The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

I won’t bore you with the four days in New York. For me it was pretty boring, meeting with publishers and the agent, meetings with art directors regarding cover designs, discussing changes with editors.

Dagger stuck with me through the first two days, and then decided to tag along with Ian. Ian was being shown New York’s famous museums and galleries by one of Nate’s assistants, and they seemed to be having a much better time.

The contract was signed after lunch on Thursday. Then we hurried to the airport, only to wait a couple hours due to a flight delay.

We got back in time for dinner, and it was a relief. I’d endured four days of relatively bland, uninspired cooking, so the feast the guys had ready for us was welcome. Paddy had marinated and grilled steaks for us, there were fresh baked potatoes with all the trimmings, with a hearty antipasto salad on the side.

Ian and Dagger showed the guys pictures from exhibits they’d seen, and I told them of the contract I’d agreed to. I also showed them the advance check on the first book I got.

“That’s not much, is it?” Paddy asked.

“For a first book, it’s excellent,” I told him. “Plus three more books, and the advances will be based on the sales from the previous ones.”

“When do we get to read it?” Rut asked.

“Nate’s promised advance hardcover copies in six months,” I told him. “But, just to let you all know, I’m going to be working a lot more on the books. Which means it’s up to you to keep everything else going.”

“Yes sir,” they chorused. Then they launched into discussions of what they had all done.

The last of the music had been delivered that morning, although Arkansas and Nagi would be ordering more as new music was released. Some of the lights had also been delivered, and they were hoping the lighting could be installed by the middle of the next week.

The bar was almost finished, except they had run short on the glass brick that would be behind it.

Jack was planning to finish the floor starting Monday. One of the problems with the stone flooring we’d chosen was the amount of time it took to set.

The boys had assisted our staff with the hiring of our last open positions. Three dishwashers and five busboys had been hired. With the help of the boys, Jarrod had also gone ahead and hired two barbacks, the guys who go out and round up empty glasses and bring up supplies as needed.

I looked over the layout of the newspaper that was to go out the following morning (in time for weekend rush), and approved it. The community calendar section was still a little spare, but Paddy and Rut had come up with some ideas to boost “outside” activities. They’d already talked to the owners of some of the other bars in town about a gay softball league.

“Suzy and Jarrod want to know if you want hostesses,” Paddy added.

“I suppose, considering the size of the restaurant, and Sunday brunches are definitely on the table for discussion.”

“Champagne brunch?” Rut asked, brightly.

“That’s kind of expensive, and we’d have some major competition,” I pointed out. “More than a few casinos already have them. But it’s up to you guys.”

“Jarrod and Suzy also came up with an idea,” Nagi mentioned. “A ‘midnight brunch’, although midnight isn’t really when we’d have it.”

“Hmmm. A brunch after most of the dancing and drinking is over?” I mused. “Call it a moonlight brunch. But that’s going to be tight. We’d be on from at least 7 pm, going round the clock… Plus another round of cooks coming in, and waiters.”

“I’m not so worried about us,” Rut replied, laying on his stomach and idly kicking his hooves in the air. “Suzy has volunteered to take the nights, she says Anton is more than capable of handling the day shift.”

“We’ll discuss it with them tomorrow,” I nodded.

When the crew got in the next morning, Jack greeted me warmly, asking about my trip. I gave him a few details, and he congratulated me.

“By the way, I have to have a meeting with my staff, so you guys can knock off about two,” I told him. “I’ll pay for the entire day.”

“Your money,” Jack replied.

“So, how long do you think it will take to get the place ready for opening?” I asked him.

“Seriously?” he asked. “We’ll be done by the end of next week. Any time after that, up to you.”

“Fantastic,” I told him, clapping him on the shoulder.

At the meeting, I got to meet the new people, and I approved of the new barbacks. They were good-looking guys, and would look great if they chose to imitate my boys and go shirtless. I noticed immediately that they were a little shorter than the norm, and looked at Jarrod. He just grinned and shrugged.

“OK, here’s the deal,” I told the gathered staff. “We’ve had suggestions for a late-night brunch, as well as a champagne brunch on Sunday. Which means we will have to expand the waitstaff and kitchen staff. If we do that, I want some of you on nights, and some of you to stay on days. I don’t want a completely fresh crew on either shift.”

“Can we see a show of hands for those who would be willing to shift to nights?” Jarrod asked. Some hands went up in the air.

“How many of you would be willing to work two weeks on nights, with shift differential, if we did rotating shifts?” I asked. All but a few hands went up.

“For shift differential, I’d stay on nights,” one of the cooks said.

“I’d prefer to rotate you all,” I told him. “That way nobody can claim that day shift doesn’t work as hard as night shift, and vice versa.”

“What about hostesses?” Suzy asked.

“We’ve decided that would be a good idea,” I told her. “For now, let’s try three on lunch, and two on dinner.”

“Are you thinking of doing brunches every night?” Anton asked. I thought that over a minute.

“Until we get a better idea of what the demand is, let’s just try Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights,” I told him. “Hmm. Is that going to work for you guys?”

“Well, we can think of it as kind of a vacation,” one of the cooks shrugged. “What about two weeks on days, one week on nights?”

I looked at Lucky, who had a faraway look in his eyes. “I can make a schedule that works for that, boss,” he told me. “But we need to get the new cooks in as soon as possible, get them up to speed. Not to mention the brunch menus.”

“I’ll get with Anton and Suzy on brunch menus,” Rut volunteered.

“Uniforms are due by Tuesday,” Jarrod mentioned. I nodded.

“If anybody knows anyone that would be a good fit for our little family here, have them here on Monday morning, nine o’clock. Eight if they can,” I told the staff. “That goes for hostesses, bussers, cooks, dishwashers, and wait staff.”

“If we have bussers help out dishwashers, we can get by with one more dishwasher,” Emily, our other female employee told me.

“Only if we have to,” I told her. “I’ve done dishwashing before, sweetheart, so I know what a bad rush can be like when you’re not ready for it.”

“How do you feel about family?” Suzy asked.

I glanced over at the boys, and grinned. “Nope, no nepotism here,” I drawled. Everybody laughed.

“My girlfriend would be interested in being a hostess,” she told me, watching me carefully.

“Tell her to be here, and we’ll do an interview,” I replied blandly. “I think you know me well enough to know I’ll hire her if she is qualified and can handle the job.”

“How was the trip to New York?” one of the other cooks asked.

“You people have spoiled me, the food sucked,” I told him.

“Tell them about the opening,” Ian urged.

“Oh, yeah,” I grimaced. “Looks like we’ll be ready to open anytime after this coming Friday. I’m planning on the opening being the following Tuesday. For the first three days, until opening of the bar on Thursday night, we won’t be charging anyone.” They all gaped. “But we will be invitation only.” I quickly outlined who would be getting invitations, as well as the fact that they could bring up to three guests with them. Some of them started looking distinctly nervous. “Oh, come on, you guys. You’re all up to it, or I wouldn’t have hired you. Treat every one of them the way you would want to be treated, act like your mother was watching you, and just do your best. I know we will all do fine.” I looked around. “I’ve been at other restaurants, where they did the same thing we’re doing. Yes, there were a lot of bigwigs and a lot of food critics there. But I can tell you, once you start moving, it’s just another day. I’ve never seen anyone screw up so badly they weren’t forgiven, never seen anyone fired over anything that day. And I can also tell you, if the food is free, the tips are fantastic.”

The brunch menus were finalized within an hour of the meeting breaking up, and Ian and Paddy had the finished design done before dinner. I was able to rush it over to the printer before they closed.

We had an easy weekend. I intentionally slept late, as did most of the boys (Rut and Lucky got up to make coffee and put some pastries out to defrost, but came back to bed almost immediately). We all snacked and nibbled all day, as we went about a few little tasks.

Dagger and Nagi however, spent most of the afternoon baking “ahead.”

That night, we (Ian stayed home) made the rounds of the gay bars in town. By then, the newspaper had given folks some pictures of us (discretely, nobody had to know we were also the ones running the paper). The boys watched the bartenders a bit, tested out some of the drinks and gauged the prices, even got out onto the dance floor a few times.

One of the bars was not only a disappointment but an outrage, as the bartender was obnoxious and desultory to us. We saw nothing there we wanted to emulate, but as Rut pointed out, “We know what not to do.”

The boys were outwardly critical of all the bars. Arkansas had no compliments for the sound systems. Paddy derided the bartenders’ enthusiasm for their jobs, and Rut wasn’t impressed by their customer service attitudes. Dagger wondered why they all looked so rundown, even the newer dance club. Lucky was outraged by the prices, and accused two of the bars of watering the alcohol. Nagi found the atmosphere of all of the bars oppressive.

Sunday was hilarious. The boys got up early, and I found them carefully determining how many shots were in each bottle, how much each shot would cost, and calculating mark-up. Lucky had figured everything down to so much wages, upkeep, supplies, utilities, etc.

“We can cut their prices by 50% and still make a decent profit,” Lucky announced.

“Plus, we show class and good attitudes, and we keep the customers coming back,” Rut nodded.

“How soon can we get the first microbrew ready?” I asked them.

“We started the first as soon as we were sure everything was clean,” Lucky told me. “The first batch will be ready in time for the opening.”

“Great,” I nodded. “So, who’s going to drink all this up?” I motioned to the array of mixed drinks and shots before them on the counter.

We had a little party, which moved to the bedroom while we all could still walk.

Monday was a full day of interviewing. This time I included one of our “oldtimers” in each interviewing session, rotating them in and out. Suzy’s girlfriend turned out to be a beautiful woman with grace, and as soon as I hired her I had her sitting in to interview the rest of the hostesses.

It was at Julie’s insistence that I hired one guy as “hostess”, a handsome young man of considerable charm. But I didn’t disagree with her.

As we went through applications, some were marked with a call-back flag, just in case we needed them in the future. We had more applicants than we knew what to do with.

That night, I was surprised to find our doorbell ringing from downstairs. I went downstairs to find Julie standing there.

“Are you busy?” she asked me, smiling mysteriously.

“Not really,” I told her.

“Care to take a walk with me?” she asked.

“Give me a minute,” I told her.

“I’d wondered who had gotten it next,” she began casually. “I simply programmed it to find someone in the city that would be able to use it, and would do so in a manner not to cause suspicion.”

“And then you gave it to someone, who would carry it to where it needed to go?” I asked.

“I dropped it in his pocket, knowing the remote would take care of the rest,” she nodded.

“Why did you give it up?” I asked her.

“I met Suzy five months ago,” she told me. “The temptation grew too much, so I took away the temptation.”

“Let me guess,” I mused. “You changed yourself?”

“You wouldn’t have recognized me,” she smiled. “Just as, I am sure, none of your old acquaintances would recognize you now.”

“How did you know?” I asked, curiously.

“One last thing I did,” she told me. “But only to myself. I made myself able to identify those transformed in some manner not strictly natural.”

“I see,” I nodded. “Bypassing the remote’s refusal to identify them for you, by widening the scope. I’m sure there must be other ways that people have been transformed.”

“Oh yes,” she chuckled softly. “Quite a few in this town, actually.”

“How many did you transform?” I asked.

“A few,” she shrugged. “People who are… nicer to others now. I didn’t do anything too extreme.” She stopped and looked at me. “You’ve done some fairly extensive transformations. How many would have chosen it for themselves?”

“Ian, Dagger, and Arkansas,” I told her. She looked surprised. “The other four, perhaps not, but they are much happier now and probably would not go back if they had the choice. Oh, there was one other, I simply, if you will, stripped away the façade. People will see her as she really is. I’d like to think I saved a few people from her abuse, but I don’t know. Not particularly interested in going back.”

“I see,” she nodded. “I’m inclined to think that you’ve done good. But that’s only my opinion.” She eyed me for a moment. “For a long time I was wrapped up in lies as well. I don’t know why someone gave me the interface. I was probably the worst choice for it. But when I looked at what I was, in the Personality tab, I was crushed. I made serious changes to myself, on the personality side, to right what I’d done wrong. I hope that at least in some ways, I’ve been successful. Good night, Red.”

I shrugged away some of the thoughts that came into my head. I went home to my boys.

Jack’s crew had alternating days of heavy work and little to do. After a little ingenuity by Paddy, we were able to arrange planks across the stones which were setting, so that some of the guys could still help put up lighting and fixtures. The booths, tables, and chairs had arrived, all correctly upholstered, but had to be left in a container truck parked outside.

The parking lot was done, the contractor just warned me to leave it sit for a day or two for the paving to set decently. All of the landscaping had been put in as well, and it made a perfect setting for our parking lot.

Mr. Von Somme came by to look it over, and practically wept. I took that occasion to hand him his invitation.

I’d also handed out invitations to Jack’s crew, and he assured me the guys were looking forward to being there.

I noted with interest that most of the guys had no problem with the posters which had been put up in the bar area. Some of the bars had not been very covert with their posters, so it was easy to discern they were all gay bars. And the only problems I’d seen were covert looks and blushes, even as the men concerned adjusted themselves in their pants.

Lucky spent time that week working out a compensation and benefits package for our employees. He lined up health insurance, with vision and dental, as well as a uniform reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, paid time off, and other items. He also contacted the manager of the bank branch, and managed to negotiate where our employees would get special benefits through the bank. He even presented me with the information for a 401(k) program.

Every few days I was depositing cash into our accounts, spacing them out a little to not cause alarms. This was all going into business accounts, so they’d expect frequent deposits. I also planned to pad our daily deposits, after we opened for business, with extra cash to build up our accounts further.

You may have got the impression that I wasn’t using powers or the interface during this time. But I had been feeding more information to the boys, not the least being information on body piercing to Paddy. I also fed extra information to our hostesses (and host) and waitstaff, on customer service. I wanted them to be able to handle any kind of situation, and knew from previous experience how extreme such situations could be.

I also used the interface to guarantee that everyone who received an invitation would come to the opening. Since it was free food, I didn’t see any ethical problems with it.

The sign arrived, and was put in place. We did an inaugural lighting of the sign, just after the crew had quit for the day, and then we all went inside to drink a toast, the crew and the staff included. Then the sign was shut off, to wait for the opening.

The menus had arrived, along with a lot of other supplies. We were now set-up for printing off checks for invoices, as well as payroll (a few of the staff had declined the bank accounts and direct deposit).

Julie and Rut had been on the telephone, handling RSVP’s, which helped to regulate the flood we were expecting. The invitations had been carefully spread out over the three days, but we had a few requests to switch days, which we were happy to oblige.

Waiters now had a faux-leather folder that held their order pads. They had also received their uniforms. Each would be dressed in pleated black slacks, bloused white shirt, black vest, and a dark red cummerbund.

The cooks would wear the traditional white jacket and white trousers. Each had also received their own set of knives, each knife engraved with their first name.

The busboys wore uniforms identical to the waiters, except for the vest.

Julie had received the company debit card from Lucky and taken the hostesses and host shopping. The women would all wear long dark red skirts, white blouses, and brocade vests. Our host, Jeremy, would wear slacks like the waiters with a vest to match the women.

To distinguish our two kitchen managers from the cooks, Suzy and Anton wore a broad ribbon crossed beneath their chins and pinned with a brooch like a gold coin.

Jarrod would wear a suit at all times, unless he was needed to help in the kitchen.

Our dishwashers were required to wear black slacks or jeans and were provided with black waterproof aprons to wear over white shirts. Lucky had laid in a supply of white shirts in various sizes to replace worn or stained shirts.

By Friday, when Jack pronounced himself satisfied with every little thing, our supplies were delivered and stocked away properly. In celebration, we had a small party, after quitting time.

However, my boys worked that entire time, and seemed happy to do so. While they were no “Coyote Ugly”, they did a fair amount of flashy moves, such as passing bottles back and forth with behind-the-back tosses and such. When Lucky started juggling bottles of liquor, I told him not to, saying, “This isn’t Circus Circus.” That got a good round of laughter, as he made a face at me.

Eventually I bid the crew goodnight, and then ushered my staff out the door for their three-day weekend.

Paddy decided to take advantage of the weekend to do piercings. He’d ordered supplies while I’d been out of town, and even the items from overseas had arrived by then.

It kind of put a cramp on our weekend activities, but nobody minded, really.

Dagger got the least, considering he’d already had quite a few by then. He had Paddy add a bar across the bridge of his nose.

Rut elected to get three rings in one ear and one nipple ring. The rest of the boys all got nipple rings on both sides, at least one in one ear (Arkansas went for one in each ear). They also got Prince Alberts, except for Nagi (his foreskin wouldn’t have accepted it).

I went ahead and got a Prince Albert and a nipple ring on the left side.

Paddy pierced himself. I had no inkling he was going to do so, it hadn’t occurred to me.

Ian asked for permission to get, and I gave it, to get his ear pierced with a rather large gauge ring. I told him to wait for the rest, if he was so inclined.

But we heal quickly, so we all got to have fun on Monday.