DiapOut: Chapter 9
“Well, well, well! Looks like one of our young, male contestants has decided to put on a show!”
Dozens of female voices descended upon Zeke’s exposed body as he struggled to keep himself from falling backward. Having lost his diaper to Ayaya’s grabby hands, he was now stuck in a very precarious position, holding onto the overhead wire and the cloth diaper that was attached to it. As embarrassing and frankly uncomfortable as this situation was, he was too close to winning to let a little partial nudity keep him from crossing the finish line.
Swinging his body back and forth, Zeke managed to shift his weight into a much more stable position, allowing him to slowly release the wire. The audience began chanting “Zeke! Zeke! Zeke!” over and over again as they rooted for his success. Their voices filled him with determination. With the unfolded cloth diaper wrapped around his wrist, he resumed his climbing position, patiently moving one limb at a time until he surpassed the final two steps.
Rolling over onto his back, Zeke let out an exhausted, yet victorious cry as he fist-pumped the air from his prone position. Sadly, he wouldn’t get to enjoy his moment of triumph for too long.
“Zeke, get your ass over her NOW!” shouted Kyoko, who was standing just a few feet away waiting on the final stage. While he’d certainly earned them a massive lead, she wasn’t exactly thrilled by his laziness and showboating at the tail end of his obstacle.
Scrambling to his feet, Zeke scurried to the final checkpoint, tossing the cloth diaper and both bobby pins to her. “You got this!” he said, hoping to give her the same encouragement that the audience gave him. However, Kyoko’s icy glare in response told him that she was less than appreciative of his motivational words.
Tossing the pins and cloth diaper down at the starting platform, Kyoko sprinted into the giant sandbox filled with baby powder before dropping to her knees and starting in on her dig. She wasn’t sure how long she had to find the baby doll but she wasn’t going to waste a second of the time she had.
Fortunately, baby powder was far lighter than sand, making it far easier to scoop up massive armfuls of chalky powder. The downside was the amount of powder that floated in the air around Kyoko. Before she could dig any further, she let out a massive sneeze, causing a flurry of “Awwws” to erupt from the audience.
“A well-powdered baby is a happy baby!” said CassiRole, giggling as she watched Kyoko turn into a powder magnet with more and more white dust enveloping her body. It was quite amusing to watch. Still, as the host, she had a duty to check in on both teams, “You’d better pick it up, Ayaya! It’s only a matter of time before Kyoko finds her doll.”
Trudging up the slippery, lotion-covered steps, Ayaya was too tired and too angry to make any sort of sarcastic rebuttal. Having already reached the penultimate steps once before, she was finding it difficult to mutter up the energy to return to the same point. Her arms felt like a pair of two-ton weights while her shaking legs were threatening to turn to jello at any moment.
“Stop being such a slow poke and get your big booty up here! We gotta win!” shouted Lelaya, who was bouncing up and down like an impatient child. Her head swung back and forth rapidly between watching Kyoko dig and Ayaya climb.
Finding the strength to pick her head up, Ayaya screamed, “If you think it’s so easy, why don’t you get your ass down here and-OOOOF!” Too preoccupied with yelling at her teammate, Ayaya lost her footing at the wrong moment and was sent tumbling back to the bottom of the steps once again. By this point, there wasn’t a square inch of her body that wasn’t drenched in creamy lotion. Her supremely saggy diaper felt more like a ball and chain locking her to the floor than an actual plastic pamper as it slithered and squelched around her pelvic region.
With nothing left in the tank, Ayaya might as well have been waving a white flag. Not that it mattered much though, considering only seconds later, Cassi’s voice burst through the loudspeaker once again. “She’s got it! Kyoko’s found her doll!” said a very elated Cassi, who somehow found a way to sound even more excited than the crowd that was clamoring behind her.
With a trail of white powder wafting through the air behind her as she ran, Kyoko slammed the diaper pins, cloth diaper, and newly acquired baby doll down on the endgame changing table. It was all over but the crying. She blocked out the world around her and immediately got to work folding the diaper around the doll. Her hands were so speedy that the camera was having trouble keeping up with her. In no time at all, she had the diaper pins hooked onto the cloth diaper. “I did it!” she screamed, holding the diapered baby doll up high for everyone to see.
“And we have a winner! Round One goes to the Messers!” stated Cassi proudly as confetti cannons went off all around Kyoko at the finish line. It may not have been perfect but the audience ate up every second of it. The first round of her hosting career was now in her rearview mirror.
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“What the heckity-heck was that?!” shouted Lelaya, folding her arms and pouting up a storm, “While all of you got to have super awesome fun times on the obstacle course, I got stuck watching the whole time and didn’t get to do nothing! It’s not fair!”
Making no attempt at hiding her contempt, Ayaya rolled her eyes as she continued to soak her hair under the dressing room shower, “Oh, whatever. I’d have traded you in a heartbeat if I knew what a shitty challenge I’d get stuck with.”
“Except you should’ve known, Ayaya,” scoffed Misa, infuriated that all of her efforts to give their team a lead were in vain, “If you’d stayed with us during the safety walk instead of wandering off to ogle at the director, you would’ve known what was coming.”
Jumping to her aching feet in a huff, Ayaya cranked off the shower and got up in Misa’s face. “Oh, so it’s all my fault then,” she said, staring daggers at Misa and the others, “If you knew so much, why didn’t you say anything? Huh? HUH?”
“Guys, please! This is getting us nowhere,” said Mia, stepping in between Ayaya and Misa before the situation escalated. Unfortunately, since she was still covered in a thick layer of dried pudding, her usual peacekeeping tactics failed to have the same gravitas.
Throwing up her arms, Ayaya was through with being treated like a loser. If she couldn’t win on her own terms, she was more than content to call it quits. “Whatever! I don’t care anymore! I’m done with this stupid game!” she screamed as she grabbed her towels and stormed out of the room, leaving her dumbfounded three teammates behind. She didn’t care if it caused her team to forfeit. She was done with this stupid game. Stomping through the hallowed halls of the soundstage facility, she went door to door searching for the one with Jackson’s name on it. If anyone could get her off of her crappy team, it was him.
“Please, please, pleeeeeeease don’t quit!”
All of a sudden, Ayaya came across an open door where a discussion between two voices, one male and one female, could be heard bleeding out into the hall. Peeking around the corner, she saw Jackson on his knees at the feet of a woman Ayaya wasn’t familiar with.
“C’mon Claire, how about an extra week's vacation? Or a company car!? Say the word and I’ll make it happen,” said Jackson, desperation dripping from every syllable.
Sadly, the director’s pathetic display did little to persuade the disgruntled costume designer. “Sorry, Jack but there are people in this industry with some dignity. That girl is the single biggest diva I’ve ever worked with,” said Claire, ripping her hands away from Jackson’s, “I don’t care what you throw at me. Find yourself another lead customer. I quit!” Without another word, she turned her back on Jackson and this entire production and walked out, passing by Ayaya without so much as a second glance.
Climbing back to his feet, Jackson rubbed his hand on the back of his neck, sighing in frustration. “For fuck sake, Cassi. You really make me wonder if you’re more trouble than your worth,” he muttered under his breath.
KNOCK KNOCK!
Whipping his head toward the door, Jackson’s hopes of Claire returning were ignited before being immediately dashed by Ayaya’s presence. “Oh, it’s you…and you’re in nothing but a towel. Listen, I’m flattered but you’re not the first twenty-something who’s come onto me and-”
“Oh no, no, no. “I promise I’m not here for that. And sorry if I made you feel weird on set. My nerves got the better of me,” said Ayaya, doing her best to wave off Jackson’s concerns. In reality, she wasn’t sorry for a single thing she’d done today but that didn’t stop her from claiming the opposite, “I was just passing by when I happened to overhear you and your costumer…well, former costumer. How ya holding up?” Using her casual dialogue to traverse the private dressing room, she placed a gentle hand on Jackson’s shoulder.
At first, Jackson wanted to push away Ayaya’s gesture but after the day he’d been having, any source of comfort was welcome. “It’s just hard, ya know? I’ve spent the last two years getting this show off the ground and now that it's finally happening…I have to deal with the host from hell. Please don’t tell her I said that.”
“Don’t worry, my lips are sealed,” said Ayaya, letting out a bubbly giggle. She knew that the more unassuming she seemed, the easier it would be to tear down his defenses. “Feel free to vent to me if you need to get anything off your chest. I’ve been told that I’m an incredible listener.”
TO BE CONTINUED…