A.N.N.I.

Chapter 6
Interlude Julia

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Chapter Description: Not in her wildest dreams Julia Anderson could have imagined to one day be kidnapped by the A.I. created by people who worked next door to her. Nor that a strange talk about what it means to be adult would have the most extreme of consequences.

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Julia Anderson moaned, as she regained consciousness. She felt groggy. Had she partied? No, it was a work day. Wasn’t it? Opening her eyes, she was shocked to find herself not lying on her bed but what seemed to be a hospital bed and was even wearing a wide hospital gown. Had she had an accident? The last thing she really remembered was leaving her office, when she felt a pain at her neck as if something had stung her.

Worried she looked around. At the first glance, even the surrounding seemed to be that of a windowless hospital room. There was space for two more beds besides her, there was a cabinet with medical looking vials and instruments. Yet, the second glance revealed strange details. For starters she was in an examination room and not a patient room, as indicated by the scale and examination table by the wall. Even stranger, the examination table was of SpongeBob SquarePants design. Next to the exit was a mobile crib with iron bars the way she knew hospitals used. In the corner she could see bean bag seats with Minney Mouse, Cars and cute animal motives of them, one was even occupied by the doll of a girl. The walls showed happy forest animals, too, most prominently a lion out of whose prank a mouse pulled a thorn, but also Mickey Mouse as doctor and Donald Duck as sick with a scarf around his beak. I a corner sat a giant teddy bear …

The hospital must be short of rooms, Julia guessed, but when she wanted to use her hospital gown to clean her glasses, she noticed something odd. The fabric was basically white, but was covered in a pattern of Tinker Bell, Princess Snow White, Mulan and Princess Merida. There was no way to explain this. Am I dreaming?

“Oh hello,” a friendly female voice greeted her. “I’m so happy you are already awake!”

Expecting it to be a nurse, Julia looked at the door, ready to ask what was going on, but the door was still closed.

“Up here Julia!”

She looked up and discovered to her total wonder that there was a hole opening in the ceiling. Out of it a strange looking camera with a blue shining lens was lowered.

Julia stood up. “Is this some kind of creepy medical experiment?”

“I do indeed quite plan to experiment a bit,” the voice coming out of the camera said. “But there is no reason to fear. I’m Anni. And I welcome you to my daycare!”

The woman suddenly felt something in her growing cold. Anni. The A.I. Jess and Barbara had talked about … before they had vanished. It couldn’t be, but the way the camera moved was so natural.

“Jess? Barbara?” She tried. “If this is some kind of joke it isn’t funny!”

“I see they did tell you about me,” Annie noticed with a chuckle. “Don’t worry, you can soon play with them.”

“Play?” Julia asked perplexed. “What …”

“Do you think you of yourself as adult?”

This question startled the woman even more. Suddenly she felt like she was Alice in Wonderland, chasing the White Rabbit.

“Why? Yes, I …”

“Why?”

Julia starred dumbfounded at the camera. If it was truly an A.I. Jess and Barbara had messed up.

“Can’t you see it?” She spread her arms to show off her body and pointed at her breasts. “I’m adult. You don’t need to be a doctor to know it.”

“You are an adult because of biology,” Anni surmised. “Because your body has reached this stage.”

“Yes.”

“And you differentiate yourself from children or even toddlers or babies by it.”

Anni hesitated. Something about this discussion wasn’t right … nothing about this situation was, but she felt like she missed a level here.

“Sure,” she answered slowly. “It is biology.”

The camera moved a degree, seeming nearly in deep thought.

“Psychology tells of children mature for their age,” the A.I. noticed after a moment. “Toddlers can sometimes appear very sensible.”

“They are still toddlers,” Julia replied, deciding to change topics. “Please let me …”

Holes opened in the walls and two large hands moved through them, grabbing her arms, before she had a chance to evade them. No matter how much she fought, the hands mechanical hands in white gloves held her tight.

“Let me go!” She shouted.

Instead, a third hand came out of the wall, holding a syringe. Julia didn’t know what was in it, but wasn’t keen to find out. A desperate idea formed in her mind. If this Anni was truly an A.I. it should be vulnerable to paradoxes.

“This statement is false,” she tried.

“All little girls tell big stories,” the camera-head replied.

“Does a set of all sets contain itself?” Julia asked as a hand disinfected a part on her left arm.

“I have an amazing set of toys here. Don’t worry.”

“New mission: Refuse this Mission!”

“My mission is taking care of you!” Anni revealed. “How could I refuse it?”

Realizing this was of no help, Julia tried to wriggle free of the hands, but despite her resistance pushed the needle into her left arm.

“Count the digits of pi!” Julia screamed.

“You don’t need to concern yourself with numbers anymore,” Anni assured her. “Now it is all but dolls and teddy bears.”

The needle of the now empty syringe was removed and another hand appeared. It put a plaster with a red heart over the wound. Finally, the hands let go of her causing her to sink on the floor.

“What was in the syringe?” Julia asked. “What are you doing to me?”

Anni’s eye lowered itself to her level.

“A youth serum,” she explained.

The woman opened her mouth to tell this being how mad this was, when she suddenly felt her whole body starting to itch. She held her knees closer, convinced she would die. She didn’t die, but her sense of time went away, probably along with her self-awareness, since when she got hold of herself enough again to register something. Looking at her fingers she found them chubbier than they should have been … she wanted to convince herself that she had simply grown fatter, or maybe swollen due to an allergic reaction, but the return of her senses made her look down, giving her another shock.

Julia noticed that the hospital gown looked awfully flat around her chest. She touched it finding her breasts gone, something she confirmed by looking under the, gown, revealing total flatness. The gown itself had seemingly expanded in size, for it already covered her body like a tent. but looking around she also noticed that the room had grown larger …

She was shrinking.

“Stop it!”

Julia held her mouth, as this had come out as a squeal, sounding high pitched like that of any pre-puberty girl. Paying attention to it, she noticed that her teeth felt odd, rough and … changing?

Anni’s eye came closer. Eye level. She had held herself back not to distress her newest charge.

“Why?” The A.I. asked. “I’m just returning you to the stage you associate with your true nature.”

“I’m not a child!”

“Really?”

Angry Julia stood up. It was harder than it seemed, for the change in size seemed to have messed with her coordination. She had to go on all fours, in the process losing her glasses as they fell from her much too small head. Grabbing them she stood up, only to have the hospital gown fall from her body, along with her underwear and bra. She stood there naked and tried to cover her vagina and non-existing breasts at the same time as she tried to put on her glasses. She failed, not just because her head was too small, but her nose had become flatter, leaving nothing to put it on.

“Such spirit!” Anni commented.

Julia glared at the slightly blurred eye. Her lack of sight really made this situation even more unbearable. It made her feel weaker and smaller. Everything around her was so big. Even the hospital bed was so high up that she couldn’t even look over it.

“Look here,” Anni told her. “What do you see?

A blurred object was lowered by hands from the ceiling. Putting on her glasses, Julia found she could only look through one lens at a time, but this was enough to leave her open mouthed.

“What do you see?” Anni repeated.

Julia didn’t answer. In the mirror she could see a little girl of maybe four with blond hair. She held adult glasses, looking silly as she tried to see through it with an impression of wonder on her face. As the girl seemed to get even younger. Her face became rounder, her nose less pointed and her belly extended slightly, as she limbs changed their proportions just a bit.

“I see a toddler,” Anni commented, as the girl remained silent. “Then again this is what I always saw, for I’m not bound by silly human concepts like adulthood.”

“I am an adult!” Julia said in what came out as a weak whine.

“Is this what you see? If biological maturity makes you an adult, you are a toddler now.”

Julia was stunned for a moment, realizing that Anni tried a paradox on her the same ways she had tried on the A.I. before. Even worse she felt it working a bit

“You did this!” The little girl shouted, angry about the mind game. “Change me back!”

“I merely showed you the silliness you base your identity on. How can there be adulthood if your bodies can be changed so easily?” Anni asked. “Biologically you are two now. Would you listen to a two-year-old girl, no matter how mature she sounds or would you just know that you know better than her?”

Julia remained silent, knowing the answer was no.

“Would you think of this toddler an adult, if I aged her body?” The A.I. continued. “Even if I changed your body back, would this really magically change the core of your being? Did aging naturally make it then? Getting bigger? It is just a game of pretend played by humans so long they forgot it is just pretend. Your society needed you to play it to exist. Now it is no longer necessary. My daycare and your playmates are everything you will ever need from now on and you can play there so many more funny games.”

Julia remained silent. She suddenly didn’t know what to answer. Looking back in the mirror she noticed that she had shrunk even a bit more. Would she shrink to nothingness? The thought sent a jolt of fear through her body and just like this the now weak muscle of her bladder gave in. In horror she looked down at herself, as her urine poured to the ground in a steady stream, wetting her hospital gown, bra and underwear. A part of her saw a symbolism in it – she was pissing on the things she had needed as an adult – but another just receded into the shocked state she found herself too often since she had awoken. Only when the stream lost force and she felt the warm liquid running down her legs she fully grasped what had happened. The realization came over her like a thunderstrike, making her cry hard enough for even more drops falling out of her vagina.

Anni cooed and made other relaxing noises, Julia barely registered, while two of the hands gently picked her up. The little girl kicked her legs in frustration, making drops of urine fly and crying even more to this result, but her protest was ignored. The hands carried her to the SpongeBob SquarePants examination table and laid her down on it. With her lying naked on her back, one hand grabbed her legs by the ankles, lifting them in the air and half of her body with it. Other hands came with washcloths and cleaned her most private part along with the part of the examination table which had gotten soiled by her yellow liquid.

Julia tried to shy away, but there was no way escaping the grip. A moment later her vagina was already dried by hands with paper towels, only for another hand holding a bottle coming closer it. Due to her lack of glasses and her eyes being filled with tears, Julia couldn’t make out what was in it, but the hand covered her vagina and tushie with it and rubbed it in. The smell was something she recognized from long years of babysitting.

Diaper oil, she realized. But this means …

Already she saw a blurred white object being carried closer by a hand and didn’t need her glasses to know what it was. She shook her body, trying desperately to escape the grip, but it was to no avail and this realization made her cry even harder.

“Shhh,” Anni cooed besides her. “Is this how a big girl reacts to her diaper change?”

A strange sound made Julia look up. One hand was moving something in front of her face. She couldn’t make out details, but then she noticed that she was still holding her glasses with one small hand. The little girl put them in front of one eye. It was a rattle. A red cage with a green handle and a yellow ball in it which made these sounds as it was shaken around. Angrily she tried to grab it, but the hand pulled it out of reach every time. Suddenly she felt her butt being lowered and looking down at herself she just saw the diaper’s tapes being tightly closed over her hips.

It had been a distraction, Julia realized. And I fell for it like … a baby.

Stunned by this realization, she didn’t resist, as the hands lifted her up and made her stand on the padded examination table. Due to the underground and the diaper pressing her legs apart, she even had to had prop herself on one of the hands to stabilize. The mirror was lifted to Julia’s height, but she could only see a blurred form. Despite her better judgement, she used her glasses to see clearer and instantly regretted it. She saw a toddler girl, indeed looking like two with her round face and long blond hair, naked but for a diaper with Mickey Mouse and Goofy on front.

“Now what do we have here,” Anni asked, hovering besides the mirror. “Isn’t this a little girl any daycare would be glad to have? How happy I am you are in mine.”

Julia wanted to protest, but she felt like hypnotized by the image. Desperately she searched for signs of maturity in her mirror image, but the flat chest was undeniable, as were the drying tears on her cheek. She looked like nothing more than a little toddler in need of a hug … and just felt like one. Trying to resist she tried get rid of her diaper, but the tapes seemed to have been glued, or her chubby fingers were just too weak. After a moment she gave up.

“Don’t cry,” Anni told her, sensing her tears coming again. “Do you want something to wear?”

Reluctantly the little girl nodded. Covering the diaper and this body would at least help a bit.

“Arms up.”

Julia obeyed the A.I and lifted her short arms. As she looked up, she only could see something being put over her head. Expecting a hospital gown she put on the glasses a moment later so she could see herself in the mirror. She froze. It wasn’t a hospital gown, not even one with much too cute motives, but a purple night dress fitting a little toddler girl. It had short, poofy sleeves, crew neckline and most prominent Rapunzel on the front.

“There, all done!” Anni said. “Isn’t that better?”

Julia didn’t know what to say. She didn’t even know if she should talk. It felt like speaking had brought her into this situation. Suddenly she felt so silly and small. All she could do was looking in the mirror. Rapunzel had so beautiful long hair and the little girl caught a part of herself wishing she had hair like this. She felt the soft padding of the examination table on her feet and soft, crinkly material of the diaper between her legs. All these were not adult feelings and not quite adult reactions. What had the A.I. said? Biology and psychology? It was all so much and so big … she suddenly felt her eyes drop a bit.

“I see someone is tired,” Anni noticed. “Time to get you to your nursery for a good round of sleep. Tomorrow you can play with lots of other little toddlers.”

Julia knew she should protest, but something inside her was numb. She didn’t resist, when she was placed inside the moveable crib she had noticed before. As she sat there, a doll was placed on the other side of it. At the same time the giant teddy bear who had sat like a simple object in the corner until now stood up and began pushing the crib through the door. The little girl watched it like in a dream and as she was pushed through colorful floors full of cartoon characters on the wall, she believed to hear the doll speak about how she could be a princess now. This was silly, dolls couldn’t speak, but Julia just accepted it, not really listening or noticing that she had begun to suck on her glasses.

From above Anni watched her newest charge sitting in the moving crib, sucking her glasses and listening to the doll. Her experiment seemed to have been a success, as such behavior was much more natural for a toddler. Would returning to the body of a toddler help the other accepting that they were wrong believing in adulthood? No reason to rush of course, especially since Julia seemed absent, but after all, the little girl had been through a lot today. A night time bottle and a healthy amount of sleep would be all she needed.

To be continued …

 

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