This was a commission (writing, no editing) for Chase. If you’re interested in a commission of your own you can check out how here!
Content warning: non-consensual hypnosis and fractionation, coils, being hunted, bullying coworkers
“Are you sure there are no dangerous animals out here?” Wren asked.
“Of course not. How many times have we misled you?” their coworker said.
“How long have we worked together?” Wren asked.
“Wait, quiet,” another coworker said. “I think I hear the paraparrot we need to collect samples of.” They motioned to the other coworker. “Come on, through the bushes. Wren, stay here and guard the trail.”
“What? Why me alone?” Wren asked. A coworker rested an arm on Wren like they were a table.
“Because you’re so short, you’ll get lost in the bushes. Now stay here.”
Wren groaned and huddled their arms close as their coworkers left. They did not want to be out in the jungle looking for—well, apparently, someone found a new species of parrot with two pairs of wings, and the company Wren worked for wanted samples for research.
That left Wren out in the jungle looking for it with a couple colleagues who used Wren as a guinea pig as much as any of the animals the company bought for them to use.
A roar and scream threw Wren off their feet to the ground, spilling jars and plastic bags from their sack. They screamed as a monster with a furry green mane rose out of the bushes, roaring and gnashing its teeth and flailing its claws. Wren huddled against a tree, trying to look too small to notice.
The monster doubled over in laughter. Wren squinted and glared as the monster pulled off its leaves, revealing Wren’s coworker.
s“You should have seen your face!” Wren’s other coworker fell out of the bush laughing.
“If there was anything dangerous out here, you’d be an easy meal!”
Wren grumbled and dusted themself off. Their coworkers waved at them and walked off.
“Pick up all that stuff you spilled and get going.”
Wren sighed and picked up the jars as their colleagues’ laughter trailed away. They didn’t want to be in the jungle, and they didn’t want to be stuck with those two. Wren was the butt of every joke.
They looked up at a scraping hiss from the bushes. The leaves shook as the bush bulged. Wren glared.
“If you’re trying to scare me again, it won’t—” Wren blinked as red and blue light glowed from within the bush, a green light joining soon after.
A dark head emerged from the bush shrouded by green hair and a darker green hood. Rings pulsed through the figure’s eyes, blue, red, green, and Wren stared as if the colors gripped their head.
“Am I seeing things?” they muttered.
“Nothing that isn’t really there,” the figure said. The olive-skinned figure rose higher from the bush. At the corner of Wren’s vision they could see a yellow tunic, but their gaze remained focused on the colors in her eyes, which seemed to sear into Wren’s mind like a burning laser.
“Wh—Who are you?” Wren asked. “Wha—What are you doing out here?”
“I was just passing by,” the figure said, “and couldn’t help but notice such a cute little snack like you.”
“S-Snack?” Wren mumbled. Their fear of monstrous animals out to eat them rose, but this wasn’t a monster. This was a pretty lady. Their fear fell away as the colors burned into their mind, rippling over their vision. A fiery red burning their thoughts, a deep blue swallowing their mind, and a dark green shrouding their senses from all but this beautiful figure.
Mira moved closer and held Wren’s chin in a hand, tipping their head up to gaze into her eyes.
“Why don’t we move somewhere a little cozier, hmm?”
“Hey, pipsqueak, where are you?”
At a nearby shout Mira jumped and lost focus of her hypnosis. She snapped her fingers to recede her spell from Wren’s eyes and retreated back into the bushes.
Wren’s coworkers burst out from behind a tree and shook Wren, who mumbled and gasped and rubbed their eyes.
“What are you doing? Get this stuff in the bag and let’s go.” The coworkers shoved the jars and bags into the sack and dragged Wren forward.
“What? What happened?” Wren glanced around and stumbled after them. “Where did she go?”
“Is this heat getting to you? Are you hallucinating?”
“I—I don’t know. I thought I saw someone.”
“I told you, there’s no one out here but us, now let’s find that bird.”
Wren followed, head spinning. They felt like someone stirred their brain up in a bowl with some dyes of colors they couldn’t get out of their head. Did they actually see someone, or was it heat exhaustion? They didn’t feel hot—their head felt cool as a refreshing drink.
“Hold up,” Wren’s coworker said, “I hear the bird. For real this time.”
Wren looked up. They hadn’t heard a thing, but they had been lost in their thoughts.
“Watch the path, twerp,” the coworker said. “We’ll get the bird.”
Wren stood to their full height—which still trailed their coworkers—and stepped between them.
“No, way. I’m not going to let you try to scare me again. I’m going.”
“Fine, then get going.” Wren’s coworkers shoved them off the path and into the bushes.
“I—I didn’t mean like—”
“Hurry, before it flies away!”
Wren sighed and followed the direction their coworkers pointed. They stopped at a tree that rose to heights that made Wren feel like a gnat. They could hear birds high above, but they had no guess as to how they’d climb up there.
“Hello again, little one.”
Wren gasped at a familiar voice and saw the figure from before curl forward from behind the tree. Her eyes pulsed with the searing colors, and Wren stared, head filling with the colors before they realized what was happening.
“So sorry we had to be interrupted before,” Mira said, “but perhaps now we can be alone.” She held Wren’s chin and tilted their gaze up as she rose above them. “Are you trying to climb this tree? I can help you, it’s the perfect place to hide away.”
Wren felt scales curl around their arm. In the corner of their eye they saw a snake hang down to them from above. All the groggy softness shuddered off Wren as their mind screamed.
“Snake!” Wren screamed, stumbled back, and fell to the ground. They scrambled away, but Mira grabbed their arms and pulled them back to staring into her eyes.
“There’s no need to fear, little one,” Mira said. “I’m not going to hurt you.” She chuckled. “You’re not that type of prey.”
“S-S-Sna . . .ke,” Wren mumbled. They tried to repeat the word, warn themself of the snake, but Mira placed a finger to their mouth and shushed them.
“You need not fear me,” Mira said. “Just let me melt away all those instincts to flee. You’re safe with me, perfectly safe, no need to worry or think.”
Wren’s mumbles grew incoherent as Mira’s hypnotic eyes burned through their mind. Their fear dissolved as her spell muffled their thoughts, wrapped around their mind like the soft, squishy coils she began to curl around Wren’s body.
“Where’s the bird, you twerp?”
Mira jumped. Wren’s associates were arriving. She retreated back behind the tree, leaving Wren laying on the ground.
When their coworkers found them they lifted Wren and smacked them awake. Wren blinked the hypnosis from their eyes, but their mind still swam.
“Lying down on the job, are you? You lost the bird, too, no doubt.”
“What?” Wren shook their head. “There—a snake—she—a snake—” The coworker tapped Wren’s head.
“We’re looking for a bird, not for a snake. Get your head together!” They grabbed Wren’s arm and dragged them back to the trail as Wren stumbled behind. By the time they reached the trail they let go of Wren and just told them to follow.
Wren tried to organize their jumbled thoughts. Someone was following them, someone who was a snake—or had a snake—or something. Someone with pretty eyes. Wren’s head swayed between fear of a snake and her words to not to fear. What did she want? What was going on?
As Wren’s thoughts jumbled they lagged behind. They stumbled over anything on the path and many things not on the path. They just wanted to sleep, to get back to the camp and sleep.
They felt a tap on their shoulder and turned around. They stared into the eyes of the woman following them, though she hung upside-down. The deep colors pulsed through her eyes into Wren’s, scattering their thoughts once more.
“You seem so groggy, little one,” Mira said. “You look like you need to sleep.”
“Sn—s-sn—sln—” Wren’s mouth hung open as their eyes stared wide, the colors quickly rippling through their vision and searing their thoughts. Their eyelids drooped as sleep washed over them. “Sl—sn—sna—sla—sleep . . .”
Wren followed Mira as she swayed back and forth like a pendulum, rising higher on each swing and pulling Wren’s gaze up. As they stared higher they toppled back, but Mira caught them with her tail.
“Just let me take you up for a nice, relaxing—oh, drat.” Mira pulled herself back up into the tree.
Wren stared up after her, attention lost to all but her dazzling presence, until their coworkers pulled them around and shoved them forward.
“Come on, come on, we’re not going to carry you all the way.”
“We might shove you all the way, though.”
Wren stumbled forward, the colors gradually shaken out of their head but the jungle blurry around them. All they could think about was sleeping, but their coworkers marched them on.
It was a miracle Wren didn’t fall over themself every step of the way.
The coworkers grabbed Wren still and shushed them, even though Wren hadn’t said a word.
“I heard the bird again. Now watch the trail, and we’ll be back. No funny business, we’re already late with your tomfoolery.”
“Uhh-kay,” Wren mumbled. They didn’t even watch their coworkers leave. They stretched their neck, trying to shake some of the grogginess off. Their thoughts refused to surface, and those that did felt swirly and painted in those shining colors Wren couldn’t pull their mind from.
Things seemed to make sense when they stared at those colors. They thought something about them was dangerous, but couldn’t remember what.
Wren gave a mumbled shout as the scaly tail curled under their raised chin. Before they could scream the tail wrapped over their mouth and squeezed around their head, thick and heavy and tight like a massaging hug.
Mira lowered back to Wren, eyes pulsing with colors that flooded Wren’s mind and washed away the jungle in moments.
“Now that your friends have left,” she said, “perhaps we can get some proper alone time.”
She pulled Wren up in her tail, forcing the squat human to stand on their toes. Their muffled shouts fell to a low moan before silencing completely, their eyes drooping as Mira’s hypnotic sleep melted away their thoughts.
“Just relax, little one,” Mira said. “A good prey is silent, and you have nothing to worry about.” She smiled and leaned closer until their noses touched. Wren could see nothing but her dark face. “I’m just looking for a little toy, today. I’ve grown quite tired of these repeated interruptions, so why don’t you—just—drop.”
At this word Wren’s muffled moaning returned, eyelids so heavy they could hardly hold them open, though as their mind grew saturated with the dripping colors every thought yearned to open their eyes to stare into the pulsing, mind-numbing, thought-burning colors. Wren’s arms and legs grew limp, but Mira curled another loop under their arms to hold them and lift them.
“Drop,” Mira said, “and I’ll left you up to scaly paradise.”
Wren’s fear dissolved, their memories sank into the swamp of Mira’s hypnotic spell, and they forgot all about the jungle, their coworkers, the bird, their self.
“We got it, pipsqueak!”
Mira twinged. With a sigh she curled her tail away from Wren and retreated once more. Wren stood, swaying with legs that wanted only to crumple to sleep.
“We got the bird, we can finally get back to camp. Come on, already.”
Wren stood, gaze stuck where the hypnotic beauty left them.
“Are you more braindead than usual? Aw, forget it. If they want to stand out here all day let them. You can come back on your own, you dork.”
Wren barely processed these words, let alone what they meant.
After what seemed an eternity, a squeezing tail curled around Wren’s legs. It gripped around their hips and lifted them, allowing their wobbly legs to give out and cease any force. All the force pressed upon the legs as the tail wrapped around Wren and squeezed them into coils.
“Now that we’re properly alone,” Mira said, “you can finally have some sleep.”
Wren’s eyes drifted shut, but a spark of memory burst forth and their eyes popped open.
“Snake!” they muttered. “I—wha—” Mira shushed them.
“I already told you, you have nothing to fear,” Mira said.
“I—I, I—” Wren’s eyes widened as Mira slithered close, eyes pulsing with her hypnotic colors. Wren’s mind sank back into submission. “I—p-pleeease, I . . .”
“Yes, please,” Mira said. She squeezed over Wren’s chest, her coils so heavy around their legs and hips that Wren’s legs couldn’t move if they wanted to. “Pleeeease.”
“Plea . . . P-Pl—ple–pl–p–pl–” Mira curled her tail over Wren’s shoulders, around their neck, and squeezed. Wren gave a gulping, “Please,” as their eyes popped open.
Mira smiled as she leaned closer, filling Wren’s gaze with her hypnotic eyes, and as she massaged their stout body Wren’s face twitched until a full smile spread across their lips, no thought left in their mind but Mira’s hypnotic spell.
With a sigh, Mira scoffed.
“Frankly, that was a bit disappointing. You hardly even tried to resist.” She pet Wren’s head, and her captive sighed. “Still, maybe deep down you knew this was preferable to those terrible friends of yours.” She frowned and gazed in the direction they’d left. “Perhaps while I massage my tail over you and give you a little break, I’ll find those two and give them a tormenting they deserve.”
Wren might have been horrified if they had any capacity for thought left, but only the colors pulsed through their mind as their body sank into Mira’s tender massage.
If you liked this story, consider joining my Patreon! You can see stories before they go public, plus you can see WIP previews, info on artwork I’m commissioning, and help me work towards more ambitious projects.
If you’re liked it enough that you want your own, consider commissioning me! You can read all about how to here.
I also have a Discord server if you wanna chat about hypnonsense or other things!
Duth Olec's Cuckoo Cosmos 