"I assume we're going to complete the homework amongst ourselves in some way?"

"And/or rescuing people--although I don't think any of them got got via hypnosis and I don't know that rescuing them that way would be very effective. And I don't think anyone's grabbed any townies yet. So yes, unless we want to procrastinate on it until townies need rescuing, which is probably a bad idea." 

"Is anyone here aside from Kiri not okay with being a hypnosis practice subject." 

"...I'd rather not, honestly." 

"That is valid of you." 

"I'm alright with it conditional on everyone being in a room together and only one person being hypnotized at a time." 

"That sounds like a good precaution anyway."

"Agreed. So there's eight of us, and six who're okay with being hypnotized...I'm okay with being one of the ones who goes twice." 

"I'll be the other one, I want to know what this thing feels like." 

"Do we want to do lunch first or go to the Dean? I'm not very hungry..."

"Me either, we can go to the Dean first if nobody's starving."

"I'm sorta hungry but I don't mind waiting." 

"I don't technically have to eat at all." 

Snort. "Let's go."

Dean's office it is. Kiri keeps an eye out for anyone else making a visit.

Edie keeps a brain out. Nobody else seems to be headed Dean-wards at the moment. 

"Well, well, well," Mesmerra says, arching an eyebrow as the door opens. "If this were the usual reason for a visit, I would be congratulating somebody on a group this size. But I suppose this is simply herd behavior. What can I do for you?"

"I was hoping you could tell me more about the aliens invading my planet."

Her face settles into a more serious expression. "Quite right. What exactly do you know already?"

"Not that much. I know they're planning to conquer the planet and pacify the people with - technological hats? - and that they don't breathe the same kind of air."

"Head-mounted mind-control units," she supplies. "In addition to not breathing the same kind of air, they also have a different preferred temperature and gravity profile. Their modus operandi is to send a vanguard which creates domed arcologies all over the planet in question, leaving them only to apply their mind-control caps to new members of the native population. They collect samples of the native life to preserve in museums before the main colonizing wave arrives and all native life is extinguished as the planet is terraformed to be suitable to their needs." 

Kiri nods. "Are they going to be - standardly vulnerable to everything taught here? Particularly resistant to any non-mind-control stuff I might find extracurricularly?"

"They are larger, physically stronger, and more resilient than humans. Their psychology is not identical to that of humans, but you will learn how to adapt to non-human psychologies and much of what you learn to use on humans would be of merely reduced, not absent, efficacy on non-humans anyway. There are books in the library about their psychology and technology; I could name them, but it would probably be more efficient to just ask the librarian for all of them than to try to keep track of a list." 

"Am I in time to save anybody else they've done this to or are they past the technological hats stage with all their other colonies?"

She grimaces. "They're past the technological hats stage with all their other colonies. If they were usually mind-controlling someone, I would like them better." 

...thank you for the editorial, Mesmerra. "Thank you. Anybody else have anything to ask -"