Chloe Telman, Lifetime Wallflower

Even I wouldn't know how to describe myself in-depth. Most people usually don't go far beyond “average” and that's not because they don't care. Grades have been steady C's, height is 5 foot 4, brown hair, brown eyes. I'm sure reading everything listed out like that bored you, because you've heard it all before.

I'm in college now, getting a degree in English. It sounded like the least amount of hassle. It's not like it's uncomplicated, but at least it's straightforward. For money, I have a part time job at the Cafe on school grounds. I'm not saying this for any emotional purpose, I'm just trying to express how vanilla my life is. Which is why, when I got a notification that I was chosen to play-test an app called “Gem Ladies,” I was confused. I put my phone back in my pocket as soon as I finish reading the message. I'm sick of getting chewed out for “always being on my phone” by Artie, the 19 year old who somehow manages this place. I keep from falling asleep at the till for another hour when I get another notification on my phone, reading “Gem Ladies: you have a half hour to finish the current level or you will be penalized, Chloe!” My attention focuses instantly. This thing downloaded itself onto my phone and clearly read some sort of information to learn my name. I manage to stammer out something about taking my break to Artie, whose face turns red almost immediately, but I'm too worried about the immediacy of my phone being hacked to be concerned about whatever Artie's going to yell about this time.

I sit down in the back room and google Gem Ladies and nothing comes up. I don't mean that nothing relevant comes up, I mean Google responds with their “0 results found” page. For a name that's just 2 generic words, that shouldn't be possible. That isn't possible. But it's there. It happened. I get a notification from Gem Ladies, “You've got 15 minutes left before you're penalized! I'd recommend getting to it soon, you've got some reading to do beforehand >w0” what the fuck? Did the notification just wink at me? What did it mean when it said I have some reading to do? With a grimace, I open the app. I hate having to follow whatever an app on my phone says. It opens with a pop-up:

“Hello, Chloe Telman! Figured we'd start off with everything out in the open. This is Gem Ladies, an app developed by succubi to acquire sexual energy. You've been added on as a sort of bug tester, as we've noticed a tendency for other users to sort of isolate themselves or take other serious steps to avoid the in-game consequences. Obviously this isn't good for us, if you're a shut-in you're not getting laid, so we're testing out a new feature: Unawares! When you lose a match you'll get the option between choosing your fate or picking an Unaware. When you choose your fate you'll get three options, and you'll have to choose one of those three in a timely manner or else you get all three. When you choose an Unaware, you'll get a less severe punishment, but you'll have no idea what happened to you. You'll think of whatever new behavior you develop as normal. If you don't choose either within a timely manner, it'll be randomly decided between all three Choose Your Fate options or a much, much more severe Unaware option. We hope you have fun, you're doing it regardless so you might as well!

-Lydia”

Could whoever this was change things beyond the phone? I felt stupid as soon as the thought crossed my mind. The timer at the top of the screen says 9 minutes. I swallow my pride and start the game. It's a match-3 with weird tessellating patterns. The screen is genuinely hard to look at, the little objects on-screen keep crashing into each other, forming new objects endlessly. In less than a minute, I lost the game. A little icon of a woman in a skimpy outfit with breasts bigger than her head popped up next to 2 options, Choose Your Fate or Unaware. I click Choose Your Fate, I’m trying to test the average punishment and what the limits of the app are. The options pop up, and my heart sinks when I see names with no description. My options are:

Yes, My Liege

Stay Tight

Perfect Fit