Chapter 195 - #195 /the truth decided/

I stared up at her as the full magnitude of what was about to become possible washed over me like a heavy tide. The app had been powerful before, but the supposed new feature would make its power limitless. Overtime simply by using the app in any capacity you would slowly start to reshape and mold the shape of the world itself, let alone the people who lived in it. It was a little strange to think about how it would even apply to me. If what she was saying was correct, then in mere minutes the world would change to bring reality in line with the previous changes I had made. The story of my friend's lives would shift so as to logically accommodate the massive figures they had acquired. I had no way of knowing specifically in which ways their realities would bend, only that they would. Even my life would be changed after all I was one of the women most affected by the magical abilities of the app. What would the actual life of a naturally near 400lb Deena Anthra look like. Would I be a glutton, merely lazy, or just simply “big boned”.

I felt introspective about how my life had changed since I had acquired the app. I had gotten fat the most clear and obvious consequences. I had fattened a bunch of other girls and how they changed because of that fattening had changed me in turn. I had at one point been comfortably introverted with one close friend with whom things were a little strange. My time passed, invested in a programming passion project. Yet I had become a girl connected with a vast friend group in more ways than one. The hours that had previously been spent morosely programming had changed to using the app to bring myself pleasure. To fattening up girls who deserved a little karma going back their way. The differences between the beginning and where I was at that moment were stark and clear. Such huge changes and the root of them was staring down at me. Her pretty blue eyes locked with mine, carrying with them passion and something else, just a tiny bit of crazy. I brought my phone up and locked onto her with L.B.L Up without even looking at the screen, before shifting my thumb to push the trigger button.

I tasted wine. The reason for which was rather clearly that I had pushed the wine glass against my lips. I blinked a few times in surprise. Readjusting L.B.L UP so I could actually aim at her. But what I saw caused me to pause. She was sitting back on her chair, one soft curvy leg resting casually up on the table posed dramatically, and slightly wildly. Her body was naked, it’s pale flesh on complete display, at least to the human eye. The magical lens of L.B.L UP presented a very different and much more powerful image. Her body was still naked but it was draped in red roses, threaded together like vines and wrapping around her body tastefully with a shibari style insinuation. Not unlike the chains that had bound the cheer leaders they reflected distorted images, the key difference being that the rose vines thrummed and glowed with red light. Her hair looked almost ethereal under L.B.L Ups lens, it’s red brighter and more intense like neon. Though her eyes were unquestionably the most prominent feature, rather than blue her irises were illuminating crimson, and emitted light like flames. She looked somehow perfectly human beneath the intense imagery.

“How did you like the wine?” she asked me as I reeled a little at the ever so slightly awe-inspiring image she struck. “It was for your benefit not mine, my own personal wards reflect back with multiplicative force, and you’ve packing it on fast enough already as it is” she said her tone more serious than it had been before I tried to blast her with the app. “Can’t have you immobilized before you have the tools to accommodate it, now can we” she said with a giggle that cut a sharp contrast with her previously much more serious tone. I couldn’t tell which was fake or which was real. The terrifyingly powerful and confident witch or the giggly extroverted young woman. It occurred that both could either be fake or real. Or perhaps some middle ground. One thing became abundantly clear. I was well outside of my weight class picking a fight with L.B.L UPs creator. She had seemed so banal during dinner my sheer powerlessness back during the party had slipped my mind. Olive was something else entirely.

“Let’s be real for a moment, shall we?” she said taking the wine glass I had drunk from back and taking a casual drink from it. “As much as we’d both love it not to be the case, you don’t stand an iota of a particulate of a chance against me” she said it in the same way one might say the sky was blue, or that an apple falls down when it’s thrown in the air. A tone with absolute certainty, a belief like gravity. “But that’s what makes games fun right...?” she mused aloud. “Overcoming challenges” she said it with a deep amount of affection. “That fight you can’t win with the final boss in the first act, makes beating them at the end more satisfying” she explained with a wide smile. “You’ll grow stronger and smarter and someday you’ll face me and we’ll play a game together that’ll have made all the buildup worthwhile” she said her tone carrying the same affectation of absolute belief.

“Of course, that’s if you can make it that far, you won’t be the only one trying” she said flashing a confident smile. “While I have the utmost faith in you there’s no denying your competition is plenty motivated” she explained trailing off. It was clear who she was referring to. The other players. It was almost hard to conceptualize that other people with the app were out there, that I had never met. Perfect strangers who had been given the same magical tool I had but who had no doubt diverged in how and why they used it. “You mean like Cameron?” I asked her having recovered my voice and some of my confidence. “Oh god no, Cameron was a fairly helpful minion, good to give you an introduction to the idea you weren’t alone in the universe” she said referring to another human being like one might a particularly useful object. “I got to say I do love how you handled her by the way, getting her off on humiliation was just, chefs kiss” she said blowing me a kiss playfully.

“But just so were clear she’s nothing like the other players” Olive said stretching her legs a little. “They’re all much more experienced and much more proficient at using the app than you are” she explained casually. “They’ve had the app for longer and unlike you most of them don’t need an excuse to use it” she elaborated. “They’ve got perks you’re not far enough along to understand let alone counter, I actually limited what I did tonight to the sum of exp you’ve acquired since you got the app” she explained and I physically flinched at that revelation. That setup at the party was at the same level I was but built a different way. That was rather concerning to say the least. Given these supposed other players would also have a level advantage. “And they’ll be driven too, not only are you the fresh meat, but you’ve gotten a lot of my attention” she explained.

“So, what you’re some sort of modern day of Helen of Troy, your harems going to come fight me?” I snorted derisely finding the whole idea a little ridiculous. “Not quite you’ve got to remember not everyone is as horny as you are” she said with a giggle. “I’ve been a lot of different things to a lot of different people, sure a decent number of them are after my heart, but it’s nowhere near that simple” she explained casually. “I mean if you really think about it, even you're not trying to beat me because you like me, to you I’m the villain of your story” she elaborated. “Not that I would’nt love the trope where we fall in love anyways, that’d be cool” she concluded. “You must be absolutely insane” I told her factually, all sense of melodrama lost from voice my. “Insanity is believing in things that aren’t real, but in a world where what’s real is always changing, doesn’t that make us all a little crazy” she asked me with a curious head tilt.

I opened my mouth to counter but was interrupted by some ambient city noises being blasted from her phone. She glanced at it curiously and flashed an excited smile. “It’s a minute to midnight” she said turning her phone around so I could look at it and confirm for myself. The upgrade bar on my phone was sitting firmly at 99%. I was completely powerless to stop the update from going through. Even if I could stop her magically it wasn’t like I could then undo the magical programming that would update the app for all the other mysterious and supposedly dangerous users. Though I hated to think of it in her terms it really did feel like one of those battles you weren’t designed to win. I glanced from my phone back up to the girl who had started it all. The woman who had generated the absurd magical app that had been the root of so many pleasures, and in some ways so many problems. Not only was the app itself complicated, but we had a complicated history. Yet somehow the words I wanted to say to her were perfectly clear. Like a blue neon sign cutting through the fog on a misty day. Unociquivally and unquestionably my answer. Not a counter argument. Not a clever quip or an appeal to rationality. She was right in one regard I did felt I understand her better than others. “I promise, I won’t let you win either” I told her and for just a hint of a fraction of moment. I could almost hear my voice carrying the same certainty as hers. I saw the hints of a surprised expression on her face but before she could respond the clock struck 12:00 and the update hit 100%.