Chapter 8

The rest of the workday passed without much fanfare. Some back and forth with Gimble and a promise to meet the day after tomorrow for some beers at a local dwarven spot had him grinning from ear to ear. Not even walking out under the watchful eye of the Ice Dragoness, he had a plan for her. Thought she should push him around did she? What a joke, he had the app. That trumped anything she might throw at him.

Luckily it wasn’t raining when Gimble and Derek walked out, waved goodbye and went their separate ways. Derek found himself looking forward to their night out tomorrow, it had been a long time since he had hung out with another guy in the real world. Tonight however, was dinner with Xrn. Perhaps an awkward conversation or two as well. How could he explain the app? Not to mention Isabella or Elizibeta…now he was starting to get nervous.

What if she freaked out, what if she couldn’t handle it? What if she didn’t want anything more to do with him? Even worse, the app could already have altered her mind to find everything okay. She was technically part of his harem already, and he had no clue how the app really worked. The infinite terrible possibilities ran through his mind like wildfire as he stepped into the apartment building.

She wasn’t standing under one of the lights waiting for him, smiling at him. The hallway was dark, empty, and cold just like him. Shouldn’t he be happy, and looking forward to dinner with this wonderful and beautiful woman? She had asked him out on the first date, and the third for that matter. Derek trudged across the hallway, opening his door just long enough to toss his bag inside his apartment. Then he took a centering breath and closed his eyes. For all the infinite possibilities of negative things happening, there were the same possibilities of good things happening. At least that’s what his old therapist had said.

Trembling hands grasped the doorknob to her apartment, twisting it filled him with trepidation. Especially as a loud shout drew his attention deeper inside. Hot air rushed out to greet him as Xrn flung a spatula across her kitchen and into the living room that he stepped into. A laptop was open on the wooden table, half of the monitor playing a youtube video about making pasta. The other half was some kind of long document that half a dozen other people were editing and making changes to. It smelled delicious inside of Xrn’s apartment, something was cooking and it was so good that he started to salivate.

“Um, hello?”

He said softly, and Xrn whirled around to look at him. All four of her hands were covered in flour up to the middle forearm, and she was wearing a cream colored dress that was obviously recently stained with all kinds of cooking materials. On top of the dress she wore an apron that had seen better days, smeared with what looked like egg, bits of sausage grease, and just like her hands covered in flour. When she saw him, her face lit up beet red.

After a few moments of standing there, he sighed, then laughed, and then began to walk over to her. Pushing past a bit of clutter from thrown cooking utensils, he wasn’t even thinking, taking two of Xrn’s hands in his. Covering them in flour and grinning at her even while peeking behind her to see what she might have been working on. All while she just stood there trembling, very clearly only a few seconds from crying.

“What are we making?”

Derek grabbed what looked like an extra spatula from the countertop and looked at the state of the kitchen. It was a mess, pots and pans were everywhere, some space had been cleared off and it looked as if she had been trying to make pasta dough. It just hadn’t been kneaded enough. Some bacon and some kind of spicy sausage had been frying until just a moment ago, and while the bacon looked crispy it was salvageable. He almost missed it as Xrn began to cry. Soft tears dripping down her face as she gestured at the mess.

“Well I was working. And then-and then I tried to do things too fast. I wanted to cook something that a human would like, but I had never made something like that. I don’t-I can’t eat meat.”

Mumbling, Xrn continued.

“Humans like meat, at least that’s what my friends said. So, I looked a few things up, tried to follow recipes but I’m not very good at cooking. I’ve never had to, I just eat plants. No cooking required! Just grab some lettuce out of the fridge and eat the whole thing on my couch…”

Without meaning to, Derek just started to laugh. He let go of Xrn’s hands and wrapped her up in a hug, uncaring if the stains on her clothing got all over his. Washers and dryers existed for a reason.

“It’s okay, we can cook together. Couples do it all the time, and it can be as romantic and sweet as you planned. I can teach you. Even if I’m not very good myself, my mom taught me a few things. I can make the pasta, why don’t you get that bacon out of the pan?”

Letting go was hard, but letting half kneaded pasta dough ooze onto the table was even harder. Scooping the flour still sitting on the countertop into the eggy mess, he began to knead. Using his hands to press into the slowly forming dough, making sure the flour was suffused with and bonded with the eggs until he could compact it into a ball. After that was finished he turned and looked at Xrn who was inspecting the slightly too crispy bacon and licking her grease covered fingers curiously.

“Can you just keep stirring that sausage until it's all brown? No pink, that's how you get sick, well at least how humans get sick sometimes.”

The Mothgirl nodded absentmindedly, grabbing the spatula and shoving it into the pot. It was like she didn’t even know how to stir things, as with every rotation she’d flip her wrist and a bit of the meat would almost come over the edge of the pot. Thankfully though, it managed to stay inside. Sizzling and filling the apartment with its delicious smell, just a hint of spice had him fighting to continue kneading.

After several long minutes, sweat ran down his forehead and back. Derek finished kneading the dough, and began flattening it, then folded it, and cut long flat strips. While he could hear Xrn starting to hum a bit to herself.

“Why do humans get sick sometimes when they eat?”

She asked, turning back towards him and looking him up and down. Curious, but also appraising him again.

“Well, with sausage like that. It’s because there are tiny bacteria in the meat that aren’t good for us. But if you cook it all the way, like you have just now.”

He reached behind her, turning off the stovetop and looking at the food.

“Then they burn up, die, and on and on. Then they can’t make us sick. But you’re telling me you’ve never gotten sick from eating anything?”

Blushing, clearly embarrassed, Xrn turned away and held her arms behind her back.

“Never, even when I eat something I probably shouldn’t…”

Trailing off, Derek took the hint and turned back to the food. Three ingredients. He just needed one more to put it all together.

“Did you have any red sauce? Maybe in the fridge?”

He went to open it, but was stopped by Xrn. Holding the fridge door closed with one hand, wringing the other three together in front of him.

“Why don’t I take a look in there? It is my fridge after all.”

Turning around with his hands up, Derek walked back over to the pasta and began to fill one of the many pots that were strewn in the kitchen with cold water. The apartment building had hard water, and if he filled it with hot water there would be more of the minerals and such in it. They both deserved the best of the best, and so he put the pot on the stove. Turning up the heat as Xrn closed the fridge with a slam, holding up two jars of red pasta sauce. It wasn’t homemade but it would do the trick.

With just a simple twist, she had the lids removed and ready to pour into the pot with the sausage. Mixing the two together to create a sort of red sauce that should pair alright with the pasta that was now boiling in the salted water. Now with dinner pretty much wrapping up, he guided Xrn over to her wooden table to sit down with her. Holding two of her hands as she blushed. Looking at him sheepishly as she took in his flour covered clothes, slightly egg stained hands, and massive grin.

“That was fun, thank you for letting me help.”

Xrn closed her laptop and the background noise of the video talking about how humans need more protein than the average demi human because of their inefficient stomachs and limited muscular structure was cut off. His words seemed to draw her back in and she responded.

“You’re welcome. I’m sorry for…for needing your help. I really like you Derek, I want to keep seeing you, and to give you reasons to want to see me again.”

Breathing in through her nose, she looked at the floor and then up again.

“I know that we aren’t official yet but I want to be. You’re cute, caring, smart, you make me laugh. I just don’t want to disappoint you, even with the little things.”

Derek just looked at her and smiled, a knot forming inside his stomach as he contemplated what he was about to say. Trying to steady himself internally.

“I want us to be official too, and I don’t want to disappoint you either. We’ve been on three dates and all I want is more. More time with you, around you. When I come back from work and see you there under the lights it makes my whole day better. Having you on my arm at the bar made me feel like I was the king of the whole world.”

Here was the hard part. The part where he told her about the app, about how he could control people, and about how he already had people under his thumb. That there would be more.

“But, I have to tell you something.”

The moth girl's burgeoning smile morphed into a look of concern. Placing a flour and grease stained hand on his jeans.

“It's okay, you can tell me.”

Derek chuckled, steeling himself.

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around it myself actually. How to explain this…I’ve just gotta come out and say it. I have an app.”

Head tilted to the side, Xrn interjected.

“An app? What does this have to do with us?”

“I’m getting there. This app, i-it can control people. Make them do things. Change them. I set tasks for people, manage their lives, and in return I get points. Make them more susceptible to doing anything I want. I know it sounds insane but it's all true. You can’t even see the app when I have it open.”

Whatever she was expecting, this was not it. Especially as Derek pretty much poured his heart out in front of her. She had known something was on his mind but this? Even as her mind struggled to put the pieces together, she snapped her fingers.

“Did you use it on your boss? Is that why she was a little flirty with you while I was grabbing us those Ornelian Sunsets? And I can’t see it? Just show me!”

In the world of magic and mana, nothing was impossible. So it wasn’t quite out of the realm of possibility to have some kind of magic app. Perhaps a god or goddess granted it to him, or some other being beyond the bounds of time and space. It wasn’t hard to believe in the impossible, but she wanted to see. If not proof then at least some evidence. Derek just held up his phone for her. A blank white screen greeted her, and she just raised an eyebrow. Reaching out to tap it, she tapped randomly, seeing if she could affect it without being able to see.

“No I haven’t used it on my boss, I kind of want to though, she’s sort of trying to **** me a little bit. A totally different story. And…stop that!”

He yelped and jerked the phone back, looking at it he shook his head.

“The screen didn’t change. It's the same as normal. Three names.”

Then he froze, and looked at her as she arched an eyebrow expectantly.

“Derek, if you want me to believe that you have some sort of power over people. Then I believe you, somewhat. If you want me to trust you with that power, that’s a completely different story. So tell me everything, and whose names you have on there.”

Wrapping her arms around herself, she looked down at the floor, and then up at him sharply. Her mind connected the dots nearly instantly, along with Derek's somewhat guilty look.

“I’m one of them aren’t I? So who are the two others?”

Her voice wasn’t angry, but it was insistent. Demanding even. Derek found himself answering before he could even think about the ramifications.

“Isabella, an elf, and Lady Elizibeta Andilet. But I want to be clear, I haven’t used it on you. I only added you to it. For people, I can give them tasks, but I haven’t clicked on yours to see what they are. I haven’t done anything. To you.”

Something flashed across her face, disappointment? Or something else, he couldn’t tell or didn’t want to know.

“So you haven’t done anything to me. All this is real?”

Coming out of her chair, she hugged him. Wrapping all four arms around him and placing his own hands on her hips.

“I’m glad. Please don’t use it on me. Give me any tasks I mean. Not yet. These other two can be your guinea pigs, not me.”

She stood and towered over him for a moment, upper arms crossed, while her lower hands rested on her hips. Passing judgement on him from her lofty height.

“You can mess around with them all you want, but you can’t go falling in love with them. Not before me at least. Can you try to promise me that?”

To think, Dereks jaw dropped so far that it nearly hit the floor. Then he shut it with a click, as his brain tried to restart. Gears visibly turning deep inside his grey matter as he processed what Xrn was saying.

“Um, what?”

Was all he managed to get out before the gears just stopped. Xrn noticed all of this of course and began to laugh. Plopping back down into her seat and leaning back, throwing her legs up atop his.

“What, didn’t expect that? Did you even do your research on Moth Demi Human culture? We aren’t typically monogamous, you know.”

Then his brain restarted, and Derek could hardly believe what was happening.

“You aren’t mad?”

He sputtered, trying to regain some sense of dignity.

“You want me to…test things on the others?”

Standing up instead of answering right away. Xrn walked to the kitchen, plated a bowl of the pasta and meat, grabbed her own plate from inside the fridge. A kind of massive salad packed with the nutrients she needed, alongside a jug of what appeared to be some kind of dressing.

“Yes, I do. But lets talk while we eat. Wouldn’t want your human food to get too cold now would we? Now, I think you were about to tell me about these tasks and what they do to people?”

Stabbing a fork into the pasta, Derek took the first bite and groaned in pseudo sexual pleasure. It tasted better than he thought it might, that and how well this conversation was going made up for any shortfalls that the meal might have had.

“Tasks, give points in a few scores. Corruption, Love, Obedience, Stress, even some kind of money points. I can use those to buy upgrades for myself. Every 25 points, an event pops up.

“And have you gotten an event before? What happened?”

Xrn interjected while slathering the slightly golden liquid all over her plate.

“I-y-yeah I have gotten one. Just one, one more at the end of this week. It was fun, I got to spank Isabella. Then after each event or maybe just the first one. I got to pick between two different options. Like a branching path.”

Eyes lighting up in recognition, his girlfriend slapped the table in frustration.

“That was when you bumped into me! You were trying to decide and just didn’t look up!”

Triumphant glee burned in her as she began to look haughtily at his phone. As if she were smarter than this reality warping app.

“What were the options? Which did you end up choosing?”

The question just poured out of her like lightning. Derek found himself grinning as well, it felt good to have a kind of co-conspirator. Someone that he felt like wouldn’t judge him, at least not for this.

“Well, bumping into you kind of chose for me. Some daddy issues and need for discipline got instilled into Isabella. Courtesy of you really.”

A big crunch echoed through the apartment as Xrn took a bite out of a chunk of her salad. Her mouth opened wider than he thought was possible, and took a bite bigger than he had of the pasta!

“Really? Perfect. She deserves to be knocked down a peg or two then doesn’t she?”

Eyebrow perfectly arched, Xrn put her fork down and winked at Derek. Then the night truly started to get wild.

Authors Note: A big chapter for y'all! Will end up being a two parter I think. The next chapter will finish out this sort of beginner arc. Time to take a big step up, a corruption event is about to happen. I think you'll enjoy what I have in store for you all. As always, I live and post for your feedback and encouragement. I hope everyone enjoyed the chapter!