By the time you’re finished – er, that is, by the time you’re done, not by the time you, you know, finished – you can barely feel your legs.

Stella is amazing.

As it turns out, Stella works a part-time job close to home, at a cafe all the way out in the coastal Delmar district – that is to say, she does service with a smile for seaside tourists. (Which might explain why she’s so defensive all the time, thinking about it.) She nearly missed her shift, but…

worth it.

Totally worth it.

Your power gives you a heck of a leg up, but the kinds of things Stella can do with her tongue…r-really, some things you can only learn from experience!

And so, with a change of panties and a face flush with passion, you manage to get through the walk home without embarrassing yourself too much. There’s a few people around, but –

“Cibele!”

“O-oh! Hey Mama,” you say, surprised when you see your mom out the corner. By the smell, you should still probably avoid the kitchen, but it seems like things are winding down a bit more than you expected! It’s fine, though, it’s not like you’re flushed from head to toe, your cheeks are hot, your memories keep going back to Stella, and –

“So, how’d your date go?” Mama asks, grinning ear to ear.

“O-oh!” Okay, Cibby, play it cool, play it cool…just don’t panic. “Uh, it went, y’know, it went fine! It went well. Stella was, uh, nice –”

“Did you do it?”

Somewhere in your head, a record skips. (Which is probably bad, records are pretty valuable! What would your uncle say?!)

“Uh. Mama?”

Your mother continues to smile like it’s the greatest day of her life.

…right, how did that joke Aunt Junon used to tell go?

“You know! Did you do it?”

Yup, that’s me.

“Do, uh, what?”

“You know, it!”

You’re probably wondering how I ended up in this situation!

“M-mama, I would never! I was on campus, and there’s no way I’d have sex with Stella on campus! I’m a good kid –”

“You totally did it.”

Mama’s already reaching to pinch your red-hot cheeks, and…

“It’s only natural! You’re definitely your mother’s daughter! Aah, I remember, when Satre and I were attending Verwest! It was still so new then, and we learned all the secret places to hide. Your father was so compliant back then!” Mama lets go of your face, leaving you to rub it as she reminisces happily about, uh, heterosexuality you guess? “It was pretty hard to balance sixth form with raising your resulting big brother, but –”

“Mom!“ This is possibly the last thing you want to hear about just after you achieved all your desires, including the ones you didn’t realize you had! You don’t wanna be thinking of your mom having sex with your dad!

(…specifically not with your dad? D-doesn’t that imply – er, don’t read into that!)

“Satre! Satre! Cibele only went and did it!” your mom yells as she turns back to the kitchen, entirely immune to the possibility of your own embarrassment (or, y’know, your much younger siblings hearing), steam escaping from your ears, and soon enough, everyone else in the house is bombarding you with questions…

Mouuu, why can’t they read the room? Y-you’re supposed to be a triumphant hypnotic goddess or something…

…

…and so it went.

Your Charisma may not have prevented your embarrassment, but you managed to use it to get through that brief encounter without giving too much away besides that, yes, you did in fact ‘do it’. You think Marq might suspect something, what with the hypnosis thing and those stories and all…but what you can do is entirely incomparable to what he would believe possible, so you’re not at any risk of people catching on. (For now, anyway.)

Your family’s still flitting about the city, though, and you’re still not the least bit interested in eating meat, so you’re able to escape back to the basement in relatively short order, rolling onto the couch and staring up at the ceiling.

(And, god help you, your legs still feel like jelly. I-in the best possible way!)

You have two skill points, with which to further advance up your skill trees. What you’ve done with the abilities you’ve gained already would be unimaginable to you just a scant two weeks before. Future-past-you seems pretty gung-ho about it all, even still. You think you’d be happy just to hold Stella, if not for the temptation, and yet she might want more than –

Right. About that. You need to address the elephant in the room, first:

You have a girlfriend.

And yes, Stella is much more than just ‘a girlfriend’, or even ‘your girlfriend’, but you have a girlfriend! You had your first kiss with Stella, your first time, and you shaped her into something beautiful!

You held her mind in your hands like clay, and molded it into shape.

You saw within her a dazzling radiance of her awakened love, you saw within her what you’d always known she could be, and she not only didn’t reject you for the methods you used to grasp her, she thanked you for it. Even encouraged it.

She knows what you are. What you can do.

And she wants to be yours. Knowing what that choice meant, and accepting it.

You want to learn all kinds of new things about Stella Maris. What she likes, what she loves. What passions she has, that you’ve never seen a glimpse of. You want to learn her techniques, and help her achieve her dreams. And…

yes, you want to hypnotise her.

You want to play with her mind. You want to dive into it. You want to see all that she is spilled out before you, and reassemble it piece by piece. And you know she wants that too, otherwise why would she accept this? Knowing what you’re capable of, why would she not dive in and sink until she can never surface again?

You want to speak to her…

You want to tease her.

You want to be the best lover she’s ever had –

o-oh…your phone is vibrating! And it’s from Stella, too!

It’s not a dream, or a prank. It’s real. Just as future-past-you predicted, there was no way you could resist. You may have found a way to circumvent her assertion of molding minds against their will, but she might know you better than you know yourself.

After all, even now, you want more.

You’re…this really is crazy, right?

You have a girlfriend. You have a servant. A worshipper. A devotee. A maid. Stella Maris, not simply your beloved, but yours. (Two of her now, kind of!)

It’s amazing. It’s terrifying. It’s nervewracking. It’s all of these heady emotions, all at once. You want more, even as you’re terrified of going too far. You want to taste of Stella like she tasted of you, and then taste of other girls, both of you…

Can you do the right thing, like this?

Should you?

Will you?

And whether you do or don’t, will you care?

That is, pulling your battery from your phone, and other anti-surveillance situations – you could talk about it at school because Sunset isn’t watching those cameras, legally, but when you’re out in public more precautions are necessary. Anything like this, well, kink is popular; you’re sure that itself isn’t enough. You’ll need to be a lot more careful about things, you think, and Stella’s keen to remind you.

It bothers you, sometimes, but…it’s been this way since you were born, pretty much. The Sunset Corporation watches with ten thousand eyes, and listens with a million ears. You never imagined you’d have cause to worry about it, but both Korri and Aunt Vesta would tell you that everyone has secrets. Guess it’s your fault for assuming you’d never have any worth keeping, but hopefully you’ll catch up quickly enough with your enhanced Intelligence.

Sure, it’s a small risk, at least right now. But it’s still a risk nonetheless. You’ll just have to hope their machine learning surveillance doesn’t figure out what you can do before you’ve gained enough love-love power to oppose them!

The way Stella types…it’s got a lot of gap moe! You want to see so much more of her!

And now, she’s casually assuming you’ll fall for more girls, or they’ll fall for you, to the point where she doesn’t even consider the possibility otherwise –

wait, actually, that’s an important thing to ask about, isn’t it?

W-wait, this isn’t just a situation where Stella’s using you to build her perfect polycule, right?! (You, uh, refuse to use the h-word. E-even if Stella might like it, or put on an h-word styled outfit for you – no, bad thoughts, bad thoughts!)

…it makes sense, huh? Stella’s signing on for the possibility of amazing girls, too…she’s never been the kind of person who insisted on monogamy. (You never imagined, though, how hard up she really was for something she couldn’t grasp – and perhaps never could, without your help.) You’ll have to tell her about the cuties you’ve been eyeing tomorrow, huh?

Not that she doesn’t know one of them already. Milia de L’Impératrice…

It’s not like you want her, or anything, but she is pretty sexy, and you can’t help but wonder what her and Stella’s relationship is like…what they’d be like together…

E-even if you aren’t going to plan things like that, Rita might enjoy it…even Irma, depending…

Cuties coming together, like this…

Is it truly coincidence? Or should you trust, like Stella seems to, that magic and miracles do exist?

W-well, forget that for now! Stella Maris is yours! You’ve wrapped your words and very self around her soul, and she only wants more, to see what you do with your power…

And for you to make use of her. To whisper further within her.

Such a sweet thing she is. Such a good little maid. So open, so receptive, so –

…uh, right, maybe you should say this to her instead.

Aw…disappointing. You wanted to tease her more! You want, you want more, and you wonder how you could ever have gone thinking you didn’t want this, how you could have tried to convince yourself there was nothing appealing about molding and shaping a girl’s mind…

but, you’re Stella’s Lady, now. Such a relationship isn’t one-sided. You have a responsibility to her, to take care of her, to guide her, to keep her safe. And that means, sometimes, letting her go – even if only for the briefest of moments.

Knowing, after all, that she’ll be thinking of you, just as you’re thinking of her…

…you wonder if maybe you should’ve teased her about them? You know, all maidly…but no, you think it’s best to do that kind of thing in person. You’d feel weird about it, since it seems like Stella’s not fond of her family. (Not as bad as Korri, at least.)

Well, either way.

You turn off your phone, and roll over on the couch, touching your fingers to your lips. Remembering what it felt like, to kiss Stella, and to have Stella kiss you. Tingling. Warm.

You think of what it was, to hypnotise her, to wrap strings throughout her mind. You think of the pleasure you felt within her, from being shaped. You think of working together, to grasp your desires, and those who desire you. You think of the warmth and kindness she can show, when she’s not scared of loving someone…

It’s a lesson you will never forget.

Just an echo, of the promise you made…

you understand, now, why future-past-you was willing to do something like this. To risk everything, just to have a second chance. You understand, or at least you hope you understand, why it is future-past-you is so adamant…or a small part of it, anyway.

Because now, like in a future past, there are people you want to protect.

---

Telepathy Branch: Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance T1: Danger Sense. Your senses have sharpened into a supernatural reflex for threat or danger. When someone tries to physically attack you or otherwise sneak up and blindside you, you know before it happens and have the chance to make an immediate response. You still don’t have an idea of the nature of the threat or even the direction, merely a general warning.

This only applies to immediate, physical threats, rather than long-term or purely conceptual/mental ones. As well, you must be able to detect a person or other threat with any of your senses; if a target is wholly invisible, intangible, or otherwise unable to be perceived, Danger Sense does not activate.

Requires Thought Skimmer.

Clairvoyance T2: Time Dilation. An evolution of Danger Sense. Your reflexes have increased to the point of causing your perception of time to slow when your sense activates. You also know the direction and nature of the threat, allowing you to respond more effectively. This ‘slow time’ effect lasts for enough time to make a surprise attack in response, although this only applies to the ambush attack.

The normal limitations to Danger Sense still apply.

Requires Danger Sense.

Clairvoyance T3: Always Prepared. Your senses have sharpened to the point where you now continually have a sense for dangers in the near future – this being at least a day in advance. Your definition of a ‘threat’ has greatly broadened to the point where even abstract and existential threats are detected, although only those that will have a reasonably immediate effect on your health or free will.

You gain enough of a sense of the nature of the threat to prepare yourself in an informed fashion, but not enough to determine, ie, the exact identity of who is threatening you or what their goals are. You also have an instinct for what kind of preparations are required and how to use your resources to accomplish them.

If you have Mistress of Manipulation (Override T2), you may make an immediate response to the threat in question using your Override skills. Your information is still vague, and so too must be your response (‘stab the woman’, ‘smash the computer’, etcetera), but this may be done regardless of distance.

Requires Time Dilation and Reality Yank (Override T1).