✅ Younger Than You Think?

"R: Operating Room"

This is an extra chapter, dedicated to reqresser. Thank you again for all of your support!

Iriña spent quite some time reading the data sheets for what her captors called 'focus gel'. These were the scientific data published by the company that manufactured the different components, documenting how they were supposed to work in terms of ion exchange and hormone uptake in different parts of the brain. And after everything she'd read, Iriña was getting the impression that they did exactly what the adults had promised. It was supposed to increase learning ability, by accelerating the transfer of facts to long-term memory.

The downsides and side effects listed were all variations on a theme: it would enhance the storage of memories long term, but at the cost of understanding. So if she swallowed this strange potion, it might make it easier to memorise some text. But that memory would come at the cost of not being able to think about it. She might remember the words, but she wouldn't understand them or be able to understand why they were important. That might be beneficial for the history exams of the previous generation, but it would be no help for actual learning. That was why she'd never heard of this stuff in schools.

"Found anything helpful?" The voice startled her; she hadn't heard the door open. But she recognised Sylvie quickly enough, and felt a little calmer. At least it wasn't Magdalene.

"I think... It doesn't help you learn? I mean, you can memorise things more easily, and make them easier to recall, but without actually learning. Because things go straight to long term memory, you wouldn't have time to think about them or really consider them. I don't see how that's useful."

"It's good for religions," Sylvie answered with a shrug. "Sure, it would be counterproductive for schools trying to get a teen to think critically and analyse evidence. Or to understand why something is important. But if you're trying to teach someone to obey commandments without question, I think this is just what you want. Or teach a reluctant baby how to act like a baby. I think you suspected that's our objective, didn't you? Take a shot of focus and then spend the night reading about how good girls should behave, and those things might go straight into your muscle memory and become automatic."

"That's not permanent, is it?" Iriña asked. That was what scared her. If she was compelled to act like a baby while she was here, she knew that would be embarrassing. But it wasn't such a big deal, because she didn't have the opportunity to do the things she wanted to do anyway. This weird kind of psychological training was some kind of nightmare for her, but her rational mind could see that it might not stand in the way of her dreams. Everything she'd been working for was out of reach because she was locked in here, and would be a possibility again when she escaped or was rescued. So objecting to the drugs they gave her was like complaining about the wallpaper in hell.

"You've read the notes. But from our experience, no. Overwriting your training with adult abilities should only be as hard as it was the first time around. You'd be growing up again, just like a real baby. And your Daddy might be willing to help you learn some of it, because teaching a baby is a big part of the experience for some of them. Things like teaching you to walk and talk again, after you learn how not to. That's why they come to us for their Forever Baby. Because the methods used by many of our competitors, including surgery and traumatic imprinting, don't allow the training to be undone. That's just one reason it would be better for you to be a good girl and go along with this training the easy way. Because if you're as smart as you seem to be, I think that you would be able to grow up again and again."

"Okay," Iriña nodded. "I'm not happy about it, I want you to know that. But I'll go along with your treatment. For now. Just... can I be sure that other woman won't be coming around to... whatever she was trying to do? How do I know who I can trust with food and drink?"