Subclasses Ch. 18

Chapter Eighteen

"Don't worry about what?" Gabi asks. "Wait, you Spoke that with your ability!" Gabi's voice grows angry, betrayed. "Did you try to make me forget?!"

"I-" Beatrix begins.

"You did, didn't you! I can't believe you. What did you Speak just before that? 'Slave'?"

"Err-"

"You tried to do to me what you did to Sarah, didn't you? I told you I'm not a sub. Why would you try to make me your slave?"

"Gabi, give her a chance to talk," I butt in. "I'm certain she has a reasonable explanation," I say in a pointed tone indicating she had better or I'm going to be angry, too.

Beatrix's normally confident posture folds. "I do and I don't. Let me say first that I am truly sorry, Gabi. Really. I didn't mean to hurt you at all.

"Has Sarah talked to you about how we don't know the rules of my ability like we thought we did?" Gabi nods cautiously. "As a scientist, the only way to figure out the rule is to break it. I need to know what the bounds are. I was nearly certain that using the slave command I made wouldn't work on you. I wouldn't have even tried it except that I thought I had a way to make you forget that I had, and then I wouldn't have hurt you."

"Why did you think you could make me forget?" Gabi asks pointedly.

"Because-" Fear and resignation take over Bea's expression. "Because I already had."

"What?!" Gabi yells. "How much have you made me forget?!"

"I only used it once!" Bea says, raising her hands in surrender. "As we walked into the room, I teased Sarah about her poor showing at Smash, and she figured out I was responsible. We shared a look, and you asked what I did to her. I thought this was a small thing you wouldn't care about forgetting, so I tried the 'Don't worry about it' command I had created. The question, apparently, slipped from your mind. Do you remember this?"

"No," Gabi says. She crosses her arms in front of her, an involuntary subconscious indication that she feels violated and wants to cover herself up.

"See? It worked and until just now, it didn't bother you. I thought I had a way to safely test the bounds of my ability without hurting you." Bea's tone is desperate, terrified to lose her friend—terrified, I suspect, that she might be a monster.

"Why didn't you try it on Sarah? She wouldn't have cared."

"That's exactly why I couldn't test it on Sarah. You saw what happened when I turned her into a sex slave." My stomach does an involuntary flip at both the wording and the memory it invokes. "I can't test the bounds of what is and isn't possible with my ability unless I use it on someone who wouldn't consent."

Gabi turns to me. "What do you make of this?"

"I-" I begin. How can I do this without making it worse? Ordinarily, I would refuse to be dragged in—or at least, that's what my Wise Mind would tell me to do—but maybe.... "Do you both want me to weigh in? I don't want either of you to feel like I'm taking sides."

Gabi nods. Bea asks, "Do you think it would help?"

I hesitate. "Maybe. And I think there's a way we can guarantee I won't make it worse. Would you two consent up front to forget what I say if I determine that it made things worse?"

Bea nods. Gabi, on the other hand, says, "No, Babes. I'm sorry, that's cowardly." I sigh inwardly. Unfortunately, she's right. I nod, face slackening.

"Okay," I say, taking a deep breath. "Then let me ask again. Do you both want me to say what I'm thinking? Can you both accept that what I say, I say out of love for both of you, and do your best not to get defensive?"

They each take a second to consider before nodding.

"Okay. Beatrix, you are right and you are wrong." I turn to Gabi. "Gabi, you are right and I think you should forgive Beatrix." They wait for me to elaborate further, and I sigh, uncomfortable. "Bea is right in that the only way to test the bounds of her ability is to violate the rule, whatever that rule is, and that the only way to do that is to use it on someone unwilling. She could have used it on a stranger. Would you have rather she'd done that, Gabi?"

"Ye-" she starts to say. Then, she pauses. "No, I guess not."

"Bea was wrong to try to violate you, Gabi, and you are rightfully upset. However, I know that her intention was not to hurt you. Misguided though her reasoning was, she's right that, had you forgotten—which she had every reason to believe you would—there would have been no harm done."

"I-" both girls say at the same time. Bea motions to Gabi to go first.

"Okay," she says, some of the anger fading from her, "when you put it that way, maybe I overreacted. Still, Beatrix, playing with my mind like that is not okay with me. You said your ability doesn't work without consent; shouldn't you always just ask for consent, then?"

Beatrix looks defeated, but I give her an encouraging nod. "Maybe," she says. "Maybe you're right. I am a huge proponent of radical consent, and maybe that's the best way to use my ability. I am so sorry that I hurt you."

"Gabi," I say, feeling Bea isn't giving herself enough credit, "I know you're not a scientist." She gives me a pointed look. "That's not a bad thing!" I clarify quickly. "It just means you probably can't understand our itch to know, to experiment until we figure it out. Maybe you can understand but ... think of it like gender dysphoria, maybe. You can understand and accept that I feel it, but I don't think you can really understand what it feels like unless you've experienced it firsthand.

"That scientist's drive to understand and to test things in a logical way... it's why scientists have ethics committees. That drive is strong and sometimes it makes us forget our humanity.

"That said, as Beatrix said—and I absolutely believe she's telling the truth—she believed it wouldn't work on you. She tried it hoping and expecting that it would fail. And correct me if I'm wrong, Bea, but if it had worked, I suspect you would have canceled the effect immediately."

Bea nods emphatically. "Yes, that was exactly my plan, Gabi."

We're silent for a bit while Gabi mulls it over. "I- Okay. I forgive you. Just, in the future-" She throws her hands in the air. "Ugh! I don't know. I want you to be able to figure out your ability, really! I just don't know how to do it without hurting our relationship."

"Well," Beatrix says carefully, "and please don't hate me for this. I make this suggestion in good faith to solve the problem, but I don't want you to feel pressured at all." Gabi nods apprehensively for Beatrix to continue. "Would you consent to letting me make you forget commands that I intentionally do not expect to work on you? That way I could experiment, and you wouldn't feel betrayed—or at least you wouldn't remember feeling betrayed."

Gabi is quiet for a long moment. "I don't know," she says at last. "How can I be sure you wouldn't abuse that power? You could make me forget anything you wanted me to. You could deny me my right to feel angry, feel my own natural feelings that I deserve to be able to feel."

"I wouldn't do that!" Beatrix protests at once. The defensiveness in her tone overshadows the earnestness I know she feels.

"But how can I know that for certain? I want to trust you, Beatrix. I really do. But this is strange territory. This is a level of vulnerability you haven't earned yet." Both girls wince at the accusatory phrasing. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong. It's not what I meant. I mean that you and I haven't reached that level of intimacy in our relationship yet. We've been dating for less than a week, and have known each other for less than three.

"I believe you wouldn't intentionally abuse the power to make me forget," she concedes, "but that doesn't mean you wouldn't do it by accident."

A wordless moment passes. "How about this?" I say. "Gabi, would you consent to let Bea turn you into a bunny for ten seconds?"

"Okay, sure. But how would that test anything?"

"I want you to explicitly tell Beatrix that you do not give her consent to turn you into a bunny."

Bea nods understanding. Gabi hesitantly says, "Ooookaaay. Beatrix, you do not have my consent to turn me into a bunny."

I can tell Bea knows what's coming next, but she waits for me to explain it to Gabi. "Now Beatrix is going to try to turn you into a bunny. If it works, we've learned something new about her ability and you won't feel betrayed because it's something you don't actually mind. If it doesn't work, then you can be sure that anything you explicitly do not consent to will not work. Ready?"

Gabi takes a deep breath, holds it, and then nods. "Gabi is a bunny for the next ten seconds." When nothing happens, Gabi releases her breath.

"Now, Gabi, do you trust that Bea Spoke and did her best to turn you into a bunny?"

"Yes," Gabi nods.

"Are you convinced that Bea can't do anything to you that you explicitly deny her your consent to do?" I ask. She nods again. "Then—and like Beatrix said, no pressure at all if you are not comfortable with this—but now you can say exactly what Beatrix is allowed to make you forget and what she is not, and then you can feel safe that she can't abuse that power. Make sense?"

Gabi nods slowly. "How would I phrase it?" she asks me.

I think for a moment. "Okay, this is just an example, so change any details you don't like or want to add. And if you decide you don't like this after all, that's okay, too," I say glancing at Bea. She nods her confirmation to Gabi. "Alright. How about, 'I consent to Beatrix testing the bounds of her ability by intentionally trying things she thinks I wouldn't consent to." I make it up as I go; I have the general idea but haven't prepared the wording until I get to each sentence. "'In the cases that they do work, I consent only so long as she immediately undoes the effect. In either case, assuming she tried in good faith, I consent to having my memory of the test and only of the test erased. If Beatrix tries something on me I don't want and either she does it not intending it to be an experiment, or if she tries it either out of malevolence or out of a mistaken assumption that I would be okay with it, I do not give her consent to erase my memory, nor can she erase my memory of anything else without my explicit consent.'"

Beatrix gives me an appreciative look. She mouths, "Thank you." For an instant, I worry I'm about to stand and bow to her, but apparently the Cosmic Arbiter of Ability Triggers ordains that mouthing words is not the same as saying them.

"That- Maybe," Gabi says. "Could you write it down so I can read it over a few times?"

I pull out my phone, open the Notes app, and type it out as best I can remember.

I hand the phone to Gabi, and she spends a couple minutes considering the wording and any amendments she might want to make. "Okay. I don't see any loopholes in this, and I can only think of one thing I want to add." She types her edit to the note.

Before she can start reading, I interject, "And you're certain you're okay with this? That you genuinely want to help Bea figure her ability out, and aren't just accepting this because it 'makes sense' or because you feel pressured to?"

"Yes. I am sure," Gabi replies. It sounds like she's saying it to herself as much as to Bea and me, but either way, she sounds earnest, if not completely certain. She reads out what we've written. The bit she added was that she does not consent to testing any command that might endanger her, even if Bea is certain that it wouldn't affect her, and if she did attempt it, regardless of whether it worked, Bea would not be allowed to erase her memory. It's a good, if likely redundant, addition in my opinion, and if it makes her feel safer, all the better.

"Thank you," Beatrix whispers quietly to Gabi. "And thank you for understanding and forgiving me. You impress me, Gabs."

Gabi looks at her and smiles. "You impress me, too, Babes. And while I do forgive you, you still owe me!"

Beatrix looks stricken.

"I don't think that's how forgi-" I begin.

"You owe me three kisses!" she interrupts.

Bea's expression relaxes. "You drive a hard bargain," she says teasingly as she reaches toward Gabi to give her three wholesome kisses.

When they pull apart, Gabi asks, "So what did you learn from this experiment?"

"I learned," Bea says, "that a command can work in some circumstances—I assume ones where the target would consent if asked—but not in others. Even the same command, like the 'Don't worry about it' that I tried to use to make you forget my 'attempt' to turn you into a slave, will only work in some circumstances but not in others.

"Any idea why I was able to make you forget asking what I did to Sarah's Smash Bros. skill?"

Gabi thinks for a moment. "Let's reenact this. What was happening when I asked, and what wording did I use?"

"Sarah and I shared a look, and you said something like, 'I know that look! What did you do to Sarah?'"

"Okay," Gabi says, "so let's do that again."

I give Beatrix the amused, frustrated, and slightly aroused look I gave her before when I realized she had made me miss three quarters of my finishing moves against Rita, and Beatrix gives me that self-satisfied smirk that makes me giddy.

Gabi says, "Hey, I know that look! What did you do to Sarah?"

"Don't worry about it," Beatrix says in her normal voice, not using her ability.

A light above Gabi's head blinks on. "It worked because I knew it was none of my business if you two wanted to keep it a secret."

Bea and I nod our comprehension as it takes root. Bea says, "So then it didn't work when I tried to make you forget the second time because it was your business. You had a right to know I tried something on you." Gabi nods.

We're all quiet while we chew on that information. At last, Beatrix says, "I got nothing. Do you, Sarah?"

"I- It's on the tip of my tongue. It's like I can see the shape of the rule, but I can't describe it."

More silence. "Maybe it's more general than consent," Gabi offers, suggesting my own line of thinking.

An idea occurs to me. "Bea, could you rob a bank with your ability?"

Both girls startle. "I ... don't know, actually. If I teleported into the bank vault, I wouldn't be targeting anyone, so that shouldn't be an issue. Then I could grab a bunch of money and teleport back out. So, probably?"

"Why don't you try it?" I ask. Both girls look at me, appalled. I raise my hands. "I don't mean steal anything. I mean teleport into a bank vault to see if you can, then teleport right back out."

Bea shakes her head. "Too risky. No doubt the vault has security cameras, and if I were to appear and then disappear, that would lead to questions.

"How about this?" she says after a moment. "Revoke your consent for me to teleport into your room. Teleporting won't target you, same as the bank vault, but it could have the same effect."

"Bea, you do not have my consent to teleport into our dorm room," I intone.

"I am in Sarah's dorm room." She remains in place.

I can't decide whether I'm surprised by the result or not. "Okay, that does make sense, but I'm not sure it tells us much more than we already knew. No one knows you might want to teleport into a bank vault, so they wouldn't think to explicitly deny you their consent.

"Oh, and you again have my consent to teleport into our dorm room."

We think for a moment. "What if you tried to teleport into someone's shower?" Gabi suggests. "Someone who wouldn't want you there."

"Do you remember that ethics committee I mentioned earlier?" I tease Gabi.

She blushes. "Right. Bad idea."

"No, it's a good idea in concept—it would give us the information we are looking for—it's just not a good way to go about it in the case that it happens to work."

"So what do we do?" Bea asks.

"I'm not certain," I say, "but I think Gabi's consent to let you test things on her will let us figure it out eventually."

"Alas," Gabi says cheerfully in her Southern drawl, "I absolutely consent to you joining me in the shower, Trixy." She gives Beatrix a wink, and Bea, to my astonishment, blushes.

"I-I may have to try that," Bea says. "For science."

"You may just."

* * *

We get ready for bed, which in this case means stripping naked, Bea magicking the plaque from our teeth, and me taking my meds.

"I'm not opposed to makeup sex as a concept," I say, "but would you two wait until you're alone?"

Gabi snorts. "You're the one who settled us down. Don't you want in on the action?"

The thought has a certain appeal, I admit to myself. "Nah, this was you girls' first argument. Any making up should be between just the two of you."

Gabi shrugs. "Suit yourself.

"Middle spoon!" she shouts, calling dibs the other two of us wanted.

"Fine," Beatrix groans. "I guess I owe you that."

"You most certainly do," Gabi says perkily, at odds with her feigned reproach. She punctuates the sentence by lightly tapping down the tip of Bea's nose.

"Small spoon!" I say calling dibs on my second choice.

"Bloody- Ergh!"

"Sorry, Bea. But you owe me for—how did you put it?—giving you 'excellent head'?"

"I can't argue with that," she admits. "But I get middle spoon next time!"

Middle spoon is best spoon.

"Hey, Bea?" I ask once we're all nestled together in Gabi's bed.

"Yes, Pet?" Tingles run down my spine.

"Can you make it so that I can transform my whole body when I want to, not just my genitals?"

"No. I'm sorry, Sarah. I've thought about it and I want to, but it's too risky. It uses a lot of my battery to transform you. That's usually fine because you fill it right back up by being my good little sub." I do a happy wiggle. "But if you're not there with me, neither of us can know if I have enough battery reserved for the transformation. We still don't know what happens if I'm out of battery and try to do something that requires more than I have.

"Besides, I think it would be too easy for you to forget to transform back before going out in public."

"That's fair," I say, disappointed. "You're right, of course. It would just be nice."

"I get that. In the meantime, you can always text me and I can transform you if I have enough energy, at least until you are no longer in private."

"I'll take you up on that. Thanks."

"Of course, Love."

"So, Babs," I say, changing the subject, "we talked about what was and wasn't okay for Bea to do to you with her ability. How did you feel about the rest of it? That was rougher treatment than I ever would have given you if I had control over my body."

"It was fine," she says simply.

"That's it?" Bea asks, suspiciously.

"It was a little rougher than I normally like it, but I did have a good time. The power you had Sarah exert over me made it more exciting than usual, for sure. I've never been picked up and tossed before. It was kind of scary because I didn't know how far she'd go, but where things ended was great."

"I'm glad to hear that," Beatrix says.

"Me, too," I say. "I was really nervous I'd cross a line involuntarily."

"In the future," Gabi says, "if either of you is going to be rougher with me than that, I want you to ask me first. I'd have liked for you to have asked for consent this time, but I'm not upset about it now. You pushed the limit of what I was comfortable with, but I enjoyed myself and now that limit has moved."

"Noted," Bea says. "Do you know our safewords? I really should have asked that beforehand. I'm sorry, it slipped my mind. For what it's worth, if you had told us to stop, we would have immediately."

"I know the OOC one," Gabi says. "I assume you two have at least one more?"