"I want an apprentice." The witch cackles, "Really though, having a minion to help me will help big time, this hacking only works because the spell system allowing for 'users to make their own spells' is so easy to bypass it's ridiculous. Plus, this gives her incentive to not report us since you conveniently filled her in on everything...." You pause to consider that, it's better than being imprisoned, but you still want to leave... You start inching towards the door again, almost there, only a few feet... Behind you, the man huffs loudly, "Really? I mean, she's nothing great, but still.. I bring in a naked woman and you decide she'll be your apprentice?! I mean, come on!" They both go silent for a second, then the man shouts at you, "Hey slave, come here!" You turn around, terrified, sure you've been caught. This time you actually try to cover yourself, but the man just huffs and says, "Slave, lift your hands over your head." If possible, your face burns even harder, he giggles a bit, not sounding at all like the giant of the man in front of you. "Do the macarena!" Your arms start moving of their own accord as you begin the dance. The giggles quickly turn to laughter, followed by the second voice joining in after the first part. "Alright, that's enough." The witch, giggles, "I'm transferring her over to be an apprentice, now off with you 'Malkwa'.... and can you please choose or more normal name?" Groaning, the man lifts himself off the sofa, "No can do, if you insist on the names, I'm choosing one which irritates you! Anyway, since when is 'Myrtle' normal?"
The man heads out and the witch locks the door behind her, cutting short any dreams you had of escaping, "Alrighty now, hold still slave, don't move." You immediately freeze in a particularly uncomfortable position. You're stuck at the ending pose for the Macarena, with your hands on your butt and your butt thrust backwards. "Pfft," the witch giggles, "Slave stand up straight then don't move. Oh also, turn your volume back up." You shift positions before freezing again. The witch begins to fiddle with your collar for a bit, then she grabs some robes and hands them to you, "Slave put these on. And to whoever's watching, if you want this character back, you better accept." You put the robes on, then the same prompt as before appears above your head:
WARNING: THIS OBJECT WILL GRANT ANOTHER USER PERMISSION TO MAKE CHANGES TO YOUR AVATAR WHILE IN USE. DO NOT ACCEPT IF YOU DO NOT TRUST THIS USER. REMINDER: NEVER TELL YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE.
Failing to see another option, you mentally acknowledge the prompt. At least this time you have a robe... You immediately regret your decision when your view drops several feet and the piercing pain from earlier passes through your head. "Ah good," The witch grins, walking around you, "let's test this out!" She stops in front of you then says, "Slave do jumping jacks!" Curiously, nothing happens, but the witch only grins. "Apprentice, do jumping jacks!" Your arms clap themselves above your head of their own accord. "Perfect!" The witch yells, hurting your ears. Grinning, she turns her attention to you, her head bobbing to track your face, "Alright so here's the deal. You're now my apprentice so you have three options. The first is that you can simply abandon this character and start another. Option two, you can try to run away, and I turn this character back into a slave. Option three, you can be my apprentice, get character training that some people actually pay money for, and make real life money too, your choice." You stand there, not able to move. "Whoops!" The witch laughs, apprentice, you can move your right arm, hold up your fingers." Not having much choice, you hold up three fingers. "Excellent!" the witch shouts, "So I'll go over how this is going to work. In a second I'm going to give you control of yourself again, I can still override things, but you'll be in control. I'm gonna leave you mute though... I only want you able to cast spells when I let you. Anyway, right now, you're going to your room, I've locked it with spells, so don't try to escape, we'll start when I log in tomorrow if your on by then!" The witch waves her hand and you immediately find yourself lying on a bed.
Groaning, you get up and look around, you're in a simply room, only a desk, a bed, a mirror, and a wardrobe. You get up and look at yourself. The witch seems to have changed you somehow, but you can't quite figure out how. Walking over to the mirror, you see a young girl of about nine or ten years staring back at you with startled wide eyes, the witch turned you into a kid! In disbelief, you check under your robes, it only confirms what the mirror is telling you. You most definitely have the body of a young girl, and you also have no underwear, you'll have to be careful about that. In shock again, you walk clumsily over to the bed and sit down hard. Over the past day, your life has been completely ruined. First you're transported to a strange world, then your body was destroyed, and now your stuck as the glorified slave of a witch in a video game. You feel a tear leak out of your eye, then another. Your sniffling gets louder before turning into full on sobbing. The world get's blurry as your cry about your situation. After a while, you notice text floating in front of you, "WHY ARE YOU CRYING JOHN?" You glare at the words, the source of your trouble, and try to talk, before realizing you can't, then wave a hand at your surrounding and at yourself, before finally pointing to your collar. "OH, I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING ALONG WITH IT..." That's enough to snap you out of your depression, this lady, who's the source of all your troubles, didn't help you as you were subjugated and humiliated, because she thought you wanted to do it... Glaring at the words, you give them an angry shrug and glare, before turning around, if she's not going to help you, you're not going to talk to her! That doesn't help though, as the next sentence appears in front of your face, "YOU KNOW YOU HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL RIGHT?" Alright, maybe you will listen to what Melanie has to say.... "THIS IS STILL A SUBSPACE NETWORK, YOU CAN STILL MANIPULATE IT, I CAN'T HELP YOU WITH ANYTHING, BUT YOU CAN GET OUT YOURSELF. IF YOU WANT ME TO HELP, JUST GET INTO EMPTY SUBSPACE AGAIN." You point to your collar and tilt your head questioningly. "JUST ACTIVATE THE ROUTINE AND IMAGINE IT NOT WORKING." You find the little spot in your head that lets you activate it. In your minds eye, you can see the collar, with a intricate web of colored lines. Somehow you know, this is code, and you know exactly what each piece does. Mentally, you re-arrange the code into a different pattern, one that not only allows you complete control, but resists any tampering of a similar sort. You find the part that made you younger, but you pause before reversing it. You can't use it to change back to your normal self, and there's no reason to actually reverse it, so you simply tie it off as a subroutine you can use to change your age. Finished with that, you're left contemplating, maybe you can change back to yourself with your ability. You turn your minds eye to yourself, and only find a blank void. Trying out your voice again, you say, "Hey Melanie, why can't I change myself?" in what has to be the sweetest voice possible for a nine year old. "THE FIRST PERSON WE TESTED THIS ON ACCIDENTALLY DELETED HIS BODY OUT OF EMPTY SPACE, WE COULDN'T FIX IT AND HE LOST THE SUB-ROUTINE. WITH YOU WE TIED ALL SUB-ROUTINES TO THE MIND, BUT DECIDED TO BE SAFE, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO CHANGE YOURSELF, YOU'LL EITHER HAVE TO USE THE BUILT IN METHODS OF WHICHEVER WORLD YOUR IN, OR YOU'LL HAVE TO LET ME CHANGE YOU IN EMPTY SPACE. I'M NOT SURE I CAN RE-CREATE YOUR BODY YET, I'M WORKING ON IT THOUGH."
"Great..." You sigh, flopping backwards on your bed. You debate leaving, but then you decide to surprise the witch tomorrow. Anyway, after a long confusing morning, a long hike through the woods in the afternoon, and an emotionally distressing evening, you're ready to go to bed. You lie in the bed and listen to the crickets until you fall asleep, dreaming of what you'll do to the witch tomorrow. You think you'll....