Make caffeine like to her

You're eager to use the Ruby on Erica again, but are worried that she will get suspicious if you do something blatant again. If you really want to see the extent of the Ruby's power, you might want to make your next change more subtle. Seeing Erica yawn and take a sip of coffee, you get an idea that would make a good test. You focus on her and say, "Your body reacts to caffeine the same way as it does to ****."

You don't see any change in Erica, though given the nature of your change that wasn't very surprising. But given that you know from experience that Erica is a lightweight drinker, you don't think you'll have to wait long to see the results.

"So, what made you decide to come over?" Erica asks as she sets her coffee down, cupping the mug in her hands, "Other than boredom, of course."

"Really, that's it," you say, watching your friend intently, "I just figured the two of us could hang here for a bit, maybe watch a movie or play video games."

"Yeah, that sounds like fun," she says, and you notice her squirm a bit in her chair, "I'm totally down for a couple rounds of Mortal Kombat if you're interested in getting your ass kicked."

"Are you sure that's what will happen?" you ask with a smirk, "Because if I remember correctly, I won best 3 out of 5 last time we played."

"I was just having an off day," she said with a grin of her own, "You won't be so lucky today."

"Is that so?" you say, "Why don't you fire up the Playstation and we can see who's really better?"

"Oh, you're on!" she says excitedly. But as the two of you get up to go to the entertainment center, you see Erica stumble a bit as she starts to walk.

"You okay?" you ask her.

"Yeah... yeah, I'm fine," Erica replies, rubbing her forehead, "Think I just stood up too fast. Let's go."

Erica grabs her mug and takes another gulp of coffee before following you. You can't help but smirk a little as you see your changes already beginning to take effect.

As you play, your influence on Erica becomes more apparent. At first, she puts up a challenging fight, as she usually does when you play video games with her. But as you continue playing, you notice that her performance is slipping."Dammit!" Erica groans as you beat her particularly hard, "I thought I had that!"

"Looks like it wasn't just an off day after all," you tease, looking over at her.

"Hey, I can have more than one, can't I?" Erica says, "Besides, I'm still feeling kinda groggy."

"Maybe you need more coffee," you 'helpfully' suggest, gesturing to her empty mug.

"Yeah, maybe," she mumbles, picking it up and tipping it back into her mouth in a rather unladylike manner, "Crap, didn't realize I was out. I'll be right back."

Erica gets up and walks back towards the coffee maker, and you can't help but notice her sway a little in her step.

"You sure you're okay?" you ask her.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" she snaps back, and you notice a slight slur in her voice, "Jeez, what are you, my dad?"

"Sorry," you say, holding back a snicker.

"It's fine," Erica replies, pouring herself another cup of coffee, "But to answer your question, other than still being tired I'm feeling pretty good. Don't know why, usually one cup of coffee is enough for me to- whoops!"

Erica tries in vain to avoid spilling some coffee on the counter. At her inevitable failure, she grabs some paper towels and wipes it up.

"Ugh, stupid coffee maker," she grumbles, throwing the paper towel at the garbage can (and missing, though she doesn't notice) before grabbing her mug and more carefully carrying it to the couch. She takes a small sip of the hot drink before grabbing her controller and saying, "Alright, let's do this. I'm feeling a comeback's on the way!"

The comeback never arrived. If anything, Erica's gameplay got even worse with her second cup of coffee. Soon, you were beating her without hardly even trying.

After a particularly brutal defeat, Erica growled angrily and tossed her controller onto the couch, "Oh come on! 't's dropping my combos!"

"You sure it's the controller?" you ask her.

Erica frowns, then leans back into the couch, "I dunno. I'm feelin' funny."

"Maybe we should stop then," you say, setting your own controller down on the coffee table.

"Yeah, maybe," she slurs, "But when I'm feelin' better, I'll get my retri... retri... ****!"

"Sure you will," you say with a chuckle. Something about the way she looks slumped over in the couch shaking her fist at you was adorable, "How about some TV?"

"Sounds good t' me," she says, reaching for the remote, in the process nearly knocking over her empty coffee mug. With some difficulty, she manages to navigate the menus enough to get one of her favorite sitcoms playing. It's not long before, to your surprise, you feel her snuggle up against you.

"Hey Dylan?" she asks, looking up at you with somewhat glassy blue eyes.

"Hmm?"

"Have you ever thought of me as... y'know, more than a friend?" she asks you.

"What do you mean?" you question.

"It's just.. we've known each other for a while, 'nd you've never ask me out or nothing," she mumbles, "I know you think I'm pretty, but I still feel like a lotta the time you see me as one of the guys."

You think for a moment, then answer, "Well, yeah I think you're pretty. But as for asking you out... it just always felt like crossing some kind of line."

"Oh," Erica says, actually sounding a bit disappointed.

"Where's this coming from?" you ask her.

"I dunno," Erica says, her head still resting on your shoulder, "Just wonderin'."

"I see," you say to her. After a few moments though, you have a question of your own, "Erica... do you want me to cross that line?"

Erica is quiet for a long time, before muttering in a soft voice, "...I dunno."

You're about to say something else before it hits you that she is well and truly drunk, thanks to you and the Ruby. If the awkwardly personal questions weren't a tip-off, her demeanor and constant slurring of her words were. The only thing out of place was her coffee breath, which you could smell pretty strongly with her face so close to yours. You were pretty sure that you could probably get her to at the very least make out with you in this state. Probably more than that, actually.

Question was, could you really take advantage of your friend like that? After all, she wasn't exactly sober right now, and a part of you knows that you've essentially just **** her for a test. Maybe it was time to undo the change and set her body back to normal, or at least let her work off her drunkenness somehow.

Thing was, an darker part of you wanted to take things even further. Erica was drunk enough right now that you cold probably get away with making more drastic changes to her, possibly without her even noticing. And even if she did, in the state she's in you'd probably be able to pass it off as a dream or sleep-deprived hallucination or something.

It all depended on how you wanted to play this. And how much you cared about Erica.