Alyssa took a deep breath as she came back to her senses, smiling around the room at her fellow hypno-subs. “Hey, guys.” They responded with greetings of their own, grinning and waving at each other.

The split-personality slavegirl wasn’t sure what had just been happening, but that was nothing out of the ordinary for her. Everything seemed normal at the moment, as far as she could tell. She was standing in Hailee’s living room, stark naked (which certainly wasn’t unusual) but not doing anything lewd that she knew of. She didn’t feel the need to do much of anything, to be honest. She felt quite serene, just standing at ease, arms by her sides, bare feet on the carpet.

The others seemed just as contented, all of them equally nude (except Selena, still wearing her nanosuit). The five of them exchanged some casual chatter for a few minutes, until her girlfriend abruptly said, “Can Jelly Doll ask a question?” After a moment’s pause as it waited for everyone’s attention, it continued, “Why are we all standing in a circle?”

“Huh.” AJ blinked. “I guess we are. That’s... I dunno. Weird.”

“Hadn’t noticed,” Sabrina shrugged. Then she smirked. “Uh, Hailee - you’ve got something on your chest, there...”

It took Alyssa a second to realise she wasn’t referring to the clover clamps - but then, why would she? The sight of Hailee wearing them was so mundane at this point, it wasn’t worth commenting on. Sabby had in fact been pointing out the small piece of paper held in place by the left clamp.

“Oh, hey, Milo left me a note,” Hailee remarked, undaunted.

Jelly Doll snorted. “Does he often use you as a pinboard?”

“Oh, yeah. Although not often with actual pins, just for safety reasons. But he’ll clip notes onto me with pegs quite often. Or just write stuff directly on me...” Unfolding the little note, it let out a little confused laugh. “It just says ‘Barbra Streisand’.”

“Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!” Danielle sang in a bright, high-pitched voice, bouncing on her heels to the beat. “Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!” She was met with four double takes, her friends and lovers staring at her in total bewilderment, as she sang for the third time, “Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

“What is she doing?” Sabrina asked.

“Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh - Barbra Streisand!”

“I don’t kn-” Jelly started to say. But the instant it heard Dani utter ‘Barbra Streisand’, it blared out, “Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

At the same time, Dani fell silent, her mind vanishing back into the darkness at the back of her and Alyssa’s shared head. AJ came to her senses with wide eyes, mortified. “What the fuck?” she squeaked.

“Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

“Dude, why are you guys singing?” Sabby snickered.

“Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

“I don’t know! I was hoping you’d tell me!” She stared at Selena. “You’re the one who woke us up, you gotta know something...”

The robot girl shook her head. “Negative. This unit deleted memory files before reactivating its personality -”

“Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh - Barbra Streisand!”

“- and awakening the rest of you from your tra-whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

As Selena sang her artificial heart out, Jelly blushed and hid its face in its hands. “Why did Jelly Doll do that?” it mumbled.

“It’s that song, isn’t it?” Hailee asked, frowning. “The, the one by, what are they called, something about ducks...”

“Yeah, I know the song,” AJ said long-sufferingly over Selena’s singing.

“I think I see where this is going,” Sabrina giggled bashfully. AJ nodded - it hadn’t escaped her notice that the song seemed to be moving around the circle one by one, the person to the left of the current singer picking up where they left off. Sabby was next on Selena’s left.

“Better warm up your voice, Sab,” Hailee sniggered.

“Like I need any encourage-”

“Barbra Streisand!”

“Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

“Why would they even do this?” Hailee wondered. “I mean, it’s so stupid...”

“Should we go ask them?” Jelly asked timorously.

There was a long pause, during which they listened to Sabrina’s sonorous singing. Their various Masters and Owners were nowhere in sight, but Alyssa was sure she could hear their voices in the distance, so they were certainly still in the house somewhere. She didn’t feel inclined to hunt them down and confront them about the absurd suggestion, though, as much as she objected to it. She preferred to stay standing in her spot in the circle.

None of the others seemed to want to move, either - and when Sabby finished her performance, triggering Hailee to take up the simple melody, the hypno-switch remarked, “We should just play along with the scene. Be rude not to.”

“I’d agree with you if the scene wasn’t so stupid,” AJ tittered. But then again, Hailee was the last of them to sing, so this nonsense was almost at an end. So they could just wait it out - they wouldn’t have to endure the absurd suggestion for more than a few seconds longer -

“Barbra Streisand!”

“Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!” Dani cried again. “Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

“Oh, noooo,” Hailee groaned, “are we gonna have to do it again?”

“Are we gonna have to do it indefinitely?” Jelly asked, its eyebrows raised. “Are we just gonna keep going around and around in a loop until the guys can be bothered to come back and relea-whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

“What are we gonna do?” Hailee giggled. “Are we gonna go find them...?”

“We shouldn’t,” Sabby said, but sounded uncertain. “We oughta stay and see this through...”

“This unit hypothesises that you are developing rationalisations for your inability to move from your assigned position. It is logical that we have been given instructions to remain in place so we will be forced to continue - whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”

“That does make sense,” Sabrina laughed wearily. “I mean, I’m next, and I still don’t wanna try and escape. So, yeah, we’re stuck here, right?”

“Either way, I know who’s behind this,” AJ declared. “They’re all evil and mischievous, but only one of them’s this fuckin’ annoying...”

“Ooh, are we having a party?!” boomed a familiar voice from the doorway, as if on cue. Richard sprang inside the room and began dancing to Selena’s - and in short order, Sabrina’s - singing, his arms flailing and his head bopping back and forth.

“Oh my God, stop,” AJ spluttered, waving her hands at him as if trying to slap him. Fortunately for him, he was on the other side of the room, behind Sabby. “Why would you do this to us? This is awful! You Fuck Hawk!”

“What? You don’t like the song?” He clasped a hand to his heart in mock offence. “But - it’s Boney M! It’s the tune from ‘Gotta Go Home’! And then Duck Sauce used the tune in their song -”

“Barbra Streisand!” Sabrina announced.

“Yeah, that,” Richard snickered as Hailee kept the tune going. “Timed that perfectly.”

“This is making Jelly Doll want to go home without you,” Jelly said wryly.

“Just so we’re clear,” another voice called out from outside the room, “none of us supported this. Entirely his idea.” Phil strolled into the room, wearing a despairing grin, the other two hypnotists trailing behind him.

“Yeah, we hate it too,” Milo laughed, giving his fucktoy a hug as it kept cheerfully, mindlessly ‘whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh’-ing. “We don’t want any credit for this shit.”

“Oh come on, you all helped put the suggestion in,” Richard insisted.

“Well, yeah,” Milo admitted. “Because... funny.”

AJ shook her head, smiling grimly. But before she could sling more insults their way, Danielle took up the song for the third time.

“We’re gonna have this stuck in our heads all day now,” Andrew chuckled.

“Gee, what’s that like?” Sabby giggled.

The guys lingered for a minute, watching each girl perform once more, before sauntering away through the French windows as the song reached Hailee again. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going, dude?” AJ shouted after her Master.

“I’ll be back in a bit, don’t worry!”

“You shit - don’t - you can’t leave - for fuck - this is the worst thing you’ve ever -”

“Barbra Streisand!”

“Whoo-ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh, ooh-ooh-oooh-oooh!”