For some reason, I woke the next morning with more energy and clarity than I'd ever had. It occurred to me that something bizarre and powerful and
unique
had happened to me, and I was suddenly determined not to waste whatever off-color opportunity the universe was handing me.
As I lay in bed I realized how mundane and tragic my life had been up until now. I had just been a kid, really, placidly sleepwalking through the default course of school and college and finding a job. Even what followed in two years of disaster, death, and finally resettlement - something that would have once been a tale for ages - was frankly mundane given the times we were living in. And with a year in Pittsburgh, I was slipping towards the road more travelled once again - A 9-to-5, building a house... would I wake up in a week to find that I was 90 and about to die, never having created a worthwhile story for myself?
I should have some qualms, of course, about using my special power on people - most of all, Sara, the incredible woman I had come to love. But for now, at least, I would set any such doubts I had aside. I would not miss my chance to remake my life.
I got out of bed and went looking for a piece of actual paper. I cast about until I found the journal that I had attempted to start years ago while walking north and never finished. Tearing out the first couple of occupied pages, I began to write.
> Item 1:
> I seem to have a special power that involves the ability to place minds -
I stopped and scribbled that out. I needed to be scientific about this. Qualify every unknown. I tore out another page started again.
> Item 1:
> I seem to have the ability to place at least one subject into a state of heightened suggestibility. In this state, the subject will repeat any phrase said to them. Later, when not in this state, things said to them seem to be incorporated into both vocabulary (including exact repetition of original phrases used) and, almost certainly, behavior. Possible resistance may occur in this state, but seems to be overcome by repetition of key phrases.
OK, that was better at least. Very "scientific". Air quotes intended. Now to list out unknowns.
> Unknowns / Things to Test
> 1 - What precise mechanism triggers the suggestible State? It seems very likely that it is either contact with or ingestion of my semen, but other mechanisms are possible. Perhaps something heuristic about the act of fellatio?
> 2 - What is the origin of this ability? I've been sucked off before. What changed?
> 3 - What causes subject to awaken from the State? Timing has seemed somewhat random.
> 4 - Is effect long-lasting? Do changes in behavior and vocabulary persist indefinitely?
> 5 - Is effect localized to Sara? Are others susceptible?
> 6 - If others affected, is effect similar?
I was broken from my reverie by my alarm. I glanced at the clock and immediately realized I was on shift today. I scrambled to get dressed and ready, taking the time to slip my journal into the crevice between my headboard and the wall, where Sara would not come across it.
Once I was in the car to the university, I had a moment to think again. Going over my questions, the only one that really mattered was whether I could induce the... State on anyone else. If my ability was indeed localized to Sara, not only did it probably have implications about the mechanism by which this strange power worked, but it would also sharply curtail what I could do. I somehow had to remind myself that such a scenario would be OK. I could ensure a happy, sex-filled, kinky life for the both of us if it was just her. Even deal with the hangups and blocks she clearly had around her past - make her healthier and at one with herself.
If I was being honest, though, I was hoping for more than the ability to affect just Sara.
As I pulled into the parking garage, I decided exactly what I would do - in fact, I would kill two birds with one stone.
---
An opportunity to enact my plan took longer to present itself than I had hoped. The lab, it being a Saturday, was mostly empty. After a moment alone in the bathroom once I clocked in, I wandered around the wing before realizing I was alone. Glumly, I decided to get a head start on cleaning.
The lab I worked in was a part of the pharmacology department, which meant that they produced a tremendous amount of dirty glass. When FEMA had first hooked me up with this lab tech gig, I had been assigned to the biology department. At the time, I was resentful that someone with my education was cleaning beakers and sanitizing equipment. Since being transferred to pharmacology, I had started missing the old lab - there, you could just autoclave things, and let the heat burn out whatever bacteria was there. Here, though, where they were experimenting with drugs, each piece of lab glass had to be painstakingly washed by hand twice to ensure the last sample didn't contaminate the next.
Four hours later, I was finishing the first bench's worth of pipettes when I heard a door shut behind me. I turned to see my lab's principal, Gretchen, through the small window in her office door.
Well, Gretchen would do, I thought. Hell, maybe get her off my back some. I approached her door, gave a customary knock, and stuck my head in.
"Hello Ma'am", I said, trying my best to sound deferential. "Just wanted to let you know that I'm getting a jumpstart on the clean so Cal and Eduard don't have to do it all Monday. And, I'm going out to grab a snack from the coffee bar downstairs. Can I grab you something?"
The expression on Gretchen's weathered old face flashed from annoyed at the interruption to thankful.
"Yes, thank, you, that'd be wonderful - could you get me a cold brew?" She fumbled in her purse and handed me some money.
I nearly jogged downstairs and through the tunnels that connected the campus to the college of medicine's coffee bar. I got her cold brew and a hot coffee for myself. Ducking into a single-use bathroom, I set the drinks on the baby changing station and took the lid off Gretchen's drink. Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out the product of my time in the bathroom earlier in the morning - a specimen vial of semen. I was glad Gretchen had asked for cold brew - I had no idea if hot coffee would have killed whatever created the State. That being said, the acidity still might. Failure here didn't necessarily mean failure generally, I told myself.
Back in Gretchen's office, I handed her the cup and her change. I lingered a moment, hoping she would take a sip. But, distracted, she fell back into whatever paper she had been reading and left it sitting on the desk. I made my exit.
For the next twenty minutes, I kept coming up with excuses to walk past her office and glance in the little vertical window on the side of the door. I was glad she hadn't covered it with a poster for privacy like many professors did. Maybe four times I went past only to see the cup unmoved, as was she as she read.
Finally, nearly running out of reasons to walk past, the cup was not where it had been. I craned my neck a little further to see my elderly boss leaning back in her chair. She was very still. I peered in through the wire-reinforced glass and saw what I admitted to myself I had been praying for - Gretchen's face was slack, her eyes distant. It had worked.
The implications of my successful experiment overwhelmed me as I reached for the doorknob, and I had to steady myself before I went in. I slipped in quietly, carefully closing the door behind me, to stand in front of her, and began to talk in a low voice.
"You like and appreciate me."
"I like and appreciate you."
"You like and appreciate me."
"I like and appreciate you."
I really didn't know how she felt about me, honestly, so I wanted to play it safe - With Sara I was working with existing affection, but to Gretchen I was a grunt she rarely thought about. I didn't want to go too hard, too fast, here. Sara clearly resisted some things, anyway.
Besides, with my experiment successful, I needed nothing urgently from her other than goodwill from my boss.
I reconsidered that as I thought it. Didn't I need anything? Clearly something was medically different with my cum. Maybe, using what I could remember from my undergraduate degree, I could use Gretchen's equipment to come to grips with my condition.
"You consider me a valuable member of your team."
"I consider you a valuable member of my team."
