"Stuck?" Heather asked, appalled. "What do you mean, stuck?"
"I mean that the scenario won't end if we used our totems." Mel said tersely, strapping Heather into the stroller. "We need to get back to your room immediately. If we're lucky then the totems will work there."
"And if we're unlucky?"
Mel didn't answer. She grabbed the handles of the stroller and began pushing it briskly towards the park gates. Their progress was slowed a bit by the other caregivers who were curious why they were leaving so suddenly. Mel shook them off with the excuse of a forgotten appointment and soon they were speeding down the sidewalk towards home. Heather was happy to see that Mel had chosen the short way this time.
They arrived back at Heather's house minutes later and Mel quickly bundled Heather through the door. Mandy was still on the couch, watching TV with her phone in her hands. She looked up at the two girls as Mel rushed in.
"What's the big hurry?" She asked.
"Sorry Mrs. L." Mel panted as she rushed past. "Heather just used up more diapers than I thought and is about to leak. I'll go take care of it."
"Alright." Mandy said. "If you see Hillary on the way could you send her back down? She been acting really odd the past couple of days and I want to have a talk with her about it."
"Will do!" Mel called as she rushed up the stairs and back into Heather's room. She dumped Heather back into her crib and both girls reached for their totems. Heather focused desperately and thought 'END SCENARIO' with all of her might.
Nothing happened.
She looked desperately up at Mel, who was gripping her own wristband tightly. The terrified look on her face told Heather everything.
"It's not working." Heather said hoarsely.
"I know." Mel said with just a hint of panic.
"What do we do?!"
"Quiet. I'm trying to think."
Mel pulled her phone out and began tapping furiously. Heather looked around the room for her own phone. Mel had had it last in the real world. She glanced at her friend. The phone in her hand was definitely Mel's own. She looked around the room. The toybox was probably her best bet. She climbed off her crib and waddled over to it. She had wet her diaper again. She tried to ignore the wet bulk between her thighs as she opened the toybox. Just like the last time, it was full of a combination of sinister looking baby toys and clearly adult sex toys. Heather shuddered a bit as she quickly dug through it all. Her phone wasn't in here.
She looked around again. Her changing table had plenty of drawers, but she figured they were full of diapers and baby clothes. She looked at her closet. It was a possibility. She waddled over and slid the door open, ignoring her reflection in the mirror that hung from it. Inside the closet was a bunch of clothes on hangers. Her own original clothes from the real world! Mel had said that today was her 'debut' in this world. Her closet must have been where her old stuff had been put when her room was changed. There were several boxes on the closet floor with labels sharpied on the sides. She read them hurriedly, then grabbed the one marked 'electronics' and ripped it open. Her phone was right on top. She pulled it out and turned it on with shaking fingers.
The Big Tots app was still on her homescreen. She opened it and began tapping through menus as quickly as Mel was with her own. Both girls tapped and swiped in silence for several minutes. Heather quickly found that the app was useless. Almost all of the menus were grayed out with 'scenario in progress' next to them. She switched to the website. There were a lot of new things there. No doubt because Mel had signed them up for the beta. She found a page about known issues with tandem play and started reading. There was a list of warning signs that Mel had obviously seen back in the park. Time and weather discrepancies were listed as sure signs of an error. She dug further and found a page about totems not functioning. She turned to Mel.
"I think I got something!" she said excitedly.
Mel looked up and walked closer to see.
"I found that too." she said bitterly. "It's not very helpful."
"But it's a start! Are you sure your bracelet is your totem? Did it sort of tingle and burn just before the scenario activated?"
"Yes." Mel sighed, exasperated. "I already thought of that. I assume your totem is correct then?"
"Well, yeah." Heather said, a little taken aback.
"Then it's clearly not the issue."
"Then what is?!"
Mel held up her own phone. On the screen was a chat log.
"I've been messaging the devs." Mel said. "They can't do much for us while we're still in the scenario, but they did say that they could check the logs and see if there were any errors recorded for our session. I'm just waiting for them to get back to me."
"How will that help us?"
"It might give us an idea about what went wrong. If we know that then we should be able to find a way out."
Mel's phone pinged. She looked hopefully at the screen, then made a sour face.
"What?" Mel asked "What did they say?"
"They got the wrong scenario." She said, tapping a reply. "They're trying to claim that we were attempting a three-person tandem, which they don't support. Fucking idiots."
"Three person? How-"
"Now they're insisting that they're right." Mel snarled. "I keep telling them that it's just you and me in here, but they insist that there's a third person in our scenario and we need their totem as well as ours to end it."
"Third person? Who?"
"No one! There isn't anyone else!" Mel shouted at her phone.
A sudden knock at the door caused both girls to jump. They looked at each other, then at the door.
"Um. Come in?" Heather said warily.
The door swung open.