Not great, but successful.

Her secretary was polite, but when I focused on him, I noticed that besides looking like a thug, the callouses on his hands said he was a thug. But I didn’t see any weapon, though one could be hidden easily in his desk. I made a mental note to have Rapetoy look into him, but just nodded to him and gave my name.

He held me up for a few minutes, but then sent me in exactly on time. Taking a quick look around, she had all seven ribbons in her hair, and the books she'd flagged, or most of them anyway, were now lining a bookcase on the wall. So much for my intel, or traps. I guess she wasn't corrupt, at least that way. It was possible these were fakes, but the books weren't that valuable. More likely, she just wanted them in her office. Maybe she'd carry them off when she retired by 'accident' but that hardly helped me now.

“Elias,” for a moment I thought it was a positive sign that she was using my first name, then realized it indicated she viewed me as a social inferior, not a friend. “I’ve reviewed your proposal and there are certain things which require clarification.”

“Of course, Director. Tell me what you’d like to know, I’ll do my best to answer your questions.”

“Elias, I know all about conversational gambits intended to make it feel like you are in command. Such as phrasing your compliance, or requests, as orders. Cease such games with me. I have questions, you will answer them. Understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.” It shouldn’t matter given the app, but her reaction was interesting…was that actually some sort of dominance game, or had she perhaps had some experience with the app--

The first three questions were all technical and answered in my proposal, thanks to Rapetoy. I mostly remembered the answers, so was able to get through them with nothing except a +2 SP (Alyce: -89) from her asking them.

“Elias, you’ve been changing things.” I lifted the papers I’d had Rapetoy provide, but she waved them away with a hand. “Yes, yes, improved things. Or so you think. And I do appreciate having these volumes out of general circulation. And it is progress to have the library organized so we actually know what’s in there. If some of the inmates had read those books…well, I hardly need to know what Mr. Tetch might do with some of the ‘repressed memory’ studies out of the rather dark history of psychology.”

“Chief Boles and Chief Young think that it might help--”

“Penelope Young, is, as her name suggests, young and believes she will succeed where everyone else has failed. She is wrong, but that is no surprise, or sin. We were all young once,” her voice was smooth, and she never left the desk I was standing in front of, like a student before the principal, awaiting punishment.

I actually felt…scared? Which was insane. The worst she could do was fire me, probably, and these days that wouldn’t be so bad, though it would make things difficult.

She continued talking. “What I don’t know and am curious about, is how you got Francine Boles to agree to your plan.”

“Ma’am, having additional rewards means that there’s more to take away when people misbehave. And Chief Boles really likes punishments…”

“I didn’t ask you to repeat the justification she gave in her memo. I asked you to tell me how you got her to agree. I know Ms. Boles and any new employee who asked for her to approve something like this in his first year on the job would be assigned to feed Mr. Jones. Perhaps literally.”

“I’ve got seniority and I can quit, so she’s got limited options. Probably this is a game. If it goes wrong, she’ll blame me, if it goes right, she’ll take the credit.” Alyce glared at me and I continued. “But the other reason is that we had a bet. She thought she could drink me under the table, despite me having at least fifty pounds on her.”

The director nodded. “Elias, my quarterly report to the Board is next month. I’ll want a full report on both of your initiatives. If the results, or reports do not meet my satisfaction, then they will be canceled. If they truly do not meet my satisfaction, then everyone will know why they were canceled. Do you understand me, Mr. Cain?”

“Yes, Director. May I request templates, or examples?”

“My secretary will give you whatever assistance you require. He has the approval memo.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” I turned on my heel and headed for the door.

“Elias I’m not sure if I believe you, but either way, I recommend against drinking with Chief Boles.”

“Yes, ma’am…uh, can I tell her you ordered me not to? That would be…helpful.”

“No, Elias, you will have to solve your own problems.”

I nodded and walked out. The secretary gave me the memo and I went back down, coming up with the protocol. I wasn’t going to be choosing winners and losers. Instead, they were broken into groups, one supervillain and nine normal inmates. Usually it was 1 to 4, but they’d all be seated and more easily watched and there was only room for 10. Since they usually had an hour and most movies were about 2, that would also reduce complaints.

The other thing that would help was that I wasn’t going to do it every day, only M/W/F at the end of the shift. I wouldn’t choose the order, instead, every supervillain authorized to be in there would have their name drawn from a hat. The problem was, I could hardly gather them all and didn’t want any of them doubting my honesty. After talking with the few supervillains still left on my shift, they all agreed that everyone would trust the Calculator, if he said my drawing was fair.

They were also extremely excited, though most wanted either porn, which wasn’t authorized, or some sort of horror/snuff type films that also weren’t authorized, but they were still eager to see the list when it was posted…which wouldn’t be until tomorrow.

The non-supervillain inmates would be a bit tricky, but I wasn’t worried about them killing me, so it was straightforward enough. They’d actually have the majority of the votes on what movie was watched, so I was keeping them anonymous so they couldn’t be threatened into going along. Well, not unless someone threatened everyone into it. No way for Calculator to testify to my honesty on movie selection, but that mattered less than the order.

Calculator was coming in tomorrow, so I needed to spend most of the day preparing and telling everyone what was coming. If I’d thought I was popular before, I was the fucking king of Arkham now. At least until someone got disappointed.

Finally, my day ended and I headed home. Well, to Asa’s home. She was just finishing up with Andre, who ran off as soon as I gave Asa a kiss and him a teasing hug, which I didn’t release until he did as I asked and thanked me for taking care of his wife and his sister. Which he did, with a whimper and a pathetic little jerk of his hips that ground his caged cock against my thigh. I sneered at him and sent him on his way, before Asa and I got down to business.

Not that sort of business. We had a choice to make, Penelope’s Checkpoint:

Bimbo: Come on, this is what you’re clearly heading for with this shit. And you already know that she only got this job because her ‘boyfriend’ is Scarecrow. She’s nothing without those connections. Skip to the end! 100 SP, slutty bimbo, and I’ll even leave her psychiatrist brain intact so she can mostly still treat patients. Of course, the men’ll be treated by a rigorous course of three-hole fuck sessions. Job retention not guaranteed.

Therapist: Penelope is actually a skilled therapist. SP gain when she is part of the interaction is increased by 10%. And any checkpoint/challenges where the points needed to reach it are gained with her assistance are significantly improved.

Repressed: Scarecrow is barely a boyfriend, as his sex-drive is minimal. After some tests with his serums, Penelope is as scared as she is awed by his brilliance, and doesn’t dare initiate or masturbate, so she only gets fucked on the rare occasions they’re in the same place and he is aroused. With this option selected she will gain the courage to ask to open their relationship. As Scarecrow doesn’t view it as a relationship, but rather him using her, and he has sufficient **** material and control, he will be willing to agree. This does not mean she will choose you.

AN: Thanks to CrusaderSpam for poking the forum and Friedman for approving the last chapter. Still unsure what happened there, but posting resumes. I will still be going on hiatus after chapter 175, but I'll post the catch-up chapters now.