The Spirals nightclub was buzzing with excitement as the patrons inside were reveling in the music blasting through the speakers. Little did they know the music they were enjoying so much was filled with subliminal messages, hidden commands designed to affect their behavior that only their subconscious minds' could hear. But the subconscious mind is not very picky about what it does...and so every hidden command was quietly being accepted into the depths of the patron's minds...without their knowledge...
In the middle of this soon to be even more risque gathering was the angel Veo and the head security guard of the establishment, Celene. The two women were catching up with one another after years of having been apart. But the subliminals were starting to make their presence known to the patrons of the club...especially in the overly susceptible Veo.
As the two sat and sipped their drinks, Veo's eyes began to take on a more glazed, far away look, and her responses became less and less articulate with every answer she gave. "Are you ok?" asked Celene, who was becoming a bit worried about Veo's behavior.
The angel looked over to her friend with the same dazed expression still present on her face. "Huh?" she asked before shaking her head, although it barely cleared her expression. "Oh, yeah...I'm ok. I'm just...this music is so engrossing." The angel was starting to sway gently in her chair, matching the rhythm of the music perfectly.
Celene gave her a dreamy smile in return. "It is nice, isn't it?" In the meantime, her own body had started to sway to the music as well. As she sat in her chair, moving to the music, she looked out at the rest of the club. The patrons all seemed happy. More and more of them were dancing, some even as they sat at their tables and booths. She continued to scan the crowd, noticing that everyone seemed almost...engrossed in the music. Their expressions were neutral and their gazes were fixed far away from what was in front of them. And the dancing seemed to be getting more provocative with every beat of the music.
Whether it had been years of working in hypnosis themed nightclubs, the training she was doing to increase her focus, or just the number of times she herself had been hypnotized...something in the back of her mind took all of the pieces and put them together in record time. "Wait a minute, this is one of the subliminal playlists..." she said, more to herself than Veo. She shook her head rapidly to try and clear it...the effort was, more or less, effective enough to help her think clearly. "This is a subliminal track that's playing!" she said, this time looking over at Veo.
It was then that she realized the angel was already deeply affected by the music. She hadn't bothered to get up to dance yet, but was sitting with her legs spread out on either side of her chair and her arms straight above her head as she bounced to the music. Her rapid motions were making her long hair fly back and forth as she bounced her head in time to it, while her large blackened wings extended above her and swayed along with the rest of her body. It would have been quite a sight to see...had it not confirmed Celene's worst fears about the situation.
"What the hell is going on?" she asked rhetorically. "Why are subliminal messages being played? What is Tammy doing up in that booth? And where the hell is Xander?" And then a look of realization washed across her face as she gently slapped her hand to her forehead. "And why do I have a feeling that those questions are all related?!" she asked no one in exasperation.
Feeling the effects of the subliminals bombarding her mind again, Celene stood up and gave her head a few gentle knocks with her fist in another attempt to clear it. "Xander!" she growled up at the sound booth angrily as she began to run up the stairs.
As she left, Veo rose to her feet and started to spin sensually to the music while she slowly made her way to the dance floor...
Celene ran up the stairs to the top level of the club, taking a moment to look around as she headed toward the sound booth. All around her were patrons affected by the subliminals. Both of the bartenders had a far away look in their eyes as they gently swayed to the music, however they never skipped a beat on their duties and still managed to give the patrons their drinks without issue. "Good to see the ingrained programing for that is still working." she thought to herself as she moved past a young man sitting at the bar. His gaze was completely blank as his equally enthralled date gently climbed onto his lap to give him a lapdance.
Deep in the back of her mind, the subliminal suggestions were gnawing at her resistance. The image before her was so enticing...the music so seductive...she wanted nothing more than to watch the show and get lost in the music. And because of that, she pushed the thoughts back in her mind. She knew it was the subliminals at work. "Excuse me..." she said as she moved past a young man who was kissing the neck of his date, vacant stares on both of their faces as they danced to the music. Neither one realized what was happening at that point.
She finally made her way to the sound booth, giving up on courtesy as she pulled the door open and quickly slammed it shut behind her. For the first time her mind finally felt peace, provided by the soundproof booth.
Of course the slamming of the door scared the living shit out of Xander, who was in the process of draining the energy from his original victim, Tammy. Just before they had been so rudely interrupted, he had the young DJ deep in a passionate kiss. Celene didn't notice, and Tammy was too far gone to realize it, but Tammy's skin had been glowing a faint blue as her life energy became luminescent. As the kiss deepened, the glow moved rapidly from the young woman into the incubus. The door slam, aside from causing Xander to nearly soil himself, abruptly ended the kiss and the energy drain. Unfortunately for Tammy he had already drained more than enough energy to knock her out, and as the kiss ended she simply sighed and fell down into the DJ chair. She landed in a cockeyed fashion, with her head and arm hanging limply off of one side. The impact caused the chair to slowly spin, but her feet didn't move so a few seconds later her body stretched out and fell from the chair to the floor with a soft, muffled thud. She was out cold and would be for hours. It had been some time since she was drained by Xander, so whether she remembered anything of the evening at all would have to wait to be discovered.
Upon dropping his old friend and victim, Xander spun around rapidly to determine what kind of crazed animal had just broken down the door. Only to discover, instead, a very frustrated looking Celene standing with her back to the door, taking several slow, deep breaths. "Celene?" he asked, confused "What the hell are you doing here?"
Celene's head slowly raised as a smile crossed her lips. Her eyes opened as she looked at Xander with something that strangely resembled... malice, despite the smile. "What am I doing here?" she asked in a tone that was both polite and threatening. "What am I doing here? What the hell are you doing here?! I told you to behave! Is that behaving?!" She said, pointing to the unconscious Tammy on the sound booth floor.
Xander glanced down at Tammy and then back up to Celene, but before he could say anything she continued her rant. "Is that behaving?" she asked, pointing to the sound control station that was clearly playing a subliminal filled playlist. "I told you I wanted this evening to go smoothly...does THAT look smooth to you?" She said pointing down at the club through the booth's window.
Xander leaned over and looked down at the club. Veo could clearly be seen dancing with two other young women that looked they had been hypnotized, although not by the subliminals, but by the angel herself. The rest of the club was in a bit of a dazed state...bumping and grinding against one another in ways you usually only see in sexually charged music videos. "Actually..." he started "It looks pretty smooth to meeeee..." He was cut off by Celene grabbing him by the ear and yanking him towards the control booth. "Ow ow ow ow ow!"
