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Love Addict’s RPG Vol. 2 Outline Part 4

Morning

• Sunday. Oliver awakens ne

  2024-08-04 22:57:36 +0000 UTC View Post

Outline Tomorrow (Probably)

I would’ve finished it today if it wasn’t for it being so damn hot out. Even despite that I had a hugely successful day and I’m right at the finishing line. Document is like 18k words and I just need to finish the last scene for it.

Stacy Beach Pinup

Gift from Milly! Amazing new pic, very very happy with it! Comes at a good time, too. Stacy has a small but important bit in the next chunk of chapters and she’ll get some more focus on the next day of the story after this one.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/u/Veronik_OwO/s/6awkD9lFku

Outline Update

Just letting you know things are still going well and I’m on a very fast pace with this thing. It’s at 11k words currently and I just finished all the stuff with Zoe for that day, just need to do the Mia portions and it’ll be done. Not sure how much it says about my current pacing with actual prose but the outline has been a very good boost to my mood when working on it since I’m actively excited about everything planned to happen. That and things are clicking into place so that I’m finally starting to see the endpoint for vol 2. I’ve been working toward off in the horizon. I expect I only need another few days at this rate.

Tessa’s Me Time Pinup

Gift from Milly! My mood has been down and it’s impacted my drive to post shit and even talk to artists about getting new stuff lately. Just low social batteries. I have a few pieces I need to post that I haven’t gotten around to because bleh. But I’ll make an attempt!

As for the piece itself it’s very sexy, wanted something mature and relaxing for Tessa hehe.

Lastly, I’m happy to say that the outline is continuing to come out very well. I did another 4.5k words yesterday, probably only need another few days at this rate.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/u/Veronik_OwO/s/6awkD9lFku

Update

Just a small thing I wanted to say, but the next outline's writing has gone smooth thus far and I thought sharing the good news would be a welcome change of pace. It's easier to write when I'm just saying things that happened as opposed to the actual prose, but I did 4k words yesterday and am just about to start for today. If this keeps up it'll definitely be done in a few days. I have a lot of fun ideas for the next day of the story and writing them out has me really excited for the next chunk of the book.

Love Addict’s RPG Vol 2. Ch. 84

Sorry for the wait, took longer than estimated and I had an internet outage for most of my working hours yesterday so that got in the way, too. All done with the material for the current outline, which means I’ve got to write a big plan for the next chunk of the book before more chapters can come out. Should be pretty straightforward since I have a very solid idea of where things are going but we’ll see how long it takes me.

***

"Hey, uh... what's up, guys? Name's LazySloth Gaming, I guess. So, um. Here's the thing. I'm gonna be a fuckin' streamer or some shit... I... agh, this is fuckin' stupid- are you sure I have to... really? Okay, okay... you're the boss, I guess. Let's just pretend that didn't happen and give this another shot..."

Morbid curiosity filled Oliver as he watched his phone. A poor-postured girl was hunched over in her seat, wearing a baggy purple tracksuit with a high collar covering half her face. Nervous sweat oozed down every pore of her pale skin. Her dark green hair was absurdly long and so matted it looked like the concept of a brush was utterly alien. 

Paying closer attention to the girl's face highlighted a pair of eyes even sharper and angrier than they were today, with bags so dark they looked painted on. One key difference between then and now was the sense of anxiety present behind her twitchy gaze. They still darted left and right and all around- seemingly everywhere but her camera- but they did so out of fear rather than a caffeine addiction.

There wasn't a trace of the charismatic performer Oliver knew Zoe as nowadays. Forget interesting commentary or silly jokes- she was dead silent for most of her stream. The loudest she ever got was when raging at her game, and when she did actually speak, it was in a series of angry, incoherent grumbles at best and dismissive, one-word responses at worst.

She was flailing, desperate for a helping hand, and constantly looking to her left-hand side where someone sat just out of frame. Mia. No doubt she was there to offer constant encouragement, and for the most part, it worked. Oliver even noticed Zoe's hand slipping out of frame several times.

It calmed her down a lot whenever Mia presumably held it for her.

"Feral and clingy," Oliver repeated after watching for about five minutes. "You guys weren't kidding."

"Wish we were, but them's the breaks," Julio hummed.

"God. She looks like a runaway who's been living on the streets."

"Might as well have been," Juan laughed darkly. "Ain't that right, Julio?"

"Sadly so. Zoe wasn't doing so hot after high school. Or during, really. Took a long time to pull her out from that abyss. Time, and the most supportive, loving, and caring person on the planet."

Oliver recalled Zoe saying how much help Mia had given her over the years. He hadn't understood how badly she really needed it until now. The girl on screen looked like she couldn't make it alone, and he had a pit in his stomach just from thinking about it.

With rising sympathy, Oliver paused the video and put away his phone.

"I want to ask how she ended up like that, but I feel the answer leads to my second question..."

"Which is?" Julio asked.

"Zoe's parents. Do you guys know anything about what's going on with them?"

Juan cackled softly as he finished whittling one of the petals on his wooden flower. "Snooping around a girl's back, huh? Pretty underhanded of you, hermanito."

"You broke into my house not even an hour ago- you're the last guy I wanna hear that from. Call it whatever you want, I just want to understand Zoe better."

"Shouldn't always be in such a rush," Julio took a long, slow drag. "Think this is something you'd naturally learn after you spend more time with her."

"Of course. I wouldn't normally go behind someone's back and ask questions like this- it's just that I want to speed things along so that I can better help Zoe and put all this drama behind us."

It took Julio a second to acquiesce with a nod. "For starters, I'll square away what you're most worried about. Zoe wasn't abused."

"No?"

"Nah," Juan agreed. "Not in the traditional sense."

"That sounds potentially worse..."

"Can't say," Julio shrugged. "All I know is that her parents got it fucking made, sí? Dad's a lawyer with his own firm, Mom's a world-class surgeon or some shit. Any idea where I might be going with this, hermanito?"

"I have a guess or two, sadly. Are these the kind of people who think buying their kid whatever they want is all being a good parent takes?"

"Worse. They're the kind of people who think buying their kid whatever they want is a substitute for ever having to interact with them at all. Way I've heard it is that neither of 'em took an active interest in Zoe whatsoever."

"She talks about 'em on stream every now and then," Juan added with a scowl. "Fuckers were almost never home at the same time, and on the off chance they were? They'd be shouting in each other's faces and shit."

"Christ..." Oliver sighed, rubbing his eyes. "So it's the old 'we need to stay together for the kid's sake' gem, huh? Because that always works. Can't say it doesn't explain a few things, though."

"Mn. Known some other girls who grew up in similar circumstances. A few guys, too. One thing most of 'em have in common is-"

"An obsessive need for attention?"

"Good guess, hermanito. How'd you figure that one out, huh?" Juan smirked.

"Wasn't exactly hard, seeing as I suffer from the same exact thing..."

"Good on you for owning up to it," Julio said. "Now, how about the plan then, mn? I'd hope your experiences taught you more or less what you need to do without us spelling it out."

"Yeah. I need to keep pushing until Zoe feels even more loved offline than online. The tricky part is that her job's on the internet, and it's not like she can quit. The best I can do is work on getting her to stream less. The good news is that she's receptive to the idea, but it's still gonna be an uphill battle, and I'm worried that if I push too hard, she'll get annoyed, but if I push too little, I won't make any progress..."

The twins took in every word of Oliver's meticulous mental gymnastics, listening to him vent so they had a better idea of what to say to him in response. He'd asked for their help, so that's precisely what he'd get.

"You need to fucking go for it, ese," Juan finally finished carving his wooden flower and thumped the table both in celebration and to make a point. "You're overly worried about annoying the girl."

"I'm overly worried about a lot of things. It's regrettably my thing."

"No shit, so stop it already! In times like these, there's no such thing as pushing 'too hard' hermanito."

"You wanna maybe phrase that so it doesn't sound quite as rapey, or...?"

"Not what I fucking meant," Juan chugged his beer in shame. "I'm not that kind of guy! Christ, that's cold. All I'm saying is that when you're trying to help someone, you need to look at the bigger picture and not freak out about stepping on their toes, sí?"

Oliver took the advice to heart and clenched his fists, his eyes firing up. "You're right. Whatever I do will end up pissing her off one way or the other, so I might as well just suck it up and work on my shamelessness."

"Shamelessness is good," Julio asserted. "Might go so far as to say there's no better tool when it comes to pursuing the opposite sex. Shamelessness shields you from rejection. Keeps your eyes trained on the prize. Good trait to have, all in all... long as you don't go too far with it."

Oliver and Julio both glanced at Juan, who missed the implication. They moved on.

"Just to be sure, you're thinking I should recklessly push ahead, too?"

"I am," Julio hummed.

"Okay, cool. It's just that usually whenever Juan makes a suggestion, you immediately rebut it, so-"

Juan placed a hand on his brother's shoulder, smiling like a smarmy asshole. "Rare, ain't it? Always brings a tear to my eye... seeing Julio have the right idea about something, I mean."

He promptly got a face full of smoke blown on him. There was swearing in the aftermath, followed by punches. Oliver had grown entirely numb to their routine by this point and let things play out so they could get back on track.

Eventually, Julio clarified his stance.

"Zoe was always shameless, even before she started playing it up for the camera. Mimi and Rebecca? They're meek. Can't stand up to her, and since her parents had fuck all to do with her, no one ever really has. Thinking you'll get far with her if you dig your feet in, look her in the eye, and refuse to yield."

"Even when I'm saying or doing stuff that'll piss her off?" Oliver thought ahead to pulling the plug on the router tomorrow like he'd promised.

"Especially then. Don't take this the wrong way, but there are some girls out there who need themselves a man who straight up doesn't give a shit, sí? Someone who'll stand up to 'em. Pull the rug out from under their feet and tell 'em what's what. Willing to bet a lot Zoe falls into this camp."

"Uh," alarm bells started ringing in Oliver's head. He understood what Julio was getting at. It was just the way it was phrased that troubled him greatly. "Standing up to Zoe and calling her out on her shit is one thing, but not giving a shit and telling her what to do? I appreciate the advice, but that's too 'alpha male influencer' for my tastes."

Julio was on the verge of elaborating when his brother's ears perked up, and his eyes sparkled. "Shit, ese- you talking about ViperTaint? I fucking love that guy!"

God fucking damn it, Oliver's soul hurt as he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead.

Upset as he felt, someone was even more so.

"Fuck did we say about following toxic male role models, idiota?" Julio barked, sounding legitimately pissed as he smashed his brother upside the head.

He used his cast. It wasn't an accident- and he didn't even utter a single 'mierda'. Didn't stop at one, either.

"Puta madre!" Juan recoiled. "I don't fucking listen to his advice about girls and shit- I just like the vids where he flexes his cars and jewelry and mansions shit! Fuck, Julio! Fuck- fuck!"

"Unfollow the fucking misogynist, pendejo. Now. Fucker's locked up in Romania's deepest, darkest dungeon for a goddamn reason."

"Okay! Christ! Okay, fuck-" Juan whipped out his phone and did the thing, which Oliver found quite comforting. He liked Juan and didn't want to reconcile with the guy being a fan of the biggest douchebag influencer on the planet. At least he was only a mild one.

It also increased his respect for Julio, enough to hear him out after he dulled his violent pain by finishing his current joint and smoking half a new one in a single drag.

"Let me try that again," he sighed, exhaling more smoke than a furnace. "When I say don't give a shit about Zoe's feelings, I'm not telling you to talk down to her like a child. I'm just saying I think there's a shot she's the type who'd respond well to authority. Not sexist to point out some chicks are legitimately into that, is it?"

"No, not at all. My bad for jumping the gun." Oliver apologized. He'd also nearly commented about how Mia also dug authority before thinking better of it. "You could be onto something, for all I know. I've actually tried calling her out on a few things already, but..."

"You chicken out?" Juan held out a hand, hoping for a puff to deal with his head trauma.

Julio obliged.

"Essentially, yeah. Zoe tunes me out whenever I say something she doesn't want to hear."

"Mn. Take it you don't push back because you're afraid of making it worse?"

"Exactly. Are you saying I should?"

"Would be a good place to start, sí. That and to stop being scared of stepping on her toes overall. Get that you don't wanna piss her off, but you're stuck thinking short-term. She might not like what you have to say, might even get mad when you say it, but in the long run? Shit's not gonna stick. Not if she actually likes you."

"Take it from me," Juan handed back Julio's joint. "You can get away with being pretty fucking annoying so long as a chick's into you. Even better, if the shit you gotta say actually helps her out? Then you aren't just an asshole giving her lip. You're her savior, hermanito."

"Huh..." Oliver stared into the bottom of his empty beer glass.

He was indeed overly cautious in most of his conversations with Zoe. He usually earned an affection penalty whenever he pointed out inconvenient truths. Oliver never liked seeing those pop up, which led him to adopt his current slow and steady approach. He was ready to try something new if it meant speeding things up.

Intentionally pissing Zoe off still seemed counterintuitive, though.

The dudes vetting this strategy weren't exactly card-carrying MENSA members- but they had plenty of experience winning over chicks. In contrast, Oliver had virtually none since Mia was just about handed to him on a silver platter. If there was a single thing in the world that the twins knew what they were talking about, this was maybe it...

Emphasis on maybe.

It's worth a shot, Oliver sighed, resolving to try it.

He wouldn't back down if Zoe tried dismissing him when he got on her case, no matter how anxious he got underneath it all. Juan and Julio were happy to hear it and then asked about his immediate plans.

Oliver ran them through what little he had for tomorrow, from pulling the router to getting her to go to an arcade with him after she'd settled down. Neither had any insight or things to add. They wagered that since Zoe was a very particular individual, the arcade was probably the most he could hope for during their first solo hangout session.

"There's something else I'm wondering, guys. How shameless about my motives do you think I should be?" Oliver asked to clear his conscience. "Like, should I be upfront that I'm into her, or should it be more of an 'on the down low kind' of thing?"

"Mn. Good question, that. Think a hybrid approach is the right way to go."

"And that would that entail...?"

"Chick thrives off of attention, hermanito," Juan added. "But that shit has diminishing returns, sí? Especially if you hand it out like candy. Give her what she wants in small doses and play hard to get the rest of the time. If she asks, your official stance is that you're doing this for Mimi... but that's when you hint there might be more to it."

More solid advice. God, was it weird to hear coming from Juan. Oliver still couldn't get over that.

"Makes sense to me," Oliver made a mental note of it. "Any other advice while we're still on the topic?"

"Funny you should ask, 'cause I'm gonna key you in on another little secret. So there's this thing called 'negging', sí?"

Julio's brow twitched. "Fuck did we say about-"

"Hey, hey! That one was just a fucking joke!" Juan cackled while raising his arms to defend against his twin's silent fury. "Come on, hermano. You really take me for that much of an idiota?"

Julio lowered his fists, and after a tense standoff with their eyes lasting only a couple of seconds, the two started to laugh. Juan with his hyena-like howl, and Julio with a severely understated series of chuckles.

It was stupid but infectious. Oliver joined in, carried away by the drunken, brotherly vibes. That or the weed fumes.

They laughed so hard that some bikers started giving them shit, leading to an actual bar fight. One that a drunken, second-hand smoke-addled Oliver actually participated in. Punches were flying left and right, people were shouting, and someone broke a bottle against a pool table to brandish as a knife. 

Everything was a total blur until they somehow ended up sharing a beer with the bikers, everyone having a big smile on their face as they laughed it up. Everyone besides Cindy, who shook her head as she sweeped up the night's seventeenth broken bottle. At least her mood perked up a tiny bit once Juan gave her his wooden flower.

They eventually returned to their booth. Oliver now sat on the same side as the twins, sandwiched between them. He was feeling great about himself and even better about his fifth beer. 

"Look at you, hermanito! You just about pissed your pants the second we walked in here, and now you're practically a regular!" Juan howled uproariously, slapping Oliver's back before firmly grasping his shoulder.

Oliver frowned and lowered his shirt's collar, looking down at his pecs. "And yet still not a single chest hair..." he drunkenly slurred.

"Got chest hair on your soul," Julio insisted. "It counts."

"It'll have to because I'm gonna rock this shit tomorrow, guys. I'm fucking gonna."

"After all the work we put in? You fucking better!" Juan said. "Don't even care anymore. Fuck it- I'm invested."

"Hell yeah," Oliver clinked glasses with Juan, then jabbed his finger into Zoe's mascot on his shirt. "I won't let you down, mark my words. I'll steal away your honorary hermana, whoever else Mia wants me to, and..."

"And?" Julio raised a brow.

"And more! I've got a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, damn it, and I'm gonna go for it."

"Motherfucker. Swinging those big fucking cojones around as usual, I see." Juan sighed. "Ain't that right, Julio?"

"Mn. Seems we found the key to unlocking hermanito's shamelessness."

"Who'd have thought it was at the bottom of the bottle this entire time?" Oliver mused. "Actually... no, yeah, that makes a lot of sense, come to think of it. Whatever. The point still stands- I'm plowing straight ahead."

"Admirable. Before you get to plowing, though, just make sure you remember everything we've said tonight after you've sobered up, sí?"

"No worries, I've got it all up here," Oliver tapped the side of his skull. Doing so jogged his brain, pointing out a more pressing concern. "Wait a second. All three of us are some mix of drunk and high as shit. How the fuck are we getting home?"

Juan and Julio looked at each other in a way that confirmed they'd put zero thought into the question. Oliver still hadn't tested whether his fast travel ability was hampered by being under the influence, and he wasn't looking to make that gamble.

A convenient solution literally poked its head up from around its corner.

"Did SOMEONE call for a [Designated Driver]?" Bradley called out from the booth behind them. He raised an unopened cold one as they turned to look at him.

"Just so happens we did," Oliver smiled, not even surprised.

Juan, however, was. He made a funny face at him. "The fuck, man? If you were gonna follow after us all sneaky and shit, you could've just come along in the first fucking place, ese."

"Simply put- it was NOT my [Place] to [Interfere]! While I MAY serve as Oliver's ETERNAL [Best Bro], some matters are BETTER left to his [Actual Brothers] than ONE such as [I]."

Oliver shyly looked away as Juan raised a brow, his face reddening. "Actual brothers? Hah! The fuck's this robot mime on about, huh? Dude's just dating my hermana, that's it. Only call him hermanito and shit to be cute about it. Don't we, Julio?"

"Can't ask me for all the answers," Julio gave his twin a thin smile and a face full of smoke. "Try thinking for yourself occasionally, why don't you?"

"I do think for myself, pendejo! Fuck you! And you- the fuck you moping around about, huh?" Juan turned his attention to Oliver, who was playing up an already exaggerated frown.

"Oh, nothing... I just thought we were a little closer after all our fun tonight, that's all..."

The kid's poutiness got to Juan, nailing a critical blow. "Gah- fucking damn it. Not saying we aren't closer, just that this and that are just two separate fucking things, sí?"

"So you don't see me as a little brother, then? Not even a little?"

After being met with a pair of drunken puppy dog eyes, Juan did something he'd only done a few times before. He chose to remain silent, sucking it up as everyone laughed at his expense. Which they did, especially when Bradley suggested a toast to [Almost Brothers].

The rest of the evening became an even greater blur than it already was. He had no vague memories of what happened after the toast. All Oliver knew was his first-ever boy's night out ended the only proper way- with him getting blackout drunk.

Update and Venting

Hey guys, checking in. Next chapter is fairly far along but I’ve been having a rough week and not too much progress on any individual day. It could take me 1-3 days to finish next one, we’ll see. I’m getting very tired of the constant brain fog. I’ve tried keeping it on the down low so that I’m not always complaining and reiterating myself but it’s just exhausting that it’s still continuing.

The medicine is working, my mood and mind are stable now. I looked into it and found that both stopping AND starting this medicine induces brain fog so it should clear up eventually and it was just a damned if I do damned if don’t kind of thing. I assume I just have to be on it for a long time again. It’s just difficult to keep positive when it’s still going on.

I thought about starting a side project with a co-author or something since I’m still able to write outlines and lore, character and worldbuilding documents when I’m like this- I wrote a 3k word pitch document yesterday like it was nothing since I had a story in my head- it’s just actual prose that trips me up and activates my brain fog. I guess cause I have to really think about it and be super critical as opposed to stream of thought.

I have no idea how I’d even find someone for that kind of collab, though, and I’d obviously rather be working on my own shit alone. I don’t want to call it a last resort since it would probably be fun but I feel like it’s something I need to consider on the small chance I don’t recover for a very long time.

But I’m focusing on the negatives admittedly. The fact that my moods are stable and headaches are gone should be proof enough that this WILL go away after more time passes, just need to be patient.

All this to say hopefully I’ll get the next chapter to you guys pretty soon.

Tessa Beach Pinup

Gift from Urban! Tessa seems to be in a rare good mood, probably enjoying her slice of private beach assuming she lives where people suspect she does…

Art by https://x.com/slimiiart

Mia Nude Jacket Pinup

Gift from Milly! I haven’t felt like dealing with artists for the last week or so on account of my mood so I haven’t gotten that much art this month. Working on moving past it, and I’m glad I did! This came out real cute. Might have to get one with Zoe in her jacket to match.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/user/nyansteria/

The Weird Funeral Details

I want to preface this by saying I am not a raging atheist. I’m agnostic and very normal about it. If someone has religious beliefs I don’t look down on them so long as it doesn’t consume their life and personality and the way they treat others.

Just want that out of the way so that when I go on about this weird fucking pastor you know it isn’t coming from an enlightened redditor fedoralord perspective.

Please be respectful of that and don’t shit on religion as a whole in my comments here. Keep it focused on the weird dude.

Below is a copy paste of the whole thing I sent to a few friends with a few expanded sections, it’s… quite the story.

***

So like my family is Catholic, I expected there to be some religious weirdness. Apparently the pastor was a family friend who my grandparents had let stay in their home during a pilgrimage or w/e. He’s young looking, I’d guess he was 35-40. Really huge youth pastor vibes.

I could’ve put up with him if he was tasteful. Kept it to simple religious shit.

He was not tasteful. He did not keep it simple.

On top of having an extremely weird manner of speech where he enunciated random words, he brought up weird fucking tangents like asking my grandma how surprised she was back in the day to find out her womb had another child or some shit, idr actual phrasing but their was a weird amount of womb talk that amounted to ‘were you surprised to have a baby inside your fertile womb after your husband nutted inside you’? Like at least two minutes spent on this weird tangent with my grandma.

He barely talked about my aunt. Like. At all. And the tone of the entire thing was proselytizing, not somber or comforting. It felt like he was trying to give a sermon and not a funeral speech. He was stupidly upbeat and happy the entire speech and like it was legitimate 95% God 5% my aunt and even the funeral director looked visibly annoyed at this guy after he went off on a completely unprompted rant about original sin and how none of us are perfect.

(I said I’m not a raging atheist but I am vehemently against the concept of original sin, so this was the only real redditor anger I had the entire time and I’ll own up to it)

I don’t remember exact phrasing but he did sneak in a comment about the faithless and how they won’t enjoy heaven or whatever the fuck, too.

I was also extremely annoyed that he said my aunt lived a more full life in 45 years than most people got to and I know you say shit like that to make the family happy but no. She was bedridden for like 7 years, in and out of hospital, had all her toes taken off, a few fingers I think, and so on. She did not have a full and happy life and almost nothing was said about how strong she was for that. I guess that part might just come down to me. I understand the need to say comforting shit like that but I wished it would’ve respected her struggles more.

Another funny thing is I think he was 100% adlibbing the entire thing as he went along. He tried to teach everyone the ‘ABCs’ of grief but completely dropped the subject before getting to C…

Also the entire time another one of my aunts had a fucken 3 year old messing around on an iPad and it was just unintentional comedic gold. Like the immediate family had all just been taken to a room for a private prayer or something and there’s just a brainless iPad kid playing some loud app and I’m supposed to not laugh at this somehow.

And when we went to the cemetery it became 100% god as he exclusively referred to my aunt as ‘this body’ and ‘it’ about how it’ll be reanimated upon judgment day etc. He didn’t use her name a single time during that part of the ceremony or talk about her at all.

And of course the brainless iPad kid went and sat on top of someone’s headstone during this and no one stopped him.

It’s really hard to overstate how weird this dude was, it felt like an extended Tim and Eric sketch irl but apparently my grandparents fucking love this guy while me and my sister had to literally pretend we were crying to cover up how hard we were laughing at this fucking alien trying to approximate human speech.

There was just so much weird shit I can’t even remember it all. Angela and my sister say he kept pronouncing the word ‘reality’ as ‘REAL-UH-TAYYY’ like Eric Cartman saying ‘authority” and I guess I was so zoned out that that one didn’t even register.

It ruined any fucking closure I was remotely supposed to get from this and now I get to look back at my favorite aunt’s funeral as a fucking freakshow rather than the remembrance it should’ve been for the rest of my fucking life lol

Update

Funeral yesterday was… kind of a shitshow. I don’t want to get too into it but the pastor my family went with was a weirdo reptilian and I hated every word that came out of his mouth. I wrote a detailed thing about why he was so weird, might share it if there is interest but the tl;dr is he was so fucking weird that my sister, Angela and I were holding back laughter the entire sermon which uh yeah shouldn’t have happened and now I have to live with almost pissing myself during my favorite aunt’s funeral for the rest of my life lol...

I didn’t sleep the night before so I’ve mostly just been sleeping on and off since then but I’m back now and good to go. Will do some writing in a bit.

Also bad news is that Angela quit her latest job. Not too stressed about it since I actually have money coming in now but yeah, still not great.

Love Addict’s RPG Vol. 2 Ch. 83

Well, I didn’t MEAN to tell a lie yesterday, but it turned out my estimation was wrong in two regards. First was that I’m in quite a good mood today and got more done than expected, second was that this scene is very long and I noticed a clear cutoff point. I’m glad I got it done today, comments always make me feel better and the funeral tomorrow is going to suck.

I doubt any of you will be complaining about an additional chapter with the twins, anyway. I’m very happy with their antics in this chapter lol.

***

Oliver's face was punctuated by a bigass grin as he looked at the text Mia just sent him. Pictured was a selfie of his girlfriend sitting at Ramenryu, his friend Akira's food cart. Eight empty bowls of ramen sat on the counter behind her, as did the chef, who smiled and waved.

---

Mia:

ran into ur friend, dude's chill

as u can see I treated myself 4 once

feelin a lot better, prolly gonna get high when I get home lol

have fun with w/e ur doin mi amor

oh and b4 I forget I wanna hang out tmrw night

see u then

---

Her message couldn't have come at a better time. Oliver needed a shot in the arm of morale right about now since he currently found himself in hell. He was led to a dive bar called Cuno's, and man, Julio wasn't kidding. This place would certainly put some hair on his chest...

If it didn't kill him first.

Rock and roll music exploded from a nearby jukebox only to be drowned out by the sounds of the bar's patrons- a mix of bikers, gangbangers, and a couple hookers- yelling and rough-housing with each other. Even the hookers. The possibility of a free-for-all seemed perpetually just around the corner. Oliver figured there was probably a good reason the gruff-looking bartender had a shotgun prominently displayed on the wall behind him.

Oliver didn't just feel out of place at Cuno's, he felt like he'd stepped into another dimension. Thankfully, he and the twins were tucked in safe and sound in a corner booth away from almost everyone else. Their presence was strangely comforting in this unfamiliar environment, but still. Mia's text helped a lot.

"Fuck you looking at all of a sudden, huh?" Juan glared, leaning over the counter.

Oliver flashed the twins Mia's selfie.

"Mia. The dude behind her is a friend of mine. He runs a ramen cart, and she's doing much better after treating herself."

"Oh," Juan softened and sat back down. Then, he smiled sharply and thumped the table. "Well, shit, man. Good for Mimi. Ain't that right, Julio?"

"That's right," Julio took a massive drag from an equally enormous joint before giving a solemn nod. "Good for Mimi."

A scantily clad server approached their booth with the drinks they'd ordered, a round of beers for the three of them. Oliver didn't traditionally drink beer on the rare occasions he drank, preferring fruity wine coolers much like Mia, but when in Rome.

He had a taste while Juan flirted semi-successfully with the waitress who knew them both by name. She seemed dismissive at first, but instead of freaking out when Juan reached over to slap her on the ass, she simply rolled her eyes and told him to give her a call when she was off.

Oliver almost spat out his drink when it happened. You couldn't do that shit anymore. This wasn't the 60's, but he supposed it was fine so long as she was into it.

"Something on your mind, hermanito?" Julio blew some smoke.

"Huh? Uh, n-no, just... got a little scared for a second there..."

"Come on, man. You think I don't know what I'm doing? Been at this shit long enough to read the room, pendejo. Some chicas like that kinda shit- and Cindy? Just so happens to be the type who can't help herself around charming rogues such as myself, hah! Ain't that right?"

Julio waited several moments before answering.

"Complex creatures, women. A few here and there have a thing for men who fancy themselves 'charming rogues', sí. Makes 'em feel good about themselves. Like feeding a stray cat."

"Damn straight!" Juan chugged half his drink, the veiled insult flying so high over his head it hit the stratosphere.

Oliver cracked a smile, and for a split second, so did Julio. The older twin then flicked his joint onto a small plate serving as a makeshift ashtray. Smoking indoors was illegal in California, but no one here seemed to care.

Least of all, Julio.

"So," he spoke, his quiet voice somehow booming over the raucous. "Heard there's been shit going on with Zoe, mn?"

"You could say that..."

"And you wanted our advice?"

"Yeah. Rebecca said you knew her pretty well since Zoe spent so much time at your place growing up, and I figured now was as good a time as any to get some drinks, so..."

"Before we get into specifics, I want you to know two things. First? You made the right call. Second? Call us faster next time." Julio slid a small piece of paper toward Oliver- their phone numbers. "Our fucked up little hermana chose you, and we've come to respect that decision. Come to respect you-"

"I don't respect shit-"

Julio paused his speech to grab his twin by the jacket and give the asshole a no-holds-barred headbutt. It was the most brutal thing Oliver had ever seen, and he felt secondhand pain just from witnessing it.

"Ow- OW- fucking shit, you motherfucking bastard of bastards-"

"Fuck's your problem, cabron? Huh? Thought we agreed that bros support bros?"

"That was before I knew the little shit was going after Zoe, too!"

"Like you didn't fucking know they're a two-for-one," Julio shoved his brother.

"Thought I'd have some time to mentally fucking prepare myself!" Juan growled, shoving back.

"Guys- guys-" Oliver raised his hands on the verge of a panic attack. "Can you both just chill for a second so we can talk this out?"

At his request, the rowdy twins looked each other in the eyes, scowled, and reacted accordingly. Julio took a drag and rubbed his brow in frustration while Juan pulled out his butterfly knife to stab the fucking table. It's fine. It already had about ten other knife marks.

Oliver closed his eyes, pretended he was somewhere else, and then confirmed they were both good to continue. "You were saying, Julio?"

"Was saying that we've got your back from now on, so next time you feel like we might be able to help you out? Call. Don't even think about it. Just do it."

Oliver looked down at the phone number and then at the twins.

"That's... really kind of you, Julio. I don't know what to say."

"Don't have to say anything. Just have to do it. Family helps family. Sí?" Julio elbowed his grumpy twin, who dropped his foul mood long enough to nod in agreement.

"Sí, sí. La familia lo es todo." Juan grumbled.

When faced with such resolve, Oliver swallowed his pride and pocketed the twin's phone numbers. It didn't matter to these guys that he was just their sister's boyfriend. They were willing to go out on a limb for him, and despite their quirks and moral failings, Oliver's opinion of the twins was thoroughly reinforced.

Julio- and even Juan- were pretty cool dudes.

Assholes, to be sure, but cool dudes nonetheless.

"I'll keep that in mind next time around. Thanks," Oliver smiled softly, the dingy, dangerous aura in the bar clearing up long enough to make room for tranquility as the brothers smiled right back at him in their own ways.

And then-

A spark of danger ran down his spine.

Oliver's Hyper Reflexes kicked in. He ducked in the nick of time, successfully evading a glass bottle whizzing through the air on a collision course with his face. The bottle shattered on the wall behind him with a piercing crash.

No debris hit him, thank God, but it led to a chain reaction.

Juan jolted up and ripped out his knife to go argue and threaten the barely-conscious biker who randomly threw his bottle, shouting about how the pendejo almost hit his hermanito. At the same time, Oliver chugged his beer in despair after wiping away the glass shards.

"Could we not have gotten drinks anywhere else...?"

"Could've," Julio smirked. "Wouldn't have been as fun, though."

Juan returned after miraculously putting the guy in his place without relying on violence, as did Cindy with a complimentary refill for Oliver. She wiped up the residue with an exasperated expression that suggested this was par for the course, then left before Juan could sneak in another ass slap.

The brotherly bonding session thus resumed, with Julio asking for more details on the situation. Oliver explained the tension between Mia and Zoe, how he'd been taking steps to fix their friendship, and how today was a mixed bag when it should've been a slam dunk. Neither seemed all that shocked.

"Bout what I expected," Julio mused.

"But this fucking soon...? Fucking really, hermanito?"

"Spit it out already," Oliver pleaded. "Why aren't you guys surprised?"

"Don't see why we would be," Juan pulled out a block of wood and began carving his stress away. "Shit was a ticking time bomb. Right, Julio?"

"Mn. Soon as Mimi told us about her kink, felt like it was only a matter of time before Zoe came into the picture. So how'd it happen? She push you into it, or did you make the call yourself? Wouldn't blame you if you did. Not with Zoe."

"Making a lot of assumptions, guys. I said I was trying to fix their friendship, not seduce my girlfriend's roommate." Oliver looked away with a mild blush.

"Thought we already fucking established we can see straight through you, estupido! Don't tell me I kicked your ass so hard the other day you went and got some brain damage, huh?"

"You're the one with brain damage if you can't remember that I kicked your ass, estupido," Oliver unconsciously snapped back, causing Juan to swear incoherently and slice off several vast chunks of his woodblock.

"Mierda-" Juan hissed, nicking his thumb.

Julio smirked, then took a drag from his joint. "Point still stands. Don't have to hear you outright say it to know you have a thing for Mimi's little roommate. It's in your voice whenever you talk about her. Your eyes, too."

"Again with this crap about my eyes? I swear to God, you talk like I've got a set of magic eight balls up there..."

"I'll stop bringing it up when it stops being relevant, hermanito. Not my fault they sparkle like a Disney princess whenever you're thinking about a girl you're crushing on."

"I... will not be dignifying that with a response..."

"No?" Julio hummed. "Rather you owned up to it. Respect you more if you did."

Oliver looked into Julio's bright eyes, so serene and tranquil he could almost see himself in them. This man was his friend, as was the dumbass with a bleeding thumb sitting next to him. They only wanted to help, and he did need to practice being more shameless, so...

"Okay. Fine. I'm trying to make something happen with Zoe, too, yes, and it's not just because Mia wants me to. Zoe's hot and all, but I can't bring myself to go after someone if I don't feel a spark, you know?"

The twins looked at him like he'd asked them to translate the Voynich Manuscript.

"Right. Forgot who I was talking to." Oliver sighed. "Whatever. I'm just saying Zoe's a super fun person to be around. She's funny, charismatic, talented, and so much more. It also helps that I, um... I really relate to everything she's going through..."

"Sounds about right," Julio remarked with a noted lack of surprise.

"Yeah. I wouldn't sit right with me if I didn't try to help to the best of my ability. Also, there's just honestly been a lot of good vibes between the three of us, and I'm all for it."

"Puta madre!" Juan howled. "Don't go fucking using the word 'vibes' when you're talking about our hermanita, you little-"

Julio shoved him with his elbow, then slammed his cast in Juan's face after he predictably snapped back in retaliation. The brutal mistake quieted the idiot at the cost of Julio scrunching his face. He let out a single 'Mierda' before chugging some beer.

"Think before we get into advice that I should start by saying I support the throuple you're trying to build," Julio stated.

"I fucking don't," Juan spat out, never learning his lesson.

His brother was about to lay on some pain when Oliver raised his hand and stopped him, looking straight at Juan as he asked, "Dude, Juan. This is getting old. I thought we were cool after the match?"

"...We were,"

"Then what the hell is up your ass?"

"What's up my ass?" Juan scoffed. "Nothing, pendejo! I don't put shit up there- fucking freaks me out. Not that I got anything against-"

"Wasn't being literal," Oliver's eyelid twitched.

"Whatever... I... argh... we still are cool, hermanito. I just ain't the best at sorting out my stupid fucking feelings, sí? Got too many of them- all the time, every hour of the day- just raging around inside me like a motherfucking hornet's nest..."

Julio placed his hand on his brother's shoulder, and this simple gesture gave Juan the strength to continue after a moment spent collecting himself.

"Bad enough that I have to deal with one hermana growing up and finding herself a man..." Juan stabbed his knife into the table again, chugged the rest of his beer, and drunkenly threw the bottle on the ground. "Let alone two!"

His emotions exploding, Juan unzipped his leather jacket. Hidden beneath was a black graphic tee of a sickly green cartoon sloth with its arms wrapped around a controller.

Oliver smirked, laughing at the surprisingly pure rationale behind Juan's big feelings.

Julio wasn't as charmed, elbowing his brother. "Fuck did we say about simping, mn?"

"It ain't simping-" Juan elbowed back. "Shit's called supporting my honorary hermana, asshole!"

"You wear a titty streamer's shirt in public; it's simping, estupido. Doesn't matter if it's our honorary hermana."

"Like you don't have the same fucking shirt-"

"Not saying I don't. It's just that I keep that shit to myself, sí?"

Oliver interrupted before their routine could escalate any further, asking, "So I take it you guys are pretty close to Zoe?"

"Somewhat," Julio took point after calming down. "We were good to her whenever she was around. Treated her right, looked out for her. You know how it goes."

"Been a long fucking while since we've seen her in the flesh, though," Juan added.

"After they moved in together, used to be that Mimi'd bring her along on Sundays,"

"Fuck, man. Can't even remember the last time that happened."

"Bout a year and a half ago," Julio took a somber drag from his joint and closed his eyes. "Could tell something was going on behind the scenes, but Mimi wouldn't open up no matter how many times we asked. Imagine that."

"Well, now you know the whole story..." Oliver sighed. "Zoe got wrapped up in her career to the point where it started rotting her brain and ruining her real-life relationships."

"Shit's rough, but it is what it is... ain't that right, Julio?"

"Doesn't have to be. You've already made a pretty solid dent in Zoe's defenses from the sound of things. Just gotta keep cracking."

"So you really weren't kidding when you said you supported the whole throuple thing, huh?" Oliver asked.

Juan held his tongue, channeling his frustrations into his little wooden block, letting Julio speak for them both.

"Mn. For all I care, you two can get up to whatever polyamorous bullshit you want so long as everything is consensual and you aren't actually hurting her in a way she doesn't like."

"Ugh. You really gotta talk about Mimi like that? I'm right fucking here, Julio." Juan groaned, nearly scraping his knife against his finger the moment he looked away.

"She's a grown-ass woman, idiota. Shit's only weird if you make it."

"Chica gets off on sharing her man, estupido. Shit's very fucking weird without me making it."

Julio pondered this for a moment and conceded with a shoulder shrug. "Weirdness aside, I'm so supportive because I know mi hermanita. Maybe not as well as I thought, but enough to know that getting sandwiched between you two'd be the ideal outcome for her, sí?"

Juan gagged at the mental image- the exact opposite of Oliver's reaction. "You... sound very confident about that..."

"Knew Mimi was bi before all this," Julio said, to which his brother agreed. "Not hard to figure out between the glimpses we've had of her art and her crush on Zoe."

"How long has that been a thing, anyway?"

"Since the Zoe hit puberty," Juan added with a laugh. "Give you two guesses as to why."

"Nah, I'm good. That'd do it."

Julio's expression tensed as he looked to Juan and then to Oliver. He leaned slightly over the table. "Truth is, half the reason we poked around about you was because we were surprised to hear Mimi bringing up a boy. Family had our own assumptions about the whole 'roommates' situation up until that."

Oliver stared back, blinked, and then laughed while looking away.

"No, it wasn't like that. I'm not even sure what Zoe thinks about Mia in that context, anyway. She hasn't given any indication that she's-" he paused, remembering the thigh incident. "Um, well... I think Zoe was basically indifferent to sex until just the other day, and now she's stuck figuring herself out."

"Just the other day, huh?" Juan asked, smiling dangerously once again. "What a fucking coincidence. Ain't that right, Julio?"

Julio ignored him. "Not asking you to kiss and tell, but..."

"There was a thing," Oliver lowered his head, speaking softly as if he hoped the rowdy bar would cover him up. "Some... kissing... lap sitting... n-nothing huge or anything- really! Zoe just thought it'd make a nice apology gift to Mia."

"And she liked it?"

"The FUCK are you asking that for, pendejo? Why would you wanna hear if Mimi-"

"Twenty-eight fucking years on this rotating hell rock, and your dumbass still hasn't learned to piece together a single fucking context clue- not even to save your life," Julio blew a cloud of smoke against his brother's face. "Wasn't fucking asking about Mimi, idiota. Was asking about Zoe."

It was awkward talking about this, but Oliver knew Julio wasn't asking because the details thrilled him. He only wanted to give better advice, so he spoke up quick to cut off Juan's oncoming tirade.

"She's been very confused since it happened. It apparently felt good, but it upset her because she felt it maybe wasn't as good as it was supposed to feel. Does that make any sense to you?"

"None of this fucking makes sense to me," Juan exhaled, glancing across the bar to check out Cindy's ass.

"Sí. As you've made abundantly clear. Luckily, I think I know what's going on. 'Seen' a few girls in my time- nerds, mostly, but you also get the occasional athlete- who felt similar after their first time putting down their hobby long enough to get some action."

"Yeah? And what happened after that?"

"Not the type to kiss and tell... but in my experience, they get more curious. End up wanting to explore. Can be real fun, long as you don't push them into anything they're uncomfortable with-"

"I would never,"

"No. Don't think you would." Julio agreed. "Couple different things can happen from there on. Might be that after enough experimentation they figure out sex still isn't for them. Fair enough. Might also be the opposite, and they find out they absolutely love sex. If that's the case, they'll go down one of two roads."

Oliver sat on the edge of his seat, mentally carving these words into his mind like holy gospel onto a stone tablet. "Those being?"

"Less common- again, in my own experience- is that they get tired of you and want to expand. Seek out other partners. Make up for lost time."

A pit suddenly formed in Oliver's stomach. Childish jealousy from a boy desperate for love. Mn, nope. Don't like the thought of that one.

"And the more common one?"

"Could also imprint on you. End up with feelings, hermanito. Strong ones. Makes sense, right? You showed 'em the ropes. Only figures they'd learn to fall in love somewhere along the way..."

"At which point Julio fucking dips," Juan cackled and was summarily punched with his brother's full force behind it. The sickening crunching sound the impact made forced Oliver to cringe. He wondered if there was a slim chance Julio held back the other day.

"Gah! Fucking asshole-"

"Like you don't also have a fucking fear of commitment, pendejo. Least I'm honest about it. Don't lead women on, unlike you."

Juan rubbed his face and adjusted his eyepatch, revealing a new glass eye that replaced the one Oliver shattered. "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about- I'm just as upfront about that shit as you are!"

"You are, huh? That's new." Cindy returned with a fresh batch of beers for the boys. "Or maybe I missed that part? I was pretty distracted when you were droning on about how I'd be your one and only..."

Juan went pale and started making excuses himself- claiming that Cindy was his one and only because other girls were a 'half' compared to her and therefore didn't count. Julio smirked, and Oliver wiped the sweat from his brow with a weary smile.

Cindy brushed him off entirely and turned to Oliver, ensuring the kid was doing okay and that he wanted to be here. She expressed a look of pure sympathy upon explaining that the twins were his girlfriend's brothers.

"You poor thing, trapped with these two scumbags on the sidelines so long as you're together..." Cindy sighed, shook her head, and walked away.

Juan took that kinda hard, but Julio was still smiling.

As for Oliver, he could think of much worse things he'd be willing to put up with if it meant dating Mia. They weren't so bad.

"Anyway... thanks for the advice, Julio. I hope I'm able to keep helping Zoe-"

"Yeah, I fucking bet you are, fucking pervert," Juan grumbled, going back to channeling all his big-boy feelings into his whittling. He appeared to be working on a flower.

"Not just because of the potential sex," Oliver insisted. "It's more that I'd feel pretty good about myself if I had a hand in helping someone figure themselves out. We're getting ahead of ourselves, though. Talking about Zoe's budding sexuality isn't exactly gonna help me out when I'm still trying to get to know her and fix things up with Mia."

Julio gave him a subtle nod. "Should probably dial things back and focus on the here and now, sí. Can't say I'm an expert, but I probably know enough about Zoe to answer any questions you might have. So ask."

"There's two big things I want to know. While I've gotten bits and pieces of this first question from Mia and Rebecca, I think asking someone less close and more impartial would paint me a better picture. What was Zoe like before she became a streamer? Back in high school, I mean."

Julio and Juan exchanged concerning looks. Oliver didn't like that one bit- and he didn't care for the prolonged silence, either. They were both mulling over the best way to put this.

"Feral," Juan suggested.

Oliver almost laughed. He was confident Julio was about to punch him again for saying something as stupid as that.

He didn't.

"Feral," Julio agreed. "And clingy."

"Feral and clingy?" Oliver tried picturing it, ending up with a mental image of a sharp-toothed, foaming-mouthed, teenaged Zoe velcro hugging herself to the chubby, pimpled Mia of days gone by.

A funny thought, to be sure, but...

"You can't just drop those two crazy words back to back and expect me to run with it, guys. I'm gonna need some elaboration."

"Be happy to tell you all about it- in a minute, anyway. Think you should see for yourself first."

"Huh? But how could I-" the twins silently stared long enough for Oliver to realize his stupidity. "Oh, duh. I'm guessing there's an archive of her first-ever stream somewhere?"

"Should be on her main channel," Juan said. "Your fucking robot mime dude gave us your number, so hold on. I'll send a link. Got it saved."

"Of course you do..." Oliver joked, eying the branded shirt.

"Fuck off, ese. I like to look back on that stream every now and then. Feels good seeing how far she's come, sí? Or at least it did before I knew what all that success was doing to Mimi..."

Oliver frowned at the downtrodden response. He had to remember that just because the guy was usually the butt of every joke didn't mean Juan was devoid of feelings.

"Sorry. I didn't mean it like that."

Juan was silent for a few moments before nodding his head. "S'all good, hermanito. S'all good. There-" Oliver's phone buzzed. "Check it out."

Oliver opened up the text- adding Juan as a contact in the process- and then looked at the video's thumbnail. It featured Zoe's channel mascot superimposed over a screenshot of the first Eternalus Souls of all games instead of her more modern, cleavage-based thumbnails.

Clicking it opened the app on his phone, and the video started playing automatically a few seconds later. There was nothing but a black screen.

"Skip to about six and a half minutes in," Juan advised. "They had to fix her recording software or some other stupid tech shit."

Oliver did just that, and wouldn't you know it, a girl that could undoubtedly be described as feral and clingy showed up on screen. He recognized her immediately as Zoe, but that didn't make her appearance any less surprising. She'd changed more in four years than Mia did in eight.

"What the fuck...?"

Checking In

Hey guys just wanted to do an update since I haven’t really said or posted anything this week. My mood has been up and down and progress on 83 has been slow. It’s 2.6k words so far and I’m not sure how much more it needs. There’s a lot of ground to cover in it even though I’m shaving a few redundant things from the outline.

My aunt’s funeral is on Monday, too, so that’ll also slow things down some. At my current pace I’m expecting 83 to come out mid to late next week when accounting for all the other stuff going on in life right now. Thank you for being patient.

Love Addict’s RPG Vol. 2 Ch. 82

Surprise! Wasn’t sure if it’d be done today so I didn’t give a heads up, but it is. It’s a short one this time but I think it’s a really cute one and an important cutaway. Hope you enjoy.

***

In times of great stress, Mia left home and went on a walk to clear her head. There was something about strolling the coastal city streets alone that always managed to soothe her. She loved taking in the sights and the sounds and observing the world from a passive outsider's perspective.

Sometimes, she even took a sketchbook along and studied anything that caught her eye, but tonight wasn't a sketchbook night. It was a zipped-up jacket, hood pulled over her head, hands in her pockets kind of night, and Mia was grumpily marching along the sidewalk without a destination in mind.

So much stupid crap was buzzing around in her head that she was starting to feel like she'd swapped brains with her boyfriend.

What annoyed her the most was that, for all intents and purposes, what happened with Zoe was the best-case scenario. She would've gone straight back to work the second she found out about being unbanned if this had happened a week ago- but she didn't. She stayed and played some more, even going so far as to force herself to do it.

That was amazing progress.

So why do I still feel like shit?

It wasn't that she wasn't proud of Zoe, more so that she was conditioned to expect the worst. For as much as she believed Oliver could pull off anything, in the back of her mind remained a seed of doubt she couldn't dig out.

Ups and downs aside, things had been great for Mia lately. She'd gotten together with her long-time crush, and despite the guy carrying more baggage than a cargo plane and almost certainly possessing some kind of shady secret potentially involving a magical flirting-based ability, Oliver was everything she could ever want in a partner.

He was cute, got along great with her friends, respected her boundaries, accepted her kinks, had a big dick... the list just goes on, really.

He even beat up her brothers- what more could a girl want?

Not much, which is why Mia felt so uneasy. It felt like something had to go wrong to make up for all this because something always did, and it was usually her own damn fault. Case in point; her wrist.

Zoe, too... Mia sighed, knowing she wasn't so innocent regarding her best friend's addiction. The truth ate at her, and seeing Zoe's relapse only made it worse. Mia carried a sudden onset of guilt she couldn't shake off, no matter how many streets she traversed.

It was hard to focus on the steps Zoe had already made towards recovery when you felt responsible for kicking her down the stairs to begin with.

And I just had to go and say that shit about her parents, didn't I? Jesucristo. There's passive aggressive, and then there's just being a cunt...

Guess which one's you, Mimi? Mn?

Mia kicked an aluminum can some asshole left on the sidewalk in a fit of pissy rage. Then, she took a deep breath and felt terrible about it, picking the can up and putting it in the next bin she came across.

Starting to think a walk wasn't the best idea. Can't say it's clearing my head all that much. Should've stayed in, gotten high, and gooned out to some new hentai manga...

Or not...

Wrist hurts just fucking thinking about it.

Mia pondered other ways to improve her mood, and what came to mind was the one thing that never failed. Grabbing some good food and pigging out. Not that it would really help. She'd feel better for as long as the food lasted before inevitably spending the next few days hating herself and eating nothing but rice.

She just couldn't win, and living in a bustling coastal paradise where anything and everything you could possibly want to eat was only a short walk away certainly didn't help. Neither did the fact that Mia was hungry, and a little further down the street was the twelfth food cart she'd seen since her walk began.

Chingada madre... Mia froze in place, staring straight at it with her mouth agape. She'd passed the others without batting an eye, but this one?

Of all the things...

Did it really have to be a traditional ramen cart straight the fuck out of Tokyo? 

Mia's stomach rumbled more and more the longer she refused to move past it. It fought for what it wanted, urging her to ignore the little willpower she had and give in. She resisted at every opportunity, intending to move past the cart without a second thought.

And then the rich, salty scent of ramen broth slammed into her face like a freight train. Mia glanced over at the cart, now outright salivating. She locked eyes with the only person present, the owner- a chubby Japanese man who looked around thirty- and felt twice as awkward over how she gaped.

Move it, trainwreck. Move your stupid little feet and stop staring. This is weird enough as it already is, damn it, so-

"Been running this stand for about four years now," the owner said while setting down his phone. "And never have I seen anyone look like they need some ramen half as bad as you do, lady- local homeless population included. Have a seat. I'll whip you up whatever you'd like."

"Ah, n-no, that's..." Mia bit her tongue. Without Oliver by her side sparking her courage, she defaulted back to being the same old wallflower as ever. She hated being put on the spot like this- especially by people she'd never met, and even more so when they offered food.

"I'm not that hungry, thanks," Mia forced out.

Sadly, words were not the only thing that left her mouth. A thin strand of drool dripped along for the ride. The owner stared at her in total silence as Mia faced a steadily increasing urge to run the fuck away and pretend this never happened.

However, recognition set in just as she was wiping her chin and getting ready to lift her foot.

"...Wait a sec- aren't you that karate dude my boyfriend beat up?"

"Probably? You'll need to be a lot more specific."

"White guy, skinny, a little bit taller than me, with curly black hair and a face like the most forlorn, down-on-his-luck twink in the world?"

"Oh, shit. You're Oliver's girl."

Mia blushed pretty hard at a stranger calling her that, though it was offset by the huge, crooked smile that suddenly cut its way across her face. "Sí. That'd be me."

"Akira,"

"Mia," she replied, becoming significantly more comfortable knowing that this stranger was someone her boyfriend wiped the floor with. "Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure's all mine. Now what are you waiting for? Come on and have a seat. I've been dying to know how everything panned out, so I'll give you a good deal on dinner if you run me through it."

"I, um... I can tell him to hit you up, but I really shouldn't... it's just that I'm on a diet, so..."

"Oh?" Akira raised a brow. "Which one?"

"The, um... depriving myself of things I like so that I don't overeat diet?"

"Had a feeling. One bowl's not gonna kill you, lady."

"I wouldn't stop at one," she sighed.

"More than one wouldn't kill you, either. Would it really be so bad to spoil yourself every once in a while?"

"Having a slow night tonight or what, pendejo? You really so hard up for cash you're trying to shake me down?"

"I do okay for myself. It's more that I'm trying to do right by my friend."

"Shit, I- agh... sorry... didn't mean any of that, I'm just having a rough night..."

"All the more reason to treat yourself,"

Mia bit her tongue and hesitantly scanned the menu. Hungry as she was, everything was calling out to her personally by name. She then swallowed some drool and closed her eyes. A fleeting reprieve from temptation before weighing her options.

Suppose it has been a pretty long time since I've given myself an inch of leeway...

And between Zoe, Rebecca, and the boss lady, it's not as if mi amor's explicitly got a thing for skinny bitches...

"Fuck it," Mia emptied her lungs in a colossal sigh. "I'm sure he'll love a fat cat just as much as a thin one."

"...Excuse me?"

"Saying I'll take one of everything," she said, sitting on the cart's center stall. "So get to it before I go and regret this."

"Yes, ma'am," Akira smiled and went straight to work.

Mia watched the chef perform his magic, finding the display a comforting distraction from her cyclical thoughts. She'd have been content with a silent performance, but the host had other plans. Akira soon started a conversation as he readied the ingredients for the first dish.

"So, that thing with your brothers...?"

"Happy to report mi amor essentially aced that test, despite mi hermano's best attempts at stopping him. Match was pretty wild. Lot of drama, lot of twists and turns, but hey, he got the girl..."

"I had a feeling he'd pull through. It's just a shame I couldn't have been there to see it. Sounds like I missed out on something special."

"Eh. No offense, but I'm kinda glad you did. Whole thing was enough of a public spectacle as it was. Between Ollie's cheerleading squad and all the gym bros hooting and hollering? Shit was chaos- way too much going on."

"Hm. Wouldn't have guessed the girl openly walking around wearing a BDSM collar cared much about being a public spectacle."

"Watch it, ese," Mia turned bright red as she shot the chef a halfway threatening glare. "Only one guy gets to tease me about the collar, and that's the one who bought it."

"Just an observation," Akira laughed politely. "I'm sorry if I stepped out of bounds."

"...Nah. Don't be. Not your fault I'm pissy. Trying my best to reign it in, but you'll probably have to suffer some snippiness if you want my money."

"A sacrifice I'm willing to make," he shrugged. "So what's Oliver up to tonight?"

"Whatever he wants. Cast him off so he didn't have to deal with my bad mood."

"Hm. Fair. I was halfway worried the stakes were raised, and he was off training to defeat your father."

"Our current hurdle isn't quite so over the top as the first one..."

"But there is another hurdle?"

"Isn't there always?" Mia scoffed, amused. "What's it to you, anyway, mn? You a ramen chef or a wannabe bartender?"

"Technically, both, since I've stocked up on sake since the last time your boy was here. I can stick to being a chef if you don't want to deal with the bartender side of me, though. Only thought I'd offer to hear you out if you needed to vent."

Mia thought about it momentarily as she eyed Akira in silent judgment. He seemed like a really good dude, and she felt bad she wasn't in the best state of mind to make a good impression. Opening up seemed like the correct answer. At least she'd hopefully avoid coming off as Oliver's bitchy girlfriend with additional context.

"There was this whole thing with him and my friends today..." Mia sighed, running the eager listener through an abridged version of the day's events without getting too into the personal details. By the time she was done, so was her first dish- a steaming hot bowl of shio ramen.

Her restraint lifted, Mia tore apart her chopsticks and attacked the noodles with such ferocity that it put Zoe's voracious appetite to shame. Seeing another happy customer pleased with his work, Akira smiled humbly and then addressed Mia's conundrum after she'd enjoyed her first few bites.

"Sounds rough, but from what you've told me, I struggle to see the big deal. You're on track toward getting exactly what you wanted, right? Unless there's more to the story?"

"Oh, there's more. Thinking my current mood mostly boils down to some guilt I've bottled up that watching Zoe's relapse went and uncapped..." Mia grumbled between noodle slurps. "Good stuff, by the way."

"Appreciated," he said before going quiet, allowing Mia to continue if she wanted and stay silent if she didn't.

Ultimately, getting some food in her belly did Mia wonders. The delicious combo of salty noodles, bamboo shoots, and sliced chashu lowered her guard until she was comfortable saying a little more.

"It really hurt to see Zoe like that. Could barely keep her head together the whole way through, and she looked like a fucking tweaker by the end of it, just sweating up a storm and twitching her ass off..."

"So where does the guilt come in? Are you saying you feel responsible?"

"Don't feel responsible. I am responsible." Mia lifted her glasses, sighed, and rubbed her eyelids. "Not fully- be silly to take all the credit when the chick's parents are right over yonder- but I figure I share enough blame to justify my feelings."

"Have you spoken to Oliver about this?"

"...No, not exactly," she shied away. "He knows I spoiled Zoe back when she was at her lowest, though. That I helped her get where she is."

"So what is it that you haven't told him?"

"That my motives weren't a hundred percent out of the goodness of my heart," Mia frowned and lowered her chopsticks to briefly rub her right wrist. "Not trying to imply I took advantage of my best friend or anything over here, but she wasn't the only one having a rough time back then..."

Akira closed his eyes after prepping the ingredients for Mia's second dish, a bowl of udon. "I'm starting to believe your issues are heavier than what a ramen chef slash bartender can reasonably be expected to help you sort out."

"Really? Sure you can't Mr. Miyagi this shit out for me, big guy?"

"I'm afraid not. It's strictly stated in the ancient guidelines that my vast reserves of Japanese wisdom may only be dispensed to down-on-their-luck white guys, and the Council would never forgive me for breaking tradition. I could maybe get away with it if you were a down-on-their-luck black guy, but a down-on-their-luck Latina? Wouldn't fly."

"Sí, of course not," Mia coughed up a dark laugh.

"In lieu of sagely guidance, I can cook you an unhealthy amount of delicious food and tell you the obvious. That being how you need to talk with Oliver about this."

Mia shoved her finished bowl toward the counter and hung her head. "Not like I don't already know that..."

"I said it was obvious, didn't I?"

"Mn. Suppose you did. Just scared he'll think less of me."

"While I haven't read the book on the guy, you pick up someone's general vibe through crossing fists. He's a good kid, Mia, and you're the center of his world based on how he talks about you. I get the feeling it'd take something worse than a down-on-their-luck Latina is capable of to make him think even an iota less of you."

Mia's heart weighed several metric tons.

She bit her lip, head swimming with stupid thoughts of that gloomy boy of hers. His awkward smile. His overwhelmed expression. His somber hazel eyes that brimmed with love whenever they looked her way.

Akira might not have been Mr. Miyagi, but he didn't have to be. Sometimes, all you really needed was to hear something you already knew coming from someone else's mouth. It helped solidify it. Made it more real.

Mia knew deep down that Oliver wouldn't care. He'd sympathize. Give her a hug. Tell her it's nothing the three of them can't work through- and since it wasn't like she'd kicked a puppy or anything, he'd be right.

Her only remaining fear was what Zoe might think, but even that wasn't so scary knowing he'd have her back.

"Got my thanks, sensei," Mia said, finding her smile. "I'll talk to him about all this tomorrow night when I'm done seeing my family."

"No problem," Akira slid her a fresh bowl of udon. "Just don't go telling the Council on me."

"Wouldn't dream of it so long as you help me get a nice stack of these bowls going. I damn well meant it when I said one of everything, so let's pick up the pace, mn? Gonna show my down-on-his-luck-white boy his kitten's doing just fine for herself so he doesn't worry his pretty little head off over little old me."

Akira said absolutely nothing, going as silent as the grave.

"Fuck off," Mia huffed, blushed, ignored the increased weight of her choker, and prepared to inhale her udon. "I know it's cringe- but it's our cringe."

"More power to you, koneko-chan. More power to you."

Stupid Choose Your Own Adventure Thing I Made

I didn’t get very far writing today, so to loosen up I did this as an exercise. It was a fun little distraction so I thought I’d share.

It’s not long, just like 1200 words. All you have to do is open the html file in a browser. It doesn’t work on iPad/iPhone though just a warning.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/en4ymn0p6hlnmx530t6uc/Test-CYOA.html?rlkey=lxt17w58x4y1my6v4b2z8f7wl&dl=0

Rebecca Assjob Pinup

Gift from Milly! Definitely need something like this to happen in the main story at some point, I love the idea of Rebecca not getting it but doing her best lol.

Will get some work done in a bit and see how it goes for today!

Art by https://www.reddit.com/user/nyansteria/

Minor Slowdown

I don’t want to make a huge deal of it because it doesn’t affect me personally that much but I’m just saying that I’ll be taking today and sometime next week off. There was a death in my family and there‘ll be a funeral when the body arrives presumably next Friday. I’m okay, this was a very, very long time coming and they’d been sick for years so you know how it is.

it hasn’t really affected my mood or my work one way or the other but I felt I should at least say something. Next chapter still only a few days out because it’s a shorter one.

Mia Bathtime Pinup

Gift from Milly! This was a cute one I forgot to post. There’s a couple other things in the backlog too that I need to get up here.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/user/nyansteria/

Mia Couch Pinup

Gift from Milly! I wanted something a little classy looking and I really liked this pose. Very happy with the results!

Next chapter is a shorter one so I probably only need a few days.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/u/Veronik_OwO/s/6awkD9lFku

Love Addict's RPG Vol. 2 Ch. 81

Not too much to say this time around, I'm happy with the results, though. Hope you enjoy!

---

There were significant alarm bells when Oliver first met Rebecca. She was still weird now that he'd gotten to know her, but those alarm bells had been completely cleared up. Common sense made Oliver assume the same thing would happen with her father, but when you saw a man dressed in full sci-fi military ensemble to the point where they looked like a member of the space SS, you have trouble not jumping to conclusions.

At least Rebecca limited herself to the hat. This guy had the hat, the coat, the shirt, the boots, a golden skull eyepatch Juan probably would've loved, some kind of chainsaw-looking sword at his hips... everything, really. He was even lighting up a pipe before taking a long, looong drag from it. As cool as it made him look, it wasn't helping the over-the-top villain vibes he projected.

You're judging people before you get to know them again, Oliver reminded himself. Dude's having game night at his house with his friends. They probably all dress up in space Nazi costumes... every weekend... for two days straight...

Oliver was suddenly curious about what their neighbors thought when Rebecca's dad looked up and saw them from the curb, smiled, waved, and approached his car.

Right as Oliver's nervousness spiked, Rebecca's dropped like a rock. Fate seemingly made her choice, and her temptation to keep Oliver around was blown away like her father's pipe smoke trailing away in the wind.

"Would you mind getting out for a second?" She asked. "He'll, um, he'll definitely ask me about why I came home with a boy if you don't, uh..."

"Sure. Wouldn't want there to be any misunderstandings, would we?"

"Y-Yeah, ahaha... don't be worried, though! He's really nice!" She assured him as they left his car, grabbed her bulging backpack, and met with her father on the sidewalk.

Now face-to-face with Rebecca's father, Oliver immediately got the impression she was telling the truth. Some people were so unabashedly forward with who they were that they projected an aura conveying everything you needed to know about them.

Rebecca's dad's vibes communicated crystal-clear that this man is the closest humanity will ever achieve to a living, breathing personification of Santa Claus and that the world will be lesser when he finally leaves it. From his big, bright grin punctuated by deep-set smile lines to his portly frame and salt-and-peppery beard, jolliness and mirth permeated this man like stink lines on a cartoon character.

And then space Nazi Santa stood at attention to give his daughter a legally-distinct version of the Hitler salute.

"Glory to the Vergoldet Uberfuhrer!" He proclaimed in a vaguely British accent.

"Glory to the Vergoldet Uberfuhrer!" Rebecca parroted, salute and all.

Before Oliver could even process how many levels of fucked up this was, the father-daughter duo canceled it out by giving each other the wholesomest of hugs.

"Welcome back, soldier!"

"Thanks, Dad," Rebecca smiled brightly, then kissed his cheek.

"Did everything go all right during your deployment? I thought you said you'd be out till midnight or so."

"There was, um... a little drama... nothing serious, though! Just, uh-" Rebecca idled, trying to think of a way to say it.

Oliver kept quiet until he had a chance to introduce himself- he didn't want to make a bad impression by speaking on Rebecca's behalf in front of her father- but then she looked toward him, clearly asking for help, and he couldn't say no to those pleading eyes of hers.

"Has Rebecca told you anything about Zoe's work situation?"

"I believe so, yes. It was my understanding that my darling daughter's friend was on a long-overdue break, and the purpose of today's get-together was to celebrate, was it not?"

"Something like that. Funny thing, though. She found out a couple of hours ago that she could get back to work whenever she wanted, and that really sucked the life out of the room..."

"Oh, dear. How dreadful! I'm sorry, soldier. I know how much you were looking forward to this." He frowned deeply at his daughter.

"I-It's fine... and at least Zoe didn't just up and bail out on us immediately after the fact..."

"No?"

"We made it through another round of Eternalus Souls before her attention span gave out on her," Oliver said. "Things are a bit rough right now. Zoe's got some issues with her work-life balance that we're trying to figure out as a group."

"So I've heard. How disappointing. My heart goes out to you, soldier, but I can't help feeling sorry for that poor friend of yours, as well! It's no good, I tell you. No good at all. Life is meant to be spent playing games- not drowning yourself in work!"

Guess he doesn't know that Zoe found a way to do both, Oliver cracked a small smile.

"Ah, well. You're all young, and silly drama like this just comes with the territory. I'm certain you'll manage to pull through one way or another." Rebecca's dad took a drag from his pipe and politely exhaled away from their faces. Then, he extended a leather-gloved hand toward Oliver. "James Bergmann."

"Oliver Chase," he said, taking the hand with no small amount of anxiety.

When they actually shook, he realized how silly it was to worry. James gave him the friendliest handshake in the history of handshakes, and when coupled with his warm, heartfelt smile, much of Oliver's social awkwardness melted away.

"Mia's boyfriend, yes? The boxer?"

"Something like that," Oliver chuckled as the handshake ended. "Pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine. Rebecca's told me a lot about you. Isn't that right, soldier?"

"W-What? No, I haven't- um- I-I haven't! I mean, I've only known you for a couple of days! I might've said a few things, b-but overall, there's not much to say in the first place!!"

Teasing Rebecca in front of her dad probably wasn't a great idea, but the guy kinda set Oliver up for it. "So what did you say, then? Huh?"

"I... ah... ahaha... you know... j-just that you seemed really nice. And that you gave me those cards. And that you caught me when I almost fell that one time. And that I was excited to see you today. And that-" at that point, Rebecca just looked at the ground and started repeating 'and that' quietly to herself over and over.

James smiled and laughed warmly as he placed a hand on his daughter's shoulder, calming her. "There, there, soldier. You know I'm only happy you've made yourself another friend."

"Nnnngh..."

With Rebecca distracted by her nerves, Oliver expressed his gratitude. "Thanks for getting everyone breakfast this morning, by the way. I've never had Aphrodite's before, and man, did they live up to the hype."

"Not a problem at all!" James laughed heartily and slapped his belly. "Did you eat dinner by any chance? It might be a bit loud, but there's plenty of pizza inside."

Oliver felt put on the spot. Rebecca's dad was so damn nice that it almost made him uncomfortable again. Luckily, he had a convenient excuse. "It wasn't dinner, but we stopped for ice cream on our way back..."

"Did you, now...?"

"Yeah. Sadly, it's spoiled my appetite. Otherwise, you wouldn't catch me dead passing up free pizza."

James smirked. "Fair, fair. I suppose I don't need to ask whose idea ice cream was."

"Well... yeah... Oliver offered to take me somewhere to cheer me up..." Rebecca squeaked. "It, um, it wasn't a big deal, though! Really! Er- w-well, I'm not saying it wasn't nice, I mean, j-just that we were only hanging out!"

James regarded Oliver with a touch more scrutiny. Though still showcasing a huge smile, he rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes. "Hm. That was very kind of you. I'm afraid I now have to ask something rather serious, however."

"Dad! N-No, come on, please don't make this weird...!"

"Oliver, my boy. Do you consider yourself what some might call a 'nerd', by any chance?"

Oliver stood there feeling silly after not knowing what to expect from the sudden increase in seriousness. He wished he knew what was going on here.

"You could say I'd have a hard time denying the allegation," he nervously quipped, earning him a laugh from James.

"Of what variety, hm? There are as many different types of our kin as stars in the sky, so what about you?"

Another curveball, which Oliver answered with total honesty.

"I'm sure this'll sound pretty damn basic, but I like video games, anime, manga..."

"Anything else?"

"Dad-"

Digging deeper for more obscure answers, Oliver replied, "I played StG when I was a kid. Does that count? Everyone I hung out with grew out of it, though, so I started investing my allowance elsewhere. I've also read a few Western comics in my day. Not a lot, and I definitely don't follow the scene, but there's some good stuff out there. Aside from that, I guess the nerdiest thing about me is that there's a Dice Rolls and Dungeons podcast I'm fairly into?"

Upon hearing that last bit, Rebecca's and her dad's eyes shone a little brighter.

"Oh? Which one?" James asked.

"Domain 20?"

"Ah! I love that one!" The father and daughter duo replied in perfect synchronicity. Everyone looked at each other after the simultaneous outburst and had a laugh, considerably easing Oliver's nerves.

James had trouble keeping up his scrutiny, but the inquisition continued regardless of the smile on his face. "Ahem... I take it you yourself don't actually play?"

"No, sadly not," Oliver chuckled. "And I'm not very familiar with all the tabletop and wargaming stuff your family takes so seriously, either, I'm sorry to say."

"Is that so? That's a pity, my boy. You've no idea what you're missing out on."

"I know I'm missing out on the thousands of dollars I'd need to build one of those plastic armies..."

Another big laugh was had, hopefully earning him more points. Annoying as the popups could be at times, Oliver found he missed them in social situations where he didn't have them.

Rebecca was close to going off on an autistic tangent about the cheapest factions he could look into before James calmed her down so he could continue speaking.

"Apologies for the cross-examination, Oliver. I was only gauging your interests before telling you that any friend of my daughter is a friend of mine. If in the future you find yourself wanting to set out on a DR&D campaign, to play a few hands of Sorcery, or take a stab at commending the armies of the 40th Space Reich- or the Elygium, we don't judge in this house- my doors are always open!"

Although the offer overwhelmed Oliver with kindness, he didn't shy away like usual. He smiled and accepted the unflinching generosity. "That's really nice of you, thanks. Rebecca gave me a 40SR starter kit earlier, so maybe I'll take you up on that sometime?"

James looked at his daughter, who was now blushing and staring at the ground. "You did?"

"Y-Yes? He gave me all those cards, Dad! I had to do something to make things even!"

"Of course, of course. He'll hardly learn the rules if he doesn't have a codex, however. Why don't you run inside and grab one of the spares from my study, soldier?"

Rebecca hesitated to leave Oliver alone with her dad. There was no telling what he might say if she wasn't around, but she also wanted her crush to learn how to play her favorite game. She ultimately conceded and headed inside with her bag to pick up the codex as quickly as possible, promising a swift return.

Oliver had a bad feeling about his current predicament the moment James made his proposal. Sure enough, the man wore a conflicted expression now that it was just them. His mouth smiled, but his eyes displayed concern.

"My daughter seems quite taken with you," he said softly.

"I... uh... don't exactly know how to respond to that, sir...?"

"I already told you it's James," he laughed. "Relax. I know how this looks, but I assure you I am not trying to pull the 'threatening dad' card. Not to someone who I'm told beat the stuffing out of a pair of six-foot-tall thugs."

"Whew," Oliver sighed, then managed a mild smile. "You really had me going there. Mind telling me what this is all about, then?"

"I only wanted to point out my daughter's mild crush on you if you weren't already aware of it,"

"Ah..." Oliver swallowed hard.

"Can I take your stunned silence to mean you know?"

"Mia thought it was possible, yeah. Personally? I didn't want to assume. If her own dad is convinced, though, I guess I should probably take you at face value..."

"You should. I had my suspicions ever since she asked if I'd take her to a boxing gym of all places to cheer on somebody she'd just met, but seeing the way she acts around you cemented it for me. As her father, I hope you understand why I'm so torn up about this."

"One-hundred percent. Tell me what you want me to do, and I'll do it."

"...You're a good kid, Oliver. Responsible. Kind. Patient, too."

"That's an awful lot of assumptions," Oliver blushed and scratched the back of his head.

"On the contrary, I don't believe I've made any. Not everyone has what it takes to tolerate my daughter's company- let alone enjoy it. I wish that wasn't the case, but it is. You either have these traits, or she wouldn't trust you as far as she could throw you."

Oliver remained silent, showing his respect with a silent nod.

Then came the hard part.

James rubbed his eyes, sighed, and said it to him straight. "All I want is for you to let her down softly, and... if possible, please... please do whatever you can to remain friends with her after the fact. She deserves so many more than she's unfortunate enough to have."

The heartfelt emotions coming from Rebecca's dad forced Oliver to mentally take a step back and analyze his current situation. He still didn't know what exactly he wanted to happen with Rebecca. Adding her to his list of heroines by applying pressure was a tempting thought if a selfish one.

He wondered if that would really be what's best for her. Self-doubt had him convinced it was presumptuous to think that even with his powers, her life would dramatically be better off with him being a bigger part of it, but... wouldn't it?

Oliver's head was buzzing too hard to give the man a straightforward answer.

James noted this hesitation but otherwise said nothing while staring with hopeful eyes, watching and waiting.

"Okay. If it ever comes down to that, I'll make sure we stay friends." Oliver said, hoping his response wasn't too vague.

James gave no insight as to whether it was or wasn't. He only smiled and nodded in seeming satisfaction. "Thank you, my boy. Thank you."

The knot in his stomach was overpowering, but Oliver did his best to smile back despite knowing how fake it must've looked. Even Smiling Lv. 1 couldn't help with that.

An unspoken tension hung in the air. It stretched for several agonizing seconds before finally being dispelled when Rebecca stepped out of the house carrying a 40th Space Reich gamebook in her arms.

"S-Sorry," she panted, out of breath from rushing here as fast as she could. "It, um, it took me a minute to remember where dad kept the spares... a-anyway, here you go, Oliver. If you, ah, d-don't understand any of the rules, t-then, um... y-you could always t-t-text me, I-I guess? And I'll try to explain it myself or, ah, you know, find you a video?"

Snapping out of his anxiety and angst, Oliver brightened up by Rebecca's presence and eagerly took the offered book.

"That'd be helpful, thanks. I'll give it a read sometime after I've put together the models you gave me." He said, absorbing it into his inventory.

[Item Acquired! 40th Space Reich 10th Edition Core Codex - This game has so many rules that at least ten entire books are full of them. The thought is intimidating, but it's not so distracting that you don't notice how every space Nazi on the cover is wearing blue armor.]

Rebecca smiled at Oliver's enthusiasm, then gave her father some side-eye. "You, um... y-you didn't say anything weird while I was gone, did you...?"

"Me? Perish the thought!" he guffawed. "Isn't that right, Oliver?"

"Yup. You didn't miss out on much, just a totally normal conversation between a dad and his daughter's friend."

"Okay, good..." Rebecca sighed, taking things at face value. "A girl can never be too sure..."

James took one last drag of his pipe before stashing it away in his breast pocket. He then turned to the door. "All right, soldier. I'm heading back to the frontlines. My army of Neo Soldats won't command themselves, and I'm certain Greg is losing his patience awaiting my next move! Will you be joining us, or were you and Oliver-"

"Ah, I'll be down in the war room right after I freshen up and grab my army! Sorry, I, um-"

"No, by all means. I'll be sure to join you one of these days after I've wrangled up an army and figured out how to play, but until then, have fun in there for me, okay?"

Rebecca blushed while looking into his eyes. She wished he'd come in with her. He could still hang out and watch even if he didn't know how to play. Or maybe she could lend him one of her armies and try to lead him through a tutorial match?

Heck, she'd be happy if all he did was go around and chat with all her dad's friends. So long as he was close by, that would be enough for her.

Which is wrong. Very, very, very wrong. Rebecca bit her lip. You can't keep thinking stupid things like this, soldier! I know it's hard to control since you've never felt like this before, and sure, it's okay to be a little happy that Dad likes him, but anything past that is too far!

Here's an idea- every time you think about Oliver, force yourself to remember Mia.

Yeah... yeah, that'll work! Just imagine how upset she'd feel knowing you were c-c-crushing on her boyfriend... it's the last thing she'd want, and the sooner you come to terms with that, the better!

"Rebecca?"

"Hwah?"

"You spaced out again," Oliver frowned. "Just making sure everything's okay before I take off."

Darn it, why does he have to be so nice...?! Rebecca winced as a glancing blow from an enemy laser nearly decimated another chunk of her protective shell. Shrugging away the pain, she forced herself to see him off with a smile.

"All good, j-just a little lost in my thoughts. Same old, same old, ahaha. T-Thank you, though. For caring. I-I'll, um... well... hopefully you don't need it, b-but... good luck tomorrow with Zoe, okay?"

"Thanks a ton. I'll be sure to let you know how it goes."

After saying his goodbyes and giving one last round of regards to Mr. Bergmann, Oliver returned to his car and ignored the popup menu to recline in his seat. He sighed, staring up at the starless sky as he took a page from Rebecca's book and got lost in his thoughts.

Oliver risked getting carried away, but a polite tap on his window at just the right moment saved him from drifting away. Upon recovering from his slightly startled state, he smiled and rolled down the window to converse.

"HEY, there, [Stranger]! [Penny] for your [Thoughts]? If NOT, I'm willing to go SO far as a [Dime]."

"I'll share them for free if you let me know how the thing went,"

Bradley gave his best bro a radiant thumbs up. "[Hunky Dory], that's HOW! You should be CONTACTED before the NIGHT is up!"

"Awesome. Here's hoping it'll be worth the headache." Oliver unlocked the door. "Come on in, and I'll run you through the stupid crap swimming around in my head, then."

Bradley complied and then provided a suggestion. Rather than chatting while driving, he claimed to know a beach spot a few miles out where they could angst out together and work on Oliver's manpain undisturbed.

Oliver hardly ever visited Vista Venus's beaches, but they had a different appeal at night that appealed to moody introverts like himself. The spot Bradley guided him was especially charming. It was hidden under a hill, and a few big rocks were scattered around, along with evidence of a recent campfire in the shadow of a lonely palm tree.

Together, Oliver and Bradley waded through the dark gray sands to sit on the biggest rock of them all. It offered a pleasant view of the calming, eternal sway of the tides. Always coming and going, always at war with itself...

Oliver felt there might be a metaphor there but dismissed it as soon as his friend again asked for his thoughts once they'd settled down.

"I'm really lucky Mia's built the way she is," he frowned. "I don't think I could be in a relationship with someone who wasn't so open-minded."

"So you're saying THAT things with [Potential Heroine Rebecca Bergmann] went WELL?"

"Extremely. I even met her dad- real nice dude, by the way- but that just kinda bummed me out, too. It's not normal to hang out with a girl for a couple hours and develop a whole-ass crush when you've already got a girlfriend."

"If YOU want someone to [Reassure] you of your [Normalcy], I am NOT the one to ASK!"

Oliver smirked. "Yeah, I guess your metrics might be pretty skewed."

"What I don't understand is WHY you've [Circled Back] on this? I thought you were READY to leave your [Doubts] behind after deciding to [Go for Gold] with [Zoe Myers]."

"Mia was pushing for that herself, so I feel less guilty there. Whatever the heck I'm feeling towards Rebecca is totally unprompted, though. The last few hours have forced me to accept that I'm just..."

"A rampant [Bigamist]?"

"That or an attention whore, supposing there's a difference. I probably wouldn't feel this bad about everything if I hadn't met her dad. He asked me if I'd let her down easy, and I couldn't even bring myself to say 'yes'. I tacked on some vague crap about how I would if it came down to it, because I couldn't bring myself to have retroactively lied to his face if anything ever happens with her. It gets me thinking about how any of this will work long-term."

"What do you MEAN?"

"I mean, like, suppose everything works out, and I'm dating Zoe and Mia at the same time. Do we just... hide that, or what? What would Mia's parents think if they found out? Christ, what would mine?"

Bradley went quiet for a long, long time.

"Just say it," Oliver sighed.

"Not MUCH use if you ALREADY know,"

"No, but I'm sure you're itching to remind me how I could buy skills to fundamentally rewrite reality, normalize polygamy, or some shit to make all of this okay,"

"The only thing I'm [Itching] for IS for my [Best Bud] to cease tormenting himself!"

"You and me both... still... I know I promised I'd stop getting in my own way, but I can't compromise on what I believe in. I don't want to change the way the world works so that I get some kind of all-encompassing harem pass for being an extra special boy, and I don't want to brainwash people to get my way, either."

"So your choice is a [Secret Third Thing]?" Bradley shot him some finger guns and a reassuring grin.

"Yeah. I'll either win people over the hard way or not at all." Oliver clenched his fists. "I don't want to mindfuck Rebecca's dad into accepting me if she really does become a heroine. He's a nice dude who loves his daughter more than anything else in the world, and I'd want him to feel like she'd be in good hands."

"Oliver. Buddy. PAL. Love the [Idealism], but playing [Devil's Advocate] here-"

"As per usual,"

"HAH! Indeed! While this might sound [Rich] coming from ME, you must [Understand] that while your [Exaggerated Reality] is [Exaggerated], it's still [Reality]. Even MY [Inhuman Ass] knows there's NO chance in HELL a [Loving Father] would WILLINGLY allow his [Darling Daughter] to date a MAN who by that point will presumably HAVE two other [Girlfriends]."

"You just assuming Zoe is a foregone conclusion, or what?"

"Should I NOT?"

"Man, I don't even know anymore, Bradley," Oliver groaned as he collapsed flat back onto the rock, losing himself amid the infinite inky void. The angst stirring his heart was so potent you'd be forgiven for thinking he was a rebellious teenager.

"There's too much going on. I want to help Mia. I want to help Zoe. I want to help Rebecca- it's endless at this point, and knowing myself, I'll probably want to help Stacy and Tessa if I get closer to them, too. Hell. After our talk the other day, I'm already starting to feel something towards the boss."

Bradley gave Oliver a lengthy silence, then placed his cold, plasticky hand on his best friend's shoulder. "The world is your [Sandbox]," he said, his voice now strangely comforting. "And how you [Play] in it is entirely up to [You]. As for my advice? If you want something, stop overthinking and [Chase It]."

"...Bit on the nose, there. Don't you think?"

"Perhaps!"

Oliver chuckled a little and sat up again. "You know, for as much as I'm turned off by the idea of changing reality of influencing people's free will, I don't think that's my biggest problem with some of the shadier skills in my tree..."

"Finally FIGURED that OUT, have you?"

"Yeah," he sighed, gazing at the tides. "I don't want people to like me because I magically forced them to. I want them to like me for me."

"How [Curious],"

"Curious how?"

"Ah. Forgive me. I just find your dilemma somewhat [Humorous] is ALL! There just aren't THAT many [Folks] out quite like [You], Oliver."

"People with psychic dating sim powers?"

"People BOLD enough to desire the [World], yet SENSITIVE enough to be [Ashamed] about it," Bradley smirked. "An [Interesting Combination], don't you THINK?"

Oliver hung his head and started blushing while cracking an awkward smile of his own. "Well, when you put it like that, fuck. I really am a trainwreck, aren't I?"

"I wouldn't [Go] THAT [Far], no. Not when the [Way Forward] is SO [Obvious]."

"Let's hear it,"

"You need to TALK to someone who [Understands] what you're [going through] and learn HOW to become more [Shameless], naturally!"

"Yeah, sure, let me just send five easy payments of $59.99 to PickupKing69 and learn from the best," Oliver laughed darkly. "I'm sure his exclusive online course will teach me all I need to know about the art of shamelessness and maybe even something about grifting, too, while he's at it."

"There exists a [Middleground] somewhere between [Sensitive] and [Shameless] that you must LEARN to [Straddle] if you truly desire to continue along your [Current Trajectory], my FRIEND! Otherwise, you WILL continue to [Mentally Fester], as IS your [Default State of Being]."

"Mia and I are working on that," Oliver defended himself with a blush. "Still... you've got a point. Things would be so much easier if I could bring myself to care a little bit less. I just don't see how I'd do that without becoming an asshole, and I'm not sure who you think I should talk to about all this, so..."

Oliver then noticed the leading smile Bradley shot his way. His expression implied he was waiting for him to piece together the answer for himself. He got it pretty much instantly, given that he already knew and was more so being purposefully ignorant.

"Right, right," he sighed. "I'll ask about it after we're done talking about Zoe... speaking of, I still haven't heard anything back from them. Are you sure they're gonna get back to me?"

"It was to MY [Understanding] that YES, they WILL! Perhaps you should head HOME and [Chillax] until then, my [Main Man]?"

As much as Oliver was enjoying bro time on the beach, he was a little tired. It'd been a long day, and something told him it'd feel even longer once his trump cards finally got ahold of him. He decided to go along with Bradley's suggestion and pack it in, but not before thanking him for the lovely therapy session.

The two parted ways for the time being, with Bradley vanishing into the night and Oliver warping across town to his apartment. He started opening his car door after the transition and quickly stopped upon noticing he was about to slam it into a motorcycle with a sidecar. He wasn't sure who it belonged to, but he did know they parked like an absolute jackass.

Now mildly grumpy, Oliver squeezed out of his half-opened door and grumbled while trodding up the stairs to his apartment. He made a startling discovery after taking out his keys and unlocking the door. It was already unlocked.

Oliver closed his and cautiously nudged it open with his foot. His place was as empty and devoid of life as he'd left it, which could mean only one thing. "If you guys are hiding on opposite ends of the door waiting to jump me, come on out. The jig's up."

At first, Oliver only heard the monotonous BGM music he'd grown so accustomed to tuning out. Then, shuffling, followed by that desolate bird screech thing all those old western stand-off songs start with, as two huge Mexican dudes- identical save for an eyepatch on one and a cast on the other- wearing boots and matching leather jackets stepped out into the open.

"The jig's up?" Juan scoffed, laughing like a hyena. "Who the fuck says that shit anymore? You going around solving mysteries in a green fuckin' van, or what? Right, hermano?"

"Shit does sound pretty Scooby Doo," Julio nodded sagely. "But what can you do?"

"Make fun of him?"

"Ain't here for that, estupido," Julio smacked his brother upside the head- only narrowly remembering not to use his injured hand.

"Puta madre, you little-"

"We're here to help."

"The fuck we are. First Mimi, now Zoe? Don't care if her perverted ass is into it, fuck this, man. I ain't helping with shit!"

"We're here," Julio repeated in a cold, chilling tone, refusing to even look at his younger twin as he spoke. "To help."

Despite the drama that consumed half of last week, Oliver wasn't immune to the sacred, time-honored, manly tradition of growing closer to his enemies after trading fists. He was happy to see Mia's brothers. Exhausted, irritated, and reluctant to proceed, maybe, but happiness was in there, too...

Somewhere.

"Lockpicking aside, thanks for showing up. I would've asked Mia for your number, but she's in a rough mood tonight, and I didn't want to potentially make it worse. What all did Bradley say, though?"

Oliver was confident he told Bradley to only pass along his number and tell them he wanted to talk...

"That we were right about you," Juan bared his fangs, amused. And then Julio bopped him on the head again, ignoring his pissy, post-slapstick grumbling.

"He said enough," Julio walked forward, crossed his arms, and his baby sister's boyfriend straight in the eyes. Whatever he saw there made the big man subtly nod in respect after a few seconds, and the next thing Oliver knew, a big, firm hand clasping his shoulder.

"Now how about you tell your hermanos the rest over those drinks you owe us, mn? Come on. Know a good place around here- you'll love it. Might even put some hair on your chest."

Mia Teaching Zoe Shitpost

Silly little gift from Urban from an artist we both love. Based on a meme I saw, came out super cute lol.

Next chapter has a decent shot at coming out tomorrow, it’s mostly done. We’ll see!

Art by https://x.com/jannzky

Zoe Nighttime Blowjob Pinup

Gift from Milly! Really love the lighting on this one. Milly was having an oral fixation episode so she saved tons of blowjob references lol. Went with this one cause I thought it’d be cute.

Writing wise, I had a good day today! Probably need about two more days before it’s done.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/u/Veronik_OwO/s/6awkD9lFku

Cute Mia Blowjob Pinup

Gift by Milly! Very happy with this one, am glad the artist was finally up for doing more as I love their style. Glad to finally get another one with Oliver fully in the picture too, and I think it’s downright adorable.

art by https://www.reddit.com/u/skrooe/s/25FDfqxgyu

Love Addict’s RPG Vol. 2 Ch. 80

Bit of a surprise here. I realized I was like 2000 words past a very obvious cut off point and figured I should probably make this bit it’s own chapter. Next one shouldn’t be that far out either because if this decision!

***

Oliver was surprised to see that Rebecca was telling the truth. A massive influx of sugar via another one of her ice cream monstrosities calmed her right down, at least to her previous level of anxiety before he'd made his grandiose promise. The awkward silence as she picked away at her treat and ate it in front of him in a panicked hurry made look back on the moment with embarrassment.

Still, he meant it. Rebecca was his number-one priority as soon as things with Zoe calmed down. Or rather, his second priority after maxing out Mia's Heart Events... which would currently make Rebecca his... third priority?

Dating sims, he sighed to himself. So many girls to woo and things to do, yet so little time...

After Rebecca made it halfway through her mountain, she felt good enough to resume idle conversation. It was nice. They kept things light, with Oliver consenting to have her lore dump the basic concepts of the 40th Space Reich universe to him.

Mia wasn't kidding when she said this shit was Hitler's wet dream.

The dumbed-down version was that humanity split into two factions in the far future after first contact with a galactic alien federation called the Communardic Elygium. One side embraced these new foreign friends and integrated into the Elygium's peaceful, hedonistic society, while the rest of humanity... became space Nazis without any subtlety to it whatsoever.

Calling themselves the Space Reich, the faction's mission was to conquer the galaxy on a platform of total human supremacy. There was also a lot of stuff about eugenics. Like, a lot of stuff about eugenics, and then you had junk about purging subhuman races and half-breeds from the galaxy.

That said?

Oliver still found himself a little interested in the setting. Learning that you didn't have to play as the Space Reich and could instead field an army of the peaceful, sex-having, space drug-fueled Elygium trying to protect their way of life helped a lot.

"Question," 

"Oh, um- y-yes?" Rebecca tensed up, worried she'd prattled on for too long.

"Why is it called the 40th Space Reich?"

"Ah! An excellent inquiry, soldier!" She exclaimed, going right back to having stars in her eyes. "You see, the galactic war has stretched on for thousands and thousands of years, and the Elygium has nearly destroyed the Reich tens of times over. It, um... it never fully dies out, though! Each time, the Space Reich comes back a little stronger... oh, um, well... not every time, actually. One early iteration was so overpowered that it almost won the war altogether!"

"...It wasn't the 3rd Space Reich, was it?"

"How did you know?!"

"Lucky guess," Oliver smiled, repressing the urge to facepalm.

Rebecca continued her lore dumping, excitedly explaining how the 3rd Space Reich used Neo-Aryan magic or some stupid shit to develop hyper-advanced technology better than anything the current Space Reich uses nowadays.

The longer the hyper-fixated girl monologed, however, the less conscious of her surroundings she became, and upon noticing the black lady over at the cash register giving them the most profoundly confused expression he'd ever seen, Oliver knew it was time to change the topic.

They briefly circled back to Zoe as Rebecca finished the last few bites, and Oliver was delighted to hear she'd come up with another suggestion. Once he'd actually heard her out, though, he was more apprehensive. It's not that it was a bad idea. Far from it, it was just one he wouldn't have thought of, and it might potentially feel awkward.

Nothing he couldn't handle. Probably wouldn't be worse than hanging out with a tiny autistic white girl who won't stop talking about Thinly-veiled Nazi Propaganda: the Wargame within earshot of a black chick. That, and it was something he needed to tackle sooner or later, anyway, so there was no excuse not to go for it.

Oliver thanked Rebecca for the suggestion right as she finished the final scoop. He told her she could go and wait in the car while he used the restroom real quick. There, he put the plan into motion by calling Bradley, getting him up to speed, and explaining his request as quick as he could to not keep the little lady waiting.

"So what do you think? That sound like something you'd be willing to handle?"

"Am I [Willing to Handle] it? Oliver, my FRIEND! Not ONLY am I [Willing to Handle] this MISSION you wish to assign me, your [Best Bro], but I would WILINGLY risk my [Continued Existence] to PULL it off with [Stunning Aplomb]!"

"...A simple 'yes' would have sufficed. Whatever, thanks, Bradley. Glad to hear you're on board. Seriously, though- don't be weird about this. All you need to do is track them down and pass along my number, okay?"

"Consider it DONE!" Bradley hung up first, showing off even more enthusiasm than usual to run off and complete his objective.

Given what Oliver asked of him, he supposed he understood his bro's excitement. He still had some lingering doubts over whether or not sending Bradley was the best way to go about it, however.

I'm sure it'll be fine, he mentally assured himself while staring into the bathroom mirror and touching up his hair with water. Long as he keeps things simple and doesn't say anything that might give off the wrong impression, then...

Oliver paused, picturing the worst-case scenario in all its gruesome detail.

On second thought, maybe I should've bit the bullet and asked Mia instead... he sighed. Oh well. What's done is done. Slumping his shoulders, Oliver left the building as he calmed his anxious mind with a repetitive mantra reminding him it was only two more days until Lucky Bastard was back in business.

He was surprised to see Rebecca waiting for him in the front seat when he made it to his car. She looked uncomfortable and was constantly shifting around while twiddling her thumbs. Even so, she still looked up with a nervous smile when she noticed him, causing Oliver's heart to pump faster as he shot a smile of his own right back.

"Hey, there," he said, getting in and buckling up. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Y-Yeah, well, I, um, I told you that I only needed to get a little more used to you, and I mean, heck. I-I held your hand for a little bit! It'd awful silly if I couldn't sit next to you after that, d-don't you think...?"

"Maybe a little, but don't feel like you need to force yourself-"

"I'm not forcing myself!" Rebecca puffed out her cheeks, not beating the mouse-like allegations. "I'm, um... I'm exactly where I want to be..."

"Okay, okay, not planning to die on this hill anytime soon," Oliver laughed softly and checked the time. 8:30. Unfortunately, it was probably too late to offer to take her somewhere else, but it didn't hurt to make sure. "I guess I should be getting you home, then?" He asked.

"Uh-huh. I still wanted to fit some games into the night before I get tired, b-but... I, um, I wouldn't really mind if you wanted to take your time, either. Driving around at night has always calmed me down, so..."

Oliver brightened up at his chance to spend more time with the adorable dork, giving her a smile as he said, "Your wish is my command, mein fraulein."

It was meant to come off as entirely innocent, but Rebecca blushed as furiously as if he'd been intentionally teasing he. Oliver sighed. He really couldn't help himself. Still, progress was progress. It didn't scare her off from sitting up front with him, so he took off, and the two struck up another round of mild conversation.

This time, Oliver managed to get Rebecca talking about herself instead of her hobbies. She was incredibly reluctant when he made the initial push and tried flipping the script by asking him about himself, but she wasn't a good enough conversationalist to pull that off and got swept along.

Once she started talking, though, she found it easy to open up and Oliver learned all kinds of interesting things about his new friend.

Rebecca's dad was a freelance software engineer who created 'software solutions', whatever that meant, and her mom wasn't in the picture. Aside from that, most of her family lived in the UK. Much of this conversation focused on her grandpa, a decently well-known painter who- and Rebecca was very excited to tell him this- occasionally did some work for the company that made 40th Space Reich on the side.

"Damn, really? That's cool as hell. What kinda stuff has he done for them?"

"He mostly paints models for promotional purposes, but he's also done some paintings for their sourcebooks and even a few book covers!" Rebecca beamed. "He's really good. Here, I'll show you a couple-"

"I'm driving, Rebecca," Oliver laughed softly.

"Oh. R-Right... I, um... I'll t-text them to you later, then, ahaha..."

She continued endlessly singing her grandpa's praises for another couple minutes. As soon as she finally ran out of nice things to say, the conversation awkwardly pivoted back to Rebecca herself. After high school, Oliver learned that she got a two-year general studies degree at a local college just so she had something under her belt before entering the workforce.

Given how cagey she'd been about the topic, he was surprised when she started talking about her job.

"I work customer service at one of MR&LBG's call centers... you know, um, the bank? Basically, I'm who the bot would put you on the line with after telling it half a dozen times that you want to speak to a human, ahaha..."

The thought of Rebecca working any job that required her to talk to people was so out there that Oliver was tempted into looking away from the road long enough to give her a confused look.

"...Really? Huh. Can't say I was expecting that."

"Would it make more sense if I said I don't really have to talk to people?"

"It would, but it would also raise other questions,"

"The job is mostly about listening to people talk about their problems, and when I do have to speak, I'm, um, n-not really having actual conversations with them. I just say stuff off of scripts I had to memorize. Anything past that, and I transfer the call to someone who actually knows what they're talking about, ahaha..." 

"Oh, okay. That doesn't sound too bad, then... that said, I've read a few horror stories on the internet about working for call centers. Hope it's not as bad as they make it out to be."

Rebecca let out a long, exasperated sigh as her body went limp, the side of her head thumping against her window. "It's... pretty bad sometimes, yeah. Or, um, most of the time, really..."

Oliver frowned. "So, what? You get paid to let people yell at you all day?"

"No. I get paid a lot to let people yell at me all day, ahaha... but... yeah. Anyone with a big enough problem that they need to call their bank about it usually isn't in a great mood, and all that anger has to go somewhere, right? Might as well be me..."

"Christ. I don't care how much they're paying you. That can't be worth it, can it?"

"My hobbies don't pay for themselves, and I have a lot of hobbies..." Rebecca managed a weary giggle.

"Still..."

"Honestly? Getting yelled at isn't great, but it's not the worst part of the job... that'd be whenever I have to talk with some sweet old lady who got tricked into buying thousands of dollars of gift cards by some Indian scammer or a father of four who just can't make their mortgage payment on time because one of their kid needed surgery and their insurance pulled the rug out from under them... 'I'm sorry, Sir/Ma'am, but there's nothing I can do to help you'..."

That unrelenting urge Oliver had to hug and comfort this dorky girl never tormented him as hard as it currently did. It took all his restraint to keep his eyes forward and his hands on the wheel. He sucked in a deep breath. It was okay. They'd entered Foamy Shores and weren't that far from her house.

"S-Sorry. I, um, I killed the conversation, didn't I...?"

"That was... admittedly a pretty big bummer, but that's okay. Learning more about you was worth the buzz kill." He said gently, then moved along the conversation before she could get hung up on it. "Let's say you could have any job in the world, though. What would it be?"

Rebecca blushed at the first half of his comment, but the question distracted her precisely as he hoped. She made a puzzled expression, then an embarrassed one.

"It's, um... hard for me to say..."

"Why? Can't think of one?"

"N-No, it's more that the job is, um... kind of silly and unrealistic, ahaha..."

"Come on, loosen up," he teased. "That was the whole point of the question! I did say any job in the world, didn't I?"

"You did, I just... ah... um..." Rebecca's voice caught in her throat, but she'd lost a lot of armor by now. So much that she felt it'd be sillier not to open up to him. "Okay. I'll tell you. If I could have, um... any job in the world, I'd... w-well, all I'd want is to play games for a living..."

"...You mean like Zoe?" Oliver asked, fighting off the mental image of Rebecca putting on makeup and dressing like a camgirl.

"N-No! No! I-I, um, I could never- ah... ahaha... I meant more along the lines of competing in Sorcery the Consumption and 40th Space Reich tournaments for a living!"

"Oh, right. Yeah, that makes more sense." He laughed awkwardly. "Have you tried?"

"Mhmm, I go to pretty much every local tournament there is for every game I play, but... my brain always turns to mush when I'm in a competitive setting... and, w-well, even if I could pull it off, tournament winnings aren't really enough to live off of. Most of the big players are also content creators, and I, um... I'm not like Zoe. I just plain don't have what it takes to do any of that."

"Hey. Never say never. It took me almost twenty-three years to start breaking out of my shell, but if I could pull it off, there's always hope for you."

Rebecca smiled at the thought. She didn't believe him- her shell was built around her brain, after all, but it made her feel nice that he'd said it, and she didn't want to ruin the moment with her pessimism. "Thank you, Oliver..."

"No problem," he said, making one of the final turns before they reached their destination. "Personally? I think you should go for it. It's a nice dream, Rebecca. A really nice one. I'm kind of jealous, to be honest."

"Jealous? Huh? Um... of... what, exactly?"

"The fact that you have a dream to begin with, I guess?"

"I, um... I don't see what's so special about it, ahaha...? Everyone has a dream, don't they? Don't you?"

"Not really. I have things I'm interested in, but nothing I'm so passionate about that I want to spend the rest of my life on it. I don't really have anything like Mia does with her art, Zoe with her streams, or you with your games..."

"Oh. That's, um... well... that's no good..." Rebecca bit down on her lip, pushing down her shyness to keep talking. She felt the pain coming from his heart and wanted to do what little she could to help out with it. "Boxing! Um, I-I mean, w-what about boxing? You're still young enough to be a pro boxer, and, um, you're really good at it!"

"I'll probably end up fighting again whenever I need more cash, but it's not like I fought Mia's brothers because I wanted to. My back was against the wall, and my only choice was to punch my way out of it," Oliver laughed softly. "Though... I guess I'd be lying if I didn't say I like fighting to a certain extent. Just not enough to actively make it my day job."

"Hm... yeah, I-I wouldn't want that, either ahaha... there, um, there has to be something you're passionate about, though! T-Then again, I, um... I could just be being autistic... so much of my life is defined by having dozens of little hyperfixations that part of me really struggles to comprehend how someone else might not have any at all..."

Oliver trusted Rebecca but wasn't comfortable telling the girl about his dating sim obsession. He could only imagine how nervous that would make her. Other than that, though? He didn't really have anything that qualified as a fixation. He liked things- anime, video games, and so on- but only casually.

Nothing he could rant about for hours on end about how Rebecca could.

Nothing except for...

"Maybe there is something, but it's even sillier than you telling me you want to play games for a living..." Oliver laughed awkwardly.

Rebecca unconsciously leaned in closer, tilting her head. "What is it? If you don't mind telling me, I'd, um... I'd love to know."

"The only real thing I'm passionate about is love, I guess,"

"L-Love...? You mean, um... you're passionate about your relationship with Mia, or, um... w-what, exactly?"

"Yeah, I am. Mia means everything to me, and I'm passionate about her, but I was talking more about how I feel about being in love in and of itself. Does that make sense?"

"I, ah... can't... say that it does?"

"Figured as much, yeah... It's cool. I'm kinda just babbling, anyway. I've never tried putting this into words, so..."

"H-Hey, um... just because I don't understand doesn't mean I wouldn't love lending you an ear if you wanted to try sorting out your feelings. You've, um... you've been such a patient and kind listener in the short time that I've... that we've been friends, s-so, ah..." Rebecca kept fidgeting as she talked before sighing and slumping over. "I'm just trying to say that for what it's worth, I-I'm always willing to hear you out..." she mumbled.

Oliver briefly thought about the offer, a mild blush coloring his cheeks. He'd opened up about his feelings to Mia more than a few times by now, but the thought of doing so with someone new scared him. Maybe not as much as it should've, though.

He felt like Rebecca understood him on some level, and he couldn't imagine her judging him. Between that and her eagerness to help, his defenses cracked.

"Up until pretty recently, I've been totally alone. I went through some rough shit in my high school years, wound up isolating myself, and it took a lot of work to get out of that spot. But even then, I don't think I really recovered. Not fully. I still isolated myself from the world, and I'm only just starting to feel like an actual human being again."

"...Because of Mia?"

"Mostly, yeah..."

"Mostly?"

"There's... been a few moments here and there where I've felt things towards other girls," Oliver saw Rebecca's eyes widen a tiny bit, so he quickly clarified, "It's not how it sounds- I'm not a scumbag, I'm only trying to say that... um... okay, so maybe there isn't a way to phrase it without sounding like a scumbag, but fuck it. I come to life whenever I'm flirting, getting attention, or even sometimes just seeing a girl do something vaguely life- and it's not just from Mia. She knows about this, by the way, and I'm not sure what all she's told you, but..."

"It's okay, Oliver. Take your time and say whatever you need to."

Surprised by her gentle reassurance, he took a deep breath and finished off his thoughts. "You know how people always say that loving yourself is way more important than being loved by others? I don't think I'm built like that, and that scares me. Even with Mia being so... understanding... it still hasn't been easy to look myself in the mirror and come to terms with who I am."

"In your own words, then, who... um... who are you?" Rebecca cocked her head.

"A black hole, maybe? Someone who could have the best girlfriend in the entire world and still feel that deep, deep down, it's not enough..."

Rebecca gulped. This was some pretty heavy stuff, and she didn't have any advice. She simply felt terrible that he felt bad and wished there was more she could do to help.

"I, um... I'm the least qualified person to give relationship advice, but... Mia is the most patient, understanding, and, um, stubborn person I've ever known, ahaha... as long as you two are being honest with each other and communicating about all this, I have no doubts that everything will work out in the end!"

It took him a while, but Oliver smiled calmly and agreed. "I think so, too. I'm lucky to have her."

Rebecca smiled back.

It wasn't as sincere as something nagged at the back of her mind. She was a good girl who loved her friends more than anything else in the entire world. The kind of girl who'd never make leading comments that would advance some nefarious secret agenda she was building toward.

Not consciously, anyway.

In a fit of compulsion, Rebecca reached over and placed her hand on top of his. It was so easy when she wasn't actually thinking about it. So natural.

Suddenly, the smile was sincere.

"I know it might not mean much coming from me, but if you want my honest opinion, um... w-well... let's say a soldier somehow gets left behind. Tragic, but it happens. There was a big battle on a desert planet, and some rocks fell on him, making everyone think he was dead! He wakes up the next day and knows base camp is hundreds of clicks away. Does he give up and just die right there on the battlefield? N-No, of course not. He picks himself up, looting the canteens of his fallen brothers to sate his thirst. It's a last-ditch effort. He'll eventually run out of corpses to loot, and when he finally does, things seem bad. Real bad, but... somehow... through sheer grit and determination... he makes it back! Any guesses on the first thing he does?"

"He... asks for a drink?"

"Exactly! And then another! And another! He's been dehydrated for so long that obviously he'll want to just drown in all the water he can get, don't you think?"

"I guess so, but I could've sworn you said you weren't very good at metaphors..."

"Ah... ahaha..." Rebecca blushed and took her hand away when she noticed where it ended up. "I-I have my moments, I suppose?"

"I suppose you do," Oliver gave her a polite, if awkward, laugh. "Really wish you went with one that didn't imply I get a pass because I'm thirstier than everyone else, though..."

"Why? I, um... I thought that 'thirsty' was a good stand-in for female affection, personally..."

"Because 'thirsty' in this context usually means-" Oliver inspected the innocent way Rebecca inquisitively stared for clarification, then shook his head, amused.

"W-What? Am I, um, missing something?"

"Nothing important, no," Oliver chuckled. "I appreciate your rousing speech, commander."

"Leutnantin,"

"Leutnantin," he repeated to make her happy.

Which it did. Very, very much. So much so that she couldn't even look at him for a couple seconds, but as soon as she turned away, she noticed something awkward. Outside her window was an expensive house where a couple of lazy cats were idling on the lawn.

She recognized these cats. They were her neighbors, given that Rebecca was looking at her neighbor's house. Looking out the front window revealed many other cars parked on the curb right in front of her own house, too.

"W-What the- ah- um, h-how long have we been here, Oliver...?!"

"We've been parked for like... five... ten minutes, Rebecca? Did you not notice?" 

"N-No! Not at all! You should've said something, I-"

"I would've, but we were talking... and I didn't really want to stop unless we had to. Sorry. You're right. I should've-"

"Ah- no, it's okay, I'm just surprised, ahaha..." Rebecca smiled to herself. Hearing how much he enjoyed talking with her felt like a major win. Sadly, it was offset by guilt and knowing they were about to split up. "I guess I should probably get going, then..."

"If you're still aiming to get in some gaming, then yeah, probably. Otherwise, I'd-"

"You'd...?"

"Offer to sit around and talk with you more? Far be it from me to keep you from playing with your little army men, though."

"Huh. I'm, uh... I'm going to ask you another stupid question, but, um... you... really do like hanging out with me... don't you...?"

Oliver knew the drill by now. Doubt plagued her mind, and the best thing to drive it away was a patient smile and honesty. "I do, yeah. And I'll say it as many times as you need me to."

The Leutnantin winced as yet another round of enemy fire ruined her only remaining gauntlet, trashing it beyond repair. It crumbled to dust and was scattered away on alien winds.

"Ah... ahaha..." Rebecca gulped, weighing her options.

Sneak in a couple of hours playing 40th Space Reich with her dad and his friends, or sit around talking with her friend's boyfriend? Then again, Oliver's crappy old car wasn't the most comfortable place to be... oh, but maybe they could go out on the backyard patio together?

She never made much use of it herself, but the view was always pretty at this time of night, what with the moon's shimmering reflection slowly shifting along the salty waves. Why, some might go so far as to call it...

N-No.

No, no, no.

Ab-so-LUTELY not! I will not imagine myself having a r-r-romantic moonlight heart-to-heart on the beach with Mia's boyfriend. I. Will. NOT! You're a lot of things, Rebecca, but 'disloyal' isn't one of them!

But... if he really likes hanging out with me... maybe... just maybe... it would be doing him a f-f-favor...?

Yeah... Yeah...!!

Or rather, 'yeah, right', darn it... I just can't think of a way to frame it that wouldn't make me feel like a duplicitous... um... b-word...

She gave in with a soft, quiet sigh.

"Everything okay?" 

"Y-Yeah, I'm just thinking that maybe I should-"

"What... the... hell?"

"Huh? W-What's the matter? You, um... you look like you've seen a ghost!"

"Crap, sorry, didn't mean to stare- I just... that guy who came out on the deck just now surprised me a little. One of your dad's friend's I'm... guessing...?" Oliver asked, politely swapping out the word he'd actually wanted to use.

Her eyes lit up in recognition after noticing who he referred to. "Oh, no! No, that's just my dad, ahaha..."

"Of course it is," Oliver smiled thinly, nodding. "Of course it is."

Update

Just touching base. Chapter 80 is seeing some delay because it was so hot yesterday I didn’t feel like working. Air conditioner isn’t working right and will need to do something about it potentially. Will see how far I get today, as its still pretty far along.

Mia Starry Lingerie Pinup

Gift from Milly! I’ve wanted to get her wearing this outfit for a long time now. I like it a lot on Mia so this probably won’t be the only time I use it lol.

I had another OK riding day today, chapter 80 is around 4.5k words along now but I’ll still need another few days at the rate I’m going.

art by https://www.reddit.com/u/KushiroJinx/s/scbv6OnJeE

Tessa Posing Pinup

Gift from Milly! Not the vibe that most art of her will have lol. I prefer when she looks somewhat frazzled or embarrassed to be doing whatever lewd stuff art of her will feature her doing hehe. But having her look like a gentle mommy every once in a while is nice and I love how this came out!

Update on writing but I had quite a good day for it so far at 1.7k words. I think the next chapter is maybe within three days max as I’m past the brunt of it.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/user/nyansteria/

Tessa Showing Off at Work Pinup

Gift from Milly! Though I’m still hesitant to get a lot of Tessa art, I want to at least start getting a few things here and there. I had a three page comic idea for her that’ll be pushed off until I can get funding for it but other than that I do have something small in the works for her!

On the writing side of things, doing okayish. Had a better than average day today but next chapter is still a bit farther out at my current pace.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/u/Veronik_OwO/s/6awkD9lFku

Rebecca Chilling in Bed Pinup

Gift from Milly! A cute pic of Rebecca chilling in the morning with some plushies.

Art by https://www.reddit.com/u/Veronik_OwO/s/6awkD9lFku