Scott didn't feel himself transforming. Apparently he hadn't touched the slippers. He continued on to his room and got the bag of rags, a change of clothes, and two plastic bags.
When he returned his first order of business was to put the slippers in a bag. He didn't want to accidentally touch them to the medallion and become a version of his mother only a minute away from finishing the birth process. A little later he realized that he should have just put them on, but by that time they were safely stored away anyway.
The next step was to make sure he could reverse any change. Sharon had a tiny baby cap. Scott put it on the baby's head, waited a minute, then took it off and stowed it in the other bag. Now he could change little Scott back to a baby if anything went wrong.
"Next," he said to his folks, "I need to change back."
At about that point, the baby began to cry.
"I think he's hungry," said Aunt Sharon.
"What? You mean I have to...?"
"Of course you do. Unless you want to transform first and listen to him cry all the way through the transformation. Let me show you...."
So Scott had to take off the medallion and breast-feed baby Scott. He felt oddly proud and motherly towards this little version of himself. Finally it was over. Scott lay the baby in his crib and went to the bathroom. He took off his robe, then put on the medallion and touched it to his clothes. He could sense his breasts shrinking, his muscles shifting, even as he watched them shift around in the bathroom mirror. It felt a little like he was getting an erection as his penis grew out, even though it wasn't erect at all. Finally, the feelings subsided and Scott walked back into the living room, himself once again.
"Now, what do we do with you, little Scott?" wondered Scott out loud. "Mom?" he asked. "Did you find anything?"
"Just a few things," replied his mother.
He got up and walked over to take a look, dumping the rags near his mother's pile. "Do you know what any of this stuff is?" asked Scott. "Was any of it mine?"
"Some," said his mother.
"I know that one," said his father, pointing to a thick strip of fabric. "That's the broken seatbelt you wore in your car seat. You were around three years old then."
Scott laid out the objects. Baby shoes, 1 1/2 years old. Seatbelt, 3 years old. Mitten, 5 years old. There were more at even older ages.
Scott considered the objects, one at a time. They'd all let him make the baby older. The trouble was that how old he could make the baby depended on what mental changes the medallion made--and he didn't know that. All he knew was that it did make some changes, but they were limited.
If the only change was to let you walk in your new form, then he could only age the baby to 1 1/2--anything more and the baby would act too young for its physical age. If it lets you walk and put on clothes and do other things, older might work. And how does it affect personality? When he transformed, he didn't suddenly think he was his own mother, but he did feel a little motherly. If he aged the baby to age 7, would it act like he did at that age, and like spinach and be afraid of clowns?
Finally, Scott picked up one of the items and walked over to the baby. He gently lay the medallion over the now sleeping baby's head and neck, and touched it to the item. If he guessed wrong, he'd just have to wait for 12 hours and try again. The item he chose was....
