Drinking

(Rita’s POV)

I guess I can buy this one as well, I don’t have a lot of money, but I can afford a few cheap costumes since I don’t go out. June already told me I was too conservative with my money and I should go with her, but parties are really intimidating to me. I don’t want to spend the night somewhere loud, surrounded by strangers.

I hear the sound of a notification coming out from my phone as I buy the costumes in the online shop’s basket.

I ended up buying 3 costumes for less than a 100$, I hope they fit me, because the site doesn’t accept returns.

Whatever, I check the app and I’m happy to read that the quest made me level up.

You completed a hard quest. [+20 xp] [+15 bonus xp]

Name: Rita
Surname : Torres
Gender: Female
Age : 22
Level 12 (11 / 30 xp)
Class: Cosplayer
Perks : Makeup I, Photogenic II, Modelling I, Flirty I, Cosplay III, Pokerface I, Parasocial Affection II, Body Confidence I ,Clothes Normalizer I
Perk Points : 3

Cosplay III : When cosplaying, your features will adjust, acting in character becomes easy and you become more proficient in activities the character is known to do.

That’s what I wanted, with this perk, I coud theoretically do anything, and that’s why one of the cosplays I just bought was of Bluma from the Dinosaur Ball anime, she’s easy to cosplay with a bright blue wig and a pink short dress and she’s a genius scientist!

I’m hoping I can simply learn anything by reading it once, or in the worst case, have to wear the cosplay during exams. But I should calm myself, maybe the perk isn’t as good as I’m thinking, I’ll have to try it when I get the costume… Hopefully sometime tomorrow.

---

(John’s POV)

Before grabbing Sandra, I check my phone in my car.

Cotton completed an advanced quest. [+10 xp] [+10 bonus xp]

Cotton bought the Advisor I perk for 2 points.

Maria completed a hard quest. [+15 xp] [+15 bonus xp]

You levelled up!

Matt completed a basic quest. [+3 xp] [+3 bonus xp]

Name: Maria
Surname : Finocci
Gender: Female
Age : 27
Level 11 (19 / 30 xp)
Class: Yoga Mom
Perks : Training Efficiency II, Cooking I, Motherly II, Flexible I, Coach I, Beauty I, Casual Affection I, Massage I, Friendly I
Perk Points : 5

Friendly I : You start and maintain friendships more easily. (Hidden: compulsion to be kind and friendly)

That’s a pretty useful perk for her, since Maria doesn’t seem to have much social life.

Name: Cotton
Surname : Newman
Gender: Female
Age : 18
Level 5 (19 / 20 xp)
Class: Secretary
Perks : Regret I, Reading I, Servicing I, Assistant I
Perk Points : 2

Assistant I : You can intuit the needs of people more easily. (Hidden: compulsion to satisfy those needs)

That’s interesting, I wonder how strong her intuition gets. I also check the perk she bought for herself, curious of what it could be.

Advisor I : People tend to listen to your advice and take it into account. (Hidden: small compulsion to give good advice)

That’s a good perk for her, I can see her thinking of influencing others, and hopefully the hidden compulsion will stop her from giving bad advice that only benefits her.

I wonder how weird the app must seem from her point of view, since I almost never make her aware of her quests does she know how she gets her quest rewards?

I also check my profile since I leveled up, I see that I have a lot of perk points.

Quest Master : John
Surname : Moore
Gender: Male
Age : 25
Level 21 (20 / 50 xp)
Class : Multi-classer
Perks : Quest Designer II, Recommended Reward II, Class Designer, Public Unawareness, Target Perk Tree, Character Editor I, Target Unawareness, Additional Slot I, Perk Sharing II
Perk Points : 6

What am I even keeping them for at this point? First of all I know I want to get an Additional slot. I’m not sure of when I’ll use it, but I have points to spend so why not.

You bought the Additional Slot II perk for 1 points.

Every time I buy this perk, the next level appears, so I wonder how many slots I can get in total. Is it infinite? That seems too powerful, that would mean I could spend all my points on more slots and get infinitely more xp.

I’m not a really good multi-tasker anyway, so I don’t think adding lots of targets would do me any good. I prefer to take my time levelling everyone up.

Talking of taking my time, I still haven’t used the Relationship Graph I unlocked a little while ago. I open it on Matt’s profile, and see that the relationship between the two of us is Best Friends, I can’t stop myself from smiling, happy that he also considers me his best friend.

I then open Maria’s graph curious to see how she thinks of me. What I find is actually pretty surprising. The arrow coming from her name and going to mine reads Husband Material.

I didn’t know she thought of me like that, but it kind of explains the way she stares at me.
Should I do something about Maria then? If she sees me like this, I might want to act on this info. She is a very attractive woman and I think I’d like to get more intimate with her. I wonder what I should do. Maybe I should try to flirt with her to see how she’d react? After all I’m not sure of how this graph relate to reality, it might be a good idea to try to check her feelings.

As I was about to close the graph I notice the arrow coming from Rita and going to Maria, I definitely didn’t expect to see the Mother Figure relationship. I then look at what Maria thinks of Rita and find the Cute and **** Child relationship, maybe the Motherly II perk affected her more than I thought.

I then check Cotton since I’ve been pretty curious what she thought of me. I was mostly a random guy she just met, but she did start coming to the library more often. (Also because of my quests.)

As the graph opens, I look for my name in it. When I look close to her name, I don’t see as many other names as I expected, I kind of understood that the distance between names indicated how close people are to each other, but the only people that are relatively close to Cotton’s name is Mr.Newmann, and a friend of her called Ann. Everyone else is as far as Maria was from her neighbors. I guess that means Cotton has some issues with opening herself to others.

I finally find my name in the graph, it’s actually not that far compared to most other names, I frown as I see the way she perceives me. Cute Idiot is the word above the arrow pointing toward me. How am I an idiot? Do I look that stupid to her? No, I do have the power to change this graph, I click on the Cute Idiot word and a menu appears where I can scroll through possible relationships between the two of us. Most of them feel reductive or kinda insulting, Boytoy, Cuck, and many others I decide to forget as soon as I read them.
After scrolling for a while however, the words start becoming less disrespectful, Sexfriend, Servant, and as I scroll even further, the relationship proposed changes further. Parent, Responsible Adult, Master, Boss.

I remember that applying changes cost perk points, so I press Master, and Apply (6 perk points) appears at the bottom of the screen, changes cost a lot more than I thought it would.
I change the relationship to Responsible Adult and the price goes down to 2 perk points.

I then choose Boss and surprisingly the price doesn’t get as high as I thought, the button showing Apply (4 perk points).

I do have 5 points remaining, so I can afford this, and it would also help a lot in the long run. Fuck it, I press apply and the word changes to Boss (1%) which must mean the change is actually gradual. I wonder how long it takes to finalize.

Whatever I close the app and look at the time, I’m going to be late if I don’t hurry up, Sandra must be waiting for me.

---

I arrive at Sandra’s garage, and she’s waiting for me, her arms crossed and pouting playfully.

“You’re late Mister.” She says while I apologize.

“I’m sorry Sandra, I had to close the library and it took more time than I thought it would.” I explain, she smile and puts a hand on my shoulder.

“No worries, I’m just messing with you. I’m already happy you take the time to bring me around. Anyway! We have one place to visit today.”

“Right, you told me you only got one visit today… I hope this one will be the right one then.”

“Even if it isn’t, you promised to go with me for drinks.”

“Right, well let’s do the visit first, can you give me the address?” I ask, as I grab a GPS on my phone.

“Actually I already know where the next one is, so I’ll just tell you where to turn.” She says and I nod.

---

As I drive, further and further, a suspicion props up, but I keep driving, surely I’m wrong, the city is quite big after all.

But as we keep going and pull down right in front of my apartment, I stop to look at Sandra.

She smiles as I wait for an explanation.

“Surprise! The last visit is in your building. I’m pretty sure, it’s a floor higher than yours.”

I’m stuck thinking about this.

“Do you even have the money to afford this place? I can barely pay for it, and I have a roommate.” I ask her in disbelief.

“Come on John, do you really think I couldn’t afford the same apartment you do? No offense but I get paid way more than you do.” She says, as if she knew my salary.

We get out of the car, and a man is waiting in front of the door, ready to guide us. We take the elevator as he talks to us about how great this place is.

“This is a good environment for a small family, it’s quiet and peaceful.”

We stop a floor above mine, and start visiting the empty apartment.

“As you can see there are two rooms, which means there’s space for kids if you ever plan to have any.” He says while looking at us.

Sandra grabs my arm, with the same grin she has when she teases me.

“Doesn’t it look good Honey?” She says while pressing her body against me.

“R-right… How much is it?” I ask, and the guide grabs his phone.

As he tells us the price I can feel Sandra release my arm in shock, she asks for the price again and looks at me in disbelief.

It seems she didn’t believe my warnings earlier, I also notice the price is slightly higher than mine, I guess it increased in the years since I started living here.

Once the visit is done and we’re in my car again, she looks at me with jealousy.

“How much do you get paid? How can you even afford food?” She asks.

“Divide the price by two and you know how. I told you I couldn’t afford this place without Matt.” I explain, and she nods.

“I guess I was expecting too much… Whatever, I want to drink now…” She says, still sounding a little sour.

“Sure, let’s go.” I say, and we spend the whole trip in silence as she seems to think about what happened.

---

We sit at a table for two, our drinks in hand and start talking. She sips from her glass as I explain her exactly what I did as I left our small hometown years ago.

“Why a literature degree though? You were smart enough to go into science right?” She asks.

“Sure, but I really wanted to get better at writing, in the end I try to not regret my choice.”

“Right! You liked writing! Do you still write alternate endings to movies?”

“God no! I was awful at writing back then.”

“I liked them, it was pretty fun.”

“I guess I liked writing them at the time, but I don’t want to ever see them again.”

“So what else did you write.”

“Well I did write a book, but I still haven’t contacted a publisher.”

“Really? Please let me read it when it comes out.” She asks excitedly.

“Sure, but I don’t think that’s your type of book.”

“Oh, come on. Is it sci-fi? Or some fantasy thing?”

“It’s a romance book, I know you never liked those.” I tell her and she takes another sip of her glass.

“I would still read it if it’s yours!” She says, but I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t like it so I try to change the subject.

“And what did you do when Alex and I left?” I ask.

She looks at some distant point in front of her as she thinks of what happened those last few years.

“Actually, not long after you left, I got a promotion at work, everything was going great, but life was starting to get a little boring, always the same.” She starts.

“Is that why you decided to come here?”

“No… Well kinda. Actually, I got into a relationship a year ago and when we broke up I decided I wanted my life to change, I got a job in the city pretty easily with help from my previous boss, and I moved in as soon as I could, which is why I’m staying at Alex’s place.”

“I see, well, I understand wanting to change scenery.” I say, remembering when I left to study, it was the perfect way to get away from my parents and becoming more independent.

“I really need to find a place soon. I’m not dumb, I see that Kayla doesn’t like me staying there, and I don’t want to strain the relationship between her and my bro, but fuck… everything is so expensive here. I can’t even afford rent here.”

“Yeah, I know. When we arrived, we understood that living alone was out of the question. When Alex left, I actually got a lot of trouble paying my half of the rent at first.”

“Right, Alex was living with you too at the time.” She finishes her drink and I go to the bar to fill it for her.

When I come back, she’s full of energy. She grabs the glass from my hand.

“Thanks! You know I just got an idea! How about letting me live at your place? I’d pay my part of the rent making it easier for everyone!” She says.

I know about this solution obviously but I don’t know if it’s the right one.

“You know Sandra, I don’t think it’s a good idea. You’d be living with two men.”

“And? I trust you two, you’re like little bros to me.” I sigh.

“There are only two rooms too, Alex used to sleep on the couch.” I tell her, thinking that would be enough for her to stop pushing, but maybe because of the ****, she doesn’t take the hint.

“I don’t mind sleeping on the couch. That definitely wouldn’t be the first time.” She says while taking another sip from her glass, and I notice that I also finished mine.

“I… I guess I could ask Matt.” I let out.

She looks satisfied with my answer as she stands up and hug me. Since I’m still sitting, she ends up pressing her breast on my face, as I try to hide the blood flowing to my lower part.

“Thank you! I’ll make it work! I promise!” She says while jumping in place, still hugging me.

I try to get out of her grasp and as I pull back, she slips forward and we fall to the ground.

She’s on top of me, and her face is right on top of mine, she looks me in the eyes and her mouth open and close a full time as if she’s hesitating to say something.

She then notices that we became the center of attention, and promptly stands up. I try to follow after her, but I struggle to get back on my feet at first, she helps me and people stop staring at us.

“I’m sorry John, I might be a bit more tipsy than I thought. It might be time to go home.” She says and we leave soon after.

The car ride is silent except for the soft sound of the engine.

We arrive in front of Alex’s house and Sandra looks at me.

“Thanks! I really enjoyed drinking with you, but maybe next time we could do that in private instead.”

She gets closer, kisses me on the cheek, and before I can say anything, she gets out of the car.

I guess now I have to ask Matt about getting a new roommate.

First things first though, I want to get some sleep. I have things to do tomorrow.

I have a final check of my book with my old teacher, and in the afternoon I’m meeting the friend I made while playing game years ago. I wonder what he looks like, or even what he sounds like.

I drive home, and fall asleep as soon as my head touches my pillow.

---

Author's Note : Long chapter for once, what do you all think about adding a new target soon? There's also a perk point remaining in case you want to add two as a group (Alex and Kayla or Brad and Jessica). If I do add a target, I'll do so after Rita's Date on sunday.