✅ The Baby Makers

46. What If

Stacie was bouncing excitedly around the playroom when Eric came in to talk to Phil. She didn't pay much attention to the new grown-up; there were too many exciting toys around here. She was picking them up one by one, and then throwing them down again as soon as something else caught her attention. There were so many things here, from foam blocks to giant shark stuffies, that she didn't know what she wanted to play with first. And she was back in diapers now, or pull-ups at least, which made her happier than anything else could.

"What's the problem?" Eric asked, looking over at the toddler. "Is it this one? She seems happy enough."

"Yeah, it's just... I'm pretty sure she's deep in her headspace. The standard, a change of perceptual filters. I looked in her eyes, and there's no sign at all that this isn't real to her. She really believes she's a toddler."

"Right. You were always the best at that. Making a game of it, right?"

"Yeah," Phil nodded, and for once he was the one casting his eyes down to the floor in embarrassment.

"So what's the problem?"

"She had an overnight; afternoon and half morning. And she's not responding at all to the revert triggers. I can't figure out how she's doing it. Have I made some mistake there?"

"Ah. You're sure she's still acting on the suggestions? I've seen a lot of them keep playing along because they don't want to admit the session is over."

"I'm sure. There's that look of confusion, and you can tell that she really doesn't understand what I'm saying. I don't know how to deal with this. She was a little resistant at the start, wanted to be pushed. But I built up the desire to please, used that to release her inner child, and everything seemed normal. I don't understand how she could react so well to the initial suggestions, and not revert."

They discussed it for a few more minutes. They went into a lot of detail about the techniques Phil had used to make the guest feel small, and came up with different theories. By the time Eric had made his suggestions, and they had filled in the relevant forms to log this incident, Stacie was building a pyramid in the corner. She was using blocks, dolls, and stuffed animals of all sizes, so her structure had a tendency to fall down; but she just hugged the softer pieces and started stacking them up again, with no signs of boredom.

"How are you feeling now?" Phil asked her. "Having fun?"

"Ya!" she nodded energetically, and picked up a fluffy shark that seemed almost as big as she was. She was happy that Phil was talking to her, even if she felt like she had done something wrong. When she bent over, he reached out with one hand to check her diaper.

"You wet again? Maybe we'd better get you back in proper diapers. But can you try to hold it a little bit this time?"

"I dunno." She put the shark on the pile, dislodging some of her blocks, so she bent over again to pick those up. When she grabbed one of them it made a sound, jingling like there was a bell inside. That was fascinating to Stacie as she was now, and she stared at it for a few minutes, just shaking it in the air and listening to the sound. When it slipped out of her grasp she picked up another block and shook that too, but after a few times she realised that this one didn't make a noise and went back to making her tower.

"Please, Ana?" Phil said. "You want to be a good girl, don't you? Can you try to hold your pee for me like a good girl? Until we can help you to be big again?"

Stacie looked up from her pyramid, and a block tumbled from her fingers. She looked up at Phil, and she didn't understand. She was being a good girl. She was being a little baby just like he wanted, and it was what she wanted too.

"I'm a good baby?" she asked, not quite understanding what she was supposed to be feeling.

"You've been very good. But you have to be a good girl and grow up now. It's not good being a baby for too long. Do you think you can be a big girl too? You can be a baby again after if you want to."

"I wanna be a good baby," she repeated, still trying to understand the changing rules. It was too much for her to think about right now, she wasn't big enough to think things like this. She needed to stop thinking and be a baby for Phil. But he didn't want her to?

"You..." he said, and hesitated before repeating himself. "You've gotten littler and littler, haven't you? Getting littler when I asked you to, always being as little as I wanted." She nodded, so he continued: "Good girl. And now I'm asking you to be a bit bigger again. Can you do that for me too? Can you let me help you?"

"I don't understand," she mumbled, but tripped over the long word. Still, she was sure Phil was smart enough to know it. "Can I be good baby?"

"Don't worry, little one," another grown-up said. She didn't know this one, but he had talked to Phil a lot, so he must be good. "Only big girls can understand things like that properly. Do you think you can grow up a bit, so you can understand? Or would you like to be a baby, and do whatever Phil says?"

"I'm a baby!"

Stacie didn't seem to know what the question meant, but she knew that she was supposed to be a baby, and it felt so good that she would never give it up for anything. She clapped her hands when the two men smiled, proud that she had said the right thing at last.

"Good girl. But if you keep being a baby, you won't be able to think about what you want. As you get littler, you won't think about how little you are, or how little you want to be. You'll just want to be as old as Phil wants you to be, and you'll trust him to help you be that age. Can you do that for me?"

Stacie turned that idea around in her mind as she felt her body start shrinking again. She didn't fully understand, but she knew she was too small to think. She had to listen to Phil, so he could help her be a real baby again and she wouldn't need to think.