Practice Dummy

After really sitting with it—turning it over and over in my head—the answer finally started to take shape.

Sandy.

It had to be Sandy.

Jennifer was… well, Jennifer. Gorgeous, sharp-tongued, all dark eyeliner and attitude. The kind of girl you could lose yourself in with a hundred fantasies. But that was all it ever really was. Fantasy. Surface-level want. Lust wrapped in drama.

There wasn’t anything deeper there. Not for me. And honestly?

She was a bit... off. In her head. I mean, did normal people have egg-throwing fits like that?

She seemed damaged... but then again, so was I. Just in a different way.

Two broken people don’t make a whole. I think.

Maybe that meant we were better off not trying to **** something that didn’t exist.

Yeah, it stung. Throwing away all that progress, all that time. But sometimes the decent thing to do is also the hardest. I didn’t see a real future with her, not beyond testing the app and the dopamine hits.

Oh God. Those wonderful dopamine hits.

But if I wasn’t willing to go deeper, then maybe I shouldn’t go any further at all.

My finger drifted toward Sandy’s profile. Slow. Certain.

Then— a miracle.

Sandy messaged me.

I mean, actually messaged me.

Without the influence of the app or anything.

And not our group chat. Directly to me!

Hi, Ron! Finally got that shooter! Wanna play together online? :)

I stared at that smiley like it was holy scripture.

She messaged me. Out of her own free will. No app. No heart meters. Just… her.

And suddenly all the gray, heavy crap weighing down my chest cracked open. Felt like someone let sunlight in after years of living in a basement. Cotton-candy clouds. Stupid sparkles. Unicorn-level euphoria.

I swear, I wanted to print that message out and pin it to my wall like a trophy.

Actual, real human connection! It almost hurt how good it felt.

After all the strange, awkward tension with Jennifer, this was exactly what I needed.

There was a chance.

A real chance she might like me.

That I could get a girl like her—without magic, without manipulation, without the app.

I spent the next fifteen minutes crafting the perfect reply.

Sure! :D

It took me way too long to decide on that smiley. But it felt right. Yes. Probably. Stop overthinking.

The rest of the evening… felt like a dream.

And by that, I mean a nightmare.

We spent three hours playing, with me explaining every possible mechanic and strategy I could think of. She was honestly grateful for the help. But everything outside the tutorial? That’s where it all fell apart.

Whenever she joked, shared memes, or talked about real life, my responses were something between a malfunctioning robot and a low-effort NPC.

“Sure.”

“Cool.”

“Wow!”

“Haha, that’s funny.”

I hated how I sounded. Flat. Awkward. Useless.

Every once in a while, I actually thought of something clever to say. But by the time I worked up the courage, the moment had already passed.

In short—I was a nervous wreck again.

When we finally logged off, I buried my face in my pillow and screamed.

I had one chance to impress her…

And I blew it.

How could I still be this weak?

After everything with Jennifer? After the confidence, the dominance, the literal spanking... how was I back to being this timid?

Was it because this wasn’t an “event”? Because this was real, no safety nets, no guaranteed success?

I grabbed my phone, heart pounding, thoughts spiraling.

Maybe… maybe this was impossible without the app.

Maybe I couldn’t get Sandy unless I used it.. to push her, shape her, make her love me.

But I didn’t want that.

I wanted her. The real Sandy. Unchanged.

The idea of corrupting her—my real love—felt wrong. Like a line I couldn’t uncross. Like something that would stain everything forever.

The only other option would be to change myself, and obviously that couldn’t—

…

Wait.

Maybe it could.

There was—

Not a good way. Honestly, a pretty scummy one.

But it was still a way.

I could… practice.

With Jennifer.

If I kept interacting with her... pushing, controlling, testing boundaries... maybe I could build up my own confidence. Like last time. After I spanked the girl, after she actually obeyed… I felt powerful. More of a man than I’ve ever felt in my life.

For a few minutes, I truly believed I could do anything.

If I had talked to Sandy right after that… maybe I wouldn’t have choked. Maybe I could’ve been that confident dude I truly needed to be.

…

Yeah.

This was definitely a plan.

I wouldn’t raise Jennifer’s love stat. I wouldn’t lead her on romantically.

I wouldn’t touch her corruption either—no need to make her Slutty McSlutface if I wasn’t there for the benefits.

But her Obedience?

I could push it to Level 2.

What’s the worst that could happen?

She might develop some bondage fantasies? Some submissive tendencies? That’s just a kink. People live with worse.

And if I could really dominate her—the girl who thinks she’s above everyone else—maybe it would finally flip some switch in me.

Maybe then I could sweep Sandy off her feet for real. She did say she wanted to play again. She was impressed by my skills. All was not lost.

I just need to become someone who'd... get a girl like her.

My hand tightened around the phone.

And I made my choice.

I looked through Jennifer’s available actions.

Okay. Perfect. Now to adjust her schedule so it was fully focused on obedience.

Fantastic. At this speed it would take only like two weeks to get the next event.

Yeah, sure, it would give bits of love and corruption too, those were fairly unavoidable. It’s just… If another heart filled up for those things, I guess I’d ignore the event flag?

I think I could do that?

The only bad thing about that... if an event, like Love 2, decided it could only happen at Jakey’s… It would fill every day-square from Monday to Friday until I played the event out. I couldn’t assign actions to those squares.

But that wasn’t my top concern right now.

Jennifer wasn’t the end goal—she was training. A practice dummy. A way for me to build up something I’ve been missing my whole damn life:

Confidence.

Maybe I wouldn’t even need to go past her Obedience Level 2 event. Maybe that would be enough.

I might even go check out her work uniform and the risque collar… Or maybe not. I wasn’t still quite prepared enough to meet her outside of events.

Once I could look her in the eye, outside of the app events, and order her around without my voice shaking… then I’d be ready.

Ready for the real challenge.

Ready for Sandy.

Yes. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Me and Jennifer weren’t some star-crossed romance. Without the app, she wouldn’t have looked at me twice. But I could use her to grow. Maybe this is what people did when they had one-night stands. They gained confidence by using each other. Learned how to act. How to be the person they wanted to be.

So that was the plan: Take the next two weeks easy. Grind Jennifer’s obedience. Prepare myself.

Just after I locked in the new schedule—

A new email notification.

From my boss.

Ron,

Would you come to my office on Thursday?

We need to talk.

— Miriam Shelley

My stomach dropped.

That… did not sound good.

Author's note: Massive thanks to UnwantedOpinon for the Idle Harem UI!