Norman was satisfied with his friend´s new form as a little plush tiger. His new power was incredible useful, and watching Brian changing to his wishes felt so good.
With a wide grin, Norman tipped Brian´s little head, and like a switch was turned, he “awoke” again. Brian shook his head, at least mentally. He soon noticed, as his body hadn´t moved with him, and begun to panic. “What happened? Why can´t I move?” he screamed, but again only mentally.
Norman still touching him, had heard him, wincing a bit about the volume of Brian´s mental scream. That someone who was now mute could still be so loud. “Calm down, little Brian.” With a light twist of his fingers, imitating a volume control on a radio, he “turned” Brian´s voice quieter.
“Norman, what happened? Where are we now? How is it so dark?” Brian was still scream-ing at him mentally, but to Norman it sounded more normal now.
Norman realized that right now, Brian couldn´t use his senses. He had heard his answer the same way Norman heard him, mentally. “Again, calm down, little Brian. I will try something, give it a second.” Norman willed his magic to give Brian back his senses of sight, hearing, and touch, but neither movement nor his voice was restored.
Brian screamed again from the sudden brightness and the influx of information from his body. The light pressure of Norman´s finger, the fibers of the carpet he sat on, and so on. It took a bit for him to see clearly again, only to again scream in panic. “How are you so big Norman? Not only you, but everything?”
Norman laughed at that. “No, I´m not bigger than normal, but maybe I should do that later. No, my friend, it’s you who is small now. A cute little nine inches tall you are now.”
A shocked gasp escaped Brain mentally, before it was clear he didn´t believe Norman. “No, that can´t be. How could I be that small? You´re lying.”
Norman grinned down at Brian. “Why would I lie, Brian? I made you a small plush tiger, a simple toy, just because I realized I could. Here, let me show you yourself.” With that, Nor-man carefully lifted Brian from the ground before turning towards his wardrobe and the mirror-covered door, showing Brian his new form.
Brian was shocked several times in that few seconds. First Norman´s explanation about doing this, and that he made him a plush-toy of all things. He was still disbelieving at that. Second, how easily Norman could lift him, like he weights nothing at all. It also showed off again how small he was, as he had only one hand of Norman around his middle, lightly squeezing him. But the biggest shock was seeing himself in the mirror. He was unrecog-nizable, and if Norman hadn´t said what he was now, he would have thought he was invisi-ble instead, maybe a trick with the mirror. He saw himself, a little white tiger plush, lifelessly in Norman´s hand. Nothing but filled cloth beside what little plastic made up on his smiling face.
“There, as I said, you are a little plush tiger now, Brian. You like your new self?” Norman grinned down at his friend turned plush toy.
It took a bit before Brian thought anything as an answer. “No… no… Please Norman, what-ever you did, change me back. I can´t be a toy.” He nearly wailed in despair. He couldn´t life like this, it was degrading. To call it a life would be a stretch.
Norman laughed at his friend turned toy´s breakdown. “No, at least not now. I like your new look, and I need to test my new little toy as well. You will remain my cute little plush-tiger for some time, maybe forever, Brian.”
Brian´s wailing got stronger, even when the volume didn´t raise. He also pleaded with his friend to be changed back, but Norman ignored that. Over the following hour, Norman was making more plans while Brian sat on the table, facing the mirror. But as Norman didn´t touch him, he couldn´t hear him, while Brian could do nothing but continue his pleading and wailing.
When Norman finally touched Brian again, he was promptly assaulted by that behavior, showing Brian was no closer to accepting his fate. He had thought what he could do to “help” his friend turned toy to accept his new life. He was sure he could simply make Brian submit by suppressing him, or even erase his mind completely. But it would be more fun to have it break by itself. That would take time, and Norman wasn´t that patient. So, maybe give it a small push into that direction. Slowly, a plan had formed.
So, after lifting it up, Norman hugged the little tiger plush. “Don´t worry Brian, I´m sure you can enjoy being my little plushy tiger for some time soon. What is to say after a bit, you would even want to change back? Well, for now, you a stuck as my little tiger plushie.” Norman said grinning, pushing his magic into the toy to make his little friend slowly break. It wouldn´t be instant, but he would enjoy seeing Brian break down.
Brian wasn´t happy by what Norman had said. “I don´t want to be a plushie, or a toy, Nor-man. That is nothing against you, but please, just turn me back.” But Norman didn´t react, simply setting him down on the shelf like nothing special, just like the other plushies next to him on the shelf.
It was then that the magic applied started to work on him. At first, it was simply calming him out of the panic that had started with being put away like nothing more than a simple plush toy. Norman was his friend, or so he thought, it also calmed him out of his anger towards Norman for doing this to him.
Only when the effect got stronger, it added another thing. In his mind, Brian suddenly heard a voice, sounding exactly like himself. “Maybe being a plush isn´t so bad.” With widening, if only mental eyes, he answered that statement: “No, I hate it. I have no control over my body, I´m imprisoned here.”
After another silent minute, the voice answered calmly: “I also have no responsibilities. No school to fail. No pain or getting hurt. Just free hugs from my owner.”
It felt like a hit to Brain, to hear his own voice say something like that, a painfully hard hit. He knew he would never accept an “owner”, he wasn´t a simple thing, he was a human be-ing, trapped in a plush toy. Is this another of Norman´s powers? Is this a way of changing what he would think? “No, this is wrong, I´m not a thing, I don´t have an owner. And I love to learn. I have other friends and a loving family. Even if I can get hurt, that is normal in life.”
For a few minutes, there was silence, and Brian believed it could mean that the voice had stopped. Until it came back again. It was like arguing with himself, at least voice-vise. He would never accept that thinking the voice implied. That this arguing would continue for hours to slowly break Brian by sometimes fast and sometimes slow replies was all tactic with it. He wouldn´t break over a few sentences, and even more annoyingly, repetitions. But he also couldn´t ignore them by not hearing them, they were, after all, in his head already, and he couldn´t leave it, either.
With his plan in mind, Norman took two other plushies out of the shelf, setting one onto his desk for later, before leaving his room with the other, searching for his siblings.