Hypnosis

The fairgrounds were alive ad teaming with color. The once deserted terrestrial moon had since been turned into the largest ever recorded outdoor market that had ever existed. The introduction of humans into the GA had brought the universe new and unconsidered ways of selling, buying, and tourism. On all sides humans and aliens alike were demonstrating their artistic craft. There were metal workers, carpenters, sculptures, artists, leather workers, and artists. A few industrious groups had even crossed inter-species borders to collaborate on projects. They had a real tough time pulling Sunny away from a Drev/human blacksmith partnership that created Drev armor in the style of medieval humans and human armor in the style of the Drev, but now after she had purchased herself a helmet, which Commander Vir, Adam, openly admitted looked 'friggin awesome', but then again, that was coming from someone who had purchased himself a cape, and insisted upon wearing it because it "made him look fancy."


Krill tried not to be distracted by the frivolous, but turned out to have a great weakness for a specific vendors art works which depicted surrealist landscapes. Of course, when captain vir pointed out that they travel the universe and often see things just as strange, the doctor pointed out that, this way, he could look at how pretty it was and not worry about how dangerous it was.


They cut a strange group in the crowd, a human, a Drevv, and a Vrul, one wearing a steel- horned helmet, the other a cape, and the third holding a large roll that was almost taller than him.


Technically they were supposed to be here providing security, but out of all the jobs they had been given, recently, this one was surprisingly easy. They met up with another "Patrol" walking down the main thoroughfare and found hat Cannon, sunny's brother had also purchased himself some new armor.


They walked with each other for a few minutes before a voice caught their attention over the roaring of the crowd.


"COME ON IN, SIT DOWN, AND ENJOY IT BECAUSE I'M ONLY GOING TO BE HERE ANOTHER DAY.... YES YOU THREE."


Adam lept easily onto sunny's back peering over the crowd trying to see what it was all about.


Sunny craned her head back to look at him, "What is it."


He squinted, "Hold on, I can't- wait a HYPNOTIST hell yeah! I love those guys. Come on lets go before all the seats are taken."


"What is a hypnotist?" Sunny wondered, but received only a pat on the muzzle.


"You shall see."


She blinked shaking her beak in mild confusion. Krill inflated his helium pouch and allowed Sunny to drag him through the crowd. A few of the other humans followed along curiously as did Cannon.


Together they made their way to a row of benches and took their seats. Sunny looked on stage to find a well dressed man in a suit, standing in front of a line of chairs. He didn't look particularly special, but who was she to judge. He glanced around at the crowd for a few more minutes hollering for people to come in. Once the crowd was filled up, an assistant pressed a button at the back of the stage, and a sudden flash of blue light surrounded them before fading away to a dim shimmer.


The sound field left the interior quite silent, and the man cleared his throat taking a sip of water, "That can't be good for my voice." before smiling and clapping his hands together, "let's get started, how many of you know what a hypnotist is?"


Most of the humans raised their hands.


He glanced around the crowd, "Well that was to be expected, for those of you inhuman visitors, a hypnotist is someone who is trained to bring other people to a state of, what should be best explained as, deep state of concentration and suggestibility. We have used hypnotism for thousands of years in psychological treatment, relaxation techniques, and certain types of medical procedures. However, I'll have you know now that it is STILL one of the most controversial techniques in both the psychological and physiological medical fields, however, I'm not a doctor, I am an entertainer, so we shouldn't have any issues here today."


He looked around the crowd, "Let me get rid of a few common misconceptions about hypnotism. First of all, if you don't want to be hypnotized you CANNOT be. There has never, ever been a case of someone who was hypnotized against their will. This as to be something you are willing to participate in because most of the work is done by the subject, and not me. You CHOOSE to allow me to do my work, the second misconceptions is that, once you are hypnotized, you will not be persuaded to do anything against your moral code, like murder, or injuring someone, unless you are that kind of person anyway, and in that case it isn't my fault that you're a terrible person."


The crowd chuckled.


"So no one will be dropping any deep dark secrets on us that they wouldn't already tell us anyway. Last of all, if you are a human you have 100%, for sure, been in a state similar to hypnosis before. Daydreaming, meditation, driving home and then realizing when you got home that you cannot remember driving home, all those states are, in essence a form of self hypnosis, so what I am going to do here, is, I am going to give you a bit of a test, and then pick those of you who seem good subjects to be part of my demonstration. If you do not want to be hypnotized than don't do the test, simple as that. I invite our inhuman friends to try too because I would find it very interesting to see what the results are."


He motioned towards his assistant, who fiddled for a moment with a speaker before the soft eerie sci-fi music began, "Don't look at me like that, we are on a moon circling a gas giant, so I can choose whatever weird music I want..... Alright, now those of you who want to try this, can I have you stand up,there we go, some aliens too, that's good."


Sunny glanced to her left and right. On her left Adam had taken to his feet, but that wasn't surprising. On her other side, rill was looking on skeptically. Her brother Cannon had chosen to stand. Sunny herself was content to simply watch and see what would happen.


"Alright, everyone ready? Good.... Now those of you who want to participate I will ask to close your eyes, and when you close your eyes, I want you to hold your hands out in front of you, your right palm facing down and your left palm facing up. Now on your right hand, I want you to imagine that you have a string tied around your wrist, and on that string is a balloon, those things in the fair that are really colorful and filled with helium for those of you who don't know. Now as you hold your hand there, the balloon gets bigger and bigger, and as it gets bigger and bigger, its filled with more helium, and as it is filled with more and more helium, it pulls you hnd higher towards the sky. Your hand grows lighter and lighter. Your arm is being pulled towards the sky higher and higher making your arm feel lighter and lighter."


Sunny watched in general amusement as the participants right hands began to raise slowly towards the sky. Over to her right, Krill would have rolled his eyes if he could. The man continued to speak his voice retaining a distinct cadence repeating and then continuing to repeat the same instructions, and as he did hands raised towards the air. A couple of people peaked towards their counterparts sitting down once they realized it wasn't going to work on them.


"Now in your right hand I want you to imagine you are holding a weight, and every second I keep talking the weight grows heavier and heavier dragging your hand towards the ground. Heavier and heavier the weight gets while lighter and lighter the balloon gets."
The man continued to speak as he stepped down into the crowd glancing around at the subjects. He made a few people sit back down , examined another and then came around their side of the room stopping at Adam, who, to sunny's amusement, probably wouldn't have raised his arm any higher or dropped his arm any lower.


He looked pretty dumb.


The man paused at his side, placed a hand on his shoulder, and began to whisper something in his ear. Sunny and Krill couldn't hear it from where they were sitting, but then the man reached up and tapped Adam on the forehead.


"Sleep."


The crowd gasped.


The humans laughed.


He collapsed like a wet bag of sand s if his spine had suddenly vanished, knees buckling and sagging forward face first. Sunny lunged to catch him, but the hypnotist had already caught him grunting slightly under Adam's dead weight.


Krill leaped to his feet in shocked horror stepping forward to help, but the man held up a hand, "It's alright." he grunted under the dead weight, "here, do you mind?" Before she could say anything, the man had turfed Adam's corpse? Onto her lap. He sagged towards the floor, and she caught him, holding him in place with all four of her arms as his arm dangled towards the floor.


Krill reached over and felt for his pulse.


"What the hell." He muttered


"What/" Sunny whispered to him


The Vrul held up an appendage for a second counting internally, "His pulse..... 45 bpm."


"Isn't that..... A sleeping heart rate?" She wondered unsure."


Krill nodded. Off to their left another human slumped into her seat. This went on until about 12 people had been incapacitated. Adam was still not moving.


The hypnotist took a stand back on stage, "Alright now I am going to count back from three, and once I count back from three, those who are asleep are going to wake up, and then I'm going to ask them to come up on stage. When I count back from three and say wake up they are going to wake up and then come up on stage.... three .... two ... one .... Wake up."


Adam stirred, lifting his head groggily from Sunny's lap blinking owlishly around looking almost confused.


"Please welcome our volunteers to the stage everyone. Sunny nuged Adam to his feet, and, almost drunkenly he plodded up the isle and onto the stairs. By the time he had taken a seat in one of the chairs he APPEARED to be awake bright eyed and looking around at his neighbors as they introduced themselves.


Sunny wasn't entirely sure what to make of it.


The hypnotist walked down the line pausing near the woman who sat Next to Adam, "What is your name Ms?"


"Jessie."


"Ok Jessie, tell me, do you think you are hypnotized?"


She nervously shuffled her feet, "Um, no, I don't think so?"


"Well don't ask me, I don't know." He turned to Adam, "Can you raise your arm for me, Sir, yes right there." He then reached out a hand to the woman, "Well it was nice to meet you Jessie." With a sharp tug he pulled on her arm, "Sleep!" She collapsed head first onto Adam, who looked a little more than surprised. The hypnotist moved his arm to keep hold of her, "Hold his for me will ya."


Adam looked horribly uncomfortable as the man went down the line asking others their names and then causing them to collapse onto each other "Asleep."


He eventually made his way back to Adam, "Comfortable there?"


Adam shrugged, "Um.... not sure."


"Not sure, well why don't you tell me your name." He had reached out to take Adam's hand.


"Adam."


"Alright, Adam, are you hypnotized?"


"Er.... I don't know>"


"If you had to guess?"


"Um.... Yes?" he looked pretty confused, and sort of nervous despite the fact he was smiling.


"And what do you do for a living." The handshake was getting really long and awkward.


"I captain a spaceship."


"Wow, thas a new one. Well Adam, do me a favor, and why don't you look in the crowd, and focus right there on your blue friend, yeah the shiny top of her head right there, and Sleep." He jerked his hand forward, and Adam collapsed over the top of the first human one arm dangling towards the ground. The crowd giggled.


Krill still looked quite skeptical.


The man spent the next few minutes repeating his instructions to relax repeating, "And as you go deeper and deeper into this state of relaxation, you will feel your muscles relax, the muscles in your face, the muscles in your arms, the muscles in your back, all deep and relaxed and limp, relaxed and limp, loose relaxed and limp."


The crowd burst into a fit of giggling as Adam and his neighbor slipped onto the floor. Adam's mouth was wide open lying flat on his back crumbled in a heap.


The hypnotist paused behind them and chuckled, "This always happens, can never keep them in their chairs, now, I know some of you out there are probably skeptical." He looked pointedly at Krill, "Im looking at you spider legs, I can spot a skeptic a mile off. Now I know what you must be thinking, if he CAN"T hypnotize people against their will than it isn't real, they are just pretending, but no; what you don't understand is, I am not doing this, they are doing it to themselves, and they are using me as an excuse to do it. Think about it, wouldn't you want to be this relaxed. What I have done is convinced THEM that they can make themselves relax." He reached down picked up Adam's arm and dropped it, and like a wet noodle it flopped back onto the floor, "You can't just fake relaxation like that. These people really have convinced themselves, through my suggestion that they can do this, and that they should do it. They have DECIDED to follow my instructions."


There was a murmuring from the crowd, and Sunny turned to find that, her brother, Cannon had fallen to the floor supposedly unconscious. The hypnotist raised his head, "Do we have another one..... Oh look at that, he's not human." More muttering as he stepped off stage, walked over and woke Cannon up, "Do you want to come on stage with us."


Cannon paused and then drunkenly nodded his big head. Sunny found it greatly amusing as the tiny human led her 9 foot brother onto the stage, "Here, just sit down right her big guy till I figure out what to do with you....." He glanced at the crowd, "happens to me every time. Someone in the crowd always gets it," He tapped Cannon on the head, "Sleep." he hit the stage with a loud echoing thud, but otherwise looked rather peaceful.


The man did a few more demonstrations with rigidity as opposed to relaxation, explaining the entire time what he was doing so the crowd could follow along with his intentions, "Oh now when I count back from three you are all going to wake up, and you are going to feel relaxed and fresh, and great, but when you wake up you are going to see the most beautiful person you have ever seen, guys girls, girls guys doesn't matter, he or she is the perfect specimen, drop dead gorgeous, you would do anything to impress this person. Three two one... awake."


Sunny couldn't help being amused at the sight of ten humans doing their best to impress an imaginary hot person. One guy stood up and began posing like a model, the women twirl their hair around their fingers, one woman even adjusted her chest. The crowd giggled. Her brother Cannon didn't seem interested, and probably wouldn't, not after the death of his made, so he just looked on quietly approving following some unknown Drev back and forth across the stage.


Adam on the other and, went red, shuffled his feet, and promptly crawled over e back of his chair to hide.


The crowd howled with laughter.


"Hey, hey Adam, where are you going." Adam did not show his head. The hypnotist went back behind the chairs, "What are you doing back here."


"Pretty girl." Came the muttered answer.


"Well don't you want to impress her."


"No.... yes.....no."


"Well why not. Come on you fly a spaceship, how could she not be impressed."


A loud whisper this time, "What if she sees me."


The hypnotist had to stifle a giggle, "Well that's alright if you want to stay here that's alright, I'll Come get you when the coast is clear." He stepped out from behind the chairs. Sunny wasn't entirely sure if she should laugh hysterically or feel bad for him. The other members of the crew were giggling madly from the side.


Krill had at least accepted he was stuck here at this point, and so looked on at the antics with mild amusement.


"Ok ok, the hot person is gone now, you can all return to your seats." Adam moved a bit shamefaced from behind his chair and took a seat. "Alright, here is an easy one, the hot person is gone but all of a sudden you are going to realize that I am suddenly very very naked, and not only am I horribly naked, but I am also about 100 years old."


The expressions of disgust, embarrassment and avoidant eye contact was greatly amusing.


"Um.... sir, sir."


The hypnotist turned to Adam, who had stood from his seat.


"yes , Adam."


"Um.... you're not.... Wearing anything." With one hand he offered up the cape he had bought earlier, "You should put this on."


The crowd laughed, the hypnotist turned to look at them, "Such a kind your man."


"Sleep."


The entire group collapsed back into their seats, and in some cases, onto their seats and then onto the floor.


Sunny found herself chirping madly with glee and amusement. Whether it was real or not was beside the point, the humans were doing goofy things He had one human convinced he was fighting ninjas, another that she had forgotten her name, a third that she was the world's premier prima ballerina.


He walked up to Adam's sleeping form, "The person whose shoulder I am touching and only the person whose shoulder I am touching, when you wake up you are going to realize that you do not speak English at all, hear that you do not speak English at all, three two one wake."


Adam lifted his head.


"What's your name."


The human made a strange hissing and humming noise at him.


The crowd murdered in surprise. They hadn't exactly expected him to start speaking fluent Vrul either. The hypnotist looked on in surprise and reached up to switch on his translator, "Oh I see, you don't speak English.... Ha ... isn't that interesting. What would happen if you couldn't speak Vrul either."


He tried, and when Adam began speaking again, Sunny was stunned. The noises he was making were deep and guttural originating from inside his belly and chest. It used a lot of grunting gurgling, clicking and hissing far deeper than the human's usual voice.....


He hadn't told her he was learning how to speak Drev...


-


"Alright when you all wake up, you realize that I have something you really want, and in order to get something that you really want, you are going to have to bring me a gift, the best gift you can think up."


What followed was probably the funniest thing Sunny had ever seen. It was pretty tame at first, a few of the humans simply pulled out money, some gave him the things they had purchased at the fair. Cannon walked into the crowd, grabbed one of the crew members and brought him up confused and laughing to sand on stage.


"What is this?"


"Gift." Cannon grunted


Howling laughter.


"What am I going to do with this?" The hypnotist wondered trying to hold back a laugh.


"Good mechanic." Cannon grunted patting the human on the head, who was nearly doubled over laughing.


Another human came up on stage holding his baby.


Sunny was pretty sure some of the humans were crying now, "What the hell is this!"


"My firstborn son."


"What do I have that you would trade your firstborn son for?" the hypnotist choked.


The human stood confused holding the baby for a moment, "Um.... second born son."


Sunny lost it.


Trying to keep a straight face, the man turned to Adam, only to find he was proffering his own leg, the prosthetic one obviously. "Can I have my friends back now?" He wondered


The man looked down confused, "Aright Mr. Unexpectedly wholesome, back to your seats everyone."


-


By the end, Sunny's sides hurt, even krill looked like he was having a good time. The man had convinced them they were all naked which was amusing to watch. Many hid themselves, a few made themselves comfortable, Adam looked resigned, Cannon was unaffected.


He did a few more things before time was up before convincing the humans they were awake and no longer susceptible to his hypnosis. Adam stumbled down from the stage looking a little confused. Sunny motioned him over.


"So, when were you going to tell me you could speak Drev?"


He groaned, "Shit, that was supposed to be a surprise."


She just grinned, "It was pretty good."


"Really?"


"Really....." She smiled, "You should have seen yourself."


He blushed, "Was it bad?"


"I almost peed myself. I'll have to tell you about all the stupid things you did later." She wrapped one arm around him, and he tried to escape but found the attempt useless.


Krill walked past, "Yes.... I should have to write a paper about this..... Still don't entirely believe it, but a good paper."


Adam sighed, "Oh great, now the entire galaxy is going to know about me being an idiot."


Krill didn't look up, "Don't worry, they already know."


"Thanks for that." 

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