You can use POE::Session's "object_states" rather than (or in addition to) "inline_states". The following example will have $object handle three events: "_start" will trigger its handle_start() method, "tick" will call handle_tick() and "tock" will call handle_tock():

  my $object = Object->new();

  POE::Session->create(
    object_states => [
            $object => {
                _start => "handle_start",
                tick => "handle_tick",
                tock => "handle_tock",
            },
        ],
    );
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Here are their hypothetical handlers. Note that we're using POE::Kernel's delay() method here. delay() is equivalent to what you're doing with alarm():

    sub handle_start {
        $_[KERNEL]->delay( tick => 1, 0 );
    },
    sub handle_tick {
        my ($self, $kernel, $count) = @_[OBJECT, KERNEL, ARG0];
        print "tick $count\n";
        $self->do_other_stuff();
        $kernel->delay( tock => 1, $count + 1 );
    },
    tock => sub {
        print "tock $_[ARG0]\n";
        $_[OBJECT]->do_more_stuff();
        $_[KERNEL]->delay( tick => 1, $_[ARG0] + 1 );
    },
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Important note: OBJECT is a constant that evaluates to $self's position within @_ (almost always zero). If a program executes my $self = shift; it will shift everything in @_ one element closer to zero. All the other constants (such as KERNEL and ARG0) would then be pointing to the wrong values within @_.