David Mason, 20 years old

I yawned and stretched before dipping my spoon in my bowl of oatmeal. I hadn't had much sleep last night, but that wasn't unusual for me. I was a night owl by nature, with no trouble staying awake until the sun came up. I usually wouldn't get out of bed until at least noon but today Diya, my step-mother, had insisted on waking me earlier.

"It's time you get used to being an adult," she said with her thick Indian accent while washing the dishes. "We're not going to let you stay home forever."

I groaned and grabbed my phone off the counter, scrolling through Instagram as I finished my breakfast. I wasn't interested in having another argument with Diya about my future, so I didn't bother saying anything. Instead, I just nodded as she kept rambling, pretending like I cared what she thought. She must have quickly realized it because she sighed and stopped talking after a few minutes, returning her focus back to the sink full of dirty dishes.

I looked up from my phone and ogled her for a moment. She was in her late thirties, but still very attractive. Her skin was dark brown, almost black, and smooth as silk. She had large breasts and a curvy figure, which seemed to run in her family. She wore her long hair tied back into a bun, giving her an authoritative look. She liked to wear clothes reminding people of her origins, with bright colors and patterns. Today, though, she was simply wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, implying she wasn't planning on leaving the house.

My attention was suddenly redirected to my phone when I saw a strange notification from an app I did not remember downloading. It read:

Congratulations! You have been selected for the ActionsTrader beta test! You can now start trading!

Start trading? I opened the app and was greeted with a simple and elegant interface. The home page was titled 'Targets' and to my surprise featured a card representing my step-mother. What made it even stranger was that it appeared to be an image of her right now, as if someone had aimed an invisible camera at her face while she was leaning toward the sink. Confused, I touched the card and a new menu titled 'Diya Mason' popped up. There were three tabs along the top: New Trades, Current Trades and Trades History.

New Trades was opened by default and contained a list of 'suggested trades from current activity'. At the top of the list it read: 'Washing the dishes' while the one below read: 'Keeping an eye on David'

"What the fuck?" I muttered, staring at the screen.

Diya turned around and stared at me. "You okay, honey?"

As soon as she opened her mouth the 'washing the dishes' line vanished, only to be replaced by 'Checking on David'.

"Erm..." I mumbled. "Nothing..."

She sighed and shook her head before turning back to the sink. The 'washing the dishes' line immediately reappeared.

What the hell was going on here? I thought as I stared at my phone.

I tapped the line and a new menu appeared. It was labeled 'Action to Action trade' and was divided in two columns. One was greyed out and contained the 'washing the dishes' line while the other one was blank. As soon as I touched the blank line, a new list of 'actions' appeared. It was huge! Thousands of suggestions from 'Taking a shower' to 'Watching TV' to 'Staring at the wall'. All suggestions had a price in some kind of in-app currency called 'ABs' for 'Actions Buck'. It seemed I already had a hundred at my disposal.

I scrolled down the list and found myself staring at a suggestion called 'Playing with her breasts' with a price tag of 15ABs.

I had no idea what was going on but, pushed by curiosity, I tapped the action and a new window appeared, asking me to confirm. I hesitated for a second, then decided to go ahead.

My phone vibrated and the app displayed a message saying 'Trade Successful!' before switching to the 'Current Trades' tab. It now contained a single item: 'Washing the dishes <=> Playing with her breasts'.

I laughed. This made no sense whatsoever. But, as I looked up from my phone I noticed my step-mother standing in front of the sink, her still wet hands slipped under her t-shirt. My eyes widened as I realized she was squeezing and shaking her tits below the fabric.

"Diya?" I asked, surprised.

She paused and glanced at me over her shoulder. "Yes, David?"

"What are you doing?" I whispered.

"What do you mean?" She replied, continuing to play with herself.

"Well..." I stammered. "...you're...touching your breast."

She frowned but did not stop. "How else am I supposed to wash the dishes?"

I froze. There was no way the app was for real, right? Did she really think this was normal behavior? Wasn't she aware of what she was doing?

I looked at the app again and noticed a little interrogation point in the bottom right corner. As soon as I pressed it, a little window opened containing a small paragraph explaining the concept of the app.

"ActionsTrader is a revolutionary new app that lets users trade an action for another. Simply select a target and chose an action to trade. Once a trade is successful, the target will perform the chosen new action whenever they would usually perform the original one. The target will always remain unaware of any change, having toward the new action the exact same mindset as toward the original one. Beware: This also means that the original action will now be perceived in the same way the new action was before the change."

I gulped. That sounded completely insane, but it also explained why Diya was now rubbing her tits like it was nothing. She seemed convinced that by doing so she was still washing the dishes.

"That's weird..." My step-mother said, finally moving her hands away from her chest. Her t-shirt was now dripping wet and therefore semi-transparent, revealing her cleavage below the fabric.

"What?" I asked, unable to tear my gaze away from her large, round breasts.

"I've been playing with my tits for a while now but the plates are still dirty."

I blinked. "That's strange"

She shrugged. "We really need to buy a new dishwasher."

"Why don't you try rubbing them with the sponge?" I suggested.

"What?!" She exclaimed, looking at me as if I was crazy. "How dare you, young man!?"

I raised my hands in defense. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!"

This confirmed what the last sentence of the app description had said: she was now convinced washing dishes the right way was the same as playing with her tits.

"This is not OK!" She yelled, grabbing a towel and wiping the water off her chest. "You can be sure that I'll tell your father about this!"

I sighed. "No, please don't. I'm sorry! How about I take care of the dishes while you go relax?"

"And how are you going to do that, David?" She asked with a frown. "You don't have breasts!"

I stared at her and burst out laughing. I didn't meant to but the situation was just too ridiculous.

"That's enough!" She screamed, throwing the towel at me. "I'm calling your father! He wont be happy about being disturbed during his work trip, I can tell you that!"

She stormed out of the kitchen and slammed the door behind her.

I quickly reopened the app and noticed a new top line in 'New Trades': 'calling her husband'. I immediately touched it and traded it with the cheapest action I could find: 'watching TV' for 5AB.

Soon, I heard the sound of some random TV show coming from the living room.