A Little Cruise

After the show Sandy, the hypnotist, was relaxing inside of his dressing room while one of the female staff was running through the numbers for the night. The basic boring things like number of attendees, number of drinks sold, number of social media posts, you know the kind of things that other authors would have ignored... but not me!

A moment later the door to the dressing room was forcefully kicked open and Xander barged in, visibly angry as he stared down Sandy. To his credit Sandy didn't really react when the door flew open, although the young woman next to him screamed in surprise. Sandy just stood up, looked at the young woman and calmly said "I'm sorry Jenny, it appears that my 7 pm angry boyfriend appointment is early. Would you excuse us for a moment please?" As he finished he raised his fingers and snapped them next to Jenny's ear. The young woman barely had time to register what he had said before her head rolled to her chest and she sank into the couch behind her with a sigh. After making sure that she had landed safely, Sandy turned to Xander with a genuinely disarming smile and politely asked "Ok, which petrified girl are you here about?"

Xander's reply was remarkably calm, for him; he really didn't say anything...what he did was grab the hypnotist by the throat and slam him against the wall of the dressing room. Sandy took the impact well and calmly replied with "oh...the angel." A second later Sandy seemed to explode into a cloud of yellow dust and moved around Xander, towards the door.

The incubus was completely unphased by this little turn of events, and as the cloud moved towards the door Xander extended his wings and gave one powerful flap in the direction of the cloud. Anything not weighted down in the room flew in the direction of the door. Even a few of the pieces of furniture slid a bit. The flap caused the door to slam shut and the cloud of what Xander knew to be sand slammed against the door. The moment it did Sandy reformed face first into the door and slid to the ground with a thud. He wasn't injured, he was more...surprised. "A demon?" he asked confused.

"Incubus" was Xander's one word reply as he folded up his wings behind him but left them out of their usually concealed and shrunken position inside of his back. His posture remained angry and intimidating as he glared down at Sandy.

Sandy moved a bit to try and sit up against the door as he commented "That was an amazingly clever move, no one has ever done anything like that. Took me completely by surprise." His tone was genuine and not angry in the slightest. Kinda getting the feeling that Xander is not the first angry person to come knocking on his door.

Xander continued his glare down at Sandy "You're not the first Sandman I have encountered, or fought" he admitted through clenched teeth.

Sandy nodded a bit as he went to stand up then stopped to look at Xander, an expression of realization on his face. "Wait a minute" he started "Sandmen are real?!" The look of shock and confusion on his face was real.

Xander raised an eyebrow in the best Spock impression you have ever seen before finally breaking his aggressive stance and going "Duuuuuuuuuuh!" as mockingly as he could. "You are one moron!"

Sandy tilted his head to Xander in confusion, then shook his head "Yes and no, I'm not what you would call a 'classical' sandman. I wasn't born this way, I got my powers from a magical pen and a poorly worded wish. I've never met a real sandman before, I thought they were just a myth!"

Xander facepalmed then looked down at Sandy "you have to be careful what you wish for, you know that right?"

Sandy grimaced and shook his head "yeah, hindsight is 20/20." The Sandman / Hypnotist slowly stood up, keeping his hands out in a position to remind Xander that he was unarmed "You're here about the Angel right? What was her name... Ummm... Veo was it?"

Xander's posture took on its aggressive glare again as he took a step closer to Sandy, but before he could say anything Sandy cut him off. "She's fine, I promise. Her mind is in a state of deep hypnotic sleep, she's not even aware."

Xander took in a rather deep aggressive breath and exhaled out a question "and her body? What the hell did you do to her!?" He demanded.

Sandy slowly moved to the chair next to the couch and offered a seat to Xander, next to the hypnotized Jenny. "Her body basically has my, for lack of a better term, 'sands' covering it. It allows me to change the physical substance of her body to, in her case, a crystalyn form. She's completely safe! If i so much as loose concentration for too long she would pop right back to normal."

Xander didn't seem to believe him, until Sandy reached out his hand and placed it gently on Jenny's hand. The hypnotized young woman didn't move a muscle, but over the next several seconds Xander watched as her skin turned darker and then slowly became solid granite. He reached out and ran his hand along her cheek, feeling how cold and hard the petrified young woman was. And then her skin lightened and became soft again while Sandy returned her to normal. "See?" he asked, genuinely wanting to make sure he knew what was going on.

Xander seemed to relax a bit "what powers do you have, exactly?"

Sandy stood up and motioned for Xander to follow him. While they headed to the now empty auditorium, and up on stage Sandy explained his gifts. "Pretty much what you have already seen" he started "I can turn into a cloud of sand and slip through cracks and key holes and things like that. If I get any 'sand' inside of a person or on a person I can use it to manipulate or access their thoughts. But only the surface thoughts, I can't poke around their minds or anything. And I can manipulate the structure of the person while I am in contact with them, which was how I was able to remove their clothes without destroying them. I simply changed their structure then let them go back to normal on their own."

Xander walked with him up to the completely naked and crystallized form of Veo "And the hypnotism powers?"

Sandy laughed a bit "Honestly, 90% of what you saw tonight was all normal hypnosis, I am self taught. I don't really age anymore and I don't need to sleep so I spend my off hours learning and taught myself hypnosis. Granted I am keeping the girls on display here in a deeper than normal state of hypnosis while they are petrified, but that is just for their comfort. Don't want them freaking out. I do have one question if I might ask... Do you know why Veo has a green tint to her form? She was supposed to be clear."

Xander, while looking over his crystallized friend, nonchalantly replied "She's basically a walking nuclear weapon. That's why the necklace didn't fade away or fall off." He said, pointing out the ornate necklace that had a long strand that coiled along her arm. "If it comes off it either regrows instantly, or she detonates with a 4 million Kiloton payload, which is why her blood is green and why the crystal has a green tint. She's radioactive."

Sandy replied to these statements the same way any normal, sane, rational person would. He freaked the fuck out. After laughing at him for about five minutes straight, Xander finally calmed him down and explained that she was harmless and that if it were that easy to set off the necklace it would have happened millenia ago. This did not do much to help ease his mind.

At this point Sandy moved the conversation physically away from the thermonuclear weapon, I mean Veo, and out onto the deck. "So" Xander started in an attempt to change the subject "what got you into doing hypnosis?"

Sandy just smiled, "It seemed like a good way to impress a girl. After all this is a cruise ship, every week there are approximately 450 young women boarding this boat. Half of them are single and looking for an adventure. Why they decided that the best place to find an adventure would be in the middle of literally nowhere, surrounded by water and vacationing retirees is beyond me, but who am I to argue."

Xander chuckled a bit as he thought back to his days in the Spirals nightclub, a perfect hunting ground for an incubus. The thought actually depressed him a bit, and Sandy caught it. He asked why he had such a long face and Xander told him the story. The long, depressing story of what had happened to him and how he ended up on a cruise ship in the middle of the Pacific.

Sandy gave a nod "Alright Mr. Incubus, let's see what you can do" he said with a grin as he pointed to a group of three girls standing by the railing and giggling. "They happened to look over here a minute ago and giggle. Let's go show them our skills, shall we?"

Xander visibly started to get nervous, it had been so long since he hypnotized anyone. He wasn't sure if he still had it in him. "I...I don't know man...I'm..."

Sandy cut him off "You're nervous. It's understandable. But if you don't' try you'll never know where you currently stand in your own abilities. What you still have and what you have to regain."

Before Xander could come up with another argument, Sandy simply turned to the three young women and moved towards them with a smile "Good evening ladies! Might have I have a few moments of your time? Tell me ladies, have any of you three seen the posters on the ship for the stage hypnotist show?"

The three ladies kind of giggled and shook their heads 'no'. They were dressed in elegant evening dresses, probably coming from one of the ballroom dances that was taking place that evening.

Sandy put on a faked look of shock "You haven't! My, my, well that's a shame you see I am the hypnotist... and this is my new apprentice." He said pointing to a visibly nervous Xander who was looking at the girls like a deer in headlights. Before he could think of a way to kill Sandy and make his escape, the hypnotist continued to embarrass him. "Would one of you ladies be willing to volunteer to let him try his hand at hypnotizing you?"

The girls all laughed, but it was of course the uptight looking one that spoke up first "I'm too smart to be hypnotized" she said. Although that's not what Sandy heard. Sandy heard the sound of a game show prize bell going off. He had his first subject.

With a professional grin he slid up next to the young woman and offered her his hand "Is that so?" He asked as he looked over the young woman. She was in her early 20's with black hair pulled up in a very elegant bun and purple highlights in several of the strands. He recognized the work of the ship's hairdresser. He would compliment her later. She was very petite and her long, black evening gown hung loose on her even though it was designed to be skin tight. He extended his hand to her and interrupted her reply "I'm sorry miss I didn't catch your name?"

The young woman was about to respond to his first question when he asked her name, she absently mindly took his hand and commented that her name was Melanie. Sandy shook her hand but didn't let go of it, he simply looked her into eyes and kept shaking her hand, slowly raising it, then a little more quickly going down. "Melanie...that's a lovely name. Tell me Melanie, did you know, that a person's intelligence has a profound effect on their ability to be hypnotized?" Melanie shook her head confidently. But Sandy continued before she could respond vocally "did you know that being intelligent actually makes you easier to hypnotize? That in order to..." he tugged gently on her hand and dropped his voice as he said "go into trance, Melanie...you have to be smart. You have to be...creative. Only if you lack those things, are you truly unable to hypnotized."

Melanie seemed visibly confused. The tug on her hand had taken her by surprise and she was struggling to recover her thought process. Sandy, of course, didn't give her the chance. "But you said, Melanie...that you were too smart to be hypnotized. But this cannot be...you have to be smart to be hypnotized...and you are smart. Aren't you, Melanie?"

Her two friends stared at them, completely engrossed in their friends confusion. Noticing how the normally take charge young woman was now easily being lead down a path that she never realized she had started to take. Her head nodded and she managed to get out "Of... of course I'm smart."

Sandy smiled "Of course you are...you're as brilliant as you are beautiful. But if you're so brilliant, so smart, Melanie. Then you must..." he squeezed her hand before gently lowering it, still shaking her hand slowly "realize now...that you are easily hypnotized." Raising her hand gently "That you can simply..." Squeezing her hand as he lowered it "Sink Melanie. Sinking down... easily.. and gently... just let everything fade away and..." giving her hand a gentle tug toward him as he says " Sleep!

Her friends watched in awe as their friend slowly started to relax and then was quickly tugged into the man she had just met and fell completely limp in his arms. The hypnotist was skilled, he knew how to catch a falling subject and supported her weight while letting her arms, head, and torso be completely limp against his chest. He took a few moments to whisper into her ear, and the young woman stood up straight, but with her head tilted down and her eyes closed. Sandy looked at the other girls with a grin and smiled as they laughed and clapped.

"That was awesome!" Said the blonde in the blue dress.

"Can you leave her this way for a while?" Said the brunette wearing a slinky purple dress.

Sandy smiled and looked over Melanie like he was examining a piece of art he was considering buying "Yeah" he replied "I think I can see my way to keeping her like this for a while" he said, giving the other two girls a wink, which resulted in an unusually childish giggle from both. Sandy smiled at Xander then back at the girls and asked "So... any volunteers for my apprentice here?"

Before Xander could freak out, the brunette, whose short hair was cut just above the ears, stepped forward. Her purple dress was slinky in all the right places yet flowed in all the rest. She looked Xander in the eyes with a smile and said "I'm game, let's see what you've got."

Xander had a heart attack.

Fortunately he's an incubus and his heart restarted a second later. But still, that was traumatic.

Once he recovered, he glanced at Sandy who gave an approving nod. With massive cartoonish gulp he stepped forward and looked at the young woman. He held up two fingers in front her and started to slowly move his hands back and forth in front of her eyes. "Follow my fingers please miss... follow them left...and right...Back... and forth... Slowly ... Just let your eyes... follow them... ever so easily... ever so gently... swinging to the left... and to the right... up... and down..." he was slowly moving his fingers from side to side as her eyes followed them. But he was noticing that with each glance to the left and each glance to the right, that her face was relaxing just a bit more. When he started to slide them up and down, he could see her face stretch as his hand went up then sink as his fingers went down. He continued the side to side and up and down motions for another minute or so until his hand went straight up in front of her face, making her eyes roll back up to continue to follow them. The stretch made her mouth pop open just a bit before he brought his hands down in front of her eyes and snapped his fingers. A nice commanding "Sleep!" followed suit.

The young brunette's head instantly fell to her chest. Xander started to smile before the young woman's legs gave out from under her and she felt into a pile onto the ground. She hit in such a way that she managed to wake herself up just a bit. Her friend the blonde ran over and pushed Xander out of the way to help her friend up. Sandy moved over and looked at the two young women and Xander. As the girl stood up and the brunette just kind of stood there dazed, looking around, the blonde yelled at Xander rather harshly about how he dropped her friend.

As she was ranting Sandy rolled his eyes and quickly moved one hand to the forehead of the blonde, and one to the forehead of the brunette, and in one smooth motion said "sleep" and pulled both of their heads back towards his shoulders. The brunette, who was already pretty much gone mentally, simply sank back against the hypnotist, her body barely moved. The blonde however, her head whipped back and her eyes slammed shut instantly. Her face slackened slowly, and her body stayed rigid although pulled back against Sandy. Her finger, which had been pointing at Xander, was still sticking out at him and slowly wobbling from side to side, before sliding down to her body. Her breasts bounced a bit as she started to slump.

Sandy quickly whispered into the girl's ears to keep them from falling over and then tilted them up to stand on their own. He moved to Xander, putting his hand on his shoulder and moving him over to the side of the ship "you ok, bud?"

Xander sighed "Not my best performance." The incubus held his head low, feeling awful inside. "I have never dropped anyone before."

Sandy smiled a bit "I've dropped plenty of people, it happens, and it takes time to build your skills."

Xander shook his head "I'm 2700 years old. I have had plenty of time, I should be better than this."

Sandy laughed out loud "So what? You went through a trauma, that is going to clog things up and it's going to take time to heal from that. Give yourself that time." As Sandy and Xander sat talking, another young woman, this one a curly haired redhead, walked out onto the deck of the ship and started to move towards the bow. Like the other girls she was in a very elegant dress. Sandy looked at Xander and smiled "Alright man, I have three young women who need a new memory about tonight" then leaned over to look at the red head "and that young woman needs a little nap, don't you think?"

Xander looked at the girl, then at Sandy, and smiled "I'll give it a shot. Thanks"

Sandy patted him on the back, "No problem, I'll catch up with you tomorrow morning. If you need anything just tell any staff member, they all know me."

As Sandy gently gathered up his bevy of hypnotized beauties, Xander built up his courage and started to walk towards the young woman near the bow.

To Be Continued...