Macy's mind was going a mile a minute, trying to rally her debate club experience for counter-arguments, but even as she opened her mouth to protest, Chelsea had already started recording.
"The changes caused by this record are only noticed by the five persons right now in this room : Chelsea, Cassidy, Macy, Winter and Queen.
The changes won't cause us any pain and at the opposite, will feel really nice."
Macy's breath caught in her throat. This was nuts. She was even included in it! But if the dictaphone worked as soon as the button was released, what could she do?
"Chelsea, wait -" she said, but Chelsea barrelled on, if anything a little louder:
"Chelsea, Cassidy, Macy, Winter and Queen become so incredibly attractive in a strong, sexual way, no other woman could reach such beauty naturally. The result is for men to become unable to resist us as we reach levels of sexiness they can't handle, and for women to feel naturally submissive to us as they can't help but feel our crushing superiority. "
"What? Woah! No! None of that happens!" Macy shouted, "We stay as we are!"
"Yes, it does," Chelsea said, staring daggers at Macy, "We'll become sexier and more popular than the cheerleaders were before I deleted their change."
"No, we don't!" Macy said, "In fact, we become less sexy and less popular then we are now! There, a paradox. Reckon the machine can work that out? Now, can we talk about this?"
"We did talk about it, Macy. You're the only hold out!" Chelsea said, angrily. Winter and Queen shared an uneasy glance; they weren't used to fighting each other like this.
Only Cassidy heard the dictaphone beginning to faintly whine. "Uh, guys?" She ventured, but was quickly drowned out.
"But you guys aren't thinking clearly!" Macy replied, "It's like your brains are stuck on sex!"
"They are not!" Chelsea snapped defensively, "It's logical! You're just a - a total b-word!"
"Yeah, well," Macy said, "I've been called worse. "And your plan won't work now that it contradicts itself. So we have to start this from the beginning and do it properly, ok?"
Cassidy nudged Winter and pointed at the dictaphone; it looked like faint, glowing cracks were forming along its side. Winter gasped: "Guys! Wait!"
Queen, however, ever the problem solver, was stepping forward:
"Sorry, Macy, but we can undo the paradox. Here: None of what Macy recorded in this message is true."
"Yes it is!" Macy replied, quick as a whip, "And it can't be undone! And, also, Chelsea never even took this dictaphone! Now, come on. We can have some sort of compromise, here."
"Guys, stop!" Cassidy shrieked, finally loud enough to be heard, "Stop and look!"
Bright cracks had spread across the dictaphone's surface, and brilliant white light was pouring out of them. The hum had become a high-pitched whistle, like a kettle's, clearly heard by all of the girls.
"No!" Chelsea screamed, "What did you do?!"
"It's possible," Queen said, her voice oddly level even as she backed away, "That creating a paradox doesn't just cancel the message. Maybe it creates an error."
"But, then, how will it resolve it?" Cassidy shouted over the din, "It's just a machine. It can't think... Right?"
Macy, at this moment, proved that she was perhaps the most grounded of the group by simply shouting "Get back! It's going to blow!"
The girls screamed and scattered, diving for cover; including Chelsea, who dropped the dictaphone in the process. It fell, tumbling as if in slo-mo, end over end until landing on the 'stop' button.
There was a silent pause, in which Macy only heard an odd, mechanical crackling and... was that laughter?
And then everything flashed white...
Sun Aug 04 00:00:00 2019