The Master Program Ch. 07

He began to focus more on the 'friends' his mother had throughout the timespan of the memories. When he was a child, he had perceived them as nothing more than just friends, but as he passed puberty, he had realised they were boyfriends. His parents had never hidden these relationships but they were not brazen about showing them either; it was akin to how his parents had really acted about their sex-life in his original memories; they may have said or suggested when they wanted 'private time' and Stephen knew what they meant, but it was never openly said. He knew she had had many one night stands, or at least she believed she had, but there were very few memories from his childhood and early teens to show this, just the occasional 'visitor' he spotted in the morning. However, there was one memory of his that had intrigued him; during his ninth birthday, Elizabeth, his mother's best friend, had come to stay, as she always had for his and Katie's birthdays. She was beautiful and he had many real memories of his teenage years where he was masturbating to her image. In the true memory, his father had been angry at his mother because she, Elizabeth and two other friends had gone out for a few drinks and Elizabeth had brought home a guy to Stephen's house.

"George, stop being so self-righteous. We were a bit tipsy so I said she could bring him to our house. Obviously bringing a strange guy here is not great and if you were angry at me for that, I'd agree and say sorry but that's not the case. You just want to hold your high-horse about someone shagging someone they just met."

"I just think she might be a bad influence."

"INFLUENCE?! What am I? A child? For your bloody information, I was hit on too, but using my own ability to decide I told him I was married and sent him away. But if I know that next time this happens you'll just blame it on my friends, then maybe I'll bring back my own guy for the night for some guilt-free fun?"

"That is not funny but I am sorry, I didn't mean that. I just think you were a little irresponsible last night and obviously I'm wound up about that."

Stephen focused on the new memory; the set up was the same but the conversation he had overheard the next morning had been changed.

"George, stop being so self-righteous. We were a bit tipsy so I said we should bring him to our house. Obviously bringing a strange guy here is not great but I don't see how this is any different to the twenty times before now that I've done that. You're just bothered that I had sex with Liz and that's a sin in the eyes of God."

"I just think she might be a bad influence."

"INFLUENCE?! What am I? A child? For your bloody information, it was my idea to have the threesome and most certainly my idea to have lesbian sex. Why do I have to have sex the way you want? I want to do it with guys and girls and while we're on the subject, I want to do it as a performer because I want to be in porn and I'm still pissed of you made me turn down that offer after my audition. Paul was supportive, and he loves me just as much as you do. He's just not painfully controlling."

"Don't bring Paul into this and stop talking about being in love with him. You know that winds me up. You know I'm scared of losing you to him."

Stephen had known about four long-term boyfriends. There was Paul, who had started seeing his mother when Stephen started primary school and continued for several years. Their relationship had never really had a definite end; rather it dwindled to almost nothing, followed by the occasional tryst until three years ago when he met another woman and got married. Next was Gareth, when Stephen was twelve. He lasted about a year, and Stephen was quite upset when they stopped seeing each other because he used to be a lot of fun to hang out with. He suspected that was one of the reasons they broke up; his parents had bought a flat in the outskirts of London as an investment but in this reality, Nicole and Gareth had lived there together for two months during which time Stephen had loved going round to see Gareth. Later, when he understood the situation more, he had felt guilty that he had made his dad so jealous, but at the time both Stephen and Nicole were not happy with his dad. Alessandro was next, an Italian student who was renting the London flat. Alessandro was in his early twenties but his mother was significantly older than this at the time she had first met him, as was the case for Paul and Gareth. By this point, Stephen was fourteen and Katie was sixteen, so they were no longer naïve enough to believe that their mother was just 'out the house a lot'; she had chosen to live with Alessandro for the time he was in the UK. He had remembered his sister had been more cut up about Alessandro's departure than his mother was and he remembered teasing her about 'fancying mom's boyfriend'.

Harry was the most recent of Nicole's boyfriends, before Mike that is. Stephen was there for the start of their relationship; but it wasn't a whole new memory, it was another memory that stemmed from one of his originals. In the original memory he had come home late from a gaming night with his school friends to find his mother passed out on his bed. This was not a common occurrence but whenever Elizabeth came to visit, they did have a few drinks too many and his mother was a lightweight as she didn't tend to drink much at other times. It had been embarrassing nonetheless but he had gone to sleep in his parents' bed; his dad was away on one of his conferences, and in the morning he just teased his mother about the incident. In the new memory, Stephen had returned to his bedroom to find his mother in bed with a classmate of his, Harry. She had had no way to know he was the same age as Stephen, sixteen, as she had met him at a club, which, due to the sale of alcohol, operated a supposedly strict over-18s policy. Having figured out by this age that his mother was incredibly promiscuous, his memory unfolded in a similar way in the morning, after Harry had left, but he remembered being pretty annoyed as he had never liked Harry much. Harry continued until they were eighteen; he remembered the potentially embarrassing incident where his mother had come to their high school leaving ball as Harry's date but by this point his classmates had become bored by that particular gossip. They separated after he went to university, but still met up occasionally. It was evident that Mike had given his mother a strong preference to younger guys, in order to facilitate his own relationship with her.

Stephen thought about his sister and father; he hadn't actually seen the new versions of them, since Mike had blocked him from seeing their avatars. In all of his memories, his father had looked the same, which wasn't surprising, but, as he had expected, Katie was now a Master Program slut. In reality, she had got her first, and until now only, tattoo; a flower on her wrist, shortly after her 18th birthday. In his true set of memories, his parents had not been too pleased about this, his father much more so, but in the new memories, his mother had recommended the tattoo parlour; his father was still not too pleased. Mike it seemed had given her eight new tattoos, which included a tramp stamp and, to Stephen's artificially suppressed annoyance, a butterfly on her pubis that matched the one Nicole had. He only knew of the intimate tattoo because Katie had followed in Nicole's footsteps and dressed in clothes that often failed to cover her properly. Katie had always been pretty and had kept a shapely figure, so physically speaking, it seemed the only change Mike had made to her outward appearance were the tattoos, all the piercings his mother had and a breast enlargement to what looked like a size larger than Imogen's.

His family dynamic was superficially very similar to what it been before; his father was still a loving caring man, whose love for his family was so intense that it could result in a demanding demeanour, his mother was doting mother but the 'free-spirited' nature of her youth occasionally shone through to his father's annoyance and his sister was a bit of an 'independent woman' with a secret 'girly-girl' heart and she admired their mother very much. The differences came through in the details, his mother's wild side was more slutty than party-girl now, his parents' arguments revolved more round Nicole's sex-life than her escapades with her friends and his sister exercised her 'independence' by sleeping with multiple guys rather than having a boyfriend.

He hadn't thought about himself though. In this new set of memories his life was different, but because he had not been fully reconciled he could not feel the changes to himself. According to his memories, throughout his later teenage years he had battled with sexual attraction to his mother, which had only become worse in the years after he had turned 18 and she had stopped hiding her sexual nature in front of him at all. For her, the previous night of being completely naked around him was not a novelty. He had always told himself that it was just a case of her being comfortable with her sexuality and did not mean she would ever sleep with him, even when she gave him open-mouthed kisses to say hello and goodbye. There were a few times when he heard and saw hints that Nicole and Katie had slept together, as part of group sex with a guy, but he had never tried to confirm they had even engaged in such a threesome because if he found out for sure that they had he would know his mother would not shy away from incest.

At the end of Stephen's and Mike's shared lectures on Monday, Stephen approached Mike to talk about some of the questions he hadn't been able to answer with his trip down memory lane. He felt his mild annoyance towards Mike dissipate as he approached Mike and the Master Program reprioritised the passive subroutine.

"I have some things I want to ask you."

"Sure, but I need to get back quickly, I got a really dirty text from your... never mind," said Mike. Stephen guessed Mike was about to goad him about his mother, but perhaps he had found his conscience again since Saturday night.

"Why? I get you're pissed about Imogen but don't you think this is fucking extreme?"

Mike sat down at the back of the lecture hall; it was empty now and there were no following classes, and gestured for Stephen to join him, which he did, before continuing, "OK, so my original idea was to steal Imogen from you, but you blocked that from happening. I tried Sophie and then some of the other ones, but again, I knew that would fail. I programmed myself to stop fancying Imogen but I still wanted you to know what it felt like. I guessed if you were desperate enough to agree to fancying my girlfriend you might have been blinded enough to make a few more mistakes. You blocked me from altering only those you called girlfriends but you left your family unprotected..."

"Yeah because I fucking didn't think you'd be so fucking sinister. I thought you might alter one of my girls, even just by mistake..."

"Do you hear yourself; 'your girls'? They aren't YOURS. Dr Sampson has a husband. I met him once, actually; nice bloke. Even if they were single at the time you twisted them into these sluts, what makes them yours? Why did you have to put Imogen through that?"

"Why do you care about Imogen? She was a bitch anyway."

"Her being a bitch doesn't give you the right to do what you did. And for your information, she's not a bitch at all."

"Yes she was; she was always rude to me and really dismissive and cold. You've seen her towards me."

"Yeah, I didn't want to remind you of this because it is embarrassing for me to remember, on your behalf, but don't you remember her flat party back in halls just before the end of our first ever term? She fucking fancied you but you turned up far too drunk, insulted one of her friends from home, spent ages telling her how you fancied Sophie but Sophie had a boyfriend and you hoped they would break up and then to top it off, vomited in her flat's kitchen sink and went home. I had to tidy up your mess but I didn't mention it because of that night in our Fresher's Week where you took me back to your flat when I was too smashed to even stand. I owed you one and didn't see the point in making you feel shit, but THAT'S why she didn't like you, because that night you were a fucking twat!"

"What?" Stephen did have vague recollections of that night now that he thought about it but he deflected the thoughts to avoid feeling the shame, "Well, anyway, this is all just a fucking game. None of us are really real, so why does it matter if I changed one fictional character into another fictional character."

"Bingo," smiled Mike, "I agree. So why can't that be Niki?"

"I..." Stephen paused, "Why not just make her your girlfriend then? Why did you have to make her and my family think she had had sex with all those guys and boyfriends?"

"She doesn't just think she did. She really did."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Well, originally the plan was to just make her mine but then I thought that was boring, and barely a test of what this program could really do. So I decided to do some more. I asked if I could change events in the past but the program said I could only change people's perceptions and memories of the past, not the past itself."

"Well yeah, that'd be time travel."

"So anyway, I made her think she'd slept with a whole bunch of guys... 37, if I've remembered correctly... but I knew you could just undo that and that'd be that. I wanted to make it actually happen."

"But you don't have the slots to alter that many people..."

"Correct. But I DO have the power to alter or command anyone as long as I don't have to use a slot. So I got the program to find a bunch of guys that had had one night stands in their past that they couldn't recollect well and the person they had sex with was irrelevant. Because it didn't make any overall changes, I was allowed to slightly alter their memories to fit with your mum's."

Mike paused and looked at Stephen. Stephen remained silent; the Master Program slowly placated him.

"Then came the fun bit. In the days running up to our dinner I sorted out a hotel room. Your mum then had... visitors... come round, believing it was times in the past that they had had sex."

Stephen's vision flashed white hot before the Master Program rapidly soothed him, partly using his growing incestuous attraction to Niki. He responded, his tone and attitude a mix of anger and excitement, "You mean my mum has had actually had sex with that many guys?"

"Yes, I felt it was the best way to show you what you've done to Imogen and all the other girls. I had to make her an exaggerated version of them, libido, tattoos, fake tits and all. Also, she's like a walking aphrodisiac; the more she is aroused the more she arouses the others around her, and the better she makes them feel when they orgasm. Of course, she is always horny. She is aware she is uncontrollably over-sexed and she knows that anything she does requires her to be able to be pleasured several times an hour."

"So she wants to be a sex worker?"

"Well I put the idea in her head, of course, because I wanted you to realise that you've made these women nothing more than porn stars and prostitutes for your own pleasure, all day, every day. At least sex workers get to go home and lead relatively normal lives if they so choose."

"So what do you want? Just tell me what you want so I can change Mum back. I just want my normal mum back."

"For now, just realise the danger of this program and what it's made you become. And I don't mean those changes you programmed."

Stephen returned to his flat. As his proximity away from Mike increased, Stephen started cursing Mike with such comments as 'self-righteous cunt' under his breath, all the way back right up to when he walked through the door. His quashed anger disappeared completely as he saw Sophie and Alice; both were sitting next to each other on the sofa, completely naked and kissing passionately whilst rubbing each other's clits. Both had seen him, but chose to keep going until they stimulated each other to orgasm. Once done, Sophie nestled her head between Alice's legs and gestured for Stephen to join. He did so, making it a threesome that lasted an hour.

A sweaty and tired Alice spoke, "I still prefer a dick or two, but you've certainly opened my eyes to the benefits of sex with women," she leant in and kissed Sophie, "Maybe you should try the delights of several dicks at once..."

"I can't..." replied Sophie, looking towards Stephen, "Anyway, Stephen, do you want to see the costume I've got for Imogen's party?"

"Party?" said Stephen quizzically then continued, "Oh yeah, she mentioned something about that, Halloween party right? This weekend?"

"Yeah, she needs more guys though," replied Sophie.

"Imogen having trouble getting guys to spend time with her?"

"Well no because it's a like a sex party, she doesn't want the guys coming to all be super desperate weirdos."

"Wow, sex party? She didn't tell me that bit."

"Yeah, sounds a bit like an orgy-slash-swingers party. I'm not quite a middle-aged housewife yet but it could be fun," explained Sophie.

"I wasn't going to go," spoke Alice, "I didn't fancy the idea of the boyfriends sleeping with others at the party... but they are both away this weekend, so I think I will."

Friday night came and Imogen had secured eight girls and seven guys; her invitations had been received well with some aid from Stephen and the Master Program. The guys had been asked to come in just a plain black t-shirt and black trousers; Imogen had costumes for them. The girls had been instructed to come in 'creatively provocative' outfits. Sophie had gone with a blue sarong that just failed to preserve the modesty of her lower half and a golden nipple chain between her breasts. She also a frilly neck brace and a golden arm band around her upper arm, which kind of gave her the belly-dancer look she was going for. Alice had gone for sexy lingerie feline; furry nipple pasties, a garter belt-come-skirt, a tail, cat ears and face-paint whiskers. Both costumes could still be worn whilst having sex; this had been tested just before the three of them left.

Wearing coats to remain decent on the journey, they arrived at Imogen's flat a little after 8pm. Imogen greeted them wearing a halo, angel wings and a pair of clear heels; her completely bared skin sparkled with what have been an entire tub of body glitter. Stephen was directed through to the kitchen, where all the guys were waiting. They were all chatting amongst themselves, some sounded a little nervous, while others were very excited. Stephen grabbed a drink and started talking to Tom, a guy from his halls that he was reasonably friendly with. Stephen had been in the kitchen for around five minutes when a familiar wash of arousal permeated the air around him. Seconds later, Mike entered the room.

"You... you... you're here," said Stephen, feeling his anger flash and wane, now realising that his mother was here too.

"Yes, but actually... I don't think I can stay. I don't fancy joining in; if it was just the women maybe, but having other guys around makes it a little gay... I just wanted to wish you a fantastic time," Mike gave him a smirk and Stephen knew he was referring to Nicole's presence.

Mike left and Imogen came through to the kitchen, "So guys, I've left out seven costumes in my bedroom, which is that door there. I'm glad that most of you followed my instructions and worn plain clothes, because the idea is that we can't identify you. All the costumes have masks so we can't see your faces but for those that don't cover your hair, I've attached some cut up tights to pull over your head. For costumes that cover your body, like the Spiderman one, change out of your clothes, for the rest stay in what you're wearing. If Peter, you could wear one of the full costumes since you've come in jeans..."