Love Addict's RPG Ch. 36

Tessa was waiting for them the second they were free. She surprised her employees by giving them both a hug and apologizing profusely. It wasn't even remotely her fault, but she intended to make it up to them. Oliver and Mia didn't know what to make of their boss's heartfelt reaction, but it was a nice change of pace.

They were led into the lounge, where two big mugs of hot chocolate sat waiting for them in the public microwave. Tessa reheated them for half a minute just to be safe, then brought them out after Oliver and Mia clocked out early like they were promised they could. The second he was off the clock, a notification told him he'd been paid for the nine hours he usually worked.

--- Gained $135 ---

"Here," Tessa set the mugs on the nearest table for her employees. "Have a drink and relax before you two take off. In the meantime, I've got more calls to make. Mark my words, somebody is going to pay for this." Tessa promised.

Then, she let out a huge sigh and rubbed her temples. "God, this is the last fucking thing I needed right now..."

"Thanks again, boss," Oliver said, doing his best to forget that someone might get in trouble for his power's activation. "Sorry this had to happen on top of everything else lately, I hope-"

"Don't worry about me. My little friends are just fine, so worry about yourself." She said, even giving Oliver a slight smile before marching off to her office. It was an awkward, forced smile, but at least she was making an effort.

"What little friends are she talking about?" Mia asked as the boss as she was gone.

"Don't worry about it, it's not a big deal..." Oliver tried getting out of it, but she was staring suspicious daggers at him, and he didn't get the impression that Mia would let it go without a better answer than that. "It's just something the boss and I were talking about the other day. I don't think she wants me to spread it around."

"Okay," Mia said as she sat her mug down after taking a long sip. "Counterpoint; I'm your girlfriend, and you should spill all the nasty little secrets you got because it'd amuse me."

"Fuck," Oliver exclaimed, then repeated after her in disbelief, "You really are my girlfriend, wow..."

"I know, right...?" Mia exhaled dreamily.

They both stared at their reflections in the hot chocolate for a couple of seconds. Emotions were high back in the truck where they couldn't see each other's faces, and now that they were out in the open, they had to deal with the new reality they created for themselves as a couple. Both were smiling before too long.

"It'll sink in sooner than later. In the meantime, cough it up."

"I ran into her when she was in a bad mood last Friday when I came to pick you up. One of her cats was sick, but you didn't hear that from me..."

"Huh. Wouldn't have pegged the boss lady for the type. How come she's never mentioned having pets?"

"Not my place to say, but... if I had to guess, I don't think she wants us to know she has a heart."

"Hm," Mia considered this new knowledge. "Well, she did a piss poor job of hiding that today, didn't she?" She slurped her drink to prove her point. Oliver agreed and did the same.

They relaxed in the lounge for another few minutes until the end of the morning shift. It was noon now, meaning some part-timers would be coming back here to clock in and out. Bradley and Stacy were among them, and after doing their business on the terminal, the two approached the newly minted couple.

"Heard you two had a nice little timeout together," Stacy smiled and narrowed her eyes. Something told Oliver that she knew much more than she was letting on, despite that being impossible since it only happened and they hadn't broken the news to anyone. He realized Stacy must've had a sixth sense about this kind of thing.

"That we did," Mia responded, meeting Stacy in the eyes. Though it was only a simple glare from Oliver's perspective, Stacy took more meaning from Mia's expression and arched an eyebrow.

"Oliver!" Bradley leaned over the table, invading his best bro's personal space with a broad and artificial grin. "I am PLEASED to notice the [Distinct Lack] of [Hypothermia] in your [Current Existence]!"

Sweating, Oliver shot nervous glances toward Stacy and Mia. He was deeply uncomfortable with his special friend being in the public eye like this, at least around people he actually knew. The good news was that, like before, neither of the girls found Bradley's robotic voice, random emphasis, and bizarre choice of words to be anything out of the ordinary. Oliver's powers normalized Bradley's eccentricities the same way they obscured him literally past traveling across the city or absorbing items in his inventory in plain sight.

"So am I, but I don't think we would've been in there long enough to get that cold..." Oliver said.

"I'm sure it helped that you couldn't keep your hands to yourself," Stacy said as she retrieved her bag from the locker she'd stashed it in that morning.

"N-No, I-"

Mia placed her hand on his knee under the table. "Damn right he couldn't. Ollie was all over me."

"What? Mia-"

"Congratulations!" Bradley started giving Oliver a round of applause. "You've conquered the [First] OF the tutorial's [Five Stages], my [Main Man]! Up TOP!"

Oliver felt pressured to give him a complimentary high-five, though he was awkward about it and shy from how openly Mia bragged to Stacy, who was now leaning against the locker with folded arms. She was staring straight at Oliver with a devilish grin. "Is that so? Good for you, Mia. It's about damn time. As for you, Ollie... oh, what I wouldn't give to know how stupid you must've felt as soon as you figured out the truth..."

Redness rushed up into Oliver's cheeks, and he made an annoyed expression at her before turning away and throwing his hands up in defeat. "Pretty fucking stupid, so laugh at me all you want. Go on, get it out of your system."

"Nah, I'm not that petty," Stacy passed by the table and ruffled Oliver's hair on her way out, causing him to try and straighten it out while flustered. "I'm with Brad, though. Congratulations, you two. Try not to get too carried away when you're celebrating tonight, yeah?"

Mia grumbled something in Spanish about Stacy, then turned back to Oliver. "Speaking of, you want to get out here and figure out what we're gonna do?"

"Yeah, sounds great."

"Nice to meet you, by the way, Brad. Don't think we talked, but I'm pretty sure I remember you from high school? Gonna be seeing a lot of each other now on, so put her there," Mia extended her left hand towards Oliver's best bro, who took it and shook it. She made no comment about the strangeness of his skin. "Thanks for being Ollie's friend."

"Unnecessary! It's WHAT I was MADE for!" Bradley replied with his signature enthusiasm. After the handshake, Bradley turned his attention towards his dear friend. "Before we [Part Ways], Oliver, my best buddy, may I HAVE a word of [Man-To-Man Conversation] with YOU in the nearest [Public Restroom]?"

Oliver closed his eyes, frustrated at Bradley's recurring talent for phrasing things in the most ridiculous and embarrassing ways. "I wanted to change clothes anyway, so yeah, sure," he then looked at Mia. "Meet you outside?"

"Mkay," Mia stood up and, out of politeness, took their hot chocolate mugs to the sink to rinse them out. "Long as you don't keep me waiting long. Wasn't kidding about the clinginess."

They left the lounge together but split up after that, Mia heading outside and the boys taking a detour to the public restroom. Before they had their chat, Oliver went into a stall and changed out of his work clothes, donning one of the many outfits he picked up yesterday. He now wore a fancy pair of black jeans, a white button-up shirt, and a nice, dark gray men's jacket that fit his form well.

Catching himself in the mirror before turning to Bradley, Oliver quickly smiled at his reflection, decently pleased with how he looked.

"So, how was your first day at work?" Oliver asked. "You didn't go making things weird for me with Stacy, did you?"

"Not in THE slightest! We MOSTLY discussed the brief time we SPENT in [Freshman Cheerleading] together!"

"Right. The time that never actually happened."

"Maybe not for YOU, but it was [Real As Real Can Be] FOR your [Old Pal] Bradley and your [Enemy-Turned-Heroine Stacy Lynn]!"

"How does that even work, though?" Oliver narrowed his eyes and scratched the side of his head. "Mia said she remembers us being friends in high school, but you were also friends with Stacy at the same time she was orchestrating a month-long bullying campaign against me?"

"There my [Best Friend] goes AGAIN, [Sweating the Small Stuff]! Just assume it [All Makes Sense], and [Make Sense], it SHALL!"

Honestly, the more Oliver thought about it, the more he realized that might've been the best advice Bradley had given him this far. Better to just roll with it and be thankful no one thought Bradley was as weird as he obviously was.

"Fair enough," he sighed, then caught Bradley up to speed on his time trapped with Mia, including the fact that they were now officially dating. Telling someone else was embarrassing for Oliver but in a good way. It made it feel more real.

Bradley repeated his congratulations from earlier and pointed out the big chunk of LP Oliver had to work with as soon as he was ready to buy more skills. For now, they had bigger fish to fry. Oliver and Mia were about to go on their first date as a couple.

This was a prime opportunity to farm further affection points and, if the mood was right, potentially unlock some milestones. They'd hung out before but never called it a date, so Oliver was reasonably confident he might get a 'first date' milestone. Mia was expecting him to 'seal the deal', too, and if their first kiss didn't get him some LP, then Oliver didn't know what would.

Everything was going great, but it would take work to progress even further from here. That was where Bradley came in with some world-class support.

"Throughout my [Urban Adventuring], I have been TAKING notes on [Potential Date Spots] and retailers WHERE you might purchase [Assorted Gifts Relevant] to your [Heroine's] interests! Allow me to PRESENT the [Historic First Issue] of [Bradley's Love Locations]!" He said, offering what looked to be a professionally printed pamphlet.

"First off, we're not calling it that. No way."

"The NAME is [Nonnegotiable]!"

Oliver sighed. Bradley didn't insist on much of anything, so if the guy really liked the name he picked out, he wasn't a big enough asshole to deny what made him happy. Mumbling his half-hearted acceptance, Oliver had a closer look at the pamphlet. There was a lot to take in, but the first thing that stood out was how nice it looked. The pamphlet looked like it was made in the style of the notification boxes Oliver's powers created. Its presentation was slick and smooth, with plenty of little flourishes to make it pop and handy images of each location.

"Did you make this?" Oliver wondered aloud. "Or did you just summon it with psychic energy, or however the hell you work?"

"[Graphic Design] is MY [Passion]!" Bradley winked after showing Oliver an app on his phone. He really did go through the trouble of making all this himself and printing it somewhere nice. Damn it, it sucked having a friend as good as Bradley because Oliver continually felt like he could walk to the ends of the earth and back yet still somehow never make up for everything this guy did for him.

He'd absolutely pay it forward, no matter how many knocked-back cold ones and shitty 80's action movies it took, but that was for another time. Today was still about Mia, so Oliver read the surprisingly detailed fifteen-page pamphlet. The contents were split into thirds: the first dedicated to date spots where they would physically do something, the second to various restaurants that would make for good dinner dates, and the final to stores where he could buy gifts. Every entry listed their hours, price estimates, and notes on who might enjoy what.

In his own experience, this amazingly put-together little strategy guide outdid the efforts of every token best friend in a dating sim game that Oliver had ever played, even if a few of the choices were less than helpful. Just because Tessa liked cats didn't mean she would respond well to Oliver bringing her an unprompted gift from a pet store, he imagined, and he had no intention of ever going to a lingerie store and picking something out for Stacy.

Still, this was nothing short of amazing, which naturally meant that Bradley wasn't satisfied with it and pledged to do better.

"I apologize for how LACKING these [Notations and Documentations] are! My knowledge of [Mia Rosas, Stacy Lynn, and Tessa Robinson] is restricted TO your [Personal Memories] and what you've SHARED with me in the [Five Days] since the beginning OF my [Existence]! As you LEARN more about your [Current Heroines] and discover [Future Love Interests], I will create further [Editions] of [Bradley's Love Locations] that better cater TO-"

"Bradley, this is incredible. I can't even begin to thank you enough." Oliver spoke from the heart after closing the pamphlet, tucking it into the inner pocket of his jacket. He was so relieved that he had some ideas to pitch to Mia now instead of going through an annoying back-and-forth session of figuring out what they wanted to do.

"Nonsense!" Bradley laughed, though Oliver thought it sounded awkward, even for him. "I can ALWAYS do better!"

"Maybe, but you won't see me complaining about what I've already got to work with. Don't stress yourself out about this. You did great." Oliver said, patting Bradley on his shoulder with a heartfelt smile. "Now you go and do your own thing today, okay? Don't feel like you need to pop up in the background and go on cheerleading duty. I've got this. I'll text you later and let you know how things went."

The awkwardness coming from Bradley continued for another few seconds as his expression shifted into one a shade more genuine than Oliver was used to. Just as quickly, it was gone, and Bradley wished him good luck as they left the restroom together and made it out the front entrance. Oliver headed to his car while Bradley hit the streets to resume his misadventures.

Mia was leaning against his Boldo Roadman, scrolling idly through her phone. She looked up when he approached, seeing his outfit change and liking what she saw. A subtle blush appeared on her face for only a second, but it was long enough for Oliver to notice and feel confident.

"Bitch knows how to dress you up, I'll give her that," Mia exhaled in mocking frustration. "Gotta say I'm starting to feel a little underdressed, though. Mind if we stop by my place?"

"By all means," Oliver gestured toward his car. "Girlfriend."

"Thank you kindly, boyfriend."

The two stared at each other for a couple of seconds.

"God, this is fucking weird..." Oliver forced himself to look at the ground with a crooked smile.

Mia did the same, sans smile. "A bit. We should probably stop making this a big deal and treat it more casually... unless we're hugging, or I'm being clingy, or we're doing whatever else we're gonna be getting up to."

"And what else are we gonna be getting up to?" Oliver raised his head, trying to make an effort to do as she said and talk casually with her.

"This and that, if you're lucky..." Mia shrugged. "And or smooth enough to pull it off."

"Maybe we can consult your sketchbook for ideas?" He teased, knowing damn well he was playing with fire.

Mia's face reddened from a mix of playful anger, embarrassment, and maybe something more. "Watch it," she warned, opening her door and buckling in. "You ain't ready for none of that yet, mi amor."

Oliver laughed, opened the car door, and fast-traveled to Mia's apartment. He warped into the parking lot in front of the building, no time having passed nor suspicion raised as Mia unbuckled her seatbelt a whopping ten seconds after fastening it.

"Might as well come in for a few," Mia suggested. "Need to up my game now that you've leveled up your style."

His heart caught in his throat, sudden panic in his eyes. "...What?"

"You see, in RPG games, there are these things called 'stats', and when you get enough experience, you do this thing called-"

Oliver laughed and cradled his forehead. "Sorry, my brain rolled a critical failure there for a second. I thought you were talking about something else entirely."

"Kay, then..." Mia developed a smirk. "Right this way, weirdo."

Mia led Oliver to an apartment on the first floor, something he was pretty jealous about, considering he lived on the third floor of his own place. That was only the beginning of the jealousy because once he actually stepped inside, he discovered Mia lived somewhere dozens of times nicer than he did.

Whatever Zoe did for a living, it must've paid pretty damn well because there was no way Mia could've afforded to live here on her own. That's not to say it was a mansion; it was just a slightly better-than-average apartment in Vista Venus than his exceedingly below-average one.

He took his shoes off and entered the living room, taking in the sights he hoped to become very familiar with.

Oliver thought it looked nice, all in all. Given that she'd told him Zoe rarely leaves her room, he assumed that Mia made most of the home decor choices, and it showed. There was a bookshelf filled haphazardly with movies and cheap little figurines from various games and anime, posters on the wall depicting some of Mia's favorite series, and a decently-sized TV sitting against the wall pointed at a couch.

As someone who lived in a studio apartment, the couch excited Oliver much more than it should've.

The living room was separated from the kitchen by an island built into the wall, which Mia apparently kept nice and tidy. Oliver could see a small hallway off the side of the kitchen leading to a pair of adjacent bedrooms and a bathroom. The nearest door belonged to Zoe, as made apparent by the whiteboard hanging off the front of it, which read 'Zoe Zone' in what he suspected was Mia's handwriting, chiefly because the margins were filled to the brim with doodles of video game controllers from different consoles and popular game characters.

"Go ahead and have a seat. Make yourself comfortable. Drinks are in the fridge if you want something." Mia unzipped her jacket and tossed it haphazardly across her couch, discarding her shoes at the entrance before heading into the hallway. "I'll try not to take too long."

"Don't mind me, I'm not in a rush..." Oliver cocked his head at a strange sight he saw while taking his own shoes off.

Mixed in with the typical sneakers and sandals you'd expect to see was a pair of black, furry snow boots. Or at least that's what Oliver thought they were since he'd never actually seen a pair of snow boots before outside of Christmas movies. Weird, but he didn't dwell on it for long and soon sank into the comfortable couch, exhaling in envy and contentment.

Oliver continued to take in the details of his environment for a few moments, really breathing in the atmosphere of his girlfriend's casual living space before pulling out his phone and picking up where he left off on a gag manga adaptation of one of his favorite dating sims, KoiGals. The game followed a carp breeder who ended up attracting the attention of some freshwater mermaids up in the mountains of Japan, while the manga was a loose continuation of the canonical harem route.

It wasn't high art, but it was cute, and his brain subsisted entirely on the psychic energy provided to him by watching cute anime girls doing cute things. It served its purpose and served it well.

Then, after about two minutes of reading, Oliver thought he heard the sound of the pages of an actual, physical book being turned. It stood out thanks to the apartment's relative silence, save for what sounded like muffled, angry yelling intermittently coming out of Zoe's room. He looked around but couldn't determine a source, so Oliver put it out of his mind and continued absorbing his brain-rotting slop.

Two minutes later, he heard the same sound. Oliver looked at his surroundings yet again but didn't bother getting up. He'd never been here before. For all he knew, it might've just been the creaking of the building. When it happened for the third time, he pinpointed it coming from behind the couch and started to grow worried. He was tempted to go and get Mia, but curiosity won out on him in the end, and he peeked over the edge.

Pressed between the wall and the back of the couch was a very short white girl reading from a vast cinderblock-sized tome while lying on her belly. The girl had brunette hair tied into a large braid slung over her left shoulder and droopy bangs covering her eyes. She was relatively chubby from the waist down, had a tied-off cloth bag with a runic circle design hanging from her neck that he recognized to be a dice bag, and was wearing a white blouse with ruffled sleeves, black dress pants, and a red fanny pack strapped around her hips.

More so than anything else, the most noticeable thing about this girl's appearance was the huge, black and red military cap she was rocking. It was utterly out of place for the modern era, and the optics on that thing were... not good. It looked concerningly fascist, making Oliver question whether or not this girl somehow broke into Mia's apartment after having survived a tragic wheelie accident earlier that day on her way to her particular type of rally.

The girl gawked at him in silence after noticing his presence. She had big and mousy maroon eyes, round, freckled cheeks, and an open mouth revealing a pair of stereotypically nerdy buck teeth. After a couple seconds of staring awkwardly at each other, the girl slowly raised her giant book in front of her face, using it as a wall to hide from Oliver and pretend she didn't exist.

Weirded out as he already was, the book's title and cover art only gave him another billion other questions to add to the growing pile. 40th Space Reich: Johann Hurtz and the Betrayal on Zehrgiok Prime pictured a dashing, blue-eyed, blond-haired military officer wearing a red and black military uniform that didn't so much flirt with the fascist aesthetic so much as drown itself in it. The only thing this chainsaw sword-wielding ubermensch standing atop a mountain of alien skulls was missing from his ensemble was a red armband.

Oliver turned away, stood up, and closed his eyes in deep contemplation.

He walked to Mia's bedroom, pausing briefly to admire the matching whiteboard to Zoe's that read 'Mia Zone' featuring scribbles of various sexy anime characters, guys and gals alike, and knocked on the door. "Mia?"

"Doing an awful job if you're trying to peek, Ollie. Might not want to announce yourself next time."

"Noted. Are you decent?"

"Sec," Oliver heard mild ruffling coming from her room before cracking open the door. She poked her head out and wore a tank top and boyish shorts that she'd just haphazardly thrown on. "Sup? Need help finding something, or are you just that impatient?"

"No, I just figured I should ask if you knew there was a fascist hiding behind your couch or not."

Oliver expected Mia to stare at him like he'd just had a stroke. Instead, she stepped out of her room and into the hallway with her hands on her hips, calling out, "Becca? You skipping work again?"

A couple seconds later, the tip of the girl's hat was poking up from behind the couch. "Yes," answered a meek voice. "Sorry. I didn't know you were coming home early. Also, I didn't recognize the other person's voice, and since I was already in my comfy spot, I thought I'd just wait until you guys were gone..."

"You're cool," Mia shrugged. "Just making sure it was you and not some other weirdo. Why don't you come back to my room for a few minutes? You can go back to your spot after we take off."

"Kay..." the hidden one stood from her comfy spot and shuffled towards Mia's room. She was staring at the floor as she went and didn't look in Oliver's direction when she passed him. Before entering, however, she did stop and spare him a few words. "40th Space Reich isn't fascist. It's made by British people."

Her words weren't defensive-sounding or even upset, really. It sounded more like she was simply reciting a fact and held no particular grudge toward Oliver for getting it wrong.

Once the target was secure, Mia entered the hall and closed the door behind her. "So..." she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "That was my friend Rebecca."

"How does that work?" Oliver tilted his head. "I mean, I've seen some Mexicans who can pass for being white, but-"

"She's not a Nazi," Mia laughed awkwardly. "Just really, really into this tabletop thing where you build and paint little armies of sci-fi dudes before making 'em duke it out."

That sounded vaguely familiar to Oliver. He didn't play any tabletop games himself since you needed friends for that, and he currently had a whopping total of one, who was a very recent acquisition and also not entirely human. That being said, he occasionally listened to a few different actual play podcasts, and 40th Space Reich had definitely come up once or twice throughout them, though he didn't remember much of what was said.

"The guy on the cover of her book looked like an SS officer, though..."

"Oh, for sure. Game's Hitler's wet dream, from what she's told me about it. Not entirely sure I buy it when she says a lot of it's supposed to be satire, but hey, it makes her happy."

If Mia said it was no big deal, Oliver was inclined to believe her. "Good enough for me. Is she okay, though? She looked a little scared."

"Don't mind her. Becca's just nervous around new people and toward dudes in general," Mia cracked open her door again and stepped one foot inside. "I'll introduce you properly sometime after she's had some more exposure to you. For now, go and wait for me to finish up. Won't be long."

Oliver returned to his seat, now too distracted to return to his reading. Mia's friend was an odd one, and he didn't know what to think of Rebecca from their short interaction thus far. She was cute if you were into nerdy, mousy girls, which Oliver certainly was, although that fascination of hers instinctually raised a red flag of a very special sort circa the mid-1940s.

Weird was the best way to describe her, he supposed. It was a familiar sort of weird, though. Like Rebecca had trouble standing out and no one entirely understood her. It might've just been Oliver projecting, but he instinctively felt they had something in common.

He found himself wondering about the hobby. It crossed Oliver's mind that painting minifigures might be another good way to work on his spark stat when he got tired of drawing, so he quickly searched the net to see what a beginner paint set and some little army dudes might cost him. The answer threatened to make his eyes pop out of his skull like a cartoon character.

And to think his time with Stacy had him thinking that fashion was an expensive hobby...