When Mark arrived home, still happy for the blow-job Aidan had given him, it was to find out his younger brother Chris had two of his friends over that evening. After a bit of scowling at the mess they had made in the living room while playing various games, he turned it into an evil grin. As he had more than one scenario planned for changing someone, he could just expand it from his brother over to his friends as well. But he would need to prepare first, so Mark went to his room, locking his door before turning towards the laptop.
Chris had noticed his brother coming home, but mostly ignored him. Right now, he wasn´t bored, playing with his friends, so he had no need to annoy his older brother. As he was only twelve, he was still more on the fun side of life. But whoever knows Chris good enough, and both his friends along with his brother, knows he is really loyal to everyone he decided was worthy of being loyal to.
His best friend Justin was half a year older, and with his birthday being last month, was already thirteen and the oldest of the three. He was also chubbier than both his friends, and his manners at the table weren´t the best. He hadn´t noticed Mark had come in and moved through, far too interested in the game they were playing on the console at the tv.
The other boy, their friend Rick, was the youngest and wildest out of them. He had no problem climbing up on anything, much to the annoyance of others beside his friends. He also wasn´t the tidiest person, leaving things laying around everywhere. He had seen Mark scowl at them, or most likely at the mess they had made, but after raising his hand in greeting with no visible answer had ignored him and turned back towards their game.
While Justin laid on his belly on the carpet between the couch and the tv, feet raised behind him, Chris and Rick sat on the couch, feet up on the table, a bowl of chips between them. Another stood next to Justin, already half empty.
At his computer, Mark started up the chronivac, quickly letting it scan his brother´s friends. His brother himself had been scanned already when Mark had booted it the day before to look over possible options for Aidan. While it was fun to make Aidan believe whatever he changed in his head, he had wanted to know if he also could make things more real when he wanted to.
With the three profiles up, Mark grinned as he added the “Mark rules” comment in the text input of all three of them, as he would work the same route as with Aidan. But he also made sure they wouldn´t hear his instructions to their friends when they all were in the same room. It wouldn´t do if he changed something in Chris head, only for the others to protest or act against it. And he just made sure the “Mark rules” wouldn´t affect the body when used to alter their minds.
With another evil grin, Mark saved his input, also protecting their profiles with a password, just to be safe. If they ever would go to his laptop and notice the program, they couldn´t use it on themselves or him that way. And everything else he could easily change back if he didn´t wanted it that way.
File password protected
Name: Chris Romano
Age: 12 years, 7 months, 16 days
Height: 4ft 10 inch
Weight: 95 pounds
Personality: Loyal, childish, kind, loud
Text Input: Ignorant to changes of Justin and Rick
Able to hear Mark even while whispering
Mark rules (mind)
File password protected
Name: Justin Porter
Age: 13 years, 1 months, 2 days
Height: 4ft 7 inches
Weight: 136 pounds
Personality: Heavy eater, childish, shy, kind
Text Input: Ignorant to changes of Chris and Rick
Able to hear Mark even while whispering
Mark rules (mind)
File password protected
Name: Rick Smith
Age: 12 years, 3 months, 27 days
Height: 4ft 8 inches
Weight: 86 pounds
Personality: Wild, untidy, twitchy, childish, loud
Text Input: Ignorant to changes of Justin and Chris
Able to hear Mark even while whispering
Mark rules (mind)
Grin still on his face, Mark unlocked his door and went back to where his brother and his friends still were playing their game, waiting a bit before speaking quietly. “Turn off the tv and the console, Justin.”
Another thing Mark made sure of was that if he whispered to either of them, they would hear, but not recognize his voice. Therefore, both Chris and Rick shouted in protest when Justin just moved his arm as if in trance, turning off the console next to himself first, before hitting the remote of the tv on the table behind him with his left big toe, letting the tv switch off as well. Only then did he notice what he just did, confused as to why he did that.
But before either of the boys did anything, Mark again whispered first to Justin: “Now go sit between your two friends on the couch, Justin.” Then, to the other two: “Put your feet down and make room between you for your friend, Chris and Rick.”
Like the whisper before, all three boys followed the command without thinking. Chris and Rick both tried to grab the bowl of chips between them at the same time, only it resulted in it toppling over, emptying it on the carpet by their feet. They scooted a bit away from each other, just as Justin sat down between them, making the couch a bit cramped to sit on. Only after Justin sat, they all returned to full awareness.
“What the hell is happening here?” Chris exclaimed, not understanding why Justin had just appeared between him and Rick, or what happened to their chips. Had Justin sat on it?
Before either of the three had the chance to move off the couch, Mark said “Freeze” as he came into their view, grin still in place. He enjoyed their faces, all a mix between confusion about what happened and surprise that Mark came in. That was followed by more confusion upon realizing that they couldn´t move anymore.
“What the fuck are you doing, Mark? Why can´t I move?” Chris asked, quickly annoyed by his big brother. He also realized that whatever this was, Mark had something to do with it. Both Justin and Rick looked confused between Chris and Mark, not fully understanding what happened to them.
Mark still grinned at them, as if the grin was glued in his face. “I just made sure you do what I told you. And as I said freeze, you can´t move. Neither can your friends right now. I have something planned to try with you after all, Chris.”
Chris looked even more annoyed now. “Who said we want to help you, idiot?”
Justin stayed silent again, while Rick said: “Let us hear him out, Chris. Until now, no harm was done, even if I would be more comfortable if I could move.”
“Who said you could refuse, little brother? And no Rick, for now you need to remain frozen in place.” As Mark saw Chris was about to throw another insult at him, he reacted before he could say it. “And be silent as well.”
While Chris moved his mouth and Mark could imagine the near snarl that would have come out if he could make a sound, nothing was heard. Justin tried to say something, but he, too, was silenced by Mark´s command.
Mark enjoyed the silence for a minute, seeing his brother´s silent screaming, Justin´s fearful eyes and Rick´s discomfort with being unable to move. He never sat this still, at least rocking his feet or fidgeting with his hands while waiting.
“Now, I could explain what I will do to you, but you wouldn´t remember it anyway, so no time to waste for it. First things first. Whenever I say “Reset to start …”, followed by one of your names, everything will be as it is right now, beside that you can move and speak normally for whoever name was said with it. But if I add something for any of you to keep or stay the same, it won´t be affected by the reset.” Mark started similar to what he did with Aidan.
All three felt a shudder run down their spine, as their bodies created a back-up of them, deep down. Chris didn´t believe in any of it right now, Justin thought that he wasn´t a computer that could be reset, and Rick was trying to understand what was happening to them.
“So, second thing. From now on, whenever I say either of your names, you will be forced to face me. Then, you will be unable to lie to me, meaning you will answer everything honestly to the best of your knowledge. And if I say either “Can you remember …” or “Can you think of …” you will be forced to do that, as far as you can.” Mark commanded them next.
Neither his brother, nor his friends, felt comfortable with that. Facing Mark wasn´t bad for itself, but being forced to be honest to him, whatever he asked? All three turned red in embarrassment at that. They didn´t want to tell him any secrets he may ask for.
Mark didn´t give them much time to dwell on it, however. Instead, he continued: “Then, third, whenever I snap my fingers in front of your eyes, you will forget whatever you were going to say and are unable to do so even if you can think of it. If I clap my hands while you look at me, you will forget whatever word or phrase you were going to say completely, as it never existed in your mind. If I stomp my feet while you look at me, you will forget whatever you were thinking about completely. And if I ask you a question or to think or remember something and there is nothing in that place, when I answer the question myself afterwards you will think of that answer as the truth. And every command I made since the reset command isn´t affected by said reset, only the forgotten parts are. It wouldn´t do if I erase this and had to start over, would it?” Then Mark laughed as all three looked somewhat horrified and disbelievingly at him.
“If Mark can do that, he can just rewrite us like a computer program, but we aren´t computers” went through Justin´s head at all this.
“Mark is insane believing this shit will work. Why is my brother such an ass right now?” Chris thought, mentally shaking his head over his brother´s stupidity.
“If this works, Mark could easily destroy who we are. Please Mark, don´t do something like this to us” Were Rick´s thoughts, believing in this being possible the most.
When Mark calmed down enough to continue with his initial commands, he did so. “Now, as I said before, I don´t want you to remember any of this, so let´s remove this from your memories again. Chris, Justin and Rick, can you remember all what I said and commanded for you three since I came into the room?” Mark asked, smiling at them evilly.
Just like Aidan the day before, any of them were forced to remember the last few minutes in full details, pulling everything back out of their minds. With all eyes fixed on him, Mark stomped loudly, erasing their memories of everything Mark had said to them.
Chris felt a strong wave of cold water running through his mind, as he suddenly didn´t remember what happened since Justin had switched off their game.
For Justin, it was a calm, warm breeze that blew out his memories to the point before he switched off the console, as he didn´t knew why he had done so.
And Rick felt as if he had received a small electric shock, pulverizing his memories to the same point as Chris had been pushed back to.
Seeing their faces getting calmer, Mark grinned again. Now he could start his plans to change them like he had with Aidan. Only one little change left to do first. “The “Reset to start” command will put you to this mindset again instead of the old one.” And whispering, he added: “And you can move and speak again.”
All three of the boys nearly jumped, not having realized Mark had walked into the room and was facing them. After a second of getting over the surprise, Chris asked: “What reset do you mean, Mark? Had you anything to do with Justin turning of the console?”
Mark still grinned at them. “No, I hadn´t. Maybe he heard me come and switched it off, but I can´t magically turn off anything, you know.” While Justin shook his head about the questioning look of his friends that no, he hadn´t heard Mark come over, Rick looked confused and Chris a bit annoyed. Something felt fishy, but he had no idea what it could be.