The Camera, Part 3 (Patreon)

I must apologize, ladies and gentlemen. Still working on the ending. The Finale will be up soon.

Natalie Divine, Director of Special Projects, A.T.I.S.

I felt my heart beat faster and faster until it was almost painful. I felt so alive! I could hardly believe how beautiful the look on Molly's face was as she looked down at her feet and submitted herself to me utterly! This is the thrill I've dreamed of so often over the years! In my career in management, I've caught only whispers of this feeling. I've always loved watching people squirm as I crush their will beneath my own. The simple pleasure of compelling someone to put in a few extra hours of unpaid overtime. The rush of casually dropping extra requirements just ahead of the deadline, forcing my subordinates to scramble to catch up. The ecstatic joy of forcing people to engage in pointless team-building exercises or irrelevant re-training seminars. The existential fulfillment of knowing that someone utterly despises you, and would happily murder you if they could, but is compelled to obey you anyway. Power. Domination. It is my muse, and my addiction. But it has always been cruelly denied to me in its full, unfiltered glory. In the corporate world, power is always curtailed by bureaucracy, politics, and silly laws intended to defend the weak from the strong. Always someone looking over your shoulder, always the risk that an unguarded comment might damage your reputation. The device was finally showing me the real thing, and I wanted more.

Thanks to a slight disruption to a select few choice neurons, the knowledge and skills that poor little Molly normally used to dress and undress herself were simply unavailable, making her pathetically incapable of completing what ought to be simple, everyday tasks. Thanks to her previous reprogramming, she wasn't even able to find her new circumstances strange or upsetting at all. She had no choice but to place herself entirely under my power, and I would savor every second of it.

I lifted her chin until her eyes met mine, and flashed her a warm, indulgent smile. “Of course you would. It's fine, sweety. We'll get get you all dressed up in your cute little outfit. Don't worry about a thing. I've got you.”

I gently guided the naked woman over to the box of clothes I had selected for her. The first box had been to recreate the regal, sophisticated look that Molly had had when I had first laid eyes on her. I had dressed her and undressed her over and over in my mind since then, but this outfit was my favorite. So outrageously cute, so cloyingly juvenile. The sort of outfit she would probably have rejected out of hand if Fitzroy's program hadn't just turned her sense of fashion on its head. I held up the thick training pants in front of her, displaying the smiling face of Minnie Mouse on the front panel.

“Look at your cute new undies! Aren't they just perfect for a sweet little thing like you?” I cooed at her. She blushed, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face. “Step, and...step! Up they go! Good girl!” I sang as I gently ran the infantile garment up her shapely legs, making plenty of “incidental” skin contact along the way. Her new green bunny shirt was next, complete with the little snaps between her legs, in case of any accidents. I made her lie on her back and spread her legs in the air to get the pink overalls on over her legs. Such a darling little thing, so utterly helpless.

Just for a cheap chuckle, I slipped her little sneakers onto her feet and stood back to admire my handiwork. She fumbled around with the velcro straps, clearly having no idea of how to fasten them. I finally came to her rescue.

“That's a little advanced for you, isn't it? Let me take care of it. Snap! Snap! Snap! Snap! Now, we need to get your hair ready.”

“Mah err, whu...(pop) what's wrong with my hair?” she asked.

“It needs to match your outfit, silly! Don't worry so much! And you don't need to worry about your thumb anymore, either. Go ahead and suck as much as you like! It really matches the outfit perfectly.” I explained as I tied her hair into a pair of red pigtails with little pink ties. She was perfect. I took her by the hand and gently led her out to face the “camera” once again.

Dr. Jared Fitzroy- Neurostimulation Specialist, A.T.I.S.

I watched the camera feed as Natalie got to work changing the subject into her new outfit. Judging by her reaction to seeing it, it seems the aesthetic modification was a success. No one over the age of six would ever wear such a ridiculous-looking getup willingly, yet she acted like she couldn't wait to get it on and show it off!

Natalie is clearly getting caught up in her role as the subject's ersatz “Mommy” figure. I watched with satisfaction as she teased and cooed at the subject. She would have been socked in the jaw by now if not for my modifications to the subject's perception. All according to plan. The more hot and bothered Natalie becomes, the more likely she is to drop her guard. I am pleasantly surprised at how well the normality filter and mood alterations have worked, considering they were applied at fairly low power. I half expected the subject to require some restraint by now. I toyed with the idea of applying a more thorough option now, but there are other things on the roster today that I am more eager to try. Better to wait for some sign of rebellion, so that I will know how effective the low-power setting really is, and then use the my “finale” to smother any further dissent.

I had to zip myself up quickly when I noticed that they were about to emerge from the dressing room. I waved and greeted them, doing my best impression of a harmless beta male.

“Oh, that looks amazing! Really sets off your eyes!” I said with a warm smile.

She popped her thumb out and gushed. “Oh, thanks! I usually wouldn't wear something like this, but its really doing something for me! Who's the designer, if I may ask?”

“Just something I found online.” said Natalie, dragging the subject back to the marked spot. “I'll send you the link when we're finished. Now, for this next shot, could you suck your thumb and give the camera the thumbs up? There's a good girl.”

She eagerly did as instructed. I reached down and twisted the dial again, bringing the power level up to sixty percent. This next one was also one of Natalie's rather transparently self-serving suggestions, but luckily, it coincides nicely with an interest of mine: Fear. The most basic and primal of emotions, and thus one of the strongest motivators the human mind has. The power to implant fear, real bone-marrow level fear, would be an awesome enough power for my device even if it did absolutely nothing else. Personally, I would have chosen something more clearly and unambiguously non-threatening, like a pinecone or maybe the color orange. That way, the test results would be more pure. Well, Natalie is the one in charge, for now. So, I tapped the Enter key and sent a brand new, top of the line phobia straight into the daft woman's head. The coolant system hissed sharply as the program completed.

Running emotionalresponcemodification/pottyfear.exe

She didn't respond in the least, of course. She kept giving the thumbs-up and merrily sucking her thumb. The brain has no self-assessment system, no way to alert itself when a new set of emotional triggers has been suddenly seared into it. I would need a less dramatic, but none-the-less essential, application of my device to move the subject in the desired direction. I turned the power back down to ten percent, and ran another program.

Running physicalstimulus/bladder.exe

There. Now she would have the feeling of needing to pee. Off and on, for the rest of her life. The stimulus was totally independent of her physical bladder's condition. The nerve that normally alerts the conscious mind that the bladder is full would just get randomly twanged all day long. I watched as her stance suddenly shifted uncomfortably.

Molly Brannon, Professional Model

I really hope this outfit isn't crazy expensive. I would love to add something just like this to my rotation. Hell, I might rethink my whole wardrobe after today.

Natalie was really getting on my nerves, though. I mean, it was nice of her to help me get this awesome outfit on, but was it really necessary for her to be so damn condescending about it? I had been having a really, really nice day, but I forget how to put my panties on and all the sudden, this lady is talking to me like a I'm a damn toddler! And I could totally tell that she was getting off on it, too! She's the kind that really likes feeling superior and having the upper hand. Oh well. I'm in too good of a mood to let her get me down. May as well let her have her fun and ride this thing out. At least she got off my case about my thumb.

Jared greeted me with an incredibly performative compliment when we left the dressing room, which I pretended to take seriously. Of course Jared was ogling me too, but that was nothing new. I'm used to men drooling over me. Most women are at least more subtle about it, but I'm learning today that Natalie is not most women. She's clearly into me, and I admit that I enjoyed the feeling of her dressing me up almost as much as she did. But that personality of hers is a deal-breaker in my book. The worst part is, she clearly thinks she's really selling her little “sweetness and sunshine” routine. I wonder if she's even aware of how transparent she is.

I responded to all this the way I usually do: pretend to buy whatever they're selling. It's a strategy that never feels very good, but it keeps the work coming. I learned long ago that telling jerks what jerks they are helps no one. So, when Natalie told me to give the camera a thumbs-up and suck my thumb with a big smile, I got up there and sucked my thumb for all I was worth. Complaining would only waste time, and I felt like getting out of here and going for a nice long walk. It was such a lovely day; too good to spend shut up in a tiny room with these two tools.

The camera did its thing again. The steam blast was louder this time, but they weren't bothered, so neither was I. Another burst of color, another, softer hiss. I stood there frozen with my big smile and my two thumbs (one up, one in), when I suddenly realized that I needed to take a wizz. Like, seriously. It doesn't usually just hit me like that, but I just went from practically zero to full-on emergency in like a second.

“Uh, guys? Sorry to interrupt, but can we take five?” I didn't want to, but I found myself pressing my hand against my crotch, trying to keep from pissing myself then and there.

“Does someone need the potty?” asked Natalie is a syrupy voice. I might even have found her childish language endearing, but she was clearly just teasing me.

“Y...yeah. Where's the restroom?” I asked, already nearly at the door.

“Just down the hall, on the left.” supplied Jared.

Once I was out of sight, I dropped any remaining pretense and made a run for it. The employee washrooms weren't far away, fortunately. I pushed open the door to the lady's room, hoping I would be in time. I can't remember the last time I've had to pee so bad! I struggled desperately with my overalls, trying to get them to open as I yanked open the nearest stall.

I stopped dead in my tracks. The sight that greeted me made my skin crawl. What was waiting for me in there was too horrible to contemplate. The fact that it looked exactly like every toilet I had ever sat on in my life somehow made it even more disturbing. The hateful sheen of the filthy porcelain, that yawning emptiness in the middle...I couldn't bear to look at it. I couldn't go near it, and the thought of sitting on the hideous thing didn't bear thinking about. I screamed and fled the restroom.

“That was fast! Back so soon?”

My heart leapt again. Natalie was waiting for me as I left the restroom. That plasticy grin was back and bigger than ever. Her eyes were cold and vicious, like a snake's eyes. What was worse, I realized as I tried to collect myself, that my panties felt hot and wet.

“I...uh...I...” I stammered. I was trying to come to grips with my situation, and I was coming up with nothing. I only became more uneasy when Natalie began advancing on me, pressing me against the wall.

“Is something the matter?” she asked. She knew. She knew what was happening to me. She was doing all this, somehow.

“Hmmm?” she asked, her voice full of poisoned honey. “What's wrong? Is the mean old potty too scary for you?”

What was happening? This...this wasn't normal. The fact that my mind was insisting that everything around me was totally, perfectly normal, made me realize how thin that excuse had become. The scales had fallen from my eyes. This was all deeply, deeply wrong. As I stared at Natalie, the feeling of inexplicable happiness began to return, and I realized that that was wrong too. These feeling weren't really mine. It was like they had been painted over my real feelings.

Natalie pressed two fingers to my lips. “Shhhh. It's okay. Everything is fine. I'm not mad at you. You are my guest here, after all. I just want to help you as much as I can. We need to make you feel all safe and comfy! So, whatever you need, I'll just go and get it for you! All you have to do...is tell me what you need. No need to be shy. Just tell me. Now that you're just terrified of that scaaarrry big girl potty, whatever shall we do with you? What do you need, now that you can't even pull down your little training pants anymore?. Hmmm?”

I hung my head. She really did like having the upper hand, and she definitely had it now. I was helpless. I was standing in front of her in wet training pants, having just ran screaming from a toilet. She had all the cards. Still, she wasn't as invincible as she clearly thought she was. She was the kind who relished victory so much, she was likely to claim it prematurely. I reached within myself. The happiness was still trying to penetrate my mind. I let it. I wrapped myself in it like a big, warm blanket. It would allow me to get through this. It was clear what Natalie wanted from me. I just had to give it to her, and that might make her confident enough to tip her hand.

“...diapers.” I mumbled under my breath.

Natalie cupped her hand to her ear. “You'll have to speak up, sweetie. What do you need?”

I knew it should have felt terrible, but the happiness was doing its job. The word didn't feel like I had expected it to. I said it again, feeling the contours of the word as I said it.

“Diapers.”

Natalie displayed all her teeth. “Good girl! Now, say 'I'm a big baby, and I need you to put me back in diapers.' Say it with a big smile, and then put your thumb in your mouth. Do that, and I'll make sure you never have to deal that horrible potty ever again. You won't have to worry about anything, ever. I'll take care of everything. Say it. Now.”

Shit. In for a penny...

I tried to fake a smile, and was amazed at how easy it came. “...I'm a...I'm a big baby...and I need you to put me back in diapers.” I said. I had to sound hesitant, or she would see through me the way I saw through her. To my surprise, the words felt delicious in my mouth. If my training pants weren't already wet, I'm pretty sure they would have moistened now. I popped my thumb into my mouth, feeling small and weak, but also somehow...free.

She dragged me back to the testing room, where Jared was waiting for us with a shit-eating grin on his face.