Erin wore a thoughtful frown on her face, casual summer clothes on her body, and nothing on her feet. She had sunset hair, fair skin, a pretty face, and a toned physique. Through stylishly framed glasses, her dark amber eyes roamed around the room she was in, taking in all details for her keen, pre-doctoral mind to process.

She sat in what she had mentally labeled a techno-bondage lounger set against one wall of the room. The chair was semi-reclined and raised up her legs so that they were parallel to the floor. Thick metal bands encircled her waist, wrists, and ankles, securing them to the chair and keeping her from leaving it. Despite being immobilized, she couldn't say her seat was uncomfortable. It was well cushioned and suitably contoured to fit her form.

Just above her head hung a strange device. From her position below it, all she could tell was that the circumference of its bowl-shaped opening exceeded that of her scalp. However, looking over to her right allowed her to discern more details about it. That was because her two best friends sat in chairs the same as the one she was in, with the same type of devices hanging over their heads.

The state of those two women perfectly mimicked that of Erin: They were bound, barefoot, and beneath objects of an unknown but dubious nature. She could clearly see that those objects had shapes and mountings similar to salon hair dryers, though they sported circuitry and LEDs that no beauty parlor equipment ever would.

One friend, Ani, sat at the far end of the room. Ani was having a fit. Granted, under restraint as she was, said fit amounted to little more than bodily squirms, fist clenches, and toe scrunches. She also engaged in a constant stream of vocal utterances, which mainly consisted of vague protestations and negative exclamations. Her eyes were closed, and she seemed to be asleep, albeit actively living through a nightmare, if so.

The non-dryer above Ani's head buzzed loudly and shone a pulsing, bright pink light down onto her.

The other friend, Bhavana, sat between Erin and Ani. Though not struggling like Ani, neither was she calm like Erin. She lay still about half the time, and then the rest of the time, she trembled from head to toe. She also moaned and occasionally uttered a nonsensical word or phrase. Like Ani, her eyes were closed, and she too appeared to be asleep and having an unpleasant, if not quite nightmarish dream.

The non-dryer above Bhavana's head buzzed more quietly and shone a pulsing, pale pink light down onto her.

After surveying both of her friends, their predicaments, and their reactions, Erin looked back up at the non-dryer above her own head. Neither buzzing, nor light emanated from it. Her frown deepened.

A fourth woman occupied the room, sitting at a small workstation by the door. When Erin had finished pondering her inactive non-dryer, she called out to the woman.

"Hello. Yes, you. Pardon me, but I have a question."

The woman looked up, smiled, stood, and walked over to Erin. Of similar age to the three restrained friends, she wore the starkly formal uniform of a lab technician. Although, she matched the other women in that her feet, too, were bare.

"Yes, sugar?" she said in a charming Southern accent that complemented her pretty face.

"I was wondering why my, uh, thing isn't on. But my friends' things are on."

"You noticed that, did you? Well, it's simple, really. You're done. Your friends aren't."

"Done?"

"Done being brainwashed."

"I've been brainwashed?"

"You sure have."

"I...I don't feel brainwashed."

"Hm. Well, let's just check and make sure, shall we?"

The technician walked back to her station, retrieved a tablet, and then returned to Erin's side.

"Let's see now," she said, scrolling through a diagnostics screen on her device. "Oh, yes, indeed. You've been brainwashed, all right. Your levels of obedience and submission are at 100%. Perfect. You're all set."

She beamed happily at Erin, who continued to frown.

"So, this thing, this hair dryer, brainwashed me?" Erin asked.

"That's right."

"Just like it's brainwashing my friends?"

"Yes, you've got it."

"No, actually, I don't think I've got it. See, my friend down there, Ani, her hair dryer is loud and bright, and she's reacting very strongly to it. Then, Bhavana here, her hair dryer is quieter and less bright, and she's reacting to it, but not as much. And they're both asleep,  unconscious, hypnotized, or whatever...not awake, anyway."

"More or less hypnotized, but not exactly," the technician said, never losing her sweet smile.

"Right. Hypnotized. Great. Anyway, I don't think this thing ever hypnotized me. I don't remember seeing pink light or hearing loud buzzes or struggling or getting sleepy or anything."

"Is that so? Well, let's take another look...Ah, okay. Your hair dryer, as you call it--that's so cute, by the way, and easier to say than it's technical name--did its fair share of pink lights and buzzing. But, both were less intense than what's going on above your friends' heads. It did hypnotize you, but you didn't struggle. The whole process was pretty innocuous. So, it makes sense that you didn't even notice it."

"Oh."

"How nice for you to have had such an easy, no fuss-no muss brainwashing! And honesty, that made it easier on me, too, because I didn't have to pacify you, and then erase all those bad memories of you being scared and angry and all of that hoo-hah. Everything went so much smoother for both of us. Believe me, when I was in that chair, I threw a tantrum far worse than your friend is. But who did it help? Not me. They washed my brain clean just the same. And not my technician. That poor dear had a lot of extra work to do, thanks to me. All that to say: Well done, sweetie!"

"Yeah, okay, but, no."

The technician's smile faded just a bit.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Well...it's just that..."

"Come on, now, spit out. It's not like you can keep it a secret anyway. I did just brainwash you. You're going to tell me whatever I want to know."

"Right, sure, well...I have this fetish. I like being...submissive. I like being...controlled. I like being made to do things that I wouldn't do if I had a choice."

"Ooh-la-la," the technician said, her smile growing and her eyes sparkling. "So being brainwashed is the cat's meow for you."

"You'd think so, right? The cat's meow plus the catnip plus a grand ol' orgasm or two."

"Wonderful!"

"But, no," Erin said again. "Because none of that happened. It was all, I don't know, too easy or something."

"Ah, so you don't just want to be submissive and obedient. You want it to be forced on you. And not easily."

"Yeah, that's it."

"And this little hair dryer didn't do that. Which makes sense. It scans your brain before it starts its washing, and it only uses as much power as it needs to do the deed. Your friend--Ani, is it?-- requires a lot of power because she's all about putting up a fight. Your other friend--Bhavana, right?--requires less power. She's less stubborn than Ani, though she still tries to resist. And you, sugar, you required almost no power at all. You wanted to be made submissive and obedient, and that meant it had almost no work to do. So it all happened fast and easy, lickety-split."

"Yeah," Erin said with a dejected sigh. "Lickety-frickin'-split."

"Which translates to no fun for you."

"Nope, no fun at all."

"You know, I may just be a brainwashed slave, which is what you and your friends are soon going to be. But, I'm good at what I do. I know the ins and outs of these hair dryers, at least as well as the engineers who made them, maybe better. I can totally override their settings. If your dryer scans your brain and says it needs barely any power to wash it, then I can say, 'heck no, this girl needs full power.' I can say that, and then I can make it run full throttle."

"You can?"

"You bet I can."

"And would you?"

"I'll tell you what, sweetie: If you promise me to put up the best fight ever, if you struggle so hard it puts Ani to shame, I'll run you through the process again at the highest setting. And I'll make sure you have a brainwashing you'll never forget. Except that, of course, you will forget it because with that much power, you'll end up a mindless zombie. But, I promise that you'll be a mindless zombie with soaking wet panties from multiple orgasms. Oh, and I also promise you that I'll bring you some new underwear that you can put on afterwards."

"Really? You'd do all that for me?"

"Do it for you? Sugar, I've already done it!"

Once again beaming, the technician took her hand away from the tablet, where she had just entered in the code to initiate a new brainwashing sequence. Then she pointed to the hair dryer above Erin's head.

Erin looked up to see the bowl-shaped opening pulsing with brilliant pink light and emitting a cacophonous buzz. She grinned from ear to ear and had just enough time to utter a heartfelt thank you before the electronic induction began.

True to her promise, Erin fought to resist. She fought hard. She steeled her mind, grimaced intently, and shouted empowering mantras of resistance. She tensed her body. She clenched her fists until her hands shook. She scrunched and splayed her toes.

Her efforts managed to keep the power of the machine at bay, but only briefly. Little by little, she began to tire, while the device remained unyielding. Soon, weakness blossomed within her psyche and took root.

As her struggles lessened, her arousal grew. It intensified moment by moment, until she could neither think of, nor feel anything else. Then, as the last of her resistance dissolved into unabashed submission, she climaxed several times, each one accompanied by a long, loud, warbling yell.

The technician watched the scene play out before her in amazement and, as it finished, absolute joy. Her tremendous smile all but overtook her face.

When at last it was all over, the technician made a note on her tablet: Bring clean underwear for Subject A-1. After all, she didn't want to forget to do it. A promise was a promise...and that was the most rewarding promise she had ever made.