Misc. Stories

Chapter 1
The Youth Machine

Chapter Description: A youth machine story where the main character is regressed into a baby. Not original, I know, but it's an interesting idea, and I included a fair amount of detail on how it works. I may or may not add more of what happened after he went through the machine, but it's a good stand-alone story as is.

Ryuu Ainaki, age 20, awoke in bed late in the day on a Saturday, feeling somewhat depressed about his stressful life. He looks out the window to see some kids in the street. "Man, kids have it easy... what I wouldn’t give to be a kid again." He then goes to get his morning mail, skipping through the bills and junk, and eventually finds a letter of interest.

He opens the letter up and reads it aloud to himself. "Tired of your stressful life? Wish to return to the innocent days of childhood? Then come to 2021 1st Street and volunteer for our experimental Youth Machine." Ryuu nods with interest as he dresses himself, thinking it might be worth a shot, and gets into his car to drive to the location.

Ryuu arrives at the location, a compound-like building, and walks in through the front door. He walks up to a desk with a lady in the front, showing her the letter. "I’m here this offer to volunteer for the Youth Machine." the lady looks at it and lays out a contact in front of him. "As you can expect, this process isn’t cheap, and even though you are volunteering for it, we still require funding. This contact basically states that, in exchange for providing care for you after you go through the machine, that you’ll hand over everything you own to sell as funding. Just sign on the dotted line." Ryuu reads the contact carefully just to be sure, and it was exactly as she was, with no fine print or hidden motives, and so he signed on the dotted line and she put it away. "Ok, just go down the hall here on your right, and it’s the third door on your left."

Ryuu went down the hall and entered the room, it leading into what looked like a doctor’s office for the checking and minor treatment of patients, with various childish declarations all over. Since no one was here at the moment, he sat down on the patted table and leaned over, much like one would waiting for a check-up. A young doctor soon came in and greet him. "You must be Ryuu, the new volunteer. I am Dr. Greens, and I’ll be assisting you as you go through the youth machine." Ryuu looks at him. "Does it really work, Doc? Can it really make be a kid again?" The doctor replies. "Absolutely. The machine is basically designed to rapidly reverse the natural aging process, using a combination of highly controlled radiation and special chemicals. The entire process both shrinks your body down to as it would be in the target age and tricks your body into thinking that it has become that age, allowing your body to grow and develop naturally without complications. While we’ve only tested it on humans within the last few weeks, on other volunteers like yourself, there have yet been any issues and we’ve labeled the process as being completely safe."

Ryuu was highly amazed by the process, and glad that it was safe. "Well, that’s good... so what do I have to do?" Dr. Greens answers "First, you need to remove your clothes." Ryuu shyly undresses in front of the doctor. "Now what, doc?" Dr. Greens points out the door. "Just go to the bathroom real quick and then enter the room just across the hall. I’ll be waiting for you there." Dr. Greens leaves and Ryuu finds the bathroom, relieves himself of all the bodily wastes he could, and goes into the new room. Inside was a empty large circular tank connected with many wires and tubes and was open at the top with a set of stairs next to it so someone could climb in. Ryuu assumed this was the case and climbed into the tank.

A speaker at the top of the room with Dr. Greens’ voice is soon heard. "Ok, Ryuu, we shall now begin the process." An alarm sounds for a moment and the tank then begins to fill itself with green goo and Ryuu panics a bit, but was quickly calmed by Dr. Greens. "Don’t worry, it’s all part of the process. These are the special chemicals we told you about. They are saluated with oxygen, so you are able to breathe the substance as well, but you must take completely submerged in them or we are uncertain what will happen." Ryuu nods and takes a deep breath as the goo raised over his mouth, trying to take a breath of the goo but his instincts are against him inhaling a liquid, but finally manages to do it. As he was submerged, he felt weightless in the goo, neither sinking or floating, as it seemed it shared the density of the human body. Still, he stood in the goo with his eyes closed, not moving a muscle.

As he floated in the tank, he felt a tiny "wall" of dense warmth, what he assumed to be the radiation, run it’s way up and down his body. With each pass, the time to go from the top of his head to his feet decreased, and the "thickness" of the "wall" of radiation seemed to increase as well. Back and forth, up and down; this was felt from the radition as he stood there floating, motionless. It lasted for quite a while, probably 15 to 20 minutes, before the radiation disappeared from his sense of touch and the goo seemed to flow downwards, emptying out of the tank.

When the levels of the goo draining from the tank lowered him to the floor and passed his mouth, he coughed up the goo from his lungs and breathed air once more. He soon felt a towel being dropped his head and he quickly used to wipe all of the green goo off of him. As he wiped his eyes and opened them, he was amazed by what happened; everything seemed several times larger than they were before, the tank’s top now towering over him when before he was only about half a foot over his head. As he wiped himself down, he examined his body, now completely hairless save for what was upon his head. His limbs and belly were chubby with baby fat, and his hands and feet were even smaller than before. Even his private parts was baby sized. Once he was done cleaning himself, he shouted in his now much higher pitched voice "Hey! Let me outta here!"

Not long after Ryuu called for help did Dr. Greens and another young doctor walk in to get him out of the tank. The young doctor climbed into the tank and picks up Ryuu, handing him up to Dr. Greens before the young doctor climbed back out. Dr. Greens then carried him back into the office again, laying him down on the padded table before saying "Happy Birthday, Ryuu... you are now 2 years old." He then takes out a diaper and slides it underneath Ryuu’s underside, applies a bit of baby powder and fastens it on. Ryuu was a bit embarassed to be diapered, but he was technically a baby now and didn’t resist, though he ask afterward "Do I really have to go back in diapers?" Dr. Greens nods and answers "Yes, but it’s mainly a precaution. Your new body’s muscles are smaller and thus weaker than they were before, and so loss of bladder control to a certain degree is quite common. Besides, they suite your new age now." He then gets out some baby clothes; a red t-shirt, some blue overalls, and thick white socks, and dresses Ryuu in them.

Ryuu looks down at his new attire, seeing them as both childish and fitting for him. Soonly after dressing him, Dr. Greens picks up Ryuu once again and takes him down next door to one of the rooms Ryuu passed on the way in. Inside was an daycare-like room with other 2 year olds like him; the other volunteers that signed up for the Youth Machine. Dr. Greens sets him on the floor and says "Welcome to your new home... here, you’ll be cared for with the rest of the volunteers." He then leaves, and Ryuu says to himself "... and so begins the first day of my second childhood. I’ll enjoy every minute of it... this time." He then runs off to play with the other kids, released from the stresses of adulthood and now returning to carefree days.