Jenny and Shasa were still in the shower when I finished hauling in all our supplies, so I grabbed a change of clothes and ducked into the other room to get clean. My wounds were starting to itch, but I’d recovered enough mana to finish healing them. Once that was done I just soaked under the hot spray for a few minutes, wondering how long these little luxuries would last.

“This town is too spread out to be defensible,” I mused. “But it’s bigger than I thought, and the sheriff seems to be sensible. Maybe they can set up some kind of perimeter, and hold out. Or maybe things will fall apart, and we’ll have to run. Better be ready for either option.”

No matter what happened it would take time. If the monsters tried to form a mob and rush the town they’d just get gunned down by several thousand heavily armed rednecks. Besides, so far they seemed to act like wild animals rather than some murderous hive mind. So I suspected we were in for a period of deadly attrition, with countless minor attacks nibbling away at the edges of the settlement. Eventually either we’d stabilize the defense with a combination of fortifications and powered-up defenders, or morale would collapse and we’d get crowds of people trying to flee to safety in the bigger cities.

I had my doubts about whether a big city would really be safer. Sure, there were fewer monsters, but they also had bigger mobs and a lot more government. Considering how corrupt and incompetent America’s political class has become, that was a problem. I could just see every mayor in the country using the crisis as an excuse for a power grab, and most of them would spend more time worrying about politics and PR than actually protecting their cities. There would already be people buying out all the food, toilet paper and bottled water in the stores, and the travel ban would make it hard to restock. So in a matter of days they’d have to deal with food riots, looters and gangs who thought the end of civilization was nigh.

Yeah, maybe I’d stick with smaller towns for now. At least the cops here weren’t going to arrest anyone for shooting monsters. But the situation was too unstable for me to just focus on building a business as an armorer. I needed a tough, trustworthy survival group that was ready to leave if things went south. The girls were a good start on that, but we’d already seen that three people didn’t make a big enough group for any kind of real fight. I’d have to find more somewhere, or else join someone else’s group.

It would have to be a pretty impressive group to convince me to join. I’d much rather lead a team of my own, and see what kind of place I could make for myself in this dangerous new world. I couldn’t begin to predict how the System would change society, but I was betting there would be opportunities for an ambitious man with a good crew at his back.

Did I want to stick with the current group?

So far Sara, Bob and Amanda didn’t seem to contribute much, and Amanda was a pain to deal with. Beth was trying, and it seemed like she’d already more or less taken over the hotel. Of course, I was pretty sure she’d done it by hypnotizing the staff, which didn’t make my conscience happy. Obviously I wasn’t above using a bit of enhanced persuasion when I thought it was necessary, but that was a very slippery slope. There ought to be limits on what we were willing to do, and I had no idea what hers were. Or if she had any, beyond ‘whatever I can get away with’.

Earl seemed pretty competent. A lot less socially acceptable, since he was obviously some flavor of misogynist. But he’d had better survival skills than I did before the System, and since I wasn’t a woman his quirks weren’t necessarily a deal killer. Trouble is, a guy who’s that far outside society’s norms might be hiding other issues too. Maybe he’d be up for building some kind of war band of hard men ready to keep our women safe, like a modern-day Viking tribe. Or maybe he’d end up backstabbing all the men around him, so he could steal their women and build a giant mind control harem.

I definitely needed to feel him out more, and see if his issues were tolerable.

It would be nice if I could find some better teammates, but my years in the corporate world had taught me that you rarely get that lucky. If you reject every candidate as soon as you discover an issue you end up with no one on your team, because everyone has some kind of issue. Which in current circumstances would get me dead, and probably Jenny and Shasa too.

Besides, where else was I going to find people who didn’t immediately condemn my relationship with Jenny? In a society that tells women that the faintest hint of pressure or impaired judgement is tantamount to violent rape, the idea of consensual mind control is a damned hard sell. Anyone who overheard our private conversations was all too likely to decide I was an evil, villainous rapist who urgently needed killing, and Jenny was a brainwashed victim who needed to be ‘rescued’ no matter what she had to say about it.

I was still thinking it over when I returned to our shared room to find Jenny sitting on the bed with her head in her hands, wearing nothing but a towel. A naked Shasa sat beside her, leaning into her side and awkwardly patting her back.

“Something wrong?” I asked.

Jenny curled up tighter. “Yeah. Maybe. I don’t know. I was just, I finally got a call through to mom, and we were talking about the family, and she’s so scared and there’s nothing I can do to help.”

“Yeah, this has been a bad day for everyone,” I said. “Do you want to try to get to her?”

“Hah! She’s in Los Angeles, Tom. That might as well be the moon right now. No, she’s got dad and my big brother and the rest of the family there, and they’re right in the middle of a major city. She just worries a lot, and it makes me wish I could be with her. I’m the one who’s in danger here.”

“We’ll keep you safe, Jenny,” Shasa assured her with the naïve confidence of a kid.

Jenny smiled for a moment, and patted her thigh. “Aw, you’re sweet. Ugh. This is so hard. I’m trying to be strong, Tom, but I don’t think I can keep it up. I feel like I’m going to shatter into a million pieces.”

Shasa cast a worried look my way. I sat on the bed next to Jenny, and put my arm around her.

“It sounds like you need some stress relief,” I said.

She choked. “God, yes! I’d have fallen apart a hundred times today without your orders keeping me together. Can I please just trance out for a while, and forget everything?”

“I think that can be arranged,” I agreed. “Maybe I’d better cancel my suggestions while I’m at it. You’ve been awesome today, but if it’s keeping you from having normal stress responses-”

“No!” She interrupted. “I’ll be useless if you do that. I always freak out when something scary happens, and I almost died three times today. You don’t need to waste hours trying to calm my stupid ass down, and I don’t want to be like that. I just, I don’t know. I guess I need some kind of out, or pressure release or something, for when the stress gets to be too much and I can’t keep it going any longer.”

I frowned. “Are you sure, Jenny? With normal hypnosis I wouldn’t worry too much, because if a suggestion causes you too much stress it would just fail. But with these new powers I’m afraid the wrong orders could really hurt you.”

“Yeah, I get that,” she said. “But the right ones could really help me. This new world doesn’t have room for a timid, neurotic mess, Tom.”

“If you were that bad we wouldn’t have hooked up in the first place,” I pointed out.

“Maybe not, but you get my point. I need to be amazing action girl Jenny, not normal office drone Jenny. And if I’m not strong enough to keep that up all the time, that just means I need some kind of failsafe that gets me back in action as soon as possible.”

“Alright, Jenny. I’ll see what I can do. Are you okay with me asking more questions about all this while you’re in trance?”

“Hey, you’re not supposed to admit to that kind of thing, you big dummy. You’re supposed to make me forget about it, so I’ll think you’re just an amazing super-dom who magically knows what I need all the time.”

I chuckled. “We can do it that way if you want, Jenny. I just want to know where your lines are before I cross one of them, and I didn’t want to assume our conversations from before still apply. Magic movie hypnosis that you can’t resist even if you want to changes things.”

She bit her lip. “Yeah, no kidding. I keep thinking about stuff you could do now. Um, right, I guess I can’t just assume I’ll snap out of it if you get too pushy. I know you need feedback to make complicated suggestions work out right, and I’m kind of into the whole ‘make me tell you what I really want’ thing. Just, um, don’t go crazy with digging into my past, or trying to psychoanalyze me. You’re my boyfriend, not my shrink.”

“That’s a little fuzzy, but I think I can work with it,” I said, mentally shaking my head. Shrink. Right. Why are women so in love with the idea of paying someone to listen to them talk about themselves endlessly? Wait, never mind, I think I just answered my own question.

“Oh, and you might want to think about how to keep Beth out of my head while you’re at it. I’m betting she’ll branch out as soon as she’s done with the hotel staff.”

“Caught that, did you? Yeah, the counter girl was practically eating out of her hand.”

“Wait, what?” Shasa put in. “I don’t understand. Did Beth do something to the counter girl? I didn’t see anything.”

“Beth has some kind of hypnosis power,” Jenny said. “Like the bush, except she can use it to give people orders and change their minds about things. She’s obviously used it to take over the hotel, and make all the people on staff think she’s their boss. The counter girl was so far gone she almost screwed up and called Beth Mistress at one point.”

“Yeah, she’s been a busy dom while we were off shopping and fighting,” I agreed. “Which might be useful, but it does make me a little nervous. I guess it’s about time we explained the hypnosis thing to Shasa, too.”

“Guess so,” Jenny agreed. “Just, um, please don’t let her mess with me while I’m tranced, okay? It would be weird. She’s like a big kid, and… well, I feel like I ought to be taking care of her, not, you know.”

Shasa smiled, and laid down with her head in Jenny’s lap. “Aw, that’s sweet, Jenny. Don’t worry, I won’t cause any trouble. I know you’re above me.”

The dog girl’s tail thumped against the bed, trying to wag energetically. Jenny smiled down at her, and scratched her ears. “Oh, am I?”

“Of course. I wasn’t sure at first, because you’re kind of small and I’m big. But you’re strong and fierce, and you’re really smart, and you were here first and of course you’re a human just like Tom. So of course you’re the top girl. Just tell me what I need to do, and I’ll do it.”

Jenny giggled. “You’re such a cute sub. Maybe you should trance her too, Tom. She needs some kind of defense if she’s going to hang with this group.”

“She showed more resistance to the hypno-bush than you did,” I pointed out. “But yeah, I’ll definitely need to look into that. Any other comments or requests before I get started?”

Jenny bit her lip, and shook her head. “Nope! I’m ready when you are, Tom. Shasa, this is going to look weird, and I might act kind of like I did after the bush got me, but don’t worry. Everything is okay, and Tom can explain what’s going on. Alright?”

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Shasa gave us both a confused look. “Okay, I guess. What’s going on?”

Jenny ignored the question, and instead turned to me. “It’s your turn to explain, right? Hit me.”

I chuckled. “I suppose I’ll let you have this one. Trance time, Jenny.”

It never got old, the way she instantly went limp. I eased her down on the bed, while Shasa scrambled to her hands and knees and watched closely.

“That does look kind of scary,” Shasa commented. “She said you’d explain, Tom. What’s going on? She really does look like when the bush got her.”

I nodded. “It’s the same kind of magic, only I’m going to use it to help her. Don’t say anything to Jenny when she’s in a trance like this, okay? This kind of magic can change people’s feelings, or make them forget things, or all kinds of serious and complicated stuff like that. You could really mess her up if you say the wrong thing.

“I could? Well, I don’t want to hurt Jenny,” Shasa said innocently. “I won’t say a word to her. But I can still talk to you, right?”

“That’s fine, Shasa. I’ll need you to be quiet in a bit, but I can answer your questions first.”

Shasa looked back and forth between me and Jenny a few times, and smiled. “I think I get it, Tom. You’re going to help Jenny with all those bad feeling she was talking about, right?”

“That’s right. Maybe I can do something to help her resist the next time we run into one of those hypno-bushes, too. You’re a clever girl, Shasa.”

Shasa beamed. “Thank you! I know I’m not as smart as you and Jenny, but I’m trying. So, what you were saying earlier, does that mean Beth can do this too?”

“Yes.”

“That’s kind of scary. It happened so fast, I don’t know if I could stop her.”

“Oh, it would take a lot longer if she tried to hypnotize you,” I assured her. “It was really easy with Jenny because we’ve done it before, and she wanted me to do it. If I just walked up to a stranger and tried to hypnotize them it would be a lot harder.”

“That’s good,” Shasa said. “Oh, wait, this is like what you did with Linda?”

“That’s right.”

“Neat! So, um, you’re going to hipopoze me too, right?”

“Hypnotize,” I corrected.

“Hippo, Hypano, um, hip-no-tize! Wow, that’s a hard word. Hypnotize!”

“That’s right, hypnotize. You sound eager.”

“Uh huh!”

“Why?”

“Duh! I don’t want the evil bushes to get me, either! Besides, I want to do everything Jenny does. I can be a good girl too!”

She was such an innocent. I’d feel like a pedophile if I did half the things with her that I did with Jenny. But she did have one thing right.

“Okay, Shasa. I’ll hypnotize you too.”

“Yay!”

“But you have to sit still for a minute and listen to me, okay?”

Shasa hurriedly settled herself on the bed next to Jenny. “Okay, Tom. I’m ready. Am I going to go limp like Jenny?”

“Yes, eventually. But first you need to look into my eyes, and listen to my voice. Only the sound of my voice, Shasa. Let everything else fade away.”

She started to say something, but I put a finger over her lips. “Shh. No talking, Shasa. Just relax, and look into my eyes. Let your mind go quiet. All your thoughts and worries, fading away. Leaving you happy and relaxed. Blank and obedient. Hearing only the sound of my voice.”

Shasa obviously had no idea what hypnotism even was, so I wanted to make sure she understood what kind of state she was supposed to end up in before I seriously got started. Even with this new power of mine the experience would be heavily influenced by her own expectations, and if she had no idea how it was supposed to work things were bound to go wrong somehow.

Normally it took me a good twenty minutes of careful induction to get a new subject into even a light trance. I was expecting it to go faster than that with some actual magic in my words, but Shasa’s reaction was still a surprise. As I spoke her expression softened, and her eyes went blank.

She couldn’t really be that easy, could she?

“Shasa, when I say sleep you’ll relax into a deep trance. You’ll be completely relaxed, your mind blank and peaceful. You’ll hear only my voice, and you’ll obey my instructions without question. Would you like that, Shasa?”

“Yes,” she breathed. “Good girl.”

“That’s right, Shasa. You’re a good girl. Sleep for me, Shasa.”

That was supposed to be followed by five minutes or so of talking her down, a line of patter that would coax her into acting like she was in a trance and then gradually persuade her that she wasn’t just playing along. Only I didn’t need to bother, because she went limp as soon as I said the word ‘sleep’. I eased her down on the bed, and found that her eyes were closed.

Seriously?

I picked up an arm by the wrist, lifted it a few inches and let it fall. Completely limp, with no hint she was even aware that it had moved.

“Can you hear me, Shasa?” I asked.

“Yes, Tom.”

Okay, then. Either this hypnosis power was a lot more effective than I’d assumed, or dog people are really easy to hypnotize. Or maybe Shasa was just a really easy subject for me in particular, because she’d adopted me as her pack leader. I was going to have to investigate that, because I needed to know what to expect if Beth or Earl tried something.

But first I needed to take care of Jenny, which brought me back to the real reason I’d hypnotized Shasa. I spent a couple of minutes deepening her trance and verifying that she was far enough under to take suggestions well. Then I told her she wouldn’t be able to hear anything else until I put my hand on her forehead, and left her in a peaceful meditative state while I turned my attention back to Jenny.

My girlfriend needed help, but it would have been rude to let someone else listen in while I probed at the vulnerable points of her psyche. There was no telling what she might say while she was entranced.

I pulled off the towel, removed my own clothes and laid down next to Jenny. My diagnostic spell revealed some minor scrapes and scratches, and I healed them one by one as I spoke to her.

“Deep trance, Jenny. Relax, and let all your troubles drift away. You’re safe in my arms, with no one else around. No one to hear you, or judge you. Nothing to worry about. You can be completely open and honest with me. You trust me completely, and you want to do everything you can to help me help you. Isn’t that right, Jenny?”

“Yes,” she breathed.

“Good girl,” I said.

Her lips curved into a smile, and she sighed a little. Still, that suggestion had been made before the System appeared, and it was overdue for some reinforcement.

“That’s right, Jenny. When I tell you that you’re a good girl you’ll feel happy and proud. Like you’ve worked hard to accomplish something important, and now you’re being praised for it, and you know you deserve it so you can just relax and enjoy the attention. Enjoy the flash of pure joy that fills you up completely for just a moment, before it bursts into a million sparks of lingering satisfaction. Can you remember all of that, Jenny? What do you feel when I tell you that you’re a good girl?”

“Burst of pure joy. Happy and proud. Deserve it.”

“Good girl, Jenny. You’re doing great. Now, how do you feel?”

“Safe. Loved. Stressed. Scared.”

“That’s what I thought,” I said. “Don’t worry, Jenny. We’re going to take care of everything. But to do that I need start by showing you a new way to think. We’re going to call this advisor mode. When I and only I say ‘advisor mode, Jenny’, you’re going to find yourself thinking differently. The part of your subconscious that understands everything that happens inside your mind will wake up, and connect directly to the parts that let you hear and talk. Everything else, all the parts that could get in the way of understanding yourself and talking about it, will drift off into a deep sleep. Advisor Jenny understands everything there is to know about what you want, how you work and how things affect you, but she doesn’t know or care about anything else. She’ll just answer anything I ask, and obey any instructions that I give, without worrying about anything. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good girl. Now, switch into advisor mode, Jenny. Seeing yourself, understanding yourself, knowing yourself and responding to my words. Nothing else matters. Everything else can just go to sleep until you need it again. Are you in advisor mode, Jenny?”

“Yes, sir,” she said, suddenly sounding a lot more awake.

I moved to prop my head on my hand, and saw that her eyes were open now.

“Alright, let’s put this to the test. Tell me about how my previous orders to be strong are affecting you.”

“You didn’t just order me to be strong, sir. You ordered me to be focused and alert, smart and decisive, strong and clear-headed. Trying to do all of that at once is exhausting. Especially the alert and decisive parts. The longer I keep it going the harder it gets, until it starts to feel like something is going to break.”

“Well, we don’t want anything in your head to break, do we? We’ll have to make some changes. First, I want you to let go of those old instructions. You don’t need them anyway while you’re in analysis mode, right?”

“Yes, sir. Everything I need to understand myself is already part of analysis mode, and everything else is asleep anyway.”

“Good. Do I need to talk you through letting go of the old suggestions, or did just ordering you to discard them do the job?”

She frowned slightly. “They’re already gone. That’s odd. Hypnosis usually takes more work than that.”

“Yes, it usually does. Apparently adding magic makes it work more like a mind control spell. Take a close look at yourself now, and tell me if there are any other suggestions still in effect.”

“I’ll go into a trance for you any time you say, ‘trance time, Jenny’ and touch the back of my neck. I’ll go into analysis mode when you tell me to. I want to do anything I can to help you help me. That’s everything.”

“I see. And how do you feel about all of that?”

“I love being able to go into trance so easily,” she said calmly. “I’m a little worried about how easy it is to accidentally give orders with this magic hypnosis, so I think analysis mode is a good idea for making sure you get things right. Even if it is kind of hard to keep it going. I’m starting to get really worried because you still done any sexy stuff with your new powers. I’m not used to being hot, so part of me is afraid you’re going to get bored with me and replace me with someone better looking.”

I had to suppress a sigh. Typical woman, obsessing over relationship drama when we were in the middle of a fight for survival. And why was she so insecure anyway? She’d been pretty cute even before her upgrades. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned about this stuff, it’s that emotions don’t care about logic.

“I see. Well, I’m certainly not planning to replace you, Jenny. But human mating instincts are ridiculously complicated, and I’m sure there would be side effects if I just ordered you not to worry. What do you think the best way to reassure you would be?”

“Give me lots of sexy triggers, and use them all the time,” she immediately replied. “The more we have sex, the more secure I’ll feel. Or you could do a long scene where you mind break me and make me your sex slave, and put a collar on me. I have fantasies about that kind of thing all the time.”

Yeah, I was back at full mast again. Schedule or no schedule, I wasn’t ending this session without getting some relief. I ran my hand over her toned belly, and cupped a breast. They were firm enough that even lying down they kept their shape, but still soft and pliable in my hand.

“Why do you like those kinds of fantasies so much?” I asked. Yesterday I hadn’t felt like we were close enough to pry into that too far, but I’d always been curious about what drives a serious hypno-sub. I’ve heard plenty of theorizing, but that’s not the kind of subject where you can just take people at their word.

“If I’m being controlled then I’m not responsible for anything I do,” she said. “I can just relax and enjoy it, no matter how kinky things get. No feeling embarrassed, or guilty, or worrying what people will think. Also, it feels really sexy when a man gives me orders and I just obey them without thinking. It’s like the more powerful you are, and the more helpless I am, the wetter I get.”

“I see. But what if you don’t like the orders you’re given?”

“It doesn’t come up much. Good subs are so rare that doms are really careful to make sure we enjoy our sessions,” she pointed out. “Besides, if you order me to do something I kind of don’t want to do, and I do it anyway, that just drives home how powerful you are and makes me get super horny for you. Making me feel helpless and vulnerable is great, as long as you make me feel safe and wanted too.”

I chuckled. “That’s good to know. Well, getting insight into your kinks is always useful, but we have other things to deal with before we can have fun. Were you just getting stressed out from having an overly ambitious set of orders, or do you still have problems?”

“I almost died three times today, and I’m terrified that this is our new normal. I’m going to have a complete meltdown if you wake me up the way I am now.”

“That’s a problem. What do you think is the best way to deal with it?”

“I don’t know, sir. I mean, I’m sure I’ll get over it if you just let me cry on your shoulder for a while, but normal me isn’t going to cut it in this world. I’m afraid I’ll panic in the middle of a fight, or have a breakdown and distract everyone at a bad time. I need some kind of order to help me hold myself together, but the stress of trying to be something I’m not builds up really fast.”

“What’s the best kind of stress relief?” I asked.

“Trance. Or sex. Being a sex slave, maybe? Anything where I can just turn off my brain, and not have to make decisions or be responsible for anything.”

“Hmm. I can see the temptation, but I can’t see leaving you in that kind of state for any length of time. What if there was a monster attack while you were in an impaired state, and I wasn’t there to snap you out of it?”

Jenny pouted. “All the monsters just want to kill us. Why couldn’t there be sex monsters?”

I stared at her for a moment. “You mean, like, hentai tentacle monsters?”

“Yes, sir. I’d love to get caught by a tentacle monster. Or other stuff. Anything big and powerful, that can just pin me down and fuck me senseless with its huge cock. I love that shit.”

Apparently so, if she was going out of her way to tell me about it when I hadn’t actually asked. Well, I knew she was a kinky girl. I just hadn’t realized how kinky.

“Sounds like there could be some good role play material there, when we have time for long scenes,” I told her. “But for now let’s stick to the problem at hand. Suppose I gave you a set of suggestions that made you a complete badass babe. Can you give me an idea of how long you could keep that up?”

“It depends on how much fighting we have to do. If it’s just playing a role I could probably do it all day. But every time something tries to eat my face that’s a huge amount of stress, and it just builds up.”

I frowned. “If that’s what’s going on, why do you keep suggesting sex as a solution? Don’t the psychologists say stress reduces sex drive?”

“Maybe I’m weird. All I know is when we kill some huge monster that was trying to eat me, and you come over and heal me up, I just want you to bend me over the bleeding corpse and fuck me stupid. Maybe it would be different if we stayed hurt, or if someone I care about died. But as long as we’re winning some victory sex is a great way to recharge.”

My girlfriend, the bloodthirsty maniac.

“Alright, then here’s what we’re going to try.”