"Ready for this?"

"God no."

After dropping Midnight off, Katherine drove back to Idle's apartment, and the two of them had spent a tense hour creating a visual avatar for her as Idle gave her a crash course on Brainhacking. And the time had come for the livestream. Katherine was seated in front of Spin's laptop, wearing a headset that wasn't her own around her neck. Idle was in her brainhacking chair, with the equipment turned off other than the computer itself. It was definitely odd seeing a cartoonish version of herself mimicking her head movements.

"Last chance to chicken out."

Katherine looked over at Idle. Idle looked back with a smug smile. Katherine felt herself scowling. "Not on your life, Brainhacker."

"Hello?" The voice, a light tenor, came faintly from the headset around her neck.

Idle tapped her headphone to indicate she was going to speak to their colleagues through the internet. "Hey Tebby, how goes?" Idle's pretty animate character head bounced cheerfully on the screen, aping the real Idle's mouth movements. Katherine pulled the equipment over her own ears.

"I'm doing alright, thanks. Neema's running a bit behind, but our host doesn't seem to be—" A loud blip came over the speakers, and a fourth box appeared on the screen. "—never mind."

No image appeared in this new box, just the word Host in blue letters across a black background. A green border pulsed around the border of the box in time with the host's voice  "Hey there, Idle, Tebby, and... Tailor, is it?" The host's voice was deep, masculine, and soothing, and reminded Katherine a little of Kyle's.

"Yes, that's right," Katherine said, brushing aside the memory. "Nice to meet you."

"Thanks for filling in. I'm Jared, I'll be moderating the meet, directing questions, making sure we don't run overtime, the usual. Anything you'd like to know?"

"I'm good," Tebby said, his short-haired, boyish avatar nodding as he did.

"Fine here," Idle concurred.

"I'm hoping I'll pick it up as we go," Katherine said honestly.

Jared's smile was obvious in his voice. "You'll do fine, I'm sure. Idle said you have Alteration experience, and that you're a decent Fives player?"

"That's right, I work for AlterLogic."

"You'll do fine," Jared repeated, as a fourth animated avatar appeared, this of a smirking, darker-skinned, dark-eyed woman in a hijab. The label below her name read Anonyma1428. "And our final member is here! Fantastic. We have seven minutes to... well here, let's just..." The word Host vanished and was replaced by a counting clock, ticking down the seconds from 7:08. "There, we can keep track that way, and I don't have to keep reminding you."

"Hey Idle, nice to meet you Tailor." Anonyma had a cool, quiet manner. She sounded professional.

"Nice to meet you as well, Anonyma."

"Thanks, please call me 'Neema.'"

"I'll keep that in mind."

"So Idle," Tebby cut in. "You brought a corpie to the stream, huh?"

Katherine flushed, and Idle raised a hand to forestall a reply. "She's good. She's cool. Just think of her like Spin."

"I think that'd be a challenge," Tebby replied. "What's your story, Tailor?"

"Well," Katherine said, a bit hesitantly, "Like I said, I work for AlterLogic. I'm currently an interview analyst for the police."

"Oof, well, I'll be sure not to say anything incriminating." He laughed.

"Me too." Katherine grinned and was somewhat disconcerted to see her cartoon avatar do the same. That will take some getting used to.

"Glad we're all on the same page," Anonyma added. "You play Fives? I never got into that one."

"I do, yes. I find it fun."

"I like direct competition more than playing through proxies." Anonyma's avatar seemed to shrug, though it was hard to tell with only head and shoulders visible.

"I've never been fond of competition," Tebby said smoothly. "I'm happy to support Neema, but I'm a lover, not a fighter."

Idle chuckled. "We all stick to our specialties."

"Hey, so, newbie," Jared chimed in. "You ever see one of these streams before?"

"Uh, me?" Katherine shook her head. "No, no I haven't."

"'Kay, one sec." The timer ticked past the five minute mark. "Here's what you're gonna see." The screen changed on Spin's laptop to show full-body models of Idle and Anonyma facing forward, sitting in chairs. A set of familiar numbers appeared next to each of them, and a timer appeared above. "This is what the viewers were seeing during the match. The numbers are—"

"She's an analyst, she knows those numbers," Idle interrupted.

"Yes, but..." Katherine looked at the data. "Timer says it's the start of the match, yes? How is it that Neema's got such unusual readings?"

"Oh, she's good," Anonyma said approvingly. "Spinal injury, car accident ten years ago. No use of my legs, no nerve response there, so... no signals from them. The systems don't really know what to do about that, so we have a compensatory analytic program that gives accurate relative readings but mucks up the initial values."

"We've had complaints that it gives Neema an unfair advantage," Tebby said. "I'm always prepared to offer our opponents the same advantage. I keep a baseball bat handy for that purpose."

Idle laughed. "We all know what we have to do to deal with the readings, and the analytic adapter is open-source, lots of programmers have checked it out. Special allowances are made for everyone, since every mind and body is different. People who can't cope with an opponent's disability just need to learn to be more flexible."

"Exactly!"

"The point is," Anonyma cut in with only a hint of exasperation in her voice, "that once Idle starts in on me, the numbers should resemble more and more what you'd expect to see. It's just a little wonked at the start."

Katherine nodded and her animated duplicate mirrored her a split second later. "Alright, got it."

Jared cleared his throat. "The point here is to provide something of a play-by-play, though if there's anything you want us to pause for or go over again, just ask. Instant replay's easy when it's not instant." The video scrolled forward a bit, and some commands appeared under each of the models showing what Katherine presumed were their attacks on each other. "It might take you a bit to get used to the keywords and the terminology but it's mostly pretty standard. See here—"

"Neema's hooked into Idle's short-term memory and is working to block formation of new ideas, Idle's connected to Neema's sense of time and trying to distort?"

"Very good, newbie." Jared sounded impressed.

Idle was looking at her. "What?" Katherine asked. "You know I'm a good analyst. This is analysis."

"Definitely well-trained," Idle shot back with a snarky grin.

"Three minutes to show-time," Jared said. "If anyone has to duck out to get some water or use the bathroom, now would be the ideal time. Show's about an hour long, we don't really want to break in there except for ads halfway."

"All good here," Idle said; both she and Katherine had used the washroom and got themselves a large glass of water ten minutes before.

"Doing fine," Tebby added. "That's why Neema was late."

"Great," Jared replied. "Procedure is the same as always—so, newbie, there's going to be a short introduction for each of the players, then one for you and Tebby, and then I'm just going to move things along if we get bogged down. We want to cover the whole match in an hour, which shouldn't be too tough if we don't get into questions of fiddly details. Leave those to the nerds on the forums. Like me. We should wrap up at about fifty-five minutes to give a chance for closing statements, thank yous, and salutations, and to pass off to the next show. There will be a two-minute ad break at or near the half-hour mark. All good?"

Everyone mumbled or nodded an affirmation.

"Brilliant. Last things you might need to see, newbie: right here," a red 'x' appeared on the lower corner of the screen, beside her avatar, "is a symbol for cross-talk. If too many people are yammering at once it gets impossible to understand anyone, so if that shows up next to you, you keep quiet and let whoever's talking finish. Only you can see that one, they don't go out on the stream, but everyone can get them by their own picture if there's too much chatter. It also might show up if you're saying something we want you to stop saying. The producer will mute you outright if you're being a problem."

Idle snickered. "That's not going to happen to Tailor. She couldn't be a problem if she tried."

Katherine's eyes widened. "Wanna bet?"

"Not on the show, please, ladies," Jared said. "Ninety seconds, please keep quiet now so we can do last minute tech checks."

Katherine pressed the button to mute her microphone and looked at Idle with a sudden fear. "What am I doing?" she whispered loudly.

Idle shrugged, muting her own mic. "Going on an interview program about Brainhacking."

Katherine put her head in her hands.

"You seriously bugging out now?"

She took a deep breath. "I'll be good. Give me a minute."

"That's about all you got."

She used every last second collecting herself. By the time she looked up, Idle was facing her monitor, ready to go.

Katherine unmuted the microphone just as Jared said, "Ten seconds," and then they were on the air.

Katherine muted the mic. "Oh God."

Idle followed suit. "What is it, corpie?"

"I'm messing all this up. I'm making a mockery of this whole thing."

It was half over. The ad break was underway.

Idle took off her headset and stood up. "You're doing fine."

Katherine buried her face in her hands again. "You're lying."

"No, seriously." Idle walked over and put her hand on Katherine's shoulder. "I keep an eye on the live chat. Lots of people are loving having someone who knows a lot about Alteration and next to nothing about brainhack strategy. You're asking exactly the right questions. Tebby, Neema and I can handle the high-level stuff, you're tagging the things that we miss that other new people and new fans wouldn't catch."

"Tebby talked to me like I was an idiot."

Idle snorted. "Tebby talked to me like I was an idiot. Fuck, Tebby talked to Neema like she was an idiot, and they're friends, roommates, and fucking. They're practically married. That's literally just Tebby Dare. It's fine. And I promise you, when you listen back to it, it isn't half as bad as you think it is. Look." Idle turned her monitor. "No, really, look!"

Katherine lifted her head and looked. The first comment she saw read, Really miss Spin, but loving the new girl!

The immediate reply that followed concurred. <3 Tailor! finally understanding some of the basics that I never got before

"See?" Idle said, putting the monitor back in place. "You're doing fine. Just take a breath, relax. It's going well. We have like fifteen seconds."

Katherine took the breath Idle prescribed and sat back up. "Okay. Okay, I can do this."

"You sure can. Let's get to it."

Jared's voice came over the headset, reconfirming Idle's encouragement. "On in ten seconds. Going great, people love it."

Idle smirked and mouthed the words told you at Katherine. Katherine nodded, took a breath, and back into the interview she went.

It was done. Katherine took another deep breath. It was done.

She had survived. Somehow.

"I think I'm going to pass out," she said.

Idle laughed. "You're not."

Katherine stood and took off the headset. "I'm not, I know. But I need a break. I need a drink!"

"Strong drink, or hydrating drink?"

Katherine sighed. "I'm driving home, so I'd better not have a strong drink."

"A pity." Idle walked over to join her. "Because I'm all worked up after a great interview."

"You're worked—Idle, are you—"

"You bet I am. And I don't have to drive." She leaned close. "I could go for a little walk..."

Katherine's eyes wandered over to the treadmill in the corner. "You don't mean..."

"I do."

Katherine took a long, slow breath and considered the offer. "I."

"You."

"You want me to—"

"I'm not going to be able to be Altered from tomorrow on, since I have a match Wednesday. So it's tonight or..." She shrugged.

"But me? I don't—"

"But you can. You could. And some part of you really, really wants to."

She wasn't wrong, at all. Some part of her really did want to.

"Is..." Katherine began. "Is that something you put in my mind?"

Idle shook her head. "That's all you, Tailor." She put her hand gently on Katherine's wrist. "You asked if I knew what it was like to lie in a bed next to someone who didn't want me. I'm wondering if you'd like to know what it's like to lie in a bed next to someone who does."

The touch induced shivers. "But... Midnight..."

"Nothing about our relationship is exclusive. We've made no promises. Just because Spin's made us obsessed with each other doesn't mean we can't look elsewhere."

"You... want me... to—"

"Yes, Tailor, I want you, too."

Katherine snorted. "I wasn't done."

"Doesn't matter to me. Just don't want to drag this out any more than we have to. So."

"So?"

"Are you gonna fuck my brain or not?"

This brought more laughter. "Is that all you think about?"

Idle bit her lip and put on an exaggerated look of consideration. "Pretty much, yeah. Altersex and brainhacking."

"Do you ever... you know... have sex without Alteration?"

Idle snickered. "Boring! Mind control fuckin' is the best!"

Katherine saw a point to press. "Think so, Idle? Think I can't excite you without breaking your brain?"

"Hm? Well, no, I'm sure you c—"

She grabbed Idle's hand and leaned in to whisper in the other woman's ear. "Not only that, but I can mess with your mind without the treadmill, remember? I know the words, the tone, the energy that's needed to turn you to putty under my fingers."

Idle gasped and moaned a bit. "Now we're talking, Tailor."

Katherine's hand snaked around Idle's hip and squeezed her ass lightly. "And maybe I just whisper a couple words in your ear..."

"Mmm, yeah?"

"Make you slip beneath the waves..." She pulled Idle closer.

"And then what?"

"Leave you entranced and naked on your bed..."

Idle gave a soft anticipatory moan, clearly waiting for Katherine to continue.

"...so I can drive home so I can get some rest before work tomorrow."

Idle actually laughed, giving Katherine a gentle shove. "You're no fun!"

Katherine laughed back. "You've been saying that since we met. But I really do have to get home."

Idle shook her head. "Nothing I can do to... convince you to stay?"

"I don't think so, no," Katherine replied, stifling a yawn. "It's been a long day and the last hour or so especially stressful."

"Oh, I bet. And I did my best to make it as stressful as possible, within reason."

"I could tell."

"Honestly, corpie, you took it real well. You held up under pressure, and you provided some good insights and some awesome questions." Idle shook her head. "It's too bad you're just an analyst—"

"I'm not just an analyst!"

"—because you'd make a great Alterist."

"I am an Alterist!" Katherine protested. "I very nearly beat you at Fives, and I handled myself perfectly well with that Frankenstein's monster over there in the corner!" She pointed at Idle's treadmill.

"I mean professionally," Idle said, but her grin suggested she knew exactly the effect her words would have.

"Oh, of course you did."

"Snippy, snippy."

Katherine's eyes narrowed. "I know what you're doing."

"Is it working?"

"Might be," Katherine admitted, surprising herself a bit. She couldn't deny that the suddenly confrontational conversation had chased away at least some of her tiredness. The adrenaline was pumping again, as it had been whenever she'd been called upon to ask a question—or worse, answer one—during the livestream. But she knew the adrenaline was temporary at best.

Idle reached a hand up to Katherine's cheek. Katherine shied away. "You're warm," Idle said.

"Just... worked up after the talk, that's all."

"You're dodging."

Katherine laughed. "I need to get home!"

"Then take me with you."

"What?"

"Take." Idle grabbed Katherine's hand. "Me." She placed Katherine's hand on her breast. "With you." She slipped her hand around to grab Katherine's ass and squeeze. "To your home."

Katherine squeezed back. "You'll be stuck out in Copper Hills."

"Popcar exists. And city transit."

"You'd have to put up with my house."

Idle sighed and let Katherine go. "Honesty time? I haven't been alone in this apartment for months. It's fucked up. I'm a bit... I don't want to be here by myself. Especially right now."

Katherine nodded sympathetically. "I haven't been not alone in my home for a long time, too. I..." She shrugged. "It might be nice to... You know..."

Idle grinned. "I'll get a bag together." She bolted from the computer room.

"I didn't say 'yes'!" Katherine called after her.

"You were going to!" Idle shouted back through the door.

Katherine was about to object, but Idle wasn't wrong, really. Katherine shook her head delightedly and walked out to the living room and picked up her phone, left on silent to keep from disturbing the recording. There was a missed call from an unlisted number, itself unusual, and a voice message. Curious, Katherine opened the message.

"Hey Kate," Dale Tanner's raspy voice came out of the phone speakers. "Yeah, your pills are oneirathol, pretty high dose. I wouldn't recommend it for a pregnant or nursing person but it sure ain't birth control. Also since when are you in with brainhackers? You sounded great on the livestream, Kate. Tailor. Whatever." The rasp laughed at her, half mocking, half supportive. "So I know how I know your friend now, and that's fun. Anyway, yeah, if you wanna come pick up the bottle I'll be at the office tomorrow."

There was a click of disconnection. Katherine deleted the message and sent Dale a quick text of thanks.

"Who're you talking to?" Idle asked, coming out of her room. She'd changed into sweat pants and a light sweatshirt, and was carrying a grocery bag with a change of clothes.

"Dale, they left me a message."

"Dale? The drug analyst? What'd they say?" Idle's eyes widened.

"Spin's pills are oneirathol, not hormones," Katherine said.

"The fuck?"

"Powerful suggestive. Give someone one or two of those and put them in a headset and—"

"I know what oneirathol is, corpie, what I'm wondering is why Spin had it."

Katherine shrugged. "Have to ask them about it."

"Yeah, great, as soon as I find them—"

"Do you think that..." Katherine began, then stopped herself.

The silence hung in the air for a moment. "I think I know what you're going to ask, Tailor. Ask it."

Katherine swallowed hard. "Do you think that Spin might have drugged you at some point?"

"No." Idle shook her head. "No way. And if you want me on my treadmill to see if they put that idea in there I will get up there without hesitation. They did not poison me."

"Okay. Then... Well, two questions. Why did they have it, and where did they get it?"

Idle tromped to the door and grabbed her shoes, slipping them on bare feet. "We'll talk about that on the drive. Let's go."

Katherine followed, waiting as Idle locked the door behind them before letting her lead to the street and back to Katherine's car. They got in, Katherine started driving, and contrary to Idle's assertion, the two of them drove half the distance in a tense silence.

"It's not a recreational drug," Idle finally said, breaking the quiet.

"What?" Katherine said, unsure of what she meant.

"Oneirathol. It's not a recreational drug. Unless your recreation is getting super fucked up on Alterations, but you need... Alteration, you know? Maybe as a party drug, I guess, or for someone who has a... something in their brain that fucks with their ability to be Altered. I don't know. Spin's thing isn't getting fucked up on Alterations, anyway. They're more likely to be the one doing the fucking."

"That's..." Katherine swerved into her lane, moving down the highway. "... a lot to think about. It does bring up where—"

"Dale said it was scrip, not street, right? Those are pharmacy pills, not... Fuck."

"What?"

"Spin wouldn't have stolen them from their work."

"Where else would they—"

"The therapist! They needed therapy to deal with the shit Caden put them through. That might have—"

"Oneirathol is pretty heavy-duty stuff for therapy." Katherine got into the exit lane. "You said they were taking it—"

"Every night, yeah. But they weren't being Altered every night, they just put on a podcast and..."

Katherine turned into the exit, and caught Idle's eye as she did.

"The phone," they said in unison.

"That's why it had to be destroyed," Katherine concluded. "We might have found whatever they were listening to."

"I hope your tech guru is as good as your drug guru."

"They're not gurus. And anyway, wouldn't the phone backup to the laptop?"

"I... no? Maybe? I don't know. I don't know how to dig into Spin's hidden files."

"Midnight does."

"What?"

"I would bet that Midnight knows how to get into Spin's hidden files, even if Midnight doesn't know that she knows."

"Jesus fucking Christ, you're probably right. We gotta swing 'round there, pick her up and—"

"Nope," Katherine said, pulling onto the major residential artery. "Tomorrow. You two can work on it while I'm on the job if you like, but we do it tomorrow."

"But—"

"I need to go home and get some proper sleep. You need some rest, too, you're all worked up. And Midnight needs a break, her brain is about to liquefy and leak out her ears."

Despite the situation, Idle laughed. "God, you're gross sometimes."

Katherine grinned. "Something about having nieces."

"Kids fuck you up."

"Yeah. Even if they're not your own."

A turn onto the side street and they were once again at Katherine's small home. "I think we've got things to work on tomorrow."

Idle nodded. "Let's... can we put it out of our minds, if we're not going to work on it?"

"I have a feeling that you have an idea about how to do that."

Idle laughed, opening the door. "A few, I think."

Katherine shook her head again and went to open her house to a guest for the second time in three days, and for the second time in what felt like a very, very long time.

"Life is wonderful."

Midnight flopped into bed, nude and smiling. She couldn't have been happier.

Well, that wasn't exactly true. If she got a callback for either of the two auditions she'd been at the week before, that would be even better.

But...

Love. Alteration. Sex. Fun. Adventure. Everything she'd wanted from life other than dancing on the stage. But there was a small audience that enjoyed her dancing, too.

Idle. Katherine.

She'd dance for either of them any time at all. Thinking about dancing for them, about how she had danced for them, about how much she wanted to dance more for them... Her fingers slid lazily along the inside of her thigh, thinking about it.

And then there was the treadmill and the magnetic headset and watching Idle and Katherine walking the same way she had. A fingertip brushed over the tip of her clitoris, lightly. Idle had loved it as much as Midnight.

But Katherine.

The thought made her hesitate.

"She doesn't want it, not in the same way."

But she could be made to want it.

"And it wouldn't even be that hard. She already enjoys it. That's just one step away from wanting..."

From wanting more.

"That. Exactly that."

It only made sense; after all, the more that Midnight was Altered, the more she wanted to be. The thought alone gave her shivers. Her fingers resumed their movements.

"And Katherine gets Altered once a week, so she must be wanting more, right?"

That makes a lot of sense.

"So glad we agree." Midnight giggled to herself, a giggle that turned into a moan as she imagined Idle helping Katherine to realize her deep need to be Altered. And she could assist. She knew she would make a perfect assistant. Compatible, connected, sympathetic. Cleaning up messes, real and metaphorical.

And with Katherine and Idle together...

Her fingers danced more rapidly, and her other hand groped at her breast. Last night. Both of them. It had been beyond belief. And Katherine could be just as devoted as she was.

With a little work.

And that work will be so much fun...

The dancer sang into her dark room, her body writhing in pleasure.

"She'll... love it..."

She won't have a choice.

That thought sent Midnight over the edge, her back arching as she came, stars bursting in front of her closed eyes, her shoulders rolling into the bed.

Bliss.

Idle would make Midnight into the perfect assistant. She would help make Katherine into the perfect... whatever Katherine was meant to be. It didn't matter. Whatever Idle wanted her to be. Needed her to be.

That thought started to carry her tired body and mind into dreams. Idle could be convinced. She was sure of that. And if that took a little extra persuasion, then Midnight was happy to provide.

"Hey."

"Mmm?"

"You awake?"

"I am now. Kind of."

"Were you sleeping?"

"I guess I was."

"What were you dreaming about?"

"I... what?" Katherine rolled over in her bed. "What are you—"

She was cut off by a tender kiss. "Were you dreaming about me?"

"I—"

"Sh. Pretend." Idle whispered. "For me."

What harm can it do? Katherine asked herself. "I... Yes, Idle, you were in my dreams."

"Mmm. What were we doing?"

"Uh... Walking. Through the forest."

"Nice, secluded... A nature hike sounds—"

"I'd like to get back to it," Katherine said, starting to roll over. Idle stopped her halfway, so she stared up into the darkness towards her ceiling as her guest snuggled close to her side.

Though they had both gone to bed in their underwear, Idle was naked. Katherine could feel the flesh of Idle's breasts against her arm, and the hair below Idle's belly pressing against her thigh. "What were we doing in the woods?" Idle asked, her tone low and soft.

Katherine made a show of sighing dramatically, collecting herself to come up with some sort of a story. "We stopped by a little pool. Maybe a lake, or a little offshoot of one."

"Did we go for a swim?" Idle asked, kissing Katherine's cheek.

"Mm, we were just getting to that bit. We had some lunch..."

"Then I took off my shirt..."

"You did, and then you woke me up."

Idle pressed herself closer and threw one leg over Katherine's. "Sounds like I interrupted the good part of the dream."

Despite herself, Katherine grinned in the dark. "Maybe I can get back to it."

"Or maybe," Idle whispered into her ear, "I can make your dream come true, right here."

The offer was very tempting, and became moreso as Idle straddled Katherine's hip and pushed herself up.

"I wouldn't mind finding out what you can do to my mind, too," Idle continued, leaning down to press her lips against Katherine's.

"Mmm. I don't have equipment here."

"But you don't need it, do you." Idle put her hands on Katherine's shoulders, smirking. "You know how to just do it with words."

"Yes, I learned as part of my university studies. I got a degree in—"

Idle's laugh interrupted. "Don't care about your academic record. Just use the magic words and show me what you can do."

Katherine laughed back. "It's not that easy! I need a more controlled space, I need to be more focused, I need time, energy... It's, what, two in the morning? I don't think I could keep myself awake long enough to put you under."

"So in the morning, then?" Idle slid a hand under Katherine's tank top and teased a nipple.

Katherine moaned sleepily, and happily. "Think we'll have time?"

"So you're late, so what?"

"I still need a job."

"Oh just..." Idle pushed Katherine's shirt up, exposing her breasts, slipped back and dropped down and started to suck on her right tit.

Katherine gasped in surprise and glee, the pleasure mingling with exhaustion in a warm haze. "Hng, wow, Idle," she breathed.

The brainhacker looked up at Katherine. "I'm just getting started."

"Maybe... mm, it's hard to refuse, but maybe it should stop there."

"Why?"

"Because it's two in the morning and I work."

Idle sighed. "What was it you were saying about lying next to someone who doesn't want you?"

Katherine put a hand to her head. "Idle, I want you, it's just late and I'm worrying about other things. And I'm not all that happy about the guilt trip."

Her guest actually looked contrite. "Let me make it up to you?"

"How do you propose to do that?"

There was a moment of quiet.

"Are you thinking of making it up to me with sex?" Katherine asked.

"Might've... crossed my mind a bit."

Katherine sighed and patted the bed next to her. "Come sit."

Idle, looking a bit puzzled, dismounted and made her way to sit at the head of the bed as Katherine slid up to rest her bottom against her pillows. She pulled the sheets up to cover her and Idle's waists.

Katherine bit her lip. "Okay. Let's start with this. I want you. A lot."

"Good start. So why no sex?"

Katherine laughed. "How about, 'Because I don't want any sex right now'?"

Idle made a show of disappointment, enough that Katherine could tell she was playing it up. "I guess I can accept that." She turned. "So what, then? Just back to sleep?"

"I'm a little too awake to go right back to sleep. I thought you might like to talk."

"Talk is boring."

"Talk is what we do, isn't it?"

"Sure, when I have gear on someone's head." Idle chuckled. "Don't talk much otherwise."

"Seen some evidence to the contrary these past couple days."

"Ouch, your cheap shot game is on point tonight."

"Well, I've been fielding a few this weekend." Katherine took Idle's hand. "Missing Midnight that badly already?"

Idle squeezed a bit. "Yeah." She sighed. "Spin's messed me up bad. I wonder if Midnight's feeling the same."

"Want to talk?"

"Yeah, surprisingly, yeah I do."

"Surprisingly?"

Idle chuckled. "I didn't ever think that I'd actually want to have serious relationship talk with a fuckin' corpie."

"While lying naked in her bed."

"I didn't ever expect that I'd actually be lying naked in a corpie bed. Unless I'd been sold to her or something."

"I'm not in the habit of buying people."

"Maybe you ought to try it."

Katherine snorted. "Maybe." She looked at her bedmate's chubby side, since looking at her face would involve a significant turn. "What would you do if I bought you, Idle?"

Idle shrugged. "Be your slave, I guess. You'd own me, after all."

"Pretty casual statement."

"You'd probably need to do something to keep me. I'm easily distracted."

"That's also been noticed."

"Bitch." Idle laughed, then sighed. "It's worse than usual."

"Mhmm. Spin?"

"Yeah, probably. And you, and Midnight, but... yeah. They would know how to manipulate my ADHD, and they probably did, and it sucks. And it's gonna sound like it's working on me, but can we talk about anything other than my roommate and best friend screwing with my head?"

"Of course." Katherine squeezed Idle's hand. "Want to talk more about being purchased like a pet?"

"Fuck yes, please. That sounds like a good time. Heh, and you'd probably need an Alteration kit to keep me in a cat mindset."

"I don't know, I was thinking more domesticated sheep."

"A sheep?" Idle sounded offended. "I'm hardly fluffy and soft."

Katherine shifted, her leg lying against Idle's, her foot slowly rubbing along Idle's ankle. "But you follow so well."

"And we're back to hypnosex," Idle said, and her voice seemed to tremble. "Ugh, how do you do this to me, corpie? And more importantly, why?"

"How?" Katherine shrugged, stopping the gentle massage. "I practised a lot trying to get Kyle's attention. Why? I suspect you have something to do with that—"

"Nothing I did should be still affecting you," Idle protested.

"No, but you got the ball rolling. And that's a whole other discussion."

Idle turned to face Katherine, putting one arm around her shoulder and the other on her hip. "It's this discussion now, Tailor. Unless you've got something to distract me." When Katherine didn't respond right away, Idle continued. "Was I right, the other day? You've seen the edge, and you're thinking about jumping off?"

Katherine swallowed. "Yes, actually. That's pretty much it."

"The fuck? Seriously?" Idle's voice rang with surprise and pleasure.

"Do you have any siblings?"

"Younger half-brother I've been a babysitter for more than a sister, why?"

"There's... enormous pressure," Katherine began, her hand covering Idle's fingers on her hip, "when you're the younger one, to try and live up to the example set by your—by my, let's be honest here... There was an enormous pressure to live up to the example my sister set. Even if no one ever said it directly, there were enough little jokes and nudges and little judgmental looks that I understood from the time I was a child what I was up against."

"'Kay, yeah, families suck shit, so what else is new?"

"So, this whole weekend... it's made me... question. Everything. I wasn't going anywhere. Wasn't going to go anywhere. Probably eventually some young cop or office drone from AlterLogic would ask me out to coffee, we'd have a few dates, decide to move in, get married, maybe raise a family, you know."

"Right. The dream. Tee em."

Katherine rolled her eyes, but smiled. "That's the one. But my life had kind of been stuck in one place since Kyle left. Since before Kyle left, honestly. And this weekend has messed everything up in my head. I was seriously considering calling in my resignation yesterday morning."

"Jesus, I mean, I know I'm great in bed, but am I really 'fuck-your-career' great?"

"Honestly it was more Midnight," Katherine teased, her fingers lightly stroking the back of Idle's hand. "But I'm sure you've got great potential."

"Fuck you, corpie," Idle said, laughing.

"Mmm, you would, if I asked."

"In a heartbeat," Idle whispered, giving Katherine a shiver. "Now I just have to convince you to ask."

"You didn't leave any special triggers in my head, did you?"

"If I had, do you think we'd be having this conversation? Or that we'd be doing something else?"

"And what if I'd given some to you?"

Idle snuggled closer. "Is that what you're thinking of? The way Midnight went blank-eyed and obedient? Thinking of me like that?"

Katherine had been considering it, and being called out made her bristle a bit. "What if I am?"

"Well, then you'd have a cute chubby fuckdoll at your command, wouldn't you."

"Or a cute, strong masseuse to help me get to sleep."

"Or both." Idle demonstrated her ability by awkwardly rubbing Katherine's back and stomach. "Starting to feel sleepy? Very sleepy?"

"Not really, no," Katherine replied honestly. "Besides, how much would a trigger affect you right now?"

"Hm? What do you mean?"

Katherine yawned. "It's... you're not a robot. And a trigger isn't like a button or a switch." For all the strangeness of the touch, Idle's massage was effective. "You'll respond as best as you can, but different... circumstances will give different results. That's why I had you imagine Spin's voice this morning. Or why when Midnight said the trigger phrase the other day you didn't drop into trance."

"Sure, that's hypno one-oh-one. Even an untrained pleb like me knows that shit."

"So even if, mm, there were triggers in our heads..."

Idle nodded. Katherine could feel Idle's head moving against her arm. "Sure, so maybe something that would get you all worked up and hot and desperate might not work." Idle felt very close, and Katherine remembered that her guest was naked; odd that she needed the reminder. "But if I had a few words that would make you sink into my relaxing arms and open your mind to new suggestions, that would make you feel warm and comfortable and so wonderfully accepting..."

It would have been so easy to pull herself out the way of the approaching trance. To just roll on her side, say, "Good night, Idle," close her eyes, and... actually, closing her eyes sounded like a good idea. Idle's massage had turned lighter, more like drawing little whorls on her stomach. And Idle was right, she probably would be more comfortable without her shirt on. She wasn't used to sharing her bed, there was more warmth in the room, it just made sense. It was nice of Idle to offer to help, and then to offer to kiss her. She was aware of Idle once more straddling her, of her breasts meeting Idle's as the brainhacker leaned in for more kisses. She was more and more aware as the kisses and the contact came faster and faster, and her own hands had made their way around Idle's body to the small of her back, holding their bodies together in a tight embrace.

She felt Idle's breath on her cheek. "The classics do have some appeal," the Alterist said softly.

"Classics?" Katherine asked. Talking took effort, more than she expected.

Idle's hands did wonderful things in Katherine's hair. "Classic hypnotism. Even without the Alteration gear. Can't do as much, but what I can do..."

"Mhmm." Katherine was finding Idle very easy to listen to. And when Idle leaned back a bit, found Idle's breast very easy to suck on, and the movements and sounds Idle made in reply very easy to appreciate. Still, even Idle was slowing, her energy seemed to be lagging, her words hesitant. In a fog, Katherine slid back down into a supine position and let Idle remove her panties, and then curled up on her side to let other Alterist wrap her up from behind in a warm cuddle.

They were both asleep a moment later.

Ben woke himself. He'd set an alarm, naturally, as it was the middle of the night, but still got up three minutes before it went off. He'd had a parallel alarm set on another phone, one which would go off ten minutes after his.

That phone, of course, wasn't in his possession. He hadn't set it. He'd told someone else to set it. He'd listened on the phone as it got set.

He'd got all the information he'd needed earlier that evening. Now he needed action. A plan, and its execution.

He'd spent the evening researching the plan. Much of the night, too. That was why he set the alarm. He was working on very little sleep. He would need much of the next day to recover before his Wednesday match.

That didn't matter.

He knew where to dig into the dark corners of brainhack. How to find the information he needed to do things that the game was never meant to do, how to accomplish what he needed to accomplish before the match.

How to keep Spin away from Idle.

How to keep Midnight in the palm of his hand, and doing what he needed to do.

He got out of bed and dressed quickly. He had work to do, and he had to be ready when the second alarm went off.

There wasn't a knock at the door.

Midnight got out of bed to answer it anyway.

She didn't remember her alarm going off. It had only done so for a brief moment before she'd shut it off anyway, and her tired mind was in no place to retain that information.

Midnight went to the door. She went to the door naked. She opened it, and stood in the light pouring in from the hallway.

Her guest came in. The door closed and the room was dark.

She got her guest a glass of water as directed.

Not asked, a part of her noted. Directed.

She nodded to herself, and said nothing.

Just listen.

She was just listening.

She had been precisely on time, even though she was asleep, and her guest noted this.

It made her feel good to hear. Good in a strange, familiar way. It wasn't quite sexual—

Even if you're still naked.

—but it was still warm and enticing and enveloping.

And it makes you want to listen more.

It did. And she did. It was strange how no matter how much she listened

You can't remember anything you're hearing.

The words just seemed to

slip

right through her head.

In one ear, out the other.

Not usual for her. She retained everything. Important in rehearsals.

But not important when you're...

...

She nodded. That.

Are we in trouble?

She wasn't sure if she'd voiced the question or not. She was very quickly reassured, though, that she had been more than perfect so far, and that everything was going very well, even with the unexpected involvement of another person.

Katherine.

Katherine.

"Katherine."

The name sounded odd coming from her guest's voice, but the directions that followed made an immense amount of sense. More sense than most things.

Too bad you can't remember what they are.

Remembering wasn't important. The guest stressed that. Remembering was not important. The only thing that mattered was...

Following.

She nodded.

And forgetting.

But that was part of following.

She saw her guest out, again unashamedly standing nude in the well-lit doorway before closing and locking the door.

You're not going to remember this, she thought to herself.

"I know," she said, a bright smile on her face. "It'll be fun. And she'll be so happy."

They both will.

"Mhmm. We all will."

We all will.

And with that thought in her mind, Midnight closed her eyes, forgot, and went back to sleep.