The game continued with Aaron's turn. He thought about it for a moment, then said, "Sexual History."
Magnus raised a hand. "Since this one is about specific numbers, how about we each guess a range of times and estimated partners first? Getting the exact numbers is a bit… too much."
Everyone agreed to that, so even Maya had to shrug and let the rule pass.
Magnus pulled up Aaron's menu and read the requested line.
[Name: Aaron Chase | Level: 5
Interest: 30% | Popularity: 42% | Sexual History: 19 times (2 known partners)
Relationship: Friend / Friend
Core Detailed Stats:
Trust: 62% | Arousal: 0% | Submission: 8%
Personal Insights:
– Hobbies: Evidence-based medicine reading, running, chess, correcting people who are wrong on the internet
– Guilty Pleasures: Rewatching procedural crime dramas and pointing out every medical inaccuracy
– Type: People who are competent and don't perform it
– Kinks: Hair fetish, trust-based vulnerability, slow build, being genuinely surprised by a partner]
About half of the room drank.
"Seriously, bro? How is it so low?" Ethan asked after he drank. "I thought mine and Cam's were already low."
Aaron just shrugged. "We're busy most of the time. Med school is no joke."
"We're intimate when we have the time and aren't exhausted," Rachel agreed. "But that doesn't happen as much as either of us would like."
Maya, meanwhile, had opinions.
"Okay, new rule," she said as she slammed her empty beer can down and reached for a new one. "When someone picks a lame category, if they're in a relationship, their significant other gets to veto and pick a different, more interesting topic. And if they're currently single, then we vote. If over half the people in the room can agree on a category, then that's the new topic for the reading."
Then she proceeded to stare down all opposition until everyone agreed to let the new rule pass.
Aaron spun the bottle and it landed on Carmen.
"Type," she said.
"Veto," Miguel said without missing a beat. "Kinks."
Carmen choked on air, surprised by the sudden betrayal. Then she whirled on her boyfriend and glared at him. Miguel simply shrugged.
"I don't need to hear how his System describes me," he said calmly. "But knowing your kinks means I can better please you in bed. And that thing is better than Google."
Ethan clapped and pointed at Miguel. "Bro, you're a genius!"
Carmen's mouth opened and closed like a fish, unable to actually refute her boyfriend's reasoning.
Magnus kind of agreed with Miguel, too, considering knowing Alex's kinks was how he'd managed to get together with her in the first place. But at the same time, getting in the middle of this seemed unwise. So, he quietly opened Carmen's menu and read the requested line.
[Name: Carmen Vega | Level: 5
Interest: 20% | Popularity: 48% | Sexual History: 94 times (1 known partner)
Relationship: Alex's Boyfriend / Friend
Core Detailed Stats:
Trust: 44% | Arousal: 0% | Submission: 28%
Personal Insights:
– Hobbies: Children's education research, baking, tending to plants, making sure everyone around her has eaten
– Guilty Pleasures: True crime podcasts while doing completely domestic tasks, buying more plants than she has space for
– Type: Steady people who make her feel safe enough to stop being the responsible one
– Kinks: Deepthroat Irrumatio, spanking (especially during reverse cowgirl), being taken care of completely, warmth and physical closeness, soft insistence]
Miguel reached for his drink. "Well, I have a few ideas how we can spend tonight together, babe."
Carmen blushed furiously. Whether it was because of the reveal or Miguel's comment, though, was uncertain.
Everyone else also reached for their drinks. Maya cheered loudly for Miguel's contribution. Then the game moved on.
The next target the bottle landed on was Sofia. As soon as it did, before Sofia could even say anything, several people shouted, "Guilty Pleasures!"
"Hey, I haven't even said anything!" Sofia protested.
"All in favor?" Maya asked pleasantly.
All hands except Sofia's and Magnus's shot up.
Sofia glanced around the room. Then she pointed a finger and moved it slowly from left to right. "I'll remember this."
Magnus pulled up her menu.
[Name: Sofia Ramirez | Level: 6
Interest: 45% | Popularity: 80% | Sexual History: 153 times (8 known partners)
Relationship: Friend / Conquest Target (Conquered)
Core detailed stats:
Trust: 80% | Arousal: 15% | Submission: 30%
Personal Insights:
– Hobbies: Running information networks, yoga, frat parties, binge-watching thrillers
– Guilty Pleasures: Running multiple schemes simultaneously and telling nobody, causing chaos and havoc in the name of friendship, keeping receipts on everyone she's ever known, the specific satisfaction of being three steps ahead of everyone and the only person in the room who knows what's actually going on
– Type: Confident charmers with a wild side
– Kinks: Group play, spontaneous encounters, breath play]
Several cries of "Sounds about right," "Figures," and "I knew it" rang out. Sofia, for her part, took it gracefully. Less than half the room drank. Then Sofia spun the bottle.
When it landed on Rachel, Aaron said before she could, "Kinks!"
She stared at him. "Seriously?!"
He shrugged. "Miguel made a very compelling argument."
Ethan yelled. "Dammit, Cam needs another turn! I wanna know hers too!"
Camila immediately reached over and smacked his shoulder.
[Name: Rachel Kim | Level: 5
Interest: 22% | Popularity: 48% | Sexual History: 24 times (2 known partners)
Relationship: Alex's Boyfriend / Friend
Core Detailed Stats:
Trust: 48% | Arousal: 0% | Submission: 18%
Personal Insights:
– Hobbies: Medical case studies, meal prepping, running, organizing other people's chaos
– Guilty Pleasures: Extremely detailed skincare routines that take longer than she'd ever admit, stress-cleaning
– Type: Reliable people who don't need managing
– Kinks: Structured scenarios, light restraints, sensory deprivation, being taken care of for once, someone else making the decisions]
"Interesting," Aaron commented as he reached for his drink. "I actually did not know about some of those. We're definitely going to experiment later tonight."
Rachel pressed her lips together but the edge of her mouth slightly curved upward at that.
Carmen raised her hand. "Since the guys already learned our kinks, can we learn theirs too? It's only fair."
"I don't mind that, actually." Aaron and Miguel both shrugged and said in unison.
Tori threw a cushion at the couples. "What is this? Another reason for you couples to be insufferable?"
***
The mood shifted after that. The game went on for a few more rounds, but people were slowly losing interest. Targets cycled through Priya, Jade, Nicole, Tori, Chloe, and even Camila again. Per the girlfriends' pressure and the other guys' non-objection, Magnus ended up reading the Kinks line for a lot of people that night. Ethan and Camila, despite being the loudest and most competitive couple, turned out to have surprisingly more vanilla kinks than pretty much every other couple. They both looked personally offended by this, vowing to experiment later that night.
As the game naturally wound down and people split up to go back to their rooms, only four remained seated in the living room: Maya, Chloe, Alex, and Magnus. Sofia paused at the staircase and glanced back at them, then shrugged and started climbing up, knowing exactly what kind of talk was about to take place between those four.
For a while after everyone else had gone upstairs, the four of them just sat there in the comfortable quiet of a room that had been loud for several hours and was now finally allowed to be something else.
Maya was the one who broke it.
"Okay." She looked at Magnus. "What exactly does your quest require?"
Magnus rubbed the back of his neck. "Technically, just you and me… you know, having sex. That's what the System assigns."
Maya nodded slowly. "But?"
"But we're both in relationships. I'd want Alex there." He glanced at her. "And I'd rather not act like Chloe doesn't exist, either."
Maya looked at Chloe. Their fingers were already intertwined on the couch. Something passed between them — the shorthand of two people who had learned to hold entire conversations in a look.
"Same," Maya said.
Chloe squeezed her hand and gave a small nod.
Alex folded one leg underneath herself. "Then before anything else, ground rules."
Maya groaned dramatically.
"Nobody feels pressured into anything," Alex continued, entirely unaffected. "Anyone can stop at any point, no explanation needed. If someone changes their mind, we stop. Nobody gets guilt-tripped afterward either, and nobody treats this like it's owed because it's connected to Magnus's quest."
"Alex," Maya said.
"What?"
"Sex is about having fun and enjoying ourselves. You just turned it into a workplace safety briefing."
Alex looked completely unapologetic. "Because in this situation, it works."
Maya sighed. Then held up a finger. "Or. Alternative version." She looked around the room. "Don't be assholes."
Alex stopped. "What?"
"That's it." Maya spread her hands. "That's the ground rule. Don't be assholes. If something feels wrong, say so. If someone says stop, stop. Don't be assholes." She looked at Magnus. "Was there anything in that list of hers that wasn't covered by 'don't be assholes'?"
Magnus thought about it genuinely for a second. "…No, actually."
Alex stared at him.
"I mean… she's not wrong," he said carefully.
"I'm never wrong," Maya said.
Chloe covered her face. "Sorry."
"Don't apologize," Maya said automatically.
"I was apologizing for you."
"Oh." A beat. "Why do you keep doing that, though?"
Magnus couldn't help smiling. Alex pinched the bridge of her nose. "I hate that she's not entirely wrong."
"Told you." Maya spread her hands. "Same speech. Way fewer words."
"Fine," Alex said. "So tomorrow, then? That gives everyone time to—"
"No. We should just do it now," Maya said.
Alex blinked. "Maya—"
"I'm not saying right this second." Maya gestured vaguely. "I mean tonight. We're already here. We're already talking about it. Waiting until tomorrow just means lying awake overthinking every possible outcome." She turned to Chloe. "You okay with tonight?"
Chloe hesitated. It was only a second, but it was a real one — the pause of someone genuinely checking in with themselves rather than just agreeing. Then she looked at Maya.
"I'd rather not spend all day tomorrow panicking first," she said quietly. "So. Tonight."
Maya looked back at Alex.
Alex considered for a moment. Then she nodded. "Alright, tonight works."
She looked at Magnus. He looked at all three of them in turn, then exhaled.
"Okay," he agreed. "Tonight it is."