I wanted to get some feedback for an idea I had which is already mostly fleshed out and about 50% written, but which I am unsure to what extent it can be considered a story about hypnosis or mind control.
To be brief: it is a story by which an unseen controller/antagonist uses their possession of an item that the protagonist/target of control covets as a means of coercing the protag’s behavior and breaking down their inhibitions.
To be less brief: the protagonist is a “hot nerd” type playing an online card game based on Hearthstone. There are two rules of the game important to the story:
- Victorious players are allowed to take one card from their defeated opponent’s deck
- After any match, regardless of outcome, the participants can start a rematch, but only if they both select “yes” to the option.
The protagonist squares off against a mysterious opponent known only as “GMAN”. GMAN plays with a deck comprised entirely of weak cards, as well as one ultra powerful one which is the rarest card in the game and worth hundreds of real-world dollars on the market. The protag covets this card, and knows that it is his to take if he can beat GMAN only once.
Despite the disparity in their decks’ power levels, GMAN deals the protag a humiliating defeat by using expertly calculated strategy. Then, rather than take one of the protag’s cards, GMAN offers him a rematch, in which the protag loses a second time.
Every time the protagonist loses, GMAN offers him another rematch but sets a series of increasingly naughty conditions in exchange for his participation. After the second loss, the protagonist must turn on his webcam and show his opponent his face to be allowed to play again. After the third loss, he must remove his shirt on camera. After the fourth loss, his pants, etc.
And the whole time the protagonist is complaining about this treatment, but the GMAN tells him that he’s free to walk away after every single defeat the protag suffers. But that would mean walking away from the rare and valuable card, which the protag covets. And the protag is too stubborn to give up at the chance to defeat GMAN and take the card for himself, which means that GMAN is free to coerce ever more extreme exposure and humiliation from his opponent in exchange for staying in the game.
I hope that synopsis is clear enough. My one issue is the fact that there’s no hypnosis or mind control in the traditional sense. The closest thing I had in mind would be that after one defeat, the protagonist has to swallow a pill with powerful hypnotic and aphrodisiac effects in order to be able to play yet another round, all while he’s exposed on camera.
What do you think? Is there anything in the series that you’d like to see done differently?