Silence stretches out for long seconds before you let out a sigh. "What do you want, Emma?" you ask tiredly.
She doesn't respond for a long moment. Then she shakes her head and looks up at your ceiling, scoffing.
Behind your eyes, your headache pounds away.
You know you shouldn't use your power. You do anyway.
Emma's emotions are, as always, turbulent. It's almost enough to make you sick right now. Fear, nervousness, doubt, anger, self-hatred and crushing isolation almost overwhelm you, but they're bound tight, sealed, with bands of... something, directed at you. You can't quite place the emotion. It's similar to what Dad feels about his job when you head out to the kitchen each morning. Job satisfaction? No, that can't be right. Why would Emma be feeling job satisfaction around you?
Well, you can think of one reason why, at least.
Through it all is the thick band of lust you've been playing with all day. It's still there, as strong as ever.
Whatever cruelties Emma came to inflict on you today, you can't deal with it. Not here, not in your sanctuary. Not in the one place you have where you can still lie back and pretend like Emma hasn't done any of the things she's done.
You know it's a bad idea. You pull on her lust anyway.
She shifts restlessly on your bed as you move over to your bed and sit beside her, placing your hand gently on her knee. "Hey," you say encouragingly. "It's okay. You can tell me, whatever it is."
Her expression wavers. A flicker of— something, is revealed, too quick for you to identify it, then hidden away, tucked deep down.
You draw your fingers up along her thigh, teasingly dancing them along as you pull gently at her lust over and over, each time drawing a little sigh from her. When you reach the V of her thighs, she lets out a soft, lustful sigh and spreads her legs, but you don't pull your fingers up— instead, you drag them back down, painfully slowly by the hitch of her breath. You repeat the action a few times, enjoying the way she tries to stifle her lusty moans.
Soon, you grow tired of stroking her thighs despite her heaving breaths, and move your fingers up, past the apex of her thighs and towards her stomach. Her eyes widen as you tease your fingers around the waistband of her pants, dipping your fingers in far enough to brush her panties before suddenly pulling them out and moving your hands back to your sides.
She looks at you with slightly wild eyes. You look back at her, gaze level and innocent. Too far, too fast. Or maybe it's just in time.
Neither of you speak another word as she clambers back to her feet and staggers out of your room, calling for Alan to take her back home.
Only once the front door has closed and you hear their car start do you allow yourself to fall back with a weary sigh.
You'd think being able to manipulate a girl's emotions would make her easier to understand, you think wryly to yourself.
It's Wednesday morning now, and the week is half over already.
You've made a surprising amount of progress this week so far, but your headache is also beginning to build. You're not sure why your power is inconsistent like this— sometimes you can manipulate a girl like Madison for hours at a time and only get a minor headache, while other times you can manipulate a girl like Sophia and have a headache after less than an hour. Something to investigate at another time, probably.
You're not sure what that was with Emma last night. You've tried to put it out of your mind, but you keep circling back to it. Why had she needed to come over to your house? Why couldn't she have made whatever barbed comment she wanted to at school? Maybe you should have let her speak, but— you suspect that whatever she'd wanted to say, it couldn't have been a good conversation. Nothing involving Emma pushing her way into your house can be pleasant. Better to just push her away now and deal with it later, when you don't feel like she's invading your house.
At least your manipulation of Sophia is going well. You can't afford to push her much further just yet, so you'll have to wait until next week, but if you'd kissed her and groped her on the arse just two weeks ago, you're pretty sure she would have legitimately murdered you.
Still, you can't put off heading to school much longer. You can't skip, not with Madison waiting for you. So what are you going to do, over the next few days? [Pick up to three two of the following options. Tutoring Madison is already locked in.]
[] You're feeling just a little bit vulnerable right now, and you could really use a distraction. And Madison is proving herself a devoted little sub. So, after tutoring, you're going to tell Rick you're bringing Madison around to your house, and— you're not telling him this part— Madison is going to distract you. Not with sex, not yet— but you won't say no to some nudity. Yeah, you can get behind the idea of spooning a nude Madison as you watch a movie together. What could go wrong?
— Success chance: Cannot be failed.
— General results: Increases Madison's Lust and Affection by 2. Distracts Taylor from her issues a little. Provides a scene in which Taylor plays with the body of a completely nude Madison, then falls asleep together with her. Encourages Taylor to hide her issues and provide herself with emotional comfort by having sex with her harem instead of healthily talking them out. Will not block or hamper recruitment efforts or similar; will only affect Taylor's characterization.
— General notes: Basically encourages Taylor to comfort herself by sleeping with her women instead of stumbling through and trying to figure out what could cause her to overcome them. The safer option for players.
[] Take Madison out for a walk in the evening. It's not the most romantic of dates, but you really think you could do with just spending some alone time with Madison now. Not in a sexual way— you just want to get away from this entire messy plan of yours and cuddle in a park with a girl who adores you. Well, maybe in a little bit of a sexual way. 90% platonic.
— Success chance: Cannot be failed.
— General results: Increases Madison's Affection by 1. Distracts Taylor from her issues a little. Makes Taylor's relationship with Madison a little bit deeper. Note that this does not affect Taylor's harem— Taylor can have deep relationships with multiple girls at once, so long as she successfully convinces them to enter her harem.
[] Do something potentially immoral; you're going to deliberately and willingly use your powers to grant you safe passage during class to the area where you know the school's Brotherhood contingent keeps stashes of drugs and drug money. You are then going to dispose of the drugs and steal their money.
— Success chance: 60%.
— General results: Taylor will steal several thousand dollars worth of cash from the Brotherhood without leaving a trace of her presence behind, allowing a wider variety of options in future updates. The Brotherhood will not know it was her, and will not suspect it. Increases Taylor's stress levels as she obsesses over being found out.
— On a success: A wandering teacher will have sent the Brotherhood gang members to class, and Taylor will be able to liberate the money without anyone the wiser.
[] Get a hobby and try and bleed off some of this stress. You've been thinking about trying to develop an interest in something non-cape related recently anyway. [Select one of the following.]
[] Go and volunteer at one of the local hospitals. They always need the help, and not only will it teach you useful— no. No, you're not going to think of it like that. They need the help, and you need something to do. You'll go there, you'll do what needs doing, and maybe you'll even make a friend.— General notes: Provides early access to Amy's recruitment. If recruitment here is started prior to breaking one of Victoria's rules, recruitment bonuses for Amy will be increased by 50%. If recruitment is started here, Amy will— similarly to Madison— not add to Taylor's stress levels.
[] Go and learn some photography. Maybe taking some calming nature shots will calm you down.— General notes: Provides the ability to engage in some voyeurism if you break the unwritten rules and spy on capes within their homes. Will not result in negative consequences for Taylor unless future options explicitly say so.
[] Go and learn how to garden. Maybe gardening is nice and peaceful.
[] Go and learn how to paint. Painting is peaceful, probably!
[] [Write-In] [Note: Write-ins subject to GM approval. Fetishistic write-ins subject to increased GM scrutiny, as I can't write all fetishes interestingly.]
Spoiler: Stat Gains/Losses
Stat gains:
Emma Barnes:
+2 Lust
+1 Loyalty
+2 Devotion
+2 Affection
Sophia Hess:
+3 Lust
+1 Loyalty
+1 Intrigue
1.9
Come Wednesday morning, you find yourself giving very serious consideration to the idea of just skipping school this morning. It won't be the first time you've skipped school, although you try not to make a habit of it— you've only done it twice before, when Emma's taunts got bad enough that they actually cut you, made you need to find a place where you could go and cry.
You don't, in the end. You're pretty sure you could get away with it, especially as Dad leaves this morning with a parting call telling you that he's going to be working late again, but... you don't much feel like staying at home, either. You're twitching after several minutes alone in the house. School might be bad, but your house isn't much better at the moment.
Besides, you don't want to leave Madison alone in the library this afternoon. The thought of her disappointed expression makes you feel vaguely ill.
At least your headache has mostly faded by now. It's still there, pounding away in the back of your head, but it's better now. Barely noticeable unless there's a sudden jolt or a bright light.
You arrive just before the bell, having barely enough time to run through the halls to your locker. A grin makes its way across your face when you see that Madison's left another lunch for you, adorned with a pink card again, this time cut into the shape of a messy love heart. You're pretty sure it was hand-cut, which makes you have to stifle a dopey giggle at the image of Madison sitting at her desk cutting it out for you. Your girl really is the cutest.
The card— and the lunch— lifts your mood enough that you don't even mind too much when you walk into first period and find Emma studiously avoiding looking at you. That's fine, you tell yourself. You need some time to yourself anyway.
Madison smiles warmly at you when you seek her gaze out. You can't help but be a little resentful of Charlotte or whatever her name is, for getting to sit beside her, as silly as the feeling is. It's not her fault that she's been assigned there, and it's not her fault that she doesn't feel like requesting to sit somewhere else. Still, you want to sit there.
For a moment, you briefly consider the idea of using your power on her, and bringing her under you so you could make her swap seats-
but then your head twinges, and you hurriedly discard the idea. No, as much as you want Madison to be around you all the time right now, you also want to be able to focus during your tutoring sessions with her. They're too important to Madison for you to mess them up for something so selfish.
No. Instead, you pull out your books and try to actually concentrate on your classes. You might have read ahead, but you can't rely on everything the teachers are teaching you now having been in there.
By the time of the final bell, your headache has finally almost completely abated. Without Madison around during the second half of the day, your good mood has faded somewhat, but it's manageable still.
And it rises again almost immediately when you see Madison waiting by the entrance to the library for you. You pull her into a hug as soon as you walk up into hugging range, enjoying the way she immediately melts into you.
"Hi," she sighs happily. You tighten your arms around her in response, enjoying the warm gasp she can't quite hide, before you reluctantly let go. You still keep one arm around her waist, though, encouraging her to press herself against your side as you pull her into the library, where you locate a seat and pull her onto your lap. So far, the only other person who's come to the library during these hours was a single girl who headed off to the back of the library, and hadn't come out by the time you and Madison finished for the day.
She doesn't try to get off you, but she does twist around to give you a worried look. You just wrap your arms around her middle and give her a reassuring kiss. It doesn't make her look much less worried, but she doesn't say anything— just reaches down and twines one of your hands with hers, gently rubbing her thumb over your knuckles. It helps.
The study session itself goes well. Madison's not a stupid girl, no matter what certain whispered rumours around the school are saying; she's just not the kind of girl who learns well in class. With some individualized attention— and a much naughtier incentive scheme than any teacher could legally provide— she's proving herself a quick study. You doubt she'll ever attain your own grade level, but you're one of the top students at Winslow.
Still, despite Madison's presence in your lap, you're left feeling a little anxious when the clock ticks close to five. You try to put it out of your mind for a while, but it just builds up, and you're afraid that it's going to spill out if you don't do something about it soon.
"Hey, Madison," you whisper quietly against her neck. She shivers and lets out an inquisitive "Hm?", pencil pausing from where it's scratching against her notepad. "What are you doing after we're done here today?"
"Nothing," she says, twisting again to look at you. "Did you want me to do something for you?"
You grin and gently stroke her sides. "With me," you correct her gently, and she nods her head obediently at the correction. "Come to the park with me."
"Okay," she replies instantly. Then your words actually catch up to her; you can tell, because her face immediately flushes a furious red. "Like a date?" she squeaks.
"Exactly like a date," you purr.
Her face is a furious red, but there's a luminous smile on her face as she nods eagerly. "Yeah, of course," she says hurriedly. "Um, did you want me to do anything first? I can get Dad to take me home, I can change or cook some food or-"
You cut off the flood of words by nipping at her lower lip, causing her to squeak and blush even harder. "It's fine," you say. "I don't want you to do anything but come with me. Call your dad and let him know you'll be home later."
