Ведомый / Follower: Интерлюдия: «Человеческая благодарность»

Interlude: "Human Gratitude"

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:12

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Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:13

Her throat was almost hoarse from long conversations, but this was the least of her problems, and tolerable in all respects. Unlike, for example, the terribly itchy wound on her side, which had already stopped bleeding and hurting terribly, but at the same time did not want to dissolve in a couple of minutes. On the other hand, one only has to compare this situation with the very recent one, so it is not a problem at all, but just a minor trouble. But she had already thought that's it, Lizochka had run enough; the time had come to say goodbye to the cruel world. When she fell to the ground right in front of the entrance door, she fell, not feeling her body shivering and soaked in cold muck, unable to even crawl ... she no longer hoped for anything. Only slightly regretted with her fading mind that she did not immediately go somewhere to the military or police, who could help at least with a physical wound.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 07:38

She almost shot at the boy's voice, but he prudently did not stick his head out himself, first talking, and then covering her with his skill, the presence of which made him such a desirable member of any team that you could no longer be able to do anything at all. But he can. Otherwise, he would not have been able to save her now from a completely physical wound that brought only death. Elizaveta assumed that a normal person, not one who had scored more than three and a half hundred units on the Step progress scale, would have simply died from such a wound by this point, would have died in the car, before even reaching home. But she, so, did not die, she got there, and then walked, leaning on the boy's unexpectedly strong hand.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 08:53

Yeah, the boy... She involuntarily glanced at the lad, peacefully sleeping in a completely normal sleep, who, at her command, had finally pulled off his outerwear without waking up or regaining lucidity. Not that she was so caring, but she didn't want Igor to wake up in the morning broken and wet, because he had fallen asleep dressed, having pulled off only his jacket and boots. Her questions hadn't left any injuries on the boy, but they had slightly traumatized the woman herself. First of all, by damaging her pride and sense of self-importance! And also awakening endless envy, evil, and burning. The boy had only two Gifts, against her three, but each of those two was worth as much as all three of hers multiplied by three, if not more! Oh well! Of course, much more!

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 08:56

If to believe him, and there is no reason not to, he touched that ball literally in the first seconds, simply luckily tripping over the threshold of his bathroom. Elizabeth, alas, spent some time looking at the hallucination that hovered above the keyboard of the work laptop that she had brought home once again, before she poked her finger at that ball, activating it. Until now, she thought she had pulled out a golden ticket, but now she understood that she had lost a lot in those few seconds. At the very least, Lyudmila's son had pulled out a diamond ticket, no less, and together with documents for ownership of a diamond mine. Glancing sideways at the carefree face of the sleeping young man again, she continued eating the cut fruit and hastily prepared sandwiches. Her figure required careful monitoring of her diet and exercise, but, among other things, gaining a Lot and developing a Step had significantly corrected all the physical flaws she had not been able to remove on her own.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 07:46

The Vessel returned to the spiral and was renewed again. This time her own. The woman thought for a few seconds about returning to the interrupted conversation, but discarded the thought. The boy had already told her everything he knew and remembered. She had done the bare minimum of work, paved a path and a window into the rather smart, but extremely naive, brain of her noble savior. If something happened, she would be able to unobtrusively press on the embedded settings, forcing him, for example, to imperceptibly dispel the protective blessings. But a full-fledged treatment, like the one she had done on her now deceased team, would require more time, more strength, and a normal state of health. She is now managing not to pass out in an anxious sleep, one step away from a coma, only due to the brutal hunger that does not allow her to fall asleep!

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:15

Elizaveta Albertovna Goritsvet, as a cynical person as much as a highly paid and sought-after lawyer can be, was far from the snotty and puppyish attitude that the boy demonstrated. He wanted to save his late mother's friend. Such a hero, damn him! She and Lyudmila, of course, were friends. They had been through a lot during their student years, but if an old friend had been in Igor's place, she would have done exactly the same. It's one thing to show concern for the boy, which doesn't really cost her anything. And even to contribute to his successful career by inviting him to her firm after completing his studies. She and Lyuda really had an excellent relationship, and she hasn't forgotten them. It's quite another thing if literal omnipotence is at stake, or rather, the path to it, as well as banal survival, because the coming end of the world has long been counted down on a timer.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:19

The woman only grimaced slightly in irritation from another attack of itching around the wound, and also because she had not guessed about the young man's abilities earlier. And she could have, she could have thought about it then, when he came across her and Valery in the middle of the night, returning from a night out for some unknown reason! She could have simply asked later, when she came to him, trying to remove the dangerous detail from his memory. And she removed it, also experiencing a strange irritation from the fact that she could not have worried at all because the boy did not pay attention to her then. She could have asked just one question, and everything, everything could have gone differently! But no, she simply left him with a suggestion to "take care of yourself, get enough sleep and eat healthy", and not an imperative one, but a weaker one, exclusively to improve the health of an individual who was not indifferent to her.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:21

But if he had been with them that night, Valery and Georgy could have survived. She would not have been wounded, would not have faced the threat of death. The death that befell the two bastards, whom she had abandoned to cover her retreat from the crowd of creatures that had crawled out of the doors painted on the walls. It wasn’t that she regretted the death of both men, who had gotten used to calling themselves Brick and Hoarse, who had once pushed her against the wall and not raped her only because she had managed to get into their heads earlier. And there it would have been easy to convince and incline them to “normal and smooth cooperation between buddies” before finally completing their subjugation. They hadn’t even guessed that her abilities were not at all like what she had described, to sense living beings and to be able to slow them down, to weaken them a little, this was only the tip of the power of her Tablets.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:25

By the time of that fateful night, when they finally decided to visit the private home of the damned artist, Georgy "Hoarse" Petrov was a completely subordinate personality to her, and Valery "Brick" Lopatkin could only be considered a personality very conditionally. She had gone overboard with her bone Tablet, having only just begun to master it, but deciding not to waste time. Outwardly, Valery still gave the impression of adequacy and the presence of reason, but in those fragments of consciousness that remained, there was room only for combat skills, the abilities of the Tablets, and a dog-like loyalty to Elizabeth. In some ways, he even became more effective, reacted faster to danger, and as for the fact that he had forgotten how to read, write and completely forgot most of his life - well, he had never really read before, wrote with mistakes, and in his life there was only continuous crime and shady schemes.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:36

Elizabeth glanced sideways again at the sleeping young man who had saved her life, saved her just like that, simply wanting to help and not seeing a reason to refuse help. At the one who did not want her money, her body, or even just cooperation. Although she would not have refused the latter... as well as the first two points. Of course, no matter how shameless and cynical a creature Elizabeth was, she had some remnants of, if not gratitude, then humanity. She would definitely not turn the boy into some kind of biorobot, capable only of following orders, she would even calm her long-dead and deeply buried conscience a little, promising herself, if possible, to take care of the boy and not break his mind, just bend it a little in the direction she needed.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:39

Still, Igor turned out to be a surprisingly pure and innocent young man. She would not even be afraid of this word, a little sweet in his naive but sincere altruism. And also in how he was embarrassed by his own emotions towards her. Because even though Elizaveta was an adult and experienced woman of forty-two years old, it was still nice to know and see how her appearance awakens feelings in a man's heart. And not only the heart. She was even covered with a strange mixture of slightly mocking pride from the fact that the incident formed Igor's preferences in his still-unstable psyche. Even now, the boy involuntarily chooses those adult videos in which beautiful older women appear.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:32

And she was sure, a thousand out of a hundred, that he had been spying on her on purpose, the little rascal! And it turned out that he hadn't lied and had dropped in on her by accident, just think about it. Elizaveta smiled involuntarily, looking at the boy with some sympathy, feeling some kindness that was beyond her. After all, he had saved her. After all, without him, she would have simply died a bad death. After all, she had known him for a long, long time. She even involuntarily wanted, if not to cancel her plans for a new victim, then, let's say, to carry them out as gently, even tenderly, as possible. After all, she had seen how he looked at her. She knew that he wanted her. This thought made her pride even more pleasant, and not at all like the previous pair of puppets. Those two moral monsters who almost caused her death were one thing, but Igor was something completely different.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:35

In Georgy's case, she encouraged an attitude towards herself like an older, experienced boss, a godfather, a commander, and even a father figure, who is not refused or contradicted. Valery, before his transformation into almost a vegetable, received a more simple-to-impose dog-like loyalty and passivity. Fortunately, he always followed the leader and elder in life. In principle, a similar approach would work for Igor as well. The boy is obviously a natural-born follower, who has neither the ambitions of a leader nor the desire to contradict the leader. And yet, and yet ... she remembered his sincere emotions, which, of course, included lust and desire, but in proportions no less than respect and admiration for female beauty. She remembered and caught herself thinking that she was already planning how to build their further communication on this passionate and full of sweet desire basis.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:37

The woman was not an ascetic. She was neither a guardian of purity nor an implacable opponent of fornication, but she preferred to sleep with men who were more mature, older, and experienced. Well, and not so skinny, for sure. And yet she wanted to do exactly what she wanted to do, she realized that she wanted this boy.... well, not so much to get him into bed, for he would hardly make a perfect lover with his less than outstanding experience. Elizabeth wanted to seduce him, to slowly and leisurely bend him into submission, into admiring and respectful obedience. And also, she realized, in this case, it would be possible to do without even drastic compulsions. The thought came suddenly, but she was surprised that she hadn't realized the obvious before.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:48

To give the boy a little caress, a little passion, a little promise of such, and he will step into her web, wrap himself in it, like in a warm shawl, and not want to go anywhere. Igor is already happy to obey, no longer wants to choose, and make controversial decisions on his own. She could already clearly see the outline of a scenario in which he would not mind being under her control, would want it. Since the moment she acquired the Lot, the woman had spent a lot of time studying hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming, and brainwashing techniques, which were used by people with varying degrees of low efficiency even without any magic. And she did not ignore the phenomenon of erotic hypnosis as such, having learned about the whole genre of erotica and explicit pornography devoted to dominating someone's mind and will. To put it mildly, it was not what she had expected from her search, but what she had seen, as her now deceased friend would say, would not be developed.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:51

The young man sleeping sweetly on the sofa in the living room already desires her, already ready to become her henchman, to listen to her orders. It will be necessary to interrogate him in more detail, to suggest some suitable sites, videos or stories to make him realize the very possibility of this, to push him to the right thoughts, to help him compare the image of the hypnotizer-seducer and the “Aunt Lisa” herself, and then .... then there will be then. First, it is necessary to fulfill what has already been planned, to survive for at least a week, and to think up what exactly to do with the city gradually slipping into a nightmare. And then it will be possible to play with her unique chance to gain power much faster. It's not even about his Tablets, though they're powerful to the point of insanity.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:53

No, the boy's greatest asset was his Gifts. Only two, but so powerful that it made Elizabeth feel childishly resentful. She managed to catch three lights in that darkness. One added an extra Patch from the start, the second opened an extra Tablet, also from the start, and the third made both the Tablets that had originally opened when she took the Lot form with an understanding scale filled to seventy-five out of a hundred. Until now, she had thought that there was not a single individual in the city, or even in the entire world, who could match her progress! And now she had a boy sleeping on her living-room sofa, forgetting the details of the three-hour interrogation, who could step onto a new Stage right now and understand two of his three Tablets to the full hundred!

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:56

And he will be hers! He will belong to her! He will look at her forms, will dream of seeing her naked body once again, will desire her, will obey her, and only her! The woman herself does not notice how she begins to breathe more often, the excitement, uncharacteristic of her calm and phlegmatic character, comes over her. She opens the thick terry cloth robe, touches the inside of her breast with her fingertips, running them along the hollow, going back up and almost touching the nipple hardened under the fabric.... and then a new attack of itching in her wound, driving away the annoying excitement and lewd thoughts.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:57

//“You've found the time for hand-worship, Lizonka!” - Irritated and slightly embarrassed, the extremely ambitious woman, who had gotten the chance to fulfill her ambitions, ribbed herself. - "That's enough. It's time for a little rest."

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:58

Elizaveta Albertovna shakes her head, yawns tiredly, uncivilizedly stuffs the last piece of sandwich into her mouth, forces herself to stand up and brush her teeth, and then crawls into the bedroom. And there, on a soft bed, under a warm blanket, finally believing that this day is over, she allows herself to close her eyes. She plunged into such sweet and tender dreams in which, it seemed, she saw her new subordinate, wrapped in the web of her will, not noticing that she was wrapping more and more tightly in a dark turquoise net with a golden tint, which was growing out of her web. And if she were not so tired, if this dream was just a dream, the woman could have been surprised by such a strange allusion, could have looked into her inner concentration, trying to understand the reasons, to identify the effect... but even if she had been able to do this, she still would not have found anything suspicious.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 19:39

Name: undeserved

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:13

Rank: Knower of the Mystery

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:14

Chosen Lot: Seductress

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:14

Step: 0 (364/1000)

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:14

Vessels: 3 (filled: 3)

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:15

Patches (total): 4 (free: 1)

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:15

Blessings: 3 (free: 0): Lesser Touch of Petal, Gift of Lesser Mystery, Spilled Honey of the Spiritual Gardens

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:16

Essence Modifications: none

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:16

Tablet: Lesser Suggestion

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:17

Understanding: 79/100

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:17

Foundation: Spirit

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:17

Brightness: Dim

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:17

Effect: Allows you to influence the emotional, sensory or mental sphere of the target, suppressing or gently distorting their will and natural desires, or to splash out with all the power of the Vessel into someone else's thoughts and mind, granting insanity, depriving consciousness or disrupting the thought process in one way or another. Applied to the target, depleting one of the Vessels for twenty minutes with an instant action, or emptying the Vessel gradually and slowly in the case of a long-term effect, refilling it in a little less than ten minutes. The duration of the smooth effect depends on the strength and intensity of the suggestion, but it cannot last longer than ten minutes; it is impossible to maintain more than one target suggestion at a time.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:33

Effect: Allows you to fix the effect of suggestion in the mind and feelings of the target, creating persistent webs of decrees that cannot be dispelled by the effects of standard counteractions to curses or subtle influences. Allows you to have a limited and weaker effect with an emphasis on already embedded suggestions, without emptying the Vessel, but only up to a certain limit of pressure on the will and mind of the target. Allows you to feel the minds around you in the case of a gradual release of the Vessel's power into the surrounding space, and also easily recognize those minds that have already been subjected to suggestions. Suggestions imposed on the target are more flexibly adjusted to the mind of the target and are rationalized by it the more strongly, the less they contradict key aspects of the personality. The duration of a smooth suggestion cannot exceed a period of approximately forty minutes; the cost of Vessels and their restoration remains unchanged.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:34

Effect: [will be revealed upon full understanding of the Tablet]

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:58

//"A will like a stone wall will hold back the blow of a battering ram, but will not stop wisps of weightless fog..."

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 18:01

Tablet: Lesser Memory Distortion

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 18:01

Understanding: 81/100

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:58

Foundation: Spirit

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:59

Brightness: Dim

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 18:00

Effect: Allows you to select a target and insert a spoken command-distortion that will change a specific memory or a chain of such, changing the course of events or attitude towards them, adding new or erasing old. Applied to the target, depleting one of the Vessels for about a full hour. Allows you to maintain work on the target's memory for up to twenty minutes, or to splash out all the power of the Vessel in one uncontrolled stream, chaotically destroying the target's memory and guaranteed to erase the last few hours, days, weeks, months or seconds, because the erasing effect depends on the strength of the target, as well as its readiness to attack. The effect on a conscious and ready to resist target falls by orders of magnitude. The effect on an already relaxed or trance target is orders of magnitude more effective.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:29

Effect: Applied memory distortion effects complement each other and reduce conflict, and the target instinctively tries not to think about the discrepancies between their memory and reality. Allows you to supplement, remove, or modify applied memory distortions, strengthening them, without increasing the level of conflict between distortions. Allows you to impose a distortion on a group of targets, spending an additional Vessel, but the effect of the impact is proportionally lower than the number of targets, which cannot be greater than twice the number of Vessels. Allows you not only to distort, but also to refresh memory, allowing you to remember what has been forgotten, even if the oblivion effect is of a mystical nature. Imposing a distortion still requires contact with the target and speaking out loud, but words begin to mean much less than contact of minds, thanks to which you can directly control how exactly the target's memory will change in response to a short phrase devoid of many details. The duration of the distortion and the cost of the Vessels remain unchanged.

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 09:27

Effect: [will be revealed upon full understanding of the Tablet]

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:58

//"We are who we remember ourselves to be, but do we remember exactly ourselves..."

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 07:39

Tablet: A Brief Step into the Realm: The Weightless Bridge of Unity with the Sleeping Realm

Camrad_RIP 20.04.25 в 07:40

Understanding: 11/100

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:59

Foundation: Bone

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:59

Brightness: Dim

Camrad_RIP 18.04.25 в 17:18