Velvet - A Calibeen Story (Complete!)

[Sophie ♥]

35 minutes ago, Wannatripbaby said:

And his most powerful hypnotic tool was his "Empathetic Voice."

I love that you are paying such close attention!  

[Wannatripbaby]

6 minutes ago, Sophie ♥ said:

I love that you are paying such close attention!  

Your stories deserve no less than my full attention.

[ELLIE52]

Very good update.  We are down to three now before pausing. I guess the government really doesn't care what happens at this facility since they are all criminals who are deemed to forfeit their "maleness."  So Anything Goes but get results?   Dr. Marlow is on his own agenda, and he believes himself to be *above* all.  But will there be a day of reckoning?  I regret the hiatus coming but really like this series.  Thanks!

[YourFNF]

38 minutes ago, ELLIE52 said:

Very good update.  We are down to three now before pausing. I guess the government really doesn't care what happens at this facility since they are all criminals who are deemed to forfeit their "maleness."  So Anything Goes but get results?   Dr. Marlow is on his own agenda, and he believes himself to be *above* all.  But will there be a day of reckoning?  I regret the hiatus coming but really like this series.  Thanks!

I'm almost certain the smoking man was/is involved somehow.

[Sophie ♥]

25.) Her New Voice

I didn't sleep, even though I was tired. It was weird. Like I was forced into being awake, even though I was forced into immobility. I was so comfortable, though, in Ayla's arms. I let her hold me like a child, and I didn't mind in the slightest. The hours ticked on, working their way down to dinner. All the while, the milk was wearing off. I'd blink out of it soon.

"Hey, heeeey now." Ayla hadn't gone to sleep, either, and had amused herself with thoughts about her life out of here. Her Coronation Surgery. Her life. Finding a man that would love her, being a Mom, reforming for everything wicked she ever did by being beautiful now. She almost missed it when the boy lifted her shirt.

"...so seepy... dun wike not fallin' seep.." I shuffled up in bed. I guess I could sit just fine now. I rubbed my eyes with the mittens. Still dizzy from the milk. Still dizzy altogether. I missed solid food. I missed being able to eat something real. Something that made me feel energized. Powerful. This milk just made me feel so tiny...

Dinner would be soon, though, and the boy seemed to be dazed, stuck in a place halfway between awake and asleep, and though his speech was improving, he didn't seem anymore lucid. "Dinner time, soon. Are you excited for your babas?"

I shook my head. "No way I dinkin' doze siwwy tings..." I blinked a little, looking up at Ayla, and then shaking my head. "Huh...? I not..." I swallowed hard. My throat hurt. It really hurt. Like something was stuck in it. And what voice... was that my voice? I shook my head. "Why d' I soun wike dis?!"
"I'm not sure, Velvet. You've sounded a little that way all afternoon, but this is the first time I've been able to understand your actual words." If words were what the sounds could be called, anyway — they were understandable, the boy just sounded like a literal toddler, someone only recently in command of his vocabulary. Or rather, with the pitch and tone, her vocabulary.

I shook my head in disbelief. No. It wasn't. I wasn't! "Das na my voice! It na how I sound!!" My chest hurt. I stumbled out of the bed, tripping over Ayla, and rushing to the vanity mirror. "'s na my voice... 's na…” But my mouth moved with it. The same me. The bonnet came off in bed. But the mittens. The dress. Not me. But the eyes. The hair. The freckles. Me. And now the voice... I couldn't breathe…

"Breathe, Velvet. Breathe." Ayla had followed the boy, though he darted and she strolled. She put her arms around him, he pushed her away, and she did what she'd been taught to do months ago. She did what she'd learned could be wonderful, and a way to show she cared, and not just a sign of power like in her old life. Ayla kissed Velvet.

...that was certainly distracting. I blinked up at the girl, hitting at her with my hands, until my back hit the wall, until she broke our kiss to kiss me again. She kissed different to the way most girls had kissed me in the past. She kissed like Roger did. Maybe that was why I could like it. Or maybe because she was a boy before this place. I wasn't straight... I knew that... but jeeze...

Ayla kissed until the hitting stopped, until the struggle stopped, until his back was against the wall and she could simply hold him there with lips and not with hands. It was simple. Easy. And exactly what she'd been taught. She stopped the kiss, and pressed her forehead to his, her eyes brown and his green, the most vibrant green. "You panic, and they'll four-point you and sedate you."
"...d-dey... dey did dis... m-m-made me... s-sound wike dis..." I was getting worked up again. Even hearing it. It was Marlow. Of course it was Marlow. How had he done this? How had he hurt me? I shook my head. I was going to cry. Fuck, don't cry Velvet... Velvet? Alexander. Ugh. I was losing myself here. I couldn't do this... I needed to focus...

"They did, but it's a shot, he gave you a shot, and shot's don't last." Usually.  Ayla didn't know enough about how vocal chords worked to know the truth of the matter. "It'll probably wear off, Velvet, but if you panic, you'll lose your freedoms again. Four-pointing and drip-feeding your milk. You don't want that, right?"

I shook my head. I was shaking. I was going to cry. Fuck. How had I let this happen...? And then a familiar sound. The chimes.  No, no, no, no, no... "I can't... no, pwease, Aywa... pwease no milk... pwease, can't do it... pwease, pwease..." And there's the tears...

The tears started, and Ayla held the boy, and he shook his head, but with his ability to walk now she managed to get him at least to the door by the time the food arrived. And it was food in his place, too! A sippy of juice and a large bowl of mac and cheese. Entry level food, but above the strained vegetable mash that most of them got when they came off the bottles. Honestly, after the typical three months on a liquid diet, mashed vegetables were all their bodies could handle. Velvet hadn't been here long enough for that to be a problem. Of course, what would be a problem would be that solid food would eventually mean solid waste. "Hey, look? Maccycheese? That's for you, Velvet. No baba."

I was crying. I was still in the mittens. I was still in the dress, and the wet diaper. And I talked like a toddler. I had so much attention here. Ayla waited for me to confirm the food, the food that wasn't at all the milk, and I looked up at her with foggy wet eyes. She smiled and helped me over to the table. I didn't get it... Marlow was giving me food? But the bottles made things so bad. Why would he give me food...?
 

[ELLIE52]

That *is* strange, that Marlow is giving Velvet solid food.  Is it the present he promised or this voice that is not Alexander's?  Wondering what meds are in that milk.

You may want to update the chapter to 25 in the Title.

[Sophie ♥]

1 hour ago, ELLIE52 said:

You may want to update the chapter to 25 in the Title.

Good idea!  

Trying to get all 3 up today.  

[Wannatripbaby]

45 minutes ago, Sophie ♥ said:

Good idea!  

Trying to get all 3 up today.  

Wow! You spoil us too much, Sophie.

[Sophie ♥]

26.) Her Descent

The food was in place, and a plastic spoon to boot, but the mittens were still locked in place which meant only one eventuality... Ayla had to feed the boy. If his attire, and his diaper, and his red, puffy eyes hadn't garnered enough attention, the fact that he was now going to be fed by one of the other inmates certainly did so. "Open wide, Velvet, here comes the choo-choo." Ayla smiled, and Annie bounced excitedly, and just about everybody stared. But the boy was hungry, even if he'd be getting food in a cheese sauce made with the same milk he abhorred.

I opened my mouth. Ayla fed me. I stopped crying. I knew better than to talk. I didn't want the rest of them to hear me. I didn't want Marlow to have the satisfaction. The food must have been from Colette. She must have ordered it yesterday, before she left. She must have saved me without even knowing it. Smart woman. I didn't give her enough credit...

For Ayla, it was a balancing act. She had to eat her little vegetable wrap and couscous salad in time, as well as feeding the boy, so while her demeanor was pleasant, she was also no doubt very worried. "I do likes your dwess, Belbet!" Annie had seen it already, but she was trying to cheer the boy up. "Velvet, Annie. Vvvv. Remember?" "I think Belbet is a darling name," Lemon added, and Bree nodded in agreement.

I felt a little blush on my cheeks and I finished eating the mac and cheese. I hated that I had to be fed, but it was so nice to actually have some real food. And then there was the sippy cup - so much bigger than the bottle, so I could get some grip on it. I held it with two hands no problem, sucking on the end. Apple juice. Such a nice change...

Ayla didn't get too much time to talk by the time she was done — she had a meal designed to be unpleasant to eat if she rushed it, and she had less time than she was used to. Lemon watched the boy drinking his juice and smiled sweetly. "I bet you're looking forward to Miss Colette being back tomorrow? At least it's only one day a week she isn't here." "Well she's always here, she has a room upstairs,” Charity clarified. "She deserves more than just a day off." Estar added, too, and Kinata and Bree both nodded. "Really, though, Miss Colette is amazing."

I nodded too, because of consensus, and because I was still happy Colette had saved me this time. I'd thank her tomorrow. I'd see what I could do about the headset. We'd work it out. We'd get Marlow back for this. He'd suffer. But before I could finish the sippy cup, I started to giggle. I didn't even know why!

"Something funny?" Estar grinned at the boy laughing, her teeth brilliantly white against her much darker skin — they'd want to be; they were cosmetic replacements on account of the boy having had barely any teeth at all from drug abuse when he was brought in. Nowadays, Estar was very proud of her smile. She'd been taught to be.

I shook my head, but I kept giggling. I finished the sippy, but by then the drugs were already in effect. "Nuffin funny," I muttered, but I started to laugh. And I played with the sippy cup in my mittens, a brilliant smile on my face. The bottles were terrible on me. Where most people were maybe a six in reaction, I was an eight. I would be so far gone in only a minute...

"Wan' paint?" Bree and Kinata were sharing uneasy looks over the idea of Annie and Velvet painting, especially with how far gone Velvet seemed to be. It didn't seem like a good idea at all, really. "Maybe you should help her change into something more paint-friendly, Annie?" "The window dwess?" "Uhhuh!" The dress in question, the window dress as Annie so affectionately called it, was favored for inmates after a month or so. Though it was adorable, with puffy sleeves and a cute waist and lovely detailing around the flouncy skirted bottom, it was also almost entirely see-through clear PVC plastic, the same material as the diaper covers so often used. And yes, there were panels of darker pink around the chest for some modesty there, and colored rows of detail around the bottom.  But for all intents and purposes, the dress would give an unrestricted view of the boy’s diaper, and would be perfect for messy things like painting.

I was changed. I still had the mittens on, though. I guess because they didn't come off. I'd accepted it. Ayla was starting to worry about the whole idea of finger painting without fingers, but I was crying out: "I WAN PAINT!" so loud that it hardly mattered. Within minutes - or maybe it was hours, it was so hard to tell - I was covered in paint. The mittens were paint and my cheeks were paint and the dress was paint. So much paint. And I couldn't stop giggling and laughing. I was having so much fun, even though my movements were sluggish and sloppy.

Honestly, by the time anybody got to solid food, moved past the slop of strained vegetable mash and onto things like mac and cheese for dinner, drugs were unnecessary. Maybe that was why Ayla didn't consider that it could even be the food, because it never was. Heck, by the time they took solid food, all the boys were now happy to be girls, and even took their hormones as medication shots once per week during their morning sessions. There was no need for deception. "Annie." "Uhhuh?" "What do you think Mister Marlow did to Velvet?" Velvet was painting still, giggling, happy but sluggish. Annie had gotten up to go to the drinking fountain. "Maked her happy…”

It was so bad. My words had dissolved into blubbering sounds and drool consistently slid down my chin. I would giggle and paint myself and the carpet more than I'd come close to painting the paper. I wasn't even a little girl anymore. I was an infant. And just like an infant, maybe half an hour before the girls would get tucked in, I messed the diaper without a second thought.

It wasn't like the enema remnants, an inoffensive and discolored discharge. No, this was a mess. A proper mess that darkened the on-display diaper, visible through the dress, and smelled anything but inoffensive. Annie didn't say anything, but the other girls had noticed and had even made attempts to get the attention of the orderlies on evening duty, but the same answer kept coming back: his diaper wasn't to be changed. "How are you feeling, Velvet?" Ayla didn't like the smell any more than anybody else did, but she felt responsible for the boy on this one lawless day of the week, and she sat down next to him with some wipes and began to clean his fingers, nodding for Annie to pick up and put away the paints.

I smiled behind the blissful drooly smile and nodded my head. "Imm miiini.. gutta good simmm... uh huh.. belv.." I sighed, smiled, blissful, content, and let the girl clean up my mittens while I sat on my messy ass. I didn't care. It didn't even register that it was wrong. That it wasn't completely normal. I was so lost.

"That's good, sweetie." It was looking less and less like anybody wanted to change the boy tonight, or rather, that the order had been give implicitly not to. They'd all messed before, of course, generally as punishment and with clear direction on what they'd done wrong. This didn't seem the same, this seemed almost... pointless. Directionless. Ayla was actually quite angry over the whole situation! "It's just about time to go to bed." She smiled, and the boy grabbed onto her with the freshly cleaned mittens. "Oh, you want to lay with me...?"

I nodded, smiling, blissful, but a little distraught, but then happy again, content. It was a broken system. No logical array of emotion. One to another. Like playing hopscotch. I couldn't sleep in her room. I had my own bed. I knew that deep down. But it didn't register.

"Well, how about I lay with you for a little bit?" If they went now, the boy might be asleep by the time the bedtime tone sounded, which meant Ayla could then get to her own bed without any consequence. "How does that sound?" It wasn't the best thing in the world. The boy smelled very bad, and Ayla didn't cherish the idea of being in a small room with him, but if she could ease his suffering a little...

She helped me to the room, though honestly, when it came down to it, she was almost carrying me. I couldn't walk. I couldn't even sit up right without the help of the wall. I was a big lump of person, rolling around and giggling. When she finally got me in the bed, already exhausted, she shuffled me in against the wall. I curled up to Ayla and drooled on her dress. It was pathetic. But it was me.

"Miss Colette will be back tomorrow, and she's going to be so excited to see you." Excited. Livid over what had been done to him. You know, six of one, half a dozen of the other, it wasn't important in the details. Ayla sighed and played with the boy’s hair, humming softly. Annie had been like this once, this bad, but it had been so long ago that few of the girls here were even present at the time. "You're such a pretty girl, Velvet."

It didn't take long. It took almost no time at all, actually. I was asleep. Ayla was there. Then gone. Everything was gone. I woke up to a dark room. Everything smelled. My head was spinning. The milk. I hadn't had any? No, I had to... I would never act like that. I stumbled out of bed, hoping to get to the door, but before I could, I threw up stomach bile onto the carpet of the bedroom. My whole body was shaking...

"Where going?" Annie peered over the edge of her bed, with a pillow over her head and curious eyes. She was a shallow sleeper, and she saw the boy throw up by the door. His hands were still in the mittens, he was still in the window dress, and he still smelled to high heavens. Annie didn't mind so much. "Can't go nowhere, door is wocked at nie-nie times..."

I kicked the door. I kicked it and I felt sick, and I felt my head swim. "WET ME OUT!" ...the same voice. The same voice. I was going to be sick again. I held myself against the door, trying not to fall apart. Everything hurt. Especially my pride... "Wet me out... pwease... wet me out..."

"Is nuh-un gon' open the dow..." Annie found it harder to talk in the face of aggressive words, but the boy was barely an aggressor, not with his waning energy and his voice the way it was now ~ like Annie at her worst, but Annie wasn't always at her worst so that made it much much worse for Velvet. "Wha's matter, Belbet? You hab bad dweams?"

"Is not FAIR!" I slammed my hands into the door. Tears dripped down my cheeks. I felt so sick. I was falling apart here. I needed to leave. I needed to get out... "WET! ME! OUT!" And, to everyone's surprise, a light came on. I winced, covering my eyes. The whole room was dizzy and bright.
 

[Wannatripbaby]

Ah, yes. A good ol' messy diaper chapter. Gotta love 'em.

Grammar Patrol:

21 minutes ago, Sophie ♥ said:

His hands were still in the middles, he was still in the window dress,

 

[Sophie ♥]

Wow, what a strange typo. O_O  I blame autocorrect.

[ELLIE52]

The intensity is racheting up.

[Sophie ♥]

27.) Her Guardian

"Good morning, sunshine." I'd been making boys shit their pants for a few years now, and I was a doctor and all that nonsense. Still, small room, messy diaper, all night? It was palpable. He tumbled into my arms, and I thought he was trying to run, so I put my arms around him.  He started to cry into my chest. I hummed, and shhhed, and soothed, and played with his hair. What had happened?

"Wan weave... wan go back... I be good... be good girl... no mo bad tings... pwease... wan weave... wan go home see Woger... wan go home..." I was crying. I was really crying. Everything was falling apart. This place was killing me. It was getting harder and harder to stay connected, to stay in one piece. Colette would help... she would help...

The voice was unexpected. Nothing we did here changed their voice, but it usually happened that the oral fixation we gave them made words harder in the baby phase, and then they'd be trained to sound prettier by speech coaches later in the adult phase. This was... unexpected. As was the messing. I'd approved solid food for dinner, yes, but I expected him to have some self control. Not this blubbering mess. "Come on, sugarplum, let's get you changed, okay? Then we can talk about your day."

I was still crying when Colette led me across the dark common room, past the dining table, and into her office. If she'd been in here yet, it didn't show. Everything was in place, and even her office lights were off. The computer was powered down on her desk. I was shaking. I was actually trembling...

I helped him up onto the shallow bed against the wall, slipped a pacifier between his lips, and lifted the painted-covered dress up out of the way, eyeing his diaper. Didn't seem to be liquid mass... it wasn't coerced. He'd done that on his own. I untaped the bulging plastic and cotton, and steeled myself.  I could have had an orderly change him, as I often did, but I wanted to build a connection with Velvet.  Humming softly, I began to clean him up.

I laid back on the table, wiping the tears with the locking mittens. I tried to keep them all out of my eyes, tried to make myself look like an adult. I wasn't this. I wasn't the sniveling child. I didn't care about the diapers or the messing or the pacifier - which I now obediently sucked. I just cared about the way they were changing me. The milk. My voice... but I was me. I had to remember... I was me.

"Did you get your dinner last night?" Obviously. I was cleaning it up from his at the moment. His tummy murmured some, and I couldn't imagine he had more to go, but figured I'd better finish up and get the new diaper in place. "How about once I get you clean, you can tell me all about your day, okay? I hope Doctor Marlow wasn't too much of an ass."

"...Mar-woah..." I muttered it, thinking to myself. It all started after him. My voice. The bottles. And then dinner. It was him, wasn't it? It had to have been him... "...I saw him... an... he said he gun' gimme a present... but I neva got it... got a wowwy instead..." My voice was so pathetic... I sounded like a toddler. A girl. I winced, shaking my head. I just wouldn't talk.....

A wowwy? A... an owie? Oh! "He gave you a shot, huh? That was probably his idea of a 'present'. Where did he give it to you, do you remember? There's nothing scheduled on your file for any shots at all." Most shots were hormonal, and to help with later development, and the inmates all were made aware of the nature of them. I was concerned.

"...hea..." I ran my finger up my neck where Ayla was playing yesterday. It was mostly healed over, but the telltale signs were there. She examined my neck carefully, shaking her head, and then crossing her arms. She didn't know what it was either... "...tink it could mess wit my voice...?" It was in my throat, right?

"The choice of site would make sense. It's too far from any bloodline, and the muscles in that part of the neck aren't suitable for intramuscular." Actually, I was glad that Velvet suggested it — I wasn't sure I would have put two and two together so quickly. "We don't have any agents on file that would affect your voice, though, we do training later on, which is why Ayla sounds so nice, but...." I scoffed and shook my head. "Son of a bitch. He's developing a voice agent?"

"Hey! Can we focus on makin' me sound no-ma again! Pwease?! 'Cuz I dun care what he can do if I can make it back to no-ma!" I was upset. I was really upset. Not that I ever identified myself by my voice. But it was mine. And it was gone. They were taking so much here. I felt so sick... "Pwease, Cowette..."

"Hold still." I finished taping a fresh diaper on Velvet after cleaning him up and started to feel around the boy’s slender, delicate neck. Like most gingers, he had freckles over much of his body, and I found them a little charming. "It feels like he used a numbing agent to tighten your voice. It should flush out in the next 24-48 hours and you should be fine." Presuming it was only a numbing agents, and not a paralytic as well. The numbing would flush out either way, but if it were a paralytic, too, his voice might sound quite different when he regained the ability to speak as an adult.  For a while, anyway.

I sighed. A deep sigh. A sincere sigh. One to two days. And then my voice would be fine. I gave Colette a small smile of appreciation. And then... a tidbit of reality. "If it dun go back to no-ma... I can't make your hypno files..." The audio was such a strong component. If I couldn't do it properly...

"I'm sure it'll be fine. And I'm not going to let him near you, so long as I'm active on the floor. We'll deprive him of his study data." Crediting myself was important, but discrediting Doctor Marlow was maybe just as important, too. "How'd you end up in such a state, anyway? Covered in paint, crying and banging at the door, in a very full diaper…”

"...I dunno..." I shuffled nervously up from the table. I had a new diaper on, but I was still naked except for the mittens. I looked down at them forlornly and bit my lip. "...I didn' have babas... had mac and cheese... dunno why got all hazy..." I hated talking. I hated sounding like this...

"Hmm. I'll check the food logs. I did specify that your food was not to be subbed out, so I can't imagine it was that." Then again, Marlow had the same level of security access as I did. It could have been that. I went to my drawer while speaking, and when I came back, I pressed a small disc to each of the mittens, one at a time, and each of them clicked softly, allowing for removal. "He's getting bolder. You need to practice talking as much as possible, get comfortable with this voice for now. I know it sucks, but if you let it rule you, it'll give him data we don't want him having."

"...otay..." Practice talking. I took a deep breath. I just had to treat this like all the other stuff they did to me here. It didn't matter. Even if this one did... "...I nee' a pen fo whiting..." If I was going to help Colette, I needed to plan. I needed time to come up with blueprints for the program. And when I could talk again, we'd be ready.

"I can do a pencil?" The fact that I was even offering the boy something like that so immediately was a watershed moment for us, I think. We both paused, despite his discomfort, and looked at it. This was a prison. I'd just offered a prisoner a potentially deadly implement without even pausing. It meant I saw Velvet as an equal. Maybe as a friend.

"Tank oo," I muttered, taking the pencil from the woman. I looked down at it, twirling it in my fingers. This would work so much better than a crayon, I had to say. "Um... do you got a widdle sharpener?" She went to get one out of her desk. I pulled myself off the table and looked down at my body. Free of everything except the diaper. And this stupid voice...

“You can’t take that out of this office.” For the short-term, he could stay in here.  I could afford him the comfort and safety of my office, but there was still a game we had to play. "You can stay in here until the breakfast bell, and I'll keep you safe the rest of the day, but you need to keep a low profile. There is nothing wrong with being in your room most of the day." The room, of course, smelled quite horrid, but that was to be expected.

"Otay..." I wanted to ask for something to wear, but it would probably just be another dress or something. Honestly, at this point, walking around in just a diaper was all the same. I sat down on her couch and took a pad of paper off her desk. I needed to focus on something other than my voice for a while...

"I'm going to do the rounds and check on the other girls. Nobody else can get in here but me, and the head of security." I pulled on the RFID card attached to the pulley on my belt-loop and smiled at the boy reassuringly. He looked at me briefly, but went back to the pencil and notepad after only a moment. He was my ace in the hole, and I needed him to be fine. Marlow was starting to become a problem...

~~~~

Thanks everyone for reading!  We're going on a small hiatus while I post the rest of Small Frosty and Pudding and I dedicate more time to finishing this story.   We promise to get it done as soon as we can!

[Wannatripbaby]

Great stuff! I'm sad that we're going on a hiatus at such an interesting point in the story, but I'm also excited about Frosty! Argh! I'm so conflicted inside!

[ELLIE52]

With Marlow, I think some think he is incompetent, thus accidental.  But I think he may be devious and deliberate.

[Sophie ♥]

It has been almost two years since we started posting this story, and I'm proud to finally announce its completion!   We've been working on it slowly for a long time, posting bits and pieces on our Patreon.  But it's finally over and we are eager to finally conclude this thread.

I'll start posting new chapters every day or two in... about a week?  That way new readers have a chance to catch up and old ones can re-familiarize themselves with the story.  Of course, if you're impatient, the full version is available on our Patreon.

(I'm going to put this explanation in the first post, too!) 

 

[tldr]  Look forward to more Velvet coming soon!

[Wannatripbaby]

Well it's about freakin time! :D

Velvet! Velvet! Velvet! Velvet!

[diaperpt]

I'm so happy to read that you will be continuing this story. Audrey and Stacee meant a lot to me and I read other of your stories based on it. I'm pretty sure I had started this back when it first came out, but a lot of this felt new or at least different because I'd forgotten the details. It's been nice to get back to it.

Nice to have the Grammar Patrol on duty and many of the comments have been interesting and many entertaining in their own right!

[littleTomás]

Just caught up and discovered this old story! It’s fantastic. I love the battle of the minds aspect of it. It’s reminiscent of Love is War.

[Sophie ♥]

Tomorrow I'll post Chapter 28, titled Her Contingency Plan.  

[Sophie ♥]

28.) Her Contingency Plan

I sat quietly, fuming over the pad of paper.  Fear and panic had made way for frustration and anger.  Marlow... that asshole.  But getting angry wouldn't get me anywhere, would it?  I knew better.  I had to beat him at his own game.  At first I thought that meant this automated hypnosis system, but if I never got my voice back... I bit on the tiny pencil sharpener until the plastic snapped and fished out the little razor blade.  I had to make contingency plans.

"Whatchu dooooiiin?" Annie was rocking back and forward on the balls of her feet, but only long enough for her to lose her balance and fall over, landing on her frankly overly-padded behind with a squeak. If she was hurt, she didn't show it, though, she just giggled it off. "Belbet I felled!"

I didn't want to talk to Annie.  Nothing against her - I didn't want to talk at all.  I didn't want that stupid, horrible voice to come out of my mouth.  I sunk further into my bunk and kept writing in code.  Even if Marlow took my papers again, he wouldn't be able to read them anyway. "Careful," I told Annie when she fell off the side of my bed.

"I'm okaaayy!" There was always something of a level of hero worship between Annie and Velvet, except for the days when Velvet was stoned out of her gourd on the milk, or otherwise floating in some kind of hazy state that had her coloring in her clothing or her skin, instead of the paper. "Whatchu dwawin?" Because drawing was what Annie could process, not note-taking.

"Notes," I muttered in my annoying high pitched voice.  One syllable answers.  I was trying to figure out how to force a trance state with a headset and headphones.  But the best I could think of was to bombard the mind with so much information that it couldn't keep up.  Disguised static for the audio.  And the visual... elaborate pictures?  What stopped the participant from giving up and ignoring it?  What if they closed their eyes?

"Come play, ‘tay?" There wasn't a lot that Annie was good at, not a lot that would help her in her adult life to come, but of all the things she was not so good at, picking up on context clues had to rate up there among the highest. Which wasn't to say she was downright oblivious to things, but her vacant little expression and happy smile even when scowled at? It was pure child.

"Cowwette said I say in my woom today," I told as quietly as I could, in an attempt to avoid hearing my own voice. "Go pway wit Aywa.  I be out fo' wunch." I sounded worse than Annie... I closed my eyes tight and went back to focusing on my numbers.  Flashes of light through the eyelids could exhaust the eyes...

"Oh noes! Well I stay wif yew so y'dun get lonely, ‘tay?" Apparently ending a sentence in a question-mark didn't denote it as a question so much as a warning of things to come, because Annie climbed up into the bed with Velvet and plopped next to her, dolly tucked under her arm, and prime for playing. Because she was Annie, and every moment of every day was time to play.

Lunch came quickly and I was no sooner to solving my problems.  Colette appeared in my doorway and ushered Annie out to the dining area, where plates were adorning the big plastic table in the middle of the fat plastic chairs.  Childish, through and through.

"Any luck?”

I shrugged.

"Well I'll put your notes in my office for now."

I knew what she meant.  It wasn't safe out here.  I handed her the notebook and the pencil. "And the sharpener," she said without pause.  I pouted and dumped the broken pieces of the sharpener in her hand, sans razor.

"It broke." Not even a lie!

"Oh, it did, did it?" I wasn't dumb. I didn't spend my early career working with indoctrinated children who would stop at nothing to take the lives of those they'd been taught to believe were the enemy without picking up on a thing or two. I held my hand out expectantly. "The razor blade, Velvet." Firm. Strict. I had to be, sometimes.

Why did she have to make everything so difficult?  I reached into the wing of my diaper and pulled out the tiny razor, dropping it in her hand.  She sighed and left the room, with me in tow, until we were at the children's play table.  In my place, there was a bottle of milk.  If I drank that, there was no way I'd be able to concentrate on this project the rest of the afternoon.  I looked up at Colette for answers.

My tone sounded disappointed. "Drink your milk, Velvet." I wasn't meaning to be callous. Despite my attempts to courtesy, she'd done a bad thing by trying to hoard something dangerous away that could literally be used to kill someone and so my sympathies were lessened for a spell. What was she thinking? With Marlow making his play, and the Round Table eager for results sans ethics, how could she have been so careless and bold?

Maybe the milk wasn't drugged.  That was always a possibility.  But as the bottle neared empty, I felt the telltale tingling in my chest.  Then the giggles.  Damnit!  How was I supposed to get any work done when they kept me as this constant... blubbering child?  But wasn't that the point?  I pouted and sat down on the floor, trying to stay centered.  Focused.  You can beat these stupid drugs, Velvet...

Any possibility of holding back on her altered voice was lost the moment the milk took hold, and based purely on listening to Annie and Velvet, it was almost abundantly obvious that this was some kind of nursery. Only... these weren't baby girls, they were adult men. They'd just been fixed to be a better use to society. I sighed and went over Velvet's notes, watching over the group as they giggled and played. I couldn't let Marlow have this…

By the time the afternoon bottle lost potency, the dinner one was put in place.  And after that, I was so exhausted without an afternoon nap that I was ready to fall asleep standing up.  One of the nurses changed me into a fresh diaper and I was put in my bed for lights out.  Without a protest, I curled up to my pillow - in nothing but a nightie and a diaper - and fell asleep.  Tomorrow would be better, I reminded myself.  Tomorrow I'd figure something out...

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[Bonsai]

49 minutes ago, Sophie ♥ said:

"And the sharpener," she said without pause.  I pouted and dumped the broken pieces of the sharpener in her hand, sans razor.

"It broke." Not even a lie!

"Oh, it did, did it?" I wasn't dumb. I didn't spend my early career working with indoctrinated children who would stop at nothing to take the lives of those they'd been taught to believe were the enemy without picking up on a thing or two. I held my hand out expectantly. "The razor blade, Velvet." Firm. Strict. I had to be, sometimes.

Why did she have to make everything so difficult?  I reached into the wing of my diaper and pulled out the tiny razor, dropping it in her hand.  She sighed and left the room, with me in tow, until we were at the children's play table.  In my place, there was a bottle of milk.  If I drank that, there was no way I'd be able to concentrate on this project the rest of the afternoon.  I looked up at Colette for answers.

My tone sounded disappointed. "Drink your milk, Velvet."

That’s the nicest part of the chapter.  “It broke” was priceless!

[Wannatripbaby]

A delightful chapter. Not a whole lot I have to say about this one. Obviously Velvet wouldn't be able to work this out in one sitting. Especially not with Annie "helping" her lol.

 

[littleTomás]

12 hours ago, Bonsai said:

That’s the nicest part of the chapter.  “It broke” was priceless!

I'm with you! It's funny how one can leave out information to try and get out of situations.

[Sophie ♥]

I'm glad everyone is enjoying it!  I had to stop posting after ch 27 for a good reason, which will likely make itself clear in the coming chapters!