Title: Her Own Path
Chapter 4
The first day of classes. The past week had been largely uneventful. There were some orientation events she’d gone to, but most of that time had been filled with studying. Coming here, she thought she’d known everything about hypnosis, and all she lacked was practical experience. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. She had learned so many new things in this past week alone. Her entire perception of hypnosis had been upended. She had really only mastered the most basic type of hypnosis, and it heavily relied on having a willing subject. So it was functionally useless in most situations. But what she knew could still serve as a useful base that she could build upon. Despite her disappointment at finding this out, she did get some grim satisfaction out of it. She always thought her mother’s methods were too simple and narrow minded. But it still made things difficult for her.
Hopefully, her classes would give her something she could focus on. She wasn’t expecting to come out as an expert after her first week, but maybe some new technique or style she could try using. She wasn’t really sure what to expect though. The curriculum description was fairly general. She sat up in her bed, rubbing her eyes as wakefulness returned to her. She glanced over at the other bed to see Skye sliding out of bed. “Mmmm, Morning.” She mumbled out. Sophia had gotten to know Skye a little better over the past week. They went to a lot of the same orientation events together, more out of convenience than anything else, and even shared a few meals when the timing worked out. They’d told each other a little more about their lives in that time.
Skye didn’t have much to tell about her life. She had lived in a pretty normal family, and she’d become fascinated with hypnosis at a young age. Her family didn’t know much about it but were happy to her pursuit of it, and were happy she had something she was ionate about. She had no formal training, but her baseline knowledge was much broader than Sophia’s. So while she might not understand hypnosis on the level Sophia does, having no practical experience with hypnosis outside of a few small experiments with friends, she knew many things about it that Sophia didn’t. Sophia hadn’t told Skye much about her life. Just that her family was very closed minded, and she was only taught a very old style of hypnosis. She said she came to the university hoping to learn more about hypnosis since her family wouldn’t let her. Skye seemed sympathetic to this and even offered to give her a few pointers on where to get started. This, combined with her own research had helped to slowly build up her confidence in her skills again.
“Good morning, Sophia,” Sky said in a bright tone. Sophia had never been a morning person, but unfortunately the same did not appear to be true of Skye.
Sophia finished rubbing the sleep out of her eyes as she slid out of bed. She grabbed a set of clean clothes and started to change “Thanks”
The two of them finished getting dressed. Since they were both first years studying hypnosis, they had very similar schedules. They had all the same classes, but some of them happened at different times for them. But they shared their first class, Hypnosis 101. They walked through the campus, sharing a feeling of excitement. This surprised Sophia. Hypnosis had always been a part of her life, why would it be any different now that she was going to a university for it. It took her a little bit to realize. All her life, hypnosis was something that was imposed on her. She never had any say in how it was taught to her, despite her best efforts. Now, she was learning it on her own . It was her choice to be here. Hell, even the past week of studying had been more fulfilling than any lesson or practice session she’d done with her family. Because she was finally making her own choices about what she was learning.
The pair arrived at their classroom and took their seats. There were still a few minutes before the class would start, so students were still filing in. Sophia and Skye exchanged some small talk while waiting. Then the teacher walked in, making her way up to the.
“Hello, class. Welcome to Hypnosis 101. I’m Ms. Kayla,” She starts with an easy smile. Sophia settles in as Ms. Kayla begins going over the introductory material of the class. She makes sure to listen attentively, but she’s really just waiting for the introduction to be over so they can move on. It takes a little bit and becomes a little tedious to Sophia, but they eventually get on to the lesson proper. “Now, the essence of hypnosis is drawing your subject’s attention,” Ms. Kayla begins. Sophia’s excitement is immense, but it quickly fades as Ms. Kayla begins going over things she already knows. Stuff her mother had already told her thousands of times. She knew this class would be basic, but this felt like such a letdown. It couldn’t all be the same, could it? Sophia began to tune out Ms. Kayla’s words in her brooding. It wasn’t until Skye bumps her shoulder lightly that she started paying attention again.
“But you must keep in mind that there isn’t a single correct way to hypnotize someone. As long as your method draws your subject’s focus and directs their thoughts in a way you want, it can work, so long as it’s done well.” Ms. Kayla continues. Sophia sits up in her chair. That was it. That was what she’d been missing. Or at least part of it. She was so set in her ways in of inductions. Her mother had drilled her techniques into her head so much that she simply couldn’t adapt to any resistance she ran into. So maybe what she needed to focus on was learning new styles. Her research had already been in that direction with Skye’s help, but it was good to know she was working in the right direction. The rest of the class es with Sophia making sure to take lots of notes and giving her plenty more to think about. As the class ended, many ideas were running through her head on what she wanted to try next. She walked with Skye outside.
“Well, that was certainly insightful,” Sky says, skipping slightly. “What did you think about that? You seemed to be a bit out of it until part way through.”
Sophia bobs her head back and forth, lining up her thoughts. “I was for a little bit. At the beginning, she was just repeating stuff I’ve heard a thousand times. I was feeling like this was just going to be the same as my family.” She shrugs. “But then she said some things that changed my perspective. Gave me some new things to think about.”
“That’s good,” Skye says. “I’m gonna get something to eat. Want to come with?”
Sophia shakes her head. “Not right now. I’ll see you back at our room.”
“Sounds good!” Skye splits off from her and gives her a wave.
Sophia returns the wave absently. She wanted to try something new. But she needed a subject. She could hypnotize Skye, but she would be a willing subject, and that’s not what Sophia needed right now. She had an idea, and she needed someone who would be a neutral subject. She walked around aimlessly for a little while. Then she saw someone sitting on their own. She approaches them but wonders exactly how to try to hypnotize them. She wants to try a covert induction, but how to get it to work? After a bit of deliberation in her head, she has something.
Once she feels like she’s close enough, Sopha claps her hand over her eye. “Agh, my eye!” She says just loud enough for the purple haired foxgirl to hear.
As expected, her ears perk up at her cry and the girl turns around, seeing Sophia. She stands up and walks over to her. “Oh, are you okay?”
Sophia gives a weak nod. “Yeah, I think I just got something in my eye.” She starts pulling her hand away and blinks, but winces as if it’s uncomfortable for her.
The floof holds her hands up but isn’t sure what to do. “Is it bad? How much does it hurt?”
“It’s not too bad,” Sophia says with a kind smile. “It just surprised me, is all.” She slowly pulls her hand away from her face. “Can you see what it is?”
The foxgirl focuses on Sophia’s eyes. “I’m not sure… Can you open your eyes a little more?”
“Of course,” Sophia says agreeably. She pulls her hand all the way away and opens her eyes. But before the foxgirl can see much, she blinks. “What can you see? It might be small, so you may have to look pretty closely.”
“Yeah, that makes sense.” The foxgirl looks closer into Sophia’s eyes now. “Hey, can you stop blinking? It makes it hard to see.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sophia speaks smoothly but continues blinking. “It’s more comfortable for me.” Blink. “I hope you’ll bear with me.” Blink. “All I ask is you keep watching my eyes.” Blink. “See if there’s anything in them.” Blink. “You can do that, can’t you?” Blink
The floof nods slightly. “Yeah, I can do that. I can keep watching. It’s just kind of hard to see is all.” The blinks began bothering her less now. They were falling into a bit of a rhythm now. It wasn’t that bad.
“That’s fine.” Blink. Sophia continues speaking at a calm pace. “Just keep watching.” Blink. “I’m sure you’ll find it soon.” Blink. “So you can just keep watching my eyes.” Blink. “You might find them relaxing.” Blink. “It’s fine if you keep watching.” Blink. “Keep staring.” Blink. Each blink, drawing you in.” Blink “Each blink is so nice.” Blink.
“Yeah, they are pretty nice, now that you mention it.” The foxgirl continues watching Sophia’s eyes. “Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to just watch your eyes… watch the blinks…”
“That’s right.” Blink. “Let the world fade away.” Blink. “Let yourself focus on my eyes.” Blink. “Focus on my voice.” Blink. “It’s so easy, so simple.” Blink. “To watch, to follow, to focus.” Blink. “On my eyes, on my words.” Blink.
The foxgirl began nodding along to Sophia’s words now, her nods matching up with Sophia’s blinks. “It’s easy to focus… to follow… your eyes… your words…” Her eyes were becoming a little bit glazed over now.
“That’s right, everything else fading away.” Blink. “Your mind fading.” Blink. “With each blink.” Blink. “Just my voice.” Blink. “Just my eyes.” Blink. “Pulling you down.” Blink. “Down into trance.” Blink. “A nice, relaxing trance.” Blink. “Let yourself drop for me.” Blink.
“Mmm… yeah… blinks… voice… drop…” A slight smile forms on the foxgirl’s face as her eyes flutter.
“Very good.” Blink. “Each blink pulling you deeper.” Blink. “Into trance.” Blink. “Into submission.” Blink. “Into obedience.” Blink. “Into my control.” Blink. “Dropping down for me, pretty girl.” Blink.
The floof lets out a soft moan as her body falls forward, forcing Sophia to her. This drew a few glances from some ersby, but impromptu hypnosis sessions were a common enough occurrence that it didn’t draw too much attention.
“That’s right, falling deeper from me still.” Sophia instructs softly. “Standing up straight for me now.” The foxgirl pulls herself up in a relaxed posture. Looking at her eyes, they’re not as glazed and spacey as Sophia is used to seeing with the servants. It probably meant she wasn’t as deep as them. So her technique had improved, and her first proper attempt at a covert induction had been successful. But what to do with this girl now? “What’s your name?”
“Mina…” She drones out in a mindless tone.
“Well, Mina. When you wake up, you won’t this trance. You’ll just think you helped me clean out my eye. And you’ll find me as your good friend, Sophia. You can do that for me, can’t you?” Sophia is doing this mainly as an experiment. She wants to see how much programming she can make stick at this point. And she doesn’t want to push much harder than these simple suggestions out of fear that anything more could wake Mina up.
Mina gives a slight nod.
Sophia lets out a breath in relief. She could still make it work. “Then it’s time to come back up for me. Forgetting and ing what you’ve been told. Up out of trance now.” Sophia snaps her fingers and watches Mina closely.
Mina shakes her head and blinks a few times as her tail and ears perk up. “Oh, Sophia. Sorry, spaced out there for a second. Is your eye okay?”
Sophia gives her a smile. “Just fine, thank you.” She considers Mina’s demeanor. She’s definitely warmer towards her, but not as much as she’d expected. Probably a result of her trance not being as deep, so the suggestions didn’t have as much of an effect. Still, this was a highly positive result for her. This proved she could learn more, and do well with it. It made everything she had done worth it. She could improve, she just needed to practice and learn more now. “Hey, I don’t think I got your number.” She says. Mina smiles and they exchange information. Sophia doesn’t have any kind of long term plans for Mina, but it can’t hurt to be able to call and text her. “Well, I’ll see you around.” They exchange smiles and friendly waves before going their separate ways.
Sophia made her way back to her dorm, considering the results of her experiment. She had dropped Mina easily enough this time, and she seemed unaware of what happened. So as covert inductions go, it was a success in that sense. But beyond that, her programming didn’t seem to stick that well. Mina was friendly towards her now, but she wasn’t sure it would be accurate to call them good friends just based on that interaction. She’d call that a partial success. It was still a great result, regardless of any shortcomings she faced, it was still a great outcome. Far better than her last attempt. It showed her she was working in the right direction. She also needed to put much more focus into that attempt than she had used on that salesman. So her existing knowledge was still valuable. But it wouldn’t carry her all the way. But the classes and research were helping. She just needed to do more now. She’s deep in thought all the way back to her dorm.
“Hey, you were out for a bit,” Skye said as Sophia walked in. “How was it?”
Sophia gives her a smile. “Pretty good, yeah. Had a chance to try some of the stuff I’ve been learning.”
“Oh, why didn’t you ask me?” Skye asked.
Sophia shakes her head apologetically. “Maybe some other time. But you weren’t what I needed.”
Sky shrugs. “If you say so. I hope you learned something from it.”
Sophia nods. “I did.” She lays back on her bed, pulls out her phone, and starts thinking. She had picked out two things she could focus on to improve. How she used a hypnotic focus and her conditioning and programming. These were both new aspects of hypnosis she was new to. She never had any experience with hypnotic focuses with her family, and the servants were hypnotized so consistently that they were already heavily conditioned, so even the most basic programming would be highly effective. She needed to make up for that somehow. To some extent, simply repeating herself more could help, but she wanted to learn some more effective ways to reinforce it. She ed seeing something ing other senses to deepen a subject. Between a normal induction and some kind of accessory, that covered sight and sound, but what about touch? Sophia could think of some interesting possibilities with that. Something else to experiment with. As for a focus, she had a few ideas for that.. There was the obvious choices of a pendant or a spiral, but her experiment with Mina had shown those were far from her only options. She’d never thought her eyes could be so effective, but it turns out most anything can be used as a focus as long it’s calming and easy to look at.
Plenty to think about, but in the meantime, Sophia texted Mina. “Hey, what’s up?” She didn’t have a specific goal in mind, she just wanted to see how well her programming was sticking.
It took a few minutes for her to get a reply, and all it said was “Can’t talk now.”
Well, that wasn’t terribly informative. But not all that surprising. She replied “Text me back when you can. I’d love to talk.” Not really expecting a reply, but you never know. The programming she’d given Mina had been fairly basic, and she hadn’t spent any time conditioning or reinforcing it. So it was expected that Mina wasn’t so eager to talk to her. At best, Sophia was probably just an acquaintance to Mina. That was fine for now. It just showed what she needed to work on. Sophia glanced over at Skye to see her sitting at her desk, working on something. Maybe she would take Skye up on her offer. And having a willing subject would let her try something new for her focus and induction. She should do some more research before that though. And she wondered how far she could push her programming and conditioning on her. It might be useful as a long term experiment.