This was wild, these were superpowers now. He would have thought this was some kind of trick, but based on the last selections he might actually get some kind of ability. He considered the options, and to be honest they were all tempting. In the end however, the right choice for him was clear. He'd always thought the characters with this power should be the strongest in comics and movies, but somehow they never quite lived up to his expectations. He selected Hypnotic Suggestion. As soon as he made the selection a new window box opened in his vision.
[Hypnotic Suggestion: The user can empower a spoken suggestion to make the listener think it is their own belief. Can be used to compel actions and behaviors, but actions that deviate too far from the target's current mental state can be resisted. Successful suggestions will be incorporated naturally into the target's personality. No one will consciously remember anything you say when you are making the suggestion. This ability can only be used a limited number of times daily, refreshing at midnight. All unused charges are lost.]
This was incredible. Based on that description it sounded as if you couldn't just command someone to walk off a bridge unless they already wanted to do it, but Adam was already thinking about all the possibilities. Not that he thought any of this was real, but it was fun to imagine.
[Based on your selections, and an analysis of your being, a quest will be generated to allow you to reach your true potential]
Well that's a little weird, I wonder what that's about? Adam thought to himself. Was this galactic enhancement thing developing some type of self-help program for him?
[Waiting]
[Quest generated: you must find a woman aged 18 years or older and have an orgasm with your penis inside her vagina. WARNING! You have 12hrs to complete this quest. Failure to complete the quest will result in the immediate destruction of your world.]
What was this?! Adam's heart immediately sank from the high he'd been riding only moments ago. Obviously there had to have been a catch. He'd unthinkingly jumped into some alien death game. Was this a joke? Some VR prank?
First things first, he needed to figure out if this superpower actually worked. He composed himself and walked out into the living room to see his roommate.
"Hey Alan, what are your plans for the weekend?"
Alan had been Adam's roommate for the past two years, he was a bit of a hippy, but cleaned up after himself and paid the rent on time. The man blinked a couple times before responding, "Oh not a lot to be honest man, I actually think I'm gonna try and catch up on some shows." Alan would sometimes leave for the whole weekend to camp out of his van. Having the apartment to himself every other weekend was one perk of having Alan as a roommate. Unfortunately when he was around he generally parked himself in the living room and didn't move a whole lot.
Well time to test it out. Focusing on the ability, he could sense the likelihood of different prompts to take effect. Something like "sit on the couch and watch movies all weekend," would be very likely to take effect, and something like "jump out the window face first" would be much more likely to be resisted. Certain commands like "kill yourself" seemed completely impossible. If the command was too long or complicated it also looked like it wouldn't work.
As he activated the ability he said, "you really want to go camping this whole long weekend and leave as soon as you can." A charge on Adam's menu ticked down, leaving him with 4. Alan's posture almost immediately shifted. He had been lying back on the couch, but suddenly sat up. He stared off into the distance for a second before saying, "you know what, I think I should actually go out to eagle heights for the rest of the weekend, I found a great spot last time and think I should go back." "Oh, sure, hope you have fun," replied Adam. Then he watched in stunned silence as Alan grabbed his things together and was out of the door in under 5 minutes.
Well that appeared to have worked amazingly well, but a feeling of dread started to overtake him. He had honestly hoped it wouldn't work. Him having the power of suggestion meant that the last part of the earlier message was probably true too. That the fate of the world rested on his ability to complete that quest.
How was he going to accomplish something like that on such short notice? Immediately his first thoughts went to his ex. If Adam was being honest with himself, he wasn't the best with girls. He was twenty-two and had only been intimate with two women. His previous six month relationship had ended two months ago ostensibly because his ex Brianna was going to college, but he knew she'd already lost interest in him. Besides, it was no use thinking of her, she was out of town. He hadn't had sex in more than two months and now he needed to find someone within twelve hrs.
Adam didn't have a plan as he got himself dressed and left the house. He was definitely a bit taller, his clothes didn't quite fit right. Where did someone meet girls at noon on a Saturday? He absentmindedly wandered out of his apartment lobby as his thoughts raced with what he was going to do. He couldn't just tell someone "You need to have sex with me or the world will end!" In fact, that was probably the single worst strategy he could think of. He couldn't take the time to consider how immoral it might be, he needed to use this power to save the world.
It was a beautiful spring day, not too hot, but clearly on the edge of summer. He wandered down to a nearby park. As he looked around, there were people everywhere, dressed for the weather. He knew the description of the ability said no one would hear the suggestion when he used it, but he didn't know how accurate that would be. He wasn't sure who he should approach or how he should do it.
As he wandered further into the park he finally saw someone who looked perfect. Standing off to the side of the bike path by herself was a ridiculously cute girl with pale skin and shoulder length black hair. She was short, wearing black spandex booty shorts and a pink tank top over a black sports bra. While skinny, the shorts showed off her amazing ass and she looked to be in great shape. She was on her phone, apparently texting. She looked up at him for a moment as he approached before immediately looking away, indifferent.
He fought down his awkwardness and walked up to the girl, activating his power as he spoke. "Hey, you know me, I'm an old friend you haven't seen in a while." The woman's posture and demeanor immediately changed. "Oh hey Adam! It's Julia. Wow, it's been ages!" Adam was surprised for a moment that she knew his name, his ability seemed to do more than merely implant a suggestion, it seemed to insert entirely new information into the person's brain. He quickly recovered, "Yeah it has, great to run into you. What have you been up to today?" "Oh, I'm just procrastinating from studying by going on a walk. I have an Anthro paper to write and I'm just not feeling it, you know?"
As he talked to her, Adam reviewed the menu that showed how likely a suggestion was to take effect. It seemed that the previous suggestion, along with their current conversation, had altered her mental state enough for new suggestions to take hold. Previously a number of options had been unavailable, but more and more were showing up as green when he examined their probability. Options like, "You want to go with this man and let him have sex with you" still felt like they had a low probability of working though. He only had three charges left before they reset at midnight, so had to think carefully through his remaining choices.
He activated his ability and felt the charge counter tick down to two. "You want to blow off writing your paper for the day and hang out with this cute guy at his apartment." Julia's eyes glazed over for a second before she responded "So what are you up to today then?" Her tone was different somehow, and he felt her eyes on him in a new way. "Oh not a lot, I'd planned to get some work done today, but pretty much procrastinating like you right now. I was probably just going to hang out and watch some shows. Did you want to join me?"
As they walked back to his place and they chatted, he learned she was twenty years old and in her second year at the local college. She was even more open than she'd been initially, talking about her problems living with her roommates and how she had recently gone through a breakup with a long term boyfriend she'd had from high school.
They were back at his place in no time and he put a random comedy on the TV. He sat back on the couch and was surprised when Julia sat right down beside him and cuddled up. It seemed just the act of suggesting she wanted to come and spend time with him made her more comfortable around him in a number of ways. It seemed as though he could make her take certain actions or feel a certain way, but he wasn't sure yet what the most effective approach was.
