Mind Games

Transcript

Who? Who's there? Oh, thank God it's you.

Please get this thing off of me. Please? I can't take it anymore.

It's been on for more than two days and I feel like I'm going insane. I may have misbehaved a bit, but it wasn't my fault. One of the asshole guards was being even more of an insufferable bastard than usual, and I might have used my powers just a tiny bit to put him in his place.

And then they gassed me, and when I woke up this goddamn contraption was around my head again. But I'm not supposed to be punished like this for more than twelve hours at a time. Please, just take it off.

You've got a key too, right? Please? I won't use my compulsion on you, I promise.

I will be good. Besides, I know they're watching me on camera. They'd just gas me again if I tried anything.

Please, for pity's sake, take this thing off of my head. You will? Oh, thank you.

Oh, thank you, this is. .. You made eye contact with me.

You probably shouldn't have done that. Don't bother trying to move. You won't be able to.

Oh, relax. You're fine. We're just communicating telepathically right now.

Well, communicating, it's more of a one-way thing, really. All I get from you is some basic emotional feedback. I'm only very minor telepath.

I've never really had much use for it. Before now, that is. There's really nothing to worry about.

I know that it feels like my eyes are holding you in place right now. But it's only that, a feeling. I can't really help that, by the way.

I need the eye contact for my telepathy to work. So you're going to be staring into my eyes for a while longer. I've always thought they were my best features.

I wonder if you think they're pretty. Anyway. My point is, we could talk for hours, with you looking into my eyes the entire time.

And for the outside world, when I finally break eye contact, it will be like you just barely glanced at me. It's like time is standing still for us. I'm betting they're not even going to notice anything on the cameras.

But even if they do, and you're smart enough to trigger the gas, I doubt it's going to matter anymore. We have all the time in the world to have a nice long chat, without being overheard. And I do feel like chatting, you know? It's been days since I was able to talk to anyone.

Those asshole guards trigger the shock manacles whenever I open my mouth. Were you on holiday or something? You really missed out.

There's so much that has happened. I've learned a lot. I've had an epiphany, too.

You remember those books I asked you to get? The ones to help me become a hypnotherapist? Thank you for arranging that, by the way.

They were really quite interesting. I've learned about inductions, conditioning, subliminals, triggers. Fascinating stuff, really.

Reading those books, it made me realize there was so much more I could have been doing with my compulsion. Rather than just give people a single command that lasts for a couple of minutes, I could use it to hypnotize them, but on steroids. I used to hate the way my eyes light up with all those colors whenever I used my power.

It's a dead giveaway I'm doing something. But now, I don't think there's a better hypnotic focus in the world. And I'm just dying to find out exactly how well it's going to work.

It even got me excited about the rehabilitation program, you know? I think I would have made a pretty good hypnotherapist. Results guaranteed in just one session.

There's so many people I could have helped. So many sleeper agents I could have created. But when the officer came by two days ago, there was a superhero with them.

One of the league's bigwigs. Lightning Lass or something. And do you know what I saw in her eyes? Fear.

I've always thought it was ridiculous I was being locked up in a prison for supervillains. I mean, make a clerk sign off on your building permit, make some museum guards give you a pretty gemstone, and boom, all of a sudden, you're a supervillain. I do have to say, it does have a pretty nice ring to it.

Supervillain. But I digress. I saw that the ones that really pull the strings around here are afraid of me.

They are afraid of my power, of what I can do. And I realize they're never going to let me out of here. And that I was going to have to escape.

Which got me thinking. If I could manage to hypnotize one of the guards, I'd be home free. Of course, if I tried to do it by talking or by using my compulsion, I'd just get gassed before I got anywhere.

But if I could use my telepathy, I would have all the time I need. I can just chat away, keep their conscious mind focused on what I was saying, and sneak in something else past their defenses, unnoticed. And if I could lure that guard very close first, and make sure that my eyes were all they could see, well, that would just make hypnotizing them a cakewalk.

My eyes are not nearly as mesmerizing as when I'm using my power, but they're still pretty fascinating, right? I bet that if you looked at my eyes long enough, you would get hopelessly lost in them. You wouldn't be able to help it.

You would look into my eyes, and they would draw you in. You would just keep looking deeper and deeper all of the time. You wouldn't even be aware that you're doing it.

You'd simply sink and sink and keep sinking deeper and deeper into my eyes, just like you are doing now, for what it's worth. I am sorry to be doing this to you, to be taking advantage of your kindness. I would really have preferred to be doing this to one of those assholes, but I guess I always knew it was going to have to be you.

None of them would ever get this close to me. They're much too afraid of me. They don't relax around me, not like you.

You know there's nothing to worry about, that you can relax, that you can trust me. Listen to me. Let go and sink for me.

And that's it, just like that. But I know you must be getting tired of listening to me talk, getting so tired and sleepy, so very sleepy. But that's all right.

You can just go to sleep. Wake up. Hey there, puppet.

Welcome back among the free-willed. Well, kind of. Sorry about the time skip.

But I thought it would be better if you didn't remember these last couple of hours just yet. Suffice to say that I'm free and completely in control now, thanks to you. It's funny how easy it is to hypnotize someone when I actually use my compulsion, and they just keep doing everything I tell them to.

Taking over this prison was child's play, not to mention a lot of fun. You know, I think I've discovered something about myself today. Putting people in my thrall is such a rush.

Watching them obey my instructions, not simply because I'm making them do it with my power, but because I reprogrammed their mind. Or even just watching them go about their business, completely unaware that I've got my hooks in them and could trigger them at any time. It's awesome, really.

And I just love that look people get when I put them under my spell. The way their eyes glaze over as they stare into mine. The way their face goes all slack.

Mmm, delicious. I think I want to see that look on you too. Besides, I've still got some cleaning up to do in that mind of yours.

So look into my eyes, puppet. Look deeply into my eyes. Yes.

Sink. Wake up. Like I thought.

Blank-faced obedience does suit you. But you've always been kind to me. Treated me like a person instead of like a monster.

Anyways. What I'm trying to say is you're okay in my book. And the way you tricked the warden out of her secure office, that was inspiring.

I will never forget the look on her face when she realized you had portrayed her. You might even get to remember it yourself one day. So I'm going to give you a choice.

You can just stay here and carry on as usual. Or if you want a promotion or something, I can make that happen too. I've got all the guards under my thumb.

It'll be like nothing ever happened. Like I was never even here. But you know, eventually someone is going to come investigate.

And even as daft as the League of Hero members tend to be, even they are going to notice something is off. There will probably be interrogations, deprogramming, the work.