I Need Your Sway

V directed everyone who’d like to to break off into pairs and practice one of the inductions they’d demonstrated, or “have a good conversation with a stranger” if not. Tracy turned to make a “hey stranger” joke to Derek but to her surprise he was already holding out a hand and asking “Can I try it on you?”

“What?! No! I mean I’m, uh, just here to observe.”

“Oh sorry, that’s fine, never mind,” and then to her greater surprise he turned to Owen and extended the same offer, which Owen accepted with enthusiasm.

There followed a brief discussion of who would do what, Owen saying something about his relative lack of skill on the hypnotist side of things, while Derek laughed and pronounced his absolute zero level of skill. The word ’tist came up at least once. It was decided that as an experienced subject (a thing, apparently) Owen would give Derek his first try at hypnotizing someone, and at that point Tracy realized she was still staring.

She tore her eyes attention away and tried to start a conversation with Garret, who it appeared had also been staring. But then the presenter had wandered over to their area and was asking if there were any questions or if anyone unpaired was looking for a partner. Garret’s hand shot into the air.

“Hi, hello! I’m V, or Vermillion,”

“Garret!”

“Good to meet you, good to meet you. Was there something you were hoping to practice?”

“Yeah well, I’ve never actually uh, been under, I was wondering if you’d…”

“Oh sure, I don’t think anyone needs me right now, we can try that.”

Tracy wondered if she should stop staring at this interaction too, which would hard since they were now happening on both sides of her, leaving nowhere to look except straight ahead. But since the actual teacher was involved here, surely this was considered educational? Garret certainly wouldn’t mind, she was pretty sure.

“Right, the butterfly is quite fun. Are you alright for me to touch your arm and your shoulder, and to pull you forward onto me?”

Tracy scanned the room for Nina and found her huddled up with the friend she’d greeted earlier, their heads close together. It was unclear if hypnosis was being exchanged in either direction.

Garret was flopping forward then popping back up the next moment laughing. “I felt something! Kind of. But then I bounced back out. Can we try it again?”

The whole world has gone mad.

The other pair had switched roles. Owen was describing “the only one I’m pretty good at” and asking Derek to extend his hands out forward.

Garret was flopping forward again, this time staying slumped while V mumbled things in their lovely voice too low for Tracy to catch the words.