✅ My Cousin's Keeper [NaNoWriMo 2021]

70. My Oversight

Saturday was mostly a day of relaxation. I asked Ffrances what Tess had talked to her about the day before, but it wasn't something she wanted to share. She took client confidentiality very seriously, and that was something she brought home into her personal life as well. I could respect that, but I really wanted to know what I could best do to help my little be happy. One thing she did share was that she would be doing at least two hypnosis sessions this week; making sure that Tess was ready for the Christmas party, as well as reinforcing the trigger so that she could have accidents when she wanted to.

Their first session was the same afternoon. I said that I would be up in my office, as I needed to catch up on some paperwork before work on Monday. I didn't want to disturb them, but I made sure to turn on my old laptop first. I'd set it up so I could use it as a baby monitor, using the webcam to watch what was happening while I was out of the house. I was sure that Ffrances would notice if I left it set up and pointing into the room when she was home, so I left it closed and leaning against the side of the sofa, where it wasn't uncommon to find it if I'd walked away from whatever email I was typing for a moment. I had a desktop computer in my own room, so they wouldn't comment on the computer being there. And even with the screen closed, the mic input carried pretty well over a chat app.

It was hard to listen to Ffrances's words without dropping into trance myself. She really was that good; but this time she was focusing on the techniquest that would work best for Tess. I shook my head and turned off the mic for a few minutes. I really did have some work stuff I could have been focusing on, if I were more inclined to work on the weekend. Even if it was just Klimt's expense claims, which frequently showed double the creativity of his actual designs. I gave it ten minutes, and gave one of his ludicrous demands an official tick to recommend the accountants authorise it. Then I turned back to the baby monitor.

Tess and Ffrances were still doing an induction. I could hear how sleepy the little was when Ffrances asked her to respond. Almost all the answers she gave were about wordless grunts, a happy "Mmmhmm" or similar. Ffrances talked her down, and then set about repeating the suggestions she had given before. She asked Tess to imagine someone she trusted speaking to her, like me, or like Ffrances herself. Someone she trusted to give her those kinds of instructions. And she asked her to imagine being told that she would have an accident. Just a repetition of the suggestions she had given before, but with more repetition than I could keep track of. I quickly lost count of the number of times she went over the same points – about making sure only trustworthy people could say the words – before I finally tuned out and concentrated on some dumb online card game for a few minutes while I waited for her to get to the point.

It was all the same as before, so far as I could tell. If we told her she wasn't going to have an accident, she would take all necessary precautions to make sure it happened that way, without even being aware of it. If she tried to drink too much, to take diuretics, or "forgetting" to use the bathroom, she would thwart her own plans without realising it. And when she didn't have an accident, she would find herself feeling proud like a small child, or like she was helpless to overrule the choices of the adults. Whatever would feel more pleasant for her. That made sense – Ffrances still thought that those suggestions were most likely to come in useful if Tess was making herself wet too often, so she would want to make it feel less like a punishment.

Maybe that was the difference. Tess wanted to draw a hard line between hypnosis for her bedwetting problem, which she saw as a practical necessity, and hypnosis to lead her into littlespace, which was something she really craved. Separating them would have made it harder for me to regress her without her realising, I knew. So it was good that if that was her request, Ffrances hadn't quite understood the point. They had been talking from opposite perspectives, so mistakes could easily have crept in without either of them noticing. Ffrances was just adding a choice, so she could choose if she wanted to feel little or not. And I guessed pretty quickly that Tess had asked for more control over how it felt when she was triggered, maybe hoping she could prevent herself being so childish when she just wanted to avoid wetting the bed. Because Ffrances was adding options to the trigger. We could tell Tess now that she would be surprised not to have an accident; or that she had to have an accident. Telling her "be surprised" would mean she didn't remember being triggered, or any conversation that had led up to it; while saying she "must" or "has to" stay dry would allow her to feel that we were taking control for her, so she would know why she is protected. I was glad to know that, because I'd have to be extra careful when telling her to have accidents in future.