Objectively, Kari knew that spending the entire day laying in bed wasn’t a great idea. That very true knowledge didn’t help, though, because that’s exactly what they were doing. 

Her phone vibrated with notifications so vigorously it might as well have become a sex toy. Kari checked each message against her better judgement before just giving up and letting it bounce around on her bedside table. The attention was getting to her. Getting this kind of attention was always a distant dream for her, but now that she had it — and for all the wrong reasons — Kari wanted it to go back to being just a fantasy. 

As much as she hated feeling conceited, Kari dreamt of fame as all glitz and glamour and people gushing to her about how fabulous she was. Instead, what she got was a swarm of her friends checking in on her — what was there to check in about? It wasn’t like Kari was going to tell them anything not entirely obvious. But what was worse was the people ‘checking in’ on her. People she hadn’t spoken to since middle school, who’d become massive fans of Gamer Sheridan, messaged Kari with a poorly veiled attempt to get Kari to introduce them. 

Kari’s breaking point was the preppy cheerleader who made Kari’s life hell in high school connecting on LinkedIn, wanting to use Kari as a way to grow her platform. She blocked the goddamn bitch pretending to be her friend and resolved not to check her messages.

She was both grateful and hateful to be on leave for life events. Sure, not having to deal with annoying customers was nice, especially since some would definitely know Kari worked there and would use the opportunity to corner them in a phone call they couldn’t get away from. But fuck, Kari was bored out of her damn mind. There was nothing to do. 

She looked languidly at the set of boxes she’d gotten from the Bureau of Soulmates or whatever. “Encouraging” her to move in with Gamer. She knew it was inevitable, and not packing would make her life hell the day before she had to move. But she knew it would at least alleviate her boredom. And she could start with all the clothes and books collecting dust that she’d be meaning to donate.

Gathering up all her strength, she stood up, grabbing some packing tape and heading to the disassembled boxes—

Before she heard a doorbell. Normally Kari hated being surprised by guests, but this time she was strangely excited. She put the tape down and ran over, exclaiming “be right there!”

It didn’t take long for her to get to the door. She lived in a studio. But when she swung the door open, an unfamiliar face greeted her. The delivery uniform immediately told Kari they were not someone she knew.

“You Kari Callisto?” he asked, sounding bored out of his mind. Kari’s heart skipped a few beats. Did he recognize her? Was this some weird threat? No… no, Kari was being paranoid now. She gulped and nodded her head.

“This’s for you.” Kari squinted at his name - Jerry. Well, Jerry couldn’t sound less interested, so Kari had to assume he was just some guy.

“T-thanks,” Kari took the box. Only when she had to adjust to the weight did she notice how much her hands were shaking. From anxiety? Hunger? She didn’t know. All she knew was she was about to ask a question, but Mr. Jerry Delivery ran off. That was probably one of the most calming interactions she had in days. It just left the question of what was in the box.

Nervously, Kari tenderly opened the box, breaking the frail tape with her fingernails. She expected some weird gift - lord knew people like Gamer got them - but instead was a cake, a card sticking out of it. “From City Call Center,” she read out loud. Huh. Not being particularly close to her coworkers, it came as a surprise they sent her anything.

On the cake read an additional message--

sorry about your shitty soulmark :/ we love you anyways

She wasn’t sure why, but Kari burst out laughing. Maybe it was the unexpected nature of the gift, or the casual and silly message. Kari took it. Without even cutting the cake properly, Kari began to devour it, suddenly realizing how famished she was. Surely there were some bits of protein in the cake.

She thought about texting any single one of her friends. Kari had that thought on loop as she picked up her phone, debated who to text, typed something innocuous, deleted it, and threw her phone back on the desk only to pick it up a few minutes later.

“What am I even doing,” she muttered. It felt like it’d been an entire week and it was only Monday at 10:00am.

How did she even end up here? Asking that wouldn’t get her anywhere. Besides, no one knew how Soulmarks worked. Any attempt to do any kind of scientific study fell apart worryingly quickly. So not only could Kari not figure out why she and Gamer were matched together spiritually, she couldn’t figure it out scientifically. Fuck, Kari hated feeling uncertain. Time was the only thing that was going to answer her question of “why?”

And spending that time stewing in her feelings wasn’t ideal, to say the least.

Kari found herself pulling out her phone again, this time not to text one of her random friends. Swiping to the Discord app uncomfortably quickly, she jumped to one person’s DMs.

She groaned. Gamer was likely asleep, but things between them were… weird, to say the least, at the moment. Logically, she knew things weren’t going to get any less awkward by not talking with them, or passive aggressively ghosting them. In fact, that would likely accomplish the opposite. So texting them while they were asleep was unlikely to get the two of them in a fight.

So she messaged–

>i hope you’re doing ok Gamer. the bureau of soulmates sent me some moving boxes. maybe we can talk tomorrow before we both leave for the con? also my coworkers sent me this cake lolz

And then attached a photo of said cake. With a held exhale, she sent the message. Why did it feel like a weight lifted off her chest? Fuck whatever soulmate hormones were making her ability to breathe deeply dependent on this meme streamer motherfucker!

At least they’d have a chance to meet Gamer. Maybe they were different in person. Hopefully they at least smelled okay, especially since they’d presumably be sharing a bed.

Having given up making real human contact, Kari figured she might as well lean into her universe-assigned role as a Discord Mod. She looked through Gamer’s server, making sure to put her status on “appear offline” before doing so.

If someone had told Kari they’d ever have to moderate a Discord server with a six-figure member count, Kari would have laughed and told them she’d eat her own shoe if that ever happened. But, at least they had a mod team around the clock, so it wasn’t like Kari had to do any actual moderating… for now. That said, seeing a bunch of members talk about “shipping” Kari and Gamer, writing fanfiction about them, fantasizing about how they’d spend time together… it was a surreal experience. If Kari was disgusted, she was so bewildered that she hadn’t noticed. At the very least, those who took it too far got banned or muted.

Kari took out one of the plenty of notepads she promised to use as a journal and began to write notes down. The first page, she dedicated to Gamer, which… she could figure out what to fill in later. The second page, she wrote the admins - five of them, with Carlos at the top. Gamer had 15 moderators - minus the one who just got the boot, plus Kari. She split up the other 14 onto three pages. God, she hated Discord servers with dozens of channels… maybe she could use her power to get Gamer to consolidate them?

On the next page, she wrote “most active members” with a question mark, and then “problem members” with another. Was she avoiding packing? Was she trying to convince herself she was doing something?

Just as she was about to fall down another episode of spiralling, her phone pinged. And if it wasn’t immediately muted, then…

She looked to see what Gamer had to say.

> that rules lolz

Kari smiled for a split second, before her eyes widened.

Furiously, she replied:

> Isn’t it 3am where you are??? why tf are you awake

Gamer only replied with a shrug emoticon. Kari rolled her eyes.

> Go to sleep!! you said you were going to >:/

Once again, it didn’t take long for Gamer to reply -- which meant they definitely not trying to sleep. Knowing them, they were probably sitting in bed, and definitely not trying to sleep. 

> dealing with some vital matters. has to do with something called Ahryou. do you know what that is?

Kari’s face paled. No, no she didn’t. Was Gamer okay? Were they in danger of some kind?

> no, I haven’t. Is everything ok?

Gamer didn’t respond for a bit. Kari watched the minutes go by, her breathing becoming increasingly labored. The uneasy feeling in them was coming true. They were in danger. What were they talking about? Were they -- was an Ahryou, like, some weird Australian spider that kills you by looking at you?! 

Finally, she got a text back. Kari breathed a loud sigh of relief. They sent a picture -- were they not really far off?

When they opened the photo, her expression turned from relieved to confused to blushing to furious. 

What Kari opened was decidedly not something worth panicking over – at least, not to Kari. The picture that Gamer sent them was, rather, of Gamer themself. A picture of them where they “forgot” to put any clothing on. The shot cut off the upper part of their face, whilst the bottom half showed their tongue out in a cocky and flirtatious manner. Their underwear - if it could even be called that - showed just enough to not be considered full nudity, but still left nothing up to the imagination. 

In Gamer’s hands was a leash, the chains of which were wrapped around one arm, being pulled to a near-breaking point by their other hand. And if all that weren’t infuriating enough, Gamer’s next text nearly made Kari flip her lid.

> Ahryou horny :)

Of course she was being trolled. How she didn’t see that from a mile away was beyond her. She felt so fucking played - was she going to have to deal with this for the rest of her life?! The thought enraged her more than was probably rational. She saw red: in the spur of the moment, she hit the phone button.

Gamer picked up almost immediately.

“Well? Are you?” Gamer said smugly as Kari switched on her bluetooth headphones.

“N-no!” Kari should have called after she figured out what exactly she wanted to say to Gamer, past a bunch of angry noises. “I’m calling you t-to… to tell you to go the fuck to sleep!”

“Come on,” Gamer teased, “if you didn’t want to learn more about Ahryou, you would have simply ignored me.”

Kari bit her lip, chanting in her head that she was not going to be played with. “G-go the fuck to sleep, Gamer! You told me you were going to, damn it!”

Gamer’s tone took a sudden dip, and spoke in a way that sent shivers down Kari’s spine. “Stop lying to me, Mod, and tell me the truth.”

If getting spoken to as such wasn’t degrading enough, what was worse was that Kari — much to her chagrin — realized she couldn’t disobey. 

“I-I...” Kari stammered. “I mean, uh, I've been thinking about it,” she admitted quietly. She could already hear Gamer laughing at her, or wanting to at least. “But — but that's only natural! It's not my fault! We're soulmates, apparently!” That was the first time Kari believed she said it in words. It didn't feel real, still. But it felt significantly more real when she heard herself say it, when she said it in her own words, in her own tone.

She, Kari Callisto, and Gamer Sheridan, were Soulmates. It didn't matter how much she wanted to deny it. It was true.

Kari wanted to continue defending herself, to continue claiming she didn't like Gamer. That this was all scientific, the work of whichever cruel or stupid god tried to push them together. But Gamer interjected with their own thoughts, and of course Gamer was only going to tease Kari more. “Oh no, don't give me that, Mod,” they smirked, taking to Kari's new cringy pet name, “It's only natural because I'm hot as fuck and you can't even think about disobeying me. You shouldn't lie to your Dominant. Your Gamer. Right?”

Kari had no idea what to say. She was genuinely at a loss for words. So many things struck her like a lightning bolt — Gamer's insistence that Kari only obeyed them because Gamer was hot (Kari did have to admit, she had a thing for twinks and nerds); claiming the title of dominant, which Kari reluctantly had to acknowledge as the Soulmates Bureau apparently deemed it as such, or...

Or the fact Kari couldn't say for sure if Gamer was right or wrong.

“Hey, I wanna see my cute little Mod,” Gamer teased. “Think you'd like to send me a couple shots of you? Maybe with clothing on the floor?”

“I'd rather drink Dorito-flavored Mountain Dew,” Kari hissed.

Gamer chuckled. “Ain't that a bit harsh? Oh, also — funny story. I need you to know that they were going to make that and they invited me to their taste test. It was... well, I think it's kinda cringe of you to claim I'm that disgusting.”

“I was a better person before you forced me to know this,” Kari sighed longsufferingly. “But I'm not — I'm not sending pics! W-what if someone sees? I mean... don't you...” Kari's tone took a somber turn, and Gamer knew why without needing Kari to spell it out. “I just... don't want a repeat of that Thrill guy. Y'know?”

A pause in the conversation made Kari regret bringing it up. Sure, it was a shitty situation, but it didn’t mean she needed to constantly rub it into Gamer’s face. Gamer felt shitty enough as it stood. Kari made her point the second word got out.

“Yeah. I'm sorry,” Gamer said. Kari felt bad hearing their tone drop into such a sorry state. “I'd love to see you, but... yeah, I don't blame you. I know I broke your trust. If you don't want to send photos, well...“ Gamer smirked, their tone turning playful once again as they thought of an even better idea. 

“Why don't you call me? That way, I can't screen record you, and no one will ever have to know that you're actually horny for your Gamer.”

Kari flushed, stammering. She couldn't lie and say that wouldn't be helpful. And yet...

“I-I… I suppose that would work,” Kari said, blushing furiously. “Uh… um… mind if I take some photos with clothes first?”

“So cute you’re asking me for permission immediately after claiming you don’t want to be my subby Mod,” Gamer teased.

“Never mind, I’m hanging–”

“Noooo, I’m sorry! Yes, that's fine! Any photos are fine, Mod.”

Kari chuckled. It was nice to flip the tables on Gamer, to make them beg for pics now. Ugh, she was never good at taking selfies…

“Sorry about the lighting in advance,” Kari murmured, stretching her phone out, trying to grab a good angle… No, that didn’t show her face well. No, that angle showed too much cleave. Wait, Gamer would probably like that, so–

Kari shook her head. Was she really doing this?

Fuck it. Yes she was. She was in too deep, and Kari never had any hope of getting out of this situation. And… and she was beginning to wonder why she ever wanted to leave.

She flipped a couple buttons of her shirt open, angled it downwards, and snapped. Before she could convince herself to stop, she sent it.

Silence on Gamer’s end. Did they not like it? “U-uh, was that not–”

“Shhh,” Gamer said, and Kari immediately quieted. “I’m just admiring you. Nothing to worry about.”

Nothing to worry about. 

All of a sudden, Kari’s mind conformed to the subtle suggestion Gamer had given them, and their worries simply vanished. Kari should have been worried. She should have been concerned that going along with what Gamer said felt… right. So Kari stayed quiet. She allowed them to admire, to gaze, to do… whatever Gamer was doing on their side of the screen.

“Mm, nice to know my soulmate is a certified big tiddy girl gamer GF,” Gamer teased, squashing that sacred moment of sincerity.

“Sh-shut up,” Kari stammered, “I knew I shouldn’t have sent that.”

“I want to slap them like conga drums, Mod.”

“I’m hanging up,” Kari said dryly, not making any move to actually do so.

“Nooooo, I want to tease my good obedient Mod some more.”

“Now I’m really going to!”

“And yet you’re not,” Kari could hear Gamer’s cocky-ass smirk through their muffled voice alone. “Could it be you want to keep being my good obedient Mod? You want me to play with you? You want to keep listening to me talk, eager for another order?”

Kari grabbed her pillow and stuffed her face in it, letting out a muffled scream. She could hear Gamer cackling in the background, laughing at her embarrassment, no, laughing at her.

”C’mon, repeat after me—“

”I’ll eat glass!”

”I, Kari, am a good Discord Mod for Gamer.”

Yeaaaah. And Kari was also a purple elephant. Did Gamer think Kari could be tricked so easily? “A mantra? Really?” Kari rolled her eyes. “Are you trying to give me a hypnosis kink? There are more surefire ways to do that.”

Silence on Gamer’s end.

“Like, marathoning Totally Spies, or putting a spiral in a VR game, or…”

The silence continued. Kari wanted to continue giving very cool and funny examples of popular media that seemed way too into hypnosis to be unintentional. But the silence was giving way to unease. Especially for Gamer, who seemed to be allergic to shutting the fuck up.

“What? What’s wrong?”

Gamer took a couple beats. She heard them inhale and say–

“Well I wasn’t going to try, but if you insist…”

“W-wait. No. I was joking, I wasn’t seri–”

Gamer once again steamrolled over Kari’s protests; this time, though, Kari couldn’t blame them. “You don’t just ‘know’ hypnosis kink exists, right? By that logic, you know what hypnokink is, and I’m going to take a wild guess and say that you’re interested in it. Not to mention your examples were oddly specific for someone without a hypnosis fetish.”

“Th-that doesn’t mean I have one! And it sure doesn’t mean I want to get tranced by the meme game streamer!”

“Oh look, you even know what trance is!” Gamer’s mocking cackles continued, becoming more and more grating to Kari. “I was real nervous my soulmate was going to be some chaste vanilla religious girl. Thank god I know that’s not who you are!”

“Of course it’s not!” Kari lashed back. “You already…” she gulped, continuing, “you already said we’re registered as… as an ‘Owner/property’ soulmark, s-so…”

Immediately as Kari brought that up, she regretted it instantly. Because of course, of fucking course, Gamer was going to reassert that label. And Kari would be at a disadvantage should she want to resist.

Gamer must have noticed the injection of resistance in Kari’s speech. Swooping in to reassure her, they replied - “That may be true, yes - I am your Gamer, and your Owner, and both. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to force you to do anything you want. I may tease you a bit here and there; why wouldn’t I, when you’re so cute and acting like such a tsundere?” Kari flushed but kept her lips shut; Gamer was trying to say something important, and that curiosity kept Kari’s lips shut tight. “But I’m better than that, Mod. Or… I mean. I want to be better than that. So if you honestly want me to drop it, now or ever, tell me. I’ll drop it.”

Kari’s shoulders deflated – not in rejection, or in relief, or… she didn’t know what she was feeling, actually. Gamer let the silence hang, awaiting Kari’s response. Even so, Kari was left with the sense that Gamer always had the upper hand on her. Every time, they read Kari like an open book, and told her secrets she didn’t even know she had.

Kari felt as though she were barely hanging onto the metal bar of a boat, her last fingers slipping before she dropped into the ocean. Closing her eyes, she opened her hand and fell.

“I… I want you to… to hypnotize me.”

A moment of silence hung in the air again. “You do? Really?”

“Yes. And…” Kari closed her eyes. She felt her soul rebelling against the words she so desperately wanted to say–

“I mean – if it’s okay with you! Um, if it’s not, don’t feel pressure–”

“Shut up, Mod. And get on call with me.”

Suddenly Kari froze. Her body surged with a cocktail of shock, repulsion, excitement, thrill. A prompt for a video call popped up and she immediately picked it up, as if she didn’t need to think twice.

Of course, Gamer was shirtless. Kari clasped a hand over her mouth in a vain attempt to cover her furious blushing. Her primary fear was, ‘did I fuck up? Is Gamer pissed at me now?’ But that fear was squashed when she realized, there was no universe where Gamer would be serious… well, in general, but especially not while being topless. And potentially bottomless.

“S-sorry,” Kari murmured.

“Sorry, what?” Gamer asked, licking their lips salaciously.

What… what did Gamer – oh. “I’m sorry, Gamer,” Kari murmured.

Her apparent Domme chuckled to themself, responding, “why are you sorry? You did nothing wrong. But that flushed look on your face, your cute stammering… I could stand to see more of it. Besides, you didn’t fool me at all, when I told you to ‘shut up’ when we first met.”

Kari’s face drained of blood. She remembered that moment – the moment it struck her through the heart, the way it took her breath away, and how afterwards, she felt she had no choice but to comply.

And oh, how wonderful compliance felt, even against her best wishes.

“Ah, that’s the face! I’m glad I got to see it again, Mod,” Gamer winked and stuck their tongue out. “You really love taking commands, and you love when I’m rough with you. When I play you on hard mode, you might say.” Before Kari could make a jab about Gamer ruining it, they continued. “So, if that’s the case… how do you feel about doing what I tell you to, or else?”

Kari couldn’t believe what she was hearing – no. She couldn’t believe what she was feeling. Because any normal person would log off and block anyone who asserted such dominance. Any healthy person would stand up and leave this situation. No ordinary human would consent to this – let alone be turned on by this.

If that was the case, then Kari didn’t want to be normal, healthy, or ordinary. She wanted this. And even though her instincts rebelled, she went in deeper than she ever wanted to be in this situation.

“Yes, please tell me what to do, Gamer.”

“Good Mod,” Gamer cooed. A ring came from her phone, prompting Kari to turn on her camera. Flushing a bright scarlet, Kari accepted before she even had a chance to think about rejecting the idea.

As expected, Gamer was already topless, wearing a skimpy set of underwear and a bra that left nothing to the imagination. Kari shrieked in surprise – she knew, objectively, Gamer was going to be topless, but that didn’t mean–

“Aw, what’s with the clothes? I wanted to see you naked.”

“I-I’m… I won’t–”

“Take off your clothes, or else.”

That simple shift in tone was all Kari needed to obey. Gamer didn’t even threaten her with anything specific; and besides, whatever Gamer could do was within a remote space. They weren’t standing over her with a whip, or flogger, or holding a shock collar to shove Kari into… fuck, fuck, all those fantasies filled her head at lightning speed. But Kari obeyed the implicit threat. She leaned her phone against the nearest box, propping it up like a camera.

Gamer licked their lips. Kari looked away from the camera, a camera that emulated eye contact a bit too strongly – or did Gamer’s narrowed eyes just have that much of an effect on her? No. No she didn’t… she didn’t know. But eventually, Kari was stripped down to her bra and panties too, a matching set with pink strips. She didn’t even realize they matched until Gamer whistled looking at her.

“See? That wasn’t so bad. And now I have two beautiful tits to grace my screen… oh, and my Soulmate, too, I suppose.”

Kari stammered something incoherent, shyly looking at her boobs. Gamer thought they were beautiful…? They’d always been something of an insecurity for Kari – they were too triangular with more stretch marks than smooth skin. But… if her – ugh, if her Gamer – said they were beautiful, then…

“Aww, you’re so cute when you’re lost in thought,” Gamer teased. “So clearly you’re into hypnosis kink. Have you heard of clicker training? You can do it while training dogs, but soulmates should be trained just as effectively,” they winked to accentuate that point.

“U-uh, I guess I have, um, heard of it.” Kari didn’t like – no, she loved – where this was going.

“So…” Gamer held up something. How long had they been holding it? Squinting, Kari could see it was one of those keyboards split in half that so many pro gamers used. Never mind her early question, that made complete sense. “I don’t have a clicker, and even if I did, that would be so boring. I was more thinking WASD training for you, my cute little Mod?”

Ah. Of course Gamer had to go out of their way to make it cringey. “N-no!” Kari protested. “Y-you can just use a clicker on your phone, ri–”

“Oh, sorry for the confusion,” Gamer interjected. “I wasn’t asking for your permission, Mod. I will be using this. Got it?”

All of Kari’s protests died in her throat, and immediately she took to Gamer’s words. “Yes. Yes that – that works.” What was wrong with her? Gamer hadn’t even done anything to her yet, and here Kari was, just obeying. She began to question if Gamer had already done something to her brain to make her more pliable.

“There we go,” Gamer grinned, “that’s so much better. So. Let’s get started. I want you to take some deep breaths for me, Mod. And close your eyes, while you’re at it.”

Kari obeyed, closing her eyes, and breathing slowly, deeply, obediently. As she did, she listened to Gamer’s voice as if her ears had some kind of tunnel vision.

“When I do this–” Kari heard four clicking sounds in sequence. Presumably w, a, s, and d. “You’re going to feel yourself sinking just a bit deeper, breathing just a bit longer, giving a bit more of yourself to me, to my control. Understood?”

“Yes, Gamer,” Kari murmured, the trance already making her eyelids flutter.

“Just like that.”

Click-click-click-click

Sinking a bit deeper. 

Click-click-click-click

Breathing a bit longer. 

Click-click-click-click

Giving a bit more of herself to Gamer.

Click-click-click-click

Over, and over, and over again. Kari didn’t know how deep Gamer wanted her to fall – or how deep she could fall in the first place. But the series of clicks happened again, and again, and again, until Kari was barely lucid.

“When I do this–” Click-click-click-click “You’ll do what I say. You won’t even get to think once about it.” Click-click-click-click “You’ll just obey me. And I don’t even need to say ‘or else’.” Click-click-click-click “Because you won’t even think of another option. Your only option is to obey. Does that make sense?”

“Yes, Gamer,” Kari murmured, completely unaware of herself. If she wanted to stop herself, she couldn’t. Too much of her control had been given to Gamer. Too many series of inhales and exhales. She was so, so deep. So deep in trance, so deep under Gamer’s control.

“Wow, I’m so lucky to have such a compliant Soulmate.” Click-click-click-click “I didn’t even have to do anything. Obedience and trance is just in your nature.” Click-click-click-click “But when we’re off call, I need to know you’ve obeyed, right?” Click-click-click-click - Kari wasn’t even given a chance to reply.

Click-click-click-click

Click-click-click-click

Click-click-click-click

“So when you acknowledge a command, type ‘wasd’ out to me. Or just say WASD, if we’re in person, y’know?”

“H-huh?”

Click-click-click-click

Whatever questions Kari had disappeared into thin air.

“Don’t worry about it, my complacent Mod. Let’s test your obedience, though. I want to see what’s mine. Who’s mine. So come up. Come back to me. Crawl out of that hole you’ve dug yourself in on my orders.” Kari felt herself brought back to the surface, as if she died, went to hell, and then having the Grim Reaper change its mind.

Up, up, up. The clicking disappeared. No, actually - the clicking was just embedded into her mind. And she knew it.

As Kari came up from trance, the first thing she saw was Gamer. Gamer’s face, looking brightly at their Soulmate, and Kari returned that look. Even though it felt a bit silly…

But Gamer didn’t waste any time. “Touch yourself. Pleasure yourself. Give me a show.”

Kari’s face twisted from joy to shock to rage and then – back to shock. She didn’t know what to feel. “W-why would I–”

Click-click-click-click

“Yes, Gamer.” And just like a switch had been flipped, Kari obeyed, sticking her hand down her panties. Her face flushed brightly, and oh – oh she hadn’t realized how turned on she was. Her panties were completely soaked, and each flick of her fingers on her clit, more and more of her juices covered her hands.

Gamer, naturally, followed, pulling down their panties. Kari saw their cock bounce up, completely hard already. She didn’t even notice herself drooling. Gamer immediately got to pleasuring themself. They didn’t need permission, after all. They were the ones giving permission.

“Do you like what you see?”

Kari nodded vigorously, “yes, Gamer. I love it.”

And once again, Gamer just had to ruin that moment. For Kari, at least.

“Tell me how much you want it,” before dropping a huge abomination on Kari, “tell me how you want my gamerdick.”

Gamerdick.

That single word made Kari stop in her tracks. What the actual fuck was she doing? “Your… your… what?”

“I didn’t tell you to stop,” Gamer said.

“I-I’m not calling it that–”

Click-click-click-click

“N-no. I can’t, that’s too, why the fuck would you even–”

Click-click-click-click

With each click, it got harder and harder for Kari to resist. She already continued touching herself, ashamed with the fact she was somehow even more turned on. “N…no…”

Gamer had enough of Kari’s resistance. With one order, they broke the last bit of Kari’s resistance.

“Tell me how you want my gamerdick, or else.”

Those two words at the end broke Kari’s brain. It didn’t matter if she was embarrassed, humiliated, destroyed by what she was about to say. It didn’t matter what Gamer was threatening, if anything. 

She didn’t have a choice. She had to obey.

“I… I want your gamerdick,” Kari murmured.

“What? What was that?” Gamer asked in a sing-song voice. “I couldn’t hear you. Repeat yourself.”

“F-fuck–” you, Kari wanted to finish, but that wouldn’t be very obedient of her. Gamer gave her an order and she had to follow. Or else. Or else. Or else. “I want your gamerdick. I want it – I want it…”

“Sadly, it’s my gamerdick, but what do you want me to do with it? Tell me.”

Click-click-click-click

Kari didn’t even have the opportunity to think of disobeying. “I want you to fuck me with it,” she moaned, touching herself faster thinking of the possibility. A possibility that would surely become reality in the coming days. “I want it… I want your gamerdick so deep in me… I want it to fill every hole of mine, you – your g-gamerdick…” Words kept spilling out of Kari's mouth. A shrinking part of her told her to shut up and stop indulging Gamer. But her will to obey was stronger.

And it felt so, so good.

Kari thrusted her hips, that idea wrecking her to her core. She gasped for air, and began to beg. She wasn’t going to last much longer.

“I-I need to,” Kari whimpered, her breathing heavy. “I… need to cum…”

“No you don’t,” Gamer quipped back, stroking themself just a bit harder, faster, longer. As they did, as their body shivered, they held the keyboard tightly with their other hand. “You need to obey me. And I haven’t told you you can cum, right? So you’re fine. Trust me, you’ll be allowed to cum when I order you to.”

“B-but–”

“You were telling me about what you wanted me to do to you?” Click-click-click-click “Continue.”

Once again, Kari’s own thought processes were overridden. She obeyed that clicking. She obeyed Gamer. “I want you to fuck me with your gamerdick,” she whimpered, her clit begging for release. “I want to obey you. I want to do whatever you say. I want you to fuck me over and over and over again, with your rock hard gamerdick, in each hole. I don’t care what kind of humiliation you put me through. I don’t care how many times I have to call it a gamerdick until you’re satisfied. I want you. I want you. I want you to fuck me, destroy me, do whatever you want to me.”

Gamer grinned, their teeth clattering a bit. They were clearly holding back their own orgasm. “You’re really devoted to me, are you?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll do whatever I say. You’ll obey that” Click-click-click-click “sound each and every time. You’ll obey me. You’ll be mine. Isn’t that right?”

“Yes. Yes. Yes,” Kari whimpered, shaking her head vigorously – not to deny herself, to deny Gamer unabashed obedience, but because she couldn’t hold herself back anymore, but she couldn’t disobey, and Gamer hadn’t given her permission, and she needed permission–

“Then show me how devoted you are. Cum. Cum, and dedicate your orgasm to me.”

Kari didn’t need to be told twice. She was ready, oh so ready, to obey that command. Kari saw white, her body on fire, burning brightly in the best way imaginable. She could have sworn she blacked out from pleasure, but no. She was there. She was there, and even miles away, so was Gamer. Giving her permission. Permission to orgasm. Permission to have the best fucking orgasm of her life.

She didn’t know how long her orgasm lasted. It might as well have never ended. Her hips finally slowing down, Kari collapsed. She melted into her bed, feeling herself fall, fall, fall.

And during the afterglow of Kari’s orgasm, Gamer indulged themself. With a couple uncontrollable hip thrusts, Gamer moaned loudly, and climaxed.

Kari drooled looking at Gamer’s camera as they splurted cum all over it. Rope after rope of what Kari only assumed was hot, sticky semen covered Gamer’s camera, each one leaving Gamer more and more obscured. Devoid of any shame, Kari grabbed her webcam and brought it close to her face. She wished that was her. Oh, she wished so badly…

Eventually, the loads of cum stopped covering the screen. Gamer didn’t immediately clean it, and Kari wasn’t about to complain about that. Eventually, the only sounds they could hear – the only sounds that mattered at all – were her breath, synchronized with Gamer’s.

If paradise existed, Gamer had taken Kari there.

~~~

“...and just put that here, and… looks good to me, what do you think?"

Kari and Gamer stood in their virtual game, with their virtual avatars, setting up their own private virtual space. The game, mercifully, was cute and cozy. A stark contrast the way Gamer had ordered her around, made her orgasm, fucked with her brain, and made Kari feel amazing for following a simple order. It was the perfect simulator to help Kari’s mind cool off, and prevent Gamer from acting like a little shit.

Well, that’s what Kari thought. Gamer, with the audible smirk in their voice – and still shirtless – decided to meme on it and ruin the moment again. 

“Almost, but I forgot one crucial addition.” 

Before Kari could realize what Gamer was going to do, they dropped a bunch of gaming controllers, consoles, and dildos onto the space. It quickly flooded the room, pushing both of their characters to stand upon the pile of sex toys and games.

“Great, it’s ruined now,” Kari laughed dryly. “I’m sure this is the perfect place to get cozy with your soulmate. What, is this what your room looks like?”

Without replying, Gamer aimed the camera at their room. Kari’s jaw dropped to the floor. Oh jesus fuck it was so much worse than Kari expected. Not only were consoles, gaming components, and sex toys strewn everywhere, but so were empty bags of Doritos, cans of Mountain Dew, and enough tissues to resemble a snowstorm. Kari could only imagine what was in those tissues. And… was that a jar of an anime figurine with… never mind, she didn’t want clarification.

“What do you think of your new home?” Gamer teased.

“If you don’t clean that pigsty, I’m going to murder you.”

“In Minecraft, right?”

“75% likely. 25% in real life.”

Gamer grinned, rolling over as their virtual character fell asleep too. “Why would I clean it when I have such a wonderful, caring, and obedient Mod to clean it for me?” Kari didn’t reply to that – her brain short circuited. She had no idea how to. Getting anxious around the silence, Gamer quickly redacted that threat and said, “f-fine! I’ll get a cleaner! They’ll come over when we’re at the con next week! Then when you move in it’ll be squeaky clean!”

When I move in, Kari murmured wordlessly. Suddenly downcast, Kari looked at her unpacked boxes, and her suitcases for luggage carry-ons and checked bags. She hadn’t lived in her one-bedroom closet-sized apartment for too long, but it was sad to leave. Especially thinking of where she was going. Not just moving in with Gamer, but leaving her job, her friends, everything she knew in the States. The weight of it all suddenly began to crush her.

“What’s wrong, Mod? I’ll even get rid of the jar, if it’s that repulsive to you. Well, one of the jars, at least.”

“What do you mean ‘one of’.... No, that’s not it,” Kari replied, her grief tinging her voice. “It’s just all happening so fast. Like, last week I was just a normal girl. Yeah, my life was boring, but…” Kari shook her head. “Never mind. I’m sure I’ll get used to the change.”

Gamer curled up against their body pillow of an unidentified anime girl. “I know what you mean,” they replied quietly.

Kari curled up against her decidedly normal body-length pillow – most likely the last thing she was going to pack. “What… are you feeling?”

Gamer didn’t reply for a while, only curling up harder into the pillow. “Like I just got mega owned in Fortnite.”

“Seriously? That’s straight out of a boomer newscaster who knows nothing about games.” A beat of silence, and then Kari added in a quiet voice, “please tell me.”

It took Gamer a while – a seriously longer than usual time – to give an honest answer. Kari could only guess they were swallowing down a bunch of ironic jokes and meme answers. “I’m scared, too.”

Something in Kari broke. Not loudly. Like a clock that stopped working. Or a lightbulb that went out. In that moment, in those three words, Gamer sounded legitimately scared. Vulnerable. Human in a way Kari realized they never saw Gamer before. Up until then – yeah, Kari knew Gamer was a human, that they had feelings. 

But in that moment, Gamer trusted Kari. Trusted her enough to let their walls down. And for some reason, that broke Kari. Why? It should have been a good thing, a good thing to see her Soulmate actually have feelings. Feelings they were willing to show Kari.

“Thanks,” Kari said, unsure what else to say. “It feels nice to be not alone.”

For a long time, they said nothing, simply enjoying each other’s virtual company. Kari’s computer had gone into sleep mode from lack of use. The way they were so vulnerable, so open, it was almost like Gamer was sleeping right next to Kari. Not sleeping with one eye open, not scared that Kari would hurt them.

Or maybe Kari was reading too much into it.

“I think I should go to sleep,” Gamer said. Wow – Gamer? Accepting sleep? Kari never thought she’d see the day. Which was really stupid, considering they were going to be moving in soon.

Kari nodded, ignoring the pang of pain in her heart. “You really should have a while ago.”

“But,” Gamer smirked, “I don’t regret staying up for you.”

“With all luck, you won’t feel the need to, soon.”

“The scariest part of this is being forced into a normal sleep schedule,” Gamer joked.

“Well, you’ll get through it. Good night?”

“...Yeah,” Gamer murmured. “Good night, Kari.”

Was that the first time Gamer had called Kari by her name? She didn’t know, but it was the first time, it felt, that Gamer referred to Kari as a person on their level.

The call ended. Kari flipped her phone over. And only then did her confused tears begin to flow. Why? She just had a wonderful time with Gamer. And she consented to everything, they had aftercare, and Gamer was even honest with her. But the racing thoughts strained Kari’s head. Everything happened too fast. She was ripped away from her normal life into a completely foreign world. Who wouldn’t grieve normalcy when entering the unknown?

Kari didn’t know. And after that night, she felt like she knew even less how to feel.

She fell asleep, the clicking repeating in her head to lull her into unconsciousness.