{What a day,} Hailey comments internally. {Professor Foster is still obsessed with object orientation, so at least he's consistent.}

Sable chuckles quietly and shakes her head. {Could be worse. At least he knows data structures well.}

She pulls out her phone and unlocks it, figuring she'll see if any stories she follows have been updated.

A new smooth glassy icon gleams on her screen, violet-black shadows mingling with lavender and hot pink to form a heart of steam. It seems to almost glisten behind the shroud of the screen. 

{Um.}

{Did someone hack us?}

No, they have better protections than that, and they're running a clean version of Android without the usual manufacturer-included vulnerabilities.

{What the fuck.}

Well, they've got a backup of all the important shit on their phone, so.

Spring the trap?

She taps the icon.

A little satisfying haptic glide later, the screen lights up, expanding out the logo, before they dissolve into a cloud of inky steam, covering the screen with color, before it slowly resolves to an image of a finely designed desk enshrouded in royal purple curtains. Along the top of the screen, there's fancy little shroud of draping folded fabric, with four icons neatly nestled across each dip. 

🫟  0

🗡️  0

💜  0

🪙  0

A desk sits at the center, with a fine ink fountain laid to the side of a wide scroll labelled 'Collection', with a second one wrapped in jade-green sink set aside at the top. A brass spyglass sits next to the mahagony desk, thrumming softly with violet light. 

...Currencies? Look like currencies. 

Well, follow the white rabbit.

She taps on the spyglass.

An animation plays of it being lifted up to eye height, done in remarkable detail - you can really see the polish of the brass and the grain of the metal and the light shine of the internal mirrors. 

It transitions smoothly to a feed of the camera that's as good as the view of her eyes, with the banner staying at the top, like she's seeing through the screen or perhaps the camera rather than just looking at it. At the bottom, there's a little bronze dial, with lovingly rendered ratcheting marks. 

In beautiful penmanship, the words float across the screen in shiny black ink. 

Welcome to Heartstain. Collect your treasures, paint and taint their hearts, and gain rewards great and glorious. Take a picture of your first Treasure-to-be to embark on your Enchanting Journey. 

She trods out down the hall, tentatively looking over with a shy smile. 

"Good to see you! Just had some last little notes to finish up - you know how it is." 

Her fingers softly fuss with her fronter bracelet, making sure the die with the complicated blue spell circle design is turned up to view. 

"Good to see you too, sweetie. And yeah, I know the drill all too well."

Her bracelet is simpler, with a green side and a purple side, and it's currently turned purple-out.

She tilts her head at her phone. "I'm having an interesting time of it, though. Kinda think our phone got hacked. There's some weird app telling us to collect people as treasures and take a picture of our first one."

She blinks gently. 

"That's... weird. I know that people do scams and hacks for the oddest reasons, but I feel like most of those would have a payoff by now. You know, just have enough of an app to get you to click something, or just show a "You're pwned" screen, you know?"

She brushes back her soft black hair with a little lingering coquettish smile.  

"Yeah. And we've got our credentials secured separately, so figured we'd spring the trap. Seems not to have sprung yet. Guess we'll keep trying. Smile?"

She holds the phone up, pointing it at Romana.

She smiles lightly and indulgently, her glossed up fingernails gliding back behind her ear. 

"Cheese~?"

You can see her, of course, but beyond the little dimples of her smile and the way she wears that soft blue tanktop, she can see a set of sparkling stars. 

Gemstones (🌟🌟🌟🌟⭐)

🫟 90 0 /🗡️ 90  0 / 💜 90 0 

There's a faint glittering panolpy of four other sets of stars, each one faint enough to be just barely visible as they twinkle softly, orbiting around her head. 

A little pulsing circle forms at the tip of her brow, like a droplet of violet ink rippling along a clean translucent surface. 

"This thing is slick," she comments as she taps to take the picture. "Better production value than a trap like this should have."

When she clicks, a jolt of primal satisfaction runs through her spine, and the capture prompt washes away like tears in rain, leaving her name wrapped in golden chains. 

A soft violet glow slowly moves from the left side of the screen, before looping. 

A soft blush dawns on her face as her shoulders jump a little, blinking up at her. 

Sable shivers a bit, cheeks flushing. "Okay did you just get zapped? I just got zapped. Physical sensations shouldn't be an option for a phone app."

She nods and chuckles under her breath.

"You would think! That's..." 

Her eyes glance down. 

"Goodness."

Her cheeks burn a bit brighter a red. 

"Okay. We're in Weird territory now, not just hacks."

She stares down at it.

Fine, she'll swipe back.

And back to the main screen. 

Congralutions for taking your first Treasure. Check your Missions for your rightful rewards.

The green scroll glows softly, waiting eagerly. 

Well. She'll tap the scroll.

"That felt good," she murmurs. "Like satisfying something deep and old and possessive."

"Oh...~?" 

She leans in a little more. 

"For me it was more... feeling settled and stretched out and languidly pampered into place." 

The page unfurls, and settles onto the desk, before enveloping the screen. Each checkmarked mission glows softly, prompting her forward yet more. 

Collect your First Treasure: ✅

30 🫟, 30🗡️, 30💜, 30🪙

Confess a Sinful Feeling: ✅

20 🫟

Tell a Treasure How You Treasure Them:

20 💜

Tell a Treasure How You Want to Take Their Body: 

 20🗡️

Purchase a 🫟, 🗡️, and 💜perk: 

20🪙