Roomie 2.0 pt. 2 (Patreon)

Chapter 2 - Mike

Humble and supportive. Humble and supportive. He was thinking it over and over like a mantra, when a visibly upset Joe came rushing into the kitchen.

“Hey, roomie. What’s up?”
“Stop messing with my buds, bro!”

It was so hard for him to keep his emotions under control. To not just high five Josh and hug Joe, or the other way around. He was surprised it had worked, excited and happy for what this meant, and more than a little scared that they were going to regret this. He was pretty sure what they were doing was illegal. He had never seen Joe out of his room without a shirt and pants before, and now he was standing in the kitchen in only his underwear. Everything he had said so far was completely out of character. Not the droning sermons he used to answer with, but concise, slightly crude, and with about one “bro” per sentence.

All of this from just eight hours of hypno audio that Greg had provided. Greg was a friend of Josh, and it had taken him two weeks to create the audio files, not counting the meetings they had with him before that to work out the wish list of changes. Although it was his idea to hypnotize Joe into the dream flat-bro, Josh had a lot of great input too, as if he had given it some thought as well.

He looked at Josh as to say “we fucking did it”. We managed to slip the sedative into Joe’s evening tea, run the clippers on him to make a half-decent sporty hair cut without making a mess, and tuck him in with Greg’s playlist running in his ears as instructed. Josh nodded back, and as to probe how successful they had been, asked Joe “Nothing else up?”

Joe’s eyes widened and he dashed out into the hallway. They sat on needles waiting for an outburst about the new hair. But none came. Instead Joe, lost in thought, shuffled back and sat himself at the table.

Mike handed him a bowl of protein yogurt with blueberries and oats, far from Joe’s usual peanut butter strawberry jam toast, and he absentmindedly just started to eat it.

They knew he was smart, more intelligent than them, and had expected him to resist it more. They had lines prepared by Greg, with quick inductions and reinforcements to make him accept the changes. Instead his adept brain appeared to have the opposite effect. His mind was soaking up the programming he was given, as if he was cramming for an exam.

Still, they needed to be careful. The walls of Joe’s reality were paper-thin, and any push in the wrong direction would punch through them. It was important that he felt in charge, that his actions were because of his decisions. It was up to Josh and him to guide his choices, and compliment him every step on the way.  Be humble and supportive.

“Hey, we’re sorry we’ve been teasing you a bit lately. Perhaps we could start over? Josh and I were just wondering if you wanna join at the gym after  breakfast.”

They would have to go light and slow. Essentially have him do cardio and squat a broomstick. It was the routine that was important. To make him feel at ease with them spotting and coaching. They should take the car, spend a good two hours there, then hang out at the beach explaining beach volley to him. After that just leave him space to do whatever came naturally. Perhaps he would go back to study. Perhaps he would watch the match with them. Didn’t matter. Another night with Greg’s sleep audio, then start with the exercise audio track at the gym tomorrow, and there would be no going back.

“Bro, I’m in!”

Mike couldn’t contain his emotions any longer and smiled a bright, genuine smile. A week from now Joe would be the one asking them to join him. Until then, humble and supportive.

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