[TAM: Evening the Odds] Chapter 23. (Patreon)

Chapter 23: Traits.

Honestly, browsing through the list of traits made everything tempting to get. There was one in particular that was especially catching my eye, a Trait called ‘No More Enemies’ that further improved the rate at which negative scores turn into positive scores. It would be the best choice to help me fix my standing in school. However… Maybe the base effect of the Affection Multiplier was enough. Should I really use points to get it when I would eventually reach the same end with just a little more effort? Besides, I wanted to start with something simple to test the waters. Something cheap with an easy to confirm effect that was also worth the investment.

I kept browsing through the list, and one trait in the Lust category seemed to fit my criteria to a T.

[Great Kisser (10 pts): Your kisses give your partner small amounts of sexual pleasure.]

Emma did say I needed to work on my kissing, didn’t she. I gave it some thought for about 10 minutes before I finally decided to take the plunge and buy it. I tapped it, and although it was annoying, I was happy it asked for confirmation 2 times to avoid buying something by mistake.

And just like that, it was done! I felt my heart beat faster, as if I’d just done something incredibly risky, like doing a bungee jump without knowing how far or how long the ground and the rope were.

I went to the bathroom and was happy to see it got remodeled as well. It was the part of the house that saw the most drastic makeover. The toilet and sink were new, the shower also had a new sliding door, every last tile was replaced by new ones and there was even a washing machine. A godsend because those bedsheets weren’t exactly clean after what we’d done.

When I went back to bed, I saw Emma laying there under the sheets and looking at me, puffing her cheeks in a cute pout. “I don’t like waking up alone.”

“Sorry. I… had to pee,” I said.

“I don’t want excuses, David. Just come to bed already,” she said with a grin and longing eyes.

I was happy to do as told and we cuddled together, hounding each other tenderly. Emma rested her head on my chest as I had an arm around her. I ran my hand up and down her naked arm and she sighed blissfully. 

Feeling her soft, naked body on mine was nothing short of wonderful. I always fantasized about these kinds of moments. To share this afterglow with a girl. Now that the moment was no longer just a fantasy, I was happy to confirm just how amazing such a simple act was.

“I… I have to go,” Emma says in a highly regretful tone. “My car is still outside. If one of the teachers happened to drive by here and saw it at this hour…” She frowned and the unwillingness to part was clear in her face.

I mirrored her expression but steeled my heart. “I understand. Can we go out tomorrow? Maybe have some drinks again?”

Her face brightened immediately. “Of course! Shall we get together at the bar again? At 8:00 pm?”

“I’d love to.”

“Okay. It’s a date then.” She giggled. “Can I get one last kiss before I leave?”

Oh shit! Now was the perfect time to see if that trait I bought worked!

“Of course. Come here.”

Emma eagerly closed in and met my lips. I kissed her deeply, putting my all into making it as good as I could. It mostly just amounted to moving tongue excitedly and exploring her mouth, but now I heard Emma letting out surprised, erotic moans.

“Mmm… I’m feeling all tingly inside.” She giggled and kissed me again, wrapping her arms around my neck and pushing her naked chest against mine. “God, you’re getting really, really good at this.” She gasped, breathing heavily with a flushed face.

“Of course I am. You’re just that good a teacher.” Another kiss. Emma hungrily sucked on my tongue. Lines of drool started to fall down the corner of her mouth.

“Maybe I should just stay. Mmmm. It’s 9:00 pm, right? It’s too late to go back,” she said in between sighs of pleasure.

“No, you have to go. It’s dangerous if you stay.” I said that, but I still couldn’t let go of her mouth. I don’t think I was feeling what she was feeling, but being able to give her pleasure like this was addicting in and of itself.

“But… I want more…! One last time. Please do me one last time,” she pleaded.

“Alright. Come with me.” I took her hand and we walked naked to the bathroom, making sure to grab a couple of towels from my boxes. “You should take a shower before you leave, right?”

“Mmm, you’re right,” she said, sultrily biting her lip.

Thankfully, there was hot water. I got inside along with Emma and she was quick to take my lips again “Your tongue feels so good! I feel like I’m melting when I kiss you!”

The hot water fell on top of our already burning bodies. She gave me a handjob while I had my fill of her wet, slippery tits, groping them to my heart’s content. After a while, I pushed Emma back against the wall, lifted her leg and she quickly guided my cock inside her pussy.

She stared sexily into my eyes. “Give me your cock, love. Give me that big, hard dick I’ve become addicted to.”

With little resistance, I sheathed myself to the hilt inside her, making Emma cry in pleasure. She wrapped her arms around my neck as I thrust into her. I took her nipple in my mouth and sucked hard, earning myself moans of approval.

“Yes, love! Suck my tits!” Emma breathed hard and groaned in pleasure. “I know you love them. Play with them as much as you like.”

“You feel good no matter where I touch you! I love your tits, I love your ass, I love your lips and I love this incredible pussy!” My thrusting intensified, my pace quickening without me realizing it. I grunted along with the loud, fast slapping noises of wet flesh on flesh and Emma’s near-climax outburst.

“I’m coming, love! I’m gonna come I’m gonna come I’m gonna come!!!” I felt her cunt ripple along my cock as she orgasmed and it sent me flying towards my own third climax. We held onto each other as the water fell on us, washing away the sweat of sex.

We came down from our high and tried our best to clean one another without falling into a fourth round. I wasn’t sure I had it in me, anyway. Not so soon. Finally, Emma helped me unpack and organize my stuff despite me telling her it wasn’t necessary. She didn’t listen to me and I didn’t insist. Any excuse to spend one more minute together. She ended up leaving by 10:30 pm.

I sat down on the bed for a bit, trying not to think about anything, just… having a moment to myself. I didn’t really like it. I wanted to have Emma with me still. I didn’t like this sudden silence.

I needed to distract myself, so I spent a lot of time looking through the AMA, reading the different Traits available for purchase and good lord, some of these were practically reality altering. They sounded too good to be true, but the fact that Emma was so turned on by my kisses all of a sudden meant they had to be real.

In the friendship category, that one Trait tempted me again. ‘No More Enemies’. It had the high cost of 150 points, though. I had them, but I still wasn’t sure I wanted to make the investment, at least not now.

There was one called ‘Great Host’ that seemed innocent enough, had a good price but also seemed hard to test.

[Great Host (20 pts): People you invite to your home feel comfortable and are very likely to have a good time]

My mind went to the tutoring sessions with Emily and Megan. If I could convince them to come here, my relationship with them might advance even faster.

…

Then there was the romance category, where my finger twitched as I stopped myself from buying a Trait immediately.

[Feel No Jealousy (100 pts): The person with this Trait feels no jealousy towards their partner’s actions, be they romantic advances towards another person or even sexual acts.]

It was expensive, but if I bought it for Emma… Shit, part of me said I shouldn’t, but if this was all real…

…

My impossible fantasy of having a harem could become a reality.

My heart was pounding painfully inside my chest. Every fiber of my being told me to go through with it. Not long ago I was on the verge of making my final decision, and then this app popped up in my life. I had to believe it was some sort of… sign. Someone or something was telling me to pursue… happiness. Maybe. It was probably wishful thinking, but…

As I kept scrolling down, I saw another Trait in the romance category that pushed me further down that train of thought.

[Normalized Polyamory (350 pts): Everyone accepts the fact that you have two or more romantic and/or sexual partners. Partners will not feel jealousy towards your pursuit of more relationships.]

My mind was going numb, and predictable feelings of greed seeped deeper into my mind. Was the AMA telling me to go for it? The fact that these Traits existed to begin with was… 

The possibility of my biggest, most selfish wish was only 150 love points away from me.

The heavy silence of the room made me make up my mind. I loved Emma and I wanted to make her happy, but… That didn’t mean she had to be the only one, right?

R-Right?

Resolute and pushing away that little voice in the back of my mind, I decided to work towards that one Trait. I had 200 love points, which meant I needed 150 more. I earned 100 for completing Emma’s Love progress bar and a one-time bonus 100 for completing all three. That meant… I had to romance at least two more women, if not three.

Shit.

It was one thing to have a harem where all girls were okay with the idea, but I didn’t want to cheat on Emma. She was fully devoted to me, but would she forgive me for doing that? Even if she did, I… wanted to avoid it, if possible.

…

I kept browsing through the list, looking for something that could help me make the love progress bars fill faster. Yeah, it was really greedy of me, especially when I already had the base Affection Multiplier, but if I was going to do this, I had to do it right.

After much search, I found a couple of traits that would let me work around that issue, both of which were in the Sexual Traits category.

[Sex is Love (100 pts): Positive sexual interactions are always taken as demonstrations of romantic affection. Sexual interactions always improve a person’s love score.]

[Sharing is Caring (75 pts): The person with this Trait will derive sexual pleasure from their partner’s adventures with other other people. Feelings of jealousy are diminished.]

Buying the former for yourself and the latter for Emma could yield very, very good results. Still, I hesitated from pressing the purchase button. These were some pretty big decisions I was making. I’d be heavily altering people’s perception of me and even doing some changes to my own girlfriend’s personality.

Was I sure this was what I wanted to do?

…

…

At the time, the answer was yes.

Things had only improved in those past two weeks because of the Affection Multiplier. I knew I was getting ridiculously greedy, yes, but I couldn’t turn away from the opportunities lying before me. I’d have to be careful, and I wasn’t planning on bending everyone to my will, but this was something I really wanted, and I decided it would be my one, selfish indulgence.

With that final thought, I bought the following Traits:

[Great Host (20 pts)] for myself

[Sex is Love (100 pts)] for myself as well.

[Sharing is Caring (75 pts)] for Emma Campbell.

That left me with 220 Friendship points / 200 Love points / 15 Lust points.

Lust points took a big hit, but it should be worth it. I decided not to touch my stack of Love points unless necessary in order to save them for the big purchase. I also decided against buying the ‘No More Enemies’ Trait for myself. I felt like I should be able to fix my enemy issues if I just took my time, and 150 points was a lot.

Nevertheless, what’s done is done. I bought three traits with the very specific goal of building a harem for myself. I knew it wouldn’t be easy, even with the supernatural help, but at least it was now very much achievable.