I feel like I kind of rushed the last couple of posts out just to post them, so I’m trying to take my time on this a bit more.
“Ow! Ian! What the hell?”, MIranda swore angrily.
Sprawled out in front of me, undignified and vulnerable, she still somehow managed to look indignant, even betrayed. As if everything that had happened, everything I had done, everything she had said, all of it had never happened.
I exhaled sharply.
It was the only warning she had before I pinned her to the table like an insect on display. There was a moment of surprise, then she began to struggle, but with my finger jammed into the small of her back, there was no way for her to reach me, no real form of meaningful resistance she could pose.
With a casual menace, I brought my other hand into her field of vision, slowly placing the tip of the index finger behind the thumb, before pulling it away to aim.
“I think, Miranda, that you just won’t understand. Not until you’re taught a lesson.”
Then I flicked my finger straight onto one of her ass cheeks.
She yelped, pushing momentarily harder against my hold until I lightly increased the pressure against her, forcing her down.
The next flick landed against the other cheek.
“Ian, I-”
The first cheek again.
“You need to-”
And then the second.
“Plea-”
First.
“No, I-”
Second.
“Wait!”
At that, I paused. After all of this, I had honestly forgotten the other Mins where there.
“Wait, please!” Amber continued, from her position near my elbow, a rather dangerous one for her to inhabit without me knowing.
After a moment of thought, I placed my hand flat onto the table.
“I’m listening.”
While I still didn’t care much about them, I had to admit the sheer… compliance of the smaller Mins had grown on me in the short time I had known them. Perhaps because of their size, they both seemed far more aware of the reality of their new lives, as well as willing to act accordingly, which was an attitude I was willing to support.
“Master,” And again with that word. Part of me wondered if Amber kept using it in an attempt to help warm me to her and her friend. If she was… it was probably working.
“I know you’re angry. But-” And her she paused for a moment, visibly gathering her courage, “I also know you don’t want to hurt her. Not really, anyways.”
I raised an eyebrow. Bold words… coming from her, anyways, who thus far had taken pains to not do anything I could possibly take as defiance.
“If you will allow it, Master, I have a suggestion.”
“Go on.” I prompted. If nothing else, anything to cause her to act so unusually should be interesting.
Amber curtseyed. “Thank you for your tolerance, Master. I suggest you let us talk to her. As you know, Miranda is stubborn. But I think that, if you just give us a little time, we should be able to talk her around to a more rational position.”
“Oh?”
Really, I had no reason to not let them try, but I was curious to hear her reasoning.
“Master, you knew Miranda from… before. And if I may, I believe those memories are stopping her from fully accepting her new position. Talking to you makes her remember who she was, stops her from moving on from her old life. We can approach her from a level she will be more understanding of.”
And here she gestured at Mia who had, at some point, crept up to Miranda, crouching down near her head from a careful distance.
“She’s only known the two of us since we Min’d,” Amber continued, but at that I stopped paying attention to her, mind whirling over this new revelation.
Miranda had told me, she had insisted, that she would only allow herself to be taken by me if I had also taken them, fought every step of the way to see to their needs, even beyond her own. I had thought they were friends she knew from before, and Miranda had just wanted to take them with her when she left, keep one more piece of nostalgia, even after her life had fallen apart.
If she only knew them after she Min’d, though, there’d be no reason for to be so determined to keep them happy at the cost of her own well being. Unless…
“…we can use our perspective-”
“Who was first.” I interrupted.
Amber blinked at my sudden velmence.
“Pardon me?” She asked warily.
“Who Min’d first?” I repeated, “One of you? Or was it…”
From below my finger, Miranda jerked, suddenly, fighting against my hold on her with renewed vigor. Even when that failed, she kept fighting, crying out furiously, desperate to free herself.
“Ah.” I said. “So it’s guilt, then.”
Guilt was her motivation to protect them, not friendship, or love, or to keep some semblance of her time before she had Min’d; she wanted to protect them so badly because what she had already done to them was already more than she could ever forgive herself for.
“…Yes, Master, I believe so.” Amber confirmed. Her tone was bland, and she was carefully staring off to the side, unwilling to meet my eyes.
“But that’s just why you need to do it!” Mia shouted suddenly.
I had never actully heard the little blonde speak before; she had a surprising set of lungs on her for someone her size. At her words, Miranda froze, staring at the woman in front of her with the rapt expression of a deer in the headlights, as if she was too frightened to look away.
“Do you think that doing this is going to change anything!? That throwing this little fit is actully going to help anyone?” She demanded.
“If you don’t do it, all that means is that someone else will. Make no mistake: this will happen. It always does, Miranda. And since there’s no one else around, that ‘someone’ will be him. Have you seen the size of his fingers? He’ll snap us like twigs and never even notice!”
Rude. Not entirely inaccurate, but rude all the same.
“And what happens if he gets angry? Not this mild frustration he has going, but actual, genuine anger? Who do you think he’ll take it out on? You? No matter how mad her gets, you’re his…” Mia trailed off, words failing her as gestured between the two of us, trying and failing to grasp the word to explain our relationship.
“-His obsession or something!” She burst out finally. “Oh, maybe he spanked you a little, but at the end of the day you know he’ll always leave you intact. Me, though? Amber? He barely even knows our names! Do you think he’d honestly care about breaking our legs if it made you regret acting up? You told us you’d protect us, but all you’re doing is trying to get us hurt!”
“Nooo…” Miranda whimpered quietly, tears falling from her eyes. “No, I wouldn’t, he won’t-”
“Stop!” Mia shouted, suddenly looking tired. “Just… stop, Miranda. Wake up and smell the Min Chow.”
She walked forward, falling to her knees in front of Miranda’s proportionally enormous head, hands settling next to each of her eyes.
“We’re Mins. We’re just… fancy pets, now, at best. We take what we can get and we’re thankful for it, because there’s worse, MIranda. There’s always worse. This… thing you have going on with Master? I don’t think you understand how good we have it, now: this is the best case scenario, here. All he does is play around with us, and we get food, water, safety; I mean, holy shit, we have a Min House! An actual Min House! He is spoiling you, Miranda. Everyone at the Kennel would kill to get this kind of treatment that you’re so determined to fuck up.”
Mia let go and stood up, walking a few steps away and gazed off into the rest of the house before she continued to speak, her hands clenched so tightly that the knuckles were tiny dots of white.
“If you really want to protect us, Miranda, then you have to be one to one to use us. Lick us, bite us, step on us; hell, stick us on your fingers like puppets, if you have to! Whatever it is, whatever he wants, just do it.”
It was a persuasive argument if I had ever heard one, and if it enough to finally enough to make Miranda engage? More than worth giving her one last chance.
No one moved as I lifted my finger off her back, everyone waiting to see what would happen next. I’m not even sure Amber breathed.
For a long moment Miranda lay there, her face a picture of indecision, before it firmed.
She lifted herself off the table, got back to her feet, and without saying anything reached forward toward Mia, standing in front of her with her back still turned.
Or, where I remind everyone that yes, Mia is actully a character.
And here. We. Go.