The Romance Mechanic, by Tonyrolo

“Good evening everyone. The last couple of weeks were a bit...volatile.”

“VOLATILE?”

“But we are now back and ready to return to our regular schedule.”

“Marcie. I’m dead fucking tired and I’m pretty sure these freaks reorganized my entire reproductive system.”

“And I received bigger breasts. But you do not hear me complaining, Gina.”

“If I end up croaking I’m going to fucking haunt you.”

“Well, luckily for you, Gina. We are reading something lighter for a change. You will probably survive.”

“Right. And what’s that?”

“The Romance Mechanic, by Tonyrolo”

“Tony...that is a name I didn’t hear in a long time...I’d like to say but didn’t we cover the fucker just recently?”

“Indeed we did, Gina. But this is a new story from him. From what I gathered it involves less body and more mind control. Which means this one is automatically inferior.”

“Great.”

“Hence, without further ado.”

READING IN PROGRESS (BGM)

They lay on their couch during another lonely evening at home, controller in hand, putting yet more hours into their latest run of Stardew Valley. They were currently spending their virtual life jumping between dates with Abigail, Leah and Penny. All they had needed to do to woo all three was talk to them, bring them inexpensive gifts and generally act nicely in their presence. When they chose Abigail as their partner for the Flower Dance, their other two girlfriends hadn't objected, and still flirted happily with them at the event. It was such an enjoyable and idyllic dating system - no wonder they had become so addicted to a fucking farming sim.

“What’s with the weird they?”

“I suppose the main character is non-binary, Gina?”

“Back in my day we just called them dickgirls.”

“I do not think this quite applies here. Regardless our genderless main character receives a mysterious app that allows them to increase the affection of other people.”

“So this is basically an Affection multiplier rip off, right?”

“Somewhat, albeit a much more simplified five star system. Kids these days just can not engage in complicated game mechanics anymore. Sad.”

“I wonder what that lazy sack Wilparu is up to recently. I bet he hasn’t written shit...oh we can pick if we are a boy or a girl!”

“Well...”

“Obviously we pick girl!”

“Naturally.”

“Ok, we are girl now! Which makes the story instantly much better.”

“Debatable, Gina. Because we assume the role of Jenna. An unemployed, broke NEET who spends all her time playing video games in her parents basement.”

“Yeah, this girl’s a complete failure. Top contender for most pathetic female protagonist only tied with dickgirl-guys losers from that one awful sex story.”

“Thinking about it, we do had our fair share of pathetic female protagonists through the years. Maybe we should make that a new wall of shame category. For gender equality.”

“Whatever, it still beats having a male!”

“As already covered, our protagonist receives a mysterious app. Thinking it is a joke, Jenna tests the app on her best friend Cassie.”

“Do you ever get bored of reading the same shit over and over again, Marcie?”

“I would have long since stopped accepting Harem Hotel submissions if this were the case, Gina.”

“Oh yeah, speaking of Harem. This is one of those rape devices that makes you work for it.”

“Barely.”

“And since there isn’t that much Jenna can do with her best friend just yet, she heads out to acquire more targets. Specifically a shop clerk named Imogen and a bully called Grace.”

“I suppose I must give the author credit for stepping up his name game. So far, all the names are unique and distinct.”

“Right.”

“Romancing a bully should also result in some interesting developments. I am sure I could give Jenna some advice in how to handle Grace.”

Jenna would be able to impose any relationship rules she wanted to on her school bully - like Grace having to be naked at all times, while referring to Jenna as her Divine Mistress and barking like a dog at the end of each sentence.

"To be sure, she already does have some fun ideas, hehehe.”

“Blergh.”

“Now, in order to level up your targets affections, you have to shower them with gifts or by giving them compliments. It is a rather simple system.”

“Yeah, but since Jenna is a socially inept loser, she has to do this in the most cringe inducing way possible. No wonder this dweeb got bullied. Even I want to give her a wedgie!”

“You want to give a wedgie to every girl you met, Gina.”

“But especially this one. Oh, also the app comes with some brain scrambler function because nobody questions the goofy ass shit Jenna does, like giving away a truckload of books are handing out candy like she owns a white van.”

“Which, given her ultimate aim, I suppose is apt?”

Able to think with her head again post orgasm, and feeling more confident about the long term effectiveness of the Romance Mechanic, Jenna formulated a plan. She would invite both girls back for another date in her bedroom the next evening, with the sole aim of getting the pair naked by the end of it. During the day, she would target either Grace, Chloe or both, as well as keeping an eye out for anyone else she might like to add to her Love List - and there were already a couple of people she had in mind for that.

“This bitch is horny as fuck. Also zero moral constraints. Kinda like Marcie.”

“I am most certainly not “horny as fuck”, Gina.”

“Could have fooled me.”

Imogen then squatted in front of Jenna and began the task that had just been assigned to her with commendable vigour. It seemed she was something of a natural at it, and soon Jenna was gasping with pleasure.

“Whenever someone uses “gasping in pleasure” it means they have no idea what to write.”

“Gina please. The phrase was gasping with pleasure not gasping in pleasure.”

she could do the same with Siobhan, Grace, Eleanor, Cece, Chloe and even Cassie.

“Holy fuck that’s a lot of targets for only day 2! Slow down, you nympho!”

“Three names starting with C. Four names ending on E. It appears my praise was prematurely. Sigh.”

“Oh, give it a rest, Marcie.”

“…”

“But due to how the app works, nobody reacts to it. There is no humiliation or embarrassment. I like the idea but am not too impressed with the execution.”

“When Jenna isn’t busy masturbating, she spends her time given gifts to the various girls. It’s about as riveting as you’d expect it to be.”

"Oh, right" Chloe thought for a moment "I really like those gossip magazines they sell there. I know it's all bollocks, but they are pretty entertaining and I get bored off my tits in here"

"Cool, I'll be right back!"

Imogen smiled and twirled her hair flirtatiously as the woman she was now dating entered her shop a few minutes later.

“My word, not even the author can keep track of these names.”

“Nah Marcie, this actually checks out. Jenna left Chloe’s shop and entered Imogen’s shop.”

“...somehow this makes it even worse.”

This was brilliant! She had used the affection she had built up with one of her connections to get free magazines to secure a date with another, which would then earn her perv points to spend on lewd images and videos of the first one. Jenna couldn't help but feel she was getting pretty good at this. Perhaps she had finally found something she had a natural talent for?

“Yeah, steal from your best friend. What a nice individual.”

"Incidentally, I do like this points system. It makes the whole premise somewhat more engaging. For example, Jenna uses the points to make Grace wear an oversized bunny costume.”

“Not a bunny-suit mind you. A literal bunny costume.”

“Which is the best part.”

"Right, Jenna, being the horndog she is, absues the system immediately."

Can you have Imogen standing in front of her full length mirror completely nude so I can see her arse as well as seeing her tits and pussy in the reflection, all in the one shot.

“While I do somewhat like this. I have the sinking feeling the author is just putting the AI prompts he used in here.”

“Whelp, Jenna jut burned through her earned points in a matter of minutes.”

“Very relatable if you are using online AI services.”

“But luckily for the lazy slut, she can do tasks to get more points Sure, these taks involves screwing her friends over but what does Jenna care?”

“You sound disgruntled, Gina."

“I’m seeing too much of you in this bitch.”

“Pish Posh.”

48 hours? Jenna had already set up a triple date involving one, two and three heart connections for that evening - she could be done with all of those challenges by the end of the day! Sure, it would involve exposing and humiliating people she liked publicly, not to mention indulging in some fairly lewd behaviour herself. But didn't the Romance Mechanic fix it so nobody even cared about that? And a hundred and fifty perv points? She could start saving up for when she was able to have the same kind of fun with everyone else as she currently was with Imogen.

"Two girls wasn't enough for the thirsty bitch, so now she ups it to three. On pain of repeating myself, slow down you slut!"

"Once again, Gina misses the true issue."

"Beeing?"

"That with this app nobody cares! Humiliation is not fun if the victim or anybody else does not care for it.”

"Moving right along, Jenna takes her dates into a bar and puts on of them. (I already forget which) into a pig costume. Weird fetish, but ok.”

“You know, I almost made you dress up like Porky Pig for Halloween, Gina.”

“I DID NOT NEED TO KNOW THIS!”

"This is exactly why I have to get out of this village of backwards fucking yokels before I lose my sanity. Do you think anyone would walk into a pub in London dressed like that? Or anywhere that fucking matters?"

“So Grace does react to the costume change! The fuck are the rules here?”

“The rules are that the author figured out that no reaction is extremely boring.”

“You’re probably right for once.Marcie.”

“Hm, Jenna decides to teach Grace a lesson by first making her strip naked and then have her dance on the table. That is quite, oh my...”

“And that was enough to get Marcie off. Good job, author.”

“What can I say? You do know how much I like punishing bullies, Gina.”

“Uhu, too bad this is the last chapter”

“A pity. I suppose we could read the male path...”

“Fuck no. I’m too exhausted to read through some stupid grind shit again.”

“I suppose there is somewhat of a grindy nature to this story. Since affection is received by gifts there is a lot of just Jenna handing out stuff to people, which is not exactly the most engaging of activities. Perhaps rather than the Affection Multiplier, it is more similar to wrynn’s waifu story.”

"It sure as fuck is equally as boring."

“I beg to differ, Gina. This one managed to arouse me.”

“Yeah, whatever. This shit is just your run of the mill rape device story with extra steps.”

“I partially agree. The appeal of these types of stories is the slow gradual corruption but we are not really getting this here as the hearts of the girls fill up in record pace. The pacing is rather uneven.”

“You know what’s not uneven? Their fucking personalities. Grace is the only fucking exception and I’m not expecting that to last.”

“Ah yes. Very similar problem that 4og8zzjkc also has with their characters."

“Marcie, I got to know these freaks very intimately. Trust me, they do have plenty of personality."

“You must tell me all about this at a later date. Anyways, it is certainly true that most of Jenna’s trophy waifus have the personality of a particularly nice doormat and that is about the extend of characterization we get out of them. This is made worse by the apps influence in brainwashing them into doting girlfriends.”

“At least this time we get no "the horny nerds that enslaves girls are actually totally good guys!"

“Moving on to positives. The app has some fun functions and Jenna playing around with them is entertaining to witness.”

“It was entertaining enough to get Marcie off. So congrats, Tony. Probably means you’re fucked up in the head, though.”

“To summarize, there are some promising ideas in this story. Execution does need more work however. The pacing is both too fast and too slow at the same time. I’d also urge the author to put emphasis on characterization. More is certainly not better. If two characters have similar personalities, you are better off without the second.”

“And we’re done! Alright! After all the long ass we read recently, this wasn’t so bad.”

"True indeed, I suppose all that is left to say that the Romance in this story is in dire need of a...Mechanic."

“Ugh.”