Only Once (Patreon)

So I'm a complete fucking idiot. I go to do a little writeup, as I often do for these kinds of pics, and say to myself. "I want to make this a little bit longer. Cuz it's a fun concept and I've been thinking a lot about it over the past few days. Not too long. Might take me a hour, at most."

2 days and 3700 words later, I'm a fucking idiot. Where's that meme pic of the guy slowly putting on clown makeup. That's me in more ways than one right now. No one even cares about this. It's not even explicit. It's just really suggestive. Also Patreon messed up the formatting.

FUCK

---

Something had changed. She wasn’t quite sure what it was, but the difference was there. It was there when she went to bed. It was there when she woke up the next morning, when she ate breakfast, when she watched TV. Things felt different, and she couldn’t quite put her finger on what it was. Almost like the unnerving feeling that something was watching her, but...not quite.  

As a psychic pokemon, the way she experienced the world was always a bit different than the average person. She was more attuned to the feelings of those around her. She could even hear thoughts, though admittedly her powers were on the weak side, even for a supposedly powerful psychic pokemon. Unless she was borderline touching someone, there was little chance of it happening. It didn’t matter too much to her. It wasn’t exactly legal or nice to read minds without consent, not that she got out much, anyway. Her vices kept her plenty busy at home. Well, that and her weight. 

Speaking of… 

The stress of the past week had really taken a toll on her. Dressed in nothing but a shirt and undergarments, she rushed toward her room, the door quickly locking behind her. She wasn’t sure why she still did so. She lived alone after all. Just a habit, maybe. Her room was dim, lit only by the morning light seeping in from the window. The curtains were cracked, revealing only the pale red bricks of the building barely a few feet away. Unless they were flying, there was little chance of anyone seeing the hypno during her daily activities, aside from the wild pidgey nesting in an adjacent, boarded up window. 

How many times had it been today? Twice? Three times? Who was counting anyway? 

Excited, she dropped into her chair and rolled her way toward her computer. It was already on and waiting for her, like always. As often as she used it, there was little reason to ever shut it off, and even less of a reason to hide its contents. There on the screen was the previous night’s viewings. Machoke, and old favorite. Large in every aspect, just like she liked it.  The grey Adonis never disappointed, but some variety wouldn’t go amiss. The psychic pokemon had spent plenty of quality time with him this week. Maybe something in the Hitmon family. She smiled ear to ear as her computer’s pale glow illuminated her glasses. 

~-~ 

She lay back in her chair, only somewhat tired from her illicit activities. An hour had passed at most, at least by her estimation. She was remarkably consistent in her timing, something she wasn’t sure she should be proud of. Either way, the deed was done. She sat, waiting to catch her breath. Her thoughts were always at their most murky in the afterglow. It was perfect for taking her mind off of things, though even now they were noisier than usual. Over time the gentle heaving her chest began to slow, as it always did, and her mind returned to normal, relatively speaking. She sighed heavily as the stress returned. 

Maybe she should go again. It wouldn’t be the first time… 

Her own thoughts were deafening, even worse than in the morning. They always seemed to get worse throughout the day, but not at night time...She had toyed with the idea of it being her powers running amok, but that was just silly. A psychic pokemon’s powers fully developed by the time they were a teenager, and she definitely wasn’t practicing with them. Well, except for on her pidgey friend. Making it dance or salute was an occasional source of amusement, and even that didn’t always work. She sighed again as she turned her head and eyed her shelf of personal effects. It towered over her desk, and was stuffed full of colorful, and exotic-looking toys she had bought over the years. They were closest thing she had to friends.  

Such a loser… 

~-~ 

The rest of her week had gone about as normal as she could make it. She’d found herself watching more TV than usual. Sinking back into her old couch was always comforting. Its once bright red shade had faded over time, but it was just as comfy as ever, especially in the meditative state television put her in. The news had been interesting lately. On top of the male news anchor being really hot, plenty of strange things were happening around the city. Some inmates had mysteriously disappeared from a prison. No signs of a breakout. They just vanished. Police had been searching for the past week.  

A weird gengar painted up like a clown had been spotted a few times. While seemingly harmless, it had become something of a local legend. Drunk teenagers would frequently try and and hunt it down in the middle of the night.  

Several hundred people fell into mysterious comas all at once the previous month. None of them had preexisting conditions, and a week later, they all suddenly woke up like nothing was wrong. It had been a strange few months. The hypno was almost glad she barely left the house. Who knew what could happen...? She lost track of time, as she often did when watching TV. Her mind wandered… 

That anchor was REALLY hot...Tauros are really something else. I wonder how my stocks are doing... 

She considered going back to her computer for some private time. She’d already done so today, but it wouldn’t hurt going again. It’d been a WHOLE HOUR after all, and suddenly inspiration had hit her like a freight train. Tauros. What she wouldn’t give to have one of those monsters pin her to the bed and… 

She was running to her closet before she knew it. In it were the usual assortment of clothes. T-shirts of varying colors, and an assortment of jeans. Her wardrobe could really use some expanding...Maybe later. 

Behind these were more risque clothing options. She could remember how embarrassing those purchases were, but they’d been very much worth it. She’d relished the time she spent as a ‘nurse,’ a girl scout, and various other moderately adulterous things. Wearing them always added to the experience. If the she weren’t so riled up, it might be shameful. Thankfully there was little time to consider it with rippling abs crossing her mind. She can’t believe she hadn’t considered it before. Maybe she needed to watch the news more often. Usually her TV time had been taken up by soap operas and whatever movies she could find that had a romantic twist to them. They weren’t hard to find.  

Her new Tauros friend reminded her greatly of movie she had seen recently. The story of a struggling lopunny and her budding relationship with the new CEO of her accounting firm. A beast of a man played by a Pangoro actor she’d seen before. She’d be lying if she said that man wasn’t the primary reason she chose to watch such a movie. If God himself was ripped, that was definitely what he’d look like. Those scenes where he wore a tight-fitting tank top…The hypno shuddered.  

It suddenly dawned on her. The Schoolgirl outfit, imported straight from Kanto. What a hassle shipping had been…Either way it was perfect for today’s session. A perfect to another movie the hypno had seen before. ‘At The Academy.’ A Kanto romance about a Lucario and her forbidden relationship with her teacher.  

Okay that one wasn’t a ‘romance,’ per se, but it WAS very romantic in a way.  

A Pangoro had played the teacher, of course. 

And the clown. What range!  

The hypno paused. There wasn’t a clown in that movie...Thinking about it further, she didn’t own stocks either. They couldn’t have been someone else’s thoughts, not unless they were right outside of her door, and thinking about clowns for some reason.  

She paused and closed her eyes. For a minute everything was silent, except for the faint sound of her upstairs neighbor. He was watching the news, she could tell. It was an older gentleman. He always had his volume too loud. She could hear it, a rerun of the same news story she had watched earlier.  

Couldn’t be. 

Her eyes clenched shut. She focused ever harder than she had before, straining her weak psychic powers as much as she could. It was another solid minute before anything happened. She was beginning to get a headache. 

--orld’s going to hell in a handbasket. Need to buy me a gun. 

The thoughts were as clear as day. 

~-~ 

Another week had passed. The hypno sat in front of the television once again, but not to watch. She stared blankly forward listening to the thoughts around her. She finally understood. The feeling that had been looming over her all week. They were thoughts seeping into her mind. They were just noise at first, but now they were clear. She didn’t even have to close her eyes anymore. They just came to her. At first it was hard to drown them out. As it turned out, going your entire life without using a muscle makes you pretty terrible at it. It was worrying at first. The thoughts flowed into her mind unhindered. It was almost impossible to sleep the first night as she listened to the old man rambling upstairs. It got even worse as her range rapidly expanded. 

The hypno was the first to admit she wasn’t the most sociable of pokemon. Out of all the people who lived in her building, she knew maybe two on a first name basis, and one was her landlord. But suddenly she was very familiar with the tenants and their personal lives. The single salazzle mother two apartments to her left, the overweight grumpig man one room further. There was a pikachu three rooms below her. That was a surprise. And of course...him. One of the few people the hypno had conversed with in recent memory. Felix.  

She could never forget his name. An infernape, three doors down the hall. He was as handsome as they come, and almost always wore a bad boy, black leather jacket. He just liked the style though. He was really a big softy, and also really, REALLY into cars. The hypno couldn’t believe she hadn’t known that until recently. She had learned so much about him over this past week. That might be awkward conversation...It’d probably be best not to mention the whole mind reading thing to him. Not that they talked very much to begin with, but damn did she want to. Among other things... 

Maybe later... 

She’d lost count of the amount of times she’d said that.  

There was surprisingly little time to think about her loins, however. There were more psychic shenanigans to get into. She could easily work out distances now. She thought she could have been a prodigy or something. It had all come to her so easily. But she very quickly realized that it wasn’t her own doing. Her power was growing all on its own...for some reason. She could hear the entire apartment building now. No focus required.  

She couldn’t help but test her powers in other ways. She’d ‘played’ with the pidgey across the alley more than a few times. He’d been an excellent tool in testing her range. Take control and fly in a straight line. When focusing on him, she could steer him from at least two blocks away.  

She couldn’t believe it all. What had happened? Did it have anything to do with all the strange events happening around town? As much fun as she was having, the question was burning a hole through her head. She had continued to watch the news in hopes of figuring something out, but aside from the occasional weirdness that had become so common over the months, there was nothing to find.  

She sighed. Listening in on her neighbors was fun, but not very useful. The more she thought of it, the more she realized there was little she could actually do with her newfound abilities... 

~-~ 

She’d lost track of time again. How long had it been? A week, a month? She wasn’t sure. Compared to before, the days had been going by slower than ever. She’d read somewhere before that new experiences did that to the mind. A routine was forgettable, but when life was ever-changing there was more to process. Something like that. It made sense, to her at least. 

A short walk from her cozy apartment was a convenience store. Lit in bright fluorescent lights, it was a beacon in the darkest of nights, and had great, great hotdogs. The hypno couldn’t count the amount of times she’d visited in the middle of the night, her stomach craving something sugary. 24-Hour Stores were Heaven. She loved the solitude of a 2am candy run, but this wasn’t a normal candy run. Nor had it been the past few times she came. 

The hypno stood alone in front of a magazine rack. She wasn’t particularly interested in what she held. It was some issue of some magazine about someone rich, or something. Celebrities were so lame. It didn’t matter anyway. For an hour at least, the hypno stood in silence before she heard the familiar two-note chime of the front door opening. She had ‘heard’ them coming from a mile away, and it made her smile. It was a lopunny. That would work. The last person who came in a gardevoir, and the hypno wasn’t willing to risk that.  

You’re thirsty. 

Damn, I’m thirsty.
 

The man’s voice echoed back in the hypno’s head. She sat in the corner of the small convenience store. Directly behind her was the drink section, with a myriad of sugary sodas that not even she had tried, despite her countless trips to the store. 
 

Casually the lopunny walked up behind her, idly perusing the selection of drinks in front of him. There was a confused look on his face. Not only did he not know what he wanted. He wasn’t sure why he even came back here. He didn’t feel quite as thirsty as he once thought. He scratched his head. “Whatever, man.” He muttered under his breath. 
 

You want bottled water.
 

“Oh sweet.” The lopunny quickly grabbed a generic, store-brand bottled water from the shelf. It was the hypno’s preference.
 

The other one.
 

Like it had been coated in butter, the bottle dropped from his hands, and he grabbed another. Before the cheap plastic bottle hit the ground, a faint pink glow surrounded it, and it flew back into its place on the shelf. The hypno had gotten very accurate over the last month. His perception altered, the lopunny took no notice and continued his trip around the store. A few laps around the aisles and he was done. He paid and left without incident, as far as he knew. 

~-~ 

It was wrong. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but...no one was getting hurt. Once she had gotten the hang of it, she’d even stopped reading her neighbor’s minds. She was just testing it, is all. Getting used to it. Just like those people in the store. It’s not like she hurt anyone. A bottled water here, a bag of chips there. It was only a few dollars of damage. Nothing too bad.  

She’d had her fun. Somewhere over the past few weeks, she had stopped wondering why it all happened. It didn’t matter. After all, she was done. She was done... 

~-~ 

There was certain comfort in her daily routine that had been lost over the weeks. While not nearly as exciting as before, she had missed the time she usually spent in front of her computer. Infernape was on the menu today. There was quite a bit of variety in it. Their monkey-like grace and flexibility made for unusual, but interesting videos. It wasn’t the first time the hypno had perused infernape content, and wouldn’t be the last. She always wondered how the videos would compare to the real thing. Would they all be so adept? Would they all be so...big? 

She mulled it over as she continued to watch the infernape on her screen. The things they could do with their feet… 

~-~ 

“Where had the bravery come from?” She wondered to herself. Certainly, things had changed over the past month or so. Quite a few things, actually but not many of them related directly to her confidence level. The psychic thing was cool and all but, it’s not like she planned on USING it or anything...much. 

These were the thoughts that purveyed her mind as she walked down the brightly lit hallway of her apartment building and its ugly, beige carpet. She had found herself in front of HIS door. Felix’s door. She knew he was home. She could ‘hear’ him on the other side of the door, but tried not to eavesdrop too much. She was going to talk to him directly after all… 

She stood outside for minutes at a time, almost getting the courage to knock, but pulling away at the last second. What would she even say? 

Can’t mention anything about the cars. He would definitely think that was weird. 

 “Hi?” “Hi,” was a normal thing to say, right? That was good. That would work. She raised her hand to the door once again. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t follow through yet again. Her grunt of frustration echoed down the hall. It was much louder than she planned. Her cheeks slightly puffed, she stared at the door until it opened on its own. She still hadn’t knocked. 

A befuddled infernape stood on the other side of the doorway. Out of all the people, the awkward hypno from down the hall was the last person he expected to see.  

“Uh, you need something?” 

The hypno’s mouth was agape. There were many sounds coming out of it, but very few words. She didn’t know it was possible to start sweating so fast, but she could definitely feel it rolling down her cheek.  

You didn’t see anything! Go to bed! 

She ran faster than she ever had before, slipping into her apartment and slamming the door behind her. Confused, the infernape stared at the door across the hall.  

“How did I get...huh. I should get to bed.”  

~-~ 

Abject failure. The hypno laid face down on her bed, her head buried in her oversized pillow. Why did she even try? Home was better anyway. Home was safer. It wasn’t that bad being alone. She had her computer. Her television. A nice bed. That’s all she really needed. That’s all she ever needed. It got her this far, didn’t it? She was fine. At least she had saved herself some embarrassment. She could easily tell from this distance that the infernape had gone straight to bed. That trick had worked before, pretty consistently too. If she wanted, she could...no. She said she wouldn’t use her powers anymore. That was just panic before. It could have happened to anyone. 

The hypno rolled over in her bed, and stared at the blank ceiling. There was a sharp exhale. She was horny again. 

~-~ 

A long rest helped, but her mind was still racing. Why was being social so impossible? She didn’t think she would ever get the whole ‘extroverted’ thing. What a bunch of weirdos. If only she could get to the good parts without all the talking. Well technically she could now, but that would be pretty illegal...REALLY illegal… 

She’d lost track of how many times she’d had that conversation with herself. And every time she became less convinced by her own words. It was getting worrying, but the more she considered it, the more excited she became. She bit her thumb. Once again she stared blanky at her own reflection in the. She had to admit that she had been lying to herself. Days of testing in the convenience store hadn’t just been for fun. Had she really been considering it all this time? She couldn’t believe it, herself. She could just TELL them to do it, and afterwards tell them to forget. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? She’d gone over all the possibilities already, more than she cared to admit. Was she really considering doing this? It was REALLY illegal… 

Okay. Once. She would do it once, and never again. She had said it. She couldn’t believe she had said it. Did hell exist? Was ‘once’ enough to get into hell? She hoped not. 

~-~ 

There was little planning left to do. She couldn’t bear to wait another day anyway. The thought of what she was doing made a knot in her stomach big enough to tie down a rhydon. She was convinced the anticipation would actually kill her. It had to happen soon. It had to happen that night.  

She had gotten on a bus and rode it as far as she could. The direction didn’t matter, as long as it was far, far away from her home. Anyone who thought she was suspicious would ideally never see her again after that night. The benefits of living in a big city. 

It was late, but not too late. By now, the amber glow of the street lights was all she could see for miles down the horizon. Most people would be home from work by now. The streets were barren, quiet. Perfect. The hypno walked to nowhere in particular. Her sore feet were clearly not used to so much activity. She sat down on a bench and waited. She considered her ‘choices.’ This would only happen once, after all. She wanted it to at least be memorable. A mienshao? Interesting, but no. Glaceon? Too cold. A nidoking? Maybe a bit big. 

That’s when she saw him. He passed in front her, idly playing with his phone. The choice was immediate. 

Go into the alleyway. 

He changed directions without thinking, taking an immediate turn into a nearby alley. Followed closely by the hypno, an ear-to-ear smile on her face.  

“Do you live alone,” she asked. 

“Yeah.”  

She couldn’t help but let out an excited squeal. 

You’re going home now, and taking your GIRLFRIEND with you. 

Once and only once.