Prologue: Nine Perfect Strangers

First Kiss
"Hahh..." A sweaty hand slams onto the huge poster hugging the girl's wall. While Joy cannot be sure what has come over her this evening, she's certain she won't be able to stop until-- "Ahnn! G-Gosh." The hand not flattening the glossy paper against the wall is buried deep between the young woman's legs, fledgling touch experimenting with what feels best as the shame burns hot against her cheeks. A friend had teased her about something earlier in the day, made some silly crass joke, and it's like Joy's mind changed tracks. All she could think about on the long walk home was the fact that, to her knowledge, Joy had never had a sexually charged thought in her life. It made her feel a child, somehow. At first, she was going to search for something on her laptop but then her eyes locked with the poster of Lady Nova, her hero... 

"Nnnh... hah... this is so wrong..." The breathless eighteen year old slides fingers slick and shameful from her sweltering body, accidentally smearing her favourite poster without thinking. She's delirious right now, she must be, because this is not normal behaviour. If Joy's parents ever found out how deep her admiration for powerful women ran... her walls would be stripped bare. No more Wild Rosary, with her muscular tattooed arms that Joy tries not to stare at for too long lest she find herself swayed by sinful compulsion. No more Hivemind, that collection of drones posed like some all-female rock band... Joy had specifically looked for one that was all women, which her parents easily approved of given they felt far less comfortable with their daughter having men up on her walls at such a 'tender age'. No more Nova... that's roughly 80% of her walls, the oldest of them relics of her hero's past life. The posters of the astronaut, Nicole Black, are very precious to her, because it proves that she's a true fangirl. 

This one's her favourite though, it's large enough that the golden hero staring back at her is true to life. It's not gay if it's just a poster on your wall, if you leave it in your dreams. It's not gay... just admiration, blossoming between Joy William's thighs and making her wish she was born a man so that she didn't have to feel such smouldering shame. On the wall behind her is that symbol her parents are so obsessed with, instead of keeping it to their little club they force it onto their daughter too. The patriarchal cross. What's that slogan they make her say at church, the one that none of her friends go to because it's oh so exclusive? 

Victory over sin.

Joy bites her lip, pushing her hand back down to continue in a rebellious act she wishes she could keep alive for more than just one night. It'll be different once she leaves for college, she'll get a nice boyfriend and forget all about this sin dripping onto the bedsheets. Oh fuck, such moisture. It's a sickness... she's just excising it, dutifully. Joy's a good girl. She does not know anything else. 

Laboured, shaking breath collapses against Lady Nova's perfect face and Joy finds herself getting carried away. There will be no victory over sin on this night, Joy's happy to secretly lose to it just this once and then she'll be the good girl she usually is come morning. This is just a dream... yes, a nightmare. So terrible. 

"Nova..." Joy gets so carried away that she finds herself leaning closer, lonely lover's lips pressing against the confident, winning smile of the one person she knows could never let her down. The kiss is immoral, according to her despotic parents, but Joy rationalises this easily in her head. It's just a wall, she's just kissing fucking drywall. If only she could have lived with her rich aunt, that woman isn't perfect either but she has enough money to afford a kinder outlook. It's so easy to appear benevolent when you're not presently drowning. Would Auntie have told her that these repressed desires are enough to mark her hellbound? 

Lips pull away and the poster sticks to them until finally they break free. The sin is over, and Joy feels the exact same as always. Lonely. 

She hopes the angels aren't watching right now.

Vigilante
"I'd steer clear of her if I were you, Orchard, she's unlicensed and... trouble." Black Cowl recalls their shadow and checks their work phone for any recent alerts. Some nights are quiet like this, to Joy it feels more like she's hanging out with friends, though ones in costume and masks to protect their anonymity. On this particular night she's paired up with Cowl again, so it's less like hanging out and more like drawing blood from a stone. The warning they just gave was the first time Joy was graced with that low, gravely voice in what feels like hours. 

Orchard glances back and groans at these middle school antics, aren't they all supposed to be heroes? She feels guilty for the thought, but a part of her is begging for a crime to be committed already. At least she's grateful to be out of the dorm, finding herself in no rush to return when Danielle has someone over. "But... she's been following us for several blocks now, it feels really awkward... letting her walk with us isn't condoning her actions right? I'm gonna go talk to her." 

"Hmph... fine, I'll keep watch here." Cowl's as stoic as ever, Joy cannot help but grin and take the que to skip over to the tailing vigilante who stops and watches the approach. 

The blonde in tactical gear brandishes her knife like Orchard is about to launch into an offensive, Joy drawing nearer and slowing her step. "Hey, you ah... want an autograph or something? I don't have a pen on me, hehe." 

The vigilante, Firefly, stares at the hand extending out towards her and quirks her brow with a light smirk. "I didn't know you were allowed to talk to me, but I guess I was wrong!" The dangerous woman enthusiastically accepts the handshake, her grip nearly causing poor Orchard to wince.

Joy scoffs, turning back to look at the stickler waiting from a responsibly uninvolved distance. "Well... aha, I don't really give a crap about that sort of thing. If you're on patrol it means you want to protect people right? That makes you okay in my book." It's a pretty short book, Joy has not spent much time considering the particulars of her nightlife. 

Firefly's turn to scoff. "But you still got the license? Guess saving lives feels a bit sweeter when you get a wage, hm?" The blonde's fingers slip free from Orchard's and she crosses her arms with a smugness that Joy just wants to... what? Joy's a good girl, she wouldn't harm a fly. Nor a smile. 

"Gets me through college at least... I'm not sure I like what you're implying. Think you're better than me, huh?" An incensed Orchard steps closer and stares into the abyss before her, eyes widening when she identifies her friend. Barely warm breath flows onto Laura's cheek, the vigilante petrified by the sudden invasion of space. It's not sight, nor voice, nor personality that gives her away. It's that cheap cologne Joy's been catching whiff of for weeks now. Unsure what possessed a good girl like her to step forwards like she's squaring for a fight, Joy backs away. In her hand is a memento, one of the throwing knives pilfered from Firefly's vest by nimble touch. Good girls don't usually have such light fingers, but rigid control from overbearing helicopter parents once encouraged the strawberry blonde to develop habits she no longer indulges in very often. It's been almost a year since she last sinned, when she just had to lift that last ticket to Nova's meet and greet at the North Star Crater discovery centre. A pity her hero had to cancel. 

Joy sins, spinning the knife on her finger with an almost flirtatious smirk before getting a hold of her self. What the hell is she doing? This is Laura, her Laura. 

"Nice trick, appletini, but I'm gonna need that back in case someone actually dangerous comes along and your little powers don't-- H-Hey!" Still wearing the blush blown onto her cheeks from Orchard's inappropriately close breath, the vigilante Firefly finds herself unable to step closer and retrieve her weapon. Roots peeking out of pavement coil around the unofficial hero's ankle and keep her held in place. This is usually the part where Joy would sever mind and body, for a time, but she's content in this for now. Firefly's an ally, after all.

"I give it you back the moment you revoke that moral grandstanding you just tried me with. The way you're equipped, way you move... you're not a vigilante because you're opposed to compensation, you're just powerless. Ah I mean... without powers, not... well maybe you're a little powerless right now but that's beside the point." Joy lets out a short laugh, glad that Cowl isn't here to see this side of her. It's not one she rears often, only allowing herself to slip when the angels aren't watching. Firefly's a sinner, operating without a license and breaking the rules, so there's no need to act too sweet. Still, Joy isn't a bad person, just a bored one. Those fucking school visits are killing her, flickering fame is burning a hole into her cheery disposition. "They rejected you, didn't they? I'm sorry, really. The name's Orchard, lamest hero in New Cassiepiea!" Closing the distance between them, Joy regains her usual pluckiness and tucks the knife back into place on Laura's chest. Gosh, Laura's a vigilante? Somehow, it only just hit her. 

With a blush on her cheeks that only grows darker, the blonde blows air out the side of her mouth and clears her throat. "Uh... Firefly."

"I'll be keeping an eye on you, ehehe." Orchard goes to remove her vines, realising just how high up Laura's leg they've creeped... one even slipping under the blonde's combat trousers. The usually obedient roots linger for a little too long before finally acquiescing to the mental request, no, command. If Joy didn't know better, she'd think her psyche was trying to tell her something. 

From that moment on, Orchard had found her first groupie, a tagalong that always seemed to conveniently show up during patrol before the night was over. At least this way, she could keep an eye on her reckless best friend. The nights became a hell of a lot livelier, and a little less lonely.

Downward Spiral
"Hmph..." Lady Nova tries to hide the dissatisfaction that presently grips her, the woman failing badly despite her usual discipline in performance. "You may go, Miss Williams. Just know that I'll be keeping a close eye on you. For your protection, I mean." The shining star of New Cassiepiea waves her hand dismissively, the golden glow receding as she curses her shit luck. Misty has slipped through her fingers again, and the woman feels like breaking something. The glint in her eyes tells me she considers breaking me, but that won't come until much later.

"A pleasure working with you, Lady Nova... I-I hope I'm still being considered for the agency, I really tried my best." It's difficult to hide my smile from the woman, but I'm considerably incentivised by Miss Murmur's promises of kisses blacker than her name and fingers deeper than this needle of want in figurative vein. Everything is going just how she said it would, maybe she really does know this former hero of mine better than I ever did. All I knew was creased paper kisses and shame overflowing. Hivemind is Nova's eyes, and we've blinded her with loyalty. 

"Yeah, yeah... just go. I imagine you've kittens to save from trees, don't you girl?" A bitter tone betrays the black hole of a woman hiding behind the thin veneer of hero, not that I need her mask to crack to know what she is anymore. I've a new teacher, role model and... hero.

Letting Murmur's instructions steady the rising in my heart, I manage not to react to Nova's provocation. I'm done with that small time crap, me and Murmur are going to effect real change together! I think. "Ehe... yes ma'am, I'll... get right to it." Sensing that the woman might drop her act entirely should I waste any more of her time after the fruitless debriefing, I quickly turn on my heels and shuffle away, heart beginning to skip the more distance from Nova I create... and the closer I come to falling back into Miss Murmur's corruptive arms. 

It takes several blocks of wandering until Hive can confirm that Nova has no intention of tailing me, meaning we successfully tricked her! I'm so happy, practically running the rest of the way back to my new hero's apartment and giving the knock she taught to me at the beginning of this wild week of change. 

After a few excruciating seconds, Murmur opens the door with a catlike grin plastered over pasty face. The woman's exhaustion aside, she's always so animated around me. Like a reanimated corpse, or a vampire, charming me into her willing thrall. I've felt her teeth sink into my skin already, it hurts only as much as it mends. I'm reborn in each and every bite, revelling in the way she unravels my former high strung self. I was always so obedient, a rule follower, and now I follow someone out of choice, one who tells me the rules of society are not so ironclad. 

"There you are, I was beginning to grow nervous, doll." I don't believe her for a second, Murmur's confidence is second to none. Or perhaps second to one, but I got the sense that Nova is starting to grow just as weary as my mistress here. "Come in and tell me how things went with Nic... in the bathroom, I think it's time for a change."

Oh gosh, she mentioned how she was considering dyeing my hair. It was posed as a question, but I'm sure it was rhetorical. Murmur can do whatever she likes to me, I'm perfectly fine with her making decisions for me because... I trust her completely, she's my midnight mistress. A placid smile stains my face, like an inkblot. I'm just so happy to have been good for her, and now I'm craving her approval more than I care about eating dinner. 

Following the woman into the bathroom, Murmur pulls me into a bathtub that has not seen water in quite some time. When I had left this morning to make for Nova tower, I believe it was still filled with random treasure from my hero's many conquests. I cannot think of a more noble cause than inconveniencing the rich and bloated, while Nova just beats up those poor saps driven into a corner that tells them crime is their only option. It's the flaw of hero agencies, they only operate within the law... though history proves that they're also powerful enough to influence the law, push the bounds. So why isn't Nicole, a woman who I thought would never let me down, not pushing further? 

My head rests back against my dark mistress and a wildfire blush spreads over my face at her holding me so closely. I've lived too long with Nova being everything to me, so going it alone is too scary. In gold's stead, this crow of a woman will be my world instead. I'm falling, head over heels, but I can trust her to catch me always. "Uhm... so the ah... ahahaha, sorry, words caught in my throat!" 

Murmur gives me placating smile, her talon touch brushing hair from my face and delicately caressing my burning cheek. "That's quite alright, silly, never apologise for being as cute as you are. You really are nothing but carrion, for thieves like us. My ilk, I mean, the ones who take and use. You're better suited to be taken, and I can see you're rather taken with me hm?" 

Her words are poetry that simplify my thoughts, make me melt against an endlessly intoxicating rhetoric. It's an awakening, I realise, when I can't help but agree with everything she tells me. I want her to use me, and use me, and use me. I must be spent in service of my mistress, the thought turns me on so terribly I figure it must be some dirty fetish rearing its ugly head. Murmur won't mind that I get off to being hers, though, she's too accepting for such petty judgements. 

"Mm..." I nod, shyly, still not used to being such a lesbian slut. I fear her growing tired of me, or simply getting bored. If I lost my Miss Murmur, I'd be adrift again for the first time since my childhood. Idol worship is the only raft I've ever known, it's a safety and a comfort I do not know how to live without. It's normal, I think, my parents had a worship of their own that was just as cloying. "I'm very taken with you, Miss Murmur, I'm glad I could be good for you today ehe... the method worked exactly how we practiced, Nova's cautious but certainly not suspicious. We're in the clear, at least I think, Hive's going to stick around in the tower and make sure it's all okay."

In place of words, Murmur responds with those gorgeous black lips descending onto my overheated neck, rolling down to shoulders as teeth finally come out to play. I'm just her apple, ripe and fruitful. My toes curl and I gasp into the tiled room, sinking into depths of depravity I'd have previously gawked at. If my reward is pain, and it makes me feel better than a hundred thousand regular old kisses, what does that say about me? I can think of two words, Hive really got the snowball rolling with those... if I was given the choice again between a straight arrow and a lesbian slut, I'd question how I ever struggled in my deliberation. "Good girl, Joy. I'm proud of you, knew you wouldn't let me down kid." 

"Mmmgh... gosh. What colour did you pick for me, mistress?" 

Murmur reaches for the dye, content to douse her hero plaything in her own dark brilliance, and rinse away the rest. "Naturally, I went with Black."

In Another Life
"You're always calling me cute. I really hope you mean it." My lips curl into an easy smile set to entice the woman across from me. She's just finished exercising, the tease having to do it right in front of me when she knows the distraction spells disaster for my reading. I've been on this same page for the past half hour, sneaking glances rather unsubtly at that powerhouse I managed to somehow put a ring on. I could have kept quiet until she absconded for her shower, but she couldn't help but comment on my wandering stare, calling me cute. 

Brie grins, giving me a dirty look you wouldn't typically give to something so cute. I must be a special case, and glad for it. She may well be a lech, but she's mine. Those lecherous eyes only linger on me, maybe my cuteness has poisoned her mind. "You serious? Being as cute as you are should be a crime, I mean it. I'm not sure what to even do with it all some days." The taller woman steps closer, towel thrown over her neck. She knows better than to worry I won't welcome her approach until she's washed away the exertion. The smell of a woman made breathless, ragged, now that's nothing to turn your nose up at. 

Fuck this book, it wasn't very interesting anyway. Discarding Satie's biography onto the table by my side, I give this flirtatious spouse of mine the attention she is due. "Well then I'm an outlaw, aren't I? So I think you need to tie me up until the powers that be come and lock me away with all the other cute criminals." I feign a stretch, my vest lifting up as Brie's gaze trails down predictably to greet the slither of skin on show. That other version of me should still bare a scar right about here, that my skin is unblemished must prove myself the clone but I hardly find the will to care. In fact, I relish in the thought. I'm not responsible for the weight she carries, the mistakes I remember us making. I'm just Joy Williams, somebody has to keep the name alive right?

Lured in by fresh skin she can't help but fawn over, Brie drops her knee onto the couch between my opening thighs, dipping down to cup my chin with her strong yet gentle hand. "Careful what you wish for, Flower. C'mere."

She pulls me close and I offer no resistance, kissing her like it's the last time.

I Play the Notes as They Are Written
My fingers glide across the keys indifferently, playing the music perfectly and yet, impassionately. There is a faint imprint on my finger where a ring would sit, she takes care of it during the day but allows me to wear it at night once the guests have filed out. No distractions while I'm playing for the folks of high society, I owe her too much to argue this and so I play unhampered by that golden weight. I'm grateful to be wearing a suit again, I have not felt so well dressed since the ceremony. 

My aunt is busy rubbing shoulders, I should not divert my eyes to look but I do so anyway, muscle memory carrying the melody as I assess today's mingling. A sea of faces, some fresh, some detestably familiar. My only family catches my wandering stare and pierces it with her own, causing my head to lower in deference and hide behind the instrument that gives my life purpose. 

_{"Brie... I'm sorry."} She's is outside, I am inside. Why did I choose this cage over freedom, again? I didn't want to fight anymore, while my Brie's a fighter through and through. Even as I play the notes, paint this dreary scene with music I've lost any taste for, I'm thinking of her. It's alright though, we'll meet again in another life. I've dreamt it.

"Joy, dear." Ah, she crept up on me again. Her voice is granite, coarse and intrusive. Her igneous words interrupt and subsequently immolate my thoughts of Brie, petty reminiscences should be disregarded. It's one of the first things my auntie taught me, when my parents took away my stuffed bear Lottie because of some unrelated satanic panic. I hated her for the harsh words at first, but I've come to rely upon the stone faced woman's blunt, naked truths. What good is dwelling on the past, reaching for something between the bars of a gilded cage, if it's already too far away to care? Has she moved on, I wonder, or is her regret just as trenchant.

"Yes, Auntie?" Almost all of my responses to this woman consist of these two words, the only real variance being my inflection. Sometimes it's a question, and sometimes a confirmation.

"That one over there, in the jade dress. She can't be trusted to keep a secret, you know what to do." The older woman grips my shoulder through a suit jacket worth more than everything in my room. 

"Yes, Auntie." Before I've even finished the blunt, affirmative sentence, my roots are already burrowing into the ground beneath piano bench and zeroing in on their target.

I'll protect this colourless world with all that I have, because there is nothing else left to savour but the confines of this cage.

Nirvana. Endorphins. Oblivion.
A new ceiling, how long has it been? I'm... happy, I think. If I'm honest it feels a little difficult right now, thinking, with all the pain killer promises whisking me off to places new and undiscovered. I'm in a state of reinvention right now, and thank fucking god I'm thinking behind a pane of marbled glass. That thing I had been dwelling on, day in and day out in the mansion... it feels so distant now. I'm freed, cleansed, regaining my humanity at long last and learning my place. How ironic, I'm lucid enough right now to know that the train for my humanity has long since left the station. I'm to be something new, thoughtless and pure. Neo.

The entity that freed me from my aunt struts into the room, its gait far too perfect to be human. If it will free me from thought next, I hardly care that it is not human. Neither am I, though I'm finally cured of that sickness which only caused harm to those around me. 

"Mrs. Williams. How are you feeling? The procedure went well, but I'm keeping you in this cot for a week to see you heal up nicely." The mechanised doll body stops short of where I lay, porcelain mask of a face wearing an endless state of satisfaction I wouldn't dare to crack. It is an unfeeling machine, living out the dream of a dead man. I am unbearably envious of its cold heartedness, finding yet another idol to worship as the drugs seep into my sense of reason and gleefully degrade it. 

"I feel better... I can't hurt anyone with them anymore, do you think he will forgive me?" Sitting up in my bed, I lean towards the Angel that saved me when my own Brie did not, she abandoned me for Envy's war and when I tried to call for her... Auntie said that Brie ignored the cry. We will meet again in another life, my dreams still tell me as much. I don't think I'll dream again in this life, however, and so I've nothing left to do but await my reincarnation. 

For now, I am Angel's property, because I'm too weak to be anything else. I'm tired, the process of removing my power took all of yesterday and I couldn't stop remembering my aunt's last words. A flicker of humanity, come too late. 

Artificial, ingratiating laughter fills the room and Angel cups my cheek in her cold robotic hand. The ball joints in her fingers push the digits to close around my face and I let my eyes flutter closed, preferring this touch to my previous owner's. My last remaining family became little more than a jailor, but this machine offers me freedom of a kind. "Joy, it has been approximately 112976 hours since you last believed in him, I only ask that you believe in me. You will be a symbol of change for your kind, even should they label you a traitor at first I am sure that you will bring the light of Hope to those so called 'Cassies'."

She, it, wants me to be a political mouthpiece? The face of a movement? Are they to put this weary face on banners with catchy slogans to peddle their propaganda? Would that I had the strength to say no, but instead I'm already practicing my smile. "Yes, ma'am. I'll... be good for you." There I go again, addressing it like the woman it presents itself as. I know this body is little more than a puppet, but for how long will my mind stay so rational? Given my track record, I give it a week before I'm completely subservient and adoring, in mind and body. Good. 

"Good girl, but for you to do that I need you to rest up for me, in a week's time I'll make your courage known to the world. And to theirs. For now, I've prepared a little gift for you, a symbol of your faith. You were raised catholic, just like me, right?" The mechanical woman gives a grating, discordant chuckle to her own little joke. It was built, not raised, in the interest of 'national security'. 

"Something like that, yes." Their faith went deeper, right down into the dirt. I thought that cross they used was normal until it came up in college, my family is nothing but scum. Except for Brie, even now as I become her enemy I do it with the knowledge that somehow, somewhere... we will be happy again. You, me and her. Until that day comes, she'll forgive my weakness... because that's just how she is. 

"Then here, you must know what the dove symbolises?" Angel gives the only smile she can in a face void of muscle, a mask of serene tranquillity that hides behind it something faulty and sinister. "I had this made for you, recycling that which you pilfered from your apostate of an aunt." Hands reach around my neck and clip chain into place, a small golden dove sitting on my chest staring up at me indifferently. My wedding ring, given new purpose. Peace, forgiveness and neo. I can endure this, in fact, I'll start to enjoy it. I'm already more grateful to this monster than I should be and it'll only get worse. 

"Thank you, ma'am." I grit my teeth, accepting the gift with a placid smile I let the drugs float me away on. No matter how pathetic I become in this thing's presence over the coming weeks, months, years... it's okay. There's one teaching I've done well to take to heart. 

The meek shall inherit the earth.

Yggdrasil's Goodest Girl
"What's she doing all the way over there in the corner? Rose, you've not been feeding her extra again I hope." The woman playing Envy throws one leg over the other as she adorns the dark throne with a soft simper. Deciding not to wait for her assigned lieutenant to answer, Envy's proxy searches the former hero's mind and shakes her head disapprovingly. "Nova's orders were to break her, but you're all so soft, spoiling the traitor like she's one of us now. Or at least, a treasured pet in earnest." Envyn't scoffs, still smiling, this role has been so much fun to play she hopes it never has to end. Such power, she can see why mother once acted in such a way before the weight of becoming an empress caught up to her. "Go play fetch with her or something, if she eats too much even that Nova empowered body might start to pack on pounds and the boss lady'll be asking me why I'm installing new seats in the Rook."

Rose narrows her eyes, not so loyal to this pretender as she is to her real empress. The proxy's driven by little more than a lust for power, chosen out by Nicole specifically for that reason. "Yeah, like a little weight would matter, eesh..." The former sister mutters under her breath as she strolls across the dark obsidian floor, The Moth's pilot giving her a look that urges caution. Rose gives a dry smirk, flashing a slither of teeth stained from bad habits. She knows Misty's still in there, and that the woman is well aware of Rose's past after she had spilled it all out in a drunken sob story once upon a time. Distaste at her current superior's comment aside, Rose feels more than happy to do as she's told in this instance. Orders can be easy to follow when they involve playing with a puppy who is never anything but a delight to be around. It's remarkable to think that she and the knight are one in the same, that lethal pilot who strolls in and out of the tower when called upon. Rose does not think that she would have half the pep in her step were she approaching Joy's other persona. 

"Hey girl, you're lucky today, no missions and now you get to play with Aunt Rose." The heavily tattooed woman crouches down with a creak of latex and cocks her head, smirking heavily when she realises her voice has fallen upon deaf ears. The puppy, Joy, is far too enamoured with the contents of her bowl. Kneeling with her hips wagging imaginary tail Mint said she's considering designing a prosthetic for, Joy has her face buried in her dog bowl, hair clipped back to stop it from falling into the food. Misty's thoughtful like that, thinks Rose with forgiveness dawning in her heart for their short lived spat from another life. 

Slipping clicker from her pocket and using it to get the well trained pet's attention, Rose watches as Joy's head perks up and she turns, sitting up on her calves and leaning forwards with hands planted on her knees. "Roshary!" The eager thing's still chewing her food, gulping it down with a bright, beaming smile that makes this all seem so cruel. Can't they just keep her like this and figure something else out, Rose finds herself thinking, shuffling forwards to wipe Joy's mouth and chin with her handkerchief. 

"We got caught spoiling you again, but I think you deserve it. Who's a good girl Joy?" Rose smirks, petting the plucky puppy's copper hair and checking the tag hanging from her collar. Mint's handy tech is supposed to administer a small shock whenever the excitable girl misbehaves, but they switched it out behind their appointed Empress's back a while ago. 

"I am!" The well conditioned pet personality begins to enter full bloom when it's stoked like this, Joy pushing up into the hand stroking her hair and starting to pant. 

"I said who's a good girl?" It's too much for even Rose, who has never lived with pets before on account of her myriad vices making it seem irresponsible. 

"Me! I am! It's me!" Joy gets worked up, breath becoming laboured as she aggressively rocks her head into that rough hand petting her. "I'm a good girl!" 

Rose laughs, deciding to try and calm the silly mutt down now that she's noticed them both getting carried away. "Okay, okay! If you tell me Aunt Rose is your favourite, like I know she is, I'll play with you for the rest of the afternoon. Hell, you can come to bed with me too if Empress Envy permits it."

"Owner... uhm, she's so nice... c-can I really? You are my favourite, you smell just like... uhm..." Joy whines and tilts her head, forgetting what she was going to say. Rose and Brie aren't too dissimilar, though the latter never opted for the ink where Rose sports full sleeves her torn habit shows off wonderfully. 

"Don't get yourself all confused, girl, can't have you becoming dizzy before you've even broken a sweat." Rose holds out her hand and a vine lowers down from the ceiling to give her Joy's favourite ball. "Ready for some fetch, hon?" 

Joy nods emphatically, loving this simplified existence of hers more than the complete her would ever care to admit. This is her favourite game, because she can never lose. Hasn't she lost enough?

Eyes locking with those of the woman on the throne, Rose grips the ball tight as muscle begins to multiply in her right arm, powers no longer hindered by golden affliction. A super-powered throw launches the ball fast enough to create a short boom that ripples through the room. Joy William's favourite toy barrels past the proxy's head, close enough to move her hair, and crashes through the window behind them. 

"Ah!" Joy quickly scampers after it excitedly, using her flight to propel her through the broken glass and hoping she can catch her ball before it reaches city ground. 

...

"You're on thin ice, Rosary." Speaks the acting ruler, turning to share a look with the doll assistant, Murmur. 

With a glint of satisfaction in her eye, having managed to rattle the woman she's not able to disobey through malicious compliance, Rose stares down into the black mirror by her feet. "Yeah, fuck you too."

Muzzle Flash
The cage inside of my Rook opens and I descend ladder onto hangar floor, tasting air thick with... change. I'm not used to change anymore, I don't understand how to cope with it. Every day is exactly the same, exactly as I need it to be to feel the useful weapon Handler's fashioned me into. So then, what's new in my life of near infallible constants?

There's a new frame in the hangar, more a shell, the thing I just destroyed? They must have hauled it back while I was out practicing, suppose it makes sense. You can make good tools from scrapped parts, just look at me. No point in worrying about that woman I near killed earlier, she's Commander Black's problem now. Speaking of Handler, loyalty beckons me back to my room in case She should stop by for briefing or... better. 

Just how they did in the tower when I played the part of Envy's knight, the mundane folks in this base do well to steer clear of my path and their caution makes me feel powerful. Unlike Envy, that force of nature, I am not in charge of this power and so I do not indulge in it. Still, it does bring a curve to my lips I'll have to try and wipe before Handler catches sight and removes it herself. I love the woman, truly, for knowing how best to make use of a calamity like me. My head has stewed in chaos for far too long, I've lived too many different lives. Better to be used than useless, and my lack of success in personal endeavours has made me feel the latter all too many times. This feeling brings me pride, even if I've never put much stock in the military. I don't have to, I'm not a soldier and thus am not burdened with the weight of my kills. They have never convicted a service weapon, nor has one ever felt guilt's cumbersome hands close around its neck. 

"Rifle." 

My shoulders tense and I swallow the saliva building in my mouth, quickly fixing my slouched posture and turning to face that voice, Her voice. My demeanour does a 180 and out of respect, that smile dissolves into an obediently straight line. "Y-Yes, Handler?"

"Come with me, you're due a demotion." Her lips curl, I can hear it. Usually such a statement would be spoken in admonishing tone, but to me the concept of being demoted from the weapon of war I presently am means very little. In fact, I think it's good news? Less responsibility it always good, I think, the shameless coward that I am. Dying is nothing to worry over, just another transition of many, but living without orders makes me want to wretch. 

"Yes Handler." Just like in another past life, I typically find myself alternating between these same two words with only the inflection changing. Only a week ago I could speak more freely in Her presence, but then she tired of my sass. Yesterday, I heard She banished that 'Shepherd' from the base, but I've had no interest to inquire on Her reasons. Handler is a black hole of reason, I've the good sense not to peer into that abyss lest it reach out and grab me. I prefer the leather touch, its firmness is just right. When Commander Black pulls my trigger, or activates my safety, I feel calm and I feel empty. Discipline is important. 

The two of us walk in silence, as one usually would when she travels alone with nothing but her property in tow. I won't deny the pounding in my heart, it always starts up when I'm around Her. As stated, however, the moment I'm put to use that wave of calmness stills all but the drive to comply and carry out my orders. Without interruption from the rabble that infests this world of Black, we reach the interrogation room I have never stepped foot inside until today. I wonder if Brie was taken here while Handler had that scrap that She made me from endure total deprivation a few doors down. Brie... that name's familiar, an enemy as I understand it. Though not a serious threat.

"Don't bother with the seat, rifle, you know how I like you." Handler sits and I nod, my hips pushing out to feel the space in front of me and finding a bulky table I'll have to be careful not to hit my head on. Fortunately, mine's a sturdy head. Lowering down onto the ground, I shuffle forwards on my knees and dream of demotion... will I finally be Her round-the-clock free-use fucktoy? A rifle can only Hope.

"Cunt or boots, Sir?"

Something New
"Ah, you're still struggling? Gosh, you on drugs or something woman?" Feeling something of a power trip overtaking me, I titter into my gloved hand and kick the door closed behind me upon re-entering the room. "I can't believe you hid this uniform in another room, I knew you would keep one here somewhere. Here, let me help you with that." My excitement grows when I step forwards and begin to manhandle the woman like she's little more than cattle. My Nova drops down onto the bed and I unbutton her shirt slowly, kissing over her neck wantonly as I do so. If my lips were less passionate, perhaps those chords playing through the manor wouldn't sting me so. I caress her bare upper form once the shirt is placed aside, admiring this body that so rarely displays itself without a costume. Even these fancy clothes were another cosplay, I don't think Nicole knows how to live without a role. 

"Mmgh... Misty..." She's lost in some manner of daydream, my hands working to pull down her trousers and pausing when I take in the sight of her even more nude for me. Exhilarating.

"Seriously? I suppose we do share some things, myself and that woman you let down. Don't spit in the face of love and then moan her name like you deserve her, Miss Black." With a hum, I pile up the woman's clothes and make sure to steal away her underwear too. She does not need to wear anything under her superhero costume, and even that's just a second skin in truth. Such a hero, maybe I'll have her do some of my favourite poses later! "It is cute though, that you'd think of her... but I won't let you picture her when I fuck you." I slip her leg into the costume and feel the severity of my own words, swallowing them back like a bitter brew. I'm hot, buzzing, wondering if I'm not letting myself get carried away. Self control has long been a stranger to me, whether I'm losing myself to the drift or grabbing it with newfound leather vice. If there's one thing I'm struggling with, it's being a normal well adjusted girl. Baby bear's porridge is toxic to a thief like me.  

"Rrrifle..." Nicole slurs, my dressing her taking a short intermission so that I may grip her cheeks with smooth leather digits and watch the sad line of drool escape those lips. It rolls down her chest and proves what an empty threat she is even if I'm still on edge.

"Guess again, that weapon of yours is dealt with... uh, for now. Any sway you might still hold over me is a result of my own temptation. I'm finally in charge, hehe, you must hate that. You were so sure I didn't have teeth so did nothing to protect yourself, this is where that sloppiness gets you. It's only fair that I have you like this, you've changed me so much... I-I wasn't this rotten until you stripped my inhibition bare, made me someone shameless. Well, I'm proud now." My hand recedes and I continue to dress her into the costume slowly, it's harder than you'd think to dress another person with limited motor function and a bratty streak still in need of snuffing out.

"Not me..." She's persistent, I'll give her that. Just what you'd expect from the number one hero I suppose.

"I think someone's getting a bit too big for her britches, don't you? Keep quiet and still for the next five minutes, or I'll take away your good girl juice." It's such a funny threat, isn't it? The part of Nicole still trying to fight this should want to let the drug run its course and let her sober up, but we both know the part of her who craves this is stronger. Nicole may be an addict of a kind, just like me, but from what I saw of her past she was never one to abuse substances. Rather straight edge, in fact, save for a little wine. I never saw her wield a cigarette in any of those fragments, only having taken up the habit when she knew it'd have no effect. Just aesthetics, Nic needs something stronger... like silver. How could she ever deny it? Just watch, she'll find her servitude in three...

...two...

...and one.

"O-Okay, fffine..."

Atta girl.

Chapter One: A Very Normal Morning

One last night. Just one last night in this godforsaken manor and then I pray to heaven above that I never have to walk its halls again. I curse the frailty of this weak form, miss the muscles Commander Black had given me as though that has any bearing on my bout of wooziness. After finishing Satie's posthumously released movement, I practically collapsed in front of my blubbering butch. Perhaps I'd overexerted myself. So long as I can keep Nova hooked on my silver everything will be fine. Sleep with one eye open in case the military comes knocking for Nicole... at least that was the plan, but we were both fast asleep in seconds. 

I commanded my toy hero to kneel on the floor of her own room and relay to me the number she's counted up to by the time I wake back up, after resenting Misty for her sleepless state I've the mind to teach Nova just how disorienting the deprivation can truly be. I'd know, they kept me on my feet for countless days in Envy's tower and that alone did half the job of breaking me into their affectionate little puppy. It's so twisted to feel gratitude to somebody for offering a solution to the problem they created in the first place, but I can't deny that a part of me finds the concept bewilderingly hot now. I took to the bed with Brie, Nicole's bed, it seemed fittingly humiliating for the blonde who thought she'd still have enough sway in reiteration to rule us. Brie, for her part, had no qualms sleeping in the same bed as me even if we're more used to sleeping on the floor together after a long session of a drugged Hellhound using my rifle body for hours on end. The part of me that yearns for those days is wandering around somewhere I can't see, and wouldn't care to look even if I could. It belongs with that forgotten, dead grass, I'm doing far better without its pathetic obsession. Brie, too, seems to be holding up perfectly well. Given how she looked by the end there, broken into something more subservient than she could see for herself, I'm surprised how well she's managing. My Brie's a fighter, while my own history only tells a story of rolling over at the first sign of challenge. Envy was the exception, which is why she's to be my template... dare I say role model?

It takes me a few seconds to realise I'm awake, not used to having a world in front of me to open my eyes to. Perhaps my scalpel didn't cut deep enough if I'm still reminiscing on that world of darkness. My strength has returned, I tell myself this because I need it to be true, forgetting strength for the moment and instead reaching for my comfort. That selfish desire I'm allowed to have strikes me like a hollow point round, the urge to be held by arms so strong and sweet. 

My hand does not find her, the left half of Nicole Black's bed is conspicuously empty and my lip suffers a sharp pain in turn. With a sluggishness that suggests I'm still not at one hundred percent, I sit up and fight the panic in my chest. Before my eyes fall upon the missing woman, my ears pick up the sound of soft, if troubled, snoring. It's not hard to find her after that, my legs swinging over the edge of Nicole's bed as I stare coldly at the sight in front of me. That violence in my chest becomes a still weight, heavy and dead. "Oh, Brie..." 

The red haired hellhound is curled up on the rug, completely naked, her head nestled snugly in the lap of Nicole Black. It's difficult to fully process the emotion wrought by this scene, Brie looks so peaceful as she breathes deep the scent she was conditioned into a strong obsession for. Her vulnerable face leaves no trace of the front she does well to maintain while conscious. In this moment, her guard completely lowered, Brie looks like nothing but a happy puppy content to fawn over its owner in the hopes it will be doted upon in kind. It's... cute, earnest and endearing. And it's Nova's. I do not think I have ever hated my idol more than I do in this moment. 

"You bitch... I lied to Brie, I still adore you." My eyes lock with Lady Nova's and she greets my gaze with soft, simmering stare. Of course, I forbade her from sleep. The woman's lips still move, ever counting, and I'm reminded of the absolute power I hold over the hero who once decorated my walls. After everything we've done together, I've still never shared a kiss with her as demure and loving as the one I gave that poster. The real Nova's kisses were passionate, hungry violations. Just once, I want to relive my youth and pretend I still have heroes. It may just be my mind playing tricks on me, but as the docile Nicole Black strokes her hand through the sleeping puppy's hair, eyes locked onto mine, I trace the subtle curve of a near-imperceptible smirk. Sliding down from the bed, I instinctively raise my hand to strike her before getting a hold of myself. Instead, I drop to my knees and cup those cold cheeks with clammy hands, pushing lips onto hers while the third member of this twisted trio lay unconscious below us. 

I give her a nostalgic kiss that lasts for several counts of Nova's obediently stirring mouth, before pulling away. Her lips stick to mine before we part, just like they had when I was eighteen. 

"25561." My Nova relays, her eyes so piercing even now.

"Mghh... Flower?" Brie tilts her head up in Nicole's lap, a few stray hairs falling over her cheek that the doped up hero quickly brushes aside. The sleepy butch shudders at the touch, a guilty look crossing her face that quickly erases my own ugly feelings of jealousy and possessiveness. I'm just as bad as her, neither of us are at fault. It's Nova's curse, we have to pay the price. 

With a short exhale to calm myself down, I give the woman I think I love my best smile and reach out to hold her chin in my hand. "Morning, sleepyhead." Her face is softer than her hands, it heats up quicker too!

Brie's eyes are even softer than her face, becoming round and needlessly apologetic. "I... I messed up, couldn't sleep in the damn bed and... and I just--"

"It's okay, really. It stung at first, but I was only thinking about myself. She did this to you, made you need her, and I want to... uhm, well. Replace her?" Am I telling Brie that I want her to need me instead? Like a Handler? Is that what I meant to say? I put the uniform on in a moment of sheer self indulgence, but I hardly expected it to fit me as well as it had. 

The woman in Nova's lap sits up and gives weak grin. "Heh, that right? You're cute as always, but I don't wanna make you my babysitter either. I'm not this weak, damnit, just..." She paws at her neck, looking more lost than I'd noticed her to be yesterday. A full night's sleep in Nova's lap and she's slipping, but I've no idea what I can do to help. Even if she refuses out of pride, I cannot abide doing nothing. All I've got, however, is my silver. I don't think that would be appropriate. "My neck feels so fucking bare, y'know? I hate her for doing all that shit to me, 'course, but I can't pretend I don't feel wrong without my collar on. Without my crate to curl up in. That feeling of being owned was..."

"A little comforting, isn't it? Like you can just stop worrying about making your own decisions, pride yourself on accessory that marks you claimed. I... I get it, really. I missed my mask too, things like that and your collar, they become a part of you. Even if it's a part you shouldn't yearn for, it's only natural to need it to feel whole. Still, they're not really parts of us, more like additions artificially grafted onto our soul to fit another's sick designs. I won't shame you for wanting it, Brie, but I won't entertain that we need them anymore. Ditch the crutch and learn to run, eh?" I give a shy laugh and the woman smiles wryly, giving a slow nod in response. This is good, we're healing I think. While we're, the three of us, broken playthings of a sort, I feel that myself and Brie will overcome. I will claim the future that photograph presents, make Brie mine forever... only if she wants it too, of course. Which she will. I Hope. 

Hope has a funny way of falling on its own sword the moment you start to believe in it, and I'm given swift reality check that seeks to challenge this calm and rational mood I've forced myself into. I did not wish to upset or disturb Brie with those instincts that flared initially, deciding to forgive... no, understand. Perhaps this is why I feel so tested when I peer down at the space between my Brie and the living stopwatch to her side. 

It doesn't even look like Brie is aware, still giving me that same pathetically amicable smile while her fingers lace into the 'person' by her side's. I know I just worked so hard to be calm, to give Brie an easy out for her weakness because she isn't deserving of judgement from a former rifle and more... but this incenses me in a manner that starts to frighten me. What am I supposed to do with these dark feelings bubbling up inside at such a torturous sight? No, genuinely, what am I to do? Where are your orders when you need them... 

There's only one thing for it.

"Speaking of collars... I think it's about time I give Nova one of her own." I need to make it known, without a shadow of a doubt, that Nicole is little more than property now. Maybe then I won't feel so fucking jealous when my Brie's instincts yet bind her to the woman. Maybe then I can accept that their hands touching means nothing, as little as it had when Nova gave me deferent paw the day before. I shouldn't do this, I should stop here, gods know I'm trying to be normal. I shouldn't... but gosh, I can't stand such insecurity, not when it finally started to feel like I had someone of my own. Someone who would not let me down. There I go again, sounding like Nicole. I hate that she brings this out in me... that's right, this is her fault. I'd never dream of punishing Brie, so instead I'll do it to Nova, not to remind the woman of her place... but to show Brie that Nova is no longer anything save for an extension of my will. My whim on all fours, begging its master for more tricks to perform. I suppose, in that sense, I really am learning what it means to be a 'Handler'.

For all my justifications, really, I just want to punish Nova.

For the way she treated misty...
                                               ...the possessiveness and greed...
                                                                                                 ...I want to punish Nova. 

For not living up to my expectations...
                                                          ...that pedestal I had relied on...
                                                                                                               ...I need to punish Nova.

For the sway she holds over Brie...
                                                    ...that deep seated obsession I cannot compete with...
                                                                                                                                        ...I will punish Nova.

Chapter Two: A Collar of Bruises

"Do you remember what I've told you? Every last word?" There's a fire in my chest, a flush across my skin that just won't go away. It's not anger, or excitement, but a union of the two. This is an offspring of my most indulgent emotions, mutated mass of overwhelming ego I had festering in malignancy for all too long. I can bear it no longer, Nova, if I don't punish you right here and now I may just lose my mind. I'll be nicer than you were, if it's any consolation, you'll probably even enjoy it in spite of the additional stain on your ego. 

"Mmgh... yes, instructor." Nova's words are an instant rush to my lesbian cunt, making me blush indignantly and blow hot air against her face in my huff. Knowing that she still has such a sway over me as a drugged and docile toy only serves to show how deep this obsession runs. I don't think I could ever bring myself to be indifferent about Nicole Black, for better or worse, hers is an influence I could never escape. We're both under the influence right now, then, addicts of a kind that exchange acts of service and punishment as naturally as breathing air. I'm not a fool, you know, I've been nervous of her somehow having another turn with me down the line and repeating this cycle ad infinitum. 

"Good girl, then let's begin shall we." I'm drowning in dark urges, it's different to how Envy's corruption developed. This came hard and fast, like a well trained rifle given the command to fuck its Handler's boot. There were signs, of course, but my observation skills have dulled from the long stretch in darkness imposed upon me by this wretched, irresistible woman. Brie's given us some privacy, not that I asked for her to leave, taking to the gym so that she may regain a sense of what she lost in our hero's lap. She'll see the aftermath, of course, but I'm still afraid of how Brie might look at me if I let loose in her presence. My naked hand raises into the air in a theatrical nature, something I must have inherited from Nicole herself, while the black leather digits curl around the back of her neck to hold her steady for what comes next. 

This isn't the session room, but it'll do nicely. I think it'd be incorrect to call it Nicole's room anymore, either. It's just a normal room, on a normal morning, housing indecently normal occupants.

Snap! 

I watch with wide, unblinking eyes as Nova straightens her slumped back submissively, clearing her throat to try and speak the words I've fed her. This isn't revenge, not really, because I know deep down it's just as cathartic for her to get lost in another black hole. She designed this White Dwarf so that, after extended use, any trace of the person who came before is lost in all that dumb haze. Destroy the enemy. I've suspected for a long time that me and Nova might be more alike than you'd think, before I started mimicking her against my better judgement I mean. It was subtle, but for once I knew all too well what to look for in those fragments. Self loathing will drive a woman into wicked places, and hold the world at hostage for it. I'll make a ghost of her yet, something free. Many have made the transition. Murmur escaped via dollhood, and Helena with fae awakening. Nicole, I promise you this: Even though you don't deserve it, even if you think it a punishment... I will save you.

"I, Nova, am Instructor Williams' toy hero. I'm addicted... mmh... to being put in my place again and again." The short moan is my fault, I couldn't help but puncture her shoulder with my stinger, leaving it there to administer small doses of pleasure whenever she finishes her assigned sentences. A hand slips between my legs and I'm shocked and appalled at this wetness, my libido a traitor to her kind. "I deserve this punishment, I..." The woman falters, hitching her breath as I run a nail over her chin and she catches sight of my candid masturbation. If she dares to try and join me in the act, I'll have to bind her arms with more than words. Silver rope pulls the limbs taut behind her back, my drug making disobedience a distant dream. I... god, I'm so grateful to Brie for bringing me this gift, even Florasma's infamous perfume couldn't do this much damage to Nova's sense of self. Her identity's on a platter that she served, and her own damn hubris is what lifted the cloche. If only she didn't gloat, and Nova's secret little plan would no doubt still be proceeding smoothly. For once, then, I'm glad for her endless fucking arrogance. "I enjoy everything you do to me. Believe everything you tell me..." I can see her struggling, still, a soft glare simmering on this pretty face that doesn't seem its age. A short burst of silver and those eyes slowly roll. "Everything Joy Williams tells me is the truth."

A shudder overtakes me, fascination and plain satisfaction crossing this storied face of mine. My mentor would be proud, I really am still just the slut she fashioned me into. Even to this day I cannot bring myself to contest her selfish words... because I no longer want to. Did I ever? Honestly, I love being used, violated, and soon Nova will too. Me become more like her? Fuck that noise, I'm making her more like me. This is only a 'punishment' insofar as I share that same affliction of loathing, in truth I cannot help feeling a touch benevolent in this moment. If I keep pushing, maybe Nova will start to mean those words I have her tongue repeating. Let's get this show on the road, ehe, I want her to know what it feels like to be reduced to an object at another's whim, a karmic gift that'll keep on giving until she does. Until the woman I've loved for the longest time gives in to the treatment and accepts her collar. It won't just be a metaphor, I've something much better in mind. Forgive me, Brie, I'll put a lid on this by the time you return. I Hope. 

"Simplify."

I'm not sure I even recognise my own voice in this moment, so worked up and committed to this act that I couldn't care less. There isn't a moment to spare for reconsideration, it's not something she would do. Handler doesn't doubt herself, and neither does Instructor Williams. While my doped up Nova's mind begins to buffer the strictly spoken command, I get to work on her collar, dipping my head into the curve of her neck and latching onto the flesh with smouldering desire. Her body is my canvas, my commandeering mouth the brush. I'll paint something neither of us will have to worry about ever forgetting, a ring of dark affection that marks her forever changed. A blemish on this perfect, untouchable record of hers. I'll ruin you, Nova, and then build you back up as someone worth the pity in the first place. 

"Nnh... Nova is instructor's toy, addicted to being put in its place." Nicole's breath is so laboured I'd start to worry about her passing out were she not a superpowered freak of nature. Suckling lips give her a rough hickey that's sure to develop nicely, just how Murmur taught me with my own supple flesh. In a way, I'm bridging their marriage here! My lips brush over sore, heated skin and fall upon the unblemished spot beside my latest handiwork, knowing I've plenty of ground to cover until this ritual is completed. "I deserve everything you do to me, and believe everry--ahhn--everything you tell me."

Second bruise. Spit coats the woman's neck, bridges between the radiant skin of my personal idol and the bottom of my quivering lip. This is so wrong, but she forced my hand. This is so wrong, but that's exactly what she deserves. Nobody else can do this, I'm the only woman in existence able to bring Nicole Black to heel and that power is changing me on a molecular level. Her submission is altering my brain chemistry, it has to be, because I'm not normally this intense... am I?

"Simplify."

My tongue drags over her throat as I cradle the woman's neck in leather grip, becoming just as lost in this body as Brie had earlier. It's perfectly acceptable to use her, this is a lovely body forged in the depths of outer space... it's a one of a kind, a marvel, and now it's mine. Another hickey begins as I get off to this more than I probably should, a part of me wishing Brie had stayed, wanting her to understand that all of this is okay. More than the loveless harlot deserves.

Nova swallows, I feel it against my lips and decide to suck harder as I wonder just how much I can make my hero squirm. "I'm your addicted toy, deserving and receptive to everything you do and say to me." There's a change in Nova's posture, her inflection, as though she begins to realise how easily these words are coming to her now. She's doing such a good job of ablating the pride she's spent years erecting in these temple walls. A tower of babel her new god sees fit to smite duly. This is a forever of feeling, at least it feels so, and now I know she feels it too. My vine relays as much, the Midas tinge in my garden losing its lustre. 

At this point, I can't tell if she's under my spell, or I hers. The difference is meaningless, when regardless I come out on top. I want her to want it. I want her to need it. The way I needed her for years. I'll be the poster on your wall, the apple in your eye, the lips against your stinging throat. The brand new taste you just can't get enough of, I'll be all of it, indistinguishable from this silver I've got you hooked on. 

I'll make you need your daily dose of Joy, for each and every day you made me yours. A pity then, that I lost count.

"Mmh... such a good toy, I'm so proud of you." Kill her with kindness as I mar her skin, hers is a loving collar. What better revenge than to make her like me? A human she rejects the authenticity of, a kind she scorns the breath of. I want her to love all of humanity, Joy to the world. "Simplify, pet. Let your words speak true, hehe, straight from the heart okay? Say it like you mean it~" 

The woman's body writhes and I taste the need in her perspiration, soothing her with tongue only to drive her further into the depths of this well manufactured abyss with lips and teeth and a lust so potent it has me just as enthralled as she is. There are no choices in this scene, not really. Only consequences and their natural conclusions. 

"Everything Joy Williams does is correct." My blonde junkie gasps at the words, the usually sharp sound weighed down by lethargy and cloying acceptance. It is a heady phrase, one I'm desperate to hear her utter again until she can no longer be shocked by the fact that she came up with it. I think I just came, but I'm far too focused on Nicole's collaring to pay attention to my own heat in this moment. I'm an endgame slut, I'm bound to come again soon. Keep calm and carrion, Joy. 

"Oh fuck... again. Now, toy." Snap. 

"Everything Joy Williams does is correct." My mouth gets to work, hungrily, practically devouring her as I give her jagged collar of sucking kisses that maim her as much as they make her moan for me. How could Nova ever complain, when we both know that...

Snap.

"Everything Joy Williams does is correct." Nova's words no longer seem so shocking to the speaker who runs that seductive script, eyes glazed and a line of drool traipsing down from parted lips. It's so wonderful, seeing her sink to the very bottom of the well she's been throwing people down for years. I hope she enjoys her stay.

More snaps, more repeated mantra, more firm lovebites that begin to develop into something truly picturesque. After a short stretch of time that really is something of a blur to us both, I come to my senses with a series of slow blinks. My eyes trace the handiwork I don't even remember finishing, a collar of bruises decorating the blissed out woman's neck. Judging by the thin, tipsy smile on her face, the eyes that hold no discernible light... I think I can be sure now. Nova is gone, all that remains is my well trained toy, collared and compliant. Everything I do to her is correct, so why do I feel like I've gone too far?

"Flower, you finally done?" Ah! Brie's voice trails over my shoulder and I slide free from Nova's lap, ignoring the mess between my legs as I turn to face her with panic gripping my heart. Brie is sitting on the bed, topless, towel resting over her neck and eyes locked onto Nova's new collar of darkening blemishes. I didn't even hear her come in and she's already sitting down, making me wonder how long she was witness to my unrestrained hedonism. Oh god, Brie, you won't understand but... but I... "Heh, you had that much fun without me? Make a girl needy, why dontcha?" 

Feeling exhausted, I drop back into Nova's lap and sigh, dizzy smile painting across my face. "Yeah? I... I went way overboard, again, I need you to keep me in check Brie. You must think I'm losing my mind."

Brie still stares at the collar, then traces her eyes down to me. This look on her face is killing me, she's stunned and rightly so. "Nah... you're just lashing out in the only way you know how." Huh? What's she saying? She's obviously horrified, does she think I can't see that trembling she hides so poorly? "And well, she probably does deserve it even if it's a little hardcore for me. I'm not half the predator you think I am, Joy... I'm--"

"A big softie? I knew that already, anyone else in that Hellhound's position would've torn me in half after a few days on that gold stuff... she tested it on rifle before you arrived, had to pull it off some poor low rank officer it happened across in its insatiable high. You're a legitimately good person, I think, which is why you're so... god, would you please stop looking at me like that? I can take it from others, but with you it's--"

"Like what?" Brie leans forwards and carefully reaches for my face, cradling this cheek as she always has despite that burning look she's been giving me. If it isn't judgement I'm reading from her, then what? "You're a bit cute, you know that?"

My shoulders tense and tremble, is she really not abhorred by my petty display of power? I'm confused, and frightfully timid. "I'm... beginning to realise, yeah. Ahaha... Brie, she really did have it coming."

"Who said anything about Nicole Black, Flower? Forget about her for a damn second and look at me..." Oh my god, how did I not see the obvious? No really, I've become so dense in this tunnel visioned state that I missed the glaring truth. Brie's not appalled, she's jealous, unbearably so. Oh thank goodness, she's just like me, the way I felt so unbelievably jealous of the way she slept with Nova, the way their hands touched... I've given my Brie the same taste. I don't wish to be so petty, however, I never blamed her to begin with even if I felt heated in the moment. 

"I'm looking at you, Brie..." And what a hypnotically beautiful picture she presents in this moment, burning with jealous affection as she hovers over bed's edge. I take in the sight of her toned stomach and wide chest, loving every inch of her body with restless gaze. "I... I wanna do more than look, ehe..."

Brie's blush erupts fiercely and soon her entire face is as red as her dyed hair, the butch I've kept waiting for too long biting her lip and turning her head away shyly. "I'm... real fucking turned on by you, I mean, watching you with her... you're always cute, Flower, but that side of you... the one you've been trying to hide?" She takes a deep breath and returns her gaze to mine, looking determined to be out with it. "It's so hot... I think because it's you, it's even hotter... I left the room because your pettiness fucking got to me. Not in the way you think, I mean, it made me... y'know?"

Oh, Brie... I've been no good to this woman, neglecting her the one thing she's been craving since the very beginning. It's all making sense now, so I won't make this mistake again. My panic transforms into excitement and I rise from Nova's lap to stand, holding the hand at my cheek with firm leather she no longer shies away from. My other hand glides fingers through her blood red bangs, petting her without worry of overstepping my bounds. "It turned you on to see me acting so assertive? Mmh... why didn't you say before? My sheep in wolf's clothing~" My hand pets her thoroughly and Brie's chest swells, the woman letting out a long shaky exhale that tells me I've hit the nail right on its head. So then, it wasn't just jealousy that I was giving Nova my attention, but how I was treating her too?

Brie's a fantastic top, but she only ever focused on my pleasure during the act. It was more than enough to get her off, too, but now I realise how much she was acting out what she'd have done to her in the ideal scenario. After everything I've experienced, it seems dreadfully cute, and a little silly, for her to have kept quiet on this. I suppose she didn't know I had it in me until this morning, and unravelled quickly. When Brie's treatment under Nova reared its head in relapse both yesterday and today, it was only the submissive tendencies that seemed to surface. I even attempted to encourage a relapse of the dominant urges that she had been trained with at the same time, foolish as I was. 

Nova's brainwashing was reliant on a simple concept, and now I understand why her treatment of myself and Brie differed so greatly. The woman sought to weaponize our deepest desires against us, give us so much of what we crave that we no longer cared what an irredeemable monster our provider was. The rifle does not scorn its master's touch. A dog does not bite the hand that feeds. It's no secret to me, given how badly she made me revel in it, that the rifle conditioning worked so easily on account of just how desperate I already was for a lack of responsibility in my life, agency felt like a curse I needed to be rid of and Nicole Black stoked my worst tendencies and darkest desires expertly. Despite my mixed feelings over becoming Envy's weapon, she must have seen how badly I craved it... hell I was wearing the struggle on my sleeve. Brie, the powerhouse of a woman I'd only ever known to be a huntress... I'm beginning to see that she's just prey, as she was in that alley all those years months ago. 

That she no longer flinches when I touch her like this tells me she's starting to realise that shame is an illusion, and we'll tolerate it no longer. 

"Such a puppy." Just as I reversed the script with Nova and her training of that pathetic rifle, I now revisit my first meeting with Brie in the foyer and treat her as she had me. Brie's eyes soften and the heat in her cheeks is almost enough to produce steam. My hand moves hers away from my face and down by her lap, with a narrowing of my eyes that assesses just how easily she'll let me manipulate her right now. "Brie, tell me what you want me to do to you. Be honest, okay? Good girls get more, right?" My hand clad in night grips her cheek just as Brie dares to try and turn away, gripping the second softest part of her and watching with a throb between my legs as my Brie, my good girl, lets out a soft gasp in response. It sounds nothing like Nova's, whose surprise I sought to mollify. Brie's sound is moreish and sweet, something I want to hear again. The sound betrays her deep need to be put in her place, but I must appease this desire cautiously. I'd never wish to break her, and I trust Brie, who told me that I had to try too, to let me know if she ever reaches that point. Unlike Nicole, I actually like Brie, maybe even love her. 

Brie shudders and nods into the hand, allowing me to push her face back towards mine and sitting up. Where before she had been feigning relaxation with her posture, Brie now leans up into my touch and sits up straight like a well trained dog. I'm sure she's never had this fantasy fulfilled before, not in any healthy sense I mean. Trifecta, for the brief time I knew her, did not seem like a particularly harsh mistresses. And Nova, she was far too callous with her hound. Looks like my analogy from earlier is not quite applicable here... I am baby bear's porridge. Just right for Brie, who accepts me for what I am even when I fear my own desires and where they might take me.

"Mmh... I ah... whatever you want?" I can see in that burning honesty on her face which melts into my hand that Brie does not speak with uncertainty. She means it genuinely, craving the feeling of being at my mercy completely. This is usually the part of my inner monologue where I think the words 'such power' and indulge to my heart's content driven on by lust and flimsy justification, but... Brie's opening her heart to me here, her vulnerability isn't something I seek to mock and stain. It's precious, she's gorgeous, and my lust is not in control of me. Which isn't to say I'm not dying to use her as she desires, and that I won't be incredibly turned on in doing so, just that for the first time my outlook is not so selfish. I'm to ensure that two people enjoy this to the fullest, because I can't imagine many in Brie's place accepting me as I am. 

"Good girl." My smile grows and so does hers, Brie's hulking form so attentive for me as she leans towards me like I'm more powerful than she. I am, in fact, but I certainly don't look it and so a funny scene this paints. "I'm still so pent up after collaring Nova... so Brie, can I... I mean... ehe... I'm going to fuck you." I do my best to imitate the most husky and seductive of all the voices in my life, that of my midnight mistress. It's not a bad effort, I can tell it got her attention. Brie stares up at me, gawks really, and opens her mouth to respond. 

But the words never come, my mouth descending upon hers and gifting her with overpowering kiss that feels so right my sense of self begins to rebuild itself in her mouth. A warmth, a slickness, and belonging. That's right... this mouth belongs to me, it always has. Happy tears stroll down the submissive butch's burning cheeks, telling me I'm not the only one who feels that impossible connection. Hers is a nostalgic taste, one I won't let slip from my grasp again. If I have to raze this entire world of Nova's, Envy's and god knows what else, I'll do it without a shred of remorse. 

I don't need to make Brie love me after all, her body tells me beyond a shadow of a doubt that she still does. 

In Another Life (cont.)
"You're always calling me cute. I really hope you mean it." My lips curl into an easy smile set to entice the woman across from me. She's just finished exercising, the tease having to do it right in front of me when she knows the distraction spells disaster for my reading. I've been on this same page for the past half hour, sneaking glances rather unsubtly at that powerhouse I managed to somehow put a ring on. I could have kept quiet until she absconded for her shower, but she couldn't help but comment on my wandering stare, calling me cute. 

Brie grins, giving me a dirty look you wouldn't typically give to something so cute. I must be a special case, and glad for it. She may well be a lech, but she's mine. Those lecherous eyes only linger on me, maybe my cuteness has poisoned her mind. "You serious? Being as cute as you are should be a crime, I mean it. I'm not sure what to even do with it all some days." The taller woman steps closer, towel thrown over her neck. She knows better than to worry I won't welcome her approach until she's washed away the exertion. The smell of a woman made breathless, ragged, now that's nothing to turn your nose up at. 

Fuck this book, it wasn't very interesting anyway. Discarding Satie's biography onto the table by my side, I give this flirtatious spouse of mine the attention she is due. "Well then I'm an outlaw, aren't I? So I think you need to tie me up until the powers that be come and lock me away with all the other cute criminals." I feign a stretch, my vest lifting up as Brie's gaze trails down predictably to greet the slither of skin on show. That other version of me should still bare a scar right about here, that my skin is unblemished must prove myself the clone but I hardly find the will to care. In fact, I relish in the thought. I'm not responsible for the weight she carries, the mistakes I remember us making. I'm just Joy Williams, somebody has to keep the name alive right?

Lured in by fresh skin she can't help but fawn over, Brie drops her knee onto the couch between my opening thighs, dipping down to cup my chin with her strong yet gentle hand. "Careful what you wish for, Flower. C'mere."

She pulls me close and I offer no resistance, kissing her like it's the last time before promptly pushing her face away with playful grin. Brie whines, giving me her usual puppy eyes when I play hard to get. Just one kiss is all she gets for now, after making me watch that distracting show for so long. If she wants more of my sweetness she'll have to earn it, the hot weather always gets me in the mood. "Down, girl."

Blinking away the pleading, Brie grins and obediently drops onto her knees in front of the couch, back straightening and mouth falling closed as they always do when I take on this stricter tone. 

"Gosh, you're easy these days. So well tamed hehe, still see any point in us getting a dog?" Glad I decided to ditch my book, I run a thumb over my wife's lower lip and she shudders at the implication. 

"You're a dick." The woman feigns brattiness, as she's wont to do. It's not hard to see just how attentive she is, with short breaths and bashful smirk. 

"Oh come on, I know you wanna address me properly." My legs uncross and I sit up, seizing Brie's chin with my hand and looming over her with as much dominance a cute thing like me can muster. The title was her idea, so she better use it if she's already content to grovel on her knees. Gods, I love this woman. 

Brie lets out a laboured, half-amused exhale and flicks her eyes onto mine obediently. "You're a dick, Owner..." The woman pushes into my hand and I giggle, completely under her spell. 

If only my dreams were not so foreboding as of late.

Chapter Three: I'll Replace Her

Nicole Black stands up, as commanded, and retrieves from her bedside drawer the object I've asked her for. Ah, I'm glad it was so close at hand, though given what it is and where we are I can hardly claim shock. "Thanks, Miss Nova. You can wait outside now, but don't wander." My leatherbound hand cups the woman's cheek as I lean in to kiss the other, feeling more affectionate than I had been now that she's been collared and my relationship with Brie has strengthened. Not just strengthened but evolved, we're more honest with ourselves than before and it excites me as much as it scares me. Honesty can be a frightening thing, I find, but even so I've resolved not to shy away from difficult truths any longer.

"Yes... instructor." Her voice does not hold back the bile it once did, I think I broke through to her during her collaring. I almost feel bad about it, but then, isn't this for the best? Everything I do is correct, right? I-I mean, in her eyes anyway. 

I watch with stern eyes as Nicole exits the room, waiting for the door to click shut before letting a soft smile touch my lips. My eyes flick down to the glass strap and then over to a cute and patient Brie. The woman is practically humming, buzzing with a palpable excitement I cannot help but share. Have I ever had perfectly reciprocal sex before, even once? I suppose if it's to be my first time in living memory, remaining memory, then I'm glad it'll be with Brie. This woman compels me in ways that Nova cannot. With my hero, I felt shattered at the betrayal of expectations, whereas with Brie... well, I'm not going to overreact if she ever disappoints me. Nicole had placed pressure on her own marriage, declaring internally that Misty could, and would, never let her down. I personally think that to be childish, but maybe I'm a bit of a black pot for suggesting as much. 

"Surprised you ain't making her watch..." Brie runs nervous fingers through her pretty, wolfish hair and I cannot help but shoot her playful grin the moment I catch her shyness. 

"This one's just for us, okay? She used this on both of us... and I can't deny on my part that it felt fucking good even if it wasn't technically me she was sinking into." My fingers curl around the sturdy glass and I see Brie's eyes focus in on it, knowing exactly what must be running through her mind. "I... aha, maybe it's stupid, I won't do it if you feel like it'd resurface something rotten... but I wanted to give you a better memory of this so that it might overwrite the one she gave you, replacing it. I'll replace all that nasty, manipulative shit with memories of me, of us." My eyes shine against the glass and Brie remains uncharacteristically speechless, it's so cute I don't know what to do with it all. 

"Mm... that sounds... fine by me, Flower. In case you weren't aware, though, she took me in the ass. First time... not so bad, I-I mean obviously I'd had fingers up there before but--"

"Obviously?" I giggle, dropping my knee onto the space between Brie's spread legs on the bed and curling fingers into her hair. The strap rests against her thigh, with harness I cannot wait to secure. "I don't think that's something everyone can attest to doing, babe, so I'm not sure it's as obvious as you think."

Brie's face heats up and I earn a light pout I think I'll savour for a while. "Yeah, well. Don't read into it." Her breath tickles my lips as I draw close and hover, giggling. So this is what it's like to be normal, huh? At least... relatively so. Brie lifts her hand up to hold my face and I seize her wrist, pushing my weight on top of her as the two of us fall back against the bed. Dropping the strap beside her flaring, shaggy red hair, I lace my fingers into hers on either side and push into a forceful kiss I know my girl can handle. I kiss Brie as though I've developed a taste for human flesh, a deep and insatiable hunger that targets such unexpected softness and seeks to claim it my own forevermore. I love her tongue, the way it kneels for me in her mouth. I love her breath, the way it comes out short in shy giggles that only I get to hear and feel. I love her buckling body, laid flat against the bed and letting me get away with anything I want to use it for. 

My head pulls back and we watch the bonded spit stretch and break with glimmering eyes, fingers gripping each other's so tightly it'd start to hurt any normal lovers. The two of us share enhanced strength, durability and endurance... facts we're both very keen to keep in mind during a recreational activity like this. "Mmh... a part of me wants to stay in this room all day, just making you mine again and again until we've both forgotten all about Nova entirely." I speak truthfully, tugging her bottom lip playfully with my teeth and loving the way her breath hitches at my every teasing action. 

"Put me in my place, yeah? Heh... I-I don't think that sounds so bad, you're certainly dressed the part. Don't replace her too perfectly, 'kay?" My Brie leans her head up into mine and nips across my jaw, hands playing with the buttons of my tight black shirt. I let her undo it, undo me, as I fall upon a sword that has me bleeding Brie. Affection pours from the blisters on my heart and I accept the sting of it all gladly, knowing that any foreign remorse that rears its ugly head during this beautiful affair is surely deserved. My smooth, gloved hand runs up her own naked chest and gropes a waiting breast I'd love to see pierced for me. A silver studded mare, letting me tease her metal and flesh for my own amusement, for her budding wants. 

"Oh, I won't be dressed at all in a second, love. But I will be putting you in your place, okay? Pound by pound." My voice lowers, becoming sultrier than I've ever managed to make it in the past. It hits Brie hard, as expected, and the submissive butch proceeds to stare in awe as I sit up to undress myself for her. The woman pushes out of her sweatpants, hooking ringed thumbs into her boxer shorts and letting them slide down too. Fabric drops around her ankles and unveils a tuft of pretty brown hair topping gorgeous glistening slit. My Brie is wet, ready, weeping for my attention.

"I feel... heh, feel like a virgin in this moment. Need you to act even more assertive, it really--"

My hand reaches for her throat and Brie instantly blushes, hard. Once again, we're built much stronger than the mortals we were made to protect, and I know she can take my choking. In fact, that sparkle in her eyes tells me that it feels far better than any ill-fitting collar ever had. Brie is not a creature to be tamed, but a hell hound, a wild animal who needs constant assertive voice to lead it in that pack mentality that rules it. "Dear, you are a virgin right now, at least anally. I mean, you've memories of having it happen once before in your head sure... but your body forgot the feeling. I'll remind it, just... tell me if I'm too rough." I'm possessed by the thrill of domspace, understanding the allure of a subject who just keeps letting you sate yourself against them. That rifle sure had an appeal, I suppose, the way she just accepted her own defilement so eagerly, glad to be debasing ourselves again and again. Perhaps she'll come around again, most do. 

Brie's eyes hood as she helps unbuckle my belt, sliding down these black trousers I've adopted and pressing her lips to the puppy fat I still hold even with Nova's borrowed power. In the past iteration I had lost it, become more toned like Brie herself, but I can see now that the woman has a taste for this body's softness. I don't think I blame her, but my Brie herself is just as soft in all the places that matter. "Baby, I'd be impressed if you found my fucking limit, if I'm honest. Almost wanna dare you, but I think you're perfect as you are." Her voice tickles tummy and I blush the colour of Brie, running possessive fingers through that tousled hair as I let those words run through my malleable mind. My head is such a chaotic crucible of thought this time around, I'm aware of this, and I know I'm not to blame. I'm perfect as I am... Brie says so, and she's the only person I can trust to speak her mind to me, to be honest and well-meaning to this wretched heap of Joy. A rejected thing, a tool, a corpse, a fool... I've long since seen something unworthy in that tall mirror sitting in the other room. So when Brie speaks so highly of me, it fills me with a deep relief I cannot properly describe with the words my mind affords me. It makes me feel fucking normal. I had forgotten that sensation, a nostalgic flame that dances over these fingers in my darling puppy's hair and makes me want to try, too. 

This feeling between battered souls, and chosen bodies, makes me wonder if Hope isn't such a fraudulent thing after all. I am its lady, even if I abandoned my post. 

"I'm not. Perfect, I mean. But I'm trying." My lips move wryly, and my fingers tighten into that hair it had just been petting affectionately. "But right now, all I can think about is how much I want to fuck my girl. If I may be so presumptuous, ehe?"

The woman sitting on the bed's edge, who happily jumps upon my own knife's edge, gives me a smile that shows teeth. She's so damn pretty, it really does hurt... like staring at the sun. "The boots stay on?"

I giggle, nervous and excited. "You bet your ass they do, puppy." My petname has Brie wilting like a flower dancing tango, ready to be caught in its swoon. I push onto the bed and Brie crawls back to give me space, wearing only her rings and winning smile. Firmly, I take the woman's wrists and flip her over on the bed, taking tight handful of her hair and slamming that soft face I adore so much into cushioned headboard. Her body is so limp and giving, she's wanted this so badly and I've been blind as a rifle. Her entire bulky frame arches nicely for me, that puppy named Brie sitting forwards on her knees and sinking into subspace against the board I press her into harshly. 

My single, stray vine hooks into the harness of Nova's glass strap and pulls it closer. My hand relents and retracts from Brie's hair. "Don't move an inch, okay? That's an order." There's lilting amusement in my voice I don't bother to hide, firmly smacking Brie's bare ass and delighting at the way she moans into the cushion while attempting to comply with given instruction. An obedient puppy, I'm glad we have an understanding. My fingers sink low to retrieve the strap and secure it in place, which takes me longer than I'd care to admit. Eventually I've figured it out and relish in the powerful feeling of this cold and sturdy object protruding from my body like predator rearing back for pounce. Is this how that Shepherd woman feels? I doubt it, she seemed more comfortable playing out Brie's role in this dynamic. Oh, I'm not sure it'll be good for my already inflating ego to imagine ploughing a doppelganger's ass as it spurts and twitches against the wall. Gosh, Joy, since when did you become such a depraved lesbian slut? Oh, haha, right. That was a while ago now!

The cool glass tip strokes across Brie's firm cheek and I watch her shudder against it. "Brie... I've a gift for you, if you'll take it." The excitement in my voice is hard to overstate, my orchard is still an impenetrable image but the production of goods from memory is alive and well. If I can make the silver from memory and sensation seeping into that dead soil, I think my own mind should still be able to... 

Ah! A trickle of golden brown ambrosia, leaking down the tip of my vine thick as molasses. This is the same corrupted tree sap that those sinful dryads lathered themselves in, that Brie soothed my burn with, an impossible creation birthed by mistake using lust and confiscated chemicals. I have to wonder where my orchard gets the matter from, but that's not something I need dwell on right at this moment, not when I've more... pressing matters to attend to. 

"I... that smell." Of course, Brie's a sniffer dog, her fixation on scent having betrayed her more than it has served her. The redhead turns to stare at my vine's glistening tip, and a wicked smile kisses upon my plain lips. "I-If you're asking for permission, then fuck... yes, god... yeah just, damn, you were holding out me Flower." 

"I didn't know I still possessed this side of Envy's power, they kept it secret from me. I... I don't want to think on it too much right now, but I think something must have happened to the rest of my vines. Why one was left I can't really say. Anyway... good girl, I didn't want to take you dry and it'd feel awkward to go looking for another woman's lube." My vine coils around the glass shaft and gets it nice and sticky, hand reaching forwards to push Brie back into the board teasingly. 

Brie gasps and scoffs, lifting her hips up subtly. "Oh yeah... I'm sure the aphrodisiac shit is just an unwanted side effect, huh? You're so cute, even when you're taking charge."

"Shut up, or I'll gag you. Brie... this is going to be intense, you're going to lose yourself for a while until we're done, then we can lay together for a while. Envy... she fucked me once, so well I think I decided to break for her in that moment. You're not allowed to break, just... bend." My firm leather hand pushes her back into a more pronounced arch and her light panting breath is precious to say we haven't started yet. "Okay puppy?"

"Yes... Owner." A nostalgic ring makes me forget to question the new title that should seem out of nowhere. Instead, I smile confidently and spread her cheeks with my strong hands. 

"Good girl, now brace yourself, I'm going to be a little rough." It's intoxicating to hold power over anyone, but to wield it over another who wants to be pushed down by the weight of your superior gravity, who loves you for it, is something else entirely. The tip of my glass strap pushes up against Brie's waiting hole and she shivers against that lubricating sap wonderfully. Her body hums, and so does mine, this almost feeling ritualistic. Courting, mating, breeding. I'll make Brie my bitch, just for the next half hour or so, then I'll make her my princess. She can be as rugged and charming as she wants on the outside, with shoulders broader than the men in my life's and a mouth you'd kill your mother with... I know the softness inside of her, crave it wantonly. Nova exploited it, where I'll cherish it, appease it, cracking this woman out of yet another eggshell. 

_{"Oh, g-good... heh..."}

My heart is on fire. I take hold of her hips and push myself forwards, sinking several inches deep into Brie's ass in a single preliminary thrust and giggling like a madwoman at the way my partner groans so breathlessly against the headboard. I can feel her shaking, body squeezing down tight around the slick glass that fills it as ankles kick upon the bed compellingly. I remind myself that, despite living memory, this is Brie's first time being taken like this in this timeline. Still, I cannot help but get carried away... such is my nature.

"Oh, ffffuck!" Brie was not expecting the tip of my vine to lick heady sap across her own damp cunt, a pincer attack of hard glass and giving tendril that now claims two erogenous zones in a team effort. My prey lifts her hips and crashes them back down, thrashing wildly against the attention that has her mouth practically frothing so early in. I tilt my body back to pull the glass from its sunken depth, then slowly thrust back inside and delight at the writhing responses. 

"Feel good?" My lips are nearly in the shape of the number three rotated onto its side, a mischievous grin I cannot fight off of my face telling this audience of no one just how much fun I'm having pounding my slut. 

Brie gasps, groans and moans, bucking her hips back against both unique sensations as her body and mine slowly adapt. That sap is no joke, I know, but I do hope to keep her lucid enough to remain upright while I have my way with her. Though... a panting, collapsed heap of fuckable puppy flesh might not be so bad either. I'm developing a taste for dominating others, it's just so fucking fun. Another notch on my way to Nova, I remind myself, but though I seek to replace her... I'll never let myself become her. 

"S-So fucking... ahh... good... hahh..." Brie's enjoying this, that seems to matter to me in this moment even more than my own developing taste. I think her eagerness drives me deeper, perhaps literally so, as I sink down until my lap slaps against her ass and the woman's next response comes out far less coherent. Surrender body and mind to me, Brie, you can trust this world of pleasure I give you to remain untainted. 

"Mmmhh... you're just so hot, somehow hotter when you're all weak and trembling for me. I guess it's the contrast, ahaha... gosh." My tendril burrows deep into Brie's sex in a generous coil that has my puppy mewling, my midnight hand hooking around her waist to keep her held firm while I use my bare hand to experiment with more rough play. Nails scrape down from the blade of her shoulder to the base of her ass, leaving delectable red rows that looks so pretty on the already flush skin. Brie's body is sweltering, and I paint another set of scratches on this sweaty, convulsing canvas before me. I love this body so much, reminding myself it was partially built from my own subconscious desires once upon a time. Beyond that, though, Brie has truly made it her own, something special. 

"Mmgh... mmnn... ffffflowerrr~" The drugged tree sap makes her so loose and giddy, that she actually asked for it makes me feel proud. I slide out briefly and turn that sluggish body over so that she's facing me, pressing up against her so that her body folds. Legs nearly thick as my head drape over my own rosy shoulders as I claim her holes again, daring for a third as I push her into a more compact shape and plunge dominant tongue into that easy mouth. 

The way we kiss is unapologetically indecent, Brie is so haggard while my own lust is burning me up from the inside. I conquer her tongue and Brie melts against the treatment, like a soft caramel given in reward. The way I want this woman... and now I have her. My pounds are not gentle, but her body is built for them. My nails are not blunted, but her skin enjoys the blemishing touch. My control is not questionable, but Brie isn't asking. 

Prying these lips away from hers feels a herculean effort in this moment, and soon they're upon hers yet again. Biting, suckling, maiming kisses that make her happy and hopeful. When we pull apart again, between another deep thrust that hits her in a place most holy, glass stained and sanctified, Brie speaks breathlessly. 

"Mmmghh... ehlffyhou..." The woman's eyes are glazed, her mouth left dripping after sweet, wet kisses. Ah, I didn't expect to hear those words so soon! But I accept them, Brie, all of them. I accept you, the way you inexplicably do me. 

"I love you too, idiot." Our lips brush, my hips push, and the world beyond this room fades into total obscurity. 

Brie lays on her side, oozing from those well used erogenous zones and resting head in my lap. The strap has been removed, letting her breath tickle my own raw sex. Hair falls in a mess across my thigh, and my fingers return to petting it softly. The way this exhausted woman's wide chest rises and falls so heavily, her lips curl in bashful smile, skin buzzes from fading aphrodisiac... all of it possesses me, and makes me want to do whatever it takes to keep this woman safe. Even from myself, should it ever come to that... Nicole was horribly selfish to keep her Misty bound in that emotional cage for far too long. 

"You're such a good girl, Brie, I can't wait to do that again with you in the not-so-distant future, hehe." My hand slides down to her burning cheek and I watch her shuffle closer, laying over me for once. I can carry this weight. 

"Yeah... well you're not so bad yourself, I guess." Her face buries itself into my torso and heats it up immensely, lips kissing my body with reverent softness. I'm obsessed with her, I just can't get enough, remembering the ways in which Nova made this woman feel small makes my heart sink and my blood boil. She's the opposite of small, even when she's melting for me as I rail both holes at the same time. To me, she's the biggest thing in the world.

"Speak politely to your owner~" Playful fingers reach down to pinch her nipple and I've decided that she has to get them pierced, I need to see her even more sensitive against my touch. I can hardly even imagine it. 

The woman snorts, deep blush re-emerging on that pretty, handsome, perfect face. "Yes... Owner. God, you're a dick." Her smile grows and she shifts onto her back, I didn't even have to say 'roll over'. 

My leather digits push her cheeks in and I lean over, dropping a line of carefully aimed spit into her mouth and watching her accept it too easily. "Treat. Swallow." This was intended to be aftercare, but we're still both so turned on and I remember doing this for her as rifle in that dreaded past life. 

Brie swallows, demurely, looking meeker than ever while sinking into my thigh submissively. "Mmgh... yhure sho mean to me." 

"Because now I know you like it, get off on it, just my depraved little puppy slut aren't we?" Pieces of Hivemind stick to the ceiling of my psyche and I tease my plaything properly, releasing her cheeks and roughly seizing her right breast. 

"Nngh... I ain't little, but... yeah, the rest maybe." Still so shy after letting me fuck her like that? I suppose a sober Brie is a different beast, but equally as cute. 

"Maybe? No, no, I think we're past that hehe." My forefinger and thumb close around the woman's erect nipple, starting to pinch, roll and tug relentlessly. At the same time, I lower my voice into that imitated husky tone and speak almost directly into her ear with a puff of hot breath. "Bark for me, puppy." 

The head on my thigh attempts to turn away bashfully but I do not let it, holding her still while giving her an impish smile I cannot trace the source of. Why does this feel so natural, like returning home after a long vacation? After a few seconds of shy contemplation, I pinch the puppy's nipple hard and watch as she complies with the command in sudden jerk of breath and motion.

"A-Arf!" Her head tilts up as a dog's would when giving authentic bark and then her eyes widen. A few seconds later, we're both giggling like schoolgirls. A few more and I'm making her bark again, watching her get more comfortable showing me this part of her and starting to wonder if my confessions of love are more than simply my fragile psyche getting too carried away. It feels like I'm sitting in my bedroom, playing with my girlfriend, living a perfectly mundane life. My eyes close and for just a moment, I pretend that this is all there is. When they open, Brie's gaze is on mine and we're both silent. This silence lingers, until eventually, Brie speaks softly. "I'm... I like this, us, okay? Being myself around you, letting the walls down... so I just wanted you to know, I mean, need you to understand... you can be yourself around me too. Whatever that looks like, the good and the ugly, I just." The woman pauses, sensing that same strangeness that I've come to acknowledge. We should barely know each other, but it's like the world around us knows something we don't. "Fuck, I just don't care okay? About dooming the city, saving it, whatever. I just don't wanna be apart from you, Flower. Not 'cause of some photo in my wallet, but 'cause you're the only thing that feels real in this weird, fucked up time I feel so displaced in. Nova did something, before that shit in the base, I mean... she made me forget stuff, said I consented to it all. What... what don't I know?"

"Oh, Brie... I'm the same way, about all of that. I think it's time we finally got our answers, Envy can't really be trusted fully, but we've a good bargaining chip in Nova. And a very loyal bodyguard in her, failing that." My arms wrap around Brie's shoulders and neck, pulling her up into my lap and pressing my cheek onto that shaggy red cut. It really is hard to let this dream come to an end, but we've a garden to visit. And besides...

We've spent far too fucking long in this damn house.

Finale: The Yellow Brick Road

Nicole Black stands, still, in the hallway to her illustrious and empty manor. When her parents were alive, Nicole had been forced to live in this suffocatingly large building that housed more staff than it had family members. The blonde had been happy to leave this place, to take off and find much less gaudy residence in the city's centre. Misty had only stayed here a handful of times, and she very much shared Nicole's opinion of the place.

This not a home, but a crypt, containing within it the ego of the dead and the dying. Nicole knows, Memento Mori, that one day she must join them. She just worries her contribution to the tomb may prove too lofty. 

Gold eyes flick up from her feet, those boots that tell her she's a hero even if the world attempts to convince her otherwise, and Lady Nova watches the door to her childhood bedroom pull open. Ah... she had been drifting again, this drug makes her tether to the manor, to her own sense of self... temperamental. It's Instructor Williams and the... other one. Williams is nice, because she keeps Nova's feet from touching back down on the surface of reality. Forgetting what power feels like is not so bad when its taste has ruled you for your entire life.

"Good girl for standing still, I hope you weren't listening in on us though hehe." Instructor's eyes narrow and Nova peers down at the way the two women before her have their hands bound together in a firm clasp. Something akin to jealousy pushes into the older woman's chest, though it's a more insidious sensation than that. Thankfully, all these ugly feelings never get past the cocoon of silver she's wrapped up in. 

"I... no, I drifted off..." Nova speaks honestly, having already forgotten where her thoughts flew off to during the standby period without her Instructor to keep her tethered. There's a soreness around her neck from that collar given to her by hard suction, both Instructor and her companion stare candidly at the developing bruises and the woman lets them. Everything Joy Williams does is correct, meaning... this collar is good for her, reminds her of her place. Deep inhale, eyelids flutter, and the woman placates herself against that new doctrine marring skin and marking thought. "Can I... can I have--"

"Are you making requests of me, Miss Nova? Don't fret, it's in both of our best interests to keep you all loopy and spaced out like this. Still, if you're going to plead, you can do it more pathetically. You can get on your fucking knees and beg." Instructor Williams steps forwards, her leather touch messing up Nicole's hair and applying pressure until the drugged hero drops onto her knees in a dizzy stupor. 

The two women's fingers unlace and the bigger one places a hand on the Instructor's shoulder, her smile calm but cautious. "Hey, Flower... you told me to tell you if you're getting carried away, yeah? This might be it." Oh, that voice is familiar... it's that Mare kid who signed up for the project and would not take no for an answer. Not Mare... Brood... when Envy made her declaration, this woman returned to New Cassiepeia and left a life of playing house with her sweetheart. She quickly rose to captaincy, in spite of her broken heart, becoming one of Empress Envy's finest heroes. It was she who, with coordinated effort from trusted allies, downed Angel's treasured pet and dragged it home... kicking and screaming across that yellow brick road. 

Without Captain Williams, Nicole Black's project could never have been conceived of, let alone executed. She's as important as Misty, Envy, and the Garden's myriad daughters who proved her plan had merit.

Brie catches Nova staring at her and pulls her hand away from Instructor's shoulder, sighing out of her nostrils. That argent septum piercing the air blows past is Nova's new favourite colour, gold was never much her taste. 

Joy Williams, who can only ever be correct, nods her head slowly to a court of invisible jesters. "Y-Yeah, okay." Her hand leaves that freshly tousled blonde and curls into the collar of Nova's superhero costume, pulling the woman back onto her feet without breaking a sweat. "It's just that, even with that part of me locked deep inside... every time I'm not putting this bitch in her place I can feel myself getting pulled back into her orbit. I think I'm doing these things to remind myself that I hold the power now, more than I do it to tell her. She knows, I can see it. Don't you, Nic?"

Only Shepherd calls her that anymore, Nova muses slowly, planting feet back onto the floor and staring at a woman with the same cute face as her subordinate. Shepherd's silvery white hair seems so appealing in this moment, but Nova would never go as far to admit she misses the runt she keeps around just to toy with. That and, well, she supposes the girl has her uses too. Scheduling, for one, not to mention handling a good bulk of the communication with Envy's insufferable sovereign government. 

_"Destroy..." The woman mutters, head turned down and eyes tilted up with defiant glow. Instructor's eyes glow even brighter, while Brie turns away just in time. The butch bystander plays that word on her tongue, knowing the two that follow it all too well.

"What was that?" Joy's nostrils flare, and her strict tone becomes a leash to kiss against that bruised collar. "I asked if you needed reminding of the power I hold over you. You don't, do you?" The woman in the black shirt and pants tugs at her collar, turning to check on Brie with that fierce glow in her eyes subsiding. 

"No, Instructor... everything Joy Williams does is correct." There's a strange glint in the former hero's eyes as she speaks these well chosen words. Joy is turned away, making sure that Brie is holding up, so does not catch the brief glimmer. 

"Good girl, now... we're off to see the Empress."

"It's a nice day at least, perfect vest weather." Brie stretches, flexing her muscles pridefully in a showing I cannot help grin at. There's nothing more enticing than a woman who's this hot and knows it. If I were more relaxed I'd probably flirt back, but I'm busy using my stinger to administer Nova her placating poison and straining my eyes at this obnoxious sunny glare. Even eyes like mine are not enough to fight those overpowering rays, making me wish I had some sleek black shades to complement my new look. "Y'know, all that black's just gonna absorb the sunlight or uh... I think that's how it works, I'm not a total dipshit but I wasn't exactly a straight-A student either."

Sliding my tendril free from Nova's well marked neck and letting a small dribble of silver roll down her shoulder, I turn to smirk at Brie and hop over to plant a kiss onto her cheek. "Definitely not straight, but you're an A plus in my book." I earn a blush that betrays the cuteness that hides inside of her. Brie's softness is not indicative of a lie her exterior presents, mind you, the woman is earnestly rugged, handsome and cool... it's just that she can't be all of those, all the time. Her cute side is mine, though it leaks out from time to time, this bashful grin she gives me once again showing teeth. Not the hunter's ivories she presented upon our first rekindling, but something unapologetically pretty... as much as they are Brie. 

We're outside of that dreaded house at long last, and there isn't a sniper in sight. I suppose they'd be well hidden in either case, but I just know they're not beyond the treeline. I can feel something else, a frequency that excites this tendril draped over my shoulder, spitting lustrous venom onto the packed ground below. It's not Envy, but something close. That left limb of hers, the one that has been merged with her the longest.

"Hey, I know you're there so reveal yourself already! Or uh... reveal yourselves?" How is it that I can sense her so easily? Is it because I, too, am an extension of Empress Envy? Or is it something else?

Light, sultry giggles fill the open space in front of the Black family estate, and the dryad bodies slowly appear like a shifting mirage. It's Hivemind, or whatever she's calling herself now. My sapphic mentor, and my second kiss. I'd say that she has become unrecognisable from her former selves, but it seems a silly comment to make given she's never kept a static look. The new bodies are categorically less human than the ones I remember, however, and I must admit they suit her somewhat better. A gift from the orchard, I wonder just what else Envy has managed to squeeze this impossible power of ours for since we last caught up properly. 

"Mrs. Williams! It has been quite some time, you've been missed. You're cordially invited to our Empress Envy's Garden of Crows, a Cassie's home, and we're elated to inform you that your attendance is... ah, mandatory." The dryads speak in tandem, assaulting me with voice from all sides that combine to reach us from this distance just as any other crowd's coordinated effort would. 

"Damn, Envy sent a chaperone?" Brie snorts, taking my hand and giving it a firm squeeze I'd thank her for if I weren't so distracted by the inhuman crowd we're surrounded by. "D'ya think she was just waiting out here the entire time we were playing house? Kinda makes me feel bad for making her wait, heh, but that's what trees are good for ain't it..."

Brie continues to be the woman I favour most in this overgrown shithole of a world that won't let me be. My head lifts and I step forwards, staring out at the hivemind plant network and deciding to play along with its theatrics. Nicole's dramatic flair must be contagious, that or this world has simply gone insane at last. If I'm to be led into a garden of crows, I'll need to prove that I can stave off that cawing temptation long enough to demand the truths I seek, and protect the woman I love. Envy is not my superior, nor my ruler, she's just the other side of the mirror. 

"Well then, ehe... I can't say no! Take me to your leader, just know that I've got a walking nuke watching my back and I'm not afraid to use her if you try to pull that shit from last time." Oh, that's right... nobody in this time will remember any of that, but then, Hivemind does not seem all too surprised by my words. In fact, that monstrous smile of hers... and hers... and hers... only seems to grow. 

I'm finally beginning to feel in control, at least, that I can hold my own. 

...

So perhaps it's for the best that Hivemind holds my attention, as the two at my back reach for one another's hands. 

Epilogue: Because, because, because, because, because...

"Get out of my fucking way!" 

Shepherd Williams wryly considers pulling her handgun on these dullards blocking her path, Nova's loyal few are not the brightest bunch. The white haired deputy commander knows all too well how this applies to her as well, accepting that she's a fool in love with one who cannot Hope to reciprocate. 

Knock first, even though she knows her commander is not home. Not here, at the base, she means. Once the customary action has concluded, the woman dressed up in meaningless black threads barges unceremoniously into her superior's office. It smells of fragrant perfume and cigarette smoke, perfectly encapsulating how it often feels to be wrapped up in Nicole Black's seductive miasma. Closing the door behind her for some much needed privacy, The Garden's daughter sighs and slams her head back against it. 

"You should be back by now..." She removes the clip from her hair and lets it drape down like spilling moonlight, circling around her commander's desk and moving computer mouse to wake the computer still whirring by her feet. Impatiently, Shepherd unlocks Nicole's pc and stares at the camera set up Mrs. Black had been monitoring the traitor with in the days leading up to her waking. She had... much to recover from. 

"Fuck... 65 fucking percent... we... you were so close, Nic." Her voice lowers as she drops down onto the leather chair and stares at the scene playing out before her. If only she had thought to check in earlier, but the good commander was hardly alone... these fucking dryads have broken the pact. With a dry laugh, while pouring herself a tumbler of Nicole's finest scotch, Shepherd concludes that their men are probably right there on the screen, indistinguishable from the other sultry nymphs surrounding her commander.

With a long, resigned sigh, Shepherd tries to figure out her options going forwards now that the great Lady Nova herself has been compromised. She knows, bitterly, that she cannot mobilise the woman's own faction to come to her defence, everyone here (again, herself included) is so overly reliant on the woman's golden guidance that they're liable to panic and crumple the moment they discover the truth. Nobody here is strong, that's something Shepherd can say with some certainty, the courageous ones remain with Envy and her noble fight. Theirs is a cowardly faction, with a project that has them seen as extremists by the other Cassies. It has suited them just fine up until now, given Empress Envy's own reluctant compliance following the public duel. Now... well, everything they have dreamt of is turning to ash in their mouths... and Shepherd considers plucking a peach from her orchard. A caustic snack to punish herself with.

Still... the way that Nicole, dressed in that old hero costume, loops her pinkie finger around Envy's Captain's... hmm, even now she's plotting. What a fucking woman. 

"I'll remain loyal until the end, Nic... because..."

Shepherd presses her lips to the aged lipstick stain on the edge of Nicole's personal glass, closing her eyes and smiling.

Because...

Nicole's deputy spreads vines out from her back, making a mess of her uniform. The pale pink tendrils lift her from the office chair and launch the whisky tumbler into the wall in a test of strength.

...because, because...

Well, even if Nic didn't approve of her using these and made her cut it out... the vines certainly have not atrophied. Shepherd runs gloved fingers through her hair and smashes into the firearms locker in the corner of the office. It'll take more than peaches to rescue her commander now. She has to do this by herself, to intercept, or she won't be able to look Nicole in the eye again. 

...because, because...

And Shepherd loves her commander. 

Because of the terrible things she does. 

To be continued in episode 4.6 - Until My Dying Breath, I'll Swallow