Chapter 5: Switched Hot

Her eyes were still wet as she made her way into the waiting room.

I really thought she wanted to help me, that she wanted to be close to me, to be intimate with me, and not just… not just sexual… or even if she was, I wouldn’t be able to care… not with how… She shook her head, but it did nothing to shake away the scent that clung to the inside of her mind, or the vines that were entrenched all through her mind. Can’t let myself get distracted…

Something tells me this is just the beginning.

“Hellooooo!” Behind a wooden desk sat a pink-haired woman with gorgeous brown eyes. She was merrily typing away on a keyboard with keys that were far too loud, glancing at Serina instead of the computer screen in front of her. “She’s still busy in her meeting, buuut… would you like some candy?”

Serina shuddered, and the vines inside of her began to tighten all over again. She whimpered, her whole body clenching either as a result of the squeeze, or because she felt like she should be tightened. It was hard for even her to be sure.

Her mind still felt like a mess, and what was in her head and what was actually happening were not so easily discerned. She hadn’t been allowed a chance to see the physical change in her pupils. Her only evidence that anything had happened was the strong compulsion that urged her to refuse. She couldn’t just ignore, she needed to refuse.

“I… I don’t…” Livewire panted, her eyes hooding behind her mask as her whole body clenched tighter and tighter with every passing moment. Her lips trembled, and in spite of how her body refused to completely cooperate she was still able to make her way to the desk and grasp the edge with both of her hands. Instead of providing any feeling of stability, or any hope that she could somehow wrest control of herself, the sensation only made her feel more like she might need to hold on tighter if she wanted to stay standing.

That wasn’t very comforting at all.

Smiling so cheerfully, the pink haired woman giggled and reached into her desk before holding up a peppermint and dangling it in the air. “Hmm… You look like a peppermint kind of gal! Like, do people ever just walk up to you and offer you peppermints? I bet they want to!”

“N-no…” Serina gasped, feeling the vines loosen just enough to take in a deep breath. It felt like she might suffocate without it, but it was scarier to imagine what might happen if she didn’t. There was no knowing what else the vines were capable of doing to, or with her.

The last thing I need is to be embarrassed by the vines piloting my body and making me interact with this cheerful… pink-haired… secretary…? She fluttered her eyes, shaking her head both in refusal and in another futile attempt to shed the influence that clutched impossibly tight around her. This is… bullshit…! These vines are… squeezing so tight…

Even doing what they want me to do is difficult! How is this getting Forêt what she wants?!

“No candy… p-please… I’m… just fine without it…!” Serina sputtered as the vines began to loosen. She was dizzy, both from the floral scent they left behind and the lingering effects from just how difficult it had been to breathe. “But… thank you…?”

“Awww… You sure? It’s really good—” The pink-haired woman gasped, dropping the pink-and-white peppermint as she pulled that hand to her chest. “Oh wow! Your eyes! They’re like… flowers…!”

Serina flushed. Green seemed an odd color for flowers, but she couldn’t rationalize what else the woman might have meant. “I… thank you…?”

She shook her head, reaching down and pulling out a bright, candy-pink compact and opening it towards Livewire. “No, like, they’re really flowers! Look!” Livewire’s pallor was already enhanced by her black mask, but that was made so much worse when she looked into the mirror. “See what I mean? I think you do!

“And that means…” Serina was still staring at her eyes, and she flinched when the other woman began to giggle. “That you met leafy! Shoulda guessed when you said no… None of our other guests ever refuse candy when they have a special invite… Forêt doesn’t play fair. Hmph… but that doesn’t mean that I can’t have plenty of fun teasing you! She won’t be ready for your appointment for a while and there’s a lot of things we could do while we wait if you’re already a flowerbed!”

Livewire whimpered, taking several hesitant steps back away from the desk. “I think I’m just fine taking a seat, thanks—”

“But if you do that, then you might miss me telling you when She’s ready to see you!” Livewire froze in place. The vines inside of her started to squeeze, and she let out a whimpery yelp. “Better idea for you to stay close and let me have my fun, or you might start blooming all over the place. That makes it really hard to think, and then… I might just shove some candy into your mou—”

“Fine!” Livewire interrupted her with a sharp yell that made the brown-eyed woman whimper and recoil frightfully as though she’d been slapped. “L-look, I… I’m so—” Serina cut herself off, narrowing her eyes. “Wait! Why am I apologizing to you?! You just want permission to fuck with me… whoever you are!”

Brown eyes almost seemed to sparkle with delight as she stopped cowering and sat up straight without any visible acknowledgement of how concerned she’d seemed before. “Nuh-uh! I don’t want permission.” She smiled wider, looking somehow more youthful without actually looking any younger than nineteen. “Opportunity!”

Serina groaned, hanging her head.

The vines aren’t squeezing my brain, but I’m not sure I need that when the first woman I meet in here and talk to for more than a moment—

“Tiffany!”

Livewire blinked, tugged out of her thoughts by the pink-haired woman’s bright, cheerful voice. “My name isn’t… not that I want to tell you my unmasked name, but it’s not Tiffany.”

“I meant me, silly!” Tiffany grinned. “You said ‘whoever you are’ before, remeeeember? So! I told you who I am! I know who you are. I’m the secretary, Wires! This computer isn’t just for show.”

Livewire opened her mouth to speak, to say something to object, but found it utterly impossible. What’s the point in correcting her? A woman like this…

Even as Livewire’s expression turned cold, Tiffany continued to innocently smile. Both of her hands were back on her keyboard, gleefully typing away on something that Serina couldn’t see.

Tiffany seemed completely unbothered by any of her reactions. I could almost swear that she was enjoying this, but it’s really hard to think that with that smile of hers. Is her outfit some kind of… pink-and-white schoolgirl look…? Serina sighed. Maybe she’s some kind of metahuman and that’s part of her powers—being so cute no one can take her seriously.

“You think a lot, huh?” Tiffany giggled, shaking her head. “Another girl a lot like you works here. You’d be great at parties together, standing in the corner staring at nothing!”

Livewire flinched. “Who do I remind you of?”

“You’ll meet her eventually!” Tiffany giggled again, and stood up from her chair without breaking her typing stride even slightly. “She’s Her favorite, so she gets to do whatever she wants pretty much… but most of the time she’s too silly to do much with it besides ask for hugs.”

Again Livewire parted her lips to speak, and then fell silent. This place is very strange. Whoever Tiffany is talking about sounds like she might not be bad to have as a friend, and if I have no choice but to accept the contract and whatever terms it has, I should be thinking ahead.

Lost in thought, and struggling against her lingering dizziness and the haze of forest-and-flowers that grasped at her mind, Serina didn’t notice Tiffany moving to stand behind her.

“Sure you don’t want some candy?”

The only sound Livewire could manage before everything tightened and ached was a sharp whining gasp. Flowers teased their scent through her mind, making her feel like she was suddenly in the middle of a florist’s. Vines began to squeeze, and with Tiffany brushing a hand across her hip, it was impossible for her to not feel so keenly aware of the vines that filled between her legs, and wrapped around her tender clit.

Breathing was even harder than it was before, and so was the terribly emotionally cold torment of feeling so completely isolated.

“No! I d-don’t… I don’t want any of your fucking candy… so… stop…!” The pressure loosened, but it wasn’t instantaneous. While the sensation of being squeezed tighter and tighter did stop the moment she obeyed it took time for the vines to pull back to a comfortable position. If it wasn’t a physical sensation, it certainly felt like one. “Please… please stop doing this to me, when you do that I can’t do anything but—”

“Aw but are you sure that you don’t want any candy? If you took a little—just a little—then I’ll definitely stop asking!” Tiffany’s fingers brushed along the small of Livewire’s back, and then just above the front of her waistband. Serina wanted her to stop, wanted to brush her hand away, but the vines were squeezing her so tight and everything in her body just wanted to clench.

The power inside her mind demanded Serina’s swift obedience, and it allowed no room for her to reason her way out of it by thinking as hard as she could that she’d already refused and she definitely didn’t intend to start accepting it now that Tiffany couldn’t keep her hands away.

Stop… punishing me… for not having already obeyed—I haven’t had the chance…!

As if in response, the vines squeezed tighter than before. If they could sense anything from their place deep in Serina’s mind it was her stubborn struggle against their grasp.

The vines squeezed tighter and tighter until Serina was gasping breathlessly with her eyes starting to cross. Tiffany watched with a bright smile, her fingers continuing to graze here and there which only seemed to make Serina’s body shake that much more. She seemed ready to either crash down to her knees or simply drop to the ground.

Tiffany poked one of Serina’s standing nipples through her tank top, earning a weak, strained gasp. “You really don’t like candy, huh? I wonder what would happen if I did this…”

Serina was trapped in place, unable to look away as Tiffany held the candy in front of her face, and began tugging at one side. Its shape slowly changed, the plastic loosening. Held too tight to move, Serina continued to whine through her teeth as her jaw clenched so tightly shut it was already making her face ache.

“Oh! Is this making it worse? I can’t give you any candy with your mouth closed like that… not unless I wanted to put it somewhere else, anyway… huh.” Tiffany giggled, her hand falling to hook into Livewire’s jeans so they rested behind their still-sealed button. “Maybe she didn’t say you couldn’t take a little candy down here? I’m not sure you’d be able to taste it very well, but I think it still sounds pretty fun!”

Green eyes widened, and then winced sharply at the physical strain.

“Nnnnn….” Serina whined. The pressure was getting to be too much. Her bones felt like they were being compressed. Her throat was sealed shut. Tears that vanished as she’d talked with Tiffany returned, quickly spilling down her face. “St-t-t-top…!”

She squirmed her hips faintly, trying to use the tight grasp of the vines to achieve some minimal level of movement and just barely succeeding.

“Hmm!” Tiffany looked about to disagree again, probably with a bright smile, but instead her finger slid out from its place stuck between Serina’s waistband and her pants. “You know what? Maybe! I can think about it… but while I do…?”

Don’t say it don’t say it please just don’t say it, don’t—

“You can tell me that you want some of my candy!” Tiffany pulled the small round candy out of the plastic with a proud smile. “That way—”

The vines tightened the faintest bit more, and the flowers of Serina’s pupils quivered in her eyes as though caught amidst a breeze. Before Tiffany could move the candy any closer to Serina’s lips, her hand rose on its own and grabbed her wrist tight enough that the pink-haired woman whined.

Flowers bloomed, smothering the very core of Serina’s mind with pollen and petals. Roots dug deeper into her mind, penetrating through such core, quintessential aspects of her very self. Memories, parts of how her body moved and work, all of them felt invaded one by one.

Serina felt the vines dig into her senses, stealing them away one by one but so quickly she had no time to process one before the next was already fading. First her vision began to blur, but by the time it was gone the sounds of Tiffany clacking away at her keyboard started to sound more and more distant until it faded away entirely. Before it faded away completely Serina stopped being able to feel her mask on her face, or the sensation of her own skin. The lingering scent of candy in the air as Tiffany walked away faded, and before it was entirely lost to Serina, she stopped being able to taste.

After her final sense faded, her eyes fluttered and her pupils grew to overtake her irises. They faintly fluttered as if blown by an unseen wind. When she spoke, each syllable resonated as though it were drifting through a pile of leaves and casting them asunder. “Your offer is not appreciated, Tiffany. Stop offering. Now.”

She released Tiffany’s hand, and the smaller woman whined, rubbing at her wrist with soft whimpers before a moment later turning all smiles. “Candy isn’t for everyone! Really too bad. I have the best candy, and everyone in the whole building knows it!” Tiffany winked before she moved back over to her desk, plopping down into her chair with a happy sigh.

As Tiffany moved away, Serina’s pupils shrank as she sucked in a sharp, desperate gasp of air. Every sense returned at once, and she fell to the floor on her hands and knees from the shock.

W-was I… it felt like I was… like I wasn’t… here…

Livewire shook, her hands grasping at the smooth surface of the floor as she struggled against the urge to curl into the smallest, tightest ball she could manage. This day has been,… been too much! First I come here, to see Forêt again… Even thinking the French forest spirit’s name made Serina’s thighs clench and her eyes roll back into her head.

Her lust for the woman had almost seemed to dim after their encounter in the elevator ended. Now that she’d been so thoroughly, if briefly, subsumed it seemed to be back in its entirety.

Then… then she took me to some… forest… probably inside of my own head… made me cum… Commanded me to… sign the contract, no matter what, and I can’t resist at all, or else… or else this plant inside of me… consumes me… becomes me… She quivered, hands balling up into fists. Fuck… Yes I have trust issues when the only people who ever want to get close to me are like you!

“I guess it is a little too bad…” Tiffany sighed as she typed away. “I was looking forward to seeing you clench tight enough to break a peppermint inside of you!”

Serina stood, and without even thinking began to run for Tiffany’s desk. She didn’t know what she was going to do when she got there, what good it could possibly do, or if it was a bad idea... but body and mind both screamed to close the distance and do something to a woman who threatened such a lewd, thoughtless—

The phone on Tiffany’s desk quietly beeped, and then a smooth, professional woman’s voice filled the room. “Send her in, please.”

Serina froze inches from Tiffany’s desk. The vines inside of her squeezed, but this time she understood what they wanted. Instead of even thinking about anything else, instead of any resistance or struggle, she thought back to what Forêt said their relationship was going to be. She would command, and Serina would obey.

Letting go, Serina found herself following a gentle, seductive tug pulling her towards the door. Instead of feeling tight and painful, sorrowful and pitiful, Serina felt a certain soft bliss.

Distantly, Tiffany pouted, but there was nothing she could do.

In Chronos there was one woman who sat above everyone else, and she was waiting behind the door as Serina found herself stepping in without a first thought.