"Perhaps we can schedule an impromptu genetics introduction for after our planned visit to the dean this afternoon."

"I'd say it could be a regular thing and we could all rotate through topics but I don't actually know anything I expect to be interesting to a general audience, mostly just world-specific history and suchlike."

"I think we all find blessings interesting? But that's probably true of, like, all the magic systems and such." 

"It could be rotating without being 'everyone does the same amount.'" 

"Sure. Sounds fun. If we don't wind up being loaded down with miserable coursework, which I guess we're about to find out."

"Probably we won't be. They want us to have time to scheme against our peers, after all." She stabs the last bite of pastry on her plate with her fork. "And miserable coursework isn't seductively comfortable." 

"If there were a blessing for seductive comfort I'd find it very concerning."

Off to lesson one of hypnosis class.

The group clusters in their seating, roughly in the middle of the room (the better to examine the hazards with, my dear). 

The woman with electric blue eyes is seated with her wand-wielding thrall next to her; she shoots their group an absolutely poisonous glare when she notices Erek with them. The man wearing the bells and the woman with the swimmer's physique are sitting next to each other with flirtatious body language; Edie notifies the rest of the group that bell-man appears to have enslaved her. The terrifying person with the outwardly genki appearance also appears to Edie's senses to have enslaved the guy she rooms with, although (presumably to throw people off) they don't sit particularly close together. 

The one who caught fire from shaking hands with Lucy is recovered from this ordeal and chatting in a platonically flirtatious manner with a girl and boy who are rooming together and look like they might be siblings. The unsubtle woman with the knife and black silk is sitting a row behind them, keeping an eye out for goings-on more threatening than a chat. The man with dark eyes and his roommate are sitting next to each other; the latter's in charge there and not hiding it enough for Edie to miss. There's a human and a human-passing-in-any-other-context pair from room four; the latter is in charge there.

No one else has formed obvious cliques of any stripe yet.

Though this one is trying to make friends with Beka.

Beka left her baby in her room again and is therefore willing to make conversation. Chelsea is drawing her out on music theory.

Edie blocks the passive mind control Electric Blue Eyes is trying to do to the whole room, prompting EBE to glare at her harder. 

Hmm. 

Do you want me to revert the mind control your conversational partner is trying to do to you? she asks Beka. 

Is she? Wow, I didn't notice that at all. I guess?

She reverts it. Beka now only likes Chelsea a normal amount. 

Huh! Weird. She will keep talking about music theory anyway.

Chelsea makes a little wounded noise. And goes right back to what she was doing before Edie unraveled her work.

Chelsea can get over herself. 

A blonde woman in a flowing scarlet dress strides into the room. She isn't, objectively, unnaturally beautiful, but the eye is drawn to her best features and away from her worst ones in a way that has much the same effect. Not in a sexual way, though; it's like looking at a masterpiece painting, not an erotic pin-up. 

"Good morning, class." She turns to the old-fashioned chalkboard, picks up a piece of chalk, and writes "HYPNOSIS class with MOIRA SCARLET" on it in an elegant scrawl, before leaning back against the chalkboard, hands propping her up on the chalk tray. "As with any class at Mind Control University, there are going to be a wide variety of familiarity levels with this subject before the first class. So before we do anything else, I'd like anyone who has a question--of any kind--about the course material to ask." 

"In my world they say you can't hypnotize the unwilling; I assume that's untrue or it wouldn't make much sense in this context, but why would that be the going theory?"

"I haven't been to your world, so I can't answer that question with full authority, but in the first place, hypnosis is much easier on a willing subject, and in the second place, anyone good enough to hypnotize an unwilling subject is often good enough--and motivated--to conceal it."

"What, um, is... hypnosis."

"Excellent question! Hypnosis is the art of influencing the minds of others using wholly natural channels. One does not alter the structure of the brain itself, nor use exotic powers to interface directly with the mind; instead, one uses ordinary sensory channels and psychological quirks. Typically one places the subject into a 'trance' state, and then makes suggestions which the more susceptible tranced mind accepts in a way it fundamentally couldn't on a conscious level, but skilled practitioners can, at need, bypass the trance altogether." 

"Scent is one of the natural senses, right? And chemistry--the kind of chemistry we'll be learning here--is mostly about pheremones, right? So what separates the two?"

"Well, first of all, you're going to learn a lot in chemistry class that isn't just about pheremones. Secondly, yes, there are scent chemicals that can induce a hypnotic trance. If you're looking for a clear bright line in the sand between each of the subjects taught at MCU, there isn't one. The areas of overlap are significant. You can also use technology to induce a hypnotic trance or introduce subliminal messages, or use magic to enhance a hypnotic focus. In this class, we'll be coming at such synergies from a hypnotism-focused perspective."