Subroutine Manager Ch 06

The tension within the room was steadily rising. Kay was making a series of grunts that were growing louder and louder. I could hear the passion in her voice as she began muttering in a low voice. "Come on, just a little more... fuck I'm close, don't mess this up..." Her hands were moving at a rapid pace, her fingers working with expert precision. Until finally the pressure broke. "YES! GOTCHA BITCH!"

Kay jumped in the air as her controller went flying across the room. Her character in the game did a little dance as its victory screen displayed. She was so excited she didn't even notice her controller had almost hit my face, and worse, spilled her drink. Luckily I had the reflexes to catch it midair without spilling a drop.

"Close game?" I made my way over to join her, setting the controller down and passing her the Daiquiri. She immediately took a much bigger sip of it than was probably healthy.

"You have no idea," she gasped, setting her drink down on the coffee table. Evidently she was still coming down from the high of success. "That was the last campaign I needed for total completion." She grabbed the controller and began navigating to a screen with a huge list of medals. "Every character, fully cleared on the highest difficulty. Even the master level AI is no match for me."

A response caught in my throat. She was so proud of herself, and even if I didn't care for gaming that much, it was nice to see her happy. But I knew it was wiser to hold my tongue at the moment. I gave her a curt "Hm" in response.

Her head snapped towards me. "What was that?" I silently cursed myself for not doing a good enough job hiding my disdain.

"It's nothing!" I shifted to damage control mode. Kay was highly agitable and competitive when it came to gaming, and I didn't want to get on her bad side. "I'm sure the CPU in that game is very tough, and you did a great job beating it. I can tell you're very good at this game." Kay stared at me for a moment. The silence hung in the air between us, and it seemed like she accepted my answer.

Then she began navigating to another screen. "Grab the other controller."

I couldn't help but groan. "Come on Kay, you know I don't care for these fighting games. I was trying to give you a compliment. Can't you just leave it at that?" But now that her mind was made up, I knew there was no hope of calming her.

"If you don't care about it then it shouldn't take long for me to beat your ass as well." She had the versus screen open, and she'd already selected her character. I grabbed the other controller while she took another sip of her drink.

"Alright fine," I relented. "We'll have our game and then move on." My fingers twitched over the buttons as I practiced a few of the combo's I'd picked up last time. If she wanted another ass whooping, she was certainly going to get it. "Just remember, you're the one who asked for this."

***

"Player 2 Wins!"

"God fucking DAMN it, how the hell did you manage that?" Kay was seething with frustration as her character lay on the ground. "You did a flawless block every single time. That's nearly a frame perfect input."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, you have five whole frames to do it. Why is that such a difficult concept? And don't act like it was my fault you lost, you're the one who used a heavy attack instead of a jab."

"Sure, but most heavy attacks get punished with a few light hits. Not getting stunlocked into losing half my health." Kay finished off the last of her drink. "We're doing another round."

"You mean of the game or alcohol?"

"Both, eventually. But for now the game. This time I want you to use a slow character." I scrolled through the options in the character selection. Kay liked the medium characters with solid range in their attacks, but I only played the light and fast ones. It wasn't because I necessarily thought they were better. The game in general was pretty slow paced in my opinion, and the speedy characters were the only ones that didn't make it feel like I was crawling through molasses.

This time I picked a heavyweight, a woman with a giant sword and a bulky suit of armour. Kay went with an explosives expert who was able to set traps on the battlefield. The game started, and I did a few experimental short jumps and dodges with my new character. Her movements were slow and awkward, and the attacks took way too long to come out. But once the match started, it didn't matter anymore.

At least this time Kay was able to land a few hits. But it took her so long to react each time, and the moment she tried to block I was easily able to grab her. She tried some neat tricks with her character's bombs, but they could be avoided with a split second dodge with perfect timing. So naturally, not a single one of them managed to hit.

When she was nearly dead, she tried using her super move in desperation. Naturally I dodged out of the way, finishing her off with another two hits. She growled in frustration at her inability to win. "This stuff doesn't even matter to you. Can't you at least pretend to get beaten?"

I turned my head and looked her dead in the eye. "Yes, I could pretend to lose." I let the statement hang in the air for a moment. "Shall we go for best five out of nine, or are you ready to admit defeat?"

"It's no fair," she sulked. "I'm already a little tipsy. This is like beating me on easy mode."

"You're saying you want a rematch when you sober up?" I cocked an eyebrow at her deflection.

Kay shook her head. "And risk giving up my only excuse for losing to you? Hell no. I can't play video games if I don't have a premeditated excuse for failure. Otherwise I'd have to blame myself." She let out a deep sigh and sunk into the couch. "I just can't believe how good you are. You're a natural. Even without trying I don't stand a chance."

I chuckled at her response. "Hey, I tried to warn you. You're the one who insisted on playing. And besides, it's not like I have an easy mode for you to win against."

Instead of shooting back with another quick response, Kay was silent. She was vacantly staring in the way she did when she had an idea. I felt a wave of nervousness arrive. "Kay, what exactly are you thinking about?"

She jumped up from the couch. "Hold on a minute. I'm going to get something, and then we'll have our rematch. Winner take all."

Kay ran out of the room. "There's nothing even at stake!" I called after her, but it was futile. She had a plan and I was going to have to endure it. Kay waltzed back into the room with her laptop in hand. With a rush, I figured out just what she had in mind. "Are you seriously gonna resort to cheating in order to win?"

"Yup." She didn't even hesitate to reply. "Sure you're better than me when at your best, but let's try installing an 'easy mode' of sorts. Be a dear and get me a refill while I set things up, will you?" She shook her empty glass at me.

I took the glass and pondered my options. The wise thing would be to do as she asked, and hope that she didn't make things too difficult. But I wasn't known for being wise. "I don't know if that's a good idea," I commented, setting her empty glass back on the table. "Didn't you just say the alcohol makes you worse? You'll need every advantage you can get here." Kay looked up and glared at me, fire in her eyes. I met her gaze and decided to poke the bear further. "Besides, Daiquiris are for winners. Which you currently are not."

The expression on Kay's face was interesting to watch. Her mouth opened and her cheeks twisted in shocked indignation, followed by sheer anger, and finally resting in a cold calculating death glare. "Okay. So that's how it's going to be." Her fingers began flying across the keyboard, inputting new values and changing god-knows-what about my inner psyche.

It was almost enough to make me doubt myself. Kay spent far longer than usual setting things up, and after a while, I was starting to get a little nervous. "Um, Kay? You alright in there? You're spending an awful lot of time with that app."

She didn't bother looking up in acknowledgement. "Hey, it takes a while to make changes on the fly. This is why last time I had everything preloaded." The clack of the keyboard filled the air without pause. "And besides, we both know there's something you can get for me if you're getting bored." It was impossible to miss the venom dripping from her voice.

After a few more minutes of sitting in relative silence, a sadistic gleam crossed her face. "All done. You ready for all this?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "I've told you, you don't need to ask permission each time. I trust you to have free reign with the app."

"Oh I know. I've used it a few times in the last couple days." I cocked my head at her in confusion. To my knowledge, she hadn't touched the app since our big testing day. What sort of tricks had she already done? But Kay didn't give me a chance to ask. "I just like hearing it from you directly. It's so much sweeter when you're asking me to fry those pretty little circuits in your head. But if you insist."

Kay hit the enter key, and I braced myself. But as was surprisingly common, I didn't notice any immediate changes. Kay was still my competitive girlfriend, and I was ready to play a fighting game with her. Same as before. I blinked in surprise. "Are you sure it worked? I still feel ready to go if you are."

For her part, Kay had already selected her character again. "I guess there's only one way to find out. Now come on, are you ready to get curb stomped into the ground?" I shrugged my shoulders. If the app was working, I'd find out her plan sooner or later. I picked my usual speedster and loaded into the match.

That was when I knew the app had worked. When I tried to move my character, I felt a sharp sensation from between my legs. I cried out and recoiled, much to Kay's amusement. Flicking the joystick on the controller created the feeling of "flicking the bean," so to speak. Each movement of my character was like a direct massage on my clit.

"Enjoying yourself over there?" Kay's voice was full of smarmy arrogance. My cheeks blushed as I experimented with moving around. It was as if I had a hand inside my pants, teasing my clit in tandem with my character's movements.

Much to my dismay, that was far from the only thing Kay had changed. As she moved in for the attack I realized my responses were taking longer. I was used to lightning fast computations and inputs, being able to pick the exact frame to respond with. Now there was a brief delay between noticing an incoming threat, processing what the best response was, and executing the proper reaction. And of course by the time that was ready the situation had changed and I needed to reassess. My brain was, for lack of a better word, lagging. The end result was me running around the map, which only led to a harsher feeling on my clit. This of course led to a bigger distraction, causing me to run more... it became a nasty feedback loop. The whole time I was stifling my moans while Kay laughed maniacally.

"What's wrong, afraid you're going to be a bit slow on your combos?" I did my best not to let Kay's taunting get to me. Although it was taking all of my focus, it wasn't an impossible battle. Despite my frantic retreats, Kay had only landed a few hits, and I was starting to get the hang of things again. I even managed a parry. Soon I'd actually be able to fight her again.

What I did find alarming was Kay's lack of concern. Even though I was starting to make a comeback, she appeared to be unfazed by my actions. Pretty soon I figured out why. In the middle of one of my attacks, my character started responding in all the wrong ways. I gasped as I attempted a throw instead of the light jab. Kay was quick to punish me, landing a few solid hits before I could retreat. "What the hell was that?" I did a few more button presses, but everything I tried was the wrong move.

"I take it you hit your first scramble?" The way she phrased it raised a number of alarm bells. "I was worried you'd try to stall things out. So every couple minutes, your motor memory will automatically start mixing all the input commands." Her character dashed back and forth in place, something she always did when getting ready to attack. "I gotta say, this really is like easy mode. Much fairer, don't you think?"

I grunted in response, unable to invest more mental energy into a conversation. I was battered down to around half health, while Kay didn't even have a scratch. But I wasn't planning to go down without a fight. Even though the controls were all mixed up in my mind, they were still consistent with their placements. It didn't take too long to build a mental map of everything - Block was a jab, throw was a heavy attack, and so on. Kay noticed this as well, and she tried to hide her surprise at how quickly I'd adapted.

It still wasn't an easy match by any means, but I could tell she wasn't treating it like a free win anymore. Her chiding manner was replaced with a more serious one, and the only sounds left in the room was the mashing of buttons. Now that things were getting more tense, the phantom rubbing of my clit was becoming more of a problem. Faster movement resulted in stronger stimulation. Another time, I might've simply abandoned the game in favour of rubbing myself. Kay hadn't given me an orgasm in the last couple days, so I was certainly horny enough. But this time I was focused on a different objective. I wanted to beat her at her own game, literally.

Despite the lag in my brain making things slow and the steady distraction between my legs, I was holding my own against her. We were both down to our final lives. And now that I was getting used to the restrictions, it was easier to get the timing of my attacks right. Factoring in the brief delay wasn't the most consistent, but it worked enough that Kay wasn't able to get a real edge.

Just when it looked like I was going to be able to sneak in a victory, the controls changed again. My character fumbled in place like an idiot while Kay started whaling on me. I cursed myself for getting careless, and for jeopardising my only chance of victory. This time I couldn't even blame anyone but myself. Kay had mentioned it would happen every couple minutes, I'd just managed to completely lose track and leave myself in a vulnerable position.

It was over. I was a light tap away from defeat, and I hadn't been able to restructure the mental map of the controls. Her character charged at mine, and I instinctively threw up a last minute parry. Which, of course, ended up being a completely different move.

A heavy attack. One that Kay literally ran into.

"Player 2, wins!"

The voice of the announcer cried out as we both sat there in silence. I'm not sure who was more stunned at the turn of events. Kay had fully cheated, using every dirty trick in the book, and she still wound up defeated. She was left stammering in disbelief. "But.. you... I was..."

I couldn't help it. I broke out into laughter while she stumbled over her own words. I was a horny mess and my brain was probably still lagging, but I couldn't help it. "You lost! You had the power to make me the worst player possible, and you lost anyway!" In that moment I didn't care what she did, I was too busy laughing at the absurdity of it all.

Kay looked like she was about to pop a blood vessel. Her teeth were grit, and her eye was twitching. Then, all at once, the tension appeared to leave her body. Her shoulders slumped downwards and a goofy smile grew on her face. "You know what? I did lose here. You beat me fair and square. Hell, it wasn't even a fair match, you still won with a massive handicap."

The sight of her relaxing made my circuits flutter. "You're not mad or anything? I know you care a lot about this game."

Now it was her turn to laugh. "Nah, it's just a game after all. I get worked up because it's fun to get overly invested in things, but I'm happy to admit defeat. If I have to get beaten by anyone, I'm glad it's you." She leaned back in the couch and spread her legs in a very unsubtle fashion. "Now, are you going to take your prize as a winner or what?"

A strange staticky feeling began running through my thoughts. "Winners prize? What do you mean by that?"

"Come on, you know what I mean." Kay spoke as if this were obvious information I should already know. "It's the tradition we always do. Whenever we're gaming, whoever wins has to go down on the loser. It's their reward for victory."

Any thoughts I had that something was off vanished. I felt stupid for forgetting our usual arrangement. "Right, of course. I knew that." Kay looked like she had a knowing smirk, but it was probably just my imagination. I knelt down in front of her and unzipped her pants, letting her slowly hardening cock flop out into the open.

"Don't go too fast," she commented. "I'm going to do another run of arcade mode, and I want your mouth around me the whole time. You know, as my punishment for losing."

I was happy to oblige.