Truth and Reconciliation Ch. 02

Evelin's experience was directly in line with what Jason had been expecting. The tones can only help to alter your brain waves. So, if Evie was already falling asleep, they could only help her fall asleep a little faster.

Now, if she had trouble sleeping, they might help her enjoy more restful sleep, but that didn't seem to be an issue for her.

Mostly Jason had just wanted to set a bit of a baseline and make sure Evie had a positive experience before moving on.

Phase two was going to up the ante, so to speak. Jason would be adding in subliminal and hypnotic messages.

The subliminals were easy. They would be used to "prime the pump" with simple messages about being "relaxed and receptive." The hypnotic messages were more complicated, and he was torn on what those messages should be.

There were two directions he could go.

Firstly the whole purpose of getting Evie to use the app was as a conduit to his mother. If he could get Evie excited and talking about the app, it would be easier to get Janice to use it.

So, with that goal in mind, Jason could attempt to hypnotically program Evie into being an "evangelist" for his app.

Secondly, the whole purpose of this entire endeavor was to make Janice his bitch. What if he got her to use the app, but he was unable to do that?

With Evie, he had a willing test subject. Maybe he should see how far he could control her first.

Ultimately, she would become his "app evangelist," but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he would have to find the app's limits with her first.

Certainly, everyone's experience would be different. So his sister wouldn't be perfectly representative of how others would respond. Still, he needed more data before he tried the app on his mother, and Evie was the only source of data at present.

With all that in mind, Jason sat down in front of his PC, pulled up Notepad, and started writing a simple script.

From his research, Jason had learned that direct commands were the least effective type of hypnotic command. It was best to create an emotional response in the subject, then use that emotion to guide them toward the desired behavior.

Jason sat and stared at his blank document for nearly an hour. What could he use to elicit an emotional response from Evie? More specifically, what would elicit a response that would make her more likely to obey him?

'Easy there, big boy,' Jason scolded himself. '"Obey" is a pretty strong word. Let's start more simply. What if she was just more sympathetic toward you?'

Using that more refined perspective, Jason began writing his script using alternating (L)eft and (R)ight ear phrases:

Subliminal Messages:

R: More and more relaxed.

L: I am more and more relaxed.

R: More and more receptive.

L: I am more and more receptive.

R: Listening to the voice.

L: I am listening to the voice.

R: Filling me up.

L: I am filled up by the voice.

R: Penetrating my thoughts.

L: I am penetrated by the voice.

Hypnotic Messages

L: Jason works so hard.

R: So hard, every day.

L: Jason works so hard for his family.

R: So hard for his family.

L: Jason works so hard for you.

R: So hard for me, every day.

L: Jason is so strong.

R: So strong, every day.

L: Jason is so strong for this family.

R: So strong for his family.

L: Jason is so strong for you.

R: So strong for me.

L: Jason deserves so much.

R: Deserves so much.

L: Jason deserves your kindness.

R: Deserves my kindness.

L: Jason deserves your love.

R: Deserves my love.

L: Jason deserves to be rewarded.

R: Deserves my reward.

After reading it over, Jason was happy with this initial script. It was a little corny perhaps, but he hoped it would at least soften Evie up to his plight.

And, with any luck, maybe in a few days, she'd be offering to help with some of his chores.

The script finished, it only took Jason a few minutes to record and upload the messages to the server.

He then linked them to Evie's account. He wasn't ready to automate the process just yet. His sister would be freaked out if he started talking into her ear in the middle of the night. So he decided to stay awake and kick off the messages manually.

For years now, Jason had retreated to his room as soon as possible each evening, so he had no idea what time his sister usually went to sleep.

Thankfully the data from the past few nights showed that she'd activated that app around eleven o'clock each night. Jason just had to wait.

--

A couple hours later, Jason was ready to give up. Maybe Evie decided not to use the app.

He was trying to remain calm and convince himself this wasn't a major setback, but he wasn't very successful.

Then around 11:30pm, after hitting refresh on the server admin page for the five hundred and thirty-seventh time, Jason saw that Evie had activated the app.

Since he had it on manual mode, he had to initiate the hypnotic tones himself. He set it to play sleep tones for one hour, then trance tones for twenty minutes after that.

Jason set his alarm for 12:10 and, fruitlessly, tried to take a nap.

After lying there—staring at the ceiling—for over an hour, Jason got up and logged back into the server.

The app was still running, and Evie was still listening to music.

'Perfect,' he thought. 'Now, let's see if she's actually asleep.'

Jason had spent far too much time trying to get a real-time audio feed from the app, but he was having trouble getting it working. And since he had deadlines to meet, he had abandoned the idea...for now.

However, he was able to get the app to record snippets of audio from the mic then upload them to the server.

He told Evie's phone to grab three audio clips, each lasting thirty seconds, and upload them to the server.

He then downloaded them to his PC and played each, listening for any signs that Evie might be awake.

Honestly, it was hard to tell, but she seemed to be breathing slowly and rhythmically. That would have to do.

The subliminals were barely perceptible. Even if you could hear them, it was all but impossible to tell what was being said. Because of that, Jason wasn't too worried that his sister might notice them. He even had a ready excuse, full of meaningless technobabble, to explain away what she heard.

Even so, his palms were sweating when he initiated the subliminal playback on Evie's phone.

Immediately, he told the phone to upload more audio clips. Then, for nearly five minutes, he listened to the sounds in Evie's room (on a roughly forty-five-second delay).

Not only did she fail to wakeup, he noticed a slight but perceptible change in her breathing. It appeared to be working.

He gave the subliminals another ten minutes to loop before moving on.

Sure he wanted to rush ahead, but he had all night. It was better to take this one step at a time.

Once more, he listened to Evie's room and heard nothing of concern.

While the subliminals had made his palms sweat, the hypnotic messages had him sick to his stomach.

These would be played at a fully audible level. There would be no easily explaining it away if Evie woke up and heard him speaking.

'Nothing ventured, nothing gained,' Jason reminded himself and initiated the hypnotic messages.

As before, he immediately began listening to the room audio, on delay, to see if anything was happening.

As each minute passed with nothing but silence and slow breathing coming through on the recordings, Jason grew more at ease.

He kept listening, though, just to be sure.

Two minutes...nothing.

Five minutes...nothing.

Ten minutes...nothing.

'Alright,' Jason breathed a sigh of relief. 'I won't know if it's worked for a few days, but at least she's not waking up.'

Feeling hopeful, if not confident, Jason set the messages to run for three hours. He could probably get away with four, but why push it on the first night.

He was just about to log out and get some sleep, the messages having been running for about half an hour when he decided to do one more round of listening.

When he pulled up the first thirty-second clip, he heard something new, and his heart froze.

'Oh shit!' Jason screamed in his mind. 'What was that. It sounded like Evie talking.'

It was quiet, barely perceptible over the ambient noise and microphone background hiss, but Jason was sure Evie was mumbling something.

For nearly five whole minutes, Jason listened to the audio coming out of his sister's bedroom and struggled to make out what she was saying.

As he listened, his brain began detecting patterns, and he was ultimately able to make out some words:

"Strong... Hard... Kindness... Reward..."

After a few minutes more, Jason could distinguish complete phrases:

"So hard for me... So strong for me..."

Jason noticed her breathing increase. He wasn't sure if it was because she was talking or if maybe the phrases were agitating her in some way.

Just to be safe, he queued up the command to cancel the message playback even while he continued to download and listen to the audio recordings.

"So hard for his family... So hard for me..."

She was definitely breathing heavier now, and Jason heard what sounded like her sheets rustling. Even so, she continued to repeat the phrases as if she was in a trance.

Jason's curiosity won his internal debate, and he let it continue.

"Deserves my love... Deserves my kindness... So hard for me... Nice tent, hmmm..."

'What the fuck!' Jason was panicking, but his morbid fascination stopped him from terminating the program. 'Nice tent? Did she just...moan?!?'

"So strong, mmm... So hard, ahhh..."

The rustling sound increased dramatically, and Jason realized what was happening, 'She's masturbating! The fucking pervert twisted my words, and now she's thinking about my hardon from the other day and masturbating.'

"So hard...so hard...for ME, yes! Jason, yes! You deserve my love. You deserve my reward!"

With that, there was the sharp sound of sheets being jerked taught, and the rustling stopped even while Evelin's moans turned into grunts.

"She's cumming!" Jason said out loud before catching himself. He hadn't realized it, but while one hand had been working the computer mouse, the other had been fondling his cock through his pants.

'Fuck, this is the hottest thing I've ever heard,' Jason thought. He reached down, almost instinctually, to pull out his dick when he remembered that the audio recordings were on a delay.

'Oh shit, oh shit! It's probably been over a minute since she came. I need to turn off the audio before she wakes up.'

As quick as he could, Jason sent the command to disable both the subliminal and the hypnotic messages. He then reenabled the sleep tones.

Once he received confirmation that those changes had taken effect, he again started capturing audio clips from Evie's room.

To his great relief, not only had she calmed down and returned to sleep, but he also heard what sounded like soft snoring.

--

Jason avoided his sister for the next couple of days, embarrassed by what he had overheard and worried at what he might have implanted in her mind.

He had never thought about Evelin in "that way" before. Of course, he'd never thought of his mother like that either...until recently.

The idea intrigued him. Let's face it, his little sister was hot, and he was a frustrated virgin. Every time he allowed his thoughts to ponder the possibilities, they quickly turned dark, and he scolded himself for thinking such things about his sister.

Sure, he'd been having thoughts like that about Janice for a few weeks now, but it was different. She had been so horrible to him; she'd mistreated him for so many years. She deserved to be punished. It wasn't that he lusted after her sexually. No. He lusted after dominating her.

Setting those thoughts aside, Jason put the finishing touches on his most recent changes to Evie's program and uploaded them to the server.

After her performance the other night, Jason had an idea.

He had recorded her each night while listening to the recordings.

As before, she had sometimes mumbled, sometimes spoken the phrases from the hypnotic messages, and Jason recorded it all.

It took quite a bit of editing work, but he had managed to comb through the hours of audio and splice together a final product.

Tonight, Evelin would hear her own voice giving the messages.

Unfortunately, after several near-sleepless nights, Jason was running on empty, and his daytime work was starting to suffer.

He wouldn't be able to listen in tonight. But, based on several nights of data, he was confident that Evie would sleep through the program.

--

It was a few days later, a Sunday afternoon, when Jason finally decided to end his self-imposed exile and interact with his family.

The project was on schedule, and, so far, there were no significant problems.

He'd met his first couple milestones and received the associated payment. In turn, he'd been able to pay the people he'd hired.

With everything going well, Jason felt like he deserved a break. And, since Sundays generally held his lightest workload around the house, he actually had a little free time. (Rather free time that he didn't have to hide from his mother.)

Usually, he would just segregate himself in his room, but he had to see if the programming was having any impact on Evelin. Jason figured the best way to do that would be to interact with her casually and see what happened.

Jason found Evie and his mother in the living room watching television. Or more accurately, they were both on their phones while the television played in the background.

Evie was sprawled out on the couch, and Janice occupied the comfy recliner. That left the old and uncomfortable wooden chair, so Jason walked toward it, intending to sit down.

As he did, Evie sat up and tucked her legs under herself, freeing up half the couch. "Here, Jason. You're welcome to join me."

'Interesting,' thought Jason as he smiled his appreciation at his sister and sat next to her.

While her behavior would be considered a common courtesy by most people, to Jason it was a rare consideration.

"Jason?" Janice spoke up, obviously surprised by his presence. "Did you need something?"

"No, Mom. I just thought I'd watch TV with you guys."

"Hmm, are all your chores done? Don't lie, I'll check."

'Does she think I'm five-years-old,' Jason thought while making sure to keep his expression neutral.

"Yes, Mother," Jason sighed, unable to keep the exasperation entirely out of his voice.

"Hmph, fine. But Evelin is watching her show, so don't expect to change the channel," Janice informed him.

"Actually," Evie spoke up, "I'm mostly just on my phone, so you're welcome to the remote." She reached as if to hand Jason the remote when Janice interrupted her.

"Well, *I'm* watching it. So leave it."

Jason hadn't actually expected to control the remote. And who cared anyway? Anything he actually wanted to watch, he'd either stream or torrent.

No, he was only here to observe his sister, and so far, it was proving only mildly interesting.

She had first offered him a seat and then the remote. While this wasn't normal behavior (in this household at least), it wasn't especially remarkable.

Maybe Evie was just having a good day and was feeling particularly generous or something.

Even as he thought that, though, Jason felt like he was being watched.

As covertly as possible, he first shifted his gaze so that he could just see his mother out of the corner of his eye. No, she was clearly staring at her phone.

Acting as if he had an itch on his neck, Jason turned his head slightly to observe his sister. He only got a brief glance, but she was definitely staring at him.

'Okay, that's harder to explain away,' Jason thought.

Evie inhaled slightly and shifted her position as if she was about to engage Jason in conversation. The movement was pronounced enough that Jason instinctually turned to face her. As he did, Evie paused, glanced over at Janice, and then sank back into the couch. The look on her face made it clear that she knew better than to be too friendly toward Jason in the presence of their mother.

Even so, their eyes met, and as they did, Evie smiled and blushed slightly, turning her face demurely back toward her phone. As she did, and ever so slightly, she bit her lower lip.

'What the fuck was that!?!' thought Jason as he struggled not to stare at his sister. She caught his lingering gaze and flashed him a quick, playful grin.

Jason's experience with the fairer sex was so minuscule as to be approaching zero. Yet, even someone as romantically stunted as he was could tell that Evie was flirting with him.

When he started her programming about a week ago, Jason had hoped that she would offer to help him with the chores.

But, things seemed to be heading in a very different direction, and Jason didn't know how he felt about that.

Confused, he abruptly stood and walked out of the room. Only once, he briefly glanced back to see Evelin staring back at him, a somewhat hurt expression on her face.

Unsure of what to make of all this, Jason quickly retreated to the safety of his room.

--

Several hours later, Jason lay in bed staring up at the ceiling. His room was dark, illuminated only by the display on his alarm clock and a couple LEDs on his computer equipment.

The interplay of black shadows with dim blue and green lights caused Jason's brain to see strange shapes on the ceiling.

It was a "game" he had played with himself since he was a kid. Back then, the mental artifacts that manifested as shape and movement were more likely to frighten him than fascinate him.

Though, for years now, he found the activity relaxing and distracting when he was having difficulty sleeping.

He was so completely lost in thought that Jason didn't even notice his door opening. A figure entered the room and had already taken a full step toward him before he realized someone was in the room.

"Mom?" Jason asked, both confused and concerned.

"No, it's me. Keep it down, or you'll wake her up," Evie whispered harshly at him. She turned back toward the door listening for noises in the hall and making sure she had shut it completely.

"Evie?" Jason asked, dumbfounded. "Are you okay, is something wrong?"

"Only you, Jason." was all she said in reply, something odd in her voice.

"Huh?"

"I just woke you up in the middle of the night, and your first concern is if I'm okay." She sounded generally touched,

'One, I wasn't sleeping, and two, it's a pretty normal question,' Jason thought, starting to get annoyed with his sister.

"You really do take such good care of us," Evie added as if Jason's question has confirmed some profound truth for her.

'Oh, I see. She's responding to the programming,' Jason realized silently.

"Jason, can I talk to you for a minute?" Evelin asked, her tone serious.

"Sure, what's up?"

Evie crossed the room, moving toward Jason. As she did, she held her hands out in front of her as if she couldn't see, and Jason realized her eyes weren't adjusted to the dim light of his bedroom yet.

Bumping into his bed, she turned and plopped down, not recognizing that she was about to sit on his leg.

He had been lying on top of his blankets, and it was only when he felt the soft and smooth skin of her upper thigh touch his own that he remembered he was only wearing his boxer shorts.

Then, really looking at her for the first time since she'd entered his room, he noticed that she wasn't wearing the cozy sweats and t-shirt he'd seen her in earlier.