A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my Patreon for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

Mystique makes her move~

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By the time Thaddeus returns from his weekend holiday spent positively wrecking that fancy hotel suite with Emma, it’s already late into Monday morning and the dorm is all but empty. He knows this because his psychic abilities have ballooned in power over the weekend, allowing him to easily detect the general absence of pretty much everyone from the dorm. Almost everyone, that is.

Tilting his head to the side in amusement, Thaddeus doesn’t bother trying to be quiet as he makes his way to his own dorm room. As such, he’s not really all that surprised when a certain door opens up and a familiar head pokes through.

“Hey there, stud! Have a good weekend?”

Grinning wryly, ‘Risty Wilde’ looks like the cat who caught the canary as she stares at him. Almost like she thinks she’s got one over on him because she caught him making the walk of shame back to his room. Only, it’s not a walk of shame and he’s not worried about the classes he’s missing today. Thaddeus has already sent out emails to the relevant professors and given his progress in those classes, along with Emma’s backing, he didn’t expect any trouble just because he was taking a day off.

Emma Frost, as it turned out, was not just rich… she was well-connected. When it came to Empire State University in particular, she was very connected, mostly on account of it being her alma mater. As an alumnus of the school who regularly donated vast amounts of money, Emma’s influence at ESU could not be understated. But then, Thaddeus had never tried to understate it… he’d known just how much power she had at the university ever since he arrived to find his dorm was supposed to be all-female.

Regardless, Risty Wilde’s teasing tone is doubly duplicitous because not only is she not actually ‘getting him’ in any actual fashion… she’s not even truly Risty Wilde. This is Mystique, the same shapeshifter who tried to get him to join up with her and the Brotherhood of Mutants all the way back in his home town last year. Thaddeus has known as much since his very first day on campus in fact, when he’d listened to her and her roommate Anna Marie talking through the door.

Hearing Anna Marie call Risty ‘ma’ would have been weird enough but hearing them talk about the potential for him to help with whatever Anna Marie’s mutation was had sealed the deal since at that point in time, even he had just learned that he had the ability to enhance and strengthen the powers of the women he slept with.

Now though, he doesn’t even have to rely on such leaps in logic. He didn’t want to necessarily overuse his telepathic abilities. Thankfully, whatever fucking Laura so much had done to his mind had not only given him a powerful psychic defense, but it had also helped him learn to control his newfound telepathy in record time. Emma had actually been a little jealous at how quickly he’d managed to rein himself in once they got started on that front.

Still, while most of the time he would NOT be trying to read the minds of everyone around him, when he knew for a fact he was in front of someone lying to him… well, it didn’t exactly make sense to hold back, did it? Especially when he could just reach out and… oh now, that was interesting. As it turned out, the mind of ‘Risty Wilde’ was like a closed book to him.

Did Mystique herself have some sort of psychic defenses that he hadn’t even known about? To be fair, it wasn’t as though the ‘book’ in this metaphor was locked necessarily. To extend the metaphor further, he can tell he could pry it open without much difficulty. However, taking the metaphor out back and butchering it, he can also tell that the ‘book’ would know the moment he did so. Mystique would know that he knew the moment he tried to peer into her mind.

Flashing ‘Risty Wilde’ a responding smile at long last, Thaddeus just nods his head.

“It was an excellent weekend, thanks. And you? Party a little too hard last night to be just waking up today?”

Risty huffs, not looking even remotely hungover or partied out as her eyes twinkle and she flicks her raven-black hair with lavender streaks back.

“You’re one to talk, stud.”

Yep, she was really trying to push this ‘naughty, naughty’ narrative, wasn’t she? Unfortunately for her, it just wasn’t going to work.

“My absences are excused for the day, Risty. I’m free until football practice later.”

Which he would be attending. Even if he didn’t really need to for any reasons of personal growth at this point, it was still important that he go to as many football practices as he could. Not only would it help him to maintain his cover when he almost certainly crushed it at their future games, but it would also help build team morale.

Thaddeus might have known he was all that and a bag of chips, but he wasn’t about to act like a prima donna about it. That was the old him. That was Chad Cummings, the goofball jock who, while not exactly dumb, also wasn’t the brightest bulb in the box. He’d left that life behind him when he’d left the name Chad behind.

Risty’s eyes light up at hearing that and suddenly she’s outside of her dorm room, a hand planted on his chest and her fingers trailing over his pectorals.

“Oh? Free, you say? Free for some… fun?”

Hiding his surprise comes rather easily to him at this point, but it doesn’t stop him from BEING surprised. What’s Mystique’s angle here? He knows Risty isn’t real. But she doesn’t know he knows that. He also knows that she wants his help with her daughter in some capacity, but again, she doesn’t know he knows that.

So what’s her plan? If he lets her seduce him and they fuck, she has to know the game will immediately be up. Does that mean this is a trap of some sort? More importantly, even if it is… is he really going to say ‘no’?

… Nah. He’s not the kind of person to pass up an opportunity like this. Might as well spring the trap if nothing else, right?

Answering Risty’s energy with similar energy, Thaddeus grins and chuckles as he reaches out and grabs her by her hips, yanking her in close until the punk rock girl is pressed up against his body. ‘Risty’ lets out a gasp, even as she squirms in a not-unhappy fashion in his grasp.

“Fun? I’m always free for some fun~”

Huffing from her place trapped against his chiseled form, Risty bats her eyelashes at him.

“You wouldn’t know it from the way you’ve been ignoring me and my roommate, stud~ All those girls you’ve been having so much fun with and you haven’t even looked at us. Is it because we’re Alternative? Because I’ll have you know that before I corrupted her to my ways, Anna Marie was a good Southern Girl. Christian and everything. And regardless of how she might look, she’s still as pure as a snowflake~”

Seriously? If he didn’t know who they were already, Thaddeus would probably have been a little weirded out by how Risty was going about trying to sell Anna Marie to him like she was some sort of product to be bought and purchased. Or maybe she was just being a good wingman… but who the hell attempted to wingman for their roommate when they were already pressed up against a guy’s chest, really?

Snorting derisively, Thaddeus lets go of Risty and shakes his head.

“Not about any of that, no. Just been busy. And every girl I’ve slept with so far has made themselves more available than you and your friend. That’s all.”

‘Risty’ makes a big show of pouting at that… and then smiling wickedly as she takes a step back into the open door of her dorm room.

“Well… I’m available now, stud~”

Then she takes another step back, leaving the door open for him to enter through. Thaddeus detects no traps of any kind, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there of course. Still, he enters with confidence, fully ready to tackle whatever Mystique plans to throw at her. Only… there’s nothing. She closes the door behind him of course but doesn’t even bother locking it.

Looking around the dorm room… Thaddeus notes that not much effort has been put into decorating. It’s only been one week to be fair, but it’s pretty obvious that Mystique is treating this as more of a mission than anything else. Anna Marie on the other hand.

“Your roommate at class then?”

Risty lets out a soft laugh at that.

“Oh yes. She’s a goody two-shoes, just like I said. She doesn’t consider this a chance to party and meet people like I do… no, she’s taking this as an opportunity to actually study and learn things. Yuck. Though… I could get her for you if you want. One text from me and she’ll come back here immediately~”

Looking at ‘Risty’, Thaddeus can immediately tell that she wants him to say yes. She wants it to be his idea. Is that the game here? Well…

“No, that’s okay. I’m happy just to spend some time with you, Risty.”

The disappointment only shows in the shapeshifter’s eyes even as she makes a show of grinning all the wider and laughing in ‘delight’.

“Of course, stud. I’m all the woman you need. Now… sit down on the bed and let me freshen up real quick.”

Thaddeus raises an eyebrow and does as he’s told, sitting down on her bed and watching as she disappears into the dorm room’s bathroom. His enhanced hearing tells him what she’s really doing in there though. Even though she turns on the sink faucet to try to cover it up, his senses are strong enough at this point to separate that sound from the sounds of her taking her phone out of her pocket and quickly tapping out a text message to someone.

Anna Marie. Has to be. Despite his words, she’s drawing her daughter back here anyways. Perhaps Mystique really is hoping to have him help fix the young woman’s mutation, whatever it is that’s wrong with it. Or perhaps she thinks Anna Marie is critical to taking him down. Either way, it’s only a few moments longer before Risty turns off the sink faucet and steps back out of the bathroom.

She’s stripped out of her pants and top at this point as well, revealing that she was only wearing panties underneath. She also reveals the number of piercings her current persona has, with her nipples and belly button pierced. She’s really selling the punk rock aesthetic; Thaddeus can’t help but note as his eyes roam over her body.

Smirking wickedly, ‘Risty’ struts forward, only to stop right in front of him and cock a hip out as she lifts an eyebrow.

“Like what you see, stud? Or am I too… different for you after all?”

It’s said more teasingly this time, and she clearly knows he doesn’t mind the piercings. Honestly, he’s surprised that Mystique hasn’t given her Risty Wilde persona more tattoos. It’s not like they would be permanent for a shapeshifter. But maybe she really was worried that he would find such a thing to be a little too much.

Still, they’re a glaring absence for someone who’s trying to present themselves as some sort of punk rock, alternative-type girl. Not that Thaddeus is about to mention it. He’s still playing dumb after all.

“I love what I see, Risty.”

He grins at her and Risty grins back. Then, she drops to her knees between his legs and begins unbuckling his belt and unbuttoning and unzipping his pants. She takes her time with it though, Thaddeus notices. She’s moving very slowly, even as she extracts his cock from its confines and her eyes widen slightly in actual surprise.

“Wow. I know I call you a stud… but this is big. Really big.”

Its his turn to smirk, knowing full well that he actually HAS gotten a bit bigger since he and Mystique first fucked. Now it’s his turn to tease ‘Risty’ as he throws her own words back in her face.

“Am I too big for you after all, Risty?”

Her eyes flicker up to his face at that, a flash of irritation barely there for a moment before disappearing. She huffs in faked amusement a moment later and rolls those same eyes at him.

“Don’t be ridiculous, stud. I can handle anything you can throw at me.”

He knows that, of course. But why does it almost sound like she’s trying to pass it off as false bravado? Indeed, even as she says that, Risty actually injects a note of worry into her gaze as it flicks back down to meet his throbbing member. Is she trying to make him think that she really can’t handle his cock?

Thaddeus gets the answer to that a moment later when Risty hesitantly leans in and kisses his cockhead, slowly and steadily working her hands up and down his shaft. There’s no real confidence in her movements though. If he didn’t know any better, he’d say she was actually a virgin just like she claimed her roommate was.

… Was that the impression Mystique wanted him to get about Risty Wilde? That she was all bark and no bite? He knew that the shapeshifter could do better of course, he’d literally experienced better from her before. But in this moment, Risty Wilde is… well, amateurish.

She eventually takes some of his cock in her mouth, but she’s very hesitant and skittish about it. She never goes too deep and she never goes too far. In fact, her entire technique seems to be manufactured to make for a subpar blowjob-handjob combo.

… Oh. She’s waiting for Anna Marie. The realization hits Thaddeus like a lightning strike. Mystique is waiting for whoever she texted, almost certainly Anna Marie but also potentially a hit squad of some sort, to arrive. She’s slow rolling him but she can’t let him know she’s slow rolling him, so she’s presenting her Risty Wilde persona in a certain way instead.

Honestly, it’s quick thinking. He’s sort of impressed. The question though is… does he let her continue like this? Does he continue enduring a subpar blowjob that admittedly will never make him cum and wait for the next phase of Mystique’s plan to reveal itself? Or does he reveal his knowledge here and now and see where they’d go from there?

Of course, there’s the third option of taking control under the guise that he ‘realizes’ Risty is a virgin with no experience and seeing how the hell Mystique handles him then…

[ ] Reveal that he knows who she is and call her out on everything - 10%