It’s No Game
- Thread starter Queen Fiona
- Start date
- Original Mature Romance
TortugaGreen
Constantly out of the loop
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'd say so, I guess under the informational category? While it's not very relevant to the plot or necessary to understand the story, it's still neat to have 'behind the scenes'-y discussion of the background of this. On the other hand, it's not exactly a long thread and it wouldn't be hard to find them by just reading through the thread, so I don't think it'd be necessary.
- Location
- In front of my computer
Give her time, give her time.
- Location
- Wingmaiden's Reach, the Near Roofs, Town
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*waltzes in two weeks late and tries desperately to pretend like she wasn't caught in a horrible shame-spiral of "forgot to post, need to post, feel bad about not posting, hide to avoid feeling bad, feel worse, repeat"*
Two chapters! New chapters! Like, new-new ones; not new ones which were previously old ones!
Fef knows this already because I've given variants of this rant before (multiple times) but I feel very strongly that a huge percentage of love triangle plots could be resolved fairly easily by a) acknowledging that many people can have romantic and sexual feelings for more than one person at once; and b) further acknowledging that the fundamental basis of a love triangle is 'someone has romantic or sexual feelings for two+ other people'; and c) actually getting the parties involved in one room to talk to each other like human beings.
Maybe it won't work out.
Maybe one of the people involved is strictly monogamous and can't be happy in a polycule.
Maybe two of the parties cannot stand each other - and, um, asking them to put that aside for the sake of someone they mutually love seems kind of unhealthy to me.
Maybe something in the dynamic of all three together just doesn't gel.
But far better, I think, to have tried. To have made the effort. To respect each other; to acknowledge that each other's feelings are real and important, that they matter.
Or, you know, go back to the usual romantic fiction tropes of backstabbing and heartbreak and awfulness.
...
we've wandered a bit afield ...
Oh! yeah. Talks.
The point is, I love seeing partners talk about these things. For goodness' sake, it's so refreshing to see people actually tell each other how they feel, and work out how their relationship is going to work!
Gimme that over grand gestures and constant repetitions of 'I love you' any day.
Who could possibly have guessed.
I think that's the limit of my ability to push past the shamespiral right now. Vesta will have to wait until I recover spoons. I do have one last thing, tough:
Two chapters! New chapters! Like, new-new ones; not new ones which were previously old ones!
Stella is kind of my fave among the cuties for precisely this reason.
Oh hey! People actually having good relationship talks![19:34 05/13/42] qubeley004: Aren't you seeing other girls, Stella?
[19:35 05/13/42] luckystar: Not really. Before all this started, I'd broken it off with the last one. None of them were serious on an *emotional* level, either. Admittedly, it was never *supposed* to be for a lot of them, but still.
[19:37 05/13/42] luckystar: Some of them, I might've liked to be closer, to fall in love. But I couldn't provide, so they moved on. Others, well, they really couldn't keep up, so if the sex wasn't good, and it kinda hasn't been for a while…
[19:37 05/13/42] qubeley004: T-to be fair, I could barely walk ^^;
[19:39 05/13/42] luckystar: I meant *intellectually*, my Lady! (Though that was a problem too.) Anyway, just to make it clear: if you end up with other girls, I want in on it. Them.
[19:39 05/13/42] qubeley004: You want *in* them?
[19:39 05/13/42] luckystar: …sure, that too.
Fef knows this already because I've given variants of this rant before (multiple times) but I feel very strongly that a huge percentage of love triangle plots could be resolved fairly easily by a) acknowledging that many people can have romantic and sexual feelings for more than one person at once; and b) further acknowledging that the fundamental basis of a love triangle is 'someone has romantic or sexual feelings for two+ other people'; and c) actually getting the parties involved in one room to talk to each other like human beings.
Maybe it won't work out.
Maybe one of the people involved is strictly monogamous and can't be happy in a polycule.
Maybe two of the parties cannot stand each other - and, um, asking them to put that aside for the sake of someone they mutually love seems kind of unhealthy to me.
Maybe something in the dynamic of all three together just doesn't gel.
But far better, I think, to have tried. To have made the effort. To respect each other; to acknowledge that each other's feelings are real and important, that they matter.
Or, you know, go back to the usual romantic fiction tropes of backstabbing and heartbreak and awfulness.
...
we've wandered a bit afield ...
Oh! yeah. Talks.
The point is, I love seeing partners talk about these things. For goodness' sake, it's so refreshing to see people actually tell each other how they feel, and work out how their relationship is going to work!
Gimme that over grand gestures and constant repetitions of 'I love you' any day.
Oh, hey, it's almost like 'treating other people like they are actual human beings whose thoughts and feelings matter' is something that they appreciate!
Who could possibly have guessed.
I think that's the limit of my ability to push past the shamespiral right now. Vesta will have to wait until I recover spoons. I do have one last thing, tough:
not yet a goddess. Growth mindset!
Ⅲ.13: Dance Apocalyptic
Queen Fiona
Am I good enough for your heaven?
- Location
- The Throne of Want
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Friday, May 14th, Reiwa 42.
You wake up remarkably well-rested, long before your alarm is set to go off. Despite sleeping in the basement, you've clearly been riding very high off of yesterday's joyous and rapturous love…
A-ah, you can still feel that tingling, within you. Filled with a feeling like love, and a power like light, something like the taste of honey laid upon your lips. T-this is way too much…
You're starting to understand future-past-you, more and more each day.
…and that should probably concern you, thinking about it, as you hazily blink and focus upon future-past-you's words, still hovering in your vision from last night, lost before the feeling of awakening more of your true self.
(Or, is it just the self future-past-you wants you to be…?)
Doubts continue to tug at your mind, even as you read the first note, about Charm Person…
Way ahead of you, future-past-you! Well, small favors – you don't think she's able to read your mind. Even if one of your skills would allow her to place 'herself' inside you, easily, she hasn't done that…you're pretty sure, at least. Just you, and maybe a 'librarian'.
Alright, scratch that. Maybe you're not as close to understanding future-past-you as you thought?
It doesn't feel like Charm Person would be that useful for grasping a girl's heart, given its limitations. You might be able to nudge people you know a bit more, but every time you do that it's a risk. Getting your foot in the door isn't bad, but…
You'd much rather use this skill for heroic purposes. Even you're not naive enough to think the world will always be kind enough to let you be honest. If you can use this to help others, you're all for it – Korri's told you all kinds of stories, of being able to walk into a private office with a smile, a clipboard, and a good excuse. Charm Person seems much more suited to that kind of situation than anything else.
Persistent Charm, on the other hand.
Grandma Gaia, may she be remembered, once told a story of an old cousin of hers who was scrabbling in the nightmarish late Heisei job market. Desperate for work and with few opportunities, she found herself in a dodgy office downtown, where a bunch of very friendly and eager businessmen in nice suits instructed her in the benefits of door-to-door sales as part of their (suspiciously unnamed) company. By the end of that seminar, full of promises of fortune with the occasional exhortations of what not to do because that'd be illegal, she was convinced she'd finally have a career she could be proud of…
right until she tried a search engine.
The company wasn't outright illegal or anything, but…the industry they worked in was morally dubious at best. Promise the world – a cheap, pre-negotiated price for a few years' worth of electricity or natural gas, in this case – and use strict contract terms to inflict massive fees on anyone who tries to so much as move, let alone cancel their contract. It was a wonder they were allowed to operate at all for all the dirt they'd had on them, but…
capitalism, y'know?
Seul-ki certainly makes it out to be that way. Put someone in the right environment, the right room, the right situation, and you can convince them of almost anything. If that's the kind of power you have now, if that's what the honey on your lips is, then you've got something as dangerous as you thought it would be. Wondrous, beautiful, yet terrifying all the same.
But, if you think about it…
You sigh, grasping your phone from the coffee table, and taking yourself to Milia's social media with a few strategic taps. (You've been doing this quite a lot lately, but that's a normal thing to do when you have a rival, right?) Her posts are all public, of course, and she's quite bullish about her Debate Club, her life at the Verwest Academy…
and, of course, the Sunset Corporation.
If she doesn't believe all that chocolate mousse she said about Sunset's benefits to society in her debate, she's a very good actress. She's already talking about the Debate Club organizing things for Pride Month, and the local parades – as if you'd ever choose to attend something so corporate. Sunset Security has its own float, for desserts' sake! The very thought of supporting something where S3 and the Loyalty Campaign are allowed to march…
aaaaaaaand Milia's retweeting from the Loyalty Campaign and Soulmates, too. Unsurprising. She's always struck you as old fashioned, so her being 'pro-love' and talking about how true love can only be found in a committed relationship between two people, and obviously you can't have three or more people truly be in love…
(You'd absolutely love to prove her wrong, wouldn't you? Tempt her, such that she can't deny it – wait, bad thoughts, bad thoughts!)
Ugh.
She really does seem to believe it. That the world's salvation will come from the Sunset Corporation and its leadership. That they've made the city a better place for people of all races, genders, sexualities, and identities – as long as you're not poly, of course. That they're the only reason people in Southern Sun are able to live the way they do, and should be exalted for the blessings they've given those who have arrived upon the city's shores.
How she was so close to Seul-ki without actually absorbing any of her lessons is anyone's fudging guess, really. But then again, she's a de L'Impératrice, born and raised; her pride – their pride – in the role they played in building Southern Sun and its networks is practically a cliche by now.
Maybe that awful mindset wouldn't be so much of a problem on its own. But being the 'Empress of Verwest' means these ideas have weight. Maybe that's why she's got so much traction; the adults must love her, for promoting the values they prefer. In a way, Milia's been warping reality much longer than you ever had even the slightest chance…
(You can't help but wonder: was it like this, living in the twilight years of Heisei, just before the Collapse?)
It's a terrifying kind of power, you think, Persistent Charm. Unthinkable. But it's the same power Milia has. The same power her family has. Maybe, just maybe, the same power Sunset has.
If it's something like that, then you really don't mind fighting poison with poison, and bearing sweet honey upon your tongue.
(That taste on your lips, that feels so much yours.)
After all, Milia is the kind of person who can talk about all the work Sunset is doing in climate mitigation and space development and the protection of the planet, and then in the very next post show off her big expensive 'Montreal smoked meat sandwich', complete with her smug assurance that it was farmed – in other words, that she made darn fudging sure a living being suffered and died before she ate it, with all the land and carbon and resources that implies, before filling it with nitrites and who knows what, just in a gigantic pile, as if mocking the entire concept of cooking and food.
…and dozens upon dozens of people eat it all up, like nothing's the least bit wrong with any of it.
God, no wonder the planet's dying.
Milia aside, though, you're in pretty good spirits by the time you arrive at the Academy. After all, Stella will be waiting there for you at school! Your story isn't ending just because you grasped her for yourself, right? You've got a lot to look forward to from now on, all lovey-dovey and –
oh, she's here! Stella Maris is already here, you'd recognize those ringlets anywhere, and you can't help but run up and hug her from behind!
"Stella! It's –"
And then squirms out of your grasp.
"E-eh?"
Without looking at you, Stella grabs your arm and pulls you over to a shadowed corner, looking at you like you'd done something horrible!
W-were you wrong?! Did you…did the hypnosis and all that not take? Did she finally decide that she didn't want this after all?! Did she realize everything had gone wrong and now she doesn't –
a-ah
she kisses you
right here, in the corner, she ravishes your mouth with her tongue, as if she can barely hold back
it's wonderful, and you can feel and taste that tinge of desire within her beautiful mind, and the way she's so forceful when she holds the back of your head…
After a moment, she pulls away, her brow narrowed as she stares at you with golden eyes.
"Cibele…what were you thinking?" she asks.
"What? I was just –"
"I-I know! You want to greet me publicly!" Stella blushes, and looks aside, as if she's made you upset. "I'd like to, you know? I'm not ashamed I want you. Under normal circumstances, I'd be glad to have people ask about it…" Flashes in her mind, of how people would see her differently at her 180 toward you. "But right now, we can't let Ms. Yi know our relationship has come to this point."
"I…" You sigh, and nod, thinking about it a moment. "I, right. We still don't know what her goal is. If she sees us together like this, she'll know we're together."
"Exactly. As long as she still thinks we're in the process of getting together, we can figure that out on our terms," Stella says. "Think about it – if Nazakawa sees us, how long do you think it'll be until everyone knows? I'm a friend of his, but…he's really not good at keeping secrets."
…well. Stella's not wrong.
And it's a good reminder of why you shaped Stella's mind the way you did. Even if you lose out on some of that absolute loyalty that tastes more delicious than any sundae, you at least know she's going to be able to tell you when you've blown the goose! You're going to need that, you think.
…speaking of!
"You know how hard it is?" Stella's eyes shift, as she blushes, unable to hold back all her feelings. "That…thing you stuck inside my head keeps telling me how badly I need you. I don't get the sense it's thinking past making you happy, as opposed to securing things for you. Or maybe…"
You stroke her temple, brushing back a stray hair, staring into Stella's beautiful eyes.
"Maybe, she just wants you to see how beautiful I am."
The honey flows from your lips.
The pressure emerges from your mind, and compresses hers. Stella, all of Stella, her mind and her soul, yields to you, as it must.
Stella can feel it, knowing what you are, what you're capable of – even if not every nitty gritty detail, she knows you have this kind of magic – shuddering, mouth opening and remaining silent as she sees your will shape hers, knows it, her soul kneaded and molded by your ephemeral touch…
(Why is it so easy, to do this? So easy, you did it on instinct, knowing you needed Stella to feel it?)
(Is it that, within Stella's thoughts, you can see her gaze bearing witness to a tinge of gold within your eyes, when you let loose the ancient magic?)
"…d-don't tease me," Stella says. (Whether to you, or her 'little star', is a moot question.)
She shivers in delight, at your mere touch. Incomparable to what you imagined only two weeks before.
So lovely.
Stella Maris, once a hopeless crush you'd never have hoped to grasp, is completely addicted to your words.
"We can find something to do with it, right?" you ask, grinning, swallowing your honey down. (Your charm, at least, seems to be more under your control than your telepathy has been – that incident with Korri aside.) "Even if we can't do it at school yet, we can still indulge…"
"N-nngh. We can, m-my Lady," Stella whispers, and whimpers, looking behind you to make sure no one's looking. "At least, when I have the time. Work has been especially busy lately –"
bzz-bzz-bzz-bzz
Oh! It's your phone! You pull it out, and…huh.
"It's from school," you say, showing your phone to Stella. "Looks like Seul-ki's…on sick leave? Really?"
"How strange," Stella mutters, examining the email. "I guess she didn't know the study date was yesterday? You'd think she'd want to follow up."
"I guess not." You pocket your phone again. "Looks like our afternoon is free, though!"
"It seems that way…mm. If that's the case, we could meet up somewhere after class." Stella visibly brightens when saying that, even if she's trying not to sound too excited…
aah, she's way too cute!
"There's a place I've been wanting to try that's not too far from the Academy," you say. "Maybe while we're there, I could tell you about some of the other girls I know? That you might get to know…"
You flash a winning smile, and you can tell – but Stella likes that idea. No wonder – not only did she tell you all about it last night, right now, her 'little star' whispers about how hot it'd be to have lots of other cuties to serve you alongside. (Not to mention smooch herself!)
"…y-yeah. Sure." Stella nods in agreement, trying not to sound too excited. "If that's all, we should get to our classes –"
Before she moves away, you place a finger on her lips. Because you've got a great idea, and you want to test out how thoroughly you've laced your words and thoughts within her…
"Hey little star," you whisper, and the shift in Stella's stance is instantaneous. Hypnosis is so cool…"Give me Stella's panties. Don't let her realize they're gone, at least not consciously. We'll play a game to see how long it is before she realizes I took them from her." Just a little cute sadism from you, you know? Nothing too risky given Stella dresses heavier than most girls in Southern Sun's heat – you might wanna ask her to dress lighter, but details! – but still plenty of fun that'll make her excited once she realizes how you'd been tricking her.
"As you wish, my Lady," she says, carefully hiding herself from prying eyes behind you as she tugs her skirt up and pulls away her panties…ooh. Lacy, white, and surprisingly daring…you suspect she had some idea you'd want to see them! (Maybe she's been dressing up in cute lingerie this whole time while thinking about you~?)
Oh, and they're just a tiny bit damp…right, that'll be your fault~
You gingerly grasp them out of Stella's hands, fold them up, and hide them in your bag…at which point Stella resumes her normal state of mind, forgetting entirely about what happened and merely giving you a quick, cute little peck on the cheek and a smile before she rushes away to her class.
Thighs rubbing together, no fabric restricting them, completely unaware of your machinations…
Nngh. It's all so sexy…
Hypnosis is awesome.
You wake up remarkably well-rested, long before your alarm is set to go off. Despite sleeping in the basement, you've clearly been riding very high off of yesterday's joyous and rapturous love…
A-ah, you can still feel that tingling, within you. Filled with a feeling like love, and a power like light, something like the taste of honey laid upon your lips. T-this is way too much…
You're starting to understand future-past-you, more and more each day.
…and that should probably concern you, thinking about it, as you hazily blink and focus upon future-past-you's words, still hovering in your vision from last night, lost before the feeling of awakening more of your true self.
(Or, is it just the self future-past-you wants you to be…?)
Doubts continue to tug at your mind, even as you read the first note, about Charm Person…
The first step to something more is friendship. Such potential. With your power over the fabric of the world, subverting a will is nothing. Stella would be good for this, you know? Though there's plenty of cuties a bit of 'friendship' can help fix…Way ahead of you, future-past-you! Well, small favors – you don't think she's able to read your mind. Even if one of your skills would allow her to place 'herself' inside you, easily, she hasn't done that…you're pretty sure, at least. Just you, and maybe a 'librarian'.
Alright, scratch that. Maybe you're not as close to understanding future-past-you as you thought?
It doesn't feel like Charm Person would be that useful for grasping a girl's heart, given its limitations. You might be able to nudge people you know a bit more, but every time you do that it's a risk. Getting your foot in the door isn't bad, but…
You'd much rather use this skill for heroic purposes. Even you're not naive enough to think the world will always be kind enough to let you be honest. If you can use this to help others, you're all for it – Korri's told you all kinds of stories, of being able to walk into a private office with a smile, a clipboard, and a good excuse. Charm Person seems much more suited to that kind of situation than anything else.
Persistent Charm, on the other hand.
In the land of capitalism, the salesman is king. Or should it be 'the saleswoman is queen'? Twisting them around your words and making them trust in them like they're the only thing in your world…set up a few meetings in the right place, with the right people, and you can do so much with the city. After all, is fighting with your fists and your sword truly being a heroine…?Grandma Gaia, may she be remembered, once told a story of an old cousin of hers who was scrabbling in the nightmarish late Heisei job market. Desperate for work and with few opportunities, she found herself in a dodgy office downtown, where a bunch of very friendly and eager businessmen in nice suits instructed her in the benefits of door-to-door sales as part of their (suspiciously unnamed) company. By the end of that seminar, full of promises of fortune with the occasional exhortations of what not to do because that'd be illegal, she was convinced she'd finally have a career she could be proud of…
right until she tried a search engine.
The company wasn't outright illegal or anything, but…the industry they worked in was morally dubious at best. Promise the world – a cheap, pre-negotiated price for a few years' worth of electricity or natural gas, in this case – and use strict contract terms to inflict massive fees on anyone who tries to so much as move, let alone cancel their contract. It was a wonder they were allowed to operate at all for all the dirt they'd had on them, but…
capitalism, y'know?
Seul-ki certainly makes it out to be that way. Put someone in the right environment, the right room, the right situation, and you can convince them of almost anything. If that's the kind of power you have now, if that's what the honey on your lips is, then you've got something as dangerous as you thought it would be. Wondrous, beautiful, yet terrifying all the same.
But, if you think about it…
You sigh, grasping your phone from the coffee table, and taking yourself to Milia's social media with a few strategic taps. (You've been doing this quite a lot lately, but that's a normal thing to do when you have a rival, right?) Her posts are all public, of course, and she's quite bullish about her Debate Club, her life at the Verwest Academy…
and, of course, the Sunset Corporation.
If she doesn't believe all that chocolate mousse she said about Sunset's benefits to society in her debate, she's a very good actress. She's already talking about the Debate Club organizing things for Pride Month, and the local parades – as if you'd ever choose to attend something so corporate. Sunset Security has its own float, for desserts' sake! The very thought of supporting something where S3 and the Loyalty Campaign are allowed to march…
aaaaaaaand Milia's retweeting from the Loyalty Campaign and Soulmates, too. Unsurprising. She's always struck you as old fashioned, so her being 'pro-love' and talking about how true love can only be found in a committed relationship between two people, and obviously you can't have three or more people truly be in love…
(You'd absolutely love to prove her wrong, wouldn't you? Tempt her, such that she can't deny it – wait, bad thoughts, bad thoughts!)
Ugh.
She really does seem to believe it. That the world's salvation will come from the Sunset Corporation and its leadership. That they've made the city a better place for people of all races, genders, sexualities, and identities – as long as you're not poly, of course. That they're the only reason people in Southern Sun are able to live the way they do, and should be exalted for the blessings they've given those who have arrived upon the city's shores.
How she was so close to Seul-ki without actually absorbing any of her lessons is anyone's fudging guess, really. But then again, she's a de L'Impératrice, born and raised; her pride – their pride – in the role they played in building Southern Sun and its networks is practically a cliche by now.
Maybe that awful mindset wouldn't be so much of a problem on its own. But being the 'Empress of Verwest' means these ideas have weight. Maybe that's why she's got so much traction; the adults must love her, for promoting the values they prefer. In a way, Milia's been warping reality much longer than you ever had even the slightest chance…
(You can't help but wonder: was it like this, living in the twilight years of Heisei, just before the Collapse?)
It's a terrifying kind of power, you think, Persistent Charm. Unthinkable. But it's the same power Milia has. The same power her family has. Maybe, just maybe, the same power Sunset has.
If it's something like that, then you really don't mind fighting poison with poison, and bearing sweet honey upon your tongue.
(That taste on your lips, that feels so much yours.)
After all, Milia is the kind of person who can talk about all the work Sunset is doing in climate mitigation and space development and the protection of the planet, and then in the very next post show off her big expensive 'Montreal smoked meat sandwich', complete with her smug assurance that it was farmed – in other words, that she made darn fudging sure a living being suffered and died before she ate it, with all the land and carbon and resources that implies, before filling it with nitrites and who knows what, just in a gigantic pile, as if mocking the entire concept of cooking and food.
…and dozens upon dozens of people eat it all up, like nothing's the least bit wrong with any of it.
God, no wonder the planet's dying.
Milia aside, though, you're in pretty good spirits by the time you arrive at the Academy. After all, Stella will be waiting there for you at school! Your story isn't ending just because you grasped her for yourself, right? You've got a lot to look forward to from now on, all lovey-dovey and –
oh, she's here! Stella Maris is already here, you'd recognize those ringlets anywhere, and you can't help but run up and hug her from behind!
"Stella! It's –"
And then squirms out of your grasp.
"E-eh?"
Without looking at you, Stella grabs your arm and pulls you over to a shadowed corner, looking at you like you'd done something horrible!
W-were you wrong?! Did you…did the hypnosis and all that not take? Did she finally decide that she didn't want this after all?! Did she realize everything had gone wrong and now she doesn't –
a-ah
she kisses you
right here, in the corner, she ravishes your mouth with her tongue, as if she can barely hold back
it's wonderful, and you can feel and taste that tinge of desire within her beautiful mind, and the way she's so forceful when she holds the back of your head…
After a moment, she pulls away, her brow narrowed as she stares at you with golden eyes.
"Cibele…what were you thinking?" she asks.
"What? I was just –"
"I-I know! You want to greet me publicly!" Stella blushes, and looks aside, as if she's made you upset. "I'd like to, you know? I'm not ashamed I want you. Under normal circumstances, I'd be glad to have people ask about it…" Flashes in her mind, of how people would see her differently at her 180 toward you. "But right now, we can't let Ms. Yi know our relationship has come to this point."
"I…" You sigh, and nod, thinking about it a moment. "I, right. We still don't know what her goal is. If she sees us together like this, she'll know we're together."
"Exactly. As long as she still thinks we're in the process of getting together, we can figure that out on our terms," Stella says. "Think about it – if Nazakawa sees us, how long do you think it'll be until everyone knows? I'm a friend of his, but…he's really not good at keeping secrets."
…well. Stella's not wrong.
And it's a good reminder of why you shaped Stella's mind the way you did. Even if you lose out on some of that absolute loyalty that tastes more delicious than any sundae, you at least know she's going to be able to tell you when you've blown the goose! You're going to need that, you think.
…speaking of!
"You know how hard it is?" Stella's eyes shift, as she blushes, unable to hold back all her feelings. "That…thing you stuck inside my head keeps telling me how badly I need you. I don't get the sense it's thinking past making you happy, as opposed to securing things for you. Or maybe…"
You stroke her temple, brushing back a stray hair, staring into Stella's beautiful eyes.
"Maybe, she just wants you to see how beautiful I am."
The honey flows from your lips.
The pressure emerges from your mind, and compresses hers. Stella, all of Stella, her mind and her soul, yields to you, as it must.
Stella can feel it, knowing what you are, what you're capable of – even if not every nitty gritty detail, she knows you have this kind of magic – shuddering, mouth opening and remaining silent as she sees your will shape hers, knows it, her soul kneaded and molded by your ephemeral touch…
(Why is it so easy, to do this? So easy, you did it on instinct, knowing you needed Stella to feel it?)
(Is it that, within Stella's thoughts, you can see her gaze bearing witness to a tinge of gold within your eyes, when you let loose the ancient magic?)
"…d-don't tease me," Stella says. (Whether to you, or her 'little star', is a moot question.)
She shivers in delight, at your mere touch. Incomparable to what you imagined only two weeks before.
So lovely.
Stella Maris, once a hopeless crush you'd never have hoped to grasp, is completely addicted to your words.
"We can find something to do with it, right?" you ask, grinning, swallowing your honey down. (Your charm, at least, seems to be more under your control than your telepathy has been – that incident with Korri aside.) "Even if we can't do it at school yet, we can still indulge…"
"N-nngh. We can, m-my Lady," Stella whispers, and whimpers, looking behind you to make sure no one's looking. "At least, when I have the time. Work has been especially busy lately –"
bzz-bzz-bzz-bzz
Oh! It's your phone! You pull it out, and…huh.
"It's from school," you say, showing your phone to Stella. "Looks like Seul-ki's…on sick leave? Really?"
"How strange," Stella mutters, examining the email. "I guess she didn't know the study date was yesterday? You'd think she'd want to follow up."
"I guess not." You pocket your phone again. "Looks like our afternoon is free, though!"
"It seems that way…mm. If that's the case, we could meet up somewhere after class." Stella visibly brightens when saying that, even if she's trying not to sound too excited…
aah, she's way too cute!
"There's a place I've been wanting to try that's not too far from the Academy," you say. "Maybe while we're there, I could tell you about some of the other girls I know? That you might get to know…"
You flash a winning smile, and you can tell – but Stella likes that idea. No wonder – not only did she tell you all about it last night, right now, her 'little star' whispers about how hot it'd be to have lots of other cuties to serve you alongside. (Not to mention smooch herself!)
"…y-yeah. Sure." Stella nods in agreement, trying not to sound too excited. "If that's all, we should get to our classes –"
Before she moves away, you place a finger on her lips. Because you've got a great idea, and you want to test out how thoroughly you've laced your words and thoughts within her…
"Hey little star," you whisper, and the shift in Stella's stance is instantaneous. Hypnosis is so cool…"Give me Stella's panties. Don't let her realize they're gone, at least not consciously. We'll play a game to see how long it is before she realizes I took them from her." Just a little cute sadism from you, you know? Nothing too risky given Stella dresses heavier than most girls in Southern Sun's heat – you might wanna ask her to dress lighter, but details! – but still plenty of fun that'll make her excited once she realizes how you'd been tricking her.
"As you wish, my Lady," she says, carefully hiding herself from prying eyes behind you as she tugs her skirt up and pulls away her panties…ooh. Lacy, white, and surprisingly daring…you suspect she had some idea you'd want to see them! (Maybe she's been dressing up in cute lingerie this whole time while thinking about you~?)
Oh, and they're just a tiny bit damp…right, that'll be your fault~
You gingerly grasp them out of Stella's hands, fold them up, and hide them in your bag…at which point Stella resumes her normal state of mind, forgetting entirely about what happened and merely giving you a quick, cute little peck on the cheek and a smile before she rushes away to her class.
Thighs rubbing together, no fabric restricting them, completely unaware of your machinations…
Nngh. It's all so sexy…
Hypnosis is awesome.
Psychology Branch: MemeticsMemetics T1: You'll Trust Me. You gain the ability to spread an idea, a 'meme', through groups of people you have consistent access to. Through the way you act and talk, you spread the idea that you are an inherently trustworthy person. People will find it less likely that you will lie to them, and are more likely to take your words to heart or treat you as a friend.
This trustworthiness allows you to spread other types of memes more effectively, slowly warping behavior over time. This effect is relatively limited, and will not change deeply-held convictions or more powerful memetics.
Requires Instant Hypnotherapist.Memetics T2: You'll Love Me. You gain an additional meme you may spread, that of yourself as an inherently attractive and lovable person, one who is among the pinnacle of sexiness. People will begin to find you exceptionally desirable, and will find it difficult to speak to you without blushing, easily seduced or disarmed before you.
This will not override sexual orientation, but will slowly warp it over time. Anyone who has any sexual attraction to women whatsoever, even if they don't realize it, will find that attraction growing toward you whether they'd admit it to themselves or not.
Requires You'll Trust Me.Memetics T3: I am Your Goddess. You gain an additional meme you may spread, of your inherent perfection in all things. People will begin to find themselves walking in lockstep with you, warping their own psyches and ideas to a form more pleasing to you, and considering your moral compass to be a paragon to aspire to.
Eventually, with enough time, people will find themselves considering you a goddess, be it figuratively or literally. They will become inherently submissive to you, though only as far as you would ordinarily allow it. Your worshippers will be as fanatical as you please, and may form the backbone of an army if need be.
If you have Handshake Induction (Induction T2), then you may spread and reinforce this meme (and the others) more quickly through physical touch. At the outer edge of effectiveness, you may spread all your memes nigh-instantly in a single kiss to someone you've only just met.
Requires You'll Love Me and I Want The Control (Induction T1).
Queen Fiona
Am I good enough for your heaven?
- Location
- The Throne of Want
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I just want you to know that every time I see this in my own fucking thread I internally seethe. It looks like they've removed the "funny" word count stuff under the posting box, at least? Small favors.
Anyway. That aside, fans of Rita Sternbach (which appears to be 'everyone who's read Fiona's stuff', I've never met anyone who doesn't like her) will be pleased to hear that I'm writing a Rita-centric spinoff featuring transhumanism, monster girls, and a group chat RP full of candidates (or 'eggs', as people called them in the late Heisei era!). I've been debating posting it here
"Stand before the Echidna's throne. Become the Demon Lord."Guided by those words in dreams of Black Moon Lilith, a young aspiring scientist remodels himself into a perfect female body, and inscribes love upon her very genes. She defies her biology with pride. An immortal machine and the mother of monsters, who will remodel the insects on this planet's face, one beautiful monster at a time. 🖤
A story of transhumanism, magic, and monster girls in the Late Reiwa Era.
The other Rita-centric spinoff (the completed one), Love is Like Poison, will be posted here (and in this thread) eventually. But it's kind of a spoiler for the next arc of the story, so for now you can find it on my AO3 page if you want.
EDIT: By the way, you can probably thank Gundam Witch From Mercury (and its protagonist, Suletta Witch From Mercury) for providing motivation here. I'll continue posting this on SV for the foreseeable due to prior commitments.
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- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
This really is very well done and I'm glad to see it back.
1) Future-past-Cibele may (may? hah!) be a lot more comfortable nonconsensually editing people's minds than present-Cibele, and yet view present-Cibele as an "equal" she wouldn't want to overwrite too heavily. Insert tropes here about how the mind-controller can't help but think of someone else with similar abilities as just that little bit more... real.
2) Future-past-Cibele seems to be trying to guide present-Cibele to solve some kind of serious problem that future-past-Cibele herself was unable to solve. Perhaps future-past-Cibele has been forced to learn a valuable lesson about "the kind of thinking that screwed a situation up cannot be used to screw the situation back down." Perhaps she regrets actions that cannot be undone, and knows that she carried out those actions for reasons related to who (future-past-)she now is. Imprinting present-Cibele with too many of future-past-Cibele's attitudes, choices, and behavior patterns might predispose her to make future-past-Cibele's mistakes, too, and then everyone would really be in the soup.
3) Future-past-Cibele may actually be just straightforwardly a future version of present-Cibele cheesing some combination of her (eventual) abilities to send information into her own past, and just lying about the idea that she's from an alternate future where things play out differently. Sort of a "by her own bootstraps" scenario. In which case directly editing present-Cibele's mind very much, or in any way that future-Cibele, thinking back, knows didn't happen to her, would be one hell of a risk.
Given that future-past-Cibele is imprinting information from the future on present-Cibele's mind, I can think of reasons why it would be counterproductive to do too much to directly shape her personality.
1) Future-past-Cibele may (may? hah!) be a lot more comfortable nonconsensually editing people's minds than present-Cibele, and yet view present-Cibele as an "equal" she wouldn't want to overwrite too heavily. Insert tropes here about how the mind-controller can't help but think of someone else with similar abilities as just that little bit more... real.
2) Future-past-Cibele seems to be trying to guide present-Cibele to solve some kind of serious problem that future-past-Cibele herself was unable to solve. Perhaps future-past-Cibele has been forced to learn a valuable lesson about "the kind of thinking that screwed a situation up cannot be used to screw the situation back down." Perhaps she regrets actions that cannot be undone, and knows that she carried out those actions for reasons related to who (future-past-)she now is. Imprinting present-Cibele with too many of future-past-Cibele's attitudes, choices, and behavior patterns might predispose her to make future-past-Cibele's mistakes, too, and then everyone would really be in the soup.
3) Future-past-Cibele may actually be just straightforwardly a future version of present-Cibele cheesing some combination of her (eventual) abilities to send information into her own past, and just lying about the idea that she's from an alternate future where things play out differently. Sort of a "by her own bootstraps" scenario. In which case directly editing present-Cibele's mind very much, or in any way that future-Cibele, thinking back, knows didn't happen to her, would be one hell of a risk.
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