"It begins. You were born... probably here. Somewhere in town, anyway. Likely... hm... probably not at home, but probably not in the hospital. This is all guesswork, by the way. You were born in a birthing centre, with a midwife. Upper-middle-class family. Dad has high-paying, high-energy job, hardly home. Mom, hm... works, part-time, which means you're left in the care of a nanny or babysitter or in a daycare. Your older sister helps out, probably a little too much for someone her age, especially after you lost your dad. You're an overachiever in school. Great grades, work hard. Probably get picked on a bit for it, but you're popular enough with the right people, and this matters more as you get older. High school, you excel, both academically, and socially. Grades slip a bit, but hey, whose don't?"

Idle paused for breath. Tailor motioned for her to continue, her face unreadable.

"So far so good, eh?" Idle started to pace small circles in the living room. "But then. Something grabs you. Like you said, you were fascinated by Alteration growing up. VirtuWorld, Mind Games, maybe something a little older that you caught once in a while staying up late, yeah? Maybe Alter / Control / Delete or one of the late-night reality shows? Did you know that Trance Cabin was filmed just a couple hours up the road from here? Anyway. That little thought is sitting in the back of your mind. You go through high school, probably take a course in psych or sociology or something, maybe both, and that nudges that little thought a bit forward. 'Maybe I could do this,' you start to think. It becomes fantasy fodder. Doesn't even need to be sexual fantasy fodder. 'I can help so many people,' or 'I can do some good in the world.' You become a hero in your own mind, at least your future self does.

"So. Post-secondary hits. You don't take a gap year, you know what you want to do. But you don't tell anyone exactly what you want to do. You never tell anyone that you want to be a hypnotist, because that's not an okay thing to be, even just a decade ago. Even now. Alterations are common, sure, but no one wants to be an Alterist. Too many people think it's weird, nerdy. So you take a batch degree, maybe arts with a psych major, or social work, or something like that. It looks to the outside observer like you're aimless but enthusiastic, which is the sort of person a corporate trap is perfect for. You hit up a job fair, hoping, maybe even knowing, there will be some company like AlterLogic there, ready to snap up eager young recruits like you who want to make a difference. Somewhere along the way, though, you lost that excitement. Maybe A-L slowly drained it from you, maybe the work beat it out of you, maybe you just forgot about it, but you started to just... coast along.

"Which brings us to the boy."

"Kyle."

"Kyle, alright. Brings us to Kyle." Idle chuckled. "High school sweetheart is too cliché, so I'm going to guess that the two of you met at the university. I'm also going to guess that you didn't meet in class. Probably at a mixer. Introduced by a friend. 'You two will get along great!' they said, I bet. 'You have so much in common.' And they were probably right. So the two of you keep seeing each other after graduating. He finds work, you find work. Live the two-income lifestyle for a while, with help from your mom, though I bet she's more interested in your sister at this point because grandkids. Meanwhile, everything's just gone stale on your end. Kyle's a good provider and boring as fuck in bed. The passion you felt for something new faded away because he hasn't got any real interests. What you had in common isn't enough to hold the two of you together, or it's not in common anymore. Either way, you're not having fun in your job, you're not having fun in your personal life, you're just marking time. Eventually you decide you have to make a change. So... out with the boytoy. But you're still all tied up in that corporate trap. So you start going out again. Not dating, but playing games. Fives is safe and fun, doesn't conflict with your programming. You reconnect with Abley, start in on a few casual games, get into the tournament, try to find some of that passion again.

"But that's the thing about corpie Alteration. AlterLogic doesn't want passionate employees, they want consistent employees. So you're stuck. Having fun is against company policy. And your job doesn't even let you do any Alteration, just look at some numbers on the screen. You don't even get to talk to other Alterists, if you have a break the only co-workers around are fuckin' cops."

"I thought you wanted to know about Kyle—"

"Don't interrupt me when I'm on a roll here! You're stuck, you're trying to get your kicks going out and doing recreational Alteration after your boring corporate job, you can't get out dating, you don't even know what you want. You're looking at your sister with her kids who seems just ridiculously happy, and you're lost as to what you're supposed to do to get that. You're thinking maybe you made a mistake. Maybe you need to call Kyle. Then you run into me, and your whole world goes tits-up—sometimes literally—and you're gettin' a taste of what your life could be, if you hadn't followed Mom's advice and gone into the corporate world, and I got news for you, beautiful: It's not too late. Because that's what's going through your mind, again and again, since yesterday dinner, it's not too late. You can start over. Leave fuckin' AlterLogic behind and come see what the world outside of white picket fence and one-point-seven kids in the suburbs actually means." Idle looked Tailor straight in the eyes. "Seeing me and Midnight out on this edge not just surviving but thriving probably brought everything you were told about what you're supposed to do in your life crashing down. Partly because we're not on the edge. There's an edge out there well past us."

Tailor crossed her arms, still inscrutable.

Idle tilted her head, waiting.

"Done?" the corpie asked.

Idle nodded, "Yeah, I've pretty much said everything I wanted to." She smirked.

Tailor chuckled. "You're pretty accurate. I wonder if you ever turn that analytical gaze on yourself."

"Every fuckin' day, corpie." Idle stood her ground as Tailor got to her feet. "You think I don't torture myself with this sort of shit regularly?"

"Oh good, because I'll tell you what I see, Idle. I see someone who had tremendous potential, but who let it slide. Let me guess, 'Brilliant but unmotivated' on every report card?"

"From grade three on up, good guess."

"Uh huh. No time for university."

"No patience for university. Attention deficit is a bitch."

"So you hung around your parents' place."

"Uncle, but yeah."

"Travelled a bit."

"As far as a youth pass on the train would get me."

"Learned some skills here and there."

"If I would take the time to get any certification at all I'd be everyone's favourite contractor."

"Did some odd jobs, decided to start streaming for views."

"Who doesn't love to watch a chubby girl hammering in nails?"

"Got hooked on Alteration somewhere in there."

"Same as you, corpie. Since I was a kid. Vid shows, movies, even a fuckin' play once."

"And when your friend gets medically certified—"

"Oh, here's some insight!"

"—you glom on to their know-how and switch careers into Alteration."

"Close, so close, but."

"But."

"But." Idle grinned unkindly. "I'm the one that got Spin into Alteration. Yeah, I mooch off them, make a little bit here and there where I can, but if it weren't for me, they'd never have got into Alteration or brainhacking. I've been at it since I didn't go to college, Spin caught up to me a couple years later, and if you want to know why I feel fuckin' guilty every time Spin gets run into the ground and depressed because of what that total fuck Caden Collier did to them, now you get it."

Tailor faced Idle down. Idle didn't budge.

The corpie spoke first. "Kyle."

"Kyle."

"You're right, Idle. But there was more to it than that."

"Oh, there always is."

"I was following behind my sister. Two perfect girls, living perfect lives. The dream, you know? She met her husband in university. I met who was supposed to be mine. She had a kid, we were waiting. Everyone said we were perfect together. Which is why we stuck it out even after it was clear that we didn't have it. Outwardly, it was all shiny and clear. Inside it was..." She sighed. "Dead. And the loss wasn't..." She shook her head. Idle took a step back, shifting subtly, giving her space. Tailor looked down, took a big sigh. "Last night, I fantasized about him. Almost every night I fantasize about him. Even when we were together. Do you have any clue, any idea, either of you—you, Idle, with your passion and wit and everything, or you, Midnight, with your stunning body and endless energy—do either of you have any idea what it does to someone to lie next to a person in bed, to be in love with someone that doesn't want you?"

Almost before Idle could react and process the words, Midnight was there, wrapping her arms and her tiny form around Tailor and holding her tight.

Tailor put an arm around Midnight. There were tears in her voice, but not on her face. "For over a year, as everything was... falling apart. There was... there wasn't anything there. I tried almost everything to seduce him, sometimes it worked, usually it didn't. And I kept thinking, last night, after meeting you two, if... If I could have... with your gear and..."

Idle joined the hug. It was warm and comfortable and easy.

"So," Tailor continued, "the two of you... so close, so obviously... whatever you want to call it, passionate, whatever... and then both directing that passion at me..." Tailor gently extracted herself from the embrace. Midnight's arm remained around Idle's waist. "Even the breakup seemed like... marking time. It didn't feel like a major shift. It just felt like the space was only one person down, just lacking a body. It felt quieter, but not really lonelier. If anything, it was better when he wasn't there, because then I didn't have to feel bad about not going to bed, or putting porn on the vidscreen, or just... walking around naked." She shrugged. "It was months ago, and initially I was... well, relieved, I guess. But I just wound up going from one holding pattern to another." She took a deep breath. "And that, I think, is what you've pushed me out of. Really. More than anything." She smirked. "I knew about brainhacking and the Alteration underground before I met you, Idle."

"Yeah, and you hated it." Idle grinned back. "You doin' okay, there, corpie?"

Tailor wiped her eyes and laughed a bit. "Yes, I'm fine, thank you." She took a couple slow, deep breaths. "There. Inhibitions down. And like you said, I kind of like it. I don't know that this is really having fun, exactly."

"Wait until we start arguing again. Then you'll be having a great time."

"I know I will," Midnight said. "You two are funny."

"It's a little less funny when you're on this end of it," Tailor replied. "But... it is fun, all the same."

Idle smirked. "I bet you were a hero in debate club."

"I never liked debate club."

"You didn't know what you were missing," Idle said. "What extracurriculars did you do?"

"Choir, dance, which I was terrible at by the way, volunteering action, and student government."

"Why would you be bad at dancing?" Midnight asked.

Tailor shook her head. "When I think about trying to put my feet in the right place, or my arms or hands, or try to move properly, I just get all tangled up and everything is a mess."

"You know," Idle said suggestively, "that's something we might be able to fix on my treadmill..."

Tailor laughed. "Not tonight."

"Oh, not tonight, no, but over time, say, nightly for three, four years?"

"You know what? That might be fun. Though I think that taking lessons from Midnight would be faster than years of Alterations with you." She gave Idle a sly look. "Maybe you're not the Alterist you think you are."

"Hey!" Idle stepped forward, out of Midnight's embrace. "It's not fair to challenge me like that when you're not prepared to face me down."

"So are you going to get back on the treadmill?" Midnight asked, wide-eyed.

Tailor shook her head. "Not tonight. I'll be driving tomorrow, after all."

"Driving?"

"Of course. We have a mystery to solve, and I have two clues in my purse."

Idle crossed her arms. "Go on."

Tailor held up a single index finger. "Spin's phone. There might be something on there. I know someone in tech who may be able to access it." She raised her middle finger. "Spin's hormones, or whatever they are. A technician in the drug lab owes me a favour, I think I'll call it in."

"A convenient excuse," Idle growled, knowing her smile was showing. "But a good one."

"Thank you. I'm an expert at good excuses, I promise you."

"You seemed the type."

"Oh, more speculation?" Tailor practically hissed. "What other types do I seem to be?"

"Told you already," Idle said, turning and heading back to the couch. "Rich, privileged, misguided, and desperately seeking some fun in her life. Fun like this: Midnight, the sun can shine through your mind."

As it had been two nights ago, the change in the dancer was instantaneous. Her jaw dropped, her eyes unfocused and brightened.

"What did you—" Tailor began, but Idle held a hand up for silence.

A moment later, as soon as she decided Midnight was ready, Idle gave the command. "Two days ago, your dance made the sun shine. I want to see it again."

"Yes," Midnight replied, her voice an excited whisper.

"This is what part of you wants, isn't it, Tailor?" Idle teased as Midnight performed a slow spin on her toes, stretching up to the sky to show as much of her nearly naked body as she could. "Some part of you wants to be able to do this to her. And, I would bet..." Tailor seemed barely to be listening as Midnight swooped into an energetic routine, following a beat that only she could hear. Somewhere during one step or another, her bra made its way to the floor. "I would bet you want to do this to me."

Tailor managed a slight sardonic smile, watching Midnight's demonstrative twists and turns. "Not exactly this to you, no," she said.

Idle laughed. "That's fair, I'm not the absolute work of art that she is."

"But I wouldn't mind watching the two of you dance together."

"We practically were, earlier."

Fingers slipped Midnight's panties down an inch, and she sat gracefully on the coffee table, lifted her legs in a kick, and was suddenly naked, her underwear landing at Tailor's feet. "It wasn't quite so... demonstrative," Tailor replied.

Midnight lifted herself with her hands and turned over, bringing her knees up onto the table and straightening her back, revealing herself to Idle, before plunging down into a prostrate pose, hands on the table, head down, breathing heavily.

"I will never get tired of seeing that," Idle said, running her hand through the sweaty pink mass of hair.

"It was an incredible display." Tailor seemed more than a little in awe.

"Which part?" Idle asked with a smirk.

"Honestly? All of it. Midnight's dance, absolutely, but the control you gained over her with just that one trigger phrase."

Idle ran a hand over Midnight's back. Other than the slow movement of her deep breathing, the dancer was completely still. "She really, really wants that control. I'm just giving her what she wants."

Tailor nodded, eyes on Idle's fingers as they danced over Midnight's tight ass. "It's... tremendous. I imagine that she was getting something of that from Spin, too."

"Mhmm." Idle snapped her fingers, and Midnight raised her head. Her eyes weren't clear, but they did slowly come into focus. "Not so directly, of course, and Spin wouldn't see it that way. But yes, I'm probably building on months of work form my roommate. Still, that's not the fun part, is it?" She held a hand out to Midnight, who took it and turned gracefully to sit on the side of the table, facing her, giving Idle another full view of her slight, muscular form. She was beautifully dazed, but definitely aware of her surroundings. Idle took the dancer's hands in her own, then turned her head to look at Tailor again. "I could ask her to dance for you, too."

"What would that mean?" Tailor asked, a little more breathlessly than Idle expected.

"Whatever you want it to," Idle replied, looking at Midnight, who nodded with blissful smile. "Just looking, some touching, disrobing you, or..." She deliberately left the obvious conclusion hanging.

Tailor looked at Midnight. "That's a very... generous offer, from you both."

Idle ran her hand through Midnight's hair again, and the dancer purred in reply. "Tailor... would you like a kiss?"

There was a bit of a pause. Idle looked up and saw a struggle in Tailor's eyes. She sensed vulnerability, a crack in the perfect façade, but she didn't press. The other woman was doing them a favour just by being there, and there was no particular need to tease her about it. If Tailor was going to join them, the wrong word now might spoil it, and if she wasn't, there wasn't anything Idle could say that would change her mind.

"I would," Tailor began hesitantly, "but I'm concerned to what it might mean and where it might lead."

Idle chuckled. "A kiss doesn't have to mean anything or lead anywhere." And by way of demonstration, she pulled Midnight close and kissed her deeply. Strictly for demonstration, of course, and not because the mere act of touching the entranced dancer was a thrill all its own. It didn't have to mean that she wanted to fuck, and it didn't have to lead to the bedroom. The fact that it did mean that and that it would lead there was irrelevant; it didn't have to, and so it was a good demonstration.

Tailor took a breath, watching them. "With you and Midnight, though? It's going to mean something and it will likely lead somewhere."

"You make the rules, Tailor. You insisted on that. It can lead wherever you like."

"That's the problem. Where I'd like it to lead."

Midnight spoke up then, her voice still warm and dream-like. "How is that a problem?"

Idle helped Midnight to her feet only to lean back on the couch and pull the dancer down on top of her. Her hands explored her lover's arms and shoulders as they kissed again. It seemed almost possible to forget that they had company, almost. So easy to get lost in that dark face, the warm muscular body, the soft moans and breaths...

The kiss ended, and a finger on Midnight's lips held off another. "I know where I'd like it to lead, too," Idle said, turning her head to look over at Tailor. "The question is, where will we, all three of us," she brushed Midnight's forehead with her lips, and the dancer mewled with delight, "let it go?"

Tailor hesitated. Midnight stood up, did a quick turn around the table, and offered a hand to Tailor with a bright smile. Tailor still hesitated, but slowly reached out and took the naked woman's hand. The two of them stood there a moment. Idle sat up slowly, watching them. Midnight took one step backwards, extending her arm to its limit, her eyes wide and her smile bright. Tailor took one step forward, and Midnight took another graceful step back.

And so they continued, each moving one step at a time. Idle barely breathed, worried about breaking whatever spell the dancer was weaving. And with each step, Midnight, her eyes fixed on Tailor's, led the reluctant Alterist closer and closer to the bedroom. The two of them were soon out of sight, but definitely not out of mind, and Idle's fantasies were running wild. Her bra came off, and her hands worked her breasts lightly. She listened for any clue about what might be happening down the hallway, whether anything was going on at all.

Curiosity warred with imagination and discretion. Idle didn't want to interrupt in case Tailor and Midnight were having a moment, but she very much wanted to eavesdrop, at least. Mostly, though, she wanted to be more than just a fly on the wall, she wanted to be another body in the bed.

Idle kicked her panties off, leaning back, her fingers brushing her damp sex as she tried to decide what to do. Two minutes passed. Five. Between the excitement of the evening (and the day in general), the uncertainty of what was happening in the other room, and the potential for what might have been, Idle was very worked up. She had to make a decision, whether she was just going to lounge and bring herself off or if she was going to head to her bedroom and possibly interrupt what was going on.

"Hey."

Idle looked up at a vision of angelic beauty. Unbound blonde hair spilled down around a perfect torso, and once more Idle's gaze was drawn to those exceptional breasts before returning to the beaming smile.

"Are you planning to sit out here all night, or are you joining us?"

Tailor held out a hand. Idle took it, aware of the juices on her fingers, and not particularly caring.

"It would be my pleasure, corpie," she said as Tailor helped her up from her chair.

Katherine ached. It was a good ache. It was the ache of having contorted her body to sleep around another. Two others.  And the ache of having been exceedingly energetic very recently.

There was a small dark head resting on her bare tummy, a bright puff of pink hair settling just under her breasts. Katherine could follow the curve of Midnight's shoulder and back to her left, over the dancer's ribs towards her hip to where her body disappeared under the sheet, hiding her legs and bottom from view. Meanwhile, Idle was face down in the mattress, her head near Midnight's back, her right arm stretched out and crossing with Katherine's left. Somewhere further down the bed, under those same sheets, Idle's legs tangled with Midnight's, judging by the way the bedding was arranged.

Katherine could feel that she still had her panties on, though they rested not at her waist but lower on her thighs, halfway to her knees. At various points in the night, six different hands had played between her legs, though hands and light touching was all that she had permitted. She had held Idle from behind and whispered quiet words in her ears as Midnight had buried her face between the other Alterist's legs. She had clutched Midnight's hand as Idle had done the same in return. Lips had been on her own lips, on her face, neck, arms, on her breasts and sides and belly, and her own had been those places and more. Fingers had entwined with her own, legs wrapped around hers, her body had been as close as she could imagine, as close as it had ever been, with that of another woman. While her participation had been more limited than that of either of the other two women, still she felt fully involved, not excluded by anyone, least of all herself.

It was also the first time she'd ever used hypnotic suggestion for anything resembling sex. She smiled into the dimly-lit room, thinking of how Idle had triggered Midnight's trance and directed the smaller woman to listen to Katherine as closely as she did to Idle. Those words alone had been enough to make Katherine glow with delight. And the way Midnight had been so open, so enthused about following every suggestion from the two Alterists. Her head swivelled to look at the top of Idle's head. Maybe you, next time, she thought to herself, her smile widening. Or maybe... But she stopped that thought there. She wasn't quite ready to explore the fantasy of being the one under someone else's control, not yet.

And then there was the sensation that had been so long missing from her life, that feeling not from just one person but two, that she was... Wanted. Desirable. She knew she was beautiful, enough people had told her that, even the two she was sharing a bed with had made that clear. Even Kyle had insisted on that up until the end of their relationship. But being beautiful wasn't enough for her; selfishly, she wanted to be more than that. After so many months of not being wanted, being... tormented by a sexually unavailable partner, even if it wasn't deliberate, she was once more able to understand that part of herself that she had been worried she might have been losing entirely. The last two days had made clear, if anything, that she wasn't losing touch with her more wanton side, that it had never gone anywhere at all, that it had only been suppressed by her desire for some semblance of normativity, of following her sister's path, and the ever-widening gulf between her and her former lover, likely helped by the programming that AlterLogic applied to her weekly to keep her on an even keel. Idle's words of the night before—AlterLogic doesn't want passionate employees, they want consistent employees—echoed back to her, and she realized that they must be right on some level, at least.

And if she was re-evaluating the rest of her life...

Slow down, Katherine, it's just been two days!

She was shaken, but not feeling bad about it. Still, she recognized that these firsts—her first gay experience, her first group sex experience, her first Altersex experience—were just those, experiences. Maybe life-changing, but it wasn't time for her to make those life-changing decisions. Meeting Kyle had been a life-changing experience, too, and making decisions based on that revelation hadn't led her anywhere wonderful, in the end. And those had mostly been careful, well-considered decisions, at least by the standards she was expected to uphold. The disaster that might unfold if she made those sorts of decisions on the basis of a single sexual encounter, no matter how wonderful, could ruin her entire life.

But... what is it anyway that I'd be ruining?

Katherine thought about that for a moment, sharing the warmth of the two bodies next to her. The most immediate fear, the most pressing detail in general would be work; her position at AlterLogic, as much as Idle was right about it not being what she wanted, did provide well for her. There was a mortgage to consider. And there was the scorn of friends and family. Katherine sighed. Especially family. She was the younger sister, always being judged against the successes of the older. That was part of what had made her stay so long in that old, dying relationship, after all, the pressure of that expectation. To lose Kyle and then only a few months later to just... quit, for... something else, something undefined... Her mother's words from long ago came back to her. Don't leave your job until you have a new one lined up. It may have been silly but she didn't want to disappoint her family, and apparently she was willing to sacrifice her own happiness to avoid that disappointment.

Or at least she had been. Her life, at least those parts of it she'd be letting go of, didn't seem all that special and meaningful, not in the dim morning light while being held by Midnight and Idle. The bed, the possibilities, the moment felt... different.

She very carefully nudged Midnight's head off her stomach and slipped into a sitting position, trying not to disturb the other two as she got out of bed. She turned and put her feet on the floor, letting her underwear fall and standing up completely nude. She quietly left the room and paused at the door of Idle's Alteration den. How much exercise could she get on that little homemade treadmill? She smiled at the idea. That could easily replace part of her exercise routine, and be useful in other ways, besides. Her fingers danced a bit over her belly as she imagined it.

She heard the floor creaking before she felt the warm presence, before she felt the soft breast against her shoulder and the hand on her bottom. "Looks different now, doesn't it?" Idle muttered in her ear.

Katherine nodded. "A lot, yes. Very much."

The hand squeezed, and Katherine's breath quickened. "You can see all the potential in the world now. What we can do to each other, and to Midnight. And maybe to some other people."

Katherine nodded again, unsure of what to say.

Idle's free hand caught hers and held it. Their fingers interlaced tightly. Katherine turned without hesitation and gave Idle a long, slow kiss. Their tongues danced across one another. Idle moaned softly, pressing closer, and Katherine invited her in, wrapping her arms around Idle's frame and holding her tight.

Her host smirked as they parted, still holding each other. "Your hair still looks perfect even when it's wild and messy."

"Thank you. I can feel that it's really tangled, though." Katherine laughed. "I need a shower and a good brush."

"One of those is easy."

But the two of them didn't move, just holding one another.

Idle smirked and kissed Katherine's lips once, lightly.

"What's so funny?" Katherine asked.

"Oh, just wondering what I'm gonna say that's gonna get the two of us at each others' throats, you know, the usual."

Katherine smirked back. "I almost think that would turn you on."

Idle squeezed her again. "Yeah, you too."

The two of them laughed.

"We have things to do today," Katherine said.

"Any of them need us to be naked?"

"None that I know of."

"Fuck."

"None that I know of will benefit from that, either."

"Christ, you can be so fucking lame." Idle let Katherine go, pulling out of the hug. "Look, corpie, do you wanna join me for a fucking shower or don't you?"

Katherine laughed. "I was wondering if you'd invite me or not."

Idle walked past, throwing her arms in the air. "You could have asked."

"Sometimes the other way is more fun," Katherine said under her breath. She took one last look at the Alteration gear before following Idle to the bathroom.

Midnight woke slowly in an empty bed, bigger than her own. She stretched languidly, not worried about kicking the sheets off her naked body. The sound of water running in the bathroom told her where at least one of Idle or Katherine were, maybe both.

Last night had made her so happy. Not just because of the sex, which had been all kinds of amazing, but because Idle and Katherine were happy with one another. She hadn't been lying when she'd said that their arguing was funny, but it was nice that they were getting along. She considered joining them, but decided against it; it would have been fun, but Idle's bathroom wasn't that big, she could shower later.

I'll make breakfast instead, she thought, getting up and making her way to the kitchen. They're gonna be hungry. Like me. She was honestly surprised that the other two women had the energy for anything other than eating, given how she had felt since waking. But then, Midnight had always been a big eater, when she could be. Food wasn't always high on the spending priority list, and dancing burned a lot of energy.

Pots came out, quietly as they could, with water and a pinch of salt before they hit the heat on the stove top. Eggs were taken from the fridge, with a plan for hard-boiling. There weren't any oranges or tomatoes, so Midnight set to chopping some bell peppers. If she had been a more confident cook, she might have attempted omelets, but as she didn't want her first cooking effort for the others to be a complete failure, she chose simplicity.

Chopping and waiting gave Midnight time to think. Thinking gave way to imagining, and if she hadn't been cooking, imagining might well have led to fantasizing.

But not right now.

"Maybe later," Midnight whispered with a warm grin.

Who to fantasize about?

"Mm, Idle's been on my radar for a long time..."

And Katherine's wonderful, too.

Midnight nodded. "Both of them together..."

Like last night.

"Yeah, last night was..."

Special, at least.

"Good word for it." Midnight carefully put an egg in the pot, managing to avoid burning herself.

Too bad Katherine doesn't like Brainhacking.

"Nobody's perfect, I guess." Five more eggs followed the first.

Imperfections are curable.

Midnight took a bite of one of the peppers she'd chopped. "Some are, I guess." She spotted a stray pepper seed that had escaped her notice, and immediately set to disposing of it. A familiar tune popped into her head.

The sound of running water from the bathroom stopped, leaving Midnight with something more than food to chew on. She would have to worry about that later.

"So. Today."

Idle wrapped a warm towel around herself. "Whatcha got in mind, corpie?" She and Tailor had briefly tried to shower together, but the logistics of it had grown too complicated too quickly, between trying to talk, touch, and clean. Not every potential sexy moment will work out, I guess, Idle had thought to herself as she stepped aside and let her guest take the stall first.

"I want to drop the phone and the drugs with my contacts, and we should probably visit Spin's workplace, yes?" Tailor was trying to work the tangles out of her long hair, and the effect, after all this time, was finally humanizing. Even in the middle of sex the woman had looked unearthly, angelic, and some small part of Idle was still irritated by that, even as it had been her own hands holding the perfect silver hair.

"Yeah, and somewhere in there you and Midnight should probably get new clothes again." Idle used the towel to dry her back, carefully framing her breasts in the mirror for Tailor to take in.

Tailor snickered. "I barely wore the old ones, I'm sure they're fine."

"Maybe a bit wrinkled from so much time on the floor." Idle stepped out of the tub to stand next to the other Alterist. She tried to not compare the to reflections. "One big advantage to not being so perfectly pretty:" she teased, "it doesn't take me so long to get ready."

She turned on her heel and headed out of the bathroom, outwardly ignoring the light slap on her ass that Tailor gave her. She sauntered to the bedroom to check on Midnight, only to find the bed empty. She instead found her dancer in the kitchen, stretching slowly, a plate of sliced peppers nearby on the counter and a pot of water boiling on the stove.

"Mornin', Midnight," the Alterist said.

"Good morning, Idle," Midnight said, springing out of her yoga-like pose to wrap the larger woman in a warm hug.

Idle responded in kind, giving Midnight a tight squeeze. "What's cooking?"

She felt the dancer shrug. "Nothing special, hard-boiled eggs."

"Protein for a long day."

"Yep!" Midnight stepped out of the hug and went to get a large spoon. "They should be ready. I used all your eggs, I hope that's okay."

Idle watched as her lover pulled breakfast from the pot. "Yeah, it's fine. I wasn't gonna do much with 'em anyway."

"Best part of hard-boiled eggs," came Tailor's voice from the hall, "is that you can eat them naked."

"Mm, yeah a little salt, some of those red peppers, served off a pretty dancer's flat tummy?" Before Midnight could react beyond a gasp, Idle gripped her hair, pulled her head back, and commanded her to "Drop!"

Midnight went limp and fell back into Idle's arms. Tailor walked up and muttered, "You're not really planning on serving food on her."

Idle chuckled. "No, not really, but it was a fun moment." She set the dancer on her feet, holding her upright. "Deep breath, Midnight, honey, standing up tall, eyes open, body strong..." She could feel, more than see, Midnight's muscles engaging, the sinewy form straightening and supporting herself, before the dancer giggled, spun about, and kissed Idle briefly on the lips.

"Think you're the only one who can do that?" The voice was teasing, sharp, seductive. The hand in her own hair wasn't as demanding as hers had been a moment ago, but the pressure was quite real as her head came up straight. Fingernails pressed enticingly into her lower back. "Imagine my voice, over Spin's, whispering the words 'We need to—'"

Spin's voice pressed in on Idle from every side for a long-short moment, only to be replaced by Tailor's deep, caring warmth that was only too, too easy to be submerged in. She sank deeper and deeper until she couldn't remember what the surface felt like, that there even was a surface to begin with. Hands, four hands, held her, caressed her, carried her on her own feet to her soft chair. There were more words, Tailor's, and her own, and Midnight's, and more of her own, and then all the words seemed to blur together and the voices seemed to overlap even if each voice was perfectly clear and easy to understand and still none of them stuck in her memory. Even the sounds of the voices became indistinct until it was only because the three had a different feeling that she even knew three people were talking at all.

She hoped one of those voices was her own, otherwise that meant there was someone else in her apartment.

She could still count, at least. One chair, two guests, three voices, four...

"Five, six, open your eyes, that's good, seven, eight, and when Midnight gives you a deep, sexy kiss, nine, ten..."

Midnight, sitting almost unnoticed in Idle's lap, gave her a deep, sexy kiss. Idle reciprocated, pulling the dancer closer, barely hearing Tailor giving her the command to rise as the two of them embraced and clutched at one another. The passion seemed strong, stronger than she'd remembered, and there was a need there she hadn't known she had, especially given how recently and thoroughly it had been sated.

At a break for breath she saw Tailor, equally naked, sitting across from the two of them, watching with a sort of fascinated, detached curiosity, as if studying the mating habits of some obscure animal from the darkest part of the forest. She was leaning back comfortably on the couch, legs crossed at the knees, looking divine. Again. And maybe a bit smug.

It was the look that irritated Idle. She knew what it meant. "What did you do, corpie?"

"Confirmed a suspicion or two," she replied, uncrossing her legs and leaning forward. "She's irresistible, right?"

Idle looked down at Midnight, resting cheerfully in her arms, and had to fight the urge to set aside all her irritation and curiously and pull the dancer back into another kiss, and more. Even knowing that the eggs were ready and the peppers were waiting and that everyone was hungry wouldn't have stopped her. Only Tailor's presence and the nagging doubt that something was just... not right gave her the willpower to hold back.

"Of course she fucking is, and I know you think so too. Pretty sure your eyes were stuck on her most of last night."

"It's different, though, isn't it?" Tailor leaned back again. "I want her. I want you, Idle. And you want me. But you don't want Midnight, not the same way, it's much deeper than just want, isn't it?"

"It was, until you butted in and ruined the mood."

"Sorry." Tailor's apology sounded oddly insincere; Idle was surprised that Tailor was even capable of insincerity. "But do you understand? Do you see?"

"Do you explain?"

Midnight giggled and wriggled pleasantly against Idle's lap as she got to her feet. "I'll go peel the eggs."

Tailor took a breath, stopping Idle's reply. "I borrowed on Spin's work. In a moment of vulnerability, I stepped in, asked you to hear Spin's voice, and said the words of the trigger they used for you, talked you down deep, easier than I expected, and Midnight helped me get you properly relaxed so I could talk to you like Spin."

"'Talk to me like Spin?' No offense, Tailor, but you sound nothing like them."

"Not quite so literally," Tailor shot back. "Talk to you like a hypnotist. Like your hypnotist."

Idle scoffed. "Spin isn't my hypnotist."

"They've been hypnotizing you, so..." Tailor shrugged. "Maybe that doesn't make them yours, exactly."

"You've been hypnotizing me, are you mine?"

Midnight laughed from the kitchen. "Please say yes! Can we keep her, Idle?"

"I don't usually take in strays," Idle replied, grinning wickedly at Tailor, "but this one seems healthy and well-groomed."

"I'm not your pet," Tailor objected, smirking back. "If anything, you're mine. Though you know, with the body control she has, Midnight would probably make a great cat."

Idle considered it. "Except unlike most black cats, she's very good luck."

The three of them laughed. Midnight brought out a plate of sliced hard-boiled eggs and cut peppers and put it on the coffee table before sitting cross-legged on the floor and taking some for herself.

"Thank you, Midnight," Tailor said, taking some of the food. "So yes, my technique's a bit rusty—probably a lot rusty, truth be told—but I still managed to get you into a trance and get you talking."

"Get me..." Idle raised an eyebrow. "What did I say?"

"I didn't exactly take notes, but I asked you to repeat back the suggestions Spin gave you in trance on Friday."

Idle scratched her head, confused. "But we didn't have a session Friday."

"You did. Spin's just very good at hiding their tracks."

"Okay," Idle said, grabbing a couple pieces of egg. "Let's say I believe you. What did I say?"

"'Tonight I will meet a young Black woman, a fan, and will be completely captivated by her.'" Tailor looked at Midnight. "Sound about right?"

"Yep!" Midnight confirmed with a nod. "And you were, right?"

Idle popped half an egg into her mouth, thinking. The attraction had been instantaneous, immediate. They had hardly known each other for an hour before... She swallowed. "Fuck, you spend your whole life laughing about love at first fucking sight..."

"Turns out you were right about that," Tailor said, maybe a bit bitterly. "It wasn't love at first sight, it was your roommate manipulating you into..." She shrugged. "Whatever this is."

"Yeah, well, I don't think they counted on you interfering with their plans. Still not sure what that means."

"Me neither."

"So let's find out." Idle stood up. "Before my stream tonight, we've got three places to visit?"

Tailor nodded. "Spin's work, tech support, drug lab."

"Then we should probably get dressed—"

Midnight groaned in protest.

"—and get going, yeah?"

Tailor was about to reply when the noise of Idle's phone ringing interrupted.

"Or maybe I'll answer that, first. One sec." She walked briskly to her room and looked at the screen. She didn't recognize the number, but the caller identification said 'Stapanov Dentistry.'

Spin's employer.

She picked up the phone and hit the 'answer' button. "Yeah?"

A light, professional, feminine voice responded. "Hello, is this Adelaide Richardson?"

Idle bristled a bit. "Yeah, it is, what can I do for you?"

"You're listed as Trisc Emir's emergency contact and roommate, is that correct?"

"Sure is, is something wrong?" At least whoever it was knew how to pronounce Spin's name.

"It's just that Trisc hasn't shown up for work today, with no notice and no information. We've managed to find a substitute, but if you know where they are, could you let them know we're looking for them?"

This is perfect, Idle thought to herself, carrying the phone with her back to the living room. "We're actually searching for Trisc ourselves. They disappeared Friday and we can't track them down. I have someone here who works with the police, we were just discussing this. We were hoping to come by and look at their workspace, see if there are any clues. I'll give you over to Miss Hensel for more details."

"The police?" The professional demeanour on the phone cracked just a bit. "Oh, of course, I'll speak with her."

Tailor, meanwhile, sat wide-eyed, half a pepper slice in her hand, as Idle held the phone out to her. She shook her head. Idle nodded and pushed the phone insistently towards her. She swallowed and coughed and very reluctantly took Idle's phone. "Hello, yes, this is Katherine Hensel ... Yes, that's right. ... An analyst. ... Just looking for anything that might give us a— ... Yes, of course... What time would— Yes ... Eleven? Brilliant. We'll be there. ... No, I won't be in uniform, we don't want to distress your patients. Of course." Tailor laughed politely. "Yes, I think a trip to the dentist is stressful enough without a uniformed officer present. Okay. Yes. Thank you for your cooperation. Have a lovely day."

Idle heard the beep of the phone disconnecting as Tailor held it out to her. The blonde's demeanour soured almost instantly. "We are not amused."

"Yeah, well, you did a better fuckin' job than I could have. And you got us a date, instead of just crashing through the door."

"I'm not a police officer."

"I didn't say you were," Idle pointed out, "just that you work with the police."

Tailor scowled. "You knew how she would take that."

"Not my fuckin' problem." She turned to head back to her room. "Consider it payback for whatever the hell you did to me earlier."

"You mean when I found us a couple more clues?" Tailor called after her.

Idle didn't reply. She did, truthfully, feel a bit guilty about putting Tailor on the spot like that, but she figured the corpie could handle it.

Three leads, she thought, pulling clothes from her dresser. It's a good start. Hopefully these ones actually go somewhere.