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Description
In the Greendale Community College library, there was a room. It was a decently-sized side chamber, able to easily accommodate a dozen people. Fitted with whiteboards and shelves, it was meant to be a study room, but had long ago been commandeered as the meeting room for a certain student-staff committee.

"There's clearly demand for more courses that involve computer skills. That's all the job market's about these days," Elroy explained.

Jeff scoffed, "Yeah, but the only way anyone will get a job with a degree from here is if they can finesse the hell out of their interviews. And who can teach them how to do that?"

He let the question hang in the air, subtly motioning towards himself.

"Look, education should be about self-actualisation, not making people into the perfect corporate drones!" Britta chimed in.

"Yeah and education should also be well-funded, but we're not. Stop thinking about pies in the sky, people! I need to take slices out of those pies if we want to stay in business," the Dean brought his head out of his hands only for that outburst, before returning to a pseudo-fetal position seated over a stack of accounting papers.

"Wait. Everyone, stop."

The room turned to the speaker (except for Annie, who busied herself in the corner with a shiny piece of jewellery), Abed.

"Something's off. You're all emoting too clearly."

"Maybe you've just learned how to distinguish things better?" Britta asked, the hint of hope clear in her voice.

... Too clear. "No, it's not just that. None of you are speaking in your exact voices. And your outfits aren't as clear as usual. Which is frustrating, because that's how I usually tell you all apart. Except Elroy, of course."

Elroy nodded solemnly. A quiet hung over the room. Six years later, no-one had truly worked out how to deal with Abed when he got like that. Eyes turned to Jeff, who shrugged.

"I've got it. We're not in a show anymore. We're in a fan-fic."

Silence, again.

Except for Annie, whose eyes went wide with blatantly affected surprise.

"WhaAaAAat'S a fan-fic, Abed? I've neeEEeEver heard of thaAAt."

"It's a derivative written form of media shared online by fans based on existing intellectual property. It's usually devoid of creativity and focused on shipping and fandom in-jokes-"

"But it's also female-dominated and a key part of the democratisation of media which entrenched interests are all too eager to demean!" Interjected Britta, giving Annie an excuse to go back to staring at her necklace.

"-and almost ubiquitously low-quality. Even famous examples of fan fiction authors who have gone mainstream have only provided the culture with its lowest forms of entertainment. Stephanie Meyer being a major example."

"See, that's what I mean. Twilight isn't a masterpiece but it is almost always dismissed by men as something much worse than it is."

"HEY, ANNIE," Jeff's shout drowned out the argument, "What are you doing with that necklace over there?"

"Nice segue into exposition, Jeff." Abed smiled for a moment before turning to Annie with a serious expression, "Remember that we're in a non-visual medium, Annie, so make sure you explain it entirely in dialogue so that the message doesn't get confused."

"Erm, okay," Annie's voice trailed off. She didn't even put down the necklace as she spoke, still staring at it with fierce intent. "Well, I'm worried about that incident with the Honda guerrilla marketing. I want to reduce the risk of the student body being affected by subliminal messaging, given that we're mostly financially vulnerable, so I'm practicing some self-hypnosis techniques I picked up in a psychotherapy elective."

Abed nodded solemnly. "Yes, that makes sense... We're definitely in a fan-fic. Calling back to the same concept twice would be out of bounds for a normal show unless it was some big character thing."

"Hey, Abed, I was in love with Rick!" That was Britta, not Annie (see, you don't have this sort of ambiguity in TV)

"Yeah, yeah, sure you were. But that was only because the Jeff-Annie romance arc has way more legs so you needed a different B-couple. I'm surprised we're going back to that, though. Given it's a fan-fic, I'd expect a Troy X Abed angle."

"What are you talking abou- Wait what did you say about me being in a B couple!?"

"Hmm, I suppose I shouldn't discount the possibility that even a female-written piece might still be focusing on women. It would make sense if Annie's actually the main character. I should take a step back." Abed, mumbling to himself, walked out of the room.

Jeff exchanged a disbelieving look with Elroy. The Dean, absorbed in the mire of the balance sheet, hadn't even noticed the argument.

"And you have no chance anyway, Annie!" Britta, seeking an outlet for her impotent rage, turned towards Annie's beanbag, "You're always going to be vulnerable to subliminal messaging. I remember, we assessed you. You're a level four susceptible!!"

Britta's voice trailed off as she realised the ridiculousness of her insult.

Annie briefly took her eyes off the necklace to lock her gaze on Britta, a rare fire burning in her eyes.

"That's why I need to practice, Britta. I need to be the best."

Taking his cue that Annie was in 'dangerous mode', Jeff grabbed Elroy and retreated from the study room.

Annie had a problem.

Her big idea, her plan to make an actual, meaningful contribution to student safety (and prove herself the smartest and most capable around)... Well, it wasn't working.

The theory was simple: Take a shiny, pretty object and focus on it, swing it from side to side, allow the slow pendulum motion to soothe her, and fall into a waking sleep where she would be able to communicate with her subconscious and reduce her suggestibility.

And the necklace was pretty. And shiny.

But it was also... boring?

She would watch it for a minute, and then notice something in the room out of the corner of her eye and have a few thoughts about that. By the time she'd noticed the distraction and dragged herself mindfully back into focus, the train of thought had already made a stop at three or four minor connecting stations, and it was impossible to refocus on the autohypnosis.

Her head was just so full of things. Always had been. That was why Annie was the way she was. Intelligent, capable, prone to bursts of mania and anxiety. Apparently vulnerable to guerrilla marketing.

She was not suited for self-hypnosis.

She wasn't suited for a community college though, either.

Annie was better than this.

She was Annie Edison. Top of the class. She would figure it out.

She needed an angle. A way to achieve the blank-minded state she needed. What helped her clear her head when she had an anxiety attack?

After some thought, an idea emerged. Answering basic questions would always help her calm down.

In a way, that was like letting her subconscious take over her panicking consciousness.

And what was panic if not her conscious brain firing on all cylinders? It stood to reason, then, that even a non-anxious but still noisy head could be quieted in the same manner.

So, Annie just needed to focus. She just needed to take deep breaths, and let her subconscious take over.

She had to focus on a single underlying thought.

I have to prove to everyone that I'm smart.

I have to prove that I'm good enough.

The necklace swung in front of her eyes.

She didn't let herself even register it.

She focused on her own thoughts, on her own driving impulses.

I have to prove myself.

I need to be the best.

Her train of thought began to move again. But this time, it was inwards. Deeper into the formless darkness of her subconscious thought.

It moved slowly.

Prove myself.

The smartest.

The most capable.

Stopping briefly at synonyms of the same thought. New reflections on the surface of the necklace.

The same, but slightly different.

Boring and dizzying at the same time.

Prove it to everyone.

Show them.

The darkness was total. Her eyes were closed.

Her thoughts were slower and slower, but also more defined.

They combined to reveal her deepest impulses as she fell into waking sleep.

I need to be the best, and to do it I need to show everyone how not to be hypnotised. But if I'm the best, I need to hypnotise them. Because I'm not hypnotised, they'll know I'm smarter than them, so they'll listen to me. Then I can make them less suggestible.

Circular logic.

Nonsense but sensible at the same time.

Manic but utterly relaxed.

I'll hypnotise everyone. I'll make them see they need my help. I know how to do it now.

Annie was, of course, hypnotised by herself in that moment. But that thought was not part of her spiraling down into self-hypnosis, so it couldn't occur in the shadows of trance.

Only the serene certainty that spreading the hypnosis would save the college and cement her superiority remained.

And then I can even help Jeff see how much he needs m-

The door to her room opened and her roommate's voice interrupted: "Annie, I know you're doing an inner monologue, which is interesting because usually we'd have to do some sort of corny voiceover, so it's a good use of the medium. But I can hear it too and I think you need to hold off on that last thought. If I'm understanding the tone of this fic right, we shouldn't delve into any actual romance. Stick to the girls."

Abed's voice echoed into Annie's ears.

It bounded around her exposed subconscious, merging itself into the single gestalt-thought which now drove her.

I'll hypnotise the girls. I'll make the girls see they need my help. I know how to hypnotise other girls now.

Annie smiled and nodded. She walked past Abed, picking up her bag and leaving the apartment.

Abed cast an awkward glance around her room, and mumbled to himself, "Cool. Cool cool cool."

Britta felt a bit bad. She could forgive herself an angry outburst at her friends, but pointing out Annie's heightened sensitivity was where she had to draw a line. On a tip from someone who had seen Annie over in the PoliSci classrooms, she was heading over with a single chocolate bar (she wasn't made of money) as a peace offering.

She opened to door to see Annie pacing around the room, reading aloud from a book with a weirdly teacherly manner. The only person seated was their fellow student Annie Kim, who watched and nodded along with a ridiculously dazed expression .

Annie closed the book and addressed the room, "And that is why all women on campus should be subjected to my rigorous hypnosis program. By letting me tell you how to think, no-one will ever be able to trick you into thinking what they want you to."

Again, Annie Kim nodded slowly and without words.

"What the hell have you done to her, Annie!?" Britta stepped into the room, dropping the chocolate bar to the floor and looking around frantically at the empty seats.

Annie wore one of her perfect-student smiles. "I've helped her, Britta. I'm going to help everyone. Only I'm good enough at hypnosis to help Greendale."

The serene way Annie said that lessened the impact of her words, but at the mention of 'hypnosis', Britta managed to switch to psychologist mode. She circled around to look Annie Kim in the face.

She cupped Annie Kim's chin in her hand and turned it up. There was no resistance, and no change in expression.

"No concern over surprising stimuli..." Britta mumbled, "No attempt to prevent a relative stranger from handling her, either."

She cast a concerned look over the hypnotised student's features.

"Emotionless expression," Britta noticed the slight upturn at the corners of Annie Kim's lips, "No, happy expression... I'll put this down as 'concerningly happy-go-lucky despite circumstances'. Hey, Annie, could you ask her to do something?"

"Annie Kim, write a short answer to the essay question 'how can we best combat the reach of marketing in the social media age'." Annie said, prim and proper as a real teacher.

And Annie Kim immediately opened her bag, produced a notebook, and wrote a few paragraphs. They were written well in standard argumentative essay language, and made a surprisingly solid argument for the use of hypnosis to harden the hearts of the general population against the pseudo-subliminal messaging found in mass media.

Britta nodded approvingly, "I like how you only want to hypnotise women. It would help address gender inequality if we were to only have men wasting their money on consumer goods." Then she took another moment to process what she'd just witnessed and said, "Wait... What the hell, Annie? How did you get her to believe this stuff?"

"I taught her." Annie walked around the teacher's desk and towards the other two women, "As you can see, Annie Kim is still my worthy rival, still eloquent and smart. I've just... improved her."

"Total compliance with orders she's given..." Britta pursed her lips in disgust, "Annie Kim is a level eight susceptible now, Annie!"

"That's amazing!" Annie squeed.

"It's disgusting!" Britta shrieked, "You can't just take away people's free will! You're no better than-"

"No, I am better than you, when you were working with Rick to brainwash the Greendale population. I'm not trying to sell products, I'm just helping people. I thought you hated capitalism, Britta?"

"Of course I do! B-but I'm still an American. I want people to have freedo-"

A finger pressed over Britta's mouth shushed her for a moment. Annie had crossed the distance between them, and before she could become the victim of an indignant tirade, she lifted the pendulum necklace from around her neck and began to swing it in front of Britta's face.

Her voice changed. It was no longer her controlled, polite cadence. It was sweet, with a bit of darkness inside it. Seductive... Authoritative.

"There is no freedom, Britta. You know that as well as I do. Everything we do is controlled by so many factors. Our lives are a mess, we're all at a bottom-of-the-barrel community college. But there's still smart people here. Like Annie Kim, like you, sometimes. But mainly, like me."

The pendulum swung, and Britta watched.

"I am the smartest here. I am the best. I am the one who will save you. Give up on freedom. Give in to the hypnosis. Let me save you. Let go of silly ideas like 'freedom'. Just become happy-go-lucky. Everyone you know who is happy is an idiot. And I know you have an idiotic side, too."

Britta frowned at the insult, but her eyes helplessly followed the shiny object, and she couldn't muster a counter-argument.

"Your idiotic side is too willful, that's why everyone finds you annoying when you Britta things. If you could just learn to let go of your pride, then you would be happy. And safe. Under my hypnosis you'll be free. Submission is freedom, Britta. So just let yourself fall."

Annie was right. Britta knew that her stubbornness combined with her relative unintelligence was the main way that she pushed people away, or at best pushed them to not take her seriously. If she could let go of her aggressive will, she would know peace.

Annie was smart. Annie would know how to be happy. Britta wouldn't even need to give up her intelligence, she would just need to let her intelligence be controlled by Annie...

But she couldn't let herself admit it. As beautiful and true as Annie's words were, even the pendulum couldn't distract her from the central truth of her being: Britta Perry never did what she was told. She would never submit to benign authority. Not her parents, not Annie.

It was time to pull out the big guns.

She blinked and looked away from the pendulum. She took a deep breath, and subtly rearranged the pitch of her voice. When she next opened her mouth, she spoke in a professional, friendly cadence which blended into any conversation. It was the sort of voice that you didn't pay attention to, but you did trust. The voice of the people, coming out of one person's mouth.

The guerrilla marketing voice. The one Rick taught her. The one she'd used to do terrible things.

"You know, Annie, you look really good for a hypnotist."

"What?" Annie stopped swinging the pendulum, her mouth half-open in her characteristic 'just been insulted' grimace.

"Hypnotists always look really goofy. Even if they're hot, they always have weird fashion sense or just, like, look generally creepy. They're totally lame."

"I-I'm not creepy!"

"Like, even if you were to brand yourself as some kind of genius sexy student girl hypnotist, the first thing anyone's gonna hear is 'weirdo with a top hat and a pocket watch'. Incidentally, a sleek wristwatch would go really well with your vibe right now."

"I... could go for a sleek wristwatch," Annie's whispered, uncertainly and mostly to herself.

It's working. Britta smiled, keeping her friendly, professional air, and put a hand on Annie's arm, "And what's important is that people have the free will to think what they think. You should respect that, and change up your style to me more appealing. Less creepy hypnotist, more college-reforming girlboss."

Annie wrenched her arm away and began to swing the pendulum again.

"And you need to make a change too, Britta! You need to accept that free will is a weakness, that it lets you be manipulated. You're especially weak to it because your will is linked to your stupid side."

"If you're so smart, Annie, you should realise that one woman can't change the image of hypnosis. It's always gonna be lame. You have to give up on it if you want our respect."

"You'll always be weak to the pressures of the world without me. You'll only be safe if you submit to hypnosis and let your will be decided instead of influenced by bad actors."

"No-one will take a pendulum swinging in front of their face seriously. Just because Annie Kim does what you say doesn't mean that normal people will listen to you."

Nevertheless, Britta was now dutifully following the pendulum with the gaze. But Annie, too, was nodding along to Britta's words, her eyes looking off into the distance, in deep thought.

"You're just being immature, Britta. I might look lame, but I'm still right. Women need to submit. Women need to be hypnotised. I can lead us. I'm good enough to be in charge."

"Annie, the hypnotist gimmick isn't working. People like Jeff. People like The Dean. They even like you when you're being nice and chill. You need to play into that. Be chill, stop hypnotising people."

"We need to give in to our own susceptibility and embrace it."

"You need to not hypnotise people and take away their will."

"I can't hypnotise people. I want them to like me."

"I shouldn't resist. I want to be safe and happy."

"We should become hypnotised and submissive. We shouldn't hypnotise people."

"We shouldn't hypnotise people. We should become hypnotised and submissive."

"All women in Greendale should be hypnotised."

"All women in Greendale should be hypnotised."

Both women agreed. Annie, with a faraway gaze and subliminally-inspired ideas. Britta, with a blank smile and hypnotically-induced thoughts.

Even Annie Kim, with a mind blanked and indoctrinated, had been attentively absorbing their argument.

They would help the other woman of Greendale to become hypnotised. They would, together, save the campus from subversive threats. But they would not take control, they would not be in charge.

All would obey. None would command.

Except maybe Jeff, Annie started to think.

"Hey guys," Abed said, walking into the room and poking at Annie Kim's almost unmoving form, "I like the ideas here, it's a nice way to use the whole thing where we have insight into people's thoughts without having to do a weird concept episode like that time we were all clay."

Annie and Britta shuddered.

"I'm not sure that you were both in character the whole time, but it comes with the medium, I guess. Anyway, the Jeff thing, I think it's a bad idea. Two of you had Jeff as a love interest, and I wouldn't put it past him to have an arc with Annie Kim if we could figure out more jokes than the 'Asian Doppelganger' angle. This has a big risk of getting sappy."

"What would you suggest?" All three women said, their voices devoid of any emotion but a broad sense of submission.

Abed smiled, he liked that he could tell what emotions were in their voices. "Well, since my love interest is kind of in the background but we never officially closed the arc, I think I'm safe from romance for now. So if you all obey me, then we can keep this all as good, clean fun."

"Yes, Master." The three women said.

"Okay, stay here, I need to go read up on what tropes people expect with mind control. As far as I know, it's either R-rated stuff we can't show or the girls get snapped out of it by the end of the episode-"

---

Months ago, fresh off of Actually Watching Community, I asked my watchers if they believed that a self-aware Community hypnofic would be Harmoncringe. I was assured it would be good, or good anyway. I leave this open to interpretation.

I still like the concept of expanding on the 'both doms end up hypnotised' theme of Full Circle and Don't Light My Fire by having the inductions happen in parallel. I'm not sure if it really worked, it definitely never got to the point that I'm happy with it, but I've learned to simply ignore that sort of feeling since I'm a bad judge of my own work anyway. I was also a bit worried if this is signalling too much of an oversaturation of this style of ending. But none of the next ~4 stories I have planned have this dynamic so it's probably fine.

Credit to BaretKlap and/or baretwrites for relinquishing use of this excellent source image to me, many moons ago.

Proofreading provided by Dormiria , who is on a spaceship with George Takei.

Description
In the Greendale Community College library, there was a room. It was a decently-sized side chamber, able to easily accommodate a dozen people. Fitted with whiteboards and shelves, it was meant to be a study room, but had long ago been commandeered as the meeting room for a certain student-staff committee.

"There's clearly demand for more courses that involve computer skills. That's all the job market's about these days," Elroy explained.

Jeff scoffed, "Yeah, but the only way anyone will get a job with a degree from here is if they can finesse the hell out of their interviews. And who can teach them how to do that?"

He let the question hang in the air, subtly motioning towards himself.

"Look, education should be about self-actualisation, not making people into the perfect corporate drones!" Britta chimed in.

"Yeah and education should also be well-funded, but we're not. Stop thinking about pies in the sky, people! I need to take slices out of those pies if we want to stay in business," the Dean brought his head out of his hands only for that outburst, before returning to a pseudo-fetal position seated over a stack of accounting papers.

"Wait. Everyone, stop."

The room turned to the speaker (except for Annie, who busied herself in the corner with a shiny piece of jewellery), Abed.

"Something's off. You're all emoting too clearly."

"Maybe you've just learned how to distinguish things better?" Britta asked, the hint of hope clear in her voice.

... Too clear. "No, it's not just that. None of you are speaking in your exact voices. And your outfits aren't as clear as usual. Which is frustrating, because that's how I usually tell you all apart. Except Elroy, of course."

Elroy nodded solemnly. A quiet hung over the room. Six years later, no-one had truly worked out how to deal with Abed when he got like that. Eyes turned to Jeff, who shrugged.

"I've got it. We're not in a show anymore. We're in a fan-fic."

Silence, again.

Except for Annie, whose eyes went wide with blatantly affected surprise.

"WhaAaAAat'S a fan-fic, Abed? I've neeEEeEver heard of thaAAt."

"It's a derivative written form of media shared online by fans based on existing intellectual property. It's usually devoid of creativity and focused on shipping and fandom in-jokes-"

"But it's also female-dominated and a key part of the democratisation of media which entrenched interests are all too eager to demean!" Interjected Britta, giving Annie an excuse to go back to staring at her necklace.

"-and almost ubiquitously low-quality. Even famous examples of fan fiction authors who have gone mainstream have only provided the culture with its lowest forms of entertainment. Stephanie Meyer being a major example."

"See, that's what I mean. Twilight isn't a masterpiece but it is almost always dismissed by men as something much worse than it is."

"HEY, ANNIE," Jeff's shout drowned out the argument, "What are you doing with that necklace over there?"

"Nice segue into exposition, Jeff." Abed smiled for a moment before turning to Annie with a serious expression, "Remember that we're in a non-visual medium, Annie, so make sure you explain it entirely in dialogue so that the message doesn't get confused."

"Erm, okay," Annie's voice trailed off. She didn't even put down the necklace as she spoke, still staring at it with fierce intent. "Well, I'm worried about that incident with the Honda guerrilla marketing. I want to reduce the risk of the student body being affected by subliminal messaging, given that we're mostly financially vulnerable, so I'm practicing some self-hypnosis techniques I picked up in a psychotherapy elective."

Abed nodded solemnly. "Yes, that makes sense... We're definitely in a fan-fic. Calling back to the same concept twice would be out of bounds for a normal show unless it was some big character thing."

"Hey, Abed, I was in love with Rick!" That was Britta, not Annie (see, you don't have this sort of ambiguity in TV)

"Yeah, yeah, sure you were. But that was only because the Jeff-Annie romance arc has way more legs so you needed a different B-couple. I'm surprised we're going back to that, though. Given it's a fan-fic, I'd expect a Troy X Abed angle."

"What are you talking abou- Wait what did you say about me being in a B couple!?"

"Hmm, I suppose I shouldn't discount the possibility that even a female-written piece might still be focusing on women. It would make sense if Annie's actually the main character. I should take a step back." Abed, mumbling to himself, walked out of the room.

Jeff exchanged a disbelieving look with Elroy. The Dean, absorbed in the mire of the balance sheet, hadn't even noticed the argument.

"And you have no chance anyway, Annie!" Britta, seeking an outlet for her impotent rage, turned towards Annie's beanbag, "You're always going to be vulnerable to subliminal messaging. I remember, we assessed you. You're a level four susceptible!!"

Britta's voice trailed off as she realised the ridiculousness of her insult.

Annie briefly took her eyes off the necklace to lock her gaze on Britta, a rare fire burning in her eyes.

"That's why I need to practice, Britta. I need to be the best."

Taking his cue that Annie was in 'dangerous mode', Jeff grabbed Elroy and retreated from the study room.

Annie had a problem.

Her big idea, her plan to make an actual, meaningful contribution to student safety (and prove herself the smartest and most capable around)... Well, it wasn't working.

The theory was simple: Take a shiny, pretty object and focus on it, swing it from side to side, allow the slow pendulum motion to soothe her, and fall into a waking sleep where she would be able to communicate with her subconscious and reduce her suggestibility.

And the necklace was pretty. And shiny.

But it was also... boring?

She would watch it for a minute, and then notice something in the room out of the corner of her eye and have a few thoughts about that. By the time she'd noticed the distraction and dragged herself mindfully back into focus, the train of thought had already made a stop at three or four minor connecting stations, and it was impossible to refocus on the autohypnosis.

Her head was just so full of things. Always had been. That was why Annie was the way she was. Intelligent, capable, prone to bursts of mania and anxiety. Apparently vulnerable to guerrilla marketing.

She was not suited for self-hypnosis.

She wasn't suited for a community college though, either.

Annie was better than this.

She was Annie Edison. Top of the class. She would figure it out.

She needed an angle. A way to achieve the blank-minded state she needed. What helped her clear her head when she had an anxiety attack?

After some thought, an idea emerged. Answering basic questions would always help her calm down.

In a way, that was like letting her subconscious take over her panicking consciousness.

And what was panic if not her conscious brain firing on all cylinders? It stood to reason, then, that even a non-anxious but still noisy head could be quieted in the same manner.

So, Annie just needed to focus. She just needed to take deep breaths, and let her subconscious take over.

She had to focus on a single underlying thought.

I have to prove to everyone that I'm smart.

I have to prove that I'm good enough.

The necklace swung in front of her eyes.

She didn't let herself even register it.

She focused on her own thoughts, on her own driving impulses.

I have to prove myself.

I need to be the best.

Her train of thought began to move again. But this time, it was inwards. Deeper into the formless darkness of her subconscious thought.

It moved slowly.

Prove myself.

The smartest.

The most capable.

Stopping briefly at synonyms of the same thought. New reflections on the surface of the necklace.

The same, but slightly different.

Boring and dizzying at the same time.

Prove it to everyone.

Show them.

The darkness was total. Her eyes were closed.

Her thoughts were slower and slower, but also more defined.

They combined to reveal her deepest impulses as she fell into waking sleep.

I need to be the best, and to do it I need to show everyone how not to be hypnotised. But if I'm the best, I need to hypnotise them. Because I'm not hypnotised, they'll know I'm smarter than them, so they'll listen to me. Then I can make them less suggestible.

Circular logic.

Nonsense but sensible at the same time.

Manic but utterly relaxed.

I'll hypnotise everyone. I'll make them see they need my help. I know how to do it now.

Annie was, of course, hypnotised by herself in that moment. But that thought was not part of her spiraling down into self-hypnosis, so it couldn't occur in the shadows of trance.

Only the serene certainty that spreading the hypnosis would save the college and cement her superiority remained.

And then I can even help Jeff see how much he needs m-

The door to her room opened and her roommate's voice interrupted: "Annie, I know you're doing an inner monologue, which is interesting because usually we'd have to do some sort of corny voiceover, so it's a good use of the medium. But I can hear it too and I think you need to hold off on that last thought. If I'm understanding the tone of this fic right, we shouldn't delve into any actual romance. Stick to the girls."

Abed's voice echoed into Annie's ears.

It bounded around her exposed subconscious, merging itself into the single gestalt-thought which now drove her.

I'll hypnotise the girls. I'll make the girls see they need my help. I know how to hypnotise other girls now.

Annie smiled and nodded. She walked past Abed, picking up her bag and leaving the apartment.

Abed cast an awkward glance around her room, and mumbled to himself, "Cool. Cool cool cool."

Britta felt a bit bad. She could forgive herself an angry outburst at her friends, but pointing out Annie's heightened sensitivity was where she had to draw a line. On a tip from someone who had seen Annie over in the PoliSci classrooms, she was heading over with a single chocolate bar (she wasn't made of money) as a peace offering.

She opened to door to see Annie pacing around the room, reading aloud from a book with a weirdly teacherly manner. The only person seated was their fellow student Annie Kim, who watched and nodded along with a ridiculously dazed expression .

Annie closed the book and addressed the room, "And that is why all women on campus should be subjected to my rigorous hypnosis program. By letting me tell you how to think, no-one will ever be able to trick you into thinking what they want you to."

Again, Annie Kim nodded slowly and without words.

"What the hell have you done to her, Annie!?" Britta stepped into the room, dropping the chocolate bar to the floor and looking around frantically at the empty seats.

Annie wore one of her perfect-student smiles. "I've helped her, Britta. I'm going to help everyone. Only I'm good enough at hypnosis to help Greendale."

The serene way Annie said that lessened the impact of her words, but at the mention of 'hypnosis', Britta managed to switch to psychologist mode. She circled around to look Annie Kim in the face.

She cupped Annie Kim's chin in her hand and turned it up. There was no resistance, and no change in expression.

"No concern over surprising stimuli..." Britta mumbled, "No attempt to prevent a relative stranger from handling her, either."

She cast a concerned look over the hypnotised student's features.

"Emotionless expression," Britta noticed the slight upturn at the corners of Annie Kim's lips, "No, happy expression... I'll put this down as 'concerningly happy-go-lucky despite circumstances'. Hey, Annie, could you ask her to do something?"

"Annie Kim, write a short answer to the essay question 'how can we best combat the reach of marketing in the social media age'." Annie said, prim and proper as a real teacher.

And Annie Kim immediately opened her bag, produced a notebook, and wrote a few paragraphs. They were written well in standard argumentative essay language, and made a surprisingly solid argument for the use of hypnosis to harden the hearts of the general population against the pseudo-subliminal messaging found in mass media.

Britta nodded approvingly, "I like how you only want to hypnotise women. It would help address gender inequality if we were to only have men wasting their money on consumer goods." Then she took another moment to process what she'd just witnessed and said, "Wait... What the hell, Annie? How did you get her to believe this stuff?"

"I taught her." Annie walked around the teacher's desk and towards the other two women, "As you can see, Annie Kim is still my worthy rival, still eloquent and smart. I've just... improved her."

"Total compliance with orders she's given..." Britta pursed her lips in disgust, "Annie Kim is a level eight susceptible now, Annie!"

"That's amazing!" Annie squeed.

"It's disgusting!" Britta shrieked, "You can't just take away people's free will! You're no better than-"

"No, I am better than you, when you were working with Rick to brainwash the Greendale population. I'm not trying to sell products, I'm just helping people. I thought you hated capitalism, Britta?"

"Of course I do! B-but I'm still an American. I want people to have freedo-"

A finger pressed over Britta's mouth shushed her for a moment. Annie had crossed the distance between them, and before she could become the victim of an indignant tirade, she lifted the pendulum necklace from around her neck and began to swing it in front of Britta's face.

Her voice changed. It was no longer her controlled, polite cadence. It was sweet, with a bit of darkness inside it. Seductive... Authoritative.

"There is no freedom, Britta. You know that as well as I do. Everything we do is controlled by so many factors. Our lives are a mess, we're all at a bottom-of-the-barrel community college. But there's still smart people here. Like Annie Kim, like you, sometimes. But mainly, like me."

The pendulum swung, and Britta watched.

"I am the smartest here. I am the best. I am the one who will save you. Give up on freedom. Give in to the hypnosis. Let me save you. Let go of silly ideas like 'freedom'. Just become happy-go-lucky. Everyone you know who is happy is an idiot. And I know you have an idiotic side, too."

Britta frowned at the insult, but her eyes helplessly followed the shiny object, and she couldn't muster a counter-argument.

"Your idiotic side is too willful, that's why everyone finds you annoying when you Britta things. If you could just learn to let go of your pride, then you would be happy. And safe. Under my hypnosis you'll be free. Submission is freedom, Britta. So just let yourself fall."

Annie was right. Britta knew that her stubbornness combined with her relative unintelligence was the main way that she pushed people away, or at best pushed them to not take her seriously. If she could let go of her aggressive will, she would know peace.

Annie was smart. Annie would know how to be happy. Britta wouldn't even need to give up her intelligence, she would just need to let her intelligence be controlled by Annie...

But she couldn't let herself admit it. As beautiful and true as Annie's words were, even the pendulum couldn't distract her from the central truth of her being: Britta Perry never did what she was told. She would never submit to benign authority. Not her parents, not Annie.

It was time to pull out the big guns.

She blinked and looked away from the pendulum. She took a deep breath, and subtly rearranged the pitch of her voice. When she next opened her mouth, she spoke in a professional, friendly cadence which blended into any conversation. It was the sort of voice that you didn't pay attention to, but you did trust. The voice of the people, coming out of one person's mouth.

The guerrilla marketing voice. The one Rick taught her. The one she'd used to do terrible things.

"You know, Annie, you look really good for a hypnotist."

"What?" Annie stopped swinging the pendulum, her mouth half-open in her characteristic 'just been insulted' grimace.

"Hypnotists always look really goofy. Even if they're hot, they always have weird fashion sense or just, like, look generally creepy. They're totally lame."

"I-I'm not creepy!"

"Like, even if you were to brand yourself as some kind of genius sexy student girl hypnotist, the first thing anyone's gonna hear is 'weirdo with a top hat and a pocket watch'. Incidentally, a sleek wristwatch would go really well with your vibe right now."

"I... could go for a sleek wristwatch," Annie's whispered, uncertainly and mostly to herself.

It's working. Britta smiled, keeping her friendly, professional air, and put a hand on Annie's arm, "And what's important is that people have the free will to think what they think. You should respect that, and change up your style to me more appealing. Less creepy hypnotist, more college-reforming girlboss."

Annie wrenched her arm away and began to swing the pendulum again.

"And you need to make a change too, Britta! You need to accept that free will is a weakness, that it lets you be manipulated. You're especially weak to it because your will is linked to your stupid side."

"If you're so smart, Annie, you should realise that one woman can't change the image of hypnosis. It's always gonna be lame. You have to give up on it if you want our respect."

"You'll always be weak to the pressures of the world without me. You'll only be safe if you submit to hypnosis and let your will be decided instead of influenced by bad actors."

"No-one will take a pendulum swinging in front of their face seriously. Just because Annie Kim does what you say doesn't mean that normal people will listen to you."

Nevertheless, Britta was now dutifully following the pendulum with the gaze. But Annie, too, was nodding along to Britta's words, her eyes looking off into the distance, in deep thought.

"You're just being immature, Britta. I might look lame, but I'm still right. Women need to submit. Women need to be hypnotised. I can lead us. I'm good enough to be in charge."

"Annie, the hypnotist gimmick isn't working. People like Jeff. People like The Dean. They even like you when you're being nice and chill. You need to play into that. Be chill, stop hypnotising people."

"We need to give in to our own susceptibility and embrace it."

"You need to not hypnotise people and take away their will."

"I can't hypnotise people. I want them to like me."

"I shouldn't resist. I want to be safe and happy."

"We should become hypnotised and submissive. We shouldn't hypnotise people."

"We shouldn't hypnotise people. We should become hypnotised and submissive."

"All women in Greendale should be hypnotised."

"All women in Greendale should be hypnotised."

Both women agreed. Annie, with a faraway gaze and subliminally-inspired ideas. Britta, with a blank smile and hypnotically-induced thoughts.

Even Annie Kim, with a mind blanked and indoctrinated, had been attentively absorbing their argument.

They would help the other woman of Greendale to become hypnotised. They would, together, save the campus from subversive threats. But they would not take control, they would not be in charge.

All would obey. None would command.

Except maybe Jeff, Annie started to think.

"Hey guys," Abed said, walking into the room and poking at Annie Kim's almost unmoving form, "I like the ideas here, it's a nice way to use the whole thing where we have insight into people's thoughts without having to do a weird concept episode like that time we were all clay."

Annie and Britta shuddered.

"I'm not sure that you were both in character the whole time, but it comes with the medium, I guess. Anyway, the Jeff thing, I think it's a bad idea. Two of you had Jeff as a love interest, and I wouldn't put it past him to have an arc with Annie Kim if we could figure out more jokes than the 'Asian Doppelganger' angle. This has a big risk of getting sappy."

"What would you suggest?" All three women said, their voices devoid of any emotion but a broad sense of submission.

Abed smiled, he liked that he could tell what emotions were in their voices. "Well, since my love interest is kind of in the background but we never officially closed the arc, I think I'm safe from romance for now. So if you all obey me, then we can keep this all as good, clean fun."

"Yes, Master." The three women said.

"Okay, stay here, I need to go read up on what tropes people expect with mind control. As far as I know, it's either R-rated stuff we can't show or the girls get snapped out of it by the end of the episode-"

---

Months ago, fresh off of Actually Watching Community, I asked my watchers if they believed that a self-aware Community hypnofic would be Harmoncringe. I was assured it would be good, or good anyway. I leave this open to interpretation.

I still like the concept of expanding on the 'both doms end up hypnotised' theme of Full Circle and Don't Light My Fire by having the inductions happen in parallel. I'm not sure if it really worked, it definitely never got to the point that I'm happy with it, but I've learned to simply ignore that sort of feeling since I'm a bad judge of my own work anyway. I was also a bit worried if this is signalling too much of an oversaturation of this style of ending. But none of the next ~4 stories I have planned have this dynamic so it's probably fine.

Credit to BaretKlap and/or baretwrites for relinquishing use of this excellent source image to me, many moons ago.

Proofreading provided by Dormiria , who is on a spaceship with George Takei.