#Behavioral Control

[kiwi]

as a former escape room host i highly recommend doing an escape room as a first date. its a great way to learn how ppl react under pressure and how well they collaborate with you right off the bat. also more than once ive seen people enter an escape room as a couple and exit broken up LOL its a fantastic litmus test

[tmarshconnors]

[matt-is-me]

Of course you need to be told how and when to touch yourself darling, you're too dumb and empty to do all that on your own!

You wanted it to be like this, remember? You begged to be a toy. And doesn't it feel soo good to follow my words and obey?~

[polymerclay]

Worrisome Jenny

[hoosurdaddy]

Nest.

Pairing: Joe Goldberg x reader x Love Quinn.

ummary: You’ve been in their home for weeks now. Maybe months. Time’s slippery when you’re kept warm, fed, worshipped. You should feel like a pet. Like a prisoner. But all you feel is wanted. Needed. Maybe even… loved.

Warnings: NSFW (explicit sex), obsession, unhealthy dynamics, possessive/controlling behavior, manipulation, dubcon-adjacent (reader is drugged lightly for “relaxation”), voyeurism, dom/sub undertones, pet names, praise kink, mild biting, dark romance themes.

You have been warned.

Not taking requests.

⸻

The sheets smell like vanilla, linen, and Love’s skin.

You stretch slowly, the silk blindfold still warm against your eyelids. There’s a buzz in your limbs—not quite sedation, not quite arousal. Something between. Something intentional. You know the tea Love gave you an hour ago had something in it. You’re past questioning it. You always feel good afterward. Calm. Soft. Docile.

Joe’s voice cuts through the haze, low and careful.

“You look perfect like this.”

You hear the click of a camera. Not a phone. A real camera. The kind he used back when he said he “wanted to capture the truth of things.”

“You’re taking pictures?” your voice is hoarse, half-curious, half-sleepy.

“You’re art, baby,” Love whispers from the foot of the bed. “We can’t keep you all to ourselves and not at least look when you’re not here.”

You feel a kiss on your knee. Then your thigh. Then teeth.

Your breath hitches.

Love climbs up between your legs like a predator, hands sliding up your sides, her tongue darting out to taste your skin. She’s naked. You can feel her heat against your leg.

“She’s wet already,” Love purrs to Joe. “Just from hearing your voice.”

There’s the sound of something being set down. The camera. Then the rustle of clothing. Joe’s taking his shirt off. You know the sounds now. You know the feel of him when he presses against you—sharp hipbones, calloused hands, thick and patient where it counts.

“Of course she is,” Joe says, now closer, breath hot against your ear. “She knows she belongs to us.”

The words make your thighs press together involuntarily. Love pushes them apart again, chuckling. “Uh-uh, sweetheart. No hiding from us.”

They don’t ask for permission anymore. But somehow, you never feel forced. It’s like they’ve trained you—slowly, lovingly, breaking you down until this became your sanctuary.

Joe’s hands slide beneath your back, lifting you slightly so he can kiss along your collarbone. His voice is gentle. Too gentle for how rough he can be.

“You’re our pretty little pet, aren’t you?”

You nod.

Even blindfolded, you can feel their smiles.

Love licks a long, slow stripe from your navel to your chest. “Say it.”

“I’m yours.”

Joe’s fingers wrap around your throat—not to choke, just to hold. “Good girl.”

You feel Love’s fingers first. Then her mouth. Joe keeps whispering—dirty things, loving things, terrifying things. You lose track of where one of them ends and the other begins. You’re breathless, aching, unraveling under four hands, two mouths, one obsession.

They don’t stop until you beg.

Even then, they keep going just a little longer. Just to hear you cry.

[hypno-matt]

Put a spiral in front of my face and watch how quickly my brain dissapears.

Whisper soft words and compliments into my ears as my mind goes blank.

Then snap your fingers and catch me as I fall completely asleep~

[beebfreeb]

If I saw a nutcracker nobody could stop me

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ad-tech targeting is an existential threat

I'm on a 20+ city book tour for my new novel PICKS AND SHOVELS. Catch me TORONTO on SUNDAY (Feb 23) at Another Story Books, and in NYC on WEDNESDAY (26 Feb) with JOHN HODGMAN. More tour dates here.

The commercial surveillance industry is almost totally unregulated. Data brokers, ad-tech, and everyone in between – they harvest, store, analyze, sell and rent every intimate, sensitive, potentially compromising fact about your life.

Late last year, I testified at a Consumer Finance Protection Bureau hearing about a proposed new rule to kill off data brokers, who are the lynchpin of the industry:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/16/the-second-best-time-is-now/#the-point-of-a-system-is-what-it-does

The other witnesses were fascinating – and chilling, There was a lawyer from the AARP who explained how data-brokers would let you target ads to categories like "seniors with dementia." Then there was someone from the Pentagon, discussing how anyone could do an ad-buy targeting "people enlisted in the armed forces who have gambling problems." Sure, I thought, and you don't even need these explicit categories: if you served an ad to "people 25-40 with Ivy League/Big Ten law or political science degrees within 5 miles of Congress," you could serve an ad with a malicious payload to every Congressional staffer.

Now, that's just the data brokers. The real action is in ad-tech, a sector dominated by two giant companies, Meta and Google. These companies claim that they are better than the unregulated data-broker cowboys at the bottom of the food-chain. They say they're responsible wielders of unregulated monopoly surveillance power. Reader, they are not.

Meta has been repeatedly caught offering ad-targeting like "depressed teenagers" (great for your next incel recruiting drive):

https://www.technologyreview.com/2017/05/01/105987/is-facebook-targeting-ads-at-sad-teens/

And Google? They just keep on getting caught with both hands in the creepy commercial surveillance cookie-jar. Today, Wired's Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra report on a way to use Google to target people with chronic illnesses, people in financial distress, and national security "decision makers":

https://www.wired.com/story/google-dv360-banned-audience-segments-national-security/

Google doesn't offer these categories itself, they just allow data-brokers to assemble them and offer them for sale via Google. Just as it's possible to generate a target of "Congressional staffers" by using location and education data, it's possible to target people with chronic illnesses based on things like whether they regularly travel to clinics that treat HIV, asthma, chronic pain, etc.

Google claims that this violates their policies, and that they have best-of-breed technical measures to prevent this from happening, but when Wired asked how this data-broker was able to sell these audiences – including people in menopause, or with "chronic pain, fibromyalgia, psoriasis, arthritis, high cholesterol, and hypertension" – Google did not reply.

The data broker in the report also sold access to people based on which medications they took (including Ambien), people who abuse opioids or are recovering from opioid addiction, people with endocrine disorders, and "contractors with access to restricted US defense-related technologies."

It's easy to see how these categories could enable blackmail, spear-phishing, scams, malvertising, and many other crimes that threaten individuals, groups, and the nation as a whole. The US Office of Naval Intelligence has already published details of how "anonymous" people targeted by ads can be identified:

https://www.odni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ODNI-Declassified-Report-on-CAI-January2022.pdf

The most amazing part is how the 33,000 targeting segments came to public light: an activist just pretended to be an ad buyer, and the data-broker sent him the whole package, no questions asked. Johnny Ryan is a brilliant Irish privacy activist with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. He created a fake data analytics website for a company that wasn't registered anywhere, then sent out a sales query to a brokerage (the brokerage isn't identified in the piece, to prevent bad actors from using it to attack targeted categories of people).

Foreign states, including China – a favorite boogeyman of the US national security establishment – can buy Google's data and target users based on Google ad-tech stack. In the past, Chinese spies have used malvertising – serving targeted ads loaded with malware – to attack their adversaries. Chinese firms spend billions every year to target ads to Americans:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/business/google-meta-temu-shein.html

Google and Meta have no meaningful checks to prevent anyone from establishing a shell company that buys and targets ads with their services, and the data-brokers that feed into those services are even less well-protected against fraud and other malicious act.

All of this is only possible because Congress has failed to act on privacy since 1988. That's the year that Congress passed the Video Privacy Protection Act, which bans video store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you have at home. That's also the last time Congress passed a federal consumer privacy law:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

The legislative history of the VPPA is telling: it was passed after a newspaper published the leaked video-rental history of a far-right judge named Robert Bork, whom Reagan hoped to elevate to the Supreme Court. Bork failed his Senate confirmation hearings, but not because of his video rentals (he actually had pretty good taste in movies). Rather, it was because he was a Nixonite criminal and virulent loudmouth racist whose record was strewn with the most disgusting nonsense imaginable).

But the leak of Bork's video-rental history gave Congress the cold grue. His video rental history wasn't embarrassing, but it sure seemed like Congress had some stuff in its video-rental records that they didn't want voters finding out about. They beat all land-speed records in making it a crime to tell anyone what kind of movies they (and we) were watching.

And that was it. For 37 years, Congress has completely failed to pass another consumer privacy law. Which is how we got here – to this moment where you can target ads to suicidal teens, gambling addicted soldiers in Minuteman silos, grannies with Alzheimer's, and every Congressional staffer on the Hill.

Some people think the problem with mass surveillance is a kind of machine-driven, automated mind-control ray. They believe the self-aggrandizing claims of tech bros to have finally perfected the elusive mind-control ray, using big data and machine learning.

But you don't need to accept these outlandish claims – which come from Big Tech's sales literature, wherein they boast to potential advertisers that surveillance ads are devastatingly effective – to understand how and why this is harmful. If you're struggling with opioid addiction and I target an ad to you for a fake cure or rehab center, I haven't brainwashed you – I've just tricked you. We don't have to believe in mind-control to believe that targeted lies can cause unlimited harms.

And those harms are indeed grave. Stein's Law predicts that "anything that can't go on forever eventually stops." Congress's failure on privacy has put us all at risk – including Congress. It's only a matter of time until the commercial surveillance industry is responsible for a massive leak, targeted phishing campaign, or a ghastly national security incident involving Congress. Perhaps then we will get action.

In the meantime, the coalition of people whose problems can be blamed on the failure to update privacy law continues to grow. That coalition includes protesters whose identities were served up to cops, teenagers who were tracked to out-of-state abortion clinics, people of color who were discriminated against in hiring and lending, and anyone who's been harassed with deepfake porn:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/12/06/privacy-first/#but-not-just-privacy

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/20/privacy-first-second-third/#malvertising

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

[dazeygurl]

The sculptor, after finding the most minimal imperfection in her work, destroys it.

[ankarnaofjustice]

congratulations and give me your money OUTLIER

[matt-is-me]

Taking you out to dinner and consensually activating a trigger that makes you dumber and hornier every time i give you a kiss.

Installing safety precautions beforehand, to make sure that your mind is dizzy only when I'm talking to you, and that you're able to wake up at any time. And of course, reserving a private booth for the evening, so the two of us can be alone.

Kissing you as we eat our meal, and seeing you get more and more giggly and aroused with each passing moment. Watching as you become more needy and flustered over time, your way of speaking shifting into more sexual remarks as your iq drains away. Your mind trembling in arousal as you kiss me, knowing full well what happens when you do, and revelling in the fact that you can just let go and be kinky for me.

Pulling you into a more private place after we are done and asking you to whisper what you'd like me to do to you. Allowing your broken brain to beg for what it wants, and to talk about how much enjoyment you're in thus far. Then taking you home and making each and every one of those requests come true, kissing the remainder of your thoughts away as i do~

How does that sound?

[anjeliquesworld]

Thaddeus x reader

Note: yes,I love Thaddeus 😭

I tried to highlight Thaddeus abandonment issues and his dark side so here's the final version,I hope you enjoy it 💋

Cw: obsession, stalking, thriller, manipulation, abandonment issues

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Twisted Love

The moon lies high in the sky, full of stars, illuminating the empty streets of Kowloon Hell with its tender light, where darkness reigns and the nights seem endless.

Lying on the edge of the main rooftop:

Thaddeus.

His head full of thoughts.

~HIS POV:

Loneliness isn't just a horrible feeling; it's a companion that doesn't leave. My mind replays my past, each abandonment reminding me of how fragile I truly am. It's the weight of how easily people I cared about left me, as if I were a burden in their lives. It happened many times before—people have come and gone, and each departure left a scar deeper than the last.

"Ah, little bunny," I say, closing my eyes as I visualize your pretty face.

Your existence haunts me. The way you laugh when I make a stupid joke makes my heart skip a beat. That’s strange because I’ve always been good at keeping my distance, but with you, it's different. I can't stay away from you.

When I feel alone, I remember your small hands touching my face—gentle, soft strokes caressing me. You treat me as if I were someone worthy of your love. That’s why sometimes I’m overprotective: you’re too precious, and I don’t want you to suffer.

It’s funny, isn’t it? I pretend to be the good guy around you... I pretend to be the good friend—when in reality, I want to take you away from everyone. I just want to keep you safe from anyone who could hurt you. I’m the only one who can give you what you need.

You said it yourself the other day as we were walking to the park:

"You're the only one who truly understands me."

The affection in your eyes, that smile—no one ever gave me that. And I told you, playfully, "That's because we're meant to be." You blushed, looking so cute. But I wasn’t joking. We are meant to be. Together. Forever.

Sometimes, when the cold breeze of my domain envelops me, I wonder if this is what I deserve—being abandoned, left to face this cruel world alone. But when those thoughts overwhelm me, you come to mind. You’re the light that chases away the monsters.

I want to be the only one to whom you give your attention, your warmth, your smiles.

What I feel is not love.

No, it’s something darker, deeper.

Something I can’t control, something lurking in the back of my head, a sickening feeling—it’s obsession.

You’re not aware of the way I hide in the shadows to capture a glimpse of you. You don’t know how many times I’ve climbed up to your room to watch you sleep... so peaceful and innocent.

Too innocent for this world. Too innocent for me.

You’re too pure to be with someone as dark and twisted as me, but I am a selfish man. I have no intention of letting you go, little bunny.

My heart wouldn’t bear the sight of you in the arms of another man.

Before meeting you, it felt like I was invisible to everyone... a shadow fading into the background. Just one step away from being forgotten. But you, with your kindness, taught me that even I matter.

Sometimes I wonder if you feel it—if you feel my twisted love for you. When you look at me, I see it in those pleading, soft eyes of yours.

You can’t deny it, little one. You’re attracted to me, I know you are. You’re just too afraid to admit it.

But don’t worry. I’ll keep playing the charming prince for now. After all, I’m good at it.

"You're so cute when you blush, little bunny."

I chuckle, teasing you. "I'm sorry for teasing you... but I can't help it. It's just too fun."

We'll keep playing the cat and mouse as long as you want. I don’t mind.

At least I get to stay close to you.

Sooner or later, you will succumb to your desires.

You will come to me.

You have to.

You need me as much as I need you.

And I’ll be more than happy to satisfy you, my little bunny.

-------------------------------------------------------🎀

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.

.

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[hoosurdaddy]

Nest.

Part 3.

Joe x Love x Reader | Dark Obsession, Possessive Smut, Psychological Breakdown

Warnings: Dub-con undertones, emotional manipulation, possessiveness, graphic sexual content (fem!reader receiving rough sex from Joe, reader giving oral to Love), dominance/submission, unhealthy dynamics, gaslighting, crying kink, dark love.

It’s your own fault if you continue.

Part 2.

⸻

You didn’t make it far.

Two steps from the door before Joe caught you.

He dragged you back by your wrist—firm but eerily calm—and the look in his eyes wasn’t anger.

It was heartbreak.

It was betrayal.

It was ownership.

You barely get a word out before Love is on her knees in front of you, clutching your thighs, sobbing like you shattered her world.

“You were leaving us? After everything?” she cries, voice breaking. “We love you more than anyone ever could!”

You try to shake your head, to explain, to lie.

But Joe just hooks his arm around your waist, lifting you off your feet effortlessly, carrying you toward the bed like you weigh nothing.

Love follows like a broken doll, sniffling, whispering, “We’ll fix it. We’ll fix her. She’s just scared.”

⸻

Joe doesn’t say a word as he strips you bare.

Every movement is precise. Controlled. Terrifying.

When he pushes you down onto the bed, he doesn’t even look angry—he looks determined.

“You forgot who you belong to,” he murmurs, voice low and deadly soft.

Love crawls up beside you, trembling hands cupping your face.

“Show me,” she begs, tears shining in her lashes. “Please… show me you still love us.”

You would do anything to make the devastation in her voice go away.

Anything.

Even as Joe pushes your thighs open brutally wide and lines himself up at your entrance, you nod.

You whisper a broken “yes” against Love’s mouth.

⸻

Joe slams into you in one sharp, unforgiving thrust.

You cry out, your body unprepared for the roughness, the sheer overwhelming force of it—but he doesn’t slow down.

His hands grip your hips bruisingly tight, forcing you to take it, forcing you to feel every brutal inch of him.

“Feel that?” he growls against your ear. “That’s what you almost threw away.”

Love kisses your tears away, her thighs straddling your chest.

“Be good,” she whispers, voice wrecked and needy. “Please, be good for us, baby.”

She shifts forward, her thighs tightening around your head, and you understand exactly what she wants.

You don’t hesitate.

You can’t.

You tilt your head up and drag your tongue through her slick folds, tasting the salt of her need, the desperation in her body.

Love whimpers brokenly, rocking against your mouth, threading her fingers into your hair.

⸻

Joe fucks you harder—faster—the bed creaking under the brutal pace.

Every thrust knocks you deeper into Love’s core, your mouth wet and messy against her, your tongue desperate to make her come.

“You belong to us,” Joe hisses, driving into you like he’s trying to carve the truth into your body. “Say it.”

You moan into Love’s cunt, the vibrations making her gasp, her hips grinding down harder against your face.

Love is crying again—shaking, sobbing—but it’s not sadness anymore.

It’s relief.

It’s possession.

“Our good girl,” she pants, riding your mouth. “Our sweet girl—so good, so good for us—”

Joe’s thrusts grow brutal, almost punishing, until your whole body is trembling between them, used and worshipped and claimed.

You don’t know whose orgasm hits first—yours or Love’s.

Maybe both.

Maybe it doesn’t matter.

All you know is you’re falling—sinking—owned.

⸻

Afterward, you’re boneless. Shaking. Drifting.

Joe cradles you against his chest like you’re precious.

Love kisses every inch of your face like she’s apologizing for hurting you.

“You’re safe now,” she whispers.

“You’re home,” Joe murmurs.

And somewhere deep inside…

a part of you believes them.

[hypno-matt]

I just want someone to hack my computer while I'm browsing the internet, and use it to turn me into their entertainment for the night, is that too much to ask?

[shima-draws]

Kieran has me in a chokehold. His character arc is so GOOD. You can tell that his bitterness and anger doesn’t just come from everything that’s happened to him recently. It’s pretty obvious that he’s been living in Carmine’s shadow for a LONG time and she’s always kinda treated him badly. But it wasn’t until the player character came along that he was finally able to voice that in his own way;; Just when he thinks he’s made a true friend in someone, someone that can and will stand up to his sister and is able to defeat her in battle (which inspires him to start speaking up for himself more), Carmine steals them away. And that’s a big betrayal to him. He clearly has self esteem issues which leads to him thinking that Carmine was talking shit about him behind his back and getting the player to believe that he wasn’t worth being friends with. And that makes him think both of them were laughing at him and making fun of him. And THEN the player goes and takes the last thing that Kieran has, the last thing he truly cares about: Ogerpon. It’s no wonder he got so frustrated and petty and lashed out 😭 Still breaks my heart to see but they did a really good job showing that progression of him losing more and more of his patience with Carmine. And him generally feeling like everything he cares about is being torn away. And losing to the player over and over just makes things WORSE. He’s not strong enough to beat them, he’s not strong enough to stand up to his sister, he’s not strong enough to be worthy of Ogerpon, he’s not strong. He needs to get stronger. Stronger and stronger and stronger.

GODDDD. He’s going to live rent free in my brain forever now. I can’t wait to see the direction they take with him in The Indigo Disk

[quarterlifekitty]

Hiii, absolutely love your weaknesses series 👀

Which of the guys do you think is most likely to secretly put a tracker in their S/O's phone (and other places they'll never know about) ? The kind of guy who if they get caught, they go "oh no it's just for your safety 😊 is it so bad to want to care for you?? 😢"

Let me not waste your time. It’s price. We all know it. (I think @/syoddeye wrote a series about something like this! If I can find it I’ll link it here)

cw: obsessive, controlling behavior

Like. This man is going beyond just sticking an AirTag to your car. If he knew he could get away with it, he would get you chipped like a dog. And for your phone— it’s something installed with a parental lock you can’t disable without his help.

I imagine he’d been thinking about doing it for a really long time, but he finally got “pushed” into taking action when you went out drinking with friends one night and you weren’t answering his texts or calls— not until the next day. If you can’t be trusted to keep him informed on your safety and whereabouts, he’s gonna have to take matters into his own hands. But that’s okay! It’s no trouble to him to keep you safe. Cause he wuvs you so much.

And if you confront it about it, he’s gonna start by being casual as fuck about it. Like “it’s just so I know you’re safe, darl’.” And if he gets any pushback at all, he’s gonna flip it and tell you all about how he’s seen bad things happen to all kinds of people who didn’t deserve it. Don’t you wanna give your man some peace of mind? It’s such a small thing, he won’t even be looking at it unless he’s getting worried.

That’s not true, by the way. He’s going to be checking it every day when his eyes first open, every night before he goes to sleep, and during every single 5 minute break he takes during the day. And when he catches up with you before bed or at dinner or anything— he’s gonna ask what you did today. And this is where he thinks he’s magnanimously giving you a chance to prove yourself. That you won’t lie to the man who only wants what’s best for you.

And let’s address something else while we’re at it. Does Nikolai put a tracker on you? Of course not. He doesn’t need to. Because he can just keep you with him! And when he goes off on work, that’s what the cameras in the house are for.