Attendance is Suggested

As Terry walks through the front door of Graham’s luxury condo, she feels a jolt of excitement that energizes her. She’s been looking forward to this night for weeks.

She’s been here before, but there’s something about tonight’s excitement that completely changes the feel of the venue. The main room is a large living space with seating to spare. The high ceiling shows a second floor above them, with hallways that look down into the room. The kitchen is attached to the main space and features a spread of delicious looking foods prepared for the evening. Penelope’s catering company appears to have taken care of the food for the event.

There are 9 people already arrived and chatting. All old friends from their College days. Penelope is standing near the food with Eugene as she highlights the Gluten-Free options for him. Yvette and Frances are catching up on the sofa with large glasses of wine. A group of Adam, Soumia, Oscar, and Justine are all gathered near a small elevated platform while Graham is getting ready to speak.

Soon, the last few members of the group arrive together. Rebecca, Olivia, Roger, and Tilly are greeted with cheers and raised glasses as Terry runs over to excitedly say hi to the sisters Rebecca and Olivia.

A short time goes by as people are catching up, until the sound of a knife against glass is heard. It’s Graham, ready to speak.

“Welcome one and all, to our reunion party! I know it’s been a wild 5 years, and we couldn’t wait any longer to have this event, so here we are. Now, as I had discussed with you all, the plan for tonight’s party is slightly different than usual. As you know, we have a very talented group of friends, and one such friend named Adam, give it up for Adam!

Adam has built an invention that has already started to change the world of justice and law. The O.B.E.Y. is an incredible invention, allowing people to enter their memories and eliminating the potential for lying to a jury. However, tonight, it will be used for something else.

Because the O.B.E.Y. uses signals directly to the subject’s mind, it can be used to implant subconscious commands as well. And while the public version of this device no longer has that capability, Adam’s provided a version that will allow us to have just a bit of fun.

So, all of you have submitted five triggers that have all been placed in this bowl here. Each of us, one by one, is going to be put into trance using the O.B.E.Y. and given one of these Suggestions at random. For the rest of the night, your job will be to figure out what your own suggestion is, but be aware that your awareness will be used against you! You may find it very difficult to even realize anything out of the ordinary is happening to you. And of course, even if you get it right, you’ll still be following your suggestion until the morning.”

With that, Adam flipped over a whiteboard with everyone’s names on it in a list, as well as a blank spot next to them.

“Now, all of the commands will be written on this whiteboard, but you wont be able to read your own. So even if you look at this, you’ll just see gibberish next to your name. Everyone else will be able to see exactly what your suggestion is. With that, let’s get started!”

——————

List of names:

Adam

Oscar

Soumia

Justine

Terry

Graham

Rebecca

Olivia

Roger

Tilly

Yvette

Frances

Penelope

Eugene