It has to be Chloe, Best Friends Forever! (Chloe & Harem route)

Chapter 3 – Putting a Plan Together (continued)

“I might be more comfortable just dating you.” Jason said at last.

Whatever Chloe might have been about to say was cut off as she realized what he’d just said, blushing and looking away, a mix of conflicting emotions flashing across her face before she said. “Do you really want to make this official?” She asked, gesturing between them while looking sidelong at his face.

Jason smiled, and nodded without hesitation. “Yeah. I may lust after Heather, and really care for Kate as my sister’s oldest friend, but I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather explore this with than you. I didn’t even consider telling my sister about the app, but I knew almost right away that I wanted to share it with you.”

“Well, you should know then, that I’m going to want you to use this app to get other girls, not just me.”

Jason stared, “Seriously?”

Chloe nodded shyly. “Yeah. If you want me as your girlfriend, you have to promise me you’ll take advantage of the opportunities this app is giving you. Think you can do that?”

Jason considered it, and realized that yes, he could do that. If he knew he wasn’t going to hurt Chloe, if he knew it was what she honestly wanted, he could enjoy swinging or threesomes with her, so long as it was consensual with everyone involved.

“Yeah, I think I can do that, actually. Though I never dreamed I’d be in this kind of situation.”

She grinned, and leaned a little closer to give him a one-armed hug.

Jason hugged her back, but then released her when she pulled back, “So on to perks?” He suggested.

She nodded and he smiled at her eagerness.

But as he navigated to the main menu, they spotted something else with a red exclamation icon next to it. “Hang on, that’s new…” The button read ‘branch effects’. Selecting it opened list of effects that looked quite similar to the perks list. He wasn’t certain what was really different between these and perks, so he tapped on the question mark symbol in the upper right corner of the screen while Chloe watched.

“Now that you have developed a strong connection with the MRE app by dramatically improving one or more of your relationships, or creating a significant change in relationship status, resulting in the generation of a substantial amount of energy, you can now expand on the power of the app by activating branching effects. These effects consume your energy to temporarily expand your abilities in ways that don’t directly impact your relationship connections, but may still benefit your life and your relationships in some way.”

“Wow!” Chloe exclaimed. “Quick, check my profile.”

Jason did as she asked.

Chloe Yazzie

Relationship: Best Friend, Co-Conspirator, Gaming Buddy

Prominent Attitudes (out of 100): Loyalty 87 (+1), Friendship 70 (+2), Affection 65, Trust 49 (+3), Protectiveness 41, Playfulness 41, Love 30 (+2), Lust 13

Special Traits: Confidante, Partner in Crime

“I’m a ‘co-conspirator’ now!” Chloe observed with a giggle.

Jason grinned at her. “Do you want to take a look at the…” He couldn’t finish, and he glanced around to see if he could spot someone listening to them, but it was probably just someone nearby whose attention had drifted from their own table momentarily.

“Yeah let’s uh…” Chloe began, also pausing for a few seconds before finishing. “Let’s look at those branching effects.”

The first effect that caught his eye was one which sounded a lot like something he’d read about in one of his occult books. Dreamwalker. “This allows you to enter the dreams of someone you have a close relationship with. In dreams you can manipulate certain aspects of a person’s psyche at will, though this can be difficult and takes time and training to do effectively. It can also be used to gain information from a person that they might not be consciously aware of, or might not be willing to share while they are awake.” In fact, he was fairly certain he’d read about this exact effect as being the sort of magic some ancient druids were rumored to be capable of.

“Dang, guess the stories about dreamwalker shamans in my tribe might have been true afterall.” Chloe said after she’d finished reading the description.

They browsed a bit more, with Jason tapping a few effects here and there, such as: Antiintoxicant Aura. “This allows you and those around you to resist or ignore most toxins, including the effects of ****. You can choose to allow some of the behavioral effects of a toxin to be experienced for yourself or anyone else affected by the aura. In order to benefit from the aura, you must interact physically or socially with those you wish to affect.” Jason turned to Chloe with a grin. “You could try that beer now, if you wanted.”

“Ew, no. I already told you I have no interest in any of that. Don’t really think that perk will be all that useful, unless you suspect someone of trying to poison you.”

“I could use it with Allison.” Jason mused.

“Why would she be trying to poison you?” Chloe raised an eyebrow at him.

“She wants to take me to get drinks sometime after one of our after-hours sessions.”

“Does she know you’re not legal yet?”

“I’m not sure, I do turn twenty one in September. But I’m not sure she’d care either way, she probably just wants to get me drunk.”

“Can you pull up her profile again?” She asked.

“Sure.” He navigated back to Allison’s profile.

Allison Carn

Relationship: Subordinate, Potential Mister

Prominent Attitudes (out of 100): Lust 47, Admiration 30, Dominance 28, Submissiveness 9, Affection 6, Loyalty 2

Special Traits: Cheating Kink, Loss of Dominance Kink

Chloe took a minute to examine the profile in a bit more detail. “Is it Miss Carn, or Missus Carn?” She asked.

“Miss Carn, I think. Dunno if she has a boyfriend.”

“I bet she does. She has a cheating kink, afterall. Can you click on the ‘loss of dominance’ trait?”

He clicked on it. “This person becomes aroused when someone they have authority over seizes control of a situation and forces them to submit.” Jason’s eyes widened. Why had he never checked this trait before?

“Holy crap!” Chloe gasped, “I figured it was something like this. You can one-hundred-percent use this against her, and that aura can help you do it. If she tries to get you drunk, but you’re actually immune, you can use that to turn the tables on her once she gets you alone.”

“I’m not sure I want to get her alone though.” He protested.

“You promised you’d take these opportunities…” She scowled at him.

“Yeah but, I’d want you to be involved somehow. Not sure how we’d arrange that though.”

“I’m not going to be able to be involved in all of these. You’re gonna have to fly solo now and then. And I want you to take advantage, even if I’m not there. You got that?”

Jason nodded, eyes widening yet again. “Okay, uh… I guess I didn’t realize the extent of what you meant by that… Wouldn’t you feel weird, though? Wouldn’t that feel like cheating?”

“You’re gonna tell me all about it after, and you have my full permission, so it’s not cheating.”

“Alright. It will probably take me some time to get fully comfortable with this, but I promise I’ll do my best. I want to make you happy.”

Chloe smiled and put her hand on his on top of the table. “This would probably be a little easier, but not nearly as fun, if you were a little less sweet.” She whispered, leaning close to his shoulder.

“Well, we’ll just have to find a way to make it work.” He whispered back, kissing the top of her head near her temple.

“Did you still want to look over some of the perks?” He asked her after sitting in comfortable silence for a bit.

She nodded, and sat up straight again as he tapped at the screen on his phone.

Together, they looked over the list of perks, examining them one by one, in far more detail than Jason had done on his own, though they continued having to pause occasionally, their words refusing to come as the ward effect protected their conversation from periodic eavesdroppers.

Eventually they found themselves debating between a perk that allowed Jason to get mental notifications immediately when someone’s attitude changed, and one that generally reduced jealousy among people Jason was forming relationships with, without having to buy attitude suppressors for each person individually. He could afford both, but wasn’t sure he wanted to spend so many points all at once.

It wasn’t too much longer before Kate came back around to let them know that while they were technically free to stay as long as they liked, the management was hoping they might be done soon so they could use the table to serve other guests.

So they took the hint, and paid their check before heading back out to the car. Chloe was in a great mood now, and Jason was thoroughly enamored by how she seemed to practically glow, as attractive as she’d ever been to him in her fancy outfit and great big smile.