Laying It All Out (Part 1)

After a moment of everyone in the room taking in Abigail's little speech, Mona is the one who decides to step forward and speak up first.

"So how exactly are we supposed to do this? Sure, figuring everything out right now sounds nice on paper, but it seems like we barely know anything. I don't know about the rest of you, but I definitely don't feel like I learned enough to know who broke Noelle's brain," she points out.

"Well, I'm hoping that after we split up, each group was able to find out some useful information. If we put all the clues we have together and talk it out, we can hopefully start to, at the very least, eliminate some suspects," Abigail explains.

"Why do we even need to do this? It's obvious who did it," Sabrina chimes in. "I mean, come on. Cassidy has spent the entire day talking down to all of us, then she kept avoiding people once it came time to start investigating. She obviously did this as some sort of power play to try and prove her superiority."

"Shut up, you bitch! I don't need to prove anything to any of you. If anything, I bet you did it! You probably couldn't stand not being the most popular person in the room," Cassidy fires back.

"Ha! Jokes on you. I'm the most popular person in any room I walk into."

"That's enough, you two," Danielle interjects. "If we stand around here just pointing fingers at one another, we'll be here forever. It's clear that there's very little trust between all of the people in this room. As such, we'll have to use hard evidence to determine who did it. No more baseless accusations."

After a bit of thinking to herself, Lalita glances across the room at Abigail.

"I agree with Danielle, of course. We can't rule anyone out until there's evidence proving they couldn't have done it. That being said, as eager as I am to start, I'm unsure of where the best place would be to begin," she tells the hypnotist.

"Now that... I'm not exactly sure... It's hard to know what to bring up first, especially since I don't know what everyone else found..." Abigail admits.

"If I may make a suggestion..." All the women turn to look at S.A.M. as she looks deep in thought. The group goes quiet to here what she has to say, and after a moment of silence, she looks up at everyone. "To me, the most logical place to begin would be identifying the culprit's method. If we can determine how Noelle was mesmerized, that should narrow down the possibilities of who did it significantly."

"Makes sense to me," Isa says. "So does anyone actually know happened to her? I mean we found her touching herself with quite a bit of vigor while chanting some kind of weird mantra. Does anyone have any ideas based on that?"

"I may have found something worth mentioning," Abigail chimes in, immediately drawing the group's attention. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out the small circular device she found earlier. "This bad boy was hooked up to the TV in the room where we found Noelle. Look familiar to anybody?"

Abigail glances around the room to gauge people's reactions. She notices that no one seems to have anything to say about the object. Most people are just looking at it in confusion with seemingly no idea what they are staring at.

"Really? No takers? What about you, Cassidy? Are you sure you don't know what this thing is?" Abigail presses.

"Huh? W-what do you mean? I've never seen that thing before in my life," Cassidy insists.

"Is that so? And what if I said 'Good slaves don't think, they just obey?' Does that phrase not ring any bells for you?" The therapist asks as she starts to approach Cassidy.

"NO! I've never heard that before! Now would you get off my back already?!" Cassidy yells.

Suddenly, multiple eyebrows go up around the room.

"What do you mean you've never heard that phrase before?" Chelsea questions. "Noelle has been repeating it nonstop ever since we found her tranced out."

"Uh... well... I mean..." Cassidy stutters as she starts to visibly panic.

"I believe I have a theory," Abigail puts forth. "I think you do know what this thing is. In fact, I think it's one of your inventions. I doesn't look like any of the other belongings in this house, so I doubt it's something Lalita bought. And you're the first person who comes to mind when I think of who might own a techy gadget like this. Based on the fact that it was hooked up to the TV and no one I've shown it to can identify what it is, I'm guessing it's a device you made to brainwash people."

"H-hey! Knock it off! I said it's not mine! You can't prove I made that thing. Sabrina is the editing expert. If anyone could make a brainwashing video, it would be her," Cassidy poses.

"I considered that possibility, but when I asked her about it, she seemed pretty adamant that she had no clue what this thing was."

"Now hold on a second! You believe her, but not me?! That's bullshit! She's the one who specializes in subliminal messaging, not me!"

"But that's just the thing, Cassidy: Sabrina specializes in subliminal messages. After she gave me that pill that turned me into that..." Abigail shutters slightly, "...other version of myself, I noticed something she said to Danielle. She mentioned something about subliminals wearing off."

"Wait you remember that?" Sabrina asks. "I thought you were totally out of it that whole time."

Before Abigail can respond, Danielle quickly puts herself into the conversation.

"For some reason, Abigail seems to have retained all her memories during the bimbofication process. It was a fascinating discovery to make. I've never seen anything like it," the scientist explains. "But yes, it's as Abigail says. Sabrina showed me some of her social media posts to try and condition me, but luckily, I wasn't exposed for long enough for the effects to last."

"Ugh. Unfortunately, they're right..." Sabrina groans. "If I could make my subliminally instantly work forever, I would, but that's not how it works. You have to be repeatedly exposed to my stuff for an extended period of time for it to have any lasting effects..."

"Which means Noelle wasn't exposed to subliminal messages. She couldn't have been in contact with whatever mesmerized her for very long since the TV was turned off when we found her, yet she's still totally out of it right now. Any conditioning Sabrina could have given her would have worn off by now. That means you're the only person who could have made this thing!" Abigail says in an accusatory tone.

"I... but... no..." Cassidy mumbles. She starts glancing around the room, trying to figure out how to defend herself. "What about the robot?! She's high-tech! That thing could be hers!"

"Are you suggesting that just because I'm a robot, I have to be adept at developing technology? I find that very offensive," S.A.M. points out in a dry voice. "But it doesn't matter. Now that Abigail has brought this device to my attention, I am quite confident that it is yours. You actually told me yourself."

"W-what? What are you talking about?" Cassidy asks, clearly still nervous.

"Do you not remember? Earlier this evening, Lalita dragged you outside and used her charm to get you to tell her about all the various devices you have stashed around her house. If I recall correctly, one of those devices was called the Mind Rewriter and had a very similar effect to how Abigail theorized that device she found works."

Cassidy's eyes go wide when she hears S.A.M.'s explanation.

"You... you were spying on us... Does that mean you saw-"

"You performing cunnilingus on Lalita? Yes. As did Pearl, who was also watching alongside me," S.A.M. confirms, which only seems to make Cassidy more upset.

"I must say, you looked quite submissive down on your knees like that..." Pearl notes, trying to stop herself from grinning.

"You fuckers! I can't believe you!" Cassidy grumbles, trying to contain her rush of emotions.

"Anyway, my point in saying all that is that the device Abigail discovered attached to the television is almost certainly yours, and I have two witnesses that can confirm everything I just said," S.A.M. says.

The group looks to Lalita and Pearl, who are both able to verify the robot's testimony. At this point, Cassidy has shrunk down considerably. Abigail approaches the tattooed brunette, now seeming twice as tall to the anxious woman.

"Well, Cassidy? How about now? Were we able to job your memory?" She asks once again.

The room goes silent once more as Cassidy tries to think of what she can say. However, after a minute or so of thinking, she can't come up with anything.

"F... fine..." she whispers in defeat.

"What was that?" Abigail asks in a condescending tone.

"I SAID FINE! The stupid thing is mine. I built it."

"Ha! I knew it!" Sabrina cries out. "I told you she was the one who mind controlled Noelle!"

"NO!" Cassidy suddenly yells, catching everyone by surprise. "I swear! I didn't do it! Someone stole my invention and messed with it somehow! They're the ones who did it! I'm being framed!"

"Yeah, right. Like we'd ever believe that," the blonde influencer argues.

"I'm not fucking lying! You have to believe me!"

While most of the people in the room start to gang up on Cassidy, something about this situation doesn't sit well with Chelsea. For once, the cocky genius seems to be genuine. And as the young magician starts to go over some of the other details she found during her part of the investigation, too many details seem to still be unexplained.

"Hold on a second, everyone," Chelsea calls out, causing the rest of the women to pause and look at her. "I want to give her a chance to explain herself. Cassidy, I noticed that you said someone messed with your device. What exactly do you mean by that?"