That redhead looks promising...

As I sent my awareness flickering from mind to mind, getting a feel for them, I couldn't help but notice that some of the women I'd been 'pushing' thoughts into seemed... conflicted. The thoughts slid into their minds readily enough, but I could feel a sort of steady pressure 'around' them - it echoed in a dull throbbing in my temples, a sort of low-key headache rather than the sharper pain of a rebounded, rejected suggestion.

Still, I could push thoughts into a mind, but I couldn't read minds, so I figured that if I was going to figure out what was causing it, I'd need to do some investigating... One of the strongest senses of 'dissonance' I was getting was from the girl who'd just arrived in the Student Lounge; I let myself stop concentrating on minds and get back to using good old-fashioned eyeballs.

It's her hair I noticed first - it would be the first thing anyone noticed about her, long and wavy and a fiery red, reaching down past her waist to tickle the top of her shapely bottom. She must be proud of it - she'd have to be, to wear it so long and take such good care of it. She was just a shade shorter than me, I guessed, and her eyes were a dazzling green. A smattering of freckles was sprinkled across her nose and cheeks. She looked... well, beautiful wasn't the right word. Pretty, certainly, but not drop-dead gorgeous like some of the girls I'd seen today.

Her clothes didn't help; she was wearing a loose sweater that masked her figure, and a pair of shapeless grey sweatpants. Maybe she was overweight? But no... as I watched her walk into the Lounge and start glancing around at the people sitting around I realized that that didn't seem right. She walked with a light, almost graceful step; she was either shy, I reasoned, or just not all that interested in showing off her body.

I switched back to using my newer senses, concentrating on isolating her mind from the surrounding ones, and again there was that pressure, that strange dissonance. She was horny as hell - the command had slid in readily enough - but something about that didn't seem to sit well with her.

}I should start dressing sexier, maybe show off a little,{ I sent to her, and immediately the pain of a rejected command returned. I'd been ready for it, so I was able to stop myself from showing the pain - I hoped - but still, it stung like a bitch. Of course, now I was intrigued...

}God, am I ever horny.{ Yep, worked like a charm. Her face pinked slightly, and she bit her lower lip. It's not as though she was resisting the power.

}Stupid sweater. It's comfortable, but it's so baggy it flops around when I move.{ Slight resistance, there - definitely some kind of body image issues - but the thought hit home; as she took another few steps into the Lounge, she reached down and grabbed some of her sweater's material, pulling it tight against her body for a moment - and that's when I knew it had to be shyness or something like it, because the contours of her body looked fantastic to me through the briefly-tight sweater. She had nice breasts - C cups or so, big enough to be enjoyable but not so big as to sag overmuch - and the rest of her looked pretty nice too.

That was the dissonance, I realized - she was horny as hell, but she was terribly shy, and not at all confident about how to go about solving her little problem. Her shyness clashed with her arousal, and it set up a kind of feedback loop in her head.

}So many people... I'll sit near that guy over there.{ 'That guy' meaning me, of course. The sudden feedback of a rejected suggestion hit me like a truck; I almost fell out of my chair, and it took everything I had not to cry out in pain. Blinking a few times until the world stopped being all grey and fuzzy, I realized that she was standing stock-still, looking from chair to chair in paralyzed anguish. Damn! Now that's some nasty case of social anxiety!

}I'd like to sit down and relax for a bit.{ That one went in fine, mirroring her existing desires almost perfectly.

}No matter where I sit I'll have to end up near SOMEbody.{ A bit of resistance there, but the thought slid home.

}The guy over there doesn't seem as intimidating as some of the other students.{ Again, resistance - strong resistance - but the thought eventually wormed its way into her mind. The fact that I was sitting quietly - and, to be fair, I'm not the most intimidating guy around! - seemed to help.

}I'll just sit down near him. If he looks upset or anything I can always leave.{ The reaction to this thought was unusual. There wasn't the sense of painful resistance I got when I tried to 'push' a thought into someone's mind that they were really uncomfortable with, but there was a sort of passive resistance. She wanted to accept the command, at least subconsciously, I realized, but her conscious mind was afraid to. I sent it again, and this time she straightened her shoulders and got a determined expression on her face before crossing a few steps and taking a seat in the chair nearest mine - though I couldn't help but notice that she leaned away from me a bit, as though trying not to get too close.

I didn't send any thoughts into her mind for a little bit, to see if she'd settle down a bit and get a little more comfortable, but she still seemed almost on the edge of her seat... though after a few moments she pressed her thighs together and started rocking back and forth very gently, and I smiled a little inside as I realized just how overpowering her arousal was getting.

She'd be a tough nut to crack, I decided, and probably take a lot of work to control... but I had the sneaking suspicion that if I managed to get past her mental obstacles, the experience would be very, very rewarding. Still, maybe an easier conquest was in order - there were still plenty of horny girls making their way to the Lounge, victims of my recent far-ranging experiments...