Taking Back Control

Mark awoke with Talia still cradled in his arm, her head in the crook of his shoulder. For a while he just lay there watching her sleep peacefully. She really is pretty. He played the previous day over in his mind a bit. Just thinking about what happened. Mark moved a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her face out of the way. Causing her to stir a little. Then he kissed her on top of her head. “Hey, good morning Talia. Sleep well?”

She looked up at him a little bleary eyed then closed her eyes again and nestled her head back into his shoulder.

“Talia, come on, we have to get up at some point. Unless you want to just spend the entire morning naked in bed. I can think of a lot of things with you here naked in bed.”

She just glared up at him and tried to go back to sleep again.

“Oh, I see you just want me to keep you in my bed forever I get it. I mean I’m not opposed to making you my permanent bed warmer. You are rather cute.”

She yawned and stretched her arms and then kissed Mark on the lips. “FINE” She groaned. “I get it, I’ll get up.” She began walking over to the wardrobe and stopped, and frowned. “The cover is off the mirror again.”

“Great… Let me check something.”

Mark (To Cassandra and Freya): Cassandra is ASTRID the one taking the cover off the mirror and if so how can Freya or I stop her from doing so.

Freya (To Mark and Cassandra): I am sorry Mark I did instruct her not to do that.

Cassandra (To Mark and Freya): It is her. You are unlikely to convince her to stop as that would be counter to one of her prime functions of having harem members ‘Optimized’ as she puts it. Personally I don’t see the issue like I said before there is no compulsion effect on the mirror. It simply shows a likely future based upon the present.

Cassandra (To Mark): Also see how easy that was? Just picking up your phone and sending a text wasn’t THAT HARD, now was it?

“It was ASTRID. Apparently she won’t follow the order to leave the cover on. Since it goes against one of her ‘primary functions’ Cassandra said.”

“Hmm. Well, we just will have to be mindful of it in the morning. Everyone knows about the mirror now. So there shouldn’t be any surprise usage and it isn’t like it is harmful if Cassandra is to be believed right?”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Have you looked in the mirror?”

“On the first night I got here. When Cassandra showed me the suite.”

“But not since then? I think you should.”

“Really, why?”

“Mark, it might have only been five days but a lot has happened.” Talia went over to her wardrobe and started to get dressed intentionally not looking at the mirror yet. “Look, you’ve had some time to process the ****, and aren’t so aroused by having just come from all the transformations. You have a second official girlfriend now, in Sam, that Allie even approves of. You were turned into a woman, and I assume orgasmed as one. There is the whole thing with Astrid. Also the mess with Flora. People change under pressure, some for the better, some crack. Can you really tell me that you are the same guy that Cassandra **** a few days ago?”

“I guess that’s fair, but what if I don’t like what I see.”

“Isn’t that the whole point? To give you a clue. To know if you need to change or if the path you’re on is one you will be happy with? So come over here and look. I’ll go after you.”

“Fine, but let me get dressed first.” So Mark got up and got dressed. “Okay why are you staring at me like that?”

“I want to watch you while you look into the mirror. See if there is any effect. I also want to do something else after I look into it.”

So Mark looked into the mirror at his reflection. He saw a large estate with more than a dozen buildings on the property, but the main building was a large mansion separated into twelve wings connected to a large central structure. It shifted to him walking in the front door and he could see hazy outlines of children, Aubrey there greeting him with a kiss, while holding a child in her arms. She gave him a warm smile and walked off down a pale pink hall off to one wing to put the little one down for a nap. He felt home, looking at the halls he felt better about some than others. A deep ocean blue hall felt particularly safe and inviting. A bright white hall filled to the brim with love right next to the blue one. But he looked down a few and was filled with regret: a woody brown that smelled of nature, a dark green with a sickly sweet smell, and a deep red that simply reeked of sex. He felt bad, like he had failed, when looking down these halls.

“Okay that was intense.” Mark stubbled back a bit as the vision ended.

“I could tell, your expression changed as the vision happened. It also seemed longer than the others, probably because you have to get direction for each of us instead of just one of us. Remember anything?”

“I’m going to be a father. I could tell I had kids.”

“Well that much is obvious. Aubrey is in your harem.”

“Okay fair. I felt good but also like I failed. Like I failed some of you.”

“Top contender there is Flora, you are still clearly upset with her. Even if you say you moved on, you clearly haven’t.”

“I really have.”

Talia just shook her head. “God, I wish I could add the word ‘not’ to the sentence ‘Mark is thick-headed’ to fix this problem. Look, you haven’t had a real chance to actually settle it with Flora, and if you can’t get over it, by talking, just bend her over your knee and spank her a few times. She might even enjoy that. Anyway it's my turn.”

As Talia stared into the mirror, as the vision began Talia activated her Perception of Time, not sure if it would make a difference but wanted to try. She saw herself, a pale beauty, with dark black hair, large breasts and hips and a slim waist. She felt love inside herself and felt loved, but it felt like something was missing. Not that she was suffering but that something was lacking. Then she noticed it, she had no ring on her finger. She wasn’t Mark’s wife, rather his mistress of the night.

“Talia? Are you okay? Something happened to your eyes, that didn’t happen with the others I watched, they shimmered slightly.”

“Uh yeah. I tried something and I think it actually had an effect. I activated my Perception of Time, giving me a lot more time to examine the vision even if it didn’t feel that way. I definitely picked up on a few things. The top one was you never put a ring on my finger. I could tell I was goth, but that’s no surprise. Even if the growth is slow, it is bound to happen eventually and since confession isn’t a reset. I’ll eventually totally embrace the goth look. But I bet this is a lot better than it would have been a few days ago. There is still time to change things. So I’m not overly worried.”

“You mentioned you wanted to try something after you looked in the mirror?”

“Yeah, I want to squeeze together real close and try looking at our combined reflection in the mirror. See if we get anything from that like maybe you or I get something more specific about the relationship. I’m thinking of you in particular, since you have so much to show that maybe with me besides you, you will only get info about me.”

“Worth a try.” So Mark put his arm around her and brought her in close and they looked into the mirror together. The mirror was filled with pitch black smoke. “I think this is the magic eight ball equivalent of, your future is hazy, try again later.”

“Well we know that it doesn’t just do nothing, maybe it’s because there is too much to totally define our specific relationship or that because you still have five words to pick out for me that it is too chaotic what the options could be. Since not just what you pick but why could affect our personal relationship. You should try it with Sam, or Allie, maybe both. You would probably get a better result with them.”

~Ping~

“Okay, just got a text from Laura and Merida, apparently everyone is having breakfast on their own today, so we should eat before you leave. Also it would let me toss around a couple ideas I had for your words, while we eat.”

“Sure.” Talia moved over and placed a breakfast order for an omelet and pancakes for the both of them. “So what crazy change were you thinking?”

“Why does it have to be crazy?” Talia's expression and silence said all it needed to convey the message of ‘do I really have to answer that.’ “Look it really isn’t that out there. You didn’t even seem totally opposed to the general concept, just concerned about my wording.”

“Oh, this is about making me sexually submissive? I mean it isn’t the top of my list but if you really want it that bad, and the others aren’t enough for you in that regard, it wouldn’t be horrible.”

“Well, that’s the thing. It isn’t that exactly. I had been toying with an idea to give you all my matching fetishes but I feel like there are too many ways for that to go wrong.”

“All of them? Really? Why?”

“Well I was thinking it would be nice to have someone who would be up for trying any of the things I enjoy sexually. But every way I think about it, results in or could result in an unintended side effect. So I was thinking something similar, specifically giving you a fetish, that I have, that none of the others are really into.”

“Okay, I'm pretty sure if I really thought about it I could come up with something but I would rather not be an outlet for everyone of your fetishes. Now how sick and messed up is this fetish, if none of the other women you are compatible with are into it?”

“I was thinking of giving you a matching fetish for TFs.”

“Right you have an entire path around transformations and short term temporary stuff like from the slumber party is one thing the others might be into. But I’m guessing you are thinking of a longer term transformation if not permanent ones.”

“A bit yea. But primarily temporary options, maybe they would last a week or month but they wouldn’t be permanent unless you really enjoyed it after the fact. Plus I figured it might help you deal with the show itself, if you weren’t so opposed to being TF’ed.”

“I don’t know… That doesn’t seem like the wisest course to me.”

“Okay, well that actually brings us to another point, I want to discuss.” Mark took a deep breath to steady himself. “It might be you getting used to things or maybe this is just who you are now but just because you are smarter than most people now doesn’t mean you know best.”

Mark cut Talia off before she could retort to that statement. “Don’t interrupt me. Last night you talked about respect. I was upset and angry about how I’ve been treated by many of you and I lashed out at you in particular. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you like that. BUT!”

Mark again stopped Talia from retorting, holding up a finger for her to wait. “You haven’t been treating me with respect. You’ve talked down to me repeatedly as if you know better. Yes you’re smarter than me but that doesn’t mean you know better than me or are more knowledgeable than me about some things. I can already tell you that you weren’t the most graceful at handling social interactions before I changed your history. I doubt that changed for the genius child who probably graduated high school before puberty and has gotten five PhDs when they are barely an adult. You don’t know more about the show than I do, unless you’re telling me that changed in your history but I doubt it.”

Talia once again opened her mouth to interrupt him. Mark raised his voice slightly for the first time in the conversation. “Stop! This is part of what I mean. You’ve already tried interrupting me three times while I’m trying to talk right now. You did it a lot last night too. You repeatedly insulted my intelligence yesterday, talked down to me, and you complained about my tone with you. But what about your tone with me? Instead of talking to me when you got upset you stormed off. This morning you continued to insult my intelligence, told me how I felt about something when I said differently, insulted my tastes multiple times. Does any of that sound like someone who respects the other person? Because it doesn’t, to me.” Mark finally sat back in his chair and gestured with a hand that he was done if Talia wanted to talk.

Talia sat there in silence for a while thinking. “You’re right, I’m sorry Mark.”

“Good, now I want to correct a misunderstanding. First I want to make this clear I’m not doing this in retaliation or anything like that. But I am taking Merida’s advice from the other day. When I said I was thinking about giving you that fetish I wasn’t asking for permission. I’m discussing things with you because I do respect you, I respect that you are more intelligent than me and that will mean that sometimes you will notice something that I don’t but don’t assume I can’t notice things, and you have all the answers. Like I said, I am taking Merida’s advice. I am making some changes with the last five words solely for me. I’m not asking for permission to give you the TF fetish. Honestly the only reason I am not giving you all of my fetishes is because I can see glaring issues with trying to do that. Now I asked you about it because I would like your help on the exact wording and that is going to be the case for the other words as well.”

“So, you’re just going to do whatever you want with me?” Talia asked a bit bitterly.

“Talia, remember when I specifically asked you NOT to take the deal multiple times. Well the consequences of that are you **** me to make changes to you and you have given me essentially no guidance on what you actually want just what you don’t want. You've just shot down my ideas. I have to pick something so I am. If you don't like that then you come up with something better first. You’ve still not given me a specific thing you want, besides the one thing about your family. You're bitter that I'm making decisions about changing you. What about the changes to your family? I've actually consulted with you, gotten your input and stuck to the general guidance you've given me. You asked me to make a change to your entire family for your convenience. So don't try to take the moral high road with me. You said that you trusted me to do this, were you lying? Because I don’t think you were.”

Talia just sat in silence for a while, thinking about what Mark said.

Mark eventually continued, “Talia, look I want to make three things clear, if you come to me with a clear specific idea, I will probably take it. I will be asking for your help on wording but I’m not having you shoot down every idea I bring to you. Lastly, the stuff about me not being treated with respect isn't just you. Aubrey, Chloe, Hilde, and Freya have all been disrespectful. Merida, Sam too but to a lesser extent. And I don’t mean in a ‘you don’t respect my authority’ way or good natured ribbing, but actually disrespectful to me. You just happen to be the person I’m confronting first about it.”

“I haven’t really had any meaningful chance to interact with Ellen a bunch so I don’t know how that will go. Flora has been afraid of me most of the round because I actually disrespected her. The only people that I actually feel like have been treating me with respect are Laura and Allie, and frankly Allie has been a goddamn saint about all this in my opinion. She had every right to be upset about this. If she was upset with me, for actively going along with things from the get go I would have understood. I still would have gone along with things, but I wouldn’t have been angry with her for being upset.”

“Laura has essentially been helping resolve every single mess that has cropped up so far. Even if she has been involved in starting some of them. She’s been checking up on everyone else since I don’t have time. When she saw a problem with what I was doing, she gave me multiple opportunities to correct it myself. Only after she saw that I didn’t understand the problem, did she come to talk with me. Yes, she got angry, yes she yelled at me a little, yes she told me to shut up and think. But you know what she didn’t do? She didn’t call me stupid or thick headed. She didn’t insult me. She didn’t interrupt me when I was trying to explain myself. She didn’t badger me until I gave into her demands. She came to me like you would a friend who had gotten caught up in events and needed someone to come help them slow down, take a breath and work through things. She explained to me why she was concerned about my actions. She listened to my viewpoints and considered them, and we found common ground. I respect her a whole hell of a lot for maintaining her composure and dealing with everything the best she can. Honestly that respect is probably causing her no small amount of frustration. Something that I aim to correct on her date night.”

“So, Talia, I’m sorry if it seems like I’m taking all my frustrations out on you. I intend to have this conversation with everyone, because insulting me and yelling at me to get your way IS going to end. I’m also hoping that Laura has come up with some options about handling when one of you crosses an unacceptable line, because I’m not sure how unbiased Freya can be towards some of you any more. I think that’s all I have to say on the matter.”

Talia just sat in silent contemplation for a bit longer. “Thank you, for explaining. You’re right, I’ve not been fair to you, and I have insulted you. You’re right that my social skills haven’t really improved since you changed my history, in fact they might have gotten worse. I’m used to it not mattering if I was rude to someone because of how much smarter I am and because I have money now. Even if I know that it is technically new, it doesn’t feel that way. It feels like I lived it. That’s not an excuse though. I’m sorry for insulting you. I know you aren’t stupid and I shouldn’t imply it. I think I’m going to go, unless you have something else to say. I hope you have a good time today with Flora.” Seeing that Mark didn’t have anything else she left.

A minute or two after she was gone, Mark was about to go shower when…

~Pop~

Cassandra appeared seated on the couch eating popcorn. “Thank. The. Gods. It’s about damn time.”

“Cassandra, now is not a great time.” Mark was tired and didn’t want to start fighting with Cassandra again.

“Look Mark, I’m being serious. I was concerned I was going to have to step in and do something about this, like with that ridiculous notion of them being able to punish you. I’m proud of you. Proud of the way you handled this. That’s all I really came here to say. You’re taking charge and you recognize the strengths and weaknesses of your women. You’re relying on them to help you manage things. I’m seriously happy about this.”

“If that’s the case, Cassandra. Then would you care to explain why you are trying to sabotage my relationship with the woman I can most rely on to make sure shit doesn’t go off the rails? Because I looked at Laura’s status in the store. She has a fourth spell now, Induce Impulse. Not sure precisely when she bought it. But I can already tell she used it, I know she used it on me, but barely at the slumber party. But I am fairly certain she used it at least one other time and probably at full power. Thing is, if Laura did what I think she did, that conflicts with everything else she’s done. So either she is the most devious cunning schemer of the people here or the far more likely scenario you called in one of her favors and threatened her if she refused to comply. I can already guess what you wanted to happen. I don’t care about the explanation for that. I want to know why you sabotaged Laura and what I can do to buy those remaining two favors from you.”

Cassandra blinked in genuine surprise. “I did not sabotage Laura.”

“Yes or no, did you or did you not call in a favor and could she have refused without a punishment.”

“Yes, and no.”

“Then you sabotaged her. If she didn’t have a choice—”

“I didn’t say that she didn’t have a choice.”

“Cassandra a punishment TF even if it was milder and temporary is still ****.”

“Not what I meant. I simply asked that she use the spell at, at least half power, three times, none on the same person and once had to be on you.”

“Yep, still sabotage. Let me guess you didn’t tell her that she had to do a specific compulsion, or on who. But you made a suggestion, didn't you? Because I remember the terms of your deal you wouldn’t push her boundaries too far. Not that you wouldn’t push them. So I ask again WHY?”

“Mark, if you don’t want to believe me that I wasn't sabotaging her, fine, this conversation isn’t going to go anywhere.” Cassandra stood up to leave. As she started to wave her hand right before she disappeared Mark got in a last comment.

“Hey, Cassandra, next time you want to stop by for a chat. Maybe you should pick up your phone and message first. You know? To let me know you want to stop by. You never know. I could be busy.”

~Pop~