Hanna Park, a powerful woman who wants to submit

Hanna couldn't believe it. All of them...all of them were topless. She turned her head to take in the whole cafe. Some of the creepier guys were staring a little bit, but for the most part people were just going about their day. Like it didn't matter. Like it had always been this way. She gulped loudly. Could this rulebook really do anything?

She looked at the pencil in her hand. She could erase it. Put everything back the way it had been. That would be the right, respectable thing to do. She didn't know how fate had conspired to have these women sign up for a job as topless baristas, but there was no way to tell they would have been willing to do such a thing without...without...magic? It had to be magic. Without the magic of this rulebook these women wouldn't be flaunting their boobs to the whole room.

Hanna gulped again. The right thing would be to take it back...or at the very least to be willing to suffer herself. Her heart started to race as she flipped the pencil over and brought the eraser down towards the page. She wasn't an exhibitionist. Really. Her heart was practically beating out of her chest now. She just had a strong sense of justice. That was all. It wasn't fair that she'd subjected these women to a treatment she couldn't bear herself.

The eraser made short work of a single word.

Old Rule: The dress code requires females to be topless at all times

She felt the change before she saw it, but looked down to confirm anyway. Her shirt was gone. Her bra too. She was sitting in public. Topless. She blushed and immediately covered her chest with her hand, then slowly looked around. All other women in the cafe were also topless. None seemed embarrassed about it. Nobody else was bothering to cover up with their hands. It was just normal to be topless here. It had always been that way. She was the lone exception, perhaps because she was the only one who knew how things used to be.

She heard the jingle as a door opened and whipped her head to look. A man came in, and his eyes immediately darted down to her chest. She felt a flush of heat, then lost her nerve. She turned back to the rulebook and erased the rule entirely. All at once the world went back to normal. Her shirt was back in place and nobody seems to be aware of what had just transpired. But was that really the case?

She got up and walked over to the counter.

"Hi! How can I help you?" The bubble barista asked.

"Um...a flat white please...and...was it just my imagination or did everyone in here used to be topless?" Hanna asked.

The barista laughed, "Oh ya. That was weird."

Hanna's eyes went wide. So people did remember what had happened? But they weren't freaking out?

"W-why was that? Why aren't you upset?" Hanna asked.

The barista shrugged, "It was just always that way. Then it wasn't. No big deal. Is that everyone? It's $6.50."

Hanna nodded and paid the woman, then went to stand and wait for her flat white. She looked at the rulebook curiously. She'd used an old rule...so people easily accepted things? What if she did it differently?"

As she waited to wrote in the book,

New Rule: All females must be topless at all times.

Then she looked up. Now people looked upset. A few patrons practically ran out of the store to avoid stripping. One woman rolled her eyes then playfully flashed her partner before removing her top entirely. The bubbly barista behind the counter audibly groaned, "Seriously? What's with this new policy? I might need a new job."

She grumbled, but she complied. And soon Hanna was the only one covering her chest...but not for long. She found her hands moving on their own, slowly unbuttoning her top. It seemed that even as the author she wasn't immune to the effects. She could feel it, buzzing away in her mind. It was a rule. Compliance was mandatory. Her shirt wasn't just going to disappear this time, she HAD to comply.

She managed to stop herself long enough to erase the rule. This didn't cause the fleeing patrons to return, although they might come back another day. The barista put her shirt on while complaining about sloppy management choices, and Hanna felt her own compulsion disappear. Only the one woman, the one who'd flashed her partner, kept her top off. That is until someone yelled at her and she sighed and put it back on.

"A flat white." A barista behind her said, setting it down on the counter.

Hanna jumped and turned, "Oh, thank you." She picked it up and took a sip. A smile spread across her face. She was going to have a lot of fun with this.

Hanna was sitting upright on her bed. Crumpled sheets of paper were scattered across the comforter, evidence of the hours she'd spent agonizing over what to do next. Idea after idea had been written down, scrutinized, and discarded. She suddenly had enormous power on her hands and that both terrified and excited her. She knew that poor wording could hurt a lot of people, herself included. In fact most of her plans would end up hurting people, there wasn't much she could do to avoid that if she wanted to accomplish her goals. But still, she wasn't a monster. She wouldn't just charge in blindly, without any consideration for others. That said...she wouldn't have gone far in the VC world if her morals weren't a little flexible.

Eventually, she settled on a plan.

The final version now glowed from her laptop screen. She read through it one last time, saved the document, and opened her web browser for one last little bit of 'research'.

To her friends and family, Hanna was a serious woman. Stern. Intimidating, even. She'd had to be.

As much as she loved her parents, they had never made life easy for her. Their expectations had hung over her childhood like a weight. While other kids were making friends and getting into trouble, Hanna was studying. Piano lessons. Tennis practice. Korean school. French tutoring. Math competitions. Debate club. There was always another skill to master, another achievement to chase.

In some ways, it had paid off.

She could play the piano at a near-professional level. She spoke four languages fluently. She'd been undefeated at her tennis club for five consecutive years. Most impressively, she'd become a partner at one of the largest venture capital firms in Canada by the age of thirty-six.

She had money.

She had power.

She had influence.

And she was miserable.

Most weeks, ten uninterrupted minutes with a coffee in her favourite cafe felt like a luxury. She hadn't made partner by leaving the office at five o'clock. She worked seven days a week, and even her hobbies weren't really hobbies. Tennis matches, charity galas and even dinners with 'friends' were all just networking opportunities. Every relationship, every conversation, every hour of her day was somehow connected to work. Everything she did was in service of her career.

Until today, she hadn't seen any other path. She was terrified of taking her foot off the gas. Terrified of reaching for the things she actually wanted.

The men at her firm seemed able to have everything. They could afford to have spouses, to have children. Their careers never suffered for it and in fact it often seemed to help them. A married father was seen as stable, mature, dependable.

But she knew the rules were different for her, for all women in the corporate world. A single woman working eighty-hour weeks was ambitious, someone the company could invest it for greater rewards. A woman with a serious boyfriend, let alone a husband, was suddenly a potential liability. She'd seen partners drag down the women around her one by one until she was alone at the top. Maternity leave, even the idea of taking it at some point in the future, was anathema to career advancement. The business leaders hated the very idea with a passion and seemed loathe to give any woman a chance just because of that possibility. Hanna had had to work twice as hard to prove herself compared to the men who stumbled blindly beside her.

So she'd made a decision years ago. She would outwork everyone. She would become so successful, so indispensable, that nobody could question her place at the table. And then...

Then it would be too late. Too late to have the life she'd postponed. Too late to figure out what she actually wanted. Too late to be anything except the person she'd spent decades becoming. She had always known that. The realization had haunted her for years, lurking in the back of her mind whenever she lay awake at night.

But she'd never seen a way out. Not without disappointing her parents, without disappointing those that relied on her at work, and most of all, not without disappointing herself. She'd invested so much into this career, she couldn't just throw it away.

Until now. She looked down at the laptop and felt a tingle down her spine as she re-read one of her favourite stories. With little outlet for her desires she'd eventually found a particular website. A site filled with stories of lust. Of submission. Of control, and loss of it. Stories that could not exist in the real world. Magical control and transformation. She would read them and imagine herself giving in, submitting to some powerful master. Having her body betray her. Having absolutely **** in the matter.

That's what she wanted. To lose control, without losing everything. At least...not right away. As she read the story her hand drifted down between her legs. A very familiar action. She moaned softly as her fingers met her soft folds. Time for one final orgasm before she signed her life away...

Hanna sat at her kitchen table, staring down at the rulebook in front of her. It was time.

She'd already written several rules. Rules to protect her.

First she'd made it so that nobody else could write in the rulebook. They wouldn't even be able to see what was written inside. She made it so she could summon the rulebook to her at any time so it could never be lost. She gave herself a way to buy time to write it in, even if her present circumstances made it impossible. She made herself quasi invincible too. She'd never be sick again, well...not without intervention of the rulebook. She could be hurt, be made to feel pain, but she made it a rule that there was a limit nobody and nothing could cross. She wasn't sure how well it would hold up, but it wasn't like she had any protection against random accidents before hand either. Then she'd given herself a safe word. She didn't want to use it recklessly so she'd tied it to something pretty serious. If she used it, she'd reset all of her rules...and lose the rulebook. She'd never be able to write it in again. It was really a last resort.

Then she'd moved on to more dangerous things. Rules to confine her. To limit how she used the rulebook in the future.

Old Rule: Hanna Park cannot erase or modify a rule without a man's permission. The man must not be compelled to say yes in any way and Hanna must explain the full change she wishes to make.

After that one she tested it, but it really was impossible. She couldn't even touch the rulebook with her eraser anymore. She wanted it to be a man, because a woman was far likely to agree to delete things considered the way her twisted fantasies were going to change the world. Well...that and in her fantasies it was usually a man she submitted to. Not always, but usually.

New Rule: Hanna Park cannot be fired for any reason. Her salary cannot be withheld for any reason. She cannot skip mandatory work hours except for approved vacation days and holidays.

That way she wouldn't just be able to hide out in her condo if things got tough. She'd have to keep going. Maybe not 80 hours a week, but at least the 37.5 that her contract official requires.

New Rule: Hanna Park must add one rule to the rulebook before noon each day. If she does not the rulebook will generate its own rule which will be designed to punish her based on her sexual fantasies.

That would keep things interesting. She couldn't just get comfortable in a scenario. She'd have to keep going no matter what. She'd tested it the night before, seeing if the rulebook had the capability of generating new rules. And wow, she was not disappointed. She knew if her creativity failed her she could rely on the rulebook to keep things going.

Hanna took a deep breath. She had lots more ideas, but she wanted to save them for later. Now it was time for the big one. The one that would change not just her life, but the lives of women all over the world. It was bold, dangerous and totally unethical. She would be living out a fantasy, but dooming other women to suffer. She nearly stopped herself from writing it altogether. She didn't consider herself to be a bad person. A little ruthless at times, but not a bad person.

She knew she could rationalize it however she wanted, but once she wrote this...she would be a bad person.

After another deep breath she realized something. She was ok with that. In fact, a lot of her fantasies just didn't work within a moral code. With this kind of power she could easily make rules targeting herself, and only herself. She could ensure complete consent from everyone who participates in her fantasies. But she knew she didn't want that. She wanted others to suffer too. She didn't know why she was built that was, but she knew it was true. She needed to drag down other women too, men too if the opportunity arose. She was a bad person, and she was fine with that.

She took her pencil and wrote.

Old Rule: There is a well known but extremely rare disease called Target Immune Tolerance Syndrome. This disease affects about 1 in 100 thousand women above the age of 18. Its origin is unknown and it cannot be prevented or predicted. There is no cure except that women over 60 experience no symptoms. Those with the disease begin to experience symptoms that worsen over time including dry lips and throat, hunger pains, dizziness, headaches, hot flashes and insomnia. The only treatment for the disease is semen. Inexplicably the treatment only works when delivered straight from a penis into the mouth. Successful treatment cures all symptoms for 24 hours, after which they will begin to build again. The syndrome also causes rapid breast growth with most sufferers gaining 3-4 cup sizes permanently. She'd done it. She'd unleashed that horrible disease on the world. Except she wasn't done.

New Rule: Hanna Park has Target Immune Tolerance Syndrome

There it was. She'd infected herself. She couldn't erase it now, even if she wanted to.

She stood up, smoothed her skirt, and then closed the rulebook. If she didn't leave now she'd be late for work and that was against the rules. She hurried off, ready to start her new life.

For anyone wondering I'm still going to continue my branch with Sierra, Ken and Mira, this is just something new I wanted to write. I think this first chapter gives a good idea of what to expect from this branch. Hanna is going to slowly make things harder on herself, and other women, with little regard for collateral damage.