Story: Sailor Succubus

I'll have Tainted Gestalt done fairly quickly, but I'm aware someone wants to add to it first. Therefore I'm putting it off until that's finished. Which is fine by me because I need to work on the regular Tainted Cube episode.

Let's see what you make of this. When last we saw this thread.
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The room was gradually filled with a blinding light that made each of the other girls fade from Usagi’s view one at a time. First Rei and Minako, still engaged in their nearly mindless embrace. Then the peculiarly nervous Makoto and finally Ami. The last thing Sailor Moon could see before the light rendered even her eyes incapable of seeing anything at all was that insane lustful grin, and were she more well read the comparison might have been made to the Cheshire Cat.

Without warning her entire body felt like it had been hit with a thousand tiny darts and she actually slumped ever so slightly. No. She could not show weakness now of all times. Not when they needed her as much as this. She straightened herself out and waited the seconds it took for the light to fade and her friends - her comrades, her team, her everything - returned to her field of view.

Rei and Minako looked rather suitably embarrassed, which was certainly a promising sign. Makoto was quite a bit more relaxed, and Ami? Ami was blushing quite furiously and trying very hard not to look anyone in the eye.

“We never talk of this,” Rei stated. “This never happened.”

“What never happened?” Minako replied, handing Rei her panties with one hand and adjusting her own bra with the other.

“I’m - I am so sorry!” Ami whispered. “I shouldn’t have let it take over like that! Oh! Goodness me, that was so - Um. Sorry! Sorry again!”

“Hey, nothing to worry about!” Makoto assured, tousling Ami’s hair. “I think it got the best of all of us for a little bit there! For half a moment, I could’ve sworn I’d seen -” She stopped and gave a furtive look at Sailor Moon. “Nah, never mind. Must’ve been my imagination playing tricks.”

“All the same. We have to make sure this doesn’t happen again in future,” Ami said firmly.

“That’ll be kind of difficult since <i>none of this happened to begin with,</i>” Rei interjected, oh, thank goodness she had all of her clothes back on.

“Yep, that’s right!” Minako said. “Rei absolutely did not become a hypochondriac willing to -”

“Wait a minute!” Sailor Moon said, raising her hand to draw attention. “What’s a hypochondriac?”

“Someone that thinks they’re sick all the time when they’re not,” Ami answered.

“Oh,” Sailor Moon said. She tilted her head and transformed back to her usual self, dispelling her superpowered form because it was clearly not needed any longer. “Sort of like me around exam time?”

“No, you just pretend to be sick to get out of class,” Rei said. “And I think Minako meant nymphomaniac, which is something I absolutely was not and I dare you to try suggesting otherwise!”

Usagi Tsukino sighed in relief as everyone around her went into their normal modes of operation. Like it really hadn’t happened at all. It was such a relief watching them behave so normally after a scare like that. At least they had gotten past that one, and  a good deal more easily than they were usually able to deal with a crisis like that!

… Except that for some reason it felt like there was a kind of pressure down the side of her body. Like something hard and flat was pressed up against it. Eh. Probably nothing.

Usagi blinked and the next thing she knew she was walking in through the front door of her home. Weird, she didn’t remember the meeting ending or anything. Must’ve done, though. Otherwise how could she be here at all?

“I’m home,” she called into the house. No sign of anyone. Oh well! She slipped up into her room and took a long, hard stare into her mirror. It was just about time for bed, and it was kind of a relief that she wouldn’t have to deal with any weird sex dreams tonight! The last thing she needed was something like that! Honestly, slipping into other people’s dreams and moulding them like clay. What a terrible ability to have! Truly terrifying!

“Are you sure it’s such a terrible thing?” her reflection asked. Its voice was strange, but then hearing your own voice coming from a different place always did sound a little peculiar. But no, especially in this case. There was an edge to this voice, a sexualised tilt to it that made it seem both unrecognisable yet familiar at once, an edge that the reflection adopted in her body language as well. It lay its back upon the edge of the mirror frame as though it were a wall. Her eyes fell half lidded, and her arms folded underneath her breasts. Why, it was almost as though she were deliberately pushing them up and forward for the sake of drawing attention to them! She looked so… Pretty.  “After all, you could do some wonderful things with a power like this.”

“Wonderful things?” Usagi wondered aloud. “I don’t understand. What sort of wonderful things?”

“How often do you find a person’s desires turned against them?” her reflection replied, stretching and yawning with a coy expression that had Usagi entirely transfixed. “Why, you could even purify a person through your dreams with this kind of power. All you would need to do is sleep as Sailor Moon, and then you could enter their dreams and remove whatever wicked influence exists. More than that. You could discover your enemies and their intentions before they even act. It would be <b>so</b> easy. Think of the lives you could save. The people you could save. The evil you could stop. All with this power. All with this power….”

<hr>
Would it be redundant to say that Ami Mizuno was studying? Probably! Didn’t change the fact that was what she was doing. So many books filled with so much information and so little precious time to get through it all. What should she focus her attention on today? What mysteries of the universe would she master? Her hand reached out and plucked a book at random and stared at the title.

“<i>Human Reproduction</i>,” she whispered. How peculiarly appropriate given earlier events. It all felt so distant now. She couldn’t look at a person without instantly knowing their turn ons, turn offs, lustful fantasies, current arousal value and so on and on it went. Was it any wonder that constant exposure had sent her a little peculiar? Well, maybe it was more that she was being corrupted by an external influence but there really wasn’t sufficient data to tell anymore.

And almost all of it was just gone now. Poof. Out of her head. No, not forgotten, really. It was more like she’d never known it to begin with. Everything had been sort of instinctive, seeing without actually seeing it. The same kind of mental trick that lets the brain quickly identify an object without having to see the whole object. It wasn’t the knowledge that was gone so much as her instinctive awareness of her surroundings.

Ami set the book to one side and picked out another. This was not a topic she particularly wanted to dwell on at the moment. She had come as close to darkness as Icarus to the Sun, and was tremendously grateful her wings hadn’t burned before she turned back. Anyone would be uncomfortable dealing with such issues so soon after the event, so instead she would spend her time studying -

“<i>The Psychology of Sex</i>.”

Ami did not twitch nervously, because that would indicate she was nervous.

<i>Let’s think this through rationally,</i> a voice whispered inside Ami’s head. <i>That can’t be a coincidence. There is almost certainly an unconscious desire to study those subjects, possibly stemming from the recent trauma.</i>
There was some logic to that. A sort of Freudian slip perpetrated by the body instead of the tongue. She hadn’t been consciously paying attention to the books she’d been grabbing, but had probably seen the titles out of the corner of her eye and deliberately picked them both out. Therefore she should set them aside and deliberately pick out a book about mathematics.

<i>Except that denial is unhealthy</i>, the voice reminded. <i>Repress your desires too deep, and it could cause significant psychological damage. Understand the root of the problem and you can overcome it.</i>

Ami slumped slightly in her seat. It was a little uncomfortable. Were someone to chart the function of her comfort zone and attempt to locate this particular subject, <i>x</i> would be the square root of minus one and <i>y</i> would be somewhere in the Bahamas having a holiday.

But it really would be better for her to confront this now and get it out of the way. Maybe if she understood this particular subject in greater detail, she could gain a better appreciation of what had happened to them all earlier. Prevent it from happening again. Prevent it from happening to someone else, for that matter! Which is why she picked up <i>Psychology of Sex</i> and began to read from page one. Trepidation filled her heart but she could not turn back now….
<hr>
Concentrate. Concentrate. Cast aside all earthly distractions. Focus on the flame. Only the flame. Nothing else exists but -

But the memory of her shame. The base manner in which she had behaved. Mindless. Animalistic. She had allowed a terrible corruption to tear through her will and compel her into behaviour she found appalling. And it was serving to piss her off so very, very much.

It seemed a rather strange thing as well. The others had obtained abilities that a succubus would find useful for various means of seduction. Change one’s shape to become more desirable. Manipulate the dreams of another to discover or change their desires. Read another being’s feelings at a glance, or even just project an aura of attractiveness.

Somehow it didn’t seem all that useful to her for a succubus to be so horny she’d hump a cactus if nothing else were around.

“There’s your problem,” said a voice that registered an eleven on the malevolence scale. “You’re not thinking like a succubus would think!”

Rei was on her feet with tags ready in the blink of an eye. She could see it. If others were present they would not. Explaining it to those other people would be difficult, beyond saying what it literally was. A spirit. An evil, wicked spirit with just about the worst timing in the world.

A tag flew through the air and hit nothing but wall. What? So fast! Where had it - The answer came moments later when she felt a sharp breeze behind her, and without warning her robe fell about her in tatters.

“You - You perverted spirit!” Rei did not yell, she did not yell; she had to have some control over her emotions if she was going to purify this thing.

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” the spirit coldly replied. “I’m just having a little fun! Not hurting anyone, am I? Why, you attacked me first!”

Don’t listen to the spirit, don’t rise to its bait. Sure. She had attacked first, but that was only because it was going to strike and she wanted to put a fast end to this. Which was still her goal, so she twirled in place - trying to ignore the fact that she was basically naked - and threw tags around the room as fast as she could manage. At no time did she ever hit the damn thing, but it certainly got a hold of her time after time! It would pinch her rear, tease her nipples, run a hand along her legs and with each passing moment she became angrier and angrier and -

“Oh, that’s it!” she finally yelled at the very top of her voice. “I! Have! Had! It!”

“Lost your temper now, have you?” the spirit said with a chuckle. “Interesting turn of phrase I always thought. You didn’t lose your temper, you accrued anger and rage until it reached a boiling point. At which time you didn’t lose ‘temper’, you lost control. Simply because you were fighting it so much! Look at you! Your technique is so much sloppier, your form is opening with each passing moment. Why, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you were deliberately letting me win!”

Ignore it ignore it ignore it -

Wait. No. Something it had said did have a strange resonance for some reason. Rei had been fighting back her anger and fury at this humiliating battle, trying desperately to push it back by sheer force of will. Except all she was did was make herself angrier and angrier until she blew her top, and just look at the room! Every surface, covered by a tag! Wasted effort. Wasted energy. Wouldn’t it be smarter for her to use her passions rather than let them use her? Wouldn’t it be more intelligent to stop fighting them, embrace those feelings and direct them in a productive manner?

Rei took a deep, deep breath and returned her attention towards the spirit. She felt the anger. Embraced it. This was a part of her. Passion. Fury. A small amount of arousal for some reason, but okay, that was part of her as well. She took another deep breath, keeping her eye lingering on the spirit, and charged the tag with all of her feelings. It then flew from her hand as though guided by another force entirely, and quickly a scream filled the air. It had struck the perverted spirit dead to rights! Amazing!

“I didn’t even know I could do that!” Rei exclaimed, gaping at the supernatural energy spiralling off where the spirit had hung in the air. It was strangely beautiful, but more than that, it was… Powerful. Amazingly powerful. Which left her wondering. What else could she do if she embraced her passions rather than letting them control her or trying to fight them off?

<hr>
“Everybody run!” a wannabe thug yelled. “It’s Kino! Leg it before she breaks something!”

If she were perfectly honest, she hadn’t even noticed them until that moment. All she saw were their backs fleeing down the street, leaving a rather scared-looking girl slumped against a wall with her purse lying a short distance away. Makoto wearily shook her head and scooped it up, returning it to the almost-victim and wincing when the girl flinched, grabbed the purse and bolted up the street - opposite direction of the thugs - like she’d seen the very devil.

First impressions and reputations tend to define a person. If anyone knew that better than Makoto Kino, she didn’t know them. It was part of what made her friendship with the others so special. In spite of how different they were, the group functioned pretty effectively together. They didn’t judge Makoto for being tall, busty or strong. They respected her for those attributes, but did not let them define their opinion of her.

But those four were very special people indeed. Your typical person did not react that way. Your typical person was more like those thugs or that poor woman. Scared. Intimidated. That little bit of hesitation in the eyes of everyone she spoke to, like they half expected her to beat them up for no reason at all. Making people feel that bad… It was a terrible feeling. Everyone on the street was the same. Whimpering, cowering away from her, not meeting her eyes, trying to pretend she wasn’t there at all.

It all made Makoto feel so terribly guilty, and for some reason made her think about earlier. A brief period where everyone had the opposite reaction. Desire. For her. No fear. No intimidation. Why, if she could have figured out a way to control that power she could have easily used it at a minimum setting. Enough to turn off the fear, let them treat her like a normal person instead of a monster or a goddess.

“Weird how much I’m regretting that,” she said to herself, feeling rather sorry for the poor guy walking past her that almost jumped out of his skin at the sound of her voice. The fact of her very presence was making everyone’s day just a little less fun, when it could be so much brighter. “I saw a beautiful woman” instead of “I narrowly escaped being mauled alive.”

“Maybe I should have tried to keep that power after all,” Makoto whispered. “I mean, it wasn’t like I was behaving like the others or anything. I was still me, I was still in control. Would it have been so bad?”

No matter the angle she analysed it from, Makoto Kino came to the same conclusion time and time again. The power wasn’t necessarily evil if she didn’t use it in an evil way. It wasn’t things themselves that were good or evil, it was people. Therefore a good and responsible person like herself couldn't possibly use it to - for example - seduce attractive boys that reminded her of a certain someone. No, not at all. That was completely outside of her nature.

Though whether that would remain true would have to wait, as she started to daydream about what she’d use the power for at all….
<hr>
Much like most of the others, Minako was pretty ashamed of her behaviour earlier on (in addition to just being pretty). How had she so quickly allowed that power to get to her head? How had she so easily slipped into being ruled by her lusts simply by being able to control her body at will? What did it say about her as a person and oh screw this self-reflection nonsense she was going shopping.

Which is what she was doing moments later, standing in front of a mirror with just the cutest blouse and skirt combination! Gosh, she couldn’t help but give a little twirl in the mirror. Such an adorable outfit! If only her breasts were a little bigger, and it would be picture perfect…

Now, now, Minako. She shook her head clear of thoughts like that. That power had been a corruptive influence on her, and it was so much better for everyone if she didn’t have it. While it certainly sounded useful in theory, in practice she would probably mostly use it to make herself look pretty to entice male attention, and she was certain she didn’t need too much help with that!

… Sure, she would probably never manage a long-term boyfriend so long as she had her duty to fulfill, but that was her curse to bear. For the sake of peace and love, she would bear it gladly. The ability to shapeshift would not -

Was that smoke?

An ear-piercing alarm blared through the store. A fire alarm. Minako gasped and hurried along towards the exit, carefully following the signs pointing out the fire door.

Which, in a fit of poetry, was on fire.

Her eyes darted around the store at the other panicked customers and employees. She was the calmest one here, probably because she was in more dangerous situations as a matter of course. Escaping a burning building? Pft! Dangerous, certainly! But a youma would be a greater concern by far!

“This way!” she yelled, glad that she was familiar enough with the building to know where else they could go. Everyone followed her, simply glad to have instruction, desperate to escape before the flames spread and they choked to death. The air was starting to get a little thick by this point. Minako kicked open the door and ushered everyone through. There was just one straggler, a man that Minako would have normally considered rather a handsome figure except for the fact that she had higher priorities at the moment.

Then the floor gave way underneath him. Without ceremony. Without warning. It just flat out collapsed.

Hero instincts kicked in. Everyone else was out of the way, everyone else was safe. She ran over towards the inexplicable hole and stared down. “Are you alright?” she yelled, grateful at least that he was moving.

“I think so,” the man said. “Nothing seems to be broken or anything, but I can’t see a good way out. Do you think you could help?”

“Grab my hand,” Minako yelled, leaning over the edge of the hole as far as she could dare. The man threw his own hand up, straining as much as possible to reach for a way out -

Inches away. Minako bit her lip. No, no! She could feel the heat rising. Taste the smoke. Little flicks of flame at the corner of her vision. She couldn’t leave him here, to burn to death or suffocate like this! She had to get him out! Now! If only for a little moment, she wished she had just a little bit of that body-shifting power. Just the tiniest amount to extend her reach. Pull this man, this innocent, unfortunate man to safety -

Then quite impossibly, she felt her reach extend and the next moment the two of them were running from the building hand in hand, moments before the entire building collapsed into a pile of burning rubble.

“Thank you,” the man breathlessly said, turning towards Minako with a rather charming smile.

“Not a problem,” Minako said. It really wasn’t. Saving lives was just what they tended to do these days, and it was actually kinda nice in a really weird way to be involved in something so comparatively mundane.

“Listen, this may not be the best time for this, but… I’m a talent scout. Someone as brave and beautiful as yourself may just be the kind of person we’ve been looking for, and - Well, here’s my card. Give me a call if you want some work sometime.”

Minako boggled at the card, recognising the name as a high-profile, big name talent agency. The sort that could turn any nobody into somebody overnight. The sort that were very selective, very expensive and almost impossible to get the attention of.

Naturally enough it didn’t occur to her that she hadn’t even heard of “Success U Omnibus” until just that very moment. Dreams are funny like that.

<hr>
Two cats walked into a room with five unconscious girls lying on the floor. One of them was Sailor Moon, two of them were naked and the other two were - thankfully - fully clothed.

“This is… rather peculiar,” Luna said warily. “What happened here? Why are they unconscious?”

“An excellent question! I wish I knew the answer,” Artemis replied, gently nudging Sailor Moon with his paw. “Completely out cold. REM sleep. Altered costume.” Small scratch on the arm. “No reaction to pain. This sleep is not natural.”

“Then we must find some way to wake them up!” Luna exclaimed, her voice betraying the deep concern she was feeling for the team.

“Of course. There’s only one problem: We don’t know what caused this. If we are not careful, anything we attempt might make things worse.”

On the other hand, doing nothing might have the same effect. An intolerable situation, and yet there really was nothing they could safely attempt. The manner in which Rei and Minako were clinging to one another, the fact that only Usagi had transformed - And that alteration to her uniform! What did it all mean? Whatever the answer, Luna and Artemis were absolutely determined to reveal the answer!

1. Continuing the dream for at least one of them.
2. The girls start to wake up, for some reason completely okay with their succubus powers but otherwise behaving like themselves.
3. The girls wake up without succubus powers… because those powers have manifested as separate entities that are hellbent on seducing their counterparts!
4. The Outers begin to have strange dreams as well.
5. Something else