Chapter 21: Sunday, August 8, 2010

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Dom Jake was irritated that his session with Ellen had been interrupted. He had expected to make significant progress breaking Ellen’s will that night. Oh, well, he thought, while a good slave would have provided him much entertainment, some of the family didn’t really understand the nature of dominance and submission. Protecting the family was much more important than anyone play toy, even one with as much potential as Ellen.

Ellen looked fearfully at Jake, aware of her duty of loyalty to him, and painfully aware of how he would punish her if her actions could be perceived as disloyal or disobedient.

“Go ahead and talk freely, bitch,” Jake said. “I promise you that there will be no retribution for what you say here.”

“You don’t mind, master?”

“No, not this time,” Jake said, careful to keep his attention on Ellen so that he would not have to yield to the old Jake. “What’s needed now is for everybody to really understand what’s going on. In fact, I want to make it clear that you and Shannon are to always talk frankly at family meetings. It’s good policy in general and today, in these circumstances, it is especially important.

“My arrangements with you bring up issues that have the potential to split the family. Shannon knows what’s going on from experience. Jan, too. Leanne and Kara are more familiar than most because they are experienced mind readers and have learned much from observing us.

“But the rest of them don’t know yet. They judge our relationship based on how they would want to be treated themselves. That is understandable because that’s pretty much how all vanilla non-telepaths view things. They don’t realize that they are making judgments based on ignorance.

“In a few weeks, they would have come to understand you and me. Even Boris and Nina, whose dispositions are so different from yours or mine, would have come to accept us. There might have been some uncomfortable moments, but they would have eventually learned that our way while unconventional is not evil. That, in fact, it’s an elegant solution driven by our complementary needs.

“Sadly it turns out that we don’t have a few weeks. We have to educate them now. Fortunately, everybody’s mind-reading skills are far enough along that they will see that you and I are being sincere and frank.

“Now, go ahead, unworthy slave, do as Jan asked and tell them how you feel about what’s happened.”

“Yes, master,” she said, looking down meekly. “My feelings are so jumbled. Mostly I feel bad for hurting Jake. It’s so frustrating that I can’t tell him how I feel. My new master doesn’t care about the things that are important to Jake, and the old Jake slips away whenever I talk.”

Ellen looked around at the others. “You all must think I’m shallow, that I’m too weak to control myself, that I’m just a slut. I know my new master does. But if you had been there in those few seconds last night when everything happened you might understand better.

“It was like I was hit by a truck. It was completely unexpected. Suddenly I was face to face with something I had only fantasized about, something too dark for me to talk about openly. The effect on me was so strong that at that moment I was overwhelmed. I can’t really make myself feel bad about it. It was such a powerful experience that there was no way I could not be caught up in it. I’m sure the old Jake understands what happened and doesn’t blame me for that part of things.

“Then he became the old Jake again. You all have to understand. My Jake, the old Jake, is a wonderful young man. He’s been my best friend since he was a little boy. He’s turned into a handsome, smart, kind person. He’s mature beyond his years. As a mother, I couldn’t be prouder of him.

“But he’s not a dominant. He’s confident and charismatic and he’s a natural leader, but he doesn’t have that driving need to control others that is the hallmark of a real dom. He knows that. He knows that I know it, too. He also knows that I need it, so he tries his best to fake it. Sometimes he had trouble maintaining the intensity, but for the most part, he was diligent. And it was good enough for me. I was content.

“And then, unexpectedly I saw the object of my strongest, darkest fantasies in its purest form. Not my new master, but someone absolutely selfish, absolutely willing to use me in whatever way he wanted, no matter how fickle the whim.

“I would never, ever really want a man like that to have power over me, but just for pretend it’s a very powerful idea. And then within seconds, before I had a chance to get more than a glimpse of it, that man was gone. I was very disappointed.

“Then my old Jake returned. At that moment I could not hide my feelings. In truth, I was so frustrated that I became angry, and I directed my anger at Jake. He saw it as contempt, and there may have been some truth in that. After the strength, resolve, and arrogance of that dominator, my Jake’s kindness and gentleness felt for a moment like weakness. It only lasted for a moment, but before I could get perspective again, Jake turned into my new master. The last thing I sensed from Jake was the anguish he felt at what he thought was my rejection of him.

“And that’s the tragedy. He thinks that at that moment my heart was given to my new master, that I was lost to him forever. But it wasn’t true. After a few moments, when I was more myself again, my feelings returned to normal. I would have begged Jake to overlook what had happened as a moment of insanity, a result of extreme emotions that arose in an extreme situation, but I couldn’t. He was gone. My Jake was gone. Whenever I tried to talk to him I was actually talking to my new master who didn’t care what my Jake was feeling. And he isn’t interested in reuniting me with Jake. But at that moment, I would have begged my Jake to forgive me and take me back.”

“So, if we were seated side by side,” Jake said, leaning forward aggressively, “me and Weak Jake, and you had to choose one of us, you would choose him, hands down. Right?”

Ellen hesitated a moment. “No, it’s not like that. I’m not sure I could choose. I love my Jake, and I miss him terribly. But I need my master, and ... I...”

“Go ahead, slave. Say it.”

“I want my new master, too,” she said, wringing her hands. “I know that my sex life is not as important as all the other things we’re dealing with here, but I want him. I want to feel dominated. With Jake it was okay, but deep down I always knew it wasn’t authentic. I want domination to be a part of my life.”

“Like with my father.”

Ellen grimaced but nodded. “Yes, like that.”

“But I felt what I felt,” Boris said. “Jake was angry. He was trying to get Brian to do an unspeakable thing. And Ellen was terrified and miserable.”

Jake had felt his personality start to shift back to the old Jake when Boris had started talking. Jake tried to remain focused on Ellen but couldn’t follow what Boris was saying. Then he hit on a method that worked. He listened to Boris through Ellen, focusing on her thoughts as she listened to him. Jake breathed a sigh of relief. He would be able to interact with the others without losing himself, at least as long as he could maintain his concentration.

“Ellen, tell Boris that, of course, you were miserable. But you were aroused, too.”

“Boris, Jake says—”

“Stop, Ellen,” Jake said. “You don’t actually have to repeat what I say. I just can’t address him directly or Weak Jake will take over, and I don’t want that until I’ve had my say. But do tell Boris whether you were aroused just now down in the basement.”

“Yes, master, I was aroused.”

“Different submissives respond differently to pain. Don’t they, slave? Some hate it. Some get off on it. What about you? How do you respond to pain?”

“I don’t care much for pain, master. But I’m willing to endure it if my master wants me to. I don’t mind taking a beating if it’s what my master likes. In a way, it’s a thrill. It gives me a chance to prove that I’ll do anything for him.”

“But you defied him down there,” Boris said. “I can read thoughts well enough to hear you ask Brian not to do what Jake wanted him to.”

Ellen dropped her head. “Yes, it’s true. I failed my master. I was scared that if Brian went that far that he would be unmanageable after that. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to tell him no if he tried to push me into sex later on.”

“I don’t understand,” Carol said. “I thought the whole reason for the meeting this afternoon was to change Ellen so that she wouldn’t be tempted by other doms.”

“Ellen, tell her I haven’t done anything to you yet,” Jake said. “I’m thankful to everybody for making that option available to me, but that was more important to weak Jake than to me. There’s a good chance that by the time my training of Ellen is complete, I’ll be able to make her into what I want without changing her personality, at least not telepathically.”

“Wouldn’t it be easier to do it that way rather than beating her,” Julie asked.

“It might be kinder and gentler, but it wouldn’t be better,” Jake said to Ellen. “Like any new couple, we are having a period of adjustment. One of the things we are doing is improving Ellen’s attitudes so that her obedience is automatic and joyful.”

“Joyful?” Julie asked.

“Ellen, do you not feel joy when you get to do something for the person you most want to please?”

“Yes, master.”

Julie looked up at Leanne. “Mom, I don’t understand.”

“To be honest, I don’t either,” she said. “The whole topic makes me uncomfortable. But even though I don’t get it, I know that it works for certain people. Neither Shannon, Christine nor Ellen feel they are being harmed. The new Jake doesn’t feel he is doing anything evil. Our Jake understands it, even though some parts of it make him uncomfortable. He only did those things because he felt his partners would be happier for it.”

Jan walked over to Jake and knelt in front of him, putting her hand on his arm.

“We need to hear from the old Jake,” she said, and his personality shifted back.

Jake flashed her a quick smile. “That was smoothly done. The other Jake still had things to say. He’s ticked off. He planned on using the events of the day, especially the thing with Brian, to instill in Ellen the correct mindset. He might have been successful, too. If so, it would have minimized Ellen’s discomfort in the long run.”

“I’ll apologize to him and Ellen later,” Jan said. “Meanwhile, we need you now, Jake. Don’t let yourself shift back.” She turned to Ellen. “I need for you to avoid attracting Jake’s attention. For now, please try not to talk.” She looked up at Kara and Leanne. “Do what you can to keep our Jake from slipping away.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Kara said.

Leanne nodded.

“Now that everybody knows the whole story, it’s time to decide what we’re going to do. I don’t have anything against Dom Jake. I don’t have a problem with how he was training Ellen. The truth is that there’s a part of me that gets a thrill from him. But he is a problem. He was never meant to become an independent personality. He was a sort of demonstration that somehow managed to perpetuate itself. And while I think that Leanne was on to something, Dom Jake doesn’t cut it.”

“Then what should we do?” Alice asked.

“I have an idea or two,” Jan said, “but I’m not going to do this by myself. We need to put our heads together, learn from the first attempt, and come up with something better.”

“Hold on,” Boris said. “I’ll accept that Leanne meant well, but what she did to Jake was, well, it was an assault. She radically changed his personality without his consent. Jake would never have done that. He’s always tried to avoid making any changes to us.”

Jan nodded. “Boris is right and I got ahead of myself. For any of us to run roughshod over another like what happened to Jake cannot be allowed. We need to agree among ourselves that inserting any kind of control in one another is not permitted unless the target freely consents.”

“I think we need another rule,” Leanne said. “We don’t do this off the cuff. We think it over carefully first. I also think we should have several people review any proposed change to look for harmful side effects.”

“Another safeguard should be that when we install a control,” Jake said, “we do it under the supervision of at least three other mind readers who can examine the results for problems and back out the changes immediately if something has gone wrong.”

“We should probably review the results at a later date, too,” Carol said. “That would give us a chance to see how the change worked out in the long run.”

“Yes, that would be smart,” Jake said. “Furthermore, we should appoint one of us to enforce these rules. We could call him the internal modification control officer. He or she should have a cautious disposition. I would probably get too carried away thinking about all the possible benefits and want to barrel on ahead without due concern for the dangers. I nominate Boris. I think he would be a sufficient stick-in-the-mud.

Boris chuckled. “I accept your nomination, Jake. It just so happens that I think that if we do this, it needs to be done very carefully.”

“Anyone object to appointing Boris to be our internal modification control officer?” When no one spoke, Jake said, “It is done. You’re the mod cop, big guy. Boris must be involved in any attempt to modify one of us. He has the power to veto any modification unless he is overridden by, let’s say, a two-thirds vote of the entire family.”

“It looks like we have five rules that must be followed when we change one another,” Jan said. “Let’s start using them now. I propose that we make two changes to Jake. First, we take Dom Jake out of him. Second, we do the job right. We figure out how to give him a dominant personality that only comes into play with submissive women.”

“What do you think of that, Jake?” Boris asked.

“I reserve judgment until I know all the particulars. I’d say the devil is in the details. Some changes might be okay, but there are others that I would refuse to accept.”

“Are you willing to explore the idea?” Boris said.

“Oh, yes. I miss Ellen bad.”

“You need to talk to Ellen, too,” Kara said. “This is a change that will affect her, too.”

“I agree that it will affect her,” Boris said, “but it changes Jake. Jake’s consent is mandatory. Ellen’s is not. Of course, this is all a bit theoretical at the moment. I might change my mind depending on how things play out.”

“Nonetheless, I want to know Ellen’s feelings on this,” Jan said. “While I’m talking to her, Leanne, would you help our Jake to stay with us?”

Leanne smiled down at Jake. “I have some ideas on how to do that.” She sat in his lap, locked eyes with him, and gave him a slow, gentle kiss.

Jake returned the kiss but focused on Jan’s mind to hear Ellen’s answer.

“Sweetheart, tell us what you want?”

“If I can have my Jake back and make him a real dom, there’s nothing I want more. That would be the realization of my fondest dream.”

“You realize that the personality that is your current master will be replaced.”

“I don’t think so. It’s all kind of confusing, but I think that you aren’t taking away my master, you’re returning my master, improved.”

Jan patted her hand and turned back to the others.

“I think it would be a lot easier if we were dealing only with the old Jake. I propose that Leanne change Jake back to the way he was before all of this started.” She looked at Boris. “Any problem with that, officer?”

Boris considered it for several seconds. “No, it seems a sensible step to take. In fact, it brings up another issue. If we make a change to someone and then tinker with it later, how can the subject consent after his personality has been modified? Look at this case. We all know that it’s the old Jake who should decide if he wants the new changes, not Dom Jake.”

“That makes sense,” Carol said. “If our attempt creates a broken personality, we don’t want that one making the decisions. We should go back to the original personality. That’s the one most qualified to make the decision.”

“But only if you think that the first one was able to make good decisions,” Julie said. “In Jake’s case, that might not be a good bet.”

“Julie’s dig aside, I agree,” Jake said.

“But it raises another question,” Carol said. “What if a few months down the road, our new and improved Jake wants another change.”