It really is a turn-on to think about, though.
You shift uncomfortably after a few minutes. Charlotte doesn't need much playing with; she wasn't loyal to you, not exactly, but that strong responsibility you'd felt running through her acted beneath it, reinforced what you'd done. It shouldn't be hard for you to convince her tomorrow to ask the teacher to just move seats, which would allow you to move near Madison.
You unconsciously rub your thighs together as you cast your eyes around the classroom. Eventually, your gaze falls on Sophia, who looks away as your gaze falls on her, chewing roughly on the end of a pencil.
Checking first— yes, that should be strong enough, you think; you'll just make sure to arrive a bit earlier in class tomorrow so you can reinforce her conditioning— you allow your power to slip away from Charlotte and towards Sophia.
You'd brushed over Sophia's emotions before, but you spend a few moments now to feel them again. You'd felt embarassment and disdain earlier, and they are still both there just as strongly as before, although the embarrassment is fading— maybe she felt embarrassed that you'd caught her looking at you, although that's unlikely. Sophia couldn't care less about your opinion of her.
Running underneath the embarrassment and disdain are a complicated mess of emotions, as you'd come to expect from your trio. There's the usual cruelty and sadism, of course; you'd be worried if you felt Sophia without feeling those. They run intertwined beneath everything, little tendrils of cruelty and anger dipping into her other emotions and tainting them. Lying squeezed between those branches are her boredom and apathy— the strongest of her emotions right now.
Her loyalty to you is a fragile thing yet. It lies buried beneath her disdain, the disdain threatening to choke it out. It's a good thing you did this now— there's a good chance that if you left this too much longer, Sophia would have been able to fight back against your influence enough for her disdain to completely overtake it.
As it stands, though, you just begin tugging on it again, slowly pulling on it until you can see her dart a glance towards you, for once not filled with the promise of humiliation. Satisfied for the moment with that, you seek her lust next, pulling it out from where it's lying— not hidden, exactly, but kind of... pushed down in a corner of her mind, near her repressed fragility and despair. You tuck a note about that away in your head— you should follow up on that, later, when Sophia is more open with you and you can actually do something about it— and begin tugging on her lust, pulling it to the surface. There's a thread of curiosity in there as she glances at you, but only a thread.
You spend the rest of first period entertaining yourself with Sophia, pulling alternately on her lust and loyalty and watching her trying not to let you catch her looking at you. You briefly consider making a game of it, but decide against it.
When first period ends and the bell rings, you take your time packing your bag, subtly monitoring Sophia. You can feel impatience streaming from her, but she takes her time too, occasionally curling her lip up in a sneer as you slowly put your books away. The one time she catches you glancing at her, you try to fake a flinch away, tugging on her lust as you do so. She subsides again with a satisfied sneer, happy with your performance.
When you finally leave the bathroom, you continue to keep your attention half on Sophia, ensuring she's following you and playing on her lust. She is, so you head to the bathroom again— the same one you'd played around with her in last time. You're not sure if a familiar environment actually helps your powers set their hooks in, but it certainly helps put you at ease a little.
Once you get inside the bathroom, you head over to the farthest mirror and pretend to busy yourself at the sink. You cast your eyes down, projecting the best image of vulnerability you can. If there's one thing you know about Sophia, it's that she loves going after vulnerable people.
You're not surprised when you feel her arms sliding against you, pinning you against the bench as she did last week. You are surprised at just how close she presses against you. Instinctively, you press against the bench to try and put some distance between the two of you, but she follows you forward, trapping you against the edge of the counter.
She's warm, you note absently. Deliciously warm.
"Hebert," she purrs in your ear. Absently, you trace her emotions, feeling for her cruelty. It's far weaker than you'd expected, tied only loosely against the strong, savoury feeling of her lust. "A bit upset today?"
You risk a glance up into the mirror. There, you can see her looking back at you, dark eyes smokey. From here, she looks like she's pressed herself even closer against you than it feels. You're pretty sure that you couldn't turn around to look at her even if you wanted to. She's just short enough that she has to lean up to look over you in the mirror.
Well, that won't do. Subtly, you lean back. She stiffens as you rub your ass against her crotch, and she instinctively leans back. You take the opportunity to spin around and look her in the face just as she corrects herself and leans back in. Frustration and curiosity rise up in her, and you quickly release her lust to pull on her loyalty for a moment, forcing the frustration to subside.
"No," you say as steadily as you can. You're unsure as to whether she takes your breathiness as lust or depression, but either way, her eyes darken further. A slight smile steals over your face, and you lean forwards and wrap your arms around her for a moment as she stiffens again. It's worth the sudden pain in your hip when she pushes you roughly back against the counter, but you don't let go, and she doesn't immediately step out of your arms. "It's okay to want a hug," you tell her steadily.
She looks up at you with a knitted brow. A slight anger leaks up, not as strong as you'd expected. You tug on her loyalty again, just enough so that the anger is muted when it finally runs to the surface. "Fuck off, Hebert," she mutters, and releases you with one arm so she can yank your arms out from around her. Pouting at the loss of contact, you swap back to tugging at her lust for a moment.
Then she rolls her eyes when your hands drop down to her skirt and you begin to lift it up. "Of course you do that again," she complains. She half-heartedly pushes down at your arms, but you don't let her stop you, and she doesn't put any real effort into it— just enough that she can claim she tried to stop you. You don't stop until you've lifted her skirt high enough that your hands are resting above her navel.
"Boyshorts aren't very feminine," you pout at her. Admittedly, they're as feminine as boyshorts can get— they're cut low and do a lot to emphasize her curves. They're still boyshorts, though, and they cover entirely more of her legs than you'd like.
She just rolls her eyes at you. "I didn't wear them for you," she says rudely. Still, you can feel a thread of embarrassment rising through her. She drops her arms from your own and moves them down to your hips as though to push you away, but changes her mind midway through the action and leaves them resting there instead. Not that you're complaining. It really does feel a little like she's hugging you now.
You stay in that position for a long few minutes, allowing yourself to rest comfortably with Sophia's skirt held above her waist as you tease at both her lust and loyalty. The curiosity in her rises again, and you do nothing to discourage it, curious yourself as to what she's curious about.
Eventually, you judge that you've done as much as you can for now. Glancing down, you look into Sophia's hooded eyes for a moment before you bend an inch or so to press a kiss to her lips. You keep at it for a few seconds until her lips part slightly and you draw her lower lip between your own.
A sharp pain erupts in your lip, and you pull back, a soft cry ripping its way out of you as you jerk back. Sophia looks at you from where she's just bitten you, satisfaction, cruelty and lust twining their way through her.
In retaliation, you let go of her skirt with your right hand and smack her hard on the ass. She lets out an indignant squawk that turns involuntarily into a stifled groan as you leave your hand there, apologetically squeezing her ass. "That was rude," you inform her.
You don't let her hackles rise, tugging gently at her loyalty until they fall again. Missing her usual anger, Sophia just sneers back at you, her lip curled. It's tempting enough that you lean down and give her a kiss again. When she eventually opens her mouth and bites your lip this time, it's much gentler— still painful, but you don't instinctively run your tongue against the area seeking for the taste of blood. You lightly smack her ass in return, drawing another stifled groan from her when you again leave your hand there, gently squeezing her ass. This time, when you kiss her, she doesn't bite on your lip hard enough for it to be painful— just hard enough for her to tug almost playfully on it.
You linger for a few seconds until she bites your lip again with an annoyed expression on her face. You lean back, running your tongue over the sore area, then quickly lean in and give her another kiss, drawing back before she can bite you again.
This game continues for several minutes— you leaning in to give Sophia a kiss, and her trying to bite you when you do. She gets you a few more times, but doesn't seem to mind when you smack her in return as long as you keep squeezing her ass afterwards. The one time you try to stop squeezing it, she bites you harder the next time you lean in. You're not sure she even realizes.
It's not until the bell rings that she jerks again, as if she'd completely forgotten where you are and what you're doing. You lean in and still one more kiss from her, then quickly sidestep out of her limp grasp.
Neither of you says anything as you stroll out of the bathroom, casually clutching your bag in your hands. Behind you, you can feel Sophia's frustration beginning to rise, but damp, muted— and, for once, not aimed at you.
You can live with that.
The next day, you arrive earlier at school and spend a few minutes searching for Charlotte. She arrives at school not long after you do, heading immediately to her locker. There's not long until the bell, so you just follow her as she weaves her way to your shared classroom, tugging on her loyalty as she goes.
To her credit, even with your manipulation fresh over her mind, she doesn't acede immediately once class starts and you move over to her to ask her to swap seats with you. To your own credit, your manipulation is strong enough that she gives up without much of a fight, offering only a token protest before standing up and heading over to the teacher. He gives you an odd look, but gives Charlotte a nod; in turn, she turns and smiles at you before heading over to your old seat.
When Madison enters the classroom, she gives out a little shriek barely audible over the hubbub of the classroom. She doesn't throw herself upon you, but she fair vibrates with excitement as she sits beside you and takes your hand in her own.
Worth it.
By the end of Tuesday, your headache is growing steadily worse. It's not crippling just yet, but it's definitely getting uncomfortable.
You've made some inroads recently, you think. You've at least begin manipulating Charlotte, even if the thought of manipulating someone uninvolved in the cape scene leaves you feeling as guilty as you feel aroused. You've pushed Sophia far enough to overcome her cruelty at least for a little while— and surprisingly, hard enough that she stopped one of the Brotherhood members in your class from harassing you and Madison in class when you weren't subtle enough about holding hands, pinning him down with a steely gaze and barbed comments about the size of his dick.
But you have a busy week ahead of you still. What are you going to do with the rest of it? [Pick two. Tutoring Madison is still locked in.]
[] You've already promised to head in and see about this volunteer job at the clinic. There's always a grace period before they expect you to turn up as you get accustomed to the work the role will entail, but you don't need a grace period— you're going to start immediately, busying yourself after tutoring Madison with working there.
— Success chance: Cannot be failed.
— General results: Introduces Taylor to Amy. Taylor begins working as a volunteer at the clinic, sorting supplies and being trained in preparing coffee for volunteers and people in the waiting room. Increases chances of finding a job by 5% for every week Taylor participates in this.
[]Take the first step towards familiarizing yourself with the problems facing people at Winslow. Start with the disadvantaged students and the delinquents; those who haven't joined the gangs yet, but are most at risk of doing so. See what problems are affecting them, and then you can spend some of your time researching what's been done in other parts of the world to help combat those issues.
— Success chance: 70%
— General results: Taylor will investigate around the school, seeing what issues people are facing and trying to figure out what issues the school is facing. This is the first step in making Taylor's hero team more than a vague idea in her head.
— On a success: Introduces Taylor to Aisha, who is unpowered right now. Opens Aisha up for recruitment. Introduces Taylor to Rune. Points players at further Winslow-related information regarding the directions she can take her hero team in.
— On a failure: Introduces Taylor to Aisha, who is unpowered right now. Introduces Taylor to Rune. Opens Rune up for recruitment. Lowers Rune's recruitment chances by 5%.
[] Head to the library and borrow some books, then head home and study them. You might have to sacrifice some free time over the weekend to finish them, but it shouldn't interfere with any plans you have. You can read up some more on business strategies and management, this way— and prepare yourself before it becomes relevant.
— Success chance: Cannot fail.
— General results: Will provide the second stage of three to learn business management skills for your upcoming hero team. Write-ins can gather information about specific topics (particular capes, the state of rogues, etc) at the cost of introducing a 10% chance of failure for learning the business management skills.
[] You've furthered your manipulation of Sophia, to the point she has at least partially accepted her lust for you, if not your control over her. Now, it's time to take that a step further and really bring her into your wing.
