Outsiders Pt. 01

"Well, no," Ben said, "there are some small limitations. I can't give her an obviously self-destructive order, such as killing or maiming herself, but I can make her do pretty much anything else that I wish. The only way to break free of the domination is for me to give instructions that are against the person's strongest beliefs, but even then, they only get another roll of the dice with their odds being slightly better."

"Meh, sounds like she's done for either way, Boss," Felicia said.

"Oh, heck yes she is," Ben said. "First, I have to cast Discern Location and then Greater Teleport to get to her, but then she's toast!"

"This is exciting," Felicia said. "I've heard you talk about her so often, I'm glad to finally be able to meet her!"

"Hush now," Ben said. "I've got to cast this spell."

"Sorry, Boss," Felicia said and sat down on the desktop.

Ben went over the mental inventory of the spell and nodded to himself. "This takes ten minutes," he said.

"Roger that, Boss," Felicia said.

Ben began to cast. His hands moved through the air in intricate patterns and his voice hummed the magic words for ten whole minutes as he kept the memory of Krista's smiling face first and foremost in his mind. As he chanted, his anger faded away. His mind was clearing with each repetition of the chant and the smiling face he was concentrating on started to make him feel anxious to see her in person and finally touch her.

Why shouldn't he? She had stolen from him, it would only be right for him to steal a few gropes and kisses back from her, as interests for the stolen funds. Maybe he'd even use her to finally get rid of his virginity. He smiled and tried to guess what prostitutes charged so he could come up with a number of sexual services Krista would have to perform for him in the name of interests on his parents' stolen money. The image of her, naked and on her knees before him as she looked up at him with her eyes open wide in awe, gave him a boner and threatened to ruin his concentration.

He focused anew on the chanting and kept her face foremost in his mind. He didn't want to blow the casting halfway through. As he rearmed himself with resolve and cleared his mind of all thoughts of sexually exploiting Krista, his mother's voice echoed in his mind. She had raised him to always be respectful of women and to never even think of infringing on their rights. If she had any idea of what he was thinking about doing to Krista, her heart would break into a million pieces. Ben forced that line of thinking out of his mind and refocused on Krista's face. He kept the spell going, but the thought of how terribly his planned actions would disappoint his mother was bouncing around in his skull, unwilling to be extinguished.

By the time the casting was finished, he had fallen into a strange, trance-like state. The knowledge of where Krista was just came to him, as naturally as if he was reading it in a book. She was in room 6 of a motel just outside of Phoenix, Arizona. The spell gave him the exact address of the place.

Now, all he needed was to get a picture of the place in his mind and he'd be able to instantly teleport there with the spell of Greater Teleport. He flipped open his laptop and waited nervously for it to power up. "I am going to get her," he said. "I am so going to get her!" Even as he said those words, he felt like he was betraying every principle he was raised to hold dear and invalidating all the sacrifices his parents had made for him. Normally, he wouldn't have even considered such a thing, but Krista had that effect on him. The very thought of her overwhelmed his mind with so much raw emotion that holding on to reason and sanity became a challenge.

"Roger that, Boss," Felicia said.

The computer finished booting up and Ben went online to look up the name of the motel. He got a few hits and one of them was the place's official website. Ben clicked through the galleries to get a clear enough picture of the place for use in the Greater Teleport spell. Once he did that, he began to feel quite a bit nervous about seeing Krista again.

He decided to go through the spell descriptions in the Player's Handbook again, just to be sure there were no loopholes or details overlooked. If his spell failed, unlike the regular Teleport spell, which he had never even picked for his character, there were no consequences, he'd just be back in his chair. If it worked, he'd be at the motel to get Krista and then he'd just teleport back to his place. He was glad to have checked the spell description as it stated that he can only teleport willing persons that are touching either him directly, or touching someone else that is touching him and also willing to teleport. He needed to first dominate Krista and then order her to teleport with him.

As he focused on his Dominate Person spell, he realized the casting time for it was six seconds, not the standard three. He couldn't count on Krista standing still for that time and not leaving the spell's range. She'd probably come closer to him if she saw him waving his arms around and mumbling strange syllables. She'd flip her dark hair, fix those bright, green eyes of hers on him and her high cheekbones would get just a tad more prominent as the corners of her mouth curled upwards in her signature half grin, half smirk. His heart raced a bit as he envisioned coming face to face with her again.

He wiped his hands on his pant legs and did his best to calm down and plan for all contingencies. He decided he'd cast Greater Invisibility on himself before he teleported to the motel. That way, nobody would ever see him. Not even Krista as he would be attempting to seize her mind. Just as he thought about the Greater Invisibility spell, he learned that he needed an eyelash in a piece of gum arabic to cast it. He checked his mental inventory of spells and confirmed that casting the regular Invisibility spell required the same material focus.

Ben huffed in frustration. He had made a good plan, but he couldn't go through with it unless he had the material focus for the invisibility spells. He asked himself if he could just go to the motel and dominate her without turning himself invisible. The more he thought about things, the more he thought about the consequences of his actions. The thought that he would be breaking his mother's heart if she ever found out about what he was planning to do was making his vengeful anger subside. He had been raised to not see women as objects, no matter how they dressed, or what they did.

An errant though snuck into his deliberations and made them grind to a crashing halt. What if this was a test? What if he had been given magic by some preternatural entity just so it could see what he'd do with it and them judge him? What if there was someone, or something, just waiting for him to step out of line and then have the excuse to get medieval on him? He told himself that that kind of thinking was utterly insane, but he had magical spells flowing through his body. He was in no position to just dismiss such seemingly irrational fears.

"Fudge," he swore out loud when he finally realized he wasn't going to go get her that night. He had been briefly swayed by the daydream of dominating Krista and ordering her to be his loving girlfriend, but thinking things through made him abandon such a scheme. It wouldn't be love, it would be rape of the worst kind.

He had been raised to see sex as the most sacred act of love, only to be shared between two willing people who were in love with each other. While every other boy his age saw sex as a contest and women as targets, he saw it as a cooperative effort and women as equal partners. As a consequence of these views, he was a virgin that watched selfish assholes get laid over and over again, while women laughed at him and his beliefs. Nonetheless, those values were so deeply engrained into his person that he stuck by them, even now.

"Boss," Felicia asked.

"What?"

Felicia tilted her head a bit and said, "You said, 'fudge'?"

"Yeah," Ben said. He was feeling a tremendous feeling of guilt for even imagining Krista as his naked sex slave that woke him up each morning by orally worshipping his morning wood. He could only hope that if there was some kind of supernatural entity judging him, it couldn't read his mind. At the very least, he hoped he wouldn't be judged on the basis of his thoughts. "I'm... I don't think I'm gonna go get her tonight."

"Why not?"

"I, uh, I need this, um, material focus for a spell," Ben stammered out. He was feeling so ashamed at what had been going on in his head that he didn't even want his familiar to know about it.

"Is it something I can go and get for you," Felicia asked.

"Yeah, no," Ben said, trying to quash this topic of conversation quickly. "Uh, thanks for offering, but, uh, no, it's not."

"Too bad," Felicia said.

Ben nodded in agreement. He gathered his papers and D&D manuals and stowed them back in their drawer. "I think I'm gonna call it a night. I'm still kind of exhausted."

"Whatever you say, Boss!"

"Good night," Ben said and went back to bed.

"Good night, Boss," Felicia said and went back to the den to watch some more TV.

Ben took his pants off and lay back under the covers. He rolled over on his side and tried to push the thoughts of having Krista as a sex slave out of his mind. His cock was about three quarters hard and it refused to deflate. He was deathly embarrassed at having such a strong reaction to the image of Krista kneeling before him, naked. He lost track of time as he lay there waiting for his chub to subside so he could go to sleep.

Finally, he gave up and rolled over on his back. He grabbed hold of his cock and started to stroke it. As soon as he imagined her face level with his cock, he became rock hard in his grip. He started to stroke himself faster and harder. He imagined her mouth falling open in awe at his erection and her eyes staring up at him, desperate for any sign of approval. His whole body began to sway and jerk in sexual arousal as he imagined giving her orders she eagerly obeyed and having absolute freedom to use her sexually. His breath hitched in excitement. He came imagining himself her master.

He had rarely had such a strong orgasm before. After he caught his breath and the aftereffects of the orgasm faded away, he found himself feeling guilty again. "Why am I so aroused by the thought of dominating Krista," he asked himself. He had been raised to believe such a thing would be evil and would make him the worst kind of abuser possible. He asked himself if he was secretly a rapist. If he was the kind of monster that would prey on those weaker than himself and feel pleasure while doing so. He honestly didn't know the answer to those questions.

He rolled over and decided to punish himself for his filthy fantasy by sleeping in his own cum. His mind kept running over the images of Krista's naked submission to him and his cock started responding again. He ignored the urge to pull on his dick again. He did his best to clear his mind of such images and get to sleep, but he was plagued by doubts concerning his newly discovered proclivity for the rest of the night.

Ben startled awake, groaned and rolled over. He didn't know what had woken him from his fitful rest. He had no intention of finding out what it was and every intention of falling back asleep, even with his radio alarm clock blaring the morning news. "Boss, you're running late," Felicia yelled in his ear again. Ben made some nonsensical but angry sounds of protest and glared at his familiar with one bleary eye. "I mean, are you still going to work, or not?" Ben's head whipped around and he checked the time on his alarm clock radio. "I get that you're a sorcerer now and all that, but I wanted to be sure that-"

Ben leaped out of bed and hurriedly put his pants back on. He lifted his arm and sniffed his armpit. His nose wrinkled. He took off his T-shirt and cast the Prestidigitation spell to make it clean. He went to the bathroom and quickly washed up. He dried himself and put his shirt back on. He grabbed some Graham crackers out of the jar and took the bag of kibble out of the cupboard. "Guard the house and feed yourself, Felicia, I'm late," he said to his following familiar.

"Bye, Boss," Felicia said in response. "Have a good day at the office!"

Ben ran to the bus stop, eating the cracker that he was making taste like his mother's peach cobbler and barely managed to catch the bus. He squeezed into one of the last available seats and ate the crackers with delight, making each bite taste of a different kind of pie with the Prestidigitation spell that was still in effect. The other passengers ignored him, minding their own business. Some of them smelled. When his transfer stop came along, he was glad to be rid of their pungent company. He waited a long time for the connecting bus that would take him to work. It showed up ten minutes late and Ben stood nervously by the door during the whole ride to his work. He ran from the stop to the call center and made it there only to find his boss, Susan, waiting for him.

"Mister Kidder," she said, crooking her finger at him, "to my office!"

Ben followed the severe looking woman, dressed as always in a tailored black suit, into her office. She sat behind her desk and gestured at the other chair. Ben sat down and finally found his voice. "Good morning," he said.

"What time is it, mister Kidder," she asked.

"Um, uh," Ben went rummaging through his pocket to drag his phone out and check, but then remembered his phone had been fried by lightning. "I don't know, exactly, but-"

"No buts, mister Kidder," she said. "It is six minutes after eight a.m. You are six minutes late for work."

"Well, yes, technically," Ben stammered, "but we have a-"

"The sales personnel are allowed to punch in between eight and nine," she said, cutting him off, "and punch out exactly eight hours later, between four and five p.m. You are not allowed, mister Kidder. You are the IT service and it is your responsibility to be here before eight a.m., start our systems, and then stay until after five p.m. to shut down the systems and secure our data. Is it not so?"

"Well... Yes."

The instant he conceded her point, her murderous expression softened into one of profound disappointment. "Honestly, mister Kidder, what were you thinking?"

"Um, I have been," Ben started to meekly say.

"Not only have we been forced to endure your utterly incompetent bungling in the IT department," she said, provoking Ben's ire, "but, now, we have been forced to waste precious time on waiting for you to come in and enable our personnel to earn their living."

Ben couldn't stop his glare from showing up on his face. Susan Wright was the sole reason for all the ills that befell this call center on a regular basis. Her incompetence was only surpassed by her unstoppable drive to appear competent and professional. If she had spent but a tiny fraction of the time and effort she did in appearing to be professional and competent into an honest effort to actually gain some measure of competence, Ben was certain she'd be the first woman president of the Unites States.

As usual, his parents' lessons on patience and understanding were the only things that let him keep his cool in his dealing with Susan Wright. They had taught him to always be civil and respectful and find a middle ground for a productive compromise with the other party. He took a deep, relaxing breath and bottled up all of the frustrations she was causing.

"Even as we speak, our workers are sitting idly out there, unable to do the work they're paid for, because you didn't come in on time to start the computers," she said.

"Well, then, I'd better get out there and," Ben said, but was cut off again.

"It is beginning to seem to me as if you are the reason our system has so many kinks," she said. "If you weren't, then we wouldn't be disconnected during one in every eight calls we make."

Ben gave her a sardonic look that she failed to interpret properly. Her lips curled into a grin as she thought his expression contrite. Her own insistence on installing every piece of crap software that anyone came along to sell to her was the reason the call center's computerized telecommunication system was failing so often.

"I have made a commitment to make this call center the best there is," she said. "I have spent much time and effort into improving the efficacy and output of this outfit and it has finally dawned on me that you have been stabbing me in the back this whole time."

Ben's eyes rolled a little at her melodramatic tone. Every time a software salesperson came along and started spouting nonsensical phrases at her, she'd get all taken by the flashy phrases and buy their product, insisting it be installed as soon as possible. The fact that none of those programmes had been meant to ever find themselves on a call center mainframe didn't deter her in the least.

The one time the software had come on a physical disk, without an install team, Ben had just tucked it away and saved the firm a headache, but he couldn't undo the damage the install teams were doing. In his six weeks at the firm, there had been four different teams, coming to install completely useless software packs, one of which had been outright harmful. Ben had given it his all to curb the unnecessary software installations, but Susan had called him into her office after each one of his well-reasoned complaints and given him a half-hour lecture on professionalism. The irony of those lectures had been completely lost on her.

Ben would have wiped those programs from the servers and put up a nice, little Unix that made things run impeccably smooth, but the firms that managed to hoodwink Susan into buying their crap were charging the company licensing fees and kept sending techs over to install upgrades that they then charged more money for. He couldn't simply wipe the stuff off the servers with them coming around at random times to check up on it. Their upgrade packs made it nearly impossible for Ben to even boot up the servers properly. As a result of Susan's irrational insistence on all those various programs being installed and run on the call center's servers, the sales personnel got disconnected randomly during one in every eight calls they made.

"Do you know how much money your incompetence is costing our firm? I simply cannot understand why you have so much trouble with the systems but, I do see now that you are not the computer savvy person you had advertised as, originally. I should have never taken pity on you and given you this job in the first place." Ben was stunned by the sheer amount of blatant lies she had managed to squeeze into so few words.

She had begged him to come rescue her when one of her brilliant installs, that had been meant to "streamline synergetic data co-efficiency", had crashed the servers and the last IT guy had finally had enough and quit. She had called Ben after seeing his ad in the local paper about offering IT support services. In hindsight, Ben realized he should have suspected something was hinky with the job when she hired an unknown IT guy out of a want add and not from a reputable agency, but the money was good and he had been desperate. When he got here, he saw that Susan's brief reign had already made a mess with the computer system.

"Now, even the head office has noticed that we are falling behind in our numbers," Susan said. "They have asked me why that is. Do you know what I am going to tell them? I am going to tell them the truth."

Ben barely suppressed a mocking grunt. His efforts to keep a straight face were getting more and more futile by the minute. The truth was that her management style had driven away nearly the entire sales staff that had been in place before she got there. Even the shoddy replacements she hand-picked were eager to get away from her as quickly as they could. She was a horrible boss who kept coming up with one ludicrous idea after another and, when they turned out to be as stupid as everyone thought they'd be when they had first been introduced, she'd lay the blame squarely on someone else and fire them. Then she'd come up with an even worse idea to compensate for the damage she had already done. And she would give insipid speeches and hold "exercises" during work hours, attendance mandatory. Since the sales staff only made any real money on commission, they hated her guts with a vengeance for making them waste precious time they could be using to earn much-needed money on listening to her self-aggrandizing drivel.