This seems very dependent on context, and also medium.
Heart-shaped pupils: This is what I'd be leaning towards clicking if I had to select one, but it's more because I'm thinking of one fic which inserted ♡ symbols at the end of everything the afflicted character said, which – I like the mind control being so thoroughly woven throughout the character that it affects how the very fabric of the medium receives their speech. (Pink text would also do this, but it gives more of a sense of the controller speaking through the afflicted, as though it isn't their voice. That distance absolves the speaker of responsibility... as though they were merely a telephone for someone else. Which, the objectification there is hot too, but at that point you're talking possession, less the mind control – the constant reappearance of the ♡ after anything said, by contrast, emphasizes the inescapability of the control, futility of trying to fight it. You could say anything you liked – "Help, I'm being mind controlled! ♡" – and not only would your tone, aspect, stage notes say you wanted it, anyone you spoke to would swear the same.)
Obviously accompanying dialogue rather than being present as an ocular element would make this a slightly different option than the poll's, hence my reluctance to click, but as written I think heart pupils largely overlaps with
Spirals in their eyes: Not especially effective in text, but very cute in comics as a pair with "staring forward, stiff/robotic, drooling." It creates a noticeably dazed, affected appearance which leaves no doubt as to the fact and nature of the character's affliction.
Works better for more relaxed scenes: forcing the affected to take care of themselves/get some rest, picking up a hypnotic device or audio, watching a pendulum, mirroring spirals in the inducer's own eyes. The sub has no will to resist, and the effect seems generally weaker when portrayed this way (something about it being so cliche cheapening it?), so it's easier to walk them through slowly and ensure they aren't exposed to anything too shocking too suddenly.
Status condition with cute icon: Meta, which I appreciate: "The effect you're experiencing is severe enough to be noted on a world level, as important as anything else your character sheet." Then there's the bonus fun of who exactly can see those stats (just the reader? the afflicted's party? the status caster? Can the afflicted see their own stats, if they have the freedom of will to try?) and who's associated with that effect (who's susceptible to the status? is it communicative? how? How many and what type of unit can induce it – an enemy fighter? Boss, or mook unit? Anything with a certain tag or class, or is it a potion/spell/whatever that anyone could learn/make/receive with enough effort? Did the afflicted get an unlucky enemy roll, or did they search the caster out specifically, or were they tracked down, or is this a mandatory encounter? If they lose, is it scripted, luck, hubris, or a bad matchup?). The nature of it being hidden meta-info means it has to be fairly subtle by default, which suits recruitment or sabotage plots, but feels rather unsatisfying for direct contact/engagement with the 'tist.
(Now I'm thinking of a set-up where an adventurer with one of these hidden status conditions ends up seducing one of her companions, who's shocked that her friend has gotten so forward all of a sudden but the two of them were obviously prepared to get together so long as they got one little push... and the status afflicter is a third party, maybe an evil sorceress or something, who's jealous as hell of either and/or both of the other two and spying in order to live vicariously...)
Nothing (revealed later): Unjudgeable on its own merits by having, definitionally, no effect to judge. Rating completely dependent on the rest of the story and what, exactly, has been done to cause "this character was mind controlled during these events" to be a reveal. Would necessitate a big, dramatic moment where a fair chunk of the story is abruptly recontextualized to reveal a completely different plot behind the scenes, imo, but even then having the mind control itself be so far out of view makes it a rather unsexy example of mind control by default.
The visor is still there, and they're drooling: My immediate thought is this sounds like a one-panel comic, where that Is the mind control, but I could also see something longer form where the character is just drawn with that visor forever now and the other characters either have no reaction to this (themselves hypnotized to ignore it?) or dismiss it as "just [character]." ...Then I thought the words "permanent addition to the character model," though, and – ough. Video games. Video games where the character is taken and broken and still wandering around with the mask on. Where you have to fight the afflicted, no matter if they were enemy or ally before this was done to them, and either way it's horrifying; where you see them in the inducer's palace later and they're treated capriciously as a trophy or favorite knight or pet. Yeah okay that's hot.
Girl now: This is just forcefem. Which is hot, don't get me wrong, but. wrong kink.
Purple wisps: That's a new one for me. I like it, though: that ghostly haunting of your puppetmaster, floating behind, hazing over you. A fog changing everything you see through it (or what other people see of you), playing you on marionette strings, tugging invisible lines... You can see it, know exactly what it means, but no one else can – you'll find no help here. And, from a meta art perspective, to be followed everywhere you go by the specter of the one who did this to you... I don't know, it's got everything that should appeal to me, it's just missing that secret sauce that'd make it really Get me somewhere.
titsay
vaporwave
dededos
jacobvanloon
theartofmadeline
izzy806
stormborns
blakekathryn
