It was late in the day with evening activities were going on; time seemed to fly by since his mid-day trance with Maven, having had a good class day, and the best day at a con on balance yet. He walked through the majority of con spaces, enjoying the vendors, evening arrangements, and trances happening throughout. It felt really good to be in a space that accepted his love of recreational hypno, filled with greater positivity than before thanks to Maven's suggestions.

He hoped in the back of his mind that another trance with her might happen, but he seemed to focus on the satisfaction of a milestone reached, how the if was no longer up for debate. It felt good to keep that on his mind for some reason, so it never seemed to leave his thoughts for very long. The only thing that could really put it to the side was getting a message from Maven on his phone.

"Hey, I'm free for a trance tonight, if you're interested."

Jackson couldn't type fast enough.

"I'm definitely free. When and where would you like to?"

After being given the details, he came to one of the emptier lounging rooms were a few people were sitting and talking. Jackson found her at the other end of the room, alone with two seats.

"Thanks for coming."

"Thank you for the invitation."

"So how's the con been for you overall?" Jackson asked curiously?

"Pretty good for me, have learned a lot, and worked with some great people so far." He smiled at the gesture she gave in his direction. "Came from another session where I got to play hypnotee myself."

"Cool, how did that go?"

"Pretty well; I'm usually a dominant, so it's nice from time to time to see how things are on the other side, and that might be doubly true with hypnosis."

"Yeah, now you know why I can get so dumbfounded," Jackson laughed.

"Oh I knew that before my session, and I wouldn't mind at all seeing more of it." Maven's look was almost a tease, prompting Jackson to tease a little back.

"Well, maybe I shouldn't let you do it so easily. It might feel a little more satisfying to have to work a little harder to get me dumbfounded."

"Ah, that's just the 'resistance' talking; we already have an understanding."

"Which tells me you have yet to really meet my resistance."

They had fun volleying playful comments to each other, but it got Maven curious for a moment.

"Well, it seems like there's more to that resistance than I thought. Does it have to do with why you thought you weren't a good subject?"

"Not...really," he tried speaking candidly. "I think part of is, I kind of like the idea of resisting. Not being a total brat or anything, but maybe like for a scene. I believe in hypnosis, that it can happen, even to me. But believing it comes easy isn't easy. And role-playing where I have a strong resistance but be tested against a strong hypnotic power, it just...appeals for some reason. Me and resistance are just intertwined in strange ways."

Maven's visage told him she listened to what he had to say with consideration, which turned back slightly into teasing and a mischievous idea.

"In that case, do you feel like doing a little scene?"

"Yeah, sure. What did you have in-mind?"

"I was going to ask you that; based on what you described, it sounded like a superhero fantasy, with you the hero and a hypnotist threatening to charm the fight out of you."

"Maybe you should play a psychic, cause that sounds like you're reading my mind."

Maven laughed. "I could, but...I think I have my own ideas for it too. No magical powers, maybe. Just really good at manual hypnosis, taking you down with just my wits and will. Does that sound ok?"

"I like that; if it helps you to enjoy it just as much, I'm game."

"Great," she beamed. They scooted their chairs closer together so they were more facing each other.

"Now, since we're going this far with it, I want to go over consent with you. Has anything changed since last time? Any changing comfort levels? The same kind of touches as before are ok?"

"Nothing has changed for me."

"Anything you don't want to happen, or especially want to happen in role-playing a scene? Take a moment to really think about this one, please.

Jackson did as she asked, and reached a conclusion quicker than expected. "I think all I really want is to feel like I'm really in a scene for the first time. Nothing elaborate or dangerous, just believing I am and you are what's established."

"Perfect, and you know that as we trance normally, like we have before, that resistance is only overcoming a belief to reach something you want, and that if you feel uncomfortable in any kind of way, you'll speak up and say so as soon as you feel it, right?"

"Yes, and thank you for bringing that up. I'm not resisting because I don't trust you. I do trust you, and want to go further with you."

"That's so great, and that means that your belief can start to reach what you want because your old belief is no longer up for debate."

She smiled as she watched the earlier suggestion take hold of him, the surprised look on his face, telling of the feeling of the circularly-repeating internal mantra of being a good hypnotee, and what a good hypnotee like him was good at. She stifled a bigger laugh at him never noticing his one hand holding the other, stroking circles into his skin like she'd done before. This trigger worked so well, she was eager to try more.

"That's right Jackson, and as that wonderful belief in yourself grows, it becomes easier to accept additional, equally gratifying suggestions the voice you listen keenly to gives you. One thing I think your mind will like, and like it more and more as it's used..." Maven had to stop herself, considering where she was, and how many all-too-common words and phrases might be so easily spoken at hypno cons that accidental triggering was something to think about. She searched her mental dictionary until she thought of a word she didn't hear often..."and that word, is incontestable. And you can let that word have a powerful and positive effect on you, traveling with you to a place, a time, a moment, a circumstance, that feels oddly familiar and oddly compelling, the more I tell you about it."

***

He came to himself after getting lost in thought, sitting down, in a near empty room. He needed to regroup, to gather his thoughts, to plan for what to do when he saw her next. Sometime that night, in the busy convention crowd, she'd slipped away, probably aware of his surveillance now. Knowing things were trickier, now that his cover was blown, he'd need a new strategy plus contingencies to plan for what trick she could have up her sleeve next.

Problem was, he was so lost in thought that she'd appeared in a chair next to his as if out of nowhere, looking at him with a combined annoyed and amused smirk, annoyed that he'd followed her, amused how his breath caught from being caught off-guard.

"Fancy meeting you here, old friend," she spoke evenly.

How she didn't call out his identity to draw a crowd meant she was keeping both their "other personas" hidden from everyone else.

"Fancy indeed," his tone matched hers perfectly.

She thought about keeping up the charade for a bit longer, but looking around, knowing they were out of earshot of others, she gave him a long huff and pointed look.

"You know how insufferably adorable you are sometimes? Meeting your innocent hypnotist 'nemesis,' seeing if she'll affect any minds...at a mind-control convention, of all places. How silly of me to question the logic to your plan. But let it not be forgotten how my 'victims' all come to me, willingly, how you came to this convention, willingly. How you've come to me, a hypnotist. Willingly."

She looked pointedly at him as if trying to draw attention to anything about her that would catch his eye. The confident body language, the slow breathing, the look in her eyes signaling control.

He tried to give her his own intense look, and not fall into the deep blue of her eyes while glaring.

"I came willingly, to make sure no one here would fall prey to your manipulations."

She stiffed a laugh. "I see you've just started your stake-out of me early, and didn't research this kind of con at all, where they pretty much come to you and ask for what you think are evil deeds. They literally embody the con title, charmed. Charmed to meet them, Charmed to meet me. Weren't you Charmed to meet me, in our first meeting?"

"You mean your first attempted manipulation, sure."

"Attempted, eh?" He never let her know how much her Mona Lisa smile unnerved him. "Well, everyone's got their own way of looking at things. And you're just dead-set on seeing things only your way."

"With what you put in-front me, what else am I supposed to see?"

"Oh, I don't know. As deeply as you seem to pay attention to me, despite your infamously stubborn resistance, it's more like, what else is worth seeing? What else holds your attention more than me when I'm doing what I do best?"

"What you do best is breaking moral and legal norms that I can list all day."

"Which has led to how many arrests, trials, and convictions? If you want to keep score, it's more like you, zero, and me, however many are lucky enough to see things my way."

He scoffed hard at that.

"But, in the interest of fairness, and since you're so much fun to argue with, let me propose a little debate."

"A debate?"

"Yes, once-and-for-all, to see who's right in our disagreements, to see whether it's either my manipulation like you think, or all my 'victims' want it, like I know they do. If you think your position is so logical and just, then you should have no issue getting your points across and convincing me, just like I'll be doing the same to you."

"And...if I persuade you to what you're doing, what we both know you're doing?"

"I'll leave the event. And I'm a woman of my word. And since you're a man of your word, you'll leave the event in the event that persuade you of the truth you're refusing to believe."

He shook his head, not in refusal, but ready to call out her deception. "With the language you're using now, don't think I haven't noticed that the debate has already begun, and that you're already trying and failing to use persuasive language to get in some kind of early win."

"Really, Mr. Observant, we all use persuasive language, everyday, all day. Is it truly my fault that when I use it, people just stop to listen, and don't start up again doing things without a little direction from me?"

"How often do people use that crooning, lowered tone to entice people with how you say it in-addition to what you say?"

"More often than you'd think, and right now we'd call those people smart debaters."

"And what do we call the people unaffected by said debate tactics?"

"People in deep denial," she spoke without missing a beat.

"Denial, really?"

"Whatever word you want to use, they're deep in something."

"You know what I think that depth is filled with?"

"Bullshit. And...I agree with you."

"Y-what?"

A humble smile across her lips belied the excitement in the hook he'd just taken.

"I should retract what I said; denial probably isn't the right word. Maybe more, quiet excitement. To a hypnotist, it might look like denial, but maybe they're just waiting to hear the right words. So, so, so many people have their own exposure and ideas when it comes to hypnosis that some part of them is just waiting to be signaled with that thing they associate with hypnosis. For a lot of people, it's a pocket watch. Others, a lot of mentions of sleeping and sleep. Believe it or not, some look for their cues in words or concepts like 'bullshit.'"

"I-I don't believe you," he tried reasoning with her, and more himself.

"Yeah, in your shoes, I wouldn't want to either. But having seen more than you, those kinds of people, they hear about hypnosis, and they are just waiting to put up a big front, to invite a challenge, their way of begging for hypnosis to happen. These people are the better at deception than I could ever be in your eyes. Once the all-too-common 'you can't hypnotize me' comment is out in the open, they're just ready. I could croon, whisper, soothe their minds in just the right tone, saying bullshit...bullshit...buuulllllssssshhhiiiitttt..over and over, until the original meaning is lost, and a new meaning emerges, a signal to their minds, something to associate with the calm wafting over them, pacifying them to a profound listening state. And as wonderful as that sounds, why would you ever think to call it 'manipulation' on my part?"

"I-isn't..." He tried to hold onto some kind of flotsam. His famed resistance against her suddenly seemed slippery, when even saying bullshit the way she did felt like a caress, smoothing the hardened edges of consciousness. She made him think about aspects of trance to the point where random flashes of information from the convention classes flashed through his head. One of them illuminated his head and suddenly gave him life in the debate.

"Isn't it true that hypnotists go into a trance of their own while they're hypnotizing people? And isn't it true that hypnosis happens, like you said, every day, all day? And isn't it true that with being hypnotized, there comes a degree of helplessness that leaves them anchoring themselves to whatever voice got them to that helplessness? And with all that, and with you being you, wouldn't you have to conclude that you being you, a hypnotist, hypnotized every day, helpless to being hypnotically manipulative in the most persuasive of ways, that you do manipulate because you can't help but manipulate?"

The stream of logical connections bewildered them both. He could believe that he came up with something all on a whim. She couldn't either, to the point where Maven slipped out of her character, impressed with and trying to fight his logic, her veneer filled with joy from the heightened level of play.

"Damn, Jackson, you're good," she said to herself.

"Who?" he questioned confused.

"I mean..." she shook her head, took a deep breath, and resumed her look of dark persuasion.

"You have a point. A fantastic point at that. This is why I so enjoy our little talks," she grinned at him, letting him enjoy what seemed like a victory to him.

"So...you'll be leaving then?" he spoke with hope in his voice.

"I would...if my own point wasn't still valid."

"what?"

"You wanted to establish that I am manipulative, and made a good case for it. But none of what you said excuses hypnotee's from their part in the dance of hypnosis. Two to tango, remember? One to lead, one to follow. One to talk, one to listen. I could talk to myself like I am right now till the cows come home, or whatever that expression is supposed to mean. But the cows aren't coming. People are coming, people are staying, listening, absorbing, obeying. Because they want to."

"Why would they want to?"

"Why wouldn't they? Remember the last time you'd been 'almost' hypnotized by me? How much stress or worries bothered you when you were just listening to me?"

He remained silent, fighting the memories.

"Right, they weren't on your mind. Even the stress of what I was going to do to you when I had you under took a backseat to feeling of it happening; that was in the driver's seat for sure. That was never up for debate, was it?"

The silence in him hardened, fighting a stronger, tangible sensation of suggestion reminding him how good a subject he was. It felt like it circled atop his skin, and a flowing mantra, circling his connected arms. "I'm a great hypnotee, hypnotees are really good at this. I'm a great hypnotee, hypnotees are really good at this."

"And just so you know, my plan, what I was going to do to you, was merely deepen the trance you were already greatly enjoying. Too bad I couldn't direct you to a mirror when it happened, you would've seen the fact of trance as incontestable."

He never noticed his hands uncoupling, but he did notice his left hand rising to place itself in her already waiting hand, stroking it with ease and near ecstasy. It was more than natural to him, it was normal. It's what always happened at a certain point in their talks, and as normal as breathing around the hypnotist, it was just another consequence of interaction that he never gave a second thought.

"I'm a hypnotist. You're a hypnotee. We're both very good at what we do. So good that it feels us with joy to be so accomplished. And since we enjoy being accomplished, we should enjoy what we're doing. And since we enjoy what we're doing, she should keep doing it, willingly, with no reservation. And since we're doing it with no reservation, we should be able to admit that we have our own part in it, right?"

"Right, our own part," the dulled, absent words of the hypnotee were sweet music his debating opponent.

"Like you said, I can't help it, manipulating. You can't help it, giving in, wanting to give in."

"Wanting to give in?"

"Yes, give in," she let her voice speak with a little more playful authority.

"Give in..." more vocal absence translated to acceptance.

"So....that leaves us at an impasse. A tie, probably. I must say, I was truly aiming to beat you and send you away, but I've enjoyed our little jousting; no one else deserves to be my 'nemesis' like you. And given the conditions of our agreement, no one is leaving. And since neither of us are going anywhere in the near future, you wouldn't mind talking a little more, would you..."

"Mind...?"

"Mind...what did you mean by 'mind,' how you wouldn't mind speaking a little more cause the results of the debate aren't up for debate?"

His hands joined together to convince him of being such a good hypnotee.

"Or did you mean your mind like the entity, the thing that does the thinking for you, unless it incontestably finds itself in my hands, then I do the thinking for you?"

She laughed as his hand reluctantly yet eagerly removed itself to be in her warmer, reassuring, hypnotic hand.