DiapOut: Chapter 25
“UUuuuuuUUGGGHHHhhH!” moaned Rupert as he lay on his back while a team of two emergency response members looked over him. It had been a terribly long walk from the green room to the studio, where upon arriving, Rupert was too feeble to even stand on his own. All the while, he continued to blow out his ass, sending a wealth of mush directly into the seat of his pampers.
Not wanting the audience to see the nitty-gritty of Rupert’s recovery, the rest of the Messers, led by the ER team, escorted Rupert backstage. With a stethoscope pressed to Rupert’s tummy, the ER woman spoke candidly, “Yup, just as I thought. Overuse of CrissBaby products has caused this a couple of times. What we’ve got on our hands is a cut-and-dry case of Hypermesser’s Syndrome.”
“W-Wait, what does that mean?” asked Kyoko, who knew perhaps the least of everyone here. She’d arrived in the studio a handful of minutes before her friends, only to watch Rupert collapse seemingly out of nowhere, “I-I don’t get he was fine when I left! What the heck happened?!” She looked to Zeke, her eyes demanding answers that he did not have.
Thankfully, the ER woman was there to put racing minds at ease. “It’s not harmful, just a real harsh kick to the tummy,” she said candidly, giving Rupert’s messy rear a gentle pat, “It’s an issue we sometimes see when Lightning Laxatives combine with Bowel Busting Formula to create a feedback loop within the bowels. At the same time, his brain is struggling to reconcile with what the body is doing, creating the illusion of what is commonly known as Little Space. He should recover in a couple of hours once the laxatives and formula have fully vacated his system.”
“Yeah, but what about right now?! We need him to play in the next round, which we’re already causing a delay on. Isn’t there something you can do?” said Kyoko, unaware of how cold and unfeeling her words appeared.
Standing only a foot behind Kyoko, Zeke was taken aback by how much their team’s fearless leader was living up to that moniker in all the wrong ways. Looking over at Cade, he could see just how hurt he was that Kyoko was so willing to brush off Rupert’s ailments for the sake of the game. He placed a hand on Kyoko’s shoulder, knowing that someone needed to talk some sense into her, “Kyoko, it’s just a game. Maybe they’ll postpone the third round until tomorrow or something. And even if they don’t-”
“SHHHHH! I’m in the middle of something, Zeke,” said Kyoko, not hearing a single word of Zeke’s calming statement. Instead, her focus was lasered in on Rupert and the medical professional treating him, “Be straight with me doc, can he play?”
Placing a hand on the back of her neck, the ER woman sighed, “In theory, I could perform an emergency enema to clean his system out, as well as give him some magnesium supplements for the brain fog, but I can’t promise he’ll be in any condition to compete. That’s a lot of stress on the body for what should be a natural process and will likely result in irreversible damage to his bowel muscles and mental capacity.”
“Do we have a choice?” asked Kyoko, her eyes darting over to Keelee, who had been standing by silently with a hand covering her mouth to disguise her fearful expression. All at once, everyone standing around Rupert turned to look to her for answers.
“Well…to put it simply, no. You really don’t. We’re already blowing up the schedule at this point,” said Keelee starkly, pushing her emotions deep down to say what needed to be said, “If he can’t compete, then we’ll still have to get the final round with the Wetters shot tonight and script Round Three to be filmed during tomorrow’s planned reshoots to avoid paying for a third day of production. It’s a bummer but that’s show business.”
Crouching down so that her face was at eye level with Rupert, Kyoko placed a tender hand on his cheek. “Y-You’re okay, right, Rupert? What’s one little enema, right?” she said, desperation baked into every word she said.
The other contestants and crew members averted their gaze, unable to watch Kyoko resort to begging. All except for Zeke, who was caught in the middle of being worried for his friends and furious at Kyoko. Taking a deep breath, the temper he’d managed to keep a lid on all day finally reared its ugly head. “It’s over, Kyoko!” he said sharply, causing everyone’s eyes to turn to him, “It’s over. We did our best but we’re not going to encourage, nay, force Rupert out onto that stage based on nothing but greed.”
A stunned silence filled the area backstage. Even passerby crew members stopped working and talking, tuning in for the real-life drama that was unfolding. Kyoko opened her mouth to respond but nothing came out. Could she really defend what she was doing? Had she become that heartless?
“I want…to play.”
Suddenly, all eyes landed on Rupert, who had broken through his brain fog enough to speak to understand what was going on. “W-Whatever you gotta do…do it…” he said, his words instantly taking the weight off of Kyoko’s shoulders.
“See?! He wants to play!” said Kyoko excitedly. She leaned in and planted a big, wet kiss on Rupert’s forehead, “We’re gonna get you back on your feet, you beautiful bastard.”
Once again, the backstage area was lively as the production crew got back to work preparing to shoot Round Three while the ER specialists began prepping Rupert for his emergency enema. The two people not buzzing around were Zeke and Cade, who could only offer each other looks of dreadful concern.
Meanwhile, a far different sort of drama was unfolding with the four Wetters in the main studio space. Standing stiffly on opposite sides of their team’s starting mat with their arms crossed were Mia and Misa, neither of whom was willing to be the one to bend first. Not that their obvious disdain for each other was stopping Lelaya from running back and forth in hopes of patching things up. “Misa, pleeeeeeease! Just hear out was Mia has to say!” she said, jogging in place with hands clasping Misa’s shoulder.
“There’s nothing I need to hear from that traitor. I hope she gets thrown in the trash with all the other dirty diapers from this place so I never have to hear from her again,” said Misa, punctuating her sentence with a sharp head swivel and a well-timed, “Hmmph!”
Lowering her head like a downtrodden puppy, Lelaya backed away from Misa slowly. “O-Okay, I’ll be sure to let her know,” she said, her bunny ears drooping slightly as she tried to maintain the pep in her voice despite the dire situation. Rushing to the other side of the platform, she tapped Mia on the shoulder, prompting her to strain her peripheral vision toward Lelaya, “Misa wanted me to tell you that she hopes that you uh…something, something…end up in a dirty diaper pail? I dunno, it was a lot and she was talking super fast.”
“Don’t worry, I heard more than enough,” said Mia, puffing out her cheeks as she geared up to say the harshest thing she could think of, “You tell that little crybaby that if she’s expecting an apology, she can go searching through that diaper pail she wants me thrown into.”
Sulking back to Misa, Lelaya was not built to handle this kind of conflict. “H-Hey Misa, Mia said that-”
“You tell her that I wouldn’t even want her stupid fucking apology if she gave it,” said Misa, cutting Lelaya off mid-sentence as she’d already heard everything Mia had said.
Without saying another word, Lelaya began crossing back over to where Mia was standing, only for Ayaya to stop her midway. “Oh, will you three just stop!” she said, groaning as she let her head slouch back, “I do not give a FUCK who started it, who finished it, whatever! You two don’t have to like each other anymore to work together. HOW DO YOU THINK THIS ENTIRE INDUSTRY OPERATES?!” Exhaling deeply, she let her words hang heavy in the air over Mia and Misa’s heads.
Ayaya wasn’t far from wrong. In an industry made up of hundreds of thousands of people, the bulk of Hollywood managed to stay functioning in spite of the fact that everyone was constantly clawing over each other for acting roles and vital crew positions. If all of these people with knives pressed to each other’s backs could work together, then nothing was stopping Mia and Misa from putting aside their differences for the sake of winning $500k.
“I think we all just need to take a deep breath together and let out all the meanie energy floating around,” said Lelaya, gripping Ayaya’s hand as she took in a big breath of air, only to exhale dejectedly as none of her friends joined in.
Rotating in place so she could stare down Mia, Misa was ready to do what she needed to do. “Whatever, I’ll play nice. But after this is all over, I am done with you and with diapers for good,” she said, pointing a finger firmly at Mia.
Feeling her years of friendship with Mia and Misa slipping through her fingers, Lelaya’s hand tightened around Ayaya’s. If Misa was that serious about never interacting with diapers again, what did that mean for the two of them?
“If that’s how you feel then whatever. Just don’t expect any help when you find yourself filling another diaper,” said Mia, her eyes meeting Misa’s unflinchingly. trying to avoid acknowledging the pain she and Misa were causing their dear friend. As Ayaya did her best to comfort Lelaya, the two girls bottled up their guilt and steeled their nerves. There was still plenty of game left to play, something both Mia and Misa were begrudgingly aware of.
TO BE CONTINUED…