And new beginnings

When the ghost of sleep releases you from its paralytic hold, you wince at the sunlight spilling in around the edges of your privacy curtain. Checking your phone confirms that you’ve been out for double-digit hours. Never does make you feel more rested though. You fumble around for your bedside charger cable since you forgot to plug it in last night. You don’t see any important notifications, so you just turn off the screen for now.

A trip to the bathroom reminds you of the sticky mess left by your past self. You swap out your underwear for a clean pair before heading out to start your day. Your first stop is the kitchen where you cobble together a simple breakfast. Normally you would have your phone for this, or take the meal at your computer desk, but after yesterday’s challenge to your understanding of the universe, you could use a hot minute just to process this new development in your life. Now would be the time to do it, since Mom has work on Fridays and you rarely see your sister outside her bedroom if you aren’t in some state of undress.

You still have no leads into who made the KDK or why, or how it does seemingly impossible things. All you can really do is either uninstall the app and try to forget about it, or accept that it’s here to stay and make the most of it. The latter option is definitely the more appealing one. What you pictured in last night’s mental movies would be amazing, but even just praising your mom for being open-minded until you don’t have to hide your attraction to her any more would give you immense relief. Maybe the KDK is a cosmic message that you need to stop being passive and take control of your life.

As excited as you are to try out the new level 1 effects, you can’t exactly ambush your mom at work unless you want to praise her for something she would do anyway. If there’s one thing you could use more control over, it’s to set some boundaries with Hannah that she won’t cross, or at the very least, to express her attraction openly instead of disappearing at the first sign of being spotted.

Riding all the extra confidence a placebo can provide, you walk up to Hannah’s bedroom, determined to keep knocking until she answers. As expected, there’s no apparent response to your first attempt. In fact, you can’t hear the usual blaring music either. Oh, she isn’t even here. Probably got called into work. Would have been a good idea to consider that before getting worked up for confrontation.

With a defeated sigh, you retreat to your bedroom. You’re just about to boot up your computer when you notice the slowly flashing dot on your phone. With how much the KDK leaves you to piece things together on your own, you should probably check regularly in case you need to trace the origin of a new achievement. In this case, however, the notification isn’t from the KDK. It’s from Poison!

bringerofdarkness#0719: How’s it going with the app?

How do you even respond to that? You can’t say you got the app running without admitting you had a closer look against their wishes. If you described what it does, they probably wouldn’t believe you. Even if they did, you’ve become increasingly certain that the app truly can do everything it says it can, and is that really the sort of power you should be putting in more hands?