Note: This story is a prequel to Lamia Pants. And special thanks to LamiaS for inspiring this story.
All at once, three different cellphones across the city chirped for a new notification. Geraldine, Sasha, and Melanie's eyes flared eagerly for a text they all were expecting from a friend. Each had to let the sender know that they weren't working or driving, lest they become too distracted.
The somewhat contained excitement revealed itself more fully as their friend's text showed the surprise she'd teased them with. Lamia got a professional photo taken of herself; a black tank top over russet, golden brown skin glistening in the lighting, freshly-colored rainbow-hued braid style, and a subtly seductive demeanor graced each screen. She modeled herself with a little more charm than her friends were used to. Lamia was their senior, and first introduction to learning about and experiencing hypnosis. All of them being apart of the same local hypnosis recreation group, they were constantly becoming inundated with how charming the hypnotist could be. Even connected facets of other fascinations, like Lamia's love of the mythical serpents she named herself after, grew to be of interested to fresh newcomers.
Geraldine and Sasha stared at their phones in Geraldine's cubicle, while Melanie enjoyed the sight on her break in her car. Three sets of eyes fixed on the knowing smile Lamia bore in the photo, as if knowing what their eyes would be drawn to.
"Fond memories?" A text accompanied the pic, bringing three sets of minds back to an unforgettable first meeting.
***
Most people Lamia agreed to hypnotize could be induced through various techniques; progressive relaxation, tactile, conversational or confusion induction, whatever the subject responded to best, or sometimes whatever the mood might've called for. The trio met her after seeing her entrance another community regular at a party, beguiled by her skill and friendly charisma, eager to levy compliments afterwards. They became friends after talks of random interests and hobbies most of the time at their first munch, finding many of their interests aligning. Lamia wondered if any of them subconsciously realized how they socially clung to her. Fortunately for them, it wasn't a vexing, overbearing clinginess, so it was accepted gracefully.
Once important communication was made, consent and boundaries established at the start of a later party, and trust was earned on each end, curiosity was satiated among each lady. All of their first trances occurred under Lamia's guidance, considered most recognizably deep for their absorbent minds, predicated on a simple, innocuous question:
"What's your favorite color?"
It was more in reference to the colorful t-shirt she wore at the time, though it quickly adapted to how their glances always strayed higher, vibrant braided hair coloring easily catching their eyes. As they thought about their answers, she interrupted their immediate trains of thought with further inquiry:
"Mind if I guess? Could it be red for one of you? I know, stereotypical girl guess, but there are plenty of reasons to love it."
Reaching out in the same breath to gesture towards Geraldine's reddish highlights, fingers lightly grazed the ends.
"I mean, for some of us, red is a pretty easy guess. You can't blame me for guessing this either since you wear this shade of red so well. Red is a beautiful color after all, isn't it?"
Geraldine marveled at how nice it felt to feel fingers brushing against her hair every time "red" was said aloud. The quantity, but mostly the intoned quality, almost a honeyed crooning speaking "red," started to relax and embrace the attentive woman who happily agreed to be touched for induction purposes. Lamia looked down a little to find a reddish end of one of her own braids, beginning to stoke the engaging color when she didn't pass her fingers softly across the ends of her subject. Geraldine wished her hair would be stroked by the hypnotist's hands the same way, fingers making a rhythmic show of grasping the braid one by one, their motion almost enough of a hypnotic draw by themselves.
"A passionate color, so hot to see red shading the right clothes, the right shoes, lipstick, hairstyle. Fiery, powerful, eye-catching red; why wouldn't it be a favorite when it can turn your heat up just at that perfect, that absolutely perfect temperature that gets you pleasantly flustered, and very interested in red?"
Lamia varied her style of stroking her braid as she spoke, sometimes gripping the length of the shade she described, sometimes merely running a finger down the same path. A soothsaying, confident tone made the acquisition of their attention so natural, each listener feeling like the braid being stroked by a compelling touch. A smiling Geraldine especially felt it, slightly spacing out, beginning to associate the memory of her red highlights touched with watching the color in Lamia's hair stroked, and hearing the intonation of "red."
"So exciting to see it, to feel it, like a signal that something wonderful is coming, or has already arrived. Do you feel it yet, is it already here? Does it, does red, already have your full attention? You can ponder that and see what you feel while I take my next guess. Maybe one among you favors yellow."
The same hand that stroked Geraldine's highlights made its way to Sasha's yellow bracelet.
"Kind of like this yellow. Bright and decorative, I think it finds a way of brightening a room, or someone's senses if they pay close enough attention to it."
Like Geraldine's red highlights, Lamia's finger gave a tactile association, tapping the top of Sasha's yellow band in time with every spoken "yellow."
Stroking fingers moved a longer path up the braids to its mid-section, to a brighter color she was ready to give credence to.
"Such a common, warm, friendly color yellow is. Sometimes overwhelming, yet never oppressive. Like the yellow sun in the springtime, like the gentle tapping of a friend that gets your attention, attention that makes you want to stand outside and just soak up the light of yellow rays and comforting friendship. Some have said that's what a light trance state feels like to them, the onset of a comfortable warmth, like yellow was a blanket that covered them more, the more they accepted the sensation, and the voice telling them how good yellow feels."
Interested, docile eyes dutifully watched bracelet tapping, anticipating feeling the tapping, just as with each stroke of a yellow-colored braid, feeling as if their own grey matter was being stroked in close to the same manner.
"All of you have told me that you felt warm, good, even 'melty', as one of you said, so maybe you're all very fond of yellow by now, like you've been fond of red. Favorite color to describe your favorite feeling at these gatherings? Maybe. It's hard to choose when I give you two compelling colors to consider, so it might really throw you for a loop if I guess one more."
