Thinking forward and back

It’s been a few hours since Tatiana snapped at me, and I still haven’t managed to fully calm down. Not only am I afraid that I might lose control of her, but I’m also afraid about everyone else.

Just a short time ago, I felt safe in the knowledge that I’d essentially gotten Ellen and Rachel to my side, but I now realise how tenuous my control on them can be.

The only person that I still feel safe with is Jenny, but everyone else is a liability.

Corrupting them isn’t enough, I need to increase my control, my authority on them. And I need to do that while still respecting my rules about when I’m allowed to use the app.

It’s kind of a tight rope to walk. But I have to find a way.

And I need to experiment with increasing my authority on people. I want to know how much it affects them before I alter anyone I care about. I don’t want to turn them into mindless slaves to my whims.

And I have an idea who to experiment on.

Ivy.

She has a tendency to act very haughtily towards those she considers lower on the social ladder, and very subserviently towards those she considers higher. It’s all about hierarchy to that girl. Authority is the magnetic north to her moral compass.

Before I got the app, I was just some pathetic, unworthy serf beholden to her whims in her eyes, but the minute I started enforcing discipline, she changed her tune, to the point that she practically begged me to spank her.

I’m going to need to think about the exact wording of the belief I put into her, but if I play my cards right, I might be able to take care of her on Monday.

+10 BS. 15 remaining. (Source: ???)

Or tomorrow! Looks like someone just had some fun praising and/or disciplining a student.

I wonder who these question marks could be though. I know the names of basically every teacher on payroll, so it can’t be one of them, but it could be another staff member. I look to the cafeteria, across the quad from my room, in which I’ve been burrowing for hours. Seems like the students are having their dinner. Maybe it was one of the kitchen workers who got fed up with some girl’s entitlement and decided to step up.

Getting passive BS through group rules is really handy, but I hadn’t anticipated how eager I’d be to know what exactly made me get them each time. And in this case, unlike last time, I won’t even be able to ask around for it.

Oh well, I’d better get used to the feeling.

Ah, shoot. If the students are having dinner, that means I missed the time for mine. That’s what I get for holing up for hours to feel sorry for myself.

I open my pathetic excuse for a fridge, an appliance so small you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a microwave with an unusually opaque door. As it turns out, it’s almost completely full: a single pizza, a pack of gouda cheese, and two bottles of beer I managed to smuggle in from my country.

No matter where you’re from, you’ll always think your country has the best beer.

But you’re all wrong, my country has the best beer.

I don’t want to walk all the way to the communal kitchen-cum-rec-room, especially since it’s always full of students on Saturdays, even at dinnertime when they’re supposed to be in the cafeteria, so the pizza’s out of the way. I grab the gouda and rummage through an almost as comically tiny cabinet, only to find some unleavened bread that I’ve had since last April, luckily still preserved in a plastic wrapper.

And that’s going to be my dinner. Gouda on stale flatbread.

Truly, there’s no way but up.

+18 BS. 32 remaining.

I’ve been awake for a few minutes already, but I’m enjoying the comfort of my bed on a nice Sunday morning.

Today is going to be a good day.

I spent last evening going over my plans regarding Ivy, and I think I’ve now got a solid idea of how to take her where I want her.

I will need around 40 BS again, though.

That seems to be the average cost of changes, now that I think about it. They only go higher when they’re unusually large changes, or they go strongly against the target’s beliefs. Of course, there can be a lot of factors pushing the cost one way or the other, but having a rough idea of the average price of the average change is a good way to define the value of a BS.

It’s kinda like how economists estimate the power of a currency based on how much a hamburger costs, the Big Mac Index.

So I’ll need another 8 BS. Let’s say 13 to be safe, having some leeway would be useful.

I think with some creativity, I can get them when I’m downtown with Jenny and Julian.

Speaking of, I’d better get moving. Jenny sent me a text telling me to meet them there around one in the afternoon, which means I should leave in about an hour.

I get up, go about my morning rituals, all while thinking ahead about my day, and finally leave my room.

I spend a few minutes striding across rooms and corridors that show that, while Einstein was right to say that matter and energy can distort space, he failed to notice that so does bad architecture, before I make my way out of the school and towards the parking lot in front of it.

It’s full of fancy cars, as you may guess, but the vast majority of them belong to the students, as most teachers can’t afford a personal car.

Obviously, there are no buses to and from the school, so my only option is to walk.

Luckily, it’s not too long, as it only takes about 25 minutes to reach the village, and the way to it goes downhill, but coming into the school for the first time was quite the endeavour. I had to stuff everything that mattered to me into a single suitcase and a backpack, and go through a cortege of increasingly tiny trains, until reaching the last town before the village. I then had to wait for a bus that only came around four times a day, and even then only if it felt like it, and whose driver was seemingly assigned to this backwater specifically because it was the only place with a low enough population that his driving style wouldn’t kill a pedestrian every other day. And after that odyssey, I still had to pull my suitcase uphill for several kilometres before I could finally reach the school.

And when I finally got there, the very first person I met was Ellen.

I nearly cried myself to sleep that night.

Now that I don’t have all of that to worry about, I can actually enjoy this walk for what it is. This place really is beautiful, and now that I don’t have a suitcase to pull, I can take the steep dirt path that cuts down directly to the village, instead of having to follow the meandering road along the hillside.

It is a bit scary at times, as I can feel small pebbles rolling away under my feet, and it’d be easy to lose my footing if I’m not careful, but it’s worth it. It feels truly freeing to leave the school and be surrounded by majestic, tall trees providing a welcome shade from the midday sun.

And it becomes even more worth it when I reach a bend in the path, and following it reveals a sumptuous vista. An opening in the foliage acts as a window, letting me see all the way down the hill and onto the village. A large log lies on its side right next to the clearing, ready to act as a makeshift bench, provided by either serendipity or a lumberjack with an eye for natural beauty.

I sit down and take in the sight.

The settlement seems even tinier from here, nestled as it is in a cradle of wooded hills. Down at the bottom, a small river snakes its way between the buildings and across the valley, before disappearing into the folds of the relief.

And at the centre of it all, ant-like people going about their day in their minuscule colony. I can barely discern their limbs, let alone their faces, and yet some seem familiar to me. I keep thinking I just saw Jenny, or Julian, before squinting and realising it’s probably someone else.

I could stay here for hours, but eventually, I have to get going.

I do feel like this has given me a new perspective onto the village, though. Until now, it was nothing but a dot on a map, a forgettable step on the way towards the school whose main reason to exist was the presence of a shop and a pub. But now, I see it as a breathing place, one with its own culture and life.

A life in which I now want to take part, and influence. I want to see what those little ants may get up to after I’ve talked to their queen.

I get back on track and walk down the rest of the way, nearly slipping down a couple times, before reaching the town proper.

The woods actually extend all the way to the edges of the village, which I hadn’t realised from my vantage point, so I’m quite surprised when the trees nearly instantly give way to small, rural houses, all seemingly engaged in a competition of which can hang the most flowers under its quaint windowsills.

I’m not sure where in the village I am, but luckily the church’s belfry acts as a landmark, guiding me to the town’s main (and only) square.

It’s quite pretty. A small fountain, depicting a stone dragon spitting down delightfully cold water, rests in the middle of it and is surrounded with the village’s main amenities. The town hall, which also acts as a primary school, is right in front of me when I get there.

The church and its simple, Romanesque architecture stands proudly on my right. I’m no expert in Christian affairs, but I think it’d technically be more accurately described as a chapel. But don’t say that to the locals. In their eyes, this place is basically Notre-Dame de Paris. And this one still has its tower too!

Finally, across the square and slightly to my right, I see the pub and its handful of tables neatly spread out onto the cobblestone, under brightly coloured parasols bearing the logo of local brands.

And sitting at one of those tables are Jenny and Julian, both wearing sunglasses and enjoying a cold drink while they chat.

Hello everyone!

Quite a different chapter than usual. As fun as writing about corruption and groping can be, I felt like the story was **** in on itself a little bit, and needed to open up and breathe, if that makes sense. So I thought a more lowkey chapter and the introduction of a new place would be nice.

In any case, I had a lot of fun writing it, and I hope that comes across.

Thank you all for reading, and see you all next chapter!