~Stay out here, all three of you, and line up in front of me. You will not leave this formation until I let you.~
Tiffany and her two kids suddenly turned on the spot and formed a straight line horizontally in front of him. It was a rather crude method to keep them in place, but you had an idea on what you wanted to do that required all three of them to play their parts, and at least this way you could get your orders out to all three of them and save yourself some time. Judging by the looks on the family's faces, none of them were particularly disturbed by their sudden behavior, but were rather confused as to why the other members were standing at attention as well.
~I will be talking to you each one at a time. None of you will be able to hear what I am saying to the other two consciously, but any orders I give them that involve you will still affect you. None of what I tell any of you will go into effect until I am finished with all of you.~
Now that the grunt-work was out of the way, you walk down the line and look them over, trying to decide who you should start with. You had managed to intercept the babysitter Jordan as she was leaving, and before you gave her a list of her own commands (including handing over her day's pay), you got her to tell you the basics of what the situation with Tiffany and her kids was. You did feel sorry for poor Tiffany for having to run herself ragged to support them, and more so for the poor kids who barely got to see their mother, but you still had some desires of control that you wanted to indulge. Therefore, you decided that the the best way to solve everyone's problems was to shake up the current family dynamic.
Deciding to work your way from youngest to oldest, you start with Lilly. Kneeling down to look her in the eye, you consider carefully what you are going to say. Lilly is young, and thus you'll need to make sure that she is capable of understanding your commands. After a minute you begin, speaking slowly so that you can think about what you are saying ahead of time.
~Lilly, you are now the mommy of the household. You will believe yourself to be a stay-at-home mother, and that your mom is Tiffany, your 3-year old daughter. She may look older than you and be bigger than you, but you are still her mommy, and will treat her like a mommy should treat their little girl. You know that she likes to pretend to be the mommy sometimes, but no matter what she says you believe it to be just her imagination, and you refuse to play along in order to make sure she knows you're in charge. You see me as someone who is here to help you if you are having trouble with your daughter, and if there is something you can't do, don't know how to do, or need to get that you can't yourself, you can come and ask me about it, and I will give you accurate advice. You will believe that it has always been this way, and not remember any time when you were the daughter of Tiffany. Nod if you understood everything I told you, and if you didn't, tell me what confused you.~
To your relief, Lilly nodded almost immediately. That was a good start, at least. You smile, then move over to Nicholas. As the middle child, he was the trickiest for you to figure out what to do with. Eventually, you had decided to keep the reversal at least somewhat consistent, while still avoiding him getting romantic with his sister. You weren't quire ready to go down that road just yet, especially given that this was the first big test of the sapphire's powers. Besides, you could always use the extra leg-work if you need something later.
~Nicholas, you are still Lilly's brother, but like her you believe your mom to be Lilly's 3-year old daughter Tiffany. You believe everything about Tiffany that Lilly does, and while you may humor Tiffany's 'imaginary mommy' position sometimes, you will stop playing around if you feel it is going too far. You tend to prefer letting Lilly and I deal with her daughter, only stepping in if she and I are busy. You will also happily get anything I ask you to from nearby stores, as long as you have the money and can reasonably get there and back without driving. You will not remember any time when you were the son of Tiffany, -except- when you are out of the apartment on an errand from me. In that case, you will go back to how you normally act, not remembering anything the commands I have given you or your family but remembering what you need to do, and if you have to you will come up with a believable excuse why you have to do it as fast as possible and come back to me. Nod if you understood everything I told you, and if you didn't, tell me what confused you.~
Nicholas nods, and you move on to Tiffany, who at this point is giving you a very odd look. She was the crux that this entire scenario hinged on, so while it was unlikely your vocabulary would trip her up you still want to make sure you don't screw this up. You take a minute to think about what you want to say, looking over at the kids, who are now starting to get antsy standing in one place for so long.
"Hey, what were you saying to my kids?" Tiffany asked you. Knowing that you won't be keeping them here much longer, you decide to ignore her and start speaking.
~Tiffany, you will remember how things are supposed to be, but from now on you will be unable to disobey Lilly, who you will subconsciously see as your mother. Because of this, among other things you will be unable to call Lilly by her name, only 'Mommy' or some childish variation of it. Furthermore, if Lilly believes you to be incapable of doing something correctly, you will be unable to do so while she or Nicholas are around, even if you would otherwise be able to do so. Similarly, if she believes you have a habit of doing something childish you otherwise don't, you will be compelled to do it while she or Nicholas are around even if you otherwise wouldn't, though you will be able to fight it with enough willpower. Despite how strong you might be otherwise, you will also be utterly unable to overpower Lilly, Nicholas, or myself, as to your body all three of us are much stronger than you. Finally, you will become a bed-wetter, and while Lilly and Nicholas will believe it to be true, it will be the one thing you will still do whether they are around or not. Nod if you understood everything I told you, and if you didn't, tell me what confused you.~
Surprisingly, Tiffany didn't nod right away like her children did. Instead, she asked, "How close would Lilly and Nicholas have to be in order for me to be affected by their beliefs? And am I affected by beliefs I know nothing about?"
The first one was actually a pretty good question, and one that judging by the look on her face was one Tiffany didn't know why she just blurted out. The second was probably just a result of her not knowing the scope of the sapphire's powers, which you didn't either, though you doubt it could read minds given what you would have done with it if it could.
Thinking about the answers for a few seconds, you say ~As close at they need to be to tell you are doing it. So most times where you know they can see you or you can see them, though if they make it clear they can hear you trying to do something you will still be affected even if there is no line of sight. And as far as I know, other than what I have already told you, you will not be aware of any beliefs they have about you at first, though you will start being affected the second you find out, either consciously or subconsciously. If there is nothing else that confuses you, nod.~
This time Tiffany nodded the same way that her kids did. You are about to dismiss them and watch your commands unfold, but you realize two things rather quickly. First, that Tiffany looks exhausted after her long day at work. And second, that you are still missing a few essential things to pull this off, and that for the best results you'll want the rest of the night to go shopping. These two factors make you decide that it would be best for this scenario to have a fresh start in the morning.
~You all no longer have to stand here. In fact, all three of you are now tired and want to go to bed, which you will do as soon as possible. When you fall asleep, your commands will come into effect, so that when you next wake up your roles will be solidified. None of you will remember standing at attention here and waiting to receive commands, and Tiffany will not be aware that I commanded any of this to happen. You will all also not question me being here for as long as I want to, even if I decide to stay the night, and will be comfortable with my presence no matter what. Tiffany, before you go to bed, you will also give me the keys to your apartment and your wallet, and the names and contact information of all of your bosses and your landlord.~
You watch as Nicholas and Lilly mumble goodnight to their mom and sleepily head off to bed. Tiffany, already looking tired, wanders off to her bedroom and shuts the door. Just as you start to worry that she had actually fallen asleep before she could fulfill her duties, she comes back out and hands over her keys, wallet, and a list of the people you plan to go visit next.
"Thanks," you say to her with a smile.
"No problem," Tiffany says groggily, heading off to bed, "Just remember to lock up when you leave."
"Will do!" you reply with a thumbs up as she shuts her bedroom door again. You look over the names and information on Tiffany's bosses. This should be enough to hopefully track them down, or at the very least people who would know where they were. You plan on giving the bosses orders to give Tiffany paid vacation time so that she could reasonably miss work, and make sure her landlord wouldn't do anything to interrupt what is about to go down. Hey, you may be a manipulative bastard now, but you weren't -completely- heartless.
As for the kids, you could get the information about their normal schedules later. You had already taken care of the babysitter, and tomorrow was Saturday, so you don't have to worry about their schools until Monday morning, if you decided to stick around that long. And if their friends or neighbors showed up to ask about them, well as long as you were here you could fix that in a couple of seconds.
You pocket Tiffany's wallet alongside the cash from Jordan, then leave the apartment, remembering to lock the door behind you. Between all of these stops and the shopping spree you plan to go on to get the clothing and other essentials needed for everyone's new roles, you have a lot to do if you want to be back here before tomorrow morning to witness what was going to happen firsthand.