✅🎊✂️ Hypnosis Won't Take Me There!! [alternative cut]

Chapter 420: Lost in Bliss

The house turned out to be a new development in the suburbs, hundreds upon hundreds of identical units, with a complex garden plan that made them tessellate in not-quite-straight lines in order to reduce the feeling of being stuck inside a mirror. As soon as they pulled onto the little avenue, Lillibel was sure which house they were heading for. It was the kind of place young professionals with a new family might share, the gardens immaculate and everything carefully landscaped, but with a small selection of toys standing beneath a shelter at the side. And one room where the streetlights glancing in caught a pastel pattern that had to be nursery blinds. But Lily, even feeling excited like a child, was very observant when something interested her. So she saw that the nursery was over the lounge, what must have originally been the master bedroom, and the garden toys were all slightly larger than she might have expected, and things that could be used behind the privacy of high hedges rather than spilling out onto the street.

She wondered how much the neighbours knew about this odd lifestyle, and if they could accept it as easily as a well-tipped waiter in an upscale restaurant. She would have thought it was impossible for something so strange to be tolerated in a neighbourhood that looked like the natural habitat of curtain twitchers, but she was coming to realise that successful people were the one who made their own rules. And when she pointed at the baaabooga and asked about it, Vicky and Reggie could only laugh.

"Welcome to our place," Reggie opened the door wide, and Lily ran straight inside. The hallway here was almost larger than her kitchen at home, and the space was filled with the last strains of sunset light, with all the windows and mirrors contriving to make it seem like the garden and the sky could both fit inside the house. He was about to stay more, but as Lily charged forward she suddenly felt firm but gentle hands on her shoulder and her wrist. She turned around to see both of the hosts smiling at her.

"Don't get too excited, little one," Reggie grinned. "We have rules here. And rules can help any experience to feel more immersive." Lily nodded at that, realising that it was something she'd already learned in one of her marketing theory classes. Clear boundaries could be used to define a situation or a relationship, so giving rules to a temporary baby would make them feel smaller. It was natural, but she could only guess at what the rules might be.

"We don't run round the house with shoes on," Vicky explained, and her hand on Lily's wrist guided her gently downwards while Reggie urged her shoulder down from above, until both girls were sitting on a little wooden cabinet beneath a set of coat hooks. The tassels and trim of the coats mussed Lily's hair a little, and she giggled at the gentle sensation. Then reggie was kneeling down in front of them, reaching forward to untie Vicky's shoes for her. "Aww, Daddy! You should do Lillibel first, I can do myself." Reggie backed off a little and met Lily's eyes. A silent question, and a silent nod.

He put his hand on her ankle, and gently lifted her foot before slipping one shoe off, and then the other. He opened a tiny drawer on the side of their seat, and slipped the shoes inside. Then he turned to his wife, who seemed to be struggling with her laces despite her previous protests. He let her try for a few seconds longer, and then moved in with deft and careful hands to do all the complicated work for her. Another pair of shoes went into a tiny drawer, and then Vicky hared off down the hallway in simple white cotton socks, without a care in the world. Reggie had somehow untied his own shoes without taking his attention away from the girls. He helped Lily to her feet, and then led her through to what looked like a mid-sized lounge for a house with small children, where vicky was already bouncing up and down on the couch.

"Welcome to our humble abode," he said with a smile. "The front room is set up for adults, in case we have visitors. But the den functions as our lounge most of the time, especially when we have little guests. Treat the place as your own, please. I think there was something you wanted to get off your chest, but it's up to you when you're ready to do that. You can relax some first if you'd prefer, we have all kinds of games and we won't push you into anything too intense until we know your comfort zone. And if you want to talk as an adult, or a child, that is entirely up to you. I only hope we can help you find what you are looking for."