A visit to an old friend

If I'm going to fuck around with an app that can mind control people into acting completely differently, I might as well try and do something somewhat good with it.

Well, to be fair, there's no way that anything I do with this app can ever be remotely ethical. Fucking with people's brains is unambiguously bad, and the right thing to do would be to uninstall it and never use it again.

That's what a good person would do.

But I couldn't. I need to know more, I need to use it more. So the next best thing is to try and do something that helps out others, not myself.

But well, if I'm going to mess with people's minds, I might as well leave just a little nice thing for myself while I'm at it, right? What's the harm.

I know I'm just helplessly trying to rationalise doing something I know I shouldn't do. Funny that I need that flimsy logic to encourage me to use magic based on flimsy logic. The fact that I'm not fully convinced probably means its powers don't work on myself.

This school is an absolute maze. I've been here for a few weeks now, and I still struggle to find the way from my classroom to the secretary's office. And this building isn't even the worst one. All five of the castle-like structures separated by gorgeous parks and lawns that form this school are a mess. I'm still not fully sure why my ground floor bedroom in the second dormitory building requires to go up two staircases and then down one. This place is barely euclidian.

Anyways, after a few wrong turns, followed by annoyed backtracking, I finally reach the secretary's office. The door is open and in sits Jenny.

She's the reason I'm here. We've been good friends since I first came into this country, in high school, and while we're not quite as close as we once were, we always kept in touch. When she knew what I was risking if I didn't find a job soon, she pulled every string she could to find me this place.

She's also been a smoker for as long as I've known her, and she's been trying to quit for about as long. She never managed to stay off tobacco more than a couple weeks at a time, though.

And this is where the app comes in. Maybe I can use it to help her quit.

As to the "nice little thing" I'm giving myself, well, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't interested in her sexually. She's very cute in a mousy way, with her wavy, shoulder length hair and her glasses that are just the right balance of trendy and geeky. I was never really romantically interested in her though. I just wish we were... I suppose you'd call that friends with benefits. I've never dared bring up the topic, of course. And I don't think I have enough BS to get all the way there today anyways, but maybe I can nudge her in that direction, just a little bit.

"Hey Jenny," I say as I enter the office.

"Oh hey Adam. You alright? You look a bit off."

"Yeah, well, I just saw Ellen."

"Say no more. Sit down and tell me what bullshit the witch tried to get away with this time." I've rarely heard as much compassion in her voice as right now. She really knows what it's like to have to talk to Ellen.

I sit down as she gets up to pour me some coffee, she was always a generous host, even when she doesn't have much to offer.

"Heh, it actually went somewhat decently. I think I may be able to keep this job for a little bit longer."

"Wow. That's great news! Did you get dirt on her?" She asks as she pours the coffee into a cup. "Two sugars, right?"

"Just one, I'm trying to lower my intake. And no, no dirt. I think I just pleaded my case pretty well. But this isn't even why I'm here. I was just wondering if I could help you with something."

"To help me with something?"

"Yeah, you know how you've always tried to quit smoking? Well, I think I might know something that might help."

Now, I'm going to have to use the app differently than with Ellen, since Jenny already knows that smoking is bad, so simply convincing her that she should stop won't change a thing, but maybe I can convince her that I can make her stop.

"I don't know if you've heard about hypnosis therapy?" I continue, "It's been proven that it can reliably help people fight addictions much more effectively than any other methods."

I don't actually know if that's true, but that doesn't matter. The only important thing is that she believes it's effective.

"Hmm, I don't know," she says, intrigued "I believe you that it's effective, but I don't know if I'd feel comfortable with being hypnotised. It's like taking my free will away, you know? And besides, since when can you hypnotise?" Her voice seems just a tiny bit slower than usual. The only reason I notice it is that I've known her for so long.

"I've been taking an online class from a top university. I'm basically an expert at this point," I lie through my teeth, "and I get that you don't feel too comfortable about it yet, but look at it this way: hypnosis is a form of therapy, and therapy is all about making people happier. Anything it may change is always made better, because if it made it worse, then it wouldn't be a therapy. So if changes I make through hypnosis are always automatically good, then there is no reason to have any moral qualms about it."

"It's... always good when you hypnotise people..? But... hold on, what about free will?"

It's starting to take hold, but I need one last push.

"What about it? You'll still have your free will after the session. It might just be a bit different. People change all the time, with or without hypnosis. It's okay to change. Change is necessary. Change is good."

"Change... is good."

-50BS. 10 remaining.

Jesus! Fifty? I barely have the time to reel in from the number when I feel the drain. It's much stronger than with Ellen. I feel completely empty, there's a black veil over my eyes, I feel a headache come over me... and then it stops. It must've lasted less than five seconds, but it was intense. If I used all 100BS at once, I'd probably faint.

I come back to my senses just before Jenny does. I see the light come back to her eyes and her usual half smile back to her lips.

Wait, I'm never going to have enough BS to actually do the main change today. I'll have to come up with something and tell her we'll do it later.

"Wow, that makes so much sense! I gotta say, I wasn't fully onboard with the hypnosis thing, but now that you mention it, it's just obvious that it's always okay for you to hypnotise me, or anyone else really. Hypnosis is always good, especially if it changes my mind. Change is good!"

The argument sure took hold quick.

"Yeah, I'm glad you found my arguments convincing."

"Hmhm, well, it makes sense I'd believe your argument considering you just hypnotised me into thinking hypnosis is good, but it's good that you did! Hypnosis is good!"

...

Wait, what?