Her Own Path
Chapter 7
Sophia had been thinking about how best to avoid being hypnotized. Her classes had given her some fairly standard methods to improve her resistance, but she had concluded that the best way to avoid being dropped into trance was to simply be the better hypnotist. She’d also been introduced to hypnotic magic. Her mother had never even mentioned something like that. Magic could be used for something as simple as making a focus that much harder to look away from, but it also opened up entirely new avenues for influence. For example, when imbued with the right spells, a simple piece of jewelry could make whoever wore it much easier to entrance, or even drop them if the magic was strong enough.
Apparently, elves had naturally strong mana, but since she’d never trained or developed it. (Sophia once again cursed her mother for this hole in her training) her options would be fairly limited. She couldn’t use magic to brute force subjects into submission, but it could be a powerful tool if applied correctly. She’d been studying some basic techniques and she had a few ideas to give her an edge. But that was something for another time.
She had a plan to test herself. The strongest hypnotist in the school was generally agreed to be the university therapist, Dr. Rosa. Her talent and skill were a great boon to the school, and she helped students with all kinds of mental issues. If Sophia could entrance her, it would be a real show of her progress. This plan did carry some risk. If she lost and got hypnotized herself, she didn’t know what would happen to her. But she needed to know her progress. She’d been having great success up to this point, but it wasn’t enough for her. Losing to Skye so easily had shaken her. Nothing bad had happened to her, obviously, but she still needed to know she could defend herself against anyone and everyone.
Dr. Rosa’s position as the therapist worked in Sophia’s favor here. She could schedule an appointment, guaranteeing some private time for them. And she had a new induction she wanted to try. Much of her research has focused on unique methods and focuses. It was a subject that had been lacking in her classes so far. She couldn’t really complain about it, since a lot of the theory and new basic techniques she’d learned had been extremely useful. And now she felt confident enough to try and take on Dr. Rosa. She’d only get one chance at her, but hopefully, she could gain a slight advantage with the element of surprise. Other than that, Sophia would just have to hope she had enough skill to drop Dr. Rosa before she dropped her.
Sophia’s appointment was scheduled for the next day, so she had some time to mentally prepare. She ended up spending the rest of the day with Skye. The two of them decided to go outside and get some fresh air.
“Hey, are you okay? You’re usually pretty closed off, but today I seem less talkative than usual.” Skye asks her with some concern.
This pulls Sophia out of her reverie, lost in thinking about her plan. “Oh, uh…” She thinks fast, considering what to tell Skye. “It’s nothing much. Just some things on my mind.”
“Are you sure?” Skye turns to face her. “It doesn’t seem like nothing.”
Sophia flashes a pained smile. “Well, okay. There is something I’ve been thinking about. But I don’t really want to talk about it.” Who knows how Skye would feel about her plan to go and hypnotize Dr. Rosa. But maybe it would help to talk about it a little. “But it has been weighing on me.”
“It’s fine, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Skye says with a smile and leads them to a nearby bench. They both sit down on it. “But maybe I can help you.”
Sophia cocks her head to the side. “How so? You don’t even know what I’m dealing with.”
Skye shrugs, dismissing the issue. “That’s fine. I can hypnotize you to help you be less nervous about whatever it is.”
Sophia blinked at this. She knew hypnosis had therapeutic applications, but their classes hadn’t gone into it yet, and it wasn’t something that had really interested her so she hadn’t thought about it much. But submitting again, even to Skye, gave her pause. Could she let go again? “Can you do that?
“It’s one of the aspects of hypnosis that really interests me.” Skye nods eagerly. “But I wanted to ask you to do it, and not just spring it on you out of nowhere.”
Sophia flashes a smile at this. “Well, I appreciate it.” She thinks about Skye’s offer. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to try it. And she trusted Skye to not do anything bad with her. “Okay, go ahead.”
Skye reaches out and puts her arm around Sophia’s body. “Sleepy Sophia.”
Sophia’s body relaxes as she feels her trigger wash over her. It’s still a strange sensation, even when she’s expecting it. She trusts Skye of course, but… but… but… whatever she was thinking is carried away by her trance, now lost forever. It feels so nice to just relax, to not think and not worry about anything. To let herself be guided and led. Led by the soft words Skye is speaking to her now.
“That’s right, Sophia,” Skye speaks softly, holding Sophia’s limp body in her arms. “Let all your stress go, let all your worries go. Let it all go away. It’s so much better, so much easier to be blank and empty.” Sophia’s head bobs up in down at this in a sleepy nod. “Very good.” Skye continues her soothing words, petting Sophia’s head to relax her further. She had to it, there was a certain dominant pleasure in having someone helplessly hypnotized in your arms and petting them like that. She tried not to get too lost in the reverie, after all, she was doing this to help Sophia. “Now, Sophia. Whatever it is that’s worrying you, whatever it is that’s making you nervous, whatever you’re stressing about, you can feel your worries about it fading. You know it’s something you can deal with. You know there’s a solution to whatever it is. You feel confident in yourself, you know you can overcome whatever you face.” Skye goes on in this vein, clearing away Sophia’s stress and building up her confidence. When she feels like she’s done enough, Skye stops, taking a deep breath. She’s about to pull Sophia up when she thinks of one more thing to add. “And whatever it is you’re facing, whatever problem or task you have, you’ll find yourself going above and beyond. Doing more than just what you need to do, and doing everything you possibly can.” Having finished that, Skye nods to herself. “Letting all that sink into your mind as I pull you up now. Waking up, confident, and ready to face whatever task you’re facing, not worrying or stressing as you come up now. You’re wide away now.” Skye snaps her fingers.
Sophia pulls herself up, blinking as her thoughts come back to her. After a bit of introspection, she smiles. “Thanks, Skye, I think I needed that.” She doesn’t exactly what was said to her this time, but she feels much better about taking on Dr. Rosa now. She still recognized losing as a possibility, but she dwelled on it much less. It was much better to simply focus on how she would succeed. She felt much more sure and confident in herself like she could do anything she put her mind to. Right now, she is putting her mind to making Dr. Rosa submit.
“I’m just glad I could help you.” Skye beams at her. “Hopefully whatever you have going on works out for you.” The two of them exchange smiles and they have a relaxing rest of the day. Sophia is much calmer and feels much better about letting her mind wander and just enjoying the moment for now.
Back at their dorm, Sophia considers her options. She could try a bit of last minute research, but she decides to just relax for the rest of the day. She’s done what she can to prepare, and she doesn’t want to risk psyching herself out. And it’ll be better to be well rested. With this in mind, Sophia lays down in her bed and lets sleep take her
Sophia wakes up, feeling refreshed and relaxed. Today’s the day. She was prepared, and she felt confident in herself. Not too much, the last thing she needed was to make a stupid mistake because she was overconfident. It was still important to Dr. Rosa was the strongest hypnotist in the school. Even with surprise on her side, it would be an uphill battle. She still had a bit of time before her appointment, so she went about preparing herself.
Walking through the hallway, Sophia began taking some deep breaths. Now that the time was approaching, her nerves were starting to get to her. Skye’s suggestions to keep her calm could only do so much at this point. It was fine though. It wasn’t hindering her thinking and it was good to be aware of the risks. Soon, Sophia reaches the therapist’s office. She stands outside the door, going through her plan one last time. Then she reaches up and knocks.
“Come in,” A soft voice is heard from inside the. Sophia turns the door handle and walks in. Inside, She sees a comfortable looking couch and Dr. Rosa sitting in a padded armchair across from it. Dr. Rosa smiles up at her. “Hello, Sophia. Please, have a seat.” She gestures to the couch. Sophia nods and Sits down in the middle. “So what did you come in for? You didn’t say anything about what you need from me when you made this appointment. That’s fine of course, but it would have helped me prepare for this better if you did.”
“Right, yeah.” Sophia glances down in a last moment of doubt before steeling her resolve. “Actually, I think it’ll be easier if I show you.” As she says this, Sophia waves her hand through the air, conjuring a cloud of bubbles. It’s a simple spell, one she was able to learn within a day. There were more advanced applications for it, like imbuing the bubbles with hypnotic magic to make them an even more potent tool, but that was too complicated for her limited understanding of magic. But just some simple bubbles, with a slight modification to the spell to make their popping a little more compelling, a little more distracting, was well within her ability. “It would be great if you could watch these bubbles. They’re so nice, so pretty, I’m sure you could get lost in just watching them.” Sophia’s tone started hesitantly, but it quickly became more confident as she got into her practiced flow.
“What are you doing?” Dr. Rosa’s eyes are naturally drawn to the bubbles as they float around her head. She’s clearly caught off guard by the bubbles, but she’s quick enough to respond. She doesn’t know why Sophia’s doing this, either of her own volition, or she’s been programmed to, but whatever the case, she knows that dropping her will help her get to the bottom of it. She holds up a flashing light. A simple tool, but effective in the hands of a skilled hypnotist. “Watch here, Sophia. Watch the light, let it pull your gaze, pull your focus.” She begins moving the light back and forth in a lazy arc.
This was well within Sophia’s expectations. But being ready for this pushback didn’t help her resistance to it much. Her eyes were reflexively drawn towards the light like a moth to a flame. It was so natural to focus on. But Sophia couldn’t let it distract her. She focused again on her bubbles, making sure to make them pop in an even rhythm in line with her words. “And while you play with your little light, you can just keep watching the pretty bubbles.” Pop. “They’re so nice, so fun to watch.” Pop “And you might start to feel the pops.” Pop. “Feeling them in you body.” Pop. “Feeling them in your mind.” Pop. “It would be so nice, so easy, so simple.” Pop. “To get lost in that feeling.” Pop. “You don’t have to think about it.” Pop. “You can just let it happen.”
Dr. Rosa starts watching the bubbles despite herself. Whichever one is about to pop next drifts to the center of her attention, making it impossible for her to miss it. Without her realizing, her blinking begins to line up with each pop. Each one seems to resonate in her mind, getting stronger with each pop. “Now now, Sophia.” Dr. Rosa speaks in a slightly spacey tone, her eyes beginning to glaze over. As she continues to move the light “No need to focus on those bubbles. It must be so much work, so draining. It would be so much better, so much easier to watch and focus here. Feel the light in your mind. Drowning out your thoughts. Drowning out your will. Just the light now.”
The light appears brighter now to Sophia, somehow. Everything else around her appears dimmer as she fixes more of her focus on the light. But she manages to keep her bubbles popping… for now. “The bubbles are filling your mind.” Pop. “Pushing out thoughts.” Pop. “Pushing out control.” Pop. “And with each one that goes pop.” Pop “It leaves your mind a little emptier.” Pop. “A little blanker.” Pop. “A little more obedient.” Pop. “No need to think about it.” Pop. “It just happens.” Pop. “Each pop, felt in your mind.” Pop. “Popping your thoughts.” Pop. “Popping your will.” Pop. “Popping your control.” Pop. “Leaving behind helpless, popped bliss.” Pop.
Each pop begins to derail Dr. Rosa’s train of thought. It was manageable at first, but each pop built upon the last. It quickly got to a point where she needed to actively focus on not dropping to keep her induction going. “Just follow the light. It’s filling your mind. It’s so overpowering, so all consuming. You can’t think through it, you can’t think past it. You can’t even try. So let the light fill your mind. Let everything fade away, the light is the only thing left in your mind. Your mind… your thoughts… your control… it’s all going away. Covered up by the light. Your mind is going blank. Just the light. Your thoughts are going blank. Just the light.The light is all you know…” Dr. Rosa’s voice becomes noticeably empty and distant as the bubbles continue popping.
Sophia’s awareness of everything other than the light continues to dim. She can see it so clearly in her mind. Filling up her mind. Drowning out her thoughts… She shakes her head slightly. But her gaze remains fixed on the light. Sophia can tell that Dr. Rosa is slipping, but even with her initial advantage, she feels herself falling faster. She needs to end this and soon. “No more thoughts…” Pop. “Just the pop…” Pop. “Filling you mind…” Pop. “Leaving you so empty…” Pop. “So blank…” Pop. “Just the bubbles…” Pop. “Just the pop…” Pop. “Letting it all go pop…” Sophia’s eyes flutter as she struggles to stay aware, always met by the light. She can’t fall now… But she’s so close… So close to…
As Sophia begins trailing off, showing signs of falling into trance, Dr. Rosa smiles. It was close, but she felt the power ever so slightly shifting in her favor. She just needed to finish the job. She’s pretty close to falling herself, but Sophia doesn’t appear to be in a place to take advantage of that. “That’s right. You’re so close.” She begins to move the light closer to Sophia. “The light is all there is. No thoughts… No mind. Just the light. Don’t resist it. Let it take you down… down… down… deep down into trance now.” Dr. Rosa moves the light up to Sophia’s forehead and taps it there. Sophia’s eyes obediently follow the light, rolling up as the light disappears from her view. “And drop.” Dr. Rosa says with finality. Sophia’s gaze becomes entirely glazed over as she falls into trance. As she does, her control over her bubble spell evaporates. With that all gone, all of the remaining bubbles pop all at once. Dr. Rosa was entirely unprepared for this, and she had been lulled down and conditioned enough that it resonated powerfully in her mind. She gasps in realization a moment too late as she realizes what happened, before she s Sophia in mindless bliss.
A short time later, the two of them are still staring blankly at each other. The first to move is Sophia, blinking as without any input or suggestion into her vulnerable mind, she is able to slowly come back to herself. She spends a few moments collecting herself as memory and thoughts return to her. It takes her a few moments more to figure out what happened. She’d been dropped first, and only saved by dumb luck. She begins to wallow in her self pity before realizing the precarious situation she’s still in. She can’t waste this opportunity. “Now, let yourself sink deeper for me, letting my words echo around in your mind. So easy, so nice, so natural to just follow, just obey.” Sophia spends the next few minutes deepening and conditioning Dr. Rosa before letting out a sigh. She’d done it. Not in the way she would have liked to and with a little more luck than she was comfortable itting, even to herself, but she’d done it. She’d proven she could take down the strongest hypnotist in the school, and that meant something, at least to her. But… a thought tickled at the back of her mind. There was more she could do. Why stop at Dr. Rosa? There was still so much she could do. Dropping a single subject, even one as strong as the therapist was one thing, but there was something more she could do. Something much bigger. The entire school. Bringing the entire school under her sway would truly prove she was a superior hypnotist. And now, she had the perfect subject to get started with that. She would have to take some time to plan, but Dr. Rosa would be an invaluable tool in whatever it was. She was more than capable of slipping in suggestions and smoothing any trace of it out of a subject’s mind. With an evil smile, Sophia began whispering in her ear some more. “Now, my good pet. I’m going to give you my phone number, and whenever someone comes in for an appointment and you drop them down into a nice deep trance, you’ll make sure to give them a secret trigger and make them forget about it. Then you’ll text me a picture of them, their name, and their trigger. You will never any of these texts. If you ever see them on your phone, you will simply ignore them. And whenever I and only I say ‘It’s therapy time.’ You’ll find yourself dropping back into this nice deep trance form me. You can do that, can’t you pet?”
Dr. Rosa gives a sleepy nod. “Yes, Mistress…”
“Good pet.” Sophia grins. She’d have to program her some more when she had a plan figured out, but this would give her access to some more slaves in the meantime. Every little bit helped, after all. “You’ll wake up as I leave this room, forgetting being hypnotized, forgetting our little duel. All you’ll is that you helped me work through some of my mental troubles, and you sent me on my way without issue. But deep down, you’ll know you’re a very good pet, and you’ll obey all your programming.” Nodding to herself, Sophia stands up with a determination in her eyes. She has much more planning to do now. She walks out of the office and back towards her dorm to get started.