"Thanks for offering to help, Maya, I really do need to try figure this trick out soon," Trucy Wright said.

"No problem, but like I said, this can be a complex subject. Stage magic might rely on knowing the right tricks and moves to perform the illusions, but hypnosis... Well, it can have something of a spiritual nature to it at times," Her 'assistant' for the day, Maya Fey, replied.

The two had gone to Trucy's bedroom in order to not risk any interruption, since Trucy's adoptive father Phoenix was hovering about the place

"Well, yeah, so who better to get help than you figuring out if I'm nailing the real deal, not the kind of shows relying on planted actors. The tricky part is that there's still a cliche people expect though."

To prove the point, she held up a fob watch, which Maya took a few seconds to realise Trucy had seemingly pulled it from thin air rather than her pockets. It fell open, showing the time as just ater 7pm, ticking away.

"Do they really expect that? I thought modern stage hypnotists just rambled on and on to put people to sleep...."

"Modern ones, yes, but I like tradition - with a little twist!" Trucy grinned as she made the watch close without even touching it.

"Fair enough," Maya shrugged.

"Alright, let's start..."

The magician began waving the watch back and forth, Maya's eyes tracking it almost automatically.

"Am I not meant to be feeling sleepy or something?"

"Nah, not yet, if I have this right, you probably didn't even notice you were out of it for a minute already," Trucy smirked, and the watch fell open.

Maya tracked the now open watch, the hands had moved a minute after all... and it felt like each blink saw the second hand moving more and more. Two, four, eight, sixteen....

Maya's eyes became blank, staring off at nothing, the swinging watch forgotten as Trucy made it snap shut.

"And there! Think I got it?"

She frowned.

"Uh, Maya, the watch closing meant you were supposed to wake up. Maya?"

She waved a gloved hand in front of the older female, and sighed.

"Okay, so, overdid it?"

She poked Maya, who wobbled in place, but Trucy didn't quite notice her 'assistant' was actually stiff as a board.

"Hmm, maybe entrancing you again to snap you out of it?"

She waved the watch again, as the older woman kept wobbling... and then fell backwards.

Trucy's eyes widened in surprise as Maya went over like a mannequin, flopping down to the floor, fall broken by a beanbag, but in the process, her fall allowed a mirror to be revealed.

And Trucy accidentally had her eyes locked onto her own reflection, unable to look away as her mirror image induced the same hypnosis onto herself. The young magician stopped swinging after a moment, the watch staying open, as she stood for a moment, as stiff as Maya lying before her.

However, her stance was not that well balanced, and gravity slowly won. The zonked-out young woman began falling backwards, landing on her bed completely rigid, blank eyes now staring at the ceiling.

The watch dangling from her rigid fingers ticked away as the sun began setting, until after a few hours there was a knock on the door.

"Trucy, Maya, are you two still in there? Or did you fall into whatever pocket dimension Trucy stores Mr. Hat in?"

Neither of the two entranced and stiff occupants of the room gave an answer....