How could she not notice? Mia fumed silently as she smiled back at her boss. Dorothy was basically everything Mia wanted in a woman, except for one troublesome thing.
"So, once we're through with this, how about we hop over to Daisy's for a drink? I'm sure we can even get you a nice boy over there." Dorothy asked as she focused in on the soldering job she was doing to the little device on their lab bench. Mia was just handing her the tools and parts she needed as she worked from the other side. That gave Mia a perfect view down Dorothy's blouse though she was careful not to stare too long or look too often.
"Yeah, that sounds good." Mia replied cheerfully. She didn't need a boy, didn't have much use for men in general, but she'd take any chance to spend more time with Dorothy. Taking another look over the little device Dorothy had been assembling. It wasn't actually that complicated. She could see an array of small LEDs around a tiny square display screen. They were wired up to a series of controllers and a framework that could be covered in a protective shell so that it could be handheld.
"Oh, can you get me that last charging connector?" Dorothy asked as she checked her work again. Mia had to snap her attention away from watching Dorothy's cute ponytail sway as she worked. It was purely functional, but Mia always loved the way her boss looked with her hair pulled back. Dorothy was only a few years older than Mia, but she somehow looked younger. It was her delicate features, soft cheeks and perky nose that did it. All of which drove Mia wild.
"So, what does this thing do?" Mia asked as she handed over the connector.
"Well, I saw this really interesting paper on using different light patterns to put someone in a hypnotic trance. They had a workup on the device they used, and I've been tinkering with a new hypothesis for rapid learning through direct optical neural interfacing." Dorothy explained as she hooked up the connector.
"And you just finished working on those sight restoring sensor implants." Mia nodded. It was an interesting combination of research. Dorothy certainly knew her stuff. She was one of the foremost experts on how the brain processed optical data. Mia wouldn't be surprised if she worked up something Nobel worthy within a few years with the way she was going.
"Exactly, so I figured if I could just make a few modifications, I might be able to not just put someone into a trance but actually allow them to learn something in just a few moments by looking at the light patterns. I'd love to beat those brain implant boys to the punch on accelerated learning." Dorothy smiled as she tapped the device. "Now, I just need to get it charged up and we can start testing tomorrow. Ready for that drink?"
"Let's go!" Mia nodded and after a quick tossing off of lab coats and goggles, they were on their way. Thankfully, the lab was only a block down from one of the best bars near campus. Not that any of them were bad. One of the up sides to being a premier research university was that the local bars weren't just filled with rowdy troublemakers. What made Daisy's the best was the live music for one, and it was one of the best lesbian hookup bars nearby, not that Mia chose to share that detail with Dorothy.
"Now, I still don't see what a cute girl like you hasn't had a few flings at least." Dorothy prodded as they settled in at a little side booth with their first round of drinks. Mia flushed a bit at that.
"Oh, you know how hard it is to find the right one, especially when you're cute." Mia nudged back. She kicked herself inside for that. It wasn't like she usually hid her true orientation. She just didn't normally put it on display. Dorothy had just put her off balance from the first moment they'd met. Mia had tried to subtly signal her interest, but Dorothy hadn't noticed. Worse, Mia found herself just agreeing to whatever Dorothy said, and somehow Dorothy had come to an entirely wrong image of Mia. Now, Mia wasn't sure how to wiggle her way out from under those mistaken impressions without disrupting her relationship with Dorothy. The last thing she wanted was to lose Dorothy, even if that meant she couldn't take the relationship as far as she truly wanted.
"So, true. I'm not even sure if Peter's the one, but he does have a few skills I can't quite live without. That's what I'm saying, you don't need to get like a forever guy, just you know a little company to work out some tension with." Dorothy giggled. Mia flushed a bit just thinking about how she'd like to work off some tension. It didn't help that Dorothy had the cutest way of talking about sex. Despite being in her late twenties and clearly willing to fool around, she was all blushing shy and half whispering anything that might be considered dirty. Mia found it adorable and had to fight down so many urges every time she watched Dorothy talk about it.
"Well, they're easy to pull in, but so hard to get rid of." Mia shook her head.
"Yeah, that's true." Dorothy took a sip of her drink. "I guess it is better to be careful."
"So, don't worry, I'll find the right one." Mia smiled and gave Dorothy an extra long look. It was the kind of look that said everything when you were flirting, but Dorothy didn't seem to notice.
"Well, I suppose that means you'll be all bright-eyed and ready tomorrow for our first tests on our little toy then. I got a few undergrads signed up and ready to go!" Dorothy smiled.
Mia nodded. It was going to be more work. Every project had its ups and downs, at least this one was ready to get to the interesting part It was just a matter of waiting to find out if Dorothy knew what she was doing. They chatted a bit longer, and then it was back to their apartments.
On her way home, Mia considered what she knew about Dorothy's new device. The basic idea sounded a bit farfetched, though Mia knew her boss wasn't the type to experiment without a firm footing either. If her device could really help people learn faster, it could be an amazing invention. Mia was looking forward to seeing it in action.
***
"Ok, just relax and we'll go through the final sequence. Then there will be a little test and some nice cookies for all of you." Dorothy smiled as she picked up the device again.
Mia watched as she walked over to the first of their student volunteers. The guy was a pretty generic college guy with an obnoxious t-shirt, short messy hair and that half arrogant smile that the most annoying ones always seemed to make.
At least, that was how he looked until Dorothy held the device up to his eyes and turned it on. His face was covered in a smooth shifting pattern of lights. Even just looking at what was reflected off his face kind of made a Mia feel a bit woozy. Even so, she was drawn to the look in his eyes. As soon as the device turned on, his eyes went wide, his mouth slack and you could almost watch the drool forming in the corners of his mouth as his eyes dilated and he seemed to sway ever so slightly.
Then Dorothy turned off the light and he shook his head a bit and blinked a lot. He seemed to be a bit fuzzy as Dorothy continued on to the next volunteer. This one was a cute brunette with the deepest drown eyes. Mia could have eagerly done a tumble with her in bed, but that was getting a bit too involved with the subjects. Still, watching the girl go under, her eyes growing wide and unfocused as the device did gave Mia a rush of warm shudders between her legs.
The last girl was a busty blonde. She could have passed for a cheerleader, but was dressed down here, wearing just a tight-fitting blouse and slacks. She wasn't quite Mia's type but watching her go into a trance was just as arousing as the other girl. Mia had always thought the whole hypnosis thing was kind of a crank before but seeing it right before her eyes was something else entirely. She couldn't help but get some ideas for how to use that little device.
"Okay, boys and girls, let's see what stuck!" Dorothy ushered them over to take some tests on what the device should have transferred into their heads. They went to work and then left after they finished with the test and a light snack. It didn't take long before they were all finished, and it was back to just Dorothy and Mia.
"I can't believe these results." Mia looked over the before and after tests. The tests were over some very detailed bits of physics, history, and music. The kind of things that you wouldn't know unless it was your major and even then, you'd likely get the details wrong if asked about unexpectedly.
All the subjects had done horribly on the first test. The scores were around twenty percent, which was under what random guessing should have gotten them. It was the second round that was truly amazing. They'd all gotten everything right, and not only that, they all raced through the test as well, as if it was easy.
"Yeah, I mean, I expected some improvement, but this is amazing!" Dorothy was grinning ear to ear. They both knew they had an amazing breakthrough on their hands. "You know, I had another idea though, something I only wanted to try with someone I trusted. Do you think you could volunteer?"
"Um... sure. What is it?" Mia blushed a bit. There was no way she could turn down anything Dorothy asked of her. She hated feeling so weak that way.
"Well, just sit down in the chair over there and I'll run a little test. It won't be anything too big. I just want to check an idea." Dorothy motioned over to the chair as she synced the device up with her computer. "I just need to load in the new set of parameters."
Mia nodded and sat down. She couldn't quite believe she was really doing this, and just waited as Dorothy held up the device right in front of her.
"Okay, just relax, this is a quick one." Dorothy said and then pushed the button.
For a moment, Mia watched as the lights shuddered and flipped in front of her. She could feel her eyes opening wider almost instinctively as the light just seemed to sink into her, blurring out all her thoughts and she just went down a shimmering rainbow of flowing colors. There weren't really words to explain it, and then just as suddenly, the colors disappeared, replaced by the bright room as her eyes readjusted.
"Feeling ok?" Dorothy asked with clear concern.
