Velvet - A Calibeen Story (Complete!)

[Sophie ♥]

10.) Her Leverage

When I woke up, I was angry. I was furious, actually. I kicked at the wall of the crib as hard as I could, hurting my bare feet. It didn't move. I curled in on myself and held my head in my lap. Still no glasses. They were on the night stand - I could see them through the cracks. My diaper was soaked through, and I had to use the bathroom again. I was slipping in here... I needed an advantage...

"Mawning..." Annie had her arms stretched above her as she yawned, obviously awoken by the kicking. She looked so serene and content, compared to the boy, and it was clear that she still wore diapers, at least at night, as her nightgown had ridden up. "Did yew sleep otay, Belbet?"

"...can you get me out of here?" "Nuh uh.... Level 4 punishment..." Level 4 punishment for letting me out of this stupid crib? I shuffled back against the wall and held my head in my lap. I felt so sick... "Can I at least I have my glasses?" She fed them through the hole in the crib bars. I put them on. I was starting to feel a little better...

"Um." Her speech seemed to get a little better, now that she was standing up, and she rubbed her eyes with another little yawn. "Nurses come to change our deedees jus' before the bweakfast bells, an' then we go an' eat. Did you sleeps okay? You went to bed so early, uhhuh!"

"I slept fine..." I didn't know what to do. I hated it. I hated that I was so helpless here. I could manipulate anyone. I wasn't afraid of anything. But those stupid bottles... I held my head in my hands. There had to be a way around this... what was I missing...

"Tha's good." She wouldn't lower the barricade, but she did sit down next to the bed on the floor, and leaned against the bars, crinkling wetly as she did so. "Bwee was worried tha' you wouldn' be happy here but is good now 'cause it seems like you are, an' tha's good."

I needed to keep up the charade. That it was all fine. I needed to cooperate, because I'd invested enough into it. But if two bottles came up again, I wouldn't take them. One, maybe, I could handle. But two... I swallowed hard. "I'm very happy here, Annie... thanks for my glasses." Annie talked about a dream she had and I tried to listen. My head was still in the clouds. Trying to fix this. And then the nurses came in.

A small and sweet nurse with a bright smile and a cheerful demeanor took Annie to her bed to be changed out of a diaper and into cute cotton panties. Conversely, the large man that lowered the crib wall for Velvet looked anything but sweet, and big enough to easily toss the boy around should he become an issue.

I didn't argue. I cooperated. Annie was given underwear, but I was put into another diaper by the man. I felt nauseas. He helped me up from the bed and I flattened the child's nightgown down over my body. I wasn't sure when I'd changed clothes. "Thank you, Mister," I said in my most convincing child's voice. He left with the other nurse. My stomach was turning...

"You hungee, Velvet?" Annie was allowed to pick out her own clothes, and she changed into a pair of adorable short-jegged overalls, with a pastel pink top underneath. "Come wif' Annie, we will go an' wait at the table, uhhuh, then we can read a storybook, uhhuh."

I didn't know how much time there was to eat, but the sound hadn't come over the speakers. That meant I had at least five minutes. I had thought about this, about the diapers versus the bathroom. I knew to keep up my charade I needed to ignore the shame. And honestly, I didn't care if I used the diapers. But after last night, I just... needed something I could control. One stupid thing. So when I got a second away from Annie I ducked into the bathroom. It was just beside the white room, in a small alcove, and closed the door behind me. I would play their game. I would win it. But after my first day yesterday, after the first horrible day, I just needed a win. So I took the diaper off and sat down on the toilet. It had to have been five minutes, but still, no sound from the table. When I was done, when I flushed, I did my best to put the diaper back on properly. It's... a lot harder than it looks.

The boy emerged from the room quietly, peering through a crack in the door, and the moment he did, I pushed him back inside, kicking the door shut. "Touching your own diaper is a Rank 2 Punishment, Velvet. Using the bathroom without permission is also a Rank 2, so you upgrade to a Rank 4." There were cameras in here, because of course there were, and for him not to have checked was reckless.

My chest hurt. Colette looked at me. She wasn't happy. Maybe she'd seen through my charade, but last night was pure and she knew. She expected this retaliation. I knew she would. Did I think I wouldn't be caught? No, of course not. But a Rank 4 punishment? I took a deep breath, smiling. We were alone in here. She was so naive. "I'm not going to be punished," I said flatly, stepping around her. I didn't say it with contempt. Just a fact. "You're going to let me go."

The camera was directly behind him, and he hadn't thought to look for it. Was the brilliant Alexander Duke so stupid as to overlook something so simple? He could make all the comments he wanted to, but everything was being recorded and monitored. Everything that would only make his life harder for him. I smiled. "If you'd shown an ounce of remorse, I might have bumped it down, or stricken it. But acting like a princess isn't going to help your case, Velvet." He reached for the door, but I leaned against it, calmly.

"You won't punish me. You need me." I smiled up at Colette and she smiled back. This was one of those moments of contempt between us. But underneath it, she was having fun. I knew she was. Because she knew I was smart, and that I'd have a reason. "If you want to fix Annie, anyway." She didn't see that coming. Honestly, whoever was on the other ends of those cameras probably didn't, either. I was, after all, the best hypnotherapist in the country. And if there was anything I'd noticed about Colette... her weakness was her empathy.

That was the thing about Annie ~ she was something we were ashamed of. The whole project, excluding probably Marlow himself. To his eye, the girl was a proof of success, that you could take a hardened criminal and create innocence. To everybody else, she was now a broken liability. "What makes you think that you'll have any more success than I have?" I should make been more dismissive about it than I was, but if there were hope for Annie...

"Give me access to her case files and suspend this punishment," I said flatly, "And she'll have her talking fixed by the end of the week." I wasn't sure how long she'd been here. I was factoring in the worst. With anyone else I could help in a day. Less. A couple hours. Annie might have walls... a week would be more than enough time.

"You think that we're going to hand over case files to an inmate? Really?" I crossed my arms, frowning at the boy and his audacity to suggest something so ludicrous. "You had to know I'd say no, so why even bother? You should know that tricks don't really work out so well here, not for inmates."

"It's not like I'm asking for them to fuck with you," I sighed. "I need to know what happened." I didn't, not technically. But it would take so much longer if I had to do it all myself... "And I know you'll say no. And I know it'll eat at you all day. And probably all week. And every time you see Annie's face. That you could have fixed it. And you know, that's enough for me."

"Do you know what would happen if we let prisoners experiment on other prisoners, Velvet? Hmm? I've read your file, and I know your credentials. I simply don't believe you can do anything for her that I couldn't, and nor do I trust you to. You've shown nothing but malcontent thus far."

"You don't want me as an enemy Colette." My tone fell. I wasn't playing anymore. "In a week, I can help Annie. Or I can hurt the progress of the other six girls. That depends if you haul me off now or not. Make your move." She still stood in front of the door. She watched me and I watched her back. The threat against the others wasn't as effective as helping Annie - her empathy outweighed her God complex. But maybe both of them together...

"Or I could instead have you put into Escalated Discipline for threatening fellow patients. Rank 1 through 5 punishment, sequentially, escalating." The fact that I said that, though, and didn't just do it was cause enough to reflect on my position here. Yes. Yes, I wanted Annie fixed. It would look very good for the shareholders, would be very good for us, and most importantly would be the right thing to do for Annie. And yes, I had tried. Yes, I'd failed. Annie was our shame. But Velvet was an inmate.

"You won't," I said solidly. I was a doctor, sure, but even psychology wasn't an exact science. Though I was sure in my voice of her actions, I wasn't sure in my head. And the threat... weighed very heavily on my chest. I smiled at her and she frowned. I was winning this. "I just need to see the file once. I don't need to keep it."

"Alternatively, I punish you and in a few weeks when you're broken and compliant, you help out of the kindness of your heart and not to win a bargaining chip." I didn't sound as certain. A number of subjects had disassociated with their old lives to the point of forgetting or suppressing previous career knowledge. If Velvet were to help, the boy needed to not be at risk of that possibility.

I was bored. "Forget it, then." I knew it was hard to make decisions like this, to trust crazy people like me. But Colette wasn't someone I cared to manipulate in such a convoluted fashion. If she didn't want to help Annie, it would eat at her. She'd concede eventually, even if it meant being punished. And then I'd have the upper hand. Right now we were equals. I dared her to make enemies of me. "Can we go?"

"Ten minutes with the file, in my office. You don't leave with it, you don't get any more than that, and you don't make any attempts on Annie of your own accord. I'll make time available each day. If Marlow finds out about this, or any other staff member, I will deny all association. You will be punished, and possibly transferred to prison." The rules were laid out perfectly, neatly, and strictly. So why did I still feel like this was a concession?

"Yes, Doctor Colette," I said with a smile. She opened the door and I walked out. Free. The girls watched. Every single one of them was watching. Waiting for my punishment. For an orderly to drag me out the door by the glass window. But I didn't. I walked into Colette's office and she closed the door behind me. I'd superseded them. I was on a new level.
 

[YourFNF]

I love this back and forth chess game + the antihero vibe I'm getting from Velvet

[ELLIE52]

Once I found out Velvet's past career, I'd wondered if he could fix Annie, although I don't really know Annie's details.  I hadn't realized he'd use it as a bargaining chip though. So, I imagine this will change at least some of the treatment of Velvet, although not the transformation of gender identification.

[Wannatripbaby]

Now THERE'S the Alexander I've come to know and love!

I know he's a serial killer and all, so I should want them to break him. But, he's just so awesome! Breaking his mind would be like destroying a stained-glass window. AARRGGGH I'm so conflicted!

[Sophie ♥]

Oh my goodness I love you guys! Your comments make my day!!

I'll try to put another chapter up later today?  I'm super sleepy...

~Sophie

[Lil_Eevee]

Yeah! Another chapter! Im super impatient and intrigued!! 

[Sophie ♥]

11.) Her Annie Negotiations

"Annie Regent." My office didn't have cameras, neither did Marlow's — it was the only place the inmates would ever go where that rang true. I'd slid the file out of the locked-by-thumbprint cabinet and onto the table as I spoke. "Formerly Edwin Regent. She was a snitch — sold government secrets to criminals high and low, from drug cartels to terrorism cells. She was due to be executed, but Nevada pulled it off the table under political pressure. So she was one of our first patients."

"Yeah, I don't really care about any of that. I just wanna see the hypnotherapy notes." It was a weird thing to see. I was so meticulous and curious and advantageous a person, but when it came to this, all I wanted was the hypnosis stuff. Maybe it was an obsession with my work. Maybe I didn't care about Annie's past because of Annie's present. Either way, I didn't say anything when I took the case file from her, flipping toward the end.

The hypnotherapy notes, however, seemed to be in some weird unfamiliar gibberish and I sighed when the boy got to those pages. "Marlow documents his work in a form of shorthand rarely used — do you know Shelton? Officially, practitioners in institutions are permitted to document in Pitman, but Marlow likes to be obscure. I've done what I can to translate his notes from Shelton, you can see a supplementary bundle behind that, with page numbers."

"Never even heard of it," I said quietly, pondering over the notes taken by Colette. I took the pages out of the binder and studied them. One side, then the next. Okay, so the alphabet's not bad. Then this part here. At least it isn't in another language. "Yeah, I can figure this out. Give me a couple minutes."

"Honestly, I detest the man. His methods are unsound, his documentation deliberately obfuscated and he dresses horribly. I'm sorry, I can't stand a man who dresses like an 80's pimp." I was sitting in my chair, watching the boy read, and compare to my notes, and re-read. I was going to lose my job over this, over Annie, an informant who nobody was ever going to miss. Who's existence could just be hidden under piles of administrative costs. Ugh.

"Mmhmm..." I wasn't listening. She was whining about something or other, I didn't know. I was trying to concentrate. I could block people out just fine, but it's when they wanna talk and stuff. Like, I'm obviously doing something. So I just say "mmhmm" and pretend like I care. I flipped the page over. "Vowels are weird," I sighed, and went back to page one. Not impossible. Just weird...

"Pitman's make a lot more sense, but unfortunately, Marlow has the kind of track record that gets him a lot of latitude with the higher ups." That was the thing — Doctor Marlow was a Correctional Psychiatrist for much of his working life, and though his hypnotism was never sanctioned by the state or authorities, he could accomplish with an inmate in a day what would usually take a year of solitary to accomplish. Inmates could be effectively lobotomized, without ever going under the knife, and released on parole in months, not decades.

"Mmhmm..." "Are you even listening to me?" "No." I turned to page two again. Okay. I got it down. Fifty eight counts of hypnosis. Fifty eight case reports to read. And he was never very detailed, was he? But I had met him once. I knew the kind of arrogance he had. I could apply that to his word selections: figure out exactly what he'd done to Annie. And if I could fix it, maybe I could even gain an ally in Colette.

"You have ten minutes." I reminded the boy, though the clock would only start now — it was cruel even by Marlow's standards to include the time it took for him to pick up on the horrid and antiquated nuances of the man’s writing. Honestly, Velvet was no better; he was just as arrogant as Marlow, and would probably commit the same atrocities if given license to. But if he could help Annie, I could take the associated credit, and it would put me in a very strong position to takeover the project.

"Okay, I'm set." "...you've still got six minutes." "Yeah, but it's all about foundation and stuff, you know? He's actually kind of... stupid." Not to be rude about it, but if I were at a place like this, somewhere with more to lose than a recommendation to a friend the way it was in my practice, I'd be setting traps for people like Colette. Troublesome people like Colette. No offense to her, but she took things way too personally. "Anyway, yeah. A couple days. Thanks for this." I passed the folder back to her.

"There's one more caveat." I pursed my lips at the boy and steepled my fingers, thoughtfully, as I watched him. "You cannot tell anybody of your involvement. And you must allow me to take credit for any work you do. We are under a very political hierarchy here, and the Round Table believes that it's best not to have a senior operator. I... disagree, and have been pushing for the role for a long time. Rectifying Annie would be all the push I needed, and then I could remove Marlow from the project entirely."

"...uh, sure. I don't care if I get credit." Why would I? What good was credit going to get me in here? But to know she had that much faith in me, that she actually thought I could do something she couldn't... I wonder how close she thought we were. If she thought we were friends. "I'm going to keep acting the way I act out there - cooperative and stuff. Less paperwork for you, right? But no than one bottle at a time." Negotiations. I liked this part.

"You start to show me results, then we can talk about your bottles." I wasn't sure if he thought he had me over a barrel, but I still had the higher ground here. "Obviously, it should go without saying that Annie must not be allowed to relapse into her former life. The goal template is Ayla. Do you have any questions?"

"No bottles today, then. And by tomorrow you'll be able to have something called results. Mutual trust, okay?" One benefit for another. I knew once I did what she needed, she wouldn't want my help. Until then, I needed to think up a new plan. Once I make good on this deal, what's the next deal going to be?

"I will have your lunch bottle dummed out, but you have to act the part. Go to your room with Annie, afterward. But dinner bottles aren't on the table for negotiation at the moment." Still,one bottle less today was a big offering on my part, and I was sincerely hoping he saw that.

I sighed and smiled. Dinner bottles. Plural. Fuck. I'd have to figure something out by dinner. But if I could work with Annie before then, maybe I could show her some results. I might have more leeway... "Yeah, alright." I got up from the couch and went to the door. "Where are you going?" she asked me. I pointed to the door. "You have a session with me today." "Oh."
 

[Wannatripbaby]

Ayla, huh? I'm guessing she's probably an important character in A&S? Don't answer that. I want it to be a surprise.

Grammer Patrol: "The horrid and antiquates..." I'm guessing that was supposed to say antiquated?

[Sophie ♥]

3 hours ago, Wannatripbaby said:

Grammer Patrol: "The horrid and antiquates..." I'm guessing that was supposed to say antiquated?

Fixed.  

[Wannatripbaby]

10 minutes ago, Sophie ♥ said:

Fixed.  

Cool.

Also I just noticed the quote button is working for me again. so it will be easier for me to point out the errors in the future.

[Lil_Eevee]

Where velvet go? ;-; sophie? Pease? 

[Wannatripbaby]

7 hours ago, Lil_Eevee said:

Where velvet go? ;-; sophie? Pease? 

They don't post over the weekends. Plus it was a holiday. I'm sure we'll see another chapter real soon.

[Lil_Eevee]

True true i dunno how i forgot that

[Sophie ♥]

 COINCIDENTALLY!  Yes I have another chapter for you today.  

We usually don't post over the weekends because I hardly ever get on my computer.  Those are my "spend time with friends and family" days.  But I usually just play video games.   Sometimes I get on to do commissions or Patreon stuff!  Then I try to post a chapter if I think about it.

On another note, Easter was super fun!   My girlfriend made me an Easter egg scavenger hunt and I got lots of candy.  But most of the day was spent on school applications. *crying* 

New chapter in a bit.  Promise.

~Sophie

[Wannatripbaby]

Sounds fun!

My Easter was pretty good. My mom made a traditional Thanksgiving dinner (since we did non-traditional stuff for actual thanksgiving) and it was delicious! Her stuffing is like, my favorite thing in the whole world!!!

[Sophie ♥]

12.) Her Side of the Bargain

Mornings were Training. Hypnosis took place after lunches at his phase in development, under the influence of the giggly milk. He didn't like yesterday’s training, and he was going to like today’s even less. "This program works very simply. I'm going to show you a card with a picture on it, and you're going to name the picture, and spell the word." As the week went on, a repeat of this training exercise would omit the spelling. He looked annoyed, indignant, and frowned. I honestly thought he would have understood why we did this — to dull the brain.

I was so bored. We'd gone through like fifty cards, and they weren't repeating themselves. "Table. T. A. B. L. E." Oh my God. Christ. Holy fuck. "Lemon. L. E. M. O. N." I rubbed my eyes behind my glasses. "Boring. B. O. R. I. N. G." "It's a slide, Velvet." "I know what it is." I sighed and spelled slide.

It was amazing to me, that with the boy’s brilliance, he overlooked the less glamorous and interesting elements of our regimes here. It left him weak to them, and vulnerable, and I couldn't help but think about the adage about the most intelligent people being the stupidest. There was so little adult level stimuli here. So little of interest to a knowledgeable mind. And training exercises like this reinforced that, and helped the psyche wind down to suit the new landscape.

Another card and I smiled a little. "Miroir. M. I. R. O. I. R." "Velvet." "Quoi?" "Please follow the instructions given." "Je suis, madame! Je suis juste une petite fille!" And I put my
hands to my cheeks, pretending to cry. My French accent was spot on. Someone would think I'd actually just gone and forgotten English.

"Et vous serez une petite fille humide et malheureux si vous ne suivez pas de directives." Perhaps he didn't expect that. I smiled calmly and nodded to the card, amused that he'd reacted like a bored child, without perhaps realizing that he had at all. I held up a picture of a car. "En Anglais."

I pouted a bit and looked down at my feet. Not that her words really affected me, but her French might have been better than mine... I didn’t like when people were better than me at things. I'd have to practice... "Car... C. A. R..." And so it went. When I finally came out of her room, I was so bored and exhausted. The table was already dressed with lunch and the girls were eating. I blinked at the bottle in place. Did Colette have time to switch them. I felt nervous...

I'd been honest to my word, and had ordered the placebo substitution from my desktop before the session of training had begun — but I suppose the boy didn't know that, and it was designed to taste just the same. Annie was sitting at the table in her usual spot, and Velvet sat across from here. "Arwe you otay, Belbet?"

"Yeah, of course!" I looked at the bottle nervously, turning it over in my hand. Everyone watched. I sighed and put it to my lips, starting to drink the milk. It always took about ten minutes to kick in. I wasn't sure if this one would kick at all, but I'd have to act it out all the same. Wetting myself on purpose. Laughing like a child. If I wasn't such a good actor, I'd be nervous.

"Wan play dollies after lunch, Velvet?" Velvet seemed to watch Annie, the way she spoke, the words she chose, the manner in which she was a little bit clumsy with a fork. The work that had been done on her was extensive, and it was very difficult to discern that she was ever anything but a little girl.

"Uh huh. Sounds great." I smiled and kept drinking the milk. I didn't know how I acted when I was on the drug. I knew the basics, but the specifics... I'd have to emulate Annie. She was as close to a kid as I could model myself off. When the milk was done I stayed in place. Waiting. Ugh, the suspense was killing me...

"Good! Ms. Bubblesworth an' Doctor Wibbly have to take their puppy Spoke to get a baff, an' they don't like getting wet so they gon' ask a boy to do it for them." She stopped in earnest and looked over her shoulder at the playroom, specifically where the dolls were, and nodded back. "Girls dun' like getting hairs wets you know?"

No effects of the milk. Maybe it wasn't drugged after all. I got up and followed Annie, giggling a little. By the time we were sitting and playing with the dolls, I was being overly verbose, using exaggerated movements, and laughing way too much. But I acted, literally, like a toddler. No one would ever know the difference. Especially Annie, who was having the time of her life. It was nice to feel clear...

The light above their bedroom flashed between Annie's bright red, and Velvet's darker burgundy and two tones sounded, one after the other, three times. Velvet's sound and Annie's sound. They were to report to their bedroom. "Tha's stwange..." It wasn't often that they were summoned using light and sound to their bedrooms, but also not unheard of.

"Wan play!" I whined, but Annie took my hand and dragged me over to the bedroom. Two little lights were on above the beds. Mine and hers. We were supposed to lay down. Nap, probably. Brilliant idea... of course there were so many cameras. Annie quickly climbed into her bed and I got in my own. The lights turned off...

The door clicked open and I approached Annie's bed, clipping something under the bunk above — a dim light that shone down on her angelic face and made her smile. Enough to read by, but not too much else. Importantly, not bright enough to be detectable by the camera above. I spoke softly to Velvet. "The bedroom is in sleep mode, the cameras are recording but it's too dark to see anything and the audio feed is disabled. You have one hour."

I scampered out of the bed after Colette closed the door. The lights above our bed were dim and vague, the kind that made the cameras see if we were in bed or not. But not much else. I appreciated that. I climbed into bed with Annie and put my head on her chest. "Wan lay wif you, please...."

Annie looked a little bit perplexed in the dim light hanging under the bed above her, but was never much one to turn down cuddling. A lot of the inmates found comfort cuddling the slightly broken girl, and she nodded her little pigtailed head. "Uhhuh, tha's okay. We can do cuddles? Annie likes cuddles."

I played with her hair for a bit. And then I hummed for a bit, a song my mother used to hum. Something no one else in the world would ever know or recognize. It was her music. She was quiet after a while. Not asleep, though - I could tell. I started to whisper in her ear. "I am sleepy." I said. Vague. "I am sleepy and small and cute. I'm adorable. I'm scared sometimes. I'm gentle. I love. I'm you..." Perfectly uninflected, androgynous voice. It sounded so unlike me it was scary. The perfect background sound.

Annie didn't consciously respond to the words whispered to her, she simply laid and listened, the sounds comforting to her and the words blending into them. The girl had been put under so often and for so long, that it was a simple matter to reach her inner-most sanctum. It was never a problem, though, getting there. The problems began when it came to the mess things were inside of her, the way things been had tossed and burned, concepts annihilated, others roughly installed. To a degree, she had stopped responding to the work done upon her long ago, and fallen back on a safe default.

This method of hypnosis was very unique. It was something Marlow and Colette couldn't replicate, because they were very unique people. This kind of hypnosis required absolutely nothing, which is absolutely everything, and is very hard to get. But that's me. Stupid gay boy who is literally nothing. That's how my voice is liquid. That's how she believes it's her voice, even though it's not.

"I don't want this one anymore," I say. She panics and tries to grab the papers from me. I look like her. Identical to her. Actually, I'm not there. Just two Annies, one I talk for. "This place is a mess, Annie! I liked it when it was clean... didn't we?"

"Doesn't matter..." If minds were houses, hers would be condemned — like hoarders with piles upon piles of belongings, too myriad to ever hope to find order to, she was isolated in a single corner of a single room, the things she cherished most close to her. "Doesn't matter." She repeated again, taking the paper back.

"I like it clean," I pouted. "I like it dressed up nice with curtains. I like it when the TV works..." Annie pouted, looking at her feet, looking up at me. /// "I like having a bed with sheets," I say into her ear. "I am you. You are me. Why can't we clean up and lock the doors?" /// I went to the window. One touch with my fingers. It's gone. No window. Walls. Thick walls.

Annie gave no physical response on the bed, the entryway to her mind dilated like a tiny hole on a t-shirt stretched out from constant picking over and over. /// "Stop... stop. Stop." She placed her hands over her ears and tried to make the other her go away, but when she looked back up, the other her remained resolute. Present. Foreign, even though she belonged here. "It's no point..."

"I'm not living here!" I said like a child. "I deserve niceness and pretty stuff and this isn't. So either we make it better, or I'm leaving. Which means you're leaving, too." /// I played with Annie's hair while I whispered. She was sweating, though it wasn't warm in here.

"Can't make it better though... the Sandman comes an' messes it all back up again!" She actually sounded upset, passionate, and it showed through to her voice in the bed, the voice that vocalized her inner self in quiet whispers with muted emotions. "He gets mad if we clean up, an' you should know that..."

"Then I'm locking him out." I went to the living room. To the foyer. To the front door. Annie had to follow because we were the same person. We had to be together. There was a very big lock.  I turned it. All the windows went away. The doors. The lock sat on the wall, bright red and obvious. "LOCKED" it read. Only Annie could reside here. The house was off limits. No one but Annie. /// And me.

"He always finds a way...the Sandman does..." Annie sounded, above all else, frightened. Frightened at the lock, frightened at the other her, frightened at the clutter around her. On the bed, she shivered in response, shook slightly. "He'll get even more cross if he knows there is two of me now. One of me. Two of me... I don't know..." The voice that came from her lips on the bed, despite her literal child-appearance in the house, was perfect and unaffiliated by her impediments that came and went.

"Then I'm leaving." And like that, the whole house was gone. We were in white space. Nothing. "I wanna go to the beach." And then a beach. "Or to the moon." And then the moon. "I wanna go someplace safe." And then, we were back in the house again. /// Someplace safe. Where would that be to her?

"Safe...." She mouthed the word, like it was inherently foreign, inherently a lie, inherently impossible. Foolish to pursue, and silly to hope for. She clung to her other-self and shook her head. "Think the Sandman can find us anywhere. He's so clever, and he has alligators on his feet and... and he... he said that it's our fault."

"I'm going..." I sigh and rub my eyes. I didn't plan this. I knew Marlow's boundaries. I could weasel my way in just fine. The little dial spun, unlocking the house. Doors and windows. My head was killing me. "Sweet dreams..."
 

[Wannatripbaby]

Wow! That was incredible! I have no idea what it means or how it works, but it's still so engaging!

Grammer Patrol:

29 minutes ago, Sophie ♥ said:

It wounded so unlike me it was scary. The perfect background sound.

 

[Sophie ♥]

Fixed.  

ALSO!  Thank you!  Writing hypnosis can be super dull sometimes but Pudding and I love the whole philosophy of a "personal area".  Like a garden or a library or a house.  Somewhere safe in your head.  You'll see a lot more of it moving forward.

[YourFNF]

while thankfully I've never had this particular experience, i definitely find myself relating to Alex on a whole new level after my inpatient experience this weekend. it was surreal seeing things from the inside when you have at least some background in psych. i definitely noticed myself analyzing the situation and the other patients as a way of dealing.

 

@Sophie ♥

[Sophie ♥]

13.) Her Plans Moving Forward

"How do you think it went?" It was shortly before dinner was due, and I'd summoned Velvet into my office to check on his progress with Annie. Of course, I'd heard how it went, I just wanted to hear how Velvet thought it went. The boy did big-note himself quite a bit, and maybe seeing what he was up against would mellow him some.

"I misunderstood the situation," I said plainly, coloring my dress in with marker. I was turning all the white green, which was the opposite of what it should be, given the dress was purple. "I'll do better tonight."

"You won't have a chance tonight, the agreement was for one substitution per day. You'll have both bottles tonight. You'll have your next chance tomorrow." Here was the thing: we were walking on a joint interest, yes. But we were also in a power dynamic that I wasn't sure he completely understood yet — he was an inmate. He didn't have the right to argue or to negotiate.

"One bottle, or I'm not helping anymore." Of course I had no evidence to back it up. I wasn't sure how long I could take this going forward. The idea of helping Annie as payment. Sooner or later Annie would be fixed. Or sooner or later Colette would give up on me helping at all. Planning ahead was always my strong point, though.

"You show me some progress first. There are limitations on the amount of substitution I can do with any one patient before it's audited." I did admire his audacity, but all the audacity in the world was no substitute for results. And results was what was going to be buying the boy the privileges he wanted.

"Give me tonight. I'll give you results." A trade. A simple trade. But if I failed again... no, I'd do a new kind of induction. Fear was a really boring motivator, honestly. I thought maybe Annie's issues were caused by Marlow, but they seemed only a side-effect. It sounds easier, but it's not. I could figure it out...

"I'm sorry Velvet, that's just not going to work out. If I want to make a vie for power here, I need there not to be any dirty laundry waiting to be aired out by Marlow." He looked unimpressed, and I stood up, brushing my coat down and adjusting my glasses. "It would be beneficial to the both of us if we can make progress with Annie, but pointless if Marlow has evidence to support that you were involved. I can't be seen playing favorites."

"It's not playing favorites," I said flatly, looking up from my feet at the woman. I was still in the diaper - wet on purpose - and the purple-dress-made-green-in-places. Honestly, it was pathetic. No wonder she didn't take me seriously. "You're utilizing your assets."

"And utilizing American's most recent mass-murderer two days into admission isn't going to fly. I shouldn't need to spell it out, but obviously Doctor Marlow would also like to take leadership over this project, Velvet, and any opportunity he has to discredit my work or throw my methods into doubt is going to make that all the much easier for him. Do you understand? I'm giving you as much latitude as I can give." In the end, if he refused, I'd have him restrained and fed and we'd scuttle this whole idea. For the moment, I was hoping I wouldn't have to.
...I wanted to be angry at her. I wanted to throw out another excuse. But she spelled it out so well. I let out a sigh and tilted my head back on the couch. "Alright... you're a good debater, you know." Complimenting people was one of my best features. No one ever knew when I was being sincere. "Tomorrow, I wanna skip dinner. I'll get more done overnight..."

"You'll be expected to sleep in the crib arrangement, and to wake up wet. I can arrange, however, for Annie to spend the night in your bed to give you all the time you need. She does sleep very easily and early, though, so keep that in mind." It wasn't at the point where I believed much of what he said, but I did know that I'd gotten to this role because I could make a convincing case.

"...sure, alright..." I wasn't happy with it. The crib thing. I never liked tight spaces before coming here, and I definitely didn't now. Having Annie in there with me wasn't going to make it better. It was going to make it worse. I took a deep breath. "Okay. I'll keep it in mind."

"Do you have any questions before dinner?" Obviously, once Velvet had both of his dinner-time bottles, questions weren't really going to be anything on his mind. Not much would be on his mind at all, in-fact. He played the role of milk-addled child admirably, though, having colored in parts of his dress and willingly wet his diaper, I was impressed.

"I'm fine. Thanks though." I'd get changed before bed, right? I didn't really like walking around in a pissy diaper, but the idea of Colette changing me... it was just another position of power she'd have. I was trying to limit those. So I'd ignore the diaper for now. I got up off the sofa and went to the door, waving goodbye. Dinner wasn't for an hour or two, I think.

"Hi Velvet." Lemon was on the sofa when the boy returned from the office and she watched him curious — hypnosis sessions always left the girls a little bit unbalanced and off-kilter, and she shuffled over and rubbed her hand on the cushion. "Wanna come sit with me?" The other girls seemed likewise busy, Ayla was brushing Annie's hair, and Kinata and Charity were working on a large puzzle along with Bree and Estar.

"...uh, okay." I sat down beside Lemon and looked at her with a small smile. She smiled back. I wasn't sure what was on TV, but the subtitles were in a language I didn't recognize. The sound was so low I'd have to learn the language. I waited for it to make sense, the way languages did after a couple minutes, but nothing did. I couldn't find repeated words or phrases... "How do you watch this stuff if you can't hear it?"

"Sometimes we sit around and we make up voices for the characters." Lemon nodded with a smile. What she wasn't aware of, though, was that the soft sounds that should have been the track of audio to the show, were actually binaural suggestions, on loop, ever present. The subtitles were not in any language at all, and were simply there to focus the inmates minds on something other than the subtle sounds. "It's really fun! We usually do it when the show with the Koala is on, because then we can each have someone to play."

"Hm..." I tried to listen for the words, but the more I tried to hear them, the less I did. I crossed my arms and sighed, watching the words go by. It had to just be gibberish, right? But what's the point of that? Who makes up a fake language for criminals? "Hey, uh... who is your doctor?"

"Um, Doctor Janet takes care of me mostly, but Colette does my hypnosis." Which was how the system worked — four doctors total, two patients each, but the two hypnotherapists handled all the hypnosis between the two of them. "Doctor Janet is super nice, but Colette always gives me a sucker after hypnosis," which was only twice a week for someone as far into the program as Lemon was, "so that's nice. You have Colette as your doctor all the time, right? You're lucky... you must get so many suckers."

"Not yet, but I'm sure I will. I'm still not a quality patient, ya know?" "Really? 'Cause you're always so well behaved around us." Honestly, I was. It wasn't because I was playing them, though... I thought of them like kids. You don't act out around kids. "Except the bathroom thing." "Right, yeah." "You didn't get punishment..." So someone else noticed, too. "Colette gave permission for drinking my bottles." It was the only lie I could think of that wouldn't arouse suspicion.

That was the thing — in their first three months here, nobody got permission to use the bathroom. Ever. It wasn't for negotiation. Every single one of the girls there was diaper dependent for that period of time, some for longer, and it was a crucial part of adopting a new and better self. Lemon didn't like to believe that Velvet was lying, but it truly didn't add up. Rather than upset the boy by calling out his lie, she switched tracts. "How is it having Annie as a roomie?"

"She's very sweet." I wanted to ask about Marlow, about what he could have done, but I didn't need to. I'd seen her case file, and the rest was just fear. Fear was an easy emotion to deal with, because fear was so unfounded. It's a numbers game. I'd do better tomorrow night with Annie.

"Uhhuh, she is. We all kind of like to take care of her, though, especially when we have new friends come here because some people want to take advantage of her." Most prisons had a sort of protection-for-value thing going on, where inmates might trade goods or sexual favors for guarding against other inmates. Here, things were different. Here, the others looked out for their own because it could just as easily have been them.

"You were worried about me when I came here, then?" A logical assumption to make. I was sharing a room with Annie, after all. She nodded. "It's okay, I'd be worried too. She's a nice girl." I looked at Annie and Ayla. The two prettiest girls here. But Annie was still so different. I'd fix her...
 

[Wannatripbaby]

More great stuff. but one thing is bothering me:

Why is Lemon's text orange instead of the obvious yellow???

Also no typos today! Yay!!!

[Sophie ♥]

20 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

More great stuff. but one thing is bothering me:

Why is Lemon's text orange instead of the obvious yellow???

Also no typos today! Yay!!!

Because yellow is too hard to read.   Trust me, I tried...

[Wannatripbaby]

3 minutes ago, Sophie ♥ said:

Because yellow is too hard to read.   Trust me, I tried...

Oh yeah. I guess that makes sense.

I guess that's why you're the Princess of DD and I'm just some guy in the comments.  *bows to the Princess*

[Sophie ♥]

You can be a knight?  Or a servant?  Orrrr... a horse?  I dunno what else exists in princessly kingdoms.

[Wannatripbaby]

6 minutes ago, Sophie ♥ said:

You can be a knight?  Or a servant?  Orrrr... a horse?  I dunno what else exists in princessly kingdoms.

I can be whatever you desire of me, M'Lady.