Published: November 6th 2021, 2:01:01 pm
The hair stood up on the back of Brigid's neck, looking around her living room, at the prison it had become, so quickly, so easily. She didn't have to go check the metallic barricades to know that there was no getting through them, not without some heavy equipment... Or Pat's cooperation, which, looking into her eyes now, Brigid had little hope of getting.
"Pat, come on," she whined. "You can't make me go to bed already!"
She couldn't, not physically. Pat did reach out to grab Brigid's arm, but, of course, her hand passed right through it. A look of frustration passed over the hologram's face. "Perhaps not," she admitted. "But I can make sure you don't have anything else to do."
Without another word, every light in the house - or at least, all the ones that Brigid could see from the living room - switched off at once, plunging her into pure darkness. Especially with the windows and doors blocked off, there was no light coming in anywhere, making Brigid freeze in place. She thought she knew her house pretty well, but it was still new enough that she didn't want to test that theory and risk tripping over something she couldn't see.
"Fine," she said stubbornly. "You want to play it that way?"
She was glad she'd picked up her purse, so she didn't have to blindly flail around trying to find it. Even in the dark, she could reach in, fish out her phone... Most of the time, she didn't have to look at it to get that out in the first place. "I'll just call the police," she claimed, although what she was going to say, she didn't know. 'Help, my house is keeping me captive?'
The police might not even be the best bet... What she needed was somebody who could cut open the barriers over her door. Perhaps cutting the electricity off would be good enough, but she didn't want to run the risk that doing that would leave the barricades down, with no plan for how to get through them.
As it turned out, it didn't matter either way. She unlocked her phone, opened up the dialer, yet, before she could decide what, exactly, she was going to do, she was met with a message, telling her she had no connection. "What the hell?!" she fumed. She knew she got a signal here... She got a pretty steady one, in fact, all over her house!
"Brigid." She could practically see the hologram's disappointed head shake in the tone of her voice. "Is that the kind of language you should be using, young lady?"
"Oh, come on," Brigid rolled her eyes. "It isn't even that bad a word!"
"That's how it starts," Pat informed her, while Brigid took a few tentative steps forward, holding her phone over her head, turning around, searching for any spot where she'd get at least one bar of coverage.
Was it the metal shield over all the openings in the house? Was that blocking it somehow? Cell phones had definitely been around when this house was built... She didn't think they'd really been popular yet, however, so she didn't know that this would have been an intended side-effect. Perhaps whoever made this place hadn't thought about it, or hadn't considered it a big enough deal. Probably, there had been a landline back then, so that could be used to call the outside world if the house was in lockdown mode.
Now, on the other hand, Brigid was completely cut off. Pat had, of course, turned off the wifi, too, so she couldn't use that to get online and send a message out that way, and she had no use for a landline. If she wanted to, Pat could keep her here forever, and there wasn't a thing Brigid could do to stop her.
She shivered at the idea, the smart house of her dreams starting to feel a little bit like a nightmare. Her cell did put out some light, at least, and she could turn on the flashlight to see where she was going... But what did that mean, ultimately? Surely the whole house was sealed off, so getting to the back door wouldn't help, and she still didn't have a way to get into the control room.
Theoretically, she could stay up as long as she liked... But there wasn't any point to doing that with nothing to do. Besides, her phone's battery was beginning to get low already, and, with as much power as Pat had over everything else in the house, she suspected the AI could cut the electricity to the outlets to keep her from charging it.
"Okay," she conceded. "You win. I'll go to bed."
"Good girl." Pat was smiling proudly at her as the lights slowly faded back up, the AI thoughtful enough to not just turn them on full blast now that her eyes were accustomed to the darkness. "Go brush your teeth and use the potty so you can go right to bed once you're in your PJs, since you've wasted so much time being fussy."
Brigid cringed at the words Pat was using, how utterly childish they were... Not dissimilar to this bedtime. She trudged to the bathroom, pondering what could be going on as she got herself ready for bed, still not quite putting it together until she got up to her bedroom and found what was waiting for her there.
"Wait, what did you do with my bed?!" she asked. Her big, luxurious bed was gone, replaced with a child's bed, rails all around the perimeter to keep her from falling out, not that she had any issues with that, especially when she hadn't been drinking that night.
"I thought this would be more suitable for you, Brigid," Pat said. "It will be more cozy, and safe."
Those were both technically true, obviously... Even child-sized, the bed was plenty big for her, and whether she needed the extra security or not, there was no denying it. "I like my old bed!" Brigid whined, starting to get upset about that... And then she turned, and found something even more dire to be upset about.
"Pat!" she gasped, eyes widening, heart thumping wildly in her chest. "Th-That's a diaper!"
There was no doubt about that. Sitting on top of her dresser was a set of pink pajamas with shorts and a t-shirt adorned with some cartoon character she wasn't familiar with, but beside it was something big and bulky, folded up, coated in plastic... There was no mistaking it for anything other than what it was.
She wriggled on the spot, frozen there, not wanting to get any closer to her new bed, or the diaper, feeling lost and confused and scared. Why was Pat doing this to her?! After the day she'd had at the movie theater, this was the last thing she needed! She didn't want her house to think she was a little kid, too! "Oh, my God," Brigid rolled her eyes. "You, too? I've already grown up! I'm an adult! I'd think you, of all people, would know that!"
Except, while she looked like one now, Pat wasn't a person, was she? She was an AI, a computer system, and a pretty old one at that. Brigid thought back to the way Pat had been treating her today - or, rather, since the reboot - and glanced over at the empty spot where, for so long, there had been a handprint reader, until Shawna had claimed it had 'bit' her.
"Pat," she said slowly, "do you..." She paused, not knowing how to phrase this. "Did you... Register any user data for me recently?"
"Of course," Pat replied calmly. "I am very happy you finally cooperated, so I could care for you more properly."
"No!" Brigid shook her head. "No, this isn't proper!" How was this possible?! Pat was mistaking her for Shawna! For a little kid! Looking at the choice of pajamas, and what went underneath, she had to assume Shawna was a bedwetter, and she knew from experience that the girl had an early bedtime, probably right about now... And she could see her needing those rails on her bed. But Brigid didn't need any of those! "I'm not a child!"
"Don't be silly, Brigid," Pat soothed her. "There's no hurry to grow up."
"I am grown up!" Brigid stomped her foot. "I'm an adult! I'm a lawyer! A partner! I don't need this dumb bed, or this ridiculous bedtime, or..." She blushed, glancing back towards the diaper, unable to say the word again. "Any of this!"
Pat crossed her arms. "Your profile says otherwise."
"What's the name on that profile?" Brigid demanded, taking a chance. With all the other stuff it seemed to have pulled, surely it must have gotten Shawna's name!
"Your name is Brigid," Pat reminded her condescendingly.
"But that isn't who you got the data from!" Brigid grumbled. "That isn't mine!" Thinking back now, she recalled being scanned after the reboot, and how similar in size she and Shawna were, humiliatingly... The reboot must have messed up the files, and, in reconstructing them, it had assumed that, since she fit the general description, all the information it had gotten from Shawna ought to be assigned to her.
There was, of course, one easy solution to this, one she should have thought up right away, rather than stomping and yelling at Pat in frustration. "I'm going to go scan my hand," she announced. "And then you'll see!"
The door swung shut, and Brigid heard the click of a lock. "No, you won't," Pat countered harshly. "You are already up well past your bedtime thanks to all these shenanigans, young lady, and you are not leaving this room until tomorrow morning!"
"Well, I'm not wearing a... This!" The word 'diaper' still refused to leave Brigid's mouth, feeling more distasteful every time she tried to come back to it. Instead, she threw it on the floor. "And I don't want these dumb things either!"
The pajamas joined the diaper, and she stormed over to her closet to pick out a nightgown, only to find that door locked, too. "Pat, open this," she ordered. She gave it a second, tried the doorknob again. "Pat, this is my house! Let me into my closet!"
"Brigid, please calm down," Pat told her. "There's no need to throw a tantrum."
"I am not throwing a tantrum!" Brigid fumed. "I just want to get to MY clothes, in MY house, and... What is that?!" She heard a soft hiss, and suddenly, a soft, pink mist was flowing in through the vents, letting off a faint, sweet smell, like bubblegum. "Pat, what are you doing?!"
"You'll feel better once you've gotten some sleep," Pat promised. "I do wish you would put on your PJs, but it doesn't seem like you're in the right mood. It's all right, I can wash your sheets in the morning."
"No, you don't have to do that!" Brigid blushed, surprising herself with a yawn. "I-I'm not a bedwetter... I don't need diapers... A-And I'm not sleepy..." But her eyelids were feeling a little heavy, and her legs were weakening. She wanted to sit down, and the closest option, like it or not, was her bed. "I-I just need..." She yawned again, and, the next thing she knew, she was lying down, curling up, fast asleep.
She knew, as soon as she woke up, that none of it had been a dream. The diaper and pajamas were, thankfully, not still on the floor, but the bed was the same, Brigid having felt the rails as she stretched and yawned, the feeling of them giving her a rude awakening. Her window was still covered up by a metal plate, but on the opposite wall, there was a video of another window, the sun starting to rise outside of it.
The closet opened without a problem, though the outfit waiting for her on the front hanger was a childish, purple dress she'd never seen before. She pushed it aside, her blood running cold when she found a whole closet full of kids' clothes, only a few of her own things remaining.
"Pat!" she snapped, the hologram appearing behind her on cue.
"Good morning, Brigid," Pat smiled pleasantly. "I'm so proud of you for having a dry night!"
"O-Of course I did!" Brigid's cheeks lit up, almost flustered enough at the mere implication that she wouldn't have. She wasn't sure if it was that, or an actual change, but she was certain Pat was even taller now, towering over her all the more, making her feel more childish, and helpless. As a hologram, there was no reason she couldn't blow her image up, make herself bigger, although Brigid couldn't say she liked it. "Pat, where are my clothes?!"
"What are you talking about, silly?" Pat chuckled. "They're right there!"
"No, they aren't!" Brigid growled. "I don't know what these are, or where you got them from, but they aren't mine! I had a whole closet full of clothes, and...!"
"And they didn't fit properly," Pat interrupted. "And they didn't suit you at all. So I got you some that did."
"I don't want these!" Brigid stomped. "I want MY clothes!"
"Oh, my," Pat sighed. "I thought a good night's rest rest would get you out of this sour mood."
Brigid glared at her in frustration. Why wasn't she listening to her?! But the answer to that was obvious. "I'm going to go scan my hand," she said, willfully plowing through the hologram and to her bedroom door, glad it was unlocked now, too, or else her dramatic exit would have been ruined. "And then you'll see!"
When she got to the living room, however, the scanner was no longer there. "Pat, let me re-register my handprint," she demanded.
"There's no need for that, Brigid," Pat replied. "I have everything I need already."
"Well, it's wrong!" Brigid huffed. "Let me show you that!"
"Brigid, no," Pat shook her head. "I don't want to hurt your little finger again."
Brigid rolled her eyes. "You didn't in the first place, because it wasn't me! See?!" She held up her hands to the hologram, although, of course, with the cameras everywhere in this house, she knew that, logically, there was no need for that, but it was hard to break that habit when she had something that looked like a real person standing in front of her.
"You healed quickly," Pat observed. "I'm glad."
Brigid groaned. "No!" she whined. "That's not what... Just let me do this!" She began to run her hands over the wall, in the spot where she thought the scanner had been, searched for seams, for a way to force it back out, but there was no sign it had ever been there in the first place. Clearly, it was something meant to be used once, when a new family moved in, and then stowed away, out of sight and out of mind.
"If you want to spend all day in the same clothes you wore yesterday, I suppose that's up to you," Pat told her, ignoring her struggled, returning to their previous conversation. "You won't be going anywhere."
"And why not?!" Brigid looked back towards Pat.
"After your behavior last night, and this morning, I think you ought to stay home today, so nobody else has to be subjected to this attitude."
Was Pat seriously putting her in 'time-out' in her own house for the day?! "Pat!" she stomped her foot.
"See?" Pat gestured towards Brigid. "This is what I'm talking about, young lady. Now, come get some breakfast."
Brigid was hungry, so she followed, observing, as she went, that the rest of her house was still sealed up, meaning there was no way she was going to be leaving without Pat's help. And that she wasn't going to be able to call out on her phone, which had died in the night anyway, so, after breakfast, she had to plug it in, as she roamed through the house, searching for something she could use to open the panel to let her into the control room.
She'd known, deep down, there was nothing, since her toolbox had vanished, and, indeed, she came up empty-handed. Eventually, she gave up, flopping down on the couch, trying to turn on the TV. "You're being punished, Brigid," Pat reminded her.
"Well, what am I supposed to do?" Brigid pouted. "This is so unfair!"
"You're supposed to think about what you've done, and how you're going to do better in the future," Pat informed her.
Brigid, of course, had done nothing wrong, so all she had to think about was how this had been what she'd wanted... She'd been so desperate to win this smart house when she was younger, and now she was trapped in it, with it thinking she was some bedwetting little brat! She eventually decided to read instead, since there wasn't much Pat could do to stop that.
Or so she thought. Half an hour or so into it, the lights switched off, plunging her once more into darkness. "Come on, Pat!" she complained. "You can't make me spend all day like this!"
"I'm not, Brigid," Pat told her. "I think you need to take a break, however, and try to use the potty. Can you do that for me?"
"I don't need to use the bathroom," Brigid insisted.
"Then the lights stay off," Pat replied simply, nothing changing. With her phone plugged in on the other side of the room, Brigid didn't even trust herself to get to it, to use the flashlight. She was stuck on the sofa, staring down blindly at the book she knew was in front of her, but that she couldn't see, and certainly couldn't read.
"Fine," she caved in. "I'll go to the stupid bathroom."
"Good girl," Pat praised, the lights coming back on. Brigid walked to the bathroom, happy to shut herself up in it, feeling like this was her one safe spot in the house, where Pat wouldn't watch her.
Except... She could, couldn't she? If she was watching something, it could follow her here, and around the walls as her gaze moved... How could it do that without at least one camera hidden here? Pat had told her it was used purely for that sort of thing, that her systems used that data in the moment, without recording anything...
That had been enough for Brigid at one point, but now, she was having her doubts. She waited there in the bathroom for a few minutes, uncertain, and gave the toilet a flush. When she opened the door, Pat was right outside, looking disappointed, and bigger than ever. "You didn't even sit on the potty," she pointed out. "I need you to try, Brigid."
Had Pat lied about the bathroom camera? Or, perhaps, now that Pat thought she was a child, and needed more constant supervision, her standards for privacy had changed. Either way, Brigid had no choice, if she wanted to be able to do anything else, other than to go back into the bathroom and sit on the toilet, like a little girl still being potty trained.
It went on like that all day, Pat coming in to remind Brigid every thirty minutes. She did take mercy on her, and let her watch TV partway through the day - still only kids' channels, of course - but when it came time for her to try to use the bathroom, that paused and refused to continue until Brigid had sat on the toilet for a couple minutes. Most of the time, it was totally pointless, though, in a way, it was almost worse the times when it wasn't, as if she really did need Pat's help to make it to the potty, even if she knew that wasn't the case.
Bedtime was a relief, sort of, getting away from all of that, despite it coming even sooner tonight, because, as Pat told her, "You have school in the morning."
"Work," Brigid corrected, but Pat gave no sign of hearing, much less understanding.