A Wish to Win

Chapter 1
Whole Story

Chapter Description: A genie? In a diaper pail? What magic will he possess, what wishes will he grant? Well, he’s in a daycare with three unassuming attendants and only one wish to give…

This story is based in the universe of the "Little Troubles" Trading Card Game! You can find it here: https://littletroubles.com

Cody and Jace were exhausted. They’d been working from seven in the morning, making sure Sunny Hills Daycare was ready for their kids to arrive, and now that their parents had taken them home the whole place was a mess again.

“I swear, every day they manage to make the place worse”

Cody laughed “Maybe finger painting was a bad idea…” he looked at the walls “Yeah… definitely”

The two wolves chuckled and began to clean up after their charges. Jace made his way into the bathroom, getting a mop to clean the floors of all the dribbles and puddles from the potty training toddlers trying to make it on time. He looked over to one side and noticed the pail at the changing table was ajar, a diaper poking out the top. They’d just had a new one delivered yesterday after the last one got a crack in it and it was already full to capacity.

“Cody, the pail needs emptying!”

“So?” his friend shouted back “I did it last week, now it’s yours”

Jace grumbled to himself and opened it up, holding his nose as he tied the top and pulled the bag free.

“Ewww…”

A little dribble of pee ran down the bag and onto the white plastic of the pail. The bag had a pinhole in the bottom, and clearly one of the diapers had been at full capacity. Jace put the bag down on the floor and grabbed a pack of wipes from the shelf, pulling one free to begin the process of cleaning the bin.

The first wipe was all he could manage before a bright light shone out of the top. He covered his eyes instinctually and jumped backwards, slipping onto his butt on the freshly mopped floor.

“OW!”

He heard Cody’s footsteps run towards the bathroom door, the wolf running in and stopping as he saw the same light emerging from the pail.

“What the hell is going on?!”

The two of them watched as a strange being, seemingly made of nothing but bright white light, emerged from the pail and hung over the top of them. Two large eyes opened in amongst the shape, looking down at Jace and blinking repeatedly.

“Urghhh… finally…”

Cody ran to Jace’s side and looked up “What.. what the hell are you?!”

The light began to dim, the upper body of man seemed to form in the light, its lower half flowing into the open pail “I am a genie, sir. And you have rubbed my… container”

“The pail?” Cody squealed “You… you live in a pail?!” he got to his feet and looked around “I’m going crazy, I must be”

Jace shook his head “Only if I am too dude, this is too weird…”

“I don’t “live in the pail” young man. I am an immortal being that was trapped in…”

“You’re a diaper genie?! Literally?!”

The being shirked “I suppose I am, yes”

Jace’s mouth dropped “Do… Do we get three wishes?”

The genie shook his head “One wish. For the eldest among you. An old condition after the children of the old world found it amusing to summon me for trivial things”

Jace heard Cody chuckle. His friend had just had his twenty-fifth birthday.

His birthday was three weeks away.

“Oh come on, that’s unfair! I was the one that rubbed the pail! I should get the wish!”

Cody gave him a light jab on the shoulder “Bad luck, guess I’ll…”

“I suppose it is unfair…” the genie mused “Neither of you are children after all…”

“Yeah, exactly!”

“So I propose… a game”

Cody and Jace looked at each other “A game?” they said in unison, both confused.

“Yes, a game.” the genie cocked his head “You still have those I assume?”

The two of them nodded “Yeah but… what sort of game?” Cody asked

“Simple, I shall make random objects in this place decrease the age of your opponent. When you find one, they will regress in age”

Jace crossed his arms “How do we win?”

The genie grinned “Making a wish is hard if you forget how to talk. Finding the items will be hard if you can’t walk. Seems like you’ll know”

The two of them looked at each other, Cody turning first “And we can have any wish?”

The genie nodded “With the standard caveats. No forced love, no killing anyone.”

“Deal” Jace stated before Cody could get another word in “Where’s the first item?”

The genie made his way back into the pail, curling up into a ball of light “That’s the first challenge. Off you gooooooo”

As he vanished, the two wolves looked at each other for a brief moment before bounding towards the door of the bathroom. Jace made it through first, his eyes scanning for anything unusual in the room.

“How the hell do we find…”

Cody pushed him aside, running towards the shelves of toys. His paws went wild, grabbing at the various plastic items and throwing them to his sides as he searched. Jace realized his mistake, he was thinking too hard about this. It could be literally anything. He sprinted over to the break tables, looking through some of the items kids had left behind from the final play session of the day

A child’s phone, one with no real ability to call anyone but covered in cute animals that made noises on a press. A noticeable light was coming off its surface, as though it was cartoonishly radioactive. Jace grabbed it, trying to see if there was an obvious way to make it activate before coming to the conclusion that the best course of action was to just point it at Cody and hope.

“Hey Cody!”

The wolf ignored him, continuing to pull toys out like a wolf possessed. Shrugging, Jace pressed one of the buttons and pointed it at his coworker.

WOOOF

The dog's bark rang out from the phone and before Jace’s eyes, he watched as Cody began to shrink. His hair started to lighten, his t-shirt brightening and his pants shortening into a pair of beige cargo shorts that dropped down his butt just enough to show the waistband of a brand new pair of superhero undies. His daycare uniform was gone in just a few seconds, replaced by the adorable outfit of someone just starting middle school.

“Oh god it worked!”

Cody barely realized what had happened until he got up and noticed everything was suddenly a lot higher up.

“What the…” he turned around and grabbed his throat, his voice higher and squeakier “Jace!”

The wolf giggled “Hah, gotcha! I’ve got this in the bag now!”

Cody looked at himself and patted his body down. Sure enough he wasn’t older than his early teens, if not younger.

“I’ll get you! I’ve just got to find…”

He glanced down at the bottom of the box he’d been emptying and saw a plastic doll, one that had barely been used in years. It was an action figure from a cartoon show that he’d used to watch, the young protagonist that had always gone on adventures.

Now it was giving off a glow, and Cody grabbed it without a second thought. He didn’t know what to do at this point though, and looked around further at the bottom of the box. Some various bits and pieces of action figure paraphernalia were scattered about, but one in particular drew his eye.

One of the dress up toys had clearly lost its rather childish sailor suit. It looked like it would be the perfect size for the action figure too. Cody looked round at Jace, still searching for the next item, and started to dress the doll.

Before his eyes the wolf started to get smaller, just as he had. His clothes were morphing and twisting into the bright white and blue of a sailor suit, his pants shortening and his shirt tightening and tucking itself in, looking more and more like the adorable play-wear of a kindergartener.

Jace could feel the changes happening as they started to finish, his eyes widening as he realized he was substantially closer to the floor than he had been a few minutes ago. He looked round at the now childlike form of Cody and gasped.

“Cody! What did you do?!”

He giggled “Just gave you a better outfit” he shook the wolf figure in his hands, the glow dissipating “Enjoy being kid while I find something to make you even smaller!”

Cody balled his hands up in his fists and stomped his feet “I’m not a kid! I’m a big boy! I’ll show you!”

He ran out of the room and started bounding down the hallway towards the staff room. Maybe something was in there he could use! He pushed open the door and bounded towards the pigeon holes.

“Whoa whoa whoa!”

The voice of a vixen caught him off guard, her now much larger form picking him up and looking at him with surprise.

“How on earth… Who are you? I don’t…”

“It’s me! Cody! Put me down Lily I’ve got to…”

“CODY?!” her mouth dropped open “But… why are you…”

“The diaper genie! He’s gonna give the biggest one of us a wish! Let me down, I gotta find something to make Jace a baby!”

Lily didn’t oblige “Now hold on a minute. What on earth are you talking about?! Diaper genie?”

Cody squirmed and quickly looked around, trying to find something he could grab or leap for. Lily’s grip was strong but probably not strong enough to hold him if he could just…

A sippy cup. One that was clearly being cleaned in the staff kitchen after a kid had needed a refill. The telltale glow around it was obvious. The wolf gathered up what strength he could muster and pushed off of Lily, managing to break her grip.

“Ow! What are you doing!”

“I’ve got to get this cup to Jace! He’s gonna drink from it and be a baby!”

Lily caught up to him as he started to fill the beverage holder. Before Cody could get the top on, she had him, pulling him away as he went to grab at the handles on the side of the cup. The liquid inside splashed all over her, her blouse getting covered in water.

“Cody! Stop this right now! I have no idea what’s going on but… but…”

Cody watched in horror as his supervisor started to shrink. It didn’t take long, her clothes morphing just as Jace’s had earlier but this time to something far more infantile. She kept going too, smaller even than Cody in his sailor suit, her outfit morphing into a short pink shirt and skirt combo that even a first grader would’ve considered infantile. The slight crinkle coming from beneath confirmed that her underwear had gone from whatever panties she’d put on that morning to a thicker set of training pants.

“Wha.. whash did you do?!” she held her now chubby fingers to her mouth “A lishp?! I have a lishp?!”

Cody’s face went from concern to giggles as he heard the words come from her mouth. She was now a couple of inches shorter than him and the childish sound of her voice was unavoidably funny to the regressed wolf.

“You sound like a baby!”

Lily immediately stomped her foot in response “I do not! Gimme that cup!” she grabbed at it, spilling more of its contents over the both of them. But nothing further happened, the two canines just grappled over the small plastic cup until they were both rolling on the floor.

“Let… go!” Cody squealed, pulling hard enough to get it from her fingers “It’s not even glowing anymore!”

Lily leapt to her feet as well “Gwowing?! Wike a wight?”

Cody held in a chuckle as best he could “Yeah! We gotta find something glowing so we can make Jace a baby!”

“Is Jace shtill a big boy?” Lily seemed unconcerned by her lack of vocabulary, her head turning to the door.

“If we get him with something he’ll regress like us! And he’ll probably be a super tiny baby!”

Lily shook her head “Thish is cwazy! I dun wanna… wanna” her fingers moved back to her mouth again “I wanna be a big girl!”

Cody nodded “So we gotta finish the genie’s game! Come on!” He took the vixen's hand and dragged her out the room, pulling her all the way to the daycare before she could get a word out of her mouth.

Jace had been searching this whole time and found nothing. The room seemed almost devoid of magical objects. He knew had to keep looking though, if Cody had found something he’d be smaller by now and…

“Come on Lily, we gotta get Jace!”

He turned around to see his colleague and a little vixen following behind. Without any time to stop himself, he burst into laughter.

“Lily?! Oh my gosh you look.. Like a baby!”

The vixen immediately stopped in her tracks and stomped again “I AM NOT A BABY. YOU’RE  A POOPYHEAD JACE!”

The wolf couldn’t help but keep laughing “Yeah, well at least I’m not gonna be pooping my pants! I can see the training pants under your… your…”

He stopped, a tingly feeling taking over his body. His face immediately dropped its smile, his head turning round to try to find Cody.

The wolf had run straight to the corner of one of the play areas. Some of the more infantile toys were stored there, each one still out of their boxes. Jace immediately recognised that Cody had found some glowing alphabet blocks, and he’d managed to spell out his name in the bright colorful font that adorned them.

The room around him seemed to get bigger and bigger, each second that passed forcing the realization onto the wolf that he was regressing once again. He looked down at his outfit, one that was morphing and shrinking into a bright blue Puppy Pack t-shirt and a puffed out pair of shorts that did nothing to hide the bright waistband of a top of a pair of pull-ups.

“He… hey! Cody!”

The wolf looked visibly disappointed “Awww, I wanted you to be a baby!” he got to his feet, running back towards the bathroom “I can’t win yet!”

Lily looked back and forth between the boys as she watched Jace try to waddle after his colleague “Wa… wait! I’m gonna find this stupid thing first!”

The three of them bounded into the bathroom, Cody and Lily trying to keep their balance as the finer points of their motor control that had left them made it hard to walk entirely straight. Cody ran past Jace, who had started looking in the stalls, and started sifting through the cupboards, squatting down under the changing table and pulling out packs of diapers and the spare clothes of the daycare kids looking for the next item.

“I bet it’s gonna be a pack of diapers or something! It’s gotta be!”

Lily joined him, pushing past the wolf and starting to grab at items as well “Yeah, well I’m gonna find itsh firsht!”

Jace kept looking. He’d already made the mistake of rushing around and then getting too distracted by a single place twice today. If he was going to win he had to carefully look at what was around the room, look for any little glow that might indicate the next magical item.

The potty training chart that hung at the end of the room immediately caught his eye. It wasn’t glowing, but something about it immediately struck him as odd. As he got closer to it he realized what.

Three more names had been added. Cody, Jace and Lily. They were now on the training chart.

It didn’t take more than a second to look at the sticker pack and see the glow coming from it. He’d found the item he needed to finish this competition off, and he knew exactly what to do. He grabbed the bag and opened it up to find two thundercloud stickers. Wasting no time he slapped them onto the chart to the side of Cody and Lily’s names under today's day.

He looked round and watched as Cody’s already squatting form tightened up, his tail flagging into the air. The sailor suit merged together and lost its shorts, becoming a bright white onesie with a small blue collar. The leakguards of a diaper were visible next to his legs, and only became more obvious as the now infant boy started to push involuntarily, filling it up as if fulfilling the result of the potty chart.

Lily’s outfit didn’t change, but her pull-ups lost their pink hue and matched the white of Cody’s onesie. At least for a short period. A few seconds later her thumb went into her mouth, a grunt coming from around it as her new underwear bulged outwards and visibly drooped downwards. It yellowed and sagged as her bladder released as well, the vixen sitting backwards and continuing to suckle on her thumb as it smushed under her.

A few moments later the two pups looked at eachother, their eyes widening. They burst into tears, whatever left of their ability to understand their situation aware that this was very, very bad.

With a sudden flash the genie appeared back in front of Jace. A sly smile was on his face, his arms crossed as he stood over the top of the toddler.

“Well done little one! You have won the wish!”

Jace jumped into the air in joy, his shorts falling further down his waist “Yay! I wanna… I wanna…”

Cody and Lily’s cries filled his ears. A strange sense of guilt welled up in the wolf, his face dropping as he watched the two flap about without any control, their tiny forms in clear need of some proper care.

“I… I want my friends back! I want them back how they were!”

The genie’s eyebrow went up, but with a shrug and click of his fingers a glow appeared around the recently regressed infants. Both suddenly popped back up to adulthood, Cody in his full work outfit and Lily in her supervisor suit.

“What… didn’t we… lose?” Cody looked at the genie “What happened?”

“Your little friend wished you back to normal! Such a good kid.”

Jace looked at the genie “Wait… what about me?!”

The genie shrugged again “You didn’t ask to go back, just your friends” he chuckled “Anyway, I’ve got another diaper pail in another building to be in. Such is my unfortunate existence. Ta ta!”

He vanished, leaving Cody, Jace and Lily standing there with looks of shock on each of their faces. Jace’s shock only increased when he felt the back of his pull-up suddenly gain some extra weight in the rear and a surprisingly familiar warmth in the front.

Cody chuckled “Well… I guess we’d better take care of a certain pup before he goes home huh?”

Lily nodded and grinned down at her former colleague “I’m sure we have diapers in his size. Let me just wipe his name off the potty chart. Don’t think that’s happening any time soon!”

Jace ran to the diaper pail, rubbing it as hard as he could with his pudgy hands “Come back! I don’t wanna be a baby!”

The pail stayed perfectly still. No glow, no magic. All Cody could feel was the mass in the back of his underwear as Cody gave it a little heft.

“Nope, definitely not ready for pull-ups” He chuckled as he lifted Jace onto the table “Thank you for the wish though kiddo. I guess me and Lily can make sure you get the best treatment the daycare can offer though!”

Jace could only suckle on his thumb as he wished in his head that he’d be a big boy soon.

If you're interested in knowing more about the card game itself or perhaps purchasing some, you can check out the store page here: https://littletroubles.com/shop