"Did you really think I wouldn't find out?"
Um, I'm sorry, I... Kimberly, this isn't exactly a good time to talk.
"No, of course it's not a good time to talk! Because you're busy fucking my best friend, that's why! I know she's in there, Derek. I saw her go up the stairs to your apartment an hour ago. I could hear her through the goddamn ceiling, okay? Stop trying to pretend, because you're not fooling anyone!"
Listen, Kimberly, even if Michelle and I were... enjoying each other's company, that doesn't automatically make it your business. She's a grown woman, and she has every right to make her own decisions about what she does with her body. I can understand that there are certain additional concerns in pursuing a relationship with her, but it doesn't violate any of the terms of your lease and I have every intention of keeping my professional role as your landlord and my personal role as her boyfriend entirely separate.
"Uh huh. And what about this?"
I'm sorry, I don't-
"Oh come on, Derek. Your picture is on the back cover! 'Derek Bateman is an expert in hypnosis and mental conditioning whose techniques have helped thousands of men train their girlfriends into the obedient sluts every man secretly craves! Now with his new DVD, "The Pleasure Principle", he finally unleashes the culmination of all his research into the female psyche in the form of an irresistible brainwashing video that will turn any woman into a wet, horny fucktoy who NEEDS to OBEY. No one can resist the Pleasure Principle! DO NOT WATCH UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE TURNED INTO A HELPLESS SLAVE.' Does that maybe ring a bell, Derek?"
...I suppose you must have Googled my name and found that. I know how it sounds, Kimberly, but-
"What? I didn't Google anything! I found that sitting on top of the DVD player when I got up to go to the bathroom the other night! Michelle probably left it in there after one of your, your... brainwashing sessions! Oh, don't look at me like that. I'm not stupid, okay? I can put two and two together. Michelle starts getting weird and secretive, she starts spending a lot of time in her room making muffled moaning noises into her pillow, and then a couple weeks later she starts dating a guy twenty years older than her who just happens to sell a whole series of 'female training videos' on the Internet? There's no way that's a coincidence, Derek."
Look. I know how this must seem to you. But really, those videos don't actually do anything. They're just fantasies, that's all. For people with very... particular sexual interests. Yes, I'm not going to lie. Michelle has some of those interests, and when she found out that it was me making those videos, she and I developed a relationship. But that's not because she was 'brainwashed' or 'hypnotized' or 'trained', it's because she enjoys the idea of giving up control and wants to experience submission to a Master who can fulfill that unique need. She's still the same woman she always was, just... into a new and exciting relationship at the moment. Once she settles down, I'm sure she'll go back to being the same friend you've always known.
"...seriously? That's your explanation? She just happens to have a hidden 'mind control kink' that her landlord just happens to be into, and that's why she snuck into the living room in the middle of the night to masturbate after fucking
breaking
her own goddamn DVD player from watching 'The Pleasure Principle' so many times that she wore out the machine? Um, what part of 'I'm not stupid' was I not clear on, Derek? Michelle is my friend. I know her. She is not about to diddle herself anywhere someone could walk in on her, not without some serious fucking convincing."
That's what I'm saying. She's convincing herself. Right now, this is all very new to her, and it's a pretty big turn-on to finally get some of her more, um, esoteric fantasies fulfilled in the real world. A lot of people, they don't ever think that they're going to meet a real hypnotist, let alone one who's into the same fetish they are, and that first charge of sexual energy makes them a little bit, you know, wild. But if you only saw the videos, you'd understand that they don't really have any-
"I already saw them, Derek. You fucking perv. Michelle passed out playing with herself and left the video running. I saw every sick, twisted suggestion you programmed into her horny little brain, okay? So let's just fucking drop the 'oh, it's just a normal kinky guy and a normal kinky girl and we're having fun together, tee hee' act, because I know better. You. Fucking. Brainwashed. Her."
You-you saw the video?
"Hell yes I saw the video! I've probably seen it thirty, forty times. I had to know what you were putting into my friend's poor helpless brain, didn't I? I sat down with it and watched it over and over and over again until I was certain I knew every single suggestion you put in there, so don't even try to pretend that this is all just a little harmless fun, okay? That video is real, Derek. It's real and it's dangerous."
So you watched this very real, very powerful, very dangerous brainwashing video. Thirty or forty times. Over the course of... what, three days? Four?
"...I know what you're thinking, but remember, I was on my guard. It didn't work on me because I knew what was coming when I turned it on. Michelle didn't have that kind of protection. It probably hypnotized her before she even knew what hit her, and once her defenses were down, the suggestions helped to weaken her resistance. You didn't think I knew about that, did you? There are all sorts of suggestions in there to soften your will, make you go back and watch again and again and again until you can't fight the programming anymore. It's really, um..."
Insidious.
"Yeah, insidious. I'm sure that Michelle didn't even realize that she was being brainwashed to keep rewatching it. She probably zoned out by the time you got to all the really deep and powerful suggestions, just lost track of time playing with her pussy and staring at the pretty spirals on the screen and didn't notice you programming her soft, vulnerable mind."
You really think she was that weak-willed and vulnerable?
"Maybe not at first, but... she kept watching it, didn't she? She, um, she probably convinced herself that it was all her own idea, came up with excuses to keep going back to it again and again and, um... again, but it was really your commands bringing her back, wasn't it? Addicting her to your voice, your control. Hypnotizing her into masturbating for you, then conditioning her with her own arousal until she couldn't resist anymore. The Pleasure Principle at work. No wonder she couldn't resist you when you finally decided to claim her. She was already hearing your programming in her head on a fucking twenty-four hour loop."
And yet somehow, it didn't affect you at all.
"Well... I knew what it was. What it would do if I let myself relax and stare into the pretty spirals. I knew that it had already, uh, affected my friend, and that if I didn't resist, it would, um. Influence me. Influence my mind."
Your vulnerable mind.
"My vulnerable mind."
