title is changed to "The Winner" and the game continues on in post-victory mode. This perk doesn't change much, but has been included for the benefit of players who insist on a victory condition. 2 fragments.
Okay. Okay. He is — not thrilled with where This Rape Train Has No Breaks implies this game is going to go, but okay, these are not horrifying like Erogame What Erogame or Hyperhypnoslut's Master were or confusing like Herbal Remedy. This is fine. This is okay.
WARNING: Perk points must be used within two hours of receipt or they will disappear. You may purchase part of a perk, e.g. putting one point toward a two point perk. You will gain no benefit until you have bought the whole perk. We suggest thinking about what you want in advance.
Ooookay.
So. No is obviously a good one to have on hand, although only being able to use it once means he might not use it at all. Cinnamon Roll can't make too many things go wrong and it's a nice thing to be able to do — Friends With Benefits seems likely to be useful — definitely not any of the rape ones, or the mind control ones, or the ones that change your personality to something unspecified, or —
The Erogame doesn't bother him that night, or through most of his work day.
His phone buzzes.
When he checks it, it's a text from Sasha — a picture of Sasha's upper thighs covered in bruises that look suspiciously like teeth marks, and the message
can still feel you guys 💙 💙 💙
Followed immediately by
FUCK WRONG PERSON
+1 LST for looking at your best friend's bruised thighs.
it's fine
be safe use protection etc etc
He should probably ask while he's thinking about it.
do you want to go to the library when I get off work?
yeah
yeah that sounds good
haven't been in. wow it's been a while
....he takes a moment to thank the Erogame and also God that Sasha is even alive.
then we should definitely
and I met someone there yesterday who I think you'd like
you're cute
sounds great <3 meet you there?
yeah
see you
A skill has been created by a special action! Setting up Sasha and Lev has created the skill Matchmaking.
Info/Skills/Matchmaking
Matchmaking. Lvl 1. Active. 1 D|S/use.
You can tell whether two people would have a happy relationship. Higher levels provide more information about relationship quality and characteristics and the situation necessary for success.
...he's pretty sure the erogame was pushing him this way before, but he checks whether Sasha and Lev would have a good relationship anyway.
He feels an almost physical rush of the sensation of being loved.
He gasps audibly, lets his eyes fall closed.
The game already promised him Sasha would be safe and happy, but — it's going to be a love story, and love stories have happy endings, that's how this works, that's the kind of thing he gets to believe in now —
+1 ERO for figuring out the Erogame is a story to which story tropes apply.
+1 ERO for figuring out its genre.
He doesn't start laughcrying at his desk.
It's a close thing, though.
After work he picks Sasha up and drives them to the library and listens to him talk about the books he's been reading.
Lev is near the front of the library next to a dozen books about psychology and a single untouched book about electrical engineering.
.....cute.
"Hi," he says once they're close enough that he can do that at a library volume, "Sasha, this is Lev, he's the guy I told you about. Lev, this is my friend Sasha. Do you want me to grab you anything?"
"Mystery book? Not one of the ones from a series of three hundred. Hi, Lev."
Lev manages to squeak out, "Hi."
Oh no, he's cute.
"Sorry," he says as Marlo walks away toward the mystery section. "What are you reading?"
"What are you sorry about? --I'm supposed to be doing my electrical engineering homework but I haven't lost enough will to live yet."
"Interrupting you, mostly, it looked like the psychology book was interesting."
"...Cute guys are more interesting."
Did he just say that.
He looks at Lev, in a not particularly heterosexual kind of way. "I'd agree."
Oh god he is being flirted with this is the best day of his life.
He promptly ruins it by saying, "the book is really interesting too though, I'm reading about the development of facial recognition, Professor Quinn says I can sit in on a graduate seminar next semester if I cram the prerequisites."
"That does sound interesting. Tell me about it?"
He does!
And he also, in an act of extreme bravery, rests his foot next to Sasha's foot.
Gosh.
Maybe their feet should be touching.
He stutters and completely loses track of what he was talking about.
Lev is so cute.
Sasha prompts him with the last few words he'd said, doesn't move away.
(Marlo is taking a bizarrely long amount of time looking for a book.)
"Uh. Sorry. I-- you're so-- I don't get--"
"It's alright," he says, very soft. "It's cute."
While he's looking for a book, Marlo overhears:
"It's the third person this month," a girl says. "Everyone knows about it. Someone has to stop him."
"Who's going to stop him?" her friend says. "You know what happened to the girl who tried to report him to the school."
"Yeah," the first girl says. "I don't know. You just can't keep raping people and expect to get away with it."
"I mean, he is."
— that sounds like basically exactly his job.
He keeps listening.
The first girl sighs. "I know. I just. --He's going to the party at Octopus House tonight, and he's going to rape Person #4, and I have no idea what we're going to do about it."
Quest Available: One Swing And I'll Humiliate Him
Harry Hook, guitarist of mediocre punk band The Pirates, will be at the party at Octopus House tonight looking to score-- and he doesn't care particularly much whether the person he's sleeping with consented to anything he wanted to do with them. Make sure the person he rapes is you.
Success: +1 perk point, +2,000 xp
Failure: Innocent freshman girl learns an important life lesson about trust.
Bonus Objective #1: Collect enough evidence to put Harry Hook in prison.
Bonus Objective #2: ????
Bonus Objective #3: ????
He doesn't even consider not clicking "yes."
"What happened to the girl who tried to report him to the school?" he asks, out loud.
The first girl startles. "Sorry. We didn't see you there."
"She said she made everything up for attention," the second girl says, "but-- somebody saw her changing in the locker room and there were bruises all up and down her body. And cuts."
Christ.
"Thank you."
He should probably figure out where Octopus House is before tonight.
Well, there are those two girls right there he can ask.
This is true.
"Where would I find Octopus House?"
"Right here. --Are you planning to start something?" the second girl says, concerned.
"No." Nothing that'll hurt anyone but himself, anyway. "Just wondering where I should be warning my sister to stay away from." Alana lives in a different state but these girls don't need to know that.
Well, then, they can not only tell him where Octopus House is, but where Harry Hook's apartment is, the nightclubs his shitty band plays at, and the various buildings he has a habit of breaking into in order to cover the walls with drawings of genitalia which, it must be said, have remarkable artistic merit.
Do they.
He thanks them, and then picks a mystery book that doesn't come from a three hundred book long series and goes back to Sasha and Lev's table.
Lev is not entirely sure how he's managed to end up with his head on Sasha's shoulder but if he questions it it might stop.
(Maybe he's dreaming.)
"Hi!" Sasha says cheerily. "You were right, I do like him."
They're cute. (He remembers that feeling of love, doesn't let it change his facial expression.) "I'm glad!"
Lev wiggles delightedly in his seat.
"I am not going to get any of my homework done."
Lev is so cute.
"I want to say I'm sorry but I'm really not."
"You shouldn't be!"
He courageously takes Sasha's hand and puts it on his hair.
"Good!"
Gosh. Is that an invitation to pet Lev's hair, it looks very much like it is.
"Your hair is soft."
He makes a little happy noise and presses his head into Sasha's shoulder.
(He has entirely forgotten that Marlo exists.)
Seeing them both happy is — warm. Good.
(Thank you, Erogame.)
"See you tomorrow?" he says to Sasha.
"Yeah. I'll text you when I get home."
Then he'll smile at them both one more time and then leave for Octopus House.
The party at Octopus House resembles a wild college party, as designed by someone who has never actually been to a party but has watched a lot of eighties teen movies. People are drinking beer in a variety of fashions unlike how one normally drinks beer. Girls in very little clothing gyrate to music about gyrating while wearing very little clothing. Some people are yelling "TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!" and occasionally, out of confusion, "FREEBIRD!"
It's loud and crowded and smells like alcohol and he is very strongly reminded of why he doesn't go to parties or bars.
Now. Where does one find a mediocre guitar player and serial rapist around here.
Well, at a guess, the guy in eyeliner getting uncomfortably close to a scared-looking girl who looks way too young to be at this party.
Yep, that's probably the one.
He watches for a moment, two, and then heads over to the two of them and smiles and says "Hey."
He pauses, looks Marlo up and down in a predatory fashion, and smiles. His smile has too many teeth. It's not that it's not happy. It's that the subject of its happiness is how easy it would be to devour you.
"Well, hello. I'm Harry. Don't tell me your name, I find it ruins things."
"I won't, then."
Keep his attention off the girl — this would be easier if there were cameras around —
— wait, everyone here is carrying a phone with a camera, probably someone in the room is taking a picture, he doesn't know that he isn't in the frame —
+1 ERO for munchkining.
Marlo feels the impulses telling him how to shift his weight, tilt his head, bare his neck.
Harry looks hungry.
"You don't look drunk enough."
He shifts his weight and tilts his head and bares his neck and smiles, lets himself look a little nervous.
"I'm not."
This is a lie. He is the perfect amount of drunk, which is zero.
"I find everything in life is better if you do it completely fucking wasted." He savors the words. "Whaddya say, two for you, one for me?"
Exactly zero things are better if you do them totally wasted.
He smiles and says "Sounds good!" and keeps remembering how many people are carrying cameras, keeps his neck bared and his head tilted and his body angled towards Harry.
He grabs Marlo's wrist and pulls it hard. "Well, then, come over here and we'll get this party started." He flashes the hungry smile. "Your party started. My party is eeeeternal."
(The girl flees in gratitude and confusion.)
Okay, good, she's gone. Now he just has to keep Harry's attention on him.
He follows where he's pulled, keeps the shy vulnerable nervous smile.
Harry pulls him through the crowd to a place with shots, downs one, and hands Marlo two expectantly.
He takes two shots, is acutely conscious of how his throat moves. College party alcohol tastes even worse than normal alcohol but it's fine, it's fine, this is all fine —
A skill has been created by a special action! Taking two shots from Harry has created the skill But Had He Been Drinking?
He is not a fan of the sound of that skill but it's fine, he can look at it later when there are fewer things happening —
Harry grins, pulls Marlo close to him, and whispers in his ear, "Let's dance."
"Okay," he whispers, and lets himself be pulled close to Harry, and doesn't have to fake the fear — Harry can probably feel his heartbeat —
He can, and he likes it.
Harry's form of dancing is perhaps better described as unusually rhythmic frottage.
That's not a surprise. It is kind of a lot but it isn't a surprise.
Marlo doesn't know how to do this; he does his best to just — relax and let Harry lead.
Mm. Maybe it should be kissing and unusually rhythmic frottage.
He tenses up when Harry kisses him — does his best to relax; his best isn't great — his heart is still pounding. Harry can feel it better now, pressed together like this.
"I have some things up in my room that can relax you," Harry says. "Well. Somebody's room, anyway."
He nods. Swallows, hard. Nods again, too quickly.
Harry grabs his wrist, his fingers digging into Marlo's wrist hard enough to bruise, and drags him upstairs.
He goes upstairs. He doesn't have very much say in the matter.
Harry pulls Marlo onto the bed and digs around under the bed for something.
He stays on the bed and tries not to think about what Harry might be digging for.
It turns out to be a knife, which glints a bit in the light.
"So, are you going to be cooperative?"
"Yes," he whispers.
He's very still.
"That's fun," he says, and slices off Marlo's shirt. The knife gets too close to Marlo's skin at one point, draws a spot of blood.
He's breathing very, very carefully — still gasps when the knife breaks skin — doesn't take his eyes off of Harry's face.
Harry is undoing Marlo's pants.
"I like unwrapping presents," he says. "You never know what you're going to get. Sometimes when I sleep with a man I don't get a treat at all and then I just have to facefuck them. But sometimes I get a lovely surprise. What do you think I'll get now?"
He sits back, gently traces along Marlo's neck with the knife, and slaps him.
A sharp gasp when he's hit.
"I think you'll get me," still a whisper, and he doesn't know what he means but he knows he means it.
A skill has been created by a special action! Talking to Harry has created the skill Dirty Talk.
Enjoying sex for the first time in your life has increased LST by 1!
Getting off on your own rape has increased PRV by 1!
no stop he isn't —
he doesn't —
why does it —
Harry takes off Marlo's pants and smiles.
"Good boy." He slaps Marlo's face again. "You're such a good boy, aren't you?"
He lets out a soft breathy whimper and nods.
"Now, I want to take my clothes off, and to do that I'm going to have to stop watching you so closely," he says, tracing lines across Marlo's stomach with the knife. "Can you promise me that you'll be a good boy and not run away or cause any trouble?" He laughs. "I was going to say 'or hit me' but I like it when you hurt me. Just not when you try to end our fun early."
Another whimper, and he nods again.
(He has a knife. Marlo isn't going to get out before Harry can catch up to him, not in this crowd.)
(and he is not thinking about that, it's fine everything is fine it's —)
Harry strips off his shirt and undershirt and pants and underwear, tosses them on the floor.
His body is muscular, unmistakeably male. But he has two small breasts on his chest, and between his legs is a vagina.
He can't get anyone pregnant either way this is fine it's fine —
Harry sits on his face and yanks his hair with one hand and says, "Lick."
He makes a sound at having his hair pulled and — obeys.
Harry makes a little whimpering noise and says, "Good-- good boy-- you're good at this--"
He whimpers a little bit too, at good boy, and keeps doing that — can he use his hands, is that a thing he's allowed to do —
Harry very vocally approves.
It's probably getting a little hard for Marlo to breathe.
It is, a little.
He moves faster — tries sucking on Harry's clit — he said he liked being hurt, what if Marlo digs his fingernails into his thighs — this is fine everything's fine it's fine he's fine —
Harry gasps, pulls Marlo's hair hard, squeezes his face with his legs.
A sharp sound when Harry pulls his hair — he scratches as hard as he can and doesn't stop moving —
And Harry scoots down and kisses Marlo and slips Marlo's dick inside him and wraps a hand around his throat.
"You're so pretty," he says, "so fun to play with-- I hope we get to do this again and again--"
He — doesn't try to speak, doesn't try to pull away from the kiss, lets his hips move —
Harry tightens his hand, cuts off Marlo's air, keeps fucking him into the bed hard and fast.
That's — fine —
"What a good boy-- what a good little toy-- I can do anything I want to you, can't I-- you like making me happy--"
He doesn't object — doesn't have any air to object with even if it were a good idea — makes a choked-out sound at good boy —
Harry notices, his smile goes more predatory, and he says, "Bad boy-- deserve to be hurt, don't you-- deserve anything I want to do to you-- worthless disgusting little-- oh--"
His face turns into an O and his pussy tightens around Marlo.
He flinches and — doesn't finish when Harry does.
Harry kisses him and keeps fucking him and pulls his hair hard with one hand and strokes his cheek with the other, gentle, so gentle. "I didn't mean it-- you were good, you were so good, you made such a pretty face for me didn't you--"
He gasps — he can't tell if it's for air or from the praise — and holds on tight to Harry and doesn't look away when —
— at least he can't get anyone pregnant, he thinks absently.
"I raped you and you came from it, that's sort of embarrassing. You liked it."
That is true.
"I knew exactly what was going to happen and I walked up to you at a party anyway and I'm pretty sure I did not actually say no at any point."
That is also true but it isn't the point.
"Well, that was fun. I'm going back to the party."
No, you are not.
"— Stay? Please?"
He lets himself look vulnerable.
Harry pauses, slaps his face, says, "you're cuuuuuute," and gets up to leave.
Nope. Marlo is physically stronger than Harry is and —
— oh, right, he has a cuddling skill specifically to make it really really tempting to stay in bed with him —
"What the fuck is this," Harry says, making an expression about the concept of being cuddled much like the expression one would have looking at a dead rodent.
He hums and puts a hand in Harry's hair instead of answering.
(move your arms — and your leg, just a little — hands go here —)
Harry looks up at him with a facial expression of utter submissive adoration.
......cute?
That's cute. Marlo is going to dissect this thought process at a later time that is not now.
Harry maybe would be surprised by this reaction, but introspection has never really been his strong point.
He curls up on Marlo's shoulder and says, "did I do good?"
"Yeah," he says, softly, "yeah, you did good."
He pets Harry's hair and, on impulse, kisses his forehead.
Harry full-body shudders.
"Why are you nice to me? People aren't nice to me."
"Because I can be," he says, instead of any of the other things that come to mind. "And you need it."
Another full-body shudder.
Harry presses his head into Marlo's hand like a cat demanding pets.
Then he can be petted.
Even when he scratches he's very gentle about it.
Harry's breathing deepens and eventually he falls asleep in Marlo's arms.
Main quest objective complete: One Swing And I'll Humiliate You
+2000 xp, +1 perk point
A skill has been created by a special action! Eating Harry out has created the skill The Nectar.
Info/Skills/The Nectar
You gain benefits from consuming sexual fluids you have personally extracted from others. (With the Mad Inventor perk: sexual fluids extracted via machines of your own creation that you personally operate.) Every person's precious bodily fluids convey different potencies, hinted at by tastes and sensations you may learn to identify. Mixing synergetic sexual fluids yields greater results, but the fluids must be mixed in situ.
Info/Skills/The Nectar/Harry Hook
1. Whenever you make an impulsive choice, you are protected from the obvious consequences of your actions. (You are not protected from nonobvious or unpredictable consequences.) (4 hours.)
2. You know how to play three chords on guitar. If you previously knew more than three chords, you now know three. (24 hours.)
3. You have masochism as Fairytale Painslut. (30 minutes.)
You have leveled up!
A purple timer appears, flashes 120:00, and then starts counting down.
He's pretty sure that whatever perk he takes is going to influence how the game turns out, and he knows which direction he wants to push in. Cinnamon Roll it is.
The timer disappears. He doesn't feel any different.
Harry makes a distressed whimper and clings more tightly to Marlo.
Marlo holds him tighter and whispers "Sleep telepathy."
A shadow shaped like a man looms; it looks nine or ten feet tall and as broad as a football player. It hurts between your legs. You want it to stop. Hot tears pour out of the corner of your eyes no matter how tightly you squeeze them. It's bad to want it to stop. It means Daddy loves you. Daddy wants you to be happy and feel good and you are so bad and wrong and broken and ungrateful--
Harry wants to wake up. Harry wants to never sleep again.
How fast is it humanly possible to wake someone up.
"Hey, it's okay, you're okay, I've got you —" and he's cradling Harry again.
Harry looks up at him, confused. "You're still here."
"Of course I'm still here."
He doesn't stop cradling Harry, doesn't take his hand out of his hair.
"People usually go away after I have sex with them," Harry says in a tone like he's explaining the alphabet to a child who is rather too old not to know what the alphabet is.
He debates a couple of different responses before he says "That's because they're scared of you, and I'm not."
He thinks about this.
"...I like being scared of people."
"— different kind of scared," and does he mention what Harry was dreaming about, he thinks he does not.
"Is it? Sometimes people hold me down and threaten me and fuck me even though I don't want them to, and that's hot, and sometimes I hold people down and fuck them even though they don't want me to, and that's hot."
"It is. Most people don't think that's hot, it's just terrifying and awful and bad and they want it to stop as soon as they can make it stop."
He still doesn't let go.
"Yes. That's why it's hot."
".......no. It's like — if you were underwater and trapped under ice and you couldn't get out and there was nobody who could help you and you were going to die, would that be hot?"
"No, because I wouldn't belong to anybody and make them happy."
Less concerning but still pretty concerning!
"For most people, sex they don't want to be having and can't end is like that. Not like belonging to someone, like being trapped and not being able to get out and nobody being there who will help you."
"But they're making me happy. You can't just not have sex with someone if it makes them happy."
"...not letting people not have sex with you is, in fact, illegal. You can just not have sex with someone, regardless of how happy it makes them."
He shrugs. "I do illegal things all the time. I'm not even legally allowed to drink. Not ever breaking laws is boring."
"I am going to pretend I didn't hear that," he says, this time in Officer Voice. "How old are you?"
"I'm nineteen."
"Okay," and then, in Officer Voice again, "you're not going to have any more sex at parties."
"Yes, sir."
Then he thinks better of that and says, "You are not going to have sex at all unless I'm around."
"Yes, sir."
He's nudged Marlo's leg so he can grind on it a little bit.
"My name is Marlo," he says, not in Officer Voice anymore, and kisses Harry's forehead.
Bonus objective #2, prevent Harry from raping anyone else, complete!
+300 xp
'Good Cop' status effect
Bonus objective #3, add Harry to your harem, complete!
Harry has been added as a harem member.
+1 ERO for beginning a relationship by being raped.
He looks up at Marlo with abject gratitude and devotion and something rather like love.
"Thank you."
That's a lot.
He thinks it might be a good a lot, though.
"Get some sleep," he says, kisses his forehead again. "I'll be here when you wake up."
He curls up eagerly on Marlo's shoulder and falls asleep.
That's good.
So. He's gay. Probably he should be having some feelings about that but ultimately his feelings are mostly "at least that worked."
Probably he should tell Sasha. Possibly he should tell Lev.
Definitely he should get some sleep before he tells either of them.
Quest complete: Self-Acceptance.
Objective #1, accept that you're gay, complete.
+10,000 xp, +1 perk point
Objective #2, accept that you're gay without having an emotional crisis about how you're disgusting and no longer deserve to be loved, complete.
+5,000 xp, +1 ERO.
You have leveled up!
You have leveled up!
The perk point timer flashes.
No is still a good one to have on hand in case he ever needs it, and Friends with Benefits is likely to be useful.
Note: You put one point towards Friends with Benefits. Friends with Benefits costs one point and one fragment. A fragment is a third of a point.
Yeah, he knows. He doesn't need it right away.
He curls his hand in Harry's hair and closes his eyes.
Several hours before —
"So do you want to go back to my place?" Sasha says, without taking his hand out of Lev's hair.
Does he want to go back to Sasha's place. That's a complicated question.
"Yes," his mouth says, without his input.
"Awesome," Sasha says, and takes his hand.
The bus ride isn't long. And Lev could, if he so chose, put his head on Sasha's shoulder again.
He could.
"I've, uh, never done this before," he says into Sasha's shoulder. "Any of this."
"That's okay," he says. "And we dont have to go all the way this first night if you dont want to, we have time."
I have time.
"You mean you might want to see me again?"
"Unless you turn out to be an axe murderer, I'm going to want to see you again."
"I have never once murdered an axe!"
"You're adorable. — this is our stop."
Sasha's apartment is small but clean; there are a slightly excessive number of blankets lying around.
"Now, murdering people with axes, that's a different story."
Lev doesn't really have eyes for anything in the apartment except Sasha.
"Still cute!"
Perhaps they should be sitting on Sasha's bed.
That is kind of terrifying! And hot! And also terrifying!
"--What is up with you and Marlo," he says, because he is an idiot who keeps ruining situations with his mouth.
"We've been best friends for several years, I have had an enormous pining crush for most of those years, we are not dating, and even if that changes I'm really bad at monogamy."
"That's good. I think I'd also be really bad at monogamy, although I don't have any practical experience and am mostly working off my taste in fanfiction."
"Valid! Highly valid."
Maybe.... Sasha should kiss him.
Sasha is so excellent at plans.
He makes a little whimpery noise into Sasha's mouth.
That's a nice sound.
Let's see if Sasha can get him to make it again.
He definitely can!
Lev tries to pull him closer and winds up falling on the bed.
That's alright, Sasha can move closer himself.
Lev does his best to press every inch of his body into Sasha's body.
The whimpering noises acquire a slight air of desperation.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I-- you're really pretty and I really really like kissing you."
Then Sasha will press even closer to him and say "maybe we should not have shirts on."
"Maybe you should not have a shirt on," Lev says, and takes it off.
Sasha's thin.
Not pretty-thin, either; he's scary-thin, please-eat-I-am-begging-you thin, psas-about-eating-disorders thin. There's a reason he has so many blankets and it isn't just that he got cold easily before.
"You're so beautiful," Lev says. He touches Sasha's ribcage.
He doesn't flinch.
"You're cute, but I look like a cancer patient."
"You're so thin."
(Lev's tone of voice implies that this is a very desirable thing to be.)
This time he does flinch.
"--I'm sorry, I don't mean to--"
"You don't mean to what."
He tries to come up with something to say and eventually says, "Make you flinch."
"....I found out the day before yesterday that I beat leukemia. I say I look like a cancer patient because I do."
Lev hugs him.
"I'm sorry, that was incredibly tactless."
Hugs are nice. Lev gives good hugs.
"Sorry. You signed up for making out with me, not Sasha's Body Image Issues Hour."
"I'm fine with Sasha's Body Image Issues Hour especially if I get to hold you during it."
Sasha's hair is so soft.
"...I don't know. I don't really talk about it because there's basically no context where you can say 'I'm thin and people tell me I'm pretty all the time and it sucks' without making everyone hate you, but like — someone asks me what my secret is and you can't really tell her 'thanks, it's the dying,' you know?"
"I think it would be funny," Lev says.
"The horror and backtracking and apologies are funny the first time but they get old really fast."
"I can imagine."
Sasha's hair is so soft and he's so happy.
"You can complain to me about being called pretty as much as you want."
"You're so sweet." It comes out half a sigh; he leans into Lev's hand.
Lev pauses and then takes his shirt off.
Sasha makes a tiny pleased sound and presses into Lev.
"I thought-- that you were pretty and you wouldn't-- but if you feel bad about the way your body looks too--"
"I like the way you look."
He inhales sharply.
"Touch me?"
He does, presses his face into Lev's neck and kisses his shoulder and runs his hands down Lev's sides, across his back.
Little desperate whimpering noises again!
He kisses across Lev's shoulder and up his neck and down again, moves down his chest.
"Oh--" he says with a tone of surprise. "It's so nice."
"It's supposed to be. Can I bite?"
"... Why."
"It feels nice? It leaves marks and lots of people like that?"
"Why would being hurt feel nice."
"...........I guess for some people probably it doesn't? For me it does, if you want to see it you can bite me and watch me react."
"I don't want to hurt you."
He pulls back, looks Lev directly in the eye, and takes his own forearm — it would be so nice to be able to reach his own shoulder but unfortunately — and sinks his teeth in, and —
— his eyes flutter closed and his whole body tenses up and then relaxes; his toes curl and his hand closes around Lev's arm; he whimpers, high and soft, around the feeling —
"You look so happy."
He lets go and his eyes don't open but he's still smiling, soft and loose; he presses his fingernails into the bite mark almost absentmindedly. "I am. — I like being hurt."
Lev kisses Sasha's shoulder and then bites him very tentatively, barely grazing his teeth against Sasha's skin.
The Erogame can't say "your PRV has increased by 1", because Lev isn't the Erogamer, but it's very tempted.
His breathing doesn't change. (He's still pressing his fingernails into the mark on his arm.)
"You can bite harder than that."
He's so scared. He's also more turned on than he's ever been in his life.
A distant part of him thinks "misattribition of arousal."
His teeth sink into Sasha's shoulder.
His eyes close again and he relaxes into Lev and moans.
"This is terrible, when I bite you I can't see your face."
"You, could bite somewhere else — if you wanted — and then you could."
He does! It's a good plan!
It's an excellent plan.
Letting himself melt feels — good. Really, really good. And Lev is soft and warm and his teeth are. Nice.
What other ways do you hurt a person.
He tries scratching.
ahhhhhhhhhhh scratching is good too
Gosh this is fun.
It occurs to him that if Sasha has marks he'll have them under his clothes tomorrow, a sign that he did this with Lev on his body, and Lev gasps.
Lev gasping is also good.
Sasha chooses to express this sentiment by kissing him.
Sasha kissing him is good.
Lev expresses this sentiment by rolling his hips against Sasha's.
He rolls his hips back, more on instinct than by conscious choice, and — doesn't stop.
Lev pulls Sasha on top on him, keeps kissing him.
There were reasons he wanted his first time to be meaningful, with someone he loved. Those reasons are seeming increasingly less persuasive next to the reality of a beautiful boy who wants him.
"We can go as far as you want," he whispers, doesn't stop kissing him.
"I don't know. I wanted it to-- mean something."
He does stop kissing him, then, because this is the kind of conversation you should have with your head clear. Clear-ish, anyway.
"Then we can slow down, or just make out, or something. I meant it, as far as you want doesn't have to mean full speed ahead."
"Yeah. The problem is that I really really want to."
"...not that I don't want to, because I do, but the use of the word 'problem' makes me nervous."
He kisses Sasha's forehead. "We can just kiss?"
"Kissing you sounds good."
And he does.
"Pants stay on no matter how good an idea it seems for them to come off."
"Sounds like a plan."
Marlo wakes up in a bed that belongs to someone he doesn't know, holding someone he met yesterday, and bizarrely at peace with both of those things.
Quest available: Consent Is Sexy
Teach Harry Hook what consent is.
Success: +5000 xp, +1 ERO
Failure: Unlocks "cover up your boyfriend's rapes" quest tree.
Quest available: Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are
Tell your loved ones that you're gay.
Objective 1: Tell Sasha. +300 xp
Objective 2: Tell Lev. +400 xp.
Objective 3: Tell your family. +1000 xp.
Objective 4: Tell your work. +600 xp.
Quest available: Friends To Lovers
Acquire Sasha as a harem member.
+1 LST, +1000 xp
Bonus objective: ????? +700 xp, Hypnosis skill
He clicks "yes" on Consent Is Sexy and Come Out Come Out Wherever You Are, and stares at Friends To Lovers.
It's not that he doesn't want to date Sasha, when he thinks about it. It's just —
— it's just that "dating him" and "accepting a quest to add him to your harem with experience points as a reward" are different.
Well. He doesn't actually have to poke the Yes button. He can just... let that quest stay pending, if he wants to. Or, alternately, he can accept the quest to do the thing he was going to do anyway, and deal with the fact that the game doesn't use the same words for it as he would.
He pokes 'yes,' and waits for Harry to wake up before he leaves.
"Good morning," Harry says sleepily.
"Good morning," he says, and kisses him. On the mouth this time.
Harry immediately reaches for Marlo's dick.
He holds onto Harry's wrists. "Ask first."
Hot.
"Can I please touch your dick?"
He lets go. "Yes. — good boy," because it seems like something Harry would want to hear.
He hesitates. "What do I have to ask before doing?"
....he wasn't expecting Harry to generalize this fast and he doesn't have a list ready, that was a mistake —
"Kissing people who aren't me. Touching people who aren't me. Touching me —" what range of places makes sense, he cannot say things like 'in a sex way' and expect that to mean the same thing to Harry as it does to him — "between the waist and the knees."
"Can I suck you off without asking? --I'm very good at it."
"You cannot suck me or anyone off without asking and how good you are at it doesn't matter."
"And knives and cigarettes and guitar picks and clothespins and things count as touching."
"Yes. — if you have to ask whether it counts, it counts."
"Hot," Harry says, and starts to give Marlo a handjob while very carefully avoiding touching the skin of his pelvis or his balls.
If Harry were the Erogamer (and Marlo can be grateful he is not), he would have FUK 30. As it is, he is merely very very good.
Oh.
Harry is very good at this and Marlo has had sex he enjoyed a grand total of twice now and it does not take long for him to finish.
He can't lick the come off Marlo's stomach but he can lick it off his hand with all the care and attention it deserves.
Not can I, Harry would say yes to can I whether he wanted it or not, but "Do you want me to touch your clit?"
"Not really," he says.
"Alright," he says, and puts one hand in Harry's hair and one on his back and holds him.
"...why aren't you touching my clit."
"Because you didn't want me to."
"...but I'm yours."
"That's true. And I'm not going to do things to you that you don't want."
He considers this.
"Well, I don't want cuddles."
He lets go.
"Now I do want them."
....cute. But.
"That's unfortunate," he says, and gets out of bed and starts looking for his clothes, he'll have to go back home and get a shirt that isn't cut open before he tells Sasha anything but that's fine, "because I have errands I need to run. What's your phone number."
He gives it.
"I can go with you."
Ahahaha how about he does not introduce Harry to Sasha just yet.
"No, you can't."
"I can't have sex and I can't break laws," Harry says, with the tone of someone who is trying hard to remember a lesson.
"You can't have sex and you can't break laws," he confirms. "You're doing great and I'll see you tomorrow."
Thank you random library girls for telling him where Harry's apartment is.
Well, that just forbade him from doing every fun thing in the world.
Except music.
Harry goes home and sets about writing some songs.
He stops and gets the donut holes Sasha likes before he shows up.
And then, so he definitely can't chicken out once he's in the door, he opens with "Hi! I have news. Not good news or bad news, just news."
Lev was having an EXCELLENT DAY. He woke up with Sasha in his arms and then he got to make Sasha breakfast in bed. Admittedly, the breakfast in bed was cereal and milk, but it's the thought that counts, and someday (he hopes) he will be able to make Sasha pancakes.
And then Marlo shows up with news and, more importantly, with eyeballs that are capable of seeing Lev's current shirtless state.
"What's the news?"
Marlo smiles at Lev and then turns to Sasha.
"The first news is that I'm gay and the second news is that I love you."
So, probably that's a no on ever getting to make Sasha pancakes.
It's a good thing they didn't have sex or he'd feel even worse.
Sasha is smiling.
(Like he's just gotten something he's always wanted — like he's been in love for years and years and now —)
"I love you too," he says, and kisses him.
Oh. Oh. This should not be a surprise and yet.
Quest objective #1, come out to Sasha, complete!
+300 xp
Quest objective #2, come out to Lev, complete!
+400 xp
Fine! This is. Fine. He's just going to-- not leave, because the happy kissing couple is blocking the doorway-- look at a book. Yes.
He grabs randomly for a book and winds up picking Macho Sluts, then Two Knotty Boys Show You The Ropes, then Seen from Behind: Perspectives on the Male Body and Renaissance Art, which is probably the best he's going to get here.
Marlo can absolutely pick Sasha up. He can probably do it with one arm.
fuuuuuuuuuuck that's hot.
He makes a startled pleased sound and the way he's kissing Marlo changes, gets more desperate.
Wonderful. The book is fully illustrated.
Sasha Michaels has been added as a harem member!
Main quest objective complete: Friends to Lovers
+1000 xp
+1 LST
He laughs and kisses his Sasha (his Sasha!!!) one more time and then puts him down and activates Sexual Communication and opens his mouth to say
"Lev can I kiss you."
Wait what this was not at all what he expected the next turn of events to be.
He opens and closes his mouth several times.
Sasha still looks so so happy.
"He's not going to if you don't say yes. Promise."
Okay, see, this requires him to be able to open his mouth and produce words with it.
If only there were some kind of magic spell he could cast that made him capable of saying what he desperately desperately wants.
Possibly Marlo should be sitting down and Sasha should be in his lap kissing him. How about that.
How about that.
Okay if he flees the room he doesn't get kissed, and if he opens his mouth then-- he doesn't know what might happen but in some way it will be revealed that the two extremely hot guys who want to kiss him are both, like, pranking him or something, and so he freezes.
A skill has been created by a special action! Making out with Sasha in front of Lev has created the skill Exhibitionism.
It will take a moment or two for Marlo to pull away from the lap full of happy Sasha to look over at Lev and say "Are you okay?" but he will manage.
"Um. Uh. Yes?"
"Come here with us?"
"Okay."
He sits next to Marlo and Sasha and attempts to touch as little of his body to them as possible.
No that was not the point of pulling Lev over here. Sasha pulls him insistently closer.
He smiles and goes where he is tugged.
Good.
He wonders for a brief moment whether they'll both fit in his lap, and then he remembers that he's the erogamer and he does what he wants especially when what he wants is better cuddling.
Having the thought "I'm the erogamer, I do what I want" has increased ERO by 1!
"I can go if you want me to, I don't want to be a third wheel--"
"— Lev, what part of Marlo asking if you want to be kissed and me pulling you into his lap with me makes it seem like you're a third wheel and we want you to leave."
"Uh. The part where you both just confessed that you love each other."
A skill has been created by no sort of action at all! You have unlocked the skill Threesome Kisses because it seems like you are going to need it.
Probably he is.
Possibly he should be kissing Lev right now.
The Erogame wishes to remind you that you have 15 unspent stat points. Putting them all in FUK will make you the best sexual partner Sasha has ever had. Think YES very loudly to do so, or YES BUT ONLY [INSERT NUMBER HERE] ACTUALLY to spend a smaller number of points.
That is incredibly tempting and he is not actually sure whether he wants to be tempted but yeah sure okay he will broadcast yes but only five actually at a reasonable mental volume.
And then he can kiss Lev!
Lev goes "mmmmm" into his mouth.
Oh. That's a good sound.
"Do you like being hurt too?"
He starts to say I don't know and then he remembers last night and says "Yes."
Lev reaches and pulls on his hair and kisses him again, and then kisses Sasha, his hand still in Marlo's hair.
Marlo melts into Lev's hand in his hair, makes soft whimpery sounds into his mouth and then into the air.
"Sasha, do you want to--"
"Yes," Sasha says, and turns and bites down hard on Marlo's shoulder through the shirt, feels the way he tenses up and the way he melts into Sasha's mouth.
He wiggles. "I'm so happy."
He wiggles!!!!
"Good."
"--Seriously, though, probably I should leave soon so you guys can have sex."
"Is there a reason —?"
"He wants his first time to be special," Sasha says from Marlo's shoulder.
Quest available: Virgin Sacrifice
Give Lev a first time that means something and that he'll look back on happily.
Success: +1500 xp, +2 LST
Failure: Mindbreaker perk
He was going to do that anyway and he is very concerned about the sound of the Mindbreaker perk.
Info/Perks/Mindbreaker
Sexual torture is a completely reasonable and efficient way for you to obtain competent, obedient followers. 1 point, refunded at 25 ERO.
"So. I should probably leave before I am too horny to think about this properly."
He's already made his decision re quests he's going to complete anyway; yes.
"Probably," he says, and kisses Lev's temple. "Can I have your phone number?"
Lev gives it, kisses both Sasha and Marlo, and leaves.
(He spends much of the afternoon masturbating.)
What he and Sasha do after Lev leaves isn't sex, or it isn't sex in the way that Marlo is used to having it, where the goal is to get your partner to finish; it's more like — exploring, with Sasha perfectly content to stay in his lap with their clothes on, finding out how Sasha likes to be kissed (he likes when you scrape your teeth across his lip, likes when you put your hands on his waist and hold him up) and how hard he likes his hair pulled (so hard Marlo worries he's going to rip half of it out) and how lightly you can run your fingers up his sides and still make him shiver at the touch.
It's good. It lasts a long time. If there are updates from the erogame while they stay there and kiss and more-than-kiss, Marlo doesn't stop to look at them until they're done.
Having sex with Sasha has increased your LST by 1!
Taking a long time to finish has increased your LST by 1!
Enjoying hurting Sasha has increased your PRV by 1!
Listening to Sasha's cues has increased your FUK by 1!
A skill has been created by a special action! Slowly taking off Sasha's clothes has created the skill Strip Other!
Info/Skills/Strip Other
Strip Other: Lvl 1. Active. 2 D|S / min.Taking off someone else's clothes slowly, erotically, and with lots of touching will temporarily raise their LST by 5% for 2 minutes.
A skill has been created by a special action! Staying near orgasm for a long time has created the skill Edge Riding!
Info/Skills/Edge Riding
Edge Riding: Lvl 1. Active. 1 S/min.
Staying near orgasm without going over, this skill requires more... training... than simply edging yourself repeatedly. Go as near orgasm as you are ordered. Stay there. Drop down. Back up. Right to the ultimate edge. Down slowly, up slowly. Good girl. Now repeat that until you're told to stop. In its ultimate form, this skill becomes the final mastery and control of your own distance from orgasm.
Cuddle has leveled up!
Sasha's curled up against his shoulder, panting.
"So what brought this on," he finally asks.
"...a lot of choices of wildly varying levels of quality," he says, and then debates how much else to say, and then, "and also my life becoming a sex video game, for some reason."
"........sorry, I don't actually know what that's an analogy for."
"It's not an analogy, I have a statblock and I keep getting quests."
'Friends to Lovers' secret bonus objective Tell Sasha About The Erogame complete!
+700 XP
Hypnosis skill
...okay.
So.
Probably Marlo isn't just making things up, that would be really weird for him and would suggest that something else is going on.
"Like... what," Sasha says.
"One of the early ones was touching your hair, one for being in a sexy cop calendar — I did it, the proceeds were going toward homeless LGBT youth and I thought you'd like it — setting you up with Lev stopping a kid at a college party from raping anyone, teaching said kid at the college party about consent, um, there was one early on I didn't take for touching you while you were asleep —"
He's blushing.
"...I have a massive somno kink and would have been fine with it but that's, probably a good thing. — are you okay."
"I'm not sure," Marlo says, and hugs him. "Apparently I have a harem. You're in it."
Cuddle has leveled up!
"...okay. Is anyone else?"
"The college-party rapist, with whom I am now rederiving the concept of consent from first principles. Lev is still a potential member, I think."
... he knows that tone of voice.
"When you say 'decisions of varying levels of quality,' do those decisions happen to include going to a college party with the intent of getting raped."
He doesn't say anything, which says enough.
"It was," Sasha says, not a question, and curls up in Marlo's lap and presses closer into his chest. "Don't do that to yourself."
"One, if it hadn't been me it would have been some freshman girl, and two, it was the first time in my life I had ever had sex I liked."
His voice is very quiet.
+1 PRV for saying out loud that you like being raped.
Sexual Communication has leveled up.
"Why," he says out loud.
"Why what."
"Why does this game think the appropriate response to that is to raise my perversion stat by one."
"....that's cute, actually," Sasha says, and snuggles him. "Maybe it's just that I love you but that's really cute."
"I love you too."
He checks the information page for his newly-gained hypnosis skill and for level 2 of Cuddle and Sexual Communication.
Info/Skills/Hypnosis
Hypnosis. LVL 1. Active. 10 Dom/use.
You can hypnotize consenting people by speaking to them, writing text, or waving a shiny object back and forth in front of their eyes with the intent to hypnotize them. You cannot hypnotize people who don't know you're hypnotizing them. You cannot hypnotize people into doing things they absolutely would never do, although you can hypnotize people into doing things they find embarrassing or unpleasant. Higher levels of this skill make you more likely to successfully hypnotize a person who is otherwise difficult to hypnotize or cause them to obey more complicated orders.
Info/Skills/Cuddle
Cuddle. LVL 4. Active. 1 Sub/min.
When this skill is active, you will instinctively know the best ways to hold someone to make them feel warm, safe, protected, and comfortable. Your limbs will not fall asleep no matter what position you are in. People trust you and are likely to tell you information you'd want to know. More advanced cuddle skills will be unlocked at higher levels.
Info/Skills/Sexual Communication
Sexual Communication. LVL 2. Active. 1 Dom/use.
Saying what you want can be hard. When you use this skill, you will automatically express your strongest current sexual desire, clearly, accurately, completely, and without your conscious input. As your level rises, it is LVL * 2% likely that you can exercise some control over what desire you express.
"Do you happen to know why the I got a hypnosis skill as a reward for telling you about the game?"
...he's maybe blushing just a little. "Probably because I kink on it?"
...right. yeah. Possibly he should have thought of that, given the erogame's entire everything.
That does explain Hyperhypnoslut's Master, but he's not sure he wants to talk about that with Sasha right this moment.
Quest available: Hypnoslutting For Beginners
Do ten things to Sasha using the Hypnosis skill or the That's Not How Hypnosis Works or Hyperhypnoslut's Master perks that you would not have done without this quest.
Success: +200 xp, +1 level in Hypnosis for each thing
Failure: --
"Aaaaaaand I just got a quest to use that skill on you in ten ways I would not have without the quest, is that okay with you —"
"I trust you."
He clicks yes and goes back to snuggling him, waits for him to relax, and then activates Hypnosis and murmurs "Close your eyes."
Sasha closes his eyes and leans against Marlo and Marlo runs his fingertips down Sasha's side, just barely enough touch to raise goosebumps, and says "Relax. More relaxed than that. Tell me how that feels."
"'s good." He sounds half-asleep.
"Good. You're doing great," and he notes how Sasha whimpers at the praise. "Keep relaxing for me — just like that, there you go."
He pets Sasha's hair and keeps talking, listens for the way he's breathing, and then takes Sasha's left index and middle finger. "Can you feel this?"
He nods.
Seeing him smile like that is — good.
Alright. So it has to be something he wasn't already planning on doing — and obviously it should be something Sasha will enjoy —
"Good. When I touch you here," and he squeezes Sasha's fingers, "it's going to feel like I'm touching you here," and he reaches down between Sasha's legs and touches him very very lightly. "Can you feel that?"
He nods. His breath is shaky.
1/10 hypnosis things!
He takes Sasha's hand and puts it to his mouth — kisses his fingertips and listens to the soft broken sounds he makes — he's not quite sure of what he's doing but that's all right; he doesn't have to; he puts Sasha's fingers in his mouth and — doesn't make eye contact, because Sasha's eyes are rolled up backwards into his head, but watches his face as he sucks on them.
It's —
— he's so relaxed, it's so good, he couldn't tense up if he tried, not even when he's —
— he lets himself make noise, because, because he couldn't stop himself and because Marlo's mouth on him is so hot and wet and good, doesn't hold himself back — and marlo doesn't stop doesn't slow down just keeps looking at him and sasha feels halfmelted it's so —
— he finishes and then curls up in marlos arms and
"Shh, sweetness, you did so well," he pets Sasha's hair, supports his head, "you did so well, you're so good — time to wake up now —"
He nods and — he's still relaxed but it's different, less limp and more just calm.
He's so cute. Marlo plays with his hair for a few more minutes before he says "I'm going to text Lev so I only have to explain this once, that okay?"
"Yeah."
hey you should come over
I have more news. bigger and weirder news.
Lev has just finished jerking off and is contemplating beginning his homework, but this is more important.
I'll be right over
He's still cuddling Sasha when Lev arrives; they have managed to get up long enough to put clothes on.
"Hey! You're here so I only have to explain once how my life suddenly became a video game."
"Is this a metaphor for something, or--"
"It is not. I have an extremely concerning statblock, I don't know if I can show it to you or not —"
Marlo Lane
"The Erogamer"
LVL: 6 (76%)
Stats:
DOM: 160/320
SUB: 200/330
BOD: 22 (+)
LST: 9 (+)
SED: 13 (+)
FUK: 19 (+)
PRV: 24 (+)
ERO: 16 (+)
Points: 10
Money: $1,180
Status Effects: None
Description: Marlo Lane is still a novice player of the Erogame. He has just realized that he's gay and submissive and he's beginning relationships with several people he loves or soon might love. But will he be able to discover the true powers of the Erogame?
"There, okay, can you see that or is it only displaying to me."
"I can't see anything--" Lev attempts to remember everything he can about talking to people who have had psychotic breaks. You aren't supposed to argue with them. "But I believe you that it's there."
No, he doesn't.
"Your last name is Aarons, your parents immigrated from Russia, they don't know you're gay, they're trying to give you the best life they can but they have very specific ideas of what a good life looks like and you, how did the quest prompt phrase it, kind of want to jump off a bridge when you think about coming home from a long day's work as an electrical engineer to kiss your loving wife."
"What."
He tries to think how Marlo could have known that-- it's easy to believe him but it's always easy to believe claims people make that have some evidence for them, you have to think about alternative explanations-- he could have gotten the name off the college's registry, he could have cold-read the rest of it, Marlo's maybe not psychotic but he could be tricking him somehow--
"...Can you show me something you can't fake."
He considers his list of skills.
"Most of the things I can do with it right now could be faked but if I'm in the room when you fall asleep I can see what you're dreaming."
"Unfortunately I can't fall asleep on command and I usually don't remember my dreams anyway. --How does the game work, maybe we'll be able to think of something."
"....it calls itself the Erogame and is themed exactly the way you would expect from that name."
"...you're claiming your life has turned into a porn video game. What."
"Do you think I like it, I'm a police officer, how do you think that intersects with this."
"I'm imagining your uniform turning into a sexy cop uniform."
"It hasn't done that yet, thank God, but there are a really improbable number of sex workers who want me to be aware that they'd do anything to avoid being arrested, and they definitely don't usually ask you to do undercover work your first day in a new department, and I would very much prefer not to get popups telling me that a quest called Police Brutality is available."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaa."
"— Jesus fucking Christ."
"Yes, I know."
"--uh, I'm going to be honest that I think you're tricking me because that is way more probable than a porn video game that is able to control minds but hasn't given you any noticeably supernatural powers."
He doesn't especially want to do this, he likes his face the way it is, but — how many stat points does he have? Ten?
He puts five of them in BOD.
"--did Marlo just shapeshift into a hotter version of Marlo," he says to Sasha.
"Marlo just shapeshifted into a hotter version of Marlo," Sasha confirms. "Em, what the fuck."
"I have a deeply concerning statblock," he repeats. "That was five points' worth of change to the physical appearance stat."
"Can you put it back."
"Nope. And all my stats go up whether I want them to or not."
"...I'm sorry."
"...this isn't the stat I'd most mind putting five points into and it would go up anyway next time I was shirtless in public, but thank you."
He's aware that that isn't really the point.
Lev hugs him.
"...I'm sorry you got the magic sex game instead of, like, me."
"Or me, I actually like casual sex."
He hugs them both.
"I have you two and without it I wouldn't."
"...did this game by any chance show up on Thursday."
"Yes. It did."
(He's not sure how much Sasha has told Lev and that's not his secret to share.)
"What happened on Thursday?"
"Marlo started acting weird, and also that was the day I found out my cancer was gone."
"...Thank you."
Quest objective complete: Tell Lev About The Erogame
+600 xp
Lev has Real Scientist perk
"What just happened to my brain?!"
"— uh, it says you got the Real Scientist perk, let me see what that does —"
Info/Perks/Real Scientist
Real Scientist: Your unusual experiences have given you insight into open questions in human sexuality, leading you to form new testable hypotheses. You instinctively understand experimental methodology and statistics. So long as you report your outcomes honestly, other scientists will discuss your results seriously; and overlook your lack of credentials along with any questions about the morality or possibility of your experiments. You can write proficiently in LaTeX if you are wearing latex. If you simultaneously hold the perks Mad Inventor, Mad Scientist, and Real Scientist, you become able to develop reproducible technology, including the experimental apparatus required for others to further investigate and extend your discoveries. An actual PhD in a scientific field, acquired the hard way, can substitute for the Real Scientist perk in this trinity. 1 point, available at 30 ERO.
He reads that out loud. "Apparently it's a reward for me telling you about the game, I also got experience points."
"This is super weird, I had a bunch of knowledge of how sex works downloaded into my brain-- and experiments I could do-- and I can feel the ability to do LaTeX-- I'm not wearing latex."
"Maybe you can feel the ability now but can only use it if you're wearing latex? I have a slightly ridiculous number of rubber gloves in my bathroom if you want to try it out sometime without buying fetish gear first —"
"Uh, no, latex gloves don't count, it has to be fetish gear-- I can tell-- this is so weird--"
"That is weird — I wonder why it only gives you a perk for finding out about the game and not me —"
"When I told you about it I got the hypnosis skill."
And suddenly the existence of Hyperhypnoslut's Master makes so much more sense.
"--you know, this is nice, but they could have made me a really hot guy, and then there wouldn't be some random short chubby ugly Jew hanging around their sex game. I really question their judgment."
"I object to including Jew in that list just because that generally seems kind of suspect, and also we both like the way you look. — Sasha I assume you like the way he looks."
"I do in fact like the way you look," says Sasha, a short Jew who wishes he were chubby.
"And I guess the random sex aliens must like the way I look too."
"I'm glad the sex aliens are right, if they weren't we might run into some problems."
"Look, I'm not arguing with having a bunch of knowledge of human sexuality suddenly downloaded into my skull-- although I already know statistics, they should have given me another thing--"
Quest available: Beautiful All Along.
Convince Lev he's actually attractive to anyone. Note: successful completion of this quest unlocks the 'Give Lev Any Self-Esteem Whatsoever' quest tree.
Success: +10000 xp, +1 ERO.
Failure: More awkwardness whenever Lev criticizes himself for a physical trait Sasha also has.
+1 ERO for shapeshifting in front of current or potential harem members.
Yes.
"I don't write the perks or Hyperhypnoslut's Master wouldn't exist and Herbal Remedy would tell me what it was and not just say 'your personality is changed to Z.'" He's smiling.
"...what is Hyperhypnoslut's Master? --What's a perk?"
"You can earn points towards things that just normally gaining skills wouldn't give you and those are called perks. Hyperhypnoslut's Master is —" and he finds it and reads the text of the perk description out loud.
— that is certainly a face Sasha is making!
Lev was going to ask whether Marlo's shapeshifting was a perk but then he observes the face Sasha is making and bites his tongue.
"That doesn't actually sound like something you would like having, but —" and you'd be lying if you said he didn't sound a little bit longing.
"--I have literally no idea what would be hot about letting someone else control your brain."
"The thing I like about being tied up is vulnerability and trust and this is that times a trillion — and it's like the subbiest thing you could possibly do — and also I imprinted on vampire novels as a preteen although the cause and effect might be a little mixed up on that one —"
Lev thinks about this.
"Do I get a perk?"
"— I don't think so, aside from Real Scientist, and you guys have known each other for like a day."
"No, I mean-- you got a perk that is blatantly catering to Sasha's kinks and if there was one that was blatantly catering to mine it wouldn't"-- he suddenly realizes how embarrassing it would be to have to complete the sentence--"it wouldn't necessarily have. My name in it."
"— oh. Uh, not that I can think of, but possibly I just don't know your kinks well enough to be able to tell."
He's smiling but also rather intensely blushing.
"--I'm not sure I can say this with my actual mouth."
"What if I asked nicely what they were, would that help?"
Blush blush. "Yes. --Don't make fun of me?"
"I literally just admitted to wanting my best friend to be able to mind control me, I have no room to judge."
Maybe he should move into Lev's lap. You know, to be supportive and encouraging.
Then he will notice that Lev is super super hard.
"Uh. --This. Is my kink. I mean not the whole thing, it's just--"
He does indeed notice that.
"Just?"
"--I like. Being really gently and supportively encouraged to have sex with men."
Such intense blushing.
"...that is the cutest thing I have ever heard."
He should be hugging Lev.
He's being hugged! This is excellent.
"And I like girls, I just-- when I think about having sex with girls I'm thinking about her making me"-- blush blush-- "suck her strapon so I can practice for sucking off guys, or maybe about her really being a guy--"
"Really being a guy how?" Sasha says carefully.
"--Uh, like, identifying as one? I guess it would be 'he' in that situation but I like thinking that they're not out and I'm the only one who knows--"
"That's adorable. You're adorable."
"Thank you."
Not that he's sort of hoping Sasha will keep encouraging him to talk but he is in fact totally hoping that.
"Tell me more about that? The one where you're dating a trans guy, I mean."
"Uh-- it's hot to think that everyone might think I'm straight but actually I'm really gay? Like I'm getting away with something. And-- I have this whole genre of fantasies about girls encouraging me to sleep with guys-- and there's one where she's like 'maybe you're not ready to sleep with a cis guy yet, maybe you should just eat a trans guy out for practice' but I feel kind of like a bad person about that one because trans guys aren't, like, partially men."
He.... is maybe going to have some thoughts on that when Lev and Sasha aren't both right there.
"I think you should kiss Sasha now," he says, voice gentle, instead of saying that.
He kisses Sasha and puts his hands in Sasha's hair.
Sasha puts his hands in Lev's hair and tugs experimentally.
He hisses.
"That's... nice."
Maybe Sasha should do it again, then — and again, harder —
"It's nice," he says, "why is it nice--"
"It just is," Sasha murmurs, and then takes Lev's lip between his teeth and bites.
What an excellent thing to have happen.
His Sasha is so excellent.
Their Sasha is very excellent. Lev is excellent too.
"Maybe we should go to the bed."
"Maybe we should."
Lev is small enough that Marlo can pretty straightforwardly carry him there.
Gosh!
Lev should be in the center so he can be snuggled by two men at once.
What a good plan.
Sasha cuddles up on Lev's shoulder and holds Marlo's hand on Lev's stomach.
"I-- think I want to be your boyfriend."
"— I should probably mention, I'm trans."
"Which way?"
"Trans guy."
Marlo squeezes his hand. That's sweet of him.
"Em didn't know what trans people were when he met me, he thought I was just short."
"I wasn't wrong, you are short."
"That's cool. I like trans guys. --I mean, I'm bi, so."
"I'm not bi."
He's pretty sure, anyway.
"Well, I mean, Sasha's a guy, so. That makes sense."
"As long as we all know that."
He squeezes Marlo's hand in a way that might mean 'thank you' and might mean 'I'll get over it' and might be both.
"You're really wonderful. I'm-- sorry I keep putting my foot in my mouth."
"It's alright.'
"I should probably tell you guys — there is a person, I would not call him my boyfriend but I don't know what other word to use, I'm teaching him the concept of consent being important from the ground up and you might at some point wind up meeting him if that is okay with all involved."
"...That sounds concerning but I guess the magic sex game will keep you from getting hurt."
"It is very concerning but honestly I'm more concerned for him than for me." He squeezes Sasha's hand again and curls a little more around Lev. "...so are we all dating now?"
"I would like to date both of you."
"I kind of thought we were already doing that."
"So, yes."
Lev Aarons has been acquired as a harem member!
Quest objective #1, Get Lev a Boyfriend, complete.
+200 xp
+1 SED
Quest objective #5, Get Lev A Second Boyfriend, complete.
+1000 xp
+2 LST
+600 xp for getting Lev two boyfriends at once
You have leveled up!
He's just going to ignore the feeling of his LST raising and cuddle his boyfriends (!!!!!!!!).
Gosh! Boyfriends!
"Best sex game," Lev says.
"It's pretty good," he agrees. "— can't say I love the thing where sometimes it decides I need a higher physical desire stat but I guess given the premise it should work out being less fun in the long run if I didnt have one."
"...Like, how much you want sex?"
He thinks about it. "...more like how much it bothers me when I haven't had any? It feels like a body thing more than a mind thing."
He doesn't comment that that is incredibly hot, but he's thinking it.
"Huh. ...If I go, like, two days without jerking off I can't think at all until I do."
"I'm still not there, I don't think." He kisses Lev's cheek. "But I started at a one, which was around fifth percentile, and now I'm at eleven, and it's — distracting."
"You should write down what it's like to be various levels of horniness. You're probably the only person who's ever gotten to experience everything between near-asexuality and-- how far up does the scale go--"
"I don't know but fourty is when it starts to get into the physically impossible, so. — I can try doing that?"
"Physically impossible levels of horniness sounds pretty hot."
"I think it sounds kind of terrifying but I'm glad someone appreciates it?"
"Two someones," very quiet.
"...Maybe it'll stop giving you stat points now that you're at a distracting level of horniness?"
He sounds like he's doing wishful thinking even to himself.
"Maybe, but I doubt it."
...what does Cuddle feel like when you use it on two people at once.
Well, it makes Lev make a noise almost like a purring cat.
Sasha sighs and settles into Lev's side, lets his eyes close. "You're so good."
"You're so good."
"You're both so good."
He snuggles Lev just a little bit harder and —
— can he use Matchmaker on himself?
Matchmaker, how are he and Lev going to turn out — he and Sasha — all three of them together — he and Harry —?
Matchmaker on him and Lev: wanting to keep someone safe and protected, of having someone to rely on no matter what.
Matchmaker on him and Sasha: soulmates destined to be together in every universe.
Matchmaker on him and Harry: a sort of desperate longing to be good and safe and make the other person happy.
Matchmaker does not appear to do triads at his current level.
If he uses it more it'll level up, right? How about Harry and Sasha, his sister Alana and her current boyfriend, his parents, both sets of his grandparents?
Harry and Sasha: knowing that it will hurt but not caring because at least it will drive the pain in your head away for a while.
Alana and Jay: overwhelming horniness, the friendliness that comes from knowing you don't belong together but you're having fun.
His parents: liking, a sense of possibilities never explored.
Paternal grandparents: quiet desperation; hatred that endures for long enough that it becomes shaped like affection.
Maternal grandparents: the warm quiet love you have for an elderly cat.
....how about he doesn't introduce Harry and Sasha. Or at least, not for a while.
He isn't sure what to do with the information he has now about his family except cuddle Lev and Sasha that much harder.
Matchmaker has gone up by 1!
Sasha makes a quiet sound about being cuddled, and rubs his thumb over Marlo's hand in a way that might mean 'you okay?' or 'I'm here.'
"I have a matchmaker skill. — it wouldn't give me results for triads but every subset of us, we're going to be okay."
"I can tell that's not the only thing."
"...I asked it about my family to try and level the skill up. I — maybe shouldn't have."
Hug. "What happened?"
"— it turned out my grandparents hate each other and have been married for fifty years hating each other."
"...well, fuck."
"It isn't — I checked and you two are going to be so in love, I just. Wish I hadn't found that out."
Lev hugs him.
"I don't know what to say."
"You don't have to say anything," he says into Lev's shoulder. "Hugging you is nice. Thank you."
"You said Sasha and I are going to be--"
"So, so in love, it was so strong I could physically feel it."
"Oh," very small.
Lev kisses Sasha. "I love you."
"I love you."
"I am really looking forward to finding out all the reasons I am going to love you."
"I am too," Sasha says, and kisses Lev again.
"Did you say you asked about you and me?" he says to Marlo.
"It was this — overwhelming urge to keep you safe." He rubs his thumb on the back of Sasha's hand. "And I'm not sure I believe in destined to be together in every possible universe, but that's what it said about us, Sasha."
"I don't know, I can believe that."
"I love you," he says to Marlo, and rests his head on Marlo's shoulder.
"I love you too," he says to Lev, and wraps his arms around him and holds him close and leans over and kisses Sasha on the cheek.
"We should go on a date."
"We should."
"If we go to a prescribed date location and do prescribed date things like you used to do with your girlfriends —"
"I won't make you finish that threat, it's not going to happen. Promise."
Bounce bounce. "We should go to the library and look at books. Or the art museum. Or the park and snuggle outside. Or the cake store and get cake. Or-- actually, wait, should I be concerned that the Erogame is going to start making all the libraries sexy now--"
"Not until my 'how weird my life is' stat gets higher, I think. And possibly not even then. Do you mean bakery or is there actually a place that just sells cake?"
"Well, it also sells tea."
He would say "we should go and get me a slice and you a slice and Sasha, like, ten slices" but he is concerned that he has put his foot in his mouth enough today.
It isn't that Marlo doesn't agree with him, but yeah, it's not the best thing to say out loud.
They can spend an excellent afternoon together cuddling in Sasha's bed.
They can totally do this!
Lev probably could have sex with Marlo and Sasha now, but it's not like there's time pressure. Marlo and Sasha are going to be his for a long time.
The Erogame does not pop up any purple rectangles.
Harry does not text or call Marlo.
That evening he texts Harry
you doing okay?
He does not get any sort of response.
He might just be busy or that might be concerning; he doesn't know Harry well enough to say.
He knows where Harry's apartment is, right? He'll check on him just in case.
Harry's apartment is unlocked, and he's curled up under a blanket shivering next to a bucket full of vomit. He's pale and his forehead is sweating.
Marlo gets him a new bucket and another blanket and a bottle of water, puts the old bucket in the bathroom to deal with later.
"Hey."
"Hey," Harry says. It clearly takes effort.
Okay. This is something he knows how to do.
He thinks Cuddle and wraps the second blanket over Harry's shoulders and holds his hair away from his face.
Harry makes a soft noise and rests his head against Marlo's shoulder.
"You're doing great," he whispers, holds him tighter, pets his hair.
"Thank you."
"What happened?"
He keeps his voice very deliberately soft.
"I'm withdrawing!"
"I can see that. Withdrawing from what."
"...Everything?"
"Let me rephrase. What are the things you were taking before?"
He lists off a couple of different kinds of recreational drugs and a seizure medication.
"— okay. Keep taking the seizure medication, do you need me to go get it for you?"
"But it's a drug," he objects.
"If it was prescribed to you it is legal to take and you should not stop."
Harry has the smile of a person who has just discovered a loophole.
"If a doctor who was licensed to do so prescribed it to you, and if you tell me someone prescribed you alcohol I can tell that you're lying, and you can't get high off that."
"It's super easy to get prescriptions for oxy though. And benzos."
"If you get a prescription for meds you dont need I will take them from you and tell the doctors you're doing that."
(Sasha might actually kill him if he found out but Harry is a special case, okay.)
"Maybe I should get to take meds only if they aren't any fun to snort?"
He's just... not going to deal with the implication that Harry tried to snort his seizure meds. That sounds like a good plan that will leave everyone involved more sane.
A skill has been created by a special action! Holding Harry to make him feel better has created the skill Intimate Healing.
Info/Skills/Intimate Healing
Intimate Healing. Active. 5 Sub/use.
You can treat physical and mental illnesses through appropriately ero physical contact. The form the contact takes is up to you, but may include mouth-to-mouth medicine dosing, getting in bed naked with someone to warm them up, sucking on a finger to get rid of poison, "healing hands", or magic healing cock. At higher levels, you may treat more conditions more successfully, up to and including otherwise untreatable or fatal conditions.
At level one, your touch can act as a temporary analgesic, antidepressant, anxiolytic, or cough suppressant. You may also perform 100% effective CPR by alternately kissing a person and touching their chest.
...thanks, Erogame.
Oookay. How ero exactly does the physical contact have to be, let's find out.
"...You should go get me my seizure meds. Probably. If you want me to take them."
He gets up, reluctantly, and goes and finds them and comes back and hugs Harry again.
The Erogame does not appear to think that hugs are sufficiently ero.
How about hugs where his hands go under the hem of Harry's shirt, is that ero enough?
Harry makes a little noise. "I feel better with you holding me."
"Good."
He doesn't stop.
"I was thinking about how to not break laws," Harry says, "and I don't know what all the laws are. Did you know that drawing graffiti is illegal?"
"I did know that, yes."
"They should have a video or something with all the laws in it so I know what to do."
...can Harry read.
Obviously it wouldn't be the entire legal code, and it wouldn't be much help if it was, but, "I bet someone has made something similar to that," he says, and starts looking on YouTube.
Last Friday a woman in an extremely low-cut shirt helpfully uploaded an explanation of the entire legal code!
Of course she did.
That video is going to be long, but they can watch it together?
"Okay. You might have to stop and explain things to me though because I'm a retard."
....arguing with him about that will not be helpful.
"I can explain things for you. But not getting this doesn't make you stupid, this is hard."
"--I know I'm stupid, I was in the stupid classes at school."
He hums and decides not to argue about that and instead explain laws.
Harry is not, actually, particularly stupid.
He's very literal-minded and he doesn't have much background knowledge about anything but he's not stupid.
Marlo makes sure to tell him when he picks up on something quickly, or makes a connection most people wouldn't have thought of.
He looks so so grateful for any little bit of praise that Marlo wants to give him.
He gives a lot of it. More, once he sees how grateful Harry is.
Harry is trying so so hard.
.....aww.
Marlo doesn't stop holding him the whole time.
Harry is-- against all his instincts NOT going to have sex with Marlo because he is not supposed to try to have sex with Marlo without permission.
Eventually he says, "I can't read."
How bad was his school.
"Okay."
"Or, I mean, I can, I can buy shampoo and get the right brand of crackers and stuff. But the letters all look the same and then I get a headache."
"Okay.
....there are dyslexic friendly fonts, do you want me to set your phone to make it easier for you?"
"...If you want to?"
He sounds very suspicious.
Then he can go into settings and change the default font to this.
"Does this help any?"
He looks. His lips move a bit as he reads.
"...I don't have a headache," he reports, "but I still forgot the beginning of the sentence by the time I got to the end."
"That's pretty normal when you're learning." He holds Harry a little bit closer.
"It's nice for you to try to help me but lots of people have tried to help me and actually I'm just dumb."
"If the problem was just that you were stupid, a different font wouldn't have helped."
"It's not just that I'm stupid, it's that I have dyslexia and dyscalculia and oppositional defiant disorder and I'm stupid."
"You picked up a complicated section of legal code quicker than I did."
"I don't have a lot of things in my brain so there's more space."
'That is not how learning things works,' he doesn't say.
"Maybe. I'm still not going to stop helping," he says.
"--also," Harry says, "if I can't break laws I am super going to run out of money."
"..........we can figure something out."
Erogame please help him here.
Quest available: Financial Stability
Obtain a regular source of income sufficient to quit your job and support your boyfriends.
Success: $10,000/month.
Failure: More Police Brutality quests.
Fine okay yes.
Harry seems to view "we can figure something out" as a promise that this is completely settled.
That might be a problem but it's not a surprise.
Cuddling him is nice.
Over the next few hours, Cuddle and Intimate Healing both level up.
That's good.
He does have to go into work the next day, unfortunately; he keeps an eye out for chances to offhandedly mention his boyfriends.
When he checks his email, he sees:
Subject: Sex trafficking undercover work
We have had a great deal of difficulty shutting down this gay sex trafficking organization. The detectives on the case believe the only way to shut it down is for someone to wear a wire and go undercover as one of their victims. Due to the risks involved, we are looking for volunteers.
Subject: Bodyguarding
Prince Bandile of Norzue will be visiting Boston for a few weeks and wishes to hire a local police officer as bodyguard and escort. For political reasons, this will count against your work hours.
Quest available: Modern-Day Slavery
They just can't crack this gay sex trafficking ring. What they need is a brave volunteer willing to wear a wire and go undercover as one of their victims. It will be dangerous. You'll have to act exactly like one of their victims in every way. But without you they'll never be able to shut it down.
Success: +15,000 xp, improved relations with boss
Failure: Begin 'Marketplace Training' quest.
Quest available: Bodyguard Crush
Prince Bandile needs a bodyguard. Keep him safe, show him the sights, obey his every whim... the usual.
Success: +10,000 xp, ??????
Failure: 'Survivor guilt' status effect
He'll take the bodyguard job — he clicks yes and opens a wikipedia tab on Prince Bandile and another on Norzue — but he thinks his boyfriends might have some opinions about him agreeing to enter a sex trafficking ring.
Norzue is a small African country of two million people. It is in theory a democracy where the king has a purely ceremonial role, but in practice people keep electing the king president. It has a great deal of diamond and mineral wealth, which-- in defiance of all logic about small African countries with immense diamond and mineral wealth-- was invested in health, education, and infrastructure instead of in the military, Swiss bank accounts, and giant statues of the king. It appears on the top of lists such as "Most Developed African Countries," "Least Corrupt African Countries," and "African Countries With The Freest and Fairest Elections."
Prince Bandile does not have a wikipedia page. His father's Wikipedia page is substantially devoted to his pro-business policies and strong advocacy for adequate treatment of HIV/AIDS.
....he's pretty sure he's going to like Prince Bandile. He's also pretty sure that was the point.
(Did that email response count as coming out at work? Probably not until someone sees it. Whatever.)
A few hours later he has open a slightly ridiculous number of wikipedia tabs and two tabs of Google images.
Prince Bandile has a cute and disarming smile and historically made some ill-advised beard decisions.
Norzue continues to be generally well-governed with absolutely no history of human rights violations whatsoever.
If he digs into Bandile's Google News results, he will find some stories about Bandile's inoffensive charity work and public statements advocating for free trade, opposition to climate change, and LGBT rights. He triple-majored in political science, economics, and philosophy. His undergraduate thesis was on the application of Amartya Sen's capabilities theory to public policy prioritization in Norzue. He graduated last year.
He does not even a little bit understand this thesis paper but he reads it anyway, or at least makes an attempt to read it, until his usual work day ends.
Prince Bandile is extremely snarky about colonialism.
Quest objective "come out at work" complete
+600 xp
Marlo can already tell he's going to like him, but just in case, what does Matchmaker have to say — about Bandile and him, and Lev, and Sasha, he's pretty sure that not Harry —)
Bandile and Marlo: The feeling of being a paladin; fighting back-to-back.
Bandile and Lev: A trusted adviser and his king; a sense of admiration.
At Bandile and Sasha it objects that he does not have enough DOM.
Fair enough.
How long is it until he actually meets Prince Bandile?
Marlo's boss says that Bandile will be in town in three days, and Marlo can just take the next three days off, since he'll probably be busy with Bandile anyway.
He can do that.
This is the first night in — it feels like forever even though objectively it isn't very long — that he's gone home with the intention of falling asleep alone.
Quest available: My Bed Is Cold Without You
In the next 24 hours, sleep with three people you did not previously know and enjoy it. Do not fall in love with, start dating, or consider yourself personally responsible for any of them.
Success: +1 ERO, 1 perk point, 10,000 xp
Failure: --
.........well.
The game has pretty clearly proven it isn't trying to hurt him, and it seems like it's pretty invested in keeping him safe. That doesn't mean he should definitely take this quest but it does mean that if it sounds appealing he should give it a shot.
And one perk point is a lot.
He clicks yes, and then googles "how to find casual sex," because of the person he is.
The Internet would like to inform him about the existence of Grindr!
A map helpfully points out several bars and bathhouses in his area, a Quora answer from last Friday explains that there are many glory holes in Boston, and last weekend the first sex-okay fetish club in Boston had its grand opening.
Yes, he is aware of the existence of grindr. He hates bars and the idea of gloryholes kind of makes him want to throw up, but he'll try the fetish club and see how that goes.
He will need an appropriate outfit!
('Naked' is an appropriate outfit.)
....how about shirtless, is shirtless appropriate.
Shirtless can be appropriate if he's wearing a skirt, or leather pants, or blue jeans and nice boots, or maybe no pants at all and actually just underwear.
this was a terrible idea and he should never have stop that.
Marlo does not actually own leather pants or a skirt but nice boots are doable; he isn't sure what he's expecting the inside of a fetish club to look like.
Well, the part he walks into looks like a cocktail party-- all soft comfy couches and non-alcoholic drinks and plates of cheese-- except for the sound of whips cracking from the room next door.
He happened to run into gay men's night, of course.
Of course.
He's maybe a little bit visibly nervous, here. Hopefully he has a high enough SED that it'll look appealing and not, well.
"Hello!" a man says. "What sort of things are you into?"
"— I'm not really sure yet but I like being hurt?"
Is he blushing he is definitely blushing.
"Oh, cute, you're new," he says. "Don't be shy, everybody was new once."
Okay. Okay. The erogame is not trying to hurt him and if it were going to hurt him it still wouldn't hurt him with this.
He smiles at the man, still blushing. "I'm working on it!"
+1 ERO for correctly noticing that taking the more ero path will not hurt you.
"Well," the man says, "I have some rope. I could tie you up and try out a bunch of different things from my bag on you, and you can see what you think."
"That sounds great."
He tries to sound enthusiastic and it comes out a little wistful but it's fine.
Then the man will take him to the other room.
A man moans, tied to a St. Andrew's cross. The whip strikes him again and he writhes. His cock is hard and leaking.
...that's. A lot. He's not sure what he was expecting but that's a lot.
He watches the man who's going to be tying him up, tries to mirror the way he reacts, but he keeps glancing at the St. Andrew's cross and wondering —
"Do you like that?" the man asks.
He starts to say 'I don't know' again and then he remembers that he has a skill that seems to exist specifically for making sure he knows things like this.
Sexual Communication. "Yes."
Then the man takes him to an empty St. Andrew's cross and says, "take your clothes off."
It's an order.
He obeys.
Is it physically possible to strip this fast? He's not sure.
Well, probably it is, since he didn't use Strip Tease.
The man efficiently wraps rope around his wrists and ankles and ties him to the cross, so that he's spread out and helpless.
Oh.
He used to be confused what Sasha liked so much about being tied up, after he'd asked about the rope marks on his wrists but before the erogame. He isn't confused about it anymore — he's helpless, anyone could do anything they wanted and he'd have no way —
(He is very quickly getting hard.)
There's a sharp line of pain along his back.
"This is a Wartenberg wheel."
He whimpers and then nods.
"Tell me on a scale of one to ten," he says, "where one means you can barely feel it, five means just right, and ten means much too much."
"— four?"
A flogger. It doesn't hurt, exactly, but it takes the wind out of you; it feels like being punched.
His arms twitch in the ropes; it isn't bad, but it isn't —
A different kind of flogger. It's stingy; it hurts; little bits of flame bloom under his skin.
It's perfect, it's so good, he can see sparks behind his eyes —
Well, then, he can keep getting hit, can't he, all along his back and his ass and his thighs.
Yeah — yeah, he can —
"You like stingy," the man says, "what do you think of canes?"
And there's a sharp line of fire across Marlo's thighs.
His vision whites out and he doesn't know how loud he is but he can tell he isn't quiet.
The man hits him once, twice, three times more, and then gets close and kisses his ear and touches him between his legs.
He was already so hard it would have hurt if he'd been able to notice anything but the fire on his skin; it doesn't take much touching for his eyes to roll back and his thighs to go tense and shaky as he comes.
"I could leave you tied up here," the man says. "I could leave you here for anybody to use. What do you think of that?"
A sharp gasp and a whispered "Please —"
"You have an audience. They like watching you." He traces a hand gently up Marlo's back and pulls his hair. "You like showing off for them, don't you?"
"Yes — please —"
"It's a hot thought," the man says, kisses Marlo on the cheek, and starts to undo his rope.
"No, I mean it, please."
He's still so hard.
"You could get hurt."
Taking the more ero option will not hurt you. If he gets hurt it'll be like he got hurt on Saturday, where he learns and grows, not hurt for real —
"I know," he says, because he does know, it's kind of terrifying actually, but the erogame is not going to hurt him, not in the way that matters —
"You," he says, "are one hot little sub," and he steps away.
+1 ERO for convincing someone to do something that is neither safe nor sane via begging.
For a moment there's no one around him.
He whimpers and says "Please" again, louder this time.
There's a sound of a bottle opening and a cold wet sensation on his ass and fingers probing him.
He — wasn't sure how that was going to feel, when someone tried it. He still isn't sure but he hisses at the touch.
The fingers are replaced by a stranger pushing into him and a warm body against his back.
He moans out loud and leans into the touch as much as the ropes will let him.
The man fucks him hard, carelessly, as if he's just a thing to be used, not a person--
He —
— he doesn't get any quieter.
The man finishes with a grunt and pulls out and he's empty.
There's something running down his leg. The man didn't use a condom.
He is the erogamer and STIs do not exist for him and it does not matter and he still shivers at the feeling.
He's not empty for very long. A second man comes and fills him up.
This one likes to hurt him, likes to scratch and bite and pinch, reaches around to touch his dick and instead of jerking him off just flicks the head of his dick.
That's good that's good that's so good —
Guy #3 calls him a dirty slut.
After that they begin to blur together into a haze of pain and humiliation and cock.
It's so good — he moans out loud when he's called a dirty slut —
Someone punches him-- someone grabs his balls and squeezes-- someone jerks him off-- someone digs their fingers into his bruises-- someone calls him a good boy-- calls him a dirty whore-- calls him a beautiful little toy-- calls him a hole-- is silent and just fills him up-- come is leaking down his thighs-- some of the cocks are big and some of them are small and at least one is plastic--
He has lost track of everything except the feeling of being hurt and fucked and filled up and —
And eventually he is empty and there are hands undoing the rope around his wrists and someone leads him to a couch and is stroking his hair and calling him a good boy, such a good boy.
He curls up against the man holding him and leans into the hand on his hair and closes his eyes and listens.
"Shhh, good boy, my good boy, you've done so well, you've been so good —"
Lev curls up with his head on Sasha's shoulder.
"Does he normally do things like this?"
"He figured out he was gay less than a week ago. Before that he laid back and thought of England during vanilla missionary sex with various girlfriends, as far as I can tell."
He doesn't stop petting Marlo's hair.
"Weird sex game?"
"I assume so."
He leans down and kisses Marlo's temple. "Are you okay?"
He looks up and blinks.
"...Sasha?"
"Yeah. It's Sasha. Lev's here too."
He nods and puts his head on Sasha's shoulder and closes his eyes again. "You're so good."
+1 BOD for having sex in front of dozens of eager viewers.
+1 LST for having sex dozens of times.
Your PRV did not increase because you already enjoyed being tied up, used, and abused by strangers.
Quest complete: My Bed Is Cold Without You
+1 ERO, +1 perk point, +10,000 xp
Completing this quest extremely thoroughly has resulted in a bonus +1000 xp, +1 LST, and +1 ERO.
You have leveled up!
Reaching ERO 20 has unlocked certain perks which were previously locked due to being terrifying. Touch this box to look at new perks.
The perk point timer flashes.
He touches the box to see the new and apparently terrifying perk list.
'Little Death' Note: The human whose name is written in this Note shall orgasm. Details of how the orgasm shall appear must be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. 1 point. Available at 50 ERO, refunded at 70 ERO.
Idol: You gain the talent that will let you to learn how to compose music and lyrics. Singing and performance is already based on SED. All other aspects of becoming famous---such as actually practicing, assembling a band/harem, and seducing or blackmailing producers---are up to you; but you will encounter good opportunities. 1 point. Available at 30 SED or 20 BOD.
Meguca: You're a magical girl! Well, more magical, anyway. Let's be realistic here, you were probably going to serve time in a costume sooner or later. This perk gives you a head start and some extra freedom of choice over styles of fightable monsters and revealing clothing. If you are currently male, you may optionally opt for your transformed self to be a boy. Don't expect any fewer sparkles. 1 point. Available at 45 ERO, refundable at 60 ERO.
Non-Excludable Public Good: The world treats your orifices as unsecured wifi. Nobody considers it odd for anyone to do anything to you at any time or place. They may still consider it shameful for you if you visibly respond. 1 point. Available at 45 ERO, refundable at 70 ERO.
S/layer: In every generation there is a chosen one. S/he alone will stand against and/or lie down with the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness. S/he is the S/layer. 1 point. Available at 55 ERO, refundable at 80 ERO.
The only one of these he can take is Idol and hes a little terrified by how much he likes the thought of Non-Excludable Public Good.
Sex God: You can gain Dominant and Submissive Energy from sex acts performed in your name by anyone who sincerely believes you to be a god. Establishing and maintaining a cult is up to you. 1 point. Available at 25 ERO.
Something About Marry: You may at will choose to have been betrothed to someone as a child. The evidence for this betrothal may be discovered all at once or revealed gradually. Warning: Overuse of this perk may result in the results of overusing this perk. 1 point. Available at 30 ERO, refunded at 70 ERO.
That Is Not How Hypnosis Works: You can mesmerize people by having them watch a swaying object or shiny object for a minute or two, or by forcing them to listen to your voice for ten minutes. You do not require consent to hypnotize someone, nor their knowledge that they are being hypnotized. Everyone is deeply hypnotizable by you. It is not especially difficult to hypnotize people into doing things they don't want to do. To finish activating this perk, you must read any single book on hypnosis. It can be a short book. Borrowing it from the library is fine. 1 point + 1 fragment. Available at 40 ERO.
There Are No Stops On The Rape Train: +15 BOD, +15 SED, and +15 FUK. Nobody will understand anything you say or do---such as trying to run away, or struggling, or screaming---as indicating that you might not want to have sex; unless they would not heed your wishes regardless. Raising LST or PRV to over 35, or ERO to over 60, is strongly advised before taking this perk. 1 point. Available at 45 ERO.
What Dreams May Come: You know when someone begins to fantasize about you, and know in approximate terms what they currently intend to fantasize. You may choose to enter their fantasy and gain control of your analogue-self within it, experiencing the events as real. You may gain skill, stats, experience, and energy within the fantasy. You retain all knowledge you learn within the fantasy. Physical changes to your body or equipment do not carry over to reality. Only as much subjective time passes for you as passes for the fantasizer. This event takes place alongside and parallel to your main existence and does not interrupt it, but you cannot participate in more than one fantasy at a time. You only have what capabilities the fantasizer acknowledges you as having. The fantasizer does not notice anything unusual about your behavior within their fantasy, no matter what you choose to do or say. You may not exit such a fantasy until it has terminated. This perk only works on fantasizers unaware of its existence and on fantasies you have not deliberately influenced. 1 point + 2 fragments. Available at 30 ERO.
More perks he cannot currently take and which he is not going to think about right now!
Lev pets his hair. "You look less out of it."
"I am," he says, and puts one more fragment into Friends With Benefits and then — on impulse — the remaining two fragments into Everyone Knows.
A skill has been created by a special action! Purchasing the perk Friends with Benefits has created the skill Share the Fun.
A skill has been created by a special action! Purchasing the perk Friends with Benefits has created the skill True Companion.
Info/Skills/Share the Fun
Share the Fun: Lvl 1. Active. Special.This skill helps potentially compatible people follow you down strange paths by letting them share in your capabilities. (Increasing the capabilities of your enemies will be automatically handled by the game.)
To activate Share the Fun, you may enact an in-story plot which causes the target to believe that they are acquiring the bestowed capability. For example, if you have become a vampire, you could enact a blood-sharing ritual to convince a friend that they have become your ghoul servant. Or if a friend has noticed a sudden BOD-related transformation, you could try to convince her that it was due to an incredible advancement in biotechnology, then hand her a sugar pill. While some such plots might have been valid even without this skill, Share the Fun ensures that an avenue exists if you can convince others it is plausible.
You can use this skill to share capabilities derived from your stats, skills, spells, blessings, curses, alchemy, meditation, enlightenment, familiars, cultivation, mysterious artifacts, mad technology, unknown energy sources, dimensional anomalies, bound entities, tainted blood, blasphemous rituals, devoured life forces, fantasy genetics, real genetics, college courses, years of painstaking practice, or your original mental and physical talents. Bestowed talents may grow and diversify from their origins.
The total strength of all talents thus bestowed is temporarily capped. (Please click here for an explanation of the cap; note that a PhD in quantum multiversal biomechanics is recommended to understand this mathematics.) This threshold is determined by combined formidability, rather than by an arithmetical budget over skill points bestowed; conferring a lesser talent early on will not much detract from your ability to bestow greater talents later.
At Lvl 1, this skill enables you to bestow a small handful of minor talents upon potential and current harem members. You cannot bestow skills on people aware of the Erogame.
Info/Skills/True Companion
True Companion: Lvl MAX. Active. Special.
This skill helps potentially compatible people follow you down strange paths by letting them share in your capabilities. (Increasing the capabilities of your enemies will be automatically handled by the game.)
You may designate current harem members who are aware of the Erogame as True Companions. You may share with a True Companion any mechanical feature of the Erogame, including stats, skills, levels, perks, and quests, which you currently possess. For example:
-You may increase a True Companion's BOD, SED, FUK, PRV, or LST up to your current level in those stats.
-You may increase a True Companion's ERO up to your current level in those stats. Unlike other stats, non-Erogamers do not by default have an ERO; they have to make their sex lives interesting the old-fashioned way. Therefore, raising a True Companion's stat even to 1 will have an effect.
-You may increase a True Companion's level, which will have the effects that leveling up has in general.
-You may give a True Companion the Idol perk, if you have it, and they will be capable of becoming a musician.
-You may give a True Companion the Cinnamon Roll perk, if you have it, and their sexual partners (including you) will receive triple the benefit from having sex with them.
-You may give a True Companion the Nectar skill, if you have it, and then they will receive benefits from consuming others' nectars.
-You may give a True Companion the High-Heeled Running skill, if you have it, and they will be able to run in high heels.
-You may assign a True Companion a quest which you currently have. They will receive the rewards, if any, upon completion, including stats, skills, perk points, and XP. (You may also complete the quest and receive the reward.)
-You may give a True Companion the ability to receive quests in general, at which point the Erogame will give them quests appropriate to their storyline.
Giving a True Companion the ERO stat, the ability to level, and the ability to receive quests turns them into your Player Two (or Three, Four, Seven Hundred and Fifteen, etc.), at which point Erogame rules will apply to them as to you.
Note that certain skills may not have the same psychological effects on True Companions as on you. For example, if you do not give a True Companion Erogamer's Mind, rape will be traumatizing for them as per a baseline human being, even if you give them a rape-related perk, skill, or quest.
No matter what happens, a True Companion will remain involved in your life. If they become your enemy, the Erogame will arrange for you to become archnemeses, or will arrange a redemption arc in which they come to like you again, or will simply cause you to awkwardly run into each other all the time. If they attempt to avoid you, they will find that circumstances make this impossible; this may range from coincidences to bribes to outright coercion. A True Companion will continue to be involved in the Erogame, even if they would prefer not to, no matter what steps they take to avoid this. If you use a perk such as Goodbye, all True Companions will accompany you.
Like the Erogamer, True Companions are not affected by mind- or memory-affecting perks without their consent.
True Companion status is not reversible. You cannot remove mechanical features or traits you have assigned to a True Companion (except by use of perks such as No, I Regret My Life Choices, Innocence Regained, etc). No matter what you do, your True Companion will continue to play an important role in your life. Consider getting married for a thousand years first.
Oh.
He should probably wait before he uses True Companions — but having it available is — good. Very good.
He cuddles up against his Sasha and Lev.
"Why did you decide to get gangfucked by a bunch of random strangers?"
....when he tries to reconstruct his reasoning it sounds obviously stupid.
Still.
"I would say something about bribery, but the actual answer was that it sounded scary-but-appealing, and I knew the game wasn't trying to hurt me and I could just try the things that were appealing but scared me."
"This is about Friday, isn't it."
"....kind of, yeah."
"...what actually happened on Friday?"
"He went to a shitty college party knowing full well he was going to get raped there."
"And it didn't hurt. — I mean, it did, there was a knife involved, but it didn't hurt the way that matters, I learned and grew and it didn't break me, and if the game was going to hurt me the way that matters it would have done it then."
Sasha does not point out that immediately after being raped Marlo started making extremely uncharacteristic sexual decisions, erogame or no.
He also doesn't take his hand off of Marlo's hair.
"I-- think you shouldn't be raped. Actually."
"Yes, and I'm not planning on seeking out more college parties. But — it matters that the game isn't trying to hurt me, and if it was going to hurt me it wouldn't hurt me with this? It means I can do things like I did tonight, if I want to, even if they're terrifying."
"Uh. I didn't know you before a week ago but are you really sure it didn't hurt you?"
"...I recognize that some of my decisions have been objectively questionable but I'm not twisting myself in knots convincing myself I'm straight anymore."
On impulse Lev hugs him.
"I love you. Please be okay."
"I love you," he says, and hugs him back. "I'll be okay, I promise."
"Was it-- hot?"
"I don't know whether you're talking about Friday or about tonight, but either way the answer is yes."
Lev makes a concerned noise and hugs him.
No wait that wasn't —
"It — there's a thing it gives you, right at the start, before anything gets thrown at you —" and he reads the text of Erogamer's Mind out loud.
"'Rape can be anything from a recoverable trauma to a Tuesday afternoon,'" Lev repeats thoughtfully.
Sasha makes a soft noise and holds him closer.
"I'm — glad you have that?"
"...Wait. Is rape a thing people get off on?"
"— yes. Yes absolutely it is. You're so cute."
"Huh," he says. "--I think I just kind of assumed all the stories that warned for 'rape' were playing it for angst."
"Lots of them are but nowhere near all. You're adorable oh my god."
"I like thinking about happy people who love the people they're having sex with! I don't think this is that weird!"
"It's not that weird, but not being aware that rape porn exists is still cute. And I love you."
"Sex where they don't like each other or are mean to each other is gross and I don't know why people write so much porn of it. --Uh, sorry Marlo. Since apparently you like that."
"You're very sweet. — we should go home and cuddle properly."
"Yes. --Probably you're too tired out to have sex with me."
"I don't actually have a refractory period anymore but I am pretty tired, yeah."
Home? Home.
Home! Snuggles!
Lev is so grateful to the Erogame for everything.
Marlo is so snuggly.
He'd been planning on telling Lev and Sasha about Friends With Benefits tonight but in fact he falls asleep almost as soon as they're in bed together.
He wakes up to the smell of pancakes!
Lev is very very good.
Lev is very good, it's true.
"So I have a skill now called Share the Fun, I can't use it with you because you know about the game, but there's another —" and he pulls up True Companions and reads it aloud.
"I want it," Lev says instantly.
"You've known each other for less than a week. I'm worried about it and I've been best friends with Em for years."
"I really don't think I'm going to not want to be involved with the biggest mystery in the world."
"— okay, but Erogamer's Mind is a big deal, and I would not want to try to play without it, and you don't like sex with most people or sex that's at all kinky, and also you have known Marlo for less than a week."
"I don't want to become an Erogamer! I want to be exempt from mind-altering perks without my consent."
"....that's fair, but also, you would be irrevocably tying yourself to a system built around a thing you hate."
"I like sex! --I mean, probably."
"Regardless of whether you like sex I'm not doing this until we've known each other for significantly longer than we have in fact known each other."
"--I'm guessing that the Erogame has some way to keep you safe from STIs."
"......it does."
"Sasha or I could get HIV, there are irreversible things that could happen either way. --Actually, let me think this through and not just do a knee-jerk thing because I want to look less like me." He grabs some paper.
"It will also stop you from being able to get anyone pregnant. Just so you're aware."
"Well, fuck. I probably wouldn't want to bring kids into Sex Game World anyway, and maybe I could bank sperm. --So I think one question is to what extent we can rely on Matchmaker. If you're going to True Companion us at some point there's not much to be gained from delaying, the gain is mostly in the possibility that you'll realize that it's a really bad idea. So a big question is whether the game lies or misleads. If it outright lies, we're fucked, so it's probably not worth thinking about that possibility. If it misleads or if Matchmaker omits important things, then waiting might be a good idea-- can you, like, ask specific questions--"
"Not until I level it up more, I don't think —"
"Can you please not use the possibility of me getting another terminal illness as a rhetorical bargaining chip when I'm sitting right here."
He stops.
"Sorry."
"Furthermore, as a gay trans man, 'make the decision I want you to or you might get AIDS' is a significantly more loaded line of argument for me than it is for you."
He's sort of shrinking back.
"Sorry. I-- sorry."
"I know you didn't mean it that way. But I want you to know that that's how it sounds."
"I'm going to. Go."
"— Sasha, my room, I am going to come hug you in — some number of minutes. Lev, please don't."
Sasha nods, a little bit shaky, and stands up (his pancakes are maybe a third eaten) and goes to Marlo's room.
Probably if a person says 'please don't leave' they want you to stick around.
Also, he can always hear Marlo out and then go hide in his dorm room forever and never speak to anyone ever again.
Marlo hugs him as soon as Sasha stands up.
It's a nice hug.
He doesn't manage to not think about the possibility that it might be his last hug ever.
"He doesn't hate you and he's going to be okay," Marlo says, hoping he's right about what Lev is thinking right now. "He's just — freaked out and can't talk about it in a way he'd be happy with later, right now."
"...okay," Lev says quietly. "You don't have to, you know."
"I don't have to what?"
He doesn't let go.
"Hug me. Give me magic. Be nice to me."
"I know I don't have to. I like hugging you. I want to be nice to you. And — I am planning on giving you magic, I just think that if it recommends I be married to you for a thousand years first I should wait until I've known you for more than a week."
He laughs. It's a little sad.
"That's-- probably a good idea. I just. --You could decide you don't ever want to see me again whenever you want and then I would have no way of learning more about one of the most important unsolved mysteries in the world and. I don't know how I can go back to doing psychology when I know the Erogame exists."
He puts a hand on the back of Lev's head.
"On the flip side, if you decide you never want to see me again, I wouldn't want you to be tied to me unbreakably for the rest of forever."
"I don't think there's actually a thing you could do that would make me not want to see you. Not because of you as a person, just because you're tied to the Erogame and the Erogame doesn't make any sense."
"....I'm not sure exactly how I feel about the idea of you not wanting to be friends with me and only staying around because you're curious about the magic sex game that has become my life but I don't like it."
"That's-- not what I meant at all, I'm sorry, I don't want to pretend to be your friend that sounds awful, I just mean-- from my perspective it sounds great that the Erogame will keep arranging for me to coincidentally run into you even if we aren't friends, so you shouldn't worry about me on that front. You should worry about you, that might suck for you, but for me it's great."
He nods and doesn't take his hand off the back of Lev's head. "That's good."
"...I really like you."
"I really like you too."
"Do they have a perk for not constantly putting your foot in your mouth."
"....you can raise your 'flirting ability' stat but I think mostly the thing you want is just — getting to know people."
"I haven't really-- had friends before. Ever."
"....neither did I, really, before Sasha. I thought I did but I didn't. But — you learn where his buttons are and you learn not to trip on them, it just takes more than a few days."
"I really don't want him to hate me."
"He doesn't hate you. He's terrified of dying but he knows you didn't mean it that way, he's just — scared and hurting and until less than a week ago his worst nightmare was happening to him — and he's freaking out in ways that mean he shouldn't be here for this conversation but he doesn't hate you and he's not going to hate you."
"I don't want him to die either, I was trying to make sure it wouldn't happen--"
"I know," he says, and pets Lev's hair. "And he knows. And when he's less freaked out he'll be able to actually process that."
"I know I should think about it logically but I just keep thinking that I can stop being ugly and I won't get HIV and you won't go away and that's just the things I know about, there could be so much more--"
He doesn't know what to do except hug Lev tighter.
"I can answer questions? Some of the answers might be 'I don't know,' but —"
"I don't really want to because I'm scared I'm going to say something else stupid and then you'll be mad at me too."
"....would it help if I went and got Sasha and you two talked it out?"
Now he's just crying a bit into Marlo's shoulder.
"I don't want to hurt him, it's the most important thing not to hurt him, and I keep doing it on accident because I'm a fuckup--"
Cuddle, he thinks, and rubs circles into Lev's back.
"He's already hurting, for reasons that have nothing to do with you unless you personally invented cancer, and sometimes you say things that remind him of it just like I did, and none of that means you're a fuckup."
"I love you. I-- really want him to be okay. I want to make him happy."
"I love you too," and his voice is very very soft. "He loves you too."
"Why."
"Because you care, and you're interested in things and you like talking about them, and you're adorable when you're happy, and you're curious and you ask lots of questions he wouldn't have thought of, and you like talking about the things you're interested in and you can explain the things you know in a way that makes sense to him, and you're very good for cuddling with."
"Okay," he says, and curls up on Marlo's shoulder. "I think-- you should do the thing that is best for him now. I don't know if that means leaving him alone or leaving me alone or letting us talk about it."
"Okay," he says, and kisses Lev's forehead, and disappears into his own room for two minutes — three —
Erogame, he thinks as clearly as possible, if you make me find a sex book I will scream.
He closes his eyes, runs his hand along the bookshelf, and picks a copy of Interview with the Vampire.
Close enough.
When Marlo comes out of his room again Sasha is curled up in his arms.
"Hey."
"Hey. I'm sorry."
"It's okay. You didn't mean it that way."
He opens his arms, offering a hug but not hugging him directly.
And now he has an armful of Lev.
"It's not fair," he says. "To say that you know what it's like to be told 'you need to do this thing or you'll get HIV' and I don't."
"...yeah. I shouldn't have said that, I'm sorry."
"--I mean I haven't told you much about my parents so you couldn't know but. I got that message very clearly."
"I still shouldn't have said it, it was a really big assumption that I shouldn't have made in the first place, it just — got to me more than it should have."
"I wasn't trying to manipulate Marlo."
"— he's really, really protective of me. So hearing that is — a lot, for both of us. But I believe you that you weren't trying."
He pushes his forehead into Lev's shoulder and holds him tighter.
"I want you to be okay. More than anything." He considers this. "--More than anything except understanding what the fuck is up with the Erogame."
"I love you." He pauses. "— I'm Jewish too. And you're taller than I am."
"Shit. I'm sorry."
He looks like he is about to say a thing several times and does not actually say it.
"I'm not mad at you for not liking yourself, and it's hurting you more than it's hurting me? Just, when you say the erogame wouldn't want a Jewish guy around, or that guys shouldn't be short — I'm right here. I can hear you. You're saying that stuff about me too. And I know you don't think that about me."
"Yeah, I don't," he says, on the grounds that this is far enough away from a compliment to be safe probably.
"...you can say the thing you're thinking, I might argue with it but I won't be mad."
"I was trying to figure out a way to say 'of course I don't think that about you, you're incredibly hot' without commenting on your appearance which, it turns out, is impossible."
"I love you.
....as long as you don't start asking me what my diet tricks are, you can talk about my appearance if you want to."
"I don't want to make you sad."
"....I have a lot of feelings about my body, and most of them are about the fact that for a year it was killing me, and I would like to have different ones. And I think hearing you talk about it, not because you think the result of me dying slowly is hot but because you think I'm hot, will help, even if it stings at first."
"You are really hot! --I would probably think you are really hot whatever you look like but also you are really my type!"
"You're really sweet and I love you a lot."
"I try anyway."
"Trying counts for a lot."
Hugs.
"Not now but-- at some point. We should try to think through the pros and cons of True Companion."
"Yeah. — I don't think it's a bad idea, I just — want to give it more than two percent of the thought I gave top surgery, you know?"
"That-- makes sense."
He doesn't say, you should take it right now so you can be safe.
He pulls back just enough to look at Lev's face, then hugs him again.
"I'm on prep. I'm not going to get HIV, getting HIV while on prep is so rare you get news articles written about you if it happens, and Marlo already has a thing where people he loves don't die before he does. It cured my cancer already. I can afford to take the time to think about it."
"He did not mention that to me."
"— Em."
"It cured your cancer and it hasn't done anything that dramatic for Lev and I don't —"
"Yeah, that's because he's being careful, he's anxious and does that," Sasha says to Lev.
"--Careful about what?"
"Careful about... telling you things before he knows for sure he's right about them? Making statements before he's sure the implications are also accurate? Telling you you're safe before he's extremely sure that that's true?"
"...why would I be safe."
"....because he loves you."
"...oh."
"We both love you."
He dismisses his first three responses and says, "Thank you."
Probably there are other things Lev needs right now in addition to cuddles but the one Sasha knows how to give him is cuddles.
They can all have cuddles.
"I want to fuck you."
Marlo leans down and kisses him.
"Bedroom?"
"Yes please."
Maybe he should carry Lev there. How about that.
As soon as Marlo puts him down Sasha's in his lap kissing him.
What a good situation.
He puts his hands in Sasha's hair and pulls.
Lev should definitely keep doing that.
Marlo sits behind Lev and wraps his arms around Lev's waist and kisses Lev's shoulder.
He is so so happy and a little worried that he is going to embarrass himself.
(Erogame, please make him be good at sex. That would definitely be sexier than him being bad at it, therefore it should make it happen.)
"We've got you," very soft; his hands settle on Lev's sides. "You're so warm," and he kisses across Lev's shoulder and up his neck, like Sasha likes —
"Be... encouraging?" Lev asks.
oh no asking for things is terrible
"You're doing great — you're doing so well — pull my hair a little harder — there you go —"
He feels so good-- he feels a little bit like he's floating-- it's hard to think about anything other than the fact that pretty soon he's going to get fucked--
And Sasha and Marlo lay him out on his back on the bed, there are hands all over him; his clothes go off; Sasha murmurs "good boy, that's right" into his ear.
"I love you," he says, "I love you, we love you," and he kisses the marks from Sasha's teeth, gets out of the way of Sasha's hands so Sasha can open him up —
It's really frightening to have someone see him all the way naked, to see how turned on he is, to see that he's--
He curls towards Marlo's leg.
"You're so beautiful," Marlo whispers, kisses him deeper.
He's so vulnerable, is what he is, he's vulnerable and weak and they know--
He nods, quickly.
"So beautiful," he repeats. "Sasha, do you —"
"Yeah," and there's a quiet click of a lid coming off and Lev can feel Sasha's fingers —
Oh, it's--
His back arches and his mouth opens in an O and it feels so different from when he does it to himself because it's another person, it's Sasha--
"Lev, you're gorgeous, I love the faces you make, keep doing that, I love you —"
His fingers don't stop moving.
He is so good at following directions. He wouldn't know how to not follow that direction.
He keeps thinking "I'm having sex with a guy, I'm having sex with two guys and I like it" and his breath hitches and his cock jumps and his muscles clench around Sasha's fingers.
"I love you," he says, "I love you I love you--"
"I love you," and he kisses Lev's thigh, "I love you, we love you."
He doesn't know how to put into words the thing he wants but he looks up at Sasha with a pleading expression and anyway it is so good to be loved and wanted and cherished.
He reaches over to kiss Marlo and pull him closer.
Marlo goes where he's pulled, stays out of Sasha's way, puts a hand in Lev's hair and murmurs "I love you" against his mouth while they're kissing and "Ready?" when he pulls away from Lev's mouth to breathe.
Of all the things to have to say with his own mouth.
"Not really but I trust you."
"We've got you." Another kiss on Lev's thigh. "Em, he's as ready as he's going to be, I think."
He nods and kisses Lev and —
oh —
He strokes Marlo's cheek and says, "have you ever--?"
"No."
"I like that."
"Me too," very soft, and he tries moving experimentally.
He hisses and his back arches again and he grabs at the sheets ineffectually.
Good — good, Lev should be making that face, should be making those sounds —
Wait, Sasha is here.
Lev tries to tug him closer.
Sasha goes where he's tugged — he has one hand almost absentmindedly between his legs — kisses Lev's shoulder and Marlo's back.
Sasha should not have his hand between his legs, he should be sitting on Lev's face.
Lev attempts to make this opinion known with tugging because he doesn't really trust his voice.
Sasha can cooperate with that!
Lev licks clumsily and moans against Sasha.
He feels so full-- there's so much-- he can't think about all of it--
"We love you," Marlo tells him between gasps, "we love you we love you, you're so good, we love you —"
It's so much he's so full it's so good he's so loved it's so--
He finishes completely untouched.
Sasha doesn't stop moving, pulls Marlo forward and kisses him and reaches down and — ah — wraps a hand around Marlo and —
He feels so happy and floaty and good-- the right way to move his lips and tongue, to rock back against Marlo, seems instinctive--
Lev is so good — Marlo rocks into him and then his vision goes white and —
Sasha whines into Marlo's mouth and then pulls himself off of Lev so they can all breathe.
"Love you."
Lev cuddles up with Marlo and Sasha.
"Thank you."
Quest complete: Virgin Sacrifice
+2 LST
+1500 xp
That's distracting.
"Thank you," he says, and kisses Lev's cheek.
"I don't think I've ever been this happy in my life."
"I hope you keep saying that."
"Just keep dating me!"
"That's the plan!"