sorceress who tells you that the amulet she's putting on you is cursed and will slowly erode your free will and turn you into an obedient thrall. And over the course of a few hours, that's exactly what happens, but when you wake up the next day you're not wearing the amulet anymore. It's sitting on your nightstand just. waiting for you. And you feel drawn to it, called to it - a function of the curse, no doubt. But you resist. You don't put it on. You see the sorceress that day and tell her to go fuck herself, but she just smiles.
But it's a long day, and an exhausting one, and when you drag yourself back to your bedroom at long, long last... the amulet's still there. Still calling to you. And you're just so tired... but no. you have to stay strong. You shove the amulet into a drawer and try to sleep. But still you can feel it in your mind, calling out to you. you try to ignore it, but there's just no way you can sleep like this. So you give in. You put it on. And you fall asleep.
A similar charade follows for many days afterwards. Sometimes you make it all the way through the day without giving in before putting it on to sleep. Sometimes you see the sorceress partway through the day, and note the tilt of her smile as she looks at your bare neck, and can't stop yourself from rushing back to clasp it around your throat and ease the dreadful yearning as soon as she's out of sight. Sometimes, on the days where you feel weakest, you put it on right after waking up. But it's not your fault. It's the curse.
And whenever you're already wearing the amulet when you see the sorceress, well... it's obvious what happens then. She usually stops whatever she was otherwise doing to spend the rest of the day with you. She answers questions for you, makes decisions for you, tells you what to do. When nobody else is around she presses you close to a wall and makes you Look at her in that way that makes it hard to think and says things you can never remember. And you know you're slipping deeper under her control. But it's not your fault. It's the curse.
And as you get weaker and weaker, and the days you spend with the amulet wrapped around your mind from dawn til dusk get more and more frequent, she has you do and say and think all kinds of things you would never if you had a choice. Embarrassing things, things you don't want, but that curse makes such a thrill... It just feels so good to do as you're told. because of the curse. That's why you need her approval, her praise, that look in her eye that makes your knees feel weak. It's not your fault. It's the curse.
Months pass, and by then you're her full-time thrall. you put on the amulet when you wake up at the foot of her bed, you wear it while you sit at the foot of her throne, you feel it against your skin when she tells you what you want to do today. it's been so long since you've had a day without it that it's hard to remember why you ever wanted to not wear it in the first place. And that's when she tells you. That's when she explains. The amulet was never cursed. It was never magical at all. She has been playing with your mind, yes, but she hasn't been using magic to do it. There never was any curse. It was always you, all along. That force driving you to become her loving thrall was simply your own desires. Desires you were too caught up in your own self-image to indulge. So all she had to do was convince you that if you submitted, it wasn't your fault. It was the curse.
romaincrisis
amandla
kianamaiart
gracieabrams
