3 Welcome to Black Harbor 2 & 3

Chinatown on a warm, late Summer night smelled like pot stickers, charcoal, and home. It was Friday and the people were out, about, and buzzing with excitement. Plastic tables with chain smoking uncles playing mahjong were out on every block. Men stood outside karaoke bars hocking their specials, eyeing up their rivals from across the street. Live chickens, rabbits, and frogs were being sold from makeshift markets. You could stand still here and catch over a dozen languages being spoken by residents and visitors alike.

Among all this, patrolled very serious men and women in sharp, formal attire, with full sleeves and buttoned collars even in this weather. They were triads, Tigers, Cranes, and Dragons. Crowds parted around them, the many thousands of us following the unspoken rules of the neighborhood without complaint.

I could barely make it through a block before someone stopped me to chat, uncles asking me for opinions on upcoming boxing matches, aunties checking if I was still single, friends inviting me out, and all of them chiding me for moving away. It was good to be back. For the record, I hadn't been avoiding Chinatown, I'd simply been busy. But my justifications fell on deaf ears.

I even got it from a few of my friends that had joined the Cranes. Like, come on! How was moving somewhere twenty minutes by subway worse than joining the Triads?

The immediate area around my mother's school was a no-man's land for the gangs. I don't know how she managed it, or if my dad had been involved in brokering that deal. Neither had ever felt like elaborating when I'd asked. But it had been that way since I was kid.

The Triads may have imposed order onto the neighborhood, but their absence allowed for a palpable peace. It was calmer here; the air felt lighter when you stepped onto the block. People seemed a bit happier.

My mother lived in the apartment above her gym. The narrow door that let people into the stairway that led up to the residential part of the building's lock was still broken. It hadn't worked since I was a teen, and no one had bothered to fix it. The fact that Lily Li lived there was security enough apparently.

I knocked on her door to be let in. She opened it with an annoyed expression, clearly midway through getting dressed for a night out.

"Why did you knock? Just use your key," she said in Chinese.

I responded in kind. "Just wanted to be polite, Ma."

She tsked and let me in, heading back into her room to finish getting ready. "Eat something!" she called through the open door. "You look skinny."

"Want me to make you tea?" I asked. "I'm putting on a pot."

"Tea? I said eat something. You're teaching the beginner and advanced classes tonight. That's two hours, James."

"I remember."

"Don't take that tone with me."

"I'll be fine not eating for," I checked the time, "two and a half hours, Ma."

I heard some muttered grumbling from her room. "Okay, make me tea."

The place looked the same as I'd left it, except for a few newer family pictures from our relatives. There were a lot of my sister at school in California. Evidently it was acceptable to move if it was to go to college.

I took a peek around my old room while the tea was steeping. It had been converted into a crafts room, a sewing machine taking up most of the space on my little childhood desk. Boxes of cloth and various pins and buttons were spread out on my old twin bed. Good, I was happy to see some sign that she was beginning to accept my independence.

"We started using a color ranking system," she called out as I sat down at the kitchen table.

"Had to happen eventually."

"Mm."

Kung fu didn't traditionally have a ranking system, but most schools in the West had adopted one to satisfy market demands. Parents wanted to know their kids were getting better. How could we know if they were getting better if they weren't getting tested regularly? What if they went to a new gym, how would they prove they knew their stuff? Ridiculous. It was a very American idea. We'd avoided implementing one for a long time, but it really was just leaving money on the table.

"What color should I grab?"

She laughed. "Ho! Last week I would have said black."

"And I've since been demoted?"

There was a long silence. If this was a week ago, I might have bristled at the perceived insult. But I had more to worry about than my mother's approval these days.

"No," she said, standing in the doorway of her room. She looked beautiful, like she hadn't aged a day past thirty. "You will be wearing this." She threw me a folded cloth still in its plastic.

I opened it, unfolding the sash. It was silk, all black except the edges had been embroidered in gold thread.

"It's the same that I wear." She sat down across from me and poured me a cup of tea from the pot I'd prepared.

I rubbed the cloth between my thumb and index finger. How much had this cost? "I don't understand."

"You are the master of your own style, are you not?" She took a sip of her tea. "Hm, acceptable."

I stared at her in response. I didn't need to verbalize all the reasons why I was confused right now. We'd fought a lot about my decision to pursue my own style, and then even more when she realized how over the top and absurd it was. She'd called it, 'All flash, no silver.'

"You're wondering what changed?" she asked. "I am wondering the same. So, my son, what has caused you to pursue the path of strength?"

Oh, holy shit. She was good.

"I am your mother," she said, as if reading my mind.

God, what was I supposed to say? 'My friends and I are stuck in this hell world because I replied to a job I should have known was too good to be true,' Or maybe, 'I need to find my friends because I don't fully trust them to not get themselves killed, and in order to do that I need to satisfy the lust of interdimensional perverts'?

"If one is born as a male, as least once in his life, he'll dream of becoming the strongest man alive."

She threw her head back and laughed. "That may be true. And is that why you're fighting, to become the strongest man alive?"

"Yes," I answered without thinking. "No. I don't know." If I was going to end up stuck here, then definitely. How else was I supposed to relax in a world of devils and draculas?

My mother sipped her tea, waiting patiently for me to put my thoughts together.

"You…knew? Just from hearing my voice?" I stared at the ceiling fan above us. Its chain jangled a bit with each rotation.

"A woman can sense when a man is burning with resolve, and a mother knows her son."

I winced. I hadn't seriously considered the life that James would be leaving behind if Alan decided to go home. My fingers massaged my temples.

"There are people counting on me, and I need to get stronger. That's…all I can say for certain." I looked at her, suddenly ten years younger. "Mom, if I need to…" leave, I finished in my head. "If I, If I…" die. My eyes were stinging.

She got up and put her hand on my shoulder. Smiling down at me, she said, "I'll always be proud of you, my son. You've grown into a fine man."

I cleared my throat. "Thanks."

She patted me on the cheek. "Now go get dressed and get the school ready for class. I will be back late tonight, but you're always welcome to sleep here if you want to wait."

The first hour of class was split between advanced students and beginners, and the last hour was just for beginners. About half of the beginners I didn't recognize, it having been almost three years since I'd stepped into the school for a class. They were surprised to see me, but not as much as the old timers were, especially with my new sash.

"James!" proclaimed Harry Wen, one of the handful of elderly students who had babysat me and my sister when were younger. "You're back!"

I laughed. "Not exactly, Mr. Wen. I'm just sitting in today. Matt is too sick to teach."

"Ah, I see," he sounded disappointed. "But you'll be coming by more often?"

I quirked my head. "Certainly more than I have been."

"Wait, I'm too sick to teach?" asked a confused Mathew Kingsman as he entered the school. The middle aged, short black man was the school's most senior student, and a frequent instructor when my mother needed a break. "That's news to me. All I told your mom was that I had some allergies."

"Matt," I breathed a sigh of relief seeing the man. "It's good to see you. I was worried I'd be teaching by myself."

"Good seeing you too, kid. Wasn't the same without you."

Mr. Wen slapped the man on the arm. "Oi, we have to call him shifu, now. See his sash?"

I raised my hands in protest. "That's not nece—"

"No, he's right." Matt bowed, the others doing the same. "It's good to have you back, shifu. How should we begin."

I clasped my hand to my fist and returned their bow. "Line up everyone. Let's stretch a little while we wait for everyone else to get here."

After a short introduction and asking Matt for an update on where everyone was at in their studies, I launched into a fairly typical class. Most started with some dynamic warm-ups, while the elderly did isometric exercises like balancing on one foot to strengthen the muscles around their joints. After that we all ran through the first form of our family's Eagle Style Kung Fu. I kept the lesson to the standard curriculum – these students had paid to learn Eagle Style, not my own brand of fighting.

Though, to put my own spin on it, I did have them do some partner drills with the same wrist lock that I had used on the female mugger this morning. As I'd suspected, people were incensed to hear that you could get robbed of your groceries in Harbor Hill. That and the fact I had a real world example seemed to really spur on the students. My mother taught her kung fu in a very slow, deliberate fashion so I was happy to see the atmosphere was a bit lighter when I led the class.

It was about twenty minutes into the class when something went wrong. I was in the back, grabbing the fold-away mats so we could practice some sweeps, when I heard shouting from the practice hall.

"GRAAAH!"

A deep roar and the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the hard wooden floor of the gym spurred me into a sprint. There was a mass of the advanced students at the door, while the beginners huddled behind them, craning their heads to see what was happening. A few of the advanced students had slipped into fighting stances.

"Hey, hey, hey!" I came out waving my hands. "Everyone, calm down! What's going on?"

"Tiger gang!" "Tiger gang punks attacked Matthew!" "Some crazy kids are challenging us, shifu!"

I waved off my own students. "Get back in line. Class isn't over."

The crowd dispersed quickly, finally letting me see what was at the center. Matt was getting up back to his feet, rubbing his chest while wincing. He looked angrier than I'd ever seen him. Standing in front of him was a very smug man with the standard 'casual uniform' of the Tiger Gang, a nice button up, slacks, and some element of gold to distinguish themselves as members of the triad, which in his case was the buckle on the belt he wore. He looked to be about my age or younger, while his companions couldn't have been a year out of school if they were at all, and was built like a linebacker. If I had to guess, he was an inch shorter than me, but easily twenty pounds heavier, all of which had to have been muscle.

"Huh, who the hell is this? I thought the master of this school was a hot woman, not some skinny pretty boy!" shouted the man. His goons, both girls, laughed along.

"Why do people keep calling me skinny?" I muttered to myself.

I clasped my hand to my fist and gave a short bow. "James Li. If you're looking for my mother, she won't be in tonight." I glanced over to my injured compatriot. "You alright, Matt?"

"I'm fine. Punk just caught me off guard. I can handle this one, shifu."

"Perhaps later," I said smiling. "This is the beginner class, Matt. No sparring in the beginner class."

Our challenger scoffed. "Spar? What are you talking about, idiot? This is a dojo challenge! I'm here to kick your ass!"

I tutted. "No, no, I picked up on that. It's just that I'm not actually the master of this school, so you naturally won't be able to challenge us tonight."

"You think I'm dumb? That guy's wearing a black belt and calling you shifu, and you got that dumbass black and gold one on your waist. You're just trying to get out of fighting me!"

He began to settle into a fighting stance but paused as I held up a hand. Once more I could hear those dice a clacking in my head as I attempted to Persuade him. I was very persuasive.

"There's no need to get upset. I have a suggestion that should suit you fine." He narrowed his eyes at me, but didn't continue into the stance. "Everyone is allowed a few free classes to see if they want to sign up. Why don't you three hop into the class today? That way you'll learn a bit more about the Style you're challenging before you fight my mother. There's a reason no other gangs dare step on her territory, you know?"

That last line seemed to do the trick. "Tch! Fine, show me your Eagle Style so I can rend it apart with my claws."

"Lovely! May I have your names?"

He smirked. "My name is Tanaka Kuze, or Kuze Tanaka in American, make sure to remember it. This is Ami and Ro."

That was unexpected. "The Tiger Gang is letting Japanese in these days? Doesn't sound like them."

The girl spoke up. "Tiger Gang only cares about strength, fool! They'd be crazy to turn down Aniki!"

"Call him shifu, Ami," said her 'older brother', his words dripping venom. "We're in his class, you know. Got to respect the master."

"Sorry, shifu," said the girl, bowing her head. I'd never seen someone bow sarcastically before.

"No problem, Ami! Alright everyone, let's get back it! A few more beginner drills before we move onto some conditioning!"

Matt gave me a searching look. I just shrugged. Did I have a plan? Not really, but I could feel the start of something forming here, maybe.

The rest of the class was capital-T Tense. The jovial attitude from earlier was gone, replaced by an intense need to show off their competence and strength. For most of the people in the building that is. Me and Kuze were both very visibly relaxed and unbothered. It was performative, obviously. We were both ready to kill each other at the drop of a hat, but some unwritten 'Dude Law' was making it important to each of us that we disguise this fact.

Kuze went harder at the conditioning part of the class than anyone else, as if trying to prove that it didn't matter if I was trying to tire him out. He simply wouldn't get tired, what did I think of that?

"Okay, everyone! Get a drink of water and cooldown. We're going to finish the beginner section of class with the first form five times."

Ro, the boy that had come with Kuze, asked, "You're going to teach us your forms?"

"It's a kung fu class, isn't it?"

I was true to my word. While Matt led the class in the first form, I took the opportunity to walk around correcting mistakes. Since it was the three of theirs first class, the gang members naturally needed the most instruction. Kuze shot me a deadly glare when I lowered his hand to the correct height, but didn't otherwise complain.

[Hidden Quest Complete]

Teach your first class.

Reward: 5 XP, +1 Leadership

[Recurring Quest Discovered]

You may formally instruct others to gain up to 1 XP each day.

As the beginner class wrapped up, I turned to Kuze. "Normally beginners aren't allowed to participate in the second half of the class, and I'm going to have to insist that Ro and Ami sit out, but since you have experience with martial arts and have been so patient, I don't see anything wrong with letting you stay."

"How gracious of you, shifu." He nodded his head at the wall where other beginners were awkwardly moving to sit down by. "Wait with the rest of them."

I shot an inquiring look at one of the beginners. None of them were filtering out of the building.

"Um, shifu, your mother let's us watch the advanced class if we want to. Is that okay?"

"Of course! That's very diligent of all of you."

The advanced class started with the second form of Li Family Eagle Style. One look at Kuze informed me that he wasn't going to make it through the full advanced class without snapping. While he'd had no problem following along to the first form, he struggled to keep up with the second and was starting to grow frustrated.

I moved us quickly into practicing some takedown escapes, hoping the brutal physicality of the exercises would let him vent, but if anything it had the opposite effect. I suspected he'd realized why I'd made the change, and was angry that he'd carelessly shown me his frustration earlier.

We hit boiling point when it was time for Matt and Kuze to roll together. I probably should have found a way around having them go up against each other, but I'd been holding out hope that a little bit of grappling would open the way for some masculine bonding.

Kuze failed thrice to escape Matt's takedown. The older man was gentle about it, which only added insult to injury. The third time Kuze hit the ground he immediately performed one of Tiger Style's distinctive leg sweeps, knocking an unprepared Matt to the floor. I almost leapt in, but thankfully Kuze stopped himself from going further.

He slammed his fist into the ground. "Fuck this! You said the advanced class had sparring? Well I want to spar you!" He pointed at me.

I smirked. "Sure, we can spar." I nodded at my students, most of whom were frozen, unsure of what was going on. "Make some room, guys. We have a bonus seminar tonight. Mr. Tanaka is going to show us some Tiger Style. And it looks like I'll be able to show my old peers what I've been up to since I stopped coming to class. Is it alright if I use my Black City Style, Mr. Tanaka?"

"Use a fucking knife for all I care."

Matt whispered into my ear as he passed, "You sure about this?"

"It was going to happen eventually. Make sure none of the students get hurt."

I stood in the center of the long practice hall. One wall was covered in mirrors, where Matt had thankfully ushered the students to sit under. It would hopefully keep either of us from being thrown into the glass. Apart from the small section that was covered by the fold-away wrestling mats, the floor was hardwood. Above us was a plaster ceiling, supported by heavy timber beams every thirty feet or so. Along the wall opposite the mirrors were punching bags and wooden dummies, as well as display and practice weapons. Hopefully this stayed civil enough to justify them staying where they were at.

Kuze stood ten feet away from me and settled into the telltale, aggressive stance of Tiger Style Kung Fu. I'd seen the same stance in dozens of Tiger Gang members during the odd street fight I'd witnessed growing up in Chinatown. Interesting, Kuze was definitely a member of the Tiger Gang – I saw nothing of the Karate or Judo the Yakuza preferred. And one look at his fingers in his preferred style told me that he'd undergone the Tiger Style's unique iron hand training, which took years of vicious conditioning. They were spread out in a way that I never saw in other styles; most styles preferred to keep our fingers close together for added strength.

"Notice, students, that Tiger Style is a 'hard' kung fu style, meaning that Mr. Tanaka's body is coiled tight, his entire body a weapon." I slipped into my modified Eagle Style stance, which I'd designed to pass for someone just standing normally at first glance. "Whereas my stance is based on our 'soft' kung fu. My goal is going to be to only tense at the instant of impact."

"Are we chatting or fighting?!"

I smiled at him and took a deep breath. "Whenever you're ready, Kuze."

He shattered my initiative roll, almost appearing to teleport directly in front of me the moment I'd finished saying his name. I'd known it was coming, the Tiger's Pounce was famous in Chinatown, but that didn't mean I could react in time.

Kuze tried to spear me in the chest with his Tiger's Claw, equally as deadly as my Eagle's Talon – a bit spicy for what was supposed to be a spar.

Damnit! I could feel that I was a little better than him, but his attack still connected, hitting me for two murderous damage. I didn't let the moment go to waste though. Kuze had fully extended his elbow and had opened the door to me using the Eagle's Talon. I snapped my hands out and I could instantly feel the difference in our approaches to combat. I used primarily Agility, with Martial Arts to attack and Acrobatics to dodge. Kuze was using his Strength and Athletics to block and parry. He fired an elbow at my wrist, negating my attack and stepping in close for a follow up.

This time I was ready, circle stepping back and to his side to avoid his punches. Okay, motherfucker, time to show off my Black City Style. I grabbed his arm in a typical move from Chin Na, Chinese standing grappling. He tried to pull me for a counter attack, but instead I used his added help to leap up onto his shoulder and then again into a 360 degree spinning kick.

Kuze stumbled back as I landed, shaking off the blow to his cheek. "What the hell was that?"

"That was my Black City Style. How did you like it?"

He laughed. "You've got tricks, huh? Well so do I!" He sucked in a large breath, and opened him mouth into a terrifying roar. "GRAAAAH!"

For a second my body tensed, wanting to freeze like a deer before a predator. I brushed off the attack to my Willpower, but that momentary pause still gave Kuze an advantage as he once more dashed towards me. This time he hit for me three Murderous damage, raking my chest with his claws, tearing open my uniform and skin alike.

Okay, it was time to get serious. Instead of dodging back I leapt into the air, clinging onto the beam above us. In a move that imitated a diving eagle, I kicked off the beam with the full force of my recently feat enhanced legs, Talons out in front of me. Kuze panicked for a split second, not having any training for getting attacked by 175 pound man diving at him like a bird of prey.

Kuze screamed in pain. My Talons hit him on his collarbones and my weight sent him crashing down. I focused on twisting and rending the flesh and bone under my hands, even as I jumped off of him. I dealt a horrifying six Murderous damage, leaving a symmetrical red splash on the floor around him like bloody angel wings.

This was technically a spar so I did consider for a split second not seizing on his prone form. But Kuze was the one who'd escalated to lethal force, and I suspected the proud man would have taken it as an insult if I didn't. As he was beginning to roll up to his feet, I again leapt up and into the plaster ceiling. I dove down again, this time with my feet forward in a stomp, hoping to avoid killing him if possible.

My feet landed on either side of his spine, knocking him chest first into the floor and driving the wind out of him. He took another three damage. I didn't know what sort of Endurance Kuze was looking at, but that sort of damage would have had me looking for exits. I jumped off him to a spot ten feet away and settled into a defensive stance.

The Japanese triad pushed himself to his feet, his eyes bloodshot, bleeding from his lips, hair matted in sweat. And yet, I could see the fight in him, burning hot.

I decided to make a Read. In game terms, that meant I was preparing for a specific attack or maneuver. If my opponent did what I expected, I would get a massive bonus to my counter; if he didn't, then he would in turn get the same bonus to his attack. My hand drifted down to my sash.

"Kai!" Kuze pounced once more, but this time I'd leapt at the same time, rolling over him mid-air, pulling my sash free of where it was tied around my waist and lashing out with it. The silk wrapped around his neck, aided by his momentum and my spin.

I landed and tugged on the improvised lasso, pulling Kuze off his feet and slamming him back to the ground. The only thing that kept his neck from snapping from the force was a mechanic that I had available as a Player Character, which allowed me to not deal the final point of damage that would incapacitate someone.

A flick of my wrist untied the sash from his neck. I tied it around me again while I waited for the absolutely savaged man to stand up.

I bowed as he turned to face me. "Good spar. I learned a lot."

He was wobbling on his feet and could only take short wheezing breaths, but to my surprise he managed to nod his head in respect.

I gestured with my eyes for his two friends to help him walk. They rushed to his side, staring at me with open fear. I watched silently as they guided him out of the school.

[Hidden Quest Complete!]

Made your first rival.

Reward: 15XP, +1 Martial Arts

Bonus, Turned a potential Nemesis into a Rival: 25XP, +1 to Physical Attribute of choice (Agility)

[Encounter Complete]

Defeated Tanaka Kuze in a duel.

Reward: 12XP

The school burst into applause the moment the door shut on the three would be challengers. Matt ran to me, his eyes on the bloody gashes across my chest. "Shifu James!" "That was amazing, shifu!" "You showed them, shifu!"

"Enough, enough. It was just a friendly spar." I waved them down, but couldn't help the smile that came to my lips. Giving Matt a tired smile, I asked "Mind taking over for the rest of the class? I need to bandage up."

"Holy hell, kid, you haven't been slacking. And yeah, of course. Me and the rest of the students'll get this place cleaned up. You go take care of yourself. Gauze is where it's always been."

"Thanks, Matt."

Once I was in the bathroom with the gauze, I let the full force of my exhaustion hit me. Jesus Christ, that had been a lot closer than I'd wanted. Kuze was a monster, his physical Attributes all either the same as mine or higher, and he was already capable of using weaponized Fighting Spirit, which meant his Aura Attribute was at least 3 or higher. If he took the time to really bear down on his martial arts, he could easily eclipse me.

Kuze was just some human thug trying to make a name for himself in the Tigers. What could I expect from fighting actual monsters? I stared at my battered form in the mirror. I'd come closer to death today than ever before in either of my lives.

I had 110 Experience points to show for my insane day. That was enough to buy a Master tier feat, if I met the requirements for any of them, which I didn't. Aura, which represented how much internal mystic might one possessed, was one of the biggest gatekeeping stats for the Master feats that I'd been eyeing up. I also needed to get one of my physical stats to a 6 for most Martial Arts Master feats.

My Aura was seriously lacking, I only had a 1 in it, not having intended to make a character with any feet in the supernatural at the start of the game. That had sounded like a fun idea at the time. I cursed out my past self for being an idiot.

Aura was also guaranteed to go up as soon as I encountered the supernatural underbelly of Black Harbor from the quest reward. It made sense to bump it up as high as I could before that happened in order to maximize the gains. I had also used a combination of Willpower + Aura to defend against Kuze's Tiger's Roar, and had only passed my check out of luck.

With that in mind, I spent 90 XP to bump Aura from 1 to 4, each level costing 10 XP times the number of dice I would have total. I'm not sure what I was expecting when jumping from a mortal's amount of Qi to a journeyman sorcerer's, but it didn't happen. I guess I maybe felt a bit more certain of myself? But that could have easily been psychosomatic.

They'd mostly cleaned up the mess when I came back into the practice hall. I had changed into my casual clothes, my blood soaked uniform in plastic bag. I'd drop it off at a cleaner's on the way home.

Matt approached me with concern. "I'm not sure you noticed, but a few of the students were recording your fight."

"Shit, really? I don't want to bring any trouble from the Tigers to my mom."

He smirked. "James, the Tigers are going to be lucky if that idiot didn't just bring a ton of trouble from your mom to them. But I can tell them to delete the videos if you want."

"They don't need to delete it. Just tell them not to post it online. It can't hurt to show the Tigers some face."

"Got it. I'll send it through the group chat. You sure you going to be alright?" He nodded his head down at the bag of bloody clothing.

"Yeah, I know someone who can clean silk and she's patched my uniforms before. They should be good as new."

"Fully not what I was talking about."

I clapped him on the shoulder. "Heh. I'll be alright, Matt. Just need a bite to eat and a good night's sleep." And maybe some stitches, if I was being honest. But he didn't need to hear that.

One of the older women approached me as I started to head towards the door. "Ah, James, my granddaughter is in medical school in Philadelphia. Would you like her phone number?"

"Oh, that's alright, Mrs. Hsu. I'll just go to an urgent care if it becomes a problem."

"No, no. She's single. You want to see a picture?"

"I, uh, that's okay. I really should get going. I want to drop these off at the cleaners' before they close."

After a few more goodbyes and assurances that I was fine, I was back on the streets of Chinatown. I took a circuitous route to my cleaners, cutting through alleyways and the more residential streets to try and avoid people. Every person who stopped me added a few more minutes to the walk back to the comforts of my home.

The air felt stagnant tonight, and I found myself savoring every slight breeze against my sweat slicked skin. You could almost forget that we were a short walk to the ocean. The late summer heat wave had cooked the city for the past few days, likely heralding a coming thunderstorm.

I exited an alleyway onto an entirely empty street. People who didn't live in cities probably didn't realize how often you could find yourself completely alone, even in a city of five million like Black Harbor. It was normal even in my last world, especially on streets like this, where most of the buildings were offices or rowhomes. You could walk a few blocks from a crowded Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn into the near total silence of a residential street in Bedford-Stuyvesant at night. I had always savored the sensation, the simple joy of walking beneath yellow-orange streetlights by myself.

But I had to say, it was a lot more ominous when it happened here in the City of Shadows. In my past world, if you couldn't see or hear anyone around you in the city, you were statistically as safe as a modern human could be.

I paused, feeling the hair on my neck start to raise, and looked around me. Nothing behind me. I scanned the rooftops, nothing there as well. The moon was low and thin tonight, not that it mattered with the light pollution. Black Harbor painted its sky in a dull red, the smog blending all the colors together into the ugly shade. Four miserable stars were visible through the haze, and one of them may have been a planet.

I picked up my pace, taking my hands out of my pockets and changing my body language to one that made it clear I was ready for a fight. The mental clitter-clatter of an Aura + Perception roll stopped me in my tracks. I spun around, lashing out blindly with my Eagle's Talon.

Nothing, there was nothing there. Some vapor rose lazily from a subway vent below. I swallowed nervously. There couldn't have been a worse time for this. I was a single point of damage away from hitting my Injury Threshold, and all five that I had taken were Murderous.

I turned around and started jogging, my bandages shifting painfully against my open wounds, just a few blocks away from the cleaners and a street I knew would have more people on it.

A few steps I away, I dove down and into a roll. My instincts had screamed at me to dodge, but once again, there was nothing around.

"Gigigigigigi…" came a soft laugh from behind me, along with a hot, vomit-smelling breath along the back of head.

I spun and saw – headlights. Thank God. A cab had turned the corner onto the street I was on. It slowed to a stop next to me, rolling down the driver side window.

"Is that you, James?" said a balding man in large, square glasses. I recognized him as my old calligraphy teacher. Ma used to have him come and tutor my sister and I after school.

"Huo Laoshi?" I asked.

He drummed his fingers on the passenger-side headrest. "Hop in."

I looked around nervously before taking him up on his offer. Had the air grown less stagnant?

He frowned at my chest when I sat down. I was bleeding through my bandages, my shirt growing damp with blood. "Eh? You okay, James?"

"Yeah." My brow was furrowed as I scanned the area outside through the windows. "Huo Laoshi, you didn't see anyone around me when you turned onto the street, did you?"

"No, just you. Are you sure you're okay? You're bleeding."

I patted the back of my neck, but felt nothing out of the ordinary. "It's nothing. Some Tiger Gang guy thought it would be funny to dojo challenge my mom's school."

"What! That asshole! Did you beat him?"

"Badly."

"Ha! Good!" He started driving slowly, just meandering through Chinatown. "I'm glad to hear you're teaching again. Your mother talks about you all the time, you know? She told me you were in the chicken outfit in that one ad. That was a funny one, my nephew loves it."

"Oh yeah, that was fun." I grinned, but I couldn't shake the haunting sensation from earlier.

"So, where am I taking you? You live in Harbor Hill now, right? Rent's cheap there, isn't it."

"Yeah, I think I need some rest."

Huo drove me back at a relaxed pace. After a few more minutes of small talk, we fell into a comfortable silence.

"You know," he said once we were clear of Chinatown, "the girl at the Shinto temple in Little Tokyo asked me to keep an eye out for men walking alone on the street you were on. The one between the ramen place and the Malaysian grocery store, you know it?"

"I think so. Did she say why?"

"No clue. I have her number though. Or, I teach calligraphy there on Tuesdays, I could take you there with me."

"I didn't know you spoke Japanese, Laoshi."

Huo preened. "I read every language that values calligraphy, Arabic, Farsi, Ge'ez, Korean, Armenian – all of them!"

"That's amazing. But yeah, ask her if she doesn't mind you giving me her number. Is she the Miko, there?"

"Yes, and she's pretty too. And good at calligraphy. And she goes to college for a dual major, accounting and something else." He gave me a sly smile. "Are you still single, James?"

I suppressed my groan. "Not a lot of room in my life for dating right now, Laoshi."

"There's always room for love, my boy."

As much as I wanted to fall face forward onto my bed when I got home, there was the little issue that I was technically bleeding to death. I say technically, because by the mechanics of being a Player Character I would only start to bleed to death when I became incapacitated. Once unconscious, I'd have to start rolling Endurance checks to try and stabilize or continue to fill up my health bar with Murderous damage. Meaning that I could, theoretically, stay awake as I was for a few days, or chance me dying within a few hours of falling asleep.

My bandages came off with my shirt. Strange – it was as if someone had untucked the wrap with my shirt still on. Most of my abdomen was some shade of blue or stained a dirty brownish-red from the dried blood.

With no Medicine and only average Finesse and Wits, I would have had to roll a crit, three sixes, to even treat the primary wound. Failing a Medicine check, predictably, carried some pretty harsh penalties. And Whiffing, getting no successes on the pool, could be devastating.

Man, I really didn't want to call Marianne on the first day of getting her number. But the thought of going back outside alone and walking to the nearest urgent care? Oh no, that wasn't happening.

"Sorry, Marianne," I said with a sigh. What time was it, Ten o'clock? She should be home by now.

She picked up on the first ring. "James? Miss me already?"

"Howdy, neighbor. How's your night going?"

"I'm chilling, neighbor. The boys are at their cousins' and Shania's spending the night at her friends talking about you, no doubt. I got the apartment and a bottle of wine to myself if you want to keep me company. It's good too; was a birthday present."

"That does sound nice, but I kinda called for a favor."

"Oh, what's up?"

"Let's just say your night's going a hell of a lot better than mine. Remember when you offered to patch me up?"

She chuckled. "I told Shaun you'd bust your head doing all those flips. How bad is it?"

"Uhh, hang on." I took a picture of myself in the bathroom mirror and texted it over.

There was a pause as it went through.

"Oh my God! What happened?"

"Th—"

"Never mind, I'm on my way. Make sure your door is unlocked and then sit down somewhere and focus on your breathing. Okay?"

"It's not that—"

"James, I swear to God if you were about to say, 'It's not that bad'!" I could her rushing in the background.

"Alright, alright. I'll get the door."

"Making small talk – boy, you out your goddamn mind," she grumbled before hanging up.

Marianne moved quick, at my door in under two minutes. "James! Where are you?"

"In the bathroom."

I sat on the edge of the tub, feeling like a kid with a bad report card, waiting for his mom to get home. Marianne was dressed for a night in as well, which made me feel worse, wearing pink pajama shorts and a very faded oversized Grateful Dead t-shirt. She'd brought a messenger bag with her and was already putting on gloves as she got to the bathroom.

She sucked in a breath. "Looks worse in person. Have you washed it?"

"With some wet paper towels and disinfectant wipes."

"So, no, then?"

I gave her an embarrasses grin. "Guess not."

She glanced at my shower. "Your detachable shower head work, or is it busted like mine?"

"It works."

"Alright, lie down in the tub. And strip, might as well get you cleaned up as well. You're a mess."

Marianne gave no reaction to seeing me naked. My pride was stung, but she was a nurse and this was far from the sexiest situation. She started running the water once I was in the tub. From her messenger bag she retrieved snips, forceps, and the rest of what she needed to sew me up.

"Tell me if it's too hot."

"I'll be alright."

She shook her head. "How are you not in agony right now?"

"It hurts, but this is one step below what I consider to be an injury. A close, very close step below."

An Injury Threshold in the game was determined by your Willpower + Endurance. Once you passed that number in damage you began to take penalties. If any of the damage was Murderous, the penalties were intensified. It was a big reason why the game called out in the handbook that most enemies ran after being pushed past their Injury Threshold. Kuze had taken twice his Threshold tonight in mostly Murderous damage, which meant that he'd be in a world of hurt for a good while, if he survived at all. Well, that was if the rules governing me applied to NPCs in this world too.

The off-duty nurse took out a large sponge from her bag, soaked it in the hot water and started dabbing away at the flecks of dried blood from my abdomen, kneeling by the bath.

"Sorry about this. If it helps, I did try to deescalate with words."

She eyed me skeptically. "What happened? I thought you were a stunt man and a delivery runner. You look like you got mauled by a mountain lion."

"Good guess."

I told her the story of the night, filling her in on the culture of Chinatown. I was surprised to hear that she knew what a dojo challenge was, but this was a supernatural fighting game world after all.

"God," she sighed, "you can be living your life like a decent person and this shit can still kick you in the teeth. Is this going to come back to haunt you?"

"I'm not sure. Not really tapped in to the current state of affairs in criminal underworld. I'll call some friends tomorrow and find out if I need to go kowtow to some boss or something."

Once the wound looked clean enough for her standards she sat back on her heels. "Okay, I going to stitch you up. You want something to bite down on? I'd give you Tylenol but I'm not sure you'd even feel it before it started to thin your blood." I smirked in response. "Whatever, tough guy."

It did hurt. But out of principle, I attempted a Willpower + Charisma to disguise this fact. One success. I played it cool, but I wasn't fooling her.

After she closed the third gash and it became clear that I would be fine, the alcohol buzz managed to reassert itself over Marianne's professionalism.

Raking her eyes down my chest and to where my penis was now bobbing in the water, she said, "Shania's going to love this view."

"Heh, thanks. And you? How do you rate it?"

She laughed and shook her head. "You're ridiculous."

"What, I'm asking seriously."

"Boy, quit playing. I know you kissed my daughter; she was practically floating when she came back from the hallway."

When Nasim had asked what Romantic Archetype I was taking, I'd told him I'd naturally chosen 'Charming Adventurer'. It fit the bill for the roguish good guy I was building and played well with my whole 'action move character' vibe. I had lied to Nasim. Really I'd chosen it entirely for the Major feat, Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone was a mixed bag of a feat, with purely narrative effects. Basically, it made it so people were more willing to have no-strings-attached physical relationships and less likely to get jealous, but it also made it harder to take relationships to the next level emotionally. I'd told myself at the time, that I'd taken it to avoid getting into the 'drama' aspect of the game.

Water had splashed the front of Marianne's shirt at some point, making it clear that she hadn't put on a bra after changing for the night. And now, as I sat naked, with a prime view of her t-shirt molding to her large, pendulous chest, I had to admit that I had lied to myself. If I had to be entirely honest, I think a part of me had been attracted by the debaucherous aspects of the game.

I wanted to test the strength of Rolling Stone before pushing further. "Not to bring down the mood, or anything, but…you know I can't really be Shania's 'boyfriend', in the traditional sense. I mean, she's still in high school for one."

"And you're living the life where you have to call your neighbor to stitch you up at ten thirty on a Friday night." She sighed. "I know. And maybe I shouldn't have pushed her to chase you but, I mean…"

Marianne trailed off into silence for a minute. "She really needs to learn how to talk to boys. And I know why she can't, it's my fault. I had Shania when I was fourteen, you know. It wasn't the worst thing to happen or anything. Me and her father, God rest his soul, we made it work. He dropped out and started working. We leaned on our families, got by, did okay."

"When she got to middle school, her father started…I don't know. He was having a hard time. There wasn't a lot of work for a high school dropout. We started fighting more. He blamed me for getting pregnant so young, blamed the kids for all the expenses, blamed himself for dropping out to take care of us. When he started trying to control her, the way she dressed, calling her a slut for wanting a make-up kit. I'd had enough and left his ass."

"He came back six months later with a new wardrobe, throwing money around. I told him to fuck off. I said, 'you think I'm stupid?'. Like I didn't grow up in Harbor Hill. I know the sort of work that pays like that to men with no degrees or connections. Sure enough, I got a call from him from jail. He was nervous, talking nonsense about witchcraft and devils."

I perked up. "Witchcraft? You remember any details?"

She shook her head. "I think he was just strung out, and worried that he was going to get killed to stop him from talking. He was right to be. I got another call the next day from the coroner."

This world was so strange. Qi and what martial artists, monks, and elite athletes could do with it was considered an accepted fact. A scientist who didn't believe in Qi would be viewed the same as one who didn't believe in mitochondria. But magic, witchcraft, monsters and the rest were considered kooky beliefs, not much different than how they were in my old world. For the average person, talking about their Qi was the same as talking about your gut biome, probably irrelevant to what was being discussed but no one was discounting that it existed.

"My condolences. I'm sorry to hear that. Do you remember anything about who he might have been working for?"

She stopped mid-stitch and gave me the same look she had given her son for not doing his homework. "Uh-uh, absolutely not. You are not going to be a hero about this, James."

I put my hands up. "Woah, hey, I'm just curious. I have friends who are dropouts too, got to look out for them."

"Mhm."

"But I mean, someone's got to do something, right?"

"Tell me why that someone has to be a stuntman? You don't know, maybe the FBI is looking into it. What are you going to do? Flips? You going to roundhouse a criminal conspiracy, James?"

"Hey! I have other skills! I could…uh…I could…Hm."

She giggled. "Stop, you're going to make me miss a stitch. Anyway, it was six years ago, so forget it. I was only telling you that to say, that Shania retreated in on herself, and she could use a good man like yourself to teach her about being a woman."

I mentally pulled open my character sheet as I contemplated my next step. For the sake of the audience, getting stronger, and saving my friends – and for no other reasons – I was going to try and seduce Marianne. If we both had our clothes on and I was in a position to schmooze a little, it would be a Charisma + Seduction, but I was afraid that the game would force me to roll Sensuality instead of Charisma at this stage of the play. I had been treating Sensuality as an optional score, so it currently only had 2 dice. I'd have a lot of help from Hero's Honors, but it was still a risky move.

Fuck it, I decided to go to 0 XP and bought my fourth dice in Seduction. Buying skills was only 5 times the number of dice you would have total as opposed to the 10 times the value buying Attributes was. It was a perfectly reasonable decision. I was sure that the game would reward me in excess of what I was spending if I pulled it off.

It turned out to be a Presence + Seduction roll. Oh right, I was hot and already naked. I didn't need to be smooth and sensual when I could be good looking. At least when it came to getting someone in bed. Sensuality came after that, which had been why I assumed it would be optional for us. Normally we 'faded to black' for any saucy scenes.

Five successes – Christ. That ought to do it.

"I don't have a lot of experience. What if I need to learn about being a man?"

Marianne grinned but didn't look away from her task. "Oh he think he slick." She glanced up at me, her eyes telling me I'd hooked her.

I leaned my head back and closed my eyes. The hot water was doing wonders for my sore muscles, the light 'plip's the small waves made against the sides of the tub and the clicks of Marianne's needle holders lulling me into a relaxed state.

The snap of a glove coming off and a fingernail gently caressing the bottom of my chin was all the warning I got before I found myself being kissed. The first touch of her full, plump lips was brief, exploratory. The second was longer but just as soft, and allowed me to roll a Sensuality + Seduction. A lucky five successes sparked an almost inaudible gasp from my nurse and lured her tongue out. We continued until she had to pause for a breath.

[Hidden Quest Completed!]

Kiss both a mother and a daughter.

Reward: 20 XP, gain a random Minor feat from the Rake Archetype

Bonus, Kissed both on the same day: 10XP, +1 Sensuality

Bonus, Achieved without deception: +1 Presence, gain a random feat from the Honest Hedonist Archetype

A part of me hated how much more efficient it was in terms of power growth to engage in the pornography and romance aspects of the game than it was to actually risk my life in combat. But it was hard to complain when I was raking in the Rewards.

[Minor Feat (Rake)]

Love's Deceiver – You are adept at manipulating people through their sexual desires and needs. Add +2 to any attempts to persuade or deceive someone you've been sexually intimate with.

[Minor Feat (Honest Hedonist)]

Exuberant Expressions - Your joy is infectious and can be intoxicating to behold. When anyone makes you genuinely express your pleasure, they gain a pool of 4 dice. They may add 1 die from this pool to any roll at any time, until they run out or a week has passed. So long as a person has any of these dice, the memory of your joy lingers granting you +1 to any attempts to persuade, seduce, or deceive them. Your enemies can benefit from this feat as well as your allies, and you have no control over this trigger.

She held her face close, our noses almost touching. "Not a lot of experience, huh?"

"Must be a natural."

She kissed me again lightly, capturing my bottom lip between hers. Leaning into my ear, she whispered. "We aren't having sex. This is a first date and I ain't like that."

"That's fair," I whispered back. "This is an extremely shit first date."

Marianne laughed and sat back on her heels. "Okay, you're all closed up, Mr. Li. You should still see a doctor to grab some anti-biotics."

"I'll swing by my mom's pharmacist." Hopefully she would have something to help with my Recovery checks.

Her voice became a little sultry. "You're good to get rinsed off. Think you can handle that on your own?"

"No shot, nurse. I'm basically immobile. Think you can give me a hand."

"Oh, I can definitely give you a hand."

We paused and made eye contact before both bursting into laughter. It was hard and full bodied, almost buckling the nurse over. With how intimate we'd already been, I hadn't realized there was any tension between us until I felt whatever was left evaporate.

"So corny," said Marianne, wiping a tear from her eye, "I'm sorry. Cut me some slack though, it's been a long time."

"You're doing great."

Marianne opened her mouth to respond but stopped herself. She quirked her head and just sat there staring. Her smile grew a bit more serene, her shoulders a mite more relaxed. As the silence stretched on, she seemed to grow a bit more wistful.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I swear, the more I see your face the cuter it gets." Her easy smile made her look ten years younger. "I was just trying to think of the last time I had this much fun."

"You think this is fun, just wait for the next part."

She licked her lips, her gaze growing lustier. I watched as she settled back into the roleplay, adopting a bit of mock confidence.

"I better take this off before I get it all wet." The black beauty pulled the faded band shirt up and off of her, revealing two large, perfectly perky chocolate breasts. She put a hand underneath each, lifting them up and lightly fondling herself as I openly gawked. "This is a medical procedure, Mr. Li. I'll ask you not to stare."

"Sorry, nurse. I'll try, but it's difficult to look away with most beautiful pair of tits I've ever seen in front of me."

She mock sighed to hide her sudden grin. "As long as you're trying. I know how hard it can be for you fighting men to control yourselves."

Marianne reached her arm into the tub and pull the plug, letting the murky water begin to drain. Her arm stayed down however, as she placed her hand around my ankle. She shuffled closer to me, running her palm up my calf and leg to my thigh.

"I might as well check that you didn't lose too much blood while we wait."

"How do you do that?"

Her hand finished tracing up my thigh where it began to slowly palm my balls. "Mmm, I just need to check your blood flow."

She sat up on her knees and leaned over the tub towards me, finally putting her boobs in reach as she moved her head in for a kiss. The game let my five successes for kissing her earlier hold, but demanded another roll as I fondled her heavy breasts. I couldn't tell if it was being generous, or if in general these rolls held for the entirety of an 'encounter'. I honestly hadn't bothered to spend more than a few minutes reading up on the sex scene rules.

Another four successes had her moaning into my mouth. My newly acquired sexual skills guided my fingers and tongue. Marianne liked a bit of force for her chest, not enough to hurt, but enough that she could feel me holding back. For the kiss, she wanted a partner, to feel our passion grow together, not too dominating or too pliable. I growled a bit with the base of my throat to let her know how badly I wanted her. She replied with a high pitched, involuntary whine.

She grabbed a hold of my cock, now fully erect. Her lips and tongue suddenly stopped moving. Backing up a bit she looked down at the tower that now jutted out of the water, her eyes wide.

"Goddamn, James. I thought you were a shower not a grower."

I felt myself blush, suddenly a bit self-conscious. Again, I hadn't thought that this aspect of the character would be explored when I'd made him, and hadn't actually defined in my mind how his dick looked. SkinDimensional Media had evidently seized on that oversight to give me a prize winning porn star penis. While this may have sounded appealing, I was old enough to know that a lot of women didn't actually prefer eight inches and thick.

"Is it too…" I started to ask.

Marianne gave me a sweet smile and a quick kiss. "It's perfect, baby. Just might take a little getting used to." She purred. "I might have to get something to practice with. Maybe I'll get two so Shania can keep up too." My cock jumped at the thought of that. "Oh! Someone liked that. Mmm, you like that, the thought of fucking my daughter's tight, teen pussy?"

I tossed my head and groaned. "Fuck, Marianne."

She let out a throaty sigh. "Oooh, I like hearing you moan my name, baby. Say it again for me."

"Jesus Christ, Marianne, you're killing me."

She let go of my dick and giggled. Standing up, she maintained eye contact as she pushed her pajama shorts down her soft, thick thighs to her feet. The nurse kicked off her shoes and socks, leaving her in only a plain pair of white panties. A large wet patch had the thin cloth sticking to every curve and line of her mound. Almost nothing was left to the imagination, the brown of her skin bleeding through the cheap cotton. Marianne slowly dragged her index finger from her bottom lip, through the center of her breasts all the way down her flat, soft tummy. The finger slipped under her panties and parted her labia.

I could hear her natural lubricant squick as she rubbed the finger up and down her lips. Pulling it back out, she held the now slick digit before my face. I moved up and kissed the tip before taking it into my mouth and swirling my tongue around it, cleaning it of her juices. She breathed in deep, her chest heaving, obviously enraptured by the view.

While she was distracted, I got the opportunity to roll my first Sensuality + Martial Arts check, as I attempted to clean cut apart her panties with two flicks of my wrist and the Eagle's Talon.

Marianne gasped as her underwear fell off her as though I'd taken a scissor to both sides. I was pleasantly surprised to see that she groomed herself, shaving everything but a small neatly kept patch above her sex. From how close the shave was, I assume she'd taken advantage of her empty apartment to do so earlier tonight. Rather than getting upset, the display of near superhuman prowess sent a shiver up her. She stepped back and picked up the ruined pair of panties.

"How on Earth…"

The water was all but gone, the last of it causing my pipes to gurgle and rattle. Ah, the sounds of Harbor Hill living. I stood up.

"Looks like we're ready to rinse me off."

Marianne let the panties fall from her hands and raked her eyes down me hungrily. "Wonderful. Let me wash all that filth right off of you." She stepped into the tub and turned to face me. "Make sure to keep me between your chest and direct contact with the shower spray, we don't want to irritate the sutures."

I smirked, seeing where she was going with this. "How will I clean off then, Nurse Marianne?"

She ran her hand up her sides, "You're going to use me like your," she lifted up her breasts and made sure to enunciate, "soft, wet, black sponge, Mr. Li."

Looking back at the knob, she asked, "Could you get the water, sugar? I don't know which side is hot or cold?" as though she hadn't just ran the bath for me earlier.

"Of course," I stepped up close to her, and pulled her into my chest, "let me just reach past you." I dipped her forward as though going for a kiss, one hand on her lower back, the other reaching to turn the knob on.

There was a short, high pitched whistle, before the shower turned on. Marianne yelped as the initial cold spray caught her off guard. She pushed the two of us to the far end of the tub, pinning me to the wall with her body.

We shared a laugh. Marianne parted her lips and closed her eyes, nonverbally asking for that electric, five-success kiss. She moaned into my mouth as our tongues danced, and began to writhe ever so lightly against me, massaging my dick against her soft body. Reaching a hand down, she cupped the head with her palm and used her thumb to begin spreading the precum up and down my slit.

Once the shower began to steam up. The nurse turned around, letting me get a look at the best, bounciest ass I'd seen outside of porn. Her little waist flared out to a naturally large booty that begged to be grabbed. She cast a smug look back at me as she bent over to start lathering her hands up with soap.

I grabbed a hold of one of her cheeks, in not quite a smack, firmly squeezing down on it. Once more, the game made me roll another check to see how well my groping went – yet another five successes. Why couldn't I have been this insanely lucky when I fought Kuze? I really didn't understand the mechanics here, but I wasn't going to complain as long as I kept getting the results I was.

I brought my other hand down on her ass. This was definitely a smack. Marianne shot upright and turned to face me with a look of surprise.

"I've never enjoyed that before. You must have magic hands. Speaking of…" She brought her soapy hands to her chest and lathered herself up. "I need to clean you up, but first I need you to do something."

"What is it, nurse?"

"It's important we don't let the soap wash away your natural lubrication. We don't want you to chafe. So I want you to take that fat fucking cock of yours and hide it between my thighs."

I followed her directions, grabbing the base of my dick and sliding myself between her legs. I had to fight against every male instinct in my body to not slam inside her, instead nestling the top of my shaft between her labia. I was taller than her, the height difference adding to the pressure.

"Good. Now I'll just…" Marianne squeezed her thighs tightly together and moaned. The heat emanating from her sex made the water feel lukewarm, and I could feel her hard clit against my sensitive skin. She opened her mouth to speak but the sensations stole her breath for a moment.

I seized her by her ass and pulled her against me, kissing her. As I rocked my hips back, the game once more asked of me a roll.

She threw her head back and yelled, "Oh, fuck!" Eight successes would do that to a lady.

"Ah fuck! Oh my Goddamn – AHH! What the—Mmph!"

I grabbed her by the back of her neck and pulled her back into a kiss, leaving a hand below to keep mauling her ass. My hips continued their slow pace, but I picked up in strength, really slamming forward, making her soft motherly body jiggle from thigh to breast. Her arms clung to my back as she clung on for dear life.

After a minute of this, Marianne tried to rock her hips to get me to move faster, but I easily overpowered her, holding her still as I kept up my easy pace. Her pleasure mounted, driving her crazier and crazier as she tried to writhe and wriggle futilely.

It didn't take much longer for her entire body to tense up. Her mouth fell open and she began to shake as she hit knee weakening orgasm.

"OH FUUUUUUCK!! AGGHH!"

I was close, but didn't want the fun to end. I tried to roll an Endurance + Willpower to hold on but only rolled one success. It would have to do.

I pulled her head back so that our noses were touching. Staring into her eyes I sped up and started to frot against wildly, chasing after my own pleasure. Strangely, what my mother had said about a woman always knowing when a man was burning with passion popped into my head.

"Can you feel what you're doing to me, Marianne?"

I wanted very badly to let Marianne know how fired up she'd gotten me. Every part of me, physical, mental, and spiritual was aflame for this gorgeous black goddess that had come to my aid tonight.

Not sure of what I was doing, or if it was even possible. I tried to call on my Qi for the first time and send it up and through my eyes. The dice clacked, Aura and Sensuality this time – two successes, not enough to hit the difficulty threshold for an Improvised Qi maneuver. Damn.

[Producer Reward]

You may have failed, but you've succeeded in surprising the Producers! As a reward for using your first Improvised Qi maneuver for sexual purposes, we've decided to intervene and help you along.

[Minor Feat]

Gorgon's Lust – The eyes are the windows to the soul, and yours is burning with sexual desire. You may attempt to make someone you're making eye contact with to orgasm, up to a number of times per day equal to your total Aura dice. If your target is unwilling they may make a Willpower check to resist. If they resist successfully, they do not orgasm, however you gain +2 to seduce them until they cum or a day has passed.

I wasted no time in using my newest feat, blasting my Qi through my eyes and into Marianne. For a split second, I could feel every one of her pleasure neurons light up, kicking off another powerful orgasm. That was all I could take myself, and ended up soaking her thighs and butt with my cum as I exploded between them.

We held each other tightly, breathing hard into one another's necks.

"Thank you," she murmured into my neck once she'd calmed down. "I needed this."

"I was going to say the same thing to you."

We kissed lightly, before Marianne started to actually lather me up. I did the same for her, some unspoken agreement between us keeping the rest of the shower to light petting and the occasional kiss.

Marianne wanted to spend the night, but said that her sons would be back in the morning and she didn't want to have to risk having to explain this to them. She said she'd brag about me to Shania though, but I couldn't tell if that was a joke or not.

The Producers waited for her to leave to show me the megaton of notifications I'd racked up during the encounter.

[Hidden Quest Completed]

Have your first steamy sex scene!

Reward: 50 XP, +2 to random Skill (Electronics), gain Special feat: Porn Physics

Bonus, achieved on your first full day: +1 to all Social Attributes

[Recurring Quest Discovered]

You will receive 5XP and a random Skill for every notable sex scene, including Skills that would normally require instruction. Notability is a subjective measure determined by the Producers.

[Hidden Quest Completed]

Have 6 dice in Presence.

Reward: Gain Special feat: So Fresh and So Clean

Special Feats!

Special Feats can only be unlocked and upgraded through Rewards and represent incredibly powerful abilities or changes to reality itself.

[Special Feat]

Porn Physics – Sex works for you as it is portrayed in films. There is never any set-up or clean-up involved in anal sex, members will always be able to fit, and any pain associated with penetrative sex is as pleasurable as it is painful. Lube is helpful but not necessary, and it is impossible for you to catch STDs.

Oh thank god. I was worried they were going to make me work for these sorts of accommodations.

[Special Feat]

So Fresh and So Clean – You always look and smell your best. Even if you're badly bruised and battered or dressed in rags, you somehow make it look good. You no longer produce waste byproducts from eating or drinking, your breath is always fresh, your teeth require no maintenance, and your sweat smells and tastes pleasant. This is a purely inexplicable effect, with no observable changes to your biology having occurred.

It was impressive that SkinDimensional were both capable of and willing to bend reality to make my breath smell better, but honestly alarming with how cavalier they were being about it.

[Hidden Quest Completed]

Have non-penetrative sex.

Reward: 15 XP, gain +2 Flexibility

Bonus, Made your partner orgasm: +1 Sensuality

[Hidden Quest Completed]

Have 6 Dice in Sensuality.

Reward: Gain Special Feat: Sexual Icon

[Special Feat]

Sexual Icon: You radiate sexuality. The sight of you performing even ordinary tasks is capable of leading to sexual awakenings. You will frequently find your way into the wet dreams and fantasies of anyone who thinks you're attractive, even if they dislike you for other reasons. This can have strange effects on people in the long term, and will bring you fun and chaos in equal measure. Sexual Icon is a purely inexplicable effect, there is no magic that can detect nor is there any defense against it.

Was…was this even a boon? This read like a curse a Greek God would have put on someone for being too hot.

[Hidden Quest Completed]

Make a partner orgasm.

Reward: 20 XP. Gain Item: Relationship Token – Consumable. By throwing this coin into a well or fountain while thinking of someone you know, you may instantly take your relationship one step in any direction. I.e., Nemesis to Enemy, Acquaintance to Contact, Contact to Ally, Ally to Partner, etc.

[Hidden Quest Completed]

Use one of your Mystical Attributes for sexual purposes.

Reward: Gain +1 to a random Mystical Skill (Telekinesis), ignoring the usual instructor and feat requirements. You may now upgrade that skill as you would any other.

[Ally Quest Completed (Marianne Greene)]

Shared a sex scene with Marianne Greene

Reward: 10 XP, +2 Medicine, +1 Finesse

Bonus, Didn't endanger your relationship with her daughter to do so: Gain Major Social feat: Lord Byron's Luck

[Major Social Feat]

Lord Byron's Luck – Rumors of your sexual exploits and debauched behavior will proliferate no matter what you may do to try and mitigate this effect. However, while some may tut or wag their fingers at you, in general these rumors will only serve to raise your profile and will radically increase your allure. People who would normally be seriously turned off by such rumors will not prejudice themselves against you without giving you a fair shake.

Yet another I wasn't thrilled about. I really didn't need to know that every granny in Chinatown would be hearing about my dick game. God help me if I ever had to hear about it from one of them.

[Producer Gift Basket]

You've done an exceptional job adjusting to your new life. Instead of trying to cheat us and the viewers, you've thrown yourself into the game, tested your own boundaries, and tried your hardest to make entertaining content. Where many have failed, you've excelled. Receive these following Rewards from us, your grateful Producers:

Steel Silk Sash: We've upgraded the sash you received from your mother. While appearing and feeling the same as it did, the sash has become nearly indestructible. If it is lost or somehow destroyed, it will return to you the next day. Keeps itself clean as well.

Lucky Penny: As long as this coin is on your person, you may treat a single 4 on a die as a success for any roll. If lost or destroyed, it will return to you the next day.

Evolved Archetype: Charming Adventurer merges with the Harem King Archetype to become: Harem Protagonist. You may purchase feats from both Archetypes without penalty, and will have access to a new exclusive list of powerful options as well. Evolve and Upgrade one of your feats into one better suiting your new Archetype, ignoring any prerequisites.

Evolve and Upgrade Feat: Major feat Heroes Honors becomes Master feat: Heroes Harem

[Master Feat (Harem Protagonist)]

Heroes Harem: In the eyes of the people you step in to help, you are viewed as a Hero from myth and legend. This effect scales with the help rendered. The gratitude you garner in those you rescue cannot be adequately stated in words. You gain between 1 and 3 guaranteed successes and additional dice for Social rolls with the people you've helped and their close friends and family. This group will justify almost any of your actions, and should you break their trust you can easily earn it once more. Lovers you've saved will find you taking other lovers as fully justifiable, though they may still grow jealous.

I'd forgotten how insane Master feats could be. This definitely hadn't been in the book they'd given us though. Nor had there been a Harem King Archetype, probably because it would have scared us off from playing.

I'd have to be careful with this. The power felt dangerous, like I was playing with fire. Thinking of the possibilities the feat provided sparked a dark lust in my heart I wasn't fully comfortable with.

[Viewer Popularity Poll Winner]

You were voted the most popular male cast member and third most popular overall cast member in our first poll! The viewers have voted to give you the following Rewards:

Titanium Nunchacku – Base Damage 2. These titanium nunchaku are brutally effective weapons while still allowing for dazzlingly fast attacks. While wielding these, you may attack each target in melee range of you on your turn once. If you gain additional attacks from other sources, these stack additively. Will return to you if lost or destroyed the next day.

Talisman of Recall – Consumable. Tear this talisman to instantly teleport yourself and anyone you're touching to your home. One use.

I slept very well that night.