Bordering on a dangerous obsession. Max's Interlude
Debt - Second Favor to Damon Macready
Oo1oO
Instead of spending his first favor to not actually spend any time in prison like I expected, Damon served his time in incarceration, and, after retrieving his daughter, spent it on her, and by extension his, training. He wanted to instill in her the refined efforts of Kinderheim 511, specifically the Hoch Begleiter portion of the experiments.
As to how he discovered their existence, or knew that I held one of the few remaining copies of the efforts of that program, unfortunately was something that he took to the grave with him. Pity.
As to why he chose that over something less damaging, such as the Steiner-Grimmer which would simply flip her into Abschlachten Modus at a command word, sadly that was painfully obvious. His trust in others was nearly destroyed, and he wanted someone absolutely loyal to him, which he knew is what that the H-B project was for. That they never had a single success live beyond puberty save for Roberto (#63-R) was a risk he was willing for her to take.
And she did excellently after operant conditioning and catharsis set in, so much so that I took the risk and showed her the exact process that she was undertaking when she was nine. This was to see if the efforts of the Italian SWA's Fratello program would supply the missing step. Would self-realization allow her to go beyond the known breaking point, puberty, when her hormones conflicted with her operant conditioning?
In any event, while she was being conditioned he went into the best training available, and, began to teach much of it to her. I followed this up with a more practical and classical education, and she learned quickly.
Since H-B process is not meant for combat barring assassination (the repeated danger and risks of death to Damon drastically reducing her Time-To-Failure), desensitization was required, a task Damon took on himself when she was seven. What was done to accomplish this he did not disclose to me, however, it did lead to him contacting me, drunk and delirious, and demanding this, the second favor. I agreed after confirming her desensitization.
After she reached age nine, they set off.
Oo2oO
And so Damon lived and died.
After confirming his death, and concluding the investigations of the exact event with the D'Amico family, I was no longer perplexed as to why she was not retreating to me, her nearest Instructor, as she was supposed to.
She had found someone else to take Damon's place.
How this is possible is still unknown. Was it because Dave was there at the right place and right time? Or was Damon responsible? I may never know, vexing as that is. I doubt she understands it, she wasn't supposed to be able to.
Oo3oO
Finding Dave was easy. Unpleasantly so. She should have eliminated that trail to him and thus to her. Something was either very wrong or she had placed it on a lower priority for some reason.
Careful observation revealed the latter, she was extremely busy learning her new role. Dave apparently said that he wanted her to be a normal girl, and so she was attempting to emulate one, all while mapping his interests and desires.
The fact that he has yet to notice that she liked every and any comics, movies, games, and errata as he does does not speak well for his observation skills. She has also noted his sexual preferences, at least in part, and her computer shows records of her initial attempts at gathering intel about breasts at this point. Dave is evidently a breast man, and now so was she.
As this was entirely new ground being covered, under no circumstances could my existence be revealed to her, as she would immediately reclassify me and thus not follow instruction. Anything that posed a threat to her new partner would be dealt with.
Thankfully her conditioning had her self-document all her efforts in her diary, and scanning that gave me much information.
And thus time went by, until she called me and wanted to meet.
Oo4oO
In addition to our conversation, investigation of the day in question revealed that while she had just started puberty and was entering the dangerous time for the H-B's she had not in fact Broken. This meant there was still time.
However, this is complicated by the fact that she had observed Dave mid-coitus, and, feeling like she was now inadequate in her role, retreated to her Instructor for additional training.
The fact that she was effectively asking me for Doxie training was both amusing and dire. The very thing that had lead to the deaths of every single H-B barring one, and she wanted to accelerate it.
I needed time, and that meant keeping her focused on a goal.
She wanted a splendid bosom? Very well, that would take a while.
I offered her a new Diary, a digital one, and explained that Marcus was reading her current one. He actually was, however she had him firmly in the position of Ally, which meant she didn't notice his efforts at keeping an eye on her. She couldn't. Once her position with Dave was put at risk, she has reclassified Marcus as an Asset, and no longer allows any privileged information to reach him.
Oo5oO
Could she be salvaged?
Dr. Schreber believed it possible. And so, he began the exceedingly dangerous process of accelerating the growth of certain portions of her body while keeping her mind from entering puberty.
As I had introduced him as a fellow instructor, Mindy should not question the process, despite the odd nature of it.
He feels certain that if in her mind's development she avoided the turbulent period that is adolescence, if it was suppressed and then smoothly transitioned through it without the mood-swings and the rapid hormone changes, her mind might possibly perhaps accept the transition to adulthood and not Break.
As for me, working on her "Mindy" would be a core goal. I would have to wait until she felt she had established her "proper" position with Dave, which means I must wait at least until she has had two sessions with him, possibly three.
And so it goes.
Oo6oO
Weeks pass, her breasts begin to swell, and her focus remains on her practice. She spends at least an hour a day watching assorted pornography and bobbing on an artificial phallus in mimicry. Her longest single practice session observed has been a little over three hours, though the last hour of that one was purely vocal practice and emulating their grunts, moans, and whimpers.
While many observing would no doubt call it disturbing or obsessive, it is a good sign. Her actions here are no different than when she learned handguns, or knives, or garrotes. She repeats until she feels confident in applying it. That her new role requires her to make those sounds is irrelevant.
After a session with Dave, we shall see if she moves onto other things.
*EDIT May* In retrospect, I believe it was somewhere in this time that she started redacting her diary and hiding things from me. The failure is mine, I selected an individual whose skill was sufficient for the task, but whose discipline was lacking.
I really wish I had enough time to devote more into computers, but there are only so many hours in a day.
Oo7oO
She has concluded her first session with Dave, and, upon seeing the recording of the event on the rooftop, now I see at least in part the process Marcus used to desensitize her.
Damon was a foolish, foolish man.
His squeamishness and reluctance to deal with the fact that his daughter has a vagina would make this all the more difficult. Making Hit Girl into a sexless personality means she may not even see parts of her own body as hers, merely additions.
In comparison, Dave took the post-session almost exactly as intended. At least thus far he represents a somewhat stable variable in all this.
He is a good man, and thus will be maneuvered into place like all good man are.
Oo8oO
She definitely is redacting more of her diary, which is dangerous thanks to her current stability. The Maid has been unable to determine where, if any, she keeps her redacted information.
One such issue redacted is with her friend 'Jessi'. Only a cursory inspection of her life was done initially, unremarkable all told, and yet something happened in the store where they bought swimsuits, something that caused to start an impromptu stakeout of Jessi's abode.
The Maid was unable to venture close, as that would set her off, and as such we shall have to set up our own stakeout to see if any additional information can be gleaned.
In any event, whatever she did find drove her off, running home and stepped up her paranoia several levels.
Oo9oO
So, Jessi is being molested by her brother and father. And yet they live.
Mindy should be calling me for dinner reservations for two, and instead they continue on living, breathing, and molesting.
Something is wrong with Mindy. Has she started to Break? Despite not showing any other signs?
Oo10oO
Finally, we meet again. I have the initial ideas for her new "Mindy" role. That they may become the personality she falls back to when she breaks means it has to be stable and re-trainable, all the while not threatening her connection to Dave.
Schreber has included in her new perfume a calming agent, which should ease her through the end of his "Cycle." He has warned me that her last jar will be leeching much of the chemicals in her blood stream out, and, she may experience a week of mood-swings as a consequence.
We begin our conversation and tea, and then she starts revealing what she knows. It is in fact far more than I expected for her to gather. Ah, Kinderheim, you make so many exceptional monsters of all shapes and types.
She knows about the glands, and about the Diary reading, and about the editing, and about at least some of the surveillance. How much more she knows she is keeping close to the vest as it were.
I attempted to break her calm by explaining about what her efforts were doing to Dave, and while she did not take that well, I can only hope it causes her to offer more into her Diary for me to examine.
And then she drops a bombshell of unexpected proportions.
Mindy has not only Broken, but she is still functional.
Some time before the swimsuit event, she by sheer chance introduced the right combination of factors (Undergarments?) to cause her to Break. She saw what she calls "Her", but instead of becoming homicidally enraged at the doppelganger attempting to usurp her life like all the others did, she admired it? Became sexually aroused at the sight of it?
How is this possible?
Was it Dave? Damon? Jessi and her antics with her family? The medication? Dr. Schreber's efforts? My own?
My plans with the perfume were put on hold until after her second session with Dave. If this works out, she may provide an answer long sought.
Oo11oO
Sadly it seems I spoke too soon. She addressed me directly in her diary on Tuesday, and, plans to do something about the issues she's finally noticed. It boils down as always to the reflections. However, this appears to be something Damon did to her.
She can do virtually any carnal practice, but she does it quietly, neatly, and she never observes herself doing it.
At first I chalked this up to her trying to be discreet when Marcus was around, but crossing this recent information with her first session with Dave, and what she describes as the 'howling', shows just how near to catastrophe she is.
Real sex is messy and noisy, and while she couldn't see herself, she could hear herself doing it with Dave that first time. And then unlike the rubber phallus, she could smell and taste the sex, which amplified the problem.
There was the Break, hiding within the sex act itself. I am certain she is aware of how close she came to killing Dave and herself.
And so she gathers what she needs, and on Wednesday, she left to deal with it, which is foolishness in the extreme.
Sadly while the Maid could find her Safe-house, he lost her when she went to a second, no doubt disposable area.
I expect to find her corpse within a day or two. On Friday, I shall arrange for a group to canvas where she was last seen.
Oo12oO
Thursday brings a complete surprise. She has been seen leaving the area. Alive and apparently sane or at least alert and combatically capable. The padded suit I have been having her wear to hide her body from her own sight to minimize the doppelganger effect unfortunately also hides any disfiguring she may have done to herself in her absence, as self-mutilation is not uncommon when they Break. The urge to harm the doppelganger in the mirror normally starts with the face though, and thus far no signs of harm there are noted.
She is limping slightly, so I shall have Dr. Schreber conduct a full examination of her genitals to see if she has been carving there.
The Maid has not slept since emergency began and I am beginning to think he may be growing fond of her. This may be useful.
Oo13oO
The Maid has found her bolthole by Thursday afternoon. After disarming several traps, he has requested that I come in and see personally what has been done inside.
Upon entering, the smells of burnt cloth, sex, sweat, and other odors are in the air.
The burnt cloth comes from both the remnants of what appears to be one of her costumes, as well as one of Damon's.
There is the remains of a mirror, covered in what was Plexiglas and wire. She is evidently having hostile reactions to some things in what she sees of herself.
Dead batteries are found, C-Cells, which if memory serves are used in the egg vibrator I gave her in her initial foray.
Then came the scraps of purple hair from her wig. Enough for half the wig, but the size of the hair shows it's not all from one cut, but several holes around the head.
The scraps of the suit, when collected and compared to what images I have in her outings, shows that it's likely much of the front of her costume. At least the chest, skirt, and her pants from waist to upper thigh.
Two rubber dildos, which she describes affectionately as "Little Dave". One mauled and repeatedly bitten, the other unmarked.
And lastly, the explosives. Designed apparently to go off if she tries to leave the building in an unthinking rage.
All of this leads me to conclude she will return, and, she intends to kill herself if she fails in her self-modification. I order video and audio recording equipment to be set up here and hooked into the building's power supply.
I must know what she is doing, especially if it works.
Oo14oO
As I leave and prepare for what is to come, there remains some unknowns.
- Why did she destroy her father's old costume?
- Is she choosing to mutilate Hit Girl and not herself?
- Did Damon ever let her stop being Hit Girl?
The fact that there was no third favor remains my trump card. She knows that I will repay my debts fully, and that means whatever I offer her must be for it, even if she doesn't understand how.
And as far as repaying old debts go, this one remains quite interesting.
