Bad news for Grink.

"What the fuck did you do?"

Jen smiled sweetly at Grink. "You know, Grink, you almost had us. You correctly bet on me leaving Mark at your mercy, failing to check in on him once I'd gotten him back, and just generally ignoring him and his needs. I'll cop to being pretty selfish here. I got him involved in all this, I sent him in to be your little wet dream, and I was ready to throw him under the bus for a chance for a cure."

Grink was blinking sweat out of his eyes. He looked around the room desperately for anything he could use to escape.

Jen continued. "What you didn't factor in, though, was Mark himself. Mark is a really good guy-" she paused and looked over at Mark, who was wearing a smug smirk, "-really good person. You thought he'd just influence me into a braindead minion, like you did to him and like you probably think I'm about to do to you. The difference is empathy. Even completely bombed out of his mind by your Manson techniques Mark knew I didn't want to end up like him. He helped me. And now the two of us are a team, and you're all alone, and things are about to go very badly for you."

"What did you do to me, you stupid bitch?" Grink lunged forward, which only caused him to topple forward onto his face. Mark stood him upright again.

"Well, one of the things Mark here likes in his women is intelligence and resourcefulness. He likes them to know how to use the tools at hand. Grink, man, you were sitting on some wild stuff here. I'll bet you don't know how powerful half of this shit is." She picked up a baggie of crimson capsules. "Like these. You just had one of these. Any idea what they do?" Grink's terrified look told her he didn't.

"You know, Mark and I are still under the influence of those pills - let's call them the A pills. As you know, they slowly turn a person into the perfect object of desire for those around them. It's handy that we also have these too. We'll call them the void pills. These complement the A pills perfectly - they remove all desire from a person." Grink's eyes bugged out and he let out a sound like a startled pig.

"That's right, bud. In about 15 minutes, you won't want your stash back or any sexual favors from me or Mark. In fact, you won't want much of anything. You'll get to experience something new - a complete lack of appetite. But don't worry, that doesn't mean your life will be boring. You know the effects of one A pill - do you know what happens when you take multiple?" He just stared at her with bug eyes. "You know what, since you enjoyed seeing the effects of the A pill on Mark, why don't I let him explain it?"

Mark stepped forward, already starting to return to his original state.

"As you know, one pill causes someone to slowly turn into the embodiment of the desires of the people close to them. They still retain their original memories and pieces of their personality, though, and when left alone they'll revert. Two pills not just speeds up the process, it also eliminates the memories and personality. Three pills further speeds up the process and makes it irreversible. The old person is gone forever. It also has the useful side effect that the victim can be changed on command - just tell them to be smarter, dumber, taller, shorter, and it happens immediately. Now Grink, guess how many we just gave you?"

Grink was already feeling the effects. "Three?" he asked numbly.

"Correct! Now Grink, we've got some pills here that can stop the process - do you want us to give them to you?"

Grink looked at them for a long moment. His body had grown slender, with new curves and proportions. He struggled to answer. "No," he finally said in a dull, defeated monotone several octanes higher than his former throaty baritone.

"No?" Jen stepped forward and crouched down to look the rapidly fading Grink in the eye. "You sure about that?". Grink looked back through the long dark bangs that now covered his eyes. "Yes."

Whatever was left of the man was dwindling fast. Jen spoke softly. "Grink, one last question before you go." He didn't respond. "What was your actual name?" The petite young woman sitting in front of them struggled to remember. "Toby."

Her face betrayed no reaction to their laughter.