Leave. This isn't for me.

You put the coin down on the pillow of the bed. Hopefully, they’ll find it and return it. You don’t want to owe them anything. If any of this is true, you’ll have to deal with it somehow, but you’re not going to stay here.

You go downstairs as the silver haired girl meets your eyes for a second. You resolve yourself, and say ‘no’ deep inside. Although you don’t understand why, you felt a strong attachment to her.

However, something was telling you that it was the wrong choice. You’ve spent your life protecting the things important to you, you’ve been hurt and seen people hurt. Just because she’s beautiful, just because of your desires, just because you got excited by a strange new world, that is something that you won’t let go of so easily.

You shift your attention, surprised you were able to despite the desire burning within you to look at the girl. You make for the butler, and tell him about the coin you left in the room and hand him the key.

“Walking away, huh?”, he smiled at you kindly, “I hope you can. Excellent choice.”

You just said goodbye on reflex stunned by his response. You left and made for home, walking a bit slow to take in the city air.

You hear clicks of a certain shoe hitting the pavement behind you, and get the sense she followed you. You turned to check just to confirm your fears were nonsense, and was surprised to find she was actually there. You felt guilty for enjoying looking at her so much. A feeling of foreboding was tugging in your mind to look away so you did with surprising ease yet again. It was like staring into the sun.

She stopped in front of you and you spoke up first, eyes closed.

“You know, that’s a really nice shirt. I’m sorry for not looking at you in the eye, this is going to sound corny but I feel like I’m being hypnotized or something just looking at you.”

“No, that’s fine. I did work really hard to make my clothes do that anyways, people do that all the time. You picked up my coin, I could tell, I was just waiting to give you this.”

She guides your hand and you try not to focus on the cool sensation as she laces a note into your fingers.

“I’m -----, I’m leaving coins around the city, looking for friends. Come to this address if you want to hang out, I won’t be wearing these clothes there. I don’t know how much the book man explained about what’s going on, but the coin I left there had, um magic, and it brings out your inner nature.”

You scoff. Didn’t bookman tell you that if someone introduces themselves by name, they are an enemy? Still, you aren’t someone who’s going to back down from your beliefs here. She’s probably just lonely in addition to being extremely attractive. You wondered how that happened, there was probably some story behind it at least. Guess you at least met someone out of this, at least. You were worried about it actually being true, since you were afraid to open your eyes.

“Magic? You’re kidding me. How about we go back to my place and talk about it? I’ll at least hear you out,” you propose.

“Um, It’s really soon. Can’t we do it at my place? I’d feel more comfortable there.”

You imagined a blush in her voice.

Unfortunately for her, you were already on guard. You had a good comeback. You’re not going to bend over just because she’s got some magic clothes.

“This is more uncomfortable for me than you right now. Just seeing your clothing almost gave me a heart attack back there. I don’t think it's much to ask for you to do something to make me feel more comfortable? It’s give and take in a relationship, if you want to make friends or lovers it would help to be aware of that. Oh, and no magic at my place, okay? I don’t know what stuff you can do but if you want friends maybe littering the city with gold coins that hypnotize people wasn’t such a great way of going about it.”

She stayed silent a beat or two. She made a small pleased sound.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t think about how you felt at all. I’m really bad at that. Bookman didn’t tell you anything? About the, um, magic?”

She sounded worried.

“He told me some rules then told me to read. I had to get out of there, it was too crazy for me. I was looking to see if I could do some good in the world with something like magic or mind control or whatever you guys are messing with. Got too over my head, got scared, they told me to be afraid of you, you know. Should I be afraid of you?”

“Please don’t. I’ll explain why they said that later, and without any ‘magic’.”

You tell her the address as she records it in her phone.

“I’ll be by later, around ---- pm. I won’t be wearing these clothes, so you should be fine. Just promise me you won’t do anything okay?”

“I’ll say the same to you.”

She laughed. You hear her leave and call out a goodbye. You breathe out a sigh. This isn’t going to get weird right? She’s just a semi-normal girl right? Wait, what if she’s actually ugly without the clothes? You laugh at yourself silently as you walk home, a bit excited, a bit scared for that night.

You were relaxing at your place. You had inadvertently been cleaning for a few hours in between making sure you put on the right clothes and hiding certain things and bringing out others. You definitely had ulterior motives at hand, you were upset at yourself for offering that nothing was going to happen while you were hoping it would. You sigh again as you think about what you know about her. Her appearance was literally magical at first sight. That was disturbing when you realized that was actually the case. Why would she do that?

You turn on the tv and decide to put it out of mind. You admitted to yourself that you wanted her. That was just the truth of how you felt right now. Some feeling inside was telling you that you should just be honest with her, that she would respond.

Didn’t she say something about the coin ‘brings out your inner nature’? What if I was secretly a serial killer, -----? You definitely felt different. Should you thank her, or ask her to remove it if she could?

No.

You had already decided that this was who you were from the start. Magic or no, this was the real you. She had brought that out with a single gold coin. So many people in this world didn’t even know who they were on the inside, they were suffering. Observing the you now you were rather impressed with yourself. You briefly considered whether that was because of the person you really were or the person you were before contemplating the person you are now.

“Huh, that’s deep.”

You said to no one in particular as your entrance to your domicile informed you of that girl arriving. You snapped out of your dreamy mode. This could end badly, you reminded yourself. Your heart raced as you opened the door to a beautiful girl.

Dark silver hair gathered in a low ponytail with deep blue eyes and no makeup. Not that she needed it. You took a hit already. You tried to check out what clothes she was wearing but closed your eyes by instinct.

“Geez, you don’t need magic clothes. It’s like someone made you a work of art or something,” you said a bit embarrassed at your reaction.

You heard her squeak out in fear.

“Are you okay?”, you asked, confused.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said as she walked in and stopped near you. You could smell her, she wasn’t using any perfume but that didn’t matter to you.

“Just, I’ve really got my hopes up. So don’t try to have sex with me okay? I’ll leave.”

“Don’t use any magic to have sex with me and you got a deal.”

She laughed as I closed the door.

“Somehow, I got the feeling like I wouldn’t need to!”, she teased.

“Ah, about my eyes? I’ve got to prepare myself. You did a good job getting rid of those clothes at least, it would help getting to know you if you were a bit uglier.”

You open your eyes to her smiling face. You’ve seen this smile before, this was a good one. You smiled yourself, glad that you had gotten through to her.

After you both sat down and got to the meal that you had painstakingly crafted light banter went back and forth. You realized that neither of you wanted to trust each other, but neither of you wanted this to go badly either. That encouraged you. You hoped it encouraged her.

“So, it’s not magic? That’s nuts. I was having some deep thoughts about what that coin did to me, are you sure that was a good idea to just lay that around?”, you complained.

“I need help and friends. There’s not many ways to get that in this society that I’m okay with, and using my looks…”

“You’re actually a good person then.”

She stopped and had a sad look.

“I try to be. I want to be. You’re kind of like that. The person I want to be. I’m not proud of what happened, how I was born, who am I, so, I changed it with mindmastery.”

Mindmastery, she told me that the basis of this world she was living in was just that you could actually affect other’s minds with your own. Order others around, order yourself around, apparently working through the five senses. She went on about how there was more than that, but I tuned her out. She was attractive, but there are some things even a pretty face can’t make interesting. The whole world was based around techniques in relation to the five senses, and she was good at two of them, runes or sight based influence, and touch influence. She explained her clothes were layered with runes she crafted, some of them knit into the threads, that you couldn’t directly see on first glance that would easily affect you. They weren’t for attracting people though, it was for making people feel calmer. Mostly for defense, she had a hard time on her own. She said that, “because of the way this works, a rune can cause different feelings in different people easily, but I didn’t make them that strong so it’s probably just a strong reaction with you, or you really liked me.”

You thought about broaching the topic that was giving her a sad look. Be honest, you heard that voice say. Were you always secretly like this?

“You’re a good person.”

“You don’t know enough about me to say that, I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of, you don’t know what happened to me. Where I came from, none of it,” she said with a huff.

“That sad look you had was enough to tell me what you wanted. We all have difficulties dealing with reality, but that doesn’t change who we want to be,” you said.

She looked at you and blushed, her eyes shining.

“Ah, did I get you? Guess I didn’t need mindmastery for that one!”, you teased her.

“I-I’m just surprised is all. I didn’t expect to find someone like you, I was so scared. Now I’m just...afraid.”

“That’s fine. I like you. Don’t think you have to trust me right away, I’ll give you all the time you need. After all, I wanted this to work out too,” you admit.

“No, I don’t like it,” she said suddenly.

You felt a jolt, weren’t things going well?

“Right now, I feel like you’re in control here. The world I live in, that’s not a feeling you want to like. I… want you to give up some control,” she said.

You did tell her give and take was part of it. She learned quickly.

You decided to let her get her way. You trusted her this far.

“You were the one with the coin. You’ve had a lot of influence on me already. Back then, if I didn’t close my eyes, I thought something terrible was going to happen. However, I won’t hold that against you. This wasn’t an equal relationship from the start, but I won’t accept an unequal relationship. Do you understand that?”

You felt confident in what you were going to say next, although you knew she wouldn’t like it.

“But...yeah you’re right. I need to win though. Equal relationships, I’m not sure what that means,” she said.

She probably didn’t have any friends, for a long time. You imagined what kind of relationships she probably had and felt upset for her. A relationship where you were the servant or the master.

“You win sometimes, and I win sometimes, and if either of us has any trouble with how much or how the other is winning, then we discuss it and find a solution,” you stated.

“I don’t know, that doesn’t sound comfortable to me…”

“Give and take, I told you that before right?”

“Yeah, I was worried about it all evening. Spent a little time on the internet too…”

You were going to let her win this time.

“You get to take for now, but later I get to win. If you don’t like what I choose, then we’ll talk it over until we find something you can be okay with.”

“No mindmastery?”, she questioned.

“I don’t care if you use it or not, the important part is respecting me, so I can respect you.”

She was making a pained face.

“But I could do a lot of bad to you, if I took some control now, aren’t you afraid?”

“Then come up with something that doesn’t make me afraid.”

You felt like you were in control of not being in control. Like spinning a couch on an axis. It was like that from the start, and your heart was racing. There were no easy answers here, or in the regular world. Sometimes you were going to lose. It was going to hurt. But that didn’t mean you couldn’t find the right people to let them win. You grin.

She smiled, and then went into a thinking pose.

“...I suppose I’ve made this a little hard on you. I don’t want to go too far, but I don’t want you thinking that you can just get away with anything. You’re a smooth talker too, like him, that guy is a monster though. If I could do anything to that guy, what would I do?”, she mumbled.

You were being generous in more than one way listening to her, although you really wanted to ask you knew that it was important to respect your own words. Your heart pounded.

“You’re not him though. Hopefully someone will kill him, I doubt anyone can win with mindmastery. That bastard...you’re not like him. I shouldn’t be talking badly about him, I apologize. Although I hate him, maybe I shouldn’t. You…” she stopped.

“Okay, I’m giving you a massage,” she finished.

“No mind whammy?”, you questioned.

“Well, I’m good at touch remember? I’m...just going to let you know that you can’t push me around,” she made a determined face.

You got up as she guided you to your beloved couch. It was a glorious velvet black with matching poofed ottoman that you spent many enjoyable nights with. You laid on your most trustworthy ally in this world prepared for anything. Your front facing upwards.

She sat down on the ottoman in front of you. You got a good perspective on her cantaloupes through her sweater.

“Take off your shirt. I’m used to being stared at, but you’re making me uncomfortable, close your eyes.”

You saw her blushing. You were glad this was going well and the anticipation got to you.

“I figured it might end up like this,” she probably noticed.

“I suppose I can’t expect people to ignore how I look. I wouldn’t give that up, but it hurts sometimes. Everyone only wants one thing from me, and I think I’m doing the same thing.”

She traced her light finger across your stomach, you felt the tension building near that finger as your focus was pulled there. You wanted it there anyways.

“What you said tonight, it was scary. Something I don’t think I’ve done, only read about. I want to see if it’s possible. If you were lying to me...I’m not the vengeful type. But, I’ll hate you. Don’t do it, okay? In the mindmastery world lots of people are mean and selfish, lots of people get hurt and used. I’m not too different than them, but you said you didn’t think so. I’ll test that belief sometime, I’m sure. If you get sick of me, I won’t blame you for leaving.”

“I don’t know. Even if there’s parts of you I don’t know, what I’ve seen so far is encouraging,” you said.

She made a pleased noise.

You felt your stomach contract, and warmth swell there as she made circles.

Something came to mind, you didn’t want to interrupt her but this felt like a good time to ask.

“How’d you know I had the coin, back then in that bar library?”

“That...is a secret,” she said solemnly.

You thought it was a bit of a shame, but there was probably a good reason for her silence.

There was a sensation like your stomach was full, but it was the pleasant kind of fullness where you didn’t feel any pain. Tingling spread across your skin, your focus glued to finger as you felt your tension in your muscles rise. You started breathing deeper.

“Don’t you want to know what I’m doing?”, she interrupted her own work.

“I already decided to trust you,” you said.

She whimpered.

“You okay?”, you followed up on her reaction.

“Even when I think I’m in control you’re still winning. Maybe I shouldn’t...do this…” she whined.

You slipped your hand on her palm, her finger still on your stomach. You felt the warmth there and squeezed lightly, not wanting to upset her work.

“----, if you want to, you don’t have to. Although it would make me sad, to have a girl like you walk away, I don’t want this if I’m hurting you.”

“Smooth talker as always. Are you ready?”

Her voice was determined. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but ‘losing control’ sounded like what was going to happen.

You grin and say, “I was ready anytime.”

You felt all of of the muscles in your face twitch and then fall slack. You tongue relaxed as breathe entered and you felt you back melt into your trusty velvet couch. You lower back caved and lengthened. The legs were asleep and you couldn’t feel your feet at all. Your stomach was the only sensation you were focused on, and you felt a pulling sensation like your mind was actually there.

“You can’t talk now, but you should be able to hear my voice. This is one of the states mindmastery can get you into, a ‘receptive’ state. It’s similar to trance from hypnosis if you’ve heard of that, but more effective and easier to use once mastered. In this state you can learn things easily, speed healing, aid digestion, that sort of thing. I...could also issue commands. At this point, if I went any farther I would have to have direct mental contact, and that's dangerous. The stomach is called a second brain for a reason you know. I’m going to input a ‘rejection’ command after I...do what I came here to do. That part won’t feel pleasant, but it’s to protect you. I don’t want anyone else getting their hands on you...now that I finally got one I like. Try to concentrate on the good part, okay? I’ll try to make the unpleasant part as fast as I can.”

You heard her say that into the abyss you were in. Her voice felt nice and warm, and you glad for the company where it was so lonely. A bubbling sensation spread through you as you felt waves of pleasure thrum through your muscles as they independently contracted and released by themselves. No build up, just a climax like a long note of music held across your body. It reminded you of sexual climax and you assumed you were doing that, but it never felt this large in your mind. As you began to interact and experience the feeling on a deeper level, your stomach felt like it was radiating it on it’s own without any touch from her. You felt her finger pull away as she slipped out of your hands. You felt your pants pulled down and cool air blow across down there. This waves of sensation were overwhelming and subsuming you like a river, you slowly began to feel like your consciousness was sinking into it but barely staying above, riding it.

You enjoyed that for a while, like you were on a lazy river with the sun heating you from above and water cooling you from below.

“Okay, I’m starting the bad part now. Sorry about this, you get control the next time, I promise.”

Uh-oh, you thought.

You remembered back when you were a kid. There was something like a doctor, needles, maybe you skinned your knee. It was all coming back to you, but that was back then. This was now.

Pain lanced through your stomach, and you felt a heat build and gather which shot to you head.

Thankfully, you blacked out.

You woke up later to find her gone with a note with her number on the ottoman, and your pants pulled down. It didn’t look like you came.