Alex, 19, socially awkward high school graduate

Alex is setting up for gaming night with his friends. He was excited to finally get a gaming night going now that they all graduated and they didn’t have a ton of homework to do. Some of them had gotten part-time jobs, but they were all pretty free almost every night. Alex didn’t have great social skills, but he considers himself very lucky to have the friends he does. It’s a small group, but it was more than enough for him. His friends Jack, Ryan, and Lily were staying over at his house for game night, while their friend Matt was gonna join them online for gaming.

Alex was most excited about finally getting to meet his gaming buddy DragonSlayer69. Ok that wasn’t his actual name, but it was the only name Alex knew him by. They had been gaming with each other for over a year now, but they had only ever talked through in game chat, discord messages, or at best voice to text to speech. They both had pretty bad social anxiety which prevented them from doing anything more than that, but they had both decided it was long overdue for them to at least hear each other’s voices. They both had a lot in common and at least to Alex are just as close as his other friends.

While setting up Alex noticed that he couldn’t find the snacks or drinks to put out. “Jack, you remembered to buy the snacks on the way here, right?” Alex asked with a hint of annoyance in his voice in his voice. “U-uhm, yeah of course I did. How big of an idiot would I have to be to forget something like that?” Jack said nervously. “A pretty big one considering you have to pass the store to get from your place to mine. So where did you put the snacks?” Alex already knowing the answer. Jack looked at the ground in shame. “Ok yeah I forgot, sorry. To make up for it pizza’s on me tonight.” Alex covers his face with his hands. “Appreciate the sentiment, but now I need to go run out and get all the stuff we need from the convenience store.”

“Be careful not to run into any girls on the way there. I know those scare the crap out of you.” Ryan said laughing. Lily glared at him. “You do realize I’m a girl, right?” She asked rhetorically.

Ryan just rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but you don’t count.” Lily immediately punched Ryan hard in the arm. Ryan had not been entirely wrong about Alex being afraid of women. He generally has social anxiety, but that only gets much worse when interacting with anybody of the opposite sex. This is one of the biggest reasons for him being perpetually single. He is actually isn’t bad looking, and he is one of the smartest kids at their school even getting Salutatorian. His inability to talk to women has seriously held him back though, the only reason he can talk to Lily is because they have known each other their entire life. Alex decided to ignore Ryan’s comment, and went to walk to the convenience store.

When he got to the store he found all the stuff they were looking for and even stuff that he wasn’t looking for but wanted anyways. While grabbing stuff he made eye contact with Raven, the hot goth girl from school.

She just started at him for a few seconds before he got flustered and scurried away. He continued shopping before taking his items to the checkout. At the checkout was the cute cashier, that Alex hated running into because he can’t say a word in front of her. She was used to it, and simply smiled and checked out his items for him.

Alex got away as soon as possible, and was glad to be done with dealing with those awkward situations. Alex was walking back home ready and excited to have a great gaming night with his friends. While he was walking down the street to his house, a bright flash came as he dropped the snacks. It took his eyes a moment to adjust, but when they did he was shocked to see that he was now standing in the most extravagant hotel he’d ever seen, even by in photos. What threw him even more off guard was the beautiful female stage magician standing a few feet in front of him.

She grinned before speaking. “Congratulations Alex, you are the next Master of Harem Hotel!”