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(Fred left to purchase everything necessary) “I need to talk with you!” Annie turned to Kayla when she listened to her call, “The headmaster has sent a letter about your behavior. You can be expelled for it. Would you like to read?” She took the letter and stretched her hand towards Kayla. “Dad has to do some shopping,” she answered the last question.

Hey everyone! No new announcements today, so, just as a reminder, a new one is up for you all to let me know which story you all would like to read next. Story options can be found at the beginning of chapter 2, and the link can be found there as well and in the beginning of chapter 17. As I mentioned before though, if you feel more comfortable leaving a comment here or as a private message to me, I will count these as well. Additionally, like before, this poll will be shut down right before I post my final chapter on here. Further announcements will be made regarding this when the time gets closer. Last but not least and as usual, I hope everyone enjoys this next chapter of my story! Chapter 24: Warning! Warning!   “Warning! Warning! Security breech!” The alarms blare at full volume and echo throughout the house. My eyes shoot open, and I look all around my nursery. Between the little figures of Disney princesses and little fake party store tiaras and jewelry from the last playdate I had with Connie and Betsy over here, I see the flashing warning lights. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear the bunker I’m currently residing in is about to be bombed or invaded by aliens. But I know that voice… those alarms… “Warning! Warning! Security breech!” Sam repeats, his voice practically booming over everything and my own thoughts. “Countermeasures deployed… and failing.” I’m very confused by what is happening, and I pull Woofy, my stuffed dog, up close to my chest for some little source of comfort. I don’t know why, but it seems to work even better than my pacifier… though I still give it a few pulsating sucks just for good measure. Sophia bursts through my door, her pajamas still on and her makeup still washed off her face from the night before. She looks a bit of a wreck… but even just seeing her gives me even more of an assurance and tiny feeling of security. Whatever is happening, I feel strongly that she’ll protect me. “Jay!” She rushes over to the crib and drops the railing. “You okay?” I nod and she rushes to get me out of the crib as fast as I can. “Come on! We need to go downstairs now. I need to check what level this is!” “Wha…?” I barely ask, before Sophia yanks me out of my cribs and hurries with me downstairs. My swollen diaper makes that more of a challenge than I would prefer… but I can also tell the urgency in Sophia’s voice. Whatever this is, I know it can’t be good. “Alright. You just stay here while I go and figure this out.” My nod barely hits my chin before she rushes off to a panel behind a picture by the kitchen. “Okay… okay… which one?” Her finger skims the panel and the LED screen before stopping. “Aha! Here you are!” She smacks the single button in front of her outstretched finger and the whole screen lights up and gives out several readings. Alarms still blaring and the flashing red lights still pulsating, Sophia leans in and looks closely. “Shit… level 2.” I see a look of fear crossing her face and she looks back at me. “Just hold on, honey. We’re safe from an outside threat busting in here, but…” “Warning! Circuits and coding are being hacked!” Sam announces freshly. “Attempting to cross… defend… defend… warning, Jay… Warning! I… I…” Sam sputters a few more times and then makes a horrible grinding and whirring noise before switching to something almost static like. “Hack… hack… compromised… sending… back… up… hack… hack… down…” The lights of the tiny house then switch off. Darkness… silence… stillness… “Sophia… wha’s happenin’?” I question, my grip of Woofy no less tight than it was beforehand. At first, I was embarrassed to want him close by. Now, I could barely imagine my life without him. “I don’t know, baby…” she answers honestly, looking at me with a little fear and dismay. “Something or someone is trying to hack into the controlling systems here. I guess Sam tried to circumvent and…” The front door bursts open. “On the ground! On the ground!” the lead guard shouts, his gun drawn and directing it at both Sophia and I. “Move, people! That’s an order!” Freaking out even more, we both drop to the ground with our hands up and arms open and cooperative as more guards invade our home and begin to take over both levels of the house… seemingly searching for something. I feel more warmth in the front of my diaper, and I whimper as Woofy is taken away from me and then tossed to the side like a piece of trash. “Wait! Wait!” This time, a nerdy little scrawny guy with thick-rimmed glasses enters our house before rushing over to the guard pointing his weapon at us. “It’s not them. Jesus! Put your gun down!” The guard shoves the frail individual off. “I don’t take order from you, runt!” “But you do take your orders from me,” an awfully familiar voice announces from outside. “Isn’t that right, captain?” The words are nearly spit back in a way that seems to convene both respect and yet distaste. “Or do I need to be clearer with you?” Mr. Hutchenson steps in casually and then crosses his arms. “I’m waiting, captain…” His glare narrows and intensifies. “Or is that, lieutenant, now?” The guard grumbles bitterly but finally relents and turns to his men. “Come on! Let’s get out of here. Threat’s obviously not here.” I could still hear him grumbling as he exited the tiny house once me and Sophia were helped up. Mr. Hutchenson sighs and sits down on a nearby seat as Sophia comforts me on the couch, Woofy now safely back in my arms. “I’m very sorry about all this. I truly am. See that funny little guy over there?” Sophia and I look over at the scrawny figure with thick glasses that came in just after the guards. We both nod. “Well… that’s Dale. He’s the IT guy around here,” Mr. Hutchenson explains. “Has a few other fancy titles, but those aren’t important right now… just his work.” He then leans back in his seat and crosses his arms with a tired and stressed look written all over his face. “See… Dale here monitors all activity on the server he set up for this little project of ours. High security… supposed to be impenetrable.” Dale keeps clicking away on his keyboard at he watches the monitor screen from the popped panel, but Mr. Hutchenson looks a little upset with him. “Well… today, some broke through the network. Dale?” “I’m working! I’m working!” he says frantically, almost like he’s in some kind of race. “I’m trying to protect all the files, but…” His face drops. “No…” Mr. Hutchenson sighs heavily. “Let me guess… it happened.” Dale’s silence is deafening enough to be a confirmation… causing Mr. Hutchenson to look back at Sophia and me. “Well… what I was saying is that Dale traced the hack to your house, hence the guards, but now… it seems they’ve broken in. We’ve been getting problems for weeks now, but this is the first major assault.” His voice is so calm… completely contrasted with Dale’s nervous little panic attack in the corner of the house. Looking at him, I swear he’s about six seconds away from tearing out his own hair, stripping naked, and clucking like a chicken. I giggle a little bit inside of my head over the image of that. Sophia hugs me closer. “Mr. Hutchenson… what does this mean exactly? Does it mean… does it mean what I think it means? The… rumors about the extent of all this… and what we expect to happen eventually?” Mr. Hutchenson hesitates for a moment, the one shred of doubt I’ve seen on him this whole time… but he then nods his head. “I’m afraid so.” He checks his watch and sighs. “Any second now by my calculation… I’ll do what I can, but… rules, you know?” I don’t know though. Sophia seems to know, Dale seems to know, and Mr. Hutchenson definitely seems to know. But I don’t. I feel left out in a way that makes me a little uncomfortable… ‘Or is it my soaked diaper? Hope I don’t get a rash from all this…’ “Mr. Hutchenson…” Dale says like he just lost his best friend. “It’s happening…” I feel Sophia clutch me even closer… something I didn’t think was even possible at this rate. Despite not knowing all of what’s really happening beyond a hack of the system here, I feel the tension in the air. Mr. Hutchenson waits calmly, but I see a quiver in one of his eyes, almost like he’s trying to suppress every feeling and little tick of stress that could show up any second. Dale looks like he’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown; his once most combed hair now frizzy and sticking up in natural positions on top of his head. Then I hear it… “Warning! Warning!” Sam calls out, a little cracklier than before and almost a different tone… like a bad or corrupted recording of him is now playing instead of whatever was before. “Points negative… points negative! You have ten minutes to comply to remedy this or counter points will be assigned for you.” I’ve heard that brand of warning before. Even in my fogged early morning brain, I still remember words similar to those. The last time they happened was when I was getting rid of Ms. Vanessa and… ‘Oh no!’ My heart pounds heavily as Mr. Hutchenson and Dale then switch on the TV and mess around with eh settings a little bit, or at least until my normal tablet screen is shown up there instead of my usual morning cartoons. And honestly, as I look at the screen, it all looks normal… until I see it. Big, bold, and a scary red, I see my total points… ‘-53.’ “No!” I scream, clutching tightly to Woofy in sheer terror of the number I see. It’s a haunting blood reflection of everything I’ve come to fear here. “No! No! No! It can’ be! Nah dat!” Even with my mind settled and even happy in my current life, the loss of more seems incompressible to me. Losing more… simply put, would mean losing myself. Sophia wraps me in her arms closely and begins hushing me with soothing and calm tones. She’s clinging to me like a drowning person would to a passing bit of driftwood. Maybe an ultimate failure in avoiding what’s coming, but I chance… a hope to be successful and saved. Still, I cry out over what I know is coming. “Can’t you help him?” Sophia cries at Mr. Hutchenson, now trying to rock me as best she can to calm my cries. “Just this once… can’t an exception be made! This is a fault of your computer system. Jay didn’t choose this!” Mr. Hutchenson sighs and shakes his head before clicking a remote. Almost instantly, even through my tears, I can see the screen switch over to a breakdown of my points. “Once they’ve been chosen, they’re hardwired into the system. If they were pretty much anything else… I could do something about it. But…” He clicks again and shows the latest expenditure of points. “As you can see… the hacker chose luxuries. They knew…” It’s a small nicety in some way and my eyes crack open and sobs subside for just a moment to see what prize I at least have to compensate for my now seeming inevitable fate. ‘Laptop With Internet Access and 2 Steam Games.’ That’s it. Nothing more… just a stupid enhancement of what I basically already have. It’s a near wasteful dump of points… ones I now need to make up. “Please, Mr. Hutchenson… I’m begging you.” If Sophia could have dropped to her knees right then while still cradling my nearly broken form right then, I think she would have. “He’s innocent in this. He didn’t choose those points. Give him a bonus. Void the points or add in new punishments that he already has. Something! Anything! Just… don’t let him suffer.” Mr. Hutchenson sighs again but still shakes his head. “I’m sorry, Sophia. I wish there was something more I could do today. Dale’s going to give you two the highest level of encryption to keep this from happening again, but… the board already met months ago to discuss this possibility. We all agreed that for the sake of the program… we can’t make an exception to the rule. Once points have been chosen… they can’t be unchosen.” “That’s…” Dale speaks up before clearing his throat. “That’s not exactly true, boss.” “Quiet!” Mr. Hutchenson hisses back at him. But Dale shakes his head and steps forward. “No. They deserve to hear all the options. It’s still a longshot at this point, but I have to inform them.” Dale almost seems to puff out his chest a little. “Besides… it’s part of the bylaws as well…” Mr. Hutchenson looks as if he’s about to order Dale’s execution on the spot, but then just blusters and snarls at him before staring back at Sophia and I. “You’ve heard the board’s decision. Anything else after this… well, be it on your own heads!” He then storms out and slams the door behind him. Dale flinches momentarily before looking back at us. “Sorry about him… he doesn’t like my option.” Dale sighs. “I don’t either, honestly, but… you two need to hear it no matter what.” I sniffle as I hug Sophia close… both of us now looking intently at Dale. “Well, it’s simply, really…” Dale then takes the remote that Mr. Hutchenson once held and clicks a few times toward the screen before it lands on a folder of several documents. “Okay… it’s actually only a few steps to do.” He clicks the remote once more and then zooms to one section of the documents in particular. “I won’t make you read all of this, but there’s an exit clause…” Exit clause. Two words being a codeword for one single policy in this wretched place… quitting. Sophia beats me to it though. “No! You can’t mean that, Dale!” She hugs me closely, almost as if the word ‘quitting’ itself is some monster she can protect me from. “There has to be some other way! Please! You’re the tech guy around here. If anyone can get around this, it’s got to be you!” Dale sighs as he stands and pushes his glasses back his nose. “I’m sorry, Soph. I really am. I tried looking at this from nearly every angle. Whoever hacked in had to have insider knowledge.” “You mean…” Sophia gasps. “It couldn’t be them, could it?”   I’m not sure whom she’s talking about, but Dale definitely does as he shakes his head. “No, I’m afraid not. They would be easy targets. We’ve made sure to track them via a chip embedded in their wrists. We know if they’ve sneezed on a computer those chips are so good. Checked with them first even… but nothing. If they hacked in without being detected, I pity the world to come. They hacked in here with those? They could hack in anywhere, and I mean anywhere.” “That’s…” Sophia seems to have trouble finding the right words. “A relief, I guess…” Dale sighs as he packs up the last of his equipment and places the panel back. “Yeah, but still… I’ll cast a wide net back at HQ. I’ll find the digital signatures of whoever did this as my main priority. Just know… this can’t… won’t ever happen again. But until then… I’ve at least extended your time limit to make your choice.” Sophia winces and stifles a cry of anguish before acknowledging what he’s said and then bidding him goodbye. Cuddling me close, Sophia stays quiet for the rest of the morning. Even through my diaper change or feeding me breakfast. Fortunately, I’m allowed to skip inspection… but I still the TV screen lit up with the big red ‘-53.’ It gnaws at me like some parasite waiting to eat me alive. I’ve seen the numbers before. I might not have looked at everything in such detail before I gave up the dollification and Ms. Vanessa, but I’ve definitely made an effort to know my choices now. Horribly, without even having to check, I know I would have to do some of the worst things offered here to offset the points. I wouldn’t necessarily need to choose every option to offset them at this point… but I would be horrifyingly close. So, with that in mind, I take a breath and head upstairs. I know what I need to do… “And just where do you think you’re going?” Sophia asks me as I wind up the stairs, hoping to creep silently enough behind her to not disturb her slouched-over form in the kitchen… clearly trying to rationalize and figure out my next steps for me. I point up the stairs. “To my bedwoom…” Minimal number of details is the key. But Sophia isn’t satisfied and narrows her glance at me. “Doing what exactly? We need to talk about your points, honey. They aren’t going away…” “I know… I…” I fade off a little and wince, almost faltering in my resolve right there on the steps. But I take a breath and go slow. “I wan one of da stuffies Be’sy bwough’ ovuh…” It’s not a complete lie, but it’s definitely the truth either. Fortunately, Sophia almost always thinks the best of me and smiles. “Oh. Okay. Just come back down as soon as you get them. I want to talk about what we’re going to do next.” I nod and then quickly climb the stairs, infinitely grateful that I at least have that ability back. Problem is though… all the other stuff. Despite my advancements since my dollification and all the hypnotic conditioning since I lost said stiffening process, I know I’m not the same person I once was. It only takes a mirror to notice the differences, but I know it’s more than that now. Take just one element… my pacifier. First off, I do now consider it ‘mine.’ It’s a tiny little thing… word, but it shows ownership that I would have never ever considered in my life since I was two. An adult simply doesn’t own a pacifier in that way… much less assign the title ‘my’ to it. Second though, it almost feels like a habit now. Bad day… suck the pacifier. Hard moment… suck the pacifier or even hide behind it. Don’t want to think about the other losses or how everyone seems doomed to one of a handful of bad fates around here… focus on the pacifier instead.   And that’s just one item. As I begin to pack my backpack full of the items I might need for what’s next, simply because no one ever talks about it or what the rules and regulations are, half my bag is full of diapers. I know I need them… even now, the one I’m currently wearing is a little wet with the tiny stencils of balloons faded in the central core on the front of it. But I just push on, knowing that what I do next will change everything and will leave me adrift. It makes me shake as I descend the stairs, backpack over my shoulders. Just to be sure that I can’t be stopped on a dime right from the go though, I made sure I heard that Sophia entered the bathroom. Just in case though, I stop at the bottom of the stairs and look around. Still no one. But I know I don’t have much time even with that, so I quickly go over to the TV screen and pick up the remote. ‘Come on… come on!’ I panic a little and I feel a tiny lump start to form in my throat… fear over what I’m doing and what’s to come. It’s completely new ground, but I also feel it’s my only option. So, less than a minute later, the clicker is hovering right over a single button. “Stop!” Sophia screeches, stopping right outside the bathroom, her face white and stricken with an unimaginable amount of fear. In a single look, I see that all her fears late at night… the warning from this place that she’s probably hear a dozen or so times by now is staring her right in the face. “What are you doing, Jay? No…” She steps closer, her eyes wide at the likely full realization of what I’m doing. “Don’t… please, don’t do it, honey.” I sigh, my knees shaking, my diaper getting a little warmer, and my lip trembling even behind my pacifier as I look back at the screen and the one word that I’m hovering over… ‘Quit?’ “I… I…” I shudder and drop the remote for a moment. I know Sophia at least deserves to hear me out, and just to be sure, I know this is one of those exceptions to the rule and I pluck my pacifier out. “I can’t, Sophia. I just… can’t. I know my options… I know the ones you are going to tell me about. How can I… how can anyone willingly choose those?” “Jay… it’s week 36 and some change. Don’t give up now. I’m begging you…” I can see the real fear and desperateness in her eyes. It breaks my heart, but she doesn’t want to seem to give up on me. “You don’t know what’s out there… you leave now and…” She stops, almost like she’s too afraid to say it. Too curious and too afraid not to hear it, I lower the remote even further. “Go on… I… I need to hear it. I need to hear something, Sophia. I need to hear anything! Because… I’m scared.” I let out a little choked sob. “I want to be brave. I really do! I want to stay, but how can I? But leaving? I’m scared of that too. I just…” Sophia lurches forward but then stops herself and gives me a warm sympathetic smile. “I know, baby. I know.” She sighs and steps closer. “I can’t lie to you. I know in here will be hard. But out there… out there you could die.” “Die?” I had never thought of that possibility, and now, maybe even more than staying, that terrified me far more than I ever had been before. Sophia nods her head. “Yes, honey. Die.” She winces, again, like she’s not supposed to be telling me any of this. If I was a less trusting person, I would deride that as just an act, but her eyes show only the truth. “The organization keeps track of you all after if you quit. Part of it is to ensure you all keep quiet about all this… or at least be labeled as crazy or something. That’s happened before…” I had always wondered about that, but there’s still something more, so I stay quiet. “But for some of you, like the ones who quit at the end after so much has been done to them… right or wrong, we make you dependent on us. It’s just a result of the choices you all have made in here.” She takes a deep breath. “For some, that means losing a lot of who they were and being so ashamed that they isolate themselves. No job and still needing to live, some turn to the… well, the oldest profession.” It’s bad… but it’s still not the death she mentioned. “Others… they just sort of shut down,” she continues, her heart seemingly heavy with the burden of knowing about all this. “They can’t cope and then from there, it’s a matter of how much they’ve changed. For those that lost their IQs… they sort of become homeless junkies… too far gone sometimes to even look both ways before crossing the street.” She winces at that one. “Or for those that can’t take care of themselves… like diapers…” Her eyes quickly shoot down to my diapers and then back up at me as she takes another step forward. “They either waste away to nothing or maybe they’re found in an abandoned slum… disease ridden from not taking a bath in a month… or maybe they’re found wandering around naked in a store, covered in their own filth!” I see a single tear roll down her cheek, obvious that she knew at least a few where those scenarios actually happened to them. I could speak up, but it just feels wrong to say anything at this point. While I give Sophia a second to recompose herself, I find myself thinking about all that she just told me. I still have the urge to quit rather than submit and essentially permanently ruin and alter my life because of this place… but I don’t feel the keen edge of the urge to leave right away anymore. There’s still the fear compelling me to leave the bunker doors and never look back… but there’s also a growing fear of what’s out there. Taking a deep breath, Sophia turns back to me after wiping her eyes. “Jay… I care about you… probably more than you even know. I… I don’t even want to think about what would happen to you out there at this point…” “But I’m not as bad as Connie or Betsy!” I object. “If I stay here, can you tell me that I won’t end up just like them?” Sophia knows I’m right and I can see by her expression that she’s not even going to argue with me on that point. “I can’t tell you that, Jay. I can’t even tell you that everything that happens from now on can be reversed. Maybe even some of the things you have now couldn’t be, but in the future? That stuff is tricky…” “Then why would you have me stay!” I feel a burning pit of despair in my gut that I just can’t shake. “You want me to say, but for what? Why should I stay? I care about you too… but is that worth who I am? Is it worth giving up everything I know just to stay here and maybe have a good life after all this? Will I even care by then?” Sophia knows I’m right. Playdates can be a wonderful thing, but according to Ms. Sybil, one of the reasons she held off so long from including Connie was that they also expose candidates to the darker side of things here. Sure, inspection shows everything… especially during panty or diaper checks. It’s humiliating, but it’s only a snapshot. Going on playdates though gives everyone a glimpse into the true behind the scenes actions with other and maybe options they haven’t chosen yet. For example, the name of ‘IQ Drop’ alone is scary, but if I was only going to see Betsy in line and knew they took it, then I would only see a version of Betsy. Maybe ditzy or clumsy or airhead or stupid or crazy to begin with. There are so many possibilities of how a person could react; one might just assume that Betsy had lost their mind at some point during this operation. But with a playdate, all that changes. With our playdates, I saw both Betsy and Bill, often in the early days during the same day. Only seeing them during inspection would have just shown one aspect, but seeing them together, I saw Betsy and Bill as a split personality stemming from the IQ drop option. I could see their changes in person and over time, plus with the added explanation by Bill or Betsy themselves. It was a key insight into knowing what the full scope of the IQ drop option really was. So now, when I know it’s one of the options like going to be presented to me today, I can’t help but feel the fear of selecting it and winding up just like Betsy. Picturing them during playtime, I can be filled with a sense of joy after seeing them so happy with something as simple as hugging a stuffy. But in that same picture in my head, I also have to imagine them stopping right in the middle of a little silly dance and popping their diapers so helplessly. Granted, I do the same, but the key difference is how simply Betsy now just moves on like it had never happened, giggling all the way. Finally, Sophia sighs and looks me dead in the eyes, looking as serious as I’ve ever seen her before. Biting her lip, I can tell she’s a little nervous, which makes me nervous as well. Something is about to happen, and maybe deep down somewhere, I can tell that I’m not going to like it. “Jay… I’m going to be honest with you. Know that I still care about you a great deal… but I need to tell you the truth like I always said I would try to.” She hesitates for a second and steps even closer to me. “I’m not breaking any laws by telling you this, but I honestly was afraid that you might snap. It’s happened before, and I wanted to keep that from happening to you if at all possible.”   Now, I can feel my heart pound away… waiting for what could be so bad. “Jay… I can’t stop you from leaving. I can’t even stop you from quitting,” she admits freely. “It’s one of the most basic rules we have around here. We can always tell you half-truths to keep you here if we choose but we can never stop you all from leaving outright. It’s actually one of the reasons why we always see a lot of the ‘richer’ candidates leave one by one. Once they know they can, they ask their caregivers at the time and the caregiver can’t tell them no.” I honestly figured that in place like this. Sure, it’s crappy to the extreme and there’s a million and one reasons to leave… but there’s almost an honor or code around here that’s behind every decision and direction this operation takes. Granted, a few of the caregivers seem to exceed their orders, but then they are always corrected in the end. Even the students that disobeyed were sent off. Escaping later or not, there was still a punishment for them. “But…” Sophia steps closer to me again, now almost within arm’s reach. “You won’t make it out there on your own anymore.” She doesn’t take a breath in the silence that follows. After a minute though, she shuffles a few inches closer to me. “If you leave now, you could maybe make it on your own for a while. Your bank account will be unfrozen and maybe some government unemployment paycheck will come your way, and you can cut off your hair and get your stuff from storage and be on your merry way.” She sighs and looks at me even closer. “But you’ll still have your racoon eyes. Sure, maybe in a year, they’ll have faded but might hurt you looking for a job. And what about Woofy?” My eyes dart down to his form still on the couch where I left him. “You going to leave him behind? Or are you going to take him with you… like your pacifier? What if you find a job and you get yelled at for falling behind on some report? You going to cry? Or suck your pacifier or cuddle your doggy? Would an independent adult do that?” Her words begin to filter their way into my brain in a way I simply can’t shake. I know she’s doing this to ‘help’ me, but on the way down to her point, I feel I’m hitting every branch as well. I guess in my moment of being stunned by her words, Sophia takes advantage and comes right up to me. We both know I can still quit, but I already feel myself wavering under her watchful eye and warm hug. “And yes… I suppose you could do without a lot of the other things around here. Might be tough, and maybe… just maybe, you could edge away from all the stuff from those hypnotic messages… but answer me this.” Without a moment’s hesitation, her hand plunges right to my crotch and she gives me diaper a good squeeze. “What about this? Feels a little soggy to me, Jay. I want you to be happy and independent… a lively young man ready to face the world again… but wherever you go, you’re going to need these. I know… I’ve changed you.” She sighs and I can tell she’s hating this just about as much as I am. “So, tell me… do you even feel it coming anymore? Could you even change yourself… out there?” Out there. It sounds like some adventure novel to begin, but for me now… it’s just the terrifying knock of reality once I really think about it. Sure, on principle compared to Connie and Betsy, I’m nearly an Einstein around here. Maybe physically disabled in some ways, but still a brain in most situations. But it’s also a wide gulf between Connie and Betsy and being an independent adult. Thinking about it… really thinking about it, I can’t lie to myself anymore. Right now, with no help on the outside and all my problems gained from this terrible psychotic place, I only know one truth. I’m not an independent adult anymore. And with that, I break. Not mentally in the same way that Connie once did, but still loud and heaving sobs of surrender. Before today, the ‘Quit?’ button was always present… my ‘Break Glass in Case of Emergency’ button. But now? I would have to be a fool or uncaring about my life to ever consider it again. So, my emotions break, and I collapse into Betty in a large heaping mass of anguish and despair. “Shhh… shhh… I’ve got you, baby. It’s going to be okay. I promise,” she coos to me, bringing me over to the couch and cuddling me seemingly about as tight as she can, almost like she’s making extra sure I don’t simply run away from her. But she doesn’t need to worry… not anymore. Sometime later, so late that Sophia actually has to get me to move to feed me dinner, before we begin, but we cuddle back on the couch, and she brings over the tablet to me in the same manner as she would as if it were just another nightly storybook that she was going to read to me. “Okay…” I can see weariness and hate on her face that tells me she wants to do this maybe even less than me. But I also see a determination… a determination of being my caregiver and making sure I don’t go to sleep with negative points… that I choose my fate in the options left to me. “I’ve been looking through the options and weighing them against your points needed. Looking at all of them, I’ve come up with four options.” Four options… four little bullets to kill the old me. After, I know there’s no going back. Jack… Jay… both are probably going to die and never return. My silence as her cue, Sophia flips to the first option. “Okay… first up, we have ‘Locking Steel Ball Mittens.’” It’s not a good sign at all when the first option is so extreme. “Now, I’ve already made sure with Mr. Hutchenson, but he’s agreed that given your circumstances, I can make these padded instead. They’ll still limit what you can pick up and interact with, but I already help you with a lot and at the end of the day, they can still come off.” I nod. “Okay… second, ‘Full Silicone Bodysuit.’” She even winces at this one. “It’s cutting technology actually. Serves as a second skin and you won’t even feel the outer coating. It’s apparently very comfortable and you don’t even notice it after the first few minutes. It’s a lot I know, but it’s a removable suit as well.” I only nod this time, too stunned to really say anything. I can tell she’s going for the non-permanent options, but still seeing my massive point imbalance still, I know that’s only going to last so long. “Third…” This time she pauses a little, looking nervous almost as if what she’s about to offer is so bad. “Hip and Ass Expansion…” She winces badly. “I know it’s extreme. It’s a pill and its low points, but there’s no punishments involved and while it is a change to your body, it’s something that can be reversed with surgery once this is all over.” I nod again, this time with a little more bile in my throat from my objections… but I still stay silent. She takes a deep breath for the last one… clearly the worst of the lot. “Fourth… I tried staying away from it. I tried looking at any of the other options. Each would require you to do something that would be humiliating or non-reversible in an extreme way or cause you pain. I couldn’t do that to you. I’ve seen what the others entail…” She looks queasy all of a sudden. “The sissy show. Easy points, a lot of people took it, but now? They have to take requests from viewers. What the viewers want… they get! I saw ‘35’s’ show last week. Got stuffed to the hilt with the biggest dildo they have… had to moan and beg for more… just because it’s what the viewer wanted!” It's too much build-up. I know Sophia and I know she wouldn’t be edging so hard if her offer was good. “I just… I can’t do that to you. You would never forgive me for letting you do something like that. At this point, I don’t think your mind could take it. Seeing you, the hounds would circle, and you would be abused and couldn’t fight back no matter what. So, with what you need for points after eliminating all the rest…” Sophia bites her lower lip and flips the tablet screen to the next page. There, as clear as day is her solution. “IQ Drop.” My stomach plummets. I feel like I’m going to puke or pass out as the world spins around me. “What? How could you do this to me? I thought you cared about me!” All at once, I feel all my emotions bottled up in all this process come spewing out to the surface. I feel betrayed and hurt that Sophia is trying to condone my one fear here. Outside is death, but inside is Betsy. A friend, but a hollow shell of whom she once was. I doubt there’s even a speck of Bill left, and now, Sophia is telling me to do the exact same. “Jay. Please…” she begs me. She then tries to wrap her arms around me. But I don’t want any part of that now. I bolt up off the couch and almost flick her simple kind gesture off. I can see her hurt from my reaction, but I feel the hurt right now too and she was first to hit me with her terrible option. “No! I can’t… won’t do it! You can’t make me!” “Sweetie… Jay…” Sophia stands as well. “Please listen…” “No!” I storm off… but Sophia’s just a little too quick for me and she blocks off my exit. “Stop!” She composes herself quickly. “Jay… please… I just…” She seems to be having trouble finding the words she wants. “I know you’re worried about becoming like Betsy. I know that’s scary. Heck, I would be scared too, but you aren’t Betsy, Jay.” “Yeah… Betsy had months of just low treatments,” I note, remembering the announcement of the increase to five IQ points a month now. “Now, I would be brain dead by the end if I start now!” Betsy shakes her head. “No, Jay. You had an IQ of around 120. With their regulation, you’d be losing about 20 points, and I know that seems like a lot, but we also have some studies to suggest that you can regain at least some of your lost IQ with a few of our customized classes.” For once, I hear a bit of good news. It’s kind of like getting free ice cream for life after getting food poisoning. Good news, but to get there… not the best either. I still feel like I want to run away and never return, but that tiny ray of hope that I’m not completely screwed lingers in my mind. “Really?” Sophia smiles. “Like I always say to you, Jay. I don’t lie… not about your options or anything even close to any of this stuff in here. If you want, I can even help you when that day comes… but today, I need you to choose this option. You can still come back from these…” I don’t like it, but I know she’s right. Feeling just too tired to fight and without any full and valid reason to object to yet another thing not fully ‘permanent,’ I nod my head. “I… I’ll do it.” The words still stick in my throat. “Good…” She sighs and quickly inputs my options with a tiny smile. “And not matter what happens now… I’m very proud of you, Jay. You kept your mind intact with all that stress. Not every candidate can say that…” The tablet dings. “Okay… now just confirm these and then it’s off to bed.” I almost protest, but I already feel a yawn coming on. Finishing it quickly, I nod my head to the camera in the corner of the room. “I consent to the following options.” A short while later. “Acknowledged,” Sam says dryly, his voice now seeming mostly back to normal. Seconds later, and to my partial relief and dread, I see my points increase… ending on a nice and plain green and bold ‘7.’ Once again, I feel like I’ve given up so much for so few points leftover in the end… but it’s nice just to have over with now. One sleepy march up the stairs and diaper change later, Sophia has me in my crib with Woofy once more. When I woke up, I was terrified. Now though, I don’t feel any better. For me, tomorrow just seems like the abyss waiting for me at the end of a gang plank… ready to bounce me off and to my doom. Settling me into a quiet stupor, Sophia smiles down at me. “I’m sorry about today, baby. I… I never wanted this to happen to you, but like I told you before… I’m not going anywhere. No matter what happens tomorrow, I’ll be there for you… always… It might not mean much to you, but because of that, I just know that tomorrow won’t be the end. Until then though, good night and dream of nice things.” Pacifier in my mouth, I just lay there sleepily, slowly drifting off as Sophia moves Woofy close to my side and heads for the door. As the overhead lights finally shut off, I can see her kiss me goodnight and then close the door. As my eyelids begin to droop, I just hope that tomorrow isn’t going to be the worst day ever. It’s not much, but tired already, it gives me just the amount of peace of mind I need to drift away into dreamland. *              *              * The next morning, however, there is no mix of excitement… only dread over what’s to come. The last time I had to choose so many options, I at least had the pleasure of firing Ms. Vanessa. After even such a short time under her dictatorial and cruel rule over my life, it was so nice to be able to do that. Now though, there’s just a silence between Sophia and I… at least until the knock on our door. Sophia stands and sighs. “Wait right here, honey. I need to go get that.” Still sitting in my highchair from breakfast, I hear some muffled conversation going on followed soon by some shuffling and scrapes. Unfortunately, with my back turned and me mostly seated right behind a column, I can only just make out the burly man entering and then quickly exiting our tiny house. Sophia then returns and sighs before helping me out of the highchair. In the living room, Sophia stops me in front of a large cardboard box… something that’s about five feet tall and completely blank on the outside. Turning to me though, Sophia stands there with a knife. “Okay… here we go…” She turns around and quickly makes a slit on the front of the box. Moving the flaps aside, the inside objects become very obvious. It’s what I chose last night. “Okay… like a band-aid. Super quick, okay?” I can’t tell if she’s trying to reassure herself or me more… but as she moves toward the box, I see what’s awaiting me. Standing a shade under five feet tall is the silicone bodysuit. Now, I’m not exactly sure what I was expecting when I was dreading this the night before, but I guess I kind of thought it was a suit. Maybe similar to a gimp suit or something like that… but not this. This disturbingly looked like real skin. Like someone had cast a magic spell over a person and then skinned them alive. Graphic and disturbing, but as my eyes scan over each little detail and even a few imperfections that just make it look more like natural skin, my mind twists with the morality of this place. Sadly, I no longer find it inconceivable that this place would be willing to do something like that. But as Sophia removes it completely from the box, I smell the synthetic quality to it… something that almost seems to go away after a single moment though. Normally, I would be both confused and curious about whatever the heck just happened there… or why the skin looks suspiciously close to mine… or why the skin has some sort of mechanism in the back near the neck. Sophia sighs and holds the suit out to me. “Okay… are you ready for this, Jay?” I’m not, but I know I also don’t have a choice at this point. I chose these points, fair or not, and I know the only way out of here now is to keep pushing forward and make it until the end. Looking at the suit before me though, I’m just not sure who I will be by then though…

Long time no see for the supersoft fluffies !  Such a fun serie, it's time r&d get backnto work on new products 😉 Cheers !

It's been two weeks since i've had my operation on my foot  I was planning on Wearing nappies  A few days after my operation But for some reason, haven't felt in the right head space to   wear nappies  That is until today I'm glad to be back in nappies  it's been  over a  month  since  I had a nappie on last  

The story is done, and Eddie ends up in a good place.  He has a cool job, and choses his fate is ultimately his decision. The mom in this story loves her child, but she's delusional. I'll give you a warning, it gets a lot worse for Eddie before it gets better. At this point, Eddie would be perfectly happy to wear diapers at night, but he wouldn't take care it by himself (changing, putting them on, and disposing of them).   He wouldn't throw a fit, but he would still handle it like a kid. The story is a psychological conflict with a distant, but lovable father, a caring, but domineering mother, and an oddly  loving and protective relationship between big sister and brother.  There is a two characters who are clear victims of abuse (there is no vagueness about Tara and Ashley- it's abuse).  What his mom does to Eddie during the summer is almost certainly emotionally abusive, but in the end- Eddie overcomes it, and so does Tara.  Their outcomes might not be victories to everybody, but they are to them.