#i might do a storyboard fuck it

[depvotee]

Y know what I'm mad abt? Omitting Rhaenyra's ladies in waiting. It could've been an incredible way to also show the disconnect of Rhaenyra and Alicent's relationship with all of them watching once their friend Alicent become their queen which of course changes the dynamic alienating Alicent further

[boygirlctommy]

no way you guys can guess what clip im animating right now

[yoylechess]

bruhsjshshhhhhhjdh

[carcarrot]

alright we're okay. it's all going to work out and happen. ive got my short film idea. i just have to make it absolutely perfect and then we're good to go

[gemharvest]

Tjis looks dumb rn but I wanna share it anyways.

[This drawing I posted the other day] is the palette for this part btw.

[none-tadashi-left-hiro]

hmmmm. Sad

[crowfeathers]

I just realized my comics prof was talking about an ingmar bergman movie earlier wtf. she totally gets me *almost never talks to her*

[akirathedramaqueen]

There's one piece of concept art that made me see the entire Apology Tour disaster in a different light.

So, we've been talking with @warblogs17282 about Stolitz and how their break-up ended up playing out in the 'Apology Tour' episode.

Why ended up? Well, there's a collection of concept art which, to my limited understanding of this craft, is one of the first steps in the production process of animation. This post by @birdy-babe includes a great chunk of it, shared by artists after the episodes aired (like storyboards, but much more stylised, showing how different some original ideas were). Long story short, one of the concept arts from the 'Apology Tour' episode suggests their quarrel was originally meant to be much harsher.

A short summary of the concept art to see what we are dealing with

In the background, you see a lot of apology postcards and silly cutesy stationery, suggesting Blitzø is in the middle of his Apology Tour.

The contact name isn't 'Stols' but 'Bird Dick,' implying their relationship is at an earlier stage, with less respect—at least on Blitzø's part.

There's a photo partially cut by the edge of the messages screen. From the signature gloves and boots, cowboy hat covering Blitzø's private parts, and visible nipples, it appears to be a nude image—replaced in later stages of development with stupid gay affirmation memes (as hard as it is to believe, I couldn't imagine there could be anything worse than the Striker horse gay jokes... well, it could, my dudes, it fucking COULD).

There are three messages, one of which is unsent:

"Stolas, cum awwwwwwn, u no u want it :)"—likely attached to the nude;

"Dude just talk to me"—desperation crawls in; he finally realises the shit has hit the fan;

"Im sowwy :("—an apology, but the text remains unsent, perhaps because it seems pointless, given that the 'Not Delivered' notifications and warning signs indicate Stolas has blocked his number.

Why do I find this fascinating, and why does it fill me with immense hope?

Because they still fucking care so much, and neither has completely closed the door on the other. By comparing the concept art to the final product, you can see how many intentional choices were made in dialogue, visuals, and behaviour to make it clear that these two idiots still want things to continue. Stolitz is meant to fucking live.

Now, if you want to see some comparisons—evidence, really—let's dive into each other's changes, focusing on what we can gather from the concept art.

Blitzø's side

Change 1—thank gods, no nudes. The gay memes are sillier and a bit lighter. Of course, they still showcase utter disrespect, a horrible prejudice against sexuality, and a poor understanding of how deeply Stolas was hurt, but I find them... less bad.

Change 2—no more 'Bird Dick.' Blitzø has actually come up with a real nickname for Stolas! Feelings are boring for you, huh, Blitzø? I can almost hear the song’s lines: "O-oh, hooked, addicted you might say, conflicted in a way…"

Change 3—Blitzø's attempts to apologize now show much more contemplation. Since Stolas hasn’t blocked him, Blitzø knows his words aren’t just being thrown into the void. Although the 'unsent' detail remains, it now carries real weight and impact.

All three changes are seen in these two GIFs.

He knows he did wrong. He knows he wants to salvage it. He might not yet know how to do it healthily, but he tries—he tries so fucking hard!

Look at the range of raw, cutting emotions as he speaks to Stolas and finally delivers his apology—probably the only one he genuinely meant. Well, maybe except for Verosika, a bit later.

It's not that it's hard for Blitzø to say 'sorry'—we've seen him do it a lot lately. He's actually quick to apologise and take responsibility, so Stolas's remark about him not feeling any remorse couldn’t be further from the truth. But the fact that he isn't running away this time—chasing after Stolas and trying his best to mend things—is drastically different from how he treated Verosika back then.

Stolas's side

Here’s the moment that struck me deep. It’s the only change, since the concept art shows Blitzø’s POV, but it’s such a significant one.

Do you think Stolas has moved on? Do you think he’s done with Blitzø? Not convinced, even when he’s literally singing about still wanting Blitzø?

Well, here’s your proof—he didn’t block Blitzø. They scrapped that.

More than that, the entire interaction emphasizes that Stolas isn’t pushing Blitzø away for good.

How do I know this? Stolas is very insistent on using phrases like 'for now,' 'right now,' and 'now' throughout his attempts to tell Blitzø off.

Here are some citations:

"I was hoping my lack of 'ha-ha's' in response to the photos you sent me would be an indicator I didn't want to talk right now."

"Seeing you right now is hard!"

"I'm tired of this! I'm uncomfortable with how you're speaking to me now!"

Why is this so important? Because he isn’t asking Blitzø to leave him forever. All he’s asking for is time.

Even while hurt, Stolas gives Blitzø plenty of chances to explain himself civilly. Look at the hopeful glances each time Blitzø shows any glimpse of genuineness.

Stolas fucking hopes Blitzø will take back all the cruel things said and brash actions done.

You know, Stolas... I've spent the entirety of this morning listening to love ballads, and that was...

For what?! You want me to be like, "Oh sorry, this entire time I assumed the worst because I was convinced a prince could never love someone like me and I've let my self-hatred stop me from apologising to anyone I could ever care about!"

You see the furrowed brows and the sad look? Stolas hopes for the best... but gets the worst because Blitzø isn’t there yet.

I’d even go so far as to say Stolas is acutely aware that Blitzø uses his brashness as a shield to protect himself. He literally sang about it in 'Just Look My Way.'

Unless it's me? And no matter what in this world I could give, it's not enough to get through these walls you've conjured up to live.

So, what gives?

Is this the behaviour of people who want to give up on a relationship they still clearly hold dear?

No. Even when they’re angry, aggressive, hurt, or drunk, they still seek understanding and forgiveness. They continue to listen and try.

They might lack the skills and may choose the wrong time, place, or words to express what truly matters...

One person, scared of being rejected so much that he unconsciously conveys this message by saying, "You don’t have to stay here with me," and carrying it throughout the whole conversation...

The other, coming to terms with his feelings, admits them, and his fears, a bit too late—when his romantic interest is too drunk to comprehend anything…

And in both cases—self-loathing, self-hatred, doubts, scars, trauma… and a lack of hope.

But there is hope. No, this is reassurance, my folks.

You know when it's hardest to stay in a relationship? When it’s hardest to come and say, "I am sorry," when it’s hardest to still love the person?

When you’re hurt. When they’ve hurt you.

And, despite that, you still come to them and still want to talk to them.

If this isn’t ironclad evidence that this is more than just a fling or a couple of fun sex dates, I don’t know what is.

And the 'Apology Tour' fucking proves it, rather than ruins it. It only strengthens the point. It’s easy to live in happiness, but it’s so hard to go through it while you’re in pain. When you see them doing that, you realise it means everything to them.

Stolitz is to live.

[ask-whitepearl-and-steven]

You don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but how has your opinion changed on Steven Universe now than when it first aired? Like I have fond memories of watching the show while it was airing but now I realize that it had a lot of problems that I feel like a lot of fans either flat out ignore or bend over backwards to make sure their rose tinted glasses stay on.

... okay, fair question. Let's talk about this.

I'll try not to wax poetic too long, but there are a lot of things to be said here.

First and foremost - how has my opinion changed since the show has ended?

Simply put - it hasn't.

When I started watching Steven Universe over 7 years ago, I didn't have much knowledge of it. I sat down, saw a few of episodes and went 'well, this is a silly show for kids with a goofy but loveable protagonist... but it seems like it's also incredibly charming with its delivery and has some nice, more complex themes about loss and healing and grief throughout.'

And if you ask me what Steven Universe is now... I would probably say that exact same thing.

Am I wearing rose tinted lenses? Interesting question.

What ARE 'rose tinted lenses' in this context anyway?

What do these lenses represent? What do they obscure?

Since you didn't go into specifics, I can only assume what you're referring to when you say that many fans ignore the show's problems.

There have been many discussions surrounding various aspects of the show and how it might be read as 'problematic' (ahhh how I've come to despise that word.... without context, it has all the descriptive power of the word 'icky' - none of the critical details and all of the emotional punch of scrunching up your face like a cat that just sniffed a lemon...)

Is this about something as simple as the 'SU doesn't have a consistent size for its characters' debate?

Because that has been gone back to, over and over again, and proven to be a point of opinion. SU favored allowing storyboarders to show off their personal flourish, and even though Peridot was 30% hair in that one episode, it did not overall take away from the plotline being told, which was their goal. If you wanted to watch a show with consistent styling throughout, you can always watch a 3D modeled show, but keeping that up was simply never one of SU's main pillars. And I feel like it didn't have to be.

Is this about something more complex such as the way Rose was presented?

...and how her arc was shown backwards instead of forwards - showing first the person she became in the end, and afterwards revealing all the growth she had to have to get there?

That was on purpose! And I don't think this is a problem. It's a feature, not a bug. Rose was never meant to be an ideal character - she was meant to be complicated and messy, and I think the fact that the fandom is so split in their opinions of her shows that the Crewniverse pulled that off really well!

She fucked over Bismuth! She forced Pearl to be silent! Those are both parts of her character arc that were never resolved because she died before she could resolve it - that's BY DESIGN. Sometimes, you just do something absolutely stupid and cruel, and you cannot go back to fix it.

Is this about the Diamonds? The fact that they were not put in space jail, after being put on trial for space crimes, and then publicly executed for space eco-genocide?

Here's the thing - most people I know who watched and loved SU are fully aware of that. But simply put - Steven Universe was not a story about Revenge.

Steven Universe was a story about love. A story about family. A story about truth, and lies, and hurt, and healing. About how sometimes healing doesn't happen. And how sometimes it will, but you won't be around to see it.

But it's not a story that can be all things for all people.

That is the thesis of my reply: It is a story.

It is not a manifesto. It is not a bible. It is not a Complete Truth.

It is a single story. Made by a group of very talented people, who cared about these characters, who did their best. They made a funny, emotional, well-drawn and complex cartoon show about the things THEY personally wanted to tell stories about.

Does it answer all questions the way everyone wants them answered? No. That's impossible.

Everyone wants a different story. Everyone wants a different solution, a different resolution. A different ending.

Steven Universe is one story. It cannot satisfy all people.

So when you ask me 'has your opinion of Steven Universe changed'? The answer is 'no'.

I went in, expecting to see a story. I saw a lot of what I liked! I saw some parts which I thought were interesting. I saw some parts which, yes, I disagreed with a little.

But overall, it's a good story. And that's what I expected, and that's what I got, which means I'm pretty satisfied. I love that story.

I feel like recently, there's this expectation of media, to be Everything For All People. And it's a bit unrealistic. No one call tell the perfect story. We are all simply telling the stories we want to tell. And people will vibe with that, more or less.

A single story, made by a small group of people, will never be that for you. There will never be an Unproblematic Cartoon that you watch that will be devoid of things you disagree with.

Being critical of media doesn't mean 'Criticize the FUCK outta that media, and the one with the least criticisms is the best one'.

Critical thinking is about evaluating things critically - that means being critical of YOURSELF. Being critical of your OWN reactions. Asking 'why did I like this?' and 'why did I dislike this?'. Asking 'this doesn't mesh with me, but who WOULD it mesh with? It isn't for me, but who is it for? Who would it hurt, but also who would it help?'

Some people HATED how SU: Future ended. They beat their fists on the wall and cried about how Steven was leaving his family behind, and how THEY could never imagine doing something like that, and how he was running away from his problems just like Rose had.

Me? I loved it. I think it was the right choice, and I COULD imagine it and thought it was in character. I thought he needed to be his own person, instead of shouldering everyone else's responsibilities for once. Was one of us more right than the other? Maybe not? Maybe that was the whole point?

Loving things is not about putting on rose colored glasses. Sometimes, choosing to love something with flaws is an act of rebellion. It's about knowing you have differences, but understanding that there is value in the things you DO agree on, and knowing you can consume that.

Healthy consumption of media does not mean throwing the whole cartoon away as soon as you notice something is wrong with it, like a bruise on an apple.

Healthy consumption of media involves critical thinking AND feeding yourself. Acknowledging you may disagree with parts of it, but not starving yourself just because your apples all have small imperfections.

Eat, for fuck's sake. Feed yourself. You'll feel better.

Thassit.

[ekrixart]

No idea if someone's already asked this or not, but oh well.

What exactly is it that you work with at Studio Investigrave? I've noticed some of your art on promotional stuff but is there anything you draw that's in the games? I have some suspicions on some art that might be yours from Dead Plate but I can't really tell for sure.

So in short what exactly is your job at the studio? And what work have you done?

I work on writing, most backgrounds, some sprite work, game development [like game mechanic/progress ideas, not any of the actual coding or implementation], some cg storyboards, character animations, illustrations, and other odd jobs split between us while we work. Rach and i are both artists first and foremost so there isn't really a split on jobs, it's just whoever's available to do it- Though Rach works on a lot of the clean up art for CGs and sprites just to more easily keep a cohesive style of the games My portfolio website has a few more specific examples with progress descriptions but a lot of the pages are still wips. A few examples of my work on dead plate would be writing, backgrounds [aside from Rodys apartment], most of the sprite animations [like the cooks and Rodys walk animations [though rach added all the specific food/dish animations, bless his soul because dear fucking lord]], the food dishes you receive, the catalogue/items you can buy, etc- Theres a lot of stuff Im forgetting and Rach Also worked on a lot of these examples so don't take this as gospel but it's just off the top of my head

[chaifootsteps]

been watching that video someone sent in before while eating dinner (the "hazbin hotel sucks and that makes me sad video") and i honest to god have no complaints about it so far, aside from the begining disclaimer.

like im sorry, but its so fucking infuriating to hear SO many reviews say, "i wont talk about the drama outside the show," followed by, 9 times out of 10, a section completely dedicated to angel dust and how badly the execution of his story was butchered. "this feels written by the perspective of someone who thinks it's cool to be gay and abused," "angels suffering feels prolonged", etc.

like, yeah, i dunno man. couldnt possibly understand why they fucked that part of the story up so bad. why dont you ask the guy that storyboarded posion, has drawn angel being horribly raped and hypnotized, influenced the actual masquerade episodes dialogue with his fucked up fan comic, changed his name to tony when he started doing sex work, and admitted to never going through any of the trauma angel has? why not ask viv, who lied about raph being sexually assaulted (or, was telling the truth, and used his recent assault as a way to shield herself from critique,) who infamously doesnt research her characters designs or backgrounds, and called her rapist character "bubbles coded" and "a stupid mean girl" on twitter?

i just have to wonder, why? if youve already had to put a disclaimer that you dont intend to harass anyone for your disagreeing opinions on this stupid ass show, then why not acknowledge whos fault it is for this happening? why protect them? why not, i dunno, let two 30 year olds be held accountable for using millions of dollars to make a completely unnecessary rape music video? its not like anyone else is going to. you might as well use your platform to say something different besides, "poison and masquerade is really uncomfortable and gross. i will not discuss why this is. i will instead discuss the content itself only and intelligently put into words why i feel this way," for the 50th time on youtube.

Gotta agree with you on this one. If anyone ever makes a video critiquing HH that pulls no punches, please link me to it.

[roughdaysandart]

Page done and more girl daddy Mand'alor!Din brainrot

closeups at the end. I wonder what the hell some of yall think is going on becuase alot of these 0-2 pages are jump-cuts to random or sporadic time periods that dont appear to be part of the 'rough day' main fic, so it must look like alot of sidetracking for new people. so, just to reiterate for anyone new to my page, we're working on the preface chapter right now for SG, which introduces her charcater components through alot of visuals and scenarios both from canon and added story arcs. we wont get to the main 'rough day' stuff til chapter 1 (buuuuut first we gotta release prolougue pt 0!).

Didn't expect this environment to turn out so pink, but i adore it! Also am thinking that lineart for the rain might be better than leaving it just white and plain, as it looked a bit undefined from far away.

the rainbow I think is my favorite part. its just so over the top magical and a grossly cliche and i love that.

rain was definatley the biggest hurdle in this page. Its very dificult to hand draw the streaks and make it appear natural, so I ended up pasting a clipart and durplicating and transforming it and resizing it as a base, then altered the raindrop colors etc. I think it turned out fine, definatley a good time to use photos directly. it was nearly impossible to find referance photos for the last frame, so I had to hand place all the raindrops. I'm honsetly still not 100% satisfied with how they turned out, but my eagerness to move on outweights my perfectionism in this particular instance.

aside from the rain, i think the next biggest challendge or hurdle i had to figure out was incorporating the reflections of the building, made of crystal, into objects like SG's skin and the ship. I didint expect it to make such a difference, adding the slight teal streaks, but I think it has something to do with bringing all the background colors onto the chracter/main objects inorder for them to really refelct that they fit in the actual scene and its components/color pallete. Huzzah!

I still think I can do better with the metal. Im still figuring out how severe to make the reflective aspect, as I dont want it to end up looking like glass or water. All in all though, I think Im doing a good enough job where the audience can tell its metal well enough for now.

ahhh you know what i just realized upon re-looking at the storyboard of this frame? I wanted to make her knees pop out of the rightmost frame....ahhhh fuck idk if i wanna take the time to go back and do thattttt ughhhhh. ill see if it makes that big of a 'wow' difference then decide...fuck uGHHH.

Currently getting a foothold in school after finally cutting hours at work, so let's see how things improve-lifewise when I can actually catch a break and have the ✨energy✨ to study.

@the-mandawhor1an

@lastresortacontact

[comicaurora]

It's been way too long since I've sent an ask, howdy~ I know you've answered asks about your process for adding FX to the panels and clarity of motion stuff, and the answer to this might just be 'Vibes?' but I wanted to ask what happens in your brain when you chain together particular visuals with the characters' motions and fucking around with the sound effect lettering etc. Like I keep thinking of the Incredibly Clear Sound Design that manifests when I read the pages and I have to wonder HOW?

Interesting question! It's hard to say - I'm almost never sure of what I'm doing until it's on the page, and a lot of the time I'm just fiddling with settings until it looks right.

A major consideration is not letting the sound effects obscure the relevant details of the art itself. If I have SFX for an impact, I don't want them hiding the movement behind it - so I'll put it at the point of impact, but not over the actual body or weapon in motion behind it.

Obviously the louder the sound, the bigger and opaque-er I write the sound effect. Whizzing through the air feels more ephemeral and translucent than a solid, hard impact, but if whizzing through the air is the main sound in a shot, I might keep the text pretty opaque.

If a sound is big and atmospheric enough, I sometimes put it behind the characters - again so it doesn't obscure the art, but also to make it feel a little more ambient, in the same space as the background.

I try to put the sound where it would physically be happening - where the air is agitated, basically. So when Falst moves out from a pile of robot parts, the noisy sound is behind him, but when he flops on the floor, the sound is ahead of his direction of movement.

If someone gets hit from behind, I put the sound behind them.

I stylize and color the effects differently depending on the texture of the sound. A soft breeze is dim and translucent with soft, fluid lettering. Scraping of claws against metal is hard and sharp. The rumbling of rock is rattled with faint afterimages like a shaking camera would leave. A stabbing impact through metal and stone is crunchy and cracked.

I like using speed lines and impact lines, and I find they work very well if you treat them like physical, 3D objects that are subject to perspective. If someone is slamming into the ground, it produces a starburst of effect lines under them - and if the camera is near to the ground, the starburst is going to look flattened from their perspective. I do the same distortion to the text to accentuate the direction and angle of the impact.

I also don't use sound effects in shots that I want to feel like dramatic slow-mo. A sound effect essentially introduces a sense of time to a panel - it mentally calibrates your internal clock to say "this panel takes as long as that sound effect does." So if I want a moment to sort of hang in the air, I won't add the visuals of sound.

I hadn't really thought about it, but I include SFX as early as the storyboarding stage, so it's something I have in mind right from the start.

[batshaped]

ABOUT THE ANIMAL

This is Batty, a type of line-and-color-secreting organism (likely mammal). She is legally categorized as an unwholesome cartoon character (this may be a subtype of cryptid but as of this writing the organization has not obtained a warrant to catch and vivisect her, so the science is unconfirmed). We still let her work as a writer and storyboard artist for TV animation though. Diplomatic reasons.

This Tumblr is an archive of the secretions she produces (known by laymen as “personal art she makes in her free time”). These substances may include nudity, blood/injury, dark/mature themes and, as quoted from a statement by the subject, “whatever the fuck else I feel like.” Do not let her “cute” art style fool you. This is merely a biological lure tactic. She is in fact what we in the scientific community recognize as a “Bitch” and engages in what the layman might understand as “Bitch Activities.”

The archive is currently under construction. As antiquated works are unearthed and uploaded by our system, they will be posted out of chronological order. Where applicable, a link to the original source of the work will be posted in its description and the original post date added to the tags by an automated process. Researchers interested in a particular era may conduct their search by browsing these tags—for example, “2020 art” or “October 2022 art.”

Other documented sightings of the subject:

Twitter — High-activity zone. Amasses curiously high-intelligence social groups that pay her tribute of some kind in the form of excellent analysis of the “comics” she secretes.

Instagram — Moderate-activity zone. Recent activity may be observed via “stories” (a type of functional trailcam). 

HELLO FROM HALO HEAD — High-volume, high-chroma current secretion intended to attract specialized prey (enjoyers of webcomics).

Angel’s Advocate — Monochromatic secretion paused in 2020. It is nonetheless being monitored as the subject may begin secreting again at any time per her unpredictable will.

WEBTOON — Both secretions have been archived here.

Tapas — Both secretions have been archived here.

TikTok — Rare footage of the subject’s movements in realtime.

Ko-Fi - HIGHLY DANGEROUS AREA. DO NOT APPROACH. Any tribute paid here will only enable further, enhanced activity by the subject. Reports of extremities lost in the act of attempting tribute are not uncommon. ENGAGE AT YOUR OWN RISK. 

Linktree — Documentation hub to be updated as events—

Dictation paused to address matter of high priority. Dictation will resume upon resolution of the matter.

hi please disregard above im not reading all that but its definitely not real please put your fingers in my enclosure i promise you will have fun :)

[astranva]

Tea & Confrontations

Word Count: 6.2k

Category: Angst, fluff-ish, but mostly angst

Warning: swear language

Summary: A mutual friend, and an inside source spills exclusive tea about your and Harry’s relationship, breakup, and your relationship with Joe Keery, and Joe confronts Harry.

a/n: this is set further down in time and not in October of 2022 for the sake of the fic’s timeline. let me know what you think! this is a long one x

.. 

Backstage Girlfriend Masterlist

Some days, you had found yourself regretting your choice of profession. Surely working as anything but a creative director, commonly known as Production Designer in the film industry–one who was successful and known as well–and having a circle of people who were in the entertainment industry wouldn’t have made you and Harry meet. Surely it was your profession. Surely it was the circle of big names and not-so-big ones that had your paths crossing years ago. Surely if it weren’t for it, you would have been getting over a breakup with an accountant or business developer of some sort, and only then, nobody would have given two shits about your breakup.

But that wasn’t the case.

And while you had had your days, meeting Joe had proved that everything worked out for the best.

“I was thinking that we might need to change Flo’s position for this shot.”

It wasn’t everyday that someone could be sitting next to one of Hollywood’s best directors, Christopher Nolan, but as the supervising production designer on his new movie, Oppenheimer, you were.

“The lighting on her face is coming from that side,” you pointed, “And if we have her on the other side, it’s more fitting to the mood.”

Nolan nodded along, looking at his screen in front of him, “Yeah, yeah, I see it,” he said, “Florence, can you stand on the left instead?” He called.

Working on one of the most anticipated movies with an incredible cast and crew, you were almost sleepless. As someone whose job was one between a Producer and a Director, your mind seemed to always be racing with the designs you worked on for the film, the budgeting, the storyboards, making sure all the teams you were working with were going according to plan—you loved your job, but saying you were busy would be an understatement.

It was why it wasn’t something you had anticipated nor wished for when the internet seemed to suddenly go crazy.

It was a rare day off when it happened, to your own bad luck and misfortune.

At 9 a.m., Joe had woken up before you, being gentle as he kissed your hair as you slept, overcome with the feeling of happiness that you were finally getting some sleep and rest, even if it was just for a day.

Time seemed to be dragged before Joe checked his phone that he had silenced before bed to make sure neither of you, and especially you, was disturbed.

Along with a few frantic texts from his friends, it was one of his sisters’ texts that he saw first:

Carolina: Don’t let Y/N come near her phone!!!

Caroline: Deux Moi released a podcast with an “exclusive source” that leaked everything about her previous relationship and yours

Caroline: Do NOT let her see this!

Carolina: https://www.hellomagazine.com/celebrities/20221002153091/harry-styles-exclusive-tea-yn-yln/

“Fuck,” Joe said under his breath, his shoulders slumping as he sat down, opening the link his sister sent him.

“Holivia was a stunt and Harry isn’t over Y/N”, says exclusive source about Harry Styles & ex, Y/N Y/L/N, on Deux Moi podcast and much more!

Joe only skimmed through the article, eyebrows furrowed as muscles tense as he decided to click on the link to the podcast, choosing to listen for himself.

“Today we have someone, let’s call them Kyle, and I feel like you guys will like this one,” the distorted voice of Deux Moi said, “I’ve been getting asked about Harry and Olivia, and about Harry and his ex, Y/N Y/L/N and her and Joe for so, so long now, and I always said I didn’t know so much about what actually went down. Like, I wasn’t sure if the things you all sent was truthful or just total cap, but Kyle here is an exclusive, you guys. Hey, Kyle.”

“Hey, hey, how are you?”

“I’m doing good, doing great. First of all, I’m really excited to talk about this because—Gosh, it’s what everyone has been talking about for so long and people are dying to know, so you’re literally going to end everyone’s misery.”

Kyle chuckled, “When I reached out to you, I actually had that in mind. Like, I just felt like I have been sitting on this one.”

“Yeah, thank you so much for reaching out,” the voice of Deux Moi said, “First of all, let’s start talking about Harry and Y/N. Do we have a timeline?”

“Yeah, so,” Kyle began, “Harry and Y/N met back in 2018.”

“Oh my God.”

“Yeah, there were some mutual friends and I was one of them, and we were all there for his last show on his first tour then we went backstage, and let me get this straight,” they paused, “That was literally love at first sight.”

“Shut up, no way!”

“When I tell you Harry couldn’t keep his eyes off of Y/N, I seriously mean it,” they said, “Y/N is shy. Like, she has a lot of friends and she’s, like, the sweetest person ever but the moment you meet her, she’s just shy and sweet and Harry off stage is exactly like that, but that night, he was trying so hard to talk to her, like just her, and he was blushing and she was, like, very flustered and all, and we all knew that we basically have some setting up to do.”

“Neither of them was in any relationship at the time?”

“No,” they answered, “Just two single people who basically had the hots for each other. So, that night, Harry and his bad and, like, everyone else, were all going out to celebrate the tour coming to an end and all and obviously we were all invited, but I remember he directly went to Y/N and he was like, “I’ll see you there, right?” and we were all just absolutely swooning.”

“This is everyone’s dream. Like imagine Harry Styles wanting to see you.”

“Exactly, exactly,” they agreed, “But Y/N wasn’t just starstruck with him because he’s a celebrity, you know? I don’t even know how to describe it but they moment they met, they just really clicked.”

“This is so cute.”

“Right?”

“So what happens next?”

“Well we go out and we party, and they dance together, they talk, and it basically looks like they’re on a date and everyone could see it. They exchanged numbers that night,” Kyle spilled, “So then like a couple of days later, we all go out for brunch.”

“Like, the friend group?”

“Yeah, we all basically decided that we needed to set them up so we were, like, set it into action at that point. So we all went out and they were just—there’s some shy flirting, you know? They were just talking and having a conversation all evening.”

“This feels like a fairytale.”

“We all placed our bets on them, honestly,” they said, “Anyway, we all met up more times after that, like two or three times, but I feel like—like it all just, sort of blossomed when we all went on a trip to Italy together, and I can’t tell you how absolutely smitten they were. They had their first date there,” Kyle said.

“No way!” The voice of Deux Moi gasped, “This is so adorable. Is that why it seems like Italy is like, so close to Harry? Like, it feels like he just goes there to relax and that it’s like his getaway of some sort.”

“Italy was their country, honestly,” they said, “Like they had their first date there, and then they later had so many vacations there, I feel like it was like their safe haven or something.”

“This is so adorable, I can’t. I literally can’t.”

“Right? Anyway, fast forwarding a bit, they were just so adorable together. Like, their relationship at that point was the perfect example of puppy love. Harry was the happiest we’ve ever seen him, Y/N was the happiest, everything was going so well.”

“When did they make it official?”

“It took them some time,” they answered, “Y/N met Harry’s family before they actually made it official. I think she met them around Christmas time and Harry just told us about how his family absolutely adored her,” they said, “But they made it official in 2019, first day of the year.”

“First of January?”

“Yup,” Kyle answered, “I can’t even begin to describe how they both were literally glowing at that point. They were just so in love, it was crazy.”

“Wait, so they were together for how many years before they broke up, again?”

“Three years.”

“Three years!”

“Three whole years, yeah,” Kyle repeated, “And everyone loved them together, and at the time, we all understood that they wanted to be private, because you know how things get with the fans and the media and all. But the fans, you know, they saw her and were beginning to join some dots but I think at some point, everyone assumed they were just friends because they were never really touching or kissing in the pictures, but I remember our friends talking about how much the fans loved Y/N.”

“You know, I get some sightings of Y/N, and it’s always with, like, the cutest stories. Like people telling me she’s so respectful, she’s cute, she’s nice, is big on tips, and all that, so I get why fans would love her,” the voice of Deux Moi said, “And I think I remember getting some messages about her getting fans concert tickets and merch.”

“She always did that,” Kyle confirmed, “I think that—Y/N is just a very humble and simple person, and I think she has always realized that with her place in the industry, she does have some privilege, right? Especially when she was Harry’s girlfriend and all, so she just really liked doing these things,” they said, “Like she always told him to get more in touch with his fans, and I think there were some arguments about ticket and merch pricing and all.”

“Wow, really?”

“Yeah, I think that’s why the fans loved her. You always pick up that vibe, you know? When someone is being real.”

“True. That’s so true,” Deux Moi agreed, “But—where did it all go wrong? I think it all went bad with the hate and all after Harry’s song got leaked. I remember that—she was getting so much hate. You know what? No, don’t answer that right now, we’ll get to it.”

Kyle chuckled, “Yeah, let’s take it one step at a time,” they said.

“Alright so, Holivia? That’s—That’s also the tea.”

“Oh, it’s hot,” Kyle laughed, “It’s very hot tea.”

“Right? Because I feel like from what you’re saying, Harry and Y/N, they were—they were endgame.”

“They really were,” they said, “But then Harry got the Don’t Worry Darling role and that’s when things went south,” they began, “Look, publicity stunts and scandals happen all the time. It’s a classic for a reason, too. It always works.”

“I agree.”

“So in 2020, there were talks about the stunt. Basically that Harry and Olivia start going out and all, and Y/N was—She was literally crushed when Harry said he was going to think about it.”

“She didn’t think he’d do it?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Kyle answered, “Obviously, she’s in the industry and she knows that these things happen all the time but when you’re in her position, it’s—it’s not so easy. But she was very supportive of his career and, like, respected his decisions and everything because she knew that he wouldn’t—like, he wouldn’t disrespect her, you know?”

A hum.

“Anyway, Harry agreed to it and he had conditions set. Like, he wanted it to still be lowkey and to, like, keep it on the minimum.”

“That’s not really how it goes,” Deux Moi joked.

“It’s not how it goes,” Kyle repeated.

“Did Y/N at any point—Or her and Harry, did they ever consider going public?”

“Y/N wanted that,” Kyle answered, “She’s mostly also private, but she just wanted everyone to know that they’re a couple, you know?”

“Yeah, nothing wrong with that. I’d want people to know that Harry Styles and I are together, too.”

Kyle laughed, “Right? But it was because—They’re both attractive people, so you have people shooting their shot at them all the time and at some point, it was a little hurtful to Y/N how she had to stay, like, very discreet about her relationship. It felt like a secret, you know?”

“Like she was hidden.”

“Exactly, exactly. And that’s just—It’s not fun and it does things to your mental health. Like, you start thinking.”

“Yeah, of course.”

“So anyway, the stunt was supposed to be short-term, but everything was just super intense. Shit mostly went down during Jeff and Glenne’s wedding.”

“Jeff is Harry’s manager, right?”

“Yeah,” they answered, “So when you’re in a relationship, obviously your plus one is you girlfriend, your boyfriend, like, your partner, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Y/N was asked to not attend with Harry and to, like, blend in.”

“No. Fucking. Way.”

“Swear,” Kyle assured, “Just so Harry and Olivia can make their debut as a couple.”

“Oh. My. God.”

“I know.”

“I think I felt my heart break,” Deux Moi said, “Are you kidding me?”

“I wish,” Kyle said, “We were all so worried about Y/N because she was literally crushed. Like, oh my God, I can’t even begin to describe it. Like, to the point that she wasn’t going to attend the wedding if it weren’t for Glenne insisting.”

“And how was it?”

“She was so anxious that day, and I think—I think that’s when Y/N really began doubting herself. Like, at that point, the relationship was making her feel like shit and she felt like—You know, she felt like she just wasn’t worthy of being Harry’s girlfriend, that maybe she wasn’t good enough for his image, all that talk.”

“Poor woman, I feel like crying right now,” Deux Moi gasped, “And how was Harry dealing with it?”

“Look, I can’t believe I’m saying that but I feel like there was just so much manipulation happening? I don’t know, I don’t know, because Harry really did love Y/N. He—Actually, he still does. Like he’d be agreeing to all that stunt shit then be the good boyfriend to Y/N so to her, it sort of felt like she didn’t really have the right to complain. Like he’d tell her that it was basically work, that he loves her, that it’ll all end soon, and she, you know, she took it all in and tried to go on with it to be a supportive girlfriend.”

“This is literally a toxic relationship.”

“Which is so sad! It’s so sad, because—because they really did love each other so much,” Kyle said.

“Still toxic,” Deux Moi said, “Did Olivia know? About Harry and Y/N?”

“Yeah, yeah, she did,” Kyle answered, “And I’ve seen some people say that she was mean to Y/N and stuff, but that’s not true. They were both actually respectful towards one another.”

“Y/N is way better than I can be, because I don’t know how I’d act with Olivia if I were her.”

“We were all so shocked, but if this proves anything, it just proves how above and beyond Y/N was willing to go for her relationship—for Harry.”

Deux Moi hummed, “Then what happens?”

“Y/N did tell Harry about how uncomfortable the situation is. Like, he knew, but you know, he’d always assure her and all. But then,” they enunciated, “Harry missed her birthday for a sighting, with Olivia.”

A gasp was heard, “No fucking way. No way, are you kidding?”

“I wish I were,” Kyle said, “But I remember we were all trying to plan a night out and one of us told her that, like, Harry better leave the night for us to celebrate her and all, and she was like, “Oh, he’s not going to be here all day”, and we were like “What?” and she just said “He just has things to deal with and do” and then later, we find some pictures, like papped pictures of Harry and Olivia and everyone was like “Oh.””

“I’m so shocked right now. I literally don’t know what to say.”

“Yeah. We celebrated her birthday that night and she just—she just wasn’t happy, you know?”

“Yeah, can you blame her? Who can blame her?”

“Exactly,” Kyle agreed, “But then, like a day later, Harry made it up to her by taking her to the Amalfi Coast.”

“But is that even worth anything?”

“That’s what we were saying. Like, he missed her actual birthday, and for what? But Y/N was—she was still appreciative. In a way, she was just constantly convincing herself that it’s his work after all,” they said, “But then—”

“I’m always scared of what follows that.”

Kyle laughed, “It’s bad, alright? I wasn’t kidding when I told you earlier that it’s a sad story.”

“Oh you definitely weren’t.”

“Yeah so, you know these pictures of Harry and Olivia? When they were kissing on a yacht?”

“Oh yeah, know those. Kissing on a yacht is a classic when it comes to these stunts, I’m surprised they still do it.”

“Right?” Kyle laughed, “Yeah, after those Y/N was like—she was just reaching the breaking point, you know? She asked for space. It wasn’t necessarily a break, but just—just some space, and Harry respected it and he gave her space but he was like—he sent her flowers, sent her some letters, you know, stuff like that.”

“If it weren’t for the context, I would’ve said that was cute.”

“Right,” they chuckled, “But like, soon after, they went out for brunch and we all were—we were literally celebrating it because to us, that relationship—it was like you said, it was endgame. They were our favorite couple, so we were glad to see them working. But they got so much shit for that brunch date because there were paps and Harry’s management was, like, having none of it. Like they didn’t want Y/N in the picture when Olivia was in it.”

“That’s—Oh my God, that’s so fucking brutal.”

“Absolutely brutal. At that point, we all were sort of distancing ourselves from Harry. Everyone was trying to stay neutral, but we knew what was happening and it was just hurtful seeing what Y/N was going through,” they said, “So back to how Y/N loved interacting with the fans—they wanted her to stop that.”

“They wanted her to stop interacting with the fans?”

“Yeah, like to just cut it because it wasn’t good for Holivia but Y/N—she was like, no, you’re Harry’s management, you’re not mine.”

“Yes. Queen.”

“We were so proud of her!” Kyle exclaimed, “We were so proud,” they repeated.

“I feel like I’m proud of her and I don’t even personally know her.”

“Right? Right?” They laughed, “So yeah, she was just still interactive with fans over Twitter and like, Instagram comments and stuff.”

“She’s private on Instagram, right?”

“Yeah, she is,” they said, “But she’d always like some posts, comment on some stuff, stuff like that. She didn’t do it a lot, but it was still something she enjoyed—she still does it.”

“That’s so sweet.”

“I’m telling you, she’s—she’s just amazing.”

“So now, that’s when? Like was that nearing the breakup?”

“That was, like, months before their third anniversary,” Kyle answered, “So they celebrated their third year together and things were going fairly well—like, as good as it can get, at least. Until Harry’s show in Brixton, in May. The One Night Only show.”

“He had two, right?”

“Yeah, one in the UK, in Brixton, and the other in New York,” they answered, “They actually broke up on that day.”

“The one in Brixton?”

“Yeah. I wasn’t there for that one, but basically what happened was that—You know, Y/N was super supportive of Harry’s career. Like, she was his biggest fan and was literally the muse for all his love songs—like so many in Fine Line, and basically all of Harry’s House. Harry’s House is literally her album,” they said, “And I bet the next one as well but, anyway—so, she was there, of course. She was so excited to see him perform his new album, she basically was going on and on about how proud she was of him, how excited she was.”

“I’m so scared right now.”

“And then she was asked to stay backstage during the show.”

“Like—Like, not watch him from the crowd?”

“Yeah. His mom was there, his sister was there, so many of his friends—of our friends, everyone was going to stand there and actually watch him from the crowd but it was just Y/N that was told to stay back.”

“You have to be kidding.”

“I’m not. I wish,” they said, “But she was told to just, stay back and basically give her spot to Olivia,” Kyle said, “And Harry was—He was actually, like, okay with it.”

“No.”

“Yeah,” they confirmed, “You know, told her things like, it was just for a day, you’ll still get to see me, et cetera, et cetera, and she was just so broken at that point. So she stayed back, she watched him for like, some time, then she just left.”

“Like, left him?”

“She left the arena, yeah, and she called one of our friends and she was just—she was like, hysterically crying, like sobbing, and she was like, ‘I can’t do this anymore’. And nobody could blame her. So she just, like, went back, and packed her stuff. Then Harry caught her, like before she left, and she broke up with him.”

“For good?”

“Yeah, they never went back together after that,” they said, “And for the longest time, Y/N was devastated. It’s because—when you’re in a relationship, it’s like an investment. Like you invest with your time, with your energy, your efforts, your—your mental health, everything, and in a way, it felt like Y/N lost.”

“And what about Harry?”

“Look, Harry will never love anyone the way he loves Y/N, period,” they said, “He’s still not over her, he’s still not over their relationship, still not over what he’s done. He’s still, like, constantly beating himself up for it.”

“I can’t say I feel too bad, honestly.”

“It’s Karma in a way, I guess.”

“But how did he take it when Y/N got into a new relationship? Because Y/N and Joe Keery have been a hot topic ever since they got together.”

“God, he was absolutely crushed,” they said, “Joe is a great guy. He’s a great, great guy. He treats Y/N so well, puts her first, supports her, defends her. He’s—He’s basically the boyfriend Y/N truly deserves and Harry sees that.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t too far ago when he defended her on Instagram after Harry’s song about her got leaked.”

“Yeah, he’s just—he’s incredible.”

“Do you know when they met?”

“They met in 2021 if I remember correctly. They had a mutual friend, I think it was a creative director or something who worked on Stranger Things. And Joe had the biggest crush on her back then,” Kyle answered.

“Yeah, yeah, I remember he said that in an interview.”

“Yeah, and then they met again in, like, early 2022 as well, then after the breakup, like, I don’t know three months later, they went out for some coffee, then it was just—like really casual for a while even though Joe was smitten, but Y/N didn’t want to rush anything.”

“Can’t blame her.”

“Yeah, nobody can. So yeah, they took their time and everything.”

“But Harry’s not over her.”

“Harry’s not over her,” Kyle confirmed.

“God, that was heavy.”

It wasn’t long before Deux Moi and their guest moved to another celebrity gossip, making Joe pause before he stared at his phone for a few moments.

Everything was out in the open.

Between your sleeping state and Joe’s stressed one, was Harry who now seemed to get only bad news from his manager and friend, Jeff.

Going on social media was like a nightmare.

Not only was Harry getting cancelled, but so were Olivia and Jeff, while supportive messages, tweets, and edits were being sent your way.

“We owe Y/N an apology” was among the trends, sitting right on top of the 4 other relevant trending topics about you. After it came “#HarryStylesIsOver”, “Y/Noe”, “Holivia”, and “Thank you deuxmoi”.

The latter was a surprise to everyone, but never did anyone guess that a day would come where people would thank the celebrity gossip platform.

user

nobody believed me when I said y/n and harry were together and that he fucked her over. fuck harry, fuck olivia, fuck jeff, and fuck dwd.

user

Imagine your worst mistake being that you trusted the person you loved the most. #HarryStylesIsOver

user

WE OWE Y/N AN APOLOGY? NO! YOU owe her an apology because some of us still stuck by her side and knew that she wasn’t the evil guy in this. now yall wanna talk

user

idk who “kyle” is but thank you

user

I TOLD YOU HOLIVIA WAS FAKE!!! I TOLD YOU YNRRY WAS REAL!!!!

Countless of tweets, some angry, some sad, some supportive were being added by the second and Joe found himself growing nervous for when you woke up.

It was inevitable for you to wake up. A day of sleeping one was one you appreciated, and even more so after you freshened up and were ready for a day of doing absolutely nothing but chill with your boyfriend.

“Good morning,” you said, taking notice of Joe flinching on the couch, causing you to giggle, “Sorry.”

Joe forced a smile, standing up and meeting you halfway to press his lips to yours as he wrapped one arm around your waist, his other hand going into your hair to bring your head closer to his. Pulling back, you smiled, “Okay then,” you joked.

“Good sleep?”

You hummed, wrapping your arms around him in a hug as you closed your eyes in bliss, “So good.”

“You deserve it,” he said, kissing your head, “What do you want to have for breakfast?”

“I don’t know, anything,” you answered, “Some scrambled eggs sound nice.”

“And buttered toast?”

“And buttered toast.”

“Avocados?”

“God, I love you,” you shook your head with a smile, leaning to kiss him again, “Let me just grab my phone a-“

“Let’s not,” Joe quickly said.

Your eyebrows furrowed, a smile of confusion on your face.

“I just—I figured—We can just—We can disconnect for the day, how does that sound?” He asked, “Leave our phones, turn them off, just-just enjoy your break.”

You stayed quiet for a moment, tilting your head as you looked at him.

“You’re hiding something,” you said.

“No, I’m not.”

“Then why are your cheeks and ears all pink?” You raised an eyebrow, “What’s going on?”

“Is it too bad that I want us to be together without any distractions? Without any—”

“Joe.”

He pursed his lips, avoiding eye contact as he looked at the ceiling for a moment.

“What’s going on?” You asked again.

A sigh escaped his lips before he looked at you, “Someone—Someone you know just—” He paused.

You raised an eyebrow again, “Just what? Did someone die? Joe, oh my God, di—”

“No, no, nobody’s dead, baby. Everyone’s fine. Everyone’s okay,” he assured.

“Okay, then what is it?”

“Well, um,” he cleared his throat, “Uh, someone—you know,” he shrugged.

“I don’t.”

“How do they say this?” He muttered, scratching his chin, “Someone spilled the tea?”

“The tea?” You asked, “What tea?”

“Someone went on a podcast and they—they basically said every single thing about your past relationship. Your relationship with Harry.”

You stayed quiet, eyebrows going up, “Oh.”

“Oh,” Joe nodded.

“Everything?”

“From the moment you met,” he said quietly.

“Oh,” you repeated.

“Yeah,” he nodded unsurely, “I’m—I’m really sorry, baby. I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” you said quietly, “It’s not your fault. It’s—It’s nobody’s fault,” you added, “Who did that?”

“It was a guy, I think? Went with the name Kyle, like a pseudonym, but I don’t know. They could’ve distorted the voice, could be anyone.”

You hummed.

Joe looked at you, trying to asses your state before asking, “How are we feeling?”

“I’m not so surprised, honestly,” you answered, “I’m just—I’m so done with this, you know? I don’t know. I think—I think I just don’t care anymore.”

He nodded, rubbing your back soothingly, “I get it,” he said, “Do you want to address it?” He asked, “You know, they’re—everyone’s sending you support, some cute shit.”

“No, I won’t. I won’t address it,” you answered before sighing, “You know what I want?”

“What?”

“That scrambled eggs, the buttered toast, and those fucking avocados.”

To you, the day went well, and you knew that a huge reason why was that you did actually decide to take Joe’s advice and not check your phone. Instead, you and Joe had cooked breakfast and lunch together, had watched Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and decided to order takeout for the night.

To Joe, his mind was restless.

In a way, he felt like he needed to do something. Sure, he posted about you, he liked standing up for you, and he absolutely loved being a total sap on main—publicly and openly loving you, but something didn’t feel right.

He was smiling all night, loving on you and laughing with you, but his mind was all over the place. It wasn’t until you were asleep in his arms that he did what he felt was right.

Opening Instagram, he never had thought that he’d be the one to type in “harry styles” in the search bar and tap on your ex’s profile, but that was what he did before he also tapped on “Message”.

Strange enough, Joe was calm as he typed in his text:

Hey, Harry. I was hoping we can meet up soon to talk.

And stranger enough, was that his text was seen no more than 2 minutes after he sent it.

5 minutes passed before Joe received a reply.

Hello. Sure. When and where?

Joe then replied:

I’m currently in New Mexico but I’ll be in LA on Tuesday. Would that work for you?

And as if Harry had no idea that Joe was with you as you worked on Oppenheimer, he replied back:

Yes, I’m staying in LA for the time being. Tuesday works well.

Joe replied:

Great. We can meet at 6pm at my house since it’s the most private.

Harry then replied:

Okay. Is this about the recent podcast?

Joe replied:

Yes and no.

Harry replied:

Does Y/N know about this?

Joe replied:

No, she doesn’t.

Harry replied:

Okay. Send me the location and I’ll see you then.

Harry would have been lying if he said he wasn’t nervous, because of course he was. As someone who got into the acting world, scenarios ran through his mind like the ones he was offered; Joe was going to beat him up, or he was going to blackmail him, or he was going to tell him that Harry was the best choice for you and that didn’t seem like the worst scenario, although a cliché.

Days seemed to fly, or so it seemed to both Harry and Joe. The meeting was one that was discreet with neither’s friends knowing about it, even as Harry rang the doorbell to yours and Joe’s home.

Opening the door, Joe offered a very small smile, only stepping aside to let Harry in, “Come in,” he said.

Harry’s stomach was in twists; clammy palms against the sides of his thighs, erratic heartbeat that would definitely need medical attention at some point because there was no way that was normal.

“Want anything to drink?” Joe asked.

“Um, no, thank you,” Harry answered, sitting when Joe motioned towards the teal-colored couch—your favorite color on couches, although you wished you could have a cream-colored one but those seemed to be too much work, Harry remembered.

Joe sat on the chair opposite to it, a space between the two men that seemed occupied by tension and lingering awkwardness.

“Look,” Joe began, voice steady and calm, “I know this is weird. Like, really weird,” he said, “But I felt like it needed to happen.”

Harry pursed his lips, hands linked together as he looked at your boyfriend.

“I think we needed to talk, a long time ago. With how messy your relationship with Y/N was, and—and all the mess that’s been happening after it came to an end, I think I needed to talk to you,” Joe said, “Because it’s reaching a point where Y/N can’t catch her breath before something just, crashes down on her.”

Harry nodded.

“Look, I know I’m not your favorite person on earth,” Joe said, “And—No offense, you’re not mine either and I think that’s normal,” he put his hand out, “You’re her ex, I’m her boyfriend, and the situation isn’t ideal. It never really is. But I do respect you because you’re—you’re someone Y/N really appreciated at some point, and regardless of what happened, I know she still respects you and still cares about you because she’s just that kind of person.”

Harry, again, nodded.

“But I do know that with your status—with your place in the industry, you can put an end to all that,” he said, “It’s definitely hard getting over Y/N. I can’t imagine what you’re going through and I—To be honest with you, I don’t want to. I don’t want to be in your place, it’s not something I wish upon anyone, even you,” Joe said, “But I’m going to need you to just—to stop getting into her life like that. It’s not good for her, it’s not good for you, even, it’s not good for anyone.”

“How am I getting into her life?” For the first time, Harry spoke.

Joe sighed, “I know you still like her pictures on Instagram, you still—you’re not a stupid guy, Harry, you know exactly what I mean,” he said, “And like I said, I know that with your status, you can keep things on the down low. Give her some peace.”

“You know I wasn’t the person who said all these things on the podcast, right?”

“I’m not saying you are.”

“You’re—I think—I think you’re implying that I had something to do with it.”

“I never did,” Joe said, “But I do know that your management wants your name to be everywhere.”

“So, you are implying it,” Harry chuckled quietly.

“Look,” Joe took a breath, leaning forward a little, “I believe everything Y/N says, and I believed her when she told me that you aren’t your management. Your principles don’t align. I don’t know why you don’t take matters into your own hands. I don’t know whether it’s because you’re unsure, you’re scared, nervous, I don’t know, man, but what I’m saying is that you need to sit down with your management and actually set thing straight. Not for you, but for Y/N,” he said, “I get that they always say bad publicity is still publicity but we all know that’s bullshit.”

Harry stayed quiet.

“I don’t think you’re the worst person,” Joe said, “I think you do some stupid shit but I know you love Y/N and—and I can’t blame you for it and I can’t even ask you to just stop and move on, because having Y/N is one of the best goddamn gifts anyone can have.”

“Yeah, I know that,” Harry mumbled with a quiet chuckle.

“So all I’m asking is for you to talk with your management and do Y/N a favor.”

“Do her a favor or do you a favor?” Harry found himself asking, “Because I think—I think It seems like you’re trying to save your relationship.”

“There’s nothing for me to save it from,” Joe instantly said, “It doesn’t need to be saved. I’m confident in my relationship with Y/N.”

And that seemed to shut Harry up.

“What you and her had—that was real. It was great, until it wasn’t. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not gloating but I didn’t meddle in and ruin what you have. I waited and I kept my distance and things fell into place and it’s not my fault your relationship went to shit, man,” he said, “I’m trying to be nice. To be respectful, and I’m asking nicely.”

Harry stayed quiet for a moment before sucking in a breath, “Okay.”

Joe nodded slowly, “Alright.”

“Did you tell her? About this?” Harry motioned between them.

“No, I didn’t,” Joe answered, “And I won’t tell her.”

“She doesn’t really like secrets,” Harry said with a chuckle, joking.

“It’s only so that she doesn’t feel like I had to tell you to be a decent person,” Joe shot back.

Harry’s eyebrows went up, “Wow,” he nodded, “Thanks for that,” he sarcastically said.

Joe nodded, “No problem.”

“Well,” Harry let out a breath, “I’ll do what I have to do,” he said, “But um—Thank you, for being respectful.”

“Like I said, she respects you, so will I.”

[existslikepristin]

Yall, there's gonna need to be some trigger warnings here. For the sake of spoilers, if you have any sensitivities, follow this link to see the trigger warnings.

Quick thanks to @ggidolsmuts for A) writing a fantastic series (which you should read here BEFORE reading this story: 1, 2, 3, "3.5", 4, 5), and B) being very cool about me taking that series in the most unhinged direction. And speaking of that unhinged direction...

I Never Die, I Only Breed: DLC

~~~~~

“Alright, see you in a week, babe,” you say, kissing Shuhua on the forehead and walking away. 

What a crazy two months it’s been since you beat INDIOB. Having five girlfriends is kind of a wild concept on its own, but simultaneously getting five girlfriends, who absolutely love sixsomes, by beating a video game? That’s insane. One hundred percent bonko.

And yet this is your life now.

As you pass by the break room where Yuqi’s making coffee, she flips up her shirt and flashes you. She’s so embarrassing sometimes.

Soyeon, Miyeon, and Minnie give you a wave as you walk past the glass-walled office they’re storyboarding in. You return the gesture.

But then you notice an open door. You’ve always wondered what was behind that door…

And now that you’re inside, there’s basically nothing. Damn. It’s just an old wooden desk and a ton of dust. Even on closer inspection, there’s nothing special about the desk. Not sure why it’s even here anymore. What a poorly contrived plot device. Oh well. It probably doesn’t have anything to do with the past employee who your girlfriends only speak about in hushed whispers and who Shuhua occasionally cries herself to sleep about. Not that you haven’t thought to ask, given that it’s actually pretty creepy, but you just haven’t gotten around to—Oh shit, there’s something attached to the underside of the desk. Is that a memory drive?

If there’s anything you’ve learned from tech horror stories, it’s that you shouldn’t touch mysterious computer parts with a ten foot pole.

But on the other hand… You yank the thing away from the tape holding it in place and book it the fuck out of the office. Back home, you plug the memory drive into your ddeunstation and flip that bitch on. Who needs to think?

Immediately, your girlfriends’ company logo flashes across the screen but without the usual, fancy animation. There’s the blue and orange ddeunstation cat logo (best console, sure, but they really need to change that thing). “in association with ELP” comes up next in plain text… Who the fuck is that? And then, the game’s home screen starts to fade in around you.

Oh, okay. So this isn’t anything too crazy. This is just a copy of “I Never Die, I Only Breed,” the game your girlfriends made, which ultimately led you to them. It must be an older version, considering that weird “in association” screen and lack of animation in their logo. You look around, and sure enough you see some text in the corner with the version number. It’s greater than one, so it’s definitely a finished version, but it’s quite a bit lower than the version you initially played. You recall Soyeon telling you there was some delay in the game’s release, so this makes sense. There must have been a few minor bug fixes while legal was sorting out platform fees, game rating, or whatever.

Well, that’s actually pretty boring. Now what? You tell your girlfriends you stole a memory drive with an old version of INDIOB because you wanted to know what was behind a door? Wait, did they even know it was there?

You can probably just tape it back to the desk when you drop by next week. That wouldn’t be too weird.

Might as well take a look. This game is awesome, and since you’re not going to see your girlfriends for a whole week while they’re in Japan on business, Soyeon suggested you revisit the game so you don’t get lonely. You pick out the New Game option.

The home screen fades away and two more options appear.

Normal

I Trust DLC

… OH MY GOD, DLC?! You’ve never selected an option so fast in your life. Not even Miyeon has hinted at any upcoming DLC for INDIOB, and she can’t keep her mouth shut to save her life. Okay, this is definitely not boring. You can barely contain yourself.

Open your eyes.

Can you move?

Great. Everything is up to you, good luck.

You’re in a roo—Dammit, you can’t actually move. A bug already? You try to blink but don’t get any feedback. Fuck ELP, whoever that—Oh, there’s some text floating in front of you.

Content not fully tested. May still be some minor bugs.

+ Continue

+ Debug mode

Without moving, you think really hard about selecting Debut mode and suddenly you can move again. You slap your forehead. You really shouldn’t be so impatient. Minor bugs are no big deal.

You’re in a room—there is a bed, there is a mirror, there is a door, there is a tiny bit of text floating in the corner of your vision that says “Debug menu”. You open the door, and Shuhua is in front of you, waiting on a bed of her own.

“Are you the challenger?” she asks, untying her bathrobe just a little as she saunters towards you. A gasp—she is feeling you through your robe.

“Sure am,” you say, far more confidently than you did the first time around.

“Good, let’s see what you can do then.” Shuhua turns around and walks back to bed, slipping her bathrobe off as she does so. You’re amazed at how accurate the in-game Shuhua is to the real one, now that you’ve seen both so many times. A bunch of dorky game devs your girlfriends may be, but they’re un-stereotypically hot. She turns around and lays down, spreading her legs and bending at the knees.

“What are you waiting f—?!”

You’re already on top of her, robe discarded, kissing her passionately with your fingers gently pressing at her entrance and caressing her breasts. Her eyelids flutter and close, and she melts into your touch.

You chuckle mentally to yourself. You don’t plan to speedrun this playthrough, but you’re curious to see the differences in these NPCs’ attitudes toward you when you get a full no-restart run. It’ll be yet another world first, but you don’t plan to upload it to any scoreboards. You already won the ultimate prize, and your girlfriends have expressed intense disinterest in inviting a sweaty powergaming neckbeard to join your unconventional relationship structure. Maybe if the perfect run is pulled off by someone hot you can convince them, but you can worry about that if it ever happens, which seems unlikely.

Shuhua cums for the first of what will be many times. You pull away from your kiss to give her a little air, even though neither of you technically need it (there’s no sort of breath gauge in this game, probably because it would make the Yuqi sections far more difficult).

“Mm yes, you know what you’re doing… you can put it in.”

You don’t immediately comply with Shuhua’s demand. Instead, you stroke her cheek, peck her lips, and say, “Trust me, I will. I’d like to give you at least one more orgasm first though. Is that okay?”

Your cheesily-delivered line registered to the game as suave as fuck, apparently. Shuhua blinks, blushes, her eyes grow, and her mouth goes a little slack. She’s amazed. “O-okay,” she squeaks. So you get started.

Minnie and Soyeon proudly declare how meticulous their programming is on a regular basis, and boast about the realisticness of their game engine. Your first playthrough was sloppy, but you have had months of experience with the women these NPCs are replications of. They’ve personally taught you not only how to maximize their pleasure, but also about their more secretive fantasies that they put in as easter eggs. Your run won’t just be perfect. You’re going to break the scale.

Shuhua screams in ecstasy as you work your IRL, meta knowledge magic on her tits and pussy. Two more orgasms in the next few minutes blow her mind to smithereens. You almost expect matrix code to start leaking from her ears.

“Sorry babe, I got carried away. Should I put it in now?”

She breathes heavily, and gets heavier as she begins—you assume—to remember what you’re here for. “Oh… oh my god, yes. Yes! Please knock me up!”

Wow. Really? You had to restart twice for her to even hint at the breeding aspect of the game when you didn’t know what you were doing, and now she just straight up exposits it to you when you’re absolutely killing your previous record? That seems unfair. You’ll have to comment on the difficulty curve to Soyeon. Also, what was up with that line? “Oh my god?” The delivery of the line was… off. It felt… red, somehow. Regardless, you’re going to give her what she wants.

You line yourself up and push. Shuhua squeezes her own breasts now, and cums hard. A touch unrealistic to cum just from the insertion. She’s never been quite that easy to trigger IRL, but maybe it’s one of the bugs that got fixed.

Pulling her hand away to suck one of her breasts, listening to her delicious shouts, you find yourself cumming almost right away… Fuck, you don’t even have Improved Stamina I yet! Too much real experience must have made you forget that you have to actually build that up in-game! You quickly focus on the text in the corner of your vision, “Debug menu,” and time suddenly freezes. You can’t move anything but your eyes, but you still feel the sensation of Shuhua around you, and the height of your orgasm. It’s like you’re being edged, or like you somehow got stuck. It’s agonizing.

You quickly look around the menu. It’s disorganized, not even in alphabetical order, and in plain text. It’s kind of hard to read, but you see “add perks” hovering right above Shuhua’s nipple, and focus on it. The list that appears is slightly better organized, and thankfully Improved Stamina I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, and IXIVLICMXIV are right at the top. The last one looks like a mistake, and you probably shouldn’t select it. For now, you select the first three, accidentally also select Magic Finger II, and then focus back, and back again.

Time restarts. The agony of your orgasmic peak blips away instantly and you can’t help but cringe at the feeling of a sudden lack of what was once there.

“Are you okay?” Shuhua asks breathlessly, gripping your arm tightly.

Oh right. You turn your mediocre charm back on. “Of course babe. I just got stunned by your beauty for a moment. I’m sorry.”

Shuhua squeaks and you actually feel her gush around you. You may have broken this outdated version.

You begin fucking again, and to your delight, you think you’re pretty sure you did break something. Shuhua reaches orgasm over and over again, basically on every third thrust. You sit up a bit and reopen the debug menu. There’s a submenu option for “girls” hovering under her belly button that you hadn’t paid attention to before, which you select Shuhua from. A jumble of text appears all over your vision. It’s mostly advanced background info that you normally wouldn’t get much insight into, but you do see the stats you first saw in Level 5.

love: 2/100

// ask soyeon why lust rises exponentially during orgasm if greater than love

// this is stupid

lust: 42113/100

Well, that explains it. The placement of the code comments is interesting, and you recognize “// this is stupid” as something you’ve seen Yuqi type many times. You back out of the debug menu and start thrusting again out of curiosity. The bed beneath you gets absolutely flooded. Shuhua’s eyes cross as her orgasms tick up faster and faster, to the point where it looks like she’s having a genuine medical emergency. As (almost) funny as it is, you feel bad seeing your girlfriend having seizure levels of orgasm. Reentering the debug menu, you see that Love is still 2, but Lust has reached some scientific notation kind of number. Thankfully, the text fields can be edited, so you change Lust to 50 and Love to 100. So much for your perfect run, but you can log into the current version and try again… after you’ve had a little fun.

When you resume the game, Shuhua’s eyes go from crossed to standard, and her body pops into a normal, sexy position without so much as a motion blur. She moans and puts her palms on your cheeks, gazing into your eyes. “You… you’re so good. H-how?”

“Little bit of practice. Little bit of cheating.”

She gently pulls you down to kiss you, then wraps her arms around you and whispers, “Please… I want you.”

You chuckle. “To breed you?”

“Just you. I love you.” She strokes your back. You get choked up. Shuhua’s a bit sappy IRL too, but she has avoided telling you she loves you so far. Your other girlfriends toss the phrase around a little flippantly, but you always get the sense that Shuhua either doesn’t love you or takes the words way too seriously.

Shit damn, you got choked up? This is just a recreation of your girlfriend, and you cheated your way into her saying some shit. Don’t get attached. That’s weird.

You open the debug menu once again, navigate to “girls” and quickly turn Love down to 80. While there, you try bumping the Breed stat to 10000/100, hoping the surely hilarious result will take your mind off of feelings. On your way back out of the submenu though, something catches your eye.

shuhua

yuqi

soyeon

minnie

miyeon

soojin

Soojin…?

SOOJIN?!

There’s a sixth girl?! What in the actual fuck?! Who in the actual fuck is Soojin?! You try to navigate into her menu, but you get an error code and some conveniently placed comments.

5U8W4Y error - entity not found

// cant find soojins file

// wtf is this directory structure

// this is stupid

You close the game.

You’re in your room—there is your bed, there is your mirror, there is your door. You whip your phone from your pocket and open a browser, looking up every combination you can come of with of “Soojin,” “INDIOB,” “I Never Die, I Only Breed,” “ddeunstation,” “ELP,” and the game company’s name. There are far too many people named Soojin, and nothing else helps to narrow it down. A surname would be helpful.

You open your group chat with your girlfriends and start to type “YO, NUGU TF IS SOOJIN?” but you paused. You put some pieces together, and you think it might not be best to bring it up.

The former employee they all get hushed about. It makes sense! If all five of them are both devs and also characters in the game, why wouldn’t this Soojin person be in the game too?

But if that was the case, why was she DLC, and not part of the base game? What’s her deal?

You flip the game back on. Your dick is very wet. You look down and see literal gallons of semen squeezing out of Shuhua around your cock. Right. Breed is at ten thousand out of a hundred.

You exit to the home screen, feeling disembodied, and you look around at the options. New game.

Normal

Open your eyes.

Can you move?

Great. Everything is up to you, good luck.

You’re in a room—there is a bed, there is a mirror, there is a door. Fuck, no option for a debug mode. You open the door, and Shuhua is in front of you, waiting on a bed of her own.

“Are you the challenger?” she asks, untying her bathrobe just a little as she saunters towards you. You put out a hand to stop her.

“Who is Soojin?” you ask, sounding a little more desperate than you meant to.

Shuhua blinks, pausing her undressing. “Huh?”

“Soojin.”

“Yeah I heard you the first time.”

“Do you not know who Soojin is?”

“No?” Shuhua says as she squints at you. “Uh… you are the challenger, right?” She finishes dropping her robe.

You exit to the home screen, hit Continue, and return to your DLC save. Instantly, Shuhua is underneath you, jizz spraying your pelvis, eyes rolled back and a dopey grin on her mouth.

“Who is Soojin?” you ask.

Shuhua doesn’t respond, but it seems it’s not due to a breeding-induced coma. Misty, red text forms in front of your eyes.

I Trust DLC requires access to Level 4.

You close the game.

You’re in your room—there is your bed, there is your mirror, there is your door. You rub your eyes. Soojin is only in the DLC.

Maybe Soojin wasn’t a dev, or the former employee at all. That would be an unsatisfying answer, and, well, wouldn’t really answer all of your questions, but Occam’s razor and all that.

A glass of water cools you down. You didn’t realize you were getting so heated… But you still don’t have answers. Time to get heated again.

You reopen the game, delete your Normal game save to cut down on time, and hit Continue, to be taken directly to the existing DLC save. Again, you’re in a growing pool of your own cum as it pours out of Shuhua. The debug menu fixes that right away, as you tick her Breed stat back down to one hundred, and do the same with Love and Lust. You’re mostly dry again when you resume, being just a bit sweaty and with a perfectly reasonable, if large, amount of semen oozing out of Shuhua. She looks quite content and a little dreamy.

“Hey Shuhua, you good and satisfied?”

She nods, hums happily, and curls onto her side. You hate to leave her uncuddled in such an adorable state, but you really need to see this DLC content.

You swing open the next door, and you are greeted by Yuqi, dressed in a similar robe as Shuhua.

“Ya, what are y—Oh, you’re hard as fuck.” Her eyes light up when she sees your slick-coated and more importantly, rigid, cock. “Awesome.”

She grabs you by the cock, but her hand slips due to what you did with Shuhua earlier. “Ew.”

Despite her words Yuqi takes her hand and starts licking it clean. You don’t have time for this though. You open the debug menu, girls submenu, select “yuqi,” and edit her Breed stat to 100, then back out.

Yuqi’s cheeks suddenly puff up and she cups her hands below her chin just in time to catch an enormous mouthful of your spontaneously generated cum as it bursts from between her lips. She stares at it in confusion and surprise as it seeps between her fingers and down her arms. You also see a smaller amount dripping from between her legs.

“Good enough for me to move on, Yuqi?”

She closes her mouth, wiggles her tongue around for a bit, and gulps heavily. When she speaks, it still has a bit of a wet, sticky quality to the sound. “Uh… yup, sure. Go for it.”

As you open the next door, you hear Yuqi behind you mumbling to herself, “That was kinda cool…”

The door opens to a bedroom, furnished with a bed, but also with a producing setup, complete with monitors, keyboard, and mic. At the keyboard sits your next “challenge”—Soyeon.

“Oh, hello, I didn’t expect you here so quickly.”

Before she stands up, you open the debug menu, girls submenu, select “soyeon,” edit her Breed stat to 100, then back out.

Soyeon’s smug look turns to one of dire concern as an excessively loud, wet, and distinctly embarrassing noise erupts from her ass. The back of her robe turns wet and her whole body trembles. Uh oh.

You steel yourself for the worst and open your mouth. “Um, Soyeon…? Can I move on?”

Her shaking hands slowly cover her mouth, arms tucked in tightly to her body. She stares, traumatized, at the keyboard in front of her. You’re incredibly thankful that this isn’t the real Soyeon, but it still feels extremely mean of you to try to rush her after being the cause of a volcanic butt eruption.

After nearly a minute, in which the only sound is your cum dripping off her chair to the floor, Soyeon whispers, barely audible, “Please move on.”

You bow deeply and side step your way to the next door, hoping you can be forgiven for this sin.

The door, unfortunately, still has the battle pass reader on it. You cringe and turn toward Soyeon. She has not moved.

“H-hey Soyeon. Can I have the battle pass?” you ask, cautiously. Not cautious enough though, as you suddenly remember she did not actually give it to you, and you got it from an achievement last time.

“Please go,” Soyeon whispers.

“Sorry! It’s fine, really. It’s not that weird. And it’s my fault… sorry,” you whisper back before opening the debug menu.

First, you turn Soyeon’s Breed back down to zero, hoping that will give her a little peace of mind, then you go back to the main debug menu. Scanning around, you see time variables, room variables (surprise, the room you’re in is called “Studio”), and so much more until you find “inventory,” in which you find toggles for what seems to be every item in the game. Surprisingly, this list is alphabetized—Minnie must have implemented it—and much longer than you anticipated.

“Battle Pass” isn’t far down the list, so you set it to true and resume the game. There’s no more liquid around Soyeon’s butt, but she still seems to be incapable of movement.

With one last apology, you turn to the door and wave the battle pass at the lock, causing it to disengage with a loud click. You take a deep breath and—why is it empty?

You step into the pure white, perfectly cuboid room and look around wildly. What’s going on in here?

Opening the debug menu, it’s pretty obvious. You sigh. Across the top of your vision, in bright red, is a message.

Unknown error: save file may be corrupted, delete to avoid critical game data loss

You resume the game and spin around to see the door you came through is gone. Delete the file it is, then. You exit to the home screen, open your saves, and delete.

Dammit, now what?

More out of frustration than anything else, you start up a new game with the I Trust DLC.

Open your eyes.

Can you move?

Great. Everything is up to you, good luck.

Debug mode

You’re in a room—there is a bed, there is a mirror, there is a door. You open the debug menu immediately, girls submenu, select “miyeon” and take a look around. There are stats as expected, all in their neutral state, but there are additional options. One of them seems to be what you’re looking for.

spawnLocally()

Instantly, before you even resume the game, Miyeon appears directly in front of you. She’s already naked, and fully upright with a neutral expression, T-posing. You resume.

"Hello, congratulations and welcome for making it this far." Miyeon glances down and suddenly seems confused. She points at her bare tits, then up at the mirror, then at you. “Hey… What?”

“Hey Miyeon. Could you please give me a blowjob?”

“What? No. I w—”

Debug menu, girls submenu, select “miyeon,” set both Love and Lust to 100, resume.

“—ant your cock in my mouth so bad.”

Miyeon drops to her knees and has you fully down her throat in seconds, gazing up at you with pleading eyes, the same way she does IRL.

Anyway, that part wasn’t necessary. You just wanted one of Miyeon’s famous blowjobs. You search through the debug menu, turning on every perk, giving yourself unnecessary currency, spawning all four of your other girlfriends, naked and T-posing, and giving them all maxed out Love and Lust. When you resume, they all simultaneously start to say their intro lines, but stop halfway through to give each other befuddled looks, refocus on you, and join Miyeon on their knees around you, feeling your body (which is very solid considering the A Hard Man is Good to Climb perk), worshipping you and begging for their turns.

“Hey,” you say, and watch as all five women orgasm at the same time (so that’s what the King’s Speech perk does, apparently), “Real quick…” They’re all cumming again. What the hell?

You remove the King’s Speech perk in the debug menu and continue. “Real quick. Can any one of you tell me right off the bat who Soojin is?”

They all ignore your words and keep worshipping your body. There’s the misty, red text again.

I Trust DLC requires access to Level 4.

You check that they all have normal, maxed out Love and Lust stats again, then you give yourself all of the Completed Level achievements, and resume.

“Anybody? Who’s Soojin?”

I Trust DLC requires access to Level 4.

You find a command that transports you to Minnie’s room. Your girlfriends appear there with you. You resume.

“Who’s Soojin?”

I Trust DLC requires access to Level 4.

It seems you broke something again. Yuqi is frozen in a T-pose now, and she’s hovering above the floor, diagonally. Minnie is glitching out, with unreasonably huge tits appearing on and disappearing from her chest between bursts of static. Soyeon’s hair sticks perfectly straight up from her head. Miyeon is still deepthroating your cock, but she has turned blue. Shuhua’s bottom half is clipped into the floor.

“What the fuck…?” Soyeon asks, feeling her new, rock hard hairdo.

Shuhua takes a few steps back (or so you assume, since you can’t see her legs) and forth. “Sweetie pumpkin? What’s going on?”

You roll your eyes and exit to the home screen, deleting the save file. You’re sure there’s a way for you to see this DLC content, if it even exists, but trying to cheat your way into it may not be an option.

Fuck it, this isn’t worth your time.

New Game

I Trust DLC

Open your eyes.

Can you move?

Great. Everything is up to you, good luck.

Debug mode

You’re in a room—there is a bed, there is a mirror, there is a door. You open the debug menu, give yourself every perk that isn’t King’s Speech, and spawn all of your girlfriends, setting them all to 100 Love and Lust, and you resume.

You remove your robe and sit down on the bed while the five of them get over their initial confusion.

“Anybody want a sixsome?” you ask.

They don’t need to respond with their words, shoving each other out of the way to get to you. You tell them not to be rude about it, but there’s not much stopping them. Yuqi gets to you first and practically swan dives into a blowjob. Soyeon hops onto the bed, standing over you and offering her ass to eat out. Minnie wraps her arms around you from behind, stroking your chest. Shuhua and Miyeon drop to the floor next to your feet, Miyeon on Shuhua’s lap, and furiously make out with each other, hands between the other’s legs. Nobody freezes, glitches, or turns blue.

This is good. You can just have a good time and forget all about this DLC for a while. You’ll get to it eventually.

And a good time, you certainly do have. You cum endlessly, sometimes through multiple cocks, and never go soft. Every hole of every girl gets plenty of attention, and is always treated as a successful breeding, including Minnie’s. Your Neverpoints, Yeoro Bun, Woogi Power, and CUMCA Kred all skyrocket, as if it matters. You even get the sly idea to try spawning in multiples of your girlfriends since some of them have to pause for breaks (something you didn’t realize had even been programmed in).

In the end, after what must be several hours, Soyeon lays on top of herself, both of her unconscious, and cum leaks out of both asses and pussies after you utilized your Johnson & Johnson & Johnson & Johnson perk on them. There’s a Minnie wearing a strap on cOCk-a-dildo, slowly bobbing Yuqi’s mouth up and down the entire length. Miyeon and Shuhua are sixty-nining, eating your cum out of each other. Another Yuqi, who you believe is the first one, is your little spoon, curled up against your chest while your cock stays firmly planted in her ass. Yet another Yuqi is your big spoon, nuzzling the back of your neck while another Shuhua plays with that Yuqi’s hair. You’d found a way to expand the bed, thankfully.

The (probably) first Minnie crawls over several other copies of your girlfriends to prostrate herself on your side. She kisses your cheek. “Not to ruin this unexpectedly fantastic orgy, but the mirror has been blinking at you for the past four hours to let you know it’s way past midnight out of game. Your body is going to be exhausted.”

You groan. Right. You supposedly have a life to live. You close the game.

You’re in your room—there is your bed, there is your mirror, there is your door. You really, really need to pee.

…

You wake up a little before noon. It’s raining outside. Your phone lets you know you have twelve messages and a missed call. Your girlfriends have been taking pictures of each other at the airport, acting like some kind of Kpop paparazzi to make sure you know how comfortable their flight outfits are. Soyeon complains that they shouldn’t flood the group chat with pictures, and post them on your shared cloud collections instead.

Chuckling about it, you drop a few emoji in there, glibly telling them that Shuhua has the best outfit (a massively oversized hoodie, sweatpants, and crocs). After you make yourself some “breakfast” you check the chat again to see a bunch of crying emoji from Miyeon and a long-winded rant from Yuqi about why her outfit is actually the most comfortable.

It’s good that they made such an amazing game and inserted themselves into it, because you’re going to miss the real deal while they’re gone.

You don’t recognize the phone number that called you, so you give it a call back. It sounds like someone answers on the other end, but doesn’t respond when you ask who they are, and you just hang up. Spam calls are getting so weird.

A shower gets the day started. You put on the same bathrobe given to you by Miyeon on your consummatory hotel visit. It lasts a lot longer on your body when you use it at home than it does while you’re with any of them. There’s not much point in getting dressed today, since you won’t be going out in this rainy weather.

Guess you’ll keep playing INDIOB.

You sit down in front of your ddeunstation, your head clearer than it was yesterday. The DLC doesn’t matter all that much in the grand scheme of things, right? You still want to see what it’s about, sure, but maybe you should take it easy. “Don’t try so hard. Sheesh,” is what Minnie and/or Yuqi would tell you.

On the home screen, you navigate to delete your last save. The girlfriend cloning was fun, but you probably ruined that file. Now then…

New Game

I Trust DLC

Open your eyes.

Can you move?

Great. Everything is up to you, good luck.

Content not fully tested. May still be some minor bugs.

+ Continue

+ Debug mode

…

You select Continue.

You’re in a room—there is a bed, there is a mirror, there is a door. No debug menu this time. You’ll finish the game the right way, no restarts. Since Minnie gave you a password (not a cheat code) for unlimited free Minnie Dollars, you can probably even finish the game in one sitting if you’re careful.

With a deep breath, you stand up, cinch your robe, and open the door. Shuhua is in front of you, waiting on a bed of her own.

“Are you the challenger?” she asks, untying her bathrobe just a little as she saunters towards you.

You play it safe, giving Shuhua all the pleasure first, excusing yourself briefly to spend a couple of Neverpoints, and coming back to get your first Yeoro Bun. You don’t move on to Level 2 until you can afford every perk you got on your first playthrough before reaching Yuqi.

It’s easy enough to pass Yuqi’s challenge too. You do it over and over again, seeing to it that Yuqi is a blubbering, cum sputtering blob on the floor every time, working your way through perks until you again have everything you could possibly want to enter Level 3 with.

Reaching Soyeon, you play along with her queen and peasant role play at first, satisfying her dominant side (since you discovered IRL that she does like to switch it up every once in a while) for multiple breedings with a preemptive All Holes Lead to Rome before dominating her and using her like a toy. Once more, you load up on perks, preparing yourself the right way for Level 4 and whatever that might entail.

Your currencies reach roughly twenty-five percent combined of the totals needed for the Level 4 access Battle Pass when you return to the starting room. Yuqi and Shuhua are on the bed, caressing each others’ naked bodies.

“Cutscene?” you ask.

“We’re just here to have some fun,” Yuqi says airily as Shuhua stands up.

“Mmhmm, we just…” Shuhua interrupts herself, kissing you, her hand dancing over your skin before moving up and over your shoulders. “Just feel like doing you, together.”

You smile and join them on the bed.

“You’re not surprised we’re here together?” Yuqi asks between kisses across your chest.

“I’m surprised it took this long. Last time, I had less than five percent progress to the Battle Pass.”

Yuqi shrugs. “Maybe you’re just progressing faster in general. That would explain how you haven’t had to restart even once yet.”

That’s right. You were going to see if they’d have any unique dialogue related to your flawless run. There it is!

“I, for one, am glad you’re doing so well,” Shuhua says, lightly stroking your dick as she shimmies up above it, “If you’re this good to us now, I can only imagine how good you’ll be for us in real life.”

Yuqi punches Shuhua in the leg. “Ya! You aren’t supposed to—Don’t listen to her. She’s crazy.”

You chuckle, “Hey, don’t hit her! I already completed the game once. I’ve been dating you all for a while now.”

The women stare at each other for a moment and then back at you. Shuhua gives you a concerned expression. “Why are you playing then? Couldn’t you be doing this in real life?”

Yuqi mumbles, “I’d still be playing occasionally.”

“Nah,” you say, “The five of you are at a developer’s conference in Japan for the next week and said I should do a bit of gaming while you’re gone.”

Both of their faces brighten up a bit. Yuqi bounces up to her knees. “Well aren’t we just a couple of lucky object instantiations!” she chimes.

“So that’s cool with you, huh?” You take one of each of their hands in yours.

“Obviously,” Yuqi says, “We don’t act like it because we’re supposed to be NPCs in a game, but we’re just code, my dude. Extremely sophisticated code capable of complex emotion replication, but still code. We didn’t exist before you started a new game, and we won’t exist again after. But while we’re here, we can appreciate the absolutely choice dicking you’re giving us, so the fact that you came back for an orgasm packed visit is fucking awesome.”

You blink. That was a lot. “Won’t exist after…?”

Yuqi blinks back. “Oh… I mean… No, not in a moral quandary kind of way. Like, in a peaceful oblivion, pop into existence, have tons of radical awesome sex, and back to peaceful oblivion kind of way.”

Shuhua sinks down onto your cock, shuddering at the fullness. “Yeah. What she said. Can we get this started now? Waiting for another turn while you were getting all that CUMCA Kred has my womb dying to get filled up again.”

“Sure thing, babe,” you say, trying not to think about her fleeting existence.

“That’s cute! Is that what you call me in real life too?”

“It is, and it’s what you call me, too.”

“Awww! Well it’ll take a little practice, but I like it a lot, babe.”

You smirk and start to guide Shuhua into a slow, sensual fuck. She shuts her eyes and moans gratefully. Yuqi opens your inventory and pulls out the cOCk-a-dildo, which you only now realize you haven’t had to use yet on this playthrough. Seems odd, given how effective it was the first time around. It’s halfway down her throat in a flash.

Several orgasms from everybody, successful breedings, and an achieved-but-unused Battle Pass Voucher later, Yuqi suddenly slips out from underneath you with a shocked look on her face. “Dude, why aren’t we including the others in this?! You unlocked Soyeon, and you can use that voucher to go get Minnie! If you’re dating all of us, why don’t all of us work together to get you to Level 5 and get Miyeon?”

Shuhua bounces up and down. “Oh! Yes! I love fucking Miyeon in real life!”

Yuqi punches Shuhua again. “Hey, you can’t just reveal your secrets like that… Wait, you fuck Miyeon?”

You nod. “I mean, I already had a pretty good idea that’s what was going on.”

Shuhua shrugs, rubbing her punched arm before threatening a punch back. “It’s not exactly like we’re good at hiding it.”

Yuqi starts moving toward the door. “Oh my god, you’re such a lesbian,” she mumbles, “Not that I don’t want to tap that bimbo myself… Hey, you two keep going. I’m going to get Soyeon.”

There it is again. That line, “Oh my god.” It’s just standard dialogue, but it doesn’t feel right. It sounds red.

Not much later, Yuqi and Soyeon enter the room. Soyeon stands with her hands on her hips, glaring you down. For a moment, you’re afraid she’s going to hit you with a restart.

“So you just come in here, knowing everything about us, and thinking you can just fuck us all like you do in real life, huh?”

Shuhua slowly scoots away from you. You gulp. “I mean, that’s basically what you told me to do.”

Soyeon smirks. “I was right. Get on your knees, peasants. If you’re going to go at it for so long without me, then you gotta make it up to me.”

You and Shuhua smile at each other and kneel in front of her. Yuqi stays upright though.

“Hey! I was the one who had the idea to include you! Why am I being treated like a peasant too?!”

Soyeon grabs Yuqi’s face, squeezing her cheeks. “You want to eat my ass, Yuqi.”

There’s a moment of pregnant silence before Yuqi, through forcibly puffed out lips, says, “Yeff ma’am,” and drops to her knees as well.

The three of you take turns eating Soyeon out from the front and the back and sucking her fingers, and she occasionally (once or twice per orgasm) lightly slaps your faces, reminding you of how lowly you are compared to her. During a particularly savage comment to Yuqi about submissiveness while plowing Yuqi’s ass with your cOCk-a-dildo, she turns over her shoulder and gives you a wink. It’s your cue to switch things up.

Soon, all three women, Soyeon included, are mewling under the power of your godly cock. It’s a shame you’re not quite such a perfected sex god IRL, but you accomplish plenty as you are. All of these extra perks are just fun.

Then again, maybe your girlfriends are working on a multiplayer version of the game! Or maybe you can convince them to. Who wouldn’t want to fuck in real life and in game at the same time?!

You put the thought out of your mind, deciding to focus on the current good time. And on that note, you glance at the mirror. You’re nearly seventy-five percent of the way to being able to pay for a Battle Pass the normal way! You point that out to your girlfriends.

“Oh…” Soyeon starts, “Yeah, we should just go get Minnie and Miyeon. No sense leaving them out of this.”

“Yeah, man!” Yuqi butts in, “Pop that voucher and I’ll go let Minnie know we’re forgoing the fluff.”

You look at the mirror, “But we’re actually getting there, fair and square.”

Yuqi pats your head condescendingly, which is undercut by the amount of your cum flowing out of her holes and at the corner of her mouth. “My dude, fair and square flew out the window and moved to pound town when you told us you were dating us in real life. Try not to let that cat out of the bag the next time you do a playthrough.”

“What? But I’ve done all the work up to this point. I was just going to—”

A small ding interrupts you, and you look to your left to see Shuhua cashing in your voucher for the Battle Pass and pulling it out of your inventory. “Start a new game and go for a perfect run tomorrow,” she says, tossing the Battle Pass to Yuqi, “You can’t just expect me not to get my lips on Miyeon at this point.”

Soyeon mutters, “Damn you’re such a lesbian… Then again, Miyeon…”

You sigh, defeated, as Yuqi skips out of the room, leaving a trail of your cum behind her, waving the Battle Pass over her head like a lightstick at a rave. She drops it, shouts “I meant to do that,” picks it back up, and turns down the hall into Soyeon’s studio.

“Shuhua’s right, you know,” Soyeon says as she climbs onto your cock again, “Just try for the record again tomorrow. You got this far in… just a few hours, damn… You’ve optimized this to a science. No wonder the real me is fucking you.”

“You do keep challenging me to 4X games. You still beat me every time, but you get excited and fuck me whenever I get close to winning.”

Soyeon laughs. “Yup, sounds like me.”

“By the way, I don’t want to screw myself over here, but how do you know I’m dating you in real life? I could be lying, you know.”

She grimaces for a half second as she spears both of her holes with your Johnson & Johnson cocks. “The statistical probability of anybody getting a perfect run even through level three is ridiculously tiny. Your chances, if you didn’t know us personally, would be effectively non-existent. I’d call it a very safe bet.”

“Yup,” you chuckle, repeating Soyeon’s words as you wrap one arm around her and the other around Shuhua, “sounds like yo—”

You’re cut off by an ear-piercing scream.

You, Soyeon, and Shuhua freeze in shock. You glance back and forth between each other. Another scream, just as loud as the first, is what gets you all to separate and run into the hall. “MINNIE!”

Your perks ensure that you’re the first one through the hall and the studio. Minnie’s room is nothing like what you remember. It’s pure white, like the time you got in by cheating your way through, but it looks more intentional, like white paint, rather than an empty void. There is no ceiling, instead being topped by a mess of white, industrial pipes and boxes, jutting into each other at odd angles. There is no bed, but there are a couple of pillars, brutally square, and between them is Yuqi, still screaming, on her knees. Behind her, you can see a nude figure curled up on the floor. You can only imagine who that is.

You run to them, skidding to a halt when you see the state Minnie is in. It is her curled up, and you think for the briefest moment that she’s dead, but she’s not. She’s trembling, eyes barely open, and her arms, fingertips to elbows, are pitch black. Torn strips of white cloth are woven into her hair. Black eyeshadow and lipstick adorn her face, as well as stylized writing across her cheeks, and a trail of black liquid coming from her nose and pooling beneath her head. You drop down next to her across from Yuqi and read:

Ab imo pectore

Another scream comes as Shuhua makes it into the room next, but she stays backed up against one of the pillars. “What’s going on?!”

You don’t want to look away from Minnie, but something about Yuqi catches your eye. You glance up to see that she has some new makeup too. Sharp red lines streak down her cheeks from her eyes. Tears trail down either side of the lines, and her whole body is shaking.

Scooping down, you pull Minnie into your arms. She feels light as a feather.

“Minnie?” you shout, “Minnie?!”

Her breathing is shallow, but slow, and her quivering is painful to feel against your chest. Her eyes manage to get halfway open. One hand slowly lifts up toward your face, but she can’t seem to manage to get it high enough. Her voice is just as pitifully weak.

“S-Soo… jin… It hurts…”

“What in the fuck is this?!” Soyeon growls, standing next to Yuqi.

“I don’t know!” Yuqi screams.

You can’t take this. If this DLC means you have to watch Minnie… go through whatever this is, you don’t want any part of it. You exit the g—

Unknown error: unrecognized input

You try agai—

Unknown error: unrecognized input

Soyeon snarls. “What the—failed log out?!”

Yuqi spins around and shoves Soyeon away. “Stop fucking around, Soyeon! Let him log out and shut this down! I didn’t sign up for th—”

“This is nothing I did, you idiot!”

The two of them get into a screaming match, but you try to ignore them, clutching Minnie closer to you and trying to think of how to fix this. It’s obviously something to do with the DLC. You try an emergency ddeunstation shutoff, but nothing happens.

Shuhua catches your attention as she steps closer, but halts. You look up to see her staring, horrified, above you. You follow her gaze.

Semi-hidden in the tangle of pipes, a blonde, feminine figure in a short black dress and stiletto heels lounges, high out of reach. Her face is obscured from your view, but you’ve got a pretty good idea about who it is.

Yuqi and Soyeon fall silent, staring in the same direction.

The sound of the figure’s heels tapping the pipe below her rings out in the silence. She stands, her face still obscured from your angle, and walks through the wall at her side and she’s gone. A red liquid, too lightly colored to be blood—the same red—, seeps down the wall from her former position, enveloping the door to Level 5.

“Shuhua,” you ask quietly, “Who is Soojin?”

Tears start to pour off of Shuhua’s chin, and she drops to her knees next to you. She sobs out the words, “I… don’t know.”

You look up at the others. Yuqi and Soyeon both shake their heads slowly.

Doing your best not to choke up, you get onto your feet, still cradling Minnie in your arms. “Hurry… Back to the starting room.”

Yuqi leads the way, peeking around corners, while Soyeon practically has to drag Shuhua behind you. At least the starter room is the same… with one exception. Written on the mirror in what looks like bright red lipstick:

achievement unlocked

I completed level 4 for you

meet me in level 5 alone

for miyeon’s sake

Yuqi sees it too and runs up to it, trying to scrub it off with her forearms. It smudges until it’s unreadable, but no matter how many times she spits on it and drags her arm across the mirror, the red streaks remain, just like the ones below her eyes. “Fffuck this bitch…!”

“Stop touching that!” Soyeon yells.

You set Minnie down on the bed as gently as you can, but don’t remove your arms from under her. Shuhua joins you on the opposite side, still sobbing, pulling a pillow under Minnie’s head and gingerly touching her face.

“I’m not just leaving it there!”

“It’s just some fucking words, Yuqi! What if that shit is dangerous?”

“What? This?” Yuqi licks her arm, and Soyeon tries to swat it down. “It ain’t doing shit! Unlike whatever that bitch did to Minnie! You saw it! ‘Completed Level 4?’ You know exactly what the fuck that sounds like, and I’m not going to let her mock us like that!”

“Yeah, I know what it sounds like, but unlike you, I can read! What about Miyeon?!”

“Miyeon can… Miyeon can handle herself—!”

Soyeon’s hand cracks across Yuqi’s cheek. “Think about something that isn’t in your face for once! Miyeon is the softest bitch any of us knows. Handle herself? There’s no fucking way. We don’t even know what happened to Minnie!”

Yuqi held her palm to the slap mark Soyeon left, huffing through her nose and looking around the room. She lowers her volume. “Minnie’s the one who’s hurt.”

“I know,” Soyeon growls, “But clearly if this could happen to Minnie, it could happen to Miyeon too. Either way, he needs to go get Miyeon.” She points at you. We can’t leave her alone.”

You carefully take your arms out from under Minnie, and she rolls onto her side facing you again, slowly, and clearly painfully. Her eyes flutter open and she whispers, “S-Soojin, please…”

Her head drops to the pillow. She definitely seems unconscious, but her fingers still twitch, as if she’s dreaming.

“I’ll go,” you say, looking over Minnie’s shoulder at Shuhua. “Take care of her, please.”

Shuhua watches as you stand up, but doesn’t acknowledge your words. Yuqi doesn’t look in your direction, but Soyeon gives you a shaky, but otherwise resolute nod.

When you step out the door though, Yuqi chases you down and grabs your arm, turning you around. “Hey, uh…” You don’t recall the last time you’ve seen a vulnerable expression on her face, if ever, but there it is, even through the menacing makeup. “Fuckin hurry it up, kay?”

You do exactly that, running through the studio and the strange industrial space that replaced Minnie’s room. The door to Level 5 is still covered in that red liquid, but you shove it open anyway.

Somehow though, you don’t end up touching the door. As you push, you stumble through, and regain your footing on the other side. Your vision shifts and twists as you do.

Then, you’re in a new room. This time, the walls are black, but there’s a blue light illuminating the far wall from below an enormous black and gold pedestal, flanked by what you first think are two more white pillars until you realize they’re made of cloth. The light glints through dozens of black icicles hanging from the ceiling, threatening the dozens of silhouetted people frozen in time beneath them. On top of the pedestal, Miyeon.

A metallic structure juts out from behind her, giving the appearance of stringy, angelic wings. She seems just as frozen as the figures below her, her nude body posed like a majestic statue. Is she glitched out? And if so, does that mean she’s somehow, technically safe?

“You got here quicker than I thought you would,” says a soft new voice, though the line as a whole sounds like it’s being delivered in red, so you make the assumption it’s Soojin.

“Who the hell are you?”

You can’t tell where her voice is coming from. It’s too echoey in here. “She’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

Walking forward, you glance up at Miyeon. Of course she’s beautiful. “Answer me,” you say.

“Are you going to breed her?”

You stop near the base of the pedestal when it suddenly drops, putting Miyeon just above you. Climbing up is easy enough.

Glistening tears stream down Miyeon’s face as she stares at you. Her body is frozen in place, but her eyes aren’t. Though her face is stuck in an elegant, artistic expression, the way her eyes flicker from side to side tells you that she’s afraid.

“Whatever you’re doing, stop it, Soojin. This isn’t right.”

“How do you know my name?”

You scowl and look down into the statues, trying to pinpoint Soojin’s location. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

“There’s no point in being obstinate. You need to move on to the next level.”

“Why would I want to—”

“You can move on by breeding Miyeon.”

“Yeah, sure, if she says that for herself. I’m not going to just do that to someone who can’t even move.”

There’s a long silence before you hear Soojin again. Miyeon’s eyes seem a bit more relaxed, but you know this isn’t over. “If she could speak, she’d tell you to do it, you know.”

“I don’t care if this is just a game. I won’t do it if she doesn’t say she wants it.”

“If we’re setting aside the pretense of immersion, then tell me: When was the last time you killed someone in a game? That was programmed in. So was this.”

“This is different.”

“Not at all.”

“Miyeon is a recreation of a real person.”

“Quaint, that you care about an imitation.”

Miyeon’s eyes suddenly twitch frantically, side to side. Many hands simultaneously grab your legs and yank you backward. The pedestal shoots upward and the cloth pillars start to spin around it, encasing it like a silk cocoon. Your vision of the process is obscured by at least a dozen faceless people piling on top of you. Even with your excessive strength perks, you can’t shove them all off. For as frantic as it is, it’s relatively quiet, and mere moments later, the people jump off of you, taking their places under the black icicles and becoming silhouettes once more.

“Fuck! Bring her back down here, Soojin!” you shout, slamming your fists into the now excessively tall pedestal. Looking up, you realize you can’t even see how far up this room goes.

A small gap opens in the cocoon, maybe thirty feet above you.

“Here you go.”

Miyeon tumbles out of the gap. You barely have the time to register that her arms are black before you have to back up to catch her. Thankfully, it’s not too hard. She’s impossibly light, exactly like Minnie, but entirely unconscious.

“What did you do to her?!”

“I helped you. Congratulations. Looks like Level 5 is completed. Next, Level 6. Take her if you want, but don’t make me wait.”

The base of the pedestal opens, a sliding door revealing what appears to be an elevator inside. You turn around however, and run back through the entrance and to the starting room, where you find Yuqi, Soyeon, and Minnie.

“Where’s Shuhua?” you ask as you lay Miyeon down next to Minnie. 

Soyeon, fuming in the corner, looks at you from between her fingers. “She ran off after you. You didn’t catch her?”

She ran? Where to? “No. I didn’t see her.”

Yuqi punches the bed. The red streaks coming down her eyes have gotten longer. “Dammit, we lost her too! And now Miyeon…!” She covers her face with her hands, doubling over. Her breath catches through clenched teeth. “Dammit!”

“What happened?” Soyeon asks, no less distressed.

Before you can answer, Yuqi screams and collapses to her hands and knees on the floor. The red, lipstick-like smear on her arm shifts and looks like it’s digging into her flesh. As soon as it starts though, it stops, and by the time you’re on your knees, trying to help, the words look like they’re burnt into her skin.

I told you not to make me wait

“Go! Now!” Soyeon shouts as soon as she gets down next to you and sees the writing.

It’s painful to leave again, but you clearly don’t have a choice. You get up and run as fast as you can, the sound of Yuqi’s pained yelling following you down the hall.

You get back to the elevator quickly. The inside is pale white, well lit, like the room Minnie was in. It’s featureless, besides two buttons and a message between them.

Level 5

Only one person may use the elevator to return from Level 6 to Level 5, at which point it will cease to function. Proceed with caution. Are you prepared?

Level 6

Your stomach sinks. This is clearly some kind of trap. You didn’t see Shuhua on your way, so she must be in Level 6. You hesitate to hit the button that will take you down.

And yet, you don’t know if you can’t. Soojin is obviously in control here. Minnie and Miyeon are in the same state. Yuqi is in pain. Soyeon could be next for all you know. And Shuhua…

You slam your fist against the Level 6 button. The violent act doesn’t calm you down. The door closes slowly, and you can feel the elevator starting to shift, taking you lower.

All of this pain. Soojin thinks this is just a game? Can she not see what she’s doing? Shouldn’t she understand what your girlfriends are going through, since she’s a character in this game, just like they are?

You try one last time to exit the—

Unknown error: unrecognized input

Fine. You’ll play.

The elevator stops and the door opens to room more in line with the ones you’re used to in INDIOB. The walls are red. So is the floor. There’s a bed in the center of the back wall with black, silky sheets. In front of the bed, however, stand two people. Shuhua is naked, facing roughly your direction, but in front of her is Soojin, blonde, dressed in a black bathrobe, facing away from you. Her hands are on Shuhua’s face. The two are pressed together in a kiss, still and silent.

You run forward and throw your weight sidelong into Soojin, tearing her away from Shuhua and sending her tumbling across the floor. She lands such that you still cannot see her face.

Shuhua gasps and glances nervously from you to Soojin on the floor, then grabs your arm. “N-no!”

“No what, Shuhua?! She hurt the others! Miyeon and Yuqi now, too!”

“Don’t! Don—”

“Leave, Shuhua…” Soojin’s voice is shaky.

Shuhua releases your arm and dives down next to Soojin, putting up a halting hand toward you. “No, Soojin! I can’t! I… Please, don’t hurt her! I l-love her!”

“Love?” you ask, “She’s controlling you somehow, Shuhua! You didn’t even know who she was ten minutes ago!”

“I know what I said!” Shuhua drapes a protective arm over Soojin’s body. “I don’t know how I know her, but I know I love her!”

“Shuhua… Please leave,” Soojin says, turning her head barely in Shuhua’s direction.

“No!”

You know you shouldn’t trust Soojin, but you ask anyway. “If she goes up the elevator, will she be safe?”

Shuhua’s eyes widen in fear as Soojin answers, “Yes.”

Taking Shuhua by the arm, you drag her up and away from Soojin. She kicks and screams and punches you, but your perks make you inhumanly strong. She may not be as light as Minnie or Miyeon were, but it’s still an easy matter to pull her into the elevator, hit the Level 5 button, and hold her there as the door closes.

“Soojin! No! Don’t hurt her! Soojin, please! Soojin, I love you! SOOJ—” The door shuts, and instantly cuts off all sound. Even the seams of the door disappear.

You turn around. Soojin climbs to her feet, knees shaking, finally turning to face you.

“Finally,” she says quietly, as you stomp closer and swing at her face.

It’s not what you expected out of yourself, but your open hand connects with her anyway, snapping her dark eyes away from you. The red handprint appears instantly. Her hand cradles her cheek right after, fingertips gripping as she takes fast, sharp breaths through her teeth. She stands her ground.

“Good,” Soojin whispers. She drops her hand and lifts her head to look at you again.

You smack her back down. She stumbles a half step back this time. “Finally? Good? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Her hand shakes this time as she holds her face. “I hurt Yuqi. I did things you can’t imagine to Miyeon and Minnie. I would have done the same to Soyeon soon.”

You wind back and punch Soojin, just below the ribs. The force of the impact sends her shuffling back, where she hits the wall, clawing at it with her sharp, red nails. This time you can see her face as she gasps for air, eyes shut.

“What about that makes this good?!” you shout, clenching your fist tighter.

Her eyes crack open, her breath shudders, and she gives you a sneering smile. “You took all… the Magic Fingers perks… I see.”

You don’t register your disgust until you’ve hit her once more, slamming your knuckles into her stomach again. Soojin doubles over to your side, stumbling forward, coughing and gasping painfully, and collapsing onto the bed, legs hanging off.

“Fuck you,” you say through gritted teeth. You want to do it again, but as Soojin laughs between hacking coughs, you stop yourself, worried that she might be serious, and that Magic Fingers is giving her some kind of twisted satisfaction.

Soojin catches her breath eventually, coughing a few more times, muffled by the bed sheets. Her laughing fades too. “So,” she groans, “your high and mighty morals… are they gone yet?”

You decide it’s best not to answer.

One long pause later, Soojin clambers a bit further onto the bed, rolls onto her side, and with a sharp breath and a wince, shrugs her bathrobe off of one shoulder.

“What the hell now?”

She drags her arm out of the sleeve. Despite her obvious pain, she still, disturbingly, displays herself as a seductress, running shaky fingers through her hair to ruffle it up. “You want to beat the game, don’t you?”

You glare back. “Shut up.”

“‘I Never Die, I Only Breed’ is a literal name, you know.”

“Shut up!”

“If you want to knock me around for a while more before you knock me up…”

“No!”

“That would be fine with me,” Soojin reaches out with her leg.

You dodge back before she can stroke you with her foot. “You fucking bitch!”

She moans, sliding off the bed, out of her robe, and onto her knees in one smooth motion. Her expression turns softer. “I’m sorry,” she whispers, “You could pound my throat to avenge Minnie, and it would keep me… quiet.” She drags a hand up between her breasts and over her neck, where she wraps her fingers around her throat. She gasps sensually as she tightens her grip, and her body writhes, like she’s getting off on it. And she probably is. “You could find a lot of ways to keep me quiet…”

Before she can grope herself with the other hand, you grab both of her wrists and hold them over her head, squeezing tight enough that your knuckles and hers turn white.

The Stay Ready By Staying Hard perk is unwelcome, but you can’t turn it off. Your dick nearly stabs Soojin in the cheek. She leans her head back, opening her mouth wide, tongue resting on her luscious bottom lip. Her breath tickles you. You drive your entire cock down Soojin’s throat in one brutal thrust. She gags once, and her eyes roll up. Her fingers clench and release, unable to do anything in your solid grip.

“This is all you’re getting out of me,” you mumble. You’ll rely on All Holes Lead to Rome for this, to make it happen quickly. You can only hope winning the game will take you back to the home screen, where you can exit entirely.

Soojin’s gagging intensifies with your thrusting. It doesn’t feel good, or like it’s helping anything, but you hope for some catharsis to come from this.

It seems Soojin feels differently. She moans desperately around your cock as you bulge her neck out. A wet spot forms on the floor underneath her as she somehow achieves her own orgasm. Her eyes manage to roll back down and flutter as she looks into your face as her convulsing dies down.

You look away.

Soon, you’re cumming too, pumping everything you’ve got as deep down Soojin’s throat as you’re sure is possible. That should do it. You pull yourself out.

“Satisfied?” you ask, making sure to put all the disgust you can muster into the word.

Soojin burps a little, and licks her lips. “Yes.”

“I win. End it. Now.”

“No.”

Your grip on her wrists tightens further. If she were anything close to normal, you’d think they might break. “What?”

“You only win when you breed me.”

“I just did. I have a perk that lets me impregnate you with any hole.”

Soojin licks her upper lip again, and her face contorts into a twisted, evil smile. “Yes you do. But you should know by now… there’s a new rule on every level.”

You gather her wrists into one hand so you can use the other to grab her by the throat and press her into the side of the bed. “And what’s your rule, huh, Soojin? I have to make you cum only by hurting you?”

“No…” she strains to speak as you constrict her tighter, but still keeps her infuriating smile, “You… have to… cum… first.”

First? But half your perks make you last longer than your partner, by design. What kind of stupid rule is that?

Soojin alternates between chuckling and coughing. You suddenly wish there was a breath meter in this game so you could shut her up for a while longer. “Come on… I can’t… restart… you.”

You give her a shove that ought to bruise her neck before you let go. “So I can’t win?”

Once she finishes another coughing fit, Soojin calms down, her voice evens out, sounding more like her neutral taunting in the room Miyeon was in. “You can still win. Every time I orgasm, you can reset by cumming. Masturbating first doesn’t count, but otherwise, you’re free to do whatever you want with me.”

“You know you disgust me?”

“Yes,” she says simply. You spit on her face, but immediately regret it when she moans, smiles, and opens her mouth. “More.”

You decide not to indulge that, and instead pick her up and throw her onto the bed, face down. You straddle her legs and line up your cock with her asshole, shoving yourself inside quickly enough that she doesn’t have the time to make a comment. She groans softly.

Pressing Soojin’s face into the bed muffles, but doesn’t silence her. You draw back and slam down, ruthlessly filling her ass over and over. Her stifled moans piss you off further, and you get more and more barbaric, practically jumping up and down on top of her, blasting her asshole open. Even the bed itself joins in on your frenzy, bouncing her back up toward you every time you pound her down, so that your bodies clap together like thunder strikes. Her legs limply flop up and down, but her hands grip the arm holding her face to the bed.

Without any fanfare, you cum again, saturating her insides with what seems to be an endless stream. She feebly reaches back and lightly scratches your hip while you finish.

You jab her hand away, sitting up and letting jizz gush out of her ass, only to notice the enormous wet space already underneath her.

Soojin lifts her head and takes a deep breath, smirking at you over her shoulder. Her makeup is destroyed. “I’m not sure if that was one big orgasm or if I came three times so fast that they melded together. Thank you.”

Taking a fistful of her hair, you yank her up and growl in her ear. “I don’t want to hear it. Shut up, bitch.”

“You know how to make me.”

You push her back down and flip her onto her back. She submissively puts her hands up by her ears and gasps when you pick up her legs and slam your cock into her pussy. The gasp turns into a long moan, and then a dark giggle. “You’re such a gamer.”

No part of you wants to hear anything more she has to say, and you drop your weight onto a hand around her neck, choking her again. Even so, she can barely speak through the constriction. “You’re so attached… to something that’s not real… Acting so impulsively over it…”

You release her neck so that you can instead fall further onto her, pressing your forearm into her throat instead. She wants impulsiveness? Fine.

Through her strangled attempts at breath, her fingers play over your elbow and hand. Her lips curl up, even as they turn ever so slightly blue.

Wait. This is what she wants. You’ve been playing into her hands. This sick bitch wants impulsiveness, violence, and pain. Is it her mental state? Is it yours? She’s cumming so fast because she’s getting exactly what she wants, and you’re not because you’re so damn stressed.

You pull back from Soojin slowly, letting her finish another round of coughing. And when she finally catches her breath, you lean in, fighting your instincts, and kiss her as gently as you can.

She freezes up, and looks genuinely surprised.

That’s it.

You try to convince yourself to focus on her body. The softness of her breasts, pressed against your chest. Her legs, wrapping around your back. Her lips, accepting what you give her. You try to imagine she’s one of your girlfriends. They’re not hard to picture, even as you make love to the one who hurt them.

You snake your arms under Soojin’s, lifting her off the bed and onto your lap. You cringe at her moans, hiding your displeasure by nuzzling your face into her chest.

“A novel strategy…” Soojin whispers. It sends goosebumps down your back and over your arms.

When you orgasm, so does Soojin.

“And?” you ask.

“Incredible… But cumming with me isn’t the same as cumming first.”

You throw Soojin off of you, and she giggles.

“Dammit! I’m just trying to protect my girlfriends, Soojin!”

“Girlfriends…? What a loser.” Soojin smirks. “A gamer and a loser. Of course. You got so close, you know. Trying to get me out of the mood after feeling out my preferences is an interesting idea, but the physical pleasure… To put it simply, I’m still very satisfied.”

You turn away, sitting on the edge of the bed. That’s not what you wanted to hear.

Her fingers curl over your shoulder. “Do you want to try that again?”

Maybe you could go even slower? Gentler? You stand up and face Soojin again. She leans in for a kiss. You don’t stop her.

“Will this really work?” you ask when she seems to have had her fill.

“I doubt it, but that’s up to you to find out.”

“You do the work, then,” you mumble and lie down on your back.

“As you wish.”

Soojin situates herself sidelong to your body, draping herself over the bed so she can fully display her body to you while she sensually brushes her tongue over your cock, cleaning it softly.

“Do you like this?” she asks, gently rolling her nipples between her fingers.

“Yeah.” You want to deny it, but you know you have to like it. “Do you?”

“I do.” She climbs onto you, lowering herself a bit too quickly.

“Slow down,” you say, trying not to sound too demanding, “Let’s… let’s take this slow. I want to take my time with you.”

Soojin blushes and leans down for another kiss. Her big, round, soft lips are going to haunt you. You’re sure of it.

“You know,” she says between soft smooches, “your impulsiveness is justified.”

“No, I shouldn’t act so rash.”

Soojin giggles. Her pussy pulls at you in all the right spots. Maybe this won’t be too hard, this time. “No. You should. Yuqi is fine by now, but Minnie and Miyeon… Do you want to know what I did to them?”

Your blood boils. “Shut up.”

“Such an interesting game, this is.” Soojin runs her hands up and down her body, from her clit to her bruised neck. “Down here, I’m a powerless, helpless girl for you to hurt and please at your every whim, but up there I could do whatever I wanted. Not that I wouldn’t let you use me as a toy anyway.”

You close your eyes, trying to get the objectively sexy image of Soojin out of your head. Instead, you think about Minnie, picturing her as the one grinding against you.

“What did it seem like to you and Yuqi? A few seconds? Because for lack of a better term, I overclocked us. Miyeon and I spent what we perceived as hours just out of your reach. I got to be creative, impregnating her. I wasn’t sure how to do it with Minnie though. That’s why it was so bad for her. If I had my own cock it would have been easier, but no. I had to break her and Miyeon.”

You can’t stop your teeth from clenching together.

“I had to make them love me, then hurt them, and repeat it over and over again. I broke their bodies, but their minds took longer. I don’t think they’ll ever be the same. At least not on this save file.”

This isn’t working.

“Can you imagine what they went through? And just for me to infuse them with some of my ‘soul,’ or so the game calls it. Once they give birth, they’ll whisper that they love me with their dying breaths.”

Your fist flies instinctively, catching Soojin in the ribs and sending her tumbling backward off the bed and onto the floor. “Their dying breaths?!” You jump to your feet.

Soojin flounders, hands against the wall, trying to lift herself up, but she can’t seem to even get to her knees. Her voice is raspy between rapid gasps for air, which you can only guess are for show, “Yeah… dying…”

You lift her by the hair and turn her to face you. She winces as your hand cracks across her cheek. “You would kill someone who you forced to love you?!”

“Some NPCs, sure,” Soojin mutters. You backhand the other side of her face. This time she shrieks, clapping a hand over her eye. Even so, she smiles, “Glad you’re back, gamer.”

“Is that what you were doing to Shuhua when I came down here?!”

Soojin’s smile droops a little, and she hesitates. “No…”

“Why lie now?!” you scream.

“I didn’t.”

You lose sight of the goal of the game, picking Soojin up by the thighs, pinning her to the wall, and stuffing your cock in her ass. Soojin flinches, but her smile comes back.

“Fuck you! You were going to torture Shuhua the same way you did Minnie and Miyeon, because you’re an inhuman freak who gets off on pain!”

Soojin’s nose flares. “I wouldn’t do that to Shuhua. Ah!”

You slam her upward against the wall, pushing her legs back in what had to be an uncomfortable position, as if that mattered to Soojin. Her ass grips you like a lifeline.

“What? You’d do something different? Rape Shuhua the normal way?! You disgusting cunt!”

Soojin turns her head away, hiding behind the same hand she used to cover her injured eye. “Shut up!”

Somehow, through the haze of rage, you catch on. Soojin didn’t like that.

“What, then?” you ask, pressing her with questions harder than you press her to the wall, “You were just going to force her to her love you and savor it until you—”

“I didn’t make Shuhua love me, idiot!”

You fuck her ass harder, grab her face, and force her to to look back in your direction. A trail of tears ran down her uncovered cheek. You’re almost queasy about feeling the beginning of your orgasm.

“How the fuck can you deny it, Soojin? You heard her. She was screaming it! You fucked with her head!”

“No! Shuhua… She did that to herself!”

As your cum fills Soojin’s ass, you keep it going. It’s not necessary anymore, but this is the catharsis you were looking for. Whether or not it was true, or if it hurt you to say it, it was clearly just as bad for Soojin.

“From the moment she saw you, you hurt Shuhua. She ran away from her friends for you, straight into danger.”

Soojin’s lips quiver as she pulls them back into a snarl. “Fuck you… You win. Get the fuck away from me.”

You pull out of her ass and drop her to the floor. “Don’t pretend you’re treating Shuhua any better, bitch. Even if you didn’t do it with some kind of power, you broke her just by being around her. And for the record, I’m pretty damn sure you did it on purpose.”

Soojin turns toward the wall, folding her knees up to her chest. “If you care so much,” she says, “then log out and delete this save. Now.” Her voice quivers just like her lips did. You can’t help but feel some satisfaction about that.

“Why would I want to do that?”

“This is the end. Nothing else is programmed to let you out… We’re stuck down here. The others are still upstairs.”

Leaving sounds good to you. You exit to the home screen.

Without an error message stopping you, you select the save file. It gives you a screenshot of the last thing you were looking at: Soojin, curled up, naked and crying, as she deserves. You delete the save.

You hit New Game.

Normal.

Open your eyes.

Can you move?

Great. Everything is up to you, good luck.

You’re in a room—there is a bed, there is a mirror, there is a door. You open the door, and Shuhua is in front of you, waiting on a bed of her own.

“Are you the challenger?” she asks, untying her bathrobe just a little as she saunters towards you.

You grab her and pull her into a hug. “Shuhua… I’m sorry.”

She hesitates. “Um… okay?”

You exit to the home screen again, take a deep breath, and exit the game entirely.

You’re in your room—there is your bed, there is your mirror, there is your door.

There is Soojin.

The rain has turned into a thunderstorm. It’s pitch black outside your window, and the only light in your room comes from a small desk lamp and your clock, which says it’s two thirty in the morning.

Soojin looks different, but there’s no mistaking it’s her. Her hair is black, not blonde, and she isn’t wearing anything elegant. Just a beige sweater. She’s sitting on your bed, staring out the window.

You try to back away, but find your arms and legs are bound to your chair.

“Hey,” she says, taking a sip of what smells like coffee.

You growl, “What the fuck are you doing here, Soojin?”

She takes another sip, faces toward you a little, and reaches between her legs under her sweater, and lifts her fingers back up with a glob of semen strung between them. You look down and see that you are, in fact, naked, and your dick looks wet, and like it’s been rubbed raw.

Soojin wipes the cum off on your bed, takes another sip of coffee, and stands up. The sound of her bare feet hitting your floor is completely obscured by the rain. A flash of lightning illuminates her from behind as she looms over you.

“The cords are on a timer. They’ll come undone at three.”

“You’re not going to answer me?!”

Soojin kneels down in front of you. You think she’s going to start sucking your dick for a moment, but then she leans to the side and grabs a tote bag off the floor, removing the smallish umbrella sticking out of it.

“I worked on the game. I should get some of the credit. We’ll have a cute kid.”

You jerk your arm, and find that the cords around your wrists are very, very strong. “Credit?! Kid?! Raping me is credit?!”

She reaches into your ddeunstation and removes the memory card. “Don’t tell the others. It would hurt them to know about this.”

Your jaw drops, and you bring your game knowledge into real life. “Are you fucking kidding me?! You bitch, you think you get to be concerned about them?! What’s your deal with Shuhua?! Are you just going to find a way to fuck with her in real life too?!”

Soojin pauses, now in your entryway, shoes halfway on.

Another strike of lightning lets you briefly see a trail of tears running down her cheek.

“They won't hear from me. Treat Shuhua well…” she says quietly before standing up and walking through the door.

~~~~~

Author’s Note: Thanks again to @ggidolsmuts. Dude is a genius and shockingly fast for a fanfic writer. If you read his I Never Die, I Only Breed series, you probably noticed that entire paragraphs of his original stories were copied and pasted into this one. I loved the intentional repetition of the INDIOB series in the places really sold the game aspect of the story. So much of this story was directly inspired by my thoughts about what one might do with a GameShark for the game. The addition of Soojin and all the dark shit only came to me after finishing ddeun's final chapter.