Day 0: Reprocussions of open ended commands

Becky, Heather and Missy walked to the place where they had originally sat down in the camping chairs and found one bag with a tent left in it. Heather and William’s tent had been pitched on the top of a hill, while Ryan and the Jessies’ tent was next to Chris's Cabin with a decently large gap between them. Missy had missed the conversations about placement between the people who actually pitched said tents. As a result, the bitchy woman could not give any reason as to why they were where they were. “Well, with nothing to go by, I would like to be near the sanitary building. There are lots of trees nearby for shade. Seems like a good place.” Becky said.

“Sure, let’s try to set it up there. It can’t be that hard if Philips and Robberts can do it.” Heather said. No one knew any reason to refute it, so they carried the bag over there. The group started by dropping the tent out of the bag, and Heather was surprised it didn’t self-right. “Shouldn’t modern tents raise themselves? I have seen videos of people opening a bag, and it unfurled itself.”

“No, they had to put in the sticks and put tension on them when they pitched them.” Missy tried to be helpful. Those losers made it look so simple. “We need to unroll the tent and then open the opening. One of us goes inside and holds the tentpoles, and the rest puts the pegs in the ground and attaches the lines.” At least I remember that bit.

“Aren’t tentpoles supposed to bend?” Becky asked.

“I have no idea what you are talking about. These don’t bend. They are wooden ones with a metal cap and spike. They can hardly bend.” Dumbass, look at what I have in my hands. They are soooo damm dumb and frustrating. “Since I have the lightest idea of how this is supposed to go, I shall be outside. Who is going to do the inside part?” I would suggest the stiff bitch over the fat one. She will at least always fit. Missy thought, but couldn’t make the words leave her mouth. Why? One of those horrible commands of hers, probably. “Becky, could you please remove the commands?”

“No, you seem to be doing just fine with them. I will go inside.” Becky took in the two tent poles with her as she said so. “You are finally not being a mean bitch. Why would I stop that?” Missy knew it was rhetorical, but seethed at this disrespect and couldn’t show it or express it. Heather did not want to step foot in their quarrel, so she kept her mouth shut as well.

Heather and Missy tried to hammer in the pegs, but found that they couldn’t. They repeated it a few times in case it might have been a rock or something of the sort, but no, it was not. Their fingers sank in with ease, well past where their pegs had gone in. The pegs prevented themselves from entering. Heather finally decided to look at the instruction manual. “Uhhmm, Ms Williams, you can come out. We won’t be able to pitch your tent here. We need to have at least 3 meters from the nearest structure or tree from our pegs. Here, there is no such place.” They headed out of the copse around the sanitary building and tried again. Lo and behold, it worked. Some of the pegs removed themselves as tension was applied, but after a second attempt at a different location, the problem was solved. There were pieces they did not know where they went… So Heather endeavoured to look it up in the manual. They were rain caps; as a result, she left them in the tent to be forgotten about until they were needed.

Chris and William walked past the trio after they had pitched a tent, carrying two unconscious Jessies. Becky worriedly followed Missy, getting Janked along. “What happened?”

“Transformation! According to Samson, this is just a side effect of them having to process a whole extra set of over ten years of memories. They need to do a hard reset. He specifically said. Bulshit, humans don’t work like that.” Then Chris remembered defibrillators. “Well, maybe they do; at least the heart does. Still, I think it is best if they wake up in a proper bed; that is why we are bringing them to my cabin.”

“Why do you care?” Missy asked, instead of the question that actually came to her mind, So why is that your problem?

“I caused it because I bought them the transformation, on their request. That does, however, not take away the guilt I feel.” Chris replied, increasing his pace. They entered the cabin, and he and William placed the two Jessies on the bed. After he had closed the door behind them, Chris asked, “Want a drink?”

“I could go for a beer,” William said.

“I am up for anything,” Missy said, but thought, no, you know the answer, loser. How long have we been together?

No, she isn’t in all my time with her. She was picky about her drinks, no sodas, no sugar, alcohol only if she had a weekend off. Green tea, coffee or home-made iced tea were fine, but anything else flavoured was the devil, Chris thought.

“I could go for some iced tea,” Becky said.

Chris went to the kitchen, boiled water, and looked for ginger, lemon, and mint. He found them all. He prepared them to make tea and put all in a large metal pitcher. After the water had boiled and been poured over the flavourings, he prepared a second one with ice. After four minutes of steeping, he poured the near-boiling infusion over the ice. Shockbrewing is an easy way to get a bunch of iced tea without a lot of time. He brought out three glasses, the pitcher and a bottle of Pilsner for William.

“Why aren’t you drinking?” William mockingly asked as the man of the cabin entered.

The coach and Becky had sat down, but Missy hadn’t. What is going on here that isn’t Missy? That is some sort of creature puppeting the woman. As Chris put down the tray on the table, he looked around wearily and didn’t dignify William’s question with an answer. “What is happening here? Missy isn’t acting like herself. Don’t you notice it, William or did you spend so little time with her as to not notice the weirdness?”

“Nope,” the most recent ex said.

“Missy, can you explain what is going on?” The only man paying attention in the room asked.

“I am acting like this due to several commands placed upon me by Becky.” Missy volunteered, believing it might settle the tension she had noticed. It instead raised the tension.

“What are said commands?” He said, looking at the almost robotic-feeling girl.

She had noticed she had fucked up, but knew the only way to mitigate the resulting tension was to answer honestly. “I have been told not to insult the master, talk respectfully about the master, treat everyone with respect, remain calm, listen to what they say as a normal human, help Becky and be on my best behaviour when Chris returns.”

Those commands were reasonable at first sight, but there were two issues. They conflicted heavily with who Missy was as a person, and they didn’t have a time limit. “I understand.” Chris walked over to Missy and grabbed the leash. “So, for starters, after you have sat down on the chair closest to the kitchen and I count down from ten, you will be released from any command not given by me. You will not be allowed to leave the chair until either you realise why Becky did it and why she believed it was necessary, or I leave the 10m range. You get to ask me five questions after I have released all the other commands, but you will not call me names during it. You will have full freedom of speech after you leave the cabin. Repeat to me what I said.”

“I will sit down in the chair closest to the kitchen. After you count down from 10, I will be released from all commands, not from you. I will think about the reasons for all commands given to me up until the point I sat down, and why they were necessary. During this, unless you move more than 10 meters away, I will remain seated. I get to ask you five questions whilst seated there after all the other people's commands are released. I can’t call you names whilst I am in this cabin. And I had to repeat all of that.” Why the fuck is the loser treating me like I am some little child? I know how to do things.

“Good girl. You interpreted it and listened.” Chris mocked her, but she felt a pang of pleasure from it.

Why did that feel good? Missy questioned herself. She had never received praise from anyone before or since Chris except for the sycophants online, and they likely did it only to get in her pants. Now Chris wasn't her boyfriend; he had nothing to gain but did it anyway. Why?

He let go, and she walked over to the chair. “Do you two want to be here for that, or do you want to leave?”

“I had no idea how much I was changing her, sorry. But are you even sure you want her back? Isn’t this one better than the original?” Becky blurted out with some regret, but mostly at getting caught.

“Better… Hard to say. What I do know is that it is wrong to remove that much freedom from her. I wouldn’t want that if it were me, would you?” He looked her in the eyes. She shook her head in response. “William, what do you have to say about this?” He said before looking at the coach, sipping his beer, panicking over the fact that he was seen.

“Atrocious, definitely.” He hadn’t actually followed the conversation.

“Why didn’t you stop it?”

“I… I…” He stammered before Becky came in with a rebuttal. “He told Missy to be silent without any follow-up to release her. When I released her, she went on a tirade, and that is when she panicked. I panicked, and it kept on escalating.”

“Okay, next time, make sure you put clear limits on the commands. Especially you, Becky, you are her tentmate whether you want or not. Leave this is likely going to need more finesse than I can manage anyway. Having two other people to worry about during this is going to be a mess.”

“But I want a cuddle! I got the damm transformation and want it to start working.” Chris looked at her as if she had murdered his pet as she said this. “Okay, okay.” She noted as she left.

Chris counted down, and Missy seemed more lively, immediately struggling to get up. “So what are your questions?”

“Why are you doing this?”

“Simple, I don’t want to see you crash and burn. The way you are going now, there are two options: one, be a puppet piloted by others' commands or two, you get eliminated. You are at negative four whilst Ryan is at positive five.” Her eyes widened; that nerd had taken the lead.

“Why do you think eliminations are so bad?”

[None of you has seen one, but I can tell you that being locked in like a doll forever. That is definitely an option,] Ember noted. Before the ball of fire could continue, Chris had raised his hand to signal them to stop.

“One Syl made a big deal out of it. I have other people who have seen seasons of this show that I have contact with. They told me that you have to behave like my pet, whilst being fully aware is an option. That seems worse than these commands that anyone else could release. Though I do feel the fact that you could be released might make it worse.”

[That was a decently accurate guess based on what I told you.] The ball of fire responded before the next question came in.

Like that would actually be true. You, trusting dimwit. “Why do you think that is the truth?”

“Syl said it with the glee of someone who knew what was coming and would take full delight in it. She might have my best interests at heart, but you lot, I think, she sees as prey. Remember when Syl responded to me talking into the air? She was trying to prevent a bond forming between that crew member and me. That bond supersedes the show from what I can tell, which is why I trust them.”

Yeah, dumbass is too trusting for his own good. He trusted me at the end of our relationship, even if I was clearly cheating. “Who do you trust more, them or me, at the end of our relationship?”

“I trust them more. You had already become more and more selfish. I don’t want to admit it to myself, but… I might have toyed with breaking up. I just didn’t because of some sort of fallacy. I was noticing you taking and taking more as we went on, and knew it had to end at some point. I just didn’t know what the drop would be until it fell. That doesn’t take away that how you did it wasn’t the worst.”

Minor Catharsis: +2 VP (Missy)

Why the fuck are you doing this? “Do you still love me?”

“I want to say no. I really want to. I know I wouldn’t have reacted that way if I hadn’t cared about you at all. I wouldn't have tried to protect you from the others and yourself. But love feels like too big a word. I once loved you. You betrayed that love and trust. I don’t think I could love you ever like that again. Part of me wonders if I could do that at all…” Instead of finishing his train of thought, he decided he had given enough of an answer and got up from his chair. “I will be in the kitchen if you are done thinking.”

Before he left, he looked at the iced tea and grabbed her leash. “You can drink as much as you want from the iced tea and go to the toilet here in the building, but you will always end up sitting here.” He entered the kitchen and started to prepare dinner.