✅ The Last New Start [NaNoWriMo2021]

114. What's my Age Again?

Tess laughed and reached out for a bunch of brightly-coloured plastic shapes in front of her. She didn't recognise them; probably something from one of the many toy boxes that she hadn't looked through yet, and she was curious. Somewhere in her mind, she was aware that her sudden, insatiable curiosity was probably caused by Spike telling her that she would be fascinated and distracted by colourful things. But she knew that was a natural behaviour for a child of the age she was pretending to be, so she could allow herself to play along with it. Somehow, it seemed even more exciting when she realised how much power Daddy had to change her perceptions right now; she knew that she was going to end up doing exactly what he wanted.

Right now he was distracting herself with whatever that toy was, shaking it in front of her face but just out of reach where she couldn't grab it. Just to keep her from thinking too much about the fact that Spike was changing her diaper. Tess didn't know that she would have been okay with that, but right now she was too little to do it by herself, and she was glad that she could help Spike to enjoy the experiences that he'd been so curious about.

His hands were gentle, and for all the nervousness he'd shown when talking about this earlier, he seemed confident enough now. She raised her bum when he pushed gently on her legs to indicate what he wanted, and let herself pretend that he could lift her up like a real baby. And then she could reach from the dangly toys again, not worrying about what the grown-up was doing until another hand indicated that he wanted her to move again. And then he was taking her hand to help her sit up, and that brought her within reach of her new toy at last. She grasped it clumsily and automatically put a green thing in her mouth. She was pretty sure that wasn't something he had told her to do, but she didn't need to think about it right now. Acting like a little kid had made her all giggly, and it was easy enough to just go with the flow and keep playing the role. On some level she was still observing her own behaviour and marvelling at how easily her will was subverted. But watching that was the part she enjoyed the most, and she wasn't going to let those thoughts come to the surface where they might break the illusion for Spike.

"You like that, don't you, little one?" he asked, and made sure that she was grasping it firmly before he actually let go. It seemed like a giant bunch of plastic keys; maybe the kind that would open some diary with three wipe-clean pages, or a treasure chest where little kids might be enticed to hide their most precious things. Or maybe it was just a toy bunch of keys. Tess noticed as she looked closer that they rattled as well, and it felt like each of the rainbow keys made a slightly different sound. Although if they were meant to be some kind of instrument, the effect was slightly spoiled by them all banging together whenever she moved them. After another few minutes of play, she found that they were rough as well, each one having a different texture on one side. It was looking more and more like some kind of sensory toy for really little kids, and she couldn't even remember being little enough to need something like that.

But waving it around and experimenting with the relationship between colours, shapes, sounds, and textures had managed to hold her attention for quite a few minutes. Had the hypnosis regressed her more than she thought? Was she just curious to understand what kind of things a little kid might find entertaining; more thinking about what kind of play the toy encouraged rather than actually playing with it? Or were kids toys actually still fun, if you just looked at the thing in front of you rather than thinking you should be too old? That was a big philosophical question, and as much as it was interesting to her, Tess felt that she should be giving Spike her full attention now. But what could she say, so that he wouldn't think her apparent fascination with a bunch of plastic keys wasn't too weird? Maybe all she needed to do was let him know that she was just playing the role he wanted to see her in.

"Keys!" she exclaimed, and held them out at arm's length, grasping the ring clumsily in one fist. She could easily have held it more normally, but she was still trying to feel out the balance between an actual hypnotic experience and playing the role that the guy she liked wanted to see.