✅1️⃣ Trusting the Babysitter

Chapter 31 - Solutions

"I really didn't know she was so upset," Claudia mumbled. It was hard to tell if she was more worried about her sister, or about escaping from their current predicament. Is there anything I could have done? I don't want her to feel bad. I just hope that she'll be able to get over this once she's had her revenge, and she won't just start carrying a grudge over her punishment."

"Are you sure you'll be able to punish her?" Adam asked, as he almost managed to get his diaper fastened properly. "I mean, could she just order you not to say anything about it to your mum?"

"I don't think so. I can't imagine this lasting longer than a few hours. It's hard to tell, but I think the drugs are already starting to wear off. Like, the last order you gave me, it felt like I could think about it. Like I might have been able to realise it wasn't right. So a little longer and we should be able to tell her 'no'. And then I'll remind her that she's not allowed to touch my tablet now."

"I hope she didn't break anything."

"Don't worry about that. She was struggling with the lock screen. She told me to put it on so she can play her game, so I signed on and started the child mode thing. Like, I've let her borrow it before, so I had the thing set up. She can only play like four games that are on the list, and it locks again as soon as she leaves a game. It's just frustrating that I didn't have the choice this time."

"It could have been worse. But how long do you think she'll nap for? And how long before we can start resisting her commands?"

"No idea. She won't sleep too long. And it could already have ended. How about I try giving you orders, and see if you can resist? Like... pinch yourself. That should tell us if you've woken up. Do it, pinch yourself."

Adam had half been expecting the command, so he was mentally preparing himself to ignore what she told him. But he could only pause a moment before the order felt like an irrefutable law of nature. He pinched his leg, and yelped just a little when it hurt more than he had expected.

"I'm sorry," Claudia said through a half laugh. "I guess it's not worn off yet. But does it feel any different?"

"I don't know. I think I could resist for half a second. Maybe I would have been able to fight it, until you repeated yourself. I think you're right."

"Well, let's get some clothes, anyway. Something Lori can't object to." What she had in mind turned out to be the most childish outfits in her closet, and something Adam would never have imagined her wearing. Two summer dresses that must either have been in there since long before high school, or bought for some kind of costume party. He didn't want to wear something like that, but he knew that it would help to put off the moment when Lorelei realised everything wasn't going to plan. So he asked Claudia to order him to wear it, and did his best to test the limits of the commands.

Before long, they were both dressed in pastel colours, checked fabric with skirts barely long enough to conceal their diapers. It should have been embarrassing, but once Claudia pointed out that she often sat up here gaming in just a robe, or completely naked, he realised that neither of them really cared what they were wearing.

"I'm interested in hearing what you have to say," he said, after the thought had been percolating in the back of his mind for long enough to be put into comprehensible form. "Doing fun things together and having a good time. How you're dressed doesn't really matter, and when my eyes are going between two screens I probably won't be looking at you anyway. The clothes don't matter, right?"

"Right. So, let's get this game going. We can keep on testing your ability to disobey in between matches."

"Sure. Now, put on a crawler."

Claudia wasn't capable of arguing with that, so the next match they played was an exploration game, with four different marine teams competing to score points by entering as many different sectors of the ship as possible before the whole deck was explored. Adam had chosen it off the top of his head, both to test Claudia's command resistance, and because it was the game mode where having a mobile player was most useful. He could see the whole deck at once, rather than having a mini map revealed piece by piece, and he could see which rooms the lights had been activated in. In this case, they were able to claim an easy win by cutting off one of the opposing players with a row of mines.

The next game he requested was a standard duel, but before Claudia could start the game they heard footsteps thundering up the stairs outside.

"Should I start?" she asked.

"We should see if she's going to bother us, first," Adam mumbled uncertainly. "Don't want to ditch a match again. But I think maybe that stuff is starting to become less effective."

"Right. You told me to start a game, but when the circumstances changed I knew that the instruction doesn't apply anymore. It's like the rules are changing, I can see if something wouldn't be a good idea. That's good news, at least." She turned around, and looked up at a blinking clock beside the bed. "Four twenty. So that's five to six hours. I bet for previous babysitters that's been the whole evening. She could just force them to tell Mum everything was normal."

"I'm the lucky one, then. After dinner I'm sure we'll be completely back to normal, and we can let her know just why everyone is so reluctant to help."

"Preferably without saying exactly what she made you do, right? Just saying that the drugs don't work like she expected should be enough. And save both of us some embarrassment." She didn't need to mention that omitting the whole truth might mean she could hide what time she'd arrived home from her mother; as well as her plans for the weekend. Adam didn't know, but he guessed that Mrs Cartwright wouldn't really understand her daughter spending three whole days playing video games. And that lack of tolerance was something he understood well, even though he'd never really been in that situation.

"Right. So... let's see what the munchkin wants. If she can be reasonable now, maybe we'll have some peace. And if not, she'll be disappointed when she finds out that she doesn't have as much power now."

Claudia stood and went over to the door. Then she hesitated. Lorelei was right outside, and she was calling to them through the door. But the music was just loud enough to stop them making out her words.

"Or we can keep on playing if you want to. Make sure we're properly free?"

"We'd have to come out for dinner. And she'd be really mad by then. I still hope I'll have a chance of getting along with my sister once she stopped being such a brat, and I'd rather not pour any more fuel on this revenge thing she's got going on. If we can resist the more outrageous commands, it won't be such a big deal. We need to deal with her."

"Right," Adam agreed. But Claudia stood in front of the door without moving until he continued: "Nervous? Need me to command you?" She still didn't move, but after a second there was a nod. Adam looked down at himself, dressed in the most humiliating outfit he could imagine, but realised that this was probably the path of least resistance. He gave the order, and watched Claudia fight it for a second or two before she put her hand on the door handle.

They could only hope that their predictions were right about the rest of the evening.