To talk about the library

“Mr. Cain,” that was a phrase which had recently taken on a new meaning, but she clearly did not intend it that way, and I thought the twitch in my crotch was sufficiently hidden by my armor, “I hear you want to re-organize the library?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I don’t know how she’d heard about that, or why she cared. But I knew the moment to make a pitch. “It would give the inmates something to do and if it was organized, then we could be more efficient too as they could actually find what they’re looking for without an hour of looking and we could actually track books and maybe even allow some people to check books out,, we could get more in and--”

“You have permission. But any of the older books, unlabeled books, or psychiatric texts come to me for review, before they’re shelved. Do you understand?”

I nodded, “Yes, ma’am.” And I thought I did understand, she wanted them because they were valuable and she was after the cash. I was entirely wrong about that, but I could hardly be blamed for jumping to that conclusion. This is Gotham, after all.

“Good. I want this done in a week.”

That was…unreasonable, but just barely possible. “Ma’am, you’ll have to authorize overtime, if you want that.”

“Done. Get to work. Use as many of the scum as you need and I’ve told Francine to let you use the guards on duty here, but no re-assignments of other guards or doctors.”

“Yes, ma’am. Do you want the books brought up at the end, or as we find them?”

“As you find them.”

“Then I’ll need access to your office, ma’am.”

”Leave them with my secretary.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ll need use of the clerical staff and a budget for furniture.”

“Clerical staff yes. Budget, no. But you can repurpose any furniture you need.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She turned on her heel and left without another word. Well, okay then.

This week was gonna fucking suck.

I was right about that. A week of double shifts sucked. A lot. I was so exhausted and so busy, and all the work was so similar that I didn’t even manage to gain many points. Especially since most of the ‘work crew’ was male, or were random inmates who hadn’t done anything to me and didn’t have a supervillain’s talent for making a jumpsuit look good.

I managed a few things. I was eating all my meals in the canteen, which meant I eventually realized there was one special tray, with no plant matter on it, which had to be for Poison Ivy. By tagging it, I managed to add her as a target. She was at -100. No shock, given how she viewed men, cops and humans.

With a week of trying and randomly rolling the dice, I also managed to target Una “Absence” Nemo.

Which, frankly, was a bit disturbing, I’d never thought I found Absence attractive, she had a giant hole in her head! But...live and learn. -33, submission, for the curious.

The other thing I learned about me was that if someone looked like a woman, I’d be attracted to them like a woman…Clayface was part of our team, which was great for putting things on the highest shelves, but as we got tireder, and punchier, a few questions were asked and, well:

She, and I’m gonna go with she, just for my own peace of mind, started at -12, but ended up at +3. And only showed up as “Clayface” in the app, not by real name, which was weird, but I wasn’t complaining. Peyton and Firefly (I wasn’t calling her Bridget, that would just be confusing) were the only other targets on my team and I only gained four points with her, and three from Firefly. Note, I only learned this later, as my phone was safely home and I only made it home occasionally. I’d brought my laptop in, so I could do my email on breaks, but I wasn’t letting the phone anywhere near Arkham.

Throughout the week, I had to carry dozens of books up to Alyce’s secretary, but he was a dude and really not my type. In fact, he didn’t look too different from the thugs I used to round up, but he was dressed up in a suit, talked polite and took the books without giving me any trouble. Another group of books went into a box. It was clear that Alyce was concerned, because a guard did come and ask what was in the box. After I showed him and explained they’d still be there, they’d just be kept in a smaller, separate bookshelf by the desk I’d scavenged for myself so I didn’t have to spend all day fucking standing, he was fine with it. I think he assumed I wanted to keep the ‘romance’ novels for myself, but actually I just wanted to make people ask nicely, to get points.

Oh, and the stupid weakness perk was finally fucking gone. Thank god. But the app didn’t give me any other reward, just passive-aggressively complained that that wasn’t what it had meant.

On Friday, I also managed a bitch session with Francine, as I’d had to collaborate with her on guard shifts for all the extra work and she was almost as glad as I was that it was done. We commiserated a bit on Alyce, though she was careful not to say anything too negative, and mentioned her bar and how much she was looking forward to it. That was all the excuse I would need to stop by, except after this week, I wanted to get my dick wet and be worshiped, not play mind games with a drunk ex-cop.

The only extra-curricular I could manage was reading Diamond’s emails and respond with a bit of praise and teasing. Her fantasies were fun. I was trying to decide which one to go with, when I got a call. Her daughter had decided to hold a protest against…something that their camp was doing and she was in deep shit. Before Diamond could say the obvious, I spoke up, “You have to go. Go.”

There was a momentary pause. “Of course. Of course,” she said that like it had actually been in doubt. Jesus, had it been? Had she been torn between our weekend fuck session and taking care of her daughter? Her submission rating was high, but--wait, I had my phone, a quick look--I’d gained 3 submission points from telling her to go…which meant that she hadn’t wanted to? I was clearly radically underestimating the power of the app.

And just to prove it, I continued speaking, “And you tell me if there’s anything I can do to help.”

Which prompted and an endless series of minor chores she couldn’t handle while she and Andre were gone. She apologized for asking me to do them, but I had asked. I gave a chuckle and warned her that she’d repay me when she got back, which got a whimper, but there went most of my weekend…but it also came with a gain of 6 more submission points, which made it clear just how much she didn’t want to give me that. Hilariously, that was more points than I’d get from any other single command, except when I finally told her to give me the single virginity she’d retained.