Joey Smith, College Student Living at Home

An alarm blares in your room with an incessant, unholy beeping. You wake up slowly, rubbing your eyes in a daze. Groaning, you reach over the edge of your bed, grab your phone, and shut off the infernal alarm. With a sigh, you blink rapidly and hold the phone to your face, unlocking it.

As you start to scroll absentmindedly to your favorite game, your brow wrinkles. Murmuring to yourself groggily, you read, "Sexual Manipulation: The Game?" You sit up slightly and bite your lip, wondering how a game like that could have made its way onto your phone. Were you really that drunk last night? Could it be some form of malware?

Deciding to be safe, you hold the app with your finger and then try to delete it, only to be greeted by the popup, "CANNOT DELETE." You sit up straighter and feel your breathing quicken as you try again, but the same message pops up. This time, however, the app opens on its own, and without even loading it's immediately on the home screen.

"What the fuck?" you whisper to yourself. You drag up to try to clear the app, then try to turn off your phone, but to no avail. A message pops up, reading:

Hello Joey, welcome to the game of sexual manipulation! Have fun as you change your friends and acquaintances, all for that momentary thrill we all know so well. But don't worry, you'll earn plenty of other bonuses along the way. And remember, your actions can determine your rewards, so just be yourself and have a blast. Sincerely, The Team.

"Um, how did-" you stop short as the message clears and a perfect model of your house from a bird's eye view appears on your screen, complete with a dot in your room that had your full name. At the top a picture of your face that you had never taken sat in a bubble. The thought that your information might be stolen crossed your mind, but there seemed to be... something else at play, at least. Maybe it'd make more sense if you weren't so goddamn tired.

Your interest piqued, you touch your photo at the top, which replaced the map with a profile page. At the top, you see the words, New Player, followed by several empty circles and lines. At the bottom you see text that says, 0 XP, 10 to Level 1.

Going back to the map, you realize that there's a red dot exactly where your sister and mom likely are, one with the initials JS in your sister’s room and the other with MS in the kitchen. Your mom’s location was confirmed as you startled at the unfortunately common sound of a pan clattering to the floor in the kitchen. You hadn't even seen Google Maps manage that level accuracy! And how did it know them? Your hands shakily touch the red dot with a darker shade that's in your sister's room. Her face and name pop up above the dot, almost taunting you.

Suddenly, another pop-up appears:

Greetings yet again Joey! It seems you're hovering over Jennifer Smith. Around here we're certainly open to that sort of thing, if you get my drift ;) But we'd like to caution against starting with the family due to some... mistakes. The Team cares about you, and I, The Member, care very much about your feedback. And, well, my job. As a gift, here's a free power-up to use on anyone else. Perhaps Jessica would be an acceptable trial? Sincerely, The Team.

The Team, huh. Thinking to yourself, you wonder, 'How did it know about Jennifer? And Jessica?

As you press the screen, the popup disappears and is replaced with yet another one:

Congratulations! You've earned a power-up!!! Use it wisely.

First Timer: Used exclusively on others, adds fuel to a fire that hasn't yet been started.

Below the text is a red campfire symbol with the number one faded out behind it. As it disappears you see the symbol climb, shrink, and transform into a diamond shape to fit in the upper left corner of your screen. A blue dot suddenly grows on the map as it zooms out to include a few other houses, and you click it, your mind racing. A photo of Jessica, the classic girl next door, appears, and you click her name. Much like when you clicked your own photo, a bio appears for her. Taking a moment to admire her perfect smile, lush lips, light freckles, and flowing black hair, you sigh lightly, almost forgetting the weirdness of the situation. Returning to the present and focusing, you see a phrase beneath her name, Sees you as perv next door, rarely thinks of you.

Jesus, game, how hurtful can you be?

A small part of your mind is starting to wonder if there's something to this, but it seems so far fetched, like a dream. You want it to be something good for you, but the practical side of your mind knows it must be some information gathering, illegal shit. How else could it know about your obsession with Jessica? You had never spoken to her, or searched her name, or anything! Did it know you stared out your window on rare occasions to get a peak at her sunbathing bust in it's bikini top in their backyard, or her large ass poking out of her shorts as she walked off to school? Were satellites involved? What the fuck!?

Settling down a bit, you continue reading, curious. The circles and lines are still there, also unfilled, but here some of them are greyed out rather than blank, with text reading, _LOCKED. Man, you thought, _they're sticking to their guns on this game shit. Unlike your profile, however, you find that the XP has been replaced by four buttons, the last of which was greyed out:

1 XP: Small Attraction Increase

4 XP: Clothing Change

7 XP: Implant New Idea (Must Closely Align with Currently Accepted Ideas)

Level 1 Required: LOCKED

Scrolling back to the top, you notice that there's a blank diamond shape next to Jessica's picture. As you breath out between your teeth, you shrug lightly and drag the red campfire symbol to the empty slot. Surprisingly, it fits in and expands to fit the new space. Suddenly, the screen refreshes in an instant. You blink, then see that the phrase below Jessica's name now reads: Has the hots for you, needs a taste and can only contain herself for so long.

What??? There's no way that's... real? Your mind wanders, wondering what the hell is happening. Why would some information gathering app, some shitty malware or whatever it was, be this sophisticated?

Your mother's voice cuts through your reflection, "HEY, JOEY, DON'T BE LATE! LOVE YOU!"

A door slams shut in the distance as your mom rushes off to work, you assume at least, probably dressed in that revealing suit that-

Fuck, you think to yourself, shaking your head. Maybe 'perv next door' was right, especially given that your mom was kind enough to let you stay as you finish out your time at the local college.

You get up, lock your phone, and decide to put the app out of your mind until you get to school and have some time to process it. Out the window you spot Jessica hovering outside her front door, the back of her head bobbing. You take a moment to drink in her form, quickly seeing how her short shorts hug the curve of her hips and how her exposed thighs shake as she shifts from foot to foot.

Realization suddenly dawns on you; she has the same first class as you, seems to also be walking, and if you can get ready fast enough you may be able to catch up to her on the way and introduce yourself. Hopefully she didn't really see you as a perv, stupid app, but you knew it would be pretty fair if she actually did. Staring at a girl’s ass and then rushing to catch her is pretty perverted, if not worse.

“Eh,” you mutter, making your peace with it. You throw on your clothes with reckless abandon and grab all your stuff for the day without much care, all to hopefully get a conversation with her, then rush out your door, the app almost forgotten.