Quick note : I looked at the 10 first pages of the forum, and saw nothing quite like what I had in mind, so I'm doing a new topic. If it has been done before, I'll just post there (if I get a link or the title of the topic).

With this out of the picture, let's go !

So, I've been watching quite a lot of Jessica Jones lately (the whole season, in fact), and (spoilers of the first episode. But come on, we learn very quickly who the big baddie is and what he can do) Kilgrave's usage of his powers made me wonder : what would I do if I had that kind of power ?

I thought about it for a while, but, coming here every now and then, I thought this subject was quite fitting for discussion.
So : what would you do if you had mind control powers ? And what type of power would you pick ?

Said powers can be chosed among :

- Anyone that can hear you will litteraly do everything you say, unless told otherwise. They are conscious, aware, but will follow your orders regardless. You'll have to pick your words extra carefully if you want to avoid troubles. Or not.

- Same as above, but you can toggle it on/off. Much more convenient.

- You "impose" your will on your victims. No need to talk, no need to touch : it just works. They do whatever you want them to do, like puppets.

- "Hypnosis" Magic : Good old coin, or shiny object, or anything. They are put into trance, or under your spell, to do or become what you want of them.

I'm curious to see your answers...

And me, you ask ? Damn, I thought I could get away with it... Big paragraph inc :

Well, when I thought about having powers, I also wondered what I would use it for. Help my everyday life ? Become a world-dominator ? Helping others, like a super-hero ? Go full perv and do orgies for day ? Well, none of the above quite pleased me.

To quote Ben : "With great powers come great responsabilities". And, while I think about what I could do (and trust me, I had ideas in mind), I wondered if I should do it. The ethical side of the usage of this power.

I mean : you could go superhero-ing everywhere, but what next ? You wouldn't have the time to save everyone. You wouldn't have the knowledge of everything bad happening around you. And what is "bad" and "good" ? Can you really impose your subjective judgement upon others? Wouldn't that make a tyrant ? Or, if you could contain yourself, could people blame you for you haven't done, instead of being liked for what you have done ? Wouldn't you, after some time, flip the switch and go berserk ?

And if you don't use it ? Wouldn't that be a tremendous waste ? So much raw potential,
lost because of fear. Or reason. But lost nonetheless.

If you can't control it, wouldn't it be a curse ? Influencing others without knowing it. Or knowing it, and feeling guilty ? You lose your ability to communicate, because you are scared of what poor choice of words could lead to.

But let's say you go full selfish : you "get" a guy/girl/apache helicopter (we don't judge)
and get him/her/it in your bed. Or as your boy/girl/it-friend. Would you be fine with it ? Sure,
your companion might be happy, smiling, but would you feel uncomfortable or guilty about it ?
At what point is it consensual, or straight up rape ?
Sorry for the harsh word, but I don't know any softer english word. (and sorry to anyone that I put on a guilt-trip. We all share the same fetish, we should all love each other :3)

Sooooo... In the end, I don't know. I don't feel like I can let my emotions dictate my behaviour,
because of how important the consequences can be.

I feel like there was a similar thing but it's been so buried I don't blame you for not going back deeper than 10 pages.

As for me I'd go the impose route and I'd be mostly the same as I am now. Just a tiny bit selfish. Mostly just get others to pay for my meals or make the people I owe money forgive any debt and write out that I'm fully paid off.

I'm gonna be honest... any and all superpowers would be more or less wasted on me.

I've had this discussion countless times with countless people. Look at something like teleportation. Most would go "I'd just teleport around the world and explore!"
I'm like "Well... it saves me a drive to work so that's like an extra 10 minutes of free time."

Hypnosis would likely not be different. Even so, I'd probably take the "imposing will" one. Why?

Well, when you're at the grocery store and the person in front of you has a gadgillion items and you just want the cashier to go faster... you er... make her go faster? Or disperse a line so you're up next.

Best part? No suspicion.

Of course, I'm sure at some point my curiosity would get the better of me and I'd spend a bit of time just messing with people but realistically it'd just be more of a convenience thing for me.

*shrugs* Oh well.

That actaully makes me think of a dumb dream I had.

I gained the power of levitation and just floated all the time. Not that high with just like a foot or so higher than I stand. And aside from that I did everything normally.

Just floating in the air cause it was easier than walking and it looked cooler.

Yeah, I feel like I would likely use it for convenience too. And for that matter, imposing your will may be the best pick : quick, silent...

However I wonder how it would in the hands of someone with ambition. Sure, it might take some time to learn everything, but then...
Both legal and illegal opportunities open up very easily.
Though, wouldn't that person feel... Bored ? I mean, if nothing poses any threat anymore, if there ils no opposition, no struggle, you might lose interest ?
See Saitama (OPM) or Mob (Mob Psycho 100). They're both borderline depressive .

See, I've thought about this scenario.

I'd never try to take over the world or anything because I've seen enough movies, read enough books, and played enough games to know that a single ruler or single group ruling over the entire world usually ends poorly. And for all my mind controlling abilities I'd have no way to stop a young upstart who isn't under my influence from sneaking into my bedroom and getting himself a place in the next Assassin's Creed game.

How would I avoid that? Well, I could have all parents bring me any newborns to put them under my influence but that's like having 2 full time jobs. Do you know how many kids are born a day? I'd go insane.

I honestly feel like my best plan would be to have someone rich like Bill Gates just give me a decent chunk of money and have him play it off as "an act of altruism" or something.

I then use this to buy a decent house and live out my life with subtle control over my neighbors.

Really, if I had the power to make anyone my puppet, first thing I'd probably look into doing is making a wealthy producer give me a modest gift of $1,000,000 for the sake of financial security, then anonymously hire me as an intern. Week by week, I'd influence different industry professionals to take a look at my screenplays in their offtime and offer constructive-yet-honest criticism, until my work is good enough to put on the big screen.

In the meantime, I'd brainwash my girlfriend into taking better care of herself and hook her up with a low-stress job of her own. Whatever this job may be, I'd plant the suggestion in her co-workers' subconscious to treat her with dignity under all circumstances, and to welcome the idea of befriending her.

If I ever make something of myself as a writer, I'd make sure to implant the desire to remove money from politics into the heads of any influential people I came across. Of secondary importance, creating a greater drive to restore and preserve old cinema - which would be accomplished through systematically getting studio heads to cancel bloated remakes, and use the money to fund hunts for lost footage in their vaults.


www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypTVq32-YRM&t=2m6s

easy, I would make a harem, and get enough people to either take over, or build a whole new town to keep me and my harem, anyone that passes through will be hypnotized and depending on who it is, will be hypnotized into the harem, or sent back to never return (if they are under 18, I would need to have the power to age them up) also if i had the power to live forever and give that power to others...then me and my harem live forever...I am VERY selfish with that power, and yes i have thought of this before this thread existed. (a few years ago I think)

I'd use my powers to get onto a flight to America first class for free. I'd then get into a random persons car and tell them to take me to valve studios. When I get there I will find Gabe Newell and make him start production on HL3 and Portal 3. I'll probs do the same with plenty of other game developers.

A former employe stated that HL3 would have ended on a cliffhanger. And the plan was to keep doing that forever.

Also they've lost most of the writers so you'd have to find all of them and make them go back.

Sounds like an adventure!

I'd probably go for the regular ol' hypnosis powers. The other kinds would probably get boring after awhile.

Point-by-point because I'm really feeling it...

* Literal Suggestion - Condemned to a life of mutism, but lots of perks and a challenge to use. Not my style.

* Convenient Suggestion - Basically have the power of the genie, up to the limit of Human potential. Good for people who think the Lex Luthor/Superman dynamic is interesting. Sounds like a great way to do away with all of the nasty empathizing involved in collective action projects... but it would warp the personality really fast.

* Sphere of Dominance - Becomes the Experience Machine thought experiment. Sort of. I have fantasies like this, but only with a buttressing work of fiction underlying it. I'm too thoughtful not to be bugged by how this is really person-annihilation.

* Hypnosis - Good ol' mindtaking. Trance can be anything. It's so powerful that it's hard to pin down exactly what this option defines.

I've thought about a form of hypnosis that can't change people's perceptions, or what they believe, but instead what they think and feel about what they perceive. You can create SEP fields, probe unconscious biases, ... in some ways have more possible influence than with pure dominance. My novice writing has some of this.

What I would actually pick though is illusions. Control what anyone experiences, all the time. For the creative mind, illusions are a great way to explore reality. And that's exactly what I'd do... use my powers to expose the truth.

Just for the sake of not fucking up, I'd go with the impose will one preferably.

[spoiler=I would take over the world...]
People seem to be scared of world domination, and while I have no desire for it I would strive as an end-goal for the human race to become a singular collective. Not under one ruler per se.

There's a lot of detailed things I'd do, but I think the most important thing would be to improve communication. People will be made to communicate more honestly and with more empathy, most likely resulting in the disappearing of idioms and euphemisms as far as my influence spreads. I would gather professors in sociology and anthropology or whatever ology has to do with the human system we built by existing and thriving to help devise a system that would benefit the human race globally. Oh, any science fiction writers etc are welcome too. You never know where you might find a crazy idea that just might work.

Then, once a power base and a clearer goal is in mind, I would systematically overtake the world and start gathering architects, city planners, cartographers, ecologists and biologists, what have you. Time to take on the problem that is the earth itself, spread out and educate people. Everyone will speak Esperanto, learn the basics of farming. Not everyone will become a farmer, but everyone will know how to be one and be reminded that the only reason we can follow a vocation other than one that literally creates food is thanks to farmers. People would be encouraged to follow their vocation, though this will not be a must.

I would rebuild this planet to a utopia, always accompanied by advisors whose only "commands" would be to advise, think, learn and theorise - if they even have to be ordered to.

While I will have the means and the power to become "president of the world", I know that I would hate the responsibility. A good education and truthful politicians... a world where no one would want to harm another out of malice, ... I believe it can be done. With a lot of nudging.
[/spoiler]

As for sex with a truly (not playing around) mind controlled SO, I could never, ever see myself do something like that. At most, and this is already really pushing it for me, I would use the power to suggest them while we're having sex to increase my pleasure by doing something differently or now kiss me, now fuck me harder, but only because it'd be quicker than words.

Well honestly since I'm no dom, I would do one single thing with hypnosis powers.

Get free shit :P

Free games, free house, free trips to conventions like PAX and E3, free food.

Just get free stuff all the time :P