Read a magazine

Looking at the Tasks, you know you want to at least do one of them, but you’re not sure as to which. You just got home from your morning shift at work, so you don’t really have the energy yet for a walk or doing something around the house, so those are out. Plus, looking for a job just sounds like the kind of mental effort you don’t have the brainspace for. So you decide to go with reading a magazine.

The question is, which one? You’re pretty sure you have a stack of old Nintendo Power magazines in one of your closets, but you don’t know which box they’re in, and finding the right one would mean digging through a bunch of them. Not the kind of thing you’re exactly up for.

So you walk into your bathroom and look around. Sure enough, your intuition was right, and you have exactly one magazine sitting near the toilet. It was left there by your last girlfriend, Maddy, and it’s...an issue of Cosmopolitan.

If there was anyone in your apartment, you’d be embarrassed to be seen reading this. But you figure you’ve got time to kill, and the app suggested it, so why not?

That was how you ended up lying on your couch reading a magazine written for women, by women. So your surprise, you get really sucked into it. There’s a lot in there about dating advice, fashion, and even an article with an interview with a famous actress you’ve always found very attractive.

In half an hour, you’ve finished the magazine, actually feeling more enriched by having tried it. Pulling out your phone, you select that you’ve read the magazine, and a pop-up appears letting you know what that changed.

Culture 0->1

Charisma 11->14

Masculinity 22->19

Motivation 3->9

You’re a little annoyed that it’s taking away Masculinity just because you read a girly magazine, and don’t even think to question how the app knew that the magazine you read was one for women. Still, you do actually feel more motivated, so maybe this thing is working?

What you don’t realize is that it is working, but more than you realize. That dip in Masculinity is already taking effect. The mild five o’clock shadow you’ve grown through a lack of shaving disappears into a now smooth jawline, and your entire body becomes a little more androgynous, with your already thin frame losing a little width in the shoulders and the waist.

What you do notice is there are two new Tasks to replace the one you finished: Read a book and Buy and read another magazine. Feeling like you’re on a roll, you think about what task you’d be up for doing now.