I Was Told There Would Be Kissing

~Ping~

Mark and Aubrey had been kissing and touching each other for a while now.

~Ping~

Mark was really trying his best to ignore the accursed device next to his bed.

~Ping~

Aubrey stopped kissing him, “Mark, maybe you should get that it has been going off quite a bit.”

Mark grabbed the phone and threw it across the room and pulled Aubrey back into kissing him.

~Ping~

The phone had returned to the nightstand undamaged. Mark finally stopped kissing Aubrey, “Fine. I guess it might be important.” Mark grabbed his phone and checked his messages. “It’s mostly just Freya reminding me that I do have to leave the suite eventually. Oh apparently Flora’s coming up. Since I was taking too long.”

“So long in fact that I let myself in like ten minutes ago. I’ve just been waiting for Aubrey to finally leave to surprise you but that didn’t seem like it was going to happen anytime soon.” Flora said from a chair beside the bed. “I will say throwing the phone across the room, for it just to reappear on the nightstand was a bit amusing.”

Aubrey blushed, “Wait how long have Mark and I been kissing for it can’t have been that long.”

“Well you were on top of him when I came in. But like I said, at least ten minutes.”

“And you thought it appropriate just to watch us?” Aubrey frowned slightly.

“Would you have preferred I interrupted your make out session ten minutes ago? It definitely seemed like you were into it.”

Aubrey considered that, “I guess I would have not. Thank you, I suppose.”

“Yeah I wouldn’t have interrupted just cause, but I do really need to talk with Mark, and it’s nearly noon and Ellen wants to start her date around 1:30 pm so I’d like to ask you to leave Aubrey so I can talk with Mark.”

“Wait, it's nearly noon?” Mark asked, a little alarmed, “I guess I lost track of time.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t lose track of your clothes with how you two were going at it.”

That made Aubrey turn bright red. “I’ll… I’ll just get out of your guy's hair. Let you two talk.” Aubrey said and hurried out of the room.

“You didn’t have to tease her so much, you know.” Mark said, looking at Flora.

“Sure, but considering I would have liked some time to make out with you too and I don’t think we have that now I thought it only fair.”

“I mean I’m sure we can make some time. If nothing else in the carriage as I ride into town, to meet Ellen.”

“You know just how to brighten a girls day. Also I was reminded to tell you to actually eat something by Freya. So grab some food and we can talk at the table.”

Mark placed an order for two large deli sandwiches and a pitcher of ice cold lemonade for the both of them.

“Why thank you Mark, I guess I should have lunch too.”

“No problem, now I’m assuming you want to talk about your sleepwalking, and if the hypnosis with Merida worked.”

“Partially yes. On that front, I think it worked. Ellen said that I did get up in the middle of the night, which I can also vaguely remember doing, but I quickly went back to bed though. Merida made it so I shouldn’t get up as much and if I do I should be at least partially aware and go back to bed, fairly quickly. I trust Merida, but I thought I should let you know that she is apparently rather good at hypnosis, might just be because so many of us thought she would be, might be that and a combination of natural talent and her meditation experience. I let her know that I was a little concerned with her having so much control over me, but I figured you would get pissed if you found out she abused my trust in her and implanted something I didn’t ask for. I just want you to be on the lookout for me, if I start acting weird.”

“I’ll do that. I don’t think Merida would **** that trust. Not unless she gets a TF that pushes her to. You are right though – if she did **** that trust, I would be livid unless it really was outside of her control, like something from a TF caused it. I would still be upset though and **** her to remove anything she placed on you. But I’m glad to hear it seems to have worked.”

“So far, at least. I plan to have her reinforce the suggestion to sleep better a few times. Hopefully it sticks. I did realize something though. I sort of said it in jest to Merida last night after the session but realized that she might actually get to the point I joked about. I told her I thought she might end up becoming a master hypnotist able to induce a trance state in someone like that,” Flora snapped her fingers, “like you see sometimes in movies or TV shows.”

“That isn’t how hypnosis really works Flora.”

“Sure you know that. I know that because I read books about it too. It’s a matter of time though before the others find out Merida is hypnotizing me. Do they realize that isn’t how hypnosis works? I don’t think we have figured out what things Merida can and can’t pick up with her Fake It Until You Make It. Like what if we all truly believe Merida could supernaturally fly.”

“I mean I doubt we can trick it like that. Where we say we think she can fly so she can.”

“I agree but I mean what if we truly believed it. Like say she hypnotized me into believing she could fly. Could she? Even if it was limited, like really limited, if she could show that she was capable of it to the others even slightly like say she could float off the ground and move around slowly. I mean it’s a lot harder to disbelieve something you’ve seen with your own eyes. So the others then realize well yeah she can fly, to some extent. So she becomes more capable at it, and it is self reinforcing. Again I don’t know if she can only pick up what is actually possible normally or if she could gain supernatural powers with that boon, but it is something to consider. Especially after yesterday.”

“What do you mean? What happened yesterday?”

“Well, Slevia said that our world actually has magic right, even if rare? Maybe those tales of hypnotists being able to snap their fingers and hypnotize someone aren’t fake, maybe they just involve some level of magic. I’m having a hard time believing that it isn’t possible. Which means I’m having a hard time believing Merida can’t eventually do that. I know that you, Talia, Laura and I didn’t think it would take too long for Merida to go through the text books and pick up hypnotism. I might have exaggerated how long we thought it would take on the shorter end. Saying that we thought it would probably only take an hour for her to get through the first book.”

“That would be really fast. I mean I was thinking she’d pick things up fast but not that fast.”

“Well she didn’t pick it up that fast… It took her a bit more than two hours to go through the first book.” Mark just whistled in astonishment at that. “Right, still very fast. Moreover, she hypnotized me on her first try. No practice, no failures. She was even able to get a trigger in place that I would fall back into the trance state with and one to take me out of it again. All in one attempt. That trigger works too, she said the words and I instantly fell into the trance state with no hesitation. If that is what the belief of four of us can do, what would the belief of now all ten of us do for her. I’m really glad now that Merida didn’t use that quiver at all. Also I’m worried about her using her new boon too. I don’t believe she would use it on someone without permission but if she does well, it would be hard to deny that she isn’t capable of that. Would her other boon make it so she was more capable of using her boon on others. More willing? It is something I’ve been thinking about. I’m hoping that since it is a boon that it wouldn’t have the negative part of making it so it would affect what she is and isn’t willing to do. Like I know Sam is capable of killing someone, under the right circumstances. She’s in the military, she’s said that she’s done that. I don’t think anyone else here really has that in them, though. That they would be capable of doing that at all. At least not without there being an immediate threat to someone else’s life, and even then I think they would hesitate. Heck I’m sure even Sam hesitates to some degree. She’s a kind person. But what if we started to believe Merida was capable of that. Capable of killing without remorse would she be?”

~Ping~

Mark checked his phone.

Cassandra: No. I can already tell this would be plaguing you for a long time, until you figured it out, and it would simply negatively impact the show. So I will just say right now. NO! That TF is a boon it won’t have that sort of negative impact on her morals, way of acting or anything like that. Now if enough of you believed that she could accurately shoot a man at 500m with a rifle she could do that. Specifically she would have the skill and accuracy to do that, but whether or not she would be willing to is all on her.

Mark: Thank you, Cassandra. That really helps. I wish you could be more forthcoming like this. Stuff like this is what makes me believe that you aren’t horrible, and truly do care. So, thank you. You wouldn’t be willing to tell me if she can get supernatural powers out of it would you?

Cassandra: You are welcome. I’m glad you believe I care because I do. Finally no, you will have to figure that out on your own, because that could be interesting for the show. Have a good day and also try not to keep Ellen waiting too long.

“Well good news on that front Flora. Cassandra says no, about it affecting her willingness to do things. It should only give her the skills to do it, not actually affect whether she would do it.”

“Well, that’s good to know. I would hate for us to think poorly of her and that would cause her to develop some nasty tendencies. Also I’m a little surprised Cassandra would just tell you that.”

“I’m not that surprised. She has offered up info like that before.”

“She has? When?”

“A few times, some of it was more subtle than others, but it was clear she was trying to give me the info. Though she has just been blunt about it like this time too. Specifically when Talia was concerned if she was still the same person or not or if she was essentially a completely different individual from before the show. Who happened to share some memories with that person, since Talia essentially lived another eighteen years more than she had before the show. At least from her perspective. Since she has the thirty-seven years of her life before I made her eighteen and then the eighteen years of her current history. She was worried that if I made any other retroactive changes, I would essentially be erasing the current Talia and replacing her with another Talia again. Cassandra killed that line of thinking saying Talia was Talia and that she hadn’t really altered that much, and nothing Cassandra did compelled anyone to act in a particular way. Well… except making sure Talia’s parents had sex at the right time so as not to erase Talia’s siblings and so that she would be born at the correct age. But frankly I would call those things fairly minor, and less of a mental manipulation and more of a security measure.”

“Oh… That would explain why Talia was so worried after the slumber party even if she seemed happier. I could see that dilemma really plaguing her. Just like in Star Trek or Stargate. Is it me that comes out the other end?” Mark smiled at that. “Mark, why do you have a goofy grin on your face?”

“Just, I didn’t realize you’re a nerd too. Makes me happy to find that out.”

“What? I wouldn’t call myself a nerd. Just because I like Star Trek and Stargate. Doesn’t make me a nerd.”

“Oh?”

“No, I’m not a nerd.”

“Okay so what was your view on the teleportation question? Are they the same?”

“Well… I mean the shows very explicitly answered that question. But I assume you mean in a hypothetical real world scenario. I would have previously said no, the person dies and a copy is made. But yesterday I was also just told souls are truly real. I’ve also seen real teleportation. Heck Cassandra probably teleported some of us here. So, maybe both are possible but the idea that the body is broken down, moved, then reconstructed and the soul moves between them is real. Plus that would be supported by information theory that you can’t actually lose information in a closed system. It can only be changed and moved… Mark, why are you grinning like that again?”

Mark shook his head, “And you say you’re not a nerd. You’ve clearly had that response prepared but also factored new information into it seamlessly. Then go spouting off about information theory. You are at least somewhat a nerd.”

“I’m not a nerd. I’m an outdoorsy person.”

“The two are not mutually exclusive. Plenty of nerds love LARPing. Most LARPs happen outdoors, usually in a wooded area, or at cons and stuff. But you can be both Flora. Also I like that you are into nerdy things. So maybe think about embracing that a bit more? No reason to deny a shared interest right?”’

“Hmm… I guess not. Maybe we are more compatible than I realized. What’s LARPing?”

“Okay do you know what D&D is?”

“Yes, Mark, I know what D&D is. You don’t need to be a nerd to know about that.”

“Hey, just checking. Well think of LARPing like D&D except instead of paper and pencil and maybe miniatures and a battle map. You actually dress up as your character and act as your character for real.”

“I mean I’ve heard of people who play D&D actually doing that for their sessions. How is this different from that?”

“Well, first of all LARPing typically has a lot more people involved. It doesn’t have to but the few times I’ve done it have always been fairly large events. As far as differences, LARPing is typically a lot more physical. Like not all LARPs have full contact but the one I participated in did. Like you would have fake swords, shields, armour and actually fight other people. There are rules for how combat works and stuff, but you would actually fight.”

“Okay, that is a lot different. It does sound sort of interesting. I wonder if we can do something like that here.”

“Well, I can tell you that the VR simulator Allie and I used definitely had something like that. We were able to play this game where we were jedi knights, well… Allie was my apprentice in the story, but the point is we did all the things, at least it felt like we did, and I’m pretty sure our bodies actually were moving in the simulator. So it is at least very similar to that.”

“Huh… would… would that be something you might like to do on our next date. Not the exact thing you did with Allie but something like that? I don’t just want to copy her, but that does sound… neat.”

“Yeah, it’s been fun every time I’ve done something like that. It's just, I typically don’t have time.”

“Well… It might not be this round, but expect something like that for one of our dates.”

“I'm looking forward to it. Now I believe we have gotten off on a tangent, was there anything else you wanted to bring up besides concerns about Merida becoming an evil super villain by accident because we all believed her to be one?”

“I wouldn’t have put it like that, but fine. Yes actually there was something else. Could we look into the mirror together? Laura mentioned you two looked in the mirror together. I had planned to wait until our date night but I mostly figured that I wouldn’t have been up here before then. Since I’m here I figured why not.”

“I don’t mind but is there a reason?”

“Well, Laura said she retained a lot more and so did you. Things were better the last time I looked in the mirror but that isn’t saying much considering how horrible it felt the first time.”

“Was it really that bad after the slumber party? I mean I know you said you felt lonely from it and I felt that too when I looked into the mirror, but that was gone after our date night.”

“Mark, I’m a bit of a loner. I don’t have many friends, the ones I do have aren’t very close. I don't really have any family left that I’m close to either. So, I’m used to being alone. I’m fine with it really, at least most of the time. I have never felt that lonely before. I felt like I was cut off from everyone, and everything. Even from being human. The only times I have felt like that before was each time one of my parents passed away. The feeling from the mirror was still worse than that. So I’m rather concerned about how things will end for me. Even if I know that things have improved.”

“Sure, we can look. I didn’t realize it was that bad. That makes me wonder how reliable the mirror is, though.”

“Thank you, but what do you mean about its reliability?”

“Well, it’s supposed to show you the current most probable future or futures if there are multiple that are fairly likely. But I don’t know, it doesn’t really feel like we did all that much together, to change things. We talked, cleared the air a little bit and made out while watching movies. I feel like those weren’t all that complicated and were likely to happen on our date. Except maybe the making out bit. So for it to go from how horrible you described it to how it feels now seems… a drastic shift, for what I would have thought was likely to happen.”

“Well… I think looking in the mirror was a kick in the butt for me. I don’t think our date would have gone like it did if not for that. I prioritized fixing things a lot more. I don’t think I would have talked to Sam either, which definitely changed how our date would have gone.” Flora got a little embarrassed, and her cheeks flushed.

“How do you think it would have gone?”

“Well… I thought you would have wanted to do stuff together. I was prepared to do a lot more than we did if it would have fixed things. Sam though told me I shouldn’t do that. That you would likely prefer it to take things slower. I wasn’t prepared to have sex with you, but I probably would have given you a blowjob, if I thought it would have helped.”

“Well, I’m glad you talked with Sam then. Would I like to do physical stuff with you? Of course I would. I wouldn’t want to do that with you though because you felt you had to, to avoid being my pet. I actually could see how that could have made things worse, and it could spiral.”

“I mean maybe it’s like the changes Cassandra talked about, that led to us not getting together. Maybe it was something small, maybe not, but if I had said yes, or if you had asked me out earlier maybe things would have been wildly different for us. Even if we ended up on the show still it could have been me with the pre-existing relationship instead of Allie. It isn’t like those are that big of choices.”

“That’s fair. I guess we never really know how big of an impact some things are on our lives. I definitely found that out watching alternate histories with Talia. Anyway, the mirror?”

Flora nodded and moved over to the mirror and got close to Mark and looked up at him. “Okay, going to be honest, while you are super hot now and I do like tall men… I would barely need to bend over to suck your dick now. Like it is a little awkward.”

“Well you could wear heels. I do like women in heels.”

“Of course you do. With your height difference, I bet most of us will want to wear them, to not feel quite so small. Maybe there is something to help with wearing them so they aren’t painful. Okay, mirror time.”

They both turned towards the mirror and saw a brown haze come over the mirror. It reminded Flora of wood, dirt and rocks.

Mark found himself back in the foyer again it was just like it was earlier this morning except he could leave the foyer. To his surprise he could tell he was able to go down Laura’s hall if he wanted to instead of just going down Flora’s. He decided against that though, as this was about Flora. As Mark went down the hall he smelled fresh air and the scent of pine trees, he heard running water and he thought, a waterfall as well. Reaching the end of the hall, Mark found a small clearing up against a rocky cliff edifice. It contained a small pond and a large raised stone to one side of it. There was a cascading waterfall coming in from the ceiling and there was a small stream that exited the pond and flowed around the edge of the room and out one of the side walls. On the large stone he saw himself and Flora. Walking over he found that the stone had a large futon mattress laid down on it. He was reclining on one arm with Flora curled up beside him resting her head on his lap. He was gently petting Flora, both looked relaxed and content. Mark noticed that there were two pictures by the side of Flora’s bed and he remembered that Laura’s had had them too. He looked at the first one and saw a picture of the two of them climbing up the side of a cliff face together and they were kissing, which looked like it was taken by a drone. The second photo was a portrait of everyone together, just like Laura had. Except this time he was sitting on a chair in the middle, and he saw a few other people were seated as well. Laura was still standing right behind him with her arms wrapped around him and Flora was seated in his lap with his hands around her waist. Laura, Flora and himself all looked quite happy, but he still couldn’t make out the others.

Flora found herself in the clearing she loved in the Rockies. She had felt like she had just hiked up here and saw Mark right behind her. She could feel a closeness with him, an ease of being around someone else that didn’t come easy for her, she wanted to share this special place with him. As she looked back in the vision at Mark as he entered the clearing a thought entered her mind. I hope when we’re ready for it, that Mark proposes to me here.

The two found themselves back in the Master’s suite. Mark looked down at Flora, “So, how’d that feel?”

“Relaxed, at ease, and a bit hopeful toward the end. You?”

“I got the feeling like if I was ever stressed or worried about something that it could all just fade away and be forgotten when I went down your hallway. I also strangely felt like I got something about Laura too. Like I vaguely remember a photograph of all of us. But I could only make out Laura, you and myself in it. Which consists of the people I looked into the mirror with. Well looked into the mirror with, and got a vision. I also feel like I remember more of when I was in there with Laura too.”

“Interesting maybe if you look in the mirror with all of us eventually you’ll keep most if not everything.”

“Yeah… maybe. Hey so this might seem bizarre but if I notice something about you that you are pretty sure I don’t have a good reason to know tell me immediately.”

“Okay… but why?”

“Well, after looking into the mirror with Laura, I ordered the two of us coffees. I didn’t bother asking her what she wanted, I just ordered them on the tablet. Thing is I ordered her coffee, the way she normally takes it, and she hadn't ever really told me how she likes her coffee before. I have an explanation for why I knew how she took it, and it makes sense to me. Now, if I start to notice something odd about you too well… then maybe the mirror does a little more than Cassandra is telling us.”

“You mean like messing with our heads?”

“Not exactly, maybe leaving subconscious knowledge though. Like maybe I know how she takes her coffee because I gain knowledge about her from the other me. Like I mean if we’ve been together for years at that point it wouldn’t be weird to know how everyone takes their coffee, if they drink coffee. Just something to be on the lookout for.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know if I notice anything. Hey Mark, what’s my favorite sandwich?”

“Pretty sure it doesn’t work like that but fine, give me a moment to think about it.” Hmm… let’s see… After about a minute he responded, “Okay would you like me to answer this verbally or order what I think would be your favorite sandwich. Before I got simple sandwiches that I thought most people would like.”

“Oh surprise me, plus it’s possible that what was my favorite isn’t my favorite any more and I just don’t know it. Like I very much do not care for **** but ASTRID was correct yesterday that drink was quite appealing. So order me the sandwich.”

So Mark ordered her a chicken sandwich on rye bread, with bacon, tomato and arugula with an avocado spread on the bottom of the sandwich and a spicy mustard on the top. “Okay, here you go,” he said as the sandwich appeared on the table.

Flora looked at the sandwich, “Okay well… I’m going to taste it but based upon looking at it, we might want to be careful about the mirror.” Flora picked up half the sandwich and took a bite. Mark could immediately tell that she liked it from her expression. “I’m finishing this or taking it with me Mark. Not sure if it is literally the best sandwich I’ve ever had but it is fantastic.”

“Could you explain why you were concerned before tasting it? Like I know that I know how to make a good sandwich. What raised your concern?”

“Well, for starters rye bread is my favorite sandwich bread. Hands down no contest. Of the choices of meat, I would say chicken is my favorite but not by a lot, but it is what I would say if you had asked. I also love bacon strips on sandwiches. Tomato is good, it helps the sandwich for sure. I thought arugula as opposed to lettuce was an odd choice for you to simply randomly pick. Which, I do prefer arugula to lettuce for flavor. Avocado was a peculiar thing to add as some people love it and others hate it. I love it. Now I didn’t notice the mustard beforehand but I do love spicy mustard, as well. I’ve never had this particular sandwich before either, but the fact that you put a bunch of things I really do like together into a single good sandwich well… maybe you do get some info, I really just asked you that as a joke thinking you say a turkey club or ham and cheese sandwich at least something like that.”

“Well, great… I’ll let Laura know about this too. I’ll also warn anyone else before using the mirror with them.”

“Is it really a problem?”

“I hope not. But would you like it if I knew some deep personal secret of yours that you aren’t prepared to tell me or maybe a kink you aren’t prepared to share with me? Like if you were really turned on by Merida hypnotizing you or something like that.”

“Okay… point taken…” Flora said a little evasively, which Mark noticed.

“Okay I said that last bit randomly, or at least I thought I did. Did you find getting hypnotized by Merida arousing? Flora it might be embarrassing but if I’m getting more detailed info about you when looking into the mirror with you I’d like to know.”

Flora wouldn’t meet Mark’s gaze, “Well… maybe… I’m not entirely sure. I think… a little, yes. It definitely felt really good coming out of the trance, I can say that. Not as good as sex mind you but still pretty good.”

“Well… If you ever want to explore that with me, let me know as that is definitely one of my kinks.”

“I don’t know about that… maybe one day. Anyway I’ve taken up enough of your time. We should get you down to Ellen for your date. Also I was told there would be some kissing on the way?”

“There most certainly can be, lead the way.” So Flora walked out of the suite taking the delicious sandwich with her.