The Demand of Supply

Chapter 1
Whole Story

Chapter Description: Whole Story

Daniel sat behind the reception counter in the combination lobby and gift shop, staring blankly at the wall.  The Playground was dead tonight. It’s never a good sign for a kink dungeon when the monitors outnumber the guests.  It’s an apocalyptic portent when it happens on a Saturday night.

The owner and proprietor didn’t stare out of boredom, but anxiety. Bills were coming in and loans were being called due.  This had been a very bad investment of Grandpa’s money.  A very bad one.

Going in, he thought owning a kink dungeon would have been kind of cool.  Easy money.  No stress.  Sit around. Hand out waivers. Let people fuck around for fun.  It’d be like owning a brothel in the old west.  He thought himself a genius spending his inheritance buying this place.

Daniel was very, very, wrong.  He’d bought himself a massive albatross to hang around his neck. When he bought it, The Playground consisted of two large ‘play spaces’, a lobby that doubled as a gift shop, a tiny ass locker room, a tinier bathroom, and a room that served no practical purpose whatsoever beyond giving new customers a place to fill out membership forms. 

There hadn’t been new members for quite some time.

How was he supposed to know that the sex toys and whatchamacallits didn’t come with the place? A guy bought a gym and he expected treadmills. What Daniel had really bought was an ugly building with some empty rooms in a bad part of town.  He’d bought a place called the playground and only got the ground.  All the ‘play’ elements had to come out of pocket.

Pile onto that all the things that he hadn’t taken into account- rules, insurance, vetting, pricing structure, advertising- and this goldmine was sapping him dry financially and emotionally.  Contrary to his own misconceptions, this business neither sold nor ran itself.

Then there was ‘The Racoon Situation’, may it never be repeated…

The initial boom from “Under New Management” had lost its shine less than half a year in.  Now in year three, Daniel didn’t think he could make it another six months.

The buzzing alarm from someone entering broke him out of his anxiety induced paralysis. In through the door walked a man in a too perfectly pressed charcoal gray suit carrying a black briefcase. That part didn’t disturb Daniel.  He’d seen mostly leather dudes and chicks come through the door, but ‘masters’ in suits wasn’t a foreign concept to him. 

There was something different about this one.  His dark hair and goatee looked more greasy than slick, and he had an aura about him and his body language.   His footsteps clicked across the floor like hooves, even though his snakeskin boots looked well worn and broken in.   In the back of his brain, Daniel’s fight or flight response readied itself, knowing that the suit was little more than camouflage. This was a predator.

Predator or not, as long as he showed his I.D. at the door, he was a potential customer.

“Hey there,” Daniel said.  “Welcome to The Playground. How can I help you?”

The briefcase was placed down on the counter.  “The real question here, Danny boy, is ‘How can I help you?’.”

Daniel’s face paled. “How do you know my name?”

The stranger in the suit thumbed back to the way he came in.  “Asked the guy at the door.” He paused for a second. “Don’t worry, I’m not a cop. This isn’t a sting.  What I really want to talk to you about is-”

Daniel held out his hand to stop.  “I’m sorry, I’m not in the mood to hear any solicitors.”

The stranger flopped his arms to the side and lackadaisically turned in a circle, looking around at the empty lobby and rows and rows of unsold sex toys sitting on shelves and hanging on hooks in the gift shop.  He put a finger to his ear and leaned like he was listening for something.  

The rooms were soundproofed, but even if they weren’t, there wouldn’t be much to hear.  It was close to midnight and they only had a throuple using the main play area to drip wax onto each other. He was paying his DM’s to basically do nothing all night.

“Yeah, Danny,” the solicitor said. “I can tell you’ve got a lot going on, what with the failing business and all.”

Fuck this guy.  “Whatever you’re selling, buddy, I literally can’t buy.”

“Levi.”

“Excuse me?” 

“I’m not your buddy,” the stranger said.  “I’’m Levi.  And I’m not selling you anything. I don’t want your money, I want your partnership.”

Daniel cocked an eyebrow. “I’m not looking to sell.”

“I am, though.” Levi smiled. “I said I wasn’t looking to sell anything to you. I’ve got a great product, I just need a distributor.”

“Is it meth?” Daniel asked sarcastically.

“Better.”  Levi opened up the suitcase with a flourish.

Daniel looked down.  He would have laughed if he had thought it was a joke. “Diapers,” Daniel said flatly.  “You want me to sell diapers?”

“I do,” Levi said. “I want you to sell my diapers.  It’ll save your business.”

Daniel had been around long enough to know that some people were into diapers. He’d also been around long enough to know that some people were into anything.  “I don’t think this place is your market.”

The stranger in the snakeskin boots didn’t relent. “I think it’s exactly my market. It’s practically a blank canvas.  Perfect place to set up shop.”

“With diapers…?”

“Not just any diapers. These diapers are that perfect mix of absorbency and aesthetics.”

Daniel scoffed. “They have cartoons on them.”

“Exactly,” Levi pointed at him as if he’d just stumbled onto something great.  Hepicked up two of them like they were bricks of cocaine.  ‘And they come in plastic or cloth backed!  They are the best at what they do.”

“Soak up pee?”

“Headspace, Daniel.  Headspace. The ultimate high!”

That one did make Daniel laugh. “I think you’re confused.”

“Hear me out, Danny boy,” Levi said.  “Why is that couple in there pouring hot wax on each other? Because something about the pain and the sensation and the simulated danger of it all gets their endorphins pumping like crazy. It alters their minds, no different in principle than cigarettes and booze.  It’s what humans have done throughout history. They crave an altered state of being. My product does the same thing, is addictive, isn’t regulated by the FDA, and is disposable.”  He threw an arm back towards the gift shop.  “If you sell a paddle, you sell one paddle to that person and probably won’t ever sell that same paddle ever again.  If you sell my product, you will sell it again and again and again.”

“But people don’t like diapers around here,” Daniel said. “There’s no market.”

“There will be,” Levi half-whispered.  Louder and more casual he said, “Look, Danny boy. Here’s what I’m proposing:  Let me give you some sample packs.  I’ll send in some people to generate interest and do my own advertising around town. Let people know that The Playground is the only place to get them.  Then you sell the diapers, keep ten percent for yourself plus the interest fees.  If I’m wrong, you lose no money”

Daniel chewed on his lip.  It looked like a dumb novelty gimmick, but it was a novelty gimmick that had almost zero risk to him.  As long as it wasn’t like the Raccoon Situation…

“Deal.”  He offered Levi his hand.

Levi shook it. “Deal, Danny boy.  You won’t regret this. Expect the first box when you get here tomorrow. ”  It wasn’t until Levi left that Dan wondered how he knew about the throuple in the other room.

*************************************************************************

Not quite twenty hours later, a flash of bright white drew Daniel out of his nightly anxiety paralysis. Two new customers, the first two in a while, came out of the changing room holding hands.  He hadn’t changed or removed his clothes at all, and was still wearing the same gray t-shirt and blue jeans that he’d come in with.  The only thing that might pass as ‘kinky’ was that he was carrying a pink satchel bag over his shoulder. She’d been carrying it when they came in and signed up. Now he was.  A man carrying a purse wasn’t anything to write home about, in Daniel’s opinion.

His partner, however, was topless, and barefoot, but not nude. Daniel had seen plenty of naked people.  What he hadn’t seen was someone wearing such thick crinkly padding wrapped around their ass.

Levi’s people, no doubt.

“Ready, Squirt?” he asked.

“Ready, Daddy!” 

Daniel couldn’t help himself. “Excuse me,”  Daniel called over to them. “Can I ask you a question?”

The more adult of the two spoke up.  “Yessir? How can I help you?”

Daniel’s nose wrinkled up and he thought about it.  “You’re not doing any kind of like…incest play,  are you?” The girl’s eyes brightened up when Danny said the word ‘play’!  Shit. This might be The Racoon Situation all over again.

“No, sir,” the man referred to as ‘Daddy’ said. “Squirt, here, just wants to play on the playground. Run around. Climb.  That kinda stuff.  He gave her bottom a pat. “This,” he said, “is to keep the rest of the playground dry.” 

This was going to be another Racoon Situation…

Daniel struggled to find the words. “You know that the stuff in there isn’t…really….a playground right?  It’s just a name.”

“Anything can be a playground if you know how to use it,” Daddy gave a wink.

Daniel ran his hands through his hair. He was desperate for new customers. Max was on DM duty, too.  He’d stop shit if people were getting freaked out.  “Okay,” he said. “Just checking. Go have fun.”

*******************************************************************************************
Daniel kept waiting for the couple to exit, but they didn’t leave until just before closing.  That must have meant they were behaving.  No Racoon Situations tonight, it seemed. Good.

They walked in and out of the giftshop, going from room to room, same as anybody else. No complaints from the handful of other guests. And at the end of the night, they went back into the changing room.  Daniel jumped in his chair a little when he heard the sounds of tapes ripping, but quickly recontextualized.  Nothing was being broken, that shouldn’t be.  ‘Squirt’ was just getting back into normal clothes.

They came out a few minutes later.  Squirt was dressed in pink shorts and a Minnie Mouse t-shirt. She’d worn it coming in, but Daniel hadn’t thought anything of it at the time. Shame though it was, Disney Adults happened. With what he had seen, Daniel suspected there was more to it now.

Her Daddy hadn’t changed anything about himself and was still holstering the pink purse.  He did, however, hold in his hand a bulging tightly wrapped mass of plastic.  “Is there anywhere I can…?”

Gears turned and clicked in the proprietor’s head. Ew! Gross! She’d used it? Squirt was not just a nickname.  Embarrassment and surprise kicked Daniel into autopilot.  “Oh. That?” he stammered. “Sure.”   Daniel offered up a tall lined trash can normally used for tossing away chip bags, candy wrappers, and other snacks Daniel could upcharge to half-naked people. 

His customer slipped it casually inside and let the loud thunk once it hit the bottom testify how full it was.  “Thanks,” he said.

“No problem,” Daniel replied, still on autopilot. 

The couple walked out hand in hand. “Fankyoooo….”  Squirt called just as they approached the threshold. She was waving her free arm so wildly as to be flapping.  Daniel’s gaze shifted downward and he noticed both the rounded lump from beneath her shorts and the bit of white plastic poking out the waistband.

“Huh…”  Guess she wasn’t done ‘playing’.

Max came out of the main play area with the final four or five stragglers, just in time to see the new odd couple leave.  While they went into the changing area to put on street clothes,  Max leaned against Daniel’s desk.  “They were nice,” he said.

“Who?” Daniel asked. “The baby people?”

“Yeah.”

Daniel had a more than mild curiosity. “What did they do?”

“Hide and seek,” Molly said. “Peekaboo. Played catch with some stuff in the diaper bag.” Max ground his teeth in thought a little bit.  “She climbed up on the cross like it was a jungle gym. Kinda wholesome in a weird way.”

Wholesome schmolesome. Daniel was peeved that he hadn’t sold anything like that Levi hack had promised.  A resalable product wasn’t so great if everybody brought their own.

“Anybody else bothered by it?” Daniel asked his best monitor.

“No,” Max told him.  “Some people were kinda curious.”

Daniel arched an eyebrow at his employee.  “How curious?”

On cue, the last customer of the night came out of the changing room. He was tight lipped and blushing, but the tightly wrapped ball of plastic and pulp in his hands told the tale. Daniel thumbed to the garbage can, and the man dropped it in.  The second thunk wasn’t as loud as the first.

“They shared,” Max explained. “Called it a free sample.” 

“Right there on the floor?” Daniel asked.  “Well I’ll be…”
Max looked at Daniel and misinterpreted Daniel’s expression. “Is that okay, boss? I didn’t think that broke any rules…cuz he wasn’t wet or poopy.”

“No,” Daniel said. “It’s cool.” 

***********************************************************************************

The next night Daniel saw three times as many people in diapers as the night before. That still wasn’t a lot but weird that there was more than one.  The couple had come back and brought a friend with them, and the regular that had experimented had come back to get his diaper on. 

“Thank you,” he said, handing Daniel the money in exchange for the two-diaper sample pack.  “Thank you so much!”  He stared at the plastic rectangles like they were heroin.

“You’re…welcome?” Daniel said.  That was weird. Normally, if he was gonna get repeat business, Daniel would have to wait at least a week.  Were the diapers that good? 

Daniel tore a spare pack open and turned one over on his hands like it was a puzzle box.  When he breathed through his nose he caught a whiff of sweet smelling perfume, like honey with a touch of lavender.  It wasn’t overpowering but it was faintly…nostalgic? 

Was this what people were after? 

Daniel didn’t think much more of it than that.  He was just happy for the slight increase in business.

*****************************************************************************************

The night after that it had doubled again up to eight padded bottoms. New business and old.
After that, it was close to twenty diaper butts.  On a weeknight, no less.  The Playground was lucky to get ten customers on a weeknight.    The people who came in wearing padded pants seemed to want to change diapers in the locker room, and if they weren’t wearing when they arrived, Daniel would see them blushing and tossing out  a used one on their way out.  He’d already had to dedicate a dedicated covered can for the task of disposal.

“How’s it looking?” he asked Max at the end of that night.

Max smiled. “Awesome!” he said. He immediately corrected himself. “I mean kinda boring. Most of them are crawling around, climbing on stuff, talking baby talk.  “Their CG’s are keeping order with stuff like duck duck goose, but nobody’s violating consent or doing anything risky. They're all being good little boys and girls.”

Daniel gave Max a look.  “Excuse me?”

“You know. Littles. It’s what they call themselves.”

“Oh. Sure.” Sounded like Max was getting something out of it too.

“Excuse me,” a bleached blonde woman walked up.  She wore scrubs decorated in nursery print designs: rattles and bottles and safety pins and such..  Medical play? Daycare play? Both? “Do you have any extra diapers for sale? My little guy had an accident.”

Being held by the wrist was the very first ‘convert’ from earlier that week.  The one who’d gotten diapered up by Squirt and her Daddy, and embarrassedly tossed in an extra wet diaper.  Presently, he stood barefoot with a dark patch on his crotch that dripped all the way down to his legs.

“Crud,” Max said, “I’ll get a mop.”

“Don’t worry,” the scrubbed lady said. “I already took care of that part. I just need to get him cleaned up. 

“I..I…tried,” the customer stammered.  He was a good six inches taller than the blonde lady, but looked like a pathetic three year old who’d gotten too excited.

“Jakey, say you’re sorry.”

“I’m sowwy,” the grown-ass man said with a toddlerish lisp. 

Daniel smiled, trying to seem good natured and paternal. “It’s no big deal, bud.”  He placed a sample diaper on the counter. 

Jakey’s date or nurse or babysitter or whatever paid for the diapers and took the man back into the changing room.  Damn, that designation had taken on a completely different meaning lately.

A few minutes later, they came out again, with Jakey not wearing anything over his fresh crinkly diaper.  “Thank you very much,” the woman in the nursery scrubs said.  “May I make a suggestion?”

The woman had just given him money, so Daniel was more inclined to listen.  “Do you think you could put a changing table in there? It’d be a lot easier to change the babies without having to lie them down on the floor.

The Playground’s Owner immediately thought of that old massage table that rarely got use.  “I think I can rig something up.”

“Thank you,” she said. “That’s much appreciated.”

Max waited until the pair had left.  “Why didn’t you say anything?”

“What would I say something about?” Daniel asked his right hand.

“Water sports? Going out in fetish gear.  We don’t want a Raccoon Situation, do we, Danny?”

Danny waved it off. “The guy peed himself on accident and his girlfriend cleaned it up, Max.”

“And the diaper? Outside?  We don’t let other folks wear their gear. It’s vanilla clothes only past that door.”

“It’s just a diaper,” Daniel said. “And what other folks?”

Max huffed and crossed his arms.  “Point taken…”

*****************************************************************************************
“Excuse me?” A skinny pimply faced kid came up to him the next week. “Are you the guy I talk to?”  His eyes jittered around, nervously, like he was afraid he’d get caught or something.

“Let me see your I.D. again,” Daniel said.  Did Rory need new glasses at the door?  He looked at the guy’s wallet.  Eighteen according to the driver’s license. It didn’t look like a forgery.  “You a senior?”

“Freshman,” the kid said. “In college!” he quickly yelped. “In college! No class tomorrow.”

That had been Daniel not too long ago. He just had better skin and filled out quicker. “Sorry sir,” Daniel said, handing it back. “Needed to double check.  Who are you looking for?”

“I’m looking…” the young man said haltingly, “...to buy…”

The kid was low on nerve and Daniel felt like messing with him. Paddles? floggers? Dragon Tails? Anal beads? Vibrators?”

“Diapers!”

Daniel felt like a drug dealer, making the man-child squirm.  “Last pack.”

“Thank you!” The spindly eighteen year old dashed to get changed. 

“Shit,” Daniel cursed to himself. That really had been the last pack.  He scraped at the bottom of the last box and found nothing.  These crinkly rectangles with cartoons on them had really sold themselves and people kept coming back for more.  Much to Daniel’s profit, coming back meant they had to pay the entry fee, too.

The door buzzed with yet another arrival.  Daniel didn’t look up right away.  He’d quickly gotten very used to people coming to the Playground.

“Seems like I’m right on time,” Levi said.  “How’s it going, Danny boy?”

Daniel leapt up with joy. “Great,” he yelped. “It’s going great. Business is really picking up!”  Daniel’s guardian angel looked pleased, but not surprised. He held up an open cardboard box. “Just ran out!”  That joy was tempered by the huge wad of cash he handed over to Levi.

“Thaaaaank you,” Levi took up the money.  “Pleasure doing business with you, Danny boy.” He extended his hand. “See you around, bud.” 

The stranger turned on his heel and a jolt of panic found its way to Daniel.  “Wait. I’m out of diapers! I need more!”

Levi stopped and hung his head.  “Yeah, about that. I’m out of samplers.  All I have are bigger packs. Ten, twelve. More.  I’m losing money otherwise.”

“That’s fine,” Daniel said. “I’ll sell bigger packs.” The words turned to ash in his mouth as soon as he said them. “But that’s a lot of diapers…”

“Yup,” Levi agreed.

“Enough to last them a couple days.”

“At least.”

“How do I keep people coming back, if they don’t need to buy diapers as often?”

The greasy thug in a business suit looked like Daniel had grown an extra head.  “Danny,” Levi said.  “Danny, Danny, Danny.  Danny boy.  Are you listening to yourself? You’re not selling diapers.”

“I’m not?”

“You’re selling a lifestyle.  Look.”

A  guy who could have been a pro-wrestler came out of the changing room and waddled among the paddles and ropes like a kid trying to figure out toys that were too old for him..  For a beat, Daniel thought he was wearing some kind of leotard, but most leotards didn’t have farm animals decorating their tights, or a diaper bulge underneath.  

“Hey, little boy.,” Levi asked him.  “What’s your favorite toy?”

The big man looked up and wiped a line of drool off his chin.  “My wattle.  I forgot to bwing it though…”

From his pocket, Levi produced what was essentially a maraca painted baby blue and given a bunny face.  “Here you go, kiddo…”

“WATTLE!”  It was disturbing to watch the giant shake the big baby rattle and laugh like like hyena after a fresh kill. 

“See what I mean, Danny?” He didn’t., though.  “McDonald’s isn’t really a burger company. It’s a real estate company.  The Playground wasn’t a dungeon, and it’s definitely not a store.  It’s a playground, just for really really big babies.”

Daniel looked beyond the doors to the play spaces, thinking about the menagerie of bondage equipment he’d splurged on filling up the place. Sex swings, spanking horses, stocks, inversion tables, crosses and what not.  “Um…I don’t think The Playground’s got that kind of equipment.

Levi clapped Daniel on the back. “Then let’s reinvest, my friend.  Let’s reinvest.”

Danny thought of the business he’d been getting.  He didn’t dare say no.
*********************************************************************************************
Two weeks later, The Playground had rebranded itself as specifically catering to people who enjoyed wearing diapers and acting like children.  It sounded like a bad idea, being so niche, but nightly attendance didn’t drop.

Night after night, people waddled in off the streets, to put on a diaper and play in a literal indoor play place and nursery.  Daniel walked the new facilities with a strange sense of pride.  He’d built this.  With some guidance and a new investment from his business partner, he was starting to climb out of the mountain of debt he’d accrued.

“Pretty crazy, boss,” Max said. “Pretty crazy.”  There were yelps and laughs and the sounds of bare feet running.  ‘Hey! No running!”

“Sowwy!”

Max shook his head.  “I’m turning into a babysitter,” he grumbled. 

“Look on the bright side,” Daniel joked, “you’re not having to change any diapers.”

As if illustrating his point, a handsome young man in cardigan was busy unsnapping what Daniel guessed was his boyfriend’s onesie.  “Shit…” 

“Yeah,” Daniel agreed. “Looks like it.”  The brown stains on the baby man’s backside were kind of hard to miss.

“Alright,” Max said. “They’re out of here!”

Daniel put his hand on Max’s shoulder. “No.  Let them stay.”  Daniel noticed a bare spot on the wall where he’d been thinking of putting in some bouncers.  “In fact, let’s move the changing table from the locker room to over there.”  Most of his customers were coming in pre-diapered anyway.

“That’s gotta be some kind of health code violation,” Max said.

“Nope,” Daniel said smugly. “And nobody else seems to mind.”  Everybody else was so deep in their own personal headspace that the public floor change could have been inside an invisible bubble.

Another caregiver doing the same thing to their little girl might have contradicted that theory. “Max,” he said. “I think I’m gonna make a new rule.  Caregivers get in free with a Little.”  Might be a good way to get some free help managing these tykes.

“Mistuh Danny! Mistuh Danny!” A scruffy faced middle aged toddler caught his attention.  “Do you have any diapees?” 

Time to go back to the real work.  “Sure do, bud!  Let’s go to the giftshop. Maybe find some cool toys for you too.”  Daniel waved his right hand man away, and hustled to go make a sale.

He could see that there was an appeal to this whole baby thing, but Daniel couldn’t see it.” Maybe he should try, though.  Maybe he should try…

****************************************************************************************

The end of the night was becoming Danny’s favorite time at the Playground, and for more than the usual reason of getting to go home.  It was also when his customers were most likely to reload up on diapers. That little bit of consistency, that new development in routine, always lifted Danny’s spirits a little.  

Business was booming.  Buying more of Levi’s wonderful diapers meant that people would keep coming back.  Things had been too good to be true, and the little consistencies allowed Danny to keep telling himself that the bottom wasn’t dropping out anytime soon.

“That’s the last of them,” Max said.

“Good,” Danny said.  He eyed his way to the main playroom.  “Good night, yeah?”

“Yeah,” Max agreed. “It’s kinda like having kids. It’s not so bad once you get used to - ARE YOU WEARING A DIAPER?!”

Danny looked down at himself. The stretchy sweatpants he’d put on over the diaper had fallen down so that they only covered the bottom half. He’d been so busy that he’d forgotten to hike them back up over his diaper.  Or that he was wearing one.  “Oh yeah,” Danny said. “I guess so.”

“Is this your new thing, boss?” Max asked.  “Because if it is, that’s fine, but…”

“But what?”

“Things are making a lot more sense.”

Danny laughed at that.  “Don’t worry about it, Max. I’m just blending in. People wanna buy from people who are like them.  Part of their clique.  Right?”  Danny didn’t think he was lying, but he still felt wrong all the same.

“Have you been wearing those for long?”

Danny shook his head and laughed. “Naw. I just put this one on before coming into work.”  Technically not a lie.  He’d only been wearing that diaper after he woke up and had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for breakfast. 

He had worn others, though, so it also was a lie of omission. This was the first one he’d worn at work, however.  Every other time had been at home.  They came in handy after he’d started wetting the bed.  And he’d been able to get so much more done tonight because he didn’t have to stop to go potty.

Bathroom…he didn’t have to go to the bathroom. That was a weird random thought.  So was the quiet realization that he was peeing and talking to Max at the same time.

Max didn’t notice, or didn’t say anything.  “Okay, man. Just don’t get in too deep. You’ve kind of got an addictive personality.”

Danny said the best thing he could.  “I hear ya, Max. Thanks for looking out. You go ahead and head out. I’ll toss out the garbage.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

Max didn’t need further convincing.

Danny waited until Max had left The Playground, and counted as high as he could twice to make sure Max wasn’t coming back.  Then, feeling strangely guilty considering it was his building, he toddled into the main playroom.

It looked like a nursery with its indoor jungle gym, its foam floor puzzle pieces; its shelves decked out with toys, blocks, train tracks, and marble runs.  The only swings were the scaled up harness ones that Levi had snagged from a special needs school auctioning off old P.E. equipment.  It smelled like a nursery too.

Danny wandered over to the changing table, and rested his hand on it. Formerly a massage table, Danny had paid a pretty penny to have it broken down and built back up into a proper changing station.  The Mommies, Daddies, Nannies, and Babysitters definitely appreciate it.  So did their babies, but only when they were reminded too.  Lucky bastards.

Like magic, Danny found himself going from laying his hand on the table, to leaning on it, to climbing up on it, and laying down on it.  Just to see what it was like of course.  He rested his eyes and exhaled.  It wasn’t as good as he imagined a crib would be, but it still was very comfy.

Feeling naughty, he shuffled the sweatpants off his feet and let them drop down to the floor.  He reached one hand down to his diaper and gave it a squeeze.  He stopped himself from moaning using his opposite thumb. Sucking on his digit, Danny decided to just close his eyes and let his mind drift.

A wet diaper felt so good!  It squished and caressed him with every movement.  And he imagined he looked cute too, lying there in nothing but a t-shirt and baby pants. No wonder it was so hard to potty train kids.  The alternative objectively sucked. That absurd notion made him giggle.

Good thing Max couldn’t see him now.

The sound of ripping tapes made Danny  jump!  He quickly found that someone had pulled the safety strap over his chest to keep him from rolling off.  “Hey there, Danny boy,” Levi said. The cold wipe dragged across Danny’s privates woke him the rest of the way up.”
“Levi?”

The man in the snakeskin boots kept wiping Danny’s penis, pubic area, and taint, showing no signs of disgust or distress.  “You looked like you were about ready,” Levi casually said. “So I thought I’d help.”

“What are you do-?”

Levi shushed him.  “Hold on, hold on.  Or do you want me to talk to you while I’m powdering your butt?”  He crossed  Danny’s legs for him and hoisted his legs up to his stomach.  Danny lay there feeling paralyzed while a man he barely knew wiped his ass for him. 

Danny told himself it wasn’t happening.  But the feeling of the old diaper being balled up and slid out from beneath him, and replaced by another one told him differently.  A little powder on his front and back enhanced the trance instead of shaking him out of it.  And the feeling of the fresh diaper taking form around his hips, being tightened and secured tape by tape was somehow blissful.

Danny had just started getting used to diapering himself and now he never wanted to do it again.  “Th-th-thankyou,” he whispered, feeling incredibly vulnerable yet fulfilled. 

Levi let him off the table.  Danny felt so wobbly legged that he sank down to his knees. 

“What are you doing back here?”  Levi asked.

“I…I…” Danny was going to ask Levi the same thing, but he still felt so overwhelmed, so good and overwhelmed and safe, that he forgot what he was going to say.  “I…” he looked at the jungle gym.  It had no stairs on it, by design; only ramps and tubes for easy crawling access.  “I just was tired and wanted…”

“Oooof, those diapers are hitting you hard, ain’t they kid?”

Danny blinked.  “Huh?”

“Nevermind,” Levi chuckled. “You’re sad because you want to play but never have the time.  Too busy taking care of everybody else.”

Like a hypnosis victim, Danny nodded at the suggestion. “Uh-huh.”  There was never enough time.  Now that he was actually making money, he didn’t have the chance to enjoy himself.  He owned a candy store but never got to taste the chocolate.  He made a near perfect Playground, but the only time he got to play was after all the other kids…customers?...kids…got away.

Levi stroked his beard theatrically.  “That’s a bummer Danny boy.  Real bummer.  If only there was a way to make more time for yourself.  Time to play.”

Danny’s eyes lit up at hearing the word ‘play’.  “I know!”

A wry, knowing smile came to Levi.  “Do you now, kiddo?”

**********************************************************************************************

A week later, Danny presented his new vision to Max and the rest of the staff.  He would have told them sooner, but he kept forgetting the finer points and needed to wait for Levi to coach him. 

Max had to pick his jaw up off the floor when he was done. The other employees all looked distinctly unsure and uncomfortable with the idea, though Danny didn’t know why.

“Okay everybody, we’ll brainstorm this a while later,” Max said. “Suzy, you should work the counter tonight. Try to push the onesies and the pacifiers.  Rob, you’ve got the door checking ID’s. Everybody else, do what we’ve been doing.”

Like a well oiled machine, the crew broke.  When did his staff become so organized and focused, Danny wondered. Maybe he should hold more staff meetings in the playroom.  It was certainly more comfortable.

“What do you mean we’re going twenty-four seven?” Max asked when they were alone.

Danny remained spread eagle on the playroom floor, his diaper bulging out underneath his onesie.  “We treaf iff lika dayshere”.  He frowned and took his paci out of his mouth.  Maybe that’s why the others seemed so confused.  “We treat it like a daycare.”  He leaned back and grabbed his toes.

“An adult daycare?” Max said. “Are you crazy? We’ve already super specialized. Now you want to keep the lights on longer and have people show up at all hours?”

“We just raise our prices like a hotel,” Danny said. “We get more cribs, turn our aftercare room into a sleep room, and the babies can stay here as long as we keep getting paid. It’s easy money.  Levi said he’d get the cribs and offer me free diapees if he got a cut of the service fees.”

“Daniel…” Max sounded exasperated. “This sounds crazy, my dude. That’s a butt ton of work you’re talking about.”

“Why?” Dannie asked.  He leaned his head back and saw the ballpit and suddenly wondered if they could continue the meeting there. “I thought you said it was easy to Monitor all the little boys and girls.  I’m just paying you to stand around most nights.”

“Yeah,” Max said. “It’s easy in small doses. But things are getting weirder. They’re still peeing their pants and sucking their toes. Some of them don’t even talk.  I’m starting to wonder if they can understand me!”

“We’ll be…they’ll be good,” Danny said. “Pwomise!”

“A lot of them aren’t changing themselves unless one of the Bigs volunteers,” Max said. “It’s bad enough that me and the guys are spending so much time taking out garbage bags filled with dirty diapers.  Do you want us to start changing them too?”

Yes.  “Um….?” Danny said instead, “We can hire people to do that.  Levi says he knows some people.”

“He better,” Max said. “If we’re going to be charging hotel prices, we gotta have hotel level staff and hotel level cleanliness.  Sheet washing, cleaning the playground equipment. We’d have to triple the staff, minimum, and find a whole bunch of people that were really cool with treating you and everybody else like they were under two. Real Mommy and Daddy Doms. Do you know how much those cost, Daniel?  I don’t even know if it’s legal. That might be considered sex work or something.”

“To change a diaper?” Danny asked. He didn’t notice how he’d been lumped in with the other babies. His mind leapt to another part of Max’s analysis.  “Why triple?”

“Because people have lives outside of this place, Daniel,” Max said. “Even the clients. We can’t sleep here.  Where are we gonna get that kind of money?  We’ve just barely started to break even and we don’t know how long that’s gonna last.”

“It will,” Danny said.  Daddy had promised him.  Levi…Levi had promised him.

“Where are we going to get that money to hire people and keep the lights on?” Danny pressed. “More debt? Sell the whole damn thing to Levi?” Max demanded. 

“Oh,” Danny remembered, “That’s right. We need more highchairs and yummy food, and ba-bas.”

“How?” Max repeated himself.

Danny shifted his weight to all fours, concentrated, pushed a load into his diaper, and sat back down.  Much better. Another great idea popped into Danny’s head.  He’d sell his house! That way he could stay here, and all his friends would pay money to visit him.  “I know!  I’ll just sell my house.”  That would get him a lot of money, Danny figured.  Then he wouldn’t have a reason to leave and he could just sleep in the cribs.  He’d just make money playing and having fun!

“Did you just poop?” Max asked.

Danny popped his pacifier back in, and nodded proudly. “Uh-huh!” That’s how he knew he wasn’t a baby. Real babies didn’t know when they pooped.  Danny did. He stood up and started walking over to the big rocking horse. He bet the squish would feel really good on the rocking horse.

Max grabbed him by the wrist.  “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.

“No vare,” Danny mumbled. “Horshie.”

Max growled.  “Okay,” he said. “I think you’re done.” 

“But I wanna pway!” Max whined.

“Yeah,” Max said. “That’s the problem.  First you wanted to sell diapers and make money.  Now you’re wearing them.  Now you’re using them.  Now you just wanna play.”

What was so wrong with that?  Danny started trying to pull away  and wriggle out of Max’s grip. “Uh-huh.”

“DANNY!” Danny froze in his tracks.  “You wanna act like a little kid like all the others, you’re gonna be treated like one.”  Max led Danny over to the changing table and boosted him up on his hips. 

As a matter of reflex, Danny laid down and started sucking harder on his binky. “Yeshir…”

“You wanna play here all the time? Wear your own product? Play with your toys?”  He unpopped the snaps on Danny’s onesie.  “Fine.  I’m taking over the books though.  Whatever you made is getting spread out to the rest of us to deal with your bullshit.”

Danny didn’t flinch when his right hand man took the tapes off his diaper and pulled it open. “Otay.”

Max went for the wipes, “This thing gave you an itch you wanna scratch? Fine, but you’re not the boss anymore.  Bosses wipe their own asses.  Bosses don’t play with baby toys. You wanna go twenty-four seven, you’re going twenty-four seven.”

Danny shuddered in delight at that.  Finally! Max was coming around.  “No responsibility means no power.  You might own the place, but you don’t work anymore. Anybody who does, is in charge of you.”

The owner’s eye twitched, but that was just because of how hard Mister Max wiped.  “Yeshir.”

“Can’t believe I’m doing this,” Max muttered to himself.  Danny’s was the first diaper in the pail that night.  It wouldn’t be his last.  Max roughly but firmly yanked up the fresh diaper between Danny’s legs and taped it on. He forgot the powder, but that was okay. Not every change had to have powder.  His altered state of mind was very firmly intact.  “The things I do for…”  Max didn’t finish that sentence, but in Danny’s heart he knew the word was going to be ‘love’.

“Fankyooooo,” Danny said. He was so excited he was practically flapping his arms like a chicken.

Max smiled despite himself.  “Just…just go play.  Your little friends will be here any minute.”

Danny couldn’t wait for that.

***********************************************************************

It was close to midnight when Levi sauntered in through the front door. By coincidence.  Max walked out of the playroom, lugging yet another garbage bag filled with used diapers. 

So Max my man,” Levi asked. “How’d Danny boy take it?”

Max put down the bag and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. “Just like you said he would, sir.  He’s pretty much gone.”

Levi flashed a positively devilish grin. “I’d say that he’s finally ‘here’, myself.  But I get your meaning.”  There was a tense pause as bits of guilt threatened Max's conscience.  “So? Satisfied?”

Max was the boss now; the owner and proprietor in all but name.  The Playground was finally going to be profitable, and was being run by somebody who did more work than sit behind a counter and stare at a wall all night to the point where shit like the Racoon Situation happened.

It wasn’t how Max had envisioned it going down when this strange motherfucker and his fancy boots approached him a couple months ago, but it was good enough.

“Yeah,” Max said. “Yeah, I am.”