Not that I recognized at the time…

For the speech, we were broken up into a bunch of smaller tables, with food already being served, as Jasmine must have handled that for me. They chose the prime rib, which was good, so I couldn’t complain, especially as the other options seemed to be trout, which I didn’t like, or a vegetarian dish which wasn’t my taste at all. Looking at the little labels, somehow Max had ended up at our table, as had Chloe and Kali, obviously and Penelope, though not Alyce. Jasmine must have handled at least the Penelope part, though Diamond and Max sniping over dinner would not be fun.

Penelope split off, as she had to do the intro, then rejoin us. I managed to grab a moment with he before her introduction and gave her a smile. “Having fun?”

“No!” she hissed. “Listen, Jasmine’s great and all, but Dr. Sinner isn’t even here! What am I going to do?”

“Just introduce her. If she doesn’t show up, that’s her issue.”

“And ruin the event?”

“Then do your speech at normal speed. Be calm. You’re not going to get in any trouble. Just do what you can.”

She nodded slowly, though I only got +2 SP (Penelope: +28 SP). Probably because it was already her plan, basically.

“Oh, and doc?”

“What?”

“After the intro, you come back to our table. No bailing, even if the director doesn’t show. Right? That would look real bad. Unashamed and here, there’s a problem with Sinner, maybe she fucked it, maybe her car broke down, whatever. You bail and there’s a problem at Arkham.”

She glared at me, but nodded. +5 SP (Penelope: +33 SP). That was more like it.

I paid attention during her introduction, just in case, but she did what we’d discussed and it was well received. She ended up stretching it for a few extra moments, but then Alyce came out from a nearby door and casually walked up. Penelope ended on a high energy note and we all clapped, only for Alyce’s speech to be…somehow even worse than Penelope’s practice run.

It wasn’t lightning fast, but instead was slow, monotonous drone that almost put people to sleep. We couldn’t really talk during it, instead eating and smiling, so I took the time to check the app. I was at 10 credits, so instantly bought Long Term Thinking. I was starting to pull up Penelope’s profile, when I noticed that Max had just gotten up and headed towards the bathroom, while Kali hadn’t returned, as she’d left during Penelope’s introduction.

Curiously, I flicked up her profile. The changed pic suggested my suspicions were correct, but the caption

No Information. Insufficient submission and arousal.

Suggested nothing good about their relationship, which made me feel better about interfering. Any hesitation I’d had about Chloe had ended with that security guard crack, so I was perfectly happy to ruin Max for Diamond and the others for me. Speaking of which, I decided to check Chloe, just out of curiosity. She had no such restrictions:

Chloe is already rolling, having ditched her driver. She’s meeting up with school friends to attend her ‘show’ and is already wet thinking about her plans…

Well…okay then. Nothing to do there. She wasn’t being safe, but that wasn’t my problem, yet.

I flicked back to the immediate problem, Penelope. The profile pic was just her in her dress sitting at the table, even if it had caught her at a moment when her mouth was open, but before any food had entered the frame, making it look like shew as waiting for something else to be shoved in that mouth.

Jesus, this was a really blonde day, and mostly with pretty small tits, not exactly my prime demo, but I could change that later if I wanted, especially if I actually bought Appearances Don’t Matter this time around.

For now, what were my checkpoint options?

Ice Queen Melts: Penelope has locked her sexuality down out of fear of the Scarecrow, but hearing about your exploits and now seeing Jasmine has unlocked something in her. She wants to hear more, to see more and will take active efforts to do so.

Professionalism: Penelope remains entirely confident in most things, but you’ve been right on so many non-medical professional issues that she becomes nervous about such decisions and will seek out your advice and is more likely to take it.

”Professionalism”: Penelope’s facade of professionalism is just that, a facade. It shatters, revealing the desperately slutty whore underneath. Consequences of this are your problem.

Huh…interesting that despite including the evil option, it warns me away from it…but in the end, that didn’t effect my choice.