This is the second installment in the Bartlett series! Thanks in advance for any responses: I'll try to incorporate suggestions into future stories!
This story has more plot and explanation. Part 1 got off on a bang (pun intended) but I wanted to insert some backing plot, too.
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The more Li and I got to know each other, the more I began to deeply care for her. Despite the blatantly sexual nature of our first meeting, we found ourselves to be surprisingly compatible. She told me of her husband, betrothed before they met, who had taken her from her native China to America. He wanted her to be his slave in every sense of the word, even to consent to him seeing other women. She had left him when he had tried to force her to have anal sex, something neither of us were at all interested in.
One benefit of her failed marriage, though, was that she was comfortable with her sexuality. Her husband was very experienced when they had married and he had taught her to be open with her desires.
Traveling with me was a dream come true for Li. She didn't like working much since every man she had worked for had tried to take advantage of her.
I had set myself up with plenty of money by tapping in on some embezzling businessmen with certain large companies. They were stealing money for themselves, and were careful to cover their tracks, so I just instructed them to put half of their spoils into an account for me.
I didn't like using the power to take advantage of those who could not afford it, or to force people to do things that were not already in their character.
Li and I had been on the road for a while now, driving an unobtrusive sedan around the country, living an unobtrusive life.
Some people with knowledge of the symbols had banded together to hunt the rest of us, so I was always careful to avoid trouble. Most of my encounters were much more tame than my fun in the donut shop, where I had met Li. I certainly did not want to get caught by those "hunters", as I almost had been early on. The donut shop was quite a risk. If I hadn't been so turned on, I don't think I would have done all that...
"What's the power like," Li asked one day a few months after our meeting.
I hadn't used it on her since that morning, and I had only used it a few times since then on anyone. She and I had kept each other busy, exploring our sexual desires.
"Well, it's really rather odd. It's a combination of hearing and seeing the thoughts of others, just like you see their bodies and hear their voices. And just like a nearby conversation, you can tune in a bit and hear their thoughts," I explained.
"I mean the controlling power. How do you control people?"
"That's when it gets difficult," I said. "It's like using a word processor on text. Their thoughts float, almost visibly, in the air in the form of symbols. As you learn the symbols, you can control them. You can interpret them and rearrange them. As you get better at it, you can even insert ideas of your own and remove their ideas!"
It was not easy to explain the power. I really wanted to share it with her, though, since Li and I were so close now. I knew she could handle it.
I broke the silence. "Li, I wonder if I could teach you."
"I'd like to try," she answered.
So I told her more about the symbols. Strangely enough, I found it hard to illustrate them. Then I came up with an idea. I would teach her remotely. I would share her body. Now all we needed was a test subject...
We got off at the next major exit and parked the car at a mall. Li and I sat in the car quietly. I asked her to buckle herself in, just in case, and I did the same. Then I focused on her.
I could see her mind. I could see all of her symbols now, nothing was hiding from me. I focused on her mind, and then on my own. I reached out with my own symbols and made a place inside her mind for myself.
