Exercise with Maria

She’s finally gone, she’s tiring to be around, and it feels like she was trying to poke around. She left with the book, I’m not sure how much she’ll like Isekai, but I guess I’ll find out.
Technically, she isn’t supposed to take a book without it being registered on her card. But I don’t think that’s an issue since she’s the boss’s daughter.

As I arrive, Rita smiles at me, and I return her smile.

“Could you remind me what we were talking about ?” I ask.

“Sure, but before that, do you know this girl personally?”

“I guess I do now, she came in once or twice.”

“I see, I never saw her here before. Anyway, be careful with her, even I’ve heard stories about her.” She explains.

Well, that’s ominous, even if in this case, I’m the one with the power, I guess I need to be careful. I have no idea what would happen if she learned I’m the one giving her her quests.

“We were talking about the ending of dream delusions. You know the AI trying to destroy the pill. Which side would you be on?”

“Honestly, I’m not as convinced as Maria, but I guess I don’t really like this pill either. I guess if it actually changed people I wouldn’t mind, but it’s kinda sad to have a different perception of yourself.”

“But that’s already the case! You can’t see yourself like others do. The version of you that exists inside their mind is totally different from who you truly are, so why not also improve your view of yourself?”

It feels like her argument evolved a little since her talk with Maria, I guess she tried to think of stronger arguments.

“I mean, if people wanted to take the pill, I guess they would be free to do it, but I don’t really like it.” I tell her, and she seems frustrated she couldn’t convince me.

I kind of understand how her viewpoint could be different than mine though, if she feels like she hates who she sees in the mirror, she might want to delude herself, but I’m working on making her better.

She already lost noticeable weight, she still looks chubby, but she’s far from the person she was even a week ago. Her clothes fit her better, and she has some natural makeup on. I find her very cute.
I’m sure that she would still take the pill now, but in a few weeks she won’t want anything to do with it.

As the conversation ends, I decide to let Rita read her book in peace. I take the box full of books returned today, and start going through the shelves. After a while I notice Maria talking to Rita, she avoided me again… She didn’t even bring me food today, she ate by herself and avoided me as much as possible. I guess the kiss was too much, but I was expecting one on the cheek as well.

When she talks to Rita, Maria looks happy. She caresses her arm softly and I’d think Rita would hate it, but she keeps talking as if it was completely normal.
At some point Rita takes a step back but I think it’s because of what Maria told her, they talk some more and Rita seems to hesitate, she then nods, and Maria hugs her and pat her head.
I really want to hear what they were talking about but I’m too far.

---

(Rita’s POV)

I’m looking at the different cosplays available. I need to hurry, if I don’t want to make Miss Maria wait. But choosing my next cosplay is a big task and I need to choose one I actually wouldn’t mind wearing.

I look at the latex suit, I guess I could cosplay a Neo Thesis character, but the costume is too skimpy. I check some more and find a robe that would look perfect to cosplay the waterkeeper from Light Souls 3. They obviously don’t sell the mask with it but since I always crop my head it doesn’t really matter. I grab the costume and pay for it, as I leave I think I might either need to start buying cosplays online, or to learn how to sew because the clothes available weren’t great or needed modifications to actually look like characters I know.

I hurry, and bring my clothes back home. I see there’s still a lot of time before Maria gets out of work so I decide I’ll simply take my picture now.
I put on the robe, and it does look like I want it too, it almost feels like I’m thinner and taller.
I try many angles and poses and I settle on making a timed photo while I clasp my hands together like the waterkeeper does in the game as she prays for the player.
The photo is pretty good, but I’m not sure people would recognize the character with my fat body. I’m going to erase it and give up for now, but I think back to the nice comments I received on my Wei cosplay, and I looked even worse at the time.

I guess that’s okay, I post it to my Stargram and I think about who to send the picture to.
That’s a harder choice than it looks, I could send it to John to increase his affection, but I don’t want to out myself as a nerd, and Maria would definitely be confused. I reread the last step of my quest. “Send the picture to someone you know.”
It would be embarrassing, but I guess I could send it June. She’s my roommate so she already knows how nerdy I am, still she doesn’t know I started cosplaying.

I agonize some more before noticing that I actually took a lot of time. I change into clothes made for exercise and send the picture to June. This time I make sure I didn’t mess up before sending it, I’d like to avoid a repeat of yesterday.

---

(Maria’s POV)

I’m so happy Rita agreed to join me, I arrive at the gym and notice her waiting in front of it. She’s dressed in a big flowy t-shirt and leggings. That’s better than what she wore last time she came.

“Hey, thanks for coming with me!” I say and she jumps in surprise.

“N-No problem. I needed to exercise anyway.” She says while looking at her feet.

I pet her head, I swear I find her too cute to avoid touching her, it’s like she’s my kid. No, more like a cute kitty I want to pet.

Since I received my Casual Affection perk I can’t stop myself, if I can get away with it, I want to hug and pet her.

I’m just stressed out about John, I kissed him before receiving the perk, and I’m scared he’ll report me for sexual ****, so I just avoided him all day. As if it would solve anything.

We go inside, and I spend my time teaching Rita the best way to do exercise, and I coach her as she does. I’m doing the most I can to make her want to come back with me. Which means I need to be beside her if she ever needs my help.

At the beginning, I do need to explain how the machines works but after a little while, she exercises on her own, and I decide I can start to do the same. I check on her every once in a while. While less intense than last weekend, she still does a lot of effort and once I feel like she’s going to collapse, I bring her to the yoga mat.

“Do I really have to do that? It’s almost been… an hour already…”

As I sit her down, my hands on her shoulders I look at her.

“I don’t know why you specifically want to work out for an hour, but I’m telling you if you don’t stretch after that kind of efforts, you won’t be able to move tomorrow.”

She seems convinced, and I start by showing her the right form, Yoga has become relaxing for me. It’s the best way to complete a good session and I feel so good as I bend to my limit.

Rita doesn’t seem to have the same opinion, her body is not flexible at all, and it feels like even basic stretches hurts her more than it should.

However I don’t let her stop, I help by pushing her in just the right way. And I hear a sigh of relief as I release my grip on her legs.

She lays down on the ground, slowly catching her breath, and as I look at her it almost seems as if her arms and legs lost some width. Obviously that’s not how exercise works and I laugh at the idea of losing weight during a session, instead of slowly over the course of days and weeks.

I have a perk that doubles my training efficiency and even I don’t go that fast.

As she rests, I decide to finish my own stretches, I stop soon after hearing the notification telling me I finished my quest, I notice the muscle increase immediately as my arms become slightly bigger.

We end our session there, and I make Rita promise me to at least join me once in a while.

---

(John’s POV)

“That was our last visit for today.” I say as I close my car door.

“Finally! God that last one was terrible!” Sandra says.

“I honestly don’t understand how they can expect so much money for so little. Have prices just increase that much in 3 years?” I complain.

Sandra looks at me and turns down the music.

“You know John, you already helped a lot, It’s okay if you don’t want to do visits anymore. I already took a lot of time out of your busy life.” She tells me seriously.

I consider just giving up, but I can’t, Sandra is someone I care a lot for, and her brother is my _second _best friend. I don’t want to let them down like that.

“Don’t worry about it Sandra, I don’t mind helping with the visits, I was just letting out some frustration.” She nods in understanding.

“If you want to let some stress out, how about getting a drink at the bar? I know you do that with my little bro sometimes.”

“I do, but it’s mostly on the weekends, I don’t recover very well.”

She puffs her cheeks like a kid asking for candies and receiving a refusal from her mom.

“Come on Sandra, how about we go drink on friday night then? Is that good for you?” I ask and she seems satisfied.

“Alright, you can’t cancel on me!” She says and I nod.

I then bring her home, and return home myself.

---

As I arrive I don’t see Matt anywhere, and I don’t hear him in his room either, I guess he’s outside.

I turn my computer on and I check Matt’s channel, and see he did a stream during the day. It makes sense he would want to avoid streaming while I’m home if it meant I would hear him sing.

I check the rediffusion of the live, the first thing I see is the big half filled bar at the bottom.

[Donation Goal : 20$ → I’ll sing a song.]

I smile at that, I guess he had a plan to make singing a natural part of his stream. And the value is pretty low, so low in fact that I suspect it is so that he can donate to himself if no one else does.

He’s playing a ugly game where he controls a small character from above and throws projectiles while advancing through square rooms. I don’t really understand what the appeal is but as he fights a boss which is a poop icon with a smiley face, he gains an item and explains the powerful effect he just got from it.

Not my style, but I can understand how synergies could be fun to play around with.

As he enters another room, the sound of the game gets interrupted as a donation appears on screen.

[7$ from happyg4mer : “You have a really nice voice, excited to hear you sing”]

“T-thank you happy gamer for the 7$. I’m glad you’re enjoying the stream.” Matt answers, and I can hear the surprise in his voice.

Sometime later, once he’s done with his current room, his character stops moving, and he stops talking for a few seconds.

“Ah, there’s a lot more of you than I expected… No, I never did a no-damage run… Thanks for your compliment kittykathy… No, I never did any voice-training…”

It seems he’s busy answering his comments, as he receives another donation.

[33.69$ from SealingOfJack99 : “Let us hear your singing voice.”]

Matt stops talking for a little while.

“I-I wasn’t expecting to reach the goal so quick… That’s a lot of money, thank you sealing of jack for your 33$ and 69 cents. I guess I’ll have to sing a song then…”

He cuts the sound of the game, and I hear the sounds of fingers hitting his keyboard.

“I-I just want everyone to know I’m a bad singer. So please don’t expect too much from me.”

He then presses play, and an instrumental version of Swim To The Sun starts.

Matt was right, he’s not a very good singer. He misses beats, and it feels like it’s his first time singing ever, but as the music continues and he gets more comfortable, his voice starts sounding much better. As the music ends, I’m surprised by how entranced I was in it. And it seems his viewers were too as they compliment him.

I decide I saw enough of his stream and turn it off. I then open the app to check what happened today.

Matt completed a basic permanent quest. [+3 xp] [+3 bonus xp]

Matt completed an advanced multi-step quest. [+10 xp] [+10 bonus xp]

Maria completed a repeated basic quest. [+2 xp] [+2 bonus xp]

Rita completed an advanced multi-step quest. [+10 xp] [+10 bonus xp]

Levelled up!

Name: Matt
Surname : Weaver
Gender: Male
Age : 23
Level 11 (19 / 30 xp)
Class: Streamer Housewife
Perks : Cleaning II, Unrestricted Access, Sweet Voice II, Cooking I, Small Talk II, Beauty I, Charisma I, Empathy I, Streaming I
Perk Points : 4

Streaming I : Entertaining viewers and interacting with them becomes easier. (Hidden: Number of concurrent viewers slightly increase arousal and happiness)

Okay, I have to be careful with this perk, it sounds like it could improves Matt’s mood but could also create an addiction.

Name: Maria
Surname : Finocci
Gender: Female
Age : 27
Level 9 (0 / 20 xp)
Class: Yoga Mom
Perks : Training Efficiency II, Cooking I, Motherly II, Flexible I, Coach I, Beauty I, Casual Affection I
Perk Points : 4

Name: Rita
Surname : Torres
Gender: Female
Age : 22
Level 10 (11 / 30 xp)
Class: Cosplayer
Perks : Makeup I, Photogenic II, Modelling I, Flirty I, Cosplay II, Pokerface I, Parasocial Affection II
Perk Points : 3

Cosplay II : When cosplaying, your features will adjust and acting in character becomes easy. (Hidden: Medium compulsion to cosplay and act like cosplayed character.)

Rita is level 10, I don’t have a plan for her yet, but that means I could multi-class her when I want to.

And Cotton’s quest isn’t finished yet, she picked a light novel so it should take at most a few hours to read, but I wonder how Target Unawareness plays into her motivation and speed.

Quest Master : John
Surname : Moore
Gender: Male
Age : 25
Level 18 (14 / 40 xp)
Class : Multi-classer
Perks : Quest Designer II, Recommended Reward II, Class Designer, Public Unawareness, Target Perk Tree, Character Editor I, Target Unawareness, Additional Slot I, Perk Sharing II
Perk Points : 4

I leveled up too, which leaves me with 4 perk points, maybe I should use them soon.

I close the app as I hear Matt come home, I go to meet him, and see a bag of groceries, that explains his permanent quest.

I help him put everything away, and he starts to cook for the night.

---

Author's Note : Cotton's class vote is still open. You can also start suggesting Rita's second class if you want to, I honestly have no plans yet.