"Back...and forth...back and forth. Let the watch swing...let your eyes follow...back...and forth. Let all thoughts be whisked away, by the back...and forth, motions."

Mistress Alexis held her prized pocket watch up to the screen of a half-dozen women on a video call. Six rapt pairs of eyes followed, the hypnotist happy to watch the unison appear so coordinated. Each woman was dressed or undressed at their leisure; half of them were casually dressed, two were naked, one had a towel around her torso and head, fresh from the shower. But all wore the same listlessly-engaged expression, and each rising to one degree or another of erotic pleasure building up in their minds. 

"That's it, my pretties," Alexis grinned rather wickedly. Keep following the watch, even as you are firmly rooted in-place. The watch is too easy to follow, but you are too heavy to move. Muscles so relaxed and heavy, weighed down comfortably in the seats beneath you, sinking into the cushions like you sink into my suggestions. Your eyelids are so heavy, they can't stay up much longer. The gravity, and urge to close your eyes, is too strong to ignore, and yet, behind your heavy closed eyelids, you can still see my watch swinging back...and forth."

A curious gaze watched as Alexis made bets with herself which would be the last one to hold out. Two or three fluttering eyes made for tense races to see who might need to keep physically stare at her watch before heavy eyelids and vivid imaginations took over. The pair she expected to outlast almost made it, the usually most resistant one and biggest fan of resistance-play, but she heaved a luxurious sigh and leaned limply in her chair, making her Mistress so proud of her, of them all.

"Gooood girls, very good. Let the submissive pleasure from obeying Mistress Alexis stream through your bodies. Pleasure its your reality. Obedience is your reality. My suggestions, are your reality. Just like suggestions of heaviness keeping your body rooted, but your right arms and hands are suddenly growing so light, so airy."

Multiple arms twitched gently on-screen, preparing themselves.

"Pleasure both pours into that arm, filling it like helium. And it also wafts over the arm like a gentle breeze, the small hairs across the skin tingling with joy."

Ahead of more specific suggestions, arms began to raise off of the surfaces they fell upon earlier.

"That's right, your arms are so light now, they will find their way to rise very high. And if you fear them rising too high for your own comfort, you can open your eyes and look down around your hand, and find that perfect anchor..."

Each woman's eyes fluttered open, looking down to find their anchors in the form of pocket watches laying nearby, ready to be picked up, holding their arms at a balanced height, so they could pick up where Alexis left off with further conditioning through their own hypnotic totems attached to her.

"I must watch the watch, as Mistress Alexis watches me."

"I must watch the watch, as Mistress Alexis watches me."

"I must watch the watch, as Mistress Alexis watches me."

The practiced mantra echoed through the hypnotist's headset, as well as nearby, seeing her newest submissive Stacy, dressed in a pretty French maid's outfit, seated near her controller like the other women spread across multiple states and countries wish they could. 

"I must watch the watch, as Mistress Alexis watches me."

Stacy spoke in a practiced accent, perfecting her persona of Claudine. Stacy loved that idea of a French version of herself, and Alexis was happy to continue furthering it, cementing a favored part of Stacy's increasingly-surrendered self. Alexis giggled at how were it not for the watch in her hand, her maid would look like she was dusting.

"Well, maybe she is dusting," the hypnotist mused. "Keeping her mind clean, so nice and tidy for me." Being the good girl that she was, Alexis made a mental note of giving Claudine a chance to use her watch in a mirror, so she could assertively hypnotize herself instead of just totally following Alexis' will.

"Such a sexy switch you'll make, Claudine."

Alexis got up from her computer, allowing herself a break while all her submissives programmed themselves deeper for her. Looking over at Claudine, it felt like such a difference from keeping subs through remote sessions, but working with Stacy opened her up to more possibilities of keeping live, obedient bodies close by. The Kalatravaasa was truly opening her up to new things.

***

Cris Fahey grumbled annoyingly as she unlocked the door of the club The 7ty Seven. The unofficial manager of the place working at sub-management pay made her quite cantankerous when it came to working her job, especially when "special circumstances" happened. "Special circumstance" was code for something critical needed to be taken care of, most times at the fault of the club's owner. 

The latest one prompted a call that netted Cris three-hours sleep as opposed to the six she was dying to get, sleep-deprived after a week of double-shifts; the owner got word of a city inspector coming in, and needed to be seen that morning, well before opening. 

Once she got into the club, she wanted to scream loudly, in equal parts anger and to aid the strong coffee in her hand. Before she could, two cars pulled up, her bosses car and what had to be the inspector's. Cris had never seen her boss in so early, even for a supposedly-important inspection. 

"Fuck you," she gritted her teeth, seeing her boss looking so offensively well-rested as he approached in golf slacks and a polo shirt. The inspector behind him halted her anger, slightly, a pretty woman in a brown, business-casual skirt and a white blouse. She looked liked what Cris meant to wear, instead rushing out of the house in jeans and a wrinkled buttoned-up black shirt from her bartending days.

The older man breezed through the entrance followed by the inspector.

"Good afternoon Cristine."

"Good how?" she wanted to say, but settled with a clear "afternoon."

"This is the city inspector I told you about, Alexis."

Summoning her most polite demeanor, Cris extended her hand. "Hello Alexis,"

Alexis, looking through fake wire-rimmed glasses, took careful note of the clear signs of sleep deprivation written all over the subordinate's face.

"Hello Cris," Alexis shook it firmly. The barely-disguised hypnotist considered using a shocking induction, pulling her hand, but she was afraid of Cris collapsing on the floor the moment trance, hit her, taking Alexis down with her.

"Why don't we have a seat?" Alexis gestured a little ways towards one of the booth areas. The inspector quickly took the stationary seat as the owner and Cris sat on the soft booth cushions. 

"Sleep!" Alexis quickly snapped her fingers, and Cris' boss fell out instantly against the padding. "Before you get overly concerned Cris, let me explain," Alexis told the shocked woman who nearly spilled her coffee over trying to get up and away from whatever happened. But sitting down on the softest seating in the public space plus the easing delivery from Alexis, and the prospect of an answer to the weird occurrence kept her in-place.

"Wow," Alexis used a sympathetic tone while looking at Cris. "I bet a huge part of you wishes it was you that trigger worked on instead of him."

"Trigger? What?"

"A hypnotic trigger, I hypnotized him."

"How? W-when?"

"Pretty easily, and earlier before we both arrived."

"So that's a thing with city inspectors? Hypnotizing business owners?"

"If only. Some civil servants I think should be civil owners. You certainly look as tired as a civil servant. And I'm guessing your boss here is to blame."

Cris didn't know how to respond to that, so she didn't. "I don't really have to guess though, he told me all about how he runs this place, running you into the dirt so his little club can have a solid foundation."

A softened expression was Cris' affirmation silently given.

"The inspection scheduled for today is really more about the staff than it is the facility, your boss included."

"Really?"

"Yes. Admittedly, it's more of an experimental thing the city is trying, and I agreed to it. But the way dingus here told me all about you and this club, you're really the boss of this place, and he had good reason to leave practically all the affairs to you. So I'll tell you what, give me three minutes to explain what I'd like to do..."

Alexis produced her gold pocket watch, holding it by hand as she held the clock face in Cris' direction.

"If in three minutes you're not convinced of what I'd like to do, I can report that The 7ty Seven doesn't need inspecting, and then maybe you can get some sleep. Just three minutes, with those seconds ticking away, one at a time. Inspecting people takes so little time really; it would be over before you knew it if you didn't pay attention to those seconds."

Fixed eyes were pleased to see the pair across from her following the second hand of the watch in small, gradual circles.

"Can you even hear those ticks as the seconds pass?? From the watch? From your thoughts? Three minutes goes by so fast. You could blink, and you'd miss one. Or is it two? Is it two minutes left? Do you find it convincing, the ease of inspecting? How in a matter of seconds, someone can be figured out? And if an inspector like me needed no time at all to know how tired you were, how many seconds ticking away would I need to know how much sleep you truly, truly needed?"

Just the ticking of the watch and the sound of Alexis' voice occupied Cris' mind as she leaned back to rest and absorb the compelling inspection pitch.

"Maybe no time is needed, because time could be incalculable, passing you by, passing through you like the air you breathe, deeply. Like how many breaths you forget you're taking, slowly. Could you know if it was two minutes left without me telling you? Would you need me to inform you that you actually have one minute left?"

"Just a minute left, sixty seconds. Sixty ticks you can hear going off as I speak. Whether you can count them or not, it doesn't matter. What matters is the outcome, interested in the end, in the inevitable, so you can finally rest. And you can find the rest you need very, very soon Cris. As time ticks away, as you realize how deeply sleepy you are. Your body tells you to need to sleep deep. I am telling you you need to sleep deep. And more than your boss, you want what he had, what you so want, so deserve....Sleep!"

Alexis snapped her fingers at Cris, and she gratefully fell over on the other side of the booth. 

"Poor thing," Alexis consoled Cris, stroking her limp shoulder.

The hypnotist wished she could let the sleeping manager linger in undisturbed slumber like she obviously needed, or that the callous owner could supply all the information Alexis needed. But such seemed to be the working disposition, in even where hypnosis is concerned, the working stiffs have to do more.

"Don't worry Cris; consider yourself under new management now," Alexis soothed, speaking to the dreams of pitch-black peace, shaping what would be to come.

***

About an hour later, Cris woke up, stretching like a contented cat. She paused in the middle of a deep yawn, aware of the time, but also puzzled by the deep satisfaction welling up within her. It took her a moment to realize she'd slept on the office couch. Looking around, she found Alexis sitting in the love-seat next to the couch, pleased to see how pleased Cris felt.

Cris felt stalled in her thoughts, confused by so many things, not knowing where to even begin with her inquiries. Alexis' gold watch laying across her skirt, Cris finally settled on something.

"Hypnosis can do that?"

Alexis giggled gently. "Do what?"

"Make me feel...feel like I got, like..." she checked her watch. "four to five extra hours of sleep in one. This is like...I dunno...magic."

"They say hypnosis is pretty magical, but really it's just the power of the mind."

"I thought hypnosis was all chicken-clucking and..." Cris hesitated with words that might've sounded insulting to the hypnotist staring at her, but "fake performing" slipped out regardless.

"And how nice does it feel to know that hypnosis is very real?"

"....really, really good."

"Good, because you're going to get some more soon." 

"I mean, thank you. And I do want more, but I-"

"Then you'll get more, Cris. Hypnosis is excellent for making people feel all kinds of things, including catching up on sleep. But it's not a substitute for actual sleep. Your body needs the real thing, which you're going to get a little more of, and some suggestions to ensure better habits for sure."

Cris almost felt like protesting, especially as the realization that she was at work, and her boss was somewhere crept up. Alexis' watch crept faster, as she opened it bringing the watch close to her face, the ticking of the second hand more audible than her own dwindling thoughts.

"And how many seconds do you think that will take? Try to count them, and don't worry if you lose your place, over and over, as you lose yourself in imagining a perfect day at work..."

***

Sometime later, Cris' eyelids fluttered open. She smiled wide, happy to feel like she'd gotten just enough rest, a near perfect amount. Arching her back and yawning loud enough to echo outside the empty club, she emerged from the office like a contented lioness, ready and willing to interact with the rest of the pride due soon. 

It was a special day at work, not only because she was extremely well-rested for once, but because...she just had that feeling that everything was supposed to go right today. No amount of pessimism or doubt could even touch to floaty high Cris was on. The cherry on top of it all was introducing a new act, someone she'd wanted to see perform at the 7ty Seven for a while, and now she was available - Mistress Alexis. 

She'd arrived before any of the other staff, smiling to see the club manager so impressed with her work that she just had to have her appear. Greeting her with a handshake, Alexis instantly pulled Cris forward into a soft embrace, whispering in her ear, supporting her upright body and mind with suggestions of strength and peace that feed into surrender and pleasure. Mistress Alexis held Cris for long minutes, until she let her go, and the lion felt like a sleepy cat basking in the sun.

Both women laughed gingerly as Cris referred to her as the "lion tamer" for some reason. Alexis asked if she wanted to watch other employees experience the same thing. She couldn't help but gush at the opportunity.

A few of the waitresses arrived first, and were surprised to see Cris in so early after a rough night before. Cris laughed it off pretty easily, and individually introduced each to Mistress Alexis. Every introduction was a hand shake induction into deep trance, and Cris got to be there to see it happen every time. Not only that, but seeing Alexis work, being within earshot of the whispers, Cris could feel the same sensations happening to herself again, firm legs allowing Cris to sleep on her feet for some moments. And then each server woke up refreshed, and another happy sun-bathed lion. 

It happened with each server, with the DJ, with the bartenders and bouncers, even with the owner who stopped by. Productivity seemed up, and things were going so well that everything was ready for the evening at least and hour before, and Mistress Alexis treated them to a private show just for the 7ty Seven staff. Everyone gathered in the booth area, the spotlight on her, Mistress Alexis pulled out her pocket watch.

"As you all know, I'm a hypnotist, so of course I'm going to use a watch. I'm going to use this watch, my watch. It's a very powerful watch, you know, devastating in the right hands," she smiled, swinging it gently for her small crowd to see.

"Would you believe that I could walk into a lion's den, armed with nothing but this watch, and have absolutely nothing to worry about? Is it really so hard to believe when you really think about it? In this light, doesn't my golden watch resemble the sun? What effect does the sun have on the lion? It warms them, comforts them, soothes them, lights their way to that perfect spot where they can sit and rest. Enjoying that perfect catnap, with lazy, loose limbs, lovely yawns and sleepy muscles. Not a care in the world, as sleepy eyes watch the golden sun swing back...and forth. Back...and forth. Back...and forth."

It wasn't long before Alexis fully lived up to the title Cris gave her, walking into the lioness's den and gaining a pride of sleepy pets, ready to do her bidding after at least a few rounds of conditioning. And her suggestions were so simple to follow, so easy that they wouldn't even remember doing them when asked to.

For Cris part, she concluded that she had the best job in the world, where she got to sleep on the job and get paid for it in minutes spend in deep hypnotic sleep. She walked with Mistress Alexis back to the office as her new Mistress bid her to sleep, and all she could do is whisper a grateful thank you before falling completely away.

***

"Bravo," a voice called out from nearby Alexis who was just leaving Cris to catch up on her beauty sleep. The hypnotist turned to see a man about her age standing near the club's back entrance.

"And you are..." Alexis queried.

"Master Brian Parker, part of the Kalatravaasa. I was assigned to oversee your work today."

"Oversee?"

"Of course. What, you think we'd let you take a club all by yourself? I've been watching you all day."

Alexis blinked in disbelief.

"Even before you and the owner got here, Cris let me in without ever being aware of my presence. And almost that whole time I've been observing things, 'lurking in the shadows...'" Brian pulled off a half-decent Dracula impersonation.

The female hypnotist didn't feel like extending him any sign of impact from the accent change, staring at him blankly.

He cleared his throat to recover. "Anyway, I saw your first performance that night Mistress Alexis. Very impressive stuff, but even with that kind of talent, we don't let first-time [[[locale organizers]]] work unassisted. Basically I'm your back up."

She regarded him with a careful stare "And to levy a judgment of some sort, I assume?"

Brian's small smile turned into a smirk. "You assume correctly. And as far as I'm concerned, you passed with flying colors. You'll definitely be a great asset to the Kalatravaasa. Though, I hope you haven't ruined my girl too much."

"Excuse me?"

"Cris, the manager. I've been playing with her for a while already. I know how good you are, but hopefully you don't mind the freebie subject."

Alexis kept herself from outwardly frowning.

"You know, depending on how long you've been working on her, you could've helped her with her sleeping. It seems like she's been missing a lot."

"By design."

Brian's words stopped Alexis in her tracks. "Design?"

"Yeah, some people have the weirdest fetishes. Mine just happens to be sleep-deprived subjects. I don't know, it's just..."depriving someone of something they're technically already experiencing, it's pretty hot for me." 

Head shaking, Alexis tried giving his logic the benefit of the doubt, but predictably came up short with justifying how he was treating Cris. 

"Maybe in very small, very controlled increments, sure. But she looks like she hasn't slept right in days. Maybe weeks."

"She'll live, Alexis, trust me. It's not near the worst kind of depravity around the club."

"You'll excuse me for not trusting you on that one, Brian."

She stood opposite the other Kalatravaasa agent, as if ready to face-off against him on Cris' behalf.

"You know, usually women standing like that, talking like that, call me Master Brian."

"I'm sure they mean to call you masturbater, jerk-off."

Brian lowered his head, shaking it as he smoothly pulled his own watch out of his pocket, silver with a spiral design on either side.

"If you'd like to try your hand at some real power, you can just look forward and follow. Because you know what real power is, where it lies, what it belies, like the lies you try to tell yourself about my watch not being pretty but it is soo pretty, isn't it?"

Master Brian openly challenged Alexis as she stepped forward, hands in her pockets, seeming ready to pull her watch out.

"Pretty presumptuous of you think this is going one way, when it's really going another. But which way is it going?" Alexis stared hard at Brian at first, but let her eyes wander to the path of Brian's watch swinging before him.

"It's going back and forth Alexis, just like you knew it would, just like you love how it goes back and forth. And back and forth. And back and forth."

Alexis admitted Brian had a good voice and cadence for a hypnotist, but tried to keep herself from laughing.

"But which way is back, and which way was forth? Was it that swing that was, or that other swing that is forth? It must be so very confusing when you're holding the watch, and you just don't know. No more than if you know if you're already awake or already asleep."

Pouring dulcet tones into her confusing words, Alexis let her eyes dart between following the watch and looking into his eyes, pulling his eyes along to follow, until they focused back on his with a blinking regularity.

"Right now, are you already awake, or were you always asleep? Because to be sleep is to have fallen deep asleep already, to listen about how you might be awake to find that you were asleep but are wanting to go back to sleep from being awake as programmable and obedient. Because you will obey when you are asleep because you are obedient when you are awake because your dreams told you to obey and you dream of Mistress Alexis tells you to obey and sleep and sleep and......sleeeeep...and sleeeeeeeeep..." 

There was a specific rhythm to her blinking; maybe it was triggered per word or per breath, but each time she switched to closed or open, he subconsciously followed, until it took too much effort to try to re-open his eyes, and his head and watch-holding arm slumped eventually, Brian subconsciously mastered by Mistress Alexis skill and motivation for retribution.

"That's better. And with that resolved, masturbater" she spoke his mock title as diminutively as she could. "with the framework in place for the Kalatravaasa's next club set up, let's discuss another important frame work..."

***

Recalling the events at the 7th Seven from her hotel suite, Mistress Alexis smiled as the video conferencing continued on without her, with Claudine and the rest barely hanging on by a thin thread, waiting to be officially allowed to sleep the kind of deep sleep Cris resting in the suite's bedroom knew. She slept soundly on the bed, allowing programming to take her deeper. 

After the success at her club, Alexis spoke to Cris, consciously and subconsciously. Gauging everything that happened, as well as her feelings Cris admitted she loved what Alexis had done, not even able to remember what Brian had done, or that the awful hypnotist even existed. Cris wasn't shy about admitting attraction, physically or mentally, insistent to the point of forward. Alexis found a compromise in allowing Cris to be another member of her little harem; not only did Cris find that unbelievably hot, but she found it better for a vulnerable beauty like Cris to be in better hands with Alexis.

Deep in her sleep, she moaned as wet dreams of Alexis' hands roaming her body made her mewl in pleasure in the other room. The sounds were just as satisfying as the grunts Brian made from the suite's couch, constantly experiencing moments of not knowing if he was awake or asleep, trying to figure it out but failing every time. 

The underestimated Mistress Alexis mind-fucked him well, and she still had to decide how long it would last. The more she learned about the Kalatravaasa, the more apprehensive she felt about having any part of it. And as compelled as she was to leave or blow the whistle to anyone who'd listen, she sensed something bubbling under the surface of just club acquisitions and meet-ups. There was something there that, for the time being, made it worth sticking around and keeping her eyes open.

With any luck, her journalist contact could find out more and confirm or deny any suspicions. In the meantime, she decided not to let such thoughts ruin a good, collective moment. 

"Sleep!" she commanded to everyone at once with a finger-snap, the video chat plus Claudine and Brian fell into deep sleeps, settling in to the sleep everyone was waiting for, until Alexis would reluctantly rouse everyone again. Before ending everyone's fun, Alexis walked into the bedroom where Cris laid, stroking herself through her jeans as she whispered "Mistress Alexis" in her sleep.

Placing a kiss on her forehead, she whispered down, "Welcome to my harem, Cris."