You gave it a good run, literally – though you’re certain you nearly got run over again! – but you can’t outrun Ms. Yi’s words forever.

Without even checking to see if anyone else was home yet, you end up getting into the shower only moments after your arrival, clothes quickly peeled off as you try and calm yourself beneath a stream of warm water.

Hypnotherapy.

There’s nothing strange about that, right? It’s become a lot more popular in the past couple of decades than it was in your parents’ day. There’s nothing odd about wanting to take that on as a career, nor is there anything overtly strange about wanting to do it with someone. For Stella, you’re sure it’s nothing sexual.

But you can’t help but wonder.

So, per Ms. Yi, hypnosis can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do. Mind you, your Instant Hypnotherapist is powerful –

Hypnosis Opener: Instant Hypnotherapist. You instantly learn everything about inducing trance in a willing subject and using that trance to compel them into certain actions. You are still limited by the traditional limits of hypnosis.

– maybe a bit too powerful, especially for a ‘starter’ skill, but it only makes you capable of using it normally. You’d be an expert, sure, but you couldn’t do things impossible for an expert…

and yet, if you had bought that opener, it’d be only one more point until you could.

Induction T1: I Want The Control.

You can’t bring yourself to properly read the description, and yet, it teases and tantalizes you with the possibilities.

You’re certain no one should have this power. No human could be entrusted with it. Maybe you received such a thing by accident, maybe it was something you never chose to do, but what future-past-you became wasn’t innocent at all!

“Mouuu…” you mutter, as one of your hands finds itself between your legs. “Why did Ms. Yi have to say those things?”

You wonder what it’d feel like.

What does a hypnotised girl look like? How does she act? What is it like, to hypnotise a girl? Would you use a pendulum, or would you bring her into a trance with your words alone?

What would Stella look like?

There’s something about the idea that draws you in. It’s dangerous. To think of Stella being, in some small way, under your power – to turn the tables on a relationship she’s always led, always decided the nature of. To show that vulnerability, to open herself to you, beneath your words, beneath your will.

Your fingers slip into yourself.

You wouldn’t violate Stella’s will, but you always could. It’s scary, and yet you can’t help but feel a thrill at the thought. At the possibilities for intimacy. Not simply sex, but something entirely different.

N-not to say you haven’t been curious!

Stella’s popular with women. Far more popular than you, certainly. And the rumor is, she’s amazing in bed. Just another reason to be disappointed, and to wonder what it’d be like if she did fall for you.

Your nipples are standing on end, and you reach up, and pinch one, biting your lip a little to stifle your moan.

The power that lies in these hands of yours, a power to break even darkness, isn’t something you should use for evil. And yet, you’re not certain any human could remain selfless in the face of this power.

At the top of each skill tree, after three tiers of three branches, is a single capstone. The power inherent in them – if indeed such a power can truly exist, if indeed no one else holds this power – is a temptation like no other.

Hypnosis Capstone: The Supreme Idea. Your inductions and memes are so powerful that you essentially create a copy of yourself within the minds of others you hypnotise. This copy can continue to control others while you are not around, and can instantly take control of them whenever needed, with all your Hypnosis skills and any special talents they may possess.

Requires one T3, one T2, and one T1 Hypnosis skill, each in a different branch.

The power to leave a piece of yourself in everyone you meet.

Telepathy Capstone: Dual Timeline. You continually see an hour into the future. Not only that, but you essentially live through both those futures simultaneously. At any time, you may collapse the timeline and choose to discard one of these futures.

Requires one T3, one T2, and one T1 Telepathy skill, each in a different branch.

The power to defy fate itself.

Enchantment Capstone: Queen of the Seelie Court. Your control over the perception of reality has grown to the point of altering the physical world. The more people you convince or deceive using your Enchantment skills, the more these mental alterations have an impact on the structure of the physical world.

Because of the nature of your magic, part of it lingers in every individual you’ve touched with it. Using your hold over them, you may change their beliefs of what reality is and is not to suit you at will. Effectively, you gain a powerful magic that warps reality and may be used to reproduce any number of effects. The more people who have been trapped in your ‘court’, the stronger this effect becomes, until you reach the point where reality is based entirely on your will on what is and is not ‘real’.

This does not affect other ???, who already warp consensus reality. It also may not be used to reproduce the effects of Hypnosis or Telepathy skills.

Requires one T3, one T2, and one T1 Enchantment skill, each in a different path.

And the power to mold reality into the shape you desire most.

What would Ms. Yi tell you to do with them?

What would Stella tell you to do with them?

Would such an ability, without even trying – let alone all the power you’d need to get there in the first place – draw Stella into your orbit? Would she find you beautiful? Would she deign to allow a piece of yourself into her mind? Would she allow herself to be shaped by you, into something small and smooth and pleasing to the eye?

You shouldn’t consider it.

You shouldn’t imagine, what it’d be like to fill Stella with you, body, mind, and soul.

And yet –

and yet, as your finger brushes at your clit, as you squeeze your breast and feel that pleasure wash away with the water down the drain –

you can’t help but wonder how long it’ll take before you succumb to the inevitability of this sweet, fudgey temptation…

---

“Cibele!”

As you come down the stairs, you hear a cry from the kitchen, as your mother rushes toward you and embraces you in a tight, powerful hug!

“Hey mom,” you say in Portuguese, squeezing her in return. You’re certain she’s been worried about you, and you’re glad she finally knows you’re alright! “It’s okay. I’m okay, mom, you know?”

“Oh, my poor baby girl!” It’s a little embarrassing, but – you don’t mind, given the circumstances. In the old timeline, you’re all but certain you were in that hospital for much longer. “You should’ve come to the concert! Well, I can’t fault you for doing the right thing, but if you had, you’d be alright! Aah, I’m so glad you’re okay!”

Your mother, Rheia Epeli Sílvia, has her hands full with running a full-time job and raising five kids, even if your father Satre shares the workload. Not to mention the rest of the family that comes in and out of the household. (It’s a big house, sure, but still!) You resemble her quite a lot, you think, to the point where if her skin was a bit darker like yours you’d practically look like sisters.

(…well, okay, your occasional experiences of your school assignment groups mooning over how attractive your mom is, it might make you a little oversensitive to that. Especially since it’s usually girls.)

“It’s fine. I wanted to help Calvina out, you know? You could say my hobby is helping people!” Well, you did have a bit of a selfish motive, but you don’t think it’s a bad thing to want a girl to notice you, right? Jokes about your intentions with Marq aside, you at least want Calvina to look at you as an equal.

Mama walks over to the espresso machine, getting ready to prepare a pull or two, as usual for after work and class. (After all, you need to prepare for your special guest!) “Even if that’s the case, you can’t force her to take notice. You’re old enough that she should start looking at you differently now, but it’ll take time. You met her when you were still in high school, it’s hard for people to adjust.”

“I guess so,” you mutter. Mama’s always right, about things like this – much as you hate to admit it sometimes. “But, really, it’s important. We keep treating climate refugees worse and worse, and it feels like people are losing hope. Don’t they deserve the help? The same opportunities we have?”

“You’ll hear no argument from me.” The sound of a pull from the machine is, as ever, timed far better than you could ever manage. How does Mama do that? “But if you run yourself ragged, you’ll overextend yourself. Imagine if that accident was more serious, you know?”

Ugh. Mama couldn’t know that it nearly was, if not for some supernatural power, but it still stings. “I guess I have been heading out a bit much these past few weeks. It’s not all for Calvina, though…mostly.” Calvina wasn’t even there sometimes. “I just, think it’s important people know there’s someone fighting for them!”

“They know, Cibele. And I know, too, from all those scrapes and bruises –” ding-dong! “– and speaking of,” Mama says, switching to English mid-sentence, “your lady in waiting has arrived.”

…does she have to put it that way? Mama’s embarrassing, but, well, at least she has her heart in the right place.

“Cibby!”

Stepping in from the threshold as you enter the hall, stepping out of her shoes, is the person whose heart you want to protect the most, running close to you to bury herself in your arms.

“Korri!” you say, holding her as tight as you can…

holding the girl you call your very best friend.

---

“Listen to me, traitor. I believe that you’ve received a death message from our ninja empire!”

“snrk”

“Ninja is supreme and you have double-crossed it! Why did you do that?”

“snrk”

You snicker to yourself at the movie you’ve picked out for the chunk of time between now and fencing class. Only a few moments before, a tiny armless Omega Supreme knockoff had delivered said death message to an old spaghetti western star, though the following phone call raised a lot of questions as to the point of the robot in the first place.

And Korri – sweet, beautiful Korri – sits next to you on your couch for your near-daily ritual, snuggling next to you, sadly not sharing your amusement at the wonderful world of awful Showa-era genre cinema.

“…why does the guy in the phone call look like he’s from a different movie?” Korri asks. And ugh, whenever you’re next to her, all you can think of is how adorable she is.

“That’s because he is from a different movie,” you say. “This is actually a Korean action movie spliced in with a bunch of white guys in ninja costumes.”

“Oh, so they use the phone to stage conversations between the different movies?”

“Yup. It has to be a Garfield phone, though, or else it won’t work.”

…well, she’s a good sport at least.

Sweet, wonderful Korri.

For years and years – since kindergarten, really – Korri’s been your best friend in the whole wide world. (Well, her full name is Korrigan Trelawney, but you can count the number of times you’ve called her ‘Korrigan’ on one hand – she’ll always be ‘Korri’ to you, and you’ll always be ‘Cibby’ to her.) Her presence has been possibly the brightest part of your life –

and for all that time, you’ve nursed such an awful crush on her, too. (Y-you swear, you really were going to confess soon this time, honest!)

You remember fighting for her, all these years, being there when no one else was. These days, she at least has a few friends besides you and Marq, but day after day she still comes to visit you, as much as she can.

And she still needs you, doesn’t she? To help guide her, to –

No, bad thoughts, bad thoughts! After what you were thinking about in the shower, you can’t go down that road!

“Hm…I’m not sure about this movie, though,” says Korri. “Maybe we should –”

“N-no!” you exclaim. “I-I mean…maybe if we just watch some of the trailers? I should probably get ready soon, anyway…”

G-gotta dodge that bullet!

For as much as you like Korri, how passionate and loving she is…s-she loves horror movies! Really scary ones! If you let her pick, you’d hide behind the couch the whole time, or snuggle against her…

well, she lets that happen. She likes the human contact, and here you are, nursing a crush on her without telling her at all.

Are you really so awful?

…

…maybe you are.

You can’t tell Korri what’s happened to you. Her, most of all. The most you can hope to do is try and get her advice to stay on the right path, without letting her know how just what it is you’re capable of.

“Hey, uh…weird question for you, Korri,” you say, not able to look her in the eye (more than usual). “If you…if you had psychic powers, what would you do to people you hated?”

“Probably light them on fire,” Korri says without hesitation.

“N-no, not that kind. More like…y’know, telepathy? Mind stuff.”

“Oh? If it’s that…I guess I’d have to think about it. Maybe make them jump off a cliff?”

…this was a dumb idea.

As the fuzzy ninja action proceeds upon the basement TV, no one there but the two of you, you try to get yourself under control. Especially if it’s for sweet, beautiful, wonderful Korri.

She’s surprisingly tiny, compared to you. She’s not that much shorter, but you swear the girl can’t weigh more than 50 kilograms at most. Born here in Southern Sun to parents from the Duchy of Cornwall, even in a city of sunny skies, nary a ray of light has ever come to tan her skin. Half-buried in a purple hoodie a size too large, you almost worry she’d float away if she didn’t have you to hold her down.

Even with that short, messy black hair, and those dark eyes, and everything else – she’s just so darned cute, you can’t help but fuss over her, even as you worry you’re taking advantage of her by having her hold you –

let alone when you feel her mind, like pebbles of beautiful glass seeping red fluid upon the Earth, and seek out her thoughts.

…huh, weird question. Maybe Cibby’s writing something about psychic powers? Oh well. Anyway, I really thought Cibby would like this movie…maybe someday I’ll get to show it to –

No, Cibele. Stop.

You find yourself sighing, pulling away from Korri, who tugs on your blouse a little as you do.

“Ah! Um, Cibby, is something wrong?”

“Uhhhh. N-not really? Ehe, uh, maybe I’m still kinda in shock after the accident…”

Right, maybe you can justify using your Thought Skimmer on Stella to yourself, but…but this? No. No, you can’t. Even if you want so badly to know what Korri is thinking, what she thinks of you, it’s wrong.

It’s wrong!

(…right?)

Korri doesn’t know, though. She’s just…she’s just so trusting, despite all the horrible things she’s been into, and –

“It’s okay, Cibby!”

– her face pops right in front of you, and once more, you find yourself in her embrace. As she tries to comfort her very best friend, with all the strength she can.

“I don’t know what you’re worried about, but I promise. As long as you’re here, everything will work out fine, no matter what happens!”

She’s so…

confident about that.

Happy as you are to feel Korri’s love, to feel her friendship in your arms, happy as you are to watch trailers with her and protect her from anything that would dare do your very best friend harm, you can’t help but wonder if she’d feel the same if she knew.

but with her smiling face, the smile only you get to see, the smile you’ve earned by protecting her –

chocolate fudge, she’s so cute, that you can almost believe her when she says it, you know?

Sweet, wonderful, beautiful Korri.

---

Rheia Epeli Sílvia
???: unknown

Korrigan Trelawney
???: Grant Us Eyes