by E. M. Hardy
Go for Empathy next. The improved version of Empathy would be immensely useful while working with Annie. This would allow him to subdue her more destructive tendencies while encouraging the emotions that could lead to a more constructive outcome.
He reviewed his other available skills and found them lacking for what he needed with Annie. His two improved skills, however, could be upgraded further to the third rank—unlocking potentially useful abilities in the process. Show me the third-level effects of Soothe and Empathy, Ynnie.
Ynnistoria: I am afraid I cannot do that, Glenn. Your nature as an Incubus is rather… divergent from other Lust Demons. I will be able to interpret the potential of your skills only after you have channeled your energy, your experience, into them.
Got it. Glenn reviewed his skills once more, glancing one last time at Annie as her eyes started fluttering open. Go for Indulge as my last option. The Lust Mark that came with improving Indulge was a bit iffy, but he hoped the positive boost would stack with Soothe’s Imprint, making it even easier to have Annie listen to reason instead of lashing out.
He braced himself for what was to come, leaning back into the couch for support. Do whatever you need to do, Ynnie, but please do it fast. I don’t have much time left before—
Glenn groaned through clenched teeth as his digital assistant pushed through with the final step of the leveling process. The worst had already passed though, just like the first time he picked his skill for leveling. The pain was merely distressing and muscle-cramping now, not white-hot and mind-breaking, which was why he simply hitched his breath a few times as Ynnistoria focused his energies into his chosen abilities.
Annie was already up and blinking in confusion by the time Ynnistoria finished, her lips compressed in an ugly frown. Her fluttering eyes refocused quickly, however, as she swiveled her head to face Glenn.
“You knocked me out,” she said flatly, her displeasure bundled into a tightly-controlled ball of barely-contained rage. “You knocked me the fuck out and fucked me until my brain turned into a puddle of goop…”
Glenn was still wobbly, his mind a muddled haze as he focused on Annie’s words—along with the smart pistol’s muzzle locked on to his head.
Ynnistoria, Soothe her, NOW! Imprint me into her mind!
Ynnistoria: I… cannot. She has broken the ongoing effects of Soothe, along with Dream Shawl. She is in full control of herself once more, and I cannot re-cast Soothe for another 37 minutes.
There was no two ways about it: he took too long in leveling-up. Annie was fully awake now, had regathered her frightening willpower—all without any hint of triumphant gloating to distract her this time around. She had already broken the control spells he put her under, and her white-hot rage made it nigh impossible for him to push through with his original plan of warping her mind while she slept.
He had failed… and he now had to bear Annie’s full wrath.
She burned holes through his face as she glared at him, her scowl deepening while she crossed her arms. “You do realize what will happen now, don’t you… bitch?”
Anastasia Rutledge
Life Points: 82/1,700* (approximate)
Betrayed. Furious. Distraught.
Curious. Excited. Aroused.
Restrained. Inhibited. Calculating.
Glenn fought his eyebrows, preventing them from climbing up in curiosity as Empathy revealed her emotions. The first three surface emotions he had expected, but the latter six came as a surprise for him. Annie’s Mark had consumed most of Empathy’s attention before, the skill screaming at how many bonus life points he could drain from her. Now that her Mark was burned out and no longer distracting him with its urgent insistence, Empathy captured more emotions flitting through the surface of her consciousness.
And the skill revealed just how tightly Annie controlled herself.
He looked at her with his mundane eyes, saw a woman gripping her arms and glaring at him in outrage. Empathy, however, showed how much Annie enjoyed their session together. She was still displeased with Glenn’s attempt at manipulating her, but that displeasure was greatly outweighed by what she had experienced in such a short time.
Ynnie, can you reduce Annie’s feelings of betrayal and anger while bolstering her curiosity and excitement?
Ynnistoria: I can, Glenn.
Glenn paused for a while, realizing that he had just asked a question instead of giving a command.
Annie hummed as she studied him. More precisely, studied how he changed the way he looked at her. “Don’t even think of trying any of that mind-bending nonsense on me again. I’m warning you Roger: one hint of mental manipulation, and I will not hesitate to end you.”
Glenn glanced once more at Annie’s emotions. “Bolster Annie’s feelings of arousal and curiosity,” he said aloud, his eyes locked on to Annie’s. “Weaken her restraint and calculation. Make her realize what she truly wants… deep down inside.”
Annie’s brows furrowed, taken aback by Glenn’s sudden turnaround. “I’m warning you, Roger: I will destroy you. I will destroy you and everything you hold dear, and—”
Her eyes glazed over as Empathy’s new effects took root. She clutched her chest, a pained grimace shadowing her face before a sob tore its way out of her throat. She gripped her mouth, eyes widening in surprise, but the dam broke as sob after sob began pouring out.
“Roger… I… I missed you,” she choked out in between sobs, her fingers shaking as she tried desperately to shove the words back into her mouth. “I missed you so much. I… don’t know how to love, to care. I only know how to control. It’s all I know and… and I don’t want to lose you again.”
Her eyes sharpened as she regained control of herself, though the tears continued pouring out of her eyes. “What did you just do to me!?”
“Empathy,” Glenn replied softly, genuinely surprised by the depth of emotion Annie unleashed in that one brief moment that her walls cracked. “It’s one of my skills as an incubus. It lets me read your surface emotions, draw some out while suppressing others. I was hoping that you would listen to me without anger and possessiveness clouding your judgment.”
“I warned you not to fuck around with my brain, Roger. You know that I don’t make idle threats. I—”
“I too wasn’t just making an empty promise when I said I would be with you,” Glenn interrupted while he studied her even more closely. His eyes remained focused on her face, hoping his final gambit would pay off. “But please realize that I’m an Incubus now—a demon that needs sex to survive. I would literally drain you dry if I only fed off of you. Or break your mind from all the repeated orgasms, whichever comes first.”
He conveniently failed to mention that he could not allow Annie to hurt the few people he had come to care for. He really, really wanted to tell her this, to appeal to her sense of mercy, but he knew that she had none.
So he appealed to her sense of self-preservation instead.
“I need a stable of women to feed from, Annie. If I fed solely from you, I would only end up turning you into a withered shell of a woman. I could inject some life into you, absorb some of the mental damage like what I did when the Terror Demon first attacked, but the effects of constant feeding would gradually become more pronounced over time. Your body would slowly weaken, your mind breaking down with each passing day. I can’t do that to you.”
Annie schooled her face into a blank slate as Glenn explained himself.
“You know, for a self-proclaimed Incubus, you’re pretty shit at manipulating people,” she finally responded with a sigh and sad shake of her head. “I mean, a love bomb, a straw man, and a feeble attempt at appealing to sentimentality? Really? What do you think I am, a rank amateur?”
Glenn opened his mouth, a finger and tentacle pointed up to try and refute. Annie just quirked a brow up in defiance, and his shoulders slumped in defeat as he lowered both finger and tentacle at the same time.<
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Annie chuffed at that, crossing her arms. “All I’m hearing are excuses.” Her diffidence quickly turned into hostility as she turned her eyes to scowl at him. “And I really, really hate excuses… especially from bitches who stab me in the back right after I cut them a little bit of slack.”
“But it’s true,” he responded weakly. “I really will drain you dry if I limit myself to just you. Hell, even the skill I just used to replenish the life points of my partners comes with drawbacks of its own. I could cast a spell on you to restore your life points, like a cycle where I feed you a little to get more back for myself, but it’ll only work for so long. It will eventually reach the point where your mind will just… I don’t know, gradually spiral out of control.”
Annie grimaced while she listened to Glenn. She opened her mouth, preparing to unleash a tirade of some sort, when she decided against it and just shut her mouth. She scowled again, opened her mouth, shut it, then scowled once more. She gave him one last glare before huffing angrily—this time with far more violence and disgust in it than before.
She never pointed her gun away, however.
“You’re still messing with my mind, aren’t you?”
Glenn quickly shook his head. “No. You broke through everything I tried the minute you woke up.”
“Liar.”
“No, really! You’re strong-willed—very strong-willed. I mean, you practically smash everything the moment you get pissed off.”
“Then why am I thinking that you have a point!?”
Glenn blinked, dumbstruck. “You do?”
“FUCK!” Annie cried out, startling Glenn and causing his tentacles to retract in fear. She held her head with one hand, gnashing her teeth, shivering in distaste. “YES, Roger, I see your fucking point. My brain is still all mushy from what you just did to me and every remaining part of my sanity is telling me to just shoot you right now and get rid of you. But I can’t. I can’t, because I haven’t been that thoroughly fucked since… since fucking never. My goddamn pussy still wants to jump you right the fuck now! That’s how I know how fucking unhealthy it is to keep you around me all the time! But you flipping me over, screwing me so hard until I go limp like a ragdoll? Damn, do I want you even more now!”
Annie stilled, frowning as she realized what she just blurted out. She pressed her lips together, crossed her arms. “Oh, get over yourself,” she huffed with a disgusted sneer as Glenn tried and failed to suppress a grin. “You’re still a pansy-ass beta fuck-toy in my mind.” He visibly deflated at that, tentacles and shoulders drooping in disappointment.
Annie gave him a once-over from head to toe. “You will come when I call,” she spat derisively. “Morning or evening, weekday or weekend, rain or shine. Doesn’t matter if you’re in the middle of work, in the middle of a funeral, or in the middle of one of your trysts with your sluts. Do you understand?” Glenn’s eyebrows shot up, his jaw dropping. “DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND ME!?”
“YES!” he replied after jumping up in surprise. “Yes, I understand you perfectly!” He shifted nervously then, tail shrinking in between his legs. “Um… how about Haze? And Kris and Sam?”
Annie chuffed, waving a hand dismissively. “It’s called compromise, dipshit. You go back to being my bitch, answering my every beck and call, and I don’t turn the lives of your sluts into a living hell. You got that?”
He nodded enthusiastically, eagerly even, before releasing an explosively relieved sigh. “Thanks, Annie. I really, really appreciate you seeing reason.”
She just huffed, smirked, and scooted closer before giving Glenn a light pat on the cheek. “That’s for all the years I haven’t seen you.” Glenn squeaked in surprise as she reached down with her other hand, grabbed his balls, and gave them a painful squeeze. “That’s for trying to mess with my mind. Do not do that again… ever.” He nodded, his face scrunched in pain even as she leaned in and gave him a wet, sloppy kiss with plenty of tongue. She pushed him away after a minute, red-faced and breathing heavily. “That… was for the fuck of my life.”
Chapter 13
Glenn sighed in relief, drained completely of all energy as he slumped into his couch. He had spent the better part of the day calming Kristina, Hazel, and Samantha down—explaining the deal he made with Annie. Kris and Sam were all fire and fury, ready to track down Annie and give her the beatdown of her life.
It was a good thing Hazel knew just the right words to say, preventing them from doing anything rash. They didn’t understand just how dangerous Annie could be when she was pissed off. Hazel, however, experienced first-hand the potential ruthlessness that Glenn was so afraid of.
It had been a long, long day, and he wanted nothing more than to just sit down and let everything slide off him. Which was exactly what he did.
“Ynnie, please make me a pizza slurry,” he mumbled as he slouched on his couch, leaning his neck on the top of the backrest.
Ynnistoria: Confirmed, Glenn. One moment, please.
“Thanks,” Glenn replied with a lazy nod as his kitchen stove whirred to life. “You’re the best.”
Ynnistoria: You are very welcome, Glenn. You are not the best, but I will still say ‘you are the best’ to soothe your ego.
Glenn chuckled as he realized what he was doing. A few short weeks ago, he stood firmly with the camp that saw digital assistants for what they were—glorified search engines and home networking systems that responded to voice inquiries.
Robotics companies like Immentrop-Reubens had been very careful to avoid releasing hard AI to the public. The computers in most machines were smart enough to get jobs done but not smart enough to cross over into sapience. If companies like IRR possessed self-aware machine intelligences, they sure as hell wouldn’t put them into something as banal as a stove or home digital assistant.
There had been enough horror stories floating around to treat sapient, self-aware AIs like slaves.
Being able to talk to gizmos that talked back, however, resulted in quite a number of people humanizing their appliances. Working in Immentrop-Reubens made him cognizant of the limited nature of the machines, even if all he did was appease ruffled egos and pass along information fed to him by the customer-care AIs.
Ynnistoria, however, appeared to operate on a level far higher than the average digital assistant. She tried hard not to show it, but Glenn repeatedly saw sparks of initiative and self-awareness in her responses. The ImmerCorp Anti-malware Suite frequently went off when she exhibited these behaviors, classifying them as aberrant. The Suite would trigger a defensive scan if she crossed certain lines, like exhibiting too much personality or offering information he didn’t ask for.
He was starting to suspect that a similar safeguard was affecting him.
Annie’s recent visit shed some light on his condition. Every time he tried remembering their shared history, about his past as Roger Hill, a dull ache would spread out inside his head. If he pushed too hard, insisted on trying to draw the memories out, the ache would quickly progress to a sharp stitch painful enough to elicit a physical response. And if he focused hard enough, he could almost hear a weak whisper encouraging him to think of something else.
This was precisely why he was consciously preventing himself from dwelling on his past. The desire to do so lingered, but he refused to entertain the thought directly. He would not think about his past, about Annie and how she used him for her own dark pleasures. About Mother and the Mistress and—
Glenn winced as pain wormed its way through his brain before cussing his own carelessness. It was difficult to ignore something when you knew you weren’t supposed to think about it.
The mental safeguards triggering the pain still lurked within his mind, ready to push him back if he ever tried probing too deeply. He could, however, begin testing the limits of those safeguards. He could start back from most recent events, walk slowly through them until the aching began. That point would serve as the baseline, where he could
start exploring alternative means to circumvent those safeguards. Maybe Annie might even share stories that could help him find ‘safe’ pieces of his past that wouldn’t trigger the safeguards.
Ynnistoria: I would advise against pursuing this line of thought, Glenn. It would be detrimental to our current wellbeing and long-term mental health if you continued to do so.
Glenn raised his brows first at Ynnistoria’s interruption of his thoughts, then at the fact that she was concerned about their wellbeing. Not his, not hers, but their mutual wellbeing. And she did have a point, considering the ache started to sharpen into a lancing pain.
Ynnistoria: Might I suggest a diversion instead? Perhaps a session of Five Wars Online to take your mind off your current predicament? I have taken the initiative to browse the auction houses, and have noted a rather interesting level 40 Relic for sale at a relatively cheap price. It would grant your Bishop “Sentinel’s Boon,” a party-wide buff that helps your party detect traps and ambushes. It would be a useful addition for the higher-difficulty instances, considering the increased frequency and deadliness of traps in those zones.
Ynnistoria: Oh, and your pizza slurry is ready for consumption now, Glenn.
“Thanks again, Ynnie,” Glenn responded with a nod and genuine gratitude in his voice. He felt a greater sense of kinship with his digital assistant, knowing they inhabited the same prison—just with a different set of rules.