Gaming alone...

When Malina was invited up to the surface world to get in on some obscure video games with the handsome, suited man known as the Helltaker, she began to hold some perhaps over-ambitious ideas of what having a gaming buddy would be like. Even as the harem grew and grew, she had secretly harbored a side of herself that was jumping for joy... Her sister, Zdrada, had never been any good for gaming and nobody else had ever offered. Finally, the elusive two player modes on all of her favorite strategy games would see some use... she figured she might even branch out a little and play some fighting games, or whatever other sorts of things two people played when they were together, sharing a television.

When she got up to the surface... things never really panned out that way. Sure enough, the Helltaker was down for games... but did he really understand what he'd signed up for? A proper game of Heroes of Might and Magic III can be an all day affair... other turn-based strategy games were really no better. As she sat playing the advanced new Civilization game on the fancy PC he'd set up for her, she couldn't help but feel unappreciative. She hadn't even had a chance to play it with him yet... it was the fault of all of those other demons he'd come out of hell with. Didn't he realize that nothing they were doing together could compare to virtual world domination?!

Every AI civilization leader that reached out to her for an alliance in-game just made her grumpy feeling of malaise worse. The demon's red eyes glared out from behind her heavy, matted bangs as she navigated through another conversation with the very popular Montezuma. The computer-controlled character asked her if she wanted to form an alliance, reminding her that if she rejected, she turned her back on opportunities with every other nation in the world.

"Oh yeah, Montezuma? Maybe forming an alliance with everybody in the damn world makes you look like a slut. Ever think about that?"

For a lonely girl like Malina, talking to herself wasn't an uncommon experience. This time, however, her words held a special degree of bile... and not just because she'd drank so many early morning vodkas that she could feel the bile rising in her throat.

With a sigh, she clicked and accepted the world leader's proposal. "Sorry, Montezuma. I'm not pissed at you. I'm pissed at that damn Helltaker. I can only pitch this game so much. Everything I read online says if you keep pestering someone to play a game with you, they won't want to... But then how the hell do I get him to play it?" Malina slouched her shoulders and leaned onto the desk, hiding her frown as she pictured what her gaming buddy must be doing with the other girls... stupid things like getting licked all over by Cerberus or even lamer, hanging out with her sister. She lowered her eyebrows and stared at the gloriously rendered 3-D face of Montezuma on screen. "Why did the Helltaker even bother bringing me here if he's not going to do anything with me?"

"I think you're going at it all hook and no bait, Sister!"

For a moment, she squinted in response to Montezuma's overly chummy, voiced dialogue, before she wised up and turned her head; her sister was standing there, wearing nothing but an over-sized red button-up she'd probably stolen from the apartment's owner and used as sleepwear. The "outfit" did nothing to hide her bare legs and she hadn't even bothered to button it all the way up... her tits looked like they could spill out at any moment. Seeing her sister dressed in her gamer friend's shirt made Malina's mood instantly worse. "The hell do you want?"

"See? That's what I'm talkin' about! Why do you think the guy would wanna hang out with Miss 'The Hell Do You Want' when he's got so many options?" Zdrada produced a cigarette from the shirt's breast pocket and lighting it with the click of one finger. "Let's go over the obvious. When's the last time you showered?"

"Is there a shower?"

Zdrada blinked silently for a moment and took a deep drag of her cigarette, then shot smoke out through her nostrils. "You remember how you looked when you left hell? You had a nice business vest on, an ironed shirt, a good skirt... See how you're dressed now, in the same dirty pajamas you've been wearing for like, the past week? Do you think you might understand why the Helltaker wanted to get up shoulder-to-shoulder and play games with the other Malina, but not this one?" She realized, with some alarm, that the smell of her cigarette tar was now thoroughly pleasing, compared to her sister's gamer-mixed-with-vodka stench.

"... If you cut those kinds of things out, you have even more time for games. Helltaker and I could have played a couple of full games of Civ by now if he wasn't ducking me."

"Then get him to stop ducking you! Become the kinda gal that somebody wants to play a stupid video game with for like a vag-illion hours-"

"Vag-illion definitely isn't the right word."

"-by dolling yourself up! Maybe the Bitch Demon isn't the right person to talk to about this, but men don't get in relationships to play games for 24 hours straight. If you want your gaming marathon, you've gotta offer him a marathon of what guys like. Get it?"

"... Is it Call of Duty? I'll play Call of Duty, if it means he'll play Civilization!"

"Sex. I'm obviously talking about sex. But only after you've taken a goddamn shower." Zdrada left, blowing a huge puff of smoke into the air that immediately set off the smoke detectors, forcing Malina to get out of her chair and rip them off the ceiling again just to stop the howling.

With great effort, the Sour Demon had managed to wrap up her game and resist the call of "one more turn." Malina stripped off her pajamas in the Helltaker's bathroom and threw them over the back of the toilet, where at least one other demon had left theirs piled up earlier this morning. She took a moment to look over her body... she and her sister both had great bust and hip sizes. Really, her body was every bit as erotic as Lucifer's or the others. Well... she could probably use a little more shaving downstairs, compared to the other girls. Still, it should be totally possible to win the guy over in a womanly way, if she wanted to...

"... But I don't want to. That was just my idiot sister's idea."

As she turned the shower onto extra-hot, the perfect setting for an overly long, lazy shower, she tried to ignore any deeper feelings she might have for the man whose shower she was currently naked in.

"I'm not going to tempt him with sex... I mean... I just want to play Civ."

But why was she so hesitant? After all... it's not like the Helltaker seeing her as a girlfriend instead of just a gamer girl (or worse, just another of many harem demons) would be the worst thing in the world, right? She imagined what it would be like if he really did play a game shoulder to shoulder with her, maybe touching her hand when the two of them switched the use of the mouse for their turns... Then she found herself imagining what it would be like to share the single-person shower with his huge, broad-shouldered, naked frame.

Malina rapidly shook her wet, bushy hair and reset to the previous image, trying to drive out the erotic second one. She bent her head low into the water and adjusted the setting down to cold, trying to drown out the sort of horny fantasizing she preferred to think was exclusive to Modeus or her sister.

"Maybe... I dunno... I can try out Zdrada's suggestion just half-way. If I look cuter, I can get him to game with me. Then the rest will work itself out. After all, Civilization's all about one more turn... He'll get hooked, then I'll never have to worry about how to get him to play it again!"

Of course, the whole house was full of cute demons. She'd need a way to set herself apart from the others...

Malina chugged from the vodka bottle she'd brought into the shower with her... then shot its contents back out from her mouth, realizing she'd picked up the shampoo again by accident. While smacking her lips and trying to spit out the taste, the demon used the back-half of her thirty minute shower to contemplate a new winning strategy...