She discovers a new trick.

The three looked at each other for a moment, then Alice fidgeted. Jill, still smiling placidly, sat next to her.

"Why are you doing that?" Meg asked, startled by their spontaneous actions.

Alice shrugged and turned to kiss Jill, who reached up to cup her face in her hand. Meg stared, dumbfounded. If she was learning how to have motivation, this was a particularly difficult lesson. What did she really want? A thought struck her.

Alice unlocked her lips from Jill's and rolled her eyes at Meg. "Testing, testing," she said sarcastically.

"Holy shit, you-"

"-know you want us to help you test your hypothesis," Jill finished flatly.

"Which is, of course, that you are telepathically communicating-" She paused abruptly, then sighed. "-sorry, controlling us. It really doesn't feel like that to me, though. You aren't literally making our bodies move."

Jill's face remained a mask of docile pleasantness even as her hand reached up and squeezed Alice's right breast hard enough to make her squeal in pain.

"Ow! Ok, ok, point taken." She nursed her wounded tit, glaring at Meg even as her mouth moved of its own accord. "Am I sure? Yes, I'm sure. Do I need another demonstration? Think of it this way. I have an image in my mind of what you want, and the less focused you are on me, the fuzzier the image gets."

"Oh, it's a literal image?" Meg asked.

"No, that's a metaphor. I think if you were asleep in next room over I think I would get a very vague sense of your general motivation." She paused, then nodded. "Yes, even erotic dreams. You didn't make me ask the question out loud that time! See, you're getting the hang of this! If you literally think 'squeeze her boob' at Jill, that's what she'll do. But if you think 'do something immature and slightly painful...'"

Her hand reached out and slapped the unsuspecting Jill across the face."...we get to choose how to enact your will. That's why I'm explaining this to you! It's because confusion is just radiating off of you."

"But how do you know all of this?" Meg asked as Jill rubbed her face, still looking stunned.

"Because I'm smart and I figured it out. Look, I'm experiencing first-hand a profound alteration in the very system I've spent my life studying. I started analyzing everything I've experienced since the moment I felt your will seep into me. In fact, there's a very important question that you haven't considered yet: what's the range of your ability?"

Meg cut her off, her voice tinged with fear. "Oh, no. What do I-"

"Relax," Alice said soothingly. "We're all just doing what you want. What do you want us to do?"

"Keep this under wraps," Jill answered in the muted emotional tones of a newscaster. "We can tell that you really want this to remain a secret."

"But what if I accidentally make then do something horrible?" Meg's heart rate was increasing rapidly, as was their desire to comfort her. Alice laughed and put a hand on her knee.

"Oh, that's not how this works. Here, picture me punching you in the face."

"What?" Meg was puzzled for a moment before it dawned on her. "Wait, no! Don't hit me!"

"Don't worry. You don't have any desire for that. We're getting real impressions of your actual desires. Think of it like odors. You can't change the way you smell at will. The strength of the desire is a factor of potency and distance. You reek of wanting to keep this a secret. I'll bet some poor women three blocks from here is getting a vague desire to keep a secret she doesn't know. We automatically guard your secret because you want us to."

Meg nodded. "So if I want everybody to go about their business..."

"Then that's what will happen," She finished. "And I just detected a new odor, Wow, it's really strong..."

"How would you describe it?" Meg asked.

"Sort of ░▒▓▓▓▓▓, with ▚▞ wasn't half wasn't half wasn't can't try --- like eating--&&&& dimensionality can make you understand my meaning without subvening it from the hyperplane."

Meg stared at her and Alice shrugged. "That's the best I can do."

"But you don't really want an explanation," Jill said in a suddenly husky tone. Alice nodded and began to unbutton her shirt.