Valefor hit the ground, and Imp kicked him between the legs once more for good measure.
“Cancel the orders, fuckwit!” she growled, dropping on top of him. Her knife pressed against Valefor’s throat.
“How-”
She backhanded him across the face, striking him in one cheekbone with the knife handle. “Cancel!”
I could sense the crowd relaxing. People hurried away from the scene. It took more than a minute before they were all gone.
Imp struck Valefor again.
“Stop,” I said.
“Regent got one in, I wanted one too,” she said. She spat at Valefor.
I tentatively moved bugs, then settled them around his eyes. Valefor struggled, but froze when Imp pressed the knife against his throat.
Regent got one in?
Oh.
“You… voluntarily gave him control over you?” I asked.
“Little while back,” Imp said. “I wanted to see what it was like. Could come in handy. Did come in handy.”
It’s Regent, I thought. I’d fought beside him in life and death scenarios and I would never have allowed him to take control of me. Couldn’t fathom it.
Was there a way I could diplomatically say as much?
None I could think of, right this minute.
“I can’t imagine submitting myself to that,” I said.
—Worm: Imago 21.3
"Have Regent put her under."
"What?" My head shot up and I, along with everybody else in the room, turned to stare at Imp. Regent looked similarly surprised - though I didn't like the gleam in his eye. For that matter - "Regent, if you controlled Imp to say that, I'm going to use my new super-strength to put you through a wall."
For a second, I lost track of what I had been talking about, and then Imp reappeared, sitting on the edge of my chair and with one arm wrapped over my shoulders. "All me, T. Relax, would you? It doesn't hurt, and this way if you lose it we can have Regent take your body over and frog-march it to the docks. What are we supposed to do otherwise if you do go crazy while we're watching you, sit there and cry?"
[...]
Had it really only been two days ago that I had boggled at even considering the idea of letting someone control me?
—The Butcher's Bill: 1.3.3