Slow But Steady Wag

Mei Ming thinks Cerise is being too vain, so from now on she’s going to control how he interacts with others. But he’s not getting off that easily. As punishment, she forces Cerise to chop off his precious and beautiful fair with a sword resulting in an uneven cut. A few notice this exchange, particularly Mei Ming’s boyfriend, Cole, who becomes rather confused but doesn’t seem to understand why Mei Ming is acting this way. Cerise meanwhile hides his despair for his hair.

### RP Repository Summary: Mei Ming confronts Cerise after the whole event over seeing him flirting with Aethyris.

She insists that Cerise must ask for permission before ever committing such acts. Cerise has mixed feelings over this, he doesn't want to give up his flirtatious life style, but at the same time it makes him feel good to be possessed by Mei Ming. Now Cerise is REALLY falling for Mei Ming. As "punishment" for flirting, and being too vain, Cerise is told to cut off his own hair. He does it, sobbing. He grasps onto Mei Ming for comfort from all the emotional pain she had induced, but Mei Ming leaves him on his own. Cole and Yin were watching.

## EXP Awarded

**Cerise Moani** - 260 EXP (Though the incident did not leave Cerise physically harmed, Cerise lost one of the most important aspects of his appearance. There is nothing more than Cerise values than his beauty and appeal. However, he was forced to let that go in order to please someone who is now taking ownership of him.)

**Mei Ming** - 125 EXP (It is made abundantly clear through this event that Mei Ming has full control over Cerise. His loyalty towards her surprises her a bit and fuels her ego but otherwise her character has been established prior to these events.)

**Cole Tarnung** - 100 EXP (Spying on the two, the events unfolded had a severe impact on Cole as well as he is becoming less and less unwilling to believe Mei Ming's true nature. He seems to be more uncertain about caring for her.

**Yin Arstat** - 5 EXP (Small indication that she was watching from afar.)

## Roleplay

Mei Ming swiftly exited the library where the fiasco occurred and dragged Cerise behind her roughly. She used her semblance to see where she was going by making a whistle motion with her mouth as she had her cane to her side. She dragged Cerise, silently, until they were at the end of the hall in a small corner, away from anyone. She pinned him against the wall and roared, "What was that all about?!" she demanded.

Yín watched Mei from a distance, more than a little concerned.

Cole walked around Beacon trying to find Mei and Cerise before spotting them in a hallway，ducking behind a corner, Cole watched.

As Cerise was being dragged, he became more and more fearful. Mei Ming had quite a tight grip on his wrist, and he was afraid that Mei Ming's threats about "ruining his pretty face" were about to come to realization. As he was pinned against the wall, he looked down with a dispirited expression. "I was just... being me.. I didn't even know you were against that kind of thing!" Cerise said, getting a little more aggressively defensive at the end.

Cole wanted to intervene but stopped himself from doing so, he wanted to observe. Clenching his chest.
 "Here your anger, your betrayal, your feeling of abandonment shall flourish and be feed to us!" The voice spoke

Mei Ming smiled, feeling powerful from Cerise's fearful expressions. She decided to play his game then, "Oh, you were just being you?" she said, pushing her body against his, as she spoke into his ear, "Care to explain yourself further? How you think now that I own you that you can simply decide who to flirt around with and when? You are not about to tarnish my reputation by being a pet that goes to street rats with no class. No, you are to follow my instructions from now on and come to me for every move you make. Is that understood?"

There is your so called "sweet and lovely" Mei! Threatening and using people with ease! You shouldn't have put so much fate into her. I feel sad for your pitiful existence. I really do. But! You are just a stepping point for us to spread! So we will destroy all human life! One pathetic soul at a time!"

Come to Mei Ming for every move? Cerise never realized the extent of his involvement with Mei Ming until now, as it started to dawn on him how much his lifestyle was going to have to change. He was starting to regret ever being "saved" by Mei Ming, even Zaffrea's wrath would have been more pleasant than any of this... however... was that really true? In a way, it actually was kind of pleasant, seeing Mei Ming possess him like this. It made him feel like someone really needed him... and not just in the usual ways. "I...understand.. I'll ask you from now on..." Cerise said with a pained voice.

Mei Ming smiled brightly at her victory, giving him a passionate kiss. My pet has such low self esteem, she had realized, and was thoroughly enjoying using it to her advantage. She pulled away taking a few steps back, "That's a good boy," she said, "Much better anyhow. And now that we have that understood. It is time to work out a punishment."

"Watch as the both of your so called lover and friend kiss and have an intercourse with each other!" The voice spoke.

Cole clenched his chest even harder, his nails sinking into the cloth and skin. There was a sharp pain in his heart as he saw her kissing Cerise.

No, she's just giving him a forgiving kiss. Right? Cole thought to himself.

"Oh this will be a good show to watch. And I have the front row seat!" The voice mockingly laughing at Cole

Cerise reciprocated Mei Ming's, happy for the attention and eyes lighting up a bit at what he saw as praise but others would know to be a dehumanizing quip. If Cerise had a tail, it would be doing a slow but steady wag at this point, but soon to dart back between his legs at the mention of a punishment. "A-ah... punishment? Hasn't this whole thing been punishment enough... Can't we move onto something a little more.. fun?" Cerise weakly breathed out, moving in for another kiss, starting to internally panic a little.

Mei Ming smiled, placing her hand on his chest and pushing him back, "Oh, you thought I was going to let you off the hook that easily? Because of your actions, I had to put aside my usual demeanor and threaten to expose myself. And don't worry, I will have my way with you as I please, you will have no say over this. Now then, what would be the appropriate action for this type of offense?" she tapped her chin, "Ah! I know!" she exclaimed, unsheathing her cane to reveal a sharp sword, "You have been becoming too vain, Cerise. It's time to change that. You will have to make adjustments by changing your looks."

Although not necessarily surprised to be pushed back, Cerise was still disappointed to realize he wouldn't be getting out of this. Adrenaline started to pump at Mei Ming unsheathing her sword, with Cerise fearing some sort of physical injury to come, but his heart fell even further when he realized the sword was intended for his hair, not his body. "M-m-my looks?!" Cerise yelped with a high tone, grasping his hair in a protective manner. "Surely you can't mean... Ahh... Isn't there any other punishment?! I'd rather have the sword stuck up my ass than touch my beautiful hair!!" Cerise said, panicking as he began to tear up.

Mei Ming shoved the sword into his hand, "My, Cerise, are you... defying me? I would hate to imagine what kind of punishment that defiance would merit as well. So I suggest you be quick about it and take your punishment while I'm being merciful. Now, take the sword, grab all of your hair in one grasp behind your back so you do not injure yourself, place the sword above the hair and just to a rapid slice downwards and that is all. Not so difficult now, is it?" she said, smiling at him.

Cole continued to watch.

Why was Mei doing this? What motives did she have? Why would she be controlling Cerise to do every bidding she had? More importantly, Who is the real Mei? The sweet and loving side or this...demeanor and manipulative side? Cole thought to himself as he observed every action. He didn't want to believe that Mei was a person that would use anyone for her own gains. He still wanted to believe that she was a good person.

After all that he went through in his 10 years of childhood and early teenage life, his kindness, generosity and resourcefulness were used by countless of people but he tried to bounce back from that and help people no matter what. But that was before he had the parasite feeding him negative thoughts.

This wasn't the first time Cerise was being punished... Cerise had actually been in a handful of abusive relationships before, he had a way of sort of falling into them. However, none of his past abusers had ever made him do anything to this extreme, they all valued his beauty. "A-a-aright..." Cerise managed to sob out as he took hold of the sword, then dropping down to his knees. He used his right arm to bring the sword behind his back, holding his hair with his left. Trying his best to play chicken, he attempted to get away with as much hair as possible while still holding enough so that Mei Ming wouldn't get even more upset. He took his time, treasuring the feel and texture of the hair in his hand one last time before he brought his right hand down in one, fluid movement. Still holding the hair in his left hand, although with it now cut from the source, Cerise brought his hand around to in front at him, and the permanence (or what at least felt like permanence, it would take years to grow all that back) of the action began to sink in. Cerise dropped the hair to the ground, the hair he still had now being a bit above the shoulders, but very choppy. Shakily, he got back up and held onto Mei Ming, bringing her into tight hug as he was craving emotional support.

Mei Ming smiled, feeling immensely powerful as she watched him go through with the act. She almost couldn't believe, that she got him to do something like this so easily. Shouldn't Cerise value his beauty more than anything? Or did he just fall for her that much? She pried Cerise off of her, not giving in to his need for emotional support, "Now, that wasn't so bad," she said, "You're not allowed to go crying about this to anyone. Your feelings are unimportant to anyone other than myself, and now, I will dictate them. Now that we have all that settled, go off but behave." She said, walking away from Cerise, leaving him there, a mess.

Cole decided to confront Cerise, but pretending to not what had happened. Cole walked out from the corner and acted surprise to see him in the hall.

"Cerise?! Hey! You're here too? I'm guessing you're lost too right? I'm still unfamiliar to the campus. What... What happened?" Cole cursed himself that he had to pretend to lie to Cerise after what he had witness. But he can't let him know that he was watching Mei and Cerise.

His chest hurt a little when he found out about Mei's untold side but tried to brush it off as she was just joking around. But the voice told him otherwise.

If Cerise's feelings were unimportant to anyone but Mei Ming, did that mean they were... important to her? Cerise was feeling even more miserable with Mei Ming pushing him off like that, but he held onto this thought for comfort. Seeing Cole approach him, he quickly attempted to regain his composure, using his arm to wipe away his tears, although it was still fairly obvious that he had been crying. "Aah- Cole? Uh.. I guess I am kind of lost.. ahaha... I was trying to find my way around when my hair got stuck in this door.. and.. I mean I kind of wanted to change up my looks anyways.. I guess... Getting it stuck like that really hurt, but I was able to use Thistles to cut of so..." Ceriserambled, making up a story on the spot. He intended to eventually throw a flirt Cole's way, just to show that he was his "usual self", but was too distraught to think one up as he would usually do with ease.

"Man...You must been lost for hours and unable to find your way back and you just started to break down crying huh? And...Short hair suits you. You look...well...Not to sound weird or...creepy but you look cuter in comparison to your long hair." Cole gave a small smile. Knowing his hair was cut and not, destroyed by a simple door.

Cole brushed of his lies and went to him, holding onto his shoulder tightly.

"You alright?" Cole asked