"And if I knew there'd be much less point in telling me. What - happened?"

"I... arrived home. And he greeted me, and he's... Tobias is really nice, if you fit his model of reality, I think I told you this. He's... kinda similar to me? In some ways."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Y'know, the... like... I don't wanna sound cocky here but I'm very charming," he grins. "And there's some of that in him. For instance. It feels... wrong, somehow, complimenting him, but... He really does make you like him."

"I suppose I don't actually know how I would've reacted to him if I hadn't been biased and he hadn't pretended to think I was a sub..."

"Yeah. He was... nice to me, for the first time in my life. He let me interact with my half-siblings—well, Sarah, Jonathan has unfortunately inherited his tendency to think subs aren't quite human. Sarah's nice, she wants to be a doctor when she grows up and she has a crush on this dom at her school named, funnily enough, Dominic. I tried to give her some tips on flirting, I hope they help."

"Awww."

"That was at the start. But it... wore on. Tobias made the occasional remark about girl doms and boy subs, hiding them in ways you don't really notice until you think about it for a second. And I couldn't say anything, I kept remembering what you said, I had to come back to you."

"And you did," she murmurs. "My lovely. What kind of remark?"

"Stuff like, like he'd be talking about a famous person and then say something bad about them and subtly imply it was because of their misaligned role, I don't even know anymore, I stopped paying attention by the end, it was just noise. But I can deal with that, that's pretty normal, it's just, every time he did I felt like I was betraying myself a little, for not speaking up."

"Oh pet." Snuggle.

"But then there was the thing I said, about how he kinda makes you like him, he's so agreeable when he's not—that. So there's that thing I said, how I—liked it. When he praised me. And I focused more and more on the thing I promised you I'd do, because without that, and without my resistance, he'd—subsume me."

She's actually cradling him in her arms, now, her lap is not doing much of the work.

"I didn't leave the house, didn't talk much, for all he said he wanted me to tell him all about magic school he didn't actually ask much, but he petted me and I acted submissive and that's how you found me today."

"You looked so withdrawn."

"Two weeks without a personality will do that to—well, to me, at least. I wonder how Sarah does it. Beth seemed to actually lack a personality, but Sarah was mostly okay."

"Maybe she perks up at school or something?"

"Maybe. I dunno, maybe it's something about me."

"You have a lot of personality, lovely."

"Yeah, but maybe it's a kind that, I dunno, reacts badly to not—existing. Or something."

"Well, you exist. You're real and you're all mine."

"Yeah. All yours. Not his, no matter what this stupid part in my brain says."

"Is it saying anything worth rebutting in detail?"