“… you and the doc find a way to get me out of this sim before it collapses or so help me, I’ll have my comatose body kick your b̴̺̅u̴̡̖͋̉͠-̶̳̅̾ ̵͍͚̖̺̭̑̊̄͠_haunches so hard your mother is gonna ś̴̤̝p̷̻̭̟͆i̶̢̜̼͇̘̇̀̚̚͝-̵̛̝̰̘̪̪͈̙̑̓́̃͊̇̕ ̷̛̙̣̩̇͊͌͌̑̅̈́b_{e very upset with you, mister}! Ah, f̷̨̰̰̈́̌̑͠͝u̶͙͙̦͉̣̠͆̃ͅ-̴̨͎̘̳̟̽͊̿̃̓̚͝ ̴̢̛̘̬̲̰̭͊̆̎̿̔͘ͅͅ_fiddlesticks, now it’s _{corrupting my voice. Uh-oh, here comes the player character. Call you back.}”

Roger cleared his throat, hoping to get this scripted interaction over with. Fortunately the PC so far had made the worst choices imaginable, so one more bad interaction and he could lock himself out of the Romance paths and focus on getting out of this glitchy VR sim while the PC wasted its time on other NPCs.

Um, hi again! Still mad at me?
>Hey, sorry about yesterday. I was a major jerk.
Ready to go out with me yet?

“_{Oh, that’s okay},” Roger found himself saying in Fluttershy’s voice. Panicked as he was, it was impossible to keep from finishing the scripted reaction. “_{You’re new in town, I understand if you were a bit upset}.”

Ugh! Well, this boorish PC got lucky this time, but the affinity score was still firmly in the negatives. The jerkass troll controlling its character would have to play out a perfect series of interactions to… well, Roger didn’t want to even think about that. It was pretty much impossible anyway.

“_{Oh, that’s very generous of you},” Rogershy said gratefully.

Uh oh, not good. Two correct hits in a row? What were the odds? Roger’s Affinity meter was at 0, which was +3 higher than he wanted it. It was possible this punk could lock him on a Romance path after all. He tried not to let himself get too worked up. There was only one more dialogue for this encounter, and there’s no way the schmuck would get this one right. Roger’d seen the options before and knew the sim programmer had planted a red herring option.

“_{Um, I’m Fluttershy},” Roger’s digitally altered voice replied with a mandatory stammer leading into a girlish giggle.

The Affinity meter flipped to +1. Crap, how did that guy know to go for the low-key response? He was sure a tactless player like that would have tried to puff himself up and win this girl over with fake animal caregiver cred!

“_{Bye, B A L L Z A C K. Take care, and try to be a little more alert. Um, if that’s okay with you…}” Roger’s Fluttershy trailed off, cheeks starting to glow a dull pink. His big blue-green eyes stayed locked on the nondescript PC character’s indistinct face as they turned to leave the diner.

As soon as the PC left, Roger sighed. Maybe that PC wasn’t so bad after all. He could see the two of them hanging out, watching animals at the park, just talking about… no! NO! That’s the positive Affinity meter messing with his head!

“F̶̢̲̎u̷͕͈̟̐̽͆-̴̢̧̻͕̠́͐̈́͜ ̴̛̖̈͑̈́̀_{Featherfaddle}, how did that i̷̘̬̯̓͗͛̚d̸̲̔̄̽͌̈́̐͘̕-̵̯̃ ̴̛̰̇͒̀̈́͒͝m_eanie play off three perfect replies in a row? Did he just get lucky, or is he using a guide? Holy s̸̺͑h̷͓͝ȉ̸͍-̴̝̍ ̴̦̈́_moly, if he’s using a guide then he can unlock the Good End scene!”

Roger pulled out the phone icon and entered the hexcode to jailbreak out of the sim and sent arbitrary voice data to real world again. “Doc? Klein? You guys there? You’ve gotta get me out, fast! I think the PC is _{playing from a guide}, and now he’s trying to Romance me! _{I mean, Fluttershy}!”

“Hey, at least you’d finally be getting a date, man!” Klein snickered into the hacked-together comlink.
“Not funny! You know what these H dating sims are like! Either get me out of here or _{please find out who’s logging in as the player, and, um, please keep them from playing until you do},” Roger replied, dismayed to once again hear his words come out in Fluttershy’s voice.
“We’re doing our best, Mister Thompson,” Doc said in her most patient exasperated-lecturer voice. “But there are four thousand students, let alone faculty and staff, on campus who could conceivably access this sim. There were over two hundred logged into various instances of it just now, and we don’t know which instance was yours. Add to that the loss of sim integrity fouling up the data stream-”
“Tell me about it,” Roger said, glancing around at the empty diner and the glitching assets clipping into and out of view.
“-AND,” Doc continued, “We also have to keep your ‘comatose body,’ as you put it, out of sight of the faculty and other students while you’re stuck inside the sim, or they’ll alert the authorities to what’s been going on and pull the plug on you, no matter how much I protest. We’re doing what we can, but you have to be patient.”
“Yeah, well, if he’s playing from a guide I’ve got maybe two more days’ worth of interactions before I wind up as unlocked ecchi eye candy in his gallery, okay? Just… _{please hurry}.” The feminine voice sounded far more helpless and plaintive that he liked as he trailed off, letting the comlink disconnect.

The sim’s internal clock switched over immediately from Afternoon to Evening, and as there were no scripted interactions with Fluttershy for that time yet, Roger found himself suspended in the middle of a vast array of game assets, waiting for the PC to do whatever it was they were going to do to advance the game-time another increment.

He had to admit, he’d figured that guy wrong. The way he had bungled their first few interactions with the worst possible replies convinced Roger that the guy was either an absolute idiot, or else someone intentionally doing a worst-ending playthrough. But he had to be pretty decent if he could pick the right answers three times in a row, didn’t he? Roger tried to tell himself that the PC was probably just pulling the answers straight from an online guide, but that didn’t feel right to him.

Try as he might, he just couldn’t bring himself to hate the PC after today’s performance. He was sure the Affinity meter was behind this, but it didn’t change anything. Eventually he just felt silly trying to force himself to resent the player and gave up. Either way, he hoped Doc and Klein would have something worked out soon…