Ashlyn the geekgrrl

Ashlyn had no idea where the tape had come from. Someone must have slipped it into her bag when she was at the library and it was obviously not the libraries since it hadn't set off any alarms. She had no idea who it belonged to or even if there was anything on it. As far as she knew it was a blank tape with no label or anything.

Being the conscientious girl that she was she decided to watch it to see if there was any clue to its ownership. It turned out to belong to some film graduate or something who was into 'cutting edge filmmaking techniques' like flashing colors and weird sounds and stuff. She would just have to ask around tomorrow to see who it belonged to.

She sat down at the computer and logged on. It was about time for her weekly talk with her friend Kevin in Australia. Kevin was a computer geek like her, although he was less proud of the label. While they had never met in person they knew almost everything about each other. Originally their communications had been via chat and E-mail, but now they had a live Web-cam feed which they used. Ashlyn had to admit that it had been something of a relief when she first saw Kevin and realized he wasn't some ugly 50 year old pretending to be a young guy. True he wasn't Johnny Depp, but at least he looked his 23 years.

Ashlyn turned on her web-cam and soon Kevin came on line. As always he looked like he had just got up (mostly because he had).

"G'day beautiful, nothing like seeing your smiling face to make me happy to get up at this ungodly hour." He said.

Ashlyn laughed. "Get out. You get up earlier than this to surf. As for the beautiful crack, you'll keep."

"Ashlyn, my love, accept that you're a bloody stunner, like I've always said"

Ashlyn felt strange, as if Kevin's words had finally reached her. She suddenly realized that he hadn't been kidding all these years about how beautiful she looked. She was a stunner, why hadn't she realised it before.

"You're right Kev. I am, but for some reason I've never realized it till now."

"Really?" said Kevin, shocked that he was finally getting through to her "Tell me what do you think changed your mind. Was it my obvious charm and wit?"

"No, if it were that you would have convinced me sooner. Maybe it's this weird video I was watching, maybe it's put me in some sort of hypnotic trance." She joked.

"Ha Ha. May Be. Only one way to find out"

"What's that?"

"Lets see if I can make you believe or do something else."

"Like what?"

"Umm how about this. Ashlyn you will think Kevin is a bloody spunk and will beg him to come over to America and make love to you."

"Oh my God Kevin, I never noticed how good looking you were. You have to come over here as soon as you can so we can hook up. Pleeese. Look I'll wire you the money. Or buy you a ticket. Please I need you."

"Oh Ha Ha, very funny."

"I'm not kidding. Look I know you like me, so the only thing stopping you is the distance and I said I'd pay. Please I want you now."

"O.k. this is too creepy. Ashlyn you will no longer want Kevin to make sweet love to you."

"What the hell just happened?" asked Ashlyn as her head cleared.

"I think you were right, I think you're hypnotized. What we need to work out is both the extent and whether it only applies to me, as the first person you talked to, or whether anyone can control you."

"How?"

"Well after we find out how bad it is you will need to make sure that someone you trust totally is the next person to speak to you. If they can control you make sure that you keep away from people until you can find a way to end the effects."

"Right, got it. So how are we going to test the extent of the effects?"

"That's easy. Let's think of something you'd never do in a million years. How about this:"