Love Collector Intro Outline

Well I think it's safe to say I'm a lot more motivated and invested in this story. I did 6k words today and yesterday because of how much fun I was having. Let me know your thoughts.

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Start

• Oliver wakes up late after a long night of gaming. He had too much edibles so his mind is aching and he's regretting every second of it, but he couldn't stop. The route on the game he was playing was to engaging and he had to see that heroine's story through to the end. It was pretty good, but he was looking to see what the next six were like before working his way up to the harem route.
• We see him in his morning routine getting ready for work. It's emphasized that he's sloppy and scrappy looking, nothing too special. He checks the time and realizes he doesn't have time for a shower, since it's gonna take him at least a half-hour to drive uptown. It's okay, he thankfully had the sense to shower last night before beginning his game session. He leaves his apartment and after sitting down in his cheap car he has a moment where he thinks he's forgetting something about today.
• He checks his phone and sees that it's Valentine's Day. That makes him grumble a little to himself but he says he'll get through it. Eight hours and then he can get back to his most recent love and have a romantic evening. Besides, his work isn't that bad. It could be a lot worse. He is an 'Associate' at Payless Foods, a small supermarket in a nice neighborhood. It means he cleans, stocks the shelves, unload trucks, and bags of groceries. All of that for fifteen dollars an hour.
• He gets to the building and puts on his apron just in time for the morning get together. Tessa get on his case for almost being late and Oliver apologizes to her, not wanting to get on her bad side more than he already was. There are about ten employees present but Oliver only pays attention to two of his coworkers, Stacy, who is on her phone, and Mia, who casually greets him.
• He doesn't think much of her but if anyone here was his friend she was the closest. Tessa usually stuck them together more often than not and so they unofficially hung out most of the day. Better than having to work with Stacy. Mia was a very quiet person, though, and she stared at him from time to time and it was hard to tell what she was thinking so he assumed the worst. She seemed chill, however. She had some anime pins pinned to her uniform's apron. Mia changes them out pretty often and he recounts what series they are from today.
• As usual, Tessa orders he and Mia to work together. Tessa talks about it being Valentine's Day during the daily meeting and says she doesn't want any stupid drama so if any of you have plans with each other, figure it out somewhere fucking else and don't be annoying about it.
• The morning meeting ends and he and Mia get to work on their task. She surprises him today by being a little chatty. They're cleaning the floors and she notices he doesn't look great today. Oliver admits a new game came out yesterday, one he'd been looking forward to. She asks him about it but he can't tell her it's a hentai dating game so he is evasive in his answer.
• Mia talks about Tessa and her grumpy ass. Asks how badly Oliver thinks she got burned to put such a stick up her ass. Oliver wagers quite a lot but he wonders why she felt the need to talk about that. Is anyone who works here hooking up or something? Mia gives him a disappointed sounding no but he doesn't know she's disappointed.
• It's quiet for a bit but she eventually asks him if he's got any plans for tonight. What, you mean like a date? yeah. Oliver laughs off the notion, though he's thinking about his dating sim internally. No. What about you? Nope. Mia pointedly stares at him. Silence. She says she's never even had a boyfriend, and Oliver is like uh, yeah, me either before clarifying he meant girlfriend.
• The silence continues and the reader will very obviously get that she expects or is hoping something to come from this but he's oblivious to it and Mia realizes this. She looks like she's going to say something, but then thinks better of it and rubs her wrist. Says there's always next year or something and it's a stupid holiday anyway.
• When they make it to the next aisle, they come across the new guy hitting on Stacy as they're supposed to be loading up expired products. We get the feeling that Oliver is very uncomfortable around her. They aren't sure what she said to him, but it was really bad. He starts to cry and takes off his apron, throwing it to the floor before running away. She sighs, knowing that Tessa is going to be pissed she scared off the new hire.
• Stacy then notices that Oliver and Mia are watching her and she says something bitchy to them. Oliver apologizes, saying he didn't want to get in the way while they were talking but Stacy storms off annoyed to go and tell Tessa what happened. She'll probably get a slap on the wrist because the new guy was flaky anyway.
• Work continues but the conversation with Mia dies off as they both settle into the monotonous grind. Eight hours later and their shift is up. Oliver is in the restroom having a moment to himself before he leaves. He's been working here for two years now and still isn't really sure about the direction his life is going in. He's got no money, no aspirations, no skills, and a spotty history with mental health. He doesn't even have a high school degree.
• It's all pretty disappointing but he reminds himself to take it a day at a time. While very stereotypical advice, it's always helped him. He was a little upset about the Valentine's Day thing too, even though he initially wasn't. He was just going to go home and play dating sims like usual since the feeling of chasing after 2D girls, unraveling their stories, and falling in love with them has always helped him cope with his lack of social skills and his loneliness. He washes his face and leaves the bathroom and then the store, mentally bemoaning how it's gonna take an hour to get back because of all the traffic this time of day.
• When he leaves, Mia is standing there outside scrolling through her phone. She's changed into a red hoodie and she puts her phone away when she notices him. She puts her hand in her pocket and talks to him again. He makes a joke about if she was waiting for him and it takes her a moment but she 'jokes' back maybe she was. Oliver gets nervous and says she shouldn't get a guy's hopes up on Valentine's Day.
• She stares at him, muttering, 'you really are a special type of stupid sometimes, aren't you white boy' in Spanish under her breath. Oliver doesn't catch that and she says it doesn't matter. To his credit, he does ask her what's up and even finds it in him to ask if she needs a ride home. Mia fumbles the ball this time, turning down the offer instantly only to realize what she just did and how weird it would look if she went back on it.
• Says she was just texting her roommate on if they needed groceries before walking home and that she's good. Oliver tries to excuse himself politely since the traffic is going to be a pain in the ass and says he'll see her tomorrow, but she stops him before he goes. She's fumbling with something in her pocket but can't bring herself to do it. Tells him to actually try and get some rest tonight so that he's not almost late again- she doesn't want her work buddy getting fired, because it will get boring.
• Oliver is a little overwhelmed since he's not used to getting kindness from cute girls and he thanks her before heading to his car. He's proud of himself for asking if she needed a ride and is starting to think Mia is nicer than he thought she was.
• As he drives off, Mia takes out a homemade chocolate she made for him and throws it into a garbage can before kicking it. Stacy is revealed to have been watching the whole thing and says she nearly died of cringe. The scene ends as Mia offers to finish the bitch off herself.

The magic begins

• Oliver gets home from work and decompresses. His first instinct is to throw himself onto the bed and not get up, but if he does that he's not going to have the motivation to do anything else tonight. Same as every other day, they're all just bleeding into each other. He wishes something could happen like in one of his games, like a chance encounter with a mysterious girl or some kind of power showing up and makes him special, anything to break up the grind and give him purpose.
• Speaking of mysterious girl, he thinks about Mia and how uncharacteristically chatty she was today. It was nice. He's proud of himself for offering her a ride home, even if he's unsure of how he managed to do that. It's probably for the best that she turned him down, as he doesn't know how he would react sharing a car with a cute girl.
• Still, he thinks about maybe trying to get to know Mia a little bit better. Maybe ask her about her pins sometime soon. She's cute and even though he doesn't think he has much to offer, she is also working a dead-end job at a grocery store so it's not like she's rolling around in options. He tries to curtail the disparaging thoughts of self worth and cooks himself dinner- instant ramen. Almost all of last week's paycheck went to bills so he wishes he could get something a little nicer.
• Just as he's thinking that, he gets a call from his mom. We see that he has a good relationship with her and while she's a little nosy she's very nice. Asks him if he is going to do anything for Valentine's Day or just play one of his games, feeling embarrassed, he tries to mention there's a coworker he has his eye on just to get her off his back.
• She teases him that he could pull it off. Put all those skills he learned in his games to good use. He really doesn't like talking about that with his mom so he awkwardly fumbles his way through the rest of the conversation. She makes sure he has enough money and if he's eating right, causing him to look at his cooling cup of ramen as he says he is. The call ends and Oliver thinks about how tempting it is to imagine living at home, but the first thing he did after his recovery was decide to become independent.
• If nothing else, he'd managed that much. He eats his dinner and then turns on the TV to watch a few episodes of anime- one of the ones that was on Mia's pins- and takes an edible gummy from a new bottle, a brand he's never tested before. Once it kicks in he sets up his laptop with a desk that hovered over his bed and boots up his new game to lose himself for the night.
• We get some more details about his lifelong fascination with dating sims. He's been playing them since he was a middle schooler- nothing too erotic at the start, he only moved on to the more hard-core stuff later on in his gaming journeys. Oliver was a awkward kid who didn't really have many friends. He didn't always pick up on social cues and had trouble communicating with others. He got along well enough with his fellow nerds, but he was mostly just there and wasn't particularly close to anyone.
• He wanted to change that going into high school. He'd seen a bunch of anime and was familiar with the idea of a dating sim from them so he decided to give it a shot, thinking maybe these types of games would help him learn how to talk to girls and be more confident. His first one was DokiDoki Monument, an innocent classic of the genre, and he just kept getting sucked into the world of visual novels from there.
• His favorites are sandbox ones, the kind of dating sims where you control a character and make choices on where you want to focus your attention, whether that be girls or raising your stats. It's a shame that this type wasn't as common as standard visual novels were, but it made the ones that did come out even more special when they did. The one he's playing right now is a sandbox style RPG, which is why he was so excited for it. It was in early access forever, and then he had to wait for the DLC to finish so that all of the heroines were available. It was a shitty practice but nothing he could do about it other than wait.
• Only in the last couple years did he start playing with edibles. It felt good to effectively turn his brain off, not worry about things, and just absorb the story and the cute girls of whatever he was playing. It made his favorite form of escapism even better, though he tried to limit it to only a couple times a week. Given that today was Valentine's Day and Oliver was as lonely as he ever was, he figured he might as well.
• He loses himself in the game world, increasing his stats, buying items, talking to the girls, planning out dates, and stroking himself idly the entire time. As the hours keep going, Oliver drifts further and further away from himself mentally. He's entered into an abstract state of thought and he has a sudden realization as he reaches the end of the second heroine's route.
• Life would be so much easier if only he could be a dating sim protagonist. Those kinds of protagonists were blank slates that you could do anything with. They can become any kind of person you want them to be after enough gameplay. You could say that about real life, too, but it takes a lot more effort to change yourself.
• Oliver knows this the hard way. He tried once before and thanks to a certain someone it didn't end well. He got through the worst of it with the help of his family and a lot of good old-fashioned therapy, but the memory of what happened and who he became still haunted him and prevented him from moving forward, from putting in the effort.
• As he watches the sex scene with his chosen heroine, he sincerely wishes for a new start. He wants to be like a dating sim protagonist. He wants to improve himself, wants to have the courage to talk to cute girls like Mia, and he wants to become a better person. His vision starts to blur and he can't focus on the game. Feels like his high is getting even more powerful and he soon passes out as everything turns pink.

Something is very wrong

• Oliver wakes up the next morning to the sound of his alarm clock. He turns it off, knowing that it will ring again in another ten minutes. He must've fallen asleep with the game open, because he hears a faint background music playing. Like pretty much every dating game ever, it sounded like royalty-free music played on an infinite loop. Oliver reaches over and closes his laptop, expecting sleep mode to turn off the music, but it doesn't.
• This is not the first time that bad copyright free music dug itself into his skull because of a dating game. He'd experienced countless earworms before and chalked it up to that. He rubs his eyes and tiredly opens them. In front of him is a floating screen with a bunch of text. He wonders how high he even got last night, but isn't too concerned because he's still half asleep. Oliver and waives this as a manifestation of the Tetris effect- he's had text boxes and sprites burned into his eyes before.
• He mumble reads some of the text which is an introduction to his new powers before tiredly reaching out for the X button and closing it. He closes his eyes and goes back to sleep. He gets up for real the next time and the background music still isn't gone which mildly annoys him. He realizes it doesn't even sound like the one from his game, but they're all pretty much interchangeable so it must be from something he doesn't remember right away.
• Oliver woke up at a decently early time this morning so he takes a quick shower (even brushing his hair, which is important) and pumps himself up for the day ahead, reminding himself that he can do it and even throwing in a goal to try and talk more with Mia today. He might not be a dating game protagonist, but this is one small thing he can work on. Maybe it'll lead somewhere, maybe it won't. He leaves his apartment and heads to his car.
• As soon as he opens the door, another menu appears and Oliver freezes. It's a map of his city. A bunch of destinations are shown on it with little map markers, and there's a button in the bottom right corner that says manual. He looks around him but no one is there in the parking lot and he's totally lost.
• He looks for the best explanation and wonders if there was something he didn't expect included in the gummy last night. Weed doesn't give you hallucinations, which he is clearly suffering from between this and the music. He closes the car door which makes the menu go away and then goes back and checks the bottle, but it's just an ordinary gummy with all the same ingredients he expected from it. Thinking logically, his next guess is schizophrenia which is fucking awesome. He doesn't have anyone in his family that has it, but he is the right age for it.
• He thinks about calling in for the day but he doesn't want to have to deal with Tessa being angry at him. In denial, Oliver convinces himself this will be okay and that it probably won't happen again. The music will probably clear up soon as well. He goes back to the car and opened the door causing map menu to appear again. He doesn't know what he expected. This time, he takes a closer look at the menu and it reminds him of the maps in dating sims.
• It was probably better to ignore this idle thought, but Oliver is curious. He sees Payless Foods as one of the blips on the map and with a great amount of hesitation he reaches out and presses it with his finger like it was a mouse. A sub window opens up asking him if he wants to fast travel to his destination and there is a yes or no option. He discovers the menus are intractable and this makes him even more curious yet worried about how deep his mental illness must be running.
• Curiosity beats out the concern and he clicks yes.
• His vision goes dark and then reappears. He is sitting in his car in the parking lot of Payless Foods. Oliver is startled and he looks around. He has no memory of driving here- and even more scarily so- no time has passed. He was a full half an hour early to work. The background music has changed, as well. Oliver tries to stay calm and retests this power by leaving the car, opening the door, and then going back to his apartment.
• It confirms it. He literally traveled halfway across the city in an instant, but he is in such disbelief that he does it a third time and goes back to work. Oliver is having a near panic attack now and he exits the car to get some air. There's gotta be a reason for this. He corrects himself. There is, but there has to be a reason that isn't schizophrenia. This is a lucid dream, Oliver figures. He tries to control his surroundings but Stacy calls out to him as he looks like a weirdo asking him what the fuck he's doing.

Work 1

• He turns around and sees Stacy, and he swears that she somehow looks even more bright and colorful and perfect than she usually does. She's looking at him unnerved and maybe even a little worried, she has a cup of coffee in her hand. Two things happen when Oliver looks at her. The music shifts into a bitchy sounding instrumental pop song with clapping similar to Hollaback Girl, the second is that a window appears over Stacy's head.
• It announces that a new heroine has been encountered before turning into something he's very familiar with, a window straight out of a dating sim. It displays a 2D chibi icon of Stacy's face on the left, her name, current relationship status to him (coworker), an affection meter that sits at -%50, and five empty heart icons below it.
• He stares at this for so long that it freaks her out. She asks if he's on drugs or something, if he needs help. The surrealness of Stacy offering to help him of all people snaps Oliver out of it and he rubs his eyes and says he's had a rough morning. Stacy looks at him with skepticism and asks what the fuck he's doing here so early. Oliver says he could ask the same thing, but she says she takes the bus and gets coffee every morning. She always hangs around and messes with her phone until it's time to clock in.
• He says he couldn't sleep and didn't want to stay at home. Stacy eventually gives up her scrutiny and shrugs this off as not her problem. Before she walks away, she makes a passing comment about how he should brush his hair more often and that he almost looks halfway presentable. Her affection increases by a single point.
• Oliver chills at a bench on the side of the building alone. He has to come to terms with what he just saw. The map, the fast travel, the BGM, the thing over Stacy- all things he's very familiar with from dating sims. The funny thing is that for as unbelievable as all of this is, the most unbelievable part of it all is that Stacy would qualify as a potential love interest. He doesn't say so but he's thinking along the lines of 'after everything she's done to me' without actually clarifying.
• Oliver rationalizes that if this is real, and maybe it just does that for every girl. An opportunity to test this shows up- an coworker in her early forties parks and approaches the front door. She's nice enough and greets Oliver like she usually does, and Oliver responds kindly back to her.
• No change in BGM, no relationship window. Either Stacy is special, or there are some kind of qualifiers that he doesn't know about. He still doesn't really believe this is happening, but he does vaguely remember wishing his life was more like a dating sim last night before he got really tired. Oliver wonders if some higher power may be granted that wish, but he's highly skeptical. You would think God would care more about shit like the Holocaust and not making some loser's life into a dating game.
• He hunches over and rubs his face. Mia calls out to him, saying he didn't do a good job on getting rest and he looks like shit.
• Before Oliver looks at her, he freezes. Maybe if this is real, Mia is also a potential heroine? The thought feels him with potential optimism and he looks at her.

Work 2

• The background music changes. Mia's theme is a slow, quiet Hispanic sounding song played on acoustic guitar and every so often there are maracas when he least expects them, making the song more feisty than it appears at first. There's a joke here about Oliver thinking 'great, my schizophrenic auditory hallucinations are racist. What does this say about me?'
• There is also the same notification he got with Stacy, the biggest difference between them being that Mia's affection meter is already at 60%. He does a double take. Why would it be that high? They don't even talk that much. He wonders if she likes him for some reason, and the idea makes him admittedly excited.
• He greets her and she's pretty worried about him. He looks like he shouldn't be here today. Oliver thinks about how to respond to that before deciding to be somewhat honest with her, asking if he can be real with her. She's like yeah whatever. He tells her he took an edible last night and something must've been weird with it because he's a little out of it today.
• Mia is sympathetic and sits next to him on the bench. She shows a surprising amount of knowledge on the topic and asks where he got it from, he tells her, and she confirms its a legit place. She was worried he went to a shady shop or something, because some of them mix in a little something extra. He looks at her in surprise and says I had no idea you took edibles.
• She smiles casually and says I had no idea you did, either.
• The shared interest causes Mia's meter to increase by five points and Oliver has a deep reaction to this. It's the same thing he feels when playing one of his games- he's addicted to the little moments where the player character builds affection with the datable girls- the moments where they get closer and learn more about each other. It's always a big rush of dopamine, but now that is happening in real life with an actual girl, it's even more potent.
• Oliver feels a drive to get even closer to Mia but that should be the least of his concerns right now.
• Mia chastises him for driving here while his head was still foggy, though. Oliver plays it off and says it was smooth, almost like getting here in a trance. Yeah, that doesn't sound good she thinks. Mia gets nervous at her suggestion but offers to take him back to her place so he can nap on her couch or something. It's only a ten minute walk and she can fill Tessa in later for him. She'll have to text her roommate, but-
• Oliver is overwhelmed that she would offer but he thinks it's best if he tries to ground himself. Maybe work will take his mind off things. Mia relents, as long as he's sure. They share a nice moment together where he thanks her for being so concerned and she casually pats his knee with her right hand telling him it's no big deal. She rubs her right wrist after but he doesn't think much of it because he's overwhelmed that a girl touched him.
• Mia pulls him out of it and says they need to go clock in or they'll miss the morning meeting. He follows along and they both get ready for the day in the back room where they clock in, put their aprons on, and Oliver hopes things will maybe go a little bit more smooth for the rest of the day and that no more weirdness would crop up for a while.

Work 3

• Weirdness cropped up immediately, the second the meeting begins. Tessa enters the employee room and Oliver is immediately like 'nope. nope. nope this isn't fucking happening.' Because the BGM changes to Tessa's theme- a bitter jazz song that makes him think of a somber bar late in the evening hours- and he gets the same notification. His evil boss from hell is a heroine, and her affection is at -%200.
• There has to be some mistake he thinks, surely he was right the first time and activates for every girl, but he looks around and it doesn't activate for any of the other female coworkers aside from the ones it already has. He's not even listening to the meeting because the insanity is too distracting. Mia notices how hard he's tripping and she jabs him in the thigh, saying that he is fucking sweating and he should go home if it's just getting worse.
• Oliver thinks there might be some merit in that after all, and he says he'll consider it. Paying closer attention to Tessa, he hears about the guy who quit yesterday and she roasts Stacy over what happened. Stacy is dismissive, it's not her fault. You know how guys are. Tessa doesn't openly say agree because she's the owner and that would be gender discrimination, but it's no secret that she has a big distaste for the opposite sex. That negative affection score only further proves it.
• He wonders if the hair one thing only appears if it's a girl that he could theoretically possibly win over, but that doesn't seem very likely. He could theoretically win the lottery sooner than he could seduce Tessa. God that's a weird fucking thought, 'seduce Tessa'...
• Tessa says that everyone needs to work a little bit harder until she finds a replacement for the morning shift, and she looks right at Oliver when she asks if that's understood. He was going to ask if he could go home as soon as the meeting was done, but now it doesn't look like he has a choice and he acknowledges it, as does everyone else.
• Good. Let's get to work, people. Right as the meeting dissolves, a new menu shows up. Oliver has two options. Work Hard or Manual. Work hard has a -5 EN icon next to it, manual has -4. As a dating sim player, he wonders if he has a energy meter that he has to take care of. This is his life now, so he thinks he needs to experiment and figure out what it does.
• The thing is, the difference between work hard and manual scares him. Oliver intuits that manual means free control and probably exists so that he can interact with Mia, Stacy, and Tessa while working. Work hard, on the other hand... wouldn't that imply skipping ahead? He's drawn to the option and wants to know what happens, wondering if his guess is correct.
• It is. His vision blackens and snaps back to place at the end of his shift. He and Mia are in the back room hanging up their aprons. On one hand, is awesome that he didn't have to work at all today. On the other, he just fast forwarded eight hours of his life that he'll never get back presumably. Once he actually thinks about it, he realizes it's not actually that bad since that's what work is anyway.
• Mia comments on how he really turned things around after that rough start today, he was working like he had something to prove. Oliver is evasive in his answer since he's still mentally piecing together what just happened. He asked if there was anything else different about him today. Mia looks at him with concern and says well I guess you got quiet after the meeting, but you told me not to worry about it and that you just had a lot on your mind, remember? Or did you forget?
• Oliver is quiet for a second before Mia shows some spine and confronts him about what's going on- figuring that he did forget he even said that. Again, he's met with certain proof that Mia cares about him. He's never seen her this stern and it's a totally new side of her, one he kind of likes.
• He says you know when the weed finally gets out of your system and sometimes you just kinda feel like shit for the rest of the day? I think that just happened and I only just now snapped out of it. Mia buys it and tells him to throw that junk out as soon as he gets home, there's something wrong with it. He agrees.
• She asks him if he's going to be all right by himself.
• Oliver has a thought that he never would've had in a million years until today. If his life is now like a dating sim, this question was one he could probably use to gain some momentum with Mia. He didn't want to abuse her kindness, but he also wanted to test out whether this was the flag he thought it was or not. He'd make a small, innocent suggestion and see how she responded.
• Oliver says he's pretty sure it will be okay but if she wants to stay updated she could give him her number and he could text her if he feels worse.
• Mia stares at him. He stares back. He is afraid that he just made a giant mistake- that this was all in his head and Mia was just looking after a coworker. She didn't like him like that and it was just a result of his poor probably schizophrenic mind misinterpreting her signals as interest.
• Terrified and thinking himself stupid for having thought he could change his ways, he tries to save face and says you don't have to if you don't want to, I was just-
• Mia blushes heavily but asked him for his phone. Nervously, he hands it over. As she adds herself to his contacts, a little icon above her head shows that she just gained ten affection points. She hands it back to him and then zips up her hoodie in a hurry. She mumbles something about needing to get home fast now but stresses that he should text her later tonight no matter how he's feeling just so that she knows he's okay.
• Oliver is blindsided and is just like yeah. She leaves and he can't believe what he's feeling.
• He knew from his games that he was a very shallow person. It didn't take much to get him to fall for 2D girls, but now he learned the same was true about real ones. That adorable way she took off like she was embarrassed about the whole thing- that was enough to seal the deal. He was pretty sure he had feelings for Mia now, and for the first time in his life, he was filled with hope for the future.
• A notification goes off telling him Heroine Quest completed - get Mia's phone number. +5 LP.
• Okay, that's even more shit to digest, but he tries to focus on the positives for now.

Going Home and Menu

• Oliver is stopped on his way out by Tessa. She calls out to him and tells him he did a good job today. Oliver does know how to take this at first because it's so strange to hear her praising him. He stares at her blankly, then watches as she gains 5 affection. He tucks it away that the key to getting on her good side is hard work, not that he's actually thinking of pursuing her or anything.
• He thanks her, and she surprises him by telling him the money should be in his account. Oliver is like what? Your pay. He reminds her that paychecks aren't until this Friday and she looks at him like he's stupid. She reminds him he gets paid daily just like he always has. Rolling with it, he asks if anyone else gets paid like that. All of his questions are annoying her and he loses an affection point.
• He decides to bail before he winds up pissing her off anymore and says he'll see her tomorrow. She is happy to hear he's coming in tomorrow and this makes him stop- Oliver asks what happens if he can't come in tomorrow. He knows it's going to cost him an affection point when she gets mad, but he needs to verify his suspicion. She confirms that he only works when he wants to.
• Oliver understands and apologizes that he's being so stupid, all that hard work must've tired him out. Tessa gives him an indifferent dismissal and then we hear Oliver's thoughts on his way back to his car. In many dating sims, the protagonist works multiple jobs, gets paid daily, and can show up whenever he wants without fear of getting fired. From a gameplay perspective, this is so that the player can always have money to spend on girls and dates without having to worry about things like paychecks.
• Now it seemed like his life followed those rules as well. Checking his bank account, there was indeed a deposit of his daily wages. Out of all the confusing things to happen today, this was a pretty nice surprise. He opens his car door and takes a deep breath as he readies himself for what comes next, then goes back to his apartment. Same as before, he warps there and shows up randomly.
• It's going to take a while before he gets used to that. When he exits his car, he runs into a neighbor. An old man with a dog. His first thought is that he totally just saw him teleporting, didn't he. Oliver felt stupid for not even considering that was a possibility, but the neighbor greets him like nothing is out of the ordinary and asks him how the traffic was. Oliver realizes this must mean his teleportation must appear normal to everyone else which is a good thing, because how could he even explained what was happening?
• Oliver goes back home and has no idea what the fuck to do. He's pacing around. So much has happened that it's hard to completely dismiss, but he's still wondering whether he should call his mom and see about getting some help with a psychiatric appointment. A new notification pops up, a pro tip reminding him he can open his menu by saying open menu. If you need further assistance it's recommended you purchase the 'Best Friend' skill for a more hands-on tutorial. Tells him as a starting bonus he's been given three hundred LP to purchase skills.
• He thinks he might as well, so he does so. The menu pops up with all its icons. Status, heroines, inventory, quests, skills. Oliver has a lot of shit to look through, it seems. He starts with his status. His stats are all zero, his money is shown, he has 315 LP, his status is stated as virgin, and his skill list is empty except for Reality Bender. It describes itself as the next evolution of humanity unlocked by the combination of weed, loneliness, and latent psychic abilities. Lets him influence the world in a manner unique to the individual, often responding to the user's wishes.
• Oliver thinks on this a little bit. If he really is psychic, that means his desire for the world to be simpler and gamified was granted and that he really has become the protagonist of a dating sim. He could think of worse powers to be saddled with, but there's still too much he doesn't know. The system recommended a skill to get a tutorial, but Oliver wants to mess around with the menu more first.
• He goes into the heroine tab and they are displayed Mia, Stacy, and Tessa. Not in order of when they were registered but probably based on their current affection for him. It still makes him happy to think about getting Mia's number. He clicks on her tab to see if it provides any information that he can use. It gives some basic information that I will come up with later and there's submenus for milestones and skills.
• Oliver goes into the milestone page. Currently, there is only Got Mia's Number, but Oliver blushes when he sees there are two categories for milestones. Romance and Sex. So these powers are to help him get closer with girls and then get laid. That was already implied but it feels a little awkward to think about. He clicks on the skill submenu but it's locked saying that Mia's route has to be completed before this opens up.
• Oliver is a quick idea and checks if Tessa has a milestone. She's his boss so he has her number already, which would explain why his balance of LP is higher than it should be. He's right. Got Tessa's Number is there, and so is Texted Tessa. That must've been worth 5 LP as well.
• Next tab is quests, opening it up reveals a blank screen followed by another pop-up. It explains that occasionally he will be given an opportunity to earn extra LP by fulfilling certain objectives. That seems useful but there's nothing to gain from the menu right now so he moves on to skills. This is the big one, Oliver thinks. In dating sims and RPGs in general, using points to buy skills can completely change the game experience. The very idea of having that power in real life excites him as much as it makes him nervous, and Oliver opens the skill menu up.
• There are two options, personal and heroine. Heroine is grayed out maxing out their affection must be a requirement but it does get him curious. He focuses on the personal lines and opens the menu.

Skills and Best Friend

• he is hit with information overload. The window is massive, displaying a huge wall of text with a scrollbar that looked as if it could go on forever. At the top of the menu there were three options. Tier 1, 2 and 3. Oliver doesn't even try to read all of them but we see a couple examples from tier 1 ranging from pretty good to absolutely useless. We get a break down of the cost for skills between the tiers, 25 for 1, 50 for 2, 100 for 3. Complicating the matter is that a lot of tier 1 skills say 'Cooking Lv. 1', implying that they can be upgraded further.
• He looks through the other two tiers and in tier 3. Something discomforts him greatly. There are a lot of skills that were morally questionable at best and downright evil sounding at worst. Things having to do with domination, mind control, enslavement, training... stuff pulled straight out of the kinds of games he swore he would never play again. There were just as many skills about pure love and speeding that process along, though, so Oliver is able to look past the dark ones for now and views this as one of those games that gives you the option for what kind of content you want to experience- a true sandbox.
• But then he thinks back to his Reality Bender skill saying it reflects his desires. He forces himself not to dwell on this, saying he's a better person now and he's moved on from all that toxic ideology crap.
• He finds the best friend skill that was recommended by the tooltip. He's a little annoyed that he has to spend 100 LP just to get a decent tutorial, but he needs answers and when he reads the description for the skill he decides that he doesn't have another choice. It says a chance encounter with an old friend, one who's always been there for you and who will support you no matter what. Provides guidance, counsel, and advice on pursuing heroines.
• Oliver thinks that if that isn't a dating sim trope that he doesn't know what is. He bites the bullet and buys it. Nothing happens in the immediate aftermath and he jokingly wonders about making that psych appointment, only for there to be a knock on the door.
• Oliver has never had visitors before aside from his parents who always called ahead, so he thinks the timing is too suspicious. He cautiously looks out through the peephole and sees a handsome looking guy around his age. Back when he was in his darker days, Oliver would've called this guy a Chad normie and actively wished for his death. The guy knocks again and Oliver asks who it is as a test.
• The visitor responds it's his best pal Bradley, open up already. Oliver has never had a best pal, let alone one named Bradley. Part of him doesn't want to let the guy in but he did pay for it so he does so. Opening the door reveals that Bradley looked a little bit more off than he did through the peephole. His smile seemed somewhat artificial, his hair looked fake and not in a wig or toupee kind of way but in a made of plastic sort of way. His movements are stiff, too, giving Bradley the appearance of a living Ken doll.
• Oliver tries to nope out of this and shut the door on him, telling him he's got the wrong place. Bradley is overly familiar and laughing this off, jamming his hand in the door to prevent it being shut. It looks like it would really hurt but Bradley shows no signs of pain until he notices that Oliver is freaking out. Then he very fakely pantomimes pain. Oliver asks very bluntly if he can refund him, but Bradley laughs and says you can't refund seventeen years of friendship.
• I've never met you before in my life. Bradley says his mom's Facebook proves otherwise. There's a tense moment where Oliver gets out his phone and checks his mom's most recent status. It's a throwback post to some old memory that Oliver has from childhood except now a young Bradley is present. Bradley has commented on the post, too, and is actively engaging with his mom like they are old friends.
• Oliver experiences a moment of psychological horror but Bradley diffuses the tension, saying this isn't some thriller movie. I'm just a psychic construct here to serve as your best pal. I didn't exist until you bought the skill, and now I do. Other people now have artificial memories of his existence, but it's not that deep.
• Oliver asks why he looks so fake and artificial, and Bradley explains that Oliver doesn't know what having a best friend is like and so he's cobbled together from generic best friend NPCs from all the dating sims that he's played.
• This comically hurts Oliver, but it checks out. Oliver makes doubly sure that Bradley can answer his questions about how all of this is supposed to work and Bradley confirms he possesses intimate knowledge of the system that birthed him as well as the mechanics of Oliver's powers. Oliver counters this with how can a psychic construct of his own creation know things that Oliver doesn't know. Bradley simply says because you made me to know things you don't know.
• At this point, Oliver says fuck it and invites Bradley inside.

Reality lowdown

• Bradley is walking around the studio apartment, familiarizing himself with it and making up stories about random objects and he and Oliver's history with them. Oliver isn't paying much attention to him. He's writing down a list of questions to ask his new best friend. The list is expansive because there's predictably a lot of fucking things to cover. He tries to boil it down to something more manageable but there's just so many questions without answers that he eventually just scraps the list and decides to free ball it.
• He calls Bradley back to the coffee table in the middle of the room where they sit on the floor. While Oliver was distracted, Bradley brewed them both some coffee and prepared it exactly how Oliver likes it. Even though Bradley isn't real, Oliver still isn't used to people doing nice things for him and the gesture does endear him slightly to Oliver. He's then unsettled after Bradley takes a long sip from his scalding hot coffee without blinking.
• Oliver moves past that and tells Bradley that he needs to get a reality lowdown from him. Bradley volunteers himself as an open book. The first question is can someone please turn down the fucking music, it feels like someone's been blasting discount Kevin MacLeod stock music into his head all day and it's driving him insane. Bradley says he can do that for him, just another one of the services he provides. Oliver thinks back for a moment and then says maybe you can leave the girl's BGM themes on if that's an option, just a lower volume. Bradley complies.
• The first real question is how the fuck is any of this happening. He gets a repeated answer about the reality bender thing. People like him exist but they are extremely rare. They have the potential to become psychics but the evolution has to be triggered by a psychoactive substance and strong emotions, that's all Bradley really knows about it.
• And the dating sim theme is unique to me? Maybe some other guy out there got high as fuck and wished his life was like a dating sim, but Bradley wouldn't know. Before they go on Bradley makes sure Oliver believes this is all happening. Oliver does. It's better than accepting he has schizophrenia and has decided to just roll with it instead of constantly questioning whether or not this is real, or if he's dreaming, or God forbid he's in a coma and this is all in his head.
• The discussion moves forward and Oliver asks about his powers. Bradley explains that a bunch of things just happen now to make life more like a dating sim, and others will not notice them happening. That checks out with what Oliver has experienced so far. Tessa thought it was normal to pay him daily and so on. He asks if there's anything important he doesn't already know on this topic.
• Bradley points out that to better indulge his wishes, it's important to note that your heroines will not question the fact that you are a polygamist. Oliver bats his eye at this. When did I say I was a polygamist? You didn't have to, reality is giving you what you want. Oliver becomes nervous at this, asking if he was theoretically dating Mia and then hit on Stacy in front of her, Mia wouldn't get mad about it? It's not a get out of jail free card. Mia dislikes Stacy so she will likely feel grumpy about it but no she wouldn't break up with him over it.
• Oliver feels really slimy about this. Again, he thinks this says something about himself. Bradley doesn't help the matter and says it does. You want to have the freedom to date lots of pretty girls like you do in your favorite games. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been normalized. Bradley asks if he's wrong and Oliver is silent until saying then what about all the skills about controlling and hypnosis and junk. Are you saying I want that, too?
• Bradley has some surprising insight to this and actually manages to comfort Oliver. He tells him that yes, there was a time that you did, and maybe some dark thoughts still linger in the back of your head but that doesn't mean they define you. What you do with these powers is completely up to you. The world is your sandbox. If you desire to only chase a single heroine, you are completely free to do so. Keep in mind that accruing LP will be exceedingly difficult if he narrows his scope down to that, but be honest with yourself. Do you actually want to do that?
• Oliver thinks about it and is feeling emotional. His games have always made him obsessed with the feeling of being in love. He loves the difference between girls in all his games, finding out the charm points of each one, and learning all of their stories. He has to grapple with the truth that if he absolutely had the option, he wouldn't want to limit himself to just one.
• He's still going to, though. At least for now. He isn't sure about using all of these powers but he confirmed with Bradley that he has a chance of Mia, who says a much bigger chance than you know. He's going to focus on getting close to her and seeing what happens and he will tell her about his powers if things start getting really serious.
• Bradley explains that doing so will essentially make her take the red pill, assuming she believes him. Anyone you tell will gain awareness of the things you do. There are ways to take this awareness away if it's necessary, but Oliver probably don't want to dip his toes in any of that water. That is correct.
• Bradley jokes that it's probably in his best interest to focus on the tutorial girl anyway. Oliver says not to call her that, as Mia is a person and not an NPC like you. He feels bad for saying that, wondering if that's like a slur against psychic constructs or something but Bradley says it's cool.
• Oliver does admit that he's correct, though because his only other options are Stacy and Tessa. Tessa scares the shit out of him and Stacy is the... well, the girl who ruined his life. Neither of them are good targets and he doesn't understand how they are even options in the first place.
• Bradley thinks he could use an exposition dump about how heroines work, and Oliver says dump away.

Reality Lowdown 2

• Heroines are girls who could conceivably fall for Oliver if he made an attempt at earning their affection even before getting his powers. It takes a lot to imagine there is a reality where he could have ended up with Stacy and Tessa, but that's essentially what Bradley is saying.
• The three girls he's already met are not his only options. There is an entire world out there and there are plenty of other girls you're compatible with, he just hasn't met them. Additionally, he might meet a girl who doesn't initially register as a heroine because his stats aren't high enough. Dating sims are all about opening up avenues you didn't think were possible by improving yourself, so improve away.
• This gets them talking about the stats and he gets confirmation that it works pretty much the same way it would in a sandbox RPG. Go to the gym, gain one strength, and so on. Oliver asks about spark and is told its creativity, he jokes about how it feels like someone wanted to keep the 'S' theme going but admits it would annoy him if it was the only one that stood out.
• Then they talk about love points, which are pretty self-explanatory. He has to do new things with his heroines which will allow him to buy more skills. Bradley says tier 1 skills are primarily minor things like learning a new language or picking up talent in a hobby he's never tried before like cooking or guitar playing. Oliver plays the straight man saying learning a new language by clicking a button isn't a minor thing, but it is compared to the other tiers. Tier 2 are essentially cheats, while tier 3 are game-breaking powers.
• This gets them talking about Bradley specifically and Oliver asks what makes him game breaking, what all he can do. Bradley says I can do this and then turns the BGM back on all the way up, pissing Oliver off as a joke. More seriously, he can do everything that a best friend can do. He'll do anything and everything that Oliver tells him to do. You want Stacy's phone number? I'll get it for you! You want to know Tessa's current location and her daily schedule? I'll find it and report back!
• Oliver does not react positively, saying oh God, you really are that character. There is a trope in dating sims about the obligatory best friend character who magically has every heroines phone number, their three measurements, what date spots they might like, and tons of other stalker-ish details about them for the protagonist to use for their benefit. Bradley again reminds him that he doesn't have to make use of that aspect, and there are plenty of other applications Bradley has if Oliver is willing to get creative.
• Oliver puts a pin in that and asks him about the grayed out heroines tab in the skill menu. Bradley says that maxing out a girl's heart events will open skill customization for her, allowing you to improve your lovers quality of life. Oliver makes an educated guess about heart events, thinking they have something to do with the grayed out hearts each heroine has and the affection meter. He assumes that raising it to one hundred will trigger some sort of special bonding moment between them. Bradley confirms.
• Oliver actually likes the idea of being able to make other people's lives better, though. He's never done much good for anyone else so if these powers can help girls maybe that's a good enough justification for him having them. Bradley points out that it will be completely impossible to buy skills for himself and a single heroine unless he's actively chasing other girls but that's a problem for later. He gets sad when he thinks about how there's probably a bunch of options to turn them into mindless slaves.
• Bradley makes Oliver the offer to filter all of these skills out by default so he doesn't have to see them. He's incredibly thankful but clarifies he doesn't want them hidden because he'd be tempted to get them or anything- but Bradley is supportive and says I know. It just brings up bad memories. Oliver is thankful for being understanding and rarely reminds him that he is his best friend, it's his job to be understanding and supportive.
• The skill menu still has tons of clutter and Bradley offers to implement 'Bradley's Choice' which are recommended skills that will dynamically suggest him things depending on his current situation. That does sound useful, and Bradley does so. Now there are a handful of highlighted skills that are moved up to the top of the list on each tier. There is a anime chibi face of Bradley next to them that looks considerably less creepy than the real Bradley.
• Oliver has a look at some of the ones Bradley picked out for him. They are mostly tailored to pursuing Mia, with things like learn Spanish, coworker rapport, and a few other examples I'll think of later. Oliver thinks it would be better to get a couple of really powerful ones start, however. He looks at the ones Bradley recommends at tier 3 and is shocked at what he finds. He's like are these fucking real? Bradley reminds him he's a reality bender. 'Real' is whatever he wants it to be from now on.
• He buys the first one without any hesitation- Free Ride. He no longer has to pay rent, bills, or grocery expenses while also exempting them from taxes allowing him to put all of his money into the pursuit of heroines. Oliver asks if this means he can just go get a mansion but Bradley clarifies that he still has to feasibly afford to live there but applaud him for looking for exploits.
• The second skill takes a bit longer to decide on but he ultimately goes with Lucky. His overall luck will improve which comes in the form of little bonuses throughout his day and opportunities which wouldn't come to him otherwise. It was a passive skill which always provided value at the cost of him not knowing what exactly it would provide. There were better options, but Oliver had never really been lucky in his life and that fact drew him to it LP left. He has 15 LP left.
• Now that pretty much everything has been cleared up, Bradley suggests they talk game plan before calling it a night. Oliver agrees but is like wait, you're not going to live here, are you? Bradley suggests they could have a slumber party like the old days but it wouldn't be the same without Oliver's mom's homemade pizza and Oliver retorts that never happened. It did now.
• Oliver sighs and is assured he doesn't have to worry about Bradley's lodging, he shows up where he's needed. Creepy but whatever.

Game Plan

• Oliver states his intention to try and get closer to Mia. He was already intending to do that before any of this psychic bullshit started happening, and this... Well he would be lying if he said this didn't change anything, but he still wants to do so. He's not going to worry about Stacy and Tessa or any other heroine he doesn't know about yet. Bradley reiterates yes focus on the tutorial girl and Oliver says not to call her that again.
• Bradley suggests prologue girl but that also get shut down.
• Bradley asks if he needs any help right off the bat. Daily schedule, address, likes and dislikes, the makeup of her family and her relationship to each of them. Oliver shoots that down and says he might have uses for Bradley but he's not going to be doing anything that would invade Mia's privacy. One of his favorite parts of dating sims is getting to learn more about the heroines slowly over the course of time, so even if it wasn't morally questionable, he wouldn't want to rely on Bradley anyway.
• Bradley respects this mentality and supports him. He asks if Oliver needs any advice on how he should pursue Mia but Oliver doesn't think he does. Bradley teases him over his confidence despite never having had a girlfriend but Oliver says that's not true. If life is a dating sim now, then he has all the experience he needs. It's going to be embarrassing at first as he gets used to doing things in real life that he does in games, but assuming it all transfers over, he has a pretty clear idea on what to do.
• Talk to them daily. Give them gifts. Have encounters. Take them on dates when it's time for that. That kind of thing should work, right? Bradley praises him and says yes. Oliver blushes and asks they won't find it strange if he shows up with a present each day, will they? They might not accept one if their affection is low but otherwise no that's another aspect covered by his  normalization power.
• As for the future, he doesn't know. He's going to take it slow and explore his options. Bradley makes a joke about exploring Mia and then expects an awkward high-five which Oliver does not reciprocate. Well, whatever. He seems mildly sad that he didn't get a high-five.
• Oliver then feels a little bad for him after how helpful Bradley has been and he offers him a handshake after saying that he's not good at having friends and this is new for him, even though Bradley is a psychic creation or whatever. He's still real enough and he's going to be relying on him from here on out so he hopes they'll get along. Bradley is very happy and he shakes his hand, pledging to give him his undying support.
• Bradley gets up to leave and says that he can call him or text him whenever he needs him- he's always right around the corner. Oliver is like you mean that literally, don't you. Yes he certainly does. Creepy.
• Before he leaves Bradley gives him one last piece of advice- Mia told you to text her, remember? Oliver is actually thankful because he did forget thanks to all the insanity he just sat through. It's getting pretty late so he makes himself dinner and then after settling down he shoots Mia a text hoping it's not too late. He is anxious about sending it, already second-guessing whether it was polite or not to do so.
• She responds before he can worry about it too much, asking him how he's doing and if he's feeling better. He thinks about typing better know what I'm talking to you, but he doesn't have the balls for that yet. He is honest and says tonight has been weird but yeah he is doing a lot better now. She's thankful and was worried about him. He says that means a lot to him. Thought they were just coworkers and didn't know she cared that much. He watches the three bubbles that indicate she's typing for several minutes, each passing minute filling him with anxiety that he said something wrong.
• When she finally sends something, it's short. We don't have to be coworkers. His heart skips a beat, but she clarifies nervously 'I mean I thought we were friends but maybe that was just me...'
• This makes Oliver happy and he replies friends sounds good. Mia is glad and says it's really late so see him tomorrow if he shows up? He'll be there. Conversation is short but has a big impact on his mood. When he turns his phone's screen off there are several notifications. Mia's status changed to friend, +3 affection, milestone texted Mia unlocked +5 LP (20). He's feeling pretty great now in spite of everything but when he tries to sleep his mind is racing.
• Even though he should be thinking about the weird reality warping insanity, he is instead dwelling on Mia and the fact that a cute girl is his friend and it might actually lead somewhere. He then realizes he's not going to get to sleep if this keeps going and tries to yank one off to make him tired, but is made awkward by the fact that he's suddenly thinking about Mia during it.
• He still does it, though. A man's gotta sleep.