Octavia read the message again, not sure how to proceed. It seemed frank and straightforward enough; a group of friends pitched in together to buy their friend Rowan a date with Octavia. The message described why they had chosen Octavia and what kinks Rowan was into and they paid up front, but it gave Octavia pause. This message did not constitute consent from Rowan himself. She would have liked to decline, but she had a strict no refund policy to deter jokes and guys who send messages but never show up. And this appointment was made on such short notice, there was nothing left to do but talk to Rowan himself about it.

Octavia closed her laptop and went to the wardrobe to dress down. Nothing too dominatrixy, it would be better if she looked casual and approachable. A person just like him. She put on a dress with geeky cartoon print and pantyhose in a matching colour. While she brushed her hair and put it up into a ponytail, there was a knock on the door.

Rowan had red hair, and he had the pale, soft skin of a man who worked in an office or a studio and never went outside. He wore jeans and a burgundy button-up, nothing to advertise the geekiness the message had described. He opened and closed the door with care, and looked around the room with a furrowed brow. "Hi." He extended his hand in a friendly manner as he stepped forward. He had the beautiful, clear voice of someone who talked a lot in his daily life.

"It's good to meet you, Rowan. I'm Octavia." She shook his hand and then gestured to invite him into her studio. "How do you feel about being here?" She smiled and stepped back to give him space.

"Well, you see…" His light-coloured eyes roamed the room, taking everything in as quickly as possible. "This appointment with you was a surprise gift. And I'm not actually sure what it entails. I'm starting to suspect that my friends would have liked you to pounce me with restraints and whip me into submission and I'm so so glad that's not what you're doing right now. So…" He laughed nervously and wiped some sweat off his brow.

"That would be wrong." She went over to the table and opened up her laptop. "Would you like to read the message they sent? It's only fair." She turned the screen towards the empty chair across from her. 

He smiled and a look of relief crossed his face. "Thank you. That's so thoughtful of you." He sat down and his eyes scanned the screen with surprising speed, growing wider in an expression of incredulity. "Fucking hell… That's…" He took a deep breath and smiled awkwardly. "A little on the nose, I guess."

With a patient nod, Octavia encouraged him to keep talking.

"So, it's a running gag among my friends that I always win the game and that I need to be put in my place… and I eh…" He tugged at the collar of his shirt as he avoided making eye-contact. "I may have jokingly challenged them to find someone who can…"

"Put you in your place?" She said quietly, raising her eyebrows.

He cleared his throat and finally looked at her. "So this isn't a gag?" 

With a mischievous smile, she waved at the chest full of toys and tools at the foot of the bed. "I have a few different gags, if you want one."

He couldn't suppress a chuckle and said: "No, but they're not waiting to jump out when you've got me in a compromising position?"

She shook her head. "Everything that happens here is strictly confidential."

He folded his hands and stared off into the distance, thinking.

After a moment of silence, she leaned towards him on the table to close the laptop. "This message is not important to me, Rowan. I need to hear from you what you want. And if you want to leave and tell your friends whatever you want to tell them, that's fine by me. But if you want me to proceed, I need to hear you say it."

He nodded and closed his eyes. "Let me be clear. I do want this. If it's not a prank, it's just another blessing thrown into my lap when I least expected it and…" He rubbed his eyes and then looked at her. His voice was quiet and confident at the same time. "I'm not one to hesitate when an opportunity presents itself. So yeah, let's fucking go."

"I'll tell you how this will go." Octavia smiled, leaning back. "I will stay within the parameters your friends gave, unless you tell me otherwise now. It's your choice how much clothing you remove, if any at all. This is a strictly mental game we're playing. I expect a fair bit of banter back and forth, so I need you to tell me a safeword or a phrase that you can say to indicate that we need to stop."

His eyes examined her, there was so much intelligence behind them, as if he was already going over scenarios in his head. "I'll just ask you to pause the game. Is that ok? If I need a moment to breathe, I'll just say 'pause the game'."

"That's perfect, Rowan." She smiled and nodded. "Thank you."

He rose from the chair to pace the room. He started to rant in a fevered tone, and it was hard to believe this articulate deluge of words was spontaneous. "Sometimes I'm just at a loss about how to feel, you know? Making a joke at my own expense to suggest that I'm a submissive man is subversive in a way that tickles me. The stereotypes about what a Strong Man ™ is supposed to be, are just so… reductive. And idiotic at times. They deserve to be mocked."

Octavia stood and watched him, impressed by his eloquence and the oratory quality of his voice, waiting for the right moment.

"And it's not just a joke. I would love and welcome the experience of being truly dominated, of someone taking up the challenge I laid down. But I don't want anyone to think I'm a cuck, you know? I'm not some Subby McUndersub who will lay down like a doormat to be trampled at the slightest hint. No no no, my dear Octavia, I'm a fucking challenge." He wagged his finger at her.

She raised her eyebrows at him as she stepped into his trajectory. With her hands on her hips, she took up as much space as possible, forcing him to stay there with his back to the wall as he continued.

"Now, I can see that you're skeptical." He made direct eye-contact, like a performer looking straight into the camera as he held his hands up. "You must be thinking: why does this pasty-faced, chubby gamer dude think he's so fucking special? There's probably a myriad of ways you could overpower a little guy like me. I'm not an experienced masochist like some of your clients undoubtedly are. If you'd just whip out a length of rope, you could have me on the floor shrieking in agony in five seconds flat. But that's not what you want, is it?"

With small steps, she came towards him as she held his gaze. The more he talked, the more her wicked smile grew.

"You said it yourself. You're all about the mental game." His eyes looked wild, as if he was reading her mind, as if he wanted her to tell him how right he was. "Conquering my pudgy body holds no interest for you. True victory lies in my surrender. When you make me admit defeat, that's when…" His voice trailed off as she stepped into his personal space and he backed up against the wall. 

She placed her hand flat on his chest, noticing the dampness of his shirt and the sweaty sheen on his face. "You know…" She said in a low bedroom voice. "When I said banter, I didn't expect a speech of this magnitude."

Rowan cringed and replied in high-pitched stage whisper: "Do you need me to tone it down?"

She chuckled as she pressed him against the wall with her hand on his chest and her leg against his. "It's actually refreshing to meet someone who talks more than I do for once." She leaned in close, her head next to his so that her lips were less than an inch away from his ear. "It's not going to save you, though."

"I fully expect it won't." His voice was softer now that she was this close, and he spoke faster now, but no less clear. "But I figured it would be an interesting challenge to hypnotize someone who just doesn't stop talking. And for me talking, narrating a scene, is a coping mechanism, something that makes me feel at ease and in control."

"Are you?" She breathed into his ear, watching the way it gave him goosebumps all over his neck.

He answered promptly, like a fast-paced dialogue in a sitcom. "Am I what?"

She watched a drop of sweat run down his temple, making him wait uncomfortably long before she replied in the same breathy, low voice dripping with sex. "In control?"

"Not in the slightest." He swallowed and cringed. No matter how much he wanted to shift his position and wipe the sweat away, there was no space for him to move, she still had him pinned against the wall.

She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek, and giggled at the way it startled him. "Tell me something."

"You name it." His cheerful tone was a feeble attempt to mask his feelings.

"Have you ever been hypnotised before?" She watched him, her face hovering right next to his, amused by the way he stared straight ahead, as if he was still looking at the camera over there.

"I will say this…" He gave himself more time to think about his answer by using filler words and talking in a stream of consciousness kind of way. "Me and my friends do a lot of geeky games and fantasy roleplay, that sort of thing. Based on stories like that, I probably don't have a very realistic idea of what hypnosis is really like, but I must admit I never thought it would be as smoking hot as you're making it seem right now."

"What do you imagine it would feel like if I hypnotised you now?" She smiled impishly, watching every micro expression on his face.

"You know, I've always wondered what it would be like…" His voice went a little up in pitch as he stared off into the distance. "I suppose that's one of the reasons I'm here and not with a more 'traditional domme', so to speak. I guess I imagined you asking me to look at a swinging pendant… or look deep into your eyes or something… and then you weave your magic spell, talking in a way beyond my comprehension… and then… I'd start to feel…" He blinked slowly and then said in a small voice: "...wait a minute…"

She shushed him, gently touching his lips with her finger. "Shh, close your eyes."

He immediately complied and his head drooped forward ever so slightly as a sigh escaped his lips.

"You're so clever, Rowan." Octavia said in her velvety soft hypnotist voice. "Take a deep breath now and you can just bask in the warm glow of your own brilliance as you sink deeper and deeper into trance, because you were onto me. Well done."

His lips curled up into a smile as he sagged back against the wall.

She moved to stand in front of him and took a good look at him as she continued. "Hush now. Let me talk for a little while. Let me weave my magic spell. Let me talk in a way beyond your comprehension. Let my voice hypnotise you more and more as you listen. What we're going to do now is so easy and pleasant, you can just follow along." She reached out to hold both his hands, feeling how they sluggishly reacted to her touch.

His head swayed on his neck, and it seemed like underneath his closed eyes he was intently focused on everything she said and did. 

"And because you seem to like the tropes, you're going to enjoy this, my dear. Now take a deep breath and open your eyes to look at me." She slowly lifted up both his hands and as she did, his eyes fluttered and then opened.

He groggily blinked at her, a faint frown forming on his face. "Wuh… Wuts happening?" His voice was raspy and small. He didn't seem to be aware of the way she was holding his hands out in front of him.

She smiled at him. "Feels funny, doesn't it? This is what it's like to be hypnotised. Now deep sleep!" And she dropped his hands so they fell down to his sides.

His eyes slammed shut and he slumped against the wall with a sudden sigh.

She took his hands in order to do it again, and noticed how limp they were this time. "Just listen to me and follow along. Go ahead and take a deep breath. And just look at me again," she said as she lifted his hands up.

His heavy eyelids opened slowly and his glassy eyes stared right through her.

"Well done." She smiled wide. "You're so good at this."

"I feel like that's patronizing…" He mumbled as his head tilted to one side.

"Deep sleep!" She dropped his hands again. 

His chin sank down to touch his chest. As he stood there, he looked so slumped and deeply in trance with his neck and his arms limp like rubber.

She clutched her chest, trying to contain the arousal stirring inside her. It made her voice more sultry. "You've felt now how easily you drop into trance when I say 'Deep sleep!' And you will find that those magic words will continue to have that profound effect on you today while we're in this room together. When you leave, the words will lose their magic power and they won't have any effect anymore, but while we're here together, whenever I say 'Deep sleep!' you drop into trance, no matter how awake you are when I say it. Do you understand?"

His head bobbed up and down in a dazed nod, but no other part of him moved.

"Now just take a deep breath. We're going to take a break from this. Just feel how the air that fills your lungs gives you the energy to move and think again. Maybe you need a few more breaths to open your eyes and see again. That's ok, take as many breaths as you need to wake all the way up again." 

She hovered over him as he shivered and slowly lifted up his head. She took a step back as he reached up to rub his eyes. Then he stood up straight and gave her a dopey look. "Incredible…" More filler words while he tried to gather his thoughts. "That's not at all what I thought it would be..." He shook his head and it made him stumble forward a few steps.

"Would you like a glass of water?" Octavia went over to the counter to fill two glasses. "Do you need to sit down?"

"I'm kinda surprised I'm still upright after that." Still rubbing his face, he shuffled forward to the middle of the room, mumbling: "That was a lot."

"Should I have let you fall to the floor?" She asked as she came back with two cups and handed one to him. "Is that something you wanted?"

"No!" He said emphatically, his eyes large. "I can do a lot of things but stage falling without hurting myself is not one of them." He gulped the water down and then awkwardly looked around where to put the cup.

She took it from him and set it on the table. Leaning on the table, she sipped her water and observed him. "A lot of things?" She pursed her lips to make a dismissive noise. "I think you're all talk."

"Oh yeah?" There was that intense, wide-eyed look again as he mentally counted the skills he could list off to impress her. But then he paused and his look turned pensive. "No, you're right. Those are all verbal skills. I am all talk."

She allowed herself a hearty laugh as she set down her cup.

He held his hands open as he started to talk again. "You have me at a disadvantage now. I can trot out any of my skills, rant like a maniac, persuade or plead with you to be merciful, I could even try to seduce you, but all you have to do is say 'Deep sleep!' and…" He ducked into a bracing position, one arm protectively over his head, the other one holding onto the edge of the bed. 

Octavia burst out laughing.

He gave her a confused look as he stood up straight again. "Why didn't it work?"

"Because you said it, Rowan." She giggled. "It only works when I say it."

"I'm starting to wonder whether it even works at all…" He approached, narrowing his eyes at her.

She grinned at him as she crossed her arms. "Now hold on a second, what was that about seducing me? Don't change the subject."

He stopped right in front of her and crossed his arms as well. "If it really works, why haven't you used it yet?"

She tilted her head at him with a confident smile. "Maybe because I want you to seduce me first."

Moving in closer, he looked deep into her eyes and with his lips almost touching hers, he said in a low, husky voice: "Don't you want to see if it works?"

She licked her lips, enjoying this moment where he displayed his charm in full force. "Oh, I know it works, my dear." Her sultry tone mirrored his.

For a moment, they just stared each other down, as if they were trying to one up each other's smouldering look. But Rowan was more impatient, his eyes started to wander down to her lips and then down to her bosom and then back up to her eyes, while she remained perfectly still, smiling mysteriously. 

As he stepped back, he sighed and threw his hands up in the air. His voice turned louder, a little exasperated. "How can you know it works when you've nev…"

"Deep sleep!" She stepped in closer as she said it, ready to catch him.

His arms fell limp to his sides as his voice trailed off. His chin sank down to his chest and he swayed on his feet, but he didn't fall over.

Noticing that she didn't need to steady him, she paused there and enjoyed a happy shiver as she drank in the deeply entranced serenity on his face. She reached out to cup his jaw in her hand and gently lifted his head to take a better look at him. "So deeply asleep." She cooed softly. "So deeply entranced, isn't that amazing?"

"...mazing…" He mumbled without really realising it.

"I told you it works." She chuckled and there was laughter in her voice as she spoke. "Now, you can just take a deep breath, fill up your lungs with all the energy you need to think again and to wake up again and to talk my ear off again." 

He gasped for air and gave her a bleary-eyed look. "Don't tell me you don't like the way I talk." He rasped and cleared his throat.

"I do." She beamed at him. "Especially when you were seducing me."

He took a moment to compose himself before he attempted another smouldering look. "Is that so?" He waggled his eyebrows and made a little air kiss.

With a warm smile, she leaned back against the table again and said: "With your verbal prowess, I bet you could spontaneously spout poetry, as if we're in a Jane Austen novel."

"Ah, but there is no charm equal to tenderness of heart." He said with a wink, his voice taking on an oratory quality. He bowed before her and continued: "I have come here with no expectations, Octavia, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that you have befuddled my mind and inflamed my loins with your wiley words." There was a cheeky twinkle in his eyes as he shifted on his feet, trying to make the bulge in his jeans more comfortable.

"Tsk…" She shook her head at him. "I confuse you and give you a boner? Surely you can do better than that?"

He scoffed and made an open-handed gesture. "Can you?"

"Careful what you wish for…" She said with a mysterious smile.

"Oh ho ho!" He laughed out loud and beckoned her. "Bring it!"

Without hesitation, she stepped forward into his personal space and grabbed the back of his head. As she looked deep into his eyes, her other hand rested on his chest, feeling exactly how sweaty she made him.

He gasped and a whimper escaped his throat as he froze in place. His breathing was quick and shallow, she could feel it under her touch. His mouth hung open, and his face showed a mixture of shock and excitement.

She held his gaze for a long, hot moment, and then pulled him closer as she commanded: "Deep sleep!"

As his eyes closed, he deflated in her arms, the full weight of his head resting in her hand as his knees went weak.

She wrapped her other arm around him to steady him as she held him upright. She spoke quickly, in that confusing hypnotic tone. "I wonder how much I can play around with your memory while you're in a deep sleep like this, my dear. I wonder if you swooned so deeply in my arms that you've forgotten what exactly I said. I wonder if you were so impressed by the lyrical beauty of my words that you fainted on the spot. You couldn't repeat my words even if you tried. This is what it feels like to be awestruck. And now, slowly, still enchanted by my wit and charm, you start to regain consciousness and you wake from this trance. There you are…"

He blinked at her, dazed and a little incredulous, with his mouth hanging open. "You…" He backed out of her embrace and went down on one knee, looking up at her. "You are such a resplendent elocutionist, I can only quiver in adoration at what you just imparted to me. I wish I could express how humbled I feel in this moment…"

Octavia giggled behind her hand, feeling her cheeks burn. It had been a long time since she had blushed like this. "You can stop with the Jane Austen talk now."

"Thank you." He chuckled as he stood up. "Fuck, that was awesome."

Composing herself and putting on an innocent look, she asked: "What was awesome?"

He frowned and she could see the wheels turning behind his bright eyes with that look of confusion. "The… thing you said… you know?"

"What did I say?" She smiled mischievously. He would likely break the suggestion and remember what she actually said if she kept pushing, but she wanted him to. She wanted to see his reaction.

"You… you made me think you said something… but actually…" The expression on his face went from that intelligent intensity of trying to figure it out to wide-eyed wonder with the biggest smile yet. "That's fucking genius and tricksy! You had me for a second there. How does that w…"

"Deep sleep!" She stepped forward to catch him again, and it was a good thing she did. As the light went out in his eyes, he sagged to the side as the arm he used to point at her fell down to his side.

"Sleep so deeply for me, Rowan. Not even aware of the way your legs effortlessly hold you upright, not even aware of your spine and your neck working perfectly together to allow you to stand, even when you're in a deep sleep like this."

She let go and stepped back to look at him. He swayed a little and his eyes fluttered, sometimes showing a sliver of white beneath his eyelashes, but otherwise he stood there motionlessly. His jaw was slack and his lips parted slightly, he looked absolutely zonked.

"For my next trick, my dear, I don't even need your mind to be more dizzy and hazy that it already is. I don't care if you remember or forget what I'm saying while you're in this deep sleep, the result will be the same." She savoured and enjoyed every word as it came out in her hot, sultry voice. 

"You see, Rowan, you are so open and suggestible right now that I can just reach into your head and find the part of your brain that makes your words and language flow so fluently, and then I just poke at it to misalign some of the parts temporarily so that you can't form sentences anymore. I don't know exactly what will happen, will you speak with no grammar like a child, or will you even have trouble forming words alltogether? I can't wait to find out. Now take a deep breath, fill up with energy and then you can be wide awake and completely inarticulate."

He squeezed his eyes shut as he wiped some sweat off his brow and tried to make sense of what was happening. There was a sound somewhere between a moan and a wordless mutter as he pointed at the empty cups on the table.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Octavia said with a wicked grin. She crossed her arms, showing that she had no intention to move, even if she did understand what he wanted.

He sighed deeply and gave her a dirty look. Then he shuffled groggily to the table to pick up both cups and made his way over to the counter to fill them with water, grumbling gibberish under his breath the whole way.

Just to annoy him more, she put on her poshest, most British accent as she waited for him. "I can't understand a single word you're saying, my dear. Perhaps you could speak up?"

He drank some water and left his cup there on the counter. He glared at her as he came back and handed her the other cup. "Absople brullious finky." He sighed and stared at the floor with a look of absolute concentration as he tried to say something, but the only thing that came out his mouth was "Furry neckligous onading poor."

She set the cup down on the table and leaned her hand on his shoulder, bringing her face close to his cheek. "How does it feel? I've taken away your only power."

"Muffafoom!" He pushed her away and turned his back to her. 

She giggled. "Excuse me? I didn't quite catch that."

Without turning to face her, he just flipped the bird at her.

"Come now, Rowan." She spurred him on. "I'm sure you could still find some way to make me understand what you want. To motivate me to do what you want."

He stood perfectly still for a second, as if she just gave him an idea. There was a moment of hesitation and then he turned around. He embraced her and immediately moved in close to dip her backwards in his arms as he gave her a long, hot kiss.

She moaned at this unexpected pleasure, letting him kiss her for as long as he wanted before returning her to an upright position. She leaned into it, basking in the excited butterflies in her stomach. 

When the kiss was finally done, he nuzzled her cheek as he held her close. "Mmm?" He purred softly, poking her with the tip of his nose, goading her. "Mm-hmm?"

"Oh, alright." She held up one finger at him as she smiled. "As long as you don't tell anyone that I'm a big softie."

With a twinkle in his eyes, he gestured a zipper across his lips.

She held him by the shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. "Stand up, don't fall over. Deep sleep!"

His eyes rolled up into his head and his jaw went slack but he didn't even sway. It was amazing how quickly he had learned to drop deeply into trance for her.

"Very good, my dear. I just want to thank you and tell you that I am in awe. Every second of this has been an absolute pleasure." She sighed and continued in a breathy tone. "I think you'll find that the power of my words is starting to fade away. Not just the tricks I've played on you, but even the power of the words 'deep sleep', it's all just waning and fading. You realise that I can't actually reach into your mind and change things about you. All your faculties still work, your enormous vocabulary is available to you, as it always has been. I have no power over you, it was all just a game. And now the game is over. Thank you for playing. Just take a deep breath for me."

She stepped back and leaned against the table to watch him with a satisfied smile.

He hung his head and licked his lips, just composing himself for a second. And then he beamed at her. "Thank you, Octavia. This was delightful."

"No really, it was my pleasure." She gestured to the other seat as she sat down. "Take a load off. There's no hurry."

He sat down and leaned towards her with his elbows on the table. "Please, can we just sit and talk? Will you explain how this works?"

"Gladly." Octavia smiled.