A Void to Fill

Did I make the right choice?

Even now, after having slept on it all night, I’m still unsure.

It’s not even a path that will have much strategic repercussion. It’s just a matter of preference. Both would’ve been great fun for me, with some nice bonuses for Ivy herself as well.

But maybe that’s what’s making me think back on it. I didn’t have to think strategically, I didn’t have to consider the ethical implications, all I had to do was pick my favourite.

And I just went with the one that appealed to me most in that moment, A Void to Fill.

The idea of seeing Ivy casually strolling around with a ball gag or a dildo in her mouth, while being openly sexually suggestive about it... it was too much for me to resist.

The casualness is always something I appreciate. The contrast between the girls’ completely neutral attitudes and their open displays of debauchery makes the latter stand out even more.

And besides, I feel like addiction is a part of enough beliefs as it is, even if caffeine is an extremely mild form of it. It’s nice to have some more variety in that regard, and pick an option that doesn't involve addiction.

That being said...

Making her want nothing more than to drink my cum on the regular, finding its taste as satisfying and refreshing as a morning coffee; it’s a hard thing to say no to.

Ultimately, when I think about the potential for spreading and upgrades of the path options, I do believe that A Void to Fill is better. There are many different ways that an upgrade to it could work — adding certain foods to the list of items, amping up the suggestiveness, making her orally promiscuous with other students, etc — and spreading it to a handful of girls at the same time as I spread the maid path could lead to some very enticing sights, whereas spreading and upgrading An Acquired Taste would simply let it get out of hand very quickly.

I mean.

There’s only so much a man can cum, isn’t there?

I do fully intend to find a way to give someone a semen-focused belief sooner or later, though.

I realise it most likely won’t be Ivy, as the wording of her new belief and resistance makes it clear that that won’t be a possibility:

Beliefs:

• Having something in her mouth is comforting, especially if it is phallic.

Resistances:

• Target will not find semen to taste particularly good.

As much as I may want to get past that resistance, even if I invest a tonne of BS, I just don’t see how I could make her into a cumslut if she simply doesn’t like it.

But that’s okay, plenty of fish in the sea, and plenty of potential orally fixated maids in the school.

+18 BS. 28 remaining.

Ah, there we go. I was wondering what was taking it so long.

“Hurry up, you know she hates waiting,” An authoritative voice zips past my window on the quad, rising through the cool, damp air of the autumnal morning to reach my ears.

Intrigued, I stand up and take a look outside, just in time to see two women from the service staff briskly walking towards the school’s entrance.

Right, the dean and the vice-dean were supposed to be coming back today. They are a bit earlier than expected, though. I believe they were only scheduled to be back in the evening, which must be the reason behind the ruckus.

I actually have yet to really talk to either of them. I’ve seen them from afar on several occasions, and I once crossed paths with the vice-dean coming out of Jenny’s office as I was paying her a visit, but all she gave me was a stern yet awkward nod that meant “I know you work for me but I don’t know your name or what you do here.”

That’s going to be the first hurdle to get over, approaching them, since I don’t really have any good reason to talk to them regularly. But it’s quite clear at this point that I’ll have to get some control over them if I want to make more changes to the school as a whole. There’s only so much Ellen has authority over, after all, especially now that her superiors are back.

From what I’ve gathered so far, it seems like the dean and vice-dean have a dynamic that can best be compared to a constitutional monarchy. The dean, Mary, is like the queen: the official head of the school, in charge of diplomacy and representing the establishment to the outside world, but she has very little power over anything else than the school’s presentation and branding (including, most relevantly, its uniform and dress code). The vice-dean, Erin, in contrast, is closer to a prime minister: a title with less prestige, but one that holds the vast majority of the actual power.

I do believe the vice-dean is going to be a tougher nut to crack than her “superior”, which is why I intend to keep her for last. When I do try to get her on my side, I think I’ll go with what’s historically been the most effective strategy when dealing with people like her: I’ll appeal to her ambition. “You do all the work around here, how come the dean gets all the attention?” and all that jazz. And the more I work on the dean before moving on to Erin, the more effective this strategy will be, since I’ll have more information to use in my argumentation.

But let’s not get carried away. First, I’ll need to get through this workday and find a good reason to approach Mary, then I can worry about the rest.

---

“Is it just me, or is there something weird happening to this school?” Julian asks, fiddling with her fork, seemingly in the hope that it’ll make the undercooked rice in her plate more edible.

Uh oh. Has she figured something out?

“Weird? How so?” I ask, raising my head from my own disgusting manger with what I hope to be just the right amount of curiosity. Enough to show I’m invested in the conversation, but not so much as to be suspicious.

“I don’t know... Something about the atmosphere. I know Ellen’s been talking about using positive and negative reinforcement a bit more, but I doubt that’d be enough to explain it. I mean... Look around you. Don’t people seem more... relaxed?”

I discretely scan the room, glancing at each table within our alcove in turn.

At the table closest to ours, Caitlyn, the sociology teacher that Ellen felt up in public last week, is happily chatting away with Diane, the PE teacher, despite the fact that those two were, until recently, in a bit of a cold war, following some incident involving a binder.

Yes, that’s what most workplace drama revolves around when you’re a teacher.

Somehow, it seems like they’re getting along just fine now, though.

One table further away, teachers and service staff are laughing at some joke I couldn’t hear, in spite of the usual unspoken rule that teachers and service are of two different worlds, and never the twain shall meet.

Overall, it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what changed, but the atmosphere truly is different. There was a tension in this school, all the time, between almost everyone, and it seems to have all but completely vanished.

It’s strange, because I hadn’t noticed that tension before. Only in its absence is it obvious.

Could my beliefs have had such an effect? I mean, I did increase discipline and willingness to learn among the student body, all while making the relations between staff and students a lot less confrontational, and I got rid of most instances of bullying in the school, and I made sure everyone enjoys taking part in those changes, not to mention the individual people I helped with some of their problems.

Setting up all those rules for myself has impeded my progress in many ways. I could have easily gotten a lot more out of my BS investments if I didn’t respect them, but I think it’s starting to pay off.

People in the school are happier, less stressed out, more open to each other.

And yes, sluttier too.

Everybody wins.

“Maybe it’s just people settling in?” I reply, trying to find an excuse just good enough to be able to change the topic without being rude. “Y’know, a new school year in a remote place with unusual rules and a very specific student body; it makes sense that people wouldn’t feel comfortable right away, especially when the majority of the staff changes every year. Like, we were all uprooted and sent here, and the only people who could’ve given us any help were higher-ups who clearly don’t care about us nearly enough to make that effort. But now that we’ve had a few weeks... People are good at getting used to the strangest of circumstances.”

“Yeah... I guess that could be it. Anxiety makes people weird, doesn’t it?” She asks, before finally gathering up enough courage to take another forkful of rice.

“That it does.”

I’ve been... thinking about Julian quite a bit over the weekend. I still don’t like the way I lost control with her. It’ll always be a reminder of what happens when I let the app control me, rather than the other way around. A danger that all those who want to wield true power must one day deal with. The risk the the power might come to wield them instead.

And I think I’ve found a solution. I don’t like the idea that my mind control may take away a person’s freedom to define themselves. Ironic, I know, but the more I think about it, the more I realise that's what's been bothering me the most. But now that that ship has sailed, the best I can do is a compromise.

I can make her think I don’t count.

She will fall in love with me, as meaningless as that may now be, and there’s very little I can do about that, but I can let her do what she wants outside of our relationship. Date or have sex with any woman she likes.

By doing that, she’d still be herself, she’d still have agency over her own life, and only her relationship with me would be affected by the app.

And then, well, I’ll just have to try and be worthy of the love she is now fated to give me.

There’s no hurry in making that change, though. This path option was stated by the app to develop slowly, which means that it’ll take time for it to have any effect.

Although... I can’t help but notice that she’s been smiling and making eye contact just a bit more than before.

“Anyways,” I say, to try and change the topic, “How was your—”

“Attention, please,” a familiar, authoritative voice interrupts me.

We turn to look at the entrance of the cafeteria, where Ellen stands in a stance so determined to look confident that it wraps back around to betraying her discomfort at the idea of speaking in public.

Maybe that’s something I could help her with.

I take it she’s here for another demonstration, though it hasn’t been a week since she gave Caitlyn that weekly reward thing, so I wonder what her rationale will be this time.

She clears her voice and continues.

“I have received some complaints from the student body about how you have been using the students’... er, bodies.”

The unintended repetition seems to be enough to throw her off again, so she instead produces a stack of leaflets from a briefcase. Fidgeting with props is always helpful when trying to regain composure.

She then starts handing them out, table after table.

“I have taken the liberty of having these printed,” She explains. “They will help you avoid repeating these mistakes. Remember: better a felt-up student than a pent-up student!”

Good rhyme. The meaning’s a little bit off from what she’s asking us to do, but close enough. I can imagine worse slogans.

I guess this isn’t fully motivated by her path belief though, since she’s only distributing propaganda leaflets. The path did say that she'd want to show herself applying the rules, not just explain how they're supposed to be carried out.

Ellen reaches our table and gives me a barely perceptible nod with a knowing yet somewhat still cold half-smile as she hands me the leaflet. I assume it means “you probably don’t need this, but just in case you’re interested.”

I return her nod before looking down at the piece of paper.

Oh.

Looks like this was motivated by her path after all.

Every paragraph of text is accompanied by a high definition picture of Ellen performing the action on a student, a different one each time. I recognise a few as being part of either the drama club or the photography club, but most are unknown to me. The lighting and framing is very competent. Not quite professional level, but it's close. Those girls know what they're doing.

Don’t get left behind when you could’ve felt some behind!

Now this one is a terrible slogan.

It accompanies a photo of Ellen showing the correct hand position to grab a buttcheek in the most enjoyable way. Ellen herself looks focused, professional, as she fondles the girl in front of her, standing around with her skirt completely off and a complex mixture of enjoyment, excitement and a hint of stage fright on her face.

Maximising contact surface: ensures higher satisfaction, and more efficiency when handling student posteriors, the text explains with a comically scientific detachment and an unusual sense of punctuation, we recommend taking off any excessive layers of clothing, as well as, pushing the student’s underwear to the side to avoid any perturbation.

Now that she mentions it, I do notice that the girl’s panties seem to be slightly tucked back to uncover a bit more of her skin.

Interestingly, Ellen doesn’t yet even consider taking off the panties entirely, but that’ll come in due time.

On the opposite page, a different girl is depicted unbuttoning her shirt while an uncharacteristically approving Ellen gives her a visibly unnatural thumbs up.

Encourage your students, to alter their clothing to allow for easier access at all times. The less time spent fumbling around with buttons, and zippers, the more time spent actively groping. Be efficient! reads the text underneath the picture.

Turning the page, another photo of Ellen with yet another student greets me. This time, the girl is bent over across Ellen’s lap, with her skirt and panties lowered but not fully off, baring the upper half of her buttocks with no hint of modesty in either woman’s eyes. All I see is exalted expectation in the student’s, and a predatory glint in Ellen’s.

Spanking, punishment? Or reward? Know your audience!

Spanking is always a great form of feedback for students but, depending on the person, it can be: more suitable as either a punishment or a reward. Make sure, to pay attention to their behaviour and you will quickly notice, who is which. Be careful not to get carried away; sexual punishment, is not corporal punishment.

There's a few more pages along those lines. There's some very exciting material in there, although probably not in the way Ellen intended.

I raise my head to look around me. Some of the teachers seem to have already lost interest in such a boring HR thing, while others are perusing it with the same consideration as they would give to the back of a cereal box. From a solitary chair in the corner of the room, Ellen is surveying people’s reactions with what looks like a bit of anxiety. In front of me, Julian seems to have decided that the leaflet would be more digestible than her rice, although I can see she’s being quite critical of it.

“This punctuation is terrible, it's barely understandable!” she finally rules from her mighty throne as an English teacher. “Should I tell her? I mean, I don’t wanna be mean, she’s already printed them all, but... God, this is awful.”

I consider the idea.

“I wouldn’t tell her directly. But maybe you can try and go about it more subtly? Tell her this thing has potential but you want to use your skillset to bring it to the next level. I mean, surely she realises this isn’t her forte.”

“Yeah, I guess so, but I’m not sure I wanna do free work for her either. They don’t pay us enough to deserve zeal.”

“Fair enough,” I concede, before realising how much potential Julian could have here. “That being said... Didn’t you mention being bored here? I mean, we all are. If you just edit what she writes, it’ll be free labour, but if you ask her to let you write instead, it could be a nice creative output.”

“A creative output? Writing HR leaflets about how to properly hold tits and politely sign an email?” She asks sarcastically.

“Oh I’m thinking of something a bit more ambitious than that. Remember what we talked about earlier? About the school not being welcoming enough, and how hard it was to get our bearings, and the awkward tension that was present between everyone for the first few weeks? What we were lacking was communication. Between the new hires and the people that were already here before, and even among ourselves.”

“I guess better communication would've made things easier, but what do you have in mind?”

“What if we took this,” I say, holding up the leaflet. “And took it to the next level. Something that would be handed out to everyone, just like this, but would be more than some soulless HR propaganda piece. A school newspaper.”

“A school newspaper?” She chuckles, but does seem a bit intrigued. “That is ambitious. There’s no way I can write a whole-ass paper on my own. Although... I guess I could offer some students extra credits for writing articles," She pauses to think. "Did you know most students still don’t know Caitlyn got published in a scientific journal? We could’ve covered it.”

“Exactly! There’s a gap between teachers, students, and the rest of the staff, and even among teachers, things were really awkward at first. A school paper would bridge that gap. Especially if you let anyone from the school submit pieces. We’ve got some incredibly smart, talented people wasting their time in this dump, but it doesn't have to be this way. What if this became an opportunity for them?”

“We could help them network. Teachers of different subjects could find common interests to write studies on, motivated students could find tutors to guide them, admin would be **** to hear what teachers have to say, we could have a section for service workers to give their perspective...”

“And it’ll finally be something to look forward to, in this hole in the middle of nowhere.”

“Do we even... need Ellen’s approval for this?” Julian asks, throwing a glance at the table across the room.

“I guess we don’t, but if we want to have a budget for printing and distribution, it’d be good to get her on our side, and latching this onto her leaflet thingy would be a good approach for it.”

“Good point. I’ll also need to talk to the vice-dean about getting approval for the extra credits, but I don’t see why she’d be opposed to the idea.”

“Yeah, makes sense,” I reply, before looking at Ellen, still watching at everyone’s reaction to her leaflet. “Should we go talk to her?”

“Yeah, let’s go! Let's do this!” Julian replies, enthusiastically, as she stands up.

And it’s only then that I notice.

No BS.

She’s actually into the idea.

---

---

---

Hello everyone!

As I mentioned in last chapter's comments, we're now moving into a new phase of the story, with new goals, characters, and forms of debauchery! Coincidentally, we've also reached the 75,000 word mark, three quarters of the way to the next order of magnitude. Yet another milestone I could've never hoped to reach if it weren't for your constant readership, feedback, and support. Thank you for having been a part of this!

You may not have noticed, but there was a bit of confusion with the vote we just finished. Both options were only apart by one vote, and I miscounted, leading me to start planning and writing with the wrong option. Thank you to Blastothehanar and Anxjx for bringing it up. Luckily, two of you voted for "author's choice", which I used to go ahead with A Void to Fill, but I don't want to disappoint those who voted for An Acquired Taste, so I fully intend to bring the option back as soon as possible. Sorry for the confusion and thank you for understanding!

In any case, thank you again for reading and I'll see you all soon!