Mar's Gifts

Mark's exploration of his gifts reached new heights, if you will forgive the pun, on his flight to London. But on his return home, as a new and powerful aspect to his power presents itself, Mark begins to wonder just how far his gifts can take him.

*

Mark's time in London was brief, and busy. He didn't think he'd have been able to get all he needed to done in the time available had he not been able to do without sleep, thanks to his gifts. A little to his disappointment, he wasn't really able to test out his gifts properly while there, because of how busy he'd been with work.

So, boarding the plane home, his smile was particularly broad when he saw Amy, Caroline and Sandy there to greet him again.

"Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise," he said warmly as they smiled at the sight of him entering the cabin. In their minds, he could see they each had a number of very specific plans for him and the flight ahead.

"Welcome back, sir," Caroline said, and led him to his seat.

He spent a great deal of the flight in the crew area downstairs and the three flight attendants made sure that they each had Mark's contact details before he disembarked.

He was sure it wouldn't be the last time he encountered them.

He took a cab home, arriving in the early evening, and found Pete and Jennifer cuddled together on the sofa watching a movie.

"Mark! Welcome home!" Pete called when he noticed Mark's presence in the apartment.

"Hey Mark, how was you trip?" Jennifer asked, a warm smile on her face.

"Hey you guys, I'm good thanks, it was fine, like, really busy or whatever," Mark replied and flounced down on an armchair, "definitely glad to be home."

They shared a pleasant conversation for a few minutes, with Mark offering some gentle ribbing about how close Pete and Jennifer were getting, smiling inwardly that Pete might be giving a relationship a shot finally.

While Pete blushed a little, Jennifer smiled happily.

"Oh hey, did you ever give Rebecca a call? You should really give her a call Mark!" she said.

"You know what Jen, I think I might... I think her number is still around here somewhere?"

Jennifer squealed a little in delight as Mark went to find the scrap of paper she'd written Rebecca's number on. Pete smiled sheepishly as she delighted in the possibility of double dates in their future.

A few texts later, Mark had a date with Rebecca the next night, dinner at a nice restaurant.

As he lay in bed that evening, he reflected on two things. The first was that there were no sounds of unbridled passion coming from Pete's room and he wondered whether this meant that Pete and Jennifer had already passed beyond the fucking like rabbits phase of their relationship. The second was, naturally, his date with Rebecca. Even taking the chance of sending her a message, let alone asking her out, was a new departure for Mark and he smiled at the positive change.

He felt Eleni's warmth through his connection with her and she shared his positivity about the change in him. After his experiences on the plane, he felt like he wouldn't need to sleep for days but he allowed himself to start drifting off until something new grabbed his attention.

That part of his mind, as if his mind was a neatly organized filing system and he could call upon any part of it at any time, that part of his mind that held the connection to Eleni was different. He could feel it.

And he found, as he had so often when exploring his gifts, that he didn't need to wonder or think about what it was. He knew. As if he had always known. There was someone else there. Someone else he was connected to.

He could see her clearly, knew the mind well, though he had only encountered her once in the real world. Natalya, the incredible blond, the trophy wife in the joyless marriage. He moved in his mind into the connection in earnest and for a moment breathed deeply as his access slowly resolved. It reminded him of remote dialing into his computer at work from home, as if it took an extra few seconds because of the distance between them.

And he marveled at this. He'd always understood that his gifts required proximity to work, with everyone but Eleni at least. He understood he needed to be near them, the women needed to be in his vicinity in order for him to be able to reach out to their minds.

But he could tell immediately that Natalya wasn't even in the same country as him and yet, now, he could see inside her mind as easily and clearly as he had when their bodies were pressed against each other in the first class restroom on the flight to London.

She was awake, more or less. He knew she was in a hotel room, a really fancy hotel room, bigger even that his entire apartment and she was curled up on a couch, alone. He didn't need to drift into her fantasies himself, she was already there. And, he realized, he wouldn't have the need to replace the male participants in her fantasies with himself any longer, he was already there. While she was focused in on a particular fantasy, day-dreaming it from start to finish, he quickly scanned some of the others he'd seen in her mind previously and found that he had replaced all the other handsome, young and virile protagonists he'd seen there previously.

He wondered whether this was a leftover from when he had deliberately placed himself in them when they'd met in the real world or whether Natalya had done this herself, after her experience with him on the plane.

Either way, he returned to the fantasy she was day-dreaming now and saw that it was one of her favorites. She was in an empty office, large and well appointed. But she appeared a little different to how he had seen her in the real world. She wore large, thick-framed black glasses and her long blonde hair was tied up conservatively. She wore an impossibly short black skirt, the buttons of her white shirt open at her chest to reveal a clear view of her magnificent cleavage as she worked at a computer.

And then he came in, or at least the part he was playing in her fantasy. He was impeccably dressed, a finely cut suit with a white shirt and a silk tie. It was a little jarring for a moment to see himself as someone else imagined him, dreamed him.

Just as odd was the fact that he was watching himself. Dream-Mark and real-Mark were not the same. It was almost like watching himself on TV. And yet, he could see that he knew the role his dream-self was playing. He knew what was going to happen, in exactly what order and what his dream-self needed to do and say to fulfil the fantasy completely.

Just as, in the fantasy, boss Mark was about to speak to secretary Natalya, he felt another twinge in the connection and, quickly, another and then another.

He retreated momentarily from Natalya's mind, but he already knew what he would find, as he had before. The other women he had used his gifts with were appearing there as well. In the real world, a wide smile spread across his face and he reached out to Eleni through their connection.

"Eleni, can you... can you see this? It's incredible. Are you connected to them too?"

"No Mark... I can see what's happening but I cannot connect with them, only through you. It is truly extraordinary. I did not expect this, this is not a power I possess."

For a moment Mark was a little shocked. Eleni had not only been the one to activate his gifts, to give him access to the abilities that had lain dormant in him all his life, but she had also been his guide and his confidante, the only one who knew they existed. And yet now, he was moving into a new sphere, something she not only did not possess but had not anticipated.

"What should I do?"

"Do what you have done Mark... explore, see where it takes you. I am so excited for you Mark!" And he could feel her excitement, her anticipation through their connection.

And so he did as she suggested. He was aware that he now seemed to be connected to Candy, Ashley and Megan as well. He didn't know why these new connections had happened in the order they had, why Natalya had been the first but he really didn't care. Nor did he care that he couldn't yet sense Caroline, Sandy or Amy. He knew he would in time.

As he set about exploring, he moved into Candy's mind first and he immediately knew she was asleep. Of course, it made sense. Natalya was in a completely different time zone to them so he understood why he had found her sitting on a couch in the middle of the day.

It was a strange experience at first, Candy's mind was a different place when she was asleep. Everything was still there, his route through it was the same as when he'd first reached out to her but it felt different. Her consciousness was what was missing, replaced instead by her dreams. Instinctively, Mark moved into them.

Instantly he felt himself transported, as if he had physically relocated in the real world. Candy's dream felt real to her and so, when Mark moved into it, it was real to him as well. He was aware that his body was still laying in his bed in the real world but he also existed here, in the dream.

He was in a bar, though not the one Candy worked at. This was somewhere much more trendy. Lit darkly and furnished minimally, the clientele appeared very up-market. Candy's dream-self was standing against the bar, facing out into the crowd. Like Natalya had in her own dream, she appeared very different to how he knew her in the real world.

Gone was her haphazard purple-blue hair, replaced by a long, soft sheen of blonde hanging luxuriously around her shoulders. And her dress, a short red thing without a back revealed almost her entire upper body. Tied around her neck with a thin strap, two pieces of the fabric hung loosely over her voluptuous breasts and didn't come together until just above her waist.

He also immediately understood that a critical element to this dream was that Candy was alone here. Although surrounded by people and noise and activity, she was alone. She knew no one. She was here for only one reason.

He sensed that reason move to the bar beside her and he knew it was him. Just like in Natalya's daydream he knew he didn't have to replace Candy's male fantasy with himself, she had done that already. And yet, he also knew, in the dream, it wasn't him. As the dream-Candy glanced sideways at dream-Mark, and he glanced back at her, the real Mark knew that in the dream these two were strangers to each other.

And so he smiled to himself as he withdrew from Candy's mind. Almost over-stimulated by the possibilities this new element of his gifts presented, he wanted to learn as much as he could and so moved on to Ashley's mind.

She too was asleep and dreaming and he found the sensations of entering her mind the same as he had in Candy's. As he stepped into her dream, he found himself in an almost familiar corridor. He was sure he had a picture of one exactly like it from his time in college. Classroom doors lined it and he was conscious of people moving around, going about their business.

Two things struck him about them. First, they were women, every one of them. And second, they were all dressed the same: tight, white shirts with a plunging neckline and outrageously short pleated skirts with a kind of tartan pattern.

When he became aware of Ashley, he noted that she appeared slightly different to everyone else in that she'd tied her little shirt up into a knot just below her perfectly formed breasts to reveal her sculpted abdomen. Other than her obviously incredibly sexy outfit, Mark noted that the rest of her appeared exactly as he remembered her, unlike Natalya and Candy in their dreams.

She moved into a deserted classroom, deserted but for another dream-Mark. He'd started to get used to seeing other versions of himself in Natalya's and Candy's minds, versions they had created, but was a little taken aback at the one Ashley had made. Mark felt like he was looking at himself twenty years from now, with streaks of grey running along the side of his head and a few more wrinkles on his brow than he remembered from the last time he looked in the mirror. This dream-Mark wore a tweed jacket too, something he'd never possessed, and stood up as dream-Ashley entered the room.

It occurred to the real Mark that, while it was obviously fun to observe the dreams he was experiencing in this way, he wanted to find out if he could become an active participant, if he could take the place of the dream-Marks Ashley and the others had created.

And like almost everything else about his gifts, he knew he could. All he had to do was think about it and, instead of observing the dream like he was watching a TV show, he found himself becoming Ashley's dream-Mark, watching her coming towards him as if in the real world. It was a pretty extraordinary experience to feel himself in someone else's body and yet still be himself.

Still, he knew that Ashley's dream-self saw only the version of Mark she had created and, of course, for her there was no conscious understanding that she was dreaming. For her, the dream felt real. This wasn't the man she knew from her gym, this was her professor.

Intrigued, Mark withdrew from Ashley's mind and moved on to Megan. He wasn't surprised to find her asleep and dreaming too and was equally unsurprised to find her deep in a forest. As he had gotten to know her better he'd learned she loved the outdoors and, like the fantasies he'd seen in the dreams of Natalya, Candy and Ashley, he had seen glimpses of this fantasy before.

She walked over the soft forest floor, the lush green canopy overhead shielding her from the sun. Her fiery red hair was tied back in a simple ponytail and she was dressed for a hike in shorts, a shirt and ankle boots. The latest dream-Mark followed a few steps behind, similarly dressed, his eyes firmly fixed on the movement of dream-Megan's firm ass as she walked.

And unlike what he'd seen in Natalya, Candy and Ashley's minds, he understood that this dream-Mark was not his physical representation cast over someone else, this dream-Mark didn't play a role. This dream-Mark was him. Megan wasn't replacing some fantasy partner with the real Mark, she was fantasizing about the real Mark.

As he had in Ashley's dream, Mark decided to take over as dream-Mark and experiment a little more. As he did, and as he knew he would, he immediately knew what should happen, what he should do and so, as dream-Megan paused ahead of him, he moved up close behind her and wrapped his arms around her, felt her hands press against his as he kissed her neck softly.

"We... we shouldn't..." she whispered, as if afraid she would be overheard.

"There's no one for miles," Mark said, as if following a script, and moved his hands to run slowly along dream-Megan's arms.

But as he did, a thought occurred to him. While the sensations he could feel were incredibly real to him, the soft firmness of Megan's body as he moved his hands over it, the cool breeze as it swept gently over them, he was still very much aware that he was, in fact, laying in his bed at home. It felt very real, but he knew it wasn't. And he knew it felt real to Megan as well but only insofar as she was dreaming. Even if she woke up and remembered the dream, she would know it had been a dream.

And so, a new plan began to form in Mark's head and he withdrew from Megan's mind, leaving dream-Mark to fulfil the fantasy there.

He understood that his idea would involve yet another extension of his gifts but, after discussing it with Eleni, she agreed it made sense to try.

Mark had accepted that his gifts were designed to bring pleasure to the women he met and while the dreams he had entered had felt undoubtedly real, what he really wanted was for these women to experience what he had seen in their dreams in reality. To do this, he knew he would have to do something he had not done before, at least in some cases.

If, for example, he was to fulfil Natalya's fantasy involving her as a secretary with her boss, he would have to influence her mind in a way that he hadn't yet done. He would have to make it so that, in her mind, she believed Mark was her boss and, moreover, that she was his secretary, even if it was just for the duration of the fantasy.

He knew he needed to experiment a little and felt that his date the next night with Rebecca presented the ideal opportunity.

He arrived early. On the occasional dates he'd been on before, he always came early so he could have a couple of strong drinks to ease his anxiety. This time however, he was more conscious of getting a good look at Rebecca as she arrived. The picture he had of her in his mind from their previous meeting at a dark nightclub was incomplete, all he had really was that he felt at the time she was really hot.

After he'd been sitting for around 10 minutes, he was reminded that she was actually unbelievably, almost unbearably hot.

She wore a tight, backless little black dress with a low cut that offered a spectacular view of her firm, round breasts. Her blond hair hung loosely around her shoulders, framing her beautiful face and blue eyes. Mark nearly knocked over his water as he stood to greet her.

He couldn't resist a brief peek into her mind and was grateful to sense the same nervousness that he felt in there. As he'd sat waiting for her, he'd tried to come to terms with feeling nervous. Since establishing the existence of his gifts, he hadn't had the feeling with any of the women he'd been with and he wondered what it was about Rebecca that made it return.

And it did give him pause. For a moment, as he stood to greet her and kissed her softly on the cheek, he thought about relationships. He'd never had what might be called a long-term relationship and he wondered for the first time whether his gifts could be compatible with that.

Still, he reminded himself that there would be plenty of time to figure that out. Potentially limitless time.

And so, while he started to enjoy his dinner with Rebecca, chatting amiably and getting to know one another better, he also put his plan into action. He wanted to find a fantasy that would be both practical and a real turn on for Rebecca and it didn't take long to locate it. What he needed was something where he could try to make Rebecca feel like both of them were different people.

He was a little surprised to find Rebecca had fantasized about being a stripper. While she was undoubtedly aware that she was a desirable woman, he'd also sensed a kind of reserve in her and many of her fantasies emphasized emotional connection and romance. But the one he focused in on now had very little of either of those things.

As they moved to dessert, he focused in on it. She was working in a pretty high-class joint, not the kind of place Mark would ordinarily have been able to afford to go and a particularly wealthy and attractive high-roller had paid her for a lap-dance in a private room.

He focused on the beginnings of the fantasy, of her leading the high-roller, the part now played by Mark in her mind, to the private room, the anticipation she felt, but he didn't allow it to proceed in her mind and returned again and again to these first moments, hoping to build her excitement at the possibilities.

The restaurant wasn't far from the apartment Rebecca shared with Jennifer and it was a little after 11 when they arrived there after a leisurely stroll.

"So... you... you wanna come up... ahm... for a drink?" she asked, sheepishly, at first looking at the ground, but slowly raising her head so she looked Mark in the eye.

In her mind, he could feel trepidation but also undeniable excitement and expectation. He emphasized her stripper fantasy again.

"Oh... ah... sure," Mark replied cautiously, "I mean... i-i-if you want me to," he went on and stepped a little closer to her.

She hesitated a moment and then reached out an arm, placing her hand gently on his chest.