Consensus, Day 2-5: Reformation

Mabel scratched her cheek absent-mindedly as her eyes glazed over. She was at a crossroads on her crossword puzzle, stuck at a four down.

Even with powers that could reduce the American military force to ash with an absent-minded thought, this older woman wanted nothing to do with any of that new-fangled magic power stuff.

Yesterday she had put that spunky young janitor in her place, and while that had provided a brief reprieve from the monotony of life, she was all too content with returning to the toll booth after waking up the next morning at the crack of dawn. Mabel was simply set in her ways, unable to meaningfully change without a heavily significant push.

“Mabel…”

The stalwart toll operator didn’t even flinch, even at the sound of a strange ethereal voice calling her name. She was used to her aging thoughts playing tricks on her, even as her mind sharpened beyond human possibility with her latest Howard Grove encounter.

“Mabel!…”

The voice called once more, desperation in its tone. That earned a reluctant glance from Mabel, diverting her lovely brown eyes from the monotone printings of her paper. When a cursory scan of the surrounding area revealed nothing amiss, she groaned and returned to her crossword, lamenting internally at herself for not listening to her better judgment.

“Mabel please, above you.”

Glazing her eyes as high as the limited viewspace of the booth’s window would allow, she saw the strangest of sights—a woman standing upside-down on the ceiling. But somehow, that was not the most compelling part of her. No, that would be her unhaltable beauty. Her commanding hourglass figure and endlessly complex eyes captivated Mabel, even from a poor viewing angle. Even her radiant glowing locks rejected gravity’s call, cascading perfectly down her shoulders like reverse waterfalls of liquid gold. Despite how comically ridiculous this mystery woman should have looked, she simply did not.

“Please forgive my unconventional location, I’m rather camera-shy and this is one of the few blind spots allotted to me where we may still interact face-to-face.”

“What do you want? I’m on the clock here,” Mabel replied sternly, remarkably unfazed by what she saw before her.

“Ah, a woman who cuts directly to the chase, good!” the mystery woman practically sang. “I humbly ask for your assistance with a certain problem of mine. In return, I will give you untold power beyond your wildest dreams.”

“Pass.”

“Um, y-what?” the beyond human woman stuttered like any other human. “Please, I don’t believe you quite understand what is at stake here. If not for power, at least do it for the fate of the universe!”

“Hold on, I need to ring up this last car, then we can chat further,” Mabel said dismissively. Despite the mystery woman seeing no car of the sort, that didn’t stop Howard Grove from pulling up from seemingly nowhere in order to give Mabel another hard time about his parking stamps. He bickered and complained, with Mabel only growing younger and more powerful by the second.

But that encounter shouldn’t have been possible. Howard’s car had been destroyed just this morning, and yet here he was, appearing on Mabel’s route as if nothing had changed at all.

Mabel was simply so ingrained within the malaise of day-to-day life even something as detrimental to her mental well-being as an encounter with Howard Grove was manifested into reality by her mind. Even more fascinating, was that this strange, ritualistically-induced ghost of Howard Grove appeared to replicate the effects of the curse placed onto the original—despite the fact that Mabel couldn’t possibly have cared to get that detail right.

This woman’s mind was dangerously powerful—exactly what the mystery woman needed to solve her little problem.

Once “Howard Grove” finally left the completely fabricated and arbitrary scene, Mabel finally turned her piercing eyes back onto her upside-down conversation partner. “Anyways, you were saying?”

“May I level with you for a moment, Ms. Mifflin?”

A shapely eyebrow was raised on the toll booth operator's face, surprised that this woman knew her last name. “You may.”

“Through a series of events starting with the very Howard Grove you just rang up, I have created quite the conundrum for myself.”

“That sounds like a ‘yourself’ problem then,” Mabel shot back, with any intrigue she may have had quickly vanishing.

“B-but I cannot do it myself, Ms Mifflin, you must understand! I am a spirit of feminine karma! I exist to punish pitiful men with life lessons! Yet this particular lesson is proving fruitless and quickly spiraling out of my control!”

“Just cut to the chase already, would ya?”

“...Very well.” The mystery woman took a moment to compose herself, clearly reluctant to admit her next statement. “While I can torment men all I like, my powers are incapable of affecting women in any negative way. Christina, that Janitor you fought yesterday, she threatens the very established order of the world with her goals and you are the only one who could feasibly stop her!”

“And like I said earlier, pass.” Mabel then returned to her crossword puzzle, signaling the conclusion of the conversation on her end.

“B-but this is a call to action you simply cannot pass up!” the woman replied in desperation, potentially compromising her position to the cameras as she closed in on the toll booth to plead harder. “If we don’t act now, she’ll quickly surpass you in ability!”

Mabel sucked her teeth disapprovingly as she shook her head, not taking her eyes off of the newspaper. “That’s what you get for dealing in the devil’s magic, sweetheart. And then what do you young’ins do? You come crawling back to the older generation once everything goes wrong. Well, you made your bed, now lie in it.”

Not even the mystery woman’s beauty could conceal the expression of dread that her face contorted into. Her one hope, too stubborn to look past her own worldview. All the blonde woman could do now was pray that the janitor’s plan fell apart before it was too late.

~

“God, what good are you if you can barely even function as a good leg rest?”

Terri simply smiled through the cruel and unusual punishment like a good little human ottoman as she bore the weight of her twin sister’s impossibly long legs atop her back. Even with wobbly elbows and bruising knees, her body didn’t dare give into the constant, burning fatigue it was suffering through. When Carrie commanded her to “shut up and make yourself useful, stool,” she didn’t exactly specify an end date to when this “stool” status could conclude.

A lazy groan escaped Carrie’s perfectly lips as she lounged about on her sister’s favorite side of their “shared” couch. Of course now, it might as well have been renamed to “Carrie’s couch.” The prettier twin shifted her shoulders, digging them further into the cushions as she played up the comfort of it to Terri’s detriment. “Oh well, at least this couch is more than comfy enough to make up for your bony ass.”

“Please Carrie…” Terri begged, somehow finally finding the energy to speak. “Stop doing this to me, it’s humiliating! Sisters don’t treat each other this way!”

Carrie just scoffed. “Ugh, don’t act like you’re miss pretty-perfect-pants! I know you’ve done some awful shit to me as well!”

There was a pregnant pause following that accusation, ringing true just how hollow it was overall. But Carrie was not one to be proven wrong.

“...In fact, tell me every little evil thing you’ve done behind my back!”

“I’ve repeatedly tricked Howard Grove into getting angry at you when in reality it was me who pissed him off.” Terri’s mouth rang off without any resistance. “Just yesterday, I did it twice.”

Carrie feigned anger, but the devious smile growing upon her face was unmistakable. “Well well, looks like the universe rightfully rewarded me for your cruel actions!” She paused to flex a bicep, perfectly proportioned sinuous muscle adorning it every which way. “Mom always said you were the nice one, but I guess that’s not so true anymore, is it?”

Terri’s head shook back and forth against her will.

“That’s what I thought. In fact, I ought to punish you for such a devious little scheme…” Carrie then paused, narrowing a perfectly-mascara’d eyelid as her train of thought crashed into a brick wall. “...actually, you tell me what the most humiliating thing you can think of would be right at this moment.”

Like a machine, Terri’s mouth once more fired out an immediate response. “The most humiliating thing you could do to me at this moment would be to call my boyfriend, pretend to be me, and abuse the fact that I will do whatever you say to pretend to be you as I listen to you have mind-bending sex with him using your new and improved body.”

Carrie giggled devilishly. “Wow sis, I had no idea you possessed such a dirty mind! If you wanted to watch my far more bountiful body claim that hunk of man meat that’s rightfully mine, then I’m certainly not going to stop you…”

The superior twin then snapped her fingers as if she were commanding a sweatshop. “Well, what are you waiting for? Start texting David right now! Candlelight’s burning!”

Not even the supreme control of Carrie could prevent tears from streaming down Terri’s face as her traitorous thumbs typed up a sexual tryst of texts.

Hey dave

Need that hot cock of urs sooo badddd

Ooh, someone sounds excited tonight~

Will ur sister be there tho? You know i can’t stand her.

Dont worry about silly old carrie, dave.

Ive hit like, a totally sexy growth spurt that she didnt hit and now she’s totally jealous

Ooohhhh id like to see a sneak peek of that!!!

Carrie then made her inferior sister hand her the phone so she could take a revealing selfie, one which showed off a tantalizing amount of cleavage peeking through her casual tank top. She then handed the phone back to Terri to make her hit send.

HOLY SHIT

TERRI U DIDNT TELL ME YOU LOOKED LIKE A FUCKIN SUPERMODEL NOW!!

Haha itd have to be or else carrie wouldn’t be so pissed about it

Im like a god to her now

She just does whatever i say since Im so pretty now lol

Damn right u are!!!

Ill be over there asap!!!

Terri wanted nothing more than to crumple up the stupid smartphone in her hand and chuck it across the room. How could this be happening to her? Carrie was a resentful bitch who took shortcuts and didn’t possess an empathetic bone in her body! How come she was the one with the enhanced body and manipulation powers!? Was karma even real? Did any choice that Terri had made actually matter?

She was forced to maintain her stool posture with a smile as she internally underwent an existential crisis of faith. Time stretched into painfully slow seconds as the two twins awaited for the arrival of David—Carrie’s new boyfriend.

Terri’s stomach sank when she heard a knock at the door.

“Wow, he’s here earlier than expected. Men truly cannot resist me!” Carrie expressed with confidence. “Well? Go get the door.”

Terri’s body did as it was told, walking over to the front of the sizable house without objecting even as her strained joints screamed out in pain from being in the stool position for so long. Her hand gripped the handle of the door, bracing herself to witness the face of her loving boyfriend that would be taken from her as well.

…Only David was not the person at the door.

“Wow, nice place you got here,” spoke the vaguely familiar woman, her voice dripping with a sarcastic edge, as if complimenting the house was just a way of downplaying the inherent fear factor that was her presence. “I certainly couldn’t afford it with the salary of a janitor… but as the new lead manager… who knows?”

It was now instantly clear to Terri who this was, though why she was at the twins’ doorstep wasn’t clear in the slightest.

“Who the hell are you?” demanded Carrie from the couch. The woman didn’t respond, merely inviting herself into the house, effortlessly pushing past Terri as if she were a set of saloon doors.

“Hey! I asked you a question, bitch!” Carrie continued, becoming increasingly aggravated by this mysterious person’s unclear motivations on top of the trespassing. But her demands would go unanswered once more as the woman continued her leisurely stroll towards the couch. Terri noticed a detail her sister didn’t, a strange device no larger than a cigarette lighter sliding out of this woman’s sleeve into her palm where she gripped it tightly.

Terri could have spoken up at that moment… but she didn’t. Whatever happened to Carrie happened, as far as she was concerned, at least.

“I said—GAAACK!” Carrie’s latest demand was cut short when the woman jammed the device of hers directly into the blonde twin’s neck. She gagged profusely, unable to vocalize anything other than gurgles through the reservoir of blood that was pooling up within her mouth. Carrie continued to spasm and sputter, flapping her arms about uselessly as the woman kept a steady hand on the device still gouging her neck.

Eventually, Carrie’s resistance slowed, then came to a complete stop entirely. Her eyes became cold and distant, her head slumping forward as a small waterfall of blood drooled out from her plush lips.

Once the commotion had finally died down, the beautiful black-haired woman retrieved two small blue spheres from her ears. “Wow, these skymall ear plugs really work… I couldn’t hear a single thing she was commanding me to do,” she remarked casually towards Terri, as if the cold-blooded murder she had just committed was already past her mind, not even worth bringing up as a conversation topic.

Terri didn’t respond. She wasn’t even sure what to respond with. All she could do was shiver in place. The woman continued along with the conversation anyways.

“Neat piece of tech, huh?” the woman spoke, calling attention to the device still lodged within Carrie’s bleeding neck. There was a small progress bar on the side of it that was slowly filling up with a strange, tie-dye-esque liquid. “Did a little digging around in my DNA a few hours ago and discovered that there was a particular addition to it that responded to certain stimuli related to Howard Grove. Hard to improve without him being present… but very easy to redistribute.”

The device beeped to indicate a completion, the woman immediately yanking the device out of its resting place. Carrie’s lifeless body slumped forward, her skin looking pale and her hair looking dull. Much of her musculature appeared missing almost as if her body had been drained, as if an overeager kid had taken to it like a juicebox, sucking its premiere contents out and leaving it noticeably hollow on the inside with a bit of a vacuum suction for good measure.

Wasting no time, the woman twisted a particular knob on the device, shifting it into a syringe-like creation. She promptly jabbed the needle into her own veins, grunting in pain only to quickly shake it off. A trilling coo then slipped past her lips, as if she had just finished a particularly satisfying workout.

“What—w-who are you…?” Terri sputtered, finally able to put some of her thoughts to words, as behind as they were. Her body was still frozen in place at the door, movement would still take some time given how shocked her mind was.

“My name’s Christina. Your new boss as of today and future overlord in three days by my calculations.”

She then moaned as Carrie’s stolen attributes manifested themselves atop her own. Her bust size increased, adding inches upon precious inches of voluminous flesh. Her ass was quick to follow, stretching out her pantsuit until it threatened to tear. A highlight of bright blonde hair was added to her sleek black waves, complimenting the thickness of it practically doubling in mere milliseconds. Christina’s height grew in waves, exposing her chiseled midriff. The magic felt like a living body cream, its potency icy like mint and soothingly warm like a heating pad all somehow mixed into one complete package. It was unbelievably sensual as it formed countless connections to her nerve endings, enflaming them with the heat of impossibly powerful lust. Eyes growing manic, Christina’s mind became consumed with the sensation of overwhelming power flooding into her. Skin prickling and flushed under the sheer amount of magic overflowing within her, her body began to buck wildly with inconceivable levels of arousal.

At least, it would have been overwhelming for anyone other than Christina. She was scientifically minded, brilliance incarnate. She wouldn’t let mere pleasure get in the way of what she truly wanted—total and complete domination over everything that ever was, complete freedom to tinker with reality as she pleased with no one to tell her otherwise.

“God, fuck talking to Howard, this feels a million times better!” Christina shouted as if near-orgasm in pleasure. Her voice appeared… layered now. As if an editing software had pasted her voice atop Carrie’s own, creating a surreal echo effect with the two women.

Then, she turned her sights to Terri.

“Well, looks like your sister was using you as a personal servant. I’d say that’s about the only useful thing she did with her power. Come along now, put a smile on that face, you’ll make for a good secretary. After all, you really wanted that promotion, didn’t you?”

A split second of pure, unadulterated horror on Terri’s face was immediately washed away by the cheeriest, brightest smile her lips could allow. “Yes ma’am! I’d want nothing more than to be your secretary as you rise through the ranks to achieve total and complete world domination!”

“Good. Then you’ll need to get good at disposing of bodies. I’ve already gone through five today and I don’t feel like adding a sixth to that. You can go ahead and start with that one.”

“Right away, ma’am!”

Terri’s body was diligent in its output, getting straight to work. Then, there was a knock at the door which stopped both women dead in their tracks.

It was David. He seemed painfully unaware of what was occurring in the house, a glance through the curtains revealing little other than his location.

“Hmm, well…” Christina replied indifferently, as if adding a last-minute item to a checklist. “...might have to make that seven bodies then.”