You tell her about your adventures with the Manipulator.

[Note: At this point, chapters are probably going to start using conditional variables a lot more in order to determine what has already happened in the story. This means if you aren't playing in Game Mode, you may end up with text that is inconsistent with things that have occurred. You can of course still enjoy the story normally; I just want to make sure you're aware of this fact.]

Reaching across her, you grab the remote and mute the television. Then you look right at her, straightening up, trying your best to look and sound serious. She notices the change in your body language, and her expression shifts slightly from curiosity to concern, but she doesn't say anything else.

You take a deep breath. She will never, ever believe this, you think. Then you blurt out, "I got a weird device in the mail Sunday, from an anonymous sender, and it lets me make anybody do or think whatever I want them to, and at first I couldn't control it and it was going off left and right{if smita_panty_flash=true}, and I accidentally made a girl flash me her underwear{if smita_mlevel=1} and might have made her believe she's my girlfriend{endif}{endif}, but now I've got a better handle on how to use it except that I have no idea where it came from or why it was sent to me or what I'm supposed to do with it." You stop and swallow, your mouth dry from your rapid-fire disclosure.

Throughout your little outburst, her expression remains unreadable, and for a moment you both just stare at each other, silently. Then her face cracks into a chortling laugh. "What the fuck?" she replies. "This is, like, one of your weird games, right? Some sort of roleplaying thing?" Told you so, you smugly tell yourself.

You roll up your left sleeve, showing her the Manipulator on your upper arm. "See?" you say. "This is it! This is the thing!"

She's a bit more curious, but still grinning widely; it's plainly obvious she's not buying it. "Oh, so you have a prop this time!" she says. "That's more inventive than usual." She leans forward a little, studying the smooth, metallic curves of its segments, and the brilliant emerald glowing dot in its center. "It's actually really nice looking," she remarks. "Really nice work. I've screwed around with jewelry-making myself, but never tried anything this big. Did you make it in school?"

"No!" you exclaim, sighing, "I told you. I got it in a package on Sunday. Wait -- hang on." You run upstairs to your room, grab the note which you had thrown onto your desk, and bring it back down into the living room. "Here," you say, handing it to her, "look."

She takes the note from you and looks it over with a bemused expression on her face. "I gotta say, Sam," she remarks after a few seconds, "I'm impressed. You usually aren't this artistic or creative when it comes to your games. But this whole idea of messing with peoples' minds -- isn't it a bit creepy?"

You sigh inwardly, snatching the note back out of her hands. It's obvious she isn't going to believe you without some sort of definite proof. You could manipulate her, but what good would that do? Whatever you compelled her to do, she'd either believe she was always that way, or would be convinced that whatever she did was of her own free will.

Maybe she's immune to it and will just read your intentions, like Emily, you think.

What are the chances of that? you reply. And besides, I saw what happened with Emily, and I don't want to go through that shit again.

Plus, she's your sister, and you feel a bit weird mucking about in her brain. If you had a third person here, you could truly demonstrate the thing's power, but at the moment you aren't inclined to press the issue further anyways. You roll your sleeve back down, unmute the TV, and return to watching the cheese-fest with her. You both make the occasional smart-ass joke and laugh together. It's nice, and you almost forget about the thing on your arm, the thing that has raised so many questions.

Once the show is over, Laura stands up. "That was fun, but I'm exhausted," she sighs. "Thanks for cheering me up. That story of yours is wild; you really should keep going with it, see where it leads. Anyways, I'm gonna head to my room." You nod in response. She heads for the door, but before she's gone, she stops and turns to you.

"Hey, Sam," she says. "If that thing were real... would you really use it? Would you really bend people to do your will, changing who they are to suit you?"

You look down, turning your mind inward, thinking about all that has transpired so far. Thinking about your own desires, about your own consciousness, and about the consciousness of those around you. Thinking about the power you've been given, and how amazing or terrible it could make things. all based on your decisions. Who am I? you ask yourself. What am I willing to do to get what I want? You honestly don't know. Not yet, anyway.

Finally, you look back up at her, and give her a small smile which you hope looks reassuring. "I'll see you later, Laura," you say. She smiles back at you, and heads toward her room.