Gloria desperately wished spontaneous combustion was still within her skillset as her crush stared down at her, mouth slack, big black eye wide, the mechanical monocle covering his right eye ticking loudly, obviously aghast. His willowy frame—which always seemed to be permanently hunched over—straightened as he scolded her, gentle but stern. What made it worse was that he refused to say her name, and just hearing {player name} was starting to trigger her fight reflex. But, Gloria could do nothing but sigh, exacerbated.
How is it he's seen me naked and now as a mummified Yeti? Can't I get a got damn break already!? she roared to some distant deity beyond the pixellated universe she was trapped within.
Unable to stand it any longer, Gloria cut in, but she wasn't ready for his response, "What's...wrong?"
He grew strangely quiet and still, his hand wrapped around his ivory chin, deep in thought. It was like when she selected one of the goblin sisters and their world slowed to a crawl. It was like Zoran was calculating his next response in real-time.
If that's truly the case, does that mean I could really end up dead if I don't make the right choices? Do my decisions really impact the outcome of whatever cursed event I'm trapped in? Gloria wondered silently.
"[Gloria], hmm? It's a fitting name for a cunning little nymph such as yourself. But a shrine to science is no place for a low-level seductress!" he finally settled on an answer, marching across the room, heavy black boots slapping against the stone floor. Eerily, Gloria's name never left his lips. Even more creepy was that fact she'd heard everything he just said before. The most confusing aspect of the whole exchange was the fact that even though Zoran's tone was irritated, the look in his eyes made Gloria feel like he was thinking of the best way to devour her. And, she didn't think her brains were on the menu. It was a total 180 compared to his normally meek personality.
"Wh-what're you doing Zoran?" she said in shock as he was suddenly right in front of her, the top of her head barely clearing the middle of his stomach. Zoran reached forward, his large hand tracing her exposed stomach downward before cupping Gloria in a place no man had ever touched before. He bent forward until his chapped lips were pressed against her now elongated ear whispering an incantation. She slowly morphed from a hairy little monster into a woman again, only for the second time in as many days, she was butt naked.
"Insolent wench! You shall call me Grand Alchemist in public and in private, [Gloria]. Were you eating my eye of newt stash? You must have because these side effects are part of my protection spell. But do not worry sweet succubus, I'll have you looking better in no time." Zoran's breath was harsh against her overheated skin, and Gloria feared she'd faint again, the sound of his silky voice melting away her frustration at being called a wench. She sighed, squirming underneath his touch, wondering how things had escalated so fast as if she were living in an adult patch of [REALM].
"Wait a minute, hold up now. Succubus!? Shit!" Then it hit her all at once. Of course, I'm a fucking succubus to him because that's my avatar in-game! What did I look like again? Oh, that's right, a busty curvy baddie with butt-length silver hair, purple skin, and amber-colored eyes. I think I also had my normal dark-skin back up when I had to disguise myself as a human... Reaching up, Gloria could suddenly feel her horns, and then without warning, she could feel a tail swishing behind her.
Oh my God, Gloria fumed, no wonder this feels like a cheesy porno! I'm not just living in [REALM] before the update, I'm living in a fan-mod where players could seduce Zoran, kill the King, and become the new Demon Queen! This is the world Ruben and I created and released to the world!
"Fuck!" She gasped as a hard knot exploded in her gut, moaning as miniature bat wings sprouted from her back, fluttering gently.
"What a dirty mouth, but I suppose it fits your lot in life. All your vital signs appear normal now. Do not mess with magick beyond your comprehension in the future again. Now come. The King is requesting your presence, and he's sent me to bring you to him. It's an order I shall fulfill."
"What kind of pervert checks vital signs by mas...mas..." Gloria couldn't bring herself to say masturbation, not sure if it was the right word for what he just did to her. Gloria's face flushed just thinking about it, red hot with anger and pint up desire.
"I did no such thing wench! I was simply checking your vitals, nothing more, nothing less." Zoran said dismissively as if it were common knowledge that energy crystals were located in a woman's lower lips. Gloria could do nothing but gasp in shock when she realized it should be common knowledge, and her actions were triggering dialogue branches she didn't remember and shouldn't be seeing.
She knew in her heart he wasn't lying. Not because it made any sense for a succubus to have their health bar located down there. It was yet another cheesy addition to a glorified porn rendition of the Infiltrate the Demonic Palace campaign. Memories were flooding back into her mind, explaining why she'd woken up naked in the first place.
Easy access, Ruben and Gloria had joked as they reworked the intro so the player woke up in the Demon King's bedroom at the start of the campaign, because crawling through a sewer and transforming into a troll was not sexy in the least. But the sudden revelations were making Gloria more worried than content. Things were happening in more or less the same order, but it was like their fan-mod and the real timeline had merged into one. She couldn't predict with certainty what would happen next.
"What are you doing with my gift, Grand Magician?" A voice roared from behind them. Zoran spun around, taking Gloria with him. They stopped and stared as an even larger, more menacing resident of the castle entered the tiny chamber next to her room.
"My King! I was simply, ah, checking her vital signs. May I present to you the succubus gifted to you by your brother, [Gloria]." She didn't know what was worse, hearing {player name} over and over again as a filler for her real name, or the awful absence of sound when her name was spoken but she couldn't hear a sound, only see the letters appear before the person speaking, flashing mid-air.
She snapped and snapped, but no dialogue options appeared next to the Demon King, only actions: {flirt} and {confront}. Taking a gamble that may well cost her her life, Gloria selected {confront} and waited to see what would come. If she was going to die, Gloria decided she was going down swinging, not begging for Zoran and the Demon King to take turns satisfying her natural need for affection, or whatever bullshit her and Ruben coded into the sequence over a year ago.