Published: September 4th 2022, 12:01:00 pm
It had to be the toy box. At this point, there was no guarantee she'd have time to search anything else except for whatever she chose now, not if she wanted to have time to put the doll where it belonged, assuming she found it, and get out, so she had to make a choice and stick with it, and the one that made the most sense was the toy box. Maybe she was wrong... Maybe the hint actually meant that the doll wasn't there, that the doll was meant to have been put away, but hadn't been, so it was anywhere except the toy box...
She couldn't worry about that now; she couldn't search everywhere other than there in the next five minutes, but she could search the toy box before the timer hit zero, so long as she didn't run into any trouble there. She toddled her way over there, nose and diaper crinkling as the quicksand mess in the latter shifted and squelched around her bottom. She had to do this... She had to get away from this place, to escape this fate... She couldn't let herself become a baby for good...
The toy box was shut tight, but, after her burst of energy on the slide's ladder, she wasn't too worried about it. Perhaps she should have been, though, as she pushed up on it and let out an audible, "Oh!" when she realized how heavy it was, how much it didn't want to budge. Or... Was it not that heavy at all, and this was how much this experience had weakened her, that, even after reclaiming some of it, she still had trouble with something as simple as opening a toy box?
She scanned the front of the box quickly, confirming that there wasn't a visible lock to blame her failure on, then tried again, pushing the lid upwards with all of her might, feeling a burst of elation when she saw it begin to open. She slid her fingers into the crack that formed, making it that much easier - and forcing her to succeed if she didn't want to get them smashed.
She only had to open it a bit further, however, before it burst open the rest of the way, slamming backwards as a wave of stuffed animals came pouring out, as if the hint of light had awoken them. "Hey!" Alecia squealed as one of them plowed into her as it hopped out, its soft body knocking her to the floor onto her squishy bottom. She sat there, stunned, for a split second, then crawled in closer to the side of the toy box, making herself as small as possible as they jumped out over her. They were all so huge, almost all of them bigger than her, similar to the one that had pushed her down the slide, scattering around the room, playing with the other toys, roaming the floor... Seemingly looking for something.
For her, no doubt. She shivered, glad now that they hadn't checked the box before now, having a feeling that these toys would have made things much more difficult. If she took the time to search the box thoroughly, they would probably spot her, and who knew what they would do if that happened... She needed to look in there, though, to find the doll...
She didn't love the idea that sprang to mind, but she couldn't deny that it made sense, as much as she wanted to. If she was inside the box, they wouldn't see her... Getting out might be a struggle, yes, and if any of them saw her get in, they could close the lid and trap her there until her five minutes was over, and there was nothing she could do about it. She'd gotten it open once, from the outside... From inside the box itself, she didn't know if she could repeat that, especially not if the stuffed animals were trying to prevent her from doing so, holding it shut, or sitting on top of the box...
All that meant, however, was that she had to be quick about getting in to make sure they didn't spot her. She didn't have time to debate it, or worry about whether it was the right choice or not... She had to trust that all her decisions from now on were the right one, because second guessing herself only wore down the clock. She hopped up, pulling herself over the edge, even managing, despite the huge double diaper, and the giant load of mushy sand inside, a clean landing.
There were all kinds of things still left inside the box - spare buttons from the stuffed animals, dress-up costumes, some open board games that were definitely missing pieces by now - keeping her from spotting the doll right away. That was a good thing, in a way, since she was able to push them all to one side, making a large pile that she'd be able to use to climb back out. She was tempted to try on some of the costumes, to give herself something else to wear besides her diaper, but her mind was focused.
She paused for a moment when she stumbled across a thin piece of bent metal, a brightly colored pink handle on one side. Something about it felt important, in a way the other discarded, broken pieces of toys in here didn't, although she couldn't say why. With no pockets, or anywhere else to stash it, and no time to ponder what it could be for, she set it aside, away from the pile she was making, in case she needed it later... Not that there was much of a 'later' to plan for at this point.
It wasn't long after that she found it, finally, a tiny version of Serena staring up at her, wearing that tiny babydoll dress, the thigh highs, the pink Mary Janes... And the mittens she'd wound up in, and a super huge diaper that looked very full. Alecia blushed, knowing she was likely going to have to inhabit this doll once she got to the dollhouse, not looking forward to that at all... And what room was she even going to be looking for?! She didn't know Serena that well...
Not to mention that, while she was doing that, her body was going to be outside, helpless, at the mercy of the stuffed animals. This was going to be tough... But she had to try. She was so close! Snatching up the doll, she scrambled up her ramp of toys, hopping down onto the floor once more, sneaking across the floor, avoiding the stuffed animals, to the dollhouse.
She sat gingerly down, hunching down in an attempt to hide behind the dollhouse, setting the doll down so she could pull the house open once more, before picking it back up. She felt the now familiar sensation of the dollhouse pulling at her, sucking her in, barely even trying to resist it this time, letting it happen, closing her eyes to ease the transition, opening them to find herself trapped in a playpen, under a soft blanket.
Of course... That was where the real Serena was now, after all. She reached over to push the blanket aside, groaning at the sight of the mittens on her hands, feeling how much more difficult they made everything. Maybe she'd been a little too harsh on Serena, having to deal with these... The diapers didn't help, either. Try as she might, she couldn't stand, leaving her crawling around, like Serena had been after her change, slowing her down and making her feel more like a baby than ever.
The door to the playpen was closed tight, but, inspired by her last victory, she shoved one of the giant stuffed animals in the playpen with her to the side of the pen, clambering up it on all fours and dropping down. Her landing wasn't nearly as graceful this time, though it was good enough that she was able to keep crawling, shuffling towards the exit of the room, wondering where she was going to end up next.
It was another room she hadn't seen, a huge, sprawling library, with shelves and shelves filled with books stretching out in every direction, up onto a second floor... "Whoa," she couldn't help saying, staring around herself in disbelief.
This had to be it... Right? It was a place she hadn't been before in her other searches of the dollhouse, and it felt far too elaborate to not be important. Serena was a nerd, too... Alecia could see a library being the place where her doll belonged.
Like with the other dolls, however, she knew it wasn't as simple as just finding the room. She had to do something there, too... But what? What did you do in a library, besides read? Did she need to find a book? There were plenty of them here... How could she possibly know what was the right one? A feeling of hopelessness started to fill her as she looked around the room, positive it would take days to look at all of the books there; definitely longer than five minutes, at any rate.
But... She had to start somewhere. She crawled over to the nearest shelf, reached one mittened hand up, picking a book at random to aim for... Then, sliding her hand over a bit, something in her tummy telling her to do so. She didn't have enough control over her fingers to get only one anyway, sending a few falling to the floor. She fumbled with the cover of one for a moment before managing to flip it open, and...
She was back out of the dollhouse, the sound of a click coming from the direction of the door. Had she gotten extremely lucky, and found the right book immediately?! Or had she just needed any book at all? It felt like a huge victory either way, finishing up that quickly... Quickly enough that the stuffed animals hadn't even had a chance to discover her, and come over to harass her.
Grateful to be able to walk again, no matter how pronounced her waddle, she climbed to her feet, hurrying towards the changing table, the end finally in sight... And then a fuzzy hand closed around her arm, and she looked up in fear to see a giant teddy bear towering over her. "Oh, no," she whispered, squirming as she stared up into its black, glass eyes. "Do you want to play?" a high, slightly distorted voice asked, like a recording that had played too many times, or whose batteries were starting to wear out.
"No, I don't!" she told it, shaking her head. "Please, let me go!" She struggled as it began to pull her along, dragging her forward, back towards the slide. She couldn't go back there... It would take far too long to get out, even if the bear didn't wind up guarding the sandbox, keeping her in...
Then, to her surprise, she felt her arm slip free. As fast as she could manage, given her attire, she dashed away, eyes on the prize of the changing table, hearing the bear's voice box behind her, repeating its phrase, although, this time, she could have sworn it had changed slightly, that it was asking her, "Don't you want to play?" instead, as if she'd offended it by running away. She had a bad feeling that, if she was caught, it wouldn't let her get away so easily next time, that it was upset with her for not accepting its offer to play with it...
After experiencing them first-hand, she was very glad she wasn't in Serena's diapers now, pretty sure that there would be no way for her to scale the changing table in those. Even in her own double diapers, it was a challenge, but one she was able to overcome, fueled by the knowledge that she was almost there, that freedom was in sight, just a few feet away, if she could manage to reach it.
She made it to the top, and didn't stop, breaking into a run across its soft, rustling surface, jumping across to the diaper pail. She almost missed, falling forward onto her hands and knees, the lid trying to buckle beneath her, only to be held up by its contents. She blushed, knowing what those contents were, that she'd helped contribute to them, and pushed herself back up to her feet, looking over at the door. The handle was right there... All she had to do was grab it and pull it down, and the door should open.
She wished she could go back, that she could free Serena, especially after she'd been the one to trap her in the playpen when she'd been correct about what they needed to do, that she could get Julianne out of the high chair, where she'd spent the entire game... But there was no time. She'd gotten extremely lucky to even make it here herself.
She took a deep breath, reaching up, expecting one more trick, one more trap, as she saw the handle moving downwards, as she began to push, and the door opened, letting the light from the outside world come flooding into the nursery...
All of the sudden, she was back in the lobby, seated in one of the plain, black, plastic chairs, staring up at the woman, who look very annoyed as she stared down at her.
"You?" she sneered. "You were the last one of your group that I expected to get out."
"I-I..." Alecia gulped, looking around, hardly able to believe it. She hardly even cared that she was sitting there in only a diaper... Or that she was still the size of a toddler, compared to the woman, and everything around her, or that her completely bare chest was as flat as a board. She'd done it! "I-I got out?"
"Don't rub it in," the woman grumbled. "Another few seconds, and you would have been mine! Just like your little friends. But I'm true to my word... Now that you did it, I'll let you ask me to reverse one thing that happened in there. Only one... If you even try to ask for more than one, you won't get even that."
She didn't sound happy about it at all, although it did seem like she was going to do it... And it wasn't like Alecia, in her tiny form and huge diapers, had any hope of outrunning her and getting out of the building past her if she didn't want her to. "C-Can I... ask you to free my friends?" she tried.
"Really?" the woman raised an eyebrow. "You'd want that, instead of something for yourself?"
Alecia squirmed; that was what she should do, wasn't it? It was the right thing... She was the reason - or part of it, anyway - that Serena hadn't been there, by her side, at the end... Alecia could have opened the door, and Serena could have crawled through it, surely... If the stuffed animals hadn't caught her on the way there. And Julianne had never had a chance.
"M-Maybe?" she said, wishing she was charitable to just say yes without considering what it meant for herself... But she couldn't.
"In that case, I suppose I could let one of them go, instead," the woman shrugged. "Only one... And you'd get nothing for yourself. So, what's it going to be? It's all up to you, Alecia. What do you want?"
Should Alecia ask for...
Her size to be restored?
Her breasts to be restored?
Her wisdom to be restored?
Her strength to be restored?
The memory of the incident in the locker room to be erased from everyone else's mind?
Julianne to be freed?
Or Serena to be freed?
The Roll Report :
Started off a bit weak, with her rolling just barely enough to get the toy box open, and even then, it was only because she broke part of her curse to get a little strength back last time to put her over the top. She immediately then got a critical success on trying to stay hidden from them, however, letting her do that for their initial emergence, and while she searched the box, as well as helping her find both things in the box (the other specific one was the crank for the jack in the box, though she didn't have a chance to try to use it).
She then rolled well enough to open the dollhouse, but not enough to avoid the trap. For the record now, now that we're beyond that part, she could have theoretically been able to just place the dolls from the outside, like a regular dollhouse, but she somehow managed to roll badly every single time she tried to avoid the trap on the dollhouse. She rolled well enough to escape the playpen, and then, somehow, was able to get a second critical success, which let her end up in the right room, and recognize that it was the right room, since, otherwise, with how little she and Serena know each other, it would have been a bit of a toss-up.
It also gave her a bonus in finding out what to do, and, with that, she was able to immediately roll just enough to succeed at that on her first try, too. She got a bad roll for trying to sneak to the changing table, however, then rolled just enough to escape before being taken to the slide. She finished up with a few more rolls that were just good enough to let her get to the table, climb it, and hop over to the diaper pail so that she could finally escape.
To be honest, I'd forgotten the exact set-up I'd done for the door and the diaper pail, and how it worked, and I thought it might take one more jump for her to reach the handle, so I did a roll for that, and she failed it, and then I did a few more rolls to see if she could get back on the changing table, hop back to the diaper pail, and jump to the door handle, and she succeeded on the first two and failed on the last yet again, at which point she definitely would have been out of time... But I double-checked and saw that I'd already said that the door handle was reachable from the top of the diaper pail, and I didn't want to retcon that, so I let her win... It really was a very close call for her, though.