Mark didn´t make any new changes to Luke while they were in class. Luke was so focused on taking notes as he was forced to do, that he never realized how much time went by until the end of their classes. Only when he handed his very detailed notes to Mark did he realize it, which was shocking him. It felt as if he had been completely pushed aside while focusing on his given task. He could still remember each detail he had written down, but it felt as if it hadn´t been him attending the classes at all.
Mark looked over the notes before putting them into his bag, grinning. “Good work Luke. Now come, let´s collect Aidan and help him home, then we can go to my place and see what to do with you.”
Luke was horrified as his body followed Mark like a lost puppy. Aidan didn´t acknowledged him in any way, so he was forced to walk slowly behind Mark and Aidan on his way home.
Reaching Aidan´s flat, Mark sat on the couch for a bit while Aidan made himself something to eat. Mark said he wasn´t hungry, but thanked Aidan anyway.
Luke, who still stood beside the couch waiting for a new command, watched all the movements Aidan made in the kitchen. How he crawled around, only raising up when he could support his body on the counter to work. How he threw everything into the mixer to liquefy his meal, and then drinking it while sitting down on his desk chair after again crawling around.
By now he was sure Mark had changed Aidan somehow, but what exactly he couldn´t say. To him, Aidan had always been wearing colorful baby clothes, socks as gloves, a bib and a pacifier, and was too weak to support his weight, making walking impossible. Was that all Mark´s doing?
Soon, Mark said his goodbyes to Aidan, after being sucked off again for Aidan´s dessert, and left with Luke in tow. He hadn´t intended to change anything for Aidan right now, still having fun watching him move around like a baby. Maybe the next day would be good to change Aidan´s diet again.
Reaching the house Luke was greeted by the sight of Mark´s brother and four friends playing something at the tv. And just like with Aidan, Luke couldn´t shake off the feeling that something about their behavior was Mark´s doing. One boy sat their naked beside his boxers, trying to play the controller with his feet. The other boy laid on the ground, inhaling chips on the carpet before him while his fingers had his controller hold weirdly. And the brother also sat on the carpet, balling fists while playing. Only the other two seemed to act normal beside them, ignoring if the others acted weird.
Mark smiled at the group, but went to his room without interrupting them, for now planning to focus on Luke. It wasn´t that much he planned to do to him, the most being already done with shutting him up and forcing him to obey Mark. But a few small tweaks still were necessary.
Mark dropped back into his desk chair while Luke stopped walking, standing straight in the middle of the room. “Luke, close the door. We don´t need anyone to interrupt us.” Mark ordered, and Luke did so before resuming his former position in the middle of the room.
Mark grinned up at him, making Luke quite uneasy. “Now, as I asked you this morning about cooking, you said you were rubbish at everything done in a household, right?”
Luke, for his part, was slightly confused by that. Why was he saying this again? But he answered the question he was asked anyway: “Yes, I´m rubbish at it.”
Mark still grinned at him. “That won´t do, then. Luke, from now on, you are a excellent cook, and you are an expert in doing chores in the household or the garden.”
Luke looked now even more confused. Would simply saying it that way suddenly raise his non-existent skills? He had felt a light breeze roaming in his head, but couldn´t say what it did to him.
Mark decided on testing if Luke had indeed gained the skill, he had wanted him to. “Now, Luke, do me a favor and put some clean sheets on my bed. They are in the wardrobe next door, and the laundry basket is in there as well.” It wasn´t that hard of a task, normally Luke should be able to do that even without raising his skills, but he wanted to see how he would do it now.
Luke, for his part, was annoyed at Mark for that. He had told him he was rubbish with such tasks. So, he was really surprised by himself quickly pulling off the sheets and cases of the bed, balling them up and walk out of the room. Like a programmed robot, he dropped the dirty laundry in the basket before opening the wardrobe to collect the new sheets. Not even five minutes after getting the task, Luke had put the new sheets on, much to his own fascination.
Seeing the look in his eyes, Mark grinned. “From the look on your face, I guess you never have done this before, or at least not so easily, right?”
Luke even sounded surprised as he simply answered with: “Yes, I never did it like that.” But that also left him to question mentally, what would Mark do with him now?
But Mark asked him something else next: “Say, Luke, how do you live normally? Alone like Aidan in a flat, or together with others, be it friends or family?”
Luke had a vague idea why Mark asked that and didn´t like it, but was forced to answer him anyway: “I have a flat like Aidan, where I live alone.”
Mark grinned at that. That would make it easier for him. “Is that why you blab so much? That you have a need to talk to balance out being alone at home? No family to talk to?”
Luke was able to sigh before he answered: “Part of it, yes. But I also love to hear myself talk. And I don´t have much family around anymore.” Realizing that he just admitted that he loved his own voice let Luke blush a bit.
Mark looked at him, trying to decide what to do about that. As he didn´t want to really harm Luke, did he want to make him hate his own voice? Or was there another way? “The way you said that, I guess that means you like your own voice very much. Maybe it would help if you could talk freely again, but as long as nobody has asked you something and triggered the limitation, only you yourself can hear you talk? On the other side, have you talked that much being home alone then?”
Luke blushed a bit more as Mark had understood him. Hearing Mark´s idea of what could help, he wasn´t so sure. But to answer the question he said: “I do talk while alone, but not endlessly. And sometimes I want to get an answer from someone else instead of myself. So, only hearing myself talk alone wouldn´t help that much.”
“Well, then it will stay as it is, you can only talk if someone asks you something. So, no self-monologue for you, at least not with talking. Now, to move further. As you maybe can guess, giving you good skills around the household and cooking wasn´t done selflessly by me. It was to make you able to help around here, as neither I nor my brother can cook, and hate chores. Our parents aren´t home that much, so I needed someone taking care of things. Somewhat of a punishment for annoying me as well. That means from now on, you are like a servant to me, my family and the friends visiting us. But you will still go to your classes normally, as your normal life will also move further. And you did good work with the notes, so it will help me as well if you continue to go and do so.” Mark explained Luke his new role.
Luke didn´t like it. He wasn´t someone to be ordered, wasn´t a servant. But he couldn´t do anything against Mark. And he couldn´t even voice his complaint, as Mark hadn´t formulated it as a question for him to answer. He frowned in displeasure.
Mark grinned at Luke´s frown, seeing that it wasn´t what he would want to do. But he wouldn´t have a chance right now. Even less, when Mark continued his plans. “As you said that you live alone, I have another point to make. As our servant, you would need to be here most of the time, if not all the time beside being in classes with me. So, you will need to life with us here. You will keep your flat, we will just relocate it for you.” With that, Mark turned towards the laptop, using the connection of the chronivac to Luke to find his flat, then copy it over to sit beside their kitchen, adding it to the house that way. From the outside, it wouldn´t be visible. As the layout of Luke´s flat was clear, Mark only removed the kitchen itself, as Luke could use theirs. He could keep his bathroom, bedroom and living room as they were. He also quickly scanned his brother´s other friends’ downstairs, and added the “Mark rules” comment in their text input, as he planned to include them with his brother later.
Luke stood there, without any idea what Mark did right now. He couldn´t move to look at the laptop and couldn´t ask what he did. He wasn´t happy with the idea to life with Mark´s family, and didn´t believe that Mark could relocate his flat that easily.
When finished, Mark turned back towards Luke with a wide grin. “Now, your flat is part of this house, just beside our kitchen. I kept the layout and just removed the kitchen, as you will use ours anyway. Everything that had been inside is here now, while the original flat is now empty and can be resold. As a benefit for you, you won´t need to pay a rent anymore. Want to go look?”
Luke stared at Mark in disbelieve. That wasn´t possible. He had to see it, so he nodded at Mark. “Yeah, I want to see it.” He would believe it if he saw it.
Mark walked down towards the kitchen, making Luke follow him. The door to the small cupboard that was used as a storage in the kitchen had moved back and to the side, adding a small entrance to a door looking familiar to Luke. As Luke walked into the room behind, it really was his flat, beside the room his kitchen had been in missing. That room, now reachable from before his door, was now the expanded cupboard that had been replaced, now a whole storeroom for the kitchen.
Mark looked around the flat, seeing it wasn´t really tidy. Luke hadn´t lied about not being good with a household. Seeing Luke´s speechless expression, he grinned at him. “Hope you are satisfied, and everything you need is here. Whatever was in your kitchen beside the appliances should be in the storage room next to your door, as I have reused the room for the cupboard that was here before. And before you wonder, no one can see the flat from the outside, it will not even be there if someone touched it from the outside. Now, as your first task, clean up your living quarters, Luke. I will be back in my room, join me there when this is more presentable.”
While Luke was still baffled that something like this was possible, his body obeyed Marks command and started to clean up his rooms, which would take only about half an hour with his newly gained skills. Before, it would have been a day’s work to him.
As Mark left the rooms, he saw Luke collecting his laundry in a basket he just got from his bathroom. Chuckling at how dirty Luke had lived before, Mark called onto his brother’s friends to follow him upstairs, so he could initiate them as well.