Time To Smash!

(Author's Note: History of Physical Parental **** during Childhood is described in the first half of the chapter)

Mark and Chloe walked for about ten minutes outside of town before they saw a large mound of trash slowly being processed. Chloe commented, “You know with magic I sort of assumed that they wouldn’t have the same kind of waste.”

“Well, we don’t know what happens to the trash, maybe it’s just collected here and then broken down and recycled. I’ve been to a dump before and this is not even close to the same size as a dump.”

“Fair enough. I guess it would make sense to put the rage room here, so that way you can just break things and then dispose of them next door.”

Mark and Chloe went into the designated building and found inside: various sturdy tables, stone pedestals, chains with hooks dangling from the ceiling, along with sledgehammers, baseball bats and all manner of destructive instruments.

ASTRID greeted them, “~Welcome Master~ and his concubine. Thank you for visiting the A.S.S. Room. We here at Harem Hotel, hope contestants can work out their frustrations so that they can be ~good little harem girls~ for their beloved Master. No safety equipment is needed here but please refrain from actually trying to strike one another, this isn’t the place for that. Unless of course ~Master~ wants to strike that ~cute ass~. You can call up anything from our list of waste on the tablet to your left. As well as any instrument of destruction you want please note all firearms and explosives are restricted to the firing range and cost extra to use.”

“ASTRID! I’m not Mark’s concubine!” Chloe screamed at the ceiling.

“~Silly Chloe!~ You just need to learn your place. Then again Master does love those that struggle. Maybe you can be his brat. ~AH~ to be constantly corrected and disciplined by ~Master~. That would be such a treat.”

Mark spoke up in a calm voice, “Astrid, could you please not try to push MY WOMEN into a role that’s MY JOB. NOT YOURS. So please don’t do that unless specifically requested by me or them to help in that regard.”

“~OOHHH~, ~YEESSS Master~.” Mark was a little unnerved by the moan of delight. “I will do my best not to try to supersede your role. Please forgive my impertinence, ~Master~.”

“Uh… I forgive you?” Mark said unsure if he should actually say that.

ASTRID just moaned in delight again and then went silent.

Chloe looked at Mark, both weirded out and annoyed. “Okay… What was that about pushing us into roles?”

Mark motioned for her to come closer and then whispered softly in her ear. “Last time I tried correcting her, I essentially asked her to go against her programming and it didn’t go well. So I figured if I stayed within the programming when giving her the command. It wouldn't cause issues like before. Hence the, how dare a lowly servant try to do something reserved for their master, routine.”

Chloe’s expression softened, “Okay I guess that makes sense.” As Mark stepped back from her. “Hey ASTRID? What does A.S.S. stand for in the room name.

“~Aggression Suppression Sanctuary~”

“Well the room keeps up Cassandra’s horrible naming sense that’s for sure.” Chloe quipped. “Do you think she’s doing that because of you Mark? Or is that just something you two have in common?”

“First Chloe, I don’t have a horrible naming sense. Second, can we please drop this line of conversation.” Mark’s expression was a little concerned as he looked up at the ceiling.

“Okay, don’t want to piss off my fairy godmother.”

Mark grabbed the tablet and looked through the options, for kicks he searched through with both the terms ‘Host’ and ‘Cassandra’ and actually found various things depicting her image. He queued up a few stone busts of her to appear on the pedestal one after the other as they were destroyed. Then grabbed a sledge hammer for each of them, passing one to Chloe.

Mark then chuckled, “I mean you can’t say you aren’t frustrated with her. Can you?” Mark gestured to the pedestal now containing a stone bust of Cassandra.

Chloe grinned, “No, I guess I can’t. You can have, first crack though, I’m going to see if there’s any glass versions.”

“Oh those would be satisfying.” Mark moved into position so he could strike the bust with the sledgehammer with maximum leverage. “So, Chloe…” Mark swung down the hammer shattering the bust causing the pieces to go flying. “About you parents. Tell me as much or little as you want. But I don’t want to go poking a sore spot by accident so I would appreciate at least a little info.” Mark swung at the second bust and shattered that one too.

Chloe looked at Mark for a second. “Sure, but first you just reminded me of something right now. I’m trying to place it. It’s vaguely funny. OH! You remind me of Yzma from ‘The Emperor's New Groove’.” Mark burst out laughing, bending over clutching his side. “Mark, I mean sure it’s a little funny but not that funny.”

“No, HAHA, not the comparison. HAHA, Just. HAHAHA, I thought of Cassandra as a talking llama.” Which got Chloe to join him in laughter.

“Okay that is sort of an amusing image.”

Cassandra came over the speaker. “No, it is not.”

Mark said up to the ceiling in a genuinely curious tone, “Oh hey, Cassandra, question then. If you were to stay in the hot spring I went into, that made me a woman. What animal-girl would you turn into?”

“I don’t want or need to answer that.”

“Okay, I’ll drop it Cassandra. But you know the fans are now going to make guesses if you won’t divulge.”

“Mark… I hate you sometimes.” Cassandra said in a deadpan voice. “Also just for that I’m removing likenesses of me from the list of items.”

“That’s fine I’ve had my fill. Sorry Chloe, that you didn’t get to hit one.”

Chloe shook her head, “It’s fine I’ll queue up some other things to break as I talk about my parents. Wait, I saw them disappear but the busts of Cassandra are back. Why are they marked with an override now?”

Mark’s eyes went wide. “Chloe, let's not select the busts anymore. Please.”

“Sure, like I said before I don’t actually want to make her mad at me. I might have hit one for catharsis. But I don’t hate her. I sort of view her as a demon or devil. I mean she looks human but is she? Like her actions and motivations seem foreign to me, and she has so much power. Honestly what I would really like are likenesses of my parents and Sadie to smash. And... she just added them for me. How kind.” Chloe queued up a set of small ceramic statuettes of her parents and grabbed a bat.

“So, what’s the deal with them?” Mark asked as he sat down on top of one of the tables to the side of the room.

Chloe took in a deep breath turned towards the pedestal, and broke the first figure of her father, shrapnel flying everywhere, for it to be replaced by another. “Well, neither of them were great people. My father was worse, by a lot. I had and still have some pity for my mother, but I still hate her too. My father was an abusive, narcotic-using, drunk, asshole. I don’t mean just verbal **** either. He would beat my mother,” (SMASH), “me,” (SMASH), “and the oldest of my brothers” (SMASH).

Chloe took another deep breath. “There were a lot of trips to urgent care and the ER for ‘falling down the stairs’ and ‘tripping on the rug’. Because of him and my mother, there were nights we went to bed hungry without supper. My mother was an alcoholic, I don’t totally blame her for that, being married to an abusive piece of shit like my father is a perfectly valid reason to want to check out. But she would trade people, the use of our EBT, for ****, or **** for my father.” (SMASH) “They would both take money I earned at a part-time job while I was in high school to put food on the table too. I had to hide it and even hide any food I brought home from the food pantry. I considered calling CPS, on them. But I read that it would be hard for me and my siblings to stay together, if that happened. I love those little twerps so much.” Chloe smiled thinking about her siblings. “So, I didn’t call, I did what I could, to help. I managed to get a full ride to college on a sports scholarship. Worked when I could to help send money back home. I graduated and got a good job. I thought as soon as I got stable myself, maybe a couple of months I’d finally call CPS to get my youngest two siblings out of that hellhole. But my father took that out of my hands.” (SMASH) (SMASH) (SMASH)

Chloe was huffing at this point. “My youngest brother and mother were hospitalized for three weeks,” (SMASH) “ multiple broken bones,” (SMASH) “lacerations and contusions.” (SMASH) “It was finally enough that the fucking cops would do something about him. The doctors called CPS and charges were pressed against him. I applied for permanent custody of my siblings, and legally adopted them a few months later. My mother tried to regain custody,” (SMASH) “ when that failed she tried for visitation rights even just showing up at my house unannounced. We were done with them. Thank fucking god.” (SMASH) “I had enough money to have good lawyers, so I got a restraining order. But that bitch of a woman testified at my father’s trial that it was all an accident, and a misunderstanding. The prosecution knew they could get a conviction, especially with all four of my siblings and I willing to testify against him.” (SMASH) “But for expediency and optics they offered him a plea deal. It was an election year and while they wanted to be ‘tough on crime’,”(SMASH) “They didn’t want to be seen dragging a bunch of abused youths onto the question stand.” (SMASH) “So, he only got EIGHT,” (SMASH) “FUCKING” (SMASH) “YEARS.” (SMASH)

Chloe was panting. “He’s been out of prison for three years. He has come around my siblings' places a few times since then, asking for money and saying he had changed. “I helped them all get restraining orders so it would stop. I don’t know what happened to my mother. I also don’t care. My oldest brother went to rehab because he got started on my father’s supply. He’s been clean for a while. Thankfully. And my youngest brother has health problems from all the broken bones. The only thing even remotely decent I can say about that monster is that he didn’t sexually **** any of us. I already know at least part of what I’m going to wish for if I place first. It’s to fix all the damage and suffering those two caused and to make sure they get what they deserve.” (SMASH) Chloe thought, I bet he pities me, feels sorry for me, thinks I’m a fool and a coward for not calling CPS earlier. Chloe finally turned towards Mark, to see his reaction to her words. What the?

Chloe was confused because Mark’s face showed no pity, or regretful sympathy, his fists were balled at his side, he was looking slightly down not at Chloe but his face was one of fury and he was breathing heavily. Seeing that Chloe was done Mark got up wordlessly and went over to her, gave her a fierce but brief hug then picked up the statuette of her parents together and examined their appearances closely. “Chloe, can I borrow that bat?” She handed it to him and he put the statuette back on the pedestal then rapid fire swung as if he was in a batting cage. (SMASH)(SMASH)(SMASH)(SMASH)(SMASH)(SMASH)(SMASH)

“Chloe, if you ever see them come around again, when we return to Earth, tell me. I will make sure they never bother you or your siblings again.”

“Mark? I hate them and I’m mad at them. But why are you so furious? I can’t believe it’s just because it happened to me.”

“BECAUSE YOU DON’T FUCKING HIT CHILDREN!” (SMASH) “Sorry, Chloe. I shouldn’t have yelled at you. I’m appalled by what you and your family had to go through. I am also amazed at how successful and brilliant of a person you have become. I’ve seen stuff like that break people. I thought you might want to use the wish against your parents before we spoke if you won. I was going to discourage that, that you shouldn’t focus on vengeance, but fuck that. You have my full support, if you want justice or vengeance.” Mark then muttered under his breath, “You don’t touch kids.”

Chloe just stared at Mark. The fury had left and there was just sadness. Well this is not at all what I expected. Wait he said he’s seen stuff like this break people. Who? “Mark?” Chloe reached out a hand to his shoulder, “You want to talk about it?”

“Huh? Talk about what?”

“Whoever it was that you care about that was hurt. You said you saw people break over stuff like this. Do you want to talk about it?”

“I don’t mind talking about it. But it isn’t just one person, one of my cousins around my age has a very similar story to yours except my parents helped with her and her two younger siblings. It wasn’t as bad as your situation. Her mom was actually willing to get divorced but things were still bad. It messed up her siblings though a lot. She’s doing well, but they aren’t at all. We think my aunt is dead but we don’t know for sure. She’s been missing for a while now. But I have a handful of friends from high school and college that have similar parental **** issues. I’ve heard too many people I care about have these stories. I just don’t get people who can do that. Like I have a couple nieces and nephews, and my cousin’s kids. Sometimes they are little shits, but that's kids for you. I’ve yelled at them to knock it off when they are doing something stupid or being really annoying on purpose and I’ve already asked politely. I’ve had to grab them a few times when they wouldn’t stop trying to hit me, or rough housing got out of hand. But I never got violent, even when they jabbed me in the eye with a plastic lightsaber. You just don’t do that to children.”

Chloe winced at the comment about getting jabbed in the eye. “So, you would have gotten this upset over anyone?”

“Anyone, I know a bit and care about, yeah. I mean I probably wouldn’t get this mad over a total stranger. Hell I know people I dislike that I’ve gotten this mad for.” Mark chuckled for a moment. “Actually that’s how I became pretty good friends with someone. We didn’t like each other all that much. But, I overheard him talking to someone else mentioning the problem with his parents. Then during one of those family weekend things at college I saw his dad get physical with him, and intervened. Told his dad to fuck right off, and that he had no right to treat his adult son like that, and that if he didn’t take his hands off his son, I’d call campus security. His dad stormed off, and I told him that if he could stand up to me and say shit to my face, that he was better than allowing someone to treat him like shit, even his father. I then walked off. A bit later he extended an olive branch to resolve our differences and he isn’t my closest friend, but I do count him among my friends. Enough that he got an invite to Allie’s and my wedding. So, yeah I would get mad for most people. But I feel this way, because I do actually care about you Chloe.”

“But you hardly know me.”

“Chloe, we didn’t go to a liberal arts university. Do you remember what the gender ratio was at our university?”

“No… but I know there were more guys, that isn’t unusual for STEM focus universities”

“4:1, I’m not saying there was a list or anything but at a smaller university like ours, single women were a fairly well known quantity. Especially attractive single women. I had considered asking you out freshman year, I just thought you were out of my league.”

“Wait, seriously? You were interested in me?”

“Yes, because I have eyes. You’re sexy as hell Chloe, and don’t pretend you don’t know that. We also both ran cross-country and track, so we shared at least some common interests. The main thing that stopped me besides thinking you were out of my league was that I could see you were being hit on by so many other guys on the team. And that you were going to fraternity parties all the time, and I really wanted no part of the frat scene.”

“Well damn it. You know I didn’t end up dating anyone long term in college right no one felt like a good fit. They just wanted sex. I love Laura but it did make finding boyfriends hard, when she was willing to just screw most of them that were good looking, decent in bed, and not pricks.”

“Have you ever told her that?”

“Yeah, me and half the sorority have. She also said that if we were interested in someone that she’d hadn’t already been with she’d turn them down and she never slept with someone that she knew was dating someone else. She has done that once or twice but never knowingly, and she was pissed when she found out. Mark, this was a great idea. I feel like all the frustration I’d been feeling is gone.”

“Well, a good chunk of mine is gone. Then I got all worked up on your behalf. I’ll be good though. My arms are a little tired. Did you still want to do what you had planned? Or just go back to my suite and chill?”

“If that was a euphemism for something sexual, Mark. I’ll let you know right now that we aren’t doing anything like that tonight.”

“No, I really did just mean, have dinner, watch a movie, talk, and relax. Maybe some cuddles or kissing but nothing more.”

Chloe glanced at him skeptically, “Well, I’d rather not be up to late with the challenge being tomorrow. So that sounds nice.” Chloe walked over to the door “Shall we then?”

So they walked back to town and then over to where Hilde normally waited and went up to the suite, thanking Hilde for the ride.

Going into the suite Mark asked, “So what do you want for dinner?”

“Do you like spicy food?”

“Eh, define spicy. English Spicy, American Spicy, or Middle Eastern and Asian Spicy?”

“Uh… what’s the difference.”

“Well, English Spicy is bland, it might glance at black pepper. American Spicy ranges from pretty mild to sriracha hot sauce. Middle Eastern and Asian Spicy is flavorful but packs a punch to melt your mouth off if you aren’t prepared.”

“Then American Spicy. I think.”

“Then yes. I like spicy food. How about Thai food? Oh, yeah I’m going for that. You?”

“Sure, get me something with noodles, veggies, no corn, no peas, with mushrooms, and a protein not tofu with whatever you would consider a medium spice. I want to know what you can handle. If I ever cook for you.”

“Okay what you just said doesn’t work. I can’t handle what I would call a medium? So would you like what I would call a medium or would you like the highest end of my spice tolerance.”

“Your highest spice tolerance.”

“Okay one mild plus coming up.” Mark put in two orders of drunken noodles with chicken.

“Here you go. Weird that the food arrived so fast. I’ll just take that as proof that Cassandra purposefully delays food delivery sometimes. I just remembered. So Chloe Laura and I didn't take the bunnies last night. You said you didn't want to do anything sexual, so I assume you don't want to take them either? Are you okay taking the temporary TF?”

"Yea that's fine. It isn't a big deal. It's only temporary right?"

"That is what it says yes. So what do you want to watch?”

“Umm… How about Cinderella?”

“I don’t mind, which one though, also why do you seem embarrassed to ask that?”

“Well… I… we didn’t really get to watch many movies growing up okay. So, while I know most of the general stories I haven’t actually seen any of the Disney films or really read much of the original works.”

“Ah. Then we are absolutely watching Cinderella.” Mark looked at his phone. “So it’s about five o'clock, how about a Disney classics marathon until we go to bed. We’ll start at the early works and move forward.”

“Sure that works, can we focus on the ones that might give some hints to what might lie in store for us, with Cassandra’s fairytale and princess theme.”

“Sure I’ll skip any I don’t think are relevant, or are less relevant and we can revisit them another day. But there are quite a few good ones that probably aren’t relevant but I really love Disney films so I might be biased.”

“You really are okay with rewatching a bunch of kid films, with me?”

“Chloe, first of all they are family films. Second of all they often put in an inappropriate joke or gag, that a child is just not going to notice. The experience as an adult is different than that of a child but it is still good. So yes get your butt over here next to me we can put our feet up and watch. We’ll do ‘Cinderella’ first but then ‘Snow White’ and ‘Sleeping Beauty’ next. If we have time after, then ‘The Black Cauldron’ to wrap up the evening. Should actually get us to bed around ten, maybe eleven.”

So, Chloe sat down next to Mark, and ate dinner. As the night went on she slowly leaned into him falling asleep through ‘Sleeping Beauty’. Mark smiled down at her, sleeping soundly. He stopped the movie. Gently lifted her off the couch and carried her over to the bed and tucked her in. “Goodnight Chloe. Sweet Dreams.” Mark then went around to the other side of the bed and went to sleep as well.