Published: May 16th 2022, 12:00:06 pm
Alecia gulped, staring over at the open playpen door, beckoning her inside. Like everything else in the room, it looked, outwardly, bright and colorful and cheerful; perhaps because of everything she'd been through here, however, it still, somehow, felt to her like the front door of an old, abandoned house, the kind all the neighborhood kids whispered about and called haunted, and that even the ones who claimed they didn't believe in ghosts refused to step inside.
It didn't help that she was positive this was, in fact, the exact same playpen her sister had. It should have, since it meant she knew how it worked, how to open the door... But she was too small to reach the latch. And, more importantly, that seemed like an awfully big coincidence, one that made her wonder what was going on in this place, especially after her little journey into the TV.
Of course, it was unusual that they'd been shrunken down to this size in the first place, instantly put into their new, infantile outfits... It was starting to feel like this escape room was going personal now, though, like it was reading her mind... Or, like it had known she was coming, and prepared this for her. She shifted in place, listening to the sound of her diaper crinkling, and her heart pounding as she spooked herself.
If that was the case, then should she leave the playpen for Serena to explore, to thwart their plans? Or was she thinking that because she was too scared to do it herself? Either way, Serena was already waddling away, perhaps embarrassed at how desperately she'd tried to stay with Mrs. Ariadne. Alecia sighed, setting the Julianne doll down in the middle of the room, having no pockets, or anywhere else to keep it, thanks to her time in the TV. "We found this already!" she announced. "Don't cheat by taking it away!"
She took a few steps away, turned to ensure the doll hadn't vanished, then continued on, the playpen looming large as, against her better judgement, she headed towards it. The sides really were quite tall, compared to her, and, if anything went wrong, she could easily get trapped in there... But she had to see what was in there, right? They wouldn't have taken up all this space in the room and have nothing in there, would they?
Sucking in a deep breath, she went inside, her sneakers sinking into the soft rug inside. Until she was in there, it didn't occur to her that she could have spent a bit more time outside, peering in to see if there was anything in there worth going in for; by now, it was too late. Maybe all of the other cheerleaders in the TV had been right... Maybe she was a dumb little baby now...
But she was a dumb little baby who was going to save her friend, and get out of this place! She kept moving deeper into the playpen, looking around. There were no cribs in the room, she realized now, so this playpen must be where naptime was meant to take place, because there were lots of blankets and pillows spread around invitingly, dolls next to many of them, like whoever had slept there had needed them to keep them company, only to have forgotten about them immediately afterwards, when there were other toys to play with... Not that she was going to try to sleep here, when time was ticking down. What was she supposed to find in here, though? What were they going to do with some blankets, and pillows, and dolls?
Dolls! Her eyes widened as she thought back to the Julianne doll she'd just set down. Why hadn't she thought of that the moment she'd seen the other ones?! It hadn't taken that long, but it was another example of how slowly her mind was working now, of what being in this place was doing to her. She wasn't sure exactly what she was looking for, yet, now that she was certain it was the dolls she should be looking at, it didn't take long before she spotted it.
Or, rather, before she spotted herself. There was no mistaking it, no matter how small it was, or how it had been turned into a toy. That was definitely her, staring blankly up at herself. At the very least, it was dressed in her cheerleading uniform, which was nice, but there was still something creepy about seeing a doll version of herself, much less bending over and picking it up.
That was when she heard the familiar squeak, turning quickly, knowing, from experience, just what that meant. "Stop!" she gasped, scrambling back towards the playpen's gate as it started to swing shut on her. "No, no, no!"
She could do this... She was an athlete! She was fast! It hadn't slammed closed immediately... If she could get to it in time, she could slip through, and she'd be safe!
She probably could have, too, except that, almost immediately, she tripped, falling flat on her face into the soft, comfy rug, watching helplessly as the gate closed and latched with a click as she lay there, trying to catch her breath so she could stand back up. "No," she repeated one more time, gazing forlornly up, over the gate, the way she remembered Rebecca doing plenty of times, begging her to let her out, knowing she was unable to do it on her own.
What was wrong with her?! She wasn't that clumsy, was she?! The diaper might still be throwing her balance off, but for something as important as this, surely she should have been able to get over that... "Ugh!" she groaned, kicking her feet in frustration.
That's what she tried to do, anyway, and one foot succeeded, while the other one stayed stuck in place. Furrowing her brow, she turned, looking back to see the real reason she hadn't made it; there was a blanket wrapped around her ankle, holding her there. "Get off!" she squealed, kicking at it with her other foot, only for the blanket to reach out, enveloping it as well, climbing slowly up her body, tightly encasing her legs.
"Stop it!" she whimpered, attempting to scoot away on her diapered bottom, hating how cozy and comforting the rug felt underneath her, how inviting... She knew exactly what was going on, even before she caught a glimpse of one of the pillow floating towards her. The playpen was attempting to put her down for a nap... A nap that, she suspected, wouldn't be over until their time in the escape room had run out, at this rate.
And, what was worse, she could feel her body trying to comply, her eyelids growing heavy as she was covered up more and more by the blanket, wanting nothing more than to curl up on the floor and drift off to sleep... "S-Serena..." she called out weakly, as if the other girl had any hope of getting into the playpen, now that the gate was closed... And, even if she could have, would she be able to resist this, either?
No, Alecia had gotten herself into this mess, and now she had to get herself out of it. She sat up, yanking at the blankets, shoving them as far down her body as she could, wriggling her legs to try to help work them down. Thankfully, it appeared to work, although, by the time she had the blankets around her ankles, they were wrapped so tight she felt one of her shoes slide off when she pulled her feet out of the mess.
She did get out, however, so she didn't mind too much. It gave her an uneven gait as she hurried away from the writhing cloth, but, after a few steps, she thought to reach down and undo the Velcro on her other shoe, yanking it off and throwing it into the blanket, hoping that would slow it down, or keep it busy. That might have been a mistake, she realized after she'd already let go of the shoe... She wasn't about to go searching for the other one, though, and having one off and one on would probably slow her down more than anything.
"Oh, the doll!" it dawned on her as she stared back at where she'd just escaped from and questioning her decisions. In her panic, she'd forgotten all about it, and that was the one thing she was confident she was meant to get out of this playpen! She saw it, lying still, a little too close to the blanket for her comfort... "Dummy," she scolded herself, knowing that she was going to have to go back and get it.
She had to be fast... She couldn't let herself get grabbed again, and she couldn't let the doll get sucked up the way she could see her other sneaker vanishing into the blanket. She sighed, stretching a bit, then ran forward as fast as she could go, her lack of shoes slowing her down a hair, her socks not getting nearly as much traction on the soft carpet as they would have. She managed to stop just short of the blanket anyway, however, snatching the doll up and pulling her hand away right before one corner of the blanket whipped out towards her wrist.
Of course, she still had to get out of the playpen somehow, and she wasn't sure how she was going to do that... The front of the playpen, near the gate, seemed the safest part, with fewer nap stations set up, yet that didn't change the fact that she was too tiny to reach the latch. She made a desperate attempt anyway, getting up on her toes, stretching as tall as she could, to no avail, wondering if, despite everything, her escape had been for nothing...
And then she saw the pillow, still lazily floating towards her, like a fluffy, white manta ray swimming through the air. It wasn't super far off the ground, but if she timed it right... She looked down at the doll in her hand, knowing that this would be challenging enough with both hands free. She stepped back and threw the doll as hard as she could, expecting it to take a few tries; surprisingly, it sailed over the gate, landing on the other side, the first time. It felt a bit weird, seeing an even tinier version of herself sailing through the air like that, though she didn't have time to worry about that now.
"Ready?" she whispered to herself, seeing the pillow approaching. "Okay!" This wasn't quite the same as cheerleading, but that had taught her to jump, and that was exactly what she needed to do now, hopping up onto the pillow, then launching herself up off of it, before it could try to grab onto her, leaping off of it up to the top of the gate. Her feet scrambled, struggling to find a foothold on the smooth plastic, but, after a long moment, they did it, pushing her forward, letting her tumble off and over the other side, landing on the other side, free.
There, waiting for her when she got back to her feet, was the doll. Right away, she could see that it was no longer dressed the same, however, blushing slightly as she picked it up and saw that it was wearing the same thing she was now - a pair of frilly, white ankle socks, and a diaper with something written on it that she couldn't read. There was one difference, though...
"Hey!" she pouted up at the ceiling. "I'm not wet!"
When she looked back down, however, she realized that wasn't true. Both her diaper, and the one on the doll, were clearly soggy, and she had no idea when it had happened. She blushed, glad to be able to put the doll down with the one of Julianne, setting that one on top of her own to try to hide it, grateful that the room hadn't pulled anything and hidden the first doll after all. If there were two dolls, she had a feeling there must be a third one, too, and that they were probably important... But where would she find the one of Serena? And what were they meant to do with them once she had?
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Serena shuddered as she stood there, underneath the TV shelf, for a moment, having a flashback to what had almost happened. How could she have been so willing to stay there, even knowing what Mrs. Ariadne was?! For a minute or two, she'd been perfectly happy to stay there in the daycare, to let herself be a baby forever... That wasn't really what she wanted, was it?!
She wrinkled her nose, staring down at her babyish dress, and her sagging diaper... Of course she didn't! Mrs. Ariadne had hypnotized her, that was all... But she couldn't help thinking about how Alecia, apparently, hadn't been hypnotized... And how she recalled hearing about how hypnosis wasn't supposed to work on you at all, unless there was some part of you that wanted it...
She shook her head, quickly toddling away, as if she were afraid Alecia might somehow read her mind, or have heard that same thing, and be putting it all together now... She wasn't sure, at first, where she was going, just away from the other girl, but when she glanced up, she realized she'd headed straight for the diaper pail.
That was natural, she supposed, wiggling her bottom. She did need another change, hopefully performed by someone other than the professor she had a crush on, and not in front of her entire class, with all of them knowing she was going to get a spanking afterwards... She shivered again, hoping that the voice had been taunting them, that nobody she knew had actually witnessed any of that, because, if they had... Well, maybe it would be better to stay here, after all...
But she hadn't gone to the changing table, though it was right there, next to it... Was she afraid that she'd use up one of their hints, that getting too close to the changing table would be the same as asking for a fresh diaper? She did want one, obviously, just not enough to do that, not when it felt like they were barely even getting started on this room.
Was there anything else to the diaper pail? Could there be something hidden about it, something they'd need to solve the puzzles here? She looked around it, glancing upwards, at the door behind it, the one that seemed to lead them out, to their freedom...
"Oh!" she gasped. Was this a mistake?! Had whoever had made this room messed up?! She was certain that, if she could get on top of the diaper pail, she could reach the doorknob. Yes, it was probably locked, though... What if it wasn't? What if there was some other puzzle in here that was meant to make the door open, since they wouldn't be able to reach the knob on their own, but if they could find some other way to get to it...?
It was a long shot, sure, and yet, having seen that, she couldn't help wanting to try it out, just to see. Was this an attempt to prove to herself that she really did want to get out of here? Was she afraid that, if she passed up the opportunity, when the door was so close, that it might mean that she had some desire, deep down, to stay like this?
Compared to Serena, the diaper pail was big, though, in comparison to everything else, it seemed fairly small, not that intimidating. If she reached up as high as she could, she could hook her fingers over the top. From there, however, she wasn't sure what to do. She pulled, and kicked her feet against the sides, but it was made out of smooth metal, so she couldn't find any purchase there, and, after a moment or two, she lost her grip, slipping back down and falling flat on her sore, messy bottom.
"Stupid pail!" she scowled, kicking it in frustration after getting back to her feet. The pail didn't budge... It was solid, and not going anywhere. She wasn't going to be able to scoot it closer to the door, or knock it over, or anything... She also didn't think she was going to be able to get onto it, until she glanced over and saw the changing table right beside it. The top of it was far enough away from the door that she couldn't get to the doorknob from there, yet close enough to the diaper pail that she ought to be able to jump from one to the other without too much trouble...
She stepped over to the changing table, scanning the shelves to try to find a good path to climb upwards, and, as she looked, she spotted something unusual tucked away, among the extra diapers and baby powder. Cautiously, she reached in, pulling out what seemed to be a large puzzle piece. "Interesting," she said, looking it over. It was made of thick wood, not the thinner cardboard that she was used to puzzles being made out of, though she assumed that was more durable, and able to stand up to being played with by toddlers better. It was a corner piece, too, but just by looking at the size of it, and how of a picture she saw in it, she suspected all of the pieces might be... It appeared to be a sleeping kitten, and in that one piece, she could see most of its face, and its paws resting underneath it.
There must be more pieces to find, and there was a part of her that wanted to search for them right away, but she hoped that her current plan would mean she wouldn't need them. She set it aside, laying it down on the floor where she could find it again if she needed it, and started to climb up the side of the changing table, using the shelves to pull herself up and onto the soft, cushy top, crinkling gently as she walked across it.
It would have been the perfect time to change herself, except she hadn't brought any supplies up with her, and she didn't want to waste any time with that now, when she could be so close to escaping. She looked down at the diaper pail, which, from up here, seemed a lot further away than it had from the floor, and, after taking a deep breath, she jumped.
She misjudged the distance after all, her feet barely landing on the lid, her arms waving in a desperate attempt to keep her balance, and stop from falling backwards off of there... Only for her to feel herself start to fall anyway. The lid collapsed almost immediately, falling downwards, clanging against the inside of the empty diaper pail, and nearly taking her with it and dumping her inside. If she'd landed more squarely on the lid, she wasn't sure she would have been quick enough to jump out of the way, but since she hadn't, she just had to shift her balance backwards, let herself fall back instead of forwards.
"Ow!" she whined, rubbing her bottom through her diaper after landing on it once again. It was definitely better than the alternative, however, of being stuck inside the pail... She blushed, realizing how close she'd come to that, not knowing if she would have been able to get out on her own or not.
Was the diaper pail a trap after all? Had they put it so near to the door to get her to do exactly what she'd done? Had she fallen for the escape room's tricks yet again?! She groaned in frustration, cursing at herself inwardly for being so stupid, before something occurred to her.
The pail's lid had fallen inwards, and it was only able to do that because there was nothing inside... And it was right beside the changing table. Sure, that might not be anything unusual, since that was where most people kept their diaper pails, but still... If the diaper pail was full, then the lid wouldn't have anywhere to go, would it?
She blushed, remembering all too well how this room seemed determined to make her use her diapers, and how it had succeeded, not once but twice already. Was that for a reason, beyond humiliating her? If they went through enough diapers, would that let them escape? She wasn't sure... She didn't know how to open the diaper pail, other than hopping on top of it, which was dangerous, and she didn't even know if this would make a difference if it did work, since the door could still be locked... It might be better to look for more of the puzzle pieces, now that she'd found one... Either way, she knew she needed to get up and get back to work, because time, as always, was quickly ticking away...
What should Alecia do?
Ask for a change?
Look at the ring toys?
Investigate the toy box?
Look at the doll house?
Check out the coloring books?
Investigate the jack in the box?
Go down the slide?
Climb into the tunnels?
Or ask for a hint?
What should Serena do?
Ask for a change?
Try to change herself?
Look at the ring toys?
Investigate the toy box?
Look at the doll house?
Check out the coloring books?
Investigate the jack in the box?
Go down the slide?
Climb into the tunnels?
Or ask for a hint?
The Roll Report:
Alecia didn't roll well enough to think to look into the playpen from the outside, but got a very good roll to easily find the doll, only to get a very bad roll to be able to get out of the playpen on time. Then she rolled just barely well enough to escape the nap trap, and got a couple good rolls to be able to climb over and get the doll out. Her roll to check her diaper condition, however, did not go quite so well.
Serena rolled well enough to see that she could reach the door from the top of the diaper pail, but badly failed in trying to climb up it. She got a good roll when trying to find another way up, however, to think of the changing table, and then got another two good rolls that let her find the puzzle piece there, and avoid a potential trap. She barely squeaked by in her roll to jump to the diaper pail from there, and had another close call with the lid, but managed to make it. She had one more roll, to come up with an idea for a solution, but I'm not going to reveal yet if she failed or succeeded on that one.